Asked whether the pair were in a romantic relationship, Inspector Stamper said police were unsure and he would not speculate. Carol Clay, 73, never returned to her Pakenham home. Credit:Victoria Police "We dont know the exact nature of the relationship. Obviously, there was a relationship there," he said. "It was a bit of a surprise to [Mr Hills wife] Robyn that Russell and Carol had been camping together but I dont want to speculate on what that relationship was, whether it was two people who enjoyed each other's company and camping in the Australian wilderness." Police have looked into their financial situations, their lifestyles and recent purchases, but Inspector Stamper said nothing indicated they had disappeared on purpose. "The eloping theory, in my mind, is not credible," he said. Grandfather Russell Hill left his Drouin home on March 19 to go camping in the high country. Credit:Victoria Police Mr Hill's family released a statement saying: "It is devastating for our family that we dont know what has happened to them both." Ms Clay's family said they had been dealing with continual stress and loss during the "absolute mystery". "This is a very difficult time for our family. We are living with uncertainty, loss and the continual stress of not knowing where they are and what has happened." Police have not found either of their mobile phones, and the car keys are also missing. There was no mobile phone coverage in the valley where they were camping. "Its unforgiving terrain," Inspector Stamper said. Mr Hill picked Ms Clay up from her home in Pakenham on March 19. Using data from their phones, police have been able to track the route they took to the Wonnangatta Valley, however, once they reached the campsite the phone reception cut out. Mr Hill, an amateur radio enthusiast who was in nightly contact with a tight group of friends, contacted one of his friends on March 20, telling him he was setting up camp but couldnt talk for long as it was getting dark. Mr Hill promised to call back the next day but never did. He operated an amateur radio on the frequency 3.670 and his call sign was VK3 VZP. Anyone who has heard this signal is being urged to contact police. Inspector Stamper said Mr Hill was "fastidious in his camping habits" but neither he nor Ms Clay were experienced bushwalkers, so, police do not believe they would have moved far from the camp. A photo of a DJI brand and Mavic model drone, similar to the one Russell Hill had recently bought. Credit:Victoria Police Mr Hill was learning to use a drone. Inspector Stamper said it was possible they could have been flying the drone and an accident had happened, but police have no evidence at this stage to rule the theory in or out. The drone has not been found. Officers from the Wellington Crime Investigation Unit, the missing persons squad and local search and rescue teams are involved in the investigation. An extensive search over several weeks has been unable to locate the pair and Senior Sergeant Paul said the COVID-19 crisis had made it difficult to get large groups of volunteers into the area to search. Russell Hill and Carol Clay have been missing for more than a month. Inspector Stamper also asked for friends to come forward with any information that could help the search. "I understand there has probably been a lot of speculation and discussion about their disappearance amongst Russell and Carols circle of friends and community," he told ABC radio. "However, if you do have some information that you might have felt uncomfortable speaking to police about previously, then we really need you to come forward now and help us try and find Russell and Carol as soon as possible." 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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 global pandemic coronavirus is putting a dent to the illegal drug trade with borders closed and economies paralyzed in many countries. The ongoing quarantine measures severed the supply chain in China. Traffickers rely on Chinese companies for chemicals used to make methamphetamine and fentanyl. Authorities and trafficking experts still report cartel drug sales in Mexico and Colombia. However, the isolation policies have effectively disrupted much of the production, transport, and sales of illicit drugs. Drug cartels often used the bustling traffic along the U.S.- Mexico border as cover. The vehicles have been reduced to a trickle after state governments imposed lockdown measures. Marketplaces such as bars, nightclubs, and motels have also closed doors. Prices for drugs in short supply have also seen a massive surge in recent weeks. Virtually every illegal drug was affected by the coronavirus crisis. Traffickers are stockpiling drugs and cash. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, also reported a decrease in drug sales on the dark web. Price Hike According to Phil Jordan, a former director of the DEA, cocaine prices rose by 20 percent in some cities. Heroin has become a rare find, while supplies of fentanyl are running out. In Los Angeles, a pound of methamphetamine fetches for $1,800. Cartels reportedly shift their attention to synthetic opioids that can be cooked throughout the year. The synthetic drugs are 50 times more potent than heroin and marijuana. They can produce a higher profit margin for the traffickers. Some clandestine labs have set up camp in Mexico, making fentanyl from scratch. However, most cartels still rely on mail-order components from a state-subsidized company in Wuhan, which shut down after the outbreak. Prices for the components have also increased between 25 to 400 percent in late February, leading cartels to hire scientists to develop their own chemicals. Some Chinese companies have begun selling "coronavirus drugs" like hydroxychloroquine. Some cartels have given orders to stop selling methamphetamine to manipulate the market. Anyone caught selling them will be due for punishment. Kidnap for Ransom With drug sales plummetting, numerous cartels, especially those along the border, have made asylum seekers the new commodity. Residents living in border towns such as Ciudad Juarez have fallen victim to the new money-making tactics developed by drug traffickers in the area. U.S. asylum seekers are fighting to survive both the virus and violence in the hands of cartel members. With the borders closed, many are forced to stay in nearby cities---places overrun by powerful cartels battling over territory. In March 2020, a 41-year-old woman and her daughter were kidnapped in Ciudad Juarez and brought to an empty house in the desert. The woman, Elizabeth, suffered sexual assault in the hands of the men suspected to be drug cartel members. The abductors reportedly called her relatives, asking for a sum of $10,000 to $20,000 for her freedom. Elizabeth's family was unable to give the money after a few days. The perpetrators threw a chemical solution at her legs, which burned a hole in her ankle so deep her bone showed. A nonprofit organization found 816 more incidents of violence on asylum seekers. While not all victims are subjected to acid burns, most still face terrifying torture. Elizabeth's case is only one in the hundreds, possibly thousands, of cases of violence on people waiting at the border. Some victims are set free after the kidnappers receive the money. Many end up in unmarked mass graves. Want to read more? Grassley Says Big Chains Should Not Have Received Aid Meant for Small Businesses Pelosi and Schumer have no 'leg to stand on,' the senator from Iowa said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said large chain restaurants shouldnt have received money under the governments small-business aid scheme. Large restaurant chains have faced backlash after receiving more than $80 million in COVID-19 relief loans intended for small businesses, while the total amount of $349 billion under the stimulus program ran out last week. They should not have gotten it, because they had more than 500 employees. They could have legitimately got some help from another government program. They should have gone to the Federal Reserve to get it, and not got it from the small-business program, Grassley told C-SPAN on April 21. He was responding to questions about Shake Shack and Ruths Chris Steak House, which both disclosed recently that they had received millions of dollars in loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The scheme, which is part of the $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, was devised as a way to help small businesses with fewer than 500 employees to weather the economic fallout due to the outbreak of the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Virus-driven shutdowns have disrupted economic, social, cultural, and religious life and plunged the world into a deep economic slump unseen since the 2008 financial crisis. Big companies were able to apply for the PPP relief loans under an exemption allowing restaurants and hotels to apply for the funds as long as they didnt have more than 500 employees at one location. Shake Shack, which has more than 200 branches, received $10 million under the PPP. Ruths Chris Steak House, with 150 locations, received $20 million in loans. We are seeing tremendous backlash because hundreds of thousands of small businesses have not gotten PPP loans, Chris Allieri, the founder of communications consulting firm Mulberry & Astor, told Business Insider. Many have had to cease operations because they cant wait until the next pot of money is approved. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNN on April 19 that a deal being discussed with Congress would include $300 billion more in PPP funds. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he believes the Senate will pass a bill with the additional PPP funds on April 21, making it the fourth stimulus package intended to offset economic losses amid the pandemic. The newest Shake Shack, at 40th Street and Third Avenue. (Courtesy of Shake Shack) Shake Shack, meanwhile, said it would return its $10 million PPP loan, making it the first major firm to return the money intended to help small businesses ride out the impact of the outbreak. Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti and founder Danny Meyer said in a blog post on April 20 that they would give back all the money, adding that they had no idea that the program would run out of money so quickly and that they were sympathetic to the outcry. We now know that the first phase of the PPP was underfunded, and many who need it most, havent gotten any assistance, the executives wrote. According to Business Insider, other large restaurant chains that received PPP funds include Potbelly, Ruths Chris Steak House, Taco Cabana, Fogo de Chao, J. Alexanders, and Kura Sushi. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Alleged organizer of infamous crime lord arrested in absentia by Moscow court RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 16:59 21/04/2020 MOSCOW, April 21 (RAPSI) Moscows Basmanny District Court has issued an arrest warrant in absentia for an alleged mastermind of the murder of a crime lord Vyacheslav Yaponchik Ivankov committed in July 2009, the Investigative Committees press service reports. Ilya Simonia is charged with murder, illegal arms trafficking. He has been put on the international wanted list. In February, the court detained two other defendants Murtaza Shadaniya and Kakha Gazzayev. The both men are also charged with murder and illegal keeping of weapon, the statement reads. Investigators believe that on July 28, 2009, Shadaniya, acting as a member of an organized gang, murdered Ivankov, a so-called thief-in-law, who at the time was the top boss in the criminal hierarchy. Shadaniya allegedly undertook to discretely stake out Ivankov to choose the place, where the murder was to be committed. Together with other co-conspirators he acted as a lookout to ensure safety of the criminal groups members when committing the murder. Gazzayev, according to investigators, gave his accomplices a gun for the murder, personally participated in its transportation and keeping and was at the scene during the crime. Karen H. Charrington Being named an Elite Lawyer is a distinct honor. I am grateful to be recognized by my peers in the legal community. Our firm is committed to providing our clients with the highest level of service that they expect and deserve to achieve the best possible outcome, Charrington commented. Elite Lawyer is a directory and rating service that awards and recognizes attorneys who have displayed a high level of competence in their practice and received an acknowledgment from their peers, community, bar, and committees. The honor is only given to lawyers who have met or exceeded the criteria of a rigorous, multi-phased selection process. Karen began her legal career as an Assistant District Attorney under the Honorable Robert T. Johnson in Bronx County. At the Bronx District Attorneys Office, Karen became a prosecutor in the Major Case Trial Bureau where she tried many cases and presented hundreds of cases to the Grand Jury. After leaving the District Attorneys Office in 2004, Karen was hired at The Bozeman Law Firm, LLP in Westchester County, where she headed the Civil Litigation department. She represented clients in Matrimonial, Personal Injury, Contract disputes, and more. Karen meticulously dissected the cases and ultimately settled or tried all the firms pending civil cases. She also trained junior associates. Karen is an Of Counsel attorney to the firm. In 2005, Karen utilized her knowledge and experience as a prosecutor and started her own firm to provide tactical and effective defenses for those accused of a criminal offense. The Charrington Firm, P.C. offers exceptional litigation skills to clients as well as small businesses. In 2012, Karen was named one of the Top 40 Trial Attorneys under 40 by the National Trial Lawyers Association and in 2017 and 2018, she was included in the Top 100 Trial Lawyers. As a former prosecutor, Karen was able to sharpen her expertise as an aggressive litigator and trial attorney. These skills have also become an asset in handling and negotiating successful outcomes for her clients facing divorce and family disputes. Being named an Elite Lawyer is a distinct honor. I am grateful to be recognized by my peers in the legal community. Our firm is committed to providing our clients with the highest level of service that they expect and deserve to achieve the best possible outcome, Charrington commented. About The Charrington Firm, P.C. The Charrington Firm, P.C. provides aggressive representation in Matrimonial and Family Law matters as well as for clients who have been arrested or accused of any type of criminal offense. We assist our clients in Family, Civil, and Criminal matters throughout State and Federal Courts. To learn more about The Charrington Firm, P.C., visit https://www.thecharringtonfirm.com/ or call 718-528-4422 to schedule a free consultation. To learn more about Elite Lawyer, visit https://www.elitelawyer.com/ or call 630-209-6660. By AFP RIYADH: OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia said Tuesday it was closely monitoring oil markets and stood ready to take further measures after crude prices plunged to historic lows. "The kingdom continues to closely monitor the situation in the oil markets and is prepared to take any additional measures in cooperation with OPEC+ and other producers," the cabinet said in a statement cited by the official Saudi Press Agency. It said cabinet reiterated that the kingdom is constantly working to achieve stability in the oil market, reaffirming a commitment along with Russia to implement agreed output cuts over the next two years. Under the deal, which ended a bitter price war amid a supply glut with the coronavirus pandemic battering global demand, Riyadh and Moscow will cut 2.5 million barrels per day each. The OPEC+ group of major producers last week agreed record production cuts of 9.7 million bpd to prop up prices that had shed more than 60 percent as the COVID-19 illness shut down businesses worldwide. Producers outside the alliance pledged to cut an additional 3.7 million bpd. ALSO READ | COVID-19 pandemic: Oil price turmoil grips traders once again, global equity markets spiral lower But that was not enough to prevent crude prices plunging into negative territory for the first time on Monday. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crashed to close in New York at minus $37.63 per barrel amid a perfect storm of low demand, an output gult and a lack of storage. The OPEC+ agreement calls for full-scale cuts over the months of May and June, with limited increases for the rest of the year. Algeria, another large producer and highly dependent on crude export revenues, said it had taken the necessary measures to deal with falling prices, according to the official news agency APS. "We foresaw this crisis, and we took precautions," said spokesman Belaid Mohand Oussaid, according to the report. "We still have the crisis under control, and we hope the global oil market will catch its breath soon and prices will level." Oil prices continued to slide on Tuesday with the international benchmark Brent crude dropping briefly below $19 a barrel for the first time in two decades. US West Texas Intermediate crude rebounded but still was trading at - $2.39 a barrel. Former Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff leaves U.S. Federal Court in New York after a hearing on March 10, 2009. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images) Senator Asks AG Barr to Deny Early Prison Release for Ponzi Schemers Madoff and Stanford Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Monday asked Attorney General William Barr to reject requests from Ponzi schemers Bernie Madoff and R. Allen Stanford for early prison release due to COVID-19. Thousands of inmates and corrections officers in the countrys prisons have become infected with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, the novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease. In late March, Barr ordered the release from prison and into home confinement of eligible inmates, citing the risk of infection by the virus. Kennedy, in an April 20 letter (pdf), urged Barr not to extend early release eligibility to the two convicted con men. I respectfully urge you to deny any request for early release made by Robert Allen Stanford, Bernie Madoff, and others who chose to devastate innocent Americans with their fraudulent schemes, Kennedy wrote. Madoff, who is 81, was the mastermind behind the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. He pleaded guilty in March 2009 to defrauding thousands of victims of over $64 billion. Following his sentencing, he was ordered to serve 150 years behind bars at a federal medical center in Butner, California. Releasing either of these individuals, or anyone similarly situated, would be an affront to those affected by their evil schemes, and a complete failure in the administration of justice, Kennedy wrote. In February, Madoffs lawyer filed a request for compassionate release on grounds of terminal kidney failure and the COVID-19 outbreak proliferating in the prison system. Kennedy wrote that he believes Stanford, who was sentenced to 110 years for orchestrating an $8 billion investment-fraud scheme second only to that of Bernie Madoffs in size, is likely to file for early release on grounds of virus concerns. Our efforts should be focused on protecting those who protected us; our parents, grandparents, and military veterans who led crime-free lives, Kennedy wrote, adding, Criminals such as Stanford and Madoff who preyed on the elderly should be the last ones to benefit from the change in circumstances COVID-19 has caused. The CCP virus has spread aggressively across the world, with a Johns Hopkins tally on Tuesday showing the number of infections in the United States has hit 787,960, while the death toll is 42,374. The Louisiana senator also called on the Federal Bureau of Prisons to publish information about inmates who are released under the new virus-related orders, including their name, last known address, and their offense. Thousands of victims of Madoffs Ponzi scheme, meanwhile, are set to receive checks totaling $378 million from a special fund, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a release Monday. The payout from the Madoff Victim Fund will bring total government payouts in the case to more than $2.7 billion for almost 38,000 investors across the globe, DOJ said. Victims of Madoffs scheme lost around $20 billion in principal and some $40 billion in fake profit. Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: A person, affiliated to a political party, residing in Patiala was given a curfew pass by the district administration on the pretext of serving langar (community kitchen), but he allegedly sold books and also liquor illegally and is now corona positive. More than 3.25 lakh curfew passes issued by the Punjab government till date since the curfew was imposed in the state about a month back due to the coronavirus pandemic. A few cases have come to light pertaining to the misuse of these passes, which are generally issued for a medical emergency and essential services, for other purposes. Also in a few other instances, fake passes have also come to light of the authorities and hence, state police is finding it difficult to deal with these 'VIPs'. Sources said that a person affiliated to a political party residing in Patiala was given a curfew pass by the district administration on the pretext of serving langar (community kitchen) which he apparently did to the poor and needy in the royal city. But under this 'cover', he took along two of his close associates and they sold books as one of them had a book shop and liquor not only in Patiala but also in Rajpura and Banur towns of the district. The trio has now been detected positive for coronavirus and in his contact tracing, fifteen people in Patiala came positive. However, the police have not registered a case on him due to his political clout. ALSO READ| COVID-19 lockdown: Punjab to not deploy police over 55 years on frontline jobs In another case, a group of Jammu and Kashmir residents, allegedly on a fake curfew pass used by the office of Mohali Deputy Commissioner reached the state border at Lakhanpur in Pathankot district on the way to Anantnag in J&K from Mohali. After the Pathankot Deputy Commissioner informed his Mohali counterpart and an initial investigation conducted, it came to light a pass was issued for a medical emergency for someone else to travel to Nangal in adjoining Ropar district from Mohali but its photocopy was taken and the photo was changed, more names were added and the destination was changed to Lakhanpur in the forged copy. Also, these people hired a state roadways bus by using this fake pass and reached the border at Jammu & Kashmir but were caught there. Now the authorities have decided to register a case on them, said sources. A few days ago, two men went to Delhi on a two-wheeler from Bathinda crossing two states including Haryana and got heroin. Though they used a fake curfew pass and nobody stopped them on the way, they were arrested by the special task force on drugs (STF) and 110 grams of heroin recovered and a case registered. However, the police are yet to recover the fake curfew pass from them and have started a probe as to how did they procure the fake pass. Sources said that the state government has approximately issued around 3.25 lakh curfew passes from March 23 onwards since the curfew was imposed in the whole state. Of these about 50 per cent issued manually and rest online. The state police, the deputy commissioners of districts, sub-divisional officers, tehsildars, district food and supply officers and other designated officers have authority to issue these passes which are both one time passes for a limited period and also long-duration passes. The manual distribution of curfew passes by various officers is also adding to the problem. As these passes are meant to be used only in emergency situations, maximum passes were issued in those areas which are highly sensitive with coronavirus cases. Sources said that as such a large number of passes have been issued, the police department has now reportedly demanded the lists of the people who have been issued these passes so that it can take stock of the situation and act accordingly. With respect to all these issues, the state government has taken a decision not to issue curfew passes during the month of Ramzan. Mr Joseph Danso Yeboah, Sekyere Central District Director of Health Services, has commended the District Assembly for initiating innovative measures to prevent the spread of covid-19 in the area. He said the setting-up of the District Covid-19 Relief Fund by Mr Kwadwo Banahene Bediako, the District Chief Executive, to mobilize local financial resources to support the fight against the virus, was laudable and timely. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview at Nsuta, Mr Yeboah said the fund would help provide the needed equipment and logistical support to health workers and other frontline staff in the fight against the spread of the disease. He said the District Health Directorate required large quantities of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other logistics not only to motivate health workers, but to assure them of their safety in the course of discharging their duties. Mr Yeboah said the directorate had trained over 80 health workers in the fight against the virus and also activated the District Health Emergency Response Committee to manage any health emergencies in the area. He said the district had not yet recorded any case of the virus and urged the people to adhere to all the preventive protocols and restrictive measures outlined by the government to prevent themselves from catching and spreading the virus. Mr Yeboah commended the district assembly and the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr Kwame Asafo Agyei, for providing Veronica buckets, hand sanitizers, soaps, detergents and other preventive items to health facilities and communities for the people to protect themselves from the pandemic. 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 A Co Armagh councillor who lost her young son has said cemeteries should only reopen as and when it is safe to do so. Julie Flaherty said it had been "incredibly distressing" for many bereaved families. But she said: "I might not have liked it but I have accepted it, for now." The UUP councillor was speaking after the UK Secretary of State for Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick urged councils to keep open, or reopen, cemeteries and graveyards for people to make private visits or privately lay flowers. Ms Flaherty, who lost her two-year-old son Jake in 2013, said she cannot visit his grave. "Today, the gates are padlocked. The cemetery is quiet. People have left flowers on the adjoining fences," she said. "As a local UUP councillor I have a responsibility. I have a civic and a moral responsibility to do what is right for my area, to do what is right for my constituents, and at present, that means keeping them safe. "That doesn't mean it is easy. That doesn't mean it is popular. That doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt. "It is difficult to understand and the decisions around cemeteries and funerals are deeply upsetting for many. I have found it very hard to take." Ms Flaherty said she has accepted the need to temporarily close council cemeteries. She said: "Closing our precious places of remembrance, our places of grief and of comfort has been desperately difficult to take. I might not have liked it but I have accepted it, for now. "I have spoken to many very distressed families who, like me, have found this incredibly distressing. I can tell them I'm sorry, it will not be forever and have told them that when it is safe to do so, we will reopen." Ms Flaherty said "we will have many dark days ahead as a community". She added: "If this can be done, it should be done. It is the right thing to do but it, like the opening of parks, must be done at the right time." Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 01:31:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Kuwaiti passengers walk toward the arrival hall after they disembarked from a plane at Kuwait International Airport in Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, on April 20, 2020. At Kuwait International Airport, many Kuwaitis returning from abroad greet their families by bumping elbows or flying kisses rather than the common way of shaking hands to avoid getting infected with COVID-19. (Xinhua) KUWAIT CITY, April 20 (Xinhua) -- At Kuwait International Airport, many Kuwaitis returning from abroad greet their families by bumping elbows or flying kisses rather than the common way of shaking hands to avoid getting infected with COVID-19. Abu Muhammad, who was waiting for his daughter returning from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, told Xinhua that he could not express his joy to see his daughter again especially under the current circumstances. "The situation was frightening in light of the current events. I was terrified when my daughter was stuck outside and all the airports were closed," he said. "Now, I am happy and sad at the same time because it is not possible to describe the feeling of seeing her and not being able to hug her and seeing her sitting with us in the same room," he said. Muhammad prepared a master room with a private bathroom for his daughter for a 14-day quarantine. "The room was prepared specifically for her, as only plastic tools will be used for eating or drinking. A small washing machine was bought for her to wash clothes," he said. Meanwhile, arriving at the airport from abroad, Kuwaiti citizen Adel Al-Baghli expressed his happiness and pride. "I am proud that I am a Kuwaiti in light of the current coronavirus pandemic around the world. Our government continues to work with all embassies to open airports specifically for us," he said. "For the sake of Kuwait, I will stay at home as it was instructed by the World Health Organization," he said. Regarding the organizing process at airport, Mona Al-Khamees, a Kuwaiti passenger, said it was unexpectedly great. "When we arrived, we received a bag of masks and sanitizer. Then after we finished stamping our passports, we were enforced to wear a tracking bracelet and download an application on phone in order to track us while we are in home quarantine," she said. "The application aims to protect me and my family and make sure we do not break the rules of the mandatory home quarantine," she said, explaining that if they went outside, the application would send a notification to the medical team. Besides the airport work staff, there are many volunteers, citizens, and expatriates working in the front lines to serve the passengers and to organize their arrival. Mohammed Alawneh, a Jordanian volunteer, told Xinhua that he joined a voluntary group to serve the Kuwaiti returnees and to guide them through the process suggested by the Health Ministry. "Kuwait is considered as my second home and I am glad to be able to serve it," he said. On Sunday, Kuwait launched the first phase of the evacuation plan to bring home its citizens from 16 destinations over a period of three days. According to Saad Al-Otaibi, spokesman of Kuwait Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA), 3,970 Kuwaiti passengers, stranded abroad in coronavirus-hit countries, will arrive on Monday via 25 flights. By Tuesday, 12,000 citizens will return to Kuwait, he said, noting that this is the first phase out of five to evacuate Kuwaiti citizens from overseas. According to Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, DGCA president, the second phase of the plan will be launched next Thursday which involves Kuwaitis from 23 destinations. On April 4, the Kuwaiti government announced the plan to return the country's citizens from abroad, from April 19 to May 7. There are about 50,000 Kuwaiti citizens abroad across the world. Enditem 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. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown in the Capitol on Nov. 18. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a deal to increase funding for a popular small business loan program that ran out of money last week as businesses scrambled for a lifeline during the coronavirus pandemic. The House is expected to pass the measure on Thursday, giving members time to return to Washington to vote. President Trump has vowed to sign it. The bill provides an additional $484 billion in coronavirus relief, including $310 billion for the now-depleted Paycheck Protection Program, which was designed to provide forgivable loans to small businesses if they keep workers on the payroll during the economic shutdown caused by the pandemic. The program exhausted its original $349 billion last week, but efforts to immediately replenish funding stalled as Democrats and Republicans argued over what else to include in an interim spending bill. An agreement was reached early Tuesday. Republicans initially proposed simply adding an additional $250 billion to the program, and faulted Democrats for refusing to go along, allowing it to temporarily run out of money. "In my view, it's indefensible that Main Street's small businesses and their workers had their assistance cut off for partisan leverage," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Democrats said that thanks to their efforts, the bill provides $220 billion in additional money for hospitals, testing and some of the neediest small businesses. They faulted Senate Republicans for initially refusing to negotiate over the measure. "They tried to jam through the bill," said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), adding that the final version is broader and better. The measure sets aside $60 billion to be lent by smaller banking institutions, such as credit unions, in an attempt to increase the number of loans going to very small businesses or businesses without an existing relationship with a bank. Democrats made this set-aside a priority because many such businesses including women- and minority-owned companies complained they were shut out of the initial phase of funding. Story continues "It seems that the large banks have tended to favor the preexisting relationships, particularly those that have existing loans with the banks. That is discriminatory," said Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.). "We're trying to fix that." The bill also includes $50 billion for a separate emergency loan program for small businesses that also is out of money; $75 billion for hospitals, including rural hospitals; and $25 billion to increase COVID-19 testing. Of the $25 billion for testing, $11 billion is to help states, cities, tribes and territories increase testing and contact-tracing capabilities, something experts have warned will be a necessary step in weighing when to reopen the economy. The package also requires the Department of Health and Human Services to create and publish a national strategy for coronavirus testing, something that was a sticking point in the final hours of negotiations. "We made sure, maybe most importantly, that there be adequate money for a national testing regime, and that this administration be required to report to us very shortly on what their plan is to have national testing," Schumer said. Within three weeks, the HHS secretary is required to issue a report on current levels of coronavirus testing, including data on race and ethnicity, and information on rates of cases and hospitalizations. Within 30 days, the department is required to issue a report on a "strategic testing plan" that assists states, localities and tribes in understanding COVID-19 testing for "both active infection and prior exposure." In that same time frame, states and localities that receive funding for testing are required to submit to the department their plans for COVID-19 testing, including the number of test kits needed each month, month-by-month estimates of capacity and a description of how they plan to use the funds. Not included in the final version of the bill is $150 billion for state and local governments struggling with a drop in tax revenue. Democrats sought the money, but Republicans and the White House insisted that issue be addressed in future relief measures. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) spoke against the bill, warning the cost of shutting down the U.S. economy was too high. "The virus bailouts have already cost over $2 trillion," he said before the vote. "Our annual deficit this year will approach $4 trillion. We can't continue on this course. No amount of bailout dollars will stimulate an economy that's being strangled by quarantine." Minutes after the Senate passed the bill, Washington quickly pivoted toward what might be in the next major spending bill to address the coronavirus outbreak. "Phase 4 most likely will be what we need," said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, who has represented the White House in much of the negotiations so far. He suggested that the fourth major bill would be one of the last. "This is a lot of money going out." The next bill "could be a big investment," Mnuchin said, though he declined to put a price tag on it. Since early March, Congress has approved nearly $3 trillion in assistance to businesses, workers, hospitals, state and local governments and researchers. Amid reports that several large national companies received multimillion-dollar loans through the small-business loan program, Trump urged them to return the money. Mnuchin acknowledged that loopholes existed for large companies and said were going to put up very clear guidance" to ensure the money is directed at small businesses that need it. Mnuchin said more than 1 million companies with fewer than 10 workers have received loans in the PPP already. "The intent of this money was not for big public companies that have access to capital," he said. Boeing said it will put about 27,000 people back to work this week building passenger jets at its Seattle-area plants, with virus-slowing precautions in place, including face masks and staggered shifts. The modest reopenings come amid protests in some states by people who say it's time to get back to work. Boeing is among a small number of manufacturers around the U.S. that geared up Monday to resume production amid pressure from President Donald Trump to reopen the economy and resistance from governors who warn there is not enough testing yet to keep the new coronavirus from rebounding. Maryland secured 500,000 tests from South Korea after the governor's Korean American wife negotiated the shipment. Meanwhile, oil futures plunged below zero on Monday, the latest never-before-seen number to come out of the economic coma caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Stocks and Treasury yields also dropped on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 down 1.8%, but the markets most dramatic action by far was in oil, where the cost to have a barrel of U.S. crude delivered in May plummeted to negative $37.63. It was at roughly $60 at the start of the year. 21.04.2020 LISTEN The National Communications Authority (NCA) and National Security have recorded an unspecified number of arrests and seizure of equipment after the Tongu Community Multimedia Network (Radio Tongu) in the Volta Region illegally resumed operations. This is after the NCA suspended the authorisation of Radio Tongu on grounds of national security and the public interest. The NCA in a statement said the unilateral re-opening of the Station has undermined ongoing discussions and consultations with the opinion leaders of the South Tongu Community, and with the District Security Council. National Security in the Volta Region had picked up the Director of Radio Tongu, Bestway Zottor, at his residence over some comments he allegedly made about his involvement in the activities of the Western Togoland secessionist group, Homeland Study Group Foundation. Bestway Zottor was said to have accused the Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Letsa, of funding the activities of the separatist movement while [the governing New Patriotic Party was] in opposition. Since then, the NCA has said it has received subtle threats from Bestway Zottor ahead of him re-opening the radio station. In particular, the Authority has recently received a letter from Mr. Bestway Zottor dated 11th April, 2020 threatening mayhem in Sogakope and its environs. The said letter speaks to impending explosive demonstrations that cannot be contained, among others, the NCA said. Find below the full statement RADIO TONGU IN SOGAKOPE SHUT DOWN FOR OPERATING WITHOUT VALID AUTHORISATION Accra, 20th April, 2020: The National Communications Authority (NCA) wishes to inform the general public about the illegal activities of some persons involved in the operations of Radio Tongu 92.1 MHz without a valid authorisation. The events leading to this state of affairs are as follows: It will be recalled that on 11th February 2020, the NCA suspended the Authorisation of Radio Tongu 92.1 MHz on grounds of national security and the public interest. The enforcement of the suspension resulted in the closing down of the Station in accordance with Section 13(1)(e) of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775). Since the closure of the station, the Authority has received an Undertaking from Mamaga Adokuwa Azaworgbe IV (Executive Chair) and Mabel Esinam Agbador (Executive Council Secretary) on behalf of the Tongu Community Multimedia Network (TCMN) promising to with immediate effect suspend the education on Western Togolands self determination to independence indefinitely. A copy of the said Undertaking is attached in this release. The Authority has also received a number of correspondences from one Bestway Zottor (a Director of TCMN and a key architect in the Western Togoland secessionist agenda), whose illegal conducts informed the decision to suspend the Authorisation of the Station. In particular, the Authority has recently received a letter from Mr. Bestway Zottor dated 11th April, 2020 threatening mayhem in Sogakope and its environs. The said letter speaks to impending explosive demonstrations that cannot be contained, among others. In his 11th April letter to the NCA, Mr. Bestway Zottor states that, I am sure this pending demonstration against Radio Tongu closure could be more explosive than that resulting [sic] from the murder of Hon. Mawutor Adzahli, the Sogakope Assemblyman. For the pent-up anger in our listeners is loaded, and we will NOT be able to calm them down anymore. Further to the subtle threats in the said letter, Mr. Bestway Zottor and his assigns defied all odds and illegally re-opened the Station for mass communication in spite of the fact that the Authorisation of the Station is suspended. This unilateral re-opening of the Station has undermined ongoing discussions and consultations with the opinion leaders of the South Tongu Community, and with the District Security Council. It is in this regard that the National Security and the NCA have shut the station down. In addition to this, equipment used in the illegal operations have been seized and confiscated, and the persons involved in the illegal operations will be arrested for prosecution pursuant to the following: Section 73 of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775) Regulation 87(1)(a) of the Electronic Communications Regulations, 2011 (L.I. 1991) As a community radio station, the NCA will continue to engage the leadership of the South Tongu Community/TCMN and the District Security Council to find a lasting solution to the impasse, while the law takes its course with regard to the individuals arrested. The NCA wishes to stress that the Authority will endeavour to execute its mandate as set out by law and calls on stakeholders to adhere to the tenets and regulations governing the communications industry. Issued by the National Communications Authority: Guru, a Philadelphia, PA-based provider of a collaborative knowledge management software platform, raised $30m in Series C funding. The round was led by Accel with participation from Emergence Capital, Thrive Capital, FirstMark Capital, Slack and Michael Dells MSD Capital. The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach. Led by Rick Nucci, CEO, Guru provides an empowerment network platform, which leverages AI to improve sales, support, and customer success teams by sharing and operationalizing knowledge. FinSMEs 22/04/2020 What lies beyond the pandemic? MassForward is MassLives series examining the journey of Massachusetts small businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. ________________ In unprecedented times many businesses are uncertain what the future might hold, how to adapt as well as what the new consumer trends are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this, MassLive Media will host a free webinar on April 23 to discuss results of a data survey on how people are spending their time and money across three states; Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania. Pre-registration for the event, which starts at 2 p.m., is required. President Donald Trump on March 27 signed the $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief package into law, freeing up cash and loans for Americans and small business owners grappling with the economic fallout from the deadly coronavirus pandemic. The survey asked consumers how they plan to spend their stimulus checks, and the results were fascinating, said Gareth Charter, Vice President of Sales for MassLive Media. MassLive [and] our colleagues in Pennsylvania and New York thought that one of the things that we could do to most help the business community at this time was to try and get them some real data from what consumers are thinking and feeling, said Charter. Obviously, when we started talking about doing this there was a conversation around the stimulus packages and money coming to people. We thought one of the things to ask them was what do they plan to do with that money. MassLive Media, with parent company Advance Local, contracted a market research company, Drive Research based in Syracuse, N.Y. to conduct the research. The people in the study were picked at random and represent a mixture of demographics from across each of the three states, according to Drive Research President George Kuhn. The study shows that of the people polled in Massachusetts, they are more concerned than New York and Pennsylvania about the impact of the crisis on health, the economy and the job market. We learned a lot of things. One of the things weve learned about Northeast marketing, said Kuhn. There was more concern about the economy, families, health and job market (in Massachusetts). There was just more concern in general in the Massachusetts market than in New York or Pennsylvania. The webinar Kuhn highlighted is going to provide exclusive, proprietary consumer data collected. It will show data on changes in time spent with media channels, money spent on crucial product and service categories and overall sentiment around COVID-19. These findings are to help people better understand consumer behavior to navigate a businesses brand strategy in these difficult times. We want to provide real value to these businesses, to be advisors to them and counsel them through just such an unprecedented time, said Charter. Going out getting the real information. This is what people in this market are saying and feeling and its really interesting. President of MassLive Media Tim Kennedy and Kuhn will host the 30 minute webinar that will take place on Thursday at 2 p.m. MassLive Media is owned by Advance Local, one of the leading digital media and marketing companies in the country, reaching more than 50 million people throughout the U.S. across multiple platforms. MassForward is MassLive's series examining the journey of Massachusetts' small businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. Related Content: The Thane Municipal Corporation on Tuesday sealed Lokmanya-Savarkar Nagar in the city, after over 50 people attended the funeral of a COVID-19 patient in the area, an official said. In an order issued on Tuesday, deputy municipal commissioner Ashok Burpulle stated that Lokmanya-Savarkar Nagar, which comes under ward no 6, will be sealed after a large number of people attended the funeral of a COVID-19 patient on Sunday. All establishments, apart from pharmacies and dairy shops, will remain shut till April 26, the order stated. Burpulle also sought help from the local police in sealing the ward and preventing movement of people and vehicles in the area. Over 50 people had attended the funeral of a COVID-19 patient at Raja Shivaji Vidyalaya, the official said, adding that there was a possibility of increase in the number of high-risk contacts because of this. The civic authorities had identified most of the mourners who attended the funeral and sent them for quarantine, while the high-risk contacts of these attendees were being traced, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The unemployment rate in Victoria is set to double and house prices are expected to slide by 9 per cent this year due to the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Department of Treasury and Finance modelling shows Victoria is set for its worst economic battering since the 1990s recession, even if the spread of the virus remains slow for the coming six months. Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas has warned the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic will be worse than expected. Credit:Jason South The release of the grim economic forecasts came as the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry warned the government against ad-hoc spending of borrowed funds that may not address structural challenges needed to address the crisis. In a letter obtained by The Age, the peak business group urged the government to carefully manage its "debt accumulation" amid plans to take out a massive loan to fund its emergency measures. Former Playboy Playmate dead at 33 Former Playboy Playmate Ashley Mattingly is dead at age 33, according to the Travis County Medical Examiners Office in Austin, Texas. E! News reports an official cause of death has not been determined, but Mattinglys family says she died of an apparent suicide on Thursday, April 16, and left a note. Ashley moved closer to home a couple years ago and was living in Austin," her family said in a statement. "Its maybe no secret that Ashley struggled with alcohol and substance abuse, but she wanted to and was working to get better. The model was best known as Miss March 2011 in the adult magazine and continued to attend Playboy events with Hugh Hefner for several years after that. I am devastated. My friend #ashleymattingly took her own life. If you are struggling please reach out for help. She was only 33 RIP #playmatesister pic.twitter.com/P560nV73Ap Carrie Stevens (@CarrieStevensXO) April 20, 2020 Chris Cuomo out of quarantine, George Stephanopoulos to donate plasma Two TV personalities are recovering from coronavirus. CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, the younger brother of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, announced Monday that hes left quarantine in his basement for the first time in weeks and reunited with his family. The Cuomo Prime Time host also said his wife, Christina Cuomo, has also been cleared by the CDC after she also tested positive for COVID-19 and spent more than seven days in isolation without symptoms. ABC News George Stephanopoulos, meanwhile, announced Tuesday that hes also recovered a week after testing positive for COVID-19, and said a test showed he developed antibodies to fight the deadly disease. The Good Morning America host said hes signed up for a clinical trial to donate plasma, which could potentially help other coronavirus patients in the future. .@GStephanopoulos announces he has signed up for a clinical trial to donate blood plasma and potentially help COVID-19 patients. pic.twitter.com/eCEqdqVVbV Good Morning America (@GMA) April 21, 2020 MORE BUZZ: HBO Max announces May 27 launch date ( RS Brad Pitt delivers weather report for John Krasinskis Good News ( E! Fountains of Wayne to reunite at Jersey coronavirus relief fundraiser ( RS Babyface, Teddy Riley face off in classic R&B battle ( BB The Batman release date delayed to Halloween 2021 ( SF Alicia Silverstone recalls Batgirl body-shaming after Batman & Robin ( E! Green Days Billie Joe Armstrong covers That Thing You Do ( RS Mighty Ducks goalie Shaun Weiss looking healthier after meth bust ( TMZ The Sandman Netflix series on hold due to coronavirus ( SF Josh Brolin apologizes for irresponsible visit to parents house ( E! Queen, Adam Lambert tweak We Are the Champions from home ( RS Lil Xan hospitalized after pandemic-induced panic attack ( TMZ Big Time Rush surprises fans with virtual reunion ( E! The Psychedelic Furs debut new song, first in 29 years ( RS Buzz is a daily roundup of entertainment news from movies, TV, music and celebrity gossip. Though it was filmed before the coronavirus outbreak relegated us all to our couches and boosted subscriptions to streaming services, Defending Jacob has elements that feel unexpectedly relatable to our social distancing moment. In the before times, the selling point for the new Apple TV Plus limited series was star Chris Evans, best known for playing Captain America in endless Marvel-inspired movies, and for his sweater-sporting scoundrel in Knives Out. It didnt hurt that his costar is Michelle Dockery, otherwise known as Lady Mary in the much-loved Downton Abbey TV series and movie. But watching Defending Jacob, which begins streaming Friday, April 24 on Apple TV Plus, now may remind us of being holed up with family members. Beyond that, it may make more morbidly inclined viewers think, its not great feeling isolated from society, but at least were not wondering if our teen has killed somebody. Indeed, that question is the narrative engine that drives Defending Jacob, though the engine too often seems stuck in low gear. The story, adapted from a novel by William Landay, centers on a family thats trying to deal with their 14-year-old son being accused of killing a classmate. Evans plays Andy Barber, an assistant district attorney whos used to prosecuting accused criminals, not giving them the benefit of the doubt. Dockery plays his wife, Laurie, who works at a nonprofit dedicated to helping at-risk young people. Jaeden Martell plays their son, Jacob, who in many ways seems like an ordinary teenager, until hes accused of stabbing a classmate to death. While Defending Jacob is well-made, and boasts fine performances, its also the latest in a trend of dramas that focus on upper-middle class white people whose supposedly ideal families turn out to be not what they seem. Maybe its the Big Little Lies influence, but weve recently seen plenty of stories that reveal how those seemingly placid Ordinary People-style lives hide a hornets nest of scary secrets. For example, in HBOs The Outsider, from a Stephen King novel, we saw apparent family man Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman) stand accused of murder. The recently concluded Season 3 of The Sinner, on USA, saw Matt Bomer play what appears to be a settled husband and father who succumbs to homicidal impulses. In Hulus Little Fires Everywhere, Reese Witherspoon builds on her Big Little Lies role as she plays a woman who fixates on having a perfect family, even as those around her are hurting. And in the upcoming HBO series, The Undoing, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant play a New York City couple whose comfortably affluent family life turns upside down when terrible revelations come to light. Michelle Dockery, Jaeden Martell an Chris Evans star in the new Apple TV Plus miniseries, "Defending Jacob." (Photo: Apple TV Plus) In Defending Jacob, the family is again living what, for many, looks like the American Dream. But it doesnt take long for buried truths to emerge, along with nagging suspicions. When their son is accused of murdering a classmate, the cozy world that Andy and Laurie have built in their suburban community of Newton, Massachusetts, falls apart. The eight-part limited series does a good job of making us feel the parents uncertainty about whether Jacob is innocent or guilty. But that suspense is made to carry too much of the load for the relaxed pace of the show, which takes its own sweet time drawing us in. Created and written by Mark Bomback, and directed by Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game), Defending Jacob suffers not only from a too-measured narrative rhythm, but a decision to emphasize a color palette that makes everything gray, bluish-gray or black. It doesnt help that the lighting is so low that court proceedings seem to be happening during a power blackout. This is serious, we get it, but could we maybe ramp up the lights a bit, so we can see whats going on? That said, Defending Jacob benefits from strong work by Evans, Dockery, Cherry Jones, J.K.Simmons, and the gifted young Martell, all of whom are able to keep us guessing about what they know, and what theyre going to do about it. And in an odd, unplanned, but timely element, seeing the family try to shelter in place following the tabloid-style publicity surrounding Jacob being accused recalls our widespread attempt to feel normal, even as a morose layer covers so many of us during the pandemic. For a few moments, sad as the situations in Defending Jacob are, we can remember what it was like to shake hands with someone, or sit at a sidewalk table outside a cafe. The first three episodes of Defending Jacob will premiere on Friday, April 24 on Apple TV+ and, after that, new episodes will premiere weekly every Friday. More of our coverage: -- Kristi Turnquist kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Codebase Investee has secured rights to develop a Transdermal Hydroxychloroquine Drug Delivery System to offer controlled, prescribed dosage mitigating side effects VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / Codebase Ventures Inc. ("Codebase" or the "Company") (CSE:CODE)(FSE:C5B)(OTCQB:BKLLF), an investment company, is pleased to expand upon its announcement of April 16th regarding its agreement to acquire a 49% interest in an arms-length private company with the rights to a provisional patent for a transdermal drug delivery system for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Hydroxychloroquine has been heavily publicized in relation to its potential treatment and prevention role with Covid-19, leading to instances of self medication, where "hydroxychloroquine can have dangerous side-effects if the dose is not carefully controlled."1,2 In oral tablet form, hydroxychloroquine side effects include headache, dizziness, diarrhea, vomiting, blurred vision, and arrhythmia among others 3 Transdermal delivery of hydroxychloroquine regulates dosage, improving patient compliance and outcomes 4 Bypassing the GI tract mitigates gastrointestinal side effects Transdermal delivery is more efficient, therefore requiring less of the active ingredient to be administered The hydroxychloroquine transdermal drug delivery system to be developed by an investee company of Codebase is designed to control dosage and to deliver the prescribed amount of the drug over the prescribed time period without inconsistencies inherent in oral tablet delivery - the premise being that transdermal delivery can reduce and/or eliminate side effects associated with uncontrolled dosing. Reformulation Research Laboratories Inc. (RRL), Code's contract lab partners in the venture, have provided that transdermal delivery of hydroxychloroquine can result in improved well being for patients by providing constant drug levels, fewer side effects overall, highlighted by the fact unlike oral tablets, transdermal delivery bypasses the gastrointestinal tract which can eliminate side effects from that route such as nausea. In addition, limitations on bioavailability and metabolism of the active ingredient when taken orally require dosages to be higher than what is required for therapeutic results. Transdermal delivery is more efficient, and with greater bioavailability and therefore lower amounts of the active ingredient are required, which also can improve outcomes for patients. The Company's scientific expert has read and approved the scientific disclosures contained in the press release. The Company is not making any express or implied claims that its product has the ability to eliminate, cure or contain the Covid-19 at this time. RRL is not making any express or implied claims that any of its products have the ability to deliver hydroxychloroquine through transdermal at this time. 1 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanrhe/article/PIIS2665-9913(20)30089-8/fulltext 2 https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/canada-quietly-secured-order-for-5-millions-pills-of-anti-malaria-medication-eyed-as-potential-covid-19-treatment 3 https://www.healthline.com/health/hydroxychloroquine-oral-tablet 4 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/transdermal-drug-administration About Codebase Ventures Inc. Codebase Ventures Inc. is an investment company, led by technology and business experts who invest early in great ideas in sectors that have significant upside, including the cannabis sector. We operate from the understanding that technology is always evolving, bringing early opportunities for strategic investments that can deliver the exponential returns to our shareholders. We seek out and empower the innovators who are building tomorrow's standards with platforms, protocols, and innovations - not just products. We invest early, support those founders, take their ideas to market and work tirelessly to help them realize their vision. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information, please contact: George Tsafalas - Ivy Lu Investor Relations Telephone: Toll-Free (877) 806-CODE (2633) or 1 (778) 806-5150 E-mail: IR@codebase.ventures www.codebase.ventures.com Forward Looking Statements Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals, granting of a patent, results of clinical trials, competition from larger and better financed competitors, market acceptance and the ability to effectively develop a transdermal delivery system.. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws. SOURCE: Codebase Ventures Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/585986/Hydroxychloroquine-Side-Effects-Potentially-Mitigated-by-Transdermal-Delivery By Online Desk Over 2.5 million people have been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus worldwide, with 80 per cent of cases in Europe and the United States. While in India, cases breached the 1800-mark, according to the figures released by the health ministry on Tuesday evening. There are 15,122 active COVID-19 cases in the country, 603 people have died of the disease while 3,259 have recovered. Following complaints by the Rajasthan government over faulty rapid antibody test kits showing inaccurate results, the ICMR on Tuesday advised the states to not use the test kits for the next two days. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra govt has cancelled the lockdown relaxation given earlier from April 20. Up north, the Noida border with Delhi has been completely sealed a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19, the DM of Gautam Budh Nagar announced. As a silver lining amidst the tumultuous times, Oxford University will begin a human trial of a potential COVID-19 candidate vaccine from Thursday. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) also pitched for the Oxford vaccine, saying 'ChAdOX1' is the frontrunner in the race to take on the deadly COVID-19 virus. Army modernization officials have selected a Wisconsin-based optics firm to make advanced fire-control prototypes capable of equipping the service's Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) with a 1,000-meter laser range finder and a ballistic computer to calculate the bullet's path to the target, according to an April 20 news release from Vortex Optics. The Army's Product Manager Soldier Lethality awarded Vortex an agreement to deliver production-ready prototypes of the NGSW-Fire Control for future Soldier Touch Point evaluations, the release states. The 1-8x30 Active Reticle Fire Control is a variable power, direct-view, first focal plane riflescope -- meaning that the reticle is located in front of the magnification lens to allow the reticle to increase in size as the shooter increases the magnification level. The Vortex system is built around "a revolutionary technology based on many years of internal research and development, along with multiple cooperative development efforts with the Army's [Project Manager] Soldier Weapons," according to the release. "The end result is Active Reticle, which has been proven to increase hit percentage and decrease time to engage during U.S. Army Soldier touchpoints over the last two years," it adds. Related: Army's Next Infantry Weapon Could Have Facial-Recognition Technology The Army released a Prototype Opportunity Notice last spring inviting companies to develop a NGSW Fire Control that "increases the soldier's ability to rapidly engage man-sized targets out to 600 [meters] or greater while maintaining the ability to conduct Close Quarters Battle," according to the solicitation, posted May 30, 2019, on FedBizOpps.gov. Weapons officials are currently testing NGSW prototypes from General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc., Textron Systems and Sig Sauer Inc. for the final phase of the NGSW effort, which is designed to replace the 5.56mm M4A1 carbine and the M249 squad automatic weapon in close-combat units with automatic rifle and rifle versions chambered for a more powerful 6.8mm round. The Army plans to select a final design for both weapons from a single company in the first quarter of 2022 and begin fielding them to an infantry brigade combat team in the first quarter of 2023. It's unclear whether the Army has awarded agreements to other optics companies for fire-control prototypes. Military.com reached out to Army program officials but did not receive a response by press time. Vortex officials maintain the prototype's "1km-capable laser rangefinder, state of the art on-board ballistic engine, atmospheric sensor suite, and programmable active matrix micro-display ... delivers a true multi-mission fire control enabling everything from [close-quarter battle] to designated marksmanship at the extents of the NGSW's effective range," according to the release. "For the soldier in the field, that means the freedom to devote their entire focus downrange," Sam Hamilton, chief technical officer at Vortex Optics, said in the release. "End-users will no longer need to leave their field of view to consult separate rangefinders or ballistic calculators, slowing them down and compromising their situational awareness." Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Read More: Army's Next-Gen Squad Weapon to Feature Deadly Accurate Fire Control Air conditioning was the reason why coronavirus spread from one infected diner to nine others in a Chinese restaurant, a study has claimed. However, none of the other 81 people inside came down with the virus, according to findings. The paper, set to be published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, investigates an incident at an eatery in Guangzhou in January, where a family had arrived from Wuhan - the city where the Covid-19 pandemic began. Coronavirus spread from one infected diner in Guangzhou, China to nine others back in January. Pictured: A restaurant (stock image) Daily life in Guangzhou, pictured, is slowly returning to normal after the coronavirus pandemic Guangzhou has been largely deserted, pictured, for weeks during the Covid-19 outbreak Researchers say one member of that family had an asymptomatic case, and barely two weeks later, the patient along with nine others, including members of their family, as well as two other groups on nearby tables in the restaurant, had all become ill with the virus. The affected tables in the windowless venue were around a metre away from each other as the authors claim the most likely cause of this outbreak was droplet transmission. However, they say that droplets only remain in the air for a short time and only travel short distances, therefore, they concluded, the air conditioner was likely to have spread the virus further between the affected tables. They added: 'To prevent spread of Covid-19 in restaurants, we recommend strengthening temperature-monitoring surveillance, increasing the distance between tables, and improving ventilation.' Temporary temperature checkpoints, pictured, have been set up near residential buildings in Guangzhou Droplets only remain in the air for a short time and only travel short distances, therefore, researchers concluded, an air conditioner, pictured, was likely to have spread the virus further between the affected tables It comes amid growing uncertainty over when pubs and restaurants will be allowed to reopen post-lockdown. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told Business Insider the research is a good resource to help understand what the future may look like. 'We are going to open back up,' he said. 'But the trick will be to open, slowly, do it in a phased fashion. 'And of the phases includes opening restaurants and doing so at half capacity, spacing out the seats.' 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 Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yog Adityanath on Tuesday asked the state's medical authorities to promote plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients after examining its efficacy. The chief minister, while chairing a high-level meeting of officials to take stock's of the UP anti-COVID fight, also stressed upon the need for thorough testing of people living in and around the areas declared hotspots, said Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi. He said the chief minister also appealed to the people, visiting hospitals for emergency treatment, to go to the only to the hospitals approved by the Medical and Health Department. Awasthi said the chief minister has pointed out that several items on positive results of plasma therapy in the treatment of COVID-19 patients have appeared in media recently. "In view of this, the efficacy of the new treatment protocol should be examined and promoted in the state, said Adityanath, while chairing the meeting in which, he also instructed officials to ensure availability of oxygen for the COVID-19 patients. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recently allowed states to start clinical trials of the plasma therapy for COVID-19. Nearly 100 institutes have shown interest to study how safe and efficient is the plasma therapy in treating COVID-19 patinets. Several states like Kerala, Gujarat and Punjab have already started to using plasma therapy for the corona-infected patients. Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients. In this treatment, plasma from a cured COVID-19 patient is transfused to a critically ill coronavirus patient. The idea behind this therapy is that immunity can be transferred from a healthy person to a sick patient using convalescent plasma. This therapy uses antibodies from the blood of a cured coronavirus patient to treat another critical patient. The recovered COVID-19 patient's blood develops antibodies to battle against COVID-19. Once the blood of the first patient is infused to the second patient, those antibodies will start fighting against the coronavirus in the second person. The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour. Several countries around the world including United Kingdom and United States have also started plasma therapy trials. While the meeting, the chief minister also issued directions to halt inter-district and inter-state transportation, and ensure that ration is available to one and all, said Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awasthi. Talking about the need to visitonly approved hospitals for emergency treatment, Awasthi said, "If anyone falls ill, he/she should go to the hospitals, only approved by the medical and health department, and not to any other place. Do not go to non-approved hospital for emergency. Going to the emergency units of non-approved hospitals will also pose a danger to the lives of other patients. Emergency services have been allowed in only those hospitals, where there are sufficient equipment and trained staff," he said. He said the chief minister has also directed that people in areas which have been declared COVID-19 hotspots should be thoroughly tested, and so should be the people living in the vicinity of hotspots. "Pool testing can also be done in areas, where it is needed. Special arrangements should be made for testing in Kanpur, were the burden of testing is high," he said. CM Adityanath also laid stress on the need for the people, put in quarantine, to follow the social distancing norms, said wasthi. Referring to COVID-19 cases in Rae Bareli, Awasthi said, "People placed under quarantine in Rae Bareli had first tested negative, while in the second test, they were tested positive for COVID-19." Seeking to promote the use of Aarogya Setu app, Awasthi said the app keeps one aware of one's surrounding and the possible COVID threat. Aarogya Setu app has been downloaded by nearly one crore people in the state. This is a big achievement. The app generates alert, and almost 200 alerts have already come. This will be used by the health department and concern district magistrates," he said. Sanitisation of shelter home and community kitchens too should be done regularly, and medical tests of those working here should also be done. Adherence to the home quarantine by students, who have returned to their home in the state from Kota, should be informed on the '1076' Mukhyamantri helpline, a statement issued by the UP Government said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In another cultural casualty of the pandemic, the Upright Citizens Brigade is planning to close its two Manhattan locations, leaving the storied improv and sketch comedy hub without its own permanent space in the city. In an email sent to students and performers on Tuesday, founders of the 30-year-old group said that they had made the heart wrenching decision to close its theater in Hells Kitchen and the training center on Eighth Avenue. U.C.B., which has long been a launching pad for up-and-coming comedians, has been showing signs of financial strain for over a year, having laid off staff and shut down its East Village venue. The founders Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh said in the message that they had already been struggling to pay New Yorks high rents before the coronavirus hit, but the uncertainty created by the lockdown meant that they could no longer afford their leases. The message did not mention any threat to U.C.B.s two locations in Los Angeles, but noted that even shutting down the two Manhattan locations would not be a cure-all for the financial health of the organization. The severe impact of the pandemic on the groups future was already clear last month, when all of the theaters and training centers went dark and the organization laid off broad swaths of staff members in New York and Los Angeles, including theater managers, bartenders and security staff. Online campaigns sought to raise money for laid-off employees on both coasts. (U.C.B. performers typically do not get paid, which is a sore point for many in comedy.) Herd immunity hopes dealt blow by report suggesting only 2%-3% of people have been infected. Only a tiny proportion of the global population maybe as few as 2% or 3% appear to have antibodies in the blood showing they have been infected with COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization, a finding that bodes ill for hopes that herd immunity will ease the exit from lockdown. "Easing restrictions is not the end of the epidemic in any country," said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a media briefing in Geneva on Monday. "So-called lockdowns can help to take the heat out of a country's epidemic," according to The Guardian. But serological testing to find out how large a proportion of the population have had the infection and developed antibodies to it which it is hoped will mean they have some level of immunity suggests that the numbers are low. "Early data suggests that a relatively small percentage of the populations may have been infected," Tedros said. "Not more than 2%-3%." Read alsoTotal number of COVID-19 cases confirmed worldwide approaching 2.5 mln Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, an American infectious diseases expert who is the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said they had thought the number of people infected would be higher, but she stressed it was still too early to be sure. "Initially, we see a lower proportion of people with antibodies than we were expecting," she said. "A lower number of people are infected." On Friday, a study carried out in Santa Clara, California by Stanford University and released as a "pre-print" without peer review, found that 50 to 85 times more people had been infected with the virus than official figures showed. Santa Clara county had 1,094 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the time the study was carried out, but antibody tests suggest that between 48,000 and 81,000 people had been infected by early April, most of whom did not develop symptoms. But even those high figures mean that within the whole population of the county, only 3% have been infected and have antibodies to the virus. A study in the Netherlands of 7,000 blood donors also found that just 3% had antibodies. Van Kerkhove said they needed to look carefully at the way the studies were being carried out. "A number of studies we are aware of in pre-print have suggested that small proportions of the population [have antibodies]," she said. These were "in single digits, up to 14% in Germany and France". "It is really important to understand how the studies were done." Read alsoChinese scientists successfully conduct first animal trials of inactivated coronavirus vaccine That would include asking how they found the people to test. Was it at random or were they blood donors, who tend to be healthy adults? They would also need to look at how well the blood tests were performed. "We are working with a number of countries carrying out these serology studies," she added. The WHO-supported studies would use robust methods and the tests would be validated for accuracy. The hope will be that people who have had COVID-19 will be able to resume their lives. But Van Kerkhove last week said that even if tests showed a person had antibodies, it did not prove that they were immune. "There are a lot of countries that are suggesting using rapid diagnostic serological tests to be able to capture what they think will be a measure of immunity," she said. "Right now, we have no evidence that the use of a serological test can show that an individual has immunity or is protected from reinfection." The Mexican military has seized $14million worth of cocaine from a small jet that was parked in a clandestine airstrip. The Secretariat of the Navy said the successful operation was pulled off Saturday after intelligence reports revealed suspicious activity in the southern state of Chiapas. The Marines deployed a special team aboard a helicopter, which spotted the Cessna on the secret runway 26 miles northwest of Port Chiapas, a municipality located off the Pacific coast in the southern state of Chiapas. An inspection of the abandoned aircraft unearthed 10 sacks filled with 358 kilos of cocaine in plastic wrappers. The troops also found 14 canisters of jet fuel and two motorcycles were left behind as well. The Mexican military has seized $14million worth of cocaine from a small abandoned jet Marines spotted the Cessna on the secret runway 26 miles northwest of Port Chiapas Intelligence reports revealed suspicious activity in the southern state of Chiapas The military did not make any arrests in the operation. The confiscated cocaine shipment and small plane were turned over to Mexico's Attorney General's office in Tapachula, Chiapas. 'With these actions the Secretariat of the Navy and Mexican Army contributes to the peacekeeping of citizens and endorses its commitment to combat illicit activities of organized crime using all operational means and intelligence seeking a safe Mexico,' the Secretariat of the Navy said in a statement. No arrests were made but the small plane and the drugs were turned over to Mexico's Attorney General office An inspection of the abandoned aircraft unearthed 10 sacks filled with 358 kilos of cocaine in plastic wrappers It is the second time in almost two months that the Mexican armed forces have intercepted a drug shipment. The military recovered a $20 million cocaine shipment that was unloaded off a jet parked on a Mexican highway near the Belize border on January 27. The two-seater aircraft used in ferrying the drugs that flew in from South America was registered in the United States. A day later, military fighter planes forced a 'narco jet' transporting $12 million in cocaine to land in an airfield in the Caribbean coastal state of Quintana Roo after it was detected in international airspace after flying in from Argentina. WASHINGTON - Registered nurses gathered Tuesday in front of the White House to read the names of health-care workers who have died fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Wearing masks and standing six feet apart, the nurses held up photographs of the deceased as Melody Jones, a member of the National Nurses United union, addressed the news media in an otherwise empty Lafayette Square. The names came from all over the country - New York and Alabama, Puerto Rico and Nevada, California and Michigan, Florida and Maryland, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. A man in blue scrubs stood behind Jones as she read, holding a metallic gold sign painted with the message: "20 seconds won't scrub 'hero' blood off your hands." "Let us remember and honor the ultimate sacrifice these nurses paid," Jones said. "We commit ourselves to fight like hell for the living." The protest stood in stark contrast to demonstrations in recent days in some parts of the country in which protesters have demanded the reopening of nonessential businesses. Nurses have been spotted at those gatherings, too, standing arms crossed, in opposition to demonstrators, many of whom are unmasked and milling in crowds. More than 9,000 health-care workers in the United States have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those numbers are believed to be an undercount of infections due to a lack of tests in many areas. The nurses said Tuesday that they wanted to bring their demands for more personal protective equipment directly to President Donald Trump's doorstep. Health-care providers in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and rehabilitation centers have for weeks asked lawmakers and government agencies for more protective equipment to shield themselves and their vulnerable patients from the spread of covid-19. National Nurses United last month petitioned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to institute an emergency safety standard that would provide nurses with more protective gear, including N95 respirator masks, face shields, gowns, gloves and shoe coverings. Health-care workers, governors and other officials have for weeks demanded that Trump enforce the Defense Production Act to order mass production of those materials. Many have also petitioned Congress to mandate Trump use his authority to help boost the production of such gear. Last week, a protest in the shadow of the Capitol displayed the faces of health-care workers demanding better protection on 1,000 signs. The sign represented protesters that organizers said would not have been safe if gathered together on the Capitol lawn. It will take several weeks at best, Mr. Cuomo said. This is an enormous undertaking. The governor noted that it had taken the state about a month to get to where it can do 20,000 tests day, which he called the current system at maximum. He and other governors have said that increasing testing capacity was critical to lifting restrictions that have brought many aspects of life to a halt. A major obstacle to doing more tests, Mr. Cuomo has said, is the availability of the reactive chemicals in test kits known as reagents. Mr. Cuomo said on Tuesday that Mr. Trump had agreed to a division of responsibility on testing: The federal government would help states get the materials they needed by getting directly involved in international supply chains, while states handle logistics like where tests would be conducted and how many would be needed. It ends the whole back-and-forth and the finger-pointing in a very fair and smart way, Mr. Cuomo said. Its a smart resolution. Mr. Trump, speaking at a White House briefing after the two men met, echoed Mr. Cuomos sentiments. We had a great talk on testing, the president said. We have an agreement, we have an understanding on testing. Mr. Trump also signaled a willingness to seek aid for states. I agree with him on that, he said of the governor, and I think most Republicans agree too, and Democrats. State and federal authorities have clashed over who should be responsible for testing. Mr. Cuomo said on Sunday that test-kit manufacturers had told him they were unable to supply more reagents to local labs in New York, in part because the federal government was telling them which states should get the chemicals. Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Trump have also tussled in recent weeks over New Yorks need for ventilators, stimulus aid, whether governors have the authority to reopen state economies and even whether Mr. Cuomo had shown sufficient gratitude for the federal aid New York has gotten. The Texas Revolution and Americas Manifest Destiny In the late afternoon of April 21, 1836, Gen. Sam Houston sat on his stallion Saracen as his Texian Army slowly marched for battle in two parallel lines near Lynchs Ferry. Ahead stood a rise covered in tall grass that stretched across the whole field and concealed their approach. Erastus Deaf Smith suddenly appeared on their right flank, astride his horse, and yelled, Vinces Bridge is down! All routes of entry or escape from this battlefield were destroyed. The men faced only two choices: victory or death! At 4:30 p.m., the two four-pounder cannons known as the Twin Sisters fired the first shots of the Battle of San Jacinto, the final climactic engagement of the Texas Revolution. Future Texas President Mirabeau Lamar and his mounted riflemen charged the Mexican left flank while a Texian band played Will You Come to the Bower? The infantry fired a single volley before Gen. Thomas Rusk ordered the men to immediately charge and attack the enemy before they had time to organize their lines. Screaming, Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! the advancing Texians swarmed the camps and breastworks of the startled and weary Mexican soldiers. What followed was a complete rout that sowed the seeds for a future war between the United States and Mexico and culminated in America fulfilling its Manifest Destiny. Prelude to War Since the beginning of time, powerful nations the world over initiated policies of expansion and colonization. After 1492, Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, and Britain vied for control of the New World as they colonized the Americas. Spain possessed a vast empire that stretched across both North and South America. Slowly, they began to lose their colonial possessions. When France sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803, a dispute began with Spain over the territorial boundaries. With the signing of the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1819, the dispute was finally settled. Two years later, Mexico declared its independence from Spain, installed an emperor, and established its own empire out of the former Spanish Viceroyalty that stretched from the modern-day Panama-Costa Rica border in the south, to the modern-day California-Oregon border in the north. Texas was a barren land with no infrastructure. In 1821, there were 2,000 Tejanos living in the run-down villages of Bexar (San Antonio) and La Bahia (Goliad). Forty thousand Indians from 31 tribes also lived in Texas and frequently raided areas across Mexico. The government couldnt control these hostile Indians. When Stephen F. Austin petitioned Texas Gov. Antonio Martinez to establish an Anglo-American colony in Texas, Martinez agreed to the request, assigned Austin the title of Empresario and granted him lands for 200 families. Mexico had other motives for granting Austins request. They wanted the Indians tamed or defeated, and more importantly, westward expansion of the United States blocked. A thriving Texas would accomplish both. Power Struggle in Mexico Between 1821 and 1824, political developments in Mexico would have a lasting impact on future events as a power struggle ensued between centralists and federalists. Emperor Agustin de Iturbide was forced to abdicate, and the Central American states seceded from Mexico. A provisional government was formed and drafted a federalist constitution. Centralists began fomenting trouble. What followed was decades of uprisings, riots, rebellions, civil wars, coups, and wars of secession. Those who believed in monarchy, aristocracy, Roman Catholicism as the established religion, and the educated upper class controlling the reins of a strong central government were centralists. Those living in or near Mexico City were typically centralists. They feared giving power or voting rights to the illiterate masses, most of whom were Indians or mixed races. Centralists excluded the lower classes from government positions. Those who believed in universal male suffrage, autonomy for the provinces, secularism, democracy and congressional representation were federalists. They despised the privileged elite, many of whom were Spaniards. Federalists passed laws to remove elitists from power, confiscate their wealth, and deport or exile Spaniards living in Mexico. Those living in the outlying provinces, including Texas, were typically federalists. Texas: A Growing Power For the next decade, Texas grew and prospered while Mexico languished from internal strife. The Anglo-American population exceeded 20,000. Austin pleaded with Mexican authorities to assist in their commercial enterprises. Infrastructure between Texas and Mexico was badly needed. Ports along the Gulf Coast needed to be built and expanded. The authorities agreed but couldnt initiate the requests for two reasons: lack of funds and government instability. Texas had no choice but to expand its commercial ties with the United States, which greatly worried Mexico. Mexico further crumbled as its leaders feared the growing power of Texas and its reliance on America. A boundary commission sent to inspect Texas in 1827 greatly alarmed its members. While the Anglo population greatly expanded in numbers and their colonies flourished far beyond their expectations, the Tejano villages were left dilapidated and under constant siege by the Indians. Harsh recommendations were made to prevent Texas from seceding, and laws were passed in 1830 restricting immigration from the United States. These and other laws further alienated the Anglo-Americans in Texas. In a costly move that added fuel to the fire, Stephen F. Austin, the ever-loyal Mexican citizen who always defended the government, was falsely accused of treason in 1834 and imprisoned in Mexico City. Call for Annexation American politicians, diplomats, journalists, and businessmen increased Mexicos anxieties when they called for the annexation of Texas. U.S. diplomats sent to Mexico City offered to purchase Mexicos northern states. Those offers were bitterly rejected by the Mexicans. It was during these tumultuous years that Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, a wealthy federalist who proclaimed himself the Napoleon of the West, emerged as the countrys best hope for leadership and stability. Spain hadnt recognized Mexicos independence. When it invaded Mexico in 1829, it was Santa Anna who successfully led the attacks that resulted in victory. He was a national hero who fought to preserve the federalist system. Seen as the savior of Mexico, he was elected president multiple times. Once in office, Santa Anna often abused power by persecuting his opponents, and consolidating his own power with a centralist system. When he revoked the 1824 Constitution and replaced it with his own Seven Laws in 1835, several Mexican states openly rebelled, most notably Yucatan, Zacatecas, and Texas. In May of that year, Santa Anna led an army into Zacatecas and ruthlessly annihilated the insurgency. Stephen F. Austin was released from prison and departed for Texas in July of 1835. He felt betrayed by Mexico, which changed his attitude towards Texass future. He now supported the insurgents who advocated rebellion against Santa Anna and his centralist government. Come and Take It The Mexican Army in Texas made efforts to strengthen their position against the hostile Tejanos and Anglo-Americans. Soldiers departed Bexar (San Antonio) for Gonzales and demanded the surrender of a cannon they possessed. The people refused, and on Oct. 2, fired their rifles and cannon at the soldiers. A flag that displayed a star and cannon was unfurled with the words: COME AND TAKE IT. The first shots of the Texas Revolution had been fired. Two months later, the new Texian Army attacked Bexar and captured the Alamo. Gen. Martin Perfecto de Cos surrendered his forces and evacuated Texas with the promised guarantee hed never return to fight the Texians. The Alamo Santa Anna was outraged. He mobilized the Mexican Army and personally led them into Texas to crush the rebellion. His army captured Bexar in February 1836 and laid siege to the Alamo. Among those trapped were Col. William B. Travis, Capt. Juan Seguin, Col. Jim Bowie, and David Crockett. Seguin was tasked with slipping through enemy lines with Traviss letter to Gen. Sam Houston. Texian leaders held an emergency meeting in the town of Washington-on-the-Brazos. Before Santa Annas invasion, the Texians wanted autonomy within a federalist system and the restoration of the 1824 Constitution. With the open war now being waged against them, the Texians voted for independence on March 2. Four days later, the Alamo fell, and Santa Anna ordered the murder of all captured Texian soldiers. The same fate awaited the Texians who fought at Goliad. On Palm Sunday, the captured soldiers were marched outside of town and slain. An illustration of the final assault on the Alamo. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Santa Anna chased the Texians across southeast Texas. Fleeing residents burned everything they couldnt carry in what came to be known as the Runaway Scrape. Houstons 910-man force consisted of farmers, frontiersmen, militiamen, former U.S. soldiers, American and European immigrants, and Seguins Tejanos. Houston knew his untrained, undisciplined men were no match for the Mexican Army. He trained them during the retreat and baited Santa Anna deeper into Texas, farther from his logistics and supplies, and closer to the Texas-U.S. border. San Jacinto Houstons men were ashamed of the retreat and wanted no part of it. They preferred to stand their ground and fight. By mid-April, they were on the verge of mutiny and accused Houston of cowardice. Although he wanted to continue eastward and provide additional training to his men, Houston was told hed be relieved of his command if he retreated any further. He settled his army near modern-day La Porte and pitched camp in a position he believed provided the best advantage. Behind them and to their left were marshlands surrounded by the San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou. Protecting their right flank were his mounted riflemen. When Santa Anna arrived, he also positioned his camp near marshlands surrounded by water. Both armies were only 500 yards apart. On April 21, Santa Anna expected an attack at dawn that didnt materialize. Later that morning, Cos, the same man who surrendered the Alamo in December with the promise never to return, arrived to strengthen Santa Anna with 500 soldiers, all of whom were exhausted and hungry from the long, forced march. Santa Annas force numbered 1,250, and an additional 1,000 soldiers led by Gen. Vicente Filisola were expected to arrive. Houston was well-aware of the expected reinforcements, due in large measure to the capture of a Mexican courier three days earlier. Maj. Lorenzo de Zavala Jr. translated the dispatches that revealed Santa Anna had split his army and that he personally led only a small force. Houston knew an attack must be made before Filisola and his reinforcements arrived. To prevent that, Houston ordered Deaf Smith to destroy Vinces Bridge. Once completed, nobody would be able to get in or out of the battlefield. It was now late afternoon. A council of war voted to fight that very day. Houston instructed Seguins Tejano force who were eager to avenge friends and family killed at the Alamo to place cardboards in their hatbands so that in the confusion of battle they would not be mistaken for the enemy. The late afternoon shadows stretched across the field, the Twin Sisters were placed in the middle, and the men prayed. The time came for the final showdown. Aftermath The Battle of San Jacinto lasted only 18 minutes. The vengeful Texians continued to slaughter their enemy for hours; 650 Mexicans were killed, the rest captured. Texian losses were nine men killed. Cos and Santa Anna escaped, only to be captured within the next three days. Houston kept Santa Anna alive and forced him to dispatch orders to Filisola, which far outnumbered the Texian Army, to retreat to Bexar. Filisola continued past Bexar and marched across the Rio Grande. Two treaties, signed by Santa Anna at Velasco, ended hostilities and forced the Mexican Army to withdraw across the Rio Grande. Santa Anna was subsequently released. Although humiliated, his political career was not over. Mexico City refused to accept the Treaties of Velasco. Texas independence was never recognized, nor did hostilities end. Mexicans insisted on reconquering Texas and threatened invasion for the next nine years. The army received preferential treatment in funding for such an expedition. Mexico invaded Texas twice in 1842 and captured San Antonio. They would later withdraw. Because of Mexicos threats, the Republic of Texas received very little investment and remained deeply in debt. With no money in the treasury to fund projects, the Republic of Texas accepted annexation by the United States in December 1845. In April 1846, U.S. and Mexican soldiers fought a battle in disputed territory between the Rio Grande and Nueces River. Both nations declared war. The Mexican-American War ended in victory for the United States. In 1848, both nations signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. Mexico gave up territory that consists of the American Southwest for $20 million. In 1854, Mexico sold additional land to the United States in what came to be known as the Gadsden Purchase. The Mexican people would continue to suffer from rebellions, uprisings, and revolutions well into the 20th century. In 1848, Britain and the United States agreed to split the Oregon Territory at the 49th parallel. The United States had achieved its Manifest Destiny. The boundaries of the contiguous 48 states have remained static ever since, thus ending American expansion on the continent. Alaska is another story. Alan Wakim is the co-founder of The Sons of History, a YouTube series and weekly podcast. He travels to interview and document historical figures and sites for his video series. He holds a business degree from Texas A&M University. Ivy League schools have been criticized for netting millions in taxpayer-funded coronavirus bailouts despite swimming in endowments worth billions. The country's most prestigious private universities including Harvard, Princeton and Yale are among the beneficiaries of Washington's $2trillion rescue package to keep businesses afloat during the epidemic. Higher education institutions have been apportioned $14billion of the aid provided under the CARES Act to weather the financial hits landed by the lockdown. Students have been sent home, and while many are taking classes remotely, the schools risk not collecting the totality of tuition fees. Of the top private schools, Cornell and Columbia will receive the most at $12.8million each. Cornell, based in Ithaca in upstate New York, has an endowment of $7.3billion, while New York City-based Columbia boasts $10.9billion. New York City-based Columbia boasts $10.9billion endowment and will receive $12.8million bailout Cornell, based in Ithaca in upstate New York, has an endowment of $7.3billion and will receive $12.8million The Ivy League: Government COVID-19 funding vs 2019 endowment figures Cornell Aid: $12.8million Endowment: $7.3billion Columbia Aid: $12.8million Endowment: $10.9billion Pennsylvania Aid: $9.9million Endowment: $14.7billion Harvard Aid: $8.6million Endowment: $40.9billion Yale Aid: $6.8million Endowment: $30.3billion Brown Aid: $4.8million Endowment: $3.9billion Dartmouth Aid: $3.4million Endowment: $5.7billion Princeton Aid: $2.4million Endowment: $26billion Advertisement University of Pennsylvania will receive $9.9million despite having a $14.7billion endowment. Harvard, which easily out-guns the other schools with its eye-watering $40.9billion endowment, will also receive $8.6million. But Texas senator Ted Cruz has blasted the university for taking the money, pointing to its mammoth endowment chest. The one-time Republican presidential contender tweeted: 'This is ridiculous. Taxpayer relief funds should go to those in real need. 'Harvard University has a $41bn endowmentthe largest in the world. Put another way, Harvards endowment is $13mm per student, or $171mm per faculty member.' The university insisted it was ring-fencing all of its Senate funding to 'financial assistance for students to meet their urgent needs in the face of this pandemic'. Harvard, which is one of the top universities in the world and boasts eight Presidents among its alumni, spelled out how it would spend its bailout. A spokesman for the Massachusetts-based school said: 'Financial assistance will be on top of the significant support the University has already provided to students including assistance with travel, providing direct aid for living expenses to those with need, and supporting students' transition to online education.' Yale, the second largest Ivy Leave school, will receive $6.8million and has an endowment of $30.3billion. Texas senator Ted Cruz has blasted the university for taking the money, pointing to its mammoth endowment chest Harvard, which easily out-guns the other schools with its eye-watering $40.9billion endowment, will also receive $8.6million Yale, the second largest Ivy Leave school, will receive $6.8million and has an endowment of $30.3billion University of Pennsylvania will receive $9.9billion despite having a $14.7billion endowment Brown university, which has $4.2billion endowment, is being bolstered by $4.8 million. A bailout of $3.4million is being directed towards Dartmouth College, which has an endowment of $5.7billion. The smallest bailout for Ivy League schools is being sent to $26billion-endowed Princeton, which will receive $2.4million. The $2trillion Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) injected $14billion into the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund. Institutions were granted these funds based on a formula which combines the number students receiving federal financial aid and the overall number of students enrolled. At least half of the funding is mandated to be used as financial grants for students, with the remainder to be put towards compensating university losses. Joel Malina, Vice President for University Relations, at Cornell, said: 'Cornell will use 100 per cent of these CARES Act funds to support students, going beyond the federal requirement that half of the funds be put towards emergency financial assistance to our students. 'We know that many of our students will have increased need as a result of the pandemic. 'Even as our Ithaca campus faces an anticipated Covid-related budget shortfall of over $100million for the coming fiscal year, we aim to guarantee that every single one, currently enrolled or newly admitted, has the financial resources to complete their Cornell education.' A spokeswoman from Brown said: 'For years, Brown had been committed to offering generous financial aid so that the students we admit can attend college regardless of their family's income. 'These funds will help sustain that commitment during a time of great economic stress for students and their families. The funds have not yet been received.' A spokeswoman from Yale said: 'The $6.9million allocated to Yale will provide further emergency aid to meet the unexpected needs of students in this pandemic, and it will support the universitys response to Covid-19. These funds are significant and needed in a global economic downturn.' MailOnline has contacted each Ivy League school for comment. Idaho Gov. Brad Little speaks at a news conference in Boise, Idaho, on March 25, 2020. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman via AP, File) Mother of 6 Faces Jail Time for Violating Stay-at-Home Order With Yard Sale A mother of six is facing jail time for violating a stay at home order issued during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to police. Idaho residents are mandated to stay at home except for so-called essential trips under Gov. Brad Littles executive order. Christa Thompson, a mother of six, was accused by the Rathdrum Police Department of violating the order by holding a yard sale for seven days. Officers informed Thompson on April 9 that holding a yard sale was in violation to Littles order. Another officer reported the next day that the homeowner would remove yard sale signs and that the owners were sorting items in the yard, not holding a yard sale. Rathdrum Police Chief Tomi McLean said in a statement that a listing on Craigs list (sic) on April 13 stated the homeowners were having a yard sale, prompting an officer to go back and issue a written warning. On April 17, police officers found a large quantity of items were still out in the front yard and sales transactions were occurring while police were present, prompting officers to issue the homeowner a citation. Police did not name Thompson but her husband identified her to a local paper. A yard sale in a file photo. (Ogranat/Pixabay) Peter Thompson told the Coeur dAlene/Post Falls Press that officers stopped by during the second weekend of April. They told us we couldnt have a yard sale, that it violated the governors order. I asked them if we could sort some things out on the lawn, and if it was OK to sell a few things to some people. They said, Sure, as long as theres no signs or advertising or anything like that. So we didnt,' he said. I talked to my lawyer, Peter said. He said were not doing anything wrong. I dont consider this a business, you know? Were just sorting it and getting rid of it as we go. Christa Thompson was ordered to appear in court on May 8. Criticized over the citation, the Rathdrum Police Department on Monday posted a picture of baked goods it received from local residents. In the midst of all this misunderstanding and misinformation being put out, it is so nice to have so many people say they care about us and understand we are in a tough position, it said. Little announced his order on March 25, stating in part: With confirmed community transmission of coronavirus now occurring in Idahos most populated areas, we need to take strong measures to ensure our healthcare facilities are not overburdened. The order requires people to self-isolate at home unless theyre leaving to obtain or provide essential services such as getting groceries or medicine. The order also required the closure of bars, gyms, and other businesses deemed non-essential. The mandate was originally in place for three weeks but Little extended it last week until April 30. Violators of the governors order face a misdemeanor, according to the states attorney general, Lawrence Wasden, citing provision 7c in this law. People can be punished with up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $1,000. Gov. Kristi Noem said Tuesday afternoon that she strongly recommends people not attend the car races in Jefferson on Saturday, which have sold more than 700 tickets. I dont think its a good idea for them to attend. I still recommend that we follow the plans I have laid out for South Dakota where we dont gather in sizes of over 10, and that folks continue to social distance, Noem said. Union County commissioners said there was nothing they could do to stop the races. When asked about any message the event might send to out-of-state promoters who wish to hold events in the state, Noem said she encourages people to stay home. We did during the legislative session attempt to bring a bill that would give counties some of the authority that cities would have, but the legislature did not support that bill, Noem said. I think the county is probably accurate in saying that they wish they had a few more tools to deal with the situation, but from the state level and what Im recommending is that people not go. Unemployment Noem said the state economic loan assistance program has helped more than 100 businesses, including hotels, restaurants, retail stores, tourism, manufacturing and others. The relief funds have added up to $5 million so far, and the loans range from $5,000 to $75,000 for businesses. Marcia Hultman, secretary of labor and regulation, said many people are anxious to begin receiving their jobless benefits and asked people to be considerate of the fact that there are many claims to be processed. Hultman estimated 74 percent of the people with unemployment claims receive their benefits in a timely manner and that 26 percent of the claims have had issues. Some issues with processing claims include questions about separations from their last employer, information about wages from other states, and people who may have entered personal information incorrectly. Hultman said most people will receive their claims back in 14 days, but for those who have an issue with filing it can be up to four weeks before they see their first benefit. Smithfield In an April 13 FOX News interview on live TV, Noem talked about the outbreak at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, which was a day after the plant closed indefinitely. We believe that 99 percent of whats going on today wasnt happening inside the facility, it was more at home, where these employees were going home and spreading some of the virus because a lot of these folks that work at the plant live in the same community, the same building, sometimes in the same apartment, Noem said. When the plant closed on April 12, the Department of Health had confirmed 293 positive tests among employees. Noem didnt say Tuesday whether the 99 percent reference came from the Department of Health or CDC, but she would continue to look into the percentages. When the facility is shut down, if there is spread happening, then it would be happening in the community, Noem said. At the time of closure, that certainly would be where the spread would be happening because there were not employees in that plant. Maggie Seidel, senior advisor and policy director to Noem, said the 99 percent statistic referred to the fact that the plant was closed on the day of the FOX News interview. We are continuing to work with Smithfield and with their employees, family members and community members to make sure that were aggressively testing and that were isolating those who are testing positive so that we can slow down the spread, Noem said. Noem said she still didnt have the final CDC report about the outbreak at Smithfield. 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. One Warkworth Business Association will survey businesses on their needs as New Zealand emerges from alert level 4 lockdown. The survey will help One Warkworth tailor a support package, which will include a dedicated Covid-19 page on the associations website, featuring resources to help businesses cope with the economic fallout. One Warkworth manager Murray Chapman says so far, he has not heard of any local businesses claiming they cant last much longer. Nevertheless, many are hurting due to the restrictions imposed by Covid-19. I think it would be foolish to think there wont be casualties from this. There will be some businesses in town that just wont be able to survive, he says. On a more positive note, Mr Chapman says the lockdown has forced businesses to look hard at their operating model, and its likely we will see a lot more local businesses trading online. This is a really a good time for businesses to be doing brainstorming meetings on Zoom with their staff and asking, What do we do when we get out of this? he says. Mr Chapman says another positive sign is that landlords of commercial properties have shown understanding towards tenants who may be struggling. Thats just as well because if a landlord plays hardball in this situation then in the long term, they could be without a tenant for quite a long time, he says. Mr Chapman says customers can play their part by supporting local businesses. He says once the lockdown ends, it will be hard for people to resist the temptation to head off to major shopping centres like Albany. But that just slows our recovery in Warkworth. Spare a thought for the local businesses that employ our young people and sponsor local events. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced earlier this week that New Zealand would move out of alert level 4 lockdown at 11.59pm on Monday, April 27. The country will then remain at level 3 for at least two weeks before the situation is reviewed. Ms Ardern acknowledged that waiting until next week to change alert levels cost the country two more business days. But it gives us much greater longer-term health and economic returns down the track. It means we are less likely to go backwards, she said. This week businesses are allowed to get ready to open. Employers can re-enter premises to receive stock if necessary, but they must stick to social distancing rules and their bubbles. 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 STAMFORD Guy Fortt hand delivered surgical masks Monday to a West Side housing complex, and he hopes to keep providing protective equipment to the citys most vulnerable. Fortt, the president of the Stamford NAACP, delivered masks with Mayor David Martin at the 120-unit Friendship House, the culmination of a fundraising drive led by the NAACP that resulted in close to $10,000 in donations. That money was used to purchase 14,000 masks, from Stamford company Point of Bleu, that have been distributed to about 14 housing complexes in the city. The organizations effort was part of the citys ongoing initiative to provide masks and information to residents to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Stamford. Also part of the effort, city police officers with the Community Outreach Program passed out masks at restaurants and community centers on Saturday. The idea behind the NAACP effort, Fortt said, was to get the masks to minority populations in the city, in light of data that shows how the respiratory illness is adversely affecting African-American and Hispanic populations. If we dont get the masks to them, what happens is this virus will continue to spread, Fortt said. State data show that while white residents have the largest number of cases of COVID-19 and deaths related to the virus, the illness has affected African-American and Hispanic populations more per capita. The most recent data show that 517 out of every 10,000 black Connecticut residents have tested positive, while the rate per 10,000 people among Hispanic residents was 420, and 232 among white residents. Fortt said he sees the Stamford effort as a model for the national NAACP. This is a major effort, Fortt said. What were trying to do is push this out to show other cities that if you can model what is happening here. City police officers were part of the effort over the weekend. Sgt. William Brevard and officers Adriana Molina and Jamie Torres visited immigrant advocates at Building One Community on Stamfords West Side and then hit The Old House Peruvian restaurant where they passed out masks and information about how to avoid the coronavirus. The effort was part of the police departments goal to foster relationships between officers and residents, said newly sworn-in Police Chief Tim Shaw. Community policing means making a connection with individual residents and making sure we keep our community safe in every way we can, Shaw said. That includes providing residents with accurate information about this pandemic and how to protect themselves from infection. I would like to thank Captain Diedrich Hohn, Sergeant Brevard, and officer Molina for spearheading this initiative. The ongoing project to hand out thousands of masks to residents and organizations around Stamford began several weeks ago. We are making sure our residents have masks and know to wear a mask. Of course, the best prevention method continues to be staying home and avoiding all contact with others, said Martin, who attended the mask event at Building One Community. Fortt, a former Greenwich firefighter, said he hopes to raise an additional $10,000, bringing the total number of masks up to 30,000. The project, he said, is being dedicated to Board of Education member Jack Bryant, the former president of the Stamford NAACP who died last week, two weeks after contacting the coronavirus. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com South Korea refuted reports that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was in grave danger or was near death. Presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok told South Koreas Yonhap News Agency there is nothing unusual going on. No unusual signs have been identified inside North Korea, Kang said. There is nothing we can confirm with regard to Chairman Kims alleged health problem. Other officials were more emphatic about Kims health. We confirm that Chairman Kim Jong Un is currently touring provincial areas with his close aides and we do not detect evidences to support speculation about his ill health, South Koreas presidential office told news outlets on Tuesday. Even North Koreas Workers Party, military or cabinet arent showing any special movements such as emergency decree. We believe that Chairman Kim is active as normal as he has been, the office said. On Tuesday, CNN and other news outlets reported that Kim is in grave danger after a surgery. Daily NK, a Seoul-based specialty website, cited unidentified sources inside the isolated state saying Kim is recovering at a villa in the Mount Kumgang resort county of Hyangsan on the east coast after undergoing the cardiovascular procedure at a hospital on April 12. Robert OBrien, President Donald Trumps national security advisor, told Fox News that the United States is monitoring Kims health. Officials for the isolated, communist country have not issued a statement via official, state-run websites in response to the reports. Reuters contributed to this report. From The Epoch Times KALAMAZOO, MI -- Due to rising costs of COVID-19 care, Bronson Healthcare system announced executive level pay cuts and non-clinical employee furloughs. Preparations and purchases related to COVID-19 have significantly increased the healthcare systems expenditures, according to a press release. At the same time, the health system is experiencing losses in revenue due to the suspension of elective surgeries and procedures, temporary closings of some services, as well as reduced diagnostic tests, office visits and emergency department visits as patients remain at home, according to the releases. Elective surgeries stopped on March 18. In an interview with MLive, Bronson Healthcare CEO and President Bill Manns said Marchs revenue was down 50% compared to the last years revenue. Bronson is pursuing opportunities for financial reimbursement and grants, including FEMA reimbursement, CARES Act relief grants and other state and federal relief opportunities, according to the release. However, the healthcare system cannot rely on the unpredictable timing of the reimbursements, according to the release. To solve the immediate losses Bronson Healthcare announced its new CEO and President Bill Manns will take a 25% salary reduction. Bronson Healthcare did not respond to MLive requests for Manns salary. Manns started at Bronson on March 30 after both Kalamazoo and Calhoun County had positive coronavirus cases reaching the double digits. Additional wage reductions were announced at the executive level at decreasing percentages proportionate to salary levels. These reductions will last through August 15, according to the release. Bronson Medical Group providers will also participate in a salary reduction. The combined savings from the CEO, executive and leader salary reductions comes out to more than $1 million. The pay cut from the providers salary reductions is about $3.7 million, according to a Bronson spokesperson. In a statement, Manns said the healthcare system is starting to ramp up surgeries and other procedures with the goal of being fully operational by September. Other practices plan to be back to regular operations by August, he said. If we can do it sooner, we will. Manns said. "However, the availability of enough PPE to ensure the safety of our staff and patients in all settings continues to be a limiting factor. Related: Number of coronavirus cases in Kalamazoo County double in one week The healthcare system cited predictive models that indicate southwest Michigans COVID-19 spread may continue into the fall rather than an overwhelming surge this spring, assuming responsible social distancing continues after the stay-at-home order expires. Across all Bronson hospitals, there are 33 current COVID-19 patients and 39 recoveries as of April 21. There have been 11 deaths related to COVID-19 at Bronson hospitals, according to Bronson data. Due to the work slowdown for non-clinical employees, furloughs will be implemented over the next few weeks for several hundred employees. The furloughs are expected to be for 16 weeks, however, some employees may be called back sooner as their areas ramp back up, according to the release. Core contributions to employee retirement accounts and 403b/401k matches are suspended for the remainder of the year. Employees can still make personal contributions. Bronson continues to proceed with major projects in development including seven offices for Bronson Primary Care Partners which will open on July 1, the new lab at Bronson Methodist Hospital opening in late July, and the Bronson Cancer Pavilion in Kalamazoo and new Bronson South Haven Hospital which are both slated to open in early 2021, according to the release. Bronsons announcement comes hours after Beaumont Health announced it is temporarily laying off 2,475 employees, most of whom are administrative staff and others not directly caring for patients with or without COVID-19. Beaumont Health CEO John Fox will take a 70% temporary pay cut to his base salary, and the other members of the executive leadership team will take pay cuts of up to 45 percent of their total compensation. Ascension Michigan, which has hospitals on both sides of the state, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its financial plan. More coronavirus coverage on MLive: 60 coronavirus cases, 1 death at Plainwell meat plant Man, 49, dies of coronavirus while wife fighting for her life across the hall After 9 days on ventilator, patient discharged in Kalamazoo to applause from staff 21 people diagnosed with coronavirus in Kalamazoo County facilities with vulnerable populations Several residents, employees test positive for coronavirus at Berrien County nursing home While many development plans are at a standstill around the world, some telecommunications initiatives are still being unveiled. Hungary, for example, has invited proposals for the funding of its latest superfast internet rollout initiative. More precisely, the countrys Government Informatics Development Agency (KIFU), which works under the authority of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, has revealed the latest call for proposals for EU and state-funded high-speed broadband network rollouts under the countrys Superfast Internet Programme 2 (SZIP2). The information was presented on the KIFU website (kifu.gov.hu), where would-be applicants can find out more about the plans, which focus on 100Mbps-plus fibre access deployments. Interested parties can register their applications for constructing 100Mbps-plus networks between 6 May and 11 June 2020. The government has decided that the expansion and upgrade of networks is required for 62,000 households in 72 of the countrys districts. The aim of the original Superfast Internet Programme (SZIP), running from 2015-2018, was to implement the network infrastructure required for minimum 30Mbps broadband speed in less developed regions. Hungarys Minister of Innovation and Technology, Palkovics Laszlo, announced the launch of SZIP-2 in November 2018. It aims to offer more than three times the bandwidth of the previous programme; its target is to ensure 100Mbps-plus network coverage to 90 percent of households by 2025. It will accomplish this by combining gigabit-capable fibre-optics with 5G fixed-wireless/mobile infrastructure. India is a country that has many different religions. People belonging to different communities come together and live together. People from all religions; Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jews etc live in India in harmony. Or rather they lived in harmony till the CAA bill was passed and then communal riots have begun in our country. According to the Oxford Dictionary communalism means a strong sense of belonging to a particular community, especially a religious community, that can lead to extreme behaviour or violence towards others. If communalism is love for ones religion and hate for all others, then communal riots are that hatred showing itself. It is said that if there is an aggressive attitude of one community towards another then it will create clashes between the two communities and eventually a riot will break out. But such is not the case in our country, as one unfair legislation is the reason for all discontent and rage of many. The Citizenship Amendment Act gives illegal migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan for people of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian religions if they came to India on or before 31st December 2014 valid citizenship. This Act does not give allow such migration by people of the Muslim faith on the pretext that the above-mentioned countries dont illtreat Muslims while the other religions are prosecuted. This unfair Act gave rise to discontent in the Muslim community and there were nation-wide protests against this new Act. There were shootings in these protests, and it was theorized by many that these will eventually blow out to be full blown riots. On 23rd February 2020 the riots began in North East Delhis Jaffrabad in which 49 people were killed and more than 200 people were injured. Discontent though may be justified but rioting is not, and therefore it is punishable in India. Section 146 of The Indian Penal Code 1860 states that Whenever force or violence is used by an unlawful assembly, or by any member thereof, in prosecution of the common object of such assembly, every member of such assembly is guilty of the offence of rioting. Section 147 of The Indian Penal Code 1860 gives the punishment of rioting with imprisonment of a term which may extend to two years or fine or both. If any of the rioters were rioting with deadly weapons then they come under the purview of section 148 of The Indian Penal Code 1860 which states that anyone who riots with anything which can be used as a weapon and is likely to cause death of another person is rioting armed with deadly weapons. The punishment for this crime is imprisonment up to three years or fine or both. It must be stated that a large gathering of people is not rioting but rather its a lawful assembly which every protest is. Only when a fight breaks out in the peaceful assembly and the crowd becomes an angry mob and starts hurting individuals and/or property it becomes a riot. Any person near the riots is not necessarily a rioter himself, he may be a mere spectator and a valuable source of evidence as a eyewitness but not a rioter as he did not partake in any violence. It is stated by the State Minorities Panel Report that 2,000 outsiders had occupied two schools to carry out the Delhi Riots. The two schools in question share a wall. It was stated that the school roofs were used to throw petrol bombs via catapults. The schools furniture was burnt. This is just one of the reports which we have heard, there are many others like this one. Stories of people burning each others houses, attacking others with hatchets etc. Most of them might just be rumours but they the possibility of them being real makes people shudder with fear and concern about the future of their children, country and their self. There were even rumours of areas being attacked which were absolutely untouched circulating to cause fear among the masses. There are many ways to stop riots like using force to crush any resistance but that will only ensure further violence. Another way would be to pacify the masses temporarily, but that will only keep them happy for a short period of time before they explode with rage and violence again. The best way to stop any rioting is to give the masses what they want, but there lies the real problem, if the government was to give the masses what they want then this change they created would come to be meaningless which they dont want and hence the struggle between law makers and the ones who face the law. The best way to stop violence altogether in this case would be to revoke the unpopular Citizenship Amendment Act. This will bring joy to every rioter and those who just wanted to create chaos would not be able to do so anymore as the reason to create trouble is gone. But therein lies the problem, the government which created this law with so many difficulties would not want to just throw it away for temporarily pleasing the people, who will eventually find yet another reason for discontent. Right now, the Act can be amended yet again just to put Muslim migrants on the list of migrants that the country will give refuge to. While they are at it, they should also add Jews to the list, this way they will be able to please all communities in India. Or perhaps they can remove this religious garb of this Act and make it secular, saying that all migrants are welcome in India regardless of caste, colour, creed or religion, showing India to be the secular country it is! Perhaps our country is not so secular anymore, with all the communal riots, religious biased acts, religious prosecution and hate speeches targeted towards specific religions. These riots should be used as a wake up call for the entire nation and stop any anti-secular action, be it in speeches or in laws, it all must be secular, just the way our forefathers wanted it to be, made it to be, fought for it to be. Right now, the country must ensure that these communal riots never happen again and for those, the nation must collectively hold hands and work together. Education is very important in these situations. The lack of education makes a person think less for themselves and believe more in what others say and hence get swayed easily into doing things like forming mobs and whatnot. Another important thing to note is that when one person does something bad it gives encouragement to others to do the same bad thing. Eventually, it may even force good people to act in a way that it should not. These elements in society must be purged. Hate speeches or speeches that speak ill of any particular religion should be dealt with strictly as they probably just dont want to create communal hatred but are being successful in doing so little by little every time, they went out to project their communal views. People eventually believe anything if it has been told to them enough times. These people need to be punished under section 153A of The Indian Penal Code 1860: Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony. Perhaps then and only then will our country move forward into a more secular state and perhaps one day the shackles of religion which make people look at each other with enmity will disappear and India will be truly free and secular! Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!" Join our Telegram group Join our Whatsapp group "Loved reading this piece by Ishan Roy Chowdhury Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!" Tags : criminal law Coronavirus has been a catalyst for European countries offering to take in migrants who have been stuck in Greek camps. Athens, Greece A group of 50 unaccompanied migrant children were sent by Greece to Germany on Saturday, the first major wave of some 1,600 intended for relocation to other European Union members. The children were between the ages of five and 16, and were taken from overcrowded camps on the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos. Another dozen had departed for Luxembourg on Wednesday. In the era of coronavirus, this act of solidarity by the German government is very much appreciated, said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who saw the children off at Athens airport. Dealing with the migration crisis should be a European responsibility. We should be burden-sharing, he said. Greece has been asking for such European solidarity for months, but until last month its calls were not being heard. Almost as soon as he came to power in July last year, Mitsotakis started pressing the EU for help with some 5,400 more children with which Greece says it cannot cope. Greece is providing shelter, education and psychological support for some 1,400 minors who are seeking asylum in Europe, and is trying to raise that number to 2,000 by summer. No takers came forward until the coronavirus crisis, which coincided with a geopolitical crisis in the Aegean. On February 27, Turkey declared it was opening its borders to asylum Leseekers headed for Europe, effectively suspending an agreement struck with the EU in March 2016. Although Turkey also has a border with EU member Bulgaria, in practice Turkish authorities assisted refugees only to the Greek border, creating enormous pressure on Greek authorities. On March 9, Germany announced it had formed a coalition of EU members able to take on at least 1,600 unaccompanied minors from Greece. Coronavirus may have acted as a catalyst, but it has also contributed to a hardening of attitudes. Factbox Greece has implemented emergency measures at refugee camps during the coronavirus crisis, including: Island camps, which are open, are being ring-fenced. Staff are being reduced to skeleton crews. The asylum service has stopped conducting interviews. Quarantine tents have been set up outside the camps. EU-funded field hospitals are boosting medical capacity. Greece is concerned that children are especially vulnerable to the disease on its five eastern Aegean islands with overcrowded reception centres Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos. Those camps, built for 6,000, now hold about 35,000. Conditions are unsanitary and difficult, and it is easy for children to go unnoticed by authorities. For seven months I lived on the mountains around here. I survived by doing petty jobs for people, the 17-year-old Syrian Saleh al-Moussa told Al Jazeera at Moria camp on Lesbos. In [February] I was taken into the facility for minors, but before that I slept on the ground without blankets or a bed, I often walked barefoot and I was miserable I knocked on doors and begged people for scraps. Al Jazeera met several children from Afghanistan at Moria. They hadnt managed to apply for asylum after being on the island for months; the service was overwhelmed. Coronavirus has had another benign effect of accelerating efforts to reduce camp congestion. Greece says it has drawn off 10,000 asylum seekers since the beginning of the year and sent them to the mainland, achieving an overall drop in the camp population of five percent. Another 2,380 asylum seekers are to be shipped to the mainland in the next fortnight, and 5,000 more are being offered $2,000 each to give up their claims and return home. The local media has reported that a pregnant 28-year-old from Somalia now being housed with around 470 asylum seekers, mostly from Africa, in a hotel in Argolis on the countrys mainland has tested positive for coronavirus. With a member of staff also testing positive, the hotel has been placed under quarantine. Hardening attitudes Coronavirus has also led to a hardening of policy here. The spread of the virus coinciding with Turkeys border opening led Greece to declare it was suspending new asylum applications for the month of March. The concerted and massive nature of this movement means it has nothing to do with international law and the right of asylum, which only concerns individual cases, said government spokesman Stelios Petsas on March 1. New arrivals were registered far from reception centres and have been kept sequestered since, partly in order to prevent possible coronavirus cases infecting those overcrowded camps. But the United Nations and the EU objected. [Greece] cannot suspend the internationally recognised right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement that are also emphasised in EU law, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced the following day. Neither the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees nor EU refugee law provides any legal basis for the suspension of the reception of asylum applications. Facts on the ground also punctured the government position. The first case of coronavirus on Lesbos was of a supermarket checkout worker in the town of Plomari, 42km (26 miles) south of Moria camp. When coronavirus was first discovered among refugees on April 1, it concerned an incumbent population that had arrived long before Turkey opened its borders, and infected a total of 28 asylum seekers. The mainland camps of Ritsona and Malakasa, where they live, were quarantined. While sequestration also remains for 2,164 asylum seekers who did manage to cross from Turkey during March, Greece is now reversing its policy of suspending their asylum rights. The right to file for asylum is back, deputy migration minister Yiorgos Koumoutsakos told Al Jazeera earlier this month. The restoration of the right to apply for asylum includes those who crossed over in March. And our purpose is to examine these applications as quickly as possible so that non-eligible applicants can go back as quickly as possible, Koumoutsakos said. Other hardening aspects of refugee policy spurred on by fears of coronavirus have remained, however. The government has been keen to abolish the current, open reception centres on the Aegean islands, replacing them with detention centres. These would be much larger, capable of holding 25,000-35,000 people, almost six times todays official capacity. The islanders have resisted these new camps, but coronavirus has helped the government push the agenda. A new camp is under construction on Samos, and more are about to begin on Leros and Kos. We placed the protection of public health on the islands for islanders and refugees as a matter of priority, migration minister Notis Mitarakis said on March 18. [The new camps] serve this goal. Coronavirus has also affected policy across the water in Turkey. Turkey has unfortunately refused the return of a large number of people, citing coronavirus as an excuse, Mitarakis told parliament on March 23. We are pursuing these returns bilaterally with their home countries. The Melissa Network is an aid group that has offered support to refugees during the coronavirus lockdown. Connecting the two crises was something all of us who work with refugees were very worried about. We know that coronavirus did not start off in camps, says the networks co-founder, Nadina Christopoulou. The Melissa Network swiftly put its tutorials online including videos teaching Greek, English, art and photography, providing psychological support and parenting support. The result was that refugees who had moved on to Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands suddenly asked to re-enrol in courses they had completed at the network, because they missed the sense of community. Being treated as individuals, with love and respect, is what they miss, Christopoulou says. Coronavirus is also raising problems for refugees beyond public policy, as unscrupulous landlords have sought to up their rents. On many nights weve received calls from women on Victoria Square [in Athens] saying their landlords have doubled their rent, says Christopoulou. People cant go and look at new apartments to rent. Landlords know this and theyre blackmailing refugees. 200409210606144 Greeces migration policy under the New Democracy government began to harden in 2019. A November law made appealing first-instance denials for asylum impossible without a lawyer. Last January, Greece began to fast track new applications. The migration ministry says it has speeded up processing times threefold to two months. The goal is to roughly match deportations of rejected applicants to new arrivals and prevent another pileup of applicants on the islands. The rules have changed, Mitarakis said on January 31. We are not open to people without a refugee profile a term that remains loosely defined but is generally taken to mean nationalities ravaged by war. Koumoutsakos warned that the softening of attitudes in April may be temporary, especially if Turkey resumes its open-border policy after the coronavirus crisis passes. The situation at the borders is normalised again and the crisis seems to have spun out, but were not being complacent, he said. We retain our vigilance. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The Michigan Attorney Generals Office is investigating a Grand Rapids-based importer on allegations the company may be selling counterfeit or misleadingly-labeled" protective masks. Kooz Concepts International Inc. is accused of likely violating the Michigan Consumer Protection Act "for causing confusion among customers about its goods, specifically face masks, which have become highly sought products during the COVID-19 pandemic, Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a Monday, April 20, press release. The masks sold by Kooz Concepts to about half a dozen clients were surgical masks that Nessels office says were sold as or created the confusion that they were the higher-standard N95 masks. Some of those purchasers were nursing homes. Andrew Rodenhouse, an attorney for Kooz Concepts, denied that the importer ever marketed these masks as N95, or even the Chinese equivalent KN95. The surgical masks were sourced from an FDA-approved factory in China and do say "N95 filter layer" on the box but were never advertised by Kooz Concepts as being actual N95 or KN95 masks, Rodenhouse said. Just because the filtration layer is similar doesnt make it an N95 mask, he said, as those masks, among other things, seal around the face differently. The investigation began after a price-gouging complaint was filed against Penny Pinchers, a discount store in Battle Creek, which was marketing the masks for $3 each and as N95s, according to the AGs Office. Investigators believe that the owner of Penny Pinchers thought he was selling N95 masks. Beyond noting the N95 filter layer" label, the AGs Office does not say why the owner of Penny Pinchers believed this. Penny Pinchers was not immediately reachable for comment. The owner led them to Kooz Concepts, who he bought the masks from. The owner of Kooz Concepts allegedly told investigators that he believed the masks were the Chinese equivalent KN95. Rodenhouse denies that Kooz Concepts employees ever did this, and said that invoices and testimonies from other buyers will show that Kooz Concepts did not try to deceive its customers. The owner of Kooz Concepts bought the masks after he was asked by a relative, desperate for personal protective equipment for his hospital in Virginia, to use his supply chain connections to help him, Rodenhouse said. The owner bought about 10,000 to 16,000 of the masks because the manufacturer required a bulk purchase. Statewide, there are 32,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,468 associated deaths as of Monday. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. Read more Michigan coronavirus coverage here Read more: Monday, April 20: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Michigan is ramping up coronavirus testing. Thats easier said than done. Michigan company maps data to analyze, predict spread of coronavirus Centre has directed the West Bengal government not to obstruct the work of two central teams visiting the state for an on-the-spot assessment of implementation of lockdown measures taken to fight novel coronavirus New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday directed the West Bengal government not to obstruct the work of two central teams visiting the state for an on-the-spot assessment of implementation of lockdown measures taken to fight novel coronavirus. The home ministry said the West Bengal government is not cooperating with the central teams visiting the state to assess the ground situation and are specifically restraining them from interacting with health workers and touring the affected areas. The Centre has directed the West Bengal government not to obstruct working of central teams in reviewing and making on the spot assessment of the implementation of lockdown measures, an official statement said. The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, dubbed the visit of the central teams as "adventure tourism" and asked why such delegations were not sent to states with much higher numbers of infections and hotspots. TMC MPs Derek O'Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was informed about the teams' visit three hours after their arrival in the state, which they said was unacceptable. In a letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said it has been brought to the notice of the ministry that the two inter-ministerial central teams, visiting Kolkata and Jalpaiguri, have not been provided with the requisite cooperation by the state and local authorities. "In fact, they have been specifically restrained from making any visits, interacting with health professionals, and assessing the ground level situation. "This amounts to obstructing the implementation of the orders issued by the central government under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and equally binding directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," Bhalla said. The union home secretary said, therefore, the state government is directed to comply to make all necessary arrangements for the central teams to carry out such responsibilities as have been entrusted to them. Home Ministry Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava also raised the issue at the daily media briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country. She said the Centre has sent the teams under the Disaster Management Act to four states -- Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. While Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are extending full support, the government in West Bengal is not doing so, she added. Apurva Chandra, leader of one of the central teams visiting West Bengal, also said in Kolkata that other teams visiting Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are getting full support of the respective state governments. "They were given the same notice as West Bengal but they have faced no problems," Chandra, an additional secretary-rank officer in the central government, said. A total of six inter-ministerial central teams have been deputed to Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal to review the implementation of lockdown measures. Two of these teams have been sent to West Bengal -- one team to Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and East Medinipur and the other team to Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Kalimpong. The teams comprise public health specialists and officers of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), whose expertise can be leveraged by the state government for management of COVID-19 pandemic. The teams were deputed under the authority conferred on the Central Government under Section 35 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 which states that "..the central government shall take all such measures as it deems necessary or expedient for the purpose of Disaster Management". Bhalla, in his letter, also quoted a recent Supreme Court observation that the state governments will faithfully comply with the directives and orders issued by the Union of India in letter and spirit in the interest of public safety. These observations of the apex court, the home secretary said, must be treated as directions and faithfully complied with. The home ministry had said COVID-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and violation of lockdown measures risk the spread of the novel coronavirus. Acting swiftly, the ministry sent the six IMCTs to visit these worst coronavirus-affected areas to make on the spot assessment and recommend remedial measures besides submitting reports to the Centre. In separate but identical orders sent on Sunday to Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan, the home ministry said there have been several incidents of violence against COVID-19 frontline healthcare professionals, complete violation of social distancing norms and movement of vehicles in urban areas. The home ministry said in some of the districts, a number of violations to the lockdown measures have been reported, posing a serious health hazard and risk for spread of COVID-19 which is against general interest of public, these violations include attacks on frontline healthcare professionals, complete violations of social distancing norms outside banks, PDS shops and in market places, movement of private and commercial vehicles with passengers in urban areas and so on. These incidents, if they are allowed to occur without any restraining measures in hotspot districts or emerging hotspots, with large outbreaks or clusters, pose a serious health hazard, both for the population of these districts and for that living in other areas of the country, it said. Its difficult during normal times to get those with substance abuse issues on the path to recovery. Having to navigate a substance abuse disorder during the coronavirus crisis is causing Alison Noice some sleepless nights. Noice is executive director of CODA Inc., which has three residential and four outpatient clinics for those with substance abuse issues in the Portland area, and one in Seaside. CODA treats between 1,500 to 5,000 active patients at a given time. One of the central treatment remedies for substance abuses is group therapy. With coronavirus requiring social distancing and stay-at-home orders, group gatherings can only be done remotely. Many patient interactions are done by phone. In addition, Noice says isolation and seclusion are triggers for those who abuse substances. This is a dangerous time for a lot of people. As a provider who is here to help people through a struggle like that, to feel like our hands are tied, its pretty gut-wrenching, Noice said. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter Noice is also concerned about a percentage of CODAs population who abandon treatment because of coronavirus hurdles. On the other hand, she believes its possible sessions through telephone and video conferencing could become a positive for the business. I think some people are finding they like it this way. Theyre not having to ride a bus to get here, or feel more comfortable in another environment, Noice said. Were seeing some early wins that are revealing. Its just too early to tell who weve lost entirely. Noice believes therapy meetings done remotely either as individuals or groups will continue long after the coronavirus crisis has passed. I dont know how long 15 people will want to sit in a room again, Noice said. CODAs residential facilities continue to operate around the clock, and it is taking new patients when beds become available. The outpatient clinics are minimally staffed, however, as many of CODAs staffer try to work from home. CODA is feeling the pinch financially, as the majority of its revenue comes from Medicaid through fee for services. In order to earn Medicaid dollars, CODA must have direct contact with a patient, which is hard to do when most of its clients cant come to the clinic. But CODA perseveres, as Noice believes what they do Is essential to the overall health industry. What we know about mental and substance abuse disorders, if a network of providers isnt in place, the pressure on medical facilities and hospitals gets worse, she said. We can manage it before it gets to that. --Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Thousands of migrant workers come to Canada every year to help bring in the bounty from fields and greenhouses. They come under Canadas temporary foreign worker program but dont always find what they expected or were promisedincluding safety in the midst of a pandemic. Low-wage migrant workers are a significant part of Canadas agricultural workforcealmost half of the agricultural labour that grows the year-long produce that lands in kitchens. Life has become even more uncertain for them as COVID-19 has led to travel bans and border closures. And the decrease in that essential workforce could also mean Canadas food security is at risk. The government is allowing seasonal farm workers into the country, including a new 50-million-dollar program to help employers cover the costs of new self-isolation requirements for when the workers arrive in the country. But migrant rights advocates are warning the safety measures wont work in the crowded living conditions these workers are forced to live in. In todays episode of This Matters, Saba Eitizaz talks to the Stars Work and Wealth reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh about the crisis Canadas essential migrant workers are facing, and why it took a pandemic to highlight the circumstances of a group that was vulnerable and unprotected, even before a national health crisis. Listen here or subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts. Read Sara Mojtehedzadehs article here. Azerbaijani Defense Minister receives new commander of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh Biden names Kamala Harris as US president during Atlanta speech Ombudsman: Azerbaijan is launching provocations in Armenia territories where it earlier invaded Russia-NATO Council meeting kicks off in Brussels Serdar Kilic is appointed Turkey special representative for Armenia Armenia ambassador to Georgia informs Switzerland envoy about Azerbaijan's gross ceasefire violation Economy minister: Armenia government was guided by political considerations when lifting sanctions on Turkey goods Turkey defense minister expresses support for Azerbaijan in another military aggression against Armenia Pashinyan, Putin discuss Karabakh, Kazakhstan Toivo Klaar: Deeply worried by reports of renewed incidents and casualties on Armenia-Azerbaijan Germany: A record 80,430 COVID-19 cases detected per day 3 more persons die of coronavirus in Artsakh Criminal case launched into 3 Armenia soldiers killing by Azerbaijan shootings Copper rises in price One of main tasks of Armenia peacekeepers in Kazakhstans Almaty is to prevent water supply system poisoning About 80 Americans cannot fly from Afghanistan Turkey parliament ex-deputy speaker: Armenia must fulfill 4 preconditions Border situation in Armenias Gegharkunik Province was calm at night French FM says talks on Iranian nuclear deal are progressing slowly 289 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Gold slightly rises in price North Korea says it successfully tested another hypersonic missile OSCE calls on Azerbaijan, Armenia to refrain from the use of force Oil is trading without a single dynamic US State Department welcomes announcement on CSTO forces withdrawal from Kazakhstan Newspaper: Ex-ministers are summoned to Hayastan All Armenian Fund parliamentary inquiry committee MOD: Armenia soldiers dead body found at midnight after Azerbaijan provocation Newspaper: Casualties of Armenia PM Pashinyan's 'era of peace' US concerned about EastMed natural gas pipeline project Giant fish sold at auction for over 16 million yen German Marshall Fund: It Is not too early to think about political change in Turkey Armenian Foreign Ministry: We call on Azerbaijani authorities to refrain from provocations Armenia's Geghamasar community head: The situation is stable now Queen Elizabeth II's favorite fast food revealed Human Rights Defender: Azerbaijani troops open fire on Armenian sovereign territory World Economic Forum: Cybersecurity and space pose new risks to the global economy Defense Ministry confirms Armenian side has 2 victims Satanovsky on sending Armenian servicemen to Kazakhstan Unofficial data: 2 servicemen killed as a result of Azerbaijan provocation CSTO and Kazakh Defense Ministry developing plan WHO thinks it's too early to consider COVID-19 pandemic European Commission to require Poland to pay fine of nearly EUR 70 million White House announces $308 million humanitarian aid for Afghanistan Erdogan angry at minister after efforts to strengthen lira failed Armenian FM has phone call with US Assistant Secretary of State India imposes one-week quarantine even for vaccinated tourists Armenian ex-president expresses condolences on poet Razmik Davoyan's death Traction Programme to showcase 8 startups during the Digital Demo Day Azerbaijan uses artillery and UAVs, 3 Armenian soldiers wounded NEWS.am daily digest: 11.01.22 Austrian Chancellor confirms plan for mandatory COVID-19 vaccination in February Armen Sarkissian and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev discuss situation in Kazakhstan Gulf, Iran and Turkey FMs to visit China 20 pregnant women with COVID-19 die in Azerbaijan in year Armenia hands over wanted US citizen to United States Economy ministry: Organizing of accommodation and public catering increased by 61.1% in Armenia Armenia parliament speaker expresses condolences on European Parliament President death Azerbaijan opens fire toward Armenia village sector, one soldier wounded Shoigu: CSTO peacekeepers deployed in Kazakhstan thanks to Syrian and Karabakh experience Azerbaijan official pledges to remove Armenian toponyms from Google Maps UN offers two plans to help Afghans totaling $ 5 billion in 2022 Armenia attorney general travels to Moscow on working visit Azerbaijan MOD blames Armenian side for soldiers death Dollar drops in Armenia Shirak Province captives families hold protest outside Armenia government building Rolls-Royce sales rise to record high in 2021 Ombudsman: Azerbaijanis directed gun at Armenia residents car in which his wife, 3-year-old child were ANCA urges President Biden and Congress to hold Azerbaijan and Turkey accountable for war crimes Serbia's Orthodox Patriarch tests positive for COVID-19 Brothers, sisters of 2020 Artsakh war military casualties to get compensation in lieu of their deceased parents Turkish authorities sanction arrest of 33 suspected FETO ties Copper rises in price Erdogan's spokesman, Biden's adviser discuss Armenian-Turkish relations Armenia deputy defense minister: No one can rule out border tension at any moment New commander elected of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh Armenia official: Those 100 soldiers absence will not assume any change in terms of border tension Millionaire Robert Durst dies aged 78 Reuters: Over 1.13 million cases of COVID-19 detected in US per day Great Armenian poet Razmik Davoyan dies 2 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh 30 people including Tablighi Jamaat attendees, including 16 foreign nationals, who had attended Delhis Nizamuddin Markaz event in March, have been arrested from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. 7 of these from Indonesia while 9 are from Thailand. As per reports, a case was registered against them two weeks back. As per reports, one of the professors teaching at the Allahabad University had attended the event at Nizamuddin Markaz and upon his return had continued to take classes and was also an invigilator during the exams, putting lives of hundreds of students at risk. The Allahabad University Professor along with his wife was put under a 14-day quarantine and now that the period has lapsed, he has been formally arrested. Tablighi Jamaat members hiding in Prayagraj mosques The Tablighi Jamaat members were reportedly living in two mosques in Prayagraj where they had hidden their travel history. On 31st March, 7 Indonesian nationals along with two others were caught living illegally in a mosque at Katju road in Shahganj. Similarly, 11 Jamaatis including 9 Thailand nationals were found living in a mosque at Kareli in Hera mosque. They had all attended the Nizamuddin Markaz event. A case was registered against them all and they were put on quarantine. Later, Police got a tip that one of the professors at Allahabad University had recently returned from Nizamuddin event and was continuing with his life without informing the authorities. Later he, along with his family, was also put on quarantine. All 30 are expected to be produced before the court later this afternoon following which they may be jailed. Professor Mohammad Shahid of Allahabad University who was teaching in the science department has been charged with housing the Jamaatis. Nizamuddin Markaz The Islamic evangelical event, where Muslims around the world gather to learn to live life as prescribed by Prophet Mohammad, was held in Delhis Nizamuddin Markaz in March this year. The event, which was attended by several foreign nationals, ended up being a hot spot for coronavirus cases in India, contributing to as many as 30% COVID-19 positive cases in India. Tablighi Jamaat members have also been accused of misbehaving with healthcare workers, including molesting nurses and pelting stones at doctors and cops. Hayes Valley, Inner Sunset, Mission, Outer Sunset, Tenderloin, Upper Haight Blocked-off access to Page Street in February. | Photo: Teresa Hammerl/Hoodline On Tuesday morning, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced that it plans to close select streets to vehicular traffic, in order to provide more space for pedestrians and cyclists to socially distance. The move comes nearly two weeks after Oakland closed 74 miles of streets to traffic for similar reasons, an inspiration Mayor London Breed acknowledged on Twitter. San Francisco's street closures will be far less extensive than Oakland's. The proposed streets for the program include Ortega Street (between Great Highway and 14th Avenue), Kirkham Street (between Great Highway and 7th Avenue), 17th Street (between Noe and Valencia), 22nd Street (between Valencia and Chattanooga), Page Street (between Stanyan and Octavia), Scott Street (between Eddy and Page) and Ellis Street (between Polk and Leavenworth). Large swaths of the city have been left out of the program, including all of District 3 (North Beach, Chinatown and the Financial District), District 1 (the Richmond) and most of District 6 (SoMa and the Tenderloin). The Marina District, Russian Hill, the Excelsior District and Potrero Hill/Dogpatch are other notable omissions. Image: SFMTA On Twitter, District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin and District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney expressed frustration about the lack of additional car-free spaces in their districts, with Peskin adding that he wasn't consulted on the plan. I have no idea how SFMTA came up with this bc apparently they didn't have time to reach out. At first glance, they seem more concerned w recreating in less dense areas than responding to requests to address social distancing needs of seniors & low income people of color in D3. https://t.co/17QBcDBzGI Aaron Peskin (@AaronPeskin) April 21, 2020 Good to finally see some commitments on opening up some streets But makes no sense to exclude SOMA entirely + only include couple blocks in the TL These neighborhoods still have crowded sidewalks & more foot traffic. We have huge need for spaceIve been clear I support more. https://t.co/xRuoZsxDpx Matt Haney (@MattHaneySF) April 21, 2020 The plan also continues to allow vehicles on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, despite the protests of many pedestrian and bicycle advocates who say the current sidewalks don't allow for sufficient social distancing. Story continues The SFMTA has emphasized that the initial "Slow Streets" are intended to replace streets where key Muni lines have been cut, allowing residents to walk or cycle safely instead. All are low-traffic residential streets that aren't heavily used by emergency services. "With so much Muni service cut, SF's essential workers need safer bike corridors and last-mile connections to transit," SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin wrote on Twitter. According to SFMTA, two to three of the "Slow Streets" corridors will be implemented weekly starting this week, with signage and traffic cones indicating the changes. A maximum of eight blocks will be closed at a time, and residents who need parking or driveway access to otherwise closed blocks will still have the right-of-way over pedestrians. Pedestrian and cyclist advocates say they hope the program will expand further, and faster. Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk SF, said that the Tenderloin and Chinatown are the two San Francisco neighborhoods most in need of safe pedestrian space. "We look forward to working with our members and city partners to quickly identify additional streets in our eastern neighborhoods and parks where crowding is most extreme," the SF Bicycle Coalition added on Twitter. A Tanzanian member of parliament has tested positive for coronavirus, triggering calls for a suspension of on-going House sessions. Without naming the politician, Deputy Speaker Tulia Ackson said the MP had travelled to the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, the country's epicentre of infections. She believes that is where the MP contracted the virus. Parliament's sessions started three weeks ago, albeit with fewer MPs in the chamber, shorter hours of discussions and some debates held over video conferencing facilities. Speaker Job Ndugai has defended reconvening amid the epidemic, arguing that the countrys important operations must continue. Mr Ndugai, together with President John Magufuli, have disapproved of stricter measures such as a lockdown to curb the spread of the virus in the country. But some politicians want parliament to be suspended to allow for disinfection of the chamber and testing of all MPs to identify and quarantine those who may be infected. There shall be no two sets of laws - for MPs and for the people. All MPs should be isolated, tested and contact-traced. Right from the beginning we advised that the parliament sessions should not be held. Its dangerous, said Zitto Kabwe, an opposition MP and leader of the ACT-Wazalendo party. Another opposition MP, Upendo Peneza, previously suggested a lockdown for Dar es Salaam city to curb the spread of coronavirus. Because Dar es Salaam has the largest number of cases, people from there shouldnt be allowed to go to other places so as to stop the spread of the infection to other regions. Only movement of basic goods and services should be allowed, said Ms Peneza said in parliament. The total number of coronavirus cases in Tanzania now stands at 254 and 10 deaths, with the virus spreading into close to half of regions of the country. 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 A hospital employee who has been unable to see his girlfriend amid the coronavirus pandemic has revealed that her jealous ex-boyfriend broke quarantine to propose to her at her parents' house and she still wants to remain 'friends' with him. Reddit user Cloud587587 opened up about his unusual predicament in the 'Relationship Advice' forum on Monday, admitting he doesn't know how he should address the situation because no matter what he does, he will look like 'the bad guy.' 'So I've been dating my girlfriend for almost a month and a half now,' the 24-year-old explained. 'Since before the relationship even started, her ex has been a problem. She sees him as a friend because she doesn't have any other friends she talks with regularly.' Say what? A 24-year-old man revealed on Reddit that his girlfriend's ex broke quarantine and proposed to her at her parents' house amid the coronavirus pandemic (stock image) He noted that all of her other friends basically 'abandoned her' when they got into relationships with their significant others. 'I'm still working a lot because I work in a hospital,' he continued. 'I sleep during most of the day because I do the night shift, and I'm not allowed to go and see her due to the quarantine. This means she gets super lonely when I'm not around.' The Reddit user, who also lives at home with his parents, stressed that he spends his days off video chatting and watching YouTube videos or Netflix shows with her to 'make up for the lack of human interaction.' He insisted that he was initially okay with her having her ex as a friend because he has remained close with someone he dated in the past. He admitted he also doesn't 'want to be that jacka** controlling boyfriend who tells her who she can and can't hang out with.' Not only did he tell her that he was 'comfortable' with her being friends with him, but he has also reached out and tried to connect with her ex 'for her sake.' Not a good sign: A majority of the commenters agreed that this was too much drama for a new relationship and felt that his girlfriend is actually the problem He noted that her ex was the one who pushed her to meet someone else after dating and breaking up with her twice, but once she started dating him, he became 'immediately jealous.' 'He blatantly tried several times to break us up by exaggerating our disagreements, he has professed his love for her in text and in handwritten letters, he has driven to her house unannounced to deliver flowers and bubble tea, he has gone out of his way to bring her food from her favorite restaurant, he continuously threatens to commit suicide if she refuses to take him back, and last week HE PROPOSED TO HER,' he revealed. 'Yes, he showed up unannounced to her house, told her that he loved her and that he would go down to the courthouse that second to go marry her, and when she rejected him and he went home, HE CAME BACK a second time in the same day with a ring in his pocket.' The Reddit user insisted that she has 'rejected' his advances, but he was frustrated that she still wants to be friends with him even though he continuously breaks the boundaries she has set in place. 'I work in a mental hospital and deal with depression all the time, and so I ended up agreeing to talk to him because he was suicidal,' he recalled. 'We came to an agreement not to talk to me or my girlfriend for awhile and within days he broke it. This has happened twice. Laying down the law: Critics insisted that he needs to break up with her or, at the very least, give her an ultimatum to see who she chooses 'Now once again, even after proposing to her, and me begging her to stop giving this guy chances, she has given him the 7th chance to make things right and just be a friend.' The man believes that if he tells her the situation makes him uncomfortable or threatens her ex to stop talking to her or demands she stop communicating with him, he will come off looking like 'the bad guy.' 'I'm just at my wit's end trying to find a way to either cope with or correct this situation because I'm afraid he's just going to continue to escalate or get violent,' he said. 'She won't listen to me or her other friends that she talks to sporadically because we're all telling her to get a restraining order, and she sees it as us trying to control her life,' he added. 'She's very independent and stubborn and far too nice for her own good, which are all qualities I admire about her, but my worries are taking over and I can't stop imagining something bad happening to her because of this guy. 'Please, somebody give me some advice on what to do, because I'm completely out of my depth.' A majority of the commenters agreed that this was too much drama for a new relationship and felt that his girlfriend is actually the problem. Critics insisted that he needs to break up with her or, at the very least, give her an ultimatum to see who she chooses. 'If she really cares about you, then she should put an end to their "friendship,"' one person stressed. 'If she doesn't, you're not obligated to stay, move along with your life and away from their drama.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 02:21:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Director of the Office of the People's Republic of China to the State of Palestine Guo Wei (R) and Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila sign documents during a handover ceremony of medical supplies provided by China in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on April 20, 2020. Palestine on Monday received a batch of medical supplies provided by China, including protective gear and testing kits for COVID-19. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua) RAMALLAH, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Palestine on Monday received a batch of medical supplies provided by China, including protective gears and testing kits for COVID-19. The batch was handed over by Guo Wei, director of the Office of the People's Republic of China to the State of Palestine, to Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila at the ministry's storage warehouses in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The donated medical aid included the much-needed COVID-19 nucleic acid testing kits as well as disposable medical protective gears, protective goggles and N95 face masks. At the handover ceremony, al-Kaila applauded the "timely and needed" support for Palestine in the fight against the COVID-19, saying that China has set an example for the entire world to cooperate against the global pandemic. She said that the new equipment will be distributed to the health workers who are suffering a serious shortage in protective gears, and to different areas where they are needed. For his part, Guo said that the aid shipment is part of China's cooperation with the international community in fighting the pandemic. The Palestinian minister said that Palestinian clinicians and health workers have largely benefited from two meetings that were held with Chinese experts via video over the means to deal with the pandemic. Last week, Palestine received a shipment of medical aid from China's Alibaba company, including testing kits and other medicinal and laboratory supplies. Palestinian officials previously warned of a shortage in testing kits and protective gears which is considered an additional challenge to the already-struggling healthcare system in Palestine. The total number of confirmed cases has reached 449 in Palestine, according to the latest figures released by the Health Ministry on Monday. Enditem STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Experts say its possible New Zealand could eliminate coronavirus (COVID-19) from inside its borders. The virus doesnt have superpowers, University of Auckland vaccine expert Helen Petousis-Harris told the Associated Press. Once transmission is stopped, its gone. The wide open spaces of the island nation reportedly has helped, with Antarctica to the south and about 5 million people spread across an area the size of Britain. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** Additionally, the country was placed under a strict lockdown in late March, after about 100 people tested positive for the virus. Petousis-Harris said the country has avoided confusion and half-measures that hampered the response in many other countries. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday announced the country would stay in lockdown for another week before slightly easing some work restrictions to help restart the economy. Most of the social restrictions will remain in place. New cases are expected to arise when New Zealand eventually reopens its borders, said Petousis-Harris, as there are questions about the preparedness of the countrys health system to implement effective contact tracing. Jim Banks Congressman Jim Banks introduced a bill today that mandates warning labels on social media from countries deemed a national security risk to the US. The Indiana Republican worries that Americans locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic are spending more time online at sites such as TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance. The US Army has banned soldiers from downloading that app because, under China's National Intelligence Act of 2017, the country's Communist party has the right to harvest TikTok data stored on servers in China. "Americans should know which is which before they hit the download button. Parents and consumers have a right to a warning that by downloading some apps like Russias FaceApp or Chinas TikTok, their data may be used against the United States by an adversarial or enemy regime," said Banks in introducing his bill. His proposed warning label reads: Warning: [Name of Covered Foreign Software] is developed by [Name of Developer of Covered Foreign Software], which [is controlled by a company that] [is organized under the laws of]/[conducts its principal operations in]/[is organized under the laws of and conducts its principal operations in] [Name of Covered Country]. Please acknowledge by selecting the accept or decline button below if you wish to proceed. The Banks ban covers sites from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Venezuela. KRUGERSDORP, South Africa - As South Africa's health experts watched the coronavirus race through Europe and begin to seed itself in their country, they made a pivotal decision. Instead of waiting for sick people to start swamping their health-care system, potentially overwhelming it, they mobilized tens of thousands of medical workers - and brought the system to the people instead. More than 28,000 health-care workers have spread out across South Africa's nine provinces. Some go door to door, taking down people's travel histories, temperatures and other risk factors. Others, especially in dense, poor communities known as townships, set up pop-up clinics where turnout has been high. "Only South Africa has done that," said Salim Abdool Karim, a member of the country's pandemic task force, referring to the scale of the country's effort. Two million South Africans - out of a population of 57 million - have been screened this way, according to the health ministry. Tens of thousands have been tested who may not otherwise have been. South Africa has more than 3,400 confirmed cases - the highest number in Africa - but its government considers that a result of aggressive testing. As of Tuesday, more than 125,000 people had been tested. Other countries, such as China, Cuba, Ethiopia and India, have deployed large numbers of health-care workers to conduct door-to-door checkups or screenings, but South Africa is the only country to do so nationwide, and with the intention of gathering data about who is most at risk and who should be tested. In a country where many don't have their own cars or money to pay for public transportation, many here are grateful for the door-to-door checkups and mobile clinics. "They didn't sit and wait for corona to come to them. They went and faced it head-on," said Eunice Ratlhagane, 55, who is unemployed and lives in a township in Krugersdorp, just outside Johannesburg, South Africa's biggest city. Around her, however, was a scene that an aggressive health-care response can't fix. Despite an ongoing lockdown, in which people are supposed to leave home only for essential reasons, rows of shops were open. Kids played tag. Street traffic was bustling. The high attendance at the mobile clinics demonstrates South Africans' desire to be part of the solution, but the inability of many to stay home reflects widespread poverty. "Right now I need to make sure my stock sells out, and I have enough to feed my family," said Peter Pooe, 55, who owns a spaza shop, a South African version of a corner store. He supports the government's strategy because he thinks many are underestimating the pandemic. "But I don't know if it will work, as many people here are less concerned with covid than wanting to just survive," he said. A quarter of South Africans live in townships where running water is intermittent, often built right up against sparkling estates with swimming pools. It is one of the most unequal societies in the world. In Swaneville, the township where Ratlhagane and Pooe live, they have to fetch water from a tank, which makes it difficult to have enough for cooking, cleaning and washing their hands. Many live in rooms with many other people. Health experts have cautioned that in such countries, lockdowns may cause more harm than good, and may even lead to societal unrest. That makes extensive testing, monitoring and quarantining even more essential. South Africa is working toward testing 30,000 people every day by the end of this month, according to the National Health Laboratory Service. "We are proactively screening and recommending testing to have an accurate picture of what is happening on the ground and to get a sense of geographical mapping of the spread of the virus," said Lwazi Manzi, a health ministry spokeswoman. For now, South Africa's curve does not appear to be growing exponentially, as many had feared. Cases rose quickly for about 10 days, but new ones haven't exploded since the imposition of the lockdown and the deployment of the mobile health teams. Hospitals are easily coping with the cases they have. "What South Africa has done is impressive, absolutely," said John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control. "We should stop being afraid of covid and do things that work. That's what they did. They are getting data, which is what will be required to unlock the country." Members of South Africa's pandemic task force praised President Cyril Ramaphosa for heeding their warnings early on, even though the lockdown would have enormous economic costs in a country already in recession. Ramaphosa also earned plaudits for nationally televised speeches in which he minced no words communicating the seriousness of the virus, and called on South Africans to sacrifice the present for the future. Ramaphosa announced on Tuesday night a $26 billion economic relief package, which he called an "extraordinary coronavirus budget," making up about 10% of the nation's GDP. "Millions of South Africans in the informal economy and without employment are struggling to survive," he said, while rolling out significant increases to social welfare, child support, wage subsidies and unemployment grants. Besides poverty, South Africa is also home to a fifth of the world's HIV and tuberculosis cases. The collision of those older pandemics with this new one has put health experts on alert, given the high likelihood that serious immune and respiratory diseases will lead to higher death tolls from covid-19. Experience with those pandemics gives South Africa a leg up in some ways, said Karim, the task force member who is also one of the world's foremost experts on HIV. South Africa has been using a testing system for tuberculosis called GeneXpert, which has also now developed a covid-19 test that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last month. South Africa will receive those tests in the coming days. "Screen, test, diagnose, contact trace, isolate, treat - it's the same basic elements for HIV, TB and covid, " he said. "The only trouble with covid is we don't have treatment." In Swaneville, people just trying to get by knew that the lack of treatment isn't the only trouble. Even if they took the virus seriously, they could see others, sitting together, sharing a beer. At the mobile clinics, nurses said they used to be on the receiving end of mockery, as many viewed the disease as afflicting only rich people who had the money to travel abroad. Turnout at the clinics on Sunday was high, however, and the nurses said they thought the public was starting to see things their way. People were feeling a sense of camaraderie, sharing the experience of both poverty and the pandemic. "I didn't have water last week, but my neighbor gave me [some]. We must just share and remember: umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu," said Pooe, using a phrase from a South African language often translated as "I am because we are." - - - Bearak reported from Nairobi. Turkeys coronavirus death toll hits 2,140 as cases near 91,000 Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced the latest coronavirus numbers for Turkey on Twitter on Monday: The total number of registered coronavirus cases rose to 90,980 as 4,674 more people tested positive for the virus, There were 123 more fatalities over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 2,140. So far, a total of 13,430 people have recovered and been discharged from hospitals, including 1,454 patients on Monday. 39,703 tests were conducted over the past day, with the total number of tests reaching 673,98 READ: Turkeys coronavirus death toll hits 2,140 as cases near 91,000 Turkey plans to impose 4-day curfew this week Turkey plans to extend the weekend curfew this week in 31 provinces as part of measures against the coronavirus, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. Starting on Thursday, April 23, which is a public holiday commemorating the foundation of Turkish parliament, Turkey will impose curfew in 31 provinces to contain the spread of the virus. Turkey observes the National Sovereignty and Childrens Day on April 23 every year. This year marks the centennial of the Grand National Assembly. The curfew will end at midnight on April 26. Source: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/health/turkey-plans-to-impose-4-day-curfew-this-week/1812113 4-DAY CURFEW 23 26 APRIL 2020 FURTHER INFORMATION Turkey will impose a four-day curfew in 31 provinces beginning from midnight on April 22 to midnight on 26 April as part of measures to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. The government circular indicates certain businesses and individuals are exempt from the curfew. PLEASE NOTE: The working hours of markets and grocery stores will be extended to 8 a.m.-11 p.m. on April 21-22 due to the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. On April 23 and April 24, people will be allowed to go to the nearest markets and grocery stores* for essential items from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. * Refers to stores within walking distance NOT DRIVING DISTANCE. Markets and grocery stores will be closed on April 25 and 26. MUGLA PROVINCE HYGIENE COUNCIL EXCEPTIONS The Mugla Province Hygiene Council, have announced the following exceptions to the curfew, in addition to the circular from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Employees working in newspaper distribution to our citizens through newspaper distribution companies b) Farmers and shepherds engaged in cattle / sheep and goat breeding c) People with pets (dogs, cats, etc.) can take them out ONLY IN FRONT OF THEIR DOORS to meet their needs and citizens who want to feed the animals in the shelters. MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS EXCEPTIONS BUSINESS EXCEPTIONS TO THE CURFEW Bakery and / or bakery licensed workplaces where bread production is carried out. b) Workplaces where all health products and medical materials (including medical masks) are produced. c) Public and private health institutions and organizations, pharmacies d) Public institutions and organizations required for the maintenance of compulsory public services (nursing home, elderly care home, rehabilitation centers, emergency call centers, etc.) e) Fuel station and veterinary clinics to be determined by governorships / district governorships, one for each 50,000 inhabitants f) Large facilities and businesses operating strategically in the natural gas, electricity and petroleum sectors (such as Tupras, thermal and natural gas conversion plants) g) PTT, Cargo, etc. distribution companies h) Animal shelter, farm and care centers INDIVIDUALS EXEMPT FROM THE CURFEW Managers, officers or employees of the Open Office, Business and Institutions included in the heading (2) of this circular b) TBMM employees (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) c) Those who are in charge of ensuring public order and security d) Employees of emergency call centers e) Those who will perform and participate in funeral burials of their first degree relatives f) Electricity, water, natural gas, telecommunications etc. Those who are in charge of maintaining supply systems that should not be interrupted and dealing with malfunctions g) Those who are in charge of domestic and international transportation in logistics for the transportation of products and /or materials h) Those working in newspaper, radio and television organizations Elderly nursing home, nursing home, rehabilitation centers, childrens homes etc. employees of social protection/care centers j) PTT, cargo and water distribution company employees k) Iron and steel industry, etc. establishments operating in the sectors, such as ovens, cold storage, etc. l) Workers in the agricultural and livestock industry where products are at risk of spoiling m) Vehicles and employees involved in the distribution of bread produced in bakeries BAKERY VANS ARE MAKING DELIVERIES IN THE AREA n) Those who have an appointment for blood and plasma donation under the coordination of the Turkish Red Crescent IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT ALL CITIZENS, OTHER THAN THE EXCEPTIONS SPECIFIED, STAY IN THEIR HOMES! Sources: Ministry of the Interior/Mugla Metropolitan Municipality Its a virtual life: Turkey-related events online The 29th Expat Spotlight series of Yabangee will be taking place online and will focus on the theme of Well Being. If youre running out of things to do during #StayHome or #Curfew here are a few virtual events that may interest you. READ: https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/expat-corner/its-a-virtual-life-turkey-related-events-online Questions and Answers on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Q: Can communal pools on private complexes be filled and used? On March 16, 2020 the Ministry of Interior and Presidency of Religious Affairs announced measures to be taken in the fight against Coronavirus. This article refers to the closure of public swimming pools. Read more here: https://www.iletisim.gov.tr//ministry-of-interior-and-pres There are no restrictions on the filling and use of communal pools on private complexes. There is no evidence that COVID-19 can be spread to humans through the use of pools or hot tubs. Proper operation, maintenance, and disinfection (e.g., with chlorine and bromine) of pools and hot tubs should inactivate the virus that causes COVID-19. Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Read more here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/water.html N.B. Appropriate care must be taken both in and outside the pool with social distancing measures maintained at all times. This information is correct as of 21 April 2020. READ: Questions and Answers on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Turkey signals relaxing virus measures in June Istanbuls iconic Maidens Tower flanked by empty benches by the Bosporus Strait, April 19, 2020. (AP Photo) President Erdogan and experts on the Coronavirus Science Board said restrictions and measures put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus could be relaxed by June as the number of new cases appears to have flatlined. In line with the presidents words, a member of the countrys Coronavirus Science Board also said summer could mark the beginning of a return to normalcy but for different reasons. Speaking to Turkish daily Hurriyet, professor Ates Kara, said the restrictions on daily life could be partially relaxed at the beginning of June as scientists believed the infection rate would fall during the summer. But the professor warned that scenes of packed beaches or pool sides were unlikely to be seen this year. Initial findings of the virus being affected by heat were previously published. The virus will be affected by heat, at least to some degree. We shouldnt hope the summer would be similar to last year. You wont be able to come together at beaches. The virus will continue to exist, but its infectiousness will decrease during the summer, Kara said. Kara also said there were no scientific findings showing that the virus could infect someone in the pool or sea. READ: https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/turkey-signals-relaxing-virus-measures-in-june/news Global statistics There are now 2,510,496 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, of which 660,016 have recovered. The number of fatalities stands at 172,772. Source: Worldometer. Follow Fethiye Times on social media for regular updates. Like us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Twitter Todays featured image: The usually busy Erasta shopping centre now stands deserted by Lyn Ward Sea Life Living with Plastic We are encouraged to dream about celebrating Earth Day at 100 on a more sustainable planet. With much of the U.S. on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, the momentous physical celebration planned to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and the start of the national movement to promote environmental protection has gone virtual. The spread of the novel coronavirus has disrupted our plans to exhibit and commemorate this milestone at EarthX in Dallas, so weve moved the celebration online and will be sharing the insights of luminaries, leaders and ordinary citizens on what collectively we can do to ensure our survival and stem the loss of biodiversity, said Kevin Lynn, executive director, Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) and the Center for Progressive Urban Politics (CFPUP). Over the last several months, PFIR and CFPUP have interviewed leading ecologists, activists, scholars and everyday citizens for their thoughts on the current state of the planet, what the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day means to them and their wish for the planets future. These reflections are posted on the Our Carbon Footprint website as videos, articles and resources. In addition, at the Facebook page 50th Anniversary Earth Day (@50thEarthDay) visitors can learn about the history of Earth Day and the conservation movement, as well as share their thoughts and post a wish for the Earth and what theyd like to see happen in the next 50 years for Mother Earth, humanity and all of biodiversity. The public can also participate virtually on Twitter @Our_CarbonFP (Earth Day 50th Anniversary) and on Instagram @our_carbonfp. This compilation of voices and opinions from leading experts, including global ecologist Dr. Michael Charles Tobias, population and immigration writer Joe Guzzardi, astronomer and long-time conservationist Ben Zuckerman, and environmental scientist and wildlife biologist Leon Kolankiewicz, along with people we interviewed in Man-on-the-Street interviews, is enlightening and inspiring, added Lynn. Tobias, president of the Dancing Star Foundation, prompts listeners to heed the overwhelming biological and scientific data pointing to the dramatic loss of biodiversity due to Man. UCLA professor emeritus Zuckerman, a veteran environmental and population activist, stresses the need to combat both overpopulation and overconsumption simultaneously. Although few of those interviewed at a Los Angeles Farmers Market were alive at the time of the first Earth Day or were aware of its history, it didnt stop them from voicing their deep concern for the planet and expressing that, universally, mankind is obligated to and must commit to preserving the health and biodiversity of Earth for future generations. As we commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, theres much work to be done to stabilize and improve the conditions that have systematically eroded ecosystems and degraded the environment, but there also is tremendous hope that it can and will be done, said Lynn. PFIR and CFPUP are proud to engage the public in these important discussions, and we are encouraged to wish for and dream about celebrating Earth Day at 100 on a more sustainable planet. About 50th Anniversary Earth Day and Our Carbon Footprint Created by the Center for Progressive Urban Politics and Progressives for Immigration Reform, the 50th Anniversary Earth Day project at Our Carbon Footprint was planned to educate, inform and inspire individuals to consider the impact of their decisions on the environment. Practicing good Earth stewardship today, and lowering our carbon footprint, will help ensure a future in which humans, animals and other biodiversity can thrive. About Progressives for Immigration Reform PFIR is a nonprofit organization seeking to educate the public on the unintended consequences of mass migration. PFIR supports economic policies that protect workers rights, increase wages for less affluent Americans and decrease economic inequality. Integral to our beliefs are backing environmental policies that preserve habitat for wildlife and conserve resources for future generations. About the Center for Progressive Urban Politics CFPUP advocates for working together to build more livable communities. We want to open up the political process for people by informing on policy decisions being made in urban areas. JACKSON, MI Republicans on the Jackson County Board of Commissioners are getting fed up with Gov. Gretchen Whitmers coronavirus stay-at-home order and are considering taking action at their Tuesday, April 21 meeting. The board is considering two resolutions: One declaring businesses like landscaping, excavating and boating services essential businesses, while the second, weaker resolution only says the county believes the state should allow such businesses to reopen. County officials disagree if Option A would give the green light for some businesses to defy the stay-at-open order and reopen. Jackson County Administrator/Controller Mike Overton said it could be viewed that way, and could get the county into legal trouble. If a Jackson County business reopens and gets punished by the state, it could point to the county resolution as its reasoning in a lawsuit, he said. Legally, we dont have the authority to overrule the governor, Overton said. Our attorneys have said Option B is less likely to get you in trouble. A spokesperson from the governors office didnt answer specific questions about Jackson Countys resolutions, but said Whitmers top priority is protecting the publics health and safety and shes working with experts on how best to re-engage the economy. Per the resolution language, Option A "clarifies and declares the below denoted businesses and operations as additional essential workforce categories" while Option B "is not meant to be a directive or mandate for the noted businesses or operations to return to work." Board Chairman Steve "James" Shotwell Jr. helped write both resolutions. "All they are, are suggestions," Shotwell said. "We're not really saying that you can go back to work if we pass this resolution." Option B also gives the county sheriff and prosecutor sound discretion to not enforce any unconstitutional prohibition during the pandemic. The sheriffs office hasnt had to issue any citations to the stay-at-home order so far, as people found in violation have been willing to comply, Sheriff Steve Rand said. "This resolution will not impact how we handle the executive order," Rand said in an email. The Jackson County board has seven Republicans and two Democrats the two positions that represent the city of Jackson. Both Democrats have expressed concerns with the resolutions. I dont think its necessary for us to send a resolution out like this, at this time, Commissioner Daniel Mahoney said. I think everybody knows how severe the situation is. Mahoney said he wasnt sure if Option A would be interpreted as permission for some businesses to open and defy the governors order. The resolutions encourage safe business practices, including wearing masks, avoiding close contact and frequent hand washing. Shotwell also owns Miller Shoe Parlor in downtown Jackson, and said he reopened the store with such precautions a couple weeks ago for essential workers and people with health needs. Hes heard from businesses across the county upset with the stay-at-home order, with people saying they can operate safely without coming in contact with others. "I can buy dirt to grow my pot, but I can't buy dirt and seeds and vegetables to feed my family," Shotwell said. "That kind of seems a little backwards." The county board will consider their resolutions at its 7 p.m. meeting Tuesday. The public can participate in public comment by watching via Zoom. The meeting can also be viewed via YouTube livestream. The board is also considering furloughs at the meeting, as well as an agreement with a hotel as a potential quarantine facility if needed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jackson County broke into the top 10 this weekend for most coronavirus cases in Michigan, and now has 260 people whove tested positive and 10 deaths. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. Read more Michigan coronavirus coverage here Tuesday, April 21: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Partisan politics infect Michigan coronavirus response Which surfaces does the coronavirus stay on longest? 18 expert disinfecting tips Single cell analysis for therapeutic discovery recognized with prestigious business award for innovation Sphere Fluidics, a company commercializing single cell analysis systems underpinned by its patented picodroplet technology, has be honored with a Queen's Award for Enterprise for Innovation. The award recognizes the Company's excellence in patenting, developing and globally commercializing single cell analysis systems for biotherapeutic discovery. Using its state-of-the-art picodroplet technology, Sphere Fluidics develops and commercializes novel, single cell analysis systems for the rapid screening and characterization of single cells to enable leading edge research and accelerate biopharmaceutical discovery and development. The Company's flagship product is the multi-award winning, Cyto-MineSystem, which integrates isolation, selective screening, sorting, and imaging into a single automated platform to streamline workflows, reduce costs, improve throughput and enable high-value cells to be captured in a single run. Sphere Fluidics spun out from the University of Cambridge in 2010 and now employs 31 people. Dr. Frank F. Craig, CEO, Sphere Fluidics, said: "We are immensely proud to have our pioneering approach to single cell analysis recognized with a Queen's Award for Enterprise. This is a testament to the hard work and expertise of our dedicated team who have a deep understanding of the challenges faced by researchers in drug discovery, therapeutics and diagnostics. Sphere Fluidics' technology is specifically designed to increase the chances of finding that rare molecule or cell that could lead to a life-changing medicine. Our systems help make the development of new biopharmaceuticals faster and more cost-effective, improve monoclonal antibody screening, cell line development, and overall efficiency to help accelerate research into new therapeutic modalities. Our technology is highly innovative and is covered by 148 international patents and 18 trademarks." Sphere Fluidics is one of 220 organizations nationally to be recognized with a prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise. Now in its 54th year, the Queen's Awards for Enterprise are among the most prestigious business awards in the country, with winning businesses able to use the esteemed Queen's Awards emblem for the next five years. Sphere Fluidics will be invited to celebrate its award during a royal reception for Queen's Awards winners in the summer. For further information about Sphere Fluidics, please visit: www.spherefluidics.com For more information about the Queen's Award for Enterprise, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/queens-awards-for-enterprise For a high-resolution image please contact Zyme Communications. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005347/en/ Contacts: Zyme Communications Dr. Michelle Ricketts Tel: +44 (0)778 9053 885 Email: michelle.ricketts@zymecommunications.com SAN FRANCISCO, April 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FibroGen, Inc. (FGEN) today announced that the United Kingdoms High Court of Justice has held certain patents1 relating to methods of using hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors (HIF-PHIs) to be invalid. This decision does not affect the validity of these patents across the rest of Europe. While FibroGen is disappointed with the courts decision, this UK ruling does not affect development or commercialization timelines for roxadustat, FibroGens HIF-PHI for treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease, including in the UK or elsewhere in Europe. Roxadustat is a first-in-class small molecule HIF-PH inhibitor approved in China for the treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients on dialysis and not on dialysis, and approved in Japan for the treatment of anemia in CKD patients on dialysis, with a supplemental NDA for the non-dialysis indication submitted this past January. The U.S. NDA for roxadustat for the treatment of anemia in CKD patients on dialysis and not on dialysis was accepted with a Prescription Drug Use Fee (PDUFA) date of December 20, 2020. In Europe, the Marketing Authorization Application filing for roxadustat for the treatment of anemia in both dialysis- and non-dialysis-dependent patients with CKD is expected in the second quarter of 2020. About Roxadustat Roxadustat is a first-in-class, orally administered small molecule HIF-PH inhibitor that promotes erythropoiesis through increasing endogenous production of erythropoietin, improving iron regulation, and overcoming the negative impact of inflammation on hemoglobin synthesis and red blood cell production by downregulating hepcidin. Administration of roxadustat has been shown to induce coordinated erythropoiesis, increasing red blood cell count while maintaining plasma erythropoietin levels within or near normal physiologic range in multiple subpopulations of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, including in the presence of inflammation and without a need for supplemental intravenous iron. Roxadustat is currently approved in China for the treatment of anemia in CKD patients on dialysis and patients not on dialysis and approved in Japan for the treatment of anemia in CKD patients on dialysis. The NDA filing for roxadustat for the treatment of CKD anemia was accepted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in February 2020 with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act date of December 20, 2020. Our partner Astellas expects the Marketing Authorization Application filing for roxadustat for the treatment of anemia in both dialysis- and non-dialysis-dependent patients with CKD to the European Medicines Agency in the second quarter of 2020. Roxadustat is in Phase 3 clinical development in the U.S. and Europe and in Phase 2/3 development in China for anemia associated with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and in a Phase 2 U.S. trial for treatment of chemotherapy-induced anemia. Story continues Astellas and FibroGen are collaborating on the development and commercialization of roxadustat for the treatment of anemia in territories including Japan, Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East, and South Africa. AstraZeneca and FibroGen are collaborating on the development and commercialization of roxadustat for the treatment of anemia in the U.S., China, and other markets in the Americas and in Australia/New Zealand, as well as Southeast Asia. 1 * UK designations of European patents EP(UK)1,463,823, EP(UK)2,298,301, EP(UK)1,633,333, EP(UK)2,322,153, and EP(UK)2,322,155 About FibroGen FibroGen, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, with subsidiary offices in Beijing and Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China, is a biopharmaceutical company discovering, developing, and commercializing a pipeline of first-in-class therapeutics. The company applies its pioneering expertise in hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) biology, and clinical development to advance innovative medicines for the treatment of anemia, fibrotic disease, and cancer. Roxadustat, the companys most advanced product, an oral small molecule inhibitor of HIF prolyl hydroxylase activity, is approved by the National Medical Products Administration in China for CKD patients on dialysis and not on dialysis and by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan for CKD patients on dialysis. The NDA filing for roxadustat for the treatment of CKD anemia was accepted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in February 2020. Our partner Astellas expects the Marketing Authorization Application filing for roxadustat for the treatment of anemia in both dialysis- and non-dialysis-dependent patients with CKD to the European Medicines Agency in the second quarter of 2020. Roxadustat is in Phase 3 clinical development in the U.S. and Europe and in Phase 2/3 development in China for anemia associated with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and in a Phase 2 U.S. trial for treatment of chemotherapy-induced anemia. Pamrevlumab, an anti-CTGF human monoclonal antibody, is in Phase 3 clinical development for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer, and is currently in a Phase 2 trial for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). For more information, please visit www.fibrogen.com. Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements regarding our strategy, future plans and prospects, including statements regarding the development and commercialization of the companys product candidates, our clinical programs and regulatory events, and those of our partners. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our plans, objectives, representations and contentions and are not historical facts and typically are identified by use of terms such as may, will, should, on track, could, expect, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, predict, potential, continue and similar words, although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. Our actual results may differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties related to the continued progress and timing of our various programs, including the enrollment and results from ongoing and potential future clinical trials, and other matters that are described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the risk factors set forth therein. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in this press release, except as required by law. Contact: FibroGen, Inc. Media Inquiries: Sara Iacovino 1.703.474.4452 sara.iacovino@gcihealth.com Investors: Michael Tung, M.D. Corporate Strategy / Investor Relations 1.415.978.1433 mtung@fibrogen.com The nationwide lockdown owing to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many working sectors to a standstill. With film shootings being halted and no movie screenings in cinema halls, the film industry is also facing the brunt of this outbreak. Meanwhile, our Bollywood celebrities are doing their bit to help those heavily affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The latest we hear is, Akshay Kumar has offered financial help to the owner of Mumbai's iconic single screen theatre, Gaiety-Galaxy to pay his staff amid the lockdown. As per a Mid-day report, Manoj Desai, owner of the Mumbai cinema hall, had to take a bank loan to provide salaries to his employees amid the Novel Coronavirus lockdown. On reading about it, in a previous report of the same paper, Akshay called them and offered financial assistance. Speaking about it, Manoj Desai told Mid-day, "Three days ago, I got a call from Akshayji. He offered to provide financial assistance if the scenario continues. It was kind of him to offer help, but we should find a way to sustain ourselves. We have managed to collect enough funds to pay the salaries for this month, but the theatre shutdown will have long-term ramifications. Our focus is to ensure we don't trim staff or resort to pay cuts." He said that they would incur heavy losses when the lockdown ends in early May. After two weeks of lockdown, Manoj and business partner Arun Nair had decided to increase the ticket prices as soon as the cinemas re-opened. However, after the lockdown extension, recovering from a 45-day period, is going to be tough for them. "I will head to Gaiety and Maratha Mandir today to finalise our plan of action for May. We are reworking our plans to ensure that we don't have to seek support from the industry folk," he further told the tabloid. Akshay Kumar's Sooryavanshi was supposed to release on March 24. However, the film got postponed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the superstar was one of the most celebrities who donated to PM-CARES fund. He donated Rs 25 crore to the emergency fund for COVID-19 relief. Recently, he also contributed Rs 3 crore to the BMC, to provide personal protective equipments, masks and rapid-testing kits for healthcare and municipal workers. Akshay Kumar Compares Lockdown To Salman's Bigg Boss: The Winner Is That Person Who'll Stay At Home Akshay Kumar Says He's Never Been Scared While Doing Stunts But Is Scared Because Of COVID-19 Around 600 Tunisians stranded in Libya broke main crossing point between the two countries to return home, Webdo Tunis reports. The Tunisian nationals according to the online media citing sources from the interior ministry forced the Ras Jedir entry point after they denied access by Tunisian security and customs authorities. Haythem Zaned reportedly said additional forces were sent to border crossing point to bring the situation under control as more Tunisians are flocking to the border between the two countries. Tunisia amid the fight against the novel covid-19 pandemic has repatriated thousands of its citizens stranded abroad. Around 6,000 spread across several countries are still looking to return home. The North African country has been cautious to bring back its citizens from neighboring Libya over fear intrusion of terrorists among the returnee. Thousands of Tunisians after the 2011 uprising fled to Libya to search for work. Tens of hundreds rather joined the ranks of terror groups. Posted by North Africa Post North Africa Post's news desk is composed of journalists and editors, who are constantly working to provide new and accurate stories to NAP readers. The Delhi University (DU) has sent a letter to colleges seeking details of the online classes being conducted by teachers. The Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) said teachers will not fill the form as it feels that the feedback could be used to draw a conclusion in favour of online exams. The HRD Ministry had sought details of the online classes being conducted in central universities, following which the DU sent the letter to its colleges on Monday, seeking details of the number of online classes taken, a move opposed by teachers. The DUTA has written to the vice-chancellor (VC), urging him to withdraw the letter. "We express our utter dismay at the approach taken by the university in the face of the pandemic with respect to conduct of online classes and the forthcoming semester examinations," the association wrote to the VC. The Assistant Registrar, Colleges has asked the colleges to provide a "list of courses for which online classes are being held with the help of Google Classroom, Google Hangouts, Google Meet or Zoom", it said. "The letter does not indicate as to the purpose for which this information is being sought, that too at such a short notice. "We wish to point out that the format sent out to the colleges reveals extreme shortsightedness as there is no attempt whatsoever to find out how students and teachers are coping with the abrupt closure of the university due to the pandemic and subsequent lockdown announced by the government," the DUTA said. The university had urged teachers to remain in touch with students through e-resources and the teachers did so by providing material through WhatsApp and e-mail. "The format expects teachers to answer questions in a manner that would reveal very little about the preparedness for exams or issues which they are facing," the DUTA said. The association had earlier written to the VC, opposing online examinations. "It appears that the administration is not able to appreciate the fact that the vast majority of our students face innumerable problems in accessing online classes for lack of internet services and laptops/smartphones," it said. It also highlighted how many students are not able to attend online classes due to connectivity issues. "Hence, to ask colleges to submit details of online classes on the format circulated is not only grossly misplaced but also indicates the complete lack of concern on the part of the authorities towards the well-being of students and teachers," the DUTA said. It rejected the letter and urged the university to withdraw the format immediately. "Teachers, in any case, will not fill this information, which we believe could be manipulated to draw convenient conclusions in favour of the conduct of online examinations," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Traffic section commander Mohammed Chowdhury was the 30th member of the NYPD to die Thirty uniformed and civilian members of the NYPD have died from coronavirus, the force's commissioner announced on Monday. Dermot Shea announced the death of the latest member of the force, traffic section commander Mohammed Chowdhury, on Twitter. He said the officer was 'revered' and was set to mark 30 years of service to the NYPD next week. The virus victims include 11 cops, six school safety agents, six traffic enforcement agents and seven civilian members of staff. All 30 were named and pictured in a video posted by Commissioner Shea. New York City has seen more than 140,000 cases of coronavirus, out of nearly 801,000 nationwide. The city has also seen 14,773 death so far. On Sunday, the NYPD announced that more than 4,000 members of the NYPD have tested positive for the virus. And as of Saturday, 5,324 uniformed members - about 15 per cent of the force - were off sick. That's down from a high of 7,155 officers - nearly 20 per cent of the force - on April 9. The virus victims include 11 cops, six school safety agents, six traffic enforcement agents and seven civilian members of staff So far, more than 2,000 members of the NYPD have returned to work full duty after recovering from a positive test for the coronavirus, police officials said. The Commissioner announced last week that all members of the NYPD will wear black bands across their shields to remember those who have died. All NYPD, New York City and American flags will also be lowered to half-mast at police facilities. Shea wrote in a letter to the force, which was quoted by CNN: 'This unprecedented crisis has already taken a significant toll on our NYPD family. 'We do not know how long it will last, so we will continue to honor our colleagues in this way for the foreseeable future.' On Sunday, the NYPD announced that more than 4,000 members of the NYPD have tested positive for the virus 'We do know we will emerge stronger on the other side together. And we vow to never forget our heroes' service and sacrifice. Thank you for everything you do every day, and please, stay safe.' The news comes are anti-lockdown protests gathered momentum across the US on Monday. Armed demonstrators waving Trump 2020 flags and ignoring social distancing rules called for America to reopen immediately. Crowds gathered close to one another in North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California, calling for their 'liberty'. Armed militia groups protested alongside young families and Americans out of work, all calling for businesses to be reopened. Meanwhile, Facebook has been accused of working with various state governments to limit free speech as it shuts down pages that oppose stay-at-home orders. The virus victims include 11 cops, six school safety agents, six traffic enforcement agents and seven civilian members of staff Some states mostly Republican-led ones have relaxed restrictions, and on Monday announced that they would take further steps to reopen their economies. But in North Dakota, upset protesters swarmed the capitol building while carrying 'Don't Tread on Me' flags and signs that called for freedom. Alexis Wangler is a member of Health Freedom North Dakota, the group who organized the protest, said she agreed to fight stay-at-home orders as a way to exercise the First Amendment, She told Grand Forks Herald: 'We want to exercise our First Amendment rights our freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and not have that limited by government. 'I would say that all across the nation, the executive orders have been violating people's rights.' Protesters at a rally last year in Pittsburgh. Those protesting lockdowns in multiple states recently have similarly wielded weapons. Keith Srakocic / AP Three pro-gun activist brothers are running several private Facebook groups meant to organize protests against coronavirus lockdowns. The Washington Post first reported that the three brothers, named Ben Dorr, Christopher Dorr, and Aaron Dorr, were behind several state-specific Facebook pages. Business Insider confirmed that these men were listed as admins on the groups mentioned in the Post report. The groups, which call for action against "excessive quarantine," have amassed tens of thousands of members in Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. According to The Post, the Dorr brothers also manage several gun-rights groups across a few states and have bypassed certain laws that would require them to register as lobbyists, arguing that they are grassroots organizations. A Facebook representative told The Post that the groups were not removed because the activity was not illegal in the states where the groups were based. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories Three brothers who run several pro-gun activist groups across multiple states are also behind several private Facebook groups that are organizing protests against coronavirus lockdowns. The Washington Post first reported that the three brothers, named Ben Dorr, Christopher Dorr, and Aaron Dorr, were behind several state-specific Facebook pages calling for lockdown protests. Business Insider confirmed that these men were listed as admins on the groups mentioned in the Post report. According to The Post, the brothers also manage several gun-rights groups, including Minnesota Gun Rights, that seek to challenge firearm lobbying organizations like the National Rifle Association as too restrictive on gun laws. The Post said Ben Dorr on Wednesday created the group Wisconsinites Against Excessive Quarantine, and by Sunday night it had amassed more than 99,000 members. Aaron Dorr created New Yorkers Against Excessive Quarantine, which had about 24,000 members by Sunday night, while Christopher Dorr created two groups: Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine, which had more than 65,000 members on Sunday evening, and Ohioans Against Excessive Quarantine, which had more than 14,000 members by Sunday evening. Story continues Ben Dorr, along with members from the Wisconsinites Against Excessive Quarantine group, created an event for a drive-in rally in the state capital, Madison, next week, according to The Post. The descriptions listed on some of the pages are similarly worded, further linking them together. Referring to Gov. Tony Evers, the Wisconsin Facebook group's about page says: "It's time to OPEN OUR STATE and STOP Gov. Evers' Excessive Quarantine! Politicians are on a power trip, controlling our lives, destroying our businesses, passing laws behind the cover of darkness and forcing us to hand over our freedoms and our livelihood!" The Pennsylvania group's about page is nearly identical, with Gov. Tom Wolf's name slotted in. According to The Post, some of the groups peddle right-wing conspiracy theories, such as the idea that Evers imposed a lockdown on his state to "appease pharmaceutical giants." Some of the pages also link to websites of gun-rights groups. "The brothers will do anything to fan the flames of a controversial issue, and maybe make a quick nickel," Republican Clel Baudler, a former Iowa state legislator, told The Post. According to The Post, the Dorr brothers have bypassed certain laws that would require them to register as lobbyists, contending that the groups they operate are considered grassroots activism. A Facebook representative told The Post that the groups were not removed because the activity was not illegal in the states where the groups were based. Membership to the pages has been bolstered by President Donald Trump's tweets to "LIBERATE" states from coronavirus lockdowns, in particular Virginia, saying the state's Second Amendment was "under siege." On Sunday, Trump defended lockdown opponents by calling them "good people" who were suffering from "cabin fever." "They want their lives back," Trump said during a coronavirus press briefing on Sunday. "I've never seen so many American flags. These people love our country. They want to get back to work." Read the original article on Business Insider 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 AG Nessel Joins Coalition Demanding Trump Administration Halt Rule That Would Leave 3.1 Million Americans Hungry During Pandemic AG Nessel Joins Coalition Demanding Trump Administration Halt Rule That Would Leave 3.1 Million Americans Hungry During Pandemic April 21, 2020 LANSING Attorney General Dana Nessel today joined a coalition of attorneys general and the City of New York demanding that the Trump administration immediately suspend rulemaking that would cut food assistance for 3.1 million people, including an estimated 144,000 Michiganders. In a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the coalition urges the agency not to finalize a proposed rule that would take Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from millions of low-income Americans. The rule would also make it harder to qualify for food benefits and imposes significant new administrative burdens on states. The states and New York City warn that it is irresponsible to move forward with these changes during the global pandemic involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and deepening economic crisis in which hundreds of thousands of people are ill and millions have lost jobs. Food insecurity has been a concern for millions of people across the country for a long time, and even more Americans now are struggling to feed their families as the COVID-19 pandemic has robbed them of their incomes, Nessel said. This proposed rule, if finalized, would only make it worse, and the USDA must reconsider adoption of it to avoid exacerbating an already terrible situation. USDAs proposed rule would eliminate a long-standing policy known as broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE). This policy allows states to make low-income families automatically eligible for SNAP benefits if they have already qualified to receive certain other types of public assistance. Through BBCE, states can extend SNAP benefits to low-income families that slightly exceed the programs gross income and asset limits if they also have significant critical expenses, like child care, housing or education expenses. BBCE is used by 39 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the letter sent to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, the multistate coalition asserts that USDA must immediately suspend rulemaking because if the proposed rule is finalized, it would: Take food assistance away from 3.1 million people during the pandemic: If the proposed rule is finalized now, over 3.1 million low-income people could lose critical nutrition assistance. These cuts would hit especially hard at a time when about 95 percent of Americans are under stay-at-home orders, millions of people are out of work, and there are fully signed Presidential Disaster Declarations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Impair the national response to COVID-19: To prevent the further spread of COVID-19, which has already killed more than 36,000 Americans, including more than 2,400 Michigan residents, it is necessary for people to comply with stay-at-home orders in their jurisdictions and continue social distancing. In order to do so, they must be able to feed themselves, whether they are still employed, searching for employment or able to work from home. Additionally, many essential workersgrocery store clerks, delivery drivers, warehouse workers, among otherswho are keeping the country running during the public health emergency rely on food stamps. These workers should not have to worry about how to feed their own families too. Impose major administrative burdens on states that are desperately fighting COVID-19: The rule would impose substantial additional administrative burdens on the states, at a time when states are acting as front-line public health and economic responders and focusing resources on keeping residents safe. BBCE was intended to reduce administrative costs and burdens by allowing states to qualify families for multiple benefits programs at once, rather than having to assess the same families multiple times and using separate qualification processes for each program. By eliminating BBCE, the USDA would force states to duplicate efforts as they evaluate residents for programs. The coalition also argues that implementing the proposed rule would run counter to guidance from the Office of Management and Budget directing federal agencies to prioritize all resources to slow the spread of COVID-19. They emphasize there is no plausible argument that implementing the proposed rule would help slow the spread of COVID-19 and urge USDA to focus on supporting families throughout this crisis instead of denying needed assistance. Joining Nessel in signing this letter were the attorneys general from the District of Columbia, New York, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, and the Corporation Counsel for the City of New York. ### Ryan Jarvi 517-335-7666 Attorney General Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Tuesday he would accept "no compromises" at a videoconference of EU leaders this week aimed at addressing the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Conte told an Italian parliament session that he would not sign up to a "bargain deal" at Thursday's conference. "The EU and the eurozone cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes they made in the 2008 financial crisis, when it not possible to offer a joint response," he said. "Either we all win, or we all lose." Conte's push for the issuance of mutualised EU debt -- dubbed coronabonds -- has run into opposition from countries such as Germany and the Netherlands. EU finance ministers have agreed an initial rescue package worth about 500 billion euros ($545 billion) but pushed back any decision on joint debt earlier this month. Up to 240 billion euros of the rescue are being made available through the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) -- a bailout fund whose use is usually accompanied by EU oversight and conditions. The ESM is politically toxic in Italy and Conte has said he was unconvinced that the conditions will be less stringent this time. But he said Tuesday that he did not wan to oppose the ESM outright because other hard-hit countries such as Spain -- another supporter of the coronabonds -- were in favour of its use. Italy's official COVID-19 toll of 24,114 is the highest in Europe and second globally after the United States. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) I t started not long after the lockdown was announced: daily notifications from astrology app The Pattern became focused on attempting to explain the current pandemic as the result of tension building in the world. It sounded trite, but now Ive come to enjoy these prompts offering ways in which we can be more compassionate at this challenging time like the classic Virgo I am. Theres been a surge in interest for astrology as people seek ways to explain whats going on and how it affects them. Another app called Sanctuary has seen strong demand for its personalised service: the 15-minute reading offers a moment for users to ask questions regarding what the stars say about life right now. We saw some of our top days for all of 2020 in March, in terms of demand for readings, as the Covid-19 crisis was increasing in the US and Europe, explains founder and CEO Ross Clark. Its the same for astrology influencers too. Tess Lee goes by @astrogrlz on Instagram and Twitter, which sends thoughts and advice to their 125,000 followers. Lee, who is based in the US, prefers Twitter for its threads function which allows astrologers to dispense information regarding key dates in the calendar, and its here where theyve seen interest rise: last week, the Astrogrlz Twitter account attracted 300 followers in only two hours People want answers, hope and confirmation that they and their family are going to be OK, says Lee. Ive been looking to astrology and where the planets are in a more constructive manner. I think people need a silver lining and whenever I see it, I try to really emphasise that in my horoscopes. Jill Wintersteen (@spiritdaughter) echoes this. "Most people just want to know when this will end and if the stars provide any clues. There are some pieces of information but unfortunately, there's no crystal ball with all of the answers." On Instagram, you can also find astrologer and author Chani Nicholas (@chaninicholas), who is posting weekly horoscopes, daily positive quarantine affirmations (Be gentle, rest often, soften), and the occasional meme to keep things light. Memes are a way many people get into astrology via social media, of which Courtney Perkins of @notallgeminis, dubbed the astrology meme queen by Nylon magazine, is mainly responsible. A recent series of posts considered the attributes of all 12 astrological signs along with amusing things to try during the quarantine. Aries sign? Perkinss advice is to download every game app and dance in your room, whereas Cancers are more likely to be cooking and smelling incense. Lees advice if youre looking to try out astrology for the first time is to balance social media with books, such as Donna Cunninghams An Astrological Guide to Self-awareness or Nicholass You Were Born For This. Lees big tip right now is to follow the moon. The moon changes signs the most so if you want an indicator of how your day is going to go and what challenges are going to be thrown your way, then pay attention to the sign its in at the moment and how it interacts with the other planets." PHOENIX A high-profile Arizona prosecutor challenged a decision to fire him after a 30-year career. Juan Martinezs appeal of his termination was released Monday by the Maricopa County Attorneys Office, The Arizona Republic reports. Martinez became well known when he prosecuted Jodi Arias, who was convicted of killing Travis Alexander in his Mesa home in 2008. The appeal filed by Martinezs attorney, Thomas Brown, said the prosecutor was disciplined after allegations he sexually harassed female law clerks and a female deputy county attorney from 2007 to 2017. Martinez received a written reprimand and completed a recommended sexual harassment training session. Kenneth Vick, the countys chief deputy attorney, is attempting to punish Martinez over conduct for which he was already disciplined, the appeal said. Mr. Martinez rightfully believed that after accepting the discipline, he should be able to move forward with his distinguished career, Brown wrote. Martinezs attorney also questioned the chief deputys authority to take action to terminate the prosecutor since he is not the county attorney. Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel declined to comment because of Martinezs appeal. ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its focus on strategic growth, ARServices announces that William "Will" Harman has joined the company as Operations Director, Research and Development Support Services. In this role, Will leads the ARServices R&D portfolio. Will has a long and distinguished record supporting scientific organizations with a focus on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats. He spent nine years working at the Defense Threat reduction Agency (DTRA) in multiple roles, culminating as the Deputy Director, Research and Development while a Colonel in the US Army. Between assignments at DTRA, he served as a Division Chief on the US Army Staff responsible for the Army's overall Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction and Arms Control Treaty policies while supporting strategy and planning development and implementation. Following his retirement from the military, Will was Engility Corporation's Portfolio Manager, responsible for all advisory and assistance support related to CBRN operations across the Department of Defense (DoD). Most recently, he served as the Director of Operations for Branch Civil Inc., a large construction company in Virginia. Will holds three Master's degrees (Nuclear Engineering, Strategic Studies, and Construction) in addition to a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering Technology from Old Dominion University. Will is PMP certified and a certified Professional Engineer (P.E.). Will and his wife, Sharon reside in the Stafford area and have three adult children in Northern Virginia. About ARServices: ARServices is an SBA 8(a) Certified Small Disadvantaged Business with a headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia and seven additional locations across the Continental United States and Hawaii. ARServices is a purpose-built federal contractor that understands the unique challenges facing the federal government. The company has been built to provide the staff, expertise, and capabilities federal agencies need for the successful provision of constituent service and mission achievement. Learn more about ARServices at: http://arslimited.com/ SOURCE ARServices Related Links http://arslimited.com/ Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Over the past week, protesters have held a series of demonstrations against shelter in place restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 in more than a dozen U.S. states, according to news reports. There was also a small counter-protest by health care workers in Colorado, as reported by CNN. Though the demonstrations have been largely peaceful, a protester attacked at knifepoint a FOX 11 news photographer in Huntington Beach, California, demanding that he delete any video that he appeared in, according to a report by the journalists employer. With many demonstrators ignoring physical distancing guidelines, journalists should be aware of the risk of exposure to COVID-19 while covering the protests. Media workers planning to cover the protests should therefore consider the following safety information, and also read CPJs regularly updated COVID-19 safety advisory. Pre-Assignment With many newsrooms operating with skeleton staff, there may be a temptation to send individual reporters to cover protests. Assess the risk and if necessary work in pairs or hire a backwatcher or security guard, noting the recent knife attack against the FOX 11 photojournalist in California Consider who is suitable for the assignment given the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Older people and individuals with underlying health conditions are considered high risk, according to the CDC, as well as those who are pregnant Also consider the journalists ethnicity, noting an increase in hate crimes and racist incidents targeting people of Asian descent, as reported by Al-Jazeera Online harassment around COVID-19 reporting could potentially increase as a result of anti-media rhetoric and sentiment, as reported by CPJ. A useful psychological safety guide on how to protect your mental health if you experience online harassment can be found here Ensure you have a regular check-in procedure with your management team or office Plan the assignment and ensure that the battery on your cell phone is fully charged. Know the area you are going to and work out in advance what to do in the event of an emergency On Assignment Remain alert to the risk of people spitting / coughing close to or on you, either accidentally or deliberately. Ensure you maintain a minimum distance of at least 2 meters with everybody at all times The CDC recommends that people wear a cloth face covering to cover their nose and mouth, though a better quality N95 mask (or FFP2 / FFP3) is preferable. Strict adherence to face mask safety is essential When working in or close to a crowd, plan a strategy. Try to keep to the outside of the crowd and avoid the middle, where it is hard to escape. Identify all possible escape routes Wear clothing and footwear that allow you to move swiftly. Avoid wearing necklaces, ponytails, lanyards or anything that can be grabbed, as well as flammable material, such as nylon Use long sight lenses to help maintain a safe distance on location, as well as directional fishpole microphones instead of clip mics. Wherever possible use mobile equipment rather than those with cables. Please see the CPJ COVID-19 safety advisory for more information Take regular breaks and be mindful of fatigue and energy levels, taking into account that tired individuals are more likely to make mistakes with hand washing and hygiene routine Consider your position. Try to find an elevated position that may offer greater safety Maintain situational awareness at all times and limit valuables in your possession such as jewelry and watches. Do not leave any equipment or other valuable items in vehicles Continually monitor local sources for news of any location-specific movement restrictions in place If the police decide to break up a protest, and/or protests turn violent, be aware of the dangers posed by crowd control measures such as kettling and/or the use of tear gas At any location, always plan and identify an evacuation route. If working with others, select an emergency rendezvous point If faced with aggression: Read body language and use your own body language to pacify a situation Keep eye contact with an aggressor, use open hand gestures and keep talking with a calming manner Keep an extended arms length from the threat. Back away and if someone grabs hold of you, break away firmly without aggression. If cornered and in danger, shout If the situation escalates, keep a hand free to protect your head and move with short, deliberate steps to avoid falling. If in a team, stick together and link arms Be aware of the situation and your own safety. While there are times when documenting aggression can be newsworthy, taking pictures of aggressive individuals can escalate a situation For additional information and tools for pre-assignment preparation and post-incident assistance, visit CPJs Resource Center. The TMC on Tuesday dubbed as "adventure tourism" the visit of Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (ICMTs) to West Bengal to monitor some districts over coronavirus cases and questioned why teams were not sent to states with much higher number of cases and hotspots. Addressing reporters through a zoom conference, TMC MPs Derek O' Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was informed about the team's visit three hours after its arrival which was unacceptable. "The ICMT team is on an adventure tourism. The CM was told about the team's visit three hours after the team landed," said O' Brien. He also questioned why central teams did not visit states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh with higher number of coronavirus cases and many more hotspots. Bandyopadhyay said that 425 tests are conducted everyday and from Tuesday the number the number of tests conducted daily would be increased to 600. Both the leaders said that it was not a question of "state vs state" and appealed to the Centre to cooperate with the states. They said once proper protocols are followed, then the state would be happy to coordinate with the government. The Union Home Ministry had on Monday announced that six inter-ministerial central teams (IMCTs) will visit identified areas in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan within the next three days to make on-the-spot assessment of coronavirus situation and lockdown measures and recommend remedial measures in a report to the Centre. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ten years after the Deepwater Horizon blowout that killed 11 people and sprayed 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, there is an easy way to ensure a similar accident never happens again. No, there is no rule the industry could follow to make drilling foolproof. There is a simpler way: Permanently end new deepwater drilling. The Coronavirus Recession and the global oil glut prove we can do it. The CEOs of Big Oil companies and Texas business leaders talk a lot these days about reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and fighting climate change. If we shaved global demand by just 2 percent, we could eliminate the need to ever drill another well in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil industry has changed a lot since the Macondo well blew out. Back then, U.S. onshore wells produced only 4 million barrels a day. Prices were flitting around $100 a barrel. We worried about where we would find more oil. TOMLINSONS TAKE: Energy execs need market overhauls to fight climate change Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling now produce more than 12 million barrels a day from U.S. onshore wells. U.S. offshore oil production is nearly 2 million barrels a day, just short of its all-time high, according to the Energy Information Administration. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world consumed about 100 million barrels a day. But the world has the capacity to produce more than 105 million. To balance things out, Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to hold back 2 million barrels a day to prop up prices. COVID-19 has since cut oil demand by 20 million barrels a day, and the world is struggling to reduce production before storage tanks overflow. No one knows when oil demand will fully return, but there is an excellent chance it will take years before we reach 100 million barrels of demand again. Even then, the world has too much oil. Venezuelas political turmoil has cut production by 2 million barrels a day. Libyas civil war has taken out 1 million barrels. Nigerias troubles have shaved another 500,000 barrels. The U.S. could stop drilling new wells in the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow with no impact on international oil prices or energy security. And if we care about global warming, now is a good time to stop drilling. Irish scientist John Tyndall demonstrated in the 1860s how higher carbon levels in the atmosphere cause higher air temperatures. Scientists have calculated what carbon levels will make life on the planet miserable. To avoid widespread environmental and economic disruption, humans can only afford to release another 986 gigatons of carbon over the next 50 years. The top 20 oil companies have already announced plans to extract 1,541 gigatons during that period, according to the World Resource Institute, an environmental group. Much of that tonnage will come from the Gulf of Mexico, where deepwater wells require an enormous upfront investment. BP says its Mad Dog Phase II, for example, will cost $9 billion and produce 140,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent from 5 billion barrels of reserves. As BP proved with Macondo, though, Gulf of Mexico wells require taking enormous risks. Most new wells go deeper than ever to access oil that is hotter and at higher pressure than ever. Oil companies like drilling big, risky, deepwater wells because they make money. But they make little sense for the public and the planet. We have already found all the oil we should ever burn, there are cheaper sources available, and offshore wells pose enormous risks to the environment and workers. TOMLINSONS TAKE: Collapse in oil prices a glimpse of the industrys future Big Oil talks a lot about transitioning to cleaner forms of energy, so lets consider how they could spend their billions in other ways. If an oil company invested $9 billion in onshore wind projects, it could produce 540 million megawatt-hours of electricity over 30 years at the current average price of $1.75 million per megawatt of installed turbine capacity operating 40 percent of the time. Thats enough electricity to travel 146 billion miles in an electric vehicle that averages 3.7 miles per kilowatt-hour, such as my Chevy Bolt. Thats 146 billion miles traveled without any emissions, no damage to marine life, and no risk of fiery death for offshore workers. If the U.S. stopped approving new wells today, we would still be pumping oil from existing wells at least until 2042, according to EIA data, so the industry would not go away overnight. Companies would have time to make the energy transition they have promised. There is no good reason for drilling wells in the Gulf of Mexico, except that to a hammer everything is a nail. Lets stop selling new leases, encourage smarter alternatives and save some lives and the environment. Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy. twitter.com/cltomlinson chris.tomlinson@chron.com New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday (April 21) advised the state governments to not use new rapid antibody test for coronavirus COVID-19 for two days, saying it will investigate the issue of faulty kits. "Too much variations have been reported in results of rapid test kits and RT-PCR kits. We advise states not to use them for the next two days," R Gangakhedkar, head scientist of ICMR said during the daily press briefing today. He said that ICMR has received a complaint from a state on April 20 and has so far discussed with three other states. "These kits will be tested and validated in the field by our teams. We will issue a clear-cut advisory in two days. If problems are detected in batches, we will tell the companies for replacement," he said. He said that a total of 4,49,810 samples for COVID-19 infection have been tested till Tuesday of which 35,852 were done on April 20 and as many as 29,776 samples have been tested in 201 labs under the ICMR network, and 6,076 at 86 private laboratories. He said the government has created a portal with the master database of healthcare professionals and volunteers. "Till now, details of 1.24 crore human resources of various kinds have been added to it." Lav Agrawal, the Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry, told the press conference that 18,601 positive cases have been reported across the country so far. As many as 3,252 people have been cured till now, he said, adding 705 of them recovered on April 20. "This takes our recovery percentage to 17.48," he said. [April 21, 2020] Leading Smart Cities Accelerator URBAN-X Graduates Seventh Startup Cohort in First-Ever Online Demo Day URBAN-X, the leading accelerator for startups reimagining city life backed by MINI and Urban Us, today graduated its seventh cohort of companies in its first-ever virtual Demo Day. From cities across the globe, seven founders presented their solutions online to an audience of investors, customers and public-sector leaders, showcasing hardware and software solutions to combat the world's climate emergency and other emerging challenges impacting cities. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005721/en/ URBAN-X Cohort 07 Founders (Photo: Business Wire) URBAN-X, launched by MINI in 2016 as part of the brand's innovation practice and in partnership with venture firm Urban Us, invests up to $150,000 in up to 10 companies building solutions to address the most complex challenges cities face today. Now in its seventh cohort, seven startups today showcased solutions ranging from drone infrastructure for emergency response, EV charging software, novel materials inspired by nature to decompose air pollution, automated sewage assessment, predictive analytics for the construction and energy industries, and IoT-based solutions for food safety and cold-chain integrity. "Building creative solutions for a brighter urban life is in our DNA," said URBAN-X Managing Director, Micah Kotch. "As the need for solutions for local resilience has come into clearer focus across the world over the past weeks, we could not be more proud of the dedication Cohort 07 has shown in addressing large-scale challenges to improve city life." The full list of Cohort 07 companies include: ChargeLab : Making electric vehicle charging simple through an open EV charging management platform. Making electric vehicle charging simple through an open EV charging management platform. Therma : Building technology to ensure food safety and waste reduction from farm to fork. Building technology to ensure food safety and waste reduction from farm to fork. EVA : Provides drone infrastructure and airborne logistics for vertical take off and landing transportation in healthcare and emergency response. Provides drone infrastructure and airborne logistics for vertical take off and landing transportation in healthcare and emergency response. Firmus : Leverages AI and historical data to help construction companies learn from previous mistakes and automatically detect errors in the early stages of design. Leverages AI and historical data to help construction companies learn from previous mistakes and automatically detect errors in the early stages of design. Hades : Provides automated assessment of sewer infrastructure, improving public health and environmental protection. Provides automated assessment of sewer infrastructure, improving public health and environmental protection. Metalmark : Develops novel materials for highly efficient catalytic decomposition of air pollutants, making clean air globally accessible and affordable. Develops novel materials for highly efficient catalytic decomposition of air pollutants, making clean air globally accessible and affordable. Unety: A SaaS (News - Alert)-enabledmarketplace for sustainable finance that automates underwriting to reduce the time and costs of each transaction. Responding to real-time challenges as the crisis around COVID-19 has emerged, EVA is deploying its high throughput drone docking stations to aid in COVID-19 response efforts. EVA began working with partners in Europe and New York State to combat supply chain disruptions and support delivery of essential goods to healthcare institutions, pharmacies and home-bound elderly populations. Other companies that have deployed their technology to help cities respond to COVID-19 include current and alumni URBAN-X companies: AO Air, Circuit, Food For All, GreenQ, Near Space Labs, Numina, Therma, Thrilling and Upshift. "MINI is committed to agile innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship to build meaningful solutions that improve quality of life in cities in unexpected ways," said Mike Peyton, Vice President, MINI of the Americas. "Cohort 07 exemplifies these qualities, which are needed now more than ever as we provide support to one another across the global community." The event will be livestreamed here beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET. URBAN-X has a proven track record in helping early-stage companies secure funding from leading investors. In fact, 80% of URBAN-X companies have gone on to raise their next round of capital. "Cities are central not just to climate action, but to resilience as well. This is especially apparent today," said Shaun Abrahamson, URBAN-X Investment Committee and Managing Partner at Urban Us. "We are thrilled to support the founders of Cohort 07 now and into the future, and to continue to invest in driven entrepreneurs improving city life through URBAN-X." In addition to investments that URBAN-X and Urban Us made as part of the accelerator program, funds and individuals that have invested in URBAN-X portfolio companies include Fred Wilson, Brad Burnham, Edgar Bronfman Jr., BMW i Ventures, Draper Associates, Fontinalis Partners, Ekistic Ventures, Wireframe Ventures, Fifth Wall Ventures, Samsung (News - Alert) NEXT, Story Ventures, Kairos, and UL Ventures. URBAN-X Cohort 08 will launch this summer and will be the first URBAN-X class to be conducted completely online. URBAN-X looks for the brightest startups creating disruptive and scalable solutions across sectors such as public health and safety, food, water, energy, construction, mobility, and more. With an existing portfolio of companies in public health and safety, paired with the unprecedented health and economic challenges resulting from COVID-19, this also includes new companies that can aid in COVID-19 response efforts and related impacts, such as solutions for first responders and those on the frontlines of the pandemic; those that support elderly, vulnerable and isolated populations; and those that ease pressures on government services. About URBAN-X URBAN-X is the leading accelerator for technology and design startups reimagining city life. Founded by MINI, URBAN-X helps early-stage companies from all over the world address modern urban challenges across sectors like transport, real estate, local government, food, water, waste and utilities. Twice a year, URBAN-X selects up to 10 startups for its competitive, five-month program of product and business development. The accelerator invests $150,000 in each startup and puts them to work with a dedicated, in-house team of engineering, design and business experts; involves working trips to Munich, San Francisco and other major cities; and culminates in founders presenting to an audience of investors, thought leaders and media. URBAN-X has a global reach unparalleled by any other urbantech accelerator and the startups have access to a network of over 2,000 partners around the world, including entrepreneurs, investors and public-sector leaders, who have volunteered to support the founders through the URBAN-X program. During the year, URBAN-X leadership visits cities worldwide -- in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and beyond -- to meet entrepreneurs and individuals shaping the future of urban life. URBAN-X is based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at A/D/O, a creative space founded by MINI and dedicated to exploring the boundaries of design. Find URBAN-X on Twitter (News - Alert) & Instagram at @urbanxaccel and on Facebook at facebook.com/urbanxaccel. About MINI in the US MINI is an independent brand of the BMW Group. In the United States, MINI USA operates as a business unit of BMW of North America, LLC, located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey and includes the marketing and sales organizations for the MINI brand. The MINI USA sales organization is represented in the U.S. through a network of 122 MINI passenger car dealers in 39 states. MINI USA began selling vehicles in the U.S. in 2002 with the introduction of the MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S Hardtops. Since then, the MINI Brand in the U.S. has grown to encompass a model range of five unique vehicles. Journalist notes: Media information about MINI and its products is available to journalists on-line at www.miniusanews.com. About Urban Us Urban Us is the leading early stage investor for startups re-imagining cities. Cities will soon be home to 70% of the global population, who now face unprecedented risk from climate change. Our 2014 and 2016 funds achieve top quartile performance for investors while also generating substantial public benefits. Urban Us recently launched our third fund to continue our focus on founders reimagining cities. The Urban Us platform includes the Urban Us network, a resource for urbantech focused founders, investors, partners and customers. URBAN-X, in partnership with MINI, supports early stage teams with company building and fundraising. Perl Street serves teams needing access to non-equity capital for project finance, asset finance and inventory finance. Our newest partnerships will help startups access partners and customers in Asia. Before Urban Us, the Urban Us team had three exits and ran a VC fund and municipal finance for Citi. Notable investments before Urban Us include Trialpay, Blue Bottle Coffee, Refinery29 and ZocDoc. The Urban Us portfolio includes 53 investments across real estate, infrastructure, energy, water, waste, food, transportation and public administration including health and security. Notable investments include, Bowery Farming, Starcity, Mark43, One Concern, Future Motion, Skycatch, BRCK and Rachio. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005721/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Cleveland ISD will have no face-to-face teaching for the rest of the school year. The decision comes after Governor Greg Abbott canceled all in-person classes in the state for the rest of the year on April 17. School districts like Cleveland ISD are required to prioritize remote learning until next year. In addition to closing schools, Abbott announced a path to reopening businesses in the state. The plan will allow retailers to open drive-up operations on April 24, doctors in non-frontline specialties to resume some procedures beginning Wednesday and reopen state parks immediately. Coronavirus coverage: 90-day rule helps Liberty County entities weather coronavirus challenges Cleveland ISD will follow suit to help prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading. We will continue to do our part in supporting the nations call to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 within our community, said Cleveland ISD superintendent Chris Trotter said in a letter to the community. With that, I wanted to inform you that today Cleveland ISD has made the decision to remain closed while providing remote instructions. Abbott originally announced that schools could possibly open back up on May 4, but as the coronavirus continues to sweep the nation he decided to cancel school for the remainder of the school year. There has been no announcement on prom or graduation from Cleveland ISD. However, Trotter previously said that he wishes to have both events for the seniors for their memories. In the meantime, Cleveland ISD will continue with remote learning. Learning packets are available online on the districts website or parents and students can pick up learning packets on Monday from 9-11 a.m. at Cleveland Middle School, Montebello Park and Speedway Racetrack on Fostoria. Other locations to pick up packets include Cleveland Brookshire Bros., Cleveland HEB, Carniceria La Hacienda (HEB shopping center), Fuel Depot No. 12 in Cleveland, Dollar General (Ranchito Alegre off FM 1010), Family Dollar in Gran San Jacinto, Bear Creek Grocery (FM 1725), and Dollar General (Fostoria Rd). Cleveland ISD will continue to provide meals for children 18 and younger every Monday and Thursday from 9-11. a.m. at Cleveland Middle School, Montebello Park and Speedway Racetrack on Fostoria. As this fluid situation continues, I wanted to extend my gratitude to your family during this time, Trotter said. Thank you for continue to be patient with us as we rolled out our remote leaning plans and please know that because of your trust in this process, we will get through this together. marcus.gutierrez@chron.com Twitter:@MarcG14Line SYDNEY, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- This is a call to action United in gratitude World Tribute Day (WTD) has been launched by philanthropic Amar Hadid as a global tribute to healthcare workers, essential service workers and the victims of COVID-19. The two-minute tribute is scheduled to take place around the world on Thursday 11 June 2020. Public Relations coordinator Dr Simon Gadir has commended the worldwide tribute effort saying "The world needs to support our defenders". "World Tribute Day is proud to be associated with a young person whose convictions are clearly for the common good of all through respect and engagement". Thanking the operators of WTD for so generously backing her passion and her campaign, Ms Amar Hadid delivered a speech as below: "I'm calling on everyone to join me in holding a worldwide tribute to all those fighting to contain and eliminate the COVID-19 virus that is gripping the world. I want to be part of universal display of gratitude and esteem for our healthcare workers, essential service workers and medical researchers, and also to acknowledge the victims of the virus and their families. Together we can rise in a demonstration of hope for a world free of the threat of COVID-19. To be a success we all should own it. Everyone everywhere can take part - spontaneous groups of individuals, as we are already witnessing - and local, national and world leaders, governments, charities, celebrities, influencers, professional organisations, companies. Everyone gathering in the interests of boosting the morale of their individual and international medics and communities. Ms Hadid added that by doing so, "We would be showing our gratitude to all those 'in the front line' caring for and helping save the lives of infected patients - nurses and doctors, paramedics, essential services, carers, drivers, orderlies, cleaners, all admin and support staff, virus testers, contact tracers - and to the medical researchers and lab technicians striving to develop a cure and an effective way to treat the sufferers. Many of them work directly with the virus every day." Dr Gadir and Ms Hadid said World Tribute Day wants us all to publicly acknowledge that so many of these heroes are working selflessly, tirelessly and in hope, knowing the risks of having such immediate contact with this highly contagious and so far untreatable scourge. Ms Hadid said: "Together we rise in tribute to say a big thank you to our Medics". She said: "Sadly, some have themselves caught and succumbed to COVID-19, which can strike anyone. Knowing the dangers, they have become victims while attending patients. They have joined the many thousands around the world being taken by the virus, leaving grieving loved ones behind. We would be selling all health workers short if we do not also acknowledge the very victims they risk their lives for". Ms Hadid said: "I am proposing we demonstrate our gratitude and high esteem and remembrance in the following way: EVENT: A two minute tribute comprising of a one minute silence for the victims of the virus, followed by one minute of sustained applause for the health professionals and support staff. DATE & TIME: At 2pm on Thursday11 June 2020, and at 2pm on 11 March in future years, commencing in 2021. The 11th of March date marks the day the COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. A tribute on that day will remind all to acknowledge the compassion and sacrifices of many, and the successes that will save millions of lives. VENUE: Wherever one is, in every place in every country, and as publicly and jointly as possible - at work, at home, on balconies, in schools, on streets, in parks and shopping centres, and in Parliaments. In any place, especially if the tribute can be communal and comply with COVID-19 protocols. Ms Hadid concluded, "No one alone owns this proposal. It belongs to everyone. It builds on the spontaneous demonstrations of gratitude already occurring in some cities, villages and neighbourhoods around the world. It is an opportunity for us all to act together as one. I ask you to spread the word." When Dr Gadir was asked about Amar Hadid, he said: "Amar is a focussed 21-year-old Sydney University student and Elite Athlete. An accomplished sportsperson awarded the world's first university skateboarding scholarship, in 2017 till current. She is an international skateboarder seeking selection in the Australian Tokyo Olympics team. Amar has been twice selected as an Australia Day Ambassador. She is a rapper, with a passionate belief that engagement is the answer to international hope and sustainable overall harmony, equality for women, sports, education and a healthier world. We at WTD value youth who are interested in a better world via engagement and respect for all". Dr Gadir said: "We look forward to everyone's feedback and responses on social media". Social Media Channels: @worldtributeday include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Instagram. Website: www.worldtributeday.org (Launches on 26 April 2020) BACKGROUNDER 'World Tribute Day' for further information click here http://www.worldtributeday.org/read-more.html 21. Apr 2020 at 12:56 I Modified at 23. Apr 2020 at 22:37 I Premium content Kajetan Kicura was detained during an operation linked to suspected machinations during a public procurement, even during the coronavirus crisis. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled One month after Kajetan Kicura was dismissed from his position as head of the state material reserves and a criminal prosecution was launched due to the purchase of medical equipment signed under his watch, the police raided Kicuras house. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Related story: Related story: The police launch prosecution in the purchase of medical equipment Read more The Dennik N daily was first to inform about this on Tuesday morning. The house search at Kicuras house in central Slovakia is linked to suspected machinations in a public procurement. The police and the prosecutor have accused Kicura of accepting bribes and legalising income from criminal activities. The prosecutor has also proposed prosecuting him while in custody, which was later approved by both the Constitutional Court and the Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok. Prosecutor gave his consent for detention The police also confirmed that they were conducting activities in the Zilina and Banska Bystrica regions. Besides the former head of the material reserves, the police raided the house of Kicuras father, Rudolf Kicura. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Palu, Central Sulawesi Tue, April 21 2020 City-owned developer PT Bangun Palu Sulawesi Tengah (BPST), which oversees the development of the Palu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Central Sulawesi, has reported that at least two manufacturers are still operating in the industrial district amid the unfolding COVID-19 outbreak. Moringa processing company PT Moringa Organik Celebes Indonesia (MOCI), which operates in the SEZ, is developing an integrated machine to process moringa leaves and seeds, said BPST president commissioner Iwan Yunus recently. MOCI has planted drumstick trees on a 10-hectare piece of land to provide raw materials for its factory. The company is seeking to produce 20 tons of moringa powder from a 40 ha plantation. 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 NYPD: Thousands Have Recovered From COVID-19 NEW YORKOver 2,200 members of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) have recovered from COVID-19 and returned to their posts as of Sunday. The largest police force in America has seen a total of 4,371 positive cases of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19. At some point, nearly 20 percent of the force was out sick, but that number has since dropped to 14 percent, according to a press release. Its good news for the agency, but the silver lining surprised NYPD Sergeant Joseph Imperatrice. Its incredible because you see all around the worldespecially in this citythese officers that have been seriously ill, some of them have gone to the hospital, some of them have lost love ones, said Imperatrice, whos also the founder of Blue Lives Matter NYC. And to have these officers back on the front line to do their jobs and to know that their healthy, thats the most important thing. NYPD officers stand outside a temporary hospital in New York City on April 10, 2020. (Johannes Eisele /AFP via Getty Images) Fundraiser for the Fallen But dozens of New Yorks finest have fallen to the CCP virus. Another two members of the NYPD died over the weekendtotaling 29 deaths since the first officer on March 27. Traffic Section Commander Mohammed Chowdhury, who would have marked 30 years of NYPD service next week, succumbed to the virus, wrote Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on Twitter. Last night, Traffic Section Commander Mohammed Chowdhury succumbed to #COVID19. Mohammed, who would have marked 30 years of NYPD service next week, was revered by members of our Transportation Bureau. The prayers of a thankful city go out to his family & coworkers.#NeverForget pic.twitter.com/ceEqaHzYpl Commissioner Shea (@NYPDShea) April 20, 2020 The prayers of a thankful city go out to his family & workers, he added. Traffic Enforcement Agent Jason Lewis also died from the virus that weekend. Imperatrice said hes thinking of having a fundraiser for their families to cover funeral costs or anything else they might need. Hopefully, going forward, when all this ends up stopping and becomes safe again, it would be great if Blue Lives Matter NYC had the opportunity of possibly throwing one big bash outside for all the families, he said. Everyone could come and support them, and possibly raise a ton of money which would be divvied up to each family. To help reduce the number of new positive cases in the NYPD and other agencies, Imperatrice said people should continue being more considerate of hygiene and keeping a distance from people. From NTD News We are proud to be able to provide Five Points Bank with a product that is intuitive and easy to use as well as full-featured enough to satisfy its broad requirements. Banc Intranets, a provider of secure, web-based enterprise content management solutions, has expanded its client base to include Five Points Bank. The Nebraska-based bank will be implementing the companys BancWorks employee intranet product to replace its current cumbersome intranet solution. A robust all-in-one product, BancWorks combines content management, document management and an array of other capabilities. BancWorks also offers industry-specific features, and it is backed by Banc Intranets strong reputation in the regional community bank marketplace. In addition it is easy for administrators, employees and others to use, making it the ideal solution for Five Points Bank. BancWorks will simplify the process of managing our documents, content and other information, so we can better serve the needs of our customers and community, said Jason Amick, VP Information Technology of Five Points Bank. We are looking forward to capitalizing on its comprehensive, user-friendly features for our employees and financial institution. We are proud to be able to provide Five Points Bank with a product that is intuitive and easy to use as well as full-featured enough to satisfy its broad requirements, said Mark Anderson, CEO of Banc Intranets. BancWork will serve Five Points well in its commitment to deliver personalized, full-service banking in Nebraska. BancWorks is a turn-key employee intranet product that enables organizations like Five Points Bank to provide secure, online access to their corporate information. Employees can log into the system and view policies/procedures, product information, rates and other content on their PC, tablet or smartphone. They can also take advantage of time-saving tools and other valuable resources that can enhance their workflow. BancWorks includes multiple modules that expand its functionality, including electronic forms, learning management, a ticket system, blogging, employee recognition, and FAQs. It also offers an enhanced search tool, critical data loss prevention features and helpful analytics about intranet usage. About Five Points Bank Five Points Bank has $1.2 billion in assets and 160 employees spread across more than ten locations in Nebraska. Established September of 1971, the bank operates branches in Grand Islandwhere it is headquarteredKearney, Lincoln, Omaha, Papillion/La Vista, Sumner and Hastings. Five Points Bank has been recognized by banking publications such as Bankrate.com and Bauer Financial for its overall exceptional safe and sound operation. To learn more about the bank, visit http://www.5pointsbank.com. About Banc Intranets Established in 2002, Banc Intranets, LLC is a leading provider of secure, web-based enterprise content management solutions for financial institutions. Its technology provides a single point of access across multiple devices for information and centralizes employee onboarding and training, streamlining day-to-day operations for bank directors and senior managers. In addition to increasing efficiency and productivity, Banc Intranets solutions are developed by financial industry professionals, providing comprehensive reporting that is critical to maintaining regulatory compliance. For more information, visit http://www.bancintranets.com or follow the company on LinkedIn and Twitter. Uttar Pradesh Police said they had arrested 30 people including a professor of Allahabad University and 16 members of Tablighi Jamaat from Indonesia and Thailand in Prayagraj late Monday night, for hiding their travel history and violating travel norms during lockdown imposed in view of the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities had quarantined them on March 31 at different locations and arrested them Monday night after the quarantine period ended. Among those arrested seven are from Indonesia, nine from Thailand and one each from Kerala and Bengal. Caretakers of Abdullah mosque in Shahganj and Hera masjid in Kareli have also been arrested, said police officials. Follow coronavirus latest updates here. Thirty people were arrested under the Foreigners Act, Epidemic Act and relevant sections of IPC. They will be produced in a court, Senior Superintendent of Police Satyarth Anirudh Pankaj said. Police said that the foreigners were charged with violating visa norms and failing to adhere to the Epidemic Act by not declaring the fact that they attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhis Nizamuddin last month. They also did not come forward for screening for Covid-19. An FIR was lodged against 17 Jamat members at Shahganj police station and 12 persons at Kareli police station. Some mutawallis (caretakers) of mosques were also charged with arranging illegal stay of foreign Jamatis without informing police and the local intelligence unit (LIU). Later, a professor of Allahabad University was also quarantined and an FIR lodged against him at Shivkuti police station after it was found that he too had returned after attending Nizamuddin event but failed to inform officials and even helped Jamaatis to stay at Abdullah Masjid, police said. Second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyans attorney Hovhannes Khudoyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am that even though the chief of staff of the Yerevan court of general jurisdiction has responded to his third letter, he doesnt consider this a response and is preparing to send the fourth letter. There was actually no response. The chief of staff simply wrote that Judge Anna Danibekyan will return on April 17 and I can ask her my questions. I will send the fourth letter tomorrow, he said. Touching upon the fact that Judge Anna Danibekyan is on leave for the second time, Khudoyan said criminal procedure has been in a catastrophic situation for the past two years and it will be rather difficult to change the situation. The Australia government has said it will adopt a mandatory code to require tech giants such as Google and Facebook to pay local media for reusing their content. The requirement for them to share ad revenue with domestic publishers was reported earlier by Reuters. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg published an opinion article in The Australian Friday, writing that an earlier plan to create a voluntary code by November this year to govern the relationship between digital platforms and media businesses -- in order to "protect consumers, improve transparency and address the power imbalance between the parties" -- had failed owing to "insufficient progress." "On the fundamental issue of payment for content, which the code was seeking to resolve, there was no meaningful progress and, in the words of the ACCC [Australia's competition commission], 'no expectation of any even being made,' " he wrote. The ACCC has been tasked with devising the code, which Frydenberg said will include provisions related to value exchange and revenue sharing; transparency of ranking algorithms; access to user data; presentation of news content; and penalties and sanctions for non-compliance. "The intention is to have a draft code of conduct released for comment by the end of July and legislated shortly thereafter," he added. "It is only fair that the search engines and social media giants pay for the original news content that they use to drive traffic to their sites." As the technology of the digital platforms has evolved, so too has their market dominance. By creating a mandatory code, were seeking to be the first country in the world that successfully requires these social media giants to pay for original news content. pic.twitter.com/vhMaQab2E4 Josh Frydenberg (@JoshFrydenberg) April 19, 2020 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Story continues The debate around compensation for tech giants' reuse of (and indirect monetization of) others' editorial content -- by displaying snippets of news stories on their platforms and aggregation services -- is not a new one, though the coronavirus crisis has likely dialed up publisher pressure on policymakers as advertiser marketing budgets nose-dive globally and media companies stare down the barrel of a revenue crunch. Earlier this month France's competition watchdog ordered Google to negotiate in good faith with local media firms to pay for reusing their content. The move followed a national law last year to transpose a pan-EU copyright reform that's intended to extend rights to news snippets. However, instead of paying French publishers for reusing their content, Google stopped displaying content that's covered by the law in local search and Google News. France's competition watchdog said it believes the unilateral move constitutes an abuse of a dominant market position -- taking the step of applying an interim order to force Google to the negotiating table while it continues to investigate. Frydenberg's article references the French move, as well as pointing back to a 2014 attempt by Spain, which also created legislation seeking to make Google to pay for snippets of news reused in its News aggregator product. In the latter case Google simply pulled the plug on its News service in the market -- which it remains closed in Spain to this day... Google's message to desktop users in Spain if they try to navigate to its News product "We are under no illusions as to the difficulty and complexity of implementing a mandatory code to govern the relationship between the digital platforms and the news media businesses. However, there is a need to take this issue head-on," Frydenberg goes on. "We are not seeking to protect traditional media companies from the rigour of competition or technological disruption. "Rather, to create a level playing field where market power is not misused, companies get a fair go and there is appropriate compensation for the production of original news content." Reached for comment on the Australian government's plan, a Google spokesperson sent us this statement: We've worked for many years to be a collaborative partner to the news industry, helping them grow their businesses through ads and subscription services and increase audiences by driving valuable traffic. Since February, we have engaged with more than 25 Australian publishers to get their input on a voluntary code and worked to the timetable and process set out by the ACCC. We have sought to work constructively with industry, the ACCC and Government to develop a Code of Conduct, and we will continue to do so in the revised process set out by the Government today. Google continues to argue that it provides ample value to news publishers by directing traffic to their websites, where they can monetize it via ads and/or subscription conversions, saying that in 2018 alone it sent in excess of 2 billion clicks to Australian news publishers from Australian users. It also points out publishers can choose whether or not they wish their content to appear in Google search results. Though, in France, it's worth noting the competition watchdog took the view that Google declaring that it won't pay to display any news could put some publishers at a disadvantage versus others. The dominance of Google's search engine certainly looks to be a key component for such interventions, along with Facebook's grip on digital attention spans. On this, Frydenberg's articles cites a report by the country's competition commission which found more than 98% of online searches on mobile devices in Australia are with Google. While Facebook was found to have some 17 million local users who connected to its platform for at least half an hour a day. (Australia's total population is around 25 million.) "For every $100 spent by advertisers in Australia on online advertising, excluding classifieds, $47 goes to Google, $24 to Facebook and $29 to other participants," Frydenberg also wrote, noting that the local online ad market is worth around $9 billion per year -- growing more than 8x since 2005. Reached for comment on the government plan for a mandatory code for reuse of news content, Facebook sent us the following statement -- attributed to Will Easton, MD, Facebook Australia and New Zealand: Were disappointed by the Government's announcement, especially as weve worked hard to meet their agreed deadline. COVID-19 has impacted every business and industry across the country, including publishers, which is why we announced a new, global investment to support news organisations at a time when advertising revenue is declining. We believe that strong innovation and more transparency around the distribution of news content is critical to building a sustainable news ecosystem. Weve invested millions of dollars locally to support Australian publishers through content arrangements, partnerships and training for the industry and hope the code will protect the interests of millions of Australians and small businesses that use our services every day. If enough countries pursue a competition-flavored legislative fix against Google and Facebook to try to extract rents for media publishers it may be more difficult for them to dodge some form of payment for reusing news content. Though the adtech giants still hold other levers they could pull to increase their charges on publishers. Indeed, their dual role -- involved in both the distribution, discovery and monetization of online content and ads, controlling massive ad networks as well as applying algorithms to create content hierarchies to service ads alongside -- has attracted additional antitrust scrutiny in certain markets. After launching a market study of Google and Facebook's ad platforms last July, the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) raised concerns in an interim report in December -- kicking off a consultation on a range of potential inventions from breaking up the platform giants to limiting their ability to set self-serving defaults and enforcing data sharing and/or feature interoperability to help rivals compete. Per its initial findings, the CMA said there were reasonable grounds for suspecting serious impediments to competition in the online platforms and digital advertising market. However the regulator has so far favored making recommendations to government, to feed a planned comprehensive regulatory framework to govern the behavior of online platforms, rather than taking it upon itself to intervene directly. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 12:52:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Peter Mertz DENVER, the United States, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Emboldened by U.S. President Donald Trump's words against state governments, his supporters attended hundreds of "stop the quarantine" rallies across the country Saturday and Sunday. State governors responded late Sunday with incredulity to the president's actions, although no violence was reported at any of the protests. The Republican president's tweets, against his own medical team's advice, specifically targeted Democratic governors with whom he disagrees. "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" Trump tweeted. "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" He said in another post. "LIBERATE VIRGINIA! And save your great 2nd Amendment -- it is under siege!" All the three states have Democratic governors. Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, another Democratic, said Trump's "unhinged rantings and calls for people to 'liberate' states could also lead to violence." The tweets are "dangerous because it can inspire people to ignore things that actually can save their lives," Inslee told ABC News on Sunday. In Denver, capital city of Colorado State, around 200 demonstrators on Sunday gathered at the state capitol, demanding governments allow businesses to re-open and social distancing requirements be lifted, to enable millions of Americans to return to work. The protests felt like "a slap in the face," to hear such extraordinary words of defiance against the advice of all health care professionals, a Denver hospital nurse on the frontlines against COVID-19 told NBC-News Denver. Denver's liberal Democratic new governor Jared Polis had declared a state of emergency and closed businesses before the White House officially responded -- so did many other states. Last week, Polis said he was exploring ways to reopen Colorado businesses earlier than planned. At the same time far-right gun groups were mobilizing diehard supporters of Trump to march against local governments, regardless of the fact that infected Americans jumped from 600,000 to 750,000 and deaths from 25,000 to 40,000 in just five days from April 14 to April 19. Opposing and contradicting his top health officials, Trump even encouraged citizens to protest against local governments and told the media that "they have the right to protest." Many of the pro-Trump protests, particularly in conservative, rural areas, are linked to far-right gun-rights groups, and other special interests representing the president. However, the protesters, all combined, who gathered across the country, merely represent a tiny minority of public opinion about the pandemic, according to a poll released over the weekend. Nearly 70 percent of Republicans said they supported a national stay-at-home order, as well as 95 percent of Democrats, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll. Enditem Photo credit: Eric Shindelbower / Boeing From Popular Mechanics A new video shows a brand new F-15 made for Qatar fly straight up immediately after its first takeoff from St. Louis's Lambert International Airport. The F-15s two engines provide enough thrust to give it a max speed of Mach 2.5. Overseas orders like Qatars in many ways made the U.S. Air Forces new F-15, the F-15EX, possible. A video surfaced late last week of an F-15QA executing a remarkable 'Viking Takeoff.' The jet, built for Qatar, takes off like a normal fighter jet but immediately enters a steep climb, to the point where it looks like it is accelerating straight up. The two-seat fighter is not unlike the new F-15EX being built for the U.S. Air Force, which should be capable of similar levels of performance. The video, taken on April 14th, shows a brand spanking new F-15QA built for the Qatari Emiri Air Force. The aircraft hasnt even been painted yet and is a patchwork of materials colors, including yellow and aluminum. The aircraft is flying totally clean, with no drop tanks, no weapons, and probably no rear co-pilot. This reduces aircraft weight to the bare minimum necessary for flight testing and boosts the airplanes thrust-to-weight ratio. The F-15QA is powered by two General Electric F110-GE-129 afterburning turbofan engines, each of which produces the equivalent of 29,000 pounds of dry thrust. The F-15 normally weighs 45,000 pounds, meaning theres about 1.2 pounds of thrust for every pound of aircraft. The F-15 has always enjoyed a high thrust to weight ratioit was the first fighter jet that could fly straight up. The F-15QA can hit a maximum takeoff weight of 81,000 pounds, including weapons and fuel, and with all that weight would be considerably more sluggish in the skies. Photo credit: Boeing/Ron Bookout The F-15QA is the most current and advanced member of the F-15 family, which first flew in the early 1970s. The aircraft, originally designed as a single seat air superiority fighter, forked into a two-seat fighter bomber in the late 1980s. The F-15E Strike Eagle was initially produced for the U.S. Air Force and then later for South Korea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and now Qatar. Over the years, Boeing has added more features to keep the aircraft current, to the point where the company claims its electronics and non-stealth capabilities are competitive with that of the F-22 Raptor or F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Story continues The U.S. Air Force is planning to purchase at least 72 new model F-15EX fighters. The -EX Eagles will be the services first new F-15s in a quarter century, and the service will likely pair them with stealth fighters to serve as a flying magazine, carrying large loads of bombs and missiles. The F-15EX will in many ways be identical to the F-15QA, and should be able to execute Viking Takeoffs on its own. The fighter is set to enter Air Force service in the mid-2020s. You Might Also Like Some short-term prisoners to be released early due to coronavirus outbreak Some short-term prisoners in Scotland will be released early under measures designed to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak. The scheme will be limited to short-term prisoners sentenced to a maximum of 18 months in prison who are nearing the end of their sentence with no more than 90 days left to serve. Certain categories of prisoners will be excluded, such as those with convictions for sexual offences, domestic abuse or terrorism offences. It is estimated that around 300 to 450 prisoners will be considered for early release from 30 April. The intention is to reduce prisoner numbers to help prison and healthcare staff to safely manage all those who remain in their care during the outbreak. It follows similar measures taken elsewhere in the UK and internationally, with countries including England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and France having already taken the decision to release prisoners in response to COVID-19. Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: In this exceptional public health emergency, we are taking focused action to protect public safety as well as prisoners, prison staff and the NHS staff and others that work in our prisons. Using these emergency release powers, combined with increasing those on HDC [home detention curfew], will substantially increase the availability of single-cell accommodation across the prison estate, which in turn will help SPS [Scottish Prison Service] contain the spread of coronavirus in our prisons. In addition, the resulting reduction in the prison population will allow the prison service to ease restrictions put on prisoners during these challenging times. The Scottish Prison Service has had to make significant changes to how they operate already in just a few weeks, with family visits paused, restricted activities and additional time in cells for those in their care. We must help staff to manage prisons in a sustainable way over the weeks and months ahead. This latest step based on the emergency powers passed by MSPs earlier this month will give them greater capacity to help ensure a safe custodial environment. The decision has the backing of the three of the four opposition parties, although all three emphasised the need for support to be available for prisoners who are being released into the community. Scottish Labour's justice spokesperson, James Kelly, said: It has been a real concern that the overcrowded conditions that exist on the Scottish prison estate could exacerbate the spread of COVID-19 in our prisons. As well as being a serious health concern for both staff and prisoners, the current numbers overburden staff who are already facing high absence levels amongst their colleagues. It is therefore the correct decision to release prisoners who are approaching the end of their sentence provided they pose no risk to the public. However, it is also vital that a proper process and provisions are put in place to ensure that prisoners who are released have no risk of transferring the virus back into their communities. It is also essential that proper support is provided to those who are re-entering wider society. In particular, it is crucial that no person who is released will be homeless. Scottish Green justice spokesperson John Finnie said: The Scottish Government has had a difficult task to consider the rights and needs of victims, prisoners, staff and families, but this decision to go ahead with limited early release is the right one, with some important exceptions for public safety. Apart from anything else, we simply dont have enough cells for inmates to self-isolate. However, it is vital those released are given a safe landing going home, and for their families. Many prisoners are released with no home to go to, and as well as housing and financial assistance, individuals often need support with addictions and both physical and mental health issues. This is even more important in the current crisis. Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur commented: Making decisions like these, in the context of a pandemic, is an unenviable position to be in. Its all the more difficult because of where we started. Scotlands prisons were in crisis before COVID-19. "We can't just shift that burden to other under pressure services like GPs and housing, so there needs to be a proper support package accompanying emergency release. This is important to avoid reoffending and protect the rights of victims. The Scottish Human Rights Commission and Howard League Scotland also welcomed the announcement. Scottish Human Rights Commission chair Judith Robertson said: People in prison are an extremely vulnerable population and those working in prisons are key frontline workers providing a vital public service. The epidemiological evidence is clear that prisons are places of high risk in the current pandemic, and the Council of Europes Committee on the Prevention of Torture has set out the human rights principles that should be applied to people in prison and other places of detention in this context. While a number of measures have been adopted to date by the Scottish Government, the Scottish Prison Service and the judiciary, including Schedule 4 of the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020, these measures have not yet managed to reduce the prison population to a safe and manageable level. It is therefore crucial to act urgently to reduce the prison population in order to ensure the continued safe and effective operation of prisons in Scotland and we welcome this announcement today that responds to this need. Howard League Scotland said: Releasing a limited number of prisoners on short-term sentences nearing the end of their time in custody is a welcome first step. In doing so, Howard League Scotland believes that the Scottish Government is taking a sensible, although somewhat tentative path, to mitigate a potentially catastrophic public health crisis. These measures will go some, although not all, of the way to achieving the target of single cell occupancy required to provide a safe custodial environment. It added: The Scottish Government has taken seriously its responsibility to save lives, not just the lives of those who are thought to be most deserving. We commend them for that. A million-dollar gift from two large donors has given a significant boost to the COVID-19 Response Fund, bringing the total donated to help San Antonians through the coronavirus crisis to $5.3 million. A $500,000 challenge grant from San Antonio philanthropist Harvey Najim last week spurred the John L. Santikos Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation to match that amount. The two donations, along with gifts from many others, have helped the fund nearly double in size since it launched March 20 with $2.7 million. The response fund is jointly managed by the San Antonio Area Foundation and the United Way of San Antonio & Bexar County. It supports nonprofit organizations serving the most vulnerable populations in San Antonio and surrounding areas. The San Antonio Area Foundation has become one of the top 20 foundations in the nation based on asset size, managing more than 500 charitable funds and exceeding $1 billion in assets. So far, 103 local nonprofits have received $3.3 million in grants from the COVID-19 fund, with an average award of $30,824. Grant recipients include: The Christian Assistance Ministry, which received $50,000 to provide food, prescription support, hygiene supplies, baby formula, baby wipes and diapers to help people affected by homelessness, poverty and financial issues. The Childrens Shelter received $50,000 for additional personnel, meals, learning and activities for the increased number of children in its care. The Chromosome 18 Registry & Research Society received $25,000 to create new resources, including outlines for physical, speech, and occupational therapy that families can do at home, and podcasts and monthly live broadcasts to keep families connected. The COVID-19 Response Fund continues to accept applications from local nonprofit organizations, available online at www.saafdn.org/covid19fund. Decisions are made within 10 business days, and awards are made electronically. The rapid-response grants are for one-time, general operating investments. On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases The fund targets five areas: the economic impact of reduced and lost work because of the broader coronavirus outbreak; the immediate needs of vulnerable populations; increased demand for medical information and support; fear and confusion about the outbreak among the vulnerable; and the need for resources for families of school-age children. We are profoundly grateful for Harvey Najims initial contribution and his most recent challenge grant, which we were able to meet, San Antonio Area Foundation CEO Marjie French said. The significant gift will help us address the immediate and urgent needs of our community. The San Antonio Area Foundation and United Way are still raising funds for the response effort. Businesses and philanthropies can contact Lisa Brunsvold at lbrunsvold@saafdn.org or 210-228-3760. People interested in donating $10 or more can do so through the United Way by going to www.helpsatx.org or texting HELPSATX to 41444. Bruce Selcraig is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Bruce, become a subscriber. BSelcraig@express-news.net I find it astounding that the state epidemiologist and health department can state that the COVID-19 cases in Oregon have leveled off. I know many people who have been very ill (likely with COVID-19), and they cannot get a simple test to confirm whether they have the virus. The state has no idea how many people in Oregon have COVID-19. I am appalled at the poor job Oregon is doing about testing. Gov. Brown, it's time to start doing your job and get some test kits that are available, not just for our first responders and health care providers, but for all of us. Mike Kehoe, Lake Oswego (Photo : Celemente Falize on Unsplash) ROBO-INSECTS: New Little Drones Are Developed That Could Fly Like Insects; Can They Be Used For Future Rescue Missions? (Photo : Pixabay) ROBO-INSECTS: New Little Drones Are Developed That Could Fly Like Insects; Can They Be Used For Future Rescue Missions? Experts are now developing tiny drones that can fly like insects. According to BBC News' latest report, the idea was formulated by Alex Caccia, chief executive of Animal Dynamics, after observing birds take to the air when Storm Ciara swept across the UK in February. He marveled as the birds flew higher and higher despite the high winds. "While airliners were grounded by the weather the birds couldn't care less," he said on the report. Animal Dynamics is a technology start-up that studies wildlife and applies the data gathered to develop different kinds of drones. Formed in 2015, they study the science known as biomechanics. Two drones were already developed by the Animal Dynamics to show their intimate study of bird and insect life. One of the drones that were developed came from the idea of how a dragonfly takes to the air. The study has already attracted funding from the military since they saw that the four-winged drones can operate steadily in high winds which is better than existing miniature spy drones. Experts develop little drones that fly like insects: Skeeters could be the future of emergency rescues According to the report of BBC News, Alex Caccia of Animal Dynamics has developed a drone that can fly like insects. The secretive project is called "Skeeter," which has cracked the challenge of using flapping wings to power a drone instead of propellers. It was explained in the report that the wings are more efficient compared to propellers; the wings of a dragonfly, for example, allow the insect to hover in the face of strong winds which is almost impossible to replicate by human engineers. "Making devices with flapping wings is very, very hard," Caccia said in the report. He also explained that helicopters maneuver by changing the angle of its rotor blades to go forward or backward while hovering the air. This will be more difficult for smaller objects since they can be easily blown away by strong gusts of wind. "A dragonfly is an awesome flyer. It's just insane how beautiful they are, nothing is left to chance in that design. It has very sophisticated flight control," he added. Animal Dynamics has studied the 300 million years of evolution the insect has taken. The company has spent four years developing software that can navigate the hand-launched drone like an insect allowing it to fly in wind speeds of more than 20 knots (23 mph or 37 km/h). 22 to 27 knots is already classified as a "strong breeze," according to the report. The little drone called will carry a camera and communication links into the skies and will be cheap enough for military operators. Currently, the Skeeter is around eight inches long, but the company is planning to develop versions of the drone that are smaller. Squeezing a lot of aerodynamic and navigational wisdom into the insect-drone will be a big challenge for the company to achieve. The company's 70-strong team of developers is relying on electronics provided by the smartphone industry to apply all their knowledge into Skeeter's frame. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An", the "Group" or the "Company", HKEx:2318; SSE:601318) announced that Ping An Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Ping An Technology) ranked 8th globally with 1,691 patent applications in the 2019 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) international patent applications released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Ping An Technology's patent applications included 679 in artificial intelligence (AI), 58 in blockchain and 48 in cloud computing, demonstrating a leading position in technological research and development (R&D) and innovation. WIPO is a self-funding agency of the United Nations, and the PCT is an important international treaty. By filing one international patent application under the PCT, patent applicants can simultaneously seek protection for an invention in 148 countries. PCT international patent application is one of the major channels for innovative enterprises to develop their global patents portfolio. The number of PCT applications is a reflection of a company's innovation capabilities, market coverage and core competitiveness. As of 31 December 2019, Ping An had filed 3,680 PCT patent applications, including 1,278 related to AI, 139 related to blockchain and 223 in cloud computing. Ping An has been steadily building its international intellectual property portfolio in its core technologies such as AI, blockchain and cloud computing. These technologies empower Ping An's five ecosystems of financial services, health care, auto services, real estate services and smart city services. For example, in auto insurance, Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance Company of China, Ltd. launched the "Smart Quick Claim" system in the industry in 2016. Ping An has filed for 43 patents, including PCT, for the technology. The system applied AI technology to the entire claims process, achieving smart recognition, automatic pricing and loss assessment in less than one second, providing customers with an exceptionally efficient claims experience. Ping An's Co-CEO Jessica Tan said, "Ping An Technology's breakthrough in PCT patents stems from our systematic construction of an intellectual property management system. Our continuous investment in technological R&D is yielding promising results. As such, the Group has established a global leading position in cutting-edge technologies such as AI, blockchain and cloud computing, further driving the future innovation and development of the financial industry." Other companies in top positions in the PCT ranking include Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (China, 4,411 applications), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan, 2,661 applications), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (South Korea, 2,334 applications), and Qualcomm Inc. (U.S., 2,127 applications). - End - About Ping An Group Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") is a world-leading technology-powered retail financial services group. With over 200 million retail customers and 516 million Internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. Ping An has two over-arching strategies, "pan financial assets" and "pan health care", which focus on the provision of financial and healthcare services through our integrated financial services platform and our five ecosystems of financial services, health care, auto services, real estate services and smart city services. Our "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystems" strategies aim to provide customers and internet users with innovative and simple products and services using technology. As China's first joint stock insurance company, Ping An Group is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate governance. The Company is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai. In 2019, Ping An ranked 7th in the Forbes Global 2000 list and 29th on the Fortune Global 500 list. Ping An also ranked 40th in the 2019 WPP Millward Brown BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list. For more information, please visit www.pingan.cn. SOURCE Ping An Insurance Group Ltd. Related Links http://www.pingan.cn Hackers Open source The overall crime rate in Ukraine has reduced, but the level of internet fraud increased. The press service of the President's Office reported that after the briefing of Volodymyr Zelensky, the head of the state on Tuesday. In particular, the President claimed that the crime rate in the internet grew by 15 percent. He said that the online frauds try making money on selling fake security software. "Ukrainians have to be extra careful and buy products, clothes and software on the credited websites, and all online platforms led by the frauds must be shut down", the President said. We previously reported that over the period of quarantine measures, the State Security Service of Ukraine revealed the identities of 207 web agitators who spread various kinds of fakes about Covid-19. Earlier, the SBU (Ukraine's State Security Service) uncovered bot farm with 5,000 accounts, which spread such fakes. The current deadline of quarantine restrictions in Ukraine is about to expire on April 24. The Healthcare Ministry initiates the extension until May 12. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - Riverside Resources Inc. (TSXV: RRI) (OTCQB: RVSDF) (FSE: R99)("Riverside" or the "Company"), is pleased to report results from its recent rock-chip sampling and target mapping program at the Los Cuarentas Gold Project (the "Project") in Sonora, Mexico. Riverside collected additional channel samples along the primary targets and developed a better understanding of the structural setting identifying two additional vein systems and finding surface exposures with high-grade gold. The Los Cuarentas Project is located 17 km northwest of SilverCrest's high-grade Las Chispas deposit and 15 km northeast from Premier Gold Mines, Mercedes gold mining operation. The new sampling results increase the Company's confidence in the potential for its 100% owned Los Cuarentas Project to host a near-surface, high-grade gold vein system. Drill permits have now been granted. Key Highlights: High-grade gold samples including: 18 g/t, 12.3 g/t, 7.3 g/t, and 3.0 g/t Au Total of three (3) well-defined drill-ready targets Identification of three (3) new prospective structures: El Sombrerito, El Sombrero Norte and Santa Rosalia Norte Approximately 30% of 31 samples returned anomalous gold (>0.2 g/t Au) Drill permit approval received from Sonoran Environmental Agency to support further exploration and drilling at the Project Riverside's President and CEO, John-Mark Staude, stated: "We are pleased with the progress and high-grade gold results above and around the former mining operations at Santa Rosalia and other target areas. We look forward to progressing this Project potentially with a joint-venture partner and are excited to be located in between two highly valued mining and development operations. The approved drill permit allows Riverside to take the next necessary steps at Los Cuarentas." In addition to the assay results, the Company also completed permitting for drilling and obtained local access agreements with the surface ranch owners enabling the Project to move ahead in a positive way in the coming months. The recent sampling program included 31 new rock-chip samples and Riverside geologists took the opportunity to update and create a new geological map. The new assay results show continuity along the principal mineralized zones and included five high-grades gold samples (see Table 1 below). Table 1: Top Five of 31 Gold Assay Results from Riverside's Second Sampling Program Sample ID Au (g/t) Target Zone Sample Type Rock Type RRI-6023 18.00 Santa Rosalia rock chip vein RRI-6010 12.30 Santa Rosalia Sur float vein/breccia RRI-6014 7.19 Santa Rosalia Sur rock chip breccia/vein RRI-6012 2.99 Santa Rosalia Sur rock chip andesite/stockwork RRI-6019 2.29 Santa Rosalia float vein/andesite High-grade gold mineralization at Los Cuarentas has been defined primarily along northwestern trending structural zones, which show thickening and increasing grade at structural flexures and/or structural intersections. The latest fieldwork program has also highlighted additional sub-parallel structural zones identified as splays. These splays carry some of the best historical sampling returning up to 29.7 g/t gold (see press release of January 20, 2020), leading to the definition of three additional new targets: Santa Rosalia Norte, El Sombrerito and El Sombrero Norte. Riverside's 100% owned claim block now hosts a total of 6 exploration targets (see Figure 1 below). Figure 1: Geological map of Los Cuarentas Project highlighting the six (6) current targets To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6101/54651_198adea2a4b4d9eb_002full.jpg The Los Cuarentas Project area comprises multiple, gold-bearing quartz veins located within a larger structural corridor. Mineralization is primarily hosted in an andesitic volcanic sequence, which is overlain by post-mineral units (see Figures 1 and 2). Recent mapping by Riverside has also demonstrated the presence of post-mineral faulting resulting in the down dropping to the south. Within the down dropped mineralized block not as much erosion has occurred preserving the upper levels of the vein system. This is evident by the change in alteration minerals and style of gold occurrence (see Figure 2 below). The observation of down-dropping within the Project suggests that the system may host multiple additional preserved mineralized bodies similar to Santa Rosalia and Santa Rosalia Sur. Figure 2: Geological Interpretation of the Los Cuarentas Project To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6101/54651_198adea2a4b4d9eb_003full.jpg Targets: Santa Rosalia: The Santa Rosalia target is a mineralized structural zone extending for approximately 1 km (see press release January 20, 2020) and part of the uplifted northern block. The Santa Rosalia "vein zone" is defined as multiple sub-parallel mineralized silica-infilled fractures which form veins. Those veins can be seen in structural zones which can be up to 8 m wide. The latest sampling program returned several high-grade samples that include: 18 g/t Au in a single 0.5 m wide vein, 2.3 g/t Au in quartz vein floats and 0.5 g/t Au along a 1 m channel sample across the entrance of an adit. Additional observations at Santa Rosalia show shallow, hydrothermal textures such as chalcedony quartz, suggesting most of the system has been preserved and likely extends to depth. Santa Rosalia Sur: Similar to the Santa Rosalia target, the Santa Rosalia Sur target is part of the uplifted northern block. The latest mapping and sampling program highlighted and confirmed the presence of high-grade gold up to 14.8 g/t Au in hydrothermal breccia that extends 200 meters along strike. Laterally, the stockwork bordering the hydrothermal breccia returned 3 g/t Au. As previously described in the press release of January 20, 2020, the mineralized zone is affected by post-mineral faulting to the north, west and south. Although the mineralized bedrock has been dropped-down to the south, the alteration and lower grade gold (1-3 g/t) mineralization can still be traced for an additional 800 meters to the south along trend. El Sombrero: El Sombrero target can be defined as a northwest oriented zone of hydrothermally altered package of volcanic rocks. High temperature alteration mineralogy as well as extensive silicification are primarily located along the El Sombrero structure and extend approximately 10 meters on each side of the fault (see Figure 2 above). This observation makes El Sombrero a priority for deeper testing as it is identified as a possible feeder structure. El Sombrero Norte: El Sombrero target is mostly covered by post-mineral andesite (see Figure 1 above), windows in the andesite show hydrothermal alteration as well as silicified rhyolite dikes indicating that historical samples were taken along a structural feature. This structure is defined as a parallel splay of the Mine fault, which is the main host for the Santa Rosalia high-grade mineralization. Historical samples from Millrock's 2017 sampling program returned the highest grade on the property 29.4 g/t Au and another 8.6 g/t Au. El Sombrerito: El Sombrerito is a new discovery that includes some old workings. Historical samples taken by Millrock in 2018 returned 16.5 g/t Au and 11 g/t Au from 0.5 m wide stacked veinlets (see Figure 1 above). Riverside's geologists defined the area as a new structural target, which maybe a parallel splay in between Santa Rosalia Sur and El Sombrero. Santa Rosalia Norte: Approximately 450 meters to the north of Santa Rosalia additional old workings were discovered. Outcrops show steam-heated alteration mineralogy and the presence of silicified rhyolitic dikes. This area warrants more work to expand the size of the identified mineralized zone. Multiple parallel splays are likely to be found in this system, as was found at the nearby Las Chispas mine owned by SilverCrest Metals. Following their acquisition of the project SilverCrest discovered 14 additional veins, including the notable Babicanora Norte Vein, across a 1.5 km wide zone1. Follow-up work at Los Cuarentas will focus on mapping extensions of the primary targets at Santa Rosalia and Santa Rosalia Sur. Additional channel sampling across the primary mineralized zones will be conducted in addition to soil sampling grids to explore for extensions of known veins. This work will be followed up with geophysics to provide more information on the splays associated with the primary targets. ____________________ 1 https://www.silvercrestmetals.com/news/2020/index.php?content_id=426 Qualified Person and QA/QC: The scientific and technical data contained in this news release pertaining to the Los Cuarentas Project was reviewed and/or prepared under the supervision of Freeman Smith, P.Geo., a non-independent qualified person to Riverside Resources Inc. who is responsible for ensuring that the geologic information provided in this news release is accurate and who acts as a "qualified person" under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Rock samples collected were taken to the Bureau Veritas Laboratories in Hermosillo, Mexico and analyzed using fire assaying for gold. The rejects remained with Bureau Veritas in Mexico while the pulps were transported to Bureau Veritas' laboratory in Vancouver, BC, Canada and analyzed using a 45 element ICP/ES-MS analysis. A QA/QC program was implemented as part of the sampling procedures for the exploration program which included blanks which were inserted randomly into the sample stream by Riverside. Additional Corporate News from Riverside: Riverside received approval from the BC Supreme Court for the Spin Out arrangement of Capitan Mining Inc. The Company can progress with the financing of Capitan Mining Inc. and then the share distribution ahead of which the shareholders will be alerted with regards to the Record Date. Capitan Mining Inc. with the Penoles Project continues progressing during the current COVID-19 situation. About Riverside Resources Inc.: Riverside is a well-funded exploration company driven by value generation and discovery. The Company has no debt and approximately 63M shares outstanding with a strong portfolio of gold-silver and copper assets in North America. Riverside has extensive experience and knowledge operating in Mexico and Canada and leverages its large database to generate a portfolio of prospective mineral properties. In addition to Riverside's own exploration spending, the Company also strives to diversify risk by securing joint-venture and spin-out partnerships to advance multiple assets simultaneously and create more chances for discovery. Riverside has additional properties available for option, with more information available on the Company's website at www.rivres.com. ON BEHALF OF RIVERSIDE RESOURCES INC. "John-Mark Staude" Dr. John-Mark Staude, President & CEO For additional information contact: John-Mark Staude President, CEO Riverside Resources Inc. info@rivres.com Phone: (778) 327-6671 Fax: (778) 327-6675 Web: www.rivres.com Raffi Elmajian Corporate Communications Riverside Resources Inc. relmajian@rivres.com Phone: (778) 327-6671 TF: (877) RIV-RES1 Web: www.rivres.com Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking information. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology (e.g., "expect"," estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "plans"). Such information involves known and unknown risks -- including the availability of funds, the results of financing and exploration activities, the interpretation of exploration results and other geological data, or unanticipated costs and expenses and other risks identified by Riverside in its public securities filings that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54651 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 viruss 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 Chinas 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 Chinas 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 WHOs 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 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 Chinas 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 tech2 News Staff In October last year, Xiaomi started rolling out the MIUI 11. Months later, the MIUI 12 is already ready to be announced. As per a teaser posted on Weibo, Xiaomi will be hosting an event in China on 27 April, where it will apparently launch the MIUI 12 along with the Mi 10 Lite 5G. The event is scheduled for 2 pm CST, which will be around 11.30 am IST on the same day in India. The teaser image shows the camera setup of the Mi 10 Lite 5G, and it looks a little different from that see on the variant launched in Europe. Reportedly, the China variant will feature a periscope camera, in addition to three other shooters. The teaser also suggests that the smartphone's camera will support 50x zoom, which is in line with the regular Mi 10. In addition to the Mi 10 Lite 5G poster, Xiaomi recently shared another teaser on Weibo, which all but confirms that MIUI 12 will also be launched the same day. MIUI 12 is the new version of Xiaomi's operating system. Per the teaser, the new MIUI version will come with enhanced gesture controls. You would also get various customisation options on the UI. In January this year, Xiaomi shared the logo of the custom Android OS skin on its Weibo account. The logo had a black backdrop, which could mean that MIUI 12 may come with global system-wide dark mode. Another recent report claims that Xiaomi might bring a refreshed interface along with new features in MIUI 12. Big updates of MIUI 12 included always-on display, app drawer, new animations, themes, nature sounds-inspired ringtones and alarm tones and so on. [April 21, 2020] CYTTA Corp Announces the Commercial Launch of its Core Products Las Vegas, Nevada, April 21, 2020 -- Cytta Corp ( OTCPINK: CYCA) Cytta has completed years of development, beta testing and product refinement and is now fully commercializing its two core technology platforms SUPR Stream Compression (SUPR) and Incident Global Area Network (IGAN). SUPR Stream is an industry leading video compression streaming system designed for real-time, low-bandwidth extreme resolution needs (HD, 4K, 8K+) operating in SWaP (Size, Weight & Power) constrained operating environments. The IGAN Matrix seamlessly streams, stores and transfers all relevant video and audio during emergency situations. This creates real-time interconnected situational awareness for police, firefighters, first responders and their command centers across the United States. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shown the world the criticality of distributed communicationLas Vegas , April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- s platforms for sustained business continuity and disaster preparedness for organizations, both public and private. Organizations of all sizes and across all sectors have been forced to move to an online, remote collaboration and communication model. Cyttas technologies provide a critical enabler in the video streaming ecosystem. For first responder forces throughout the world, video communication has become an increasingly important dimension to daily work. Cyttas goal is to provide critical technology enablement across both public and private sectors allowing for a more optimal and superior streaming experience. This launch is supported by the companys updated web site www.cytta.com and growing marketing and product support teams. CEO of Cytta Corp, Gary Campbell, had this to say. Cisco reports that 82% of internet traffic will be video by 2022. Technology adoption and innovation is moving at speeds weve never seen before. As communities, workforces, and the broader global community move to an ever increasing distributed, mobile environment, streaming technology will be at the leading edge of technology and advancement empowering and unlocking exciting new use cases. We are thrilled to be a part of this next phase of innovation. About Us Cytta Corp ( OTCPINK: CYCA ) brings technology from military to enterprise. Our proprietary SUPR Stream technology has been designed specifically for streaming, storing and disseminating HD, 4K and higher resolution video. The IGAN Matrix seamlessly streams, stores and transfers all relevant video and audio during emergency situations. This creates real-time interconnected situational awareness for police, firefighters, first responders and their command centers. Cytta Corps products work in size, weight, and power-constrained (SWaP) operating environments and evolved through use in the military, meeting the need to stream multiple HD, 4K and 4K+ video feeds with ultra-low latency, bandwidth, and power consumption and disseminate through a command center to multiple parties. Cytta is taking this streaming, storage and transfer technology to enterprises that would like to stream and disseminate more high-quality videos with fewer resources. Cytta manufacturers all their products in the USA and is in compliance with recent DOD Blacklist Clause pronouncements. For more information, please visit www.Cytta.com. Safe Harbor Statement/ Forward-Looking Statements Statements included in this press release, which are not historical in nature, are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements relating to the future performance of the Company are subject to many factors including, but not limited to, the customer acceptance of the products in the market, the introduction of competitive products and product development, the impact of any product liability or other adverse litigation, working capital and availability of capital, commercialization and technological difficulties, the impact of actions and events involving key customers, vendors, lenders, competitors, and other risks. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the Company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the terms "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "may", "objective", "plan", "possible", "potential", "project", "will", and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward looking statements, whether as a result of future events, new information, or otherwise. Cytta Corp www.cytta.com Office (855) 511.4426 [email protected] Gary Campbell, CEO Direct (702) 900 7022 [email protected] Michael Collins, Chief Innovation Officer Direct (310) 922-0478 [email protected] Nathan Holm, President Direct (480)231 5339 [email protected] Corporate Communications Contacts: Corporate Communications Contacts: Complete Advisory Partners Office: (586) 228-2290 Cell: (586) 801-9002 Email: [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Two Chinese doctors from Wuhan have seen their skin turn dark after they were critically ill with COVID-19. Dr. Yi Fan and Dr. Hu Weifang, both 42-years-old, caught the coronavirus while they were treating patients at the Wuhan Central Hospital in January. According to their doctor, their unusual skin color is said to be caused by hormonal imbalances after their livers were damaged by the virus. Dr. Yi and Dr. Hu are colleagues with late whistle-blower Li Wenliang, who was punished by Chinese authorities for spreading the real situation of the outbreak in the country. Dr. Li died of the coronavirus on February 7. The two medics, Dr. Yi and Dr. Hu were both diagnosed on January 18. They were taken to the Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital and then transferred to Tongji Hospital's Zhongfa Xincheng branch, according to the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. The condition of the doctors Dr. Yi, a cardiologist, was able to recover from COVID-19 after doctors hooked him to a life-support machine called ECMO for 39 days. ECMO is a life-support procedure that replaces the function of the heart and the lungs by pumping oxygen into the blood outside the body. He talked to the CCTV from his hospital bed on April 20 and he said he had recovered. He could now move in bed normally, but he is still finding it difficult to walk on his own and still needs assistance. Dr. Yi stated that battling with the coronavirus had traumatized him to a certain degree. He said that when he first gained consciousness, he felt scared and had nightmares often. Also Read: New York Asymptomatic Mother Infects 17 of Her 18 Children with Coronavirus Dr. Yi is now trying to overcome the psychological effects of his experience. He stated that doctors often comforted him and had arranged counseling for him, he is not transferred to an ordinary ward. Road to recovery A doctor from Beijing, Dr. Zhan Qingyuan from China-Japan Friendship Hospital, treated Dr. Yi and Dr. Hu. He checked on them before he and his team left Wuhan and returned to Beijing. Dr. Hu was not able to talk to the reporters due to his poor health, but he expressed his gratitude to Dr. Zhan by shaking his hands. Unlike Dr. Yi, Dr. Hu's condition is much worse. The urologist has been in bed for 99 days and his overall health is weak, according to Dr. Li Shusheng who looked after Dr. Hu. Seeing the doctor's condition, Dr. Shusheng expressed his concern about the mental health of Dr. Hu. He said that the doctor could not stop talking to those who come to check on him. Dr. Hu underwent ECMO therapy from February 7 to March 22 and he regained his ability to speak on April 11. He is still being looked after in the intensive care units in the same hospital as Dr. Yi. Dr. Li stated that the two ill doctors' skin turned dark due to a type of medicine that they had received at the beginning of the treatment. He added that one of the drug's side effects is the darkening of the skin color. He did not name the drug used by the doctors although Dr. Li expected both medics' skin color to return to normal once their condition improves. Related Article: Wuhan Lab Exposed for Poor Condition, Could Be Source of Coronavirus Leak @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Gulshan Ewing, pioneering editor of magazines in India who interviewed top Bollywood and Hollywood actors and encouraged a generation of writers, passed away on Saturday after being infected with the coronavirus in a care home in London, her daughter said on Tuesday. She was 92. Mrs Ewing, who belonged to a Parsi family in Mumbai, was editor of Eves Weekly and Star & Style. She was one of the first women editors of leading Indian publications since the mid-1960s, setting benchmarks in film journalism and focussing on women readers. A confidante of the late Madhubala, one of the most popular actors in Indian film history, Mrs. Ewing was part of Bollywoods glamour set, interacting closely with leading personalities. She also interviewed Hollywood actors like Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Danny Kaye, Kirk Douglas and Roger Moore. Mrs Ewing was part of the group of eclectic Mumbai-based writers, editors and journalists in the Mumbai of the 1970s and 1980s that included prominent names such as Khushwant Singh, BK Karanjia, Dom Moraes and Vimla Patil. Her London-based daughter, Anjali Ewing, said: There is a very lovely carefree photo with Madhubala and another lady but I dont have any background on their relationship. She left Mumbai in 1990 for good. She kept in touch with a group of journalists from Eves Weekly throughout. She didnt do any writing in London. She loved to encourage new talent. They always talk about how kind she was to them, she added. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is one of the writers Mrs. Ewing encouraged. He acknowledged her support for his early writing in his 1990 book, The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories. Mrs Ewing was married to Guy Ewing, who grew up in Manchester and moved to India to work as a journalist. They married in Mumbai in 1955 and moved to London in 1990, settling in Richmond. Guy Ewing passed away in 2018. There are concerns that those infected by the virus and passing away in care homes are not being adequately monitored and provided for as Britains health authorities grapple with the pandemic that has so far killed over 16,000 people in the country. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON To find participants in the Los Angeles County study, researchers used a random sample of email addresses and telephone numbers of residents to invite people to participate in what they said would be a Covid-19 survey. The scientists set limits on participation, based on factors like ethnicity and age, in an effort to ensure the sample represented the countys population. About 1,100 people signed up to be tested. The study in Santa Clara County found participants by advertising on Facebook. Most of the first volunteers were in wealthy ZIP codes, so the investigators also recruited from poorer areas. As in the Los Angeles County study, the goal was to get a representative sample of the population. Its not perfect, but its the best science can do, said Dr. John Ioannidis, a professor of medicine at Stanford University and an author of the Santa Clara County report. Antibody studies in other countries have produced similar figures, he noted. If the numbers prove accurate, the coronavirus may be much less deadly than originally expected, with a fatality rate more closely resembling that of a seasonal flu strain than a pandemic of profound lethality. But there are questions about who was tested. Among them: Were people who had reason to think they had been infected overrepresented among the volunteers? We tried to look into the possibility of bias influencing the results, Dr. Ioannidis said. We asked for symptoms recently and in the last few months, and were very careful with our adjustments. We did a very lengthy set of analyses. When a permanent change-of-station move (PCS) forces yet another career change, sometimes it's time to make it a bold one. That's exactly what military spouse CC Gallagher did. More than once. After a forced resignation due to a move from Washington, D.C., to Fort Carson, Colorado, Gallagher started a consulting business. Then, she was hired as a defense contractor and worked with spouse employment through programs like the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) and Military Spouse Transition Program (MySTEP). Working both her consulting business and a full-time job, she found herself on the edge of burnout when it was time for yet another PCS. After her family's latest move to the Fort Bliss, Texas area, Gallagher decided to focus full time on her consulting business -- and more specifically on the Stressless PCS Kit, which she developed. (Photo Courtesy of C.C. Gallagher) "I was so frustrated with previous moves," she said. "As a working spouse with young kids, I couldn't read what was on the boxes, didn't understand the process for marking things as damaged." So she created her own labeling system. The goal was to create a better overall experience by increasing the organization and efficiency moves. The Stressless PCS Kit, which is now in production, comes with labels, door hangers, instruction sheets and a room chart. It allows a family to have more control over a process that can feel uncontrollable. And it gives the moving crews a little more accountability. Gallagher created the system and used it during a move. Then friends asked whether they could have one too. "We found a problem-solving product that others could use -- all out of frustration," she said. The Stressless PCS Kit has the entire process laid out and ready for you. It's printed, curated, organized and shrink wrapped, giving you everything you need to move. With 240 labels and 12 door hangers, the process is pretty easy but makes things much more efficient. (Photo Courtesy of C.C. Gallagher) Here's how it works: Start with the color-coded room sheet and pick a color for each room. Then, add the labels to the boxes in those rooms. When you get to your new house, put the door hanger with the matching color on the door of the room those boxes will go in. The kit can benefit anyone doing a move. One spouse used it for a DITY from Washington, D.C., to Fort Bliss, Gallagher said. This spouse's parents helped with the move, and the system set them up for success. Another military spouse moved from California to South Korea and used the kit for multiple shipments and storage. The family found that the icons and colors on the stickers were a huge help in overcoming the language barrier. Gallagher herself used the kit on her last move from Fort Irwin, California, to Bliss, saying it changed everything. "I love operations and procedures," she said. When the truck arrived at her new home, she had put out the door hangers and walked the crew through the house. "The colors added another layer to identify where everything was going. Now they are not having to move things multiple times -- less frustration overall," she said. Since January, 70 kits have been sold, filling a need Gallagher knew was there. "The goal is to get it to military families for free," she said. Keep Up with the Ins and Outs of Military Life For the latest military news and tips on military family benefits and more, subscribe to Military.com and have the information you need delivered directly to your inbox. --Rebecca Alwine can be reached at rebecca.alwine@monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebecca_alwine. MONDAY, April 20, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The White House and Congressional leaders said Sunday they were close to agreement on a $470 billion coronavirus package that would pump more money into a small business loan program that has run out of funding. Roughly $100 billion in the latest economic stimulus deal would go toward hospital needs and coronavirus testing, the Associated Press reported. "I think we are getting close to a deal," President Donald Trump said at a Sunday briefing of the coronavirus task force. "We have some very good negotiations going on right now, and I think you could have a nice answer tomorrow," Trump added. The Senate is set to have a pro forma session Monday, but no vote has been scheduled. The House announced it could meet as soon as Wednesday for a vote on the pending package, the wire service said. As the U.S. coronavirus death toll edged past 40,000 and the case count climbed to more than 753,000 on Monday, governors across America were crafting plans to start to ease social distancing in the coming weeks. But new estimates from Harvard University researchers suggest that the United States as a whole cannot safely reopen unless health officials triple the number of coronavirus tests that are now being conducted, The New York Times reported. Governors in some of the states that have been hit the hardest are already calling for far more testing in the coming month. The statistics from New York and New Jersey were hopeful over the weekend. In both states, the curve of new infections appeared to be flattening or dropping, the Times reported. But New York Governor Andrew Cuomo emphasized the need for federal help to carry out the widespread coronavirus testing that officials say is necessary to reopen New York's economy. Plans to reopen take shape Talk of potentially reopening America came after President Donald Trump announced new federal guidelines on Thursday that governors could use. The national plan laid out three phases that would slowly return life to a "new normal" that continues to use some of the most fundamental aspects of social distancing. "We are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time. And some states will be able to open up sooner than others. Some states are not in the kind of trouble that others are in," Trump said during a media briefing Thursday. "America wants to be open and Americans want to be open," Trump added. "A national shutdown is not a sustainable long-term solution." Reopening the country has become a critical goal, as the ranks of unemployed Americans swelled to 22 million last Thursday. Coronavirus cases and deaths in several of America's early hotspots continued to show signs of plateauing, while governors from those hard-hit states worked on their own regional pacts to help reopen those areas. New York and six other Northeast states -- New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts and Rhode Island -- extended stay-at-home orders through at least May 15 while they work on those plans, CNN reported Thursday. The governors of California, Oregon and Washington have also announced a similar regional pact, the AP reported. "This pact is about what do we do after we reduce some of our social distancing stay home initiatives," said Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee. "It's more of the issue of how are we going to have consistent-as-we-can testing and contact tracing initiatives. In order for any of these three states to be successful, we simply have to have increased products available with which to do this testing. This is absolutely critical." On Thursday, seven Midwestern states followed suit and announced a pact of their own, CNN reported. Phased-in reopening Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky will work together to re-open their regional economy, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced. For his part, Trump continued to push for reopening at least part of the U.S. economy in early May as he released the national reopening guidelines. The guidelines lay out three phases: Phase 1: All vulnerable individuals continue to stay at home. Physical distancing must be practiced in public places and non-essential travel must be minimized. If schools are closed, they should stay closed. Visiting senior living centers is still not allowed. All vulnerable individuals continue to stay at home. Physical distancing must be practiced in public places and non-essential travel must be minimized. If schools are closed, they should stay closed. Visiting senior living centers is still not allowed. Phase 2: Non-essential travel may resume. People should avoid public gatherings of 50 or more, unless physical distancing is possible. Visits to senior centers would still be prohibited, but schools and day care centers could re-open. Non-essential travel may resume. People should avoid public gatherings of 50 or more, unless physical distancing is possible. Visits to senior centers would still be prohibited, but schools and day care centers could re-open. Phase 3: This would be the country's "new normal." Physical distancing in public places is still recommended, but vulnerable individuals can resume public activities. Visits to senior centers can resume. There is no set timeline for moving through each of the three phases, according to the AP. Governors will make that decision, but a state or region would have to experience another 14-day decline in cases before moving to the next phase, the wire service said. Still, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious disease expert, told the AP last week that the United States doesn't yet have the testing and tracing procedures needed to begin reopening the economy. "We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we're not there yet," Fauci warned. When Americans do leave their homes, federal guidance now urges everyone to wear face coverings in public to curb the spread of COVID-19. These face coverings can be non-medical masks, T-shirts or bandanas and they can be used while out at everyday shopping spots such as the grocery store, pharmacy or gas station, the AP reported. Medical-grade masks would be reserved for those dealing directly with the sick. Economic rescue plan As the U.S. economy continues to falter, Americans have struggled to find out if they can receive benefits from a $2 trillion stimulus package that was passed into law in March. The financial relief is starting to be felt as state and federal agencies process millions of aid applications from small businesses and the newly jobless, the Washington Post reported. The legislation is set to send $1,200 to millions of Americans, including those earning up to $75,000, along with $500 per child. It will also give an additional 13 weeks in unemployment aid and a four-month enhancement of jobless benefits, the Times reported. However, funding for the Paycheck Protection Program was exhausted last Thursday, meaning that the Small Business Administration (SBA) had to stop approving applications, the Post reported. More than 1.4 million loans worth more than $315 billion have already been approved, according to the SBA. In some good news, millions of Americans have started to see promised tax rebates directly deposited into their bank accounts, though some folks have experienced problems getting the money, the Washington Post reported. The help comes not a moment too soon, as roughly 90% of Americans are under stay-at-home orders, the AP reported. States battle coronavirus New York remained the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, though key COVID-19 statistics have been leveling off. In preparation for any reopening in the coming weeks, Cuomo announced on Sunday that the state will implement the "most aggressive" antibody testing program in the country over the next week, CBS News reported. "Nobody has done testing on this level ever," Cuomo said, but he emphasized that any plan to reopen the state includes knowing how many have been infected. "I don't want to have gone through all this and then say, 'We're reopening,'" Cuomo said. "We have to reopen for a better future than we've had." To protect against the spread of COVID-19, Cuomo issued an executive order last week stating all New Yorkers must have a mask or mouth and nose covering when they are not maintaining social distancing in public, CBS News reported. People who violate the order could eventually face fines, but "you're not going to jail for not wearing a mask," Cuomo said. According to the Times tally, as of Monday morning the top five states in coronavirus cases are: New York with nearly 243,000 cases; New Jersey with more than 85,000; Massachusetts with more than 38,000; Pennsylvania with nearly 33,000; and California with more than 31,500. Globally, the situation remains grim. In Europe, Spain reported 20,852 deaths by Monday, despite signs the infection rate is slowing, a Johns Hopkins University tally showed. Deaths in Italy also remain high at 23,660, although numbers have begun to level off there as well. Worldwide, the number of reported infections passed 2.4 million on Monday, with more than 166,000 deaths, according to the Hopkins tally. More information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the new coronavirus. Ian Anderson, president of the WA Primary Principals Association, said his colleagues were frustrated, disappointed and angry after the shock announcement last week that swung from concentrating on online learning with only the children of essential workers at school, back to more bums on seats than had been prepared for. Loading I probably wouldnt send my child back, Mr Anderson said. If all kids are there we just cant implement social distancing and other safe practices. He said the principals he represented did not understand the logic behind the current advice from the state government. It would be hard enough to make schools safe with 50 per cent of students attending. More than that, and they could not meet the standards. There are so many inconsistencies, he said. On the one hand there were people being fined and cautioned for not practicing social distancing. On the other hand, hundreds of kids at school was ok. We are going to have so much trouble keeping kids apart, Mr Anderson said. Is social distancing important? If so how does that work in schools? We are going to be the COVID-19 police at the school gate. Principals and teachers are worried they will not be able to maintain a safe environment for children at school. Credit:Quentin Jones Its a roll of the dice Australian Medical Association WA president Andrew Miller says the decision is a bit of a roll of the dice at the moment. This isnt simple, he said. If we are talking about starting to ramp school back up in a way thats safer than it was before than that is worth a try, while we are closely monitoring case numbers. But this would necessitate proof that schools were implementing real protections and more effective cleaning. Its unsafe to go back to schools the way they were when we left them, Dr Miller said. Loading If a parent was an essential worker, a single parent who needed to work or there was another important reason why a child needed to be at school, then he would send that child. But if I was in a position where I could keep my kids at home I would be keeping them at home until I was confident about what was happening, he said. Parents needed to know what extra cleaning was their school implementing? How were they ensuring social distancing? Dr Miller said if WA had widespread testing of parents and children then he would feel more confident about the safety of schools. And while experts said it was unlikely that children would suffer badly from the illness, that meant little to the individual that did come down with the virus. Theres a lot of mixed messages in this, Dr Miller said. As a parent he would ask himself how important is it that my particular child attended school?. Flying the kite University of WA Associate Professor in Education Policy Glenn Savage said he understood the governments position. I think theyre basically flying a kite to test parental opinion, he said. I think last term the public feared the extent of the virus and numbers dropped so it made sense to close. Now I think the tide of parental and public opinion is changing, and people are starting to think they want to return to normality. The number of children who went back to school would be a good gauge of that, with many parents believing the benefits of going back outweighed the risk. Associate Professor Savage said a parent's decision should take into account the age of the student. Keeping younger children separated is more difficult, principals say. If you are looking at an early years setting, its very difficult to embed social distancing principles into those spaces, he said. Kids are in regular contact with each other and teachers physically. Thats very different from older kids where you can set some rules of engagement. He understood why teachers and school leaders would be feeling frustrated, because a lot of the burden fell on them to make decisions very quickly. Teachers had been spending a significant amount of time moving to an online scenario and now they kind of are, and kind of are not teaching online, he said. He said while Education Minister Sue Ellery acknowledged that teachers couldnt teach their class and provide online learning at same time, if parents kept their children at home but didnt feel they were getting a good deal theyd put greater demands on their teachers. In the end, while some parents lamented the state governments parents decide approach, if they made hard and fast rules either way, there would be huge consequences. If they were later faced with having to backflip on their position and that would cause more chaos. Its a double-edged sword, Associate Professor Savage said. From my point of view there is more to be gained from an education point of view than to be put at risk from a health point of view, he said. But everyone has got their own family context. A sensible, risk-based approach Curtin University professor Archie Clements who specialises in the spread and control of diseases is supportive of students going back to school. They've never been a very high risk group, and I think if you can get kids back to school, you minimise a lot of the social disruption that's been happening due to the restrictions, he said. I think the [state government] have taken a very sensible, risk-based approach. He believed the state should focus on epidemic suppression through continuing restrictions on interstate and international travel restrictions, restrictions around mass gatherings and so on. I think opening schools is a good start to monitor how it goes, and then we would think about the next steps, he said. I think we're doing everything right right now, and that's pretty clear in the case numbers. The next couple of weeks are going to be really critical. If we can demonstrate zero infection over a sustained period of time, we'll be in a good position. Professor Clements said the choice of sending kids back to school had to be an individual choice for parents. I myself have two children and they'll be going back to school in term 2, he said. Sending students back was a reasonable decision, he said. Looking at the evidence La Trobe University Associate Professor in Public Health Hassan Vally agreed that sending children back at this stage was a "reasonable decision". "Schools should be taking a number of actions to prevent any spread of infection, such as practicing social distancing and increasing hygiene, and possibly staggering break times and so with these measures in place and given the stage of the epidemic in WA, going back to school is a good thing as we try and get back to normality," Associate Professor Vally said. He said while many people felt there would be a major risk in this situation, the evidence suggested the effect on transmission may be marginal, and further, that keeping schools closed came at a huge cost economically, socially and educationally. There were three issues to consider. First, the role that schools may play in the transmission of the infection in the community; secondly, the risk to students; and thirdly, the risk to teachers. "Although we dont have a lot of good direct evidence for COVID-19, there is a lot of evidence from similar respiratory diseases for school closures not having a major influence in disease transmission," Associate Professor Vally said. New Delhi, April 21 : The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday said Covid-19 is a new disease, and in the last three and half months, they have made major scientific progress -- developing PCR tests, seeing 5 vaccines go into human trial, et al. This has never happened before in case of any other disease, it said. Detailing on the significance of the lockdown, Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar, head of infectious disease and epidemiology at ICMR, said it has created double impact in the country's fight against Covid-19, adding that lockdown along with social distancing were never health measures, but now they have played a crucial role. He stressed that coronavirus infection is a new disease and in past three and a half months, "we have come to a stage where we can do diagnosis, developed PCR tests, much information on the disease has been gathered and out of 70 candidate vaccines, five candidate vaccines have gone into human trial phase. It has never happened in any other disease so far." Gangakhedkar added that the government is working at a rapid pace to tackle this viral infection. "Lockdown had double impact - it gave time for preparedness for providing care for all patients, we can give hospital care; and through lockdown, we are also trying to buy a chance for drug development," he added. Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry, said that the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has initiated a randomised clinical trial to reduce mortality in critical COVID-9 patients through drug efficacy evaluation. The Drug Controller has given approval for this trial and it will soon begin in multiple hospitals, he added. COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa, April 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc., the beef and pork subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN), will resume limited operations at its pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, on Tuesday after being idle for two weeks due to COVID-19 concerns. Our first priority is protecting our team members while they fulfill their critical mission of feeding families across the country during this challenging time, said Tyson Foods President Dean Banks. We plan to increase production at Columbus Junction gradually, with the safety of our team members top of mind. Tyson Foods formed a coronavirus task force in January and has implemented numerous measures to protect workers. It was one of the first food companies to start taking worker temperatures and is in the process of installing more than 150 infrared temperature scanners in its facilities. The company started efforts to secure a supply of face coverings before the CDC recommended them and now requires their use in all facilities. In an effort to promote social distancing, many company facilities have installed workstation dividers and are providing more breakroom space. The Columbus Junction pork plant, which produces fresh, boxed pork for shipment to foodservice and retail customers around the world, is an important market outlet to hundreds of independent pig farmers in the region. Tyson Foods other meat and poultry plants continue operations, with some running at reduced levels of production either due to the planned implementation of additional worker safety precautions or worker absenteeism. The company has suspended production for a day at some locations for additional deep cleaning and sanitization. About Tyson Foods Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN) is one of the worlds largest food companies and a recognized leader in protein. Founded in 1935 by John W. Tyson and grown under three generations of family leadership, the company has a broad portfolio of products and brands like Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright, Aidells, ibp, and State Fair. Tyson Foods innovates continually to make protein more sustainable, tailor food for everywhere its available and raise the worlds expectations for how much good food can do. Headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, the company has 141,000 team members. Through its Core Values, Tyson Foods strives to operate with integrity, create value for its shareholders, customers, communities and team members and serve as a steward of the animals, land and environment entrusted to it. Visit TYSONFOODS.COM to learn more. Story continues Contact: Gary Mickelson , 479-290-2122 Category: IR, Newsroom (CNN) Prince Harry pleaded with his soon-to-be father-in-law Thomas Markle to stop speaking to the press shortly before he and Meghan married in 2018, according to documents filed in the UK high court. The documents filed on behalf of the Duchess of Sussex show that Prince Harry made the comments in a series of text messages to Thomas Markle on May 14, 2018 not long after Markle confirmed he wouldn't be attending the wedding in Windsor on May 19. Harry also told him the couple weren't angry at him for pulling out of attending their wedding, the documents show. In a series of messages sent on May 14, 2018 Prince Harry said: "Tom, Harry again! Really need to speak to u. U do not need to apologize, we understand the circumstances but 'going public' will only make the situation worse. "If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me as there are two other options which don't involve u having to speak to the media, who incidentally created this whole situation. So please call me so I can explain. Meg and I are not angry, we just need to speak to u. Thanks," he wrote. The details of the text messages have been released as part of legal action the Duchess of Sussex is taking against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday, for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement after the newspaper published excerpts of a handwritten letter from Meghan to her father, sent shortly after she and Prince Harry got married. According to that publication, Meghan had complained to her father that he had ignored many of her attempts to make contact, telling him his actions had "broken my heart into a million pieces." The original article in the Mail on Sunday also included claims from Thomas Markle that he had reached out "multiple times" in an attempt to patch things up. Lawyers acting on behalf of the Duchess say the texts have been included to set out the "full exchanges" in messages between Meghan and her father in the lead up to the wedding, rather than relying on the defendant's "highly partial summary of them." The reply brief also details the text messages Prince Harry sent Thomas Markle. In another message, Harry wrote: "Oh any speaking to the press WILL backfire, trust me Tom. Only we can help u, as we have been trying from day 1." Rather than reply to Prince Harry, the court documents allege that Thomas Markle issued a statement through celebrity news website TMZ announcing he had gone to hospital after suffering a heart attack. A day later, on May 15, 2018, Meghan texted her father to say: "I've been reaching out to you all weekend but you're not taking any of our calls or replying to any texts ... Very concerned about your health and safety and have taken every measure to protect you but not sure what more we can do if you don't respond ... Do you need help? Can we send the security team down again? I'm very sorry to hear you're in the hospital but need you to please get in touch with us ... What hospital are you at?" According to the documents, she texted again 10 minutes later to say that she and Prince Harry had dispatched a security team to look after him, but it was refused. In the reply brief filed in court, lawyers for the Duchess of Sussex say Meghan's phone received a missed call at 4:57 a.m. on May 19, 2018 (the morning of her wedding) but did not receive any text messages or further missed calls from Thomas Markle at any point afterwards. Harry and Meghan married later that day in Windsor, England. The Mail on Sunday and parent company Associated Newspapers has previously said it stands by the original story it published and will defend the case vigorously. The company will argue that there was "huge and legitimate" public interest in members of the royal family and their "personal relationships." In her reply brief, the Duchess of Sussex states that any claims of freedom of expression by the defendant to publish the contents of the letter are outweighed by her expectation of privacy. A hearing in relation to the case is due to take place this Friday. This story has been updated to correct what the Sussexes' reply brief says about freedom of expression and the expectation of privacy. This story was first published on CNN.com "Prince Harry pleaded with Thomas Markle not to talk to press in lead up to wedding, court documents reveal" The ability to quickly overpower disease outbreaks through the use of science, innovation and technology had led governments to neglect their role in effective prevention of such epidemics. For centuries, cities around the world have been sites of devastating epidemics that ripped through crowded neighbourhoods killing people in large numbers. Cities are dense and better connected to the outside world through ports, railways, and airports, making it easier for highly contagious diseases like plague and cholera to thrive. The period during and after the industrial revolution was particularly grim in terms of the incidence and devastation caused by epidemics since living conditions were extremely conducive for the spread of disease and the science of germ theory was yet unknown. As a result, governments were ill-equipped to prevent outbreaks from occurring. Where city governments were successful in preventing frequent epidemics, urban living and the physical form of cities changed in fundamental and lasting ways. Some of the methods of dealing with epidemics that were tried and tested by city governments in those periods are still the best ways available to us today. It is therefore worth revisiting previous instances of epidemics and draw out lessons in civic administration that can be replicated. The first lesson seems to be that of setting up new departments or bodies with powers to coordinate across sectors with the mandate of providing rapid response in the short run as well as looking into solutions for prevention in the medium and long run. In the mid-nineteenth century in New York City, repeated outbreaks of yellow fever and cholera resulted in the creation of a Council of Hygiene and Public Health. One of the important tasks undertaken by the Council was a detailed survey of living conditions in every neighbourhood. This led to the creation of the Metropolitan Board of Health with the objective of improving these living conditions and preventing further outbreaks of cholera. The board exercised powers ranging from quarantining patients to regulating and banning activities that were sanitation hazards. Click here for Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates In the city of Bombay, the Bombay Improvement Trust was created under the Bombay Act IV of 1898 to deal with the bubonic plague that had erupted in the citys dense working-class quarters. It undertook the task of decongesting neighbourhoods. The Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 a law that is still in force today was passed in order to give governments special powers to enforce regulations that could swiftly tackle the spread of epidemics. The second lesson is to look at public health in tandem with sanitation, housing, and solid waste management. What eventually stopped frequent outbreaks from occurring was putting in place the necessary infrastructure to provide clean water and air, and hygienic living conditions. The Croton Aqueduct was created since existing wells and tanks being used by people were polluted. The Central Park was planned around the receiving reservoir of the aqueduct for New Yorkers to be able to access open space. In the early 20th century, the New York City Housing Authority was created to provide public housing for the poor in order to prevent living in cramped and unsanitary conditions. In Mumbai, the Bombay Improvement Trust widened the roads running east to west through dense neighbourhoods in order to allow the sea breeze to pass through them. It created public housing in the form of single room tenements with common public toilets for the citys working classes. It also undertook planning for residential neighbourhoods at the outskirts of the erstwhile city limits. These areas were well laid out, were serviced by public transport and had sufficient amenities such as public parks. The world today looks very different from the world of the 19th and early 20th centuries. And yet, there are parts of the developing world where city-dwellers continue to remain badly served in terms of basic sanitation, drinking water, and decent housing. The current COVID-19 pandemic, and any other epidemics that occur in the future, are likely to wreak havoc in these cramped areas packed with informal housing. As more and more cases are being discovered in these areas, the challenges of isolating individuals and ensuring that standards of hygiene are being met loom large. As an immediate fix, municipal governments have employed various measures to respond tactically to these issues by coordinating with NGOs and networks of slum-dwellers for coming up with workable solutions, taking over the logistics of organising activities like providing clean water to these tenements and creating makeshift quarantine facilities with certain sanitary standards with varying degrees of success. Pandemics, even though a rare occurrence in modern times, tend to cause devastation at such a scale so as to have a disproportionately lasting impact on our social and economic lives. Hence, long term measures are critical. For this, city governments need to do some old-fashioned things like fix water supply issues, manage solid waste, and make conditions livable for the very poor. Finally, governments need to be able to leverage the biggest advantage that we have over the past -- access to information, technology, and data. This requires investing in systems for collecting and publishing granular data on inputs such as healthcare facilities, outcomes such as water supply, sanitation, housing conditions, and tracing disease hotspots over time and space. The ability to quickly overpower disease outbreaks through the use of science, innovation and technology had led governments to neglect their role in effective prevention of such epidemics. By putting the focus back on service delivery and better sanitation and housing conditions in our overcrowded neighbourhoods, they can be better prepared when the next pandemic strikes. The head of the World Health Organisation has warned that the worst is yet ahead of us in the coronavirus outbreak, reviving the alarm just as many countries ease restrictive measures aimed at reducing its spread. Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did not specify why he believes the outbreak that has infected 2.5 million people and killed more than 166,000 could get worse, but he and others have previously pointed to the likely spread of the illness through Africa, where health systems are less developed. Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us, he told reporters from WHO headquarters in Geneva. Lets prevent this tragedy. Its a virus that many people still dont understand. Some Asian and European governments have gradually eased or started relaxing lockdown measures like quarantines, school and business closures and restrictions on public gatherings, citing a decline in the growth of Covid-19 case counts and deaths. Mr Tedros and his agency have been on the defensive after President Donald Trump of the US the WHOs biggest single donor last week ordered a halt to US funding for the agency, alleging that it botched the early response to the outbreak. Among other things, Mr Trump insisted the WHO had failed to adequately share in a timely and transparent way information about the outbreak after it erupted in China late last year. Mr Tedros said: There is no secret in WHO because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous. Its a health issue. This virus is dangerous. It exploits cracks between us when we have differences. He said US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention staff have been seconded to work with his agency, suggesting that was a sign of the WHOs transparency. Story continues Having CDC staff means there is nothing hidden from the US from day one Mr Tedros said. Our CDC colleagues also know that we give information immediately to anyone. In one of his starkest comparisons yet, the UN health agency chief also alluded to the Spanish Flu more than a century ago, saying the coronavirus has a very dangerous combination like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people. He called the illness Public Enemy Number One and said: We have been warning from day one: this is a devil that everybody should fight. Rossell said she has not received paperwork from four of the regular polling locations in rural precincts. For the city precincts, I still need 10 to 15 additional poll workers, Rossell said. I am anticipating there will be other vacancies for various reasons up to and including election day. Region 51 Emergency Management Director Brandon Myers gave his weekly report concerning the COVID-19 situation within his area of responsibility. In Lincoln County as of 8 a.m. Monday morning, there were 18 positive tests and one death, Myers said. Of those 18, 14 are back to healthy. Myers said there is discussion about bringing back the Nebraska National Guard to North Platte to conduct more COVID-19 tests. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} The majority of their testing is back, and all received were negative, Myers said. The COVID-19 partners are reaching out to area businesses for information. Businesses have been asked to respond to a Business Response Survey to share what is happening to them with the COVID-19 pandemic, Myers said. The link to the survey is bit.ly/NE-Biz-Survey-2020. Under level 3, the Government has announced that a range of low risk, near shore activities are ok but that powered boating, jet-skiing and yachting are not allowed. As expected, we have seen a large reduction in the number of boats out on the water over the last four weeks, says Coast Guard NZ CEO Callum Gillespie. While our volunteers have also stayed off the water, they have remained on call for emergencies throughout this period. During the Lockdown our volunteer crews have been involved in nine emergency responses, including six urgent medical transfers of confirmed and possible Covid-19 patients to hospital. I am extremely grateful to our volunteers for leaving their families and their bubbles to carry out these vital tasks, he says. At level 3 people may take part in low risk, non-motorised activity on and in the water such as swimming, paddle-boarding, and kayaking, as long as they stay close to shore. This includes accessing vessels on swing moorings for maintenance and safety reasons. With the seasons and weather changing, owners of boats on swing moorings will be wanting to check the mooring is in good order and that their vessel is watertight, says Callum When undertaken in favourable conditions, this is a low risk activity. Were following advice from central Government and havent been involved in the policy making, he adds. However like many keen boaties, and the many businesses that make their living in the marine industry, we look forward to seeing these constraints lifted as soon as possible. He urges those taking part in low risk activities on or in the water to use common sense. Dont do so in adverse weather conditions or at recognised danger spots such as beaches with large surf and known rips. Last April Coastguard volunteers attended 293 incidents where boaties required assistance, of those incidents, 32 were urgent life threatening jobs. With many boats currently parked up in driveways, Coastguard recommends boaties use this time to ensure their boat and equipment, such as lifejackets and VHF radios, are sea worthy and ready for an eventual return to the water. We are looking forward to being able to support Kiwi boaties getting back out there and enjoying the water safely when the time is right, says Callum. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Amazon workers across the United States -- including those at the Bloomfield-based JFK8 fulfillment center -- have staged a call out of work on Tuesday to protest what they deem unsafe working conditions during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In what is the third protest at JFK8, workers say they will continue to call out of work this week if more coronavirus preventative measures arent put in place by Amazon. Over 100 workers across the county are calling out today, said Jordan Flowers, a robotics technician at JFK8. Its about our health, the communities and our customers. Although Amazon has initiated several preventative measures -- including installing thermal cameras to take employees temperature and a fog disinfectant spray of the facility --- Flowers said the virus has spread to dozens of people at JFK8. According to Vice, Amazon has confirmed at least 75 coronavirus cases in more than half of its 110 warehouse facilities. MEASURES TAKEN BY AMAZON However, Amazon said it is taking many measures to help curb the spread of the virus at its facilities. These accusations are simply unfounded. Nothing is more important than the safety of our teams, said Rachael Lighty, Amazon spokesperson. Our employees are heroes fighting for their communities and helping people get critical items they need in this crisis. Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are working hard to keep employees safe while serving communities and the most vulnerable. We have taken extreme measures to keep people safe, tripling down on deep cleaning, procuring safety supplies that are available, and changing processes to ensure those in our buildings are keeping safe distances, she added. Lighty said the vast majority of employees continue to show up and do the heroic work of delivering for their communities every day. UNION CHIMES IN Although Amazon workers are not unionized, they have sought to form one in the past. Todays actions show just how dangerous it is to work at Amazon. Workers have been desperately asking that Amazon do more to protect their health and safety at work," said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). But instead of addressing their concerns, Amazon has instead lashed out at worker leaders. This must stop. No worker should be subjected to unsafe conditions at work. And no worker should be retaliated against for standing up for their rights. Amazon continues to prioritize maximizing its enormous profits even over its employees safety -- and that is unacceptable. Enough is enough Amazon. Do right by your workers, your customers and our communities, he added. Groups involved in organizing the call out protest are Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change. TWO RALLIES Workers rallied on March 30 and April 7 at JFK8 about working conditions at the Staten Island fulfillment center. At the time, Amazon alerted employees of cases at the facility via e-mail, but didnt provide an exact tally of those workers who had contracted the virus. Workers said there were more than a dozen workers who tested positive for coronavirus at JFK8 by April 7. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK*** Chris Smalls, who helped organize the walkout at Staten Islands Amazon fulfillment center, said he was fired by the company after the protest on March 30. Amazon would rather fire workers than face up to its total failure to do what it should to keep us, our families, and our communities safe," said Smalls. However, Amazon said in a statement to the Advance/SILive.com that Smalls was released of his duties because he violated social distancing guidelines. Mr. Smalls received multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines and putting the safety of others at risk. He was also found to have had close contact with a diagnosed associate with a confirmed case of COVID-19 and was asked to remain home with pay for 14 days, which is a measure were taking at sites around the world," said Amazon in a statement. FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTER As parts of measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic, the Nigerian government on Monday extended the closure of airports in the country by two weeks. This decision was disclosed by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, via his Twitter handle. The Nigerian government shut all international airports in the country on March 23, for one month. The move was part of efforts to contain the spread of the virus. However, the government said emergency and essential flights could be operated from any of the airports within the period. The Nigerian government, alongside other measures, also announced lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. On Monday, Mr Sirika said the airports would no longer open for commercial operations on April 23 due to the extended lockdown in the three cities. As a result of the extension on lockdown by Mr President, it is no longer possible for us to open our airspace and airports for normal operations by the 23rd April 2020. They will remain closed for a further two weeks. This is subject to review as appropriate. But despite the shutdown, cases of coronavirus across the world have barely subsided as new cases are being announced daily by health authorities. READ ALSO: On Monday, Nigeria announced fresh cases of the virus in eight states of the federation. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a tweet Monday night said the 38 new cases were reported in Kano, Kaduna, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Gombe, Abia, Sokoto, Ekiti and Borno states. There was, however, a drop in the daily figures reported on Monday compared to the 86 reported on Sunday. By the announcement, Nigerias tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 665 on Monday from 627 on Sunday, the NCDC disclosed. Getty The answer to why the oil market collapsed on Monday is simple: Investors have found themselves with nowhere to stash their black gold. Consumers, producers, and speculators who bought futuresagreements to purchase a certain amount of oil at a set price and timeface a crisis as the contracts come due on Tuesday. Many fear that the biggest oil storage facility in the world will run out of room. In 2016, Business Insider identified Cushing, Oklahoma, as the center of the oil universe, noting that the town of 7,659 residents is home to 13 percent of the United States holding capacity for crude. The futures market depends on Cushing, Oklahoma, Amy Jaffe, director of energy security and climate change at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Daily Beast. And the futures market expects Cushing, Oklahoma, is going to run out of capacity in mid-May. The looming Cushing storage crunch is particularly punishing for those trading in American petroleum, for which the price benchmark is West Texas Intermediatealso called Texas light sweetcrude. According to Jaffe, British and Persian Gulf operators have the option of putting their excess oil onto ships. But to get American oil to a boat instead of a storage tank in Cushing, purchasers first must move it via train or truck or pipeline, and many have made no such arrangements. Which is why futures closed at -$13.10: Some had to pay to get rid of their oil. Why such a glut? The economic shutdowns across the United States and the planet brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Prices have plummeted because theres no demand for oil, said Samantha Gross, a former official at the U.S Department of Energy and a fellow at the Brookings Institution. People arent driving, they arent flying. The situation is unprecedented, according to Gross, and may not soon improve. For capacity to increase, the American and international economies must rebound and begin consuming oil, not just the barrels of back supply but also new crude still emerging from wells. Story continues Weve never seen negative oil prices like this. Weve not seen demand fall so far so fast before. This is new territory for all of us, Gross said. Even when things get going again, theres still going to be all this inventory. Jaffe noted that many producers are physically disincentivized from shutting down their reservoirs, which often depend on naturally occurring underground pressures to extract oil. They fear that if they stop production and close off their wells, they may never be able to get the crude out again. She also noted on her blog a Wall Street Journal report that 20 Saudi tankers carrying some 40 million barrels are due to arrive in American ports next month. Meanwhile, those holding the futures for June must frantically look for somewhere to put the oil before the contracts expire on May 19. If they can, the market might not collapse, Jaffe said. If not, the same thing will happen again. 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. MasterChef Australia's Poh Ling Yeow received unanimous praise for her 90-minute lychee strawberry chiffon cake on Sunday night. But some viewers have accused the 47-year-old chef of bending the traditional rules of creating the popular dessert to save herself from elimination. According to one Facebook user, who claims to be an experienced pastry chef, Poh's three-tiered creation is 'inauthentic' because chiffon cakes aren't meant to have more than one layer. MasterChef Australia fans have pointed out a MAJOR problem in Poh Ling Yeow's highly praised chiffon cake - sparking a fierce debate over 'flaws' in her cooking 'Judges, traditionally Chiffon cakes are to be left in single layer, and no air bubbles, check the footage for when you judge one next time,' the user raged online. 'It was embarrassing for anyone who might make chiffon cakes. I have been making them more than forty years,' they added. The comment sparked furious debate among MasterChef Australia fans. It's a winner! Poh received unanimous praise for her three-layered lychee strawberry chiffon cake (pictured) on Sunday night 'You're right... it seems these new judges will let a lot of things go,' one angry viewer said of the show's new judging panel, Jock Zonfrillo, Melissa Leong and Andy Allen. Meanwhile, some fans pointed out that Poh never claimed to be making a 'traditional' recipe. 'Chiffon cakes can definitely be layered. There are many variations and Poh definitely did not say that her cake was a traditional chiffon cake,' one fan hit back. 'Judges, traditionally Chiffon cakes are to be left in single layer': According to one Facebook user, who claims to be an experienced pastry chef, Poh's creation is technically flawed because chiffon cakes aren't meant to have more than one layer 'Really? I'm a pastry chef and there are many ways to make a chiffon cake,' another added. Chiffon cake was invented in 1927 by Harry Baker, who eventually sold his secret recipe to General Mills (the company behind Betty Crocker cookbooks) in 1948. Betty Crocker's original chiffon cake recipe had only one layer, and was baked in a tube-like cake pan. To layer or not to layer? The comment sparked furious debate among MasterChef Australia fans. Pictured: Poh's chiffon cake Single layered: Betty Crocker's original chiffon cake recipe had only one layer, and was baked in a tube-like cake pan Clearly there are plenty of ways to make a chiffon cake, including different flavours, decoration techniques and numbers of layers. Poh Ling Yeow had viewers on the edge of their seat during Sunday night's episode. She made the 'gutsy' move to prepare a lychee strawberry chiffon cake, that usually takes several hours, in just 90-minutes. All three judges were impressed by Poh's technical abilities, leaving her safe from elimination. Melissa Leong described the sweet treat as 'light and airy', while Andy Allen praised Poh on making a 'technically perfect' cake. Re: Much of the European historiography of the African continent is marked [ #permalink 1. Which of the following statements about European historical analysis of Africa is best supported by the passage? a) The historiographies published by Europeans are generally positive in their assessment of the various European colonies that once existed on the African continent. not correct: passage doesn't talk about European colonies in Africa, however, it says that historians started to explore African history from the time colonisation had started in African continent b) The historical approach taken by Europeans is inherently flawed because it fails to take into account the striking differences between European and African mythology. not correct: Europeans historian approach has shortcomings not because of failing to account striking differences but because of 'ignoring more than a millennium of pre-colonial African history' c) European historiography typically ignores African history prior to colonization because such history tends to repeat patterns without any discernible chronological progression. not correct: passage says that 'This approach does both history and the African people a great disservice by ignoring more than a millennium of pre-colonial African history' but reasons for ignoring are not connected to 'repeated patterns' d) European historians customarily view African history as a series of invasions, culminating in the European conquests that eventually opened up Africa to the rest of the civilized world. not correct: no discussion of invasions e) European historical texts on Africa tend to neglect the complex realities of African history that existed before European colonies were founded there. correct: from 'Such works seem to proceed from the assumption that the history of Africa begins with the arrival of Europeans' and 'This approach does both history and the African people a great disservice by ignoring more than a millennium of pre-colonial African history', we can say that European historians neglected African history before European colonisation in Africa _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Which of the following best characterizes the author's view of the notion that African history began following the European invasion of the continent? passage analysis: passage says that European historians believe that African history began with the arrival of Europeans. However, this view is not correct and the author gives an example of Davidson, who addressed the shortcomings of the historical record and repair the misconceptions held by so many historians a) It is partially correct but plainly biased. not correct: this notion could be biased but no info in the passage saying that this notion is 'partially correct' b) It is controversial though persuasive. not correct: in the passage there are no details about controversy about this notion c) It is often misunderstood. correct: author of the passage talks about Davidson who addressed the shortcomings of the historical record and repair the misconceptions held by so many historians, so we can say that this notion is often misunderstood by European historians d) It is limited and subjective. not correct: passage says 'held by so many historians', so we can say that this notion is not a limited view e) It is based on complex assumptions. not correct: no discussion of complex assumptions _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. According to the passage, which of the following is true of African culture prior to the European colonization of Africa? a) African cultures were not completely isolated from those of other continents. correct: passage says 'African history that includes frequent contact between Africa and other continents' b) Though civilizations in Africa were complex, they became more so under the influence of European colonialists. not correct: no info about how African cultures were influenced by European colonies c) African culture before European contact was elaborate and homogeneous throughout the continent. not correct: no discussion of African cultures before European colonisation d) There are few reliable documents that accurately chronicle African history before European arrival. not correct: passage says 'The collection is equally successful as an historiographical resource, as Davidson has taken great pains to refer readers to a number of pertinent historical works, both European and African in origin', but we don't know these historical works originated in Africa were accurate in their contents e) Africa had spread its cultural influence through the conquest and subsequent assimilation of non-African cultures not correct: no info about spread of cultural influence Despite several charges against the Mamata Banerjee-led governments handling of the coronavirus crisis, statistics show West Bengal does not feature among the top 10 states with the maximum number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. As far as metropolitan cities are concerned, Kolkata, so far, has had the least number of incidents of the virus-related cases. According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bengal is in the 12th slot (as of April 21) among the 32 states and union territories in terms of COVID-19 cases and fatalities. Maharashtra has seen the maximum number of cases at 4,666 with 232 deaths, followed by Delhi (2,081 cases), Gujarat (1,939), Rajasthan (1,576), Tamil Nadu (1,520), Madhya Pradesh (1,484), Uttar Pradesh (1,184), Telangana (873), Andhra Pradesh (722), Karnataka (722), Kerala (408) and West Bengal (392). However, the figures contradict the Bengal health departments statistics, which says there are 245 active cases at the moment (April 20) in the state. As many as 73 people have been cured and 12 people have lost their lives to the virus in Bengal, the Centres statistics say. This reveals the government has managed to contain the virus to a certain extent with the help of top bureaucrats, health workers and scientists. Banerjee was the first among all chief ministers to officially request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop all international and domestic flights. She had also ordered suspension of all local train services before the Indian Railways announced the move. Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress supremo, had announced a statewide lockdown a day before the PM called for the Janata Curfew on March 23. She mentioned this in her letter to the PM, dated April 20. I would like to bring up the fact that West Bengal had proactively announced lockdown before it was announced by the central government and even before the extension to the lockdown on April 14, West Bengal government had already extended the lockdown up to April 30, Banerjee wrote. As far as the crisis of migrant workers is concerned, the government has set up 711 camps across the state for their accommodation. To prevent any labour unrest, an issue witnessed in states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Bengal government is trying to make arrangements for adequate food and comfortable stay. Some camps reportedly have televisions as well. At present, there are two lakh migrant labourers from 16 states staying at the 711 camps in Bengal and so far, not a single case of riot/clash or violation of the Disaster Management Act 2005 has been reported. The state government also decided to give Rs 1,000, under a scheme named Procheshta (effort) as relief to about 3 lakh migrant workers from Bengal stranded in other states due to the lockdown. Banerjees dispensation also announced an insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh to pandemics frontline warriors, including accredited journalists. She had initially promised to provide a cover of Rs 5 Lakh, but later doubled the amount. The states announcement on the matter came much before the Centre came up with a Rs 50-lakh insurance cover for frontline healthcare workers. Also, Banerjee is the only chief minister to have inspected hospitals, markets and quarantine centres to take stock of the situation. According to Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, The state governments consistent efforts has led to keeping nine districts in the state COVID-19 free so far (green zones). There are 10 districts that fall under orange zones (few cases). One should not go into speculations on the administrations role in containing the virus. A majority of the districts that fall in the orange zone are in north Bengal and Jungalmahal area. Santanu Sen, a doctor and Rajya Sabha MP from the Trinamool Congress, said a well-planned effort is underway to malign the image of the state government. It is a fact that West Bengal did a great job in containing the virus spread. However, efforts are being made to tarnish the governments reputation, he said. Sen said there has been contradictions in the Centres views on the state. Few days ago, Joint Secretary (Union Health Ministry) Luv Agarwal said no case was reported in the last 14 days from Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri. But later, the woman who addressed the press conference on behalf of the Union Home Ministry said the situation in Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri is poor. What does this indicate? Sen said. Regarding the arrival of central teams in the state on Tuesday for inspection, Sen said the government was kept in the dark about their moves. Home Minister Amit Shah informed our chief minister around 1pm on Tuesday. The Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) has reached the state at 10.10am on Monday. What does this mean? the MP said. He further accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of playing the communal card during a health crisis in a subtle way. It is very unfortunate that instead of working together, there are people who are still indulging in political activism, he added. He also blamed the BJP-ruled central government for the rapid spread of the virus in the country. Sen said that while the first coronavirus case was reported in January 30, flight operations were stopped only on March 22. There was a gap of nearly 52 days and lakhs of people travelled during this period that aggravated the situation. Dont you think it was mismanagement on behalf of the central government? It was our chief minister who raised the matter first and requested for suspension of flight services, he added. Earlier in the day, another TMC MP, Derek OBrien, hit out at the Centre for indulging in politics during a pandemic. He said nearly 70%-80% of the districts chosen for the Central teams visits are from states ruled by Opposition parties. Why no district from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat is part of the list that have high number of cases and many more hotspots? Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi has also questioned the intentions of the central team in Bengal despite the state having far less number of cases. However, most opposition leaders in the state have alleged that Banerjees government is trying to suppress the number of cases and deaths arising out of coronavirus in Bengal and that adequate tests are not being conducted on suspected patients. An FIR was recently lodged against BJPs Lok Sabha MP Subhas Sarkar in Bankura for speaking against the government. Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Legislator Sujan Chakraborty said it was a normal practice in the state to hide cases- be it rape, farmer suicide and now, coronavirus. COVID-19 cases surfaced much later in Bengal and we had some time to take precautions. I think the government should have gone for more testing. Initially, there was no problem with the, kits but the state government didnt pay much attention to it. As far as hiding is concerned, it is nothing new. This time, the government has given it a new name and started referring to the deaths as comorbidity cases, Chakraborty said. Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya said both the Centre and state government should keep their egos and politics aside and work for the larger cause of Bengal. It is unfortunate that they are resorting to politics at this hour. This is the time to behave like a sensibly. However, I also feel that everybody is working hard as per their capacity to contain the virus. The results could be better if we worked together, he said. A doctor working with a private hospital in the city said health workers are working on a war-footing and concerted efforts could help their cause. When asked the number of cases reported in the state, he said the administration has handled the situation well. Our CM reached out to the people to send a clear message about the lockdown. Barring a few places, the entire state maintained discipline and followed the guidelines laid down by the government. People have to cooperate in this crisis. However, Bengal certainly is better placed than other states, given the complicated situation, said Dr Arindam Biswas, a consultant of speciality internal medicine at Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences. Planet Earth has a long history of being home to millions of different species. The conditions that make life possible changed from bad to worse in the early years, and it was somewhat difficult for anyone or anything to survive in an unfriendly atmosphere. Today, although we are witnessing the destructive elements of global warming, there are some species that have lived through the turmoil and evolved along with all the problems that were, almost exclusively, caused by the human race. The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine Also known as Pinus longaeva, this tree is more than five thousand years old. It seems surreal for an organism to survive for that long, and not fall victim to their own biological cycle of life and death, or be devastated by external factors. This pine tree can be seen in several US states like Utah, California, or Nevada. However, there is more to this tree other than the fact that it is 5,065 years old, which slightly complicated the notion of oldest, as we discuss it now. Technically speaking, we could think about how this tree is older than five thousand years. The pine tree you see is just a stem coming out of the ground. Pine tree stems live approximately 130 years, but the underlying genetic structure is much older, and some estimates say that the real number is closer to 80,000 years. So, the stem you see rising the ground shares the same genetic material as every other stem that grew from that location. The World Of Bacteria As you can already see, it is rather hard to determine what is the longest living organism on Earth. For example, in 2007, scientists found bacteria that are around 500,000 years old. They did not find a fossil, something that would only tell the story of a life form without the life form itself being present. It is rather hard to determine what is the longest living organism on Earth. These bacteria were in a state of permafrost (a frozen state of a life form that is longer than two years), and they were (if we have to use this word to create a fundamental assumption of all life) - not dead. The bacteria, although set in an impossible setting where everything around them is ice, were fixing their DNA. One could say that they were adapting and finding a way to re-create themselves to survive under such harsh conditions. Another example was presented in 2013, where scientists explained how they found 100 million years old microbes at the bottom of the sea. One thing about these organisms is that their reproduction rate is slow, scientists thought they were extinct. Lying on the bottom of the ocean, reproducing every 10,000 years, what a time to be a microbe! Jonathan: 188-Year-Old Turtle St. Helena is a small island in the South Atlantic, and it is home to the oldest animal you can find on land. Do not go there to upset this giant tortoise, as he was born in 1832, and has no time for taking photos. When Marylou Armer saw a traumatized child, small and scared, without hesitation, she bent down on her hands and knees. The child had allegedly been sexually assaulted, and Armer, a career police detective in Santa Rosa, California, had been called to investigate. Slowly, she collected her interview while still providing needed emotional support. Once she finished, she talked with the child's worried parents, explaining the excruciating situation and assuring them on how they could help. Christine Castillo, who heads Verity, a Santa Rosa-based nonprofit that represents survivors of sexual assault and abuse, recalls the difficult scene vividly when she remembers Armer. "That's how she was with survivors," Castillo said. "That's how she was with the world." Armer, 43, died on March 31 from complications of the novel coronavirus, the first California police officer to lose their life to the virus. Family, friends, colleagues and victims' advocates alike have remembered Armer's thoughtfulness for others. Since Armer died, she's inspired others to carry on her selflessness. For instance, knowing that Armer was on duty up until the time she became sick, Mari Lau, her older sister, has purchased blue masks for nearly every officer in the Santa Rosa Police Department in a tribute to her sister. Her friend and fellow officer Stephen Bussell started a fundraiser through the professional organization Peace Officers Research Association of California that has raised more than $62,400 for her family. A California woman read in the local newspaper that Armer wasn't immediately tested for the virus and started a petition to demand testing for first responders. More than 56,000 people have signed it. "She would be so happy to hear that," Lau said. "I just wish that was the case prior to her having to lose her life over it." Armer, a 20-year veteran of the Santa Rosa Police Department, asked to be tested for the coronavirus but was denied three times, her sister said. She first complained of flu-like symptoms, including fever, body aches and chills, around March 9, but wasn't given a test until March 23. Before getting sick, she was working, responding to crime scenes and helping patrol. In a statement, her hospital, Kaiser Permanente's Vallejo Medical Center, confirmed that Armer was not immediately tested and offered condolences to her family and friends. "We closely follow public health authority testing rules, as we did in this case, which have been based on very limited availability of tests," Kaiser Permanente spokesman Marc Brown told The Washington Post. "Those rules for testing have evolved over the past several weeks, whereas a month ago, testing was under the exclusive authority of the public health department and limited to those with symptoms and who had primary contact with a COVID-positive person." When Armer was finally told she would be tested, she went to the hospital and was admitted by staff with a high fever. The last time she texted her sister was to tell her she was going to be intubated, Lau said. Hours after Armer was put under, her test results came back positive for the virus. While Armer was under a medically induced coma to let her lungs recuperate, her family sent her voice recordings, and it somewhat worked -- Armer's oxygen levels improved, and her heartbeat sped up. But the changes did not last. She died on March 31. It was a shock to her family, who thought Armer -- a young police officer with no underlying health conditions -- would recover. "It doesn't pick and choose its victims," Lau said of the coronavirus. "It just takes whoever." Lau said her sister had a lot to look forward to. Armer, her husband and her teenage stepdaughter had moved into a new home a year ago. She was busier at work. "She had so many more years to build a life in her new home," Lau said, adding that she's grateful that money raised by the fundraiser will go to Armer's husband and stepdaughter. Armer was also honored on April 3 by a mile-long procession of law enforcement vehicles with their lights flashing, which drove to the hospital where Armer died. California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office called for flags at the Capitol to be flown at half-staff. The police department encouraged the community to wear blue for one day. Santa Rosa's Courthouse Square was lit up in blue lights for a night. No one was told in advance about the procession to avoid crowds from gathering, but people watched online, including Castillo, the victims' advocate. Castillo cried as the cars inched forward in memoriam of Armer, who worked in the same building as Castillo and often visited her office to meet with victims or advocates. When the office learned of her death, some Verity employees left wildflowers at the closed building, Castillo said. Instead of a planned staff meeting, a Zoom call turned into a conversation about Armer and their appreciation for her thoughtfulness as a detective. Before Armer became a detective for the department's Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Team, she became interested in police work when she was young: in high school as an Explorer for the National City Police Department. After she graduated, she was hired as a field evidence technician and rose to a sworn police officer for Santa Rosa in 2008. Her detective job is one of the most difficult positions on the force, Stephen Bussell, a fellow Santa Rosa police officer and friend of Armer, said. "You're dealing with some of the most sensitive and vulnerable groups of victims, when it comes to sexual assault and domestic violence," Bussell said. "I think those personal traits that she had obviously served her well as a professional, but also she reached across the aisle, put herself in other people's shoes, established empathy in both realms, personal and professional." Despite common workplace cliques, Armer made friends with everyone, Bussell said. Ernesto Olivares, a retired SRPD lieutenant and Santa Rosa City Council member, remembered relating to how much Armer enjoyed sharing her family's recipe of lumpia, a Filipino spring roll, during office potlucks. It reminded Olivares of his family's tamales. When Olivares saw Armer's name on his daily roster, he felt encouraged, he said. "She just had a presence in the room that made you feel good," he said. Olivares left the police department, but when he heard of Armer's death, he said it felt like losing a family member. She serves as a reminder of how vulnerable any police officer can be, Olivares said. Nine other employees of the police department tested positive, but the national scope of how the virus has impacted first responders isn't fully known. Lau, her sister, said Armer first became interested in becoming a police officer because she thought she could help others on the job. "She went above and beyond that these families and kids were properly taken care of," Lau said. "That was her," Lau said of her sister, "she had a heart of gold." Help India! By Artuk, TwoCircles.net Be it Judaism, Christianity or Islam Call of repentance has been proclaimed by all the Abrahamic faiths in view of COVID19. During the American Civil War on March 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer in the hope of pardon of national sins and restoration of divided and suffering country. Support TwoCircles There is an old hymn Drifting too far from the shore, Youre drifting too far from the shore, Come to Jesus today, Let Him show you the way. Youre drifting too far from the shore.. The present tribulation can be seen through eyes of trials or punishments besides being viewed through the prism refracting the light of guidance of all colors for human life. Joseph A. Legan of James Madison University Scholarly Commons in his thesis writes that in 19th century Southern Ghana, outbreak of small pox caused number of deaths and subsequently, spiritual cause was extended as reason to the group of angry souls buried nearby. It says a lot about how any community or nation interprets tribulations as per their own beliefs and suitability. He continued in his thesis that the Black Death pandemic of 14th century caused mortality rates as high as 75% while by 1353, the Plague had spread throughout most of Europe, Asia and North Africa. Physicians were reliant on medical techniques and theories that dated back to Aristotles, Hippocrates and Galen. Along with religious causes, medical causes such as theories of Humors and the spread of pestilential Miasmas were put forth to explain the Plague. Even though medicine in the Middle East was more advanced than European medicines particularly in the area of surgery and anatomy physicians in both the regions were unsuccessful in treating the Plague. Even though the Black Death served to promote medical innovations that laid the foundations of modern medicines, hysteria due to Plague resulted in the widespread persecution of Jews as well as extensive Flagellism throughout Germany; the plague alone killing between 30% to 50% of Europes population by occurring every eleven years. By 1349, the whole Middle East was inflicted by Black Death and in Alexandria mortality rate was around 300 people per day and reached high as 7000 a day. It continually reoccurred in a cycle of nine years. As no Greek version of Galens texts was available in Europe, they relied on the Arabic translations. European physicians relied on famous Muslim Physicians Ibn Sinas The Canon of Medicines. It was used throughout Europe and Middle East as a medical text book having a summary of all medical and pharmaceutical knowledge up to Ibn Sinas time. Doctors utilized the services of a pharmacist who would prepare various herbs, minerals, pills and concoctions while they concentrated on healing procedures. The Arabs placed great emphasis on anatomy while Catholic education in general emphasized on philosophy and was only mildly practical, leading physicians to rely on Greek and Arabic medical treatises. Most of the European Christians believed the origin of the Plague was from God, though some also said it was from Satan or the anti-Christ. They believed it was sent as punishment of sins. This belief was rooted in Bible as David had chosen Plague as punishment for its people for carrying out a divinely forbidden cause. The religious convictions, however, did not stop physicians from treating the sick, for even though God sent the Plague, he had also given man tools to treat it. Even though Muslims generally believed the ultimate cause of the Plague was the will of God, the manner that God caused it to occur among men was the subject of many explanations. Christian crusaders were impressed by Arabic hospitals and they modeled a network of hospitals in Rome after Islamic hospitals in Cairo and Damascus. Muslims medicines were also far more advanced in terms of surgery and dissection than European medicines. Andalusian polymath Ibn Rushd said that whosoever becomes fully familiar with human anatomy and physiology his faith in God will increase. Spanish Jews had a great reputation for medical learning and an intense intellectual reputation which made Jewish medicines seem so attractive. But the dark side of the Plague was not only that Jews were persecuted in Europe but Muslims, along with other foreigners were also accused of causing the Plague. The attacks on Jews began after an accusation that they were responsible for the Plague by poisoning a well. Human society, too often looks for a scapegoat in times of plagues, like in America certain sort of American Christianity are made culprit for spread of Covid19. The bright side was rise of study of surgery, moderation of hospitals, public health laws, evolution of medical ethics and more, thus emphasizing Never let a crisis go to waste. Religion addresses the Why, science addresses the How Quran says And certainly, We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, but give glad tidings to As-Saabiroon (the patient). 14th Century Islamic scholars say that blessing comes with plagues and epidemics and it is important to see three blessings in every tribulation: One, it could be worse. Two, its in your worldly matters, and three, its in this life and not in the next life. This belief is has attached importance of repentance as despite our conscious and unconscious endeavors, we do fall short of the best human beings we can become. Even best nations, even most virtuous are not perfect. Is it you are good and righteous because of all the blessings, so if the blessings are taken away, how we behave? A huge bulk of Islamic traditions about tribulations is that it is for us to see who we are and to reveal ourselves during these times: an individual biological unit of life or assets for society. Islamic scholar and poet Rumi had said, This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! The saying extends the belief that a believer has two positions: before and after the situation, when it comes to pre-determination. Before the situation he seeks help, makes dua, asks goodness and then relies upon Him. After the situation, if the result was good the person thanks Allah. In event of negative outcome the person is patient because he knows that Allah will never forsake him. God will not be asked about what God does but it is we who shall be asked about how we responded to the circumstances. Belief in God does not obviate the need for actions as Plague tests the flexibility of religion, traditions and our reactions. Are we inching towards him or in status quo? As said by Hamza Yusuf, Mystics love nothing more than isolation, emphasizing Never let a crisis go to waste. Lessons for society as a whole One of the purposes of suffering is that it engenders and activates the virtue of humility within us. Helen Keller said, Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. As human beings are created in a state of anxiety, we may see the best and worst of humanity as the world is going through polarization because of political disagreement, religious belief, etc. Covid-19 has taught us the importance of being generous towards each other, not only in terms of philanthropy. An old woman in Belgium who was in need of ventilator because of the virus infection declined it in order to keep it safe for someone younger. On the other hand we witness the act of hoarding of food and resources such that despite money, several are forced into starvation. But we also see love as C S Lewis teaches us that love is: an instrument of charity, vocation, a verb. An act of willing for the good of the other for the sake of the other. Islamic traditions say do good for the sake of God so that you will not expect reciprocal from the beneficiaries but God. COVID-19 has exposed lot of economic division in society such as allocation of resources, privileged hoarding of goods, and more, exposing those who can afford primary health care, and those who cannot afford to stay home having no fixed flow of income. For the first time for many of us we have realized there are those who have to go out to make a minimum wages every day of their lives. This gives us a clearer picture of the deeply set economic hierarchies, racial hierarchies, gender hierarchies and more important, regional hierarchies. Our economic models need to be inclined to maintain the dignity of individual being. Economy is for the people not that people are for the economy as was experimented by UK with the herd immunity concept. As explained by David Brooks, there are two set of virtues, Resume (CV) virtues and Eulogy virtues. The CV virtues are skills you bring to the market place and the eulogy virtues are talked about at your funeral whether you were kind, brave, compassionate, honest and faithful. At the end of our lives what matters is how we lived and to live a meaningful life is to question what we are emphasizing on. Is our education making us hungry for justice and love or leading us to the road of obsession with wealth, status and power? Education should teach us to be willing to acknowledge when we are wrong. Our educational institutions have become industries for minting money under the cover of giving us career skills. Such a time as this throws us at crossroads with life values, emphasizing the need for teaching of virtues. What we are taught is to search what I want from life, start from self and end with self, rather than what life is asking of me. Regarding our shift from oral tradition to online tradition of education, our focus should be on Explorative learning, Problem solving, Connectedness and building moral vocabulary, hence reverberating Never let a crisis go to waste. Obligation to the environment We should be at the forefront of this global movement keeping in mind that the utilization of existing resources must be in a manner to fulfill our needs as well as sustain for the life to come. The concept of sustainable development can be seen as preservation of beauty of The Creator. We can draw the link between verses from the Quran .and eat and drink but not extravagant., verily spendthrifts are brothers of the Evil Ones; and the Evil One is to his Lord ungrateful. These verses also stress on the global concept of three Rs Reduce, Reuse and Recycle for creating a sustainable life. The closing of synagogues, churches, temples and mosques is a message I understood from The Sovereign, as: It is not I who needs you rather it is you who is in need. This is a call to wake up from our deep slumber, a stimulant. We have glorified enough of earlier centuries contributions to the world however we have none at our present time to offer. Take what is good, leave what is bad. TORONTO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX: SLF) (NYSE: SLF) will release its first quarter 2020 financial results on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, after markets close. Sun Life will hold its earnings conference call and audio webcast at 10:00 a.m. ET the following day. Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 Time: 10:00 a.m. ET To listen to the live webcast and view the presentation slides, visit www.sunlife.com/QuarterlyReports 10 minutes prior to the start of the presentation. An archive will be available on the website following the event. To listen via telephone, please call 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time as follows: Participant Dial In (Toll Free): 1-877-658-9101; conference ID 3267925 Participant Dial In (International): 602-563-8756; conference ID 3267925 A replay of the conference call will be available from Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 1:00 p.m. ET until 1:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 by calling 404-537-3406 or 1-855-859-2056 (toll free within North America) using Conference ID: 3267925. About Sun Life Sun Life is a leading international financial services organization providing insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to individual and corporate Clients. Sun Life has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of December 31, 2019, Sun Life had total assets under management of $1,099 billion. For more information, please visit www.sunlife.com. Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF. Note to editors: All figures in Canadian dollars Media Relations Contact: Investor Relations Contact: Krista Wilson Leigh Chalmers Director Senior Vice-President, Head of Investor Corporate Communications Relations & Capital Management T. 519-888-3900 ext. 341-4896 T. 647-256-8201 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Sun Life Financial Inc. Related Links http://www.sunlife.com Coronavirus cases in the Ashanti region have risen from 62 to 68 as of Sunday. According to the Ashanti regional health directorate, most of the affected persons are between 20 and 25 years of age. The regional health director Emmanuel Tenkorang addressed the media on the development Tuesday. On Monday, the Akuapem North Municipal Assembly recorded two new cases of coronavirus. Meanwhile, the Chairman of the National Risk Communication and Social Mobilisation Committee of COVID-19, Dr Aboagye da Costa says stigma has become one of the major challenges in the fight against the virus in the country. It comes after staff of the Fanteakwa government hospital in the Eastern region are reportedly being shunned by their communities after a patient tested positive of covid-19 there. Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Tuesday, Dr. Aboagy Da Costa said his outfit will take immediate steps to address the concerns in the district. Stigma has become one of the main concerns as we combat covid-19. We dont need to stigmatise because we are all at risk. We need to help the victims and not stigmatise. I will immediately get in touch with the regional and district directorate so they can pick it up and address it, he assured. He, however, encouraged the hospital staff not to be discouraged by the situation since they have sworn to protect the people. However I encourage the health staff that in spite of that they should continue to help because they are front-liners. Meanwhile, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has disclosed President Akufo-Addo did not seek their view before lifting the lockdown on parts of the country. The GMA, however, says the President has their blessing with the decision regardless. We were not consulted prior to the decision being made. But after the decision was made the president found it necessary to inform us and after listening to him, he has our blessing, a deputy general secretary of the Association Dr. Titus Bayuo told Starr News on Monday. He said even though they are a medical association, they also concerned about the economic wellbeing of the country. ---Starrfm.com.gh (Natural News) As the mainstream media and public health officials continue to solely blame President Donald Trump for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) situation thats transpired here in the United States, resulting in widespread lockdowns and business closures, dont forget that it was actually the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a private corporation, that botched the testing kit rollout back when it actually mattered. Back in mid-January, Stephen Lindstrom, one of the CDCs top scientists, reassured local and state public health officials that everything was under control. The mysterious new virus that was escaping from China wouldnt be a problem here in the United States, he said during a conference call, but the CDC was still going to develop a testing kit for it just to be sure. In an email summarizing this call, it was revealed that Lindstrom wasnt even anticipating having to use these testing kits unless the scope [of the spread of the virus] gets much larger than we anticipate. Consequently, one public health official reportedly told colleagues in a separate email that were in good hands. Three weeks later on Feb. 8 the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) had already reached the U.S. at this point one of the first of these CDC test kits arrived via Federal Express at a public health laboratory on the east side of Manhattan. Lab technicians reportedly struggled for hours to get it to work, but to no avail: It produced questionable results that made it untrustworthy. They quickly notified lab director Jennifer Rakeman, who also works as an assistant commissioner in the New York City health department, that the test wasnt working right, to which she responded out of great concern, What are we going to do now? The test continued to be used and pushed, however, including by the Trump administration, which reportedly issued demands that actually prevented an alternative test from being developed and used in its place. The federal bureaucracy eventually relented, but at this point it was already too late: The Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) had already spread across the country. We have the skills and resources as a community but we are collectively paralyzed by a bloated bureaucratic/administrative process, wrote Marc Couturier, medical director at academic laboratory ARUP in Utah, to fellow microbiologists on Feb. 27. This was followed not long after by the Trump administrations decision to open up testing to other laboratories and technology beyond what the CDC had developed. A few weeks later on March 12, Brett Giroir, a Public Health Service admiral, was appointed to be the official testing czar for the crisis. Giroir admitted that the government, including the CDC, had failed to nip this thing in the bud early on, and was now having to play catch-up. There was a clear need for a more aggressive posture, Giroir, whos also an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), stated. When asked who was to blame for dropping the ball during the early days of the crisis, Giroir carefully responded, A problem like this is bigger than any single agency. Clearly, there needed to be a higher level of leadership and organization. Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks to Dr. Paul Cottrell about how the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) has the potential to mutate and exploit a second receptor inside peoples bodies: Why wouldnt the CDC help state health departments figure out the testing issues? For some reason, Giroir didnt call out the CDC in his statement, even though the CDC was still looking at the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) as a distant threat well into January. As you may recall, it was already known at that time that at least one traveler from China had brought the Wuhan coronavirus to Seattle, this being the first known case in the U.S. The CDCs response was to manufacture and distribute more testing kits, but as we also know these were largely defective. It took a very long time after that for new tests to be developed and distributed, but only to some areas where they were deemed to be needed by the CDC. Everyone else would have to wait unless the scope gets much larger than we anticipate right now, explains an email summary of that same mid-January call between Lindstrom and more than a dozen public health officials. After these tests proved to be flawed, labs all across the country scrambled to find a solution. They also attempted to contact the CDC for clarification about how to move forward, only to receive no response in return. The silence from CDC is deafening, stated Joanne Bartkus, lab director of the Minnesota health department, in a letter to Scott Becker, chief executive of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which had been in communication with the CDC about the faulty test results. What is going on? We are getting questions from our governors office and other labs are getting media requests asking when we will be starting. The CDCs failure, or refusal, to act quickly to resolve the problem and get new working tests delivered to where they needed to be ultimately resulted in the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading even further. And the worst part about it is that the CDC apparently lied about there being an easy fix to the problem, when there really wasnt. Be sure to read the full report on the CDCs failure to address the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis at Chron.com. You can also keep up with the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), be sure to check out Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: ArmstrongEconomics.com Chron.com ZeroHedge.com NaturalNews.com A small, rural hospital in southern New Jersey now has the capacity to treat more critically ill patients, including those with coronavirus, and even has an army to help them. This week, the Salem Medical Center announced it had completed renovations to increase its critical care capacity to 58 beds, adding to the 12 existing licensed ICU units. And on Monday, the staff lined the halls to welcome 28 active-duty Army soldiers, including doctors, nurses and clerks who came to assist in providing care. But if and when that expected surge in coronavirus cases will come is unclear. The extra beds and additional help come as the state Department of Health reports a decline in overall hospitalizations in New Jersey over the past five days. Gov. Phil Murphy said it is an indication that the spread of the virus is slowing. As of Tuesday, Salem County the least populated county in the state reported just 127 positives cases of the virus and five deaths associated with it. Two of those deaths occurred at the hospital, Tammy Torres, the medical center CEO said. Torres said her hospital, located in Mannington Township, Salem County, was designated by state officials as a key critical care facility in southern New Jersey. Cooper Hospital is the command post for South Jersey, but Salem is able to accept patients if there is a surge of illness. The extra help from the military was arranged by officials at Cooper helping to coordinate the state pandemic response, a Salem hospital spokesman said. It demonstrates what their local community is doing to prepare for any COVID-19 in the area and have the confidence we are ready and that our staff is trained, Torres said. We are here for them. Currently, there are 32 total patients in the 126-bed hospital and 14 of them tested positive for the coronavirus, Torres said. One of those coronavirus positive patients was transferred from Cooper University Hospital in Camden on Tuesday, she said. Last week, State Health Commissioner Judith Persichili said the northern part of the state may have already seen the peak of hospitalizations from COVID-19. As we look at the hospitalizations, we are seeing some flattening," she said during the states daily coronavirus press briefing in Trenton on Friday. We separate out the state into north, central and south, and we actually are seeing the transmission of the disease moving down the state. In the north, we have seen the peak," Persichilli added. "We have not seen it in central and south. And its coming. Torres said thats why her hospital is preparing. That is the predictive model that was put out; that we would see a surge this week into next week," she said. "Thats what all the preparation has been. Thats why we brought in the military earlier this week to get them prepared and be ready for anything that comes into our community. The Army medic unit will work with 250 doctors, 142 nurses who treat patients here. Salem was in the process of renovating one of its four floors for a new psychiatric care unit. But once the coronavirus pandemic hit, officials were able to outfit the rooms with intensive care capability, including negative air pressure to help eliminate airborne bacteria. Torres said Salem hopes to receive FEMA money to reimburse some of the cost to upgrade. She said her medical center still hopes to open the psychiatric unit this summer and believes the improvements will benefit the hospital going forward. In the future, we will have a higher level of care on all floors, she said. Health officials said Tuesday another 379 New Jersey residents have died of COVID-19, pushing the states death total to 4,753. At least 92,387 have tested positive since March 4, though 80 to 85% of cases are mild or moderate. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Mainly Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province & Ringing Trips to Bahrain The Indian Internet infrastructure is not ready for the paradigm shift to online learning mandated by the situation arising due to COVID-19, according to a report by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), which comes out with coveted global ranking for educational institutions. The report titled "COVID-19: A wake up call for telecom service providers" is based on a survey conducted by QS I Guage, which rates colleges and universities in India with complete operational control held by London-based QS. The report pointed out connectivity and signal issues as the most prevailing problems faced by students while attending online classes. "The survey pointed out that the infrastructure in terms of technology in India has not achieved a state of quality so as to ensure sound delivery of online classes to students across the country. It is seen that both the state and the private players have not yet managed to overcome technical challenges, for instance, in providing adequate power supply and ensuring effective connectivity as the data reveals," the report said. "Although, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the world had witnessed a massive shift from the traditional Face to Face (F2F) to online platform as a mode of delivery of classes. Due to lack of proper infrastructure, a shift to a total reliance on the online platform for the delivery of lectures seems to be a distant dream," it added. According to the report, the survey with over 7600 respondents found that in order to use internet at home, 72.60 percent of the respondents use mobile hotspot, 15 pc use home broadband, 9.68 pc use WiFi dongle and 1.85 pc have poor to no internet connectivity. "The data revealed that amongst the respondents who used home broadband, over 3 pc faced cable cuts, 53 pc faced poor connectivity, 11.47 pc faced power issues and 32 pc faced signal issues. When it came to mobile hotspot, 40.18 pc faced poor connectivity, 3.19 pc faced power issues and 56.63 pc faced signal issues. "Studies and reports regarding the consumption of power by the state authorities reveal that the states are not using power entirely due to COVID-19 situation thereby leaving a surplus supply for private entities and general public," it said. Schools and colleges were closed in the country ahead of nationwide lockdown announced on March 24 to contain the spread of coronavirus. The lockdown has now been extended till May 3. "The education sector is amongst the many which has taken a strong blow due to the COVID-19 situation. No more are the stakeholders involved in higher education able to function conventionally and the prospect of operating back to the status quo seems quite uncertain. In such a time, the only recourse that universities and institutions across the globe are resorting to is that of functioning online," the report said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tuesday marks the thirty-seventh day of mandatory social isolation. #PeruEstaEnNuestrasManos El presidente @MartinVizcarraC, acompanado de los ministros de Defensa y Salud, se encuentra en Moquegua para supervisar las acciones multisectoriales que se realizan en esta region para contener la propagacion del COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/GlyHfEID6w Coronavirus Cases in India latest updates: The country recorded 1,329 new cases and 44 deaths in 24 hours. According to the latest data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India has so far recorded 18,985 confirmed coronavirus cases including 15,122 active cases, 3,259 cured/discharged, 1 migrated, and 603 deaths. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Delhi stands at 2,081 with death toll at 47 following Maharashtra which is the worst-hit in India with coronavirus tally at 4,666, while 232 people succumbed to the virus in the state. Maharashtra also has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the country. Gujarat is the third state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 1,939 and death toll at 71. Meanwhile, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan has launched 'COVID India Seva', an interactive platform for citizen engagement on COVID19 on Tuesday. It is aimed at enabling e-governance delivery in real-time and answering people's queries. The Covid India Seva will work as a dashboard at the backend that will help to process large volumes of tweets, converts them into resolvable tickets, and assigns them to the relevant authority for real-time resolution. "Trained experts will share authoritative public health information swiftly at scale, helping to build a direct channel for communication with citizens," the union minister said. India is witnessing a rapid increase in coronavirus cases. Also Read: Coronavirus lockdown India: Does your district fall in 'red zone' hotspots? Check out full list here Also Read: Coronavirus in India: COVID-19 cases cross 17,000; check state-wise tally, deaths, list of testing facilities Follow BusinessToday.In for all live updates on coronavirus: 10.56 pm: Delhi-Noida border completely shut The Delhi-Noida border has been completely shut on advice from medical department with certain exemptions, informed Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Suhas LY. Personnel involved in COVID-19 management activities, central government employees, doctors, and media personnel with authorisation, as well as goods transport and ambulances have been exempted from this, an order stated. 10.28 pm: Coronavirus in India Government of India to conduct a telephonic survey to gather feedback from citizens on prevalence and distribution of COVID19 symptoms, reported ANI. Calls will be made to mobile phone numbers from 1921 during which respondents will be asked to take the survey. It will be carried out by National Informatics Centre (NIC). 9.27 pm: Coronavirus update India Under ICMR's new strategy for #COVID19 testing among pregnant women expectant mothers residing in coronavirus hotspots or part of large migration gatherings from from hotspot districts presenting in labor or likely to deliver in next 5 days will be tested even if asymptomatic. 9.20 pm: IN PICTURES: MoS G Kishan Reddy visits Delhi's Azadpur Mandi Delhi: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy inspected the Azadpur wholesale market, earlier today. pic.twitter.com/fIHB4lbH0I ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 9.09 pm: Coronavirus in India: Health Ministry lists rules for importing remains of COVID patients, suspects Ministry of Health and Family Welfare list guidelines as standard operating procedure for importation of human remains of confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients. Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) releases guidelines/standard operating procedures for importation of human remains of #COVID19 patients/suspects: MoHFW pic.twitter.com/iZUMKbFLao ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 9.07 pm: Coronavirus update India Odisha Revenue and Disaster Management Department issue Standard Operating Procedure for smooth movement of all kind of goods and workers, as well as for opening vehicle repair shops during coronavirus lockdown. Odisha Revenue & Disaster Management Department has issued Standard Operating Procedure for smooth movement of all types of goods, workers and opening of vehicle repair shops during lockdown. pic.twitter.com/SEQYE4FAwu ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 8.49 pm: Prepaid mobile recharge, caregivers of senior citizens, flour mills exempted from COVID-19 lockdown, MHA clarifies In a letter to states and union territories, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has clarified that prepaid mobile recharge services, caregivers who stay with senior citizens, and food processing units in urban areas like flour mills, dal mills, bread factories, milk processing plants and such had already been exempted from nationwide lockdown in view of coronavirus outbreak. However, social distancing measures will have to be followed at workshops and other facilities allowed to run, Bhalla added. 8.34 pm: Korean company begins producing COVID-19 rapid test kits at Manesar South Korean company SD Biosensor has started production from its facility in Manesar, Haryana, informed Indian Embassy in Seoul. The facility has a production capacity of 500,000 rapid test kits per week, which will be further enhanced in the coming weeks to meet growing demand, the Embassy informed. 8.23 pm: Coronavirus update India: Cabinet to convene at PM Modi 's residence The Union cabinet will meet at the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 22, Wednesday. The status of coronavirus outbreak in India is expected to be the primary agenda for the meeting tomorrow. 8.17 pm: Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra Maharashtra reported 552 new COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths today, taking tally of cases to 5,218 and death toll to 251. A total of 722 patients have been cured so far, including the 150 patients discharged from hospitals today, informed Maharashtra Health Department. 8.11 pm: Delhi coronavirus cases Delhi government has demarcated three new containment zones in the national capital, taking the number of such areas to 87 from 84. Number of COVID19 'containment zones' in Delhi raised to 87 by Delhi government. pic.twitter.com/AGGx6QNp50 ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 7.59 pm: Coronavirus news: China refutes claims of faulty rapid test kits China has rejected claims from some Indian states indicating that rapid testing kits for detecting COVID-19 were yielding inacurrate results. ICMR had suspended such test kits for 2 days after suspicions were raised by Rajasthan and West Bengal. 7.51 pm: Lockdown in Maharashtra Maharashtra government has revoked relaxations and exemptions from coronavirus lockdown for Mumbai and Pune regions as 'people are not behaving responsibly', stated Chief Minister's Office. The lockdown exemptions will remain in place for other parts of the state. 7.40 pm: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan urges Red Cross to encourage cured COVID-19 patients to doneate blood for plasma ttherapy There have been reports that convalescent plasma can play a crucial role in the recovery of #COVID19 patients. For this, we have requested Red Cross volunteers to approach people who have recovered from COVID19&motivate them to donate blood: Dr Harsh Vardhan,Union Health Minister pic.twitter.com/BFxJkCFkgz ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 7.23 pm: Coronavirus news: Punjab suggests three-pronged strategy for Centre to bail out states CM Captain Amarinder Singh today suggested the Centre a 3-pronged strategy to bail out states from #COVID19 crisis, including a 3-month special financial package&extension to 15th Finance Commission till Oct 2021 for submission of its final report: Punjab Chief Minister's Office pic.twitter.com/Q3udRETV4q ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 7.19 pm: Coronavirus updates: SEBI rolls out measures to facilitate fund raising Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India has decided to take certain measures to further facilitate fund raising by corporates through capital markets in line with its ongoing efforts to ease processes amid the coronavirus crisis. Securities and Exchange Board of India has decided to take certain measures to further facilitate fund raising by corporates through capital markets in keeping with its ongoing efforts to ease processes in light of #COVID19: Office of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pic.twitter.com/cDBWyeO7Pu ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 7.10 pm: Singapore extends partial lockdown till June 1 Singapore has extended the "circuit breaker" period until June 1 to control the spread of the deadly coronavirus as cases in the country surged to 9,125. In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the government is committed to do its "utmost" to keep it this deadly virus at bay. 7.04 pm: Coronavirus news: Quarantined man dies after jumping from hospital's 3rd floor A man who was quarantined in Ranchi's Lake View Hospital died after jumping from the third floor of the hospital, Ranchi Police has confirmed. 6.54 pm: Coronavirus updates: IAF airlifts 57 people to Kargil Indian Air Force airlifted 57 quarantined people in a C-130 aircraft from AFS Hindan to Kargil after they tested negative for coronavirus. The evacuees had completed their quarantine periods at Air Force Quarantine Facility, Hindan, reported ANI. 6.44 pm: Coronavirus in India Rajendra Singh, Member, National Disaster Management Authority, called on IAF Chief RKS Bhadauria to discuss coronavirus relief operations. Singh appreciated India Air Force for their help in transporting medical and essential supplies to different parts of country. 6.19 pm: Coronavirus in Delhi: 2081 cases reported, 47 dead: CM Arvind Kejriwal Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal informed that 2,081 coronavirus cases have been reported in in the national capital till April night, of which, 431 have recovered and 47 have lost their lives due to the virus. Currently, there are 1,603 active cases in Delhi, he added. 6.11 pm: 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: 6.02 pm: Coronavirus updates: MyLab gets TBD approval for funds to ramp up test kit production Technology Development Board (TDB), a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has approved financial support to Pune-based MyLab Discovery Solutions for ramping up production of COVID-19 diagnostic kits they have developed. Mylab is the first indigenous company to develop real-time PCR based molecular diagnostic kit used for detecting COVID 19. 5.59 pm: Govt tech think tanks mulls best pratices to revive Indian economy post COVID-19 Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous technology think tank under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, is working on a white paper to strategise revival of Indian economy after COVID 19. This document would mainly focus on strengthening Make in India initiatives, commercialisation of indigenous technology, developing a technology-driven transparent Public Distribution System (PDS), efficient rural healthcare system, reducing imports, adoption of emerging technology domains like AI, Machine Learning, Data Analytics and many more, a government statement said. 5:55 pm: India's COVID-19 cases rise to 18,985, death toll goes up to 603 Total number of COVID-19 positive cases rise to 18,985 in India (including 15,122 active cases, 3,260 cured/discharged/migrated people and 603 deaths), says Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Total number of #COVID19 positive cases rise to 18985 in India (including 15122 active cases, 3260 cured/discharged/migrated people and 603 deaths): Ministry of Health and Family Welfare pic.twitter.com/uRLLpgDmJb - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 5:50 pm: Delhi Police constable tested positive for coronavirus, complains about lack of facilities A Delhi Police constable, who had tested positive for coronavirus, complains about lack of facilities and medical care at Chaudhary Brahm Prakash Ayurved Charak Sansthan, Delhi, where he has been quarantined. #Delhi We will take care of the well being of our staff and their family. We are following procedures and guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). We will get in touch with hospital administration so more facilities can be provided: DCP Delhi-West https://t.co/mScfwhzJKK - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 5:45 pm: Have asked all state govts to distribute ration to poor, says Ram Vilas Paswan Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday said that the government has surplus grains stock of 539 lakh tonnes. There will no shortage in the near future. We have asked all the state govts to distribute ration to the poor in their states. The Centre has clearly said that no poor should go hungry, he added. 5:35 pm: 10 new cases reported in Karnataka in last 24 hours Ten new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Karnataka from 5:00 pm yesterday till 5:00 pm today. With this, 418 positive cases have been confirmed in the state now, which includes 17 Deaths and 129 Discharges, according to statement issued by the state health department. 5:30 pm: 29 new COVID-19 cases, 15 deaths reported in West Bengal in last 24 hours As many as 29 new coronavirus cases reported in West Bengal in last 24 hours, while total death toll reached 15, says state chief secretary on Tuesday. 5:25 pm: Pune's mobile app Saiyam tracks home quarantined citizens In order to effectively track the home-quarantines citizens and ensure they are actually staying in the home, a mobile application named Saiyam has been developed by the Pune Municipal Corporation under Smart Cities Mission (SCM). The city administration has appointed dedicated teams for five zones to conduct a follow-up with people under home quarantine on a daily basis. The teams will check on people who have recently returned from international trips and those discharged after treatment for COVID-19. 5:20 pm: Odisha gets 5,356 kg of PPE, sanitisers on Tuesday "Total 459 packets (5356.7 kg) of PPE (Personal protective equipment) and sanitisers etc. were delivered to Odisha State Medical Corporation (OSMC) on Tuesday by Air India AI-1473 from Delhi," says Director, Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar. 5:15 pm: Central team reviewed COVID-19 situation in Pune A inter-ministerial central team on Tuesday reviewed Pune Municipal Corporation's control room to monitor COVID-19 situation in city. Pune: A Inter-Ministerial Central Team today reviewed Pune Municipal Corporation's Control Room to monitor COVID19 situation in city. The Team held a meeting with administration officials including the divisional commissioner & collector etc.#Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/MUN1Qd9MV8 - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 5:10 pm:Central team not receiving cooperation from West Bengal govt, says home ministry Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) visiting West Bengal's Kolkata and Jalpaiguri districts aren't receiving cooperation from State government and local administration. They're being stopped from visiting the areas and not being allowed make on-spot assessment of situation, says home ministry. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla writes to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha. Letter states,"It has been brought to notice of this ministry that both IMCTs, at Kolkata & Jalpaiguri respectively, have not been provided with requisite cooperation by state & local authorities" pic.twitter.com/yukzKy32PU - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 5:05 pm: Centre issues guidelines to states for HIV/cancer treatments The centre has issued detailed guidelines to all states that while we focus on COVID19, all other services need to be provided, be it for dialysis, HIV/cancer treatments etc, says Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry. At the same time required infection management prevention should be in place, he added. 5:00 pm: 4,49,810 tests for COVID-19 conducted so far in India, says ICMR "4,49,810 samples have been tested so far in Inda. 35,852 samples were tested on Monday, of which 29,776 samples were tested in 201 Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) network labs and remaining 6,076 samples were tested in 86 private labs, says R Gangakhedkar. 4:50 pm: India's coronavirus count tops 18,000 Till now, there are 18601 positive cases. So far, 3252 people have recovered including 705 people who recovered yesterday. This takes our recovery percentage to 17.48%, says Lav Agrawal, Joint Secy, Health Ministry. 4:40 pm: ICMR advises states to not use rapid testing kits for two days ICMR Deputy Director Dr Raman Gangakhedkar said that states advised not to use rapid testing kits for two days as a lot of variations were reported in results. Kits will be tested and validated by on-ground teams and we will give advisory in the next 2 days, he added. 4:35 pm: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee urges citizens to stay at home West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Saturday visited Rajabazar area in Kolkata and asked citizens to stay at home and cooperate in the fight against coronavirus. 4.25pm: Gujarat coronavirus news update Eleven migrant workers were arrested in Gujarat while they were heading from Surat to their native places in Odisha on bicycles on Tuesday. They were arrested under IPC Sections 188 (disobedience to police order), 269, 270 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life). 4.15pm: Maharashtra coronavirus news update A total of 49 policemen tested positive for coronavirus, since 22nd March till 4 am today. As many as 13,381 people have been arrested since 22nd March till 4 am today, for violation of restrictions during the lockdown. And, the state police has seized 41,768 vehicles have been seized in the same period. 4.05pm: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan may go into self-quarantine after it emerged that he came in contact with an individual who tested positive for coronavirus last week. According to IANS, Khan met Faisal Edhi, the chairman of Edhi Foundation, on April 15. 3.55pm: Directorate General of Health Services and Government of India have given permission to Dr. Vishal Rao, H.C.G Bangalore Institute Of Oncology Specialty for plasma therapy in treating coronavirus patients. Directorate General of Health Services, Government of India gives permission to Dr. Vishal Rao, H.C.G Bangalore Institute Of Oncology Specialty for plasma therapy in 'COVID19 Severe SARS-Cov-2' disease. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/K4WDnBvfKn - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 3.50pm: British Airways carrying 250 passengers to depart from Amritsar today A special British Airways flight, carrying 250 passengers, including 28 Indians will depart for London from Amritsar on April 21. On April 18, British Airways' another relief flight carried 260 stranded passengers from Amritsar. 3.45pm: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan launches 'COVID India Seva' Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday launched the 'COVID India Seva'. The initiative will serve transparent e-governance delivery in real-time and answering citizen queries swiftly. Launched @CovidIndiaSeva to respond to citizens' queries in real time Experts will share authoritative public health information reg #COVID19 swiftly at scale, helping to build a direct channel for communication with citizens. Post your queries!#CovidIndiaSeva @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/9dPKh9Qklc - Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) April 21, 2020 3.40pm: 47 staff members of AMU quarantined after patient tests positive for coronavirus Forty-seven staff members of a medical college attached to Aligarh Muslim University were quarantined after they came in contact with a coronavirus patient. The authorities at AMU's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College have also suspended a doctor for referring the patient to the emergency wing of its hospital instead of isolation facility. 3.35pm: Kangana Ranaut donates Rs 5 lakh to daily wage workers of "Thalaivi" Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has donated Rs 5 lakh to Fim Employees Federation of South India's (FESI UNION) relief fund and daily wage workers of her upcoming film Thalaivi. 3.30pm: Rajasthan coronavirus news update On Tuesday, Rajasthan reported 83 coronavirus cases, taking total number of positive cases in the state to 1,659 now. 25 deaths have been reported till date, according to Rajasthan Health Department. 83 new #COVID19 cases have been reported in Rajasthan today, taking total number of positive cases in the state to 1659 now. 25 deaths have been reported till date: Rajasthan Health Department pic.twitter.com/G65UP2OesI - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 3.25pm: Karnataka coronavirus news update The Karnataka Government might spare its employees from salary cuts in April despite it faces severe resources' crunch due to the lockdown. As of now, there is no problem with April salary and we can manage. But if May also turns out to be a wash-out (in terms of revenue collection), then the situation is going to be very tough, a senior minister said. 3.20pm: Tamil Nadu coronavirus news update Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Tuesday appreciated six-year old R. Hema Jayasri for donating her savings of Rs 543 towards COVID-19 relief. In a tweet, Palaniswami expressed his happiness to note young children growing with an attitude to help others. 3.15 pm: Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik has announced a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to healthcare workers who die in the line of duty while treating COVID-19 patients 3.04 pm: Coronavirus update today KBS Sidhu, Special Chief Secretary, Punjab said on Tuesday that British Airways special chartered flight carrying 222 UK nationals and 28 Indians will depart for London shortly from Amritsar International Airport. British Airways special chartered flight carrying 222 UK nationals and 28 Indians will depart for London shortly from Amritsar International Airport: KBS Sidhu, Special Chief Secretary, Punjab. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/k3WVyXXKbL - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 2.59 pm: Coronavirus news: Singapore reports 1,111 new COVID-19 cases Singapore reported 1,111 fresh novel coronavirus cases, taking the city-state's total count to 9,125 on Tuesday. The health ministry said that a majority of the cases were migrant workers living in dormitories. 2.55 pm: Gujarat coronavirus news update Gujarat reported 88 fresh COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, according to Health Ministry, taking the total number of novel coronavirus cases to 1,939 in the state. 131 people have recovered so far while 71 have succumbed to the virus. 2.46 pm: Coronavirus live updates: Govt says West Bengal issued the same notice as other states Apurva Chandra Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence & IMCT team leader said on Tuesday that IMCT teams have gone to other states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, there they are getting full support of state govts. They were given the same notice as West Bengal but they have faced no problems since yesterday. IMCT teams have gone to other states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,& Rajasthan, there they are getting full support of state govts. They were given the same notice as West Bengal but they have faced no problems since yesterday: Apurva Chandra Addl Secy MoD & IMCT team leader pic.twitter.com/7ok9PuAFkR - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 2.40 pm: Haryana coronavirus news Haryana Health Department said on Tuesday said that cumulative positive COVID19 cases (including 14 Italian Nationals) stand at 252 now, of which 142 have been discharged. Total 2 deaths reported till now. Cumulative positive #COVID19 cases (including 14 Italian Nationals) stand at 252 now, of which 142 have been discharged. Total 2 deaths reported till now: Health Department, Haryana pic.twitter.com/iHEKp68h82 - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 2.34 pm: Tamil Nadu coronavirus news Around 25 persons, comprising journalists, working for a Tamil TV news channel have been tested positive for COVID-19 in Chennai, a Tamil Nadu government official said on Tuesday. 2.26 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus latest update Mumbai Police have booked 1,330 people for not wearing masks at public places in the city flouting the order issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), an official said on Tuesday. The BMC had made wearing face masks/clothes mandatory from April 8 in the wake of increasing cases of novel coronavirus in Mumbai. 2.17pm: Chhattisgarh coronavirus news A 12-year-old girl hailing from Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district reportedly died of exhaustion and dehydration on Monday after walking for 3 days on foot and covering 150 km on her journey back home from Telangana, where she had gone for work. The girl began her journey on April 15, bud passed away on April 18 morning near Bhandarpal village, which is 50 km from her native village. 2.07 pm: Mumbai coronavirus updates 25 paramedics, comprising 19 nurses of Pune's Ruby Hall Clinic tested positive for novel coronavirus, Hospital CEO told PTI. Pune is one of the 14 COVID-19 hotspots in Maharashtra identified as red zones or containment areas. The other hotspots are Mumbai, Mumbai suburban districts, Thane, Nagpur, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Yavatmal, Aurangabad, Buldhana, Nashik, Kolhapur, Amravati, Palghar. 1.57 pm: Coronavirus live updates: Send us home, says 220 stranded Indians in Japan A group of 220 Indians stranded in Japan reached out to the Indian Embassy in Tokyo urging it to be sent to India. The stranded Indians in a signed letter, assured that they will isolate themselves when back home to the country and cooperate with the authorities, PTI reported. 1.50 pm: Goa coronavirus news Girish Chodankar, President of Goa congress said on Tuesday that Goa CM is boasting of covering 5 lakhs houses in just 3 days with 7000 surveyors. Central Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan also tweeted declaring Goa as COVID19 free. This hurry of BJP govt is a worry for every Goan. Goa CM is boasting of covering 5 lakhs houses in just 3 days with 7000 surveyors. Central Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan also tweeted declaring Goa as #COVID19 free. This hurry of BJP govt is a worry for Goan: Girish Chodankar, President of Goa Congress https://t.co/VsW2lLqiJL - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 1.44 pm: Odisha coronavirus news Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik said on Tuesday that the state government will provide Rs 50 lakh insurance to all medics, health personnel, both in public and private sector, as well as members of other support services. He added that strict action will be taken against anyone who dishonours the work of these healthcare workers. Any act against them (health personnel) is an act against the state. In case anyone indulges in any act that will disturb or dishonor their work,very strict criminal action will be taken against them including invoking provisions of National Security Act: Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik pic.twitter.com/hLluvzkCBE - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 1.39 pm: Delhi coronavirus latest news Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal conducts surprise inspection at a shelter home for stranded migrant labourers at Ludlow Castle School to examine the facilities available there and compliance of social distancing norms. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal conducts surprise inspection at a shelter home for stranded migrant labourers at Ludlow Castle School to examine the facilities available there and compliance of social distancing norms. pic.twitter.com/iYHciC0CEb - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 1.29 pm: West Bengal coronavirus update The TMC on Tuesday slammed the central government over the visit of Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (ICMTs) to West Bengal to monitor some districts in the wake of COVID-19 cases. The party questioned as to why such teams were not sent to the state that have much higher count of cases and red zones. "The ICMT team is on adventure tourism. The CM was told about the team's visit three hours after the team landed," TMC MP Derek O' Brien said. 1.22 pm: Assam coronavirus latest updates: Government offices in Assam start functioning amid lockdown All the government offices in Assam have resumed functioning from Tuesday with 33% workforce in attendance. According to the state government directive, all officials from the post of deputy secretary and above are required to mandatorily attend office in Assam secretariat, the directorates, the assistant director and above officials are also required to be present on duty and assistant commissioner and above for other corporations. Adequate precautionary measures have been made in Assam secretariat and other government offices to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus. The state government has also provided transport facilities for Assam secretariat employees by arranging 16 buses. 1.16 pm: Coronavirus in Haryana latest update Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij said on Tuesday that the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in the state is 13.15 days as compared to 7.5 days of the national average. With 56.7 percents recovery rate against 16.38 percents of all India rate of #coronavirus cases Haryana is moving fast towards normalicy. There are 108 active #COVID19 patients as on today in #Haryana Death rate in Haryana is 0.79% against 3.15 % of National. - ANIL VIJ MINISTER HARYANA (@anilvijminister) April 21, 2020 1.10 pm: Uttarakhand latest news In Pics: Badrinath in the Chamoli district received snowfall on Tuesday. The temple will open on May 15. Uttarakhand: Badrinath in the Chamoli district received snowfall today; Portals of the Badrinath Temple to open on May 15. pic.twitter.com/s1ceHStbpo - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 1.04 pm: Madhya Pradesh update: Cop dies in the state A police inspector passed away due to COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district on Tuesday. The inspector was posted at a police station in Ujjain. He was suffering from high blood pressure and was initially treated at a hospital there for 4 days after he got infected with the virus. Another cop also died earlier after contracting the disease in the state. 12.57 pm: Coronavirus cases in India: Lok Sabha secretariat employee tests COVID-19 positive A Lok Sabha secretariat employee tested positive for novel coronavirus on Tuesday. The employee is the member of a housekeeping staff in the secretariat and has been admitted to the RML Hospital in Delhi. The person's family has also been put into isolation. 12.49 pm: Coronavirus Delhi news Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Anil Baijal are holding meeting with District Collector and Deputy Commissioner of Police of all districts of Delhi via video conferencing over the current COVID-19 situation. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Anil Baijal are holding meeting with District Collector and Deputy Commissioner of Police of all districts of Delhi via video conferencing over #COVID19. (File pics) pic.twitter.com/IhaeQ37lEl - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 12.39 pm: Coronavirus live updates: Maharashtra worst-hit state in India; Delhi, Gujarat follow suit The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Delhi stands at 2,081 with death toll at 47 following Maharashtra which is the worst-hit in India with coronavirus tally at 4,666, while 232 people succumbed to the virus in the state. Maharashtra also has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the country. Gujarat is the third state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 1,939 and death toll at 71. 12.29 pm: Lucknow latest update on COVID-19 Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath holds a meeting with senior officials over coronavirus situation in Lucknow. 12.26 pm: Coronavirus Rajasthan update Rajasthan government has stopped rapid testing for COVID-19 and informed the Indian Council of Medical Research about the issue. The government complained that kits showed wrong results during coronavirus testing. 12.19 pm: Bhopal coronavirus latest update 2 more Bhopal gas tragedy victims died due to COVID-19 on Tuesday. This takes the total count of such deaths in the Madhya Pradesh's capital to 7, an official said. According to a PTI report, a 70-year-old Bhopal gas tragedy survivor passed away on April 17, while another 60-year-old mishap victim succumbed to novel coronavirus on April 14. 12.13 pm: Delhi coronavirus cases: Kejriwal govt will conduct tests on media personnel Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter on Tuesday to say that his government will conduct COVID-19 tests on media persons in the national capital following 53 cases of reporters testing positive for the virus in Mumbai. Responding to a person's tweet urging the CM to arrange mass coronavirus test for media personnel in Delhi like the one conducted in Mumbai, Kejriwal answered, "Sure. We will do that." Sure. We will do that https://t.co/ehcY5OMiEP - Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 21, 2020 12.05 pm: Odisha coronavirus cases 5 more people were tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday taking the total count in the state to 79, officials told PTI. 11.59 am: Coronavirus news update According to media reports, a Group of Ministers' meeting will be held on Tuesday evening where the lockdown exit plan is likely to be deliberate upon. 11.53 am: Coronavirus Maharashtra update: 472 more cases reported on Tuesday Maharashtra recorded 472 more fresh novel coronavirus cases till 10 am on Tuesday, taking the total count in the state to 4,676. 9 more people succumbed to COVID-19, taking the death toll to 232, according to Public Health of Department, Maharashtra government. (ANI reports) 11.42 am: Gujarat coronavirus cases Gujarat Health Department said on Tuesday that 6 more COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state taking the death toll in the state to 77. The total count of coronavirus positive cases has climbed to 2,066 in Gujarat comprising 131 recoveries/discharges and 77 deaths. 6 more deaths in Gujarat due to #COVID19, death toll rises to 77. 127 new COVID-19 positive cases reported in the state taking the total of positive cases to 2066 including 131 recoveries/discharges and 77 deaths: Health Department, Gujarat - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 11.37 am: Coronavirus Uttar Pradesh cases update Raebareli has reported 33 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total count of confirmed coronavirus cases in Uttar Pradesh to 1,258, while the death toll is at 18. Out of these new cases, 31 are Tablighi Jamaat members hailing from Saharanpur. 11.28 am: Coronavirus in India: Doctors, medics across the country to hold candlelight protest on Wednesday The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has said that doctors and medics across India will light candles as a mark of protest against attack on doctors, and healthcare workers. The medical body has demanded a law to protect the medical staff and has announced white alert on April 22 and black day on April 23. 11.21 am: Maharashtra lockdown latest updates Watch: Pune Police make lockdown violators do sit ups in sinhagad road on Tuesday. #WATCH: Violators of #CoronavirusLockdown were made to do sit ups by Pune Police in Sinhgad Road, today. #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/kDAXp6cR04 - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 11.15 am: Lockdown in Madhya Pradesh news Cops punish the violators of coronavirus lockdown in Indore. Madhya Pradesh: Police personnel punish the violators of #CoronavirusLockdown in Indore. pic.twitter.com/ZXzs07fq6G - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 11.05 am: Delhi coronavirus news: 3 cops test COVID-19 positive 3 personnel of Delhi Police have been tested positive for novel coronavirus infection. All 3 cops were in the Nabi Karim area of Delhi which is one of the 84 containment zones in the national capital. 10.56 am: West Bengal coronavirus update Sweet shops in Kolkata remain open amid lockdown curbs across the country. The West Bengal government earlier amended the lockdown steps and permitted sweet shops to remain open from 8 am to 12 pm. West Bengal: People gather at sweet shops in Kolkata after state govt made new amendments for sweet shops to remain open from 8 am to 12 pm. Earlier sweet shops were allowed to operate for 8 hours (8 am to 4 pm). pic.twitter.com/5QCNmM1dD2 - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 10.49 am: Madhya Pradesh coronavirus news Following Uttar Pradesh, the Madhya Pradesh government has now sent 150 private buses to ferry back around 2,000 students stranded in Kota, Rajasthan. The buses will reach Kota on Tuesday evening and will bring the students back to their home districts in MP on Wednesday morning. 10.42 am: Coronavirus news: Check BusinessToday.In coronavirus tracker to get state-wise details 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. 10.34 am: Coronavirus updates: PM Modi praises civil servants for leading fight against COVID-19 Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter on Tuesday to laud the efforts of civil servants in ensuring that India successfully combats novel coronavirus pandemic. "On Civil Services Day, tributes to the great Sardar Patel, who envisioned our administrative framework and emphasised on building a system that is progress-oriented and compassionate," PM Modi tweeted. Today, on Civil Services Day I convey greetings to all Civil Servants and their families. I appreciate their efforts in ensuring India successfully defeats COVID-19. They are working round the clock, assisting those in need and ensuring everyone is healthy. - Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2020 10.24 am: Coronavirus live updates: US accuses China of hoarding PPE, selling it at high rates A White House officials has alleged that the United States (US) has evidence that China purchases 18 times more quantity of personal protective equipment (PPE) and masks in January and February, which the country is now selling at high rates. 10.17 am: COVID-19 pandemic: not possible to establish the exact source of novel coronavirus, says WHO The World Health Organisation has said that it is not possible to ascertain the exact source of novel coronavirus at this state. WHO Regional Directors for Western Pacific Takeshi Kesai said Tuesday that no findings have been determined adding that the evidence has suggest an animal origin though. 10.11 am: West Bengal coronavirus cases West Bengal's Health Department said on Tuesday that after getting the first set of rapid test kits from ICMR on Sunday, it conducted 78 rapid tests on Monday- 64 in Howrah and 14 in Kolkata. Only 2 cases were found to positive both from Kolkata. In our continuous endeavour to ramp up #COVID19 testing,upon receiving the first set of rapid test kits from ICMR day before yesterday, 78 rapid tests were carried out yesterday-64 in Howrah&14 in Kolkata. Only 2 cases were found positive,both from Kolkata:Health Dept,West Bengal pic.twitter.com/QN2dWWtwh3 - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 10.05 am: Arunachal Pradesh lockdown updates Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said on Tuesday that the a total of 439 samples have been collected as on April 20 out of which 405 testes negative, while the results of 34 are awaited. As on April 20, total samples collected in Arunachal Pradesh are 439 of which 405 tested negative, 0 tested positive and results of 34 are awaited: Chief Minister Pema Khandu pic.twitter.com/OgQJ4w02Km - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 9.58 am: Coronavirus cases live updates: Until a vaccine is found, adapting to COVID-19 pandemic will have to be the new normal, says WHO The World Health Organisation has cautioned that the relaxation of lockdown rules to stem the further spread of novel coronavirus must be gradual adding that if curbs were to be lifted too soon, there will a resurgence of infections. A WHO official said in an online press conference on Tuesday, said that until a vaccine is discovered, adapting to the pandemic will have to become a new normal. 9.49 am: Rajasthan lockdown news Rajasthan recorded 52 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday. These cases comprise 5 in Jodhpur, 4 in Bhilwara, 2 each in Dausa, Jaisalmer and Tonk, 34 in Jaipur, 1 each in Jhunjhunu, Nagour and Sawai Madhopur. 52 #COVID19 positive cases reported today in Rajasthan so far-4 in Bhilwara, 2 each in Dausa, Jaisalmer & Tonk, 34 in Jaipur, 1 each in Jhunjhunu, Nagour & Sawai Madhopur and 5 in Jodhpur. Total positive cases rises to 1628, including 25 deaths, 205 recovered: State health dept pic.twitter.com/OKGzGFdhri - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 9.39 am: Coronavirus live updates: Turkey imposes 4-day lockdown from Thursday Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has announced a 4-day lockdown in 31 cities from Thursday to stem the further spread of COVID-19. The country has enforced such steps over the past 2 weekends, but Erdogan said on Monday that the lockdown will be for a longer duration this time due to a national holiday falling on Thursday. The total number of novel coronavirus cases in Turkey, jumped to 90,980 on Monday, with over 120 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 2,140 in the country. 9.29 am: Delhi lockdown news: Azadpur mandi open 24x7 The Azadpur sabzi mandi (vegetable market) is open 24 hours, 7 days now. Officials said that the vegetables and fruits can be sold from 6 am till 10 pm and trucks will be permitted from 10 pm till 6 am. #WATCH Delhi: Traffic outside Azadpur Sabzi Mandi today; the vegetable market will now remain open for 24 hours. Movement of trucks allowed from 10 pm till 6 am; vegetables and fruits will be sold from 6 am till 10 pm. #CoronavirusLockdown pic.twitter.com/beQQmwzGbF - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 9.24 am: Karnataka coronavirus news An 80-year-old man who died on Monday was tested COVID-19 positive. Karnataka has recorded 16 deaths as of Monday while the total count of novel coronavirus cases in the state have jumped to 395. 9.15 am: Coronavirus updates: Donald Trump suspends immigration to US US President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday announcing that he will temporarily suspend immigration to the United States and will sign an executive order regarding the same. "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States," Trump tweeted. US is the worst-affected country in the world with largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with over 7,74,000 infections, which were up by 20,000 on Monday, while the death toll has topped 42,000. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 9.06 am: India coronavirus cases past 18,000-mark; death toll nears 600-level India has so far recorded 18,601 confirmed coronavirus cases including 14,759 active cases, 3,251 cured/discharged, 1 migrated, and 590 deaths, according to latest data by Health Ministry. 8.58 am: Coronavirus latest news: Oil prices rebound in US after falling below $0 US oil prices bounced back on Tuesday after trading below $0 for the first time ever. US crude turned positive in the wake of concerns about how the market can face up to the fuel demand wrecked by the coronavirus pandemic. Reuters reported that US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery was up $38.73 at $1.10 a barrel by 0117 GMT after settling down at a discount of $37.63 a barrel in the previous session. 8.45 am: Delhi corona cases A person has been tested positive for COVID-19 in Rashtrapati Bavan after which 125 families have been asked to isolate themselves as a preventive step. The person is the family member of a sanitation worker in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. According to sources, all families dwelling near the infected patient were put under quarantine according to Health Ministry's guidelines. 8.30 am: Hotspots in Delhi increase to 84, 5 more added on Monday Delhi administration added 5 more containment zones (red zones or hotspots) on Monday, taking the total count of such areas to 84 in the national capital. These hotspots are Block 34 of Trilokpuri, Block - G of Jahangirpuri, Block AF of Shalimar Bagh, Flat number 265 to 500 of Sanjay Enclave and Lane 24-28 of Tughlaqabad Extension. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday ordered the arrest of two minor party members for allegedly for incitement and insult against another minor party president, Pich Sros, in a complaint dating back to October 2019. The court issued arrest warrants on April 20 for Heang Kimsroeun, the vice president of Khmer United Great Nation Party, and another party official, Thol Sophana, on the preliminary charges of incitement and insult. A police report linked to the arrest warrants suggests the duos recent whereabouts were unknown. According to the report on April 10, 2020, of the Toul Kork Administration Police Chief, the persons identified above have been identified as committing incitement to commit a felony and insult, read the arrest warrant. The Khmer United Great Nation Party was founded by Nhem Vanthorn, former secretary-general of Beehive Social Democratic Party, 2016 but did not contest the 2017 and 2018 elections. Nhem Vanthorn could not be contacted for this story. Pich Sros, president of the Cambodian Youth Party and a member of the Supreme Council for Consultation and Recommendations, said on Tuesday that he filed complaints against these two in October 2019. He accused the two men of insulting him and other members of the advisory council about his requesting the head of the National Authority for Border Affairs, Va Kimhong, for comment on the signing of the Cambodia-Vietnam border demarcation treaty. Heang Kimsroeun insulted, as well as confused the public into losing confidence in the Supreme Council for Consultation and Recommendations members, including me, he said. And this action is hard to accept. According to evidence submitted by Pich Sros, Hean Kimsroeun allegedly called the advisory group of being a puppet and not having any positive impact on the country, in a Facebook post. Whereas, Thol Sophana took to social media to accuse Pich Sros of working for the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party. Soeung Senkaruna, senior investigator at rights group ADHOC, said that the posts of the two Khmer United Great Nation Party officials were a mere expression of their opinions and criticism in their role as political party activists. [They] expressed that as political activists. They can look at the actions of public officials or other political parties who are doing something wrong. So, they have the right to criticize, said the ADHOC spokesperson Pich Sros has previously sued activist monk But Buntenh, independent media advocate Pa Nguon Teang, and labor rights activist Moeun Tola for allegedly mishandling funeral funds collected for slain political commentator Kem Ley. He was also responsible for filing a complaint to the Ministry of Interior that was used as a pretext to dissolve the Cambodia National Rescue Party in late 2017. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (19) File picture There is a common thread in the pitches Indian startup entrepreneurs make to investors at least one deck devoted to once fledgling Chinese enterprises that have succeeded and grown to become billion-dollar companies. Such pitches would coax investors to invest with a reminder that the Indian market is ripe for rapid expansion seen in China. This is especially true of new-age sectors such as video commerce, social commerce, podcasts, regional content, pay-day lending and mobility, which have been a lodestar for Chinese investors to significantly invest in India. Now, the governments decision to place Indias neighbouring countries the target is China, make no mistake under a specific approval list for Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) has caused a great deal of anxiety among many of these startups. These enterprises are worried that funding plans and the structure of capital raised so far would be seriously affected, said people from the startup community that Moneycontrol spoke to. Chinas investments in Indian technology companies began with large bets such as Alibaba and Tencent investing in unicorns such as Flipkart, Paytm, Ola and Zomato from 2015 onwards. The first tranche of such investments came were Series D and beyond after these companies expanded but Chinese money has since percolated down and China is now a significant part of Indias early stage funding ecosystem. Chinese venture capital funds such as Morningside Ventures, CDH, Qiming Venture Partners, and Shunwei Capital have identified Indian opportunities that worked in China. The China factor To cite a few examples, CDH, a Chinese alternative asset management firm based in Beijing, is an investor in social commerce firm GlowRoad, Qiming, which has a record of building new companies in China, has pumped money into regional language publishing platform Pratilipi and Morningside has put funds in regional language social network ShareChat. Shunwei, the VC fund spun off from mobile-maker Xiaomi, has been one of Indias most active Chinese investors, with over two dozen portfolio firms such as ShareChat, bike taxi app Rapido, podcasting firm KukuFM and social commerce firm Meesho. To be sure, Indian startups raise capital from all over the world, mainly the US, Japan (courtesy SoftBank) and China. Chinese companies have invested about $2 billion out of the $14 billion Indian startups raised in 2019, according to Tracxn data, a startup data tracker Yet, founders often use China as a playbook to emulate scale and high valuations. Those plans now are in disarray, causing much angst among Indian startup founders. "Founders are still grappling with the final impact of the government's decision. But even if Chinese investments may slow down, we're hoping the knowledge sharing, which is very important, can continue, said Lal Chand Bisu, co-founder and CEO of podcasting firm KukuFM. Most of these funds and startups look to China, where these models in social media, digital content and video based commerce have created huge companies. Examples are legion TikTok-owner Bytedance to social commerce firm Pinduoduo to podcast startups Ximalaya and Lizhi. ByteDance and Pinduoduo are valued at about $75 billion and $20 billion, respectively while Ximalaya is valued at $3.5 billion, according to media reports. It's not that Indian founders copy from China. The Indian market has many unique challenges China doesnt have. But the demographics are similar and there is inherent pattern matching that both founders and investors do, said the CEO of an Indian content firm, requesting anonymity. The FDI move will force founders to think differently, get less access to Chinese funds and think tanks than they would like, and by extension, build businesses differently, the person added. Some experts believe a partial relaxation to the FDI approval route may be possible, depending on cheque sizes and ownership. Anshuman Mozumdar, partner at law firm L&L Partners said, "The government's approach seems to be to hit the brakes first, and then analyse the situation on a case to case basis to see what speeds we are going at," Mozumdar said one has to wait for the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) notification to see if more clarifications are issued. I'm pretty sure the industry will make representations to prevent painting everything with the same brush. Amitabh Kant, CEO of government think tank Niti Aayog, said the move does not intend to hamper Chinese investments. "In the particular notification, China is not even mentioned. We have looked at all our neighbouring countries and we have said that at this particular point of time, all investments are welcome into India but some investments need to go through a government approval route. That is all. We greatly welcome Chinas investments. Nowhere have we said that we are going to constrain Chinas investment. They have been a big player in Indias startup story, they have greatly invested into India, we welcome them, he told CNBC-TV18. For many founders in the sectors mentioned above, an early investment from a Chinese VC goes beyond the capital alone. These are guys (investors) who have seen massive businesses built from the ground-up in an ecosystem similar to ours. That experience is invaluable to me when Im raising a Series A round to tackle a pan-India multibillion dollar opportunity, said another founder of a startup who has raised Chinese venture capital. Impact on funds Beyond startups, Chinese high net-worth individuals (HNIs) and some institutions are also limited partners (investors) in some Indian VC funds. "Another issue is to see how the change affects fund managers of funds with investments from Chinese LPs and what test of beneficial ownership will be applied to them. This change may also slow down global M&A deals as it also targets indirect transfer of investments to Chinese owned entities, said Mozumdar of L&L. The indirect transfer provision threatens to clamp down cross-border deals. For example, a US-based company has bought stake in a UK-based company and the UK-based company invests in an Indian company. According to this provision, if the US company sells its shares in the UK company to a Chinese investor, it would require approval from the Indian government because it is an indirect transfer of investment. In his disappointing 2018 book God Save Texas, Lawrence Wright wrote [W]hen I tell people outside the state that I live in Texas, they often look at me uncomprehendingly. Which was one reason why the normally excellent Wrights book disappointed. So much of it was an apology for being a Texan. Furthermore, the line didnt ring true, which it turned out was a theme throughout Wrights frustrated critique of the Lone Star State. His own book in many ways contradicted his lament that people look at him uncomprehendingly about his choice of residence. Per the author, Texass population is projected to double by 2050, to 54.4 million. It seems Americans broadly think highly of Texas judging by the migratory patterns of Americans. To which some will reply that Wright is in truth an Austin, Texan. Theyre different there, more expansive in their thoughts, more liberal in the American sense. One of the hyper-political Wrights problems with Texas is the states superpatriotism combined with defiance of all government authority. Supposedly the latter has done terrible damage to the state and the nation. Yet in a book that sometimes gave the impression that Wright was arguing with himself, the author added that Texas is evolving in his ideal image, that [R]iding on top of the old stereotypes are new ones hipsters, computer gurus, musicians, video-game tycoons, and a widening artistic class that has reshaped the states image and the way we think of ourselves. In short, whats allegedly doing damage to the U.S. is increasingly populated by people whom Wright would feel very comfortable around. Apparently lefties outside of Texas find the idea of living there rather agreeable. Call Wright a self-hating Texan. Eager to bash it with great constancy, his writing suggests he lives in Texas so that he can routinely speak ill of it with some level of immunity. Texas Monthly executive editor Mimi Swartz gives off a similar vibe. A contributing writer to the opinion page of the New York Times, which remains the worlds greatest newspaper despite reporting that increasingly borders on advocacy, Swartz occasionally files a column that she seemingly uses as atonement for sins related to her chosen state of residence. Much like Wright, her aggravation with Texas is political. Shes unhappy that the Republican Party has a stranglehold on state government there. Funny about the stranglehold that she decries is that it remains quite a lure for Californians; California a state where Democrats have a stranglehold on government, and for being that way, a state that likely appeals more to Swartzs political sensibilities. According to Wright, a regular contributor to Swartzs Texas Monthly, eight Californians move to Austin per day. It seems those Republicans are doing something right, just not according to Swartz. She cites a WalletHub report that rated Texas near the bottom in terms of pandemic responsiveness. Worse, Swartzs optimism that the Republicans running the state have the ability to fix a public health disaster related to the new coronavirus is lower than the water levels in West Texas creek beds in August. Witty, but perhaps poorly edited. Seemingly edited out of Swartzs Times piece, no doubt to Swartzs chagrin, were the details of the public health disaster allegedly unfolding in Texas. All readers learn from Swartz is of Texas Governor Greg Abbotts presumed inability to accept that there was such a thing as the coronavirus. To read Swartz, Abbotts coronavirus denial resulted in a surge of deaths to reflect inaction in Republican-led Texas, versus muscular action in Democrat-led California that resulted in something entirely different, and much better for Californians. Oh well, lets take a look. Though Californias Democratic Governor Newson was rather eager to accept that there was such a thing as the coronavirus such that Californias stay-home order came on March 19th, deaths-per-million in the Golden State three weeks later were 16. What about Texas? You know, the state led by Republicans who, according to Swartz show far less concern for full grown, desperately ill adults. According to American Enterprise Institute resident fellow Edward Pinto, deaths-per-million in Texas despite stay-home orders that came two weeks after Californias were as of last week, 10. None of this is to minimize the loss of life related to the virus, but it is to say that Texans, probably like Californians, dont need a law. Weve evolved as a species that strives to elongate its existence, so for Swartz to pretend that Texans or non-Texans require government force to avoid illness or the slim possibility of death is just odd. Funny is that Swartz claims that shes not singling out one political party over another, which is certain evidence that shes doing exactly that. Really, does anyone think Swartz would have written the same opinion piece if Lupe Valdez, the woman Abbott beat in 2018, were governor? The question answers itself, though not completely. If the death rate were as low under Valdez as it is under Abbott, its not unreasonable to suggest that Swartz would describe it as a Texas miracle born of a state that Swartz notes is slowly turning purple. Furthermore, if Swartz were really not singling out one political party over another, she might have alerted readers to the truth that New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan and Connecticut are the U.S. states hit hardest by the pandemic. The problem is that six of those seven states are led by Democrats, hence they werent convenient for Swartz to mention. Without presuming to know why Democrat-led states have bigger problems with the virus than states led by mouthbreathers, but not so partisan as Swartz is to break it down to Party, it should just be repeated yet again that people dont need a law to studiously avoid the very low odds of becoming sick, or the much tinier odds of dying. People get it, but dont get in the way of a partisan doing cartwheels to prove she isnt being partisan. Really the only wise truth revealed in an opinion piece by Swartz meant to confirm her Democrat, self-hating Texan credentials to the wise outside of Texas, was Swartzs revelation that San Antonio-based grocery chain HEB has had a pandemic and influenza plan since 2005. Yes, and isnt that the point? HEB is a for-profit business that wants to be ready to meet the needs of customers when theyre greatest. Thriving businesses and booming economies are generally best situated when it comes to fighting illness, thus raising a question: wouldnt a better approach to pandemic be a booming economy, so that the HEBs are multiplied? Maybe its unwise for politicians, Republican or Democrat, to shut down economies when thriving ones are most needed to fight illness. To quote Swartz, what a novel idea. A security guard wearing a protective mask can be seen at the Toh Guan Dormitory, which has been gazetted as an isolation area, on 19 April, 2020. (PHOTO: Getty Images) SINGAPORE The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday (20 April) confirmed 1,426 more COVID-19 cases and three new clusters here, bringing the total to 8,014 the highest recorded in Southeast Asia. Of the 1,426 new local transmissions, 1,369, or 96 per cent, are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories. Two of the three new clusters are linked to foreign worker dormitories: Woodlands Lodge II at 190 Woodlands Industrial Park E7 and Jurong Apartments at 555 Upper Jurong Road. The remaining is linked to 8 Sungei Kadut Loop. Of the new cases, 25 are in the local community, including 18 Singaporeans and permanent residents. The ministry said that the number of community cases has decreased to an average of 29 cases per day in the past week from an average of 39 per day in a week earlier. (SOURCE: MOH) The remaining 32 are work permit holders residing outside dorms. This figure has continued to increase, to an average of 24 cases per day in the past week from an average of 13 per day a week earlier, said the MOH. As for the many more cases living in dorms, they are picked up due to extensive testing and are not new infections as the workers are staying in their rooms and many have not reported sick, added the ministry. But when the teams go in to test them, many turn out to be positive. Most of these cases have a mild illness and are being monitored in the community isolation facilities or general ward of our hospitals, it said. None of them are in the intensive care unit. About 37 per cent of the new cases have no established links. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained relatively constant, with an average of 20 cases per day for the past two weeks, said the ministry. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme. (For more details on the breakdown of the clusters, read here.) 33 more patients discharged; 23 in ICU The MOH on Monday also confirmed that 33 more patients have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, bringing the total of recovered cases to 801. Story continues Most of the 3,420 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while 23 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, up from 22 on Sunday. A total of 3,782 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. To date, 11 cases here have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection, including a 95-year-old Singaporean man last Friday. Three patients, who tested positive for the virus, have died from causes unrelated to COVID-19. The latest such fatality was a 40-year-old Malaysian man who died on Saturday after he tested positive for the virus the day before. His cause of death was a heart attack. At least 35 clusters linked to foreign worker dormitories have been identified thus far. These include the largest cluster of 1,977 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge with 540 cases. Both are among the 18 dorms that have been gazetted as isolation areas. Cases linked to the two places of residence account for over 41 per cent of the 6,075 cases living in these dorms. Some 300,000 workers live in dorms in Singapore. Measures to combat spread of coronavirus The COVID-19 Temporary Measures Act, passed in Parliament on 7 April, gives authorities the power to ban events and gatherings, or impose conditions on how they are conducted, during the circuit breaker period from 7 April to 4 May. Those caught flouting the enhanced safe distancing measures for the first time will be given a composition fine of $300, and a $1,000 fine for the second time. Egregious cases will be prosecuted in court. A first-time offender who is prosecuted under the Act can face a maximum fine of $10,000, or a jail term of up to six months, or both. A second-time or subsequent offender can face a maximum fine of $20,000, or a jail term of up to a year, or both. Last Tuesday, authorities said that mask-wearing while going out would be mandatory and offenders will face similar penalties. Exceptions to the rule include children under the age of two, individuals who are excused from wearing masks on medical grounds, and those doing strenuous exercise. People who flout their five-day medical leave or stay-home notices are also subjected to similar penalties. Part of the circuit breaker measures announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 3 April include the closure of schools and most workplaces. Only essential services like food establishments, markets and supermarkets, transport, and key banking services will remain open during the month-long closure. During the first week of the circuit breaker period, the authorities issued a slew of measures, including the closure of beaches, facilities in parks and gardens and playfields. Stadiums have also been closed, while parents are not allowed to drop off their children with grandparents on a daily basis. Separately, all Singapore residents and long-term pass holders returning from overseas apart from Hubei province must serve the 14-day stay-home notice, while those returning from Hubei must serve a 14-day quarantine. All short-term visitors are barred from entering or transiting via Singapore. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat also announced an additional $5.1 billion Solidarity Budget to help businesses, workers and households. The governments response to COVID-19 will total $59.9 billion, or about 12 per cent of Singapores gross domestic product. Over 2.4m cases globally To date, there are over 2.4 million COVID-19 cases globally it took 83 days to reach the first million cases worldwide and just 14 days for the second million. More than 167,000 have died from the virus, with the US holding the record for the highest global death toll at over 41,000. At more than 770,000 cases, the country also holds the record of having the largest number of patients globally, followed by Spain at over 200,000 cases, Italy at over 178,000, and France with over 152,000 cases. China, where the virus originated, has reported over 82,000 cases and more than 4,600 deaths, after it abruptly readjusted its death toll higher by 50 per cent last Friday. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Related stories: COVID-19: McDonald's to temporarily suspend all restaurant operations in Singapore COVID-19: Singapore confirms 942 cases, record high; 14 are Singaporeans, PRs COMMENT: No need to be a rat in this pandemic COVID-19: 12 reports of abuse so far of enforcement officers, ambassadors police COVID-19: Kranji Lodge 1 becomes 13th dorm to be declared isolation area COVID-19: NGOs delivering meals, essential items to foreign workers at dormitories Biden wouldnt need to pivot so dramatically to be a transformative progressive president. There are plenty of bleak moments in his record, including his treatment of Anita Hill and his Iraq war vote, but its not quite as reactionary as leftists sometimes imagine. Among other things, hes long been better-than-average on unions; as Jared Bernstein, Bidens former chief economist, told me, One of the main things that differentiates Biden from a traditional mainstream Democrat is his understanding of the importance of worker power. Still, its clear that hes moving leftward. Biden recently came out for tuition-free college for students whose families earn less than $125,000. He endorsed Elizabeth Warrens bankruptcy plan, something that would have been unimaginable in 2005, when Warren, then a Harvard law professor, charged onto the public stage to fight a regressive bankruptcy bill that Biden supported. After long supporting the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for most abortions, Biden gave in to pro-choice pressure to come out against it. His climate plan already went beyond any of Barack Obamas initiatives, and hes pledged to make it even more robust. Bidens health care proposal falls far short of single-payer, but it is, as Paul Waldman wrote in The Washington Post, surprisingly liberal. It will be in Bidens political interests to try to make good on these commitments. Ive worked with him for a while now, said Jared Bernstein. He really believes you achieve political success by either doing what youve promised to do or getting caught trying like hell. In the 20th century, the two presidents with the most substantive records of progressive accomplishment were Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. Liberals nearly revolted on the Democratic convention floor when John F. Kennedy, looking to placate Southern voters, chose Johnson, but he ended up doing far more for liberalism than Kennedy did. Roosevelts future greatness wasnt obvious to all when he first ran for president. Sounding some of the same notes as Bidens critics today, the famous political columnist Walter Lippmann wrote: He is no tribune of the people. He is no enemy of entrenched privilege. He is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be president. It may be too much to hope that Biden could equal the achievements of Roosevelt or Johnson. But should he become president, he will, like both of them, inherit a country deep in crisis, where once inconceivable political interventions suddenly appear possible. We cant know whether he will rise to the opportunity only that presidencies are shaped by far more than the ideology of the person who achieves the office. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal A man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and her mother last year is being sent to the state Behavioral Health Institute to attain competency to stand trial, according to a court record. Jesus Cartagena Jr., 21, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count each of aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle in the deaths of Shanta Hanish, 19, and Laura Hanish, 58. Police say Cartagena stabbed the women to death in their Southeast Albuquerque home in June about two weeks after Shanta Hanish and Cartagena broke off a five-year relationship. Some people told officers that Cartagena was acting abusively toward Shanta before the murders and was stalking her. An order state District Judge Charles Brown filed Friday is sealed, but a description of the document in an online court records database says, Order for commitment to the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute at Las Vegas, for treatment to attain competency to stand trial. After Cartagenas arrest in July, his attorney, Tom Clark, raised possible mental health issues. Defense attorneys filed a notice with the court in February raising concerns about Cartagenas competency, but that document is also sealed. Clark could not be reached for comment Monday. Court records indicate that Cartagena has been in Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas since July. Cartagena turned himself in to El Paso police about a day after the homicides and had what appeared to be blood on his clothes, authorities have said. Police believe he drove Shanta Hanishs car to Mexico before turning himself in. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 16:33 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd353d80 1 Politics Lawmakers,mudik,Jokowi,COVID-19,coronavirus,exodus,mudik-ban,dilarang-mudik,Idul-Fitri,ramadan Free Members of the House of Representatives have expressed dissatisfaction about President Joko Jokowi Widodo's newly announced ban on the Idul Fitri tradition of mudik (exodus) to curb the spread of COVID-19. They said the President had taken too long to make his decision. Previously, Jokowi had merely advised the public to skip the annual tradition, which involves millions of people traveling to their hometowns often from urban centers to the countryside. The advice was considered insufficient by health experts, who called for an outright ban on this years mudik because of the health crisis. Its too late. Many of them have left the city. And their chances of becoming virus spreaders are huge," Mardani Ali Sera of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said on Tuesday. Irwan of the Democratic Party shared the opinion, saying he had been suggesting the ban since last month. "Many have tested positive on other islands after visiting Jakarta. [This years] mudik should have been prohibited a long time ago. The President was too slow by only banning it now as the virus is already widespread," he said. Mudik homecomings have already caused issues. Recently, a 72-year-old stroke patient from Ciamis tested positive for COVID-19 after spending time with his child, who had returned to his hometown from virus-stricken Jakarta. The case was made public when West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil announced it on Facebook earlier this month. Annually, some 20 million people from Greater Jakarta, currently the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia, travel to their hometowns across the nation to celebrate Idul Fitri. The tradition, public health experts say, could lead to the further spread of COVID-19 on the island of Java , home to 141 million people. Many regions have healthcare systems far worse than Jakartas. Both Mardani and Irwan said the ban must be followed by strict monitoring of mass transportation companies and roads. "Without forming a team tasked with monitoring the movement, the ban will be ineffective. Just like the PSBB [large-scale social restrictions] policy, Mardani said. Yandri Susanto of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said the government had to come up with measures to enforce the ban quickly, suggesting that transportation companies should be prevented from selling tickets during Ramadan and Idul Fitri. "Do not just ban people from participating in mudik. The government must be firm by making all transportation options unavailable for people to do it, said Yandri. Melki Laka Lena, the deputy chairman of House Commission IX overseeing health, said the government needed to ensure that people in economic hardship as a result of the pandemic received social assistance. Many are still in need of social assistance. The government should ensure it and distribute it equally to all," the Golkar Party politician said. A recent survey by the Transportation Ministry showed that 68 percent of people had decided not to participate in mudik, while 24 percent planned to leave regardless and 7 percent had already left for their hometowns, Jokowi said on Tuesday. N Chandrasekran Tata Sons is planning to raise nearly $1 billion for its European operations, according to a report by The Economic Times. The conglomerate may raise the money through a revolving credit facility (RCF), often called "revolver lines", the report said. Tata Sons has begun talks with global banks such as Citi, ANZ, HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Standard Chartered, sources told the newspaper. Also read: Coronavirus impact | Tata Sons asks group companies to conserve cash, slow down capex plans There might be a capital raising round in future to raise money for Tata Sons' Indian businesses, the report added. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the story. A Tata Sons spokesperson declined to comment when approached by the Economic Times. The report said Tata Sons has been advised to prepare a war chest of $5 billion and set aside $1.5 billion for emergencies. "We dont see the need to raise that kind of money and have asked our flagship firms to take care of their own requirements as much as possible. Some businesses such as airlines may need our support, and JLR could need bigger infusions. So, were ensuring that we have funds accessible to us through Tata Sons subsidiaries," a source told the publication. The company is considering raising five-year money at LIBOR (London InterBank Offered Rate) plus 250-275 bps through Tata International UK, with a guarantee from Tata Sons, the report said. The $700-million dividend payout from Tata Consultancy services will be added to the war chest, the report said. Many group companies that provide non-essential services such as Tata Steel Europe, Jaguar Land Rover, Titan, Tata Starbucks and Trent Westside are recording zero revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here Hindi News Career ICAI Revision Classes: ICAI To Run Revision Class For The Prepartion Of CA Students , Free Online Classes Will Start From April 22, ICAI Latest Updates -: , 22 2 19 4 3 () 22 - , , - , - , 7 10 7 9 19 4 2 18 19 4 For the uninitiated, Baja 1000 is a Mexican off-road motorsport race that features all sorts of vehicles customized for off-roading. Imagine a bizarre-shaped electric vehicle drifting, flying, and racing on mud. Oh, and also think about how would it look with all the customizations and graphics on the body? A Twitter user felt the same and tweeted Musk asking for some information. Musk obliged and said that Tesla is working on improving the Cybertrucks air suspension so it can kick butt in Baja. Apart from the recent Plaid version , its been quite some time since we heard anything about the Cybertruck . The Cybertrucks Adaptive Air Suspension Will Have Longer Travel Just like any other information we receive from the EV mogul, this scoop, too, comes from Twitter. A user asked Musk: can we get a small bit of some kind of Cybertruck news? Were dying out here!! The latter obliged and replied: were working on increasing dynamic air suspension travel for better off-roading. Needs to kick butt in Baja. It certainly wont be to an extent where tarmac-driving becomes impossible, but the suspension will have a better travel range. Another user asked whether this will be an iteration of the Model S and Model Xs suspension, and Musk confirmed that it will be an all-new unit. Exciting times for people who have paid deposits for their Cybertruck. The Baja that Musk was referring to is the Baja 1000, an annual Mexican off-road race thats held on the Baja California Peninsula. It is one of the most popular off-road events and features a bunch of cars, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, and buggies racing against each other. Elon has made his intentions clear about having the Cybertruck in the Baja 1000, which means we will hear more about it in the future. First Plaid, Now This; Whats Next? From the trucks point-of-view, we now know that it will feature an adaptive suspension system with a travel range greater than the previously claimed 16 inches. This Baja version might also feature the Plaid-powertrain that Musk casually referred to in a tweet earlier this month. There are no details out about this, but it could produce 800 horses and 1,000 pound-feet of torque. Just like the Plaid-powered Model S and X, the Cybertruck will have one motor on the front axle and two at the rear, which means it will be based on the top Trimotor AWD trim. Here are the specs for these trims: Range: 500+ miles 0-60 mph: 2.9 seconds! Top Speed: 130 mph Payload Capacity: 3,500 pounds Towing Capacity: 14,000 pounds Price: $69,900 Final Thoughts An increased travel range of the suspension system will not only help in off-roading but will also help by giving additional control to the driver, and better handling and adaption to the surface. If Tesla intends on entering Motorsport events, we could see sportier iterations of Tesla vehicles in the future. How do you think the Cybertruck would fare in an event like Baja 1000? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below. 2021 Tesla Cybertruck specifications Single-motor RWD Dual-motor AWD Tri-motor AWD Horsepower: >400 HP 690 HP 800 HP Torque: TBA 824 LB-FT 1,000 LB-FT Range: 250+ miles 300+ miles 500+ miles 0-60 mph: 6.5 seconds 4.5 seconds 2.9 seconds Top Speed: 110 mph 120 mph 130 mph Payload Capacity: 3,500 pounds 3,500 pounds 3,500 pounds Towing Capacity: 7,500 pounds 10,000 pounds 14,000 pounds Price $39,900 $49,900 $69,900 Tesla Cybertruck exterior dimensions Length 231.7 inches Width 79.8 inches Height 75 inches Truck Bed 6.5 feet Approach Angle 35 degrees Departure Angle 28 degrees Ground Clearance Up to 16 inches Source: Electrek Mugshot of Augustus sol Invictus: Orange County Sheriff's Office White nationalist Austin Gillespie who changed his name to Augustus Sol Invictus was arrested over the weekend for allegedly stalking his wife. Invictus was jailed on Tuesday in Orange County. The Orlando Sentinel reported that the 36-year-old white nationalist was recently released from a South Carolina jail where he had been held on domestic violence charges. In late March, Invictus was granted bond after he requested he be released over concerns he'd be infected with the coronavirus. Invictus was arrested after his wife called the Orange County Sheriff's Office to report that he'd violated the terms of his bond and a restraining order she had against him when he made contact with her. She told the deputies that every day since his release he had utilised a go-between to demand that she let him see their children. In addition to the go-between, he was also using alternate phone numbers including those of his children from a past relationship to call and harass her. Things escalated on Monday when Invictus reportedly texted his daughter that his wife had to bring them to Dickson Azalea Park, "or else." The park was a site Invictus had previously used as a venue for conflicts with his wife. In his messages, he was adamant that she meet him there and bring the children with her. "I'm going to plan to see you at 4, if she doesn't bring you to the park I assume she wants to fight," Invictus is said to have texted, according to an affidavit by Deputy Nicholas Wacker. His wife told authorities that she had once brought the children to the park and allowed them to spend an hour with Invictus. While at the park she said she had a discussion with a man, and Invictus allegedly directed his daughter to photograph the wife and the man having a conversation. Mr Wacker's affidavit said that "Augustus then told their daughter 'your mother is a whore.'" Deputies who recovered and searched Invictus' cell phone found evidence that he'd attempted to use other people to find his wife, sending them photos of her vehicle and her licence plate, and that GPS tracking software on his vehicle showed he'd drive in circles around the area of Orlando where she lived. Story continues His wife claimed Invictus attempt to contact her more than 20 times since he was released from jail last month. In a statement she read to a court in February, Invictus "has abused me more times than I can count." In the incident that landed Invictus in prison the first time, he choked his wife, held a gun to her head and forced her to drive from South Carolina to Florida. She explained how Invictus would force her to hide the evidence of her abuse. "To conceal the bruises from the public, he regularly punched me in my stomach and in my head so it hard it caused me to see flashes of light," she said. "He locked me in a bedroom and wouldn't let me out for days. He nearly fractured my wrist ... He threw me on the floor, stepped on me, and screamed vile insults I will never forget." Invictus unsuccessfully ran as a Libertarian for the US Senate in 2016 and is a prominent member of the white nationalist 'alt-right.' He was a featured member of the United the Right rally in Charlottesville, where Nazi sympathisers and white nationalists gathered to shout white supremacist slogans and where counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed when a member of the alt-right drove his car through a group of people. Read more Reports to leading anti-stalking charity double during coronavirus Iowa is activating hundreds of National Guard troops to help with testing and contact tracing for employees at meat processing plants in the state which accounts for a third of the US pork supply. Gov Kim Reynolds on Monday announced that 250 National Guard members have been moved to full-time federal duty status to help battle coronavirus outbreaks at plants operated by Tyson Foods Inc and National Beef Packing Co. Reynolds said the troops will help deliver testing equipment to the plants, transport kits to labs and possibly assist with cleaning the facilities. The unprecedented move comes after at least eight major plants across the US have been forced to reduce operations or close altogether due to outbreaks among their employees. The disruptions are fueling fears about future meat shortages in grocery stores while also leaving many farmers without a market for their animals. Reynolds has faced mounting calls to close packing plants entirely to stop outbreaks - including at a massive Tyson pork plant in Waterloo where dozens of workers have tested positive for the virus and two have died. On Monday she explained why the plants need to stay open despite the risk. 'It's important, because this isn't like a regular facility where you shut it down for two weeks,' she told reporters. 'We are the largest hog producer in the country. We provide a third of the nation's pork supply 25 million a year. 'So, if we aren't able to move them through the process at some point, we're going to have to talk about euthanizing hogs, and we are not that far from it. And it will be devastating not only for the food supply but for the cost of food going forward.' Scroll down for video The Iowa National Guard members will be dispatched to Tyson Foods Inc and National Beef Packing Co plants across the state. Footage from Des Moines TV station KCCI shows troops unloading testing supplies from a truck Reynolds said the troops will help deliver testing equipment to the plants, transport kits to labs and possibly assist with cleaning the facilities The governor has refused to shutter a massive Tyson pork processing plan in Waterloo (pictured) where dozens of workers have tested positive for the virus and two have died The total number of COVID-19 cases at Iowa packing plants is unknown as the governor and individual companies have not released full figures. Iowa Gov Kim Reynolds (pictured) announced Monday that the state is activating 250 National Guard troops to help with COVID-19 testing and contact tracing for workers at meat packing plants Meat processing workers are particularly susceptible to the virus because they typically stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the line and congregate in crowded locker rooms and cafeterias. The Iowa Governor's Office on Sunday announced that surveillance testing for COVID-19 at National Beef and Tyson meat processing plants had already identified a total of 254 positive cases. At least 117 cases were identified at a National Beef plant in Tama, which was closed for cleaning earlier this month but resumed operations on Monday. Tyson shuttered a hog slaughterhouse in Columbus Junction the week of April 6 after more than 24 cases of COVID-19 involving employees at the facility. A Prestage Foods plant in Eagle Grove reported 16 COVID-19 cases among its employees on Monday. At least eight major plants across the US have been forced to reduce operations or close altogether due to outbreaks among their employees. The disruptions have caused a decline in the number of animals being slaughtered because there are not enough plants still functioning for farmers to send their livestock to The governor said the state is working with meat companies to test workers and prevent outbreaks from growing too large, even as she acknowledged that more 'clusters of positive cases' are certain. 'These are also essential businesses and an essential workforce,' she said. 'Without them, people's lives and our food supply will be impacted. So we must do our part to keep them open in a safe and responsible way.' Advocates for workers said Reynolds has little regard for a vulnerable workforce that includes many refugees and immigrants. 'It's sickening,' said Democratic state Sen Bill Dotzler of Waterloo, who has called for a temporary closure and stronger worker protections. Hospitals and medical clinics in his city reported a surge in patients Monday, and many of them were Tyson employees. Midwestern states scramble to keep meat packing plants open as hundreds of workers test positive for COVID-19 Iowa is one of several Midwestern states that are working to keep large meatpacking plants operating despite coronavirus outbreaks which have sickened hundreds of workers and threaten to disrupt the nation's supply of pork and beef. In Minnesota, JBS USA on Monday said it was suspending operations at a large pork processing plant in Worthington after 33 employees tested positive for COVID-19. 'As we all learn more about coronavirus, it is clear that the disease is far more widespread across the U.S. and in our county than official estimates indicate based on limited testing,' Bob Krebs, president of JBS USA Pork, said in a statement. 'We have taken aggressive actions to keep coronavirus out of our plant and keep this critical infrastructure facility operational.' That announcement came after Minnesota Gov Tim Walz raised the possibility that some workers at the plant - which employs more than 2,000 people and normally slaughters 20,000 hogs per day - may have contracted the virus from another outbreak at a Smithfield Foods pork plant in South Dakota. The Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls was at one point the nation's largest source of COVID-19 cases with more than 700 of its 3,700 workers infected. South Dakota Gov Kristi Noem has said she doesn't think it will be difficult to fulfill federal requirements to reopen the shuttered facility. JBS USA on Monday said it was suspending operations at a large pork processing plant (pictured) in Worthington, Minnesota, after 33 employees tested positive for COVID-19. Medical workers administer drive-up COVID-19 tests outside the Sanford Worthington Clinic in Worthington, Minnesota, on April 18. The state has sent a team to ensure safe conditions in the southwestern city, where multiple people have tested positive at a meatpacking plant Noem said the temporary closure of a Smithfield Foods pork plant that produces about five percent of the US pork supply has already been 'devastating' for regional producers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for safely reopening the Sioux Falls plant will be made public soon, Noem said. Its report will call for improved social distancing, expanded use of face shields and other protective equipment, and better communication between the company and workers. 'There's nothing in this report that I think will be difficult to accomplish,' said Noem. She declined to say how soon it might reopen. Smithfield Foods, which is Chinese-owned, has said the indefinite closure disrupted its supply chain, forcing the closure of a facility in Martin City, Missouri. Smithfield closed its Sioux Falls pork processing plant in South Dokata after more than 700 of its employees became infected with COVID-19 South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (pictured) has said she doesn't think it will be difficult to reopen the Smithfield plant per federal guidelines Smithfield also shuttered a plant in Cudahy, Wisconsin, after employees tested positive for the virus. Also in Wisconsin, a surge of infections has been linked to the JBS Packerland plant in Green Bay. Health officials said they didn't have an exact number of infections connected to the plant, but infections spiked by more than 100 in the surrounding county over the weekend. The plant remains open. In western Michigan, a JBS meat packing plant that was closed over the weekend reopened Monday. Sixty people there have tested positive for the coronavirus, Allegan County health spokeswoman Lindsay Maunz told WOOD-TV. In Kansas, Gov Laura Kelly on Monday sent personal protective equipment and testing supplies to counties with meat processing plants after Cargill and National Beef reported outbreaks among workers at facilities in the southwest region of the state. Tyson also has plants there but has not confirmed infections. Controlling those outbreaks is crucial: Plants in southwest Kansas account for 25 to 30 percent of beef processing in the US. 'It would be a disaster if we had to shut down, so we're trying to do everything that we can to keep those plants online,' Kelly told The Associated Press. The US Department of Agriculture on Friday announced a $19billion bailout to help farmers hurt by the coronavirus outbreak, including $3billion in purchases of meat and dairy products that will be sent to food banks. (LR) House impeachment managers Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Val Demmings (D-Fla.) look on as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) speaks during a press conference in Washington on Jan. 28, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Nadler, Schiff Call for Probe of Barrs Comments on Intel Watchdog Firing Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) are calling on the Justice Department inspector general to investigate Attorney General William Barr for his comments defending the dismissal of the intelligence community watchdog. Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, and Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, sent a letter to Inspector General Michael Horowitz and acting Director and Chief Counsel of the Office of Professional Responsibility Jeffrey Ragsdale on April 20, urging them to review Barrs comments on the firing of former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, made during a televised interview on Fox News. The House Democratic leaders claimed that remarks may have violated applicable Department of Justice (DOJ) policies and rules of professional conduct because Barr had allegedly mischaracterized Atkinsons conduct and the DOJs actions relating to the complaint. In maligning Mr. Atkinson and falsely portraying him as insubordinate, Mr. Barr misrepresented DOJs legal opinion concerning the whistleblower complaint. Mr. Barrs remarks also ignored the impropriety of DOJs coordination with the White House to prevent a whistleblower complaint concerning presidential misconduct from reaching Congress, the lawmakers wrote. The role of Attorney General Barr and other senior DOJ officials, in coordination with the White House, in attempting to prevent the whistleblower complaint from reaching Congressas required by lawwarrants your attention. During that interview, Barr said the president was right to dismiss Atkinson, who handled the whistleblower complaint that sparked the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Barr said Atkinson had exceeded his authority when he disclosed to Congress a whistleblower complaint centered around a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. From the vantage point of the Department of Justice, he had interpreted his statutewhich is a fairly narrow statute that gave him jurisdiction over wrongdoing by intelligence peopleand tried to turn it into a commission to explore anything in the government, and immediately reported to Congress, without letting the Executive Branch look at it and determine whether there was any problem, Barr said during the interview. Nadler and Schiff both played a major role in Trumps impeachment proceedings. They defended Atkinson in their letter, arguing that he had faithfully discharged his legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General in accordance with federal law. The House Democrats letter comes days after Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) sent a similar letter to the DOJ watchdog. The senators alleged that Barr had misstated key facts and that this raised broader questions about whether the attorney general was following Department policies and rules of professional conduct that demand candor and impartiality from lawyers, particularly those who serve the public trust. Its unclear whether Horowitz will consider the lawmakers requests. In a statement on April 4 reacting to Atkinsons removal, Horowitz said, Atkinson is known throughout the Inspector General community for his integrity, professionalism, and commitment to the rule of law and independent oversight. That includes his actions in handling the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, which the then Acting Director of National Intelligence stated in congressional testimony was done by the book and consistent with the law. The Justice Department didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment. This year brought the quietest 4/20 Day in a long time. There were no festive celebrations involving lots of people throughout the U.S. and Canada because of the coronavirus pandemic. And the biggest pure-play cannabis company in the world, Canopy Growth (NASDAQ:CGC), was worth roughly less than one-third of its peak market cap in early 2019, shortly after the launch of Canada's adult-use recreational marijuana market. But it's a pretty good bet that there'll be more raucous 4/20 Day festivities as the new decade moves forward. I think that the chances are also pretty good that Canopy Growth will see brighter days. Here are three reasons Canopy Growth could bounce back in a big way over the next couple of years. 1. Greater fiscal discipline The biggest knock against Canopy Growth in the past is that the company has spent money like crazy. This rampant spending ultimately led to founder Bruce Linton losing his job. However, it also led to Canopy hiring former Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) CFO David Klein as its new CEO. Klein's first quarterly conference call as Canopy Growth's leader was in February. He said then that one of his top priorities was "to define a very visible path to profitability and positive cash flow." Klein added, "This means we need to align our resources and investments with the size and growth rate of the market as it exists today." It didn't take long for Klein to begin implementing greater fiscal discipline. Last week, Canopy Growth announced that it was slashing global operations in five countries, including withdrawing from its cannabis operations in Lesotho and South Africa. While pulling back might seem like a negative, it actually should be a good thing for Canopy over the long run. As the company continues to closely evaluate where and how it invests capital, I expect that that "very visible path to profitability and positive cash flow" that David Klein promised will emerge. And when Canopy has a clear target for achieving profitability, my hunch is that investors will pile back into the stock. 2. Improving retail environment One of the most significant hurdles for Canopy Growth and for its peers in the past has been the lack of enough retail cannabis stores, especially in Ontario, which is Canada's most heavily populated province. The COVID-19 outbreak made the retail situation for Canopy even worse, with the company closing its company-owned Tokyo Smoke and Tweed retail stores temporarily. The operative word, though, is "temporarily." Canopy will reopen its retail cannabis stores in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, Canadian customers can purchase its adult-use cannabis products online. Ontario has also committed to issuing more licenses for retail cannabis stores. Although the coronavirus pandemic is preventing new stores from opening right now, it's only a matter of time before the retail picture for the Canadian cannabis industry looks a lot better. As the retail environment improves, I expect that it will serve as a solid catalyst for Canopy Growth as well as for other top Canadian marijuana stocks. 3. Cannabis derivatives market Some call it "Cannabis 2.0." Others refer to it as "Rec 2.0." Whatever term you want to use, the cannabis derivatives market in Canada should be a huge opportunity for Canopy Growth. Granted, it's an opportunity that, like a lot of things, is largely on pause due to the COVID-19 crisis. However, I fully expect Canopy to make a boatload of money over the long run selling its cannabis derivatives products. And I think it the new market will provide a shot in the arm for Canopy's share price, possibly as soon as the second half of this year. Canopy Growth is competing with several others in marketing cannabis-infused chocolates. The company could pioneer a new category, though, with its cannabis-infused beverages. Bill Newland, CEO of Constellation Brands, Canopy's partner and largest shareholder, recently stated that the new beverage products are "game-changers." Tweed Houndstooth & Soda was Canopy's first cannabis beverage to hit the market. The company plans to launch several other cannabis beverages this year as well, including seltzer-like water beverages infused with CBD and THC. Plus one wild card There's also one possibility that's still on the table that would be absolutely huge for Canopy Growth. I wouldn't completely rule out the prospects for the U.S. changing federal regulations that prohibit legal marijuana sales. The main obstacle to changes to federal marijuana laws has been Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's opposition. But the recession that's likely to result from the COVID-19 response could change the political dynamics somewhat. It's possible that the U.S. Senate could flip to a Democratic Party majority. If that happens, legislation to allow states to make their own decisions about marijuana legalization could pass both chambers of the U.S. Congress. Although neither President Trump nor the apparent Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden are fans of marijuana legalization, it wouldn't be surprising if whoever wins the November election would ultimately sign a bill to leave cannabis decisions up to individual states if the legislation gains widespread bipartisan support. Thanks to its option to buy U.S.-based Acreage Holdings, Canopy Growth would be a big winner if this scenario unfolds. Even if this wild card doesn't materialize, I think the prospects of a big rebound for Canopy Growth are pretty good. Having said that, my view is that Constellation Brands is still the better pick for investors. Constellation benefits if Canopy Growth prospers but should still perform well regardless with its strong premium beer brands. WASHINGTON - Governments around the globe are scrambling to figure out what, if anything, they can do to arrest the collapse of oil prices after they turned negative in Monday's unprecedented collapse. With up to a third of global oil demand gone because of stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the usual methods of small production cuts or filling the nation's oil reserves are unlikely to do much to move markets, raising question about governments ablities to manage the panic. The government has a lot of options, but not a lot of good options, said Glenn Schwartz, director of energy policy at the Rapidan Energy Group, a consulting firm in Washington. None of it is going to put (oil) back to $30 or $40 barrel, besides a vaccine maybe. If people arent driving anwyhere, thats what needs to happen. Theres just too much crude out there. CRISIS: U.S. oil price collapses below zero as storage fills up President Donald Trump has asked Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to make funds available to oil companies to help get them through the panic, tweeting Tuesday, "We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down." That might help individual oil companies delay bankruptcy and maintain their workforces, but it isnt expected to do much to help oil prices, which continued to fall Tuesday. The price of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark settled at $10 a barrel a day after closing at negative $37 a barrel. But WTI contracts for delivery in June dropped by more than 30 percent to $13 a barrel, and Brent, the European benchmark, fell more than 20 percent to $20 a barrel. The longer rock-bottom oil prices persist, the larger the threat they pose to the Houston economy, which is inextricably tied to oil and gas. The industry employs some 265,000 people in the region, and companies have already cut or placed on furlough several thousand workers locally. Some estimates put potential industry job losses at no less than 10 percent. Those job cuts will ripple through manufacturing, real estate, retail and almost every sector of the local economy. At a press conference Monday night, Trump said he is considering cutting off imports of crude, as some Republican lawmakers have suggested. At the same time, he has again called for filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to provide some relief to domestic oil companies. The U.S. emergency stockpile has a capacity of 713 million barrels, according to the Energy Department. Well, Ill look at it, Trump said when asked about using his executive power to block imports. Nobody's ever heard of negative oil before. But the administration also is reportedly considering more extreme action, inclulding paying oil companies to shut down wells, something that would likely require congressional approval. More: Read the latest oil and gas news from HoustonChronicle.com A day after the worst market crash in oil history, no one is ruling anything out. State regulators in Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota are considering putting limits on oil production, with the Texas Railroad Commision electing Tuesday to put the decision off another two weeks. More words and action are likely to come from major oil-producing governments, said Jim Burkhard, vice president at the research firm IHS Markit. It remains to be seen what those actions could be. But governments do things they would not normally consider when conditions become intolerable. The oil sector is divided on whether government intervention is desirable, with most larger companies wary of opening a door to government oversight that might come back to haunt them in the future. "Proposals for government interventions - imposing tariffs on imports and quotas on domestic production and/or paying companies not to produce oil - ultimately do more harm than good," Mark Green, a writer with the American Petroleum Institute, wrote on the trade group's website Tuesday. "Government should focus instead on flattening the curve and getting a better handle on the spread of the virus so that economies can safely start back up again." For now government officials are largely sticking to a familiar playbook. Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC are considering moving ahead immediately instead of waiting until next month to begin production cuts that the cartel, its allies and other oil-producing nations agreed to set at 10 million barrels a day, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The head of the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based orgaization that represents oil importing countries, tweeted Tuesday that countries with oil reserves should make extra storage available to get some excess crude off the market. And there is again movement in Congress to fund Trumps request to fill the U.S. petroleum reserve, requiring the purchase of about 77 million barrels of crude. GASOLINE: Refineries face shutdowns as fuel demand drops Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday to request that the U.S. government begin to buy up oil. We must recognize that this price drop is a direct result of decreased demand because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we must do all we can to combat this virus at home and around the world, she said. While this is a smart and important effort, it will not solve the underlying demand problem. But she and her allies are likely to face opposition in the Democrat-controlled House, with many Democrats rejecting the idea of filling the strategic reserve as a handout to the oil industry. In a letter last month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, R-N.Y., rejected the funding as a bailout for big oil. The Department of Energy earlier estimated the cost of filling the reserve at $3 billion. But with West Texas Intermediate for delivery in June trading at $13 a barrel, that same amount of crude could be had for about $1 billion. james.osborne@chron.com Twitter.com/@osborneja OCALA, Fla., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunshine Health provides Medicaid and specialty services to Floridians from the panhandle all the way down to Miami. They are a subsidiary of Centene Corporation, a leading multi-line healthcare enterprise offering both core Medicaid and specialty services. Medicaid, a government-sponsored program, allows underinsured and uninsured individuals to have access to healthcare. Over 3 million Floridians rely on Medicaid annually, and that number is rising. Additionally, over 3.3 Million workers were laid off March of this year, many will have to turn to Medicaid for coverage. Nona Scientific is now a member of the Sunshine Health Network in the state of Florida. Unlike most toxicology labs using 30-50 year old technology, Nona Scientific is a full-service testing lab using proprietary and cutting-edge medical technology to provide revolutionary accuracy and reliability. Now clinics and practices within the Sunshine Health Network in Florida can benefit from Nona Scientific's newest technology- NonaClear 2.0. NonaClear 2.0, a Revolutionary Specimen Validity Test In an industry with little innovation surrounding specimen validity, Nona Scientific has revolutionized the toxicology market. Working with practices and clinics nationwide, Nona Scientific has launched their newest specimen validity test, NonaClear 2.0. This technology accurately detects synthetic urine, as well as many forms of subversion including salting, oxidant's, and detox drinks. Every toxicology sample that comes through Nona Scientific runs through this proprietary specimen validity panel first, before moving on to the next steps in the testing process. The best part is, Nona Scientific runs this test for no added charge. "Verifying that the sample has not been adulterated in any way shape or form has to be done on every sample. Not just doing what we call 'Gen1' specimen validity testing i.e. temperature, PH, creatine, specific gravity etc This is outdated technology that is being beaten on a daily basis by today's subversion techniques and products. Our advanced technology addresses all the new techniques to beat a drug test," says Mike Palmer, CEO of Nona Scientific. Did you know that 10-30 percent of individuals cheat on their drug tests? For those individuals in a substance abuse program, that number rises to 80 percent. With rising numbers surrounding the opioid epidemic and easy access to synthetic urine, it is crucial that practices are relying on state-of-the-art toxicology labs, such as Nona Scientific, to provide accurate results. Patients now have an abundance of resources to manipulate urine samples, from over 400 million websites to thousands of "how to videos." Synthetic urine can be purchased in minutes online and is even carried in most smoke shops. Over 4,000 People Die from Opioids in Florida Annually According to Florida DCF, 2017 represented the 4th year of continued increase in opioid-caused deaths. Shockingly, the average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped in 2017: from 78.7 in 2016 to 78.6 in 2017, attributed to drug overdoses. This marks the first three-year decline in life expectancy since the 1910s. In 2017, 4,279 deaths were reported in Florida where at least one opioid was identified as a cause of death. Unfortunately, this number is rising. Florida's opioid overdose rate has tripled since the turn of the century according to Florida's Statewide Drug Policy Advisory Council 2016 Annual Report, and "there has been a substantial increase in deaths associated with fentanyl and heroin-related drug use." Of the 6,526 overall opioid inpatient visits in Florida in 2016, 50% of the visits had Medicaid or Medicare as the principal payer. Clinics and practices in the Sunshine Health Network now have access to NonaClear 2.0 from Nona Scientific. This allows practices to safely provide their patients with the best treatment to help lower the risk of opioid related overdoses and deaths for their patients. The accuracy of this type of testing is crucial in today's climate, and Sunshine Health patients are no exception. In fact, 40 percent of adults with an opioid addiction rely on Medicaid for their coverage. It goes to say that clinics throughout the U.S. play a very large role in lowering the risk of overdose by practicing safe and effective medicine, as well as accurately monitoring their patients. Sources: https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medicaid-and-chip-enrollment-data/report-highlights/index.html https://drugabuse.com/statistics-data/ http://www.floridahealth.gov/statistics-and-data/e-forcse/fl-seow-annual-report-2018.pdf http://www.floridahealth.gov/statistics-and-data/fl-dose/index.html Mike Palmer Nona Scientific 3320 SW 33rd Rd., Suite 100, Ocala, FL 34474 O. 352-260-4700, [email protected] SOURCE Nona Scientific Related Links https://www.nonascientific.com Bollywood is a rich industry. Not only in terms of the content that the Hindi film industry churns out year-on-year, but also in terms of the people who become the face of these box-office successes. But who can deny that at the base of it all lies money, which only comes with fame? It is no secret that top Bollywood actors charge a fortune for their projects and often double it up after dishing out mega box-office hits. Bhansali Productions These hikes in their fee not only gives a boost to their bank balance but also turns them into the top earners of the Bollywood industry. And all it takes for them to hike their prices overnight is the success of that one movie borne on the actors shoulder and fanned by their face on the posters. Here are 10 such leading Bollywood actors who hiked their fee overnight based on the success of just one film: 1. Ranbir Kapoor - Sanju Instagram - Alia Bhatt The Sanjay Dutt biopic is by far the most successful Ranbir Kapoor movie, so far, and there is no wondering why. Regardless of the creators real intentions behind the making of the film, Sanju did succeed in showcasing Ranbirs potential as a stellar actor. So, no wonder post the mega-success of this film, Ranbir doubled his fees. Ranbir doubled his endorsement fees from Rs 3 crore to Rs 6 crore, and though the exact figures are not available, reportedly his acting charges have also seen a good boost. 2. Shahid Kapoor - Kabir Singh Instagram - Shahid Kapoor Kabir Singh is definitely Shahids most memorable performance in recent times, and the box-office collection of the film only confirms the fact. Now, while Shahid reportedly charged Rs 10 crore for Padmaavat, and hiked that amount by Rs 1 crore after the films success, the Udta Punjab actor has now allegedly hiked his fees to Rs 35 crore per film post the stellar success of Kabir Singh. 3. Vicky Kaushal - Uri: The Surgical Strike Instagram - Vicky Kaushal Uri really did give Vicky Kaushals career the boost that every upcoming actor awaits with bated breath. This 2019 blockbuster which was one of the 10 highest Hindi grosser films of all time, also meant that Vicky had joined the group of A-listers in Bollywood, so could the fee hike be far behind? After Uris success and winning a National Award for his performance, Vicky Kaushal did admit to hiking his fees for upcoming projects. 4. Ranveer Singh - Simmba Instagram - Ranveer Singh Ranveer Singhs winning streak has been on fire since Padmaavats incredible performance at the box-office. While it was reported that Ranveer increased his charges from Rs 10 crore to Rs 13 crore for future projects right after the films roaring success, the biggest jump came after the chart-busting success of Simmba. Reportedly, Ranveer hiked his fees substantially post the films success and earns much more than Varun Dhawan, who is said to be the highest paid actor of the generation. 5. Ayushmann Khurrana - Dream Girl Instagram - Ayushmann Khurrana Undoubtedly one of the most versatile actors in Bollywood currently, this guy has been delivering hits upon hits over the last few years. However, given the mega box-office collections of Dream Girl, which happens to be the actors biggest hit, Ayushmann ended up hiking his fees by a whopping 500 per cent! Ayushmann had started out by charging around Rs 2 crore per movie, but post Dream Girl he hiked his fees to Rs 10 crore per movie. 6. Kartik Aaryan - Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety Instagram - Kartik Aaryan Kartiks filmy Bollywood journey has also seen its share of successes, be it with Pyaar Ka Punchnamas Rajjo or with his last release Pati Patni Aur Woh. However, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety will have to be his biggest game-changer because post the success of this film, Kartik hiked his fees to Rs 7 crore per film, and we can only expect it to go higher in the future. 7. Deepika Padukone - Padmaavat Instagram - Deepika Padukone Known to be one of the highest-paid actresses in Bollywood, Deepika too has come ahead leaps and bounds when it comes to a memorable Bollywood journey. However, post the box-office success of Padmaavat, Deepika's price got a real boost and she has reportedly increased her fees pretty high. 8. Kangana Ranaut - Queen Instagram - Kangana Ranaut Kangana Ranaut is often in a league of her own, in a world of her own even. In her colourful Bollywood journey so far, Kangana reportedly increased her fees by 50 per cent after the success of Queen and reportedly, has now become the highest-paid Bollywood actress by charging Rs 24 crore for her upcoming film Thalaivi. 9. Kareena Kapoor Khan - Veere Di Wedding Instagram - Kareena Kapoor Khan Kareena has also delivered some good performances over the last two years. Be it Udta Punjab or Good Newwz, Kareena has been consistently praised for her work. However, the success of Veere Di Wedding gave Kareena a good reason to hike her fees, which she reportedly did hike by 50 per cent for her next movie Takht. 10. Priyanka Chopra Jonas - The Sky Is Pink Instagram - Priyanka Chopra Jonas Even though Priyanka has been MIA from the industry of late, the actress still hasnt given up on her Bollywood presence. Reportedly, Priyanka sought profit share for her last Bollywood flick The Sky Is Pink over and above her usual fees, and became one of the only few Bollywood actresses to get the benefit. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr.21 Trend: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an Order regarding measures to continue the improvement of irrigation and drinking water supply in 13 residential areas in 10 cities and districts of the country. Under the presidential Order, Azerbaijan Irrigation and Water Management Open Joint Stock Company is allocated 1,19 million manats for digging 17 sub-artesian wells to improve irrigation of cultivable lands and supply of drinking water for 193,696 people in 13 residential areas in 10 cities and districts. Several governors criticized President Trump on Sunday for tweets encouraging protests against states coronavirus lockdown measures. I don't think its helpful to encourage demonstrations and encourage people to go against the president's own policy, said Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland. Hogans comments came in response to a question from CNN host Jake Tapper about Trumps decision on Friday to blast out a series of all-caps LIBERATE tweets about three states that have enacted stringent lockdowns: Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia. The three states, considered swing states in the November election, have Democratic governors. I understand the frustration among the people that want to get things open right away, said Hogan, who issued a stay-at-home order for his state in March. Im frustrated also. I mean, I wish I had someone to protest to. But, look, were doing everything we possibly can to reopen in a safe manner. He continued: For example, I mentioned earlier, the president's policy says you cant start to reopen under his plan until you have declining numbers for 14 days, which those states and my state do not have. So, then to encourage people to go protest the plan that you just made recommendations on, on Thursday, it just doesnt make any sense. Were sending completely conflicting messages out to the governors and to the people, as if we should ignore federal policy and federal recommendations. While the protests against coronavirus lockdowns garnered headlines, polls have found that a majority of Americans are supportive of social distancing guidelines. A Pew Research poll released last week found that 66 percent of Americans were worried that restrictions would lift too quickly, results that were echoed by an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey published Sunday. "We have an order from governors both Republicans and Democrats that basically are designed to protect people's health, literally their lives," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, said in an ABC News interview. "To have a president of the United States basically encourage insubordination, to encourage illegal activity these orders actually are the law of these states." Story continues "To have an American president encourage people to violate the law I can't remember any time during my time in America where we have seen such a thing, continued Inslee, adding, "It is dangerous because it can inspire people to ignore things that actually can save their lives. And I don't know that there's another way to characterize it." Some commentators and business leaders have pushed Trump to reopen the country despite medical experts saying theres a danger of increased COVID-19 deaths by doing so. Because governors and mayors ordered the shutdown and not the federal government questions remain over what, exactly, Trump could do to spur the reopening. There have been over 735,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States and more than 39,000 deaths, according to tracking data from the Johns Hopkins University on Sunday. During interviews on the Sunday talk shows, a bipartisan slate of governors were also critical of the push to end lockdown measures. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. (Brian Witte/AP) This is not the time for protests, this is not the time for divisiveness, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia said on CNN. This is time for leadership that will stand up and provide empathy. Its the time for truth. The hard part of public health is when youre doing a good job, youre saving lives, and its hard to quantify precisely what that looks like, said Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. But we know that this curve was steep at the trajectory we were headed and now it looks as though its starting to flatten, she continued. These efforts are making a difference in saving lives. Weve got to continue doing that. The only thing that Ive asked our protesters to do is to observe social distancing. Were all big believers in the First Amendment. They were protesting against me yesterday, and thats just fine, said GOP Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. They have every right to do that. We are going to do what we think is right, what I think is right. And that is try to open this economy, but do it very, very carefully so we dont get a lot of people killed. During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence was asked about Trumps LIBERATE tweets but declined to directly defend them. But Mr. Vice President, in a number of these cases, these protesters who are not social distancing are saying they dont want to wait, pressed host Chris Wallace. In many cases, theyre protesting your own guidelines to stop the spread. Liberate Minnesota, liberate Michigan and liberate Virginia, Wallace said, quoting the presidents tweets. So, what does the president mean, because youve got guidelines that are calling for social distancing and staying at home? Even your guidelines to reopen the country are very phased and gradual. What does the president mean when he says liberate these states? The American people know that no one in this country wants to reopen this country more than President Donald Trump, replied Pence. And in the presidents tweets and public statements, I can assure you hes going to continue to encourage governors to find ways to safely and responsibly let America go back to work. _____ Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please refer to the CDCs and WHOs resource guides. Read more: Slate is making its coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism. Start your free trial. Monday night, President Donald Trump declared on Twitter that he will sign an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States. Its a monumental and terrifying momentand thats true even if the actual order, which no one has seen yet, turns out to be somewhat less than advertised. On the other hand, its also just making official whats already been gradually happeningU.S. borders have been shut down for weeks and immigration processing had already effectively ground to a standstill while deportations have ramped up. But whatever the order turns out to be, the announcement demonstrates that Trump is less interested in actually addressing this crisis than using it to further his preexisting political agenda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of Donald Trumps advisers, notably immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller and anti-China extremist Peter Navarro have clearly recognized the opportunity COVID-19 has presented them. (Its worth noting that Navarro, literally the author of a book called Death by China, was reportedly one of the few senior Trump advisers to take the outbreak seriously early on.) After initially downplaying or ignoring the danger, the Trump administration is using it to double down on long-standing preoccupationsnamely, superpower conflict with China and draconian immigration restrictions. Recall that in his first major televised address on the crisis in March, after weeks of denying the threat of the virus, the only major policy Trump announced was a 30-day travel ban on Europe, extending one already in place on China. By this time, COVID-19 was already spreading rapidly within the United States and the acute need for medical supplies, ventilators, and testing kits was already obvious. But the first instinct, as always, was to focus on the border. Soon after the travel ban, the U.S. closed its Northern and Southern borders to all but U.S. citizens, pushed back asylum hearings for people who have been waiting for months in Mexico, and shut off access to anyone trying to claim asylum at the border. While tightening the screws on immigration and engaging in worse-than-useless stunts like an abandoned plan to dispatch troops to the U.S.-Canadian border, the administration and its Republican allies in Congress have also escalated tensions with China, a strategy to deflect blame from its own failures that has sabotaged attempts to coordinate a global response to the virus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The response to the pandemic has in some ways provided a test run for the level of coordination that will be required to combat another global threat: climate change. Like containing the pandemic, curbing climate change will require enormous global coordination and shared sacrifice. But Trumps fixation on borders and migration is a preview of how right-wing and far-right governments will approach the more gradual climate crisis. At a certain point, they will shift from denying the problem to using it as pretext to shut out refugees and implement nativist policies. Advertisement Advertisement The Republican Partys denialist position has only been tenable as long as the climate has been an abstract issue for most middle-class Americans. The droughts, wildfires, and severe storms of the coming years are going to make scientists gloomy predictions a lot harder to ignore. Already, 60 percent of Republicans believe human activity causes climate change and a narrow majority of Republican millennials want the government to do more to address it. Advertisement Environmentalists and liberals might hope this will lead the party to embrace green energy and wilderness conservation, perhaps with a more market-oriented bent, but the uncomfortable fact is that environmental fears dovetail nicely with the strain of populist nativism that currently holds sway on the American right. Advertisement Advertisement As the environmentalist author Beth Gardiner wrote in the New York Times in February, right-wing movements around the world are picking up old environmental tropes and adapting them to a moment charged with fears for the future. She adds: Often, they emphasize what they see as the deep ties between a nations land and its people to exclude those they believe do not belong. Some twist scientific terms such as invasive species foreign plants or animals that spread unchecked in a new ecosystem to target immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities. Advertisement Advertisement Extreme examples include the self-described ecofascists who carried out mass murders in Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas, last year, weaving themes of environmental conservation into their anti-immigrant manifestos. But these ideas have gained more mainstream acceptance as well. In France, the far right has gone fully green, with young activists seeing organic farming and limits to economic growth as part and parcel of efforts to protect the French homeland from the corrosive influences of immigration and liberalism. In Germany, the youth wing of the far-right Alternative for Germany recently warned party leaders that they would need to rethink their traditional climate skepticism and support for the coal industry or risk losing the youth vote. Advertisement Advertisement While environmentalism may be thought of as a left issue today, theres an uncomfortably long and deep history of xenophobia and racist ideas in the movement. John Tanton, the founder of the far-right anti-immigration group FAIR, who died last year, found his way to his anti-immigration views through his involvement in the Sierra Club and the Zero Population Growth movement. As recently as 2004, the Sierra Club was divided by a bitter dispute over whether to advocate tough immigration restrictions to protect the environment. Advertisement The World Bank has estimated that by 2050, three regionsLatin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asiawill generate an additional 143 million climate migrants. These are both people forced to relocate by extreme weather events and by humanitarian crises exacerbated by climate change. Already there is compelling evidence that drought is a major factor driving the recent surge of Central American migration to the United States. Its not hard to imagine a future U.S. administration, rather than denying the increasingly obvious reality of climate change, using it to argue that the country needs tougher immigration controls and fewer refugees. The alternative, they will argue, is to be overwhelmed by the human invaders and see our own natural resources depleted in the way other countries already have. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The same will be true on foreign policy. The coronavirus has shown how a crisis that clearly necessitates a globally coordinated response can instead pit countries against one another in a competition for resources and a rush to assign blame. No major economy is really doing enough to combat climate change right now, but its not hard to imagine a future in which, rather than Paris Agreementstyle coordination to reduce emissions, countries simply blame one another for the problem rather than take action. Advertisement Advertisement Trump may be a climate change denier, but that hasnt stopped him from blaming other countries. Claiming that the U.S. has some of the cleanest air in a British TV interview last year, he then pointed the finger at other countries: China, India, Russia, many other nations, they have not very good air, not very good water in the sense of pollution and cleanliness. They dont do the responsibility. The coronavirus has little respect for national borders. Similarly, border security certainly cant hold back unlivable concentrations of CO2 in the Earths atmosphere. But scapegoating foreigners offers ideologues an easier maneuver than denying reality, let alone addressing the real problem. If Trump gets away with making this crisis about immigration, the end of climate denial may not be far off. For more on the impact of COVID-19, listen to Tuesdays What Next. The government has ruled out coronavirus screening at UK airports. (Zsolt Czegledi/MTI via AP) A top government scientist has explained why coronavirus screening hasnt been introduced at airports even as 15,000 people a day fly into the UK. Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said screening methods such as temperature checks at the point of entry can be ineffective as it can take up to 14 days for COVID-19 symptoms to show. He said the proportion of new cases coming in from overseas would be minuscule compared to the rate of transmission already in the UK. Health secretary Matt Hancock admitted last week that 15,000 people a day are flying into the UK without screening. There are currently more than 2.5 million coronavirus cases worldwide. 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 Asked why the UK hasnt taken the lead of countries such as Japan and Italy in introducing screening at airports and ports, Van-Tam said at the governments daily coronavirus press conference in Downing Street: With screening, there is a basic problem that the length of a flight from a far-flung place to the UK is typically no more than 12 hours. The problem is people can be infected before they get on the flight and the incubation period for this virus is up to 14 days, and typically five days. Van-Tam referred to as JVT by Hancock at the press conference went on to say he could be infected in a country he was visiting before I get on the aircraft. I would sail through Heathrow, he said, with absolutely no symptoms at all. I wont have a fever, I wont be picked out [in a screening test]. But when I get back to my home in the north of England, at that point I may develop symptoms a few days later. Jonathan Van-Tam during Tuesday's media briefing. (PA Video/PA Images via Getty Images) Clearly the entry screening hasnt worked. Thats the basic mathematical problem that goes with it. On Wednesday, the Department of Health said there are 129,044 confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, with 17,337 deaths. Story continues Van-Tam added: Right now, we are in a situation where there is widespread transmission in the UK. We are turning that down but it is still there and it has not gone away. The proportion of new cases coming in from abroad would be minuscule compared to the amount and force of infection currently still moving around in our societies in the UK. Coronavirus: what happened today Coronavirus: World's most affected countries Alarmed by reports that 53 media persons have contracted coronavirus in Maharashtra, a Minister on Tuesday urged Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to screen all the journalists in Karnataka. During the regular Covid-19 related briefing on Monday, a reporter had raised the issue of 53 journalists in the neighbouring state testing positive for the disease, with Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar. In Maharashtra, out of the 171 scribes examined medically, 53 were found to have the viral infection. In his letter to the CM, Kumar said a similar test should be carried on the journalists in Karnataka. The journalists wanted a similar kind of screening to be carried out on them. Therefore, please direct the health and the information department immediately to conduct the screening of journalists who are in contact with public, Kumar said. If that person that was in her room passed away from that, and my mother was in that room with her, I would have at least expected them, if possible, to let us know: Your mother was in a room with somebody that was positive so were going to be keeping an eye on her for a couple of weeks just to make sure, Loredo said. But nothing. ZEINAT RAMADAN: Egyptian youths prepare decorations for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, also known to Egyptians as "Zeinat Ramadan," on a street in front of their homes during the night-time curfew to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Cairo, Egypt, on Monday, April 20. Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters Sorry! This content is not available in your region Bondi Beach could be set to reopen for swimmers and surfers sooner rather than later. Signs mounted at the famous stretch of sand reading 'surf and go access' and 'swim and go access' appeared on Tuesday evening. Members of Waverley Council, which presides over Bondi and surrounding suburbs, were set to vote on reopening the popular beach on Tuesday evening. The signs appeared at Bondi on Tuesday evening indicating the possibility of the reopening of the beach NSW Police patrol Bondi beach as Randwick Council re-opens its beaches, including Clovelly, Coogee and Maroubra But despite the signs, a Waverley Council spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia there is still no date set to reopen the beach. 'We've maintained the decision to not reopen the beaches but we are working on a plan for managed access for the water,' she said. 'There is still no time frame for when the beaches will reopen.' Bondi beach was closed on March 21 over fears massive crowds could be a breeding ground for the killer coronavirus. It is understood Bondi could be opened for swimmers as early as next Tuesday. Neighbouring Randwick Council allowed people to exercise on its beaches and in the water at Coogee, Maroubra and Clovelly, as of Monday. Bondi beach was closed to the public on March 21 as locals and tourists ignored social distancing rules People are seen walking along Bondi Beach in Sydney, Monday, April 20, 2020 Paula Masselos, the mayor of Waverely, reiterated on Saturday that there was no intention to reopen the beaches at the time due to the council area being a hotspot for coronavirus. 'The Council is, however, looking at ways to provide managed access to the water for the sole purpose of ocean swimming and surfing for exercise,' she said. 'The Council has been looking at ways to manage restrictions at our beaches ever since they were closed on March 21 due to limits on public gatherings introduced by the state government.' Together with Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard, and local police, Waverely Council will seek the best plan to reopen the beaches. A sign indicating Coogee beach is open for exercise is pictured on April 20, 2020 in Sydney, Australia Hundreds flocked to Coogee Beach on Tuesday for a swim following its reopening after three weeks Hundreds of people flocked to Coogee Beach on Tuesday, the first sunny day since it was reopened after a three week shutdown because of coronavirus restrictions. Fences now leave beachgoers with just two exits and entrances onto the sand, while dozens of 'exercise only' signs along the promenade leave people in little doubt over what activities are allowed. The majority of beachgoers were doing the right thing and left the beach after taking exercise rather than hanging around. But lifeguards made announcements along the beach, telling those on the sand not to sunbake and everyone in the water that they had to be swimming. 'We do not consider it essential exercise to just congregate in the water,' a Randwick City Council lifeguard announced. 'Please exercise, start swimming, don't just stand around in the water.' The majority of beachgoers were doing the right thing and left the beach after taking exercise rather than hanging around The lifeguards warned that beach may have to be closed again if residents did not abide by the rules The lifeguards warned that beach may have to be closed again if residents did not abide by the rules. 'We want to keep the beach open, please don't ruin it for everyone else. It's not just about you, it's about the whole community. 'If you don't start doing the right thing we will have to close the beach. Lifeguards do not want to do that, the council does not want to do that, but these are the measures we will take. 'Remember why we are doing this - it is to stop the spread of this virus.' Congress and the Trump administration have finalized a new relief package for small businesses affected by the coronavirus. The legislation will allocate $484 billion in total to helping small businesses and hospitals and expanding coronavirus testing. $321 billion will be allocated to the Paycheck Protection Program, which is designed to give emergency loans to small businesses but had run out of funding last week. The Economic Injury Disaster Loan fund, a separate relief program, will receive $60 billion, while the bill provides $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion for coronavirus testing throughout the country. I welcome this bipartisan agreement and hope the Senate will quickly pass it once members have reviewed the final text, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said of the bill. Congressional Democrats are proud to have secured an agreement on an interim emergency funding package. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said in a joint statement. Senator Mike Lee (R., Utah) criticized the process by which the agreement was reached, with Congress in recess and many members not present to debate the legislation. We need to do the job we were elected to do. . . . And yet Congress is in recess, Lee said on the Senate floor. This . . . is simply unacceptable. If COVID-19 requires Congress to act then it requires Congress to convene. Lee added that he would not object to passing the current legislation by unanimous consent. President Trump on Tuesday signaled his support for the deal on Twitter, urging both houses of Congress to pass it. More from National Review President Donald Trump and public health officials on Monday defended the administrations COVID-19 testing efforts, highlighting work underway to ramp up supply lines and sharing with governors color-coded maps pinpointing 5,000 locations of testing machines throughout the country they said are not being used to capacity. States need to evaluate their capacity, Trump said. Some have more capacity than they understand. Some of the governors didnt understand it. Well work with all the governors. We are there to stand with the governors." Trump said hundreds and hundreds of labs are ready, willing, and able to expand testing. He claimed that Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and others were unaware that their states have more testing capability than whats currently being realized. Hogan on CNN said he wasnt sure what Trump was referring to, adding that most of the governors already knew where the lab facilities were in their states, The Daily Beast reported. Trump also mocked Democratic governors and lawmakers whove pushed hard for a comprehensive national testing plan, accusing them of playing politics. Complaints over a lack of ventilators werent playing well, he said, alleging Democrats were trying to get him on testing. Trump hinted, however, that his administration and lawmakers were close to a deal that could boost a small business loan program by $450 billion, despite continued debate over testing. Trump added that the U.S. cannot be reliant on foreign nations for testing materials and medical equipment. Lets build it here. Lets make it here, he said. Weve got to start bringing our supply chains back. Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, noted that the administration has focused on every piece of the supply chain for several weeks. Brad Smith, deputy administrator and director at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid said more than 30 million COVID-19 testing swabs would be secured over the next few weeks. One company in the northeast, he said, would add four new production lines and another company in Ohio that is the largest maker of Q-tips is converting to making testing swabs. Smith said every governor received a memorandum detailing laboratory capacity in all locations that can perform the coronavirus test. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said the data showed the full capacity within states and where tech assistance and additional supplies might be available. She added that the military and Veterans Affairs have stepped up in every way for testing and care, and noted that military facilities are available for testing in several states. Birx said for now, officials were focused mainly on testing first responders, health care providers and the people most vulnerable to contract the disease. Thats where the tests will be most reliable, she said. Birx strongly urged Americans to continue to follow stay-at-home and social distancing guidelines for the time being. This is a highly contagious virus, she said. We dont know by looking at someone whether they have preexisting conditions or not, so all of us must continue to do the recommendations to ensure that when were (asymptomatic), were not spreading the virus. Related Content: Sweden never implemented a lockdown like the rest of the world. It kept elementary schools open and has allowed the majority of businesses, which include bars and restaurants to continue to operate. EU citizens can still enter and exit the country. The only thing it has in common with other countries is the implementation of social distancing which is voluntary. (Photo : Wikimedia Commons) Unlike many developed nations, Sweden never implemented a lockdown to curb the COVID-19 pandemic like the rest of the world. It kept elementary schools open and has allowed the majority of businesses, which include bars and restaurants, to continue to operate. EU citizens can still enter and exit the country. The only thing it has in common with other countries would be the implementation of social distancing, although this has been mostly voluntary, as long as groups do not reach 50 in number. Nevertheless, Sweden is doing something about the pandemic. Schools for older kids are closed, universities as well. People mostly work from home, and the elderly population is encouraged to avoid contact with others. Ski resorts are closed. Bars and restaurants only allow table service, and groceries are putting up glass dividers that serve to separate cashiers from customers. In Stockholm, cafes and bars are full, although these are the citizens who chose to risk infection. Many others stay home. According to Swedish officials, the government is not attempting to develop so-called herd immunity, where a lot of people contract the virus but does not cause widespread disease. Instead, Sweden wants to adopt the loosest possible approach that will still keep the rise in cases down to non-exponential levels. Anders Tegnell, the chief state epidemiologist, said last month that the country is in the mitigation phase, as opposed to a containment phase. This situation means that if there is no vaccine, or no massive outbreak occurs, herd immunity will not arise; the virus will remain a problem. Even if the country emulates China and strictly implements a lockdown to eradicate the virus within its borders, the virus will return immediately after the lockdown is lifted. Sweden, therefore, implemented policies base on the premise that the virus may only be managed and not suppressed, and that the people will not be able to tolerate lockdown beyond one or two months, due to overwhelming economic needs, isolation, or boredom. Taking these into consideration, Sweden then closed schools except for the grade-schoolers, since the evidence points to younger children not being a significant source of transmission. It also prohibited close seating in restaurants and bars, allowing them to operate as long as there is more significant space between customers and tables. Sweden encouraged people to maintain distance from each other, but it did not impose it. An unchecked virus spread can have an expected mortality rate of 10 to 1,000 times higher compared to countries with a strict lockdown. However, Sweden only got a 0.01% mortality, roughly twice Denmark's death rate (which implemented tight lockdown and has approximately 0.005% mortality). Sweden also has half the death rate in France. There are a lot of deaths in nursing homes because to isolate the elderly is easier said than done, as pointed out by Megan McArdle. The effects of policy in a pandemic only get results weeks or months later after something is implemented. Theoretically, Sweden may get a rise in cases after many weeks. In case Sweden adopts a short lockdown followed by relaxation, Johan Giesecke, a specialist in infectious diseases, said that this will still cause an exponential rise soon after the lockdown stops. The surge of cases may be delayed, but it will again occur. Giesecke pointed out that even a 14-day lockdown will still cause social and economic disruption. Consolidated revenue in the first quarter of 2020: 3,203.2 million -15.4% as reported -16.4% on a comparable basis Regulatory News: Kering (Paris:KER): "The Covid-19 pandemic took a heavy toll on our operations in the first quarter. We took immediate action to ensure the safety and well-being of all the Kering people around the world, and of our customers. We also lent our support to the communities in which we are present, helping meet the extraordinary needs generated by this public health crisis, notably among healthcare workers and hospitals. I would also like to address my warmest thanks to all our employees for the unwavering commitment they have shown in this unprecedented context. After a very promising start to the year for all our Houses, the rapid spread of Covid-19 affected our performance in our main markets. We are working hard on ensuring the continuity and readiness of all our businesses. Adapting our cost base and preserving our cash position are top priorities, implemented at all levels of the Group. Our solid financial structure and our agility serve us well in this difficult period. My confidence in Kering's future lies in the strength and values of our Houses, which will all emerge from this period of uncertainty at the top of their game, as well as in our ability to blend long-term vision with near-term imperatives." Francois-Henri Pinault, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer A quarter marked by strong disparities, with: an exceptionally good start to the year in January, before the epidemic began to spread; a contrasting month of February, reflecting store closures in Asia-Pacific; a sharply deteriorating situation in March, due to the gradual closure of stores across Europe and the United States, the halt in tourism, and the partial closure of our production and logistics facilities towards the end of the quarter. Revenue from the directly operated stores of the Luxury Houses retreated 19.5% on a comparable basis, and was particularly affected by the significant slowdown in Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe later in the quarter. During March, Kering began to see encouraging signs in Mainland China with the reopening of most of its stores. Sharp 21.1% rise in e-commerce for all our Houses in the quarter. Comparable sales generated through the wholesale network were down 6.8%. A contrasted picture for the Houses, due mainly to their respective bases of comparison, as well as their relative exposure to certain geographic areas. Business continuity plans deployed at the Group, Houses and country levels for human resources, inventory management, logistics and merchandising, and cost-reduction measures implemented to optimize the Group's positioning ahead of the return of the business to full capacity. Revenue (in millions) Q1 2020 Q1 2019 Reported change Comparable change(1) Total Houses 3,065.7 3,648.1 -16.0% -16.9% Gucci 1,804.1 2,325.6 -22.4% -23.2% Yves Saint Laurent 434.6 497.5 -12.6% -13.8% Bottega Veneta 273.7 248.1 +10.3% +8.5% Other Houses 553.3 576.9 -4.1% -5.4% Corporate and other 137.5 137.2 +0.2% -1.3% KERING 3,203.2 3,785.3 -15.4% -16.4% (1) On a comparable Group structure and exchange rate basis. After a promising start to the year and in an exceptionally challenging environment, Kering posted revenue of 3,203.2 million in the first quarter of 2020, down 15.4% as reported and 16.4% on a comparable basis. Revenue from the Luxury Houses amounted to 3,065.7 million (down 16.0% as reported and 16.9% on a comparable basis). Gucci deep Covid-19 impact despite excellent trends early in the quarter Gucci posted revenue of 1,804.1 million in the first quarter of 2020, down 22.4% as reported and 23.2% on a comparable basis. Sales from directly operated stores fell 23.8% against an extremely high first-quarter 2019 comparison basis. Gucci had an excellent start to the year, with double-digit growth in North America in the first two months of the year and another sparkling performance in Western Europe. However, activity levels were hit hard from February onwards due to the House's strong positions in Asia-Pacific and among Chinese tourists worldwide. Trends in Mainland China are gradually improving since stores began reopening in early March. Wholesale was down 20.0%, held back in particular by the closure of the Group's central logistics hub in late March and an increasingly selective distribution. Yves Saint Laurent's geographic footprint helps mitigate the market impact Yves Saint Laurent reported revenue of 434.6 million in the first quarter of 2020 (down 12.6% as reported and 13.8% on a comparable basis). This relatively contained decrease can be attributed to the House's limited exposure to the Asian markets, as well as a good start to the quarter in Western Europe and North America. Retail sales in the directly operated store network were down 17.6% on a comparable basis, while wholesale dropped 5.7%. Bottega Veneta's reinvention drives sales growth On the back of its successful creative renewal, Bottega Veneta posted a remarkable performance in the first three months of the year, with revenue up 10.3% as reported and 8.5% on a comparable basis, to 273.7 million. Retail sales in directly operated stores remained broadly unchanged (down 0.9%) despite the exceptionally unfavorable market context. The House's collections met with resounding success among local customers in North America (up 31.3%) and Western Europe (up 25.4%), but sales were down in Asia-Pacific and Japan. Wholesale was up a strong 55.1%, benefiting from a very high order book for Spring-Summer 2020 collections against favorable bases of comparison and despite reduced delivery capacity at the end of the period. Other Houses resilient performance from Couture Leather Goods; significant impact of the public health crisis on Watches Jewelry First-quarter revenue from the Other Houses totaled 553.3 million, down 4.1% as reported and 5.4% on a comparable basis. Sales from the Couture Leather Goods Division held up remarkably well. Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen recorded more favorable trends in their store networks in Western Europe and the United States, nearly offsetting the decline in Asia-Pacific and Japan. Their wholesale was up during the period. The Watches Jewelry Division has been hit hard by the crisis and revenue was down from last year's first quarter. Corporate and other First-quarter 2020 revenue for the "Corporate and other" segment remained virtually stable at 137.5 million, including 130.1 million attributable to Kering Eyewear consolidated sales. Decisions by the Board of Directors The Board of Directors of Kering, meeting on April 21, 2020, decided that, based on current calendar constraints, the final date of the Annual Meeting of Shareholders will be June 16, 2020, at 3pm Paris time. Exceptionally, the Annual Meeting will be held behind closed doors. The Board will ask the Annual Meeting approving the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019, to distribute a dividend for that year of 8.00 euros in cash per share, representing a decrease of 30% compared to the dividend initially proposed. An interim dividend of 3.50 euros in cash was paid on January 16, 2020. Pending approval by the Annual Meeting of Shareholders, the balance of the dividend will be paid on June 25, 2020 on positions recorded as of June 24, 2020 after market close. The ex-dividend date will be June 23, 2020 before trading. At its April 21, 2020 meeting, the Board of Directors also approved the revised 2020 executive compensation plan, reducing by 25% the fixed remuneration of the Chief Executive Officer and eliminating the variable portion of the 2020 remuneration of the Chief Executive Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officer. The Board of Directors also decided to reduce Directors' fees by 30%, thereby maintaining the Board's total remuneration at the level of prior years notwithstanding the planned increase in the number of Directors. REMINDER OF ANNOUNCEMENTS MADE SINCE JANUARY 1, 2020 Kering's brands come together to support the fight against Australia's bushfire disaster January 8, 2020 In response to the bushfire crisis in Australia, the Kering Houses came together to support the efforts of the Australian people to fight the wildfires. Together, they donated a total of AUD 1 million as an immediate contribution to the bushfire emergency. These funds were provided to the most appropriate local organizations selected by the Group's sustainability experts. Kering contributes to the worldwide fight against Covid-19 Since January 28 In China: Kering and its Houses announced a donation to the Hubei Red Cross Foundation to help fight the spread of the virus. In Italy: Kering and its Houses made donations to four major hospital foundations in Lombardy, Veneto, Tuscany and Lazio. - Gucci began producing surgical masks and medical overalls. In France: Kering ordered 3 million surgical masks from China for the French health service. - Kering made a financial donation to Institut Pasteur to support its research into Covid-19. - Kering financed on behalf of Paris public hospitals authority (AP-HP) the purchase of 60 3D printers for Paris' Hopital Cochin, so that it can rapidly produce large quantities of medical components and address the unprecedented demand for equipment during the Covid-19 epidemic. - The French workshops of Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent began manufacturing surgical masks, while ensuring the strictest health protection measures for their staff members. In the United States: Kering and its Houses announced a joint donation of USD 1 million to the CDC Foundation, to support healthcare workers in the Americas. In the United Kingdom: Kering made a donation of masks to the NHS. Progress report on the Group's 2025 sustainability targets January 30, 2020 Three years after announcing its next-generation sustainability strategy, "Crafting Tomorrow's Luxury", Kering published its Sustainability Progress Report. The Group has made serious progress and is on track to meet its 2025 targets, while setting the foundation to align with a 1.5C pathway. Kering has reduced its overall environmental impacts by 14% in terms of EP&L intensity (between 2015 and 2018) and is on a positive trajectory to reach its 40% reduction target by 2025. GHG emissions have fallen 77% in intensity in Kering's own operations (between 2015 and 2018), with renewable energy use reaching 100% in seven countries, 78% in Europe and 67% covered overall, Group-wide. Kering has also reached its target of purchasing 100% responsible gold for its Jewelry and Watches Divisions, and is on track to reach 100% sustainable sourcing for other key raw materials by 2025. In addition, the Group has attained 88% traceability for its key raw materials. 2020 remuneration for the Kering leadership team April 10, 2020 Given the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on economic activity, Francois-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO of Kering, decided to reduce the fixed portion of his salary by 25% from April 1, until the end of 2020. In addition, Francois-Henri Pinault and Jean-Francois-Palus, Group Managing Director, decided to waive the entirety of the variable portions of their annual remuneration for 2020. AUDIOCAST An audiocast for analysts and investors will be held at 6.00pm (CEST) on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. It may be accessed here. The slides (PDF) will be available ahead of the audiocast at www.kering.com. Participants may also use one of the following dial-in numbers. (Due to the current situation, we strongly encourage anyone who can to connect to the audiocast rather than the call.) France +33 (0)1 70 70 07 81 New dial-in number United Kingdom +44 (0)84 4481 9752 United States +1 646 741 3167 Standard international +44 (0)20 7192 8338 Confirmation code: 6497408 A replay of the audiocast will also be available at www.kering.com. About Kering A global Luxury group, Kering manages the development of a series of renowned Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods, Jewelry and Watches: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin, Ulysse Nardin, Girard-Perregaux, as well as Kering Eyewear. By placing creativity at the heart of its strategy, Kering enables its Houses to set new limits in terms of their creative expression while crafting tomorrow's Luxury in a sustainable and responsible way. We capture these beliefs in our signature: "Empowering Imagination". In 2019, Kering had nearly 38,000 employees and revenue of 15.9 billion. www.kering.com Twitter: @KeringGroup LinkedIn: Kering Instagram: @kering_official YouTube: KeringGroup View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005650/en/ Contacts: Press Emilie Gargatte +33 (0)1 45 64 61 20 emilie.gargatte@kering.com Marie de Montreynaud +33 (0)1 45 64 62 53 marie.demontreynaud@kering.com Analysts/investors Claire Roblet +33 (0)1 45 64 61 49 claire.roblet@kering.com Laura Levy +33 (0)1 45 64 60 45 laura.levy@kering.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 15:22:58|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- China's investment in infrastructure projects will increase in the second quarter of this year as government incentives to boost such spending gradually get implemented, analysts said. The country will soon unveil guidelines to foster the development of "new infrastructure" projects, according to Wu Hao, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner. The new infrastructures include information infrastructures such as 5G networks and data centers, as well as facilities that support the upgrade of traditional infrastructures, scientific research and product development, according to Wu. A number of local governments have already unveiled guidelines to boost spending in new infrastructures. Planned investments in the country's 31 provincial-level regions totaled 6.7 trillion yuan (about 947 billion U.S. dollarsthis year, with 23 percent involving in new infrastructures, data compiled by Huatai Securities showed. In addition to new infrastructure spending, investments in traditional infrastructures such as roads and railways also gathered pace, with excavator sales jumping last month. Earlier data showed China's fixed-asset investment, including spending in infrastructure, property, machinery and other physical assets, declined 16.1 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2020 as the novel coronavirus outbreak disrupted economic activities. As workers get back to construction sites and government bond issuance accelerates, infrastructure investments will return to growth by the end of the second quarter, said Li Chao, an analyst with Zheshang Securities, predicting that infrastructure investments will grow by 10 to 15 percent this year. Enditem Oil prices crashed and landed on the liability side of the balance sheet after storage concerns, coupled with falling demand and virtually no economic activity, pushed the asset class to sub-zero levels. The ever-widening contango triggered by the coronavirus pandemic pushed the futures contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to -$37.63 a barrel, a one-day drop of $55.90, or 306 percent. The debacle highlighted how oversupplied the US oil market has become even after Russia, OPEC agreed to a historic output cut of 9.7 million barrels a day. Also read: The anomaly of oil: How sellers ended up paying for the commodity Experts warn that the short-sellers' ire may spill into June WTI contract, which settled at $20.43 per barrel on April 21. They expect another dire month for the crude oil markets if demand does not improve and the virus continues to batter global economies. "People are concerned that we are going to see so much build-up of inventory that its going to be very difficult to fix in the near term and there is going to be a lot distressed cargoes on the market. People are trying to get rid of the oil and there are no buyers," Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research Inc told the New York Times. On the other hand, the opening up of China, for where the outbreak began, may bode well for the so-called prized commodity. Also read: What does the fall in oil prices mean for Indian equities China, which accounted for more than 80 percent of global oil demand growth last year, is slowly trying to reinstate the economy after the highly contagious virus was contained in the world's second-largest economy. The China model also gives investors hopes that humanity will ultimately outlast the virus and life would return to normal in the longer run, signs of which are already visible as the virus appears to have peaked in the worst-hit areas of Europe and the US. New Delhi: As many as 30 people, including an Allahabad University Professor and 16 foreign participants of Tablighi Jamaat meet at Nizamuddin in New Delhi, have been sent to judicial custody on Tuesday (April 21). The hearing took place at Mehbooba Guest House in Karali by a magistrate who sent all to Naini jail. Notably, all 30 people were arrested by the police on Monday night. An FIR against them was lodged in Kareli, Shahganj, and Shivkuti police stations. Of these foreigners Tablighi Jamaat members, 7 are from Indonesia and 9 belong to Thailand. Professor Mohammad Shahid of the Political Science Department of Allahabad University is accused of providing shelter to these foreign Jamaat members secretly. Along with the Foreigners Act, a case has been registered to hide information about coronavirus and under the Epidemic Act against these foreigners, while others have been accused of hiding information about COVID-19 and under the Epidemic Act. Earlier on March 31 night, foreigner Tablighi Jamaat members were caught hiding in Abdulla Mosque in Prayagraj. In the Corona test, an Indonesian was then tested positive and was discharged merely two days ago. Meanwhile, all these people sent to jail will be kept in separate barracks where social distancing norms will also be followed. City Superintendent of Police Brijesh Kumar Shrivastava told PTI that Prof Mohammed Shahid was arrested on charges of arranging the shelter for Indonesians among the foreigner Tablighi Jamaat members in a mosque in Pryagraj and not informing the police about them. Shrivastava said other arrested included nine Thailand nationals, one each from Kerala and West Bengal besides eleven others associated with Abdullah mosque and Hera mosques at Kareli in the city. The SP reportedly said during the investigation, it transpired that Prof Shahid had attended the Tablighi Jamaat met at Nizamuddin in New Delhi last month along with many of these foreigners and had shielded this information from the police, besides arranging for the foreigners' stay in local mosques. All 16 foreigners had come to India on a tourist visa but had been indulging here in propagating their religion Islam, Shrivastava said. Meanwhile, as many as 153 fresh coronavirus cases, including 65 from Agra and 33 from Rae Bareli, were reported in Uttar Pradesh today, taking the total count of such cases in the state to 1,337 from 53 districts, the health department said. Three COVID-19-related deaths were also reported, taking the death toll due to the disease to 21 in the state. "Two deaths were reported from Moradabad and one from Aligarh," Dr Vikasendu Agrawal, Joint Director and State Surveillance Officer, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), said in a statement issued here. The number of coronavirus cases jumped from two to 35 in Rae Bareli, with several people testing positive after coming in contact with participants at a Tablighi Jamaat event, officials said. Till Monday, the district had only two coronavirus patients, both of whom had attended the religious congregation in Delhi last month. The area where they lived was declared a containment zone and the people in the neighbourhood were quarantined, the officials said. According to Chief Development Officer Abhishek Goyal, the district reported 33 fresh cases in the last 24 hours and all the patients were admitted to the Kripalu Institute in Munshiganj. The count of active cases in the state stands at 1,154 as of now. As many as 162 COVID-19 patients have recovered from the disease and discharged in the state so far. On Tuesday, 22 patients were discharged. Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required! Stay logged in to skip the surveys. Specialist insurer Beazley has extended its distribution capabilities in Asia Pacific following the authorization by the Labuan financial regulator of a new service company. The new company, Beazley Labuan Ltd., will support Beazley in building its presence in the Malaysian market and underwrite various classes of business on a reinsurance basis on behalf of Beazleys Lloyds syndicates. The classes include financial lines, cyber, political risk, terrorism and marine. Beazley Labuan Ltd will complement the underwriting and distribution capabilities of Singapore based service company Beazley Pte Ltd. The insurance markets in Malaysia and Asean are growing to meet the changing level of demand and risk of commercial businesses, said Nicholas Tey, Beazleys international financial lines manager for Asia Pacific, in a statement. We see strong opportunities to increase our presence here, supported by this new service company, Beazley Labuan Ltd., which provides an additional, efficient distribution channel for Beazley, he added. Source: Beazley Winnipeg police have shot and killed three Indigenous people in 10 days. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winnipeg police have shot and killed three Indigenous people in 10 days. On April 8, 16-year-old Eishia Hudson died at an intersection on Lagimodiere Boulevard, after police officers chased a group of teens driving a stolen SUV after a reported liquor store robbery. Less than 12 hours later, 36-year-old Jason Collins died when police responded to a call of domestic violence at a home on Anderson Avenue. On April 18, 22-year-old Stewart Andrews died after officers encountered two men in the Maples after an alleged robbery and assault and broken windows at an apartment complex. All three shootings, because they involve police, will be investigated by the provincial watchdog, the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba. During a news conference for the Hudson and Collins shootings, Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth called the incidents an "anomaly" and "unrelated events in separate parts of the city." Winnipeg Police at the scene of an officer involved shooting near Pipeline Road and Adsum Drive. Stewart Andrews, 22, was shot and killed. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press files) The problem is, all three officer-involved shootings arent an anomaly, and they are related. A 2018 CBC investigation reported 60 per cent of all police-related deaths spanning 2000-17 involved Indigenous victims and were a product of over-policing, poverty and cycles of over-incarceration and over-representation in the justice system. Ten recent days in April illustrate little has changed. All three people shot to death by police are Indigenous. All were of different ages and socio-economic backgrounds so its not just poverty to blame. While all of the victims are accused of crimes, their families dispute the accounts of police. There are deep, lingering questions surrounding whether officers were at risk when Hudson was shot after the vehicle she was in crashed. (See Melissa Martins Free Press column April 18, in which she writes about the call by the Indigenous Bar Association for an "independent inquiry" into Hudsons death.) The details regarding the shooting death of Collins are also confusing. When officers arrived at the residence, they heard a woman screaming, which led them to enter the home, police said. There they found Collins, allegedly with a gun, his wife, and Collins teen daughter Tianna. Jason Collins was shot and killed by police responding to a domestic disturbance on Anderson Avenue. (Jesse Boily / Winnipeg Free Press files) The teen told the CBC "there was prescription drug use in the house" and "there was an argument" between her father and his wife. Tianna said she was screaming, "Please dont shoot him," insinuating police had already entered the home. Police left the house to "de-escalate" the situation, according to Smyth; 40 minutes later Collins was shot outside, allegedly holding a weapon, which the family claims was a BB gun. The fatal shooting of Andrews leaves lingering questions, as well. Police claim there were weapons present when they encountered Andrews and a 16-year-old companion, but those are all the details available. The teen male has been charged with robbery and other firearm-related offences. As reported by the Free Press, the behaviour of the 22-year-old father that night was completely out of character. "He wasnt a thug. He wasnt a bad guy," his girlfriend, Angel Taylor, said. This all leads to waiting for reports from the IIU, an organization that inspires little confidence. Community activist Michael Champagne said there are doubts about the independence of the Independent Investigation Unit and about the veracity of its findings. (John Woods / The Canadian Press files) "If you look at whats been uncovered about the makeup and findings about the IIU, few in the community think theyre impartial," Michael Champagne, Indigenous community organizer of the peace march Meet Me at the Bell Tower, said Monday. (For more, see Free Press reporter Ryan Thorpes investigations on the IIU over the past two years, revealing serious problems ineffectiveness, and a lack of "independence" plaguing the civilian-led body.) Now, though, with the stress of a pandemic on top of everything else, the pre-existing issues between Indigenous peoples and police are getting worse, and people are paying with their lives. 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 relationship between Indigenous peoples and the police is the worst its been in years," Champagne said. "Its clear the police need help building relationships." He is calling for immediate partnerships with community organizations who perform crime prevention in the city but are shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Its clear that the trauma is increasing," Champagne said. "And solutions must be found with us, not for us." Many have said the COVID-19 pandemic will have an impact for years. To be honest, Im just worried about 10 recent days and the days to come. niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca Its no surprise to me Barnaby Joyce is one of a number of politicians who will refuse to use the official COVID-19 contact tracing app. I mean, the guy ran two lives and kept an affair from his family. He made a name for himself attempting to be stealthy, so a government-sanctioned electronic fingerprint wouldnt really be his thing, would it? However, and it pains me to say it, on this one occasion, Joyce is right. Australians, in general, arent too worried about privacy. Thats not some sweeping generalisation, thats the conclusion of Deborah Lupton, professor in the Centre for Social Research in Health at the University of NSW, whos been researching Australian attitudes to health privacy for years. Basically, we are chilled. For example, we know about Cambridge Analytica yet we will use Facebook. We dont really worry about targeted advertising. We know about #censusfail yet will still fill in the forms. Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen There is one problem, though, for a government attempting to roll out a new application that isnt tested in the market. Australians dont trust governments to manage technology. We dont fear conspiracy but we do think our leaders will cock it up. Australians dont think that the government is going to do anything creepy [but] we dont trust the government to know where the on switch is on a computer, says Lupton, quoting one of her research participants. There is a health app tension between our various rights. We want the right to be free, to be private, but we also want the right to stay healthy. He's been isolating at his Herefordshire home with mother Elizabeth Hurley, 54, great-aunt and grandmother Angela. And Damian Hurley revealed he has been passing the time in lockdown amid the ongoing coronavirus by whipping up some baked treats for his family. The actor, 18, appears to be a budding pastry chef as he showed off a sumptuous looking sponge cake that he dubbed his 'isolation creation'. Cooking: Damian Hurley, 18, revealed he has been passing the time in lockdown amid the ongoing coronavirus by whipping up some baked treats for his family The cake came complete with two layers of whipped cream and was decorated with several strawberry's while Damian also added candles for a celebratory touch. Damian, who has previously appeared in The Royals alongside his mother, also shared a snap of himself in the kitchen after completing the cake. The up and coming model sported a black jacket and matching shorts while he tied his brunette locks into a ponytail. Alongside the snaps, he wrote: 'Swipe for my latest isolation creation.' Impressive: The actor appears to be a budding pastry chef as he showed off a sumptuous looking sponge cake that he dubbed his 'isolation creation' It comes after Damian passed time during the nationwide lockdown on Thursday by posing for idyllic snaps in a field at sunset. The 18-year-old smouldered in the Instagram pictures as he pouted for the camera while wearing an open white shirt. Damian added matching white linen trousers to his look and layered a number of mecklaces around his neck. He wore his tresses loose on his shoulders and echoed his model mother Elizabeth as he gazed at the camera, before laughing in the second snap. Damian also recently enjoyed some down time in the sun on Tuesday as he enjoyed a picnic in the grass. Strike a pose: Damian passed time during the nationwide lockdown on Thursday as he posed for idyllic snaps in a field at sunset Idyllic: Damian smouldered in the Instagram pictures as he pouted for the camera while wearing an open white shirt Damian posed for a shirtless snap as he read Enid Blyton classing The Famous Five as he sat among the daffodils. 'Conquering serious literature,' he wrote alongside the sultry Instagram snap, once again channeling his mother as he posed. Damian is in lockdown in Herefordshire with his mum, great-aunt and grandmother, Angela - and Elizabeth told Hello! that her hopes of meeting a new man have been scuppered by the coronavirus pandemic. Elizabeth said: 'I'd love to fall madly in love with someone, which certainly won't happen whilst I'm locked down with blood relatives. Enjoying the peace: Damian's time on the field comes shortly after he enjoyed some down time in the sun on Tuesday as he enjoyed a picnic in the grass 'Maybe when it's over I'll put my headlamps on full beam and make an effort.' The beautiful brunette was pining for sunnier climes on Tuesday when she shared another sizzling swimsuit snap to Instagram. The Austin Powers actress was typically age-defying as she slipped her toned frame into a fuchsia one-piece, with a cleavage-baring cut-out section. The halterneck swimsuit hugged the star's slender waist and drew the eye to her bronzed legs as she sat by a tropical pool Nautical but nice: Damian's mum Elizabeth Hurley, 54, put on a very busty display in a striped bikini on Instagram on Tuesday as she said she would 'love to fall madly in love with someone' Toned: Elizabeth was pining for sunnier climes on Tuesday as she shared a sizzling swimsuit snap to Instagram Her brunette tresses were styled sleek and straight while her pretty features were enhanced with smoky shadow and liner. It comes just days after the actress shared a racy lingerie snap on Saturday as she urged fans to keep themselves safe on what was her 11th day in lockdown. She sported a lacy black negligee for the post as she told fans she was holed up in her Herefordshire home. In her post, Elizabeth admitted that after days of going makeup free she decided to get dressed up in her best lingerie for her latest post. Sizzling: Elizabeth shared a racy lingerie snap on Saturday as she urged fans to stay at home on her 11th day in self-isolation during the coronavirus pandemic Elizabeth urged her followers to self-isolate to try and prevent the spread of the virus, she said she felt 'incredibly lucky' to be in her country home during this time of social distancing. She penned: 'Day 11 of my family's lockdown in Herefordshire and I finally washed my hair, put on some make up and found time to post. 'In these scary times I feel incredibly lucky to live in the countryside and have lots of outside space. Candid: The actress told fans she was 'incredibly lucky' to be isolating in her countryside home, and revealed she had been isolating with eight other people 'As well as my son, I have seven other people living with me including my 79 year old mother and her sister- also in her late 70's- and one of my best friends who is in the highest risk group with severe respiratory problems. 'Keeping everyone as safe as possible (and fed) is a full time job. We all are full of the highest admiration for our wonderful NHS staff and are doing everything we can to not add to their burden. 'Thank God it's Sat night and we can r-e-l-a-x and take a break from being glued to the news #stayhome #staysafe #nhsheroes.' Open: Among those joining Elizabeth in isolation were her son Damian along with her elderly mother and aunt A fire that broke out in a vacant duplex damaged the neighboring building, displacing a family of six on Monday evening, according to Harrisburg Fire Chief Brian Enterline. Neighbors reported seeing flames at 1837 Briggs Street around 7 p.m., and when fire crews arrived they called for a first alarm due to the heavy smoke coming from the building, Enterline said. Immediately, crews encountered an issue getting water from one of the hydrants, so a second alarm was called to bring in extra resources, Enterline said. After that, crews were able to contain the bulk of the fire to the first duplex, with some extension to a neighboring home. The second home has some water and smoke damage, plus some fire damage to the second floor, Enterline said. A family of 5 children and one adult was displaced for now, but Enterline said the building was rehab-able. Enterline said the vacant duplex was gutted by the fire. There were no injuries to residents or firefighters in the fire. The displaced family is being assisted by the American Red Cross. Enterline said they have not determined any cause for the fire, and are investigating. Read more on PennLive: The incident happened in the 1300 block of Maryland Avenue SW, the D.C. fire department said. It caused delays on the CSX, Amtrak and VRE lines. Approval is based on the SENSCIS study which showed nintedanib slows the loss of pulmonary function in people living with systemic sclerosis-associated ILD (SSc-ILD) 1 study which showed nintedanib slows the loss of pulmonary function in people living with systemic sclerosis-associated ILD (SSc-ILD) Following the FDA's approval in September 2019, nintedanib in SSc-ILD has so far been approved in 15 countries including Canada, Japan and Brazil Being the first and only approved treatment option available for people living with SSc-ILD, the approval constitutes a breakthrough in an area of high unmet need Boehringer Ingelheim today announced that the European Commission has approved nintedanib for the treatment of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) in adults.2 The approval comes after the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use had adopted a positive opinion for nintedanib in treatment of SSc-ILD on 27 February 2020. Systemic sclerosis (SSc), also known as scleroderma, is a disfiguring, disabling and potentially fatal rare autoimmune disease.3,4,5 It causes scarring (fibrosis) of various organs, including the lungs, heart, digestive tract and kidneys and can lead to life-threatening complications. When the lungs are affected, it can cause interstitial lung disease (ILD), known as SSc-ILD.1,6 ILD is a leading cause of mortality, accounting for almost 35% of SSc-related deaths.7 "This is a real breakthrough in the treatment of people living with SSc-ILD," said Peter Fang, Senior Vice President and Head of Therapeutic Area Inflammation at Boehringer Ingelheim. "Once fibrosis of the lungs occurs it cannot be reversed. Nintedanib, being the first and only approved treatment for SSc-ILD, is serving a high unmet need making a real positive difference to those living with this life-changing condition. The approval is a further milestone in Boehringer Ingelheim's ongoing dedication for people living with pulmonary fibrosis." "The European Commission's decision is very welcome news for the European scleroderma community," commented Sue Farrington, President of the Federation of European Scleroderma Associations (FESCA). "When scleroderma affects the lungs, there can be severe consequences. The availability of a therapy option brings great hope to those living with scleroderma and their loved ones." The European Commission's approval is based on the results of the SENSCIS trial, a Phase III, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted to investigate the efficacy and safety of nintedanib in patients with SSc-ILD.1 The primary endpoint was the annual rate of decline in forced vital capacity (FVC) assessed over a 52-week period. Results showed nintedanib slowed the loss of pulmonary function by 44% (41mL/year) relative to placebo, as measured in FVC over 52 weeks.1 Furthermore, results showed that nintedanib had a safety and tolerability profile similar to that observed in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).1 Regulatory approvals for the treatment of patients living with SSc-ILD have also been granted in several countries including Canada, Japan and Brazil. Nintedanib is approved in over 75 countries for the treatment of IPF, and it is the first approved treatment for SSc-ILD.8 ~ENDS~ Please click on the link for 'Notes to Editors' and 'References': http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/press-release/europeancommissionapprovesnintedanibssc-ild View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005328/en/ Contacts: Boehringer Ingelheim Corporate Communications Media PR Alexander Kurz 55216 Ingelheim/Germany Tel.: +49 (6132) 77-184531 Mobile: +49 (151) 68948378 Email: press@boehringer-ingelheim.com The government is extending some tax deadlines for more than 700,000 enterprises, Photo: Le Toan Recently, the Vietnamese government has promulgated Decree No.41/2020/ND-CP on extending the deadline for tax and land use fee payments by an additional five months from the original deadline. The nationwide postponement will be made available for more than 700,000 enterprises. The delay is available for businesses operating in the agro-forestry-fishery, food processing, textile and garment, and construction industries, besides those operating in transportation, warehousing, accommodation and catering, education, and micro- and small-sized enterprises, as well as medical services and parts suppliers. Subjects eligible for tax extension also include credit institutions and foreign banks in Vietnam that roll out relief measures to alleviate challenges as well as assist distressed customers. The newly-ratified decree also delays VAT and corporate income tax (CIT) obligations of those working in multiple sectors, one of which is subject to the extension. According to the Ministry of Finance, the move could provide VND180 trillion ($7.83 billion) in temporary liquidity, giving firms a financial cushion as they cope with the escalating tension of the pandemic. The sum would be collected to the state budget later this year after the public health challenge calms. Taxpayers must submit a proposal to tax management agencies before July 30 to receive the extension. However, experts caution that the lack of clear guidance could expose taxpayers to more risks. Firms have to be responsible for their deferral, which also puts them on a razors edge: even the policymakers are at odds when determining which taxpayers are eligible for tax extension. If an enterprise is not found eligible for deferral, tax authorities will issue a written notice and the firm must pay the full amount of tax, rent and late payment interest. However, given the complex procedures which may stretch out for a long time, businesses are jumping into a great deal of uncertainty that might very well come around to bite them. In some cases, it will take three to five years or retroactive assessment to clarify the legality of a tax deferment to a particular company. In the case that the extension is unfounded and is turned around, the group will be slammed with a huge bill for unpaid taxes, and of course, further penalties, Nguyen Duc Nghia, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Agent Club, warned. On the other hand, Mai Truong Giang, CEO of Otoke Chicken restaurant, said that it is quite necessary to reduce VAT, CIT, and personal income tax by 50 per cent. Large chunks of the economy have been frozen as the pandemic caused the closure of malls, restaurants, coffee shops, and factories. This has ensured that the global economy is experiencing its worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, according to the International Monetary Fund. We are calling upon on the food and beverage (F&B) sector to unite and propose the government the establishment of a nationwide association. If an F&B association representing the entire sector asked government for more relief measures, I believe they would be more forthcoming, said Giang. Do Quang Hien, chairman of the Hanoi SME Association suggested, Authorities should provide more relief such as cutting down on some taxes, not only for now but also for the time ahead in financing production and businesses hit by the outbreak. Amid complaints about faulty rapid test kits, the Indian Council of Medical Research on Tuesday advised states not to use them for the next two days, saying it will issue an advisory after their teams carry out field validation of these equipment New Delhi: Amid complaints about faulty rapid test kits, the Indian Council of Medical Research on Tuesday advised states not to use them for the next two days, saying it will issue an advisory after their teams carry out field validation of these equipment. At the daily government briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country, ICMR's Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar was asked about the faulty rapid testing kits. "We have received complaint from a state yesterday and so far discussed with three states. Too much variations have been reported in results of rapid test kits and RT-PCR kits. We advise states not to use them for the next two days, he said. There has been significant variation in detection of RT-PCR positive samples, varying from 6% to 71% We will advice States not to use these #COVID19 testing kits during the next two days. If there is some fault in the batch, we will ask the company to replace the kits -@ICMRDELHI pic.twitter.com/REn3dxZOk8 PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) April 21, 2020 These kits will be tested and validated in the field by our teams. We will issue a clear-cut advisory in two day. If problems are detected in batches, we will tell the companies for replacement," he said. Follow LIVE Updates on Coronavirus Outbreak here He said that a total of 4,49,810 samples for COVID-19 infection have been tested till Tuesday of which 35,852 were done on Monday. As many as 29,776 samples have been tested in 201 labs under the ICMR network, and 6,076 at 86 private laboratories, he said. The Chairman of the 4th Empowered Group (to tackle COVID-19) said that the government has created a portal with the master database of healthcare professionals and volunteers. "Till now, details of 1.24 crore human resources of various kinds have been added to it, he said. Details of corona warriors in 20 categories and 49 sub-categories, who can contribute to COVID-19 management efforts, are available to states and Union Territories on the portal, he said Lav Agrawal, the Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry, told the press conference that 18,601 positive cases have been reported across the country so far. As many as 3,252 people have been cured till now, he said, adding 705 of them recovered on Monday. This takes our recovery percentage to 17.48, he said. The emergence of the CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA has brought with it some issues with deep rooted underlying political undertones one of which is the separation of powers between the National and by-national political institutions. To put it in a very plain language, the coming of the health challenge and the consequential declarations of lockdown across the Country has raised the question of where the boundary lies between the exercise of Presidential power and gubernatorial powers and functions. Another underlying political development that has evolved since the advent of the series of curfews and shutdowns both by President Muhammadu Buhari and the governors is the need to properly dissect the possibilities of conflicts between the quarantine Act of 1926 and the Grund Norm of Nigeria which is the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended. However, what is not debatable is that there is no way any smaller legislation or statute will edge out the Nigerian Constitution in the hierarchy of powers because the Constitution which is interpreted as the Supreme law of Nigeria spells out clearly that should there be conflict of that shape then the Constitution automatically overrides the other law to the extent of the irregularities. This is why the primacy and supremacy of the Constitution is unambiguously highlighted in section 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As a student of politics and an observer of politicians, I was worried when the President unilaterally declared a total shutdown of some states such as Lagos and Ogun State even before he went back to the Presidential legal archives to extract the relevant sections of the Quarantine Act of pre-independence epoch to cite as the authority for making such a blanket declaration. His declaration was not captured under section 305 of the 1999 Constitution which Provides for the imposition of a State of emergency in the Country or any part thereof . The section empowers the President to issue the declaration of emergency by way of official Gazette. I sensed that there was conflict as soon as the President finished his pre-recorded television broadcast because since Nigeria runs a FEDERALISM which includes the center and the component parts which have some levels of autonomy, I had expected at least a conference call from President Muhammadu Buhari and these Governors to so reach a determination because the Constitution recognises the governors as the political heads of their respective states and unless there is a national EMERGENCY declaration made by the President and passed by the National Assembly in line with the relevant constitutional provisions, the President can not just sit in his office in Abuja and shut down Lagos or indeed any other states within the Federal structures when there is no war. This is because Nigeria does not run a UNITARY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. The signs that there was some silent angst emerged when the Ogun State governor did not begin the implementation of the LOCKDOWN from that same date like Federal Capital Territory but moved it to Friday to give the residents of Ogun State the opportunity to stock up their kitchens and then join in the total lockdown. But the Lagos state governor decided to abide by the declaration made by the President and on two occasions stated that only the President who made the declaration of the curfew can decide otherwise. This attitude of the Lagos state governor interrogated the place of FEDERALISM in all of these scenarios. This would later be manifested when the Federal and state MIGHT clashed between the Rivers State Government and the Federal Government in which case the former arrested two Pilots for flouting the Rivers State's executive order limiting movements into Rivers State even as the Federal government overshot herself when the ministry of aviation which had shut all airports later authorised some helicopters to fly in crude oil workers into Rivers State without regards to the extant executive order by the Rivers State's government. We will return to the issue but let us look at the powers of state governors bus a bus the powers of Mr President to rely on the Quarantine Act of 1926 to declare a lockdown. Specifically, Chapter 1, part 2, section 5 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended states: (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of the Federation: (a) shall be vested in the President and may subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by the National Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the Vice-President and Ministers of the Government of the Federation or officers in the public service of the Federation; and (b) shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, all laws made by the National Assembly and to all matters with respect to which the National Assembly has, for the time being, power to make laws. (2) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of a State: (a) shall be vested in the Governor of that State and may, subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any Law made by a House of Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the Deputy Governor and Commissioners of the Government of that State or officers in the public service of the State; and (b) shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, all laws made by the House of Assembly of the State and to all matters with respect to which the House of Assembly has for the time being power to make laws. (3) The executive powers vested in a State under subsection (2) of this section shall be so exercised as not to: (a) impede or prejudice the exercise of the executive powers of the Federation; (b) endanger any asset or investment of the Government of the Federation in that State; or (c) endanger the continuance of a Federal Government in Nigeria. (4) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section:- (a) the President shall not declare a state of war between the Federation and another country except with the sanction of a resolution of both Houses of the National Assembly, sitting in a joint session; and (b) except with the prior approval of the Senate, no member of the armed forces of the Federation shall be deployed on combat duty outside Nigeria. (5) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (4) of this section, the President, in consultation with the National Defence Council, may deploy members of the armed forces of the Federation on a limited combat duty outside Nigeria if he is satisfied that the national security is under imminent threat or danger: Provided that the President shall, within seven days of actual combat engagement, seek the consent of the Senate and the Senate shall thereafter give or refuse the said consent within 14 days. The Quarantine ACT section 4 states: . Regulations: The President may make regulations for all or any of the following purposes(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) prescribing the steps to be taken within Nigeria upon any place, whether within or without Nigeria, being declared to be an infected local area; prescribing the introduction of any dangerous infectious disease into Nigeria or any part thereof from any place without Nigeria, whether such place is an infected local area or not; preventing the spread of any dangerous infectious disease from any place within Nigeria, whether an infected local area or not, to any other place within Nigeria; preventing the transmission of any dangerous infectious disease from Nigeria or from any place within Nigeria, whether an infected local area or not, to any place without Nigeria; prescribing the powers and duties of such officers as may be charged with carrying out such regulations; fixing the fees and charges to be paid for any matter or thing to be done under such regulations, and prescribing the persons by whom such fees and charges shall be paid, and the persons by whom the expenses of carrying out any such regulations shall be borne, and the persons from whom any such expenses incurred by the Government may be recovered; generally for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Act. Others are: Section 22. Infected local area in Nigeria When the Minister has in the Federal Gazette declared any local area in Nigeria to be infected with a quarantinable disease, the following provisions shall operate in relation to any ship departing from any port specified by the Minister to any other port either within or outside Nigeria(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) the port health officer may and if so requested by the master shall examine any person who proposes to embark or is already on board the ship; the port health officer may require any part of a ship which is infected to be disinfected to his satisfaction; an authorised officer shall inspect any clothing, bedding or any person on the ship and which, in the opinion of the officer, may have been exposed to any infection and may require the disinfection or destruction of any such clothing, bedding or article, and the master shall disclose to the authorised officer any relevant circumstances; no person shall take or cause to be taken on board the ship any article which, in the opinion of the authorised officer, is capable of carrying infection unless that officer is satisfied that that article has been disinfected and, where necessary, disinfected; if the port from which the ship is leaving has been declared to be infected with plague, and if there is reason to believe that there are rodents on the ship, the port health officer shall cause the ship to be deratted or direct it to proceed to the nearest designated approved port convenient to the ship for deratting. Section 23. Surveillance (1) Where these Regulations permit a port health officer to place a person under surveillance, the period of such surveillance shall not exceed such of the following periods as may be appropriate. Then down the line the Quarantine Act stated as follows: (2) Proceedings for imposing any fine or imprisonment under these Regulations or for recovering any expenses incurred or charged by the Government in carrying out the provisions of these Regulations may be commenced and determined by any magistrate. But as I said, there are lingering issues of where the powers of each between the governor and the President begins and ends especially in the case like now that we have a President that is authoritarian. The conflicts brewing between the Rivers State Government and the Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari tells you that there is the need for better understanding amongst all arms of governments and also for the National interest to override political party affiliations. To think that because the Rivers State's government under Mr. Nyesom Wike of the peoples Democratic Party (PDP) decided to insists in the enforcement of a state-wide curfew and the Aviation minister Hadi Sirika authorised some helicopters to violate the state made law and then the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu dabbled into the political arena to withdraw the Rivers State's COMMISSIONER of Police Mustapha Dandaura for enforcing a legally enforceable law of Rivers state government. This has made the Rivers State Government to set up a parallel border security team of its own to enforce the state law. This is legally permissible because the state house of assembly is permitted by the constitution to make law for the protection of the public security and punlic good of their people. The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, said on Monday that the state government would establish a task force to replace federal security agencies manning its borders. Wike explained that the establishment of a task force to man the borders became necessary because of the likelihood of sabotage from federal security agencies. The governor, who disclosed this on Monday while signing the Executive Order RVSG-02 No. 3 -2020 at the Government House, Port Harcourt, said, This is the third Executive Order that I will be signing since the coronavirus pandemic started. This third Executive Order is very important. We suspect there will be sabotage on the part of the security agencies. That is why we are appointing a task force to man our borders. We owe our people a duty to protect them. There is likely to be sabotage. Our Task Force will be at the borders to protect our people. Wike maintained that the laws on the restriction of movement must be implemented for the safety of everyone.. Also, Attorney-General of Rivers State, Prof. Zaccheus Adangor, said the two legal instruments signed by the governor would help in the fight against coronavirus. He said the Quarantine (Coronavirus (COVID-19) and other infectious diseases) Regulations (No. 2-2020) stipulates non-custodial sentences for offenders, adding that individuals will be fined N50,000 while corporate organizations will be N1million. Adangor said that the regulations directed the Chief Judge of Rivers State to assign a judge or magistrate to try offenders. The intriguing thing is that after this lockdown is over and the CORONAVIRUS challenge is defeated, Nigeria needs to be governed in accordance with the extant laws. I see a possibility that if not for the strong resolve of Governor Wike, this CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA would have impeded on the essence of FEDERALISM. Emmanuel Onwubiko is the Head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria [email protected] ; www.emmanuelonwubikocom; www.thenigerianinsidernews.com ; [email protected] Birmingham projected in March the city would lose $9.2 million in revenue within 60 days to coronavirus. Mayor Randall Woodfin said Tuesday hell soon know just how grim the money shortfall might be for the city. March tax receipts began coming in on Monday and the city should know the exact impact next week, he said. Woodfin said he expects April to be far worse. Finance Director Lester Smith had done his estimate of the March hit based on the lost revenue in the 2008 recession. The city then suffered a loss of about 20 percent of money from sales and business taxes. Tough decisions will have to be made. We will make decisions that will strike a balance of finding ways to support our employees and to continue to deliver services for our residents, Woodfin said during a Tuesday morning virtual press conference. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin press conference Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin is holding a press conference. The press conference is set to begin at 10:15 a.m. Posted by The Birmingham News on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 Woodfin also urged residents to stay the course on stay-at-home orders. Continue following social distancing guidelines and avoid all unnecessary trips, he said. The city and state stay-at-home orders continue until at least April 30. Do whats necessary in the month of April, stay at home. If you dont have to go out, dont go out, he said. Gov. Kay Ivey had the same message during a press conference shortly after Woodfins. Woodfin said elected officials are first responsible to the health of their residents. The challenge in deciding when to reopen the city is one of balancing both the health crisis and the economic crisis. There is no competition to the health and safety of our residents," he said. Alabamas eastern neighbor, Georgia, plans to begin reopening some businesses on Friday. That intersection, known for Big Ben Liquor Store and its signature turret, has been described by police as a trouble spot, and many shootings have occurred there over the years. A 28-year-old woman was fatally shot in front of an apartment building just south of New York Avenue the night of April 15. Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex have moved on from the royal family and are entering the next chapter of their lives, but one royal expert shared her concern over how Harry will adjust to this new life. After his role as someone whose purpose in life was to serve people, royal commentator Angela Mollard wonders if Prince Harry now feels like he doesnt have a purpose. Prince Harry | Joe Giddens WPA Pool/Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan exited the family and moved to Los Angeles In January, Prince Harry and Meghan dropped a bombshell announcing a plan to take a step back from the royal family and live a more normal life out of the spotlight. Queen Elizabeth developed a workable agreement and they made their official exit on March 31. Following the queens statement of support, Prince Harry spoke at a dinner event where he opened up about why he and Meghan made this drastic decision. He also addressed that their hopes to continue serving the queen, the commonwealth and my military associations but without public funding could not be fulfilled. Ive accepted this knowing it doesnt change who I am or how committed I am, but I hope it helps you understand what it had come to, that I would step my family back from all I have ever known to take a step forward into what I hope can be a more peaceful life, he shared with attendees. Dr. Jane Goodall claims Prince Harry is finding life challenging The move has no doubt been a big adjustment for Prince Harry, with his friend Dr. Jane Goodall sharing in an interview that Harry is finding life a bit challenging. I dont know how his career is going to map out, but yes, Ive been in touch, though I think hes finding life a bit challenging just now, Goodall told Radio Times. Its unclear if Goodall was referencing Prince Harry making the move from royal life to an existence hes never known before or if hes finding things challenging due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A source told ET that this has been a stressful time for Prince Harry, in part, because of the coronavirus crisis. Things have been stressful for Prince Harry since his move, the insider explained. It hasnt been easy. We know hes been concerned for family in the UK, naturally, but he wants to do what he thinks is best for his own family. Is Prince Harrys life lacking purpose? Royal commentator Angela Mollard shared more insight into Goodalls comment about Prince Harry, explaining during the Royals podcast that she could be referring to coronavirus and lockdown. Mollard pointed to the fact theyve broken away from the royal family at a time when the rest of the royal family are possibly, arguably, more purposeful and necessary than ever, sharing that its very difficult for Harry. His whole purpose in life was to serve people he did it in his particular way with great humor and innovation, Mollard explained during the podcast. But the fact that he doesnt have that purpose at the center of his life I think would be incredibly challenging. When Sondra Boyes was a child, she got a Closed sign for a pretend store at her house and told her parents she was going to run her own shop and never work for anyone else. Today that sign hangs at Court of Gamers, a North Side store Boyes opened in 2017. Starting her own business was a dream come true, and Boyes said she fell in love with the communal nature of games. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the store was usually bustling on Thursdays and Fridays with people there to play Dungeons and Dragons and Star Wars: X-Wing. Then, within a matter of days, Boyes went from limiting the number of people allowed inside to shutting down the store. We run week to week, and some weeks are better than others, she said. The idea of having to close my doors, its terrifying. I cried. Boyes turned to GoFundMe, which is issuing $500 matching grants to qualifying businesses that raise at least that much on the platform. Some of the money she raises will go to the stores bills and other portions to a Chinese restaurant next door and a nonprofit that works with LGBTQ youth. She paid half of Aprils rent for the store and made a good faith payment for May, hoping to catch up when she can reopen. But who knows when that will be? The question is how long this is going to last, Boyes said. I just dont know what life will look like. Life before COVID-19 is finished. With stores, restaurants, gyms and offices shuttered and sales plummeting, small business owners are facing mounting bills and an uncertain future. Theyre having to choose between keeping employees and paying rent and other expenses. Many are asking landlords for relief and turning to crowd-funding measures to survive the downturn. Landlords are also worried. They have bills, too, and if the rental income stops flowing, they could default on their mortgages. Several national retail and restaurant chains have stopped paying rent or said theyre holding off to save money, and an assortment of businesses are seeking delays, reductions or forgiveness. Within retail, which is among the hardest-hit sectors, theres a split. Grocery stores and home improvement outlets are packed while sales at restaurants, bars and mall shops have plunged, Naveen Jaggi, president of retail advisory services at JLL Americas, said during a conference call about the effects of the outbreak on commercial real estate. Some companies wont make it or will scale back, leaving vacant space behind. The retailers that were already under heavy stress the ones that have barely survived or have gone through a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 11 in particular two or three times, this may be the last nail in the coffin, Jaggi said. When stores do reopen, it may take time for sales to pick up. Occupancy at restaurants may be around 50 percent initially to keep tables six or seven feet apart, Jaggi said. The economic fallout from the pandemic is different from previous downturns, which occurred over a longer period, said Michael Schoenbrun, Weitzmans San Antonio city partner. This time, it happened seemingly all at once, as if a light had been switched off, he said. Weitzman provides asset and property management, development, investment sales, tenant representation and other services. The companys portfolio includes more than 30 shopping centers and retail buildings in San Antonio. Our retail markets entered this from a position of strong occupancy and limited construction, Schoenbrun said. That's not the case for previous cycles. Online purchases are skyrocketing, but with people stuck at home, theres pent-up demand for the brick-and-mortar experience, said Daniel Taylor, CBREs managing director of retail for Texas and Oklahoma. Its too early to tell how much space will come back on the market and what demand will look like in the months ahead, he said. Before officials ordered people to stay home and non-essential businesses to close, the retail sector in San Antonio was in good shape. Grocery and pharmacy stores, and the shopping centers where they are located, are the most resilient categories as customers shift spending almost entirely to essential goods and core basics both online and in-store, Taylor said. We are seeing that many retailers are seeking rent relief during this time, but each situation is unique to the specific terms of each retailers lease, and landlords are doing their best to meet the needs of their tenants, he added. Some are slashing or postponing payments. The Pearl is deferring tenants rent for three months with no interest and setting up lines of credit at 3.75 percent interest to help cover operating losses and re-opening expenses, said chief marketing officer Elizabeth Fauerso. People can also buy items from restaurants at the trendy complex when they order from the Farmers Market online. Curbside orders have jumped to more than 500 a week, Fauerso said. What is Pearl in fact, what is San Antonio or any great city without our small businesses? she said. This is an unprecedented time, and we all have to work together to survive and then thrive. After the Small Business Administration loan programs were approved, Weitzman sent instructions to tenants on how to apply, Schoenbrun said. The firm is helping retailers without websites or social media followings to set up Instagram accounts to reach customers and providing other digital assistance. We also have been working one-on-one with those tenants who are struggling due to the shutdown on workouts to help them through this time to be ready for the return to relative normalcy, he said. Many small business owners have applied for federal loans but have yet to hear back, including Adrian De Los Reyes, who runs Sari Sari, a Filipino restaurant, market and bakery in Northwest San Antonio, with his wife. The market is still open and busy, but some suppliers are sharply raising prices, he said. The restaurant, which usually has bigger profit margins, is closed, save for take-out orders. The number of employees has shrunk from 17 to 11. They can afford rent, utilities and other bills for the next few months, but De Los Reyes is concerned about the future of the business if a vaccine isnt developed and the economy doesnt rebound soon. Were anticipating folks just not prioritizing Filipino products and cuisine if they arent receiving an income, he said. Were hanging on as long as we can. Mitch and Michele Allen were approved for a loan last week as part of a partnership between Goldman Sachs and LiftFund, a nonprofit based in San Antonio. The loans are made through the Small Business Administrations Paycheck Protection Program and will be fully or partially forgiven if businesses use the funds to retain or rehire employees and pay bills. The couple own iRun Texas, a running specialty chain with three locations in the area. Theyve stayed open for medical prescription fittings and are offering curbside and delivery services, but sales are still down about 85 percent. They recently laid off about half of their roughly 14 employees. They expect to get about $100,000 through the program and said the loan will help them pay staff and bills. Were just kind of playing it day by day right now, Michele Allen said. Tommy Newman, who owns Southtown Vinyl, said hes still paying employees but theyre taking a severe cut. With the store closed, theyre handling inventory and moving stock online to keep at least a few hours a week. His landlord hasnt offered to trim rent, but Newman said hes been able to pay the bills so far, and he gets it: everyone is in a bind. The pandemic has given him the chance to build more of an online presence. Its been great to see all the support online from people supporting not just record stores but local small businesses, he said. We just have to try and stay afloat. Couples are postponing their weddings, curtailing business for Ashley Amos, who owns a hair and makeup company. Her landlord told her to pay what she can. Her goal is to avoid falling behind. In the 11 years since starting Blush Makeup and Hair, times have never been this tough, she said. Its a lot of budgeting and a lot of praying, Amos said. Im not 100 percent sure if my business is going to be able to recover from this. madison.iszler@express-news.net G od save the Queen. No, seriously, because it turns out that since this all kicked off, binge-watching royal family documentaries has become my ultimate comfort activity. I used to go to the theatre or hug my friends, now I just sit at home obsessing over a family who have never had to pre-book a Sainsburys shop three weeks in advance just to get some pasta and loo roll. As someone who would normally caveat any discussion of the monarchy with an earnest Leftie speech, my new favourite activity has left me with two big questions. One: is the Queen OK? And two: who have I become? Well, first of all a person asking for your Princess Margaret biography recommendations. Ive hit upon the perfect formula to soothe my soul. Some are mainlining episodes of old TV Jonathan Creek is having a resurgence. But Im getting through this by becoming a one-woman RoyFam fan club. There are two very big reasons why. One is that so many of The Firms flashpoints feel like a different type of stress compared to what we face now. When the world is falling apart, thinking of Prince Philips stealth campaign to preserve the name of Mountbatten brings delightful distraction. Its silly, old-fashioned and the sexual politics are often questionable, like all good period dramas the perfect balm when the world is crumbling to dust. The other thing is that theyve. Just. Always. Been. There. (Apart from that brief hot mess in the 17th century.) This is a family that knows how to survive: in 1917 George V refused refuge in Britain for his cousin Tsar Nicholas II, in case it made the public angry at the monarchy. The next year the tsar and his entire family were murdered. The Queen herself turning 94 today has become the worlds longest-reigning monarch. Her recent public broadcast felt like a heavy-duty calming hypnosis session for a flustered nation. When Prince Charles contracted coronavirus, it temporarily ripped to shreds my theory that the royal family are in a fascinating, detached world. Yes, he shakes strangers hands for a living, but I still felt disbelief that even the Prince of Wales couldnt be protected by singing Happy Birthday twice.Fortunately when I saw pictures of Camilla clapping for the NHS at her Balmoral window like a stoical hostage my sense of equilibrium returned. Queen Elizabeth II turns 94 today / POOL/AFP via Getty Images Since then, the gang have done nothing but deliver. Weve had Princess Annes savage Vanity Fair cover interview; Kate navigating Zoom calls like an angel from heaven; and Fergie reading Hairy Maclary on YouTube in the manner of a woman eternally watchful that Emily Maitlis is hiding in the corner. Even Prince Philip has emerged to thank key workers. What a relief: theres going to be more than enough material for the next round of documentaries. Finally finished The Phantom Overall, more than 570 people have been engaged in the extinguishing of wildfires in the Exclusion Zone The European Union is ready to support Ukraine in its fight against the fires in the Chornobyl zone. This was stated by Ukraines Ambassador to EU Mykola Tochytskyi on his Twitter page. According to him, European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic stated that the EU would continue monitoring the situation and remained ready to assist until the fires were put out completely. "We appreciate the readiness of EU friends to help Ukraine!", Tochytskyi stated. As we reported earlier, yesterday, on April 20, National Guard of Ukraine stopped the attempt of a new arson of the forest in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. "Yesterday, during an evening monitoring flight in the Chernobyl zone, four such" phenomena "were found on an area of about 100 m. Its good that there were forces nearby and were able to quickly put out," Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote. According to him, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has already created a special group to combat arson, and the National Guard has launched an anti-sabotage operation. From being cheated on to having their money stolen, many people who've been hurt by those closest to them have been unable to move forward without taking revenge. British social site Diply, rounded up a selection of the most shocking revenge tactics that have been shared on social media. One scorned girlfriend took it upon herself to scatter her unfaithful boyfriend's belongings across town, while another frustrated worker covered their colleague's desk in wrapping paper. Below, FEMAIL reveals the quirkiest attempts at vengeance. Diply rounded up a selection of the internet's most shocking attempts at revenge, including a woman believed to be from the US who sent her cheating boyfriend on a scavenger hunt Another scorned girlfriend believed to be from America, removed all of the door handles from their former partner's car Neighbours in one US state, bizarrely argued over the ownership of flamingos using amusing WIFI names A frustrated grandmother who lives in America, posted advertisements in a selection of publications, explaining to her family why they won't be receiving an inheritance An employee gave emotions to their colleague's fruit, after one from their packet was eaten. It is not known where the photo was taken Another officer employee covered their colleague's desk in wrapping paper, ensuring they'd be delayed from starting work. It is not known where the photo was taken Elsewhere, a person believed to be from the UK, took revenge by covering their enemy's car entirely in post-it notes An American man who had difficulty unwrapping a present from his brother last year, took revenge by wrapping a gift in concrete Another furious person took vengeance by covering their enemy's car in graffiti paint. It is not known ehere the photo was taken Manila (CNN Philippines Life) If literacy is one of the key factors by which a countrys overall competence is gauged, then we could easily say that the Philippines stands tall above most of the world. As of the third quarter of 2019, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) ranked the Philippines above its Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of literacy with 97.95 percent of the total population able to read, write, and count, surpassing even more economically advanced nations like Singapore. However, this seems to be at odds with reality: as literate as our people are, many Filipinos still live below the poverty line and even those who have finished education at the tertiary level still struggle in the global workplace where workers from countries such as India and Vietnam have far outstripped them in terms of competence. How could the people of a highly literate nation be left behind in terms of both academic and economic progress? It turns out that the key issue here isnt so much about literacy, as it is about comprehension. Indeed, as Frederick S. Perez, current president of the Reading Association of the Philippines (RAP), puts it, it isnt just a question of being able to read and write. As seen by PISA In December 2019, the nation was thrown into an uproar by the release of the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Report which stated that high school students in the Philippines got lower scores in reading comprehension, mathematics, and science than most of those surveyed in other nations. In fact, the countrys overall score in reading was a measly 340 points. China, which ranked first, received 555 points. Based on the findings, over 80 percent of Filipino students around the age of fifteen did not reach the minimum level of proficiency in reading I think [in terms of] literacy, we are really struggling, Perez says of the current state of literacy and reading comprehension in the country. Our results in the NCAT and NEAT show that [our students] really do get low scores in standardized tests. This is because our students are not being given proper instruction in literacy and numeracy. This, in and of itself, is ironic since in the 80s and 90s, the national curriculum featured a rich variety of materials for improving ones ability to read and comprehend the written word. Workbooks were attuned to specific skills such as reading comprehension, literary appreciation, and grammar were distributed and used in both public and private schools throughout those decades. By extension, students would also be instructed to read between the lines, to infer the main theme of a text by analyzing details or corresponding graphs and charts skills that many students in the present day dont seem to have. That said, it would be easy to think that our current educational system has regressed rather than advanced. Perez, however, begs to differ. I cant say that weve regressed, he says. The demands of literacy and numeracy have evolved, but literacy instruction in the Philippines still revolves around narratives. In fact, when we say reading, we still tend to equate the word with narratives, with stories. But in 21st century learning, we should already be exposing our students to expository texts which deal with information. If you look at the sample PISA tests, they are mostly made up of expository texts and call for the processing of information: information gathering, verification and cross-checking of facts, and the interpretation of graphs. The need for critical literacy The end result of not exposing students to expository texts and improper instruction in the processing of information can be seen all too clearly in social media. The Philippines may be one of the most active countries when it comes to platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but the prolific posting of unverified materials and the sharing of fake news on messaging apps such as Viber and WhatsApp show that Filipinos cant seem to read beyond the narrative. Most minds seem to operate on a what you see is what you get basis. Our students do not know how to process the text, Perez opines. A lot of young people whom Ive met and spoken to just pass on the materials they see on social media; they just pass it on without thinking. There is no process for verifying information and that leads to misinformation. In the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic and the enhanced community quarantine imposed upon much of the country, this is a potentially dangerous thing. Misinformation tends to spread quickly in the Philippines, with materials ranging from health tips from dubious sources to alleged government warnings being passed from person to person online faster than the virus itself. It is even worse when considered from a socio-political perspective, particularly when ideological die-hards demand that those who disagree with them shut up and take whatever they have said as fact. Most people at this point in our history only see their side and tend not to listen to the opinions voiced or the information offered by other people, Perez says of this social media phenomenon. This shouldnt be the case in the 21st century. Right now, there is a need for critical literacy wherein both sides of a piece of information should be analyzed and cross-checked objectively. However, giving students a solid grounding in critical literacy is also a challenge at the present time. Teachers of reading are themselves unable to cascade the concept of critical literacy to their students. Many teachers training institutions still focus on the gathering of details as opposed to the analysis of materials, but this focus should already shift towards enabling students to visualize, synthesize, and make connections to and beyond the materials that they are given. On moving forward While private schools in the country can afford to send their teachers out for specialized training or source enrichment materials with which to augment their students learning experience, the road to improvement is a difficult one for both teachers and students in the public educational system. Overcrowding, underfunding, and unable to progress because of a lack of long-term planning have long been the collective Calvary of public schools in the Philippines. According to the PISA report, expenditure per student in the country is 90 percent lower than the global average and the ability of each student to learn and comprehend the materials presented is further hampered by the absence of viable teaching materials and an environment that is not very conducive to classroom learning. This lack of proper investment in those who are, essentially, the future of the nation has led to serious underperformance and the inability to compete with their peers overseas. We have to do a thorough and honest analysis of the PISA results as well as our standardized tests, Perez says when asked as to how the Philippines can turn this situation over. We have to verify, check, and see where we can improve. We should begin from the four basic elements of reading: word recognition, vocabulary, fluency, and reading comprehension. He is also of the opinion that teaching students how to read should be contextualized and regionalized, given the linguistic diversity of the Philippines. Adapting teaching methods to suit 13 diverse regions may seem like a Herculean task, but Perez says that it is possible and a framework for it has already been set up. Its possible, he says. We have already started with a mother-tongue language acquisition model. The first language of a child enables him or her to learn a second or even a third language. Strengthening the literacy and comprehension programs we already have as well as working on the nationwide K-12 curriculum are also key when it comes to improvement. [We need] to strengthen the programs we already have, particularly for those in the primary years, Perez explains. Later on, we can work on the curriculum for the K-12 program which we have already started. We are now in the seventh year of the program and, perhaps as we reach the 10th year, we can have an evaluation; it can be our benchmark. This is a national issue, so there has to be an evaluation of the curriculum by both the public and private sectors. I also think that the private sector can help the public education system in this a lot, especially in the senior high school level. The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and the lockdown in place to combat it could cause permanent damage to businesses and force many to lay off staff unless the government announces a substantive stimulus package immediately, respondents to a business impact survey conducted jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and consultancy firm Dhruva Advisors, said. Jobs are at risk over the coming months as nearly three-fourths of the surveyed firms said that they may look at some reduction in manpower in their respective companies, the industry body said, citing a survey of 380 companies across industries. Ficci has been demanding a stimulus package of 9-10 lakh crore to bring the economy back on track, while some industry associations have demanded a 16 lakh crore industry revival package. Niti Aayog, the governments think-tank has said that a package amounting to 5% of GDP is in order, which comes at around 9.5 lakh crore. The government has thus far neither announced a package, nor indicated when it will do so. According to the survey, 69% of respondents expect the government to announce a package, with tax relief, fiscal incentives, and efforts to ease compliance and create demand. Officials in the finance ministry said on condition of anonymity that various options have been ready with the government and it will come up with right stimulus package in an appropriate time. The impact of the pandemic and the universally adopted way to flatten the curve of infections (a lockdown) has taken a toll on the economy. While the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects India to grow by 1.9% in 2020, most others arent as optimistic. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has so far announced two sets of measures, reducing the policy rate to 4.4%, pushing banks to lend more, providing 4.74 lakh crore of liquidity, and easing bad loan norms to ensure the books of banks arent awash in red. According to the survey, companies want export incentives, release of pending payments, tax refunds, additional working capital from banks without collateral, and further cuts in the policy rate. The survey said 70% of the firms expect sales degrowth in current fiscal year and foresee a reduction in their business cashflows. The magnitude and speed of collapse in economic activity because of the pandemic in the last few weeks is unprecedented and there is tremendous uncertainty about what the future holds for businesses. Additionally, 61% of the companies surveyed said they may defer their expansion plans for six to 12 months, while 33% expect to defer approved expansion plans for over a year. While 60% of the surveyed firms have deferred their fund-raising plans for the next 6-12 months, nearly 25% of the firms have shelved any such plans for the time being. There is a need to render immediate and sizable support to industry to protect people, jobs and enterprises... We are hopeful that the government will introduce a series of measures in quick succession to support demand and ensure business continuity. This will be a confidence booster and we hope sentiment will improve following the economic package, Sangita Reddy, president, Ficci said. Apart from domestic demand plummeting to record low levels, some companies are also expecting exports to fall. While 43% of surveyed firms reported that they do not foresee an impact on exports, nearly 34% said that exports would take a hit by more than 10%, the survey said. Mr Dinesh Kanabar, CEO, Dhruva Advisors said: Clearly, the plans prepared by businesses on fund-raising, investments and expansion are being pushed back. There is a significant expectation from the government for a financial stimulus. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Travelers Cos. has gone to federal court in California seeking a declaratory judgment that it is not obligated to pay any business income losses of a law firm it has insured under two business owner policies. Its law firm insured, Geragos & Geragos (G&G), with offices in Los Angeles and New York, sued Travelers on April 9 in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, seeking its own declaratory judgment that its policies do provide coverage under their civil authority sections for alleged business income losses suffered due to the closing of its offices, commercial building and the courts by government orders. Travelers countered with its filing in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles on April 20. While Travelers is taking many steps to support its customers during this challenging time, G&G did not purchase insurance for the losses that G&G now claims, Travelers says in its filing. G&G is seeking an order that the civil actions in March by the Los Angeles mayor and California governor that closed many businesses constitute a prohibition of access to its premises. The firm argues that this fulfills the policys physical damage condition because the civil orders were based in part on the dire risks of exposure with the contraction of COVID-19 and evidence of physical damage to property. The G&G position further rests on argument that the deadly virus physically infects and stays on surfaces of objects or materials and the scientific community, including the World Health Organization, has recognized that the Coronavirus is a cause of real physical loss and damage. G&G is also seeking a declaratory order that civil authority section of the policy does not include an exclusion for a viral pandemic and actually extends coverage for loss or damage due to physical loss and damage, including by virus. In its bid for declaratory judgment, Travelers argues it is not obligated to pay business income losses due to the coronavirus because its policies, even without reference to their exclusions, require direct physical loss or damage to property, but that the presence or suspected presence of a virus does not constitute the requisite direct physical loss or damage for a business income claim, including one resting on civil authority. The presence of a virus on a surface would not cause physical damage to that surface, the insurer maintains. Whats more, Travelers said its policies specifically exclude losses resulting from a virus or bacteria. We will not pay for loss or damage caused by or resulting from any virus, bacterium or other microorganism that induces or is capable of inducing physical distress, illness or disease, the policy states. Travelers says this exclusion applies to forms or endorsements that cover business income, extra expense, rental value or action of civil authority. This legal dispute is one of a growing number challenging insurers denials of business interruption claims related to the stay-at-home and business shutdown orders issued to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. According to insurance defense attorney Jeffrey Wank with the Florida firm Kelley Kronenberg, who is not associated with the Geragos suits, said whether coverage is available will depend on the specifics in the language of the policy. When somebody files an insurance claim for business interruption, the first thing that the insurance company is going to look at it is was there actual physical damage to the property which necessitated the business to shut down, he told Insurance Journal. In order to trigger a business interruption coverage, there needs to be some actual physical loss to the property. So, the debate and the conversation thats being had right now in our world, in the insurance industry is, is COVID-19 actual physical damage to the property? Wank adds that even if there is actual physical damage, many policies exclude viruses, pandemics and bacteria. If theres a finding from the courts that COVID-19 causes actual physical damage to property, then a lot of these policies and insurance would lend itself to providing coverage for these losses, subject to any exclusions, he said. But I just dont see it if you open up the coverage for one of these, youre basically covering billions of dollars of losses. While Geragos claims that the virus causes physical damage, he has not sought a determination at this stage of whether the coronavirus is physically in his insured premises; nor does he seek any damages. Geragos blasted the legal move by Travelers. Travelers Insurance, after cashing our premium checks for years, decided yesterday that instead of paying our Business Interruption claim that they would hire a large law firm to sue us in federal court instead, the law firm CEO emailed Insurance Journal. Apparently, their way of adapting to a pandemic is filing lawsuits against their own insured. G&G has also filed lawsuits on behalf of several clients against Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti over his stay-at-home order. The suits are Travelers Casualty Insurance Co. of America v. Geragos & Geragos, and Mark J. Geragos v. The Travelers Indemnity Company of Connecticut. Both were filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. Topics California Profit Loss Property The total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital rose to 2081 on Monday, with 78 fresh cases and two deaths being reported in a day, according to Delhi government authorities. A committee has been constituted for a daily audit of every fatality due to COVID-19, they said. The death toll from COVID-19 in the national capital stands at 47. Of the total fatalities reported till date, 25 victims were aged 60 and above, they said. Twelve of them were in the age group of 50-59 and 10 were aged less than 50 years, officials said. By Sunday night, the number of cases of the deadly virus in the city stood at 2,003, including 45 deaths. Sixty-two COVID-19 tests were conducted here on Monday using the newly acquired rapid anti-bodies diagnostic kits, and all samples came out negative, the officials said. The city government has acquired 42,000 such kits and after trial runs on Sunday, the first phase of tests were conducted on Monday in a containment zone in Nabi Karim area in central Delhi. "Sixty-two COVID-19 tests using rapid (anti-bodies) test kits were conducted today in Nabi Karim area's containment zone and all samples came out negative," a senior official said. The tests were being administered only in persons showing some sort of symptoms of the coronavirus infection, he said. Two kinds of diagnostic tests are being prescribed in India -- the RT-PCR test and rapid anti-bodies test, as per global health norms. A reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test is a laboratory technique, combining reverse transcription of RNA into DNA that detects the virus, while the anti-bodies tests, which use blood, detect the body's response to the virus. The number of containment zones in Delhi increased to 84, with eight new ones being added, the authorities said. The West Delhi district has the highest number of containment zones in the city, they said. House-to-house surveillance and sanitisation of areas under containment are being done regularly. Sample collection and testing is also under process. A total of 5,560 samples have been collected from the different containment zones, the Delhi Health Department said in a statement. The department issued an age profile of 2,069 of the total confirmed cases reported in the city. Of these, 1,335 are aged below 50 years, 334 are in the age group of 50-59 and the remaining 400 are aged 60 years and above. According to the Health Department, at least 625 coronavirus patients are admitted to various hospitals like LNJP Hospital, GTB Hospital, RML Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) and AIIMS Jhajjhar. It said 26 of them are in ICU and six on ventilator support. The total number of samples sent for testing till date stands at 25,900, the Health Department said. As many as 32,192 people, who came in contact with affected persons, are under home-quarantine and 20,041 have completed their 14-day quarantine, the officials said. Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain told reporters that asymptomatic patients who have tested positive for coronavirus infection in Delhi will be kept in COVID care centres. As many as 840 people are lodged at various COVID care centres in the national capital as of now. These centres are meant for cases that have been clinically assigned as mild or very mild or as suspect cases. "An order has been issued to medical directors, medical superintendents of all Delhi government hospitals to create a media cell, to monitor social media, news media in order to present a correct position before the people," the Health Department said in a statement. An advisory has been issued to incorporate the services of AYUSH doctors as well as the modalities of AYUSH system for the prevention and health promotion during the COVID pandemic, it added. Lt Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal also reviewed the situation in the national capital during the day. ALSO READ: Coronavirus update: COVID-19 case doubling rate slows to 7 days in Maharashtra ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Mamata writes to PM Modi, expresses displeasure over central teams' visit to assess situation By PTI COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has postponed the parliamentary elections by nearly two months to June 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak that has killed seven people and infected 295 others in the island nation. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on March 2 dissolved the Parliament, six months ahead of schedule and called a snap election on April 25. A gazette notice signed by the three members of the National Election Commission announcing June 20 date of the election was issued on Monday. The decision was taken after much deliberation with health and security authorities. The EC has written to President Rajapaksa asking him to seek the highest court's opinion on a possible constitutional standoff arising from the postponement of the election. It said that the postponement meant that parliament would not be able to meet on June 2, which is three months from the dismissal of last parliament on March 2. However, Rajapaksa asserted that it was the election commission's job to fix the polls date and as such no need for the Supreme Court's intervention. Earlier, the election commission met with the government officials and reviewed the pandemic situation affecting the election machinery. On Monday, the government dropped its decision to relax the nationwide curfew and extended it to April 27 following a sudden spike of 41 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours. On Sunday, the government announced to partially lift the curbs from Monday to boost economic activity. The island nation has been under a 24-hour curfew since March 20 to combat the deadly viral infection. All opposition parties and many civil society groups have urged the government to show caution in trying to rush through holding the election. Sri Lanka has so far reported 295 COVID-19 cases, including seven deaths, and 96 recoveries, since the first viral infection was reported in the country on March 11. The parliamentary polls were announced 6 months ahead of the schedule as Rajapaksa, who was elected as president in November, wanted a new Parliament to implement his mandate. Rajapaksa is also under pressure to re-summon the dissolved Parliament in order to approve finances for government business from May. The country's Constitution stipulates that a dissolved Parliament must be replaced within three months. The deadline had been June 2. The previous Parliament had approved funds till April 30. US president says he will sign an order halting all immigration to protect jobs as coronavirus spreads. US President Donald Trump said he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States, saying he needs to protect American jobs as coronavirus ravages the economy. The move, announced in a late-night post on Twitter, effectively achieves a long-term Trump policy goal to curb immigration, making use of the health and economic crisis that has swept the country as a result of the pandemic to do so. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States,, Trump said on Monday. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 He offered no details as to what immigration programmes might be affected by the order. The White House did not immediately elaborate on Trumps announcement. The development is the latest in a string of moves cracking down on immigration as the coronavirus spreads in the United States. The US has by far the worlds largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 42,000 deaths and 774,000 infections on Monday. In late March, Trump said the US would swiftly return any migrants who attempted to cross into the country from Mexico and Canada. He argued migrants crossing the border threatened to worsen the USs coronavirus outbreak. Mondays decision drew swift condemnation from some Democrats, who accused the president of creating a distraction from what they view as a slow and faulty response to the coronavirus. Things so dire Al Jazeeras John Hendren, reporting from the US city of Chicago, said the latest move was fully in character for Trump. Remember, he imposed a ban on immigration from Muslim countries. That was overturned by a court and later modified. This is also president who has made stopping illegal immigration a major theme of his presidency. Hes said he will build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants, he said. But in this case, hes stopping legal immigration and it will likely be challenged. It also sends a mixed message. Hes been saying all along that things are getting better, that the number of coronavirus cases is slowing, that the US is getting ready to open up for business, and now all of a sudden, he appears to be saying things are so dire that we need to halt all immigration. For weeks now, the US State Department has suspended almost all visa processing, including immigrant visas. The US economy has come to a near standstill because of the pandemic. More than 22 million people applied for unemployment benefits in the last month. Critics denounced Trumps move. You cut off immigration, you crater our nations already weakened economy, former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro said in a tweet. What a dumb move. The president has made a point of saying the coronavirus peak had passed and has been encouraging US states to reopen their economies. As our country battles the pandemic, as workers put their lives on the line, the President attacks immigrants & blames others for his own failures, former Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar said in a tweet. Thomas Homan, Trumps former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the presidents decision. It makes sense to protect opportunities for our workforce while this pandemic plays out, said Homan. Its really not about immigration. Its about the pandemic and keeping our country safer while protecting opportunities for unemployed Americans. A British animal lover who found two emaciated dogs in Cyprus rescued them and got them back to Britain on a Boeing 747 that was bringing in coronavirus medical supplies. Andrea Siddons, 51, who runs the Cyprus Dog Rescue centre from her home on the island, found two 'unrecognisable' dogs who were both so skinny their bones were clearly visible under their skin. Five-year-old English pointer Elsa was found 'hours from death' at the end of February. Hugo, an 18-month-old German short-haired pointer, was found in early March. Once getting the animals to a health weight, Siddons teamed up with British Airways and other groups to get the dogs onto the plane, along with a number of other animals, to be brought back to Britain and rescued. Andrea Siddons, 51, who runs Cyprus Dog Rescue from her home on the island found two incredibly skinny dogs, but has managed to rescue them by bringing them back to the UK 'When I first saw Elsa I thought she was going to die, she was in such a terrible state,' said Rochdale-born Siddons, who currently has 32 dogs in her home-based rescue. 'I saw a video of her first and it just broke my heart. I was trying desperately to get her out of the pound the same day as I thought she might die overnight; she was hours from death. 'Then, I was at the vet when someone brought Hugo in, he was just stood there with his bones hanging out. It was just so upsetting, I burst into tears again,' she recalled. 'Within weeks they had transformed themselves, they did so well so quickly, which was how they got on the flight. You can't even tell they're the same dogs.' Hugo (left) an 18-month-old German short-haired pointer and Elsa (right) a five-year-old English pointer were both found in Cyprus and were so skinny their bones were clearly visible under their skin. They were both rescued by Andrea Siddons Siddons had planned to send them to new homes in the UK on commercial flights, but when the coronavirus crisis began all non-essential passenger planes were grounded. Instead, the charity worker teamed up with British Airways, its sister company IAG Cargo, pet transport service AIA Pets and dozens of other animal rescues across Cyprus. Together, they chartered a Boeing 747 cargo jet already bringing food, perishables and essential medical supplies to take Hugo and Elsa, as well as 34 other dogs and 14 cats, back to new homes in the UK on a four-hour cargo flight from Larnaca, Cyprus to London Heathrow on April 9. Upon arriving the UK, they were taken to their new temporary home new, another rescue centre called Dogs4Rescue in Eccles, Salford. The two dogs, Hugo (left) and Elsa (right) were both looking much healthier when they were brought back to the UK on a Boeing 747 cargo plane carrying medical supplies Siddons explained that they don't normally bring dogs back on cargo flights, which made the rescue mission more challenging with extra restrictions. 'We normally send dogs back to the UK on commercial flights, and have been doing this for many years, but they stopped landing in Cyprus due to the coronavirus lockdown,' she said. 'This was the first time we had put dogs on a cargo flight, and it was a lot of work and stress because it was something we'd never done before. 'There were lots of restrictions we had to follow, but it was almost like a dream come true how well it went in the end. 'It was such an amazing feeling to see Hugo and Elsa happy and playing together when they got to the UK - it made it all worthwhile.' Hugo the German short-haired pointer (pictured in a transport box on his way back to the UK) was one of a number of dogs and cats that were taken to the UK on a Boeing 747 as part of a animal rescue mission from Cyprus The 36 dogs and 14 cats that were brought back to the UK on the flight were all abandoned and left on the streets across Cyprus. Once on the plane, BA staff and animal handlers ensured the animals received specialist care and attention to keep them calm during the journey. After the animals landed at Heathrow, a specialist pet courier then drove through the night to bring Hugo and Elsa to Dogs4Rescue, where they are now staying until they can be adopted by new families after the coronavirus lockdown is over. British Airways Captain, Paul Walker-Northwood, who flew the plane and has previously adopted four dogs of his own from Cyprus Dog Rescue, said: 'In these difficult times, our teams are working around the clock to help bring customers home and fly essential supplies into the UK and to communities around the world most in need. Pictured: The British Airways Boeing 747 at the airport in Cyprus before flying to the UK with Hugo, Elsa, 34 other dogs and 14 cats on board The plane was flown by Captain Paul Walker-Northwood (pictured) who himself has rescued four dogs from the Cyprus Dog Rescue that is run by Siddons 'As well as bringing in those supplies on this flight, we were pleased to support this mission to bring these new four-legged family members to the UK to give them the chance of better, more comfortable lives here with their new owners. He added: 'We are sure their arrival will bring real much-needed pleasure to their new families during a challenging period.' Siddons moved to Cyprus 11 years ago to open a clothing store, before launching her charity in 2011 after coming across a shockingly large number of stray dogs in the country. She rescued Elsa when she was discovered as a stray by a member of the public and taken to a municipal pound before rescuing Hugo days later when he was discovered in a field. When she was found, Elsa weighed just 2st 3lbs (14kg), little more than half the healthy weight for a dog of her breed at 4st 4lbs (27kg), while Hugo was even more underweight, weighing 1st 8lbs (10kg), less than half the healthy size for his breed at 3st 9lbs (23kg). Being such low weights can damage dogs' organs, but other than severe dehydration and starvation, miraculously neither Elsa nor Hugo were suffering from any other medical conditions. Emma Billington from Dogs4Rescue, where the dogs are currently staying until they find new homes, said: 'Andrea went to extraordinary lengths. 'We are in constant awe at her ability, will and determination. We are so proud to know Andrea and be able to take some of her dogs. 'The behind the scenes level of organisation and stress to make this happen is hard to comprehend - she is so brave and so selfless.' President Muhammadu Buhari has called for urgent measures towards the speedy trial of cases and decongestion of custodial centres in the country in view of Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Ibrahim Muhammad, Mr Buhari drew raised the recent call by the United Nations on all countries to consciously reduce the population of prison inmates since physical distancing and self-isolation in such conditions are practically impossible. According to President Buhari, From available records, the inmates population at various custodial centres across the country presently stands at about 74,127 out of which 52,226 are Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs). Most of these custodial centres are presently housing inmates beyond their capacities and the overcrowded facilities pose a potent threat to the health of the inmates and the public in general in view of the present circumstances, hence the need for urgent steps to bring the situation under control. READ ALSO: In view of the above scenario, the president said it has become imperative for Your Lordship to request State Chief Judges to embark on immediate visit to all custodial/correctional centres within their respective States to identify and release deserving inmates where that has not been done already. He noted that during such visits, the Chief Judges are enjoined to consider conditional or unconditional release of ATPs who have spent 6 years or more in custody. ATPs who have no confirmed criminal cases against them, aged inmates and terminally ill may be discharged. It is expected that particular attention should be on the aged, those with health issues, low risk offenders, those with no sufficient legal basis to remain in custody, inmates convicted for minor offences with or without option of fines and inmates who have less than 3 years term left to serve having served a substantial term of their service for offences that attract 5 years and above. Payment of fines may be made in favour of inmates convicted of lesser offences with option of fine, who are in custody because of their inability to pay such fines. President Buhari said a report on the proposed visits is expected to be forwarded to the Presidential Committee on Correctional Service Reform and Decongestion Secretariat, Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja for compilation and onward transmission to his office. He also suggested to the Chief Justice of Nigeria to at this stage, consider taking immediate steps as appropriate to ensure the setting up or designation of Special Courts in all States, including the FCT, to try cases of armed robbery, banditry, kidnapping and other serious offences, in order to facilitate speedy trials. In addition, President Buhari said there is the need to ensure that the Chief Judges of States and FCT High Courts direct lower courts to comply with requirements of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act/Law in issuing remand warrants in criminal cases especially in cases which are not within their jurisdiction. According to him, this will regulate the volume of entry of Awaiting Trial Inmates into custodial centres. Femi Adesina Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity) April 21, 2020 A 17-year-old girl is dead after she was shot in the back Monday while she was a passenger in an SUV, San Antonio police said. The 17-year-old, was shot at about 7:30 p.m. in the 8100 block of Broadway, police said. She died an hour later at the hospital, officials confirmed. Sgt. Michael Wilson said officers found the woman on the ground when they arrived at a parking lot at Ridgecrest Drive and Broadway. She was taken to University Hospital in critical condition, police said. Two other men, both in their early 20s, were in the vehicle with the teenager. They told police they heard gunfire when they were near Broadway and Lawndale Drive. They said they just heard a pop and that the female screamed that she had been shot, Wilson said. The driver pulled over behind an empty business and called 911. Police took the two men into custody to be interviewed by detectives. Apparently theyre all just friends, but the individuals in the vehicle are not very cooperative right now, Wilson said. He noted that there was no evidence that a shot had been fired at the vehicle. Investigators said the shot was fired from inside the vehicle, but a weapon was not immediately recovered from the scene. Police are not searching for any suspects, Wilson said. We believe we have the individuals involved, he said. Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Jacob, become a subscriber. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA Kanu Sarda By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Monday lost his appeal in the UK High Court against his extradition to India. He is wanted for alleged fraud and money laundering to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore. Mallya now can appeal to the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom within 14 days and the European Court of Human Rights. If he does apply, the UK Home Office will wait for the outcome of the appeal. But if he does not, under the India-UK Extradition Treaty, it will then be expected to formally certify the court order for the 64-year-old Mallya to be extradited to India within 28 days. The court order passed by Lord Justice Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing upheld the order passed earlier at the Westminster Court and found conspiracy by Mallyas Kingfisher Airlines, false representations, and deceit at several levels and accepted the argument by the Crown Prosecution Service on behalf of the Indian government that Mallyas company had offered outrageous lies to obtain bank loans. We consider that while the scope of the prima facie case found by the SDJ (Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot) is in some respects wider than that alleged by the Respondent in India (CBI and ED), there is a prima facie case which, in seven important respects, coincides with the allegations in India, the judges noted. ... The appellant was party to false representations to induce the loans that funds would be inducted by way of unsecured loans, global depository receipts and equity, the order stated. It also found Mallya guilty of symbolic and grossly inadequate security in the form of a negative lien on 12 hire purchase aircraft, despite knowing that KFA would not get title to them during the period of the loan. The appellants dishonest intention not to repay the loans is shown by his later conduct in trying to avoid the personal and corporate guarantees. This marks a major turning point for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) case against Mallya, who has been on bail in the UK since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April 2017. It is a significant achievement in continuing war against the economic fugitives who have been managing to stay away from the judicial process in the country, CBI spokesperson RK Gaur said. Mallya had sought to challenge the Indian governments case on multiple grounds, including his safety at Barrack 12 in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai where he is to be held on extradition. India and the UK have an Extradition Treaty signed in 1992 and in force since November 1993. So far, only one successful extradition has taken place and 131 requests made so far. Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel was sent back to India in 2016 to face trial for his involvement in the post-Godhra riots in 2002. Extradition is only possible in cases that are seen as crimes in both countries in question. In the past, the Indian government failed to get a favourable judgment in Nadeem Saifi extradition case. In 1997, India sought Saifis custody in relation to the Gulshan Kumar murder case in which Gangster Abu Salem was the main accused. A new global clinical trial is launching to test if a common anti-inflammatory drug colchicine can prevent serious complications caused by the novel coronavirus. The study, which will recruit 6,000 participants from the US, Canada and Europe, will examine colchicine. Colchicine is most often used to treat gout, a complex form of arthritis that causes pain, swelling, redness and tenderness in the joints, most often in the big toe. Researchers will use a 'contactless' approach by shipping the drug directly to patients' homes within 48 hours of being diagnosed. Through follow-up visits, the scientists will determine if use of the drug can reduce hospitalization and death from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Researchers from the US, Canada and Europe will be sending colchicine (pictured), a drug commonly used to treat gout, directly to coronavirus patients' homes The trial will examine if the drug can prevent patients from needing to be hospitalized or from dying. Pictured: Health professionals transport a man using a mechanical respirator and oxygen cylinder from Harlem in New York, April 20 Scientists theorize the anti-inflammatory effects of colchicine may prevent a cytokine storm, which when the body doesn't just fight off the virus but also attacks its own cells and tissues. Pictured: Medical personnel remove a person from an ambulance near an entrance to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, April 20 The study, known as the Colchicine Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COLCORONA) Trial, is being led by the Montreal Heart Institute. New York University School of Medicine and the University of San Francisco (USCF) will provide hosting sites. Additional sites will be in Canada and Europe, but they have not been announced yet. 'This is one of the very few COVID-19 trials designed specifically for patients who have not yet been hospitalized,' Dr Priscilla Hsue, a professor of medicine at UCSF, said in a statement. 'We suspect that early treatment, before the onset of severe symptoms requiring hospitalization, may provide the best chance to improve outcomes.' Hsue points out that, by the time patients have extensive lung damage, it may be too late to intervene with treatment. Patients develop life-threatening complications due to what is called a cytokine storm, which occurs when the body attacks its own cells and tissues instead of just fighting off the virus. 'The...study hypothesizes...that the anti-inflammatory effects of colchicine may prevent this cytokine storm, and limit the damage to other organs such as the heart, brain and kidney,' Dr David Waters, an emeritus professor of cardiology at UCSF and the study's assistant principal investigator, said in a statement. 'Children were relatively spared by the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, and we see the same pattern with COVID-19. This may be because cytokine storm is less likely in children.' The study will be a 'randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial,' which means participants will either randomly receive colchicine or a placebo. Neither they nor the doctors will know which pill they receive. Participants who are above age 40 and have at least one additional risk factor for serious complications, such as heart disease, can apply via phone. The regimen will require taking a pill twice daily for three days and then once daily for the remaining 27 days. After patients sign consent forms online, they will receive medication through the mail. They will follow-up with the researchers after 15 days and again after 30 days. You can learn more about the trial from the website or you can enroll by calling (877) 536-6837. Under the spotlight: British Home Secretary Priti Patel holding one of the UKs new blue passports. Photo: PA Former top British civil servant Philip Rutnam has formally launched legal action against home secretary Priti Patel. He is claiming "constructive dismissal" in the claim submitted to an employment tribunal, union the FDA confirmed. Mr Rutnam quit the British Home Office in February amid allegations of bullying behaviour by Ms Patel. It comes as the UK Cabinet Office is expected to conclude an inquiry into claims Ms Patel clashed with senior officials and belittled colleagues. FDA general secretary Dave Penman said: "The FDA instructed Gavin Mansfield QC, head of Littleton Chambers and employment law specialist, as counsel to advise (Mr Rutnam), supported by Clive Howard, senior principal lawyer, employment and partnership at Slater and Gordon. "(Mr Rutnam), with the support of his legal team and the FDA, submitted a claim to the employment tribunal for unfair (constructive) dismissal and whistleblowing against the home secretary." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Esther Indriani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 15:34 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd35119a 3 Opinion child-protection,children,#COVID19,#coronavirus,COVID-19,coronavirus,COVID-19-children Free For developing countries in Asia, COVID-19 is a gigantic nemesis that can paralyze their already frail and inadequately prepared health systems. Overcrowded health facilities combined with a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers are putting immense pressure on health systems. Unsurprisingly, other services might have to wait, such as pregnancy check-ups or immunization services for children. Fortunately, some countries are keeping essential health services for children available. Indias Ministry of Health and Family Welfare postponed the Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Day (VHSND) but immunization is available at facility level. The Indonesian Pediatric Society (IDAI) recommends that parents continue with the immunization of their children, and health services should offer these services with appropriate infection control, as it is critical for their health and survival. Where are the children in this COVID-19 situation? COVID-19 severely affects mainly the elderly, the chronically ill, whereas young people and children usually have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic. However, their cases might progress into more severe ones, such as pneumonia. If children and their families do not have access to general public health care, this will increase the risk for other preventable diseases and/or malnutrition. On top of health impacts, quarantine also affects children and their families. To date, 195 countries have partially or fully closed schools, which reduces their capacity to learn and increases risk of child abuse and other safety issues. By studying previous disease outbreaks, we learn that childrens lives might be threatened by COVID-19 even more. World Visions report COVID-19 Aftershocks warns that the secondary impacts of the pandemic could threaten the lives of up to 30 million children. A combination of pre-existing weak health systems, populations with high need, and COVID-19 may lead to catastrophic mortality for children. With closure of businesses, everyones livelihood is impacted, but the poorest and vulnerable children will suffer the most. Even before COVID-19, they lacked social protection, rights at work and decent working conditions. Now, their lives are just getting worse. Caregivers who experience increased stress and lack resources will not be able to care for and protect their children. What will happen to those children, whose caregivers succumb to the virus, or whose families livelihoods are disrupted? Governments and the communities need to find ways to support these families to meet their basic needs and ensure that mental health and psychosocial support is available for them. Along with the medical teams, the frontline community health workers (CHWs) or community health volunteers play a crucial role in the COVID-19 response. They are mobilized in the community, often without protective equipment, to provide important information about symptoms of COVID-19 and teaching people about handwashing. The CHWs regular work in maternal child health and nutrition programs, such as growth monitoring and promotion, home visitation and counselling of mothers and infants has to stop until governments and NGOs find ways to continue these services while ensuring everyones safety. COVID-19 is a new threat, but for years, people in Asia have been living with other dangerous diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, dengue fever and rabies. CHWs and volunteers have long experience in communicable-disease prevention. Still, COVID-19 is the game changer forcing governments, NGOs, civil society organizations and faith-based organizations to find new ways of working to ensure continuation of health and nutrition programs even during an outbreak. In Asia-Pacific, World Vision has been responding in the countries hit by COVID-19, such as China, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Thailand. Firstly, by promoting hygiene practices and physical distancing, which is important to prevent COVID-19. We also continue with important prevention and treatment of malnutrition among children and other childhood illnesses. We are calling on governments to find ways of expanding access to essential health services, especially for children, the most vulnerable and those at risk. community health workers and volunteers equipped with COVID-19-specific response training and wearing appropriate protective gear are crucial for this work. Additionally, governments need to ensure that COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment are free of cost. Civil societies, the private sector, academia and research institutions need to collaborate with governments in scaling-up digital platforms for disease surveillance, while diagnosis and case monitoring are affordable and available in remote locations. Any response to a pandemic like COVID-19 should be as integrated as possible, putting children at the center and covering the aspects of health, nutrition, psychosocial needs, child protection, education and livelihood. It is not just the role of governments to think of the poor; it is everyones responsibility. Children will be the future of each country, so governments and communities need to develop strategies and policies to protect and enable children to grow in a safe and supported environment. *** Public health specialist and technical advisor for health and nutrition, World Vision International Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. The World Health Organisation(WHO) in collaboration with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and other partners will commence the shipment of 30 million test kits for coronavirus next week. The Director-General, WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, on Monday said this at a press conference on Tuesday. He said WHO is working with the global fund agency and had placed orders for over 30 million test (kits) over the next four months. The first shipments of these tests (kits) will begin next week, through the United Nations Supply Chain we have established with the World Food Programme and other partners, he said. Working together with the Global Fund, we have now placed orders for 30 million tests over the next four months, he said. He said through April and May, the global agencies intend to ship almost 180 million surgical masks, 54 million N95 masks and more than three million protective goggles to countries that need them most. He said solidarity flights continue to ship lifesaving medical supplies across Africa to protect health workers. Over the past week, WHO has been working closely with the World Food Programme to deliver masks, goggles, test kits, face shields and other medical equipment to 40 countries, he added. Mr Ghebreyesus said this is part of the overarching drive to keep supply chains moving and ensure key supplies reach 120 priority countries. More than 600 hospitals are now ready to enrol patients in WHOs Solidarity Trial of drugs against the disease, he added. Nothing hidden Responding to the accusations of hiding information about the advent of the deadly coronavirus that has killed thousands globally, he said nothing in WHOs coronavirus response had been hidden from the U.S. The comments appeared to be a rejoinder to U.S. President Donald Trump, who had criticised WHOs handling of the pandemic, accusing it of promoting Chinese disinformation. Mr Trump suspended U.S. funding to WHO last week. Reuters had reported that some 15 staff from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have been seconded to the U.N. agency since January, joining two U.S. government officials assigned long-term. Having U.S. CDC staff means there is nothing hidden from the U.S. from day one, Mr Ghebreyesus said. All countries get information immediately. The United States, the WHOs biggest donor, now has the worlds largest fatalities of COVID-19. The WHO is leading the global fight against the virus, which has infected more than 2.4 million people and killed 165,000 since emerging in the Chinese city of Wuhan December last year. Collaborative efforts with Oregon Integrated Health will add primary care and individual therapy to offerings BEAVERTON, Ore., April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cedar Hills Hospital today announced a collaboration with several community organizations in the local response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cedar Hills Hospital, a behavioral health hospital in Beaverton, Oregon, is a community leader in addressing the mental health impacts of COVID-19 while also taking immediate precautions to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of their staff and patients in their inpatient facility. Following the Oregon Liquor Control Commissions announcement that liquor sales are up 17 percent, Cedar Hills Hospital and other community organizations suggest a rise in sales may be due to rising rates of anxiety and stress following the COVID-19 outbreak. Oregon Integrated Health, a strong community partner of Cedar Hills Hospital, also reaffirmed their commitment to helping Oregonians impacted by the virus. We want to reaffirm our commitment to the physical and mental health wellbeing of our patients and the community by providing free primary care and supporting prevention, treatment, and recovery services, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, said Dr. Vanessa Esteves, Chief Medical Officer at Oregon Integrated Health. Collaborating with organizations like Cedar Hills Hospital that are able to provide high quality treatment plays an essential role to keeping Oregonians healthy. Cedar Hills Hospital announced they will offer a free in-person or video-conference assessment, if you or a family member is feeling out of control or overwhelmed. They will continue their policy of admitting and treating any patient in crisis, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. In addition, Oregon Integrated Health will offer free primary care and individual therapy to individuals as well as alternative therapies to those who have lost their work-related health insurance due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Story continues Oregon Integrated Health also established a website that allows uninsured or underinsured Oregonians to search for free or low cost care: www.covidportland.com . Following the outbreak of COVID-19, Cedar Hills Hospital undertook immediate efforts to avoid unnecessary panic or anxiety among patients and their families, while also implementing measures to protect them by following best practices and monitoring information provided by local and national government entities. CEO of Cedar Hills Hospital, C. Lamar Frizzell, noted the precautions taken by the hospital in response to COVID-19: Our priority is the health and safety of everyone at Cedar Hills, both staff and patients. We have implemented employee training on the importance of hand washing and sanitation, the practice of social distancing, and increased the frequency of the required cleaning and sanitization of our facility. Frizzell added: We are proud to work with community partners like Oregon Integrated Health to ensure that everyone is able to receive both physical and mental health care. In accordance with CDC guidelines, as well as recommendations made by local authorities, Cedar Hills Hospital asks those in need of non-emergency behavioral healthcare, kindly contact the hospital rather than the local emergency department. ABOUT CEDAR HILLS HOSPITAL Cedar Hills Hospital is a 98-bed inpatient psychiatric and intensive substance use treatment hospital with extensive Outpatient Services using a TeleHealth model during the COVID-19 crisis. Our mission is to provide effective and compassionate mental health and substance use treatment. At the core of our approach is the understanding that each person that comes through our doors has a unique set of needs. We offer behavioral health treatment to those in need, without discrimination or judgment, in an effort to restore a meaningful quality of life. Cedar Hills Hospital is accredited by The Joint Commission and prides itself on upholding a standard of excellence that begins with our core values of dignity and respect. Our highest profile programs include our Military Program established in 2009 with longstanding partnerships with all branches of the U.S. military, the DOD/DHA, and the VA system; and our Womens Program where we use a trauma-informed approach to treatment along with Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Outpatient psychiatric and substance use treatment services range from Partial Hospitalization to Intensive Outpatient (IOP) care to DUII services. We are located in the Cedar Hills neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, and proudly serve the greater Pacific Northwest region. Our team of dedicated board-certified psychiatrists, addictionologists, internal medicine and family medicine physicians provides a continuum of care in inpatient, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient programs for mental health and substance abuse treatment for adults, 18 and older. If you or a loved one needs crisis stabilization for mental health or substance use issues, call for a free assessment 24/7 at 503.944.5000. For more information, please visit www.cedarhillshospital.com. ABOUT OREGON INTEGRATED HEALTH Oregon Integrated Health (OIH) was established in 2011. We created our clinics with the mission to improve population health, enhance patient experience of care and reduce the rate and cost of care. OIH is a Tier 4 Patient Centered Primary Care Home with the intention and commitment of leadership to provide an innovative system of medical care. We have a dedicated CareTeam and Medical Support staff to identify resources that are essential to improve a persons health and well-being. Our clinics were built as a community to encourage long-term relationships with patients, and care from birth through end of life. We have three, easy to access, modern clinics located in the hearts of Portland, Eugene, and Florence, Oregon. All three make it easy for our patients to receive OIH's professional and personal care. Since COVID-19, all services have been moved to telemedicine platforms. Contact Cedar Hills Hospital: Michael Sorensen, MPA 503.756.2314 Contact Oregon Integrated Health: Vanessa Esteves, ND, MBA 503.341.0020 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/46c1c198-e367-4e28-8b36-8347e8ecee04 Eric Adams, holding a picture of his late mother, is sworn in as New York mayor during the New Years celebration in Times Square. (Reuters) In his first 10 days, Eric Adams has veered between swagger and tragedy, praise and criticism, as he begins leading the nations largest city. from left to right: Tomoaki Soma, CFO; Shu Konno, COO; Kenji Miki, CEO; Ryota Fujitani, VP of Marketing; Yasushi Izumi, Regional CFO; Kohei Chikamori, VP of Strategy; Itaru Sando, VP of BizDev. Fun Group Inc. operating the Fun business, an online platform for overseas tours and experiences (formerly Tabinaka Inc., HQ: Shibuya-ku Tokyo, Japan; CEO and President: Kenji Miki, hereafter Fun Group) hereby announces that it has closed the first round of Series-B financing and has raised 1.26 billion yen in total from JBC Holdings Inc. (CEO: Tomohiko Watanabe), a wholly-owned investment subsidiary in Japan of China Minsheng Financial Holding Corp., Ltd. listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange (hereafter China Minsheng Financial Holding Corp) and other financial institutions. Our company has so far raised funding of approximately 740 million yen mainly from individual investors; with the amount raised from our most recent round, our cumulative total has reached approximately 2 billion yen since we started in 2014. where we will continue to discuss its entire closing in the first half of 2020 with domestic and international investors. The funding will be used to support domestic and international sightseeing businesses affected by the recent pandemic, and to allow for the formation of alliances, to increase operational efficiency and in turn forming a global sightseeing business association. Our company will also invest in the development of new hardware to achieve Fun Groups mission statement to simplify ways to access sightseeing resources worldwide. The space which Fun Group occupies in the industry, catering to the various needs that arise during a trip, is in line with the overall shift of demand from specific purchases to local experiences and moments. With travel becoming widely accessible, and governments increasingly taking measures to attract more tourists, this has resulted in the rapid growth of tour operators worldwide. However, with the recent outbreak of COVID-19, the business environment has changed dramatically and there is uncertainty around the future of smaller family owned companies. Our company established the Fun business in October 2017, with our mission statement of creating ways to access sightseeing resources worldwide. Our business covers 6 locations with Bangkok, Bali, Cebu, Hawaii, Las Vegas and Taipei. We inject a Japanese quality standard into our tours, starting with our mobility options including premier buses/vans and aim to provide genuine experiences by working together with the locals. Recently, we have been growing our foothold by acquisitions and our travelers now come from over 70 countries - in the past year we have recorded 200% growth in our operations. With the funding raised in our most recent round, we will support domestic and international businesses, with a view to engage in acquisitions and forming alliances to establish a global sightseeing business association. We will also use the funding to develop new hardware products that will be used to heighten the quality of our experiences and to also expand our team. Furthermore, leveraging the network and access to market that JBC Holdings Inc. can provide, we will continue to grow by building our Chinese customer base. Mr. Tomohiko Watanabe, CEO and President of JBC Holdings said, "We aspire to become a bridge between China and Japan under our vision to invest in Japanese companies with superior technologies and capabilities, and support their growth with our strength in Chinese capital, networks and access to the Chinese market. Through our due diligence process, we have studied Fun Groups business model in detail and are impressed by the quality of its team. We believed there is great potential and room for us to support the company which ultimately led to our investment decision. While the entire world is facing great hardship, there is no night without dawn; we are fully behind the team and support Fun Group in its next stage of growth." And Kenji Miki, CEO and President of Fun Group said, "I started Fun Group in 2014 due to my strong beliefs that there is nothing more important than experiencing and sharing fun moments in life. As of April 2020, domestic and international businesses in the travel sector are struggling due to the spread of COVID-19. But precisely because we are in this situation, I believe companies in our industry should come together and work to navigate through this period. I hope that beyond this, by utilising new technologies to enhance our experiences, we can once again hear our travelers say how they enjoyed our tours very soon." Kenji was born in 1990 in Hyogo prefecture of Japan. He started his own business at the age of 19 which he successfully sold. Seeking a new challenge to establish a company on a more global scale, he travelled to Thailand, but unfortunately became the victim of a street robbery and ended up losing all his possessions. He started guiding tours in Thailand to earn some money which led him to establish Rising Asia in January in 2014, that would later become Fun Group. He has previously been selected in Forbes Asia 30 under 30. We think the public and reporters should be ready for a deluge of reports of COVID in facilities that up until now had no publicly reported cases, Moore said. Families will probably let others know and word will spread fairly quickly. It is unclear when exactly the new federal reporting rules will take effect, but advocates expect more instructions on the rules soon, Moore said. Federal officials can take disciplinary action against any nursing home that violates the rule, but officials have not released more details. A spokesperson for CMS did not respond Monday to a request for comment. Niehoff, whose mother was among the first deaths of COVID-19 at Frontier, said the new federal reporting rules are long overdue. Im not sure if there were more precautions they could have taken to stop people from getting the virus, she said. Thats one of the questions I have. But more reporting would have been appreciated. Niehoff, a hospital nurse, said she tries to give Frontier the benefit of the doubt. Before the coronavirus, the home had been communicative if her mother suffered a fall, for example. Schools and school buses are not designed for social distancing, a principals' leader said as a national conversation gets under way over when it will be safe for teachers and pupils to return to classrooms. Even a partial reopening has raised concerns among teachers, principals and others about how it can be achieved while observing public health-led physical distancing rules expected to be in place for some time. Read More While there is no suggestion that schools will open their doors immediately after the current lockdown, which extends until May 5, Health Minister Simon Harris kicked off the debate at the weekend, floating the idea of a "one day a week" reopening. Education Minister Joe McHugh, who has declared schools closed "until further notice" on public health grounds, has not got involved in speculation. Post-primary schools are due to close at the end of May, which doesn't leave a lot of time for a meaningful return, but the primary school year runs until the end of June. In a country with the biggest primary classes in the EU, reopening schools, while observing society's new physical distancing rules, won't be easy. Overcrowded classrooms are a feature of primary schools, with an average class size of 24, and almost 350,000 4-12 year olds in classes of 25 or more, more than 100,000 in classes of 30 or more, and up to 300 in classes of 40 or more. Expand Close Joe McHugh. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Joe McHugh. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins The figures do not crunch in the same way at post-primary, because of the range of subjects and different levels of uptake. But it is estimated that in Junior Cycle core subjects, such as English, at least half of classes have 25-plus students. Many post-primary schools are already struggling to cope with increasing enrolments and in the current situation, any consideration being given to reopening schools must add in a requirement to keep students two metres apart. Suggestions of staggering classes and splitting pupils between mornings and afternoons, or different days, may control numbers, but raises questions about who deep cleans classrooms and other areas in between. Clive Byrne, director of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), said the health implications of any reopening would have to be considered as schools and school transport were not designed for social distancing. While schools could get hand sanitisers, with the current restrictions reopening would "not be easy" because of school layout, the need to maintain distances on buses and at break times, as well as hygiene issues around restrooms and showering. Read More He said a prudent principal already exploring the use of classrooms for the return of Leaving Cert exam candidates would be restricting numbers to six or seven students, and it would be the same for any class. Mr Byrne also said the idea of "one day a week", where a limited number of pupils would come in on different days, was "not practical" because classrooms would have to be cleaned between each group. Account would also have to be taken of the age profile of pupils, and while it would be possible to tell more senior students not to congregate, "it would be very difficult with junior infants", he said. Labour education spokesperson Aodhan O Riordain backed the call from the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) for consultations on the reopening of schools. Expand Close Clive Byrne is the director of the National Association for Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Clive Byrne is the director of the National Association for Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) Both the INTO and the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) have pointed to the need to follow public health advice on the matter. Mr O Riordain said teachers' unions, staff representatives and parents' associations must be involved in any decision on the potential partial reopening of primary schools. He noted that average class size in Danish primary schools, which are reopening, was 21. As well as public health concerns, Mr O Riordain said there were also issues for primary teachers regarding access to childcare for their own children. "Teachers are more than willing to play their part in this crisis but this type of mixed messaging from Government is not helping," he said. [April 21, 2020] National Write Your Congressman Finds More Than Half of Small Businesses Awaiting Loans from Paycheck Protection Program, Community Banks Leading Approval Process National Write Your Congressman (NWYC), an organization that gives small businesses a voice in American government, found more than half of small businesses are awaiting approval to receive funds from The U.S. Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP or "Program"). Of those approved, 69 percent have not received funds yet. More than two-thirds (76 percent) applied for the loans with a community bank with which they had a prior lending relationship. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005695/en/ The survey of 1,561 business owners conducted by NWYC April 16 through 18, asked its membership in all 50 states their experience during the coronavirus pandemic and if they utilized the U.S. government's recent $2.2 trillion package to help businesses and employees. "Since the coronavirus pandemic we have seen a 500 percent increase in our members' communication to their representatives in Washington," said Randy Ford (News - Alert), President and COO of National Write Your Congressman. "This is an uncertain time where small business owners need immediate funds to sustain operations and keep their doors open. It is concerning that small businesses, which make up the more than 99 percent of businesses in the United States, are uncertain if they will see the funds made available in the Program." NWYC's results support recent findings from the U.S. Small Business Administration which state 60 percent of the loans were approved by banks with less than $10 billion in assets. "We are so grateful to communit banks and credit unions for helping local communities' economy by supporting small businesses in the PPP process. The community banks were ready to process these loans and led the way. Without them, many businesses would be shut down and employees out of work," said Ford. Seventy percent of those surveyed applied for PPP funds. Forty-six percent have been approved for the loans, but only 31 percent have seen the money in their bank accounts. More than 30 percent of small business owners have had to lay off or furlough employees due to COVID-19. Thirteen percent have had to shut down operations completely. Thirty-six percent of business owners have been able to keep all employees. "While many of our business member owners have had to change their business operations and layoff or furlough employees, we are encouraged to see positive stories from small businesses as well. As Congress works together to agree on a path forward, we encourage our members to contact leadership in Washington to tell their story and demand more action from Congress," said Ford. While 37 percent of respondents found the application process straightforward, 33 percent found the application process difficult. Thirty-eight percent were dissatisfied with how the PPP was executed and 85 percent want to see changes, including increasing the available funds for small businesses (48 percent), an easier approval process from banks (20 percent), and additional relief in the form of health care benefits, tax credits, or forgiven past loans (12 percent). Out of those that did not apply for the loan, 16 percent said they did not understand the process. "Communicating with our leaders in Washington is paramount in this time of economic crisis. Our business owner members continue to voice that more money is needed, and changes need to be made to the Program. We need small businesses to support our economy. Everyone is concerned about the livelihood of their business and if they will survive," said Ford. NWYC provides members with non-partisan information and research along with the tools they can use to connect with their representatives in Washington and advocate for the policies and actions that will help their small businesses be successful for their families, their employees and their communities. National Write Your Congressman is dedicated to the delivery of constituent information to members of Congress. It releases a Quarterly Index Score, which takes into account six factors measuring small business owners' trust, hope and satisfaction towards Congress and government. Indexes can be found at www.nwyc.com. Methodology NWYC collected data using an online survey administered April 16-18, 2020. A total of 1,561 respondents participated. Respondents represent 49 of the 50 states in the U.S. Fifty-four percent of business owners surveyed employ 1-9 employees and 44 percent employ 10-99 employees. The predominant industries represented are construction, services, automotive repair, health, legal, accounting, engineering, advertising, education, manufacturing, agriculture, and retail trade. To view the full report, visit www.nwyc.com. About National Write Your Congressman National Write Your Congressman (NWYC) is an organization that gives small businesses a voice in American government. As the nation's largest, privately held, nonpartisan membership organization made up of small businesses, NWYC is dedicated to the delivery of constituent opinions to representatives in Washington. For more than 60 years, NWYC has provided small business owners and operators the tools necessary to connect with members of Congress and a platform to let their collective voice be heard. NWYC's team of experts provides unbiased, nonpartisan information and research on top issues and pending legislation relevant to small business owners today. NWYC presents both sides of the issue so that members can form an educated opinion and let their opinions be heard. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005695/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] JUSTICEINFO.NET: You write that transitional justice mechanisms are closely related to the political climate in which they work or are initiated. Can you explain? ERIC GOBE: This is amply demonstrated by the comparative study of transitional justice processes and reconciliation policies. In the specific case of the Maghreb, comparing the Moroccan and Tunisian cases illustrates it perfectly. In Morocco, transitional justice is part of a dynastic continuity, where the Equity and Reconciliation Commission the Moroccan truth commission was, in the words of Frederic Vairel [professor of political science at the University of Ottawa], an as if commission as if it meant a transition to democracy, as if it would produce by itself a truth that could be endorsed by victims. While in Morocco transitional justice remains within the context of a dynastic monarchy, in Algeria there has been neither justice nor transition but only the strengthening of an authoritarian military regime that was for a time threatened by an Islamist party, the Islamic Salvation Front, and then by various armed groups claiming to be political Islamists. The action of the IVD, which largely embodied the narrative of the Troika government, took place between 2014 and 2019 in a political context in which the counter-revolutionary narrative of the former regime elites became more and more prevalent in the public arena. As for Tunisia in its recent past, it is a perfect illustration of the links between transitional justice mechanisms and political change. The reconciliation promoted by the international and national champions of transitional justice was born in a political context favourable to its implementation. The arrival in power of the Troika in 2011 with the Ennahdha movement as its backbone, i.e. the Islamist party that suffered the full brunt of repression under the regimes of Bourguiba and Ben Ali, was favourable to the establishment of a transitional justice mechanism. However, the Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD) began to operate in a political environment hostile to transitional justice. The debates around the IVD, over and above the controversial figure of its president and the conflicts between its members, are only understandable in the light of the 2014 election results, which brought part of the elites of the former regime back to power and perpetuated a policy of compromise between Ennahdha, which entered the government, and Nida Tounes, composed largely of ex-cadres of former President Ben Alis party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally. The action of the IVD, which largely embodied the narrative of the Troika government, took place between 2014 and 2019 in a political context in which the counter-revolutionary narrative of the former regime elites became more and more prevalent in the public arena. International aid has given credibility and visibility to local associations mobilized in this process and with political agendas. Have the victims benefited? Theres no contradiction. Local associative actors can both serve their own agenda and ensure that victims benefit from their efforts. They can play a central role in transitional justice processes by mobilizing broader segments of society, documenting human rights violations, lobbying governments, providing legal or technical expertise, directly assisting victims, etc. They can also play a central role in the process of transitional justice by providing support to the victims. At the same time, associations are not always representative of victims or local populations. They may promote some victims more than others or identify with specific categories of victims. Do you think that transitional justice, by training the judges of the specialized chambers, can lead to the emergence of magistrates who are true guarantors of rights and freedoms? According to the article by Emna Sammari [Tunisian expert in transitional justice], we have a long way to go. She says the selection process for judges was initially inadequate since some of the judges appointed to these chambers had never been involved in criminal law. She gave several examples of the political desire to disrupt the smooth running of hearings organized by the specialized chambers, including the decision by the Supreme Council of the Judiciary on judges posts for the year 2018-2019, since 45 per cent of the judges of the specialized criminal chambers were transferred elsewhere. To speak of appropriation is a value judgment. Transitional justice is an eminently political process. Political appropriation is often associated with the Tunisian experience. Is this a phenomenon that also concerns the other two Maghreb countries? To speak of appropriation is a value judgment. Transitional justice is an eminently political process. In Algeria, a country that has not gone through a transitional justice process, the rulers have tried to deny the political nature of the violence. None of the official texts promoting reconciliation among Algerians mention the political origins of the civil war. In other words, as jurist Mouloud Boumghar notes in his work, the victors of the civil war have constantly tried to depoliticize the issues at stake in dealing with the violent past. This attempt to depoliticize the issues of impunity and accountability shows on the contrary the political dimension of dealing with the violent past. In Morocco, political scientists Marouane Laouina and Frederic Vairel have shown that the creation of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) in 2005 was the result of a confrontation and a deal between the government and activists, former political prisoners, committed to the precepts of transitional justice. It was activists of the Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice, former extreme leftist and Islamist professional activists, who negotiated with the Moroccan government on the establishment and powers of the IER. In other words, by definition, insofar as this questionable notion is retained, justice cannot escape the problem of political recuperation. The Moroccan experience has often been cited as an example by Tunisian decision-makers. Why do you think that is? Because the initiators of the Moroccan Truth Commission chose not to appoint any of the perpetrators and because the Moroccan monarchy has largely been able to control the transitional justice process. It organized a kind of trial of the King under the portrait of the King, according to the expression of Yadh Ben Achour [Tunisian jurist]. It allowed the new sovereign, Mohamed VI, to make a break with the past by making his own the largely fictitious narrative of a Morocco resolutely committed to the democratic transition yet continuing the dynastic tradition of a monarchical regime, capable of conducting its own trial not to condemn a legacy but, as the Moroccan politician Abderrahim El Maslouhi puts it, to reinvent it in the form of forgiveness and reparation. The dynamics of transitional justice processes are closely linked to internal political changes, but also, as Limam shows, to international political stakes. Political scientist Mohamed Limam raises again the issue of the late President Beji Caied Essebsis bill on economic and financial reconciliation. In what way did that bill have an impact on the Tunisian process? This project shows the desire of the economic and political elites linked to the former regime not to be implicated in the system of corruption. But in the end, the bill adopted by Parliament in September 2017 limited the category of amnesty beneficiaries to civil servants. In other words, the approved text was nevertheless watered down compared to the initial text. This episode shows the extent to which the dynamics of transitional justice processes are closely linked to internal political changes, but also, as Limam shows, to international political stakes. The IVD has concluded its work, the trials of the specialized chambers are continuing, the government promises to publish the IVDs final report in the Official Gazette and to follow its recommendations. What future do you see for transitional justice in Tunisia? Everything will depend, it seems to me, on future interactions between the actors of the Tunisian political scene and the transitional justice arena. I refer in my introduction to the work of Jelena Sobotic [professor of political science at the University of Georgia] who has worked in the Balkans. She shows that the taking up of transitional justice norms takes place in the struggles between various sections of the elite who make it a resource and/or instrumentalize it according to their political goals. We will have to see how in the future the categories of stakeholders she describes norm resisters, manipulators of norms and norm believers interact in the Tunisian case to see the political and institutional dynamics of transitional justice. Interviewed by Olfa Belhassine. The closure of holy sites in Iran has been extended for two more weeks, until May 4, amid fears that religious gatherings may complicate wider coronavirus containment plans in the country. A further extension beyond the announced date, according to Irans Health Ministry, will be decided on the basis of updated assessments on the trajectory of the fight against the pandemic. Earlier this week, much of Irans economy went up and running again, largely returning to where it was during the pre-pandemic period. Grand bazaars and commercial complexes were among the latest to resume activity under a series of health protocols. The decision by the government of moderate President Hassan Rouhani to continue to keep religious sites under a shutdown was made despite calls for reopening from some members of the conservative clergy, including powerful cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, who leads Friday prayers in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad. The initial closures in March triggered dogged resistance from crowds of hard-line, angry worshippers who stormed barricaded shrines in Mashhad and in Qom the epicenter of COVID-19 in Iran. Both cities have large numbers of seminaries. The ban on religious gatherings was at least once more violated in Qom last week, where a group of mourners, few of whom were wearing protective masks, were seen beating chests the characteristic style of collective mourning in Shiite Islam. Mohammad Reza Ghadir, the head of Qoms University of Medical Sciences, has now warned that a resurgence is already taking place in the city as a result of violated lockdowns and disregarded health instructions. Irans Health Ministry announced 88 new deaths in its latest tally released April 21. The figure marked the continuation of a lowering trend that has seen daily deaths stay under 100 for a week in a row. Daily infections and critical cases have also been declining in the same period. Yet Health Ministry deputy Iraj Harirchi warned that there is no guarantee the curve will continue to be flattened as second and third peaks could be still looming and that no country in the world could claim an end to the outbreak. Elsewhere, government spokesman Ali Rabiee reminded the public that there is no such thing as a return to normalcy at the moment. Comments from the two officials bore no signs of the confidence expressed in the early days of the outbreak about an imminent Iranian victory against the disease. Rabiee also touched upon Irans supply chain of ventilators, declaring independence in producing the much-needed machines. Earlier, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to US President Donald Trump, who offered to deliver those ventilators to help Iran fight the pandemic. Iran will be exporting ventilators in a few months, Zarif tweeted. Whether or not such life-saving gear is in surplus or high demand, Irans first responders appear to be suffering beyond the levels projected. Scores of them have succumbed to the virus, with hundreds more infected. And even for the lucky ones, the weekslong battle away from family members that has no immediate end in sight has left them worn out and overstrained. A report published by Reformist paper Arman-e-Melli said that 65% of Iranian medical staff fighting off the coronavirus are facing acute depression. Iraj Khosronia, the head of the Iranian Association of Internal Medicine Specialists, explained the grim trend by pointing out that health care workers have increasingly found their relentless efforts to have been in vain when they see patients die right before their eyes. With the High Court refusing to interfere, all eyes are now on Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari who will have to take a decision on nominating Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to the Legislative Council. The Bombay High Court on Monday refused interim relief on a BJP worker's plea opposing the state cabinet's recommendation that Thackeray be appointed as governor's nominee. Adjourning the petition filed by a BJP worker, the HC said the governor is expected to consider legal validity of the recommendation. Thackeray, who is not a member of either house of Maharashtra legislature, took oath as chief minister on November 28, 2019. Under the Constitution, he has to become member of the legislature by May 28, 2020. However, all elections were postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic, so the state cabinet on April 9 recommended that he be nominated to the Council from the governor's quota. Under Article 171 of the Constitution,the governor can nominate members having special knowledgeor practical experiencein literature, science, art, cooperative movement and social service. There are currently two vacancies among members from governor's quota due to resignations of NCP legislators who joined the BJP before the assembly polls. The NCP, now part of the ruling coalition, had recommended two names for the vacancies earlier this year, but the governor rejected them saying the term of these two seats will end in Juneand there was no need for immediate appointment. Constitutional experts cite a 1961 Supreme Court ruling on the appointment of Chandrabhan Gupta asUttar Pradesh chief minister and his nomination to the Legislative Council by the Governor. The SC had upheld his appointment. The apex court had held that Gupta had taken active part in for several years, which amounted to having experience of social service, so he was qualified to be nominated to the legislative council. Discussing the options before the government, former principal secretary of the legislature Anant Kalsesaid the government should approach theElection Commission of India and seek biennial elections to nine Legislative Council seatsbefore May 27. Or it can request the Governor to take a decision on the cabinet recommendation of April 9 at the earliest, he said. The government can also move the high court or the supreme court seeking a direction to the governor, Kalse said. The courts have ruled in the past that cabinet's recommendations are binding on the governor, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to set aside an FIR registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against a former government official accused in a corruption case in which NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal is also an accused. A division bench of Chief Justice B P Dharmadhikari and Justice N R Borkar was hearing a petition filed by Deodutta Marathe, former secretary of the Public Works Department (PWD), seeking to quash a case lodged against him by the Maharashtra police's ACB. The ACB, in June 2015, registered a first information report against Marathe and NCP leader and former PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal, his son Pankaj Bhujbal, nephew Sameer Bhujbal and 15 others for criminal conspiracy and cheating under the IPC, and also under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Chhagan Bhujbal is now Food and Civil Supply Minister. The ACB alleged corruption in the awarding of contract for Maharashtra Sadan, a state government guest house in Delhi, and for development of a plot of Regional Transport Office (RTO) in suburban Andheri in Mumbai to Chamankar Enterprises. "Prima facie (on the face of it) violation of provisions of law is seen," the division bench said on Tuesday. It agreed with special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat's contention that there was enough material on record for the trial in the case to proceed, and the case cannot be quashed. As per the ACB, the private company had sought a No Objection Certificate from the RTO for using some portion of its land for redevelopment of a slum. But the RTO rejected the application. The RTO had said if land was given for slum rehabilitation, it would not have enough land to build its own proposed office. ACB alleged that later the accused, including Marathe, fabricated records and twisted facts and eventually Chamankar Enterprises' proposal was accepted. Marathe's lawyer Manoj Mohite argued that the petitioner had opposed the proposal, but despite that the then deputy chief minister (Chhagan Bhujbal) proceeded in the matter. "Marathe had duly performed his part of duty by pointing out the lacunae in the proposal but his objections were overlooked...hence the case needs to be quashed and set aside," the lawyer had argued. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Customers of Ryanair who have had their flights cancelled as a result of the pandemic were told anyone requesting a full refund will be put in a queue until the coronavirus crisis has passed (Ryanair's Michael O'Leary pictured) Ryanair passengers have hit out at the airline after they were offered vouchers instead of refunds. Customers of Ryanair who have had their flights cancelled as a result of the pandemic were told anyone requesting a full refund will be put in a queue until the coronavirus crisis has passed. An email from the flight operator sent to some customers awaiting a refund read: 'You can request a cash refund however bear in mind we will place your request in the cash refund queue until the COVID-10 emergency has passed. 'We highly recommend using the refund voucher as these are readily available and you can book flights on all Ryanair Group airlines in over 200 destinations in Europe and the Middle East.' With flights grounded across the UK, many customers have been left furious that the company has issued a vouchers as an alternative. Ryanair passengers have hit out at the airline after they were offered vouchers instead of refunds The airline explained: 'As our payment agents are required to stay at home in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, payment security restrictions prevent us from processing cash refunds.' Ryanair told MailOnline: 'For any cancelled flight, Ryanair is giving customers all of the options set out under EU regulations, including refunds'. Customers took to Twitter to voice their concerns: Furious customers took to Twitter to express their frustration and to ask for refunds Ryanair has strong liquidity and is sitting on cash reserves of 4 billion Euros, or 3.5bn and is therefore in a better position to withstand a prolonged grounding than most of its competitors. Ryanair told Forbes it is also taking 'immediate action to reduce operating expenses, and improve cash flows.' That included grounding surplus aircraft, deferring all capex and share buybacks, freezing recruitment, discretionary spending and asking staff to take voluntary leave, temporarily suspending employment contracts, and reducing working hours and payments, as reported by Forbes. Meanwhile Virgin Australia has gone into voluntary administration with Deloitte drafted in to try to find a buyer amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sir Richard Branson, the co-founder of Virgin Australia, vowed 'this is not the end' for the franchise and told colleagues in a tweet that he believed it was a 'new beginning.' It comes as founder Sir Richard fights to save Virgin Atlantic in the UK, amid fears it could also go under because of the coronavirus. The Virgin Group boss, who is estimated to be worth more than 3.5billion said Virgin Atlantic needs UK taxpayer support in the form of a commercial loan, with reports indicating that the carrier is asking for up to 500 million of public money. The billionaire businessman offered his own private Caribbean island of Necker, estimated by Forbes to be worth 80m - less than one fifth of the figure being requested - as collateral for any taxpayer cash used to save the struggling airline. Virgin Australia, which is 10 per cent owned by Sir Richard, has not collapsed but will be managed by accountants from Deloitte while it restructures and looks for a buyer. Earlier this month it was announced that easyJet will get 600m from the government and will borrow 407m It came after easyJet grounded its fleet in response to the pandemic. The area is dominated by compact single-family houses, built in the Spanish or Tudor styles that were popular a century ago, with a smattering of multiple-family units. The homes are smaller versions of what youd see in Carthay or West Hollywood, Mr. Raposa said. With lots from 4,500 to 5,500 square feet, theyre not that big. Sometimes, newly renovated residences with manicured lawns sit next to older, distressed homes. Image 3050 CHESAPEAKE AVENUE | A four-bedroom, two-bath house built in 1995 on 0.12 acres is listed for $988,000. 310-849-8837. Credit... Beth Coller for The New York Times Farmdale, a trapezoid of streets on the areas eastern edge, between Vineyard Avenue and busy Crenshaw Boulevard, is particularly desirable for its large lots, wide streets with single- family homes and walkability. The corridor that hugs La Cienega Boulevard is also popular for its walkability, proximity to Westside Neighborhood Park, Culver City and Cumulus, a mixed-use development on the corner of La Cienega and Jefferson Boulevards that is slated to bring Whole Foods to the area. What Youll Pay Prices in West Adams have been on the rise, said Courtney Poulos, the owner of ACME Real Estate, which just opened an office on Adams Boulevard, citing the areas affordability and accessibility as major selling points for people priced out of areas where they work or rent. The entire area is booming, similar to the way that Silver Lake and Echo Park went wild years ago. Dominique Madden, who heads ACMEs West Adams location, said the office gets a lot of people who are renting in Silver Lake, renting in Los Feliz, renting in West Hollywood but are priced out of where they live when they decide they want to buy. Image 3002 FARMDALE AVENUE | A two-bedroom, one-bath house, with a one-bedroom, one-bath guesthouse, built in 1929 on 0.08 acres, is listed for $899,500. 800-500-4053. Credit... Beth Coller for The New York Times Matt Kreamer, the data public relations manager at Zillow, said that in 2017, 116 single-family homes and condos sold at a median price of $621,500. The following year, the median price jumped to $715,000 on 111 total sales, then jumped again in 2019 to $790,000 on 121 sales. About 40 percent of the neighborhoods housing stock is rental, said Claire Lissone, owner of Real Estate Collective, in West Adams. Of those rentals, nearly half are single-family homes, while the rest are in multiunit buildings. A recently remodeled, 1,300-square-foot house averages around $3,500 to $4,500 a month, she said, while a 700-square-foot one-bedroom rents for about $1,700 to $2,000 a month. 21 April 2020 XP Power Limited ("XP Power" or "the Company") Result of Annual General Meeting The Annual General Meeting of XP Power Limited was held at 401 Commonwealth Drive, Haw Par Technocentre, Lobby B, #02-02, Singapore 149598 on 21 April 2020, commencing at 5.00 p.m.Singapore time. As set out in the Company's trading update released on 3 April 2020, the Board decided to withdraw Resolution 2, to approve the final dividend for 2019 of 36 pence per share. A resolution was tabled at the start of today's Annual General Meeting to withdraw this resolution which was passed unanimously by a show of hands. All other resolutions were unanimously passed by a show of hands. The total cash outflow from the 2019 final dividend was expected to be 6.9 million. The Group pays a quarterly dividend and understands the importance of dividends to shareholders. We intend to resume payments as soon as possible. For information, the following table shows the total votes cast by proxy voting on the resolutions that were put to the meeting. The total number of shares in issue was 19,442,296. Resolution number Resolution description In Favour Against Withheld Votes % Votes % Votes 1 To receive and adopt the reports and audited accounts 14,339,205 99.99% 1,784 0.01% 14,327 3 To re-elect Gavin Griggs 14,353,910 99.99% 1,407 0.01% 0 4 To re-elect Duncan Penny 14,355,317 100.00% 0 0.00% 0 5 To re-elect Polly Williams 14,164,911 98.67% 190,406 1.33% 0 6 To re-elect James Peters 13,981,935 97.40% 373,381 2.60% 0 7 To re-elect Terry Twigger 14,179,238 98.77% 176,079 1.23% 0 8 To re-elect Andy Sng 14,353,910 99.99% 1,407 0.01% 0 9 To re-elect Pauline Lafferty 14,355,317 100.00% 0 0.00% 0 10 To reappoint auditors 14,324,237 99.78% 31,079 0.22% 0 11 Remuneration of auditors 14,340,349 99.90% 14,968 0.10% 0 12 To receive and adopt the Remuneration Policy 11,125,326 79.15% 2,930,138 20.85% 299,852 13 To receive and adopt the Remuneration Report 11,660,119 82.96% 2,395,345 17.04% 299,852 14 To approve the Restricted Share Plan 2020 11,075,541 78.80% 2,979,923 21.20% 299,852 15 Authority to allot shares 14,074,977 98.05% 280,340 1.95% 0 16 To amend the limit for total fees payable to non-executive directors 14,339,205 99.89% 16,111 0.11% 0 17 To authorize the issue of shares 14,355,317 100.00% 0 0.00% 0 18 To authorize the disapplication of pre-emption rights 14,339,205 99.89% 16,111 0.11% 0 19 Authority for the Company to purchase its own shares 14,336,863 99.89% 16,111 0.11% 0 Note: Percentage of votes cast excludes withheld votes The Board notes that 20.8% of votes cast were against the Remuneration Policy and 21.2% of votes cast were against the adoption of the Restricted Share Plan. The Remuneration Committee engaged in early and extensive consultations with a wide group of the Company's shareholders. It consulted with shareholders covering 61% of the Company's register. The proposed package of measures is aimed at ensuring that the Executive Directors' remuneration arrangements effectively serve the best interests of the Company and its shareholders. The Board will continue to engage with shareholders and the Company will publish an update on that engagement within six months of the Annual General Meeting. The Remuneration Committee will continue to take account of shareholder views in taking decisions on executive remuneration within the Policy. Enquiries: XP Power Duncan Penny, Chief Executive Officer +44 (0)118 984 5515 Gavin Griggs, Chief Financial Officer Senior officials from the Department of Defence and the military authorities have negotiated a plan for the safe return of Irish peacekeepers, mainly members of the Army Ranger Wing, from the most dangerous United Nations mission in the world. The fourteen-strong group, which includes a dozen Rangers, are due home towards the end of this month after a four-month deployment with the Minusma mission in the war-torn West African state of Mali. However, the United Nations headquarters in New York issued instructions over two weeks ago that all rotations and leave for military personnel serving with peace missions be postponed until June 30 because of the Covid-19 crisis. This direction had the potential to impact directly on the return home of Irish troops serving primarily in Mali and Lebanon as well as over 100,000 uniformed personnel from over 120 countries deployed in 14 missions across the world. Since then, department officials and military officers have been working to secure exemptions from the order and, if necessary, gain approval for alternative travel arrangements. It is now hoped that the Irish, who are part of the German contingent with Minusma will be flown to Germany and then return home. Their replacements are currently in quarantine in Germany and are expected to rotate later this month. The Irish have been part of that mission since September and have been deployed on a four-month basis. Seven Irish personnel, who had been deployed with the EU training mission in Mali, arrived home earlier this week. This followed an EU decision that the number of personnel be reduced. The Irish were flown on a Spanish military aircraft to Madrid and then taken by an Air Corps Casa plane to Dublin. The authorities here also plan to use a Casa craft to rotate a small group of Irish personnel serving in Kosovo with the Kfor mission over the next few days. However, a decision on the fate of around 350 troops serving with Unifil in Lebanon has not yet been taken. Their deployment is due to end late next month. Their rotation will require the approval of the UN in New York as the movement of a large number of personnel in a volatile conflict zone in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic presents more complex problems. Authorities here are continuing discussions to ensure that the rotation takes place as close as possible to the original planned dates. Meanwhile, two more former Air Corps pilots have agreed to rejoin under a special scheme introduced by Minister with responsibility for defence, Paul Kehoe to tackle key personnel shortages. The Cabinet yesterday approved a recommendation from Mr Kehoe that the two pilots rejoin as commandants for three years initially. The two rejoined under a scheme set up to encourage former officers to return to the military and brings the number of pilots attracted by the offer to five. They take up their posts on May 4 for three years, with an opportunity to stay on after that. A service commitment scheme for pilots has also been re-introduced for pilots and this is worth 22,000 a year with end of commitment payments of between 15,000 and 30,000. SEOUL, KOREASouth Korean officials reported no unusual activity in North Korea on Tuesday following unconfirmed media reports that leader Kim Jong Un was in fragile health after surgery. But the possibility of high-level instability raised troubling questions about the future of a nuclear-armed state that has been steadily building an arsenal meant to threaten the U.S. mainland amid stalled talks between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. South Koreas presidential office said Kim appeared to be handling state affairs as usual and that it had no information about rumours regarding his health. But many will be watching closely for any signs of trouble in North Korea, and whether it will address the reports something it has not yet done. The United States and North Korea appeared to be barrelling toward war in 2017, with the countries trading insults and threats of destruction. The next two years saw a surprising series of summits, including three between Kim and Trump, as Kim pursued diplomacy in hopes of ending crippling economic sanctions and obtaining security guarantees. But through it all he maintained his right to a nuclear arsenal, and most diplomacy has stalemated since. Speculation often surfaces about North Koreas leadership based on attendance at important state events. Kim, who is in his mid-30s, missed the celebration of the birthday of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15, the countrys most important holiday. But he presided over a meeting on April 11, discussing coronavirus prevention and electing his sister as an alternate member of the political bureau of the ruling Workers Party, according to the Norths official Korean Central News Agency. And state media have since reported he sent greetings to Syrian President Bashar Assad and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel as well as arranging special birthday meals for two North Korean officials and a new centenarian. We have no information to confirm regarding rumours about Chairman Kim Jong Uns health issue that have been reported by some media outlets, South Korean presidential spokesman Kang Min-Seok said. Also, no unusual developments have been detected inside North Korea. The presidential office later said Kim is believed to be staying at an unspecified location outside of Pyongyang, North Koreas capital, with some close confidants. It said Kim appeared to be normally engaged with state affairs and there wasnt any unusual movement or emergency reaction from North Koreas ruling party, military or Cabinet. Its unclear what would happen if Kim is sidelined by health problems or dies. Still less than a decade into Kims rule, North Korea has yet to give any meaningful indication of who would succeed him as leader. Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea, said political upheaval would be unlikely as Kims sister, Kim Yo Jong, is already exercising significant influence within the government, and most members of North Koreas leadership share an interest with the Kim family in maintaining the Norths system. However, Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seouls Dongguk University and a policy adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, sees the possibility of a violent power struggle. While Kim Yo Jong would most likely emerge as leader during a transitional period, other members of the top elite could try to reduce her to a figurehead while making important decisions from the shadows, Koh said. North Korea has seen similar power struggles that ended with bloody purges during its seven decades of Kim family rule. Kim Jong Uns 2013 execution of his uncle and mentor, Jang Song Thaek, who was accused of treason and corruption, was seen as a major step in consolidating his rule. Hong Min, a senior analyst at Seouls Korea Institute for National Unification, said North Korea once Kim is gone could be ruled by a collective leadership from the ruling partys elite, similar to the post-Stalin Soviet Union. While it is perhaps too early to seriously contemplate Kims potential demise considering his age, his supposed heart and other health problems could become increasing factors in the years ahead, Hong said. Robert OBrien, the U.S. national security adviser, said the Trump administration is monitoring the reports about Kims health very closely. OBrien said Tuesday during a television interview with Fox News Channel that North Korea is parsimonious with the information they provide about many things, including the health of Kim Jong Un, so were monitoring these developments closely. A U.S. official said the White House was aware before the reports appeared late Monday that Kims health might be precarious. The official said the U.S. had information that Kim may have undergone surgery and that complications may have rendered him incapacitated or worse. But, the official stressed that the U.S. had nothing to confirm the surgery had taken place or that any complications had occurred. The U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, would not elaborate on where the information came from or when it had been received. Conservative South Korean lawmaker Yoon Sang-Hyun, chairman of the National Assemblys foreign affairs and unification committee, said he was told by unspecified non-government sources that Kim had surgery for cardiovascular problems. But an official from Seouls National Intelligence Service, who didnt want to be named, citing office rules, said the spy agency couldnt confirm whether Kim had surgery. Kim In-Chul, spokesman for South Koreas Foreign Ministry, said Seoul and Washington are maintaining close communication but didnt provide a direct answer when asked whether the allies exchanged any meaningful intelligence about Kims health. Outside governments and media have a mixed record on tracking developments among North Koreas ruling elite, made difficult by the Norths stringent control of information about them. In 2016, South Korean media quoted intelligence officials as saying Kim Jong Un had had a former military chief executed for corruption and other charges. But months later, North Koreas state media showed Ri Yong Gil alive and serving in new senior posts. Kims absence from state media often triggers speculation. In 2014, he vanished from the public eye for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. South Koreas spy agency said days later that he had a cyst removed from his ankle. Kim took power upon his fathers death in December 2011 and is the third generation of his family to rule the country. Read more about: New Jersey would cut the hours and pay of 100,000 public workers under a plan unveiled Monday by state Senate President Stephen Sweeney. But public employees would be able to collect payments that would exceed their regular wages because of the recent expansion in unemployment benefits, he said. The proposal, which would have to be passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by the governor, would allow the state and local governments to save hundreds of millions of dollars by making workers take unemployment for several days a week over three months while also keeping their health benefits. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said his plan could stave off the drastic public-sector layoffs that the governor and local officials warn loom if tax revenues continue to plummet in response to the coronavirus crisis. I would much rather furlough workers and keep them whole on their benefits and income than lay them off, he said Monday. We dont want to add any more problems to an already troubled economy. The proposal capitalizes on federal aid for unemployed workers that increases weekly unemployment benefits by $600 under the massive stimulus bill, called the CARES Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Trump last month. With that additional unemployment compensation, many low- and middle-income New Jersey workers will collect more on unemployment than while working, Sweeney said. Hetty Rosenstein, state director of the Communications Workers of America, which represents many state and local government employees, said on Monday the union is always looking for creative solutions and will review the proposal carefully. A spokeswoman for Gov. Phil Murphy, Alyana Alfaro, declined to comment on the proposal specifically, but said Murphy "remains committed to ensuring that as many New Jerseyans as possible remain gainfully employed as we combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Some state and local employees work hours and wages would be reduced to 40% essentially, working two days out of five while unemployment insurance and the federal $600 add-on would make up for the other 60% of lost wages, according to Sweeney. The $600 add-on expires the end of July. In some cases, employees could make more than their regular salary, Sweeney said. An employee making $30,000 would actually collect an extra $5,100 over three months while furloughed, while an employee making $50,000 would come out $3,300 ahead and someone with $70,000 in income would make an extra $1,008, according to Sweeney. A worker earning $76,500 would break even, according to Sweeneys office, which said the proposal would not affect employees pension or health benefits. The states unemployment trust fund would not have to pick up the tab for these workers unemployment benefits, because of a lesser-known provision of the federal CARES Act that says the federal government will finance unemployment benefits if public- and private-sector employers furlough workers rather than outright lay them off, Sweeneys office said. Were not hurting anybody, but were increasing revenue from the federal pot, Sweeney said. The Senate Majority Office estimated the state and local government employers would save $750 million over three months by furloughing a quarter of the states 400,000 public-sector workforce. Three-quarters of the states public workers make less than $76,500, and are non-uniformed state, county, school and municipal government employees, according to Sweeneys office. While some state and local agencies have seen demand for their services wane, not every government worker could be furloughed, as the workers in public safety, teaching, health and social services offices are badly needed on the job, the Senate president said. Both the New Jersey League of Municipalities and the Association of Counties said the proposal has promise as a way to temporarily reduce spending. The challenge is to make sure that vital services continue seamlessly and that other operations are maintained, said Michael Cerra, league deputy director. Were generally supportive of it, said John Donnadio, executive director of the counties association. I think this is a creative way to look at a certain revenue problem in the state and one that really doesnt pose any potential harm to public employees. Murphy on Saturday warned New Jersey was in store for historic layoffs of public workers if the federal government doesnt come through with billions of dollars more in aid or if state lawmakers dont back his plan to borrow up to $9 billion from the Federal Reserve. The governor has said state tax revenues are falling off a cliff as businesses are closed and residents stay home to stop the spread of the coronavirus. School districts, counties and municipalities could face huge budget shortfalls if state funding ebbs and homeowners struggle to pay their property tax bills. Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. 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. Think you have COVID-19? A shortage of test kits made it difficult to know during the early weeks of the pandemic, but testing capacity has increased greatly since then. In the Capital Region, a number of testing sites have opened to the public in the last two months. Some require appointments and symptom screening to access. Some don't. In recent weeks, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced partnerships with retail chain and independent pharmacies to increase testing capacity statewide, and said that anyone who is eligible to return to work under phase one of the state's reopening plan can get tested at any of the 750-plus test sites statewide. A roundup of the region's various testing sites, hours of operation, and instructions for accessing the sites are available below. You can also visit coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-testing and enter your address to view a list and map view of nearby test sites. ALBANY COUNTY University at Albany Where: 1400 Washington Ave., Albany, Colonial Quad parking lot When: Seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Staffed by: Albany Medical Center, St. Peters Health Partners, the National Guard Rules: Drive-thru only. No walk-ins allowed. All patients must be in a vehicle with an appointment made ahead of time by calling 888-364-3065 or by visiting covid19screening.health.ny.gov. As of Friday, May 8, the state has expanded its criteria of who can be tested at this site to include essential workers who are not showing symptoms. This includes but is not limited to: healthcare workers; first responders; nursing home and long term care facility workers; correction, probation and parole officers; direct care providers; medical specialists; dieticians; occupational, physical or speech therapists; and workers who interact directly with the public; among others. The full list of eligible workers is available here. ___ Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center Where: Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center, 920 Lark Drive, Albany When: Monday through Friday. Times vary. This week's schedule is as follows: Monday 8:30 - 11:30 a.m. Tuesday 8:30 - 11:30 a.m. Wednesday 8:30 - 11:30 a.m. Thursday 8:30 - 11:30 a.m. Friday 8:30 - 11:30 a.m.. Staffed by: Whitney M. Young, Jr. Health Center Rules: All testing is done by appointment only and after being screened for symptoms over the phone by calling the Whitney Young Jr. Health Center at 518-465-4771. ___ Whitney Young mobile testing (locations rotate each week) When/where: Sites and hours of operation rotate on a weekly basis. Check here for weekly updates. This weeks schedule is as follows: Monday, June 1, 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. Watervliet Health Center, 1804 Second Ave., Watervliet Tuesday, June 2, 9 a.m. 11 a.m. Capital South Campus, 20 Warren St, Albany Friday, May 29, 9 a.m. 11 a.m. Watervliet Health Center, 1804 Second Ave., Watervliet Staffed by: Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center Rules: All testing is done by appointment only and after being screened for symptoms over the phone by calling the Whitney Young Jr. Health Center at 518-465-4771. On May 30, county officials announced that essential workers and anyone returning to work are automatically eligible for testing at the mobile sites. ___ Rite Aid Where: Rite Aid, 1863 Central Ave., Colonie When: Seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Staffed by: Rite Aid pharmacists Rules: Appointment-only tests will be conducted from within an individuals car with a self-swab nasal test and with the help of a pharmacist. The site expects to conduct 200 tests a day. Patients are required to register, answer screening questions and schedule an appointment on the Rite Aid website at www.riteaid.com before driving up for testing. Testing is available at no cost for eligible candidates who meet criteria established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the company says. ___ CVS Pharmacy Where: CVS Pharmacy has two drive-through testing sites in Albany 16 New Scotland Ave. and 885 Central Ave. When: Pharmacy hours Staffed by: CVS pharmacists Rules: Self-swab tests will be available to individuals meeting CDC criteria, in addition to state and age guidelines. Patients must register in advance at CVS.com to schedule an appointment. Patients will be required to stay in their cars and will be directed to the pharmacy drive-thru window or a location in the parking lot at a few stores, where they will be provided with a test kit and given instructions, and a CVS Pharmacy team member will observe the self-swab process to ensure it is done properly. Tests will be sent to an independent, third-party lab for processing and the results will be available in approximately three days. Note: Testing will NOT take place inside any retail locations. ___ Community Care Physicians Where: Community Care Physicians, Latham Health Park, 713 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham When: Monday through Friday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Staffed by: Community Care Physicians Rules: Testing is limited to CCP patients and requires a doctors order from CCP. Non-CCP patients, including employees, can become patients by visiting CCP urgent care centers in Latham (711 Troy-Schenectady Road, Suite 102) or Albany (391 Myrtle Avenue). Once a doctors order has been obtained, call 518-836-3660 to schedule an appointment. Testing will be conducted next to a testing trailer around the back of the building (use Forts Ferry entrance). Patients must remain in their car for the test. More information on how to qualify for a test is available here. ___ Priority 1 Urgent Care Where: 2080 Western Ave., Hamilton Square/20 Mall, Guilderland When: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Staffed by: Priority 1 Urgent Care medical staff Rules: Testing will be reimbursed by an individuals health insurance, and will be done by appointments only after patients come in to be screened for expanded CDC symptoms. To schedule an appointment, call 518-867-8040. Patients who believe they may need testing are urged to call the office prior to coming in. Antibody testing is also available at this location. ___ WellNow Urgent Care Where: 1438 Western Ave., Albany When: Daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Staffed by: WellNow urgent care staff Rules: Must be symptomatic. No appointment is required, but registering online is recommended and individuals must remain in their car to be screened. Once staff are ready, the patient will be given a mask and brought directly into a private room for further evaluation and testing. Those who don't have a car should call the location ahead of time to be screened over the phone. The number is 518-649-9986. Antibody testing is also available at this location. ___ COLUMBIA COUNTY Columbia County mobile testing When/where: Dates and locations vary. The next three testing clinics are as follows: Wednesday, May 27, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. John L. Edwards, 360 State St., Hudson Walk-up clinic Sign up and be screened for symptoms here Tuesday, June 2, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. John L. Edwards, 360 State St., Hudson Walk-up clinic Sign up and be screened for symptoms here Sunday, June 7, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Chatham Fairgrounds, 182 Hudson Ave., Chatham Drive-through Sign up and be screened for symptoms here Staffed by: Columbia Memorial Health, EMS services Rules: Appointment only. Priority for testing will be given to individuals who have COVID-19 symptoms as established by the CDC. Residents who do are asked to fill out an online screening form (see above). Once completed, the form will be evaluated by county health department staff, who will call residents who qualify and provide them with an appointment and PIN. The PIN and a form of identification should be brought to the testing site. ___ WellNow Urgent Care Where: 446 N Farview Ave., Suite 200, Hudson When: Daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Staffed by: WellNow urgent care staff Rules: Must be symptomatic. No appointment is required, but registering online is recommended and individuals must remain in their car to be screened. Once staff are ready, the patient will be given a mask and brought directly into a private room for further evaluation and testing. Those who don't have a car should call the location ahead of time to be screened over the phone. The number is 518-267-3496. Antibody testing is also available at this location. ___ RENSSELAER COUNTY Hudson Valley Community College Where: Hudson Valley Community College, 80 Vandenburgh Ave., Troy When: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Staffed by: IMA Group and Lab Corp Rules: Appointments are recommended and can be made by calling 1-800-245-4245. Residents seeking to be tested are asked to bring a driver's license and an insurance card. ___ Whitney Young mobile testing (locations, hours rotate each week) Where/when: Sites and hours of operation rotate on a weekly basis. Check here for weekly updates. This weeks schedule is as follows: Wednesday, June 3, 9 a.m. 11 a.m. Front of the Rensselaer County Administration Building, 1600 7th Ave., Troy Thursday, June 4, 9 a.m. 11 a.m. Whitney Young Troy Health Center, 849 2nd Ave., Lansingburgh Staffed by: Whitney M. Young, Jr. Health Center staff Rules: All testing is by appointment only, after being screened for symptoms over the phone. To be screened, call 518-465-4771 ext. 0. ___ SARATOGA COUNTY Saratoga Hospital Where: Saratoga Hospital, 211 Church St., Saratoga Springs (tent outside the Emergency Department) When: 7 a.m. - 5 p.m. Staffed by: Saratoga Hospital Rules: By appointment only; no walk-ups allowed. Patients must be referred for testing by either a licensed healthcare provider or the state Department of Health. For individuals who are insured the cost will be charged to their insurance provider. For those who are not insured, the test will cost $128. A self-pay discount may be available. Contact Patient Financial Services at 518-583-8343 for more information. Providers may call 518-587-2397 to set up appointment. ___ CVS Pharmacy Where: 1544 Crescent Rd., Clifton Park When: Pharmacy hours Staffed by: CVS pharmacists Rules: Self-swab tests will be available to individuals meeting CDC criteria, in addition to state and age guidelines. Patients must register in advance at CVS.com to schedule an appointment. Patients will be required to stay in their cars and will be directed to the pharmacy drive-thru window or a location in the parking lot at a few stores, where they will be provided with a test kit and given instructions, and a CVS Pharmacy team member will observe the self-swab process to ensure it is done properly. Tests will be sent to an independent, third-party lab for processing and the results will be available in approximately three days. Note: Testing will NOT take place inside any retail locations. ___ WellNow Urgent Care Where: 1694 U.S. 9, Clifton Park When: Daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Staffed by: WellNow urgent care staff Rules: Must be symptomatic. No appointment is required, but registering online is recommended and individuals must remain in their car to be screened. Once staff are ready, the patient will be given a mask and brought directly into a private room for further evaluation and testing. Those who don't have a car should call the location ahead of time to be screened over the phone. The number is 518-930-7486 . Antibody testing is also available at this location. ___ SCHENECTADY COUNTY Ellis Medicine When: Thursdays, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.* Where: Ellis Medicine's McClellan Street Health Center, 600 McClellan St., Schenectady Staffed by: Ellis Medicine Rules: No appointment required or prescription required. Walk up or drive up. *Last available times for walk ups will be at 4:30 p.m. Sites will close for staff breaks between 1 and 2 p.m. ___ Hometown Health Centers When: Saturdays, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Where: Hometown Health Centers, 1044 State St. Schenectady Staffed by: Hometown Health Centers Rules: Testing by appointment only. Residents should call 518-688-3420 for an arrival time. ___ Walmart/Quest Diagnostics Where: Walmart, 1320 Altamont Ave., Rotterdam When: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 7 a.m. - 9 a.m., weather permitting Staffed by: Walmart pharmacists and other staff Rules: Testing will be done by appointment only; no walk-ups will be allowed. To make an appointment, visit www.MyQuestCOVIDTest.com where you will be directed to sign in to see if you qualify for testing. Those who do can get an appointment as early as tomorrow, the site says. In order to qualify, you must be 18 or older and meet CDC and state guidelines on who should be tested, which includes: first responders, health care providers, individuals with symptoms, and individuals without symptoms who are prioritized by health departments of clinicians for any reason. Once on site, those being tested must wear a mask and stay in their cars. Any questions about the testing should be directed to Quests COVID-19 hotline (1-866-448-7719), which is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ___ WellNow Urgent Care Where: 445 Balltown Road, Schenectady When: Daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Staffed by: WellNow urgent care staff Rules: Must be symptomatic. No appointment is required, but registering online is recommended and individuals must remain in their car to be screened. Once staff are ready, the patient will be given a mask and brought directly into a private room for further evaluation and testing. Those who don't have a car should call the location ahead of time to be screened over the phone. The number is 518-387-3566. Antibody testing is also available at this location. ___ SCHOHARIE COUNTY CVS Pharmacy Where: 726 East Main Street, Cobleskill When: Pharmacy hours Staffed by: CVS pharmacists Rules: Self-swab tests will be available to individuals meeting CDC criteria, in addition to state and age guidelines. Patients must register in advance at CVS.com to schedule an appointment. Patients will be required to stay in their cars and will be directed to the pharmacy drive-thru window or a location in the parking lot at a few stores, where they will be provided with a test kit and given instructions, and a CVS Pharmacy team member will observe the self-swab process to ensure it is done properly. Tests will be sent to an independent, third-party lab for processing and the results will be available in approximately three days. Note: Testing will NOT take place inside any retail locations. ___ WARREN COUNTY Glens Falls Hospital/Warren County Health Services Where: Warren County Municipal Center, 1340 State Rt. 9, Lake George When: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Staffed by: Glens Falls Hospital and Warren County Public Health Services Rules: Drive-up testing is open to residents of Warren, Washington, Saratoga, Essex and Hamilton counties. Anyone who believes they should have a test needs to contact a doctor or urgent care center to have it arranged. Testing location is at the rear of the county complex. Enter through Glen Lake Road. ___ CVS Pharmacy Where: 5 Main St., Queensbury When: Pharmacy hours Staffed by: CVS pharmacists Rules: Self-swab tests will be available to individuals meeting CDC criteria, in addition to state and age guidelines. Patients must register in advance at CVS.com to schedule an appointment. Patients will be required to stay in their cars and will be directed to the pharmacy drive-thru window or a location in the parking lot at a few stores, where they will be provided with a test kit and given instructions, and a CVS Pharmacy team member will observe the self-swab process to ensure it is done properly. Tests will be sent to an independent, third-party lab for processing and the results will be available in approximately three days. Note: Testing will NOT take place inside any retail locations. ___ WASHINGTON COUNTY CVS Pharmacy Where: 1253 Dix Avenue, Hudson Falls When: Pharmacy hours Staffed by: CVS pharmacists Rules: Self-swab tests will be available to individuals meeting CDC criteria, in addition to state and age guidelines. Patients must register in advance at CVS.com to schedule an appointment. Patients will be required to stay in their cars and will be directed to the pharmacy drive-thru window or a location in the parking lot at a few stores, where they will be provided with a test kit and given instructions, and a CVS Pharmacy team member will observe the self-swab process to ensure it is done properly. Tests will be sent to an independent, third-party lab for processing and the results will be available in approximately three days. Note: Testing will NOT take place inside any retail locations. Eventually, well know how it all turned out. But even then we might still be we might already be haunted by the sense that things could have gone differently, for good or ill. The real question Roth was asking in The Plot Against America is What if? At a time of great uncertainty, that can be an oddly reassuring question as well as a scary one, if only because it can help to be reminded that uncertainty is nothing new. Philip Levins early-1940s world, to those of us peering into it from our early-2020s vantage, looks both familiar and outlandish. The clothes and the cars, the cigarettes and the household arrangements evoke a period encrusted with mostly benign nostalgia, a hinge moment between one era and another, when Americans listened to Franklin D. Roosevelt on the radio and Pearl Harbor was just around the corner. The ingenuity of Roths novel and the mostly faithful television adaptation created by David Simon and Ed Burns lies in the way this easy familiarity is twisted into terror. The series is at times almost unbearably suspenseful because most stories set in the years just before World War II are the opposite. History is by definition spoiler-free. (Unlike this article, which will divulge information about The Plot Against America and several other movies and television series.) We never stop arguing about what it means, but we pretty much agree on what happened next. The Venice Film Festival will go ahead with 2020 edition in its usual early September slot, according to Venice Biennale president Roberto Cicutto. Cicutto said the 77th edition of the festival will take place from September 2-12, Variety reported quoting Italian news agency ANSA. He downplayed the possibility of collaboration between Venice and Cannes. Cannes organizers recently said that it would be difficult to hold the festival in its original form due to the coronavirus pandemic but they continued to explore options. Cannes director Thierry Fremaux in an interview with Variety had mentioned that they were looking at the possibility of doing something together if Cannes was cancelled. We're continuing to discuss it, he had said. But Cicutto said they were going ahead with their festival. With Cannes, everything is possible, but I find it disconcerting that Thierry Fremaux keeps saying he is continuing to examine the situation and does not say what he wants to do. We are going forward with our program, and if Cannes is still thinking (about their course of action) then there is no dialogue, Cicutto said. He specified there is currently no hypothesis on the table for a joint Venice-Cannes initiative. Cicutto said he expected a lower foreign attendance this year compared to last editions of the festival. The Biennale has given itself an end of May deadline to sort out more details of the upcoming edition's modalities, he added. Italy is one of the worst-hit European countries from the pandemic with over 23,000 deaths. The country continues to be in a lockdown but there is some hope that the crisis with subside there sooner. Cicutto said as far as using cinemas for the festival is concerned, he is expecting Italian authorities to grant Venice special status. It's one thing to manage six or seven circumscribed movie theatres, as opposed to thousands of movie theatres across the country, he said. Festival De Cannes Will Launch The Marche Du Film 2020 Online From June 22 To 26 E.T. The Extra Terrestrial Cinematographer Allen Daviau Passes Away Due To COVID-19 [April 21, 2020] 8x8 Program Makes Referring Cloud Communications and Contact Center Solutions to Businesses and Organizations Easier and Faster 8x8, Inc. (NYSE: EGHT), a leading integrated cloud communications platform, today announced new enhancements to the 8x8 Referral Program that make it easier and faster for individuals to successfully refer 8x8 X Series cloud communications and 8x8 Contact Center solutions to a business or organization. The 8x8 (News - Alert) Referral Program provides a simple process for individuals, IT consultants, technology advisors and 8x8 customers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to recommend 8x8 solutions. Program participants are eligible for a one-time commission for each business or organization they submit that signs up for an 8x8 solution. Qualifying solutions include 8x8 cloud voice, video, chat and contact center, which are built on an open, modern cloud technology platform. "Many organizations depend on the knowledge and expertise of IT consultants, technology advisors and even their peers as they move to modernize their communications and customer engagement infrastructure," said Homero Salinas, Global Vice President of Commercial Sales at 8x8, Inc. "We invested in making the 8x8 Referral Program easier for these influencers to recommend 8x8 cloud communications and contact center, and help businesses enhance employee and customer experience, especially as they move away from on-premises systems to a mobile, distributed workforce." The 8x8 Referral Program now offers an enhanced referral portal making it easier for program participants to refer 8x8 solutions, and provides greater visibility on payments, referral status and campaigns. New and enhanced features include: Real-time visibility of referral campaigns and status Payment dashboard showing total earnings with reward payment updates Automated reward payments via wire transfer and PayPal (News - Alert) Socil and email campaigns Co-brandable, customizable and shareable content, assets, banners and images Unique URLs for campaign landing pages 15 Million Video Meetings Monthly Active Users Worldwide 8x8 X Series meets the needs of businesses with a mobile and remote workforce by providing a highly reliable and resilient solution across desktop and mobile devices for voice, video conferencing, chat, contact center, APIs and advanced analytics. This allows companies to rapidly unify a distributed workforce and enable flexible workstyles. 8x8 X Series includes 8x8 Video Meetings, powered by Jitsi, an open source community for secure video meetings technology sponsored by 8x8. 8x8 Video Meetings is also available as free and paid standalone versions at https://8x8.vc, and is optimized for use with the WebRTC standard which enables attendees to instantly join meetings without any downloads or plugins. 8x8 Video Meetings is also part of 8x8 Express, a solution for small organizations and teams that require a complete, preconfigured business phone system with a dedicated business number, video meetings and messaging in a single desktop and mobile application. 8x8 Contact Center, available as part of X Series, is a complete solution including ACD, IVR, digital channels, outbound dialer, reporting, customer experience analytics, quality management, speech analytics, customer surveys and knowledgebase, all delivered on one unified, secure and reliable platform featuring single sign-on and centralized administration. Pre-built CRM integrations make it easy for agents to access and view customer data. 8x8 has experienced a significant increase in usage across its private and secure video meetings solutions, including Jitsi Meet and 8x8 Video Meeting services, with monthly active users growing globally to more than 15 million.1 For the latest 8x8 video meetings solutions usage statistics, user stories and social posts updated daily, visit https://www.8x8.com/live. 1 A Monthly Active User is defined as a unique user who attended at least one meeting, with at least one other attendee, in the last 30 days. To learn more, visit the 8x8 Referral Program About 8x8, Inc. 8x8, Inc. (NYSE: EGHT) is transforming the future of business communications as a leading Software-as-a-Service provider of voice, video, chat, contact center, and enterprise-class API solutions powered by one global cloud communications platform. 8x8 empowers workforces worldwide to connect individuals and teams so they can collaborate faster and work smarter. Real-time business analytics and intelligence provide businesses unique insights across all interactions and channels so they can delight end-customers and accelerate their business. For additional information, visit www.8x8.com, or follow 8x8 on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. 8x8 and 8x8 X Series are trademarks of 8x8, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005297/en/ [ Back To SIP Trunking Home's Homepage ] Business & Finance, Health & Wellness By Andrew Hazen Published: April 21 2020 Medical Staff Can Deliver Virtual Treatment Which Reduces the Use of Personal Protective Equipment and Patients Can Connect with Family During Isolation Phobio, a provider of omnichannel trade-in software that simplifies device upgrades, today announced that it has donated 151 iPads to Stony Brook University Hospital. To reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 and make efficient use of PPE, healthcare workers are using the devices to virtually communicate with patients. When language barriers surface, the devices help streamline communication between patients and medical teams. During a time of isolation, iPads also provide patients with an important form of connection with loved ones. Dr. Edward Sun, Assistant Chief Medical Officer at Stony Brook University Hospital, explains the impact of this technology on patient care. "This incredibly generous gift from Phobio has enabled us to get iPads to patients who don't have their own mobile device. We have been able to expand and scale our Inpatient Telehealth services, letting some patients now keep the same iPad for their entire hospital stay. Sun continued, Perhaps most importantly, these devices have given our patients the ability to communicate with their families as we, like most hospitals across the nation, have had to institute a no-visitation policy. For patients who are intubated, we are using these iPads to show families the hard work dedicated to the care of their loved ones." Phobio sanitized the devices using TB-Cide Quat, a pathogenic disinfectant, which allowed the medical staff at Stony Brook University Hospital to immediately install their telemedicine applications and put the devices to work. Phobio is proud to assist Stony Brook University Hospital during this uncertain time, said Stephen Wakeling, Co-Founder, and CEO of Phobio. Now more than ever, it is critical to help healthcare personnel and provide vital technology needed to safely care for patients. (Newser) Facebook groups have spread the word about the series of demonstrations around the country against the stay-at-home orders. Although the social media roots may make the movement appear organic, the Washington Post reports that three brothers are a principal source: Ben, Christopher and Aaron Dorr. They run pro-gun groups in several states, working against the National Rifle Association, for one. The Dorrs think the NRA has compromised too much on the issue of gun safety; Minnesota Gun Rights, whose political director is Ben Dorr, calls itself a "no-compromise gun rights organization." He created the group Wisconsinites Against Excessive Quarantine last Wednesday; Christopher Dorr created Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine and Ohioans Against Excessive Quarantine; and Aaron Dorr started New Yorkers Against Excessive Quarantine. story continues below Facebook doesn't accept events that don't follow the social distancing rules, per the Wall Street Journal, but it hasn't blocked the organizing of these demonstrations because they're legal. In fact, President Trump appeared to endorse the protests in three states on Friday. Polls show the restrictions have more support than is evidenced at the protests, the Post points out: 81% of voters said they'd back a national stay-at-home order to combat the pandemic, including 68% of Republicans and 95% of Democrats, in a Quinnipiac University survey conducted this month. (Dr. Anthony Fauci had something to say about the protests.) LANSING, MI -- Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and former Lt. Gov. Brian Calley along with Michigan Association of CPAs President & CEO Bob Doyle, called on the federal government Tuesday to approve more funding for loans for small businesses. The trio said further funding of the Paycheck Protection Program is essential for businesses in Michigan because they are in need of loans, but were unable to secure them in the initial round of aid. While tens of thousands of Michigan businesses were able to receive more than $10 billion of relief through the Paycheck Protection Program, there continues to be a significant need for additional resources to support our small businesses, Gilchrist said in a press release. Additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program will be critical in helping our businesses keep their doors open and in protecting the livelihoods of their workers. As part of the initial round of aid, 43,000 Michigan businesses received funds, but many were unable to get loans as the program ran out of money less than two weeks after the application process was opened. For those businesses that applied but did not receive funding in the first round, please verify with your lending institution that your application is still active and in line for funding when Congress comes through, Calley said in the press release. If a business didnt apply before, now is the time to get your application ready. These loans can save a business and keep thousands employed. The loans were available to small businesses in Michigan, which included hospitality and food industry businesses and sole proprietorship, independent contractors and self-employed persons, according to the press release. The loans could be forgiven if the business uses the funds to handle payroll, rent, mortgage interest or utilities. If funding is extended for the program, business owners in the state are encouraged to apply quickly in order to have a better chance at receiving funds. The PPP funds on a first come first served basis, Doyle said. Once new funds are available, businesses interested in these forgivable loans, should gather their information and submit an application as soon as possible. President Trump has also called on Congress to approve more funding as businesses across the country continue to struggle during the COVID-19 crisis. ....to State/Local Governments for lost revenues from COVID 19, much needed Infrastructure Investments for Bridges, Tunnels, Broadband, Tax Incentives for Restaurants, Entertainment, Sports, and Payroll Tax Cuts to increase Economic Growth. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. READ MORE Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus Monday, April 20: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Out of work because of the coronavirus shutdown? We want to hear from you Fauci: If states reopen too fast, its going to backfire Michigan 5-year-old dies of coronavirus after complications These are not normal times: Judge moves filing deadline, cuts signature requirements for primary candidates A total of 17 branches of four banks have been shut from Tuesday in the COVID-19 containment zones of North 24 Parganas district, officials said. The district administration has ordered temporary closure of the branches in the containment zones of the district, which include areas of Dum Dum, Bhatpara, Belghoria, Barrackpore, Baguihati, Madhyamgram and Barasat, to restrict people-to-people contact, they said. "Seventeen branches -- Indian Bank (1), Bank of Baroda (4), UCO Bank (10) and Bandhan Bank (2) -- have been identified by the administration," Lead District Manager Salan Bage told PTI. Bage said the temporary shutdown will countinue until further orders. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) KAMPALA Kakwenza Rukira, a political activist and writer has been charged for mobilising public against complying with the health directives on combatting coronavirus. According to the police, Kakwenza who went missing following his abduction from his home in Iganga on Tuesday, April 14, by security agents, citing cyber harassment, misused his Facebook account, posting information that would lead to the spread of COVID-19. Kakwenza Rukira Bashaija on 6th day of April 2020 while at Busei A village in Iganga district using a mini Luveno Laptop Computer S/NO YDO5BOR9 Ideapad 120S 11IAP, Model 81A4 unlawfully/negligently posted messages on his Facebook account Kakwenza Rukira mobilising the public against complying with directives and the public health guidelines issued to prevent the spread to Covid-19 knowing or having reasons to believe that such actions would lead to further spread of Covid-19 a disease dangerous to human life, Police said in a statement. It should be noted that on Monday, April 20, High Court ordered Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF), Police and Attorney General to produced Kakwenza in court on April 27, 2020, at 11 am without fail. The author of the book GREEDY BARBARIAN was allegedly undergoing psychological and physical torture at CMI in Mbuya for writing a book about Kayibanda. His friends earlier said that Kakwenza has various connotations that could have upset the current political authorities. Apparently, only his captors who kidnapped him had access to him without allowing his wife, children, lawyers and or doctors to reach him. Related National Day of Prayer goes virtual County residents will celebrate the National Day of Prayer will happen on Thursday, May 7, but unsurprisingly not in the way they have traditionally observed it. The program format has been changed due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions and guidelines. Organizers will film a video and make it available for organizations, churches, businesses, health care organizations, first responders, emergency and medical organizations and individuals to share through social media including YouTube, Facebook and websites to commemorate the event. For more information contact Rebecca Moon, at Carolina Baptist Association 828-693-4274.PSA for the Lightning The National Day of Prayer, designated by Congress and enacted in 1952, asks people to turn to God in prayer and meditation. The event is coordinated by the Carolina Baptist Association and in past years the event, held at the Historic Courthouse at noon, featured presentation of colors by East Henderson High School JROTC, singing of the National Anthem by East Henderson choir and pledges to the American and Christian flags and the Bible. Individuals offered prayers for the government, military, families, churches, addictions, front line and first responders and media. Air Canada is suspending all flights between Canada and the United States after the two nations agreed to extend border restrictions by an additional 30 days due to the coronavirus pandemic. The suspension of flights announced Tuesday will go into effect on April 27, with service scheduled to resume on May 22. Air Canada said the move resulted from an agreement between the governments of Canada, Mexico and the US to extend a ban on non-essential travel across their shared borders by an additional 30 days. Those restrictions, first implemented on March 21, were set to expire on Tuesday before being renewed over the weekend. Air Canada announced on Tuesday that it is suspending all flights between Canada and the United States after the two nations agreed to extend border restrictions by an additional 30 days due to the coronavirus pandemic Air Canada said it has reduced its schedule by more than 90 percent in the past month due to COVID-19. After the travel restrictions were put in place on March 21, the airline maintained limited service to 11 destinations in the US from its three Canadian hubs, primarily to help repatriate citizens. The last scheduled commercial flight from the US to Canada will be on April 26, Air Canada said. The company plans to waive flight change fees for 'affected customers with bookings during this period', and urged those individuals to consult rebooking policies and revised schedules online. Two other Canadian airlines have also suspended flights to and within the US amid the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this week, WestJet announced that it is extending its suspension on international and US routes through June 4. Porter Airlines did the same back in March, with plans to resume service on June 1. 'We're following developments, including border restrictions, but have not made changes to the planned June 1 date as of now,' Porter said in a statement to Global News on Tuesday. All three passenger airlines said they are planning to apply to the federal government's wage subsidy program to retain or rehire thousands of workers that were temporarily laid off due to the pandemic. As of Tuesday, Canada has recorded more than 38,424 coronavirus infections and 1,798 deaths. The case count in the US is significantly higher, with 812,745 infections and at least 44,292 deaths. Mayor of Bourg-les-Valence, Vice-Chair of the France-Artsakh Friendship Circle Marlene Mourier has sent a congratulatory message to President-elect of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) Arayik Harutyunyan. The message reads as follows: Distinguished President of the Republic of Artsakh, I learned that you were elected President of the Republic of Artsakh with unprecedented results and immediately wanted to congratulate you, in spite of the difficult times due to the pandemic and the consequences that it has had in my city. Taking this opportunity, I would like to reaffirm my commitment and full support to the city of Shushi with which Bourg-les-Valence signed the Declaration of Friendship in 2014 and to Artsakh; I dont stop talking about its merits and defending its values of peace. I hope one day I will be able to receive you in my city, at the entrance of which you will see the waving flag of Artsakh. I sincerely hope your republic is not suffering from the coronavirus pandemic to the extent that France is suffering, and please, accept the assurances of my highest consideration." The Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California has submitted a special regulatory filing to the California Insurance Commissioner with proposals to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The WCIRB governing committee last week voted unanimously on the special regulatory filing. The filing includes amendments to the California Workers Compensation Uniform Statistical Reporting Plan1995 and California Workers Compensation Experience Rating Plan1995 that would: Exclude COVID-19 claims from the experience rating: Claims arising directly from a diagnosis of COVID-19 with an accident date on or after Dec. 1, 2019, would be excluded from the experience rating calculations of individual employers. Since the occurrence or non-occurrence of COVID-19 workers comp claims incurred by an employer is unlikely to be a strong predictor of that employers future workers compensation claim costs, the inclusion of such claims in an experience modification calculation would not meet the intended goal of experience rating. Exclude payments to employees who continue to be paid while not working: Payments made to employees who are continuing to be paid while not engaged in any work activities would be excluded from reportable payroll. This exclusion would apply while Californias statewide stay-at-home order is in place and for up to 30 days thereafter if the employee continues not to work. Excluding this payroll recognizes the extraordinary circumstances resulting from the stay-at-home order and the fact that employees not engaged in work activities have virtually no work-related exposure. Allow assignment of classification 8810 for temporary change in duties: The temporary assignment of Classification 8810, clerical office employees, would be allowed for employees whose job duties meet the definition of a clerical office employee. This provision would apply while Californias statewide stay-at-home order is in place and for up to 60 days thereafter if the employee continues to meet the definition of a clerical office employee, but does not apply to the payroll of employees whose payroll is otherwise assignable to a standard classification that specifically includes clerical office employees. The proposals contained in the filing have been submitted to the commissioner for approval. The WCIRB earlier this month voted not to submit a July 1, 2020 rate after meeting to review the WCIRB actuarial committees analysis of Dec. 31, 2019 California workers comp experience. It found that the indicated advisory pure premium rate was 1 cent above the average reported rate. Given the minor indicated change and the high level of uncertainty of the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impending economic downturn on payrolls and claims costs, the potential slowdown in claims activity due to the statewide stay-at-home order, and emerging claims arising from COVID-19 diagnoses, the committee unanimously decided not to submit a July 1, 2020 filing. Topics California COVID-19 Claims Workers' Compensation Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 21:38:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, April 21 (Xinhua) -- One more Mongolian citizen has tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 34, Mongolia's National Center for Communicable Disease (NCCD) said Tuesday. The patient is a transport driver who traveled to Hungary through Russia on February 21 to work, returning to Mongolia on Saturday via the Altanbulag border point. He was transfered to the NCCD in the capital city of Ulan Bator from the northern Mongolian Selenge province, Amarjargal Ambaselmaa, head of the surveillance department of the NCCD, told a news conference. All the 34 confirmed cases in Mongolia, including four non-nationals, are imported. A French national tested positive for the virus on March 10, becoming the first case in Mongolia. Among the confirmed cases, eight people, including two non-nationals, have recovered so far, according to the NCCD. Enditem Much like middle class, the term small business is vulnerable to creative redefinition. For that reason, along with sheer demand, $349 billion in coronavirus-related relief approved by Congress lasted all of two weeks as multimillion-dollar loans went to small businesses such as Ruths Chris Steak House, with more than 150 locations in the United States and abroad, and Potbelly Sandwich Shop, with more than 400. With countless genuinely small businesses still awaiting assistance, Congress and the administration are reportedly close to a deal to replenish the program with an additional $310 billion as soon as this week. That would be welcome, but lawmakers should tighten up the so-called Paycheck Protection Program to assure that its actually protecting the payrolls of mom-and-pop shops, not propping up the bottom lines of international chains. The loans, which may be forgiven if businesses maintain their workforces, are crucial to stemming the economic ravages of the pandemic and enabling the strict social-distancing measures that have limited the virus toll in California and other states. Despite the suffering being inflicted by monumental job losses, the subject of recent protests in Southern California and around the country, a hasty return to business as usual would bring on a devastating resurgence of infections and deaths. During the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago, San Francisco and other cities relaxed restrictions in short order only to endure a second wave of the contagion that killed more than the first. Ending social-distancing measures as well as massive infusions of federal spending will require the capacity to test for and respond to new infections. To that end, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats were right to push for $100 billion for testing and hospitals to accompany the added funds for small businesses. As with the loan program, it would be wise to attach more rules to that spending to develop the sort of coherent national testing and tracking strategy that President Trump has resisted. The alternative is to invite more squandering of public resources. The business loan program, enacted as part of last months $2 trillion stimulus package, ostensibly aimed to prop up businesses with fewer than 500 employees. But restaurant and hotel chains successfully lobbied for and took advantage of an exemption that allowed individual subsidiaries and locations to qualify despite belonging to larger corporations. Executives at Shake Shack, a New York-based burger chain that employs nearly 8,000 and took in almost $600 million last year, announced Sunday that they would return a $10 million loan from the program. Despite the unprecedented spending already expected under the last stimulus and the next one, daunting needs persist. States and cities, for example, will require more assistance to avoid swelling the ranks of the unemployed with layoffs of government workers. And all these efforts will go further, while retaining the public support they need, if Congress prevents the money from being misspent or wasted. This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters. Hundreds of Amazon employees are expected to strike from Tuesday to protest conditions they say are unsafe and demand better protection in the workplace against the coronavirus pandemic. This is "the biggest mass action by workers yet, as frustrations mount around the company's failure to protect workers and public health in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic," said the Athena coalition, a group of workers' rights organizations, in a statement released Monday. The protest by more than 300 warehouse workers comes three days before an online strike by Amazon coders and engineers. The online retail giant has been accused since the start of the pandemic of failing to sufficiently protect its employees, as well as of firing employees in the US who led protest movements. "For weeks, Amazon workers... have sounded the alarm over unsafe conditions at facilities," Athena's statement said, pointing to 130 warehouses where workers have contracted COVID-19, some "with more than 30 confirmed 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 "We have to make an impossible choice every day: go to a workplace that's not safe or risk losing a paycheck in the middle of a global recession," Jaylen Camp, an Amazon employee at a fulfilment centre in Romulus, Michigan, said in the statement. "Rather than take real steps to protect our health, Amazon would rather stall, lie and fire the people who speak up. We will not be intimidated. Our health and everyone's health is too important," he said. Two weeks ago, Amazon announced it was distributing millions of masks to employees and implementing temperature checks at all of its US and European sites. But, according to Athena, the application of these measures has been "questioned repeatedly by workers on the ground." Warehouses and logistics centers are under heavy strain because of restrictions intended to slow the spread of the virus. The Seattle-based retailer has seen unprecedented demand for its deliveries driven by stay-at-home orders. Its share price has skyrocketed since the start of the crisis and analysts expect the firm to report bumper profits at the end of this month. The company has said it will recruit 175,000 new employees in the US to help with runaway demand. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here Job Title: Fraud Team Lead Organization: M-KOPA Solar Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda Reports To: Credit Manager Position Start: ASAP About US: M-KOPA Solar is the global leader of pay-as-you-go solar home systems. Since its commercial launch in October 2012, M-KOPA has connected more than 700,000 homes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to solar power, and in January 2019, M-KOPA extended its payas-you-go solution to smart phones. Job Summary: The purpose of the Job is to provide a framework for forensic auditing of all suspected fraudulent activities on M-KOPA devices and equipment, implement the framework and provide leadership to the fraud team. Key Duties and Responsibilities: Develop and maintain policies and processes to address fraudulent activities on MKOPA products. Support the team on closure of all fraud cases within stipulated timelines and leading on fraud investigations. Provide leadership and guidance to the fraud field investigators and Fraud Analysts. Support the fraud analyst in effecting DSR suspensions and act as a link with the sales team on DSR discipline. Provide insights on fraud field intelligence and improving of internal controls Manage weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting on fraud trends to key stakeholders in the business. Design and implement progressive training material for the fraud team and sales team. Manage and strengthen bonds with Law Enforcement Agencies, Criminal/Civil Justice system, Prosecutions agency and other Industry & non-industry players to enhance cooperation on mutually beneficial information, fraud investigations, asset tracing & recovery etc. Propose, discuss, and agree recommendations to improve control weaknesses identified during investigations and regularly follow up for their implementation. Proactively conduct Fraud Reviews in critical or high fraud risk areas. Manage a robust and risk-based intelligence-gathering network in all areas. Collaborate with the Credit Team to improve data accuracy and reliability for reporting. Consult with the Director Credit to ensure the fraud team is working efficiently towards achieving its objectives. Qualifications, Skills and Experience: Certification in a fraud related discipline, such as Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). Knowledgeable in identifying indicators of fraud through data mining and analytical exercises. Interpersonal skills to effectively communicate with and manage business expectations with key stakeholders. A positive, learning-oriented attitude and capacity for self-empowerment. At least two years work experience in a professional role. Proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and understanding of statistics and quantitative methods. How to Apply: All interested and qualified candidates please apply online at the link below Click Here Send an updated detailed copy of your CV and a cover letter expressing why you feel you would be an excellent candidate Deadline: Monday 27th April 2020 For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline A pastor at a Louisiana megachurch who was previously cited for defying the states coronavirus stay-at-home orders is facing an aggravated assault charge after he backed up a bus toward a protester outside the church on Sunday, the authorities said on Monday. The pastor, Tony Spell, of Life Tabernacle Church, did not hit the man, but the police in Central, La., near Baton Rouge, said that they obtained an arrest warrant for Pastor Spell, 42, after reviewing video footage of the episode and interviewing the protester and a witness. The bus came within five to seven feet of the man, the authorities said. Pastor Spell turned himself in on Tuesday and was taken to East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, where he was released later in the day on bail, according to the police. The assault charge carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison. He was also charged with improper backing of the bus and for two outstanding traffic ticket warrants, the authorities said. He was protesting the church staying open, Darren Sibley, the assistant police chief of Central, said of the man confronted by Pastor Spell, whom he would not name. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump announced what he described as a temporary suspension of immigration into the United States on Tuesday. But the executive order would bar only those seeking permanent residency, not temporary workers. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 1, 2020, in Washington, as Adm. Karl Leo Schultz, commandant of the Coast Guard, national security adviser Robert O'Brien and Attorney General William Barr listen. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump announced what he described as a temporary suspension of immigration into the United States on Tuesday. But the executive order would bar only those seeking permanent residency, not temporary workers. Trump said he would be placing a 60-day pause on the issuance of green cards in an effort to limit competition for jobs in a U.S. economy wrecked by the coronavirus. The order would include certain exemptions," he said, but he declined to outlined them, noting the order was still being crafted. By pausing immigration well help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens, so important," Trump said at the White House. "It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labour flown in from abroad. National security adviser Robert O'Brien speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 1, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) An administration official familiar with the plans, however, said the order will apply to foreigners seeking employment-based green cards and relatives of green card holders who are not citizens. Americans wishing to bring immediate family will still be able to do so, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity before the plan was announced. About 1 million green cards were granted in the 2019 fiscal year, about half to spouses, children and parents of U.S. citizens. By limiting his immigration measure to green cards, Trump was leaving untouched hundreds of thousands of foreign workers granted non-immigrant visas each year, including farm workers, health care workers and software programmers. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think-tank , estimated that some 110,000 green cards could be delayed during a two-month pause. Trump said he would consider extending the restrictions, depending on economic conditions at the time. Trump has long advocated restrictions on both legal and illegal immigration and has raised concerns for years about foreigners competing with American citizens for jobs. But he denied he was using the virus to make good on a longstanding campaign promise during an election year. No, I'm not doing that all," he said. The president has also used the crisis to push other stalled priorities, from tax reform to dramatic border restrictions. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 21, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Trump has often pivoted to his signature issue of immigration when hes under criticism. Its one he believes helped him win the 2016 election and one that continues to animate his loyal base of supporters heading into what is expected to be a brutal reelection fight. It has also served as a useful tool for distracting from news hed prefer removed from the headlines. Much of the immigration system has already ground to a halt because of the pandemic. Almost all visa processing by the State Department has been suspended for weeks. Travel to the U.S. has been restricted from much of the globe. And Trump has used the virus to effectively end asylum at U.S. borders, including turning away children who arrive by themselves and putting a hold on refugee resettlement something Congress, the courts and international law hadn't previously allowed. Criticism of Trump's announcement was swift, especially his timing during the pandemic. Ali Noorani, president of the National Immigration Forum, noted that thousands of foreign-born health care workers are currently treating people with COVID-19 and working in critical sectors of the economy. Andrea Flores of the American Civil Liberties Union said Trump seemed "more interested in fanning anti-immigrant flames than in saving lives. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 21, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) But Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favours lower rates of immigration, said before the announcement that eliminating millions of work permits and visas would instantaneously create new jobs for Americans and other legal workers even though most businesses are shuttered because of social distancing dictates and stay-at-home orders. She was less enthusiastic after Trump outlined the plan, tweeting a single word: Yawn." Indeed, Carl Shusterman, who has practiced immigration law since the 1970s, said a 60-day pause would have little impact because the government effectively stopped processing green cards in March. The embassies are not open anyway, so this is like nothing new, said Shusterman. This announcement doesnt really change anything unless the embassies were to open up next week or in the next 60 days. Trump first announced his intentions in a vague tweet Monday night. Across the country, those who could be impacted waited in suspense through the day. Chicago immigration attorney Fiona McEntee said she had been inundated with calls, emails and social media messages, including from company executives hoping to expand their business in the U.S., a person applying for a fiance visa and wondering about their wedding plans, artists seeking extraordinary ability visas and foreign students. It has created absolute panic, said McEntee. These are peoples lives. ... It is irresponsible and cruel to put out something like that without any consideration. 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. As is often the case, Trumps tweet also caught many across the administration off-guard. Trump has already used the crisis to take dramatic steps to limit immigration. Last month, the administration effectively ended asylum, relying on a rarely used 1944 law aimed at preventing the spread of communicable disease. U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada have also been closed to tourism and recreational travel. Commercial traffic and a wide range of essential workers are still allowed to travel freely. The U.S. is now reporting more COVID-19 cases than any other country in the world, with almost 800,000 Americans infected, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 42,000 have died. Trump had been expected to use his authority to slash the number of foreign workers allowed to take seasonal jobs in the U.S. Before the outbreak, the administration had planned to increase the number of H-2B visas, angering people who favour more restrictive immigration policies, including some supporters of the president who view foreign workers willing to accept lower wages as unfair competition to American labour. The Department of Homeland Security later put that plan on hold. ___ Spagat reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Colleen Long, Zeke Miller and Darlene Superville in Washington, Carlos Rodriguez in Mexico City and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report. Firefighters were left battling a raging wildfire today after large plumes of smoke were seen billowing across the skyline in Scotland. Rescue services rushed to Kilpatrick Hills, near Glasgow, at around 6.45pm on Monday after residents spotted the ferocious blaze. Three trucks were originally sent to the scene to help tackle the flame, however, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were forced to call crew members back as daylight began to fade after 10pm and made operations dangerous. Firefighters rushed to a wildfire at Kilpatrick Hills, near Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, at around 6.45pm on Monday Large plumes of smoke were seen rising into the sky as emergency services tried to tackle the blaze The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman were alerted to the blaze a 6.45pm on Monday April 20 The emergency service confirmed that they would be re-deploying their crew members back to the scene in the morning. A spokesperson for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: 'We were alerted at 6.41pm on Monday, April 20 to reports of a wildfire close to Cochno Road, Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire. 'A total of four fire appliances remain in attendance as firefighters work to extinguish the fire which is affecting approximately 1.5 miles of grassland. 'Crews will remain in attendance for some time.' Emergency services tried to control the raging fire near Glasgow today and will continue operations tomorrow Following reports of a wildfire, three fire appliances were sent to the scene to extinguish the flame While the scale of the blaze is not yet known, emergency service confirmed that they would be re-deploying their crew members in the morning Today, shocking images from the scene, showed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky and drifting towards Erskine and the Clyde and across many parts of Glasgow. On Twitter, social media users claimed the clouds of smoke had reached as far and Milngavie- a town in East Dunbartonshire. The scale of the blaze is not yet known and firefighters are still working to extinguish the fire. Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger said Tuesday that Hamilton County plans to re-open on May 1, and he is hopeful the municipalities will go along. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Monday announced most counties in the state would no longer be under shutdown orders on May 1, with only a few of the metropolitan counties left to decide when they wish to re-open. County Mayor Coppinger praised the conduct of county residents when it came to following government directives, and implored them to continue to practice social distancing, hand-washing, and other measures that have been in place. Because of this, we feel like Hamilton County is ready and willing to open on May 1, and I sincerely hope our municipalities will do so as well, he said. I believe the governors decision to reopen will be successful only if each city within our county moves in the direction the governor wants us to go, said County Mayor Coppinger. We can do this by working together, and working hand in hand, we can bring this economy back. The mayor did say those over 65 should be extremely cautious when going out. He said social distancing and washing hands should still be practiced after the shutdown order has been lifted. Our county will continue to be aggressive in testing for the COVID-19 virus, and it will continue to aggressively perform our contact-tracing, which we have found to be extremely successful, said County Mayor Coppinger. He said he will continue to communicate with Becky Barnes and the Health Department about the state of COVID-19 in Hamilton County. County Mayor Coppinger said the county will publish a set of guidelines and regulations people must follow as the economy opens up. He said the county wants to follow the state guidelines as closely as possible in order to avoid confusion. They will facilitate those restrictions to the health department, said the county mayor. Those will be disseminated from there. So really, all were waiting on now is for us to come to an agreement. The stance by County Mayor Coppinger goes in opposition to what Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said Monday, where he expressed a desire to move in a more cautious manner as health officials gather more information. I have a lot of confidence in the people of this county, said County Mayor Coppinger about how people conduct themselves, Thats what has helped bring those numbers down. Our habits have changed. I hope that people arent going to, because theyre bored, just go out to a mall and walk around. I hope they just go from point A to point B because its something they need to get or something they need to do. County Mayor Coppinger said there have been a few bad actors during the pandemic, but he said the most citizens have been acting in a safe manner. The majority of people are going to protect themselves and their families, and the health department has given them a the information about how to do that. So Im confident that were going to act in a manner that will make it safe for everyone. When asked if protests or political pressure had any impact on Hamilton County reopening on May 1, County Mayor Coppinger had a terse answer. Zero. None. At the City Council meeting, barber shop operator Ron Brown said it was unfair that similar businesses out in the county will be able to open and not his shop. While most cases of the new coronavirus are only mild or moderate, plenty are severe, with the disease having killed nearly 170,000 people worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. What happens during a serious case of the disease? First, the virus enters your respiratory tract. COVID-19 enters a persons respiratory system through the mouth or nose. Under a microscope, spikes can be seen on the surface of the COVID-19 germ. These spikes are made of protein that allow the virus to latch on to a receptor in the bodys cells and begin duplicating, making the person sick. If the virus stays in the upper respiratory tract, symptoms are generally mild. The new coronavirus can infect both the upper and lower respiratory tracts, unlike respiratory illnesses that might only infect one area or the other, health experts say. A COVID-19 infection generally starts in the nose, health experts have said. The virus then attacks cells that line and protect the respiratory tract. If the virus stays in the upper respiratory tract, the case will probably remain mild or moderate. Likely symptoms include fever and dry cough, and recovery in a week or two without medical care is typical. If the virus moves to the lower respiratory tract, serious illness can occur. A lower respiratory infection means the virus has reached the lung and is what causes shortness of breath and tightness in the chest. The lungs and the respiratory tree, which helps bring oxygen into the lungs, can become inflamed, making it harder to breathe. Lower respiratory tract infections can also lead to pneumonia. With pneumonia, the alveoli where the blood exchanges oxygen and carbon dioxide are infected and filled with fluid. Symptoms of pneumonia include a high fever, sweating, shortness of breath, fatigue, a rapid heartbeat, the face turning blue and, in some cases, confusion. Pneumonia can cause a patient to cough up greenish or yellow mucus. COVID-19 produces a dry cough, so a cough that yields mucus is a sign the illness has progressed to something more. If any of these symptoms arise, its important to get medical help right away. An ill-prepared immune system can attack the body, causing worse illness. In more serious cases of the illness, the bodys response to infection might be too strong, health experts say. Its this aggressive reaction to COVID-19 and not the virus itself that can cause serious illness and death, they say. An immune system that has never experienced the new coronavirus doesnt know how to respond. In a scramble to fight the infection, the immune system can end up destroying healthy cells and tissues. This can leave the lower respiratory tract more susceptible to other bacteria and germs, causing a secondary infection, health experts say. The new infection can destroy cells that help repair the lungs. When you get a bad, overwhelming infection, everything starts to fall apart in a cascade, David Morens, senior scientific adviser to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Bloomberg. You pass the tipping point where everything is going downhill and, at some point, you cant get it back. Further damage to the lungs may require you to get on a ventilator. If damage to the lungs worsens, they may lose their ability to deliver oxygen to other organs, leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS. ARDS is treatable, but it can get worse quickly. Symptoms include rapid breathing, dizziness and sweating. ARDS further damages tissues and blood vessels in the alveoli, making breathing even more difficult. In many cases, a ventilator becomes necessary. As the immune system works even harder to fight infection, it might release chemicals throughout the body, causing widespread inflammation and sepsis, an extreme response in which the blood pressure plummets and, in many cases, organs fail. Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor of medicine and global health at Emory University, told National Public Radio that these cascading effects are what can make COVID-19 so dangerous. The lack of oxygen leads to more inflammation, more problems in the body, he said. Organs need oxygen to function, right? So when you dont have oxygen there, then your liver dies and your kidney dies. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Asip Hasani (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya Tue, April 21, 2020 14:10 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd34a0a6 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-Indonesian-patients,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,East-Java,Malaysia,Pesantren,santri,Magetan,coronavirus,virus-corona,virus-korona-indonesia Free The Magetan regency administration in East Java has decided to quarantine Temboro village, home to Al Fatah Pesantren (Islamic boarding school) and its more than 20,000 santri (Islamic boarding school students), after 43 tested positive for COVID-19 in Malaysia. "Starting from today [Monday], Temboro is under strict quarantine. No one is allowed to enter the village, and those in the village are not allowed to leave except for emergencies," Magetan Regent Suprawoto told The Jakarta Post on Monday. Malaysian health authorities announced on Sunday that 43 Malaysian students who had recently returned from the pesantren had tested positive for COVID-19. Suprawoto said locking down Temboro village was crucial given the fact that some Al Fatah santri lived outside the school complex. With the decision, he said, thousands of Temboro villagers would also live under quarantine. Read also: East Java boarding school undergoes rapid COVID-19 testing after Malaysia reports imported cases Suprawoto said the quarantine measure would be in place until a joint tracing team from the regency and East Java provincial task force completed their job in examining the situation in regard to possible COVID-19 transmissions in the village, especially among Al Fatah students. He said COVID-19 rapid tests would be conducted for Al Fatah students once testing kits from the provincial task force arrived in Magetan. He acknowledged, however, that there was a limited amount of rapid testing kits available and he had no idea how many must be used to trace possible cases in Temboro. Al Fatah boarding school, located some 11 kilometers to the north of the center of Magetan, has more than 22,000 students, 2,000 of which are foreigners, mostly from Southeast Asian countries. Founded in 1950s, the school occupies three different sites in Temboro and has a great influence on the villagers' social and cultural life. Al Fatah is also known as the base for an Islamic group known as Jamaah Tabligh, whose members regularly travel far from their homes for months to preach Islamic teachings at mosques and often reaching people with door-to-door visits. Several COVID-19 cases in Malaysia, India and South Sulawesi have been linked to Jamaah Tabligh events held in the respective regions. It is currently unclear whether any of the Al Fatah santri attended those events. Read also: COVID-19: South Sulawesi cancels mass religious event, but not before thousands arrive on site Suprawoto said he was shocked upon hearing about the cluster of COVID-19 cases from Malaysian authorities, as the Magetan administration had previously been praised by East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa for its successful efforts in containing the spread of the disease. The regency has recorded only 10 confirmed COVID-19 patients, eight of whom have recovered while one has died. Another is being treated at a public hospital in Madiun. The deceased patient was a 59-year-old Magetan resident who died at the Moewardi Hospital in Surakarta, Central Java. The other nine cases were linked to him. With only one active case left, Suprawoto thought the administration had managed to halt the spread of the virus in the regency. "Then came the shocking report that suggests the presence of a totally different source of transmission in Magetan," he said. He said his administration had urged Al Fatah to send its foreign students home because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The 43 santri who tested positive in Malaysia were among a batch of 200 Malaysians who had left the pesantren. Suprawoto said there were still 227 Malaysian students left in Temboro and hundreds others from other Southeast Asian countries who wanted to stay and spend the fasting month in the village. "I have contacted the Malaysian embassy and they will help us send the remaining Malaysian students home if we decide to do so," he said. Separately, Khofifah said the provincial task force had sent a tracing team as well as 1,000 rapid test kits to Temboro on Monday afternoon. According to the official government count, East Java has recorded 590 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 56 deaths as of Monday. [April 21, 2020] COVID-19 & Video Conferencing | 2020 Market Overview & Insights, Verticals Most Affected, Impact on Major Economies, Company Profiles DUBLIN, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Impact of COVID-19 on the Video Conferencing Market, 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global video conferencing industry is expected to gain traction during the coronavirus outbreak. As the enterprises and government organizations are considering video conferencing as an ultimate solution to connect with remote workers, customers, and employees; and, at the same time, it prevents direct contact with the people. There are several factors that have been driving the market growth since the last decade, such as the increasing focus of companies towards the expansion of their businesses in the global market and in the management of the workforce in various subsidiaries. However, the outbreak of the coronavirus has impacted the video conferencing market positively. The ban on travel has limited the reach of the enterprises in the foreign market, which in turn, has increased the adoption of video conferencing software. Companies are adopting an innovative recruitment process at such time by engaging video conferences. The government, on the other hand, is using video conferencing software to connect with doctors and administrative people of their region and also of other countries. Global video conferencing industry report is segmented based on its end-user into government and commercial sector. As the countries are announcing a lockdown of their respective states continuously and urging enterprises to offer work from home facilities to its employees; the adoption rate of video conferencing software is getting increased. The government of a number of countries has put a restriction of trade and travel, owing to which the MNCs are adopting video conferencing software to engage their clients. Such moves are expected to trigger the video conferencing market during the pandemic. In addition, the effect of COVID-19 on the video conferencing industry is analyzed from a geographical standpoint by including North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World in the report. Asia-Pacific is contributing a major role in the growth of the video conferencing market during this pandemic situation. China, Japan, South Korea, and India have beenexperiencing damage in the economy due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Chinese economy hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak and the country has lockdown itself since more than a month. Moreover, after the sever outbreak of COVID-19 in Europe, countries including Italy, Denmark, Spain, Germany, France are under complete lockdown. The government is engaged in arranging a platform for employees, students, in order to revive the country from this outbreak. Video conferencing is one such solution that has been called out by the companies and government organizations under this arrangement. The market players are also reaching out to the enterprises and government organizations to expand their services in the country. In February 2020 , Zoom Video Communications, Inc. has lifted the 40-minute limit on video calls for its free version in China . Key companies getting affected in the market include 8x8, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Google LLC, Lifesize, Inc., LogMeIn, Inc., Microsoft Corp., RingCentral, Inc., StarLeaf Ltd., Zoho Corp. Pvt. Ltd., Zoom VideoCommunications, Inc., and so other. These companies are envisaging the pandemic situation as a key to increase their growth and at the same time helping the nation during the crisis. The market players are offering their services for free or at minimal cost to the enterprises and government organizations. For instance, in March 2020 , Zoom Video Communications, Inc., a California -based remote conferencing services company, has announced the free access to video conferencing tools for K-12 schools during COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, the company's stock prices have increased with the last few months as the investors are as certain that the virus could possibly boost the demand for Zoom's video conferencing products. The report covers: Comprehensive research methodology of the global video conferencing Industry. Detailed and extensive market overview with key analyst insights. Exhaustive analysis of macro and micro factors influencing the market guided by key recommendations. Analysis of regional regulations and other government policies impacting global video conferencing Industry. Insights about market determinants that are stimulating global video conferencing Industry. Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues. Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players. Key Topics Covered 1. Report Summary 1.1. Research Methods and Tools 2. Market Overview and Insights 2.1. Scope of the Report 2.2. Analyst Insight & Current Market Trends 2.2.1. Key Findings 2.2.2. Recommendations 2.2.3. Conclusion 2.3. Supply & Demand Analysis 3. Industry Overview 3.1. Historical market growth estimation in the video conferencing industry excluding COVID-19 pandemic effect 3.2. Deviations in the video conferencing industry growth rate due to COVID-19 pandemic 4. Verticals Affected Most 4.1. Government 4.2. Commercial 5. Impact of COVID-19 on Major Economies 5.1. North America 5.1.1. United States 5.1.2. Canada 5.2. Europe 5.2.1. UK 5.2.2. Germany 5.2.3. Italy 5.2.4. Spain 5.2.5. France 5.2.6. Rest of Europe 5.3. Asia-Pacific 5.3.1. China 5.3.2. Japan 5.3.3. India 5.3.4. Rest of Asia-Pacific 5.4. Rest of the World 6. Company Profiles 6.1. 8x8, Inc. 6.2. Cisco Systems, Inc. 6.3. Google LLC 6.4. Lifesize, Inc. 6.5. LogMeIn, Inc. 6.6. Microsoft Corp. 6.7. RingCentral, Inc. 6.8. StarLeaf Ltd. 6.9. Zoho Corp. Pvt. Ltd. 6.10. Zoom Video Communications, Inc. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vtodsj Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/covid-19--video-conferencing--2020-market-overview--insights-verticals-most-affected-impact-on-major-economies-company-profiles-301044401.html SOURCE Research and Markets [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A Covid-19 sign on the entrance gates of Belmont cemetery in Antrim There have been nine further deaths due to coronavirus in Northern Ireland hospitals, the Department of Health has announced. It brings the death toll here to 216. It comes as First Minister Arlene Foster told the public "this is not the time to take the foot off the pedal" as she paid tribute to the Northern Ireland companies who are manufacturing PPE during the crisis. Speaking from Stormont, Mrs Foster said the impact of coronavirus could be felt in the public and private sector for years to come. Read More Mrs Foster and deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill also addressed the division between Northern Ireland's political parties on whether to reopen cemeteries amid the coronavirus pandemic. Mrs Foster said the Executive will have to come to a collective decision on the issue but her view is that cemeteries should be reopened with social distancing in place. But Mrs O'Neill said, while she understands the difficulty the issue is causing, "we are still in a pandemic". "We're not out the other side so we have to focus on the public health message which is stay at home and only go out if you need to," she said. "This is for the public interest. Ultimately this is still about saving lives," she aded. The UUP supports reopening on a "controlled basis", while the Alliance Party has said they remain opposed. The SDLP has requested advice from the chief medical officer and chief scientific officer on the issue. Council-run graveyards were closed in Northern Ireland last month as part of the lockdown. Read More Follow all Tuesday's main developments in our live blog A new green pit viper species of the genus Trimeresurus was discovered during the herpetological expedition to Arunachal Pradesh in India, part of the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot. The scientists named the newly-discovered snake Trimeresurus salazar after a Parselmouth (able to talk with serpents) wizard, co-founder of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the founder of the House of Slytherin - Salazar Slytherin, the fictional character of J.K. Rowling's saga "Harry Potter". The discovery, authored by Zeeshan Mirza of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, Mr. Harshal and Mr. Mandar of the Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, Mr. Gowande of Pune's Fergusson College and Mr. Phansalkar of the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, is published in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution. The pit vipers in the genus Trimeresurus are charismatic venomous serpents, distributed widely across east and southeast Asia. In total, the genus includes at least 48 species, with fifteen representatives occurring in India. The species belonging to the genus are morphologically cryptic, which makes it difficult to distinguish them in the field. As a result, their real diversity could be underestimated. Arunachal Pradesh, where the new species was found, belongs to the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot, which explains the diverse flora and fauna being continuously discovered there. The new green pit viper demonstrates a unique orange to reddish stripe, present on the head and body in males. Explaining the name of the new species, the scientists suggest that it is colloquially referred to as the Salazar's pit viper. This is already the second species discovered within the course of the expedition to Arunachal Pradesh, which reflects the poor nature of biodiversity documentation across north-eastern India. "Future dedicated surveys conducted across northeastern India will help document biodiversity, which is under threat from numerous development activities that include road widening, agriculture, and hydro-electric projects", shares the lead researcher Dr. Zeeshan A. Mirza from National Centre for Biological Science of Bangalore, India. ### Original source: Mirza ZA, Bhosale HS, Phansalkar PU, Sawant M, Gowande GG, Patel H (2020) A new species of green pit vipers of the genus Trimeresurus Lacepede, 1804 (Reptilia, Serpentes, Viperidae) from western Arunachal Pradesh, India. Zoosystematics and Evolution 96(1): 123-138. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.96.48431 Additional information Contact: Dr. Zeeshan A. Mirza Email: snakeszeeshan@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snakeszeeshan Instagram: zeeshan_a_mirza Chris Hemsworth couldn't believe the determination of one of his fans who risked a serious accident while chasing him down for an autograph. The Australian actor, who was filming new movie Extraction in India at the time, had a pal film the moment an 'enthusiastic' fan wove through busy streets on his motorbike to get the star's signature. In the clip which Chris shared on Tuesday, the man could be seen riding alongside Chris' SUV waving a photo of Chris as the actor expressed his shock at the fan's fearlessness. Wow: Chris Hemsworth was left impressed as he watched a daredevil fan weave through the streets on his motorbike to get his autograph on his recent trip to India to film Extraction 'One of the more enthusiastic fans I've ever seen,' Chris commented as he flashed a look at the camera. 'Yes mate, not in the middle of the traffic though,' the 36-year-old said as he watched the man keep up with his vehicle despite various obstacles in his path. 'Watch out for the- oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god...' Chris muttered as he started getting nervous for the man's safety. After disappearing briefly, Chris was surprised to see the fan return with friends. 'Please, you're gonna crash! he pleaded at the eager fans. Autograph please! The man rode alongside Chris' SUV waving a photo of the actor as Chris expressed his shock at his fearless admirer 'Yes mate, not in the middle of the traffic though,' the 36-year-old said as he watched the man keep up with his vehicle despite various obstacles in his path 'One of the more enthusiastic fans I've ever seen' the Aussie star commented Freaked out: After disappearing briefly, Chris was surprised to see the fan return with friends. 'Please, you're gonna crash! he pleaded with the eager fans So impressed with their determination the Thor star decided to stop and meet his new friends and posed for selfies with a huge crowd of people. Sharing the video to his Instagram, Chris joked that he had found a new stuntman for his action movies. 'Persistence pays off - not only did this guy get an autograph, he also does all my motorbike stunts from now on.' he wrote. Chris recently admitted that the action scenes for his new Netflix movie were the most intense of his career. They got it! So impressed with their determination the Thor star decided to stop and meet his new friends Excited to see their hero: The friendly star posed for photos with a big group of fans 'I think if I added up every action film that I'd ever done or every piece of action I've ever done in a movie, it wouldn't even come close to what we've done in the last nine weeks on this movie,' the actor told The Sunday Telegraph. Chris plays damaged mercenary Tyler Rake who is contracted to rescue the kidnapped son of crime lord from India. 'We're limping home at the end of most days, it's the most complex, most real-life action I've ever done,' he said of the work that he and the movie's stuntmen put into the production. Extraction is set to be released on Netflix on Friday April 24. A genetic change increases the risk of developing schizophrenia and highlights new opportunities for drug treatment say researchers. The collaborative research by a team from Lancaster, Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities was funded by the Medical Research Council. In the human genome, small sections of DNA have been found to be duplicated (copied) or deleted in a small number of people, a phenomenon known as Copy Number Variation. Some of these genetic changes are linked to an increased risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism, but the disease mechanisms involved remain largely unknown. For example, people with a DNA duplication at chromosome 16p11.2, that results in having extra copies of around 30 different genes, are approximately 15 times more likely to develop schizophrenia than people without the duplication. Why this should be the case is very poorly understood. For the first time, research reported by the team in the journal Cell Reports, has shown that the 16p11.2 duplication impacts on a number of different inhibitory neuron types, neurons that use the neurotransmitter GABA, in brain areas dysfunctional in schizophrenia. These brain areas include the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. The researchers also show that these GABA neuron changes are accompanied by impaired functional communication between the same brain regions. Importantly, the researchers found that 16p11.2 duplication also results in cognitive and social deficits. These deficits not only parallel those seen in patients with schizophrenia, but are also known to involve the brain regions identified as being dysfunctional as a result of 16p11.2 duplication. Dr Neil Dawson, the lead researcher from Lancaster University said: "Our data give new insight into how 16p11.2 duplication increases the risk of developing schizophrenia and the mechanisms involved. A key finding is the observation of disrupted connectivity between brain regions that are known to be dysfunctional in schizophrenia. We can now test the ability of drugs to restore these changes as part of ongoing research to develop better treatments for the disorder". Professor Judith Pratt, the lead research from Strathclyde University, also highlighted the potential opportunity for drug development given these findings. "The current drug treatment options available for people with schizophrenia are limited, only effective for some patients and often involve severe side effects. Drugs to help patients with their cognitive and social problems are particularly urgently needed, as these symptoms dramatically impact on their quality of life. Our findings highlight the potential of drugs targeting the GABA neurons and provide a range of translational biomarker measures against which we can test the potential therapeutic efficacy of these and other drugs for schizophrenia". Professor Brian Morris, the lead researcher from Glasgow University adds: "The finding of disturbed GABA neuron function as a consequence of 16p11.2 duplication is particularly intriguing, given that we know these cell types are dysfunctional in the brains of people with schizophrenia. This suggests that we are now closer to pinpointing the genes that regulate GABA cell function, and hence in the future to a potential approach to help people with schizophrenia". ### Theres only two venues for change. One is the government, and they dont want to do it, and the other is the people, and the people dont have the tools to do itI outline in this book the detailed toolsits a manual to create and operate a Legislature of the People. The 2020 presidential primary elections and COVID-19 pandemic have brought to the forefront a multitude of issues with the U.S. political infrastructure. An increasing number of Americans have shown support for implementing single-payer healthcare, making higher education affordable and accessible, limiting the power of private banks and limiting defense spending, yet, the interests of the American public are not reflected at the legislative level of representative government. However, rather than becoming apathetic about the political process, former Alaskan senator and 2008 and 2020 presidential candidate Mike Gravel urges citizens to instead consider that the answer to todays crises lies with the people and not political leaders. In his new book, The Failure of Representative Government and the Solution, he outlines how the American people can create and operate a Legislature of the People, thereby breaking the monopoly representatives have on lawmaking and shifting from minority rule by the elite to majority rule by the people. When Gravel left the Senate in 1981, he was outraged by the tremendous influence money had in determining laws and the priority given to defense spending over the welfare of citizens. After spending years reflecting on how government could better serve its people, he set out to find a constitutional strategy that would allow for citizens to bypass corrupt legislators and enact policy themselves. Theres only two venues for change, said Gravel in an interview with Primo Nutmeg podcast. One is the government, and they dont want to do it, and the other is the people, and the people dont have the tools to do itI outline in this book the detailed toolsits a manual to create and operate a Legislature of the People. In his book, Gravel explains that while the constitutional framers purposely left out lawmaking tools for the people in order to protect the institution of slavery, the Constitutions preamble acknowledges citizens sovereign legislative power. He constructs a constitutionally backed, lawyer-reviewed argument for direct democracy, providing step-by-step instructions to inform average citizens on how to secure and exercise their power as well as a legislative package to enact a Legislature of the People. With the creation of a Legislature of the People, elected officials would still retain lawmaking power. However, the American people would no longer have to rely solely on their discretion to enact much-needed legislation. Rather, they would be able to create, vote on and enact laws independent of representative government. Ultimately, through The Failure of Representative Government and the Solution, Gravel seeks to show the American people that political change is possible and empowers them to become deliberate lawmakers and exercise control over the future of the country. The Failure of Representative Government and the Solution: A Legislature of the People By Senator Mike Gravel, Joel Lauria (foreword) ISBN: 9781728339290 (softcover); 9781728339306 (electronic) Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, AuthorHouse and MikeGravel.com About the author A 2008 and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Mike Gravel started his political career representing Alaska in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1981. During those 12 years, he scored many notable achievements, beginning in his freshman term when, in 1971, he waged a successful one-man filibuster for five months that forced the Nixon Administration to cut a deal ending the draft. Gravel is most prominently known for his release of The Pentagon Papers, the 7,000-page secret official document that revealed the lies and manipulation that misled the country into the Vietnam War. The release of The Pentagon Papers and the ensuing lawsuits precipitated the end of the U.S.s involvement. After serving in the Senate, Senator Gravel founded the Democracy Foundation, Philadelphia II, and Direct Democracy, three non-profit corporations dedicated to the establishment of a Legislature of the People in the United States. He has also authored and co-authored several books, including A Political Odyssey (2008), Citizen Power (2008) and The Failure of Representative Democracy and the Solution (2019). Now at 90, Gravel carries on his lifes work in the fight for global peace, progressive economics and direct democracy. Review Copies & Interview Requests: LAVIDGE Phoenix Leslie Standridge 480-998-2600 x 586 lstandridge(at)lavidge(dot)com ### Highlighting why exemption of fisheries and related activities from lockdown restrictions may not help fishing communities and businesses much, experts have said that logistics, manpower and market situation in the wake of COVID-19 stand as major obstacles. Marine fisherfolk of Odisha foresee a miserable life ahead despite fishery activities being exempted from the purviews of the nationwide lockdown in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). "Fishermen of the coastal villages are living a miserable life. And, with no opportunities to earn, either from fishing or daily labour, marine fishing community in Odisha is bound to face more hardship in coming days," B Chittama, noted leader of Odishas marine fisherwomen, said. Chittama, who leads the federation of about 150 groups of marine fisherwomen of Odisha called Samudram, lives in Arjipalli, a fishermen village on the Bay of Bengal coast, near Gopalpur of Odishas Ganjam district. "All our fishermen have been sitting idle since the janata curfew of 22 March, followed by the lockdown in the state from 23 March. Without any economic activity or income opportunity, most of us have no money to meet our daily needs like vegetables and groceries. Some have even incurred loans to survive." Insufficient govt relief As the government provided ration under public distribution system (PDS) three months in advance and disbursed Rs 1,000 each to all the beneficiaries for food and social security, the PDS card holders recieved rice and money to survive, for now. "What about those families who do not have a PDS card?" asked 56-year-old Buli Dei from Arakhkuda village located between Bay of Bengal and the Chilika lake. "At least, 300 families from our village have been debarred from the list of beneficiaries under National Food Security Act. In absence of any support they are living under a lot of hardships. Thousands of such families live miserably in hundreds of fishing villages whose primary source of livelihood is marine fishing," said Buli. Even though the Government of Odisha has announced special packages for welfare of wage labourers, construction workers, street venders etc. to benefit 1.64 crore people of the state's current population of over 4.7 crore, the fishermen of the state feature nowhere in the list. The fisher folks also survive on whatever they from daily fishing, It is quite similar to daily wage earners. Without fishing they have no other livelihood source. They should be considered for support against the loss of their livelihood, urged Chittama highlighting the plights of fishermen during the lockdown across coastal villages of Odisha. According to Prasanna Kumar Behera, president of Odisha Traditional Fish Workers Union, while the National Fish Workers Forum has appealed to the government of India to extend necessary support survival to fishermen, the issues have also been brought to the notice of Odisha government urging necessary action. Exemption brings little difference Although, the governments of India and Odisha have exempted fisheries and related operations from the lockdown, no one in the sector sees any difference due to that. Fishermen couldnt go fishing during the peak season due to first phase of the lockdown. Now, the second phase of the lockdown has coincided with beginning of the monsoon ban on marine fishing, imposed every year for conservation of marine fish species during the breeding season. The no fishing days have extended placing the fishing communities at utmost vulnerability, Behera noted. "However, this monsoon ban shouldnt affect livelihood of traditional fishermen as motorised and non-motorised boats upto 8.5 metre length are allowed for fishing activities in the territorial waters, within 12 nautical miles, about 22 kilometres, off the Odisha coast," said Smruti Ranjan Pradhan, director of fisheries department. "The government has also allowed all associated activities like transportation, selling etc. during the second phase lockdown but by abiding to the basic safety and social distancing norms," he added. Although, the ground realities are different than what is perceived by the government. Aside that they don't have enough masks and sanitisers, selling their catch to traders is a bigger problem from the fisherfolks, said Sumanta Kumar Biswal, president of Paradeep-based Odisha Marine Fish Producers Association (OMFPA). "We stopped fishing operations since 22 March fearing crowd at fishing base if operation continued. The initial catch that reached the base were sold at throwaway price as traders and buyers couldnt come due to lockdown. So the trawler operators and fishermen had to face heavy loss," Biswal said. Seafood processors, hotels and restaurants, who procure a substantial chunk of marine fish catch, are all closed during lockdown. Ice factories are also not operating to supply sufficient amount of ice for storage. Fisherwomen, who usually go to villages to sell the fish, are not allowed to enter any village because of the COVID-19 fear. So, distress sell has become the norm at all fishing bases. For example, on 19 April, Pomfret category fishes were sold at Rs 20 per kg, said Mangaraj Panda of United Artists Association, a Ganjam-based non-profit, which also is an advisor to the Samudram federation. Export market uncertainties affected most of the seafood processing facilities. Countries stopped seafood export and import in the wake of COVID-19. Our farmers didnt raise prawn stocking which they should have done in the end of February or beginning of March because of lack of export opportunities. This has affected millions of people associated with the seafood industry, said Ramesh Mahapatra, Chairman of Magnum Sea Foods, a Bhubaneswar-based seafood exporter. Highlighting why exemption of fisheries and related activities from lockdown restrictions may not help fishing communities and businesses much, Mahapatra said that logistics, manpower and market situation in the wake of COVID-19 stand as major obstacles. "Even though government allowed processing plants to operate, getting labourers and the workers back at the plant have not been possible. While availing essential logistics and manpower is an issue, export market is also down. Cumulatively they all hamper the fishing industry and are going to affect the fishing communities badly, he emphasised. Longer fishing hiatus Fisher villages around Olive Ridley marine turtle nesting sites face a longer fishing hiatus every year. They usually have to restrict their fishing activities since the month of November when mating season for the turtles begins. Restrictions continue for seven months till the month of May when the turtle hatchlings emerge out of the nests in the coastal sands and go into the sea to start their life as a marine species. Under this ban for protection of the marine turtles during their breeding activities, trawlers and mechanised larger fishing boats are restricted to fish within 20 kilometers off the coasts that act as hosts to annual mass nesting activities by lakhs of Olive Ridley sea turtles. Beaches around Rushikulya, Devi and Dhamra River Mouths are Odishas known hosts of turtle mass nesting activities. So, hundreds of villages around these nesting sites restrict their fishing activities from November every year. Before the ban for turtle safety ends, the two-month long monsoon ban for conservation of fish population enters from 15 April. "Ultimately, fishing activity in villages around turtle mass nesting sites halts for a period of almost 8 months in a year. This, probably, is the longest annual hiatus in marine fishing," said Panda. Rest of the year, from 15 June till the end of October (being the monsoon season), a number of low pressure days, extreme rainy days and cyclonic storms often result in a series of no fishing days for these fisher folks. This makes fishing an unviable economic activity forcing community youth to migrate to distant places or other states in search of work. Long-term impact on fishing business OMFPA president Biswal foresees many long term impacts of the lockdown on fishing communities and businesses. Welcoming the two month ban on marine fishing for conservation of fish species for sustainable fishery, his primary concern was on annual maintenance of boats and trawlers. Usually, we consume these two months for our annual maintenance works and get ready for fishing by the end of the ban. But, this time due to the lockdown, we neither get the required manpower nor necessary equipment and spare parts are available to do all those works in time, he said. This may delay fishing activities even after the lockdown is over, because we cant venture into the sea without the annual maintenance works, Biswal said expressing his worries. At the community level, economic backbone of the fisher folks has already broken due to the lockdown disrupting fishing activities during the peak season. They dont have money to repair their boats and nets to quick start fishing after the monsoon ban which would push them to further financial hardships in the coming days, Narayan Haldar, a fisherman from Kharinasi in Kendrapada district apprehended. According to A Kaleya, 45, of Ganjams Nolia Nuagaon, such a state of financial misery is bound to threaten food and nutrition security in the fishermen community. It may lead to more distress migration of youth and families in the coastal villages. Solutions sought Highlighting the gravity of the situation, Biswal urged that the government should make, both technical manpower and spare parts for maintenance of trawlers and mechanised boats, available before the end of the monsoon ban. We understand that government has declared lockdown for the benefit of people, to stop the lethal COVID-19 from spreading. However, it needs to ensure that no body dies hungry in a state of lockdown, Arjun Behera, 60, of Arakhkuda village said. Leaders of the community sought the government to come to the rescue of fisher folks and create opportunities at the earliest to ensure their survival and recovery from the current state of life. By Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) - As Detroit's automakers shut production in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, South Korea's Hyundai Motor cranked up its factories back home to ship cars to the United States, a move that is proving costly for the world's fifth-largest auto group. Hyundai <005380.KS> ramped up domestic production to as much as 98% of capacity by late March, not only as the Korean market was recovering from a bad February but also because it bet on demand for Tucson SUVs and other models from U.S. customers, its biggest overseas market outside of China. Hyundai shipped 33,990 vehicles to the United States in March, or 4.3% more from a year ago, according to company data. While Hyundai is one of few global automakers whose production has recovered at home, its exports optimism has been dampened by the severity of the U.S. outbreak, weak consumer sentiment that battered the industry, and as rivals have quickly moved to guard their turf. Consignments of cars shipped from South Korea are now sitting in U.S. ports, with dealers slow to take deliveries because of slumping sales and rising inventory, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Reuters could not independently verify how many vehicles shipped by Hyundai and other auto makers are held in U.S. ports. The company idled a Tucson production line at home last week for five days. And analysts now expect a sharp drop in first-quarter operating profit when it reports results on Thursday and some even forecast a second-quarter loss. "I hope that the situation will recover by the middle of next month. If not, we might have to lay off some people," said Brad Cannon, general manager of an exclusive Hyundai dealership in California, whose sales are down more than 50% from when the pandemic started. Hyundai runs a factory in Alabama - which is closed until May 1 - but imports are key to meet U.S. demand. Only about half of its vehicles sold in the United States are made in North America compared to between 68% and 85% for Japanese rivals Toyota Motor <7203.T>, Nissan Motor <7201.T> and Honda Motor <7267.T>, who have also suspended production there till May. Story continues Hyundai's South Korean factory operation, which had recovered from a component shortage from China to nearly 100% capacity by March, could fall to as much as 70% in April, the company recently told analysts. "Hyundai Motor has been maintaining strong cooperative relationship with our dealers around the world and we will overcome this difficult time by further enhancing collaboration with our dealers," it said in an emailed statement to Reuters. "We will work to maintain the optimal level of inventory at each step of the supply chain... aiming for a faster recovery than others when the crisis softens." MINIMISING IMPACT For its part, Hyundai has taken measures to minimise the impact. In March, Hyundai was first in the market to relaunch a job-loss protection programme introduced during the 2008-09 global financial crisis in the U.S. market, offering to cover up to six months of payments for car buyers if they lose their job due to COVID-19 this year. It has also revamped its model lineup, in a move reminiscent of the car maker's success in 2009 when Hyundai was the only major automaker to post increases in U.S. sales through a revamp of the portfolio and aggressive marketing campaigns. But rivals, which were in turmoil a decade ago, are not standing still this time around. Detroit's big three - General Motors , Ford , and Fiat Chrysler - have been quicker than Hyundai in launching attractive financial offers, propelling them to their biggest combined market share since 2006 in late March-early April, according to researcher J.D. Power. "I think the market has changed I don't think it will be like 2008. The other makers may be not as aggressive, but pretty much right there," Scott Fink, the operator of Hyundais biggest U.S. dealer, said. He expects his dealership to post a 40% sales drop in April compared with an 18% decline in March. While not optimistic about a quick market recovery, Fink said Hyundai would be still able to resume sales and market share growth, driven by new products like the Palisade SUV. RECOVERY AT HOME Still, demand recovery at home, Hyundai's biggest market, is expected to cushion the blow from the slump overseas, with South Korea's new COVID-19 cases dropping to nine on April 21 from a peak of 909 on Feb. 29, without drastic measures such as lockdowns. Hyundai's domestic sales in March hit their highest level in more than four years, up 80% from February, helped by a consumption tax cut. Hyundai also said local pre-orders for new models like the Elantra and Genesis G80 are strong. On Saturday, a Hyundai Motor dealership on the outskirts of Seoul was busy, with a steady stream of mask-wearing customers going in and out. "Customer traffic has fully recovered to the pre-virus level," said Lee Taek-san, the store's general manager, adding some 40 groups are now visiting the showroom on a holiday, from 10 in early March. "It is a relief," he said. (Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu in Tokyo; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) Cookie Preferences Cookie List Cookie List A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website when visited by a user asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting for our advertising and marketing efforts. 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Chandigarh, April 21 : The Punjab government on Tuesday announced a series of cost-cutting measures, including an immediate 25 per cent reduction in entitlements for petroleum product expenses of all government departments. However, the frontline health, medical education, police, food and agriculture departments would be exempted. The reduction will remain in force till the Department of Finance resubmits its proposal for review to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. The decision was taken at a virtual meeting of the sub-committee on finance, chaired by Amarinder Singh, who stressed on the need for an exit strategy, pointing out that the state could not be kept under lockdown indefinitely. The report of the 20-member expert committee working on the strategy is expected this week, an official spokesperson told IANS. Amid concerns expressed by Finance Minister Manpreet Badal over the critical fiscal situation in the state in the light of all revenue receipts drying up, the meeting decided that tough decisions are needed to be taken, as an interim measure, to help the state tide over these difficult times. The meeting also decided that the norms and expenditure on security of people not holding public office any longer or have never held public office would be reviewed by May 15 to decide on possible cuts on this count. Earlier, the security of several protected people in the state, including the Chief Minister, was cut down to divert police personnel for the much-needed curfew enforcement and Covid-19 relief duties. The meeting gave its formal approval to the Chief Minister's earlier announcement that dependents or legal heirs of an employee of the state government who contracts the Covid-19 infection on the line of duty would be paid an ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister asked the Health Department to prepare a comprehensive budget for Covid-19 related expenditures. The study updates a similar study by the ACLU in 2013 that found blacks were also about four times more likely to be arrested for weed. That disparity was one of the main arguments for legalizing the drug in Illinois, and for social equity provisions intended to help minorities, the poor, and those arrested for minor pot offenses to get licenses to open legal cannabis businesses. China has been working overtime to deflect responsibility for the Wuhan virus's leap from a Chinese bio lab into a worldwide pandemic that's caused death and economic destruction around the globe. While Democrats want to blame Trump more than China, in England, people know that China is at fault and, in Germany, one newspaper has directly challenged China. In America, a media establishment in thrall to Trump Derangement Syndrome is promoting Chinese propaganda to derail Trump's re-election campaign. (See, e.g., "CNN accused of 'literally publishing Chinese propaganda.'") This joint Chinese and mainstream media propaganda effort has worked, up to a point. According to a Rasmussen poll, 60% of Democrats believe that Trump is more responsible than China for the Wuhan virus in America. Outside the Democrat swamp, though, people have taken note of the fact that the Wuhan virus is a Chinese phenomenon. They understand that, while China may not have released the virus deliberately, its subsequent cover-up and lies turned the virus into a devastating worldwide pandemic. Thus, the same Rasmussen poll reveals that 69% of voters overall believe that China is at fault, a view held by 83% of Republicans and 65% of independents. In England, a Henry Jackson Society poll also revealed a real hardening in attitudes toward China: 74% of British adults believe "the Chinese Government is to blame for allowing COVID-19 to spread". Just 19% believe it is not to blame; 71% of the public would support the British Government suing China in international court "if it became evident that the Chinese government breached international law in responding to the initial outbreak and spread of COVID-19". Just 6% would oppose such action; More British adults now oppose Huawei's role in the UK's 5G network than support it. 40% of British adults oppose allowing the firm to build the UK's network, just 27% support it. The proportion who oppose allowing Huawei a role rises to 51% amongst Conservative voters in the 2019 election; 69% of the British public believe that the virus began in a wet market in Wuhan, China; 83% of the public believe that the British Government should demand an international inquiry into the response of the Chinese Government to the COVID-19 crisis; 45% of the public believe that the Chinese Government is mainly to blame for the damage caused in the UK by Coronavirus. 15% believe the UK government is mainly to blame and 31% believe that the UK and Chinese Government's are equally to blame. Meanwhile, in Germany, one major publication is attacking China directly for its responsibility vis-a-vis the Wuhan virus. Bild, a daily broadsheet with a circulation of over 2 million, wrote an article asking "whether China should pay for the massive economic damage the coronavirus is inflicting worldwide." It held that China owes Germany almost $162 billion. The Chinese ambassador in Berlin, in an open letter, took umbrage at this suggestion: "I followed your reporting on the corona pandemic in general and China's alleged guilt in particular today. Apart from the fact that we consider it a pretty bad style to blame a country for a pandemic that is affecting the whole world and then to present an explicit account of alleged Chinese debts to Germany, the article ignores some essential facts." She added that "We note that many countries now struggling with COVID-19 have had time to prepare for the cross-border spread of the pathogen after China reported its outbreak under IHR [World Health Organization] guidelines." Unlike most media outlets, Bild did not respond with a groveling apology. Instead, Julian Reichelt, Bild's editor-in-chief, countered with a video that savagely attacked not just China's approach to the Wuhan virus, but the Chinese government. Reichelt accused China of being a surveillance state, a place so lacking in innovation that it has no choice other than to steal other countries' intellectual property, a dissembler that hides information about the Wuhan virus, and a grossly negligent caretaker of dangerous research labs. Reichelt's most brutal truth was that "[y]our [Xi's] power is crumbling. *** You plan to strengthen China through a plague that you exported. You will not succeed. Corona will be your political end, sooner or later." You can view Reichelt repeating these accusations in the video below: Reichelt is correct. It's a disgrace that the Democrats' control over the media means that 60% of American Democrats reject the truth. The reality is that China is using the chaos it created to go on a bargain-buying spree around the world. Those countries in which China found bargains should void those sales but keep any money already paid as partial compensation for the economic havoc China has wrought around the world. * * * Transcript of the Bild video (via Bild): Thousands gathered Monday at the Pennsylvania Capitol to protest Gov. Tom Wolfs statewide shut down of businesses deemed non-essential. The Reopen PA rally drew a large crowd on both foot and by car. The crowd was enthusiastic as a steady stream of vehicles rolled by on Third Street honking horns in support. Despite the stay at home order, protesters were shoulder-to-shoulder, many without masks as they cheered speakers, displayed signs and waved flags. The rally lasted a little more than an hour. 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. 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. Microsoft is helping survivors of the coronavirus become heroes by determining if their plasma could be used in life-saving treatments for the disease. The tech giant partnered with leading plasma companies in the development of a chatbot that calculates whether or not the person is a candidate by asking a series of questions. Called 'CoVIg-19 Plasma Bot,' the technology also provides information about donating plasma, along with donation sites in their area. Blood plasma from recovered patients may contain antibodies from immune system response, which has led experts to believe it holds the key to fighting this pandemic. Scroll down for video Microsoft partnered with leading plasma companies in the development of a chatbot that calculates whether or not the person is a candidate to donate their plasma by asking a series of questions. Plasma, a key component of blood, is already saving lives in a multitude of ways; from warding off tetanus infection if you stand on a rusty nail to preventing organ failure in victims of car crashes. It also helps remove waste products from the body and contains electrolytes dissolved salts which help regulate the body's chemistry and allow our muscles to work properly. Plasma also contains thousands of vital proteins including albumin, fibrinogen and antibodies. And it is the antibodies found in the plasma that could to the key to fighting the outbreak. The technology also provides information about donating plasma, along with donation sites in their area. Pictured is a man in Wuhan, China donating blood so plasma can be extracted to treat others with the virus Along with using plasma to make therapies, experts believe this effort could lead to a new type of treatment known as polyclonal hyperimmune globulin or H-Ig This therapy pulls multiple plasma donations together and concentrates antibodies to reliable levels 'The use of convalescent plasma is a technique dating back to the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic and was effective more recently during the SARS outbreak, Microsoft said in a blog post. 'Today, there is mounting clinical evidence that plasma collected from those who have recovered from COVID-19 can be used to treat ill COVID-19 patients.' The self-screening tool will not only help those who have recovered determine if they are a donor, but will also provide them with locations for them to donate. The tech giant explains that more than 50 percent of eligible donors in the US live just 15 miles within one of the 500 centers operated by the by CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance member companies. Along with using plasma to make therapies, experts believe this effort could lead to a new type of treatment known as polyclonal hyperimmune globulin or H-Ig This therapy pulls multiple plasma donations together and concentrates antibodies to reliable levels allowing the medicine to be delivered in lower volumes and minimizing the time it takes to administer it to patients. The H-Ig also lowers the risk of the virus passing from donor to patient. Microsoft explains that it has a longer shelf life, allowing healthcare specialists to store large quantities for future outbreaks. 'At Microsoft, we conducted a careful (but rapid) assessment, including consultation not only with our own experts but also several external partners,' leaders of Microsoft's Plasma Bot team said today in a blog post about the project. 'This assessment involved gaining an understanding of the underlying science and potential medical benefits. 'We are now convinced that the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance has a real chance to save lives, at significant scale, and possibly much sooner than other approaches currently being developed.' More than 70,000 Americans have recovered from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, and Microsoft and its team of experts hopes the new chatbot will encourage these individuals to donate their plasma. More than 70,000 Americans have recovered from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, which could help the more than 800,000 people currently infected in the US Donors would go through a screening process to determine if they are eligible to participate in the Plasma Alliance project. And the entire donation process takes less than an hour from start to finish. It returns the donor's blood cells to the bloodstream, taking out only the water plus the proteins that will be used for developing a potential therapy. The Plasma Alliance says clinical trials of an H-Ig therapy could begin as early as June. 'If the work of the Alliance is successful, the potential treatment could be available this year,' the project's partners say. New real-time streaming, distribution, and advertising capabilities including server-side Prebid technology LOS ANGELES, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verizon Media has launched a range of capabilities to enable broadcasters, content owners, and service providers to grow audiences and monetize content in new ways. These include advanced advertising tools that improve transparency in the bidding process and track ad performance. Additional features that maximize audience reach and enhance live event streaming have also been announced. Advanced Advertising Verizon Media Smartplay Prebid is a server-side integration that exposes inventory and conducts auctions faster with more demand partners using the prebid open-source framework. This low-risk solution is easy to implement and opens up content owner supply to more demand partners, allows for fair market competition, and provides visibility into content value with price transparency. "Until now there has been a generally accepted order of operations in filling ad supply that has not always maximized the value of a publisher's inventory," said Ariff Sidi, General Manager at Verizon Media Platform. "Prebid addresses that by calling out to demand partners in an open and transparent fashion, maximizing value, and providing transparency in the bidding process." Verizon Media is also enhancing advertising data and analytics to provide customers a deeper understanding of ad performance. Ad Data helps technical teams highlight any errors, timeouts, and tracking issues after they occur. Ad Analytics allows content publishers to identify and respond to trends in ad performance and segment data by areas such as environment, device, and demand partner. Content Control and Syndication In order to maximize audience reach, content publishers want their content seen by viewers on the broadest range of platforms. Verizon Media Control addresses this need with optimized capabilities that make it possible to curate content, simulate live channels, and syndicate to multiple platforms within a single platform. Channel Scheduling allows content owners to create virtual live linear experiences using assets from their VOD library, a live feed, or a live event. This eliminates the need for expensive broadcast playout technologies to curate and develop new channels for their audiences. Output Syndication empowers content owners to publish streams directly to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch. Future enhancements will enable content owners to add elements of personalization beyond ads and publish directly to dMVPD and OTT platforms, all of which can be done from a single user interface. Sidi added, "In the future, we will be adding personalization controls that will add an entirely new dimension to programming, redefining consumer expectations of TV." Live Events Already a leader in live event streaming, Verizon Media continues to provide a scalable platform backed by a managed service team. Verizon Media has enhanced its ingest, encoding, and CDN capabilities to deliver live content in 4K HDR, with the TV-like picture quality viewers expect. Recent testing of concurrent viewers on the platform has now reached the 10 million viewer threshold, surpassing the scale seen in recent large live events. Verizon Media provides a self-service dashboard for live event operators to stop and start events, trigger ad breaks, and create clips of the event. The dashboard has been updated with a new Live Event Markers feature, which enables operators to tag events of interest during any live event, for example scoring plays or end of quarter breaks. It efficiently publishes this metadata alongside the video streams, so content owners can design new features for on screen overlays and interactivity. Meanwhile a new Real-time Streaming feature, currently in beta, enables live event streaming with sub-second latency. "Verizon Media's massive global network and platform enables content publishers to reach broadcast-sized audiences with their OTT platforms and services. Customers are already using our streaming platform to reach millions of concurrent viewers anywhere in the world," added Sidi. "At Super Bowl LIV, we were able to demo in-stadium experiences that saw latency faster than a television broadcast. This capability has opened up new use cases for interactivity, gamification, trivia, wagering, and 5G enabled experiences." Verizon Media will be discussing these new platform capabilities in more depth during its OTT Innovation Showcase on Thursday, May 7. Please click here to register . To learn more visit verizonmedia.com/media-platform Note to editors: You can read more about the latest collaboration between Verizon Media and Microsoft Azure to bring the Verizon Media Streaming Platform on Azure to market in this recent blog (https://www.verizondigitalmedia.com/blog/verizon-media-streaming-on-azure/) . About Verizon Media Verizon Media offers an industry-leading, integrated digital media platform to prepare, deliver, display and monetize online content. The company's platform is built on a global network that has over 150 points of presence on six continents, ensuring high-quality viewing of digital content on any device, anytime, anywhere. The platform powers websites, apps and OTT video services for many of the world's largest publishers, media companies and enterprises. Learn more about how Verizon Media is delivering the future of media at https://www.verizonmedia.com/media-platform . VERIZON'S ONLINE MEDIA CENTER: News releases, stories, media contacts and other resources are available at www.verizon.com/about/news/. News releases are also available through an RSS feed. To subscribe, visit www.verizon.com/about/rss-feeds/. Media contact: Brittany Votto brittany.votto@verizonmedia.com Tullamore woman Fiona OMalley, who is the Director of Communications and Fundraising for World Vision Ireland, has warned that the coronavirus will completely overwhelm the health system in Syria. OMalley said that the aftermath of Covid-19 could lead to the death of 30 million children in the developing world. Thousands of people in the Syrian camps are living in tents or sleeping outside in the freezing cold. Nine children froze to death in the camps in February. If coronavirus hits the camps in Syria, it will spread like wildfire, Fiona said. These camps are overcrowded, lack hygiene facilities, food supplies, and clean, running water. A lot of these camps are rife with poor health - many families are already battling tuberculosis, pneumonia, hypothermia, cardiovascular disease and hypertension, malaria, anemia, HIV and AIDS. World Vision is a child-focused international aid charity which plans to reach 22.5 million people, 11 million of which are children, across 17 priority countries, with their Covid-19 response. People who have so little are exposed to so much danger, in this crisis, Fiona explained. Whilst every country is experiencing difficulties and tragedies in their response to the coronavirus, these issues are heightened and more dangerous for people in the Syrian camps. World Vision Ireland has stated that as many as 30 million childrens lives are in danger from secondary health impacts: - 26 million+ children at greater risk of being exposed to other deadly diseases because of lack of immunisation - 5 million+ children could suffer from increasing malnutrition, which is an increase of almost 40% from the current levels - 100,000+ children could die from malaria, which is a 50% increase from current levels The countries World Vision is issuing programme responses to Covid-19 include Syria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, DR Congo, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Mainland China, Mongolia, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, and Thailand. Globally, World Vision has experience and expertise helping communities prepare and respond to virus outbreaks. The charity has previously worked to combat the spread of Ebola in Africa and Zika in Latin American; and has educated thousands of communities in the developing world about the importance of hand hygiene, basic health care, and disease control. World Vision Ireland is calling on the Irish public to donate whatever they can to help the worlds most vulnerable children by going to www.worldvision.ie. WASHINGTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Since educational organizations have moved from campus to community, providing effective distance learning opportunities has become educator's key focus. To continue education through community engagement, the Confucius Institute U.S. Center (CIUS Center) has launched an initiative with the Red Cross to assist students in remaining actively engaged in their communities during these challenging times. With the Red Cross's unique expertise in crisis healthcare, these efforts stretch across the country into the communities where our students have returned home. The campaign is being shared across the university-based network of Confucius Institute language and culture programs to empower students from across the United States to address the crisis with practical steps for making a difference. "Student lives have been disrupted and their education sidelined at this moment of crisis," said Erik Eging, CIUS Communications Associate. "Yet across the United States we are seeing students and teachers trying to help those around them. The Red Cross represents public service in communities across the country, making it a natural choice for us to recommend, to equip students to give blood and assistance in their hometowns." To learn more about the Red Cross campaign #SleevesUpwithCI, click here. This is not The CIUS Center's first service project since the outbreak of COVID-19. The Washington, DC based non-profit organized a interpretation and language resource program for medical centers across the United States to address the needs of those developing medical solutions. CIUS Center Executive Director Gao Qing observed, "As a community of Chinese language learners, educators, and professionals, the coronavirus outbreak hits close to home. With bilingual expertise and a global educational network, including a number of medical schools around the world, we recognize we are in a unique position to offer support." To learn more, click here. Across the United States, Confucius Institute students and teachers have been staying involved locally by organizing donations of Personal Protection Equipment in various states and sharing information. Click here to learn more CIUS Center recommended ways for making a difference. The Confucius Institute U.S. Center believes that seeing the world through someone else's eyes can be a life-changing experience that helps us build bridges from one culture to another. Like other educators across the country, individual CI programs are developing on-line learning for the students at local schools and universities. Contact local Confucius Institutes for specific programs and visit the CIUS Center's Online Learning webpage. To learn more about the Confucius Institute and how the programs operate, visit www.ciuscenter.org. MEDIA ALERT: To set up an interview or for more information, contact the CIUS Center at [email protected] The Confucius Institute U.S. Center is a (501)(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes the value of mutual understanding between the US and China through language education and cultural exchanges. Confucius Institute programs operate independently at host colleges and universities to prepare the next generation of leaders through language, arts, culture and educational travel experiences. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @CIUSCenter. SOURCE Confucius Institute U.S. Center Related Links http://www.ciuscenter.org A new report published on the preprint server bioRxiv in April 2020 reports that several species of animals can be infected with relative ease by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is the causative agent of the currently raging COVID-19 pandemic. This casts much light on the possible natural hosts and routes of transmission of this virus. The novel coronavirus 2019 has caused widespread infection across the whole world, beginning from China. It has now caused over 2.47 million cases and 170,000 deaths, as of April 20, 2020. The resulting control measures, as well as the healthcare preoccupation with the pandemic, has caused an alarming economic downturn, as well. Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (blue) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (red), isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID Where did the virus come from? The virus, called the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is still a mystery in many ways. Nobody is sure where it suddenly came from. Some of the early patients had links with the Huanan seafood and wild animal market in Wuhan city, China, which led to the theory that the virus was one which was native to wild animals but jumped the species barrier by acquiring characteristics that allowed it to infect and replicate in humans successfully. Sequencing studies show that the viral genome is closely related to that of the SARS-CoV (infecting humans), and various bat coronaviruses. The closest identity is with the bat virus CoV RaTG13, at over 96%, which indicates that the current virus probably came from bats. In fact, bats have been the natural reservoir for a great many emerging viruses that spread from animal hosts to man, including the earlier human coronaviruses that caused SARS and MERS in 2002 and 2012, respectively. The challenge is to find out through which intermediate hosts the bat virus ultimately spread to the human host, as it is unlikely to have occurred in a single step, seeing the species occupy widely separated environments. At least one other species must have served to allow the original virus to acquire some key mutations that improve the efficiency of zoonotic transmission to the human host, either as an intermediate or as an amplifying host. Pangolins were thought to be the intermediate hosts; however, the degree of overlap between the pangolin coronaviruses and the human SARS-CoV-2 is less than 93%, suggesting the former is not the direct progenitor of the human virus. Why is the ACE2 molecule important? For a virus to infect a host, it must be able to recognize and bind to a suitable receptor molecule on the host cell. The presence of such a receptor is also key to which cell the virus tends to infect, the tissues to which it is attracted, and the disease process. For the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the S protein is the chief attachment protein that binds to the receptor on the host cell membrane. This is split into two subunits, S1 and S2, at the furin cleavage site called RRAR. The S1 subunit binds to the receptor during the process of cell entry and sets off the series of events that cause the S2 receptor to trigger cell membrane-virus fusion. The protein carries a receptor-binding domain (RBD) within itself. This cleavage is not essential for the virus to fuse to the host cell membrane but is mainly for enhanced viral efficiency. In coronaviruses affecting other species, it increases the pathogenicity, enhances the fusion and makes the virus fitter. This furin cleavage site is absent in the SARS virus and other animal coronaviruses. The human cellular receptor for both the SARS and the SARS-CoV-2 is the ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2) protein. ACE2 in other species like the Chinese horseshoe bat and civet also fulfill this function. How was the study done? The current study aimed to investigate the receptor activity of ACE2 in 14 species of mammals. These were chosen as being either potential natural hosts for the SARS-CoV-2, intermediate hosts for the SARS-CoV, commonly used laboratory animals, or domestic pet animals. The investigators used a pseudotyped HIV virus, expressing human ACE2 receptors. This virus was introduced to cell cultures transfected with empty vector or plasmids, which expressed one of four receptors: the human ACE2, ACE1, DDP4 for the MERS virus, or APN for another coronavirus. Membrane fusion results in syncytia formation. This was also tested in an assay, which looked for the extent of membrane fusion resulting from the binding of the S protein to the human ACE2 receptor. What did the results show? The study showed that there were many animal ACE2 enzymes that were potential receptors for both SARS-CoV-2 and its mutant. The highest receptor activity was in the human and rhesus monkey ACE2 enzyme, and the lowest in the rat and mouse enzyme. The other ten had intermediate activity. Four of the ten (canine, feline, pangolin, and rabbit) had virus bound to more than half of the receptors. Rhesus Monkeys. Image Credit: Jeannette Katzir / Shutterstock Two days after mixing the pseudotyped virus with the cells, the researchers observed that only cells expressing human ACE2 allowed efficient virus entry. When the receptor was blocked by an antibody, the SARS-CoV-2 could not enter the cell, though the other coronavirus and the influenza virus could. On immunoprecipitation assay, to test for receptor binding, the human ACE2, as well as the four most efficient receptors from the intermediate category, were found to be significantly and consistently associated with the S1 and the RBD parts of the virus. The syncytia formation assay showed that only cells that express the human ACE2 receptor formed syncytia. The results show that the human ACE2 receptor is the entry point for the SARS-CoV-2 virus into the human cell. Next, a mutant form of the viral genome was produced to eliminate the furin cleavage site (making it more similar to one of the bat CoV, SL-CoV CZ45). When pseudotyped viruses with the mutant S protein were allowed to infect cells expressing human ACE2 receptors, the efficiency of infection stayed the same or increased in all but three animal species. The pangolin-derived ACE2 now allowed virus entry as easily as the human ACE2. The percentage of receptor use by the SARS virus was also tested among the 14 species. The poorest use was by the bat and rat ACE2 at less than a fifth of the human enzyme. Concerning the others, they allowed viral entry at over half the rate of the human ACE2, while for the rabbit and pangolin, the ACE2 had higher efficiency than the human ACE2. Why do some ACE2 receptors not allow virus binding? The researchers compared the sequences of the ACE2 protein, especially with regard to 23 critical amino acids that are closely related to the RBD of the novel coronavirus. They found no difference at any point between the human and rhesus monkey ACE2, while there were three unique substitutions in rats and mice. These could account for the low efficiency of the latter, they suggest, due to the resulting structural changes that inhibit the enzymes proper interaction with the receptor. How is the study important? The researchers say their findings have important implications in terms of identifying the natural reservoir, the spread of the virus across species borders, its transmission from humans to animals, and animal modeling of the virus. They suggest, It is therefore reasonable to assume that SARS-CoV-2 would be able to infect all these animals. Pangolin CoV and one type of bat CoV are likely to be able to use both human and other animal ACE2 to gain entry into the host cells. Moreover, the SARS-CoV-2 virus can bind to multiple animal ACE2s even if the furin cleavage site is deleted. Thus, many of these wild animals can be natural hosts or intermediate hosts for the novel coronavirus and its progenitor. A Pangolin hunting for ants. Image Credit: 2630ben / Shutterstock Humans can also probably transmit the virus to their pet dogs and cats, and even more efficiently to pet rabbits. One Hong Kong pet dog was tested positive for a virus with only 3 nucleotide changes compared to the virus isolated from the two infected people in the same household. Owing to the theoretical possibility that the infected pets can spread the virus to healthy humans, the researchers say, Out of an abundance of caution it would be best when one is infected to have both human and pets quarantined, and the pets tested as well. The results also have importance for scientists working with animal models. Transgenic mouse models were developed during the SARS epidemic, but these may be running short due to the drop in production after it subsided, and because of the increased demand for these models. Instead, the researchers suggest, given the high efficiency of the rabbit ACE2 receptors for both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, it may be worth assessing rabbits as a useful animal model for further studies. Important Notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. NEW YORK, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP (Scott+Scott), an international securities and consumer rights litigation firm, is investigating certain directors and officers of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. (Spirit) (NYSE: SPR) for breaching their fiduciary duties to Spirit and its shareholders. If you are a Spirit shareholder, you may contact attorney Joe Pettigrew for additional information toll-free at 844-818-6982 or jpettigrew@scott-scott.com . Scott+Scott is investigating whether Spirits board of directors or senior management caused Spirit to violate securities and other laws in breach of their fiduciary duties to Spirit and whether Spirit has suffered damages as a result. In December 2019, Spirit commenced a review of its accounting process compliance and determined that it did not comply with established accounting processes related to certain potential contingent liabilities. Then, on January 30, 2020, Spirit announced the resignations of both its Chief Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer for failure to comply with accounting rules on contingencies. On this news, Spirits stock price fell $2.62 per share, or 3.87%, to close at $65.02 per share on January 30, 2020. What You Can Do If you are a Spirit shareholder, you may have legal claims against Spirits directors and officers. If you wish to discuss this investigation, or have questions about this notice or your legal rights, please contact attorney Joe Pettigrew toll-free at 844-818-6982 or jpettigrew@scott-scott.com . About Scott+Scott Scott+Scott has significant experience in prosecuting major securities, antitrust, and consumer rights actions throughout the United States. The firm represents pension funds, foundations, individuals, and other entities worldwide with offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Connecticut, California, Virginia, and Ohio. Attorney Advertising The coronavirus crisis has seen millions locked in their homes turn to videoconferencing apps, bringing with it question marks over security and privacy and a new verb Zoombombing the practice of uninvited users crashing into conversations. From easy-access models for school pkids and casual users like House Party, Google Hangouts or Zoom to Ciscos business-focused Webex, Microsofts Teams or San Jose-based BlueJeans, the value and profile of these apps has soared. But which one would you choose and what are the risks? What Can Go Wrong? There have been two big social media-inspired scares since lockdowns and social distancing became widespread. People started uninstalling Houseparty in late March after messages on discussion boards and social media claimed that other apps on phones had been hacked after downloading its social chat platform. The company denied the claims and offered a reward of $1 million for evidence of what it said was a smear campaign. Zoom, which has soared to 200 million daily users from 10 million in less than three months, had multiple reports of zoombombing, where strangers barge into private calls having gained access to an invite or meeting number. Underlying many of the issues is the fact that Zoom has not merely become more popular; with the world under lockdown, Zoom has transformed from a business-oriented teleconferencing tool to global video hangout. Now Zoom is being used in situations where you invite strangers into video chat, said former Facebook Inc Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, who now works with Zoom as an outside consultant. Thats a big change. This has snowballed into a bigger problem as security researchers found bugs in codes, user data sharing with Facebook, lack of end-to-end encryption and routing of some traffic through China. Stamos said the changes meant the company had to think about privacy and security differently. Are the Threats Real? Security researchers draw a distinction between apps aimed at social interaction and ordinary consumers and those intended to keep communications private for a big corporation or a bank. They say that most zoombombing incidents could have been avoided if meeting hosts had taken simple steps like requiring a password to join the chat and keeping invites to tighter groups. Zoom has since updated its software and given hosts the ability to lock meetings, restrict what attendees can do and remove participants. It advises hosts to approve each participant before they join a particular chat and has removed https: Facebooks access to data. The flaws are serious, make no mistake, but not unique or special in any way, said another well-known cyber security researcher, Daniel Cuthbert. But Zoom acted quickly and fixed the issues, which is not the norm in my experience and this should be applauded. For corporate customers, however, the issue of encryption and who keeps records or can listen to your calls is more important, be it to safeguard valuable company information, or meet privacy obligations to customers. Zoom has brought in top industry figures to work on security and has already taken steps to allow users to rule out data passing through China, but it has also had to admit that it misled customers by saying earlier that its conversations were encrypted from end to end. Researchers say this may have been at the heart of a number of the bans on the app implemented by corporations and governments in the past month. While the average user talking about their daily activities with their family over Zoom are probably fine, I would recommend sticking with the platforms created by more mature companies, said Patrick Wardle, a security researcher with software company Jamf, who found two undisclosed flaws in the platform. A spokesman for Zoom, which has since patched those and other previously undiscovered flaws, said that big companies and government agencies globally have done exhaustive security reviews of its platform and many continue to use Zoom. How Do the Apps Measure on Encryption? Some companies offer end-to-end encryption as an option but when it is enabled several features such as saving session data, call transcripts, call recording and calling from landlines are not supported. Cisco, which says it had 324 million attendees in March, said its Webex sessions were encrypted. We dont go and take your data or transcribe what you are saying, and we dont sell your data to ad agencies. This is a proper tool for secure communication, said Cisco senior vice president Jonathan Davidson. Microsoft Teams, with 44 millions users,, and BlueJeans, which has 15,000 enterprise clients, also offer encryption options on their platforms. Symphony Communication, a messaging service backed by big banks, is planning an early summer launch of a video conferencing platform featuring end-to-end encryption, Chief Executive Officer David Gurle said. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru, Raphael Satter in Washington; Writing by Patrick Graham and editing by Bernard Orr) The U.S. Navy has ordered another 18 P-8A maritime reconnaissance aircraft at a cost of $83.4 million each. Eight are for the U.S. Navy while six are for South Korea and four for New Zealand. The first deliveries to South Korea will be in 2023 and New Zealand in 2022. With this new order, there are 124 P-8s in service or on order. Export customers now include India (18 aircraft), Australia (12), Britain (9), South Korea (6), Norway (5) and New Zealand (4). Five other nations; Canada, Italy, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey plus NATO (to establish a pool of P-8s for all NATO members) are discussing purchases. Most export customers are, like the U.S. Navy, replacing older P-3C four-engine turboprop aircraft. India was replacing Russian built Tu-142M turboprops. India received a customized P-8I with an extra aft radar and a MAD (magnetic anomaly detector). Until recently many NATO countries felt little need to upgrade their ASW (anti-submarine warfare) aircraft, which were usually P-3s. But since 2014 Russia has revived the Cold War and a growing number of NATO nations are responding by purchasing P-8As rather than refurbishing their P-3Cs so those could serve another ten or twenty years. With Russia a growing threat, the more expensive option (P-8As) became more attractive, in part because the P-8A can also handle ELINT (intelligence collection) work thus replacing smaller dedicated ELINT aircraft. The P-8 Poseidon is based on the widely used Boeing 737 airliner. Although the Boeing 737 based P-8A is a two-engine jet, compared to the four-engine turboprop P-3, it is a far more capable aircraft. The P-8A has 23 percent more floor space than the P-3 and is larger (38 meter/118 foot wingspan, versus 32.25 meter/100 foot) and heavier (83 tons versus 61). Most other characteristics are the same. Both can stay in the air for about 10 hours per sortie. Speed is different. Cruise speed for the 737 is 910 kilometers an hour, versus 590 for the P-3. This makes it possible for the P-8A to get to a patrol area faster, which is a major advantage when chasing down subs first spotted by distant sonar arrays or satellites. However, the P-3 can carry more weapons (9 tons versus 5.6). This is less of a factor as the weapons, torpedoes, missiles, mines, and up to 129 sonobuoys, are lighter and more effective today and that trend continues. Both carry the same size crew of 10-11 pilots and equipment operators. Both aircraft carry search radar and various other sensors. The P-8A will be the first 737 designed with a bomb bay and four wing racks for weapons. The 737 has, like the P-3, been equipped with hardpoints on the wings for torpedoes or missiles. The B-737 is a more modern design and has been used successfully since the 1960s by commercial aviation. Navy aviators are confident that it will be as reliable as the P-3 and so far P-8s have over 255,000 flight hours and demonstrated that the new maritime reconnaissance aircraft is reliable. The P-3 was based on the Electra civilian airliner that first flew in 1954, although only 170 were built, plus 600 P-3s. Some Electras are still in service. The Boeing 737 first flew in 1965, and over 5,000 have been built. The P-8 entered service in 2013. The U.S. is buying 122 P-8s and already has most of its planned P-8s in service. The P-8A got good reviews from its American crews as well as those of export customers. That is important because export customers for the P-3 are still operating about 200 of those aircraft and the P-8A is looking more attractive as a replacement. Some nations are using business jets equipped for maritime reconnaissance but without the P-8s ASW capabilities. MENLO PARK, Calif., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Companies are rising to the occasion to navigate the pandemic, new research from global staffing firm Robert Half shows. A majority of office workers surveyed (95%) said they are satisfied with their organization's response to COVID-19, with 64% reporting they are very satisfied. In addition, 97% of respondents noted their manager has been a source of support during this challenging time. Of employees surveyed, 61% said they have been working from home for a few weeks, 13% recently transitioned to a remote setup and 2% plan to do so soon. The remaining 24% reported they are still going to the office. Respondents who have been working from home for a few weeks were most likely to report being very satisfied with their company's response and supported by their boss. Workers were asked, "How satisfied are you with your company's response to the COVID-19 pandemic?" Their responses: Very satisfied 64% Somewhat satisfied 31% Not satisfied 6% 101%* *Responses do not total 100% due to rounding. Workers were also asked, "In general, how supportive has your manager been since the COVID-19 pandemic?" Their responses: Very supportive 78% Somewhat supportive 19% Not supportive 3% 100% "Employers and workers are dealing with a range of changes and emotions right now, but they're coming together to get through the coronavirus crisis," said Paul McDonald, senior executive director of Robert Half. "Companies are adapting quickly to the current situation and implementing new processes to support their staff, customers and community and employees recognize and appreciate their efforts." McDonald added, "No one knows what the future will bring, but the silver lining is that we're all discovering new ways to work and solve problems. And in many cases, employees are seeing greater collaboration, trust and innovation among their teams, which will only make them stronger in the long run." About the Research The online survey was developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm from April 7-12, 2020. It includes responses from more than 1,000 workers 18 years of age or older and normally employed in office environments in the United States. About Robert Half Founded in 1948, Robert Half is the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm. The company has more than 300 staffing locations worldwide and offers hiring and job search services at roberthalf.com. For additional management and career advice, visit the Robert Half blog at roberthalf.com/blog. SOURCE Robert Half Related Links https://www.roberthalf.com/ The Australia government has ordered its Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to create a mandatory code of conduct that would require tech giants such as Google and Facebook to pay local news outlets when they use their content. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher announced that a draft version of the code will be ready by the end of July. It will cover issues including data sharing, news ranking, and revenue sharing. The new code will also include penalties and sanctions for non-compliance, as well as a binding dispute resolution process. Its not certain when this mandatory code of conduct will come into effect, though. Advertisement Its only fair that those that generate content get paid for it, said Frydenberg. Australia needs a strong and sustainable news media ecosystem and the Government recognizes the importance of public interest journalism, Fletcher added. The ACCC was initially working on to create a voluntary code by November this year. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit ad revenue significantly and the country has shifted the focus to a mandatory code while bringing forward the November deadline to July. Advertisement The Australian competition watchdog also says that tech companies are unlikely to voluntarily agree to pay for news content. So a mandatory code seems to be the need of the hour. Australia forces Google and Facebook to pay for news content Australia is not the first country seeking to hold the tech giants to account and regulate payment for the content. Back in 2014, Spain had asked Google to pay news outlets for the article snippets it showed on search results. In response, the search giant shut down the Google News service in the country. Google News has not reopened in Spain since. Last year, the French government also passed legislation requiring internet firms to pay for showing news article snippets. Google, however, said it would not show article snippets at all, rather than pay to show them. The country is further investigating the matter. Advertisement Clearly, Google is not willing to pay for showing news article snippets. Australia is now seeking to become the first country to make the internet giant do so. The company is certainly not happy about it, though. Were disappointed by the Governments announcement, especially as weve worked hard to meet their agreed deadline. COVID-19 has impacted every business and industry across the country, including publishers, which is why we announced a new, global investment to support news organizations at a time when advertising revenue is declining, Google said in a statement to Engadget. We hope the code will protect the interests of millions of Australians and small businesses that use our services every day. Whether ACCCs new mandatory code of conduct delivers desired results remains to be seen. Commodity brokers are exploring ways challenging the settlement price of April crude oil futures by Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing Corporation (MCXCCL) in the Bombay High Court. Brokers are upset with the settlement of April crude oil contracts at a negative Rs 2,884 per barrel by MCXCCL. They are planning to move the Bombay High Court on April 22 before 11 am. "A number of brokers whose clients have long positions are on same page and planning to challenge this settlement price. We will file for an urgent hearing in the Bombay High Court," a broker told Moneycontrol. Explaining the crux of the issue, another broker said: "Our market shuts at 5 pm and NYMEX crude traded in the negative late in the night. It is at those prices that MCX is settling its April expiry contract. When our market closed, neither were clients able to cut down their positions nor were brokerages able to seek additional margin against client positions. We had taken hundred percent margin exposure due to expiry day." Also read: WTI crude oil prices sink | MCXs clearing corporation blocks pay out to brokers Prakarsh Gagdani, CEO, 5paisa.com, argued that the decision to settle the contracts at a negative Rs 2,884 looks unfair on two counts. First, Indian markets were not open, normally they are open till 11:30 pm. Hence, there was no option for a customer or even broker to square off their position and limit their losses. Second, unlike NYMEX, Indian markets are not equipped to trade at sub-zero prices. Both these are unfair to traders and brokers. Third, crude oil trades were carried out with around 55 percent margin and losses are more than 300 percent. He questioned how brokers are expected to make good the loss when most customers lose money? Brokers will have to bear most of these losses out of their pocket for practically no fault of the customers or theirs." On April 15, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange put out an advisory over negative prices for certain NYMEX energy contracts. Recent market events have raised the possibility that certain NYMEX energy futures contracts could trade at negative or zero trade prices or be settled at negative or zero values, and that options on these futures contracts could be listed with negative or zero strike prices, the advisory stated. However, there was no such advisory from the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) warning brokers before settling contracts in the negative. Moreover, neither MCX nor its brokers have a software that accepts negative rates to be inputted into the system. A market participant told Moneycontrol that without preparation during a normal trading day, the exchange itself will not be able to settle contracts at a negative price. Over 95 percent of all trades in crude oil futures in India pass through the MCX platform. The contracts are settled on the last day of trading of the MCX crude oil contract using the settlement price of the NYMEX front month contract. The MCX April contract expired on April 20. Given the restrictions imposed due to the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic, trade now halts at 5 pm instead of the earlier 11:30 pm. The issue arose because the US market opens for trade at 7 pm (IST). WTI opened lower and continued to trade in the negative. So, had our market been open for trade, traders would have had the opportunity to settle/exit their positions. Now, as per the MCX rules, contracts need to be settled at taking into account the price of the front month contract, i.e. May 2020 in this case, which was trading at a negative $37.63 per barrel around 11:30 pm. As per an April 21 circular issued by MCXCCL, the settlement price has been arrived at converting the NYMEX crude oil front month contracts settlement price of a negative $37.63/bbl into Indian rupees, which works out to Rs 2,884 per barrel or lot. Traders with a long position in the April 2020 contract would now have to pay around Rs1 lakh for every one lot of crude, i.e. 100 barrels, at the MCX quoted closing price of Rs 965 on April 20. This is assuming the person would have paid the full value of the contract. However, most traders would not have expected to lose the entire value of the contract and are now staring at a loss of over Rs 2.88 lakh. To gauge the extent of the problem, around 11,000 contracts remained open at the end of the day. Market sources pegged the loss for all long positions around Rs 418 crore. MCXCCL first announced a provisional settlement at Re 1 by mentioning that the final or differential settlement, if any, would be carried out separately. However, it later froze or blocked the amount against deposits by those brokers who held long positions at close of trade on April 20 to meet the final settlement. President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday highlighted the role of civil servants in the countrys fight against the coronavirus pandemic as India reported more than 18,000 infections and nearly 600 deaths. Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed his greetings to the civil servants as well as their families on Civil Services Day. I appreciate their efforts in ensuring India successfully defeats COVID-19. They are working round the clock, assisting those in need and ensuring everyone is healthy, PM Modi tweeted. The Prime Minister also paid tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and shared his speech form Civil Services Day in 2018. Today, on Civil Services Day I convey greetings to all Civil Servants and their families. I appreciate their efforts in ensuring India successfully defeats COVID-19. They are working round the clock, assisting those in need and ensuring everyone is healthy. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2020 President Ram Nath Kovind said civil servants have played a key role in implementing policies and programs for public welfare. In the present times too, the steel frame of our country, the civil service, has shown its strength and resolve in handling COVID-19 situation, with sensitivity and professionalism. Confident that our civil services will continue to serve in the best traditions of public service, the President tweeted. In the present times too, the steel frame of our country, the civil service, has shown its strength and resolve in handling COVID-19 situation, with sensitivity and professionalism. Confident that our civil services will continue to serve in the best traditions of public service. President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) April 21, 2020 Union home minister Amit Shah also extended his warm greetings to all civil servants and their families on Civil Servants Day. They have played a pioneering role in Indias progress. Today at these challenging times their dedication, commitment and efforts to defeat COVID-19 are truly appreciable, Shah tweeted. The government observes April 21 as Civil Services Day as an occasion for the civil servants to rededicate themselves to the cause of citizen and renew their commitments to public service and excellence in work, according to the department of administrative reforms and public grievances. Civil Services Day is observed on April 21 after countrys first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel addressed the probationers of administrative services officer in 1947 at Metcalf House in Delhi. He had referred to civil servants as the steel frame of India on this day. Prime Ministers Awards for Excellence in Public Administration are presented to districts or implementing units for the implementation of priority programme and innovation categories as part of Civil Services Day. According to the department of administrative reforms and public grievances, the first such ceremony was held at Delhis Vigyan Bhawan in April 2006. Study by CHOP researchers finds the practice is being used in patients who do not require supplemental oxygen, despite guidelines recommending against it Philadelphia, April 21, 2020--Monitoring blood oxygen levels with continuous pulse oximetry is being overused in infants with bronchiolitis who do not require supplemental oxygen, according to a study by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The researchers found the use of continuous pulse oximetry occurred frequently and varied widely among hospitals in their sample, despite national recommendations advising against the practice. The findings were published today in JAMA. "We all have a tendency to believe that continuous monitoring is something that is always going to provide benefit and safety, and unfortunately that isn't the case," said Christopher P. Bonafide, MD, MSCE, an attending physician at CHOP and first author of the study. "When you monitor patients unnecessarily, it creates risk not only for that patient, in terms of longer hospital stays and increased costs, but also for the entire unit due to the potential for alarm fatigue. Our prior work shows that when alarms go off for both patients who need immediate, life-saving care and those who do not, it diminishes trust in the accuracy of the alarms for signaling true emergencies." Acute viral bronchiolitis is the leading cause of infant hospitalization and is usually treated with supportive care, including fluids, suctioning, and supplemental oxygen when necessary. The Society of Hospital Medicine Choosing Wisely initiative discourages physicians from using continuous pulse oximetry monitoring in infants with bronchiolitis unless they are on supplemental oxygen, and the American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends against the practice. To examine the extent to which hospitals were using continuous pulse oximetry in infants with bronchiolitis, the research team conducted an observational study in 56 U.S. and Canadian hospitals in the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings Network (PRIS), an independent, hospital-based network. The hospitals in the study included freestanding children's hospitals, children's hospitals within hospitals, and community hospitals. Researchers gathered data throughout one bronchiolitis season, from December 1, 2018 until March 31, 2019 and included 3, 612 patients between the ages of 8 weeks and 23 months. Of the patients in the study who did not receive any supplemental oxygen, 46% were monitored via continuous pulse oximetry. After standardizing the results to account for differences in variables across hospitals that could have influenced monitoring, researchers found the percentage of patients being unnecessarily monitored ranged from 6% to 82%. "We were surprised by the huge amount of variation we saw across the hospitals in this study, which shows many institutions are using monitoring unnecessarily as a safety net," Bonafide said. "This study represents an essential first step in phasing out an overused, low-value care practice that does not improve outcomes, raises healthcare costs, and leads to alarm fatigue among healthcare workers." The CHOP-led study was a collaborative, multi-institutional effort that included researchers from CHOP, University of Pennsylvania, Boston Children's Hospital, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The research was supported by a cooperative agreement awarded by the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (award number U01HL143475). ### Bonafide et al. "Prevalence of Continuous Pulse Oximetry Monitoring in Hospitalized Children With Bronchiolitis Not Requiring Supplemental Oxygen," JAMA, April 21, 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.2998 About Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 564-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 03:32:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani discussed the recent situation related to the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic during a phone conversation on Tuesday, the Kremlin said. "The issues of controlling the spread of coronavirus infection are discussed in detail," it said in a statement, adding that Rouhani thanked Russia for its assistance to Iran. "The two sides agreed to promote cooperation between relevant departments, including direct contacts between the ministries of health," it said. According to the statement, the importance was noted of consolidating the efforts of the international community to combat the coronavirus pandemic together, including the Russian initiative to create "green corridors" free from trade wars and sanctions during the crisis for deliveries of medicines, food, equipment and technologies. The presidents also touched upon other pressing issues on the international agenda and issues of bilateral cooperation, it said. Enditem A Republican Kentucky State Representative has been arrested for allegedly strangling a woman with an Ethernet cord from a kitchen drawer and threatening to kill her. Robert Goforth, 44, was taken into custody around 3.10am on Tuesday after the anonymous woman went to the 911 dispatch center in London asking to speak with a deputy about 'an alleged domestic assault that had just occurred with three small children still in the home', police said. Cops who responded to the center noticed the woman had visible marks on her forehead, neck and arms. Upon further inspection they witnessed bruising on her leg. Robert Goforth, 44, was taken into custody around 3.10am on Tuesday after the anonymous woman went to the 911 dispatch center in London complaining of an assault in front of threee children The woman was not identified but Goforth has a wife named Ashley and is a father. It is not known whether she was the victim The woman told them there had been an altercation and that she had been strangled during the incident. Laurel County Sheriff's Office deputies traveled to the residence off Blevins and Brown Road where the alleged incident occurred to check on the well-being of the children and noted they were safe. 'The victim stated that this subject stated he was going to kill her,' police said in a statement. Police did not state the nature of the pair's relationship. However Goforth has a wife and children. Goforth was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 Non-lethal strangulation recently became a felony in Kentucky. Goforth was charged with strangulation in the first-degree; assault in the 4th degree, domestic violence minor injury and terroristic threatening in the third-degree. He was booked at the Laurel County correctional center and was being held on $25,000 bond. His initial court appearance was set for Wednesday. Goforth dropped out of high school to help support his family, then earned his GED, served in the Army and went on to college. He became a pharmacist and opened a small chain of pharmacies. Goforth was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 and represents Jackson County as well as parts of Laurel and Madison - a rural section of eastern Kentucky. He was a relative newcomer to politics when he challenged then-Governor Matt Bevin as GOP candidate for the 2019 Primary. While running a woman accused Goforth of sexual assault. Alicia Whitaker posted a petition saying Goforth wasn't fit to govern as he is a 'predator who feels entitled to womens bodies'. Whitaker claimed he forced her to have sex during work hours in an apartment over his Hometown Pharmacy on Bogle Street, and made her perform oral sex on his business associate Michael Ingram in 'late 2008 or early 2009'. At the time for the petition Ingram was serving an eight-year sentence for Conspiracy to Distribute Oxycodone and Money Laundering. Goforth represents Jackson County as well as parts of Laurel and Madison - a rural section of eastern Kentucky Goforth denied the sexual assault claim. 'Over a decade ago, as an unmarried man, I had a brief, consensual relationship with Alicia Whitaker,' Goforth said last January. 'The allegations that I assaulted Ms. Whitaker are categorically false. I have never assaulted anyone. 'My wife, Ashley, and I, do not take these allegations lightly and are troubled deeply by them. As a husband and father, sexual assault and violence against women sickens me, and I condemn any such acts in the strongest possible terms.' Goforth obtained 40 percent of the vote. Bevin won the candidacy but lost the election to Democrat Andy Beshear. Authorities have warned domestic violence is on the increase amid lockdowns. Louisville Lt. Shannon Lauder issued a statement saying: 'We have heard from several victims at the domestic violence intake center that they didn't call police because they thought we were not coming and that's so concerning for us. 'If you call 911, and you need help, we are still coming. We will be there for you.' Goforth dropped out of high school to help support his family, then earned his GED, served in the Army and went on to college. He became a pharmacist and opened a small chain of pharmacies. A woman who work at his pharmacy last year accused him of sexual assault The second consignment of Jack Ma Foundations donations of emergency medical supplies to Botswana arrived in Gaborone this week. According to the Chinese Embassy in Gaborone, the consignment consists of 18, 912 extraction kits, 18, 900 swabs and viral transport medium, 10, 320 N95 masks, 9,500 medical gloves, 3,800 face shields, 3,700 medical protective clothing, 36 thermometer guns and two ventilation machines. The first donation from Jack Ma Foundation including 100, 000 masks, 20,000 testing kits, 1,000 PPE and other protective gears has been put into use right after its arrival in Gaborone on 26th March. In other updates the Embassy says that as of 16th April 2020, Chinese mainland reported 26 new confirmed cases, 15 of which were imported from abroad. Hubei reported 0 new infections. 52 patients were released after being cured. As of 24:00 on 16th April, Chinese mainland has reported 1,549 cases of imported confirmed infections and 0 deaths. There still remained 879 confirmed cases and 57 suspected cases. ANN ARBOR, MI First they came for toilet paper and hand sanitizer, clearing shelves within hours as the coronavirus pandemic started to unfold in Michigan in March. Then it was pasta and canned goods that quickly started disappearing from Buschs Fresh Food Markets shelves as the Ann Arbor-based grocery store chain rushed to keep up with demand. Product shortages have been coming in waves since this all started, said Todd Robinson, Buschs vice president of marketing. Weve been doing our best to keep up with the demand, but it keeps shifting, so its hard to anticipate what to stock up on ahead of shoppers. To meet demand for the latest highly-sought-after product flour Buschs turned to its central kitchen in Clinton, which is the primary hub for the baked goods delivered daily to its 16-store chain. Workers are packaging the bakerys own bulk flour for sale to customers. Ive seen shortages of certain items in the past due to a bad crop yield or things along those lines, but even in those cases it was always manageable to keep shelves stocked through suppliers, said Dave Holloway, manager of Buschs Main Street location outside downtown Ann Arbor. Holloway has more than a decade of working in the industry. He said hes proud to see the company doing what it can to meet demand when supplies run thin industry-wide as people continue to try and stock up on items. Its a struggle to keep supplies coming in, while also anticipating future needs to stay ahead of what the next fast-selling item will be, Holloway said. Ive never seen anything like this at this level before, he said. One of the biggest challenges? Getting everything they order from suppliers, Holloway said. Right now, for example, we would order like 500 of something but only 100 would come in, and with limited variety, he said. Thankfully, about 99.9 percent of our customers have been understanding, and I truly appreciate them for it. Starting as a family venture with only two stores in 1975, Buschs Fresh Food Market was established by Joe Busch and Charlie Mattis under the original name J&C Family Foods. When Busch retired in 1986, his sons took over the business, opening 16 locations throughout southeast Michigan. The chain employs more than 1,400 associates, but that number is continuing to grow as demand for more workers has increased alongside the demand for goods. Before the pandemic, the Food Marketing Institute estimated there were almost 141,000 grocery workers across 7,609 Michigan locations. This doesnt account for recent hiring surges by larger grocery chains to help meet customers demands, said Meegan Holland, at the Michigan Retailers Association vice president of communications. Weve being doing a lot of hiring, especially for our online ordering which has exploded in use since this all started, Holloway said. Id say we have at least 10 new workers here, many of which came to us from the restaurant industry thats been hit pretty hard by the shut down. Buschs online shopping system allows people to shop from their homes, only coming to the store to pick up their order. While a sales associate monitors how many people are physically in the store at any given moment, several cashiers man registers with long lines of food-laden shopping carts without a person behind them, scanning and bagging items from the online orders to be picked up by the customer later. The online system wasnt built for this level of demand, but were doing the best we can to meet it, Robinson said. Even Gary Pfeil, Buschs president/CEO, has spent time in the store helping ring up customers amid the pandemic. Since 1975 we have been a part of your local community and we are very appreciative of all of the wonderful support we have received as we face this pandemic together, Pfeil said. The support of our guests, and hearing that we are making a difference, is something that helps our associates make it through each and every difficult day. Thank you for being a part of our family and know that, together, we will get through this. Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, counter tops) and when you go into places like stores. Welcome to Morningstar.co.uk! You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 21:39:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. (Xinhua/Chen Junxia) WHO spokesperson said all evidence suggests the new coronavirus has an animal origin, and is not a virus manipulated or constructed in a lab. GENEVA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- All available evidence suggests that the new coronavirus has an animal origin, and is not a virus manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Fadela Chaib said here on Tuesday. "It (the novel coronavirus) most probably has its ecological reservoir in bats, but how the virus came from bat to human is still to be seen, to be discovered," the spokesperson told journalists during a virtual press briefing. Healthcare workers wheel a patient to a triage tent at Maimonides Medical Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, April 19, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) "There is certainly an intermediary host, another animal, that transmitted the disease from bats to humans," she added. She underlined that the WHO is combating two pandemics. "We have the pandemic with the virus, but we are also combating 'infodemic'. And when you have a new virus, like this one, it is to be expected that a lot of spurious theories about the origin of the virus be relayed." The party firm run by the Duchess of Cambridge's mother has been criticised for 'ignoring' customers during the coronavirus lockdown. Carole Middleton's Party Pieces' social media sites have been inundated with people asking where their goods are. They claim they are not getting replies, even though the firm has been putting up Instagram posts. Carole Middleton's (pictured with husband Michael and sons James and Pippa in 2011) Party Pieces' social media sites have been inundated with people asking where their goods are Customers (pictured, a social media post by one) claim they are not getting any replies, even though the firm is still putting up Instagram posts One mother alleged her little boy's birthday banner never arrived and she was sent another customer's order instead. She fumed on the Berkshire-based company's Instagram account: 'Shambolic experience. Please save yourself the trouble and order elsewhere. 'We ordered a personalised banner for our son's birthday weeks ago and still haven't received it. 'Instead we received another customer's order who lives three hours away and has also had issues with this company. 'When both the customer whose items I received and I complained, we were promised that new items would be sent out and with us the next day. Neither of us received our orders. One mother claimed her little boy's birthday banner never arrived and she was sent another customer's order instead 'There are now two banners containing my son's name and photo that have been delivered to unknown locations. 'We have been left with a box full of items that we didn't order and have now had to buy items from another reputable company to ensure we have something on time for our son's birthday. 'We have no trust or confidence in this company now and wouldn't recommend them to anyone.' Party Pieces, which was set up by the Middleton family over 30 years ago, had posted it was 'open for business and orders are continuing to be dispatched'. The company commented on some of the complaints online, but other customers claimed their emails went unread. The company offices of Party Pieces are located on a farm in Berkshire, pictured in 2012 The firm wrote in one reply: 'Hi Guys, we are so sorry we have let you down! We've dealt with this privately but so sorry we've let you both down!' But the mother continued: 'The issue isn't dealt with until we receive the items we were promised. 'No banner or ''Under the Sea'' items arrived for my son today, as were promised by the MD who phoned me the other day, so this is still very much unresolved.' Another woman also claimed she had issues with the company, writing: 'You are here posting. I have called a million times, sent messages no response. 'Now my daughter's Birthday is over. I don't need the items anymore. Kindly refund my money thanks.' A social media user under the account Kelsievnn added: 'Hi i have emailed twice about not receiving my order - can someone get back to me please!' The company replied to this woman's message but appears to have ignored others online Mrs-poole2017 said: 'Hi there, I placed an order Monday. I paid 5.95 for 48-hour delivery. I have not received my goods. 'I needed some of the order for Easter which obviously it won't arrive now. It's also my husband's 30th birthday Wednesday which I needed the rest of the order for. 'I will need to reorder elsewhere if my order cannot get to me by then. I am deeply concerned as to see all these other comments too. I emailed yesterday and heard nothing back. Party Pieces is run by Carole Middleton, mother of the Duchess of Cambridge (pictured) 'Please be honest with me and give me a refund if my goods that I have paid for will not arrive. Thank you.' AmyJones89 said: 'I made an order on Wednesday last week but have heard nothing since. 'I have tried to email but no reply. It's my daughters birthday on Friday so I'd really like to know if I'm likely to have the party supplies I ordered. Thanks.' And Boandhenri also complained, saying: 'Hi I am waiting for some items I ordered last week for my son's birthday. 'I paid extra for a faster delivery. Pls can you update me as I'm unable to get hold of you by phone. 'His birthday is tomorrow.' He went on: 'So despite being promised yesterday it would arrive today I am now putting my little boy to bed on his birthday without a single item arriving to decorate the house. Really not the service I expected from your company.' Others said their items had not arrived on time either. Nisha90xx said: 'Hi can I have an update on my order please? I ordered 7 days ago and it's my daughter's birthday tomorrow. Just so I know If I need to go out and try and find something. Thanks.' And Jowells888 said: 'Hi I have sent 2 emails now regarding my order can somebody please get back 2 me! '@partypiecesyou have said sorry to all these comments that people have made but other than that there is nothing!!! I want an answer today! 'If u can't give me that I want a full refund as I need that money back to actually purchase balloons that I am going to get in time and a full confirmation that I am actually going to get them!' Emma Mulqueeny OBE said on Twitter: '@partypieces if you can't respond to emails or calls and you can't deliver anything in time STOP TAKING MONEY AND ORDERS. 'You have not responded Mon/Tue/Wed/today and not delivered anything for 18th bday tomorrow. Thanks.' A statement on the company website said: 'However, due to the social distancing measures we are adopting in our warehouse, we have adjusted delivery time-frames. The company commented on some of the complaints, but not all of them 'We have temporarily suspended our Next Day delivery service and, due to increased demand, we have extended our standard delivery time-frames up to five to seven working days. 'Express Delivery is three working days. Our couriers are endeavouring to deliver all orders within the promised time-scales but orders may take a little longer than usual during this time.' It continued: 'We wouldn't be the business we are today without the support of our customers and dedication of the Party Pieces team and, during these uncertain times, the health and safety of our employees and their families is our number one priority. 'We have our own warehouse and in-house team of superstars and we have put into place measures to ensure everyone is safe at work. 'We understand how difficult it will be to celebrate these special occasions for loved ones right now but we can hopefully provide a little sparkle of happiness for families who are able to celebrate safely at home.' Last year the company was littered with bad ratings, with just a 2.1 score on the Trustpilot website. Party Pieces CEO Steven Bentwood said: 'We are all aware of the challenging circumstances currently being faced by businesses as we look at new ways of working within government guidelines, during the Covid 19 crisis. 'However, it is very important that we sincerely apologise to our amazing customers, some of whom were waiting for online orders and were experiencing delays in receiving replies to their enquiries. 'With factors outside of our control, our customer service team did their best to follow up and ensure all customers were fully informed and reassured, and all orders that were suffering delays are now up to date.' Washington County Public Schools asking public for input on funding Washington County Public Schools is asking the public for input on how they should spend the American Rescue Plan money from the federal government. In a bid to help women maintain personal hygiene, a private firm manufacturing sanitary napkins, on Tuesday said it has managed to distribute 80,000 pieces of the product to the needy ones across the Delhi-NCR and Punjab during the lockdown. The Indian home-grown sanitary napkin brand Paree said it decided to reach out to women in need and introduced the initiative #SheFirst because they believe that #PadsAreEssential. Under the campaign, 80,000 sanitary napkins have been distributed across Delhi-NCR and Punjab, the firm said in a statement. Talking about the campaign, Parees CEO and founder Sahil Dharia said, As a brand, I want to assure each woman that at the time of crisis, we are with you, you can trust us. We are proud to have support from Punjab Police, CII IWN (Confederation of Indian Industry-Indian Women Network), Rasoi on Wheels and many others. According to the statement, Sania Nehwal, one of the shareholders of the brand Paree, supported the campaign and added,I am so glad that people have realised the importance of the availability of sanitary napkins and have come forward to help women who are struggling with the lack of menstrual essentials". CII IWN chairwoman Rinki Dhingra, added, "Women across segments in India have struggled to gain access to the basics, with menstrual hygiene products being the most elusive to them. I am glad that corporations like Paree have stepped in with their foresight and initiative to distribute free sanitary pads to the women workforces who are most in need". Supporting the campaign on ground, Rasoi-on-Wheels' co-founder Maneka Badhwar said, Menstrual hygiene, I feel, is a huge issue for women across socio-economic groups during this time and I pledge to play my part in helping them. I pledge that #PadsAreEssential with Paree's #SheFirst initiative. The campaign is active in cities like Punjab, Delhi, Gurgaon through various channels and so far Paree have supplied sanitary napkins to areas across Delhi/ NCR and districts of Punjab. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) business Coronavirus pandemic: Uncertainty looms as Trump administration decides to suspend immigration According to a report by American immigration policy research firm CATO.org, there are about 5,48,641 Indians waiting for their Green Card under skilled worker programme. On April 18, China announced the establishment of the so-called Xisha district at Vietnams Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago, and Nansha district at Vietnams Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago, in the so-called Sansha city. Vietnam has strongly affirmed many times that it has sufficient historical evidence and legal foundation to assert its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos, spokesperson Thu Hang said. She stressed that those moves of China are invalid and unrecognised, and they are not favourable for the friendship among nations and further complicate the situation in the East Sea, the region and the world. Vietnam demands that China respect Vietnams sovereignty, abolish its wrongful decisions related to the moves and not to commit similar acts in the future, the spokesperson asserted. #RohitShetty has facilitated eight hotels across the city for our on-duty #CovidWarriors to rest, shower & change with arrangements for breakfast & dinner. We thank him for this kind gesture and for helping us in #TakingOnCorona and keeping Mumbai safe. Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) April 21, 2020 India has been in a state of lockdown ever since the Corona virus outbreak. The government was forced to issue a lockdown across the country to ensure that the virus does not spread on a large scale like we've seen in the other parts of the world. However, this move had its fair share of repercussions as it put millions of people across the country completely out of business.At the time of crisis, many Bollywood stars have stepped up and done their bit to ease the pressure on the government by providing basic facilities like food and shelter to the needy.. The Mumbai police thanked the filmmaker on social media by penning down a lovely tweet. They wrote, #RohitShetty has facilitated eight hotels across the city for our on-duty #CovidWarriors to rest, shower & change with arrangements for breakfast & dinner. We thank him for this kind gesture and for helping us in #TakingOnCorona and keeping Mumbai safe.Apart from this, Rohit Shetty also made a donation of Rs. 51 lakhs to help the daily wage workers who are affected the most due to the lockdown. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sonia Avalos (Agence France-Presse) Buenos Aires, Argentina Tue, April 21, 2020 12:30 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd33dc6f 2 World violence-against-women,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-lockdown,COVID-19-quarantine,pandemic,domestic-abuse,domestic-violence Free Weeks of confinement imposed by the coronavirus pandemic is taking a chilling toll on women and girls across Latin America, where the number of calls to helplines have soared, made by victims of domestic violence who cannot flee. Appeals to help women experiencing violence in the home have redoubled in recent weeks, from the United Nations to Pope Francis -- Latin America's first pontiff. "The confinement is plunging thousands of women into hell, trapped with an attacker who they are more afraid of than the coronavirus," said Victoria Aguirre from the Argentine NGO MuMaLa, which campaigns against violence related to macho culture. In Argentina, 18 women have been killed by their partner or ex-partners during the first 20 days of a mandatory quarantine instituted by the government from March 20. Appeals to helplines in Argentina are up nearly 40 percent. The country is still reeling from the shocking murder of Cristina Iglesias and her seven-year-old daughter Ada, killed by her mother's partner in the early days of the lockdown. Their two bodies were found buried in the backyard of their home in a town in Buenos Aires province. Elsewhere, police -- alerted by neighbors -- arrived in the nick of time to save a woman whose husband attacked her with a hammer. Living in fear A staggering 3,800 women were murdered in Latin America in 2019, an 8 percent increase on the previous year, according to preliminary data from the Observatory for Gender Equality at CEPAL, the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. "Unfortunately, many women and girls are particularly exposed to violence precisely where they should be protected, in their own homes," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who issued a call for a domestic violence "ceasefire" as lockdowns extended into April. "You live in fear of turning your back on him. It is only later, when the bruises appear, that you realize that he could have killed you," Luciana, a 25-year-old victim of domestic violence, told AFP. She was badly beaten by her ex-husband. "Every day, a women is abused, raped or beaten at home by her partner or her ex," said Ada Rico, from the NGO La Casa del Encuentro. "In normal times, we would help her to file a complaint. These days, the urgency is to get her out of the house as quickly as possible." The situation is similarly grim in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and elsewhere, where measures taken by the authorities often fall far short of properly protecting victims. In Mexico, "emergency calls have increased" since the start of the lockdown on March 24, said Nadine Gasman, head of the National Women's Institute in Mexico City. Maria Salguero, who researches violence against women and created a "femicide map" around the country, estimated that around 200 women have been murdered since quarantine measures began. Rape and murder The sordid murder of Ana Paola, a 13-year-old who was raped and beaten to death by a burglar in the northeastern state of Sonora in early April, provoked widespread disgust and anger in Mexico. Emergency calls to the National Refugee Network, an NGO which caters to women victims of violence, have increased by 60 percent since the beginning of the confinement period. The number of women taken into care by the organization is up 5 percent. With more than 1,000 femicides in 2019, two recent brutal murders -- one of a seven-year-old girl -- once again highlighted a lack of action by authorities. Mexican feminist activists have demanded more effective policies from President Andres Manuel Lopez to combat the wave of violence. It's a similar case in Peru, where 2019 femicides were the highest in a decade. In Sao Paulo, the epicenter of Brazil's virus outbreak, reports of domestic violence have risen by 30 percent since the state government imposed a stay-at-home order. A group of 700 volunteers have formed a "vigilante network" to provide victims with medical, legal and psychological assistance through a WhatsApp messaging service. In Chile, which has opted for selective confinement in the most affected areas plus a nighttime curfew, complaints of domestic violence are up 500 percent in Providencia, an upper class neighborhood in the capital Santiago. The crisis has resulted in "increased alcohol consumption, mental health effects, increased anxiety, depression and violence within families," said senior health official Paula Daza. Trump seems to be a bit frantic about the way the pandemic is being perceived, Rosenstiel said. He wants to separate his supporters from what Drudge readers are seeing and reading. . . . Clearly, Trump has to know that Drudge is important for him. But whats bothering him more now is a situation that he doesnt really control. Even some Republicans arent comfortable with some of his decisions. Advertisement Archaeologists have found shipwrecks in the Mediterranean filled with hundreds of artefacts including Chinese porcelain, jugs, coffee pots, peppercorns and illicit tobacco pipes. A British-led expedition led by Enigma Recoveries found a cluster of 12 ships on the sea bed, 1.2 miles below the surface of the Levantine Sea, using sophisticated robots. The ships were recovered in ancient 'shipping lanes' that served spice and silk trades of the Greek, Roman and Ottoman empires, from 300 BC onwards. The ancient ships including the biggest ever found in the Med were unearthed in a muddy part of the eastern seabed between Cyprus and Lebanon, where remnants are often hard to find. Chinese Ming porcelain from the colossus Ottoman merchant ship, which researchers believe sank in the eastern Mediterranean in the year 1630 The cluster of shipwrecks were found in the Levantine Basin in the east of the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the artefacts from the wrecks are being held in nearby Cyprus. The shipwrecks reveal a previously unknown maritime silk and spice road that links China to Persia, the Red Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. The colossal 17th Century vessel, which linked Jingdezhen in China to Europe, sank off the coast of Lebanon in 1630, where it has been discovered with the other shipwrecks. From Suiz the Eastern wares were transported on land to the emporium of Cairo, from where they were ferried up the Nile to Alexandria to be shipped through the Med It doesnt get better than this, Sean Kingsley, archaeologist at the Enigma Shipwreck Project (ESP) told BBC Radio 4. For an archaeologist its the equivalent of finding a new planet. Theres sort of an embarrassment of wonders here weve got the earliest Chinese Ming dynasty porcelain found under the Mediterranean Sea. Theyre quite hard to find but when you do find them theyre incredibly well preserved. 'Compared to the western Mediterranean where youve got these wonderful piles of amphoras, you dont get that in the east Mediterranean because a lot of the wrecks are hidden under the mud.' A Chinese porcelain dish from the Ottoman colossus ship that sunk around 1630 while sailing from Egypt towards Istanbul An iron sword and copper shield submerged in the mud to the top left of the image, taken from an Ottoman wreck of 1650 to 1700 The wrecks reveal a previously unknown maritime silk and spice road that links China to Persia, the Red Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. The goods discovered are remarkably cosmopolitan for pre-modern shipping of any era, Kingsley told the Guardian. One of the wrecks is a colossal 17th-century 140-foot-long Ottoman merchant ship, which was big enough to fit two normal-sized ships on its deck. Its size is matched by the breadth of its cargoes, he said, which consists of hundreds of artefacts from 14 cultures and civilisations. This includes the earliest Chinese porcelain retrieved from a Mediterranean wreck, painted jugs from Italy, 12 coffee pots and peppercorns. The 'colossus' ship was stocked with 12 'ibrik' copper coffee pots that were most likely made in Egypt or Turkey, Kingsley told MailOnline. 'The coffee pots are Ottoman in tradition its most likely they were personal property of crew members because each is a different shape and style,' he said. 'They could have been bought in almost any souk market from Cairo to Istanbul.' A coffee pot from the 1630 shipwreck. The Ottomans have been credited for bringing coffee to Europe. The colossus was stocked with 12 'ibrik' copper coffee pots A huge 13-foot iron anchor in the bows of the Ottoman colossus lost around 1630, surrounded by green-tinted storage jars The ship, which is thought to have sunk in around 1630 while sailing between Egypt and Istanbul, is a snapshot of the beginning of the globalised world. Its cargoes also include glass and ceramics from Belgium, Spain, Italy, Yemen and the Persian Gulf alongside Arabian incense. At 43 metres long and with a 1,000-ton burden, it is one of the most spectacular examples of maritime technology and trade in any ocean, said Kingsley. 'I expect the Western glass and ceramics from Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal were also picked up in the mighty megapolis of Cairo, a cosmopolitan New York or London of its day.' The Ottoman 'colossus', lost around 1630, transported goods from 14 cultures and civilisations spanning a huge 5,500-mile (9,000km) arc from Pisa to China. These commodities came via Jingdezhen in China, India south to the Persian Gulf, then up the Red Sea by way of the great port of Mocha and up to Suez. There the Eastern wares were transhipped to the emporium of Cairo, from where they were ferried up the Nile to Alexandria. Loaded onto the 1,000 ton colossus, they were three days out when they sank heading to Istanbul (marked in red). Other locations in white show the trading ports on its route Shipworms captured eating through the bright orange wooden hull frames on an Ottoman ship carrying coconuts around 1910 A half-submerged collection of English mocha ware bowls, Italian dishes and Ottoman storage jars on a trader sunk around 1830 The Chinese porcelain aboard the ill-fated 17th century ship comprises 360 decorated cups, dishes and a bottle made during the reign of Chongzhen from 1627 to 1644, used for drinking tea. Tea-drinking vessels were adapted by the Ottomans for coffee, which was sweeping the east during the 17th century, following bans around 100 years prior. 'Through tobacco smoking and coffee drinking in Ottoman cafes, the idea of recreation and polite society hallmarks of modern culture came to life,' Kingsley said. 'Europe may think it invented notions of civility, but the wrecked coffee cups and pots prove the barbarian Orient was a trailblazer rather than a backwater. 'The first London coffeehouse only opened its doors in 1652, a century after the Levant.' The wrecks also contained the earliest Ottoman clay tobacco pipes found, which were probably illicit due to rules against tobacco smoking at the time. Two types of Roman wine amphoras - the classic containers jug with two handles and a narrow neck - on a ship lost some time between the years 15 BC and AD 50 Other cargoes revealed include fine English pottery, Italian glass plant shades, Egyptian coconuts and grain. The remains were recorded using digital photography, HD video, photomosaics and multibeams which use sound to map the sea floor. 'The 3D photogrammetry mapping of the Ottoman colossus was a first for this technology in the East Mediterranean,' said Tim McKechnie, co-director of Enigma Recoveries. The team used a robotic vehicle to carefully plough the depths of the seabed and find the treasures among the mud. These are very sophisticated, what we call a remotely operated vehicle the hands and the eyes of the archaeologist in the deep because obviously we cant go down there, Kingsley told the BBC. The Ottoman Empire was founded in Anatolia, the location of modern-day Turkey. Ottomans (pictured) adapted tea drinking porcelain for the coffee craze spreading across the east And theyre very sensitive, they have underwater suction, vacuum, hoovers which can if you want hoover huge amounts of area or you can dial down the pressure to replicate what we would do in shallow waters by hand. Its painstaking, slow work, takes a long time to recover its two hours just to commute the robot down to the sea bed. Were at the depth of 39 Nelson columns stacked on top of each other scuba divers cant get there, fishing trawlers cant rake up the deep.' The material some of which is currently being kept in nearby Cyprus was found at the end of 2015. ESP now hopes the findings, which are only now being disclosed, are made publicly viewable in a major museum. We want to make sure this gift to humanity ends up in a public museum so everyone can enjoy it, Kingsley said. AXA XL announced a new leadership team and proposed changes to the operating model of its Insurance business following a strategic review. Key proposed changes to the operating model include the creation of a single global insurance Underwriting Function and the establishment of three geographical Business Units across the Americas, Eurasia, and the UK & Lloyds market. The Underwriting Function will be led by a global chief underwriting officer (CUO), who will be working to design the structure of the proposed new model,said AXA XL in a statement. The CUO would be responsible for underwriting governance, pricing, P&L and the management of the global heads of business lines in order to define and drive product strategy. The three geographical Business Units will be led by CEOs, who would be responsible for the balance sheets of their geographies and managing talent.* AXA XL is the result of acquisitions and mergers and with our increased scale, now is the time to optimize our structure by striking the right balance between local and global decision making so we remain agile and flexible, said Scott Gunter, AXA XL CEO. Gunter confirmed the leadership team, which will build out the envisaged operating model, as follows: Nancy Bewlay, chief underwriting officer Joseph Tocco, chief executive officer, Americas Scott Gunter, interim CEO, Eurasia Sean McGovern, interim CEO, UK & Lloyds market Charles Cooper, CEO, Reinsurance Brent Hoffman, chief claims officer Karen le Duc, chief human resources officer Matthieu Caillat, chief operating officer Noel Richardson, chief risk officer Rainer Schoellhammer, chief financial officer Sean McGovern, general counsel. I have spent my first 60 days as CEO considering our priorities and our structure and assembling the right team to drive AXA XL forward, Gunter said. We want to continue to serve our clients and brokers to the very best of our ability while being a simpler organization to navigate. The regional structure would mean decisions can be made faster in country, while the global functions would mean our clients and brokers continue to benefit from our global expertise and experience, he added. This leadership team is an international, highly experienced team of individuals: around half the team have a background at legacy XL Catlin, while the other half bring diverse and valuable experience from across the AXA Group, Gunter noted. This is a positive step forward for AXA XL and I strongly believe that this new leadership team will ensure we are the insurance partner of choice across business lines and around the world. AXA XL Forms New Leadership Team, Aims to Restructure with Regional Operating Model Biographies of New Leadership Team: Nancy Bewlay, Chief Underwriting Officer. Prior to taking on this new role, Bewlay previously was global chief underwriting officer for AXA XLs long tail property & casualty risks. She joined XL Catlin in 2017 as the global chief underwriting officer for Casualty. Prior to XL Catlin, she worked as Swiss Res head of Underwriting for Casualty. Bewlay also served as the president & chief executive officer of C.V. Starr & Co. (California) and was responsible for the overall operations of the agency. She joined C.V. Starr in 2006 as manager of the East Coast offices where she held various roles of advancing responsibilities. Joseph Tocco, CEO, Americas. Prior to assuming this new role, Tocco was head of North America Property & Casualty. Previously, he served as chief executive of the Americas region for XL Catlin. He also served as chief executive of North America P&C unit for XL Group plcs global insurance operations. Prior to this position, Tocco served as president and head of XL Groups North America property business and XL Global Asset Protection Services (XL GAPS), XL Groups loss prevention consulting firm. He joined XL Group in 2011 from Zurich Financial Services, where he led the North America property group, Global Corporate Business Unit. Sean McGovern, General Counsel. McGovern was appointed general counsel of AXA XL in September 2018, having been chief compliance officer, head of Regulatory & Government Affairs at XL Group, since October 2016. Before joining XL Group, McGovern held various senior positions at Lloyds of London, which he joined in 1996 from private practice at Clifford Chance. In 2002, he was appointed a director and Lloyds general counsel. In 2014, he also became Lloyds first chief risk officer and a member of the board. Charles Cooper, Chief Executive Officer, Reinsurance. Cooper has been CEO of AXA XLs Global Reinsurance operations since 2018. Previously, he was chief executive of Bermuda Reinsurance for XL Catlin. Cooper began his career with AIG and Zurich North America in New York, writing International primary casualty business. He moved to reinsurance when he joined XL Reinsurance America Inc. as an assistant vice president and corporate planning analyst. In 2005, he transferred to the Bermuda office, where he was senior vice president & underwriter for XL Re Ltd. In 2010, Cooper became president and chief underwriting officer of XL Re Ltd. Brent Hoffman, Chief Claims Officer. Prior to assuming this new role, Hoffman held the role of global head of Claims, after a promotion at XL Catlin in 2018. He joined XL Group in 2014 and previously held the positions of global practice leader, Global Claims, with a place on the claims leadership team. Prior to joining XL Group, Hoffman was with The Hartford for more than 12 years, where he held various in-house attorney positions in addition to a vice president role in the companys claims department. Karen le Duc, Chief HR Officer. Prior to assuming this new role of chief human resources officer, le Duc held a number of senior roles on the executive committee of AXA Liabilities Managers. These previous positions included CIO / global head of Business Support (2004), global head of Human Resources (2012), global head of Communications (2014), head of Global Shared Services Centre and Integration (2016) and CEO AXA Liabilities Managers US (2018). Before joining AXA Liabilities Managers in 2004, she spent three years in other program management roles within the group. Matthieu Caillat, Chief Operating Officer. As chief operating officer, Caillat has led the Operations & Technology function at AXA XL since 2018. Under the new structure, he will also lead Data & Analytics, Innovation, Transformation, as well as the Global Programs and Captives platform. Prior to his current role, Caillat became deputy global chief underwriting officer at AXA Corporate Solutions (ACS) in 2015, before also becoming CEO France at ACS in 2016. Between 2010 and 2015, Caillat had been managing director and then CEO of AXA Corporate Solutions UK and AXA Matrix UK, based in London. He started his insurance career at the company in 2003, working his way up through the organization, holding various positions in the Specialty Markets Division. He set up AXA Corporate Solutions Space division in 2007 and led it until 2012. Noel Richardson, Chief Risk Officer. Richardson was appointed chief risk officer for AXA XL in 2018. He joined AXA in 1994 and has held several posts during his time with the group, including chief financial officer of several operating entities (AXA Germany, AXA Belgium, AXA Bank Europe); CFO of the Northern Europe and CEE Region; CFO of Life and Health operations worldwide; group head of Corporate Finance and Treasury; group head of Life, Savings & Health Insurance and Risk Management. Rainer Schoellhammer, Chief Financial Officer. Schoellhammer was appointed CFO of AXA XL in 2019. He was previously group finance controller at AXA Group, a role he held since 2015. Between 2012 and 2015, Schoellhammer was CFO at AXA Corporate Solutions. Before 2011, he spent five years at AXA Germany, where he held various senior roles, including head of Financial Planning and Analysis, Controller, and CFO of a specialized life entity. Schoellhammer joined AXA in 2006, after it acquired Winterthur Group, the insurance division of Credit Suisse. He had previously joined Winterthur as assistant vice president Accounting Policy Group in 2002. * AXA XL confirmed that the proposed changes affecting European entities, will be subject to consultation with employee representative bodies. Source: AXA XL Related: Topics Commercial Lines Excess Surplus Business Insurance Europe Underwriting Reinsurance Property Casualty Leadership AXA XL Lloyd's Casualty All of Sydney's five million residents could be tested for the coronavirus up to three times under a new testing blitz that will allow the lockdown to be eased. The head of the pathology services provider at St Vincent's Hospital said such a thorough testing regime was the only way to stay on top of COVID-19 and allow the lifting of lockdown measures. 'There is an inevitability with any virus, particularly a novel virus,' SydPath director of operations Greg Granger told the Sydney Morning Herald. 'It can get away from us at any time. 'Everyone in Sydney will eventually be tested and re-tested and probably re-tested again.' Pictured: A drive-through coronavirus testing clinic in Bondi in Sydney's eastern suburbs on April 7. All Sydney residents could be tested for the coronavirus under plans to expand testing beyond hotspots for the disease The next step in testing would begin on Wednesday, when New South Wales' chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant was scheduled to meet with pathology providers to assess the state's test capacity in the hope of expanding who is eligible for a test. Currently testing was restricted to those who had been diagnosed with symptoms by a GP, to people who had been in contact with confirmed carriers, or those in hot spots for the disease such as Bondi in the city's eastern suburbs and Macquarie Park in the north-west. 'If we have enough testing kits and swabs and collection points, we will be announcing testing is open to anyone with symptoms who wants a COVID test,' Dr Chant told the Sydney Morning Herald. Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week called for wider testing to be implemented before social distancing restrictions can be relaxed. Mr Granger of SydPath said that, despite recent drops in the rate of infection, even isolated social gatherings can spark fresh outbreaks of the illness. 'We dont want to see what happened in Tasmania happen to us.' Pictured: Cars lining up in Bondi on April 7 for a drive-through testing clinic. New South Wales' chief medical officer is looking to expand testing to include even those with mild symptoms Hospital staff carry out a test at a COVID-19 clinic in Adelaide on March 31. A leading pathology provider said everyone in Sydney will need to be 'tested and re-tested and probably re-tested again' Officials were forced to close Burnies North West Regional Hospital in the state's north-west after a cluster of coronavirus cases emerged at the hospital and forced 1,200 healthcare workers into self-isolation. Mr Granger said testing capacity had expanded significantly since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia - when it took as long as seven days for a COVID-19 test result to be confirmed. NSW reported six new cases on Tuesday taking its total to 2,969, with 21 people in intensive care, after conducting more than 171,000 tests. The death toll in the state also rose to 31. Operator Anglicare Sydney said a 92-year-old woman died late on Tuesday morning at its Newmarch House aged care home in Caddens in Sydney's far west. In a statement, the organisation said the woman had tested positive for COVID-19 and also had multiple health issues, although the cause of death is yet to be formally determined. 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 Newmarch House is home to about 100 people with 28 residents and 14 staff infected with the coronavirus. Strict isolation protocols are in place. A worker with symptoms entered Newmarch House on six consecutive days, leading Dr Chant to warn even those with mild symptoms should avoid work and get tested. The elderly woman is the third person from the facility to die after testing positive to the virus following the deaths of two men aged 93 and 94. Meanwhile, a healthcare worker at St George Hospital, in Sydney's south, has tested positive to the virus, South Eastern Sydney local health district confirms. 'There is no ongoing risk to patients or staff and there has been no impact on hospital services,' a spokeswoman for the health district said in a statement. The healthcare worker presented to a COVID-19 clinic for testing at the first sign of symptoms and all close contacts have been identified and isolated, she said. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Pharma & Chemicals also has a positive outlook in which Torrent Pharma and PI Industries are our top pick in the model portfolio, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said in an interview with Moneycontrols Kshitij Anand. Edited excerpt: Q) A big liquidity booster shot came from the RBI. Do you think banking stocks are likely to gain the most from the measures? A) They (Govt. & RBI) have provided additional support to the financial market with liquidity, lower cost of funds and NPA management. They will help the financial market to bear the negativity of a slow economy. Monetary measures are effective when complemented with fiscal & social environment. Assuming that the virus effect will diminish by June, we feel that the monetary stimulus announced in the last 2 months will help banks in combination with the fiscal & health measures. A) The market is on a bear rallying which is getting extended in expectation of second fiscal package. This is likely to be higher than Rs 1.7 lakh cr announced in March. The last measure was to provide free food, cash in hand and job safety for the BPL section. This time it may provide some tax benefits, support to MSMEs, farmers and daily workers. Though no specific benefit is expected for corporates, the governments intention to relax economic restrictions and to open the economy in a phase-wise manner itself will provide a boost to the market. A) The sustainability of the trend will depend on the probability & time of the reopening of the economy. Today market hopes that economy will revert by July. The recent spurt of virus cases domestically & continuity in the rest of the world is a point of concern for the market which could limit the trend in the short-term. Whereas in the long-term improvement in health meter and reopening of the economy which be a big boost to the equity market given solid monetary, and fiscal stimulus announced in the world. A) In the near-term, Nifty50 is likely to trade in a broad range between 8,500 to 9,500 levels with a positive bias amid the expectation of a big fiscal stimulus. While globally, control of virus & developments will set the momentum. A) The banking sector will benefit from the 2 measures announced by RBI since it added safety to the system, availability of funds, cheaper cost, moratorium and easy accounting of NPA. The banking index is down by about 35 percent in the last 3 months. They will improve in the coming months in a combination with monetary & fiscal steps undertaken along with the reopening of the economy in a phase by phase manner. A) Small & Midcap become attractive after the beating of the last 2month whereas maintaining outperformance will be difficult given the weak business outlook for the next 1 to 3 months. We expect large-caps to outperform in the short to medium-term. The sectors to do well could be FMCG, Staples, Chemicals, Pharma, Healthcare, Large private banks, Agriculture and E-commerce. Q) Any that are looking attractive for a medium to a long term time frame? A) We are positive on large private banks in which HDFC Bank looks attractive in terms of valuation and financial stability. We are also positive on staples & FMCG like Colgate-Palmolive. Pharma & Chemicals also has a positive outlook in which Torrent Pharma and PI Industries are our top pick in the model portfolio. : 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. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have today given their backing to a new mental health support network to help frontline workers battling coronavirus. William and Kate's Royal Foundation is formally backing a new initiative, called 'Our Frontline', which will see leading charities and organisations provide round-the-clock mental health support to everyone from NHS staff to bus drivers. The couple say supporting frontline workers during the Covid-19 pandemic will be their 'top priority' in the months ahead. The Duke of Cambridge, 37, who has worked as an air ambulance pilot in the past, said: 'Over the past few weeks, millions of frontline workers across the UK have put their physical and mental health on the line to protect us all during the coronavirus pandemic. William and Kate's Royal Foundation is formally backing a new initiative, called 'Our Frontline', aimed at supporting frontline workers. Here William and Kate are pictured with the Queen, who celebrated her 94th birthday yesterday 'Every day, they confront traumatic situations at the same time as having to contend with their own worries about the risks to themselves and their families. 'That takes a real toll, and as I've seen for myself through my work with the air ambulance, without the right support at the right time, the challenges they face will only be greater. 'Catherine and I, together with the Royal Foundation, will do all we can to support Our Frontline. 'This work will be our top priority for the months ahead.' The project will be a combination of one-to-one support and online resources for any NHS workers, carers, emergency services personnel and key workers whose psychological wellbeing comes under pressure. Charities Mind, Samaritans and Hospice UK will all be involved in the initiative, as will Shout - a text messaging helpline supporting people in crisis. The Our Frontline project, backed by William and Kate (pictured), will be a combination of one-to-one support and online resources for any NHS workers, carers, emergency services personnel and key workers William and Kate's charitable organisation will help raise awareness about the new resource. Frontline staff and key workers can call or text a trained volunteer and access specially developed online resources, tool kits and advice to support their mental health. The duke, whose grandmother the Queen turned 94 yesterday, has experience of being in the same environment as doctors, nurses and other health workers as he was a pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance. He has spoken in the past about the mental pressures that came with the job. In a 2018 interview, William said the experience of attending several traumatic emergencies involving children and having his own children 'tipped me over the edge', but speaking to his crew helped him cope with the 'enormous sadness' that he had witnessed. Later on Wednesday, the duke will chair a roundtable call with representatives from the emergency services sector and the NHS to learn more about the mental health challenges key workers face and how Our Frontline can support them. The Duke of Cambridge has his own personal experience of being a key worker, having worked for the East Anglian Air Ambulance service Those on the call will include NHS England and NHS Improvement, Faculty of Pre Hospital Care - Royal College of Surgeons, Mind, Lifelines Scotland, Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, National Police Chiefs' Council, the Fire Fighters Charity, Police Care UK and the Ambulance Staff Charity. Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said: 'Every day, those working in health and social care, 999 services and other vital roles - staff working in supermarkets, pharmacies, transport, catering and cleaning to name a few - face huge challenges to their physical and mental health. 'That's why it's so important they can easily access information and contact trained advisers to help promote good mental health, any time of day or night.' Frontline staff and other key workers can see more information at www.ourfrontline.org or visit @OurFrontlineUK on social media. Thousands still without housing or hospitals after 2018 earthquake, tsunami and liquefaction destroyed area. Citizens of Palu, tens of thousands still in temporary shelters, had just begun rebuilding their health facilities when the novel coronavirus arrived. It was here and across Indonesias Central Sulawesi province that the deadliest earthquake of 2018 struck, killing 4,845 people and destroying more than 100,000 homes. The 7.4-magnitude earthquake swallowed entire neighbourhoods and triggered a tsunami so fast that even geologists were surprised. When the earthquake hit, Anutapura hospitals main nursing and housing wing collapsed on itself with the loss of 250 hospital beds in a province with only 1,100 beds in all Class A and B hospitals and a population of more than 2.6 million. The rebuilding was supposed to finish next month. But what locals fear most is what might happen if the virus enters the shelters that remain home to tens of thousands of people across the city, despite 18 months of promises of fast aid. As soon as the government said there were cases in Palu, I began panicking, said Tari Yalijama, a 32-year-old mother of three who lives in a temporary shelter. Ten families share the toilet she uses. Her former home still lies in a pile of rubble, thrust 150 metres downhill. But until someone is tested positive, everyone will go about their lives normally. People think the heat will kill it, she said. The virus can spread in people without symptoms, and tests are hard to come by. Difficult to distance These shelters are far from appropriate for physical distancing measures, said David Pakaya, a doctor and medical lecturer at Palus Tadulako University. Each family lives in an area less than 20 square metres [215 square feet] and without adequate ventilation. Some residents of Palu continue to live in tents more than 18 months after the triple disaster of September 2018. NGOs delivered some basic supplies this month {Supplied/Al Jazeera] The governments 699 temporary shelters house close to 9,000 people. Twelve families share four bathrooms and a single kitchen. In the shelters built by private foundations, thousands more are housed in small, single-room huts with metal roofs and a bathroom shared by even more people. Were facing a second crisis as we still recover from the last, said Dewi Rana, who leads a local NGO focused on women, Libu Perempuan. NGOs are still delivering food aid, 74 health facilities were still damaged at the beginning of the year, and damage to irrigation systems has left many livelihoods unviable and water sources unreliable. Some friends are only just beginning to recover, but were confronted by this virus, Rana said. Some in tents Just as health facilities have yet to be rebuilt, many residents are still living in the emergency tents that were erected just after the September 2018 disaster. It is conditions like these that could become a breeding ground for the virus, experts say. If the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects one of the shelters people, it will spread easily, said Pandu Riono, a statistician and public health expert at the University of Indonesia. In this September 2019 picture, a man fishes near a house destroyed in the earthquake, tsunami and liquefaction a year ago that devastated Palu in Central Sulawesi; thousands are still living in emergency shelters and tents [File: Ian Morse/Al Jazeera] Combined with weakened hospital facilities, it will be a disaster and increase the number of deaths in conditions like those, Riono said. Across Indonesia, experts predict the virus has spread much further and far deeper than medical facilities can test. Hundreds of thousands will die without intervention, according to a study by a team that includes Riono at the University of Indonesia. Central Sulawesi has detected two dozen positive cases of the virus, but hundreds more are suspected and three deaths have already been recorded, including the countrys first public official the district chief of North Morowali, whose accompanying team and family have all tested positive. The shelters have become the focus of the governments response to the pandemic, officials tell local media. Palus government has tried to intervene, spraying disinfectant throughout temporary shelters, despite evidence that it is insufficient and can harm human health. Food, water unreliable On the other hand, it does appear to have provided some reassurance to the community and calmed nerves. Im afraid this could become another path the virus could use, said Rana, speaking of residents already poor health and weakened immune systems. Poor nutrition can also weaken immune systems, and inconsistent water supply makes it more difficult to keep facilities and hands clean. There are health problems in the temporary shelters, including nutritional problems, psychosocial stress, degenerative diseases, and other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, and dengue fever, all of which can lower the bodys immune system, said Pakaya. The area continues to see high rates of respiratory infections as a result of the dust from the rubble of the destroyed infrastructure and unhygienic living arrangements. On top of that, many residents have trouble buying phone credit to access the internet, which means that few have much understanding of the disease. Insufficient access to valid information about the virus, ranging from its causes signs, symptoms, and prevention methods means residents are not alert and cant identify if they themselves have the virus, said Pakaya. Without aid to repair homes, many are afraid to live inside cracked walls and ceilings that could collapse with another earthquake, which occur often. Dewi fears for the thousands still in these tents living around the city and into the mountains. Dewi Rana and members of her NGO have been delivering sugar this month to Palu families still living in makeshift accommodation more than 18 months after the disaster; she says there is limited access to food, water or medical care [Supplied/Al Jazeera] You cant go outside your home, so access to food is limited because there is no aid now. Access to health facilities is limited, and water access is limited. As you can imagine this can become much more difficult for people living in tents, said Rana. New homes unfinished Rana and her organisation distributed sugar to survivors of the earthquake living in tents near one of the neighbourhoods where the earth turned liquid and swallowed homes. While others across Indonesia and the world are told to stay inside as much as possible, many of the new homes that private foundations, NGOs and the government have built get too hot during the day, raising the risk of dangerous heatstroke. Last year, officials said the first homes would be finished by the end of 2019, but none has been completed. Thousands of people are yet to receive three types of government-mandated aid that they were promised: two months of daily compensation, compensation for the death of family members, and money to rebuild homes. Fathi Zubaidi, the deputy director of Anutapura hospital, Palus second-biggest, says he is confident the hospital now has adequate facilities, despite the stalled construction on the hospitals destroyed building. But access to health facilities remains limited, says Rana, whose NGO Libu Perempuan is logging spikes of gender-based violence in the close-quartered temporary shelters. The cramped spaces and compounding crises of lost livelihoods and unreliable food supply has led to reports of domestic violence, child marriage, and invasions of privacy. Were building a database for all the temporary shelters, so we know who is pregnant, when they will give birth, and how many kids, because access to hospitals or medical clinics is still limited, Rana said. Minnie Rivai, a resident of Palu, tried to get tested for coronavirus last month but had to jump through dozens of hoops as her fever got worse. In the end, she was struggling to breathe, and she said the healthcare facilities were at a loss as to what to do. She eventually got a test. It came back negative. The only way to get tested is to be stubborn, Rivai said. Kerala Police: A model policing paradigm in handling COVID-19 India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 21: Kerala has been a role model in the fight against coronavirus. The Kerala government has been recognised and acclaimed globally for its adept handling in treating and containing the spread of coronavirus in the state. The "Kerala Model" is now a matter of international research and study. The efficacy of the Health wing of the State, the capabilities of the Doctors, Medical infrastructure facilities, Educational and social consciousness are cited as reasons, in this success story. Similarly, the timely lockdown is stated to be the main reason that helped the State in containment. The Kerala Police made this possible and enforced a successful lockdown. The role of Kerala Police, the law and order arm of the Government, has been tremendous, not only in maintaining order in the society, but into a variety of unknown areas, to bolster the efforts of the State Government. From day one, the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, understood and insisted, that the police has to play a very active and frontline role in handling this pandemic. He tasked the State Police Chief Loknath Behera, with a variety of tasks which were traditionally and conventionally outside the purview of traditional policing. The lockdown brought police to the forefront of the efforts of the Government, to control the spread of the disease and the Kerala Police under the State Police Chief, Loknath Behera immediately rose up to the occasion and delivered on all fronts. Not enlisted in SOPs: The Police response to a pandemic was not enlisted in the SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) which the police falls back, in times of crisis. Faced with a totally new problem, with no past experience, the rank and file fell into the grind to ensure that the instructions of lockdown are implemented in letter and spirit. But what made Kerala Police different is the manner in which the lockdown was ensured. Through purely legal means, high voltage awareness campaigns and seeking the cooperation of the citizens, the police implemented a near total lockdown to ensure that the virus was completely arrested. The implementation of the lockdown norms was the easy part. The police ventured into a variety of functions and roles traditionally done by the other wings of the Government. Building social awareness against the spread of the disease was one major task and negating false news was another. Understanding the impact of social media in a digital state like Kerala, the Cyber Wing of the Police had tightened vigil on social media, from day one. The Police were very quick to identify fake and misleading news and posts and more than 150 cases were registered all across the State in this regard. Arrests of more than 106 persons followed. This gave a deterrent effect on the spread of fake and unverified messages on social media. Going digital: The social media handles of Kerala police in the past few years have become one of the most popular in the world, for its witty content and tongue-in-cheek responses. One of the most decorated and awarded police force in the area of Digital Technology and Innovations, the Social Media Cell of the Force functioning under Manoj Abraham IPS, ADGP, HQ has played a major role in building up the general image of the Police, and in ensuring the community support for various Initiatives of the police department. With more than 1.3 million followers on Facebook and a total of more than 2.5 million followers on TikTok, Share chat, Twitter, YouTube etc, the awareness campaigns/videos/trolls etc gained international recognition. They proved that digital technology can be used very effectively in containing not only the typical law and order problems, but also in effectively handling Pandemics also. Apart from this, under the direct supervision - various senior officers of the state police, the police ventured into the important task of keeping the persons marked under house quarantine within the four walls of their houses, using a slew of digital technological solutions/ Apps, visits by Janamaitri officers, Video call Checking and arresting persons who violated the quarantine. The police also came out with several digital solutions including a Tele Medicine App in association with IMA for tele-medical consultation for police officers and public alike, a Shopping App- where the citizens can order essential goods online in the period of lockdown, a mobile sanitiser unit for the policemen in the field, a digital platform for obtaining curfew pass, identification platform for guest workers from other States etc. All this went a long way in pushing the police force to the forefront of the government's response. Surveillance: The extensive use of drones for surveillance, not only to enforce the lockdown, but also in identifying the production of spurious liquor and sale of drugs, was another feature of the police response, which was soon emulated by the other forces. The police intervention in the colonies housing the migrant labours (Guest Workers) checking on the facilities given to them, tying up on their provisions, encouraging them and keeping them engaged without any violence, was another feather in the cap of Kerala Police in handling this crisis. The State Police Chief, who was a part of the daily consultation and State level review meetings, gave correct and valuable inputs to the Crisis management Committee, in taking the right decisions on any emerging issue. The war against the crisis continues, but the Kerala police has sure stood out with its unique style and innovative functioning. The steps taken by the force has ensured that it is one of the best forces in the country and also a globally acclaimed one. T he number of deaths from coronavirus in England and Wales reached the peak almost two weeks ago, leading scientists have said. A panel convened by the Science Media Centre said the Covid-19 death rate had been consistent for the last 13 days after hitting a high on April 8. The group of scientists were commenting on the death toll data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday. Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said: From an epidemiological perspective we can say that the numbers are consistent with the peak happening on April 8. Weve now tracked for 13 days that that has been consistent it hasnt jumped up. All of the other data surrounding this, the triangulation of the data is showing us that is the case. But he added: What we are worried about is that in the background someone has made an error and pulled out some data sets. Looking at what the ONS are doing now is hugely impressive I think we can be clear that in this peak it occurred on April 8 and in the last 13 days weve seen no change to that. Loading.... Prof Heneghan said: The date of death has now become incredibly important. The second piece of information that really helps us understand whats going on is the proportion of people being admitted to hospital and that over the next two to three days if it continues to drop will tell us the peak is over. Loading.... But he warned there could be a lag in the number of deaths in nursing homes where figures could continue to rise, even if deaths in hospitals start to decrease. The proportion of deaths in nursing homes could have a considerable lag going forward, he said. When asked if there could be a second peak in deaths in care homes, Dr Heneghan said: The predominant strategy with nursing homes going forward is to ensure that people working there or going in there are tested, so they do not enter with Covid, or that patients coming out of hospital are not seeded into those nursing homes. They are important strategies to reduce the problem in nursing homes. He continued: I cant answer what happened in terms of the proportion that have been infected and whats gone wrong right now but you can say look we need to refocus some of the energy and the strategy in these settings where youve got nearly half a million people living who will be seriously at risk from this disease. He added: Not just now, but for next winter if this becomes a seasonal effect this needs to be really thought through, and sorted in a way that we have a much more robust strategy to shield these nursing homes. The World on Coronavirus lockdown 1 /60 The World on Coronavirus lockdown Getty Images A UK government public health campaign is displayed in Piccadilly Circus Reuters Chinese paramilitary police and security officers wear face masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus as they stand guard outside an entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing AP A usually busy 42nd Street is seen nearly empty in New York AFP via Getty Images Bondi Beach, Australia Getty Images Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images View of the illuminated statue of Christ the Redeemer that reads "Thank you" as Archbishop of the city of Rio de Janeiro Dom Orani Tempesta performs a mass in honor of Act of Consecration of Brazil and tribute to medical workers amidst the Coronavirus (COVID - 19) pandemic Getty Images Rome AFP via Getty Images An Indian man paddles his bicycle in front of a mural depicting the globe covered in a mask, as India remains under an unprecedented lockdown over the highly contagious coronavirus Getty Images Aerial view of the empty 9 de Julio avenue in Buenos Aires in Argentina AFP via Getty Images A view of an empty Grand Canal Reuters Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Central cemetery in Bogota, Columbia AFP via Getty Images The facade of the Palacio de Lopez (seat of the government palace) AFP via Getty Images Miami, Florida AFP via Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Simon Bolivar park in Bogota AFP via Getty Images An LAPD patrol car drives through Venice Beach Boardwalk AP Venice Beach, California Getty Images Los Angeles, California Getty Images Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images Many shops stand shuttered on the Venice Beach boardwalk Getty Images Empty escalators are seen at a deserted train station during morning rush hour after New South Wales began shutting down non-essential businesses Reuters A nearly empty Times Square in New York AFP via Getty Images Caracas AFP via Getty Images Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador AFP via Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Midland Park in Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Civic Square at lunchtimein Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A policeman rides his motorcycle wearing a face mask in front of a closed shopping mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina AFP via Getty Images Florida Keys AP The historic Channel 2 Bridge closed to fishermen, bikers and pedestrians in Florida Keys AP The Beach on Scenic Gulf Drive near Seascape Resort in south Walton County, Florida sits empty of tourists AP Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images A deserted Rajpath leading to India Gate in New Delhi AFP via Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images Empty roads are pictured following the lockdown by the government amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kathmandu, Nepal Reuters An empty New York Subway car i AFP via Getty Images The empty pedestrian zone is seen in the city of Cologne, western Germany, AFP via Getty Images Place de la Comedie in the city of Montpellier , southern France AFP via Getty Images An empty street in Kuwait city AFP via Getty Images A building is covered by the Portuguese message: "Coronavirus: take precaution" over empty streets in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, AP A general view shows an empty street after a curfew was imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters Parliament of Canada is pictured with empty street during morning rush hour AFP via Getty Images A near empty beach on Southend seafront in England PA Near empty Keswick town centre in Cumbria, England PA There are also now fewer non-coronavirus deaths occurring in hospitals than would otherwise be expected. However, the panel said this does not necessarily mean people are becoming collateral damage by refusing to seek treatment. Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at University of Cambridge, said there was no evidence that the risk of death from people not attending hospital was equivalent to the risk of Covid-19. Sir David said: At the moment theres no suggestion that collateral damage, however high it is, is anything like as big as the harm from Covid-19. There are so many reasons that there might be extra deaths not being labelled as Covid-19 apart from collateral damage. Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast Just two months ago, the discovery that two people infected with the coronavirus had no symptoms was such big scientific news that it was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Now, it is becoming clear that much, if not most, of the spread of the virus is by infected people who dont get sick. New evidence comes from a Boston homeless shelter, an Italian town, a California county, and a Navy aircraft carrier. With regard to COVID-19, were learning that stealth in the form of asymptomatic transmission is this adversarys secret power, Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham, surgeon general of the Navy, said at a briefing earlier this month. That secret power has huge implications for curbing the pandemic, and further dampens the prospects for safely reopening the United States before therapies or a vaccine are available. Here is an overview. Contagiousness Last month, German researchers shared a study of nine hospitalized patients. The patients released, or shed, coronavirus in their sputum and stool very early in their infections, and for up to a few weeks after symptoms ended. That suggested people might be infectious before and after they were sick, which would make stopping the spread even tougher. Meanwhile, health officials were reassuring the public that asymptomatic transmission was unusual, and the virus mostly spread in droplets sneezed or coughed by a sick person. More and more data contradict that reassurance. The Navy tested the entire 4,800-member crew of the coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. Over 600 sailors tested positive, yet 60% of them had no symptoms such as fever, fatigue, or cough, Reuters reported. At a Boston homeless shelter, an outbreak prompted testing of 397 people. Of the 146 people who tested positive, none was considered symptomatic, CNN reported. In Santa Clara, Calif., Stanford University researchers early this month used Facebook to recruit a representative sample of 3,330 residents. Using blood tests that look for disease-fighting antibodies to coronavirus a sign of previous infection the researchers estimated that between 2.5% and 4% of the population had contracted the virus. That suggested the actual number of infections was 50 to 85 times more than the number of confirmed cases. In Vo, Italy where that countrys first coronavirus death occurred the whole town was locked down in early March and all 3,000 inhabitants were tested. Not only did this enable containment of the virus, but it provided epidemiological clues. At the time the first symptomatic case was diagnosed, a University of Padua researcher wrote in the Guardian, a significant proportion of the population, about 3%, had already been infected yet most of them were completely asymptomatic. A small study from China also suggests that patients may be infectious after their illness ends. On average, the 16 patients stopped shedding virus 2.5 days after the had no symptoms, but some ranged up to eight days. ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters. Testing In the U.S., diagnostic testing for COVID-19 has gone from practically nonexistent to severely rationed. Big companies are now marketing the complex molecular tests, but the number of tests per day has plateaued at about 145,000, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Testing continues to be plagued by backlogs and shortages of needed chemicals, swabs, and face masks. The bottom line: If you are infected but dont have symptoms as lots of people apparently are you cant get a diagnostic test. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at Harvard Universitys Chan School of Public Health, said testing has been so inadequate that estimates of rates of transmission, death, and immunity are shots in the dark. How off weve been is hard to say, he said during a teleconference last week. A simpler type of test that measures blood antibodies like the test used in Santa Clara is just beginning to be marketed. In theory, a person who has recovered from COVID-19 will have antibodies that confer protective immunity at least for a year or two. Antibody tests have been touted by health and government officials as a way to identify workers, particularly those in essential jobs, who can safely lead the return to normal life. But just like coronavirus diagnostic tests, antibody tests have been plagued by problems. The logistics of antibody surveillance, called seroprevalence testing, are unclear, so researchers and health departments (including Chester Countys) have randomly jumped in to start doing it. The accuracy of antibody tests is also unclear, partly because they are basically unregulated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said companies could market such tests without regulatory review and then warned companies to stop falsely claiming their tests were FDA approved or authorized. The FDA has really swung the pendulum, in my opinion too much," Mina at Harvard said. "Things are getting [to market] that probably shouldnt be. On Saturday, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn issued a statement saying its approach to COVID-19 testing has been a careful balancing of risks and benefits to meet urgent public health needs, and the agency still expects tests to be validated. Immunity Ideally, enough people develop immunity to a dangerous virus, either through infection or vaccination, that even if an outbreak occurs, it wont spread far. This is called herd immunity:" the minority of people who are vulnerable to infection are shielded by the majority who are immune. The level of immunity needed to protect the herd depends on how transmissible the virus is. Measles, for example, is so contagious one infected person can infect 18 others that outbreaks occur even though about 90% of the population has immunity. As for the coronavirus, experts originally estimated that each person infects two to three others. The new data on asymptomatic spread suggest the number is somewhat higher. In some ways, that is good news, as science journalist Ed Yong wrote in the Atlantic: If it turns out that, say, 20% of the U.S. has been infected, that would mean the coronavirus is more transmissible but less deadly than scientists think. It would also mean that a reasonable proportion of the country has some immunity. But even that optimistic scenario, Yong wrote, would not be enough for herd immunity. An estimated 60% to 80% of the population would have to be infected for all 330 million people to be protected without the vaccine that will, it is hoped, be available by the end of 2021. . Members of the Provisional Government of Vietnam stand with policemen during a trial in Ho Chi Minh City, Aug. 22, 2018. A court in Vietnams Binh Duong province sentenced a man to more than a decade in prison Tuesday for committing an act of terror after he set off a bomb at the provincial tax office last year, according to state media. The Binh Duong Provincial Court found Truong Duong, a 40-year-old truck driver from Binh Duongs Di An city, guilty of engaging in terrorist activities against the Peoples Government under Article 113 of Vietnams Penal Code, the official VN Express reported, citing a statement from the Ministry of Public Security. Duong was handed an 11-year jail term and ordered to pay more than 800 million dong (U.S. $35,000) in compensation for destroying state assets, it said. According to the Ministry of Public Security, Duong had received payment from the U.S.-based Provisional Government of Vietnam exile group under the leadership of Dao Minh Quan, which Vietnam declared a terrorist organization in 2018. It said a woman connected to the exile group named Pham Anh Dao, also known as Lisa Pham, had instructed Duong to go to a convenience store in Binh Duongs Thu Dau Mot township on Sept. 29 to accept a package containing the explosives from a man named Ha Xuan Nghiem. On the morning of Sept. 30, Duong planted explosives in the first-floor mens room of the Binh Duong Tax Department and detonated them according to Daos instructions, the ministry said, destroying equipment and knocking down the buildings walls. No one was injured or killed in the bombing. According to the ministry, Duong was arrested four days later and confessed to his crimes, seeking leniency. Dao and Nghiem remain on the run from authorities. Exile group In recent years, authorities have targeted several cases related to the Provisional Government of Vietnam and imposed harsh sentences on those found to have ties to the group. On April 8, police in Dong Nai province arrested 52-year-old Luong Thi Thu Hien for allegedly contacting the group via Facebook in early 2018 and receiving money to promote Quans planned return to Vietnam to overthrow the countrys one-party Communist leadership. Her case is under investigation. The Provisional Government of Vietnam is also accused of masterminding a petrol bomb attack that destroyed hundreds of motorbikes at a police warehouse in Dong Nai in April 2017 and an attempted attack on Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City later that same month. Vietnam has issued international arrest warrants for Quan and six other members of the organization, all of whom are living either in the U.S. or Canada. Repeated attempts by RFAs Vietnamese Service to contact representatives of the Provisional Government of Vietnam for a response to Hanois claims have gone unanswered, but Pham Anh Dao recently dismissed accusations that she had directed anyone inside Vietnam to bomb the Binh Duong Tax Department. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. In Vietnam, Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam has donated more than 2,500 cases of products to health workers and government agencies to support COVID-19 relief and response efforts. The products have been delivered to the Hung Yen Fatherland Front Committee, Binh Duong Preventive Medical Centre, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases Ho Chi Minh City, and other organisations through AmChams activities in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam products have been delivered to support diverse organisations amid COVID-19 Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam's donations have contributed to supporting frontliners to express the corporations gratitude for their continuous fight against COVID-19 A part of the supporting programme was also dedicated to blood donors, since donating blood is more important than ever during the time of the pandemic. As concerns around the spread of the coronavirus continue to increase, Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam has committed to maintaining operations to ensure the supply of its essential food products to its customers at this challenging time. In this time of heightened need, we are working in close collaboration with customers and the local authorities to ensure that guidelines are followed and met at our production lines to maintain stable operation. Through this, our distribution networks continue to work efficiently and consumers have access to food on the supermarket shelves, said Hemant Rupani, managing director of Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam. Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam has been actively supporting Vietnam to deal with the pandemic Together with maintaining the production, distribution, and availability of its most loved brands such as Kinh Do, Cosy, Solite, AFC, LU, Oreo, and Ritz, the company has successfully introduced the new product Fresh Pizza Bun amidst the heightened demands for healthy and convenient food. The new product received very positive feedback from consumers. All of our businesses are fortunate to continue operating to some extent, but weve all had to make some difficult decisions recently without on-premise sales, Bisch said. Were hoping that the sales from these T-shirts will not only generate a small cushion to help us all continue our operations but to also bring our community together. The profits from the shirt sales will be evenly divided between the five companies and all the sales data will be publicly accessible. The T-shirts are $20 and available for pre-order at www.theopenbottle.com/support until April 30. At least 7,000 COVID-19 deaths have occurred among people living in or associated with nursing homes, according to a New York Times investigation, meaning 1 in 5 coronavirus deaths in the U.S. are tied to a nursing home. Transferring COVID patients from hospitals to nursing homes threatens to make the problem worse. In addition to housing the most vulnerable Americans, many nursing homes already have poor infection control records. Personal protective equipment is hard to come by, and testing kits are often scarce. As the number of transfers increases, AARP is asking Congress to prohibit long-term care facilities from discharging patients due to inability to pay for services during the pandemic. It also wants Congress to require the facilities to report data on discharges and transfers, which can be physically and emotionally difficult for patients leaving hospitals and for nursing residents displaced to make room for COVID patients. "This notion of transferring people was something we expressed a lot of concern about, said Elaine Ryan, AARP vice president of state advocacy and strategy integration, citing a lack of transparency around the process. "People didn't know where they would go, she said. How disturbing is it not to have one of their family members tell them? 'Not possible to fully comply with directives' New York issued an order late last month that No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to [a nursing home] based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. The advisory prohibited nursing homes to require that a hospitalized resident deemed medically stable be tested before admission. The American Health Care Association (AHCA), the leading U.S. trade group for nursing homes, and other long-term care advocates criticized the order. Nursing homes are the accelerant for COVID-19, said Los Angeles-area geriatrician Michael Wasserman, president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine. Everyone's talking about the surge. Ultimately, the surges come from nursing homes if we don't put a moat around the long-term care continuum." Nursing home residents, who typically have multiple health problems, are highly vulnerable to the coronavirus. In 2016, almost 85 percent of the patients in nursing homes were age 65 and older, according to a recent CDC report. Of those who stayed at least 100 days, nearly 45 percent were 85 and older. The American Health Care Association says discharged hospital patients should return only to nursing homes with separate COVID-19 units. Ideally, those units are staffed with employees with access to personal protective equipment. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which regulates nursing homes, endorsed the idea of separate COVID units this month. But geriatrician David Gifford, the AHCA's chief medical officer, said the federal guidelines have limited impact. We are doing everything we can with the resources we've been given to slow the acceleration of the virus for our residents, the most vulnerable, he said by email. But without [personal protective equipment], tests and healthy workforce, it is not possible to fully comply with CMS and CDC directives." A spokeswoman for a trade group for California hospitals urged hospitals and nursing homes to work together. This is not a situation of good and bad, good guys and bad guys, said Jan Emerson-Shea, vice president for external affairs for the California Hospital Association. Hospitals absolutely do need the ability to discharge patients who no longer need that level of care." Hospitals need to make room for others, she said, from women giving birth to other COVID patients. Some nursing homes may be able to take discharged COVID-19 patients, and some may not, she said: There are no easy answers." As coronavirus COVID-19 patients began to stream into southeast Michigan emergency departments last month, it wasnt just the numbers that stunned doctors and nurses. It also was the challenge of treating a novel virus -- and in particular, one that seems to defy some of the standard treatments used for respiratory illnesses. Six weeks into Michigans coronavirus crisis, the disease has resulted in numerous medical mysteries: What markers show a patient is about to take a turn for the worst? Under what circumstances should a ventilator be used? Why is it so difficult to keep some COVID patients on ventilators under sedation? Why do some patients seem fine even as their oxygen level plummets? Why does COVID-19 seem such more lethal for people with diabetes vs. those with asthma? Its an unprecedented challenge for doctors, who are having to change their treatment protocols on an almost daily basis, said Dr. Anne Messman, an emergency department doctor for Detroit Medical Center. Its a different disease than weve ever seen before, Messman said. We dont have years worth of data or randomized controlled trials to guide our management. Were just going off to the experience of whatever country where COVID presented previously that can give us information. Im not saying it wasnt reliable, but the recommendations they were making dont seem to be holding true over here. Dr. Teena Chopra, a Detroit infectious disease specialist, echoed that frustration. Theres a lot of unknowingness in this disease," she said, and applying the principles that people learned in China and Italy and France and elsewhere in the U.S. is challenging because Detroits population has higher rates of risk factors such as obesity and diabetes, which complicate treatment of coronavirus. As we speak, we are designing protocols and processes so we can provide timely care in the form of drugs and other therapies, Chopra said. But the struggle to develop best practices on the fly with a new disease has been a formidable task. Among the challenges: Patients can deteriorate very quickly. It feels like theyre getting very unstable out of nowhere, Messman said. Were still figuring out what are we looking for, exactly, to indicate that somebodys getting sicker. We still dont know how to tell that bad things are imminent." Chopra said shes also been struck by the very dramatic life cycle of this virus. At one moment the patient is breathing fine and in another hour they are crashing on us, she said. The virus can invade various organs in our body and it can cause a downstream effect of damage in the form of what is called a cytokine storm, an overreaction of the immune system in which the body starts attacking its own cells and tissues. Those cytokine storms can be fatal, but doctors are still struggling to understand how to prevent them, they say. Patients can have unusually low oxygen levels without other signs of deterioration. The markers are different in these patients, Messman said. Their oxygen level can go down, and they still say they feel fine. Its unusual in any disease where thats not an indicator of someone getting more sick. The standard practice with most illnesses is to maintain a high oxygen level, agreed Dr. Dennis Cunningham, an infectious disease specialist for McLaren Health System. It turns out with COVID patients, patients are tolerating lower blood levels of oxygen, he said. This may be the virus is actually altering hemoglobin, which is the protein that actually carries oxygen molecules. So patients can be awake and talking, and theres no sign that other organs are being impacted by the low oxygen, he said. Theyre doing fine. So this is really something thats very different from our usual management, and I think its taken some time for everyone to realize that. Diabetics seems at higher risk of complications than asthmatics. Yet another mystery, Cunningham said, is that diabetes turns out to be much more of a risk factor for COVID-19 complications than asthma -- which is odd, because COVID-19 attacks the lungs. Even if your diabetes seems to be well controlled, its still a risk and I dont have any plausible explanation for that, Cunningham said. Nor can he explain why asthma seems to be less problematic. "You would think asthmatics would be at a really high risk because usually viruses make asthma go out of whack, he said. Im happy thats not being a problem in the way we expected, but it really makes us question how well we understand the mechanism of infection that is causing symptoms. The struggle over timing ventilator use The initial inclination was to put COVID patients on ventilators fairly early in the treatment process. We found the hard way that doesnt seem to help. It actually seems to make things worse, Messman said. So now, were holding off as long we can. Its been a complete 180." Cunningham agreed that figuring out best use of ventilators for COVID patients has been a big challenge" and McLarens current strategy is avoid the ventilator for as long as possible. Theoretically we know a lot about how to manage ventilators, he said. But this disease has some quirks to it. Its a unique virus we have not seen before, and its hard to figure out the best way to do things." Related to the ventilator issue, nurses have reported its hard to keep COVID patients calm and sedated while on the ventilators, sometimes forcing use of drug combinations that can bring down a patients blood pressure and make them more unstable. Cunningham confirmed thats true. And it doesnt make it easier there are some drug shortages, so were not necessarily able to use our preferred sedatives that we have the most experience with, he said. Debate over effective medications. One week, were recommending steroids and the next week were recommending against it, and treating with hydroxychloroquine," Messman said. "I think the answer is, we just dont know. All we have is anecdotal evidence instead of real data, she said, adding different doctors have completely opposite opinions on medications such as hydroxychloroquine, which has been repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump as a possible game-changer" in the fight against coronavirus Im agnostic on its use, Messman said about hydroxychloroquine. Some people feel very strongly that it helps. Some people feel very strongly that its harmful. But that opinion often results from each doctors experience with a few patients -- and its hard to tease out the drugs impact when there are a million different variables at work, she said. Chopra said shes been prescribing hydroxychloroquine. If used early on, it seems to be helping, she said. Shes also been trying steroids, as well as blood thinners because of the number of patients shes seen with clots in the lungs. Cunningham said hes also using steroids for people whose lungs are severely impacted, and that seems to be helpful. Im not impressed by the data" for hydroxychloroquine, Cunningham said. I dont think thats going to do the trick. The one thats most promising is remdesivir; I think thats the one that going to wind up being the best, but were still waiting for the clinical trials. New ways to intubate patients. The fact COVID-19 is so contagious has further complicated treatment plans, and led to doctors and nurses developing new protocols around intubation, which is part of the process of putting someone on a ventilator. A routine procedure in normal circumstances, intubation is one of the riskiest maneuvers for health-care practitioners caring for coronavirus patients because it requires getting right into the patients face and inserting a tube that results in a expulsion of breath likely laden with the virus. Because of the risk, Derek Rouse, certified registered nurse anesthetist for Kalamazoo Anesthesiology, said he and a co-worker developed a new protocol for intubation at Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo. That protocol involves having everyone else leaving the room while the intubation is being done, while the person during the intubation is double-gloved and completely covered. Instead of visually assessing the patients airway, he said, a miniature camera is used, and he uses a process called Rapid Sequence Induction and Intubation to get the breathing tube inserted within 60 seconds. Its a shorter timeframe than the normal procedure, he said. Dr. Matt Longjohn, a public-health physician on the faculty of the Western Michigan University medical school, said he been amazed and impressed at how health-care practitioners are rising to the challenge of dealing with COVID-19. Its amazing how quickly were learning, he said, and yet there is still much thats unknown. When youre operating in a crisis environment, studying what youre doing is a lower priority than keeping the patient in front of you breathing, Longjohn said. You cant wait for the best data available." This mountain of evidence has to build before best-practices can truly be developed, he said. As amazing as it is, as quickly as it is that were developing our information base, we still are so far behind. Well have to continue to be flying this plane as were building it for awhile. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. Read more Michigan coronavirus coverage here Monday, April 20: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Michigan is ramping up coronavirus testing. Thats easier said than done. Michigan company maps data to analyze, predict spread of coronavirus Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Praveen Menon (Reuters) Wellington, New Zealand Tue, April 21, 2020 16:40 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd354ea6 2 World New-Zealand,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-lockdown,COVID-19-quarantine,pandemic,health Free When New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her top health official announced this week they would delay easing tough measures to control the coronavirus pandemic, they might have expected an uproar. Instead, New Zealanders - largely confined to their homes for a month - flooded social media with messages of support for Ardern and Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the director general of health. The duo, who lead New Zealand's policy of near-total isolation and sweeping restrictions on movement, have created and ridden a wave of public support and compliance that has all but shut down the spread of the virus. Now comes the hard part. Getting the $200 billion trade- and tourism-dependent economy running again from a standing start will be no mean feat. Criticisms have grown that similar results could have been achieved with less stringent measures. And ongoing costs of lost jobs and stimulus measures could count against Ardern's party in upcoming elections. For the time being, however, Ardern is garnering more global praise for her brand of liberal, inclusive and compassionate leadership that has seen some label her "the anti-Trump". An article in The Atlantic this week suggested Ardern may be "the most effective leader on the planet". Meanwhile, Bloomfield - a slender, blond, bespectacled public servant - has become an unlikely digital icon. Love songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSuPeKaE6hk, memes and tributes for Bloomfield are racking up thousands of views, while T-shirts proclaim Bloomfield and Ardern "The New Zealand King and Queen of quarantine". "I want Ashley Bloomfield to read bedtime stories to me," said one commentator on Twitter, in a tribute to his calm delivery of daily disease updates. 'Be kind. Do good' The popularity, openness and cohesiveness of New Zealand's epidemic response has contrasted with some other countries. U.S. President Donald Trump has disagreed publicly with his medical chief Anthony Fauci and has shouted down media questioning his administration's virus response. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has played down the pandemic and sacked his health minister, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to hold a media conference despite locking down 1.3 billion people amid a growing number of cases. President Trump has very experienced people to advise him, former Prime Minster Helen Clark said. "But sometimes they are listened to, sometimes they are not. That's not been the case in New Zealand," she told Reuters. Professional advice from a well-regarded public health system, community buy-in and Ardern's leadership had made a difference, Clark added. Ardern shared modeling and data swiftly and asked New Zealanders to be kind, and do good, messages that were posted on hoardings and digital screens across the country, and reinforced in candid Facebook Live chats. "We weren't put on a war footing, we were on a kindness footing," said Dr Siouxsie Wiles, a microbiologist and associate professor at the University of Auckland. The strategy appears to have worked. So far, New Zealand has recorded 13 deaths from 1,445 cases of the virus, far fewer than early modeling suggested. How it worked While other economies were still buzzing along, New Zealand shut its malls, eateries, schools, offices - even takeaways and home deliveries. People were only allowed out for essential trips close to home. Google's community mobility data showed activity near commercial and retail areas dropped almost 90% and around 75% near parks and beaches. On April 1, days after the lockdown, Air New Zealand's revenue chief Cam Wallace tweeted an image of just one plane operating over the country's entire airspace. "Geography has been a problem for us before, but today it's an asset because you can act decisively to protect yourself. And that's what New Zealand did," Clark said. But the economic impact on the nation of 5 million has been unprecedented. The treasury estimates the jobless rate will jump to 13% even if the lockdown is quickly lifted, with GDP seen declining by as much as one-third. Finance Minister Grant Robertson has rolled out fiscal measures, including wage subsidies, of around NZ$20 billion ($12 billion). The central bank has started quantitative easing, buying up NZ$30 billion worth of government bonds. "How Ardern handled the crisis is fantastic," said Andrew Hughes, from the Research School of Management in Australian National University. "But what will be more important is how the government recovers the economy and society as well." Castalia Group, an economics and strategy consulting firm, said New Zealand may have more difficulty rebounding compared to Australia where restrictions were progressively introduced and aimed only at limiting activities where big groups of people gathered. "Australian policies appear, on the limited evidence, to be effective with fewer negative impacts on wider wellbeing," Castalia said in a report which was referred to by opposition National Party leader Simon Bridges this week. Heavy vehicle activity dropped by about 80% in New Zealand compared to just 3-5% in Australia, according to one of the data seen by Castalia. "That level of shutdown of economic activity could be very costly," Alex Sundakov, Castalias executive director in Australia said. Robertson told lawmakers there was limited evidence as to the different impact of the countries' measures at this point, and both were doing well relative to the rest of the world. Election looming A successful recovery is critical for Ardern's bid for re-election in September. Ardern is hugely popular among liberals globally thanks to her compassion, her focus on climate change action and multilateralism, and her ability to combine motherhood and leadership. But critics back home say she has under-delivered on issues including affordable housing, inequality and economic growth. While Ardern is still comfortably ahead of rivals as preferred prime minister, support for her coalition government is less emphatic. "Regardless of how well the government have dealt with the health crisis, there is now going to be a severe economic crisis to navigate," said political commentator Bryce Edwards of Victoria University in Wellington. Edwards said Ardern remained the party's strongest asset, with her proven leadership in previous national crises including last year's Christchurch attack, which killed 51 Muslim worshippers and the deadly White Island volcano disaster. Clark, who was prime minister for three terms from 1999 to 2008, said she never had to face the major emergencies that Ardern had risen to. "Economies can recover, the dead can't," said Clark. "When the history books are written, it will treat well those who saw the coronavirus coming and acted to deal with it. It won't treat well those who didn't take it seriously." Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 18:21:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Pro-government Yemeni health workers launched a wide-scale sanitation and disinfection campaign in the war-ravaged port city of Hodeidah on Tuesday, as part of preventive measures to fight COVID-19 in the impoverished Arab country. According to a local official, who asked to remain anonymous, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government funded an initiative to sanitize many residential areas where poor families are living in Hodeidah. "The campaign will run for three days with the participation of around ten teams of the pro-government health workers," the official said. He said that "the specialized health workers sanitized many houses and tents in different government-controlled areas in Hodeidah." The health teams visited some military sites of the government forces and provided the troops with necessary medical information to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic, he added. On Saturday, several humanitarian volunteers distributed posters and leaflets containing basic information about preventing coronavirus transmission in some residential areas controlled by the government forces in Hodeidah. Hundreds of local residents and street vendors in the turbulent district of Tuhyata of Hodeidah were also provided with medical masks, gloves, and disinfectants. So far, the coronavirus in Yemen is showing no alarming sign, but coping with the potential pandemic will not be easy, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa. Enditem A paramedic working on the frontline of the coronavirus has asked for those who call an ambulance to be patient as her team gets into their full protective gear - so they don't have to 'sacrifice their health'. Stephanie, who works at St Albans Hospital in Victoria, Australia, has shared a warning on social media directed at those who are 'yelling' at emergency workers to move faster, before they have a chance to protect themselves. 'This coronavirus business has everyone unsettled. If you call an ambulance, don't expect us to come rushing in anymore until we have on full level D PPE for the majority of cases now,' the 29-year-old wrote on Facebook. 'Please don't tell us to hurry up, or yell at us that you don't have the virus, or get annoyed that it takes time to put all the necessary precautions in place. Our goal is to go home at the end of the day safe and confident that we have tried our best to protect ourselves while working on the ground in the frontline of this madness.' Stephanie (pictured) has shared a warning on social media directed at those who are 'yelling' at emergency workers to move faster, before they have a chance to protect themselves She said that paramedics have already sacrificed hugging or holding their own families and friends at this time and shouldn't have to sacrifice their health as well. 'We already sacrifice a lot for our jobs, please don't make us sacrifice our health too - please, and I cannot stress this enough, stay at home.' Ultimately our goal is to go home healthy and safe at the end of every shift. The post was met with supreme understanding from other emergency workers in the police force and fire stations who are being met with similar challenges. But for the most part COVID-19 has opened the eyes of ordinary Australians to how hard our healthcare employees work. 'They're seeing for the first time how hard we work, how much we deal with and the impact it has on healthcare systems,' Stephanie told FEMAIL. From day to night: But for the most part COVID-19 has opened the eyes of ordinary Australians to how hard our healthcare employees work 'People are seeing for themselves the doctors, nurses, paramedics, hospital staff and cleaners in protective gear and it's a visual representation that this is real and that we are on the ground on the frontline of all of this just trying our best to look after patients while keeping ourselves safe. 'Ultimately our goal is to go home healthy and safe at the end of every shift.' She explained that it takes over an hour to properly decontaminate an ambulance vehicle. Every surface from the roof, window seals, door handles and every single piece of equipment gets cleaned by staff. Coronavirus symptoms and how it spreads: Symptoms of coronavirus Symptoms can range from mild illness to pneumonia. Some people will recover easily, and others may get very sick very quickly. People with coronavirus may experience: fever flu-like symptoms such as coughing, sore throat and fatigue shortness of breath How it spreads There is evidence that the virus spreads from person-to-person. The virus is most likely spread through: close contact with an infectious person contact with droplets from an infected person's cough or sneeze touching objects or surfaces (like doorknobs or tables) that have cough or sneeze droplets from an infected person, and then touching your mouth or face How to prevent it Everyone should practice good hygiene to protect against infections. Good hygiene includes: washing your hands often with soap and water using a tissue and cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze avoiding close contact with others, such as touching Advertisement 'We're very lucky to have access to training, support and most importantly the personal protective equipment (PPE) that we need,' she said 'We're very lucky to have access to training, support and most importantly the personal protective equipment (PPE) that we need,' she said. 'Procedures and updates change every day and we're all working hard to keep on top of the process.' But most importantly she said that healthcare workers are looking out for each other during a time where they can't see their loved ones. 'I miss my family. Everyone is in New Zealand and my mum is scared for me being on the frontline but she knows that I'm safe, I'm working hard and I have the support from work and my colleagues too,' she said. So what can you do to make Stephanie's job easier? 'We want people to stay at home, look after themselves, practice proper hand hygiene and social distancing,' she said (A paramedic wearing protective clothing in Adelaide) 'We want people to stay at home, look after themselves, practice proper hand hygiene and social distancing,' she said. 'We want people to know that they can call their GP for advice, the COVID hotline (1800 020 080) and any of the screening clinics located around Australia for assistance. 'We want people to know that if you need us we will come for you - but we will most likely come fully gowned up with masks and glasses on. It' a tiring process for us but we still turn up every day.' Zondervan publishing Quran with Christian commentary as ministry resource Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The evangelical publishing company Zondervan is releasing a guide carrying precise modern English translation of the Quran, with a Christian commentary alongside, to equip Christian ministers to interact with Muslims. The Quran with Christian Commentary: A Guide to Understanding the Scripture of Islam by Gordon Nickel offers a unique introduction to the primary religious text of Islam, says Zondervan, a division of New York publishing giant HarperCollins, in a statement. No one can understand the Muslim mind without some solid knowledge of the contents of the Quran, says Nickel, director of the Centre for Islamic Studies at South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies in Bangalore, India. I knew from many years of studying and teaching the Quran that there are ways to read this scripture that allow readers to avoid confusion and rather to make sense of its main themes. I also noticed from my reading that the Quran often addresses non-Muslims directly and seems to demand a response to its claims, he adds. The publisher says the commentary is factual, respectful of Muslims, and insightful on issues about which Muslims and Christians disagree. Its meant to equip Christians to interact more fruitfully with Muslim believers. The commentary will be useful for those studying Islam and the Quran as well as for pastors and missionaries who minister among Muslims. Alongside a precise modern English translation of the Quran, it carries in-text notes to explain the meaning of various surahs (chapters) and ayat (verses), their interpretive history and significance in Muslim thought, and similarities and differences when compared to biblical passages. Written at a readable level, any Christian who wants to learn more about Islam and the Quran will find it to be a rich and informative introduction, the publisher says. Most of all I wanted to comment on all passages related to Jesus and the Gospel, says Nickel, a former instructor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and the University of British Columbia. The apostle Paul wrote certain penetrating words about a different gospel. Christians are the custodians of the good news of salvation through the death of Jesus on the cross, the People of the Gospel as the Quran describes them. As such they have a stake in the portrait of Jesus offered by a scripture written 600 years after the New Testament. The translation of the Quran is done by A.J. Droge, the author of Homer or Moses? Early Christian Interpretations of the History of Culture. The pre-order of the commentary, which includes articles on important topics, has begun on Amazon for its April 28 release. Five new cases of COVID-19 and a further death were revealed in New Zealand on April 21, a New Zealander was confirmed dead in Peru, more mercy flights for Kiwis abroad were planned and an audit of PPE handling was announced. At Tuesday's media briefing, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced all the five new cases were linked to existing cases. A woman in her 70s died on Monday after being transferred from a Te Atatu resthome to Waitakere Hospital, bring the New Zealand fatality total to 13. The new cases brings New Zealand's total cases to 1445. There are now 1006 recovered people with 12 still in hospital, and three are in intensive care. There remained only four New Zealand cases where the source of infection was uncertain. As of 10am Tuesday, there were 1952 people in managed isolation, with 86 in mandatory quarantine after 348 people arrived on flights on Monday. School bubbles Education Minister Chris says people will be allowed into schools and early learning centres from today for cleaning and other preparations ahead of a teacher-only day next Tuesday. Schools and early learning centres can reopen next Wednesday for children who cannot learn from home or whose parents are going back to work at alert level 3. Playgrounds will be off-limits and school children will be kept in bubbles of no more than 10. Chris says it's acceptable to bring in a relative to look after children at home if both parents needed to work. Ashley says the WHO-China review found no one could recall a child passing COVID-19 on to an adult and that children are at low risk of catching it. However, the Early Childhood Council which represents more than 1000 early childhood services has called for centres to remain closed until the country reached alert level 2. Education for those in years 11-13 would continue remotely, while university students in flats or hostels can stay there with strict social distancing precautions, says Chris. Iwi unite to oppose level 3 Not everyone is happy about a return to level 3 next week. Iwi in the Far North declared today they do not want their region to move out of level 4, as the impact of a Covid-19 outbreak among Maori would be devastating. Photo: RNZ / Talei Anderson. The Far North has seen community-based efforts to ensure people are following self-isolation rules. Former Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira set up teams to run checkpoints ensuring outsiders were not sneaking into the region. He told Morning Report that because of existing health and social inequalities, Maori would be "whacked" if COVID-19 got into his community. Ministry of Health's PPE handling probed Safety in the health sector was also back in the spotlight today, with news the Auditor-General will provide an independent review of the management of personal protective equipment (PPE). It comes after complaints by frontline medical staff across the country of not having adequate access to the equipment. The review will cover how the Ministry of Health manages stock, ensures an adequate supply, and distributes the gear. The review will not cover the Ministry's clinical guidance on PPE use, but will look at the controls over procurement, distribution to district health boards and other health services, and controls over stock levels. GP money dispute General practitioners say they are being denied millions of dollars of COVID-19 funding promised by the government. The Medical Association said $22 million was promised to GPs to help with extra costs caused by the pandemic. It says they've received only half of that, and are told they will not get the rest. Ashley says the funding decision is part of an "ongoing conversation" between GPs and health authorities. Kiwi in Peru dies of COVID-19 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed New Zealander Edward Spencer Storey, 49, died while in Peru. The news comes after New Zealanders stranded in the country flew back home on March 15. MFAT says officials wae liaising with Peruvian counterparts and assisting the family. It could not be confirmed whether the man had missed the mercy flight due to being sick. An online obituary said Storey died as a result of COVID-19. More mercy flights The government announced it is planning more repatriation flights for New Zealanders stuck overseas. As well as the earlier flight from Peru, 167 people who were stranded in the Philippines arrived in Auckland yesterday. Chris says the first flight carrying people stranded in India is due in Auckland this week. Data shows New Zealanders staying home Photo: RNZ / Claire Eastham-Farrelly. As Kiwis abroad struggle to travel home, Kiwis at home are staying put. Record low traffic and public transport data from the third week of lockdown show New Zealanders are continuing to heed the message to restrict movement. The Transport Agency released traffic data for Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Wellington every week since the level-4 restrictions came into force, and has now also released public transport data for the three main centres. Traffic volumes at monitoring sites last week was down by between 73 and 82 percent compared to the same week in 2019. Migrant workers in dire straits Migrant workers in Queenstown are also in dire straits without jobs, or food. Some migrant workers in Queenstown have been stranded without pay for weeks, the Salvation Army says. The resort town is grappling with thousands of workers left with limited or no income after the tourism industry came to a halt. Many migrants tried to leave but their flights were cancelled, the Salvation Army says. More than 5000 requests for welfare have already been made to the district council's Emergency Operations Centre. Meanwhile, demographer and pro-vice chancellor at Massey University, Professor Paul Spoonley said today that continued use of overseas labour would cause political problems. He says higher unemployment and election year populism may lead to a sharp tightening of immigration policy. With jobless figures rising, immigrants and businesses may find it harder to pass labour market tests designed to give preference to New Zealand staff, he says. "The government are going to have to talk very carefully to sectors to work out where they can retrain or transfer New Zealanders, and then where they're going to have to continue to rely on migrants," he added. Parliament to meet Parliament will meet next Tuesday but with only key MPs and ministers present. Photo: Supplied / NZ Parliament, Office of the Clerk. (Please note, this photo was taken before the lockdown was put in place). It will resume for question time, ministerial statements and to pass urgent business related to the COVID-19 response once New Zealand moves to level 3. National's leader Simon Bridges says more than more than half of the party's MPs could return next week. Leader of the House Chris Hipkins says Parliament will operate with fewer MPs to enable physical distancing and to reduce MPs' travel. -RNZ Many investors define successful investing as beating the market average over the long term. But the risk of stock picking is that you will likely buy under-performing companies. We regret to report that long term Xingda International Holdings Limited (HKG:1899) shareholders have had that experience, with the share price dropping 39% in three years, versus a market decline of about 2.4%. The more recent news is of little comfort, with the share price down 28% in a year. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 17% in the last 90 days. However, one could argue that the price has been influenced by the general market, which is down 13% in the same timeframe. Check out our latest analysis for Xingda International 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. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time. During the unfortunate three years of share price decline, Xingda International Holdings actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) improve by 0.7% per year. Given the share price reaction, one might suspect that EPS is not a good guide to the business performance during the period (perhaps due to a one-off loss or gain). Or else the company was over-hyped in the past, and so its growth has disappointed. It looks to us like the market was probably too optimistic around growth three years ago. However, taking a look at other business metrics might shed a bit more light on the share price action. We note that the dividend seems healthy enough, so that probably doesn't explain the share price drop. It's good to see that Xingda International Holdings has increased its revenue over the last three years. If the company can keep growing revenue, there may be an opportunity for investors. You might have to dig deeper to understand the recent share price weakness. Story continues You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values). SEHK:1899 Income Statement April 20th 2020 We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on Xingda International Holdings What About Dividends? As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. In the case of Xingda International Holdings, it has a TSR of -27% for the last 3 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return. A Different Perspective While the broader market lost about 15% in the twelve months, Xingda International Holdings shareholders did even worse, losing 22% (even including dividends) . Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 0.7% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. 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. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Xingda International Holdings that you should be aware of before investing here. Xingda International Holdings is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying. 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. By the week of May 4, Gov. Kate Brown could have a firm plan for reopening parts of Oregons economy, probably starting with rural counties. Brown held a conference call Monday afternoon with county commissioners throughout the state. Commissioners are under tremendous pressure in their counties to reopen for business, Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock said afterward. I felt like its actually progressing. The conversation about opening up, with the notable exception of large groups, is almost progressing more quickly than I had anticipated. He added, Now, by moving right along, were talking about mid-May or so. Brown expects to release a more detailed draft plan next week. It will not contain dates for when businesses might reopen and social distancing restrictions might be eased. Instead, it will require meeting criteria that Brown announced last week, combined with President Donald Trumps recommendations. Each Oregon county also would have to certify that it had adequate hospital beds to handle a surge in COVID-19 cases and sufficient personal protective equipment for medical personnel and first responders. Unlike in some states, Brown is focusing on a regional approach. The main thing the governor told us is that there clearly are counties, particularly in Eastern Oregon and southeastern Oregon, that have zero cases or maybe one case, and they should be prioritized for reopening in a way thats consistent with maintaining public health, Nik Blosser, Browns chief of staff, said. So how quickly can we do that and whats the framework we need for them? Blosser said the governors Medical Advisory Panel was working through plans this week on comprehensive testing, contact tracing and isolating people with coronavirus; allowing non-emergency medical and dental procedures to resume; and the specific metrics required statewide and regionally for that reopening to occur. Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer, the Douglas County health officer, said he knew of no Oregon county that was yet meeting all criteria laid out last week by Trump for initial reopening. Dannenhoffer is a member of Browns panel but emphasized his views were his own, not the panel's. Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, noted that new cases of COVID-19 are declining in Deschutes County, but the coronavirus will not disappear for a long time. We need to learn how to live with the virus and still continue on. The current shutdown and having 300,000 Oregonians essentially unemployed because of it is completely unsustainable and is going to cause serious problems catastrophic problems, I would say with the state being able to fund important programs, he said. I think we really need to look at a county-by-county opening of the state. Oregon Senate Minority Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr., R-Grants Pass, agreed that the state must learn to maintain both public health and a healthy economy. The place to start is with rural health care. Our hospitals in rural Oregon are really hurting right now. They need to get back to work, both for their income but also for all those people who need their hip replaced, bypass surgery, all that stuff, he said. Two Eastern Oregon lawmakers proposed using Harney County as a pilot project, citing its lack of COVID-19 cases, its small population and its isolation from other communities. This is not a proposal to open businesses. This is a proposal to recognize the health hazards and the health risks and work through those and mitigate restrictions and allow people to return to some of their prior freedoms, said Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale. He and Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, put together a proposal that includes ideas for how the community could mitigate health risks and how specific types of businesses could enforce social distancing. Weve got a little more work to do it, but not a lot. And we hope we can get the governor to agree with running a pilot, Findley said. If we cant make a pilot work there, we cant make it work anywhere. Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 1 South Diva Tamannaah Bhatia never fails to cast her spell on the audience with her charm and acting skills. The Tamil audience who are known for welcoming other state actresses, have always kept the actress on top of their favourite list. But looks like the recent donation of the actress to support Tollywood, has not impressed the Tamil makkal. Tamannaah has donated 3 lakh to the Corona Crisis Charity under Chiranjeevi's Charitable Trust. The Tamil industry, which is also suffering due to the pandemic, has not received any help from her, which has disappointed many. Having made her debut with the 2015 Telugu movie Sri, the actress shot to fame with the 2007 movie film, Happy Days. Being one of the most sought after actresses, she has acted with almost all big stars of the Tamil and Telugu industry. She was recently rumoured to be running out of offers as she was making special appearances in songs. Her dance number with Mahesh Babu for the blockbuster Sarileru Neekevvaru had gained all the attention the makers needed. The Dang Dang song received a good response from the audience. Responding to gossipmongers, Tamannaah had said, "After F2: Fun and Frustration, Anil Ravipudi was keen to collaborate with me again for Sarileru Neekevvaru and I said Yes. I guess when its dance I can never say No, and especially when the request comes from someone I truly respect and admire." The actress is currently home amid the lockdown. She is mostly seen interacting with her fans on social media giving them beauty tips. The actress is waiting for the lockdown to get lifted and resume shooting for Bollywood film, Bole Chudiyan along with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Telugu film Seetimaarr with Gopichand. Kaniha's Big Disclosure: Lent Voice To Top Actresses In Sivaji, Sachein And Anniyan! Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 14:48 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd34d7d4 1 Politics omnibus-bill-on-job-creation,labor-union,house-of-representatives,KSPI,coronavirus,COVID-19,layoffs,labor-issues,bill-deliberation Free The House of Representatives will begin deliberations on the omnibus bill on job creation with noncontroversial topics and discuss controversial provisions on labor at the end following opposition from labor groups. The Houses Legislation Body (Baleg) held a closed-door meeting on Monday to decide which chapters would be discussed first and last. Baleg's deputy chairman Willy Aditya told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the bills chapter on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) empowerment would be discussed first, while the manpower chapter would be last. Read also: Omnibus bill on shaky ground after layoffs "We will invite some relevant community groups to public hearings to deliberate each chapter, the NasDem Party politician said. The omnibus bill on job creation consists of 15 chapters and 174 articles. Willy added that Baleg members had also agreed to invite six to nine experts in law, business law, business and investment on Wednesday to discuss the bills purposes and objectives, which would be stipulated in its second chapter. After the SMEs chapter, Baleg will deliberate the chapters in this order: Research and Innovation; Government Investment and National Strategic Projects; Economic Zones; Ease of Doing Business; Investment Ecosystem and Business Activities Improvement; Land Acquisitions; Government and Administration; and Manpower. "After the public hearings, we will make a tentative problem inventory list [DIM]," said Willy. Despite the order of deliberations, labor unions still plan to hold mass rallies in front of executive and legislative offices across the nation on April 30 to oppose the bill despite a ban on crowds under the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) that have been implemented in Jakarta and other cities. Read also: Police ban May Day rallies against omnibus bill on job creation Around 50,000 workers throughout Greater Jakarta also plan to stage protests in front of the legislative complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta. "We demand the bill be dropped, not just putting off deliberations on the manpower chapter until last. The government and the House must take concrete steps to prevent workers from being affected by the coronavirus and layoffs instead of deliberating the bill, said Kahar S. Cahyono of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI). He added that millions had been furloughed and laid off amid the COVID-19 outbreak. "What's the difference between us holding rallies and working at offices regularly? Many companies still ask their workers to work as usual and ignore the regulation." The ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the NasDem Party, both in President Joko Jokowi Widodos coalition, have pushed the government to drop labor provisions from the omnibus bill on job creation following growing public opposition. However, the government has refused to change the draft bill. Crisis has a way of shining light on the things we take for granted. Of laying bare the invisible infrastructures that keep our world afloat. Of reminding us first of our fragility as individuals, and then inevitably, of the strength of our communities. As a young American business owner living and working in Los Angeles, Id never given much thought to face masks. It took a crisis for me to understand that this ignorance had been a privilege, and that I had the resources and a responsibility to step up. Ellen Bennett, the founder of Hedley & Bennett, and her husband, Casey Caplowe. (Anna Maria Zunino Noellert) Over the past eight years, Id built up my company Hedley & Bennett, producing aprons and kitchen workwear out of our factory in Downtown L.A. Restaurants have been integral to my business since day one, and I was gutted as I saw chefs around the world begin to shut their doors. For a few days, I watched, paralyzed with sadness and fear for their uncertain futures ... and for my own. On March 15, when L.A.s shutdown order would go into effect, I went to my office to round up necessary things and prepare for a long time away. Checking my phone, a tweet from fashion designer Cristian Siriano caught my eye: New York governor Andrew Cuomo had announced a shortage of masks and other personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, and Siriano was activating his sewing team to meet the need. I glanced over to the factory floor beside me and realized I had everything we needed here to help, too. We had a fully vertical factory in L.A., with rows and rows of sewing machines, everything from single needle, overlock, bar tacking, racks of durable 100% cotton chambrays and poplins and a product development team that was quick and nimble and accustomed to modifying product for constant improvement. We got to work immediately and never looked back. Hedley & Bennet employees hard at work on the factory floor. (Anna Maria Zunino Noellert) One of our mottos at Hedley & Bennett has always been "Wake up and fight" and we now had the opportunity to put this ethos to work. That afternoon, I called my friend Dr. Robert Cho, a pediatric surgeon and chief of staff at Shriners Hospital, and over a few FaceTime sessions, we worked out a design that met his standards. We designed the masks to be used with a filter, such as a HEPA filter, inserted within the fabric. They are not direct substitutes for N95, surgical or procedural masks. Story continues Hedley & Bennett's assorted I tapped my sewers and we hammered out our prototype, spoke to our vendors and supply chain, sent out the message to our community and, within 24 hours, launched our Wake Up & Fight Mask with a buy-one, donate-one model on our website. Urgency somehow allowed for us to put a month's worth of work into a single day. The world around us felt frozen, but we were sprinting, and the response was torrential. By the end of that weekend, wed revamped our factory floor to start cranking out masks as fast as we could, and weve been racing to keep up ever since. The team's action and initiative sparks with a fury I've never seen before. We now have machines that are 6 feet apart, temperatures are checked and tracked, our once very welcoming showroom and test kitchen have been turned into a secondary shipping department with every surface being used to count, sort and get orders out the door. Everyone in the building wears a mask, of course. This is our new normal. A Hedley & Bennett sewer making masks. (Anna Maria Zunino Noellert) With the help of our community, weve had more than 110,000 masks donated to help people on the front lines. This effort, so far, has helped create or save jobs for over 150 workers, partners and vendors who are solely focused on making the Wake Up & Fight Masks. (My head of production says its more like double that, but Im being conservative.) Another significant change to our business is that, as it stands, we are only making face masks not small batches, but tens of thousands daily, a volume that I could not have wrapped my head around until I started listening and talking to nurses, hospitals and chiefs of staff. Not only that, as the days passed, we started hearing of more friends and family members directly affected by COVID-19. A Hedley & Bennett employee packaging masks to be shipped out. (Anna Maria Zunino Noellert) When I was a kid, I had my appendix removed at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. They got in touch last week, in need of thousands of masks immediately. Man, did it feel good to say yes to that. And that was only possible because of the volume we are, by some miracle, producing and the volume of units being donated. Food We are also hearing from so many regular folks: parents who need to go to the pharmacy, kids who want to walk their dog and feel safe, grocery store workers (who deserve a whole lot more than just a mask). As the founder and CEO of Hedley & Bennett, I feel unspeakably proud that these customers first interaction with my company is through the Wake Up & Fight Mask. Along with our community of chefs, restaurateurs and home cooks, H&Bs tens of thousands of new friends have spread the word and donations and enthusiasm has reached every corner of the country. Nurses from the Hospital of Central Connecticut wearing their donated Hedley & Bennett masks. Because of them, Hedley & Bennett has proudly made donations to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Cedar Sinai, Shriners, NYU Langone Medical Center and other hospitals around the country. Most recently, we've joined up with World Central Kitchen and GoFundMe fundraising effort "Help Feed the Frontline Fighting COVID-19" to keep their volunteers safe as they get masks, food and other essential supplies to local hospitals and healthcare professionals on the front lines of the crisis. Our friends at Vans have jumped in with us and are donating backpacks, socks, beanies, hoodies and more to work alongside masks to help those in need. Bennett surrounded by masks on her factory floor. (Anna Maria Zunino Noellert) All of this has been quite a ride for our company. From battling global supply chain contractions to scaling to meet the massive demand of this moment, this experience has given us the opportunity to journey outside our norm and charge into the future. It has been an honor and a privilege to support so many amazing workers people who show up every day, putting their heart into what they do to make the world better and safer for the rest of us. For as long as they wake up and fight, well be doing the same. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 00:45:12|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JUBA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan said on Monday the first major road in the country being constructed by a Chinese firm Shandong Hi-Speed Group Co. Ltd (SDHS) will enhance connectivity thus building unity among ethnic communities in the country. Simon Mijok Mijak, minister of roads and bridges revealed that the first stretch of the road from Juba to Terekeka has been completed, raising hope of easing movement in the youngest nation which has less than 125 km of tarmac since independence in 2011. "I thank the company (SDHS) and my team for their dedication to realizing history. As we can see people are starting to put up their plots, I think if there was no road here it would not be possible. I can see also farms are coming up," Mijak told journalists during a tour of the road project. "We can see the value of roads we are constructing, they are (valuable) not only for driving cars (as) it is for connectivity, (given) the main objective is to unite the people of South Sudan, social cohesion, social fabric through connectivity, we will be now united and stronger," he added. SDHS reached an agreement with South Sudan in March last year, to start construction of the longest road that will connect Juba to the central Lakes state and northern Bhar El Ghazal region which connects to the Abyei region near Sudan. Mijak said they are now preparing to work on Bingaman-Yirol-Rumbek stretch. "This is part of the mandate of the Ministry of Roads and Bridges to construct, and maintain roads and bridges network in South Sudan, we realize the vision of the ministry by developing a secure, safe and efficient road network for the provision of services to the people of South Sudan," he added. Enditem The Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, has commended frontline health workers in the fight against COVID-19 for providing medical care to persons at treatment and isolation centers. During this Coronavirus pandemic, health professionals in the country and the world at large are most relied on for survival. All over the world, the health workers, particularly those directly attending to COVID-19 patients, have received rounds of applause and others hailing them as heroes for putting their lives at risk in their line of duty. Speaking in an interview on Peace FM's flagship programme 'Kokrokoo', Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye also expressed his delight over the good work by the health workers to ensure infected persons recover from the virus and their relentless efforts to finding a vaccine for this novel Coronavirus. "I want to use the opportunity to thank our health workers for the excellent work they are doing. As some people are running from COVID-19, they wake up every morning to go and meet it," he said. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Duchess of Cambridge penned a letter to a children's hospital, expressing her gratitude to NHS staff working tirelessly to fight coronavirus. Taking to Twitter, Evelina London Children's Hospital shared a letter written by Kate Middleton, 38, and captioned the post: 'It was wonderful to receive an uplifting message from our Patron HRH, The Duchess of Cambridge, for all our hardworking staff and volunteers.' In the letter, dated 14 April and complete with the Kensington Palace stamp, the mother-of-three praised the efforts of those working on the front lines in the battle against the deadly disease. 'It is heartening to know you are still very much open for business and continuing to provide expert care to sick children despite the challenging circumstances,' she wrote. Kate Middleton, 38, has written a letter to Evelina London Children's Hospital, thanking the staff for their tireless hard work. Pictured, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, accompanied by the Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service, Garrett Emmerson (right) during a visit to the London Ambulance Service 111 control room in Croydon on 20 March The royal expressed her gratitude to the children's hospital for taking on the additional pressure of caring for adult coronavirus patients (pictured) The duchess, who is patron of Evelina London Children's Hospital, thanked the emergency workers for also taking on adult patients due to the speed in which coronavirus is spreading across the country. Kate began: 'I am writing to let you know how much I am thinking of all the team at Evelina London Children's Hospital during this hugely difficult time. 'It is heartening to know you are still very much open for business and continuing to provide expert care to sick children despite the challenging circumstances. 'You are all truly inspirational and I know how much you will be there for these families, as you always have been.' The hospital took to Twitter to share the letter and penned: 'it was wonderful to receive an uplifting message from our Patron HRH, The Duchess of Cambridge, for all our hardworking staff and volunteers' (pictured) The royal went on to acknowledge the difficulties the staff are facing by having to juggle their home and working lives - before reassuring them that the whole nation appreciates their tireless efforts. Kate continued: 'You are now facing the additional pressure of caring for adult COVID-19 patients, but it is a testament of your support and commitment to your patients that you are all pulling together to ensure they will have the best possible care. 'Whether working on the frontline, or behind the scenes, you will be having to juggle these pressures and manage both your professional and personal lives. Please look after yourself and each other and know the whole country is behind you.' Before signing off, the royal added: 'This comes with my very best wishes for the good health of you and your families over the coming weeks.' So far, many groups haven't seen a huge increase in demand for child care but they are open and prepared to serve families who need care now and in the foreseeable future as school closures remain in place. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: For weeks now, billions of people around the world have been quarantined at home, many confined to a routine of cleaning and scrubbing, checking the news and exercising to workout videos. Its hardly the stuff of great cinema. And yet a group of filmmakers, including some prominent international names, has been making movies about the lockdown experience. Eight directors from Greece and 14 others from the rest of the world have been commissioned by the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece to produce three-minute shorts, filmed entirely in lockdown. Participants include the award-winning directors Denis Cote, Albert Serra, and Jia Zhangke, who have presented movies at big international film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Toronto. Some of the shorts are elaborately shot in black and white, and make poetic or literary references; others are deliberately humdrum and hastily filmed with a cellphone. Either way, the images are of messy interiors, masks and hand sanitizer, wet floors and dripping ceilings, toilet bowls and television screens. The shorts aim to show the victory of life: that no matter how difficult the situation, the human mind can still breathe freely through cinema, Jia said in an email exchange from Beijing, where he spent weeks in quarantine. At an extremely trying time, we need each others words and ideas through cinema, most importantly to emphasize the connections. The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. Some experts are optimistic that the capital market would recover from the devastating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and rebound in 2021. NAN reports that the capital market lost N1.71 trillion or 12.54 per cent as market capitalisation fell from N13.657 trillion on February 28 to N11.945 trillion as at close of trading on April 20. The decline in capitalisation was attributed to the exit of foreign investors due to currency risks and the crash in the global oil price as aftermaths of the COVID-19 pandemic. The experts, however, said the capital market had shown signs of recovery in the last couple of days, and that if governments stimulus packages were appropriately channelled and executed the market would rebound in 2021. They said stockbroking firms should seek ways to recapitalise and embrace merger to achieve economies of scale during the post-COVID-19 era. Uche Uwaleke, a Professor of Finance and Capital Market at the Nasarawa State University Keffi, urged the capital market players to map out strategies to keep the market afloat in the post-COVID-19 era. He said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should continue to implement investor confidence-building measures with emphasis on e-transactions, including its zero tolerance on infractions and Ponzi schemes. He added that the Exchange should speed up its demutualisation process to make room for more capital needed to upgrade trading information technology infrastructure made imperative by COVID-19. In order to be more efficient, achieve economies of scale as well as effectively comply with Minimum Operating Standards set by the Exchange, stockbroking firms should seek ways to recapitalise including the option of merger, he stated. Mr Uwaleke said the government should quicken the process of restoring growth and making the domestic environment conducive for both local and foreign investors in the stock market. One of the strongest influences on foreign portfolio investments in Nigeria going forward will be the recent monetary and fiscal policies shifts which tend towards a free market economy, Uwaleke added. Sheriffdeen Tella, Professor of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, said many quoted firms would record losses at the end of COVID-19 which would affect dividend negatively. He urged the regulators of the capital market to assist quoted firms to access intervention packages from the government to boost their businesses and hasten the recovery of the market post-COVID-19. Mr Tella added that the regulator too might develop a special conditional package for raising funds in the capital market for existing quoted firms and listing requirements for potential firms. (NAN) LAS VEGAS, April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nevada elected leaders and public health experts will join hundreds of constituents from across Nevada for a virtual town hall hosted by the Recovery Advocacy Project to address addiction and mental health concerns during and post COVID-19. Recovery Advocacy Project The current COVID-19 health crisis in Nevada has presented a wide-range of challenges to people in and those seeking recovery from addiction and mental health disorders. Given the current CDC guidelines and Governor Sisolak's stay-at-home order, mutual aid groups that provide life-saving support services have moved onlineand many are fortunate enough to have the access to the supports needed to sustain their pathways to wellness. However, many Nevadans are still unable to access the services needed to enter and maintain their personal recovery. In the spirit of community collaboration and learning, the Recovery Advocacy Project will be hosting a virtual town hall for the recovery community, families, allies, and policymakers on Thursday, April 23 from 6-7:30 p.m. PDT. The purpose of the town hall will be to discuss the COVID-19 response, supporting those in and seeking recovery, and the impact of this pandemic on the demand for these needed services and supports. The town hall is also an opportunity for citizens of Nevada to learn more and provide input on the community funding needs to combat the state's addiction and mental health crisis. Confirmed panelists include: Senator Julia Ratti , State Senator, District 13 , Senator Joe Hardy , State Senator, District 12 , Assemblyman Steve Yeager , Assemblyman, District 9 , Assemblywoman Jill Tolles , Assemblywoman, District 25 , Mayor Hillary Schieve , Mayor, City of Reno , Mayor Pro Tem Michele Fiore , Las Vegas Councilwoman, Ward 6 Councilwoman Victoria Seaman , Las Vegas Councilwoman, Ward 2 , Stephanie Woodard , DHHS Senior Advisor on Behavioral Health , Terry Kerns , Substance Abuse Law Enforcement Coordinator, Office of the Attorney General , Valerie Cauhape , Rural Regional Behavioral Health Policy Board , Dorothy Edwards & Frankie Lemus , Washoe Regional Behavioral Health Policy Board , Jenny Gratzke , Southern Nevada Health District , Dona Dmitrovic , Executive Director, Foundation for Recovery Ryan Hampton , Organizing Director, Recovery Advocacy Project Registration is free and open to all interested Nevada residents by visiting this link: https://www.recoveryvoices.com/covid-townhall/ This event is OPEN PRESS. For more information, please contact Ryan Hampton at 310.569.3755 or [email protected]. SOURCE Recovery Advocacy Project Related Links http://www.recoveryvoices.com JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his centrist election rival Benny Gantz signed an agreement on Monday to form an emergency coalition government that would end a year of political deadlock. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Gantz's Blue and White party issued a joint statement saying they had clinched a unity deal, which follows elections in April and September 2019 and on March 2 in which neither won a governing majority in parliament. Official details of the power-sharing deal were not immediately disclosed, but a source in Blue and White said the two had agreed Netanyahu would remain prime minister for a set period until Gantz takes over in October 2021. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his centrist election rival Benny Gantz signed an agreement on Monday to form an emergency coalition government that would end a year of political deadlock. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Gantz's Blue and White party issued a joint statement saying they had clinched a unity deal, which follows elections in April and September 2019 and on March 2 in which neither won a governing majority in parliament. Official details of the power-sharing deal were not immediately disclosed, but a source in Blue and White said the two had agreed Netanyahu would remain prime minister for a set period until Gantz takes over in October 2021. Until then, Gantz, a former armed forces chief, will serve as defence minister and several of his political allies, including two members of Israel's Labour Party, will receive ministerial portfolios as well. During the negotiations the parties cited a number of sticking points, including the planned annexation of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank where Palestinians seek a state, and setting a nomination process for judges. Palestinian officials did not immediately comment. Netanyahu, in power consecutively for the past 11 years, is under criminal indictment on corruption charges which he denies. They include bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Gantz on the campaign trail promised not to sit in a government led by a prime minister facing criminal charges, but he recently backtracked, saying the enormity of the coronavirus crisis necessitated an emergency unity government. "We have prevented a fourth election. We will protect democracy. We will fight coronavirus and care for all Israel's citizens," Gantz said on Twitter after signing the deal. Netanyahu tweeted a picture of Israel's blue and white flag. (Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Mark Heinrich) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Improved broadband reach and uninterrupted power supply are required if online classes are to become mainstream, survey finds. History teacher Subrata Pati takes an online class for his students, perched on a neem tree, in a village of Bankura district in West Bengal. Pati climbs the tree to get better connectivity during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown. (Photo | PTI) New Delhi: The Indian Internet infrastructure is not ready for the paradigm shift to online learning mandated by the situation arising due to COVID-19, according to a report by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), which comes out with coveted global ranking for educational institutions. The report titled "COVID-19: A wake up call for telecom service providers" is based on a survey conducted by QS I Guage, which rates colleges and universities in India with complete operational control held by London-based QS. The report pointed out connectivity and signal issues as the most prevailing problems faced by students while attending online classes. "The survey pointed out that the infrastructure in terms of technology in India has not achieved a state of quality so as to ensure sound delivery of online classes to students across the country. It is seen that both the state and the private players have not yet managed to overcome technical challenges, for instance, in providing adequate power supply and ensuring effective connectivity as the data reveals," the report said. "Although, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the world had witnessed a massive shift from the traditional Face to Face (F2F) to online platform as a mode of delivery of classes. Due to lack of proper infrastructure, a shift to a total reliance on the online platform for the delivery of lectures seems to be a distant dream," it added. According to the report, the survey with over 7,600 respondents found that in order to use internet at home, 72.60 percent of the respondents use mobile hotspot, 15 pc use home broadband, 9.68 pc use WiFi dongle and 1.85 pc have poor to no internet connectivity. "The data revealed that amongst the respondents who used home broadband, over 3 pc faced cable cuts, 53 pc faced poor connectivity, 11.47 pc faced power issues and 32 pc faced signal issues. When it came to mobile hotspot, 40.18 pc faced poor connectivity, 3.19 pc faced power issues and 56.63 pc faced signal issues. "Studies and reports regarding the consumption of power by the state authorities reveal that the states are not using power entirely due to COVID-19 situation thereby leaving a surplus supply for private entities and general public," it said. Schools and colleges were closed in the country ahead of nationwide lockdown announced on March 24 to contain the spread of coronavirus. The lockdown has now been extended till May 3. "The education sector is amongst the many which has taken a strong blow due to the COVID-19 situation. No more are the stakeholders involved in higher education able to function conventionally and the prospect of operating back to the status quo seems quite uncertain. In such a time, the only recourse that universities and institutions across the globe are resorting to is that of functioning online," the report said. Mr. Hagemajer took over and redesigned Bar Prasowy. Today, it has the same low prices and foods it did before the protest. But it is sleek and hip. Eastern Bloc-era accessories dot a modern interior. Much of the produce comes from local farmers. I am fond of Polish cuisine, but its vanishing, said Robert Witecki, its chef. Too often, people go to fast food restaurants. No one else wants to keep the tradition alive. Mr. Hagemajer added, We wanted to create a place that was modern, one with roots in Communism, but with a modern quality. Such yearnings are not unique to Poland. In fact, Red nostalgia has swept across the former Warsaw Pact countries. In what was East Germany, ostalgie a portmanteau of the words for east and nostalgia is alive and well in tourism, fashion and nightclubs. In Bulgaria, many women yearn for a time when they were compensated by the state for domestic work. It is a kind of longing for the kind of sociality that existed under socialism, a feeling that these places represented a less-divided Poland, said Kristen R. Ghodsee, a professor of Russian and Eastern European studies at the University of Pennsylvania, who has written extensively on the subject. Some this is pure performance: Many milk bar patrons born after 1989 come as historical voyeurs, hooked on a bygone aesthetic. They have a certain feel of coolness about them, said Dr. Parasecoli of N.Y.U. Its the hipster projection of what the milk bar experience was. They can look at it with detachment and irony because they didnt live through a time when the milk bar was a necessity. SANTA FE About 19,000 New Mexicans unemployment applications were processed over the weekend as the state begins distributing a $600 federally subsidized boost to weekly benefits, the states top workforce official said Monday. Overall, 74,000 people in New Mexico have been approved or recertified for unemployment benefits since the economic fallout from the coronavirus hit hard last month, said Workforce Solutions Secretary Bill McCamley. That figure does not include claims filed by residents who file taxes as self-employed or as gig economy workers because officials have not yet started processing those claims. State officials have estimated that there are about 62,000 workers in New Mexico who fit into those work categories. The maximum weekly unemployment payout in New Mexico is $461, and the federal boost increases that to $1,061 weekly. The states jobless claims skyrocketed as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, emphasized the need for social distancing under an emergency health order that suspended nonessential business, closed schools and banned gatherings of more than five people. Lujan Grisham has said an economic recovery plan is under development, but it is unclear whether the plan will incorporate the White Houses phased approach to reopening the economy. The decisions proposed at the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in Moscow last year regarding the Karabakh conflicts settlement are actively discussed, and their signing would be an important step towards the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made such statement at a videoconference on Tuesday, TASS reports. "There are the Madrid principles, there are documents prepared by the Russian Federation in 2010-2011, the so-called 'Kazan document,'" the Russian FM said. "There are plans that have been disseminated at the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan in Moscow in April last year with the participation of the [OSCE Minsk Group] Co-Chairs, and they are currently being actively discussed." Lavrov clarified that these documents mean "reaching a settlement based on a phased approach, assuming in the first phase the solution of more urgent problems, the liberation of a number of territories around Nagorno-Karabakh, and the unblocking of transport, economic and other communications." The Russian FM expressed confidence that their signing will be a serious step in the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions. "I am convinced that once we reach a decision on the signing of these documents, this will be a key step towards the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions, which we are talking about and which, I repeat, demanded an end to the war and start agreeing," Lavrov stressed. "An agreement has been reached, now it is necessary to reach an agreement," he said. "This is what we are striving for as OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs." In addition, Lavrov called the format of talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, good and useful. "The Security Council's demand that it is necessary to end the war and start reaching an agreement is embodied in it," he added. Nursing homes which have run out of single rooms for residents who have the coronavirus can cohort them in a single area, according to updated guidelines. The guidance said that residents who have the virus can all be placed together in a multi-occupancy room, however other residents who may even be probable cases should not be accommodated there. The new rules come as private and public nursing homes continue to deal with outbreaks of the coronavirus leading to deaths and illness among many elderly residents. It emerged yesterday that a hospital group has taken over the "operational management" of Dealgan House nursing home in Dundalk, Co Louth, due to a serious outbreak of the virus in the facility. Expand Close Fears: John Farrelly has concerns over staffing levels. Photo: Jason Clarke / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Fears: John Farrelly has concerns over staffing levels. Photo: Jason Clarke It is understood there have been 10 deaths in the home, although it is unclear how many were due to the coronavirus. The RCSI Hospital Group confirmed it had taken over the management of the home since April 17 "to assist during the period of Covid-19". It said the nursing home currently accommodated 63 residents. This involves the RCSI Hospital Group being responsible for "ensuring a necessary model of care through provision of appropriate nursing and medical staff, thereby ensuring residents' wellbeing". It said it would work closely with the registered provider of Dealgan House. "It is anticipated that this arrangement will be in place for a number of weeks with a review date of May 31. "All families of residents have been informed," said the group. Figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre released yesterday show the number of private homes affected by outbreaks has continued to grow, reaching 169. There are 22 outbreaks in HSE-run nursing homes and 74 in residential institutions. The new guidelines for nursing homes on the management of coronavirus cases highlights how some residents may not display classic symptoms. "It is important to remember that elderly people often present atypically with symptoms such as lethargy, increased confusion or loss of appetite," the guidelines from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre say. Meanwhile, the Department of Health has confirmed that Minister for Older People Jim Daly continues to serve in that role although he did not stand for re-election. A spokesperson said that Mr Daly along with Minister of State for Health Promotion and the National Drugs Strategy Catherine Byrne "both remain active in the areas under their remit". Testing of all residents and staff in long-stay facilities continued yesterday and is expected to be completed later this week. Meanwhile, the Mental Health Commission overseeing mental health facilities said it had concerns about the level of staffing and isolation rooms in some centres, and it had brought it to the attention of the HSE for immediate action. "It is clear that there are pressures in situations where it is necessary for staff to isolate, while delays in testing for staff adds to the pressure of providing full staffing complements," the watchdog's chief executive John Farrelly said yesterday. Los Angeles with building obscured in the late afternoon: (Getty Images) Close to half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air, as the quality in the country declines, according to a new report. The 2020 State of the Air report, released by the American Lung Association, found that for nearly half of the countrys residents, the air they breathe is heavily polluted. The report analysed air pollution in American cities from 2016 to 2018 and found that levels increased from the 2019 report, which analysed statistics from 2015 to 2017. More than 137 million people were found to be living in areas where ozone levels rose in the US, which can badly affect those with asthma or other breathing conditions. The years analysed, 2016 to 2018, were three of the hottest years on record and this contributed to increased ozone levels. Paul Billings, the national senior vice president of the association, told CNN that were moving in the wrong direction, with nearly 21 million more people breathing dirty air than in last years report. The American Lung Association CEO, Harold Wimmer, added in a press release that the report is further proof that climate change is affecting peoples health. This years report shows that climate change continues to degrade air quality and increase the risk of air pollution harming health, he said. To protect the advances in air quality we fought for 50 years ago through the Clean Air Act, we must again act today, implementing effective policies to protect our air quality and lung health against the threat of climate change. Cities in California were found to have the highest figures of short-term and year-round pollution, as well as the highest ozone levels, but the report indicates that results were affected by 2018s wildfires in the state. Los Angeles had the highest ozone levels, Fresno was found to have the highest short-term particle pollution, while Bakersfield had the highest year-round particle pollution. Mr Wimmer referenced the coronavirus pandemic to outline the importance of improving air quality for peoples health. Story continues Air pollution is linked to greater risk of lung infection, he said. Protecting everyone from COVID-19 and other lung infections is an urgent reminder of the importance of clean air. Read more Areas with worse air pollution have higher coronavirus death rates As the names trickled out, reporters began the grim task of accounting who had been lost. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. As the names trickled out, reporters began the grim task of accounting who had been lost. Brief biographical details gave a sketch of an unbearable cost: a teacher, a nurse, a 23-year veteran of the RCMP. A husband and wife died together; so did another couple and their 17-year-old daughter. The scope of the violence that stole their lives was vast, and defied explanation. At least 16 crime scenes, spread over dozens of kilometres; a suspect clad in a fake RCMP uniform and driving what police say was a lookalike police vehicle; houses set ablaze and burned to the ground. Const. Heidi Stevenson was a 23-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (RCMP) In the end, all these strange and unsettling details twist together into a single terrible fact: what happened Sunday in rural Nova Scotia marked the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history, one that claimed the lives of at least 19 people. Some of the victims knew the man who allegedly killed them, RCMP said, but not all. Now, the province, and the whole nation, is left to grieve at a time when all the usual rhythms of life, including those that give solace after a loss, are interrupted. Families will mourn without a proper funeral. For Const. Heidi Stevenson's loved ones, the regimental service typically held to honour slain RCMP officers will have to wait. Still, the urge to find strength in gestures of unity rushes forward the way water does: it can flow through and around pandemic containment measures, finding new channels of solidarity, new streams of love. Across Canada, there were candles in windows, with prayers sent along; there is a social media hashtag (#NovaScotiaStrong). On Sunday, a pilot took a small plane into the air and flew over the affected area of Portapique, N.S.; a track of the flightpath revealed the shape of a heart. On Monday morning, residents lined the road to the Upper Tantallon RCMP detachment to show support, standing vigil while carefully positioned at least six feet apart. Volunteer firefighters douse hotspots Monday as an excavator digs through the rubble of a destroyed home in Wentworth Centre, N.S., that linked to Sunday's deadly shooting rampage. (Tim Krochak / Getty Images) In front of the Manitoba legislative building, the Nova Scotia flag flew at half-mast, catching the afternoon's dust of late-April snow. In other times, there might have been a vigil, some sort of coming-together to remember the lives lost, but now we must hold space for that grief, and shock, in our own homes. How will we cope with the full scope of this tragedy, as it unfolds? It is far too soon, to know what the pieces of this terrible puzzle will show. Any other time, journalists from across North America and even abroad would descend, gathering information for the public to know; now, most will try to do that over the phone. Maybe there is a grace in that. Local reporters always know their own communities best and, in the public stillness of the pandemic, maybe they will have the space to find the heart of the story. It won't be an easy picture to paint, or to look at, but for the sake of the victims, it must be seen and understood fully. For journalists, it is a fine line to walk. In his daily news briefing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked media to refrain from publishing the alleged killer's name and photo, so as not to give him the "gift of infamy." On Monday, debate erupted on social media over how the suspect's background should be reported. The interception of the suspect led to his death Sunday in Enfield, N.S. (Tim Krochak / The Canadian Press files) These are valid concerns. Experts have long-warned raising the profile of such individuals serves to validate their actions, and can potentially trigger copycat attacks; in recent years, several mass shooters (and the alleged Toronto van attacker) have named others as inspirations for their violence. Yet, it is necessary key information about the killer be entered into the public record, so the public can build its own picture of what happened. It can give insight into what triggers mass violence; it can reveal potential junctures where a killer might have been identified before they'd had a chance to act. Sometimes, there is a clear motive, which is almost invariably horrific and hateful but at least gives a shape to the ensuing discussion. Understanding a motive gives a place to focus attention, something to push against and unravel in hopes of stopping the next similarly-motivated attack before it begins. Want more great journalism? Get our best news and features delivered in your inbox every weekday evening. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. What is harder to take is, when we search and find none. It's been more than two years since a man opened fire from a Las Vegas hotel window, slaughtering 58 people, and even the FBI still has little insight into motive. It was not terrorism, as strictly defined, but in a way the absence of clear motive makes it the most terrifying of all. Manitoba flew the Nova Scotia flag at half-mast in front of the legislature Monday to honour the victims. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) So as the news trickled out from Nova Scotia, the seeming randomness of it sent shivers down the spine. For now, we know little about the man who allegedly committed the crime, save for the fact he had a obsession with police and kept two properties in the area where the killing spree began. We will learn more in the days ahead. If anything can be salvaged from this destruction, perhaps it will be a chance to better understand the storms that rage in a human mind, which can foment such violence. For now, all we can do will be to hold close the memory of so many lives stolen, and hold hope for days of healing ahead. melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca Kosterina, an olive oil company in the Peloponnese region of Greece that uses native koroneiki olives, has introduced chocolate bars, the dark chocolate blended with the extra-virgin olive oil. The result is rich, silky chocolate in some uncommon Mediterranean flavors like fig and balsamic vinegar; almond butter with vanilla; and nuts, including walnuts and pistachios, with cinnamon and honey. The 2.1-ounce bars are sold in sets of six. The olive oil is also available online. Kosterina chocolate bars, $44.95 for six, single-flavor or assorted, kosterina.com. Follow NYT Food on Twitter and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Get regular updates from NYT Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice. WASHINGTON An informal coalition of influential conservative leaders and groups, some with close connections to the White House, has been quietly working to nurture protests and apply political and legal pressure to overturn state and local orders intended to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The groups have tapped their networks to drive up turnout at recent rallies in state capitals, dispatched their lawyers to file lawsuits, and paid for polling and research to undercut the arguments behind restrictions that have closed businesses and limited the movement of most Americans. Among those fighting the orders are FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots, which played pivotal roles in the beginning of Tea Party protests starting more than a decade ago. Also involved are a law firm led partly by former Trump White House officials, a network of state-based conservative policy groups, and an ad hoc coalition of conservative leaders known as Save Our Country that has advised the White House on strategies for a tiered reopening of the economy. The effort picked up some influential support on Tuesday, when Attorney General William P. Barr expressed concerns about state-level restrictions potentially infringing on constitutional rights, and suggested that, if that occurred, the Justice Department might weigh in, including by supporting legal challenges by others. Separately, in Wisconsin, Republicans in the state legislature sued to block the Democratic governors order extending stay-at-home rules through May 26. GM's experiment with car sharing is over. The automaker Tuesday said its Maven car-sharing service, which launched in 2016, will shut down for good. Maven had paused service due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company sent an email to customers Tuesday that after examining the business, the car-sharing industry and COVID-19, it decided to shutter the service permanently. The Verge was the first to report the story. The car-sharing service has struggled for months, long before COVID-19 upended the "shared" mobility sector. Last year, Maven scaled back and stopped service in nearly half of the 17 North American cities in which it operated. Maven continued to operate in Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Toronto. However, two programs within Maven, its consumer car-sharing and peer-to-peer service, also stopped in Washington, D.C. Only a program directed at gig workers was still operational in that city. GM confirmed to TechCrunch that it has started to wind down Maven. All assets and resources will be transferred to GMs Global Innovation organization, as well as the larger enterprise, according to a GM spokesperson. The company confirmed that all operations should be concluded by later this summer. Maven had already suspended its consumer car-sharing and a peer-to-peer service due to COVID-19. A separate program directed at gig economy workers has been "very limited and will continue to wind down," a GM spokesperson said. Weve gained extremely valuable insights from operating our own car-sharing business, Pamela Fletcher, GM's vice president of global innovation, said in an emailed statement. Our learnings and developments from Maven will go on to benefit and accelerate the growth of other areas of GM business. Below is a screenshot of the email sent Tuesday morning to Maven customers. maven shut down Image Credits: Screenshot/Maven email The company doesn't have plans to re-enter the car-sharing business. The company told TechCrunch that it "will take the great insights weve gained from Maven and leverage its car-sharing technology to provide new GM fleet services, and explore other new service offerings." Story continues Maven was designed to bring and expand several of GMs existing test programs under one brand. At the time of its launch, Maven was essentially three car-sharing services in one that included a city-based service that rented GM vehicles by the hour through an app and another for urban apartment dwellers in Chicago and New York. Maven developed and launched a smartphone app, which was used by customers to search for and reserve a vehicle, unlock the door and remotely start, cool or heat the car. It was an important launch for GM and its Chairman and CEO Mary Barra, who used a study commissioned in the wake of the ignition switch engineering scandal to accelerate her plans to transform the culture and operations at the automaker. Dozens of executives participated in transformational leaders programs; Maven was one of the fruits that spun out of that. A wave of other initiative and investments were announced in 2016 that showed GM's shift in interest toward unconventional transportation businesses that were adjacent to its core business of producing, selling and financing cars, trucks and SUVs to consumers. But Maven never quite settled on one business model. The car-sharing service continued to evolve, leaving and entering cities or tweaking where it offered certain programs. For instance, the company launched in 2017 Maven Reserve in Los Angeles and San Francisco to allow customers to rent its GM-branded vehicles for a month at a time. It also started Maven Gig in hopes of tapping into a growing demand from rideshare and delivery app drivers. Maven then launched a service in summer 2018 in Chicago, Detroit and Ann Arbor that let owners rent out their personal GM-branded vehicles through its Maven car-sharing platform. The peer-to-peer car rental service was designed to operate in a similar fashion to how Turo and Getaround work. The service's demise seemed to begin after the company lost its CEO Julia Steyn in January 2019. It scaled back a few months later and was only operating in a handful of cities up until the COVID-19 pandemic put further pressure on the business. Any study of the history of plagues and pandemics teaches us one great truth: we are immensely fortunate to live in the time we do. We have an advanced science of epidemiology and a global infrastructure to address the disease. We understand infection and contagion. We know what causes pandemics. We know how a virus works in the human body. We have ways to test people for the virus. We understand the concept of vaccines and we have incredibly sophisticated laboratories that can produce them, and indeed mass produce them. We have efficient global distribution networks. We have the Internet, including social media, to get important information into the hands of most of the people on earth more or less simultaneously. This differentiates us from almost every previous epidemic and gives us an enormous comparative advantage.Much of the terror of previous epidemics was caused by ignorance. Those afflicted with the disease did not know what it was, who or what caused it, where it came from, how to prevent it or how to treat it. It felt (as this coronavirus does for each of us at times, no matter what our rational intelligence tells us) like a visitation from the gods or an angry God. We also have the capacity to get on top of modern pandemics fairly quickly, if not to nip them in the bud, as with the Ebola outbreak of 2014, at least to prevent them from becoming the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (50-70 million dead) or the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793 (one in 10 dead). We should all bow down to the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and their aftermath. The smallpox epidemic of 1837-38 among the Mandan Indians of what is now North Dakota is a chilling case in point. Prelude The First Catastrophe: 1781-1782 The first great smallpox epidemic on the Great Plains occurred in 1781-82, well before white people arrived among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians of what is now North Dakota. Think of this. Smallpox brought to the New World by white men got to the Upper Missouri region before the first white explorers and traders arrived! Disease travels fast. Apparently an individual or individuals of a tribe that lived in the vicinity of St. Louis (founded 1764) got the infection and inadvertently took it back to their tribe, from which it moved tribe by tribe up the Missouri River from what may have been incidental contact. It has been estimated that the 1781-82 epidemic killed 13,000 Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa, some 68 percent of their whole population. The disease was much more devastating to the Mandan, Arikara, Pawnee, and Hidatsa, who lived in semi-permanent earthlodge villages, than to other tribes that practiced a more nomadic lifestyle. Population density coupled with sedentary lifestyles proved to be a particularly deadly combination.When Lewis and Clark arrived at their first aggregation of earthlodge villages in what is now northern South Dakota in early October 1804, they found evidence of catastrophe. Several of the villages they saw from their boats were abandoned. When the captains visited the mounded semi-subterranean lodges of several of these villages, they found evidence of hasty evacuation: squash still growing in the fields, mats, baskets, and bullboats in and around the lodges. What Lewis and Clark could not know, but sensed, was that the smallpox epidemic of 1781-82 had shattered Arikara life. Historians estimate that as many as 75 percent of the Arikara had perished in the epidemic. From approximately 18,000 in as many as 18 villages stretching over 200 miles of Missouri River frontage, the Arikara had been reduced to perhaps a thousand individuals living in just three villages. The survivors had found each other like refugees in a post-apocalyptic film. Lewis and Clark discovered that some of the people living in the three inhabited villages near the mouth of the Grand River were suffering from post-traumatic social breakdown: the Arikara dialects were sufficiently different to cause linguistic confusion and incomprehension; there were great tensions among the remaining leaders (chiefs), because the people of many previous villages were now jumbled into three, and men formerly held in the highest esteem had to compete for a limited number of leadership positions. As historian James Ronda put it, the waves of disease so shattered the ranks of chiefs, elders, bundle holders, and important women as to make future intervillage leadership highly unlikely. . . intense factionalism flared between dozens of once powerful chiefs and warriors. The Mandan Indians lived in semi-subterranean dwellings called earth lodges. They were semi-sedentary, not nomadic, and therefore more susceptible to epidemics. Lewis and Clark were not quite sure what had happened to decimate the Arikara sevenfold. They hastened on to the Mandan and Hidatsa villages in central North Dakota where things seemed better. After 1782, the Mandan had abandoned a dozen or so villages at the mouth of the Heart River near todays Bismarck, N.D., and relocated themselves in two villages at the mouth of the Knife River, 100 miles north, near their cultural and linguistic cousins the Hidatsa. Round Two: The Shattering of the Mandan Nation In the late spring of 1837, the steamboatwas on its way from St. Louis to Fort Union in what is now northwestern North Dakota, carrying trade goods to distribute among American Fur Company trading forts on that 1,900-mile stretch of the Missouri River. Steamboat traffic on the Missouri River was just five years old in 1837. The AFCs boat visited each upriver village twice each summer: once, filled with trade goods, mail, old newspapers, whiskey and agency personnel in May or June, and a second time as it returned to St. Louis with peltries, artifacts and discharged employees of the company. Thearrived in Fort Leavenworth (todays Kansas) on April 29. A deckhand exhibited signs of smallpox at that time. Although the captain of the boat knew that smallpox was far more devastating to Native Americans than to white people, he neither removed the infected individual nor paused long enough for the contagion to run its course among his crew. Somewhere farther upriver, thetook on board three Arikara women, each of whom had been infected, to return them to their home villages in todays North Dakota. At 3 p.m. on Monday, June 19, thearrived at Fort Clark on the south bank of the Missouri River at the base of the Mandan and Hidatsa villages. Attempts to keep the Native Americans of the area away from the boat failed. It was the annual arrival of industrial trade goods, which were now a vital part of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara economies, and eager individuals flocked to the dockside. As the trade goods were unloaded, there was much Frolicking at Fort Clark that night. It was just then that the second great smallpox epidemic came to the Mandan people. As historian Elizabeth Fenn has written, We may never know the precise moment or mechanism that launched the virus into circulation. But one thing is clear: The stage was set for disaster. The next day, Tuesday, June 20, 1837, thecontinued its journey to Fort Union near todays Williston, N.D. It took a little over two weeks for the epidemic to overcome its incubation period and touch off the death rattle of the Mandan nation. The factor at Fort Clark, American Fur Company employee Francis Chardon, kept a running tally of the dead in his company journal. It is the best account we have of the smallpox epidemic. It is a horrifying document to read. I quote here only a fraction of his journal entries: Friday, July 14, 1837: A young Mandan died to day of the Small Pox several others has caught it. Monday, July 17: An other case of the small pox broke out to day at the Village. Tuesday, July 25: Several Young Men arrived from the dried Meat Camp they say that the small pox has broke out at the Camp. Wednesday, July 26: The 4 Bears (Mandan) has caught the small pox, and got crazy and has disappeared from camp he arrived here in the afternoon. The Indians of the Little Village all arrived in the evening well loaded with dried Meat the small pox has broke out among them, several has died. Thursday, July 27: The small pox is Killing them up at the Village, four died to day. Friday, July 28: This day was very Near being my last a Young Mandan came to the Fort with his gun cocked, and secreted under his robe, with the intention of Killing me, after hunting me in 3 or 4 of the houses he at last found me, the door being shut, he waited some time for me to come out, just as I was in the act of going out, Mitchel caught him, and gave him in the hands of two Indians who conducted him to the Village. The Mandans & Rees gave us two splendid dances, they say they dance, on account of their Not having a long time to live, as they expect to all die of the small pox. Saturday, July 29: Several more Mandans died last night. Two Gros Ventres [Hidatsa] arrived from their dried Meat Camp, it appears that it has no broke out among them as yet. Sunday, July 30: [The Gros Ventres] threaten Death and Distruction to us all at this place, saying that I was the cause of the small pox Making its appearance in this countryOne of our best friends of the Village (The Four Bears) died to day, regretted by all who Knew him. Saturday, August 5: News from the Gros Ventres, they say that they are encamped this side of Turtle Mountain [the Killdeer Mountains], and that a great many of them have died of the small poxseveral chiefs among them. They swear vengeance against all the Whites, as they say the small pox was brought here by the S.B. [steamboat]. Monday, August 7: Six more died to day. Tuesday, August 8: Four More died to daythe two thirds of the Village are sick, to day I gave six pounds of Epsom salts in doses to Men, Women, and children, the small pox has broke out at the Little Mandan Villagethree died yesterday, two chiefs. Thursday, August 10: All the Rees that were encamped in the Mandan lodges, except a few that are sick, Moved down to the Island hopeing to get rid of the small poxthe Mandans talk of Moveing to the other side of the river, 12 or 15 died to day. Friday, August 11: Mandans all crossed to the other side of the river to encampleaveing all that were sick in the Village, I Keep no a/c [account] of the dead, as they die so fast that it is impossible. Sunday, August 13: an Old fellow who has lost the whole of his family to the Number of 14, harrangued to day, that it was time to begin to Kill the Whites, as it was them that brought the small pox in the Country. Monday, August 14: The Rees [Arikara] are Makeing Medicine for their sickness. Some of them have made dreams, that they talked to the Sun, others to the Moon, several articles has been sacrifised to them boththe Principal Cheif of the Mandans died to dayThe Wolf Cheif)An other dog, from the Little Village came to the Fort naked with his gun cocked, to Kill one of us, We stopped him. Wednesday, August 16: Several Men, Women, and Children that has been abandoned in the Village, are laying dead in the lodges, some out side of the Village, others in the little river not entered, which creates a very bad smell all around usA Ree that has lost his wife and child threatened us to dayWe are beset by enemies on all sidesexpecting to be shot every Minute. Thursday, August 17: the Indians dying off every dayW[h]ere the disease to stop, I Know notWe are badly situated, as we are threatened to be Murdered by the Indians every instant, however we are all determined, and Prepared for the worst I have hoisted the Black flag. Friday, August 18: An old Ree started this Morning to pay a visit to the Gros Ventres, the Soldiers would not let him enter the Village, they have made a quarantine and they will permit no one from this place to come near them. . . Nothing but an occasional glass of grog Keeps me alive as I am worried almost to death by the Indians and Whites, the latter (the men) threaten to leave me. Saturday, August 19: a Mandan and his Wife Killed themselves yesterday, to not Out live their relations that are deadI was in hopes that the disease was almost at an end, but they are dying off 8 and 10 every dayand new cases of it dailyW[h]ere it will stop God only Knows. Sunday, August 30: Three more died in the Village last nightThe Wife of a young Mandan that caught the disease was suffering from the pain, her husband looked at her, and held down his head, he jumped up, and said to his wife, when you was young, you were hansome, you are now ugly and going to leave me, but no, I will go with you, he took up his gun and shot her dead, and with his Knife ripped open his own bellyA young Ree that has been sick for some time with the small pox, and being alone in his lodge, thought that it was better to die, than to be in so much pain, he began to rub the scabs until blood was running all over his body, he rolled himself in the ashes, which almost burnt his soul out of his bodytwo days after he was perfectly well, it is a sever operation, but few are disposed to try ithowever it proved beneficial to him. Tuesday, August 22: The disease still Keeps ahead 8 and 10 die off daily, Thirty five Mandans have died, the Women and children I Keep no account ofA Ree that has the small pox, and thinking that he was going to die, approached near his wife, a young woman of 19and struck her in the head with is tomahawk, with the intent to Kill her, that she might go with him in the Outer Worldshe is badly wounded, a few Minutes after he cut his throat, a report is in Circulation, that they intend to fire the FortStationed guards in the Bastion. Friday, August 25: An other Mandan cheif died to day(The long fingers) total Number of Men that has died50. I have turned out to be a first rate doctor St. Grado, An Indian that has been bleeding at the Nose all day, I gave him a decoction of all sorts of ingredients Mixed together, enough to Kill a Buffaloe Bull of the largest size, and stopped the effusion of Blood I done it out of experiment, and am content to say that it proved effectual, the Confidence that an Indian has in the Medicine of the whites, is half the cure. Sunday, August 27: News from the Gros Ventres of the disease breaking out amongst them. Tuesday, August 29: Last Night I was taken very sick with the Fever, there is six of us in the Fort that has the Fever, and one the small poxAn Indian Vaccinated his child, by cutting two small pieces of flesh out of his arms, and two on the bellyand then takeing a Scab from one, that was getting well of the disease, and rubbing it on the wounded part, three days after, it took effect, and the child is perfectly well. Wednesday, August 30: All those that I thought had the small pox turned out to be true, the fever left them yesterday, and the disease showed itself. I am perfectly well, as last night, I took a hot whiskey punch, which made me sweat all last night, this Morning I took my daily Bitters as usual. Thursday, August 31: Month of August, I bid you farewell with all my heart, after running twenty hair breadths escapes, threatened every instant to be all murdered, however it is the wish of humble servant that the Month of September will be more favorable, the Number of Deaths up to the Present is very near five hundredThe Mandans are all cut off, except 23 young and Old Men. Friday, September 1: This Morning two dead bodies, wrapped in a White skin, and laid on a raft passed by the Fort, on their way to the regions below, May success attend them. Monday, September 4: a young Mandan that was given over for dead, and abandoned by his Father, and left alone in the bushes to die, came to life again, and is now doing well, he is hunting his Father, with the intent to Kill him, for leaveing him alone. Thursday, September 7: The disease not yet over, five and six die off daily. Friday, September 15: Two men arrived late last Night in a Canoe from Fort Union. The disease has broke Out at the Assinneboines and Black feet, several had died. Tuesday, September 19: I was visited by a young fellow from the little Village, he assures Me that there is but 14 of them liveing, the Number of deaths Cannot be less than 800What a band of RASCALS has been used up. Friday, September 22: My youngest son died to day. Saturday, September 30: Two More Rees died to day, with the Small Pox, several More are sick at the Village. All the Rees and Mandans, Mens Womens and Children, have had the disease, except a few Old Ones, that had it in Old times, it has distroyed the seven eights of the Mandans and one half of the Rees Nations, the Rees are encamped With the Gros Ventres have just Caught it. No doubt but the one half of them will die alsoas they talk of removeing down to this place. Tuesday, October 17: all the Indians have decamped, except one lodge, that has lately Caught the disease. Sunday, December 31: the rest of the Lodges are scattered, on the Little Missohe has had No News of them, for two Months, in all probability they are all Dead, the last News that he had form them was, that 117 had died, and the disease was still rageing. Saturday, January 27, 1838: The Small Pox still ravageing. In his revisionist history,, Ward Churchill argued that the U.S. Army distributed blankets infected with smallpox to the Mandan to wipe them out. He provided no proof of his assertion, which makes no sense for at least two reasons. First, the Mandan had a longstanding reputation as good Indians in white mans circles. They had befriended Lewis and Clark and provided food, horses, and other supplies to Fort Mandan, which was built just across from the lowest of the Mandan villages, Mituntanka. Thereafter, Mandan had been uniformly hospitable to white traders, trappers, explorers, and army personnel. It would have been perverse to punish Native people who were known as friendlies. Second, the American Fur Company depended on the large concentrations of population at the earthlodge villages to prosper in the fur trade. The AFC would not have wanted one of its prime customer bases to be impaired, nor would the Army have contemplated an attack on the Mandan without consulting with the white individuals and businesses that had a physical presence on the Upper Missouri. Still Even if the smallpox epidemic was not deliberately introduced among the villager Indians as germ warfare, the responsibility lies with the white traders and transport crew, who chose profit over precaution after smallpox was discovered aboard the St. Peters as far down the Missouri River as northern Kansas. Just as we have learned to distinguish open from structural racism, so, too, we can differentiate deliberate genocide from appalling indifference that has genocidal ramifications. If the crew of the St. Peters had waited in Nebraska until all possibility of contagion was over, they might have been unable to ascend the Missouri River after the summer rise was over and thus lost a good deal of money, but they would have saved thousands of lives. The Mandan routinely created these stark monuments to the dead on the margins of their villages. Instead, they reckoned they could deliver the steamboat all the way to Fort Union, and somehow keep native peoples from getting close enough to the vessel to become infected. It was a cynical throw of dice representing life and death for Missouri River Indians, born of a sense of cultural superiority so deeply rooted that the steamboat crew could not see Native Americans as worthy of special precautions. As professor Fenn concludes, it represented willful neglect of staggering proportions. In fact, this catastrophe was preventable in several ways. The previous year a smallpox vaccination crew had been dispatched by the U.S. Army up the Missouri River. It had considerable success in vaccinating Native Americans in the Missouri corridor, but an early winter stopped the teams upriver progress before they reached the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara villages. Over the winter of 1837-38, the U.S. Army decided not to continue the vaccination program, and openly declared that the Mandan and their cousins were no longer central enough to the trade economy to merit vaccination. If the previous winter had come later or if the U.S. Army had continued its vaccination program, thousands of Native Americans, including the overwhelming majority of the Mandan, could have been saved. You cannot read accounts of this plague without becoming sick with grief and shame.The Mandan people were sophisticated. They had no idea of what smallpox was and how the contagion worked, but they knew it came from white men. The best estimates are that the Mandan had a population of around 2,000 at the time of the 1838 epidemic. If so, more than 93 percent of the Mandan died in the epidemic. A leader of Mituntanka known to whites as Four Bears, but whose name was Mato-Tope, fell ill with the disease on July 26. Four days later, horribly disfigured and dying, he delivered his death speech, which was recorded by Francis Chardon in his journal. My Friends one and all, Listen to what I have to sayEver since I can remember, I have loved the Whites, I have lived With them ever since I was a Boy, and to the best of my Knowledge, I have never Wronged a White Man, on the Contrary, I have always Protected them from the insults of Others, Which they cannot deny. The 4 Bears never saw a White Man hungry, but what he gave him to eat, Drink, and a Buffalo skin to sleep on, in time of Need. I was always ready to die for them, Which they cannot deny. I have done every thing that a red Skin could do for them, and how have they repaid it! Wth ingratitude! I have Never Called a White Man a Dog, but to day, I do Pronounce them to be a set of Black harted Dogs, they have deceived Me, them that I always considered as Brothers, has turned Out to be My Worst enemies. I have been in Many Battles, and often Wounded, but the Wounds of My enemies I exhalt in, but to day I am Wounded, and by Whom, by those same White Dogs that I have always Considered, and treated as Brothers. I do not fear Death my friends. You Know it, but to die with my face rotten, that even the Wolves will shrink with horror at seeing Me, and say to themselves, that is the 4 Bears the Friend to the Whites Listen well what I have to say, as it will be the last time you will hear Me. think of your Wives, Children, Brothers, Sisters, Friends, and in fact all that you hold dear, are all Dead, or Dying, with their faces all rotten, caused by those dogs the whites, think of all that[,] My friends, and rise all together and Not leave one of them alive. The 4 Bears will act his Part. Six years later, the ornithologist John Jacob Audubon added haunting details to the story. A great chief who had been a constant friend to the whites, having caught the pest, and being almost at the last extremity, dressed himself in his fineries, mounted his war-steed, and, fevered and in agony, rode among the villages, speaking against the whites, urging the young warriors to charge upon them and destroy them all. Mato-Tope died within hours of delivering his farewell address. Such Mandans as survived did not seek retaliation against the white men who occupied their homeland. The great Mandan leader Mato-Tope (Four Bears) cursed his former white friends as he died of the smallpox. It is true that Mato-Tope had been a steady friend to white trappers, traders, and explorers. He was painted by both Karl Bodmer in 1834 and George Catlin in 1832. He was universally regarded in white circles as an extraordinary man, warrior, and Mandan leader. George Catlin wrote, an extraordinary man, though second in office, [he] is undoubtedly the first and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant and gentlemanly in his deportment---handsome, brave and valiant; wearing a robe on his back, with the history of his battles emblazoned on it; which would fill a book of themselves, if properly translated . . . I looked out of the door of the wigwam, and saw him approaching with a firm and elastic step, accompanied by a great crowd of women and children, who were gazing on him with admiration, and escorting him to my room. No tragedian ever trod the stage, nor gladiator ever entered the Roman Forum, with more grace and manly dignity than did Mah-to-toh-pa enter the wigwam. Mato-Tope had gone out of his way to offer protection to white visitors even when some members of his tribe were suspicious or threatened violence. He is still regarded by the Mandan people as one of their greatest leaders. A bridge across the Missouri River and a resort and casino complex on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation are named after him. Conclusion In two waves of smallpox on the Upper Missouri, separated by 56 years, the Mandan had been reduced from a proud nation of more than 15,000 individuals to a pathetic remnant of 145. The legendary Mandan were now hovering on the brink of extinction. The Mandan were regarded as Native Americans of a special status, often fair-skinned, culturally sophisticated (with zoning in their earthlodge villages), polite, hospitable, superb traders, and invariably generous to white people in spite of a long series of depredations, exploitations, and provocations. Thomas Jefferson met their leader Sheheke-shote at the White House in the last days of 1806. Jefferson, like some others, wondered if they were descendants of Madoc the Welsh traveler who was said to have come to America long before Columbus. Lewis and Clark regarded them as among the finest Natives they met in their 28 months of transcontinental exploration. By 1838 they were nearly extinct through no fault of their own. They have never fully recovered. Somehow the survivors held on. It is difficult now to provide any accurate population estimates of the Mandan today, because extensive intermarriage with their cousins the Hidatsa and other tribes have clouded their tribal lineage. We do know that the last full-blooded Mandan woman, Mattie Grinnell, died in 1975 at the age of 108. Grinnell was a remarkable woman, a civil rights leader who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C. The current population of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) is 15,000. Many tribal members live on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in west-central North Dakota, one of the sweet spots of the Bakken shale oil field. Elizabeth Fenn concludes, The epidemic of 1837-38 stands with the epidemic of 1781 as one of the greatest catastrophes ever to strike the peoples of the northern plains. Compared to this, the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, while serious, is comparatively benign thanks to science, global networking, and political vigilance. Representative image The country may have begun a staggered exit from the coronavirus lockdown as curbs on economic activity have been lifted but construction activity across sites remained stalled as most real estate developers decided to tread cautiously until all restrictions are removed. We have decided to adopt a wait and watch approach until the lockdown is lifted. There are still issues with supply chain and several restrictions with regard to construction activities in hotspots, said a real estate developer. We are unable to start construction. The biggest hurdle is that of the supply chain not yet being restored. Besides there are too many hotspots and there are too many risks involved to immediately start construction. Dont forget this is a capital intensive business, Amit Modi, President- elect, Credai Western UP, told Moneycontrol. In Uttar Pradesh, real estate developers are being cautious and some are not eager to start construction work due to stringent restrictions in place. One of them is to do with the fact that if anybody gets infected on the construction site after work has started, the area would be sealed and all related people will be quarantined for 14-28 days. Construction would come to a grinding halt. Also, FIR will be lodged against the promoter, in this case the real estate developer. Realtors also fear that labourers may decide to return home once the lockdown is lifted. This will further obstruct and delay construction work on site, they say. 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 coronavirus count in Uttar Pradesh has risen to 1,294 on April 21 as 110 more people tested positive for the infection. Track this blog for latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak Keeping all these conditions in mind, we have decided to adopt a wait and watch approach, Gaurav Gupta, president, CREDAI NCR Ghaziabad, told Moneycontrol. In Haryana, some developers have applied for permissions but are worried that there may be issues with raw material supplies. Pravin Jain, Vice-President, Naredco and CMD, Tulip Infratech Pvt Ltd, told Moneycontrol that his firm had applied to the nodal agency Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) for permissions to start operations. The issue is that cement factories have not yet commenced work. We have decided to wait for three or four days for cement companies to resume operations and deliver supplies. Shelf life of cement is 40 days. We have sought permissions online from GMDA for work to start, he told Moneycontrol. On April 21, four fresh cases surfaced in Haryana, taking the total to 255. Among the new cases, two were reported in Sonipat and one each from Gurugram and Faridabad. In Maharashtra, construction has been allowed only in green and orange zones and that too on a case-by-case basis. The government had also allowed work in construction projects within municipal limits where workers are available on the site. However, this relaxation will not be applicate in the MMR and the PMR. Most of our labourers have gone back, there is shortage of raw material. Some developers have applied for permissions but we are all in a wait and watch mode, says Satish Magar, president, Credai National. The green zones are those which have not reported any coronavirus case, while orange zones are the ones where only a few cases have been reported Maharashtra is the most-affected state in the country with the number of COVID-19 positive cases crossing 4,000 mark and death toll rising to over 200. On April 15, the government relaxed guidelines for lockdown 2.0 permitting some construction activity in the non-COVID-19 hotspots starting April 20. However, this is only provided strict social distancing guidelines are follow Under the fresh guidelines, contractors along with developers will need to ensure that social distancing is maintained at the sites and will need to find ways and means of achieving it. For basic hygiene and safety precautions, companies can regularly sanitize sites and provide labourers with masks, soap and sanitizers for washing hands frequently. The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade had earlier written to the Ministry of Home Affairs and suggested that housing and construction sectors need to be allowed if the labourers stay at the sites with all facilities and safeguards, contractors shall ensure safety sanitation and distancing norms. According to KPMG, total construction projects worth more than Rs 59 lakh crore are under development, most of which would have been impacted severely by COVID-19. The Indian construction sector employs over 49 million people, close to 12 percent of the nations working population. Further, it has a multiplier effect on nearly 250 allied industries. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak The information contained in this release was correct as at 31 March 2020. Information on the Company's up to date net asset values can be found on the London Stock Exchange Website at https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-home.html . BLACKROCK SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST PLC (LEI: 549300MS535KC2WH4082) All information is at 31 March 2020 and unaudited. Performance at month end is calculated on a capital only basis One month % Three months % One year % Three years % Five years % Net asset value* -26.1 -32.1 -19.5 -9.3 22.7 Share price* -24.5 -34.6 -17.9 7.2 37.4 Numis ex Inv Companies + AIM Index -24.0 -32.9 -25.2 -27.1 -13.2 *performance calculations based on a capital only NAV with debt at par, without income reinvested. Share price performance calculations exclude income reinvestment. Sources: BlackRock and Datastream At month end Net asset value Capital only(debt at par value): 1,144.78p Net asset value Capital only(debt at fair value): 1,126.95p Net asset value incl. Income(debt at par value)1: 1,169.09p Net asset value incl. Income(debt at fair value)1: 1,151.25p Share price 1,120.00p Discount to Cum Income NAV (debt at par value): 4.2% Discount to Cum Income NAV (debt at fair value): 2.7% Net yield2: 2.9% Gross assets3: 640.4m Gearing range as a % of net assets: 0-15% Net gearing including income (debt at par): 5.4% 2019 Ongoing charges ratio4: 0.7% Ordinary shares in issue5: 48,829,792 includes net revenue of 24.31p. Yield calculations are based on dividends announced in the last 12 months as at the date of release of this announcement, and comprise of the final dividend of 19.20 pence per share, (announced on 03 May 2019, ex-dividend on 16 May 2019) and the interim dividend of 12.8 pence per share (announced on 5 November 2019, ex-dividend on 14 November 2019). includes current year revenue. As reported in the Annual Financial Report for the year ended 28 February 2019 the Ongoing Charges Ratio (OCR) was 0.7%. The OCR is calculated as a percentage of net assets and using operating expenses, excluding performance fees, finance costs and taxation. excludes 1,163,731 shares held in treasury. Sector Weightings % of portfolio Industrials 33.5 Financials 20.8 Consumer Services 17.0 Consumer Goods 9.6 Health Care 6.8 Technology 6.3 Basic Materials 3.7 Oil & Gas 1.5 Telecommunications 0.8 ----- Total 100.0 ===== Ten Largest Equity Investments Company % of portfolio YouGov 2.7 IntegraFin 2.3 Breedon 1.7 Qinetiq Group 1.7 Stock Spirits Group 1.6 Team17 1.6 Learning Technologies 1.5 Treatt 1.4 Central Asia Metals 1.4 Sirius Real Estate 1.4 Commenting on the markets, Roland Arnold, representing the Investment Manager noted: During March the Company's NAV per share fell by 26.1%1 to 1,144.78p on a capital only basis, whilst our benchmark index, Numis ex Inv Companies + AIM Index, fell by 24.0%1; for comparison the FTSE 100 Index fell by -13.8%1 (all calculations are on a capital only basis). Markets continued to fall during March as the COVID-19 pandemic swept through economies across the globe, and the extent of the crisis that the virus would cause became apparent. As market participants adjusted to the shock, the ensuing fall in global equity markets was the sharpest ever. Volatility spiked and financial markets infrastructure came under extreme pressure. Policy response has been swift, from fiscal and monetary support, to the unprecedented public health measures that have resulted in half the world's population currently being in some form of "lockdown". Companies are, in many cases, facing a revenue decline unlike any seen before as authorities curtail non-essential activity. The scale and duration of the downturn is causing immense uncertainty, and investors, like everyone else in the world, await clarity on how we will exit the lockdown phase. Many of the largest detractors to performance were businesses that are experiencing significant falls in demand as a result of COVID-19 or those that have been mandated to close resulting in companies generating zero (or close to zero) revenues during this period of lockdown. For example, Hyve (exhibitions), Watches of Switzerland (luxury watch retailer with outlets in airports), Vistry (UK Housebuilder), and Johnson Services Group (linen rental supplier to catering and hotels), all saw their share prices significantly impacted during the month. While these falls have been painful in the short term, our focus on financially secure businesses mean our holdings can generally survive a period of lockdown. Unfortunately, this pandemic will force many companies out of business, but for those that can survive, we believe their competitive positions will be naturally enhanced. Against such severe absolute market falls, there were some shares that managed to buck the trend. Video game developer, Team17, reported record full year results, with new product launches during the year driving strong growth in revenues, and a solid pipeline of planned releases resulting in upgrades to guidance. YouGov and IntegraFin outperformed the market, as both businesses have been trading well in recent months and will remain open and therefore still generating revenue during the lockdown period. The outlook for the global economy has never been more uncertain. There is no historical parallel to current events. Even the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 was at its heart a banking crisis, something investors had seen before. It goes without saying therefore that the immediate outlook is for continued levels of heightened volatility as COVID-19 continues to dominate global events. No one knows what the duration of the pandemic will be, the duration of restrictive public health measures nor the lasting damage that both will do to the economy as a whole. We certainly don't pretend to have the answers and therefore we have not materially changed our positioning. The impact of COVID-19 is unpredictable, unavoidable and unprecedented. However the situation will improve in time, and this provides us with confidence in our strategy on a medium-term view. Recent market falls presents us with a fantastic investment opportunity. The Company's investment strategy is focussed on quality growth investment opportunities in smaller companies, a style that has demonstrably worked over the long-term, and historically, periods of sudden underperformance, such as this, have proven to be excellent investment opportunities. 1Source: BlackRock as at 31 March 2020 20 April 2020 ENDS Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/brsc on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). Neither the contents of the Manager's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement. Thanks to a meme he is now the most famous James in the paddock of Formula 1, James Vowles, the man who started the team order during the Russian Grand Prix in 2018 as follows: "Valtteri, It's James". But from what else do we know this important force at Mercedes? Vowles started his career in Formula 1 at an early age. He graduated from the University of Cranfield in 2001 for the Master's degree in Motorsport Engineering. He did so well that he was awarded the Prodrive Award of Excellence. Yes, the Prodrive of David Richards. After the departure of Craig Pollock, Prodrive had been asked by the F1 team of BAR to run the team earlier that year. So Richards was in the lead when Vowles received the award for his graduation from Prodrive. And so the connection was made for Vowles to join BAR at the age of 22. The big triumph with Brawn GP In the years that followed, he worked his way up to head of strategy for the team. A position he still holds today, although in a more coordinating role. In the first years with BAR and Honda, the young strategist didn't really stand out because of the varying success of those teams, but in 2009 he would really make a name for himself with Brawn GP. The year that started disastrously with the sudden withdrawal of Honda. Vowles was used by the team to have conversations with potential investors, as he was the only one on the team who spoke several languages (including Spanish) fluently. It is a good reflection of how much responsibility he already bore before the age of 30. Read more Grand Prix of Austria is getting closer: Staff tested for coronavirus More than eighteen years on the same team After the triumph with Brawn, Vowles remained loyal to the team at the next acquisition. With Mercedes, he helped build the most successful racing team in the history of Formula 1. Although he too could be caught with a single fault (Austria 2018), he made an undeniable contribution to the success of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton. Thanks to the 'It's James' meme and his 'debriefs' on Mercedes' Youtube channel, Vowles has been in the spotlight a bit more in the last two years, but in the meantime the 40-year-old has been active in the sport for over eighteen years. And all that with the same team, where he has seen champions like Jacques Villeneuve, Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg come and go. Read more OFFICIAL: Government blocks possible Dutch GP during summer Comedian Yoo Jae-suk has made another donation to help people in need. G Foundation, an international non-governmental charity organization, said Monday that Yoo donated W50 million to the charity to help provide sanitary products for teenage girls in need (US$1=W1,221). "Many underprivileged young girls are suffering from period poverty," the charity said. "We thank Yoo for his donation." The donation will be used to prepare kits consisting of six months' worth of sanitary pads and feminine cleansers as well as pad pouches. In February, Yoo donated W100 million to the Korea Disaster Relief Association to help the fight against the coronavirus outbreak. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 10:24:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SYDNEY, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Airline Virgin Australia has entered voluntary administration as COVID-19 hammered global air travel, leaving Australia with the possibility of just one local airline. The company revealed on Tuesday that it was moving to "recapitalize" with the aim of emerging intact on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier Australia's government refused calls to bail out the airline -- however Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that it was in the country's interest to maintain a two-airline market. "The government is not in the business of owning an airline," Cormann said. "But we do want to see two airlines continue and we believe that the opportunities [are] there out of the administration process for that to happen." Roughly 15,000 jobs face an uncertain future with the airline already standing down around 80 percent of its workforce last month as the COVID-19 crisis spread. One of the appointed administrators, Vaughan Strawbridge from Deloitte said that a number of parties had already expressed an interest in purchasing the business. "We have commenced a process of seeking interest from parties for participation in the recapitalization of the business and its future, and there have been several expressions of interest so far," Strawbridge said. "Our intention is to undertake a process to restructure and refinance the business and bring it out of administration as soon as possible." Enditem Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday asked the Union Information and Broadcasting ministry to telecast Doordarshan's popular shows, including 'Bharat Ek Khoj' and 'Humlog', during the COVID-19 lockdown. In a letter to Union minister Prakash Jawadekar, Singh praised the Centre's decision to telecast 'Ramayan', 'Mahabharat' and 'Chanakya', while demanding that serials, including 'Bharat Ek Khoj', 'Humlog', 'Tamas', among others also be aired on the government-run network. "It will help in educating the country's youth about the diverse, mutual culture and history of the country," he said. Singh also urged the minister to issue necessary directives to the channel in the matter, so that these shows can once again entertain citizens. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) [April 21, 2020] GVTC Closes the Homework Gap for Area Students SAN ANTONIO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In search of ways to aid our community in need, GVTC and The GVTC Foundation have collaborated with seven local food pantries, three Boerne ISD schools, and the GVTC Central Office of Blanco to bridge the homework gap for area students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The increasing demand for essential services such as the internet inspired an effort that may help hundreds of locals currently experiencing hardships. WiFi Hotspots Now Available Effective April 21, 2020, GVTC will provide free WiFi hotspots at seven food bank locations and three schools across its service area for area students and community members to utilize until public areas that regularly offer free internet reopen. These organizations are located throughout Greater San Antonio, the Texas Hill Country, and South Central Texas, and include: C.R.R.C. of Canyon Lake (Community Resource and Recreation Center) Gonzales Christian Assistance Ministry Habitat for Safe Seniors Helping Hands Food Pantry Hill Country Family Service The Hope Center Provisions Boerne High School Blanco While exercising social distancing and other CDC safety guidelines , individuals will be able to access free WiFi in the parking lots of these ten locations from their vehicles until further notice. The GVTC Foundation Donates $87K Locally In addition, The GVTC Foundation has committed $87,000 in emergency funds to nearly 20 nonprofits providing support in GVTC's area: ten food pantries, five senior centers, three school meal programs, and one medical center. All organizations include : Blanco Good Samaritan Center, Provisions Food Pantry in Bulverde, C.R.R.C. of Canyon Lake, Gonzales Christian Assistance Ministries, Habitat for Safe Seniors, Hill Country Daily Bread Ministries, Hill Country Family Services, Hope Center Food Pantry Outreach, New Braunfels Food Bank, Hope Hospice, RCBC Helping Hands Food Pantry, Bulverde Spring Branch Activity Center (Sr. Center), Rainbow Senior Center at Kronkosky Place (Boerne), Comal County Senior Citizens Foundation, Boerne Community Coalition, Boerne Blessings in a Backpack, SJRC Texas, Roy Maas Meadowland Campus in Boerne, and Acacia Medical Mission. You Give, We Give As everyone navigates these uncertain waters, GVTC admires the communities' desire to help where they can, and its Round Up for Change program is an excellent way for both GVTC and its customers to contribute locally. The Round Up for Change program was created to help The GVTC Foundation support area communities. It allows customers to donate a small amount each month by rounding up their bill to the nearest dollar amount. All proceeds raised from this program are then matched at 100% by GVTC and donated to The GVTC Foundation to fund community efforts. Signing up is easy. Simply visit gvtc.com/roundup and select the "Login to Enroll" button to follow enrollment instructions. Or, you can call us directly at 800-367-4882 and speak to a customer service representative directly. One Community "It's important that we remain strong and connected during this pandemic. As GVTC continues to provide essential communications services, we will continue to support one another in our community the best we can. That's the GVTC way," said Ritchie Sorrells, GVTC President & CEO For more information and the latest updates on how GVTC and The GVTC Foundation are stepping up during the COVID-19 pandemic, visit gvtc.com . About GVTC: GVTC is an award-winning fiber optics communications provider delivering high-speed Internet, digital cable TV, phone and interactive home security monitoring to residential and business customers in far north San Antonio, the Texas Hill Country, and South Central Texas. GVTC offers Internet connection speeds up to 1 Gbps and symmetrical broadband connections, up to 250 Mbps. GVTC's wholesale carrier transport network delivers Ethernet data delivery between San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and Houston, with access to remote Texas markets. The company's philanthropic arm, The GVTC Foundation, is celebrating more than a decade of charitable giving. More than $3.5 million in contributions have been given throughout GVTC's service area. Contact: John Hill Manager Communications - Ecommerce Office: (830) 885-8282 [email protected] www.gvtc.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gvtc-closes-the-homework-gap-for-area-students-301044233.html SOURCE GVTC Communications Residential and commercial tenants will be protected from eviction for being unable to pay rent because of the COVID-19 pandemic under new laws passed in WA Parliament this week. The laws will enshrine rent relief and protections for tenants after they were first floated by the federal government at the end of March. Premier Mark McGowan said the moratorium was on evictions not on paying rent. Credit:File photo Both sets of laws will place a six-month moratorium on evictions, starting as of March 30. Under the residential laws, landlords will be unable to increase rent during the moratorium period and tenants struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic who break their lease will not be penalised. Landlords will not be required to carry out non-urgent repairs on houses if they themselves are struggling and tenants will still be required to pay rent owed. The state has urged affected landlords and tenants to negotiate an agreement about when rent will be paid but if it cannot be reached, the parties will be able to enter a conciliation process overseen by the Consumer Protection Commissioner. Under new commercial tenancy laws rents increases will also be frozen and no interest will be charged on owed rent. There will also be restrictions on landlords penalising tenants for reducing or cancelling trade. The property sector is also eagerly awaiting a code of conduct based on the federal code released earlier this month that will outline how negotiations between landlords and tenants over rental payments should proceed. Disputes will go to the Small Business Commissioner or State Administrative Tribunal. Premier Mark McGowan urged all parties to negotiate in good faith. Mr McGowan said the new laws recognised the financial impact of COVID-19 on both landlords and tenants, and the government wanted to prevent tenants having to move out or become homeless over what was a short-term situation. At this difficult time, I urge landlords and tenants to respectfully talk to each other about their circumstances and come to an arrangement that would suit both parties until the economy returns to normal, he said. It may involve a rent-free period, a temporary reduction in rent or a reasonable repayment plan when the moratorium ends. Mr McGowan said the moratorium prevented evictions but should not be used as an excuse for tenants to not pay rent when they were in a position to do so. It is a moratorium on evictions, not on paying rent, he said. The Property Council of WA welcomed changes to the commercial tenancy laws in the upper house that recognised the financial position of landlords. Executive director Sandra Brewer said the council wanted the WA code of conduct currently being drafted to better reflect WA business conditions. To craft a code that reflects WA market conditions, consideration must be given to a small landlord carve-out which exempts the most vulnerable landlords from being taken advantage of by big business tenants who are still able to meet their rental and outgoing commitments, she said. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has begun replacing consignments of apparently defective Covid-19 testing kits at state-run laboratories after they produced inconclusive results, a top official said in Kolkata on Tuesday. ICMR has decided to replace the kits, which some states claimed were yielding inconclusive results. These kits were supposed to be standardised by medical colleges and kept at -20 degrees Celsius, without which they would give inconclusive results, said Shanta Dutta, director of the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) here. It appears that neither the state-run medical colleges standardised the kits, nor did they maintain the right temperature. But as the testing needs to carry on, these will now be replaced by kits from the National Institute of Virology in Pune. Standardisation is the process in which a kit is checked whether it is giving correct results before it is put to use for testing samples. NICED, part of ICMR, is a research institute under the Union health ministry and the regional virus research diagnostic laboratory (VRDL) for eastern India. In Kolkata, we have already replaced around 2,000 kits at IPGMER (Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research). We have received some requests from the School of Tropical Medicine to get their kits replaced. They are being replaced by kits from NIV in Pune, which are pre-standardised, Dutta said. In a string of tweets, the Mamata Banerjee government, which has been criticised for its low rate of Covid-19 tests, accused the ICMR and NICED of providing defective testing kits. The apparently defective test kits supplied by ICMR-NICED, Kolkata, are resulting in a high number of repeat/confirmatory tests and causing delays and other attendant problems at a time when we are batting a pandemic, the state health department tweeted on Sunday. The state government also tweeted there were no problems earlier when the testing kits were received directly from the NIV in Pune. Recently, supplies to government laboratories in West Bengal have been routed through NICED. Responding to the state governments tweets, Dutta said: Earlier, when kits were required in smaller quantities, they were imported, standardised and then distributed by NIV in Pune. But when the demand started rising, ICMR imported the kits and sent them directly to 16 regional hubs, including NICED in Kolkata. The kits were then distributed to state-run medical colleges, where they were required to be standardised. But this is not being done because of lack of time and technical know-how. Thats why sometimes these kits are giving inconclusive results. A few days ago, Dutta had said that NICED wasnt getting enough swab samples from the state government for testing. Till April 21, the state tested 6,182 samples. There are currently 274 active Covid-19 cases in the state and 15 people have died so far. Treasury Department officials have begun sending billions of dollars in payments to airlines as part of an effort to keep carriers afloat as they grapple with the worst economic downturn in the industry's history. The funds are part of the Cares Act, a $2 trillion economic stimulus package designed to offset the impact of the novel coronavirus. The measure, signed by President Donald Trump last month, allotted $50 billion for airlines in the form of grants and loans. Officials announced Monday that they had reached final agreements with six carriers - Allegiant, American, Delta, Southwest, Spirit and United airlines - on grant money to fund the Payroll Support Program. The money is to be used to pay front line workers, including pilots, flight attendants and mechanics. Treasury officials also said they are working to finalize agreements with five other major carriers: Alaska, Frontier, Hawaiian and SkyWest airlines and JetBlue Airways, all of which have indicated that they plan to participate in the program. "The Payroll Support Program is critical to supporting American workers and preserving our airline industry, which is a vital part of the U.S. economy," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement that accompanied the announcement. "We continue to work quickly to deliver this needed relief." About $2.9 billion in initial payments were made Monday to approved applicants, including two major airlines and 45 smaller carriers, officials said. Additional payments will be made to airlines on a rolling basis. Word that funds have begun flowing is welcome news for the industry, which has been reeling from the impact of the virus and fearful that recovery is still many months away. As of Wednesday, U.S. carriers had idled more than 2,700 aircraft, roughly 44% of the total fleet, according to Airlines for America, an industry trade group. At a briefing Tuesday, Brian Pearce, chief economist with the International Transport Association, said recent survey results showed that 40% of passengers said they would wait six months or more before returning to air travel. Even with the money flowing, airline executives warned that there still may be cuts ahead. Under the terms of the agreement, airlines must agree to pay back 30% of the money they receive. The carriers also are barred from furloughing workers until Sept. 30, cannot issue dividends or buy back their stock until late 2021, and must limit executive compensation for that time period. They also must issue warrants to the government. Treasury officials said they received hundreds of applications for the program and are working to review applications as quickly as possible. The Cares Act included $29 billion in grants to airlines for payroll support - $25 billion to passenger carriers and $4 billion to cargo operators. In addition, the legislation provides $25 billion in loans or loan guarantees. Several airlines have indicated that they intend to tap the loan program. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, United said it applied for up to $4.5 billion in loans. Southwest Airlines has said it will apply for a loan of nearly $1 billion. Airlines were eligible to receive payouts equal to their payroll costs between April and October of last year. But because the $25 billion set aside for passenger carriers under the Cares Act is less than the $31 billion paid out by airlines, the payments will not cover the full amount. A big brown bat at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week issued an advisory to scientists to suspend all bat studies, concerned that researchers could spread the coronavirus to their study subjects. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) As forensic virologists search to uncover the origins of COVID-19, bats have been fingered as a likely source. Genetic analyses show the virus is very similar to one harbored by Chinese horseshoe bats, and researchers think its possible it jumped from those winged mammals to people. But some bat lovers and chiropterologists scientists who study the flying mammals are adamant there is no proof. Instead, theyre wringing their hands about the reverse: That people with COVID-19 could spread the disease to their furry, nocturnal housemates. They are particularly worried about already vulnerable North American bat populations, which are being wiped out by white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by a deadly fungus. There is no evidence indicating that bats can get the coronavirus from people, said Alice Chung-MacCoubrey, a bat biologist for the National Park Service, and an affiliate faculty at South Oregon University. But its something were concerned about. On Saturday evening, hundreds of thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats streamed out from underneath the Yolo Bypass, a bridge spanning the wetlands and flood-control channel just west of Sacramento. As darkness approached, a half-dozen amateur photographers appeared by the bridge, hoping to get good shots of the swarm. A small debate ensued about whether it would be better to catch the bats with a wide-angle versus zoom lens. Reports indicate that COVID-19 has the ability to jump from humans to other species, including pet cats and a Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo. And because people can live in close proximity to bats the flying mammals often live in attics and crawl spaces common sense suggests it could jump to them too. None of the photographers seemed concerned about passing the virus to the bats. Or, for that matter, to one another. Only one of them wore a mask. However, Corky Quirk, program coordinator for the Yolo Basin Foundation, and a bat aficionado, wore a mask and gloves while she handled a few of her ambassador bats injured bats that cant be released back into the wild, but live within the comfort of her home. Story continues This month, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service sent out a directive advising scientists to suspend all bat studies, concerned that researchers could spread the disease to their already vulnerable study subjects. And Chung-MacCoubrey said the Geological Survey has organized a team of experts to evaluate the risk and establish preventive measures. They're hoping to release a report by May. It wouldnt be the first time humans have introduced a disease to bats. Although Pseudogymnoascus destructans, a cold-climate-loving fungus that causes the deadly white-nose syndrome in bat populations across the United States, didnt originate in people, it is spread by them. A sign at Lava Beds National Monument warns visitors that they must be screened before visiting the caves to prevent spreading any viruses to the resident bats. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) On a recent evening, in Siskiyou Countys Lava Beds National Monument, just south of the Oregon border, signs at the park and cave entrances directed visitors to be screened at the park center for the fungus, before descending into caves. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, the park center was closed. However, a reporting team from The Times had not been in any caves or mines outside the United States since 2006 the criteria used by the National Park Service to determine access. The caves were cold and dark, and no bats were seen, although there were signs of their presence staining on the walls and guano on the floor. The cruelty of the fungus, said Chung-MacCoubrey, is that it thrives on the bodies of hibernating bat species whose body temperatures drop in the winter, as their bodies go into torpor. Then, in bat species that are social, the fungus spreads as they interact grooming and sleeping in giant colonies with one another. If bats could practice social distancing, like humans, she said, the virus wouldnt be such a menace. Although news reports have suggested the fungus has spread to California bats, Chung-MacCoubrey said researchers are still not sure. Mexican free-tailed bats at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. Researchers are worried about vulnerable North American bat populations, which are being wiped out by white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by a fungus. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) The park service researcher said she surveyed roosts from two populations in the Northern California town of Chester in 2018 and 2019. And while she detected very, very small quantities of the fungus, there is much debate in the scientific community on how to interpret these low levels. However, following the movement of the fungus in other states, she expects to see strong positives in Northern California soon assuming she can continue her research. As part of Corky Quirk's role as program coordinator for the Yolo Basin Foundation, she handles injured bats that can't be released back into the wild. COVID-19 is concerning, Quirk says, but bats face bigger threats, such as habitat loss. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Until we have a better understanding about the risk of transmitting the COVID-19 virus to North American bats, she said, the government is advising that wildlife researchers, rehabbers and wildlife control operators avoid handling or coming within close proximity of bats. COVID-19 is concerning, said Quirk, the bat rehabilitator, as she held a cranky, female big brown bat, while feeding it wriggling mealworms with a pair of tweezers. But she said bats face bigger threats, such as habitat loss, the widespread use of agricultural chemicals, climate change and cats. Bats are truly extraordinary, she said, extolling their incredible role in managing insect populations, including mosquitoes. She noted the experience of one rice farmer who leases farmland in the Yolo natural wildlife preserve. The farmer doesnt need to use insecticides, she said, because the bats keep his crop insect-free. Chris Starr and U.B. Giberson, two wildlife removers for Wildlife Command Center, a pest-control company in Sacramento, said they have a deep respect for bats since they began working in the business. Humans just need to learn how to live together with them, said Starr, its OK not to want colonies living in your house or attic. But outdoors, under bridges like this, he said, pointing at the Yolo Bypass, they serve a vital function. Bats are good. I mean, theyre amazing. A night scene at Lava Beds National Monument, which is closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles Times reporter Susanne Rust and photographer Carolyn Cole are embarking on a road journey throughout California. They aim to give voice to those in remote parts of California as they grapple with the worst health and economic calamity of our lifetimes. Huawei reported sharply slower revenue growth in the first three months of 2020, as the impact of a U.S. trade blacklist and the coronavirus outbreak weighed on the company's results. The Chinese tech giant's revenues came in at 182.2 billion yuan ($25.8 billion) in the first quarter, up around 1.4% from the 179.7 billion it reported a year ago. By contrast, in 2019, Huawei reported a 39% increase in first-quarter sales. The company also reported net profit margin of 7.3%, down from 8% in the first quarter of 2019. Despite headwinds related to Covid-19 and U.S. political pressure, Huawei said growth remained "resilient." It attributed this to its employee share-ownership structure, business continuity planning and investment in research and development. Last year, Huawei was placed on the U.S. Entity List, a government blacklist that prevents U.S. companies from doing business with the firm without a special license. Washington alleges Huawei equipment could enable Chinese spying, but the company has repeatedly denied such claims. In response, the company has diversified its supply chain and designed some key components, such as chips, in-house. But the trade restrictions have hurt its smartphone business, as Google was forced to cut ties with the firm. That's meant that new Huawei smartphones including the recently-launched P40 aren't able to include the full version of Android and Google apps. While the economic and social impact of the coronavirus pandemic might persist for months or even years, within the Arab world there exists a community of interest able to weather all storms, writes Abdel-Moneim Said Concern for the post-Covid era now seems to overshadow concern for the crisis itself. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that those having to cope with the pandemic and its immediate consequences have enough on their plate without having to speak about the aftermath, leaving the field open to conjecture among those concerned about the day after. Among the latter are those who take the planet as whole as a unit for analysis or, somewhat more modestly, the world order and the struggle between world powers for pre-eminence and hegemony. Other analysts focus on a particular sector of human activity, generally one that is quantifiable and has already existing indexes that serve as a basis for projections for what the world will be like a year from now, or even during the current and forthcoming economic quarters. Among these analysts, we find general consensus over a set of truths: first, economic burdens on governments are mounting; second, the repercussions of the crisis are compelling the state to get more involved in the economy; third, poverty rates are climbing and food security is at risk; fourth, macroeconomic indicators are going haywire; fifth, while major transnational companies may be able to weather the crisis, many smaller and less stable enterprises will go under; and sixth, the online and virtual economy will flourish. In his prognosis of the contours of the global economy in the post-corona world, Ali Saleh of the Abu Dhabi-based Future Centre for Advanced Research and Study adds a seventh inescapable factor: Global Distancing. This aptly titled study was published 12 April in the Future Centres Special Studies section. It obviously plays on the term social distancing, the major weapon in the fight to contain the spread of the novel disease that has sometimes entailed erecting transport barriers between administrative regions within a single country and even isolating entire contaminated neighbourhoods from uncontaminated ones. Internationally, global distancing has taken the form of national bans on inbound and outbound flights and pressures on other governments into repatriating their stranded citizens. Countries have also dug deeply into their own financial and food reserves while scrambling to increase domestic production of essential needs for local markets. Unfortunately, while such a strategy might work for continental sized countries like the US and China, and perhaps for small countries with small populations, it is hard to achieve for densely populated mid-size countries. In fact, global distancing already set in well before the Covid-19 crisis and its transnational and transcontinental transmission. It was a product of the identity politics that propelled the ultra-right to prevail in many democratic societies and that favoured the rise of strongmen in countries with centralised systems of government. If anti-globalist outlooks on politics, the economy and culture predated the coronavirus crisis, leaders of the ilk of Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson undoubtedly welcomed the opportunity to create more walls and barriers. But regardless of how far some countries have gone or some leaderships would like to go with distancing themselves from other countries and peoples, the question of self-sufficiency in food or other basic commodities is of a different order. Self-sufficiency in this or that commodity is not a goal to be attained at whatever cost but, rather, cost-effectively, without needless economic losses and without inhibiting essential factors that contribute to economic growth. In the Middle East and the Arab world in particular, isolationism, global distancing and such notions do not sound very beneficial. Insularism would only reduce opportunities for growth and, more importantly, jeopardise the reform processes that are currently underway in many Arab countries. The Arab Spring pandemic that marked the beginning of this decade plunged many Arab countries into futile civil wars or other forms of profound internal strife, which invited regional powers such as Iran, Turkey and Israel to variously meddle in their domestic affairs, acquire territory or invade. This is the fate that afflicted Syria, Yemen and Libya. Alternatively, the Arab Spring induced other Arab countries to embark on sweeping reforms that necessitated extremely difficult decisions that previous generations of leaderships had been reluctant to take. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Jordan, Kuwait and Morocco have taken this route. Other Arab countries continue, in their various ways and to varying degrees, to hover between the two alternatives. If the reform process is to achieve its ends during this decade, we need, firstly, to emerge from the coronavirus crisis. Fortunately, according to the available figures, the abovementioned countries that are proceeding down the path of reform are faring reasonably well in terms of infection rates, especially when compared with China, the US and Europe, and regionally with Iran, Turkey and Israel. Secondly, if the global distancing trend continues, a large market will be needed for Arab products to effectively contribute to boosting growth rates and to sustain reform momentum. Thirdly, it will be essential to optimise the advantages of the maritime border agreement that Egypt and Saudi Arabia concluded several years ago. Already, then, the agreement was a pragmatic option within the framework of the development process in progress in Egypt, which was shifting the countrys geo-economic keel outward from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea and Mediterranean, and in the framework of the Saudi reform process, which also was shifting towards the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba, with sights set on extensions into Sinai and Jordan. Clearly, if global distancing grows more entrenched as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, a 200 million people strong market will offer plenty of space to absorb the outputs of growing industries in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other GCC countries and Jordan. It will make agricultural investments profitable, water desalination processes economical and the manufacture of cars, household appliances and other technological products feasible and lucrative. Moreover, given the new antiquities discoveries in Saudi Arabia and the well-known pharaonic and Greco-Roman heritage of Egypt and Jordan, we share a vast tourist market, not to mention markets for oil and gas, renewable energies and the industries connected with them. The point here is not to suggest a form of regional self-sequestration. Rather, it is to propose an approach to dealing with future scenarios and their grim consequences, especially in light of expectations of increasingly heated great power rivalries and conflicts. To such powers, the Middle East and the Arab world in particular is only a region for sapping its resources and shedding blood. But this is another story. The writer is chairman of the board, CEO and director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies. *A version of this article appears in print in the 23 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: All central government departments were on Monday asked to include transgender as a separate category of gender for recruitment in civil services and other posts, according to a Personnel Ministry order. The move is based on the provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, notified in December last year. The matter regarding inclusion of Third Gender/any Other Category in the application forms in recruitment to various posts under the central government, was under consideration of the government for quite some time, the ministry said. Based on the provisions of the Act and the legal opinion obtained on the subject, civil services examination rules, 2020 have been notified on February 5, 2020, providing for inclusion of Transgender as a separate category of gender for the said exam, it said in an order issued to the secretaries of all central government departments. All ministries/departments of government of India are requested to modify the relevant examination rules providing for inclusion of Transgender as a separate category of gender, so as to make the said Rules in conformity with the provisions of The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, the Personnel Ministry said. The legislation provides that no establishment shall discriminate against transgender persons in matters relating to employment, recruitment, promotion and other related issues. It also provides for grievance redressal mechanism in each establishment and the establishment of a National Council for Transgender Persons. PTI AKV SMN SMN The statement issued by Open Society Foundations - Armenia on behalf of several non-governmental organizations and human rights activists is inexplicable. This is what Head of the Department of Information and Public Relations at the Ministry of Justice of Armenia Lusine Martirosyan wrote on her Facebook page, touching upon the statement of several NGOs stating that, based on the analysis of the legislative amendments ensuring implementation of vetting within the judiciary, they have recorded that the government is refusing to conduct quality vetting within the judiciary with these legislative amendments. Lusine Martirosyan stated the following: What were doing was envisaged by the Strategy on Judicial-Legal Reforms, which has been approved by the international community and civil society, including the NGOs specified in the statement. Moreover, the regulations of the Judicial Code have been deliberated by the public for a long time and there hasnt been such a position. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice cant explain the reason for this statement. P.S. 1. I would like to remind that certain issues were clarified a few days ago (http://moj.am/article/2703) P.S. 2. The Ministry of Justice has stated several times that certain proposed regulations will be exclusively possible after constitutional reforms. HAMILTON, Bermuda, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Seadrill Limited ("Seadrill" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Bjarte Be will join the Board from April 21, 2020, replacing Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal who will step down following her recent appointment as Executive Vice President of European Wind and Solar at Statkraft. Mr Be brings extensive experience serving on boards and audit committees of public companies, and has over thirty years of experience in the finance industry. He currently serves as a Director of the NYSE-listed Hermitage Offshore, and is a member of its Audit Committee. Mr Be sits on the Board of Agera Venture, a Norwegian Venture Capital company, and is a member of the Nomination Committee of BW Offshore Ltd. He also serves as the Chairman of the Investment Committee at SEB Venture Capital, a subsidiary of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ), or SEB, a Nordic financial services group, where from 1995 to 2019, he held a range of senior management positions. Mr Be holds an M.B.A. from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Glen Ole Rdland, Chairman commented: "I would like to sincerely thank Birgitte for the valuable insight, experience and contribution she has brought to the Board and Audit Committee of Seadrill since taking up these roles in 2018 following our restructuring. I wish her every success with her new appointment at Statkraft. "We warmly welcome Bjarte to the Seadrill Board. His significant career in the financial sector, together with his public company directorship and board committee experience, complement a board and management focused on further developing Seadrill's position as the leading offshore driller." FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release includes forward looking statements. Such statements are generally not historical in nature, and specifically include statements about the Company's plans, strategies, business prospects, changes and trends in its business, the markets in which it operates and its restructuring efforts. These statements are made based upon management's current plans, expectations, assumptions and beliefs concerning future events impacting the Company and therefore involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release. Consequently, no forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. When considering these forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind the risks described from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 20-F (File No. 333-224459). The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of these factors. Further, the Company cannot assess the impact of each such factor on its business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to be materially different from those contained in any forward looking statement. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act CONTACT: [email protected] This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/seadrill-limited/r/sdrl---seadrill-limited-board-changes,c3093821 SOURCE Seadrill Limited COVID-19 has overshadowed the climate crisis as governments scramble to protect the health of citizens without cratering their economies, but the pandemic could still open a fast-track pathway -- albeit a narrow one -- to a greener, low-carbon future, experts say. The Chinese term for "crisis" (weiji) is famously composed of two characters, one meaning "danger" and the other "opportunity". For now, economists see a lot more of the former than the latter. What the IMF has called the "Great Lockdown" will likely slice $9 trillion off of global growth over the next 20 months, and lower projected GDP in 2020 by more than 6 per cent. And that is an optimistic scenario, according to the global lender of last resort. If the pandemic extends into 2021 -- as well it might -- GDP "may fall next year by an additional eight percent," IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said in a blog post last week. In the short-term, coping with COVID-19 is understandably the singular focus of leaders around the world, even if they are responding very differently. But unless climate change is factored into decisions taken in the coming weeks and months, the Paris Agreement target of capping the rise in global temperatures at below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels could easily be definitively missed. To some extent, it's about following the money. "Governments are spending loads to keep their economies afloat," Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University, told AFP. "Money can be spent in ways that are neutral to the climate problem, or in ways that makes the problem worse or better." For Stephen Hammer, global director of the World Bank's climate change team, the urgent focus on short-term needs must not obscure long-term goals. "Prime among these: the decarbonisation of the world economy," he wrote in a recent blog post along with World Bank economist Stephane Hallegatte. Stimulus packages in the trillions, they argue, should include investment and job creation in renewable energy production, energy efficiency, building resilience against floods and droughts, restoring polluted lands, and sustainable public transport. Massive cash injections should steer clear, they added, of fossil fuels, noting that the recent collapse of oil and gas prices -- with a US benchmark plunging into negative value Monday -- is an opportunity to redirect investments and subsidies. In Europe, 17 climate and ministers issued a joint statement earlier this month vowing they would "not lose sight of the persisting climate and ecological crisis." The EU bloc's Green Deal, they said, "constitutes a new growth strategy... which is able to deliver on the twin benefits of stimulating economies and creating jobs while accelerating the green transition."The European Union will play a pivotal role in climate diplomacy, said Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and, as France's top negotiator, an architect of the 2015 Paris climate treaty. "I'm always reluctant to talk about a 'make or break' moment, but if we have already invested all our capacity and resources -- national and European -- in the wrong places, I'm pessimistic," she told AFP. China has so far sent mixed signals as to how much green it will inject into its recovery efforts. After the 2008 global recession, Beijing poured trillions of yuan into energy-intensive infrastructure projects, resulting in a large surge of CO2 emissions from coal-fired power. "Today, Chinese leaders have more options," said Li Shuo, Greenpeace East Asia's senior global policy advisor for climate and biodiversity. "The Chinese government has so far been fairly restrained in terms of throwing easy money -- investments and credits -- into the market," he told journalists from Beijing in a phone briefing. At the same time, he added, climate is clearly not at the top of Beijing's agenda. In the United States, President Donald Trump has pushed hard to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars to the oil and gas industries, while also propping up the commercial airlines that use their products. For Elizabeth Wilson, director of the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society at Dartmouth College, the size and mix of stimulus packages doesn't bode well for climate action. "The trillions of dollars of public and private capital for a large-scale transition to simultaneously cut greenhouse gases while adapting to a changing climate will likely not be available," she told AFP. In the developing world, the one-two punch of the pandemic and climate impacts are already wreaking havoc. "We're increasingly concerned that funds, understandably needed to tackle COVID-19, may be diverted away from addressing climate change," said Harjeet Singh, ActionAid's global lead on climate. "Any support to help developing countries cope with coronavirus should also strengthen their resilience to climate change." Global warming has not been put on hold during the pandemic. A monster cyclone barrelled through the South Pacific earlier this month, ravaging four Pacific island nations, while a once-in-a-millenium drought has gripped the American Southwest. Other observers are more optimistic that the pandemic can be leveraged to boost climate action. (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 Eisya A. Eloksari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 15:13 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd34f7c7 1 Business Indonesia,Facebook,digital-payment,e-payment-plarforms,cooperation,OVO,GoPay,DANA Free Social media company Facebook is talks with local e-payment platforms to team up in proving financial services in Indonesias growing digital payment market, a company representative has said. "We are in conversations with partners in Indonesia. However the discussions are ongoing," an Indonesia-based Facebook spokesperson told The Jakarta Post on Thursday without providing more information. The number of digital consumers in Indonesia has grown sharply in recent years.The number reached 102 million in 2018, or 53 percent of the countrys population, rising sharply from 64 million or 34 percent of the total population in 2017, according to a recent study from Facebook in collaboration with Bain & Company. E-wallet transactions in the country, which were valued at US$1.5 billion in 2018, are projected to reach $25 billion by 2023, according to a joint study between iPrice Group and App Annie. The study also showed that there are at least 38 licensed e-wallet platforms in the country with Go-Pay, OVO, DANA, LinkAja and Jenius the top five platforms based on the number of active monthly users. In terms of partnerships, OVO president director Karaniya Dharmasaputra said the company was open to partnering with other companies as long as it would enhance financial inclusion in the country. OVO is open to partnerships with anyone. This is in line with our open-ecosystem strategy that we always adhere to, he said on Thursday. Facebook, WhatsApp's parent company, has been testing WhatsApp Pay in India since 2018 and is set to launch the payment service in the South Asian country this year. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly said on January that he expected WhatsApp Pay to start rolling out in a number of countries and progressing in the next six months. According to the Communications and Information Ministry, 83 percent of the countrys internet users, or around 141 million people, use WhatsApp, making Indonesia one of the chatting platforms biggest markets. Meanwhile, Facebooks own payment system Facebook Pay was introduced in November last year in the United States and Europe across its platforms, namely Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. According to the order, face coverings described as non-medical-grade masks, scarves, bandanas and handkerchiefs are required when working in or visiting businesses that are open to the public, such as grocery stores, restaurants, financial institutions, healthcare professionals, drug stores and more. Face coverings are also required while riding on public transportation and in taxis or ride-shares, it says. WASHINGTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Existing-home sales fell in March following a February that saw significant nationwide gains, according to the National Association of Realtors. Each of the four major regions reported a dip in sales, with the West suffering the largest decrease. March 2020 Existing Home Sales NAR Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun (PRNewsfoto/National Association of Realtors) Total existing-home sales,1 https://www.nar.realtor/existing-home-sales , completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, dropped 8.5% from February to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.27 million in March. Despite the decline, overall sales increased year-over-year for the ninth straight month, up 0.8% from a year ago (5.23 million in March 2019). "Unfortunately, we knew home sales would wane in March due to the coronavirus outbreak," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. "More temporary interruptions to home sales should be expected in the next couple of months, though home prices will still likely rise." While sales have declined, home prices are still solidly strong. The median existing-home price2 for all housing types in March was $280,600, up 8.0% from March 2019 ($259,700), as prices increased in every region. March's national price increase marks 97 straight months of year-over-year gains. Total housing inventory3 at the end of March totaled 1.50 million units, up 2.7% from February, but down 10.2% from one year ago (1.67 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 3.4-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 3.0-months in February and down from the 3.8-month figure recorded in March 2019. "Earlier in the year, we watched inventory gradually tick upward but with the current quarantine recommendations in place, fewer sellers are listing homes, which will limit buyer choices," Yun said. "Significantly more listings are needed and more will come on to the market once the economy steadily reopens." NAR's most recent Flash Survey showed that 93% of sellers changed behavior to help the homebuying transaction move forward with social distancing and necessary precautions. Properties typically remained on the market for 29 days in March, seasonally down from 36 days in February, and down from 36 days in March 2019. Fifty-two percent of homes sold in March 2020 were on the market for less than a month. First-time buyers were responsible for 34% of sales in March, up from both 32% in February and 33% in March 2019. NAR's 2019 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers released in late 20194 revealed that the annual share of first-time buyers was 33%. "Despite the social distancing restrictions, with many Realtors conducting virtual open home tours and with mortgage rates on the decline, a number of first-time buyers were still able to purchase housing last month," Yun said. Individual investors or second-home buyers, who account for many cash sales, purchased 13% of homes in March, down from both 17% in February and 18% in March 2019. All-cash sales accounted for 19% of transactions in March, down from both 20% in February and 21% in March 2019. Distressed sales5 foreclosures and short sales represented 3% of sales in March, up from 2% in February, and unchanged from 3% in March 2019. "It is NAR's top priority to continue to aid and assist Realtors during these unpredicted, trying times," said NAR President Vince Malta, broker at Malta & Co., Inc., in San Francisco, Calif. "We have played an instrumental role on Capitol Hill as Congress secured multiple federal relief packages, and we will continue fighting on behalf of our 1.4 million members, American consumers and the nation's economy as these conversations persist." "We have seen an increase in virtual home tours, e-signings and other innovative and secure methods that comply with social distancing directives," Malta continued. "I am confident that Realtors and brokerages will adapt, evolve and fight, ensuring the real estate industry will be at the forefront of our nation's upcoming economic recovery." Realtor.com's Market Hotness Index, measuring time-on-the-market data and listing views per property, revealed that the hottest metro areas in March were Colorado Springs, Colo.; Modesto, Calif.; Manchester-Nashua, N.H.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Lafayette-West Lafayette, Ind. According to Freddie Mac, the average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage decreased to 3.45% in March, down from 3.47% in February. The average commitment rate across all of 2019 was 3.94%. Single-family and Condo/Co-op Sales Single-family home sales sat at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.74 million in March, down from 5.16 million in February, and up 1.3% from a year ago. The median existing single-family home price was $282,500 in March, up 8.0% from March 2019. Existing condominium and co-op sales were recorded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 530,000 units in March, down 11.7% from February and down 3.6% from a year ago. The median existing condo price was $263,400 in March, an increase of 7.9% from a year ago. Regional Breakdown Compared to the month prior, March sales decreased in every region, while the Midwest and the South experienced increases in year-over-year sales. Median home prices in all regions increased from one year ago, with the Northeast and Midwest regions showing the strongest price gains. March 2020 existing-home sales in the Northeast fell 7.1%, recording an annual rate of 650,000, a 3.0% decrease from a year ago. The median price in the Northeast was $300,400, up 8.3% from March 2019. Existing-home sales decreased 3.1% in the Midwest to an annual rate of 1.25 million, up 4.2% from a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $219,700, a 9.7% increase from March 2019. Existing-home sales in the South dropped 9.1% to an annual rate of 2.29 million in March, up 0.9% from the same time one year ago. The median price in the South was $245,100, a 7.5% increase from a year ago. Existing-home sales in the West fell 13.6% to an annual rate of 1.08 million in March, a 0.9% decline from a year ago. The median price in the West was $420,600, up 8.0% from March 2019. The National Association of Realtors is America's largest trade association, representing more than 1.4 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries. For local information, please contact the local association of Realtors for data from local multiple listing services (MLS). Local MLS data is the most accurate source of sales and price information in specific areas, although there may be differences in reporting methodology. NOTE: NAR's Pending Home Sales Index for March is scheduled for release on April 29, and Existing-Home Sales for April will be released May 21; release times are 10:00 a.m. ET. Information about NAR is available at www.nar.realtor . This and other news releases are posted on the NAR Newsroom at www.nar.realtor/newsroom. Statistical data in this release, as well as other tables and surveys, are posted in the "Research and Statistics" tab. 1 Existing-home sales, which include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, are based on transaction closings from Multiple Listing Services. Changes in sales trends outside of MLSs are not captured in the monthly series. NAR rebenchmarks home sales periodically using other sources to assess overall home sales trends, including sales not reported by MLSs. Existing-home sales, based on closings, differ from the U.S. Census Bureau's series on new single-family home sales, which are based on contracts or the acceptance of a deposit. Because of these differences, it is not uncommon for each series to move in different directions in the same month. In addition, existing-home sales, which account for more than 90% of total home sales, are based on a much larger data sample about 40% of multiple listing service data each month and typically are not subject to large prior-month revisions. The annual rate for a particular month represents what the total number of actual sales for a year would be if the relative pace for that month were maintained for 12 consecutive months. Seasonally adjusted annual rates are used in reporting monthly data to factor out seasonal variations in resale activity. For example, home sales volume is normally higher in the summer than in the winter, primarily because of differences in the weather and family buying patterns. However, seasonal factors cannot compensate for abnormal weather patterns. Single-family data collection began monthly in 1968, while condo data collection began quarterly in 1981; the series were combined in 1999 when monthly collection of condo data began. Prior to this period, single-family homes accounted for more than nine out of 10 purchases. Historic comparisons for total home sales prior to 1999 are based on monthly single-family sales, combined with the corresponding quarterly sales rate for condos. 2 The median price is where half sold for more and half sold for less; medians are more typical of market conditions than average prices, which are skewed higher by a relatively small share of upper-end transactions. The only valid comparisons for median prices are with the same period a year earlier due to seasonality in buying patterns. Month-to-month comparisons do not compensate for seasonal changes, especially for the timing of family buying patterns. Changes in the composition of sales can distort median price data. Year-ago median and mean prices sometimes are revised in an automated process if additional data is received. The national median condo/co-op price often is higher than the median single-family home price because condos are concentrated in higher-cost housing markets. However, in a given area, single-family homes typically sell for more than condos as seen in NAR's quarterly metro area price reports. 3 Total inventory and month's supply data are available back through 1999, while single-family inventory and month's supply are available back to 1982 (prior to 1999, single-family sales accounted for more than 90% of transactions and condos were measured only on a quarterly basis). 4 Survey results represent owner-occupants and differ from separately reported monthly findings from NAR's Realtors Confidence Index , which include all types of buyers. Investors are under-represented in the annual study because survey questionnaires are mailed to the addresses of the property purchased and generally are not returned by absentee owners. Results include both new and existing homes. 5 Distressed sales (foreclosures and short sales), days on market, first-time buyers, all-cash transactions and investors are from a monthly survey for the NAR's Realtors Confidence Index, posted at nar.realtor. SOURCE National Association of Realtors Related Links https://www.nar.realtor The Ukrainian national's whereabouts remain unknown. Pirates have attacked a Portugal-flagged container ship Tommi Ritscher off the coast of Benin, Director of the Consular Service Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Serhiy Pohoreltsev, told UNIAN. On April 20, the diplomat stressed, the Ukrainian Embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany was informed of a pirate attack on the Tommi Ritscher ship (IMO 9656137) operated by Transeste Schiffahrt Gmbh (Germany). "According to preliminary information, as a result of the attack, one citizen of Ukraine, pirates captured a Ukrainian national, member of the vessel's crew. His whereabouts remain unknown. The operator has set up a crisis headquarters, Pohoreltsev added. In this regard, the Consulate General of Ukraine in Hamburg has contacted the ship's operator in order to clarify the circumstances of the attack. Also, the Embassy of Ukraine in Nigeria (covering Benin) appealed to Benin's competent authorities to confirm the fact of the capture of the Ukrainian national. Read alsoSeven Ukrainian sailors captured amid pirate attack on vessel off Africa The case is being supervised by Ukraine's foreign diplomatic institutions involved and the Department of Consular Services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Reuters says pirates have are holding in captivity a total of seven crew members, including a Bulgarian captain. Another 11 crew members have been released, the report says. Rural independent TDs have told Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to tell them whether they want their support to form a government. A group of five rural TDs - Mattie McGrath, Richard O'Donoghue, Danny Healy-Rae, Michael Healy-Rae and Michael Collins - met with Fianna Fail TD Dara Calleary and Tanaiste Simon Coveney at the Department of Agriculture last night to discuss the policy document the two parties released last week. Michael Healy-Rae said that while he was open to a government, he wanted to avoid being used as "fodder". He said: "We want a government. We want politicians who will listen to the people and listen to the opposition. "It is of utmost importance that we all really knuckle down. The one thing that I don't want as an individual or a part of this group is to be used as a type of fodder - that they're talking to us, but they're not really talking to us. "Do Fianna Fail and Fine Gael want to deal with us or are they only going through the motions? Are they serious about doing business? "Time is too precious to be going through the motions." Mr Healy-Rae said that the group was not afraid of going into a government which will have to make "hard decisions". "We're afraid of nothing. Our job is to work for the people who voted for us - and those who didn't." Mr McGrath said that the group would not "shirk from its responsibilities", but that they accepted the formation of a government would be a "hard road". During the course of the meeting, the group of TDs outlined their priorities for the coming five years, as well as concerns over the impacts which the Covid-19 outbreak will have on rural Ireland. "A standalone senior ministry for agriculture and separately for fisheries are two areas that I would see as a red line," said Cork South-West TD Michael Collins. Mr Collins said that the two areas had been the "poor relation" of Irish politics. Mr Collins said that he would give due consideration to "I'm very interested in listening to what they have to offer and if they're serious about delivering for rural Ireland, I would give serious consideration into entering into government. According to the UN, innovation, creativity and mass entrepreneurship can give new impetus to economic growth and job creation. The United Nations aims to raise awareness about the role of creativity and innovation in all aspects of human development by celebrating the World Creativity and Innovation Day. Every year on 21 April, the UN celebrates World Creativity and Innovation Day. The website of World Creativity and Innovation Week says their mission is to encourage people to use new ideas, make new decisions, and take the steps towards making the world better through creative thinking. The UN through this day wants to highlight the importance of creativity and innovation to achieve sustainable development goals. This year, it has asked nations to come up with creative ideas to stop the spread of coronavirus. From #COVID19 to the #GlobalGoals & #ClimateAction, creativity & innovation are needed to tackle the world's biggest challenges. See how the UN is harnessing solutions for the #coronavirus response & more on Tuesday's World Creativity & Innovation Day. https://t.co/jiNNQtm4qH pic.twitter.com/kAiyOJzfg5 United Nations (@UN) April 21, 2020 History The United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution to celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Day on 27 April, 2017. The UN designated 21 April as World Creativity and Innovation Day recognizing citizens and organizations in more than 50 countries around the world already observe this day, which was first commemorated on 21 April, 2002. The first World Creativity and Innovation Day was observed in 2018. Significance The UN says that innovation should be done keeping in mind every section of the society. It lays emphasis on creativity and culture as it does not only yield economic value, but also have a significant non-monetary value that contributes to inclusive social development. It urges its member countries to make cultural and creativity industries part of their economic growth strategies. The UN says, These industries are among the most dynamic sectors in the world economy, generating $2.25 billion in revenue and 29.5 million jobs worldwide. According to the UN, innovation, creativity and mass entrepreneurship can give new impetus to economic growth and job creation. As part of its efforts to lend a helping hand to those affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) has contributed to cover food provision and supplies for 4,000 migrant workers. This is part of the Capital Governorates Together We Care campaign. The campaign, led by His Excellency the Capital Governor, Shaikh Hisham bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa, was launched in an effort to support the underprivileged migrant workers who have been tremendously impacted by the global pandemic through the distribution of ready cooked-meals and food essentials such as rice, oil, and vegetables. NBBs contribution towards this campaign follows from its contribution to the #FeenaKhair (There is Good in Us) national campaign to help fight against the impact of the virus and protect the community. Commenting on the occasion, Shaikh Hisham bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa, Capital Governor said: I am very proud of what has been achieved since the launch of the campaign, it has demonstrated the true meaning of all parties coming together and working as one towards a common goal which is to deliver basic food supplies to those in need. We are extremely pleased with the support received by the National Bank of Bahrain, who have always been on board with all charitable initiatives that serve to strengthen community partnership. This has proven that we all are truly #TeamBahrain and reaffirms our values and solidarity. Giving back continues to be within our culture and remains as a top priority, and we encourage all to participate in this campaign to provide aid to those affected most by this current crisis. Jean-Christophe Durand, Chief Executive Officer of NBB, commented: Since the first signs of the pandemic in the kingdom, the Government has demonstrated admirable efforts to combat the spread of the virus and its impact on businesses and the community, through a series of initiatives which have to-date contributed to the kingdoms overall welfare. The Together We Care campaign, further demonstrates the endeavours taken on a nation-wide scale, to provide for those who are in greater need. Supporting the community is embedded within NBBs core values and ingrained in the way we operate, and we see it as our national duty to contribute to all initiatives that aim to provide some relief to all those in need during this critical time. The campaign is being organised by the Capital Governorate in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior who are managing the distribution process. -- Tradearabia News Service One of three Colombian brothers who authorities say once were key operators of the notorious Medellin Cartel's multibillion-dollar cocaine smuggling enterprise in Florida is seeking early release from a U.S. prison because of changes in federal sentencing guidelines. The attorney for Fabio Ochoa wants a federal judge to cut his 30-year prison sentence by about five years. That would effectively result in his release and deportation to Colombia, said lawyer Richard Klugh. 'Now that there has been a change, retroactively, the statute now authorizes a reduction in sentence,' Klugh said. 'He wants to go back to Colombia. That's where his family is.' Fabio Ochoa (center) hopes a United States federal judge will cut short his 30-year-sentence because of changes in federal sentencing guidelines. Ochoa and his three brothers were in charge of a multi-billion dollar cocaine smuggling operation during the 1980s as members of the Medellin Cartel, which was headed by Pablo Escobar Pablo Escobar (pictured in an undated image) was the leader of the Medellin Cartel The U.S. attorney's office in Miami did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore directed prosecutors to file a response by May 1 regarding Ochoa's request. Ochoa is the youngest of three brothers who according to U.S. federal authorities ran the Miami distribution center of the cocaine cartel once headed by Pablo Escobar in the 1980s. Ochoa was at various times named in several U.S. indictments, including one in Louisiana that said he had a role in the killing of Drug Enforcement Administration informant Barry Seal - a TWA pilot who smuggled drugs for the cartel and whose life was popularized in a somewhat fictional form in the 2017 film 'American Made' starring Tom Cruise. Ochoa was initially arrested in 1990 in Colombia under a government program promising drug kingpins would not be extradited to the U.S. At the time, he was on the U.S. list of the 'Dozen Most Wanted' Colombia drug lords and officials say he essentially ran the cartel at the time with his brothers Jorge Luis and Juan David. Almost a decade later, Ochoa was arrested again in Colombia and extradited to the U.S. in 2001 as part of a drug trafficking indictment in Miami naming more than 40 people. However, Ochoa was the only one who opted to go to trial, resulting in his conviction and the 30-year sentence. The other defendants got much lighter prison terms because most of them cooperated with the government, according to Klugh's court filing. Fabio Ochoa (right) was extradited from Colombia in 2001 and instead taking a plea deal and cooperating with the U.S. government, he went to trial and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2003. His lawyer recently argued in court that the key to Ochoa's request for a reduced sentence is that only about 150 kilos of cocaine could be directly attributed to him Fabio Ochoa, according to the U.S. government, had a role in the 1986 Louisiana murder of Barry Seal. Seal was a TWA pilot and smuggled drugs for the Medellin Cartel before he became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency The key to Ochoa's request for a reduced sentence is that in this particular case, only about 150 kilos of cocaine could be directly attributed to him, Klugh said. Klugh contends that under the revised sentencing guidelines his client's sentence should be about 24 years rather than 30. Fabio Ochoa (center) is led by police officers in Bogota after his arrest in October 1999 Pablo Escobar (left) pictured with Jorge Luis Ochoa. Their Medellin Cartel smuggled cocaine between South American and the United States. Ochoa and his two siblings Pablo and Juan David led the organization's multi-billion dollar Florida cocaine smuggling operation Martha Nieves Ochoa (left) with two of her three brothers, Jorge Luis (center) and Juan David (right), who were members of the Medellin Cartel 'The effect of that would be the top guideline no longer started out at 150 [kilos] but at a much higher number,' he said. That would translate into time served for Ochoa, allowing for his release from prison, Klugh said. Ochoa has a wife and three grown children in Colombia, court records show. He served about eight years in a Colombian prison after his initial arrest related to the Medellin Cartel operations, focusing after his release on breeding horses until he was extradited to the U.S. 'In sum, Ochoa has been punished for both the offense and his criminal history more severely than any other defendant in this case, despite the fact he is at the lowest level of the conspiracy,' Klugh wrote in court papers. President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the government and people of Oyo State over the death of the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Richard Akinjide (SAN). The President described the late Akinjide as an illustrious son while commending his service to humanity. Also Read: Richard Akinjide, Ex-Justice Minister Dies At 88 Akinjide died in Ibadan in the early hours of Tuesday after a brief illness at the age of 88. He sent his condolence via a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina. The President condoled with family members, friends, professional and political associates of the late Chief Akinjide. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- When Gov. Andrew Cuomo implemented social distancing measures last month to slow the spread of coronavirus, Rick Roachs masonry business took a hit. Were just not selling a ton of concrete blocks, said Roach, owner of Barnes and Cone, a Syracuse business that manufactures concrete block. So, he thought: Why not use his concrete material to boost morale and bring joy to others in the community? Flags and block have always been a big part of his family. Roach said his father was in the block business before he was; his son was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan; and his daughter-in-law still serves in the U.S. Air Force in South Dakota. So putting flags in block was natural, he said. Roach said he and a couple other workers mortared miniature American flags in concrete block and put them down both sides of Court Street Road. Neighbors noticed the gesture and wanted to be part of it. They began dropping off flags at the Barnes and Cone office, and so Roach and his workers continued to add more and more flags. As of Monday, there were roughly 320 American flags lining Court Street Road. Ive worked here 44 years and seeing all the flags at sunrise is truly inspiring and helps us get through these long COVID-19 days, Roach said. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Roach said he has made sure his 29 employees are OK. He takes their temperature in the parking lot outside his business at 6:30 a.m. each morning before work. But the coronavirus outbreak has affected more than just Roachs business. His two daughters are nurses working in intensive care units, one at St. Josephs Hospital Health Center in Syracuse and the other at a childrens hospital in Buffalo. His neighbors also are affected: A co-workers wife is a therapist at a local nursing home. So for good reason the virus weighs heavily on all of us, both at work and at home, he said. I wanted to send a message that we had to be smart, had to be safe and do it with a sense of spirit. Roach said he hopes when people drive down Court Street Road and see all the flags, it makes them smile. We are all worried and working in difficult conditions, a smile takes some pressure off all of us, he said. Workers at Barnes and Cone, a Syracuse business that manufactures concrete block, lined Court Street Road with about 320 American flags to bring joy during the coronavirus pandemic. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Coronavirus: How we might restart the CNY economy while keeping the virus at bay He has designated survivors. Ryan McMahon digs in for a long war against coronavirus Coronavirus shutdown drops a bomb on Central New York workers: I am terrified Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call (315) 470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook Sir Richard Branson attacked the Australian government for refusing to bail out Virgin Australia, as a rival airline in the UK was given the green light for taxpayer support. Virgin Australia has gone into voluntary administration due to impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the airline announced on Tuesday. It is hoped the business will be able to re-emerge in a more stable position rather than disappearing completely. Like many of its rivals, the 20-year-old firm has been hammered by a global collapse in air travel. Much of its 94-strong jet fleet has been grounded for weeks. Sir Richard had been pressing for state support from Canberra and hit out after failing to get help. He said: "In most countries federal governments have stepped in. Sadly, that has not happened in Australia." In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, the business said: "Virgin Australia has entered voluntary administration to recapitalise the business and help ensure it emerges in a stronger financial position on the other side of the Covid-19 crisis." Sister firm Virgin Atlantic is still locked in talks with the British government about a separate rescue, but there are fears it will not be able to offer up sufficient security. Sir Richard has even offered to mortgage the Caribbean island he calls home in return for a government loan. Separately London-listed budget airline Wizz Air said it had been given the green light to tap the Bank of England for support using a short-term loan scheme for the biggest companies. The airline did not offer further details of whether it plans to access state aid, stressing only that its balance sheet is one of the strongest in the industry. A Virgin plane on the runway - Darren England/AAP/AP EasyJet was the first major airline to tap taxpayers for support, securing a 600m loan from the Bank-backed Covid Corporate Financing Facility earlier this month. Virgin Australia's insolvency followed a meeting where shareholders voted against providing more financial support. Story continues The airline had asked the Australian government for 710m but the request was denied, prompting the board to appoint Deloitte has voluntary administrators. The carrier, which serviced some international destinations as well as dozens of domestic routes, was founded in 2000 by Branson and is the main rival to Qantas in Australia. In a letter staff, Sir Richard said it was "not the end for Virgin Australia, but I believe a new beginning". Dear @VirginAustralia team. I am so proud of you and everything we have achieved together. This is not the end of Virgin Australia, but I believe a new beginning. I promise that we will work day and night to turn this into reality https://t.co/GJH1zhEqEd pic.twitter.com/GelLiA6DKG Richard Branson (@richardbranson) April 20, 2020 He said: "Never one to give up, I want to assure all of you and our competitor that we are determined to see Virgin Australia back up and running soon. "We will work with Virgin Australia's administrators and management team, with investors and with government to make this happen and create a stronger business ready to provide even more value customers, competition to the market, stimulus to the economy and jobs for our wonderful people. "Virgin Australia has captured the hearts of all Australians. That is down to all of you past and present who made it the best airline to fly within Australia." Sir Richard owns about 10pc of the company, with other investors including Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines and China's HNA Group. Discussions on how Northern Ireland will exit the Covid-19 lockdown will begin in the Assembly tomorrow - although the Chief Medical Officer has warned the public that some restrictions are likely to be in place "for many months to come". Dr Michael McBride said that it was "premature to talk of exit strategies" and that if Northern Ireland comes out of lockdown too soon the virus could rapidly re-emerge. "It's early days yet. Complacency is out greatest enemy here," said Dr McBride. "It would be premature to my mind to say that we are through the worst of this. "I think that any relaxation of those social distancing measures at this time, or any inability of the public to stick with this, then we will rapidly see a re-emergence of this virus and then again we will see our health service come under very significant pressure." Dr McBride said that "there is absolutely no doubt we will need to understand more about how this virus is behaving", adding: "I think it's premature to talk about exit strategies, or certainly use that term." Dr McBride also warned that Covid-19 is "going nowhere". "In many respects it is only in such times as we have immunity to this virus that we can absolutely begin to have that conversation about an exit strategy," he said. "A vaccine is a very, very long way off. "I think what is more likely in the interim is that we will develop some effective treatment which can reduce the impact in terms of those who develop severe illness. "This virus is going nowhere. This virus is with us to stay. "Social distancing measures of some form or other are going to be with us for a significant period of time. "And we will have to adjust to a new normal ... because it will not be a return to life as we remember before Covid-19 for some many, many months. "Our decisions will be informed by the best scientific evidence that we have and the modelling that we have available to us. "We are likely to have some form of social distancing for quite some time to come and we are not at this stage at a point where it is wide or prudent to relax the measures that we currently have in place." Health Minister Robin Swann said that the Assembly will be meeting later this week to begin talks on how Northern Ireland can come out of lockdown. Mr Swann said: "We need to look to a point beyond where we are now. "It will be very much directed towards the steps we need to take, but without putting a timeline on it. "One thing we are conscious of is that there has to be a recovery for Northern Ireland, there has to be a return to the new normality that we will see in daily life until we get control of Covid-19, should that be through a vaccine or through enhanced testing and tracing. "What I don't want to do at this point in time is give any indication that we have a date set as to when certain steps will be taken. "That will be a decision for the Executive and the sequence of those will be driven by the health intelligence. "There's a great piece of work to be done, but it's a piece of work the Executive are starting on, also how we return to as normal as we possibly can." Mr Swann added: "Covid-19 and coronavirus will be with us for quite some time." Dr McBride also dismissed criticism that Northern Ireland was too late in introducing social distancing measures. "The virus evolved differently in different parts of Europe," he said. "The path of the epidemic in Northern Ireland is very similar, indeed probably a little bit lower than that even in the Republic of Ireland so at this juncture, while it is no cause for complacency, this is on a knife edge." Workers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine are now extinguishing the seats of fire and smouldering near the state border with Belarus. A correspondent of 112 Ukraine TV channel reported that on Tuesday evening. The firemen use a special railway vehicle. According to the reporter, both fire seats are localized now, but the firemen carry on. "They even use a firefighting train next to the inhabited locality of Zhurba. It came here from Korosten and it works here for three days in a row. Firemen are exitnguishing the ingition andthis smoldering so that the fire does not spread on the territory of Belarus, because it's only 17 km away from the neighboring country", the reporter said. A man sustained burns of his hip and hands in the fire. They took him to a hospital and administered first aid. His current condition is satisfactory. The correspondent also said that the government will provide compensation to those who suffered economic consequences of the fire. The Cabinet is to allocate roughly USD 920,000 for this purpose, in particular, for reconstuction of houses and forest districts that suffered in these forest fires. By PTI CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Tuesday regretted the episodes where locals opposed the burial of doctors who died of COVID-19 in the city and urged all to respect the dedication of the health workers. He also equated doctors, besides other frontline workers in the battle against coronavirus, to God for the "selfless" services rendered by them. Due protocol was being followed in the burial of such victims, he said. "It is sad the burial of doctors was opposed to at a time when (doctors) are fighting to protect us against coronavirus," he wrote on his official twitter handle, @CMOTamilNadu. "We all should respect their dedication and act with humanity," he added. In two separate incidents in the last week, two doctors died of COVID-19 in the city but locals protested against their burial on grounds of fears of spread of the pandemic. On both occasions, the mortal remains were buried elsewhere after officials could not perform the formalities in the originally selected localities. ALSO READ: COVID-19 LIVE Incidentally, on Sunday night an orthopaedic surgeon had to bury his associate, a neurosurgeon who died of COVID- 19, in the middle of the night using his bare hands and a shovel at a crematorium with the help of just two hospital ward boys after the undertakers fled when a mob, protesting the interment, attacked them using bricks, stones, bottles and sticks and chased them away. Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Palaniswami said frontline workers in the battle against COVID-19 such as doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and police personnel were engaged in "selfless" duty. "The whole country is praising them for their work. I consider these, who are working to protect lives, equal to God," he said in the statement. He further said the government has ordered that the burial or cremation of people who had died of coronavirus be done with "due protection" but expressed regret over the incidents where people protested against such formalities for the deceased doctors. Referring to a couplet from Thirukkural, he urged people to show respect to those selfless persons who die while trying to protect the public and sought for due cooperation. Assuring his government's "total support" to such frontline workers, he said it will take due steps to ensure such incidents do not repeat and asked them not to have any fears. The national infection total has stayed at 268 since last Thursday morning, and 215 have been discharged from hospitals, including 12 on Monday. Of the 53 active patients, seven have tested negative twice and 14 once, including the "patient 188," a woman in Hanoi who marks the only relapse in Vietnam now, according the Health Ministry. The extended social distancing campaign in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and ten other localities, Lao Cai, Quang Ninh, Bac Ninh, Ninh Binh in the north; Da Nang, Quang Nam, Binh Thuan, Khanh Hoa, Ha Tinh in the central region; and Tay Ninh in the south is going to end Wednesday. The government has said previously that it will take a decision on whether or not to extend the social distancing campaign, depending on the actual situation. Hanoi and HCMC on Monday proposed that the government not extend the campaign, saying they have demonstrated good control over the spread of the virus. The Covid-19 pandemic has spread to 210 countries and territories, and more than 170,300 have died from the disease so far. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More D-Street enters the March quarter earnings season with muted expectations amid the coronavirus outbreak, which has virtually shut down the economic activity across the world. The March quarter earnings will offer a glimpse of the damage and the bigger dent could come in the upcoming quarters, say experts. For the most part of Q4 FY20E, the quarter progressed reasonably well. However, the fag-end saw a nationwide lockdown and subsequent measures which took a heavy toll on business and operations on the ground, Sharekhan said in a report. In Q4FY20, the aggregate profit of Sensex companies is expected to grow at a decent 7.2% y-o-y, which will be reasonable considering the present situation. While the lockdown poses significant uncertainties, we believe that the major impact will be seen in the subsequent quarter (Q1 FY21), it said. Given the black swan event and an extended lockdown until May 3, experts foresee a significant downgrade in FY2021 earnings estimates. 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 Consumers, private banks (benefit of low base) and healthcare are expected to be the outperformers this quarter and all the key matrices could show multi-quarter low growth. "The Nifty sales are estimated to decline 10% YoY, while EBITDA/PBT/PAT should decrease 9%/21%/20% YoY in 4QFY20. Our FY20/FY21 Nifty EPS estimates are revised downwards by 8%/27%," Motilal Oswal said in a report. "We now expect Nifty FY20 EPS to remain flat at INR485 while FY21 Nifty EPS is now projected at a muted 3% growth to Rs 499. Estimating earnings in such fluid global and local environment is fraught with risks, and to that extent, is expected to undergo more revisions as we move forward in FY21," it said. From an investors perspective, valuations have come down, and investors should look beyond disruption in earnings in FY2021 and accumulate quality companies, say experts. A list of 10 stocks collated from various brokerage that could see more than 100 percent or double net profit in the March quarter on a YoY basis: Note: Stocks mentioned are for reference and not buy or sell ideas Brokerage Firm: Motilal Oswal Motilal Oswal sees more than 1,000 percent growth in the net profit for Tata Consumer on a year-on-year basis. Tata Consumers reported numbers are likely to be unusually high due to the addition of the Tata Chemicals consumer business, like-for-like sales and EBITDA would remain healthy at 7 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Motilal Oswal sees more than 100 percent growth in the net profit for Dr. Reddys Laboratories YoY. The brokerage firm is of the view that the US business is likely to witness growth, led by new launches. The EU,India and Russia expected to report robust growth. Gujarat Gas: PAT likely to rise by nearly 100% YoY Motilal Oswal sees nearly 100 percent growth in the net profit for Gujarat Gas YoY. It expects volumes at 9.2mmscmd as demand at Morbi was marginally affected, led by the nationwide shutdown, in the last week of March. Competition from cheaper alternative fuels such as propane (at Morbi) and FO (at other GAs) would be minimal as gas prices were lower and economies remained competitive. The domestic brokerage firm expects the EBITDA margin to improve ~INR5.0/scm as the company enjoys the full benefit (without any price cut) of lower PMT and spot prices during the quarter. Motilal Oswal sees nearly 300 percent growth in the net profit for JSW Energy YoY. After a fairly muted 3QFY20, power demand showed signs of recovery in the first two months of 4QFY20. Torrent Power: PAT likely to rise by 223% YoY Motilal Oswal sees over 200 percent growth in the net profit for Torrent Power YoY. EBITDA increase is likely to be led by the commencement of UnoSugen PPA. The progress of renewable projects will be a key monitorable. Brokerage Firm: Kotak Institutional Equities Tata Power: PAT likely to rise by 687% YoY Kotak Institutional Equities sees a Tata Powers net profit to grow by nearly 700 percent YoY on lower tax outgo. The standalone business may bear the brunt of lower sales towards the end of the quarter due to higher institutional customers. HCG: PAT likely to rise by 140% YoY Kotak Institutional Equities sees the net profit of HCG to grow by over 100 percent YoY. We expect revenues to increase by 9% YoY led by 8% YoY growth in mature centers along with a ramp-up of newly set up facilities, said the report. The moderation of revenue growth is driven by the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown. Laurus Labs: PAT likely to grow by nearly 100% YoY Kotak Institutional Equities sees the net profit of Laurus Labs to grow by nearly 100 percent YoY. We expect ARV API's to grow 7% YoY. We expect oncology and ingredients business to decline 18% YoY and 28% YoY, respectively, said the report. The brokerage firm expects the synthesis business to grow 33% YoY and formulations to remain stable on a QoQ basis. Embassy Office Parks REIT: PAT likely to grow by 185% YoY The brokerage sees the net profit of Embassy Office Parks REIT to grow by nearly 200 percent YoY. The sequential improvement in earnings from commercial assets driven by re-leasing of the expired area at market rents. Earnings from hotels to decline due to COVID-19 outbreak despite seasonally strong quarter, said the report. GMR Infrastructure Ltd: PAT likely to grow by 349% YoY Kotak Institutional Equities sees the net profit of GMR Infrastructure grow by over 300 percent YoY. We factor in a meaningful ~15% YoY decline in passenger volumes and note that the true-up exercise would limit the loss of passengers through higher aero tariffs in Hyderabad, said the report. We build in the full impact of lower revenues (after revenue share) to EBITDA. This yields a 600 bps QoQ contraction in EBITDA margin to 27%, the report added. : The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. A plan to provide up to $7.3 million in tax increment financing for the planned Two Discovery Square building was approved Monday. Acting as the citys Economic Development Authority, the Rochester City Council voted 6-1 to approve the agreement for the construction planned south of Discovery Square One along Second Avenue Southwest. Council member Patrick Keane said he wasnt comfortable agreeing to the financing support, pointing out it exceeds typical assistance guidelines. "Its higher than what our policy guidelines have been amended to reflect," Assistant City Administrator Terry Speath said of the project in the Destination Medical Center subdistrict. The $7.3 million is approximately 16 percent of the expected capital investment in the five-story project planned by Twin Cities-based M.A. Mortenson Co., and a quarter of anticipated hard construction costs. ADVERTISEMENT Recent TIF agreements have fallen below 10 percent of the overall project cost. Spaeth said lab facilities and other factors add to construction costs of the new facility, which is expected to attract biomedical research companies. Discovery Square One occupants include WuXi Diagnostics, Royal Philips of Amsterdam, Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota Rochester, among others. Under the development agreement, construction of the second building must start by October and be completed by November 2022. "This is one of those projects that really advances the goals and objectives of the DMC," Spaeth said. Council member Michael Wojcik said the project warrants the added support, especially since the developer is willing to move forward amid uncertainties. "It creates a substantial number of high-paying jobs in an area thats a surface parking lot right now," he said. Spaeth reported the project is expected to create 530 permanent jobs and more than 700 construction jobs. ADVERTISEMENT While TIF doesn't reduce the tax collected on a property, it documents that tax collected before development. A portion of taxes generated beyond that point is returned to the developer each year until the TIF agreement is fulfilled or time runs out. The related development agreement includes a clause that could reduce the amount of property tax returned if the project starts producing revenue earlier than expected. Additionally, any payments from the city will count toward its required $128 million DMC contribution. Mayo Clinic pharmaceutical partner in China is ramping back up DMC to seek $7.3 million in TIF for Two Discovery Square Parking woes changing Mortenson's Discovery Square plans The National Officers of the NPP, led by the General Secretary, John Boadu, on Sunday, April 19, donated a huge consignment of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to all the 275 constituencies and 16 regions to support the national effort towards the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The items that were donated by the party leadership include dozens of Veronica buckets, hand sanitizers, antiseptic liquid soaps, bucket stance, waste bins, washing bowls, antiseptic bar soaps, face masks, among other items recommended by health experts as useful in preventing people from contracting and spreading the virus. The items were received on behalf of each of the 16 regions by the respective regional chairmen for onward distribution to the various constituencies under their jurisdiction. In presenting the items to the regional chairmen at a short ceremony held at the party Head Office, John Boadu, charged the regional chairmen to ensure that, not only should the items get to the people but to also ensure that, together with their regional and constituency executives, they lead the public education campaign against the pandemic in their respective communities. He stressed that the NPP, which is a key stakeholder in the life of the country, wholly supports the measures being rolled out by the government to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the country. The NPP General Secretary also eulogized President Akufo-Addo for showing leadership in this period of global health crisis. President Akufo-Addo, has, thus far, risen to the occasion in demonstrating exemplary leadership in this period of global health catastrophe to the admiration of the continent and world leaders, and it is important that as a party, we support the President wholeheartedly in this fight. It is one thing to ask school children to stay home, but it is entirely another to look at religious leaders in the face and tell them not to gather their congregants for church service or mosque prayers. It will take only a bold leader who prioritizes human life over everything else to be able to do this. Indeed, whilst it is true that the President has been careful not to be on the wrong side of a frustrated citizenry, it is also true he has also been very daring and audacious, he observed. John Boadu was assisted to make this presentation by some of his colleagues including the National Organizer of the party, Sammi Awuku; the 3rd National Vice Chairman, Omari Wadie; the National Treasurer, Kwabena Abankwa Yeboah; the National Youth Organizer, Lawyer Nana Boakye; the National Nasara Organizer, Abdul Aziz Futah; the party's Director of Finance and Administration, Collins Nuamah; and Evans Nimako, the Director of Research and Elections. ----citinewsroom Israel will avoid having to hold its fourth national election in a little more than a year. The Likud party and the Blue and White party have signed an agreement that ends the stalemate in Israeli electoral politics. The two parties will form a coalition government. Current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will remain as PM for 18 months. After that, if all goes according to the plan, Blue and White leader Benny Glantz will replace Netanyahu at the helm. On first look, it seems like Netanyahu got a good deal. He wanted to annex parts of the West Bank. Under the agreement, as I understand it, he can move ahead with that plan starting on July 1. Netanyahu also wanted a Judicial Appointments Committee in which a majority is sympathetic to him, an understandable demand given the legal jeopardy in which he finds himself. Reportedly, Netanyahu got his wish. At least thats what critics of the deal are saying. In addition, Netanyahu reportedly will be able to veto the appointments of the next attorney general and state prosecutor. The current state prosecutor will remain in office for six months, as there will be no key appointments during the state of emergency in place due to the Wuhan coronavirus crisis. Naturally, Netanyahu also wanted protection against his removal due to the criminal charges that have been brought against him. The reports Ive seen are somewhat conflicting as to the degree of legislative protection Netanyahu received, though its clear he didnt get all the protection he wanted. Importantly, however, if Netanyahu is disqualified because of the criminal charges, Gantz will not automatically replace him. Instead, new elections will be held. Gantz had pledged that he would never serve in a government headed by someone facing criminal charges. Apparently, he concluded that if he didnt agree to this deal he might never serve as PM. Gantz cited the coronavirus crisis as the reason why he agreed to serve with Netanyahu. Some members of his party arent buying it. According to the New York Times, the Blue and White party might collapse as a result of the deal. If Netanyahu serves for the full 18 months, he will have been Israels Prime Minister for almost 16 consecutive years. In all, he will have been the PM for almost 19 years. In my opinion, Netanyahus tenure has been a blessing for Israel, both in economic and security terms. I give him special credit for getting through the harrowing Obama years without making concessions to the sworn enemies of Israel, whose interests Obama sought to promote. Netanyahu hasnt figured out how to cope with the existential threat to Israel posed by Iran. However, I dont think any other Israeli leader would have handled the matter better. Despite Netanyahu successes, Israel faces major problems, and not just those presented by Iran. Its political system seems broken, as the inability to produce a winner despite holding those three elections suggests. Corruption also seems rampant, at least from my distant vantage point. One hopes that enough solidarity and public spirit remains to sustain Israel in the challenging times ahead. One hopes that the agreement to form a coalition government is a positive sign in this regard. Editor's Note: Albert Enoch Johnson, who is accused of killing a couple at their West Jordan, Utah home over the weekend has been taken into custody, police confirmed to Dateline on Thursday. Johnson was arrested Wednesday morning in Stockton, California and is being held without the possibly of bail on a warrant for aggravated murder. A court hearing is scheduled for Friday afternoon. A suspect has been named in the deaths of a couple who were gunned down in their West Jordan, Utah home over the weekend. Albert Enoch Johnson (San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office) At a press conference on Monday, West Jordan Police Sergeant J.C. Holt announced they are looking for 31-year-old Albert Enoch Johnson in connection with the killing of Tony and Katherine Butterfield. Johnson is described as being 5-foot-10 and weighing approximately 270 pounds. He may be driving a dark gray 2008 Toyota Corolla with Utah license plate: V46-4MW, police added. Hours after Mondays press conference, Johnsons wife, 29-year-old Sina Johnson, was arrested for allegedly helping her husband escape and charged with obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence, Sgt. Holt confirmed to Dateline. Sina Johnson (West Jordan Police Department) Officers developed information that Mrs. Johnson had spoken to Mr. Johnson just prior to and just after the suspected homicide occurred, and that she had been untruthful with officers about his whereabouts and involvement, Sgt. Holt wrote in an email. They also determined that she attempted to destroy or discard evidence from the alleged incident. According to police, Tony and Katherine Butterfield were gunned down in their suburban home early Sunday morning. Police responded to the scene in West Jordan, a suburb of Salt Lake City around 1:15 a.m., after a neighbor called 911 and reported hearing screams and gunshots coming from the home. Police found 31-year-old Tony Butterfield in the backyard, dead of an apparent gunshot wound. When officers entered the house, they found the body of 30-year-old Katherine Butterfield just feet away from her husband inside the home. The couples three children, aged six months, two and four were found alive upstairs. They were not harmed. Story continues Tony and Katherine Butterfield (West Jordan Police Department) According to Sgt. Holt, officers found evidence at the scene that indicated a possible struggle between the couple and the intruder. They also found evidence of forced entry and it appeared the home had been rummaged through, Holt added. At Mondays press conference, police released a photo and description of suspect Albert Enoch Johnson. Sergeant Holt told Dateline that Johnson was known to the Butterfields and we do believe this was not a random crime but an isolated incident. Police are not elaborating on a motive for the crime or how the couple knew Johnson at this time. According to police, the Butterfields do not have a criminal history and police do not believe there was any criminal activity going on with them. The Butterfield family released a statement via police over the weekend describing the couple as incredible Christ-like, kind, happy, and loving parents, children, siblings and friends. The statement continued, We ask for prayers for Tony and Katherines three sweet children, as well as for the many, many people who love Tony and Katherine. We send our deepest condolences to the Butterfields children, relatives and those closest to them, Sgt. Holt told Dateline via email. This is a horrific case. We hope to bring swift resolve. According to local reports, the Butterfield children are staying with relatives at this time. If you have any information on Albert Johnson's whereabouts, please contact police at 801-840-4000. JAKARTA, Indonesia While Indonesias neighbors scrambled early this year to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the government of the worlds fourth most populous nation insisted that everything was fine. In speeches, Indonesias health minister, Terawan Agus Putranto, told his countrys people that they shouldnt fear the virus, even as tens of thousands around the world were being infected. Rather than focus on creating social distancing guidelines or ramping up testing, Putranto credited Indonesian immunity and the strength of prayer for the countrys lack of any infections. He dismissed as insulting a report by Harvard University researchers that said Indonesia must have elected not to report its cases. Meanwhile, Indonesias southern neighbor Australia and some fellow Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore were quick out of the gate to address the crisis, taking actions as early as the end of January that included containment and tracing measures. Indonesia, on the other hand, did not even confirm its first case of the virus until early March. As of Tuesday, the nation had reported at least 7,135 infections including 616 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, more fatalities than any Asian country other than China. Indonesian President Joko Widodo acknowledged last month that the government had chosen to keep the public misinformed about the state of the coronavirus in the country. Indeed, we did not deliver certain information to the public because we did not want to stir panic, he said. Suspicion over the lack of cases in Indonesia began to grow when a Chinese tourist who had traveled from Wuhan the central Chinese city where the pandemic started late last year to the Indonesian resort island of Bali tested positive for the coronavirus when he returned to China in early February. Indonesian authorities, however, immediately played down the incident, with Defense Minister Muhammad Mahfud declaring, The coronavirus does not exist in Indonesia. Widodo, perhaps spurred by a desire for economic growth, promoted Putrantos theories, ignoring the likelihood that the vast archipelago nation had virus cases. But there was skepticism among the public, especially after local media reported cases of Indonesian patients with pneumonia-like symptoms dying. The governments apparent lack of transparency caused many Indonesians to seek information on their own about social distancing, with some even choosing to quarantine themselves. Pandu Riono, an epidemiology expert at the University of Indonesia, estimated that the country had cases of the virus as early as January, but that limited testing capabilities had caused them to go undetected. The turning point came when the government announced the countrys two first cases on March 2. Dozens of other infections were confirmed over the next couple of weeks, prompting Widodos administration to finally take serious measures, including ordering nationwide social distancing and suspending all nonessential activities. But for many, it was too little, too late. This outbreak affected my life worse than a tsunami, said Risti Ameliana, a resident of Jakarta, Indonesias capital. But falling trust in government makes it harder, as this is a global pandemic. Bivitri Susanti, a law and political analyst from Indonesias Jentera School of Law, said Widodos scramble to curb the virus after a late start had caused confusion among his government ministers in issuing regulations. Jokowi was too slow in leading the war against this pandemic crisis, she said, using Widodos popular nickname. Instead, he showed his weak leadership. On March 13, Widodo appointed the National Disaster Mitigation Agencys head, Doni Monardo, to lead the COVID-19 national task force, and allowed more labs to test for the coronavirus. He also has instructed his ministers and the task force to be transparent with the public. But testing remains a major problem. Since the first cases were confirmed in early March, Indonesia has conducted fewer than 50,000 tests or just 180 per 1 million people, according to government spokesman Achmad Yurianto. At least 37 labs have been equipped so far for coronavirus testing, according to Monardo, less than half of the governments goal of having 78 labs that can conduct 10,000 tests per day. Monardo said Indonesia is also facing shortages of essential medical supplies, including personal protective equipment for health care workers. He said the shortages have contributed to the deaths of at least 32 doctors and 12 nurses. Widodo on Monday ordered all governors, district chiefs and mayors to intensify the tracking and isolating of people who have been exposed to the virus. The government cannot work alone, Widodo said at the start of a Cabinet meeting. This is not easy for us but I believe that we can get through this ordeal together and come out stronger as a nation. Early this month, Widodo declared a state of health emergency, allowing local leaders to impose enforceable restrictions to contain the virus across the sprawling nation of more than 260 million people and 17,000 islands. The government also has created funding options to raise 1,000 trillion rupiah ($62 billion) to finance a record stimulus package in an effort to protect the economy from recession. As of March, it had raised 24% of the financing for the fiscal shortfall through debt issuance, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said. Yet worries loom over how the virus could spread in Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim country, during Ramadan, a monthlong Islamic holiday that begins this week. Millions of people traditionally return to their hometowns to visit relatives during the holiday. Theres a chance that Indonesia will face an explosion of coronavirus cases that could infect 1 million people after Ramadan unless the government takes stricter measures, said Riono, the epidemiology expert. On Tuesday, Widodo announced that the government would ban all people from returning to their hometown next month to celebrate Eid, which marks the end of the dawn-to-sunset fasting during Ramadan. Widodo, however, has ruled out a complete lockdown of the country, citing Indonesians cultural characteristics, its unique demography and the potential crippling economic damage. Instead, he has opted for large-scale social distancing restrictions. Thats put him at odds with Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan, a political rival who has been seeking tougher restrictions amid growing concerns about undetected cases in the capital and its metropolitan area, which is home to 30 million people. Jakarta has become the epicenter of the outbreak in Indonesia, confirming at least 3,260 cases as of Tuesday, including 298 deaths. The central government finally relented to Baswedans request for enforceable restrictions earlier this month, with several other regions of the country quickly following. ____ Associated Press writers Victoria Milko and Edna Tarigan contributed to this report. New Delhi, April 21 : The Delhi High Court has given the liberty to parents to approach the Directorate of Education in case the school of their wards demands consolidated fees. "In case a school demands consolidated fees without distinguishing the various heads of tuition fees, co-curricular activities fee etc, the parents are entitled to bring it to the notice of the Directorate of Education, which shall take steps in accordance with law," said a single judge bench of the high court presided by Justice Pratibha M. Singh. The observation was made while the court was hearing a petition filed by Rahat Vats who sought the court's direction to the Delhi government to give relaxation or suspend fees of private schools of any nature in the State of NCT of Delhi in terms of transportation or other charges except tuition fees for the month of April, May and June this year on account of the COVID-19 pandemic which has affected the entire world. "In so far as the tuition fee is concerned, the charging of the same would be justified in view of the fact that almost all the schools are conducting online classes and the teachers are discharging their functions by imparting course work over online platforms, checking project work online, correcting papers wherein students have already given examinations, preparing questions on lessons taught and supervising students to complete the work given etc," the court said. It also observed that there is a burden on the schools to pay their staff during these months. During the course of hearing Delhi government counsel Ramesh Singh told the court that the Government was fully conscious of the issues raised by the petitioner. On April 17, the Directorate of Education passed an order to the effect that no fees except tuition fees be charged. Various directions issued showed that the government was fully conscious of all such students who may be facing financial difficulties and so course material and classes have been made available even to them, Singh told the court. Noting the submissions, the court opined that authorities having taken cognisance of the issue and as the matter was one in the policy domain, the High Court was not inclined to interfere. However, it granted relief to the parents to approach the authorities in case any unjustified demand is made. In a first, United States oil prices plummeted to negative on Monday (April 20) as the demand for energy plunged sharply due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. According to The New York Times, the fuel storage tanks in the United States were near capacity making it tough for the companies to hold all the unused crude. As a result of the unprecedented crash in oil prices, US stocks also plunged 592 points. The fall of May benchmark into negative territory means that oil producers are willing to pay buyers to take the commodity off their hands. The massive fall in demand for oil has forced the oil firms to rent tankers to store the surplus supply and this is the main reason why the price of US oil into negative territory. The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for US oil, fell to minus $37.63 a barrel on Monday. Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, is trading around USD 26 a barrel, having gone down by as much as 70 per cent since the start of January. Demand for oil has plummeted to negative for first time in history as billions of the people across the world are remaining indoors due to lockdowns in different countries in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. On April 12, Saudi Arabia and Russia had reached an agreement to slash output by 9.7 million barrels a day. The agreement means that that the oil output will decrease by around 10 percent from May 1. Notably, the global demand for crude has come down by around 20 percent since the outbreak of coronavirus. As part of the deal Aramco - Saudi's biggest oil producer - has agreed to cut output by 23 percent and it is expected that the company could for more reductions in the future. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Monday said that Washington will look into halting oil imports from Saudi Arabi and added that he is planning to add as much as 75 million barrels of oil to the strategic petroleum reserve of the US. Edward Creasy appointed Executive Chairman for the Group, alongside Tamer Ozmen who also re-joins the Charles Taylor Board. Richard Yerbury is promoted to Group Chief Operating Officer David Marock has decided to step down as Group CEO Charles Taylor, the leading provider of services and technology solutions to the global insurance market, has today announced that Edward Creasy has been appointed Executive Chairman for the Group from non-executive director, where he had previously served. Additionally, Tamer Ozmen has re-joined the Charles Taylor Board and Richard Yerbury has been promoted to Group Chief Operating Officer. The addition of these seasoned and respected insurance experts is intended to accelerate the company's next phase of growth in the coming years. Edward Creasy, Executive Chairman for the Group, commented, "The services we provide, how clients interact with us and the Charles Taylor experience has never been more important. Working together with our partners, Lovell Minnick, it is our intention to build and expand on what has been achieved under David's leadership, by continuing to grow our distinctive market position as the provider of professional services and technology solutions supporting every stage of the insurance lifecycle and every aspect of the insurance operating model." After almost nine years as Group CEO, David Marock has decided to leave Charles Taylor; he has offered to provide support during the transition period. The Board is initiating a search, led by Edward Creasy, to find a permanent Group CEO. Edward will remain Executive Chairman until the search for a permanent Group CEO is completed. David Marock said, "This was a most difficult decision. I am grateful for having had the privilege to lead the organisation. I am particularly proud that together we have made it a great place to work, one that has flourished into a vibrant, client-focused, entrepreneurial, and much enlarged, successful business. At the same time, after so many years of intensive focus, I feel a strong need to have time to recharge fully, reflect, and ultimately decide on the next stage of my career." Edward Creasy added, "Over the past nine years, David has done an excellent job in the successful transformation of Charles Taylor and has proven himself to be a dedicated, adept and inspiring leader in building the business. Under his leadership, Charles Taylor has grown substantially on numerous fronts, just as important, we have developed a reputation as being one of the best companies to work for in the global insurance market. We are sad to see him go, and wish him all the best in his future endeavours." Board and Management Enhancements Edward Creasy has had a 42-year career in the London Insurance Market. He is a Lloyd's Market veteran, and well known to Charles Taylor's people and customers, having worked at Charles Taylor for 6 years, becoming Group Chairman in 2015. He was Chief Executive Officer of Kiln plc and latterly Chairman of the Kiln Group from 2001 to 2010 and was a founding Director of the Lloyd's Franchise Board. He is currently a director of WR Berkley Syndicate Limited and Deputy Chairman of WR Berkley Syndicate Management Limited. Edward is also Senior Independent Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee at Pacific Horizon Investment Trust plc. Tamer Ozmen, former senior director at Microsoft, has re-joined the Charles Taylor Board. Tamer is an accomplished technology professional with over 20 years of senior management experience. In addition to his Board role at Charles Taylor, he also currently sits on the Boards of Netcall Plc and IWP. Previously, he ran Microsoft UK Consultancy Services, which implemented cloud based digital transformation projects. Before joining Microsoft UK, Tamer was Managing Director of Microsoft Turkey over five years. Tamer began his career as part of the team that started Priceline.com in the US, he then ran Orange's Online channels. Richard Yerbury, who has been with Charles Taylor for almost six years and was previously Corporate Development and Operations Director, has been promoted to be the Group COO. Prior to joining Charles Taylor, Richard was a Principal with Bain Company in the Financial Intuitions team. He has also served as the Head of Northern European Banks, Financial Institutions for Lloyds Banking Group, where he worked for 7 years. About Charles Taylor Charles Taylor is a global provider of professional services and technology solutions dedicated to enabling the global insurance market to do its business fundamentally better. Dating back to 1884, Charles Taylor now employs approximately 3000 staff in more than 120 locations spread across 30 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Charles Taylor believes that it holds a distinctive position in its markets in that it is able to provide professional services and technology solutions in order to support every stage of the insurance lifecycle and every aspect of the insurance operating model. Charles Taylor serves a diversified blue-chip international customer base that includes national and international insurance companies, mutuals, captives, MGAs, Lloyd's syndicates and reinsurers, along with brokers, distributors and corporate insureds. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005188/en/ Contacts: Philippa Ushio Prosek Partners (858) 373-7052 pro-charlestaylor@prosek.com Kolkata, April 21 : After eight junior doctors, an intern and four nurses of Kolkata Medical College and Hospital were detected with Covid 19 disease on Tuesday, hospital sources said. Three of the nurses are attached to the gynaecology department, and another with the cardiology section. The medical intern is with the orthopaedic unit. All of them have been admitted in the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Beliaghata. However, it was not clear how the intern contracted the virus. A patient, expecting her child, tested positive for the deadly disease in the gynaecology department of the hospital on April 13. A health worker, involved in the treatment of the patient, had also tested positive for the viral infection, and the four nurses got infected after coming in close contact with the patient. On Tuesday, the hospital claimed that it was preparing a list of those who had come in contact with the nurses. On Sunday and Monday, eight junior doctors of KMCH were detected with the novel coronavirus infection. A group of MBBS interns on Monday accused the authorities of 'mismanagement; of Covid suspects which has made the hospital a hazardous zone for healthcare providers and patients. "A dysfunctional triage area, lack of isolation zones and no adequate healthcare protection have made the hospital a hazardous zone for healthcare providers and patients. Continuation of work here poses a threat to the lives of healthcare providers, their families and the entire community at large, " the interns said in a release. They said three shifts of healthcare workers were exposed to a Covid-19 patient without protection in the gynaecology department. Eminem is celebrating 12 years of sobriety. (AP) Eminem is celebrating 12 years of sobriety, after battling addiction to prescription drugs. The 47-year-old rapper - whose real name is Marshall Mathers - checked into rehab in 2007 after almost dying from a methadone overdose. Eminem has now shared a picture of his 12 year sobriety chip with his 29.5million followers on Instagram writing: Clean dozen, in the books! Im not afraid. The musician has spoken openly about his addiction to prescription drugs which has inspired several albums, including 2009s Relapse and 2010s Recovery. Read more: Eminem under fire for rap comparing himself to the Manchester bomber Speaking about his 2007 methadone overdose in 2013 documentary How To Make Money Selling Drugs, Eminem said: My organs were shutting down. My liver, kidneys, everything They didnt think I was going to make it. My bottom was going to be death. The doctors told me Id done the equivalent of four bags of heroin. They said I was about two hours from dying. Elton John mentored Eminem to help him beat his drug addiction. (AP) The rapper has been mentored by Sir Elton John - himself amost 30 years sober - to help overcome his addiction issues. Read more: Sir Elton John celebrates 29 years of sobriety Elton told Radio Five Live in 2010: "I've been helping Eminem over the last 18 months and he's doing brilliantly. "I'm there if people want help. If people ask for help you tell them where to go but there's no point advising if they don't want it." Eminem said he replaced drug addiction with exercise. (AP) The rapper told Mens Journal magazine in 2015 how he had replaced drug addiction with exercise. He said: I got an addict's brain, and when it came to running, I think I got a little carried away. I became a f***ing hamster. Seventeen miles a day on a treadmill. I would get up in the morning, and before I went to the studio, I would run eight and a half miles in about an hour. Then I'd come home and run another eight and a half." Jenkins also announced that The Longmont Leader has acquired all the assets of the Longmont Observer, a community-operated, free, nonprofit, hyperlocal news website run by local volunteers. The assets include email lists, donor lists, archives, the URL and social media accounts. On the launch date, visitors to the Longmont Observer website URL will be redirected to the new Longmont Leader website. "We were drawn to Longmont because we want to help bring together its residents around a shared passion for the city, its people and its local businesses," said Jenkins. "But as the city has been growing, local news sources have been shrinking. We intend to build on the great work of the Longmont Observer with a news site that is hyper-focused on all things Longmont. During this challenging time brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, trustworthy local news and information is needed more than ever." Longmont is a town 33 miles north of Denver with a population of 86,000 according to the 2010 census. A third of the community's residents are Latinx. "We're excited to pass the torch to the Longmont Leader and look forward to collaborating with them to ensure that local news thrives in our community," said Scott Converse, founder of the Longmont Observer and Longmont Public Media. The Longmont Leader is currently hiring a local team that includes a business development leader as well as an editor, assistant editor and two reporters, at least one of whom will be a bilingual Spanish/English reporter. Articles will offer comprehensive coverage of local news and events. Because the region has a strong culture of participatory media, Longmont Leader will also be a home for community columns and citizen journalism produced in partnership with Longmont Public Media. "Local news has provided a vital service to communities around the world at this challenging time," said Megan Favat, Strategic Partner Lead, Global Partnerships, Google. "We are delighted that the great journalism that the people of Longmont have counted on for three years will continue and grow with the Longmont Leader and the team that Mandy is putting together." The Longmont Leader is the second news operation funded by The Compass Experiment. Mahoning Matters, an Ohio-based digital-only news outlet, launched last October to serve residents of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. About The Compass Experiment The Compass Experiment is an initiative co-founded by McClatchy and Google News Initiative's Local Experiments Project to explore sustainable business models for local news. About McClatchy McClatchy operates 30 media companies in 14 states, providing each of its communities with strong independent local journalism in the public interest and advertising services in a wide array of digital and print formats. McClatchy publishes iconic local brands including the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. McClatchy is headquartered in Sacramento, Calif. #ReadLocal About the Google News Initiative The Google News Initiative is our effort to help journalism thrive in the digital age through evolving business models to drive sustainable growth, elevating quality journalism and empowering news organizations with new technology. Contact: Jeanne Segal [email protected] M) 202-271-8880 SOURCE McClatchy Related Links http://www.mcclatchy.com Maulana Azad National Urdu University VC Firoz Bakht Ahmed, who is also the grandnephew of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to extend the coronavirus lockdown for the entire month of Ramzan till May 24. "Care should be taken that the lockdown should not be lifted till May 24, the day when Ramzan month ends. If it is lifted on May 3, a time when corona will be ripening to its peak in India, overenthusiastic Muslims (as seen in the case of uncontrollable Tablighi Jamaat followers) will start crowding markets, holding iftar parties and prayer gathering, giving rise to corona clusters by disobeying the prime ministerial instruction," he said in his letter. Ahmed has also apologised for the acts of violence or misbehaviour allegedly by Muslims against healthcare workers across the country. "As a law-abiding Indian Muslim, I apologise on behalf of all those belonging to my community in quarantine in India, indulging in violence against doctors, nurses, health workers, police, safai karamcharis etc," he wrote. "My head is hung in shame whenever I see highly condemned acts of spitting, misbehaving in vulgar manner with the hospital staff (especially nurses), running for the jugular of doctors, throwing urine bottles and not extending cooperation for treatment for coronavirus," Ahmed said. The country is in a lockdown since March 25 due to the spread of coronavirus. The lockdown has now been extended till May 3. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Netanyahu, Rival Gantz Agree to Joint Government System By VOA News April 20, 2020 After three deadlocked elections between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former military chief Benny Gantz, the two men agreed late Monday to establish a unity government. Netanyahu, representing right-wing party Likud, will remain Israel's prime minister while Blue and White party leader Gantz will serve as defense minister and deputy prime minister. After 18 months, Gantz will take over as prime minister. The agreement was a surprise to many Gantz supporters after his repeated campaign vows declaring he would never serve with a prime minister under criminal indictment. Netanyahu is facing charges of fraud and bribery in three corruption cases. The courts have been suspended during the coronavirus crisis, delaying the start of his trial. With Gantz receiving more support from lawmakers, he was the first to propose a coalition government and originally planned to end Netanyahu's run as prime minister. But with the growing coronavirus threat, he accepted Netanyahu's offer for a joint government. "We prevented a fourth election," Gantz said Monday night on Twitter. "We will preserve democracy. We will fight the coronavirus and take care of all of Israel's citizens." Starting July 1, Netanyahu will be allowed to present any agreement reached with the U.S. regarding annexing parts of the West Bank to the Cabinet and then to parliament for a vote. The Security Cabinet and government will have equal representation of the two parties. A coronavirus cabinet will be formed jointly led by Netanyahu and Gantz to deal with pandemic. Monday's agreement will preclude the need for a fourth election in little more than a year. The arrangement is expected to be approved by Israel's parliament. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address MGT Consulting Group (MGT), a national leader in high-value public sector management consulting and technology services, announced today it has successfully closed a deal securing Trivest Partners as a minority private equity impact investor. Trivest was attracted to MGTs impressive growth track record driven by MGTs core mission of helping public agencies advance performance on behalf of the communities they serve. Funds from the transaction will be used to power growth by supporting investments in innovation, acquisitions and expanding technology infrastructure. This is a great deal to accomplish during a difficult time and demonstrates that we are the best of the best based on our ability to innovate with agility and our employees deep, personal commitment to our clients, said MGT Consulting CEO and Chairman, Trey Traviesa. We partner with public professionals across the country to serve citizens by solving complex problems, addressing emerging opportunities and increasing operational performance which is particularly helpful in our demanding, turbulent public sector environment. MGT is laser-focused on growing our ability to create social impact in the communities we serve, especially through M&A. Examples of MGT social impact include: Serving higher education institutions to assess the feasibility of introducing new medical school programs to address rural access to quality health care. Leading comprehensive facility master planning projects for large public school districts in support of education innovation and public facilities financing. Protecting client data and information systems with cyber solutions ranging from county child-support services to state elections security monitoring. Serving over 5,000 city and county clients with fiscal solutions to help them provide public services efficiently and better support financial obligations, including employee pensions. Contracting as Emergency Operators of failing public schools and school districts in high-poverty communities, impacting 50,000 students and 5,000 teachers and staff to improve academic performance, graduation rates and financial health. Leading more than 220 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion studies, examining local criminal justice systems, public works contracting and other areas of state and local government operations for disparities. Ensuring tribal entities have updated classification, compensation and benefits systems so they can provide adequate services to their people and recruit and retain the best and brightest talent. Serving thousands of public sector agencies and communities over its 45-year history, MGT leverages its experience and data with a leading-edge entrepreneurial approach. The company combines the right talent, platforms and technologies to drive social change in a high-performance culture. We engaged in this impact investment process to maximize our value to clients and to distinguish MGT as the clear leader in high-value SLED consulting and technology services, Traviesa said. As an employee-owned company, each and every member of our team is aligned to create a very special enterprise which leads the industry by serving our clients and the public through meaningful work. We are excited about partnering with MGT because they are building a leading business enterprise that yields powerful social benefits and that is very unique, said Jamie Elias, Partner at Trivest. We believe MGTs opportunity for growth is almost unlimited in the $100 Billion SLED services market and we are ready to invest our significant capabilities in support of their winning strategy. About MGT Consulting MGT is a national public sector management consulting and technology services firm that delivers diverse consulting services to a wide range of state, local and education clients across the U.S. and abroad. Leveraging a 45-year track record and reputation, MGTs subject matter experts partner with thousands of public agency leaders to provide trusted solutions that improve government performance and help communities thrive. Visit us at http://www.mgtconsulting.com or find us on social media. About Trivest Partners Trivest Partners, LP, with offices in Miami, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, is a private investment firm with $1 Billion under management that focuses on partnering with founder/family-owned businesses in the United States and Canada in both control and non-control transactions. Since its founding in 1981, Trivest has completed over 300 transactions, totaling approximately $6 billion in value, and has significant experience in assisting tech-enabled business service companies scale through market share capture and add-on acquisitions. For additional information, please visit http://www.trivest.com. Media Contact: Tiffanie Reynolds MGT Media Relations 813-480-9749 (c) treynolds@mgtconsulting.com External Article 21 April 2020 A handful of NYC hotels are moving ahead with scheduled openings, whether or not the guests will arrive. Advertisements The hotelier Phil Hospod has spent the last two years building The Wayfinder, a boutique hotel in Newport, R.I. And despite the pandemic, he is still planning to open in mid-May. The hotel, which will have an outdoor pool deck, an on-site restaurant serving coastal cuisine and seersucker-inspired rooms, was nearing completion when Gov. Gina M. Raimondo of Rhode Island issued a strict stay-at-home order on March 28, banning all gatherings of more than five people. "We're really close, which is kind of exciting, but also the painful part," Mr. Hospod said. But he's plowing ahead and says that once the government gives the green light, he could open his doors within two weeks. He has had to make some adjustments: Covid-19 has stalled deliveries his mattresses are stuck in New York, his art in Ohio and a lobby fireplace in California. So he has begun relying more on local suppliers, and has also set up sanitation stations across the site for his construction crew (who are allowed to work). Unable to conduct job interviews in person, he's interviewing front desk staff, bartenders, cleaning crews and more via videoconferencing. A high-profile private jet company abruptly announced it was shutting down due to the coronavirus, leaving questions about the fate of possibly $50 million in customer payments. JetSuite, a Dallas-based private jet charter operator, posted a notice on its website last week that it is grounding its fleet and furloughing most of its pilots because of a "dramatic downturn" in business from Covid-19. JetSuite didn't give any details on whether it would reopen, but said "please accept our deepest apologies for this sudden, but unavoidable and necessary cancellation of all flights until further notice." An email sent to JetSuite's press office was returned, saying "the email account no longer exists." JetSuite and its sister company, JSX, were highly celebrated in the private jet industry and attracted big investors, including JetBlue and Qatar Airways. JetSuite's founder and CEO, Alex Wilcox, was a founding executive of JetBlue. JetSuite offered private jets for charter through its SuiteKey program, where wealthy individuals and companies paid deposits of between $100,000 and $500,000. Customers would then charter private jet flights typically for around $6,000 to $7,000 an hour that would be drawn down from the deposits. JSX acted more like a scheduled airline, using repurposed regional planes to fly to private terminals that allowed passengers to avoid TSA lines. JSX continues to operate a limited number of flights. Doug Gollan, founder of Private Jet Card Comparisons, estimated that customers had $50 million or more in deposits at JetSuite when it shut down. The company has not told clients what happened to those funds or whether they will be refunded. "Customers aren't being told anything," Gollan said. "The way they structure their program, these deposits are nonrefundable and can be used for operations." The private jet industry is set to receive a portion of the $50 billion in federal stimulus for air carriers, in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks. WingX estimates that business jet and private jet flights dropped 79% in the first two weeks of April. Industry experts say that because the wealthy aren't traveling and businesses have cut all nonessential travel, private jet companies are scrambling to cut costs to maintain basic operations. Aside from NetJets, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, private jet companies are largely privately held and many have used debt to fuel rapid expansion. If the crisis drags on well into the peak summer travel season, some could face financial strains, analysts said. Some private jet executives said they remain optimistic about a strong bounce back once economies begin to reopen especially for domestic travel. They said lingering fears of the coronavirus, which has sickened nearly 2.5 million people worldwide and resulted in at least 171,249 deaths, will cause many older and affluent fliers to switch to flying private, to avoid the cramped cabins, crowded airports and long lines of commercial flights. Kenn Ricci, principal of Directional Aviation Capital, which includes Flexjet, Sentient Jet and PrivateFly, deferred 100% of his salary and asked employees who could afford it to also defer a portion of their salary. Fully 86% of employees participated. Wheels Up has reduced costs and work schedules and added voluntary short-term leaves to offset the slowdown. "We are confident that the overall market for domestic private aviation will grow significantly post-crisis, which bodes well for our business model," said Kenny Dichter, founder and CEO of Wheels Up. "We remain in a strong position to meet the projected increase in future demand." Screen grab of Health Secretary Matt Hancock during a media briefing in Downing Street, London, on coronavirus (COVID-19). (Photo by PA Video/PA Images via Getty Images) The UK government is working with over 150 British companies that could manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline NHS staff battling the coronavirus pandemic. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday that the government was working with 159 potential UK PPE manufacturers. The talks follow a call from the government for the private sector to step in and address the shortfall of PPE in the UK. Hancock said the government had received 8,331 offers of help and each one was being investigated. However, not everyone who approached us can deliver in their offers at scale, Hancock said. He added that not all companies were credible, saying the government had received some approaches from companies formed only in the last 24 hours. The Health Secretary said the government was also in direct talks with overseas factories that produce PPE and the fabrics it is made of. READ MORE: Nuclear decommissioning firm donates 66,000 items of PPE to NHS Hancocks comments follow intense criticism of the government for shortages of protective equipment for frontline NHS staff. The Department of Health told NHS staff over the weekend to reuse single use PPE equipment, following shortages and supply chain issues. The Telegraph reported on Tuesday morning that millions of pieces of PPE were still being shipped to Europe by British manufacturers. Those involved said offers of help had been ignored by the government. Hancock said during Tuesdays Downing Street press briefing over 1 billion items of PPE had been delivered to healthcare workers since the start of the pandemic. He said the government was trying to get to the source of PPE, most of which comes from factories in Asia. Ive said before, I am determined to get people the PPE they need, Hancock said. This is a 24/7 operation. Its one of the biggest cross-government operations Ive ever seen. The comments came as the Health Secretary confirmed 852 new deaths from COVID-19 over the last 24 hours. 129,144 have now tested positive for the virus in the UK and 17,681 remain in hospital. Energy Minister Angus Taylor wants Australia to capitalise on depressed global oil and gas markets to deliver cheap energy for industry and boost the strategic oil reserve during the coronavirus crisis. The price of crude oil has plummeted, driven down by a price war among producing nations and coronavirus restrictions. The spot price for liquefied natural gas contracts is tied to the oil price and the gas market, a major energy source for Australian industry and manufacturing, has also seen price falls. Energy Minister Angus Taylor. Credit:AAP East Coast wholesale gas sold for $4.30 a gigajoule on Tuesday, down from contract prices that ranged between $9 to $12 a gigajoule earlier this year. Mr Taylor told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the government was looking to invest in gas projects to provide more cheap energy, and indicated he would also snap up cheap oil to boost Australias strategic reserves. Trump said topping up nations Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an option, after US crude May contract turns negative. Hours after United States benchmark crude prices stunned even hardened oil veterans with a sudden, sharp crash into negative territory, President Donald Trump said his administration will look at a proposal to block Saudi Arabian oil shipments to the US to help buoy the US shale oil industry against an unprecedented rout that threatens its survival. Well, Ill look at it, Trump told reporters at a daily news conference after he was asked about requests by some Republican legislators to block the shipments under his executive authority. The May contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude went into a death spiral on Monday, plunging more than 300 percent with prices turning negative. At its lowest point, the May WTI contract touched -$40.32 before settling at -$37.63. The contract is due to expire on Tuesday. Negative prices signals that traders are willing to pay to have oil taken off their hands. Trump described the historic fall in oil prices as more of a short term financial squeeze on traders and said his administration would like to take advantage of historically low prices to top up the nations Strategic Petroleum Reserves. The Department of Energy is in the process of leasing some of the roughly 77 million barrels of available space in the Reserve to US oil companies to help them deal with the dearth of commercial storage as the coronavirus outbreak crushes domestic energy demand. The coronavirus pandemic has decimated oil demand globally as businesses shutter, borders close, travel is disrupted and consumers go into lockdown. Into this maelstrom, Saudi Arabia unleashed an oil-price war last month after it failed to convince Russia to join it in an aggressive output cut. Despite an intervention by Trump that paved the way for an historic production-cut agreement of 9.7 million barrel a day between Saudi Arabia-led OPEC (The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and its allies led by Russia, a tsunami of crude continues to overwhelm markets. This is acutely felt by higher-cost US shale oil producers who are running out of places to store crude with oil storage tanks at the hub in Cushing, Oklahoma nearing capacity. On Monday, US Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota a state highly dependent on revenues from oil production called on Trump to stop Saudi oil tankers from unloading crude on US shores. In a statement, Cramer said: We cannot allow Saudi Arabia to flood the market, especially given our storage capacity dwindling. Right now, the highest number of Saudi oil tankers in years is on its way to our shores. Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) Ghana is providing free internet connectivity to over 100 educational sites for private and public school students across Ghana. The initiative forms part of MTNs Yello Hope package to support the Governments efforts to mitigate the impact of Corona Virus (COVID 19) Pandemic. According to Mr. Noel Kojo-Ganson, Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Ghana, who made these known in a News Release issued in Accra on Saturday, April 18, 2020, the package, sought to promote e-learning by enabling students and teachers to log on to over 100 educational sites to access information for free. Mr. Kojo-Ganson disclosed that more than 15 tertiary institutions have been connected to 62 websites while Senior High and Basic Schools are benefiting from about 38 sites. In all, he said, the MTNs free educational websites package would support a total of 245,134 Ghanaians customers consuming over 3,493 GB data per day for educational purposes. Gov. Noem lauds state economy, but big legislative fights are coming Noems speech flowed between business and economic development, lifestyle issues and social issues that were united by their conservative themes. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 01:43:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ATHENS, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Greece announced on Tuesday that a 14-day curfew will be imposed on the town of Kranidi in the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece in addition to the nationwide lockdown after 150 COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in a local hotel hosting asylum seekers. The curfew will be in force every day between 20:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. local time, and the hotel will be entirely sealed off, Deputy Minister for Civil Protection and Crisis Management Nikos Hardalias said after discussing the issue with local officials. A total of 470 asylum seekers, mainly from Africa, were staying at the hotel, which is used as a refugee accommodation facility. They were tested on Monday after a 28-year-old pregnant asylum seeker from Somalia who had been accommodated in the hotel tested positive for the coronavirus. The hotel has been quarantined since last Thursday as a precautionary measure after a staff member tested positive for the virus, although the individual had not been on duty for the past 12 days, according to the Greek national news agency AMNA. Of the 150 new confirmed cases, two are employees at the facility and all of them are asymptomatic, Hardalias stressed. Over the past few weeks, confirmed cases have been reported in two other refugee camps near Athens. In addition to the cases in Kranidi, Greece has registered six new cases since Monday, bringing the total to 2,401, Sotirios Tsiodras, the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the pandemic, said at a daily press briefing in Athens. The death toll now stands at 121, as five more patients have passed away since Monday, he said. Some 59 patients are currently being treated in intensive care units (ICUs), and 46 people have been discharged from ICUs in Greece, Tsiodras said. Since March 23, the country has been in lockdown, which is expected to be lifted on April 27. Enditem Creative solutions are needed to prevent a situation where nursing home residents cannot receive visitors for months, a specialist in geriatric medicine has said. Professor Sean Kennelly, a consultant geriatrician at Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin has warned that nursing home residents may have to wait months to see visitors in the absence of a vaccine or treatment for Covid-19. I think thats the potential and I think thats what we have to prevent happening. Professor Kennelly said the pandemic was having significant psychological impacts on residents, in particular where outbreaks had occurred and had limited their engagement with others. In some nursing homes, he said, patio visits were being used as a way for residents to keep in touch with family and relatives. We can allow contact in a very controlled fashion onto the campus where we know residents who have recovered from Covid or residents who have no symptoms of Covid can at a distance actually meet their relatives, he said. We need to find creative solutions around that, Professor Kennelly told Morning Ireland on RTE radio, saying I dont think its acceptable that we can have a scenario where residents in nursing homes are locked down as we are relieving the lockdown in the rest of society. His comments come as health officials confirmed that 40% of all Covid-19 cases have been detected in the nursing home sector, which has now been given priority for testing. The devastating impact of Covid-19 was laid bare on RTEs Claire Byrne Live programme on Monday night when nursing home owner Lucy Flynn spoke about losing seven residents to the virus in recent weeks. The owner of Millbury Nursing Home in Navan, Co Meath, which has been dealing with a Covid-19 cluster since March, said it was heartbreaking and one of the most difficult aspects of the viral outbreak. It is one of the saddest things to see that a proper goodbye cant be done, Ms Flynn told the programme. It was heartbreaking telling the families that they could not come into the nursing home and be with their loved ones, particularly at the very end stage, she said. The residents and families come to the windows, they telephone, they WhatsApp, there are video calls but its not the same as the human touch, sitting beside the bed, holding your Mum or your Dads hand for the final time and this is truly heartbreaking, she said. The nursing home was also impacted by a loss of staff as the number of cases grew and many staff went into isolation after public health advice. Initially, 15 staff went into isolation for two weeks but the situation escalated from there. There was a fear factor attached to Covid and many of my remaining staff said they had young children at home and they could not possibly expose themselves to catching Covid-19 and many shared homes with elderly parents with underlying medical conditions. As a result of that I had about 25 staff disappear for the first three weeks, Ms Flynn said. Meanwhile, the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish College of General Practitioners said that it is discussing ways to enhance GP support for nursing home patients with the HSE. The organisations said the Covid-19 outbreak presented particular challenges for GPs caring for patients in affected nursing homes but that consultations were taking place either on site or via telephone or video. Siptu has called on the Government to temporarily take over private nursing homes as it did with private hospitals. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 00:37:07|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A charter flight unloads medical supplies and equipment after landing at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare, Zimbabwe, April 20, 2020. Zimbabwe on Monday took delivery of a huge consignment of medical supplies and equipment sourced from China for use in the ongoing fight against the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Zhou Xuegong/Xinhua) HARARE, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe on Monday took delivery of a huge consignment of medical supplies and equipment sourced from China for use in the ongoing fight against the deadly coronavirus. The supplies were jointly purchased by local fuel company Sakunda Holdings and local Chinese businesses for use in local hospitals. "Sakunda Holdings and Chinese business people operating in Zimbabwe have imported 23 tonnes of medical equipment, PPEs and ventilators plus Chinese and Western medicines to fight COVID-19," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said on Twitter. The consignment arrived on Air Zimbabwe charter flight at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport. The initiative is part of efforts that the private sector is making to assist the government in dealing with COVID-19. On its part, the government has availed over 500 million Zimbabwe dollars (1.38 million U.S. dollars)towards the fight against the pandemic, and has also made an international appeal for 220 million U.S. dollars to fight the disease. Zimbabwe currently has 25 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including three deaths and two recoveries. Meanwhile, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has announced a third round of COVID-19 assistance to African countries. "Our third donation to Africa will immediately be made to the African Union and the Africa Centre for Disease Control," he said on twitter. "This includes 4.6 million masks, 500,000 swabs and test kits, 300 ventilators, 200,000 clothing sets, 200,000 face shields, 2,000 thermal guns, 100 body temperature scanners and 500, 000 pairs of gloves." BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7 Trend: All measures taken in Azerbaijan so far have produced the desired effect, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev in his appeal to the Azerbaijani people after attending the inauguration of medical masks manufacturing enterprise established by Baku Textile Factory LLC in Sumgayit Chemical Industry Park. As a result of the adoption of preventive measures, the spread of coronavirus in Azerbaijan has not gained large proportions now. Hundreds of people die in developed countries every day. The health system of no country can fully organize the treatment of an ever increasing number of patients. This should serve as a lesson for us. Therefore, the adoption of preventive measures in Azerbaijan and the implementation of these actions in accordance with the situation pursue one goal: to protect the life and health of our people and prevent the spread of the disease in Azerbaijan. All measures taken so far have produced the desired effect. Suffice it to say that 45,000 tests have been carried out in Azerbaijan to date. Currently, various Internet resources indicate the number of patients, the number of deaths, as well as the tests performed. Everyone can visit these sites and see, said the head of state. He noted that Azerbaijan is one of the leading countries in the world where so many tests have been performed. This has helped us to identify the disease, provide patients with prompt medical assistance and protect ourselves from even greater troubles. So far we have succeeded. At the same time, the adoption of operational measures and the implementation of actions in accordance with the situation have produced effect. The new quarantine rules which entered into force on 5 April pursue one goal: to prevent the spread of the disease in Azerbaijan. This goal was also pursued by the decisions that were made prior to 5 April and the new rules. I have repeatedly said that we have demonstrated national unity, national accord, and we must also demonstrate responsibility. But in the current conditions, taking into account the rules that entered into force on 5 April, people should demonstrate discipline, because strict measures are envisaged in relation to those violating these rules. And these measures are already in place. I am sure that our citizens will fully comply with these rules, the disease will not be widespread and we will be able to overcome this situation with minimum losses, said the head of state. President Ilham Aliyev noted that coronavirus patients undergo treatment in more than 20 hospitals today, including the most modern hospital, the Yeni klinika. This clinic was opened relatively recently, at the end of March, and is designed for 575 patients. If we take into account that the clinic was commissioned ahead of schedule, its capacity to receive patients will gradually increase 100 patients at the initial stage, then 300 and then it will begin to operate at full capacity. Also, the hospitals I attended the opening of in the regions in early March of this year were also made available to the patients infected with coronavirus. The most modern hospitals located in the cities of Gazakh, Goranboy and Shamkir are treating patients with coronavirus. The number of beds in these three hospitals is around 500. So more than a thousand hospital beds meeting the most modern standards were put into operation in a matter of just one month, and patients infected with coronavirus are being treated there, said the head of state. The Union Health Ministry has sought a ban on the export of anti-tuberculosis drugs over concerns that the lockdown due to COVID-19 has affected the production of such medicines. Delay in production and receipt of supply may cause acute shortage of these drugs, Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan said as she requested an empowered group of government officials to direct the department of pharmaceuticals under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers and commerce ministry for issuing necessary directions for prohibiting export of anti-TB medicines. In a letter to Drinking Water and Sanitation Secretary Parameswaran Iyer, who is also the chairman of the empowered group for facilitating supply chain and logistics management, she said, "In view of the emergency measures undertaken, the availability of limited number of manpower and material to the pharmaceutical industry, the production capacity of the leading anti-TB drug manufacturers of India has been affected." Such a situation will worsen the treatment of TB patients within the country, she added.Sudan said suppliers have communicated that anti-TB drug supplies will be delayed because "force majeure" due to COVID-19 response activities, limited material (API), for production, limited manpower (because of restrictions) and limited transportation facilities. The leading anti-TB drugs manufacturers at present having contract agreement with National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP) are Macleods and Lupin. Major factories for these drugs are in Bharuch and Ankleshwar in Gujarat, Baddi in Himachal Pradesh and Daman and Diu. Under these circumstances, needless to emphasise that the situation calls for extraordinary measures to ensure that TB patients of the country simultaneously don't face any challenges in accessing either diagnosis or the treatment of the tuberculosis across the country under the NTEP, Sudan said. "Therefore it is requested the Empowered Group may issue directions to Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Department of Commerce for their intervention in this regard and also issue direction for prohibiting export of anti-TB medicines while considering mandatorily the need of the country as overriding priority to ensure smooth supply of these drugs," she said in the letter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) On Wednesday, March, 18, 2020, in Athens, Georgia, The University of Georgia's campus is barren. On a mid-week afternoon day, the week after UGA's spring break, the campus should be filled with students, professors, and campus activity. But amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, and the cancellation of classes for the rest of the semester, the entire campus is left with an eerie emptiness. (Photo/Sophie Yaeger/shy41872@uga.edu) Kia Motors on Tuesday said it has come up with various initiatives to financially support its dealer partners amid difficult business environment due to COVID-19 pandemic. The company said it has formulated a programme to help its dealers steer through the challenging phase, which includes multiple initiatives to sustain and improve cash flow to the dealer partners. The automaker said it would provide support in terms of interest cost of dealer stock, including vehicles in physical and transit stock. Besides,unutilised dealer funds lying with the company have already been remitted back to their current accounts, it added. Further, all the accepted service claims for warranty have been credited to the dealers' accounts, Kia Motors said. The company said that warranty payments have been credited to dealers and the company would provide clear on prioritywithin 15 days post lockdown for all dealer invoices. "Our dealer partners are one of the key pillars of growth for us and form a foundation for Kia to connect with the consumers in the country," Kia Motors India MD and CEO Kook-Hyun Shim said. The company is committed to offer its continued support in these testing times and will undertake all necessary steps to help them navigate through the situation, he added. "Dealer viability and stability is at the core of this program and we hope to spread positivity through it," Shim said. The company said it will also be taking multiple steps to promote online sales. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dublin, April 22 : The Irish government has announced that the ban on gatherings of more than 5,000 people in the country will run through the end of August. "Local authorities have been advised by Government that event promoters should be informed that events requiring licenses in excess of 5,000 will not be considered for the period up to the end of August," the government said in a statement on Tuesday, Xinhua reported. The Irish Department of Health on Tuesday reported another 44 COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the total fatalities to 730. Tuesday also saw 388 new cases, pushing the total infections to 16,040, said the department. The Irish government has banned all mass gatherings since March 24, and the ban is expected to be reviewed on May 5 when a set of restrictive measures is supposed to come to an end. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has told the Irish public that even if the restrictions are eased after May 5, they will be done in a "bit-by-bit" way instead of being done "in one go". On Sunday night, Irish Health Minister Simon Harris warned in a twitter message that any complacency in the battle against COVID-19 would be "disastrous" and could potentially be "fatal". His warning came amid reports that some European countries hit by the pandemic have started to ease their lockdown measures. Amid incidents of violence against the health staff involved in the fight against coronavirus, UP doctors will lodge a protest by lighting candles during the nationwide White Alert at 9 pm on Wednesday. The call for the protest has been given by the Indian Medical Association, which on Monday warned of "appropriate retaliatory measures" if the authorities fail to stop such incidents. Extending support to the nationwide stir, the secretary of the UP Provincial Medical Services Association, Dr Amit Singh, said, "Violence against doctors and healthcare workers is a major problem. Almost 74 per cent of the doctors face vocal or physical abuse. In UP too, a mob had attacked a medical team in Moradabad last Wednesday. They had hurled stones at their ambulance in the Nawabpura area of the town, injuring a doctor and three paramedics. Police had arrested 17 people, including seven women, for the incident. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too had said that the stringent National Security Act will be invoked against the accused. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CAIRO In statements to Al-Monitor, Walid Gamal el-Din, chairman of Egypts Export Council for Building Materials, revealed the possibility of imposing dumping duties on Egyptian aluminum exports to the United States. Gamal el-Din said over the phone that the US government started its investigation into the dumping of aluminum in US markets from several countries, including Egypt. He expects the results to exonerate Egypt since the latter does not export large quantities of aluminum to the United States, whereas other countries dump the US market. On March 31, Reuters reported that the US Department of Commerce launched trade probes into imports of common alloy aluminum sheets from 18 countries, including Germany, Oman and Bahrain. The department said it will look into whether the 18 countries were unfairly dumping the products in the US market, Reuters added. If the department finds aluminium sheet imports from any of the countries are unfairly dumped or subsidized, and a separate trade panel finds that domestic producers are being injured, the United States would place tariffs on the products. Reuters did not reveal the full names of these 18 countries, but petitions filed March 9 by the US-based Aluminum Associations Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet Trade Enforcement Working Group revealed Egypt was one of them. The petitions claimed that unfairly traded imports of common alloy aluminum sheet from 18 countries are causing material injury to the domestic industry. The US industrys anti-dumping petitions argued that common alloy aluminum sheet from Bahrain, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Oman, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkey was dumped in the United States, which harms the domestic economy. On March 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump had imposed 25% tariffs on imported steel and 10% tariffs on imported aluminum. I have the right to go up and down and drop out countries or add countries, he told reporters at a Cabinet meeting on that day. Ever since, Egypt has been struggling to rid itself of these tariffs. On March 19, 2018, it announced it is negotiating its exemption with the United States. The Egyptian-US negotiations continued for more than two months, until Tarek Kabil, Egypt's minister of trade and industry, revealed on May 9, 2018, that the United States has yet to make up its mind on dropping Egypt from the countries to be hit by the import tariffs. Negotiations have not stopped since the announcement of the [tariffs] decision and direct discussions were held with the US trade secretary to discuss Egypts chances of being dropped from the list. But so far, we have not received a final response, Kabil told reporters back then. In a phone call with Al-Monitor, Mohamed Sayed Hanafi, head of the Chamber of Metallurgical Industries, said, If new tariffs are imposed on aluminum imports, exports will fall significantly with the shrinking of iron exports to the United States. Iron exports exceeded $100 million in 2017, but hit a $38 million low in the first 10 months of 2019, with a decline of 53.3%. He added, Iron exports to the United States kept dwindling in the first two months of 2020 to $4 million, compared to $12.8 million in the same period in 2019, a decrease of 68%. Hanafi pointed out that all economic forecasts expected the decline in Egyptian iron exports in general and to the United States in particular, after the decision to implement the US anti-dumping tariffs. The United States and some European countries are among the largest markets for Egyptian iron, characterized, before the imposition of the tariffs, by its price competitiveness in the US market. According to Ahmed el-Sayed, a researcher specializing in US affairs at Al-Ahram newspaper, Egyptian-US relations will not be affected by the decisions to impose these tariffs, even though they are economically harmful. He told Al-Monitor, The deep-rooted and strong US-Egyptian relations will not be budged by temporary economic differences that can be solved through negotiations. Egypt is already benefiting from US customs discounts and exemptions, most notably under the Generalized System of Preferences through which the United States exempts several developing countries, including Egypt, from customs duties. Also, under the Qualifying Industrial Zones protocol, Egypt can make some duty-free exports into the United States. Speaking to Al-Monitor, Abdel Khalek Farouk, an economist and director of the Nile Center for Economic and Strategic Studies, argued that imposing customs duties on Egypt's iron and aluminum exports to the United States has greatly harmed Egyptian companies that rely on exports to the United States. He explained that following the imposition of the tariffs, Egyptian companies started searching for other alternatives, most notably, entering new markets, mainly in the African continent, in addition to Saudi Arabia, which registers a large percentage of Egyptian iron exports. Regarding aluminum exports to the United States, Farouk clarified that Egypt's exports stood at $42 million in 2019 after the 10% tariff imposed by Trump. He warned, however, that additional anti-dumping duties would cause a sharp decline in the already decreasing Egyptian aluminum exports. Egypt has been focusing recently on promoting its aluminum industry and its export, he said. This was mainly manifested in plans to develop the aluminum plant in Nag Hammadi on an area of 5,000 acres, with a production capacity of 325,000 tons per year. Expansion plans aim to increase production by 250,000 ton. Additional US anti-dumping tariffs, if imposed, will hamper the exports in some way, as the United States is one of the most important target markets. Coronavirus is permanently shaking up the global outsourcing industry as lockdowns from Bangalore to Manila prompt firms to "reshore" jobs and, with AI, to move further away from needing humans at all. Restrictions on normal activity in these countries and others have created a logistical nightmare for the managers of call centres and other back-office operations for foreign corporations. Having their staff work from home is difficult because of rules governing the handling of sensitive material such as financial transactions for bank customers from Scotland to San Francisco. Also, many workers in places like India and the Philippines live in crowded housing with poor-quality broadband, while some firms do not have enough equipment like laptops to provide to employees. "The outsourcing industry doesn't lend itself to working from home," consultant Vivek Sood, author of "Outsourcing 3.0", told AFP. "We are talking about companies which used to ask employees to leave even their pens and pencils outside the office because of security concerns." - 'Temporary stay arrangements' - Desperate to stay operational, some firms have resorted to having staff live at their place of work. Vodafone India, for example, says it has "organised temporary stay arrangements at our data centre locations, (and) made food and groceries available at critical locations". Similar practices by others have sparked the ire of trade unions. Mylene Cabalona, president of the Business Process Outsourcing Industry Employees' Network (BIEN), told AFP the union had received reports of some workers "effectively quarantined and locked down in their offices". The Financial Times in early April published photos that it said appeared to show workers sleeping on the floor of a call centre in the Philippines, living in what they described as "subhuman" conditions. - Don't call - Anthony Esguerra, who works at a Manila firm handling data for a Chinese online gaming company, admitted that 80 percent of its operations were disrupted. Story continues "The workflow of processing players' requests really slowed down, since our internet access was limited compared to when we were working at the office," he told AFP. Companies like telecom firm Spark New Zealand and Taiwanese computer maker Acer, which uses a Philippine facility to serve Australian and Kiwi customers, have simply told people not to call. Australia's Telstra and Optus and Britain's Virgin Media -- all of which have offshore units in India and the Philippines -- have announced plans to recruit hundreds of staff back home. Telstra, which heavily relies on its Philippine facility for customer service, initially said it would hire 1,000 temporary workers, but later raised that figure to 3,500. Optus sought to fill 500 vacancies, saying that while the company had previously believed "its diversity of locations would make us resilient to any disruptions", this was no longer the case. - OK computer - But the bigger lasting change from the pandemic will likely involve the wider use of artificial intelligence to handle tasks currently performed by human beings, experts said. "AI doesn't go on strike, it can work 24/7 and throws up fewer complications," said Michael Czinkota, who teaches international business at Washington's Georgetown University. Telstra, for instance, which was already planning to slash customer service calls by two-thirds by 2022, now intends to accelerate its use of AI. "(We) will be using this as an opportunity to further digitise and automate our business," CEO Andy Penn told The Sydney Morning Herald this month. - Trailblazer - "COVID-19 (has) achieved in six to eight weeks what the evangelists of automation have not managed... for more than five years," Ilan Oshri from the University of Auckland's Graduate School of Management told AFP. But the "onshoring" of jobs and the increased use of AI will have a big impact on countries that for years have benefitted from taking on the back-office operations of multinationals. India, in particular, was a trailblazer. As of 2017, the industry employed nearly four million Indians and raked in revenues of more than $150 billion, according to trade body NASSCOM. In the Philippines, the industry started from scratch in the early 1990s but by 2019 its revenues were equal to 7.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product, employing 1.3 million people. "We will have to rethink the whole outsourcing model," said consultant Sood. "The assumption that you can offshore everything to Bangalore and Manila and relax has gone out of the window." A man arrested on a rape warrant late last week in the Florida Keys said he loved the victim and thought he was her true messiah, according to a probable cause report. Michael Murack, 56, is in Monroe County jail on a bond of $100,000. Deputies say he sexually assaulted the woman at her Key Largo home on April 13 using his fingers while she was passed out by her pool after drinking alcohol and taking her prescribed anti-anxiety medication. The victim told police she knew the assailant because she had hired him in the past to do yard work at her house. She said Murack sometimes refers to himself as God and Jesus Christ. He came to the house that night around 7 p.m. when the victim and her roommate were outside cleaning up after having some drinks, according to the report. She said he exposed himself to her several times, and she told him she was not interested in him. She told deputies she did not remember anything after that. The next morning, her roommate told her Murack sexually assaulted her the night before when she was lying on the ground unconscious. Deputies met the woman at Mariners Hospital, where medical staff conducted a sexual assault examination, according to Detective Cody Kerns report. The victims roommate, who the Miami Herald is not naming so as not to potentially identify the victim, told detectives the victims boyfriend eventually kicked Murack off the property that night and went to bed. The roommate went inside to lie down on the couch, but went back outside to check on the victim because she became concerned that she had not come inside yet. Thats when she saw Murack sexually assaulting the victim, she told detectives, according to the report. She said she ran back inside to get her phone so she could film the assault as evidence. However, when she got back outside, Murack was pulling up the womans bathing suit bottoms, which she recorded and showed detectives. On April 15, Murack left several voicemails on the victims phone saying that he wants to marry her, according to Kerns report. Story continues After hearing the messages, detectives asked the woman to make a recorded phone call to Murack and discuss the incident. In that call, the victim asked Murack why he assaulted her while she was unconscious, and he replied that she was awake when it happened and that he would not have done it without her consent, according to Kerns report. However, detectives saw the roommates phone footage showing Murack putting the bathing suit back on the unconscious victim, according to the report. Murack said he stopped because the roommate came outside, and he didnt want her to feel jealous, the report states. The woman replied that she did not believe him, and brought up that he has referred to himself several times before as God. Mike responded by stating he is [the victims] messiah and that it is up to her to believe him or not, Kerns wrote. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Democratic Party could raise almost $1 million every single day between now and November, and he would still barely catch up to what President Trump and the Republican Party had in the bank at the start of April let alone what Mr. Trump will have by Election Day. New fund-raising figures released late Monday show the depth of the financial hole in which Mr. Biden finds himself at the start of the general election campaign: The presumptive Democratic nominee and his party are nearly $187 million behind the Republican National Committee and Mr. Trump, who has spent the last three years stockpiling his huge war chest. The sheer size of Mr. Trumps early advantage creates a unique set of financial and political pressures for Mr. Biden. He must find ways to both expand his appeal to small online contributors and attract huge seven- and eight-figure checks to the outside super PACs supporting him all while sheltered in his Delaware home because of the coronavirus. To lure the money that he will need to compete effectively in battleground states, Mr. Biden will have to navigate a series of consequential political decisions, refining his message, honing his policy agenda and selecting his running mate. But Democratic strategists say he has at least one point in his favor: He has wrapped up the nomination and started uniting the party relatively early in 2020, giving focus to the party activists and leading financial patrons who are singularly obsessed with defeating Mr. Trump. FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin (not pictured) following their talks in Moscow ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The coronavirus outbreak in Turkey is starting to reach a plateau and the country aims to return to normal life after the end of Ramadan in late May, President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by state-owned Anadolu news agency on Tuesday. Cases of the COVID-19 disease have risen to 90,980 in Turkey, exceeding any country outside Europe and the United States, with the death toll at 2,140. In turn Ankara has adopted increasingly tight measures to curb the spread. "This pandemic has become the biggest crisis since the Second World War in terms of its economic consequences," Erdogan was cited as saying at a video conference meeting of his AK Party's officials. "We aim to achieve maximum observance of measures during the month of Ramadan and, God willing, a transition to normal life for our country after the holiday (at the end of Ramadan)," he said. As part of efforts to tighten those measures, Erdogan said on Monday a four-day lockdown would be imposed in 31 cities from Thursday after similar stay-at-home orders were enforced over the last two weekends. Thursday is a national holiday in Turkey, while Friday marks the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Turkish authorities said grocery shops will remain open until 2 p.m. (1100 GMT) on Thursday and Friday for people to make essential purchases. (Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Ece Toksabay and Jonathan Spicer) The Christian Post wins 2 awards at EPA 2020 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Christian Post won two awards, including the Award of Excellence in the category of newspaper-online news, at the Evangelical Press Associations annual contest. Due to the new coronavirus that led to the cancellation of events worldwide, the 2020 awards presentation was hosted online by EPA President Carol Pipes, EPA contest coordinator Danny Conn, and EPA Executive Director Lamar Keener from Nashville, Tennessee. The annual convention was originally scheduled to be held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, before the in-person event was canceled. The judges commended CP, saying the news outlet offers readers quite a lot in the digital space. It gives readers strong content and some multimedia ways of engaging that content. CP also won second place for Article Series for its eight-part series on leaving Christianity that explored reasons why people left the faith and how ministers are responding to this segment of Americans. (Links to the entire series can be found here.) The EPA, which CP is a member of, describes itself as the worlds largest professional organization for the evangelical periodical publishing industry. Each year, it hosts two contests the Awards of Excellence contest (for publications as a whole) and the Higher Goals contest (for individual pieces). The organizations received 1,143 entries in 80 categories for its 2020 contest. Weeks after a woman in Bengals Kalimpong district died of Covid-19 and 10 members of her family were treated for the infection, people in the states hill region are acting under stress and fear. In the last few days, Laxmi Ghatani (70), Sujata Sherpa (22) and Dishan Khati, an eight-year-old, have faced the outcome of fear psychosis among the locals here. Kalimpong district has been declared coronavirus-free after 10 members of the regions only affected family, and a maid who worked for the family, tested negative after their treatment. The family lost a 44-year-old female member on March 30. Although no new cases have been reported in the district that shares its borders with Bhutan, Sikkim and Darjeeling, locals in Kalimpong, especially those who are old and unwell, are facing discrimination. Ghatani, a resident of Mungpoo in Darjeeling district, fell ill on Saturday and her family members took her to Rambi community block primary health centre the next day. The doctor referred her to Kalimpong district hospital but the health centre allegedly denied an ambulance. After much persuasion, an ambulance took the patient up to Chitray, 14 kilometres away from Kalimpong. The patient was taken to the Kalimpong hospital in a car provided by a social worker named Jyoti Karki. The old woman was admitted at 1 pm and she died at 8 pm on Sunday. Bimal Ghatani, one of the sons of the deceased, said Had we been able to admit her in Kalimpong hospital on time she might have survived. Precious hours were lost in search of an ambulance. Bimal, who is a carpenter, said At Mungpoo, local people have made it clear that those who took my mother to Kalimpong cannot return home. They have been told to stay in quarantine for 14 days. Last week, eight-year-old Dishan Khati - a resident of Tirpai in Kalimpong - had fever, cough and signs of pneumonia. On April 15, a doctor in Kalimpong referred him to a private nursing home in Siliguri saying that all arrangements had been made and the nursing home was one of those authorized to treat Covid-19 patients. Yasaka Khati, the childs father who runs his family by driving cars, said, Though the government is saying that ambulance in cases like these will be provided for free, I was forced to take my son to Siliguri in my vehicle as the driver of a government ambulance demanded Rs 1500. That was not all. The nursing home authorities refused to admit my son and even policemen did not help. We took my son to the state-run North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH). There, we had to wait for long hours before my son got admission. But we were not happy with the arrangements, Khati said. On April 16, we took my son back to Kalimpong hospital. The boy is doing fine now, said Khati. On April 15, Sujata Sherpa, a pregnant woman from the Algarah area in Kalimpong was referred to a Siliguri hospital by the Kalimpong district hospital for a USG test. Sujata and her husband, Sangey Sherpa, went to Siliguri district hospital. Sangey said, The moment the hospital staff came to know that we were from Kalimpong, they started behaving differently and told us to go to NBMCH at night. At NBMCH, the staff refused to get my wife admitted as she was bleeding. We were asked to return the next day. We were so helpless that we had to spend the night of April 15 in a church in Siliguri, said Sherpa. The USG was done the next day and the couple returned home with the help from social workers. Dr CK Chettri, block medical officer of Rambi said, The family of Ghatani never sought the government ambulance. Jyoti Karki, whose car was used by the Ghatanis, said, People of Kalimpong are facing social discrimination in other areas. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The unprecedented coalition agreement signed on April 20 between Interim Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chair Benny Gantz means a major change in Israels system of government. The system in place for over 70 years whereby a prime minister heads the executive branch and administers a government of ministers as the first among equals is no more. It has been replaced by a government led by a premier and an alternative, a two-headed regime. No longer will one man have the final say. Two entirely different people will be forced to share the reins of governance. Under their power-sharing deal, both Netanyahu and Gantz will live like prime ministers in official residences, protected and driven in convoys. Neither will be able to fire a minister from the other bloc. Netanyahu will manage his quota of 18 ministers and Gantz will handle his, though he intends to make do with fewer than his allotted share of 18 to quell public criticism of the monstrous government at a time of coronavirus-induced austerity. The switch 18 months from when the government is sworn in will be approved in advance as part of a rotation bill voted on by the legislature in advance. The proposed bill includes a series of checks and balances, amendments and conditions that will regulate this unwieldy construction over the next few years. In 18 months, Netanyahu will stop being prime minister and be downgraded to acting prime minister" and Gantz will take his place. Every important policy move and significant decision on appointments will require consensus. The next chief-of-staff of the Israel Defense Forces, police commissioner, attorney general, judges and more will need the agreement of both sides. It will be a government of mutual paralysis. Though Netanyahu gets 18 additional months as prime minister, Gantz will block him on many issues, halting the destruction of Israels democratic institutions and legal system. Many in Israel regard the deal as corrupt and even morally reprehensible, while many others are breathing a sigh of relief over the breakthrough in the deadlock that has deprived Israel of an elected government for the past 17 months. The agreement is attracting harsh criticism from every direction. Netanyahu is facing an insurrection within his own party from the ministers who will lose their posts or be significantly downgraded. The political right is furious at Netanyahu for giving up the legal system bastions it had conquered in recent years. Netanyahus most significant achievement in the coalition agreement is that as of July, he will be able to lead a historic annexation of part or all of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Despite its grave reservations about such a move, the Blue and White had no choice. The fact that he will bring the issue up for a vote does not mean it will be approved, foreign minister-designate and Gantz No. 2 Gabi Ashkenazi told Al-Monitor. The former IDF chief went on, We believe Netanyahu knows the risks of this move and we are convinced that a serious discussion will be held about it in the cabinet and the prime minister will hear the views of the security agency heads and will weigh all the considerations involved before he takes irreversible steps. Blue and White clearly realized that a deal with Netanyahu would not be achieved without the magic word, annexation. With it, Netanyahu hopes leave a legacy that overshadows the suspicion, probes and criminal trial that have marred his career. Gantz and Ashkenazi are also coming under fire from their voters. Several petitions against the agreement have already been presented to the Supreme Court and there is no guarantee that the justices will greenlight the deal in its current form. Some Blue and White voters are angry that Gantz and Ashkenazi are providing Netanyahu with a legal defense. According to an override clause, should the top court void the coalition agreement or bar Netanyahu from serving as prime minister due to his criminal indictment, new elections will immediately be scheduled. Gantz rejects the criticism out of hand, pointing out that the Justice Ministry will be run by the Blue and White, stemming Netanyahu and his cohorts' offensive against the states law enforcement and legal system. As Blue and White failed to unseat Netanyahu in three consecutive elections, the new plan is to sideline him in several stages. The first stage is giving him an expiration date. But the convoluted articles of the coalition agreement signal that Netanyahu does not plan to go away. When his term ends, he will become alternative prime minister with all the perks of a full prime minister. Should the Supreme Court intervene at that point and rule that he cannot serve under criminal indictment even as an alternative prime minister, the government will be dismantled and new elections will be called. Netanyahu intends to see through the entire legal process, a senior Blue and White source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. From the negotiations we conducted with him it is clear that he will stand trial [in May], drag it out as long as possible and if convicted, he will appeal to the Supreme Court, and if need be he will demand a second deliberation by the justices. He is not giving away anything for free. Netanyahus next major test will come in July. Will the prime minister make good on his pledge to annex some of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank? The key lies in Washington, specifically in the hands of President Donald Trump. July puts Trump four months away from the US presidential elections, not the best time to alienate his evangelical base and reject its dictates. Netanyahu hopes to use the achievement to carve his name in the annals of Israels political right. Gantz and Ashkenazi are hoping they can stop him once the price of such annexation becomes clear. This confrontation will only take place if the above described government is established. Quite a few obstacles await it in the coming weeks, the biggest being Netanyahus tendency to renege on agreements he signs. USDCAD Elliott Wave analysis - Eyes Down EW-Forecast.com - 59 minutes ago USDCAD is coming down after only a three-wave rally to 1.2834 resistance that we see as a contra-trend move so more weakness is coming after breaking through 1.2600 support ^USDCAD : 1.25416 (-0.24%) Powell Speaks Market Tea Leaves - 1 hour ago Yesterday as suggested the markets rose. What will happen today? Natural Gas (NG) Breaking Weekly Chart Downchannel Resistance Tradable Patterns - Wed Jan 12, 3:09AM CST Natural Gas (NGG22) is gaining for a 2nd straight day, extending the upchannel (on the 4hr chart). Significantly, NG has halted its slide since October by breaking above downchannel resistance (on the... NGG22 : 4.432 (+4.31%) UGAZF : 6.1950 (+5.00%) Kazakhstan detains nearly 1,700 more after violent unrest AP - Wed Jan 12, 2:40AM CST MOSCOW (AP) Kazakh authorities said Wednesday they detained 1,678 more people in the past 24 hours over their alleged participation in the violent unrest that rocked the former Soviet nation last week,... $SPX : 4,713.07 (+0.92%) $DOWI : 36,252.02 (+0.51%) $IUXX : 15,844.12 (+1.47%) This week the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) hosted more than 1,600 global customers and soybean industry representatives from 84 countries. The two-day global digital event, The U.S. Soy Connection: Global Digital Conference and Situation Report, highlighted to international customers the strength of U.S. soybean farmers and the soybean value chain. In providing nutrition and information to customers of U.S. Soy at this critical time, U.S. Soy remains open for business despite uncertainty due to the novel COVID-19 virus. The value of our partnerships is immeasurable, not only for soy, but for the world at large. Our collaboration across U.S. agriculture will help provide the global market with a stable supply of high-quality products and support, said Monte Peterson, Chairman of USSEC, board member of the American Soybean Association and soybean farmer in Valley City, N.D. By hosting events like this, we can address our partners' concerns and learn directly about their challenges. And as we move ahead into the 2020 planting season and beyond, U.S. soybean farmers are committed to provide a sustainable crop and serve as a consistent supplier to our customers. Sessions were held over two days and noteworthy speakers included Thomas Mielke, Executive Director of ISTA Mielke Oil World, Emily French, Managing Director at ConsiliAgra, Soren Schroder, Former CEO of Bunge Limited, several USSEC board members and U.S. exporters from across the country. Throughout the conference, we showcased that despite the global impact of coronavirus, the supply of U.S. Soy remains unwavering, said Jim Sutter, USSEC CEO. During this unique time, our priority is containing the outbreak and ensuring that all members of the soy value chain are safe. USSEC will continue to work tirelessly to show our partners that our entire supply chain is working to ensure a sustainably and safely produced, reliable supply of soy for global customers. Its imperative that we also provide them with practical information about the global/U.S. market that they rely on from our USSEC events around the world. On April 14 attendees heard from globally recognized experts who discussed U.S. soybean trends and the impact that COVID-19 is having on the industry. Highlights from Day 1: Thomas Mielke, Executive Director of ISTA Mielke Oil World, discussed COVID-19s impact on global oilseed supply and demand. The Chinese soybean crush has exceeded expectations in the first half of this crop year 2019/20 and domestic soybean meal demand has actually started to increase from a year ago. In China, imports of soybeans are recovering. They increased significantly by approximately eight million tons from a year ago to 37.4 million tons in Oct./Feb. 2019/20, of which 12.8 million tons of U.S. soybeans against the unusually low quantity of only one million tons a year earlier. We expect China to resume purchases of U.S soybeans in the coming weeks while Brazil exports (after record shipments in March and April) will start declining from May onward. Total Chinese soybean imports are set to recover to 91 million tons in Oct./Sept. 2019/20, of which include 21 million tons from the U.S. and 58 million tons from Brazil. Emily French, Managing Director at ConsiliAgra, reported on the impact of several severe black swan events and their effect on the global soy complex. There's no question that it's agriculture that makes the world go around. Global agriculture continues to do what it does best, and that is feed and nurture the world. As we move through COVID-19, the value of free and reciprocal trade has never been more evident. On April 15, industry leaders and U.S. soybean farmers reported on their plans for 2020 planting. In addition, several U.S. exporters hosted a panel discussion to give an update on logistics and export demand. Highlights from Day 2: Soren Schroder, Former CEO of Bunge Limited, presented on the reliability and innovation of U.S agriculture. Disruptions can take many forms for crops such as the global crisis that we're experiencing now. The U.S. capacity runs on all coasts with highly efficient multi-modal interior logistic systems which ensure a continuous supply; this makes the U.S. export infrastructure very flexible. Both interior and export terminals are highly automated making them more resilient. In short, the U.S. supply chain can be relied upon like no other. Doug Winter, U.S. Soybean Export Council Vice Chairman and United Soybean Board Director; U.S. soybean farmer from Illinois U.S. Soy benefits buyers around the world by making more of an effective effort toward satisfying the needs of our international customers. The communication around marketing, the quality of crop and learning the needs of our buyers all work together to help us as farmers support our customers and make better decisions. Whether meeting in person or virtually, it helps us align on a common goal to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of soy. Joel Schreurs, Director, U.S. Soybean Export Council and American Soybean Association; U.S. soybean farmer from Minnesota Technology makes us considerably more efficient. Every two-and-a-half-acre parcel of land on our farm has a different prescription as far as what fertilizer is needed and what the crop itself will utilize. We maintain records each year to learn how to be better stewards of the land, which benefits the environment and enhances our yields for the future. In order to allow participants from multiple time zones to participate in this event, the presentations were repeated twice within each 24-hour period. Click here to learn more and/or request a recording of the conference. ABOUT U.S. SOYBEAN EXPORT COUNCIL The U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) is a dynamic partnership of U.S. soybean producers, processors, commodity shippers, merchandisers, allied agribusinesses, and agricultural organizations working to build preference for U.S. Soy throughout the world. Through a global network of international offices and strong support in the U.S., USSEC works to build a preference for U.S. soybeans and soybean products, advocates for the use of soy in feed, aquaculture and human consumption, promotes the benefits of soy use through education, and connects industry leaders through a robust membership program. USSEC is partially funded by the United Soybean Board. Learn more at www.ussec.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005753/en/ While some Massachusetts businesses across the state are resorting to layoffs and furloughs, other companies are taking the opportunity to expand their rosters. Sixty-two percent of New England companies are still hiring, according to a survey from Boston-based Keystone Partners, a career management and leadership development consulting firm. The Business Journal has reached out to local recruiters, business leaders and venture capital firms to get the latest leads on who's hiring in Massachusetts. We've compiled the list below and plan to update this page regularly over the coming days and weeks. TECH SALES 3XR Inc., a Wakefield-based startup in the 3D content production space, is looking for a vice president of sales with four-plus years of experience in software-as-a-service sales. Frase Inc., which is developing an AI-based software to answer customers' questions on websites, is hiring a director of sales who'll report directly to CEO Tomas Ratia. Westford-based Biscom, a provider of secure document transfer solutions, said in an email to the Business Journal it is looking for an enterprise sales account executive as well as other roles. Candidates can take a look at the careers page Cambridge-based Pega, which is hiring across all departments, is looking for a sales associate with 1-3 years of direct sales or business development experience, among other roles. MARKETING Lovepop, a Boston-based maker of 3D pop-up greeting cards, is looking to fill two entry-level marketing roles, one for an email marketing coordinator and another for a business analyst with 1-3 years direct experience in digital marketing. Boston-based cybersecurity firm Cybereason is hiring a head of content marketing with 5+ years in a marketing content or editorial-related role, with technology industry experience (cybersecurity preferred). PRODUCT MANAGEMENT FINANCE This article originally appeared on the Boston Business Journals website. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Monday that Maryland has purchased 500,000 tests from South Korea, saying the Trump administration "made it clear over and over again" that states "have to go out and do it ourselves." Testing shortages have stymied the pandemic response across the country, sparking friction between the White House and governors. Over the weekend, Hogan, a Republican, disputed President Donald Trump's assertion that states already had enough tests, calling the White House messaging "just absolutely false." The president struck back during his televised briefing on Monday, saying Hogan "didn't understand" his state's testing capacity, despite efforts by the federal government to provide lists of labs where additional testing could be done. Hogan, asked about that issue, had told reporters that most of the Maryland labs identified by the White House were at federal installations such as the National Institutes of Health and Fort Detrick, and some had not been helpful in assisting with testing. "We already knew where all of the labs were," Hogan said. "We've been pushing to get NIH to help us with testing for more than a month now." He later tweeted: "I'm grateful to President Trump for sending us a list of federal labs and generously offering Maryland use of them for #COVID19 testing. Accessing these federal labs will be critical for utilizing the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea." The $9 million shipment is equivalent to one test for about every 12 Marylanders - a major step toward meeting the state's goal of testing 10,000 a day, Hogan said. As of Monday morning, public and private labs in Maryland had administered 71,397 coronavirus tests. The governor said he wants to double Maryland's daily testing goal to 20,000 and cautioned that the state needs other supplies, such as swabs and reagents. District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, both Democrats, have also cited broader testing as an important milestone to reach before they and Hogan can consider a coordinated easing of restrictions in the greater Washington region, where the reported coronavirus caseload climbed past 25,000 on Monday. Fatalities in D.C., Maryland and Virginia nearly reached the 1,000 mark. Maryland's deal with South Korea began nearly a month ago, with a Saturday night phone call by Hogan and his wife, Yumi, in the first lady's native tongue. Hogan asked his wife, who was born in rural South Korea, to join him on the line with Lee Soo Hyuck, the Republic of Korea's ambassador to the United States. The couple had visited the ambassador's home in Washington with other governors a few weeks earlier. President Moon Jae-in phoned in via videoconference to say how proud Korea was of Yumi - believed to be the first Korean American first lady in U.S. history. "We made a personal plea, in Korean, asking for their assistance," the governor recalled Monday. "That call set in motion 22 straight days of vetting, testing, negotiations, and protocols between our scientists and doctors, eight Maryland state government agencies and our counterparts in Korea." He said negotiations took place almost nightly, and "sometimes, it seemed like all night." While the chartered Korean Air flight was en route to Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport, the state was busy securing last-minute approvals from federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Hogan said. The governor said he was worried the federal government would seize the tests but declined to say the steps he took to make sure that didn't happen. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden cited Maryland's purchase in a statement about the Trump administration's response to the pandemic, which he called "so slow, and so ineffective, that the Governor of Maryland- a Republican - had to turn to South Korea to get badly-needed tests." In Virginia on Monday, Northam announced he has formed a task force that "will work to increase testing volume and timeliness, to decrease backlogs and keep up with demand." While the state still lacks swabs, chemical reagents and other crucial elements, Northam said state labs, private health systems and colleges and universities have marshaled enough resources to begin creating a systematic approach to testing that will help officials better understand the spread of the disease. Northam said Vice President Mike Pence, in a Monday call with governors, offered federal assistance in testing at nursing homes and other institutions serving the vulnerable. But the governor also complained that the federal government has not followed through on its responsibility to help states get access to supplies. "That was the conversation that we had with the vice president today," Northam said. "I think they understand that, and are working on not only manufacturing more of those swabs but also in dispersing and directing those to states that need it the most." In the District, officials have started deploying rapid coronavirus testing equipment at institutions serving the vulnerable. City officials say their public health lab has the capacity to test up to 500 a day but does not get that many requests. They are encouraging anyone with symptoms to seek tests - not just those in high-risk groups. Officials said the city is also watching for declines in reports of flu-like illnesses, in addition to lab-confirmed coronavirus cases, and monitoring the availability of personal protective equipment for health professionals, as it weighs whether and when to lift restrictions. Under current orders, nonessential businesses will remain closed at least until May 15 in the District, May 10 in Maryland and May 8 in Virginia, where a stay-at-home order is in place until June 10. Maryland late last week extended school closures at least through May 15, while the District and Virginia have closed schools through the end of the academic year. Officials also are monitoring the number of people hospitalized to gauge the progress of the pandemic. Virginia reported 600 new hospitalizations over the past week, while Maryland reported about 1,000. Neither state showed significant declines in the number of daily admissions. More than 400 people were hospitalized with covid-19, the disease the virus causes, in the District as of Monday, with 120 in intensive care units and 59 requiring ventilators. That's an increase from 295 hospitalized as of last Monday, with 94 in intensive care and 31 requiring hospitalizations. Officials say D.C. hospitals are running at about 70% capacity and have not needed the extra hospital beds originally projected to be needed in mid-April. The city is turning its downtown convention center into a care facility for patients with mild covid-19 symptoms. By early May, the center should be able to treat up to 500, officials said. The District, Maryland and Virginia on Monday reported a total of 66 new covid-19 fatalities and more than 1,400 positive test results received. Those results generally reflect tests taken a week ago or more, and infections contracted a week or more before that. The three jurisdictions have reported roughly 60 to 70 deaths daily for the past five days. The District added 134 covid-19 cases and nine new fatalities, pushing the city's death toll to 105. Maryland added 855 new cases, its highest single-day increase in two weeks. More than a quarter of the cases are located in Prince George's County, which leads the state in both infections and deaths. The county added seven deaths, bringing its total fatalities to 112. Neighboring Montgomery County reported 140 new cases and 10 new deaths. In Virginia, there were 453 new infections, nearly half located in the D.C. suburbs. The Fairfax health district, which encompasses Fairfax County, Fairfax City and Falls Church, reported 150 new cases, while Prince William County and Alexandria City added 59 and 38 cases, respectively. There were also 23 new deaths recorded in Virginia, including 11 in Fairfax. While the District has largely avoided protests against social distancing measures, both Annapolis and Richmond have seen small pockets of resistance. A demonstration in Annapolis on Monday attracted fewer people than media inquiries, according to state officials, after a somewhat larger demonstration last week. Maryland legislative leaders announced Monday they would not reconvene in May, weeks after ending their session early for the first time since the Civil War. They cited the danger of covid-19 but did not rule out returning for a special session later this year if necessary. The Republican Party of Virginia, meanwhile, echoed Trump's recent criticism of Virginia's shutdown, in an email that also called for Virginians to "liberate" themselves. The party urged reporters attending Northam's news briefing to "consider asking him if shutting down Virginia is actually for our health." The jabs drew criticism from Northam, who said Republicans - including at the federal level - are sending "mixed messages." On the one hand, the governor said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is guiding states to look for 14 days of declining infections before reopening. "And two days later we see tweets that say to liberate Virginia," Northam said. "What this has done is, I guess, entitled folks to have protests, not only in Virginia but in other states." "I am just as anxious as anybody else out there to relieve these restrictions," Northam said. "I really don't need people protesting to encourage me to open up our economy any sooner than we can do safely and responsibly." - - - Schneider reported from Richmond. The Washington Post's Rebecca Tan, Laura Vozzella in Richmond and Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report. Comedian Chonda Pierce gets candid about depression, offers useful advice during lockdown Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Bestselling female comedian Chonda Pierce has been keeping her audiences laughing on social media during the quarantine and shared with The Christian Post her advice for anyone who's suffering from depression. Mandated social-distancing, lockdowns and other life-altering changes caused by the coronavirus have folks stressed, depressed, and struggling with faith in God. People could use some laughs, Pierce told The Christian Post in an interview. Over the years, laughter has been good medicine that has helped me navigate personal pain, tragedy, grief and depression. In fact, according to a 15-year Nord-Trndelag Health Study released in 2016, laughter decreases mortality rates on infection-related illnesses. While Pierce had to postpone her comedy tour to safeguard her fans' health during the COVID-19 crisis, she told CP that shes keeping herself encouraged. "I am blessed. If worst comes to worst, I'll sell my house and find a smaller spot. The good thing about growing up poor, you never forget being poor. So I've been poor before and I can be poor again if I have to. That's the silver lining of being poor. I know how to eat macaroni and cheese for a week. If I have to that's what we'll do, but I'm blessed that I won't have to, she said of having to cancel her tour. The recently widowed Pierce said her husband was really smart about putting money aside before his death and now she's following the tradition. "While I'm OK. I try to do my best at helping those that are struggling and right now my heart goes out to the small business owners, she said. Pierce has been charitable during the quarantine and blessed people in her community by buying pizza for them from her favorite restaurant to help drive business to the pizza shop. "My biggest sadness is there's going to be so many organizations and great restaurants and wonderful places [hurt financially], and this is gonna be a financial struggle for the whole world. Those are the scary things, she continued. Throughout the years, Pierce has been transparent about her struggle with depression and the fact that she takes medication for clinical depression. I'm blessed that the Lord has provided wonderful doctors for me and medicine and all that, but this is a time when Satan can use these days to just really play tricks on your mind, she maintained. You'll feel like no one else is going through this. Well, to look on the bright side, the whole world is going through this. You're not alone down there. As much as the devil would like to trick you and make you think you're alone. The entire world is shut down. Remember that nobody's picking on you. Heaven is not picking on you, the whole world is going through this together, Pierce stressed. For those who might be suffering from depression during the coronavirus pandemic, the Christian comic shared her tips for coping. "One of the things that I like to do and I tell my friends who struggle with depression to do it all the time and it's one of your best tools on the planet, is Post-it notes or just a piece of paper and a piece of tape, she said before elaborating. "Every time a good day comes to mind, a memory of a wonderful day [write it down]. Maybe it was a birthday party you had, or a job that you've got that you never dreamed you were going to get. Maybe it was the day you got married, maybe that was the most beautiful day of your life. Whatever those days are, you write a word or the description or the date down on a Post-it note and you put it on your fridge or your mirror, a place that you're gonna look often and you just start filling up that mirror with good days and good memories and good thoughts, Pierce said. "Before long you will step back and see this beautiful tapestry of what God's walked you through and all the fun things He's provided. If that has happened in the past, there's no reason to think He will stop doing that. Pierce said the point is to realize the patterns of ones life and then use those memories as a weapon against the lies of the enemy. You can tell the devil, 'Look here, Look what God did for me in the last two years of my life. Look, what I walked through, look what I did.' And you will see the hand of God in your life. It just kind of kicks the devil in the gut, she declared. You know what devil, this is not gonna last forever 'cause look at how many days I had good days. "We're always lamenting about the past that we cannot change. I like to think about the joyful days that I've had and think on those things. The Bible says whatsoever's pure, [and] good, think of these things. If that pattern is true for your life, it will be true again. Pierce believes that someday, overcoming COVID-19 will also be written on a Post-it note. Remember when we went through that virus thing, and we got through it?'" she illustrated. The Kentucky native said the first this shell do once the lockdown is lifted is hug people. "I'm a hugger. I love hugging. I don't shake people's hands, I'm hugging. I will say, for people that think thats weird, the whole world will turn into huggers, she joked. Lastly, Pierce encouraged everyone to pursue positive things during this time. "Be intentional; it's easy to find the bad news. Be intentional about looking for the good news. Be intentional about finding funny stuff. Let's be intentional about what we're filling our minds up with. It's OK to stay informed, but once you are, turn that TV off. Turn the news off," Pierce said. Pierce continues to be active on Facebook Live providing laughter for her of fans. It's the question on the minds of Americans everywhere: When will this all be over? As it stands in this coronavirus pandemic, the answer remains entirely unclear. Health experts have said the United States needs to rapidly increase its ability to test people for the virus in order to safely reopen without sparking a new wave of infections. Many governors have asked the federal government -- which has refused to take responsibility for shortages -- to help ramp up that testing capability. Still, some Americans, fed up with more than a month of lockdowns, restrictions and widespread unemployment, have begun pushing for an immediate reopening in protests around the country. Egged on by President Donald Trump, the protesters have accused Republican and Democratic governors and public health officials of limiting their "liberty" and "freedom" with government restrictions intended to stop the rapidly spreading illness from moving through communities and overwhelming hospitals. In Denver, the protests led a small group of health care workers to stand in front of their cars as a form of counterprotest. The government's restrictions have so far slowed -- but not stopped -- the virus. For example, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the state has passed the peak of its outbreak. Even so, 500 people died and more than 1,300 people were newly hospitalized with Covid-19 just on Sunday. "We can control the beast, yes, but the beast is still alive," he said. "We did not kill the beast. And the beast can rise up again." In all, there have been at least 40,700 deaths and more than 760,570 cases of coronavirus in the US as of Monday morning, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Some states have loosened aspects of the shutdown, and several regional groups of states have discussed strategies to reopen with each other. "It's not going to be a light switch," said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. "They're going to reopen gradually over the course of May and June." Harvard researchers warned that if the country wants the economy to open back up -- and stay that way -- testing must go up to at least 500,000 people per day. Testing nationwide is currently at 150,000 per day, they said, adding that "If we can't be doing at least 500,000 tests a day by May 1, it is hard to see any way we can remain open." States want testing capacities expanded Over the weekend, President Trump said governors across the country had the capacity to complete more testing but weren't utilizing their resources properly. "They don't want to use all of the capacity that we've created. We have tremendous capacity," Trump said during a White House briefing. "They know that. The governors know that. The Democrat governors know that. They're the ones that are complaining." Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam called the President's comments "delusional." Northam said he wants to see at least two weeks of trending numbers of coronavirus cases decreasing before businesses in his state reopen. "We want to make sure we're doing it responsibly and we're doing it safely," the Democratic governor told CNN's Jake Tapper on The State of the Union. "We've been fighting for testing. It's not a straightforward test. We don't even have enough swabs believe it or not," Northam said. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker gave similar remarks Sunday. He said he wants things to be reopen so residents can enjoy recreation this summer but said they need to listen to scientists and doctors investigating the virus before they can comfortably and safely reopen businesses to the public. In order to safely do so, the state needs more lab technicians, more reagent and more RNA extractors to analyze specimens taken, Pritzker said. Protests call for quick reopenings Despite several state leaders announcing their intention to reopen, over the weekend many civilians held protests across the country demanding to be let back to work to try and resuscitate the economy. Over the weekend, protesters flooded Austin calling for the reopening of businesses. Similar protests were held in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina and Utah last week. More protests are planned for Monday in upstate New York, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Missouri. "Shutdown the shutdown," one protest sign in Maryland said. On Monday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to announce orders that will lift restrictions on beach, river and lakefront access as well as allow shoppers to return to retail stores to purchase jewelry, clothing, and furniture, according to a report from The Post and Courier. Despite the expected reopening of some sectors of South Carolina, a coalition of coastal towns in the Charleston area said in a joint statement Sunday that they will continue to limit access to nonresidents and monitor travel within their jurisdictions. Other states are working on plans to reopen following the release of guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week that emphasized the need for states to expand their testing capacity. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced three orders and the establishment of a Strike Force to Open Texas. The team will work to develop strategies, standards and time frames for reopening businesses. Abbott plans to announce a plan to reopen on April 27, according to the order. Social distancing remains vital Aside from testing for the virus itself, antibody tests are being considered as a main component in determining reopening, Dr. Stephen Hahn, the FDA Commissioner, said in a statement Saturday. "Results from these tests can help identify who has been infected and developed antibodies that may protect from future infection as well as identify those still at risk," the statement said. As promising as these tests could be, the FDA statement said that it is still unknown if people with antibodies are fully protected from reinfection or how long their immunity might last. Despite the lack of information on how effective the current antibody testing will be, Gov. Cuomo said Sunday that the state will undertake the "most aggressive" statewide antibody testing survey in the country. "We are going to start antibody testing across the state (Monday)," Cuomo said. "We are going to do that in the most aggressive way in the nation. This will be the first true snapshot of exactly how many people were infected by COVID-19 and where we are as a population and will help us to reopen and rebuild without jeopardizing what we've already accomplished." If and when restrictions are lifted they will need to monitor infection and hospitalization rates and adjust their plan accordingly. "And if we went through all of this and lost all of these people and forced essential workers and hospital workers to do unbelievable tasks to get us through this crisis and we recreate the crisis, then shame on us," Cuomo said. BLOOMINGTON, Ind. The wife of a southern Indiana mayor has been hospitalized for more than a week with a coronavirus infection and her mother died last week from the illness. Bloomington Mayor John Hamiltons wife, Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen, wrote in a Facebook post Monday that she was in her ninth day at IU Health Bloomington Hospital. Johnsen said her breathing had improved and pneumonia eased in the last couple days, making her hopeful of returning home in the coming days. But Johnsen wrote that her 79-year-old mother, Carolyn R. Johnsen, of Bloomington, died Thursday in the Philadelphia area, where she became ill with COVID-19 while visiting another family member. Our family got to say our goodbyes but, in these surreal, terrible times, only by phone, without the tender kisses and embraces we desperately wanted to share, Johnsen wrote. JERUSALEM, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival, Benny Gantz, signed on Monday a deal to form an emergency unity government. The deal, between Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party and Gantz's centrist White and Blue party, ends more than a year of a political stalemate. "We have a national emergency government," Gantz wrote on Twitter. He said the deal has spared Israel a fourth round of elections in about a year, vowing "to fight the coronavirus and serve the entire people of Israel." "I secured a national emergency government that will act to save the lives and the livelihood of the citizens of Israel," Netanyahu said in a separate statement issued by his office. Under the power-sharing deal, a copy of which was seen by Xinhua, Netanyahu will serve as prime minister for 18 months before being replaced by Gantz, who will serve the post for another 18 months, as part of a rotation deal that will be bound by law. Before taking the helm, Gantz will serve as defense minister, while Gabi Ashkenazi, a former military chief from Blue and White, will serve as foreign minister. The governing coalition will also include a bloc of Jewish ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties, which sit in Netanyahu's current government. The deal put under question Netanyahu's controversial promise to annex the West Bank's Jordan Valley, which was a major part of U.S. President Donald Trump's so-called peace plan for the Middle East. The deal does not straightforwardly cancel the annexation but states that such a move could be made only if it will not harm regional stability and future prospects for peace. The Palestinians firmly oppose the annexation because the Jordan Valley is part of the West Bank, a territory seized by Israel in a 1967 war, where the Palestinians wish to build their future state. Ayman Odeh, leader of the Arab-Jewish Joint List party, Israel's third-largest party, criticized Gantz for choosing to join forces with "the corruption and racism." The deal "is a slap in the face of the majority of citizens who repeatedly voted to oust Netanyahu," Odeh wrote on Twitter, referring to Gantz's main campaign promise that he will not sit in a government with Netanyahu as a prime minister. The deal comes a day after more than 2,000 Israelis took to Tel Aviv's main plaza, calling for Netanyahu's resignation over a series of criminal cases in which he is involved. The opening session of his trial is scheduled to begin on May 24, where he will face a series of corruption charges. Many lawmakers with the opposition criticized the size of the government and its high costs during the economic crisis inflicted by the coronavirus, with about a quarter of the Israelis becoming unemployed. Under the deal, the government will include up to 36 ministers and 16 deputy ministers, the largest government in the history of Israel. "This is Gantz's and Ashkanzi's only contribution to the war against unemployment," Ofer Shelah, a lawmaker with Yesh Atid, a centrist party and Gantz's former partner, wrote on Twitter. The deal comes after a period of 484 days in which Israel has an interim government in the wake of three rounds of inconclusive elections in about a year. Enditem The New York State Long Term Care Ombudsman Program is a resident-centered and resident-directed advocacy program available to anyone residing in a nursing home, adult care facility or family-type home across the state. The Long Term Care Ombudsman Program sponsored by ARISE Inc. covers Onondaga, Oswego, Cortland and Cayuga counties. Ombudsmen advocate for residents to address quality of life and quality of care issues along with residents rights concerns. At this time when visitation to facilities has been restricted, we would like families and residents to know that the ombudsman program must also abide by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state Department of Health guidelines for no in-person visitation. With that said, our office remains fully able to accept and receive phone calls regarding any concerns or questions you may have about care. Please call (315) 671-5108 to contact us. Our certified ombudsman volunteers will be ready to return to their weekly commitment once the visitation restriction has been lifted. As you can imagine, residents are in much need of an advocacy program during this unprecedented time. We will be scheduling our next training session when social distancing protocols are lifted, at which time we will be looking for new volunteers to become ombudsmen and help us advocate on behalf of our long-term care residents. Jeff Parker Syracuse Jeff Parker is regional ombudsman coordinator for ARISE Inc. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Due to the various movement restrictions and large volume of patients in hospitals, demand for telehealth services has increased in order to meet the physical and mental health needs of people. AXA recently partnered with Tencent Trusted Doctors, a major online medical service provider in China, to provide 24/7 access to teleconsultations through a dedicated hotline for AXA customers and employees. According to AXA, the online platform is supported by 450,000 professional medical doctors and psychologists. The insurer also announced that it will launch a dedicated mental wellness helpline next month, which can be accessed via chat and video on the WeChat platform. Read more: AXA Asias Gordon Watson on how the insurer deals with COVID-19 In various markets across Asia, AXA has seen increased usage of its telehealth services, such as in Indonesia, where AXAs partner Halodoc was among the 20 telehealth providers listed by the governments virus task force on its website. In the Philippines, AXA and MyPocketDoctor have extended free medical teleconsultation services to all of the insurers life insurance customers and select general insurance clients, reaching around 750,000 individuals. In Thailand, Krungthai-AXA Life offers telemedicine to policyholders currently using services through its partners BDMS network hospitals and Praram 9 Hospital. During these anxious times, we want to support everyones mental well-being as well as prevent infection, said Gordon Watson, CEO of AXA Asia. Our response focuses on ensuring continuity of service amid the disruption, by leveraging telemedicine and digital channels to support customers and patients. Telehealth has proven its essential value, as clinics and hospitals become overwhelmed, and supports social distancing to prevent further infection. A key advantage of telehealth is also its ability to provide care to patients in vulnerable, rural areas, which lack sufficient healthcare access. As part of its worldwide support efforts, AXA is also donating to the 101 Fund, which is providing financial support to 1,200 intensive care units in 60 countries, including 100 intensive care units in Asia. To allow its employees to also take part in the initiative, the company has begun a voluntary programme, AXA Hearts in Action, where colleagues can post a message of support on social media for Fund 101 and, in return, AXA will donate 5 for every post. Employees can also make personal donations. - Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi said some Kenyans were flouting safety measures despite the threat posed by COVID-19 - The administrator said the culprits would be brought to book - Blogger Robert Alai had shared an alleged video of Kenyans at KMTC escaping by jumping over the fence Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Mercy Mwangangi has said the government is investigating reports quarantined Kenyans escaped from the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC). The CAS said the Ministry of Health was investigating the incident in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior as it was reported 50 Kenyans escaped and could put the lives of others at risk. READ ALSO: Kenyans angry at Uhuru for allocating Raila KSh 72M. "Evacuate citizens in China first" Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi warned the youth against flouting COVID-19 safety measures thinking they could not contract the disease. Photo: MoH. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Billionaire Chris Kirubi offers to support vulnerable families during fight against COVID-19 Speaking while giving the daily COVID-19 update on Tuesday, April 21, Mwangangi said the culprits would be brought to book if indeed the reports were true. "We have reports (of the escape) from KMTC and we have also seen social media reports on the same. We have activated our channels through the Ministry of Interior who are following up on the issue," she said. READ ALSO: COVID- 19: Rais wa Sierra Leone kujiweka karantini baada ya mlinzi kuambukizwa virusi Blogger Robert Alai had shared an alleged video of Kenyans escaping by jumping over the KMTC fence. "People quarantined escaping from KMTC," he tweeted. His post sparked conversations on Twitter. Their escape would jeopardise government efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus as the number of infections went up once again. Mwangangi confirmed 15 new cases of COVID-19 bringing the national tally to 296. Out of the 15 new patients, Mwangangi said seven were from Mombasa county, six from Nairobi and two from Mandera and had no history of recent travel. They were aged 19 to 75 years. "This is a clear indication that the infection is increasingly growing within our communities and thus it is very critical that we observe the measures that we put in place with regard to containment," said the CAS who lashed at the youth who thought they were immune to the disease. 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from Covid-19 in Kenya | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Companies of all shapes and sizes are impacted by the measures rolled out to control COVID-19, Photo: Le Toan Right after the information about the dialogue came out, businesses rushed to register for participation as they have innumerable petitions waiting to send to the prime minister. We are struggling to survive. We need urgent support. I wish I could directly submit the petition to the prime minister, said Nguyen Thi Thanh, director of Mai Thanh Co., Ltd. We are applying for debt payment extension, but have not been given approval. We are waiting for the governments supporting policies to be realised. Thanh is one of hundreds of domestic and international businesses queueing for the opportunity to raise their proposals at the upcoming event. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that the pandemic is having a big impact on the countrys socio-economic development. This dialogue is very important and necessary, as it shows the governments determination to support businesses, while taking on the dual tasks of giving priority to the pandemic fight and stimulating socio-economic development, stated PM Phuc. The event is expected to focus on solutions, especially financial tools from ministries and local authorities to support domestic and foreign investors, spur on business activities, and improve the business climate, hoping to encourage a new, fresh approach and resolve. The Government Office will report on administrative reform, improvement of business environment, and deployment of public services via the national public service portal for locals and businesses. The Ministry of Finances report will concentrate on strategies and measures for financial supporting tools such as tax, fees, and land leasing fees. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will announce solutions to diversify and ensure supply for all business activities in the country; to strengthen exports, and diversify import-export markets; provide incentives for sectors hardly hit by the outbreak; and speed up large-scale industrial and energy projects. Regarding banking and finance, the State Bank of Vietnam will lay out its proposals on monetary, credit, and lending rate policies to facilitate business and ensure macro-economic stability. The Ministry of Public Security will talk about schemes to ensure social security and create the most favourable conditions for business activities. The Ministry of Information and Communications will outline plans to push the development of digital technology businesses, e-commerce, and e-payment products, and boost ICT application in socio-economic development. Representing the voices of hundreds of domestic and foreign companies, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry will raise its members petitions, and propose possible solutions to pacify the business community. On April 10, PM Phuc also chaired a videoconference with cities and provinces to discuss ways of providing a comprehensive response to the virus impact on business activities and society. Vietnam is implementing stimulus packages in many fields. This will consist of a monetary package of VND300 trillion ($13 billion), a fiscal package of VND180 trillion ($7.8 billion), a social security package of VND62 trillion ($2.7 billion), an electricity price package of VND12 trillion ($521.7 million), and a telecoms charge package of VND15 trillion ($652.2 million). Vietnamese and international companies are experiencing a difficult period amid the serious development of the global health emergency. According to international business associations, including the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, its European counterpart (EuroCham), and the Japan External Trade Organization, COVID-19 has had a significant and negative impact on their members. As shown in EuroChams Business Climate Index 2020 for the first quarter, the index plunged to its lowest-ever score of 26 per cent for the period due to the pandemic. That represents a fall of 51 points from the 77 per cent recorded in late 2019. Similarly, the latest survey of over 1,000 members of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ho Chi Minh City indicates that about 60 per cent of interviewees will be adversely affected by the virus outbreak. MCLA Professor Named Outstanding Educator of the Year by Massachusetts Society of CPAs NORTH ADAMS, Mass. North Adams resident and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts assistant professor Tara Barboza has been selected as the 2020 Outstanding Educator of the Year by the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants, the professional association of certified public accountants, representing over 11,000 members. Each year, the MSCPA recognizes a full-time accounting educator at a college or university who has demonstrated excellence in a classroom teaching, motivating students and inspiring educational innovation. Barboza was selected for her excellence in teaching and motivating students, as well as her contribution to the accounting profession, active participation in the society and her efforts in serving as a liaison between the classroom and the business world. An assistant professor of accounting, business administration and economics, Barboza joined MCLA in 2016 and serves as the coordinator of entrepreneurial programs and on the Academic Policies and Curriculum Committee. She formed an IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program in 2019, creating numerous on-campus internship opportunities for students and providing valuable service-learning experiences. In response to the closure of several area VITA programs because of the coronavirus, Barboza brought the program online, and her students have continued to serve their communities and increase early access to the economic stimulus payments virtually. A valued advisor working with students who are studying public accounting, Barboza is actively involved in the college and local community, working to strengthen ties between MCLA, the Berkshire community and the accounting profession. She co-created the Principals of Accounting Certificate for nontraditional students at MCLA and has created courses in financial literacy and entrepreneurial accounting. Additionally, she is the faculty advisor for the MCLA Accounting Club and works with area accounting firms to create internship opportunities for students. Furthermore, Barboza serves as corporator of the MCLA Foundation and a member of the Foundations Board of Directors. She is also an active member of the MSCPA's Academic and Career Development Committee. "The MSCPA is thrilled to celebrate the achievements of this remarkable woman for her outstanding contributions to her students, her community and the accounting profession," said Amy Pitter, president and CEO of the MSCPA. Barboza has three children with her husband, Michael Hernandez. She is looking forward to her first grandchild this summer. BASEL (dpa-AFX) - Today's Daily Dose brings you news about Bristol-Myers' CheckMate -743 study results; Cyclacel Pharma's entry into COVID-19 drug bandwagon; Exelixis touching a new 52-week high and Novartis exploring anti-malaria drug for COVID-19. Read on. Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) has announced positive results from its CheckMate -743 study. The CheckMate -743 study is a pivotal phase III trial evaluating Opdivo in combination with Yervoy in previously untreated malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Based on a pre-specified interim analysis conducted by the independent Data Monitoring Committee, Opdivo in combination with Yervoy resulted in a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival compared to chemotherapy (pemetrexed and cisplatin or carboplatin), the Company noted. Opdivo and Yervoy, both from the stable of Bristol-Myers Squibb, generated global annual sales of $7.2 billion and $1.49 billion, respectively, in 2019. BMY closed Monday's trading at $61.68, up 1.78%. Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CYCC) has entered into an agreement with the University of Edinburgh to study its clinical-stage drug candidates Fadraciclib (CYC065) and Seliciclib as potential early treatments for the inflammatory response observed in COVID-19 patients. This agreement is part of the University of Edinburgh's project known as STOPCOVID, which aims to test existing and experimental drugs to find a treatment for COVID-19. Professor Kev Dhaliwal, STOPCOVID lead and Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at The University of Edinburgh, said, 'We are eager to evaluate the potential role of Cyclacel's CDK inhibitors as enablers of inflammatory neutrophil apoptosis.' Previously published research from The University of Edinburgh and other investigators have found that CDK inhibitors, including Seliciclib, help resolve undesirable inflammation by promoting apoptosis of inflammatory neutrophils. CDK inhibitors were shown to reduce levels of the anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1 and inhibit transcription of interleukin-6 (IL-6), both of which are believed to be drivers of the overactive systemic inflammatory response severely damaging the lungs of symptomatic COVID-19 patients, the Company noted. CYCC closed Monday's trading at $8.64, up 34.79%. Shares of Exelixis Inc. (EXEL) touched a new 52-week high of $54.90 in intraday trading on Monday, following positive results from CheckMate -9ER study. The CheckMate -9ER study is a pivotal phase III trial evaluating Bristol Myers' Opdivo in combination with Exelixis' CABOMETYX against Pfizer's Sunitinib in previously untreated advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma. The trial met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) at the final analysis, as well as the secondary endpoints of overall survival (OS) at a pre-specified interim analysis, and objective response rate (ORR). If approved, the combination of Opdivo and CABOMETYX may become an important new first-line option for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, noted Toni Choueiri, Director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. CABOMETYX, as monotherapy, is approved for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have been previously treated with Bayer's Nexavar. The annual revenue generated by CABOMETYX was $733 million in 2019 compared to $599.9 million in 2018. EXEL closed Monday's trading at $23.58, up 21.27%. Esperion (ESPR) has entered into a collaboration agreement with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. for the development and commercialization of NEXLETOL and NEXLIZET tablets in Japan. NEXLETOL and NEXLIZET, indicated to reduce LDL cholesterol, were approved in both the US and EU recently. Under the terms of the agreement, Esperion will grant Otsuka exclusive rights to NEXLETOL and NEXLIZET tablet development and commercialization in Japan. Otsuka will be responsible for all development, regulatory, and commercialization activities in Japan. In addition, Otsuka will fund all Japan-specific development costs associated with the program. Esperion estimates this amount to total up to $100 million over the next few years. In return, Esperion will receive an upfront cash payment of $60 million as well as up to an additional $450 million in total development and sales milestones. Esperion will also receive tiered royalties from 15 percent to 30 percent on net sales in Japan. ESPR closed Monday's trading at $40.19, up 7.14%. Novartis (NVS) is all set to proceed with a phase III clinical trial with approximately 440 patients to evaluate the use of malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 disease. The trial will be conducted at more than a dozen sites in the United States, and will be comprised of three groups. The first group will receive Hydroxychloroquine, the second group will receive hydroxychloroquine in combination with Azithromycin, an antibiotic therapy, and the third group will receive placebo. Novartis plans to begin enrollment for this study within the next few weeks and report results as soon as possible. NVS closed Monday's trading at $89.78, up 0.55%. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de By the time shes done, my palms are black and blue and look like a pincushion, with neat little rows of red dots. After the bruising fades, my hands become slightly weak, a side effect I accept in exchange for the joy of liking my hands. Unfortunately, the effects of Botox wear off over time, so I have to undergo this treatment several times a year. If I dont get it done in time, I again face the shame of sweaty hands. Somewhere between 1 percent and 3 percent of the population has palmar hyperhidrosis, so Im not alone. Its a physical problem that often has an inextricable emotional component: When my hands sweat, my anxiety increases; when my anxiety is high, my hands sweat. Ingrained in our society is the belief that the handshake is sacred. My parents taught my sisters and me that a handshake should be strong, in order to convey strength of character. Mine was weak and soggy, and I hated what that conveyed. The prospect of shaking hands with someone fills me with dread, a first impression gone wrong, the outing of an ugly secret I dont want to share. Its agonizing to watch as people flinch at your touch, draw back and wipe their palms on their pants legs. Even with Botox treatments, I detest shaking hands. And I know that those of us with sweaty hands are not the only ones who hate it. My grandmother had arthritis, and a firm handshake could bring her to tears. My best friend, a compulsive nail-biter, describes the convoluted curl she does to hide her fingers from public view; offering her hand in greeting is the last thing she wants to do. And when actor Kumail Nanjiani tweeted recently, I cant imagine ever shaking another hand, the tweet got 50,000 likes in a matter of hours. So now that we know shaking hands contributes to the spread of deadly germs, can we all just agree to eradicate this preposterous custom? What were we thinking, anyhow, when we took a strangers hand in ours, fingers that may have pried a piece of food from a tooth or were used to scratch an itch or wipe a nose? Why mark the occasion of making a new acquaintance by handing the poor sucker norovirus, E. coli or salmonella let alone coronavirus? There are 427 North Carolinians hospitalized for COVID-19, up from 373 on Monday. Guilford Countys Health Department reported 201 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 15 deaths as of noon Tuesday. The pandemic may be slowing enough from a public-health standpoint to consider how to re-open the states economy, Gov. Roy Cooper has said. However, Cooper has stressed it may be weeks before any re-opening initiative can begin. His statewide stay-at-home executive order expires April 29. He said Tuesday he expects to provide new guidance on COVID-19 executive orders, including if he plans to keep schools closed beyond May 15. Cooper has said North Carolina will need more widespread COVID-19 testing, extensive efforts to track down people who have come into contact with the sick, and slowed case and hospital rates before movement and commerce restrictions can ease. Its important to keep a statewide floor ... and important for local governments to have flexibility to do more with their restrictions if they need to, Cooper said. Were leaving open the idea of looking at opening regions of our state, but were not at that point yet. 100 Years Ago 1920: Men who saw service during the Spanish-American War have been invited to take part in the American Day demonstration set for May 1 in this city, when a tablet will be unveiled containing all the names of members of the Chester Fie Department who served in the World War. It is believed that a large number of the vets of the stirring days of 1898 will assist the firemen and the people of Chester in carrying out the American Day program. It was in 98 that America first showed the world what the people of this country were capable of doing, and it is declared that the American Day program will not be complete without the appearance of these men. 75 Years Ago 1945: A bull didnt want to be immortalized into sausage or rib roast so he escaped from the slaughters who were unloading a car at the Chester Packing and Provision Company and kept things stirring in a boiler shop at the Sun Ship before being lassoed. He didnt stop until he crashed the gate at the boiler shop where 50 workers suddenly forgot all about boilers. The atmosphere was a new experience for the bull and he lost precious time snorting and sniffing around, with this puffing and winded audience adding to the respiratory refrain atop all kind of machinery. 50 Years Ago 1970: Weeklong efforts to alert the public to the frailty of the natural environment will peak Wednesday, Earth Day. PMC Colleges, Delaware County Community College, Crozer Theological Seminary and Cabrini College will sponsor ecology speeches, discussions and films. Mock funerals for cars or their engines will occur in at least three communities in the county by weeks end. 25 Years Ago 1995: In an effort to combat vandalism and graffiti, Aston Commissioners this week adopted an ordinance prohibiting the sale of spray paint products to anyone under the age of 18. Anyone violating the ordinance can be fined up to $600. The ban includes sale of spray paint, aerosol paint, paint pellets and balls, or dye. 10 Years Ago 2010: A Chadds Ford woman was charged with simple assault following an incident in the parking lot of the Target Store in Concord Township, police said. The 26-year-old allegedly became involved in a dispute with a 24-year-old New Jersey woman and punched her in the face and pulled hair out of her head. The woman fled prior to state police arriving. She was arrested at her home later in the day and charged accordingly. COLIN AINSWORTH New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale on Tuesday (April 21) termed Palghar mob lynching of three people, including two Sadhus as a black spot on humanity. The Union minister said the culprits of this brutal killing should be punished with rigorous execution. The Republican Party of India (RPI) chief has strongly criticised the last week's lynching incident. On Thursday, two sadhus and their driver were lynched by a mob in Kasa police station limits in neighbouring Palghar district while they were on their way to attend a funeral in Surat in Gujarat amid the lockdown for the coronavirus outbreak. Maharashtra's BJP chief Chandrakant Patil today demanded removal of Home Minister Anil Deshmukh for his `failure' to avoid the Palghar lynching incident. In a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday, Patil also referred to an alleged assault on a man at the house of Jitendra Awhad, another NCP member in the state cabinet. "The chief minister must have been apprised of the incident (of the lynching of three men in Palghar) on the next day after it happened, however, it took Union home minister Amit Shah's phone call and Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis raising his voice to force Thackeray to speak on the issue after four days," Patil said. Patel further said, "The state has witnessed several criminal incidents such as a person was beaten up at a minister's bungalow while a senior IPS official issued a letter to the family of an accused in financial fraud." Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar today also termed the last week's Palghar lynching incident as a "blot on humanity", saying the guilty will get strict punishment as per the law. Ajit Pawar stated that a criminal investigation department (CID) probe is already on into the matter and more than 100 persons have been arrested, adding "The Palghar incident is a blot on humanity, it is condemnable. A CID probe has begun into the incident and more than 100 persons have been arrested. All the guilty will be punished strictly as per law." Earlier in the day, NCP chief Sharad Pawar condemned the incident of mob lynching in Palghar saying "Whatever happened in Palghar should not have happened, it is unfortunate and condemnable. Police acted quickly on them and arrested over 100 people involved in the incident on the same night." He said, "Some people are talking and raising a question about law and order situation of the State even when the incident occurred due to some roumours...this is not good. We make such comments in normal times but this is not the time to do so. We all collectively need to focus on the fight against corona." Meanwhile, Palgarh Police on Sunday arrested 110 people including nine juveniles, in connection with the lynching of three persons by the villagers, suspecting them as thieves. While 101 people have been remanded in police custody till April 30, nine others have been sent to a juvenile home. Military Armoured Vehicle Market Report 2020-2030 LONDON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Forecasts by Vehicle Type (Main Battle Tanks, Medium Armoured Vehicles, Light Protected Vehicles, Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected Vehicles and Other), by System Type (Wheeled and Tracked), and by Country. Plus, Analysis of the Leading Players in the Market Space 2.8bn Boxer armoured vehicle contract signed for British Army Three bidders offer combat vehicles to Czech military, as Germany joint venture bows out GDELS begins Piranha 5 armoured vehicle production in Romania Tunisia to purchase armoured vehicles by Turkey's BMC Bulgaria gets two firm offers in $823 mln armoured vehicle tender These are just some of the business-critical headlines that have surfaced about your industry in the past 12 months. How are you, and your company, reacting to news such as this? By ordering and reading our new report today, you will be fully informed and ready to act. What does the future hold for the Military Armoured Vehicle market? Visiongain's new study supplies the answer to you and provides it to you NOW. In this new, 198-page report, you will receive approximately 200 tables and charts as well as independent, impartial, and objective analysis. To request sample pages from this report please contact Sara Peerun at sara.peerun@visiongain.com or refer to our website: https://www.visiongain.com/report/military-armoured-vehicle-market-report-2020-2030/download_sampe_div By ordering and reading this report today, you will be given: A concise and comprehensive analysis of the Military Armoured Vehicle market from 2020 to 2030. An understanding of not only the financial prospects of the Military Armoured Vehicle industry but also the growth potential of several submarkets - including different vehicle and system types. An informed forecast of the sales of 16 individual countries - Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, Turkey and Singapore. A description of the main drivers and restraints that are affecting the development of the Military Armoured Vehicle market. Profiles of the key players in the industry as well as up-to-date information on their latest agreements and armoured vehicle developments. Predictions for the global market and submarkets - what's possible? Along with an evaluation of the current level of international investment in the Military Armoured Vehicle market, this report provides measured forecasts for three submarkets covering the period 2020 to 2030. Military Armoured Vehicle Market by Vehicle Type, 2020-2030 Main Battle Tanks, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Medium Armoured Vehicles, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Light Protected Vehicles, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected Vehicles, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Other Armoured Vehicles, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Military Armoured Vehicle Market by System, 2020-2030 Wheeled Systems, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Tracked Systems, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Military Armoured Vehicle Market by Country, 2020-2030 Australia Canada China France Germany India Israel Italy Japan Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Turkey United Kingdom United States Rest of World To request a report overview of this report please contact Sara Peerun at sara.peerun@visiongain.com or refer to our website: https://www.visiongain.com/report/military-armoured-vehicle-market-report-2020-2030/ Did you know that we also offer a report add-on service? Email sara.peerun@visiongain.com to discuss any customized research needs you may have. Companies covered in the report include: Allison Transmission AM General Aselsan AxleTech International LLC BAE Systems Bharat Boeing Company Brighton Cromwell LLC Canadian Commercial Corporation Caterpillar Inc. CMI Defence Continental AG Critical Solutions International Cummins Daewoo Heavy Industries and Machinery Ltd. Dew Engineering & Development Diehl BGT Defence Doosan Infracore DRS Technologies Inc. DynCorp International Elbit Systems Finmeccanica/Leonardo General Dynamics Corporation Honeywell Hyundai IBIS TEK Israel Military Industries (IMI) Iveco Japan Steel Works Kharkiv Morozov Machine Design Bureau Kongsberg Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) Kurganmashzavod JSC Lockheed Martin Lycoming Engines Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Navistar International Nexter NORINCO Northrop Grumman Corporation Orbital ATK Oshkosh Corporation Otokar Panhard Paramount Group Patria Plasan Polaris Defense Inc. QinetiQ Ltd Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. Raytheon Renault Trucks Defence RENK AG Rheinmetall AG Ricardo Plc Roketsan Rolls-Royce RUAG Saab Sagem SAIC Samsung (Hanwha) Techwin Singapore Technologies Supacat Systems Products and Solutions, Inc. Textron Thales Group Ultra Armoring & Defense, LLC Universal Engineering Uralvagonzavod JSC To see a report overview please e-mail Sara Peerun on sara.peerun@visiongain.com Related reports: Passive Radar Market 2020-2030 Threat Detection Systems Market Report 2020-2030 Electronically Scanned Arrays Market Report 2020-2030 Drone Payload Market Report 2020-2030 Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/523989/Visiongain_Logo.jpg Regulatory News: Air Liquide (Paris:AI) will invest close to 200 million euros to build production capacities in the Science Parks of Tainan and Hsinchu, respectively located in the South and the North of Taiwan. Under a long-term commitment with a semiconductor market leader, this investment in new production capacity will allow the Group to supply three high volume semiconductor fabrication plants under construction in Tainan Science Park, as well as some of the world's most advanced R&D fabs for logic IC chips in Hsinchu Science Park. Air Liquide, through its majority owned joint-venture Air Liquide Far Eastern, will build, own and operate ultra-high purity hydrogen and oxygen plants in each basin for a total of 5,000 Nm3 of hydrogen per hour and two large scale plants in Hsinchu to produce high-purity nitrogen and argon, for an additional capacity of 120,000 Nm3 of high purity nitrogen per hour. It will also supply large volumes of Helium to these fabs. The first plants are expected to start during the second quarter of 2021 to support the customer's multi-billion-dollar wafer fabs expansion. This breakthrough was in large part driven by Air Liquide's demonstrated record in providing reliable and power-efficient nitrogen and argon production technology and services to its customers, as well as by its capacity to provide low carbon and high-purity hydrogen and oxygen differentiated solutions. Hydrogen will be partially produced from renewable energy sources, which will avoid the emission of an estimated 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) per year Francois Abrial, Member of the Air Liquide Group's Executive Committee supervising Asia Pacific, said: "Reinforcing our current position as a key supplier of high purity nitrogen in the Taichung Science Park in Central Taiwan, Air Liquide is pleased to have been selected as the supplier of high purity gases in both the Tainan and Hsinchu Science Parks. This further recognizes how Air Liquide's demonstrated expertise, innovation and commitment have enabled us to be a partner of the semiconductor industry for more than 30 years in Taiwan and across Asia. In the context of the pandemic, we are proud to support this industry which enables better and faster people connectivity through enhanced IT infrastructure and 5G deployment." Air Liquide Electronics Generating 1.964 million in revenue in 2019, the Electronics business line of Air Liquide is a world reference in designing, manufacturing and supplying ultra high purity gases and advanced materials for this industry. The Electronics business line of Air Liquide is a long-term partner providing innovative and sustainable solutions to the semiconductors, photovoltaics and flat panel displays markets. More than 3,850 specialists worldwide are dedicated to providing the agility and reliability our customers need. www.electronics-airliquide.com A world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, Air Liquide is present in 80 countries with approximately 67,000 employees and serves more than 3.7 million customers and patients. Oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are essential small molecules for life, matter and energy. They embody Air Liquide's scientific territory and have been at the core of the company's activities since its creation in 1902. Air Liquide's ambition is to be a leader in its industry, deliver long term performance and contribute to sustainability. The company's customer-centric transformation strategy aims at profitable, regular and responsible growth over the long term. It relies on operational excellence, selective investments, open innovation and a network organization implemented by the Group worldwide. Through the commitment and inventiveness of its people, Air Liquide leverages energy and environment transition, changes in healthcare and digitization, and delivers greater value to all its stakeholders. Air Liquide's revenue amounted to 22 billion euros in 2019 and its solutions that protect life and the environment represented more than 40% of sales. Air Liquide is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange (compartment A) and belongs to the CAC 40, EURO STOXX 50 and FTSE4Good indexes View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005961/en/ Contacts: Corporate Communications media@airliquide.com Investor Relations IRTeam@airliquide.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 20:40:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, visits a company during his inspection tour in northwest China's Gansu Province, April 18, 2020. Zhao made an inspection tour in Gansu from April 18 to 21. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) LANZHOU, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official has stressed the need to strengthen supervision to promote the implementation of policies and measures set by the CPC Central Committee on coordinating epidemic control and economic and social development. Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, made the instruction during his investigation and research trip in northwest China's Gansu Province from Saturday to Tuesday. He pointed out that follow-up, targeted and full-process supervision should be carried out to provide a strong guarantee for maintaining economic development and social stability as well as for securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eradicating poverty. Zhao visited local villages, a company, a poverty alleviation industrial park and a national laboratory in the region, talking with officials at the primary level as well as members of the public. He urged all Party organizations to align their thinking and actions with the decisions of the CPC Central Committee, and required that all measures to fight the epidemic, stabilize the economy and achieve development are implemented down to every detail. During the trip, Zhao also visited Gansu's discipline inspection and supervisory agencies and presided over a symposium attended by discipline inspection chiefs from seven provincial-level regions. He called on the discipline inspection and supervisory organs to strengthen supervision over the implementation of various policies and measures to secure a decisive victory in eradicating poverty while continuing to do a good job in the supervision of epidemic prevention and control. Enditem TDT | Manama Recent increases in available medical facilities and equipment have bolstered Bahrains proactive and internationally recognised response to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. This was underscored yesterday by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister as he visited a number of COVID-19 healthcare facilities across the Kingdom. HRH the Crown Prince noted that the availability of such facilities has greatly enhanced the Kingdoms ability to contain the virus and treat those infected. HRH the Crown Prince visited yesterday the temporary Intensive Care Unit at Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) Hospital, the Ebrahim Khalil Kanoo Medical Centre used for isolation and treatment in the Salmaniya area, and the Public Health Laboratory within the Ministry of Health to review the Kingdoms ongoing COVID-19 mitigation efforts. A number of senior officials accompanied HRH the Crown Prince during the visits. HRH the Crown Prince highlighted that under the leadership of His Majesty the King, and through HMs far-reaching vision, the Kingdom has accomplished successes across all sectors. HRH the Crown Prince reiterated the Kingdoms commitment to safeguarding the health and safety of citizens and residents by providing treatment and healthcare to all, free of charge. He pointed out that comprehensive access to testing and healthcare have also greatly contributed to the Kingdoms high recovery rates. HRH the Crown Prince commended the strong commitment to social-distancing guidelines demonstrated by the Kingdoms citizens, and stressed that Bahrains diverse population holds the key to combatting the spread of COVID-19. In this regard, HRH the Crown Prince paid tribute to the tireless efforts of the Kingdoms health professionals, praising their unwavering devotion to the continued health and safety of the wider community. The latest analyst coverage could presage a bad day for Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL), with the analysts making across-the-board cuts to their statutory estimates that might leave shareholders a little shell-shocked. Revenue and earnings per share (EPS) forecasts were both revised downwards, with the analysts seeing grey clouds on the horizon. Following the latest downgrade, the 23 analysts covering Halliburton provided consensus estimates of US$15b revenue in 2020, which would reflect a concerning 30% decline on its sales over the past 12 months. The loss per share is anticipated to greatly reduce in the near future, narrowing 69% to US$0.81. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$16b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.20 in 2020. the analysts have made an abrupt about-face on Halliburton, administering a slight decrease in to revenue forecasts and slashing earnings forecasts from profit to loss. Check out our latest analysis for Halliburton NYSE:HAL Past and Future Earnings April 21st 2020 The consensus price target fell 11% to US$10.32, with the analysts clearly concerned about the company following the weaker revenue and earnings outlook. 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. There are some variant perceptions on Halliburton, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$29.00 and the most bearish at US$5.00 per share. As you can see the range of estimates is wide, with the lowest valuation coming in at less than half the most bullish estimate, suggesting there are some strongly diverging views on how think this business will perform. As a result it might not be possible to derive much meaning from the consensus price target, which is after all just an average of this wide range of estimates. Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. Compare this against analyst estimates for companies in the wider industry, which suggest that revenues (in aggregate) are expected to decline 3.0% next year. So it's pretty clear that Halliburton sales are expected to decline at a faster rate than the wider industry. Story continues The Bottom Line The biggest low-light for us was that the forecasts for Halliburton dropped from profits to a loss this year. Unfortunately they also downgraded their revenue estimates, and our aggregation of analyst estimates suggests that Halliburton revenue is expected to perform worse than the wider market. Given the scope of the downgrades, it would not be a surprise to see the market become more wary of the business. As you can see, the analysts clearly aren't bullish, and there might be good reason for that. We've identified some potential issues with Halliburton's financials, such as the risk of cutting its dividend. Learn more, and discover the 1 other concern we've identified, 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. Several studies leveraged this state variation to assess the new formulations impact. An analysis by three economists in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy found that states with the highest rates of original OxyContin misuse had the largest increases in heroin deaths after reformulation. They found that as much as 80% of the threefold increase in heroin mortality between 2010 and 2013 could be attributed to the introduction of abuse-deterrent OxyContin. Overall, the study and others have found that the new version of the drug did not reduce total mortality, but shifted the cause of it from one drug to another. This was welcome news: North Korean Defectors Elected to South Korean National Assembly. I have quoted the headline over this article. The defectors are Thae Yong-ho and Ji Seong-ho. I have met and talked with them both, in years past. They are mind-boggling mind-boggling in their bravery and in the example they set. Of course, you could say this about virtually any North Korean defector. Certainly any of my acquaintance. I wrote about Thae last year, here. He was a diplomat, one of the highest-ranking officials ever to defect from North Korea. You want to see a happy picture from 2017? Thats Ji on the right. On the left is Henry Song, a Korean-American human-rights activist. Im the bozo in the middle. Try to imagine being born in North Korea, a police state, a gulag state a psychotic state, as Jeane Kirkpatrick called it. The worst place on earth. After many tribulations, you are elected to the legislature in a free, democratic country. Its not the country of your birth, and you wish it were. But still. And what do North Korea and South Korea say about DNA as destiny? About culture, about political systems? People have the same ancestry, in North and South. They speak the same language. They have the same folk customs. They eat the same food (to the extent that North Koreans can eat). But one half lives in the darkness of tyranny and the other half lives in the light of democracy. This is something to remember, the next time someone tells you that this people or that is not fit for freedom and democracy. (You know who is most interested in telling you that? Ruling parties, and their apologists.) Let me do some quoting just a little from my piece on Thae Yong-ho: How do South Koreans, his brother Koreans, treat Thae? It depends, he says. South Korea is polarized on the issue of North Korea. People on the left treat him with scorn. I remark that they might try living in North Korea, if they think its so great which makes Thae smile. . . . In South Korea, he meets people on the left who struggled for democracy and human rights in their country, when it was under dictatorship. Yet many of these same people are reluctant to talk about democracy and human rights for North Koreans. They want to change the subject. I remark to Thae that it must be bewildering to him to meet apologists for dictatorships especially North Koreas, the worst in free countries. Yes. Story continues Dispiriting. But in my experience, however limited, the spirits of Thae Yong-ho and Ji Seong-ho are very high. And these men have been elected, havent they? Move, now, to U.S. politics. I believe I have seen the most populist move ever ever. It was executed by Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who, in this pandemic, has declared professional wrestling an essential service. I think that the great populists of the past Huey Long, George Wallace and even the incumbent president, Donald Trump, would have to stand back in admiration, going Dayum. Said DeSantis, I think people have been starved for content. And what content! Governor DeSantis demonstrated his populist skills when he was running for the office in 2018. He cut an ad, showing him as a parent. He and his little daughter play with blocks, as the governor-to-be says, Build the wall. He reads to his infant son out of The Art of the Deal. Then, Mr. Trump said, Youre fired! Etc. These guys know what it takes to get elected. Thats why theyre there. They are clever as all get-out. Then, of course, they have to govern. And it can be very hard as now. I dont envy the governors, for the decisions they have to make. What kind of lockdown should they impose, if any? The governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, is knocked for being too strict. DeSantis is knocked for being too lax. What side are you going to err on? I think youre damned if you do, damned if you dont. This is an excruciating period. When I made this point on Twitter, lots of people responded, You err on the side of freedom! Freedom, dammit! This is America! Freedom! Great. But what if your personal decisions affect the health of others? If you want to take risks, fine and dandy. If you want to engage in dangerous rock climbing and risk tumbling to your death who am I to stop you? But what if the risks you take put others in jeopardy? This is why this situation is so tricky, even diabolical. Trump referred to the governor of Michigan as Half Whitmer. Get it? Others are referring to her as Hitmer. Get it? Protesters in Lansing held signs that said, Heil, Hitmer. You know, I dont see why they cant pick another dictator. Its always Hitler. Its never Stalin, Mao, Bokassa, Pol Pot, Mengistu, Castro (either one of them). There are so many to choose from. And yet its always Hitler. People ought to use more imagination. On Friday, Trump tweeted, LIBERATE MICHIGAN! He also tweeted, LIBERATE MINNESOTA! and so on. These are states with Democratic governors. Laura Ingraham, the Fox host, tweeted, How many of those who urged our govt to help liberate the Iraqis, Syrians, Kurds, Afghanis, etc., are as committed now to liberating Virginia, Minnesota, California, etc? How does that thinking strike you? Reasonable? It is certainly popular check out the ratings. I believe we have reached a tipping point. Its just an impression, nothing scientific. But social distancing is now seen by many people as politically correct. Thats exactly how President Trump described it and millions take their lead from him. A Left-Right divide has developed on this thing, as it routinely does. You can only guess that this divide will widen as this pandemic wears on. In an Impromptus earlier this month, I commented on the presidents predilection for third-rate. Its his go-to phrase, when he is irked at someone. He calls that person third-rate. He did this during the 2016 campaign, irked at Hugh Hewitt. He called Hugh a third-rate radio announcer. Last month, he tweeted that Rep. Thomas Massie was a third rate Grandstander. (Capital G, even!) More recently, he called Jonathan Karl a third-rate reporter who will never make it. (Karl is the White House correspondent of ABC News.) And now he has done the same, with Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: a third-rate reporter. I feel the same about this as I do about the Hitler thing. Cant Trump shake it up a little? Go for fourth-rate or fifth- or even second-? Always third? This article was amazing because it reported something positive about a cruise. Cruise ships are supposed to be floating petri dishes, the worst places possible in plague-time. But some 1,800 passengers dont want to get off! Lets read a bit: Passengers on a luxury liners around-the-world cruise, begun before the globe was gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, are finally approaching the end of their odyssey after 15 weeks at sea. Their ship, the Costa Deliziosa, heads to ports in Spain and Italy, two of the countries most devastated by the coronavirus outbreak. Costa Crociere, an Italian cruise company, said Saturday that the Deliziosa, which set sail from Venice in early January with 1,831 passengers, has reached the western Mediterranean, with no cases of COVID-19 aboard. Oh, man. A cosa deliziosa indeed. (A delicious thing, as opposed to a costa deliziosa, which is a delicious coast, which, true, is also a delicious thing.) (Whos on first?) I did a lot of writing a lot of writing about Linda Tripp, way back. The Lewinsky scandal was multifaceted. I had the Tripp facet, pretty much, at The Weekly Standard, and then a bit here at National Review. May I quote you an editorial paragraph a little obit in the new issue of NR? Linda Tripp is a footnote in American political history, a figure in the Lewinsky scandal, which led to the impeachment of President Clinton. She was the onetime White House aide who had a friendship with Monica Lewinsky, and who taped some of their phone conversations. Linda Tripp eventually handed over those tapes to the independent counsel. To her enemies, she was a snitch, a traitor, the villain of the piece. She was subject to fierce, animal hatred, including many jibes at her looks. These came, in particular, from female defenders of the president. To her own defenders, she was one of the few truth-seekers and -tellers in Washington, blowing the whistle on an immoral and dishonest president. At every step, she handled herself with dignity and even courage. In 2003, she said to an interviewer, I think history will see things through a prism that will make it easier to understand that it wasnt black and white. Linda Tripp has died at 70. R.I.P. Far be it from me to indulge in marriage counseling, unsolicited. But I know that there is great strain on marriages, in this freaky time. Strain owing to fear, loss of income, over-togetherness . . . The other night, I thought of an old hymn, which begins Speak gently. Do you know it? Go here. Fine old hymn, in freaky times and normal. Thank you for joining me today, yall, and see you soon. If youd like to receive Impromptus by e-mail links to new columns write to jnordlinger@nationalreview.com. More from National Review North Korean leader Kim Jong-un / Korea Times file South Korea has seen no unusual signs with regard to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's health, government officials said Tuesday, after CNN reported that Kim is "in grave danger after a surgery." CNN cited an unidentified "U.S. official with direct knowledge" but offered no further details. "There are no unusual signs in North Korea," a government official told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity. "It is not a fact." Another official said there have been no signs detected with regard to Kim's health, emphasizing that Kim had continued to be seen in public until recently. A spokesperson of Cheong Wa Dae also said that no unusual signs have been detected about Kim's health. The CNN report came after the Daily NK, a South Korean internet news outlet specializing in North Korea news, reported that Kim has been receiving medical treatment at a villa in the resort county of Hyangsan, outside of Pyongyang, following a cardiovascular procedure. Delhi to ease restrictions, if Covid cases come down in next 2-3 days: Health Minister Lata Mangeshkar health update: Doctor says,'She in ICU with Covid-19 and pneumonia, will be under observation' Coronavirus outbreak: Antibody testing helps Chhattisgarh health officials to find 'Patient Zero' India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P Raipur, Apr 21: The Chhattisgarh Health Department has managed to find the source of infection in Katghora, in Korba district using rapid antibody test kits. According to reports, a 22-year-old man, who is identified as "Patient 0", was found to have antibodies through the rapid test, even though his swab test had come back negative. Earlier, a 16-year-old boy was first found with the deadly virus in Katghora. As many as 25 confirmed cases soon emerged in Katghora, after which Katghora was declared a hotspot in the state. While the state Health Department was responsible for maintaining the containment in the area, their other priority was to find the source of infection. Coronavirus: 53 Mumbai journos test positive The mistery was solved on Monday after one of his friends was found to have COVID-19 antibodies during rapid testing. Speaking to a media organisation, a health official said that the man (friend) had traveled to Nizamuddin. He had then traveled with the 16-year-old from Gondiya to Katghora. The health officials said that the man, who had also been quarantined, became a carrier for the infection before he was cured. UP becomes 7th state with 1,000 plus coronavirus cases: Here are the others Presently, Chhattisgarh has 4,500 rapid-testing kits and is set to get 75,000 more from a South Korean firm in the next few days. State Health Minister TS Singh Deo said that the kits are currently being used at the hotspot. Based on the results, the health officials can start spacing them out and check larger groups faster. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 9:21 [IST] Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 02:12:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone conversation on Tuesday, discussing issues related to the coronavirus pandemic, the Syrian settlement and the bilateral cooperation, the Kremlin said in a statement. "The readiness was expressed to strengthen joint efforts in the fight against COVID-19, including through the ministries of health and other relevant organizations," it said, adding that they agreed to continue close coordination in order to ensure the return of Russian and Turkish citizens. According to the statement, a substantive exchange of views continued on the Syrian settlement, including the implementation of the agreements on the Idlib de-escalation zone, primarily the March 5 additional protocol to the Sochi memorandum of Sept. 17, 2018. "The need for unconditional compliance with the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic was reaffirmed," the statement said. In addition, topical issues of Russian-Turkish cooperation were touched upon, primarily in the sphere of trade and economy, including joint projects in the nuclear energy sector and plans to promote agricultural and transport cooperation. Enditem New Delhi, April 21 : A Delhi court on Tuesday dismissed the bail application of Jamia Coordination Committee's media coordinator Safoora Zargar who was arrested for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to incite communal riots in the national capital's northeast area. The Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested her on March 13 in connection with the case, following which she moved the bail application. Metropolitan Magistrate Vasundhara Chhaunkar passed the order in this regard. Widespread violence between people supporting citizenship law and those opposing it had spiralled out of control in the area last month leaving 53 people dead and scores injured. She was also held in another case pertaining to organising anti-CAA protests in the Delhi's Jafrabad area, last year. She was arrested on April 11 in this matter. It was after the protest at the Jafrabad Metro Station that clashes broke out in the area at the end of February. UN experts accuse Abdoulaye Miskine, who signed a peace deal with the government last year, of looking for fighters. The UN Security Council on Monday imposed sanctions on Central African Republic (CAR) former rebel leader Abdoulaye Miskine, who last year was one of the signatories of a peace agreement between the government and armed groups. Under the terms of the February 2019 accord, Miskine, founder and head of the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), was offered a position as an adviser to the new government. In the latest report by UN experts monitoring sanctions and an arms embargo imposed in 2013, the self-proclaimed general was said to be recruiting fighters. Miskine had signed the peace agreement in Khartoum between CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera and the heads of 14 armed groups. Under the deal, rebel leaders were given senior government positions with the purported aim of helping to cement peace, but Miskine never took the post he was offered, according to Bangui. In November 2019, the CAR government said Miskine had been arrested in neighbouring Chad and demanded his extradition. He has now been put under UN sanctions, which include an asset freeze and travel ban. One of the worlds poorest countries, the landlocked CAR has been mired in conflict for years. Most of the country is in the hands of armed groups that claim to represent religious or ethnic communities, and often fight over the countrys rich mineral resources. Miskine set up the FDPC in 2004, when the country first plunged into civil war, and gave himself the rank of general. He joined the coalition of mainly Muslim militias that in 2013 overthrew then-President Francois Bozize a revolt that sparked French military intervention and the holding of elections for a successor. Since then, the CAR has been devastated by fighting between numerous rebel groups and government forces and also between the armed groups themselves. More than a quarter of the 4.7 million population have fled their homes. November 18, 1943 April 17, 2020 Margery Faye Gilster May, born and raised in Onalaska Wisconsin, returned to her Creator and Savior while surrounded by family late on Friday, April 17, 2020. She was 76. Her parents, Alfred and Helen Gilster, and three of her siblings, Kenny Gilster, Elaine Fossum, and Phil Gilster preceded her. Her dear brother David (Barb) Gilster survived her. She is also survived by her loyal and devoted husband Dale, of 52 years; her adoring children, Darren (Irene), David (Melissa), Troy(Denise), and Colette (Brandon); her beloved grandchildren, Tiger, Rafe, Collin, Liam, Cora, Anna, Quinn, Iona, and Grayson; in-laws, Larry (Susie) May and Kathy French; and special French and Gilster nephews and nieces. Margie had motherly love for her sister's son, Curt Fossum, especially since his mother passed. She had sisterly love for her friend Alice McDonald. Margie grew up working hard on the family farm, which was their livelihood. Her strength and grit continued when she later managed her own family's business and side business while also keeping a home and raising four children. Margie was as soft and warm as she was strong. In a world that could get chilly, she was the fireplace where you could go to warm yourself up for a while. Her inner glow radiated through her smile onto all who had the honor and privilege to meet her or know her. She always focused on the good in people. When she was around her loved ones, she was fully in the moment, experiencing the maximum joy from their presence. She was known for making the best out of any situation, for making complicated things simple, for getting things done, for being genuine, kind, cheery, fun, and for living her life for others. Margie would want us to carry her generous love with us and share it as freely as she did. A special thanks to innumerable friends and caregivers for their ongoing prayers and support. Our family invites you for a "Cruise By" Visitation on Wednesday, April 22, 2020, from 5 until 7 p.m. at 1943 Maylin Drive, Salem, VA 24153. Funeral mass and burial will be private. Online condolences, pictures and remembrances can be shared with the family at www.johnmoakey.com. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - BioHarvest Sciences Inc. (CSE: BHSC) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed the Agreement and Plan of Merger dated December 9, 2019 (the "Merger Agreement") with BioHarvest Ltd. ("BioHarvest") and BioFarming Ltd as announced in the Company's news release dated January 13, 2020. The closing of the Merger Agreement completes the business combination of the Company and its controlling shareholder BioHarvest Ltd. In addition, the Company announces the results of its annual general and special meeting of shareholders, which was held on March 30, 2020, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") Approval, Israeli Securities Authority ("ISA") Approval and Certificate of Merger On March 31, 2020, the Company received CSE conditional approval and approval from the ISA for issuance of shares under the Merger Agreement. The Company also received the Certificate of Merger under the Israeli Companies Law. Name Change and Symbol Change Concurrent with the closing of the Merger Agreement, the Company changed its name from Canna-V-Cell Sciences Inc. to BioHarvest Sciences Inc. The shares of the Company have been assigned a new trading symbol, BHSC. Concurrent Private Placement Concurrent with closing of the Merger Agreement, the Company closed a private placement (the "Concurrent Private Placement") of 8,000,000 common shares at a price of $0.15 per share for gross proceeds of $1,200,000. The original private placement amount of up to 35,200,000 common shares was reduced by the Company to 8,000,000 common shares under the terms of the Merger Agreement because the Company was satisfied that BioHarvest had sufficient funding for the next 12 months. The securities issued under the Concurrent Private Placement will be subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day from the date of issuance pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws and rules of the Canadian Securities Exchange. The Company issued 117,600 finder's warrants to a finder being 6% of the number of common shares placed by persons introduced by the finder with each warrant entitling the holder to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.15 for 18 months from the date of issuance. Issuance to BioHarvest Ltd. Securityholders Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, the Company issued the following securities to BioHarvest securityholders: (1) 299,057,739 common shares of the Company; (2) 39,565,579 warrants exercisable at a price of $1.00 per share which expire on August 31, 2020; and (3) 11,910,000 options to BioHarvest's Chief Technology Officer, Yochi Hagay. The options will be exercisable at a price of $0.15 per share for a period of two years and will vest quarterly over the two year period. Results of Annual General and Special Meeting A total of 13 shareholders were represented in person and by proxy at the meeting holding 49,433,738 common shares, or 47.88% of the Company's issued and outstanding shares. All of the nominees listed on Company's management proxy circular dated March 5, 2020 were re-elected as directors. Detailed results of the vote for the election are as follows: Nominee Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Zaki Rakib 49,384,588 99.9 49,150 0.01 David K. Ryan 49,384,588 99.9 49,150 0.01 Liron Carmel 49,384,588 99.9 49,150 0.01 Vivien Rakib 49,384,588 99.9 49,150 0.01 Jake Fiddick 49,384,588 99.9 49,150 0.01 In addition, the appointment of Ziv Haft, Certified Public Accountants (ISR.) BDO Member Firm was also approved. The Company's resolution approving of the Merger Agreement and Plan of Merger among the Company, BioHarvest, Ltd. and BioFarming Ltd. was approved by 100% of the eligible votes represented at the meeting. There were 1,096,242 voted for the Merger Agreement and Plan of Merger resolution and 0 shares voted against. BioHarvest was not eligible to vote its 48,337,496 share position as it was not a disinterested shareholder. The Company will commence trading on the CSE on Thursday April 23, 2020, under the new symbol, BHSC. BioHarvest Sciences Inc. Dr. Zaki Rakib CEO For further information, please contact: Dave Ryan, President & Director Phone: 1 (604) 622-1186 Email: dave.ryan@cannavcell.com About BioHarvest Sciences Inc. Based in Vancouver BC, BioHarvest Sciences Inc. is the exclusive Cannabis worldwide licensee of the proprietary and patent protected BioHarvest technology. It is the first and only industrial large-scale plant cell growth technology capable of directly and constantly producing the active plant ingredients without the necessity to grow the plant itself. By adopting this technology and building adequate cells production capacity, BioHarvest Sciences Inc.'s objective is to become the leading supplier of Cannabis for both the medicinal and recreational legal use. Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54708 US President Donald Trump said on Monday he will be signing an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States. "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States", Trump said in a tweet late on Monday. Trump said the move would also protect Americans' jobs, though the pandemic crisis has already left 22 million people in the US out of work. The President offered no details as to what immigration programs might be affected by the order. The White House did not immediately elaborate on Trump's tweeted announcement. Trump has taken credit for his restrictions on travel to the US from China and hard-hit European countries, arguing it contributed to slowing the spread of the virus in the US. But he has yet to extend those restrictions to other nations now experiencing virus outbreaks. Due to the pandemic, almost all visa processing by the State Department, including immigrant visas, has been suspended for weeks. More than 750,000 Americans have come down with Covid-19 and more than 42,000 have died. The Cabinet of Ministers expects that Ukraine may reach the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in early May. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told this to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky at a traditional meeting on the issues of the fight against the Covid-19 disease, the presidents press service reported on Monday evening. During a meeting, the parties discussed in detail payments to doctors and medical staff currently involved in the fight against the disease spread. The additional payments will be transferred at the end of April, when doctors will receive basic salaries, reads the statement on the presidents website. The prime minister stressed that special anti-crisis measures would be introduced in Ukraine to support the economy. Shmyhal also explained the reasons for the delay in receiving data on the number of coronavirus cases from seven regions. According to him, a technical error occurred in one of the regions, equipment was rebooted somewhere, but on the whole, many Ukrainians with suspicious symptoms decided not to go to the doctors at Easter. The government informed that all data would be included in the general statistics. President Zelensky, in turn, thanked the National Guard for its assistance with discharging cargo from the airplanes delivering protection means. "I am grateful to the Head of the National Guard and I would like you to convey my sincere gratitude to the whole personnel," he said. iy New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has appealed to all doctors to protest against attacks on them and attempts being made to stop the cremation of a doctor who died due to coronavirus in Chennai. The IMA has appealed to its members to light candles on Wednesday at 9 pm as a mark of protest over the incident. IMA has also demanded a stringent law to stop attacks against doctors. Taking serious note of obstructions to the cremation of a Chennai doctor who died of COVID-19, the IMA has also warned of "appropriate retaliatory measures" if the authorities fail to stop such incidents. "It is a matter of great concern that these doctors who had died in their line of duty be treated shabbily and in such an uncivilised manner," the doctors' body said in a statement, adding if the state governments do not have the power to stop such incidents, "they lose their moral right to govern". Referring to the violence and attacks faced by the healthcare workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the IMA said that it has shown much restraint in spite of extreme provocations. "That doesn't mean our patience is endless. Abuse, violence, spitting, pelting of stones, denial of entry to societies and residential accommodation have been tolerated so far since we expected the governments to do their normal duty,'' it said in a release. The doctors' body also announced that it will observe April 23 as Black Day if the government fails to enact Central Law on violence against doctors and hospitals. "If the government fails to enact Central Law on violence against doctors and hospitals even after White Alert, IMA will declare Black Day on April 23," read a notice issued by the association. "Our legitimate needs for safe workplaces have to be met. Abuse and violence should stop immediately. White Alert to the nation - All doctors and hospitals to light a candle at 9 pm on 22 April, as protest and vigil," it further read. The notice stated that further decisions will be taken if suitable steps are not taken by the government. This comes after several incidents of attacks and stigmatisation of medical staff and doctors being reported from across the country following the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis. Owing to the appeal by the IMA, the doctors have decided to sport back band on Thursday as a mark of protest. Six Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCT) have been constituted by the Centre earlier in the day to assess the situation regarding the violations of lockdown, social distancing norms and attack on doctors, and submit a report to the Central Government. TEL ARAD, Israel (Reuters) - A mechanical hum replaced the buzzing of the bees in one Israeli community this season as farmers, concerned over the global drop in bee populations, tried out a new method of pollinating their crops. TEL ARAD, Israel (Reuters) - A mechanical hum replaced the buzzing of the bees in one Israeli community this season as farmers, concerned over the global drop in bee populations, tried out a new method of pollinating their crops. Through an almond orchard in the area of Tel Arad in a desert plain in southern Israel, a tractor pulled a mast equipped with about a dozen small cannon that fired precise shots of pollen at the trees, enabling them to fertilize. The job is usually done by natural pollinators - most often bees - but there has been a drastic fall in bee numbers around the world, largely due to intensive agriculture, the use of pesticides and climate change. Most crops rely on pollination, so the trend has worried groups like the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization as it looks to fight hunger in the growing human population. "We see a crisis in 15 years where we don't have enough insects in the world to actually do pollination and most of our vitamins and fruits are gone," said Eylam Ran, CEO of Edete Precision Technologies for Agriculture. His company says its artificial pollinator can augment the labours of - and eventually replace - bees. Its system mirrors the work of the honey bee, beginning with a mechanical harvest of pollen from flowers and ending with a targeted distribution using LIDAR sensors, the same technology used in some self-driving cars. Edete has been working on a small-scale trial in several orchards in Israel and Australia, and has agreements to do the same in the United States. The company hopes to scale up and be ready to sell its products on the market in 2023. (Reporting by Lianne Back; Editing by Hugh Lawson) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The central bank of Nigeria(CBN) office in Jos, Plateau state was on Tuesday razed by a terrible inferno. According to a statement by the apex banks director of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, the source of the fire was traced to an air conditioner installed in the inverter room in the building. At about 9.15 a.m., today, Tuesday, April 21, 2020, the fire alarm in our Jos Branch was triggered and in line with the Banks fire drill and protocol, the skeletal staff on essential duty were promptly evacuated from the building to the muster point. Read Also: Shehu Sani Slams CBN Governor For Encouraging Nigerians To Apply For Loans During Lockdown Our Branch Controller quickly called the Fire Service at about 9.19 a.m. However, before the arrival of men of the fire service, the Banks security unit, relying on information from the Fire Alarm Dashboard, traced the fire to an air conditioner installed in the inverter room on the second floor of the building. They swiftly put out the fire with extinguishers and hydrants installed in the building. The affected room has since been cordoned off for further investigation, while normal work has resumed at the branch. We hereby assure the general public that the minor fire has been effectively put out and no damage was done to any records of the Bank. Some 4.1% of adults tested positive for coronavirus antibodies in a study of Los Angeles County residents, health officials said on Monday, suggesting the rate of infection may be 40 times higher than the number of confirmed cases. The serology tests, conducted by University of Southern California researchers on 863 people indicate the death rate from the pandemic could be lower than previously thought but also that the respiratory illness may be being spread more widely by people who show no symptoms. "We haven't known the true extent of Covid-19 infections in our community because we have only tested people with symptoms and the availability of tests has been limited," Neeraj Sood, a professor of public policy at USC and lead researcher on the study. "The estimates also suggest that we might have to recalibrate disease prediction models and rethink public health strategies," Sood said. At least 17 additional fatalities were recorded in Los Angeles County on Monday, bringing the total to 600, with more than 12,300 positive cases, according to a Reuters tally. The county is home to roughly 8 million people. The Los Angeles County results were announced as antibody tests come under increasing scrutiny over a high number of false positives reported in the kits. A similar study conducted in Santa Clara County last week by a Stanford University researcher has been criticised over its methodology and sample size. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday said health officials there would begin conducting statewide antibody testing of 3,000 people on Monday. The antibody tests, using decades-old ELISA technology, do not always pick up early-stage infections but show whether a person had the virus in the past, even if the person was asymptomatic. In comparison, the so called RT-PCR-technology swab tests used at drive-through stations and clinics across the country determine whether a person has the virus at that moment by looking for it in nose or throat secretions. Both tests are seen as critical in the coronavirus fight, but antibody tests are seen as a relatively cheap, fast means to sort populations into risk groups and measure virus spread. Questions remain about how long coronavirus immunity levels last and whether people who have antibodies could still be contagious, according to some infectious disease specialists. Nationwide 41,790 deaths have been reported from Covid-19, with more than 772,000 confirmed cases, according to the Reuters tally. Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday asked district magistrates to use latest technology like drones and hi-tech cameras to ensure strict compliance in COVID-19 containment zones in the national capital. Baijal, who chaired a high-level meeting attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other top officials, observed that the enforcement within the containment zones will determine the overall outbreak situation as he urged the district administration to put in their best efforts. "The lieutenant governor also directed for a regular disinfection and cleanliness of the containment zones on war footing. DMs and DCPs were directed to ensure that supply of essentials is maintained in the containment zones," an official statement stated. It said that Baijal directed district magistrates (DMs) and deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) to ensure effective compliance of social distancing and strict vigil at vulnerable places like agricultural markets, night shelters, food distribution centres, all shops of essentials items, mother dairy and medical shops. On Tuesday, the total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital rose to 2,156, with 75 new cases and no fresh deaths reported. Of the total number of 47 deaths reported till date, 25 of the deceased were aged 60 and above, making over 53 per cent of the total death cases. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It is certainly too soon to draw some lessons on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, since it continues to dramatically affect significant segments of the world population and still remains a puzzle, an enigma for the world scientific community. Still, based on certain observations, we can make some preliminary remarks for our continent. The phenomenon of globalisation, described by its advocates as cast in stone, a sui-generis universal construct, is quickly turning into a self-encapsulation of nation states left to their own devices. Unseen in the recent history of humanity this house of cards is on the verge of collapsing on a world scale. The quasi-universal closing of borders, the massive repatriation of expatriates to their countries of origin, and the stoppage of nearly all international airline transportation around the globe today severely undermines the myth of a unified global village. That myth, brought by the dynamics of globalisation and the inevitable centralising mechanisms of world production and development, led to seemingly unstoppable trends of geo-spatial markets and trade mobilities. But the sad reality is that COVID-19 has revealed a dark side of this dialectic of globalisation. Beyond the celebrated allure of robustness, integration and interdependency of its constituent part, we discover that globalisation is genuinely devoid of those essential virtues of solidarity and subsidiarity. For more than a month, Africans have been obliged to remain confined within their own borders. They have had to stoutly explore their own sustainable responses to this global sanitary crisis, a crisis unforeseen just three months ago. African governments at different levels mobilised their resources and expertise, elaborated innovative strategies and carried out bold and novel policies to contain the spread of the virus. In this fashion they have eviscerated the Afro-pessimist naysayers, who predicted an upcoming African cataclysm. The earlier apocalyptic forecast predicted for Africans during the first stages of the AIDS pandemic did not gain traction with the reality of health on the continent. A swift and efficiently well-coordinated partnership between African governments and the international community cogently prioritised the fight against HIV/AIDS, despite numerous daunting development challenges which were confronted on a daily basis. The same efforts allowed African governments to handle major health crises efficiently. They significantly curtailed maternal and child mortality rates, even though other pressing sanitary challenges remained to be dealt with. It is important to acknowledge that when governments embark on solving pressing and major predicaments, successful management requires fostering a patriotic stance. Only in this way can one bring about successful development. An emphasis on patriotism nurtures and reinforces a climate of collective citizenship, a trust and approval of the political initiatives set in motion by the nations respective governments: this fosters social and political stability. This is the case of African countries, which went through long-standing periods of sustainable economic evolution. Inclusive growth and equity in the continent began with concepts of nationhood. International cooperation, no matter how valuable, and it is, can only assist African governments in their policy initiatives to carry out their development prospects. Within the current context, one of the first victims of the COVID-19 is undoubtedly multilateralism. The multiple mechanisms and institutional agencies operating in Africa so far have been basically inept in swiftly handling this major health crisis. All too obviously, international cooperation has been missing in action, or slow to react despite the advocacy and commitment of the UN Secretary General. More than ever, Africa is conscious that it can only rely on its own forces to protect itself from the devastating effects of COVID-19. For instance, in Senegal, at the Dakar Fann Hospital, in a department in charge of handling severe COVID-19 cases, there are only local physicians, nurses, medical assistants and health care providers. These, and only these, exclusively Senegalese citizens, are fighting on a daily basis against this pandemic. Here are the current facts: As of April 14, Senegal, had accounted for 299 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 183 cured and two dead. Everywhere on the continent, governments are on the task, fighting to work out endogenous solutions with their own means to protect their populations. Africa is searching for solutions, armed with its past proven resilience in the face of adversity, and its scientific proficiency in the fight against these pandemics. About scientific proficiency: 35 years ago, in 1985, Professor Souleymane Mboup, in his modest laboratory at the Aristide le Dantec Hospital, discovered HIV 2. HIV 2 is a variant of the HIV 1, a virus more widely known and studied by his European and American colleagues. COVD-19 reminds us of an African proverb: When your house is on fire, you should at first rely on your neighbours to extinguish the fire and then, rebuild your home. The African Union must, more than ever, reinforce the scientific cooperation among its member states in order to insure our common health sovereignty. This is urgent today: to put in place a genuine scientific partnership between our African universities so that we can identify anticipatory and preventive therapeutic and pharmaceutical solutions to human suffering. Only in this way can we be ready to bring quick concerted efforts to deal with unexpected upcoming sanitary crises. We must actively encourage the African scientific diaspora to build solid cooperation. We must exchange network systems with our counterparts from the continent in order to build African centres of research and laboratory excellence. Only these will be capable of helping to inspire widely recognised African initiatives on the cutting edge of research and development for medicinal and vaccine cures. This is the true path to our health sovereignty. From now on, the urgent mission of the African Union and its sub regional commissions must be to unify the fight of Africa against the COVID-19. We must blend and systematise, in concrete form, our intellect and know-how. In this way we can mutualise our resources and galvanise the exceptional resiliency of our people. 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 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday asked New Development Bank (NDB) to enhance the emergency facility to USD 10 billion to combat Coronavirus pandemic. FM Sitharaman participated in the 5th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of NDB through video-conference. '...this facility should be enhanced' "On the discussion of COVID-19, FM appreciated NDB's effort on fast-tracking of financial assistance of about USD 5 billion to BRICS countries including Emergency Assistance of USD 1 billion India to combat COVID-19 pandemic. She also suggested that assistance under this Facility to be enhanced to USD 10 Billion," an official statement quoted Sitharaman. "I am happy to note that the bank has the financial capacity to enhance the emergency facility up to USD 10 billion for crisis-related assistance. Therefore, based on the demands from the member countries this facility should be enhanced," she said. FM urged NDP to follow innovative practices The Finance Minister also outlined various measures taken by India to respond to COVID-19 crisis includes allocation of USD 2 billion (Rs 15,000 crore) by the government for strengthening the healthcare system; announcement of a scheme of social support measures amounting to USD 25 billion (Rs 1.70 lakh crore) to alleviate the hardship of the poor and the vulnerable; insurance cover of USD 67,000 (Rs 50 lakh) per person to over 2.2 million frontline health workers and others provision of relief to firms in statutory and regulatory compliance matters; and easing of monetary policy by the Reserve Bank of India. READ | Kerala revises guidelines on relaxation of Coronavirus lockdown after MHA's letter She also strongly encouraged NDB to take appropriate actions to join the G-20 forum along with other Multilateral Development Bank (MDBs)/International Financial Institutions (IFIs). The minister urged NDB to follow innovative practices in supporting the BRICS nations for achieving their Sustainable Development Goals. The Finance Minister of Brazil thanked India for the timely help it received from India in the form of critical drugs, the statement added. READ | Palghar mob-lynching: CM Thackeray warns action against those 'inciting communal flames' The NDB was established by the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in 2014. The purpose of the bank is to mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging market economies and developing countries to complement the existing efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and development. NDB has so far approved 14 projects of India for an amount of USD 4,183 million. READ | ICMR refutes Bengal govt's claim on 'faulty test kits', affirms anti-body tests for survey READ | Delhi: First patient who underwent plasma therapy weaned off ventilator at Max hospital (With agency inputs) ROME The coronavirus was already a disaster for Meorina Mazza. In March, it sickened her brother, killed her cousin and prompted officials in Italys southern region of Calabria to quarantine her seaside town of San Lucido. But the lockdown also cut her off from her off-the-books shifts as a kitchen hand and made it harder to apply for welfare. Now she is relying on donations of flour to feed her daughters, but still has no money to pay her electricity bills. We are really headed toward total desperation, said Ms. Mazza, a 53-year-old mother of two. Italys coronavirus epidemic, among the deadliest in the world with more than 24,000 deaths, first exploded in the countrys wealthy north, where it stretched one of Europes most sophisticated health care systems to the limits. But it is the countrys poorer, less developed south that has loomed over the entire crisis and figured prominently in the governments decision to lock down all of Italy last month. Now, with the Italian governments plan to begin a gradual reopening of the country on May 4, some southern leaders remain so fearful of the potential of the virus to devastate their regions that they have suggested they would ban northerners if they rushed to lift the lockdown. ONEONTA, N.Y. A third employee at SUNY Oneonta has tested positive for coronavirus, after two others were diagnosed earlier this month. The first case at the college was confirmed on April 13. The college has contacted people who were in contact with this employee so they can monitor themselves for symptoms. Following guidelines set by the state health department, the college also cleans all areas where the infected person may have been. Housing complex Oberoi Springs in Mumbai has been partially sealed reportedly after an 11-year-old girl tested positive for COVID-19. Located in Andheri, the housing complex is home to several Bollywood celebrities including Vicky Kaushal, Rajkummar Rao, Patralekhaa, Chitrangada Singh, Aanand L Rai, Krushna Abhishek, Kashmeera Shah, Prabhu Deva and Neil Nitin Mukesh among others. Twitter It is said that the girl who has tested positive for coronavirus is the daughter of a Bollywood director. She resides in the C-wing of the complex, which has been sealed. A and B wings, on the other hand, have been partially sealed, it is said. All the residents have been told to go under strict self quarantine and take precautions. "We are avoiding to go even till the lift. The rest of the wings- A and B- have also gone under strict quarantine," actor Arjan Bajwa was quoted as saying by Spotboye.com. Meanwhile, BMC has sanitized the entire complex, it is said. "As it is, we still have 2 weeks to go before May 4 which is the date when the lockdown is expected to be lifted. I want that young girl who tested positive for Coronavirus to come back from the hospital, soon," he added. Earlier, TV actor Ankita Lokhande's building in Malad was also sealed after a resident was tested positive. Furthermore, Taarak Mehta Ka Oeltah Chashmah actors Sonalika Joshi and Tanmay Vekaria's building kandivali were also sealed because of the same reason. The head of China's CDC has claimed that he had never said there was no human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus as he defended Beijing's handling of the pandemic. The Chinese government has been accused of providing misleading information in the early days of the crisis after it stressed no evidence suggested the virus could spread among people. 'I have never said there is no human to human transmission in public never ever,' Dr Gao Fu, Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state media. Gao Fu, Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state media CGTN that no scientists would be able to make a definite call about a virus without evidence COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has killed 4,632 people and infected 82,758 in China, according to the latest figures from its National Health Commission. The picture, taken on February 16, shows medical workers treating a COVID-19 patient in Wuhan, China Dr Gao, 58, made the comment while speaking to CGTN, the English-language arm of state broadcaster CCTV. His statement comes as China claimed that more than 94 per cent of its coronavirus patients had recovered from the deadly disease. It also comes as Chinese researchers said one of its coronavirus vaccine candidates was proven to be effective and safe on animals. Dr Gao, who obtained his PhD from Oxford University, argued that no scientists would be able to make a definite call about the nature of a virus without evidence, especially when the pathogen is new. The pandemic first emerged in Wuhan in December. Experts believe the virus was passed onto humans by wild animals sold as food at a wet market in Wuhan, called Huanan. Workers wearing protective suits are pictured walking next to the Huanan market on March 30 The virologist, who is also known as George Gao, further defended the Chinese response by saying all coronaviruses are believed to be infectious and his team were looking for evidence before making a sound conclusion about the new strain. 'As public health workers, we are [like] detectives, so evidence are [sic] the key for you to make any decision. You are not making any decision by whatever you are suspecting. You are making decision [sic] by evidence,' Dr Gao said. The Chinese CDC is part of the Chinese National Commission, which is supervised by the Chinese State Council. More than 94% of coronavirus patients have recovered, China claims China has announced today that at least 94 per cent of its coronavirus patients have recovered from the contagion. The country where the pandemic began has made 'significant progress in treating patients', said a spokesperson from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 77,000 patients who contracted the killer bug have been discharged from the hospital, Chinese officials claimed. More than 77,000 patients who contracted the killer bug have been discharged from the hospital, Chinese officials claimed. A 98-year-old patient is pictured being discharged from a hospital in Wuhan following a full recovery from the coronavirus 'The overall situation of the epidemic control in China is getting better,' Guo Yanhong, a spokeswoman from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention told the press today. 'The rate of recovery is over 94 per cent,' Ms Guo continued. 'There is significant progress in treating patients. 'But we still don't know a lot about the virus, more than what we do know,' the official added. The announcement comes as China has faced criticism for covering up the true scale of its coronavirus crisis after revising the death toll of Wuhan on April 17. Officials also fear that a second wave might hit the nation after seeing a surge of regional outbreaks and 'imported cases' from abroad. Advertisement Dr Gao said he arrived in Wuhan on January 17 with five other experts from the National Commission to supervise the control and prevention efforts of the outbreak. He and his team met on January 19 to discuss the infectivity of the virus, and the experts agreed that there was 'very efficient' human-to-human transmission after speaking to locals. He told CGTN: 'We already had some suspected clusters, but by then we had some clear cluster cases I think, for that, there is no doubt [that the virus can be spread between humans].' He added: 'We had this press conference in the evening of the 19th I said the virus had already finished its "job" [of jumping] from animal to human, and then limited human-to-human transmission and then human-to-human [transmission].' China's coronavirus vaccine candidate is 'effective and safe' on animals, study claims A potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese researchers has been proven effective and safe after conducting clinical trials on animals, a study from China has said. A research group from the country published the study on Sunday after successfully testing the vaccine candidate on macaques and mice. The medical report also indicated that the inactivated vaccine, known as PiCoVacc, can trigger an immune response in animals to protect them against the virus strain. A potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese researchers has been proven effective and safe after conducting clinical trials on animals, a study has said. The picture shows microbiologist with a tube of biological sample labelled as COVID-19 The new study comes as scientists around the world have been racing to find a cure to the deadly disease. Chinese researchers have launched human trials on three vaccine candidates. According to the report, researchers injected groups of mice and macaques with different doses of the potential vaccine. The vaccine was proven safe and efficient after neither infection enhancement or adverse effects were observed in the study. The scientists also noted that the study provided extensive evidence for the clinical development of potential COVID-19 vaccines, but further vaccine experiments on animals are needed. Yang Zhanqiu, a virologist at Wuhan University, told Chinese media that the results from the study are convincing as macaques are more closely related to humans. Advertisement Professor Zhong Nanshan, the leader of Beijing's coronavirus expert team and one of the experts who arrived in Wuhan with Dr Gao, confirmed human-to-human transmission to the public on January 20. The pandemic first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December. Experts believe the virus was passed onto humans by wild animals sold as food at a wet market in Wuhan. In February, Beijing banned the trading and eating of exotic meat temporarily in the wake of the crisis. Shenzhen and Zhuhai, two cities in Guangdong Province, will forbid their residents from eating dog meat from May 1 as part of their response. Shenzhen has also announced that it will reward residents with up to 11,000 in cash if they inform police about illegal wildlife-related activities. Professor Zhong Nanshan (pictured on April 15), who is the leader of Beijing's coronavirus expert team, confirmed human-to-human transmission to the public on January 20 COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has killed 4,632 people and infected 82,758 in China, according to the latest figures from its National Health Commission. But the Chinese government has been widely accused of trying to hide the truth of its coronavirus outbreak, including its infection numbers and the infectivity of the virus, at the early stages of the pandemic. Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, reported on January 6 that no evidence showed the virus could spread from one person to another. The condition of the patients who suffered the 'mysterious viral pneumonia' was 'largely controllable', reported Xinhua in another article on January 10, citing an expert. Wuhan officials last week revised up its death toll by 50 per cent, taking the city's fatality total to 3,869, amid controversy. Wuhan, the former centre of the coronavirus pandemic, last week revised up its death toll by 50 per cent amid controversy. A worker is pictured examining a mask produced in a clean-room production line for masks at the Wuhan Zonsen Medical Products Co. on April 21 Critics have also condemned the World Health Organization (WHO) for colluding with Beijing to downplay the seriousness of the outbreak. Many are citing a tweet from the WHO on January 14, which read 'Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China.' US President Donald Trump and senior Republican figures in Washington have cast doubt over China's infection data and the origin of the disease. Sources said American analysts will present their findings 'in the near term' to Trump, who will then huddle with aides to determine how to hold China accountable for the pandemic Trump has also put $500million in funding on hold to the WHO while an investigation is conducted to identify if the organisation had allowed Beijing to cover up the epidemic. The WHO chief yesterday insisted 'nothing is hidden from the US' on COVID-19 as he claimed the agency has been warning about the virus 'from day one.' Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who leads the organisation, said 'there is no secret in WHO' as he confirmed no information about the pandemic was withheld from the US. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (pictured) said yesterday 'there is no secret in WHO' as he confirmed no information about the pandemic was withheld from the United States Angela Merkel has become the latest world leader to hint that China has misled the world over coronavirus. The German Chancellor yesterday urged Beijing to be transparent about the origin and initial transmission of the virus. 'I believe the more transparent China is about the origin story of the virus, the better it is for everyone in the world in order to learn from it.' With 4,648 deaths, Germany has suffered almost the same number of casualties as China - with 4,636 - but has confirmed almost 62,000 more infections. Besides, French President Emmanuel Macron said there could be no comparison between countries where the truth was suppressed and nations where information flowed freely and citizens could criticise their governments. The coronavirus has so far killed more than 170,000 people and infected over 2.4 million worldwide. The Travelers Companies felt relatively small effects from the coronavirus pandemic in the 2020 first quarter, with catastrophe losses from tornadoes and other storms taking more of a bite. COVID-19-related net charges for the quarter reached $86 million pre-tax, or $68 million after tax. Pre-tax catastrophe losses, by contrast, landed at $333 million pre-tax in Q1 2020 versus $193 million pre-tax in the 2019 first quarter. Travelers blamed Tennessee tornadoes plus other wind storms and winter storms throughout the U.S. for much of its higher catastrophe costs. Travelers Chairman and CEO Alan Schnitzer noted that the insurer booked strong underlying results despite catastrophe and early COVID-19 challenges, though he acknowledged that its longer-term pandemic risks remain unclear. Although there are many uncertainties surrounding COVID-19s impact on our global economy and on us, it has been in the most challenging circumstances that the strength of our AA-rated franchise and the value we provide to all of our stakeholders shine through, Schnitzer said. Our balance sheet is extremely strong, our debt-to-capital ratio is comfortably within our target range, our holding company liquidity of $1.6 billion is well above our target level, and we have a very high-quality investment portfolio. We have the talent, technology, risk management processes and procedures, and, importantly, financial strength to manage through these extraordinary times and to continue to deliver meaningful shareholder value over time. Travelers stock price traded at $103.11 early afternoon on April 21, up just under 1.4 percent. Heres a rundown of Travelers Q1 2020 result highlights: Consolidated net income reached $600 million, or more than $2.33 per diluted share, down from $796 million, or $2.99 per share, over the same period a year ago. The consolidated combined ratio was 95.5, a bit higher than the 93.7 produced during Q1 2019. Net written premiums surpassed $7.3 billion compared to $7 billion in the 2019 first quarter. Net investment income hit $611 million, a big increase from $582 million in Q1 2019. Broken down further, net written premiums for business insurance were essentially flat, year over year, at more than $4.1 billion. Bond and specialty insurance net written premiums were $663 billion, up from $587 million in Q1 2019. Personal insurance net written premiums grew to nearly $2.5 billion in Q1, up from $2.3 billion the previous year. The business insurance combined ratio landed at 102.2 in Q1 compared to 98.1 last year. Travelers blamed catastrophe losses for the combined ratio increase. The sector booked a $99 million underwriting loss compared to a $57 million underwriting gain in the 2019 first quarter. Travelers personal insurance combined ratio reached 88.2 during Q1, improved from 90.1 the year before. The segment generated a $295 million underwriting gain during the quarter, up from a $226 million underwriting gain last year. Travelers noted in its earnings that the net impact of COVID-19 and related economic conditions on this sector was not significant. Travelers is among companies that have taken steps to alleviate the coronavirus pandemic impact, including quickening commission payments of more than $100 million to eligible agents and brokers to help address COVID-19-related liquidity worries. Its other actions include the pledging of $5 million to COVID-19 relief efforts for families and communities in North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is also suspending cancellation and nonrenewal of coverage due to nonpayment through May 15 for all of its U.S. customers. As well, more digital tools are coming into play for claims audits and workers compensation. Source: Travelers President Muhammadu Buhari has written to Ibrahim Muhammad, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) to free deserving inmates across Nigeria following the coronavirus pandemic. The president in a letter on Tuesday asked the state chief justices to immediately visit the prisons to free such inmates. Buhari, in a statement by Femi Adesina, his spokesman said the overcrowded facilities pose threat to the health of the inmates at this time hence the need for urgent steps to bring the situation under control. It has become imperative for Your Lordship to request State Chief Judges to embark on immediate visit to all custodial/correctional centres within their respective States to identify and release deserving inmates where that has not been done already, Buhari said in the letter. Read Also: Buharis Bodyguard Is Dead, Presidency Announces It is expected that particular attention should be on the aged, those with health issues, low risk offenders, those with no sufficient legal basis to remain in custody, inmates convicted for minor offences with or without option of fines and inmates who have less than 3 years term left to serve having served a substantial term of their service for offences that attract 5 years and above. Payment of fines may be made in favour of inmates convicted of lesser offences with option of fine, who are in custody because of their inability to pay such fines. (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said his administration is working on a plan to make money available to the oil industry to prevent the loss of jobs after prices plunged below zero. We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down, Trump said in a tweet on Tuesday. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future! RAIDING THE STIMULUS: Big firms get $300 million in small-business loans The oil and gas industry shed nearly 51,000 drilling and refining jobs in March, a 9% reduction that is likely to get worse as prices plunge. Marchs job losses rise by 15,000 when ancillary jobs such as construction, manufacturing of drilling equipment and shipping are included, according to BW Research Partnership, a research consultancy, which analyzed Department of Labor data combined with the firms own survey data of about 30,000 energy companies. West Texas Intermediate plunged below zero on Monday for the first time in history with the contract for May nearing expiration, leaving traders in a panic as they tried to avoid taking delivery of physical barrels. On Tuesday the losses spread to the next month -- highlighting the massive glut in the market causing the rout rather than any technical quirk. Energy stocks pared their decline following Trumps tweet. The Standard & Poors 500 Energy Index was down 1.9% at 9:54 a.m. in New York after tumbling as much as 4.4%. The Trump administration has spent weeks looking for ways to help independent oil companies battered by the price rout. The Energy Department already has drafted a plan to effectively compensate those companies for halting oil production by buying their untapped crude reserves and making them part of the U.S. governments emergency stockpile. Under the plan, the government would essentially buy the oil locked underground but ask producers to hold off on extracting or delivering it. Federal law authorizes the Energy Department to set aside as much as 1 billion barrels of oil for emergencies, but the agency has only used about two thirds of that capacity with crude stashed in a complex of salt caverns along the Gulf Coast. That creates the opening for the new keep-it-in-the-ground approach to oil reserves. REOPENING TEXAS: Governor Abbott names members of Strike Force to Reopen Texas Trump has rebuffed other proposals for industry-targeted aid, including a broad effort to stop charging energy companies royalties for oil and gas produced on federal lands and waters. The Interior Department has said oil companies can seek royalty relief on a case-by-case basis, instead of under a broad Trump administration waiver. Tuesdays collapse of later contracts underscored the severity of the crisis. Storage tanks, pipelines and tankers are rapidly being overwhelmed by a vast oversupply caused by slumping fuel demand as countries are locked down to fight the coronavirus. Traders everywhere are having to reassess their risk after Mondays unprecedented collapse, leading to violent intraday swings. WTIs June contract was halted three times early in New York to manage the volatility, CME Group Inc. said. June West Texas Intermediate futures edged up about $1 after the tweet to $15.57 a barrel, but was still down more than $5 on the day. The thinly traded May contract rose above zero to $1.40 a barrel. Brent crude slumped 20% to $20.48, having earlier dropped to as low as $18.10. The collapse is reverberating across the oil industry, with prices trading below zero across America. On Monday, WTI Midland in Texas -- a flagship marker for the U.S. shale industry -- was at -$13.13 a barrel, while crude in Alaska was at -$46.63. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. China to hold summit on big data application in military equipment PLA Daily Source: China Military Online Editor: Yang Tao 2020-04-20 12:06:26 By Zhang Bin, Chen Bo BEIJING, Apr. 20 -- It is learnt from the Equipment Development Department (EDD) of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) that the Chinese military is to hold the Equipment Big Data Summit 2020 in the coming September. The summit aims at further propelling application of such technological achievements as big data, cloud computing and AI in China's military equipment development, and and upgrading the capability of modern governance system. The summit will be hosted by the EDD's Equipment System Assessment Center. The organizers have now published notification on soliciting essays from big data practitioners inside and outside the military. And the essays to be solicited cover a wide range of areas, including data service system, data collection and storage, data governance and security, intelligent computing application, and block chain application. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda has said that to tide over challenges arising due to COVID-19 pandemic, his ministry is taking all necessary steps to ensure an adequate supply of medicines, fertilizers and disinfectant chemicals. In a tweet, Gowda said, he held discussions with secretaries and other senior officers of all the three departments of his Ministry, Department of Fertilizers, Pharma and Chemical & Petrochemicals to frame out strategies to improve the availability of fertilizer to farmers, medicines to general public & health services and chemicals as disinfectants to curb the outbreak of coronavirus. In the meeting, Gowda also asked the officers to maintain close coordination within themselves and with other concerned Ministries as well, so that supply of essential items is done without any hindrance. Recently, MoS Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya also interacted with officials of the Department of Chemicals & Fertilizers through a Video Conference. The meeting was intended to cater to the issues related to the Chemicals & Petrochemical Industry at the time of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Mandaviya had said in a tweet, India "truly believes that the world is a family and fosters the idea of brotherhood." The Ministry has said that Fertilizer companies are already working with full capacity to supply adequate quantity of fertilizers to the farming community for upcoming Kharif season. Pharma sector is also putting in all its effort to produce essential drugs in sufficient quantities including Hydroxychloroquine. India is one of the world's largest manufacturers of Hydroxychloroquine and apart from fulfilling domestic demand, it is also exporting the surplus medicine to foreign countries. Production and supply of essential chemicals used as disinfectants are also satisfactory. NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday hit out at those questioning the law and order situation in Maharashtra in the wake of the Palghar lynching incident, saying the time is not right to engage in political battles and collective efforts are needed to fight the coronavirus. He said levelling allegations or calling for resignations of state ministers, at a time when the fight against the deadly coronavirus is on, should be avoided and care should be taken that collective efforts to overcome the crisis do not slow down. Condemning the lynching incident, Pawar said it occurred out of misunderstanding, and immediate steps were taken by the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government and over 100 people were arrested even as probe is on in the incident. The state government has already ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident that took place on April 16 when three Mumbai residents, including two seers, who were on their way to Surat in Gujarat in a car, were lynched by villagers in Palghar on the suspicion that they were child-lifters. "What happened was not good, it should not have happened. The incident took place out of misunderstanding (rumour), it is being alleged the law and order situation has deteriorated, demands are being made for resignations, Pawar said in his address via Facebook. We will engage in political battles or settle scores later. But this is not the time. We need to face the coronavirus crisis collectively, the NCP chief said, without naming any party or leader. After the incident, many BJP leaders slammed the Shiv Sena-led coalition government--also comprising the Congress and the NCP--for the "administrative" failure to protect the Hindu seers. Pawar said, "Such an incident should not have happened, it is condemnable...I insist we should take care that the efforts of combating the crisis do not slow down." The NCP president also asked the media not to broadcast negative reports, and highlight efforts that inspire confidence among people in the face of the coronavirus threat. The former Union minister also asked Muslims to celebrate Ramzan by staying at home during the lockdown period, to contain the spread of the coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Battle of Britain hero thought to have been the real life inspiration for Tom Hardy's character in the film Dunkirk has been revealed after his bravery medals emerged for sale. Squadron leader Kenny Hart crash-landed his Spitfire on the beaches of Dunkirk following a dogfight with the Luftwaffe in May 1940. The 19-year-old fighter pilot then set fire to his 'kite' with a flare gun and watched it burn to stop the Germans getting their hands on a Spitfire. There is even a black and white photo that was taken of the burnt out wreckage afterwards. Hart set his Spitfire on fire to stop the Germans from retrieving the iconic fighter aircraft The scene of the crash-landing and the Spitfire being set on fire is also shown in the film Hart (left in the cockpit) was 19 when he fought in the sky above Dunkirk against the Luftwaffe in May 1940. He is believed to be the inspiration for Tom Hardy's character (right) in Dunkirk The identical scene was replicated in the 2017 Christopher Nolan movie when Hardy's character 'Farrier' was filmed landing a damaged Spitfire on the beach before using a flare gun to torch it. Kenny Hart is thought to have been the WWII pilot behind Tom Hardy's role in Dunkirk But unlike Hardy's character who was taken prisoner, Sq Ldr Hart was able to get on a rescue ship to be taken back to Britain to fight another day. He was one of the 'Few' who took part in the Battle of Britain, claiming ace status with five enemy kills by August 1940. Sq Ldr Hart survived four crash landings in all but was tragically killed when his Boston night-fighter plane was hit by anti-aircraft flak and engulfed in flames over Italy in December 1944. Now 76 years on and his medals that include the Distinguished Flying Cross and the 1939-45 Star with Battle of Britain clasp are being auctioned for an estimated 4,000. Marcus Budgen, of London auctioneers Spink and Son, said: 'The awards of Squadron Leader Hart is a classic tale of true grit and sad loss. 'As a fearless 19-year-old he flew a Spitfire to cover the Dunkirk evacuation, downing a Me109 before being forced to land on the beach and torch his kite. Hart, pictured sat at the front with sunglasses, crash-landed on the beaches of Dunkirk 'His story must surely have influenced the identical scene portrayed by Tom Hardy in the Christopher Nolan's recent movie 'Dunkirk'. 'Later flying the in Battle of Britain - Hart would earn Ace status before being killed in action in December 1944. He was just 23-years-old.' Sq Ldr Hart, from Mitcham, south London, developed a fascination for flying after walking by Croydon airport every day. He applied to join the RAF and was commissioned Pilot Officer in March 1939 and posted to Spitfire unit No. 65 Squadron at Hornchurch, Kent, a year later. He first saw action in a spate of sorties to Dunkirk as the British Expeditionary Force was being pushed back by the Nazi Blitzkrieg. On May 22, his Spitfire developed engine trouble and, while under pressure, he performed a belly-landing at North Foreland, Kent. He was flying back over Dunkirk the following day but three days later he was forced to make a second emergency landing, this time on the French coast. Sq Ldr Hart and his fellow pilots encountered at least 50 enemy aircraft. Hart's medal collection, which are up for auction, includes the Distinguished Flying Cross His combat report states: 'I sighted several Me. 109s in formation line astern. I attacked the nearest from behind. I fired two bursts...I then saw the enemy aircraft fall out of formation and crash to the ground. 'I was then attacked form behind and forced down.'wi After returning to Britain his second enemy kill came on June 25 when he shot down another Messerschmidt 109 over Abbeville, France. On July 5 over Dover he destroyed a Heinkel bomber which crashed in the sea with the loss of three of the crew. During the Battle of Britain Sq Ldr Hart was required to fly five sorties in a single day. He claimed a fourth kill - another Me 109 - on August 12 over Margate and then survived another crash landing at Foulness, Essex. On August 25 he gained ace status with a fifth enemy plane destroyed followed by a sixth in November 1940. He then joined No. 250 Squadron and served in the Middle East. He claimed three more kills while providing escort cover for RAF bombers ahead of the Allied advance on Tobruk in Libya. Sq Ldr Hart was awarded the DFC in February 1942 for his 'great courage and skill in operational duties'. Little is known of his RAF career for the following two years but he was posted to No. 18 Squadron in Italy in February 1944. There he flew in another 33 sorties up until December when he was killed in action. He was buried at Coriano Ridge War Cemetery near Riccione. SatADSL and YahClick have partnered to expand connectivity across Sub-Saharan Africa. Under the agreement, Belgium-headquartered SatADSL will become a new Virtual Network Operator (VNO) working with YahClick, which is a satellite services joint venture owned by Yahsat and Hughes Network Systems. The deal will enable SatADSL to combine the capacity purchased from YahClick with its innovative cloud-based service delivery platform (C-SDP) to deliver a full range of flexible satellite services across Africa. In joining forces with SatADSL, YahClick gains full access to the Belgian operators extensive licensed partner network spanning 45 countries worldwide and boasting over 3,500 deployments. This presents YahClick with new opportunities to expand its distribution, and allows the companies to work towards eradicating digital exclusion in Africa. Michel Dothey, Chief Commercial Officer at SatADSL, said: Partnering with YahClick does more than just give us access to the companys Service Delivery Platforms it significantly increases our ability to make a tangible and lasting difference in and across the communities from West to East Africa we serve as part of our global connectivity offering. Our ability to offer high throughput Ka-band services will significantly impact the fate of some of the most underserved countries in the world, helping them to cross the digital divide and make the most of their considerable potential. , . . . 14:05 . 10.12.2021 . . . , . ... A federal appeals court has again banned most abortions in Texas amid the coronavirus pandemic, though the ruling will only be in effect for two days. The ruling on Monday by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals prohibits medication and surgical abortions for nearly all women except those nearing the states 22-week legal gestational limit to obtain one. The court had ruled last week that medication abortions could proceed. But the courts ruling will expire Tuesday night. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a new order loosening restrictions on nonessential surgical procedures presumably including abortions starting Wednesday, though neither he nor Attorney General Ken Paxton have clarified how abortions will be impacted. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Abbotts original order restricted procedures to only those that require immediate response to protect a life or serious adverse medical outcome. The new order replaces immediate with timely. Physicians are left to determine whether the criteria is met. Paxton has no plans to clarify how the new order applies to abortions, according to a spokeswoman. He has previously threatened criminal action against doctors who perform them during the ban. In its ruling, the Fifth Circuit said medication abortions use masks and other critical protective gear needed for frontline doctors to respond to the coronavirus crisis. Abortion providers are required to meet with patients before and after providing them pills to terminate a pregnancy, the court wrote, and should be wearing protective gear during those visits. "The question, then, is not whether medication abortions consume (personal protective equipment) in normal times, but whether they consume PPE during a public health emergency involving a spreading contagion that places severe strains on medical resources," it wrote. The state has been battling a shortage of protective gear, though Abbott noted Friday that the state has plenty of PPE at the moment. Attorney General Paxton welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement it recognized that states have the authority to take action during public health emergencies. Planned Parenthood called it politics at its absolute worst. A global pandemic is no time to restrict time-sensitive health care, acting president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement. Rhodes University Community Engagement (Ruce) has launched a campaign against GBV In celebration of the birthday of slain student Uyinene Mrwetyana, Rhodes University Community Engagement (Ruce) on Monday launched a campaign against gender-based violence which sought to affirm all women in SA. Ruce, together with the Uyinene Mrwetyana Foundation, wants the campaign to help address the deeply entrenched problem of gender-based violence, which has become amplified by the national Covid-19 lockdown. Uyinene, who was brutally raped and murdered in Cape Town in 2019, has been celebrated as a symbol of women's power, strength and compassion. Ruce Director, Di Hornby said the gravity of Uyinene's violent death had forced the country to pause and reflect. There was an immense outpouring of rage and sadness, shock and disappointment about what we have allowed our society to become." She said everybody had the power to drive social change and to work collectively to reimagine a society free of gender-based violence and the pain of poverty felt by so many in our community". She described Uyinene as an extra ordinary young woman. She was a natural leader who would be using her agency right now to deal with some of the intractable challenges being faced by women, children and families in this pandemic,". The purpose of this campaign is to remember Nene by motivating citizens to be active and find innovative ways to regroup, to build compassion, to support their neighbours and let this difficult time shape and build character." The campaign called on all women to post a statement picture on any one of Ruce's social media sites illustrating what made them strong women. Source: Daily Dispatch Please help us to raise funds so that we can give all our students a chance to access online teaching and learning. Covid-19 has disrupted our students' education. Don't let the digital divide put their future at risk. Visit www.ru.ac.za/rucoronavirusgateway to donate Protests against stay-at-home orders are rocking state capitals. In Michigan, motorists clogged streets and blocked a hospital after conservative groups organized "Operation Gridlock" to oppose Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's actions. Ohio protesters, including state Senate candidate Melissa Ackison, stormed the statehouse in defiance of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's stay-at-home order. And protesters at Kentucky's state capitol interrupted a news briefing from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear with angry chants of "facts not fear" and "we want to work." President Donald Trump has blessed these operations by calling on citizens in Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia to "LIBERATE" their states, also telling Virginians to "save your 2nd amendment. It's under siege." Never mind that public health experts say reopening the economy too soon could have catastrophic results. While evidence suggests that well-funded conservative groups were behind many of these protests, the rage on display has been palpable. Anger has often shaped the response to economic hardship, especially in places where reverence for hard work shaped both a sense of blue-collar identity and a nascent blue-collar conservatism. States such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky bore the brunt and severity of deindustrialization in the mid-20th century and have long resented economic disruptions beyond their control. But protesters in Michigan came armed with semiautomatic weapons and Confederate battle flags. Members of the Proud Boys, a self-proclaimed "western chauvinists" group that the Southern Poverty Law Center labels a hate group, flashed the white supremacist "OK" symbol in photos with a Michigan congressional candidate. While one organizer attempted to distance the protest from its fringe elements, their presence suggested that economic anxiety alone cannot account for the depths of anger on display. Trump's tweets gave the demonstrators the go-ahead to flaunt their fury openly, but he didn't create it, and neither did the stay-at-home orders. Behind these protests is an underlying rage at elites, liberals, government and the media that is part of a half-century tradition of right-wing populism. It started a long time ago, but nothing stoked right-wing populist anger like the mid-20th century battles about desegregation. In the North and West as much in the South, and in rural areas as much as in cities, white rage followed everywhere that civil rights activists, court decisions or new legislation threatened the status quo of racial segregation. Images of snarling white students confronting the Little Rock Nine, rioting suburbanites in Levittown, Pennsylvania, and violent antibusing demonstrations in Boston became touchstones for an entire era of segregationist resistance and lingering symbols of the rage that underpinned efforts to maintain the nation's racial caste system. There was no shortage of populist firebrands who stoked this anger, but no one capitalized on "the politics of rage" quite like then-presidential candidate and Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who became notorious for promising "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," and made a career out of tapping into the anxieties and frustrations of the white electorate. When he lambasted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as "fraud, a shame, and a hoax" in a now-famous speech, he not only attacked the Johnson administration's signature piece of civil rights legislation but accused the federal government of tyranny for trying to enforce desegregation. Wallace's sentiments were far from a regional phenomenon, and he swept predominantly white precincts in blue-collar areas of Indiana, Wisconsin and Maryland when he challenged President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 Democratic primary. But Wallace found a litany of new targets during his third-party run for president in 1968, including anti-Vietnam War protesters, disruptive student activists, and "pointy-headed intellectuals." That grievance against intellectuals and elites, not unlike his one against a tyrannical federal government, created a long-standing enemy for the populist right who think that intellectuals and elites forced unwanted new ideas that challenged society's traditional foundations. The Vietnam War awarded right-wing populists an opportunity to add another enemy to the list of elites threatening the nation. The Nixon administration sought to dismiss negative coverage of its expansion of the war into Cambodia and Laos by crediting it to a now-familiar scapegoat: the so-called "liberal media." Vice President Spiro Agnew slapped network news commentators with the alliterative epithets of "nattering nabobs of negativism" and "troubadours of trouble." That demonization of the national news media as an untrustworthy partisan endeavor is arguably the most enduring inheritance for the angry populist right. Although polls showed that 70 percent of Americans still trusted the media when Gallup began asking the question in the early 1970s, that percentage went into steady decline in the ensuing decades before reaching an all-time low of 32 percent in 2016. Right-wing populist rage metastasized in the last decades of the 20th century with the growth of conservative media. Since the 1980s and the national success of Rush Limbaugh's eponymous program, right-wing radio became an incubator of populist anger by offering daily doses of outrage. Fueled by the culture wars and joined by soon-to-be luminaries such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, Limbaugh and the radio right never found a shortage of potential threats to their listener's livelihoods and freedom. In 2013, Limbaugh summed up the biggest threats as the "Four Corners of Deceit": government, academia, science and media. The conservative media's greatest success in stoking populist anger arguably came in the last decade, when the radio right and ascendant Fox News juggernaut helped promote the tea party protests. The movement that ostensibly started in response to the threat of higher taxes became a sounding board for any and all complaints against the Obama administration and echoed the anger at big government that had been at the heart of right-wing populism for decades. Coverage and encouragement of these protests from conservative media not only amplified the tea party's anger but helped turn it into electoral success in the 2010 midterm elections. Conservative media has continued to sound the alarm about the dangers of tyrannical big government, intellectualism and the liberal media that had enraged right-wing populists for a generation. In the same vein, conservative media figures on the radio, Fox News and online played another central role in spurring the recent protests against stay-at-home orders. When the protests first started, Fox News host Laura Ingraham tweeted her support by saying it was "Time to get your freedom back," while her network continued to give positive coverage to the rallies over the weekend. If the people with assault weapons and Confederate flags at these rallies seem primed to protest, it is because they have been. Their rage has primed them to believe that a tyrannical government is always acting against their interests. Their rage has primed them to believe that the intellectuals warning them against the dangers of the novel coronavirus cannot be trusted. Their rage has primed them to believe that the liberal media is exaggerating the situation. That same rage led many of them to Donald Trump, who not only put many of these same grievances at the center of his 2016 presidential campaign but has made daily attacks on the media a centerpiece of his presidency. Trump now promises to "liberate" the states from their government orders. In his attacks against the "deep state," the president has lent credence to long-standing distrust of government experts. On the ground, these attacks have not only caused protesters to ignore the warnings from health experts like Anthony S. Fauci, but led to chants of "fire Fauci" at a rally in Austin. This does not discount the real economic anxieties underlying these protests. Complicating the health crisis, covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has exacerbated the economic precariousness that has long afflicted heavily blue collar areas, as has been seen by the spike in unemployment. While that uncertainty has been faced most by poor and working-class communities of color, the economic anxieties framing protests should not be dismissed. Instead, they should be understood in the context of the deep roots of right-wing populist rage. - - - Lombardo is an assistant professor of history at the University of South Alabama and the author of "Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia and Populist Politics." As awareness of the coronavirus pandemic has spread throughout the United States, doctors who monitor activity at poison call centers have noticed an alarming trend: a significant increase in accidental exposures to household cleaners and disinfectants. A study released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that calls to poison hotlines this year for cases involving cleaners and disinfectants rose significantly compared with the same period over the previous two years, and charts a dramatic spike in March for both categories. Some of the physicians who collaborated on the research with the C.D.C. had discussed their observations with one another last month. I was like: Am I the only one seeing a big increase in exposures to these disinfectants? said Dr. Diane P. Calello, the medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, and one of the authors of the report. Television actor Karanvir Bohra recently shared a heartwarming note on Instagram for wife Teejay on their 13th anniversary. Take a look To celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary, recently Television actor Karanir Bohra shared a heartwarming post for wife Teejay Sidhu to make her feel special. Not just this, Karanvir also made a special Halwa for his wife and shared a picture on Instagram where she can be seen holding the sweet dish in her hands. In the post, Karanvir revealed as he doesnt know how to make any cake, so he decided to make halwa. Karanvir and Teejay tied the knots on November 3, 2006, and since then the couple leaves no chance of being in headlines especially for their social media posts. Currently, both of them, are enjoying their bit spending quality time with each other with their twins Bella and Vienna. The twins have a major fan base on Instagram and create a buzz with their adorable pictures on the Internet. On the work front, Karanvir started his acting career by appearing in the 1990 film Tejaa. Post to which, he also appeared in films like Kismat Konnection, Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi, and Hume Tumse Pyaar Kitna and is also known for working in the Tele industry in shows like Shararat, Kasautii Zindagii Kay, Dil Se Di Dua Saubhagyavati Bhava, Naagin 2 and many more. Also Read: Is Erica Fernandes dating costar Parth Samthaan? Actor responds Take a look at their post After portraying roles on screens, Karanvir Grover also showcased his true personality by appearing in shows like Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi season 5 and Bigg Boss season 12 and became the fourth runner up. Recently, he also appeared in Bharti Singhs show Khatra Khatra Khatra. For all the latest Entertainment News, download NewsX App Virgin Australia, the nation's second-largest airline, announced on Tuesday it had entered voluntary administration as it seeks to strengthen its finances amid a debt crisis. Virgin said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that it had appointed a team of Deloitte administrators to "recapitalize the business and help ensure it emerges in a stronger financial position on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis". The move came after the Australian government refused Virgin's request for a 1.4 billion Australian dollar (USD 888 million) loan. Rival Qantas Airways argued that it had three times more revenue than Virgin and was therefore entitled to a AUD 4.2 billion (USD 2.7 billion) loan if the smaller airline was not to gain an unfair advantage. Administrator Vaughan Strawbridge said in the statement: "Our intention is to undertake a process to restructure and refinance the business and bring it out of administration as soon as possible." Virgin would continue to operate its scheduled international and domestic flights. Virgin shares have been in a trading halt for a week due to its debt crisis. ALSO READ:Flight restrictions to be lifted only after coronavirus is controlled, says Civil Aviation Minister ALSO READ:Coronavirus effect: Infosys defers promotions, salary hikes; to honour all new job offers Trump suspends immigration into US The announcement came amid criticism against the president and his administration for their alleged failure to tackle the global disease, which has killed more than 42,000 people in the country. President Donald Trump said Monday that he will sign an executive order "to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States" due to the coronavirus pandemic. TEMPORARILY SUSPENSION "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" Trump tweeted. He did not offer any timeframe for signing the order. The US recently closed its borders with Canada and Mexico for non-essential travel in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. Looking back at rare sports moments in the first part of 2021 Srinagar, April 21 : The J&K Cyber Police have taken cognizance of misuse of social media and filed an FIR after receiving information about author and journalist Gowhar Geelani "indulging in unlawful activities through his posts and writings on social media". The J&K Police said in a statement that the Cyber Police Station of Kashmir Zone has received information through reliable sources that an individual namely Gowher Geelani was indulging in unlawful activities through his posts and writings on social media, which were prejudicial to the integrity, sovereignty and security of India. "The unlawful activities include glorifying terrorism in Kashmir Valley, causing disaffection against the country and causing fear or alarm in the minds of public which may lead to commission of offences against public tranquility and the security of the state," the statement said. The statement added that several complaints have also been received against the said individual for threatening and intimidating the public. "A case under the relevant sections of the law has been registered at the Cyber Police Station and investigation has been initiated," the police statement said. Earlier, J&K Police had booked a Kashmiri photojournalist, Masrat Zehra, under UAPA for posting for "uploading antinational posts with criminal intention." The J&K Police also filed a general FIR in connection with a news item published in a national daily regarding an encounter in Shopian South Kashmir. More than 100 supporters of John Waters and Gemma ODoherty crowded into the Four Courts Round Hall today before a mention of their High Court action challenging laws introduced by the State in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The group was not allowed to entry court for the brief hearing in line with social distancing guidelines. An application to let, some or all of those persons into the courtroom was dismissed by Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy. The Judge said the case was being heard in public and was being reported on by the media. The State is to oppose the High Court challenge brought by John Waters and Gemma O'Doherty. They claim that the laws are flawed and unconstitutional, and want them struck down. In judicial review proceedings against the State and the Minister for Health they seek to have various pieces or recently enacted legislation declared null and void by a judge of the High Court. The legislation challenged includes the 2020 Health Preservation and Protection and Other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act, the 2020 Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act Covid-19 Act, The 1947 Health Act (Affected Areas) Order. Their proceedings are also aimed at striking down temporary restriction regulations brought due to Covid-19 under the 1947 Health Act. The action against what they claim are laws is against The Minister for Health, Ireland and the Attorney General. Gemma O Doherty and John Waters pictured leaving the Four Courts following their High Court action. Pic: Collins Courts Last week the High Court directed that the journalist's application for permission to bring the challenge be heard on notice to the state parties. The matter was listed for mention before Ms Justice Deidre Murphy yesterday (Tuesday) morning. Gerard Meehan Bl for the State told the court it will oppose the application for leave to bring the challenge, and asked the court to adjourn the case for two weeks to prepare a sworn statement in response to what is a "quite substantial" challenge. In the current climate counsel said while the State has been working on its response things were taking longer to get done, particularly when dealing with persons in the Department of Health. Counsel also told the court given that part of the challenge concerns how the laws in question were enacted the Dail, the Seanad and the Ceann Comhairle would have to be added to the proceedings as notice parties. Counsel said that as well as hearing from the notice parties, legal submissions might also be required as part of the leave application. In light of that counsel asked that the matter be listed for mention in two weeks time. The applicants, while not not objecting to the addition of the notice parties, expressed strong concerns about the state's application regarding the adjournment and said the leave application needs to be heard as soon as possible. Mr Waters told the court the State parties were attempting to procrastinate" and delay what he said is a very important matter. Outlining the nature of the action Ms O'Doherty said what was happening regarding the lockdown was "outrageous". She said people were being held under mass house arrest, or fear being interrogated by the Gardai if they leave their homes. People she said should be allowed go about their business and normal life must be allowed resume. A crowd of supporters surround John Waters and Gemma O Doherty for a pictured outside the Four Cours following their High Court action. Pic: Collins Courts The vast majority of people she said are unaffected by Covid 19, which she said was "no threat to life", and that the Irish people should be allowed to go outside and "build up a herd immunity." Ms O'Doherty added that medical evidence supporting her claims will be presented to the court as part of the case. Ms Justice Murphy told Ms O'Doherty that the court was not considering what were substantial arguments in the action, but was making directions with a view to getting the application heard. The Judge said she accepted that the leave application raised issued that needed to be heard. The Judge said that the leave hearing should be heard in two weeks time. The judge also adjourned the matter for a week, when it is to be mentioned before the court to see how the parties are getting on. Earlier in the proceedings both the applicants questioned if the proceedings were being held in public. The Judge said that not everyone could fit into a courtroom, and wondered if a larger than capacity group wished to attend a hearing should the court be moved to the "National Convention Centre." The applicants expressed their dissatisfaction over the court's decision. The Judge said that a Digital Audio Recording of Tuesday's proceedings should be made available to the applicants. India's apex medical research body Indian Council of Medical Research on Tuesday advised states to stop using the rapid antibody test kits for next two days till it examines their quality in the wake of complaints that they are not fully effective. IMAGE: A medic shows a sample for COVID-19 rapid tests at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo Last week, India procured five lakh rapid antibody test kits from two Chinese firms and they were distributed to several states reporting rising cases of coronavirus infection. Rajasthan government on Tuesday said that the kits were giving out inaccurate results. At a press briefing, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at Indian the ICMR, Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, said the companies which supplied the kits will be asked to replace them if the kits are found to be faulty. The ICMR has been the nodal medical body in India's fight against the pandemic. "We have received complaint from one state and so far discussed the issue with three states. High variations ranging from 6 to 71 per cent have been reported between the results of the rapid tests and-PCR tests. We will advise states not to use these testing kits for the next two days," he said. These kits will be tested and validated in the field by teams from our eight institutes after which we will issue a clear-cut advisory for the states. If there is some fault in the batch, we will ask the company to replace the kits," Gangakhedkar said. Officials clearly indicated that the kits over which questions have been raised are from China. Rajasthan health minister Raghu Sharma on Tuesday said the kits gave only 5.4 per cent accurate results against the expectation of 90 per cent accuracy and therefore were of no benefit. In the wake of adverse reports about quality of Chinese medical equipment, spokesperson in the Chinese embassy Ji Rong last week said China attaches great importance to quality of medical products. "We hope that foreign buyers can choose products certified by Chinese regulatory authorities and with production qualifications when importing relevant products," Ji had said. She said the Chinese authorities introduced stricter regulatory measures, requiring exporters to declare that their supplies have obtained the registration certificate for medical device from the State Food and Drug Administration and meet the quality standards of the importing country. About questions over quality of the tests, Gangakhedkar said that these were first general tests and may show variations. It has been just three-and-half months since the disease appeared and so any test will have to be refined further, he added. At present, the government uses the polymerase chain reaction tests to detect coronavirus from throat or nasal swab samples of people. These take around five to six hours to show the results. In the rapid antibody tests, the blood samples of suspected patients are taken, and it normally takes around 15-30 minutes to give the result. The government has recommended the use of rapid antibody tests in hotspot areas. "It is to be used for surveillance and for epidemiological purposes in such areas. The-PCR test is the gold standard for frontline test and antibody test cannot replace this test. Utility of rapid antibody test is primarily for assessing prevalence of infection in a particular area," officials earlier had said. India has been facing severe shortage of testing kits amid rising cases of the coronavirus. Asked if the number of cases would stabilise, Gangakhedkar said, "The doubling time of cases is increasing, the current situation indicates that significant increase in number of coronavirus cases is unlikely." A total of 4,49,810 samples for COVID-19 infection have been tested till Tuesday of which 35,852 were tested on Monday, he said. As many as 29,776 samples have been tested in 201 labs under the ICMR network, and 6,076 at 86 private laboratories, he said. Joint Secretary in the ministry of Health Lav Agarwal said that along with Mahe (Puducherry), Kodagu (Karnataka) and Pauri Garhwal (Uttrakhand) , a new district Pratapgarh in Rajasthan has not reported any fresh cases during the last 28 days. There are now 61 additional districts from 23 states and UTs that have not reported any fresh cases in the last 14 days. Four new districts which have been included in the list are Latur, Osmanabad, Hingoli and Washim from Maharashtra, according to the official. Agarwal further said that the Union health minister has written to all state and UT health departments asking them to ensure adequate availability of blood in blood banks especially for people requiring regular blood transfusion on account of disorders such as Thalassemia, Sickle Cell Anemia and Hemophilia etc. Also, a 24x7 control room has been started by Indian Red Cross in Delhi. Whoever requires or want to donate blood can contact on 011 233 59379, 9319982104 and 9319982105. Agarwal said that detailed guidelines have been issued to states that they should focus on COVID-19 cases while, at the same time, non-COVID hospitals should provide regular services relating to maternal and child care, dialysis as well as treatment for cancer and HIV patients. While providing all these services, required infection prevention control practices should be ensured in hospital set-ups to prevent spread of hospital related infections, he said. Agarwal said that a total of 1,336 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours since Sunday morning taking the total number of cases in the country to 18, 601. Also 3,252 people have been cured so far with 705 people, the highest so far, having recovered on Monday. So overall 17.48 per cent people have recovered in the country so far, he stated. Responding to a media query about 80 per cent of the COVID-19 patients being either asymptomatic and having mild symptoms and how the government is dealing with it, Gangakhedkar said that it is just one study according to which 80 out of 100 patients are asymptomatic. "Among the total coronavirus tests conducted so far, 69 per cent were asymptomatic cases and 31 per cent were symptomatic cases. Which means for one positive patients when we initiated contact tracing, on an average we found three or four asymptomatic patients," he said. "There are few reports of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases which are truly asymptomatic. There has been no documented asymptomatic transmission. This does not exclude the possibility that it may occur," Agarwal said referring to a WHO report. "Using community surveillance and contact tracing, we are taking pre-emptive action to test asymptomatic persons with high risk contacts so that we are able to identify infected patients in early stage, treat them and reduce mortality," he said. New Delhi: Even as the nationwide tally of confirmed coronavirus COVID-19 infections reached 18900 with new cases reported from various states and the death toll crossed 600, the recovery rate has improved to 17.5 per cent, said Union Health Ministry officials on Tuesday (April 21). Notably, a record number of 705 patients were cured and discharged on Monday itself. The efficacy of China-made rapid antibody blood test kits, however, has come under the scanner with Rajasthan today flagging their "inaccurate results", prompting the apex medical research body ICMR to ask states to stop these tests for two days for further validation. Addressing a joint press conference, ICMR's Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar told journalists that states have been advised not to use these rapid test kits for two days and a fresh advisory would be issued after field validation by its team. "If any problems are detected, the companies will be asked for a replacement," he said. The ICMR scientist further said that a total of 4,49,810 samples for COVID-19 infection have been tested until Tuesday of which 35,852 were done on Monday. As many as 29,776 samples have been tested in 201 labs under the ICMR network, and 6,076 at 86 private laboratories. In Rajasthan, the central team discussed the coronavirus situation over a video-conference with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who reiterated the state government's demand from the Centre to deal with the pandemic. The state government, however, stopped use of China-made rapid testing kits for coronavirus after they delivered inaccurate results. The Gehlot government had got 30,000 kits through ICMR for free while 10,000 kits were purchased at a cost of Rs 540 plus tax per kit. The rapid testing kits, through which blood samples are tested, are aimed at speeding up screening and detection of suspected coronavirus patients as they take less time to show results in comparison to the swab-based tests carried out in pathology labs. Earlier in the day, Rajasthan's health minister Raghu Sharma said that the kits gave only 5.4 per cent accurate results against the expectation of 90 per cent accuracy and therefore the kits were of no benefit. At a daily press briefing on the COVID-19 situation, Home Ministry Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said the Centre has sent teams under Disaster Management Act to four states -- Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. While Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are extending full support, the government in West Bengal is not doing so, she said. Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said that a total of 705 people have been cured so far and the overall recovery rate in the country has risen to 17.48 per cent. In its evening update, the Ministry said the death toll has risen to 603 and the number of positive cases has gone up to 18,985 across the country. This included 15,122 active cases, as on 5 PM Tuesday. Over 3,300 persons have been cured and discharged so far, while there are more than 15,000 active cases in the country now, as per figures announced by various state governments. Among the states, Maharashtra reported more positive cases from Dharavi slums of the state capital Mumbai, while Uttar Pradesh saw its tally increasing by more than 100 to 1,337. Maharashtra has already reported more than 250 deaths, while Gujarat has lost 90 lives. Madhya Pradesh has also reported at least 80 deaths. The number of confirmed cases in Maharashtra has crossed 5,200, the highest in the country and including more than 3,400 in Mumbai itself. Delhi and Gujarat have reported more than 2,000 positive cases each, while the number has crossed 1,500 in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. Telangana also reported a significant increase to at least 928 positive cases. While new cases were also reported from various states including Odisha and Kerala -- where the infection spread has been relatively slower -- as many as 115 families residing at the President's Estate in the national capital have also been put under self-isolation as a preventive measure after a sanitation worker's relative tested positive for the deadly coronavirus. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, however, clarified that till date no employee of the President's secretariat has tested positive and the secretariat along with the local administration is taking all the preventive measures under the government guidelines. A COVID-19 positive patient from central Delhi, who was neither an employee of the President's secretariat nor a resident of the President's Estate, had died on April 13 and after contact tracing it was found that a family member of an employee of the President's secretariat had been in contact with the deceased, the statement said. The employee and his family members are residents of the President's Estate. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said that there are 1,603 active cases of COVID-19, while 47 people have died of coronavirus so far in the national capital. He also announced a special testing facility for media persons from Wednesday, after Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra reported positive test results for several journalists and other staff members of media organisations. Meanwhile, a political standoff emerged between West Bengal and the Centre after Union Home Ministry said the state government was not cooperating with the central teams visiting there to assess the COVID-19 situation. The state's ruling party Trinamool Congress said the visit of central teams to West Bengal was like "adventure tourism" and asked why such delegations were not sent to states with much higher numbers of infections and hotspots. Later in the day, one of the two teams sent to the state visited certain areas of Kolkata, escorted by the Border Security Force (BSF) and state police personnel. West Bengal, however, witnessed the death of three more persons due to COVID-19, taking the death toll to 15, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said, adding that in the last 24 hours, 29 new COVID-19 cases were reported, taking the number of active cases in the state to 274. Sinha said, "These 29 cases were reported from Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Hooghly and Paschim Burdwan districts," adding that no COVID-19 patient was discharged from any of the hospitals in the last 24 hours in the state. The number of people who have contracted the deadly virus in West Bengal is 359, according to state authorities, while the figure mentioned on the Union health and family welfare ministry's website is 392. Globally, the coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 1.7 lakh people, including over 42,000 in the US. More than 25 lakh infections have been reported worldwide so far, even as there are fears that the actual tally could be much more as tests are so far limited to serious or symptomatic cases in most countries. In a press briefing today, the World Health Organisation warned against any rush to ease coronavirus restrictions, saying any such move could result in a resurgence of the disease. A would-be Bible studies pupil threatened his partner with a pair of scissors and told her she would "end up like Natasha Melendez", the mother who died earlier this month after being attacked in her own home, a court has been told. Daniel Milligan is alleged to have also punched and kicked his girlfriend and triggered an asthma attack by putting his arms around her neck. The 33-year-old, whose plan to go on a Bible studies course in England was scuppered by the coronavirus lockdown, appeared at Lisburn Magistrates Court earlier this week via videolink. Milligan, from Antrim Road in north Belfast, is charged with six offences - making a threat to kill, four counts of assault and one of possessing scissors with intent to commit GBH - all allegedly committed on April 12. A detective constable said she believed she could connect him to the crimes. The officer said police attended an address on Mercer Street in Lisburn on Sunday after Milligan's partner, who has been deemed as being at a high risk, called 999 and said he had threatened to kill her. "She was reluctant for police to call, saying that would make the situation worse," the policewoman explained. The officer told the court the alleged victim had said "things will be 10 times worse now that the PSNI are involved". She also confirmed police were opposed to any application for bail. "We do not feel there are any conditions that could be put in place which would protect this vulnerable woman," she said. Expand Close Natasha Melendez / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Natasha Melendez After he was arrested, Milligan's partner gave an interview to police saying that he had been abusive "on an almost daily basis" since they entered into a relationship last July. The woman also said she was being financially controlled and claimed the defendant had been paid for putting images of her on the internet. In court last week the detective constable said that Milligan punched his partner, kicked her jaw and "wrapped his arms around her neck so she struggled to breathe, resulting in her suffering an asthma attack". She added that he had also said the woman "would end up the same way as" Lisburn murder victim Natasha Melendez. The defendant was allegedly "aggressive and irate" during police interviews, in which he denied threatening to kill and assaulting his partner. While he initially rejected suggestions that he had monetary sway over the woman, he later admitted that he "controlled the finances of the house" and said that was why he had her bank card. Milligan also denied uploading photographs of the complainant to the internet and receiving payment for them. He claimed she attacked him with scissors, which he then took from her. Defence barrister Joel Lindsay said his client had injuries consistent with that allegation. He also told the court he had had a "lengthy conversation" with pastor Brian Madden, from the Elim Church, who was willing to stand surety for Milligan. The lawyer added that were it not for travel restrictions, his client would have been in Leicester for Bible studies and counselling courses. However, District Judge Amanda Henderson rejected an application for bail, saying she shared police concerns over possible witness interference. Milligan was remanded into custody and the case re-listed for May 11. slnews@sundaylife.co.uk TV actor Karanvir Bohra and his wife, model and actor Teejay Sidhu celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary recently. On the occasion, Karanvir decided to make halwa (north Indian sweet) for his wife. Sharing a picture with Teejay, he wrote on Instagram, #happyanniversary my love...13 years of marriage 16 years of knowing you @bombaysunshine I made the legendary #HALWA for her as I couldnt make any cake...Will post the video soon. In the picture, the couple stand with a plate of halwa in Teejays hand. They are casually dressed in T-shirts and pyjamas. A number of their industry friends wrote in the comments section. TV comedian Kapil Sharma said congratulations, God bless while Aamna Sharif dropped a pink-heart emoji. Actor Ashmit Patel said happy anniversaty guys while Raghu Rams wrote: Congratulations, lovebirds! You guys are so beautiful together! A rockstar team. Like 2 pieces of a complete puzzle. Keep rocking today and every day of the year! Karanvir and Teejay reportedly got married in 2006 and were blessed with twins in 2016. The actor has been sharing some fun stuff through the lockdown period. In one of his recent post, he is getting a beauty treatment with his two daughters doing their bit and applying nail polish on their dads nails. Sharing the post, he wrote: Never have I been so indulgent.. looks like the roles of the Bollywood actresses will have some competition.. I have the masters at work.. @twinbabydiaries @kareenakapoorkhan @deepikapadukone @priyankachopra @aliaabhatt @dishapatani BEWARE. A number of film personalities including writer-director Tahira Kashyap and actors Mandana Karimi and Sameera Reddy among others reacted to the post. Also read: Kavita Kaushik says she feels empathy for Hrithik Roshan after Kangana Ranauts recent controversial comments In January this year, Karanvir was in the news after he was stopped at Delhi airport, on his way to Nepal, for not carrying valid documents. The actor had tweeted then, Deported at Delhi airport on my way to #nepal. trvlng wid #adhaarcar not allowed Nepal gov alows (PP, voters ID and Adhaar by road, by air only PP and VI) Then,Y did @airindiain in Mumbai let me fly with my Adhaar? Y didnt they stop me there? #indianembassy @DrSJaishankar @IndiaInNepal. Replying to his tweet, Air India has said, Dear Mr Bohra please find details regarding documents required for visit to Nepal in the link The requirement of documents is from Immigration authorities. Karanvir was last seen in a cameo role in last years Naagin 3. Karanvir in known for his work in TV serials such as Kasautii Zindagii Kay, Dil Se Di Dua... Saubhagyavati Bhava?, Shararat, Naagin 2 and Qubool Hai. Follow @htshowbiz for more In the new virtual world, some of the more boorish traditions, such as heckling from the backbenches, will no longer take place, reported the Guardian, because the staff of the speaker of the House will be able to select who is heard and who is not on the audio feed. Also, the newspaper said, other parliamentary quirks, such as bobbing when members pop up and down from their benches to receive permission to ask a question would probably not be Zoom-able. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More IT major Infosys share price slipped nearly 4 percent in early trade on April 21 after the company reported its Q4 numbers. The company has reported a profit of Rs 4,321 crore for the quarter ended March 2020, a 3.1 percent degrowth compared to December quarter 2019. However, the profitability was ahead of the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18 which was pegged at Rs 4,230 crore, due to lower tax cost (down 16.1 percent QoQ). Revenue during the quarter increased 0.8 percent sequentially to Rs 23,267 crore, which was slightly below the CNBC-TV18 poll estimates of Rs 23,450 crore. Dollar revenue degrew by 1.4 percent quarter-on-quarter to $3,197 million during January-March period of FY20, with profit falling 5.7 percent to $590 million QoQ, while revenue degrowth in constant currency was 0.8 percent QoQ. Also Read - Infosys misses FY20 revenue guidance; 8 takeaways from company's Q4 scorecard Jefferies | Rating: Buy | Target: Raised to Rs 705 from Rs 680 per share The companys Q4 performance was disappointed missing on both growth & margin. Jefferies has cut FY21 revenue growth estimate to -2percent YoY CC, while raises FY22 growth & margin estimates slightly. The company is a preferred pick among top-tier IT companies as it is a high-quality franchise & has reasonable valuation. CLSA | Rating: Buy | Target: Cut to Rs 800 from Rs 970 per share The company posted weak Q4 revenue/margin, while strong deal wins/margin levers in H2FY21. The revenue pressure is expected in Q1 due to client discretionary spending cuts, while strong deal wins & pipeline provide optimism for H2 growth & margin recovery. CLSA has cut revenue estimates by 15percent & margin estimates by 60-100 bps for FY21-22 EPS estimates for FY21-22 cut by 15percent, it added. At 09:23 hrs, Infosys was quoting at Rs 639.25, down Rs 13.65, or 2.09 percent on the BSE. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kerjiwal on Tuesday promised free ration to additional 30 lakh poor residents in the capital who do not have ration cards till the time they continue to reel under the economic impact of the global pandemic. The announcement took the total number of beneficiaries under the free ration scheme to 1 crore-- almost half of the citys total population. Kejriwal didnt specify the period till which the temporary relief will last but added that the provision was part of his governments effort to provide the residents with food security during the outbreak. As long as the impact of coronavirus lasts and the poor are unable to earn their bread, we will ensure their food security. We have a plan in place. 71 lakh people have already been given 7.5 kg of rations. Government has now decided to distribute free ration to another 30 lakh people, he said. He said the decision to include another 30 lakh people was taken on Tuesday. The AAP government, he said, also decided to provide a kit to all beneficiaries containing items of daily needs besides the ration. Every family with ration card and also those with e-coupons will be given a basic kit of provisions of daily needs including cooking oil, spices, pulses, sugar, salt, soap etc, along with their ration for the month of May when distribution begins at the end of April, Kejriwal said. In another welfare measure aimed to cover several other temporary migrant workers who may not figure in the above two categories of the poor people, Kejriwal announced a food coupon scheme, which he said will be delivered through the peoples representative of the state. Under the coupon scheme, every MP and MLA representing the city-state will be given 2000 food coupons each to be distributed among the temporary migrant workers, who do not have either ration cards or e-coupons. The food coupons will make them eligible for receiving 5 kg of free ration. Delhi has 70 MLAs- 62 from AAP and 8 from the BJPand 7 MPsall from the BJP. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Providing the latest official figures, Kejriwal said that a total of 2081 coronavirus positive cases were reported in Delhi till Monday night. Over 20% of total patients431 in absolute numbers-- have recovered so far while 47 people have lost their lives due to the virus. The number of active Covid-19 cases in Delhi stood at 1603, he said. Kejriwal said that 80% of all deceased were over 50 years of age and 83% of all the coronavirus casualties had co-morbidities. Those with co-morbidity make 83% of all coronavirus fatalities. Coronavirus worsens an existing medical condition like sugar, heart, cancer etc. Elderly people must be taken good care of and they must maintain social distancing measures, he said. For Coronavirus Live Updates Hong Kong Lawyers Say China's Liaison Office Is Subject to Ban on Interference 2020-04-20 -- Hong Kong's Bar Association on Monday hit out at claims by Chinese officials that Beijing's liaison office in the city were authorized to play a "supervisory" role in its daily political life, and the running of its government. The HKBA said the ruling Chinese Communist Party's liaison office is subject to the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, which bars interference in the city's internal affairs by Chinese government departments. It dismissed earlier claims from Chinese officials in Hong Kong that the ban doesn't apply to them. The ongoing war of legal opinions came as Hong Kong police arrested 15 prominent pro-democracy figures in connection with large, peaceful street protests last year calling for fully democratic elections, among other demands. Article 22 of the Basic Law states: "No department of the Central People's Government and no province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government may interfere in the affairs which the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region administers on its own in accordance with this Law." The Basic Law also sets down the principle that Hong Kong shall be accorded a "high degree of autonomy" in running its own affairs, with the exception of foreign policy and defense. "The effect of Article 22 is to prohibit interference in the internal affairs of [Hong Kong] by any part of the [Chinese government], which is itself bound by the provisions of the Basic Law, being a national law of the People's Republic of China," the HKBA said in a statement on its website on Monday. It said public comments made last week by officials of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) and Beijing's Central Liaison Office had claimed that the two bodies aren't subject to the law, as they are "authorized by the central government to handle Hong Kong affairs." Officials also claimed the right to "exercise supervision and express serious views" on Hong Kong affairs, the HKBA said. 'Deep public unease' "Regrettably, the recent public statements made by the [Liaison Office] and the [Hong Kong] government on such a highly important legal issue have caused deep public unease," the Bar Association said. "There would appear to be no question but that the HKMAO, being an administrative agency of the State Council of the PRC, and the [Liaison Office] ... are bound by the Basic Law, including the prohibition of interference in the internal affairs of [Hong Kong] under Article 22," it said. "There is no provision in the Basic Law which confers on [them] the power of 'supervision' over affairs which the [Hong Kong government] administers on its own," the statement concluded. Barrister Martin Lee, who founded Hong Kong's Democratic Party, one of those arrested and bailed at the weekend, said the claim that the two offices were exempt from Article 22 made "no sense." "It is impossible to argue that these two organizations aren't bound by Article 22 of the Basic Law," Lee said on Monday. "No matter how high their status, they are still under the central government [in Beijing]." "It makes no sense for them to pretend." Civic Party lawmaker Alvin Yeung agreed. He said that government statements at the time that Beijing's Liaison Office changed its name from the Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong bureau made no mention of a supervisory role for the office. "Back then, [China's cabinet] the State Council issued a news release which clearly stated the role and responsibilities of the Central Liaison Office," Yeung said. "There was no mention of supervising the Hong Kong government." Beijing is now the 'driving force' Chung Kim-wah, assistant professor of social policy at Hong Kong's Polytechnic University, said it was likely no accident that the pronouncements on the status of the Liaison Office and the arrests of pro-democracy figures had come at the same time. "The Hong Kong government is no longer the main driving force here," Chung said. "This isn't even coming from the pro-Beijing faction." "I think it's a natural outcome of the Hong Kong government's incompetence ... so now we have Beijing taking the helm," he said. Members of the U.S. Congress hit out at the weekend's arrests. "At the urging of Beijing amid a global pandemic, the Hong Kong government has opted to arbitrarily arrest 15 pro-democracy activists," Sen. Marco Rubio said in a statement. "If Chief Executive Carrie Lam would like us to believe that Hong Kong remains deserving of its special status, then she must lead in a different direction," he said. "The true test of Hong Kong's autonomy is what happens when Beijing demands absurd arrests, intimidates judges and [lawmakers], or claims the Basic Law no longer limits their interference." Sen. Jim Risch said the arrests, along with growing pressure for Hong Kong to enact anti-sedition and anti-subversion laws, were "troubling developments" for the rule of law in the city, while Sen. Cory Gardner called on the administration of President Donald Trump to look at imposing sanctions on those violating human rights in Hong Kong. Reported by Man Hoi-tsan and Lu Xi for RFA's Cantonese and Mandarin Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Copyright 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content April not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chennai, April 21 : Twenty-seven employees of a Tamil television channel have been asked to get admitted to hospital after they tested positive for coronavirus, according to a senior channel official. "Twenty-seven employees, both editorial and non-editorial staff, tested positive for Covid-19," a senior official of the channel told IANS. After a journalist from the channel tested Covid-19 positive recently, coronavirus tests were conducted on 96 employees. Test results for several journalists are awaited. Officials are counselling the family members of the those who have been asked to get admitted. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Comets spend most of their lives at large distances from any star, during which time their interior compositions remain relatively unaltered. Cometary observations can provide direct insight into the chemistry that occurred during their birth at the time of planet formation. Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), two teams of astronomers have found that the gas coming out of 2I/Borisov, the first notably active interstellar comet discovered in our Solar System, contains unusually high amounts of carbon monoxide. This suggests that 2I/Borisov could have formed around a red dwarf, though other kinds of stars are possible; another idea is that the interstellar comet could be a carbon monoxide-rich fragment of a dwarf exoplanet. 2I/Borisov was detected on August 30, 2019 by Gennady Borisov, an astronomer at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnij, Ukraine, and later shown to be on a hyperbolic orbit, consistent with an interstellar origin, in the direction of Cassiopeia. This comet is the second interstellar object discovered in the Solar System, and it showed comet-like activity since it was discovered, indicating sublimating ices. Its brightness and location in the sky made it observable for months. This situation is very different from that of the first discovered interstellar object, Oumuamua, which was much fainter, was visible for only a few weeks for most observers, and showed no detectable levels of gas or dust. 2I/Borisovs outgassing makes it possible to probe the chemical composition of volatiles stored within the nucleus. With an interstellar comet passing through our own Solar System, its like we get a sample of a planet orbiting another star showing up in our own backyard, said Dr. John Noonan, a researcher in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. Dr. Noonan and colleagues used Hubble to look at 2I/Borisov from December 11, 2019 to January 13, 2020. Separately, a research team led by Martin Cordiner of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center studied the comet on December 15 and 16, 2019, with ALMA. The results show that 2I/Borisovs carbon monoxide concentration is higher than that of the average solar system comet. Borisovs large wealth of carbon monoxide implies that it came from a planet formation region that has very different chemical properties than the disk from which our Solar System formed, said Dr. Dennis Bodewits, an astrophysicist at Auburn University who lead the team behind the Hubble observations. Carbon monoxide ice is very volatile. It doesnt take much sunlight to heat the ice and convert it to gas that escapes from a comets nucleus. For carbon monoxide, this activity occurs very far from the Sun, about 17.7 billion km (11 billion miles) away, more than twice the distance of Pluto at its farthest point from the Sun. In contrast, water remains in its icy form until about 322 million km (200 million miles) from the Sun, the approximate distance of the inner edge of the asteroid belt. However, for 2I/Borisov, the Hubble measurements suggest that some carbon monoxide ice was locked inside the comets nucleus, revealed only when the Suns heat stripped away layers of water ice. The amount of carbon monoxide did not drop as expected as the comet receded from the Sun. This means that we are seeing the primitive layers of the comet, which really reflect what this object is made of, Dr. Bodewits said. A high carbon-monoxide-to-water ratio suggests that 2I/Borisov has traveled from a very cold place as cold as the area where Pluto is in relation to our Sun, called the Kuiper Belt. The team theorizes 2I/Borisov may have originated around the most common type of star in the Milky Way: a red dwarf. These stars have exactly the low temperatures and luminosities where a comet could form with the type of composition found in 2I/Borisov, Dr. Noonan said. According to the astronomers behind the ALMA observations, 2I/Borisov could be a fragment of a dwarf exoplanet that had a lot of carbon monoxide near its surface, regardless of which type of star it came from. If that object collided with another, then the carbon monoxide-rich fragments could be released into space, Dr. Cordiner said. But 2I/Borisov may have simply formed as a comet with a high concentration of carbon monoxide. Alternatively, it may have an unusually thick outer layer that insulates frozen gases like hydrogen cyanide and water. As the more volatile carbon monoxide evaporates or outgases, it may appear more abundant than other cometary gases. 2I/Borisovs unusual properties may also suggest a wider diversity of carbon monoxide in comets in our own Solar System than previously thought. Whatever the answer is, 2I/Borisov opens up a whole new can of worms for cometary science, said Dr. Stefanie Milam, a researcher at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. The results were published in two papers in the journal Nature Astronomy. _____ D. Bodewits et al. The carbon monoxide-rich interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. Nat Astron, published online April 20, 2020; doi: 10.1038/s41550-020-1095-2 M.A. Cordiner et al. Unusually high CO abundance of the first active interstellar comet. Nat Astron, published online April 20, 2020; doi: 10.1038/s41550-020-1087-2 The summer season of music festivals will be cancelled under new Government restrictions on mass gatherings. The Cabinet agreed to ban the issuing of licences for any event involving more than 5,000 people until the end of August. A memo was brought by the Department of the Taoiseach requesting that no new licences for festivals or concerts will be issued for the coming months. The move is aimed at allowing concert promoters time to inform performers that events had been cancelled. The measure does not affect sporting events. In the Cabinet memo, ministers were told that National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) will make the ultimate decision on mass gatherings. However, local authorities needed to be told not to issue licences for large scale events which were due to take place in the coming months. Government sources said they expect Nphet to make a similar decision on mass gatherings but the groups final recommendation on the issue may not come until the end of the month. In a statement, the Department of the Taoiseach said all mass gatherings have been restricted since March 24 and this will be updated before the end of the current lock down on May 5. However, there are a number of largescale future events which require licensing and the involvement of the HSE and Garda Siochana, and public consultation in that licensing process which fall to be determined in advance of that by local authorities, it said While the issue of restrictions on future mass gatherings is a decision to be taken by the NPHET, in the case of these particular events, and taking account of the impacts on the integrity of the licensing process in the short-term due to restrictions on stakeholder involvement, local authorities have been advised by Government that event promoters should be informed that events requiring licences in excess of 5,000 will not be considered for the period up to the end of August, it added. PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-21 14:16:20 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 991 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 RENO, NV / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / Scandium International Mining Corp.(TSX:SCY) ("Scandium International" or the "Company") advises that it has received a favorable Notice of Proposed Decision' (the Notice') from the Deputy Secretary, Department of Regional NSW, Division of Mining, Exploration and Geoscience (the Department'). The Notice addresses recent developments regarding resolution of a landowner objection filed in August 2016 against the grant of a mining lease relating to the Nyngan Scandium Project. The newly proposed decision, if finalized, would allow all of the measured and indicated resource included in the Nyngan Scandium Project DFS to be reinstated in a mining lease grant.This Notice references new governmental findings regarding the ultimate determination of this outstanding landowner objection, and indicates that the Deputy Secretary now believes the objection has failed to meet key legal tests on major portions of the affected area, which are specifically defined. The Notice also makes clear the advice is to be understood as a proposed decision, rather than a final decision. The affected parties have 21 days to file further information or arguments, at which time the Deputy Secretary will consider those submissions and render a final decision, as soon as practicable, on the outstanding 2016 objection.The content of this latest Department Notice represents a significant reversal of prior draft findings and advice delivered to SCY, and previously forwarded to SCY shareholders. If these findings are upheld in final decision, the implications will clearly be positive to ongoing development efforts on the Nyngan Project.HIGHLIGHTS FROM LATEST GOVERNMENT ADVICE:NSW Government agencies refute prior consultant findings of a valid objection.Revised findings would remove objections from most of the disputed area.Areas where objection may be sustained do not coincide with established resource.The newly proposed decision, if finalized, would allow all of the measured and indicated resource included in the DFS to be reinstated in a mine lease grant, andA final decision from the Deputy Secretary will not be made until a comment period expires (May 5, 2020) and any comments have been fully considered.DISCUSSION:The Department granted a Mining Lease (ML 1763') to SCY's Australian subsidiary, EMC Metals Australia Pty Ltd., in 2017. At that time it was unknown, to both the Department and SCY, that a local landowner had filed a prior, timely, and valid objection to the granting of that Lease.Approximately two years elapsed from the time the objection was initially lodged, to the point where government staff was able to confirm the original filing was properly submitted and represented a valid objection. At that moment, the Secretary of the Department that issued the Mining Lease, then became legally obligated to make a determination as to whether the objection was valid, based on the Law. That formal determination of validity on the landowner's objection has not yet occurred.The Company issued six news releases in 2019 on this matter, where considerable detail can be reviewed if desired. A short summary of key events discussed in those news releases is as follows:The Department engaged external consultants in 2018, to give an opinion on the validity of the landowner objection.During the time those consultants were forming their opinion on the objection, the landowner filed suit against the Department Secretary, seeking to have ML 1763 declared invalid. ML 1763 was declared invalid, settling the lawsuit.The external consultants ultimately supported the landowner objection as valid, twice.The Company then filed for and received a new Mining Lease ("ML 1792"), which excluded surface and resource that was affected by the objection. ML 1792 remains in effect.During late 2019, the Department sought confirmational opinions from governmental agencies regarding the external consultant findings. The Deputy Secretary engaged the NSW Department of Primary Industry, and specifically staff from the Land Use Planning Team with specific relevant agricultural knowledge, to review the prior work. These government agricultural experts opined that most of the land covered under the objection was in fact not Agricultural Land' as defined by Law, and recommended only a small portion of specific areas under question be excluded from a future mining lease. These most recent governmental findings of fact are the basis for the Notice of Proposed Decision' from the Deputy Secretary.It is clear that the latest investigation has been carried out by a fully qualified team that has full State perspective and understanding of the requirements to meet the test of the Law regarding a determination of the landowner objection. SCY expects to have only limited input to insert into the 21-day comment period, and looks forward to a final and binding determination by the Deputy Secretary, in due course.George Putnam, CEO of Scandium International Mining Corp. commented:"We are on record stating that the Nyngan Scandium Project in Australia can be developed based on the resource we currently have secured with our granted ML. That said, the project will definitely be improved with a return of additional resource and access to our east pit options for mining and optimization. It has been a lengthy challenge to work for a reinstatement of our full resource, our initial mine plan, and a big piece of blue sky potential in expansion. We look forward to completing that task with government, and again advancing our scandium project forward." ABOUT SCANDIUM INTERNATIONAL MINING CORP.The Company is focused on developing its Nyngan Scandium Project, located in NSW, Australia, into the world's first scandium-only producing mine. The project owned by our 100% held Australian subsidiary, EMC Metals Australia Pty Ltd, has received all key approvals, including a mining lease, necessary to proceed with project construction.The Company filed a NI 43-101 technical report in May 2016, titled "Feasibility Study - Nyngan Scandium Project". That feasibility study delivered an expanded scandium resource, a first reserve figure, and an estimated 33.1% IRR on the project, supported by extensive metallurgical test work and an independent, 10-year global marketing outlook for scandium demand.Willem Duyvesteyn, MSc, AIME, CIM, a Director and CTO Samsung Display's Bac Ninh factory in Vietnam / Courtesy of Samsung Display By Baek Byung-yeul Samsung Display will continue with plans to produce premium small-sized OLED panels for use in high-end flagship mobiles at its plant in Vietnam after employees who had come into contact with a coronavirus-infected worker all tested negative for COVID-19, the display-making unit of Samsung Electronics said Tuesday. Samsung Display applied through quarantine procedures after a male employee at the factory in Bac Ninh province tested positive for COVID-19 on April 12. Also, the 221 employees who had come into contact with the worker all tested negative for the virus. "The virus-infected employee works for a quality control department, so there has been no delay for the production line," a company official said. As the company cleared the risk of mass infection and dispelled the concerns and uncertainties that its supply chain management would be disrupted, Samsung Display is expected to accelerate the upgrade of OLED module production lines at the Bac Ninh factory. Samsung Display's Bac Ninh factory in Vietnam / Courtesy of Samsung Display New Delhi, April 21 : A day after a hospital here said that plasma therapy has shown positive results on a critical COVID-19 patient, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday said the success of the treatment can save a lot of lives. "It is a good sign (that the therapy had positive results on a critical patient). The success of the plasma therapy will help in saving a lot of lives in Delhi," Jain said. The Max Hospital in Saket here had administered plasma therapy on a critical coronavirus patient, with the treatment showing positive results and the patient was taken off ventilator support, the hospital said on Monday. The 49-year-old man was the first patient who was administered plasma therapy at the hospital. In convalescent plasma therapy, the antibodies of a person who has recovered from the virus are taken and transfused into a sick person (having the virus) to help boost the person's immune system. Jain also said that the number of cases doubled from 1,000 to 2,000 in eight days in the city, adding the authorities are keeping a close watch on the doubling rate of the cases. Delhi has so far reported 47 deaths and more than 2,150 coronavirus cases. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) A viral pandemic isnt the same thing as a war. But as Ive tried to work and lead a semblance of normal life in New York under covid-19, Ive found myself drawing on my experience as an involuntary shut-in during some of the worst violence in Iraq. I covered the US invasion of Iraq for the Boston Globe, and in April 2003 set up a long-term base in Baghdad in a hotel called the Hamra. At that time, journalists roamed the country freely, interviewing everybodymilitiamen resisting the American occupation, Al Qaeda sympathizers, victims of Saddams brutality, survivors of indiscriminate American fire. We talked to clerics, politicians, stay-at-home mothers, political activists. The occasional flares of violence were localized and targeted. To work outside of Baghdad we would wake before dawn and drive sometimes five or six hours to reach remote villages or cities. If the story called for more time on the ground, we would sleep at simple hotels, or on the floor of a contact we had befriended in the course of reporting. Human beings are incredibly adaptable. We can get used to virtually anything. Wartime Iraq entailed a predictable level of instability and violence, and most activities seemed safe enough. The greatest danger was bad luckfinding oneself near an American convoy that might get attacked or, for us foreign journalists, getting kidnapped by an opportunist looking for ransom money. In New York under corona, the shift from normal life to lockdown occurred gradually then all at once, over the course of a few short weeks. In post-invasion Iraq, that transition took more than a year. The threats multiplied until they became ubiquitous. There were numerous uprisings against the US occupation. Extremist groups like Al Qaeda kidnapped and murdered civilians, Iraqis as well as foreigners. Like everyone in Iraq, we feared death, dismemberment, and beheadingthreats so commonplace that militants circulated recordings of their most grisly crimes on DVD. By the fall of 2004, any trip outside the Hamra was dangerous. At the same time, there was no option to simply hunker down at home. This was a long-ago era, before smartphones and ubiquitous chat and video communications. Even cellphone communication was unreliable. To reach the outside world, we relied on an expensive and very slow satellite internet connection, which was regularly disrupted by bad weather. Sign up for CJR 's daily email So how did we do our jobs? The same way that everybody gingerly got on with the necessities of life: calculated risks and extreme logistics. In practice that meant learning how to manage the ambient fear and anxiety of possible death. In order to minimize the threat for everyone on our team, we planned obsessively and rationed the risk. We ruthlessly prioritized our reporting agenda. Simple news dailies were less important than investigations and features. For every interview, we considered whether we could talk to the subject by phone, or whether the subject could safely meet at the Hamra. If we concluded that an in-person interview was indispensable, we considered possible safe meeting places. If we trusted the source, we would consult them. If the source was also a possible threatsometimes the case with militants or extremist sympathizerswe would share our meeting plan at the last possible moment. Every reporter and researcher knows that nothing beats getting out of the newsroomor, in our case, the tiny home office on the Tigris. Phone calls or online chats never substitute for meeting someone in real life. We lost a great deal of information by sacrificing all but the most critical encounters. Our remaining outings took on an outsize significance, planned like a backwoods hiking trip or a military operation. We would share our planned route and return time with a colleague who was staying in. We carried long-range walkie-talkies as backups to our unreliable cellphones. We had a chase car follow behind us, to deter any possible kidnapper or at least to be able to report any harm. As time passed, the risk of staying home grew as well. There were violent groups that targeted foreigners and foreign journalists. A suicide bomber could target the hotel. And eventually one did, in November 2005, destroying the smaller of the Hamras two residential towers (the first of several attacks on the hotel, culminating in its closure in 2010). I happened to be out of the country on break at the time, along with the cobureau chief (and future wife). When we returned, we carried on our existing regimen of limited hibernation and quick forays into the city. ICYMI: When an election year becomes a sideshow The planningas well as the makeshift (and mostly symbolic) securityenabled a mindset that comes in handy in quarantine. In wartime, theres simply no such thing as zero-risk. In order to eat, work, or see the sun, you have to expose yourself to dangers that go beyond the quotidian dangers of daily life. We trained ourselves to assess risk dispassionately. Every day we would ask what had changed: which areas were now unsafe, what techniques were being deployed by which violent groups, who was being targeted. The situation changed day by day. So did our capabilities; someone might offer a ride in an armored car to an otherwise hard-to-reach area. Those of us who disliked the limitations of embeds with the US military would accept a military flight to a part of the country not safely visited by road. When we acquired a chase car and an armed guard in 2004, a year into the American occupation of Iraq, we were able to travel more freely. And when militia groups declared cease-fires, we could travel to areas that days earlier had been pitched battlegrounds. Nothing was entirely safe, and a few things were obviously too dangerous. But on the spectrum in between those two extremes, we were able to do quite a lot of reporting. We dressed to blend in, so that a casual would-be kidnapper wouldnt quickly notice us as foreigners. I grew an embarrassing tiny mustache, which is all I could muster. Sometimes we reported what we could, rather than what we thought was most important. Despite the drawbacks of embedding, we sought trips with the military just to get out into the country. Entire areas and demographics were off-limits. I could easily visit the Shia clerical centers of Najaf and Karbala, but Basra and Mosul were more difficult and Anbar Province almost completely out of bounds. Iraqi reporters were able to travel a little more widely, but the epicenters of the conflictincluding some of the most newsworthy places, like Fallujahwere off-limits to them as well. Some factions, like the religious Shia militants, were eager to meet journalists and explain their motives. Others, like the burgeoning ranks of Al Qaeda fighters, considered journalists fair targets. As a result, we were unable to report effectively on the communities where Al Qaeda and similar extremists made their bases. Given the drawbacks and risks, we considered it crucially important to keep ourselves sane. We sought to cultivate psychological well-being of a sorta good enough principle for mental health. Even as violence intruded more and more into Baghdad life, the community of reporters at the Hamra continued normal life in an effort to stay balanced. We went out to dinner at restaurants, organized outdoor barbecues, accepted invitations to peoples homes for meals, and visited cultural sites. By the fall of 2004, with the threats proliferating, all that sort of recreation ceased. No more water polo games and midnight swim races at the Hamra pool; no more outdoor parties on the hotel terrace. READ: The Tow Center COVID-19 Newsletter But we maintained a strict regimen of self-care, and assiduously carved out time and space in our home for not working. We decreed one area of our suite off-limits for professional activity; it was a strictly recreational zone. Exercise was critical; we ordered a rickety elliptical machine and worked up a sweat on it every dayespecially on those days when we were unable to leave the compound at all or when the news kept us hunched over our laptops for twelve to sixteen hours. Every night, no matter how pressing the deadline or how ghastly the news, we blocked out an hour to prepare dinner ourselves and to eat together. If possible, we invited another reporter from the Hamra complex to join us. Every night before bed, we read or watched a DVD (remember, this was before the days of streaming). And finally, we made a point to check in with each other and talk about our fears and worries, even if only for ten minutes. Its arguable how well these approaches worked for us, and whether they carry over from wartime to pandemic. I spent a total of three years full-time covering Iraq, from 2003 to 2006. During that period my cobureau chief and I got married and decided that we needed a safer, more predictable daily life. Constant danger and decision-making put us in a state of unending hypervigilance, from which it took years to come down. The demands that the covid-19 pandemic places on essential workers cause a similar, enervating mix of adrenaline and exhaustion. We werent caring for children while working at the Hamra, the way we and so many others are now while working from home. Older technology kept us disconnected from friends and family (no FaceTime with stateside parents and siblings from a Baghdad traffic jam), but that disconnection was also a blessingit saved us from the psychological dislocation of trying to connect simultaneously with people who shared the stresses of our environment and with people far away who lived under completely different conditions. Covering a war while living in that war can make a person a little bit crazy. Some psychic toll is an unavoidable cost of trying to function at a time of historic stress. Knowing that means Ill be less surprised by the ups and downs of working through an extended lockdown. Even apocalyptic times eventually come to an end. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Thanassis Cambanis is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and the author of several books. He is currently writing a history of the Iraq War. He served as Iraq bureau chief for the Boston Globe from 2003 to 2006. Bangladeshi author-in-exile Taslima Nasreen on Tuesday questioned the World Health Organization (WHO) over the re-opening of China's wet markets. Taking to Twitter, she stated that the WHO had informed about the Coronavirus originating from Wuhan's wet markets. She added that even though the virus has spread all over the world, China has opened its wet market. Nasreen questioned as to why is WHO not asking China to shut its markets at the time of the crisis if that's where the virus originated. WHO informed us that coronavirus originated from Wuhan's wet market. Virus is now all over the world, and people are dying like anything. China now reopened Wuhan's wet market. Why doesn't WHO tell China to close their wet markets? taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) April 21, 2020 China re-opens wet markets China's 'wet markets' have been reopened and the sale of bats, pangolins and dogs for human consumption has resumed in the country. The coronavirus outbreak had earlier been pinned down by the WHO to one such 'wet-market' in Wuhan, though doubt and speculation over other origins persists. Read: Trump govt accuses China of 'vaccuming up global PPEs while hiding Covid'; claims evidence Read: North Korea's Kim Jong Un caught Covid from Chinese doctor; currently stable: Reports The Coronavirus crisis Presently, there are around 2,482,044 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, which has led to the death of around 170,456 people. Along with it, around 652,150 people have reportedly recovered. Leading the number of global positive cases of coronavirus, the United States has become the new epicenter of the pandemic surpassing China, Italy, and Iran. Read: World Bank to launch new multi-donor trust fund for low-income countries Read: World in peril, China reveals plan to inject medics with new Covid vaccine by year-end By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 21, 2020 | 11:04 AM | FRANKFORT Voter registration in Kentucky was virtually unchanged during the month of March.Secretary of State Michael Adams announced Tuesday that Kentucky saw a flatline in voter registration for the month, with the state holding a total of 3,469,912 registrants as of March 31. This is a 0.01 percent increase since February 29, or about 504 additional voters.Democratic registrants represent just more than 48 percent of the electorate with 1,679,132 registered voters. Democratic registration dropped by 914, since February 29, a 0.05 percent decrease. Republican registrants total 1,484,062, or almost 43 percent of voters, with a small increase of 976 registered voters, a gain of 0.07 percent since February 29. Almost 9 percent of voters are listed under other affiliations, with an additional 442 voters added to their totals, a 0.14 percent increase."Voter registration has leveled at a time when it's difficult to conduct a voter registration drive," Adams said. "I've taken action to delay the voter registration deadline for the primary election to May 26. I strongly encourage and will use the resources of my Office to encourage Kentuckians to register to vote online, at GoVoteKy.com."Complete registration statistics are available on the State Board of Elections website at the link below. On the Net: New Delhi, April 21 : The Delhi Congress claimed on Tuesday that there is corruption in the food provided by the Delhi government to poor and said the Congress is providing meals to around 50,000 poor people daily through 'Congress Rasoi' across Delhi ever since the Covid-19 lockdown. Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit while distributing food at Babarpur in North East Delhi alleged that "Delhi government is just going through its motions to feed the poor people without putting its heart and soul into the effort, as the food being supplied by the Kejriwal government is inedible and inadequate in quantity." Delhi unit chief Anil Choudhary demanded "Lt. Governor should order a probe to bring out truth." He said that "there seems to be corruption in the food being supplied by the Delhi government and that was the reason for the poor quality of the food, and asked the Lt. Governor to order a high-level probe to bring out the truth about the poor quality food being supplied by the Delhi government due to the corruption and loot involved in the process." The Congress demanded that the Kejriwal government should clarify how much money is being spent per person by government to supply free food to the poor. Congress has been providing meals to around 50,000 poor people daily through the Congress 'Rasoi' (kitchen) since March 26 till today to cater to the poor and neglected people, and those from the unorganized sector across Delhi, it said. He said that the Delhi Congress has been providing nutritious, healthy and sumptuous food to the poor people, unlike the Delhi government, by following all the lockdown rules, like social distancing, thermal screening . [April 21, 2020] env0 Introduces Self-Service Cloud Management Platform env0, a developer of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) management software, today introduced the public beta of the env0 platform, the first cloud management platform built to enable self-service with complete governance and cost control in AWS, Azure and Google (News - Alert) Cloud Platform. env0 also announced $3.3 million in initial funding co-led by Boldstart Ventures and Grove Ventures, with participation from angel investors including Guy Podjarny of Snyk. "Shifting to microservices and cloud native architectures has made cloud applications much more complicated, increasing developer frustration with DevOps bottlenecks," said Ohad Maislish, CEO and co-founder of env0. "env0 reduces inefficiency by creating an engine that simplifies IaC governance while increasing accessibility of self-service infrastructure, doing for infrastructure-as-code what GitHub does for Git." Support for Any Infrastructure-as-Code As companies of all sizes move into the cloud, monolithic software suites have grown into vast ecosystems of cloud native solutions and microservices. This has put an increasing strain on finite infrastructure resources and the developers responsible for provisioning them for application and operations teams. Although IaC frameworks solve some of these problems, managed cloud environments inevitably create new bottlenecks that decrease the efficiency of CI/CD pipelines. env0 overcomes these bottlenecks by shifting testing, developer, and production workloads into standalone, ephemeral environments. "When we moved to infrastructure-as-code, it became clear that having a flexible way to orchestrate our environments was essential and using Jenkins was not enough," said Shaked Shauli, DevOps Lead at Curv. "env0 solved several of our problems, but its greatest advantages were its automated TTL environment policies. It allowed our team to control and manage environments while driving costs down." Key features include: Dynamic Environments: Scaling infrastructure can create phantom workloads and systems that are forgotten or easily misplaced. env0 provides automatic shutdown and time-to-live (TTL) options to ensure that systems don't stay idle or consume lean budgets. Scaling infrastructure can create phantom workloads and systems that are forgotten or easily misplaced. env0 provides automatic shutdown and time-to-live (TTL) options to ensure that systems don't stay idle or consume lean budgets. Policy Control: Giving full access to cloud environments to everyone in an organization is rife with security risk. env0 offers a centralized interface for password, key, and token management that reduces the risk of catastrophic user eror. It also offers role-based access control to partition responsibility and governs access to sensitive variables needed for flow execution. Giving full access to cloud environments to everyone in an organization is rife with security risk. env0 offers a centralized interface for password, key, and token management that reduces the risk of catastrophic user eror. It also offers role-based access control to partition responsibility and governs access to sensitive variables needed for flow execution. Actual Cost Management: Rather than relying on estimations or manual tagging, env0 allows teams to accurately connect their cloud spend to existing projects by automatically tagging infrastructure, even for environments spread across multiple cloud providers. The patent-pending env0 engine helps managers and developers collaborate on provisioning cloud resources that fit within predetermined budgets, performing cost attribution analysis that keeps projects on track. Rather than relying on estimations or manual tagging, env0 allows teams to accurately connect their cloud spend to existing projects by automatically tagging infrastructure, even for environments spread across multiple cloud providers. The patent-pending env0 engine helps managers and developers collaborate on provisioning cloud resources that fit within predetermined budgets, performing cost attribution analysis that keeps projects on track. User friendly, self-service UI: Most cloud native Infrastructure is still managed via interfaces that are built with technical users in mind. env0 prioritizes an intuitive UI/UX to make IaC governance available to remote or non-technical users, including sales, service and Q/A. Initial Funding to Accelerate R&D env0 - pronounced env-zero - was founded in December 2018 by CEO Ohad Maislish and CTO Omry Hay, both bringing extensive experience solving complicated infrastructure challenges from companies including Ravello Systems, VMware, Proofpoint (News - Alert) and eToro. The company will use its initial funding to accelerate the product's general availability, and establish a Silicon Valley based headquarters. Podjarny and former VMware executive Reza Malekzadeh will join the company as advisors. "When it comes to the cloud, every enterprise is struggling to find the right balance between speed, governance, and cost," said Ed Sim, founder and Managing Partner at Boldstart Ventures. "env0 is the first SaaS (News - Alert) solution that meets all of those needs by offering self-service cloud environments with centralized governance. Ohad, Omry and the rest of the env0 team are extremely well-positioned to deliver on the promise of dynamic environments and infrastructure automation, and we are thrilled to be a part of their journey." "We are very excited to invest in env0, a company which has the skills, vision and deep technology to allow developer teams to easily manage all their cloud environments in one self-service Infrastructure-as-Code platform while reducing costs significantly," said Omri Green, Partner at Grove Ventures. Product Availability The public beta is free. To find out more about env0's features, visit www.env0.com. General availability of env0 is expected in Fall 2020. Supporting Resources Follow env0 online for the latest news and information. env0 blog Product video LinkedIn Twitter About env0 env0 is the first self-service infrastructure management platform built for today's infrastructure-as-code (IaC) architecture using predefined security and cost policies. Designed to combine governance and cost control with self-service environment management for any IaC deployment, env0 offers self-service for the entire team while maintaining governance across all clouds. env0 is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, with offices in New York and Silicon Valley. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005169/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] In hospitals across the city, there are silent, lonely ranks of thousands of such patients. Some are face down. Others lie on their backs, eyes closed. Many have been temporarily paralyzed so their bodies cant resist the ventilator that is breathing for them. They appear very lifeless but for the work of the machine, Dr. Colleen Farrell, a resident at Bellevue hospital, said. Brian Pallister wants Manitoba to become the first province to safely return to life as the pandemic subsides. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Brian Pallister wants Manitoba to become the first province to safely return to life as the pandemic subsides. And expanded testing is critical to that effort, the premier says. "Part of beating COVID is to increase and expand the scope of the testing that we do," Pallister told a news conference Monday, as the province reported its sixth coronavirus-related death. The Cadham Provincial Laboratory has boosted its testing capacity in recent weeks, and it's expected to continue to do so in the coming days, the premier said. Manitoba is also evaluating a potentially game-changing testing device dubbed the Spartan Cube, which can yield results in less than an hour and does not require specialized expertise and the equipment of a large lab. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister during the province's COVID-19 update briefing Monday afternoon: "Part of beating COVID is to increase and expand the scope of the testing that we do." Pallister said all of this could allow Manitoba to ramp up to perform 2,000 tests per day, if necessary. New estimates by researchers at Harvard University suggest that the United States cannot safely reopen unless it conducts a minimum of about 152 tests per 100,000 people each day. That works out to about 2,000 tests for a province the size of Manitoba. Pallister said there will be greater demand for COVID-19 testing as the economy "begins to come out of hibernation." "Small businesses, non-profits, charities even church groups and others will want to be sure that their interactions are healthy interactions," he said. Pallister even produced an acronym FIRST (First in Restoring Safe Services Together) to describe his wish that Manitoba lead the way among provinces in gradually reopening parts of the economy that have been shut down due to public-health orders. "Small businesses, non-profits, charities even church groups and others will want to be sure that their interactions are healthy interactions." Premier Brian Pallister "That's our goal," he said. "We have to create the safety that's where increased testing, that's where protocols around reopening are central to our restoration of safe services." Dr. Brent Roussin, the province's chief public health officer, said there are several factors that need to be considered as the province reopens the shuttered sections of its economy. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer. "We're going to let the numbers guide us.... We're ramping up the ability to test to meet increasing demand and making sure the at-risk populations are protected," he said. That's why the province has restricted travel to the North, ordered self-isolation for travellers returning to Manitoba and boosted screening at hospitals and long-term care facilities, he said. On Monday, the province announced a sixth Manitoban had died from the coronavirus, a Winnipeg woman in her 80s who had underlying health issues and had been in intensive care. Eight patients are in hospital with COVID-19, five of them in intensive care. There are 105 active cases of the coronavirus in Manitoba, and 144 people who have tested positive for the virus have recovered. The provincial government also extended its state of emergency under The Emergency Measures Act for another 30 days. This gives cabinet special powers during the pandemic, and is different than Public Health Act orders that limit the size of public groups, close or limit non-essential businesses, restrict travel, etc. "We're going to let the numbers guide us.... We're ramping up the ability to test to meet increasing demand and making sure the at-risk populations are protected." Chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin Meanwhile, some surgeries that were delayed due to the pandemic are beginning to resume, said Lanette Siragusa, chief nursing officer with Shared Health. To free up front-line resources and make room at hospitals, Manitoba pulled back on some health-care areas, postponing non-urgent diagnostic and surgical procedures, deferring non-essential home-care services and offering doctor's appointments online or by phone. 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. Now the province is looking at areas where it needs to ramp up services, Siragusa said. "Surgical activity or diagnostics may need to ramp up again for a period of time in order to ensure patient outcomes are not compromised," she said, adding some cancer surgeries are proceeding this week at Health Sciences Centre. "Planning continues to occur at other sites across the province to account for these periods of increased need," she said. All patients are asked to make sure that if there's any change in their status or condition that they let their health-care provider know, she said. larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Carol Sanders Legislature reporter After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020. Read full biography When Nat Shaffir looks at his beloved grandchildren, he beams with pride. But he also wonders. He wonders if they could survive. He sees them at their basketball games and birthday parties, and he sees himself at 9, promising to take care of his sisters as his father was taken away by the Nazis. He sees himself playing a dangerous game of trickery to keep his family alive through the winter of 1945 in the Jewish ghetto. Shaffir survived the Holocaust as a child, emigrated to Israel and then the United States, settled down and raised a big, happy family. Five children, 12 grandchildren: Each named after one of his 32 relatives murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust, which killed 6 million Jews total. At 83, Shaffir is one of the youngest Holocaust survivors, and he is keenly aware that in a couple decades, there will be no more. Im their voice, he says. Later on, when were gone, these young people will be our voices, and the Holocaust Museum will be our voices, he says. We are actually fighting a war, which means time. April 21 is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. is honoring the day with a virtual program. Shaffir, who volunteers at the museum, holds tight to his Jewish faith, and he believes there must be a reason for his survival against the odds. In many cases, Hitler succeeded in wiping out total families, Shaffir says. He did not succeed with me. I won, not him. 'These are Jews' The war came to Shaffirs life in 1942, when he was 6 years old. His parents had heard of violence against Jews in Iasi, Romania, the closest big city: One night in 1941, thousands of Jews were killed on the streets of Iasi. Thousands more, including one of Shaffirs uncles, died of thirst and suffocation in whats known as the Romanian Death Trains. But as a child on their familys peaceful dairy farm, Shaffir was mostly shielded from the growing horror of Hitlers death machine. Story continues Until the day a priest showed up with a policeman and two soldiers. The priest visited weekly, and Shaffirs father always gave him milk for the congregants who couldnt afford it. But the policeman and the soldiers wanted something else. These are Jews, the priest said to the officer. Nat Shaffir remembers his childhood as peaceful, before the war. Nat in 1938 with his sister, mother and aunt in a park in Romania. His aunt was killed in the Holocaust. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Nathan Shaffir) His father pleaded with them. Ive known you since you were a little child. Ive known your parents, he said. Cant you do something about forgetting your order? No. They had four hours to pack and report to the Jewish ghetto in Iasi. Across Nazi-controlled Europe, Jews were being rounded up and killed or forced into ghettos, work camps and death camps, part of Hitlers Final Solution to wipe out the Jewish people. In the ghetto of Iasi, with Shaffir, his two sisters and parents crowded in one room, life was a constant struggle for food and enough kerosene to survive the cold winters. They were allowed a quarter loaf of bread every two days. To survive, Shaffirs father traded on the black market. Shaffir always went with him and carried the contraband food; if an adult Jew was caught with black market food, he would certainly be imprisoned and tortured, possibly executed, while a child would just be slapped around a bit, Shaffir said. So it was safer for him to carry the food. In February of 1944, all men in the ghetto were told to assemble to be taken away. Shaffir walked with his father to the assembly spot until his father said, Nat, its time for you to go back. Then he put his hands on his sons shoulders and said five words that Shaffir would never forget: Nat, take care of the girls. Now, I could have said, OK dad, Ill try, or Ill do my best, Shaffir recalls now. I never did that. I said, I will. I always kept my promise. That stood with me for a long time." 'OK, little Jew, let me see what you can do' Soon after his father left, Shaffir befriended the drunk Romanian attendant who doled out kerosene rations in the ghetto. He offered to pump the kerosene so the attendant could stay in his warm booth (probably sleeping off a hangover, he realizes now). OK, little Jew, let me see what you can do, Shaffir remembers the scruffy attendant telling him. From then on, he always got a little extra kerosene. That kept our family a little bit more comfortable, Shaffir recalls. I was (always) thinking how to make sure my family stays alive. They did stay alive, and in the spring of 1945 Russian soldiers liberated the city of Iasi. His father had been on a work crew, and hitchhiked back to Iasi on a Russian convoy. The family reunited, and Shaffir and his father went back to their farm. They stopped to see an old friend on the way. The farmer was very happy to see us, hugging us. He was happy that my father survived, Shaffir says. Then the farmer said, Where are you going from here? My father said, Of course, were going back to the farm. The old farmer said, I wouldnt do that. Their farm had been divided three ways: One part to the priest who turned them in as Jews, one part to the officer who ordered them into the ghetto, and one to the mayor of the town. They learned that every member of their extended family except for one uncle had died in the Holocaust. Eventually, Shaffirs family moved to Israel, and Shaffir immigrated to the United States, sponsored by his uncle. 'We don't have much time' Shaffir met a sweet Southern woman named Merryl, married her and had five children. He started his own business. He took up marathon running in his 60s; he gave that up a few years ago, but felt like he needed a new challenge so he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro just before his 83rd birthday. He volunteers at the Holocaust Museum, near his home of Silver Spring, Maryland. Shaffir is an optimistic man, full of faith. His grand-daughter Kira says he's always smiling. But he has no illusions. The Holocaust could happen again, he says. Sometimes history repeats itself. We have to work very, very hard to make sure that atrocities like the Nazis have committed do not happen again What concerns me is the anti-Semitism thats going on in the United States. The thing that happened in Charlottesville could happen in other places. The resurgence of neo-Nazis makes him worry. His grandchildren and their generation give him hope. Without these young people telling what happened, all our lives would have been wasted completely, he says. Shaffir starts talking to his grandchildren about his experience during the Holocaust in earnest when theyre about 12, when he thinks they are old enough to understand. They talk about it around the dinner table. They know their history. "I feel a special duty to tell my grandfather's story," said his grandson, Benji Wilber. "The truth is that it happened, and we have to learn from it." Nat Shaffir makes challah bread with two of his 12 grandchildren, 17-year-old Benji Wilbur and 14-year-old Kira Wilbur. Shaffir leads tours at the Holocaust Museum so that everyone will know. Diane Saltzman, Director of Survivor Affairs at the museum, says survivors like Nat "bring an authenticity and a truth in a way nothing else can. They are the best teachers we have." She and other educators know they are racing against time. "There will be a huge change when we don't have living eyewitnesses. Having the evidence will be that voice," she says. "The (museum) is the keeper of that memory. As the history recedes, it's as relevant now as ever." Shaffir thinks about it too, that moment when the last Holocaust survivor is gone. We dont have much time. Were counting on these young people, especially my immediate family, to tell their friends, Heres what my grandfather did. Hear what happened to him, he says. Maybe we didnt know during the 30s and 40s what these signs mean, but now we do know and we need to do something about it. We cannot remain silent. Even one person can make a difference, and one voice can make a difference. Learn more about International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's web site. Editor's note: This story was first published Jan. 26, 2018, and has been updated. YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan assures that the leadership of Armenia cannot state one thing in the negotiations for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and present another thing to the people, the FM said at a press conference today, commenting on the statement of Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov who said that the proposals presented at the meeting of the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs last year in Moscow, which suppose settlement by stages, are being actively discussed. During the past two years our government, Prime Minister Pashinyan, we have been more than transparent. We have expressed our positions and approaches very clearly. That statement made a reference to many documents. Such approaches appeared in 2014, 2016, and they were not acceptable for the Armenian sides. Starting 2018 the discussions were limited to separate elements, on discussing, assessing the approaches of the sides. The option proposed in 2014 today is not a document of the negotiation table, the Armenian FM said. He said the Armenian sides clearly presented their positions where the priority for them is the security component. As for the territories, in addition to all its a security zone and defensive lines. No Armenian side can suppose that its possible to revise it by putting the security of the Artsakh people under danger. Its impossible to suppose that any of the Armenian sides could go to concessions which can endanger the security of the Artsakh people, he said. He added that among the main principles the principle of self-determination exists which is a priority for the Armenian sides in this negotiation process. The peaceful settlement is possible through mutual concessions. There have not been concessions and will not be. The Armenian sides will not adopt such an approach in any case which will suppose undermining the security, creating a treaty to the NK people. That threat remains real. The expression of the principle of self-determination in this negotiation process is more than a priority. The mutual concessions should be proportionate in which the Armenian sides see complete expression of security and status elements. This has been and remains the approach of the Armenian side. We are talking about this during the negotiations. One is deeply mistaken if supposes that we can talk one thing during the negotiations, but present another thing to the people. This is impossible, he said. The Armenian FM said the process has no other alternative than the peaceful settlement. The Armenian sides will decisively protect their people and security. The FM added that the Armenian side will remain committed to this principle and will continue insisting it. Reported by Norayr Shoghikyan Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan WALLINGFORD Three local nurses with the Masonicare senior care organization have been recognized for their exemplary efforts with the 2020 Nightingale Award for Excellence in Nursing, according to a release. Stephanie Allen, LPN, of The Towers in New Haven; Erin Cerrito, RN, with Masonicare Home Health & Hospice; and Renee Hernandez, LPN, with Masonicare Health Center, were celebrated for demonstrating excellence in clinical practice, leadership, and/or education, officials said. In the process of becoming an RN, Stephanie Allen has made a significant impact on resident care at The Towers (where Masonicare provides Assisted Living Services) by serving that community with enthusiasm, efficiency, and an ability to stay calm in the most stressful of circumstances. Her supervisor describes her as someone who looks for solutions instead of excuses, officials said in the release. Treating every patient as an individual, Masonicare Home Healths Erin Cerrito works hard to establish trust and build rapport with her clients so that shes better able to tailor care to their unique needs, officials said. Renee Hernandez was a logical choice for charge nurse. When Masonicare Health Center transitioned to a new electronic medical records system, Renee was someone that other staff knew they could turn to for help. Families also respond well to Renee because she takes the time to explain a residents condition in ways that they can understand, officials said. JP Venoit, president and CEO of Masonicare, thanked the three nurses for their contributions in the release. As a continuum, Masonicare embraces a wide range of nursing practices and these three outstanding nurses exemplify the dedication and compassion of a Nightingale honoree, said Venoit. They are role models for their peers and we thank them for their generous contributions to our organization and those we serve every day. According to the release, Masonicare is Connecticuts largest nonprofit provider of senior care, providing a full continuum of care to residents and patients which includes independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing, home health care and home hospice and palliative care. The Nightengale Award for Excellence in Nursing was first given in 2001, according to the awards website. The Visiting Nurse Association of South Central Connecticut created the ceremony, and were quickly joined in support by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Yale-New Haven Hospital and The Hospital of Saint Raphael, according to the award website. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd on Tuesday succumbed to third-party led restructuring that could lead to a sale, making Australia's second-biggest airline the Asia-Pacific region's biggest victim of the coronavirus crisis gripping the industry. Airlines around the world have been seeking government aid to survive after grounding the bulk of their fleets due to an unprecedented plunge in travel demand that is forecast to cost the industry $314 billion in revenue. Virgin reported an annual loss for seven consecutive years even before authorities worldwide began restricting movement to slow the spread of the virus, which has led to around 70 deaths in Australia. It nevertheless commanded a secure share of Australia's normally lucrative domestic aviation market before calling in administrators with debt of A$5 billion ($3.15 billion). More than 10 parties have already expressed interest in recapitalising Virgin, which is continuing to fly a skeleton schedule under its current management team, said Vaughan Strawbridge of Deloitte. Virgin appointed Strawbridge as voluntary administrator to lead a sales process after the government rejected a plea for a A$1.4 billion loan to keep the airline afloat. "Generally you get the best outcome where you sell it as a whole, so that is definitely the preferred approach," Strawbridge told reporters on a teleconference. A sale is most likely to involve a deed of company arrangement, which is a binding agreement with creditors, and the aim is to complete the sale within a few months, he said. Australian private equity group BGH Capital is among the interested parties, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity. BGH declined to comment. Administration is Australia's closest equivalent to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy provisions used to restructure companies in the United States. Moody's said unsecured creditors were likely to take a significant haircut on the value of their debt as part of any deal, and that it might be preferable to putting the company in liquidation with uncertain recovery prospects. The government has appointed Nicholas Moore, who for a decade led investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd, to engage with the administrator to find a "market-led solution" with a view to keeping two airlines on key routes, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told media at a separate briefing. Virgin employs 10,000 people directly and 6,000 people indirectly. It competes with larger rival Qantas Airways Ltd , which would have a virtual monopoly in Australia if Virgin stopped flying. Qantas' share price jumped as much as 7.2% on Tuesday to its highest since March 12 before the gain narrowed sharply to 0.3% in afternoon trade. Virgin, which grew rapidly after the 2001 collapse of Australia's then second-largest carrier Ansett, has a share of around one-third of the domestic market but that could decline under a restructuring plan. Rico Merkert, a professor of transport at the University of Sydney Business School, said Virgin should focus on running a core fleet of Boeing Co 737 planes on domestic capital city routes rather than also flying regional turboprops and widebodies both at home and abroad. Strawbridge said the airline was seeking talks with Boeing about the future of its order for 40 737 MAX planes. The model has been grounded globally for over a year after two fatal crashes. More than 90% of Virgin's shares are controlled by a group of investors including Singapore Airlines Ltd, Etihad Airways, Chinese conglomerate HNA Group and Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which have all suffered a sharp deterioration in revenue because of the pandemic. Branson on Twitter said his company would work with administrators, management, investors and government to return Virgin Australia to health. Etihad said in a statement that it had worked with the company and stakeholders in recent weeks to try to find a solution and avoid administration, but it was unable to provide funding to Virgin due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis on its own business. Singapore Airlines declined to comment, while HNA and Nanshan could not be reached immediately for comment. Search Keywords: Short link: DONEGAL, Pa., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DreamLife Recovery, LLC. proudly announces their Recovery Work Initiative Internship Program for their alumni community. DreamLife Recovery combines practices of eastern spirituality and modern, evidence-based therapies to provide well-rounded treatment to those in recovery. "We are here to help individuals get back to work. This exciting opportunity is made exclusively available to graduates of DreamLife Recovery. It is a paid internship and the program provides carefully selected candidates the ability to break through employment barriers, often experienced by those in recovery, and 'reboot' into the workforce," Matt Staniszewski, MBA, EDFP, and Director of Community Relations of DreamLife Recovery states. Dr. Gina Marchando, Executive Director of DreamLife Recovery, states, "While career paths or educational endeavors may experience unexpected life challenges, DreamLife recognizes the diversity in potentially untapped, raw talent and perspectives each client brings upon entering and throughout a continuum of care. Despite their setbacks, DreamLife believes in supporting and empowering these individuals to culminate their personal and professional goals." Dr. Marchando elaborates that "participants will engage in a variety of disciplines across the recovery-care spectrum within a balanced workforce that incorporates a diverse and all-inclusive culture. The structured component of this methodology provides an accelerated means of transitioning as a productive member of society back into the workforce. By completing DreamLife's platform, the experience provides the opportunity for further educational or career opportunities including full-time consideration with DreamLife Recovery." Lidice Morales, RN, BSN, Vice President of Operations of DreamLife Recovery, states, "The program further demonstrates DreamLife's commitment to its clients by developing innovative advancements in the continuum of holistic care for the recovery community. Through this broad approach, DreamLife Recovery seeks to increase the propensity for health, overall wellness, and sobriety throughout the communities we serve while helping individuals gain meaningful employment." Prospective candidates must have successfully completed treatment at DreamLife Recovery and actively involved in the alumni program. In addition to other internship requirements at DreamLife Recovery, interested, eligible candidates must demonstrate a minimum of ninety (90) consecutive days of sobriety and abstinence from alcohol and drugs, and supply verifiable confirmation the individual has and continues to participate in a clinically approved aftercare program. Those interested for consideration should apply by submitting an essay, not to exceed 250 words, expressing their interest in DreamLife Recovery, why they should be accepted into the program, and how this opportunity may help them, to the Director of the Department of Community Relations at [email protected] via email. DreamLife Recovery, LLC., located in Donegal, Pennsylvania, serves clients from anywhere in the United States offering customized detox, residential, and aftercare planning. Using individualized treatment plans, clients can address addiction along with other common co-occurring conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and bi-polar. DreamLife Recovery provides a safe and welcoming environment, offering amenities such as animal-assisted therapy, art therapy, biofeedback, EMDR, CBT/DBT, energy healing, equine-assisted therapy (seasonal), hydrotherapy, hypnotherapy, marriage & family therapy, along with many others. Contact: DreamLife Recovery, LLC. Matt Staniszewski, MBA, EDFP, Director of Community Relations Phone: 724-252-4458 EXT: 112 Lidice Morales, RN, BSN, Vice President of Operations Phone: 724-252-4458 x102 Dr. Gina Marchando, DMFT, LMFT, CHT, CIT, Executive Director Phone: 724-252-4458 x100 SOURCE DreamLife Recovery Over 200 diplomats are involved in the process of returning compatriots to their homeland and assisting citizens remaining abroad, Armenian deputy FM Avet Adonts told reporters on Tuesday. According to him, the MFA work can be divided into three main fields: the priority task is to provide aid to compatriots wishing to return to their homeland, uninterrupted organization of cargo transportation and international cooperation. Adonts called on compatriots living abroad to maintain contact with diplomatic missions, be guided by information and advice from embassies and consulates. He said some embassies have been operating in emergency mode since January - for example, the embassy in China. Some embassies work in countries where the situation is very difficult. I want to thank my colleagues for their dedicated work in difficult conditions, he said. Adonts also thanked international partners and individual countries - the UN, EU, ICRC, IAEA, China, US, Russia, Iran and Georgia, India. The deputy minister reminded that aid in the form of medicines and equipment was transferred through China and a bio-laboratory through Russia. The US and the EU have allocated funds, and about 2 thousand tests of a new sample will be transferred to Armenia through the IAEA program worth $ 6 million. JACKSON, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday that he believes the state is reaching a plateau in the increase of new coronavirus cases, and he will consider in coming days how the state should ease into reopening parts of its economy. "We are confident ... that our health care system is not going to be overwhelmed," Reeves said during a news conference, joined by the state health officer. Reeves's statewide stay-at-home order began the evening of April 3 and remains in place until April 27. Many businesses deemed "nonessential" have been closed, and claims for unemployment benefits have skyrocketed in Mississippi, as in other states. Republican Reeves announced late last week that starting Monday, some of those closed businesses, including clothing stores and florists, could sell items for delivery or curbside pickup. Some smaller businesses had said they were losing money to big chain stores that have remained open. The chain stores are selling groceries and other items, including clothes. The state health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said Monday: "Big box stores are still pretty crowded. It makes me very nervous. And I'm not seeing a lot of folks wearing masks in the community, necessarily." Mississippi lakes and beaches have the governors permission to reopen, with decisions made by local authorities. Reeves has said people should not gather in large groups, and they should maintain distance from each other. Harrison County reopened its beaches Monday. Jackson County opted to wait until next Monday. Reeves on Monday cautioned that health officials must remain vigilant about the potential for virus outbreaks among vulnerable people, particularly in long-term care facilities. And, he said social-distancing measures will remain in place even after more businesses start reopening. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal. Dobbs said Monday that he thinks public and private labs have done a "Herculean task" for testing. In response to questions, Dobbs said he wants the state to double its testing capacity. He also said he wants same-day test results. Some results are now taking days. The chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Cyrus Ben, said Saturday that he has tested positive for COVID-19, and he is urging people to follow advice of health professionals to try to slow the spread of the highly contagious virus. Ben said in a video posted to the tribe's Facebook page that he had not experienced any symptoms. He said he is quarantined with his family and is continuing to work remotely. "It only takes one person who has been exposed to the virus to go out in public and expose everyone that they could come in contact with," Ben said. "That includes their families, their friends. And that is why we say take precaution, be vigilant." The Choctaws have 11,000 members in 10 of Mississippi's 82 counties. The tribe's Pearl River Resort in central Mississippi's Neshoba County has two casinos and hotels. The resort is closed indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the tribe announced Friday that it was putting most of the resort employees on unpaid furlough. Mississippis state-regulated casinos, run by private businesses and not by the tribe, have also been closed for weeks because of the pandemic. Sumir Beaspal, his wife, Arti Vasudev, and their son on vacation in Hawaii in 2018. Courtesy of Sumir Beaspal Sumir Beaspal, a 36-year-old father, is one of the millions of people who lost his job and his health insurance because of the coronavirus pandemic. Beaspal's wife, Arti Vasudev, 32, is seven months pregnant and waiting on her citizenship application. She won't be able to qualify for Medicaid until she gives birth in June, meaning that if anything goes wrong before that, the family could face large out-of-pocket medical bills. Their story illustrates the healthcare challenges facing millions as they lose work amid the pandemic. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Related Video: What Could Be the Fastest Way to End the Coronavirus Crisis? Sumir Beaspal and his wife, Arti Vasudev, haven't received their coronavirus stimulus check yet, but they already know what they're going to do with it. Sumir recently lost his job and private health insurance because of a pandemic-related shutdown. Arti's not working because she's pregnant. And as for the stimulus check? They'll be setting it aside for medical bills. Their situation is similar to millions of others who've lost their earnings and benefits following state lockdowns and stay-at-home orders to protect against the coronavirus. Thanks to a provision in the Affordable Care Act, Sumir, 36, and their three-year-old son were just able to sign up for Medicaid. They're both US citizens. But Arti, 32, who is more than seven months pregnant, hasn't lived in the US long enough to qualify for public insurance. Arti has been a permanent resident for four years and has started her citizenship application. Sumir suspects there's a backlog of applications because of the coronavirus pandemic. Because of state and federal laws, Arti will be covered by emergency Medicaid when she gives birth, but until then she's uninsured, opening the family up to large out-of-pocket medical expenses. "This could not happen at a worse time," Sumir said when he first emailed Business Insider about his story. Story continues You can tell Business Insider about the healthcare costs you're facing by emailing senior healthcare reporter Kimberly Leonard. The loss of job and insurance came all at once Sumir and Arti got married in India six years ago. Courtesy of Sumir Beaspal Sumir's family immigrated to the US from India when he was 2-and-a-half years old, and he became a US citizen in 1991. Six years ago, he married Arti in Punjab, India, and she moved to the US two years later. They made a home in Sparks, Nevada, a suburb outside of Reno close to extended family. Sumir had just started a new job in February with Monin Gourmet Flavorings, a syrups supplier, when the coronavirus pandemic capsized his family's life. He'd recently returned from a three-week training in Clearwater, Florida, where he learned how to be an inventory coordinator at the company's new location in Washoe County, Nevada. Then, the coronavirus pandemic shuttered restaurants and bars across the country. That caused Monin to take a direct financial hit, and on March 20, Sumir was among employees who were laid off. He was also laid off from a second job as a server at a restaurant. He said the news of losing his job at Monin was sad and emotional, but that the company was supportive, telling him that the job was his when the facility opened back up, but that if he had to move on and find something else then there would be no hard feelings. By March, Arti had already taken leave from work ahead of her delivery because she wasn't supposed to lift anything heavy. Until mid-February, she had been working 35 to 38 hours a week at a hospital. Because her hours were technically not full time, she's not getting paid during her leave. Sumir's biggest worry is about his wife's health insurance coverage, but he said he tries to stay positive. He's been able to clean and reorganize his home, and to spend far more time with his son than when he was working two jobs. Sumir, Arti, and their son live in Sparks, Nevada, a suburb outside Reno. Courtesy of Sumir Beaspal. There are some ways for the uninsured to get coverage, but Arti falls through the cracks Sumir has been unemployed for about a month now. He's been able receive unemployment benefits and starting this month his family will get food assistance. They're expecting to receive their coronavirus stimulus check in the mail soon. Sumir and his son also were able to sign up for Medicaid, a government program that pays for healthcare for low-income people. To keep his wife covered, Sumir looked into continuing his workplace health insurance via an option called COBRA, but that would have cost him more than $2,000 a month. In the Affordable Care Act's marketplace, a plan would have cost $857.75 a month at a minimum, according to documentation he shared with Business Insider. Sumir and his son can qualify for Medicaid because eligibility is determined based on monthly income. Subsidies in the ACA's marketplaces are based on annual income, meaning the family would get less help. Right now, Arti isn't able to enroll in Medicaid like her son and husband because she only moved from India to the US four years ago. Typically, people who are uninsured can sign up for Medicaid at any point in their pregnancy, and can stay on the program until 60 days after they give birth. But lawfully residing immigrants have to wait five years before they're eligible for certain benefits, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, or ACOG. Some states waive the requirement, but Nevada isn't among them. Nevada also hasn't enacted a provision available in 16 other states known as the "unborn child" option, which offers Medicaid coverage from conception until age 19. It's one way to indirectly give non-citizen pregnant people prenatal care. For women in Arti's situation, emergency Medicaid only starts when they arrive at the hospital ready to give birth, according to ACOG. In the meantime, the family is working on a payment plan with Arti's doctor to cover her checkups. Arti, Sumir, and their son in Hawaii. BeaspalVacation A close call while uninsured The Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services determines eligibility for emergency Medicaid using a few criteria, including if people have an ongoing medical condition that requires them to seek repeated emergency care. "A pregnancy by itself may not be considered a chronic ongoing condition unless there was a need for reoccurring emergency medical services," a spokeswoman at the agency said. One way non-citizens can get discounted care is by going to a federally qualified health center. Hospitals have to treat people who comes through their doors in an emergency until they're stabilized, and some people can work out discounts or qualify for charity care. But it's not always easy to determine when to go to the hospital. The family knows how expensive it can be to seek medical care even with health insurance coverage. Sumir recalled spending hundreds of dollars from his paycheck on premiums every month to cover his family with insurance from a previous job, but still facing large bills at the hospital when he sought care for his son and his wife. Each time, he came up with a payment plan with the hospital and was able to negotiate costs down a little. But the idea of facing such costs now, when the family doesn't have income, is even more harrowing. "This whole situation has put a lot of stress on me, especially being pregnant without any insurance," Arti, whose third language is English, said in an email interview. "Sometimes I have to hold down myself depending on the severity of the pain, knowing that I don't have any insurance. I can ask him to take me to the ER or hospital, I know he won't say no, but I have to balance out the severity of it." The family faced that fear earlier this month when Arti grew concerned after she couldn't feel her baby moving. Her obstetrician had given her a chart showing that the baby needed to be moving several times every few hours, and she'd been diligent about keeping track. Sumir and Arti weighed whether to go to the emergency room, calling the hospital to assess whether they should be worried. When they called Arti's cousin, a nurse who also recently had a baby, she suggested drinking fluids, saying the baby might be sleeping. The suggestion worked the baby started moving and when they called the hospital again it sounded like they were in the clear. "We could have potentially gone to the hospital on Saturday without any insurance," Sumir said. "I'm not sure how much that bill would have been." This article was updated to correct the last name of Arti Vasudev. Are you among the millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance due to the coronavirus pandemic? Share your story with senior healthcare reporter Kimberly Leonard at kleonard@businessinsider.com. Business Insider [April 21, 2020] Vestiaire Collective Raises $64 Million to Support Its Community in Changing the Fashion Industry for a Better Tomorrow PARIS, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The new round brings on board Korelya Capital, funds managed by Fidelity International, Vaultier7 and Cuir Invest Existing shareholders Eurazeo (Eurazeo Growth & Idinvest Venture funds), Bpifrance, Vitruvian Partners, Conde Nast , Luxury Tech Fund and Vestiaire Collective's CEO, Max Bittner also reinvest The round will be used to: - Continue transforming the fashion system while offering a smart, circular and responsible alternative to throw-away fashion - Jointly explore the expansion of the global business into Japan and Korea through Korelya Capital, backed by Naver - Expand the launch of Direct Shipping service in the US Ahead of Earth Day's 50th anniversary and in this unprecedented period of uncertainty, Vestiaire Collective , the leading global platform for desirable pre-owned fashion today announces the completion of a $64 million round of financing, existing shareholders reinvest alongside new investors Korelya Capital, which is backed by Korean technology conglomerate Naver, funds managed by Fidelity International, Vaultier7, a specialist female-led consumer fund, and Cuir Invest, which is backed by the French Leather industry. The current economic and ecological crisis are accelerating an existing shift in consumer mindset, driven by growing criticism of waste-producing business models, and increased desire for purpose-driven brand action. As a company, Vestiaire Collective is committed to limiting the waste produced by the fashion industry, by keeping clothes out of landfill and increasing the number of times they are worn today, for a better tomorrow. As the leading global resale platform, this round demonstrates that the Vestiaire Collective model embodies the future of the fashion industry and unifies growing consumer sentiments. Following the COVID-19 crisis, we expect: Further adoption of online shopping, but more importantly an increased focus on social values and communities, with more people supporting each other. Consumers are set to become increasingly resourceful as they look to resale as an additional way to raise funds and find unexpected value in their wardrobe. Environmental concerns will further drive a more conscious approach to consumption, as 20% of consumers expect to reduce their clothing consumption following the crisis*. Vestiaire Collective has seen deposits and orders quickly rebound to the pre-COVID 19 baseline or above. During this challenging period this clearly demonstrates customer demand for circular business models, both now and looking ahead to the future of the rapidly evolving retail landscape. Vestiaire Collective encourages a move away from throwaway fashion towards quality that lasts and holds value. We believe that today, our community of over 9 million fashion activists will be proud to lead by example and spread the word converting more consumers to the cause. Because in the end, it's not the big, impressive statements that will make the most impact, but the meaningful change taken every day by individuals, no matter how small or large. We trust Vaultier7 as members and ambassadors of the Vestiaire Collective community to help us buid on this momentum by expanding in the most thoughtful way. We are also excited by their extraordinary network which will support us in further unlocking underutilized personal luxury goods to meet the demand of buyers globally. This new round of funding will also allow for further acceleration of Vestiaire Collective international business beyond the countries where the company's community is already well established. Currently, over 80% of the French headquartered company's transactions are already generated cross-border. Thanks to Korelya Capital, which is backed by Korean technology conglomerate Naver, Vestiaire Collective will jointly explore the expansion towards Japan, the biggest resale market in the world, and Korea in 2020 and beyond. Finally, this round will help us continue to drive ambitious growth in the US market and further develop our successful Direct Shipping model. Launched in Europe in September 2019 the service is increasingly popular with a growing number of customers. Currently, already over 50% of orders in the EU are fulfilled through the new service, which is also growing at a rate of +60% MoM. The model will be launched in the United States in early summer followed by Asia before the end of 2020. Max Bittner, Vestiaire Collective's CEO comments: "I am personally convinced that this unprecedented period of disruption will not only challenge where we shop but how we shop. Vestiaire Collective was built during the 2008 crisis, and proves today how it can help people in their daily life to make the most out of their belongings, but also to access fashion in a sustainable and conscious way. Everyday, I feel proud and amazed by our global community of fashion activists who are leading the way towards a brighter future." Paul Degueuse, General Partner of Korelya Capital says, "As we all take a step back and contemplate the way we live, we believe consumption patterns are on the verge of a deep structural evolution, and C2C platforms have a strong role to play here. We see in Vestiaire Collective an emerging leader and catalyst of this upcoming disruption. We are extremely enthusiastic to support Vestiaire Collective and its founders in its expansion. There are tremendous opportunities for growth in Asia, and we look forward to helping the company accelerate its expansion in this part of the globe." Vaultier7 comments: "Vestiaire Collective has transformed the way people consume desirable and luxury fashion with its trusted and inspirational resale model and we are truly proud to be there at this time to support them in their mission, and support buyers and sellers across the globe on their path to cautious, minded consumption, values which are more important than ever and which are at the core of Vaultier7." Frank Boehly, President of SIC SA investor Cuir Invest, says, "Cuir Invest is happy to support Vestiaire Collective, as it is a company with an impressive management team, and huge growth potential. We have been impressed by the technological quality of the solution, by the quality and the dynamism of the management team, and by their intelligent and sustainable approach to fashion. We truly believe that Vestiaire Collective can become the world leader in their sector." NOTES TO EDITORS: *McKinsey Covid-19 response in Apparel and fashion study About About Vestiairecollective.com Vestiaire Collective is the leading global platform for desirable pre-owned fashion. Curated by its trusted community of fashion lovers, members inspire one another whilst selling and buying unique pieces from each other's wardrobes. Encouraging consumers to join the circular economy as a sustainable alternative to throw-away fashion, the platform is unique due to its highly engaged community, its rare desirable inventory and its authenticity and quality control process. Launched in Paris in October 2009, Vestiairecollective.com has over 9 million members across 90 countries worldwide with offices in Paris, London, New York, Milan, Berlin and Hong Kong. Over 60,000 new items are submitted by its community of sellers every week, which enables buyers to search amongst highly coveted and sold out fashion pieces whilst participating in the circular fashion movement. @vestiaireco ABOUT VAULTIER7 Founded by experienced dealmakers Montse Suarez and Anna Sweeting, and backed by elite investors, Vaultier7 is the UK's first specialist investment fund dedicated to partnering high growth category creators and disrupters in the converging sectors of Beauty & Personal Care, Health & Wellness and Lifestyle. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vestiaire-collective-raises-64-million-to-support-its-community-in-changing-the-fashion-industry-for-a-better-tomorrow-301043881.html SOURCE Vestiaire Collective [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Oil price futures slipped into negative territory on Monday - a shocking oil-market first - making previous doom and gloom forecasts of OPECs too-little-too-late production cuts now seem like sober predictions rather than overzealous fearmongering. But are negative oil prices here to stay? A First Time for Everything WTI crude oil futures settled at -$37.63 per barrel on Monday, down $55.90 on the day. Not only was it the largest price drop for the commodity in history at some 305.97 percent, but it was also the first time that the WTI futures market fell below $0. While everyone agrees that the oil market has been battling multiple enemies over the last couple of months - namely storage limitations, overproduction, and low prices - todays redline move was brought about by another enemy: poor timing. Speaking of Time The sharp drop into negative territory for oil futures was brought about by more than just storage limits and overproduction. Its about the timing of future contracts. $USO and the CLK20 The United States Oil Fund LP (NYSEARCA: USO) - an ETF for crude - undeniably instigated the historic decline in May WTI futures today. The reason? Because the futures contract expires on Tuesday. Related: Oil Prices Hit $1 Following A 90% Crash Bloomberg sources suggest that as of last week, the USO held 25 percent of the outstanding shares of May 2020 WTI oil futures. But that contract will end tomorrow. Buyers of these contracts must either sell these contracts for oil now or take physical delivery of the oil at the end of May. Of course, an ETF like the USO who deals in paper barrels is not eager to take physical delivery of any amount of oil - even if they could find somewhere to store it. The result? They must dump their oil, and they must do it now, no matter what the price. And for those who normally would be willing to take delivery of it, such as refineries and airlines, the stay-at-home orders have pretty much ensured that they dont want this May contract oil either. So What Now? No, the negative oil prices do not mean curtains for the oil industry. The proof that USO - and other ETFs - are behind todays plunge can be seen by looking at the June 2020 contract, which although sharply down, is only sharply down in terms of double - not triple - digits. CLM20 was down 16 percent today versus CLK20s 309 percent. That June future contract is still trading above $20 per barrel. While this price isnt necessarily impressive, it is still more than $40 per barrel over May 2020 futures. This June contract expires May 19 and is a better representation of the true oil market. This is best depicted by the spread between the two contracts, which is now the widest in history. This widespread indicates not that the oil market is dead in the water, in which case the negative prices would be seen across the June contract as well, but that the market experienced a one-off event that effected the closest months prices more profoundly than the next months contract prices. Premium: Oil Isnt Ready To Rally Spot prices for WTI also fell today, by nearly 300 percent to -$37 per barrel. It is also the first time in history that WTI spot price has fallen below $0, rounding out the day of rather exaggerated oil-market firsts. The spot price fell into the red as real storage limits continue to breathe down the industrys neck. If sellers could store the oil somewhere, they would put it away until lower prices rebound. But without available storage, and without wanting to shut down production which is a costly endeavor that is more complicated than flipping off a light switch, producers are willing to pay buyers to take the oil off their hands. While todays oil price developments may not be as bleak as they seem, there is still trouble ahead for the oil industry. U.S. drillers shed 260 rigs in five weeks and are expected to continue. Storage is filling up, demand is drying up, and supply has yet to be willfully restricted. And stay-at-home orders in the United States arent set to be lifted for another month in most states, at the absolute earliest. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry on Tuesday (April 21) wrote a letter to the West Bengal stating that they have been informed that the state government is not cooperating with the central teams visiting the state to assess the COVID-19 situation and have been restraining them from interacting with health workers and touring the affected areas. In a letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said it has been brought to the notice of the ministry that both the inter-ministerial central teams, visiting Kolkata and Jalpaiguri, have not been provided with the requisite cooperation by the state and local authorities "In fact, they have been specifically restrained from making any visits, interacting with health professionals, and assessing the ground-level situation in the state. "This amounts to obstructing the implementation of the orders issued by the central government under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and equally binding directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," Bhalla said. The union home secretary said, therefore, the state government is directed to comply to make all necessary arrangements for the central teams to carry out such responsibilities as have been entrusted to them. Earlier in the day, during the daily press briefing, Home Ministry Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava also raised the matter and stated that the central government has sent teams under Disaster Management Act to four states - Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. She claimed that while all the three states were extending full support to the teams, the government in West Bengal did not do so. A quarter of South Africans live in townships where running water is intermittent, often built right up against sparkling estates with swimming pools. It is one of the most unequal societies in the world. In Swaneville, the township where Ratlhagane and Pooe live, they have to fetch water from a tank, which makes it difficult to have enough for cooking, cleaning and washing their hands. Many live in rooms with many other people. Galway man Gordon Joyce, who grew up in Moycullen, is at the forefront of the work being done across the world to find a vaccine for coronavirus. Dr Joyce told Iris Aniar on RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta this week that he is now the Chief of Structural Biology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington DC. He also explained that the group he heads up has spent years researching other viruses such as HIV and Ebola, but they are now focused entirely on Covid-19. Dr Joyce said: There are one hundred groups across the world working on a vaccine, and some clinical trials have started. We dont know yet which vaccine might work, but we need a vaccine thats safe and gives immunity. We know the vaccine has worked in animals, but we dont know yet if it gives immunity in people. "Theres a vaccine here in the US and another in China. When the results of the trials come back, we can see then if its effective, and go on then to mass production, but we dont know as yet. Dr Joyce - whose father, Michael Joyce, is from Leitir Meallain in Connemara - said that developing the vaccine would take time but couldnt specify how long. He said: Thats a difficult question, we dont know yet. Weve been working here for three months on the vaccine. There are groups across the world working on it. "A year or more probably. In normal times, developing a vaccine can take five or 10 years... but with Covid-19, I think it will be more rapid. Dr Joyce described the huge collective effort, and the collaborative nature of the work. He explained: There are normally 10 or 20 people in my group, but now there are 200 people from the institute all working on developing the vaccine. "But were not working in isolation. Were talking to health institutes and pharmaceutical companies every day, sharing information, with phone calls at 11pm and 4am sometimes, talking every day. [snippet1]987600[/snippet1] Some parents of younger children particularly professionals attempting to work from home have begun to complain in op-eds and on social media that schools expectations during the shutdown are too high, and that parents do not have time to supervise Zoom conferences and help students plow through reams of worksheets. These parents say they are confident they can keep their own children afloat academically and emotionally through unstructured play, reading and art. FLOW TRADERS Q120 TRADING UPDATE Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Flow Traders N.V. (Euronext: FLOW) releases its unaudited Q120 trading update. Flow Traders' business and operations functioned as normal following the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. A robust business continuity plan was successfully implemented in all regions with the primary focus being the health and wellbeing of employees. Flow Traders was able to continuously provide liquidity and pricing to the ETP markets on a global basis, which enabled issuers and counterparties to efficiently trade across all products in all circumstances Highlights Exceptional and challenging market environment experienced globally during the first quarter across all products; particularly in March which saw record ETP Value Traded and extremely high levels of market activity. Overall, Market ETP Value Traded increased 100% quarter-on-quarter and 80% vs Q119 Flow Traders ETP Value Traded increased 76% quarter-on-quarter and increased 71% vs Q119 Flow Traders recorded NTI of 495.0m in Q120 reflecting this exceptional market environment with strong performance across all regions. This compares to NTI of 46.1m in Q419 and 63.1m in Q119 Total operating expenses of 171.2m incurred in Q120. 0.9m of one-off expenses predominantly due to the activation and implementation of Flow Traders' business continuity plan 503 FTEs as at 31 March 2020 compared to 513 as at 31 December 2019 Q120 EBITDA reached 323.7m with a margin of 65% Q120 Net Profit amounted to 262.3m with EPS of 5.71 Regulatory Own Funds Requirement (OFR) as at 31 March 2020 was 261m, resulting in excess capital of 273m as at 31 March 2020. Trading capital stood at 771m at the end of the first quarter Financial Overview million Q120 Q419 Q120 Q119 Net Trading Income 495.0 46.1 495.0 63.1 EMEA (Europe) 304.9 33.4 304.9 37.5 Americas 149.0 5.7 149.0 17.3 APAC 41.0 7.0 41.0 8.3 Net Trading Income 495.0 46.1 495.0 63.1 Employee expenses* 154.9 18.4 154.9 23.3 Technology expenses 11.4 10.9 11.4 9.5 Other expenses 4.1 3.9 4.1 3.5 One-off expenses 0.9 1.2 0.9 - Total Operating Expenses 171.2 34.4 171.2 36.3 EBITDA 323.7 11.7 323.7 26.8 Depreciation/Amortisation 3.6 3.7 3.6 3.6 Write offs, tangible assets - - - - Results subsidiaries - 1.0 - - Profit Before Tax 320.1 9.0 320.1 23.2 Tax 57.8 1.8 57.8 4.0 Net Profit 262.3 7.2 262.3 19.2 EPS** (in ) 5.71 0.16 5.71 0.41 EBITDA margin (%) 65% 25% 65% 42% * Of which fixed employee expenses were: Q120 - 11.8m; Q419 - 11.6m; Q119 - 10.3m ** Weighted average number of shares outstanding during Q120 was 45,913,486 with 45,527,201 number of shares outstanding as at 31 March 2020 Management Board Comments CEO Dennis Dijkstra stated: "Our main focus during the quarter was on the health and wellbeing of our colleagues and their families and ensuring the uninterrupted provision of liquidity to market participants, in line with regulatory requirements, to help financial markets function in an orderly manner. During the period of extraordinary market activity following the COVID-19 outbreak, Flow Traders' uninterrupted presence in the market allowed investors to continue to buy or sell ETPs or other financial instruments and manage their risk efficiently. By providing liquidity to markets under pressure, we enabled issuers and counterparties to keep on trading. More liquidity leads to less volatility and contributes to market stability. Our colleagues have all demonstrated considerable professionalism, skill, agility and strength during these most difficult circumstances. It is because of our colleagues that we continue to operate fully and provide liquidity to the market during these exceptional circumstances. Our business continuity plan was implemented smoothly with 80% of our workforce able to work from home in a matter of days. Moreover, our continued investment in technology and infrastructure over the last few years ensured that Flow Traders has a high degree of system resiliency and was able to cope with stressed and highly active markets. Flow Traders maintained its conservative capital position with significant excess capital and a strong balance sheet. This quarter also demonstrated Flow Traders' operational leverage with strong cost discipline. "In these unprecedented times, we feel that it is more important than ever to continue to contribute to society's health and wellbeing globally. We have already accelerated the availability of our annual personal charitable budget and donated 2.5 million to a select number of charitable foundations around the world, including Erasmus MC, Voedselbank, VentilatorPAL, The Courage Fund, The Community Chest and Mount Sinai. In addition, we will shortly establish the Flow Traders Foundation with the aim of promoting and funding health and wellbeing charities globally on a significant, structured annual basis." Chief Trading Officer Folkert Joling added: "During the exceptional circumstances of this past quarter, Flow Traders was able to continuously provide liquidity and pricing to the ETP markets on a global basis. Issuers and counterparties were reassured by our constant presence when markets were under pressure which enabled them to trade in all circumstances. On an ecosystem level, we saw that exchanges functioned almost flawlessly across the entire quarter and the ETF mechanism performed as intended. Given the market environment, we saw substantially increased volumes and heightened risk, as well as corresponding widening of spreads. From a trading systems perspective, no outages or downtime were experienced. The results and trading performance were balanced across all trading desks this quarter, including during the intense period in mid-March, and also reflect the focus and investment in recent quarters on our US operation as well as in fixed income." Value Traded Overview billion Q120 Q419 Change Q120 Q119 Change Flow Traders ETP Value Traded 441.6 251.2 76% 441.6 258.6 71% EMEA (Europe) 232.7 132.4 76% 232.7 128.7 81% Americas 188.9 107.7 75% 188.9 121.2 56% APAC ex China 20.0 11.1 79% 20.0 8.7 130% Flow Traders' non-ETP Value Traded 1,215 746 63% 1,215 738 65% Market ETP Value Traded1 10,948 5,480 100% 10,948 6,093 80% EMEA (Europe) 679 388 75% 679 355 91% Americas 9,421 4,573 106% 9,421 5,281 78% APAC 849 519 64% 849 456 86% APAC ex China 476 201 137% 476 217 119% 1. Source - Flow Traders analysis Business Continuity and Resilience Following the various additional measures implemented by governments around the world to halt the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), Flow Traders' business continuity plan has been enacted to its fullest extent Primary focus of this plan is the health and wellbeing of employees as well as continuing to fulfil Flow Traders' role with respect to the undisrupted provision of liquidity globally to investors and the market. The business continuity plan has been implemented smoothly with a majority of employees working from home almost immediately after activation of the plan. Split teams are operational and back-up trading locations in Amsterdam, New York and Hong Kong have been activated. Flow Traders trading capabilities remained fully operational with continuous pricing and liquidity provided to the market throughout the quarter Flow Traders' robust risk management processes continued to be highly effective as the business operated within trading limits at all times. No loss days were recorded in the quarter and the trading results, reflecting the levels of market activity, were evenly distributed across regions, asset classes and trading days Flow Traders has tested and retested its systems to take into account the activation of the business continuity plan as well the significant increase in trading activity. Flow Traders' systems have demonstrated a high degree of resilience Despite challenging market circumstances, key market participants demonstrated considerable resilience with exchanges, issuers, counterparties, prime brokers and regulators all performing as intended Annual General Meeting Following the implementation of additional measures by the Government of the Netherlands on 23 March 2020, Flow Traders announced the postponement of the Annual General Meeting which was originally scheduled to take place on Friday 24 April 2020. A new date for the meeting will be announced as soon as feasible Dividend Given the postponement of the Annual General Meeting, the proposed final FY19 dividend of 0.55 will now take the form of an interim dividend which will be paid as per the previously announced timetable on 5 May 2020. This does not affect the 2020 interim dividend which will be announced as part of the half-year results As a result, a final dividend of 0 will be proposed at the rescheduled Annual General Meeting, resulting in a total dividend for FY19 of 0.90 Share Buyback As at 20 April 2020, the total number of shares purchased under the 20m share buyback programme announced on 7 February 2020 is 610,119 shares at an average price of 20.43 for a total consideration of 12.5m In addition, c. 200,000 shares have been purchased to satisfy the requirements of various employee incentive plans 1,007,299 shares were held in treasury as at 20 April 2020 Preliminary Financial Calendar Postponed AGM 28 April 2020 FY19 interim dividend ex-dividend date 29 April 2020 FY19 interim dividend record date 5 May 2020 FY19 interim dividend payment date 30 June 2020 Silent period starts ahead of 1H20 results 14 August 2020 1H20 results release (incl. analyst conference call) 18 August 2020 Proposed 2020 interim dividend ex-dividend date 19 August 2020 Proposed 2020 interim dividend record date 21 August 2020 Proposed 2020 interim dividend payment date Contact Details Flow Traders N.V. Jonathan Berger / Investor Relations Officer Phone: +31 20 7996799 Email: investor.relations@flowtraders.com About Flow Traders Flow Traders is a leading global financial technology-enabled liquidity provider in financial products, historically specialized in Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), now expanding into other asset classes. Flow Traders ensures the provision of liquidity to support the uninterrupted functioning of financial markets. This allows investors to buy or sell ETPs or other financial instruments under all market circumstances. We continuously grow our organization, ensuring that our trading desks in Europe, the Americas and Asia can provide liquidity across all major exchanges, globally, 24 hours a day. Founded in 2004, we continue to cultivate the entrepreneurial, innovative and team-oriented culture that has been with us since the beginning. Important Legal Information This press release is prepared by Flow Traders N.V. and is for information purposes only. It is not a recommendation to engage in investment activities and you must not rely on the content of this document when making any investment decisions. The information in this document does not constitute legal, tax, or investment advice and is not to be regarded as investor marketing or marketing of any security or financial instrument, or as an offer to buy or sell, or as a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell, securities or financial instruments. The information and materials contained in this press release are provided 'as is' and Flow Traders N.V. or any of its affiliates ("Flow Traders") do not warrant the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the information and materials and expressly disclaim liability for any errors or omissions. This press release is not intended to be, and shall not constitute in any way a binding or legal agreement, or impose any legal obligation on Flow Traders. All intellectual property rights, including trademarks, are those of their respective owners. All rights reserved. All proprietary rights and interest in or connected with this publication shall vest in Flow Traders. No part of it may be redistributed or reproduced without the prior written permission of Flow Traders. This press release may include forward-looking statements, which are based on Flow Traders' current expectations and projections about future events, and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs and expectations. Words such as "may", "will", "would", "should", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "project", "believe", "could", "hope", "seek", "plan", "foresee", "aim", "objective", "potential", "goal" "strategy", "target", "continue" and similar expressions or their negatives are used to identify these forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future whether or not outside the control of Flow Traders. Such factors may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, no undue reliance should be placed on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as at the date at which they are made. Flow Traders expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update, review or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which such statements are based unless required to do so by applicable law. Financial objectives are internal objectives of Flow Traders to measure its operational performance and should not be read as indicating that Flow Traders is targeting such metrics for any particular fiscal year. Flow Traders' ability to achieve these financial objectives is inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond Flow Traders' control, and upon assumptions with respect to future business decisions that are subject to change. As a result, Flow Traders' actual results may vary from these financial objectives, and those variations may be material. Efficiencies are net, before tax and on a run-rate basis, i.e. taking into account the full-year impact of any measure to be undertaken before the end of the period mentioned. The expected operating efficiencies and cost savings were prepared on the basis of a number of assumptions, projections and estimates, many of which depend on factors that are beyond Flow Traders' control. These assumptions, projections and estimates are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and actual results may differ, perhaps materially, from those projected. Flow Traders cannot provide any assurance that these assumptions are correct and that these projections and estimates will reflect Flow Traders' actual results of operations. By accepting this document you agree to the terms set out above. If you do not agree with the terms set out above please notify legal.amsterdam@nl.flowtraders.com immediately and delete or destroy this document. Market Abuse Regulation This press release contains information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. Attachment New CRADA opens the door to explore 3D data exploitation McLean, VA, April 21, 2020(CRADA) to explore and potentially improve 3D data exploitation. "NGA and its partners are geographically dispersed and organizationally diverse-this complicates efforts to maximize the use of 3D data and software across the government," said Craig Brower, Vricon's Executive Point-of-Contact for the CRADA. "We're eager to help develop these solutions through our collaboration with NGA. This CRADA creates opportunities for both industry and government." A CRADA is a written agreement that allows federal agencies and non-federal partners to optimize their resources, share technical expertise and intellectual property, and increase the commercialization of federally developed technology. Simply put, NGA and Vricon will pursue joint research and development goals that will benefit both organizations under an agreement that poses no additional costs to the government. "One of the critical pieces of the CRADA will be our ability to support core NGA functions," stated Barry Tilton, Vricon's Technology Evangelist. "We believe this will lead to better fulfillment of the warfighter's data requirements." The CRADA officially starts in April 2020 and could last up to five years. To learn more about 3D data and software and how they support many types of missions, visit the Vricon website. About Vricon Vricon serves the global professional geospatial market with world-leading 3D geodata and software solutions. Vricon is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For further information, visit www.vricon.com. Attachment Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kornelius Purba (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 08:31 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd325af1 1 Opinion COVID-19-in-Indonesia,Luhut-Binsar-Pandjaitan,#COVID19,#coronavirus,Jokowi,Jokowi-administration,COVID-19,coronavirus Free For many Indonesians, especially government critics, Luhut Pandjaitan is regarded as a troublemaker, while for government supporters he is very much a troubleshooter in the war on COVID-19. One thing that is for sure, however, is that he acts on behalf of his boss, President Joko Jokowi Widodo, who often chooses to play it safe when it comes to unpopular policies. The 72-year-old former general, one of the few retired generals to have succeeded in building up a business empire, has always played the role of an all-out crusader for President Jokowi. Luhut dares to take the risks, and certainly we will gain from his bravery if he is successful. But what is really his main motive in serving the government? Financial reward? Power? Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil and Banten Governor Wahidin Halim were upset by Luhuts blunt rejection of their demand for a complete halt to the commuter line (KCI) rail service as part of the implementation of the largescale social restrictions (PSBB) enforced in Greater Jakarta. In his capacity as acting transportation minister, Luhut, the coordinating maritime affairs and investment minister, insisted on allowing the commuter train service to operate as many still have to commute to make ends meet, regardless of the risk of contracting or transmitting the virus. Previously, Luhut vetoed the decision of Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto, another retired Army general, to ban the operation of ojol (ride hailing app) drivers, to protect the interests of the millions of drivers. Only after mounting public outcry did Luhut back down by allowing regional governments to make their own decision. The presidential election has long passed, but for die-hard supporters of Jokowis erstwhile rival Prabowo Subianto, Luhut remains public enemy number one. They see Luhut as a powerhungry Christian general who is accumulating wealth for himself by facilitating the Chinese government and investors. They regard Luhut as playing prime minister, or the minister of all affairs in Jokowis Cabinet. For Jokowis zealous fans, however, Luhuts presence in the Cabinet is essential as the only person in Jokowis team capable of counterbalancing Prabowo, now Jokowis defense minister. Cynics even called Luhut a Chinese puppet when he asked Beijing to provide medical kit and medicines urgently needed by Indonesia in battling COVID-19. His advice that the government should prioritize economic relations with China when the two countries were at loggerheads over clashes in the North Natuna Sea was seen as evidence of a hidden agenda to benefit his businesses. Nevertheless China is Indonesias most important and most readily available partner in terms of investment, trade and longterm loans. Like many people of Batak ethnicity, Luhut is often just too frank in his statements. Obviously Luhut has received the full backing of President Jokowi, who has resisted a lockdown as a policy measure in response to the pandemic, citing the severe economic, social and security repercussions that may entail. Luhut accepts the abuse directed at him, especially on social media, because for him it is Jokowis trust that matters. Jokowi relies on him because of his age, experience and perhaps because he is a member of a minority community in this country. Luhut spent much of his highflying career in the Armys Special Forces (Kopassus), but never reached the top Army post during president Soehartos 32-year rule. Only after Soeharto stepped down, did Luhut stand a chance of taking on top civilian posts. Soehartos successor, BJ Habibie, named Luhut his envoy to Singapore to restore the relationship with the island state following the presidents anti-Singapore remarks. Then the countrys fourth president Abdurrahman Gus Dur Wahid appointed Luhut trade minister. I remember how Luhut phoned me in anger when I wrote in this newspaper that he had strongly urged then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri to keep him in the Cabinet after she replaced Gus Dur in 2001. Megawati replaced Luhut anyway. Like Luhut, I am a Christian and of Batak ethnicity. You may be a great admirer of Luhut, an uncompromising hater of him, or something in between. But you all may agree that Luhut built a powerful business empire before he joined Jokowis Cabinet in 2014. He founded the widely diversified Toba Sejahtra group. According to Bisnis Indonesia, the holding companys businesses cover coal mining, oil and gas, power, plantations and forestry, industry, property and infrastructure. I think all of his business activities began after the fall of Soeharto in May 1998. The financial crisis forced many conglomerates to sell or entrust their assets to powerful people, including senior military officers like Luhut. I am neither a big fan nor a hater of Luhut. In my view, his biggest motivation to serve the government is to demonstrate a moment of truth. He could not fulfill his ambition in the military, but he could hope to enter the history books as an officer and a gentleman. He may also want to promote Christians and other minority groups in playing a more crucial role or holding key posts, given that the Constitution mandates a level playing field for all citizens. I think he can focus on government affairs because his business empire is already solid and needs no protection from the state. Am I right? Are the suspicions about him baseless? Let us wait until history has finished writing about Luhut Pandjaitan. By ANI MUMBAI: Mumbai Police on Tuesday shared a reference to Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt starrer 'Gully Boy' to caution people against stepping out of their homes during the lockdown. Taking to their Twitter handle, The Mumbai Police posted a capture from 'Gully Boy' featuring a smiling shot of Alia Bhatt and it read, "That face when he says he is going out for a walk during lockdown." While the meme is surely funny, the caption put up by Mumbai Police's Twitter handle is even funnier that read, "Abort mission. We repeat - Abort Mission! #StayHome #StaySafe." The Mumbai Police has been sharing references to different movies with an aim to educate people on safety precautions to be taken amid the coronavirus crisis. Recently, Mumbai Police shared a special corona poster referring to one of the dialogues from Shraddha Kapoor starrer 2018 horror-drama 'Stree' to urge people to stay indoors. It read, "O corona Kabhi mat aana" (O corona, never come) with a message to keep every street safe. The dialogue was seen written on a wall just like the movie. Earlier, the Mumbai Police responded wittily to actor Ajay Devgn after he shared a video of the Mumbai Police and lauded them for working tirelessly during the lockdown. The 'Singham' actor took to Twitter to share a video by the Mumbai Police which urged people to stay at home as the same is a luxury for police officials who are currently at the frontline of the fight against COVID-19. Responding to this, the cops gave a witty reply that consisted of some of the major hit films of the much-loved actor and tweeted, "Dear 'Singham', just doing what 'Khakee' is supposed to do to ensure that things return to how they were - 'Once upon a time in Mumbai'! #TakingOnCorona." A senior Palestinian official on Monday warned against the Israeli annexation of the Palestinian lands after the formation of a new Israeli unity government. Saeb Erekat, secretary general of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, said in a press statement that the new Israeli government has two choices. "The first choice is to open the horizons for releasing a meaningful peace process and abide by its merits under the international law, and the second is to keep endangering peace by settlement and annexation," said Erekat. The PLO senior official warned against implementing the Israeli annexation plans "which means that Israel is destroying any peace possibility throughout negotiations between Israel and Palestine." Erekat urged the international community to hold the Israeli government "accountable" and make it "fully implement its commitments under the international law and the signed treaties." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival, Benny Gantz signed on Monday an agreement to form a new unity government for three years. According to the agreement, Netanyahu and Gantz will rotate the position of the prime minister every 18 months, Israeli Radio reported. The deal put under question Netanyahu's controversial promise to annex the West Bank's Jordan Valley, which was a major part of U.S. President Donald Trump's so-called peace plan for the Middle East. The deal does not straightforwardly cancel the annexation but states that such a move could be made only if it will not harm regional stability and future prospects for peace. The Palestinians firmly oppose the annexation because the Jordan Valley is part of the West Bank, a territory seized by Israel in a 1967 war, where the Palestinians wish to build their future state. A well-known market intelligence company, Infiniti Research, has partnered with several global companies across industries to help meet their strategic objectives and implement seamless route-to-market strategies through turnkey solutions. Infiniti Research's market intelligence and market research capabilities have helped companies across the globe combat business contingencies with agile strategies. Request a free brochure to learn more about Infiniti's market intelligence solutions. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005053/en/ How CPG companies in the US can combat challenges arising from the COVID-19 crisis. (Graphic: Business Wire) As the COVID-19 situation unfolds across the globe, it presents new operational and leadership challenges for CPG companies. As a result of the ongoing crisis, there is a seismic shift in the way consumers shop and what they shop for, creating new roadblocks for companies in the sector. The US has seen an exponential increase in the coronavirus cases over the last fortnight. This has left players grappling with new CPG industry challenges relating to how to manage the demand-supply inadequacies, formulate an action plan to turbocharge logistics flexibility, and adjust the existing commercial strategy to suit the changing market demands. To address the crisis head-on and ensure business continuity, companies must respond to these new CPG industry challenges by quickly rolling out contingency plans while doing their part to minimize the spread of the virus. In their latest article, experts at Infiniti Research reveal some critical strategies for players in the US to effectively combat CPG industry challenges amidst the COVID-19 crisis and react effectively to this unprecedented business shock. This includes: Building logistics flexibility Enabling frequent and real-time customer communications Revamping production plan and inventory management During times of crisis like this, it is critical for companies in the CPG industry to take calculative and well-executed measures to ensure business continuity in the long run. Request a free proposal to know how industry experts at Infiniti Research can help you plan your next steps during the COVID-19 situation. About Infiniti Research Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. To know more, visit: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005053/en/ Contacts: Press Contact Infiniti Research Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 844 778 0600 UK: +44 203 893 3400 https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-us Regulatory News: THERADIAG (ISIN: FR0004197747, Ticker: ALTER) (Paris:ALTER), a company specialized in in vitro diagnostics and theranostics, hereby confirms the holding of its Annual General Meeting on May 14, 2020 at 2:00pm and the associated guidelines, including the availability of online voting via the VOTACCESS platform. In the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, Theradiag has decided, on exceptional basis, to hold its Annual General Meeting on May 14, 2020 at 2:00 pm in closed session, without shareholders being physically present, in accordance with Article 4 of Ordinance No. 2020-321 of March 25, 2020 on the holding of General Meetings, adopted by the French government in accordance with the authorization granted to it by Emergency Law 2020-290 of March 23, 2020. Shareholders are reminded that the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorite des marches financiers AMF) strongly encourages them to exercise their voting right, which is a fundamental prerogative of a shareholder, and to exercise it exclusively by remote voting prior to the General Meeting when the meeting is held in closed session. Holding of the General Meeting in closed session, without shareholders being physically present All necessary logistics have been put in place to ensure the proper conduct of the Annual General Meeting, taking the current health situation into account: Shareholders can attend the live presentation of the General Meeting by conference call in addition to a presentation that will be available for donwload on the Company's website. The procedure is as follows: To take part, please dial +33 1 70 71 01 59 followed by participant code: 25 46 53 63 followed by participant code: 25 46 53 63 The presentation will be available on the Company website under this section https://www.theradiag.com/category/presentations-financieres/ With regards to written questions, given that it will not be possible to ask questions during the AGM, Theradiag recommends that shareholders wishing to do so should send their written questions, once they have received the notice of meeting, together with a shareholding certificate, preferably by email (AG@theradiag.com). Written questions will be taken into account if they are received no later than the fourth business day prior to the date of the General Meeting, i.e. Thursday, May 7, 2020 by midnight, Paris time. Voting procedures at the General Meeting Under these conditions, the Company's shareholders are invited to exercise their voting right prior to the General Meeting in accordance with the arrangements below: The VOTACCESS online voting platform is available and should be prioritized. For this purpose, the Company informs its shareholders that, for the first time, Theradiag has set up an online voting system. The VOTACCESS secure platform will be open from Wednesday, April 29, 2020 until 3:00pm on May 13, 2020. However, shareholders are strongly recommended not to wait until the last minute to enter their voting instructions. For holders of registered shares: on the secure VOTACCESS platform available via the OLIS Actionnaire website at: https://www.nomi.olisnet.com. Shareholders can log in to their account using the usual username indicated on the Single Form sent with the notice of meeting brochure, and their usual password; - For holders of bearer shares: via the web portal of the account-holding institution that manages the shares registered in the account in bearer form. Shareholders must log in using their usual username and password and then follow the instructions displayed on the screen. Only holders of bearer shares whose account-holding institution has joined the VOTACCESS system will be able to access it. You can also vote by post. For holders of registered shares: by filling out the voting form and sending it to CACEIS in the prepaid envelope enclosed with the notice of meeting or to the Company's head office. Theradiag, 14 rue Ambroise Croizat, CS 90136 Croissy Beaubourg, 77435 Marne-la-Vallee, to be received three days prior to the General Meeting, i.e. by Monday, May 11, 2020 inclusive. Lastly, you can use the email address: AG@theradiag.com. - For holders of bearer shares: the postal voting form is available on the Company's website and must be completed and returned to the account-holding institution that manages securities which are credited to securities accounts in bearer form. The form must be received three days prior to the General Meeting, i.e. by Monday, May 11, 2020. Please note that holders of bearer shares must ensure that the shareholding certificate issued by their financial intermediary is attached to their voting form. Lastly, the form may be sent with the name, number of shares, bank and the city where the branch is located by email, only if accompanied by their shareholding certificate to theradiag@newcap.eu Chairman or third-party's proxy at the General Meeting Proxy to the Chairman: via the online VOTACCESS platform or by post or by post according to the methods described above - Proxy to a third party: via the VOTACCESS internet platform or if the shareholder's account-holding institution is not connected to the VOTACCESS website: For holders of registered shares : send an email to the following email address: ct-mandataires-assemblees@caceis.com. This email must contain the following information: name of the issuer concerned, date of the annual general meeting, surname, first name, address, bank references of the principal as well as the surname, first name and address of the proxy and must be received within the legal deadlines; : send an email to the following email address: ct-mandataires-assemblees@caceis.com. This email must contain the following information: name of the issuer concerned, date of the annual general meeting, surname, first name, address, bank references of the principal as well as the surname, first name and address of the proxy and must be received within the legal deadlines; For holders of bearer shares : ask their financial intermediary who manages their securities account to send a written confirmation by email to the following address: ct-mandataires-assemblees@caceis.com within the legal deadlines. In this context, please note that no admission card may be sent to shareholders who request one. All the exact voting procedures are indicated in the notice of meeting published in the French official legal announcement publication (BALO) on April 8, 2020, available on the Company's website. Provision of documents relating to the Annual General Meeting All documents relating to the Annual General Meeting are being made available for shareholders on the Company's website (https://www.theradiag.com/assemblee-generale). For any question regarding the voting arrangements, please contact the Investor Relations department by email at theradiag@newcap.eu. The Annual General Meeting of Shareholders is a key moment for your Company. Your participation matters. It gives you the opportunity to contribute, through your vote, to Theradiag's corporate mission. Financial calendar: - Annual General Meeting, May 14, 2020 - H1 2020 revenue, Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - H1 2020 results, Monday, September 21, 2020 About Theradiag Theradiag is the market leader in biotherapy monitoring. Capitalizing on its expertise in the diagnostics market, the Company has been developing, manufacturing and marketing innovative in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests for over 30 years. Theradiag pioneered "theranostics" testing (combining therapy with diagnosis), which measures the efficacy of biotherapy in the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. Going beyond mere diagnosis, theranostics aims to help clinicians set up "customized treatment" for each patient. This method favors the individualization of treatment, evaluation of its efficacy and the prevention of drug resistance. In response to this challenge, Theradiag develops and markets the CE-marked TRACKER range, a comprehensive solution of inestimable medical value. The Company is based in Marne-la-Vallee, near Paris, has operations in over 70 countries and employs over 60 people. In 2019, the Company posted revenue of 9.6 million. The Theradiag share is listed on Euronext Growth Paris (ISIN: FR0004197747) and is eligible for the French PEA-PME personal equity plan. For more information about Theradiag, please visit our website: www.theradiag.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005745/en/ Contacts: Theradiag Bertrand de Castelnau CEO/Managing Director Tel.: +33 (0)1 64 62 10 12 contact@theradiag.com NewCap Financial Communications Investor Relations Sandrine Boussard-Gallien Claire Riffaud Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94 theradiag@newcap.eu NewCap Media Relations Nicolas Merigeau Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 98 nmerigeau@newcap.fr Hearing: Amy and Vincent Wall, the parents of Estlin Wall, said they were disappointed at the sentence handed to Senan OFlaherty Amy Dutil-Wall with her partner Vincent Wall, and daughter Estlin, who lost her life in the tragic crash A mother whose daughter was killed in a road crash has said the four-year driving ban imposed on the driver responsible is "literally the amount of time (she) had on Earth". Estlin Wall died just days before her fourth birthday. Truck driver and farmer Senan O'Flaherty (63) was yesterday fined 750 for careless driving causing the death of Estlin on March 15, 2017. Judge Gerald Keys, sitting at Ennis Circuit Court, also imposed a 750 fine for careless driving causing serious bodily harm to Estlin's father, Vincent Wall, and handed down a four-year driving ban. Expand Close Hearing: Amy and Vincent Wall, the parents of Estlin Wall, said they were disappointed at the sentence handed to Senan OFlaherty / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Hearing: Amy and Vincent Wall, the parents of Estlin Wall, said they were disappointed at the sentence handed to Senan OFlaherty Speaking outside the court, Amy Wall said: "When you think the poor man can't work for four years - that's literally the amount of time Estlin had on Earth, so it is hard to equate the two as being fair. "It is hard to feel that just losing your licence is enough for what we have lost and what Estlin has lost. "We are very disappointed, it doesn't feel right for the consequences. It is hard to think of all the energy we have put into this over the last three years that have delayed the healing and grieving process and trying to move forward with our lives, that that is what it culminates in - a lost licence, basically. "To not even get a suspended sentence, it doesn't feel right at all. And there was talk of remorse being shown, which we have not seen at all." Heavily pregnant with the couple's third baby, Ms Wall added: "It is very disappointing, but we are days away from having another baby, we have a three-year-old and there was nothing that was ever going to bring Estlin back, so that's how we are going to have to think about it in order to move forward. "The process has been so frustrating and difficult for us and it has ended with a very disappointing sentence, so we just have to accept that and try to keep moving forward and the new baby coming will help us do that." Expand Close Driver Senan OFlaherty / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Driver Senan OFlaherty Mr Wall, who sustained a significant brain injury in the crash, described the sentenced as "very deflating". Ms Wall described Estlin as "a delight" and a child who had "so much life and vibrancy". "We just loved her to bits and pieces, and there hasn't been a moment of any day that has gone by where we haven't missed her and wished that she was with us, and we know that this is how the rest of our lives are going to go, missing her every moment of every day," she said. At around 9am on March 15, 2017, Mr Wall was driving Estlin from their home in Ennistymon to her creche when a truck driven by O'Flaherty, travelling in the opposite direction, moved to pull out from behind a bus. When Mr Wall saw the truck perform the manoeuvre, his car mounted a grass verge. It then spun out of control and collided with an oncoming car that was behind the truck. Handing down sentence, Judge Keys said O'Flaherty, of Lower Gowerhass, Cooraclare, Co Clare, had "a low culpability". He said the only aggravating factor was a previous conviction for careless driving. Judge Keys said: "In these type of cases, there are no winners or losers. This is a very tragic case which I have considered for a lengthy period of time and with great difficulty." O'Flaherty had pleaded guilty to both careless driving offences. Each offence carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail. Imposing a four-year driving disqualification, Judge Keys said: "I'm conscious that this man cannot earn a living for at least four years." Entering 2020, real estate in Western Montana had experienced several years of growth with one notable problem: low inventory. This is no surprise to even casual followers of real estate markets. The first quarter showed no signs of change, in fact sales were up significantly in both the Missoula urban area and Missoula County by both volume and unit count. I started this column with that information because as we try and answer the question of how will the Covid-19 pandemic impact real estate, it is important to understand that looking at numbers alone may not tell the whole story, but also may offer some of the biggest clues to our short-term market. Real estate and related fields were deemed essential in Gov. Steve Bullocks directive; however, this does not mean business has continued as usual. In-person showings have slowed significantly, open houses are nonexistent, and the number of new listings are well below a normal spring pace. Some buyers and sellers dont have the option of waiting. Circumstances such as job transfers already in place, moving to be closer to family, and many other factors have led some sellers to continue with their plans for listing their property for sale. Like nearly every other business, real estate is adapting and trying to encourage safe and responsible citizenship while keeping agents and staff employed. Real estate agents have risen to the challenge of social distancing while serving their clients in a stressful time. At Berkshire Hathaway we have encouraged our agents to utilize video conferencing, virtual home showings, virtual open houses, 3D tours when available, live video on Facebook and Instagram, and we have provided regular training to support these efforts. While no one can be certain where real is estate headed in the immediate term and the rest of 2020 it is important to note that real estate activity in Western Montana has not stopped. Sales are closing every day, buyers and sellers are still reaching buy-sell agreements, and listings are still entering the market. At the same time, deals have fallen out of contract for reasons related to Covid-19 such as layoffs and uncertainty. April will almost certainly be down in units sold year over year, as will May, though it appears not by as much as we may have feared a month ago. As an example, for the month of March, the city of Missoula recorded five fewer sales in 2020 compared to 2019, 102 versus 107. At the time of this writing, roughly a third of the way through April, closed sales for the month are about six percent off last years pace. New listings and under contract listings are down six and seven percent respectively. These are good numbers in comparison to what is occurring in other economic sectors across the nation, however they should be interpreted with the caution that it is still too early to draw any conclusions. We may still be working through a larger than normal number of transactions that went under contract in the first quarter - which was up across the board in activity. With each new week, we gain more data to study this period that began in the last few weeks of March. Will we see a further reduction in new under contracts and new listings? Time will tell. What we do know is our market has the characteristics that leave it poised for a strong recovery when we get to the other side of this pandemic. In fact, nationwide, some economists are suggesting that it will be real estate and housing that pull the economy out of whatever recession we are facing. According to Corelogic, an industry statistical tracking service, steep price dips during a recession are more the exception than the rule. Of the five most recent recessions dating back to 1980, only two saw price drops. The first was a modest 1.9% price decrease during the 1991 recession accompanying the first Gulf War, and the second a large 19.7% price decrease during the Great Recession in 2008, which of course was directly related to housing. Because that is the most recent event in the publics collective memory, it is easy to use recency bias to draw comparisons to our current markets, but that would not be accurate. Locally and nationwide in 2008, there were no inventory shortages and though it is hard for many to believe, there was actually more new single family construction in the marketplace at that time than there is right now. Conversely, because there is less inventory today, there is more room in the market to absorb two potential impacts of our current situation: lowering buyer demand, and, worst-case scenario, an uptick in eventual foreclosure inventory. We all hope that does not happen, but it is something we must consider when looking into the future. Around mid-March, right before we started to see nationwide economic impacts, Missoula had less than a months worth of inventory in many key price points, and only one and a half months of inventory market wide. A healthy market should have three to nine months of inventory, based on an absorption rate that factors in active listings and listings sold in the last month to determine how many months it would take to absorb current inventory levels. What this means is there is a lot of room for our area markets to absorb turbulence and a few months of decent drops in sold units before we see a major shift in price. Anecdotally, buyer traffic is still strong in comparison to listing inventory. Web traffic on most real estate sites is increasing, as more people are home with time on their hands. The Missoula Organization of Realtors puts out an annual housing report, usually in March of each year. They have delayed that, likely into early May. This will give MOR a better understanding of how the market is reacting, so they can provide up-to-date information. I would encourage people to be on the lookout for that report and to reach out to their trusted Realtor to discuss the market as it relates to their situation. Missoula and Western Montana have always been an attractive place to live, and we dont expect that to change. The most important thing we can all do right now is focus on staying healthy and taking steps to limit the spread, so we can get to the other side of this pandemic, and look ahead to when we can come together stronger than before to start building this place we love back up. Mike Nugent is the Vice President and Managing Broker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Montana Properties. This column appears in Vol. 1 Issue 2 of Missoula Business, a publication that reports on emerging trends and goes beyond the numbers to look at the insights and drive of the people leading Missoula forward. Find the second issue inserted in the Sunday print Missoulian and soon in the e-edition, and read the stories on Missoulian.com. 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. UTICA, N.Y. (UPDATED) Utica police are questioning a person of interest after an officer-involved shooting took place on the 900 block of Brayton Park Place around 5:40 p.m. Monday. Police say the officer was patrolling the area, when someone alerted him that a man was walking in the road and may be armed with a handgun. When the officer approached, the man fired several rounds at him, according to police. The officer returned fire, and the man fled the scene. The officer was not shot during the incident, but the bullets did hit his patrol vehicle. Anyone with information about the incident should contact UPD at 315-223-3461. ST. LOUIS Health officials reported an uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations Monday in both the St. Louis area and across Illinois, though both areas have so far avoided worst-case scenarios, health officials said. At St. Louis major hospital systems BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health and St. Lukes Hospital hospitalizations for suspected COVID-19 patients were up by 60% from the beginning of April, rising Monday to 757. Weve had some important progress in stopping the virus, but we still have a significant number of people who are hospitalized, Dr. Alex Garza, head of the St. Louis Regional Pandemic Task Force, said Monday. The total is up 7% from five days earlier, and includes 196 patients in intensive care units and 142 who needed the aid of ventilators to breathe. Projections show peak hospitalizations in the St. Louis area will occur around April 25, Garza has said. In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said models in mid-March predicted that without social distancing the state would exceed its hospital capacity by 25,000 beds by April 6, but that Illinois has so far prevented that scenario. The funeral of a wildlife ranger who was fatally mauled by a shark off the Great Barrier Reef was live-streamed to get around coronavirus restrictions that limit memorials to ten people. Zachary Robba, 23, had been enjoying working at his 'dream job' on the southern Barrier Reef with a group of rangers when he was attacked by a shark on April 6. A funeral service was held at 8am Tuesday morning at his former school, Iona College in Brisbane, with only ten people allowed to attend. The funeral of a wildlife ranger who was fatally mauled by a shark off the Great Barrier Reef was live-streamed to get around coronavirus restrictions Zachary Robba (pictured) was described as a 'down-to-earth legend' by friends, after he died aged 23 Tributes for Mr Robba seen on his coffin during the live-stream of his funeral service on Tuesday morning Father Michael Twigg acknowledged the coronavirus restrictions during the funeral service, saying it was a shame there could not be more people at the service to farewell Mr Robba. The experienced swimmer died in hospital on the night of April 6, a few hours after he was bitten off North West Island, 75km northeast of Gladstone in Queensland. He suffered severe injuries to leg, hand and elbow during the attack. At the time of his death a family friend told Daily Mail Australia Mr Robba was 'dedicated' to his work and described his mate as a 'down-to-earth legend'. 'Zach was someone who was loved by all, a dedicated parks and wildlife officer who embraced everything that came at him,' he said. 'Zach was a easy going, down-to-earth legend of a bloke. Zachary Robba, 23, had been enjoying working at his 'dream job' on the southern Barrier Reef with a group of rangers when he was attacked by a shark on April 6 Zachary Robba (pictured), 23, had been enjoying working at his 'dream job' on the southern Barrier Reef with a group of rangers when he was attacked on Monday afternoon 'Every time we saw him he brought laughter and a sense of mateship to a crowd. He has left a legacy in everybodys hearts who knew him. May he rest in peace. The school shared a video the day after the 23-year-old's death saying the loss was more difficult because of the coronavirus pandemic. 'We have a Zach-shaped hole in our hearts,' Fr Twigg said. 'Ordinarily we would be gathering in great numbers here at the school to offer support and comfort and care, but obviously in this era we don't have that possibility.' His friends said: 'There will never be another guy like him. We were so lucky to call him our best mate.' The experienced swimmer died in hospital a few hours after he was bitten off North West Island, 75km northeast of Gladstone in Queensland. He suffered severe injuries to leg, hand and elbow during the attack Police said Mr Robba and other rangers decided to go for a swim off the back of their boat, after spending the day doing maintenance work on the island. His colleagues were ahead of him and had already reached the vessel when the sharked struck. 'They would have witnessed the attack,' Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Anderson told reporters on Tuesday. 'There were four people swimming off the back of a boat, cooling down after a day's work.' It is not clear what kind of shark was involved. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Josa Lukman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, April 22 2020 Environmental trailblazer: Even at 86 years old, Jane Goodall still travels extensively as part of her role with the Jane Goodall Institute, which she founded in 1977 to continue her research on chimpanzees as well as advocate for conservation and environmental education. National Geographic will celebrate Earth Day on April 22 with two world premieres Photo Ark: Rarest Creatures and Jane Goodall: The Hope to inspire people to love our only home in these unprecedented times. Indonesians can catch the premieres through their preferred subscription service, beginning at 7 p.m. with Photo Ark: Rarest Creatures that follows National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore on his globetrotting mission to photograph some of the rarest wildlife in the world. Sartores project, the Photo Ark, is his 25-year-long, primarily self-funded quest to document the worlds animals before they go extinct. The Photo Ark began in 2005 when Sartores wife Kathy was diagnosed with cancer. As Sartore stayed home to take care of his wife and children, he gained a new perspective on the shortness and fragility of life. One question Sartore had was how can I get people to care that we could lose half of all species by the turn of the next century?. With this burning question in mind, he set out to photograph 12,000 animal species currently in human care before it is too late. Currently, there are 9,844 species in the Photo Ark, spanning some 33,844 pictures shot with a simple black or white background. Perhaps a series of portraits, made as simply and cleanly as possible, would give us all a chance to look animals directly in the eye and see that theres beauty, grace and intelligence in the other creatures we share the planet with, Sartore wrote on his website. Black and white backgrounds level the playing field, making a mouse every bit as grand as an elephant. In these portraits, they are equals. At his website, joelsartore.com, visitors can search for images of specific animals or scroll down to see the thousands of images. Jane Goodall: The Hope follows at 8 p.m. a two-hour documentary on the life and times of the figure considered by many to be the worlds foremost expert on chimpanzees for her decades of experience and studies on the primate since she went to the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960. 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 Reports that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was gravely ill have been downplayed by South Korean officials, who say they have not seen any unusual activity in the North. The statement from the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in appeared to hose down claims from US intelligence sources quoted by CNN. "We have nothing to confirm and there has been no unusual activity detected in North Korea," a spokesman for South Korea's executive office, Blue House, said on Tuesday. South Korea says it has not heard of any unusual activity in North Korea. Credit:AP Citing security officials, CNN reported on Tuesday the US was monitoring intelligence that Kim was "in grave danger" following surgery at his family's Hyangsan Clinic in North Pyongan province. The Ghana Report Foundation on Tuesday donated sets of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) worth GH 70,000 to the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to aid its members in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The items are to be distributed among member organisations and journalists to enable them to protect themselves against the COVID-19. Items donated included 100 pieces of Veronica buckets, 1000 pieces of hand sanitizers, 100 tissues, 100 basins, 100 face mask, 2,500 nose mask and soaps, among others. Mr Affail Monney, the President of the GJA, in receiving the donation at a short ceremony held in Accra, said the media had played a pivotal role in fighting COVID-19, since its outbreak. He said despite the recent lifting of the lockdown in some parts of the country, it was not a sign of total recovery from the pandemic. He, therefore, urged the media not to relent on its effort in educating and informing the public about the devastating effect the disease could have on the country. Debate is also raging on the rectitude or otherwise on the governments decision to lift the partial lockdown on Greater Accra, Kumasi and Kasoa. We are not interested in what went into the lifting of the partial lockdown. Our main interest is to ensure that we mobilize all our arsenals, to synergise all our efforts to ensure that we win the fight. The lifting of the ban does not obscure the fact that COVID-19 is still devastating. COVID-19 can decimate our economic, social and other gains if we do not rise to face it squarely. Therefore, an appeal goes to the media community to bring this reality to the understanding of the ordinary Ghanaian that we are not out of the woods yet, that any complacency and backsliding in terms of educating and informing the public on the part of the media can have a dangerous consequence, he said. He commended the Foundation for supporting the organization and for that matter journalists at large, adding that this would enable them to deliver on their mandates. Madam Rashida Saani Nasamu, the Managing Director of the Foundation said as front liners fighting the COVID-19, journalists safety needed to be ensured. It is quite imperative to keep safe because you are the front liners as well, you disseminate information and educate the public to keep safe, she said. She said the organisation through its foundation had undertaken numerous project including funding the education for brilliant but needy students, among others, adding that we believe that it is not only about telling the story, we have to go beyond the stories, the reportage, to help society and give solutions to the marginalised. The Ghana Report Foundation is a Corporate Social Responsibility organisation of the portal (theghanareport.com), an online news portal. 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 Pray at home during Ramzan: Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi to followers India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Apr 21: Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, who has been booked by the Delhi Police for holding a religious congregation here during the lockdown, on Monday urged the followers of the organisation to pray at home in the month of Ramzan. "I request all, both in India and abroad, to strictly follow the guidelines and instructions of the local or national governments and till the time restrictions are in place and please observe prayers at home. And even in this, we should not invite people from outside," he said in a statement. 'Social distancing, virtual religious meet': WHO issues guidelines for safe Ramzan practices Ramzan begins later this week. While addressing an online briefing on Sunday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal cited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation last month, a major hotspot, and the large inflow of travellers from other countries to Delhi as the reasons for the spread of the virus, and said the city was "fighting a difficult battle". The Delhi Police crime branch, had on March 31, lodged an FIR against seven people, including the cleric, on a complaint by the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin police station for holding the congregation in alleged violation of the orders against large gatherings to contain the spread of coronavirus. Later, the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) was added to the FIR. The cleric is wanted by the Delhi Police and he responded twice to them. He is currently under home quarantine. In an audio message released earlier this month, Kandhalvi had said he was exercising self-quarantine after several hundred who visited the congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz tested positive for coronavirus. Your browser does not support the video tag. Delhi to ease restrictions, if Covid cases come down in next 2-3 days: Health Minister Lata Mangeshkar health update: Doctor says,'She in ICU with Covid-19 and pneumonia, will be under observation' Govt to conduct telephonic survey on prevalence of virus India pti-PTI New Delhi, Apr 21: The government on Tuesday announced that it will conduct a telephone survey to garner feedback from citizens on prevalence and distribution of coronavirus symptoms and urged people to participate in the exercise in good measure. They will be called from the number 1921, the Health Ministry said, while cautioning against pranksters calling from any other number on the pretext of a similar survey. The survey will be conducted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Government of India. Pak philanthropist's son tests positive for coronavirus; PM Imran Khan among people who met him "People are informed that it is a genuine survey and are requested to participate in good measure when a call comes from 1921 to enable proper feedback of the prevalence and distribution of COVID-19 symptoms. "Please be aware of any other calls by pranksters or or calls from any other number in the guise of such similar survey," the health ministry stated. The ministry also asked the states and UTs to inform the public about the official nature of this exercise through media and that they are aware of any other calls by pranksters or phishing/fishing attempts from any other number. The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 603 and the number of cases climbed to 18,985 in the country on Tuesday, according to the Union health ministry. However, a PTI tally of numbers reported by various states and union territories put the nationwide tally of positive cases at 19,867 with at least 646 deaths and 3,801 recoveries. There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states. Kentucky Sees Surge in CCP Virus Cases Days After Lockdown Protests Kentucky experienced its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases days after protests broke out to lift lockdowns, although its not clear if the demonstrations had an impact on the surge in cases. Gov. Andy Beshear announced there were 273 new cases on Sunday, WCPO reported. We are still in the midst of this fight against a deadly and highly contagious virus, Beshear said. Lets make sure, as much as were looking at those benchmarks and were looking at the future, that we are acting in the present and we are doing the things that it takes to protect one another. About 100 demonstrators gathered on the lawn of the state capitol building in Frankfort on Wednesday, calling on the governor to open up Kentucky and let us work, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Photos posted online showed the demonstrators and their signs. However, on Monday, there were just 102 new CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus infections, officials told WYMT, bringing the total of cases to more than 3,000. Beshear said on Sunday he wouldnt move on easing lockdown restrictions following the protests, according to the Herald. Were not in the 14 days of decreasing under the White House guidelines to do certain things, Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack told reporters. Protests have broken out in several states including Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan. The demonstrators have called for an end to the stay-at-home orders that have shuttered numerous businesses across the United States, leading to a bevy of unemployment claims. Beshear, however, suggested that some measures might be eased in the near future. We see the ability to really start opening up in some small ways maybe leading up to May and some other small ways in Mayand then have a lot more optimism as we get towards the end of it, he said. The latest novel coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday. Web links to longer stories if available. This file is no longer updating. Read the latest here. 12:46 a.m.: There are clusters of COVID-19 cases among crew on two ships in Taiwan and Japan. Japanese officials said Wednesday that 33 crew members on a docked cruise ship tested positive for the coronavirus in one day of testing after the first case from the ship was reported. The Italian-operated Costa Atlantica has been docked in Nagasaki since late January for repairs and maintenance by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. The ship carries 623 crew members, but it was empty of passengers during the work. The outbreak surfaced Tuesday when the first crew member tested positive for the virus. None of those infected had serious symptoms and all are isolated in single rooms on the ship, officials said. In Taiwan, there is a virus cluster on a navy ship that has infected 27 people. I want to present my apologies for letting Taiwanese people bear the risk of the epidemic, President Tsai Ing-wen said. 11:35 p.m.: Alaska announced plans to begin allowing this week limited reopening of restaurants, retail stores and other businesses that were shut down amid coronavirus concerns. Under the plan, starting Friday, restaurants will be able to resume dine-in service. But restaurants will be limited to 25 per cent capacity inside, with 10 feet between tables and only household members allowed at a table, Alaskas health commissioner, Adam Crum, said Tuesday. There also will be capacity limits at retail stores and businesses such as hair and nail salons and tattoo shops. Personal care services, for example, will be appointment only with no waiting areas, Crum said. Gyms will be allowed to do outdoor training with groups of less than 20. Crum said there will be screening of staff and participants to make sure no one is sick and spacing of 10 feet between people. Bars, theatres, bowling alleys and bingo halls will not be allowed to reopen yet. 10:34 p.m.: China on Wednesday again reported no new deaths from the coronavirus, but registered 30 more cases 23 of them brought from abroad. Of the domestic cases, all seven were reported in Heilongjiang province near the Russian border where a field hospital has been set up to deal with a new flare-up related to people coming home from abroad. Just over 1,000 people are hospitalized for treatment, while about the same number are under isolation and monitoring as either suspected cases or after testing positive but showing no symptoms. China has reported a total of 4,632 deaths among 82,788 cases, the bulk of them in Wuhan where officials recently raised the death toll by 50 per cent after a review of records. 8:15 p.m.: Two meat-packing plants in southern Alberta have been tied to more cases of COVID-19. Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the provinces chief medical officer, says there are 401 cases at the Cargill plant in High River, up from 360. And there are 77 cases at the JSB plant in Brooks, up from 67. Cargill announced yesterday it will temporarily close its facility because of the outbreak, and there are calls for JSB to do the same. 7:30 p.m.: Health authorities in Vancouver have declared a COVID-19 outbreak at a chicken processing plant in the city affecting nearly 30 employees, according to Vancouver Coastal Health. The agency said one employee at United Poultry Company received a positive test for the virus on Sunday, which lead to further testing of staff finding another 27 cases. All employees at the facility are being managed as either COVID-19 cases or close contacts and have been told to self-isolate, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) said in a release Tuesday afternoon. Vancouver Coastal Healths Matt Kieltyka said the plant closed voluntarily, but that a formal order to close will also be issued. 6:21 p.m.: Ontario must shrink its daily increase in new COVID-19 cases by more than half to 200 or fewer before the economy can begin reopening, warns the chief medical officer of health. The target was revealed Tuesday by Dr. David Williams after Premier Doug Ford promised a framework for loosening restrictions will be released within days, noting sombrely that people will still be dying even as measures ease. With the province now reporting about 500 more Ontarians testing positive every day, people will have to stick with strict stay-at-home and physical distancing measures into May, Williams said. We have to see some real ongoing change. Ontarians have done a great job of flattening the curve, of bending the curve, but now wed like to actually see it coming down, he told reporters. I think wed have to see ourselves back down at least in that 200 (area) if not lower. 5:33 p.m.: With 483 new COVID-19 cases since Monday evening, Ontarios regional health units are reporting one of the slowest days of new case growth by percentage since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Stars count. As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, the Star has counted a total of 13,017 confirmed or probable cases of the disease, including 699 deaths, an increase of 42 fatal cases from the same time Monday. The daily growth of new cases in the province just 3.9 per cent since 5 p.m. Monday has slowed greatly from the rapid, exponential increases seen in late March, a sign the epidemics curve is somewhere on the path toward flattening. In the second half of March, the province saw an average daily growth of 20 per cent, a rate that doubled Ontarios case count about every four days. In the first half of April that rate slowed to an average of 9.5 per cent daily growth, or doubling about every eight days. And the days since have averaged increases of about 5 per cent daily, or a doubling time of around two weeks. Even as the raw number of new cases are still high, those slowing growth rates suggest the epidemic may be nearing its peak in Ontario although its not yet clear if that has already happened. Meantime, COVID-19 deaths continue to grow day-by-day. The new fatal cases reported Tuesday included anther 29 in the GTA, which has seen a large number of deadly outbreaks in long-term care facilities. The Star publishes two counts a day, at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. They are based on the public tallies and statements of the provinces regional health units, the local bodies that collect and publish this data often before reporting to the province through its central reporting system. As such, the Stars count is more current than the data the province publishes each morning. Earlier Tuesday, the province reported 859 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, a number that is was more than 50 patients since the last report. This total has been relatively flat in recent days and the reason for the jump was not immediately clear. The province also says 5,806 people have recovered after testing positive for the virus. The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths 622 may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date. The Stars count, includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test. 2:40 p.m.: The City of Toronto says it has received a shipment of three million surgical masks primarily for long-term care homes and shelters The ASTM Level 2 surgical masks, ordered from Canadian distributor AMG Medical Inc. in late March, arrived in two shipments with the final shipment of two million masks delivered earlier Tuesday. The new masks have passed inspection earlier this month, a large shipment of defective surgical face masks from China was recalled from Torontos long-term care homes after being issued to staff. As of April 14, the City of Toronto had enough surgical masks for 52 days at current consumption and 25 days in the worst-case scenario, according to the City, This new inventory adds approximately 127 days of stock at current consumption and would provide 60 additional days of protection in the worst-case scenario. This new order of three million surgical masks will greatly help the people on the front lines of the fight in our citys long-term care homes and shelters, Mayor John Tory said in a statement. 2:33 p.m.: Another 101 health-care workers including 22 in hospitals and 27 in nursing homes have come down with COVID-19 in the latest testing results released by the Ontario government Tuesday. 2:30 p.m.: Air Canada says it will cancel all flights to the U.S. after Ottawa extended its border closure with the United States by 30 days. The countrys largest airline says scheduled service south of the border will be suspended from April 27 through May 21. 2:15 p.m.: The TTC says it has started to block off seats on its buses, streetcars and subway trains to allow customers to continue to practise safe physical distancing while travelling. The agency released a photo showing caution tape placed over seats. More formal seat coverings and notices will be installed over the coming days, the TTC said. 2:10 p.m.: Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister is taking a pay reduction as he pushes for cuts in the public sector. Pallister says he is foregoing 25 per cent of his $94,000 base salary as a member of the legislature while the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Part of that about seven per cent is a previously announced wage freeze that Pallister and all other legislature members have accepted since 2016 on their base pay. Pallister is asking public sector workers to accept reduced work weeks, job-sharing or temporary layoffs to help the government redirect spending to health care during the pandemic. 1:38 p.m.: New Brunswick is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 today, leaving the provincial total at 118. Chief medical officer of health, Dr. Jennifer Russell, says to date 102 people have recovered. She says five patients remain in hospital, and one of those is in intensive care. Russell says the province is increasing the scope of testing. 1:20 p.m.: There are no new cases of COVID-19 on Prince Edward Island today, leaving the provincial total at 26 confirmed cases. So far 23 of those cases are considered recovered. Premier Dennis King says the province is looking at a plan to begin easing some restrictions in early May. Chief Public Health Officer, Doctor Heather Morrison says the Open P.E.I. plan would start with allowing some outdoor activities and elective procedures in the health-care system. 1:17 p.m.: Quebec is announcing it has broken through a grim milestone after recording more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19. Premier Francois Legault said 102 people died compared with Monday, for a total of 1,041 deaths out of 20,126 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. The province currently has 201 patients in intensive care, an increase of three people. Legault says the infection rate in long-term care homes and senior residences continues to be a major challenge, adding there are 80 such facilities where he says the virus is not under control. 1:10 p.m.: Premier Doug Ford says $11 million will be spent on Meals on Wheels and other community programs that help seniors. We have to take care of our own, the premier says. Ford also says an additional $40 million will be spent ensuring there is adequate personal protective equipment for community groups. 1 p.m.: Ford is expected to address reporters at his daily briefing shortly after 1 p.m. A livestream of his news conference will be available at thestar.com 12:45 p.m.: The federal government says it hopes to process 90 per cent of applications for wage subsidies from employers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic by May 5. Jean-Yves Duclos, the vice-chair of the cabinet committee on COVID-19, offered the timeline after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this morning that applications for wage support will be open next Monday. However, neither Trudeau nor Duclos could say when money would actually start to flow to employers. Employers whose bottom lines have been hit by the pandemic will be able to apply for the federal government to cover up to 75 per cent of employee wages, retroactive to mid-March. 12:41 p.m.: Canadas chief medical officer Dr. Theresa Tam says she and her provincial counterparts are considering ways to ease restrictions around COVID-19. But she says the fight against the pandemic remains a marathon and there are lots of unknowns at play. Tam is urging individual sectors to start thinking about innovative ways of reopening while preventing the illness from spreading, as immunity against COVID-19 across the country is not high. 12:37 p.m.: Newfoundland & Labrador once again reported no new cases of COVID-19. The number of cases remains at 257 for the province. One hundred and ninety-four people have recovered from the virus, while 6,431 people have been tested. Chief medical office Dr. Janice Fitzgerald once again reminded citizens to follow guidelines and practice social distancing, and also explained to citizens on how to properly wear masks. 12:30 p.m.: Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister says employers across the province will get a refund on their workers compensation premiums to help them handle the economic fallout from COVID-19. Pallister says next month, employers will get a credit equal to 20 per cent of last years premiums, worth a total of $37 million. He also says the province will take part in a new federal program that offers loans to commercial landlords who reduce rent for small businesses during the pandemic. 12 p.m.: York Region police are reporting a sizable increase in stunt driving and domestic incidents while theres an overall drop in crimes in the last month amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 11:57 a.m.: Nova Scotia is reporting another death related to COVID-19, bringing the provinces total to 10. The death occurred at the Northwood long-term-care home in Halifax Regional Municipality. Nova Scotia is reporting 16 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the provincial total to 737 confirmed cases. Two hundred and eighty-six individuals have now recovered in Nova Scotia and their cases of COVID-19 are considered resolved. As of Monday, there are 10 licensed long-term care homes and unlicensed seniors facilities in Nova Scotia with cases of COVID-19, involving 128 residents and 62 staff. 11:55 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says two airplanes that were supposed to pick up protective equipment for front-line medical workers in China were forced to leave that country empty because of delays on the ground. Trudeau says the equipment was supposed to deliver equipment ordered by the federal government and one province, which he declined to identify. Trudeau says planes are only allowed to remain in China for short periods of time while checkpoints and other challenges make movement on the ground difficult. 11:30 a.m.: Trudeau says companies whose businesses have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic will be able to start applying for a promised wage subsidy on April 27. Trudeau says the Canada Revenue Agency is setting up a calculator so employers can see how much they can expect to receive from the program, which will provide up to $847 per employee per week. 11:25 a.m.: Trudeau says the federal government plans to provide $350 million to Canadas charities sector. Charities have seen a severe drop in donations since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, with donors hurting financially themselves and an inability to hold fundraising events. Trudeau says some of the money will go to smaller, independent organizations while the rest will flow to national groups such as the United Way and Canadian Red Cross. 11:25 a.m. (corrects number of cases and deaths): Ontarios regional health units have reported another 552 cases of COVID-19 since this time Monday in one of the provinces lowest jumps in cases by percentage growth in any 24-hour period in the Stars count. As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, the Star has counted a total of 12,702 confirmed or probable cases of the disease, including 672 deaths, an increase of 42 fatal cases from the same time Monday. Even though 552 more cases is a large increase in the raw number of reported COVID-19 infections, the rate of daily growth continues to slow, a sign the epidemics curve is somewhere on the path toward flattening, although its still not totally clear if the province has already passed the peak of new infections. In percentage terms, the growth in cases since Monday morning works out to a 4.5 per cent one-day jump, in line with a trend of slowed growth relative to recent weeks. The first seven days of April averaged 12.7 per cent daily growth; the second seven days averaged 6.8 per cent; and 5.5 per cent for the days since. The Star publishes two counts a day, at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. They are based on the public tallies and statements of the provinces regional health units, the local bodies that collect and publish this data often before reporting to the province through its central reporting system. As such, the Stars count is more current than the data the province publishes each morning. Earlier Tuesday, the province reported 859 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, a number increased by more than 50 patients since the last report. This total has been relatively flat in recent days and the reason for the jump was not immediately clear. The province also says 5,806 people have recovered after testing positive for the virus. The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths 622 may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date. The Stars count, includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test. 11:10 a.m.: The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has surpassed 2.5 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus map, with almost 172,000 deaths. Almost 660,000 have recovered. The U.S. has almost 789,000 confirmed cases, followed by Spain (more than 204,000), Italy (more than 181,000) and France (more than 156,000). The U.S. reports that more than 42,000 have died. In Italy, more than 24,000 have died followed by Spain with more than 21,000 deaths. 11:05 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be addressing reporters at his daily media briefing at 11:15 a.m. A livestream of the news conference will be available at thestar.com 11 a.m. (corrects the number of cases and deaths): Ontario public health units are reporting a jump of 552 cases and 42 deaths in last 24 hours. That brings the overall total to 2,702 confirmed or probable cases and 676 deaths. More to come. 10:45 a.m.: York Region police have charged a Markham man with mischief after he allegedly coughed on money and told a store clerk that he hoped the teenage employee would contract COVID-19. 10:30 a.m.: A survey of nearly 1,300 British Columbia businesses reveals just over half of those already closed to due COVID-19 restrictions expect to reopen. The B.C. Chamber of Commerce and several partners took part in the Mustel survey, which shows a further 38 per cent of businesses are unsure about reopening and eight per cent already know they wont be back. Of the small businesses still operating, the survey shows 43 per cent estimate they can only survive for a maximum of three more months under current restrictions. More than half report revenues have plunged 75 per cent or more and almost eight in 10 are not confident they will be able to attract enough customers or revenue to stay alive when normal operations resume. 10:15 a.m.: The COVID-19 pandemic will keep court procedures in Ontario on hold for at least an extra three months. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice suspended regular operations on March 17 and either adjourned or suspended criminal and civil trials until June. But the court has issued a new notice saying criminal and civil jury selections and trials will be paused until September at the earliest. It says it will keep assessing the public health situation and plans to offer further direction next month. 9:40 a.m.: Munichs famed Oktoberfest folk and beer festival has been cancelled for the first time since the Second World War, the latest major event to fall victim to the coronavirus outbreak and a blow to the Bavarian capitals economy. The event was scheduled from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4 and brings in $1.3 billion US for local businesses. The Oktoberfest, first celebrated in 1810, is one of the worlds biggest folk festivals and draws more than 6 million visitors from more than 50 countries. Last year, they guzzled 7.3 million litres of beer, a slight decline from the previous years 7.5 million litres. Germany has banned large public gatherings until at least the end of August, and the cancellation of the Munich event was widely expected. The festival was called off twice in the past due to outbreaks of cholera, in 1854 and 1873. In 1980, a bomb exploded at the main entrance, killing 13 people and injuring more than 200. 9:35 a.m.: Spains famous running of the bulls in Pamplona is the latest major European event to be called off due to the coronavirus pandemic. Pamplona city hall announced Tuesday that the nine-day San Fermin festival held in July wont take place this year. It said in a statement that though the decision was expected, it still brings sadness. Pamplona mayor Enrique Maya is infected with the virus. The San Fermin fiesta was made famous internationally by Ernest Hemingway in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. 9:30 a.m.: To give you a sense of how Ontario is faring in the battle against COVID-19, the Toronto Star chose four data points that provide a snapshot and asked experts to give us their thoughts. These four charts show where Ontario has been and where we are now. Click here to read more. 9 a.m.: Britains Parliament is going back to work, and the political authorities have a message for lawmakers: Stay away. U.K. legislators and most parliamentary staff were sent home in late March as part of a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. With more than 16,500 virus-deaths in Britain and criticism growing of the governments response to the pandemic, legislators are returning Tuesday at least virtually to grapple with the crisis. 8:56 a.m.: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that if governors of states such as Georgia start to ease coronavirus restrictions they had better have the facts on their side or they could enable a resurgence of the virus beyond their states borders. If some of these reopenings are done the wrong way, its going to affect all of us, de Blasio said on CNNs New Day. He said that if any state or city jumps the gun on reopening businesses that could lead to the disease reasserting in a lot of other places. 8:30 a.m.: Muslim communities across Canada have already seen sweeping changes as physical distancing rules came into effect last month. Daily prayers and weekly sermons have been cancelled, as well as Arabic classes, day camps and Quran readings that are often hosted by mosques. Now many community events will be cancelled during Ramadan this year. The month of Ramadan in which Muslims go without food or drink from sunrise to sunset every day often features gatherings where families and friends break fast and pray together. Its set to start on Thursday based on the Islamic lunar calendar, and will last until May 23. Sallah Hamdani, a former president of the Islamic Society of St. Catharines, Ont., says Muslims will try and look on the bright side of the time alone this year. You might not have to focus on hosting a dinner, said Hamdani, pointing out that it can be stressful for families to put together elaborate dinners at home while already dealing with a difficult fast. 8:03 a.m. Officials have identified seven people who appear to have contracted the coronavirus through activities related to the April 7 election in Wisconsin, Milwaukees health commissioner said. Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said six of the cases involve Milwaukee voters and one is a Milwaukee poll worker, the Journal Sentinel reported. Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm said Monday there were no signs yet of a surge in cases from the election as some feared. Tuesday marks the 14th day since the election, which is a time frame during which health officials say symptoms typically appear. 7:53 a.m.: Singapore will extend its partial lockdown by another four weeks after reporting thousands of new coronavirus cases in recent days, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Tuesday. The tiny city-state reported 1,111 new cases earlier Tuesday to increase its total to 9,125, the most in Southeast Asia. It marked the second straight day of over 1,000 new cases after a single-day high of 1,426 were announced on Monday. Foreign workers staying in crowded dormitories account for nearly 80% of infections. 7:52 a.m.: The deputy head of Germanys national disease control centre has cautioned against coronavirus testing for soccer players in order to restart the league. Regular testing of players and team staff is a key element of a plan to resume German soccer in empty stadiums next month. Robert Koch Institute vice-president Lars Schaade says he doesnt see why certain sections of the population . . . should be routinely screened. Schaade says he would prefer testing to be focused on people who show symptoms or who are linked to an outbreak of the virus. Clubs are eager to resume the Bundesliga to avoid financial losses. They are negotiating a tricky political landscape and opposition from some fan groups. 7:03 a.m. An open conflict broke out Tuesday between Tokyo Olympic organizers and the IOC over who will pay for the unprecedented yearlong postponement. Tokyo spokesman Masa Takaya said the organizing committee has asked the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee to remove a comment from its website suggesting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had agreed that Japan would shoulder most of the postponement costs. Media reports in Japan estimate the yearlong delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic will cost $2 billion to $6 billion. Neither side has given an official estimate, but Tokyo CEO Toshiro Muto has called the postponement costs massive. 5:30 a.m.: South Korea has reported nine new coronavirus infections and one more death, bringing its totals to 10,683 cases and 237 deaths. South Koreas Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at least 1,011 cases were linked to recent arrivals from overseas. The countrys caseload has slowed from early March when it was reporting around 500 fresh cases a day. Infections continued to wane in the hardest-hit city of Daegu, which reported two new cases. 5:26 a.m.: Indonesias President Joko Widodo has banned people in the worlds most populous Muslim-majority nation from returning to their hometowns to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the dawn-to-sunset fasting during Ramadan. The announcement came amid warnings from health experts that Indonesia could face an explosion of coronavirus cases that could infect more than a million people after Ramadan unless the government takes stricter measures. 4:10 a.m.: Canadians trust health professionals like their family doctor first and foremost when it comes to the COVID-19 crisis, a new poll suggests. The poll, conducted by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies, asked respondents to rate their level of trust in various institutions, including public health officials and politicians. Health professionals like doctors and nurses had the highest level of trust in Canada, with 92 per cent support. Public health officials, generally, followed close behind at 81 per cent, while 72 per cent of respondents said they trusted chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam. 4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET: There are 36,831 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada. Quebec: 19,319 confirmed (including 939 deaths, 3,847 resolved) Ontario: 11,184 confirmed (including 584 deaths, 5,515 resolved) Alberta: 2,908 confirmed (including 59 deaths, 1,230 resolved) British Columbia: 1,699 confirmed (including 86 deaths, 1,039 resolved) Nova Scotia: 721 confirmed (including 9 deaths, 248 resolved) Saskatchewan: 316 confirmed (including 4 deaths, 238 resolved) Newfoundland and Labrador: 257 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 191 resolved) Manitoba: 246 confirmed (including 6 deaths, 143 resolved), 8 presumptive New Brunswick: 118 confirmed (including 92 resolved) Prince Edward Island: 26 confirmed (including 23 resolved) Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed Yukon: 11 confirmed (including 8 resolved) Northwest Territories: 5 confirmed (including 5 resolved) Nunavut: No confirmed cases Monday 11 p.m.: President Donald Trump said Monday that he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States because of the coronavirus. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Trump tweeted. He offered no details as to what immigration programs might be affected by the order. The White House did not immediately elaborate on Trumps tweeted announcement. Trump has taken credit for his restrictions on travel to the U.S. from China and hard-hit European countries, arguing it contributed to slowing the spread of the virus in the U.S. But he has yet to extend those restrictions to other nations now experiencing virus outbreaks. Due to the pandemic, almost all visa processing by the State Department, including immigrant visas, has been suspended for weeks. Monday 7 p.m.: Willowdale Welcome Centre confirms 74 COVID-19 cases among clients, according to figures from Toronto Public Health. Widespread testing was conducted at the North York facility over the weekend, and strikingly, a large number of those who tested positive showed few or no symptoms, according to Patricia Mueller, chief executive officer of Homes First, the agency that operates the 200-bed shelter. Mueller said she is hopeful it will not have the same impact on refugees at Willowdale, who on average are 40 years old or younger and are in generally good health. Monday 12:20 p.m.: Ontario modelling suggests the COVID-19 epidemic has peaked in broader community and is coming under control, but seems to be growing in long-term care and other congregate settings. The Stars Kate Allen and Jennifer Yang wrote about the two epidemics in the province. Monday 12:15 p.m.: Ontario has hit its predicted COVID-19 peak early thanks to stay-at-home and physical distancing measures expected to keep the total number of cases far below grim scenarios presented two weeks ago, according to new computer modelling released by the province. These actions are making a difference and people need to stay the course and stay strong in order to save live, according to notes prepared for a briefing by health officials Monday. Read more of Mondays coverage here. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York City has learned from the COVID-19 pandemic that it cannot rely on the federal government, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a press conference on Tuesday while announcing that the city will create its own reserve. The NYC Strategic Reserve Program will stockpile medical equipment and supplies, allowing the city to be prepared for a pandemic, whether it be a new one or a second wave of COVID-19. We have learned the hard way that we cannot rely on the federal government in the future. I hate saying that but I think its quite evident we certainly cant rely on the global market, de Blasio said. The mayor said he hopes the federal government gets the message that personal protective equipment (PPE), tests, and ventilators should be produced all over the nation. But until that day comes, New York City, we will protect ourselves, he said. The city will produce what it can -- face shields, surgical gowns, test kits and ventilators and will purchase what it cannot to make up the difference. The reserve will be made with the leadership of the Economic Development Corporation and healthcare leaders. Were going to create a ready supply so that we always have enough in the future, the mayor said. So we will never be in a situation when we turn to those who are supposed to supply us and they say Sorry, were all out. We New Yorkers will take care of ourselves. The future of New York will be that ability, he said. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** NYC MAKING ITS OWN VENTILATORS One step to creating that stockpile is the citys ability to make its own equipment, like the new bridge ventilators. Made by Boyce Technologies in Long Island City, Queens, the bridge ventilator will help those whose respiratory symptoms are not severe, leaving the full-service ventilators for the most severe cases. The full future ventilators cost approximately $50,000 each; the ventilators made in Queens cost approximately $3,333. The city purchased 3,000 units for $10 million, the mayor said. I am determined to make sure that New York City is never, ever is in a situation in the future where we need ventilators and we cant get them, de Blasio said. This is something we have that can never be taken away from us; we make them here, he said. The mayor thanked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving the ventilators in record time. The city will also continue making face shields, which are being put together at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) received boxes that included those face shields on Monday. FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER. Representative Image live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Technology stocks corrected 2-5 percent on April 21 after Infosys disappointed street with its March quarter earnings and Japanese brokerage firm slashed price target of HCL Technologies. Mindtree was the biggest loser among leading IT companies, down nearly 5 percent followed by TCS (down 3.6 percent), HCL Technologies (down 3.3 percent), Tech Mahindra (down 2 percent), Infosys (1.9 percent) and Wipro (1.85 percent), while the Nifty IT index itself was down 2.7 percent at the time of publishing this copy. Infosys' Q4FY20 consolidated profit declined 3.1 percent sequentially to Rs 4,321 crore and revenue rose 0.8 percent to Rs 23,267 crore, while dollar revenue dropped by 1.4 percent quarter-on-quarter to $3,197 million and revenue degrowth in constant currency was 0.8 percent QoQ. The major disappointing part was that the company suspended its FY21 revenue and margin guidance due to uncertainty prevailed in the global markets on account of COVID-19 crisis. Considering the business uncertainty emanating from COVID-19, Infosys said it was unable to provide guidance on revenues and margins for FY21 at this stage. "The company will provide guidance after visibility improves." Also, the company missed its FY20 revenue guidance as full-year revenue growth in constant currency was 9.8 percent and 8.3 percent in dollar terms due to lockdown in major parts of the world to limit the spread of novel coronavirus. The company had estimated full-year revenue growth in constant currency in the range of 10-10.5 percent over FY19. Wipro also disappointed with its quarterly earnings, while TCS said the first half of FY21 would get impacted by COVID-19 crisis but confident about the second half of FY21. Further, Japanese brokerage Nomura has maintained buy call on HCL Technologies but slashed the price target to Rs 570 from Rs 700 per share as it expects a weak FY21 on exposure to ERS/Apps. According to the brokerage, the company may see a recovery in FY22. "We lower revenue estimates by 9 percent, margin by 70-150 bps and EPS by 10-14 percent for FY21-22." Nomura estimates dollar revenue growth of (-1) percent and 8 percent, and margin of 18.1 percent and 18.8 percent in FY21 and FY22 respectively. IMS and products business offer defensibility in an uncertain environment, it said. : The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. In todays edition of First Responders our series on reporters on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic, we feature Laxmi Prasad Pant, State Editor for Rajasthan, Dainik Bhaskar Laxmi Prasad Pant, State Editor for Rajasthan for Dainik Bhaskar, has been reporting about the COVID-19 pandemic from Jaipur, which has been a major epicentre for the spread of the virus in Rajasthan. After a long days work of reporting from ground zero, hospitals, quarantined zones and hotspots, when he reaches home well past midnight after clearing 25 check posts, his neighbours look at him with disregard and ask a number of questions before he is allowed to reach his home. On human grounds, he says, there are many stories that really upset him. Over to Pant. What have you been covering specifically on the field and since when? As a journalist, I have reported from Jammu & Kashmir and the terrorist tension there. However, there at least we knew the probable dangers and also got security. But, right now the dangers of the field we are reporting from are absolutely unknown. In Rajasthan, out of 35 districts, 25 are affected including cities like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Kota. All Government officials and our sources of news are behind closed doors. Only health workers, police and journalists are out there on the field. The information and press releases we are supposed to get from the Government do not come at all, nor is there a media centre where we can get updates on a regular basis about the situation. So we need to go to affected areas, hospitals and quarantine centres to gather news, which becomes very risky. Everyone on the ground is doing great work. I have never had as much respect for police officers as I do now after seeing what they are doing for citizens. What has been your most challenging experience so far? An area called Ramganj in Jaipur has a population of about 20,000, with 300 positive cases of COVID-19. One infected person who had travelled from Oman went on to infect 285 others in that area. As journalists, we need to go to these places and get news. The biggest challenge for us is that we cannot distance ourselves from the news while maintaining social distancing. Also, in many cases, even if we wanted to help people out, we cant, because of the fear of getting infected. Can you share any particular experience that moved you the most? A husband and wife had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. They had a two-year-old daughter. Doctors asked to test the child for the virus too and the parents agreed. What touched me the most was that when the little girl was undergoing the test, those doctors were actually wishing and praying that she too would test positive. No one in the world would want a small kid to test positive for COVID-19! I asked the doctors why they were praying for a positive result. They said, With whom will this little girl stay if her parents test positive for the virus? The girl did test positive and actually it was the first case in Rajasthan where a two-year-old had the infection. This experience was very shocking for me. Do you/your family worry about your own safety? When I reach home late at night after work, and crossing about 25 check posts, I have to answer so many questions by the security guard. People dont want me to enter the colony or stay there. There are many journalists across Rajasthan and India who face such wrath. What kind of support are you receiving from the company on reporting the COVID-19 pandemic? We are taking due care about safety and precaution in our organization. Not only us, but the company is also ensuring safety for hawkers and vendors of newspapers. The entire process of news gathering, printing and eventually delivering it to people is being monitored for safety and sanitization. Your message at the end of the day We just hope that no coronavirus symptoms are found in us. More than us, we are worried about our family members. Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India) Without a hand to hold, mother-to-be Marisa LoCastro could only cradle her pregnant belly as she sat alone in a hospital room, anxiously waiting to undergo COVID-19 symptom screening before delivering her baby. COVID-19: A danger the baby books couldnt warn her about, a terror her moms wisdom couldnt prepare her for. Joining in the chorus of prayers being cried out by expectant mothers worldwide, the 27-year old first-time parent quietly repeated, Please let my baby come out healthy and safe, into the silence of her waiting room as the medical staff of Virtua Voorhees Hospital prepared to perform yet another safe delivery in the midst of the deadly pandemic. With news reports on the climbing coronavirus death toll, its easy to overlook the heightened anxieties of moms forced to deliver their once-shielded infants into the perilous unknown. The first half of my pregnancy was relaxing. I was in a little happy bubble, recalls Marisa who, at 38 weeks pregnant in mid-March, was ordered by her OB/GYN to go under quarantine and to socially distance from everyone except husband Robert in order to reduce her risk of COVID-19 exposure. Once the coronavirus scare really hit New Jersey, everything changed. Everything got really stressful, the Gloucester County native says, My doctors told me not to go out in public. So I couldnt go anywhere or be around anybody. And that was really difficult because my mom, whos my best friend, couldnt come over to help me get ready for the baby. I was really lonely. I literally didnt leave my house at all. Marisas mother, Maureen, was heartbroken when her weekly routine of baby-prepping and accompanying her daughter and son-in-law to doctors visits all came to a screeching halt. We were so hands-on and active throughout our daughters pregnancy, the Williamstown Middle School librarian said of her and her husbands involvement. Its our first grandchild. We were all on cloud 9. But once the virus hit, (Marisa) basically had to go into isolation. We couldnt go to the doctors visits. We couldnt go to her house and she couldnt come to our house. With all of that its so hard not to be afraid. Maureen Coelho, Marisa LoCastro, Christine LoCastro at Marisas baby shower.Courtesy LoCastro Family Healthcare professionals nationwide are advising pregnant patients to take extra precautions in the wake of the novel coronavirus, according to Dr. Winsome Parchment, medical director and CEO of Metropolitan OB/GYN, PA in Maplewood. Pregnant women have to be more careful, insisted the American Board certified obstetrician and Clinical assistant professor at UMNDJ-New Jersey Medical School. Were suggesting they stay home as much as they can, wear a mask and gloves, and wash their hands. An OB/GYNs protective orders help reduce an expecting moms risk of contracting coronavirus. But the added anxiety that comes with the mandated isolation takes its toll on already unnerved moms-to-be. The stress of being pregnant during (the Covid-19 pandemic) was definitely hard to deal with, Marisa remembers. I wanted to be able to see my family, but I was so afraid to go out because if I got the virus and the delivered my baby, Id have to be quarantined away from him for at least two weeks I wouldnt be able to be around him for the first two weeks of his life. Parchment confirms, If the mother is COVID-positive at the time of delivery, her baby would go home under the supervision of another caregiver (most likely the babys other parent or a trusted guardian), and the mom would have to go under quarantine for at least 14 days from the diagnosis or 72 hours after her symptoms are gone. She wouldnt be able to come into contact with the baby until then. Unwilling to chance being estranged from her little one, Marisa refused to leave the safety of her new home in Glendora that is, until her water broke as she was singing a day-early Happy Birthday, cheer to her husband at around 10 p.m. on April 10. We got the call that her water broke, Maureen said. And instinctively, I got up and got dressed, and my husband was like, Where are you going? We cant go anywhere. As a mom, you just automatically think youre going to be there for your kids. I totally forgot that with this virus we cant get up go. I cant be there, in the hospital room, like me and Marisa planned. Once at Virtua, Marisa said goodbye to Robert at the door, per hospital safety guidelines, leaving him to wait in the parking lot while she was ushered into a screening room. There, nurses repeatedly took her temperature and checked her vitals to ensure she wasnt experiencing any coronavirus symptoms. Being in labor without Robert or my family was difficult, she said. My water was still leaking, I could barely sit down, I was in so much pain because I was having really strong contractions that were coming every few minutes. It was rough. Sequestering the mom-to-be for careful COVID symptom screening is becoming the standard operating procedure for most hospitals. If a pregnant patient has any symptoms like coughing, fever, diarrhea, or chest pains when they come to the hospital she will be tested for Covid, Parchment who performs her deliveries out of Overlook Medical Center in Summit said. Until the COVID results are in, the woman will be placed in a room with negative-pressure ventilation to keep her safe from (pathogens) in the air. If the results dont come back before she delivers, the baby is separated from the mom for at least 48 hours or until the test comes back negative. Luckily, Marisa didnt have any coronavirus symptoms. Once transported into the delivery room, Robert was able to join his wife as she prepared to welcome their firstborn. After enduring several hours of arduous labor and ultimately having to undergo an unexpected C-section Marisa gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Robert Bernard LoCastro Jr., weighing in at 8 lbs. and 6 ounces on April 11, sharing a birthday with proud dad, Robert Sr. When I first held my baby it was so amazing, the new mom said. After everything you go through for those nine months, plus the added stress of the coronavirus at the end, once I had him in my arms I just let out a sigh of relief. Though Marisas pregnancy story ends with her and her husband snuggling cheek-to-cheek with their beautiful bundle of joy, Maureen and the rest of their extended family wont know the joys of holding baby Robert for quite a while. Right now its best to keep newborns away from extended family members until the pandemic passes, Dr. Parchment said. Its probably going to be close to three or four months before new babies can have any visitors. Devastated by the thought of not being able to touch her only grandchild until mid-summer, a forlorn yet forbearing Maureen said, I cant wait to get my hands on that baby. But I know social distancing and everything else we have to do right now is in his best interest. Hopeful that being separated from baby Robert during infancy wont have adverse effects on their relationship in the future, Maureen added, Im so glad the baby is able to bond with my daughter and her husband, but its important for babies to bond with their grandparents too. I want my grandson to know that hes loved by a huge family. Until the unyielding force of the coronavirus outbreak subsides, Maureen is happy getting to know baby Robert via FaceTime and video chat. Hes so alert and he loves to be held by his mommy and daddy, she gushed. He has the biggest little feet. I just love him so much. Since safely delivering her healthy son in the midst of the global health crisis, mom Marisas updated prayer is that the pandemic comes to an end soon. I just hope things better, she said while gently rocking her swaddled sweetie. I want him to be able to meet his family. And when that happens, I dont want to be afraid he might get sick. I just want us all to be healthy and together again. Scores of quarantined Harris County Jail inmates will be tested for the novel coronavirus, officials said Tuesday, to prevent an outbreak like the hot spot that has swept through the nations third-largest lockup in Chicago. A grant to the Houston Health Foundation will send 2,000 nasal swabs to the jail to have inmates and Harris County Sheriffs Office employees tested for COVID-19, while eight United Memorial Medical Center employees will embed in the jails medical facility to help administer those tests, officials said. The cache of tests are not enough to check the entire jail population of 7,416 people the number of inmates housed there as of noon Tuesday but it will help the sheriffs office figure out who is healthy and who is not. Its a giant Petri dish in there, said Dr. Joseph Varon, chief medical officer of the hospital whose employees will temporarily work in the jail. As of Tuesday, nearly 100 inmates have been diagnosed with the virus. Forty-five are symptomatic and quarantined. On Monday, authorities said more than 2,100 others did not have symptoms but were in observational quarantine because they may have been exposed to the virus. Every day theres new people coming in, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said, describing that number as 100 or more daily. Its impossible to simply quarantine, lock the doors and go away. Gonzalez also has about 2,000 employees to worry about, he said. This is their workplace, the sheriff continued. I need to make sure that were making a safe work environment for them. The sheriffs office has also found that 151 of their employees have contracted the coronavirus, with officials saying Monday that at least 108 of them were jail workers. Authorities did not provide the latest number of jail staff with the virus or how many inmates were in observational quarantine in an update Tuesday. The nature of a jail which the sheriff likened to being its own city brings thousands of people together in cramped quarters, which makes it prone to major outbreaks of disease. Dr. David Persse, Houstons health authority, said the jail has done well in the past to keep outbreaks from wreaking havoc on inmates. Last years mumps outbreak was an exception, he said. Medical officials said the jail is comparable in size to the Cook County Jail in Chicago where about 400 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19. According to Gonzalez, testing will help to prevent a similarly devastating outbreak from incubating in his jail system. Dr. Laxman Sunder, the jails medical director, pointed to testing as the sole solution to keeping the virus in check there. Two percent of the jails population has been tested for the novel coronavirus, but Sunder would like to bring that up to 20 percent. That should put us in a commanding position, he said. Sunder plans to have quarantined inmates tested and have the positive cases separated from those who are negative. Already, quarantined inmates are being housed in pockets of 25 to 40 to keep the infection rate down. Once the quarantined inmates are taken care of, he hopes to expand testing to the booking process to prevent asymptomatic carriers from being added to the negative general population. Thats the only game plan, Sunder said. I need help. Were not prepared for the massive pandemic. Sunder said that the problem with jail testing is not the number of swabs. They have enough, he said. However, he lacks the staff to administer them. He currently has only two staffers to allocate to testing up to 200 inmates a day, he said. Theyre real soldiers, and they work so hard in completing my tests, but I cant just have two staff members, Sunder added. Extra help will come from the team of UMMC medical professionals, who will join Sunders team in administering tests and shipping them off to their lab just as they do at four drive-thru facilities. With this boost, more inmates can be tested, Sunder said. The grant will not cover the cost of UMMCs employees, said Duni Hebron, spokeswoman for the for-profit hospital in Acres Homes. Improved jail testing comes from a portion of a $100,000 grant from the automaker Hyundai to the Houston Health Foundation that included a total of 10,000 tests. Twenty percent of those tests are going to the jail. Robin Mansur, the foundations president, was unable to say how much of the donation will also go toward help testing inmates. Also Tuesday, the sheriffs office received a donation of 3,000 bars of soap for inmates and 600 masks. nicole.hensley@chron.com Justice Department Issues Business Review Letter to AmerisourceBergen Supporting Distribution of Critical Medicines Under Expedited Procedure for COVID-19 Pandemic Response FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, April 20, 2020 The Department of Justice announced today that it will not challenge collaborative efforts of AmerisourceBergen Corporation (AmerisourceBergen) to identify global supply opportunities, ensure product quality, and facilitate product distribution of medications and other healthcare supplies to treat COVID-19 patients. AmerisourceBergen's collaborative efforts form yet another part of the emergency response developed and led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to address urgent supply needs across the nation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. "We commend AmerisourceBergen's efforts to assist the United States in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic through improved supply of medicines to those most in need," stated Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the department's Antitrust Division. "We also appreciate AmerisourceBergen's intention to comply with the antitrust laws, regardless of circumstances. Division staff worked expeditiously to resolve its request for a Business Review Letter within our ambitious seven-day target." AmerisourceBergen is working on a number of initiatives under the direction of the government to help resolve supply challenges presented by the pandemic. These initiatives are focused on facilitating the government's efforts to guide medications and other healthcare supplies to the places where they are needed most. This includes the distribution of hydroxychloroquine from the government's Strategic National Stockpile to health care providers in areas of greatest need. AmerisourceBergen is instructed on volumes and ship-to destinations, and then leverages its distribution network. AmerisourceBergen's conduct falls within the same emergency response efforts that dictated the Medical Supplies Distributors' conduct evaluated in a previous Business Review Letter. The response, therefore, leverages the same analytical framework. AmerisourceBergen submitted its business review request pursuant to the expedited, temporary review procedure detailed in the Joint Antitrust Statement Regarding COVID-19 (Joint Statement) issued by both the department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on March 24, 2020. In the Joint Statement, the department announced its aim to resolve COVID-19-related business review requests within seven calendar days of receiving all necessary information. Copies of the business review request and the department's response are available on the Antitrust Division's website at https://www.justice.gov/atr/business-review-letters-and-request-letters, as well as in a file maintained by the Antitrust Documents Group of the Antitrust Division. After a 30-day waiting period, any documents supporting the business review will be added to the file, unless a basis for their exclusion for reasons of confidentiality has been established under the business review procedure. Supporting documents in the file will be maintained for a period of one year, and copies will be available upon request to the FOIA/Privacy Act Unit, Antitrust Documents Group at atrdocs.grp@usdoj.gov. Topic(s): Antitrust Component(s): Antitrust Division Press Release Number: 20-391 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Two policemen from Delhi and Punjab who tested positive for coronavirus have alleged that hospital staff were neglecting them and other patients and there was lack of proper amenities and hygiene. One of them is a constable attached with Tilak Vihar police post in Delhi who shared a video alleging that around 20 patients, who are being treated in the same floor of a hospital in Najafgarh, shared a common bathroom and if anyone complained of soar throat or fever, they were not provided medicines. He also alleged that none of them was served hot water and since Monday, their bed-sheets have not been changed and the pillow he was given is also dirty. He claimed that they were not provided sanitiser either. The constable was tested on April 17 at the DDU dispensary in Tilak Vihar and his result came positive on April 18. A 46-year-old Assistant Sub Inspector from Ludhiana has also lodged a similar complaint with higher police authorities against two hospitals where he was admitted, alleging he was treated as an untouchable, and despite being a diabetic, no food was given to him for a whole day and no doctor or nurse came to check him. The facilities made available to the COVID 19 positive patients at the two Ludhiana government run hospitals - Civil hospital and Mother and Child hospital, are grossly inadequate. "The patients are a neglected lot by the doctors and nurses posted there. The food being provided to the patients is also not up to the mark, he claimed. In his complaint, the ASI, a diabetic, alleged that the police department was asked to arrange food for their colleague themselves. The ASI also alleged that the hospital lacked facilities required for a COVID 19 positive patient. He was later shifted to the Civil Hospital and subsequently to private SPS hospital on Sunday. The ASI admitted in the government MCH hospital on April 17 night was posted as driver of the Station House Officer who herself tested COVID-19 positive and was among the primary contacts of late ACP Anil Kohli who died on Saturday. No doctor or nursing staff checked him when he reached the MCH hospital on April 17, he alleged in his complaint. The ASI was served his first meal on the night of April 18. He was later shifted to the civil hospital late night on April 18 when his blood sugar levels shot up. Again no breakfast was given at the civil hospital on April 19, he again alleged. No doctor or nurse was ready to come near me, the ASI claimed. The condition of the toilets in the civil hospital was despicable and the few hours spent there were like hell, alleged the ASI. The ASI was subsequently shifted to the private SPS hospital on Sunday after the intervention of Police Commissioner Ludhiana. Assistant Commissioner of Police (East) Devinder Chaudhary, when contacted, said that after a complaint was received from the ASI, a police official was rushed to hospital to provide food to the ASI. Our cop reached hospital at 10 pm and till 11 pm, none from the hospital agreed to deliver food to him. It was only after I spoke to the nodal officer Joint Commissioner Navraj Brar, the hospital staff delivered food to the ASI, said Chaudhary. Deputy Commissioner Pardeep Aggarwal has issued a show cause notice to civil surgeon in this regard. Meanwhile, Dr Rajesh Bagga, Ludhiana civil surgeon, said, "The patient was not given food in time, which is the responsibility of the civil administration. I will send a replyto DC Ludhiana soon. The Delhi Police constable alleged it had been four days since he was tested for the virus, yet his children who are at home have not been tested for coronavirus. Police, however, said they were following the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to carry out tests at the earliest as it takes at least four-five days in some cases to show symptoms. Through the video, the Delhi Police constable urged the authorities for help and requested them to admit him at a private hospital since he is a beneficiary under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS). Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Deepak Purohit said they will take care of the well-being of their staff and family and are following procedures and guidelines of Indian Council of Medical Research. A day after he was taken to hospital, a hand sanitiser and kettle for warm water was provided to him from the police station by the Delhi Police, he said. DCP Dwarka, Anto Alphonse, under whom the designated hospital falls, has also visited the hospital and spoken to the administration to ensure the cleanliness of the pillow and toilet, he added. While the country has been under lockdown since March 25, police personnel have been on the ground enforcing the restrictions and also helping those in need of assistance. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nigerian immigration to Canada has tripled in recent years, and is poised for further increases post coronavirus. Nigerian immigration to Canada is booming Nigerian immigration to Canada has tripled in recent years, and is poised for further increases post coronavirus. Nigerian immigration to Canada is booming Nigerian immigration to Canada has tripled in recent years, and is poised for further increases post coronavirus. Nigerian immigration to Canada is booming Nigerian immigration to Canada has tripled in recent years, and is poised for further increases post coronavirus. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A In 2019, Nigeria became the fourth-leading source country of new immigrants to Canada, behind India, China, and the Philippines. A total of 12,600 Nigerians gained permanent residence last year, which represents a tripling of Nigerian immigration to Canada since 2015. The vast majority of Nigerians came to Canada as economic class immigrants. The main way that Canada manages economic class immigration applications is through Express Entry, and 65 per cent of Nigerian immigrants gained Canadian permanent resident status through Express Entry in 2019. Nigeria was actually the third-leading source country of those who received an invitations to apply (ITA) for permanent residence under Express Entry last year. Discover your Canada immigration options Why Nigerian immigration to Canada is booming Several factors explain the rise in Nigerian immigration to Canada. The oil-rich nation has seen its economic growth slow since the decline in global oil prices in 2014. Nigerias economy was growing by around 5 per cent per year leading up to 2014, but growth has since weakened to around 2 per cent annually. As a result, more Nigerian professionals have sought to come to countries such as Canada in pursuit of economic opportunity. Canada is an attractive destination for Nigerians because it offers economic opportunities in sectors which are appealing to Nigerian professionals, such as oil and gas, ICT, health care, and other STEM-related fields. Nigerian professionals may also fare well under Express Entrys Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). Factors such as English-language proficiency, having a high level of education, and possessing professional work experience are all taken into consideration when immigration candidates submit Express Entry profiles, factors which the Nigerian professionals who immigrate to Canada possess. Given that English is their countrys official language, Nigerians have a significant advantage under Express Entry compared with most other nationalities since English-language proficiency comprises a major component of the CRS. Post-coronavirus: Canada set to welcome more Nigerian immigrants Once the coronavirus has been contained and we return to a sense of normalcy, we should continue to expect higher levels of Nigerian immigration to Canada. Global oil prices have plummeted once again, which will create economic challenges for oil-rich countries around the world. Canadas rising immigration levels over the coming years will open up more economic class immigration spots, including through Express Entry. Canadas openness to immigrants also runs in stark contrast to other countries which have historically welcomed high levels of Nigerian immigrants, such as the United States and Great Britain. The recent U.S. decision to expand its travel ban to include Nigeria may result in more prospective Nigerian immigrants looking to Canada. More Nigerians are also studying in Canada. There are currently around 12,000 Nigerian students in Canada, and these students will be well-placed to transition to permanent resident status due to their youth, English language fluency, Canadian education, and Canadian work experience. When you add these factors together, it is reasonable to expect further increases in the number of Nigerian immigrants welcomed by Canada. Discover your Canada immigration options Kareem El-Assal is the Director of Policy & Digital Strategy at CanadaVisa. Media contact Click here if you wish to interview us. 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved There has been a reduction in claims with lower traffic volumes evident throughout the country. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Giving refunds to motorists on insurance would not cost insurers any money as they are benefiting from lower claims and reduced traffic volumes, analysts have said. It comes after Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe called on the industry to offer rebates to drivers, similar to what is happening in the US. The minister told Insurance Ireland the motor segment of the insurance market was very profitable over the past year. And he said there had been a reduction in claims, with lower traffic volumes evident throughout the country. Insurance analysts said any costs for insurers of offering rebates on motor policies would be offset by the lower level of claims. Analyst at Davy Stockbrokers Stephen Lyons wrote in a note for investors that refunds for motorists should be "relatively neutral to underwriting profits as savings on claims losses would be shared". US motorists are benefiting from average premium refunds of between 15pc and 20pc during April and May, according to insurance analyst at Goodbody Stockbrokers Eamonn Hughes. If a company like FBD was to offer similar rebates it would cost it between 5m and 7m of premium income but "clearly it is benefiting from a reduction in motor claims frequency, so let's assume they square off". Insurance Ireland said it noted the minister's call for rebates and would reflect on it. It said rebates of this nature were not occurring to date in the UK or Europe, and it would consult with its members on the topic of refunds as a matter of urgency. Meanwhile, motorists whose licences are due to run out by the end of June are getting a four-month extension to the expiry date due to the coronavirus crisis. People whose cars are due an NCT test since March 28 are also getting a four-month extension. Both the National Driver Licence Service (NDLS) and National Car Testing (NCT) have been suspended. Senior government official Liz Canavan provided more information on the extensions that have been announced for motorists. She said that driver licences and learner permits due to expire before June 30 will now be valid for a further four months. "If your driver licence or learner permit or certificate of competence was due to expire within the time-frame between the first of March and June 30, under the new regulations you can add four months on to the end of the expiry date," she said. The United Auto Workers union announced Tuesday that it is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden in this year's election. Why it matters: The union is influential in Michigan, a key swing state and hub of the auto industry that President Trump won in 2016. The union represents about 400,000 auto workers and 580,000 retired workers around the country. Between the lines: The union endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016, but 33% of its members voted for Donald Trump in that election, drawn to his message on trade. The state voted for Barack Obama in the previous two presidential elections. What he's saying: In these dangerous and difficult times, the country needs a president who will demonstrate clear, stable leadership, less partisan acrimony and more balance to the rights and protections of working Americans, said Rory Gamble, president of the UAW. UAW Members need a federal government that ensures that members have both a good job to go to, and that they come home to their families at night having earned a fair days wage in a safe and secure place. Go deeper ... Buckle up: GM, Michigan and 2020 Hollywood star Jessica Chastain says she was so moved while watching the film "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" that she "sobbed" through the last 15 minutes of the film. The 2019 French historical drama is written and directed by Celine Sciamma, and follows a forbidden affair between an aristocrat and a painter commissioned to paint her portrait. It stars Noemie Merlant and Adele Haenel. The Golden Globe winner said she watched the ending of her "favourite love story" three times. "This film is everything. Definitely a favourite love story. Sobbed through the last 15 min and then rewound and watched the ending 3 times," Chastain tweeted on Monday. In a reply to actor Kumail Nanjiani's old tweet praising the film, the actor said, "This is everything I experienced. I mourned every scene as I watched the film, knowing that I'll never experience the 'first time' again." "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Queer Palm at Cannes, becoming the first film directed by a woman to win the award. Sciamma also won the award for best screenplay at Cannes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) English Danish Company announcement no. 9/2020 Ongoing adaptation of operations to market conditions Solid financial position secured Strong focus on employee health and well-being Preliminary Q1 2020 EBITDA decreased 10% to DKK 610m Conference call for analysts and investors today 21 April 11.00am CET. See end of announcement for call details. Our current key priorities are to take care of our employees and partners health and well-being, to preserve jobs and to continue to provide vital ferry and logistics services for our customers as well as contributing to keeping Europes transport infrastructure open for business. Operational measures to adapt to Covid-19 84% of DFDS total revenue in 2019 of DKK 17bn was generated by freight activities, including freight ferry services and logistics solutions. Passenger ferry services generated 16% of DFDS total revenue in 2019. All of DFDS freight activities continue to operate through the lock-downs as Europe supports its economies by exempting seafarers, dock workers and truck drivers from travel restrictions to keep trade open for all kinds of goods, including priority items such as medicine and food. On the other hand, the lock-downs have caused passenger routes to be suspended. To adapt activities to the lock-downs, a number of measures have been and are being taken: Throughout our operational sites including freight ferry routes, port terminals, and logistics solutions such as forwarding and warehousing operations we continue to operate by strictly following authorities enhanced health procedures and guidelines to ensure safe and reliable operations In offices, authorities guidelines are likewise applied to ensure employee health and well-being such as travel restrictions, working from home, split teams and enhanced hygiene Suspension since mid-March of two routes, Copenhagen-Oslo and Amsterdam-Newcastle, with a large overweight of passengers vs freight Freight capacity reduced since end-March/beginning-April in remaining network of 20 ferry routes that predominantly carry freight. Capacity is reduced through lay-up of currently 12 of 50 ferries as well as other measures to reduce the number of sailings. All 20 routes continue to operate Channel and Baltic Sea passenger activity reduced to only essential travel. Reduced number of drivers per cabin in Baltic Sea Participation in government wage and fixed cost compensation programs to preserve affiliation with employees and mitigate financial impacts Around 2,200 employees so far sent on paid leave within such programs in areas with reduced activity Contingency planning for reduction of logistics capacity ongoing, including equipment and warehousing. Primary change so far is suspension of a large part of the cross-docking operation in Gothenburg Cost saving and postponement initiatives, including hiring freeze Reduction of investments targeting a reduction of around 20% of the investments of DKK 2.3bn planned for 2020. As Q1 2020 investments are completed this equals a targeted reduction of around 30% in Q2-4. Win23 strategy initiatives and other strategic projects are continuing albeit with some delay. Solid financial position DFDS is in a solid position with regard to both liquidity resources and financial flexibility to meet challenges and opportunities that may arise from present and future market conditions. Liquidity resources at the end of Q1 2020 amounted to DKK 1.7bn consisting of cash and cash equivalents of DKK 0.3bn and undrawn committed credit facilities of DKK 1.4bn. In April, additional committed facilities of a minimum of DKK 750m have been secured. The covenants of a loan agreement entered into in June 2018 in connection with the acquisition of U. N. Ro-Ro have been adapted to reflect the uncertainty caused by Covid-19. No other loan agreements contain relevant covenant risk. Preliminary key figures for Q1 2020 In view of the continued exceptionally high level of uncertainty, a selection of preliminary key figures from the Q1 2020 income statement is provided in the table below ahead of the scheduled reporting of Q1 2020 on 7 May. PRELIMINARY KEY FIGURES DKK m 2020 2019 2020 2019 Before special items Q1 Q1 Change, % LTM FY Change, % Revenue 3,813 3,870 -1.5% 16,535 16,592 -0.3% EBITDA 610 677 -9.9% 3,566 3,633 -1.8% EBIT 133 234 -43.1% 1,650 1,751 -5.8% Finance, net -35 -75 53.1% -239 -278 14.3% Profit before tax 98 159 -38.3% 1,411 1,472 -4.1% Preliminary Q1 revenue decreased 1% to DKK 3.8bn and preliminary EBITDA before special items decreased 10% to DKK 610m. Covid-19 had until mid-March a limited impact on revenue and earnings. From mid-March, passenger revenue and earnings were reduced as two passenger routes were suspended and passenger travel on other routes was reduced to only essential travel. To a lesser extent freight activities were also negatively impacted from mid-March by lower activity related to Covid-19. The Q1 revenue decrease was thus mainly due to a drop in passenger revenue in March. Freight revenue remained overall on level with 2019, including positive impacts from acquisitions and bunker surcharges related to the transition to new rules limiting the sulphur content in fuel oil from the start of the year. Around half of the decrease in EBITDA was related to lower passenger activity caused by Covid-19. The other half of the decrease was due to a negative Covid-19 impact on freight, increased earnings in the comparison period Q1 2019 from UK stockpiling ahead of Brexit and a lower result for special cargo logistics mainly due to one-off costs. Key risks The current situation gives rise to a number of risks that could impact operations and earnings in 2020. At this point in time, key risks for DFDS are: Reliability and continuity of operations are contingent on employee health and continued exemption of our operations from lock-down initiatives Passenger earnings in the high season June-August are at risk from duration of lock-downs and level of ferry travel post lock-downs Lower activity in certain sectors during and post lock-downs may reduce freight volumes. The automotive sector is a key risk in this regard Increased credit risk on suppliers, counterparts and customers. Q1 2020 reporting DFDS reports Q1 2020 on 7 May 2020. Conference call details for today Analyst and investor conference call today 21 April 11.00am CET. If you wish to take part in the audio conference, please dial up at least five minutes before the conference begins. It will start on time, and participants will be asked to register name and company name beforehand. The conference will be broadcast live on https://www.dfds.com/en/about/investors/2020-investor-call and published there for future reference. Call details: +45 32 71 49 98. Room number: 481868. Participant pin code: 6629. For participants outside Denmark, please find call numbers here: https://public.speakservecloud.com/dial-in-numbers Contact Torben Carlsen, CEO +45 33 42 32 01 Karina Deacon, CFO +45 33 42 33 42 Sren Brndholt Nielsen, IR +45 33 42 33 59 Gert Jakobsen, Communications +45 33 42 32 97 This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act Attachment OFX Daily Market News Posted by OFX AUD Australian Dollar The AUD offered little to excite investors through trade on Monday maintaining a relatively modest 60-point range. Improvements in demand for risk were offset by a plunge in oil prices as West Texas crude futures for May moved into negative territory. Risk sentiment found support on reports New Zealand will begin easing containment restrictions on April 29th; Germany has allowed smaller retail shops to open and plans to send students back to school in May and the number of daily fatalities in the US and UK continue to fall. The AUD crept higher touching 0.6395 on two occasions however, failed to extend beyond resistance at 0.64. The plunge in oil prices then forced a sharp but short sell off moving into this mornings open and the AUD currently buys 0.6332 US cents. Attentions turn to commentary from RBA governor Philip Lowe this afternoon. Lowe is set to provide an update on Economic and Financial Stability with investors keenly attuned to any commentary surrounding monetary policy instruments. The RBA has previously suggested it will look to scale back the size and pace of bond purchases, a relatively hawkish stance in the current environment. While we expect messaging will be largely unchanged, affirmation the central bank is looking to slow use of monetary policy in the near term could help fuel short term AUD upside. Key Movers The US dollar crept higher through trade on Monday, up 0.4% when compared with a basket of major counterparts, as oil prices tumbled and the Euro remained range bound ahead of a key EU summit this week. West Texas crude prices plunged lower as a lack of demand, a shortage of storage capacity and glut of supply forced a swift correction in short term future values. May Futures fell to minus $40 a barrel meaning sellers were willing to pay buyers to take the oil off their hands. The sharp correction appears to be caused by technical factors linked to capacity and storage issues in the near term thus limiting contagion into other financial instruments. That said, the correction in oil forced the CAD and NOK lower with both units underperforming through the day, down 0.8% and 1% respectively. Story continues Attentions now turn to the EU as leaders meet via video hook up on Thursday to extend discussions on how to deal with the economic fallout of COVID19. French President Emanuel Macron has backed plans for a specialised issuance of coronabonds in a bid to support embattled southern EU economies, like Italy. The plan has been met with strong opposition from Germany and Netherlands with both countries reluctant to issue blank cheques and effectively force their own taxpayers to bail out other EU member countries. With the EU divided the combined unit will likely come under increasing pressure through the short term. Expected Ranges AUD/USD: 0.6180 0.6420 AUD/EUR: 0.5750 0.5880 GBP/AUD: 1.9290 1.9820 AUD/NZD: 1.0380 1.0550 AUD/CAD: 0.8880 0.9020 Posted by OFX The post Plunging oil prices force AUD off resistance at 0.64. appeared first on . We have all gained rather a lot of experience about the difficulties of managing a pandemic such as COVID-19. Presumably we have learnt a lesson or two from the mistakes made so far. At first politicians and scientists at least some of them, as well as the general public, took the threat too lightly when evidence already suggested that the epidemic was on its way and it would have serious consequences. The signs were there, but they werent picked up. Now that we are beginning to see not so much the end of the tunnel but the beginning of a hypothetical slow return to some sort of normality, it would be equally mistaken to do the opposite: to take hasty or reckless decisions. So we must welcome the discussion on easing the lockdown restrictions while we are still several days away from the start and we all know that it will be done slowly. Obviously the discussion has begun because the public are anxious owing to the state of the economy with some sectors lobbying to re-open their businesses and the weariness caused by the lockdown that has been in place for over a month and has taken its toll, especially on children. At any rate, this is a positive debate ahead of the fact: it means that there is some planning work going on and, therefore, we should not see the same sort of improvisation that we witnessed at the start of the crisis. Above all, the discussion now must be of a technical nature. On this point, it is obvious that the lockdown cannot be lifted the same way everywhere and for everyone. That is why it is reasonable for the Catalan authorities to ask Madrid to be granted powers to ease the lockdown at Catalonias own pace and in the manner that suits the situation here, which is obviously different from other Spanish regions. Again, we would like to think that the Spanish government will be wise enough to grant this request, one that is grounded on empirical evidence rather than partisan politics. In fact, the last few decisions announced by the government of PM Pedro Sanchez follow in the footsteps of Catalan government policy. A case in point is the decision to allow children to gradually spend some time outside their homes. This week Germany has already begun to ease the lockdown, with every Land rolling out bespoke measures to suit the specifics of the pandemic in their region. Besides being consistent with Germanys federal makeup, the decision obviously aims to respond to the way the pandemic has panned out in different Lander, too. The Spanish government would be wise to make a note of this in order to avoid making the same mistakes that it made when its centralised crisis management style led to more confusion and inefficiency, instead of providing solutions. The shambolic efforts to purchase and distribute PPE and the sluggish pace of testing attest to Madrids incompetence in the COVID-19 crisis. That is why the Catalan government have insisted that Catalonia must be allowed to make its own decisions and they have now been joined by other regions, including the Balearic Islands, whose leader is a member of Pedro Sanchezs socialist party. Indeed, Francina Armengol, the president of the Balearic Islands, spoke to this newspaper on Saturday and stated that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be homogenous across Spain. It is plain common sense. This is what should prevail all round. And, even if it is just for a few months, they should put aside their political and territorial differences. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The stars of truTV Impractical Jokers can find the funny in any situation -- even a pandemic. Three of the four "Jokers teamed up with Borough Hall to send Staten Islanders a light-hearted message about the current coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The video, which was posted Sunday on Twitter, showed Joe Gatto, James Murr Murray and Brian "Q" Quinn in their respective homes, chatting about the importance of staying in. Lets show the world what we already know, Quinn said in the clip. Staten Island is strong. Staten Island will survive anything. Stay home and stay safe. We received a special message from a few friends of ours today. Maybe you've heard of them before. @thetenderloins know "that Staten Island is strong, and Staten Island can survive anything." @truTVjokers @BQQuinn @Joe_Gatto @jamessmurray pic.twitter.com/8fmQxOB0Gx Staten Island USA (@StatenIslUSA) April 19, 2020 What do the Jokers have in store post-quarantine? If they had it their way, it would statue honoring them at the St. George Ferry Terminal. (Dont fret: Its just for laughs.) During these times of the pandemic, we have to keep our eyes on what is important, Gatto said. And its this statue in the ferry terminal. In lieu of live performances, the Jokers have tried connecting with their fans in other ways. Gatto recently announced that high school teachers can enter for the chance to win a visit from him during a remote learning classes. Winning classes will be selected at random. Cant get enough of the Jokers? Impractical Jokers: The Movie is available for rent through on-demand services. Impractical Jokers: The Movie, which began filming in April 2018, was produced by Gatto, Murray, Quinn, Sal Vulcano, director Chris Henchy and Funny Or Dies Jim Ziegler. The executive producers were Marissa Ronca on behalf of truTV, Jack Rovner, and Funny Or Dies Mike Farah and Joe Farrell. The Jokers' authentic friendship and genuine relatability has endeared them to millions of fans around the world, creating one of the most original brands in all of television, said truTV president Chris Linn in a statement. Were incredibly proud of the partnership weve developed with the guys throughout the years, and the growing, multi-platform success of the Impractical Jokers brand." The film, which is rated PG-13, has a runtime of 93 minutes. Some wealthier Western nations have begun easing restrictions to guard against the new coronavirus. Many developing countries want to ease their coronavirus restrictions, but they cannot afford to make a mistake. Developing countries often lack the necessary tools, such as a strong economy, good hospitals and the ability to do a lot of testing. They need these things to overcome the pandemic. Across Europe, people have been debating how best to ease the restrictions. Yet such a debate seems unthinkable in countries affected by conflict, corruption or poverty. Lebanon, for example, is a small country with a huge amount of debt. It has a weak health care system and an angry population. A month of coronavirus restrictions has sent tens of thousands more Lebanese into poverty. The government is under pressure to ease some of the restrictions. Medical supplies are so limited, however, that doctors are calling for the measures to stay in place. Lebanon was one of the first countries in the Middle East to close schools and restaurants because of the virus. On March 16, Lebanon entered a total lockdown until April 26. Its prime minister asked for patience as the country faced an enormous economic price. The International Monetary Fund reported last week that Lebanons economy may shrink by as much as 12 percent in 2020. That would be the largest economic downturn in the Middle East. The situation is similar in many other developing countries: Easing lockdowns could increase infections and set off a serious medical crisis. At the same time, keeping restrictions in place risks more economic losses and social unrest. The inability to test and a government unwilling to be truthful could lead to bad decisions, warns Rabah Arezki. He is chief economist for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank. Arezki worries that easing restrictions too early could do more harm than good because there is a lack of clear information, he explained. Even wealthier nations are also worried. Germany has Europes largest economy. Last week, German officials announced a small easing of restrictions, which includes reopening most stores. But Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that restarting the economy too quickly could lead to problems with the health care system. Western nations are facing severe economic problems, but their effects are eased by large government financial aid programs. For example, the United States has a $2.2 trillion program. The EU countries have agreed on a $550 billion program. The international community is offering help to poorer nations. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it is prepared to lend $1 trillion to poor nations. The worlds richest countries agreed to temporarily suspend poor nations debts, mainly in Africa. Pakistans prime minister has appealed to wealthy countries and international organizations to simply forgive the debts of poorer countries. The IMF gave Pakistan $1.5 billion in emergency financing to help with the pandemic. Some developing nations have decided they can no longer wait and are lifting restrictions for some industries. In Malaysia, the government permitted its semiconductor and other major industries to continue operating. Colombia permitted coal producer Drummond to restart part of its operations on April 9. In Yemen, Libya and Syria, years of conflict have led to humanitarian disasters. In all three countries, the level of coronavirus outbreak is unknown. There is a lack of testing, medical supplies and trained health care workers. Im Jill Robbins. The Associated Press and the Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story afford v. to be able to pay for something pandemic n. a contagious illness that crosses several countries patience n. the ability to wait calmly lockdown - n. shutting down a country or organization completely enormous adj. very large Australian businesses shed 800,000 jobs in the three weeks after the introduction of social distancing laws with warnings from the Reserve Bank that unemployment will climb as the nation faces its deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. As a year's worth of people applied for unemployment benefits in a single month, special data collated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed the human toll of the measures aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Between March 14, the day before outside gatherings of more than 500 people were barred, and April 4 the nation's employers lost six per cent of their workers. The biggest hit has been to the accommodation and food services sector with almost 26 per cent of jobs, or more than 240,000 positions, disappearing. (Note: Todays blotter includes 911 events from Friday, which were not available in time to be included in Sundays blotter.) No body found A Cowlitz 911 dispatch caller in Longview reported Friday night that there was a dead body near the 500 block of Seventh Avenue. Law enforcement and EMTs responded but were unable to find a body, Cowlitz County Coroner Tim Davidson said Monday. Suspected car prowler arrested A confused-looking man with no pants showed up on a Castle Rock familys deck in the 100 block of Horseshoe Bend Estates Road Sunday morning. The family called back to report the man broke into the familys vehicles and those of their neighbor. The 911 callers husband, armed with a holstered firearm, kept the man on scene long enough for Cowlitz County sheriffs deputies to arrive and arrest him. Items belonging to the Horseshoe Bend residents were found and returned to their owners, and deputies determined the man had rummaged through at least 10 vehicles. Unlawful imprisonment Longview police Sunday arrested Eric Artemio Galvan Abbott, 32, of Longview on suspicion of unlawful imprisonment, fourth-degree domestic violence assault and interfering with the reporting of domestic violence. Motor vehicle theft attempt Kelso police Saturday arrested Jonathan Allen Bunnell Jr., 32, city of residence unavailable, on suspicion of attempted motor vehicle theft, second-degree burglary, a felony drug offense, violating a domestic-violence anti-harassment order and second-degree vehicle prowling. Drugs Cowlitz County sheriffs deputies Saturday arrested Sarah Jane Grasser, 26, of Kelso on suspicion of two felony drug offenses and third-degree driving with a suspended license. Drugs Kelso police Saturday arrested Christopher Michael Wright, 32, of Longview on suspicion of a felony drug offense, tampering with evidence, resisting arrest and obstructing a public servant. Burglaries 300 block of Hawthorne Stre et, Kelso. Friday. Storage units broken into. 1100 block of 32nd Avenue, Longview. Friday. Someone unsuccessfully attempted to break in through French doors with a screwdriver. 600 block of Clark Creek Road, Longview. Sunday. Window screen removed, but no items re ported missing. 300 block of King Road, Kelso. Sunday. Home burgled, and silver Chevrolet, Washington BGP7728, also stolen. Theft/Fraud 200 block of 10th Avenue, Kelso. Saturday. Cat. 2300 block of Sparrow Loop, Kelso. Woman scammed out of $1,300 over Facebook. Vehicle prowls 1600 block of Maple Street, Longview. Friday. Sweatshirt stolen. 1600 block of Delaware Street, Longview. Sunday. Vandalism 100 block of Cunningham Road, Kelso. Friday. Two vehicles keyed, tires slashed. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. 'There has been no significant increase in the number of fatalities.' IMAGE: Patients consult doctors in Worli, south central Mumbai. Photograph: Arun Patil Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope denies that the number of fatalities in Maharashtra are on an upswing compared to recoveries of patients infected by coronavirus. "There has been no significant increase in the number of fatalities," Tope tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com. "Most of these fatalities have occurred only in patients having serious co-morbidities and most of who were brought to hospitals only when their health condition deteriorated," the minister says. "Many of these fatalities have occurred in people who hid their condition for quite some time and were rushed to the hospitals only at the last minute," the health minister adds. "How can you say that fatalities have been increasing when the mortality rate has come down to 5% from 7%?" Tope asks. "The recovery rate too has improved to 12%," asserts the minister. "More than 550 people have recovered from coronavirus and discharged." The increase in doubling of COVID-19 positive patients in Maharashtra has slowed down from 5 to 7-and-a-half days, the minister says. Of the over 4,666 positive cases in Maharashtra, Mumbai, declared a red zone because of the severe death toll, tops with 3,000 cases. Pune, also a red zone, has over 600 positive cases. The two cities respectively have recorded 139 and 49 deaths respectively so far out of the 223 deaths in the state (as on April 20). The all-India figure for COVID-19 fatalities stands at 590 (as on April 20). Discussing the Inter Ministerial Central Teams, the Centre has assigned to assess the implementation of the lockdown guidelines issued by the Union government under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, Tope says, "Two teams have reached Mumbai and Pune, but I have still not met them." Asked about speculation that the Union government is planning to hand over serious hotspots like Mumbai, Pune in Maharashtra and other cities in Rajasthan, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh to the army, Tope insists that this speculation is far-fetched. "This is all hearsay. Let's see. This will be decided only after a thorough assessment of the situation (in Mumbai and Pune) on the ground," says Tope. An IMCT team headed by Manoj Joshi, additional secretary, ministry of food processing industries, has reached Mumbai. A team headed by Sanjay Malhotra, additional secretary, ministry of power, will assess the lockdown in Pune. We have completed 76,000 tests in Maharashtra till date and going forward we plan to do more of these tests (to detect COVID-19 positive patients)," says Minister Tope. "Every day we are doing 5,500 to 6,000 tests, 80 per cent of which are being conducted in Pune and Mumbai. The rest of the state is relatively much better placed than these two cities." (Photo : Pixabay) As hospitals global face extreme shortages of health specialists, people are being called off the sidelines to help COVID-19 patients - even those with little to no revel in treating diseases. A few hospitals are now tapping virtual reality simulations to teach heaps of docs and nurses specializing in surgical treatment or neurology, and retired practitioners returning in the field. ALSO READ: Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality: What are the differences and similarities? More than 300 doctors learned new skill through VR At Cedars-Sinai medical institution in Los Angeles, more than 300 medical doctors have learned how to assess an affected person's symptoms or carry out CPR while wearing gear through VR. "It feels like you are in the room with a patient," said Russell Metcalfe-Smith, the director of Women's Guild Simulation Center for Advanced Clinical Skills at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Based on the decisions one will make in the simulation, Metcalfe-Smith told CNN one direction will lead to another. Metcalfe-Smith, who handles a department that is training staff for COVID-19, said they have doctors jumping quickly into a virtual environment to get them to where they need to be. Doctors and nurses at hospitals nationwide are undergoing a range of coronavirus-related training now. These include how to effectively put on and take off protective equipment, how to make use of ventilators that are only used by intensive care staff, and handling a diagnosis. ALSO READ: This Startup Aims To Build Brain-Powered Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality Software VR trainings a 'to-go' site for hospitals But because time and resources are limited, the door has opened for technologies like VR to fill inside the gaps. Considering how the medical enterprise has long been an early adopter of VR, it's a to-go place for hospitals. "We've found it very valuable to observe a [doctor's thinking] process -- and it's all been done with social distancing," Metcalfe-Smith said. But since the medical field can't get large groups together right now, Metcalfe-Smith said they had to rely on technology like this to give the same experience. The health facility makes use of software programs from startup Virti, which provides specific feedback and metrics on procedures clinical experts may need more practice with. Cedars-Sinai started the use of the program in January but rolled it out to more health professionals in mid-March because of the outbreak. READ ALSO: COVID-19 Update: Coronavirus Vaccine Makers Ask Government's Help to Make Millions of Doses by September How Virti works Virti founder Dr. Alex Young told CNN the startup wanted the exercises to embody what is happening in the world right now. The business enterprise signed up 70,000 new users in the past three weeks throughout hospitals and universities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Israel. Typically, trainees learn in environments watched by evaluators and their peers at the back of a glass wall. In the sort of scenario, a mannequin, controlled remotely, acts as the affected person. But a digital simulator lets scientific specialists practice the abilities they need through a VR headset or a tablet, on the hospital, or at home. "One simulation puts the user alone in an isolation room, where they can see nurses and doctors come in and out, so they can get an idea of how scary it is for patients," Young said. Boston-based Oxford Medical Simulation is also focused on enhancing the decision-making technique for practitioners in emergency situations. Its scenarios range from a way to correctly and safely placed on defensive gear to more intensive conditions with sick patients. In one of Oxford's simulations, a nurse in avatar arms uses a data with a brief history of the virtual affected person. The doctor or nurse is then required to assess his or her signs, making choices in real-time based on how the patient reacts. They'll want to check the stomach or the lungs or make speedy judgment calls if someone vomits up blood, has a seizure or gasps for air. VR trainings can be powerful in limiting injuries Oxford's scenarios aren't always COVID-19-particular, but constitute what any medical expert may stumble in an emergency. Early clinical research on VR training has determined the equipment could be influential in decreasing injury, rushing up techniques, and enhancing universal results. According to a 2018 study published in the Journal of Advances in Medical Education & Profession, people trained by VR had "lower performance errors and higher accuracy compared to those trained by conventional approaches." However, it brought that the technology needs to be used as a complementary device to standard methods, and more research needed to be carried out at the topic. READ ALSO: 600 Dead And 3,000 In The Hospital as Iranians Believed Drinking High-Concentrations of Alcohol Can Cure The Coronavirus 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. This article is part of the series: Health for all? Critical perspectives on Universal Health Coverage Promotional materials from the global campaign to achieve Universal Health Coverage by the year 2030. Copyright UHC2030 reproduced here under fair use for academic purposes. Health for All? critically explores global moves towards Universal Health Coverage and its language of rights to health, equity, social justice and the public good. Highlighting emerging ethnographic and historical research by both young and established scholars, the series explores the translations and frictions surrounding aspirations for health for all as they move across the globe. The series is edited by Ruth Prince. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the world, drawing everyone into its orbit, whether through lock-downs, quarantines, curfews, fear of sickness, the experience of sickness itself or the death of loved ones, the argument for strengthening national health systems and creating truly universal, publicly-funded health services that reach and include national populations, has never been stronger (Yates 2020, Whittal 2020). In much the same way that the 2014 Ebola epidemic exposed the fragility of West African health systems, undermined by decades of structural adjustment and fragmented health funding, the COVID-19 pandemic is exposing the ravages of austerity for health systems in countries like the UK, Spain and Italy, and the black hole that stands for public healthcare in the United States (Horton 2020, Holmes & Buchbinder 2020). The pandemic is also painfully exposing the human cost of inequality, as millions living in cramped accommodation, without access to water or sanitation, have little opportunity to follow social distancing rules, and as livelihoods dependent on daily income are threatened by emergency public health measures (Shoki 2020, Schmidt 2020). And it is not sparing the middle and upper classes: in many countries private health insurers are refusing to cover COVID-19 cases, throwing into relief the dependence of all but the wealthiest on (often fragile and under-funded) public healthcare systems; while, unlike in the Ebola epidemic, societys most privileged individuals no longer have the option of flying overseas for optimal medical care (Maja-Pearce 2020). As COVID-19 creates medical and economic havoc the world over, it is highlighting the vital role of the state not only in public health and national healthcare systems but also in welfare and social protection. This is what the World Health Organizations pursuit of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), in its most ambitious iteration, calls for: the creation of strong, resilient public health systems ensuring access to healthcare for all, through publicly financed health services and systems of financial protection, where the state takes responsibility for ensuring access to healthcare for all those living within its jurisdiction, and where emergency preparedness and response functions are integrated with service delivery (Ngozi et al. 2018). This series was conceived before COVID-19 appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan. At the time of writing, governments in the global South that had been slowly making moves towards universal health coverage and experimenting with various models of financing health systems and strengthening primary health care (whether these materialised as a serious commitment or a performative spectacle) have suddenly, within the space of weeks, been forced to turn all their attention to containing the virus. Governments have introduced dramatic and wide-reaching measures, which now affect the lives of many millions of people the world over. They do this because they know that if the virus spreads too rapidly, few health systems will cope. This series on UHC turns our attention to these health systems to the financing mechanisms and experiments, organizations and infrastructures that sustain or undermine them, to the health workers and the materials they work with, and the visions and aspirations for the future that they hold. As a global policy that aspires to universal values of equity and social justice, which advocates state responsibility for healthcare and urges governments towards ambitious goals, which dares to speak about health for all and introduces serious proposals for how to achieve it, UHC appears to many of its proponents as a practical utopia (Sen 2015). Yet this vision glosses over heated disagreements about the goals of UHC and diverse approaches for achieving it. The rest of this introduction discusses these contradictions which have divided the global health community before COVID-19 and will probably continue to do so after it. As the study of UHC encompasses social and political, economic and financial, as well as health and medical practices, systems, structures and values, it offers fertile ground for critical engagements with the aspirations and contradictions of global health even as the terrains on which it has been located and grounded are, as I write, massively shifting (Dalglish 2020). Definitions and contradictions Defined as ensuring that everyone can access affordable, essential, and quality health care without financial hardship (WHO 2010), UHC was described in 2012 by the former WHO Director-General Margaret Chan as the single most powerful concept public health has to offer (Chan 2012). Embraced by a multitude of actors beyond the WHO itself, in 2015, UHC became part of the Sustainable Development Framework. At the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019, member states issued a Political Declaration on UHC for the first time, committing their countries to the aim of realizing UHC by 2030 through the promotion of nationally determined sets of health services and medicines. This apparent consensus obscures strong disagreements about UHC, captured in the use of the term coverage rather than care. Since its launch in 2010, the WHO and the World Bank have focused largely on coverage in terms of financial protection and sustainable financing for healthcare, with debates about tax-based financing versus health insurance schemes, and experiments with different forms of the latter (Saksena et al. 2014). Quality of care has received much less attention, despite criticism from within the WHO and from organizations like Global Health Watch. It was only in October 2018, forty years after the Alma Ata Declaration, that the WHO reaffirmed its commitment to primary healthcare, arguing that UHC should be based on strong, people-centered, primary health care (Abadia-Barrero & Bugbee 2019). And despite the WHOs focus on strengthening health systems, emergency response, surveillance and preparedness has not been well integrated into moves towards UHC (Ngozi et al. 2018). Entitlements and obligations The turn towards UHC revives a rights-based language of health, solidarity, inclusion and social justice. In doing so, UHC appears to rebalance relations between the state, its citizens and other populations living within its jurisdiction, with their health as a matter of entitlement and obligation. Consciously echoing the language of Alma Ata (health for all), it marks a decisive move away from the cost-sharing policies advocated by the World Bank and IMF from the 1980s, which, as the Bank now recognizes, (continue to) push people further into poverty. Indeed, UHC appears to signal a new, more utopian, era of global health (Sen 2015), with a recognition that vertical disease programmes do not create more equitable health systems and that the state should take a leading role in ensuring equitable access to quality healthcare (Lancet 2012). But how radical is this move? Does advocacy for UHC represent new ways of thinking about health and development, poverty and redistribution, the state and citizenship (see also Ferguson 2015)? As UHC has gained traction during the past decade, it has taken shape in a very different world from the 1970s (Prince 2017). In pre-COVID-19 Europe (who knows what will happen next?), welfare was being cut back and state services retrenched under austerity policies. Worldwide, resources are increasingly concentrated in the hands of the wealthy while public resources are dwindling (Wilkensen & Pickett 2009). Social inequality and exclusion have been rapidly growing, reaching levels not experienced since the 1930s. In this context, UHC, like the new welfare of humanitarian and social assistance programmes in the Global South, has hardly posed a radical challenge to the status quo. There is a strong argument that these innovations are a cheap way of managing poverty, offering a biopolitics not of care but of bare life. The fact that the World Bank has become an avid proponent of both UHC and Cash Transfer Schemes suggests that these are not incompatible with neoliberal policy goals (see Collier 2011). It is clear that UHC can serve competing social and political agendas (Funahashi 2016; Seo 2016; Kittelsen, Fukuda-Parr, & Storeng 2019) and it might not serve social justice ends after all. The financialisation of health UHC has also been taking shape in a world where market values dominate discussions about the financing of healthcare. While it is now recognized that poor people should not be financially burdened by health-care costs, other aspects of the Washington Consensus have remained intact. Governments have been encouraged to find ways of raising domestic revenue (by introducing new taxes, for example), but markets remain at the heart of attempts to extend coverage. As political will for investing in public goods is dwindling and amidst the drying up of bilateral and multilateral development aid, global health is increasingly reliant on financial markets (Stein and Sridhar 2018).[1] Major global players such as the World Bank and the Gates foundation are turning their attention to new terrains of capital and to the potential of investor capital and catalytic capital to finance public goods (Hunter and Murray 2019, Erikson 2015, Lachenal 2018). The financialisation of global health refers to the increasing role of financial motives, financial markets, financial actors, and financial institutions in the operation of domestic and international economies (Epstein 2005, quoted in Stein and Sridhar 2018). Morality is not divorced from this market; financial markets are deemed to be good for health, as they channel money into healthcare at unforeseen speed and scale, and because they discipline governments and companies around the globe into taking healthcare seriously (Stein and Sridhar 2018). Left out of these ambitious claims are questions about what is funded, which populations, groups and individuals benefit, about boom and bust cycles inherent to financial markets, and about the unaccountable power of financial investors over the health of poor people (Eriksen 2015). Digital technologies and data A third game-changing arena is the role of digital technologies and of big data in healthcare, an arena populated by investor capital, global health funds, Silicon Valley tech companies, as well as experimental start-ups run by concerned data scientists amidst the global expansion of internet coverage and mobile phone use.[2] The oft-repeated mantra is that digital technology unlocks or unleashes potential, where private sector innovation (as opposed to state ineptitude) can be harnessed to transform access to health care and public health goods. To offer an example of how this plays out on the ground, in East Africa, NGOs partner up as entrepreneurial organizations with governments, global health funders, investors and digital technology companies to develop digital apps that aim to reach vulnerable populations. Here, digital technology offers to leap-frog developments, plugging gaps to offer or promise increased access to healthcare. This techno-optimism may be well-placed the field is rapidly developing yet the essays in this series call for caution. Often, populations are approached as an emerging market, with digital technologies companies moving into what is seen as a lucrative field of healthcare (and welfare), further blurring boundaries between philanthropy, development, and capitalism (McGoey 2015; Webb 2016) with negligible improvements in public health (Al Dahdah 2019a). All too often, the hopes invested in technological fixes and magic bullets, whether vaccinations, pharmaceuticals or oral-rehydration therapy, have proven fallible, as technology proves unable, by itself, to address the challenge of building up national healthcare systems. In the focus on increasing access and gathering data, care may be removed from sight (Adams 2016). The future of public healthcare: COVID-19 and health for all Taken together, these developments have huge implications for the future of (public) healthcare and raise important questions about new permutations between the state, financial capital, global health, data, and digital technology in the name of increasing access to services (see Breckenridge 2016; Al Dahdah 2019b). What this means for health equity in terms of access to healthcare, quality of healthcare, and the establishment of robust primary healthcare systems the stated goals of UHC programme remains an open question. The implications of UHC for citizenship or more radically, for claims based on presence (Ferguson 2019) and indeed, the form of the state, likewise need scrutiny. The COVID-19 pandemic is already radically shifting the grounds of these debates. Is this new landscape extractive? Clearly, investors are motivated by profit motives and only secondarily by the social good. And even if philanthropic motivations fuel such projects, such impulses should not be made the basis for the provision of public health goods (Quadeer and Baru 2016). Indeed, UHC appears not only easily coopted by neoliberal agendas (Birn 2016, Quadeer 2013) but deeply implicated in novel ways of performing power and exercising domination. Still, we should not lose sight of the fact that UHC does put a more progressive language into circulation, a language that is being used by citizen and pressure groups the world over to advocate for better health. The language of UHC underscores a move towards large-scale ambitions, an aspiration to the universal and a recognition of state responsibility for citizens (and residents?) health. Despite the seeming return to mid-20th century agendas, this is new territory, underlined by the language of innovation and experimentation. Threaded through with paradoxes and contradictions, Universal Health Coverage offers anthropologists and historians fertile ground for research. Moves towards UHC offer important sites for examining issues of redistribution, inequality, and solidarity, ideals of the commons and the public good, how these are being debated, and how these debates might be inflected by past aspirations and experiences. Global discussions about UHC offer social scientists an opportunity to explore the social and political collectives forming around struggles for public health. Following UHC brings into focus digital technology, data, and financial capitalism and how these implicate the state, citizenship, inequality and political strategies for addressing poverty and exclusion. Finally, UHC allows us to pursue traditional themes in medical anthropology concerning access to health care, distributions of responsibility, and the experience of patients, while also pushing us toward new fields of inquiry, such as the emerging anthropology of mHealth (mobile health) and health insurance. In this series, we invite potential authors to approach UHC ethnographically and historically, as a policy and as a set of aspirations; to explore how it has travelled and is translated, and the frictions, tractions and tensions that ensue. We seek essays that explore its imbrications with markets and states, technologies and data, with bodies and medicines, with politics and power, with health workers, civil servants, tech entrepreneurs and human rights activists, as well as with past aspirations and policies. We ask what a closer look at UHC as both global and local, universal and experimental might tell us about the world we live in, may be leaving behind, or are moving toward. As the worlds attention is turned on the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to ask what has become of these aspirations for universal health coverage. What will remain of government moves towards strengthening primary health care systems and increasing access to affordable services? Will these efforts gain renewed urgency, as they did in West Africa after the Ebola epidemic, or will they fade into the background, as financial crisis deepens and we head into a global economic recession? Whether the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to sustained state intervention into welfare and healthcare or further consolidation of financial capital, whether it will lead to serious redistribution or to business-as-usual, to resurgent forms of solidarity or to further nationalism and isolation, remains to be seen. Amidst the waning of historicity, as our present is telescoped to the next days infection numbers (or indeed the hourly figures flitting across our smartphone screens) and the future beyond COVID-19 appears alarmingly obscure, we need the sanity of a longer-term perspective, of a return to a forward momentum, of planning for a better future, one that we can build and act upon. Against the dystopian present and the slow cancellation of the future (Fisher 2014) as a horizon of possibility that the present pandemic appears to curtail, aspirations for universal healthcare and Universal Health Coverage are a necessary utopia, practical and within reach if we can recover a prospective time and muster a collective political will. While strikingly dissimilar in their outlook and their temporalities, the dystopian COVID-19 present and the utopian horizons of UHC do converge on one point: both draw our attention to fundamental questions about social justice and to the challenge that inequality poses to humanity and the social collective. Notes [1]See, for example, Financing UHC in Kenya, a report by the SDG Partnership Platform, https://www.sdgphilanthropy.org/Financing-Universal-Health-Coverage-in-Kenya (accessed November 28th, 2019) [2] Forthcoming pieces by Thomas Neumark, Marine Al Dahdah, and Ruth Prince explore the role of digital technology in access to health care, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana and India. Works cited Abadia-Barrero, C. E. and M. Bugbee (2019). Primary health care for Universal Health Coverage? Contributions for a critical anthropological agenda. Medical Anthropology 38(5): 427-435. Adams, V. ed. (2016) Metrics: What Counts in Global Health. Durham: Duke University Press. Al Dahdah, M. (2019a). Between philanthropy and big business: The rise of MHealth in the global health market. Development and Change 50: 1-20. Al Dahdah, M. (2019b). Les geants du numerique au chevet de lAfrique. Le telephone portable comme novelle outil de sante global. Politique Africaine 156: 101-119. Birn, A.-E. (2014). Philanthrocapitalism, past and present: The Rockefeller Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the setting(s) of the international/global health agenda. Hypothesis 12(1). Birn, A-E., et al. (2016). Neoliberalism redux: The global health policy agenda and the politics of co-optation in Latin America and beyond. Development and Change 47(4): 734-759. Breckenridge, K. (2016). Biometric State. The Global Politics of Identification and Surveillance in South Africa, 1850 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chan, M. (2012) Universal Coverage is the ultimate expression of fairness. Acceptance speech at the 65th World Health Assembly, Geneva, May 23, 2012. http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2012/wha_20120523/en/index.html Collier, S.J. (2011). Post-Soviet Social. Neoliberalism, Social Modernity, Biopolitics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Dalglish, S.L. (2020). COVID-19 gives the lie to global health expertise. The Lancet, online first, March 26, 2020. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30739-X/fulltext? Donovan, K. P. (2015). The biometric imaginary: Bureaucratic technopolitics in post-apartheid welfare. Journal of Southern African Studies 41(4): 815-833. Erikson, S. L. (2015). Secrets from whom? Current Anthropology 56(S12): S306-S316. Evans, T. and A. Pablos-Mendez (2016). Shaping of a new era for health financing. The Lancet 387(10037): 2482-2484. Ferguson, J. 2015. Teach a Man to Fish. Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution. Durham: Duke University Press. Ferguson, J. (2019). Rightful Shares and Claims of Presence: Distributive Politics Beyond Citizenship. Keynote lecture, Workshop on Curious Utopias: Large and Small Blueprints for Human Society, Oslo, September 6-7, 2019. Fisher, M. and F. Berardi (2013). Give me shelter. Freize, 1st January 2013. https://frieze.com/article/give-me-shelter-mark-fisher Fisher, M. (2014). The Ghosts of my Life. Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. Hampshire: Zero Books Funahashi, D.A. (2016) Rule by good people: Health governance and the violence of moral authority in Thailand. Cultural Anthropology 31(1): 107-130. Hickel, J. (2017). The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions. London: Penguin. Holmes, S and Buchbinder, L (2020). In a defunded health system, doctors and nurses suffer near-impossible conditions, Salon, 29th March 2020. In a De-funded Health System, Doctors and Nurses Suffer Near-Impossible Conditions Horton, R. (2020). Coronavirus is the greatest global science policy failure in a generation. The Guardian, 9th April 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/09/deadly-virus-britain-failed-prepare-mers-sars-ebola-coronavirus?CMP=share_btn_tw Hunter, B. M. and S. F. Murray (2019). Deconstructing the financialization of healthcare. Development and Change 50(5): 1263-1287. Kittelsen, S.K., Fukuda-Parr, S. & Storeng, K.T. (2019). Editorial: the political determinants of health inequities and universal health coverage. Global Health 15,73 (2019) doi:10.1186/s12992-019-0514-6. Lachenal, G. (2018). Tombola Ebola. Liberation, 6th June 2018. https://www.liberation.fr/debats/2018/06/06/tombola-ebola_1657098 Lancet, editorial (2012). The struggle for universal health coverage. The Lancet 380(9845): 859. Maja-Pearce, A. (2020). Rich mans disease. London Review of Books, 31st March 2020. https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/march/rich-man-s-disease McGoey, L. (2014). The philanthropic state: marketstate hybrids in the philanthrocapitalist turn. Third World Quarterly 35(1): 109-125. McGoey, Linsey. (2015). No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy. London, New York: Verso. Ngozi A.E., J. Martin, R. Marten, G. Ooms, R. Yates, D.L. Heymann (2018). Building the case for embedding global health security into universal health coverage: a proposal for a unified health system that includes public health. The Lancet, Health Policy, 392: 1482-1486. Pandey, K. R. (2018). From health for all to universal health coverage: Alma Ata is still relevant. Globalization and Health 14(1): 62. Prince R. (2017) Universal Health Coverage in the Global South: New models of healthcare and their implications for citizenship, solidarity, and the public good. Michael 14(2): 153-172. http://www.dnms.no/i/2017/03/Universal-Health-Coverage-in-the-Global-South-New-models-of-healthcare-and-their-implications-for-citizenship-solidarity-and-the-public-good. Qadeer, I. (2013). Universal Health Care: The Trojan horse of neoliberal policies. Social Change 43(2): 149-164. Qadeer, I. and R. Baru (2016). Shrinking spaces for the public in contemporary public health. Development and Change 47(4): 760-781. Saksena, P., et al. (2014) Financial risk protection and Universal Health Coverage: Evidence and measurement challenges. PLoS Med 11(9): e1001701 Schmidt, Mario (2020). In Pipeline, panic is unnecessary. How poor Nairobians deal with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Focaal, March 23, 2020. https://www.focaalblog.com/2020/03/23/mario-schmidt-in-pipeline-panic-is-unnecessary-how-poor-nairobians-deal-with-the-advent-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/ Seo, B. K. (2016). Patient waiting: care as a gift and debt in the Thai healthcare system. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 22(2): 279-295. Sen, A. (2015). Universal Health Coverage: the affordable dream. The Guardian, Tuesday 6th January, 2015. Shoki, W. (2020). What lies ahead. Africa-is-a-County, 18th March 2020. https://africasacountry.com/2020/03/what-lies-ahead Stein, F., & Sridhar, D. (2018). The financialisation of global health. Wellcome Open Research, 3, 17. doi:10.12688/wellcomeopenres.13885.1 Webb, C. (2016). Profiting from poverty in South Africa. Review of African Political Economy, 30th August 2016. Wilkensen, R.G. & K. Pickett. (2009). The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. London, Allen Lane Whittal, J. (2020). COVID-19. What the health pandemic can teach us about universal healthcare, Medicins Sans Frontieres, Blog, March 20, 2020. https://www.msf.org.uk/article/covid-19-what-coronavirus-pandemic-can-teach-us-about-universal-healthcare World Health Organization (2010) Health systems financing: the path to universal coverage. Geneva: WHO. http://www.who.int/whr/2010/en/ (accessed 19 December 2019) World Health Organization. Sustainable health financing, universal coverage and social health insurance. http://www.who.int/health_financing/documents/cov-wharesolution5833/en/. (accessed 19 Dec 2019). Yates, R. (2020). Lets emerge from COVID-19 with stronger health systems. Chatham House, Expert Comment, March 26, 2020. https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/lets-emerge-covid-19-stronger-health-systems Ruth Prince is associate professor in medical anthropology at the University of Oslos Institute of Health and Society, where she currently holds a European Research Council Grant for Universal Health Coverage and the Public Good in Africa. Share this: Share Email Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr LinkedIn [view academic citations] [hide academic citations] "The government shouldn't step in to bail them out. They should let them go bust," Richard Branson told US news channel CNBC in 2009. In the discussion, which was about whether the government should intervene to save Virgin Atlantic's competitor British Airways, the billionaire expanded an argument popular with free marketeers. "The likes of Virgin Atlantic and there should be able to step into the shoes, take over their slots and offer a much more cost effective, in our opinion, better airline," he argued. Sir Richard may have been an opponent of state intervention in 2009, but fast forward to 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic and he had changed his tune somewhat. "We will need government support [to keep the airline running] in the face of the severe uncertainty surrounding travel today and not knowing how long the planes will be grounded for," he wrote in a solemn open letter to Virgin Atlantic staff. Arguing that the support would not amount to "free money" and in fact be a "commercial loan" he said: "The reality of this unprecedented crisis is that many airlines around the world need government support and many have already received it. "Without it there wont be any competition left and hundreds of thousands more jobs will be lost, along with critical connectivity and huge economic value." In a departure from 2009, he did not comment on whether he thought other new airlines would simply "step into the shoes" of his after it went bust. Despite his fortune, Branson said in his open letter that he did not have money "sitting as cash in a bank account ready to withdraw" but rather assets, and still needed government support. In an unusual move Mr Branson, whose fortune is thought to be well over 4 billion, said he could offer his his luxury island resort of Necker Island as collateral for the loan. Sir Richard's decision to base himself in the British Virgin Islands has caused controversy before: the country is widely considered a tax haven and has no income tax, capital gains tax, VAT or sales tax. This week the billionaire said he lived where he did "because I love the British Virgin Islands", noting that his companies paid taxes where they made their profits. But while long considered a master of publicity, the businessman has found himself fighting public relations fires on numerous fronts across his empire. Virgin's healthcare arm has attracted opprobrium for years simply by virtue of being a private company involved in the NHS a politically thorny subject. But the controversy bubbled over in 2007 after the health service was ordered to pay an undisclosed settlement to Virgin Care after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services. High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Show all 18 1 /18 High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Najaf, Iraq A man holds a pocket watch at noon, at an almost empty market near the Imam Ali shrine Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Bangkok, Thailand Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram (The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, part of The Grand Palace) Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Prague, Czech Republic An empty street leading to the historic Old Town Square Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Washington DC, US Lawn stretching towards the Capitol, home of Congress Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Jerusalem's Old City A watch showing the time in front of Damascus Gate Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world London, UK The Houses of Parliament seen from Westminster Bridge Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Wuhan, China Empty lanes in the city that saw the first outbreak of disease Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Havana, Cuba The Malecon road and esplanade winds along the city's seafront Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Cairo, Egypt A little busier than elsewhere: midday traffic in Tahrir Square Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Berlin, Germany The Brandenburg Gate, the only surviving city gate in the capital Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Caracas, Venezuela Bolivar Avenue, opened in 1949 and the site of many demonstrations and rallies Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Moscow, Russia Spasskaya Tower (left) on the eastern wall of the Kremlin, and St Basil's Cathedral Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Istanbul,Turkey The harbourside Eminonu district is usually buzzing with activity Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world New Delhi, India Rajpath, a ceremonial boulevard that runs through the capital Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Amman, Jordan The Roman amphitheatre that dates back to the 2nd century AD Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world New York City, US The main concourse of Grand Central station in Manhattan Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Kiev, Ukraine Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the site of many political protests since the end of the Soviet era Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Accra, Ghana The odd walker out in the midday sun on Ring Road Central Reuters Virgin Care filed proceedings at the High Court and said there were "serious flaws" in the way the contact, which it did not win, was awarded. Labour said the situation was "scandalous", while the company claimed it was "wrong to say we sued the NHS because we lost a contract". Obliquely addressing the issue again on Monday, Branson said Virgin had "invested more than 75 million into the NHS" and "has never and will never make a penny out of the NHS". Virgin Trains has also lost all its contracts in the UK, with its high unregulated peak time fares on the overcrowded LondonManchester route becoming totemic of the pricey state of Britain's railways. And this week Virgin Money Giving, a fundraising platform, moved to temporary waive the 2 per cent fee it normally charges charities for the duration of the coronavirus lockdown period. It had faced criticism on social media: Branson said in a statement released on Monday that the system "does not, and will never, make a profit". Little of this is new, and some of it might be unfair criticism. But the background certainly makes it politically more difficult for the government to offer state aid to Virgin companies. CHICAGO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivacelle Bio, Inc., a U.S. biotechnology firm that develops products for critically ill patients, will make VBI-S, available for use in COVID-19 patients. Seventy percent of deaths of COVID-19 patients are due to septic shock. While intravenous infusion of VBI-S has demonstrated encouraging preliminary results in a phase IIa clinical study, VBI-S remains an experimental drug. See a listing of our VBI-S IIa clinical trial at the link: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/record/NCT04257136?cond=septic+shock&cntry=US&state=US%3AIN&draw=2&rank=1 VBI-S could rescue lives of COVID patients even when standard treatment has failed by shifting the balance of complex nitric oxide effects toward survival. Vivacelle Bio CEO Harven DeShield, JD, PhD, commented, "VBI-S holds the promise of being a compelling and novel technology to address COVID-19 induced sepsis and septic shock and thus the potential to save numerous lives both in the US and globally." Cuthbert Simpkins MD inventor of VBI-S and Vivacelle Bio Chief Innovation Officer commented, "It is fulfilling to serve both as a critical care physician providing direct care to COVID patients and as a scientist whose invention could rescue people who are dying of this disease." Mallory Williams MD, MPH Chief of Trauma and Critical Care and Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Howard University Hospital stated, "I am greatly encouraged that Vivacelle Bio through its innovative discoveries has proposed therapeutic solutions for the most critically ill patients. Severe sepsis claims the lives of over 250,000 Americans and 10 million globally each year and now there is a reason to believe that we are closer to significantly decreasing this number." Mukesh Kumar, PhD, Vivacelle's Senior VP of Regulatory Affairs stated, "We look to partner with physicians and hospitals to make VBI-S rapidly available to treat COVID-19 patients in dire life-threatening condition." Jim J. Huang, Ph.D., CEO of Ascendia Pharmaceuticals, a specialty CDMO company, engaged in nanoparticle formulation, is pleased to support Vivacelle Bio in meeting this international crisis. This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, all statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release about future events are subject to (I) change without notice, (ii) factors beyond the Company's control and (iii) the financial capabilities of the Company. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as "target," "believe," "expect," "aim," "intend," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "project," "will," "can have," "likely," "should," "would," "could" and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control that could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the expected results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. About Vivacelle Bio, Inc. Vivacelle Bio, Inc. is a clinical stage life science company focused on a new paradigm of nitric oxide redistribution that utilizes biophysical properties of phospholipid nanoparticles. The Company's first product, VBI-S is designed to treat septic shock caused by COVID-19, other viruses, bacteria, parasites or fungi. Press Contact: Harven DeShield 716-830-8932 [email protected], Website: https://vivacellebio.com SOURCE Vivacelle Bio, Inc. Related Links https://vivacellebio.com/ Birmingham boost for students to work with business and communities Students will contribute to overcoming business challenges. The University of Birmingham will receive funding from the Office for Students (OfS) and Research England for a new project that partners postgraduate students with West Midlands organisations to share knowledge and skills beyond the academic community. The Postgraduate Taught (PGT) Knowledge Exchange Pathway (KEP) will offer partner organisations including for example, Birmingham City Council, Innovate UK and Amazon Web Services access to a team of talented and relatively experienced PGT students who can work with them to scope persistent challenges and seek innovative solutions. Research strengths across the University which could help partners include sustainability, responsible business, workplace health and wellbeing, data science/artificial intelligence, and cultures & equalities. The 300,000 award has been made from a 10 million funding stream announced in October 2019 by the Universities Minister. Birmingham is one of 20 UK universities to receive funding from the OfS and Research England. The fund supports projects which broaden understanding of the benefits to students of partnering with businesses, engaging with communities and third sector organisations, and professional training collectively known as knowledge exchange activities. Professor Kathy Armour, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Birmingham, commented: We are delighted to secure funding for this hugely exciting project which will benefit both our students and local partner organisations. Our partners will have access to an exciting, multi-disciplinary resource in the form of our students who can help resolve their problems. In return, our students gain support in making the transition from university study to highly skilled employment. Through Knowledge Exchange and student engagement, this project also offers an important opportunity to close some of the gaps in access, success and progress seen in BAME and disabled student groups. The University will discuss industry needs with partner organisations including to identify project themes aligned to priorities raised in the West Midlands Local Industrial Strategy. These themes will be used as the basis for student group projects. The University of Birmingham will also partner another OfS/Research England project led by Keele University - Student Knowledge Exchange Re-imagined - Removing the barriers, engaging communities. The project which secured 920,000 of funding - will develop knowledge exchange best practice and expertise through a set of initiatives including civic internships, student consultancies, virtual placements, opportunities for international students, enterprise challenges, and curriculum design. Sue Welland, Acting Director Careers and Employability at the University of Birmingham commented: Securing this award in partnership with Keele University creates an opportunity for our students to develop entrepreneurial skills for the future world of work - delivered within our forthcoming City Centre presence, The University of Birmingham The Exchange. In 2017-18, English universities generated over 3.7 billion from knowledge exchange activity. As part of this, they helped to create over 3,500 graduate start-up businesses, attracting over 146 million of investment. Students play a significant role in this activity by, for example, establishing start-ups and spin-off companies, and providing skills and expertise for businesses, public services and community groups through consultancy, internships and work placements. The projects awarded funding seek to identify how students benefit from this involvement, and address issues of equality, diversity and inclusion within knowledge exchange activities. Understanding best practice in this area will be key to ensuring that students involvement in knowledge exchange activities is helping to shape them into graduates who are well prepared for the world of work. While funding awards to institutions have now been confirmed, the OfS will agree with universities what can be reasonably achieved during their initial months of work due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. This may include agreeing revised timescales or changes to planned activities. This approach recognises that providers and individual projects are likely to be affected in different ways during this period. Projects will explore a range of knowledge exchange activities, including free-to-access courses run in partnership with the NHS for mental health service users, start-ups in the creative industries, and pro bono, social impact-driven consultancy and venture capital services. Notes to editors For more information, please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0)782 783 2312. For out-of-hours enquiries, please call +44 (0) 7789 921 165. The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the worlds top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries. The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator for higher education in England. Our aim is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers. Research England shapes healthy, dynamic research and knowledge exchange in English universities. It distributes over 2.2 billion to universities in England every year, and supports and challenges them to create new knowledge, strengthen the economy, and enrich society. Research England is part of UK Research and Innovation, alongside the seven Research Councils and Innovate UK. With people speculating about a change at the top of Syrian politics, Israeli author and Arab affairs specialist Edy Cohen has proposed that Fahd al-Masri, who has been involved with the opposition, could be a viable replacement. Earlier this month, in April 2020, the Israeli author and Arab affairs specialist Edy Cohen tweeted that Bashar al-Assad would leave by the end of this summer. He followed up with talk of one possible successor: Fahd al-Masri. Background Few Syrians know about Fahd al-Masri, but Cohens tweet set off a surge in curiosity about him as his Twitter and YouTube followers increased, making him a top news item on Syrian social media. Masri was born in Damascus in 1970, to a conservative Damascene family. According to his own account, he was expelled from the Higher Institute of Political Sciences for political reasons. The truth is that only Baath Party members loyal to the regime enter the institute, as a part of their party-affiliated education. He studied Arabic literature at Damascus University, but he did not complete his studies, instead leaving to Lebanon and then Europe, eventually settling in France 24 years ago. There, he studied at the French Press Institute and the institut national des langues et civilisations orientales in Paris. Masri found work as a correspondent for a number of Arabic-language news organizations, most recently of which were Ttu, a French newsletter focused on security and defense, and the newspaper al-Masri al-Youm. Between 2005 and 2008, while still in Paris, he ran the monthly magazine al-Mantouf, which published satire against the Syrian regime. Then he presented the Panorama program in London via the opposition satellite channel, which received funding from the US State Department. He resigned to return to Paris at the outbreak of the Syrian revolution. The Syrian revolution On Apr. 7, 2011, Masri organized a press conference for the former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam in Brussels. Throughout 2011 he volunteered to support various strands of the opposition with the exception of the Muslim Brotherhood, and organized 12 press conferences in Paris at the Foreign Press Center in the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. He was the first to publicly demand, via Al-Arabiya, international military intervention in Syria, outside the operations of the Security Council, to protect civilians, and participated in organizing a week of support and advocacy for the Syrian people in Cairo in September 2011. The week included meetings with Egyptian political party leaders, revolution figures, civil society and rights organizations. He also participated in organizing a week of support for Syrians in Paris in October that same year, attending meetings with French political figures, holding seminars on Syria at the headquarters of the French newspapers Liberation, Mediapart and Le Monde. He also held a press conference and meeting with the head of the French Presidency and the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, ending in a demonstration in Paris of more than 3,000 protestors supported by French political parties and Amnesty International. In February 2012 he was among the first founders of a joint leadership for the Free Syrian Army within Syria, and contributed to strengthening the formation of governorate-level military councils, as well as founding their media offices and working as a spokesperson. According to Masri, he was detained at Istanbuls Ataturk Airport for five days on the pretext of holding a false passport. While he was in detention, the formation of a new leadership was announced. French authorities intervened and he was returned to Paris. In 2013, at the invitation of the French Socialist Party, he gave a joint symposium with former French Defense Minister Alain Richard about developments in Syria. The following year, in 2014, he and a number of other civil and military figures founded the Center for Strategic, Security and Military Studies on Syria. In 2014 he co-founded the National Salvation Group in Syria, which he says included dozens of officers and political opposition figures. The group changed at the end of 2016 to the National Salvation Front and was adopted by an organisation called the Syrian Wisdom Council, which took on directing the project. Later in 2014, Masri met with Russias Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and suggested serious constructive dialogue with the Free Syrian Army, and for there to be meetings between defected Syrian military leaders and Russia in Cairo. He also called for the removal of Assad, his brother and 52 other figures who represented the regimes extreme and murderous wing. Additionally, Masri demanded the formation of a transitional military council as an alternative to Assads rule. The following day, he held a press conference in Paris under the title Rehabilitating Assad Strengthens Daesh and Exacerbates the Refugee Crisis. Relations with Israel On Dec. 15, 2016, Masri published an open letter to the Israeli people about peace between Israel and the new Syria. One month later, on Jan. 15, 2017, the National Salvation Front published a roadmap for peace between Syria and Israel. Masri was elected head of the Fronts political office as 35 members were assembled from around the world to launch a project to build the groups leadership at Syrias city and governorate levels. According to reports published by those close to Masri, 32 Syrian Jews have so far joined the Front. The Jewish community in Syria today doesnt number more than several dozen people, most of whom are elderly. It was in this context that Edy Cohen wrote his tweet earlier this month, in April. Masri responded with another tweet: We must realize that Dr. Edy Cohen is a researcher and professor at Bar-Ilan University, and not just another Twitter account or activist on social media. He is a researcher in what is considered one of the most important Israeli research centers. Masri then published a video where he appeared in a presidential manner, addressing Syrians: Oh, sons of my homeland! In the video, he predicted the end of Assads rule, or Assads murder this coming July. He also expressed his willingness to cooperate with Israel in a 2016 televised address shown to Israeli viewers. In the speech, he said he hoped to speak to the Israeli people from the Knesset, similar to the late former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Syrian Observer. At 6 years old, Austin Perine has released his first song, with an accompanying video, and claims that hes ending COVID-19. If that seems somewhat precocious, you should know that, like any good superhero, Austin often wears a cape and fully intends to be the president of the United States one day. In fact, hes been calling himself President Austin for a couple of years now. When he was 4, Austin, who attends South Shades Crest Elementary School in Hoover, received national attention because of his passion for feeding the homeless. When he first learned what it meant to be homeless, he wanted to do everything he could to help people who lived on the streets of Birmingham. As he would hand out sandwiches and drinks, wearing his superhero costume, he would tell each person in the sweetest voice imaginable: Dont forget to show love. Hes been showing love ever since, raising money through his Show Love foundation, feeding homeless people in cities around the nation and speaking to hundreds of children at school rallies about the importance of being kind to each other. Last fall, he starred in a book that tells about his work with the homeless. President Austin, written by Brian Eggleston and illustrated by Nikkolas Smith, has sold 40,000 copies. And now, he has recorded a catchy tune he wrote with his dad, T.J. Perine. The video for Stay Home was recently released. T.J. says the idea for the song came about early in the coronavirus pandemic when the family was outside on their patio one night. T.J. was grilling one of his favorite pastimes and talking with Austin about the importance of keeping their hands clean to avoid getting sick. From there, they decided to write a song and sought help from T.J.s cousin to produce it. After the stay-at-home order went into effect, T.J. and Austin made a video to accompany it, showing Austin waking up, putting on his #Show Love T-shirt, checking in with his friends on his laptop, playing Connect 4 with his dad and, of course, washing his hands. The video is a mix of the real Austin and an animated version of his superhero persona. Make sure you keep it nice and sanitized/while this pandemic thing is on the rise/So try to do your best to stay inside/So we all can make it out alive, Austin sings. His singing ability naturally, T.J. says, from Austins mothers side of the family, who are all very musical. Like every other child in America, Austin has had to adjust to the new normal of staying home every day with his family. He enjoys playing hopscotch, his dad says, and has learned to play Uno. Recently on his social media channels, he shared a workout video for children, which showed him doing pull-ups. Hes also had time to watch some of the news segments that have aired about him, including one from Steve Hartman of CBS News, who also wrote the foreword to Austins book. Its been really cool seeing him learn about himself, says T.J. At 6 years old, Hes learning from 4-year-old Austin. As Austin says at the end of the video, he has had to stop his work with homeless people for now. But as soon as its safe, he plans to partner with Marys Meals, an international effort based in Scotland that feeds half a million children per day. Austin will be a liaison for international philanthropy, says T.J. Were trying to take it from local to national to the Nobel Peace Prize one day. So how does Austin plan to stop COVID-19 in its tracks? By following the guidelines for staying safe, including staying at home, his dad says. T.J. admits that he would love to visit his own father in Prichard, but his dad has COPD and his life depends on us not coming to see him, he says. Until theres a vaccine, thats the cure, he says. We all need to work together, be positive and put one foot in front of the other. Austin has figured out a way to change the world. For more information about Austin, visit www.presidentaustin.net. SACRAMENTO Hundreds of protesters with American flags and Make America Great Again hats marched and drove their cars around the state Capitol for hours on Monday, in opposition to what they said was government overreaction to the coronavirus pandemic. The rally came amid not just intense political pressure from President Trump to restart an economy that has ground to a halt during widespread stay-at-home orders, but also growing agitation from some residents that Californias strict lockdown measures have unnecessarily tanked their businesses, threatened their childrens education and upended their lives. Weve been cut off from our community, and thats been the biggest part, said Whitney Mello, 31, of Sacramento County, who attended the protest with her husband and two young children. The rally was organized by the Freedom Angels, which was also behind a series of protests last summer against a law tightening Californias mandatory vaccination requirements for schoolchildren. Those protesters camped out at the Capitol for weeks, disrupting legislative hearings and briefly shutting down the final night of session when one person threw a menstrual cup onto the Senate floor. On Monday morning, the group caravanned from Orange County to Sacramento, according to a flyer posted on its Facebook page, stopping along the way to pick up supporters in Los Angeles County, Bakersfield, Fresno and Manteca (San Joaquin County). Stefanie Duncan Fetzer, an Orange County activist against mandatory vaccinations who helped plan the trip, said the limited reach of the coronavirus in California did not justify such severe curtailment of 40 million peoples rights. The state has had 33,623 confirmed cases and 1,211 deaths as of Monday afternoon, which some experts attribute to the early interventions by public health officials. Were letting fear rule today, Duncan Fetzer said. I believe in Jesus. And Im not afraid of this. Attendees carried handwritten signs criticizing Gov. Gavin Newsom, who instituted Californias stay-at-home order a month ago, and urging him to reopen California. They waved Trump 2020 and Dont tread on me flags. One man, dressed as a 1960s flower child with no shoes, held a sign that said, I want the freedom to surf. Protesters largely spoke of a need to take into greater consideration the economic toll of the shutdown, which has driven more than 3 million Californians into unemployment in the past month. They said Newsom should give people a choice about whether or not to stay home, so that those who felt comfortable could begin resuming normal lives. Mello said that since the pandemic began, her sales are down 60% at her online business selling organic supplements. She and her family are continuing to go to the park, order takeout and conduct their lives as regularly as possible. Her husband, who runs a social media marketing company, still goes to his office every day. Were treating it like a regular flu season, Mello said. She said she believes the governments vigorous response to the outbreak is partly an attempt to force holdouts to vaccinate their children in order to participate in a reopened society. Its a slow chip away at our rights, our autonomy, she said. Anti-quarantine protests have sprouted up across the country in recent weeks, many of them organized by gun rights groups and other conservative activists. President Trump, who is pushing to reopen the country faster than governors, encouraged protesters to liberate their states in a series of tweets on Friday. That same day, more than 100 people marched in Huntington Beach against Californias lockdown measures. But they represent a minority, according to public opinion polls. The Pew Research Center found that 66% of Americans worry that state governments will lift restrictions on public activity too quickly, compared to 32% who worry they wont act quickly enough. Only 22% of Americans support the anti-quarantine protests, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll, compared to 60% who oppose them. Newsom laid out his road map to recovery last week, with six factors that have to be met before he modifies the statewide stay-at-home order. But he cautioned that the state is still not ready to begin moving back into normal public life, as hospitalizations of coronavirus patients continue to increase, although at a slower rate. We are eager, we share exactly the same desires and goals to reopen the economy and address all of these systemic challenges and help those who are struggling, he said Monday. But the way we do that, the way we know to do that, is primarily based on where the virus is at any given moment. Residents across the state have begun to the push the limits of and even openly defy those lockdown measures. Last week, San Francisco police raided a warehouse where an unlicensed nightclub was holding events that sometimes drew more than 100 people. The San Francisco Police Department said Monday it has issued 16 citations for violating county or state public health orders seven for businesses and nine for individuals. Some were for direct violations of the orders, like congregating in groups on the street, while a few were cited while another alleged crime was in progress. The Alameda County Sheriffs Office has received 2,017 complaints since the first shelter-in-place order took effect last month, according to spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly, mostly for nonessential businesses staying open. In one instance in unincorporated Hayward, vape shop operators tried to turn their store into an essential business by selling candy bars and bottled water along with vaping products. The store owners were able to avoid a citation, Kelly said, but only after three days of haggling with law enforcement. In the middle of the protest in Sacramento, Johan van Ravenhorst was selling Dutch stroopwafel cookies. Few seemed to pay mind to the sign on his cart asking customers to practice social distancing and stand 6 feet away. Van Ravenhorst said he typically comes to the Capitol every Friday, but this was the first time in a month he had been. Though he agreed with what some of the protesters said about the economic impacts of the shutdown, he said his attendance was purely financial he did not want to lose a business he had spent years and tens of thousands of dollars to build. For this business to stay healthy, I need some revenue, he said. Thats a risk Im willing to take as an individual. Chronicle staff writers Tal Kopan and Dominic Fracassa contributed to this report. Alexei Koseff is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff New Delhi, April 21 : The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Tuesday asked the government to allow any establishment to operate during the lockdown period, which can follow social distancing, based on self-certification by the firms. In a note of suggestions to the Centre, the industry body has also urged the Home Ministry to clarify that mention in its guidelines that no specific permission would be required from the state government or local authorities to start manufacturing activities in the permitted list. The firm should be required to only inform the relevant authorities through an email, it said, noting that the state government or local authorities would be flooded with an excessive volume of applications, which would create delay in kick-starting the economic activities. Mentioning that Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) guidelines allow IT and IT-enabled services with 50 per cent strength, the CII note said: "Any establishment that can fulfill this stipulation should be allowed. It should be on self certification." It further said that there is a need to clarify that the new guidelines merely provide "select additional activities" that will be permitted from April 20 and do not in any manner restrict activities that were already permitted under the existing guidelines, unless such permitted activity or establishment falls within a notified containment zone. Currently, the guidelines allow the operations of select agricultural and related activities such as plantations of tea, coffee, rubber, fisheries and animal husbandry, among others. Manufacture, processing, packaging, sales marketing, warehousing and any commercial establishments dealing in any 'packaged food and beverages' should also be allowed, it said. "This is in line with the advisory of the Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), dated 26th March, regarding the need for continued functioning of food industry and their suppliers." It further said that in continuation to the operation of the animal husbandry sector, meat processing industry, based on sheep, goat, buffalo, including the transportation from farms and markets, leading to processing, packaging, cold chain, sale and marketing by APEDA registered abattoirs, meat processing factories, rendering plants, ETPs and workers for all these activities, should also be allowed. Regarding the much talked about subject of sale of non-essential goods on e-commerce platforms, the industry is of the view that the norms should be amended to clarify that e-commerce companies for both essential as well as non-essential commodities are allowed. In its recommendations, CII also said that some of the manufacturing units in certain cities are unable to re-start operations as they do not strictly fall under the definition of Industrial town. "For instance, Jamshedpur Industrial town falls under the jurisdiction of Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee. Provision should be modified to permit manufacturing in such industrial areas as well." Among other suggestions, it also suggested that if a worker at a factory or plant tests positive of novel coronavirus, the whole plant should not be shut, but rather strict protocols should be followed there. Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro announced the death of his father, Anthony, from COVID-19 on April 10. What I can tell you is that there are families all across our community who are struggling hard, the 2018 Republican candidate for governor said. This crisis is affecting everyone. Though there are troubling racial and economic disparities, the virus has reached people in all parts of society. By early March, several prominent New York politicos, including members of the New York City Council and the state Assembly, had announced they were infected with the new coronavirus. New York public servants are also among the thousands who have died from the disease. On April 8, former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, from Westchester, died after experiencing COVID 19-like symptoms. The new coronavirus was initially believed to be the cause, but Brodsky tested negative for the virus and his death certificate stated heart attack as the cause of death. False negatives are possible, however, and his family reportedly believes he was infected. Brodsky served in the Assembly for 14 terms, and was also a contributor of op-eds to several local news outlets, including City & State. He was 73. Here is a list of some New Yorkers who played a prominent role in politics, government or advocacy who have died from the coronavirus. Justice Noach Dear, 66 Noach Dear served as a New York City councilman for about two decades beginning in 1983, representing Midwood and parts of Borough Park and Bensonhurst. He was a conservative Democrat who drew attention for his stance against gay marriage and his questionable uses of campaign and private funds. Dear later served on the New York City Civil Court from 2008 to 2015. He was elected to the Kings County Supreme court in 2015. He was an occasionally controversial advocate for the Orthodox Jewish community, of which he was a part. Dear spent weeks in the hospital battling COVID-19 before he died on April 19. Many other cases of COVID-19 have also been linked to the Brooklyn courthouse. Justice Johnny Lee Baynes, 64 Johnny Lee Baynes was elected to the Kings County Supreme Court in 2011. He is remembered as a cool-headed judge and, according to the Brooklyn Eagle, former colleagues called him a gentle giant. He formerly served as a staff attorney at the New York City Housing Authority and the District Council 37 union. He died on March 26 of pneumonia related to COVID-19. Arlene Stringer-Cuevas, 86 Arlene Stringer-Cuevas was the first woman to represent Washington Heights on the New York City Council, having previously served as a Democratic district leader for the area. Later in life, she married former City Clerk and Deputy Bronx Borough President Carlos Cuevas.Her son, mayoral hopeful and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, wrote on Twitter, The loss I feel today is incalculable. My mother showed me at an early age the importance and the great challenge of public service. Stringer-Cuevas died in the Bronx on April 3. Michael Sorkin, 71 Michael Sorkin was an architect and a leading public intellectual in the field of architecture. He gained fame for his radical political takes on design, articulated in criticism in the Village Voice in the 1980s and 1990s. More recently, he founded an equitable urban design nonprofit organization and wrote for The Nation. He died on March 26. Judy Richheimer, 70 Judy Richheimer was an advocate for tenants rights and the protection of historic landmarks in Chelsea, who also served as president of the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club. She was remembered by several elected officials, including on Twitter by New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Rep. Jerry Nadler. She died on March 24 after being hospitalized for four days. Lenin Fierro, 42 Lenin Fierro was director of fleet safety and Vision Zero initiatives for the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services. He oversaw the training of some 60,000 city employees in safe driving and led an outreach initiative to high school students as part of a partnership with the city education department. Fierro was a Navy veteran who immigrated to the United States from Ecuador. He died on March 31. Tarlach MacNiallais, 57 Beginning in the 1980s, gay and disability rights activist Tarlach MacNiallais crusaded for LGBT inclusion in the annual New York City St. Patricks Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. An immigrant from Ireland, he eventually helped to organize the alternative St. Pats For All Parade in Queens. He died on April 1. Lorena Borjas, 59 Lorena Borjas was a prominent advocate for New York City trans women in many ways, whether she was bailing them out of jail or founding a nonprofit organization to support them. Borjas died in Brooklyn on March 30. Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect more recent information about Brodsky's reported cause of death. TALLMADGE, Ohio -- Due to the recent Australian wildfires wreaking havoc in New South Wales and Victoria, not to mention the Gold Coast of eastern Australia and Kangaroo Island, an old friend and I agreed to change our plans for an adventure Down Under and head to New Zealand, instead. It was the end of January when Dave, a fellow volunteer from our vagabond days working on a kibbutz in Israel, and I officially changed our destination from Sydney to Auckland and were immediately rewarded with two $300 change fees from Uniteds friendly skies. Nice! Nevertheless, we felt we made the right decision after viewing YouTube videos only two weeks later of the heaviest rainfall in southeast Australia in three decades. Still, at this point, a virus centered in Wuhan, China, seemed far away and never gave us pause. By the time I caught my flight to San Francisco on March 2 to meet up with Dave, there had been no confirmed coronavirus cases in Ohio, no confirmed cases in San Francisco, only one case in New York City, and, as far as I knew, none in New Zealand. However, perilous warning signs were on the horizon as we landed in Auckland. The New Zealand government soon announced it had its first confirmed cases within a family that reportedly was not community-spread. As much as we enjoyed New Zealands natural beauty during the day, every evening was spent monitoring the latest confirmed virus cases and rising death numbers around the worlds hot spots. By the time we reached Wellington on March 12, the government announced five confirmed cases in the country and many more in self-quarantine, but there were no changes regarding everyday business. Restaurants, bars, and museums, etc. were open and continued serving customers. I began hearing from my family about how quickly things were changing at home and that I should consider returning. It felt like two different worlds, and I was in Bilbo Baggins'. On March 12, we took the Interislander Ferry to the South Island. No restrictions! Our return flight was scheduled for the 24th and surely all would go well until then. For the next week, our drive around the South Island was eye-popping, an area providing something for every outdoor enthusiast. On St. Patricks Day, we celebrated by drinking Guinness at The Bog in Dunedin with a packed group of students from the University of Otago still, no restrictions. Then the hammer fell! On March 19, after hearing from my wife and kids on how fluid the situation at home in Tallmadge was, and continuing statements by the president reflecting an inability to understand the seriousness of COVID-19, the U.S. government issued a Level 4 travel advisory to essentially return home immediately or plan on staying put. Imagine the calls I received from home! Soon afterwards, United Airlines canceled our flight home. Crap! Now I was beginning to feel some anxiety. And we couldnt even return the favor by charging United Airlines two $300 fees for leaving us hanging. We drove toward Picton, from where the ferry would sail back to the North Island on the 22nd. Meanwhile, I contacted Rick Lee at AAA who worked his magic and found us a flight on Air New Zealand, also on the 24th. Anxiety lowered! This time, we began to see social distancing and contact tracing for the first time. It appears things were worsening in the land of the Kiwi, as well. On the drive back to Auckland on the eve of our flight, New Zealand instituted a Level 3, restricting nonessential travel, and 12 hours after our plane took off, a Level 4 complete lockdown. I felt I got out in the nick of time to re-enter the petri dish back home. Surprisingly, there were no health professionals checking temperatures at Los Angeles International Airport. At this writing, Ive been in self-quarantine now for seven days and feel fine. Glad to be back just looking forward to my first hug! Richard Urycki is retired from the Summit County Board of Developmental Disabilities and, with wife Leta, is the father of three and grandfather of four. After backpacking through Europe, Africa, Israel, and Alaska during his youth, he decided one is never too old for adventure. This essay is part of Coronavirus: My Story: We also want to hear from you. Share your fears, your tips, your insights - or just how its making you feel right now. Did your family experience the 1918 flu pandemic? If so, how is this different? As Ohio begins to look at relaxing some of the COVID-19 restrictions, what are your concerns? We are community. Together, we can get through this. Please keep your essays, poems, graphic art, photographs or other submissions to 650 words or fewer, email to forum@cleveland.com, and include CORONAVIRUS MY STORY in the subject line. Questions? Send an email to Elizabeth Sullivan at esullivan@cleveland.com. 'Thanks' Postcard A special THANKS' postcard is being delivered this week free of charge to all Gibraltar addresses. The idea is for children and families to send a postcard to someone within Gibraltar who would appreciate receiving such a card. It is up to individuals to choose who this someone could be; maybe a relative or friend working on the Covid frontline, a grandparent staying at home or a team of people or business doing an exemplary job during these exceptional times. The list is endless! To send the postcard all that needs to be done is: 1. Write a friendly message on the card 2. Fill in the name and address of the recipients (no stamps required) 3. Insert them in any postbox while out on your daily exercise or essential shopping. Postmen and postwomen will deliver these postcards free of charge to any local address. 'For those who receive the postcards, we'd love to see them and we would encourage people to upload a photo on social media using the hashtag #thankinggibraltar ' The Minister with responsibility for the Post Office, the Hon Vijay Daryanani said, This is an excellent initiative as it encourages people to keep in contact with those who are in lockdown or to thank those who are on the frontline. It also gives me the chance to thank the staff of the Post Office who are not only working hard during these difficult days but, with this initiative, are actually volunteering for this extra work! Postcards are also available to pick up free of charge from the Post Office, all Express Shops, Risso's Daily, GibOil Petrol stations and Morrisons Supermarket The corporate parent for Webster Bank is expanding its health savings account business. Officials with Webster Financial Corp.s HSA Bank business unit announced Monday that its subsidiary has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the existing health savings accounts of State Farm Bank. That company is part of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. State Farm, based in Bloomington, Ill., is Americas largest property and casualty insurance provider. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close sometime between now and the end of September, were not announced. Under the terms of the agreement between HSA Bank and State Farm, 24,000 accounts including an estimated $140 million in deposits will transition from State Farm Bank to HSA Bank. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions, according to Chad Wilkins, HSA Bank president. We look forward to welcoming State Farm Bank HSA accountholders to HSA Bank, Chad Wilkins, president of HSA Bank, said in a statement. We are excited that State Farm selected HSA Bank as the HSA custodian of choice, and are well-equipped to help account holders make healthcare financial decisions that are best for them in every stage of life. Joe Monk, president and chief executive officer of State Farm Bank, said HSA Bank is well positioned to help accountholders save and plan for healthcare expenses today and in retirement, and we believe it is a positive move for customers. Current State Farm Bank HSA account holders do not need to take any action. Account holders will receive communications in advance of the transition. HSA Bank has about 3 million members and as of December 31, 2019, had $8.5 billion in assets. State Farm has nearly 19,000 agents and approximately 58,000 employees to serve approximately 84 million policies and accounts. That includes more than 81 million auto, fire, life, health and commercial policies and more than 2 million bank and investment planning services accounts. Webster Financial Corp. got into the health savings account business in 2004 when it agreed to buy Eastern Wisconsin Bancshares Inc., the holding company for State Bank of Howards Grove, headquartered in Howards Grove, Wis. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com Close to half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air, as the quality in the country declines, according to a new report. The 2020 State of the Air report, released by the American Lung Association, found that for nearly half of the countrys residents, the air they breathe is heavily polluted. The report analysed air pollution in American cities from 2016 to 2018 and found that levels increased from the 2019 report, which analysed statistics from 2015 to 2017. More than 137 million people were found to be living in areas where ozone levels rose in the US, which can badly affect those with asthma or other breathing conditions. The years analysed, 2016 to 2018, were three of the hottest years on record and this contributed to increased ozone levels. Recommended Areas with worse air pollution have higher coronavirus death rates Paul Billings, the national senior vice president of the association, told CNN that were moving in the wrong direction, with nearly 21 million more people breathing dirty air than in last years report. The American Lung Association CEO, Harold Wimmer, added in a press release that the report is further proof that climate change is affecting peoples health. This years report shows that climate change continues to degrade air quality and increase the risk of air pollution harming health, he said. To protect the advances in air quality we fought for 50 years ago through the Clean Air Act, we must again act today, implementing effective policies to protect our air quality and lung health against the threat of climate change. Cities in California were found to have the highest figures of short-term and year-round pollution, as well as the highest ozone levels, but the report indicates that results were affected by 2018s wildfires in the state. Los Angeles had the highest ozone levels, Fresno was found to have the highest short-term particle pollution, while Bakersfield had the highest year-round particle pollution. Mr Wimmer referenced the coronavirus pandemic to outline the importance of improving air quality for peoples health. Air pollution is linked to greater risk of lung infection, he said. Protecting everyone from COVID-19 and other lung infections is an urgent reminder of the importance of clean air. A set of frostbitten fingertips, a family album of human hair and the scariest mermaid of all time are just a few of the museum exhibits sure to be haunting your dreams tonight, after the Yorkshire Museum launched a search for the creepiest objects. Museum workers from around the world chipped in on Twitter with the items most likely to give you nightmares. As part of their weekly curator battle, which challenges museums and enthusiasts to select objects on a particular theme, Yorkshire Museum announced the #CreepiestObject hashtag. The Yorkshire Museum started things off with their own hair bun from the third or fourth century, which was buried on a Roman lady with the pins still in place. Plenty followed suit with hair submissions of their own. The Newberry Library in Chicago presented an album filled with twisted samples of hair from the Skiff family in the 1840s. More human body parts include a set of frostbitten fingertips was sent by Kirsty Parsons, curator of the National Army Museum and the National Leather Collections piece of skin taken from the belly of a 2,300 year old man, who was thought to have been murdered during a ritual. They added it was a nice reminder that humans can be leather too! Then there is the downright weird and definitely not naturally occurring: a mermaid from National Museums Scotland, which doesnt look anything like Ariel. York Castle Museums entry is a particularly strange Victorian set of tableaus, featuring hand-made models of figures made from crabs claws playing cards and hauling gold nuggets from the mines. There were a number of mummified animals playing instruments, including a monkey on the violin from the Paisley Museum and a cat playing the harp from SOCH, the database for Swedish digital cultural heritage. A 3D printed oil pump jack is seen in front of displayed stock graph in this illustration picture By Luc Cohen, Julia Payne and Ron Bousso (Reuters) - Guyana has attracted interest from several oil trading companies for a contract to serve as the marketing agent for the government's share of the country's crude, despite a plunge in global prices, four people familiar with the matter said. Oil major Royal Dutch Shell and commodities traders Gunvor and Mercuria were among the companies that have submitted expressions of interest ahead of the Tuesday morning deadline, the people said on condition of anonymity as they were unauthorized to discuss the matter publicly. Mark Bynoe, the Guyanese government's director of energy, declined to comment on expressions of interest before the procurement process is finished. The government has said it is planning on shortlisting no more than 20 companies that submit expressions of interest. Those companies would be required to provide a full technical proposal and financial offer, a process that could take around two months, Bynoe said. Guyana, a poor South American country with no history of oil production, joined the ranks of the world's crude producers in December. A consortium led by Exxon Mobil Corp began exporting crude in January from the offshore Stabroek block, where it has discovered more than 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Under the contract with the consortium, which also includes Hess Corp and China's CNOOC Ltd <0883.HK>, the government is entitled to 50% of the crude after cost recovery. But Guyana has no domestic refining capacity, so the government is seeking to sell its share to a trader who can market it. A Shell trading unit last year won the rights to market Guyana's first three cargoes of crude oil, and has lifted a 1 million-barrel shipment so far. The new contract would be for 12 months and involve five lifts of some 1 million barrels each. "This is for a big game," said one of the people, noting that short-term price volatility would not dampen interest in such a long-term contract. Story continues The deal has attracted interest despite a plunge in crude oil prices in the past month sparked by falling demand during the coronavirus outbreak and a price war between major producers. U.S. crude prices traded in negative territory for the first time in history on Monday. In February, the government's cargo sold for $55 a barrel, before the worst of the oil price collapse. Projected lifting costs for Liza partners will be just over $10 per barrel for the full year, according to Ruaraidh Montgomery, director of research at Houston-based consultancy Welligence. Exxon has said operations at its flagship Liza field in the Stabroek block were unaffected by the price drop, which prompted the company to slash capital spending this year. (Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Julia Payne and Ron Bousso in London; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Richard Chang) Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits Niubeiliang National Nature Reserve to learn about ecological conservation in the Qinling Mountains, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, April 20, 2020. Xi Jinping on Monday urged local officials to be guardians of the ecological environment of the Qinling Mountains during his inspection tour in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. "The illegal construction in the Qinling Mountains is a big lesson," he said. "From now on, any official working in Shaanxi should above all learn this lesson, avoid repeating the same mistake and work as a guardian of the ecological environment of the Qinling Mountains." (Xinhua/Ju Peng) XI'AN, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Monday urged local officials to be guardians of the ecological environment of the Qinling Mountains during his inspection tour in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Xi made the remarks while visiting Niubeiliang National Nature Reserve to learn about ecological conservation in the Qinling Mountains. "The illegal construction in the Qinling Mountains is a big lesson," he said. "From now on, any official working in Shaanxi should above all learn this lesson, avoid repeating the same mistake and work as a guardian of the ecological environment of the Qinling Mountains." As a natural boundary between the country's north and south, the Qinling Mountains are home to a huge variety of plants and rare wildlife such as giant pandas, golden monkeys and crested ibis. Attaching great importance to the environmental protection of the Qinling Mountains, Xi had made six instructions on tackling the illegal construction of villas in the Qinling Mountains, demanding a thorough investigation into the persistent problem of illegal construction and the failure of officials concerned to comply with orders from the central authorities. After July 2018, more than 1,100 illegal villas at the northern foot of Qinling range were demolished according to law and a number of officials concerned were investigated for disciplinary and law violations, among China's efforts to preserve both the natural beauty of mountains and waters and the political integrity of officials, which are championed by Xi. 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. Now, were not going to be able to erase decades of health disparities in a few days or a week, but we have to impress upon people in these communities that there are things they can do, she said at a news conference. There are tools at their disposal that they can use to help themselves, but we have to call this out as it is and make sure weve got a very robust, multitiered response now and going forward, and we will. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday expressed concern over alleged mismanagement of wheat procurement in the state. The government has continued to claim that it was ready for the purchase. But when farmers brought wheat to the mandis' (markets), they were made to wait for too long. Many of these farmers had to return, he alleged. The Leader of the Opposition also said there was an atmosphere of mistrust between the government and grain merchants or 'Arhitiyas', due to which the procurement process has been disrupted. The government should speed up the process on the lines of Punjab by building trust with the Arhitiyas to ensure smooth procurement, the senior Congress leader said in a statement here. While mustard procurement by the state agencies began on April 15, wheat procurement began on April 20. On the first two days of procurement of wheat, government procuring agencies have procured nearly 2.84 lakh metric tones (MT) of the crop, while over 1.49 lakh MT of mustard has been procured since April 15, officials said. On Monday, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala had alleged that there was chaos in wheat procurement centers across the state which has left the farmers in the lurch. Meanwhile, Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala paid a visit to the mandis of Hisar, Sirsa and Fatehabad districts on Tuesday. He said farmers and 'Arhitiyas' share good ties and if the farmers want to sell their produce to them, the government procurement agencies should not insist on direct purchase. The INLD leader also said that the farmers should not have been asked to register details of the crops to be sold by them all over again on 'Meri Fasal Mera Byora' portal when revenue officials in their area have all the relevant details and records. Haryana Agriculture Minister J P Dalal on Tuesday reiterated the commitment of the state government to purchase every single grain of the farmers. He said the farmers and majority of 'Arhitiyas' were cooperating with the government keeping in mind the difficulties due to the COVID-19 situation, adding the opposition too must extend their cooperation. Notwithstanding the claims made by the opposition, the minister said there was no capping for purchase of wheat produce and entire produce of farmers will be procured. Hooda, however, said his party had extended full support to the government to deal with the COVID-19 situation and also requested everyone to follow all guidelines of the government, including social distancing. The government should not add to the troubles of farmers who are already going through lot of hardships. The farmers are reaching the mandis after harvesting their crops with great difficultly, facing unseasonal rains, hailstorm and labour shortage. Massive mismanagement at the mandis is pushing the farmers into distress, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Devoleena Bhattacharjee has sought the help of Mumbai Police after a woman sent her a death threat. The woman asked the actor to stop speaking about Bigg Boss co-contestant Arhaan Khan. The police department tweeted to reassure the actor. Sharing the screen shot of the threat, Devoleena wrote: @MumbaiPolice @MahaCyber1 please look into this message where i am getting killing threats from this lady.Urge you to take action against it asap. In the screen shot, the woman writes in Hindi: Aap baar baar Arhaan ki insult kar rahi hai. Aur jiske liye aap yeh sab kuch kar rahi hain, aap yaad rakhna, na aapki aur aaun dono ki laash bhi kisiko nahi milegi. Main Rashami aur Sidharth Shukla ki baat karrahi hon. Aaj ke baad apna muh band rakhe. Aainda agar aapke Arhaan ke khilaaf koi baat ki toh voh aapka aakhri din hoga (You have been insulting Arhaan continuously. And remember, the bodies of even those two for whom you are doing this, will not found. I am talking about Rashami Desai and Sidharth Shukla. Keep your mouth shut from now on. If you continue to speak about Arhaan, then that day would be your last one.) To @MumbaiPolice @MahaCyber1 please look into this message where i am getting killing threats from this lady.Urge you to take action against it asap. pic.twitter.com/EFYCIks5FJ Devoleena Bhattacharjee (@Devoleena_23) April 21, 2020 Mumbai Police replied back to Devoleena and said: We have followed you. Please DM us your contact details. While some fans appreciated the promptness showed by the police some wondered about Arhaan fans threats to Sidharth. One user wrote: This lady is threatening #SidharthShukla too? She has lost it completely. Arhaan and Rashami were in a relationship at the time when they were inside the Bigg Boss house. At one time, Salman had revealed on national television that Arhaan had a child and that he had concealed this fact from her. Rashami, though shocked had chosen to forgive him. But it was close friend Devoleena who had advised Rashami to act otherwise. Also read: Priyanka Chopra reveals secret to her beautiful hair: My mom taught me, and her mom taught her. Watch Speaking to ETimes in January this year, she had said: I dont think she needs to give time to Arhaan and her relationship; she needs to end it. It is going to be emotionally very tough in the future. I know it gets tough because you get attached to the person when you are in a relationship. But aage jaake pachtane se accha she should end now. When a person lies to you and you forgive him, he takes you for granted and one thing leads to another. Arhaan has kept her in the dark for so long, theres no point in giving him another chance. Then you get trapped in that relationship and there is no way out. Rashami doesnt need to think even one per cent over it. It will be tough, but time will heal everything. Follow @htshowbiz for more There is a debate under way as to whether Canada responded well and well enough to the need for financial assistance in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Ottawa initially introduced a two-pronged approach and subsequently merged the two programs: Employment Insurance and the Canada Emergency Response Benefit for those not eligible for EI. Turns out, the latter comprised a large group. That should have come as no surprise. For years, shortcomings had been identified in EI and the programs for working-age Canadians, known as adult benefits. While by no means perfect, Canada has a generally good system of seniors benefits that replace lost income. Canada also has an effective system of child benefits for families. While most households receive some payment from the Canada Child Benefit, it pays higher benefits to lower-income families. Unlike seniors programs, child benefits dont replace household income. They supplement income so families can pay for the basics for their children. With the two ends of the age spectrum covered through relatively solid systems, financial security for those in the middle rests on more shaky ground. In broad terms, this group comprises 18- to 64-year-olds who are employed or seeking work. Two main programs provide financial assistance to this missing middle: the Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) and EI. The CWB supplements low earnings while EI replaces lost earnings. This package is supposed to ensure income security for Canadians workers. They dont. We have known this for some time. As a wage supplement, the CWB is intended as a work incentive. Unfortunately, few Canadians have ever heard of it and most dont realize they may be receiving it. The benefit is so modest and the design so narrow as to be negligible in its assistance. EI design based on regional balances has created serious eligibility problems. When EI sickness benefits expire after 15 weeks, there is no alternative but provincial welfare. These are just a few examples of the wide-ranging problems in EI. While some important improvements have recently been introduced, the fundamental gap remains. It took a pandemic to bring this problem to the fore. The shortcomings of EI became starkly clear during the frantic rush to create an emergency benefit to assist the millions of Canadians with no coverage. These include workers with insufficient hours, the self-employed, temporary foreign workers, students seeking permanent or part-time work, and others excluded from the EI tent. Ottawa acted swiftly to introduce an emergency benefit in response to COVID-19. The hastily constructed platform miraculously survived the tidal wave of applications. Day-by-day, the new program opened its doors to the lineup of those excluded from the initial iteration. Canada will survive the crisis. But when were on the other side, we will need more than lifeboats to keep the missing middle afloat. We will need to shore up the system of adult benefits that had long been sinking and is in need of major repair. Advocacy groups have filed multiple petitions in the high court, contending that Netanyahus indictments should preclude him from forming a government. The court, which had dodged the question on grounds that no government had yet been proposed, may now be forced to rule on that issue along with another. A clause in the deal would allow Netanyahu to stay on as deputy prime minister even after his year and a half in the top job is over, by which time he might have gone from indicted to convicted. Assessing Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp.'s (SEHK:322) performance as a company requires looking at more than just a years' earnings data. Below, I will run you through a simple sense check to build perspective on how Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding is doing by comparing its most recent earnings with its historical trend, in addition to the performance of its food industry peers. View our latest analysis for Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Did 322's recent earnings growth beat the long-term trend and the industry? 322's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 December 2019) of CN3.3b has jumped 35% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, this one-year growth rate has exceeded its 5-year annual growth average of 9.0%, indicating the rate at which 322 is growing has accelerated. What's the driver of this growth? Let's take a look at if it is merely attributable to industry tailwinds, or if Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding has seen some company-specific growth. SEHK:322 Income Statement April 21st 2020 In terms of returns from investment, Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 16% instead. Furthermore, its return on assets (ROA) of 5.5% is below the HK Food industry of 6.0%, indicating Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding's are utilized less efficiently. However, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holdings debt level, has increased over the past 3 years from 6.9% to 12%. This correlates with a decrease in debt holding, with debt-to-equity ratio declining from 64% to 54% over the past 5 years. What does this mean? Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding's track record can be a valuable insight into its earnings performance, but it certainly doesn't tell the whole story. Positive growth and profitability are what investors like to see in a companys track record, but how do we properly assess sustainability? You should continue to research Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at: Story continues Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 322s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 322s outlook. Financial Health: Are 322s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why weve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 December 2019. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. BANGALORE, India, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A smart retail is a retail brick-and-mortar establishment that uses smart technology such as advanced shelves, smart cards etc. Smart retail typically delivers their services in real stores through the Cloud, mobile apps, and virtual reality apps. One of the major factors for the growth of the smart retail market is the increasing competition from e-commerce sites. Conventional bricks-and-mortar stores are facing intense competition from the increasingly growing e-commerce market in today's retail industry. Traditional retailers also need to implement smart retail technologies to get their customers back in. The technology aims to boost the experience of digital shopping in physical stores. In 2019, the global Smart Retail market size was USD 12.410 billion and is projected to reach USD 30.730 billion by the end of 2026, at a CAGR of 13.7% in the 2021-2026 period. The report provides informative and detailed information on the various key players operating in the industry, their finances, supply chain trends, technological innovations, key developments, apart from strategic strategies, acquisitions and mergers, and business footprint. View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-4D232/smart-retail-market TRENDS INFLUENCING THE SMART RETAIL MARKET SIZE : Growing the usage of the internet and technology, reducing the cost of electronic products, growing mobile penetration, increasing the need to provide better customer service are some of the factors that help the growth of the global smart retail market over the forecast period. The adoption of analytical solutions by retailers in order to understand their clients, optimize business processes, increase productivity and provide a competitive advantage over their rivals in both physical and e-commerce retail is boosting the growth of smart retail market size. Smart retail implements IoT technology to deliver a connected and richer experience when shopping for their customers. By implementing IoT technology, the customers can log into the store on their smartphones before entering the store to test the availability and price of the items they wish to buy. This use of IoT is expected to increase the smart retail market size. The growing use of big data analytics to recognize consumer needs, improve customer interaction and the shopping experience is expected to lead to market development. The use of advanced technologies such as BLE beacons, near-field communications (NFC), and mPOS will help enhance customer service as well as increase data collection in-store. Such data obtained will be further used to help deliver useful information and assistance to customers. Inquire for Free Sample Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Othe-4D232/smart_retail_market REGION WISE SMART RETAIL MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS It is anticipated that the Asia Pacific smart retail market will experience the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Adoption of smart retail solutions such as RFID, facial recognition and big data analytics to promote online shopping experience inside a physical store by retailers in China and Japan is one of the major trends that is expected to increase the market share. MARKET SEGMENT BY REGIONS/COUNTRIES, THIS REPORT COVERS North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia India Central & South America Ask for Regional Sample: https://reports.valuates.com/request/regional/QYRE-Othe-4D232/smart_retail_market The key players covered in this study Intel IBM NVIDIA Samsung Microsoft Google PTC Amazon Cisco System NXP Semiconductors Par Technology SoftBank Ingenico Verifone First Data NCR EVRY Others Smart Retail Market segmented by Type: Bluetooth NFC Others Smart Retail Market segmented by Application: Visual Marketing Smart Label Smart Payment System Intelligent System Robotics Analytics Others BUY NOW: https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Othe-4D232 SIMILAR REPORTS : Smart Labels Market Report In 2017, the Global Smart Labels Market size was estimated at USD 5.428 billion and is projected to hit USD 13.671 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 16.6 percent from 2017 to 2023. The smart label market created by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) has grown in popularity in the packaging industry due to increased demand for product information through smart devices. Such labels serve as an effective medium to access comprehensive product information by customers. Smart label features including real-time location tracking, re-programmability and simultaneous identification & detailed information are expected to fuel demand from the global smart label industry in different sectors over the forecast period. However, the lack of uniformity in standardized guidelines for smart labels is one of the major challenges that constrain market growth. View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Auto-3O217/smart-labels-market Blockchain in Retail Market Report In 2019, the global Blockchain in Retail Market size was estimated at 123.1 million USD and is projected to reach 1.644 billion USD by the end of 2026, at a CAGR of 44.5 % in 2021-26. This study focuses on the global Blockchain in Retail Market status, forward forecasting, growth opportunity, key industry and key players. The aim of the analysis is to present the Blockchain in Retail Growth for North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Central & South America. View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-1O282/blockchain-in-retail-market Internet of things (IoT) in Retail Market Report This report presents the global Internet of Things (IoT) in retail market size (value, output, and consumption), splits the breakdown by manufacturers, country, form, and application (data status 2013-2018 and forecast to 2025). This study also analyzes the market status, market share, growth rate, future trends, market drivers, opportunities and challenges, risks and barriers to entry, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis. View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-1H283/iot-in-retail-market Augmented Reality (AR) in Retail Market Report In 2019, the global Augmented Reality (AR) in Retail market size was USD 970.9 million and it is expected to reach USD 9.453 billion by the end of 2026, with a CAGR of 38.2% during 2021-2026. View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-2Z282/ar-in-retail-market Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Retail Market Report Rising need for superior surveillance and monitoring in a physical store, rising knowledge and implementation of AI in the retail industry, enhanced customer experience, increased efficiency, return on investment (RoI), concentrating on inventory quality and optimizing the supply chain are some of the main factors driving this market's development. View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-21S1695/global-artificial-intelligence-in-retail-market Digital Transformation in Retail Market Report The main Digital Transformation in Retail Market drivers are increased use of smart devices, growing need for advanced mobile logistics management and demand for an increase in yield and efficiency. View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-1V249/digital-transformation-in-retail-market ABOUT US: Valuates offers in-depth market insights into various industries. Our extensive report repository is constantly updated to meet your changing industry analysis needs. Our team of market analysts can help you select the best report covering your industry. We understand your niche region-specific requirements and that's why we offer customization of reports. With our customization in place, you can request for any particular information from a report that meets your market analysis needs. 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CONTACT US: Valuates Reports sales@valuates.com For U.S. Toll Free Call 1(315)215-3225 For IST Call +91-8040957137 WhatsApp: +91 9945648335 Website: https://reports.valuates.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/valuatesreports Linkedin - https://in.linkedin.com/company/valuatesreports Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/valuatesreports/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082232/Valuates_Reports_Logo.jpg SEOUL, South Korea There was one state event that the secretive leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, never missed: a visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun every April 15 to mark the birthday of his grandfather, the founder of the dynastic regime. In the mausoleum, both his grandfather and his father lie in state. So when Mr. Kim was a no-show at this years anniversary in Pyongyang, it triggered speculation about his whereabouts and even his health. Such rumors gained further traction after Daily NK, a Seoul-based website relying on anonymous sources inside the North, reported Monday that Mr. Kim was recovering from heart surgery performed on April 12. By Tuesday, South Korean officials were questioning the accuracy of the report. Kang Min-seok, a spokesman for President Moon Jae-in, said South Korea has so far detected no special signs inside North Korea, a stock phrase often used to cast doubt on unsubstantiated news reports. [Update: South Korea confident that rumors of Kim Jong-un illness are wrong.] North Korea also tried to dispel the speculation. On Tuesday, its official news agency said Mr. Kim had sent birthday gifts to exemplary workers and a birthday letter to the Cuban president on Monday. Photograph: Curtis Compton/AP Georgia mayors said they were alarmed by the governors decision to reopen the economy this week, as the state joined several others in planning to relax restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19. The mayor of Savannah called the decision reckless, premature and dangerous. Related: US anti-lockdown rallies could cause surge in Covid-19 cases, experts warn Ignoring public health experts warnings that reopening too quickly could cause another spike in cases, Georgias governor, Brian Kemp, a Republican, said on Monday some businesses in the state could reopen this week. From Sunday to Monday evening, 86 people in Georgia died of Covid-19. There is no widespread testing for the virus in the state, which epidemiologists say is necessary for safe reopening. The mayor of Atlanta, Georgias biggest city, said Kemps decision was not based on anything logical. We see our numbers are continuing to tick up in this state, we see that our deaths are rising, said Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat. We have some of the highest asthma rates in the country right here in Atlanta. She later issued a statement insisting city residents stay inside. The Democratic mayor of Savannah, Van Johnson, said ending the lockdown was reckless, premature and dangerous. People can see it for themselves, Johnson told CNN. We want them to keep the faith, but we want them to follow the science. This is still a dangerous time. This is not the time for people to take their feet off the gas. Kemp said businesses including bowling alleys, tattoo studios and hair salons would reopen this week if they met safety standards and enforced social distancing. Movie theaters and restaurants could reopen on Monday. Georgias public health commissioner, Dr Kathleen Toomey, said emergency rooms were seeing fewer flu-like illnesses. She said the state would increase contact tracing, the practice of identifying people who have had close contact with someone who tests positive for Covid-19. Story continues We definitely have a plateauing and what appears to be a decline, Toomey said. In Albany, where nearly 100 people have died from Covid-19, Mayor Bo Dorough said the governors decision was irresponsible. Im flabbergasted that the governor would say we cant take additional precautions to protect our citizens, Dorough told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This isnt a mixed signal. Its a U-turn. Despite a number of small protests across the country calling for restaurants and stores to reopen, polling has shown a majority of Americans support stay-at-home orders. Nearly 60% of voters say they are more concerned the US will move too quickly than that the restrictions will be in place too long, according to a national poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday. Political leaders, including Donald Trump, say lockdowns must end to save the economy. Many business leaders have said stay-at-home orders are important for preserving their business. On Tuesday, the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said he feared Georgias plans were too abrupt. I support what South Carolina Governor announced yesterday a small reopening of our states economy with a focus on social distancing, Graham tweeted. I worry that our friends and neighbors in Georgia are going too fast too soon. In Brookhaven, Georgia, Mayor John Ernst told local news station 11 Alive the first text he received after the governors announcement was from a restaurant owner concerned reopening could hurt his business more than staying closed. By opening back up, business owners could have to pay for staff and supplies while facing a trickle of customers who do not cover costs. Related: 'The last flag bearers of an era': how coronavirus threatens a generation of black Americans Owners are also left to decide whether they should open up in the face of public health experts advising against doing so. At the beginning of the outbreak, business owners concern about this responsibility being placed on them, instead of the government, prompted many to demand blanket stay-at-home orders. The mayor of Tybee Island, Shirley Sessions, said: I think its putting a lot of pressure and stress on the businesses. One day Parvin was toiling to meet the fast-fashion demands of European capitals, the next she was among hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi clothes workers made instantly jobless as the coronavirus pandemic struck. Big-name international brands have cancelled billions of dollars in orders because of the pandemic, decimating Bangladeshs most important export industry and hurting in particular rural woman who dominate the workforce. Parvin, a 28-year-old seamstress, joined thousands of workers queueing to collect final wages from tables of banknotes set up at the Al Muslim factory, one of the biggest in the country that supplies some of the worlds most famous labels. The workers waited in long lines, each one metre apart in a bid to keep up social distancing, and the anxiety built as the towers of bank notes went down. We dont know when it will reopen, said Parvin, who collected her salary for March just before the giant complex closed its doors. She has no other means to support her family going forward, and described her situation as a catastrophe. Many factories have already closed. My husband is jobless. Making the shirts, pullovers, bras and socks for stores in wealther nations is the foundation of Bangladeshs impoverished economy. It accounts for 80 percent of the South Asian nations $40 billion of annual exports and has played a vital role in its growth of the past two decades. More than four million people, mainly women from poor rural villages, are employed in the sector. But the industry has a reputation for running sweatshops, with workers toiling in unsafe factories without labour protections or a social safety net. The 2013 Rana Plaza diaster, when the collapse of the garment complex claimed the lives of 1,130 lives, exposed appalling safety conditions in Bangladeshi factories. Now, with international brands walking away and a government lockdown stopped people in Bangladesh travelling, laid-off workers are complaining of being dumped without any help. Thousands of workers -- some of whom had earnt just $100 a month -- have staged multiple demonstrations over the past week complaining that factories have not paid them. Many of us dont have food at home now. We cant even ask for handouts on the streets because those poorer than us would mock us as we have jobs, said sewing machine operator Didarul Islam. What do we do? Die of hunger? added the 38-year-old father of two. International brands have cancelled or held up orders worth $3.11 billion, affecting more than two million workers, according to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. The situation is apocalyptic, said Asif Ibrahim, a factory owner and a BGMEA director. The Bangladesh group and counterparts in China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Cambodia and Myanmar, have pleaded with the high street majors not to cancel orders. It is time for global businesses to uphold and honour their commitment to labour rights, social responsibility and sustainable supply chains, said a joint statement. Some of the big firms, including H&M and Inditex, which runs the Zara chain, responded by vowing not to cancel existing orders. Others have sought discounts, according to the BGMEA. There were no promises for the future though. H&M chief executive Helena Helmersson said that purchasing was a key area where forceful measures have been taken because of the pandemic. But the situation is already dire at Ashulia, home to 600 factories where workers live in rows of concrete slums near the plants. Rubel Ahmed, the owner of a factory employing 250 people making apparel for Spanish retailers such as SDV, Ritchi and Vamutex, said he had lost more than 50 per cent of his business. Ahmed, chain smoking as he watched the empty machines in his factory, said the pandemic was one hundred times worse than the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster. Those who have smaller factories like me will be destroyed, he said. Activist groups say action must be taken to make sure wages hold up when work starts again. People will remember when this crisis is over which brands stepped up to protect their workers and employees and which did not, said Dominique Muller of Labour Behind the Label, a British group on workers rights in the clothing industry. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter On a day of their induction into the Madhya Pradesh cabinet, the five ministers were allocated various regions to look after instead of dedicated portfolios by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in view of the COVID- 19 situation. Earlier in the day, Chouhan expanded his single-member cabinet for the first time since he took charge on March 23 by inducting five ministers, two of whom are Congress rebels who have joined the BJP. "After expansion of the cabinet, work has been allocated to the ministers in view of the COVID-19 crisis," Chouhan said in a video statement. "Accordingly, Narottam Mishra will look after Bhopal and Ujjain divisions and Tulsi Silawat Indore and Sagar divisions. Gwalior and Chambal divisions will be under Govind Singh Rajput while Rewa and Shahdol will be looked after by Meena Singh. Similarly, Kamal Patel will be in-charge of Jabalpur and Narmadapuram divisions," the CM said. The five ministers hail from Gwalior-Chambal, Bundelkand, Malwa, Vindh and Central MP regions. Madhya Pradesh has been witnessing a surge in the COVID-19 cases, with Indore being the worst-hit city. On Monday, the state reported 70 new coronavirus positive cases, taking their tally to 1552, Health officials said. The state has so far reported 80 deaths due to COVID-19 disease. Chouhan said commissioners, IGs, collectors, SPs and Health department officials concerned will report to the ministers. The CM said the ministers are expected to take feedback from the common people and elected representatives and ensure that work is done in a better and coordinated manner. He said the Cabinet will meet once in a week on every Tuesday, and on more occasions if needed. "I have also informed them (ministers) about various decisions taken since March 24 to deal with the COVID-19 crisis and other matters...Also reviewed steps to be taken to deal with this pandemic," the CM said. Meanwhile, Chouhan's predecessor Kamal Nath has termed as a "joke" on people the small size of the cabinet. "The induction of only five ministers and not allocating them any departments reflects the differences in the BJP unit (over sharing of power). This is a joke on the 7.5 crore people of the state," Nath said. The former CM hinted that Chouhan preferred political expediency over loyalty and capability of BJP leaders. "All those BJP leaders who have worked hard and who are capable and honest, and whose experience was required to deal with this current crisis, were left behind and those who ran away during a political crisis (when the Congress was in power) have been inducted in the cabinet," Nath said. Earlier in the day, the five new ministers, three of them sitting MLAs and two former legislators, were sworn-in by Governor Lalji Tandon at Raj Bhawan here in a low-key event. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants all countries to co-operate with a global review of the origin of the coronavirus, including the World Health Organisation's handling of the global pandemic. Chinese officials on Monday slammed Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton for their comments supporting a review into the outbreak of COVID-19, saying any doubt about China's transparency was "disrespectful of the tremendous efforts and sacrifices of the Chinese people". Scott Morrison says Australia will be pushing for a global review into the coronavirus. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Tuesday revealed the Morrison government is exploring the option of the United Nations appointing an independent investigator to review the world's response to the pandemic, which would probe China and the WHO's handling in the early days of the outbreak. The WHO has come under criticism from health experts and governments around the world for uncritically repeating lines from China through most of January about the virus. The UN body did, however, declare the outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern" on January 30. The mob lynching of three men, including two saints Kalpavriksha Giri Maharaj (70 years), Sushil Giri Maharaj (35), in Maharashtra's Palghar on April 16 has triggered a political slugfest with the BJP and other parties accusing the state government of failing to take action against those involved in the incident. The shocking incident took place when the two saints along with a driver of the vehicle were on their way to Surat in Gujarat. Zee News team visited the scene of crime and talked to several local people to know more about the incident and many people who wished to remain anonymous hinted that the lynching of the saints was part of a political conspiracy. The local residents of the area said that the tribals living in Palghar had never assaulted any sadhu in the past, adding that in facts the sadhus are accorded a lot of respect by the tribals. Notably, Palghar is dominated by tribals and it is a bastion of Communist and like-minded parties. The village where the saints were lynched falls under Dahanu Assembly constituency of Palghar and the incumbent MLA of Dahanu, Vinod Nikole, is from Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM. Earlier, the seat was a stronghold of the Congress but after 1999 the NCP and CPM gained a foothold in the region. After 1999, NCP and CPM have won twice each from Dahanu. In 2014, BJP had won from this seat and in 2019 Assembly election there was a direct fight between the BJP and CPM on this seat. Local residents also told Zee News that rumours were going on in the village for quite some time that some people are coming to village to kidnap kids and commit theft and this is cited as the main reason by the police behind the brutal lynching of the saints. The two saffron-robed monks, who took a route passing through Gadchindhali village, were stopped by locals who suspected that they were child-lifters. During the attack on them even the police vehicles were damaged by the mob. Zee Media reporter who reached the spot revealed several startling facts. The available facts and a few videos in possession of the Zee Media show inept handling of the situation by the police, who could have saved the precious lives of the trio. Sources said that around 2000 people were present at the scene of crime when the incident took place and it is alleged that most of these men were from NCP and the CPM. It is learnt that some people from a Christian missionary group named Kashkaari were also present at the spot during the lynching of saints. A new trend has emerged these days to attach the names of dalits or adivasis with any crime in order to hide the larger conspiracy and it seems that the same is happening in Palghar case too. In India, tribals are known for their gentle behaviour and it is tough to believe that this horrific crime was carried out by tribals. Palghar Lok Sabha constituency has six Assembly seats, out of which three seats are with ruling Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP alliance and one seat is with CPM. It would not be wrong to say that both the ruling alliance and the CPM share the same ideology, which is against the sadhus and saffron-clad people. It would not be wrong to say that lynching of saints at Palghar was an incident of hate crime. Many are claiming that the lyunching of sadhus was a political conspiracy because some local leaders are seen in the videos which were shot during the lyunching. A local leader identified as Kashinath Chaudhary can also be seen in one of the videos. Kashinath belongs to NCP is a member of district panchayat. According to local residents, Kashinath and three CPM leaders Vishnu Paatra, Subhash Bhavar and Dharma Bhavar were present at the spot when the sadhus were lynched by the mob. The police, however, said that Kashinath was taken to the spot by the police in order to control the rampaging mob. SAP co-CEO Jennifer Morgan is to step down. (Ralph Orlowski/Reuters) German software giant SAP (SAP) announced late on Monday that its co-chief executive Jennifer Morgan was leaving the company and Christian Klein, her co-CEO would carry on in the job. Morgan made history in October 2019 when she became the first chief executive of SAP as well as the first woman to ever lead a company on the DAX, the blue-chip index of Germanys 30 largest companies. SAP gave the coronavirus pandemic as a reason for her departure, saying in a statement that the move was to ensure strong unambiguous steering and that the current environment requires companies to take swift, determined action which is best supported by a very clear leadership structure. The reason we decided to come back to a sole CEO model was because of the outbreak of the pandemic, Klein said in a call with reporters. There was no exact date to when SAP would have come back to a sole CEO model but in these turbulent times we thought now was the right time. The 48-year-old American will leave at the end of April. Morgan has been with the software company since 2004. She was president of the SAPs Cloud Business Group and became an executive board member in 2017. Her appointment to lead the company along with the 39-year-old Klein came after Bill McDermott, who has been SAPs chief executive for 10 years, suddenly resigned, although his contract was not due to expire until 2021. McDermott has taken a new job as CEO of cloud computing company ServiceNow. "It has been a great privilege to drive SAP's growth and innovation in so many areas and most recently as co-CEO," Morgan said in a statement. President Akufo-Addo has been meeting identifiable groups including the Council of State over the lifting of the partial lockdown of some parts of Accra and Kumasi. The President during the meeting which ended not long ago briefed the members of the Council about the lifting of the three-week partial lockdown of some parts of the country. He is expected to meet the Christian Council and other religous groups later this week. Sources say the meetings will affording the President the opportunity to brief the groups on why he lifted the partial lockdown in the countrys response to the coronavirus pandemic. Further details of the meetings are still sketchy. It would be recalled that President Akufo-Addo yesterday met Trades Union Congress (TUC) as well as the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) on the same matter. The two groups commended him for his leadership in the countrys response and pledged to continue supporting the government in its coronavirus response plan. ---Daily Guide Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Operation Gridlock may not have achieved gridlock on what these days are lightly traveled streets in Santa Fe. But people in about 15 vehicles that circled the Capitol and the citys historic Plaza honking horns and shouting out windows did manage to get their message across to some people along the way. Glad youre working, one man shouted to several reporters observing the demonstration from the street in front of the Roundhouse. Weve got to get back to work, guys. Some of the vehicles had messages written on the windows in shoe polish. We are essential, was one that appeared on more than one vehicle. No More and Reopen New Mexico were other appeals. MLG is bad for NM, said another, referring to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The demonstration was promoted on a Facebook page titled Operation Gridlock managed by an Albuquerque woman. In an effort to minimize the spread of the coronavirus, the governor has ordered the temporary closure of all but essential businesses and urged New Mexicans to stay at home, practice social distancing and wear masks when they do go out in public. But some people say the governors order to shut down businesses is an example of government overreach. After making several laps, some of the vehicles stopped in a parking lot across from the Capitol and spoke with reporters. This is no time for her to run for vice president, Floyd Chrisman said of Lujan Grishman, who was mentioned in a recent Washington Post article as a possible running mate for the Democratic Partys nominee for president. Chrisman and his wife, Terri, drove from Lovington on Monday morning to attend the demonstration. They said theres no reason businesses should be shut down in their part of the state. Out of the nearly 2,000 positive tests for COVID-19 reported in New Mexico, just two are in Lea County, where they live. Chrisman said people can take common sense approaches, including social distancing, to curtail the virus, but closing businesses was a step too far. Others agreed. They (businesses) should be opening slowly today, said Deborah Gowen, who drove up from Bernalillo. We are adults. We know how to be responsible. Alexis Johnson, a Republican candidate for the seat in the 3rd Congressional District, came by the rally pushing a baby carriage. She had her four young children with her, and all were wearing masks and maintaining a safe distance from others. We need to open up in areas where we have a low risk, said Johnson, whose family owns a business in the Permian Basin in southeastern New Mexico. Its not the job of the governor to dictate to us how we live. Swiss man, 72, found dead in Kathu home PHUKET: Kathu Police have confirmed that doctors are testing the body of a 72-year-old Swiss man whose body was found in his house in Kathu on Saturday (Apr 18) to determine whether man had contracted COVID-19. COVID-19Coronavirusdeathhealthpolice By The Phuket News Tuesday 21 April 2020, 10:34AM The Swiss mans body was discovered at his home in Kathu on Saturday afternoon (Apr 18). Photo: Kathu Police Capt Peerawat Yodtor of the Kathu Police told The Phuket News that he was called to the mans house, in Soi Banpod, near the Plus Condominium 1 complex, at 1pm on Saturday. The man, originally from Sales, Switzerland, was believed to have died earlier that day before his body was discovered in his bedroom by a close Thai friend, Capt Peerawat said. His friend told me that the man had been staying here for more than 10 years, Capt Peerawat explained. On the Saturday, she brought him food and other essentials. The man lived alone and did not have a wife or partner, he added. There was nothing in the room that indicated what may have caused his death. There were no signs of a struggle in the room or on his body, but we did find antihypertensive medication at his home, Capt Peerawat noted. Capt Peerawat did not mention whether the man had any other health issues, but in photos presented to The Phuket News a wheelchair can be seen near the front door of the home. "Swiss consular officials have been notified of the mans death," he said. Kusoldham Foundation rescue workers wore face shields as basic personal protection gear as a precaution while recovering the mans body and transporting it to Vachira Phuket Hospital, Capt Peerawat said. Capt Peerawat said that he had yet to receive the results of a post-mortem examination that was to be conducted yesterday in the hope of determining what caused the mans death. Doctors will also test for COVID-19, he added. The result of the test should be available in a couple of days, Capt Peerawat said. Chalong Polcie have also asked for doctors to check whether a 70-year-Canadian man found dead at his rented apartment in Chalong on Saturdayhad contracted COVID-19. (See story here.) As Texas continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, parts of the state that had been closed will reopen and some restrictions will be eased, according to a new order issued Friday by Gov. Greg Abbott. A team of nationally recognized experts, business and community leaders called Strike Force will lead the efforts to reopen the state. Some of the high-profile Houstonians on the team include Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, billionaire restaurateur Tilman Fertitta and philanthropist Nancy Kinder. Here are the crucial dates for the reopening of Texas: April 20, 2020: Texas state parks reopen. Abbott added that visitors will not be allowed to gather in groups larger than five people and must maintain social distancing. Park visitors will be required to wear protective masks. "Your physical and mental health are important especially in times like these. Going to parks is an effective way to address those needs, so state parks will be reopened beginning this coming Monday," Abbott said. >>> View all the significant dates for the reopening of Texas in the above gallery... STRIKE FORCE: See who's who on Texas Governor Greg Abbott's Strike Force April 22, 2020 Current restrictions on medical procedures will be loosened. "Adequate supplies of hospital beds and PPE must be maintained to ensure that all COVID-19 needs are met," Abbott said. Currently, hospitals and other medical specialists are not allowed to perform non-essential procedures such as diagnostics testing for cancer. This new change will allow doctors to treat patients without having to request state approval, Abbott said. April 24, 2020 Retailers will now be allowed to offer "to-go" options for customers. "Retailers create so many jobs," Abbott said. "This temporary plan allows customers to access more retailers while minimizing contact with others." April 27, 2020 Additional openings and restrictions are slated to be loosened. "We will introduce a phased-in strategy to open Texas in a safe way. It will require comprehensive testing and assurances of hospital readiness for COVID-19 patients," Abbott said. "It will focus on containing the risk of the surge of COVID-19 and protecting our most vulnerable residents." DISASTER EXPERT: Dealing with Houston's fear of COVID-19 and a possible rebellion Abbott added that revised plans will be announced on April 27. "We will consider the possibility of opening more businesses, like restaurants, movie theaters. We will also consider expanding elective surgeries." April 30, 2020 The state's stay-at-home order is scheduled to expire. Closure order for remainder of 2019-2020 school year Abbott has extended the closure order for all Texas schools and colleges for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year. "It would be unsafe for students to gather in schools for the foreseeable future," he said. alison.medley@chron.com Australians planning to access their superannuation early despite not being affected by the COVID-19 lockdown will be subject to hefty fines, officials have warned. The Australian Taxation Office has issued a warning just as billions of dollars in savings are set to be withdrawn from super accounts this week in line with a new government policy to help keep Aussies afloat amid the crisis. Australians are only eligible to apply for early super access to if they have experienced a significant drop in income or have lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus lockdown. As part of the government's coronavirus rescue package, workers are able to access their supers to help them stay afloat during the economic downturn Any money taken out now may significantly reduce the value of your super when you retire, experts have warned They will be allowed to take out $10,000 of their super between 20 April and 30 June 2020 and a further $10,000 until September 24. As of last week, nearly 900,000 people had registered for the draw-down scheme. But an alarming new poll has revealed a large number of Australians are planning to withdraw money despite still having their jobs. Industry Super Australia found that out of a poll of 1,100 people, 30 per cent under the age of 65 were planning to 'incorrectly' access their super and withdraw an average of $13,500, the Courier-Mail reported. The findings have sparked fears thousands of ineligible applicants will fly under the radar, as the application process reportedly does not require people to submit proof of financial hardship or job losses. HOW DO I DO IT? If you are eligible, you can apply directly to the ATO through the myGov website: www.my.gov.au. You will need to certify that you meet the above eligibility criteria. After the ATO has processed your application, they will issue you with a determination. The ATO will also provide a copy of this determination to your superannuation fund, which will advise them to release your superannuation payment. Your fund will then make the payment to you, without you needing to apply to them directly. However, to ensure you receive your payment as soon as possible, you should contact your fund to check that they have your correct details, including your current bank account details and proof of identity documents. Advertisement It also raised concerns over the financial impacts early withdrawal will have during retirement. Bernie Dean, the chief executive officer of ISA, warned Australians against dipping into their savings if it is not necessary and said the move should be considered a 'last resort.' 'It is tempting to tap into your super early some may want to do so as a savings buffer, but nothing in life is for free and cracking open your nest egg comes at a steep cost it should be treated as a last resort,' he said. The ATO warned it will review applications carefully and those who are caught fraudulently accessing their super could be slapped with up to $12,500 in penalties. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the measures as part of a second stimulus package on March 22, surprising the superannuation industry by allowing people to access their super early. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said workers and sole traders could withdraw the money if the number of hours worked or their income fell by 20 per cent or more due to the coronavirus. The early release also applies to welfare recipients who qualify for the coronavirus supplement. Ajith Kumar aka Thala Ajith, the popular actor is all set to his 49th birthday on May 1, 2020. As always, Ajith is reportedly planning to have a simple birthday celebration amidst his family members this year. However, the Thala fans, on the other hand, are planning to begin the celebrations in advance. As per the latest reports, the fans of the actor are planning to have a different style of celebration on their idol's birthday, this year. Since the usual pattern of celebrations cannot be followed this time due to the all India lockdown, the fans are planning to make Ajith and Valimai trend on all social media platforms starting from a week before his birthday. However, the industry members believe that there will be a major fan fight between the admires of Thala Ajith and Thalapathy Vijay on the former's birthday. Recently, Twitter had witnessed a clash between the Thala and Thalapathy fans, after the Ajith fans came up with the hashtag '#June22ndBlackDayForVijay' to mock the Master actor's birthday. It has been believed that the Vijay fans are planning to hit back on Ajith's birthday, by trending a similar hashtag. Even though Ajith and Vijay share a close friendship in real life, their respective fans have still not made peace with each other. As per the latest reports, the much-awaited first look poster of Valimai, the upcoming action thriller that features Ajith in the lead role, is expected to be revealed on May 1. The makers are expected to make an official announcement on the same, in a couple of days. Valimai, which marks Ajith's second collaboration with director H Vinoth after the success of Nerkonda Paarvai, features the actor in the role of a police officer. The project is bankrolled by the renowned Bollywood producer Boney Kapoor, the husband of late actress Sridevi. Also Read: Thala Ajith's Valimai Gets Postponed: Here's The New Release Date! Any attempted "land grab" by the next government will be met with legal challenges, farming organisations have warned. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have reportedly discussed holding a referendum to cap land prices as part of a new programme for government if they agree to form a coalition. Capping development land prices could mean altering constitutional property rights and slash the 'hope value' of farmland near towns. The two main farming organisations, IFA and ICMSA, have said the government can expect legal challenges if such a move is attempted. ICMSA president Pat McCormack said his organisation could "practically guarantee" legal challenges to any move to allow local authorities or government agencies to CPO farmland for housebuilding but only pay the landowner the land's agricultural value plus a 25pc top-up. He said the idea of compulsory purchase of farmland that involved underpayment for the land was more akin to confiscation than public policy. "You cannot have a situation where a local authority or government agency CPOs farmland at a price less than its market value," he said. IFA president Tim Cullinan said his organisation would look at taking a legal challenge "if the government does not have a referendum and tries to take property from citizens, paying less than the market value". Opposed "IFA is completely opposed to any such land grab by the State whether that be through legislation or referenda to change constitutional property rights," he stressed. Cullinan said there is almost 2,000 hectares of land under State ownership, which can be mobilised today to address the housing challenge. "IFA will not allow the housing problem to be used as a Trojan horse to diminish the property rights of farmers and property owners across the country," he said. By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans. Late Monday night, Trump tweeted he will soon issue an executive order temporarily suspending all immigration into the Unites States: In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 As of the time of publication, we have no further details, other than this naked promise, . Say what you like about our batshit crazy, logorrheic commander-in-chief: He may lack any semblance of impulse control, but he sure as hell understands politics. Yves has consistently emphasised that Trumps executive orders have little legal effect although by design they have tremendous symbolic value. So for the latest move. A couple of points. First, all new immigration into the US is de facto suspended already, as the State Department ceased visa processing in the middle of March for immigrants and non-immigrants, due to COVID-19 logistical issues. And second, with the de facto lockdown of the US including explicit bans on incoming flights from Europe to the United States, and the the ongoing shutdown of most international commercial flight services: how many people, immigrant or not, do you think are entering the US at this time? Trump Social Media Playbook Other seasoned observers have caught on to what are by now standard moves in Trumps social media playbook. Consider, for example, this take from Anthony Zurcher, North America reporter for the BBC: Donald Trumps efforts at governing by social media should always be taken with a sizable grain of salt. His track record on following through on Twitter directives is decidedly mixed. The details of his temporary ban on all immigration, announced a few hours before midnight on Monday, will shed considerable light on the breadth and legality of his actions. Still, it is no secret that the president, and several key advisers, have long viewed immigration not as a benefit to the nation, but as a drain. And the text of his tweet, that the move is necessary not only to protect the nations health but also the jobs of its great American citizens, only emphasises this. There is little doubt the proposal, in whatever form it takes, will be vigorously opposed by pro-immigration groups, some business interests and the presidents ideological adversaries. That is probably just fine with a man who loves drawing political battle lines and goading his opponents whenever possible. Four years ago, the president campaigned on an aggressive anti-immigration platform, including a total, if temporary, ban on all Muslims entering the country. Now, with an uphill re-election fight looming, he has found a similarly combative measure to champion. What Might Trump Do? In the absence of any clear details, the New York Times nonetheless took a stab at what the forthcoming Trump policy might look like and emphasised the appeal of tighter immigration controls politically for some of Trumps base, Trump Plans to Suspend Immigration to U.S.: But the presidents late-night announcement on Monday signals his most wide-ranging attempt yet to seal off the country from the rest of the world. A formal order temporarily barring the provision of new green cards and work visas could come as early as the next few days, according to several people familiar with the plan. Under such an executive order, the Trump administration would no longer approve any applications from foreigners to live and work in the United States for an undetermined period of time, effectively shutting down the legal immigration system in the same way the president has long advocated closing the borders to illegal immigration. It was not immediately clear what legal basis Mr. Trump would claim to justify shutting down most immigration. Workers who have for years received visas to perform specialized jobs in the United States would also be denied permission to arrive, though some workers in some industries deemed critical could be exempted from the ban, the people familiar with the presidents discussion said. The number of visas issued to foreigners abroad looking to immigrate to the United States has declined by about 25 percent, to 462,422 in the 2019 fiscal year from 617,752 in 2016. But Mr. Trumps primary focus appears to be on protecting American workers as the virus ravages what had been a rapidly growing job market. Even before the pandemic, the president and some of his most hard-line advisers had been eager to reduce legal immigration, arguing that Mr. Trumps America First campaign pledge should be seen as protecting native-born Americans from having to compete with foreign workers. Stephen Miller, the architect of the presidents immigration agenda, has pushed repeatedly for regulations and executive actions that would limit the immigration allowed each year, arguing that immigrants are a drain on American society, drive down wages and take jobs from native-born Americans. (I will not here address the embedded assumption in the NYT account that immigration disguises racism, without acknowledging its effect on labour costs. See this 2016 post Questioning Immigration is Not Racism for more on this issue. I include this aside so that astute members of the NC commentariat which is the best commentariat dont charge me with being unaware of this point). But despite the pearl clutching, the Grey Lady wound up by quoting an expert who suggested that Trumps final policy, once subject to judicial review, might be much less severe than the tweeted rhetoric. Of course, by the point all is said and done, Trump would have reaped political benefits among supporters for his stance regardless of the implemented policy consequences: Franita Tolson, who studies constitutional and election law at the University of Southern California, said in an interview that Mr. Trumps latest tweet continues a well-worn pattern of issuing broad mandates against immigrants, often as a base-pleasing political cudgel, only to later rework the orders under mounting legal pressure. Legally, she said, the administration has a habit of working in reverse: issuing sweeping initiatives, and vetting them afterward. He tweets out a broad tweet without details, and the administration tailors it to figure out what might pass judicial review, Ms. Tolson said. She added that Mr. Trumps latest attempt to issue a restrictive order was sure to meet legal challenges. Given our infection rate and the lack of testing, hes taking advantage of a national crisis. The WSJ featured a more measured analysis which concurs with my view that the Trump policy wont immediately change all that much, Trump to Temporarily Halt Immigration Into the U.S. Amid Coronavirus Crisis: Administration officials said the order wouldnt make substantial changes to current U.S. policy. Even without an executive order, the administration has already all but ceased nearly every form of immigration. Most visa processing has been halted, meaning almost no one can apply for a visa to visit or move to the U.S. Visa interviews and citizenship ceremonies have been postponed and the refugee program paused, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported. Migrants caught crossing the border are now immediately expelled once they are found. The Journal also highlighted expected exemptions the administration will allow including farmworkers necessary to sow and reap harvests, and health worker needed to treat victims of the pandemic: The executive order is expected to include exceptions for migrant farmworkers, who make up about a 10th of the workforce on U.S. farms, and health-care workers, particularly those helping treat coronavirus patients, an administration official said. It is not expected to address the removal of immigrants already in the U.S. or the visa renewal process, the official said. Allowing in farm workers is necessary to alleviate Given the slowly worsening food security situation. Government By Executive Order I would be remiss if I confined myself here merely to bashing Trumps immigration-policy-by executive-order tactic. For lest we forget, Trumps sainted predecessor, initiated the immigration-policy-by-executive-order fandango, by a constellation of actions such as attempting to reform legal immigration, enhancing enforcement, and addressing illegal immigration (see this Bipartisan Policy Center summary for further details, Obamas Immigration Executive Actions: Two Years Later although I am always inherently suspicious of any organization that calls itself bipartisan). The purpose of this post is not to parse those earlier efforts, some of which were suspended or overturned by courts and most of which Trump promised to undo. They are yesterdays Macarena. Now, mind you, thats not to say that Republicans wouldnt have worked out the steps to this dance themselves if someone hadnt first demonstrated them. But following in someones footsteps sure made things easier, compared to working out the choreography oneself. Would only that the last Democratic administration expended more effort on legislation, nominating and confirming judges, or rule-making, for that matter, that could not be easily rolled back under the Congressional Review Act than on focusing on more ephemeral executive orders. By Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov discussed the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov (Russia), Andrew Schofer (USA) and Stephane Visconti (France) and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk on April 20. At the meeting held through a video-conference, the sides exchanged views on how to advance further on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the current situation of the global fight against COVID-19 pandemic. According to the ministry, it was underlined that the current situation should not be an obstacle to continuing peaceful negotiations. As a result of the meeting, the sides reached an agreement to organize a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian FMs through a video-conference on April 21. In addition, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk will aslo participate in the video-conference to mediate between the two sides. Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz THE question of when to re-open schools is being answered differently depending on each country. Those that have most successfully contained the spread of the virus have already begun taking the first cautious steps in allowing children back to school, though with the situation being closely monitored and social distancing measures in place. Here, the Government has not provided a date for schools returning, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying he did not want to raise hopes and have to dash them. Read More It has also been suggested school days might have to be staggered when the time does come. Ireland is among the countries with the strictest school lockdowns according to a European Commission, Eurydice Network report. Here's what other countries have been planning around school re-openings so far: Germany In Germany, students who are sitting their leaving exams will be back on May 4. They are being given priority ahead of junior classes. Austria Austria presented its exit strategy from lockdown measures in the first week of April. Schools are due to remain closed there until at least the middle of May, though final exams will go ahead. Denmark In Denmark, restrictions started to be lifted on April 15 and schools and nurseries have re-opened for children up to the age of 11. Some classes are being given outdoors to comply with social distancing measures. Expand Close Students arrive for the start of their high school graduation exams, during the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the Gymnasium Steglitz school in Berlin, Germany, April 20, 2020. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Students arrive for the start of their high school graduation exams, during the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the Gymnasium Steglitz school in Berlin, Germany, April 20, 2020. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Government regulations mean children must be put in small groups, are able to wash their hands on arrival and every two hours. Sinks, toilet seats and door handles must be disinfected twice every day. However, schools for older children may remain closed until the second week of May. Norway Norway, which says it has the virus under control, started re-opening schools this week after a month-long closure that began on March 12. Its authorities have said the move was possible because children are less at risk from the infection. However, parents have expressed concern. A poll by Norwegian broadcaster NRK showed 24pc of parents didnt want their children back in pre-school and 13pc were unsure. Expand Close FILE PHOTO: Schoolchildren wait to enter a class in a primary school on the start of the new school year in Marseille, France, September 2, 2019. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier/File Photo / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp FILE PHOTO: Schoolchildren wait to enter a class in a primary school on the start of the new school year in Marseille, France, September 2, 2019. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier/File Photo Primary school children will begin to return on April 27. Other countries are taking a more cautious approach. Schools in Malta and Portugal will remain closed for the summer. France In France, re-opening schools has been given high priority in plans to begin to ease restrictions from May 11, however they depend on progress in battling the virus. French President Emmanuel Macron said universities will not open before the summer. Spain Spain has been among the countries hardest hit with more than 20,000 deaths and more than 200,000 cases. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Sunday children would be allowed time outside again on April 27. However, the re-opening of schools is still some way off. UK Speculation about return dates next month in the UK, which has also been hit hard by the virus, has led to concern from teachers. But on Sunday, Englands Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said he could not give a date and schools will only re-open based on scientific advice. In China schools began to reopen at the end of March, with children wearing masks and social distancing being observed. With the campaign "I SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES IN ..." the European startup shows its support for local business owners to face the current crisis BARCELONA, Spain, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- All citizens are in the same boat of uncertainty due to the labor crisis caused by COVID-19. Today, many wonder when and what will the re-opening of businesses look like. That is why, Camaloon, the leading start-up in the sale of personalized promotional items throughout Europe, has launched the campaign "I SUPPORT THE LOCAL BUSINESS OF ..." making it's full commitment to support local businesses to weather the storm and come back stronger. The campaign consists of the marketing of a series of personalized products with a design aimed at twelve cities in seven European countries. The products include a white T-shirt, white sweatshirt, cotton bag, white ceramic mug and a small mirror. All printed with the design of the campaign and the name of the city to be supported. Full benefits directed to Local Businesses Associations Collecting the profits from sales by allowing the whole public to buy such products at a fixed and accessible price, is the objective. Allocating the full benefits to the Local Businesses Association of each city to be distributed among its members as they see fit, while customers get a product with great design and quality to show their support. "We know these are difficult times for all businesses and employees, but at Camaloon we believe that with the support of the community, together we can keep our local businesses alive." Defends the company's CEO, Juan Rodriguez. Direct support to local merchants Camaloon will also allow local business owners to purchase these products at cost price and market them in their own stores. To this end they have created a website where business owners can log in and purchase these products at cost price for later sale. Camaloon will take care of the printing and will deliver everything to the client's address in complete security. No risk for either party. According to the CEO, Juan Rodriguez: "We want to reach all of you and guarantee your support, so we have established that there will be no minimum quantities per order for any of these products, as well as no variation in prices according to the number of units. Every purchase is a contribution to a great cause." A rare wedding photo of King George V and Queen Mary which was signed by the newlyweds is up for grabs for 1,500. The historic snap was taken after the Royal couple wed at the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace in London on July 6, 1893. King George, who is Queen Elizabeth II's grandfather, and Mary signed underneath the black and white photo, which was taken by the official Royal photographers W & D Downey. The 8'' by 6'' image is going under the hammer 127 years later at auctioneers William George of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. The historic snap was taken and signed after the Royal couple wed at the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace in London on July 6, 1893 It was signed by both King George V and Queen Mary following the wedding in central London Princess Mary of Teck, of the kingdom of Wurttemberg, Germany, was meant to have married Prince Albert, George's older brother and heir to the throne, but he died of pneumonia in 1892. After a period of mourning, Mary got engaged to George as Queen Victoria favoured her as a bride to one of her grandsons. The photograph of the couple (pictured) was taken by the official Royal photographers W & D Downey She supposedly said of Mary that she was 'quiet', 'reserved' and had 'good manners' - and also 'the reverse of superficial'. The wedding, presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first to take place in St James's Chapel since the death of Victoria's husband Prince Albert in 1861. Large crowds lined the route from Buckingham Palace to St James's Palace to cheer them on as they were driven in a carriage procession. Upon their return to Buckingham Palace, the newlyweds were joined on the balcony by Victoria in a rare public appearance. The photo shows them surrounded by their 10 bridesmaids, including George's sisters Princesses Victoria and Maud of Wales. It is thought to have been given to a member of the Royal family after the wedding but has since passed into the hands of a private collector. The photo shows them surrounded by their 10 bridesmaids, including George's sisters Princesses Victoria and Maud of Wales A William George spokesman said: 'It is a matter of protocol that Royals sign a photograph on their wedding day which they then give as a gift to close members of the family - usually other Royals. This continues to this day. 'It is very rare to find a photograph of this era, relatively early in the development of photography, which is dated.' The other bridesmaids were Princess Helena of Schleswig-Holstein, Princess Alexandria of Edinburgh, Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh, Princess Victoria of Battenberg and Princess Patricia of Connaught. William Downey, originally from Newcastle, took photos of Queen Victoria at Balmoral and Frogmore in the 1860s. He moved to London in 1872 and the studio was granted the Royal Warrant seven years later. The other bridesmaids were Princess Helena of Schleswig-Holstein, Princess Alexandria of Edinburgh, Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh, Princess Victoria of Battenberg and Princess Patricia of Connaught King George V ascended to the throne in 1910 following the passing of his father Edward VII. In 1917 he renamed the House of Saxe-Coburg to the House of Windsor as a result of anti-German public feeling at the time. He reigned until his death in 1936 when he was succeeded by King Edward VIII who abdicated less than a year later. The sale takes place on April 23. Commending the yeomen services rendered by civil servants in the fight against COVID-19, Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said India's prospects to contain the pandemic rest on their broad shoulders. In an interactive call with a group of select officers of 25 states and five Union territories on the Civil Services Day, Singh said the country's governance model has been widely recognised as promoting meritocracy and constitutional values. He said district collectors have been leading the fight against the pandemic and India's prospects to contain it rested on the broad shoulders of civil servants, according to a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry. The Civil Services Day events have been deferred due to the coronavirus lockdown. The Prime Minister's awards for excellence in public administration 2019 and 2020 will now be presented on October 31 to mark the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the statement said. Singh complemented the civil servants for their support to the government's COVID-19 relief operations by offering one-day salary to the PM-CARES Fund. "It is also pertinent to mention here that civil servants for their support to government's COVID-19 relief operations in various ministries of the central government have contributed more than Rs 4,227 crore to the PM CARES fund so far by offering one day salary and through CSR contributions," the minister added. Singh, the minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions, said minimum government, maximum governance has been the motto of the Modi government. In the past 6 years the nation has witnessed significant civil service reforms in reorganising and rightsizing of government institutions, recruitment reforms like lateral entry at joint secretary level, improved delivery of public services with emphasis on providing e-services, as also several initiatives with the citizens at the centre, he said. The publication of the good governance index and the national e-services delivery assessment in 2019 represented India's endeavour to bring its civil service on par with global best practices, according to the statement. "India's governance model has been widely recognized as promoting meritocracy and constitutional values," it said. Singh also expressed satisfaction that so far more than 1,44,736 persons have enrolled at the Department of Personnel and Training e-learning platform (https://igot.gov.in) to combat the virus and 96,268 candidates completed the course. The Government of India celebrates April 21 as Civil Services Day to commemorate the day when the first home minister of independent India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, addressed the probationers of Administrative Services Officers in 1947 at Metcalf House, Delhi. He referred to civil servants as the 'steel frame of India'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government data on Covid-19 patients show variations in as many as 18 districts out of the 26 in Madhya Pradesh in the past three to four days, prompting the public health experts to demand an inquiry into it and Opposition Congress to attack the BJP government. As on Sunday evening, as per the state governments health bulletin, Madhya Pradesh had 1,407 Covid-19 patients in 26 districts, out of whom 72 had died. There are 52 districts in Madhya Pradesh. As per the state governments data, Ratlam in Malwa region had 12 cases of Covid-19 on April 17. It went up to 13 on April 18 but it declined to nine on April 9. Similarly, Khargone in Nimad region had 39 patients on April 17 and it increased to 47 the next day but later it came down to 43 on April 19. Ujjain, another district in Malwa region registered 30 cases on April 16. There was addition of one patient to the list the next day. But suddenly the number came down from 31 to 23 on April 18 and again it rose to 31 the next day. In tribal dominated Dhar district in Malwa region, the number of patients shown in the bulletin on April 16, 17, 18 and 19 was 6, 10, 24 and 21 respectively. In Alirajpur, another tribal dominated district, there was just one patient on April 17. The number went up to five on April 18 but came down to three on April 19. In Morena in Gwalior-Chambal region, there were 14 cases on April 17. In the next days state government bulletin, the number was shown as 13 but it went up to 16 in April 19 bulletin. Gwalior has a similar story. It had six patients on April 17, but came down to two the next day and again rose to six on April 19. There are similar variations in the number of Covid-19 cases in Indore, Chhindwara, Barwani, Betul, Sheopur, Khandwa, Raisen, Dewas, Shajapur and Mandsaur. More interesting is the case with Satna district. Two Covid-19 positive cases in Satna were shown in the bulletins from April 14 to April 16 but then the disstrict disappeared from the list. In none of the variations the government issued any clarification as to why the numbers decreased or any districts name was dropped from the list of Covid-19 affected districts. Public health experts say since the government is providing cumulative figures of Covid-19 patients every day the figure will either increase or remain stagnant but it cant decrease. There can be decrease in the number only in such situations when any persons sample test report is found incorrect later or any patients name is added to any other district. But in such situations the government is expected to clarify this which didnt happen. Public health expert Amulya Nidhi said, A clerical error can happen in the data of a few districts and can be understood but such variations in data of about 70% of the Covid-19 districts is beyond comprehension. This is a serious issue as the same data are used to analyse the situation prevalent in the country by World Health Organisation (WHO), government of India and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). A transparency in data means effective management of the situation. He said that many times the data of the districts released at the district level differed from the state bulletin and thus it led to confusion as to what is the real situation about the Covid-19 patients. Also, the state bulletin is expected after the districts provide their data to the state headquarters at about 4 pm but there were occasions as on Sunday itself when the state bulletin was released at 2 pm. Collection and compilation of data, its accuracy and its timings of release are as important as measures being undertaken to control the situation. Hence, an inquiry should be conducted as to why so much variations in the data and who is responsible for the same, he said. State Congress presidents media coordinator Narendra Saluja alleged, Since the BJP government has failed in controlling the situation it has started manipulating the data. It corroborates our stand that the government has miserably failed in protecting people of the state. It was a clerical error, said Commissioner, Health Services, Faiz Ahmad Kidwai. Additional chief secretary, Health department, Mohd Suleman said, Variations in data come after reconciliation between lab and district data. Repeat samples and rejections need to be factored in. A health department official who didnt want to be named said, The state bulletin reflects the data received from the districts. Hence, there might have been variations in the data received from the districts. As far as Satna is concerned since the two persons who tested positive over there belong to Indore Satnas name was deleted from the list later. State BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said, There is a possibility of some minor changes when the entire states data are collected but there is no possibility of any irregularity in it. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Three Moscow doctors told Current Time about their experiences with COVID-19, describing how quickly patients can deteriorate and how testing is not always working. A meat-processing company which shut down a South Dakota plant after more than 700 employees became infected with COVID-19 said the outbreak was due to the factorys large immigrant population. Smithfield Foods blamed the migrant workers' living circumstances that are different than they are with your traditional American family. The company said the indefinite closure of the pork plant in Sioux Falls disrupted its supply chain, forcing the closure of a facility in Martin City, Missouri. Smithfield also shuttered a plant in Cudahy, Wisconsin, after employees tested positive for the virus. South Dakota's governor said the temporary closure of the plant that produces about 5 per cent of the US pork supply has already been devastating for regional producers. A spokesperson for the company told BuzzFeed News on Monday that it is hard to know what could have been done differently given the plants large immigration population. Living circumstances in certain cultures are different than they are with your traditional American family, the spokesperson said. Smithfield has closed its Sioux Falls pork processing plant in South Dokata after more than 700 of its employees became infected with COVID-19 South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem told Fox News last week that 99 per cent of the infections wasnt happening inside the facility but rather inside workers homes because a lot of these folks who work at this plant live in the same community, the same buildings, sometimes in the same apartments. BuzzFeed reports that the company did little to inform or protect workers from the outbreak after the initial infections were first reported in late March. While the plant posted safety notices and flyers on bulletin boards and doors telling people that they should stay home if they feel sick, those notices were in English, according to employees. Many of the 3,700 workers at the plant have limited understanding of English, and the plant has in the past taken measures to translate notices into as many as five languages when it wanted to communicate a message to them. The companys failure to alert the entire workforce to the outbreak left hundreds of employees vulnerable to getting infected, employees told BuzzFeed. DailyMail.com has reached out to Smithfield Foods for comment. The company denied to BuzzFeed that its policies led to the outbreak among the employees. A company spokesperson told BuzzFeed that the employees were regularly told to adhere to safety protocols and to routinely wash their hands as early as February. The company also said that it has been negatively impacted by the lack of personal protective equipment, a shortage that needed to be addressed by the federal government. According to BuzzFeed, even after the first COVID-19 cases were being reported, the company kept telling its workers to report to work. On April 1, the plant offered employees a free lunch in its cafeteria, where all employees had to pass through even after they were exposed to the virus. Two weeks after the first confirmed case and as the outbreak began to grow among the workforce, the company finally acted on April 6, when it instituted mandatory temperature checks and shut down at least one floor for cleaning and sanitation. A package of Smithfield Foods breakfast sausage sits in a shopping cart outside of a local grocery story in Des Moines last week. The surge of coronavirus cases at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls has highlighted the vulnerability of meat processing workers In total, it took Smithfield 18 days after the first case of COVID-19 among its employees to pause operations on all of its floors for 48 hours to deep-clean the plant. The company also installed cardboard dividers at workstations and plexiglass shields on cafeteria tables. But by then the outbreak was in full swing. A total of 238 workers had tested positive for COVID-19. One employee, Michael Bul Gayo Gatluak, a 22-year-old immigrant from South Sudan, told BuzzFeed he tested positive for coronavirus on April 13. He said he works in the hog kill department on the sixth floor where he stands really, really close to other employees along the production line. With how we work on the line, I would say I got sick because of them not taking safety measures, Gatluak told BuzzFeed News. When they had their first case, I dont think they acted accordingly. More than 11 meat packing and processing plants have now been closed in North America because of the impact of coronavirus, raising serious concerns about the supply chain in the US and its ability to keep shelves stocked. According to Smithfield, the plant accounts for 4 to 5 percent of the country's pork production. It supplies nearly 130 million servings of food per week, or about 18 million servings per day. 'The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply,' the meat processor's CEO Kenneth Sullivan said in a statement on Sunday. 'It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running. These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain.' Sullivan said Smithfield had been operating during the coronavirus crisis because it wanted to sustain the nation's food supply. 'We believe it is our obligation to help feed the country, now more than ever. We have a stark choice as a nation: we are either going to produce food or not, even in the face of COVID-19,' he said. Smithfield announced a three-day closure last week so it could sanitize the plant and install physical barriers to enhance social distancing. But on Sunday, it announced the plant's indefinite closure. There has been no evidence that the coronavirus is being transmitted through food or its packaging, according to the Department of Agriculture. The plant also employs 3,700 people who will now be out of work due to the plant's closure, and many of those employees have been infected with the virus. According to Smithfield, the plant accounts for 4 to 5 percent of the country's pork production It supplies nearly 130 million servings of food per week, or about 18 million servings per day The announcement came a day after Noem and Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken wrote to Smithfield and urged the company to suspend operations for 14 days so that its workers could self-isolate and the plant could be disinfected. Speaking during a news conference on Saturday, Governor Noem said that Smithfield employees accounted for more than half of the active cases of the coronavirus in the state. Of the roughly 1,635 active cases in South Dakota, about 725 of them are employees of the plant. She said that the mayor and herself spoke to Smithfield to recommend that the company suspends operations for at least two weeks. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and the mayor of Sioux Falls, Paul TenHaken, wrote to Smithfield to urge them to close the plant as cases rose Maggie Seidel, Noem's senior advisor and policy director, said in an emailed statement Sunday that science and data support a 14-day closure to slow the spread of the virus in the community. 'Obviously, the situation is dynamic and changing by the day. The industry (like the country) needs to fight its way through this situation - and it will - and make adjustments as it changes. As a critical infrastructure industry in our nation's food supply, the Governor is committed to working with them to get through this,' Seidel wrote. Some activity will be maintained in the plant on Tuesday to process the inventory, Smithfield said, as it prepares for a full shut-down. It said that it would compensate employees for the following two weeks. Other meat processing plants across the country have also shut down due to sick employees, including processors in Iowa and Pennsylvania. Tyson, another of the world's largest meat processors, has suspended its operations at one of its plants in Columbus Junction, Iowa, after over 20 of its workers contracted Covid-19. The company said it would re-direct its livestock that was due at the plant in Columbus Junction to other plans to reduce the impact on supply. Another key meat processor, JBS USA, ceased its operations for two weeks at its beef plant in Sounderton, Pennsylvania, and plans to re-open on April 16. Several members of the plant's management team could not go into work due to experiencing flu-like symptoms, leading to the decision to close the plant. Another Pennsylvania plant in Hazleton has also paused its operations where 900 people usually work. Speaking to CNN Business, Jon Nash, North America lead for Cargill Protein said: 'This will allow us to minimize the impact of COVID-19 and continue [to] follow health department guidelines.' South Dakota has seen seven deaths resulting from the virus so far. The United States of America has now seen 779,482 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and 41,449 deaths. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21 By Tamilla Mammadova Trend: Georgia exported 7,983 motor cars to Azerbaijan with a total amount of $79.1 million from January through March 2020, Trend reports referring to National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat). In the reporting period, Georgia exported 406 motor vehicles for the transport of goods worth $2.7 million to Azerbaijan. Over the same period of 2019, 287 motor vehicles for the transport of goods totaling $2 million were exported from Georgia to Azerbaijan. In 1Q2020, 139 tons cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes worth $3.5 million were exported from Georgia to Azerbaijan, which is 403 tons less compared to January-March 2019. During the reporting period, Georgia exported 103.2 tons of medicines in measured doses worth $2.5 million to Azerbaijan. During January-March 2019, the export of medicines in measured doses amounted to 221.1 tons totaling $8.1 million. In the first quarter 2020, Georgia exported 16,777 tons of nitrogenous fertilizers worth $1.7 million to Azerbaijan; this is 4,736 tons more compared to the same period last year. Azerbaijan ranks second in Georgias commodity circulation. From January through March 2020, the foreign trade turnover between Georgia and Azerbaijan amounted to more than $306.1 million, which is 11 percent of the total trade turnover of Georgia. During the reporting period, Georgia exported products worth $121.8 million to Azerbaijan, which is 15.7 percent of total exports from Georgia. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan exported products worth $184.2 million to the Georgian market, which comprises 9.2 percent of total import to Georgia. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila61979356 Ever since the lockdown has been imposed in the country, thousand of daily wagers and migrant workers have found themselves without food and shelter. With almost all economic activity coming to a standstill, these workers are stuck in the city with no way to return home. But there are many a messiah in the city to look after these people. One such is actress Tamannaah Bhatia. She has joined hands with an NGO, Letsallhelp.org to help these workers in their time of need. Tamannaah mobilised almost 50 tonnes of food products to help 10,000 migrant workers in Mumbai . Talking about how helping is the only way forward, Tamannaah said, The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted million of lives in unimaginable ways. The nationwide lockdown and social distancing is perhaps the best way to combat the crisis till an effective medical solution is discovered. However, it could take weeks or even months till normalcy is restored. While we are all worried about our livelihood, spare a thought for the thousands of daily wage and migrant workers who have lost their means of livelihood and may not be able to sustain themselves and their families for such a prolonged period of time. The team at Letsallhelp.org and I have taken a pledge that no one sleeps hungry during the lockdown. I urge everyone to unite as one human race and donate generously. More power to you and the team you are working with, Tamannaah. Hyderabad, April 21 : Amid the spike in number of domestic violence cases in and around Hyderabad during the ongoing lockdown, Rachakonda police on Tuesday came to the rescue of a housewife. A 28-year-old woman, resident of Hayatnagar, approached the police through Whatsapp and informed that she is suffering from domestic violence by husband and in-laws. According to Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat, 'She' team's Vanasthalipuram division incharge Karunakar Reddy reached the victim's house. She, however, was not willing to lodge the complaint and instead requested for counseling. The victim, her husband and in-laws were counseled at Sakhi Counselling Centre Vanasthalipuram through professional family counselors. Police said the husband and in-laws admitted their guilt and compromised. The Rachakonda police commissioner appealed to all women suffering from domestic violence to dial 100 or Whatsapp control number 9490617111 for immediate help. Bhagwat appealed to people to utilise the helpline for immediate advise, rescue and counseling in domestic violence cases. He had earlier said that the domestic violence cases are not getting reported due to movement restrictions and lack of public transport. Rachakonda is one of the three police commissionerates covering Hyderabad and its surroundings. Police officers said while routine crimes have declined, domestic violence witnessed spike during the lockdown. Cyberabad police comissionerate registered more than 500 domestic violence related calls since the lockdown began last month. Police said they tried to solve a majority of the cases through tele-counselling. The National Commission of Women (NCW) also said recently that domestic violence cases increased during the lockdown. WASHINGTON Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday agreement has been reached on major elements of a nearly $500 billion coronavirus aid package for small businesses, including additional help for hospitals and virus testing. Schumer said post-midnight talks among Democratic and Republican leaders, along with Trump administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, produced a breakthrough agreement on the package. "We have a deal and I think we'll pass it today," Schumer said on CNN. He cautioned that staff are still "dotting the I's and crossing the T's." A Tuesday afternoon Senate session could provide an opportunity to quickly pass the legislation if it comes together quickly, though the Democratic-controlled House is planning on calling lawmakers to Washington for a vote later in the week. A senior Senate GOP leadership aide cautioned that the measure is not finalized and that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has yet to publicly sign off on it. Schumer said that Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were in close contact with McConnell during the endgame talks. "Every major issue was resolved," Schumer said. "So yes, I believe we have a deal." Most of the funding, more than $300 billion, would go to boost a small-business payroll loan program that ran out of money last week. Additional help would be given to hospitals, and billions more would be spent to boost testing for the virus, a key step in building the confidence required to reopen state economies. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter The emerging draft measure originally designed by Republicans as a $250 billion stopgap to replenish the payroll subsidies for smaller businesses has grown into the second largest of the four coronavirus response bills so far. Democratic demands have caused the measure to balloon, though they likely will be denied the money they want to help struggling state and local governments. The Senate met for a brief pro forma session Monday that could have provided a window to act on the upcoming measure under fast-track procedures requiring unanimous consent to advance legislation, but it wasn't ready in time. McConnell, R-Ky., set up the Tuesday session in the hope that an agreement will be finished by then. McConnell warned, however, that he wouldn't know whether the Senate could pass it by voice vote until the measure is unveiled. The House has announced a vote on the pending package could come later in the week, possibly on Thursday, according to a schedule update from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Hoyer also announced that the chamber will vote on a temporary rules change to permit limited proxy voting during the COVID-19 crisis. With small-business owners reeling during a coronavirus outbreak that has shuttered much economic activity, the administration has been pressing for an immediate replenishment of the paycheck protection program. But Democrats sought additional money in a replay of the tactical jockeying that caused the recently-passed rescue measure to spiral to about $2 trillion. Talks have dragged as the two sides have quarreled over the design of a nationwide testing regime, among other unsettled pieces. Democrats were rebuffed in a request for another $150 billion in aid to revenue-strapped state governments but did win the ability to used recently appropriated federal funds to cover revenue losses from the economic shutdown in stead of using it only for costs related to suppressing COVID-19. The administration says further state aid will come in the next relief bill. There's also pressure to help cities with populations of less than 500,000 that were shut out of the massive $2 trillion relief bill that passed last month. Schumer said Monday that he had talked to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell and that Powell said the Fed is working to open up the Main Street Lending program to nonprofits and municipal governments. The emerging accord links the administration's effort to replenish the small-business fund with Democrats' demands for more money for hospitals and virus testing. It would provide more than $300 billion for the small-business payroll program, with $60 billion or so set aside for community lenders that seek to focus on under-banked neighborhoods and rural areas. Another $60 billion would be available for a small-business loans and grants program that has previously been aimed at helping businesses harmed by natural disasters like hurricanes. Additionally, it would bring $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing, according to those involved in the talks. The government's Paycheck Protection Program has been swamped by companies applying for loans and reached its appropriations limit last Thursday after approving nearly 1.7 million loans. That left thousands of small businesses in limbo as they sought help. The National Federation of Independent Business, a GOP-friendly organization that advocates for small businesses in Washington, said it had surveyed their members and reported that only 1 in 5 applicants had received money so far. About $75 billion would go to U.S. hospitals those straining under a ballooning coronavirus caseload as well as those struggling to stay financially afloat after suspending elective surgeries during the pandemic. About $25 billion would be added for COVID-19 testing, something states have said was urgently needed. The SBA loans, based on a companys payroll costs, offer owners forgiveness if they retain workers or rehire those who have been laid off. The law provides for forgiveness for companies in any industry even businesses like hedge funds and law firms. Theres a limit of $100,000 on the amount of employees compensation that can be considered when loan forgiveness is calculated. The Associated Press Subscribe to our Oregon coronavirus newsletter: The coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences have revealed, in the living experience of billions of people the world over, the internal rot and decay of the capitalist system, together with its patent absurdities. One only need point, by way of example, to the fact that the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, the richest man on the planet, has increased his fortune by $24 billion since the start of the year to more than $138 billion, while nurses and health workers in the US and around the world are battling the virus without the necessary protective equipment. A container ship is unloaded in the port of Tacoma. (AP photo/Ted S. Warren) Other examples abound, such as the fact that health authorities and states in the US have been forced to fight against each other in the capitalist free market to secure necessary equipment and supplies, or that thousands are queuing at food banks in the US, while dairy farmers pour milk away and agricultural producers plough their crops into the ground. While exposing such contradictions, covered over in the now bygone era of so-called normal times, the pandemic has also revealed those fundamental truths that have long formed the basis of the fight for genuine socialism. First and foremost, it has made clear that the tiny minority of corporate and financial oligarchs, and the profit system over which they preside, stand as an obstacle to the rational organisation and scientific planning of the economy and society necessary to deal with the threat to human life. This is an obstacle that must be removed. However, it would be a mistake to see this immense social problem as applying only to the extraordinary state of affairs produced by the pandemic. It has a far broader reach. The proponents of a return to work, irrespective of the health dangers posed to workers, maintain that a continued lockdown means more economic stress and worsening poverty, as well as health and psychological problems. Such problems, however, could be rapidly resolved through the expropriation of the vast fortunes of the Bezoses of the world, to provide a living income to all, while dealing with the health crisis. As the World Socialist Web Site perspective of Saturday 18 April explained, if the wealth of the 250 billionaires in the United States, with a collective net worth of close to $9 trillion, were expropriated and distributed evenly among the 100 million poorest households, it would provide each one with a monthly income of $5,000 for 18 months. Moreover, the problems described by the return-to-work advocates as a product of the lockdown, are actually those of daily life, created by the normal operations of the capitalist system. And they will be massively intensified in the wake of the pandemic as the ruling classes seek to pump value, extracted from the working class, into the mountain of fictitious capital created as a result of the bailout of the corporations and the financial system. Every day workers have their health impaired by the relentless worsening of conditions. Every day they work under the threat they could be thrown out of work and reduced to poverty, as the result of some restructuring operation. Every day they face the prospect that, as a result of gyrations in the global financial system and the actions of speculators, they could be thrown onto the scrapheap, have their pension, superannuation, or 401(k) plans slashed, their mortgage repayments increased and so onchanges that can devastate their lives in the blink of an eye. In other words, the madness made manifest by the pandemic is only a particularly egregious expression of the daily functioning of a malignant social and economic order. Just as the pandemic has laid bare the absurdities, irrationalities and destructive consequences of the profit system, so it has revealed the reactionary character of the political structures on which the accumulation of private profit is basedi.e., the nation-state system. By its very nature, the pandemic has revealed, both from a health and an economic standpoint, the necessity of international collaboration and co-operation. There is no national solution to the health dangers posed by the virusit requires a planned global response. An individual nation may bring the virus under control within its confines, but then be confronted with the danger of a second wave of infections, due to its continued spread in other parts of the world. The virus does not have a passport, nor does it recognise immigration and border controls. This pandemic has delivered a major shock to the world. But it has been a trigger event for the crisis, the conditions for which had been developing over a considerable period. It is no more the underlying cause of the present crisis than was the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which triggered the outbreak of World War I, the fundamental reason for the conflict. The pandemic has not only triggered the crisis. It has been the accelerant for processes already well advanced before it arrived on the scene. One of these is the growth of national divisions and conflicts. Long before the denunciations of China, now pouring forth from the Trump administration and its allies around the world over the virus outbreak, the US intelligence and military apparatus, backed by the political establishmentDemocrat and Republicantogether with powerful sections of the mass media, had designated China as a threat to the national security of the US. In the strategic planning documents of the US military machine, the war on terror was replaced by an insistence that it was now necessary to prepare for an era of great power competition, in which China was designated the chief danger to US economic and military hegemony. Trade war had been launched through the imposition of tariffs and Chinas plan for economic and technological development had been declared an existential threat to US national security, accompanied by a series of bans on Chinese telecom companies and the launching of a global campaign by the US to have its allies exclude the Chinese company, Huawei, from the development of 5G networks. While the US, at least to this point, is the main proponent of economic nationalism, under the America First doctrine of the Trump administration, the same tendencies are reflected everywhere. The European Union is riven with divisions and conflicts, the most prominent of which has been Brexit. The EU is split over an economic response to the pandemic, with Germany striving to maintain its dominance over the bloc, as leading figures in the political establishment insist it must play a greater role in global affairs. As a result of the pandemic, voices are being raised that the disruption of global supply chains, caused by the spread of the virus, along with lockdowns, have revealed problems in economic globalisation, meaning that each country must look to the protection of its own economy. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross set the tone back in January, when he declared that supply chain disruptions in China, resulting from the virus outbreak, would encourage US firms to shift their operations back to American soil. The Japanese government of Shinzo Abe has set aside $2.2 billion from its economic stimulus package to assist manufacturers to shift production out of China. A New York Times article by Neil Irwin on April 16, entitled Its the end of the world economy as we know it, cited remarks by Elizabeth Economy, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who said there was a rethink underway over how much each country wanted to be reliant on another. While this was not the end of globalisation, she raised, the pandemic had accelerated thinking in the Trump administration that there are critical technologies, critical resources, reserve manufacturing capacity that we want here in the US in case of crisis. The article noted that Frances finance minister has directed French companies to re-evaluate their supply chains, to become less dependent on China and other Asian nations. In the US, where anti-China outbursts are escalating daily, the South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has even suggested the US should punish China over COVID-19 by cancelling its holdings of US Treasury bonds. A gauge of the speed of these processes can be obtained by contrasting the situation that now prevails with what occurred in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008. In April 2009, leaders of the G20 met in London to commit themselves to a co-ordinated response, vowing that never again would they go down the road of the protectionist measures that had played such a disastrous role in the Great Depression, helping to create the conditions for World War II. For a time, the commitment to resist protectionism was a regular feature of statements by all international economic bodies, such as the G20 and G7. Now even the phrase has disappeared, under conditions where all the institutions established in the post-war period to regulate the post-war affairs of global capitalismthe World Trade Organisation, the G7, the International Monetary Fund, the World Health Organisationare torn by conflicts or in an advanced state of decay. The significance of these developments can only be understood within their broader historical context. In the 19th century, the development of capitalism and the productive forces of mankind were aided by the formation of national states, such as the unification of Germany in 1871, the establishment of the Italian nation-state and the American civil war, which laid the political foundations for the development of the United States as an economic powerhouse. But the advance of the productive forces did not stop at national borders. It spread globally in the last quarter of the 19th century and the opening decade of the 20th. This vast economic development, however, brought to the surface a central contradiction in the global capitalist systemone that has bedevilled it ever sincebetween the development of a global economy and the division of the world into rival nation-states and great powers. This conflict exploded in the form of World War I, as each capitalist government sought to resolve it, as Leon Trotsky noted, not through the intelligent, organised co-operation of all of humanitys producers, but through the exploitation of the worlds economic system by the capitalist class of the victorious country. The Russian Revolution of October 1917the overthrow of capitalism by the working classpointed to the only way out. It was conceived and fought for by Lenin and the leadership of the Bolshevik Party as the opening shot of the world socialist revolution, that is, the taking of political power by the international working class, as the pre-condition for the reconstruction of the global economy on socialist foundationsthe necessary next stage in the historical development of mankind. The war resolved nothing. Economic nationalism intensified over the succeeding two decades, leading to the outbreak of an even more devastating world war in 1939. In the last days of World War II and its immediate aftermath, the leaders of world imperialism recognised that a new international economic order and monetary system had to be constructed, because any return to the conditions of the 1930s would bring socialist revolution, including in the US. There was an attempt to overcome the contradiction between the development of a global economy and the division of the world into rival nation-states and great powers, through the development of a new world trading and monetary system based on the economic might of the major imperialist power, the United States. This was the foundation of the Bretton Woods monetary system established in 1944, in which the US dollar, backed by gold, became the preeminent international currency. But this system failed to provide a lasting solution. It only temporarily, in historical terms, ameliorated it. The essential contradiction re-emerged, because the very economic expansion it had produced undermined the foundation on which it was basedthe economic superiority of the US over its rivals. The beginning of the end of that dominance announced its arrival with the decision by US President Nixon, on August 15, 1971, to remove the gold backing from the US dollar. The relative weakening of the US vis-a-vis its economic rivals meant it could no longer maintain the system it had created. The historic economic decline of the US has continued apace in the period since. From the economic powerhouse of world capitalism, it has become the centre of capitalist rot and decay, manifested, above all, in the process of financialisationthe complete divorce of wealth accumulation from the underlying process of productionand the making of profit, not through industrial development, as once took place, but by means of parasitism and speculation. That rot erupted to the surface in the 2008 financial crisis and has now exploded in even more grotesque forms in the wake of the pandemicexemplified in the present rise of the stock market as tens of thousands die. However, US imperialism has no intention of fading from the scene. Rather, confronted by rivals on every frontChina, Germany, the European Union and Japanand seeing enemies everywhere, it is determined to maintain its position by all means necessary, including war. The source of the great problems confronting humanity is not economic globalisation and the integration of economic and social life on a world scale. Globalisation of production, in and of itself, represents an important advance. It raises the productivity of labourthe material foundation for all economic advancementto new levels. Furthermore, the vast and complex systems of planning and communication, by which transnational corporations carry out their economic activities, lay the material foundation for a higher form of society, a planned international socialist economy, consciously controlled and democratically regulated by the worlds producersthe international working class. In 1934, as war clouds were once again gathering, Trotsky warned that the call by fascist and nationalist regimes for a return to the national hearth had profound significance. While the prospect of harmonious national economic development on the basis of capitalist property was a complete fiction, it had a menacing political reality. It signified the drive by the major powers to gather together all the economic resources of the nation in preparation for war. That war erupted just five years later, with even more devastating consequences than the first imperialist conflagration. Today, the promotion of economic nationalismnow being accelerated as a result of the pandemichas the same reactionary content. The problems confronting mankind do not arise from economic globalisation as such, but are rooted in the deepening contradiction between this progressive development and the reactionary social and political order, based on private profit and the division of the world into rival nation-states and great powers, within which it is encased. The productive forces, created by the labour of the international working class, must therefore be liberated from these reactionary fetters. That path was charted in the opening shot of the world socialist revolution in October 1917. It is the path to which the international working class must now return, as the only way forward out of the present crisis. Prince Harry has found himself in the middle of another controversy. The Duke of Sussex recently shared a video message for a charity that left royal watchers wondering about the timeline of his move to Los Angeles. The clip features a similar background to a video that Harry shared last month, raising questions about when he and Meghan Markle really moved to LA. Prince Harry | TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images Prince Harrys new video sparks controversy Harry shared the video to promote the charity WellChild. Harry is the patron of the organization, which helps support children who are dangerously sick. While Harrys message was aimed at the charity, viewers quickly noticed that the background of the 30-minute video is very similar to one Harry used a month earlier when he and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, were supposedly still in Canada. The color of the wall behind Prince Harry is almost identical in both videos, while the frame of the door also looks like it could be the same. For all the details and clips from Prince Harrys video call with @WellChild families (plus an update on how the Sussexes are helping during the pandemic), head over to @HarpersBazaarUS for the full story:https://t.co/2bcmdu2ccp Omid Scobie (@scobie) April 15, 2020 Fans started the hashtag, #wheresharry, following the video. According to Express, royal experts Lizzie Robinson and Chris Ship talked about the videos background and wondered about where Harry was staying when he filmed the clip. Behind Prince Harry, when he did this video message for WellChild, was he doing it from LA or Canada? Where was he?, Ship said. Did Harry and Meghan move to LA sooner than everyone thought? Harry and Meghan stayed in a rental home on Vancouver Island during the first few months of the year. Towards the end of March, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex flew to LA right before the United States and Canada closed their borders due to the coronavirus pandemic. The video, of course, sheds serious doubts about when Prince Harry and Meghan moved to the US. If the room in the two videos is the same, then it is possible that the couple moved to LA sooner than anyone thought. DAILY EXPRESS ##Prince_Harry mystery: Bizarre background in Harry's video call sends Twitter into meltdown https://t.co/hi2TyQpcAS pic.twitter.com/ULmv6WdEcc Amigo News (@my_amigouk) April 18, 2020 I suppose they moved to LA a lot sooner than any of us realized, Robinson shared. Thats what I took from it too. Either they picked up the kitchen and moved in to Los Angeles or they were already in Los Angeles when it was all happening. Prince Harry and Meghan have not commented on the reports surrounding their move to LA. The two were recently spotted in the area, so we can confirm that they are living somewhere in the city. Sources believe the two want to buy a home in Malibu, though it is unclear if they have settled on a house or not. At the moment, the entire state is under lockdown, and Harry and Meghan have confirmed that they are focusing their efforts on helping those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Prince Harry gets backlash for not returning home Considering how Harry and Meghan are now in LA, they have come under fire for being away from the United Kingdom during a time of crisis. According to Express, royal expert Angela Levin slammed Harry for not returning as soon as the UK went under lockdown. Levins comments came shortly after Harry praised members of the National Health Service for their hard work on the front lines. Real shame he is not here to help, Levin stated. Inspired by the frontline workers and essential workers everywhere, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan have spent two days with @ProjAngelFood delivering meals to people with life-threatening illnesses in Los Angeles. Details via @HarpersBazaarUS:https://t.co/yjJ6uY6HWt Omid Scobie (@scobie) April 16, 2020 Prince Harry took similar heat in the days and weeks after Prince Charles tested positive for the coronavirus. Thankfully, Charles only suffered mild symptoms related to the virus and has fully recovered. Members of the royal family are in isolation as the country practices social distancing. Although most of their upcoming engagements have been canceled, several royals have been fulfilling their royal duties via video conference. The Sussexes turn their backs on British tabloids Apart from Prince Harrys recent dilemma, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex recently gave the cold shoulder to British tabloids. The couple has battled tabloids for the past two years and assured the editors of Daily Mirror, The Sun, Daily Express, and Daily Mail, that they are now officially shunned. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have watched people they know as well as complete strangers have their lives completely pulled apart for no good reason, other than the fact that salacious gossip boosts advertising revenue, the pair wrote. With that said, please note that The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be engaging with your outlet. Prince Harry pleaded with Thomas Markle on eve of wedding, court papers show https://t.co/rjV8wA2LTF windsor unable to see he caused the mess by not checking out markle background carefully. hoare, r (@hoare_) April 20, 2020 According to NBC News, Harry and Meghan added that they will not work with any of the tabloids in Britain and that the outlets can expect zero engagement from their end. We do not know if Harry and Meghan will ban said tabloids from attending their events, but they definitely made their distaste clear. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sued several tabloids in the UK last year for publishing letters written from the Duchess of Sussex to her father, Thomas Markle, without permission. The Federation of Aramaeans in Switzerland recalls the kidnapping "which affected the hearts of all Christians". An event that "fomented the exodus" en masse of many faithful from Syria. Archbishop Georges: the hope, against all hope, that they are alive. The "spirituality" of Msgr. Boulos Yaziji and the "courage" of Msgr. Yohanna Ibrahim. Aleppo (AsiaNews) - Seven years after the announcement of the kidnapping "which hit the hearts of all Christians", the kidnapping of the two bishops and the murder of their driver is still shrouded in mystery and " no official and proven news has been published. " This is what the Federation of Arameans (Syriacs) in Switzerland writes in a note on the kidnapping of Msgr. Yohanna Ibrahim and Msgr. Boulos Yaziji, which has not been reported since 22 April 2013. A kidnapping that "fomented the mass and inevitable exodus of many Christians who fled Aleppo and the surrounding area". Melki Toprak, president of the Federation of Arameans in Switzerland, recalls the massive exodus from Syria, a nation that before the war "had 2.5 million Christians". In Iraq, the Christian leader continues, "such kidnappings occur frequently: we are in the 21st century and yet the presence of Christians in the Middle East still annoys the policy of many atrocious leaders". There has been no news of the two prelates since 22 April 2013. Their fate remains shrouded in mystery like that of the Italian missionary Fr. Paolo DallOglio. These out of the ordinary kidnappings were not followed by ransom or negotiations for release. Msgr Yohanna Ibrahim, bishop of the Syrian Orthodox diocese and Msgr. Boulos Yaziji, Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox diocese, were kidnapped shortly before 6 in the afternoon in the locality of Kafr Dael, about 10 km from Aleppo. According to some witnesses the two prelates were negotiating the release of two priests Fr. Michel Kayyal and Fr. Maher Mahfouz, kidnapped in February of the same year. On reaching a roadblock, the car with the two bishops was flanked by some armed men, possibly Chechen jihadists, who shot and killed the driver deacon. Evidence showed that the group was made up of foreigners who did not speak Arabic. Aleppo Christians will hold an ecumenical prayer tomorrow "to remember" the two bishops, as the Apostolic Vicar of the Latins Msgr. Georges Abou Khazen. It will be a ceremony "which will take into account the measures taken to combat the new coronavirus pandemic", but which "we want to draw attention not only to them, but also to the two priests, to Fr. Dall'Oglio, to the thousands of Christians who disappeared and of whom nothing is known". The ecumenical prayer will be officiated inside the cathedral of the Greek Orthodox, with the hope "that they are still alive" even if "we don't know, we don't have any certain news" about them. Our strength, continues the prelate, "is how St. Paul says hope against all hope" in this dark context. The fact remains "that no channel has been opened in these years and the only certainty is the killing of the driver" in the excited phases of the kidnapping. For Msgr. Georges "their fate is one of the effects of the war, of a terrible conflict" and it is the task of the whole Christian community "to keep their memory alive". When they kidnapped them - concludes the prelate - I was still a parish priest, but there were many ties between us. We met every last Saturday of the month and each time I was struck by the profound spirituality of the Greek Orthodox bishop, while the courage with which he faced problems was unique to the Syro-Orthodox. " One of the presumed victims of Nova Scotias deadly weekend rampage is being remembered as a kind and gentle soul by those who knew her during her childhood in Winnipeg. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. One of the presumed victims of Nova Scotias deadly weekend rampage is being remembered as a kind and gentle soul by those who knew her during her childhood in Winnipeg. (Elizabeth) Joanne Thomas, 58, and her husband John Zahl, 69, are presumed dead following the events of the weekend in Portapique, N.S. Their home was burned to the ground, but their bodies have not yet been located and identified by authorities. The nation was left reeling by the deadly events of the weekend, during which a man impersonating an RCMP officer shot multiple people and burned homes in a rampage across the Maritime province. By Tuesday afternoon the death toll had risen to 23 people. The alleged shooter, identified by police as Gabriel Wortman, 51, was killed after being intercepted by police in Enfield, N.S. Elizabeth Joanne Thomas and John Zahl (back row) are seen with their grandchildren Riley Zahl (from left), Emily O'Neil and Justin Zahl in an undated photo. (Justin Zahl / The Associated Press) "Its unbelievable that with all the crappy people in this world, that their family is one to get hit like this. It doesnt even make sense, and well probably never know what happened," said Jeanine Remillard, from her Winnipeg home. N.S. shooting rampage killed 22 victims: RCMP Click to Expand Workers at an extended care facility show their community support in Debert, N.S. on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. RCMP say at least 19 people are dead after a man who at one point wore a police uniform and drove a mock-up cruiser, went a murder rampage in Portapique, and other Nova Scotia communities. The alleged killer was shot and killed by police. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan Posted: 6:38 AM Apr. 22, 2020 HALIFAX - A murderous rampage by a Halifax man impersonating an RCMP officer has claimed 22 lives, police announced Tuesday as some questioned why more wasn't done to warn citizens along his route. The RCMP confirmed in a news release that the killing began in Portapique, N.S., and when police arrived Saturday night they discovered several casualties inside and outside of a home. The killer's trail continued overnight and into the next morning through Wentworth, Debert and Shubenacadie before he was shot dead by police in Enfield at around noon Sunday. Read Full Story Remillard remembers moving into the house next door to Thomas's in Winnipegs Windsor Park neighbourhood when Joanne was only 10 years old. Remillard was close friends with Thomass mother until she passed away, and she was also a close family friend. Until this weekend, she continued her routine of speaking with Thomas two to four times a week to stay in touch. After graduating from Windsor Park Collegiate, Thomas spent a year working with individuals with special needs before she left Manitoba to go to university in North Dakota. Shed been training as a speech pathologist when she met her husband, Zahl. The two followed his job with FedEx to Albuquerque, N.M., where Thomas went on to work as an executive with Blue Cross Blue Shield. While Zahl had children from a previous relationship, the couple ended up adopting two of his grandchildren and raising them as their own children. In 2017, the couple decided they wanted a change of pace and moved to Nova Scotia for their retirement. "Theyd moved to this incredibly idyllic, peaceful, friendly (place)," Thomass sister, Lori Thomas, told the Free Press from her home in Brandon, Man. "You visit, and you want to pick up and move there yourself." Theyd moved to this incredibly idyllic, peaceful, friendly (place). You visit, and you want to pick up and move there yourself. Lori Thomas Lori said the transition had been a stark one for her sister, moving from being a busy executive, travelling all the time, to landing in a slow-paced town like Portapique. But she managed it by throwing herself into the community, Lori said. Her sister volunteered with their church, provided laundry services to those less fortunate in the area, and worked as an advocate against human trafficking in Nova Scotia. Remillard remembers the couple as people who would "open their arms to anyone" and she added that Thomas had "the energy of 20 people" and she used it all to serve others. Remillard visited the couple the summer before last, and described their new two-storey wood cabin as the couples dream. She believes the man who allegedly carried out the attacks was their next-door neighbour, but she never crossed paths with him when she was there. Wentworth volunteer firefighters douse hotspots as an excavator digs through the rubble of a destroyed home linked to Sunday's deadly shooting rampage. (Tim Krochak / Getty Images / TNS) Many questions remain as RCMP continue to investigate the horrific events of the weekend. Lori is waiting for a call to supply her DNA to identify her sisters body. But in the end, she says answers dont change much for her. "Even if we were to get every single blow-by-blow, minute-to-minute descriptor of what happened, it doesnt change that they are no longer with us," Lori said. The tragedy of the couples loss is deepened by the fact that they leave behind their 22-year-old adopted son, Justin; he lives in a trailer in Halifax, Remillard said, but due to some cognitive delays he has always relied completely on his parents. When word of the devastation in Portapique spread on Sunday, Justin became frantic for answers and has been in constant contact with Remillard ever since. "Its just such a difficult situation because were all so far away," Remillard said. The pandemic has made the efforts of family and friends to try and help him all the more difficult. Lori said she feels helpless, not being able to be there to support her nephew or to try and make funeral arrangements. If COVID-19 hadnt shut down most air travel, the couple would instead have been away on a trip to Denmark, Holland and England, Lori said. It is horrific, and it is unfathomable. Canadians dont do this." Lori Thomas Each and every night Thomas had a habit of FaceTiming with her brother, Kenny, in Brandon, who has special needs. Lori cares for their brother and said it still seems impossible that his iPad wont soon ring, with Thomass voice on the other end saying, "Hey brother, brother." 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 Nova Scotia provincial flag flies at Memorial Park across the street from the Manitoba Legislative Building Monday in support of the victims of the massacre. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) "It is horrific, and it is unfathomable. Canadians dont do this. And when you hear such horrible things, you think how horrible it must be for families, and you think, Boy thats never happened to anyone I know. Well now it has happened to someone that I know," Lori said. Lori said she doesnt think the loss has truly hit her yet, but as she processes the events of the last few days, she tries to find comfort in the fact that the couple, of 35 years, were together in the end, and she hopes to share some of that comfort with the public, by sharing the details of her sister's life. She laughs as she recalls that on every trip to Winnipeg, often even before she made it to visit her parents house, Joanne would stop at Dairi Wip for a hot dog, and it wasnt uncommon to wake up to her eating Jeanne's cake for breakfast with a glass of milk. "Her loss is such a senseless thing. It is difficult to make sense of it." sarah.lawrynuik@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @SarahLawrynuik The Daily Beast Fox News White House correspondent and perpetual nemesis of Jen Psaki thought he had Joe Bidens press secretary cornered on Monday when he asked her why the president is still referring to COVID-19 as a pandemic of the unvaccinated when so many people are getting breakthrough infections. He was wrong.I understand that the science says that vaccines prevent death, Doocy began, before undercutting that basic truth. But Im triple-vaxxed, still got COVID. Youre triple-vaxxed, still got COVI Heres a very bad shoplifting strategy. According to the Omaha World-Herald, a Nebraska man completed a job application on Monday at a Scheels sporting goods store in Omaha, and proceeded to steal a $40 bottle of St. James of London cologne from the store. It took about five minutes Monday for store detectives to determine the name, address and phone number of the man they say walked out of the Scheels sporting goods store at Village Pointe without paying for a $40 bottle of cologne. The loss prevention manager told police that while reviewing surveillance video of the incident, he noticed the man had completed a job application. The mans name, age, phone and place of residence matched information police had gathered during numerous earlier arrests. A still photo from the video also matched the 20-year-olds mug shot. If youre going to be dumb enough to steal something, at least dont do it a place you just gave your personal information. Oh, but it gets worse. While police were in the process of trying to locate the man, he did the job for them. Just four hours after shoplifting, the man returned to the store for a job interview. A Scheels employee alerted the police of his hard-to-believe return to the store, and they showed up to arrest him on suspicion of shoplifting. Police searched the car and found the cologne bottle in plain view, and also found a pipe and a large bong. Even if the man hadnt filled out a job application or returned for a job interview, police wouldve likely found him without much trouble. The man was so slow to leave the store and drive away in his fathers Toyota after shoplifting, that a Scheels employee was able to write down the license plate number. Well assume he wont be getting that job at Scheels anytime soon either. Virtual Pediatric Systems (VPS), a software-based network of hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs) across the U.S., has begun gathering data on COVID-19 patients being cared for in PICUs in an effort to improve medical care for afflicted patients in this unprecedented pandemic. VPS has been supporting PICUs since 2004 by receiving and disseminating granular data for quality improvement, comparative analysis and supporting pediatric research. Over 200 hospitals have provided their data to the registry that now consists of over 1.5 million harvested patient admission records. When VPS learned the COVID-19 crisis was going to impact hospitals PICUs, the company responded. They initially launched a COVID-specific Listserv as a public service to be a conduit for healthcare professionals throughout North America to share best practices, not only for children but also as they transitioned their ICUs supporting adult patients (since March 23, 2020, 40 percent of PICU patients are over age 18). Sharing common information and understanding how our colleagues are responding in the early days of this pandemic is crucial to improving the care we can provide for children and informing our hospitals about resource requirements, said Randall Wetzel MD, CEO of VPS. The company then distributed a simple survey to help leadership of PICUs and hospital administrators better understand how their units were responding to the impact of COVID-19. Those results are posted at https://www.myvps.org with a dashboard generated from data from over 180 North American PICUs voluntarily submitting daily. COVID-19 is impacting numerous PICUs as they transition to support more adult-aged patients, said Brian Reisner, COO of VPS. We want to provide them access to as much information as possible so medical staff can most effectively support these patients, of all ages, who are facing COVID complications. The COVID-19 dashboard for PICUs, consisting of three pages, lists how many COVID-19 patients were admitted per day, grouped by age, therapies utilized, comorbidities by patient, length of stay, organ systems involved and many other criteria. The dashboard can be filtered by state and by period of time. VPS is owned by not-for-profits Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles and the Childrens Hospital Association. Both organizations actively support VPSs mission to share best practices in the interest to pursue quality improvement and provide valuable and qualified data for research. The state of California has mandated that all PICUs actively participate in VPS. We invite anyone who supports a PICU in North America to contact us to participate in this dashboard and to be added to the Listserv, said Reisner. We are all in this together and well more effectively save lives by collaborating and sharing this valuable information and data with each other. To join VPS, select JOIN at https://www.myvps.org. A partial list of active members can be found here: https://www.myvps.org/vps-community. About Virtual Pediatric Systems, LLC Virtual Pediatric Systems, LLC (VPS) seeks to improve critical care quality and outcomes for all children and their families, through collaborative high-quality data management and actionable comparative reports for clinicians and other health care leaders. VPS supports clinical research and develops clinical protocols applicable to pediatric critical quality assurance measures and educational tools derived from this research and widely disseminates the resulting information to pediatricians throughout North America and participating International units. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned the worst is yet ahead of us in the coronavirus outbreak, with the vast majority of the public thought to remain at risk from the disease even in countries that are lifting lockdown measures. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organisations director-general, said early data indicated fewer than 3 per cent of the population has had Covid-19 in the worst-affected regions, meaning there is little chance of widespread immunity to the virus. More than 2.5 million coronavirus infections have been confirmed across the world, but antibody testing which shows whether a person has recovered from the disease and is now probably immune is expected to reveal there have been many more undiagnosed and asymptomatic cases. Dr Ghebreyesus, speaking at a briefing on Monday, said: Early data from some of these studies suggest that a relatively small percentage of the population may have been infected, even in heavily affected areas not more than 2 to 3 per cent. Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease expert leading the WHOs work on Covid-19, added the preliminary data suggested fewer people than expected had been infected. She told reporters: We absolutely must remain vigilant, because what were learning from these serologic studies these early serologic studies, even with all of their faults and all of the limitations a lower proportion of people are actually, it appears, infected. And that means a large proportion of the public remains susceptible. So that means that the virus can take off again. Dr van Kerkhove said the figures demonstrated it was vital that countries easing social distancing measures do so in a slow and staggered, controlled way, and that the systems are in place and the people are there to detect these cases, find the virus, find contacts and have locations where they can be cared for safely. Countries including Germany, Denmark, New Zealand and India have begun easing their lockdowns or announced plans to loosen restrictions such as stay-at-home orders, school and business closures, and bans on public gatherings. The WHO has previously warned that lifting lockdowns too early would spark a deadly resurgence of Covid-19. Dr Ghebreyesus said on Monday: We want to re-emphasise that easing restrictions is not the end of the epidemic in any country. Ending the epidemic will require a sustained effort on the part of individuals, communities and governments to continue suppressing and controlling this deadly virus. So-called lockdowns can help to take the heat out of a countrys epidemic, but they cannot end it alone. Countries must now ensure they can detect, test, isolate and care for every case, and trace every contact. He acknowledged antibody tests were important for establishing the extent of outbreak, but stressed tests that find the virus in people still infected were a core tool for active case finding, diagnosis, isolation and treatment. More than 171,000 people with coronavirus have died across the world. Dr Ghebreyesus warned many more people would lose their lives, telling reporters from the WHOs headquarters in Geneva: Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us. He added: We have been warning from day one: this is a devil that everybody should fight. The WHO warned last week that Africa, where many countries have fragile health systems, could become the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak. There have been fewer deaths and infections in the continent compared to Europe and the US, but cases have been rising sharply in recent days. UN Economic Commission for Africa has estimated at least 300,000 people will die in Africa and millions will be plunged into poverty. Millions normally return home at the end of the fasting month, but government says that cannot happen this year. Indonesia has decided to ban mudik, the annual exodus that usually takes place at the end of Ramadan as people return home to their villages across the archipelago, in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the Southeast Asian nation. President Joko Widodo said earlier he would rely on persuasion to ensure people remained at home, but announced a change of mind of Tuesday. I have taken the decision that we will ban mudik, Widodo told a cabinet meeting. That is why the relevant preparation needs to be done. Indonesia is the worlds biggest Muslim-majority country and, each year, millions take to the trains and roads to go home at the end of the fasting month. Some 590 people have already died from coronavirus in Indonesia the highest toll in Asia outside China and experts fear the exodus would spread the disease further. Survival aspect Ika Nur Afifah, who works in Jakarta but is from the city of Semarang in Central Java, said she had already decided she would not travel back home after Ramadan because she did not want to risk her familys safety. I could bring the disease home as a silent carrier, and I do not want to do that, the 22-year-old said. If I bring the virus, one person will be infected, then there will be dozens of others, so it is better to stay at home. Mudik can be done another time. In a study last week, researchers at the University of Indonesias public health faculty warned that if the exodus home were allowed to go ahead, it could lead to a million infections by July on Java, Indonesias most densely-populated island. The capital, Jakarta, lies in the islands west. Without the exodus, that figure could be cut to 750,000 cases, the researchers said. Last year, about 19.5 million people in the archipelago made the journey, the government says, and Widodo added that 7 percent of Indonesians had already set out this year. Devie Rahmawati, a social analyst at the University of Indonesia, said that, while calling off mudik was welcome for reasons of public health, the cancellation could have a significant impact on the livelihoods of many people who had migrated from rural areas to work in the city. She noted that many of those who had already gone back to their hometowns for mudik had either lost their jobs because of the virus or were on a break from their work in the informal sector. Each year, many Indonesians who try their luck in the big city end up returning to their villages to work instead, something the current ban would make impossible. So, when they dont have any income because they were not working in a formal industry. They need to get back because in their hometowns they have a family who can support them economically. The motivation for mudik is not [just] cultural, but [also] because of the survival aspect, she told Al Jazeera. This is what we need to understand. The worlds fourth most populous country has confirmed 6,760 cases of coronavirus, the second-highest in Southeast Asia after the neighbouring city-state of Singapore. Ramadan is expected to start later this week, and many Muslims around the world are preparing to mark the month under unprecedented conditions. In neighbouring Malaysia, the prime minister has already warned that Muslims may not be able to travel home at the end of Ramadan as they usually do. Teddy Tri Setio Berty, who is from Jambi province in the south of the island of Sumatra, said he had also decided not to return home to his elderly parents and supported the governments decision. In the midst of a situation like this, there really is no other choice, he said. With reporting by Randy Mulyanto in Jakarta With lockdown life leading to major disruptions to the lives of children and teenagers here, new Irish research will examine their mental wellbeing during the current crisis. A new study launched by a team of experts at the University of Limerick is aiming to track young peoples mental health throughout the COVID-19 crisis to identify the necessary advice, support and help. Anecdotal reports suggest that many families and students are struggling with the restrictions imposed by Covid19,according to Dr Jennifer McMahon, a lecturer in Psychology of Education at UL. While general mental health supports are available, there is a distinct lack of information about what type of supports could be most effective. This is what the study is aiming to address, she says: The questions are on a range of topics related to family life and relationships, overall health and wellbeing, parenting, education, psychological symptoms and how they and their child are coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research, called Co-SPACE (COVID-19 Supporting Parents, Adolescents and Children during Epidemics), will focus on students between the ages of four and 18, and their families. The UL study is linked to a study of the same name in Britain being led by Professor Cathy Creswell and Dr Polly Waite of the Department of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. Early findings from that study show that the top three stressors for parents and carers are work, their childrens wellbeing and their family and friends outside their household. The British research also shows that just over half of the children and young people surveyed are completing two or more hours of schoolwork per day. It also found that three quarters of children and young people surveyed are keeping in touch with friends via video chat. The early findings in the UK have shown us that two thirds of parents or carers are worried that they are not meeting the needs of both work and to their children and we are interested to see if that situation is reflected here, Dr McMahon said. It is likely that people are struggling with similar feelings. The UL team is hoping to get more than 1,000 families and carers participating, with the first survey taking about half an hour, followed up by subsequent surveys at monthly intervals. We are also interested in adolescents views and so if parents or carers have a child between 11 and 18 years there will be an option for them to take part also, once they have completed the initial survey, she added. The study is a collaboration between the Teaching for Inclusion (i-TEACH) research lab led by Dr Jennifer McMahon and the Centre for Social Issues led by Professor Orla Muldoon. Other team members are Dr Sharon Houghton, Dr Elaine Gallagher, Dr Cliodhna OConnor, Megan Ryan and Eibhlin Walsh. More information is available here. Regular summaries of the research findings will be available at the study's research website. The city of Buenos Aires recently relaxed a plan to keep the elderly inside their homes amid the COVID-19 pandemic, following intense criticism that the first restrictions were discriminatory and offensive. Incidentally, Argentina has been on mandatory lockdown since late last month, with the majority of the activities outside of going to the bank, pharmacy, or grocery store-off-limits. Officials of Buenos Aires initially wanted to require 70-year-old individuals and older to seek permission when leaving their homes. However, following criticism from the community, sources of the government said attaining a permit is not compulsory anymore. At present, the government is advising the elderly residents to dial a toll-free number to say if there is a need for them to go out. The main goal of this new guideline is to convince the older adults to stay indoors by offering them to have the task to be accomplished by a volunteer. The "Notice" The resolution of the city-states that Buenos Aires will record "notice" should an individual decide to go out. This "notice" then lasts for up to 48 hours. However, according to some sources, no penalties would be enacted for anyone who leaves home without providing a "notice." In connection to this, city officials explain that the plan is designed for the protection of the group most at risk of dying from COVID-19. Buenos Aires city mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta said he does not choose who the virus attacks adding, "All the decisions made have criteria, and that's to look after the lives of this city's residents." Moreover, while this mandatory lockdown continues, the national government has progressively been lifting restrictions for specific tasks resulting in a noticeable increase in movements on Buenos Aires streets. The city's health minister, Fernan Quiros, said, if one is considering going out, he asks to be allowed to speak with that individual. Specifically, Quiros pleaded with the seniors if they are not amenable to what's being offered to them. If they don't think it is invalid, they have the liberty to carry out whatever activity they want. Meanwhile, Mayor Larreta said, figures direct this particular measure. Specifically, the city head said, 80 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 globally have been people more than 70 years old. The Counterattack The original proposal, which President Alberto Fernandez backed, resulted in ferocious controversy specifically in Argentina's capital city with a three-million population, including roughly 400,000 people who are more than 70 years of age. Initially, the officials considered fining the violators or requiring them to do community service. However, there was a reversal of the course in the middle of the public outcry. Essentially, critics called the original proposal discriminatory, a method of imprisonment and unconstitutional. One of the many older people who oppose the original proposal is Maria Rosa Fernandez. She finds the permit proposal absurd. While she agrees that the administration should indeed look after the elderly, there are limits. Check these out! By Tracy Rucinski CHICAGO (Reuters) - United Airlines said on Monday it expects to report a pretax loss of about $2.1 billion for the first quarter, after the coronavirus outbreak smothered its growth aspirations in Latin America and led the company to seek another $4.5 billion in government aid. Chicago-based United said first quarter revenues are seen at $8 billion, down 17% from a year earlier, with the bulk of the declines in the last two weeks of March as coronavirus outbreaks accelerated globally, causing an average daily revenue loss of $100 million. The results are preliminary and final first-quarter numbers may change, it said, without disclosing a date for publication By Tracy Rucinski CHICAGO (Reuters) - United Airlines said on Monday it expects to report a pretax loss of about $2.1 billion for the first quarter, after the coronavirus outbreak smothered its growth aspirations in Latin America and led the company to seek another $4.5 billion in government aid. Chicago-based United said first quarter revenues are seen at $8 billion, down 17% from a year earlier, with the bulk of the declines in the last two weeks of March as coronavirus outbreaks accelerated globally, causing an average daily revenue loss of $100 million. The results are preliminary and final first-quarter numbers may change, it said, without disclosing a date for publication. Delta Air Lines Inc and Southwest Airlines Co are to report first-quarter results this week. All U.S. airlines are seeking government money to help them weather what they say is the worst crisis in the industry's history. With few people flying, United said it plans to operate only about 10% of its normal schedule in May and June. In addition to $5 billion it will receive from the U.S. government to cover payroll through Sept. 30, United said it also expects to borrow up to about $4.5 billion from the U.S. Treasury Department for up to five years. Once the terms are finalized, it will have until the end of September to decide whether to draw the money. If it borrows the full amount, United would issue warrants for the Treasury to buy 14.2 million shares at its April 9 closing price of $31.50 per share. Shares in United were down about 2.7% at $28.29 in midday trading. The estimated first-quarter loss includes just over $1 billion in special charges, mainly reflecting a reserve on a loan United made in connection with an investment in Colombia's Avianca Holdings as part of its plans for a larger tie-up in Latin America. The loan was backed by a controlling interest in Avianca, which has not flown any passenger flights since March 24 as its main Colombia and El Salvador hubs shut down their air spaces. Avianca has furloughed half of its staff with no pay and has not publicly disclosed when it expects to fly again as governments in Latin America repeatedly extend quarantines. United also wrote down the value of its investments in Brazilian carrier Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras and took a $50 million impairment charge for its routes in China, where the coronavirus first started to affect travel in January. U.S. airlines, including United, have warned that they will have to downsize in October if demand does not show signs of recovering. United had $6.3 billion of liquidity as of April 16, it said, and announced this weekend a sale and leaseback deal with Bank of China (BOC) Aviation, involving six Boeing 787-9 jets and 16 737-9 MAX planes. The MAX jets were built for United but are parked at Boeing Co facilities until regulators approve the aircraft to fly again since two fatal crashes led to a global grounding last year. (Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Additional reporting by Ankit Ajmera, David Shepardson and Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Bernard Orr; Jonathan Oatis and Dan Grebler) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Overnight reports from Jacksonville police: Police are investigating a report that someone kicked a car while it was parked in the 300 block of West Morton Avenue at 5:27 p.m. Monday. Coronavirus cases in the country breached the 18,000-mark on Tuesday. The Ministry of Health updated Indias total number of coronavirus cases to 18,601 on Tuesday. The figure includes 14759 active cases, 3252 cured or discharged patients and 590 fatalities. India entered the seventh day of the extended nationwide lockdown on Tuesday which will come to an on May 3. Here are the key development: 1. In a veiled attack at the Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that poor people are dying due to starvation and the government is busy making sanitiser from their share of rice. 2. The number of coronavirus cases (Covid-19) in Gujarat crossed the 2000-mark after 127 more people tested positive for the infection on Tuesday, news agency PTI reported. 3. The Rajasthan government has stopped rapid antibody tests after a team of experts questioned their use on the basis of results from confirmed Covid-19 cases, health minister Raghu Sharma said on Tuesday. 4. The National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) has withdrawn the consignment of defective COVID-19 testing kits from some of the state-run laboratories in West Bengal, a senior official of the medical body said on Tuesday. The NICED is ICMRs nodal agency in the state. 5. The Odisha government on Tuesday rushed rapid response teams to Bhadrak and Jajpur districts after the state recorded the highest single-day spike in coronavirus cases for the second time in a fortnight on Monday with 18 people including 10 from these two districts with travel history to Kolkata testing positive. 6. The border between Delhi and Ghaziabad was sealed on Tuesday to contain the spread of coronavirus disease Covid-19. 7. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Tuesday regretted the incidents where locals in Chennai opposed the burial of doctors who died of coronavirus. He urged everyone to respect the dedication of the health workers. 8. The Uttar Pradesh Police has registered more than 24,000 FIRs and booked over 71,000 people so far for defying Covid-19 lockdown norms, news agency PTI reported. 9. West Bengal administration got upset with Centres move of sending two inter-ministerial teams to inspect various aspects of the states battle against the coronavirus. 10. A critical coronavirus patient admitted to a private hospital in Delhi showed signs of improvement and was taken off ventilator support after he was administered plasma therapy, PTI reported. A hotel stay that doesn't include a breakfast buffet, an in-room minibar and a coffee station would have been inconceivable to many Americans three months ago. But the onset of the coronavirus has prompted a sea change that could alter everything from how guests check in and eat to how rooms are cleaned. Hotel experts predict that the pandemic will drastically alter hotel stays in coming months, prompting many properties to embrace a host of new practices, up to and including temperature checks upon guests' arrivals. "Hotels tend to be a reactive business," said Chekitan Dev, a professor of marketing and branding at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. "It's taken COVID-19 for a lot of hotels to take a harder look at safety procedures and to up their game." Dev points to safety-conscious procedures enacted in recent days at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City as a prime example of the changes that could be coming soon to hotels across the country. IMAGE: Nurses who do temperature checks at the Four Seasons (Four Seasons Hotel) "We're a guinea pig," said Rudy Tauscher, general manager of the Four Seasons. "We're at the forefront of the hospitality world's 'new normal.'" The Four Seasons' guinea pig journey began last month, when H. Ty Warner, the property's owner, said he would open his hotel's doors to medical professionals working on the COVID-19 battlefront. The announcement set into motion a series of moves that have overhauled the hotel's standard operating procedure. "We now have almost no touch points in the entire hotel, which is completely against a hotel's nature of being hands-on and kind," Tauscher said. "We used to be known for the human touch but now we're all about no touch at all." Check-ins and check-outs are performed virtually, with no human-to-human contact. Elevator rides are limited to one guest per car. Room service has been discontinued, and the hotel's restaurant, bar and complimentary coffee station are closed indefinitely. Story continues The hotel's new dining option: pre-made boxed meals, available in an industrial refrigerator in the lobby. "I think it's safe to say that breakfast buffets and communal tables and the kinds of things that had been traditions at many hotels are going away, for who knows how long," Tauscher said. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak The new procedures at Four Seasons New York were adopted out of the hotel's awareness that many of the medical professionals it is lodging have been exposed to COVID-19. According to Tauscher, 125 guest rooms in the hotel about half have been reserved for medical personnel. But many of the hotel's new safety protocols are now being sought by hotels around the world for all guests, not just properties housing medical professionals. "Here in New York we're leading the charge, but now the phone is ringing off the hook with calls from hotels from all over the place," said Dr. Robert Quigley, senior vice president of International SOS, the group the Four Seasons tapped to make sure its pandemic-era property follows health and safety guidelines as set out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Now, more than ever, safety is important to hotels," Quigley said. The Four Seasons also considerably downsized the contents of guest rooms, so there are fewer opportunities for germs to spread. "We removed minibars, excess hangers, excess linens," Tauscher said. "We took extra pillows out, so there are four per room, instead of six." Quigley also oversaw the complex system by which guest rooms are cleaned. "Currently, there is no in-room housekeeping per se during a guest's stay," Quigley said. Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak Upon arrival at the Four Seasons, guests are given three bags: one for soiled towels, one for soiled bedding and one for trash. When towels and bedding need to be cleaned and when garbage needs to be removed, guests are asked to place bags near the entrances to their rooms and to contact housekeeping, which picks up the bags without ever fully entering the rooms. The deep cleaning of the rooms takes place after guests leave. "The room is left vacant for a full 24 hours after a guest checks out," Quigley said. "Then a cleaning crew comes in with hazmat suits and does a deep cleaning, after which the room is left empty for 24 more hours. Then housekeeping enters to prepare the room for the next guests while wearing appropriate PPE," or personal protective equipment. The careful cleaning procedures ensure a room remains empty a full two to three days between guests. Hilton, which recently pledged to provide up to 1 million medical workers with hotel rooms, is requiring that rooms previously occupied by medical workers remain vacant for three days before any cleaning staff enters. "We want to protect team members," said Phil Cordell, Hilton's global head of new brand development. Cordell and Tauscher said deep cleaning techniques are specifically designed for rooms in which medical personnel exposed to COVID-19 have stayed not rooms that were occupied by general guests. Still, all hotel rooms in the age of COVID-19 are likely to undergo more extensive cleaning than in the pre-pandemic era. Like Four Seasons' Manhattan property, Hilton which owns 4,900 hotels in the U.S., including Hampton Inn properties and the Waldorf Astoria is taking new measures to ensure that all of its guests feel safe in the age of the coronavirus. To minimize human contact, Cordell said, Hilton is encouraging guests to take advantage of its digital key program, which enables guests to check in virtually. "Once registered, guests have the ability to check in, select their room and use their phone as their room key, without ever having to interact with the front desk," he said. Cordell said his management teams are working to minimize human contact when it comes to breakfast, which means reinventing crowd-pleasing breakfast buffets. "We're looking at single-serve options instead of buffets and having a team member serving guests at buffets instead of allowing guests to help themselves," Cordell said. Only one guest is permitted per elevator (Four Seasons Hotel) Then there are the hotel gyms. "In order to keep guests socially distanced, we're looking at offering guests the opportunity to sign up for a specific gym time slot and exploring in-room exercise equipment options," Cordell said. Perhaps the most telling sign of the times at the Four Seasons are the two nurses who now staff the single entrance to the hotel, armed with thermometers. Everyone who enters has their temperature taken, employees and guests alike. Anyone with a fever is denied entry. Quigley said that in the short time the nurses have been posted, they have identified "several" guests and employees with fevers. "The system is working," Quigley said. While the Four Seasons does not intend the temperature-checking to be permanent, Dev said temperature checks upon arrival may be a part of the new normal at more hotels as business and leisure travel resumes. "Temperature checks are already being done at hotels in Asia," he said. "I would not be surprised if it's done at hotels in the U.S. I also expect some U.S. reservation agents may begin asking guests about their health and travel histories before they book rooms." Dev said he sees a silver lining to the dark cloud COVID-19 has brought to a battered hotel industry, in which many properties have been forced to temporarily close and furlough thousands of employees. "Hotels have not taken cleanliness seriously enough in the past," he said. "Duvets should always have been washed between guests. Minibars were always sources of germs. Sneeze guards [at breakfast buffets] were always very old-school. These things needed to be changed." The biggest adjustment to hotel culture in coming months, Tauscher predicted, will be for hotel workers, who are by nature "people pleasers." Now, he anticipates a hotel experience that's far less hands-on. "Like in an Apple store, there will be less human interaction. Virtual check-ins. Virtual checkouts. No direct contact. We'll do with technology a lot of things we used to do in person." The restaurant and healthcare industries are important to our business and we are grateful to be able to support these two industries during a time of need. - Scott Seifert, Director of Sales and Marketing Smithereen Pest Management Services has announced it is supporting hospital workers in association with other local businesses by delivering meals to frontline hospital workers during the months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. As part of Smithereen SELECT, a company-wide volunteer program that began in 2011, Smitheereen is partnering with local businesses McWethy's Tavern in Romeoville and Bartolini's Restaurant in Midlothian to deliver box meals to their hospital customers treating COVID-19 patients. Hospitals included in the first phase were: Amita Health Adventist Medical Center Bolingbrook Amita Health Adventist Medical Center Hinsdale Amita Health St. Joseph Medical Cente OSF Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Evergreen Park. Smithereen donated over 100 meals in the first weeks of April 2020, and plans on a second stage of meal delivery. "The restaurant and healthcare industries are very important to our business and we are grateful to be able to support these two industries during a time of need," explained Scott Seifert, Director of Sales and Marketing at Smithereen. "These warriors are dealing with unprecedented stressful times and we wanted to show a small token of our appreciation. Smithereen is planning on expanding the meal program with other customers in Illinois, as well as in Kansas and Missouri. "We look forward to expanding the program and support until our restaurant and hospital clients can return to more normal operations," said Seifert. ABOUT THE COMPANY Smithereen Pest Management Services is an industry leader in pest control that serves commercial and residential customers across seven states. Smithereen is a fourth generation family owned press control company established in 1888. From over 500 applications, DBT selected Cadila Healthcare Ltd, Bharat Biotech International Ltd and Serum Institute of India Private Limited. The Department of Biotechnology has so far short-listed three companies for funding the development of a vaccine for COVID-19, besides 13 other proposals it received for diagnostics, therapeutics and other interventions to fight coronavirus, a statement said. The three companies are Cadila Healthcare Ltd, Bharat Biotech International Ltd and Serum Institute of India Private Limited. The DBT said a multifaceted approach is being adopted to ensure that vaccine companies utilising different platforms and at different stages of development are fast-tracked through a research consortium under funding from the National Biopharma Mission, an initiative launched in 2017 to support the development of vaccines and drugs. The Department of Biotechnology and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council had invited applications on the COVID-19 Research Consortium. The first phase of the call ended on 30 March and around 500 applications were received from academia and industry, the DBT said in a statement. The multi-tiered review process is ongoing and till date, 16 proposals of devices, diagnostics, vaccine candidates, therapeutics and other interventions have been recommended for receiving funding support, it said. Both repurposing of existing vaccine companies for immediate protection of high-risk groups and novel vaccine candidate development were considered while selecting proposals under this call. "Funding support has been recommended to Cadila Healthcare Ltd for advancing the development of a DNA Vaccine candidate against novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and to Bharat Biotech International Ltd for COVID-19 vaccine candidate utilising the inactivated rabies vector platform. "For the Phase III human clinical trials study of recombinant BCG vaccine planned in high-risk population, Serum Institute of India Private Limited (SIIPL) will be supported," the statement said. It added that development of a novel vaccine evaluation platform at National Institute of Immunology, an institute under the Department of Biotechnology, to support SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development has also been approved for financial support. The DBT has been designated the central coordination agency for the development of a vaccine for COVID-19. DBT Secretary Renu Swarup told PTI that other proposals were also being examined. Meanwhile, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has tied up with Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd to evaluate Mycobacterium W (Mw) for faster recovery of hospitalised COVID-19 infected patients and to minimise the spread of disease through them. CSIR Director General Shekhar Mande told PTI that Mw can reduce the mortality in patients suffering from Gram-negative sepsis by 50 per cent. Permission has been granted by the Drug Controller of India to conduct tests on critically ill COVD-19 patients at three major hospitals in the country, he said. Mande said Mw helps in boosting TH1 and TH2 cells which in turn builds immunity in fighting viruses and in this specific case COVID-19. Both DBT and CSIR are departments under the Ministry of Science and Technology. With regards to DBT, to boost indigenous production and to scale-up the production of molecular and rapid diagnostic tests, Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt Ltd, Huwel Lifesciences, Ubio Biotechnology Systems Pvt Ltd, Dhiti Life Sciences Pvt Ltd, MagGenome Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bigtec Pvt Ltd and Yaathum Biotech Pvt Ltd will also receive funding, the statement added. A common shared facility to manufacture diagnostic kits and ventilators will be established at Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ) under National Biopharma Mission of DBT to provide scaled-up production capacity to different manufacturers, it added. Development and deployment of contactless, affordable thermopile-based ultrasonic sensors for screening of COVID-19 suspects and indigenous production of novel PPE for healthcare professionals will also be supported under the initiative. New York Attorney General Letitia James opened an inquiry into Charter Communications after the telecom company continued to require some employees to report to corporate offices amid government calls for employers to allow remote work where possible. The inquiry will look into how Charter has managed its employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, a spokesperson for James said. More than 230 employees from Charter's Spectrum division have tested positive for the coronavirus, a person with knowledge of the company told The New York Times. The company has about 95,000 total employees, according to public filings compiled by FactSet. The illnesses follow a March report from TechCrunch that said Charter had continued to require employees to report to offices and call centers around the country despite government guidelines to restrict gatherings of 10 or more people. At the time, employees at some of those locations had already tested positive for the virus, according to the report. A Charter spokesperson said in a statement that a "significant majority" of office and call center employees in the U.S. are now working from home. However, the spokesperson did not provide specific figures for how many people were still working in its offices. "Over the past three weeks, we have dramatically reduced the number of employees going into the field or into the office while maintaining the efficacy of our business operations that is so critical to fighting this pandemic," a Charter spokesperson said in a statement. "We have also announced a variety of enhanced benefits to help alleviate employees concerns while still being able to meet the elevated needs of our customers and businesses across the country during the crisis." Following the TechCrunch report in March, Charter said it had added three weeks paid time off for employees for "any COVID-19-related personal need." As a telecommunications business, Charter is generally considered an essential business, including under New York state guidelines. But government officials in Connecticut, where Charter is based, have advised that essential employees should still work from home when possible. Last month, a Denver-based engineer sent an email to hundreds of his colleagues questioning why they should have to come into the office when their jobs could be done remotely, according to TechCrunch. The employee resigned after Charter gave him the option to either work from the office or take sick leave, TechCrunch reported. The Charter spokesperson told CNBC they don't comment on employee matters. The day after the employee's resignation, March 14, Charter CEO Thomas Rutledge said in a memo to employees that about 80,000 of them had jobs that "cannot be performed effectively from home," the Times reported. While another 14,000 employees had the ability to work remotely, "they are more effective from the office," Rutledge wrote, according to the Times. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. WATCH: Protests over stay-at-home orders staged in several US cities The largest hospital system in New York said it will reward the 'bravery' of its frontline workers for their service during the coronavirus outbreak with a bonus and time off. Northwell Health, with campuses on Long Island as well as in Manhattan and Queens, said Monday it will pay frontline workers a $2,500 bonus and extra week of vacation for their service during the pandemic. 'Our dedicated staff's response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been nothing short of heroic,' said Northwell President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Dowling in a released statement. Northwell Health's front line staff, like the ones working the drive thru testing line at Huntington Hospital, are eligible for the health system's offer of a $2,500 bonus and time off as a reward for their service during the pandemic Nassau County first responders line up to front line workers who have treated COVID-19 patients at Northwell's North Shore University Hospital A patient is rushed into a coronavirus intake area at Northwell's Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York 'Thanks to the courage and commitment of our front-line caregivers, we answered the call in service to the patients and communities who entrust us with their care.' Northwell is best known for its flagships North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and Long Island Jewish Hospital in New Hyde Park, as well as Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan and Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. Its hospitals have discharged more than 6,100 patients that had been hospitalized with COVID-19, Northwell says. More than 2,600 patients are still hospitalized within the system. So far there have been 247,512 confirmed cases in New York of the coronavirus, which has been blamed for 14,347 deaths. Across the US, there have been more than 800,000 confirmed cases and close to 43,000 deaths. A look at the number of confirmed cases in New York State of the coronavirus over time There have been more than 800,000 confirmed cases in the US of the coronavirus, which has been blamed for close to 43,000 deaths How the number of coronavirus cases in the US has escalated over time How the number of new coronavirus infections in the US has escalated over time A day-to-day look at the number of deaths which have resulted from the coronavirus Nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists directly involved in caring for patients are eligible for the bonus and time off. But the rewards also are going out to other 'unsung heroes,' including housekeepers, environmental cleaning service workers who sanitize, as well as corporate employees and those outside of hospitals working helping patients. A total of about 45,000 workers are eligible for the bonus and time off, Northwell says. Northwall frontline workers are pictured at a coronavirus drive-through testing lab in New Rochelle, New York Northwell head Michael Dowling says the hospital system wants to continue to 'support, motivate and inspire our team members.' 'We celebrate their wins, recognize their heroic work and amplify the outpouring of community support they are receiving for their courageous actions.' An oil rig stands against the setting sun in Midland, Texas. The price of oil tumbled Monday into negative value. Read more When the price of oil seemingly stepped through the looking glass Monday and tumbled into negative value, it summoned up an image of the world of petroleum turned wrong-side-round. In theory it meant that sellers would have to pay buyers $40 or more just to take a barrel of what used to be called Black Gold off their hands. It was fleeting, and symbolic, more than anything, and it won't have much effect on the price of gasoline at the pump. But it also showed just how much the coronavirus pandemic has crushed the world's energy markets and how the global effort to stabilize them was failing. But the notion that a barrel of oil could be worth less than zero was a shock to many. It was a vivid symptom of the ailments of the oil business, which will probably hit American oil producers the hardest. The oil giants of Saudi Arabia and Russia are state-run conglomerates, capitalizing on cheap oil and able to put national policy ahead of profits if need be. Monday's price was a warning to American companies that the markets they supply are rapidly deflating. It comes even as major oil companies have cut back spending on new wells by 30% to 50%, and oil field service companies have been laying off more and more workers. Some companies have started to shut in their wells, taking a serious hit to their finances. The negative price recorded on Monday was in one sense a short-term anomaly, according to analysts with S&P Global Platts, a commodities analysis firm. It had to do with a specific supply of oil West Texas Intermediate and was tied up with the closing of the contract period for May delivery of oil at a time when few need more petroleum. The June delivery price for oil was up slightly Monday, to just over $20. That means that by late spring, traders are betting that oil will still have some value. Yet even if that June price holds steady it was hovering around $20 Monday it is still down about 65% this year, and over time it would devastate North American shale and sand tar companies. "Whether June contract is fairly priced or has downside, the price is TERRIBLE," tweeted Abhi Rajendran, of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. "Time to wake up to the possibility of 2-3 mil bpd [million barrels per day] or more of US oil supply gone in a month. Could be talking about 3-4." An economist at the University of Notre Dame doubts that that June price will hold steady. The June and July futures prices reflect increased demand for gasoline and jet fuel, said Gianna Bern, but she noted that demand in the transport sector is "at a standstill." "In the coming days," she said, "I think we could see a weak WTI June contract." Few want oil in May because there is hardly anywhere to put it. That's why speculators who held contracts for May delivery contracts that in a normal month they would have sold to refineries at the last minute were left with few options Monday but to swallow the losses. One factor not reflected in the tumbling price, though, is that trading was light throughout the day. Starting in January, the pandemic led to a gradual and then sudden shutdown of the world economy, so that demand is now an estimated 25% to 30% below what it was. But oil-producing nations kept pumping through March and into early April as the Saudis and Russians tried to bluff each other into cutting production, and storage capacity has neared the brink. What little is left has been tied down with leases. On April 12, both sides, together with the other main members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, agreed to cut production by a purported 10 million barrels a day, or about 10% of global output. But that still is less than the decline in consumption, and stocks have kept growing. "This moment is of course historical, and could not better illustrate the price-utopia that the market has been in since March, when the full scale of the oversupply problem started to become evident but the market remained oblivious," Louise Dickson of Rystad Energy wrote in a note. "Since then traders have sent prices up and down on speculation, hopes, tweets and wishful thinking. But now reality is sinking in." That agreement was hailed by President Donald Trump as a victory that would right the price of oil and save American oil-related jobs. Worsening the pain for American producers is a small fleet of tankers leased by the Saudis before the price war was called off and heading to the United States loaded with Saudi crude, according to reports. It would represent seven times the usual amount of oil that Saudi Arabia ships here in a typical month, and it comes even as the United States, which had regained its status as an oil exporter last year, has seen its export markets crumble. "Today's collapse poses a devastating threat to our oil and gas sector, with job losses in the thousands and national security being weakened if the industry cannot recover," Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in a statement issued by his office Monday. "The dramatic low underscores why we cannot allow Saudi Arabia to flood the market, especially given our storage capacity dwindling. Right now, the highest number of Saudi oil tankers in years is on its way to our shores. Given today's news, I call on President Trump to prevent them from unloading in the United States." North Dakota is a major oil producing state, sitting atop the Bakken shale formation, but the break-even price there is as much as $45 per barrel. Nothing like this happened in the worst of the Depression, or in the early years of the Civil War, the two previous low points for petroleum, according to Bob McNally, head of the Rapidan Energy Group. Canadian oil companies, which were not parties to the OPEC-Russia agreement, have started to shut in the wells in the sand-tar regions of Alberta. There, too, oil was trading in negative amounts Monday. Shutting-in production is a very painful decision for an operator to make often the economics support running a well at a loss for a certain period of time rather than shutting down the project completely, said Teodora Cowie, senior oil market analyst at Rystad Energy. But with infrastructure constraints, this is no longer an option for many landlocked producers. The market is starting the painful process of balancing supply against a smaller demand outlook of about 70 million bpd, wrote Reid Morrison, an energy analyst with PwC. The economic situation is locked up with no real clarity about what lies ahead, so theres no reason to expect demand to increase over the near term. Top investors are calling on Royal Mail to slash fat cat pay after it axed the dividend. The former state monopoly decided to cancel its final payout to investors last month, to help bolster its balance sheet against the coronavirus outbreak. Its move also hit postal workers, who were given shares in Royal Mail when it was floated on the stock market seven years ago. Royal Mail cancelled its final payout to investors last month. The move also hit postal workers, who were given shares in Royal Mail when it was floated on the stock market seven years ago But it now faces pressure from shareholders to introduce similar belt-tightening measures for executives, and has said so far only that its pay committee will consider the matter 'in the normal way'. Schroders, Royal Mail's biggest shareholder with 15.3 per cent, has warned companies that it expects dividends to be cut and for the 'pain to be shared by management'. It is understood that the UK's biggest asset manager intends to raise the issue with all the companies it is invested in. Schroders boss Peter Harrison has agreed to donate a chunk of his own pay to charities fighting the pandemic. Another top ten shareholder said the firm's decision in March to cancel the dividend would inevitably prompt questions about executive pay, adding: 'Royal Mail needs to explain how its executive pay arrangements will reflect this change as well as any significant changes made to the pay of its wider workforce.' The moves pile yet more pressure on Royal Mail to cut fat cat pay. Rico Back, the chief executive, can earn up to 2.7million a year. He was recently criticised after this newspaper revealed he is running the company from his penthouse in Switzerland while the UK lockdown continues. The issue of pay has been repeatedly highlighted by the Mail's Time to End Fat Cat Pay campaign, with companies such as BT, Rolls-Royce, ITV, British Gas owner Centrica and British Airways owner IAG reducing bosses' pay. Sir Vince Cable, the business secretary who oversaw the firm's privatisation in 2013, has backed calls for pay cuts as well. The controversy at Royal Mail comes after the company faced a shareholder revolt over the package given to Back, 66, in 2018, when he was handed 6million for changes made to his contract. Keith Williams, the former boss of British Airways, is Royal Mail's current chairman and Lynne Peacock, former boss of Woolwich building society, chairs the pay committee. Royal Mail said yesterday: 'Executive remuneration matters will be considered by the remuneration committee in the normal way as part of our year-end process. We are aware of the position adopted by various shareholder representation groups.' ALMERIA, Spain - A former London rapper who stopped making music not long after his fathers extradition to face terror charges in the bombings of two U.S. embassies was arrested Monday in southern Spain on suspicion of joining Islamic State fighters in Syria. Two sources close to the investigation told The Associated Press that police arrested Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary and two other men at a rented apartment. Abdel Bary is the son of an Egyptian operative of al-Qaeda who was convicted for events related to the 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people. A media release from Spains National Police didnt name Abdel Bary. It described him as an Egyptian national who left Europe to fight in Syria and Iraq. The police statement also called him one of the most sought terrorists in Europe, both because of his criminal trajectory in the ranks of Daesh (Islamic State) and because of the high danger that he represented. He and the two other men were arrested overnight at the apartment in Almeria, a port city in southeastern Spain, the AP learned from officials on the ground and interviews with local residents. The three were being interrogated on Tuesday and were scheduled to appear before a National Court judge in Madrid on Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the court that usually handles terror-related case. The spokesman who was not authorized to be named in media reports. Police said the operation was the result of international co-operation between agents specialized in fighting terrorism who suspected that the Egyptian suspect might be travelling through Spain as he tried to return home from the Mideast. Abdel Bary, who is believed to be 29, grew up in London to become a rapper known as Lyricist Jinn and L Jinny. Music videos still available online show him performing raps with references to drug use, violence and his familys experience as asylum-seekers in Britain. His radicalization reportedly took place shortly after his father, Abdel Abdul Bary, was extradited in 2012 to the United States, where he was tried for the twin bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The father was convicted in New York and sentenced in 2015 to a 25-year prison term. In a 2013 post still viewable on what appeared to be his Facebook account, the younger Abdul Bary left a message for his fans: I have left everything for the sake of Allah, he wrote. One year later, in August 2014, a photo of him holding a mans severed head was posted on Twitter. British investigators initially suspected Abdel Bary as being Jihadi John, the IS militant who spoke with a British accent in the video showing the execution of American journalist James Foley. Foley, one of the Islamic State groups early foreign victims, was decapitated. The real Jihadi John turned out to be Mohammed Emwazi, who also grew up in London. Britains Foreign Office declined to comment on Tuesdays arrests, referring queries to the Spanish police. Shiraz Maher, an expert on radicalization at Londons Kings College, described Abdel Bary as one of the better known among a cluster of Islamist extremists that emerged in west London in the early 2010s. He was also one of the earliest so-called foreign fighters to become disillusioned with ISIS. Disillusionment kicked in at different stages for different people. He was known to have been disillusioned for quite a while. And he then just disappeared off the radar, Maher said, suggesting that Abdel Barys early departure doesnt necessarily signal that he was no longer a threat. He was a member of ISIS and clearly participated in all kinds of horrors the group was involved in and should face punishment for those crimes, Maher said. But at this stage, he is more likely to be someone who was trying to save himself in Spain. Abdel Bary was no stranger to Spanish law enforcement. In 2015, a Spanish woman was arrested at an airport terminal in Madrid when she tried to travel to Turkey with a fake passport in order to meet up with and marry Abdel Bary. At her trial, Maria de los Angeles Cala Marquez said she had fallen in love with Abdel Bary after chatting with the former rapper online. In mid-2018 she was sentenced to two years of imprisonment with reprieve. On Tuesday, Spanish police described Abdel Bary as having anextremely violent criminal profile. His arrest took place in Cerro de San Cristobal, a historic neighbourhood in Almeria known for its narrow streets dotted with nightclubs and a mix of old and new buildings leading to the citys Alcazaba, a 10th-century fortress of Arabic origin. Taxi driver Angel Vilchez told the AP that at least six police vehicles and about 30 officers, including many in plainclothes, had blocked access to several streets for most of Monday. Another neighbour, who asked not to be named in media reports, said police had showed up at 3 a.m. Monday and took away at least one person handcuffed from an apartment used for short stays by tourists. Spains Interior Ministry says police have arrested nearly 400 people connected to extremist religious groups since 2012. Many of the arrests have not led to judicial convictions. ___ Parra reported from Madrid. AP reporters Danica Kirca in London and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report. As for Wilson, the chemistry between him and the supermodel wasnt exactly natural, such as when Ireland asked him: Hyrum, can you tell us about the Immacuderm Radiance Restored Collection? Visibly nervous, Wilson seemed to swallow hard with his answer. Absolutely. As with most of my good ideas, this one came from my wife. At two different points, a random camera guy walked through the background with a sound guy behind him, perhaps to give a sense of the bustle of Irelands infomercial business. Among other businesses featured on the supermodels YouTube channel: Jewelry. Pet food. A dollar store. A food-waste disposal manufacturer. As for scar disposal, Wilson told Ireland that skin care is a very hard industry that boils down to trust. If I ask somebody to put a product on their face, theyre gonna have to trust you that its going to do what it says its going to do, Wilson said. I was getting to the point where I thought you know, maybe, maybe, I was wrong maybe this is not something that people are really that interested in ... I (eventually) realized this is, this is helping people. Random people like William Burgamy IV. It's only natural to seek light in such dark days. Less natural is that illumination might be found in the social media feed of a frozen-meat company. Yet many have turned to the Steak-umm Twitter feed as a guiding voice during this pandemic as it tackles issues like misinformation, partisan divides and the importance of science. A recent such tweet, for example, reads: "during this pandemic it's vital to stay wary of charlatans peddling 'miracle cures' that are 'all natural,' such as colloidal silver or herbal remedies. many people are afraid and extra susceptible to scams. please counter falsities if you see them with both data and compassion." It prompted Columbia University research virologist Angela Rasmussen to tweet, "Steak-umm offering the sensible, rational defense of truth, repudiation of opportunism, and call to humanity that we all need right now." So, as Morgan State University journalism professor Jason Johnson tweeted, "Why is Steak-Umm dropping truth bombs?" The answer lies with Allebach Communications, the food and beverage marketing firm based in Souderton, Pennsylvania, that took over the Steak-umm account about five years ago. The sliced-beef company, founded in 1975, wanted to reach a younger audience. The feed's main writer is social media manager Nathan Allebach, the 28-year-old son of the firm's owners. "The voice is based on a combination of brand features," he said via email, "like it being a family-owned frozen meat company built by the working class, then me trying to personify it based on those features, my own thoughts, and an adaptable human-esque style that feels like someone you know." The company's Twitter presence first made waves - at least with national media - in 2018, when a viral thread began: "why are so many young people flocking to brands on social media for love, guidance, and attention? I'll tell you why. they're isolated from real communities, working service jobs they hate while barely making ends meat, and are living w/ unchecked personal/mental health problems." Since then, the brand's feed has continued to find a balance among depressing truths, funny puns and absurdist commentary. Allebach keeps "multiple running notepads of personal thoughts throughout the day that come from podcasts, articles, content creators, or just the ether, then I spend time following cultural trends and conversations on Twitter itself to see how I could insert any semblance of helpful dialogue into the mix based on those thoughts." Donna Hoffman, a marketing professor at George Washington University, said one reason other brands haven't quite been able to copy him is "because it's a guy with his own voice. And he's very clever, really smart and really well read." Many brands have attempted a conversational, human(ish) voice on Twitter, with varying results. Wendy's has taken up the role of an insult comic, endlessly roasting its fast-food competitors. Taco Bell sends out a mixture of offbeat and sassy messages. Planters opts for the absurdist. Steak-umm, on the other hand, goes for empathy and, Hoffman noted, "authenticity." "Twitter is a conversation, and if you're not in the conversation and just constantly being negative, people tend to fall away from that. They might find some of the commentary funny for a little while, but it's very polarizing in the end," said account director Jesse Bender. "We want to be part of the conversation." Some conversations, though, are more difficult than others. History has taught us time and time again that brands' tweets during crises often lead to nothing but problems. During the Arab Spring, Kenneth Cole famously tweeted (and deleted): "Millions are in an uproar in Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online." Steak-umm decided to take its shot during the coronavirus pandemic anyway, maintaining its goal to be an honest part of the conversation while nixing some of the goofier content. "We needed to stop with the memes. We needed to stop with the poking fun, and we needed to listen," Bender said. What they heard was a tidal wave of misinformation sweeping social media, so Allebach did what he always does and wrote "long, repetitive rants that I try to simplify and make sense of." Judging from the praise heaped upon these tweets, the plan seems successful. "Historians will long remember that America's moral compass in this time of trial was a frozen meat company," declared Denver television anchor Kyle Clark. "Is the social media manager of a frozen meat company eligible for a MacArthur Genius Grant?" asked Seth Masket, director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark tweeted that he's so impressed with the company's posts that he'll try out its beef. Meanwhile, Steak-umm continues to use one of its most consistently successful tricks: employing pure transparency. The brand recently tweeted, "note: all companies have a bottom line, so anything we publish is a form of propaganda to encourage positive association and memory with our brand, despite whatever our intentions. remember to consume advertising and PR with skepticism, even if the message is 'helpful.' " While the feed had racked up 135,000 followers as of this writing, Hoffman wonders whether its appeal might eventually dim. "We're looking for that next new thing to give us that next dopamine rush," Hoffman said. "But eventually everyone who would have potentially been interested in seeing the feed will have seen it." For now, at least, it burns brightly. Allebach chalks that up to the brand giving him "the freedom to dive deeper into meta commentary and self-awareness, making it feel conversational and existential, which is what Twitter is all about." - North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un was undergoing treatment at a villa in Hyangsan county following a cardiovascular surgery - The 36-year-old reportedly fell sick due to "excessive smoking, obesity and overwork" - The dictator missed his grandfather's birthday celebrations on Wednesday, April 15, raising speculations about his health status The United States of America (US) is monitoring reports North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un is in grave danger after reportedly receiving a cardiovascular system procedure on Sunday, April 12. The 36-year-old missed his grandfather's birthday celebrations on Wednesday, April 15, raising speculations about his health status. READ ALSO: Gov't allocates Raila KSh 72M days after freezing former PM, VPs' pension budget US President Donald Trump (l) with North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un at a past event. Photo: Business Insider. Source: UGC READ ALSO: COVID-19: Sex workers in Japan receive financial aid from govt after recording low returns A US official told CNN concerns about Kim's health were credible but the severity was hard to assess as information regarding the leader was guarded tightly by officials in the East Asian nation. According to Daily NK, an online South Korean newspaper, Kim had surgery after he felt sick due to ""excessive smoking, obesity, and overwork". He was undergoing treatment at a villa in Hyangsan county following his procedure. Kim Jong-un has ruled North Korea since 2011. Photo: Business Insider. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Mtangazaji mtajika wa CNN Richard Quest, apatwa na coronavirus South Korea's presidential Blue House, however, said it had nothing to confirm on reports about Kim's health saying "no unusual signs" had been detected inside North Korea. The US officials had began reaching out to North Korean experts particularly those who had studied the Kim regime to talk about contingency planning. The dictator who has ruled North Korea with an iron first since 2011 last made a public appearance on Saturday, April 11, on state media. Experts were not sure about his health status but said his absence from the historic celebrations to mark his grandfather's birthday could mean there was something serious going on. "There have been a number of recent rumors about Kim's health (smoking, heart, and brain). If Kim is hospitalised, it would explain why he wasn't present on the important April 15th celebrations," "But, over the years, there have been a number of false health rumors about Kim Jong-un or his father. We'll have to wait and see," said Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former CIA deputy division chief for North Korea. Here were some of the reactions 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from Covid-19 in Kenya | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Iran, like many other countries hit by the Covid-19 outbreak, has closed schools and universities and prioritised online learning. But in a country where there is widespread poverty and some regions have no internet coverage at all, some students are locked out of virtual classrooms. A teacher who works in a poor neighbourhood in Iran told the FRANCE 24 Observers that he hasnt been able to get in contact with two-thirds of his students since schools closed. On 10 March, Irans Ministry of Education announced the closure of all schools and universities to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Iran has been one of the countries the hardest-hit by the virus. On 4 April, Iran officially kicked off its national distance learning project. The Ministry of Education launched SHAD: an Iranian application that students have to sign up for in order to attend virtual classes with their classmates and teachers. Previously, many Iranian teachers had been using Telegram or WhatsApp, two popular apps among Iranians, to reach their students. However, the authorities have banned teachers from using any foreign-based app for educational purposes. Children must download the SHAD app (which only works with the latest version of Android phones), enter their national identity number, choose their school and their class and then join their classmates and teachers to follow lessons in the virtual classrooms. There are more than 14.5 million students in Iran. According to our Observers and people who shared their experiences on social media, the work-from-home platform doesnt work as it should: there are frequent errors, a complicated interface, and a painfully slow platform where simply transferring a short voice message takes a long time, according to our Observers in Iran. This user explains that even signing up to the SHAD platform is very complicated and people often get error messages during the first steps of signing up. Irans digital inequality Story continues The main problem for distance learning in Iran is not that the application isnt user-friendly enough. While Irans Education Minister claimed only 7 percent of Iranian students have no internet access, according to the latest survey by The Statistical Centre of Iran in 2017, 28% of Iranians had no or limited internet access. About 80% of Iranian internet users live in cities and around 20% in rural areas. The Director General of Education Ministry of Sistan and Baluchestan Province a poor province in south-east Iran that shares a border with Afghanistan and Pakistan said that only up to 40% of students in the province had access to internet. Translation: They have no internet, no social media, so their teacher continues to teach them while trying to observe the precautionary measures, in order to give them a bright future. Photo taken in village near Meshgin Shahr, northwestern Iran. However, according to our Observers in Iran and even lots of Iranian media, poverty is the principal problem for distance learning in the country. According to Irans parliamentary research centre, between 40 and 55% of Iranians live under the poverty line. These kids don't even have a simple blackboard or a classroom. How can you be talking about internet? This video was shared from a school in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in Iran. Farzad is a teacher in Kashan, a city in Isfahan province in central Iran. He works in a public school located in a poor neighbourhood of the city, with many Afghan migrants in his class. He explains that even in regions that do have good internet coverage, many families cannot afford to pay for an internet connection and cannot attend the virtual lessons. The first thing you need to sign up to the virtual classes is a smartphone. In the neighbourhood where our school is located, there are many people who have old mobile phones. Because of this problem, I've had absolutely no contact with 10 of my students [about one third of his classroom] since the beginning of the lockdown in Iran. On the other hand, there are families who have smartphones at home but they dont have an internet connection or only have very limited access to the internet. For many families here, internet is a luxury that they cannot afford. I know theyre poor so I cant force them to buy more internet packages, otherwise they would have to cut some other essential good from their family expenses. One third of my students cant afford the cost of internet. A broadband connection in Iran costs about 9.20 euros per month, while the minimum monthly salary is equivalent to 110 euros, meaning an internet connection would represent about 8% of their monthly income. A broadband connection in France costs, on average, about 25.50 euros, while the minimum wage is about 1,219 euros per month, meaning internet costs about 2% of the income of a person on minimum wage. In this second video from Sistan and Baluchestan Province, a student says: Look, we have nothing. We dont have benches, chairs or adecent blackboard here Farzad, our Observer in Iran, continues: Even with the students that Im in connection with, what we have is not a virtual classroom because it is impossible to assemble all the students at the same time, because most of them only have one smartphone at home and it belongs to their father, mother or siblings and the whole family has to share it. So I just send them up to four hours of content and exercises every day, then when they do get access to a smartphone they can do them. I compare them to my familys or friends kids, where each child has their own tablet. This system built by the authorities is designed for students who come from middle- or upper-class families in Iran. The poorest children in my classroom are from single-parent families; theyre Afghan migrants or their parents are drug addicts. The parents of students who are in a better situation are mostly workers in the factories or seasonal workers. Ive complained about this inequality in many occasions, but the only answer I received from the school management was, If these students dont have access to virtual classes, they can still follow their lessons through the TV. Some Iranian state TV channels are broadcasting school classes every day. I watched these classes on TV. They are very old-fashioned and use a method that our students are not familiar with. And what's more, my Afghan immigrant students dont even a TV set at home. A teacher in Hamidiyeh [a poor town in Khuzestan Province in south-west Iran] uses her fridge to teach her students. Two weeks after Irans Ministry of Education launched the SHAD project, the number of users on the platform has remained low, according to an official report. Only 24.6% of Iranian students and around 50% of Iranian teachers have signed up to the platform. Farzad explains: According to this official report, we can see that in the poor regions of Iran, like Sistan and Baluchestan Province, only 6.8% of the students have connected to SHAD. In Kurdistan Province, only 16% are using SHAD. SHAD even has its critics within Irans parliament. On 18 April, Hossein Mohammad Salehi, an Iranian MP from a rural region in Isfahan Province, told an Iranian media, People in my constituency dont have decent roads, they dont even get TV reception, let alone the internet. The education ministry has to provide access to classes for everyone or they must end this unequal system. Article written by Ershad Alijani Virgin Australia, the nation's second-largest airline, announced on Tuesday it had entered voluntary administration as it seeks to strengthen its finances amid a debt crisis. Virgin said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that it had appointed a team of Deloitte administrators to "recapitalize the business and help ensure it emerges in a stronger financial position on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis". The move came after the Australian government refused Virgin's request for a 1.4 billion Australian dollar (USD 888 million) loan. Rival Qantas Airways argued that it had three times more revenue than Virgin and was therefore entitled to a AUD 4.2 billion (USD 2.7 billion) loan if the smaller airline was not to gain an unfair advantage. Administrator Vaughan Strawbridge said in the statement: "Our intention is to undertake a process to restructure and refinance the business and bring it out of administration as soon as possible." Virgin would continue to operate its scheduled international and domestic flights. Virgin shares have been in a trading halt for a week due to its debt crisis. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former First Lady Michelle Obama held a 'couch party' along with Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson on Monday night in an event designed to encourage people to sign up for mail-in voting. On Monday night Michelle Obama spoke to Hanks and Wilson on the telephone as part of a 'voter registration' event. 'Voting should never, ever be difficult and it should never be a partisan issue,' Mrs Obama said as she referred to the recent Wisconsin primary that took place despite social distancing restrictions because of the coronavirus outbreak. The discussion was part of their When We All Vote initiative - a nonpartisan group whose mission is to increase participation in every election and close the race and age voting gap by changing the culture around voting. The group was launched in 2018 by co-chairs Michelle Obama, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Janelle Monae, Chris Paul, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. Hanks' chat with Obama came just days after President Donald Trump ranted against mail-in voting, saying 'a lot of people use it to cheat'. Michelle Obama hosted an online event on behalf of When We All Vote - a non-profit, nonpartisan organization hoping to increase participation in election In a press conference on April 3, Trump said he was adamantly opposed to holding November's presidential election by mail saying there was a greater risk of fraud. But Obama said Monday: 'This pandemic, this crisis that we're facing is proving that measures like vote by mail, early, in-person voting and online voter registration are not only long overdue, they are essential for the future of this democracy'. Obama earlier tweeted 'no American should ever have to make the choice between making their voice heard and keeping themselves and their family safe.' The virtual parties began in late March and often include celebrity endorsement. On Monday night, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson took part in the livestream broadcast During the evening's 'When We All Vote #CouchParty' Obama emphasized the importance of vote-by-mail being accessible to all voters and said that was exactly how she and husband Barack had voted for 'every election for the last decade.' After the phonecall, Hanks and Wilson held a discussion stressing the importance of having every voter's voice heard during the democratic process. 'We as Americans and as voters should be able to request the options that work for us,' Wilson said. 'We don't want to have to risk our health or our vote. So to make that easy, mail-in ballot, absentee ballot, I think that's a really great compromise.' The Oscar-winning actor then thanked essential workers during the current public health crisis. The When We All Vote organization aims to increase voting participation through registration and raising awareness about voting access, including voting by mail Only five states have all-mail elections while in 15 others an 'excuse' must be provided to vote by mail. In the remaining 30 states, an absentee ballot can be requested for any reason 'We can wash our hands, we can responsibly social distance, we can wear the masks,' Hanks said. 'We can do these things. Some of it is literally the least we can do. But the most we can do is give some props and some credit to all those people who are out there: first responders, delivery people, shelve stockers, food folks. Everybody that's working on food banks all around the country in order to keep us all moving.' 'In November, we need to have every voice heard,' Wilson said. 'It's important.' 'As Michelle once said, democracy moved forward, man. It's always on the march,' Hanks added. 'And that means we gotta join the parade.' Former first lady Michelle Obama is seen participating in the 'When We All Vote Rally' at Watsco Center at the University of Miami in September 2018 in Coral Gables, Florida Last week, Michelle Obama announced an initiative being fronted by the group that would see legislation introduced to increase vote-by-mail options, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic which has forced people to remain away from public places and kept indoors. 'We know that barriers to voting existed before this crisis, especially for young people and communities of color,' Obama said in a statement. 'Expanding access to vote-by-mail, online voter registration and early voting are critical steps for this moment and they're long overdue.' 'There is nothing partisan about striving to live up to the promise of our country; making the democracy we all cherish more accessible; and protecting our neighbors, friends and loved ones as they participate in this cornerstone of American life,' said the former first lady. Hanks and Wilson told of their firsthand experience with coronavirus during a radio interview this weekend Hanks and Wilson told of their firsthand experience with coronavirus during a radio interview this weekend. The 63-year-old father-of-four 'had some body aches and was very fatigued' to the point that he 'wiped' out 12 minutes into a 30-minute basic work-out. 'I just tried to do basic stretches and exercises on the floor and I couldn't even get halfway through,' Tom recalled. When a nurse checked on Hanks inside his air-pressurized isolated room, 'She looked at me through her glasses like she was talking to the dumbest human being. And she said, 'You have COVID-19.' Hanks said his wife suffered far worse from 102F fevers, chills, as well as nausea. 'She was so nauseous, she had to crawl on the floor from the bed to the facilities. It lasted a while,' Tom explained. 'Rita went through a tougher time than I did. She had a much-higher fever and she had some other symptoms. She lost her sense of taste and smell. She got absolutely no joy from food for a better part of three weeks.' DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has extended furloughs for prisoners for another month, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, as the Islamic Republic endeavours to stem the spread of the new coronavirus in its crowded jails. Iran's reported temporary release of 100,000 prisoners since February - including prisoners of conscience and dual and foreign nationals - was welcomed by the United Nations on Friday as a good step, but one that must be expanded. "Furloughs of those prisoners, who pose no threat to the society, have been extended until May 20," Rouhani said in a televised cabinet meeting. However, a letter by U.N. human rights experts, including Special Rapporteur on Iran Javaid Rehman, said "most prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders, conservationists and dual and foreign nationals" remained imprisoned in Iran. Rouhani said mosques and holy sites in Iran would remain closed until at least May 4, as the Middle East's worst-hit country tries to contain the fast-spreading outbreak. Iran allowed so-called low-risk businesses - including many shops, factories and workshops - to resume operations in Tehran on Saturday, a week after re-opening in the rest of the country. "Mosques and religious centres will remain closed for the next two weeks ... Decisions on gatherings during the (Muslim holy month of) Ramadan will be taken next week," Rouhani said. Schools and universities remain closed, and a ban on cultural, religious and sports gatherings has been imposed. Rouhani said high-risk businesses - including theatres, gyms, saunas, beauty salons, and shopping centres - would remain closed "until further notice". Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus has risen by 87 to 5,118, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV on Sunday. The total number of infected cases in the Islamic Republic has reached 82,211, he said. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi; additional reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Alex Richardson) Close Donald Trump says accusation he would try to move the general election is 'propaganda' Donald Trump declared, without evidence, that the US is doing sooo much better than any other country in the world in testing for coronavirus after pledging at the White House that America would soon have the capacity to test 5m people per day. But on Wednesday, less than 24 hours later, he falsely claimed that he never said the US would be testing at that rate. The presidents optimism came despite the country passing 1m cases of Covid-19 and 60,000 deaths, a grim marker that officials initially said the US wouldn't reach until August. Within four months of the outbreak, the nation's death toll has surpassed the total deaths from conflicts leading up to and during the Vietnam War over two decades. Mr Trump has meanwhile invoked the Defense Production Act to keep American meatpacking plants open, despite declining to do so for the sake of ventilators or personal protective equipment, as his vice president Mike Pence finds himself in hot water for refusing to wear a mask during an official visit to the Mayo Clinic medical facility in Minnesota on Tuesday. For the third day in a row, the president met with business leaders to discuss the coronavirus response and reopening plans as states begin to preparations to "reopen" against the warnings of health officials and epidemiologists. He also claimed that coronavirus is "going to leave" despite, even without a vaccine. "It's gonna be eradicated," he said. "It might take longer, it might be in smaller sections. It won't be what we had." Follow live coverage as it happened Please allow a moment for our live blog to load Looking for a place to order takeout? A new website launched by the state is designed to encourage Pennsylvanians to support local restaurants. CarryOutPA.com lists restaurants open for takeout, carryout and delivery during the states stay-at-home order. In March, Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf ordered non-essential businesses, including restaurants, bars and taverns to close dining rooms. Food establishments are permitted to remain open for takeout and delivery. As this public health crisis continues to unfold, it is important that we practice social distancing and adhere to the stay-at-home order when possible, said Dennis Davin, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. But its also critical to remember that we can all still do our part to support the restaurants in our communities as they work to provide safe dine-out options. The site was developed by Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association. The states restaurant industry accounts for 10 percent of jobs statewide, according to the association. On Monday, the group said restaurant sales in the state dropped by 82 percent between April 1 and 10, with losses projected at more than $1.8 billion by the end of this month. Restaurants operating in the state are encouraged to register by logging-in information here. 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. LUND, Sweden, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Safeture employee safety platform continues its momentum in a globalized world with increased insecurity and risk awareness. "Recent months' concerns about the Corona virus have clearly shown the need to be better prepared when the unexpected occurs. Safeture's platform illustrates how you can quickly locate your staff, communicate with them, and provide information on the necessary actions wherever they are. It will be at least as important when business resumes, and the world slowly opens again", Magnus Hultman CEO Safeture comments. Conclusions On February 27 , Safeture announced a world-first Coronavirus exposure tracker for companies that, in real-time, correlates each employee's travel patterns with the latest Covid-19 reported cases. , Safeture announced a world-first Coronavirus exposure tracker for companies that, in real-time, correlates each employee's travel patterns with the latest Covid-19 reported cases. Core business revenue for the first quarter grows 41% to 4,8 MSEK of which 99% derives from recurring revenue. Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) for the first quarter grows 46% year-on-year to 19,1 MSEK. After the closing of Q1, Safeture signs two global leaders. Siemens signs an order worth 767 TEUR and Americas insurance giant Chubb signs an extension order worth a minimum of 2 000 TUSD. Summary of Interim Report The Group First quarter (2020-01-01 to 2020-03-31) Net turnover amounted to 4 811 (5 237) TSEK, a decrease of -8,1% compared to the same period last year. Q1 2019 figures for the Group included 1801 TSEK sales in the divested company Travelogix Ltd. Loss after financials and minority share amounted to -5 609 (-4 373) TSEK. Loss per share* before dilution amounted to -0,24 (-0,19) SEK . . Loss per share* after dilution amounted to -0,22 (-0,17) SEK . . The solidity** amounted to 23,3 (62,5) %. The Parent Company First quarter (2020-01-01 to 2020-03-31) Net turnover amounted to 4 811 (3 421) TSEK, an increase of 40,6% compared to the same period last year. Loss after financials amounted to -5 540 (-4 137) TSEK. Loss per share* before dilution amounted to -0,24 (-0,18) SEK . . Loss per share* after dilution amounted to -0,22 (-0,16) SEK . . The solidity** amounted to 23,5 (66,3) %. SaaS Metrics First quarter (2020-01-01 to 2020-03-31) Recurring revenue amounted to 4 770 (3 268) TSEK, which represents 99% (96%) of the Parent company quarterly revenue. Recurring revenue increase 10% versus Q4 2019. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) at the end of Q1 2020 was 19 082 (13 071) TSEK, an increase of +46% compared to Q1 2019. Churn for the quarter was 0,9%. "Parent company" or "Safeture", comprises of Safeture AB with company number 556776-4674, without subsidiaries. "The Group" comprises the Parent company, including subsidiaries. On March, 2020, the Parent company owned 100% of the shares in GWS Production (Singapore) Pte Ltd, 99,99% of the shares in GWS do Brasil Solucoes e Sistemas Tecnologicos em Seguranca Ltda and 35% of the shares in Carefindy AB (minority interest). Amounts within brackets regard the corresponding period last year. *Result per share: The result is divided by the average number of shares (after dilution includes average number of share options). The average number of shares for the first quarter 2020: 23 193 737 (23 193 737) shares. Total number of shares in Safeture on March 31, 2020: 23 193 737 (23 193 737) shares. The Company has issued 670 000 share options (2016/2020), of which 670 000 has been signed for, which can be converted into the same number of shares in the Company during April 2020. The Company has furthermore issued 794 000 share options (2018/2021) which can be converted into the same amount of shares from December 13th, 2021 to December 17th, 2021. Finally the company has issued 1 070 880 share options (2019/2022) which can be converted into the same amount of shares from July 18th 2022 to July 29th 2022. **Solidity: Equity divided by total assets. Significant events during the first quarter, 2020. On February 27 , it was announced that Safeture launched a unique service to protect employees and organizations from Corona's global spread. Safeture launched a world-first Coronavirus exposure tracker for companies that, in real-time, correlates each employee's travel patterns with the latest Covid-19 reported cases. , it was announced that Safeture launched a unique service to protect employees and organizations from Corona's global spread. Safeture launched a world-first Coronavirus exposure tracker for companies that, in real-time, correlates each employee's travel patterns with the latest Covid-19 reported cases. Safeture announced that several new customers have signed up for its cloud-based software to help manage safety and reduce risk for their employees. The increasing awareness of corporate duty-of-care for employees continues to drive demand for Safeture's software globally. The new direct customers who have obtained the company's platform include the Swedish SwedFund, electric racing championship Formula E and U.K. giant Imperial Tobacco. In addition, Kinnevik in Sweden and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency signed up via one of the company's partners. and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency signed up via one of the company's partners. An extra shareholders' general meeting was held on January 10 . In the meeting it was decided to elect two new members of the Board, Christian Lindgren and Pontus Kristiansson . It was also announced that Lars Lidgren , the founder of Safeture AB, is resigning from the Board. . In the meeting it was decided to elect two new members of the Board, and . It was also announced that , the founder of Safeture AB, is resigning from the Board. It was announced that Safeture AB has signed an agreement with Adma Forvaltnings AB, Safeture's largest shareholder, for a credit facility of up to 10 MSEK.The financing will be used to pursue the company's aggressive growth strategy. Significant events after the first quarter, 2020. The German company, Siemens, one of the largest companies in Europe , purchases the Safeture Enterprise platform for its employees with a focus on business travelers. The initial order value is estimated to 767 thousand EUR over the next three years. , purchases the Safeture Enterprise platform for its employees with a focus on business travelers. The initial order value is estimated to over the next three years. Safeture announced a five-year agreement extension with Chubb, the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. The contract value is worth a minimum of 2 million USD over the next five years. Message from the CEO Magnus Hultman The Corona virus global outbreak impacted everything in the first quarter. At first it looked like it was business travelers who were most affected, but it quickly spread to the broader corporate market and ultimately to us here in Europe by mid-February. Now, it's an ugly reality that we are all doing our best to battle. Safeture is in the eye of the storm, working hard to ensure our software is there to support companies when they need it the most. We realized our unique platform with its location and travel data, combined with the wealth of information gathered by our analysis team and our platform's ability to mass-communicate, was the ideal tool to detect the spread of the virus. We launched the world's first Corona Exposure tracker, enabling our customers to follow their employees' locations and trips in combination with reported outbreaks. This gave customers valuable, actionable data to help them restrict travel and quarantine personnel. We quickly made it free for the world to test and since then we have received hundreds of new companies, organizations and authorities wanting to try out the platform. With our unique data and customizable software platform, we are at the forefront of using technology as a tool to track and fight the corona virus outbreak. We aren't slowing down though. We are continuing to develop the platform to add new data sets such as global quarantine and restriction maps. Our efforts added value to our customers and helped generate tremendous interest from new prospects and a lot of exposure in global media. The pandemic has also led to booked trade shows and customer meetings being postponed. This will likely lead to longer sales for the coming months. Still, companies are waking up and corporate resilience and business continuity are high on the agenda. The first quarter continued to show steady revenue growth of 41% percent. More than 3,000 companies are now using our service, most of them coming from our partners. We see a clear opportunity to accelerate our growth, so we strengthened the sales organization by hiring four new sales professionals to focus on Sweden, the UK and the Netherlands. Sales and marketing now make up a third of our workforce, and we plan to continue to scale in these areas. We have actually outgrown our office at Ideon in Lund and have signed for a new office in downtown Lund that is twice the size and will help use secure continued growth and attract new top talent. During the quarter, we also launched two very interesting partnerships in the UK and in Southeast Asia called Sphere and Vesta, respectively. They are co-operations between medical assistance providers, security assistance providers with Safeture providing the technology platform. This type of full-service offering is a very attractive package for global customers. After the quarter ended, we received an order from Germany's Siemens and a five-year extension deal with the insurance giant Chubb. It has been a busy quarter as you can see. We are thrilled to see companies around the world considering new solutions to support their employees. It is an exciting time for Safeture, and we are optimistic about our prospects for the rest of the year. Stay safe. Magnus Hultman CEO, Safeture AB This press release is information that Safeture AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08:00 am CET on 2020-04-21 For additional information, visit www.safeture.com or contact: Safeture CEO Magnus Hultman: +46 706 00 81 66. [email protected] This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/safeture-ab/r/safeture-ab-continue-to-increase---40-6---growth,c3092602 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/17559/3092602/1232914.pdf Interim Report https://news.cision.com/safeture-ab/i/safeture-logo-tjock-alt1,c2775665 Safeture-logo-TJOCK-ALT1 https://news.cision.com/safeture-ab/i/safeture58067,c2775666 Safeture58067 https://news.cision.com/safeture-ab/i/safeture2-platform-app-iso,c2775667 Safeture2-platform-app-ISO https://mb.cision.com/Public/17559/3092602/b1d06a53e1302e49.pdf Final PR Safeture Q1 2020 20200421 SOURCE Safeture AB Almost 70%of young people (aged 16-19) in Ireland are optimistic that society will change for the better in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thats according to new research published on Monday, which was carried out by Young Social Innovators with its partner, market research and data specialists, Amarach Research. The results of the research come five and a half weeks since the closure of schools across the country, and offers rich insight into how young people are coping with life during the ongoing public health emergency, and of their perceptions of what life may look like afterwards. Key findings include: 37 per cent of young people are feeling calm, positive, motivated and enthusiastic during the current pandemic, while 53 per cent are feeling anxious, stressed or depressed. 66 per cent of young people surveyed have spoken to, or confided in, a family member or friend about how they are feeling as a result of COVID-19. Maintaining a connection to friends is important for young people amidst the crisis, with almost 70 per cent spending more time on the phone / internet with friends while confined to the home. Almost all young people surveyed feel they have some knowledge of COVID-19, with six in 10 stating that they know a lot. 70 per cent of young people are engaging with the news at least once a day, with over 80 per cent getting their news from television. There is clarity among the majority of young people regarding hand washing etiquette and social distancing, and they have a clear understanding of the importance of following Government guidelines. However, young people are less clear around what to do if someone in their family develops symptoms. The majority (94 per cent) of young people have stopped going out to meet up with friends; 80 per cent are keeping at least two metres apart from people when in public; 78 per cent are practising strict handwashing, and 68 per cent are practicing proper coughing hygiene. Almost 80 per cent of young people are using an app to keep in touch with friends, with Snapchat (83 per cent) and Instagram (57 per cent) the most-used platforms. There is a strong interest among young people in helping out in their community, with 52 per cent of those surveyed having a desire to help, or are already helping. More than eight in 10 young people feel COVID-19 is impacting on their life a lot. CEO of YSI, Rachel Collier said: "As Irelands young people come of age during unprecedented times, it is important that we understand how they are faring amidst such crisis and uncertainty. "We are encouraged by the level of awareness among young people, their interest in staying informed, their knowledge of Government guidelines, and their high levels of commitment to following these, all of which suggests they are playing their part in the national effort, and know what is expected of them to do so. "While we are buoyed that many young people are remaining positive amidst the emergency, we must acknowledge the many others who may not be managing as well. "While the research suggests that the young people surveyed are open to expressing how they feel with those close to them, we ask that parents, guardians and relations check up on the young people in their lives by phone or email, and offer a listening ear to any worries or frustrations they may have." Life after COVID-19 Sarah Rooney, Associate Director, Amarach Research stated: "Overall, the research reveals that the majority (68 per cent) of young people in Ireland are hopeful for the future, post-COVID-19, and are optimistic that society will change for the better. "Those surveyed hope that wider society will re-evaluate life, and appreciate that which may have previously been taken for granted. "They are also aware of communities coming together and hope that this will continue, as well as the positive environmental impact of the economic shutdown. "However, among those (32 per cent) who think society will be impacted for the worse, 40 per cent worry about the threat of recession." Ms Collier added that: "The strong interest among young people in helping their communities deal with the impact of the Coronavirus as demonstrated in these findings reinforces previous YSI / Amarach research in this area. "The YSI / Amarach Gen Z Index, published in May 2019, found that this age group are keen to make a positive difference in the world and rated such contribution as the most important indicator of a successful life. "Such contribution and participation should be encouraged and enabled as we collectively deal with and begin to emerge from this crisis to rebuild our country. "Any discussions of the kind of world we wish to live in after this crisis must include young peoples perspectives. "We must also listen to young peoples anxieties concerning a potential economic downturn, appreciating that it will likely be the second recession they have lived through, and be cognisant of the strain this may put on them and their families, and on their mental health in particular." Open Call to Teenagers #YSIOpenCall In light of these findings and as part of its response to COVID-19, YSI is launching an Open Call to Teenagers to submit ideas in response to the challenges they see emerging from this crisis. The Open Call to Teenagers to explore, create and innovate around issues caused by Coronavirus runs from 20th April until 31st May. YSI will provide support for young people to develop their ideas before submission. Those with the most potential for impact will be given the opportunity to pitch to a digital panel of leaders from across business, NGO and Government, hosted by Virgin Media. Ms Collier said: "YSI is looking for young peoples ideas on how to tackle the problems in our communities as a result of COVID-19. "I would ask them to look around their home, family or community and see what is working, what is not working, and what can be done to help in this time of crisis. "No idea is too big or too small, and I would encourage all young people to think about how they can explore, create, innovate and make a difference, and enter the YSI Open Call." For more information, visit: www.youngsocialinnovators.ie. Munich, April 21 : The Munich Oktoberfest, the world's biggest beer festival, has been cancelled this year due to the high risk brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Bavarian Minister-President Markus Soeder on Tuesday. Around six million people from across the globe gather in the Bavarian state capital of Munich annually to attend the festival, reports Xinhua news agency. The 187th Oktoberfest was set to take place from September 19 to October 4. "The risk is too high. It was decided together that the Oktoberfest would be canceled this year," Soeder told a press conference. "Based on the current situation, I can not imagine that such a large event would even be possible at that time." Germany's latest lockdown measures now include a ban on major public events until August 31. The country has reported 147,065 coronavirus cases with 4,862 deaths. Co Down fresh food producer Mash Direct has said it's countering a loss in hospitality sales by fast-tracking a new home delivery service. Mash Direct, run by the Hamilton family, is now selling its entire range of products through various assortment boxes to those in lockdown all over NI. Jack Hamilton, sixth generation of the farming family and chief operating officer at Mash Direct, said: "We had the idea for e-commerce a year ago but we've had to pivot the business and readjust quickly because of the pandemic and started it early. "With restaurants closing it caused challenges but the other side of that is retail demand is going up." The company embarked on a soft launch of the online shop recently and in one week sales increased rapidly, Mr Hamilton said. "It went from two boxes to 700 very quickly and that's because there is demand for vegetables right now because it's a great way to get some good, immune boosting food." The company's food boxes retail from 20, with some proceeds from general sales contributing towards a Feed the Heroes Box which retails at almost 40% less in price than general boxes. "We began deliveries to the NHS two weeks ago and in the first week we delivered 1,000 packs. The last thing an NHS worker wants to do is queue up to buy food after a long shift. It's a really convenient way to get nutritious food and so far the feedback has been incredible." The delivery service has seen the company go full circle, back to its roots of home delivery back in the early 1900s, said Mr Hamilton. But he said he wasn't sure the company would be able to make good its losses from supplying the hospitality trade, which has stopped completely due to the lockdown. He said: "Right now it is really difficult to say if this will cover the loss from hospitality because we don't quite know what the new normal is but we are in a good position. We're still a family farm and we're not locked into a way of doing things so we're keeping agile in this fast-moving environment and if we need to turn on our heels and innovate, we can." In the year to February 2019, the company reported turnover of 18.4m. However, it was forced to write off stock worth 600,000 which had been produced for a US retailer after a delay in the listing of the products. Mr Hamilton said exporting is not a focus at the moment. He added: "Right now we're not focusing on our exporting because we want to support local communities and make sure food security is here. "We don't want to send what we have abroad when it is needed here. I do believe after all of this there will be a lot more focus on provenance and supporting local. "As a business we have to keep in mind we're in a challenging economic situation. We need to keep our prices competitive while getting nutritious food to people." Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 (4:33 pm) - Score 2,509 The CEO of the UK Governments independent Climate Change Committee (CCC), Chris Stark, has called on MPs to consider switching funding from the 28bn pot for building new roads (intended to help relieve congestion) and instead invest it in helping to roll-out full fibre broadband ISP networks across the country. According to CCCs boss (here), switching such investment to broadband would be cheaper, better for the economy and more climate-friendly. Mr Stark goes on the suggest that the impact of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis, which is forcing many people to work from home for the first time, has helped to educate a nation and its businesses into recognising what is possible from remote working, without needing to travel. The comments are similar to those made by the President of the AA, Edmund King, who earlier this month suggested that in future, we should invest more in broadband because what this current crisis has shown is that the majority of companies can continue working from home, and it can be more efficient. At present the UK Government already plans to invest 5bn focused on helping those in the final 20% of hardest to reach premises to ensure that gigabit-capable broadband (via full fibre, cable / DOCSIS, 5G etc.) is able to cover every home by the end of 2025 (here), which is on top of various existing investment schemes and other support structures (here). NOTE: The Government are also supporting a 1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) to extend geographic The Government are also supporting a 1bn(SRN) to extend geographic 4G mobile coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025. Chris Stark told the BBC: The government mustnt be investing in anything likely to increase carbon emissions. I expect that video conferencing will become the new normal, and we wont return to travelling the way we did. I would spend the roads budget on fibre. You would get a huge return to the economy with people having better connections. You would save peoples time and increase their productivity. Naturally, given our focus, were hardly going to object to the idea of ploughing more funding toward broadband (similar arguments have been made before about the dramatically over-budget HS2 project), although its presently unclear what more Mr Stark expects could be achieved with such a funding boost (vs the existing 2025 goal). We dont even have a clear framework for that 2025 goal yet or know the full impact of COVID-19 on build pace, so its a little hard to judge. On top of that its still far too early to know what the lasting impact of the COVID-19 crisis will actually be, particularly in terms of remote working and related productivity vs the office environment. Certainly it seems sensible to assume that well see more home working going forward, but idealism is no substitute for hard scientific analysis and that can only really be done once were out of the current mess. Furthermore working from home might help to take more cars off the road and reduce the need for such travel, but it wont stop the use of roads as they remain essential for more than just work; likewise many tasks simply cant be done remotely (e.g. plumbing, electricians, construction, deliveries). We might end up seeing a reduction in congestion, but congestion will still exist and roads will still be needed, not to mention maintenance. Equally if were talking about funding then there may be some merit in establishing a Government funded initiative to help develop or promote software and systems to boost the take-up of remote working solutions. We can also see room here for some consideration of tax breaks or other incentives to help businesses adapt, which might be a faster approach to foster a more permanent change. In the meantime the country and its workforce are about to face a colossal economic shock, which is almost certain to drive attention toward much more immediate considerations and challenges. After all, working from home is great, where possible, but you cant do that without having a job in the first place. If any of that 28bn fund does get diverted then itll probably be needed to help stop the economy falling further into a black hole. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that posts and pages attempting to organize protests against stay-at-home orders will be banned as misinformation. The Facebook CEO confirmed that the posts would be banned to ABCs George Stephanopoulos on a segment of Good Morning America. Stephanopoulos asked Zuckerberg how the company deals with the fact that Facebook is now being used to organize a lot of these protests to defy social distancing guidelines in states. If somebody trying to organize something like that, does that qualify as harmful misinformation? We do classify that as harmful misinformation and we take that down, confirmed Zuckerberg, while at the same time saying that its important that people can debate policies. A Facebook spokesman confirmed to CNN that planned protests in California, New Jersey, and Nebraska were having their pages removed from Facebook at the request of state authorities. Anti-quarantine protests being organized through Facebook in California, New Jersey, and Nebraska, are being removed from the platform on the instruction of governments in those three states because it violates stay-at-home orders, Facebook spokesperson @andymstone tells @donie. Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) April 20, 2020 This comes after President Trump gave his support to protesters in several states who are demonstrating against their governors stay-at-home orders, including a 3,000-strong protest in Lansing, Michigan. Michigan protesters have used Facebook to organize. On Twitter, the President called on protesters to liberate the states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia, also calling on Virginian citizens to save your great 2nd amendment. It is under siege! At Fridays White House coronavirus press conference, Trump lent more support to the protesters. These are people expressing their views, said the president. They seem to be very responsible people to me, but theyve been treated a little bit rough. 240 Shares Share Websters Dictionary defines trauma as a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe emotional stress. An article in MarketWatch describes the reality of a doctor after being on the frontlines in Wuhan for two months: Li is mentally and psychologically at a loss for what to do next. He cant sleep or eat, he often feels dazed, and sometimes, seemingly out of nowhere, he weeps. Nurses have described caring for patients in NYC absolute chaos, the medical equivalent of a war zone, heartbreaking, and often say, I am afraid to go to work. Health care workers are under that severe emotional distress described in the definition. Deaths are the norm. Patients deteriorate quickly. A dead body is wrapped up and taken to the refrigerated truck outside the hospital, and another critical patient quickly takes that bed, and it starts all over again. It goes on day after day after day. Besides seeing death daily, caregivers fear getting the virus themselves and possibly dying. When this ends, and it will end, how are medical staff supposed to deal with the aftermath? How are they supposed to adjust to normal life? Their lives have been permanently changed. You cannot go through this kind of trauma and not have it change you. No one ever thought it would get this bad here. We trusted our government, our health care system to be ready for something like this. They werent ready. They couldnt guarantee the protection of their own staff. Imagine a soldier going into battle without a rifle, flak jacket, or helmet. That is what health care workers have been asked to do. We dont have what you need, but you still have to work. In other words, good luck. After this is over, those who work in hospitals will be expected to continue their jobs. People dont stop getting sick. There is money to be made. They will feel like aliens from outer space, disoriented. How will they deal with Billys sore throat or Kellys one hour of vomiting when they present to the ER desk after they just got out of being in a war zone? Your family will want to get back to normal. You arent the person you were before. You have changed. They havent been through what you have. You dont know how to explain it to them. The memories are fresh. They haunt your dreams. Things happen that remind you of it. You cry unexpectedly. You feel like you are going through the motions. You may drink to relieve the pain and anxiety. You feel alone. You are supposed to be strong. You are that tough ICU or ER nurse, that doctor that is unflappable. You dont need help until you do. Health care workers will need readjustment counseling, just like a soldier after a war. They need to learn what to expect after a trauma. They need to know how to take care of themselves. It needs to involve their family. They need crisis lines available, individual therapy, support groups. Without all this, medicine will lose many nurses, doctors, and everyone who does any job in a hospital. The most important thing they will need is each other. Just being with people who have been through the same experience can make all the difference. Susan Shannon is a retired nurse who blogs at madness: tales of a retired emergency room nurse. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Local authorities have calculated losses incurred by local residents from wildfires in Zhytomyr region and the Cabinet of Ministers will consider the issue of compensation for these losses as early as this week, the press service of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said following a meeting with government officials on Monday. "This assistance will be allocated from the reserve fund. If people have lost their homes, if they need building materials, these funds will be available to help. The state should support citizens in such a difficult period," Zelensky said at the meeting, the presidential press service said. Zelensky was informed that, according to preliminary data, about 50 people were resettled as a result of the emergency. The estimated cost of damages is UAH 25 million. Many of the houses burnt down were uninhabited. No one died in the fires. Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said violations of fire safety rules were the cause of the massive spread of fires. According to him, changes in legislation on fire safety measures will help prevent similar situations in the future. Infiniti Research, a leading market intelligence solutions provider, has recently announced the completion of its latest success story on market potential analysis for an oil and gas company This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005672/en/ Market potential analysis for an oil and gas company (Graphic: Business Wire) Engagement Overview: The client, an oil and gas company based out of China, encountered production declines owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the client faced challenges in managing supply chain operations, implementing crisis management plans, setting up risk mitigation programs, and determining a market-determined pricing system. The client, therefore, wanted to understand the potential impact of COVID-19 outbreak on their business operations and re-evaluate their operations to succeed in the post-COVID-19 era. The key objectives of the engagement were: Objective 1 : To gain complete visibility into spend : To gain complete visibility into spend Objective 2 : To evaluate the company's overall spend and identify potential reductions in cash outflow : To evaluate the company's overall spend and identify potential reductions in cash outflow Objective 3: To identify alternative vendors and suppliers to meet the immediate demand in the post-COVID-19 era Our business continuity support solutions can help you to combat the impact of COVID-19. Request a FREE proposal here. Our Approach As a part of the market potential analysis, the experts reviewed the client's capital and corporate cost budgets, gathered necessary data on the client's employees, analyzed the client's supply chain complexities, and analyzed the best and worst-case scenarios over the short and long term. The experts also identified alternative suppliers in non-impacted regions of the world to help the client meet their immediate requirements post-COVID-19 crisis. Want to know how we can help you to survive through these tough times and emerge stronger in the post-coronavirus world. Learn more here. Business impact of the market potential analysis for the oil and gas company By partnering with Infiniti Research, the client was able to lower operating costs, eliminate maintenance capital, and adjust inventory for the post-COVID-19 period. By leveraging Infiniti's market potential analysis engagement, the client was also able to: Safeguard the supply chain operations by understanding supply chain risks Examine the company's financial spend and identify ways to achieve a reduction in cash outflow Develop a range of scenarios to predict future outcome Identify alternative suppliers to help them at times of immediate requirements Outsource portions of their corporate functions Reduce their capacity and cost structure through staff reductions and related measures Request more info to know the potential impact of COVID-19 on your business and for action plans to respond to the coronavirus crisis. About Infiniti Research Established in 2003, Infiniti Research, is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. To know more, visit: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005672/en/ Contacts: Press Contact Infiniti Research Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 844 778 0600 UK: +44 203 893 3400 https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-us Pat McManus, originally from Strabane, who died after contracting the coronavirus An NHS nurse from Co Tyrone has died from Covid-19 following a 40-year career saving lives with the health service. Pat McManus, originally from Strabane, passed away in the early hours of Sunday after contracting the virus. His devastated brother Martin McManus spoke of the loss of his 60-year-old sibling on social media. "Very sorry to inform you all about the death of my brother Pat," he wrote on Facebook. "He passed away last night at 12.55am from Covid-19 that he contracted from a patient at the hospital where he worked." The late Mr McManus, who lived in the north London area, worked at Stafford County Hospital and was described as a "loveable leader" by those who knew him. Prior to his death, he had been a nurse for more than 40 years, working at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary before joining Stafford Hospital, where he was a nurse for a decade. West Tyrone SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan said he was "hugely saddened" to hear that Pat "lost his life as he selflessly tried to save others from this awful disease". A son of the late Peggy McManus, Mr McCrossan said Pat was well known in the local area and he added that his thoughts and prayers are now with his family and friends. Mr McCrossan added: "He must be remembered as a man who gave his life caring for others in this battle against Covid-19 - one of our NHS heroes." The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust described him as a "loveable character". Tracy Bullock, UHNM chief executive, said: "Patrick McManus was an extremely well-liked and valued member of the nursing team at County Hospital, Stafford. "He was a loveable character and brought kindness and compassion to all his patients, which was acknowledged by the number of compliments and thank you messages he received. "He was an exceptional leader and took staff and students under his wing. "His big Irish personality will be sorely missed by his friends at UHNM." Paying tribute, a friend Des Dalton said he was "deeply saddened" to hear of his death. "'Big Pat' was a big man in every sense. Big in heart and courage. "A loyal and dedicated gentleman who always put others first," he wrote on Facebook. Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine tablets are shown in at the IHU Mediterranee Infection Institute in Marseille, France, on Feb. 26, 2020. (Gerard Julien/AFP via Getty Images) Study Finds No Evidence Hydroxychloroquine Works Against COVID-19 A study analyzing the use of hydroxychloroquine in U.S. veterans hospitals found no evidence that the drug, traditionally used to treat and prevent malaria, is effective against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. The nationwide study of 368 patients hasnt been peer-reviewed. Researchers based in South Carolina and Virginia performed a retrospective analysis of data from patients hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Veterans Health Administration medical centers who died or were discharged until April 11. Ninety-seven patients received hydroxychloroquine, 113 patients were given hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, and 158 received neither. The rates of death were higher in the two former groups while the rates of ventilation were lowest in the group receiving both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. We found no evidence that use of hydroxychloroquine, either with or without azithromycin, reduced the risk of mechanical ventilation in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. An association of increased overall mortality was identified in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone, researchers wrote in the preprint publication (pdf). An arrangement of hydroxychloroquine pills in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 6, 2020. (John Locher/AP Photo) These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs, they said. Studies usually arent widely reported before being peer-reviewed but the urgency of the pandemic has led to circulation of such studies, as doctors and other medical personnel try to figure out which existing medicines effectively counteract COVID-19 until a vaccine is developed. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie later said the study was done on a small number of veterans in the last stages of life. The drug has been working on middle-age and younger veterans, Wilkie added. By that, he meant that it was stopping the progression of COVID-19. The research, which was submitted to the New England Journal of Medicine, received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the University of Virginia. Several preprint studies in France suggested hydroxychloroquine is effective against COVID-19 and the drug has been used in hospitals in a number of countries, including India, Hungary, and the United States. French officials have recorded heart incidents linked to hydroxychloroquine and one-half of a study in Brazil analyzing the closely related chloroquine against COVID-19 was halted because of potential safety risks. Larger studies, including a 510-patient study in Tennessee and a 1,500-patient trial run by University of Minnesota researchers, continue. Swiss drugmaker Novartis announced this week plans for a phase 3 clinical trial across more than a dozen hospitals in the United States while South Dakota is doing a statewide trial on the drug. PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-21 15:03:01 ENDEAVOUR PROVIDES UPDATE ON COVID-19 RESPONSE George Town, April 21, 2020 Endeavour Mining (TSX:EDV) (OTCQX:EDVMF) provides an update on its coronavirus (COVID-19) response to safeguard the health and wellbeing of its employees, contractors and local communities, while ensuring business continuity. Endeavour is pleased to report that its few employees who previously tested positive for COVID-19 have successfully recovered, and it has not had any new reported cases. Since the onset of the pandemic, governments in the region have acted decisively to implement appropriate response measures, leveraging their recent experience with Ebola. Endeavour has been supporting the national response in close collaboration with the health authorities in its host countries. The Companys first response was to quickly mobilize and send to West Africa an expert medical response team. Through this measure, Endeavour was able to work closely with government authorities to identify the priorities and act quickly. Endeavours efforts leverage its global supply chain, health and safety systems, community relations and communication teams, and notably include the provision of medical equipment and supplies to local communities, such as masks, gloves and cleaning equipment, training dozens of local health workers and running COVID-19 awareness campaigns. Endeavour will continue to provide these essential supplies and services for the duration of the pandemic to support the healthcare centers in its local communities. In order to do more, Endeavours President & CEO, Sebastien de Montessus is donating 30% of his base salary, and members of the leadership team and the Board of Directors have also volunteered to donate a portion of their salaries or fees for the next three months. Endeavour will match these funds, resulting in a total donation of approximately $1 million. The funds will be deployed by Endeavours community relations and medical teams to source much needed medical equipment for local community health centers and to also provide financial support to families and schools who have been impacted by a loss of income due to COVID-19. These donations, combined with the amount already spent at the mines and supporting national and local efforts in Cote dIvoire, Burkina Faso, and Mali will bring Endeavours total contribution to $6 million. Sebastien de Montessus, President & CEO, said: The world is currently facing an unprecedented challenge fighting COVID-19 and dealing with the economic, social and health consequences that have arisen. Beyond financial aid, we have leveraged our global supply chain, broader network and medical expertise to obtain key medical supplies to bolster the national authorities response across Cote dIvoire, Burkina Faso and Mali. I would like to express our profound thanks to the healthcare professionals on the frontline for their outstanding and selfless work under very difficult circumstances. In addition, Id like to thank our Directors and employees who have contributed both financially and by supporting the implementation of our business continuity program. In particular, we have seen tremendous dedication at our mine sites as employees have committed to extended rotations to help maintain production levels. Each of the Companys operations are continuing to operate at normal levels with gold shipments and sales continuing, albeit with increased health and safety measures designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The operations are continuing to manage and respond to COVID-19 within the framework of the Companys incident management and response plan, which is being monitored by an epidemiologist special advisor to Endeavour. For more information about Endeavours response to COVID-19, including an interview with CEO, Sebastien de Montessus, please visit the Companys website: Endeavours Response to COVID-19 . CONTACT INFORMATION Martino De Ciccio VP Strategy & Investor Relations +44 203 640 8665 mdeciccio@endeavourmining.com Brunswick Group LLP in London Carole Cable, Partner +44 7974 982 458 ccable@brunswickgroup.com Vincic Advisors in Toronto John Vincic, Principal +1 (647) 402 6375 john@vincicadvisors.com ABOUT ENDEAVOUR MINING CORPORATION Endeavour Mining is a TSX listed intermediate African gold producer with a solid track record of operational excellence, project development and exploration in the highly prospective Birimian greenstone belt in West Africa. Endeavour is focused on offering both near-term and long-term growth opportunities with its project pipeline and its exploration strategy, while generating immediate cash flow from its operations. For more information, please visit www.endeavourmining.com . Corporate Office: 5 Young St, Kensington, London W8 5EH, UK Neither Toronto Stock Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Attachment Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nina Larson (Agence France-Presse) Geneva, Switzerland Tue, April 21, 2020 10:35 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd3329bc 2 World switzerland,Hotel,homeless,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-travel-ban,COVID-19-travel-restriction,hotel-cancellation Free Sofiane Rahmani can hardly believe his luck. After several years of living on the street and bouncing between shelters, he now has his own hotel room, personal bathroom and all meals provided. "It's true luxury," the 16-year-old Algerian illegal migrant told AFP at the three-star Bel Esperance Hotel in Geneva. Last month, as the hotel faced a cascade of cancellations, it decided to turn over the entire establishment to house homeless women and youths and help get them off the streets during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the hotel in the heart of Geneva's Old City, 20 rooms have been provided to homeless women, while 11 have been given to unaccompanied minors like Rahmani who have no access to seeking asylum in Switzerland. "It happened fairly naturally," hotel director Alain Meuwly told AFP, sitting in the breakfast room, where tables have been spaced far apart and equipped with only one chair each. When Switzerland began cancelling all public events and closing restaurants and shops to halt the spread of the virus in early March, "more than 90 percent of our bookings were cancelled," he said. The hotel, a profit-driven business run by the Salvation Army, was empty. At the same time colleagues within the Christian charity told him they were looking for safe ways to house some of the estimated 1,000 homeless people in Geneva. Good for business Switzerland, which to date has reported nearly 28,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, does not have a national policy against homelessness, with each of the confederation's 26 cantons implementing their own approaches. In Geneva, the Salvation Army and other organizations have long provided emergency overnight shelters with a few dozen beds, but never before anything with 24-hour service. Meuwly said the transformation process was quite simple. The hotel's regular staff were all placed on temporary unemployment, and a team of social workers were brought in to accommodate the new residents, who will be allowed to stay until June 1. The dining area was spaced out, masks and disinfectant were provided and only one person was permitted per room. "Since this is a slightly different clientele we removed some gadgets that you would usually find in a three-star hotel room, like tablets and coffee-makers," Meuwly acknowledged, stressing that the "comfort level is the same." "There are the same beds and bedding, TVs, and especially wifi. That is something everyone really seems to appreciate." Ironically, the building served for more than 60 years as a shelter for vulnerable women, but in 1996 it was transformed into a hotel, which today offers elegant, plush rooms that during the high season can go for up to 600 Swiss francs ($620, 570 euros) a night. Meuwly said he was not worried that housing the homeless might harm business once the crisis ends. "Not at all," he said, adding that he had received numerous messages from regular customers congratulating him for the initiative and asking how they could help. "I think it could even be an asset to the business." 'Total comfort' Rahmani is certainly happy with the arrangement. After making a treacherous boat crossing from Algeria to Spain three years ago, making his way to the streets of Paris, and finally to Geneva last month, he said hotel life was "total comfort." "We don't have to think about food, we don't have to worry where to sleep, or if we will be cold," he said. "I'd like to stay here forever." Geneva provides migrants who are unaccompanied minors with special provisions, often officially registering them with organizations and giving access to food and shelter. Hafida Marsli, a 42-year-old woman who made her way from Morocco to Switzerland a decade ago in search of a better life only to eventually find herself homeless in Geneva, agreed. "It is really good here," she told AFP, adjusting her headscarf. "It's all good." Valerie Spagna, who heads the Salvation Army's night shelter program for the homeless in Geneva, said there was a world of difference from the regular shelters, where people can enter in the evening to sleep in large dormitories or shared rooms, and have to leave early in the morning. At the hotel, "they can finally relax, take care of themselves, sleep as long as they want," she told AFP. "They have finally gotten a small taste of a more normal life." She said what she feared most now was "the return to reality" once the homeless residents are asked to leave on June 1. "They are going to have to go back to real life at some point," she said. "It is going to hurt." Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - City View Green Holdings Inc. ("City View" or the "Company"), trading through the facilities of the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") under the symbol "CVGR" and on the OTCQB under the symbol "CVGRF", and further to the press release dated February 26, 2020 announcing a letter of intent ("LOI") with Infusion Works Inc. ("Infusion Works"), City View is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement (the "Agreement") with Infusion Works dated April 20, 2020, as described in further detail below. Closing is expected to occur on or around April 27, 2020 (the "Closing Date"). Infusion Works is a consumer goods food company with the goal of leading in the development of cannabis-infused brands in several food categories. The company utilizes high-quality automated manufacturing practices from the food industry, resulting in low cost production of high-quality, consistent food products. To create these high-quality cannabis-infused food products, the company has invested significantly in food research and development as it relates to cannabis-infused foods. In addition, the company is developing its "white label'" co-manufacturing and co-packing services to a growing list of current producers who are licensed by Health Canada to cultivate and/or produce cannabis and cannabis-related goods ("LP"). These services include co-manufacturing of cannabis-infused baked goods, chocolate and sugar confectionery, hemp-based CBD pet snacks and co-packing of dried cannabis and pre-rolls, vapes, concentrates and extraction capabilities. The strategy for the advancement of City View after the Infusion Works asset acquisition will be to rapidly integrate the two companies and aggressively pursue the unified City View Green/Infusion Works business plan. Pursuant to the Agreement, City View will issue to Infusion Works 46,462,114 common shares in the capital of the City View ("City View Shares") in two tranches (the "Consideration Shares"), subject to an adjustment amount (the "Adjustment Shares") as described below in paragraph (e). The following is a summary of the transaction: (a)City View shall complete a financing for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $1,000,000, composed of units ("Units") at a price of $0.05 per Unit. Each Unit is composed of one City View Share and one City View Share purchase warrant ("Warrant"). Each whole Warrant shall entitle the holder to purchase one City View Share at a price of $0.05 per City View Share for a period of five (5) years from the date of issuance (the "Financing"). (b)50% of the Consideration Shares (the "First Release") shall be issued on the Closing Date and deposited into escrow ("Escrow"). (c)The Escrow period for the Consideration Shares and Adjustment Shares is 24 months from the Closing Date; in addition, management of Infusion Works has agreed to enter into a lock-up agreement in respect of the First Release, for a twelve (12) month period. (d)The remaining 50% of the Consideration Shares (the "Second Release") shall be issued upon City View receiving a Health Canada License under the Cannabis Act. (the "Licensing"). (e)City View shall issue to Infusion Works an additional amount (the "Adjustment Shares") of City View Shares equal to 19.99% of the number by which the issued and outstanding City View Shares at the time of the issuance of the second tranche exceeds 252,426,785 City View Shares. (f)Infusion Works shall have paid a deposit (the "Deposit") of CAD$439,238.00 for the purchase of certain new food manufacturing equipment. (g)The total equipment purchased and financed by City View shall be up to approximately CAD$2,300,000, less the Deposit. (h)A group of founders from Infusion Works shall participate in the subscription of not less than CAD$300,000.00 of the securities offered under the Financing (the "Infusion Participation"). (i)Infusion Works shall transfer or assign to City View all of the current contracts or economic benefit derived from existing contracts or future contracts until the date of receipt of the Licence; (j)Infusion Works shall deliver to City View all product formulations and evidence of value totaling CAD$500,000 and all dosing technology and evidence of value totaling CAD$250,000; (k)Infusion Works shall complete the quality manual to obtain a Health Canada licence (the "Licence") under the Cannabis Act, which shall include all standard operating procedures applicable to the facility located at 49 Easton Road, Brantford, Ontario (the "Brantford Facility"); (l)At the Closing Date, Mr. Don Robinson shall be appointed as Director of City View, filling a vacancy on the Board; Upon receipt of the Licence, Mr. Karl Wirtz will be appointed at the time of Licensing. It is presently contemplated that a current director of City View will resign to create a vacancy for the appointment of Mr. Wirtz; (m)Prior to the Closing Date, City View shall enter into consulting agreements with Randy MacLeod and John Duck; provided below are brief biographies of each of Messrs. MacLeod and Duck. (n)City View has agreed to offer Infusion Works a profit participation representing 10% of EBIT for a period of three (3) years commencing on the date of receipt of the Licence. City View will continue to pay for build-out costs at the Brantford Facility pursuant to the sale and leaseback transaction as previously announced on July 30, 2019, in an amount up to $2,500,000. Board & Management Additions: Mr. Karl Wirtz, to be Appointed Director upon Licensing, Founder, Infusion Works Inc. Karl Wirtz is a professional entrepreneur and business owner with over 33 years of experience. Mr. Wirtz has built and presently manages a globally recognized bakery and co-packing business with food safety certifications carrying an "A" rating under the global food safety initiative. Mr. Wirtz is currently servicing many household names in the consumer product goods ("CPG") industry from all over the globe. Recently, Mr. Wirtz partnered with an Ontario-based bakery and through this relationship, he has built one of Canada's first cannabis-infused bakeries, contracted to one of Ontario's top LPs. Mr. Wirtz has created and managed the full concept and layout for an onsite cannabis packaging line and delivered excellent scores for that LP's order fulfilment upon the launch of the LP's recreational cannabis products. Mr. Don Robinson, to be Appointed Director on the Closing Date, CEO & President, Infusion Works Don Robinson is an accomplished global businessman with extensive executive experience in transformational strategies in several industries. Mr. Robinson was formerly Chairman, CEO and President of Cara Operations Ltd. ("Cara") and was responsible for successfully leading a $1.8B business in terms of sales with an EBITDA of $70M for a period of seven years including, 700 restaurants, 35,000 people and five restaurant chains. Mr. Robinson led Cara through a period of extensive transformation during his tenure. He was also formerly the President & CEO of Mars Canada Ltd., the Canadian division of Mars, Incorporated ("Mars"). Mars is a global-branded private consumer goods company with global business of $40B in sales and $2B in EBITDA,. Mr. Robinson reported directly to the Mars global head office. During his tenure, he transformed the business from an unprofitable operation losing $20M annually to a profit of $25M with sales of over $500M. Randy MacLeod, Consultant Randy MacLeod has over 25 years of global, senior management experience in life science industries ,including biopharmaceutical, diagnostics, and medical devices. Mr. MacLeod was a global manager in a Fortune 500 corporation managing a $200M business unit in terms of sales. Mr. MacLeod has lived and worked around the world restructuring marketing, sales, distribution systems as well as managing product development and operations; implementing ISO 9001 standards and building long-term value. Mr. MacLeod was formerly the President & CEO of a LP in Ontario. Mr. MacLeod has been hands-on in the Canadian, licensed cannabis industry since 2014, managing the development, the licence application, the facility construction of licenced facilities. Mr. MacLeod holds a bachelor of science degree from the University of Guelph as well as a master of business administration degree from the Ivey School of Business. It is presently anticipated that on or around the time of receipt of the Licence, Mr. MacLeod will be appointed as the chief operations officer of the Company. John Duck, Appointed Manager Operations John Duck has been involved in the cannabis industry for several years and has extensive experience working under the regulatory requirements of Health Canada. He has a full portfolio of design skills that include architectural, structural, and HVAC systems for commercial and industrial buildings. Mr. Duck has developed intellectual property related to dosing cannabis-infused confectionery. He brings years of quality assurance work experience along with over thirty years in general management capacities and senior project management. Rob Fia, CEO & President Commented: "It has always been our goal at City View to assemble the best team and today we have done that with the addition of Don and Karl who are experienced in food product development, food manufacturing, and sales and marketing. Furthermore, the hands-on operations and regulatory experts in Randy and John and the global experience of all four of these individuals represents a significant addition to the City View team. Through this acquisition and upon Licensing, City View acquires revenue and cash flow from Infusion Works's existing customer and any additional customers secured prior to Licensing. These are exciting times for City View as we rapidly expand our path to market and complete our facility and Health Canada licensing to become a leading cannabis-infused food company." For further information contact: City View Green Holdings Inc. Rob Fia, CEO & President Email: rob@cityviewgreen.ca Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its regulations services accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. About City View City View Green is a leading cannabis-infused food company focused on the development of food brands, extraction and distribution. Upon the anticipated receipt of its Cannabis Act processing and sales licences ("Cannabis Licences"), City View will incorporate cannabis-infused food production and extraction at its Brantford, Ontario facility. Once operational, it is our expectation that City View will produce high quality cannabis-infused food, oils, distillates, and water-soluble products for the food and beverage markets. In addition, City View owns a 19.9% stake in Budd Hutt Inc. ("Budd Hutt"), a retail-focused cannabis company with access to cannabis cultivation and production licences in Alberta and other retail opportunities across Canada. Through its relationship with Budd Hutt, the Company anticipates securing shelf space, product placement, and distribution opportunities for City View's products. For more information visit www.cityviewgreen.ca. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States of America. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons (as defined in the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration is available. Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding a definitive agreement with Infusion Works including future revenue and cash flow, deposits, the Financing, the Licensing, and build-out of the Brantford Facility that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Company's current expectations. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. When relying on the Company's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PRESS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS PRESS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54688 Flash The Group of 77 (G77) and China on Sunday issued a statement expressing their support for the World Health Organization (WHO) in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Group of 77 and China is deeply concerned at the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most serious public health crises in modern history," the statement said, adding that "the first priority is to save lives." "The group, therefore, acknowledges the leading role of the World Health Organization led by its Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and extends its full support and appreciation for its work in providing information, technical guidance, training and other assistance to developing countries to help them prepare for and efficiently respond to the pandemic," the statement said. The group and China share United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' view that solidarity counts in the international efforts to curb the virus and its shattering consequences, they said. They emphasized that "the international community must unite in its efforts to ensure access to scientific guidance, training, equipment, essential medical supplies, and concrete life-saving services to countries in greatest need and in regions where the full impact is yet to be felt." The statement includes a call on the international community "to maintain and, where possible, increase their support for the WHO, which, by the mandate given to it by member states, has a critical and central role to play in supporting developing countries to confront a crisis of epic scale that threatens to erase the gains made over the past decades." "We reiterate the need to strengthen international solidarity and multilateral cooperation and partnership in the fight against a disease that is our common enemy," according to the statement. - Ghana's Information Minister has indicated that free food would not be shared to the vulnerable any longer - This follows the decision by government to remove the ban on movement by lifting the partial lockdown imposed on some areas in the country - Government had started offering food packages to people affected by the lockdown to help sustain them Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Ghana' information minister, Honourable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has said that the sharing of free food has stopped as the president has lifted the partial lockdown in the affected areas. A news report by Peacefmonline indicates that the information minister disclosed this during a radio interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on PeaceFM's "Kokrokoo". It may be recalled that the government started the distribution of free meals to an estimated 400,000 Ghanaians with limited means in locked-down areas amidst the COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana. READ ALSO: Video drops as police 'catch' trotro mate dancing on street during traffic jam Source: UGC Source: UGC On the night of April 19, 2020, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo addressed the nation for the seventh time regarding the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, indicating that the ban on movement has been lifted. This decision means that most people in the country would still be able to go about their normal day-to-day activities that would help bring money into their pockets and food onto their tables. Perhaps, it explains why the government could confidently cut the budget meant to provide hot meals for people on a daily basis, as they can work now. READ ALSO: Uproar after video of African lady being denied entry into Chinese shop goes viral It should, however, be noted that Nana Addo did not lift a ban on social gatherings and churches, mosques, political campaigns and the like are still not allowed. Yet, the decision to remove the partial lockdown has sparked great controversy among many people in Ghana who think it is premature to lift the lockdown at this stage. Although the president did not give details on exactly why he decided to lift the ban on movement despite the surge in Ghana's cases, it is clear that it was having an adverse effect on the livelihoods of people and the economy as well. In another development, a total of 40 deaths have been recorded in relation to the outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) in the Upper West Region of Ghana, out of the 409 cases reported in total. This was confirmed in a statement released by the Disease Surveillance Department of the Ghana Health Service on its official Twitter handle. It is indicated that 258 out of the 409 cases of the meningitis were recorded in the Upper West Region alone, which makes it the epicentre of the disease outbreak. Enjoy reading our stories? Download YEN's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news! 51-year-old Fred Drah recovers from COVID-19 in Ghana | #Yencomgh Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh The 7.3 million people in the UK aged between 60 and 69 are at increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19. Although the government's age threshold for isolation is 70 years and over, data from countries such as China and Italy show that people aged 60-69 years are also at high risk of complications and death from COVID-19. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Professor Azeem Majeed, Head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London, said that while this group is at a lower risk of severe illness when compared to those aged 70 years or older, their risk is still considerable. Case fatality rates for those aged 60-69 are 3.5% in Italy and 3.6% in China. Other countries, including Switzerland and France, encourage those aged 65 and older to enforce strict public health measures due to their increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19. Prof Majeed, who co-authored the paper with colleagues from Imperial College London and the University of Exeter, said: "The UK's policy is at variance with the World Health Organisation, which states that those above the age of 60 years are at the highest risk, requiring additional preventative measures." "National and global spread of COVID-19 is accelerating. To reduce hospitalisations, intensive care admissions and death we recommend that those aged between 60 and 69 are particularly stringent when implementing public health measures such as social distancing and personal hygiene." The authors conclude: "In the absence of government guidance, people in this group can make their own informed decisions on how to minimise their risks of COVID-19 infection. This can include isolating themselves in a similar manner to that recommended by the UK government for people aged 70 years and over." ### Notes to editors Protecting older people from COVID-19: should the United Kingdom start at age 60? (DOI: 10.1177/0141076820921107) will be published by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine at 00:05 hrs (UK time) on Wednesday 22 April 2020. The link for the full text version of the paper when published will be: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0141076820921107 For further information or a copy of the paper please contact: Rosalind Dewar Media Office, Royal Society of Medicine DL: +44 (0) 1580 764713 M: +44 (0) 7785 182732 E: media@rsm.ac.uk The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRSM) is a leading voice in the UK and internationally for medicine and healthcare. Published continuously since 1809, JRSM features scholarly comment and clinical research. JRSM is editorially independent from the Royal Society of Medicine, and its editor is Dr Kamran Abbasi. JRSM is a journal of the Royal Society of Medicine and it is published by SAGE Publishing. The recovery in U.S. oil prices is still weeks away, Goldman Sachs' head of commodities Jeffrey Currie told CNBC's Power Lunch. The reason for the note of caution is because cutting oil production is not a simple matter. It takes time and costs money, and, perhaps more importantly, it could damage the well, Currie said. "Shutting down a well is extremely expensive, and sometimes you damage the well forever," he told CNBC, adding that, "We don't think this is the end of it. You're likely to see this continue to go on at least through the middle of May." West Texas Intermediate slumped to more than minus $38 a barrel yesterday. The slump into negative territorythe first in historywas, in large part, driven by traders exiting their positions in the futures market to avoid physical delivery of the crude that they had bought earlier. However, there has been no change yet in demand for crude oil globally, and U.S. producers are running out of storage space for their product. The shortage of storage space also contributed to WTI's 300-percent dive from yesterday. In this environment, Goldman's Currie is far from alone in expecting more pain. "This will cause a lot of people to shut in (their wells). At these prices, there's no way," the Houston Chronicle quoted a Texas oil and gas investor as saying in comments on the news about WTI's dive into negative territory. "It reminds me of the '80s in a way, but this thing is worse. Incredible, absolutely incredible." Reuters reported this week that oil in floating storage had reached a record high at 160 million barrels last week, according to sources from the shipping industry. That was a 100-percent increase over the previous week as traders scrambled to store their unsold and currently unsellable oil. In the United States, the federal government was reportedly in talks with nine companies to lease storage space from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The SPR has a capacity of 713 million barrels of crude, with the current level of occupancy at 635 million barrels. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The government has been accused of ignoring offers to produce vital protective equipment as a Tory minister was unable to say when a delayed shipment from Turkey would arrive in the UK. Labours Rachel Reeves said she had been inundated by calls from British manufacturers who have contacted the government offering to make personal protective equipment (PPE) to allow medics to safely treat coronavirus but have heard nothing back. Her concern was echoed by Sir Keir Starmer, the partys leader, who warned of an increasing gap between what the government believes is happening and the reality on the frontline. Reports have emerged of UK firms being forced to sell lifesaving gear abroad because their offers of help had been repeatedly ignored. It comes as local government minister Simon Clarke was unable to say exactly when a consignment of PPE would arrive from Turkey which was expected to come on Sunday. An RAF aircraft was dispatched to collect supplies of 400,000 gowns on Monday after unexpected delays. Ministers are facing sustained criticism over shortages of protective kit for frontline health workers, with the head of the Royal College of Anaesthetics telling The Independent that doctors should not treat patients without adequate PPE. Ms Reeves, the shadow cabinet office minister, said British businesses had offered to make protective equipment and clothing, particularly gowns, but they had not received a response from the government. She told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Some of them are doing it on an ad-hoc basis for local hospitals or care homes, but this needs to be systematic it needs to be a national effort, using all of our manufacturing and textile capacity and capability to ensure that the doctors and nurses and care workers ... have that equipment and clothing that they need. The Labour MP said there had been too much focus on importing PPE from overseas and that there had not been enough focus on bringing smaller suppliers into the national effort. It is a disgrace that weve got people working on the frontline who arent properly protected and governments first and foremost responsibility is to protect its citizens, and this now is our main priority. It would be a struggle for any government to get exactly the right kit to the right place at the right time, Sir Keir told the BBC. But what were seeing here is an increasing gap between what the government says or thinks is happening and what the front line of telling us. This gap has to be closed as soon as possible because people are putting their lives literally on the line when they go to work. Alan Jones, who runs factories in China which make electronics, said he first approached the government almost three weeks ago to offer help with PPE. The St Albans-based businessman told The Independent: Its very frustrating, we want to help, we have the skills to make this happen but I dont have the demand to be able to go and ask my factories to get going. High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Show all 18 1 /18 High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Najaf, Iraq A man holds a pocket watch at noon, at an almost empty market near the Imam Ali shrine Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Bangkok, Thailand Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram (The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, part of The Grand Palace) Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Prague, Czech Republic An empty street leading to the historic Old Town Square Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Washington DC, US Lawn stretching towards the Capitol, home of Congress Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Jerusalem's Old City A watch showing the time in front of Damascus Gate Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world London, UK The Houses of Parliament seen from Westminster Bridge Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Wuhan, China Empty lanes in the city that saw the first outbreak of disease Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Havana, Cuba The Malecon road and esplanade winds along the city's seafront Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Cairo, Egypt A little busier than elsewhere: midday traffic in Tahrir Square Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Berlin, Germany The Brandenburg Gate, the only surviving city gate in the capital Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Caracas, Venezuela Bolivar Avenue, opened in 1949 and the site of many demonstrations and rallies Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Moscow, Russia Spasskaya Tower (left) on the eastern wall of the Kremlin, and St Basil's Cathedral Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Istanbul,Turkey The harbourside Eminonu district is usually buzzing with activity Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world New Delhi, India Rajpath, a ceremonial boulevard that runs through the capital Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Amman, Jordan The Roman amphitheatre that dates back to the 2nd century AD Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world New York City, US The main concourse of Grand Central station in Manhattan Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Kiev, Ukraine Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the site of many political protests since the end of the Soviet era Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Accra, Ghana The odd walker out in the midday sun on Ring Road Central Reuters Maybe its just me, but I suspect there are others out there being ignored and not given the chance to make a difference. Mr Jones added: If I had instant responses from anybody two and a half weeks ago, [the PPE] would be ready now and would be on its way here, if not here already. Every day that goes by is wasted time. On Saturday, cabinet minister Robert Jenrick said 84 tonnes of PPE, including 400,000 gowns, would arrive in the UK from Turkey the next day but the shipment has not materialised. Pressed on whether the RAF aircraft was returning with the PPE, Mr Clarke said: I cant speak to that, Im afraid. All I know is it set off last night. It will be with us obviously in the UK in the next few days, which is the core priority. Mr Clarke said there is a standing presumption that the government will do its utmost to buy protective gear wherever it can be sourced and urged manufacturers to reach out to the Cabinet Office to log their ability to make equipment. Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Show all 15 1 /15 Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A rose is delivered by drone to a woman on Mother's Day in Jounieh, Lebanon AFP/Getty Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Women dance on their balcony as a radio station plays music for a flash mob to raise spirits in Rome Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A skeleton stands on a balcony in Frankfurt, Germany AP Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies The film Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna is projected on a building in Rome AP Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A woman uses a basket tied to a rope to pull a delivery of groceries up to her balcony in Naples, Italy EPA Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies DJ Francesco Cellini plays for his neighbours from the rooftop terrace of his flat block in Rome Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A woman gestures from her balcony in Barcelona EPA Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Cellist Karina Nunez performs for her neighbours at the balcony of her flat in Panama City Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies DJ Nash Petrovic live streams a set from his roof in Brooklyn Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies People applaud medical workers from their balconies in Modiin, Israel Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A Brooklyn resident relaxes in a hammock hung on their balcony Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Residents toast during a "safe distance" aperitif time between neighbours in Anderlecht, Belgium Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Musician Adam Moser plays for neighbours from his balcony in Budapest, Hungary Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A man and his son on their balcony in Brooklyn Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A man sits alone on a roof terrace in Rome Reuters Meanwhile, Ravi Mahajan, the RCOA president, said his organisation would support medics who feel unsafe to treat patients. He said: What we are advising our members is that you have to take stock of everything. Your health, the patients, the compromises that you may have to make, are they safe enough? Take the whole picture into account. And then if your decision is, I cant provide this treatment at this time, then we would support you. Over half (54 per cent) of dentists in England said PPE shortages are hampering efforts to treat patients at urgent dental care hubs, according to a survey of 1,010 UK dentists by the British Dental Association (BDA). A man has been refused bail after he allegedly punched and bit hospital security staff before spitting blood into the face of a female nurse. The 41-year-old man was found unconscious inside an apartment in Newtown in Sydney's inner west by police after allegedly breaching a Personal Violence Order on Sunday. He was taken to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital but allegedly lashed out at security officers, punching one in the face and biting another on the forearm. The man then allegedly spat saliva and blood into the nurse's face. A man allegedly spat in a female nurse's face and punched a security officer at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (hospital pictured) He was arrested on Monday night after being released from hospital and charged with with stalk/intimidate with intent to cause fear common assault, and contravene AVO. He will face Central Local Court on Tuesday. Another 32-year-old woman has also been charged after she allegedly spat on a bus driver when he asked her to stop smoking on his bus. The woman had been riding on the bus in Potts Point on Sunday afternoon when she was told smoking was not allowed. She then allegedly spat in the driver's face before she was arrested in Surry Hills around 1.45pm on Monday. She was charged with common assault and will face court on Tuesday. Australians can now face up to $5,000 fines for spitting or coughing on any essential workers. Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten, Director of Charite's Institute of Virology, has been awarded the 'Special Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scientific Communication during the COVID-19 Pandemic'. Presented by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and 'Stifterverband' (Donor's Association), the award carries a prize of 50,000. The prize, which recognizes Prof. Drosten's outstanding achievements in the field of science and in the promotion of the public understanding of science, was awarded by the DFG and Stifterverband. Commenting on their decision, the awarding committee emphasized the significance of Prof. Drosten's unique position as an advocate for science and the role it must play during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than any other scientist, Prof. Drosten has succeeded in convincing the public of the need to accept science as the most reliable means of navigating the current crisis. His highly accessible, transparent and fact-based approach has enabled Prof. Drosten to explain the state of current scientific knowledge, elucidate how various scientific processes work and outline areas where uncertainty remains. Prof. Drosten has also actively countered the emergence of hypotheses not based in evidence, confronted the limits of his own knowledge, and repeatedly emphasized that science requires us to constantly question what we do and do not know, and to revise what we previously held to be certain. This approach has enabled the winner of this Special Award to gain widespread acceptance and trust, including in the field of politics, where he is currently one of the most important advisers. According to the DFG and Stifterverband, Prof. Drosten's communications provide an outstanding example of the potential role of science in shaping politics and society, including during a crisis. In addition to his role as Director of the Institute of Virology on Campus Charite Mitte, Prof. Drosten also holds a Professorship at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and conducts research at the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). Expressing his delight at the award, he says: "This pandemic represents a set of highly exceptional circumstances for our country. Our ability to meet the challenges involved will, in my view, depend on how well the public is informed about the state of the outbreak and the biological mechanisms underpinning it. It is therefore of particular importance to me that the current state of knowledge regarding the SARS-2 virus - including areas where uncertainty remains - should be communicated to the public as promptly and as comprehensively as possible. Only by doing so will people feel enabled to make up their own minds, to overcome their fears, and to make decisions in their daily lives which will have an impact on the spread of the infection." Prof. Dr. Heyo K. Kroemer, Charite's Chief Executive Officer, says: "Charite is delighted that Prof. Drosten's achievements in scientific communication should be formally recognized. His characteristically proactive approach to the communication of knowledge involves an enormous amount of additional effort on the part of the scientist and should not be underestimated. The Award also reaffirms that, in addition to its role in treating patients with COVID-19 and conducting research into the novel coronavirus, Charite also plays a major role in public information." Created as a one-time award by the DFG and Stifterverband, the Special Award will not replace but complement the 2020 Communicator Prize. About Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten After passing his State medical licensing examinations in May 2000, Christian Drosten moved to the German Red Cross (DRK) Institute for Transfusion Medicine and Immunohaematology in Hesse, where he completed a doctorate on the development of a high-throughput virus screening system for blood donors. Shortly after completing his doctorate, he moved to the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, where he specialized in Microbiology, Virology and Infectious Disease Epidemiology. During his time in Hamburg, he developed a research program dedicated to the diagnosis of tropical viral diseases. His discoveries include the infectious agent responsible for SARS. As its Founding Director, Prof. Drosten led the University of Bonn's Institute of Virology from 2007 to early 2017. Since the DZIF's foundation in 2012, Prof. Drosten has been involved in coordinating its 'Emerging Infections' unit. In 2017, he was appointed Director of Charite's Institute of Virology, Head of the Department of Virology at Labor Berlin - Charite Vivantes GmbH, and Spokesperson for the National Research Network for Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. Prof. Drosten is also the Scientific Director of Charite Global Health, an interdisciplinary research center established in 2018. ### The government will help to evacuate all Armenian nationals trying to return to Armenia due to the coronavirus pandemic, Deputy Foreign Minister Avet Adonts said on Tuesday. As of April 21, 1,283 citizens applied to our diplomatic missions abroad to return to Armenia, Adonts told a news conference. They are from different countries: the United States, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, European countries, Middle Eastern states and elsewhere. According to Adonts, about other 22,000 citizens have returned to Armenia since March 14. Some of them were repatriated on charter flights arranged and, in some cases, financed by the government. About 1,000 Armenians were flown to Yerevan from Moscow and two other Russian cities on five such flights carried out by Russian airlines earlier this month. All of them were placed under a two-week quarantine on their arrival in the country. Adonts thanked Russian-Armenian benefactors who paid for the tickets of most of those passengers, including women and young children, and offered free accommodation to other Armenians seeking repatriation. He also said: We have been spending quite large resources on ensuring their health safety after their return. I first and foremost mean the quarantine which is mandatory for everyone coming back to Armenia. Some 120 Armenians have been stuck at Moscows Domodedovo airport for the last several days, refusing temporary accommodation offers and hoping to catch the next emergency flight to Yerevan. Russian police forced them out of an airport terminal late on Monday. Adonts urged the stranded citizens to abide by coronavirus-related restrictions imposed by Russian authorities and avoid gathering at the airport for now. The Armenian Foreign Ministry will try to evacuate them in the coming days, he said. Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian announced afterwards that 18 Armenian nationals are expected to arrive from the United Arab Emirates later on Tuesday. The state promises to be especially fraught terrain in the politically explosive debate over how to balance public health imperatives against the looming threat of economic depression. It is home to one of the nations largest cities, an international travel hub, but also experienced one of the nations earliest rural outbreaks in a heavily black community around Albany. And it is an election battleground, won by Trump in 2016 but eyed by Democrats as a potential pickup this year. The governor of Ohio has commuted the sentence of a woman previously imprisoned in relation to the fatal shooting of the man who allegedly forced her into sex work. Governor Mike DeWine announced on Friday that he had granted seven commutation requests and denied 84. Among the seven requests he approved is that of Alexis Martin, who was 15 at the time of the mans 2013 slaying and 17 when she was incarcerated. She is a child sex trafficking survivor, DeWine said during a press conference on Tuesday. She will be sent to an appropriate group home and she will be under supervision for an extensive period of time. The facts of her case are particularly, particularly unique. Back in August 2018, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld Martins conviction, which her legal team had disputed saying Martin should not have been charged as an adult. Jennifer Kinsley, Martins lawyer, told The Associated Press that a 2012 Safe Harbor law in Ohio should have been applied, which could have resulted in Martin being appointed a guardian by the court. But Martins case was treated in adult court, where she entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 21 years to life in prison. Martin was not accused of firing a weapon in the mans shooting death. Rather, investigators alleged she had played a part in planning a robbery that devolved into the slaying. Martins story was featured in Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project, a documentary spotlighting cases of people Kardashian West believed to be wrongly incarcerated. Kardashian West welcomed the news of Martins sentence commutation in a tweet reading: Alexis Martin is a sex traffic survivor and I was honoured to be able to share her story on The Justice Project. Thank you Governor DeWine for commuting her sentence. The TV star has advocated for prison reform and is studying to become a lawyer. She previously appealed for the release of Alice Marie Johnson, a grandmother who was serving a life sentence for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. Johnson was granted clemency in June 2018. The daughter-in-law of a sanitation worker at the Rashtrapati Bhavan has tested positive for COVID-19, prompting authorities to put 115 families staying in the President's Estate in home quarantine. For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here A Rashtrapati Bhavan statement said no employee of President's Secretariat has tested positive for COVID-19 till now and the Secretariat, along with the local administration, is taking all the preventive measures required under the government guidelines. The woman, who tested positive for the virus infection four days ago, is not an employee but stays with her mother-in-law and other family members in a staff quarters in the around 1,300-acre President's Estate. The employee along with the family is a resident of Pocket 1, Schedule A area of the President's Estate. Her mother had contracted COVID-19 and had died recently. After the woman tested positive, the quarters they lived in were sealed and the family was kept in quarantine since Saturday. "After contact tracing of the deceased, it was found that a family member of an employee of the President's Secretariat had been in contact with the deceased. As required under the guidelines, all the seven members of this family were moved to the quarantine facility at Mandir Marg on April 16," the statement said. All other family members, including the employee of the President's Secretariat, have tested negative. Track state-wise confirmed coronavirus cases here Following this, it said, 115 houses in Pocket 1, Schedule A area of the President's Estate were identified for movement restriction and residents have been advised to remain indoors. The residents of these houses are being provided doorstep delivery of essential commodities. Authorities are asking for help solving the homicide of a man shot in Northeast Portland late last year. Quincy Gill, 39, died at Fremont Street and Garfield Avenue after being shot Dec. 11. Authorities said Tuesday that no suspect identification has been developed in the killing. No information about the circumstances of the shooting has been released. Crime Stoppers of Oregon said people can submit tips about the killing online, by calling 503-823-4357 or by using the P3 Tips mobile application. Crime Stoppers offers rewards of as much as $2,500 for information, reported to the nonprofit, that leads to arrests in unsolved felony cases. Tipsters can stay anonymous. -- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. 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. A Michigan family has said a company is refusing to refund $10,000 they paid for a beachfront rental for 27, despite Virginia's lockdown banning gatherings of more than 10 and four of the group being sick with coronavirus. Karen Budzinski, 63, has been left without a dime after Sandbridge Realty allegedly refused to refund the payment for the 12-bedroom oceanfront mansion in Sandbridge she had booked for her five children, their partners, and 15 grandchildren. The distraught grandmother slammed the company for refusing to pay back the money at a time when the family has been hard-hit by coronavirus, with Budzinski, her husband Gary, daughter and son-in-law all contracting the deadly infection. While Gary is still battling pneumonia brought on by coronavirus, several other family members have pre-existing health conditions making them more vulnerable to dying if they catch the illness from them. Budzinski also told of her shock that the company would encourage the family to go on vacation as a group of 27 - which would be illegal under the state's lockdown rules. The Budzinski family has said Sandbridge Realty is refusing to refund $10,000 they paid for a beachfront rental for 27 of them, despite Virginia's lockdown banning gatherings of more than 10 and four of the group being sick with coronavirus 'I am not going to put myself and my family at risk when it is not safe for them or others,' she told The Virginian Pilot. Budzinki said she planned the week-long vacation in the popular beachside community so the family could spend quality time together. When the outbreak ramped up across the US, she asked Sandbridge Realty to move her booking to the same week next year, but was told she could only rebook for 2020. She said the family is not available for the rest of the year - partly because she and her siblings must now care for her 84-year-old mother who recently underwent emergency lung surgery. The family vacation planned for Memorial Day weekend in May would also be illegal under the state of Virginia's shelter in place order. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued the order banning indoor and outdoor gatherings of 10 or more effective March 24 and has since extended it to June 10 as the state grapples to bring the virus under control. Oceanfront homes in Sandbridge offer a popular vacation spot in Virginia. The family had booked the week-long Memorial Day vacation in a 12-bedroom oceanfront mansion through rental company Sandbridge Realty Sandbridge Realty has allegedly refused to refund the payment even though the vacation would be illegal under the state's lockdown rules, banning gatherings of 10 or more people until June 10 Sunbathing on the beach has also been banned, though Northam stopped short of banning vacation rentals altogether. But the City of Virginia Beach has urged Sandbridge to stop renting its luxury beachside homes and condos, warning the firm that flouting the rules on gatherings is punishable by up to 12 months in jail and a maximum fine of $2,500. 'Many of you have prudently elected to discontinue rentals of your properties during this time,' Acting City Manager Tom Leahy said in a letter to Sandbridge bosses on April 2. 'I encourage you to continue to do so, as this action can help save lives and minimize to the greatest extent possible the duration of this emergency situation.' The family is now facing the impossible choice of breaking the state law and risking their safety amid the pandemic or losing a staggering $10,000. 'They are telling people from Michigan to come into their state against the governor's orders,' Budzinski told the Pilot. 'It is illegal to have 27 people in that house right now. To have our family of 27 infiltrate your city and stores, I think they are opening up their fellow Virginians to danger, too.' The distressed holidaymaker added that she is 'aghast at the lack of willingness' from the rental company 'to work with us'. Karen Budzinski, 63,(pictured) said her family has been hard-hit by coronavirus, with Budzinski, her husband Gary, daughter and son-in-law all contracting the deadly infection. Gary is still battling pneumonia The Pilot said Sandbridge Realty, which manages more than 200 properties in the residential beach community, has not returned its requests for comment. A statement on the firm's website says rentals are still going ahead amid the pandemic. 'If you are arriving between now and June 10, you can expect to stay in your chosen property. Our housekeeping and maintenance staff has increased their professional standards to also include additional recommendations set forth by the CDC and WHO,' it reads. 'We are monitoring this unprecedented situation closely and we are listening carefully to each and every one of our guests and owners.' Budzinski has also turned to her travel insurance company, Generali Global Assistance, but said they have not returned her request for a claim. Its website states some plans do not cover losses that happen on or after March 11, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The family's plight is similar to that faced by many Americans after several travel insurance firms said they will not cover coronavirus-related cancellations. Virginia has 9,630 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 324 people have died, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Across the US, more than 44,000 Americans have been killed from the virus and infections have topped 812,000. A man from Northern Ireland who was stranded in a hostel in Peru for almost a month has spoken about returning to the "freedom" of lockdown now he's back home. Rhys McKendry (21), from Newtownabbey, was at a hostel in the city of Cusco when Peru went into lockdown on March 15. By March 30, two guests had tested positive for coronavirus. He was initially told to stay in his room for at least 15 days, meaning he would miss repatriation flights home arranged by the British and Irish governments. Rhys feared he would be trapped for three months but finally managed to get home to his relieved family on April 11. "Some people had been moved out of the hostel to a hotel and were allowed to get flights home, but for some reason we couldn't," he said. "I asked the Irish ambassador to move me to the hotel and then the British people eventually tagged along with that." A complicated journey home for Rhys began with a flight from Cusco to Lima. "I was able to walk out of the hotel which made no sense as I'd been in strict lockdown at the hostel the day before," he said. A flight to Paris followed, but delays meant he then had to travel to Frankfurt to get a connecting flight to London. "It was just utter confusion with the Peruvian government, they didn't seem to know what to do from day to day," he said. "There was so much pressure on them that they agreed to get everyone out but logistically they didn't seem to know how to do it. "It's great to be back and into a normal routine. I'm over the jet lag and it's nice just to be able to go for a walk and be allowed around the house. "A few weeks ago there was total lockdown in the streets and there was military everywhere." With his travel plans stopped abruptly, Rhys is now looking forward to completing a Masters degree. "I graduated in economics but there's not much chance of being picked up by anyone for work for a while," he said. The UK's acting ambassador to Peru, Andrew Soper, said the Government was still doing everything possible to bring home those still stranded. The Irish ambassador for Chile, Peru and Ecuador, Paul Gleeson, reported that two more Irish citizens and their partners were repatriated on Sunday via a German organised plane. He said "most remaining Irish" have now been brought home and praised the "great story of EU-UK solidarity in Peru and so many places". NAIROBI/BUSIA Kenya has announced that coronavirus cases have hit 296 after 15 tested positive of the novel virus. Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi stated that 545 samples had been tested in the last 24 hours. 7 of the new cases are male while 8 are female Kenyan nationals. The Health CAS also announced that 5 patients have recovered and discharged bringing the number of recoveries to 74. The patients whove tested positive are between the ages of 19-75 years of age. CAS Mwangangi stated that 6 of the patients were from quarantine centres and 9 were picked up from different locations. The busy border town of Busia is currently facing a nightmare scenario in regard to potential exposure to COVID-19. A statement issued by the Kenyas County Governor Sospeter Odeke Ojaamong, on April 20, highlighted Ugandan citizens and truck drivers as two major threats that need to be addressed with utmost urgency. The Busia County Covid-19 Committee held a meeting with County leaders to deliberate on various issues regarding Coronavirus pandemic, among them was the influx of Ugandans and other foreigners from Uganda into Kenya through porous borders is worrying, security apparatus should ensure that is stopped with immediate effect, Ojamoong stated. He wondered why despite the closure of Kenya and Uganda border, citizens from the latter have continued to cross the border through Panya routes to hawk their goods in Busia. The Ugandan government has barred Kenyans from crossing into Uganda, we are very lenient to Ugandans who are allowed to stream into the country with impunity, less oblivious of the COVID-19 pandemic which is ravaging the world, Despite this, Ugandan authorities announced that they would dump Kenyans who tested positive to Covid-19 on the Kenyan side of the border, he lamented. He went on to express his fears that the congestion of trucks at the border town was a disaster waiting to happen, terming it as the biggest threat to the fight against the spread of the infectious virus. The county still faces Covid-19 threats from truck drivers who come from counties which have tested positive to the vice. He announced that any undocumented Ugandan captured on the Kenyan side of the border would be placed under forced quarantine. Related As the coronavirus slowly cripples the economy of the US, 22 million Americans are displaced from their jobs prompting US President Trump to ban all immigrations into the US. Despite the ongoing outbreak, Trump tweeted that in light of the attack from the 'Invisible Enemy', as well as the need to protect the jobs of our American Citizens, he will be signing an Executive Order which temporarily suspends immigration into the United States. Despite the tough measures imposed by the government in controlling the COVID-19, at least 22 million Americans are out of work as the pandemic wiping out the 13.5 percent of the workforce and job growth in 10 years. Addressing last month's issue, Trump announced the banning of foreigners traveling to the United States from Europe while also banning any travel from China as the pandemic continues to spread in the area but despite the immediate clearing of the details in the latest order migrant farmworkers and medics are thought to be exempted. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 Twitter's information also pointed out that the US-Canada border is already closed even most visa applications are on hold as the administration shuts down the nation's asylum system last month. Trump's latest tweet did not earn any comment from the white house as they most likely face legal actions. Read also: New York Morgue Use Bedsheets Instead of Body Bags for COVID-19 Deaths Having the world's largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, the Unites States tops with 42,000 death toll and with 779,000 infections and up 20,000 on Monday. While the air travel has largely been suspended, formalizing it serves as a simple way for Trump to rile up his base bit one of the resources also shared that noting also that the State Department had already suspended routine visa services at all US embassies and consulates. Texas congressman Joaquin Castro called Trump's announcement 'an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis', as he tweeter tweeted that his action is not only an attempt to divert attention away from Trump's failure to stop the spread of the coronavirus and save lives but an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis and advance his anti-immigrant agenda. In his Monday briefing, US President Trump discussed the importance of sustainability and the importance of the economy despite the Requirements needed. According to a source who released a statement via New York Times, the formal order for the said ban in new green cards and employment visa may be effective in a span of days, which would immediately shut down any legal immigration. Trump's tweet about the possible ban on immigration came only a few hours after US oil price plummeted to below $0.00 for the first time in history. In addition to this, there were also at least 5.2 million people who filed for unemployment benefits in the past week based on information released by the Labor Department. At the moment, the US has the highest number of confirmed cases globally after reaching more than 800,200 cases and at least 946 deaths. The impact of the virus has crippled even the economy of the states and has taken a toll on every branch of the government. Related article: Kim Jong Un Health Fears: North Korean Leader in Grave Danger? @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (Alliance News) - IntegraFin Holdings PLC on Tuesday said strong growth in inflows led to a small year-on-year increase in funds under direction for the second quarter of financial 2021, despite a substantial downward movement in equity markets since mid-February. The company, which provides platform services to UK financial advisers and their clients, said funds under direction at March 31 totalled GBP34.99 billion, a sharp 11% down from GBP39.31 billion in the first quarter but up 1.7% from GBP34.41 billion a year ago. Second-quarter net inflows totalled GBP1.10 billion versus GBP959 million in the first quarter and GBP926 million a year ago. Outflows amounted to GBP596 million compared with GBP576 in the previous quarter and GBP518 million a year ago. Market movements reduced funds under direction by GBP5.43 billion versus a gain of GBP1.82 billion a year ago. In the first quarter, market movements added GBP561 million. CEO Alex Scott: "The outlook for the second half of the year is dependent upon the economic effects of measures to combat Covid-19 and their impact upon equity markets, FUD and flows." Shares in IntegraFin were down 0.7% at 454.50 pence each in London on Tuesday morning. By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. New Delhi, April 21 : All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, an apex body of Muslim organisation, has demanded from the Prime Minister to enact an 'Anti Lynching Law' in next parliamentary session after two Sadhus were lynched by a mob in Palghar, Maharashtra on April 16. Navaid Hamid, the president of the Muslim body said, "It is earnestly requested that to stop rising lynching cases, please consider to enact Anti Lynching Law at the earliest available opportunity in the upcoming parliamentary session." The body has slammed the BJP for blaming Muslims for the unfortunate incident and said, "Your party colleagues immediately started spreading fake news that Muslims are responsible for it." But despite denial by the state government of any communal angle in it, some of your party men including spokespersons tried to give it a tag of communist violence. Now when it has been established that most of the arrested culprits are from the BJP, civil society patiently awaits to know what views your government holds now on this incident. "It would be also heartening to know whether your government would advise the Maharashtra government to request for a fast track trial of the culprits in the Palghar lynching case as civil society including Muslims have been demanding for the culprits of the unfortunate lynching of Muslims across India in the past," said Hamid. The Supreme court in its judgement on lynching had issued guidelines for preventive, remedial and punitive measures to combat lynchings. Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid tweeted: "Violence and hate like Corona know not where to stop. They tasted the blood of Akhlaq, Pehlu, Ganesh, Junaid, Naeem, Mangesh. Now they have crushed abstinence of Sadhus in Palghar. The blood they take is human and pure. It is our blood and of prayer." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Frustration is mounting as more families across the U.S. enter their second or even third week of distance learning and some overwhelmed parents say it will be their last. Amid the barrage of learning apps, video meet-ups and e-mailed assignments that pass as pandemic home school, some frustrated and exhausted parents are choosing to disconnect entirely for the rest of the academic year. Others are cramming all their childrens school work into the weekend or taking days off work to help their kids with a weeks worth of assignments in one day. We tried to make it work the first week. We put together a schedule, and what we found is that forcing a child who is that young into a fake teaching situation is really, really hard, said Alexandra Nicholson, whose son is in kindergarten in a town outside Boston. Id rather have him watch classic Godzilla movies and play in the yard and pretend to be a Jedi rather than figure out basic math. That stress is only compounded for families with multiple children in different grades, or when parents work long hours outside the home. In some cases, older siblings must watch younger ones during the day, leaving no time for school work. I think the pressure is on and I think its on even more for some of our low-income families. Its totally overwhelming, said Rachel Pearl, chief program officer for Friends of the Children. The Portland, Oregon-based national nonprofit that pairs paid mentors with at-risk children. A lot of our families already feel theyre not doing enough when they are working so hard and I fear they will fear they are failing at it. Parents are concerned their kids are falling behind, especially in lower income families. In households where the parents earn less than $50,000 total annually, 72% are at least somewhat concerned about their child falling behind academically, compared with 56% of parents in high-income households, according to a late-March poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Meghan Perrone, a nurse, cant even begin to help her 8-year-old daughter with her schoolwork until after she gets home from work and has cleaned up from dinner. Her husband is working from home but spends most of the week holed up in the basement because his job is mainly done by phone. That leaves the couples second-grade daughter to supervise her 2-year-old sister. As a result, the family has pushed the weekly load of schoolwork to weekends and tries to cram as much into two days as they can. One recent Saturday, Perrones husband and daughter finished a science project at 10 p.m. We dont have the luxury right now to not be working. Some people arent working at all and they can make time to do this stuff, but that for us is just not an option, said Perrone, who lives in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. Those with older children may be faring better, but parents still must keep track of timing for video chats with teachers and make sure all the assignments are completed. Sarah Karpanty, 44, a mother of two middle schoolers in Roanoke, Virginia, said the reality kicked in last week when spring break ended and home learning began. I wanted to get into a fetal position and hide out, said Karpanty, a professor of wildlife biology at Virginia Tech who is also teaching her own students online. Her boys, aged 12 and 13, are independent but still need guidance navigating the new technology. Their classes involve recorded video from teachers, online quizzes and the occasional interactive Zoom call. When this all started we were all like, Thank God kids arent affected, she said, referring to the coronavirus itself. But we have to be honest, the kids are not OK. Many school districts are emphasizing to parents that the learning curve is steep, and some teachers try to avoid daily deadlines, instead allowing students to go at their own pace. California high school teacher Susan Binder said the technology can be frustrating and imperfect. Many of the apps elementary schools must now rely on with names like Seesaw, Epic and IXL were only intended as a tool to enhance classroom learning or share students work with parents. This is a very crude bandage were putting on a very big wound. Were just doing the best we can, said Binder, who is using Zoom and Google classroom to teach economics, AP history and government at El Cerrito High School, near San Francisco. A video cant look at your childs face and see the confusion. A teacher can do that, she said. She worries this generation of students may end up suffering academically, socially and emotionally. Around the world, parents and schools are facing similar challenges. In Italy, the virus first epicenter in Europe, schools have tried to adapt to online learning with a spotty success rate. In some parts of Italys hard-hit north, many schools went weeks without assigning lessons, and one parent said her high school aged daughter went two months without a math lesson. In France, many parents with young children are taking advantage of a national initiative that pays 84% of salaries of parents needing to take time off to care full-time for kids. The country's centralized school system has helped streamline teaching, with standardized online programs but there have been wide disparities and concerns about equality and low-income families who dont have internet access and devices. Kara Illig, a mother of three in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, finally broke down one day last week. Her fourth-grade son had six English assignments all due at the end of the day. Her second-grade daughter had to build a table that would support a dictionary using only printer paper, cardboard and duct tape. She could barely keep track of their assignments, four different school email accounts, 12 Google livestreams, and her own worries as she transitioned to a new job while working from home. I was feeling like a failure. I thought, I just cant do this, she said. She posted a message on a private Parent Teacher Organization group on Facebook, asking: Is anyone else having a hard time keeping up with all of this? She added: My entire Facebook feed is nothing but photos of happy, organized families, sitting together at the kitchen table doing classwork and I can NOT relate. The post immediately got more than 70 replies, most of them supportive, and earned her a call from a slightly irritated school principal, she said. Within days, the district told teachers to no longer assign work with a daily deadline. Illig believes she ruffled some feathers, but she doesnt regret it. Its just a terrible situation and were all trying to adapt to and survive. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources McMahon: No more shelter-in-place, but urges people to travel even less; hospitals can reopen Syracuse, Onondaga County miss out on $90 million in coronavirus relief bill New York to consider region by region reopening after coronavirus shutdowns, Cuomo says Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com [April 21, 2020] SAIC Awarded $655 Million U.S. Air Force Engineering Development Integration Sustainment Contract Engility Services, LLC., a subsidiary of Science Applications International Corp. (NYSE: SAIC (News - Alert)), was awarded a $655 million award to provide systems engineering, planning, integration and sustainment services to the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Innovation and Prototyping Directorate through the Engineering, Development, Integration, and Sustainment (EDIS) contract. SAIC will work with SMC to modernize satellite ground systems for the United States Space Force (USSF) operations, research and development and demonstration missions. "SAIC is dedicated to achieving resiliency and ensuring performance of critical U.S. national security and civil space enterprises. This contract expands our relationship with the Air Force, which we have proudly supported since 1972, and the new United States Space Force," said Michael LaRouche, executive vice president and general manager of SAIC's National Security Group. "We look forward to propelling SMC's vision with emerging technology and enabling the United States Space Force to focus on the mission." Under the EDIS contract, SAIC will support SMC DCIO in its mission to operate and sustain an affordable Ground System Enterprise (GSE) for research and development, demonstration, and operational missions. The GSE includes the Multi-Mission Satellite Operations Center command and control ground system architecture, as well as equipment, systems, and facilities. Development of Enterprise Ground Services (EGS) is one of the major components of Space Warfighting Construct (SWC) and is intended to provide the standardized hardware capacity and service oriented architecture (SOA) software platform required to perform tracking, telemetry, and commanding (TT&C), contact scheduling, and cyber defense functions for Space Force user missions. The EDIS acquisition is one contractual mechanism to continue prototyping and pathfinding for the EGS-related SWC initiatives. The company will conduct systems engineering, planning, and system modifications; build and modify data centers; integrate mission unique software and applications from various stakeholders to produce operational satellite ground systes; sustain ground systems; and, perform system administration and cybersecurity functions. This post-protest contract follows the original EDIS award from Jan. 31, 2019, which came on the heels of SAIC's completed acquisition of Engility as part of its strategy to expand its space services portfolio. The single-award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract has a five-year base period of performance and a two-year option period, and the work will be performed primarily at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado; Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. About SAIC SAIC is a premier technology integrator solving our nation's most complex modernization and readiness challenges. Our robust portfolio of offerings across the defense, space, civilian, and intelligence markets includes high-end solutions in engineering, IT, and mission solutions. Using our expertise and understanding of existing and emerging technologies, we integrate the best components from our own portfolio and our partner ecosystem to deliver innovative, effective, and efficient solutions. We are 25,500 strong; driven by mission, united by purpose, and inspired by opportunities. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SAIC has pro forma annual revenues of approximately $7.1 billion. For more information, visit saic.com. For ongoing news, please visit our newsroom. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this release contain or are based on "forward-looking" information within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "guidance," and similar words or phrases. Forward-looking statements in this release may include, among others, estimates of future revenues, operating income, earnings, earnings per share, charges, total contract value, backlog, outstanding shares and cash flows, as well as statements about future dividends, share repurchases and other capital deployment plans. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risk, uncertainties and assumptions, and actual results may differ materially from the guidance and other forward-looking statements made in this release as a result of various factors. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause or contribute to these material differences include those discussed in the "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Legal Proceedings" sections of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, as updated in any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other filings with the SEC (News - Alert), which may be viewed or obtained through the Investor Relations section of our website at www.saic.com or on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Due to such risks, uncertainties and assumptions you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. SAIC expressly disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statement provided in this release to reflect subsequent events, actual results or changes in SAIC's expectations. SAIC also disclaims any duty to comment upon or correct information that may be contained in reports published by investment analysts or others. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005054/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] In what could potentially be a way forward in the fight against Covid-19, a team of doctors and researchers from Bengaluru were granted permission on Tuesday to start blood plasma clinical trials. The team, under Dr Vishal Rao of HCG Bangalore Institute of Oncology, was given permission by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, under the Directorate General of Health Services in New Delhi to conduct "open label, parallel arm, Phase I/II clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma as a therapy for Covid-19. Follow latest updates on the COVID-19 pandemic here A preliminary agreement was struck between HCG and Victoria Hospital to get the clinical trials underway. "We hope to get started on Thursday or Friday. We are currently getting a Statement of Purpose (SoP) finalised with the government and we are seeking to enlist the help of 10 cured Covid-19 patients in Bengaluru to donate the blood plasma," Dr Rao told DH. According to the Department of Health and Family Welfare, 48 people have been cured of the disease in the city, so far. "This is a time of national emergency. We hope that some of those cured will heed the call," Dr Rao said, adding that researchers seek to collect an initial blood plasma amount of just 500 ml - which is half of the amount that a patient normally gives during a routine blood donation. "This will help to get the trials underway," he said. According to medical literature on the therapy, 200 ml of plasma is sufficient to treat one patient. However, it is still unclear as to where the trials will be conducted and who is supposed to procure the antibody plasma. "That is yet to be worked out between HCG and Victoria Hospital," said Additional Secretary Jawaid Akhtar. Delhi case boosts therapy The efficacy of the therapy was boosted on Monday by reports that a 49-year-old critically ill Covid-19 patient on ventilator support in Delhi had made a swift recovery after he received plasma therapy. The ethics committee of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) has cleared the therapy to treat critically ill Covid-19 patients. Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, described plasma therapy as holding great promise. Tejasvi Surya, BJP MP from Bengaluru South has been in the eye of the storm for the past few days for a now-deleted tweet that has alleged Islamophobic and sexist overtones. In the 2015 tweet, Surya had quoted Pakistani Canadian writer Tarek Fatah and said that: "95% Arab women have never had an orgasm in the last few hundred years! Every mother has produced kids as act of sex and not love:@TarekFatah." BCCL The five-year-old tweet snowballed into a massive political controversy after several prominent figures from the middle east shared the screenshot of it. Dubai-based businesswoman Noora AlGhurair, who said she pitied his upbringing that has taught him to disrespect women. She also warned him against travelling to Arab lands if he is ever bestowed a foreign ministry Pity Ur upbringing @Tejasvi_Surya that respect for women couldnt be instilled in U despite India having some great female leaders .Please note if someday the govt bestows a foreign ministry to you, avoid travelling to Arab lands. You are not welcome here. This will be remembered pic.twitter.com/KJJlqJL5tR Noora AlGhurair (@AlGhurair98) April 19, 2020 The Indian Parliaments deletion of this comment will not forget us of the heinous insult from it..We demand urgent and immediate accountability from Parliament and the government.We, the Arab Muslim women, are generational educators and directors of global competencies.#india pic.twitter.com/9jrGhQZgP3 . Lawyer Mona Alarbash (@MonaAlarbash) April 20, 2020 Respected Prime Minister @narendramodi your silence on the most outrageous act of your parliamentarian @Tejasvi_Surya unfolds the cultural norm of your govt.If humiliating Arab women is the new normal, let the Arab world know where our relationship with #India stands. pic.twitter.com/uUkUPXuu8M (@MJALSHRIKA) April 20, 2020 This had come at a time when several social media users of Indian origin living and working in the middle east have been called out for their offensive social media posts. Many of them had landed in trouble for linking Muslims with the spread of COVID-19 in India following the Tablgi Jamaat event in Delhi. Anyone that is openly racist and discriminatory in the UAE will be fined and made to leave. An example; pic.twitter.com/nJW7XS5xGx Princess Hend Al Qassimi (@LadyVelvet_HFQ) April 15, 2020 Recently, Princess Hend al Qassimi of the Sharjah Royal Family, warned a Twitter user after he put out several tweets targeting Muslims over the COVID-19 pandemic. "Your ridicule will not go unnoticed," she wrote. The ruling family is friends with Indians, but as a royal your rudeness is not welcome. All employees are paid to work, no one comes for free. You make your bread and butter from this land which you scorn and your ridicule will not go unnoticed. Princess Hend Al Qassimi (@LadyVelvet_HFQ) April 15, 2020 UAE law applies on nationals and non-nationals in terms of hate speech. pic.twitter.com/bWN3StUkRN Princess Hend Al Qassimi (@LadyVelvet_HFQ) April 20, 2020 On Monday, Indian ambassador to the UAE, Pavan Kapoor, tweeted: India and UAE share the value of non-discrimination on any grounds. Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the Rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this. India and UAE share the value of non-discrimination on any grounds. Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the Rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this. https://t.co/8Ui6L9EKpc Amb Pavan Kapoor (@AmbKapoor) April 20, 2020 The alleged harassment of Muslims accusing them of spreading COIVD-19 had also raised concerns from several corners including the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday urged India to take "urgent steps" to protect the rights of its minority Muslim community and stop the incidents of "Islamophobia" in the country. BCCL Reacting to the allegation, minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Tuesday said Muslims are prosperous in the country and those trying to vitiate the atmosphere cannot be their friends. "We are doing our job with conviction. The prime minister whenever he speaks, he talks about the rights and welfare of 130 crore Indians." BCCL "If somebody cannot see this, then it is their problem. India's Muslims, its minorities, all its sections, are prosperous and those people trying to vitiate this atmosphere of prosperity, they cannot be friends of Indian Muslims," he told reporters. The minority affairs minister asserted "secularism and harmony is not a "political fashion", but a "perfect passion" for India and Indians. Speculation on North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns health after he was absent to mark a recent important anniversary. China and South Korea cast doubt on Tuesday on reports North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was gravely ill after media outlets said he underwent a cardiovascular procedure. Speculation over the state of his health was fuelled by his absence from a key anniversary event with the Daily NK, a speciality website run mostly by North Korean defectors, on Tuesday citing unidentified sources in the isolated state saying Kim was recovering at a villa in the Mount Kumgang resort after surgery on April 12. CNN, citing a senior US official with knowledge of the situation, then reported Kim, 36, was in grave danger. Kims potential health issues could fuel uncertainty over the future of the reclusive states dynastic rule and stalled denuclearisation talks with the United States, issues in which Kim wields absolute authority. Two South Korean government sources told Reuters news agency the reports Kim was in grave danger were not true, while the presidential Blue House said there were no unusual signs coming from the north. China said on Tuesday it is aware of reports about Kims health but said it did not know their source, without commenting on whether it has any information about the situation. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the remarks during a daily briefing and did not elaborate further. An official at the Chinese Communist Partys International Liaison Department, which deals with North Korea, said he did not believe Kim was critically ill. North Korea marked the anniversary of the birthday of its founding father and Kims grandfather, Kim Il Sung, as a national holiday on April 15, but there was no sign of Kim in the images shared by the state news agency. Kim Jong Un in pictures released in early December during a visit to battle areas of Mount Paektu [File: KCNA via Reuters] Reporting from North Korea is notoriously difficult, especially on matters concerning the countrys leadership. Chad OCarroll, the chief executive of Korea Risk Group, which produces the respected NK Pro and NK News, sounded a note of caution. It IS definitely notable that Kim Jong Un was missing all last week given the 04.15 holidays, he wrote on Twitter. But it should be acknowledged that there are *many* rumours about his health going on at the moment. Some even regurgitate stuff we heard when KJU disappeared in 2014. He noted Kim had appeared in public three times in January and February and six times in March. So far in April, he has also appeared three times. Overweight, smoker Kim is heavily overweight and his health has deteriorated in recent months because of heavy smoking and overwork, the Daily NK said. My understanding is that he had been struggling [with cardiovascular problems] since last August but it worsened after repeated visits to Mount Paektu, a source was quoted as saying, referring to the countrys sacred mountain. Can't yet confirm any of the speculation about KJU. We do know this: 1) the NK leader has vascular problems; 2) he missed 4/15. All other absences are explainable. Unless we get second and third sources on the story, we're still in the dark, and could be for a while. Victor Cha (@VictorDCha) April 21, 2020 Kim went into hospital after presiding over a meeting of the governing Workers Partys Politburo on April 11, his last significant public event, the report said. Pyongyang fired multiple short-range missiles last week which Seoul officials said were also part of the Kim Il Sung birthday celebration. Such military events would usually be observed by Kim, but there was no KCNA report on the test at all. Kim is a third-generation hereditary leader who rules North Korea with an iron-fist, taking over the titles of head of state and commander in chief of the military since late 2011. In recent years Kim has launched a diplomatic offensive to promote both himself as a world leader, holding three meetings with US President Donald Trump, four with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and five with Chinas President Xi Jinping. He was the first North Korean leader to cross the border into South Korea to meet Moon in 2018. Both Koreas are technically still at war, as the Korean War of 1950-53 ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. Kim has sought to have international sanctions against his country eased, but has refused to dismantle his nuclear weapons programme, a steadfast demand by the United States. Jumia to Announce First Quarter 2020 Results on May 13, 2020 Jumia Technologies AG (NYSE:JMIA), ("Jumia"), today announced that it will release its results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 before the U.S. market opens on Wednesday, May 13, 2020. Management will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. US Eastern Time on the same day. Details of the conference call are as follows: Participant Dial in (Toll Free): 1-888-317-6016 Participant International Dial in: 1-412-317-6016 Canada Toll Free: 1-855-669-9657 UK Toll Free: 0800-279-9489 Participants should ask to join the Jumia Technologies call. A live webcast of the earnings conference call can be accessed on the Jumia Investor Relations website: https://investor.jumia.com/ Please visit the Investor Relations website to view the press release and accompanying slides ahead of the conference call. About Jumia Jumia is the leading pan-African e-commerce platform, present across 11 countries in Africa. Its mission is to improve the quality of everyday life in Africa by leveraging technology to deliver innovative, convenient and affordable online services to consumers, while helping businesses grow as they use Jumia's platform to better reach and serve consumers. The Jumia platform consists of a marketplace, which connects sellers with consumers, a logistics service, which enables the shipment and delivery of packages from sellers to consumers, and a payment service, which facilitates transactions among participants active on the Jumia platform in selected markets. On the marketplace, more than 110,000 sellers offer a broad range of goods and services. Jumia Logistics facilitates the delivery of goods in a convenient and reliable way, leveraging an extensive network of third-party logistics service providers, seamlessly integrated through the Jumia proprietary technology platform. JumiaPay offers a safe and easy solution to facilitate online transactions on the Jumia platform, with the intention of integrating additional financial services in the future. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005365/en/ Many appliances and consumer durables manufacturers have decided not to resume manufacturing despite the government relaxing certain guidelines for industries to operate in lockdown 2.0, preferring to wait till the curbs are fully lifted. Companies like Panasonic India, Godrej Appliances, Dixon Technologies and Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd said with retail outlets shut there is no point to start production as there is existing unsold inventory of March at warehouses and dealers. Moreover, in certain states like Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and some districts like Noida of Uttar Pradesh, local authorities and governments decided not to allow any manufacturing activities. According to Panasonic India, the company would wait to start production until a favourable market condition returns. As our factory in Jhajhar, Haryana is in the green zone, we are engaging with the local authorities for permission to start manufacturing in the near future. The issue today is more on the demand side than supply, we have enough inventory with our distributors of our ACs and refrigerators to meet consumer demands," Panasonic India and South Asia President and CEO Manish Sharma told PTI. The objective behind starting operations will be ensuring sustainability over longer term once markets are allowed to operate, he added. "We are prepared for staggered operations with workers coming in batches ensuring social distancing, frequent sanitizing, usage of masks among other initiatives to protect our workforce, Sharma explained. Expressing similar views, Godrej Appliances Business Head and EVP Kamal Nandi said, Where will I ship my products? There are no retail activities on the ground and moreover, there is enough stocks available with the dealers. There is no point in production at this stage. Nandi said Godrej Appliances would like to wait till May 3, when the lockdown ends, to plan resumption of production as under the current guidelines it has to consider many factors, including accommodating staff at the plant. Companies like LG, Samsung, Dixon and smart phone makers Oppo and Vivo -- which have manufacturing units in industrial zones at Noida and Greater Noida -- have not resumed production as the district administration of Gautam Buddha Nagar has banned all commercial and industrial activities inside the districts. Dixon Technologies, India's largest contract manufacture in the appliance and consumer electronic, has also not started manufacturing at its units as it is still awaiting approvals. When asked whether the company has started its manufacturing operation, Dixon Technologies CMD Sunil Vachani said, "Not yet. We are waiting for the approvals from the Noida Authority. He further said, "Both of our units at Noida and Tirupati fall under red zone. So we are waiting for the approval. We are hoping it to be sooner than later." While, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), which manufactures TV under the brand name of Thomson and Kodak, said that the new guidelines should be realistic and helpful for the industry. Currently, we are looking forward to the new notification by the Centre and the state governments and whatever norms the government has decided we will be happy to implement," SPPL CEO Avneet Singh Marwah said. He, however, said all "those notifications and norms should be realistic and the intention of the government should be to give permission to start the manufacturing sites". Meanwhile, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals said it has partially resumed its manufacturing at its plants. pursuant to the receipt of confirmation/ permission received from the concerned administrative authorities, the company has partially resumed the operations at its plants located at Goa and Vadodara in a phased manner, the company said in a regulatory filing. Earlier, in February and March, the Indian appliances and consumer electronics industry was battling for components as it is largely dependent on China for the sourcing of components and some of the finished goods. According to a study by the industry body Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) and Frost & Sullivan, the industry had a total market size of Rs 76,400 crore in 2018-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More than 1,600 firms applied online for grants of 25,000 from the Executive yesterday despite a glitch which caused the application form to crash less than half an hour after going live. The Executive's grant for retail, hospitality, leisure and tourism was one of two crucial business support schemes which opened yesterday, along with the UK Government's job retention scheme, in which an employee's wages are paid by the State, up to a maximum of 2,500 per month. The scheme has been extended to cover employee wages until the end of June. According to HMRC, which is running the scheme, employers claimed for 67,000 jobs in its first 30 minutes. Businesses in Northern Ireland that pay rates on a property with a rateable value between 15,001 and 51,000 can apply for the 25,000 grants, with applications to take up to 15 working days to process. It closes for applications on May 20. Economy Minister Diane Dodds urged all eligible firms to apply. She said: "I assure businesses that as soon as applications have been verified, the grant will be paid - we will not be waiting until the end of the application process before starting to process payments." But business owners and groups were exasperated yesterday by the crashing of the grant application form, although the problem was resolved by around 11am. A spokeswoman for Land and Property Services, part of the Department of Finance, said that by 5pm more than 1,600 businesses had submitted applications through the portal. However, the application process is open at all times. The spokeswoman said: "The 25k grant web portal experienced technical difficulties which resulted in it being unavailable for less than an hour. As soon as this happened the necessary steps were taken to quickly resolve the issue. "The web portal was tested prior to launch and the unavailability was not related to the volume of people trying to access the site. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The downtime will not delay the processing of any payments." Hospitality Ulster chief executive Colin Neill, who represents thousands of pub owners likely to have been logging on to use the system yesterday, said: "We were told the system was being tested, hence delayed to April 20. There is no excuse for the 25k grant portal to fail as soon as it was switched on." Meanwhile, the UK Government's job retention scheme was opened for applications. Under the scheme, an employer can claim for 80% of employees' wages plus any employer National Insurance and pension contributions, if they have been temporarily laid off. Ian Henry, the president of the NI Chamber of Commerce, said: "The opening of the job retention scheme is an important milestone for businesses, providing many with the support they need to protect livelihoods as lockdown continues." Ken Sharpe, owner of the Salty Dog Hotel and Boat House restaurant in Bangor, said he had found the jobs retention scheme application straightforward, but was frustrated when the website crashed. But Colum McLornan, the co-owner of the Marine Hotel in Ballycastle, said both online applications had been "very easy to use, informative and all went through fine." "Assuming the government pays to the timescale they said, I think they have done an excellent job in a short timeframe to get the furlough scheme all up and running and working," he said. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: "Our unprecedented job retention scheme will protect millions of jobs across the country and is now up and running." Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey said Tuesday that easing restrictions on business during the coronavirus pandemic needs to be done with an understanding it may not last. "We shouldn't assume that each step forward is permanent necessarily," Quincey said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." People must recognize that the economic restart must be done in phases, Quincey said, "and also be cognizant that there could be steps backward in some countries as the virus flares up again." Quincey noted that Japan and Singapore have had to adjust their approaches to the virus after new cases began to surge. "Japan has had to lock down a little harder. Singapore has had to go back more into lockdown," he said. Quincey's comments Tuesday came shortly after the beverage giant released its first-quarter earnings. The company benefited in that period from consumers stocking up on products in response to stay-at-home orders, but warned it expects a "material" impact in the second quarter due to movie theater and restaurant closures. Coca-Cola, with its global footprint, knows the recovery from the coronavirus "will be a winding path," Quincey said. "We're going to have to manage each country. We're going to have to move our learnings around as a Coke system," he said. Shares of Coke were down about 1.5% on Tuesday to around $45 each. The state of Georgia, where Coke is headquartered, on Monday announced plans to lift restrictions on many businesses. Tattoo parlors, gyms and hair salons can reopen on Friday, as long as they follow social distancing and sanitary requirements, while restaurants can begin to offer restricted dine-in meals on Monday. Drawing on Coke's experience in countries that have eased restrictions, Quincey said, "clearly you see there are groups of consumers that when the door is open they'll come and reengage with the world on those terms." Others are more cautious and continue to try avoiding "channels and locations where you congregate until they see more clearly the virus has dissipated," he said. In Georgia, specifically, Quincey said he had "no expectation there's going to be a snap back to normal on Friday or Monday morning." Unidentified Forces Attack, Destroy US Hummer in Northeast Syria Reports Sputnik News 16:57 GMT 20.04.2020 US occupation forces, Syrian troops and local residents have been engaged in a tense standoff in the country's northeast for several months now, with locals attempting to block US convoys zipping along local highways to fulfill President Trump's orders to "keep" the region's oil resources. Unidentified forces have attacked and destroyed a US military vehicle and injured several troops at the junction outside the village of Rouished, Al-Hasakah governorate, the Syrian Arab News Agency has reported, citing local civilian sources. The sources said the vehicle, believed to be a military Hummer, was carrying both US troops and Syrian Democratic Forces militia, the predominantly Kurdish militia group which is in de facto control of much of northeast Syria. After being attacked, the Hummer was said to have flipped on its side, causing damage to the vehicle and injuring its occupants. Sources didn't clarify what happened to the US and SDF forces following the ambush. Photos said to have been taken at the scene following the attack have appeared online. They have not been authenticated. The Pentagon has yet to comment on the veracity of the report. This is the second incident of this kind to be reported this month. On April 6, Syrian media reported that a joint convoy of US and local forces was ambushed by unidentified militants near the village of As-Sur in Deir ez-Zor, killing one US service member and two militiamen. Tensions continue to smolder in Al-Hasakah governorate between local Arabs, Kurds, the Syrian military and US occupation forces, with locals repeatedly confronting and intercepting US convoys to try to prevent them from traveling freely through their communities in recent months. Most of these incidents have not escalated into violence, but occasionally US and Syrian troops exchange fire. The region is also home to the remnants of Daesh (ISIS)*, who have taken advantage of the chaos amid competing claims for control of the area. The US has quietly build up its military presence in northeastern Syria in recent months, dispatching dozens of truckloads of military and logistical equipment to the country from neighbouring Iraq to establish control of the region's oil and gas fields in accordance with US President Donald Trump's instructions to "keep the oil." Syria has repeatedly demanded that all uninvited occupying forces, including the US and Turkish troops and their proxies, vacate the area immediately and return control of occupied area back to Damascus, its rightful owner under international law. * A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taiwan's chances of attending WHA in May slim: MOFA ROC Central News Agency 04/20/2020 04:02 PM Taipei, April 20 (CNA) Taiwan's chances of receiving an invitation to attend the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May are slim, but it will continue to do its best to rally international support, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said Monday. The WHA, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), is scheduled to hold its annual event in Geneva in May. According to the ministry's latest evaluation, Taiwan once again may not be invited to the annual WHA, said Bob Chen (), director-general of MOFA's Department of International Organizations. Due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the annual meeting could be held online and the foreign ministry is still doing whatever it can to make Taiwan's inclusion possible, Chen told lawmakers at a legislative Foreign and National Defense Committee hearing Monday. Taiwan continues to seek the support of its diplomatic allies and other friendly countries such as the United States to obtain an invitation to this year's WHA, according to Chen. He was asked by opposition Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers to evaluate Taiwan's chances of participating in this year's annual event in Geneva after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on April 8 claimed that Taiwan is behind a campaign of personal attacks against him. Speaking at the legislature, deputy foreign minister Hsu Szu-chien () denied the accusations, stressing that MOFA absolutely did not instigate anyone to do what Tedros has claimed. Taiwan participated in the WHA as an observer under the name Chinese Taipei from 2009 to 2016 amid better relations with China during the Kuomintang administration of that time, which prioritized reducing tension and building friendlier ties with Beijing. Since 2017, however, China has refused permission for the WHO to invite Taiwan, in line with Beijing's hardline stance on cross-Taiwan Strait relations after President Tsai Ing-wen () of the Democratic Progressive Party took office in May 2016. (By Yeh Su-ping and Ko Lin) Enditem/J NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Restaurants, such as Toast of Charleston (above), may not seat diners, but other South Carolina businesses have been given the green light to reopen. They must act smartly. Staff/file Safari operator Pankaj Shah would usually be showing tourists around the beautiful areas in his native Kenya. Instead, he is leading a volunteer effort to feed thousands of families. Many Kenyans found themselves with little money when the new coronavirus attacked the countrys economy. One old woman told us she hadnt eaten for days, Shah said as he walked along a line of men putting food into containers. Kenya reported its first case of the coronavirus on March 12. The following week, schools closed. So did many businesses. Some families left the capital, Nairobi. The work that paid most people in populated areas came to a halt. As the area went into total lockdown, the forgotten families in poor neighborhoods began to starve. People were getting hungry and angry, Shah said. He knew someone had to act. Shah asked a few friends to help. A school closed by the virus offered its building as a headquarters. Kenyas Asian community answered the call. They brought money or truckloads of fresh food that could no longer be exported. Shahs volunteers call themselves Team Pankaj. They have sent out 24,000 hampers of food since March 22. Each container has enough food to feed a family of five people for two weeks. He is asking wealthy Kenyans to donate about $40 each to support the program. I just need half the rich people here to care enough to pay for a container, he says. His telephone rings with community leaders, clergymen and others asking for help. Shah tests each possible partner with a small number of boxes to see how well they distribute the food. If the small distribution is successful, he gives them more. Recently, he sent two truckloads of food to the Deep Sea slum, where many poor people live. People waited in line and put their fingers in ink before walking away with the containers of vegetables. Volunteers helped pregnant women and those with babies. Mary Wangui said she had been desperate. Her children were hungry. Pankaj Shah has never operated any kind of aid program before the coronavirus arrived in his country. He says he is guided by a memory. He met Mother Teresa over 30 years ago in Nairobi when the two were involved in a traffic accident. The incident brought an unlikely friendship between a young, wild businessman and the Catholic religious worker, he said. The world-famous missionary cared for the poor. Shah said he volunteered with Mother Teresa for three months. I think about what she would do, he says. Im Jonathan Evans. The Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story safari n. a trip in Africa to see wild animals tourist n. one who visits a place for pleasure lockdown n. shutting down a place totally distribute v. to give out to people ink n. a dye used for writing desperate adj. needing something missionary n. one who travels to spread religion The six weeks delay in rolling out a chidcare scheme for healthcare workers has been branded as "unacceptable" by Labour Party leader Alan Kelly. His remarks come as the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) are set to discuss renewed government proposals for how to provide childcare for front-line workers. There have been calls from Opposition politicians and unions for a solution to the isssue from the early days of the coronavirus crisis. Mr Kelly said schools and creches closed more than six weeks ago and "we still have not seen a viable childcare solution for healthcare workers from Government that has been approved by NPHET." He claimed there were proposals from government six weeks ago that "clearly did not satisfy the health and safety parameters that NPHET have set out." He questioned what has changed in the proposals that the NPHET are due to consider today. Mr Kelly said healthcare workers have been contacting him saying they have been left with an additional financial burden of nearly 1,000 for childcare for children who are usually in school. Our healthcare workers are putting themselves on the line to protect us, they should not be out of pocket because of these restrictions," he added. Mr Kelly said that unions have reported the stress that staff are under due to the lack of available childcare, with many taking sick days as a stopgap measure for looking after children. "This isn't acceptable," Mr Kelly said adding that other workers are relying on family, friends and neighbours for childcare solutions. He also pointed out that many health workers come from other countries and don't have the same support network of family in Ireland. I hope the proposal put forward by Government is passed by NPHET today... "If it isnt I hope that the Government wont be in a position where they spend another six weeks coming up with a proposal to ensure our healthcare heroes lives are made that little bit easier. A Department of Children spokesperson responded saying: "Childcare facilities were closed on March 12 due to public health concerns associated with COVID-19. "We await a recommendation from NPHET regarding services for the children of front-line healthcare workers. "This would be followed by a Government decision. "Clearly public health concerns remain and various Government Departments and Agencies are working together to find a solution to meet the childcare needs of frontline healthcare workers," the spokesperson added. Haiti - FLASH : 4th death of Covid-19 The Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) informs the population that a fourth person died of Coronavirus Covid-19 on Tuesday April 21, 2020 in the South-East department. The new victim is a 40 year old man who suffered from tension, he had symptoms of fever, vomiting and large respiratory problems, which complicated the case explains the MSPP. This citizen is one of 57 cases that have been confirmed to date in Haiti. The Ministry salutes the memory of this compatriot who has left and wishes strength and courage to his family, friends and all those affected by this departure. The MSPP recommends to the population to be more careful because this new coronavirus is a reality, it is together that we will succeed in dealing with it. - Stay home - Always wash your hands - Avoid putting your hands in your mouth, nose and eyes - Always keep a distance of 3 steps away from other people if you have to travel for an emergency. The other 3 deaths : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30454-haiti-flash-covid-19-first-death-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30481-haiti-flash-2nd-death-of-covid-19.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30505-haiti-flash-3rd-death-of-covid-19.html HL/ HaitiLibre The National Advertising Division (NAD) determined that SimpliSafe, Inc. supported certain advertising claims for SimpliSafe Home Security, including claims that the system is equipped with features to keep it functioning after an event which may disrupt the system and that SimpliSafe did not have a material connection with certain third-party endorsers. Self-regulatory and dispute resolution programs However, NAD recommends modification or discontinuation of other challenged claims, including dispatch speed claims that its system enables police to dispatch 3.5x faster, a monitoring and notification claim, and a battery life claim. NAD also recommended modifications to line claims, as well as to challenged endorsements and a testimonial. The claims were challenged by ADT Security Services. NAD is an investigative unit of the advertising industrys system of self-regulation and is a division of the BBB National Programs self-regulatory and dispute resolution programs. Challenged Claims The following are representative of the challenged claims: Dispatch speed claims: We dispatch 350% faster. We verify the alarm is real, so police dispatch 350% faster. Police respond up to 3.5x faster. Implied claim that SimpliSafe alarms consistently result not only in the dispatch of emergency response services, but that emergency services arrive to aid customers 3.5 times faster than when using a security system from any other competitor. Monitoring and notification claim: Our monitoring staff calls you the second trouble has been detected. Line claims: SimpliSafe systems Protects every door, room, window and Protects against intruders, fires, water damage, and more, appearing on SimpliSafes website on both the homepage and on a comparison chart to Traditional Home Security, as well as in other contexts, such as SimpliSafes television, radio, podcast and social media advertising. System protection claim: Prepared for the unexpected Someone attacks the system? SimpliSafe is ready. Endorsements and Testimonials: SimpliSafe is the #1 home security pick of CNET, the Wirecutter, PC Magazine, the Verge and more. Our monitoring service was named the best in the industry. The best home security system; The most comprehensive . . . the most reliable; SimpliSafe belongs at the top of your list; a seamless system. Range and battery life claims: Unparalleled range. Most wireless security systems cant cover your house. Ours can up to 1000ft. range. The battery for SimpliSafes entry sensors lasts for almost a decade. Dispatch speed claims NAD recommended that SimpliSafe discontinue the challenged dispatch speed claims NAD recommended that SimpliSafe discontinue the challenged dispatch speed claims, which expressly claim that its system enables police to dispatch 3.5x faster than customers who have other alarm systems. This recommendation was based on NADs determination that the evidence relied on by the advertiser was not a good fit for its dispatch speed claims because it measured response times (not dispatch times), and it did not collect data specifically measuring police response times to alarms from SimpliSafe customers or from any other competing systems alarms. NAD determined that the message reasonably conveyed by SimpliSafes system protection claim - Prepared for the unexpected Someone attacks the system? SimpliSafe is ready is that the SimpliSafe system is equipped with features to keep it functioning after an event which may disrupt the system. SimpliSafe demonstrated that such features exist to maintain the systems functionality after an occurrence such as the loss of power or Wi-Fi, therefore NAD concluded that the claim is substantiated. Verifying alarms NAD recommended that SimpliSafe discontinue the claim that its monitoring staff calls you the second troubles detected because SimpliSafe had not demonstrated that its monitoring service calls SimpliSafe customers to verify alarms within a few seconds. With regard to the challengers contention that SimpliSafe makes improper line claims throughout its advertising, NAD determined that much of the challenged advertising speaks generally to the SimpliSafe brand and system. Whole Home Protection However, in certain contexts where SimpliSafe does not make it clear that certain performance benefits depend on which features and products the consumer elects to pay for, NAD determined that consumers may reasonably understand that they will receive the performance benefits from each of SimpliSafes products when not all of the packages available from SimpliSafe provide those benefits. NAD found that, with respect to the top of the homepage on SimpliSafes website where claims state that SimpliSafe offers Whole Home Protection, protecting every door, room [and] window and protection against intruders, fires, water damage and more, those claims, in the context in which they are conveyed, disclose that different packages and configurations of the SimpliSafe system provide the claimed benefits. Traditional Home Security NAD recommended that SimpliSafe modify its television, radio, podcast, and social media advertising NAD, however, recommended that SimpliSafe discontinue the comparison chart to Traditional Home Security on its website or modify it to accurately disclose the particular SimpliSafe packages that provide the claimed benefits, and avoid conveying an unsupported message about the benefits that traditional home security systems can provide. NAD further recommended that SimpliSafe modify its television, radio, podcast, and social media advertising to avoid conveying the misleading message that all of the touted benefits and options are available with every SimpliSafe package. Reviews of DIY systems NAD also recommended that SimpliSafe modify the claim Unlike other alarm companies, we verify your alarm, so police know its not a false alarm to remove the references to other alarm companies because SimpliSafe did not substantiate that other alarm companies do not have video verification. With respect to the challenged endorsements and testimonials, NAD recommended that SimpliSafe modify its claim that SimpliSafe is the #1 home security pick of CNET, the Wirecutter, PC Magazine, the Verge and more to clarify that the claim is limited to reviews of DIY systems. NAD recommendations Further, SimpliSafe informed NAD that it had permanently modified its advertising to discontinue references to Wirecutters review of SimpliSafe from 2018. Additionally, NAD recommended that SimpliSafe discontinue the claim that Our monitoring service was named the best in the industry, or modify the claim to disclose the date of the award. NAD also evaluated whether the existence of an affiliate relationship between SimpliSafe and the publications whose reviews are referenced in its advertising requires SimpliSafe to disclose that relationship on its website in connection with that advertising. SimpliSafe systems Record indicates of no connection in commercial arrangements between the publishers and SimpliSafe The record indicated that there was no connection between the commercial arrangements between the publishers and SimpliSafe, in which the publishers derive some revenue from SimpliSafe generated by sales of SimpliSafe systems from those affiliate links, and the editorial content from those publications referenced in SimpliSafes advertising. Thus, NAD determined that the editorial content was sufficiently independent to conclude that there was not a material connection of the kind that may impact consumers assessment of the reviews of SimpliSafes products and require a disclosure. Efficient crime prevention Further, with regard to the testimonial from Chief Balog of the Genoa City (Wisconsin) stating We use it to catch criminals. My force used SimpliSafe to stop a serial burglary ring. It still helps us catch criminals in the act today, NAD recommended that SimpliSafe clearly and conspicuously disclose the material connection between Chief Balogs police department and SimpliSafe. NAD noted such a disclosure is required because consumers would reasonably assume that a police department purchases the equipment used in its operations and not expect that the equipment was provided free of charge with the possibility of a favorable testimonial contemplated. SimpliSafe entry sensors In addition, NAD determined that SimpliSafe has a reasonable basis for the claim that the battery for SimpliSafes entry sensors lasts for almost a decade, but recommended that SimpliSafe modify its battery life claim to include a clear and conspicuous disclosure that actual battery life will depend on the level of usage. Finally, SimpliSafe informed NAD that, for reasons unrelated to the present challenge, it would permanently discontinue the claim Unparalleled range. Most wireless security systems cant cover your house. Ours can up to 1000ft. range. Resolving disputes and advertising matters NAD, relying on the advertisers representation that the claim has been permanently discontinued, did not review this claim on its merits. The voluntarily discontinued claim will be treated, for compliance purposes, as though NAD recommended its discontinuance and the advertiser agreed to comply. In its advertisers statement, although SimpliSafe disagreed with some of NADs findings, it agreed to comply with NADs recommendations. SimpliSafe stated that it believes in the self-regulatory process and supports NADs mission as a forum for advertisers to resolve advertising matters and that it will work to update its advertising in light of NADs recommendations. DUBLIN, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Market Global Report 2020-30" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global polycystic ovarian syndrome treatment market was worth $3.83 billion in 2019. North America was the largest region. This report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the market's historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider polycystic ovarian syndrome treatment market, and compares it with other markets. Major players in the market are Bristol-Myer Squibb Company, Bayer AG, Pfizer, Inc., Merck KGaA, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Novartis AG, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, Abbott and Addex Therapeutics Ltd. The global rise in genetic and hormonal disorders is a key factor driving the growth of the polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) treatment market PCOS is a prevalent hormonal disorder among premenopausal women worldwide, with reproductive, endocrine, and metabolic abnormalities. The PCOS prevalence ranges from 2.2% to 26% globally and is highly variable. In China, the figures range between 2% to 7.5%, and 6.3% in Sri Lanka, 9.13% in in south India and 22.5% in Maharashtra. The rise in genetic and hormonal disorders globally is expected to increase the growth of the polycystic ovarian syndrome treatment market. Lack of drugs approved by regulatory bodies such as FDA (Food and Drug Administration) among many countries is a key factor hampering the growth of the polycystic ovarian syndrome treatment market FDA has not approved pharmacological treatment for use in adolescents with PCOS. However, some pharmacological interventions are used to treat PCOS symptoms. In 2017, FDA removed sibutramine (a sympathomimetic core appetite suppressant) from the US market due to concerns about increased Cardiovascular disease (CVD) events with its use. Additionally, rimonabant, a key appetite suppressant cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonist was not approved in the USA due to concerns about suicidal ideation and drug overdoses. Therefore, the lack of regulatory body approved drugs in many countries is a key factor restraining the growth of the polycystic ovarian syndrome treatment market. Laparoscopic ovarian drilling is a major trend driving the growth of the polycystic ovarian syndrome treatment market Laparoscopic ovarian drilling is a surgical treatment performed by the doctors in critical conditions that can cause ovulation in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Ovarian drilling is often used by women with PCOS who often do not ovulate despite having attempted weight loss and use of fertility drugs. According to the study published in 2019 by the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics in major hospitals in France, after laparoscopic drilling, 47.4% (137 patients) had pregnancy and 51.8% (71 patients) of these were spontaneous. 16.6% (48 patients) women had at least two pregnancies after drilling and 56.3% (27 patients) of these were spontaneous. 33 women received second drillings. Of these, 57.6% (19 patients) achieved at least one pregnancy, within this 52.6% (10 patients) were spontaneous. In July 2019, Eurolife Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai based company, manufactures and distributes an exclusive portfolio of healthcare formulations, Intravenous Infusions, Ophthalmic, Sterilized water for Injections, Nebules, Tablets, Capsules, Ointment & Creams, acquired Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition helped the company to tap and service its European and the US markets for intravenous infusions in a better way. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., a multinational pharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, and markets generic and branded human pharmaceuticals, as well as active pharmaceutical ingredients. Key Topics Covered 1. Executive Summary 2. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Market Characteristics 3. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Market Size And Growth 3.1. Global Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Historic Market, 2015 - 2019, $ Billion 3.1.1. Drivers Of The Market 3.1.2. Restraints On The Market 3.2. Global Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Forecast Market, 2019 - 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 3.2.1. Drivers Of The Market 3.2.2. Restraints On the Market 4. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Market Segmentation 4.1. Global Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Market, Segmentation By Drug Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Oral Contraceptives Ornithine Decarboxylase Inhibitors Insulin-Sensitizing Agents Anti-Depressants Diuretics Aromatase Inhibitors 4.2. Global Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Market, Segmentation By Surgery Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Ovarian Wedge Resection Laparoscopic Ovarian Drilling 5. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Market Regional And Country Analysis 5.1. Global Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 5.2. Global Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Treatment Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Abbott Addex Therapeutics Ltd. Allergan plc. AstraZeneca Bayer AG BIOCAD Bristol-Myer Squibb Company Ferring B.V. Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Johnson and Johnson Merck KGaA Novartis AG Pfizer, Inc. Sanofi Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/1phqc5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Irans foreign minister met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad today amid a fragile cease-fire in Syrias embattled northwest and a crippling coronavirus outbreak in his own country. In his first meeting since April 2019 with Assad and his Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif traveled to Damascus to discuss bilateral relations, regional developments, as well as the latest political developments in Syria's fight against terrorism, Irans Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Iran and Syria use the term terrorists to describe the various rebel groups fighting against Assad. As the closest regional ally of the Syrian regime, Iran and its affiliated militias have helped the Syrian dictator retake swaths of the country seized by rebel fighters during the grinding nine-year war that has plagued the country. The visit today was Zarifs first with the Syrian president since a US drone strike in Baghdad killed Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of Irans elite Quds force who commanded legions of foreign fighters backing Assad. Syrias other key military backer, Russia, and Turkey, which supports the opposition, brokered a cease-fire early last month to halt the fighting in Idlib province. Ankara accused the Syrian government today of breaking the truce, warning it would suffer heavy losses if the violations continued. Zarif, according to Syrias state-run SANA news agency, also denounced the Wests current attempts to re-exploit the issue of chemical weapons, referring to a recent watchdog report that found the Syrian regime used banned weapons against its own people. The Iranian foreign minister also called on the United States to lift economic sanctions on his country amid the coronavirus pandemic. The White House has resisted calls from some world leaders and human rights organizations to ease its maximum pressure campaign of sanctions against Iran, which Tehran says is hampering its ability to contain the virus. Iran is experiencing the regions worst coronavirus outbreak, with more than 83,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 5,200 deaths. Despite its rising death toll, Iran is slowly reopening its virus-ravaged economy, starting with some major highways and shopping centers today. Assad, according to state media, expressed his condolences to Zarif over Irans outbreak and said the pandemic exposed the immorality of the West. Syria has reported just 39 cases and three deaths from the virus, although experts believe the number is much higher than Damascus will admit. A federal judge in Florida ordered a self-described church hawking bleach as a holy sacrament to stop selling it as a COVID-19 treatment. Genesis II Church of Health and Healing has recently promoted an industrial bleach concoction, which has long been a pillar in anti-vaccine circles, identified as "Miracle Mineral Solution" or MMS as novel coronavirus prevention and cure elixir, alleged by prosecutors in a complaint Thursday. Prosecutors allege that it contains a toxic, powerful bleach, according to the Justice Department on Friday. The April 16 directive unsealed against Genesis II Church of Health and Healing and its executives on Friday followed prosecutors filing a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. MMS was also marketed as a treatment for preventing and curing several diseases including Alzheimer's disease, brain cancer, autism, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS. Investigators discovered Genesis marketing MMS in late March. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued a temporary restraining order against Genesis to halt its distribution of MMS until May 1. Four individuals associated with MMS were identified as Mark Grenon, Jordan Grenon, Joseph Grenon, and Jonathan Grenon, who were asked to follow through as well. The self-proclaimed religious entity had been advertising the industrial-strength bleach on their affiliated websites and stating inventive claims with regard to its potential applications. It stated that MMS could suppress the coronavirus through "sacramental dosing." Also Read: Small Town Near Canada is America's Safest Place from Coronavirus The U.S. government sued Genesis and alleged that it infringed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with labeling for its "mineral drug." Despite its name, the non-religious entity is a "secular entity based in the State of Florida," according to the government lawsuit. Prosecutors described in court documents, "In the midst of a viral pandemic and national emergency like nothing seen for more than a century, the above-captioned defendants are exploiting the crisis by marketing a powerful industrial bleach to consumers as a remedy for coronavirus, which includes COVID-19, the novel disease that, in its four months of existence, has infected more than 2 million people worldwide and has claimed the lives of nearly 30,000 Americans." The court also found that there is a risk that the defendants will carry on contravening the law without the temporary restraining order. "When warned by authorities that their conduct was unlawful, Defendants responded with open defiance, explicitly avowing that they need not-and will 'never'-obey the law." The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), cooperating with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), earlier issued a warning letter to Genesis. A preliminary injunction hearing was set for May 1. While Genesis is currently prohibited from hawking MMS under the temporary restraining order, the FDA is also seeking a permanent ruling and refunds for people who were sold the MMS. The FDA warned last year that in truth, MMS is mere chlorine dioxide. The self-proclaimed church featured a series of testimonials on the bleach mixture's efficacy against the coronavirus. Related Article: COVID-19 Patients Recover Quickly After Getting Remdesivir @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. CHICAGO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Cision released its 2020 State of the Media Report, the company's eleventh annual, which uncovers the latest trends and challenges facing the media industry, and how PR professionals can better work with their journalist counterparts. This year's report is Cision's largest ever, surveying more than 3,200 journalists from 15 countries in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Download the full report. Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8716651-cision-2020-state-of-the-media-report/ Cision State of the Media Report Journalists report a decrease in distrust Cision's Annual State of the Media LIVE! Since the State of the Media survey was initially conducted prior to the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cision sent a follow-up questionnaire at the end of March to ensure the impact of the crisis was properly reflected in the report. Those results are included in a special COVID-19 section of the report and provides insight into how PR and communications professionals can best support journalists during this time. "For the last 11 years, Cision has produced the State of the Media Report as a way to provide a full and honest picture of what journalists are dealing with at that particular time," said Sarah Parker, Head of Content Marketing at Cision. "While each year brings a set of new challenges, 2020 is obviously an especially difficult one. Our goal is to help strengthen the relationship between PR professionals and the media, so it was crucial to reach back out to understand how journalists are managing these unprecedented times." In addition to how COVID-19 has impacted the media, Cision's 2020 State of the Media Report covers topics including: The challenges facing journalism in 2020 and how reporters measure success Trust and bias in the media Technology's impact on the media landscape How PR professionals can improve their pitches How PR and communications professionals can build stronger relationships with reporters Despite an increasing number of challenges facing journalists, including staffing and resources and mounting workloads, the report reveals several optimistic takeaways, most notably a reported decline on attacks on freedom of the press. Other key findings from the report include: Distrust in the media is decreasing in the eyes of journalists. For the fourth year in a row, respondents reported a decrease in the public's distrust of the media; 59% of respondents felt the public lost trust this year, which is down from 63% in 2019, 71% in 2018 and 91% in 2017. For the fourth year in a row, respondents reported a decrease in the public's distrust of the media; 59% of respondents felt the public lost trust this year, which is down from 63% in 2019, 71% in 2018 and 91% in 2017. Ensuring accuracy continues to be deemed most crucial : For the second year in a row, 51% of journalists say that ensuring content is 100% accurate is more important than revenue, exclusivity, or being the first to publish. Especially in the age of COVID-19, it's become increasingly crucial to ensure that content is as accurate as possible. : For the second year in a row, 51% of journalists say that ensuring content is 100% accurate is more important than revenue, exclusivity, or being the first to publish. Especially in the age of COVID-19, it's become increasingly crucial to ensure that content is as accurate as possible. Social media algorithms are ranked the most important new technology impacting journalists today, while the heady promise of AI continues to fade. 41% of journalists agreed that social media algorithms will change the way they work the most, up from 38% in 2019. Only 15% of respondents see AI/machine learning as the most important technology to affect the industry. This is down from 19% in 2019. 41% of journalists agreed that social media algorithms will change the way they work the most, up from 38% in 2019. Only 15% of respondents see AI/machine learning as the most important technology to affect the industry. This is down from 19% in 2019. All coverage is now being looked at through the lens of COVID-19. Journalists also reported looking for more optimistic, human stories in response to the current news cycle. The report is now available in the US, and will be available internationally in the coming weeks. Read the full Cision 2020 State of the Media Report. Cision will also host a livestream event on April 28th with a panel of journalists to discuss the State of the Media findings in further detail. The expert panel will include reporters from TechCrunch, The Toronto Star and Yahoo Finance. Learn more and register for the livestream. Methodology Cision conducted its 2020 State of the Media Survey between January 28 and February 20, 2020. Surveys were emailed to Cision Media Database members, which are vetted by the company's media research team to verify their positions as media professionals, influencers and bloggers. The COVID-19 special section was put together from a separate email campaign sent between March 25 and March 30, 2020. This year's survey collected 3,253 total responses from across the media spectrum and in 15 different countries. About Cision Cision Ltd. is a leading global provider of earned media software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals. Cision's software allows users to identify key influencers, craft and distribute strategic content, and measure meaningful impact. Cision has over 4,800 employees with offices in 24 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. For more information about Cision's award-winning products and services, including the Cision Communications Cloud, visit www.cision.com and follow Cision on Twitter @Cision. To support PR and communications professionals during this difficult time, Cision has compiled these free COVID-19 PR resources. Media Contact: Rebecca Dersh PR Manager [email protected] SOURCE Cision Ltd. Related Links http://www.cision.com When a Pakistani man came looking for his ancestral home in India, he had not intended for it to be a long stay When a Pakistani man came looking for his ancestral home in India, he had not intended for it to be a long stay. Things had lined up just right for Ehsan Ahmad. The visa hard as it is to get between traditional adversaries had been received months in advance. The timing was tight with just a week to account for the trip but what started out as an inspirational back-to-roots script, found some unexpected plot twists. Almost fancifully, however, it turned out to be a memorable and charming experience for Ahmad. I reached on 12 March via the Attari-Wagah border. I am from Sargodha division in Pakistan. My ammi and abbu live in Pakistan while I work as a marketing manager with a private firm in Washington DC, Ehsan told Firstpost over the phone. He has been living and working in the US for the past eight years. Ehsan was one of 41 Pakistani nationals, stranded in India for weeks due to the coronavirus lockdown, repatriated to their country on 17 April via the Attari-Wagah border crossing. Planning a trip to India since last November, Ehsan said the plan came to fruition only in March. There was a lot of tension on the border so I could not travel. My visa had been issued too. But we heard scary stories related to violence over the Citizenship law and NRC, which is why my trip kept getting cancelled. My visa had arrived in November, but I decided to make the trip now as only a week was left for the visa to expire, he added. A single child of a retired marketing manager and a retired teacher, Ehsan had heard many fascinating stories from his ammi about India. Unfortunately, his mother never got the chance to visit her ancestral home. She was born in Pakistan, but they never went back, not even to visit. My maternal grandparents came to Pakistan from Bhangwan after the Partition, said Ehsan. His grandfather, Mohammad Iqbal, was a soldier in the British Army when Partition occurred. Sargodha, where Ehsans parents live, is nearly 200 kilometres from Lahore, and falls in the Punjab region of Pakistan. In our Punjab, it is a big deal to have known and lived in your ancestral home. I wanted to do that for my mother. But no one could predict that I will be stranded amid the COVID-19 lockdown, he said with a slight chuckle. Ehsan reached Gurdaspur on 12 March. His visa was valid for just one week, which meant that he would have to return to Pakistan by or before 19 March. The day I reached India, I went to Gurdaspur. My mothers village was in a place called Bhangwan, said Ehsan. A small village near Amritsar, Bhangwan is not more than an hour and 15 minutes from Gurdaspur on a two-wheeler. Ehsan was living at an Ahmadiyya community guest house in Gurdaspur. I had already made friends there. Sab azeez hain aur sabne khub madad ki (everyone has become dear to me, and all of them helped me a lot). Clueless as to where to start his search, Ehsans local friends started by speaking to neighbours. Ehsan said the neighbourhood in Bhangwan is made up of mostly Sikh families. They were so warm and kind. I told them about my grandfathers family. Most of them didnt know my grandparents because they lived there a long time ago, but they served the best gud ki chai, says Ehsan. After interacting with several other families and visiting a quaint maqbara of a famous peer (saint), Ehsan met a family which had been living there for more than two decades. They recognised the name Ghulam Mohammad. He was my grandfathers elder brother. When I told them that he was my ammis father, they were pleasantly surprised. They welcomed us in and showed us photos of where the house stood once. They also gave us interesting trivia about the village. Apparently, it was part of Pakistan for almost a week before it was again marked inside the borders of India, Ehsan added. By 15 March, Ehsan had found what he had come for. He saw the soil where his maternal home once stood and was also happy to meet people who knew his grandfather. I had four more days left before I left for Pakistan, he said. Meanwhile, on 15 March, the Union health ministry said that India had reported 110 confirmed COVID-19 cases. According to Ehsan, there was no talk about a lockdown till then. On 19 March, when Ehsan reached the Attari-Wagah border, authorities told him that the border has been shut for two weeks in India. I was worried. My visa was expiring that very day and I did not know anyone in India. My only hope was to get an extension on the visa, said Ehsan. He headed to the Foreigner Regional Registration Offices in Amritsar. The Foreigner Registration Office is the primary agency to regulate the registration, movement, stay, departure, and also recommend the extension of stay in India. Officials at the FRRO told Ehsan that due to the lockdown, extension of his visa could take a while. Also, the Amritsar FRRO did not have the authority to issue FRRO for Pakistani citizens. Ehsan either had to write to the Ministry of External Affairs or had to apply for it online. He picked the latter. I realised I would have to stay in Gurdaspur for the next two weeks, said Ehsan. In two weeks, Ehsan made friends, got chummy with the locals and enjoyed unmatched hospitality. Describing the trip as something that was meant to be. He was planning the trip for a long time. On 21 March, India announced the janta curfew and three days later (24 March) Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown for 14 days. The guest house that Ehsan lived in also housed citizens from other nationalities. There were German and Mauritian nationals. We were quarantined, but we were astonished at how everyone helped each other, he said. Everyone at the guest house was tested by government healthcare staff and were quarantined for two weeks. Ehsan said that they had no trouble with food and lodging, as the guest house arranged for everything. Initially, it was a big scare. Two weeks is a long time to stay inside a room without talking to anybody. But there were a few hours in the day when the curfew was relaxed for us to buy essentials. I befriended so many people in the market area. They would later come by the guest house and we would chat by my window. Locals would send me homemade food. I felt like one of them. I used to look forward to Modis speeches as excitedly as any other Indian, said Ehsan, quite amused with himself. Sitting in his guest house room, Ehsan got in touch with many across the country who were from Pakistan and were stranded in India because of the lockdown. Using social media and WhatsApp, Ehsan said he got in touch with over 200 Pakistanis living in India. I emailed the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi on 28 March. I called them, too. They asked me to send over the details and I passed on that information to everyone else, said Ehsan. The mission first told the group that they will try and repatriate the citizens by 4 April, 2020, ten days before the lockdown was scheduled to officially end. Ehsan then found an unusual ally to help him. I have been following Justice Markandey Katju and I have seen his work, and I thought he could help, said Ehsan. Justice Katju told Firstpost that he still doesnt know how Ehsan got in touch with him. I got an email from Ehsan. I dont differentiate between people based on their nationality or religion, I think thats why people reach out to me. I do whatever I can. In this case, I contacted my old friend Prabhu Dayal, a retired Indian Foreign Services officer who in turn got in touch with the joint secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs," said Justice Katju. "The High Commission closely followed-up and coordinated with the Indian side as well as the relevant stakeholders in Islamabad for early repatriation of the Pakistanis, an official with the Pakistan High Commission said. Deputy secretary of Public Relations in the Ministry of External Affairs, Mahesh Kumar, told Firstpost that the groundwork is mainly done by missions. It is the case in every country. The citizens first get in touch with the mission and the foreign ministry facilitates at the final stage. On 16 April, when the Pakistan High Commission told Ehsan and the rest that they will be going back to their homes, Ehsan wrote another email to Justice Katju. I just want to offer my deepest gratitude to both of you (Dayal and Justice Katju) for highlighting the case of stranded Pakistanis and with your efforts, 41 of them were repatriated through special permission via the Attari Border. I can not express my words for the love and support you have shown to a stranger like me and wrote on my behalf to MEA. Despite the lockdown and the bleak situation in India, it was a memorable trip that will remain forever etched in my memory. Acting member of the Supreme Judicial Council of Armenia Armen Haykyants, judge of the Civil Court of Appeal Karen Hambardzumyan and judge of the Administrative Court Rustam Makhmudyan took oath of office during a ceremony held at the presidential residence and attended by President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian. President Sarkissian congratulated the acting member of the Supreme Judicial Council and conveyed kind wishes and wished the other judges success and many years of hard work. Every case and every case examination is an examination before the people. I am certain that you are well aware that every member of society has a special attitude towards judges and courts. Consequently, this is not only an honor, but also a tremendous responsibility. I hope you carry out your activities at the highest level, President Sarkissian stated. Following stark warnings from charities and campaigners about the troubling surge of domestic abuse during lockdown, Priti Patel, the home secretary, recently launched a government awareness campaign to shed light on the services that are still available to survivors who are trapped with their abusers. Since lockdown, during which domestic abuse killings appear to have more than doubled in the UK, Patel has assured the nation that the government is doing everything it can to keep vulnerable people safe. During the daily government press conference on 11 April, she said: Where a victim, and their children, do need to leave, we will ensure they have a safe place to go. Thats why we are looking at alternative accommodation to best support the work of refuges. As part of the new initiative, Patel also pledged a 2m funding boost to bolster domestic abuse helplines and online support services. With that news, youd be forgiven for thinking that the government has ensured that all vulnerable women and children are able to safely flee abusive households but that couldnt be further from the truth. The womens refuges that protect domestic abuse survivors are buckling under the strain of the pandemic, and the government has failed to deliver the funding or additional emergency accommodation needed to keep them going. Though Patel has said the government has explored alternative accommodation for survivors, it seems some of the more logical options have been left off the table entirely. Instead of taking up offers from hostel and hotel chains offering tens of thousands of rooms to women and children fleeing domestic abuse, the government seems to have entirely dismissed an incredibly helpful means of ensuring more people have safe spaces to turn to. Earlier this month, a written offer of hotel accommodation was sent to the government, with over 30 womens charities, as well as the domestic abuse commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, and the victims commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Vera Baird, backing the initiative. Jess Phillips, the MP for Birmingham and Yardley and vocal campaigner against domestic abuse, has also called for the use of hotel rooms as safe accommodation. But still, our government has yet to respond to the offer, despite the urgent call for safe spaces for women. Campaigners have accused the government of unnecessary, irresponsible and lethal foot-dragging. For an indication of just how shamefully inadequate the initiative is, consider the fact that womens services were already operating on a shoestring before the pandemic. Following a decade of austerity, which slashed funding for refuges, one in six in the UK have been forced to close since 2010. This means refuge spaces are sparse, yet the demand for them is on the rise: more than 25 frontline services have reported an increase in caseloads since the start of the pandemic, while The National Domestic Abuse Helpline has reported a 25 per cent surge in calls since lockdown began. On a single day in April, calls to the helpline were up by a staggering 120 per cent. Though they welcome the support, charities and campaigners have criticised the governments campaign for failing to acknowledge the sheer scale of the problem, stressing a lack of funding for safe accommodation. To give you a sense of just how pitiful the 2m offering is, Womens Aid has said that an emergency 48.2m fund is desperately needed to support frontline services during the crisis, 84 per cent of which have been forced to reduce or cancel their services in the wake of the pandemic. Not only does Patels initiative lack funding for accommodation, but it also lacks understanding of the complexities of domestic abuse. As activist David Challen so rightly points out on Twitter, the campaign fails to raise basic awareness of lesser-known forms of abuse, like coercive control and economic abuse, in its social media posts. How can the government expect survivors and the general public to identify abusive behaviour when it doesnt seem to have a grasp on it itself? High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Show all 18 1 /18 High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Najaf, Iraq A man holds a pocket watch at noon, at an almost empty market near the Imam Ali shrine Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Bangkok, Thailand Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram (The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, part of The Grand Palace) Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Prague, Czech Republic An empty street leading to the historic Old Town Square Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Washington DC, US Lawn stretching towards the Capitol, home of Congress Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Jerusalem's Old City A watch showing the time in front of Damascus Gate Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world London, UK The Houses of Parliament seen from Westminster Bridge Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Wuhan, China Empty lanes in the city that saw the first outbreak of disease Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Havana, Cuba The Malecon road and esplanade winds along the city's seafront Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Cairo, Egypt A little busier than elsewhere: midday traffic in Tahrir Square Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Berlin, Germany The Brandenburg Gate, the only surviving city gate in the capital Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Caracas, Venezuela Bolivar Avenue, opened in 1949 and the site of many demonstrations and rallies Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Moscow, Russia Spasskaya Tower (left) on the eastern wall of the Kremlin, and St Basil's Cathedral Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Istanbul,Turkey The harbourside Eminonu district is usually buzzing with activity Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world New Delhi, India Rajpath, a ceremonial boulevard that runs through the capital Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Amman, Jordan The Roman amphitheatre that dates back to the 2nd century AD Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world New York City, US The main concourse of Grand Central station in Manhattan Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Kiev, Ukraine Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the site of many political protests since the end of the Soviet era Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Accra, Ghana The odd walker out in the midday sun on Ring Road Central Reuters The campaign, which uses the hashtag #YouAreNotAlone, urges people to share a handprint embossed with a heart on social media or in the windows of their home with a link to the support on offer for domestic abuse survivors. Just like the clapping for NHS workers and carers, this initiative seems painfully redundant without sufficient funding and housing to protect the very women and children that the government are urging to feel less alone. Thankfully, few of us can imagine what it must feel like to be trapped with an abusive partner. Finding a safe moment to escape your perpetrator is extremely difficult in normal circumstances, and during a national lockdown, which can often aggravate existing violent behaviour towards women and children, it becomes even more difficult. It is even harder then, to imagine a survivor of domestic abuse watching Patels speech, and finally feeling that there is a way to escape, only for that sense of safety to be ripped away from them when there is no refuge to flee to. This will become a devastating reality for many women, with potentially fatal consequences, unless the government provides targeted emergency funding for womens services and commits to alternative accommodation for survivors. HOUSTON - Secrecy surrounding executions could hinder efforts by a group of medical professionals who are asking the nations death penalty states for medications used in lethal injections so that they can go to coronavirus patients who are on ventilators, according to a death penalty expert and a doctor whos behind the request. In a letter sent this month to corrections departments, a group of seven pharmacists, public health experts, and intensive care unit doctors asked states with the death penalty to release any stockpiles they might have of execution drugs to health care facilities. Your stockpile could save the lives of hundreds of people; though this may be a small fraction of the total anticipated deaths, it is a central ethical directive that medicine values every life, according to the letter. But its unclear what drugs the states may have, as they have tended to release information about execution protocols and drug supplies only through open records requests or lawsuits. Only one state, Wyoming, responded directly to the letter, and it indicated it doesnt have the drugs in question. Im not trying to comment on the rightness or wrongness of capital punishment, said Dr. Joel Zivot, one of the medical professionals who signed the letter. Im asking now as a bedside clinician caring for patients, please help me. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for some, it can cause severe illness, requiring them to be placed to ventilators to help them breathe. Many medications used to sedate and immobilize people put on ventilators and to treat their pain are the same drugs that states use to put inmates to death. Demand for such drugs surged 73% in March. Twenty-five states have the death penalty, while three have moratoriums on capital punishment. While some states contacted by The Associated Press, including Alabama and Florida, didnt respond to inquiries about the letter, others, including Arkansas, Texas and Utah, limited their comment to mainly saying they dont have the medications in question. Tennessee wouldnt confirm whether it has the drugs and indicated it has no plans to give any medications to a hospital. Oklahoma said it hadnt received any requests for such medications from state hospitals. States may be hesitant to turn over their drugs because they have had problems securing them as many pharmaceutical companies oppose their use in executions, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Since 2011, 13 states have enacted new statutes that conceal information about the execution process, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions. Drugs being requested include the sedative midazolam, the paralytic vecuronium bromide and the opioid fentanyl. Theyre needed because putting a patient on a ventilator with no drugs ... would be torture, said Zivot, an associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at Emory University in Atlanta who has studied medicines role in capital punishment. The tense debate over the supply of execution drugs was highlighted in a 2018 lawsuit that several pharmaceutical companies filed against Nevada over accusations that it illegally obtained its inventory. In a court brief, 15 states, including Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, called the lawsuit part of the guerrilla warfare being waged by antideath-penalty activists and criminal defence attorneys to stop lawful executions. The lawsuit was dismissed this month after Nevada agreed to return its supplies to the companies, leaving the state without any drugs to carry out executions. Pharmaceutical companies have long warned that states use of these medications for executions could result in shortages, Dunham said. Some of the responses over the past several years had been, Thats chicken little saying the sky is falling, Dunham said. But with COVID-19, the sky has fallen. ___ Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee, and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. __ Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70 ___ Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. Nurses in New York have challenged the compromised health and safety of healthcare workers during the coronavirus pandemic with lawsuits against the state and two hospitals. The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) on Monday filed lawsuits against the New York State Department of Health, Westchester Medical Center and Montefiore Medical Center. The nursing union claimed on Monday that nurses working in compromised and unsafe conditions had allowed the virus to spread amongst members. NYSNA also cited concerns over protective equipment, workplace safety, and training. In a statement, it alleged that nurses have not received appropriate masks and carry out assignments in unsafe working conditions. Pat Kane, NYSNA Executive Director, said on Monday that: "More than seven in ten of our nurses are reporting exposure to Covid-19 and most are still untested. These lawsuits were filed to protect our nurses, our patients and our communities from grossly inadequate and negligent protections. "We cannot allow these dangerous practices to continue," added Ms Kane. New York states largest nursing union has 42,000 members, according to the court documents. Almost 1,000 union members have been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus, with 150 at Montefiore hospital alone. Court documents also show that at least 84 NYSNA nurses have been hospitalised after contracting the virus at work, whilst six nurses are known to have died. On Monday, the union sought an injunction against the New York State Department of Health (DOH) to enforce governor Andrew Cuomo's April 13 "directive" that each direct care nurse be given at least one N95 respirator daily. DOHs actions have thus created a nuisance to public health, which, although acutely injurious to frontline nurses, has endangered the public at large, the lawsuit filed against the DOH at Manhattans Supreme Court claimed. Jonah Bruno, DOH director of communications, did not comment on the lawsuit but thanked New York health workers on Monday. Meanwhile, the Westchester Medical Center lawsuit filed in the federal court for the Southern District of New York on Monday claimed that the hospital, where 3,000 registered nurses work, was a war zone. The hospital denied claims that PPE is inadequate and that infected nurses were asked to return to work within the 14 days mandated by quarantine. Montefiore Medical Center has not commented on the NYSNA claims. New Delhi: Union Women and Child Development and Textiles Minister Smriti Irani briefs the media on Cabinet decisions in New Delhi on Feb 19, 2020. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News New Delhi, April 21 : Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar participated in an extraordinary virtual meeting of G-20 Agriculture Ministers on Tuesday to address the issue of Covid-19 impacts on food security, safety and nutrition. Sharing the measures taken to contain the spread of coronavirus in India, Tomar informed his counterparts that the Government of India has decided to exempt all agricultural operations from the lockdown measures to ensure continued availability of essential agricultural produce and supply, while adhering to the protocols of social distancing, health and hygiene. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been at the forefront of supporting th other countries to tide over this crisis in various ways and that agriculture will not lag behind, consistent with the needs of the citizens. The G-20 Agriculture Ministers' virtual meeting was organised through video conferencing by the Saudi Presidency to deliberate on the ways and means of ensuring continuity of the food supply value chain, including the livelihood of the farmers. Agriculture Ministers of all G-20 member nations and the representatives of some guest countries and international organisations attended the meeting. The G-20 nations resolved to have international cooperation in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic to avoid food wastages and losses, and maintain the continuity of the food supply value chain across borders. They also resolved to work together for food security and nutrition, share best practices and lessons learnt, promote research, responsible investments, innovations and reforms that will improve the sustainability and resilience of agriculture and food systems. Chennai, April 21 : Actress Kangana Ranaut, who is essays J. Jayalalithaa in the late Tamil Nadu chief minister's biopic "Thalaivi", has donated Rs 5 lakh towards the COVID-19 relief fund of Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI), and Rs 5 Lakh towards the daily wage workers of her film. Several top stars of Tamil cinema have donated to the federation. Rajinikanth gave Rs 50 lakh, while actor Vijay Sethupathi has donated 10 lakhs for the welfare of FEFSI members. Suriya and his brother Karthi, along with their father, actor Sivakumar, donated Rs 10 lakh while actor Sivakarthikeyan also donated an equal amount. Actors Parthipan and Prakash Raj have provided several rice bags weighing 25 kilos each. Kangana had earlier contributed Rs 25 lakh to PM-CARES, apart from donating ration for daily wage earners' families. Her sister Rangoli had posted: "Kangana has also contributed to PM cares 25 lakhs and donated Ration to daily wage earners families, we need to stand united and do what best we can, many thanks from our family." Apart from charity, Kangana is spending her lockdown time baking for her family and playing with her nephew. Prior to the lockdown, Kangana was busy working on "Thalaivi", directed by Vijay. Kangana had gained almost 20 kilos for her role in the film. During the lockdown period she took the help of her personal trainer to shed five kilos for the film. Her verified fan account ran this post: "Guys, taking cues from #Kangana to workout, stay motivated and don't let the lethargy get to you. She has lost 5 kilos, long way to go!" "Thalaivi" was initially scheduled to release on June 26 in three languages -- Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. The revised date of release owing to delay triggered off by the COVID-19 lockdown is yet to be announced. -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed 21.04.2020 LISTEN CalBank has donated an amount of GHS 200,000.00 to the Covid-19 National Trust Fund at the office of the Presidency in the Jubilee House, Accra. This is an additional gesture to the earlier contribution of GHS 10million presented by the Ghana Association of Bankers in the collective efforts to deal with the impact of coronavirus pandemic. The Covid-19 Trust Fund was established by President Nana Akufo-Addo to solicit financial support from the public in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. In response to the clarion call by the President, a team of the senior management staff of CalBank led by the Managing Director, Mr. Philip Owiredu, made the presentation of a cheque on Monday 20th April 2020. Speaking at a brief ceremony at the Jubilee House, Managing Director of CalBank, Mr. Philip Owiredu said, ''at CalBank, it is our belief as rooted in our tagline Forward Together, that no one entity can move unless we do so together. Today, we join hands with the Government of Ghana as we present a token donation of GHS 200,000.00 to support the procurement of the required medical supplies to aid in combating this pandemic.'' ''As we work together to combat this pandemic, which is impacting our livelihood, lifestyles, businesses and disrupting economic activities it is important that we continue to fight forward together by supporting each other'', he added. Receiving the cheque at the ceremony, Chairperson of the Covid-19 Trust Fund, Madam Sophia Akuffo, expressed profound appreciation to CalBank and assured management of the bank that funds will be used judiciously in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Owiredu also reiterated that to prevent potential cross-contamination of Covid-19 incidence, management has reviewed aspects of its operations to safeguard the lives of customers and staff of CalBank. ''To support our clients during these challenging times, we have increased transaction limits and waived some charges on our digital channels. We have also deferred loan repayments for certain categories of our clientele. Additionally, we are encouraging Ghanaians to adhere to the safety protocols of practicing social distancing, washing hands frequently with soap under running water or using alcohol-based hand rub and keep using the CalBank app, USSD code *771# and our other digital channels for banking transactions'', he added. CalBank has also employed rotational work schedules to enable a number of its staff to work from home. Auburn, N.Y. Four people have died from drug overdoses in the last eight days in Cayuga County, possibly because of the isolation of the coronavirus shutdown, officials said. Our community has seen a significant increase in drug-related deaths, according to a news release from Cayuga County Coroner Adam Duckett, local police and an addiction recovery agency in Cayuga County. Duckett, along with Sheriff Brian Schenck, Auburn Police Chief Shawn Butler and Nicks Ride 4 Friends president/founder Joel Campagnola, sent the release Monday with hopes it will prevent more people from dying from drug overdoses. Understandably, this is a very tough time for us all, with many of us feeling extremely isolated and alone, they wrote in the release. We are asking for the communitys help, not only with passing this information along, but also to attempt to prevent further loss of life. Another Central New York community had seen a rise in drug overdoses during the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this month, Oneida County officials announced they have seen a rise in drug overdoses, primarily including heroin. Over two weeks at the end of March and beginning of April, 20 people had overdosed on drugs in Oneida County, including two who died, officials said. The extraordinary times were facing due to COVID-19 can create anxieties and concerns that make us all more vulnerable, and may be especially true for people with substance use disorder, Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente Jr. said then. Authorities also have said COVID-19 can hit drug users harder because some drugs hurt the users respiratory and pulmonary health. Cayuga County officials are asking residents to reach out to anyone suffering from an addiction. See how they are doing and if they need any help, they said. The officials offered these resources: - Confidential Help for Drugs and Alcohol, addiction services, accepting new patients, (315) 253-9786. - Syracuse Recovery Services, addiction services, accepting new patients and offer video or phone appointments, (315) 282-5351. - Nicks Ride 4 Friends, a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing heroin and opioid addiction and helps people battling addictions. It was founded following the death of 20-year-old Nick Campagnola. Addiction peer services available by calling (315) 246-6485. - East Hill Medical Center provides primary care services, including adult medicine, pediatrics and behavioral health. Video and phone visits also offered. (315) 253-8477. - Cayuga County Counseling Services offers behavior health services. Video and phone visits offered. (315) 253-9795. - Cayuga County Mental Health offers behavior health services. Video and phone visits offered. (315) 253-0341. Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call (315) 470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook AT&T's WarnerMedia is launching its HBO Max streaming service on May 27, the company announced Tuesday. AT&T customers who currently pay for HBO through AT&T will get access to HBO Max for free. If you don't already pay for HBO through AT&T, HBO Max will also be free for people who pay for any of these AT&T services: AT&T's Unlimited Elite wireless plan. AT&T's Internet 1000 plan. AT&T TV Premier (launching after HBO Max.) DirecTV Premier. U-verse U400, U450 and U450 Latino. Customers on other plans will be eligible for up to a free year of service. The service will otherwise cost $14.99 per month. That's the same price as HBO Now, the standalone streaming service that only hosts HBO shows and movies. AT&T's hope is to convert its current HBO subscribers to the broader selection HBO Max will offer. HBO Max is set to debut with 10,000 hours of content, including movies, original content and classic shows. The company said it will continue to roll out new content throughout the year. In addition to HBO shows, HBO Max will include shows and movies from across WarnerMedia's portfolio, including Warner Brothers movies, TBS and TNT shows and "Sesame Street." It will also be the only place you can stream reruns of "Friends." HBO Max is one of the latest to join the crowded streaming market, with the recent launch of Disney+ and Comcast's Peacock set to launch broadly on July 15. The companies are looking to disrupt the well-established video companies like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. HBO's announcement comes hours before its rival Netflix is set to report first-quarter when markets close Tuesday. Netflix's earnings will give investors a look as to how the company is handling its competition and dealing with production slowdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic. HBO Max has said it plans to spend $4 billion over the next three years building the platform. It expects annual incremental revenue, from subscriptions, content and ads, to hit $5 billion by 2025. Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. The Chinese base at Fiery Cross Reef pictured March 2019. Beijing says Fiery Cross will now serve as an administrative district center overseeing the disputed Spratly Islands. China has upped the ante amid rising tensions in the South China Sea by declaring two new administrative districts for the contested region and releasing a new map naming all the islands and reefs it claims. The provocative moves come as Beijing faces diplomatic pushback from some of its Southeast Asian neighbors against its sweeping assertion of sovereignty across the resource-rich sea. It also takes place as the Chinas Coast Guard and maritime militia pressure other claimants, even as they grapple with the global coronavirus pandemic. Most recently, China has deployed a survey vessel and escort ships near an oil field off the coast of Malaysia. Chinas announcement on the administrative measures came this weekend. The State Council, Chinas top administrative body, approved the creation of two new municipal districts: Nansha District, which is based at Fiery Cross Reef, an artificial island built by China that it says will oversee all of the Spratly Islands and their surrounding waters; and Xisha District, based on Woody Island, which will oversee the Paracel Islands. It follows the July 2012 declaration of Sansha City on Woody Island as Chinas administrative center for the region. The two new districts cover a vast but largely uninhabited area. They are incorporated under Sansha, which itself has only 1,800 permanent residents. Chinas Global Television Network on Saturday described Sansha as a prefecture-level city that compromises only 20 square kilometers of land area but oversees nearly two million square kilometers. The declaration comes despite unresolved territorial disputes across that area, and efforts by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to forge a binding code of conduct. Vietnam, which claims both the Paracels and the Spratlys, immediately condemned the announcement of the two new districts by China, calling it a serious violation of its sovereignty. Pooja Bhatt, author of Nine-Dash Line: Deciphering the South China Sea Conundrum, said Chinas move was intended to cement its territorial claims, which were undermined by a Permanent Court of Arbitration verdict from 2016. That verdict found that most of the land features it occupies in the South China Sea were actually rocks originally, due to lack of human habitation and economic activity. By inhabiting them now, China in time seeks to have these features regarded as islands entitled to territorial waters and exclusive economic zones, she said. Second, having administrative units can justify the presence of military and defense installations for protection purposes, Bhatt said. Furthermore the establishment of these cities increases the area of operation over the vast maritime domain in the South China Sea. China has constructed airstrips and military infrastructure at a number of the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea in recent years, including at Fiery Cross Reef, where commercial satellite imagery provider ImageSat International recently spotted military aircraft. On April 6, the U.S. State Department had mentioned the landing of military aircraft at Fiery Cross. In that statement, the U.S. accused China of exploiting nations distraction over COVID-19 to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea. Also on the weekend, in a move calculated to demonstrate Chinese jurisdiction of the new districts, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Natural Resources released a new map naming each feature in the South China Sea it claims an exhaustive list that was last updated in 1983. The move by China to assert jurisdiction comes after a dueling series of diplomatic notes by China and rival claimants that were submitted to the United Nations. Malaysias initial submission claiming a part of the seabed in December sparked a protest from China, which in turn sparked further protests against Chinas claim from the Philippines and Vietnam. China issued its latest statement on Friday, and adopted a notably more aggressive tone towards Vietnam. China always opposes the invasion and illegal occupation by Viet Nam of some islands and reefs of Chinas Nansha Qundao, and the activities infringing upon Chinas rights and interests in the waters under Chinas jurisdiction, its submission to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) read. Nansha Qundao refers to the Spratly Islands. China resolutely demands that Viet Nam withdraw all the crews and facilities from the islands and reefs it has invaded and illegally occupied, the note added. Bhatt believes the continental shelf dispute and Chinas new districts will figure prominently in the years discussions between China and ASEAN. Vietnam is currently protesting Chinese actions the loudest and may be best-placed to press the issue further as the current chair of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, she said. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (18) As much of the world dons face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Canadas Supreme Court refused to suspend a law banning Muslims womens religious face coverings in Quebec. On April 9, the Supreme Court of Canada denied an appeal filed by civil rights groups to suspend portions of Bill 21, the discriminatory Quebec bill banning religious symbols from being worn at work by certain government workers, until the constitutional challenge to the bill is heard on its merits at the Quebec Superior Court. Bill 21 also requires people giving or receiving government services to uncover their faces for identification or security purposes. Opponents of the bill overwhelmingly agree that it disproportionately targets Muslim women in particular, particularly due to the mention of face coverings, which bars niqab-wearing women from accessing public services. The premier of Quebec, Francois Legault, celebrated the Supreme Courts decision not to hear the appeal. A few days earlier on April 6, Canadas Chief Public Health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, recommended that people wear non-medical face masks in public to help contain the spread of COVID-19, especially by people who show no symptoms and may be transmitting the virus unknowingly. These masks could be made out of things that one would ordinarily find at home, like cotton T-shirts or bandanas secured with hair elastics. Quebec currently has the highest number of COVID-19 cases of any province in Canada, but Legault said on April 10 hes optimistic that numbers are stabilizing due to the precautionary measures being taken. Although not yet mandatory in Canada, other parts of the world have issued orders for people to wear face protections in public, such as the Czech Republic, Morocco, and some parts of Germany and the U.S. To be clear: one day after celebrating the Bill 21 appeals failure at the Supreme Court, Legault commended the precautionary measures being taken by Quebecers in the fight against COVID-19, which include recommendations to wear face coverings in public. Despite face coverings being recommended by the Canadian government for health security reasons, the Quebec ban on religious face coverings is still being both upheld and applauded. While public health is a more pressing and valid reason than religious freedom for permitting face-covering, this raises serious questions about the arguments and motivations behind Bill 21, specifically around the supposed identification and security reasons for which niqab-wearing women must uncover their faces. In Montreal hospitals, suspected COVID-19 patients visiting the emergency room are provided a face mask upon arrival and asked to leave it on while in a room with anyone else present or while interacting with staff. By contrast, a woman wearing a niqab entering the same emergency room would be forced by law to remove it before she is able to access health-care services (and presumably given a mask to replace it if she was suspected to have the virus). While the mandatory masks are obviously understandable from a medical safety perspective, it is noteworthy that at no point are patients asked to remove their masks for identification or security reasons. Hospital workers rely on masked patients identification documents and medical charts to know who they are interacting with but the same does not apply to women wearing religious face coverings, for whom identification and medical charts are for some reason considered insufficient. For all the fear-mongering about the spread of Islamic or Sharia law in Canada and the U.S. over the past two decades, a lot of the measures used to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are similar to practices already carried out by many Muslims under that same set of laws, including physical distancing, face covering, and regular washing. Netflix has even released a series called Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak, which focuses on how Islamic ritual washing, conducted before prayer five times a day, promotes a message of good hygiene and virus spread prevention. The current COVID-19 pandemic, viewed alongside the ongoing appeal of Bill 21 in Quebec, demonstrates that hypocrisy and Islamophobia are both alive and well in Canada. Niqab-wearing Muslim women are penalized and barred from accessing public services while covering their faces, supposedly for security and identification reasons. At the same time, everyone else is encouraged to do the same in general, and ordered to do the same to access public health-care services ... also for security reasons, and without a peep on identification concerns. The circumstances surrounding the pandemic highlight the truth of what Bill 21 is really about: the suppression of religious freedom dressed up as secularism and public security. Tasha Stansbury is a third year law student at the University of Windsor. Read more about: Report says Iran may have replicated Israeli missile downed in Syria Iran Press TV Monday, 20 April 2020 10:17 AM A Russian aviation news outlet says Iran may have replicated an Israeli missile that was shot down in Syria, citing a video of the test of a new Iranian anti-tank missile. Avia.Pro reported that the new missile seems to resemble one of the Israeli projectiles that were downed by the Russian electronic warfare system during an attack on Syria,. The report added that the downed missile was later successfully removed from the country by "Iranian intelligence service", and was studied and completely copied. The news outlet shared a video that showed the accuracy of the Iranian copy of the Israeli "Spike" missile in hitting its target. Avia.Pro quoted experts as saying that Iran may use Israeli missiles against Tel Aviv itself in the near future. Iranian authorities have repeatedly said that the country's missile program has not been established for non-conventional purposes and is only meant as part of the country's deterrence capability. Iran holds the very first ranking in the field of missile technology among the Middle Eastern countries, according to a commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). "Today, we rank first in the missile technology at the regional level and are placed among the few global powers in this regard," Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Aerospace Division of the IRGC, said last August. In June, Major General Hossein Salami, the chief commander of the IRGC, said Iran had managed to change the balance of power in its favor by harnessing the technology required for manufacturing ballistic missiles. Salami said the Islamic Republic acquired the know-how 12 years ago while trying to prepare its defenses against the United States' aircraft carriers. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. San Francisco, 21 April 2020: The Report Pharmacy Inventory Management Software Solutions and Cabinets Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By End Use, By Mode of Operation (Centralized, Decentralized), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025 The global pharmacy inventory management software solutions and cabinets market size is expected to reach USD 7.16 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., exhibiting an 8.6% CAGR during the forecast period. Increasing number of dispensed prescriptions, growing adoption of pharmacy automation systems, and rising incidence of medication errors are some of the key drivers for this market. Technological advancements in automated dispensing cabinets design are also expected to positively impact market growth in the coming years. Rising number of retail, mail order, and long-term care (LTC) pharmacies propel demand for inventory management software and systems in order to dispense high volume of medications. Rising pressure by governments to minimize medication costs is further expected to drive demand for these software and cabinets, as they aid in reduction of excess inventory costs. Increasing demand for efficient workflow in hospitals and pharmacies is also contributing toward market growth. Demand for automated dispensing cabinets is increasing in retail pharmacies owing to increasing workload on pharmacists, coupled with surging need for effective patient counselling. In addition, rising government initiatives towards improvement in healthcare infrastructure and growing healthcare expenditure in developing countries are positively influencing market growth. Access Research Report of Pharmacy Inventory Management Software Solutions and Cabinets Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pharmacy-inventory-management-software-solutions-cabinets-market Further key findings from the report suggest: Pharmacy inventory management systems/cabinets in retail pharmacies emerged as the leading segment in terms of revenue in 2017 owing to rising number of retail pharmacies and growing number of prescriptions By mode of operation, decentralized systems/cabinets accounted for the largest revenue share in 2017 owing to rising incidence of medication errors and increasing number of dispensed prescriptions In terms of geography, North America dominated the global market in 2017 in terms of revenue and Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest growth rate over the forecast period Omnicell, Inc.; BD; Talyst, LLC; and ARxIUM are the major players operating in the market. This market is dominated by the presence of both multinational companies and small players. Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/healthcare-it Grand View Research has segmented the global pharmacy inventory management software solutions and cabinets market on the basis of end use, mode of operation, and region: Pharmacy Inventory Management Software Solutions and Cabinets End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Independent pharmacies Software Solutions Cabinets Hospital pharmacies Software Solutions Cabinets Long-term care centers Software Solutions Cabinets Pharmacy Inventory Management Software Solutions and Cabinets Mode of Operation Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Centralized systems Software Solutions Cabinets Decentralized systems Software Solutions Cabinets Pharmacy Inventory Management Software Solutions and Cabinets Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America Europe Asia-Pacific Latin America Middle East Africa Access Press Release of Pharmacy Inventory Management Software Solutions and Cabinets Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-pharmacy-inventory-management-software-solutions-cabinets-market About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com Some of the nearly 1,000 small farmers in New England who grow leafy greens use a creative, efficient and cost-effective method of drying the fresh veggies after a triple dip in water: a conventional home washing machine. The spin cycle of a retrofitted washing machine wicks the water off the greens to dry and keep them fresher longer. This discovery by farmers offered a way to automate the drying process without investing in a prohibitively expensive, commercial-grade spinner. An important question lingers about this practice, which University of Massachusetts Amherst food scientists hope to answer: Is it safe? "This has been a common practice among small producers of greens," says Amanda Kinchla, a UMass Amherst extension associate professor of food science. "There are no regulations against this, but there is no data right now on the risk." Kinchla, a co-director of the USDA-funded Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety, and UMass Amherst food science colleagues Lynne McLandsborough and Matthew Moore have received a $71,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study and address the microbial safety risks of processing leafy greens in washing machines. The Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety, led by the University of Vermont, promotes food safety education and technical support to small- and medium-size producers and processors in the northeast region. The UMass Amherst team is building on work at the University of Vermont Extension, where the agricultural engineering program has been conducting workshops and creating posters for farmers on how to follow a hygienic design to convert washing machines into greens spinners and use them safely. "My work is more impactful if I can address real-world stakeholder issues and leverage what already has been done," Kinchla says. Andrew Chamberlin, UVM Extension agricultural engineering technician, explains that bacteria and grime have the potential to accumulate if farmers don't know how best to spin the greens and clean the machines. "We are trying to share best practices for food production," he says. For example, placing the greens in baskets that fit inside the machine results in fewer points of contact, reducing the risk of contamination, compared with putting the greens directly into the washing machine. Kinchla's team has converted four washing machines, based on Chamberlin's directions, to study in the lab how contamination may occur, what kinds of microbes are present and how best to safely maintain, clean and sanitize the machine. "We are examining whether the spin cycle on a washing machine has any more risk than commercially available, post-harvest leafy greens spinners," Kinchla says. Pragathi Kamarasu, a UMass Amherst Ph.D. candidate working with foodborne virologist Moore, says one of the challenges is finding the best sanitation options. "You can't use very strong cleaners because the machine is being used for food," she explains. The researchers are designing the experiments to closely resemble the farmers' practices and the environment and conditions in which they're cleaning and drying the greens. "We are still sorting through the logistics for the experimental research, such as how we can best introduce the contaminants that would mimic a real-world scenario," Kinchla says. The team aims to develop guidelines for farmers to maximize the safe and effective use of a washing machine to spin-dry greens. "That would alleviate concerns from regulators," Kinchla says, "and avoid conflict between producers and regulators." ### Related video: https://umass.app.box.com/s/gtw3hzcaunbghb96eusw0h6g51rs9xym LONDON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Forecasts by Vehicle Type (Main Battle Tanks, Medium Armoured Vehicles, Light Protected Vehicles, Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected Vehicles and Other), by System Type (Wheeled and Tracked), and by Country. Plus, Analysis of the Leading Players in the Market Space 2.8bn Boxer armoured vehicle contract signed for British Army Three bidders offer combat vehicles to Czech military, as Germany joint venture bows out GDELS begins Piranha 5 armoured vehicle production in Romania Tunisia to purchase armoured vehicles by Turkey's BMC Bulgaria gets two firm offers in $823 mln armoured vehicle tender These are just some of the business-critical headlines that have surfaced about your industry in the past 12 months. How are you, and your company, reacting to news such as this? By ordering and reading our new report today, you will be fully informed and ready to act. What does the future hold for the Military Armoured Vehicle market? Visiongain's new study supplies the answer to you and provides it to you NOW. In this new, 198-page report, you will receive approximately 200 tables and charts as well as independent, impartial, and objective analysis. To request sample pages from this report please contact Sara Peerun at [email protected] or refer to our website: https://www.visiongain.com/report/military-armoured-vehicle-market-report-2020-2030/#download_sampe_div By ordering and reading this report today, you will be given: A concise and comprehensive analysis of the Military Armoured Vehicle market from 2020 to 2030. An understanding of not only the financial prospects of the Military Armoured Vehicle industry but also the growth potential of several submarkets including different vehicle and system types. An informed forecast of the sales of 16 individual countries Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, Turkey and Singapore. A description of the main drivers and restraints that are affecting the development of the Military Armoured Vehicle market. Profiles of the key players in the industry as well as up-to-date information on their latest agreements and armoured vehicle developments. Predictions for the global market and submarkets what's possible? Along with an evaluation of the current level of international investment in the Military Armoured Vehicle market, this report provides measured forecasts for three submarkets covering the period 2020 to 2030. Military Armoured Vehicle Market by Vehicle Type, 2020-2030 Main Battle Tanks, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Medium Armoured Vehicles, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Light Protected Vehicles, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected Vehicles, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Other Armoured Vehicles, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Military Armoured Vehicle Market by System, 2020-2030 Wheeled Systems, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Tracked Systems, Submarket Forecast, 2020-2030 Military Armoured Vehicle Market by Country, 2020-2030 Australia Canada China France Germany India Israel Italy Japan Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Turkey United Kingdom United States Rest of World To request a report overview of this report please contact Sara Peerun at [email protected] or refer to our website: https://www.visiongain.com/report/military-armoured-vehicle-market-report-2020-2030/ Did you know that we also offer a report add-on service? Email [email protected] to discuss any customized research needs you may have. Companies covered in the report include: Allison Transmission AM General Aselsan AxleTech International LLC BAE Systems Bharat Boeing Company Brighton Cromwell LLC Canadian Commercial Corporation Caterpillar Inc. CMI Defence Continental AG Critical Solutions International Cummins Daewoo Heavy Industries and Machinery Ltd. Dew Engineering & Development Diehl BGT Defence Doosan Infracore DRS Technologies Inc. DynCorp International Elbit Systems Finmeccanica/Leonardo General Dynamics Corporation Honeywell Hyundai IBIS TEK Israel Military Industries (IMI) Iveco Japan Steel Works Kharkiv Morozov Machine Design Bureau Kongsberg Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) Kurganmashzavod JSC Lockheed Martin Lycoming Engines Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Navistar International Nexter NORINCO Northrop Grumman Corporation Orbital ATK Oshkosh Corporation Otokar Panhard Paramount Group Patria Plasan Polaris Defense Inc. QinetiQ Ltd Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. Raytheon Renault Trucks Defence RENK AG Rheinmetall AG Ricardo Plc Roketsan Rolls-Royce RUAG Saab Sagem SAIC Samsung (Hanwha) Techwin Singapore Technologies Supacat Systems Products and Solutions, Inc. Textron Thales Group Ultra Armoring & Defense, LLC Universal Engineering Uralvagonzavod JSC To see a report overview please e-mail Sara Peerun on [email protected] Related reports: Passive Radar Market 2020-2030 Threat Detection Systems Market Report 2020-2030 Electronically Scanned Arrays Market Report 2020-2030 Drone Payload Market Report 2020-2030 SOURCE Visiongain State-run REC has reached out to over 76,000 needy people with food and ration during the lockdown to contain Covid-19, according to a power ministry statement. The REC has tied up with Delhi Police to provide 500 food packets on daily basis, it said. Concerned over their plight, the REC Foundation, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of REC Ltd, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Power is distributing cooked food, ration, utility packets, masks, sanitisers and even providing shelter during the lockdown benefiting 76,000 daily wagers and their families till date, it noted. REC Foundation has already sanctioned funds totalling Rs 7 crore for these activities and more such funds are already in the pipeline. Power Minister R K Singh said in the statement that the REC has already donated Rs 150 crore to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund to support India's fight against coronavirus. In addition to this, all REC employees have voluntary contributed a day's salary to the PM National Relief Fund. REC Foundation in association with respective state-owned power distribution utilities is providing food grain packets and other utility packets like masks and sanitisers. REC Foundation has also released funds to the offices of distribution companies, collector and/or district magistrates of various districts across India to provide cooked meals twice a day for 10 to 30 days. Talks are on with many other districts for execution of the same in their areas. In addition to these, food kits are also being provided in these districts to those who have facilities to cook at home. Around 300 workers and daily wagers engaged in construction of REC World Head Quarters, Gurugram, belonging to various states like Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Gujarat, and other needy people from vicinity areas are also being provided ration items on a bi-weekly basis. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Some 2 million face masks donated by Taiwan arrived in Japan on Tuesday for delivery to public hospitals and special schools across the country in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The move came after the Taiwanese government responded to a request from a cross-party group of lawmakers aimed at fostering friendly relations between Japan and Taiwan. "We'd like to again express our sincere gratitude to the warm cheers and support from Taiwan," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference. "We will continue boosting our cooperation with related countries and regions against the new coronavirus, which is a threat to all humankind," the top government spokesman said. Representatives from both Japan and Taiwan were present on the tarmac at Narita airport as they watched the masks being carried out of an aircraft. Taiwan at one point lacked masks but has since achieved a daily production of 15 million masks and succeeded in meeting domestic demand after its government asked the private sector to increase mask production. As people move into months of sheltering in place, many are doubling down on cooking at home. But not everyone is always happy about it. Today, a company that makes products that can help them bypass at least some of that effort but still eat nutritiously is announcing a fundraising to continue growing its business. YFood, a Munich-based startup that creates and sells complete-nutrition drinks, drink powders and snack bars, has raised 15 million (around $16 million), money that it plans to use to continue investing in product development and more innovative distribution of its food. The investment is being led by Felix Capital, the London firm that has been investing big in direct-to-consumer startups as part of a bigger e-commerce push. Strategically, New Zealand-based global dairy co-operative Fonterra is also participating in this round, along with previous investors Five Seasons Ventures and New Ground Ventures. The company is not disclosing its valuation but we understand that it's in the region of $100 million and -- as has been the case for other startups -- was not impacted by COVID-19. Notably, much of its previous fundraising -- 5 million before now -- is still in the bank because the startup is already profitable, having grown revenues by more than 300% in the last year. Based out of Munich, Germany, and strongest in the DACH region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, YFood has started to expand to more European countries and is investing in boosting its online presence, which already has some 200,000 customers; and to grow relationships with retail partners that can help with delivery. While focusing on distribution is key for any D2C e-commerce startup at all times, it's especially key at the moment, as a result of how much business-as-usual has been disrupted -- and not "disrupted" in a good way, even though that has been something regularly celebrated in the tech world. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, YFood had been selling through 13,000 retailers, and also had a business of selling its products via vending machines as well (another retail channel that I imagine will be hard-hit by the current public health crisis). Story continues But just as a would-be competitor like Soylent was borne out of the founder's own need for fast nutrition at a time when he was working hard in the tech industry and didn't love to cook and eat, those vending machines were actually the fillip for starting YFood, co-founders Ben Kremer and Noel Bollmann told me in an interview this week. The two had been working in investment banking, and working late hours, they found that there were precious few options for them when they got hungry and needed sustenance fast. "We had a problem we were solving for ourselves," Bollmann said. "All there was were candy machines and the choice was Snickers or crisps. We couldn't understand why fast eating always had to be unhealthy. That was the inspiration." The company's next steps are likely to involve creating a wider range of products that bring in more savoury options for getting their complete nutrition -- since not everyone has a sweet tooth or wants a candy bar or milkshake replacement. And much further down the line, it's potentially going to consider how to better make itself accessible and used to populations who would be unlikely to ever consider having meals-in-a-drink but might love the idea of adding something to what they're already eating to give it a nutrition boost, not unlike a vitamin supplement. "We have never tried to attack the social aspect of cooking," said Kremer. "Our products shouldnt replace good meals. This is about tackling unhealthy eating habits, and providing solutions that are affordable to meet the demands of that product category." Like many other startups and food businesses, YFood has been stepping up its own efforts to provide supplies to frontline workers. In its case it has so far donated 100,000 worth of ready-to-drink meals to medical staff currently very short on time to shop, cook and eat. Updated to clarify details on valuation, specifically to correct the characterization that it was a "flat" round. Photo: VCG By Huang Lanlan Patriotic Chinese netizens are enraged by the frequent denigration of some US media houses calling them nationalists in their coverage. Reporting on this month's online spat between Chinese and Thai internet users over Thai actor Vachirawit Chivaaree alias Bright liking a photo on Twitter that listed Hong Kong as a "country," CNN defamed Chinese netizens as "easily offended, touchy" nationalist trolls in an April 15 article. Meanwhile, it quoted Hong Kong secessionist Nathan Law Kwun-chung as saying the Bright's Thai fans were "young and progressive" in the same article, categorically portraying this argument as a unilateral insult to innocent Thai netizens by aggressive Chinese. Twitter user Carrot (pseudonym), a 20-year-old Chinese woman was also embroiled in the spat along with some of her friends, said the article made her very uncomfortable. According to Carrot, all she and her friends did in this verbal battle was to simply comment in Bright's posts that Hong Kong is not a country but a part of China. Their comments received a couple of replies, seemingly from Thai users, who attacked them with derogatory language. "It was not us but them who made insulting and aggressive comments on Twitter," she told the Global Times Thursday. "CNN was unfair." A detrimental tool US media's slanders on patriotic Chinese netizens with double standard are ridiculous, said Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University. In the face of domestic chaos and dampen mood amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some US media are attempting to shift this chaos to China laded with misinformation and denigrations, which serves US' everlasting purpose of weakening China, Li said. "Nationalism is a tool of US media to label Chinese people," he told the Global Times. During this deadly COVID-19 pandemic, readers have realized that US media, including CNN and the New York Times, have repeatedly attacked China and its people with words like "nationalism" to induce a negative fervor. Publications like The New York Times have continued to defame Chinese internet users. For instance, in an article published on April 17,Chinese internet users who questioned the authenticity of controversial writer Fang Fang's diary on life under Wuhan lockdown have been labeled as "digital warriors who pounce on any criticism of the Communist Party." Liu Yang, a college student in Southwest China's Sichuan Province who majored in Vietnamese was also painted as a "digital warrior" by US media when she tried to explain on Twitter that the origin of COVID-19, as per WHO, is not China but remains unclear. This 21-year-old said, last month she noticed that a Facebook post by the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam, expressing solidarity with Italy in the fight against COVID-19, was flooded with dozens of comments from Vietnamese users. Many of the comments accused China of "spreading the virus to the whole world," which were entirely groundless, Liu recalled. What made Liu angry was that, after she commented under the post that the origin of the virus is still unknown, she received several replies calling her or Chinese people "dogs" in Vietnamese. "Calling someone dog is extremely insulting in Vietnamese language," Liu told the Global Times. Liu said she has never been as aggressive on social media as US media described, even though some Vietnamese netizens' remarks had made her angry and upset. "I just calmly clarify their false allegations," she said. Stereotype and prejudice Several young Chinese users, including Liu herself, occasionally responded to the defamatory allegations targeting China on Twitter or Facebook amid the pandemic, but the overwhelming majority of them have been "restrained and polite" as Liu observed. Contrary to US media claims, many of these patriotic youngsters had seldom attacked conflicting views on Western social media platforms yet they have been hurled with verbal abuses from other users. They could even receive a punishment from the platforms. Guo Xiuying, 20, said her Instagram account was suspended in August 2019 after she fought back against some users' remarks calling China's Taiwan or Hong Kong as a "country." Guo was confused about the suspension. "I never used any inappropriate words," she told the Global Times. "I just told a basic fact that Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China." Similar to Liu, Guo's comment on Instagram had sparked a backlash with users calling her "Chinese dog." "They were much more impolite and offensive than mine," Guo said, redressing that those replies actually qualify US' media depiction of Chinese users. US media's slanders are based on their ingrained stereotype and prejudice against Chinese netizens, noted Shen Yi, director at the Research Center for Cyberspace Governance at Fudan University. Arrogantly placing themselves in an information cocoon, US media selectively receive information about China and blindly believe that an opinion field - such as a Western social media platform like Twitter or Facebook - is normal only when it is filled with negative voices of China, Shen said. "Therefore, when there are Chinese users fighting against the negative voices, US media regard it as 'abnormal' and simply label them nationalists or government-sponsored posters," he told the Global Times. "I don't accept these labels," Guo said, adding that she is neither a party member nor represents anyone. "I'm just a patriotic person who refuted online slanders against China using befitting words." (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) ALBANY Small business owners and independent contractors should have an easier time applying for unemployment benefits with the newest application from the state Department of Labor, which aligns with the new COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Gig workers, self-employed people and many others initially had to apply for traditional unemployment insurance only to be rejected before they could apply for the coronavirus pandemic assistance. The changes allow New Yorkers to fill out one form to get the benefits. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has proposed removing mortgage loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions to allow banks to carry on lending, and to help them support their existing customers. The proposal has been put forward in response to the economic downturn caused by the outbreak of COVID-19, with deputy governor and general manager of financial stability Geoff Bascand saying that LVRs are one of the tools available to the Reserve Bank to respond to economic pressure. Currently, banks have a 20% limit on the amount of high-LVR (a deposit of less than 20%) lending that they are allowed to provide to owner-occupiers, and a 5% limit on high-LVR (a deposit of less than 30%) lending they can provide to investors. These limits were last relaxed in April 2018. Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's controversial memoir, 'A Bigger Picture', has been relegated to the bargain bin just hours after being released. Big W immediately marked the autobiography down from $55 to $29 on Monday - and a Facebook post advertising the book's sale was quickly swamped with comments slamming the multi-millionaire ex-PM . Many noted the book's price was slashed on the day of release, while others labelled the former member for Sydney's exclusive Wentworth 'bitter' and a 'bad sport'. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's memoir has been reduced by nearly 50 per cent in Big W stores across Australia 'Oh good, something we can use when we run out of toilet paper!' said one. 'What a bad sport he is. He didn't mind putting the knife into Tony. Give it up, retire gracefully and spend your millions. Nobody liked you,' another said. 'It's only been released this week and it's already reduced in price, must be a great read. I'd pay $29 bucks to burn it,' another wrote. 'Does it come in a 3 ply' 'Memoirs of a bitter ex-prime minister,' said another. Hundreds of Facebook users slammed the autobiography with many comparing it to toilet paper The new tell-all book was leaked ahead of its April 20 release - while Turnbull appeared on ABC's 7.30 to promote the book. In 2015, Mr Turnbull deposed Tony Abbott as PM before winning an election the following year. But Mr Turnbull was himself dumped in a leadership spill in 2018, making way for Scott Morrison, who then had to campaign for a federal election just months later, before winning one Australia's greatest ever political upsets. But in his memoir Mr Turnbull said Mr Morrison should never have won. 'He's a professional politician who understands marketing and messaging better than most,' Mr Turnbull wrote in the book. 'His cringe-worthy "daggy dad" persona is more exaggerated than it is conflated, but in net terms it probably helped. 'All that aside, however, the truth is that Labor lost the election that the coalition, after the August coup, did not deserve to win.' Mr Turnbull's autobiography has sparked controversy across Australia after it featured a number of bizarre claims including former PM Tony Abbott (pictured with Turnbull) was 'dominated' by chief of staff Peta Credlin In the book, Mr Turnbull also claimed Mr Morrison was 'playing a double game' behind the scenes to oust him as the new prime minister. Mr Turnbull faced two leadership spills in one week in August, 2018 and Mr Morrison publicly backed - and voted for - the prime minister to stay on in the first on August 21. And while Mr Turnbull beat Mr Dutton and retained the leadership by 48 to 35 votes, he felt 'at least half a dozen of Scott's closest allies' had backed his rival Peter Dutton. 'The idea that they did this without his knowledge is fanciful,' Mr Turnbull writes. 'Scott is a control freak and I'd seen before ... how he'd publicly vote one way while ensuring his supporters voted the other way. 'I've come to conclude Scott was playing a double game: professing public loyalty to me while at the same time allowing his supporters to undermine me.' Mr Turnbull (pictured with Scott Morrison) also said Mr Morrison was a 'control freak' who would vote one way while ensuring his supporters would vote another Mr Turnbull also claims chief-of-staff Peta Credlin 'owned' Tony Abbott and ran Australia. Mr Turnbull has suggested Ms Credlin dominated Mr Abbott during his two years as PM until September 2015, when he himself overthrew him in a leadership coup. 'You were really dealing with Peta and Peta was running the country and that was obvious, and dominating Abbott,' he told the ABC's 7.30 program. 'It was as though she felt, 'I've created you, you're my creation' and she felt she owned him. It was a truly bizarre relationship. 'Credlin and Abbott destroyed their own government due to their own follies and then set out to destroy mine. 'The relationship was completely asymmetric, he worshipped and feared her and she on the other hand treated him with disdain.' Mr Abbott described the comments as 'odious' and used the opportunity to heap praise on Peta Credlin rather than criticise Mr Turnbull. Ms Credlin, who advised the PM during his time in the top job, was an 'extraordinarily capable person,' Mr Abbott told the Today Show. 'She was an important part of the Abbott Government. She was a fine thinker, a great organiser and a trusted colleague. 'She deserves a great deal of credit,' he said. Mr Turnbull has suggested chief of staff Peta Credlin dominated Mr Abbott (pictured together) during his two years as PM until September 2015, when he himself overthrew him in a leadership coup Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 19:35:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LONDON, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on Tuesday launched a cross-governmental campaign to crack down on cyber criminals using the coronavirus epidemic as cover to scam and steal from people. The Cyber Aware campaign aims to mitigate threats through a world-leading scam reporting service for people to report suspicious emails, as more people are using electronic devices during the COVID-19 lockdown. The NCSC, which is part of Government Communications Headquarters, the British government's intelligence and security organization, said it has taken down more than 2,000 online scams so far, including nearly 500 fake online shops trying to trick people by luring them with coronavirus-related products or services. "Criminals are seeking to exploit our greater use of emails, video conferencing and other technologies for their advantage," British Security Minister James Brokenshire said Tuesday. The center has also published new security guidance for individuals and organizations to follow when using video conferencing platforms. "With greater use of technology, there are different ways attackers can harm all of us. But everyone can help to stop them by following the guidance campaign we have launched today," said Ciaran Martin, CEO of the NCSC. Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman has urged people to remain vigilant online, follow the NCSC's guidance on passwords and account security, and report any suspected coronavirus related scams. Enditem (Natural News) Conservationists working at the London Zoo are busy cultivating Pete, a maidenhair fern that will hopefully be able to take photos that can help scientists monitor remote areas of rainforests all over the world. The current trial is hoping to develop a way to use plants that can generate enough electricity to power equipment used by conservationists to monitor remote habitats all over the world, such as tropical rainforests. The study is being led by scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), conservation technology unit. The ZSL has partnered with the synthetic biology research company OpenPlant, the conservation technology group Arribada Initiative and Cambridge University. The technology powering Pete is being designed with the help of green energy company Plant-e. Pete the fern successfully captures images using biomatter fuel cells As plants grow, they naturally deposit biomatter into the soil theyre planted in, which bacteria in the soil feeds on this creates energy that can be harnessed by fuel cells and used to power a wide range of conservation tools, said Al Davies, conservation technology specialist working for ZSL. Plugging into plants unlocks the potential to deploy sensors, monitoring platforms, camera traps, or other electronics that require power and must operate for extended periods of time all remotely and without interference. (Related: The grass is always greener (and the soil is healthier) on the side of conservation agriculture.) Pete was set up in ZSL London Zoos Rainforest Life exhibit. While the technology was being set up, Pete spent the whole summer of 2019 growing. In October 2019, the fern successfully took a picture after ZSL scientists installed its microbial fuel cells. It has since been taking pictures at an astonishing rate. According to the ZSL team, Pete can capture one photo every 20 seconds. Davies says Pete has been working so well and that the fern has even taken photos of several ZSL staff. Davies and the other scientists at ZSL are very excited about the potential for the technology powering Pete. If plants in remote habitats all over the world could be used to generate small amounts of electricity, people would be able to quite literally plug in to nature to help conservationists. Furthermore, Davies mentions that many greener power sources are still limited in their ability to generate electricity. Batteries need to be replaced regularly and solar panels are expensive and require a lot of sunlight. However, Davies argues that conservationists should rely on plants, as they can survive in the shade and they naturally move into a position that maximizes their sunlight exposure. This means that the potential of plant-powered energy is pretty much limitless. The ZSL scientists are still working to refine the technology. As Pete was growing, it used to take two weeks before the fern could generate enough electricity to capture one photo. Fortunately, its energy output has grown. Once the ZSL scientists are able to refine the technology even further, they plan to set up a second trial of the technology in the wild. If this trial is successful, then the technology will be used first to monitor remote areas of the Amazon rainforest within the western South American country of Peru. In the meantime, Davies and the ZSL team are keeping their eyes on Pete, and hoping that visitors to the London Zoos Rainforest Life exhibit would say some kind words to the plucky plant to help it grow. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk ScienceFocus.com TheTimes.co.uk British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street for PMQs at the House of Commons on 25 March, 2020 in London, England. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will speak with President Donald Trump on Tuesday and meet Queen Elizabeth later this week, his spokesman said. The Downing Street spokesman added that the British leader is still not "formally doing government work." Johnson is recovering at his country residence after he was hospitalized with Covid-19. His foreign minister, Dominic Raab, is standing in for him while he recovers. "Yesterday he sent a message of condolence to (Canadian Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau after the very sad loss of life in the shooting in Canada," the spokesman told reporters, referring to the shooting rampage in Nova Scotia. "Later today ... he will be speaking to President Trump." The spokesman said the meeting with the queen later this week will be the first in three weeks. The letter to Trump from the Democratic lawmakers said his administration has not provided information on when additional testing supplies will be provided from FEMA. Some needed supplies from the federal government have been diverted to private vendors rather than sent directly to state and local governments or health care providers, the Democrats said. In Partnership With 1871, MATTER, Direct Supply, Welltower, and Optima, Cubii Helps Seniors Stay Active During Shelter-in-Place CHICAGO, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To help senior living community residents stay healthy and active during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place, Cubii , maker of the Cubii compact seated elliptical that helps people stay active and gain mobility with low-impact exercise, today announces that it has donated more than 500 of its seated compact elliptical products to over 100 communities in need across the United States and Canada. At a time in their lives when activity is essential for health and well-being, Cubiis products help seniors living through a lockdown to safely and easily incorporate low-impact exercise into their daily lives from the comfort of their own rooms. Lockdowns make it even more challenging for seniors to get the daily movement they need to stay healthy, said Arnav Dalmia, CEO of Cubii. Given the impact our products can have for those who are most vulnerable during this pandemic, we have a responsibility to make safe physical activity accessible to as many as possible. Cubii worked with Chicago-based startup incubators 1871 and MATTER along with Direct Supply, Welltower (WELL), and Optima Living to deliver the seated compact elliptical products to senior living communities in just 10 days. Sunrise Assisted Living in Washington, D.C., Belmont Village in Houston, TX, Ozarks Methodist Manor in Marionville, MO, The Lantern of Madison in Madison, OH, Friends Care Community in Yellow Springs, OH, and Brandywine Assisted Living in Mount Laurel, NJ were among those that received Cubii products. COVID-19 has presented an unprecedented challenge for senior care communities, said Lisa Van Dusen, Vice President of Sales at Direct Supply. Finding ways to keep residents engaged and physically active during the quarantine has been a big concern. The Cubii elliptical trainers are a great solution for seniors to use within the safety of their rooms. An administrator from one of our communities said this opportunity seems like divine intervention. Story continues About Cubii Cubii designs fitness products for the zero-to-one market. While most fitness companies help exercise enthusiasts get fitter, Cubii focuses on serving the large, rapidly growing population of people who are not getting enough physical activity due to a lack of time, physical ability, or motivation. Cubiis flagship product, the Cubii Pro compact elliptical, provides Bluetooth-connected, low-impact exercise so individuals can stay active at their own pace, in their own place. For more info, visit www.cubii.com . About 1871 1871 is a not-for-profit organization that exists to inspire, equip, and support founders to build great businesses. It is the #1 ranked university-affiliated business incubator in the world, and the home of ~500 high-growth technology startups and ~1,500 members supported by an entire ecosystem focused on accelerating their growth and creating jobs in the Chicagoland area. Located in a 140,000 square-foot space in The Merchandise Mart, 1871 has 350 current mentors available to its members, as well as more than 100 partner corporations, universities, education programs, accelerators, venture funds and other organizations that make its extensive matrix of resources possible. Visit www.1871.com for more information. About MATTER MATTER, the premier healthcare incubator and innovation hub, includes hundreds of cutting-edge startups from around the world, working together with dozens of hospitals and health systems, universities and industry-leading companies to build the future of healthcare. Together, the MATTER community is accelerating innovation, advancing care and improving lives. For more information, visit matter.health and follow @MATTERhealth. About Direct Supply Direct Supply is an employee-owned company committed to Bringing Whats Next to Senior Health via world-class procurement, building management, care technology, and design and development solutions. Learn more at DirectSupply.com . About Welltower Welltower Inc. (WELL), an S&P 500 company headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, is driving the transformation of health care infrastructure. The Company invests with leading seniors housing operators, post-acute providers and health systems to fund the real estate infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve people's wellness and overall health care experience. Welltower, a real estate investment trust (REIT), owns interests in properties concentrated in major, high growth markets in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, consisting of seniors housing, post-acute communities and outpatient medical properties. For more information, visit www.welltower.com . About Optima Living Communities Optima Living, a leading provider of quality of life options and a trusted source of knowledge and community engagement in Western Canada. Optima has 11 seniors communities that provide a haven for seniors to stay active, keep healthy, and live vibrant lives. Even during a time as stressful as this, the Optima team continues to dedicate itself to supporting and resourcing seniors. Even when the world seems out of balance, we can take action to live together in harmony. Media Contact: Becca Reyes, rebecca@propllr.com Scientists at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Roehampton, London, have discovered that patients suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have increased levels of a protein called Immuno-moodulin (Imood) in their lymphocytes, a type of immune cell. Mice with high levels of this protein were also found to exhibit behaviours that are characteristic of anxiety and stress, such as digging and excessive grooming. When the researchers treated the mice with an antibody that neutralised Imood, the animals' anxiety levels reduced. The findings have led the researchers to file a patent application for the antibody and they are now working with a drug company to develop a potential treatment for human patients. "There is mounting evidence that the immune system plays an important role in mental disorders," said Professor Fulvio D'Acquisto, a professor of immunology at the University of Roehampton and honorary professor of Immunopharmacology at Queen Mary University of London, who led the research. "And in fact people with auto-immune diseases are known to have higher than average rates of mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression and OCD. Our findings overturn a lot of the conventional thinking about mental health disorders being solely caused by the central nervous system." Professor D'Acquisto, whose findings are published in the journal Brain Behavior and Immunity, first identified Imood by chance while studying a different protein called Annexin-A1 and the role it plays in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and lupus. advertisement He had created transgenic mice to over-express this protein in their T-cells, one of the main cells responsible for the development of autoimmune diseases, but found the mice showed more anxiety than normal. When he and his team analysed the genes expressed in the animals' T-cells, they discovered one gene in particular was especially active. The protein produced from this gene was what they eventually named Immuno-moodulin, or Imood. When the anxious mice were given an antibody that blocked Imood, their behaviour returned to normal in a couple of days. The researchers tested the immune cells from 23 patients with OCD and 20 healthy volunteers. They found Imood expression was around six times higher in the OCD patients. Other recent research by scientists elsewhere have also found the same protein may also play a role in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Professor D'Acquisto believes Imood does not directly regulate brain functions in a classical way, for example by changing the levels of chemical signals in neurons. Instead, it may influence genes in brain cells that have been linked to mental disorders like OCD. "This is work we still have to do to understand the role of Imood," he said. "We also want to do more work with larger samples of patients to see if we can replicate what we saw in the small number we looked at in our study." In the meantime, Professor D'Acquisto and Dr Dianne Cooper, a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, are working with the biopharmaceutical company UCB to develop antibodies against Imood that can be used in humans and to understand how this could be used to treat patients with mental disorders. "It is early still, but the discovery of antibodies -- instead of the classical chemical drugs -- for the treatment of mental disorders could radically change the life of these patients as we foresee a reduced chance of side effects," he said. Professor D'Acquisto estimates it could take up to five years before a treatment can be taken to clinical trials. Those holding Hypebeast (HKG:150) shares must be pleased that the share price has rebounded 31% in the last thirty days. But unfortunately, the stock is still down by 12% over a quarter. Unfortunately, the full year gain of 5.7% wasn't so sweet. All else being equal, a sharp share price increase should make a stock less attractive to potential investors. In the long term, share prices tend to follow earnings per share, but in the short term prices bounce around in response to short term factors (which are not always obvious). The implication here is that deep value investors might steer clear when expectations of a company are too high. Perhaps the simplest way to get a read on investors' expectations of a business is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). Investors have optimistic expectations of companies with higher P/E ratios, compared to companies with lower P/E ratios. Check out our latest analysis for Hypebeast How Does Hypebeast's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers? Hypebeast's P/E of 25.43 indicates some degree of optimism towards the stock. As you can see below, Hypebeast has a higher P/E than the average company (20.8) in the interactive media and services industry. SEHK:150 Price Estimation Relative to Market April 20th 2020 Hypebeast's P/E tells us that market participants think the company will perform better than its industry peers, going forward. Clearly the market expects growth, but it isn't guaranteed. So investors should always consider the P/E ratio alongside other factors, such as whether company directors have been buying shares. How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios P/E ratios primarily reflect market expectations around earnings growth rates. Earnings growth means that in the future the 'E' will be higher. That means unless the share price increases, the P/E will reduce in a few years. Then, a lower P/E should attract more buyers, pushing the share price up. In the last year, Hypebeast grew EPS like Taylor Swift grew her fan base back in 2010; the 53% gain was both fast and well deserved. The cherry on top is that the five year growth rate was an impressive 45% per year. So I'd be surprised if the P/E ratio was not above average. Story continues A Limitation: P/E Ratios Ignore Debt and Cash In The Bank One drawback of using a P/E ratio is that it considers market capitalization, but not the balance sheet. That means it doesn't take debt or cash into account. Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings. Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio. Is Debt Impacting Hypebeast's P/E? Since Hypebeast holds net cash of HK$14m, it can spend on growth, justifying a higher P/E ratio than otherwise. The Verdict On Hypebeast's P/E Ratio Hypebeast trades on a P/E ratio of 25.4, which is above its market average of 9.6. The excess cash it carries is the gravy on top its fast EPS growth. So based on this analysis we'd expect Hypebeast to have a high P/E ratio. What is very clear is that the market has become significantly more optimistic about Hypebeast over the last month, with the P/E ratio rising from 19.3 back then to 25.4 today. For those who prefer to invest with the flow of momentum, that might mean it's time to put the stock on a watchlist, or research it. But the contrarian may see it as a missed opportunity. Investors have an opportunity when market expectations about a stock are wrong. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine. We don't have analyst forecasts, but you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20. 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. Shiv Sena MLA Udaysingh Rajput on Tuesday wrote to governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to appoint Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray as a nominated member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. In a letter to the governor, the legislator from Kannad constituency in Aurangabad said Maharashtra cannot afford political instability at a time when it is fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and asked Koshiyari to appoint Thackeray to the Council. The Maharashtra cabinet had sent a proposal to the governor in the first week of April, he said. "Everyone, including me, is worried about the political situation. I have requested the governor to appoint Thackeray as a member of the Legislative Council," Rajput said. The Bombay High Court on Monday refused interim relief on a BJP worker's plea opposing the state cabinet's recommendation that Thackeray be appointed as governor's nominee. Adjourning the petition filed by a BJP worker, the HC said the governor is expected to consider legal validity of the recommendation. Thackeray, who is not a member of either house of Maharashtra legislature, took oath as chief minister on November 28, 2019. Under the Constitution, he has to become member of the legislature by May 28. However, all elections were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, so the state cabinet on April 9 recommended that he be nominated to the Council from the governor's quota. There are currently two vacancies among members from governor's quota after resignations of NCP legislators who joined the BJP before the Assembly polls. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) When the Small Business Administration rolled out emergency coronavirus relief loans, most big banks were automatically eligible to participate as lenders. But community banks and nonprofit, mission-based lenders were excluded and U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Pa.) wants to change that. The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, was a $350 billion loan program tapped by small businesses around the country. It quickly ran out of money, and small businesses are seeking more funding. We are asking congressional leadership to mandate that lenders prioritize PPP loans for small businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans, and those in under-served and rural markets in the next stimulus package," Evans wrote in a letter released Friday. "We are also asking that leadership set aside part of the PPP funding for smaller community lenders, such as credit unions and CDFIs, or community development financial institutions. PPP provides forgivable loans for small businesses to keep workers employed. SBA will forgive the loans if all employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the money is used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest, or utilities. Many female- and minority-owned businesses have struggled getting such loans. I recently led a letter, joined by 71 colleagues, urging congressional leadership to have PPP funding prioritized for businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans & those in underserved rural markets, Evans, one of Philadephias three House members, wrote on Twitter. Maura Shenker, director of Temples Small Business Development Center, noted that community development financial institutions are already SBA micro-lenders, and they have the relationships with the smaller, underserved minority and disadvantaged businesses. But they arent allowed to be PPP lenders," she said. That was a mistake, and now were seeing the consequences of that decision. The overarching coronavirus economic rescue package said the SBA should provide guidance to PPP lenders and agents to ensure that the processing and disbursement of covered loans prioritizes small-business concerns, Evans wrote. But the SBA still has not issued this guidance to lenders, he said. Only a few CDFIs have been able to lend money in Philadelphia to women and minorities among them the Womens Opportunity Resource Center, according to its director, Lynne Cutler. WORC started making PPP loans last week," Cutler said. We were in the process of entering more when it ran out of funds. We are reaching women and minority businesses; it is a lifeline for them," she added. More mission-based lenders should be able to do these. We know our customers and can reach small businesses. Among WORC recipients were female and minority business owners who received PPP funding: Amber Cureton, owner of Perfect Choice Cleaning Services; Danielle Ruttenberg, co-owner with Rebecca Davies of Remark Glass in South Philadelphia; Shasnettay Warner, owner of Tiny Tech Learning Lab, a day-care center in West Oak Lane; Shanthy Brown, who owns Brown Eye Care, an optometry clinic in Germantown; and Tyisha Beckham, owner of Noire LLC hair salon in South Philadelphia. 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. In a 2009 Huffington Post essay, former New York Times editor Melissa Laskey mourned Democrat icon Ted Kennedy. Laskey noted that Kennedy had once driven a car into water and left Mary Jo Kopechne to die. Though he fled responsibility and sought cover in the Kennedy mansion, his career flourished. Reflecting that Kopechne shared Kennedy's politics, Laskey wrote she might have felt that it was "worth it." Recently, Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts acknowledged Tara Reade's sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden. Pitts counseled readers to vote for Biden, even had they found Reade's story compelling. "If Reade were sacrificed to the cause of preventing that [Trump's re-election], it would be painful and unfair, yet arguably defensible," the columnist actually wrote. Pitts characterized ballots cast for a candidate voters thought had perpetrated sexual assault a "terrible choice forced upon us by the exigencies of a fraught moment." This is a fancy way of fleeing moral accountability. One upside of Trump Derangement Syndrome, like Camelot reverence, is its exposing of moral pretension. DC Larson is an author, blogger, and freelance essayist. His byline has run in the Daily Caller, American Thinker, and elsewhere. Image: Marc Nozell via Flickr. Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. Klitschko explained he was analyzing his Western counterparts' actions. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko says quarantine restrictions in the capital city will be eased gradually after the coronavirus curve is flattened. "We have to pass the peak of the disease. We expect it in Ukraine and the city in a week or two. After that, based on the situation, we will gradually ease the restrictive measures," he wrote on Telegram on April 21. Read alsoKyiv mayor reports 42 new COVID-19 cases, two deaths in past day Klitschko explained he was analyzing actions of his Western counterparts who lift the restrictions "carefully and slowly" after the peak is over. According to the mayor, the capital has developed a plan for the phased easing of the restrictions since businesses must work and the city must develop. He also said it was necessary to "revive" the economy. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said the ministry would offer to extend quarantine measures until May 12. Hemant Kumar Rout By Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: West Bengal seems to have become a cause of serious concern for the State Government as a third of COVID-19 positive cases are directly linked to it. Even as the State witnessed a surge in COVID cases on Monday, of the 13 persons who tested positive in the last 24 hours, 10, including five each from Jajpur and Bhadrak districts, have been found to be returnees from West Bengal. As high as 32 per cent of cases in Odisha have their origin in WB. State chief spokesperson on COVID-19 Subroto Bagchi said it is a big worry for the Government as of 74 positive cases, 24 are related to the neighbouring state. They have either returned from the state or have come in contact with the returnees. Collectors of the districts concerned have been asked to properly inquire into the cases and take immediate containment measures, he said. If official sources are to be believed, the five of Jajpur were a part of six-member group that had travelled from Badabazaar in Howrah in a van on March 29 when the lockdown was in force. Similarly, the other five of Bhadrak had returned from WB in another vehicle. They are among 132 persons who have been traced to have returned from WB and kept in institutional quarantine at their respective block headquarters. Most of the cases with origin from WB have been identified by panchayats that in turn informed the district administration and put them in quarantine. Since it is not possible for the State or district administration and police to keep watch on every village, panchayats are extremely important in detection of potential cases. Community based surveillance can help fight coronavirus, Bagchi said. The State Government has urged all people with travel history to the neighbouring state during the last 28 days to inform local sarpanch, block development officer or tehsildar and quarantine themselves at home. Meanwhile, the border villagers have demanded the Government to intensify surveillance on the connecting routes to check movement of people from Bengal. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 00:24:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that the central government agency responsible for Hong Kong affairs and the liaison office in the HKSAR have the authority and responsibility to supervise the implementation of the Basic Law of the HKSAR. The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council and the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR are authorized by the central government to handle Hong Kong affairs, Lam told a press conference. The liaison office has been assuming its responsibility and has not interfered in the affairs that the HKSAR administers on its own, Lam said, stressing that the central government, granting Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, has the supervisory power. She stressed that the current problem is that the HKSAR Legislative Council (LegCo)'s House Committee has been paralyzed by some lawmakers, and the two offices in response have exercised the supervisory power on behalf of the central government. The liaison office representing the central government has a say in the constitutional affairs, HKSAR governance and operation of daily affairs, which is its authority and responsibility, Lam said, stressing that those describing comments by the office as interference are ill-intentioned. No one should be allowed to distract public attention from the crux of the current problem, which is the malicious filibustering by some lawmakers, in particular Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, in the House Committee, she said, condemning the acts for dismissing public interests and disrupting the operation and responsibility of the LegCo. Enditem After the initiative by Fighters Welfare Club in Sector 40 to seal off their sector, Chandigarh administrator VP Singh Badnore has asked local authorities and organisations to replicate the model in other sectors which are contaminated zones. Following this, parts of Sector 30 and Dadumajra have been sealed and some RWAs are making individual efforts to seal their localities. Adviser to UT administrator, Manoj Parida, also reached out to mayor Raj Bala Malik on Tuesday to rope in all local area councillors to help residents seal their sectors. On Monday, Badnore had asked authorities and local organisations to identify and seal localites that were contaminated, to contain the epidemic. Sector 30, where four positive cases have been detected, was sealed by the efforts of local area councillor Devinder Singh Babla. Speaking to HT, Babla said, Police have sealed the EWS colony area. Residents cannot leave this area even during curfew relaxation hours. On Tuesday a CTU bus delivered fruits and vegetables to Sector 30 residents. For the task, vendors wore PPE kits and used wooden sticks to enforce social distancing. As government offices opened from Monday, many societies in Sector 13 have also restricted entry by keeping only one entrance open. KL Sachdeva, secretary of Modern Housing Complex (duplex) resident welfare association (RWA), said, After a meeting with Manimajra station house officer (SHO) , we closed gate number 4 and 5. Only gate number 3 is open. However, we have written to the SHO to seal gate number 4 with barricades till the curfew is in effect. Residents of Sector 38 West have also sealed parts of their localities. As per Pankaj Gupta, RWA president here, they have kept only one exit point open which is monitored 24/7 by guards. Nobody can enter without a movement pass. Vendors have been given RWA identity cards without which they cant enter. Entry to apartment societies in southern sectors is strictly banned and all their gates are closed. Vice president of Sector 49 RWA, Jatinder Mehta, who lives in the Chandigarh Housing Board society here, said, With help from the police, we have barricaded entry points and kept only one gate open. Previously, many unauthorised vendors were coming here from Punjab side but now no one can enter without a valid pass. Iran on Tuesday announced 88 new deaths from the novel coronavirus as the country said it had released more than 1,000 foreign prisoners over the outbreak. According to health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour, the latest fatalities in the past 24 hours brought the total to 5,297, in one of the world's deadliest outbreaks. The foreign prisoners were among 100,000 inmates temporarily released in several stages since March. They included British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, arrested in 2016 and serving a five-year jail term for sedition. "What Iran has done in guaranteeing prisoners' health and granting furlough to them is a significant move" compared with what other countries had done, said judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili. A panel of UN human rights experts last week called on Iran to expand the list of inmates it has temporarily released over the COVID-19 outbreak to include "prisoners of conscience and dual and foreign nationals". It also raised concerns about the spread in detention facilities of the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. In response, Esmaili said Iran should not be criticised for "discriminatory conduct" as it had an "excellent" track record compared with Britain and the United States. According to Jahanpour, an additional 1,297 cases of COVID-19 infection detected in the past 24 hours brought the overall total to 84,802. But more than 60,900 of those admitted to hospital had already recovered, he said, describing it as a "significant" number. Iran had so far carried out more than 365,700 COVID-19 tests, the ministry official said. The country has struggled to contain the virus outbreak since reporting its first cases on February 19. Some officials and health experts in Iran and abroad have said the country's casualty figures may be higher than those it declared. Iran has allowed businesses to reopen after shutting most of its economy down in mid-March, except those with "high-risk" like restaurants and gyms. The reopening of the economy has drawn criticism from health experts and even some officials from the government. Officials have urged Iranians to refrain from using public transportation as they go back to work and lifted some traffic restrictions in the capital Tehran. Tehran city council's transportation deputy Mohammad Alikhani said Tuesday that so far 19 taxi drivers have died from the virus and 317 have been infected. He added that 147 bus drivers and "between 40 to 50" metro workers had also been infected, semi-official agency ISNA reported. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The protest stood in stark contrast to demonstrations in recent days in some parts of the country in which protesters have demanded the reopening of nonessential businesses. Nurses have been spotted at those gatherings, too, standing arms crossed, in opposition to demonstrators, many of whom are unmasked and milling in crowds. Oanda's senior market analyst for Asia Pacific, Jeffrey Halley, says there may be some embarrassment within CNN and NBC, which have both reported on Kim Jong Un's ill health today, if he in fact turns out to be fine. "As if by magic, Yonhap News Agency in South Korea has quoted a South Korean Government source, as saying they have seen no unusual signs concerning Kim Jong-un's health,'' he wrote in a daily markets commentary. "Financial markets are refusing to get whipsawed over the event though, taking a "where there is smoke, there is fire" point of view. The Korean Won has fallen by 1.0 per cent against the Dollar to 1232.70, a slight improvement from the initial post-headline reaction. We can be sure that the Bank of Korea will not let volatility get out of hand on the Won." "...if the North Korean news proves to be correct, the region is set for a period of uncertainty. Like all good Communist Peoples Democratic Republic's, Kim Jong-un was its leader for life, and he had weeded out a goodly number of potential rivals already. That leaves a nuclear-armed North Korea with giant armed forces, facing a potentially messy succession process. China will also want to have its input into the process, forcefully if necessary." "Never to be outdone on Twitter, President Trump has, almost simultaneously, announced that he is suspending immigration to the US to protect American jobs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is more headline baiting than substance in my humble opinion and will have zero effect on financial markets. Nobody is immigrating anywhere in the world now, let alone the US, the centre of the COVID-19 pandemic. No one is likely to be allowed to immigrate anyway for a long time, unless it's on a repatriation flight. Even after peak virus is achieved, borders and air-travel are likely to remains strictly limited for obvious reasons. North Korea is a more important story today." The Orders Harold Henning and Chris Wallace unload part of the PPE consignment at Kilkeel Orange Hall The Orange Order has taken charge of a "very significant" shipment of personal protective equipment (PPE) to be distributed to healthcare staff in Northern Ireland and the Republic. Hand sanitiser along with tens of thousands of masks and aprons arrived at the weekend to be distributed via 108 district lodges. Grand master Edward Stevenson said: "It is our hope that this shipment of personal protective equipment will make a real difference to local doctors and nurses, who are at the front line of helping to fight Covid-19, and those providing care and essential services in the community. "So much has been reported about the pressure on supplies that we felt it was appropriate that the Orange Institution should try to assist in a practical way. "Once a supplier had been sourced an order was placed and we were delighted to see it arrive in Northern Ireland." He added: "The abundance of good work being done by lodges and the wider Orange family for the good of the entire community illustrates that there is more to Orangeism than just our annual parades." On Monday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that fines for improperly social distancing will be doubled, from $500 to $1,000. So far, 244 fines have been issued by the NYPD for social distancing violations, most of which were handed out to large groups congregating in public parks and other locations. The city and state have had to contend with the COVID-19 crisis since early March and new restrictions have been continuously enacted throughout the state to help mitigate the virus. As the states restrictions grow and evolve, they are becoming more difficult to keep track of, so we compiled a comprehensive list of them to date: Social distancing On March 20, Gov. Andrew Cuomo instated his New York State on Pause plan, which closed all nonessential businesses for 90 days. The executive order also banned social gatherings of all kinds and instructed individuals to maintain a six-foot distance between themselves and others. New Yorkers were also encouraged to remain indoors unless they are procuring groceries, medicine or going outside for solitary exercise. The only individuals exempt from these rules are essential workers, which includes those working in food production, pharmacies, health care facilities, shipping and utilities. Cuomo also signed Matildas Law, which mandates that anyone over the age of 70 remain home and limit interactions with others, on March 20. The governors Pause plan was initially set to last until April 18, but he extended it to April 29 on April 6 and then again: The governor announced on Saturday, April 19, that the states Pause would be extended until May 18. On Saturday, de Blasio asked city residents to begin texting pictures of people violating social distancing measures to help the city flag where these transgressions are occuring. The mayor also announced that fines for violating social distancing will be doubled up to $1,000. This is not snitching; this is saving lives, the mayor said. You gotta do it, if you care about protecting human lives. Facemasks and coverings are mandatory On April 15, Cuomo announced that everyone needs to wear a face mask or covering when out in public or in places where proper social distancing cannot be maintained. Interestingly, the governor questioned the effectiveness of wearing a mask everywhere when de Blasio first floated the idea, two weeks prior. Attending weddings and funerals is not allowed Loved ones are being barred from attending their own family members funeral or visitation, though some funeral homes are allowing one or two people to attend a small ceremony. Weddings have similarly been banned due to the states restrictions on gatherings of any size. However, couples looking to wed are now able to get married in a video conference, according to Cuomo. School closures Schools closed across the state on March 16, though the city closed its schools a day prior. The states CUNY and SUNY schools were also closed on March 11, forcing students to resort to remote learning for the remainder of the school year. However, as of March 29, schools were allowed to host free day care services. Kids across the city are now learning remotely, with the exception of children of essential workers who go to regional enrichment centers while their parents are at work. School closures throughout the state are expected to end on April 29. De Blasio has said that he would keep the citys schools closed for the remainder of the school year. Cuomo shot back at the mayor, saying he doesn't have the power to open or close schools. But no one really knows for sure if schools will reopen in May, June or even September. Transportation New York Citys public transit system is up and running, despite cutting back on subway cars on the tracks and buses in the streets. However, nonessential workers are being discouraged from using the transit system unless absolutely necessary. Taxis are still available for use, though hardly anyone is riding in them. Ride-hail app services are still available, but pooled rides were banned in the city as of March 17. The Long Island Rail Road is running at 65% of its typical capacity, with rush-hour services intact for essential workers. And Metro-North is running trains hourly on the Harlem, Hudson, and New Haven lines, as well as adding extra trains at rush hour for essential workers. Parks and beaches New York Citys beaches will most likely be closed through the summer, as officials fear social distancing measures will not be lifted by the time summer rolls around. The citys playgrounds were closed on April 1, after many failed to comply with social distancing measures. And its dog parks were also closed on April 6 for the same reason. City and state parks remain open, though policy officers are now being deployed to New York City parks to ensure individuals are maintaining their distance from one another. Restaurant closures Restaurants are no longer allowed to have dine-in service but they can still fulfil delivery and take out orders. And now alcohol can be delivered to your home, as long as you order it with food. Season 3 of The Mandalorian is already in the works... well before season 2 of the Disney+ hit show has even debuted. 'Sources close to the production' have confirmed the news, according to Variety on Tuesday. Series creator Jon Favreau has been writing the third season of the Star Wars-based TV series 'for a while' according to the industry publication. Moving on up: Season 3 of The Mandalorian is already in the works... well before season 2 of the Disney+ hit show has even debuted 'Weve just started pre-production and are looking into further adventures for the Mandalorian in Season 3,' one source told Variety. The show luckily wrapped production on its second season in early March, before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the international film industry. Season 2 is due to hit the Disney+ streaming service in October. Fan favorites return: 'Weve just started pre-production and are looking into further adventures for the Mandalorian in Season 3,' one source told Variety Something to entertain us during self-isolation: In the meantime fans can busy themselves with a documentary about the hit Disney+ show But despite the long wait time, in the meantime fans can busy themselves with a documentary about the hit Disney+ show that features the popular Baby Yoda. The streaming service will debut an eight part series that looks behind the scenes of the smash hit show that features a bounty hunter who will do anything to protect the magical, mysterious green child. On the Star Wars holiday May 4 - called so because May the Fourth sounds like May the Force as in the line 'May the force be with you' - the new docu will be made available in over a dozen countries worldwide. The show will debut along with the scheduled Star Wars: The Clone Wars finale. The executive producer Jon Favreau will be making comments as well as various cast members such as Pedro Pascal. The breakout star: The new docu will cover Baby Yoda who has become extremely popular There will also be new footage presented. 'Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian is an opportunity for fans of the show to take a look inside and get to see a different perspective, and perhaps a greater understanding, of how The Mandalorian came together and some of the incredibly talented contributors throughout Season 1,' Favreau said in a Disney press release. 'We had a great experience making the show and were looking forward to sharing it with you.' Sounds good: On the Star Wars holiday May 4 - called so because May the Fourth sounds like May the Force as in the line 'May the force be with you' - the new docu will be made available in over a dozen countries worldwide Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian premieres May 4 on Disney+, with new episodes every Friday. This comes after there was new casting rumours on season two. MakingStarWars.net suggested that veteran actress Jamie Lee Curtis, 61, will likely join Pedro and Baby Yoda as she was seen on the set of the Disney+ show recently. Curtis, who is best known for her hit films A Fish Called Wanda and Halloween, is the daughter of Hollywood Golden Age vets Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. The Star Wars franchise is known for casting veterans such as Alec Guinness in A New Hope and Laura Dern in The Last Jedi. The cast: Carl Weathers, Pedro Pascal, and Gina Carano in The Mandalorian (2019) There was in indication about what character she would play. The writer Jason Ward says that 'for a few days during the filming of Star Wars: The Mandalorians second season I had Jamie Lee Curtis at the location for the filming of the show.' He added that if he was wrong about her being on the set for The Mandalorian, she may have been on the set of a nearby production, Avatar 2. A good choice: Last week report from MakingStarWars.net suggested that veteran actress Jamie Lee Curtis will likely join Pedro Pascal and Baby Yoda as she was seen on the set recently. Seen in 2018 The two are filming in 'the same general location' he added. 'One day around the set and I can see Curtis having been there for a set visit,' reported Ward. 'But there were multiple times she was around and I think she has a role in the series. I reached out to sources for confirmation and at the moment, and I cant get total confirmation of it because of the current climate of the world if you know what I mean. I reached out to Curtis and I didnt get a response back.' Season one featured Pascal as the main Mandalorian, Din Djarin, who is hunted down after he abducts Baby Yoda after having handing the child over to dark forces that are the last of the Empire. She's got it: Rosario Dawson has reportedly clinched the role of Jedi padawan Ahsoka Tano in the upcoming second season of Disney+ series The Mandalorian Fan-favorite: Ahsoka was introduced in the CGI series Star Wars: The Clone Wars as Anakin Skywalker's premiere Jedi padawan apprentice Also in the series are Carl Weathers as Greef Karga, Gina Carano as Cara Dune, and Nick Nolte as Kuiil. Season two, which will drop in October 2020, has already added some interesting names like Michael Biehn and Rosario Dawson, who is set to play the live-action version of Ahsoka Tano. Dawson, 40, will be playing the first live-action version of Ahsoka, who has already appeared in the CGI animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. Both of those series are considered 'canon' by Star Wars aficionados, as they come from original Star Wars creator George Lucas as well as Dave Filoni, who among his many credits include writing for, directing and producing on The Mandalorian. Ahsoka is one of the main protagonists of The Clone Wars, introduced as Anakin Skywalker's premiere Jedi padawan apprentice. She is of the Togruta race of aliens, characterized by her orange skin and unique striped headpiece or 'headtails'. 'Yes please!': Dawson's casting is a Star Wars fan's dream come true, as the actress herself stated her desire to play Ahsoka way back in 2017 when responding to a user on Twitter For those keeping track, Anakin is the Jedi master who eventually becomes Darth Vader played by actor Hayden Christensen in Lucas's Star Wars prequels in the early aughts. Dawson's casting is a Star Wars fan's dream come true, quite literally, as the 25th Hour actress herself stated her desire to play Ahsoka way back in 2017 when responding to a user on Twitter. That tweet spurred fans everywhere to campaign for Rosario to appear in a Star Wars movie as the character, which she even acknowledged on Good Morning America months later, saying that 'it would be amazing!' and asking, 'Internet, help me out!' The Mandalorian is a sci-fi western, set in the world of Star Wars that quickly became a cultural phenomenon at the end of last year, largely thanks to the adorable Baby Yoda character (known on the show as 'The Child'). It remains to be seen exactly how Dawson's character Ahsoka Tano will figure into the world populated by Mandalorians, a creed of assassins made famous by Bobba Fett in the original films. In February, Variety reported that The Madalorian is slated to return to the Disney+ streaming platform with new episodes in October of this year it remains to be seen whether the show will be able to meet that date in light of the current industry-wide halt in production due to coronavirus. Protesters rallying against the coronavirus lockdown measures in Arizona went through security screenings and entered the Arizona state capitol on Monday, April 20. According to reports, the Patriots Day Rally, which was organized by a group called Reopen Arizona, started at noon in Phoenix. Monday was the second day of protests in Phoenix; on Sunday, more than 100 vehicles circled the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, honking horns in the call to action for businesses to reopen. Arizona Governor Doug Duceys office issued a statement in response to the protests, saying: "We appreciate the passion expressed by Arizonans today, and we share their desire to get back to normal as quickly as possible. Governor Ducey is working closely with President Trump, Vice President Pence, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Cara Christ and state, local and federal health experts to implement the latest guidance from CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the White House. Every decision we make will continue to be informed by public health and a commitment to reenergizing our economy when it is responsible and safe to do so. Similar protests had been held across the United States in the preceding days. In this video, protesters can be heard chanting reopen Arizona. On Monday, Arizona had a confirmed COVID-19 case total of 5,064, and 187 deaths connected to the coronavirus. Credit: Scott Weinberg via Storyful BrahMos Aerospace has given 500 PPE kits and 2,500 N-95 masks to the Jabalpur district administration in Madhya Pradesh Jabalpur: BrahMos Aerospace, the Indo-Russian joint venture known the world over for making missiles, has given 500 PPE kits and 2,500 N-95 masks to the Jabalpur district administration in Madhya Pradesh to help in the fight against coronavirus. The missile company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Sudhir Kumar Mishra assured that they will provide more assistance to Jabalpur whenever required, a state public relations official said on Tuesday. "The countrys prestigious BrahMos Aerospace has given 500 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, 2,500 N-95 masks and 30 thermal scanners to the Jabalpur district administration, he said. These vital equipment were handed over to Jabalpur Collector Bharat Yadav by the Red Cross Society secretary Ashish Dixit on behalf of the missile manufacturing company, the official said. The collector also thanked BrahMos Aerospace CEO Sudhir Kumar Mishra, who is an alumnus of Government Jabalpur Engineering College, for the help. By Kim Jae-heun AmorePacific CEO Suh Kyung-bae While some big-name foreign companies that are active in China are considering reducing their business operations there due to the ongoing pandemic, South Korea's beauty giant AmorePacific plans to continue its investments in China with Beijing offering administrative and financial assistance. AmorePacific said it has not changed its plans to continue the improvement of its manufacturing plant in Jiading District in the affluent Chinese city of Shanghai. The cosmetics giant will continue to produce smart beauty devices including Skin Light Therapy II there. That means Amore has no plans to relocate production abroad due to the pandemic. "The Chinese market is important for us. Our revenue coming from China accounts for about 20 percent in total sales and this does not include money earned from the duty free sector. When we factor in sales from duty free shops, where our main customers are Chinese, our revenue coming from China could rise as high as 40 percent," an AmorePacific official said. "We are currently operating one plant in China and that is in the Jiading District. It produces cosmetics products for Mamonde and Innisfree," the official added. The plan comes after a recent joint survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and Shanghai and the consultancy company of PricewaterhouseCoopers. They found U.S. firms in China are considering adjustments to their business strategy, while most of the respondents said that in the short term they would not move production, supply or procurement operations out of China. In comparison, South Korean retail giants Lotte Mart and E-mart have begun or finished pulling out their operations in China mostly due to political tensions between the two countries. But the spread of COVID-19 in China, believed to be originated from Wuhan, made it hard for foreign investors to continue their businesses there. Luxshare and GoerTek both of which manufacture wireless earphones for Apple at their plants in China, are planning to move their device production facilities to Vietnam. GoerTek has reportedly asked its cooperative firms if they can send materials needed to make earphones in Vietnam. China is paying extra attention to retain foreign investors as keeping affluent foreign direct investment (FDI) could be interpreted as the country's successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic. FDI into mainland China fell 10.8 percent, year-on-year, in the first three months of this year influenced by the contagious virus. China plans to seek further opening-up and upgrading of foreign trade and investment, to offset the economic shock brought about by the pandemic. AmorePacific is reacting to this. The company said it is confident about its Chinese operation as many of its outlets there have reopened. About 90 percent of stores selling the Korean firm's beauty products in China have temporarily closed due to the government's quarantine measures. "The COVID-19 pandemic is settling down in China and we are expecting the local market to vitalize soon," an AmorePacific official said. The National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China announced it will provide support measures for international firms. The measures include shortening legal procedures for international corporate investments, strengthening of networks between foreign companies and local administrators, protecting intellectual property rights of foreign investors and providing the same right to participate in government project bidding. AmorePacific entered the Chinese market in 1993 by establishing its branch in Shenyang. Now it operates over 1,800 stores selling items by the firm's brands such as Laneige, Sulwhasoo, Innisfree and Etude House. And the frighteningly low oil prices were discussed is being described by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley as a real impact of the COVID 19 crisis and not a nancy story. New Delhi: The Delhi government on Tuesday issued an order saying accommodation will be provided for all doctors, nurses and paramedics treating Covid-19 patients in the national capital, but in what appeared to be a clarification of a similar order last month, gave a classification of what facilities would be provided to whom. In Tuesdays order, the government said that doctors will be put up in premium hotels, nurses and paramedics in other hotels, and support staff in dharamshalas. Doctors will be provided four and five-star accommodations, nurses and paramedics are entitled to hotel accommodations, while supporting staff will be put up in dharamshalas, read the order, signed by Delhis health secretary Padmini Singla. They are meant to be put up during a 14-day duty period, followed by a 14-day quarantine period so that they dont pose a risk to their family members and other they might interact with. The entitlement classification comes days after at least 15 nurses and lab technicians who were in quarantine after treating Covid-19 patients for two weeks, were asked by the staff of a five-star hotel at 11.30pm to vacate their rooms on the grounds that the facility was only for doctors. They were staying at the Leela Ambience Convention Hotel in East Delhi during their 14-day duty period starting on April 1. This was to be followed by a 14-day quarantine at the hotel starting on April 15, but on April 18, were asked to move out and go to a guest house in Mayur Vihar. The original government order, dated March 29, said that accommodation will be provided to all doctors, nurses and paramedics treating Covid-19 patients. For this purpose, two five star hotels in Delhi were roped in. The initial order did not make any distinction on who would qualify for five-star facilities. The hotel has formed a team of essential staff members who will follow strict protocol and take all safety precautions while fulfilling guest services. The hotel will continue to work in close coordination with the ministry of health and local government authorities, to support the extraordinary humanitarian effort of Indias health care professionals in these challenging times, Leela Ambience Convention Hotel said in a statement on Tuesday, when asked about the incident. Fridays incident led to at least two health care unions representing the nurses of Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital and the Indian Medical Laboratory Technologist Federation (IMLTF) writing to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhis health minister Satyendar Jain to complain about how front-line health care workers were treated at a time when they were meant to be in isolation. This was followed by a second order, on Saturday, that said accommodation would be given only to those people who were treating severely infected patients. The order was criticised by health care teams working in coronavirus hospitals, who said that close proximity with patients puts them at higher risk and alternative lodging facility was necessary so that they do not carry the infection back to their families. It was withdrawn, and replaced with Tuesdays order. It is a relief that the hospitals will provide accommodation. Since we are exposed to patients who have the disease, there is a risk of carrying the virus home to families. My batch will start our 14-day duty from Wednesday, said a nursing officer at a Delhi government hospital who did not wish to be identified. But some health care workers unions objected to new lodging facilities as discriminatory. It is the nurses and supporting staff who are with the patient for 14-17 hours every day. But when it comes to providing decent accommodation to them, you will discriminate and provide five-star rooms only to doctors. We are not undermining anyones contribution in a patients treatment, but this bias is unacceptable, said Jai Veer Singh, president of the Joint Federation of Nurses, a nursing staff union in Delhi-NCR. He also said the government has been issuing a different order every day, the brunt of which has to borne by health care workers. When it started, the government announced that all doctors, nurses and paramedics will be given five-star accommodation. But when we need alternative accommodation more than anything, the government has been releasing caveats, Singh said. Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain did not respond to several calls and text messages requesting comment. Dr Chhavi Gupta, who is in charge of accommodation of medical teams at the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital for Covid-19 treatment, said they have roped in guest houses and a dharamshala in the area, where middle- and lower-level medical staff will now be housed. Doctors, nurses and paramedical staff will get accommodation facilities according to their entitlement. Initially, when the order was announced to provide alternative lodging for hospital staff, we had checked them into five-star hotels, but that was a stopgap arrangement. Now we have managed to get guest houses to come on board, she said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Soumya Pillai Soumya Pillai covers environment and traffic in Delhi. A journalist for three years, she has grown up in and with Delhi, which is often reflected in the stories she does about life in the city. She also enjoys writing on social innovations. ...view detail A homemade bomb was found at the Hong Kong police headquarters on Monday in a parcel addressed to the head of the police forces, the Hong Kong police said, sternly condemning the perpetrators and warning against homegrown terrorism. Staff at the police headquarters received on Monday morning a suspicious parcel addressed to Chris Tang Ping-keung, commissioner of police of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government. As the parcel smelt of flammable materials, officers of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau (EODB) were called to the scene to examine the parcel, and confirmed that there was an improvised explosive devise in it. The EODB officers safely disposed of the bomb. No one was injured. They are investigating into the bomb's composition, Senior Superintendent Ng Wing-sze of the Hong Kong Island Regional Crime Headquarters said at a media briefing on Monday afternoon. According to Hong Kong's Crimes Ordinance, any person who unlawfully and maliciously causes an explosion could be liable to imprisonment for life, Ng noted. "Obviously, the persons who designed and sent out this explosive device have the intention to cause injuries to the person who receives and opens the parcel." "Improvised explosive devises are usually unstable and could detonate in transit, causing injuries to innocent people," she said. "The police sternly condemn the perpetrators' extremely irresponsible acts that disregard the safety of others and openly challenge the law enforcement agencies." The police will try their best to investigate into the case and make arrests, she added. The police's Senior Bomb Disposal Officer Alick McWhirter said at the briefing that the homemade bomb is "partially functioned" and "victim operated". "It was designed to function by whoever opens the parcel. They would be the victim, whether that be a police officer, a civilian, or a member of the post office, for example," he added. McWhirter said the postal bomb was meant to cause injuries to the victim as the person who opens the package could be in very close proximity to the bomb and would be targeted in the hands, eyes and face. "These types of device, postal homemade bombs, have been commonly used by terrorists around the world over the past few decades," he said. "And sadly, today, this is yet another indication that in Hong Kong we are still dealing with homegrown terrorism." The Uttar Pradesh Police has registered more than 24,000 FIRs and booked over 71,000 people so far for defying Covid-19 lockdown norms, news agency PTI reported. They were booked under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant. To strictly implement the lockdown in districts, police registered 24,446 FIRs against 71,782 violaters after the lockdown orders, Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Awasthi told PTI. These people were released on bail to avoid pressure on jails, he added. The official said during this period, police recovered more than Rs 9.5 crore as fine from those violating the lockdown. Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said that 1,184 people have been infected from Covid-19 in the state. While 140 people have recovered, 18 have died from the infection in the state. The government on Monday sanctioned Rs 46,038.70 crore to be transferred to states as their share in central taxes and duties amounting for April 2020 that will help them in fighting Covid-19 pandemic, the ministry of finance said in a tweet. According to the finance ministry, the share of Uttar Pradesh in the pie is Rs 8,255.19 crore. Uttar Pradesh permitted 11 types of industries such as cement, textile and paper to resume production from Monday with 50 per cent staff and strict hygiene and social distancing conditions. New Delhi/Washington, April 21 : Pakistan has discreetly removed the names of around 4,000 terrorists from its watchlist, including that of one of the major planners of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup has revealed. Due to Pakistan's long history of exporting terror to India and the rest of the world, the country has been placed under grey list by Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog for terror funding. Dissatisfied with Pakistan's efforts to curb terror-funding, the FATF in February noted that Islamabad had addressed only 14 points out of 27 conditions to get off the grey list. The FATF is to again evaluate Pakistan's progress in June. The New York-based startup Castellum, which automates watchlist compliance, has found that in the last year and a half, Pakistan has deleted "3,800 names from the Proscribed Persons List, without explanation or notification to the public". The Imran Khan government removed about 1,800 names from its terrorist watchlist since March 9th "without any public explanation, including Zaka ur-Rehman, an alias of the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader and alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks", the Castellum report said. According to a FATF report, Pakistan's terrorist watchlist had about 7,600 names in October 2018. Castellum.AI, which regularly uses new data sources, added the Pakistan Proscribed Persons List to its database on March 9. Between March 9 and March 27, Castellum.AI data showed that the Khan government removed 1,069 names from the Proscribed Persons List, and that all those names then appeared on Pakistan's official denotified list. Since March 27, another 800 or so names have been deleted. To ensure that the AI looked at only the most likely cases where internationally listed terrorists were removed, the startup first downloaded the official Denotified List, then screening the names against its watchlist database. Following this, the AI removed all matches that did not match all name parts and removed all matches where the listed persons were not citizens of Afghanistan or Pakistan (the Proscribed Persons list seems to only have these two groups). Then the AI ensured that exculpatory information does not exist, for example, IDs that do not match, or news reports that the individual is deceased. The AI also ensured that the name, if not exact, matches an official alias. For example, Zaka Ur Rehman, who is more commonly known as Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, but has an official alias 'Zaki Ur Rehman'. "In the case of Zaka Ur Rehman, the difference between Zaka and Zaki fits within the parameters of an accurate phonetic translation. Castellum.AI also searched for the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader's full name, Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, on the Pakistan Proscribed Persons list, and he was not on the list. This means that if the removed name is a false positive, that Pakistan has not added the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader to its terrorism watchlist," the report said. Pakistan's Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) lead, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), has provided no explanation for removal of the names. Castellum.AI provided data to the Wall Street Journal who in turn contacted the Pakistani government for comment. On April 15, an article was published in a Pakistani newspaper, saying that names were removed because "the list has been bloated up to 7,000 names with multiple inaccuracies such as the names of dead individuals, Afghan nationals, untraceable names without proper identifiers". -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, said on Sunday that about 17 hospitals in the state have reached out to the Ministry of Health for assistance for being inadvertently exposed to coronavirus (COVID-19)patients. My Abayomi said the ministry through one of its agencies, Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFEMAA), is helping the hospitals decontaminate while it has recommended that some of them stop admitting patients until the process is complete. Mr Abayomi said on Sunday that a total number of 14 deaths have been recorded in Lagos, while only two of the 14 deaths happened at the state governments facility. They have to go through a process of Infection prevention and control training of all their staff and if they go through the HEFAMAA certification, they will receive guidelines on how to manage COVID-19 patients in the future should the case arise where government will partner with private sector to manage COVID-19. This scenario may present itself if we begin to see very large numbers of cases on a day-to-day basis and the Lagos state facility may be overwhelmed, Mr Abayomi said. Mr Abayomi said the state is preparing the private sector through strict guidelines and certification on management and containment of COVID-19. READ ALSO: He said the ministry is actively engaging the private sector, training health workers, and increasing isolation and holding facility. The commissioner added that testing capacity has increased in the state with each of the testing facilities testing 200 at a shift and a total of 1000 test per day. Were no longer waiting for people to reach out to the state, but going into communities to identify cases, he said. Mr Abayomi said the state is increasing collaboration between the public and private sector to cope with the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, including massive training of health personnel in infection prevention and control. Dowling recovering at home after long hospital stay State Rep. Matthew Dowling has returned home after suffering a one-vehicle crash in October. Dowling represents parts of Somerset County. A London hospital trust has opened a 3D printing farm to produce 1,500 face visors a day for frontline staff. Guys and St Thomas NHS trust has teamed up with 3D printing firms and enthusiasts and has more than 200 machines working 24 hours a day to create the protective shields. They are being made at the trusts supply hub in Dartford and are being shared with other NHS hospitals. The shields are being assembled by volunteers including staff and students at Kings College London and Brunel universities and volunteers from the 3D printing community. David Lawson, chief procurement officer at Guys and St Thomas, said it had been incredible seeing the collaboration, adding: Being able to print our own stock will also allow us to support other trusts in need of these items. 3D printing specialist iMakr has provided many of the printers. Its chief executive Sylvain Preumont said it was proud that its expertise was providing essential support to frontline NHS teams. Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast The CPI(M) Maharashtra State Committee condemned the lynching of three persons, including two sadhus, at Gadchinchale village in Palghar district of Maharashtra and denounced the BJP's attempts to give a communal colour to the killings. The incident took place on April 16 night when three men from Kandivali in neighbouring Mumbai were travelling to Surat in a car. The vehicle was stopped and the trio was beaten to death with sticks by a mob on suspicion that they were thieves. In an official release on Monday,the CPI(M)'s state committee demanded strict action against the accused and an inquiry into the incident. The party said it denounced the BJP-RSS's false claims of communal angle in the killings and alleged that the saffron party was indulging in a smear campaign to discredit the state government. "We also strongly denounce the lies and canards that are being spread on Facebook by RSS-BJP leaders Sambit Patra, Sunil Deodhar and others. They have said that the Dahanu Assembly constituency, where the incident occurred, is a CPI (M) stronghold and alleged that the CPI(M) is behind these killings," the party release alleged. Gadchinchale village, where these killings took place, was under BJP for the last 10 years and party member Chitra Choudhari was a sarpanch there, the CPI(M) stated, alleging that several accused in the case were in fact BJP men. The CPI(M) also claimed that the police had gone into overdrive by arresting innocent people from other villages, in a bid to cover up their negligence. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After yesterday's historic crash which left the West Texas Intermediate U.S. benchmark settling at -$37, panic is beginning to spread through markets, with Brent crude oil prices plummeting by over 20 percent into the $18 range in early morning trading. The drop, sparked by a perfect storm of COVID-19 fueled demand destruction and global crude storage facilities reaching their limits, is unlike anything markets have ever seen. And it's left every even the most. veteran industry players scratching their heads. From Asia to North America, all over the world oil producers and traders are looking for just one thing - a place to put their unwanted products. Supertankers are in high demand and often left idling offshore as on-shore facilities are out of space. In the North Sea, for example, vessels have been parked for days, loaded with gasoline and jet fuel with nowhere to go. Even the world's largest oil storage firm, Vopak, which operates three main facilities in Singapore, Rotterdam and Fujairah, is saying they're at capacity. Gerard Paulides, the chief financial officer of Rotterdam-based Royal Vopak NV, noted that For Vopak, worldwide available capacity that is not in maintenance is almost all gone and from what I hear elsewhere in the world were not the only ones. Premium: Oil Storage Nears Its Limit In addition to the storage crisis and COVID-19 fueled demand destruction, Oilprice.com reported that a wave of oil from Saudi Arabia was heading to U.S. shores. And with little commercial space available, the additional crude could potentially force deeper production cuts in the U.S. shale patch in the coming months, an issue that has been the center of a heated debate in Texas. The Texas Railroad Commission is set to meet again later today to discuss the crisis. Last week the three commissioners failed to come to an agreement regarding mandated cuts across the state, but with WTI prices dropping by 300% yesterday, free-market or not, the commissioners might just change their tune. By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: From Riyadh to Moscow and Houston, oil producers are considering cutting oil output to arrest historic price crash. Oil markets remained mired in turmoil on Tuesday as Texas regulators held off voting against mandated production curbs and a group of smaller OPEC members and cartel allies held an emergency phone meeting to discuss further output cuts a day after a US crude crash plunged prices into negative territory for the first time. The contract for May delivery of US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude expired on Tuesday, hitting a low of -$16.74 before settling at $10.01 a barrel. With crude storage space in the US reaching capacity, traders are loath to get locked into taking delivery of oil with nowhere to park it. Those oversupply concerns spilled into the June WTI contract, which plunged nearly 34 percent to settle at $11.57 a barrel. Global benchmark Brent crude, which also got swept up by supply concerns, settled below $20 a barrel. Shale firms throughout the US are feeling the pain from the slump in prices. Many have started closing wells and thousands of oil and gas workers have been laid off in recent weeks. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he has asked his administration to come up with a plan to throw a financial lifeline to US shale companies. We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!, President Trump wrote on Twitter. But the US federal government has little power to influence oil output. State regulators like the Texas Railroad Commission have the authority to limit production but two of the three commissioners voted against forcing producers to curb oil output on Tuesday. Asking oil producers to halt production has not been done in the US since 1972. All three commissioners, who said they would revisit the issue on May 5, also stated that other top producing states like North Dakota and Oklahoma would have to get on board with cuts. North Dakotas oil regulator on Tuesday agreed to evaluate providing assistance to the states oil producers that would help them restart shut-in wells. North Dakota is the second-largest oil-producing state after Texas and also holds the authority to order producers to curb output. Oklahomas regulator will hear arguments on the matter next month. But the states do not seem entirely united on the issue. Only one of the three Texas commissioners said he was ready to cut output by 1 million barrels per day, or 20 percent, while the other two said they would ask the attorney general to weigh in on the legality of forcing production cuts. We in the United States have generally been in favour of free markets, including with oil, Samantha Gross, an energy and climate fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Al Jazeera. Producers are looking at it this way: The costs I have spent drilling the oil are already gone. Im looking at what the next barrel will cost me to produce and if I can afford that, I will keep producing. Indeed, some of the largest and most influential oil companies, Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp have opposed production limits. The costs of shutting down wells are extremely high. It is not just turning a valve, Gross said. But as production continues and the storage hub at Cushing, Oklahoma nears maximum capacity, analysts warn that what occurred on Monday an historic nosedive into negative territory could happen at the end of each month until the coronavirus crisis gets resolved. Still, Gross stressed that WTI dipping 300 percentage points is not the best representation of what is going on in global oil markets. Pain everywhere Ive been telling people over the past 18 hours if you want to get an idea of whats really going on with oil prices look at Brent because it is a better representative of the global oil situation, she said. But we will see these market gyrations until we get control again. Brent, which also saw a new low on Tuesday, may need to crash lower before producers decide to shut down production. You need producers to look at the economics and say: Yes, we need to shut-in. It wouldnt shock me if Brent hit single digits at some point, Gross added. As prices tumble, countries that rely heavily on crude sales to fund their state budgets like Nigeria, Algeria, and many others will feel the squeeze. Even Saudi Arabia, whose state coffers are generously padded to weather a slump in prices, is feeling the pinch of decimated crude prices and badly damaged demand from coronavirus containment measures. The longer-term geopolitical consequences are completely dependent upon global economic recovery, Gregory Gause, head of the International Affairs Department at Texas A&M University, told Al Jazeera. A slow recovery that keeps oil prices down below $20 would mean heightened risk of political instability throughout the oil-producing world. It would strain cooperation in OPEC because the members would not see the benefit of their cutbacks. Back on April 12, OPEC and its allies, including Russia, announced a record-breaking agreement to curb oil production, amounting to almost 10 percent of global supplies. But with economies virtually shut down to stem the spread of coronavirus, demand for oil has dropped by an unprecedented 30 percent. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that top global oil producers could hold talks again to discuss their output deal further if needed. And Riyadh also on Tuesday signalled it was ready to take extra measures to stabilise oil markets. Theres pain everywhere because of oil, Gross added. Its crazy but not quite as crazy as oil becoming worthless forever. BAY CITY, MI With Michigan school buildings closed under Gov. Gretchen Whitmers COVID-19 emergency plan, local districts have begun distributing worksheet packets for students to finish the school year. Pinconning Area School District in Bay County began delivering packets to students Monday, April 20. Buses left Pinconning High School around 10 a.m. to drop off packets at district bus stops. Deb Szasranski, a kindergarten teacher from Pinconnings Central Elementary, said the district decided to offer packets to accommodate the abilities of younger students and those who may not have access to internet. I teach kindergarten, so online-only was going to be scary, she said. Parents wanted something tangible students could take to do. Szasranskis parents told her they thought a combination of online and packet learning would be best. Many students have parents who are essential workers, so they have to drop children off at a relatives house, where they may or may not have reliable internet. Szasranski, who also serves as the department head for kindergarten through second grade, met with her fellow teachers a few times after the school closed. They decided to create elementary packets that involved activities such as cutting, gluing, writing and other fine motor skills younger children cannot develop on a computer. Each elementary grade will also be assigned and given books to read based on their reading level. Parents are asked to help their kindergarteners work on sight words, which are lists of words children are expected to memorize, Szasranski said. Older grade levels will work on packets based on different academic subjects covered in their classes. Most schools in the district are asking students or parents to send completed packet activities as photos or videos to their teachers, according to Szasranski. Szasranski said the new remote learning model will use a combination of packets and technology to help students continue progressing in their academic careers. Bay City Public Schools will also use a variety of online and remote learning to finish the rest of the academic year. Chief Academic Officer Patrick Malley said packets will be delivered Monday, April 27, at the districts lunch distribution sites. Online learning will begin Monday, April 20, and teachers will have a week to identify students who will need work packets delivered to them. Students or parents who opt to have a packet are asked to send photos of completed work to teachers through an app called Remind. We are not asking parents to drop them back off, Malley said. We do not think those additional interactions are beneficial. Shelly DuCharme, Bay City Public Schools director of elementary education, added that the packets will closely align with the online work that other students will be completing. Both options will follow the districts curriculum standards. Teachers at all grade levels were asked to ensure the packets were more than just busy work" and to make sure they include hands-on activities. The focus is on creating lessons that focus on what we call depth of knowledge strategies, so very intentionally creating paper packets, she said. There will be a lot of activities or directions that say create something, draw or write, so theyre not just completing busy work. The district also announced that letter grades will be switched to either complete or incomplete credits for the current semester. Malley said most schools in Michigan have opted to do so, and universities have indicated that having a credit opposed to letter grade on student transcripts will not affect students ability to be accepted into universities. Theres so many variables that go into the grade and so many different grading practices that there was just no way to say for matter of fact, Yes, this student earned this letter grade, Malley said. In the Bangor John Glenn District, printed learning packets will be available for pickup or delivery if a student does not have access to technology. Learning packets can be picked up from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and Fridays at the high school beginning April 27. Information about plans for education at Garber High School in the Essexville Hampton School District can be found here. Read More How school districts in Bay, Saginaw and Midland counties plan to finish the school year Bay City Public Schools loaning Chromebook laptops for students in need during coronavirus shutdown Bay City Public Schools begins free meal distribution to students Michigans high school class of 2020 just wants a final goodbye Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday interacted with principals of over 300 private schools through video-conference and discussed teaching strategies to be adopted during online classes. Considering the unusual times we all are going through, students should not suffer. We need to take utmost care while dealing with this issue. So let the students attend the online classes even if their parents are unable to pay their fees, Sisodia said. During the discussion that went on for over an hour, the principals shared their strategies of supporting studies using online devices. Our focus has been not only to help the kids cope with this current situation, but also to support parents to engage with their children. We have send a daily exercise or activity through SMS and IVR to parents phones for students of classes Nursery to 8, said Shailendra Sharma, the advisor to the education director. These activities guide parents to get involved with their kids and support the learning like a teacher. To build on this, and to bring the family closer in this tumultuous situation where all of us are confined to our homes, we launched Happiness Classes to be conducted by our trained teachers which is streamed online everyday at 4 pm. The idea behind all this effort is to help every home become a school, and every parent taking on the role of a teacher, he added. According to Tagore International School Principal Nikita Mann, We are concerned about the EWS students and we are delighted to inform you that we are able to bring 100 per cent of the EWS students on board for online classes. Focus for primary classes is on taking numeracy and literacy instead of homework. North Koreas leader is facing a health crisis, according to multiple reports. Kim Jong Un is in grave danger after undergoing surgery, a U.S. official told CNN Monday evening. The dictator reportedly underwent a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month and was receiving treatment, according to a Reuters report earlier on Monday. Questions about Kims health started on April 15, when he failed to appear for celebrations of the birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, CNN reported. Former CIA deputy division chief for North Korea Bruce Klingner told CNN that health problems would explain his absence at the April 15th celebration, which is the countrys most important holiday. RELATED: North Korea Says Donald Trump Sent Kim Jong Un a Letter Offering Coronavirus Aid: Report There have been a number of recent rumors about Kims health (smoking, heart, and brain). If Kim is hospitalized, it would explain why he wasnt present on the important April 15th celebrations, Klingner, who is a Heritage Foundation senior research fellow, told the outlet. But, over the years, there have been a number of false health rumors about Kim Jong-un or his father, Klinger added. Well have to wait and see. RELATED: Trump Sets Foot in North Korea as Critics Slam Him for Getting Cozy with Dictator Kim Jong Un However, John Delury, an international relations professor at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, warned to CNN, Its easy to be wrong on this one. Reuters reported that according to unnamed sources who spoke with Daily NK, smoking and obesity had contributed to the dictators declining health, which prompted the procedure on April 12. It is unclear what exactly the procedure was. According to CNN, Kim was last seen on state media on April 11. South Koreas Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service could not confirm U.S. news reports of Kims poor health condition, the Associated Press reported. The outlet reported that the South Korean government was looking into the reports on Monday night. Regulatory News: GenSight Biologics (Paris:SIGHT) (Euronext: SIGHT, ISIN: FR0013183985, PEA-PME eligible), a biopharma company focused on discovering and developing innovative gene therapies for retinal neurodegenerative diseases and central nervous system disorders, today reported its cash position as of March 31, 2020, and provided an operational update. "Following our pre-submission meeting with the European Medicines Agency (EMA), we are confirming our intention to submit LUMEVOQ for European approval in September 2020, as planned," commented Bernard Gilly, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of GenSight Biologics. "We are eager to collaborate with the EMA's review team in this last mile to possible approval and commercialization of LUMEVOQ in Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, the first asset developed from our leading Mitochondrial Targeting Sequence technology platform." Cash position and financing runway GenSight Biologics' cash and cash equivalents totaled 12.8 million as of March 31, 2020, compared to 19.2 million as of December 31, 2019. The cash burn in the first quarter of 2020 principally reflects the conduct of all clinical trials of LUMEVOQ (GS010) in the treatment of Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, mainly the REFLECT Phase III trial, as well as the PIONEER Phase I/II trial of GS030 in the treatment of Retinitis Pigmentosa. The Company also focused on final steps of pharmaceutical development for LUMEVOQ in preparation for a marketing authorization filing in Europe. These are mainly preparatory activities to ensure manufacturing readiness to commercialize under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). The Company is financed until the end of 2020 and is investigating other financing options through debt or equity, focusing particularly on several non-dilutive financing initiatives promoted by the French government and Bpifrance in addition to existing commitments from Kreos Capital for up to 6 million. The Company also expects the reimbursement in 2020 of the 2019 Research Tax Credit for an amount of 4.2 million. "We are now actively working on extending our financing runway to 2021, primarily investigating non-dilutive opportunities," commented Thomas Gidoin, Chief Financial Officer of GenSight Biologics. "The additional tranches from the bond issuance with Kreos Capital, together with potential revenues from the Temporary Authorization for Use of LUMEVOQ in France, could also provide further resources and runway." Temporary Authorization for Use (ATU) of LUMEVOQ A patient was treated with LUMEVOQ under a first Temporary Authorization for Use (ATU) granted by the French National Drug Safety Agency (Agence Nationale de Securite du Medicament or ANSM) in December 2019. A second patient was treated early 2020, and several additional ATUs have been requested and are being reviewed by the ANSM. GenSight Biologics has committed to provide the drug for potential additional requests, limited to available stock. These bilateral injections are priced at 700,000 per patient and are expected to generate revenues in 2020. Hospitals focusing their resources on the current COVID-19 situation may delay requesting additional ATUs as well as the treatment of patients in the next few weeks. GenSight Biologics expects any delays to be overcome as soon as patients regain normal access to their treatment site, with no material impact on the related revenues expected in 2020; this will be more precisely assessed as soon as the situation improves. In addition, the Company is discussing with the ANSM the possibility to broaden individual named patient ATUs to a cohort ATU as soon as feasible to further facilitate access to LUMEVOQ for patients in Europe. European Submission of LUMEVOQ on track for September 2020 GenSight Biologics met with the EMA on March 19, 2020, at the pre-submission meeting for LUMEVOQ. During this meeting, the EMA confirmed the information needed for the Company's September regulatory submission. The agency also provided updated guidance on various administrative topics, as well as advice on topics to be discussed in the meetings between the Company and the Rapporteurs and Co-rapporteurs planned for June 2020. Based on this meeting with the EMA, GenSight Biologics confirmed its intention to submit the MAA for LUMEVOQ in September 2020, as planned. PIONEER Phase I/II clinical trial of GS030 DSMB confirmed moving to maximal dose The independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) completed its second planned safety review of the ongoing PIONEER Phase I/II clinical trial of GS030, GenSight's novel product combining gene therapy and optogenetics for the treatment of Retinitis Pigmentosa. The DSMB confirmed the absence of any safety issues for the second cohort of three subjects who received the dose of 1.5e11 vg, and recommended moving forward as planned without any modification in the protocol and recruiting the third cohort of three subjects who are to receive the maximal dose of 5e11 vg. Number of outstanding shares As of March 31, 2020, GenSight Biologics' number of outstanding shares was 32,827,362 ordinary shares. GenSight Biologics will report its interim financial statements and cash position as of June 30, 2020 on July 30, 2020. About GenSight Biologics GenSight Biologics S.A. is a clinical-stage biopharma company focused on discovering and developing innovative gene therapies for retinal neurodegenerative diseases and central nervous system disorders. GenSight Biologics' pipeline leverages two core technology platforms, the Mitochondrial Targeting Sequence (MTS) and optogenetics to help preserve or restore vision in patients suffering from blinding retinal diseases. GenSight Biologics' lead product candidate, LUMEVOQ (GS010; lenadogene nolparvovec), is in Phase III trials in Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON), a rare mitochondrial disease that leads to irreversible blindness in teens and young adults. Using its gene therapy-based approach, GenSight Biologics' product candidates are designed to be administered in a single treatment to the eye by intravitreal injection to offer patients a sustainable functional visual recovery. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005952/en/ Contacts: GenSight Biologics Thomas Gidoin Chief Financial Officer tgidoin@gensight-biologics.com +33 (0)1 76 21 72 20 RooneyPartners Media Relations Marion Janic mjanic@rooneyco.com +1-212-223-4017 LifeSci Advisors Investor Relations Guillaume van Renterghem gvanrenterghem@lifesciadvisors.com +33 (0)6 69 99 37 83 James Palmer Retail Investors j.palmer@orpheonfinance.com +33 (0)7 60 92 77 74 [April 21, 2020] The Graide Network Launches Administrator Dashboard to Help K-12 Districts Bounce Back Stronger CHICAGO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- When students return to the classroom next fall, schools must work to overcome the lasting impacts of extended closures, chief among them lost learning time. The Graide Network's new administrator dashboard will help K-12 districts rise to the challenge and be ready to meet the needs of every student. Pandemic aside, recent polls and surveys show that parents, teachers, and school administrators agree that teaching students how to write is a core responsibility of K-12 education. Yet, the latest nation's report card shows that just 27% of high school seniors are proficient in writing. The Graide Network has observed four primary barriers to effective writing instruction that almost every school struggles with: teacher time, unconscious bias, alignment, and accountability. School closures resulting from the global health crisis have exacerbated these structural challeges, exposing an urgent need for a new way forward. To overcome these barriers and better prepare for next year, The Graide Network has launched an administrator dashboard. This tool helps schools and districts successfully implement a rigorous writing plan, ensuring teachers are supported, aligned, and data-driven and students have the personalized feedback and individual support they need to grow. Features of the new dashboard include: An aligned writing plan . Map out common writing goals, prompts, rubrics, and benchmarks to ensure rigorous writing instruction and high-quality feedback are happening with fidelity. . Map out common writing goals, prompts, rubrics, and benchmarks to ensure rigorous writing instruction and high-quality feedback are happening with fidelity. Real-time, robust student writing data . Access real-time, objective scores and qualitative feedback to assess performance trends, draw insights, and measure progress during the school year. . Access real-time, objective scores and qualitative feedback to assess performance trends, draw insights, and measure progress during the school year. Tracking and accountability . Monitor teacher usage, view assignments, and feel confident every classroom is on track. . Monitor teacher usage, view assignments, and feel confident every classroom is on track. Equity and access. Provide every student - with and without laptop access, in classroom or remote - with more opportunities for writing, high-quality feedback, and individual support. K-12 administrators are tasked with a more challenging job than ever as they navigate the global health crisis and plan for what is sure to be a critically important rebuilding year. Visit https://www.thegraidenetwork.com/admin-dashboard to learn more. About The Graide Network The Graide Network is building better writers through its online platform of feedback and grading support to K-12 schools. Contact: Liz Nell Head of Partnerships 312-967-4084 [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-graide-network-launches-administrator-dashboard-to-help-k-12-districts-bounce-back-stronger-301044461.html SOURCE The Graide Network LLC [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Cheryl A. Wall, an author and longtime Rutgers University professor who helped elevate Zora Neale Hurston and other black women into English literature curriculums, died on April 4 at her home in Highland Park, N.J. She was 71. The cause was complications of an asthma attack, her daughter, Camara Epps, said. In a teaching career of nearly five decades, Dr. Wall championed racial diversity both in the curriculum and the classroom. She encouraged more black students to major in English and pursue postgraduate degrees. And she widened the scope of literary scholarship to include black novelists, poets and nonfiction authors as well as essayists, whom she considered central to the black literary tradition. From its earliest iteration, the African American essay endorsed the democratic ideals the nation professed, while condemning its failure to fulfill them, Dr. Wall wrote in On Freedom and the Will to Adorn: The Art of the African American Essay (2018). She contrasted W.E.B. Du Boiss self-conscious vision of blackness with Hurstons bravado that when she is discriminated against, she feels merely astonished that anyone can deny themselves the pleasure of my company. Kevin O'Leary disagreed with fellow "Shark Tank" investor Mark Cuban, saying Tuesday he believes publicly traded companies that qualify should not hesitate to access money through the newly created small business loan program. "You have a fiduciary responsibility when the government lays out a program to use it because you have no idea how long this pandemic is going to go for, when or if there's going to be therapeutics or a vaccine," O'Leary said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "You just don't know." O'Leary, known as "Mr. Wonderful" on "Shark Tank," was responding to comments made on Monday by Cuban. The billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks criticized companies such as Shake Shack for applying for loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, part of last month's $2.2 trillion outbreak relief package. The burger chain initially received a $10 million loan through the program. But days later, the company announced it would be returning the money after accessing accessing other kinds of capital through the public markets. It also said the rules for the program were confusing. Ruth's Chris Steak House and Potbelly also disclosed they have accessed PPP loans, which are available for businesses with 500 or fewer employees. Hotel chains and large restaurants were able to get an exemption for locations that have less than 500 workers. O'Leary, chairman of O'Shares ETFs, said it is "valid" for companies to make a "marketing decision" to return the money after facing criticism. But he said he believes the uncertainty around the coronavirus pandemic and the lost revenues associated with it is too great to not tap into every type of government support. "If I were a shareholder of Shake Shack, and I'm not, I would've questioned that decision" to return the money. He added, "They'll look pretty foolish if a year from now we're still talking about this pandemic in the same way." Shake Shack did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on O'Leary's comments. Randy Garutti, CEO of Shake Shack, told CNBC on Monday the company had secured its "long-term stability." In returning the PPP money, he said, "now it's time for us to help our friends in the industry do the same." The Paycheck Protection Program was initially funded with $349 billion, but it ran out of money last week. The Senate could potentially vote on Tuesday to add money to the program. Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank," on which Kevin O'Leary is a co-host. Beijing made it clear in 1999 that when it went to war with the US it would be a new kind of war. Peoples Republic of China (PRC) Pres. Xi Jinping then announced in October 2018 that he had begun a new 30 Years War with the US. But there seemed to be no Pearl Harbor moment, so the rest of the world disregarded the declaration of war. That was a mistake. It became clear that the 2020 COVID-19-inspired global fear pandemic laid out the battlefield terrain and saw the opening shots emerge from the PRC in a variety of strategic formats. To be sure, COVID-19 was not itself the Pearl Harbor moment; it was the subsequent fear pandemic which drove down the global economy. Beijing could not wait any longer to begin strategic operations the new form of total war if it was to survive as a global power and to assume primacy within its symbolic 30 year timeframe. Shakespeare once noted: There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. From Beijings standpoint, given that the PRC economy was already in massive decline, it was critical that the economies of its strategic rivals should also be forced into decline. That may or may not have been a planned aspect of the PRCs COVID-19 response strategy, but it certainly was quickly adopted by Beijing. In other words, if the PRC could not reverse its economic decline, its strategic competitiveness moving forward was critically dependent upon seeing its rivals decline commensurately, or even become crippled. It was not a race to the top; it was a race to avoid being first to the bottom. And from Beijings standpoint, too, this was to be a war engaging broad-form population warfare strategies, particularly harnessed to electronic communications, in turn linked to a range of strategic and tactical psychological and psychopolitical operations. That was clear from the benchmark PRC 1999 study, Unrestricted Warfare, which has now emerged literally as the textbook of the new total war against the US and the West. It was also all connected, as far as Beijing was concerned, to economic and social warfare, including population warfare, on a variety of levels. And only tangentially in the short-term was military force projection a component. Military confrontation involved risk if, for example, the US was to be directly engaged with force. So it was a strategy by which the PRC required the weakening and splitting of what otherwise would be an overwhelming adversary alliance. - A fundamental tenet of the engagement by Beijing was to split the US away from its traditional allies, exploiting schisms which have been festering and expanding since the end of the Cold War. - The parallel tenet was and is to then split the internal populations of US and its allies by exacerbating and supporting existing societal schisms. By such means are solid and cohesive adversaries broken down to be challenged piecemeal, and then each of the separate adversaries weakened internally and prevented from achieving unfettered and decisive action even at a national level. If an adversary is fighting within itself or preoccupied with domestic issues it cannot pose a threat. Splittist has long been a particularly vitriolic epithet used by Chinese communists to denigrate those who split away from the Communist Party of China (CPC), or attempted to split the country away from the CPC. Now, splitting strategies are employed against the enemies of the CPC. Beijings approach was learned from the Western strategy of the Cold War, which was to exacerbate to the point of fracture the Peoples Republic of China links with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the USSR). To drive a wedge into the Sino-Soviet rift. Beijing understood this when it allowed itself to be part of that Sino-Soviet splitting operation when CPC Chairman Mao Zedong met with US Pres. Richard Nixon on February 21, 1972. At that time, the Soviet-PRC alliance was one of convenience, but it was never an easy match. Indeed, the Russian Federation modus vivendi with the PRC by 2020 it would be difficult to call it an alliance was fraught with as much mutual suspicion as the Sino-Soviet link of the Cold War. Now Beijing has begun to apply that splitting technique against the West itself. But, as central as that process is to PRC strategy or, more accurately, to the strategy of the CPC, which is as much aimed at subduing the Chinese people as foreign societies it is only one component which would enable the PRC, economically in decline and militarily no match for even the US let alone the formerly close Western set of alliances, to have a chance at strategic success. Moreover, it should not be assumed that it is the CPC alone which has moved onto a war footing and which saw the new conflict as an amorphous total war: a total war which has taken on absolutely new dimensions from the shape of total war in the 20th Century. US Pres. Donald Trump began moving the US from a passive acceptance of PRC strategic expansionism which had been underway for two decades at least in 2017, and then moved into defensive strategic economic policies by late 2019. Trump knew the PRC was at war with the US the moment his Administration took office in January 2017. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was also by that time already aware of the war, and was preparing Japan for it. The COVID-19-related upheaval meant that, by early 2020, the prime ministers of Australia and the United Kingdom were also gradually coming aboard with the reality that they had been forced onto a war footing. What is significant is the degree to which public opinion in Africa generally, and in Australia, South-East Asia, the US, parts of Europe, and so on, has moved against the PRC as a result of the way in which Beijing has postured itself during the crisis. The CPC or at least Pres. Xi Jinping does not seem to care. The velvet glove has been removed to some extent. It has begun to take advantage of the cover of the crisis to step up actions against rebellious elements in its autonomous Hong Kong region, for example, and to move its sole operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, into the South China Sea to highlight the perception that its armed forces have not been constrained by the COVID-19 crisis in the same way that the US and French navies have been. But nowhere, however, was the extent of the war the type of the war discussed or understood. It is a global total war; one in which all elements of society, indeed of all societies, are conscripted. I have written extensively on this in a new book which will appear in the coming months. This is not a black swan event there is no such thing but it is finally a clarification of the dynamic framework which has been emerging for the 21st Century. It is also worth noting that although the Xi strategy may be ambitious and innovative, it does not necessarily involve any real understanding of the US or the world by Pres. Xi, and more than most of the world understands Xis personal fusion of China. Arguably, Xis view of China and its destiny is akin to the mythical view which Hitler had of and for Germany. But now Xi has committed the PRC to a strategic course of action. That is the physical component. So the planning can begin, by other states, as to how to deal with that PRC action. 1. How Societies Revive Economic, social, and strategic recovery in any society beset by major crisis requires clean-sheet approaches and decisive steps to sweep away impediments to revival. This is impossible and usually undesirable in normal conditions, and even in a crisis it is difficult unless societies and government agree that extraordinary steps are permitted. In all of this should be understood the basic concept, angrily refuted by statists, that it is not the job of governments to control societies; it is the job of societies to control government. But, in the present climate of widespread fear for the future, the fact that societies also fear change means that: (a) The appearance of normalcy and continuity of institutions must be maintained as far as possible, and the utilization and revival of familiar, iconic, symbols, instruments, language, and faces is desirable; and (b) The reality that massive change and threat has already been visited upon society means that substantive, planned, further underlying change is now more possible. In other words, change has already occurred: use it to Remold it nearer to the Hearts Desire!, as Omar Khayyam suggested. But what that desire is, or should be, then becomes the primary question. In the 2020 context, these factors were true as much for the PRC as for the US, UK, European Union (EU), or any other country. The difference in the application of the necessity to clearly specify what outcome is desired, however, lies in the goals and paths which each government wishes for its society. Every major conflict tends to allow a government to increase its dominance over a society in order to combat an existential threat. How much that dominance is subsequently relaxed following the threat shows the difference between command economies - essentially socialist autocracies by definition - and classical democracies. What has been significant in the early response to the fear pandemic which was triggered by the COVID-19 crisis is that many Western nation states actually began adopting permanent changes which would move their societies closer to the command status normally associated with communist or socialist-fascist autocracies. In this regard, my colleague, Prof. Yuri Maltsev, cites Friedrich Nietzsche: Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. Apart from the move toward greater control over economies, the move toward cashless societies, toward the implementation of technology-enabled control of individuals (enabling total surveillance and obedience, for example) by definition changes the nature of the societies. But does greater control over an economy and the minimizing of social freedom lead to the kind of longer-term strategic recovery which was ostensibly the declared goal of combating the immediate threat? In other words, like suicide, is it a long-term solution to a short-term problem? Is it a successful operation which kills the patient? Crisis provides the opportunity for many actions. Things can be achieved in chaos which could never be accomplished in calm. Positive and negative things. The view of statists, usually, is that the answer to a crisis is more government. That, of course, is antithetical to the free movement and thought of the individual, and therefore alien to entrepreneurship and productivity. The primary lessons, then, from the 2020 crisis, which has caused virtually all major nations to add unsustainably to their debt burdens, should include: (i) Simplify and open society rather than legislate and control. Remove inhibitions to economic and social stimulation which do not require state funding. In other words, reduce the emphasis on activities which require taxpayer funds (which add to national debt). These neither stimulate revenue production by their action, nor enable productivity regeneration to occur. It is entrepreneurship which generates employment, taxation, and addresses the needs of national self-sufficiency; (ii) Eliminate or reduce the penalties, efforts, and cost of both starting economic enterprises or closing them. Related: Whats Next For Oil As Prices Go Negative? This means allowing corporate bankruptcies to occur. Better to endure short-term losses than to lose long-term economic momentum. Governments are now searching, in any event, for ways to write off, refute, or inflate out of their debt obligations anyway. Is it not hypocritical to stop the marketplace from moving forward after the failure or collapse of commercial enterprises when governments routinely do so with impunity, often by printing more unsupported money? And many of the commercial enterprises have failed, in any event, due to the actions of governments in suppressing normal market activity. Efficient bankruptcy is the key to economic momentum. (iii) Stimulate self-sufficiency through national and local-level policies which favor the local production of necessities and tools of strategic advantage, and deny that advantage to the adversary. This does indeed require the application selectively, carefully, and temporarily of bans on certain imported products in order to guarantee sovereign viability, and it does involve selective use of tariffs. It also involves the denial of some exports to an adversary. In the case of the containment of the PRC, the US and other food exporting adversary states would deny supply of food to the PRC, given that food and water shortage is Beijings critical strategic vulnerability. Clearly, the globalism philosophy, which grew progressively since the end of the Cold War, had swung the strategic pendulum in favor of great powers which sought to dominate markets for their own purposes. It was the globalist interpretation of free trade which, in fact, made many economies totally dependent on a foreign power. This has particularly, in the 21st Century, benefited the PRC, which was able to use free trade to build strategic control of other societies. Beijing is not unique, historically, in utilizing the battle-cry of free trade, which is ultimately not free to the party which allows itself to become strategically dependent. Britain and the United States have themselves done this in the past. 2. Repurposing Alliances Treaties and alliances are meant to address immediate threats and opportunities. They do not last forever. Nor should they. Lord Palmerston said, in the 19th Century: Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests. Alliances and treaties are meant to serve specific objectives, and time often vitiates these objectives. But what is clear at present is that the Peoples Republic of China in 2020 lacks a viable alliance network. It treats states such as the DPRK (North Korea) as a mere tributary state, and other trading partners as though they should be tributary states. Thus, their compliance with Beijing must be forced. The US, for most of the past seven decades, also treated its allies to greater or lesser degrees as more-or-less tributary states, and, as a result, its alliance structures became greatly reduced by resentments of junior alliance partners. Those partners may return to alliance with the US only through fear of the PRC and, to some extent, Russia. What occurred in the first decades of the 21st Century, among other things, was that: (a) The original purpose for the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) withered away, and yet the alliance had developed bureaucratically into one of the most effective strategic tools possible; (b) The European Union (EU) created a layer of governance and control of Western and Central Europe which inhibited the growth, freedom, and security of most of the members of that union; and (c) The United Nations moved from being a forum to mitigate differences into one which exacerbated them. Bearing in mind the reality that the EU in many ways geopolitically overlaps the NATO membership (obviously excluding Canada and the US, which are in NATO but not the EU), it is clear that NATO now has a new role in protecting the physical borders of Europe. Significantly, it has not been deployed to meet this new role. And that role is not specifically against an immediate threat of military intrusion by Russia, but very specifically in resisting a multi-faceted strategic physical intrusion by Turkey, or facilitated by Turkey. How much, for example, has Europe been strategically inhibited by its inability to resist Turkish-sponsored or Turkish-supported population warfare which has weakened the economies and social frameworks of European states for the past decade. Turkey attempted to substantially expand and accelerate this population-political warfare Westwards since the start of the 2020 crisis. Moreover, this has not been constrained merely by the onpassage of refugees from the Syrian civil war, but by commoditizing refugees fleeing economic and security challenges in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eritrea, and sub-Saharan Africa. What has emerged is that NATO remains a viable and efficient military alliance for the protection of Western interests, whereas the EU has not. NATO, in an attempt to repurpose itself with the collapse of the original threat, the Warsaw Treaty bloc, has sought an out-of-area mission, and was thus employed in the war in Afghanistan, for example in the first two decades of the 21st Century. But there was no real thought given to a broader redefinition of the Alliance, to include IndoPacific partners. It has the potential to be broadened and renamed to include the ANZUS (Australia-New Zealand-US) Alliance, the US-Japan Security Alliance, and so on, to take on a new purpose akin to the World War II alliance against the nazi-fascist-Japanese bloc. Similarly, the UKUSA Accords commonly referred to as the Five-Eyes intelligence exchange between the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand has the capacity to be repurposed with strategic objectives. Clearly, alliances and treaties need sunset clauses: dates by which they are either retired or repurposed. The various arms limitation treaties have all either expired through mutual disinterest, or they have been consistently and dynamically given ongoing lives. Or they have become tools by one party to inhibit another. The successive treaties to limit the construction of capital ships by major navies in the first half of the 20th Century was a classical case of how treaties were overtaken either by technological change or by the change in strategic objectives of the major powers. That included the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922; the London Naval Treaty of 1930; the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936 (by which time the process had become more or less meaningless). Treaties and alliances are meant to give the signatories breathing space. Nothing more. All that is constant is permanent interests. And then we need to renegotiate the meaning of permanent. Again, as we discussed in Point 1, above, the COVID-19 interregnum was the ideal time to revisit national goals, and to redefine the means of achieving them in a world in which the strategic context the terrain had clarified in new ways. We will discuss in Point 4 the need to look at alliances within the framework of trade and survival patterns. 3. Repurposing Economies It is time to re-designate the economic framework which existed up until 2020 as the old economy. And that includes the economic prisms through which we viewed science and technology up to that point. The new economy includes some fundamentals, such as: 1. Global and national economies constrained by unprecedented levels of debt and debt-service; 2. Declining market size due to economic constraints and to the actual decline in population levels, particularly within key socio-economic market groups; 3. Polarization, because of economic, political and security factors, of trading networks, leading to greater bilateralization of trade and the need to re-monetize some trade as barter or counter-trade, or define it by creative currency baskets; 4. Reduced availability of funding for a period for research and development, some commercial infrastructure, and for pure science. On the other hand, viable stimulus to re-engage unemployed workers would likely include some public sector infrastructure packages; 5. Greater ease by armed forces in achieving recruiting targets as commercial jobs fail to take up all available workforce; 6. Growing distrust of governmental attempts to control the economy by restricting the use of cash as paper currencies lose the full faith and credit of governments. This will see a stimulus for the use of alternate forms of currency, including cryptocurrencies. All of this will lead to a polarization of societies away from governments (ie: lead to greater distrust in government), which can only be contained for a limited period and which will absolutely lead to a further decline in economic productivity, as the PRC has been discovering for the past eight years. This further compounds the challenge of global strategic competitiveness. What, then, is to be done? The stimulation of national economies is very much linked to seeing economies as just that: national. Or at least best protected within specific geopolitical regions. The first decades of the 21st Century (indeed, the period since the end of the Cold War) saw most countries outsource much of their manufacturing to the PRC. The crash of 2020 saw, then, most countries exposed to an existential dependency on the PRC for vital supplies across all sectors of society. This resulted in the biggest single event in history highlighting the destruction of the sovereignty and independence of action of most nation states in the world. The PRC, in order to capitalize on the damage inflicted by the 2020 crisis on most national economies, quickly moved to return to full PRC manufacturing capability to ensure that, as the coronavirus containments were lifted on most economies, the PRC could then dump manufactured goods onto the world market. This was designed to ensure that national manufacturing in other countries would be disincentivized from being re-established to end dependency on the PRC. The PRC manufacturing base had already begun to outprice itself during the past five years at least (to 2020), and the PRC had to do something to regain its position as the sole source for manufacturing. This meant that the PRC had a vested interest, too, in ensuring that those rising economies which had been beginning to take over the global manufacturing roles from the PRC were themselves set back. That included the manufacturing sectors of Thailand, Vietnam, and so on. Hence the need for those nation states wishing to re-assert a measure of sovereign independence to consider restrictions and tariffs on imported goods as a means to protect the re-start of local industries. The question, then, was how to do this in a way which did not allow also the re-building of workforce complacency and revived union opportunism, knowing that domestic markets were protected. A variety of actions, then, would need to be considered by those advanced societies which had thought themselves somehow in the post-industrial phase, but now found it necessary to revive domestic manufacturing. These could include: - Eliminating constraints on small to medium businesses by (i) minimizing the burden of tax reporting bureaucracy; (ii) creating a simplified tax structure for small to medium business; and (iii) creating freedoms from heavy unionization for small to medium businesses. - Repurposing education away from the pseudo-post-industrial model which focused on university degrees of questionable value either to liberal, contextual thinking, or to education in spheres of practical value to manufacturing. This would mean reversing the demeaning and paternalistic view of academia toward blue collar workforces, and instead providing technical school educations, and structured trade apprenticeships. This could and should enable many people to enter the workforce at a younger age, thus stimulating the economy by removing them from society-supported dependency. Moreover, it could also include apprenticeship-like skills acquisition in the armed services. - Eliminating most of the punitive elements of bankruptcy laws, and lower the barrier to the creation of new corporations to stimulate the creation of entrepreneurial enterprises. Even the US has, in recent years, made aspects of its bankruptcy laws more punitive, but the US still provides the best model in this regard. Australia, for example, has corporate start-up and wind-up practices which are draconian and Dickensian. The more that the state is removed from the process, the more that enterprise and productivity will be stimulated. - Eliminating or reducing the size of centralized governmental structures. Government employment is a burden for any economy. Some of it is vital to ensuring a viable state; most of it is not. Reducing governmental bureaucracies by enforcing a wave of mandatory retirements and a selective freeze on hiring is a far better use of state funds than financing an unproductive economy. - Eliminating legislative constraints on agricultural efficiency and encourage programs which help restore soil balance. Ensuring adequate farmer control over water sources, and also reversing the negative impact of the use of chemical fertilizers over the past century. 4. Repurposing Trading Blocs Trade is an essential tool of society. It is assumed that free trade is the vital aspect of a prospering society. But the reality is that trade in essentials is an existential underpinning of sovereignty. The control of trade and trading patterns is a decisive tool in national security strategy. World Wars I and II made clear how control of global sea lanes determined the outcome of those conflicts. Free trade in a time of confrontation and crisis, then, is axiomatically counterproductive to achieving national survival and in constraining an opponent. The crisis of 2020 ensured that, for the time being, the age of free trade was now ended. That is not an ideological or philosophical position concepts of markets determining free trade can endure but rather a position of ensuring national survival, and minimizing the advantage of a competitor. Apart from the major power which wishes to dominate its trading partners, only those who do not recognize that a war has begun will continue to insist on free trade. If trade is to be emphasized between trusted partners, then that would assume that trade pacts would need to include security provisions to ensure the delivery of that trade. This re-emphasizes, of course, the security of sea lanes, straits and waterways, and air traffic routes. The assumption of a continuation of the old rules-based world order is no longer valid. The PRC, in announcing (in 2018) its new Thirty Years War indicated that at the end of that war (in 2049) it would have in place a new Treaty of Westphalia by some new name to emplace a Beijing-dominated rules-based world order. Saying it does not make it so, but the intention was clear: the PRC does not accept the pre-2020 order of theoretically-equal nation-states to be valid. The new trading objectives of post-2020 governments, then, need to be defined, because it is clear that they have not been defined up until this point. These objectives would need to define national goals, needs, and methods of achieving the desired ends. It means that trading patterns must overlay security patterns. If trade is critical, the means must be there to ensure that it can be achieved. Trade, then, becomes not merely about commodities, but about the means and routes of delivering them, and the security to guarantee that pattern. 5. Repurposing Strategies How can strategies designed for different times be applied in the post-2020 world? Economic, geopolitical, and trade dependency factors changed in 2020. Yes, much business will continue as usual, but the underlying strategic inflection has changed, and the global debt position has transformed economic capabilities. The Peoples Republic of China has made it clear that it has already embarked on a war an amorphous total war of the 21st Century kind from which it cannot resile. That war, for the PRC, as noted, is dominated by a strong interactive pattern of population, sociological, economic, technological, and information dominance factors, quite apart from military factors. Indeed, the PRC hopes that the war would be won before any resort to military confrontation of a formal kind. Does that mean that one response would be to force the PRC to fight its war on terms it considers disadvantageous? Because that would indeed be a military aspect of the total war. So, at present, the PRC is embarked on a defensive military strategy vis-a-vis the United States, while posturing with symbolic military actions in some areas, such as the South and East China Seas. But Beijing is highly aggressive in its power projection by diplomatic and non-military means against other targets. And it only has economic levers to sustain that attempted use of overwhelming force on its trading and diplomatic partners. And these are levers from a declining PRC economy. As noted, the PRC approach is to minimize resistance to its strategic offensive by minimizing the economic strength and independence of its targets. Premium: Oil Storage Nears Its Limit Where have we seen a comparable model of strategic projection in history? Nothing appears to be immediately comparable. This is very much a grand strategy of bluff, deception, and audacity. It has, for Beijing, been effective to this point, but the 2020 crisis did polarize much thinking against the PRC. 6. Repurposing Defense What military structures and doctrine will survive the 2020 inflection point? Most governments will need to force their defense planners to harmonize defense strategic plans with national grand strategic goals and options. That will be difficult as defense structures are dependent on legacy capital items, legacy doctrine, and inherited postures. And government leaders are resistant to long-term goals. To what extent can long-term capital defense programs be recalibrated for the new strategic environment? Even more significantly, how can defense forces even sustain operational capabilities when declining national economic outlooks will likely constrain defense spending growth, if growth is even feasible in the coming few years? To a significant degree, because the new total war is likely to be less kinetic and less formal than in the 20th Century, improvements in efficiency will likely emerge from more interdisciplinary cooperation than has been historically achieved. This is the most difficult aspect. In war situations, the military assumes it must lead. The Russian Government recently gave warfighting leadership authority, even in nonkinetic frameworks, to the Russian General Staff on the basis that non-military actions comprised 80 percent of contemporary conflict. But can careers of military discipline, logic, and chain of command adapt to the new, fluid, amorphous social face of total war of the 21st Century? By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs. More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21 By Samir Ali - Trend: Azerbaijani Health Minister Ogtay Shiraliyev signed an order to hold "Immunization Week" in the country, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Health told Trend. The ministers order is aimed at organizing the Immunization Week at the highest level which has been held in the Europe upon the initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2006. In accordance with the document, health facilities of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Health have been charged with organizing "Immunization Week" in all cities and districts of the country from April 20 through April 26, 2020. The document also includes such important issues as gradual vaccination of children during the Immunization Week to avoid a mass flow taking into account the epidemiological situation in connection with COVID-19, monitoring in the countrys districts to control the large-scale events, as well as public enlightenment as part of the campaign. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 20:15:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BISHKEK, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A group of Chinese specialists have reached Kyrgyzstan to share their experience in treating COVID-19 patients with their Kyrgyz colleagues. "Chinese colleagues will share best practices in treating patients, and also help our specialists in the fight against coronavirus infection. The purpose of the delegation's visit is to train medical staff in Kyrgyzstan, as well as exchange experience and methods of combating COVID-19," the press service of the Health Ministry of Kyrgyzstan reported Tuesday. The 10-member Chinese medical team visited Kyrgyz State Medical Institute for Training and Retraining and discussed the current fight against COVID-19 on Monday after they arrived in the Central Asian nation. During the meeting, the Chinese and Kyrgyz doctors discussed possible directions for future cooperation and exchanged views on epidemic prevention and control. The experts from west China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region include six medical experts specializing in disease prevention and control, traditional Chinese medicine and respiratory medicine, among others. Kyrgyzstan has reported 590 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with seven deaths and 216 recoveries so far. Enditem The World Health Organization is warning against complacency, as some European countries ease restrictions. Some European countries which have reported a dip or let-up in the numbers of new infections have started taking the first steps to ease coronavirus restrictions. In Norway, children have been allowed back to nurseries and small businesses have reopened in Denmark. But other countries such as Russia and the United Kingdom are still struggling to contain the pandemic. The World Health Organization is urging states to be cautious lest a second wave of infections hits them. Al Jazeeras Neave Barker reports. Officer and Mom, 24, Shot and Killed at Domestic Violence Call, Recognized by Community The content is not available due to expiration. NEW DELHI: The nations collective fight against the coronavirus pandemic is yielding positive results as no fresh case of COVID-19 infection has been reported in the past 14 days in as many as 60 districts of the country. According to a government release, ''the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases calculated using growth over the past seven days indicates that Indias doubling rate for the week before the lockdown was 3.4 and has improved to 7.5 as on 19th April 2020 (for the last seven days).'' ''The 18 States that have shown improvement in doubling rate as compared to the national average, as on 19th April are - Doubling rate: Less than 20 days Delhi (UT)- 8.5 days; Karnataka- 9.2 days; Telangana- 9.4 days; Andhra Pradesh- 10.6; - J&K (UT)- 11.5 days; Punjab- 13.1 days; Chhattisgarh - 13.3 days; Tamil Nadu- 14 days; Bihar- 16.4 days.'' Doubling rate: Between 20 days to 30 days: A&N (UT) - 20.1 days; Haryana - 21 days; Himachal Pradesh - 24.5 days; Chandigarh (UT)- 25.4 days; Assam - 25.8 days; Uttarakhand - 26.6 days; Ladakh (UT) - 26.6 days Doubling rate: More than 30 days: Odisha - 39.8 days; Kerala - 72.2 days ''All COVID-19 patients in Goa were discharged from hospital after recovery, and now Goa has no active case, the government release said. ''Besides, three districts - Mahe (Puducherry), Kodaggu (Karnataka) & Pauri Garhwal (Uttrakhand) have also not reported any fresh cases during the last 28 days. There are now 59 additional districts from 23 States/UTs that have not reported any fresh cases during the last 14 days. The six new districts have been included in this list: Dungarpur & Pali in Rajasthan; Jamnagar and Morbi in Gujarat; North Goa in Goa; Gomati in Tripura. The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 590 and the number of cases climbed to 18,601 on Tuesday, according to the Union Health Ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 14,759 while 3,251 people have been cured and discharged, and one patient has migrated, the Ministry said. The total number of cases includes 77 foreign nationals. Donald Trump late on Tuesday demanded Harvard University give back an $8.6 million grant it received as part of a stimulus package amid coronavirus. The stand off came amid outrage that well off institutions and companies were taking advantage of the government's $2.3 trillion stimulus, passed at the end of March, despite having reserves of their own. The president tweeted after the Ivy League school defied his earlier order, saying it plans to keep an $8.6 million grant it received as part of an educational relief program - despite having an eye-watering $40.9 billion endowment It has also emerged that businesses employing thousands of workers have been awarded grants under the Paycheck Protection Program, was supposed to infuse small businesses with $349 billion in emergency loans. Large restaurants chains like Potbelly, Ruth's Chris Steak House and Taco Cabana were able to qualify despite employing thousands of workers, getting the maximum $10 million in loans. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has demanded the cash is returned. President Trump said Tuesday that Harvard University would not be getting taxpayer money, citing the Ivy League school's enormous endowment Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, the president demanded the Ivy League school give taxpayer funds back, citing their massive endowment. 'Harvard is going to pay back the money and they shouldn't be taking it,' Trump said, adding that Harvard has one of the largest endowments 'in the country, maybe in the world.' But in a statement issued moments after the briefing ended Harvard said it planned 'to direct 100 per cent of the funds to financial assistance to students, and will not be using any of the funds to cover institutional costs.' The university said it received the grant through the educational relief program that was part of the $2.3 trillion stimulus passed at the end of March, which also included a much larger fund aimed at helping small businesses. Trump then tweeted late on Tuesday, pledging to look at their endowment system. He wrote: 'Harvard should give back the money now. Their whole endowment system should be looked at!' The president said during the daily press briefing: 'They shouldn't be taking it. They have one of the largest endowments anywhere in the history of the country, maybe the world I guess. They're going to pay back that money.' Donald Trump late on Tuesday demanded Harvard University give back an $8.6 million grant it received as part of a stimulus package amid coronavirus Harvard, which easily out-guns the other schools with its eye-watering $40.9billion endowment was planning to take $8.6million Harvard, which planned to utilize $8.6 million of taxpayer funds doled out as part of the CARES Act, is among a number of elite American universities taking advantage of $14 billion allocated to higher education institutions to weather the economic downturn associated with the coronavirus pandemic. The Ivy League: Government COVID-19 funding vs 2019 endowment figures Cornell Aid: $12.8million Endowment: $7.3billion Columbia Aid: $12.8million Endowment: $10.9billion Pennsylvania Aid: $9.9million Endowment: $14.7billion Harvard Aid: $8.6million Endowment: $40.9billion Yale Aid: $6.8million Endowment: $30.3billion Brown Aid: $4.8million Endowment: $3.9billion Dartmouth Aid: $3.4million Endowment: $5.7billion Princeton Aid: $2.4million Endowment: $26billion Advertisement Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, who was speaking from the podium when Trump inserted that he would request the money back, said that other big businesses would be asked to give money back too. 'The intent of this money was not for big public companies that have access to capital,' Mnuchin said. He praised the restaurant chain Shake Shack for giving money from the Paycheck Protection Program back. College and universities are facing financial hardship because students have been sent home, and while they may be taking classes remotely, the schools risk not bringing in the totality of tuition fees. A spokesman for Harvard clarified that the university did not apply for PPP funds, the pot of money Mnuchin was referring to when Trump jumped in and brought up Harvard. 'Harvard did not apply for, nor has it received any funds through the U.S. Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses. Reports saying otherwise are inaccurate,' a spokesmans said. 'President Trump is right that it would not have been appropriate for our institution to receive funds that were designated for struggling small businesses.' 'Like most colleges and universities, Harvard has been allocated funds as part of the CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund. Harvard has committed that 100% of these emergency higher education funds will be used to provide direct assistance to students facing urgent financial needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic,' the spokesman added. Of the top private schools, Cornell and Columbia will receive the most at $12.8million each. Cornell, based in Ithaca in upstate New York, has an endowment of $7.3billion, while New York City-based Columbia boasts $10.9billion. The University of Pennsylvania, which is Trump's alma mater, will receive $9.9million despite having a $14.7billion endowment. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, also blasted Harvard for taking the money, pointing to the school's mammoth money bin. The one-time Republican presidential contender tweeted: 'This is ridiculous. Taxpayer relief funds should go to those in real need. 'Harvard University has a $41bn endowmentthe largest in the world. Put another way, Harvard's endowment is $13mm per student, or $171mm per faculty member.' Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin applauded Shake Shack for giving back funds that were supposed to be for small businesses 'The intent of this money was not for big public companies that have access to capital,' Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said to reporters Tuesday The university insisted it was using federal funding for 'financial assistance for students to meet their urgent needs in the face of this pandemic'. Harvard, which is one of the top universities in the world and boasts eight presidents among its alumni, spelled out how it would spend its bailout. A spokesman for the Massachusetts-based school said: 'Financial assistance will be on top of the significant support the University has already provided to students including assistance with travel, providing direct aid for living expenses to those with need, and supporting students' transition to online education.' Yale, the second largest Ivy Leave school, will receive $6.8million and has an endowment of $30.3billion. Texas senator Ted Cruz has blasted the university for taking the money, pointing to its mammoth endowment chest Yale, the second largest Ivy Leave school, will receive $6.8million and has an endowment of $30.3billion University of Pennsylvania will receive $9.9billion despite having a $14.7billion endowment Cornell, based in Ithaca in upstate New York, has an endowment of $7.3billion and will receive $12.8million New York City-based Columbia boasts $10.9billion endowment and will receive $12.8million bailout Brown university, which has $4.2billion endowment, is being bolstered by $4.8 million. A bailout of $3.4million is being directed towards Dartmouth College, which has an endowment of $5.7billion. The smallest bailout for Ivy League schools is being sent to $26billion-endowed Princeton, which will receive $2.4million. The $2trillion Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) injected $14billion into the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund. Institutions were granted these funds based on a formula which combines the number students receiving federal financial aid and the overall number of students enrolled. At least half of the funding is mandated to be used as financial grants for students, with the remainder to be put towards compensating university losses. Joel Malina, Vice President for University Relations, at Cornell, said: 'Cornell will use 100 per cent of these CARES Act funds to support students, going beyond the federal requirement that half of the funds be put towards emergency financial assistance to our students. 'We know that many of our students will have increased need as a result of the pandemic. 'Even as our Ithaca campus faces an anticipated Covid-related budget shortfall of over $100 million for the coming fiscal year, we aim to guarantee that every single one, currently enrolled or newly admitted, has the financial resources to complete their Cornell education.' MailOnline has contacted each Ivy League school for comment. Greed and gluttony: Huge restaurant chains including Potbelly, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and Taco Cabana pocket $300MILLION in federal relief loans meant to help struggling small businesses By Keith Griffith For Dailymail.com Companies with thousands of employees, past penalties from government investigations and risks of financial failure even before the coronavirus walloped the economy were among those receiving millions of dollars from a relief fund that Congress created to help small businesses through the crisis, according to a new analysis. The Paycheck Protection Program was supposed to infuse small businesses with $349 billion in emergency loans that could help keep workers on the job and bills paid on time. But at least 75 companies that received the aid were publicly traded, the AP found, and some had market values well over $100 million. The program was designed for companies with less than 500 employees, but restaurants and hotels were exempt from that limit if they had less than 500 employees per location. The owners behind large restaurants chains like Potbelly, Ruth's Chris Steak House and Taco Cabana were able to qualify despite employing thousands of workers and get the maximum $10 million in loans. Shake Shack, after revealing it had been granted a $10 million loan in a regulatory filing on Friday, announced Sunday that it would return the money after facing public backlash. Huge companies with thousands of employees are among those receiving millions of dollars from a relief fund A Potbelly Sandwich Shop is seen in Detroit's airport in a file photo. The company received the maximum $10 million federal loan under the Paycheck Protection Program Funding for the PPP ran out last week, but on Tuesday Democrats and Republicans in Congress reportedly reached a deal to add $310 billion in small-business loans. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed that of that funding, $125 billion will be sent 'exclusively to the unbanked, to the minorities, to the rural areas, and to all of those little mom and pop stores that don't have a good banking connection and need the help.' Overall, 25 percent of the public companies identified in the AP analysis as receiving PPP funds had warned investors months ago - while the economy was humming along - that their ability to remain viable was in question. By combing through thousands of regulatory filings, the analysis identified the 75 companies as recipients of a combined $300 million in low-interest, taxpayer-backed loans. Eight companies, or their subsidiaries, received the maximum $10 million. The size of the typical loan nationally was $206,000, according to U.S. Small Business Administration statistics. If companies meet benchmarks such as keeping employees on payroll for eight weeks, the SBA will forgive the loans. The public companies identified in the analysis is a fraction of the 1.6 million loans that banks approved before the program was depleted last week, but it is the most complete public accounting to date. Lawmakers from both political parties are negotiating an additional relief package that in large part would replenish the Paycheck Protection Program. Representatives of the SBA did not respond to a request for comment late Monday. Last Friday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a written statement that 74% of the loans were for less than $150,000, demonstrating 'the accessibility of this program to even the smallest of small businesses.' The review also found examples of companies that had foreign owners and that were delisted from U.S. stock exchanges, or threatened with removal, because of their poor performance. Other companies had annual losses for years. Since launching April 3, the relief package has faced criticism about slow loan processing, unclear rules and limited funding that left many mom-and-pop businesses without help. By design, the Paycheck Protection Program was meant to get money out quickly to as many small businesses as possible, using a formula based in part on payroll size. Some other big companies that received loans appeared to have enough cash on hand to survive the economic downturn. New York City-based Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, for example, a travel company with 650 workers and a branding deal with National Geographic, got a $6.6 million loan. At the end of March, the business reported having about $137 million in cash on its balance sheet. 'When this crisis hit, we had two business planning cases: 1) substantial layoffs and furloughs or 2) receiving these funds and not impacting our employees,' spokeswoman Audrey Chang wrote in an email. 'Lindblad is the very rare travel company that has not imposed any layoffs, furloughs or salary reductions to date.' A steak is seen at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. The chain was among the public companies that received the maximum $10 million loan under the Paycheck Protection Program Five of the companies AP identified were previously under investigation by financial and other regulators, including firms that paid penalties to resolve allegations. Quantum Corp., a data storage company based in San Jose, California, that has a workforce of 800, paid a $1 million penalty last December over allegations that accounting errors resulted in overstated revenues. Quantum received a maximum $10 million loan. What is the small-business relief program? The Paycheck Protection Program exhausted its $350 billion in funding last week and many small businesses were unable to obtain loans they desperately need to stay afloat. Congress and the White House say they're close to an agreement on that would give the program about $300 billion in fresh funds. The government program, which is overseen by the Treasury and administered by the Small Business Administration, limits loan recipients to businesses with fewer than 500 employees and revenue of less than $2.5 billion. But it makes an exception for restaurants and other food service businesses that employ fewer than 500 people per location, meaning that restaurant chains are as eligible for the loans as a neighborhood restaurant or bar. The small business lending program is part of the $2.2 trillion rescue package approved by Congress last month. Advertisement Without that loan, 'we would most certainly be forced to reduce headcount. We owe it to our employees - who've stuck with us through a long and difficult turnaround - to do everything we can to save their jobs during this crisis,' company spokesman Bob Wientzen wrote in an email. Broadwind Energy, a suburban Chicago maker of wind turbines that employs about 520, agreed to pay a $1 million penalty five years ago after the SEC accused it of failing to inform investors that reduced business from two major customers had caused 'substantial declines' in its long-term financial prospects. Broadwind, which could not be immediately reached, received $9.5 million from the loan program. Marrone Bio Innovations, a biopesticide company in Davis, California, that has about 50 workers, similarly agreed to pay $1.8 million in 2016 after the SEC alleged its chief operating officer had inflated financial results to hit projections that it would double revenues during its first year as a public company. Marrone received a loan worth $1.7 million. Pam Marrone, the chief executive, said the company 'shouldn't be punished' for what happened with the SEC because it has had clean audits for years now. She described the investigation as a 'body blow' that cost it investors and drove its stock price under $1. She said it has had to take on $40 million in debt and is still digging itself out of the financial hole. 'People don't realize how tough it is to be a small public company like us that's not yet profitable,' she said. 'We can't just go to investors and say, 'OK, open up your wallets.' ' The AP analysis found that about 1 in 4 of the companies had warned investors months ago that they or their auditors had significant doubts about their ability to meet financial obligations. One was Enservco Corp., a Denver-based oil and gas industry firm. In its annual report filed last month, Enservco said it does 'not generate adequate revenue to fund our current operations.' Chief executive Ian Dickinson said his company wouldn't have folded without the $1.9 million loan it received. But, he said, he welcomed the money and would've had to let go more employees than he already has without it. 'Our employees are really no different than the employees of a nonpublic company,' Dickinson said. 'These are funds being used to keep folks on payroll and keep food on their tables.' The government on Tuesday announced that it will conduct a telephone survey to garner feedback from citizens on prevalence and distribution of coronavirus symptoms and urged people to participate in the exercise in good measure. They will be called from the number 1921, the Health Ministry said, while cautioning against pranksters calling from any other number on the pretext of a similar survey. The survey will be conducted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Government of India. "People are informed that it is a genuine survey and are requested to participate in good measure when a call comes from 1921 to enable proper feedback of the prevalence and distribution of COVID-19 symptoms. "Please be aware of any other calls by pranksters or or calls from any other number in the guise of such similar survey," the health ministry stated. The ministry also asked the states and UTs to inform the public about the official nature of this exercise through media and that they are aware of any other calls by pranksters or phishing/fishing attempts from any other number. The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 603 and the number of cases climbed to 18,985 in the country on Tuesday, according to the Union health ministry. However, a PTI tally of numbers reported by various states and union territories put the nationwide tally of positive cases at 19,867 with at least 646 deaths and 3,801 recoveries. There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) TORONTO Canadian police said Tuesday they believe there are at least 22 victims after a gunman wearing a police uniform shot people in their homes and set fires in a rampage across rural communities in Nova Scotia over the weekend. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they have recovered remains from some of the destroyed homes. Earlier, authorities had said at least 18 people were killed in the 12-hour attack. Officials said the suspect, identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, was shot and later died on Sunday. Authorities did not provide further details or give a motive for the killings. The dead include a 17-year-old as well as a police officer, a police news release said. All the other victims were adults and included both men and women. There were 16 crime scenes in five different communities in northern and central Nova Scotia, it said. Some of the victims were known to Gabriel Wortman and were targeted while others were not known to him, the police statement said. Authorities also confirmed Wortman was wearing an authentic police uniform and one of the cars he used was a very real look-alike RCMP vehicle. This is an unprecedented incident that has resulted in incredible loss and heartbreak for countless families and loved ones. So many lives will be forever touched, the police statement said. In an earlier news release authorities had said they believed there were 23 victims, but Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Daniel Brien later clarified the death toll included 22 victims and the gunman. As fears mounted that more dead would be found in burned out homes, a young man said Tuesday that his grandparents were missing and believed dead after their log cabin was set ablaze during the attack. Justin Zahl told The Associated Press he finally heard from police after frantic calls for information and seeing images of his grandparents home in the rural town of Portapique burned to the ground, with their cars in the driveway. It was not immediately clear, however, if they were among the remains police said were found. Police teams were spread out across the 16 crime scenes including the neighborhood where the rampage began late Saturday on Portapique Beach Road, where the suspect lived. Police have warned the death toll will almost certainly rise as investigators comb through homes destroyed by fire. Zahl said he last heard from his grandmother early Saturday evening via iMessage on her iPad. They were angels, he said, adding that the couple were like parents to him and his 19-year-old brother, Riley. He was the smartest man I knew, and could hold a conversation with anyone, he said of the grandfather. He said John Zahl, in his late 60s, and Elizabeth Joanne Thomas, in her late 50s, lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before retiring to their dream home in Nova Scotia in 2017 after falling in love with the place on a visit. Justin and his brother lived with them for a while but both young men no longer do and neither was at the home during the attack, he said. Authorities said Wortman made his car look like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser allowing him to travel easily within a 30-mile (50-kilometer) area. As the attack ensued, police warned residents in Portapique to lock their doors and stay in their basements. The town, like all of Canada, had been adhering to government advice to remain at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, and most of the victims were inside homes when the attack began. But no wider warning was issued, and questions emerged about why a public emergency alert was not sent province-wide through a system recently used to advise people to maintain social distancing. Police provided Twitter updates, but no alert that would have automatically popped up on cellphones. There should have been some provincial alert, said David Matthews, who said he heard a gunshot while walking with his wife Sunday. Shortly after they returned home, their phone started ringing with warnings from friends that there was an active shooter in the neighborhood. Several bodies were later found inside and outside one house on Portapique Beach Road, police said. Bodies were also found at other locations in Nova Scotia and authorities believe the shooter may have targeted his first victims but then began attacking randomly as he drove around. 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. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Brenda Lucki said police were still determining what weapons were used in the attacks. Cheryl Maloney, who lives near where one victim, 54-year-old Gina Goulet, was killed, believes she was likely saved by a warning message Sunday morning from her son that read, Dont leave your house. This guy is at the end of your road and hes dressed like a cop. I really could have used that provincial warning, as I walk here all the time and Ive been in the yard all week, she said. YREKA, Calif. The Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office says that deputy was injured when a suspect fought with officers and fled the scene last Wednesday. Shortly before 4 p.m. on Wednesday, several officer with the Sheriff's Office were trying to find a suspect with an outstanding felony arrest warrant issued by the Siskiyou County Superior Court. The deputies arrived in the 100-block of Irene Lane where the road meets S Old Stage Road south of the city of Mount Shasta. Upon the deputies arrival, the Sheriff's Office says that suspect 28-year-old Michael Louis O'Connell ran away on foot and led deputies on a pursuit through a property behind the house, where he then jumped inside a Dodge truck and locked the door. "Forced entry was made and the suspect violently resisted arrest, started the vehicles ignition, and then accelerated away from the scene," the Sheriff's Office said. "A deputy was thrown to the ground and nearly run over by the vehicle." O'Connell reportedly drove away from the scene, evading other deputies and officers that responded. The vehicle was later found by Mt. Shasta Police, abandoned on Wagon Wheel Road. A search of the area did not find O'Connell until later that evening, SCSO said. Finally, two officers spotted him, taking him into custody for the original arrest warrant and an additional charge for felony resisting arrest. He may face more charges in the case. The deputy who was hurt during the first arrest attempt was treated for injuries at a local medical facility, the Sheriff's Office said. "We are thankful this incident did not end with more people getting hurt and more serious injuries being sustained by the deputy involved in this dangerous confrontation," Sheriff Jon Lopey said. "It is always a bad idea to resist, obstruct, and delay a peace officer while he or she is engaged in the performance of their duties and such abhorrent behavior endangered the suspect, all involved peace officers, and citizens. The felony resisting arrest offense, due to the nature of the violence and the resulting injury to the deputy, is a serious matter, which potentially could result in a state prison sentence." But the addition of the call for Democrats to withdraw the proposed graduated-rate income tax amendment from the fall ballot underscored unified GOP opposition in Washington and Springfield to Pritzkers signature ballot issue. Pritzker has said that with the economic effects of the pandemic on the state, we may need it now more than ever. Turin, Italy 1 April 2020. The press conference of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on measures to combat the spread of coronavirus, seen on a streaming channel . NurPhoto Political fragmentation is intensifying in Italy as the coronavirus pandemic gives new ammunition to anti-establishment parties and challenges its European membership. Italy has the highest death toll from the Covid-19 outbreak in Europe and has desperately lobbied its partners in the region for financial support to deal with the impact of the health crisis. However, northern European nations have been reluctant to give the Italian government everything it wants which in turn has fueled a toxic debate back in Rome. "It is a debate to a large extent detached from reality," Wolfango Piccoli, co-president at risk advisory Teneo, told CNBC's Squawk Box Europe Tuesday. However, the debate was helpful for both the prime minister and the opposition, Piccoli said, suggesting that it was diverting attention away from the "mismanagement of the health crisis" and the country's strategy for an economic recovery. Instead, the political debate in Italy is mainly centred around what the European Union will do to rescue countries like itself, where the health crisis has caused deep economic challenges. Italy has announced about 16 billion euros ($17.34 billion) in immediate fiscal measures to help its economy. However, with a public debt pile of around 130% of GDP (gross domestic product), the government has so far fallen short of providing a massive stimulus package that will deteriorate its finances even further. Finance ministers of the euro zone the 19-country group which uses the euro agreed to a fiscal package for the bloc worth up to 240 billion euros ($260 billion). This included a credit line via their crisis fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). It means that Italy, like any other virus-hit nation in the euro zone, could borrow money from the ESM at more favourable rates to support its economy, instead of tapping financial markets. However, Italian anti-EU parties are opposed to these loans, arguing that the money would call into question Italy's sovereignty and result in new austerity measures. As a result, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte faces a tough choice: either he requests an ESM loan, which anti-establishment parties will use to criticize the government and Europe; or he refuses the money, which could validate anti-EU sentiment at a time when a growing number of Italians are questioning its membership of the group. In a survey earlier this month by Tecne, a consultancy group in Italy, 42% of respondents said they wanted to leave the European Union. This was up from 26% in November 2018. In addition, the latest voting intentions point to growing support for anti-immigration and anti-EU parties, according to polling for Politico. The right-wing populist Lega party, led by Matteo Salvini, is currently the most popular in Italy, followed by the Democratic Party. However, support for the far-right Brothers of Italy party has increased since the start of the year and it's now nearly as popular as one of the ruling parties, the leftist Five Star Movement. "I don't think that (Prime Minister) Conte will be one who's going to stick around for much longer," Piccoli from Teneo, told CNBC, suggesting a potential reshuffle in government. Governments must not let down their guard in the fight against coronavirus or it may come surging back, official warns. The World Health Organization warned rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of the contagion as governments start rolling out plans to get economies up and running again. This is not the time to be lax. Instead we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future, said Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific on Tuesday. He said governments must remain vigilant to stop the spread of the virus and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. As we move forward in this difficult time, our lives, our health system and approach to stopping transmission must continue to adapt and evolve along with the epidemic, at least until a vaccine or very effective treatment is found, Kasai said. This process will need to become our new normal, he added. Countries with limited resources are a priority, such as Pacific Island nations, Kasai said, as they have to ship samples to other countries for diagnoses, and transportation restrictions are making that more difficult. The WHO Western Pacific region is home to almost 1.9 billion people across 37 countries. The focus of the epidemic is now on Europe, however, the organisation expects it to shift to other regions. Worst ahead of us On Monday, the WHO chief also warned the worst of the coronavirus pandemic has yet to come. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva the worst is yet ahead of us but did not specify in what ways the crisis could get worse. His warning followed the United States and some European countries beginning the process of slowly reopening and emerging from various lockdowns put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19. It has a very dangerous combination and this is happening like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people, the WHO chief said. Tedros added because of the technological advances since then we can prevent that disaster. We can prevent that kind of crisis. Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us. Lets prevent this tragedy. Its a virus that many people still dont understand, said Tedros. The new coronavirus first surfaced in central China in late 2019. The number of coronavirus positive cases is about 2.5 million worldwide, with the US, Italy and Spain overtaking mainland China in confirmed cases. Vietnams lawmaking National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan has called on legislators to study the establishment of a new ministry in charge of youth affairs. The top legislator was speaking at a meeting about amendments to the countrys Youth Law with members of the National Assemblys Standing Committee on Monday. Ngan said the hypothetical Ministry of Youth could be formed on the basis of the existing Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (the Union), with the first secretary of the latters Central Committee serving as its minister. Singapore has a population of only several million people, but it has the Ministry of Youth and Sports. These days, [we] need state management, not just advocacy, she was quoted by Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper as saying. Elaborating on her point, the National Assembly chairwoman explained that while the Union is an organization of young people, it does not have the right to issue circulars or decisions, and is barred from scrutinizing, inspecting, and disciplining anyone. She said the establishment of the youth ministry would not place additional stress on the state budget since headquarters and offices are readily available and the amount of the central state budget allocated to the Union is already comparable in size to that given to a ministry. There is no need to add any extra personnel to the states payroll, Ngan said, adding that the ministry will instead utilize the Unions current manpower. Once the Ministry of Youth is in place, the Ministry of Home Affairs will then relinquish its state management over the youth, according to the countrys top lawmaker. Historically, Vietnam had a Ministry of Youth in 1946 under a provisional government formed by late State President Ho Chi Minh. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that the coronavirus was most likely not engineered by humans, but did not address the possibility that the virus could have been released from a lab. All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said at a press conference in Geneva. It is probable, likely, that the virus is of animal origin. Chaib added, 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. Chaib did not respond when asked whether the coronavirus may have escaped from a lab. The WHO has publicly stated that the coronavirus has been traced to a wet market in the city of Wuhan. However, the specific market cited by the WHO and China is a seafood market that does not sell bats. About twelve kilometers from the market sits the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In a series of diplomatic cables from January 2018, U.S. officials warned that the institute studied SARS-like coronaviruses in bats, and that serious safety issues at the institute could result in a future emerging coronavirus outbreak. The new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory, one cable reads. President Trump has halted U.S. funding to the WHO, accusing the agency of severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus. More from National Review The historic Echelle Jordan rope ladder, also referred to as the Jordan stairs, on the final section of the Matterhorn Photo by Societa delle Guide del Cervino Climbing the famous Echelle Jordan rope ladder, also referred to as the Jordan stairs, on the final section of the Matterhorn Photo by Societa delle Guide del Cervino Climbing the historic Echelle Jordan rope ladder, also referred to as the Jordan stairs, on the final section of the Matterhorn Photo by Stefano Jeantet / Societa delle Guide del Cervino Matterhorn guides raise over 14,000 with charity sale of historic Echelle Jordan ladder 21.04.2020 by by Planetmountain The Italian Matterhorn Guides have raised 14,631 with the sale of the historic Echelle Jordan, the original rope ladder used by thousands of mountaineers on their way to the summit of the Matterhorn. The money will go to charities fighting the coronavirus. The Societa Guide del Cervino, ie the Italian Matterhorn Guides, have sold its two Echelle Jordan rope ladders and have raised a total of 14,631 that will be donated to associations in Valle dAosta engaged in battling against the coronavirus emergency. Laurent Nicoletta, the president of the Guides association, stated We are pleased with the result. We knew this initiative might prove interesting, but we were positively surprised by the outcome." The first Echelle Jordan rope ladder was financed by Leighton Jordan in 1869. Ever since then, the local guides Societa Guide del Cervino periodically check and replace the ladder when necessary, just like all other fixed ropes located on the Lion's Ridge. This ladders are located just below the summit of the Matterhorn, at around 4300m and are used to breach an overhanging section. This is challenging not only due to the nature of the terrain, but also because of the altitude. The marks of thousands of mountaineers have been left behind on these rungs and the underlying rock as they ascended one of the worlds most formidable mountain. Those wishing to contribute to the charity can do so by donating to the bank account indicated below. CLUB AMICI DEL CERVINO Intesa Sanpaolo S.P.A. Via E. Chanoux, 88 - 11027 Saint Vincent (AO) Conto: 1000/9297 IT25J 03069 31671 100000009297 bic BCITITMM Indicating the following: "Coronavirus - offerta libera Guide del Cervino E-mail: info@guidedelcervino.com Info: www.guidedelcervino.com General David Berger, Commandant of the Marine Corps, awarded Major Joseph F. Albano the 2019 Leftwich Trophy for Outstanding Leadership, the United States Marine Corps announced via press release Tuesday afternoon. The Leftwich Trophy, named after Vietnam Navy Cross recipient Lt. Col. William G. Leftwich, was awarded to the Dalton, Massachusetts, native for outstanding leadership performance while serving as Charlie company commander from January to April 2019, and then as Weapons company commander for the remainder of the year. Ive been very lucky to have a lot of people whove helped me and wanted nothing but the best for me my entire career, said Albano. Im proud not because its me who gets the recognition but because I never would be in this position had it not been for everything the Marines and Sailors I served with gave along the way. The award recognizes one person but I wouldnt be here if werent for their contributions in getting results. Its all because of them its not about me. Recipients of the Leftwich Trophy must be recognized by seniors, contemporaries and subordinates as an officer that exhibits outstanding combat arms leadership including courage, resourcefulness, perseverance and a concern for the well-being of fellow Marines, the press release read. As expected, the competition was exceptionally keen, Commandant Gen. Berger said in his comments accompanying the official announcement. All nominees had exemplary records which indicated noteworthy leadership and command ability. Lt. Col. William G. Leftwich, Jr. died in action on November 18, 1970, while serving in Vietnam as Commanding Officer of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division. The Leftwich Trophy commemorates his service and leadership. Related Content: President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with healthcare executives in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, April 14, 2020. President Donald Trump said Monday that he is suspending immigration to the United States in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the "need to protect jobs." In a tweet Monday night, the president attributed the suspension to an "attack from the Invisible Enemy" and the "need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens." @realDonaldTrump: In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! He added that he would sign an executive order suspending immigration. More from NBC News: Negotiations over interim coronavirus aid bill hit snag on state, local government funding Nurses are protesting working conditions under coronavirus and say hospitals aren't protecting them Brooklyn nursing home ravaged by 55 deaths, most in New York during pandemic Trump previously restricted travel from China and Europe to stop the spread of the coronavirus. It's not clear from the president's tweet whether the order would bar non-U.S. citizens from traveling to the country for purposes such as business or to visit family. White House officials offered few details Monday night clarifying Trump's tweet. The move "had been under consideration for a while," a senior administration official told NBC News. The official said that although Trump believes the U.S. is winning the fight against the coronavirus, he also thinks it is important to make every effort to get ahead and protect the borders to prevent further spread. The official said that details about how the plan would be implemented and how many countries would be impacted "will be forthcoming." The executive order could be signed as early as this week, according to the administration official, who did not offer any details about whether it had been drafted or where the process stands. Immigration has long been an issue that has energized the president's core supporters and Monday night's tweet will undoubtedly be no different. Immigration to the U.S. is already functionally shut down. The Trump administration had closed the U.S.-Canada border and started deporting asylum-seekers and other migrants on the Southern border without due process. International air travel has largely been suspended. Immigration advocates and activists were critical of Trump's announcement, calling the move radical and unprecedented. "The implication is that immigrants are a threat to the American economy, but we know the exact opposite to be true," said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. "While immigrants across America are on the frontlines risking their lives to save ours, it is simply unconscionable to scapegoat immigrants for this pandemic." Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, said the president was taking advantage of the situation to push his push hardline immigration policies. "Trump failed to take this crisis seriously from day 1. His abandonment of his role as president has cost lives. And now, he's shamelessly politicizing this pandemic to double down on his anti-immigrant agenda," Harris tweeted. The president said last month that he was discussing closing the country's borders with Mexico and Canada because of the virus. A senior official told NBC News then that the administration was exploring new restrictions amid fears that large numbers of Central Americans would try to illegally access the U.S. health care system. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, Honduras has recorded 477 confirmed cases and 46 deaths, topping the so-called "northern triangle" countries El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Reuters reported Monday that Peru has been the hardest hit Latin American country, with more than 400 deaths and nearly 16,000 cases. A missing drone could hold a vital clue in solving the mysterious disappearance of two elderly friends who vanished without a trace. Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, went camping in the rugged and remote Wonnangatta Valley in Victoria's Gippsland region on March 19. An experienced bushman, Mr Hill contacted his wife Robyn via radio the next day but neither he or his female friend have not been seen or heard from since. Mr Hill's car and the charred remains of a campsite were found near Dry River Creek track at Billabong a week later on March 27. Investigators suspect a number of items may have been taken from the campsite, including a drone that belonged to Mr Hill. Friends of devoted grandmother Carol Clay (pictured right) were surprised to learn she had gone camping with one close friend describing her as a glamour queen Another possibly police are considering that Mr Hill crashed the drone, worth about $2,000, and left his camp to look for it. Despite the new leads of inquiry, Mr Hill's shattered wife of 50 years has lost hope that he will return home and has started packing up his belongings. 'I don't think that he will still be alive,' Robyn Hill told Daily Mail Australia from the couple's Drouin home on Monday. She had no idea her husband had gone camping with another woman. Ms Clay's closest friends were also surprised to learn out she had gone camping. 'She was a glamour queen really,' friend of 15 years Dorothy Coombe told A Current Affair on Tuesday night. 'She always looks gorgeous and well-dressed. 'For many people, they couldn't imagine her out in the bush, let alone anything befalling her.' Police suspect a number of items may have been taken from the campsite (pictured, including a drone which is now missing Mr Hill (above) had recently retired and was an experienced outdoorsman who reportedly knew the remote Alpine region of the Gippsland well Ms Coombe is baffled by the disappearance of the devoted grandmother and former Victorian President of the Country Women's Association. 'She was a tremendous friend,' Ms Coombe said. 'She was one of those people who would cook you dinner and drop it around.' Police are examining the possibility the pair disappeared of their own free will, while the scenario they met with foul play has not been ruled out. 'Something clearly has gone awry. We know that something has gone awry,' Ms Coombe said. A burnt out campsite was found in remote bushland in Victoria's Wonnangatta Valley The pair went missing in the Wonnangatta Valley, more than 200km north east of Melbourne There is also a possibility the pair's disappearance may never be solved. 'It's now the role of the police to try and give the families in particular, answers. But at the end of the day, there might not be any,' former homicide detective Charlie Bezzina said. Local cattleman Bruce McCormack, who has been involved in countless searches said the abandoned campsite was near dense bushland where you would 'never find them'. 'It's sort of a great open area in the middle of the Alpine National Park,' he said. The pair's burnt out campsite with Mr Hill's car parked beside it (pictured) was found in a remote area of bushland in Victoria's Wonnangatta Valley on March 27 Ms Clay (above) was Victorian President of the Country Women's Association and known for beautiful, elegant clothing As detectives prepare to take another look at the Toyota 4WD Mr Hill left abandoned at the scene, Mrs Hill insists her husband had never gone missing before this trip. 'He's always been on the radio. He didn't call for quite a few days and then I started to get worried and thought 'I've got to do something now', 'she told Daily Mail Australia. Mrs Hill said her husband would routinely broadcast at the same time every night when his other radio chums were on the air. 'They all get on at the same time and once I heard Russell I knew, on the Friday, that he was fine. But then I didn't hear him again.' WASHINGTON (April 21, 2020)The U.S. Department of Defense recently announced the following contract awards that pertain to local Navy activities.Aerovation, Inc.,* Tucson, Arizona (N00421-20-D-0103); Ampex Data Systems Corp.,* Hayward, California (N00421-20-D-0074); BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc., Rockville, Maryland (N00421-20-D-0075/N00421-20-D-0091); The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri (N00421-20-D-0076/ N00421-20-D-0092);Crestview Aerospace LLC, Crestview, Florida (N00421-20-D-0095); Dayton T. Brown Inc.,* Bohemia, New York (N00421-20-D-0105); EFW Inc., Fort Worth, Texas (N00421-20-D-0079); Erickson Inc.,* Portland, Oregon (N00421-20-D-0106); General Dynamics Mission Systems Inc., Bloomington, Minnesota (N00421-20-D-0080); Honeywell International Inc., Phoenix, Arizona (N00421-20-D-0081); Intellisense Systems Inc.,* Torrance, California (N00421-20-D-0082);KIHOMAC Inc.,* Reston, Virginia (N00421-20-D00109); L3 Aviation Products Inc., Alpharetta, Georgia (N00421-20-D-0084); L3 Communications Integrated Systems LP, Waco, Texas (N00421-20-D-0096); L3 Communication SystemsWest Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah (N00421-20-D-0085); M7 Aerospace LLC, San Antonio, Texas (N00421-20-D-0097); Means Engineering Inc.,* Carlsbad, California (N00421-20-D-0086); Physical Optics Corp.,* Torrance California (N00421-20-D-0087); Raytheon Co., Indianapolis, Indiana (N00421-20-D-0088); Rockwell Collins Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa (N00421-20-D-0078/N00421-20-D-0094); Science and Engineering Services LLC,* Huntsville, Alabama (N00421-20-D-0099/N00421-20-D-0110); Science Applications International Corp., Reston, Virginia (N00421-20-D-0089/N00421-20-D-0098); Sechan Electronics, Lititz, Pennsylvania (N00421-20-D-0090); Sierra Nevada Corp., Sparks, Nevada (N00421-20-D-0100); Tyonek Worldwide Services Inc.,* Madison, Alabama (N00421-20-D-0101/N00421-20-D-0111); and Yulista Aviation Inc.,* Huntsville, Alabama (N00421-20-D-0102/N00421-20-D-0112), are awardedfor indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division. These contracts are for three distinct lots, each with established vendor pools supporting different requirements. Work will be performed at the contractor's locations and at government facilities. Lot I provides full rate production of mission system avionics. Lot II provides full rate production of other aircraft components, production and installation of modification kits. Lot III provides full rate production of other aircraft components, production and installation of modification kits. The estimated aggregate ceiling for all contracts is $7,143,500,000, with the companies having an opportunity to compete for individual orders within their lots. Work is expected to be complete by April 2031. No funds are being obligated at the time of award, and will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. These contracts were competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals and 38 offers from 28 vendors were received. The Naval Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity., was awarded amodification (P00074) to exercise an option to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract N00019-15-C-0121 to procure a Digital Focal Plane Array prototype for the Navy and Air Force. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by September 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,800,000; and fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Air Force) funds in the amount of $800,000 were obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity.American Electronic Warfare Associates (AMEWAS), California, Maryland (N00019-20-D-0021); BAE Systems, San Diego, California (N00019-20-D-0022); DCS Corp., Alexandria, Virginia (N00019-20-D-0023); Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., McLean, Virginia (N00019-20-D-0024); Perspecta Engineering Inc., Chantilly, Virginia (N00019-20-D-0025); Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services, Dulles, Virginia (N00019-20-D-0026); Gnostech,* Warminster, Pennsylvania (N00019-20-D-0027); Long Wave Inc.,* Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (N00019-20-D-0028); Monterey Technologies Inc.,* Park City, Utah (N00019-20-D-0029); SOLUTE Inc.,* San Diego, California (N00019-20-D-0030); Tyonek Engineering and Agile Manufacturing LLC,* Warner Robins, Georgia (N00019-20-D-0031); and Young's Engineering Services LLC and KIHOMAC Inc. JV,* Syracuse, Utah (N00019-20-D-0032), are awardedfor firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts. The Strike Planning and Execution Systems hardware and software development and sustainment multiple-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract includes development, integration, test and evaluation, deployment/delivery, modifications and operations/sustainment of hardware and software products supporting both domestic and Foreign Military Sales customers. Specific work locations will be determined on individual orders as they are issued. In addition, this contract provides feasibility studies, hardware and software design, analyses, technical/programmatic documentation, hardware and software development/fabrication, hardware and software code delivery/deployment, engineering change proposals to existing products, training documentation and products, help desk support hardware and software correction of deficiencies and operations and sustainment products. Work is expected to be complete by April 2025. The estimated cumulative aggregate ceiling for all contracts is $497,500,000 with each of the companies having an opportunity to compete for individual orders. No funds will be obligated at the time of award, but funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The contracts were competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals and 12 offers were received. The, is the contracting activity., is awarded amodification (P00007) to a cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N00019-17-F-0005) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-16-G-0001). This modification exercises options to procure 85 additional primary bleed air regulator parts kits and 439 new valves in support of F/A-18 Hornet combat jets (Series E/F/G) and their modifications. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be complete by August 2021. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $5,914,442; and fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,663,793 will be obligated at time of award, $5,914,442 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity.No applicable data., is awarded amodification (P00001) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N00019-20-C-0042. This modification procures the necessary hardware, technical engineering, management and logistics support to fabricate, assemble, test and deliver three T-1622/ALE-55(V) fiber optic towed decoys for a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer and 102 electronic frequency converters for the Navy. Work will be performed in Nashua, New Hampshire (48%); Chelmsford, United Kingdom (12%); Mountain View, California (6%); Rochester, New York (4%); San Diego, California (4%); Landenberg, Pennsylvania (3%); Hamilton, New Jersey (2%); Commerce, California (2%); Los Osos, California (2%); Toledo, Ohio (1%); and various locations within the continental U.S. (16%). Work is expected to be complete by March 2022. Fiscal 2020 procurement of ammunition (Navy and Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $13,088,010; fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $4,027,080; and FMS funds in the amount of $266,079 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity., is awarded anmodification (P00019) to a previously-awarded fixed-price-incentive-firm, cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost reimbursable contract (N00019-18-C-1021). This modification exercises an option for the production and delivery of four Prat & Whitney (PW) F135-PW-600 propulsion systems for the Marine Corps to be installed in F-35B short take-off and vertical landing aircraft. Work will be performed in East Hartford, Connecticut (51.7%); Indianapolis, Indiana (38.8%); and Bristol, United Kingdom (9.5%), and is expected to be complete by July 2022. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $111,131,635 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is awarded amodification (P00009) to previously-awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N-00019-18-C-0004). This modification exercises options to procure 140 generator converter units (GCUs) G3 to G4 conversion kits, 260 G4 GCUs and 140 wiring harnesses in support of F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and E/A-18G Growler warfare aircraft electrical systems. Work will be performed in Vandalia, Ohio, and is expected to be complete by December 2022. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $72,479,880 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity. NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE: BKD) announced today that the Company will hold its 2020 annual meeting of stockholders on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. CDT. The meeting is expected to be held at the Company's headquarters located at 111 Westwood Place in Brentwood, Tennessee. As part of its precautions relating to COVID-19, Brookdale is evaluating the possibility of instead holding the annual meeting in a virtual meeting format on the same time and date. Further information regarding this decision will be provided to stockholders in proxy materials to be made available in connection with the 2020 annual meeting. Guy P. Sansone, Non-Executive Chairman of Brookdale's Board of Directors, said, "The Board is pleased to announce the acceleration of the annual stockholder meeting to return to a more typical timeframe for calendar year-end companies. This also aligns with stockholder feedback we received last year." Important Additional Information Because the 2020 annual meeting of stockholders will be held more than 30 days from the anniversary date of the Company's 2019 annual meeting of stockholders, the deadlines set forth in the Company's definitive proxy statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on September 18, 2019 for stockholder proposals and director nominations for consideration at the 2020 annual meeting no longer apply. The new deadline is the close of business on May 1, 2020 (which the Company has determined to be a reasonable time before it expects to begin to print and distribute its proxy materials prior to the 2020 annual meeting of stockholders) for proposals and director nominations of stockholders intended to be included in the Company's proxy statement and form of proxy for the 2020 annual meeting pursuant to Rule 14a-8 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the proxy access provisions of the Company's Amended and Restated Bylaws, and proposals and director nominations of stockholders intended to be considered at the 2020 annual meeting other than by means of inclusion in the Company's proxy statement and form of proxy card. Stockholders submitting proposals or nominations using the foregoing procedures should deliver or mail the proposal or nomination, and all supporting information required by Rule 14a-8 or the Company's Amended and Restated Bylaws, as applicable, to Brookdale Senior Living Inc., 111 Westwood Place, Suite 400, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027, Attention: Secretary. In addition to complying with this deadline, stockholder proposals and nominations must comply with all applicable SEC rules, including Rule 14a-8, and the requirements set forth in the Company's Amended and Restated Bylaws and applicable law. About Brookdale Senior Living Brookdale Senior Living Inc. is the leading operator of senior living communities throughout the United States. The Company is committed to providing senior living solutions primarily within properties that are designed, purpose-built and operated to provide the highest-quality service, care and living accommodations for residents. Brookdale operates and manages independent living, assisted living, memory care and continuing care retirement centers, with 741 communities in 45 states and the ability to serve approximately 65,000 residents as of March 31, 2020. The Company also offers a range of home health, hospice and outpatient therapy services to over 20,000 patients as of that date. Brookdale's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKD. SOURCE Brookdale Senior Living Inc. Related Links http://www.brookdaleliving.com Greek authorities said Tuesday that 150 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus at a quarantined seaside hotel housing 470 asylum-seekers from Africa, including many children, but none of those infected displayed symptoms of COVID-19. The rented hotel just outside Kranidi, some 170 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Athens, has been quarantined since April 16 after an employee tested positive. A asylum-seeker also tested positive during a hospital visit for pregnancy complications on Sunday. Authorities imposed a night-time curfew starting Tuesday for the entire Kranidi area of some 4,000 residents and also tightened movement restrictions to only allow essential shopping and visits to doctors or pharmacies. The chief of Greece's coronavirus task force, Sotiris Tsiodras, said all 497 asylum-seekers and staff members at the hotel were tested for the virus and the results were positive for 148 residents and two workers. No patients with symptoms of the disease have been found, Tsiodras said. Residents in such closed centers are among the most vulnerable people for the spread of the disease. The sooner these cases can be registered and handled, the better. Greek Civil Protection Agency chief Nikos Hardalias said during a visit to Kranidi there was no cause for panic. Everything is under control right now, but we have to take some preventive measures, he said while announcing the 8 p.m.-8 a.m. curfew and movement restrictions that will apply for two weeks. The International Organization for Migration said that since October 2019 the hotel has housed mostly families from Congo and Cameroon who were transferred to mainland Greece from congested refugee camps on the eastern Aegean Sea islands, where they first arrived on smuggling boats from nearby Turkey. The United Nations agency runs the facility. An IOM spokeswoman said the hotel is fully equipped with protective clothing, masks and gloves, and has been disinfected. She said IOM staff there include psychologists, interpreters, a legal adviser and a social worker. No cases of COVID-19 have so far been confirmed at the island camps holding some 40,000 people. Two asylum-seeker facilities north of Athens were quarantined after minor outbreaks.. Greece imposed an early lockdown to combat the pandemic, and by Tuesday evening had registered a total of 2,401 virus cases and 121 deaths. In Bosnia, police on Tuesday began moving hundreds of migrants and refugees off the streets in the northwestern city of Bihac to a nearby emergency tent camp that can accommodate up to 1,000 people amid the pandemic. Despite strict social distancing measures, some 1,500 migrants and refugees were estimated last week to be sleeping rough in squalid and insanitary conditions in Bihac and several other cities in the region bordering the European Union member Croatia. The camp was equipped with all necessary infrastructure to provide the beneficiaries with accommodation, food, hygiene, sanitation and medical care, the International Organization for Migration, which manages all such facilities in Bosnia, said in a statement. The organization previously reported serious overcrowding in six migrant centers, which house 6,200 people, or nearly 20 percent more than before the advent of the pandemic in Bosnia in mid-March. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) WAWA location at 12th and Market St. in Center City Philadelphia on Friday morning March 20, 2020. Wawa agreed to pay $3 million to the family of a child scalded by hot water, two years ago, at one of its stores in New Jersey. Read more The family of a young girl who was severely scalded at a Wawa by a cup of hot water will receive a $3 million settlement from the convenience store chain. The girl was 3 years old when her family, who had been traveling from Virginia through Monmouth County, stopped April 2018 at a Wawa store in Neptune, N.J. Her mother, Roya Konzman had placed a number of food items on the counter along with two cups of hot water for tea. The girl identified only as N.K. came close to watch the cashier ring up the purchases. As the cashier bagged the first of the items, he knocked over a water bottle, which in turn toppled one of the cups of 180-degree tea water, according to court papers. The near-boiling liquid splashed over the child, burning her arms, upper body and torso. The entire episode was captured by a surveillance camera. The girl was treated for second- and third-degree burns over 15% of her body at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J In the lawsuit filed in federal court, the Konzman family, of Virginia, claimed that the cashier was negligent in knocking over the hot water, and Wawa was liable for the negligence of its cashier. The suit also claimed that Wawa knew the water, produced by a Cecilware dispensing machine, was a hazard. Wawas lawyer, Betsy G. Ramos of Capehart Scatchard, argued that the injuries the girl sustained were the result of her own negligence and that the convenience store chain was not liable. Wawa also claimed that Roya Konzman was negligent in failing to supervise her daughter. On March 30, Wawa agreed to settle the case for $3 million without an admission of wrongdoing. The settlement was first reported Monday in the New Jersey Law Journal. A spokesperson for Wawa did not immediately return calls seeking comment. David Maizie, lawyer for the Konzmans, said the terms of the settlement prevented him from commenting on the case. The child was awarded $2.55 million; she will keep $1.9 million to be held in a trust and an annuity. The remainder will go to pay her lawyers (about $600,000) and her insurance company (about $36,000), and to cover additional expenses (roughly $15,000). Roya Konzman was awarded $450,000 for emotional distress brought on by the accident. About $150,000 of that will go to pay her lawyers, Mazie Slater Katz and Freeman. The case is reminiscent of a 1994 product liability suit that became known as the McDonalds coffee case and is often derided by some as an extreme case of frivolous litigation. The plaintiff in that case, a 79-year-old woman, was initially awarded $2.86 million after she suffered third-degree burns from coffee spilled on her groin. The woman, Stella Liebeck, spent eight days in an Albuquerque hospital and received skin grafts to repair the damage. The award was eventually reduced to $640,000. President Donald Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida is temporarily laying off 153 workers because of the new coronavirus, according to a notice posted this week to a state website. The club's director of human resources, Janine Gill, wrote in a letter to state and local officials that Mar-a-Lago began halting business last month as a result of mandated closures issued in Palm Beach County in response to the virus's spread in South Florida. The furloughs are temporary, but the club doesn't know when it will resume regular operations, Gill said. The furloughed workers include bartenders, cooks, dishwashers, drivers, attendants, housekeepers, servers and valet attendants. The workers are not unionized. Mar-a-Lago serves as Trump's refuge from Washington, and the president often spends his time there mixing work, business and pleasure in the company of dues-paying members. The Trump National Doral Miami resort, where President Trump initially wanted to host this year's Group of Seven summit, also has temporarily laid off 560 workers. An aviation insider has suggested airline ticket prices could soar to $1,000 as Qantas exploited its monopoly over domestic air travel. Virgin Australia confirmed it will be going into voluntary administration, leaving 16,000 direct and indirect jobs in jeopardy until it is restructured or rescued. The Velocity Frequent Flyer program is also in doubt, leaving customers with nothing to show after many years of loyalty. Sir Richard Branson, a flamboyant British billionaire, brought some competition to Australia two decades ago when his new budget carrier Virgin Blue filled a gap left by the collapse of Ansett Australia. The era of intense competition is set to end, leaving Qantas without any competitors on key domestic routes, sparking fear among tourist operators in regional areas. An aviation insider has suggested airline ticket prices could soar to $1,000 as Qantas exploited its monopoly over domestic air travel. Virgin Australia confirmed it will be going into voluntary administration, leaving 16,000 direct and indirect jobs (flight attendants at Brisabne airport, pictured on April 21, 2020) in jeopardy until it is restructured or rescued A businessman with inside knowledge of Australia's aviation industry said the flying kangaroo airline was likely to ruthlessly exploit its monopoly, which could see passengers charged up to $1,000 for a one-way Sydney to Melbourne flight. That's a tenfold increase on the $100 tickets Qantas and Virgin were offering before COVID-19 pandemic. 'If Virgin doesn't get restructured, it's not a possibility, it's a certainty,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday. 'I hate monopolies. Monopolists can do whatever they like. There is nothing good you can say about a monopoly.' The aviation insider also feared the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would be powerless to stop Qantas from ripping off the flying public. 'The ACCC can only do what it's empowered to do and the ACCC has no power to stop gouging prices,' he said. 'There's no law to stop price gouging.' Virgin Australia customers are also at risk of losing their Velocity Frequent Flyer points. Financial comparison website Finder's editor-in-chief Angus Kidman said while it is a separate company to Virgin Australia, it was very much tied up with the airline. Sir Richard Branson, a flamboyant British billionaire, brought some competition to Australia in 2002 when his new budget carrier Virgin Blue filled a gap left by the collapse of Ansett Australia 'For frequent flyer points, the picture is still murky,' he told Daily Mail Australia. Who owns Virgin Australia? Abu Dhabi government - 21% Singapore government - 20% Nanshan Capital (China) - 20% HNA (China) - 20% Richard Branson - 10.4% Australian shareholders: 8.6% Source: Virgin Australia annual report Advertisement 'Velocity Frequent Flyer is technically a separate company and isn't going into administration, so points balances shouldn't disappear automatically. 'However, the value of that business is still very much tied to Virgin Australia being an operating airline.' Mr Kidman suggested that even if a third party bought VFF data, the 'points balances could well be at risk in that scenario'. Tourism Accommodation Australia chief executive Michael Johnson said the possible loss of Virgin Australia would be a blow for regional areas as the coronavirus travel restrictions were eased. 'Initially, as we eventually move out of the COVID-19 crisis, the hotel sector will be heavily reliant on domestic tourism, with international borders expected to be closed for many months,' he said. The aviation insider also feared the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would be powerless to stop Qantas from ripping off the flying public. Pictured are grounded planes at Brisbane airport on April 21, 2020 'There are very real fears an airline monopoly would take away the competitive edge needed to ensure corporate, conference and leisure guests are well catered for in our key recovery markets.' 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 John Borghetti, a 36-year Qantas veteran, took over as Virgin Australia chief executive in early 2009 and borrowed big to take on his former employer, who overlooked him as CEO in favour of Irish-born mathematician Alan Joyce. Under his decade-long leadership, the flying public has paid a lot less for air tickets as Virgin became a full-service carrier. Virgin Australia, however, has $5billion worth of debt has made a full-year loss every year since 2013. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has repeatedly ruled out giving the embattled airline a $1.4billion emergency loan as high debt levels threatened to push it into administration. 'There is no way the government could have been an investor or a lifeline for a company that was saddled with the massive debt that Virgin had,' the aviation insider said. Across the Tasman, his Kiwi counterpart Jacinda Ardern has lent Air New Zealand $NZ900million ($A849million). The Velocity Frequent Flyer program is also in doubt, leaving customers with nothing to show after many years of loyalty Instead of offering loans, the Australian government is instead giving Virgin and its rival Qantas $165million worth of subsidies to fly domestic routes between the capital cities and major regional centres. Nonetheless, the aviation insider told Daily Mail Australia Virgin Australia could survive under a new name, which would take away the need to pay Sir Richard royalty costs to use the Virgin trademark. 'What I think we'll see, it's a much better than even chance, is that we'll see out of this a new Virgin: it might not be called Virgin by the way,' he said. He predicted Paul Scurrah, who took over Virgin Australia a year ago, would remain as chief executive of a leaner operation without its budget carrier offshoot Tigerair Australia. 'We have three to six months to get this sorted out,' the insider said. 'That gives an administrator and a new owner the chance to sort it out. 'You cannot see the airlines coming back into fully service, certainly less than three months.' British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is gradually engaging with government officials and his Cabinet as he prepares for a full-time return from his convalescence following his COVID-19 hospitalisation, Downing Street said on Tuesday. The 55-year-old will not be resuming formal government duties yet but is scheduled to speak to US President Donald Trump later on Tuesday and hold his weekly audience with Queen Elizabeth II over the phone later this week. "He has been receiving updates from Number 10 on the coronavirus response and has spoken with the First Secretary of State [Dominic Raab] and senior members of his team," Johnson's official Downing Street spokesperson said. "Yesterday (on Monday) he sent a message of condolence to Justin Trudeau after the very sad loss of life in the shooting in Canada. Later today, at around about 2pm (local time), he will be speaking with President Trump, the spokesperson said. However, it was stressed that Johnson would be "continuing his recovery at Chequers and isn't formally doing government work", with Raab continuing to be in charge as his deputy. Johnson has been recuperating at his prime ministerial country residence in Buckinghamshire since his discharge from St. Thomas' Hospital in London last week, after he tested positive for coronavirus and had to be shifted into intensive care for a few days as his condition worsened. It is customary for the British prime minister to hold a weekly audience with the monarch, which had been transformed into telephone engagements as the coronavirus lockdown came into force last month. Johnson will now be resuming the phone audience with the Queen, who turned 94 on Tuesday, after a three-week hiatus due to his illness. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday said the Justice Department could take action against states whose coronavirus lockdowns are deemed too strict. We have to give businesses more freedom to operate in a way thats reasonably safe, Barr said in an interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show. To the extent that governors dont and impinge on either civil rights or on the national commerceour common market that we have herethen well have to address that. Barr said states should enforce lockdowns and business closures only until the spread of coronavirus has halted. Then, states should eventually reopen in line with the Trump administrations guidelines, he said. These are very, very burdensome impingements on liberty, and we adopted them, we have to remember, for the limited purpose of slowing down the spread, that is bending the curve, Barr went on. We didnt adopt them as the comprehensive way of dealing with this disease.You cant just keep on feeding the patient chemotherapy and say well, were killing the cancer, because we were getting to the point where were killing the patient. While most U.S. states have adopted some form of business and school closures, several have seen protests against the lockdown measures. President Trump has repeatedly clashed with state governors on reopening the economy, urging them to do so as soon as possible. Trump has called on protesters to liberate certain states, all with Democratic governors. Washington governor Jay Inslee subsequently accused Trump of fomenting domestic rebellion. Protests have been particularly strong in Michigan, whose governor Gretchen Whitmer has instituted some of the most stringent lockdowns in the U.S. Whitmer on Tuesday compared protesters to Americans who objected to the World War II production effort. More from National Review The Community Development Alliance (CDA) a non-governmental organization in the Atebubu-Amantin municipality has donated 5 veronica buckets to the assembly to help in the fight against the covid-19 pandemic. The NGO that runs the Ghana Strengthening Accountability Mechanism GSAM project within the municipality is a consortium made up of IBISS, CARE, and ISODEC sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development USAID. Making the presentation the project coordinator for GSAM Mr. Kunja Zakariya said his outfit is aware of the enormity of the problems the pandemic poses hence the decision to offer the support. The Atebubu-Amantin municipal chief executive Hon. Edward Owusu who received the items praised the CDA for being the first NGO in the municipality to assist the assembly in the fight against the disease and asked others to emulate the example. He said the fight against covid-19 requires huge resources which the government alone cannot shoulder hence the need for private sector support. Present were the municipal coordinating director Hajia Fati Saaka and the planning officer Mr. Thomas Atibilla. We havent seen much of Kylie Jenner these days. With the coronavirus going around, shes been keeping a low profile at her home and practicing social distancing. But on Sunday, April 19, Jenner reportedly stepped out and went to hang out with her BFF Stassie Karanikolaou. The makeup mogul let her natural looks shine by going makeup and wig-free and looked nearly unrecognizable in photos snapped by paparazzi. Kylie Jenner on the red carpet at the 2017 Met Gala | Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images Kylie Jenners latest outing Dressed in a tie-dye sweatshirt and matching sweatpants, Jenner reportedly went to visit Karanikolaou at the YouTubers home in Beverly Hills, California. In photos published by The Daily Mail, the makeup star is seen with a fresh face and her shoulder-length hair pulled into a bun. She didnt even have on any accessories, only bringing a bag of salt and vinegar kettle chips and a container of water. See the pictures at the link above. Fans were stunned on by the photos and noted on websites such as Twitter that they barely even recognized Jenner. That cant be her, read one tweet while another fan wrote that Jenner looks like a different person. Its definitely a turn in direction from her usual look. Fans know that Jenner loves a good tan, contour, and wig. But now that the coronavirus has forced us inside and left us with nothing to do, it seems that she decided to embrace her natural beauty and do away with all the extras. Kylie Jenner received backlash for hanging out with Stassie Karanikolaou Jenner later faced criticism over the outing due to the fact that shed previously urged fans to stay at home and isolate themselves from others amid the coronavirus pandemic. She told them for weeks that she had been staying inside and away from others during the outbreak. However, it appears that shes no longer following those rules despite the ongoing crisis, which has fans pretty annoyed. Hypocrites as usual, one person wrote on social media. The entire family is very good at this aka living a lie, said another comment. Jenner has yet to respond to the backlash. What else Kylie Jenner has been doing during the coronavirus outbreak For the most part, it seems that Jenner has just been at home with her daughter, Stormi Webster, whom she shares with ex-boyfriend Travis Scott. Sources previously told E! News on April 13 that Jenner hadnt really seen anyone aside from Scott and Stormi not even her sisters or the rest of her family. Kylie really misses her sisters and her nieces and nephews, but its been nice having Travis around so much, the insider continued. He has been at Kylies house and they have been doing a lot of family stuff. The source also used the moment to clarify the status of their relationship, noting that the two are not back together despite rumors that they are. Things are good between Kylie and Travis. They are co-parenting and in a groove. They love being a family together and watching Stormi who constantly amazes them and make them laugh. They love their little family life together, the insider added of the couple, who split in September 2019 after nearly two and a half years together. Only time will tell what happens between them. But regardless of the outcome, its clear that they. will always have lots of love for each other. Jenner told Harpers Bazaar in March: Were like best friends. We both love Stormi and want whats best for her. We stay connected and coordinated. I think about [my parents] in situations with Stormi what they would do. They were very hands-on with me, and I want the same for Stormi. Read more: Tory Lanez Hit On Kylie Jenner and Fans Are Totally Here for This Potential Romance Unprecedented is a word in wide - but often inaccurate - usage at the moment, but it is appropriate when it comes to the current conditions in the oil market. This week has seen West Texas Intermediate Crude, the main American oil benchmark, briefly going to a price of negative $37 at one point. In other words, producers have to pay people to take it off their hands. Essentially, what has caused this week's plunge is the demand side becoming as much of a problem as the supply side of the oil market. The recent and ongoing slump was initially triggered by the supply side in the form of a breakdown in the fragile peace between Saudi Arabia-led cartel OPEC and Russia. The Yarakta Oil Field owned by Irkutsk Oil Company in Russia, one of the countries at the centre of the storm OPEC and Russia typically work together to manipulate the supply of oil to the world market to ensure the price of a barrel is roughly where they want it. This largely takes the form of cutting supply when demand falls and letting it creep up when demand is strong. This came to an abrupt end last month though as the two main players had a sharp disagreement on how much each party should reduce output, and the result was both refused to cut back, creating a glut. The oil price had already been under continuous pressure for years due to the rapid increase in shale oil production in North America, which makes use of hydraulic rock fracturing methods that did not exist before. Demand has now dropped off just at the wrong time, due to the 'black swan' event dominating all our lives at the moment, the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. Planes are grounded and people aren't driving much. This has created a perfect storm. It should be noted though that the other major yardstick for oil, the Brent Crude price generally referenced outside the US, remains positive albeit at a paltry $20 per barrel. Better, but still a 21-year low. This difference largely stems from the fact that there has been a severe shortage of viable storage for WTI Crude, meaning it has to be offloaded to the market with greater urgency. Storing oil incurs a cost, and if the market price is too low these costs are no longer worth paying. Brent Crude is more often stored at sea in oil tankers, which are not yet in short supply to the same extent as the US land-based storage used for WTI. The only hope of easing this situation in the near term is for Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major producers to drastically cut production. Whether the discord can be bridged is questionable. An oil pump jack in a Texas oil field, where available storage facilities are running low The demand side will not come to the rescue any time soon as it will require the ending of the virus crisis and a strong recovery in the global economy. There are many implications of the situation beyond the price of a barrel. While the big players can ride this out for a long time, it will decimate their profits and potential to pay out dividends to their shareholders. This hits investors big and small straight in the pocket. Smaller firms in the industry or connected to it face an even worse situation, and many could well go under. The knock-on from oil firms of all sizes struggling is that they cut staff and capital spending, which impacts the economy bother locally and globally. There is an upside in the form of cheaper fuel for businesses and individuals, but the benefits of this take time to come through into the real economy. Many of us notice this reality when we go to get petrol and find the price still stubbornly over 1 a litre in most places. At any point in time, savings stemming from this only have a chance of counterbalancing the costs on macro level in countries which are not big exporters of oil, of course. [April 21, 2020] iSIGN Patented Technology to Help Enforce Social Distancing in Las Vegas and Elsewhere Post COVID-19 LAS VEGAS, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hi-Tek Media and Omni Veil Inc. in conjunction with iSIGN Media Solutions Inc. (TSX-V: ISD) (OTC: ISDSF), are pleased to announce plans to use the Omni Veil network, powered solely by iSIGN technology and hardware, to message social distancing reminders to the City of Las Vegas as COVID-19 restrictions are eased. While Las Vegas is eager to slowly start returning to normal, social distancing will be a major community issue. Hi-Tek and Omni Veil are preparing to offer its existing vehicular and fixed location network to message reminders of regulations and cautions to avoid the further spread of the Coronavirus. All establishments, from restaurants, casinos, retail stores to retirement homes and government services locations will be promoted and introduced to iSIGN's Safety Alert Messaging (SAM), for registering their internal management and employees. The SAM registered staff of all establishments will have the instant ability to receive any messages of COVID infraction related alerts instantly to address social distancing, as well as other threatening events at their location. SAM is available at NO-CHARGE to aid in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 for 6 months from April 1st, with no further obligation past the no-charge period. It is our (iSIGN and its partners Hi-Tek and Omni Veil) donation in the fight to reduce and eliminate this virus. The Omni Veil Network from Hi-Tek, was originated as the first ever mobile vehicular network to enable sponsored messaging of any roadside, highway travel and community public alerts of any dangerus or threatening conditions. Its launch was in Las Vegas and will serve and scale from Las Vegas. Powered solely by iSIGN's technology and hardware, the Omni Veil Network is the perfect solution to provide COVID-19 social distancing alerts outdoors, with SAM providing alerts to subscribed individuals both indoors and outdoors effectively anywhere. Both companies have received positive responses and requests and continued major news media support is much needed and appreciated in these times. About Hi-Tek Media Hi-Tek Media is a full-service digital advertising and marketing company with 21 years of experience in marketing. Hi-Tek is uniquely positioned to provide cutting edge marketing, digital production and media management Hi-Tek is certified with Google and Facebook and the expansion of our Omni Veil Digital Platform will set us apart from our competitors. www.Hi-TekMedia.com About Omni Veil Inc. The Omni Veil is a 24/7 Digital Network based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Network sends out instant traffic notifications, safety messages and branded content for all mobile users. The revolution of the mobile machines Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Application technologies was developed to keep the public notified, consider first responders safety and modernize the way businesses advertise in real time. www.theomniveil.com About iSIGN Media iSIGN (TSX-V: ISD) (OTC: ISDSF), a Canadian company based in Toronto (Richmond Hill), Ontario is a data-focused, software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that is a pioneering leader in the areas of location-based security alert messaging and proximity marketing utilizing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity in complete privacy. Creators of the Smart suite of products, a patented interactive proximity marketing technology, iSIGN enables the delivery of messages to mobile devices in proximity, with real-time reporting and analytics on a variety of metrics. 2019 winner of Richmond Hills Innovator of the Year award. Partners include IBM, Keyser Retail Solutions, Baylor University, Verizon Wireless, TELUS and Mtrex Network Solutions. www.isignmedia.com Company contacts: Lacy Ramon Director of Digital Technology Hi-Tek Media Creations [email protected] Alex Romanov President iSIGN Media Solutions Inc. [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Trump says US investigating reports coronavirus came from lab in China Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment President Trump confirmed on Friday that the U.S. government and intelligence agencies are investigating reports that have suggested the new coronavirus spread after escaping from a laboratory, instead of a market, in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Talking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump said a lot of investigation is going on about the origin of COVD-19 in Wuhan in Hubei Province late last year, and were going to find out. All I can say is wherever it came from it came from China, in whatever form 184 countries are suffering because of it. And its too bad, isnt it? It could have been solved very easily when it was just starting, the president added. Earlier this week, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had also said that intelligence agencies were looking at the possible origin of the novel coronavirus from a Wuhan lab. Jim Geraghty, a senior political correspondent at National Review, recently wrote about a documentary film by YouTube creator Matthew Tye on the coronavirus outbreak which suggests the virus accidentally escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. The Wuhan Institute of Virology in China posted a job opening last November, asking for scientists to come research the relationship between the coronavirus and bats, Geraghty wrote. The same institute posted a second job posting last December. The translation of a part of that posting said a large number of new bat and rodent new viruses have been discovered and identified, the correspondent added. They talk about a certain kind of bat, but that bat wasnt in that area, Trump said Friday, according to The Washington Times. But that bat wasnt sold at that wet zone. It wasnt sold there. That bat was 40 miles away. A lot of strange things are happening. Geraghty acknowledged that theres no definitive proof that COVID-19 originated from a bat at either the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention or the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as that would require much broader access to information about what happened in those facilities in the time period before the epidemic in the city. However, he concluded, that it is a remarkable coincidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was researching Ebola and SARS-associated coronaviruses in bats before the pandemic outbreak, and that in the month when Wuhan doctors were treating the first patients of COVID-19, the institute announced in a hiring notice that a large number of new bat and rodent new viruses have been discovered and identified. Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Fox News Thursday he doesnt think Chinas official figures of deaths from the coronavirus are correct. That number is really rather a low number. That number surprises me that that number is so low, Fauci said, when asked about Chinas claim of less than 5,000 COVID-19 deaths, as reported by The Epoch Times. On Friday, Chinese officials raised the death toll from the coronavirus to 3,869 in Wuhan, an increase of 1,290 from the previous figure, according to The New York Times, which noted that researchers at the University of Hong Kong recently estimated the number of confirmed cases in China was around 232,000 by late February, more than four times the number China projected at the time. Anonymously speaking to Bloomberg, three officials had earlier also said the U.S. intelligence community noted in a classified report to the White House that China lied about the extent of the COVID-19 outbreak, under-reporting the number of infections and deaths. The reality is that we could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming, Vice President Mike Pence recently said on CNN. What appears evident now is that long before the world learned in December that China was dealing with this, and maybe as much as a month earlier than that, that the outbreak was real in China. By Munsif Vengattil (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp's clients have shifted priorities toward saving capital in recent weeks because of COVID-19, hitting software sales in particular, new Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna said as the company withdrew its 2020 annual forecast. The company's shares fell about 3.3% in after-market trading. Krishna said the shift to remote work is accelerating the move towards cloud services offered by IBM. The company's hybrid cloud offers combined management of on-premises and remote computers for clients. Executives said most IBM customers were relatively well positioned for the pandemic and the company would continue to pay dividends. The company posted quarterly revenue slightly lower than Wall Street expected, but beat profit targets as sales in its high-margin cloud computing business rose 19%. IBM has ample free cash flow and liquidity to invest in its business and continue paying dividends, Chief Financial Officer James Kavanaugh told Reuters. "We've done many different stress tests of our business model, running multiple scenarios around the uncertainties of the duration of the health crisis, but also the rate and pace of recovery around the world". Kavanaugh said 70% of IBM's revenue is made up by industries that are predicted to be moderately or minimally impacted by the virus outbreak, including healthcare and telecommunications. Big Blue is the first U.S. tech major to report quarterly results for the period ending March 31, during which the country's economy was badly hit as the pandemic kept people indoors. "Our near-term performance will ultimately be influenced by client buying patterns in this economic environment," Kavanaugh said. IBM for several years has been focused on becoming a major player in the cloud services industry, acquiring Linux maker Red Hat and selling some legacy businesses. Revenue from the cloud business, previously headed by IBM's new boss Krishna, rose 19% to $5.4 billion in the first quarter. Story continues Krishna took over the chief executive officer role from Ginni Rometty in April, while appointing former Bank of America Corp's top technology executive Howard Boville as the new head of IBM's cloud business. IBM's total revenue fell 3.4% to $17.57 billion in the reported quarter, slightly below analysts' estimates of $17.62 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Excluding the impact from currency and business divestitures, the company recorded a marginal growth in revenue. Net income fell to $1.18 billion, or $1.31 per share, in the quarter ended March 31, from $1.59 billion, or $1.78 per share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $1.84 per share, above estimates of $1.80 per share. (Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Peter Henderson; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) After many states flagged concerns over the efficacy of the rapid test kits - the centre has advised the states not to use rapid test kits for 48-hours. The ICMR is also set to send a team to check some of these kits. After many states flagged concerns over the efficacy of the rapid test kits the centre has advised the states not to use rapid test kits for 48-hours. The ICMR is also set to send a team to check some of these kits. Many variations were reported in the results of the rapid testing kits which needs to be checked thoroughly. In the next two days, the kits will be tested & validated in the field by health ministry. States have been advised not to use these kits for the next two days until an advisory is issued by the centre, said the ICMR. In a joint press conference with the health ministry, the ICMR also said that if there is any issue with the batch of these testing kits, then they will be replaced as well. Earlier, Rajasthan govt had stopped using rapid testing kits for coronavirus after they delivered inaccurate results. The kits gave only 5.4% accurate results as against the expected 90% accuracy, said the State Health Minister Raghu Sharma. A committee comprising of heads of medicine at the Sawai Man Singh govt hospital has been set up meanwhile by the stat government to examine the accuracy of the results. Around 170 tests were conducted in the states hotspots, including Jaipur, since Friday. The kits were also used to double-check the positive cases but the tests came out negative, raising a big question mark on the efficacy of these tests. Rapid tests take about 15-mins to reliever results as compared to the conventional RT-PCR tests. The Centre had last month issued tenders for the procurement of 5 lakh antibody test kits. Meanwhile, ICMRs Dr Raman Gangakhedkar said that around 4 lakh 49 thousand tests have been conducted so far. Out of which 35,852 samples were tested yesterday, in which 29,776 were were conducted in ICMR network labs, said Dr Raman Gangakhedkar. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App President Muhammadu Buhari has urged Ibrahim Muhammad, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) to initiate steps to free deserving inmates ac... President Muhammadu Buhari has urged Ibrahim Muhammad, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) to initiate steps to free deserving inmates across Nigeria in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The president made the call on Tuesday via a letter addressed to the CJN in which he said state chief justices can immediately visit the prisons to free such inmates. Nigerias prisons are known to be overcrowded as about 70 percent of the over 74,000 current inmates are awaiting trial. In a statement, Femi Adesina, spokesman of the president, quoted Buhari as saying the overcrowded facilities pose threat to the health of the inmates at this time hence the need for urgent steps to bring the situation under control. It has become imperative for Your Lordship to request State Chief Judges to embark on immediate visit to all custodial/correctional centres within their respective States to identify and release deserving inmates where that has not been done already, Buhari said in the letter. It is expected that particular attention should be on the aged, those with health issues, low risk offenders, those with no sufficient legal basis to remain in custody, inmates convicted for minor offences with or without option of fines and inmates who have less than 3 years term left to serve having served a substantial term of their service for offences that attract 5 years and above. Payment of fines may be made in favour of inmates convicted of lesser offences with option of fine, who are in custody because of their inability to pay such fines. The president also urged the CJN to consider putting in place special courts in all states and Abuja to try cases of serious offences such as armed robbery and kidnapping in order to facilitate speedy trials. There is the need to ensure that the Chief Judges of States and FCT High Courts direct lower courts to comply with requirements of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act/Law in issuing remand warrants in criminal cases especially in cases which are not within their jurisdiction, he added. According to him, such compliance will will regulate the number of inmates awaiting trial being admitted into the prisons. The federal government had earlier granted amnesty to 2,600 inmates to curb the spread of the coronavirus in prisons. Qunli branch of the First Hospital of Harbin Medical University Photo: Xinhua Clustered COVID-19 infections at two hospitals in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have caused at least 4,106 people to undergo screening to determine whether they are close contacts. Clustered infections in the city involved multiple places and have developed for more than two weeks, requiring other cities in Heilongjiang to join the retrospective screening work. The city of Qiqihar has found 1,685 people who have had shared routes with confirmed patients and silent carriers in Harbin, the Paper reported Monday. Among the traced cases, 615 have been to two Harbin hospitals for treatment, attending or visiting patients. Some 106 people are undergoing central quarantine and all involved are having nucleic acid and antibody tests, according to the report. Qiqihar's screening is based on an epidemiology investigation requirement issued by the provincial government. Clustered infections at the two Harbin hospitals have generated a screening list of 4,106 names, and 167 of them are Qiqihar residents. The small outbreak started from a Chinese passenger who flew in from the US on March 19. The woman surnamed Han infected her neighbor and caused more infections after the neighbor's family held a dining party with friends. The clustered infections in hospitals were traced to an 87-year-old patient surnamed Chen. Chen is a friend of the neighbor's family, who was admitted to Harbin Second Hospital on April 2 after suffering a stroke. He was transferred to the First Affiliated Hospital at the Harbin Medical University. Harbin Second Hospital stopped accepting patients and will conduct thorough disinfection work. There have been more than 50 confirmed patients and silent carriers in this infection chain. Infections related to the chain have also been reported in Fushun, Northeast China's Liaoning Province and Hulun Buir in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Yang Zhanqiu, a Wuhan-based virologist, told the Global Times on Monday that the outbreak in Harbin has posed great danger to neighboring cities and regions, considering the population flow over the past few weeks. A single loophole in the epidemic control system will have a big cost, and many more people will have to take risks and work harder to make up for the mistake, Yang noted. On Friday, Heilongjiang Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that 18 Party, government officials and hospital chiefs were held accountable for failing to conduct anti-epidemic work in Harbin. FP Trending Microsoft Surface Go 2, which is scheduled for release in May this year, could sport a bigger display than the earlier version. As per a report in Windows Central, the Surface Go 2 will feature a larger 10.5-inch display without an overall increase in the size of the device. The report further mentions that the chassis of the Microsoft Surface Go 2 will be identical to the original including placement of ports and dimensions. However, what the increased screen size signifies is that the bezels on the front of the device will become slimmer. The report added that while the bezels are not as thin as on those of the Surface Pro X, they will be similar to what is present on the Surface Laptop 3. The Surface Go 2 is powered by the Intel Pentium GOLD 4425Y processor, which will be accompanied by a 4GB RAM and 64 GB storage. It will have a Windows 10 Home in S mode operating system and will also have a Windows Hello facial recognition in terms of security. The Microsoft Surface Go had gone on Sale in India in 2018 and was available in two configurations, an 8 GB RAM with 128 GB storage option along with a 4 GB RAM with 64 GB internal storage variant. The Surface Go came with a factory-calibrated 3:2 PixelSense display that supports Surface Pen. Jeff Brazier shared a rare family selfie with wife Kate Dwyer and sons Bobby and Freddie following the couple's marriage troubles at the end of 2019. The presenter, 40, and his marketing guru wife, 29, appeared to have mended the problems in their relationship as they smiled happily on the sofa with Bobby, 16, and Freddie, 15. Jeff cracked a relaxed smile as he sat next to Bobby while clad in a casual dove grey sweater. Scroll down for video On the mend: Jeff Brazier shared a rare family selfie with wife Kate Dwyer and sons Bobby and Freddie following the couple's marriage troubles at the end of 2019 Bobby, whose mother is the late Jade Goody, looked stylish in a plum sweater while Kate opted for a grey hoodie as the family relaxed on the couch. He captioned the snap: 'Big love to all of the brave participants in this series of #saswhodareswins. The Braziers are hooked.' The happy selfie comes after Bobby revealed he was hopeful for a sibling in a candid video with his brother. He said: 'I'd love a little sister, I would love it so much' as Freddie agreed with him. Jeff recently admitted the UK's coronavirus lockdown had brought the couple closer together after the pair experienced marital issues. Earlier this month reality star Jeff shared a rare snap of the couple, where he confessed time in isolation has been a 'rest' for their romance. Smitten: Jeff recently admitted the UK's coronavirus lockdown had brought the couple closer together after the pair experienced marital issues Jeff penned: 'What a test this is for peoples relationships! Ive really enjoyed having the wife around because we clearly make a great team Jeff penned: 'What a test this is for peoples relationships! Ive really enjoyed having the wife around because we clearly make a great team. 'Weve reorganised the house from top to bottom, taken the time to binge on Netflix (Ozark) and continue to help each other stay positive and focussed in these days of isolation. 'That said shes just given me 2 jobs to do so if I sit around writing this post much longer Im sure shell add another..#teamwork #encouragement #support #time #love #care #reset.' [sic] At the end of last year the media personality spoke about concerns he had with his marriage. He told MailOnline at the time: 'Being married makes you feel more settled, but life doesn't feel much different because Kate has a wonderful career in PR where she works very hard and long hours... 'So it's still just me and the boys at home a fair bit. I'm not sure whether we'll have children. I'm just as happy if we do or don't, and I'm content to be patient and let Kate figure all that out.' A representative confirmed the pair were still working on their marriage, following a report from The Sun which claimed they had unfollowed each other on Instagram. Jeff's spokesperson said: 'There is categorically no split between Jeff and Kate. We're slightly bewildered how the story has come about. 'However, they have had some difficulties but they are doing their utmost to work through them together and will continue to do so in private.' The duo tied the knot in a romantic Portuguese cliff-top wedding ceremony in September 2018 following a five-year relationship. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the citys nonvoting representative in the House, says more than half of Democrats in Congress have supported the Districts push for the funding. But it was difficult to add the aid to a bill that is focused on small businesses, hospitals and testing and contains no funding for states and localities. Though the policy move has been presented as a way to protect the United States from imported cases of the coronavirus, the outbreak is well-established across the country and has been for more than a month. The United States has more confirmed coronavirus cases, by far, than any other country, with nearly 800,000 as of Tuesday afternoon. The next highest national total is Spains, at 204,000 cases. The United States also has far more confirmed virus-related deaths nearly 45,000 than any other nation and about the same number as the next two countries Spain and Italy combined. Egypts major archaeological sites, hotels and tourist destinations have emptied out as fears of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak worldwide have shut down travel. In Tunisia and Morocco, two top tourist destinations in North Africa, airports, resorts and tourist attractions now stand motionless and empty. In Lebanon and Iraq, the spread of the coronavirus has delivered a further blow to already troubled economies amid falling revenues, government inefficiency and rampant corruption. In Libya, Syria and Yemen, alarm after the first virus cases were confirmed has spread in countries where years of civil war have already devastated healthcare systems. Even in the energy-rich countries of the Arabian Gulf, the coronavirus is expected to crash economies already hard hit by lower international oil prices. Across the Arab world the pandemic is taking its toll on economies, with increasing fears that the damage caused by the outbreak will bode ill for the regions socio-economic development. The Arab region has thus far recorded more than 34,000 cases of the virus and over 1,000 deaths. Many countries in the region are ill-equipped to handle the outbreak from a public health standpoint. In addition to the rising death toll and heavy burden on healthcare systems, the Arab region is suffering from consequences of the virus that are expected to change its economic order in the longer term. While economic crises loom just around the corner throughout the region, more also seems to be at stake, including the possibility of fundamentally reshaping political and social systems in many countries. Alarm bells have started sounding about the economic and financial impacts of the coronavirus across the region, with reports pouring in about a possible downturn the likes of which the Arab world has never experienced before. The outbreak is likely to induce major challenges ranging from economic slowdowns and recessions triggering soaring public debt, business failures and unemployment in some Arab states to total economic collapse in others. The wealthy Arab Gulf countries will have to battle the crunch as oil prices slump, public investment in state projects declines and small and medium-sized businesses struggle to survive. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the coronavirus crisis is expected to ravage already battered economies in the region, especially if governments mishandle the outbreak. It has warned that millions of people will lose their jobs around the Arab world due to lockdowns, closures and curfews, and it has also cautioned of more long-lasting impacts. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned that the Arab states will be one of the worlds worst-hit regions in terms of the closure of companies and the laying off of staff, with an 8.1 per cent decline in working hours, representing some five million full-time workers. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) has warned that the Arab states gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to decline by at least $42 billion in 2020. The Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation earlier estimated 3.3 per cent growth in the Arab states GDP in 2020. The ESCWA figure could even be higher, with the compounding effects of low oil prices and the dramatic slowdown of economies due to the closure of public institutions and private-sector enterprises starting in mid-March adding to the crisis. ESCWA also predicted that the Covid-19 crisis could be responsible for pushing a further 8.3 million people in the Arab region into poverty and bumping up the number of undernourished people by some two million. Millions of irregular and migrant labourers who form the backbone of many economies in the Arab countries and work in the construction, retail, transport and services sectors will also be left struggling as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. In many Arab countries, millions of people have applied for grants and financial support from governments, while other are relying on donations from volunteers and food banks. For a region already wracked by instability, the Covid-19 crisis threatens to leave turmoil in its wake in many countries and in particular those already mired in government mismanagement, conflict and social unrest. The Arab governments are of course aware of the impacts the coronavirus crisis will likely have on their economies, and they have already put in place a range of mechanisms to try to cushion the economic shocks and prevent the population from falling into poverty. In wealthy countries, governments have launched stimulus programmes amounting to billions of dollars to support economies hit by the coronavirus and falling oil prices. To prevent companies from laying off staff, they have announced plans to cover portions of private-sector salaries in businesses most impacted by the coronavirus. But sooner rather than later the rich Arab nations will run out of cash and will no longer be able to provide aid to other Arab countries and pay millions of foreign workers. In other Arab countries austerity and precautionary measures have been taken to protect economic reform efforts from the impact of the coronavirus, with warnings coming from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) that it will leave deep and long-lasting scars, particularly on poorer nations. As Arab states and societies tally the economic costs of the pandemic, they will also need to ponder the social and political fallout that will inevitably come as a result of the outbreak and the disruption of the lockdowns. The conventional wisdom now is that the pandemic will likely change the world forever after wreaking havoc on it, and this raises the question of what the Arab region will look like after the coronavirus. The Arab world is now facing perhaps its biggest crisis in generations. The decisions that the Arab governments and peoples now take will probably shape the region for years to come, affecting not just healthcare systems, but also economies, polities and cultures. In the post-viral era, the Arab countries will need to restructure their economic and social orders, profoundly diverging from those that previously shaped them and having long-lasting and pervasive effects. In almost all the countries of the region, efforts will need to be made and measures taken to improve healthcare systems to increase capacities, improve services and protect public health more effectively. While measures to mitigate the outbreak should continue, the Arab governments need to embark on fundamental reforms to their economic systems in order to stem the current recession and stimulate growth. Strong measures are also needed to end inefficiency and waste and fight more effectively against the corruption that was to blame for the poor start in containing the pandemic in the region. As each Arab country confronts the new circumstances of the post-coronavirus era, one of the most important questions will be whether there will be a collective Arab response to the challenge. Probably not since the Arab-Israeli Wars of 1948 and 1967 and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 has the Arab world been in such a moment of common national crisis as the coronavirus continues to batter regional countries. At such a time of national calamity, each of the Arab countries should choose between nationalist isolation and the fashioning of new forms of Arab solidarity to respond to the fight against the pandemic and its consequences. Governments, peoples and civil society across the Arab world should unite to coordinate policies to fight the coronavirus and stretch out helping hands to fellow Arab countries in need of assistance. However, thus far there have been no joint action plans set out by Arab governments to support individual countries efforts at tackling the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic, political and social crises. The coronavirus pandemic is thus a major test of pan-Arabism, revealing not just challenges but also opportunities to overcome the political differences and disputes that have poisoned inter-Arab relations and hindered the creation of common capacities. But a sickening combination of inaction and paralysis remains, stymying choices that must be made to cooperate in defeating the coronavirus and acting effectively to meet the looming economic downturn that threatens to upend politics across the region. Arab political unity remains as elusive as ever, but the coronavirus outbreak is prompting many to wonder whether the crisis could provide an opportunity for the Arab states to abandon their traditionally inept management of crises. The coronavirus pandemic is a regional challenge that needs strong collective cooperation not only to stop the outbreak, but also to use it as the catalyst for taking hard decisions to face up to the ensuing crisis that will shape not just the Arab worlds healthcare systems but also its economies, polities and cultures. However, thus far no far-reaching action has been taken, and no bold initiative has been produced to mobilise the much needed inter-Arab solidarity and joint action needed to address the crisis. *A version of this article appears in print in the 23 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Cartel leader wanted in Mexico and the United States arrested in Bacalar Bacalar, Q.R. One of the leaders of the Guerreros Unidos Cartel, identified as Edgar P.C., was captured in Bacalar for possession of cocaine. However, upon verifying his identity, Ministerial Police discovered that he was wanted by the DEA for drug trafficking to the United States. The capture was carried out by elements of the Fiscalia General del Estado and National Guard after he attempted to evade agents patrolling the area. According to their investigation, Edgar P.C. is alleged responsible for the importation and distribution of large quantities of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine in various areas of the United States including Houston, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia and Chicago. Preliminary information reports that Edgar P.C. has been sought by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) since September 2016. He has been identified as a leader within the Guerreros Unidos Cartel, a criminal organization that began operations in 2011 in the Mexican states of Morelos and Guerrero. Edgar P.C. has been sought by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) since September 2016 Their investigations also indicates that this drug trafficking group has an alliance with the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG). Under heavy guard, Edgar P.C. was arrested and handed over to Interpol. American actor and evangelist Tom Lester died from complications of Parkinsons disease on Monday in Nashville, Tennessee, according to an obituary from Memory Chapel Funeral Homes. He was 81. Lester, a Mississippi native, is best known for his role in the American television series Green Acres, in which where he played the smart-aleck farmhand Eb Dawson. Lester was born on Sept. 23, 1938 in Mississippi. He spent his early days at his grandfathers farm, dreaming of becoming a Hollywood actor. But many people in his community had doubts about his dreams, he told radio outlet Faith Forward. I told them I was going out to Hollywood to become an actor and they all said, Youre crazy,' Lester told the outlet. Youll never be able to do that. Youre too tall, too skinny, too ugly. Youve got a Southern accent and youll never make it in the motion picture business. You dont look like Rock Hudson.' Because so many in his community kept berating him, he decided to finish his studies at the University of Mississippi, later working for a few years before talking more with his parents about his dream of becoming an actor. I might not make it, but at least Im going to try, Lester said. And I wouldve rather gone out there and tried and failed than to never have gone out there at all. Shortly after moving to Hollywood, Lester did not immediately land an acting role. The Christian actorwho later traveled the nation preaching a message of faith and obediencefirst landed a few regular jobs at a church for an income. After some time, he met actress Lurene Tuttle, who became his friend and mentor. He had a few small roles in theater before landing an audition for the role in the Green Acres series in 1965. Because of his real life experience as a farmhand at his grandfathers farm, he beat out 400 other competitors at the audition because he was the only actor who could actually milk a cow, Fox News reported. Lester appeared in nearly every Green Acres episode between 1965 and 1971. The show was canceled in 1971 due to CBSs rural purge, according to Wikipedia. During the time he starred in Green Acres, he also appeared in the two related series Petticoat Junction and Beverly Hillbillies. After the rural purge and the end of Green Acres, Lester appeared in two animal movies, Benji in 1974 and Gordy in 1994. He also had a role in the popular TV series Little House. Lester was the last surviving regular Green Acres cast member after Mary Grace Canfield, who portrayed Ralph Monroe, died on Feb. 15, 2014. Canfield appeared in some 40 Green Acres episodes. In 1997, he was a recipient of the Mississippis Wildlife Farmer of the Year award at his own farm in the state. Lester was remembered on social media by many of his fans. One of the funniest characters in television history has died tonight, Jeff Hullinger wrote on Twitter, adding pictures from the actor. Sad to hear about the passing of Tom Lester, a fan with the name WallyWingert wrote on Twitter. Eb was always a favorite of mine in Green Acres.' According to his obituary, there will be a graveside service attended by family and close friends in Mississippi on April 24 around noontime. Lester is survived by his brother, two great-nieces, and one great-great niece. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. According to a new study published by Polaris Market, the global Computer Aided Engineering Market is anticipated to reach USD 11.86 billion by 2026. The increasing penetration of smartphones and tablets are the major factors driving the demand for CAE software. The developing economies worldwide are witnessing high increase in the demand for consumer electronics owing to rising affordability of the people. Further, augmented use of modern engineering modes including, 3D printing, building information modeling, concurrent engineering, and 3D modelling are bolstering the computer aided engineering market growth for CAE software worldwide. However, factors such as piracy of CAE software as well as rising open-source threat are hampering the market growth to certain extent. Also, inadequate technical expertise and lack of skilled labor in several countries globally is restricting the growth of the computer aided engineering market. Some of the key players operating in the computer aided engineering market includes Casio Computer Co., Ltd., BenQ Corporation, Dell Technologies, Inc., Seiko Epson Corp., NEC Display Solutions, PLM Software, Inc., Dassault Systemes, Exa Corporation, ESI Group, and Numeca International among others. Download sample Copy : https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/computer-aided-engineering-market/request-for-sample On the other hand, cloud-based CAE tools helps the vendors to escalate market penetration in small as well as medium sectors by providing advantages such as reduced maintenance costs and operating costs as well as mobility of the companies. Further, CAE software plays a significant role in the economic growth of several industries including aerospace & defense, automotive, finance, oil & gas, and healthcare among others. During the past few years, a trend has been noticed in the CAE software marketplace. The players operating in the computer aided engineering market are entering into partnerships as well as mergers & acquisitions between the CAE providers and resellers. This has resulted in increased presence of value-added resellers in large number, which is further acting as a driver to boost computer aided engineering market growth. CAE software offers broad application range as well as supports various tasks including, analysis, simulation, validation, and manufacturing of engineering products. Although, CAE software is an analysis and troubleshooting tool, several critics claims that there is a delay in the accurate results, which acts as a hindrance to the market growth. Also, due to availability of open-source solutions, companies often avoid to make investments in attaining commercial licenses of CAE solutions thus, further restraining the CAE software market growth. Moreover, increasing computational fluid dynamics adoption that facilitates in reducing electric vehicles costs as well as forecast of thermal conditions, is anticipated to propel the growth of the computer aided engineering market during the coming years. Do you have questions or special requirements? Ask our industry experts: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/computer-aided-engineering-market/speak-to-analyst On the basis of geography, Europe is anticipated to account for the major share of the computer aided engineering market in terms of revenues, followed by North America. Also, Asia Pacific computer aided engineering market is expected to demonstrate high growth during the forecast period. The presence of strong automotive industry in Europe and consumer electronic industry in developing nations of Asia Pacific are the factors influencing market growth for computer aided engineering. Further, governments of the developing nations of Asia Pacific region are encouraging the growth of their manufacturing sector by providing funds, subsidies, and tax benefits in order to boost their economic growth. This is anticipated to support the market growth owing to constant increase in the manufacturing sector. Some of such initiatives include Make in India as well as Made in China 2025. Also, automation of industrial equipment is rising at a very high pace, which is likely to bolster the computer aided engineering market growth. Moreover, constant increase in the labor costs worldwide is encouraging the adoption of equipment automation by the manufacturing industries thereby, positively influencing the market growth. Buy Now : https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/checkouts/4271 Contact us Polaris Market Research Phone: 16465689980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com Gyorgy Matolcsy, the governor of the National Bank of Hungary, has said Hungary should look to Singapore as an example for achieving economic success. By setting out a new vision for the period after the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak, Hungary will have a chance to replicate Singapores success in Europe, Matolcsy said in an op-ed piece published on the website Novekedes.hu. One conclusion that can already be drawn from the ongoing pandemic and national responses to it is that East Asia has performed better than the advanced Western countries, and the European Unions northern and eastern member states have done a better job of managing the health, social and economic crisis than the southern ones have, Matolcsy said. Hungarys goal of catching up with the West can now also be furthered with the adoption of political, social and economic solutions coming from Asia, he said. Matolcsy, however, believes it would be wrong for Hungary to follow the examples set by China, Japan and South Korea, arguing that what works on a large scale may not necessarily work on a smaller one. So why couldnt the most successful Asian Tiger, Singapore, serve as Hungarys new vision for the future? the governor added. But instead of simply adopting Singapores societal model, Hungary would have to understand and reconstruct the essence of the city states economic success, Matolcsy said. Because of its strategic geographical location, Singapore has succeeded in establishing itself as a global logistics hub, becoming more and more attractive to investors until it became a crucial player, he said. The secret of secrets was that although Singapore got caught up in crises, it never changed the recipe of its model, Matolcsy said. It was improved, but not replaced every 4, 8 or 10 years. Hungary should follow a European, and specifically central European version of that model, he added. Matolcsy said Hungary and the rest of the Visegrad Group could become one of Europes most attractive capital, technology, trade, financial and quality-of-life magnets. But in order to fully adopt Singapores recipe for success, Hungary would need a new health-care model, way of life, financial system, education system, business sector and state operations, the governor said. MTI Photo: Zsolt Szigetvary Azizi Developments, a leading private developer in the UAE, said steady progress is being made on its residential tower, Creek Views, located on the iconic Dubai Creek with nearly 37 per cent work already completed. Overlooking Dubai Healthcare City, Creek Views boasts stunning panoramic views of the iconic Dubai Creek and the picturesque Downtown Dubai skyline. A 20-storey development, Creek Views features 634 residences, comprising 396 studios, 218 one- and 20 two-bedroom units as well as 33,341 sq ft of premium retail space. The freehold property is coming up within Phase Two of Dubai Healthcare City, a popular community that is rapidly coming to life and increasing in demand. Situated on Al Khail Road, seven minutes away from Dubai International Airport, eight minutes from Dubai Mall and nine minutes from Business Bay and DIFC, the development has all major business, leisure and retail hubs in its vicinity. Azizi said the Creek Views project has received a substantial investor response from more than 37 nationalities for its residential units. The most substantial customer demographic are Emiratis, making up 25% of its Creek Views sales. Completed transactions with Saudi nationals comprised 10%, and those with Chinese nationals nearly 5%. Creek Views is also a popular choice among Europeans, with five per cent of sales having been made to EU nationals, said the Dubai developer. The remainder of this prestigious towers soon-to-be homeowners are GCC nationals, as well as a variety of customers from four continents, including North and South America, Asia and Africa, it added. Nima Khojasteh, the Executive Director for Sales and Marketing, said: "The phenomenal and outstandingly international investor response to our distinguished Creek Views residences, which perfectly cater to the high demand for quality homes in this blossoming area, reflects this exceptional projects central and strategic location, its wide array of premium amenities, and the elevated lifestyle it offers." "Creek Views embodies the rapid progression and forward-looking spirit of Dubai our home and a city that we are proud to catalyse," stated Khojasteh. According to him, the project represents the epicentre of the future, merging views of both the old and new Dubai and embodying the citys remarkable transition from a traditional, iconic past to a contemporary, reinvented future," noted the senior official. Built to offer modern luxury at its finest, Creek Views will feature an all-inclusive health club comprising a swimming pool, a fully equipped gym, a sauna, a steam room, as well as a serene outdoor yoga space. The governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, on Monday declared a complete lockdown of the state for 14 days as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state. Borno on Sunday night recorded its first index case who died while receiving treatment for the severe respiratory disease at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH). The index case, a 56-year-old retired male nurse, was working with the Medicine Sans Frontier (MSF) in Pulka village of Gwoza local government when he became ill. He died two days after he was brought to the UMTH. The United Nations office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has confirmed that the deceased index had no recent travel history a situation that cast confusion over how he got infected with the virus. The death has since stirred controversy in the state as concerned residents are worried that the index case may have infected many persons that had contact with him. The state deputy governor, Umar Kadafur, who chairs the committee on COVID-19 said earlier that 97 contacts have been traced. Speaking in a state wide-broadcast, Governor Zulum, while declaring a 24 hours curfew in the state for a period of 14 days, said he would also be activating a probe into the circumstances that led to the death of the index case at UMTH. Mr Zulum whose address was aired at 7 p.m., described the death of the health worker as unfortunate. He said the late health worker dedicated himself to providing humanitarian the healthcare services to fellow citizens that were critically affected by the Boko haram insurgency. I am setting up a panel to investigate the circumstances surrounding the outbreak and handling of the index case in Borno State. It is my considered view that the government owes this duty to both those exposed to the risk of infection and the deceased, whose values were against the spread of infection. Tracing contacts Stressing how real and dangerous the COVID-19 pandemic had become, Governor Zulum said his administration would take all necessary steps to ensure it does not add to the already existing decade-long Boko Haram burden the state is dealing with. He, however, said notwithstanding the dangers posed by COVID-19, it had three solutions. And these solutions have the same word: Prevention; Prevention, and again, Prevention, he said. Mr Zulum said the states team has traced 97 persons that are believed to have made contacts with the index case. He said 35 of them were traced in Pulka town of Gwoza local government area and 64 in Maiduguri. A surveillance and case management team has also been deployed to Pulka to quarantine all persons who had contact with the index case. I will like to clarify that tracing 97 interest persons does not amount to having 97 cases of the virus. We, however, await results from samples collected from these contacts, hoping we get good results. Lockdown Governor Zulum said he government is taking far-reaching measures to ensure the virus does not cause any health concern in any part of Borno State. In the exercise of the powers conferred on me, I have signed an executive order, declaring COVID-19 a dangerous disease, he said. For this, I am hereby directing a lockdown that will require cessation of all movements in Borno State for an initial period of 14 days effective from 10:30 pm on Wednesday, 22nd of April, 2020. All citizens in Borno State are to stay in their homes. This means all public gatherings are restricted while offices and businesses in Borno State are to be fully closed during this period. Security and intelligence agencies have been briefed for enforcement. He said the government will use this period of restriction to accelerate the tracing and isolation of persons who have been in contact with the index case. Advertisements He clarified that the restriction will not apply to providers of essential services, which the high powered team for prevention and control of COVID-19 in Borno State will make public. Queensland Parliament will return for a mammoth one-day sitting on Wednesday to pass emergency coronavirus legislation as concerns mount about unchecked power. A scaled back Parliament, to allow physical distancing, will debate proposed laws to protect tenants during the COVID-19 crisis, allow wills to be signed electronically as well as rule changes so Parliament could sit virtually. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk sanitizes her hands at parliament house. Credit:Jono Searle/Getty Images It is understood fewer than 16 MPs will actually vote on legislation to ensure parliamentarians stay the recommended 1.5 metres away from one another in the chamber. Non-government MPs were expected to receive a copy of the draft laws on Tuesday afternoon, leaving them less than 24 hours to read through and scrutinise the legislation before Parliament convenes at 9:30 Wednesday morning. In January of this year, I was in Hong Kong for a cousins wedding when news broke from Wuhan of a novel coronavirus. The streets emptied. Masked faces were everywhere, surgical ones supplanting the full-face masks that had just been banned in response to antigovernment protests. Hong Kong had been in the seventh month of violent, unrelenting protests that drew millions of people out onto our main thoroughfares. Returning to the States in February, I expected to be stopped at customs, and perhaps also have my temperature taken. Temperature stations are installed at the Hong Kong airport, checking the foreheads of incoming travelers before they reach customs. This is normal, even when there isnt a pandemic. At PHL, I glided through the Global Entry kiosks and did the same in March, returning from Bahrain. Viruses have stamped out Hong Kongs street-food culture and the possibilities of widespread government dissent. Government responses to pandemics have also vigorously cleaned up and sanitized our city. Hong Kongers now react with horror to any indication of poor hygiene. Though Hong Kongers have a fraught relationship with our government and distrust many of our politicians, we trust our doctors and take seriously their messages to practice social distancing and maintain hygiene. Ive taken for granted in Hong Kong that every public escalator handle is sanitized every hour, that elevator buttons of all buildings are covered in easily wipeable plastic or have sanitization schedules posted above them. (This is similar to gas station restrooms in America, except Hong Kong elevator buttons are sanitized far more frequently and with fervor.) Again, this is normal life, not life during a pandemic. In Hong Kong, the collective memory of pandemics is strong. The H5N1 outbreak of 1997 changed our food culture, eradicating street vendors and eventually moving much of our street and market culture indoors to better maintain sanitation. The SARS pandemic of 2003 taught us how to snap into pandemic mode as a unified society, and the swine flu pandemic of 2009 drove those lessons home. The Hong Kong government now aggressively tracks travelers that enter the region, monitoring those quarantining at home with tracking bracelets and transferring exposed people to quarantine facilities. To date, Hong Kong, a tiny territory with a population of 7.4 million has reported just over 1,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and only four deaths, in contrast to the state of Pennsylvanias more than 34,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,000 deaths. In Hong Kong, we know what to do. No time is wasted in shutting down public gathering places. People stay home. If they go out, masks go on. We are also culturally programmed through many generations of being yelled at by our mothers to take our shoes off before entering a house, washing our hands upon arrival home, and not wearing outside clothes while sitting on our beds. Though Hong Kongers have a fraught relationship with our government and distrust many of our politicians, we trust our doctors and take seriously their messages. Kiki Aranita I expected the response in the United States to match my own memories of pandemics. I expected vigorous handwashing to be the norm immediately. I expected the public consciousness of hygiene to snap into action. I hoped that post-pandemic, these practices would change general sanitation in the United States. But that is not the case. In the U.S., there is bickering over whether to wear masks, and misdirected racism. Here we waste time and energy in debating the recommendations of science and medicine. I hear talk of opening cities and the country before we have established widespread testing. We should not put the cart before the horse. At my small restaurant, we depended on volume to keep our prices low. There is no responsible manner to manage similar volume from pre-COVID-19 days. We temporarily closed a month ago. Although its a setback, we knew it was necessary to protect both employees and customers. Timely responses to pandemics changed Hong Kong for the better in terms of sanitation, but they also erased many aspects of our food culture. What will the food culture in the United States gain and lose? Time will tell, but in the meantime, America should look to Hong Kong, where we have experience with pandemics. Kiki Aranita is the co-owner of Poi Dog in Center City and grew up in Honolulu and Hong Kong. New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday (April 21) that a total of 2,081 coronavirus cases, including 431 recovered and 47 deaths, have been reported in Delhi. He said there are 1,603 active cases, adding that a total of 1,397 samples were sent for testing on Monday, out of which 84 were found COVID-19 positive. Kejriwal said, "We have analysed the deaths and found that 80 per cent people who lost their lives to coronavirus were above 50 years while 83 per cent people had co-morbidity," adding that the government will provide ration to 30 lakh people who do not have ration cards. Addressing media online, he said the Delhi government is giving free ration to about one crore people, rationing half of the population of Delhi. All Delhi MLAs and MPs will be given 2000 food coupons to facilitate ration for people in their constituencies, he added. Delhi CM said that 1397 samples were taken on Monday, in which 78 cases were found positive, adding that 80% of the people who succumbed to COVID-19 were above 50 years, and those who died, 83% had some other disease. He, however, said that from next month, every family will be given ration along with the basic kit. Kejriwal said that instructions have been given to purchase 60 new ambulances, adding that from tomorrow morning testing centre for journalists will commence where all scribes can go there for the same. Notably, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan today wrote to the Health Departments of all states/UTs to ensure adequate availability of blood in blood banks, particularly for people who require regular blood transfusion with blood disorders. Notably, a total number of COVID-19 positive cases rise to 18,985 in India including 15,122 active cases, 3,260 cured/discharged/migrated people and 603 deaths. In the last 24 hours, the country has witnessed 1,329 new cases and 44 additional deaths have been reported, said Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Earlier in the day, Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal conducted a surprise inspection at three shelter homes in the capital to see that basic amenities are being provided to these migrant workers. Baijal, along with Delhi Division Commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar, DUSIB CEO Vijay Anand and 10 other senior officers inspected the shelter homes of Ludlow Castle School Raj Niwas Road, Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya Civil Lines, and Katra Maula Bux Roshanara Road. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's move Monday to lift restrictions on a wide range of businesses, among the most aggressive moves yet by a governor to reopen in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, put his state at the center of a deepening national battle over whether Americans are ready to risk exacerbating the public health crisis to revive the shattered economy. The announcement from Kemp, who was among the last of the nation's governors to impose a statewide stay-home directive, caused blowback from public health experts, who said the state did not yet meet the criteria issued by the White House, and set up a potential confrontation with the mayor of Atlanta and leaders from other cities advising residents to stay at home. Kemp, a Republican in his first term, said he would allow gyms, barber shops, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys, among other businesses, to reopen Friday, though they would be required to follow social distancing guidelines and screen their employees for signs of fever and respiratory illness. He said theaters and dine-in restaurants would be permitted to resume activity April 27. Meanwhile, a statewide stay-home order remains in effect through the end of the month. The only other state pursuing as swift a strategy is South Carolina, where a range of retail stores were allowed to reopen Monday. The Republican governor, Henry McMaster, also lifted the state's controls on beaches but left decisions about whether to reopen them to local officials. The decisions in those two Southern states came as scattered protests have taken place across the country targeting governors' stay-home orders, encouraged in some places by President Donald Trump, who has chafed at the social distancing guidelines issued by his own administration. Epidemiologists say restrictions on economic activity and public assembly, combined with ramped-up testing and aggressive contact tracing to identify other potentially infected people, are necessary to contain the outbreak of the new coronavirus, which has killed more than 42,000 Americans. Many governors, including some Republicans, have heeded that advice, holding out against protesters who have descended on Capitols to decry the emergency orders. Others are charting a different course. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, gave a reopening task force five days to develop recommendations. Republican Bill Lee in Tennessee said he would let his stay-home order expire at the end of the month, vowing, "Social distancing must continue, but our economic shutdown cannot." Georgia is moving even more quickly, although it ranks 42nd in testing per capita, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The state promises to be especially fraught terrain in the politically explosive debate over how to balance public health imperatives against the looming threat of economic depression. It's home to Atlanta - one of the nation's largest cities and an international travel hub - and experienced one of the nation's earliest rural outbreaks in a heavily black community around Albany. And it is an election battleground, won by Trump in 2016 but eyed by Democrats as a potential pickup this year. The state has reported nearly 20,000 cases and 775 deaths. South Carolina, by contrast, had nearly 4,500 cases and 124 deaths by Monday. "By taking this measured action, we will get Georgians back to work safely without undermining the progress that we have all made in the battle against covid-19," Kemp said at a news conference, referring to the disease the novel coronavirus causes. He acknowledged that, "We're probably going to have to see our cases continue to go up," but he said the state was better-equipped to address new outbreaks. He pledged: "If we have an instance where a community starts becoming a hot spot, then, you know, I will take further action." His public health commissioner, Kathleen Toomey, said the plans complied with nonbinding guidelines issued by the Trump administration, which call for a "downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period" before initiating a phased reopening. Jeffrey Koplan, a former director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said they do not. "I haven't seen any numbers that support that in Georgia yet," he said. "There's talk of it tapering off into a plateau and talk of it looking better than the models, but it feels very premature. Koplan, now vice president for global health at Emory University, added, "I think it's dangerous. This is no time for this kind of experimentation." The Democratic mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, condemned the decision. "More than 19,000 Georgians have tested positive for covid-19 and the numbers continue to increase," she said in a statement. "It is the governor's prerogative to make this decision for the state, but I will continue to urge Atlanta to stay at home, stay safe and make decisions based on the best interests of their families." Kemp, in his remarks on Monday, stressed that his directive overrides local orders, saying, "Local action cannot be taken that is more or less restrictive." A spokesman for Bottoms declined to comment on what authority the mayor had to curtail activity licensed by the governor. Already local officials have demonstrated a willingness to go toe-to-toe with the governor. Shirley Sessions, the mayor of Tybee Island, issued a forceful rebuke of Kemp when he reopened the beaches after she had shut down the waterfront area in her small coastal city. "As the Pentagon ordered 100,000 body bags to store the corpses of Americans killed by the coronavirus, Governor Brian Kemp dictated that Georgia beaches must reopen," she said at the time. Koplan said dueling directives would result in chaos, warning that the "fragmentation of policy and recommended courses of action is extremely confusing to the public." While acknowledging the governor's authority, one regional health director said limited testing may be obscuring the true extent of the outbreak. "This is a decision that Governor Kemp will make for our state, but he will need information on the number of cases in the state to know where we are in our battle with this epidemic," said Pamela Logan, who is responsible for a set of counties in northwestern Georgia. "The governor has called upon public health to provide additional covid-19 testing, and we are answering that call." Earlier this month, when Kemp decided to reverse course and issue a statewide stay-home order, he said he had only just learned that the virus could be spread in the absence of symptoms, even though experts had been warning for weeks about asymptomatic transmission. One of his top aides had earlier taken to Facebook to accuse local officials of "overreach" for directing residents to stay at home. That rhetoric is now being employed at demonstrations, which have escalated even as most Americans support stay-home measures, according to recent polling. In a sign of its national political reverberations, Kemp's decision drew condemnation from Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who opposed him in the 2018 governor's race and who has spoken openly of her interest in being Joe Biden's running mate. On Twitter, she called the governor's plans "dangerously incompetent." By Express News Service US crude oil futures crashed to a historic minus $37.63, but consumers filling fuel at the pump won't be sent home with $37.63 gift bags in return. Far from it, fuel prices in India are unlikely to correct significantly either from about Rs 76 for petrol and Rs 66 for diesel. Here's why. India imports Brent Crude from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) block and not the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the future contracts of which fell into the negative zone on Monday. ALSO READ | Explainer: Why did crude oil prices plunge below zero for the first time since 1983? The India basket comprising a weighted average of Oman, Dubai, Brent Crude is currently priced about $20 per barrel, which we pay in dollars, not rupees. The Indian currency, in line with its Asian peers is weakening, offsetting any potential gains from lower prices. "India is not impacted by the fall in WTI crude because we import Brent Crude, which is around $22 per barrel, but relatively stable. Moreover, there are no storage issues yet in it. The future contract of Brent is not physically delivered unlike WTI, which is delivered at Cushing (Oklahoma)," Amit Kumar Gupta of Adroit Financials told The New Indian Express. But shouldn't a steady decline reduce prices in the next few months if not now? Technically yes, but pump prices have an added component of central and state levies to make up for the subsidies given to state-run oil refiners. Like in the past, the government may as well raise excise duty on fuel and use the windfall to balance its books. "The government may increase excise duty to make up for shortfall in revenue due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Lower fuel prices are unlikely in a substantial manner," Gupta reasoned. Global oil consumption too is on the decline leading to a supply glut of 1.8 billion barrels. Prices will likely stay low in the near term at least until oil producers lower production. While production cuts appear unavoidable, the question is to what extent. Analysts believe shutting down production lines may prove costlier than continuing with lower crude prices due to its oversupply. The country may consider buying it cheap and storing for a later day, but that's unlikely to happen either as much of India's oil storage units are up to the brim already as the country is under lockdown with hardly any demand for oil. India's storage capacity at Vizag, Mangaluru and Padur can barely store 10 days worth oil, while additional capacities being built will take time to be commissioned. For context, China's storage reserves are believed to be worth 90 days and analysts expect the Indian government to strengthen reserves as part of its energy security initiative. Gupta, however, said low prices still will be beneficial for India's current account deficit as every $1 fall in crude price translates to Rs 2,900 crore gains. The Porter County Health Department reported three total deaths. Five were listed on the states website, but it was unclear why, a county official said. It had 198 positive cases, according to the health departments website. More than 30 prisoners and two jail officers were confirmed positive as of Monday at the Porter County Jail. With her business on hold due to COVID-19, Joy Kohlhoff, who is the co-owner of Tri-City CNA Academy in Midland, a nursing school for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA), was compelled to put her abilities to work for others in a time of crisis. And not just any crisis, Kohlhoff couldn't get over the fact that frontline doctors and nurses were dying from COVID-19 in the worst part of the storm - New York City. "Seeing that there were instances of hospital staff dying and there was no relief, I couldn't sit at home and just do nothing knowing that I have the skills to help," she said. With that, and against the wishes of her family, Kohlhoff signed up for a contract position, allowing her to travel and work as a temporary nurse anywhere she was needed. Her contract assignment ended up being New York, one of the states that has recently relaxed regulations in order to recognize and allow out-of-state nurses to practice. At home in Midland, Kohlhoff is a home care nurse in addition to running Tri-City CNA Academy, working to help care for others in their home, a role she will return to at some point. For the next four weeks, she is part of a group of traveling warriors, who are living in hotels set up to house only traveling healthcare workers and aiding one of the most densely populated and impacted cities in the United States. When the Daily News spoke with her, she was on day four of her four-week tour. Kohlhoff doesn't know when she will come home when her initial contract is done. In addition, she will have to quarantine for two weeks before seeing family as well. "I can't wait to see my family when all of this is done. But at this point, I don't know how I will be able to leave this behind," she said. On one of her first days working, Kohlhoff witnessed an NYPD officer make a turn toward recovery and taken off a ventilator. That same day, a different NYPD officer died from the virus. Back in her unfamiliar hotel room after a grueling shift of more than 12 hours, the Daily News discussed her experience with all this over the phone late one recent night. Not sure where to even begin in relating her current surroundings, she wept. Kohlhoff said almost everyone she now knows around her was also doing their first nursing tour of service in New York City. "Every nurse, doctor, medical professional, whatever the position, we all have that one drive here to help," she said. "We are all here out of a sense of duty." Early into her new reality, her face is already cut from wearing personal protection equipment (PPE) for long hours. "My face is broken down from the masks already," she said. "We keep coming up with different things that will make it not hurt, yet still seal them to our face for protection and nothing works." The volume and tragedy are aspects that took her by surprise, even though she thought she was prepared to experience it. "Even though I could see it all on the news before I came out here about people being worn down, working days on end - I never in a million years thought it would be this horrifying," she said. There are 11 hospitals in the city's metropolitan area. Kohlhoff describes how the hospital she is working at has temporarily eliminated surgical floors, and other areas one would expect a hospital to have, opting to use the additional space for intensive care units (ICUs). At the time of Kohlhoff's Daily News interview, there were 690 patients at the hospital she is working at. All but 10 had COVID-19. In her first four days, she saw four people successfully weaned off of a ventilator. The hospital plays "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten throughout the halls during the times when patients reach this potential recovery milestone. "It's impactful to see and help in something this important, especially when you see patients come off the ventilators," she said. Ken Kohlhoff, Joy's husband of six years and partner of 13, checks in with her multiple times a day, once in the morning to make sure she is up and during her breaks throughout the day. The couple has five children between them. The worry in Ken's voice is palpable. "Of course, I'm so incredibly proud of her, but I'm also very concerned for her safety," he said. "What she is describing is way worse than what I thought it was. So, it's really hard to hear what she is going through with all of this." "And there's no way any of us can understand," he added. Kohlhoff's best friend of 30 years echoed that concern, but also knows it's something she must do. "I worry about her, but I know she chose this. When she told me she was going, I immediately thought 'this is so her to go and do this,' and I'm super proud of her. She's always been the tough one," said Melissa DeGraw. "This has rocked their family's world and I just want everyone to know just how amazing she is," said DeGraw. "My best friend just went to war and put her life at risk because the world is hurting right now and she is the kind of person that runs toward that to help." Kohlhoff says the current state of crisis from the pandemic has brought out several dichotomies in society in the process. "Everything is shut down so we've had several restaurants drop us off food, which has been truly heartwarming to see," she said. "And I often get care packages from loved ones and friends at home with snacks and things to get me through the day." "Yet, you also see the worst of people in times like this," she said. "People are attacking others in stores, spraying them with Lysol, and it's especially disheartening to see what's going on back home in Lansing with people protesting." Kohlhoff gives a haunting description of some of the things she has witnessed in the short time she's been in the city. "Months ago, when this was all in the very early stages, I was one of the people thinking this was 'another flu'. But now, I look at it so differently," she said. "I'm so intrigued by this virus and all the things that can happen to your body, organs and with your blood. If people saw what this has the potential to do to someone, it would make a huge difference in how serious they are treating the stay at home orders." Her pleas to friends and family back home are stark and serious. "I wish you would listen when I tell all of you in order to stay safe you have to stay home. I wish you could see the horrible nightmare that is in store for you if you obtain, or are subjected to, COVID-19. I wish for all of your sakes you never have to endure what these people are fighting. This isn't even close to just saying it is a virus, I wish they would come up with a disease or word that actually is as frightening as this is [to see]. I know it's hard to change, to stay away, but you are either the solution...or the executioner." "These people are suffering through a hell you can't imagine," she said. On a break at the hospital, Kohlhoff stepped outside to get some air. She saw a homeless man wearing a protective mask walking nearby. He crossed the street to avoid her. "I can't foresee a future with anything good it in right now," she said. Nominate a local Modern Hero In this time of fear and uncertainty, there are groups and individuals in the Greater Midland Area who are stepping up to help, proving themselves as heroes. They may not wear capes or have superpowers, but their efforts are instilling hope, oftentimes at the risk of their own health and safety. To honor these folks, the Daily News has launched a Modern Heroes initiative, where people can highlight the work others are doing in the community. To recognize other Modern Heroes in the area, visit www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Midland-celebrates-Modern-Heroes-Nominate-your-15184652.php, or email Editor Kate Hessling at khessling@hearstnp.com. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 21 By Ilkin Seyfaddini Trend: Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov discussed possibilities for investment and trade and economic cooperation with Minister of Finance of Japan Taro Aso, Trend reports citing the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan. During the videoconference, the sides discussed issues of possible implementation of various projects in agriculture, chemical and energy sectors, as well as mechanisms of cooperation to accelerate implementation of the already launched projects. Following the talks, the parties agreed to consider prospects on providing grants from Japan for the needs of healthcare system and elimination of economic consequences of the pandemic in Uzbekistan. In December 2019, Uzbekistan and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed an agreement according to which JICA will provide Uzbekistan with a loan of 23 million Japanese yen (equivalent to $213.1 million). The agreement provides for granting, through commercial banks, of soft loans worth $196.6 million for a period of up to 10 years (with a grace period of up to five years) to business entities operating in the country's horticulture sector at a rate of seven percent. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini Washington: The governors of several US states - including close allies of President Donald Trump - are moving to rapidly reopen businesses and churches as protests against government-mandated lockdowns spread throughout the country. The Republican Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, has announced that gyms, churches, bowling alleys, tattoo parlours, barbers and nail salons would be allowed to reopen by the end of the week in his state. Dine-in restaurants and movie theatres would be able to reopen at the start of next week, he said. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has announced that businesses can begin reopening in his state this week. Credit:AP The decision is at odds with Trump administration guidelines that say states should only begin restarting their economies when they have seen a reduction in confirmed cases over 14 days. Confirmed cases in Georgia, a state of 10 million people, have still been rising each day. According to state health officials, 775 residents have died and 3703 are hospitalised after contracting COVID-19. Monitoring, Reporting and Coordination Specialist, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme Country: Kyrgyzstan City: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Office: UNDP Kyrgyzstan Closing date: Friday, 1 May 2020 Monitoring, Reporting and Coordination Specialist S-7 (Open to Kyrgyzstan Nationals Only) Advertised on behalf of : Location : Bishkek, KYRGYZSTAN Application Deadline : 01-May-20 (Midnight New York, USA) Additional Category : Gender Equality Type of Contract : Service Contract Post Level : SB-4 Languages Required : English Russian Duration of Initial Contract : 1 year, extension subject to performance Background UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. UN Women Country Office (CO) in the Kyrgyz Republic (KR) was established in 2012 to support implementation of international and national commitments of the country on gender equality and womens empowerment, including the CEDAW, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, UN Security Councils resolutions on women, peace and security, and the Sustainable Development Goals. UN Women CO in the Kyrgyz Republic leverages its mandate of normative support, UN system coordination and operational activities for results in line with UN Women Strategic Plan and the Country Strategic Note. The Strategic Note of UN Women in Kyrgyz Republic for 2018-2022 defines the following impact results as priority areas for UN Women work at country level: 1) All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence; and 2) Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems. The Monitoring, Reporting and Coordination Specialist will be leading the CO level Monitoring and Evaluation, and overseeing the CO and Project level reporting. Since recently, the CO is testing new ways of doing development differently, and thus the incumbent is expected to contribute to adaptive approaches to Monitoring and Evaluation field. The incumbent will also support the Country Representative and the National Program Officer on UN Womens Coordination mandate. This includes UN Womens contribution to the implementation and annual review of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for the Kyrgyz Republic 2018-2022. For this, the incumbent is expected to represent UN Women in Interagency M&E Group, as well as in other UNDAF Result Groups. Thus, under the direct supervision of the National Programme Officer of UN Women Kyrgyzstan CO, the incumbent will dedicate 70% of her/his time to the monitoring and reporting functions of the CO, whereas 30 percent will be dedicated to providing coordination support. Duties and Responsibilities 1.Facilitate and substantively contribute to the incorporation of monitoring and reporting into programme formulation Guide the process of developing monitoring indicators, monitoring calendars, field monitoring plans and ensure quality assurance processes; Contribute to annual work plan monitoring, reviews and reporting; Provide technical support to partners in developing Performance Monitoring Frameworks (PMFs), systems and plans, and Baseline Surveys; Facilitate the clearance of donor agreements, donor reports (narrative and financial) and partner Agreements (PCA, LoA, UN2UN Agreement). 2. Contribute substantively to the monitoring and tracking of results against country/regional level targets and UN Women Strategic Plan and in UNDAF Provide technical support to the National Programme Specialist in developing country programming processes and products, including annual workplans, strategic notes, and programme/ project documents, the preparation of UNDAF and other UN system joint programming documents; Follow up on required action/outstanding issues and report on outcome/result. Alert the supervisor on critical issues to be addressed. Coordinate with the Programme Team to ensure that data collection and analysis from field visits are coordinated and standardized across programmes; Monitor data from partners on a quarterly basis and provide substantive inputs to regular management briefs to inform decision making; Visit partners, along with the Programme Team, to support monitoring of results and planning processes as required; Review progress reports submitted by partners and provide feedback to improve quality and timeliness of reporting; Draft and monitor the COs Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research Plan. 3. Facilitate the reporting of results to internal (Senior Management) and external (Executive Board, Donors) audiences Facilitate the process of the CO meeting internal and external reporting requirements and deadlines, including annual reporting process; Identify relevant evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations and input them into programme reporting; Collect and maintain data for country, regional and global corporate reports, mid-term reviews, and final evaluations. 4. Provide technical support to the CO in the implementation the UN Women Evaluation Policy Coordinate the implementation of UN Womens Evaluation plan in the CO; Provide guidance to programme staff on evaluations; Ensure communication between the CO and Regional Office of UN Women in Istanbul regarding evaluations; Coordinate the completion of managements response to the UN Women Global Accountability and Tracking of Evaluation Use (GATE). 5. Provide technical support to the Country Representative on inter-agency coordination Participate in and provide support to joint inter-agency UN planning processes and similar exercises; Prepare briefing materials for the CO on issues to be discussed in the UN and other events and meetings; Provide analysis and advice to Resident Coordinator (RC) and the UN Country Team (UNCT) on the gender dynamics and opportunities to support inclusive engagement of women in the development assistance provided by the UNCT; Prepare inputs to Common Country Assessment (CCA)/UNDAF and other documents; Tags capacity development data collection development assistance development projects empowerment of women good practices human rights monitoring and evaluation monitoring and reporting operational activities peace and security prince2 programme implementation programme management sustainable development sustainable development goals women and girls Provide technical support to UNCT in monitoring and reporting and prepare analytical and regular progress reports on UN Womens programme experiences; Provide substantive support and representation at conferences and meetings, joint programme development, joint advocacy and research in collaboration with the Country Representative. 6. Facilitate knowledge building and sharing: Identify and disseminate good practices, lessons and knowledge, as identified through programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation activities; Contribute to the development of capacity development tools, including training materials and packages; Facilitate capacity building opportunities for staff and partners in the country in the areas of Results Based Management (RBM), Monitoring and Evaluation; Promote the awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) among all staff members through communication, training, learning and development activities. Competencies Core Values: Respect for Diversity Integrity Professionalism Core Competencies: Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues Accountability Creative Problem Solving Effective Communication Inclusive Collaboration Stakeholder Engagement Leading by Example Functional Competencies: Strong knowledge of programme formulation and implementation and Results Based Management Strong knowledge of monitoring and evaluation, data collection and analysis, and reporting Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports Strong analytical and report writing skills Good knowledge of UN programme management systems Strong knowledge of gender equity and womens empowerment issues Strong knowledge of UN system and understanding of inter-agency coordination processes Ability to promote and monitor inclusion of gender-specific objectives, indicators, targets and activities in the UN agencies programmes Required Skills and Experience Education and certification: Completion of secondary education is required Masters degree in business/public administration, political or social science, economics, international development studies, gender/womens studies is a strong asset. A project/programme management certification (such as PMP, PRINCE2, or MSP) would be an added advantage. Experience: At least 6 -years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in program/project management, or monitoring and reporting of development projects/ programmes; Experience in the United Nations systems and/or inter-agency coordination in an asset; Field experience is an asset. Language Requirements: Fluency in English and Russian is required, knowledge of Kyrgyz language would be an advantage. Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset; Attention: All online applications must include (as an attachment) the completed Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks. UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks. LUBBOCK, Texas, April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- For more than 28 years, Betenbough Homes has pioneered new ways to lower home prices and offer more home for less money to homebuyers across West Texas. As businesses and individuals continue to feel the effects of COVID-19 and economies far and wide are impacted in various ways, local, new home builder Betenbough Homes continues to be committed to quality, affordable homes. "Affordability has always been our greatest passion," said Cal Zant, president of Betenbough Homes. "We constantly tinker behind the scenes to find opportunities to build the highest quality home at an even better price. We believe everyone should know what home feels like, and amidst what is going on in the world today, our dedication to affordable homes and to our home buyers is as strong as ever." Betenbough Homes gives home buyers in Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland and Odessa the opportunity to own a home for less than rent. In late 2019, the company released a cottage-style home line in Amarillo and Lubbock, lowering the starting price of a Betenbough home by $17,000. In its Midland and Odessa communities, a region where affordable homes are scarce and rent is four times above the national average, Betenbough home prices offer a starting monthly price that is about $100 less than the average rent price. As home buyers across the country are adjusting to new realities, affordable new homes in Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland and Odessa are more essential than ever before. Betenbough Homes is committed to serving West Texans by adapting and innovating new systems and initiatives that will continue providing more home for less money. To schedule an interview or to request photos or video, please call Sarah Sales at 806.853.3668, email at [email protected], or visit www.betenbough.com. About Betenbough Homes Betenbough Homes, West Texas' number one new home builder, was founded in 1992 when father and son Ron and Rick Betenbough teamed up to deliver quality new homes at the most competitive price. Based in Lubbock, Texas, Betenbough Homes has built more than 10,000 homes in communities across West Texas and is committed to providing more home for less money. Betenbough Homes is an employee-owned company committed to build, serve and impact the communities it calls home. Ranked among the Top 100 Builders in the nation by Builder magazine, the company consistently receives superior marks for customer service by GuildQuality, a third-party surveying company. Betenbough Homes currently builds homes in Amarillo, Texas; Lubbock, Texas; Midland, Texas; and Odessa, Texas, with more than three families moving into a brand-new Betenbough home every day. Visit betenbough.com for more information on Betenbough Homes. Related Images image1.png SOURCE Betenbough Homes Related Links http://www.betenbough.com Lahore, April 21 : As the COVID-19 pandemic rages across Pakistan, it has left the transgender community in Punjab province at heightened risk of poverty and ill health because they exist on the fringes of society, a media report said on Tuesday. Eking out a living through begging on the streets, the transgender community's options are limited -- they can either stay at home or continue to beg to make ends meet, said The Express Tribune report. "Everyone is vulnerable but our options are limited," said Neeli Rana, a transwoman and community leader in Lahore. Operating under already limited social privileges, the community fears for its survival during the lockdown period. While urging citizens to participate in social distancing to flatten the COVID-19 curve appears to be the only strategy that is effective in preventing the respiratory virus from spreading, the transgender community has no alternative source of income other than performing for people or begging, the report said. "Our livelihood depends on begging and performing for people," said Rana. While laws, now provide some form of equality to the transgender community, they are constantly judged based on the pre-existing template of social norms and cultural expectations in the country. In 2017, the government, in the first of firsts, counted transgender people in its national census. In June that year, first passports were issued with a transgender category - a milestone in the community's long struggle against discrimination. "We are staying at home but without any financial support from the authorities," Rana said. Zanaya Chaudhry, who is part of a Lahore-based NGO, said the transgender community requires financial help. "We are trying to do as much as we can. We have provided them with protective masks, hand sanitizers, and gloves," The Express Tribune quoted Chaudhry as saying. "So far, we have not recorded any case of coronavirus in the community." | NEWSALERT-TN-PM 3 Learning from the pandemic, we keep working to ensure inclusive, quality health services to all our countrymen: PM Modi at TN event.Learning from the pandemic, we keep working to ensure inclusive, quality health services to all our countrymen: PM Modi at TN event. NEWSALERT-TN-PM 2 Future will belong to societies which invest in health sector: Modi at TN event.Future will belong to societies which invest in health sector: Modi at TN event. People are scared. At a time when our province is in a panic (about the) pandemic, he (Pallister) is now causing more panic ... for these workers. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. "People are scared. At a time when our province is in a panic (about the) pandemic, he (Pallister) is now causing more panic ... for these workers." MGEU president Michelle Gawronsky "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before." Rahm Emanuel, formerly mayor of Chicago and Barack Obamas chief of staff People dont accept change easily. They get comfortably used to a situation, especially when it suits them. And anything that upsets that normal operation typically is an unwelcome occurrence, and political poison for governments. But when the event is earth-shatteringly large so large in fact that it cannot be ignored by the population as a minor irritation or a partisan whim people become more accepting of change. They may even rationalize it, even if it goes against their own interests. Look how quickly, for example, most of us Canadians gave up our freedom of movement during this COVID-19 pandemic. In this particular case, we shouldnt regret our actions. Those of us following the pandemic regulations over the last several weeks understand that we are accepting these changes to achieve a greater good to save the lives of our seniors and those who have compromised immune systems. But while public actions and the actions of our government in keeping us safe are generally altruistic in nature of course, there is some self-preservation mixed in as well we suggest that Brian Pallisters Progressive Conservative government may consider the pandemic as much an opportunity as it is a health crisis. Its hardly a secret that the Manitoba Tories have had a combative relationship with the public sector unions of this province. Thats, perhaps, putting it mildly. For years, the Pallister government has been causing chaos within union circles by forcing amalgamation and creating and passing legislation that puts caps on public sector wages but never giving the bill royal assent. If you put it to them, Im certain that most of the Progressive Conservative MLAs in office right now would generally agree with the idea that smaller, leaner governments should be the rule, not the exception. Many in the private sector believe that far too many civil servants are on the payroll than are needed for efficient government. But at any other time, cutting the civil service would be tantamount to declaring war on the MGEU. But thanks to COVID-19, and the massive social instability this pandemic has caused across the country and around the world, Im willing to bet that were about to find out just how lean Manitobas government operations can get. As reported last week, public-sector managers at universities, Crown corporations and in the provincial civil service have been given until today to put forward plans on how to reduce labour costs during the pandemic. It is a widespread demand that crosses essentially every publicly funded government operation. That little revelation followed Pallisters announcement that he was looking for unions to agree to a reduced work week for up to 25 per cent of public-sector workers. And if they didnt agree to it and if the federal government did not allow civil servants with reduced work hours to collect federal employment insurance for the remainder of the week the premier said to expect layoffs. Then yesterday, the Brandon School Division announced that 245 "bodies" within the division, or 218.7 FTE, were laid off between April 16 and April 18, including educational assistants, bus drivers, custodial assistants and secretarial staff. BSD Supt. Marc Casavant told the Sun that they, like government departments and Crown corporations, were asked to cut costs, and that their deadline was yesterday. Yesterday in his press conference with media, Brian Pallister said it was a "false assertion" that cuts to universities would become permanent. And he intimated the same for potential layoffs in the civil service as well should they come that these measures are temporary, and only meant to bolster resources for the front line in battling COVID-19. It remains to be seen whether Pallister will indeed keep his word about these "temporary" cuts, but we dont blame Gawronsky for expressing alarm, however they may come down. No one is certain how long this situation will persist, meaning several Manitobans will be relying on federal cash and their own savings, possibly well into the summer. This will be painful for a lot of people. And with millions upon millions being spent by the federal and provincial governments, Pallister has just cause to look at ways to cut costs across the board and quite likely a majority of Manitobans will support them, even grudgingly. Members of the civil service are scared, for nobody wants their job to be deemed "non-essential," whether during a pandemic or not. All that does is paint a giant target on their back for the next time a government decides to cut spending. Matt Goerzen, editor North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, is in grave danger after undergoing surgery, according to a U.S. official. A second source familiar with the intelligence stated that the U.S. has been monitoring reports about Kim's health. Kim missed the celebration of his grandfather's birthday on April 15, and it raised speculations about his overall well-being. He had been seen 2 weeks ago at a government meeting. Kim Jong Un's condition A U.S. official told CNN on April 13 that the concerns about Kim's health are credible however no one knows about the severity of his condition. An online newspaper based in South Korea that focuses on North Korea, Daily NK reports that Kim received a cardiovascular system procedure on April 12. The North Korean leader undergo said procedure because of excessive smoking, obesity and overworking, according to the news site. Kim is now receiving treatment in a villa in Hyangsan County following his surgery. After Kim's condition had improved, most of the medical team that treated him returned to Pyongyang on April 19 and only a few of them remained to monitor his recovery. Also Read: Kim Jong-Un Rushes Construction of 'Crucial' North Korean Hospital Despite Having 'No Covid-19 Cases' On April 19, a South Korean source stated that South Korea's top leaders are aware of the reports about Kim's health status but can't verify the details published by Daily NK. Kim's health issues related to weight and smoking are already known by the public, but there is other information that needs to be released. South Korea's Presidential Blue House said in a statement that they have nothing to confirm on reports about Kim's health and that there are no unusual signs that have been detected inside North Korea. The Unification Ministry and Defense Ministry in South Korea have given no comment about the matter. No updates from North Korea North Korea controls any information surrounding Kim. His absences from official state media sparked rumors and speculations about his health. North Korea has no free press and does not expose much about the country's leadership. Analysts are reliant on media dispatches and propaganda videos for any clue about the situation. Kim last appeared in North Korean state media on April 11. On April 15, which is North Korea's most important holiday as it celebrates the anniversary of the birth of the country's founding father, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un was still a no show. Experts have no clue on what to make of Kim's absence from the festivities celebrating his grandfather since when a North Korean leader is absent from an important event, statements are released. But for Kim Jong Un's case, there was no update from the North Korean government. According to Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former CIA deputy division chief for North Korea, there have been a number of recent rumors about Kim's health and if the leader is hospitalized, it would explain why he was not present on the important April 15th celebrations. However, over the years, there have been a lot of false health rumors about Kim Jong Un. Last year, Kim Jong Un disappeared for more than a month in 2014, which also fueled rumors about his health. He then returned sporting a cane and days later, South Korean intelligence said that he had a cyst removed from his ankle. Related Article:North Korea Reports Zero Coronavirus Cases, Sparks Talks of Secret Epidemic @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Here are the latest developments on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China: -- Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan Monday told medical experts in Wuhan in the central Chinese province of Hubei to make all-out efforts to save and treat every COVID-19 patient. -- China has strengthened border control measures for the containment of imported novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) risk. -- China will step up epidemic prevention and control measures in major cities and at key ports, resolutely guarding against the cross-border spread of coronavirus -- Guangzhou, the capital city of south China's Guangdong Province will expand the scope of nucleic acid tests to cope with the heavy tasks of preventing the novel coronavirus epidemic from rebounding. Guangzhou has issued a multilingual open letter, urging joint efforts against COVID-19 and appealing zero tolerance over discriminatory language or acts. -- Shanghai will restart classes for non-senior students by stage from May 6, local authorities said Monday, after announcing earlier this month that senior students in middle and high schools will resume classes from April 27. -- An epidemic prevention and control work team departed Monday for Kyrgyzstan from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to join the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. -- Central China's Hubei Province, which was hit hard by COVID-19, announced Monday that the province's national college entrance exam, also known as Gaokao, would be postponed by one month to July 7 and 8. -- Chinese health authority said Monday that it received reports of 12 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the mainland Sunday, of which eight were imported. The other four new cases were domestically transmitted, the National Health Commission said in a daily report, noting that three cases were reported in Heilongjiang Province and one in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. No death was reported Sunday on the mainland. Two new suspected cases, all imported ones in Shanghai, were also reported. -- A total of 22 patients of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were discharged from hospitals Sunday on the Chinese mainland, according to the National Health Commission. Altogether 77,084 patients had been discharged from hospitals after recovery by the end of Sunday, the commission said in its daily report Monday. As of Sunday, 82,747 confirmed COVID-19 cases had been reported on the mainland, and 4,632 people had died of the disease. -- The Chinese mainland reported eight new imported cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Sunday, bringing the total number of imported cases to 1,583, the National Health Commission said Monday. The mainland also reported two new suspected cases Sunday, all imported ones, the commission said in its daily report. Of the total imported cases, 742 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 841 were being treated in hospitals with 43 in severe condition, the commission said. No deaths had been reported from the imported cases. -- A new study suggested that the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) among hospitalized COVID-19 patients with hypertension was associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to nonusers. Led by Li Hongliang, dean of the School of Basic Medical Sciences at Wuhan University, the team consisted of researchers from nine hospitals in central China's Hubei Province as well as researchers from the United States, Britain and Canada. -- An online trade fair assembling 100 medical supply manufacturers in east China's Zhejiang Province and more than 80 Italian medical institutions, multinational firms and business associations was launched Friday. Scheduled to conclude on April 22, the fair is expected to help meet the urgent demand for anti-epidemic supplies in Italy. It will also hold two targeted procurement sessions for Italian private businesses and for an Italian hospital respectively. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Monday said everyone will have to pause and reflect on the way they lead their lives whenever the nationwide lockdown is over. The actor was ready with enough witty comebacks too in a session with his fans. One of his fans asked him how he was spending time during lockdown. To which Shah Rukh replied, In spite of contributing to the population boom, having three kids to be with is a treat. They are in all shapes and sizes, so the day goes by being with them each for a couple of hours. Then spend rest of the day cleaning up their toys! The actor and his wife, interior designer-producer Gauri Khan have three children - Aryan, 22, Suhana, 19, and AbRam, six. To contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a 21-day lockdown in the country, starting March 25. However, the lockdown was recently extended till May 3. In a Q&A session on Twitter with fans and followers, Shah Rukh was asked whether it would be a different world after the lockdown was over. I think we will all have to press pause... reset and then play our worlds going forward, the actor replied. When a user asked him what he has learnt these days, Shah Rukh reiterated that we all need to slow down a bit. Look and feel life and nature a bit more than just seeking instant gratification 24/7, he added. Another tweeple told the actor to keep fans updated about whether his next film be with director Rajkumar Hirani, Atlee or Siddharth Anand. Shah Rukh, whose last cinematic outing was 2018s Zero, answered in his signature witty style, Is it alright if I can forward the scripts to you also? Dont stress will do lots of films my man. When given a choice between Hollywood masters Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan, the actor went for an option close to home. Wow both are awesome and I have met them... but Raju apna sa lagta hai... nahi (Raju is like one of us, right)? Shah Rukh said hinting at a collaboration with Hirani. There have been reports that the 54-year-old star may sign his next with the Sanju director. Beijing has imposed new restrictions on an upscale diplomats district that is home to 3.5 million people, as it guards against the threat of a second wave of coronavirus cases. The move to increase social distancing in the Chinese capital just weeks after it relaxed strict lockdown measures is likely to be repeated around the world, as Australia and other countries grapple with the threat of resurgent infections. Beijing has categorised a key district as "high risk". Credit:Getty Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday said there were no plans to change travel restrictions on China as Australia's largest trading partner looks to re-open parts of its economy despite the threat of a second wave. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Chinese diplomats had begun negotiating with up to a dozen countries including South Korea, Singapore and others in Europe on two-way travel for essential workers and business. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 00:05:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LILONGWE, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Malawi has registered one more COVID-19 case, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 18 with 2 deaths, the country's Principal Secretary for Health Dan Namalika announced Tuesday. The Secretary said the confirmed patient is a Malawian from the capital, Lilongwe, who had recently travelled to the neighbouring Tanzania where COVID-19 cases have also been recorded. The new COVID-19 case has been recorded five days after the 17th case was recorded on April 16. According to the Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM) update on the pandemic, eight of the confirmed cases have been imported into the country from across the globe while 10 are through local transmission. In total, Malawi has so far conducted over 450 tests of COVID-19 from which the 18 cases were confirmed positive, according to the PHIM update. On April 14 Malawi President Peter Mutharika endorsed a 21-day lockdown which his Health Minister, Jappie Mhango, declared and it was expected to be applied from the midnight of April 18 to the Midnight of May 9. But the declaration of lockdown sparked sporadic protests in cities and some districts across the country where people conducted demonstrations denouncing the lockdown as non-starter given the high poverty levels in the country. Enditem OFFALY County Council is committed to completing the section of road outside the premises where the Texas department store plans to open next month. Work under the Town Enchancement Scheme shut down on Saturday, March 28 last following the implementation of stricter Government restrictions, Town Engineer, John Connelly told members at this month's meeting of Tullamore Municipal District. Cllr Declan Harvey said that work should be prioritised at the area. The last thing we want is a hold-up at the likes of Tom Texas, he stressed. He also asked that double yellow lines be placed outisde the old Wolftrap premises at the traffic lights on William St as he noted motorists were beginning to park there again. Mr Connelly said that road markings were being put down on William St on the Friday before the shut down and the work had to stop. He said stop lines had been put in place but some of the double yellow line markings had not been replaced. It would suit everyone to resume work, he stressed adding that the situation was being kept under review. I presume some ares will come back earlier rather than later, added Mr Connelly stressing that the quarries would have to reopen before the new footpaths could be put in place along William St. Cllr Sean O'Brein wondered if there was any possibility special exemptions would be inroduced to the restrictions to allow such work to continue when the town was quieter. He noted that great progress had been made in the days and weeks in the lead up the shut down because the streets were so much quieter. Mr Connelly confirmed that work on upper William St would be completed once the Town Enhancement Scheme resumed. Work on the footpath between the juncton of Harbour St and William St and Doyles Gala shop had commenced before the Covid lockdown and the area is partially cordoned off at present. Every year during Ramzan, the Light of Muhammad Mosque sets up long tables on the street and dishes up free meals at sunset for the poor to break their daily fast. It's a charity that many rely on in this impoverished district on the edge of the Egyptian capital. But it's too dangerous in this era of the coronavirus in Egypt and in many Muslim countries, such Tables of the Compassionate have been barred. So the mosque, which like others in Egypt had to shut its doors as a precaution against the virus, will use the funds that would have gone into the free communal tables to distribute packed meals and cash to those in need. "We hope this could ease their suffering, said Sheikh Abdel-Rahman, the muezzin of the mosque in the district of Bahtim. As Ramzan begins with the new moon later this week, Muslims around the world are trying to maintain the cherished rituals of Islam's holiest month without further spreading the outbreak. At the heart of Ramzan is the sunrise-to-sunset fast, meant to instill contemplation of God. But alongside the hardship of abstaining from food and drink for hours every day, the month sweeps everyone up into a communal spirit. Families and friends gather for large meals at sunset, known as iftars. In some countries, cafes and cultural events are packed late into the night. Worshippers go to mosques for hours of evening prayers, or taraweeh. Many devote themselves to charity. Muslims now find themselves cut off from much of what makes the month special as authorities fight the pandemic. Many countries have closed mosques and banned taraweeh to prevent crowds. Prominent clerics, including in Saudi Arabia, have urged people to pray at home. Governments are trying to balance restrictions with traditions. Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Egypt loosened their curfews, moving them back to start anywhere from a half hour to 90 minutes after sunset. That gives time to get to Iftar, but not much: people can't go too far to visit others for the meal unless they're prepared to stay the night. Other countries have banned long internal travel. Syria gave people a window of two days this week to move between provinces, then restored its ban. In Malaysia, Mohamad Fadhil said he was resigned to missing out on the surge in business at the Ramzan bazaar, where he and other sellers hawk food and drinks in crowded open-air markets. The bazaars have been shut down. But he hoped the country's lockdown will be eased so he can bring his 7-year-old daughter home. She was at his parents about an hour away when the lockdown began six weeks ago, trapping her there. I hope we can be together as a family during Ramzan," he said. In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, the government has banned millions of government employees, soldiers and police from travelling home during the Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramzan. "Fear of coronavirus has blocked us from celebrating Eid with my parents, said Rachmad Mardiansyah, a civil servant in Jakarta. The loss of communal charity meals will particularly hurt as people lose jobs under coronavirus restrictions. Some are rushing to fill the void. Tab Soc, a famous Muslim preacher on Rfm, a private radio station in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, said that while the government is taking action, the rich must also help the poor. Solidarity must be in order. This is what the Prophet Muhammad did during times of war. COVID-19 is like a war, he said. Donors can't help everywhere when need surges so quickly. In the Gaza Strip, the group Salam Charitable usually receives donations from Turkey, Malaysia, Jordan and elsewhere for its Ramzan relief projects. Last year, it was able to distribute 11,000 food parcels and clothes for children. Charities are vital in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade for 13 years, leaving more than half the population of 2 million under the poverty line. This year, giving has dried up. This time last year, we had already three contracts to give food parcels to the poor. This year we don't have any, said Omar Saad, spokesman for the charity. I think we missed the opportunity because Ramzan is starting soon. In Pakistan, powerful Muslim clerics forced the government to leave mosques open throughout Ramzan. Mullah Abdul Aziz of the Red Mosque in the capital, Islamabad, ordered adherents to pack communal prayers. Last Friday, worshippers were shoulder-to-shoulder. Still, calls by influential Saudi clerics to stay home also have an effect. We hear on TV what the big imams say, said Zaheer Abbas, an Islamabad resident who has been praying at home. Praying is praying. God isn't only in the mosque. In Somalia, while people lament the loss of community, Mogadishu resident Osman Yusuf tried to find optimism. The new restrictions keep you closer to your loved ones for comfort, he said. Not all Ramzan traditions are rooted in religion. Egypt is known for the TV comedies and drama series it churns out for the month, which are broadcast between the iftar and the pre-sunrise meal. A new batch is being produced for this year, despite coronavirus restrictions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Forecast Antibiotics Market Value is expected to cross USD 64,532 Million by 2025 at a CAGR of 4.8%. Market Synopsis Supportive government legislations, such as the implementation of the Generating Antibiotics Incentives Now (GAIN) Act in the US, are expected to accelerate the drug approval process in the antibiotics market. Market Highlights According to MRFR analysis, Antibiotics Market Value is expected to register a CAGR of 4.8% during the forecast period of 2019 to 2025 and was valued at USD 51,835 Million in 2018. Antibiotics are powerful medicines that fight bacterial infections. They either stop bacteria from reproducing or destroy them. Several types of antibiotics are available, and they are generally available with a prescription in most countries. The growth of global Antibiotics Market Value is driven by various factors such as increasing efforts undertaken by major companies for the development of advanced antibiotic products, development of generic drugs, increasing approval of antibiotic drugs, rise in incidence of chronic and infectious diseases, growing investment opportunities by biotech companies in research and development, is expected to drive the growth of the global antibiotics market. Segmentation The global antibiotics market has been segmented based on drug class, spectrum of activity, drug origin, and end user. The market, based on drug class, has been divided into cephalosporins, penicillin, fluoroquinolones, macrolides, carbapenem, aminoglycosides, sulfonamides, and others. The carbapenem segment is likely to be the fastest growing during the review period due to the increasing incidence of pneumonia, urinary tract infections, which would increase the usage of the carbapenem class of antibiotics. Thus, the rising usage of carbapenem will substantially drive the growth of the antibiotics market. Key Players Some of the key players in the Global Antibiotics Market are Novartis AG (Switzerland), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (US), Astellas Pharma Inc. (Japan), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), Pfizer Inc. (US), Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (US), Abbott Laboratories (US), GlaxoSmithKline PLC (UK), Sanofi (France), Bayer AG (Germany), Eli Lilly and Company (US), and Merck & Co., Inc. (US). Browse Full Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/antibiotics-market-8447 Related News Stem Cell Banking Market analysis Lymphedema Treatment Market growth About Market Research Future: MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. Contact: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com It is our turn now to experience the trauma of war. For me, it happens in the morning twilight when night gives way to dawn. That is when my comfortable cocoon abruptly yields to the same jarring, stubborn truth: an invisible killer has gripped the world and it will not let go. Awake and lying in the stillness for a moment, I wonder how many more people have become infected and succumbed overnight, casualties of this new and insidious virus? Every morning, the answer is inevitably the same too many more. Then I remember that my family and I are fortunate. We are safe, or as safe as you can be amid a capricious pandemic. We have a home that has become a fortress, save a moat. My wife and I are able to work from home. We have not for the time being, at least lost our jobs. We have been able to arrange for the necessities of life to be delivered to our front door. We know that so many poorer people, in so many volatile places in Canada and abroad cannot do the same. Still, we and they are bound, we are told, by dread and anxiety the psychological residue of a war we are waging together against a silent enemy that kills with lethal and indiscriminate efficiency. It is a smug, exculpatory evasion. Like many of us who live in the West, my family and I have watched, usually with blithe indifference, as countless people in countless places are maimed in body, mind and spirit and killed in real wars fought with real weapons year after grim year. The victims of these wars, blockades and embargoes engineered often by Western powers or their proxies with ruthless facility are, of course, being killed and maimed far away and out of sight. They do not count, unless they become a figure on a ledger. We do not remember them. We do not express solidarity with them. We do not pause to pay homage to them. We do not call them heroes. And we will not rescue them even as their near-perpetual panic and anguish are being compounded by a deadly, rampaging virus. Instead, we forget them. On the rare occasions we think about them, we blame them for their suffering and deaths. Worse, we say they do not value life, including the lives of their children. We say their faith turns most of them into terrorists, including, again, their children, who welcome death. So, we revel in the punitive sights and sounds of round after round of shock and awe as their rightful comeuppance. We never have and never will accept any blame or responsibility for the suffering and deaths the West is largely to blame and responsible for. They are always guilty and we are always innocent. We deserve to live. They deserve to die. For generations, the children, women and men we have forgotten and dismissed have understood that death can arrive abruptly. They know how impossible it can be to bury and grieve for loved ones who have perished in war. They know the daily, grinding byproducts of war are fear, uncertainty and sorrow. They know the trauma of war damages in unseen ways, often beyond repair. They know the other constant, sad dividends of war desperate want and rampant hopelessness. But as long as the lives of anonymous people in distant lands are being cut violently short or frozen in an incessant state of doubt and despair, we in the West do not mind. Now, the proverbial tables have indeed turned. These days, we are facing the profound and lasting human consequences of a different kind of war courtesy of a virus, not bullets or bombs. Beyond the occasional spasms of appalling violence orchestrated by fanatics, we were convinced that we were immune to the shocking and wrenching vagaries of war of any sort, at any time. We were wrong. War has invaded our homes, too. The reassuring routines that help define our once agreeable way of life have suddenly come undone. It is our turn to know and experience the uncertainty, the worry, the hardship, the loss, the grief, the pain, the want, the trauma and the sometimes paralysing fear that so many others, in so many places have known and experienced for too long. The sacrifices we are being asked to make in a bid to trounce this pandemic are trivial by comparison. We have been told to stay at home, wash our hands and keep our distance to protect ourselves and others. But the selfish few resist, conditioned as they are by a culture of consumption to do whatever they want, whenever they want and damn the potentially dire repercussions. Eventually, this pandemic will end. We do not know when and how it will end. Nor do we know what we will return to, given that our lives may be changed in ways that we will not be able to fathom or repair until the pandemic is over. You may recall that the microscopic optimist in me hopes that we have understood the need to reimagine our role as citizens in a reimagined society where the public good trumps private profit. The cynic in me knows that is unlikely to happen. We will promptly go back not only to satisfying our insatiable need for ephemeral trinkets, but to our complacent and mercenary ways. Meanwhile, I am certain we will blissfully continue to pay little, if any, heed to the grave plight of innocents being slaughtered and disfigured in real, endless wars today and tomorrow. That will never change. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Published On Apr 21, 2020 06:30 PM By Dhruv Attri for Kia Seltos The South Korean carmaker plans to ease the monetary pressure on its dealer partners during these testing times Kia Motors has decided to extend a helping hand to its dealer partners who are incurring mounting losses due to the lockdown caused by COVID-19. The help is majorly financial as the shutting down of shops has resulted in cash burn and complete loss of footfall for the dealers. Kias aid includes the following: Support on inventory: Kia will help with interest cost on dealer stock by including vehicles in the inventory as well as transit. Returning inventory funding amount: The unused amount that the dealers parked with Kia to deliver new cars has been refunded to the formers account. This is only natural as manufacturing has been stopped and demand is almost nil at the moment. Warranty and NVI claims: Payments of all the accepted service claims for warranty have been made to the dealers. Extended warranty payments: Amount for additional warranty claims by customers has been paid to the dealers. Moreover, Kia Motors assures priority clearance of the remaining amount within 15 days once the lockdown ends. As of now, Kia Motors is counting on online bookings and delivery of cars with minimal physical interaction. It had recently extended the official warranty on cars by two months. Kia Motors has more than 100 car dealers across the country. Last year, during the launch of its first product for India, the Seltos, Kia announced its plans of having 192 service centres in India across 160 cities. Read More on : Kia Seltos on road price Shares of IT major Infosys on Tuesday declined nearly 4 per cent after the company refrained from providing a revenue outlook for FY21, citing uncertainty amid Covid-19 outbreak that is expected to impact its business in the near-term. The scrip fell 3.85 per cent to Rs 627.70 on the BSE. On the NSE, it dropped 3.90 per cent to Rs 627.80. After market hours on Monday, Infosys reported a 6.3 per cent rise in consolidated net profit for March quarter, but refrained from providing a revenue outlook for FY21, citing uncertainty amid COVID-19 outbreak. The country's second-largest IT services company - which saw revenue growing 8 per cent to Rs 23,267 crore in the March quarter - anticipates a continued slowdown in the near-term influenced by a broad-based global economic recession. "Our sense is that in the near-term we will see an impact on our business. We do not have a clear view of when the recovery will come back," Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh told reporters. Parekh's views are similar to the sentiments echoed by peers like Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services -- both had cited future business uncertainty while announcing their quarterly earnings last week. Sanjeev Hota, Head of Research at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, said Infosys reported below-than-expected revenue and EBIT margin performance. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 21.04.2020 LISTEN Voice of America (VOA) reporter Mukhtar Mohamed Atosh was arrested by police on 20 April in Baidoa for reporting on the death of a 14-year-old girl after she was raped. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), have strongly condemned the unfounded arrest and urge Somali authorities to release the journalist immediately. According to NUSOJ, on the day of Mohamed's arrest, Southwest Authorities had asked the Administration of Baidoa Hospital not to provide local journalists with any information about the young girl and deny the childs death at the hospital. Dozens of police officers raided Atosh's home and arrested him. He has been transferred from the Somali Crimes Investigation Department (CID) to the central prison and is charged with heavy crimes under the penal code. Atosh is a member of NUSOJ executive committee. IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: "We are particularly astonished to see that police forces would rather arrest a journalist than the criminals behind a rape. We urge the Somali authorities to release our colleague immediately. He has just done his job and deserves protection, not intimidation or threats". NUSOJ General Secretary Omar Faruk Osman said: The arrest and detention of Mukhtar Atosh is an attempt to silence his reporting on a serious sexual assault and the ramification of his arrest is to stop local journalists spreading the truth. This intimidation must stop now, people must know the truth, the rape victim deserves justice and journalists must continue doing their work freely and without intimidation. The United States' daily coronavirus death toll is the highest it's been in nearly a week after 2,474 people died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. As of early Wednesday morning, 45,435 Americans have now been killed by coronavirus since the pandemic began ravaging the country last month. Confirmed cases of the deadly illness also surged by 26,558 across Tuesday, bringing total US cases of COVID-19 up to 827,093. As a result of the ominous statistics, the main model used by the White House to estimate the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak has now increased its projection of expected deaths. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) now expects the national death toll to hit 65,976 by August - 5,561 more than previously forecast on April 9. The United States coronavirus death toll is the highest it's been in nearly a week after a staggering 2,474 people died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. Confirmed cases of the deadly illness also surged by 26,558 across Tuesday, bringing total US cases of COVID-19 up to 827,093 As a result of the ominous statistics, the main model used by the White House to estimate the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak has now increased its projection of expected deaths by August to 65,976 - 5,561 more than previously forecasted on April 9. IHME's model is constantly being fed new data and changes its forecast accordingly. It is the model which is used by the White House for forward planning. The model had last month predicted there would be more than 90,000 deaths by August, but that number dropped to 82,000 on April 7, before decreasing by another 20,000 days later. The drastic reduction signaled to experts at IHME that social distancing measures were working in the fightback against COVID-19. But the model assumes that all states are implementing 'broad, aggressive social distancing policies', and may not have factored in any plans from states, such a Georgia and South Carolina, to ease social distancing measures early. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday that bowling alleys, salons, barbershops and a number of other indoor facilities that have been closed across Georgia since April 2 will be permitted to reopen this Friday - despite deaths and infections spiking in the state on Tuesday. The death toll in the state has increased by 131 in 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 818. Infections also surged by more than 1,000, bringing the number of cases in the state up to 20,166. The state's timetable, which is one of the most aggressive in the US, allows gyms, hair salons, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors to reopen on Friday as long as owners follow strict social-distancing and hygiene requirements. Elective medical procedures will also resume. By next Monday, movie theaters may resume selling tickets and restaurants limited to takeout orders could return to limited dine-in service. Such a swift reopening runs counter to the advice of many experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top authority on infectious diseases, who warned again Monday that resuming business too soon risked a fresh spike in infections. Gov. Brian Kemp said it was important to allow businesses that had been shut down a chance to get some revenue flowing but he emphasized businesses would still be operating under restrictions including monitoring employee health, enhancing sanitation and separating workers. 'I think this is the right approach at the right time,' Kemp said. 'Were not just throwing the keys back to these business owners. Were talking about people (who had) the government shut down their business.' Bars, live performance venues and amusement parks will remain closed. Kemp's order overrides any attempt to impose stricter local decisions, but some local officials including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said the governor is moving too quickly. 'It appears the governor's order supersedes anything I can do as mayor, but I still have my voice and what I will continue to do is ask Atlantans to please stay at home,' Bottoms told ABC News. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson was also critical of Kemp. 'Don't go out,' Johnson urged residents during a televised news conference. 'People will not come here if they think our businesses are not safe'. Johnson said people would be at close quarters in movie theaters and restaurants and 'there's no way that hair, nails, massages and tattoos can be done at a safe distance'. 'Reopen? Dangerously incompetent' is how Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who narrowly lost the 2018 governor's race to Kemp, characterized the action on Twitter. The governor's actions line up with the phase one of reopening seen in the guidelines issued last week by President Donald Trump's administration. Those guidelines call for 14 days of declining COVID-19 cases. Medical experts have warned that increased testing will be necessary for the lifting of stay-at-home measures, which experts say are essential to slowing the spread of the highly contagious respiratory illness. However, the measures have ground the economy to a standstill and forced more than 22 million people to apply for unemployment benefits in the last month. The US has by far the world's largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, almost four times as many infections as Spain, the country with the second-highest number. Globally, cases topped 2.5 million on Tuesday with North America accounting for one-third of all cases. New reported US cases appear to be slowing this week, rising by less than 30,000 a day for the past three days. Fatalities have slowed in recent days, rising by less than 2,000 a day for the past three days through Monday. Coronavirus-related fatalities in the US hit a peak of 2,806 on April 15, the deadliest single day of the epidemic. Hot spots are still emerging, however, in Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia. New York is at the epicenter of the US health crisis, accounting for nearly half of the deaths across the country, and has taken a cautious stance on reopening businesses and schools. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has released a new map projection that reveals when each US state could potentially start relaxing measures Georgia businesses hesitant to embrace Gov Kemp's call to reopen Gov Kemp's call to reopen shuttered businesses in Georgia left many business owners wary and confused Tuesday as they considered how to protect themselves and their customers. Kemp's plan to kick-start the economy is one of the most aggressive announced since Trump laid out benchmarks for states to start lifting restrictions. But Georgia's testing system has lagged behind much of the nation and public health experts warned that moving too quickly could fuel a resurgence in infections. 'Its concerning. Im certainly not going to go the gym or get a haircut,' said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at Emory University in Atlanta. 'Ill let people make their own decisions.' Kemps order lets gyms, hair and nail salons, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors open with restrictions Friday. Restaurants can resume dine-in service Monday, though bars and nightclubs must remain closed. 'The private sector is going to have to convince the public that its safe to come back into these businesses,' Kemp said Monday. Georgia has processed more than 900,000 new unemployment claims in the last month, a painful record. But many business owners aren't convinced it's time to end the lockdown. 'I think most of our customers are not ready to venture out yet,' said Kristin Allin, who, along with her husband, owns Bread & Butterfly restaurant in Atlanta. She said her restaurant will remain closed for now, possibly for another month or more. In Savannah, Mark Lebos closed his gym March 11. He reached out to clients Tuesday to tell them his business, Strong Gym, won't be reopening yet. Lebos said reopening would be professional negligence. 'We are not going to be a vector of death and suffering,' he said. Ronique Holloway plans to wait until May 1 to reopen her Atlanta-area hair salon, where shes the only stylist. She worries thats still too soon, but said she doesn't have a choice because she needs money to support her daughter. 'You're staring at somebody right in their face when you shampoo it. Heaven forbid if you talk,' said Holloway, 48, who plans to wear a mask and gloves. In rural Terrell County, Karl Gould, 82, said it's time to reopen businesses even though his age makes him vulnerable to serious illness. 'Do you want to continue being shut down with a destroyed economy forever?' said Gould, a retired engineer. 'Sooner or later, youve got to suck it up and say, `Were going to reopen and if we have some casualties, we do.' Kemp was one of the last governors on the East Coast to announce a statewide stay-at-home order April 1. Even then, he controversially overruled local officials and allowed beaches, lakes and state parks to remain open - a decision he has characterized as a success, saying there have been few problems. Sixty is the new 45, 80 is the new 60, and 100 is well, really dang old. But even centenarians know that once you stop learning, you star... Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 16:43:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close VIENTIANE, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Laos detected no new case of COVID-19 for nine consecutive days, with the total number of confirmed cases unchanged at 19. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Laos remained at 19, as no new case was reported, Lao Deputy Minister of Health Phouthone Meaungpak told a press conference on Tuesday. As of Tuesday, Laos tested 1,378 suspected cases with 19 cases tested positive, and two patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital. Laos's first discharged COVID-19 patient is the 12th confirmed case, who was discharged from hospital on last Tuesday. The second patient is the 14th confirmed case, who was discharged on last Thursday. Another 14 cases are treated in designated hospital -- Mittaphab Hospital (Hospital 150) in Vientiane capital, and three cases are treated in provincial hospital in Luang Prabang. Laos announced its first two COVID-19 confirmed cases on March 24. Enditem Like most other transgenders, Chandini earned her living by begging in trains or dancing in celebrations such as child births and weddings but the prolonged lockdown has halted passenger railway services and all social occasions and with it her earnings. Now, the 42-year-old, an acute diabetic, has to choose whether to spend the little money she has buying food or medicines. "I used to make at least Rs 500 every day. It was not much, but enough to help me make ends meet. Since the lockdown, with no income, I do not have money," Chandini said. Pushed to the sidelines of society with few doing mainstream jobs, several of India's 4.88 lakh transgenders are struggling to survive by borrowing from others. Chandini has borrowed Rs 4,000, hoping it will see her through till the shutdown ends next month. Movement of people, except those associated with essential and emergency services, has been restricted under the lockdown till May 3 and everybody has been asked to stay at home to break the chain of transmission of the coronavirus that has claimed 590 lives and infected 18,601 people in the country. Rashmi, another transgender, who earned her livelihood by begging on roads at Sector -16 in Noida, said people would at least give her leftover food from their cars, if not money. "Now, I am locked at home. If not the coronavirus, then hunger will kill me," the 34-year-old said. The transgender population in India is around 4.88 lakh and most members of the community are involved in begging at traffic signals and in trains, dancing at weddings and sex work to earn their livelihood, according to organisations that works for their welfare. The biggest lockdown in the world has taken away all their means of earnings, and though the government is giving Rs 1,500 as relief to transgenders, many of them do not have the required documents to get the money, they said. "Most members from the trangender community earn on a daily basis. The government has given them Rs 1,500 but what can they get from this Rs 1,500. For giving this Rs 1,500, authorities are asking for identity cards, bank account numbers, which they don't have," Pushpa, founder of community-based organisation 'Nai Bhor', said. She said people have been doing "social distancing" with the community for the past "1,100 years" by discriminating. Discrimination is everywhere whether healthcare or education, Pushpa said, claiming that even now, in this time of crisis, the government is not bothered about the community. Disha Kene, another transgender, said, "Even if members of the community have dry ration there are other needs that have to be met like medicines, which is not been thought about." "The community does not have any savings and their means of livelihood is to earn today and spend that money. Milk and medicines... they do not have money to buy these," she said. A member from the community who is HIV positive is particularly worried about getting critical medicines. "I have a stock of medicines for now. But if the situation worsens in the coming days, I do not know how I will manage," she said. NGOs and activists have demanded that the government integrate concerns of the transgender community in all their policy and strategy for disaster mitigation in view of the coronavirus outbreak. They also said the matter is particularly urgent as the community's members are perceived to be at a high risk of contracting HIV and that many are possibly into substance use which is very harmful in the current situation. In an appeal to the government, the Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR), a non-profit organisation, and its partner Sakha said transgenders must be included as a group in all policies and actions devised for disaster mitigation during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Just when we were beginning to work systematically with the government and all key stakeholders to build a supportive policy framework and an enabling environment for social acceptance and inclusion of transgenders across services and entitlements, this pandemic has again brought to the forefront the high cost of social exclusion and gender inequality," CFAR Executive Director Akhila Sivadas said. Concurring with the concern of CFAR, Meera Parida, co-founder of Sakha, said, "The COVID-19 outbreak has pushed us back to those times when we were struggling to come to terms with our identity, get heard and save ourselves from life-threatening challenges like HIV." In the context of the raging novel coronavirus pandemic, she urged the government to integrate the concerns of transgenders in all policies and strategies. Parida said that "as a transgender, one has to be more prepared to avert the risk of getting infected by coronavirus and this is particularly urgent as the group is perceived as being at high risk of contracting the HIV and that many are possibly into substance use, which is very harmful in the present context". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 4 including three kids who went missing from Bengaluru traced to Mangaluru Mangaluru central station to have 2 more new platforms by September How this ISIS operative from Mangaluru lured her victims and converted them to Islam Mangaluru: Tablighi Jamaat attendee who recovered from coronavirus thanks frontline warriors India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, Apr 21: A man in Mangaluru, who was discharged from Wenlock District Hospital after making full recovery from COVID-19, thanked the doctors, nurses & other medical staff of the hospital. The patient identified as Saleem Hegde, a Tablighi Jamaat attendee, from Thokkottu had initially resisted when authorities went to take him to hospital fearing he will be booked. However, later Hegde cooperated after he was being counselled that he would be taken to isolation ward for treatment. After his discharge in 138 second long video, Hegde thanked corona warriors and said, "They treated me very well. Nurses & doctors are struggling day and night to save our lives." P S Harsha, city police commissioner taking to Twitter with video and wrote,''Just reproducing the experiences of a cured COVID19 patient.. please listen to the first hand account about the care entire team of police officers, doctors, nurses and paramedics have given to bring any victim out of it..Joinhands with government .@DgpKarnataka @CPBlr @DHFWKA.'' Just reproducing the experiences of a cured COVID19 patient.. please listento the first hand account about the care entire team of police officers, doctors, nurses and paramedics have given to bring any victim out of it.. Joinhands with government .@DgpKarnataka @CPBlr @DHFWKA pic.twitter.com/Hd8rzWniwZ Harsha IPS CP Mangaluru City (@compolmlr) April 20, 2020 In the video, Hegde can be seen saying explaining how the corona warriors cured him at a great personal sacrifice. In screenshots posted to social media, a Oregon property manager appears to admit to using an IRS website to see if tenants received stimulus checks. Portland Covid-19 General Strike/Facebook An Oregon man said his property manager used the IRS "Get My Payment" website to track whether he had received his stimulus check and intended to pay his April rent. The IRS says the tool used to track the stimulus aid payments is for "authorized use only" and warns legal action against those who use the website improperly. Austin Goodrich told Business Insider he lost his job as a security guard due to the COVID-19 pandemic and had told his property manager that he could not pay his rent. Goodrich is threatening to sue the landlord and property manager if they don't agree to a list of his terms by April 22. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Related Video: What Could Be the Fastest Way to End the Coronavirus Crisis? A man in Forest Grove, Oregon said his property manager used an Internal Revenue System (IRS) system to determine whether he and other tenants had received their government stimulus checks. The messages between Goodrich and who he described as his property manager went viral on Twitter when they were shared on by Joshua Browder, the CEO of DoNotPay, a company that offers a chatbot to virtually offer legal assistance through an app. Goodrich told Business Insider he had not told his landlord or property manager about receiving his stimulus check, though his property manager on April 15 the same day he received the government payout sent him a text message that said he was aware Goodrich had received payment. "You got your stimulus, just asking are you going to pay rent or part of rent with any. I am trying to close out the books for April," the property manager wrote to Goodrich, according to the text messages circulated on Twitter and Facebook. To use the IRS "Get My Payment" website, which tracks the status of an individual's stimulus checks, a user must enter a social security number, date of birth, and address. Story continues In another text message seen in the screenshot, the property manager said he used the IRS tool to check the payment status of any tenant who had called him in the past two days. "So are you going to be making a payment towards rent? So I can close the books out for April," said another message from the purported property manager. A warning that appears before users of the site can input their personal information reads in large text that the system is for "AUTHORIZED USE ONLY!" The IRS warning says "unauthorized use of this system is prohibited and subject to criminal and civil penalties." Business Insider's call to the IRS about whether landlords could use the service to track the status of their tenants' checks was not immediately returned Monday afternoon. Oregon, like most states and cities in the US, has placed a moratorium on evictions during the ongoing pandemic. Despite anti-eviction policies and some heartwarming stories of landlords canceling rent for cash-strapped residents, there are plenty of remaining concerns among the record 10 million people who filed for unemployment in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that took hold of the US in March. In a statement posted to Twitter, Goodrich blamed the IRS for creating a system that was not secure. In a subsequent tweet, Browder said the Department of Justice had "reached out" and was "investigating" the situation. Goodrich is among millions of cash-strapped tenants facing off with their landlords Goodrich told Business Insider in an email he lost his job as a security guard and had told his property manager that he could not pay his rent. "They attempted to make payment arrangement agreements that were unrealistic to any person of low-income," Goodrich told Insider. "I did not agree to any payment arrangements." Goodrich said he had multiple job interviews lined up, but he could not start working for those companies until after restrictions imposed by the pandemic were lifted. He said he spoke with another tenant in the right-unit apartment building who had also "expressed some issues" with the property manager but would not assist him in his lawsuit over fears the property owner would "retaliate" and "leave his family of four on the streets." Goodrich has not publicly disclosed the name of his landlord or property manager but said he would release it publicly on April 23, the day after the deadline he and his lawyer provided to his landlord and property manager to comply with a list of demands. The demands require that his landlord and his property manager waive his rent for the remainder of his lease through the end of June, that all past-due payments be waived, that they entirely return of his security deposit, and that they provide an "excellent rental reference," he told Business Insider. "What the landlord did, no matter what they believed was owed to them was still a crime and there is no arguing a plain fact," Goodrich said of people who have supported his property manager's actions. "But as I see it, the laws and courts of this country are at my disposal to remedy this problem." Read the original article on Business Insider Wisconsin Democrats disproportionately avoided this bizarre Election Day scene and voted by mail. Photo: Craig Lassig/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock In response to Donald Trumps many jeremiads against voting by mail which in turn reflects a certain strain of opinion among anti-voting-rights conservatives many academic observers have noted that Republican voters have been as (or in some states more) likely to take advantage of remote voting opportunities as Democrats. Indeed, during a pandemic in which being elderly is a risk factor for infection and death, one might think that over-65 voters, who in recent presidential elections have tilted red, would be the most likely to avoid in-person voting. But in a new study of voting patterns during the pandemic-dominated Wisconsin spring election of April 7, the New York Times found that those utilizing mail ballots were significantly more likely to vote for liberal Supreme Court candidate Jill Karofsky than those who voted in person on Election Day. Reid Epstein explains: The liberal jurist, Jill Karofsky, performed 10 percentage points better than her conservative opponent in votes cast by mail than she did in votes cast at Election Day polling places, a gap that powered a surprising 11-point victory over all in a state both parties view as crucial to winning Novembers presidential election. The voting data, collected by The New York Times from 27 Wisconsin municipalities that segregate ballots cast on Election Day from those sent by mail, shows that Judge Karofskys advantage in mail ballots over the conservative incumbent, Justice Daniel Kelly, was consistent across communities of varying size, geography and partisan lean. In a state with little history of voting by mail, more than 1.1 million of 1.55 million votes cast came by mail. This unusual finding indicates that Wisconsin Democrats made an unusually strong effort to direct their voters toward absentee ballots, which paid off, particularly in areas with sharply restricted Election Day polling places: Ben Wikler, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, attributed Judge Karofskys success in mail voting to the partys mid-March decision to focus entirely on educating Democrats about how to request and complete a mail ballot. The Democratic Party decided weeks out from the election to switch 100 percent of its efforts to vote-by-mail in the first time in its history, Mr. Wikler said. I think Republicans bought some of their own disinformation. By that, Wikler means the frequent Wisconsin Republican claims that the election did not need to be delayed because of coronavirus concerns, which in turn echoed the early tendency of Republicans (including Donald Trump) to minimize the dangers associated with the pandemic. In any event, the Wisconsin findings are very likely to reinforce Trumps antipathy to more liberalized voting by mail, even as the overall experience in Wisconsin fuels demands for greater voting-by-mail opportunities. On that front, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that theres a new finding of Election Day infections, a danger warned about by elected officials and voters alike: Officials have identified seven people who appear to have contracted COVID-19 through activities related to the April 7 election, Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said Monday. Six of the cases are in voters and one is a poll worker, Kowalik said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said about 3,500 voters came to each of the citys five voting sites and dozens of workers were there as well. This will tell you why we were so adamant about trying to not have this occur, he said, referring calls to cancel in-person voting. Given the literal life-or-death stakes, intense polarization around this issue will no doubt continue and likely intensify in the coming months. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Singapore's GIC affiliate Caladium Investment PTE has raised stake in Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank to 4.49 percent in the March quarter from 3.39 percent in the December quarter, according to the latest shareholding pattern of the bank on the stock exchange. Caladium Investment, an affiliate of Singapores sovereign wealth fund, now holds 7.2 crore shares in the bank. Bandhans share price has tumbled 65 percent to under Rs 200 apiece from a 52-week high of Rs 650 apiece on October 29, 2019. Caladium purchased the shares from the open market. Sovereign wealth funds are increasingly getting interested to pick up shares in Indian financial institutions. For instance, The Peoples Bank of China (PBoC) purchased 1.75 crore shares in one of the largest housing finance lenders, HDFC Ltd. The Chinese Central Bank bought 17,492,909 shares, or 1.01 percent of the shareholding, according to exchange data. The share purchase is likely to have happened between January and March. Similarly, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) also picked up a 0.7 percent stake in HDFC on behalf of Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Like PBoC, the Saudi Arabian central bank, too, has been raking up its stake in HDFC over the last few years and now holds a 0.7 percent stake. Other major holders include the government of Singapore which holds a 3.23 percent stake in HDFC. Temasek, a Singapore state-controlled investment company has investments in a number of Indian companies. Over the years, it has invested 5 percent of its global portfolio in India. Central banks and governments picking up stakes in major financial institutions across the world are common. This is part of the sovereign investment strategy and a way of diversifying their investment presence. But of late, sovereign funds and other overseas investors are increasingly looking at Indian companies as share prices have fallen and these entities look good to global investors from an investment perspective. President Erdogan says Turkey will protect March 5 ceasefire pact with Russia and will not allow aggression by Syria. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Syrian government forces of accelerating its aggression in the Idlib de-escalation zone by taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic. Turkey will protect its commitment to the March 5 agreement reached with Russia, and will not allow the aggression of the regime, Erdogan said at a cabinet meeting late on Monday. Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syrias war, agreed on March 5 to halt hostilities in northwestern Syria after an escalation of violence there displaced nearly a million people and brought the two sides close to confrontation. If the regime, which violates the ceasefire and other conditions of agreement, continues like this, it will pay for it with very heavy losses, he said. Turkish Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said on Twitter Ankara would not allow the government of President Bashar al-Assad to use the pandemic to escalate military operations. Our government continues to be focused on the coronavirus challenge at home and abroad but we are also working on foreign policy matters such as those in Syria, Libya & the Aegean Sea. As Pres. Erdogan indicated, the Syrian regime is trying to take advantage of the situation. Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) April 20, 2020 Our government continues to be focused on the coronavirus challenge at home and abroad but we are also working on foreign policy matters such as those in Syria, Libya and the Aegean Sea, said Altun. As President Erdogan indicated, the Syrian regime is trying to take advantage of the situation. Altun also stressed Turkey stands by the March 5 agreement with Russia and is determined not to allow Syrian government aggression in Idlib despite provocations. Clashes in Ras al-Ain Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said clashes among Turkish backed armed groups in Ras al-Ain, a city in Hasakah governorate in northeastern Syria bordering Turkey, had led to the killing of members of al-Mutassim Brigade and the injury of others. Sources confirmed that the clashes were caused by a dispute over the sharing of money and royalties they had imposed on residents, as well as the seizure of private property of civilians, the SOHR said in a statement on Tuesday. The London-based monitoring group said there were casualties among other factions as well, without providing further details. However, Al Jazeera could not verify the reports independently. MONTGOMERY, Ala. - An Alabama man accused of kidnapping and killing the stepdaughter of a UFC fighter has also been charged with biting a correctional officer while in jail, authorities said. Ibraheem Yazeed, 30, was charged with second-degree assault in connection with a March 23 incident at the Lee County Detention Center, news outlets reported Monday. Court records said three officers were taking Yazeed back to his cell when Yazeed became hostile and refused to enter. One of the officers attempted to use a stun gun on Yazeed but he continued to be combative, swinging and kicking at the officers, records said. Two more officers came to help and Yazeed bit one of them in the leg, records said. Yazeed was previously charged with capital murder in the death of 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard. Blanchard was last seen on Oct. 23 and her remains were found Nov. 25. in Auburn. She was the stepdaughter of UFC fighter Walt Harris and a student at Southern Union College. Yazeed was out on bond for kidnapping and attempted murder charges at the time of Blanchards death. He had been given the maximum bond on the states bail schedule, news outlets reported. In February, the Alabama House of Representatives approved a bill, named after Blanchard, that would allow judges to deny bond to people accused of committing violent crimes. Its unclear whether Yazeed had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 21 April 2020 The Annual General Meeting of Koninklijke Vopak N.V. (Royal Vopak) held on 21 April 2020 passed the following resolutions: Approval implementation remuneration policy for the 2019 financial year. Adoption of the financial statements for the 2019 financial year. Approval of the proposed dividend. A dividend of EUR 1.15 per ordinary share with a nominal value of EUR 0.50 will be distributed wholly in cash on 29 April 2020. As from 23 April 2020, the shares of Vopak will be listed ex-dividend on Euronext Amsterdam. Discharge from liability of the Executive Board members conduct of the companys affairs for the 2019 financial year. Discharge from liability of the Supervisory Board members supervision exercised for the 2019 financial year. Appointment of Mr. B.J. Noteboom (Ben) as a member of the Supervisory Board for a term of 4 years until the AGM in 2024. Approval of the Remuneration policy for the Supervisory Board. Approval of the Remuneration policy for the Executive Board including the proposed amendments to the KPI Cost measurement from Meet/Not Meet to a sliding scale with a minimum target level and an increase of the LTIP opportunity. Authorization of the Executive Board for a period of 18 months, up till and including 20 October 2021, to acquire, subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board, for valuable consideration, fully paid-up ordinary shares in Royal Vopak, on the stock exchange or otherwise, up to the maximum number that may be held by the company in accordance with the law and the Articles of Association in force at the date of acquisition. Approval to cancel the ordinary shares acquired by the company. Appointment of Deloitte Accountants B.V. as the external auditor of Royal Vopak and their engagement to examine the companys financial statements for the 2021 financial year. Profile Vopak Royal Vopak is the worlds leading independent tank storage company. We store vital products with care. With over 400 years of history and a focus on sustainability, we ensure safe, clean and efficient storage and handling of bulk liquid products and gases for our customers. By doing so, we enable the delivery of products that are vital to our economy and daily lives, ranging from chemicals, oils, gases and LNG to biofuels and vegoils. We are determined to develop key infrastructure solutions for the worlds changing energy systems, while simultaneously investing in digitalization and innovation. Vopak is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam and is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. For more information, please visit www.vopak.com Story continues This press release contains inside information as meant in clause 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation. For further information please contact: Vopak Press Liesbeth Lans, Manager External Communication, Telephone : +31 (0)10 4002777, e-mail: global.communication@vopak.com Vopak analysts and investors Laurens de Graaf, Head of Investor Relations Telephone : +31 (0)10 4002776, e-mail: investor.relations@vopak.com Attachment President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is approving an export permit that will allow Turkey to sell personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilator parts to the United States, the Middle East Eye reported today. Erdogan reportedly told Donald Trump he would issue an export exemption for hazmat suits, gloves, face masks and spare parts needed for the United States to manufacture ventilators during a call between the two leaders on Sunday. A shipment of medical equipment from Egypt is also set to arrive in the United States today. Why it matters: Turkey has also agreed to export PPE to the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. But that has not been without incident amid the global scramble to secure medical equipment for front-line health care workers fighting the pandemic. The Turkish government reportedly seized a PPE shipment that Madrid had paid millions for earlier this month, before ultimately allowing it to proceed to Spain. At the same time, Turkey now has the largest number of recorded coronavirus cases in the Middle East (and seventh globally), with nearly 100,000 infections and more than 2,000 deaths. Additionally, The New York Times reported Monday that there were roughly 2,100 more deaths in Istanbul within the last month than the weekly averages over the past two years. This could indicate that the number of infections and deaths may be much higher than the official tally. Erdogan has sought to paint a rosier picture, arguing that Turkey has the coronavirus under control. However, he has tightly controlled information streams related to the coronavirus, reprimanding hospital workers and others for protesting the government response. Whats next: Turkey is also reportedly in talks with the United States to do a currency swap with the Federal Reserve as the crisis continues to hammer away at the Turkish economy. Know more: Erdogan is also using the pandemic to crack down on the opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP). Senior correspondent Amberin Zaman reports that Turkeys Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, of the CHP, over his fundraising initiative to aid in the COVID-19 response. As policies and protocols change daily in relation to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the local hospital system continues to evolve. MidMichigan Health announced it has joined a Mayo Clinic research program that will use convalescent plasma donated by recovered COVID-19 patients to treat hospitalized patients fighting the virus. The plasma study will be offered at more than 100 hospitals nationwide including MidMichigan medical centers in Gratiot and Midland. According to the Mayo Clinic, people who've recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies to the disease in their blood. Doctors call this convalescent plasma. Researchers hope convalescent plasma can be given to people with severe COVID-19 to boost their ability to fight the virus. Pulmonologists John Blamoun and Mark Jacob are local investigators engaged in bringing this opportunity to the MidMichigan communities. We are honored to collaborate with Mayo Clinic experts to help identify a treatment that could accelerate the recovery of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, Blamoun said. Plasma treatment has been successfully used to treat other infectious diseases, such as those with Ebola. We are hopeful this study will show the same positive outcome for our patients who are seriously ill with the COVID-19 virus. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the convalescent plasma treatment option is available for hospitalized patients with severe or life-threatening symptoms of COVID-19 or those at high risk of developing severe or life-threatening symptoms. Through voluntary research protocol, informed consent will be obtained and follow-up data will be collected and analyzed to make treatment decisions for future COVID-19 patients. The study is highly dependent and requires donated plasma from those who have recovered from COVID-19, Jacob said. Donors will need to meet specific criteria such as having recovered from COVID-19 for 28 days. We encourage those who have recovered from the virus, especially those local to our MidMichigan communities, to review the criteria and join us in our effort to treat this virus. Those interested in more information on this treatment may visit www.uscovidplasma.org. Those interested in becoming a donor may visit www.versiti.org/home/convalescent-plasma-donations. Testing changes at MidMichigan In addition to joining this research program, testing capabilities have changed at MidMichigan Health. This week, the hospital will receive supplies to begin the validation of real-time COVID-19 tests through its own microbiology laboratory at MidMichigan Medical Center Midland. This means testing will be available to all hospitalized patients meeting testing criteria at MidMichigan Medical Centers in Alpena, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Midland, Mount Pleasant and West Branch, after the equipment is validated. Tests conducted at MidMichigans emergency departments, urgent cares and ambulatory testing centers also are expected to be processed through MidMichigans laboratory in the coming weeks. Currently, however, the hospital is sending all of its specimens to Michigan Medicine (MLabs) for testing and results are being returned in about 24 hours. In addition, the criteria for who can receive tests in Michigan has recently been broadened by The Centers of Disease Control and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Now, anyone with mild symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever, cough or shortness of breath can contact their health care provider to be tested. However, there are priority groups established. According to MidMichigan, the current guidelines group patients into Priority One, which is hospitalized patients and symptomatic health care workers; Priority Two, which is patients in long-term care facilities with symptoms, patients over 65 with symptoms, patients with underlying conditions with symptoms, and first responders with symptoms; and Priority Three, which is critical infrastructure workers with symptoms, and individuals who do not meet any of the Priority One and Two categories with symptoms. On Monday, April 20, two additional groups were added. This includes asymptomatic health care workers and first responders, as well as individuals with mild symptoms in communities experiencing high COVID-19 hospitalizations to the Priority Three group. In addition, a Priority Group Four was added to include critical infrastructure workers, including asymptomatic workers. With these changes, we continue to prioritize test capacity for higher-risk patients, but if additional specimen collection and testing capacity is still available after serving these patients, the additional groups would also be tested, states information the Daily News obtained from Millie Jezior, MidMichigan Health public relations manager. We recommend that concerned community members continue to utilize our Virtual Clinic (Telehub) for screening and referral as appropriate. The MidMichigan Virtual Telehub Clinic can be reached at 888-591-0500, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Individuals do not need to have a MidMichigan Health provider to use the clinic. As for supplies, MidMichigan is not immune from the global shortage. The hospital reports specimen collection supplies, particularly the swabs, are in short supply across the globe and therefore they have to limit testing based on available supplies. That has not hindered us from any inpatient testing and allows a fair amount of outpatient testing to continue, states information supplied by Jezior. We do not anticipate getting through the shortage for several weeks, at best. As for N95 mask inventories, the current levels "allow staff to provide adequate coverage for patient care team members who need them." For the safety of all, MidMichigan Health reminds community members about the following: If you feel sick and have symptoms of a fever of 100.4 or greater, cough or shortness of breath, call ahead before you go to a doctors office or emergency room. Avoid contact with others and do not travel while sick. If you need in-person medical services, plan to arrive to MidMichigan facilities with cloth face coverings, such as a cloth mask that covers the mouth and nose, a scarf or a bandana. If you do not have one, you will be provided one. The use of the MidMichigans Virtual Health Clinic rather than an in-person visit is also strongly encouraged. Help prevent the spread of this virus through social distancing and proper hygiene, such as hand washing and no face touching. As a service to the community, MidMichigan Health has also published a COVID-19 informational hotline with a reminder of CDC guidelines and recommendations. Staff is also available to help answer community questions from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. The hotline can be reached toll-free at 800-445-7356 or 989-794-7600. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Eisya A. Eloksari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 16:00 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd352498 1 Business P2P-lending,COVID-19,Indonesia,fintech-banks,SMEs,loan-restructure,Crowdo,Investree,OJK Free Like conventional lenders, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms have also received a rising number of loan restructuring applications, as the emergency measures implemented by the government have also affected their clients. According to a recent survey by the Indonesian Fintech Lenders Association (AFPI), about half of the associations members have received loan restructuring applications from their clients. But the association said it had yet to receive information about the exact number of P2P lenders who have eased loan repayment rules. The requests came after the Financial Service Authority (OJK) issued a regulation on countercyclical measures in early April to help borrowers, especially small and medium enterprises (SME), affected by the COVID-19. Fintech P2P lenders are platforms that facilitate lenders and borrowers. We are different from banks because we do not provide loans, so the restructuration process will be different, said AFPI chairman Sunu Widyatmoko during a press conference on Monday. Financial Services Authority (OJK) fintech director Hendrikus Passagi told The Jakarta Post that fintech lending platforms adhere to OJK Regulation (POJK) 77 and existing regulations such as the Criminal Code (KUHP), especially those related to contract agreements. Therefore, he said there was no need to formulate any new regulations regarding loan restructuring in fintech lending during the pandemic. It is not unusual for borrowers to request for payment deferrals as long as they provide a valid reason. Such mechanisms should always be available in the contract between lenders and borrowers, he said. AFPI spokesman Tumbur Pardede said some association members may agree to ease loan repayment rules, but it would be applied selectively and differently depending on the condition of each borrower. As such, only borrowers whose businesses are negatively affected by the pandemic and those who have lenders permission would be allowed to restructure their loans, he said, adding that not all SMEs had suffered because many of them offer good businesses as they provide for hospitals or sell their goods in e-commerce. AFPI also reported that P2P lenders had experienced an average 5 percent decline in loan disbursements in April from March this year. But we predict that there will be a rise in loan applications as needs are also increasing during Ramadan, Tumbur said. P2P lending platform Investree chief risk officer Amalia Safitri said 15 percent of its borrowers had been affected by the pandemic, such as those in the cafe, restaurant and retail business. However, only 1 percent of the vulnerable sectors have asked for loan payment delays while 2 to 3 percent have only requested a loan restructuring. The challenge is contacting each lender individually because one portfolio can be funded by hundreds of people, she told the press, adding that in April or May, the company was expecting more requests for loan restructuring because many of its corporate clients needed to pay Idul Fitri bonuses (THR) to their employees. Amalia went on to say that the loan delays and interest cuts would increase Investrees non-performing loan (NPL) rate by about 2 percent by the end of the year. Another P2P lending fintech, Crowdo, reported that between 2 or 3 percent of its portfolio funding had been affected by the pandemic, but it also recorded a rise in loan applications from borrowers in the consumer goods and retail sectors. The companys chief operating offer, Nur Vitriani, said Crowdo was also contacting its lenders as well as doing reassessments on its borrowers before allowing them to get a facility to extend loan repayment periods. She said borrowers who had missed payments before March were not eligible for the loan restructuring facilities. Meanwhile, sharia-based P2P lenders have been hit by the pandemic as Saudi Arabia halted all umrah (minor haj) and haj in March, according to Sharia P2P lender Amaana CEO Lutfi Ardiansyah. However, debt restructuring does not apply to sharia lending. We simply reduce the profit shares for lenders depending on how the borrowers business is doing, he said. Amid the growing trend of loan restructuring , micro P2P lending Tokomodal reported it had received more loan applications since the outbreak and none of its borrowers had asked for leeway in loan payments. Tokomodal gives short-term loans, in days or weeks, to micro- and small shops such as warungs. Warungs sell daily needs such as staple foods and cleaning products and ever since the outbreak, people are shopping at warungs more than they do at shopping malls," he said. "That is why we have yet seen any restructuration requests [from them]." Farmers impacted by the COVID-19 national emergency are getting $19 billion in aid from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program late April 17. The new relief program includes $16 billion in direct support to farmers and ranchers. The payments will be based on actual losses where prices and market supply chains were impacted. It will assist producers with costs resulting from lost demand and short-term oversupply for the 2020 marketing year caused by COVID-19. The other $3 billion will go to purchase fresh produce, dairy and meat from regional and local distributors. The USDA said it will begin with about $100 million in purchases each a month for produce, dairy and meat. Distributors and wholesalers will provide boxes of the USDA foods to food banks and other organizations serving those in need. The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program is using funding allocated through two federal relief bills passed by Congress the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and other USDA existing authorities. The aid program was lauded by the American Farm Bureau Federation and some commodity groups as a good start to helping producers recover from the unexpected losses from the pandemic. For others, it was not enough. The National Pork Producers Council said it was thankful for the USDA commodity purchases, but feared the aid would fall short of what was needed. Howard Roth, National Pork Producers Council president, said in a statement that while direct payments would offset some losses for hog farmers, it would not be enough to sustain the varied market participants, including those who own hogs, as well as thousands of contract growers, who care for pigs. The fruit and vegetable industry said in a joint statement that the program is a good first step, but that more help is needed to help those growers hit hardest by the loss of markets. We appreciate the steps taken today, but also must reinforce to Congress that the funds available to agriculture are simply inadequate to keep our industry strong into the future, said Tom Stenzel, president of United Fresh Produce Association. Details about how the federal aid will be distributed are forthcoming. However, the improved overall of Ukraines position took place due to the deteriorating of indicators of other countries Open source Ukraine has risen by six positions and occupied the 96th place in the World Press Freedom Index as the Reporters Without Borders reported. Meanwhile, Ukraine deteriorated its score by 0.06 and its index is 32.52: the lower the score the better is the result. Thus, the improved overall of Ukraines position took place due to the deteriorating of indicators of other countries. The experts believe that the drawback of the freedom of the press is the underinvestment of the independent public broadcaster. Moreover, the organization considers that the change of power in Ukraine did not influence the situation with the attacks on the journalists. That is why the Reporters Without Borders urges to decrease the influence of the oligarchs on media and provide the independence of the journalists. According to the experts, the information war with Russia negatively influenced the freedom of press as some Russian mass media and social networks are banned in Ukraine and some foreign journalists are banned from entering Ukraine. The best situation with press freedom is observed in Norway. Concerning our neighbors, Russia occupies the 149th place and Belarus is on the 153rd place. As we reported, Out of the 186 countries in the ranking of economic freedom, Ukraine was in 134th place, falling into the category of predominantly non-free economies. Public health experts are warning that in order for the United States to keep people safe from the threat of the coronavirus, the country will need to raise an army of citizens to conduct contact tracing in order to identify who has been exposed to the virus. We need an army of 300,000 people, Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an interview with STAT. What is contact tracing? Contact tracing is one of three essential steps in a strategy proven effective in halting the spread of viral outbreaks around the world. It consists of interviewing every patient who tests positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, to determine who they have come into contact with while infected. In conjunction with widespread testing for COVID-19 and the isolation of those who test positive, contact tracing is an essential step in locating individuals who may not realize they have also been infected because they have yet to manifest symptoms of COVID-19, and could be spreading the virus even further. In 2014, guidance issued by the World Heath Organization during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, contact tracing emerged as a vital tool in slowing the spread of that virus. Contact tracing is defined as the identification and follow-up of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person, the publication stated. How does contact tracing work? Ramping up contact tracing means that new workers or volunteers will be needed to track the spread of the virus. That work consists of a mixture of at-home interviews, either on the telephone or in person and visits to supermarkets or other places of business where an infected person may have come into contact with others. Because COVID-19 is believed to be spread by people before they show symptoms or possibly if they never display them at all establishing a complete list of all the locations a person has visited before being diagnosed with the virus is crucial to alerting others of their risk of exposure. This involves a fair amount of detective work. Story continues Although some information can be obtained from the patient, much of the information will come from the people around the patient, the WHO said in its 2014 handbook on Ebola contact tracing. In Michigan, where, as of Monday, nearly 32,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Monday that 2,000 volunteers had completed contact tracing training. Whitmer says 2,200 volunteers have completed MDHHS training to do contact tracing - will help local health depts. It gives Michiganders an important way to contributed to crisis response, she says. She implores people to answer phone (people hesitant to answer unknown numbers) David Eggert (@DavidEggert00) April 20, 2020 In San Francisco, just 10 people were employed to conduct contact tracing in the city prior to the coronavirus outbreak. Another 100 volunteers will now be utilized to bolster that effort, STAT reported. We are providing the people to make phone calls, we are working on standard scripts, we are working on IT solutions, training, and we are fielding teams of contact tracers, George Rutherford, UCSFs head of disease and global epidemiology, told STAT. Follow-up is also an important part of contact tracing. In May, the North Carolina Division of Public Health, for instance, issued contact tracing instructions for non-healthcare settings stressing that symptoms should be monitored for two weeks for those who have come into contact with a person infected with COVID-19. Symptom monitoring should be conducted from the date of each persons first contact with the case-patient continuing through 14 days after their last contact with the case-patient or for 14 days after the case patients isolation ends if in continued contact throughout their illness, the guidelines state. Can contact tracing be accomplished using an app? Tech giants Google and Apple announced last week that they are teaming up on a cellphone app that will help people determine whether they have been exposed to COVID-19. For the system to be effective, however, it relies on users who have tested positive for the disease to enter that information into the app with an anonymous ID. Utilizing Bluetooth settings recently updated on iOS and Android phones, others who may have come in contact with an infected person are then notified via the app on their own phones. While the app, which the companies say will be run by government health departments, poses questions about privacy, 300 academics signed a letter Monday stating that an app could be an effective tool in slowing the spread of COVID-19. Contact tracing is a well-understood tool to tackle epidemics, and has traditionally been done manually. In some situations, so-called contact tracing apps on peoples smartphones may improve the effectiveness of the manual contact tracing technique, the letter reads. Though the effectiveness of contact tracing apps is controversial, we need to ensure that those implemented preserve the privacy of their users, thus safeguarding against many other issues, noting that such apps can otherwise be repurposed to enable unwarranted discrimination and surveillance. Countries like South Korea, which reported its first case of COVID-19 on Jan. 20, the same day that the first case was identified in the U.S., have utilized widespread testing along with cellphone tracking and alerts generated by smartphone apps that inform citizens when new cases are reported in their neighborhoods. South Koreans who test positive for COVID-19 are required to download smartphone apps that track their movement and fines are levied upon those who refuse. While such requirements would likely never be implemented in the United States, Koreas regulations have proven effective in stopping the coronavirus in its tracks. As of Monday, South Korea, which has a population of 52 million, had reported 10,674 cases of COVID-19 and 236 deaths from it. By comparison, the U.S., which has a population of 328 million, has so far tallied over 778,176 cases of the virus and over 41,313 dead. What if the U.S. fails to increase contact tracing? While substantially increasing the number of COVID-19 tests is crucial to identifying patients already infected with the disease, contact tracing can help prevent the spread before it happens. All people are talking about right now is hospital beds, ventilators, testing, testing, testing. Yes, those are important, but they are all reactive. You are dealing with the symptoms and not the virus itself, Tolbert Nyenswah, who led contact tracing efforts in Africa during the 2014 Ebola epidemic, told the Washington Post. You will never beat a virus like this one unless you get ahead of it. America must not just flatten the curve but get ahead of the curve. Yet establishing a complete portrait of contacts for a single case of COVID-19 can be incredibly time consuming. With President Trump pushing for easing of social distancing guidelines and protesters packing public squares to demand a return to normal life, the risk is that the cases of the virus will again spike. _____ Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please refer to the CDCs and WHOs resource guides. Read more: As Covid-19 disrupts life as we know it, the key question that is driving much of public service advertising around the pandemic is: How must one effectively communicate the need for, and bring about, lasting change in peoples behaviour? A recent survey by Kantar showed that in India, 45 per cent of the consumers surveyed were more bothered by the disruption, rather than the health issues caused by the virus. This is in keeping with trends across the world. With people restless to get on with the old way of life, changing behaviour for good is a tough ask. The WHO recommends ... Management of St. Johns Hospital & Fertility Center led by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Maame Yaa Antwi has donated an amount of 20,000 Ghana Cedis to the Sekyere East Health Directorate in the Effiduase-Asokore Constituency. The donation which was officially made by the founder of the health center, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriye will aid the constituency in the fight against the deadly Coronavirus. Earlier, hand sanitizers, tissue towels, and veronica buckets were distributed to the entire Effiduase-Asokore constituency as part of an effort to keep a hygienic lifestyle during this period. Speaking at the presentation, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriye who is also the Member of Parliament for the area noted that the donation forms part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of St. Johns Hospital & Fertility Center to his constituency. It is our duty to provide moral and community support to the health workers to execute their jobs at this time. As a native from this constituency, I and my wife who owns St. Johns Hospital & Fertility Center as part of our social responsibilities thought of donating to the district to show concern during this pandemic, he said. The CEO of the St. Johns Hospital, Maame Yaa Antwi also reiterated that her outfit will continue to support communities who are in need during this pandemic. The Sekyere East Health Director, Mr. Justice Ofori Amoah who received the Cheque on behalf of the directorate thanked St. Johns Hospital & Fertility Center for their kind gesture Good leadership is by showing an example and we thank Dr. Ayew and his wife for such a kind gesture, he said. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The World Health Organization chief warned Monday that the worst is yet ahead of us in the coronavirus outbreak, reviving the alarm just as many countries ease restrictive measures aimed at reducing its spread. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didnt specify why he believes the outbreak that has infected some 2.5 million people and killed over 166,000 could get worse. He and others, however, have previously pointed to the likely future spread of the illness through Africa, where health systems are far less developed. Also read: Oil plunges below $0 for the first time in history amid Covid-19 crisis Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us, Tedros told reporters from WHO headquarters in Geneva. Lets prevent this tragedy. Its a virus that many people still dont understand. Watch | Worst is yet ahead: WHO warns that lockdowns alone wont end Covid pandemic Some Asian and European governments have gradually eased or started relaxing lockdown measures like quarantines, school and business closures and restrictions on public gatherings, citing a decline in the growth of Covid-19 case counts and deaths. Tedros and his agency have been on the defensive after President Donald Trump of the United States the WHOs biggest single donor last week ordered a halt to US funding for the agency, alleging that it botched the early response to the outbreak. Also read: Donald Trump eyes Saudi oil import ban, SPR fill as prices go negative Among other things, Trump insisted WHO had failed to adequately share in a timely and transparent way information about the outbreak after it erupted in China late last year. Tedros said: There is no secret in WHO because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous. Its a health issue. This virus is dangerous. It exploits cracks between us when we have differences, he said. Tedros said US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers have been seconded to work with his agency, suggesting that was a sign of WHOs transparency. Having CDC staff (at WHO) means there is nothing hidden from the U.S. from Day One Tedros said. Our CDC colleagues also know that we give information immediately to anyone. In one of his starkest comparisons yet, the UN health agency chief also alluded to the so-called Spanish flu more than a century ago, saying the coronavirus has a very dangerous combination ... like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people. Tedros called the illness Public Enemy No. 1, and said: We have been warning from Day One: This is a devil that everybody should fight. Click here for complete coronavirus coverage Police will also be reaching out to victims of assaults more regularly and through different channels to confirm their wellbeing and safety. "I want to be clear and send a really firm message to any perpetrators: it's never OK to abuse family members and closed doors will not protect you from being held to account," Mr Patton said. Mr Patton said although there had not been an increase in the rate of offending, there had been a rise in the number of "third parties" calling police to respond to family violence incidents. He attributed this to more people at home all day hearing violence from neighbouring homes. Loading Rita Butera, the chief executive of family violence response service Safe Steps, said her group had also noticed a gradual rise in calls, many from concerned friends or family. "We are still concerned about womens' ability to be able to make calls safely," she said "So we are working really closely with police around the clock to make sure anyone at high risk who is experiencing or perpetrating violence is kept in sight and able to access support." She welcomed Operation Ribbon as a positive move to keep family violence victims and survivors safe within their own home. "We want to reiterate the message that family violence is never your fault. If anyone is afraid, they can contact Safe Steps anytime, day or night," she said. Anyone who is concerned about making a call can also email Safe Steps, she said. No to Violence chief executive Jacqui Watts said Operation Ribbon would help "keep family violence perpetrators in sight during COVID-19". "An essential part of preventing and responding to family violence will be working with the people using it. No to Violence will continue its strong relationship with Victoria Police and the Victorian government to address family violence at its source," she said. No to Violence, the peak body funded to work with men to end family violence, had experienced a "big jump" in police referrals to their men's helpline since the stage three restrictions were put in place, Ms Watts said. "Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic does not make someone use family violence, it can escalate and increase the frequency. We aim to keep women safe by working with men to address the causes of their violence." A spokeswoman from 1800RESPECT said they were also experiencing an increase in people reaching out for help and said counsellors are taking more calls from people who are in the same house as a perpetrator of violence at the time of contact. "Whenever there is a natural disaster, or when a high-profile case of domestic abuse is reported in the media, or at other times like during this pandemic where life as we know it isnt the same, we do see increases," she said. "Domestic, family and sexual violence is about control and abuse, so we do anticipate that people who use violence may take advantage of the COVID-19 social isolation measures to exercise this." Police Minister Lisa Neville said although police and family violence agencies had not reported a steep rise in incidents, they were worried about the "heightened risk" lockdown measures posed to victims and families. "So we remain concerned that for many, making that phone call is also very difficult when you might have that perpetrator with you at home," Ms Neville said. "So this is an operation to try and tackle that ... and it's about being out there, reaching out to victims of family violence. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 18:10:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- To offset COVID-19's impact on the job market, China has taken measures to ensure employment and promote work resumption, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS). In the first quarter of 2020, the ministry has helped over 10,000 central and local key enterprises recruit nearly 500,000 people to ensure the orderly production of medical supplies and daily necessities, said Lu Aihong, spokesperson of the MHRSS at a press conference Tuesday. Meanwhile, the country offered "point-to-point" non-stop transportation for nearly 5.9 million migrant workers to help them return to work, Lu said. An unemployment insurance program has enabled more than 3 million enterprises to enjoy a total refunding of 38.8 billion yuan (5.48 billion U.S. dollars), benefiting nearly 81 million employees around the country, according to Lu. To ease the financial pressure on enterprises, a total of 232.9 billion yuan of social insurance premiums were exempted and 28.6 billion yuan was deferred from February to March. A special online job fair was also organized by the ministry to revive job markets hit by the epidemic. By last Thursday, more than 13.39 million job posts from 1.34 million companies had been offered to applicants at the special online job fair, which was launched on March 20 and will last until the end of June, said Zhang Ying, another official of the ministry. In addition, to promote the employment of laborers from impoverished areas amid the battle against poverty and COVID-19, the MHRSS has given priority to work resumption of leading poverty alleviation enterprises, workshops, factories and rural cooperatives, according to Zhang. Zhang also noted that poor laborers were guided to participate in agricultural production, infrastructure or major projects construction to further increase their income. As of April 10, over 23 million impoverished migrant workers nationwide had returned to their workplaces, accounting for 86 percent of all migrant workers last year, Zhang said. From January to March, a total of 2.29 million new urban jobs were created, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. The surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 5.9 percent in March, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. Enditem Community Every single one of us here in Midland and the Permian have watched our fight for our city and economy get even worse as the business day on Monday closed. As if a Middle East oil fight were not enough, coupled with the coronavirus, now we are watching the price and market of oil plummet into record-low territory. It is hard to find anything good to say or think in these difficult days. But allow me to take a chance at something encouraging as we reach deep within ourselves for the fight of our physical and economic lives. Back in 1999, First Baptist Church decided the time was right to start a new church in northwest Midland where about the only thing that existed was a small little neighborhood called Grassland, Lowes and a junior high called Abell. At the time my family and I arrived in Midland, oil was about $10 a barrel. Though we really did not know what $10 oil meant, we did learn about the people and the culture of Midland in the face of $10 oil, and that spirit of the people and culture of Midland has not changed. We learned that the people of Midland were ready to fight the right fight at any time. They were ready to fight for family and the well-being of one another. They were ready to never give up and to keep fighting for the American dream even if the circumstances were not encouraging. They were a people who wanted what was best for their neighbor regardless of race, creed, religion or whether you were white collar or blue collar. In short, they were a people who knew that life was about loving God and loving your neighbor, and, when the heat was turned up, they got fired up and fought for one another and the future of this great place we call home. For a season we might continue to take some punches. But soon we will get to go back to work. Soon, we will fight back a virus like we have every other threat to our health. Soon, we will see growth again and will have learned another set of lessons about our industry and be better for it. But just like that generation more than 21 years ago, we have to make the choice to be who we are for one another and fight the right fight for one another and those who will come after us. My dear friends, do not lose heart and faith and let's choose -- once again -- to show this state and this country what makes this place we call home so great. Simply put, we are great because of who we are above the ground. --Mayor Patrick Payton Industry The challenges ahead havent yet been defined and cannot be underestimated. Companies from all industries are adjusting to market conditions, making difficult decisions, and finding ways to weather this storm. Yet as we look ahead, a growing world will continue to need reliable and affordable energy, and the Permian will continue to offer the world that energy. The determination, resilience and grit of those who call the Permian Basin home give us all hope and give me confidence that our long-term future is bright. PSPs commitment to partnership continues today and will continue tomorrow and during the years ahead. We know we have the best place, partners and people to respond to todays challenges and, over time, put them behind us as we all work together toward a better tomorrow. --Secretary Don Evans, chairman of PSP Business The historic drop in the price of oil impacts our Midland business community unlike any other in the nation. Once again, were faced with a significant and disturbing downturn in our oil-centric economy... its nothing new and nothing that we cant handle. We need to be reassured that we, as an oil-based economy, get paid to provide goods and services in the form of energy. And the world will need it again -- probably sooner rather than later. As Midlanders, we must challenge ourselves in order to solve our economic plight. Midland businesses will be forced to adapt. But make no mistake, we will be defined by how we respond to this double adversity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the slashing of oil prices. Who we are and who we will become is more important than who we were. Normally, I might say that we need to focus on one impossible thing at time. But Midlanders can handle both COVID-19 and single-digit oil. We should remind ourselves that standing here and crossing our fingers helps no one. We should work together to fight for the oil industry in every ethical manner. Midland fuels the world, and the world will still need the energy. Midland will come out of this better than ever. We needed a timeout and we got it. Lets use it. --Bobby Burns, CEO, Midland Chamber of Commerce Philanthropy The stories coming to us from nonprofits here in Midland are inspirational. Our nonprofit community is collaborative, but now we are hearing stories of how they are working together to find new ways to meet the needs of the people they serve. Stories like PBS providing State of Texas curriculum on air to help parents with home schooling and the Boys and Girls Club of Midland working with the West Texas Food Bank to provide food to families in need. These are of two of the amazing stories I have heard of organizations adapting to be able to continue their work while still diligently safeguarding the health of their colleagues. A nonprofit exists to serve a charitable need. In the current climate with their hands tied by COVID, they are still finding ways to fulfill their mission or even reshape it a bit to help us. Our nonprofits are doing what they always do: providing a safety net for Midlanders who have found themselves challenged by this unprecedented set of circumstances. --Mark Palmer, Abell-Hanger Foundation executive director Read more about what the foundations are doing to help Midlands nonprofit community Tuesday at mrt.com. M inisters will today face criticism over a failure to ensure NHS staff treating coronavirus patients have vital protective equipment as Parliament returns following an extended Easter break. The Government has insisted "every possible option" is being pursued to secure additional kit but said with unprecedented worldwide demand, the situation was "very challenging". Some 140,000 gowns had arrived from Burma, but with the NHS using 150,000 a day, the demand on resources remains intense. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab walks from the Foreign Office to 10 Downing Street to attend the Government's daily Covid-19 briefing on Monday / AFP via Getty Images With fears staff in hospitals and care homes are risking their lives, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) called for an independent inquiry into the Government's handling of the issue to be mounted before the end of the year. TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Every day frontline workers are being forced to risk their lives because they don't have the proper protective equipment. "This is a grotesque failure of planning and preparedness. It must never be allowed to happen again. Our NHS, social care and key workers deserve better." In other developments: - Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves accused the Government of ignoring offers from British manufacturers to fill the gap. - Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals and NHS trusts in England, warned the NHS's supply of face masks could be jeopardised if the Government begins advising the public to wear them, saying "clear evidence" would be needed before advice was changed. - The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, Sage, which advises the Government, will reportedly consider the evidence at a meeting on Tuesday. - Manjeet Riyat, the first Sikh to work as an A&E consultant in the UK, was named among the latest healthcare workers to die after contracting Covid-19. The warnings over PPE came as the latest official figures showed a total of 16,509 patients had died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Sunday, up by 449 on the previous day. At the daily No 10 press conference on Monday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak insisted the Government was improving its sourcing of PPE both internationally and domestically. However the medical director of Public Health England, Professor Yvonne Doyle, indicated staff could refuse to work if they believed they were not properly protected. Coronavirus in numbers: UK hospital death toll rises to 16,509 "Certainly people have to make their decisions based on whether they are in a risky situation or not," she said. "It is very difficult to legislate for all of that from a distance here. But the guidance is very clear on what is safe and not safe to do." Parliament resumes on Tuesday following an extended Easter break due to the pandemic. Loading.... MPs are expected to approve plans for new "virtual" sittings enabling them to question ministers thorough video links. Under the "hybrid" arrangements up to 50 MPs may still be present in the chamber in person although they are being urged to stay away. Loading.... Meanwhile, former chancellor Philip Hammond said the Government must start setting out how it will restart the economy once it is able to begin easing the lockdown restrictions. Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast Speaking to the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank, he said while it was "primarily a health crisis" people should not be "intimidated into silence on the economic implications and consequences". "The Government now needs visibly to be looking two or three moves ahead - to be turning its attention to engagement with the business community about the recovery phase," he said. NEW YORK, April 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Aarons, Inc. (Aarons or the Company) (NYSE: AAN) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the Southern District of New York, and indexed under 20-cv-01796, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired Aarons securities between March 2, 2018, and February 19, 2020, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials. If you are a shareholder who purchased Aarons securities during the class period, you have until April 28, 2020, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlawfirm.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. [Click here for information about joining the class action] Aarons was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The Company operates as an omnichannel provider of lease-purchase solutions to underserved and credit-challenged customers, and also engages in the sale, lease ownership, and specialty retailing of various products. Aarons operates in three reportable segmentsProgressive Leasing (Progressive), Aarons Business (AB), and Vive Financial, LLC (Vive). The Progressive and AB segments are subject to federal regulatory agency oversight and scrutiny, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (i) that Aarons had inadequate disclosure controls, procedures, and compliance measures; (ii) that, consequently, the operations of Aarons Progressive and AB segments were in violation of the FTC Act and/or relevant FTC regulations; (iii) that, consequently, Aarons earnings from those segments were partially derived from unlawful business practices and were thus unsustainable; (iv) the full extent of Aarons liability regarding the FTCs investigation into its Progressive and AB segments, Aarons noncompliance with the FTC Act, and the likely negative consequences of all the foregoing on the Companys financial results; and (v) that, as a result, the Companys public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On July 26, 2018, during after-market hours, Aarons filed a Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission, reporting the Companys financial and operating results for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2018. That Quarterly Report disclosed that, in July 2018, Aarons received civil investigative demands (CIDs) from the FTC requesting the production of documents and answers to written questions to determine whether disclosures related to financial products offered by the Company through its AB and Progressive segments were in violation of the FTC Act. On this news, Aarons stock price fell $5.38 per share, or 11.01%, to close at $43.47 per share on July 27, 2018. On April 25, 2019, during pre-market hours, Aarons filed another Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with the SEC, reporting the Companys financial and operating results for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2019. That Quarterly Report disclosed that, in April 2019, Aarons AB segment received an unrelated CID from the FTC focused on certain transactions involving the purchase and sale of customer lease agreements, and whether such transactions violated the FTC Act. Then, on February 20, 2020, Aarons issued a press release announcing the Companys financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2019. Among other results, Aarons reported that the Companys Progressive segment had reached an agreement in principle with FTC staff regarding the CID from the FTC that Progressive received in July 2018. Aarons advised investors that [u]nder the proposed agreement, which requires final approval by FTC Commissioners and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Progressive will make a payment of $175 million and enhance certain compliance-related activities, including monitoring, disclosure and reporting requirements. On this news, Aarons stock price fell $10.70 per share, or 19.06%, to close at $45.45 per share on February 20, 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.pomerantzlawfirm.com Nurses at a hospital here demanded that they be put under active quarantine as they are treating COVID-19 patients. On Monday, they also lodged complaints with the health department that the personal protective equipment (PPE) being provided to them was sub-standard. One of the nurses said as there were coronavirus patients at the district combined hospital in Sanjay Nagar arrangements should be made to quarantine medical staff. Another nursing staff said the PPE given to them is sub-standard. Chief Medical Superintendent of the hospital Naresh Vij told PTI that only two COVID-19 patients were admitted here while "we have a 100-bed facility". Just for two patients the whole medical staff cannot be kept in active quarantine in hotels and other facilities, he said. The department is providing pick and drop facilities by hospital ambulance. "Samples have been taken and sent for testing to the laboratory. Those staff members coming in contact with COVID-19 patients will be provided active quarantine," Vij said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) OPEC rushed to organize a conference call for oil ministers to discuss the global market as plunging demand crushes prices. Some Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ministers will speak on Tuesday, according to delegates who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was unclear which ministers would attend. Crude prices have collapsed despite unprecedented production cuts announced by OPEC and its partners just over a week ago. The groups 9.7 million barrels a day of curbs, however, arent nearly enough to counter lost demand as the coronavirus outbreak forces countries to lock down. Oil futures in New York slumped below zero on Monday for the first time ever as storage space for surplus barrels runs out. Prices continued their plunge on Tuesday. We continue to see extraordinary turmoil in oil markets in this Black April for the industry, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said on Twitter. The OPEC+ supply cut is a solid start but insufficient to rebalance the market immediately due to the scale of the drop in demand. Saudi Arabia, OPECs biggest member, reiterated in a statement on Tuesday that its prepared for further measures with the rest of the group and its allies to ensure market stability. The organization has also received a proposal from Algeria, which this year holds OPECs rotating presidency, to start the planned cutbacks immediately, instead of May 1 as currently scheduled. The suggestion hasnt so far received backing from bigger members. Its also unclear whether the Saudis and other major exporters in the group like Russia have the will, or the ability, to make deeper cuts. The latest deal already requires participants to make sharp cutbacks, which many will likely struggle to deliver. Soon after he repurposed his 60-bed cardiac unit to accommodate covid-19 patients, Mount Sinai cardiovascular surgeon John Puskas was stumped: With nearly all the beds now occupied by victims of the novel coronavirus, where had all the heart patients gone?Even those left almost speechless by crushing chest pain weren't coming through the ER. Variations on that question have puzzled clinicians not only in New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, but across the country and in Spain, the United Kingdom and China. Five weeks into a nationwide coronavirus lockdown, many doctors believe the pandemic has produced a silent sub-epidemic of people who need care at hospitals but dare not come in. They include people with inflamed appendixes, infected gall bladders and bowel obstructions, and more ominously, chest pains and stroke symptoms, according to these physicians and early research. "Everybody is frightened to come to the ER," Puskas said. Some doctors worry that illness and mortality from unaddressed health issues may rival the carnage produced by the virus in regions less affected by covid-19, the disease the novel coronavirus causes. And some expect they will soon see patients who have dangerously delayed seeking care as ongoing symptoms force them to overcome their fear. Evert Eriksson, trauma medical director at the Medical University of South Carolina, described a man in his 20s who tried to ignore the growing pain in his belly, toughing it out at home with the aid of over-the-counter painkillers. By the time he showed up at the hospital, perhaps 10 days after he should have, he had developed a large abscess, one that was gnawing through the muscle in his abdominal wall. A fairly routine surgery and a night in the hospital had become a lengthy and difficult inpatient stay, with doctors operating and using antibiotics to control the widespread infection, according to Eriksson. Only after they succeed in vanquishing the infection can they address the appendix itself. "That's going to be a real wound-care challenge for him moving forward," said Eriksson, who is treating the patient. "He said to me he could [imagine] the virus crawling on the hospital. He was just scared to come." At MUSC, Eriksson's general surgery floor, which has 20 beds, housed as few as three people for two to three weeks, he said. Now the count is back over 20. "What we're seeing is late presentation," he said. "I would say 70% of the appendicitis on my service right now are late presentations. What happens when you present late with appendicitis is we can't operate on you safely." Yet the 700-bed hospital in Charleston is about 60% full, because like most facilities, MUSC discharged everyone it could to make room for the expected coronavirus surge. So far that hasn't materialized. The hospital has not had more than 10 covid-19 patients admitted at any time, he said. "We have five covid patients in the hospital right now, and we have five appendicitis cases" with complications from waiting too long to come in for care, Eriksson said. Much of the reporting about missing patients is anecdotal - in medical chat rooms and on doctors' social media accounts. Doctors say it's unlikely there has been a decline in most of these conditions, which suggests that at least a few people may be dying at home, although there is no data yet to corroborate that. In the case of severe heart attacks, the evidence is mounting that a large percentage of patients with symptoms that typically prompt urgent interventions are simply not showing up. A report to be published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on nine high-volume cardiac catheterization labs across the country from Jan. 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 found a 38% drop in patients being treated for a life-threatening event known as a STEMI - the blockage of one of the major arteries that supplies oxygen-rich blood to the heart. Those results - from hospitals across the country - are counterintuitive, physicians say. The stress caused by the pandemic would lead them to anticipate an increase in heart attacks. Covid-19 is also an inflammatory disease that can damage the heart muscle. "We should have higher incidences of these events, but we are seeing dramatically fewer in the hospital system," Puskas said. "That has to mean they are at home or in the morgue." A Gallup online poll taken March 28 to April 2 asked people with different conditions how concerned they would be about exposure to coronavirus if they needed "medical treatment right now" at a hospital or doctor's office. Eighty-six percent of people with heart disease said they would be either "very concerned" or "moderately concerned." Among people with high blood pressure, the figure was 83%. With elective surgeries on hold, many hospitals, such as Brigham and Women's in Boston, have found themselves trading treatment of traditional heart attacks for the complex assaults the novel coronavirus is making on the organ and the body's ability to clot blood. "People with smaller heart attacks, they may say, 'Well I hope this is just indigestion,' " said Gregory Piazza, one of the hospital's cardiovascular specialists. At MUSC, another doctor worried that mild stroke patients are enduring symptoms such as numbness, loss of sensation or weakness on one side of their body at home. Symptoms of small strokes can be transient, but they also can be warnings of larger strokes to come. MUSC, a major stroke center, averaged 550 calls per month over the past four months about possible stroke patients from the 45 to 50 emergency rooms that refer patients. But it has seen 100 in the first half of April, said Alex Spiotta, director of neurovascular surgery. Phone calls from patients to MUSC's telestroke program dropped from as many as 20 daily to about nine in mid-April. "That's literally patients and their families who fear that it's dangerous" to go to the hospital, he said. "We are worried that there might be a higher death toll from neglect of other diseases" than from covid-19. At the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Comprehensive Stroke Center, the March census of stroke patients is down almost 30% from February's, said Ralph Sacco, chairman of neurology and former president of the American Academy of Neurology. "What we would surmise is that more mild to moderate cases are not calling 911, or are afraid to come into the hospitals," Sacco said. The hospitals are beginning to reach out to the public through social media and public service announcements to ease fears about hospital safety. "We've changed what we do," to keep patients safe from the virus, Sacco said. "But we're still able to care for people." The possibility that patients may be suffering - and even dying - at home rather than going to the hospital led the American College of Cardiology to launch a "Cardiosmart" campaign last week, attempting to reassure a wary population and encourage those with symptoms to call 911 for urgent care and to continue routine appointments, when practical through telemedicine: "Hospitals have safety measures to protect you from infection," it reads. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "The emphasis here is safety," said Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist and health-care researcher at Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital, who advised on the campaign. "We want to make sure preventable deaths aren't happening." There is no pill, no action, no behavior, he said, that could account for the almost 40% drop in STEMI patients. "We don't have a means to cut your risk in half," he said. "Not even primary angioplasty or stopping smoking." Still the shift has many doctors looking for other explanations, including the massive behavioral overhaul caused by the lockdown. MUSC has seen a steep drop in trauma from car accidents, for example, because fewer people are driving, but no reduction in domestic violence or assaults among people who don't live together, Eriksson said. Many people who suffer from exertional angina are now sitting at home rather than climbing the subway stairs every day, and the threshold of discomfort that would drive them to seek care is likely far higher. Joseph Puma, an interventional cardiologist at Mount Sinai in New York, believes multiple changes created by the lockdown may be playing a role, including a decrease in air pollution and fewer high-fat restaurant meals after work. "The plaques in arteries have not gone away," he said. "You can argue that forced behavioral modifications may have taken away the triggers" that release them into the bloodstream. And these days, some people who suffer major heart attacks never make it to the hospital in New York, where EMTs no longer perform CPR on people who have arrested - a procedure that has a low success rate and carries great risk of infecting first responders if the victim is coronavirus-positive. Puskas, the Mount Sinai cardiovascular surgeon, whose unit is now occupied entirely by covid-19 patients, suspects a few of the heart patients may not be missing but right there among the most seriously ill people in his new unit. The virus strikes most harshly among people suffering from diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure - the same conditions that predispose people to strokes and heart attacks and that are most prevalent among blacks and Hispanics. "Some of them may be under our noses," he said. The role those factors may be playing will emerge over time from studies and shoe-leather epidemiology. But for now, Krumholz said, the key is to make sure people with symptoms overcome their fears and get prompt treatment that may save their lives or avoid long-term complications. "Don't delay," he said. - - - The Washington Post's Scott Clement and Emily Guskin contributed to this report. In 2019, Officers Denise Vasquez and Oscar Bocanegra patrol a Tarzana area where a computer program predicted a higher possibility of property crime. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore announced Tuesday that, in light of financial constraints caused by the coronavirus outbreak, the department would stop using a controversial program that predicts where property crimes could occur throughout the city. Critics say the predictive-policing program, called Pred-Pol, has led to heavier policing of minority neighborhoods. Moore has said in the past that he disagrees with the view that the program unfairly targets Latino and black neighborhoods. That is a hard decision, Moore said during a Police Commission meeting conducted remotely by Zoom. Its a strategy we used, but the cost projections of hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on that right now versus finding that money and directing that money to other more central activities is what I have to do." Moore said he believed the underlying principles behind Pred-Pol were valid and that hed be looking at other systems that crime analysts have to identify where crime is occurring. He said that a handbook on data-informed community policing that activists had been long awaiting was published on the LAPD's website Monday. Community activists on the call emphasized how Moores decision came after they pressured the department to discontinue the program. This is all through the hard work of community folks, said Hamid Khan of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition. This is community power that shows we can dismantle it and stop these egregious tactics. Pred-Pol software developed by a UCLA professor in conjunction with the LAPD was designed to predict in real time where and when crimes were likely to occur over the next 12 hours. In October, the department announced changes to the program seven months after the LAPD inspector general said he couldnt determine its effectiveness in reducing crime. The Times reported last year that numerous departments across the country had ended use of the software because they determined it did not help reduce crime and that it provided information already being gathered by officers patrolling the streets. Story continues During the meeting, Assistant Chief Beatrice Girmala detailed how the pandemic has affected efforts to increase diversity among LAPD recruits. Before the coronavirus took hold on daily life in Los Angeles, she said, the department had been right on track to substantially increase its recruitment and hiring of African Americans, Asian Pacific Islanders and women. In February, the department had 671 prospects within the candidate pool, including 82 African Americans, 157 women and 58 Asian Pacific Islanders. A month later, the number of prospects dropped to 392. We already started to see a decline as social and community anxiety increased and got people from the focus of maybe future careers to other things as critical as life and death, said Girmala. The department has had to cancel recruitment events to attract diverse candidates, including a womens hiring seminar scheduled for late March that had received more than 250 RSVPs. Girmala emphasized that recruitment efforts will continue and that the department has adapted by moving parts of the candidate testing process online. My concern and the departments concern is that some of these viable candidates, if there is an opening and ability to go elsewhere, they will, she said. Our hiring process and its standards are extremely high and rigid, and those other agencies would be getting a heck of a good candidate as part of their ranks. The number of Los Angeles Police Department officers and civilian employees infected by the coronavirus has risen to 65 employees testing positive, Moore said Tuesday. One individual is in critical condition at a hospital. The chief said the department has tested 609 employees who have shown coronavirus symptoms and 144 employees are currently quarantined or in isolation due to being symptomatic or testing positive. Scores of Los Angeles police officers have the choice of self-isolating at home or moving to a hotel in downtown L.A. The chief said that the department has continued to focus its resources on patrol and has continued reallocating officers to the field. Over the last six weeks, he said, there has been a steep drop-off in crime, including homicides, aggravated assaults and robberies, and calls concerning domestic violence have been flat. Moore said he was concerned about motor vehicle thefts and noted that decisions to downsize the jail population could be allowing an increase in recidivism. Enforcing L.A.s Safer at Home order, Moore said, has been focused on nonessential businesses. LAPD officers have responded to more than 1,440 calls regarding allegations of nonessential businesses continuing to operate and have filed complaints in 79 cases. In the ... majority of instances, we find compliance, we find misunderstanding about whether a business is essential or not, he said. Times staff writer Cindy Chang and former Times staff writer Mark Puente contributed to this report. Willie Anumudu Nigerian billionaire businessman and Chairman of Globe Motors, Willie Anumudu is dead. He died at the age of 68. Late Anumudu died this morning Tuesday April 21 after a brief illness not related to COVID-19. He was to be air-lifted to Germany this morning but died about 4am. He is survived by his wife Nkiru, and 4 children including popular stylist, Ozinna Anumudu. The World Health Organization said Tuesday that rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of the illness, a warning that comes as governments start rolling out plans to get their economies up and running again. This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future, said Dr. Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific. He said governments must remain vigilant to stop the spread of the virus and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. Despite concerns from health officials, some U.S. states on Monday announced aggressive reopening plans, while Boeing and at least one other U.S. heavy-equipment manufacturer resumed production. Elsewhere around the world, step-by-step reopenings were underway in Europe, where the crisis has begun to ebb in places such as Italy, Spain and Germany. Australia said Tuesday that it will allow the resumption of non-urgent surgeries from next week as health authorities grow more confident that hospitals there won't be overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. The reopenings come as politicians grow weary of soaring unemployment numbers and the prospect of economic depression. Asian shares followed Wall Street lower on Tuesday after U.S. oil futures plunged below zero because of a worldwide glut as factories, automobiles and airplanes sit idled. The cost to have a barrel of U.S. crude delivered in May plummeted to negative $37.63 as traders run out of places to store it. It was at roughly $60 at the start of the year. Businesses that start operating again in the U.S. are likely to engender good will with President Donald Trump at a time when his administration is doling out billions in relief to companies. Trump has been agitating to restart the economy, singling out Democratic-led states and egging on protesters complaining that the shutdowns are destroying their livelihoods and trampling their rights. In several states most of them Republican-led governors said they had seen signs that the coronavirus curve was flattening, making it possible to start reopening businesses and public spaces. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced plans to restart his state's economy before the end of the week. Kemp said gyms, hair salons, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors could reopen Friday, as long as owners followed strict social distancing and hygiene requirements. Texas on Monday began a week of slow reopenings, starting off with state parks, while officials said that later in the week, stores would be allowed to offer curbside service. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Asia's first company to sponsor clinical trial of combination therapy of anti-cancer microbiome and anti-PD1/anti-PD-L1 drug Enables to initiate Phase 1/1b clinical trial on combinational therapy of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany/Pfizer's avelumab (BAVENCIO) with Genome & Company's GEN-001 microbiome therapeutic SEOUL, South Korea, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Genome & Company (KONEX: 314130), a biotechnology company developing innovative therapeutics in immune-oncology, announced today that the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for GEN-001 for combination treatment with avelumab (BAVENCIO) in patients with solid cancers. Avelumab is an anti-PD-L1 antibody co-developed and co-commercialized by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer Inc. With this clearance, Genome & Company will be the first Asian company to initiate a first-in-human trial of anti-cancer microbiome and anti-PD1/anti-PD-L1 combination treatment as a sole sponsor. The phase 1/1b clinical trial will be initiated at the US clinical sites and the first patient is expected to be enrolled within this year. "IND clearance from FDA for our first anti-cancer microbiome therapeutic GEN-001 is a very significant milestone as it will transition Genome & Company into a clinical-stage biotechnology company. We hope to add meaningful value and advancement in the microbiome and immuno-oncology industry with our combinational approach to cancer patients who have progressed on prior anti-PD1/anti-PD-L1 therapy," said Dr. Hansoo Park, Chief Technical Officer of Genome & Company. Dr. Jisoo Pae, CEO of Genome & Company further quoted, "This IND approval is a meaningful corporate milestone and a critical step forward to achieving new arrangements in strategic partnering. We are indeed looking forward to further investigate how our clinical data will be translated into our cancer patients. I thank all the members and partners of Genome & Company for dedicating themselves to accomplishing this milestone." In January this year, Genome & Company had entered into a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer Inc. to evaluate the safety, tolerability, biological and clinical activities of GEN-001 therapy in combination with avelumab in multiple cancer indications. The combination trial is designed to be a first-in-human study including dose escalation and expansion cohorts to evaluate the safety and preliminary efficacy. BAVENCIO is a trademark of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. About GEN-001 GEN-001 is an oral microbiome therapeutic candidate developed to have immune modulating activities, resulting in potential partnership with immune checkpoint inhibitors. GEN-001 consists a single strain bacteria isolated from gut of healthy human volunteers that has been shown to activate dendritic cells, macrophages and T cell response. In preclinical studies, GEN-001 has shown optimal safety margin and synergistic effects in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors by enhancing the effect of suppressing the growth of both immune checkpoint inhibitor sensitive and resistant tumor models. About Genome & Company Genome & Company is a clinical stage biotechnology company based in Republic of Korea that focuses on discovering and developing the next waves of innovative therapeutics in immuno-oncology through diverse modalities of microbiome, novel target immune checkpoint inhibitors and fusion proteins to fulfill the unmet needs of cancer patients. www.genomecom.co.kr Avelumab Approved Indications Avelumab (BAVENCIO) in combination with axitinib is indicated in the US, EU, Japan and other countries for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also granted accelerated approval for avelumab (BAVENCIO) for the treatment of (i) adults and pediatric patients 12 years and older with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (mMCC) and (ii) patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy, or have disease progression within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy. These indications are approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for these indications may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials. Avelumab is currently approved for patients with mMCC in 50 countries globally, with the majority of these approvals in a broad indication that is not limited to a specific line of treatment. Avelumab Important Safety Information from the US FDA-Approved Label The warnings and precautions for avelumab (BAVENCIO) include immune-mediated adverse reactions (such as pneumonitis and hepatitis [including fatal cases], colitis, endocrinopathies, nephritis and renal dysfunction and other adverse reactions [which can be severe and have included fatal cases]), infusion-related reactions, hepatotoxicity, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) [which can be severe and have included fatal cases], and embryo-fetal toxicity. Common adverse reactions (reported in at least 20% of patients) in patients treated with BAVENCIO monotherapy include fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, diarrhea, nausea, infusion-related reaction, peripheral edema, decreased appetite/hypophagia, urinary tract infection and rash. Common adverse reactions (reported in at least 20% of patients) in patients receiving BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib include diarrhea, fatigue, hypertension, musculoskeletal pain, nausea, mucositis, palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia, dysphonia, decreased appetite, hypothyroidism, rash, hepatotoxicity, cough, dyspnea, abdominal pain and headache. Grade 3-4 clinical chemistry and hematology laboratory value abnormalities reported in at least 10% of patients treated with BAVENCIO monotherapy include hyponatremia, lymphopenia, GGT increased; in patients receiving BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib, grade 3-4 clinical chemistry and hematology laboratory value abnormalities included blood triglyceride increased and lipase increased. For full Prescribing Information and Medication Guide for BAVENCIO, please see www.BAVENCIO.com. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1157167/Genome.jpg A deer crashed through the roof of a house in Mumbai slum on Sunday (May 11) and was rescued with the help of animal welfare groups and forest officials. The deer didn't move inside the home for some time as it was in a shock. Wild animals have ventured into public spaces amid COVID-19 lockdown. (Image: Aaba Kubal and RAWW) Turkey's Limak Construction has announced that it has achieved a significant landmark in the construction of Kuwait International Airport New Terminal 2 (T2) project. The companys on-site factory celebrated this week the production of 30,000 shell cassettes required for the inner roof of the T2 project. With over 80% of the terminals inner roof now fabricated, and 39% of which are installed as of today, it is a major milestone in the construction of Kuwaits new gateway, said the statement from Limak. The company confirmed that work on the T2 project is ongoing and continuing in full compliance with regulations set by the Ministry of Health and other official government bodies in Kuwait in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the full support of the government of Kuwait, Ministry of Health, and the employers of the project, the Ministry of Public Works (MPW), Limak is taking the preventive actions necessary while keeping work at the site, offices, facilities, and support centers under strict control and in accordance to the directions of the Limak Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) team, it stated. Limak Project Director Richard Meredith said: "Working at a steady production rate, we are taking all the proactive and precautionary measures necessary to keep our construction site and employees safe while continuing work on T2." "The shell cassette fabrication is now over 80% complete with 39% installed since the start of casting in December 2018. The terminals roof structure is made up of 36,964 shell cassettes in different shapes and sizes that are repeated only three times," stated Meredith. "We plan to produce and install the remaining shell cassettes by August 22," he added. Weighing an average of 7 tonnes with a maximum of 12 tonnes each, shell cassettes are the building blocks of the airports roof structure. They are modular blocks that, when connected together, form the massive domes that cover and span the terminals entire interior space. These innovative and unique segmented dome structures will span up to 137m. Constructed and assembled by Limak in Kuwait, the unique moulds were designed by Adapa, a Danish company specialised in mechanical innovation and computer aided mould manufacturing. The design of the complex structure was undertaken by German-based firm Werner Sobek, while the roofs construction methodology was handled by the Robert Bird Group, a member of one of the largest Asia-based urban, industrial and infrastructure consulting firms, said Meredith. Limak is proud to be on track to complete the roof structure project milestone despite the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions enforced, he added.-TradeArabia News Service Our Divisions Copyright 2021-22 DB Corp ltd., All Rights Reserved This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. Southern Chinese metropolis Guangzhou will expand the scope of nucleic acid testing to prevent the novel coronavirus epidemic from rebounding, local authorities said on Monday. Anyone who had been to a place where more than one infection case occurred will be subject to the testing, Li Ming, deputy mayor of Guangzhou, told a press briefing. Residents of a neighborhood where an infection case was discovered will receive the testing, Li said, adding that business premises visited by people who were tested positive will have all employees and people who had been to there in the past 14 days tested, Li said. According to Li, 30,000 of the total 35,000 taxi drivers in the city have received the testing as of Monday after a taxi driver was diagnosed with COVID-19 last Friday. Some temporary testing sites were set up in Guangzhou streets since last Saturday. A total of 68,000 people were tested since then, and seven asymptomatic cases were found in over 53,000 results. The city government has also decided to run nucleic acid tests on 167,000 graduating students in middle and high schools as well as about 30,000 teachers, who will return to school on April 27. The city is capable of conducting 70,000 tests each day, Li said. Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of Republic Media Network has resigned from Editors Guild of India in a on air announcement during a live broadcast of his show on Republic TV channel. Goswami denounced the industry body for compromising its editorial ethics on the issue of fake news on the spread of COVID-19. He also criticized Shekhar Gupta, President, Editors Guild of India for not taking a strong enough stance on fake news stories being circulated in the media. On April 2nd, the Editors Guild of India had issued a statement saying that it was deeply perturbed by the governments statement before Supreme Court (SC) putting blame on media for causing panic among migrant workers leading to mass movement in the wake of the lockdown. The statement said "blaming the media for mass migration of workers will be counterproductive. Such actions will be tantamount of disabling the messenger." Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (26) PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-21 14:00:50 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 979 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / CLS Holdings USA, Inc. (OTCQB:CLSH)(CSE:CLSH) ("CLS" or the ''Company''), a diversified cannabis company operating as Cannabis Life Sciences, announced today its March 2020 revenue of $1.063 compared to March 2019 revenue of $1.068 million. Gross margin for March 2020 was $500,000 compared to $392,000 in March of 2019, an increase of 27%."Our Oasis retail operations saw a 27% increase in customers served from 12,937 in March of 2019 to 16,435 in March of 2020, despite state-wide restrictions on business and tourism due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Our retail dispensary was closed following a March 20th state mandate, and thereafter all retail operations were suspended for 3 days while we successfully transitioned to a delivery-only platform that is now executing at a high level and fulfilling upwards of 95% of orders on a "same day" basis", said Andrew Glashow President/COO"..Oasis has streamlined operations by developing a driver delivery model that is maximizing retail efficiency. Oasis is receiving an average of 350 orders per day and has seen average order size of approximately $80, an increase of 2 times our average in-store order in February of 2020. Retail operations are now operating 14 hours a day versus the pre-COVID-19 24 hours a day,"CLS' March performance would not have been possible without our dedicated staff who have helped successfully pivot our business to accommodate for these unprecedented restrictions," said Jeff Binder, Chairman/CEO ."We recognize that it is a privilege to operate as an essential business during this crisis, and our team will continue our quest to remain the locals' choice by making active efforts to stimulate the local economy and provide outstanding medicine and service every day." CLS' wholesale and branded products City Trees division is now producing all its products from its new state of the art manufacturing facility in North Las Vegas. This is an exciting development that allows City Trees to produce our high quality, safe, independently tested branded products cost effectively. Having control over manufacturing provides us with the opportunity to make products to order and develop new unique offerings. We look forward to sharing our first new internally developed products very soon.The operational disruptions caused by the pandemic have created logistical issues for many of our City Trees customers. We have a high degree of respect for the decisions these operators have made in the interest of employee and customer safety. As a result, we have experienced a decline in City Trees' revenue but this slowdown has allowed us to create some exciting synergies with our Oasis retail operations. We look forward to the day when the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, and we can show off our new products and environmentally friendly packaging to our wholesale customers.About CLS Holdings USA, Inc.CLS Holdings USA, Inc. (CLSH) is a diversified cannabis company that acts as an integrated cannabis producer and retailer through its Oasis Cannabis subsidiaries in Nevada and plans to expand to other states. CLS stands for "Cannabis Life Sciences," in recognition of the Company's patented proprietary method of extracting various cannabinoids from the marijuana plant and converting them into products with a higher level of quality and consistency. The Company's business model includes licensing operations, processing operations, processing facilities, sale of products, brand creation and consulting services. http://www.clsholdingsinc.com Twitter: @CLSHusaOasis Cannabis has operated a cannabis dispensary in the Las Vegas market since dispensaries first opened in Nevada in 2015 and has been recognized as one of the top marijuana retailers in the state. Its location within walking distance to the Las Vegas Strip and Downtown Las Vegas in combination with its delivery service to residents allows it to efficiently serve both locals and tourists in the Las Vegas area. In February 2019, it was named "Best Dispensary for Pot Pros" by Desert Companion Magazine. In August 2017, the company commenced wholesale offerings of cannabis in Nevada with the launch of its City Trees brand of cannabis concentrates and cannabis-infused products. http://oasiscannabis.com Photo: Oasis Cannabis Dispensary. Las Vegas, NVFounded in 2017, City Trees is a Nevada-based cannabis cultivation, production and distribution company. Offering a wide variety of products with consistent results, City Trees products are available in dispensaries throughout the state of Nevada. https://citytrees.com Photo: City Trees production lab. North Las Vegas, NVForward Looking StatementsThis press release contains certain ''forward-looking information'' within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and ''forward-looking statements'' as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, the ''forward-looking statements''). These statements relate to, among other things, the impact of the COVID-19 virus on our businesses, the results of our initiatives to retain our employees and strengthen our relationships with our customers and community during the pandemic, the effect of our initiatives to expand market share and achieve growth following the pandemic, and results of operations during the pandemic. In some cases, we have also attempted to estimate our present operations and results of operations. These statements are estimates, and even if presently accurate, such statements or results could change quickly as a result of the rapid changes we are experiencing during this pandemic, and such changes could be adverse and material. The continued spread of COVID-19 could have, and in some cases already has had, an adverse impact on our business, operations and financial results, including through disruptions in our processing activities, the businesses or our wholesale customers, and our retail dispensary operations as well as a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession. Due to the speed with which the COVID-19 pandemic is developing and the uncertainty of its magnitude, outcome and duration, it is not possible to estimate its impact on our business, operations or financial results; however, the impact could be material. In some cases, you can identify forward looking statements by t A n Essex man has appeared in court accused of fatally running over a woman after a row about a minor collision. Alleged road rage killer Robert Barrow 54, of Chigwell, has been charged with the murder of Tahereh Pirali-Dashti, 40, and assault of a 56-year-old man. Mrs Pirali-Dashti was critically injured following an incident on Londons North Circular Road, at Henlys Corner, on January 20. She and her husband had allegedly stopped to speak to Barrow after they were involved in a crash. A woman was allegedly run over after a collision on the A406 / Google Maps It is claimed the defendant punched the victims husband then ran over Mrs Pirali-Dashti with his vehicle. She was taken to hospital and died on April 10 of a combination of Covid-19, pneumonia and cardiac arrest following multiple injuries. On Tuesday, Barrow appeared at the Old Bailey via video link from Wormwood Scrubs for a virtual hearing, attended by lawyers and press on Skype. Judge Mark Lucraft QC set a plea hearing for July 7 before remanding the defendant into custody. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 18:05 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd35ee87 1 National Kartini-day,kartini,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,coronavirus,Twitter,social-media,television,celebration,parade,kebaya Free With Indonesians prevented from celebrating Kartini Day to the full extent with festive parades and group competitions due to COVID-19, many have taken the celebration to the virtual realm by sharing social media posts, while others marked the occasion by watching a special television program. Kartini Day is celebrated annually on April 21 to commemorate the birth of national heroine Raden Ajeng Kartini, who is hailed as a symbol of womens empowerment in the country for promoting gender equity and womens rights during the Dutch colonial era. Most offices across the country usually celebrate the special day with women employees wearing kebaya (traditional Indonesian blouse) throughout the day. This form of celebration is not only limited to office workers, as everyone from women traffic police officers to surfers have been known to don the look. Schools usually hold parades in which students wear kebaya or other costumes, in addition to staging student competitions. With the governments stay-at-home policy in effect as part of an effort to flatten the curve of COVID-19, people took to social media platforms on Tuesday to celebrate Kartini Day. Twitter users, for example, shared the hashtag #kartiniday while reminiscing over past parades that honored Kartinis birthday. The hashtag, along with the phrase Selamat Hari Kartini (Happy Kartini Day), became trending topics on Twitter in Indonesia by Tuesday at noon. Twitter user @ddayrinmop made a post recounting a past experience of a Kartini Day parade. When I was a third-grader in elementary school, I went to a salon at 2 a.m. [to prepare for the parade], the user wrote. Selamat Hari Kartini . . Kalian kalo dandan, berangkat ke salon jam berapa? Aku pas kelas 3 sd pernah berangkat jam 2 pagi#kartiniday emo. (@ddayrinmop) April 20, 2020 Another user, @pembachot__, expressed regret over not being able to watch a live parade this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak. April 21 is usually filled with dressing up and renting costumes for the parade and participating in various competitions, the user tweeted. Its unfortunate that we couldnt see such activities in schools this year. tgl 21 april biasanya subuh2 udah di salon aja buat makeup sama minjem baju kebaya buat upacara hari kartini, terus lomba tumpeng, busana, kartini kartono :") sayang banget tahun ini ngga ada yg kaya gitu lagi di sekolah2. #SelamatHariKartini Chill (@pembachot__) April 20, 2020 Public broadcaster TVRI celebrated the occasion by airing a special educational program targeted at senior high school students. The program focused on telling stories of two national heroines: Maria Walanda Maramis from North Sulawesi and Keumalahayati from Aceh. Maria was known for her role in fighting for womens right to vote for legislative agency representatives during the Dutch colonial era, while Keumalahayati fought against Dutch imperialists who came to Aceh in 1599. The program was aired from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday. In a coronavirus briefing at the White House just now, impeached and manifestly unfit United States President Donald Trump wished North Korea's murderous dictator Kim Jong Un "good luck." In so doing, Trump expressed greater concern for Kim than he has at any point so far for the nearly 45,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19. It's very curious, isn't it? President of the United States. Said Trump today of the North Korean leader: "I can only say this, I wish him well." "I have a very good relationship with him." .@BretBaier: "North Korea. What can you tell us about the status of Kim Jong-un?" President Trump: "We don't knowI've had a very good relationship with himI can only say this; I wish him well." Full video here: https://t.co/5xqvbQIhJx pic.twitter.com/MivyWqW0JM CSPAN (@cspan) April 21, 2020 The president wishes Kim Jong Un good luck, following recent reports of a possible health crisis that reportedly placed him in "grave danger." Asked about Kim Jong Un's condition, Trump says "I've had a very good relationship with him" and claims America would be at war with North Korea is he wasn't elected. He ends by bashing CNN. pic.twitter.com/A14KZlz2r9 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 21, 2020 The President says he wishes Kim Jong-un good luck pic.twitter.com/SEzUh4mzA9 Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) April 21, 2020 Previously on Boing Boing: North Korean leader claimed to be "in grave danger" after heart operation Trump wishing murderous dictator Kim Jong Un wellsays they get a long great Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) April 21, 2020 TRUMP: I just have to say to Kim Jong Un, I wish him very good luck They came out with very serious medical reports, nobody's confirmed them. It was CNN that came out. When CNN comes out with a report, I don't place too much credence in it. pic.twitter.com/tus0t507p0 August Takala (@RudyTakala) April 21, 2020 Trump wishes Kim Jong Un well, suggesting he *might* be in ill health, but then says he doesn't trust reporting by @cnn. Curious answer. Trump has access to classified intel reports. But he doesn't say that CNN is flat wrong, just that he doesn't trust it. Paul Farhi (@farhip) April 21, 2020 Asked about the status of Kim Jong-Un's condition, Trump says: "We don't know, we don't know. I've had a very good relationship with him. I can only say this, I wish him well" Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) April 21, 2020 (Bloomberg) -- The Caribbean countries of Barbados, Belize and the Bahamas, among the preferred playgrounds for the worlds wealthiest bankers, may soon become known instead for Wall Streets dark side: Debt crises. The three nations are some of the most exposed to the sudden stop in global tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic. And after decade-long borrowing sprees, theyre also staring down big bond payments, raising concern over how the Caribbean region can repay its debt. This pandemic shock is unlike any shock that these sovereigns have seen in their history, said Julia Smith, a Toronto-based analyst at S&P Global Ratings. Tourism in the Caribbean will probably decline by 60% to 70% from April to December compared with last year, according to S&P. The ratings company downgraded the Bahamas and Belize last week, and it lowered credit outlooks in Aruba, Belize, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica to negative. Junk Bonds Marla Dukharan, an economist in Barbados, calls it a once-per-century shock for the Caribbean. She said even in the most optimistic scenario, the region will lose about 50% of its tourist revenue this year. That will weigh heavily on the Caribbeans roughly $80 billion foreign debt load. Some of the largest reported holders of those notes include BlackRock Inc., AllianceBernstein, Pacific Investment Management Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., although the regional exposure is just a fraction of their total assets under management. Officials at BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan declined to comment. Pramol Dhawan, Pimcos head of emerging-market portfolio management, said differentiation is key. He highlighted the Dominican Republics strong balance sheet and request for rapid financing from the International Monetary Fund. Katrina Butt, AllianceBernsteins senior Latin America economist, said theres value in some Caribbean nations like Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, which benefit from ample fiscal space and bigger reserve buffers. Story continues The smaller islands in the region have much more limited buffers, she said. Deja Vu? Its too soon to say whether the damage will rival Puerto Rico, the basket case of Caribbean default dramas. When the three major credit-rating firms cut it to junk in 2014, the islands debt burden had reached about 74% of gross domestic product. The government dipped into its savings to repay bonds, and in 2016, Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla defaulted. How Puerto Rico Managed to Dig a Deep Financial Hole: QuickTake Puerto Ricos woes were compounded the next year when Hurricane Maria killed almost 3,000 people. Some nations may face another gut-wrenching expense this year: Weather forecasters predict above-average storms during the June-November hurricane season. S&P already rates the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Barbados and Belize in junk territory. Fitch Ratings cut Aruba to non-investment grade earlier this month. Several of them have debt ratios surpassing Puerto Ricos in 2014. On Tuesday, a United Nations office for Latin America and the Caribbean warned that the region will contract by 5.3% in 2020, the worst ever, with GDP slipping by 6.8% in the Bahamas, 5.8% in Barbados and 5.3% in Jamaica. Frontier markets, including some Caribbean nations, are particularly exposed to the pandemic, according to Whitney Baker, the New York-based founder of Totem Macro, which advises funds overseeing more than $3 trillion. Their ability to issue dollar bonds in a yield-starved world has enabled them to run deficits, she said. Now theyre reliant on something thats going away, at the same time they actually need more resources. Completely Dependent Like many of its Caribbean neighbors, Arubas main airport is closed to the roughly 2 million foreign tourists who visit each year. Its beach-side resorts are shuttered and the streets are practically empty. Dangui Oduber, the nations tourism minister, said hes never seen the island so desolate. We are completely dependent on tourism, he said in an interview. Oduber estimated that more than a quarter of the islands population of about 100,000 will lose their jobs. Aruba is pushing to diversify the nations economy with the cultivation of medicinal cannabis as well as new agricultural and infrastructure projects, he said. If social distancing remains necessary for the next two years, as some research suggests, nations such as Aruba may be forced to divert dwindling reserves toward social services rather than foreign creditors. We do not have the necessary savings to pay our debt, Oduber said. There are a few buffers to potentially stave off default. Oduber said the Netherlands, which still handles much of the islands foreign affairs, is willing to provide a bullet loan without interest to Aruba. Its possible the U.K. could provide similar support to Bermuda and Turks and Caicos. Other nations may lack that luxury and depend on the IMF as a lender of last resort. People are afraid and government support will be necessary to boost up these regions until we enter a new normal, said Sylvia Jablonski, managing director of capital markets at Direxion in New York. That new normal may be further away than we think. (Updates with UN report in 13th paragraph.) 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. Hearst Connecticut Media file NEW HAVEN The Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology launched a fundraising initiative Monday to give direct financial support to families in the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods for the next six months during the coronavirus pandemic, with a fundraising goal of $100,000 each month. The fundraiser is intended to assist families in securing food, medication, rent, utilities and transportation through summer. A three-week-old girl has recovered from coronavirus to the delight of her parents. Peyton Maguire, believed to be Scotlands youngest coronavirus patient, was born eight weeks premature on March 26. She was delivered by C-section at University Hospital Wishaw after mother Tracy was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. After being cared for in an incubator in the neonatal unit, the 3lb 11oz baby tested positive for Covid-19 on April 15 despite not having any symptoms. All you need to know from the April 21 UK coronavirus briefing On Monday, after two negative tests, Peyton was allowed to leave the hospital with her parents. Mrs Maguire said: When I heard Peyton had coronavirus I was sobbing and really worried about how it could affect her respiratory system, her lungs and if it was life-threatening. Shed had a sniffle, which is why theyd tested her for a range of viruses including Covid-19. We were told wed have to stay away from Peyton for 14 days and isolate at home but I pleaded not to be apart from my baby for that long. The staff kindly agreed I could to isolate with her in the hospital. Coronavirus infecting a cell - In pictures 1 /9 Coronavirus infecting a cell - In pictures Coronavirus infecting a cell EPA An image captured and color-enhanced at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA and made available by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows a colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow) EPA The SARS-COV-2 virus begin the infection process of cytoplasm of the cell, inside which is the nucleus, responsible for storing the genetic material of the cell EPA Tthe SARS-COV-2 virus particles after infection and viral replication inside the cell (white circle in the left corner) EPA A series of dark spots, which are viral particles of the SARS-COV-2 virus, trying to infect the cytoplasm of the cell, inside which is the nucleus, responsible for storing the genetic material of the cell EPA An arrow pointing to a novel coronavirus particle attached to cell membranes, displaying its typical glycoprotein spike 'corona' on the viral surface (issued 02 April 2020), seen in an electron microscope image, the first black and white portrait of the SARS-CoV2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease EPA An image captured and color-enhanced at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA and made available by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows a colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (purple) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow) EPA She added: Watching the staff at work was incredible. They put their lives at risk to make sure my baby was getting fed and cuddled. Even wearing their PPE, they were determined to hold her. Peyton is the most precious person in the world to me and it shows the trust I had in the midwives and the other staff that I put her care in their hands because that is that they are trained to do. Peyton is now back at home in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, with her 27-year-old mother and father AJ, 28. Loading.... Mrs Maguire hopes their story can reassure other prospective parents who may need to visit hospitals in the near future. She added: My message to any mums-to-be is that they shouldnt be worried about going into hospital to give birth because the staff know exactly what they need to do to protect everyone from the virus. And if people have symptoms of a serious health problem, like I did, they shouldnt be scared to go to hospital and get checked out because just leaving it could make their condition worse. Only someone who has been in our position can understand the gratitude we feel towards the hospital staff. NHS Lanarkshire chief midwife Cheryl Clark said: Were delighted that the fantastic care Peyton has received from our staff has meant she is well enough to go home, allowing AJ to be reunited with his wife and daughter. RESIDENTS organised a surprise birthday celebration for a young girl who had to cancel her party because of the coronavirus pandemic, writes James Burton. Amelie Hepwoods neighbours decorated their front windows, driveways and cars as well as hedges and lamp-posts in Highmoor Road, Caversham, when she turned eight on Tuesday last week. Some put up hand-drawn messages and pictures while others strung up balloons and banners. The youngster had no idea until her parents Sue and Richard, who organised the event, took her and her sister Scarlett, nine, out for a daily walk at 10am, as permitted under the national lockdown. Pamela Chilvers, a professional pianist who lives opposite, greeted Amelie by playing Happy Birthday and Let It Go, from her favourite film Frozen, on a Steinway grand piano in her front room. Other neighbours gathered in their driveways to sing along and cheer. Some also left treats and small toys out for her. Mrs Hepwood, who works for Microsoft in Reading, suggested the idea on a WhatsApp group formed by Highmoor Road residents to support each other through the crisis. She explained that Amelie, who attends The Heights Primary School in Gosbrook Road, Caversham, was due to celebrate with friends by holding a silent disco at a nearby hall and was sad at having to call it off. Mrs Hepwood said: People really went to such an effort. I only expected a few houses to put up little A4 notices but there were dozens of signs, banners or messages strung on cut-out letters. Amelie was absolutely blown away because she had no idea it was happening. She just thought we were going for a walk and was quite emotional when she saw what everyone had done for her. She was sad at cancelling the party because birthdays are a big thing at that age, but shes old enough to understand there was a good reason behind it so she accepts it. Weve explained very clearly that she wont be seeing friends but she stays in touch by video call and was telling them all about it. Its nice that the day still felt special even if the original plan fell through. She added: Before the lockdown, I think a lot of us didnt have time to get to know our neighbours but it has at least prompted us to make more time for one another. Amelie said: I liked it because it made me feel like we werent in the lockdown. Its really good for people to look after each other at the moment. My favourite part was when the lady played the piano. Mrs Chilvers, who has previously played several mini-concerts to entertain neighbours, said: Theres a lovely community in this street so the WhatsApp group was a natural progression as we all want to help each other out. Amelie was a bit shy but she really enjoyed it. Her mum said it was one of the best birthdays shes had, which is pretty incredible considering the circumstances. India: Beyond solidarity: The migrant labour and the unemployed will be demanding their rights, not our mercy by Pratap Bhanu Mehta April 21,2020 | Source: The Indian Express Dealing with a pandemic requires high levels of solidarity. It is, however, becoming equally clear that expressions of solidarity risk devolving into a sentimental charade. There is an incredible number of people across different sections of society who have, often at great risk to themselves, and under difficult circumstances, helped prepare us to fight the pandemic and mitigate a looming humanitarian disaster. The widespread cooperation with the gruelling demands of the lockdown, on some interpretations, can also be seen as expressions of solidarity. But this should not blind us to the fact that solidarity, in the true meaning of the term, is failing us, just at the moment we need it most. It is failing us because at the core of the idea of solidarity is not pity, compassion, or even care. It is justice. The harrowing scenes of grief and injustice that are now emerging call for an immediate response. Pity, compassion and care, as morally worthy as they might be as sentiments, are not fundamentally related to solidarity. Solidarity presupposes something like the idea of commonality, some form of identification. Pity, compassion and care are acts of kindness that can often presuppose distance and power. Even the act of helping, as necessary as it might be, underscores someones privilege. This is why, in normal circumstances, it is an affront to the dignity of people to make them depend on someones compassion. Compassion as an expression of solidarity presupposes power, because it appeals to someones discretion, not to their obligation. There is something deeply morally odd in using the language of compassion in relation to the state. What we need from the state is not compassion, it is a minimum sense of justice. In fact, the appeals to compassion destructively depoliticise social policy by appealing to sentiment. By contrast, genuine solidarity, that speaks the language of justice, will ask hard questions about rights, institutional obligations, processes and accountability. Compassion speaks to the language of subjecthood, justice speaks to the language of citizenship. Justice allows you to be angry at the state when you see injustice. Compassion is a disfiguring appeal to someones power. The original meaning of the term solidarity was a juridical term, connoting joint liability. This had the advantage of not just emphasising a commonality, but also of the fact that there was an obligation. There was no choice in the matter. So a justice-based solidarity will ask a different question. It will not ask: What is the bare minimum we can get away with to avoid starvation, or social unrest? The question is, what does the state owe as a matter of obligation in these circumstances? The state may yet announce a more ambitious economic package. But by waiting so long, and reducing millions of citizens to an avoidable and abject dependence on compassion waiting for food if available, dependence on NGOs the state has already added the injury of indignity onto economic hardships. Grain distribution was necessary. But a widespread distribution of cash, through various mechanisms, as advocated by so many political parties and experts, was the requirement of justice. When the state has to be pulled in this direction, kicking and screaming, you know it is not thinking justice. Second, a genuine solidarity would now ask very different kinds of structural questions about the economy. There is no reliable data on this yet. But one thing is very clear. Perhaps as many as 50 per cent, if not more, of households in India, will not have savings, assets or resources to survive even a couple of months of stopping economic activity. The fall in poverty in the last two decades has blinded us to the precariousness of most households in India, even those above the poverty line. The numbers put out by Mahesh Vyas of CMIE are stunning: An employment rate of 23.4 per cent in an economy with a labour participation rate of 36 per cent. In short, pervasive unemployment or underemployment will remain a feature of the Indian economy for the foreseeable future. The interesting question is: What would social solidarity look like in these circumstances? It will require us to think of a much more ambitious architecture for the welfare state, including some guarantee of basic minimum income. The question of justice will be one which focuses our attention on the fact that citizens should not be put in a position of dependence in the first place such that we have to appeal to compassion. Third, justice would require that appeals do not substitute for policy. The government has rightly called for employees not to be fired in the current circumstances. It certainly behoves all private organisations, as a matter of justice, to ensure that the pain within those organisations is justly shared. What this looks like will depend on the nature of the organisation. But an appeal from the state not to fire people, without any serious financial backing for this proposal, is a species of sentimental tosh. Fourth, solidarity requires rethinking the relationship between public and private, especially in health. Right now, the focus is on creating preparedness for tackling the pandemic. In health in particular, we opted for a private risk-based insurance system, as opposed to strengthening the public system. In an insurance system, we, in a sense, share risks for our own long-term individual self-interest. In public systems, we share common goals and objectives in the promotion of health care. The pooling of risk through private insurance is not the same thing as collective preparedness. The latter requires solidarity. That is one thing this crisis has made clear. Fifth, there will have to be a massive stimulus to the economy, geared towards driving growth. But any stimulus will also have deep distributional consequences. Who will get relief? Who will pay for it? How much appetite do we have for taxing the rich more, as almost every right-minded economist is proposing? These may seem like large-scale structural questions. But they are the questions of the moment. Over the next few weeks, decisions will be made that will have far-reaching consequences for the Indian economy. Will these decisions be guided by our current language: In the short run, a plea for compassion; in the long run, deep structural injustice? Or will they utilise an opportunity to ask questions that indicate a genuine solidarity. Compassion might be about looking at peoples hearts, real solidarity is about following where the money and power flows. The migrant labour and the unemployed, whose quiescence we seem to take too much for granted, will be demanding their rights; not our mercy. WASHINGTON (AP) - Testing is critical to controlling the coronavirus and eventually easing restrictions that have halted daily life for most Americans. But there's been confusion about what kinds of tests are available and what they actually measure. There are still just two main types in the U.S. One tells you if you have an active infection with the coronavirus, whether you have symptoms or not. The other checks to see if you were previously infected at some point and fought it off. Currently, almost all testing in hospitals, clinics and drive-thru sites uses the first testing method, to help doctors detect and treat people with active COVID-19. The other method - known as antibody testing - is still getting rolling. But eventually experts predict the blood test will play a key role in allowing many Americans to safely return to work and school by identifying those who are likely immune from the virus. Neither test can be done at home yet. Here's a look at both tests and how they work: Taiwan McCall, left, useless a nasal swab to test James Reese for COVID-19 in the Harlem section of New York, Monday, April 20, 2020. While many laboratories and companies are now offering tests, there are still only two main types available. The nasal swab test tells you if you have an active viral infection right now. A separate blood test tells you if you were previously exposed to the virus and fought off the infection. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) TESTING FOR INFECTION Genetic testing is the best method for detecting active COVID-19 infections and making a diagnosis. The process requires several steps and high-tech testing equipment to detect tiny traces of the virus that causes COVID-19. First, the doctor or nurse gathers samples from a patient's nose or throat using swabs. The sample is developed through a process called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, which is used to boost any traces of virus until they are detectable. The same process has long been used to diagnose viruses like HIV and hepatitis. The Food and Drug Administration has now authorized dozens of these types of tests that can be run at hospitals, university laboratories and large testing chains like Quest Diagnostics. The tests typically take 4 to 6 hours to run and can take a day or more to turn around if a sample needs to be shipped to another site for processing. Last month, several faster options that don't require laboratory processing came on the market. The fastest is a 15-minute test from Abbott Laboratories run on small, portable electronic machines found in thousands of hospitals, clinics and doctors offices. The test puts all the chemical ingredients into a small cartridge that's inserted into the Abbott machine along with the swabbed sample. There are caveats to these types of tests: Someone can test negative one day and then positive the next. Much depends on the level of virus and whether the swab picked up enough of it to make a good sample. The FDA recently authorized the first genetic test that uses saliva, rather than a nasal swab, but its availability is limited for now. U.S. testing continues to be squeezed by huge demand, limited testing machines and shortages of key supplies like swabs. While the U.S. is now conducting well over 1 million tests per week, most experts say that number will need to increase at least threefold before social distancing is dramatically eased. TESTING FOR ANTIBODIES The second type of test won't tell you whether you're currently infected with the virus, but whether you were infected sometime in the past. Instead of searching for the virus itself, these tests search for blood proteins called antibodies, which the body produces days or weeks after fighting an infection. The same approach - usually a finger-prick of blood on a test strip - is used for HIV, hepatitis and many other infections. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease official, says its a "reasonable assumption," that if you have antibodies, you will be protected from another infection. But federal researchers still have to answer several key questions: How accurate are the tests? What antibody level is needed for immunity? How long does that immunity last? By testing broad populations for antibodies, researchers hope to learn how widely the virus spread and how deadly it really is. Both questions remain unresolved since experts believe at least 25% of those infected never show symptoms. Some of those larger studies are getting started. For now, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn suggests the blood tests could be used by front-line health care workers. For example, a doctor who tests positive for antibodies could be in a safer position to treat COVID-19 patients than a colleague who tests negative. The FDA has authorized four antibody tests based on preliminary reviews. But more than 90 others have launched without FDA oversight under a federal emergency policy intended to quickly ramp up testing options. Those tests are supposed to bear disclaimers, including that they have not been FDA-approved, though many don't. Several laboratory and physician groups have called for tighter FDA control. "They have a responsibility to go back, demand more rigorous clinical trials and probably put some guard rails around these tests," said Dr. Gary Procop of the Cleveland Clinic who is chair of the American Society for Clinical Pathologys Commission on Science, Technology and Policy. ___ This story was first published on April 20, 2020. It was updated on April 21, 2020, to correct the position held by Dr. Gary Procop with the American Society for Clinical Pathology. Follow Matthew Perrone on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AP_FDAwriter ___ The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. FILE - In this Saturday, April 18, 2020, file photo, workers administer tests at a drive-through COVID-19 testing location in Franklin, Tenn. Testing is critical to controlling the coronavirus and eventually easing restrictions that have halted daily life for most Americans. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File) Radhika Apte flew to the United Kingdom to spend time with her husband amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, just before the lockdown was announced in India. While ensuring she maintains social distancing, Radhika has found an incredible way to spend her time. Radhika posted a picture of enjoying the ocean with scuba diving gear in the frame. The Sacred Games actress is wearing a green polka dot bikini and a smile as she bathes in the sun, ready to dive in the ocean. Radhika captioned her post, "Loving the locked down #mindgames #nocoronaintheocean #sociallydistantdivingdesire #dreamingoftheocean," (sic). Actor Vijay Varma was one of the first to comment on Radhika's post as he wrote, "Wow. Thanks for making us feel like shit." We agree! Some time back, Radhika had reported her travel experience of flying from India to London amidst the pandemic. Reassuring fans that she had reached London safely without any issues at the immigration, she wrote that her flight was full. She had also urged people to not hoard food during the lockdown, and also made an appeal to donate to the needy during these times. With regard to work, Radhika will soon be making her directorial debut with the short film Sleepwalkers. The film stars Shahana Goswami and Gulshan Devaiah. Her next film as an actor is Raat Akeli Hai, starring opposite Nawazuddin Siddiqui. ALSO READ: Radhika Apte Requests People To Not Hoard Food, To Donate To Daily Wage Workers ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Radhika Apte Reports Her Travel Experience Flying To London; Says Flight Was Full! IMF, World Bank urge countries to keep trade open amid COVID-19 pandemic People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:09, April 20, 2020 IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said that this is not a time to restrict the trade of medical supplies and essential equipment around the world. WASHINGTON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) have called on countries to keep trade open as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, warning that export controls on medical supplies and other essentials could backfire. At a virtual press conference during the just-concluded spring meetings of the two multilateral institutions, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said that this is not a time to restrict the trade of medical supplies and essential equipment around the world. "It is very important that this does not become a future where we reverse all the gains that we've got from globalization," said Gopinath, in response to a question from Xinhua. Echoing her remarks, Kenneth Kang, deputy director of the Asia and Pacific Department at the IMF, told Xinhua in a recent written interview that countries should avoid trade restrictions on medical and health products to ensure that they go to where they are most needed. "Countries with limited health care capacity and resources will need international aid to prepare for and weather the pandemic," Kang said. "The health emergency is a powerful reminder of the need for policy coordination and solidarity in an interconnected world," he said. The IMF official said that countries should cooperate to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers that impede cross-border trade and investment and to strengthen global supply chains as the recovery takes hold. Zhang Tao, deputy managing director of the IMF, told Xinhua that he hoped these supply chains would work as best as they can to maximize global production and supply, which makes global collaboration "essential." "Today more than ever, the global economy would benefit from a more open, stable, and transparent, rules-based international trade system," Zhang said. World Bank President David Malpass, meanwhile, said at a virtual press conference Friday that big countries need to step forward and pledge not to use the crisis as a reason to close or block the markets. "We should allow markets to function, markets to clear and the supplies to go to those most in need," said Malpass, adding that China is exporting medical supplies to the rest of the world, which is "very welcome." The IMF and World Bank's advocacy for free trade came as protectionist sentiments are growing across the globe amid the pandemic. Some 46 export curbs on medical supplies have been introduced by 54 governments since the beginning of the year, according to a report published on March 23, by Global Trade Alert, a trade policy monitoring initiative. Thirty-three of those export curbs have been announced since the beginning of March, "an indication of just how quickly new trade limits are spreading across the globe," the report showed. Aaditya Mattoo, chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific Region at the World Bank, said it is a bit understandable for countries to impose export restrictions, but these actions are "almost always counterproductive." "If each country imposes restrictions, then the global price increases even more than it would have. And it can end up being a self-defeating policy," Mattoo said at a recent press call, in response to a question from Xinhua. The World Bank economist also noted that such measures would hit those countries who rely on these badly needed medical supplies, especially poor countries, which import a lot of drugs, ventilators and masks. Despite that, Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned economics professor at Columbia University, told Xinhua that he thinks there will be more protectionism in Western countries, both in the United States and the Europe. China will have to work hard to secure long-term supply chains and two-way trade, including with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Africa and South America, said Sachs, also a senior United Nations advisor. "I believe that China, Japan, (South) Korea, and ASEAN should work hard for a swift recovery and open trade amongst themselves," said Sachs. "East Asia could be back in business because East Asia never lost control of the epidemic." As the global economy is on track to shrink "sharply" by 3 percent this year due to the pandemic, the IMF chief economist highlighted the importance of keeping trade open in global recovery. "The world needs a healthy recovery. It needs a strong recovery. And that will not come about if the world de-globalizes because that would severely reduce productivity in the world," Gopinath said. "And that's the last thing we want at this time." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address As cases of coronavirus increase in sub-Saharan Africa, authorities in the region must take urgent action to protect inmates from COVID-19 by decongesting the prisons, Amnesty International has said. The director for west and central Africa of the group, Samira Daoud, said in a statement on Monday that this was important to avert a public health catastrophe in the region. Given the general lack of healthcare and sanitation, he urged authorities to release prisoners of conscience, while reviewing cases of pre-trial detention, and guaranteeing access to healthcare and sanitation products in all facilities. In many countries across the region, a high proportion of those in detention are there just for peacefully exercising their human rights, Mr Daoud said. As well as being the right thing to do, releasing prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally would free up space in these facilities and help to protect prisoners and staff from the virus. AI also called on authorities to consider early, temporary or conditional release of older prisoners, those with underlying medical conditions, as well as women and girls who are in detention with dependent children or who are pregnant. Decongestion in Nigerian prisons In the bid to decongest Nigerias correctional centres just as COVID-19 gradually sweeps through states in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari recently granted pardon to 2600 inmates nationwide. Largely due to delayed trials, a report by the nations statistics bureau shows that from 2011 to 2015, 72.5 per cent of Nigerias total prison population are inmates serving time without being sentenced. Shortly after the presidential amnesty was announced, the head of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Jaafaru Ahmed, corroborated this report, saying 51,983 inmates are awaiting trial out of the prisons total population of 73,726 inmates. This is seven in every ten inmates, in estimates. While this action was taken at federal level, some state maximum facilities are yet to get the same attention. Other Sub-Saharan Africa countries Amnesty said pre-trial detention remains an excessively used tool of punishment across Sub-Saharan Africa. Citing countries like Senegal, Madagascar, Burundi and Congo, the group noted that their facilities hold far more than its capacities can absorb, most in pre-trial detentions, thereby causing disease outbreak, starvation as well deaths. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, prisons in DRC were deadly places. As well as exposing the appalling reality people deprived of their liberty face, the virus is exacerbating the risks that detainees face day today, the groups statement read. Journalists and human rights defenders AI also urged African governments to release all prisoners of conscience who were detained for exercising their democratic rights. It listed journalists, human rights defenders, students as well as political opponents in different African countries who have remained behind bars for expressing a dissenting voice. Amnesty International considers all these people prisoners of conscience who have been imprisoned for exercising their human rights. They must be released immediately and unconditionally, AI said. Last week, for instance, a Nigerian journalist, Chijioke Agwu, was arrested for writing a story on Lassa fever, which Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi claimed violated the states coronavirus law The journalist has since been pardoned by the governor. The spread of COVID-19 is a public health concern even in prisons and other detention facilities, Mr Daoud further noted. Reducing the number of people in detention should be an integral and urgent part of state responses to COVID-19, which must begin by immediately and unconditionally releasing all those who shouldnt be incarcerated in the first place, he said. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! Logan said the district is planning for various scenarios and working to remove obstacles some families have with technology and connectivity. Millard, Bellevue, Westside and Elkhorn all moved up their last day for students. In Millard, the last day for seniors will be May 12, up from May 20. The rest of students will be done May 14, up from May 29. In a typical year, if schools dont need to make up snow days, the district lets out ahead of that calendar date. Millard changed for several reasons, Superintendent Jim Sutfin said. One reason is logistics: Students will need to return computers, textbooks, musical instruments and the like. District officials will need time to receive and sanitize materials, while complying with group size restrictions. He said that by dismissing students early, teachers will have time to review and evaluate how the distance learning went and look ahead to next year. Sutfin said that if students need time to turn in assignments that they missed or were late because of the difficulties of learning online, the change will provide some leeway. Students will have until May 18 to turn in any assignments. In the filing, Travelers states that the law firm didnt purchase insurance for the losses that they now claim and the policies require direct physical loss or damage to a property, which the virus did not cause. Moreover, the filing states that the policies have very specific exclusions stating that losses resulting from a virus or bacteria, including business income losses, are not covered. The filing goes on to say that based on information provided by Geragos & Geragos to Travelers in connection with the underwriting of its policies, the law firm has annual revenues that exceed $3 million and is claiming lost business income and rent from a tenant (because the law firm also had a tenant in its building, which was closed during a government-mandated shutdown) for more than 30 days. Read more: State looks at legislation to void coronavirus exclusion clauses During a conversation with Travelers in early April, CEO Mark Geragos asserted that COVID-19 purportedly causes physical damage because other countries impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic have fumigated public spaces, and scientists have found that SARS-CoV-2 is detectable in aerosols and on certain surfaces for particular periods of time. Travelers claims a professional speaking with Geragos at the time informed him that a virus is not a covered peril under the policies, according to the filing. The filing on behalf of Travelers states that any temporary closure or limitation of operations of courts in which the law firm conducts litigation was the result of governmental actions taken to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, not the result of direct physical loss or damage at the premises of a dependent property, and that the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on a surface would not cause physical damage to that surface. Mark Geragos provided comments to Insurance Business on this recent development, stating: "Travelers Insurance, after cashing our premium checks for years, decided yesterday that instead of paying our business interruption claim that they would hire a large law firm to sue us in Federal Court instead. Apparently, their way of adapting to a pandemic is filing lawsuits against their own insured. We welcome the opportunity to fight on behalf of small businesses against rank corporate greed and their legal enablers." Lebanon has also taken in more than a million refugees who fled the civil war in neighboring Syria. The killings took place in Baakline, a town in the Chouf mountains southeast of Beirut, most of whose residents are from the Druze sect. According to the National News Agency, the suspect first killed his wife and four Syrians. When his brother tried to stop him, the suspect killed him too. Then, while fleeing the scene, he killed two more Lebanese and one Syrian before disappearing. The security forces were still searching for him, the agency said. The towns mayor, Abdullah al-Ghoseini, gave a slightly different account, saying the suspect had killed three Lebanese and six Syrians, including two children, aged 10 and 15. The killing spree lasted for about two hours and was spread over a large area, with some bodies dumped in bushes, Mr. al-Ghosseini said. He denied that the violence had been motivated by politics or revenge, suggesting that the suspect had had a nervous breakdown. The suspect had been located, he said, although he was not yet under arrest. Prime Minister Hassan Diab called the killing a horrific crime in a statement from his office. The hospital for coronavirus patients was built in Nur-Sultan in 15 days, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BI Group, constructing hospitals Aidyn Rahimbaev said. "We will adjust the equipment together with medical professionals in next few days and will hand over hospital to them. Medical workers are very glad to obtain safe technologies and zones now, they will not catch infection anymore," AKIpress cited him as saying. Artificial pulmonary ventilation devices are installed in intensive care units. Rahimbaev added that the construction of a similar hospital will be completed soon in Almaty. The construction of the infectious disease hospital in Nur-Sultan has started on April 5. Around 1,000 people worked at the construction site. The prefabricated structures were used in construction. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 05:29:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Swiss Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis on Tuesday called on neighboring countries and the European Union (EU) to proceed in a coordinated manner to ease COVID-19 restrictions as quickly as possible. Speaking via video-conference with foreign ministers of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, Cassis, also head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, stressed that a crisis of this magnitude affecting all of Europe can only be tackled together. He noted that in recent weeks, Switzerland has taken in patients from French hospitals and sent personal protective equipment to Italy. Switzerland has also benefited from its close integration in EU crisis management efforts and regular bilateral consultations with EU states. "This cooperation has proven to be a key asset in managing the crisis," he said. Switzerland saw an increase of 119 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the lowest number during the past 40 days. According to the figures released by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 now in the country has reached 28,063, and the death toll at 1,187. With around 327 infected cases per 100,000 residents, Switzerland is still one of the most affected countries in Europe. As the scheduled date for easing measures approaches, the FOPH said it is planning to launch the coronavirus tracing APP on May 11, in order to grasp and interrupt the transmission chains and help curb the epidemic. Switzerland has announced a three-phase exit strategy from the current COVID-19 containment measures starting on April 27. Enditem After Donald Trump called for the liberation of Michigan on Twitter last week, senior White House advisor Kellyanne Conway has claimed that the states coronavirus shutdown doesnt make sense. Complaining that coronavirus measures in Michigan had gone too far, Ms Conway commented that In Michigan, you can basically smoke your grass but not cut your grass. This makes no sense to many people. Ms Conway then made light of social distancing orders by saying that Some of these governors have basically physically distanced from common sense. The Fox News appearance on Monday came amid multiple state-based protests against coronavirus shutdown measures. Anchor Sandra Smith asked Ms Conway what is the president saying about that this morning, the fact that these protests are calling for the end of some of the guidelines that he set to begin with? After calling for the liberation of Michigan, Virginia and Minnesota on Friday, the president has continued to back demonstrations against Democratic governors and added that Americans were allowed to protest. Some have gone too far, some governors have gone too far. Some of the things that happened are maybe not so appropriate, the president said on Sunday. Those comments were echoed by White House counselor Ms Conway who, at the same time, acknowledged that the administration was committed to CDC guidelines on social distancing. Accepting that protesters had ignored those same guidelines, Ms Conway told Fox News that We need physical distance of six feet, wear that face covering, that mask. She defended the right to protest on the basis that governors were going beyond common sense with coronavirus shutdowns. As confirmed US cases of the coronavirus neared 800,000 on Monday, the BBC reported that Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer told the White House during a call that protesting was dangerous. She added that the White House needed to reiterate the importance of staying home until we get these numbers down... would be incredibly appreciated. About 40 percent of working-age adults are working from home because of the virus, a figure that is higher among the wealthy, according to the Pew Research Center. With roommates now doubling as co-workers, some have tried boosting morale in their new home offices which, in many cases, is simply the living room. Naomi Nagel and Michelle Topping, both 26, said that after a week of wearing their pajamas all day in their Atlanta apartment, they decided they needed to do something that would force them to change clothes and lift their moods. The best friends created a spirit month calendar with a different theme for each day including ugly sweater day and fancy Friday and the effort has caught on among their friends, who have sent photographs of themselves following along. When Ms. Topping was laid off from her job at a law firm during the pandemic, the spirit calendar and photographs gave her something to look forward to each morning. It was really helpful, she said. Losing my job sucks, but this is a little bit of a distraction. The altered state of living has also put more novel living arrangements to the test, such as that of Kristin Accorsi, 33, who lives in Freehold, N.J., with her husband, her former husband and a child from each marriage. When the pandemic grew more severe in March, she told her former husband, who usually spends about two nights a week in the houses in-law suite, that he should go to his other apartment in Brooklyn and hunker down. But within a few nights, after watching his roommates traipse in and out of the apartment and as cases spiked in New York City, he decided to return to the family home, she said. Since then, there have been a few sticking points: Ms. Accorsi, a teacher who also writes a blog about her living situation, said that her former husband had a tendency to talk on speakerphone, for example, and that she had been doing much of her familys dishes and laundry. Curtin University Professor Archie Clements believes Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory could open up sooner than eastern states Some Australian states and territories are likely to lift coronavirus restrictions sooner than others. That's according to one of the country's leading epidemiologists, who said it could take far longer for Australia's eastern states to return to normal. Curtin University Professor Archie Clements said Australia has been effective at flattening the curve as a whole, but Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory have almost eradicated new cases entirely. He suggests the two states and the NT could continue to keep their borders closed while winding back their social distancing measures and opening their economies. 'I think that sort of thing will happen,' he told Yahoo News Australia on Tuesday. 'I think the social distancing measures will be relaxed in advance of the travel restrictions and what you'll find is states such as Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory will rely more on travel restrictions than social distancing.' After the Federal Government introduced stage three restrictions on gatherings and bans on leaving the house without a valid reason on March 31, all three states took the additional step of shutting their state borders. Some Australian states and territories are likely to lift coronavirus restrictions sooner than others, according to an expert. Beachgoers are seen walking past a sign reminding the public about the two-metre social distancing rules at Cottesloe Beach, Perth Local officials in protective gear wait at a hotel in Adelaide for the arrival of Australian residents who will go through a mandatory 14-day quarantine on Tuesday The Northern Territory has not had a single case of COVID-19 in over two weeks. New South Wales reported six new infections on Tuesday, Victoria had seven, Queensland confirmed five and Tasmania recorded one. 'We are not Sydney or Melbourne, we do not have the community transmission, the Territory is the safest place in Australia,' NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said on Thursday. Mr Gunner said by the end of April 'we will have made enough progress to begin planning our pathway back to normal'. The Western Australian Government introduced the border restriction to slow the spread of coronavirus. An interstate checkpoint is pictured earlier this month Police are pictured enforcing strict coronavirus rules at Bondi Beach in Sydney on April 21, 2020 South Australia has also smashed the curve with zero new infections reported on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday however two new coronavirus cases were confirmed. 'We're in a really good place in South Australia,' Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said on Sunday. 'We've got very, very high testing rates and that's partly because of South Australia Pathology being able to provide it but also because South Australians are coming forward and getting tested at the right time.' CBD workers are pictured on Pitt Street in Sydney wearing face masks after buying takeaway on April 21, 2020 A Public Health officer, Northern Territory Police officer and an Australian Defence Force member check in on those self isolating to ensure they are following quarantine regulations on on March 31, 2020 Over 44,000 coronavirus tests have been performed in South Australia and there are currently only 57 active cases in the state. Authorities are now planning to ease restrictions in the near future, Prof Spurrier revealed on Tuesday. 'We are looking to do some intensive planning to see what restrictions should be lifted and when,' she said. 'Three or four weeks ago I would not have dreamt we would have such low numbers now I am delighted but quite surprised.' Buses line up at Darwin International Airport on February 20, 2020, to take Australian evacuees who were stuck on board the coronavirus-struck Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan An Australian resident with a pre-existing condition is stretchered into an awaiting ambulance upon landing at Adelaide Airport on April 21, 2020. She was one of 300 passengers on board a repatriation flight In Western Australia Premier Mark Mark McGowan is examining the possibility of rolling back social distancing measures with just 19 new cases in the past seven days. 'We're going to work on this over coming weeks to see what can be eased and can be tweaked, but I don't want to start ruling things in or out now,' he said last week. Prof Clements is hopeful normal social activities may start to return in Western Australia sooner rather than later. 'Potentially there could be the reopening of restaurants, but I think they would be enforcing very strict social distancing and the number of clients arrangement,' he said. He also believes churches, libraries, small social gatherings and community events might soon be allowed to go ahead with certain restrictions in place. What's the future for influencers who are used to filling their social media feeds with images of their luxury trips, shopping hauls or new cars when they are now staying at home under lockdown? "The premise that influencer marketing is largely based on aspiration is now fundamentally flawed. No one can aspire to a perfect life anymore. There are no more yoga or spin classes after the school run, no more matcha lattes, Botox appointments are on hold, and whole families are living in close, often messy, quarters. We're binge-eating chips not quinoa," stated Sarah Baumann, managing director of marketing agency VaynerMedia in London, in an email to CNBC. Influencers earn money from brands for posting sponsored content. A "micro" influencer, with around 10,000 followers can make $250 per post, with figures going up to about $250,000 for someone with more than a million. That's according to a report by cybersecurity company Cheq that was published pre-pandemic. For some, influencers' "aspirational" content has been a step too far during the Covid-19 outbreak. Ricky Gervais, creator of "The Office," highlighted the gap between medics' lives and some celebrities in an interview. "These people are doing 14-hour shifts and not complaining. Wearing masks, and being left with sores, after risking their own health and their families' health selflessly. But then I see someone complaining about being in a mansion with a swimming pool. And, you know, honestly, I just don't want to hear it," he told U.K. publication The Sun last week. "There have been some instances of people basically being really stupid and not realizing that they are in the limelight. That being said, I think there's a lot of influencers who have actually risen up to the occasion," according to Rahul Titus, head of influence at ad agency Ogvily. Titus cited Finland, where the government has classified influencers as essential "critical operators," during the crisis, along with medical workers and bus drivers. "(It) sounds hilarious, but it makes perfect sense ... These are people who've got direct access to a community of fans instantly. And if you want to get a message out, especially with a younger generation, actually influencers are the right way to get there," Titus told CNBC by phone. BalkansCat/iStockBy MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News (NEW YORK) -- The death toll in the worst shooting in Canadian history has risen to 19 -- and authorities expect it to increase as the investigation into the rampage continues. Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported Monday that some of the victims in the Nova Scotia shooting were specifically targeted by the suspect, identified by police as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, while other victims were randomly killed. "It appears that some of the victims were known to the suspect and others were targeted and not known to the suspect," RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said at a press conference Monday in Halifax. Police said they expect to find more victims as they examine the multiple crime scenes that resulted from the rampage. Five properties had fires, and more victims are believed to be in homes that "burned to the ground," Leather said. "That part of the investigation is still very much ongoing, and again, speaks to why we don't have a final total because we expect that to rise in the coming days," Leather said. The rampage started Saturday in the rural town of Portapique. Officers responding to initial calls found several casualties in and outside a home, according to the police. A "chaotic scene" ensued, Leather said. RCMP Constable Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the force, was killed while responding to the reports of an active shooter, the RCMP said. A search for the suspect went into Sunday morning, and Wortman was arrested later that day. On Sunday, the RCMP reported that Wortman was dead. Wortman was wearing what appeared to be a police uniform and drove a vehicle made to appear like a police cruiser, which helped him move around the province undetected, Leather said. Wortman was not employed by the RCMP, police said. In a statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was "saddened to learn about the senseless violence in Nova Scotia." "As a country, in moments like these, we come together to support one another. Together we will mourn with the families of the victims, and help them get through this difficult time," he said. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Deckhand Parker McCown from Below Deck Sailing Yacht may have pulled off one of the most romantic proposals ever. First, he shocked viewers by resigning from the show. Then later he is seen asking his former girlfriend Kaiti Brauer to marry him while they are scuba diving. McCown often called Brauer while he worked on Parsifal III. He referred to her as his ex-girlfriend, but she clearly still had his heart. Parker McCown | Karolina Wojtasik/Bravo So when viewers witnessed the magical proposal, Brauer went from ex-girlfriend to fiancee in a matter of minutes. McCown told Showbiz Cheat Sheet the proposal was actually not filmed for the show. Instead, he set the scene with a local scuba instructor and only wanted it captured on film as a keepsake for the couple. However, when producers caught wind of the engagement, they couldnt resist including it in the episode. McCown says the engagement was a spontaneous moment Although Brauer was his ex-girlfriend, McCown said they remained connected even when they were apart. We had been together for years and then she went to Thailand and started doing yoga teacher training, he recalls. And I started going into yachting. The couple met when they were both working and living in Hawaii. They did some traveling but then pursued careers in different locations. They continued to talk and when she decided to come to Corfu, Greece, McCown was really just excited to see her. At the time I wasnt really thinking about a proposal, he admits. I just wanted to see her again. I hadnt seen her in seven months. Id been in Florida and on Parsifal. And yeah, it just kind of happened. I just had the thought one day and it was pretty cool. A GoPro camera captured the couple scuba diving and then McCown pulled out a ring box and proposes. He arranged the proposal with a local scuba company at the Corfu Palace hotel. And I got a ring and I just gave it to [the scuba instructor], McCown says. McCown first went on a test dive with the instructors before taking Brauer out for the momentous dive. He says the ring was actually in the box and he just placed it on her finger while they were underwater. Brauer did not see the proposal coming McCown said Brauer was in total shock at the proposal. She had no idea, he says. Theres other footage we have when we come to the surface and Kaitis just laughing. I really think she was in shock. I dont think she knew what was going on. But it all sunk in once the scuba instructor congratulated the couple. It was a very in the moment ordeal, McCown says. The proposal also took place around McCowns birthday, so the couple had plenty to celebrate. They ended up traveling and visiting friends along the way. So we have my birthday and I proposed to her the next day, he says. And then we were in Corfu for like a week and then we went to Albania and drove up the coast. Kaitis best friend was in Albania coincidentally so we took a boat over and went up the coast and hung out with them. McCown and Brauer then just hung out for a while in Greece and embarked on a wine tour before heading home. Like many engaged couples, wedding plans are in progress The couple now resides in Colorado. Brauer has her own yoga company, The Travel Shala. McCown says hes working on a few new projects to be revealed in time. But they are also in wedding planning mode while being quarantined together in a remote area off the beaten path in Denver. He says wedding planning is in the works and the couple is looking forward to tying the knot in 2021. McCown also hopes this wont be the last viewers see of him too. Im there when Glenn needs me, McCown says. Below Deck Sailing Yacht airs Monday at 9/8c on Bravo. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced Monday that he'll allow the stay-at-home order to expire on Sunday. Starting April 27, the state will transition into a new phase of social distancing, referred to by the governor as the Safer at Home phase. Penn State Health today resumed construction of Penn State Health Cocoa Outpatient Center, an expansion of medical services at the former CocoaPlex Center location. Construction began earlier this year but was suspended at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic due to state and federal restrictions on construction projects, according to a press release sent Monday. With exceptions now in place for healthcare construction projects, Penn State Health decided to move forward after careful consideration with its partner, Pyramid Construction, the release said, adding that site workers will be screened daily for COVID-19 symptoms by a licensed nursing provider prior to their shift. The completion of this project, expected to be late 2020 or early 2021, will provide the Penn State Health community with additional exam rooms, according to the release. Several of those rooms will be equipped with negative pressure to safely treat patients with infectious or respiratory illnesses. The release continued: The old CocoaPlex Cinema space is in the same complex as the Penn State Health Medical Group Cocoa family medicine practice site. The space is also adjacent to Penn State Health Medical Group Fishburn family medicine practice and within less than mile of the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center campus. Two Internal Medicine practices operating in separate locations on the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center campus will consolidate services to the Cocoa Outpatient Center. Adult Endocrinology and Nephrology services also will move to the new outpatient center from locations at the University Physician Center. Moving these services off-campus will provide easier access for internal medicine and adult endocrinology and nephrology patients. The move allows Penn State Health to create additional capacity for pediatric specialties on the Hershey campus. It also frees up more space for specialty services remaining in the University Physician Center to expand and treat more patients in need of these services. Alarmed by reports that 53 media persons have contracted coronavirus in Maharashtra, a Minister on Tuesday urged Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to screen all the journalists in Karnataka. During the regular COVID-19 related briefing on Monday, a reporter had raised the issue of 53 journalists in the neighbouring state testing positive for the disease, with Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar. In Maharashtra, out of the 171 scribes examined medically, 53 were found to have the viral infection. In his letter to the CM, Kumar said a similar test should be carried on the journalists in Karnataka. "The journalists wanted a similar kind of screening to be carried out on them. Therefore, please direct the health and the information department immediately to conduct the screening of journalists who are in contact with public," Kumar said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Emmerdale star Michelle Hardwick has confirmed she is pregnant. The actress, 44, who plays Vanessa Woodfield in the ITV soap, shared her exciting news via Instagram on Monday while debuting her growing baby bump. Michelle is expecting a baby with her wife, Emmerdale producer Kate Brooks, and revealed she is due to give birth in October. Exciting news: Emmerdale star Michelle Hardwick, 44, is expecting a baby with wife Kate Brooks, who is a producer on the ITV soap Taking to Instagram, Michelle shared a photo of her and Kate posing together with their dog Fred. She was seen wearing a leopard print top and cutely placing a hand on her stomach, while Kate gestured down towards Michelle's baby bump. The photo was captioned: 'Fred's big brother duties commence in October.' Michelle added the hashtag: '#BabyBrooks.' The soap star and Kate first went public with their relationship in October 2018 and announced their engagement just two months later in December that same year. They tied the knot at Elvis Presley's home Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee in September 2019. Lovely news: The actress, 44, is best known for playing Vanessa Woodfield on Emmerdale Parents to be: Michelle revealed she and wife Kate (pictured above) are set to welcome their first child in October later this year Michelle confirmed the pair had wed on Instagram and told fans: 'In over 100 degrees heat, on Tuesday 10th September, I became Mrs Brooks,' adding the hashtags: '#graceland #chapelinthewoods #memphis #nextstopnashville.' Michelle's marriage to Kate is her second. She previously wed ex-wife Rosie Nicholl in 2015, after two years together. They later announced they were divorcing in 2017. At the time, Michelle had addressed her split with Rosie in interviews and admitted the former couple had 'drifted apart'. Happy couple: The couple tied the knot in 2019 at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee Romance: Michelle began dating Kate back in 2018, a year after divorcing her first wife Rosie Nicholls, who she split from in 2017 after two years of marriage She said: 'It was one of those unfortunate things where we did drift apart. We had the big fairytale wedding and I still love that day, it was brilliant. 'It's just really sad and one of those things that happens. We still have our dogs which we'll share and nobody else was involved, it just happened and it was a mutual decision. 'I don't know how else to explain it. I grew out of love and she became more like my best friend.' Onscreen, Michelle is currently part of a cancer storyline as her Emmerdale character Vanessa has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. Hard-hitting: Onscreen, Michelle is currently part of a cancer storyline as her Emmerdale character Vanessa has been diagnosed with bowel cancer (pictured above with Emma Atkins (R) who plays Charity Dingle) Viewers watched as Vanessa tearfully opened up about her diagnosis to girlfriend Charity Dingle (played by Emma Atkins) and is now undergoing her first session of chemotherapy treatment. Michelle recently revealed that she already knows the outcome of Vanessa's storyline, as show bosses had informed her of her character's fate straight away when the storyline was first thought up. According to Metro.co.uk, she said: 'I wont say which way it goes, but I was told straight away. As soon as [Emmerdale boss] Jane Hudson brought me up, she told me the storyline and the outcome. 'I didnt even have time to think about it one way or another. As soon as I was told the story, I was told the outcome. 'It wasnt a case of, "heres the story but we dont know yet," so Ive always known what happens in the storyline but my lips are sealed A historic pandemic has crippled the economy and emptied downtown San Francisco of tens of thousands of workers. But even as it closed offices, Salesforce expanded its real estate empire, a sign of strength for the citys largest private employer. Salesforce bought a historic, five-story office building at 440-450 Mission St. for $145 million in March, according to property records reviewed by The Chronicle. The record-breaking $2,500-per-square-foot price is a testament to the value of the location. (That figure is based on the buildings office space and does not include additional retail space; including that space, it still comes to a lofty $2,000 per square foot.) The building is next to Salesforce Tower and another Salesforce-owned high-rise at 50 Fremont St. Though the price is high, its possible that Salesforce could build something much taller on the site, up to 550 feet under city zoning rules. A Salesforce spokeswoman confirmed the purchase and declined to comment about any possible redevelopment plans. No project proposals have been filed for the site, and any new development would require years of city reviews. The deal is the last major sale before the real estate market was altered by the coronavirus, which has sent most office workers home. The building, which sits on a 15,000-square-foot lot on the northeast corner of First and Mission streets, was designed by Frederick Meyer and completed in 1920. The seller, environmental attorney Alex Leff, did not return a call seeking comment. With the new acquisition, Salesforce now leases or owns nearly 2 million square feet in the Transbay neighborhood. The company has more than 9,000 employees and continues to hire. Kyle Kovac of CBRE, who specializes in downtown building sales, said the buying and selling of office buildings would likely pause until there is more clarity about the long-term impacts of the coronavirus. Single-tenant buildings with multiyear leases in place may continue to trade hands, but any properties with vacant space or soon-to-expire leases will be tough to assign a value to, he said. Its going to take some time, he said. There will be a pause until the leasing market comes back. Until that happens, investors wont be able to price deals. Two massive building sales, among the largest in San Francisco history, have not been completed. The sale for more than $700 million of the Transamerica Pyramid and two adjacent buildings to New York investor Michael Shvo is still in process. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Transamerica and Shvo continue to move forward toward closing on the sale of the Transamerica Pyramid, said a Transamerica spokeswoman. The $1 billion sale of Oceanwide Center to Chinese company SPF Holdings collapsed during the pandemic. Last month, seller Oceanwide Holdings said that Hony Capital, another Chinese company, agreed to pay up to $1.2 billion for the project. The sale is scheduled to close on June 30 after a due diligence period. Across the bay in Oakland, a historic real estate boom is showing cracks. Kaiser Permanente canceled its $900 million headquarters project, but said the coronavirus was not a factor. Bloomberg reported in March that private-equity giant Blackstone scrapped its planned purchase of Uptown Station for $400 million. The office and retail project, leased by Square, was on the verge of opening but is now closed under shelter-in place orders. Blackstone forfeited a $20 million deposit, Bloomberg reported. Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect the basis of the $2,500-per-square-foot price estimate. J.K. Dineen and Roland Li are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com, roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SFjkdineen, @rolandlisf NLC India said it has raised Rs 1,000 crore by issuing commercial papers to meet the standalone business operation requirements. NLC India has issued and allotted 20,000 commercial papers worth Rs 1,000 crore in favour of State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday, 20 April 2020. The fund will be utilized to meet the standalone business operation requirements of the company. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 April 2020. On a consolidated basis, the company reported a 15.03% rise in net profit to Rs 398.75 crore on a 2.13% rise in net sales to Rs 2,742.60 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018. NLC India is a 'Navratna' government of India company in the fossil fuel mining sector in India and thermal power generation. It annually produces about 30 million tonne lignite from opencast mines at Neyveli in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India and at Barsingsar in Bikaner district of Rajasthan state. Shares of NLC India slipped 3.12% to Rs 45 on BSE. The scrip hovered in the range of Rs 44.60 to Rs 47.50 so far. The Government of India held 80.70% stake in the company as on 31 December 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three people have been booked and detained in Mysuru for allegedly threatening a woman Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) after she advised them to wear face masks and maintain social distancing as required under COVID-19 guidelines, police said on Tuesday. When ASHA worker Sumayya Firdose was on rounds at Haleem Nagar in Mysuru on Monday to check for symptoms of COVID-19 among the residents of the locality, three men allegedly abused and threatened her for advising them to maintain social distancing and wear mask, police said. Based on a complaint by the worker, an FIR has been registered against Mahboob, Khaleel and Zeeshan and investigation was on, police said adding all the three had been taken into custody. Mysuru District in-charge Minister S T Somashekar said he has spoken to the Mysuru Commissioner about the AHSHA worker incident. FIR has been registered and further action will follow, he added. The incident comes a day after police and health officials were attacked at the minority dominated Padarayanapura here when they went to quarantine some people. More than 110 people have been arrested in connection with the incident that occurred on Sunday. Earlier this month, a ASHA worker, while carrying out a surveillance of COVID-19 case, was allegedly manhandled by a group of people in Sadiq Nagar of Sarayipalya here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Cangjie Online," a global Chinese information cloud sharing platform was launched by Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) on April 19 to celebrate this year's UN Chinese Language Day, promote the development of sinology and further spread the voice of China. The launch event brought together experts, scholars and international students from 35 countries via video conference to mark the UN Chinese Language Day and share views at the ensuing forum titled "Spreading Sinology and the Chinese Language During the Epidemic." The UN Chinese Language Day was established by the UN Department of Public Information in 2010, seeking "to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the organization." The date for the Chinese Language Day was chosen "to pay tribute to Cangjie, a mythical figure who is said to have invented Chinese characters about 5,000 years ago." Liu Li, president of BLCU, explained at the launch ceremony that "Cangjie Online" was created to serve as a platform for sharing information, providing abundant online resources for overseas sinologists and international students learning Chinese, including information on Chinese geography, books, films, news and open courses. He also encouraged researchers and students of Chinese culture to upload their insights and share their experiences of learning Chinese, in order to further promote the development of sinology, and tell Chinese stories to the world in a more objective manner. "Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are currently thousands of international students at BLCU who are stranded in countries around the world, whom we encourage to update information about the pandemic, tell their stories about China, and introduce the real China to the world from the perspective of a foreigner on the platform," Liu said. Martin Albrow, British sociologist and fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, explained, "We have to think in terms of networks, of cross-country ties, of mutual understanding across boundaries where we can share a goal which does not in fact create rivalry between us." He added, "I'm sure your international Cangjie program is going to be a major contribution to that goal." In the following online forum, attendees shared their insights into three topics: "future development trends in international humanities exchange," "the epidemic's profound influence on world knowledge and the cultural landscape," and "novel ideas and perspectives of Chinese language on international application and dissemination." Zhang Xiping, director of the BFSU Academy of Comparative Civilization and Intercultural Communication, noted that, "Sinologists from various countries are the bridge between Chinese culture and the world. It is due to their hard work that Chinese culture and the real China can be introduced to the world." "It is not enough to rely solely on the Confucius Institute to promote the Chinese language. Language is ultimately combined with thoughts and culture," said Hassan Ragab, professor at Ain Shams University and director of the Confucius Institute at Suez Canal University. "Everyone who is engaged in the spreading of Chinese language and culture must be prepared to explore new ideas in the new situation." The event was organized by BLCU's Belt and Road Academy and supported by the Chinese Culture Translation and Studies Support Network, Jiangxi Education Publishing House and Global Century Press. By William Schwartz | Published on 2020/04/20 One reason why the strong success of "The World of the Married" has been so unexpected is that the drama has relatively little star power. While Kim Hee-ae is the female lead the other cast members are not as well known. For many of them their role in "The World of the Married" is to date the most prominent of their careers. And yet the cast writ large shows remarkable chemistry and appeal, with Han So-hee and Shim Eun-woo being prime examples. Advertisement Han So-hee has been the drama's most obvious breakout star. From modest beginnings on Instagram to appearances in advertisements, persons familiar with her prior work were not surprised by her flair for powerful visuals. The contrast is especially marked because in spite of Han So-hee's doll-like appearance and seemingly submissive role in the story she holds her own against Kim Hee-ae. The unusual past work of Han So-hee has no doubt been of great help to her career here. Shim Eun-woo has been another scene stealer. She exudes a secretive air in her appearances as a bartender who both has her own secrets and keeps a careful eye on those of others. Her character's subplot as a victim of dating violence has also proven highly distinctive, as Shim Eun-woo portrays a character with agency and analytical powers, rather than a mere flat victim. Lee Hak-joo also warrants mention as the abusive boyfriend, playing a man who can quickly and without notice suddenly turn vicious. Kim Hee-ae herself expressed surprise before "The World of the Married" started airing regarding Lee Hak-joo's transformation. In addition to being highly dramatic, Lee Hak-joo also conveys nuance over how an abusive partner maintains control of their victim. The ensemble element of "The World of the Married" has been key to the drama's success, though it was not obvious in the early marketing due to the premise revolving around the titular married couple. In this way "The World of the Married" is comparable to "SKY Castle" from last year. "SKY Castle" was another socially relevant jTBC drama which quickly proved to be a powerful demonstration of the sum of its parts. Written by William Schwartz ___________ "The World of the Married" is directed by Mo Wan-il, written by Joo Hyeon-I, and features Kim Hee-ae, Park Hae-joon, Han So-hee, Park Sun-young, Kim Young-min, Chae Gook-hee. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2020/03/27~Now airing, Fri, Sat 23:00 on jTBC. T he number of people who have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK has reached 17,337, up from 16,509 in 24 hours. The difference between the Department of Health's daily hospital death tolls shows an increase of 828 fatalities, the first rise in figures since Saturday when 888 hospital deaths were reported. Although comparing the figures shows a jump of 828 deaths, the Department of Health suggested the toll had jumped by 823. But at the Downing Street press briefing on Tuesday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the daily death toll was up by 852. It is currently unclear why the figures vary. The death toll had dropped to 596 on Sunday, and 449 on Monday, the lowest rise for two weeks, before spiking again on Tuesday. Officials said 129,044 have tested positive for the coronavirus. While the death toll spiked on Tuesday, the number of infections dropped to its lowest since April 7. Loading.... It comes as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed deaths in England and Wales involving coronavirus could be 41 per cent higher than previously recorded. The difference between the numbers published by the ONS and those published by individual health boards is because of different methods of counting and reporting, the ONS said. The ONS' figures, which incorporate deaths in the community, showed the number of fatalities in England and Wales jumping from 217 up to April 3 to 1,043 until April 10. The four-fold increase came amid warnings that the infection may still be spreading in care homes, and claiming a growing number of lives, despite being on the decline in the community. Loading.... The figures also showed that 466 people had died with covoronavirus in their own homes as of April 10, with a further 87 passing away in hospices. Nearly one in six Covid-19 fatalities, or 1,555 in England, have happened outside hospital, according to the latest ONS figures, up from one in 10, or 383, the previous week. NHS England announced 778 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 15,607. Of the new deaths announced, 136 occurred on April 20, 236 on April 19, and 121 on April 18. Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures 1 /81 Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures A deserted Westminster Bridge PA A man wearing a face mask or covering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, walks past customers sat outside a restaurant AFP via Getty Images Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Runners pass cardboard cutouts of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William during the London Marathon in London AP An empty escalator at Charing Coss London Underground tube station Jeremy Selwyn Electronic bilboards displays a message warning people to stay home in Sheffield PA A sign is displayed in the window of a student accommodation building following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mancheste Reuters People take part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions, in Londo AP People sing and dance in Leicester Square on the eve on the 10PM curfew Reuters Hearts painted by a team of artists from Upfest are seen in the grass at Queen Square, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Bristol Reuters Graffiti reads 'good luck and stay safe', as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases grow around the world, under a bridge in London Reuters A sign is pictured in Soho, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London Reuters Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures, during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London AP A person runs past posters with a message of hope, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Manchester REUTERS Riot police face protesters who took part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions in London AP An image of The Queen eith quotes from her broadcast to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the Coronavirus epidemic are displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus PA Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images Durdle Door in Dorset Reuters Captain Tom Moore via Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Coronavirus outbreak PA An NHS worker reacts at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS Reuters Goats which have taken over the deserted streets of Llandudno @AndrewStuart via PA Tobias Weller PA Novikov restaurant in London with its shutters pulled down while the restaurant is closed London Landscapes: Hyde Park and the Serpentine, central London. Matt Writtle A newspaper vendor in Manchester city centre giving away free toilet rolls with every paper bought as shops run low on supplies due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus PA Theo Clay looks out of his window next to his hand-drawn picture of a rainbow in Liverpool, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue Reuters A young man cuts another man's hair on top of a closed hairdresser in Oxford Reuters General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital, built to fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London via Reuters Jason Baird is seen dressed as Spiderman during his daily exercise to cheer up local children in Stockport, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters A woman wearing a face mask walks past Buckingham Palace Getty Images A man holds mobile phone displaying a text message alert sent by the government warning that new rules are in force across the UK and people must stay at home PA Medical staff on the Covid-19 ward at the Neath Port Talbot Hospital, in Wales, as the health services continue their response to the coronavirus outbreak. PA Prime Minister Boris Johnson taking part in a virtual Cabinet meeting with his top team of ministers PA A shopper walks past empty shelves in a Lidl store on in Wallington. After spates of "panic buying" cleared supermarket shelves of items like toilet paper and cleaning products, stores across the UK have introduced limits on purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have also created special time slots for the elderly and other shoppers vulnerable to the new coronavirus. Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour PA Mia, aged 8 and her brother Jack, aged 5 from Essex, continue their school work at home, after being sent home due to the coronavirus PA Children are painting 'Chase the rainbows' artwork and springing up in windows across the country Reuters Social distancing in Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn A general view of a locked gate at Anfield, Liverpool as The Premier League has been suspended PA Homeless people in London AFP via Getty Images A piece of art by the artist, known as the Rebel Bear has appeared on a wall on Bank Street in Glasgow. The new addition to Glasgow's street art is capturing the global Coronavirus crisis. The piece features a woman and a man pulling back to give each other a kiss PA The Queen leaves Buckingham Palace, London, for Windsor Castle to socially distance herself amid the coronavirus pandemic PA A general view on Grey street, Newcastle as coronavirus cases grow around the world Reuters Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA Britain's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty (L) and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance look on as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) news conference inside 10 Downing Street Reuters The ticket-validation terminals at the tram stop on Edinburgh's Princes Street are cleaned following the coronavirus outbreak. PA Locked school gates at Rockcliffe First School in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear PA A sign at a Sainsbury's supermarket informs customers that limits have been set on a small number of products as the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases grow around the world Reuters Jawad Javed delivers coronavirus protection kits that he and his wife have put together to the vulnerable people of their community of Stenhousemuir, between Glasgow and Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" Getty Images A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads "Diseases are in the City" in Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London inform patrons, as it shuts its doors PA A quiet looking George IV Bridge in Edinburgh PA A quieter than usual British Museum Getty Images A racegoer attends Cheltenham in a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com A commuter wears a face mask at London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn A empty restaurant in the Bull Ring Shopping Centre Getty Images A deserted Trafalgar Square in London PA Passengers determined to avoid the coronavirus before leaving the UK arrive at Gatwick Airport Getty Images A further 25 people have died in Wales, bringing the total number of deaths there to 609, health officials said. Public Health Wales said a further 304 people had tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 7,850. Just over 1,000 tests were carried out on Monday, with a total of 27,124 carried out in total across Wales. In Scotland, a total of 985 patients have died, up by 70 from 915 on Monday, Nicola Sturgeon said. The First Minister said 8,672 people have now tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 222 from 8,450 the day before. Despite the spike in deaths on Tuesday, the peak in the number of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales was reached on April 8, according to scientists. Loading.... Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said: From an epidemiological perspective we can say that the numbers are consistent with the peak happening on April 8. Weve now tracked for 13 days that that has been consistent it hasnt jumped up. All of the other data surrounding this, the triangulation of the data is showing us that is the case. Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast But he expressed concern about human error and the possibility of some data sets being pulled out. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has asked his government to come up with a way to inject cash into the ailing U.S. drilling industry to help it survive a historic collapse in global crude oil prices. The comment comes as oil and gas companies from Texas to Wyoming struggle to stave off bankruptcy amid worldwide stay-at-home orders and business stoppages spurred by the coronavirus outbreak that have obliterated global demand for fuel. Oil futures have plunged into negative numbers - meaning oil producers are paying to have it taken off their hands. The price of a barrel of oil on the futures market went as low as negative $37.84 - which would lead to production being closed down by producers to protect them from losing money. 'We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!' Trump said on Twitter. President Trump tweeted he has ordered a plan to 'make funds available' to preserve jobs in the industry Why did the price of oil plummet and what happens when a futures contract expires? When a futures contract expires, traders must decide whether to take delivery or roll their positions into an upcoming contract. Usually this process is relatively uncomplicated, but the May contract's decline reflects worries that too much supply could hit the markets, with shipments out of OPEC nations like Saudi Arabia booked in March set to cause a glut. Available storage space is dropping fast at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub, where physical delivery of U.S. oil barrels bought in the futures market takes place. Four weeks ago, the storage hub was half full - now it is 69% full, according to U.S. Energy Department data. Traders fled from the expiring May US oil futures contract in a frenzy on Monday, sending the contract into negative territory for the first time in history, as barely any buyers are willing to take delivery of oil barrels because there is no place to put the crude. Advertisement It also followed the president's remarks Monday that brushed off the odd negative price as a fluke and a 'financial thing.' 'So if you take a look at it, you'll see it's more of a financial thing than an oil situation, but because you take, I believe, in a month or so in other words, go a little bit out, it's at $25 and $28 a barrel. So it's largely a financial squeeze, and they did get squeezed,' Trump said at his daily press conference at the White House Monday. Trump's ability to act is unclear so far. Trump did not say he wanted to see more cuts out of Russia and Saudi Arabia, after negotiating with both countries last week to help bring about an OPEC announcement to get broad-based cuts from oil producers. 'Well, we've already done that, where Saudi Arabia is cutting back, Russia is cutting back, Mexico is cutting back, and the OPEC Plus they call it OPEC, plus additional states are cutting back,' the president said. 'And you know, the problem is nobody is driving the car anywhere in the world -- essentially, 184 nations,' Trump said. 'Factories are closed and businesses are closed.' U.S. crude oil futures collapsed to trade in negative territory for the first time in history on Monday, as desperate traders paid to get rid of oil amid a dearth of storage space. The broader markets tanked again on Tuesday with more uncertainty on the collapsed oil market, with the Dow Industrial Average dropping 600 points Monday morning. U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told Reuters last week he was working with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to roughly double the size-limit on loans available to mid-tier U.S. energy companies under the recently passed CARES Act stimulus package to $200 million-$250 million. 'We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down,' President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday U.S. crude oil futures collapsed to trade in negative territory for the first time in history on Monday amid the slowdown caused by the coronavirus He added he and Mnuchin also planned to work with U.S. regulators and the banking industry to ensure financial institutions dont discriminate against oil drillers when choosing who they will provide credit to. The U.S. oil and gas industry is estimated to owe more than $200 billion to lenders through loans backed by oil and gas reserves. As revenue has plummeted and assets have declined in value, some companies are saying they may be unable to repay. Whiting Petroleum Corp became the first producer to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 1. Others, including Chesapeake Energy Corp, Denbury Resources Inc and Callon Petroleum Co, have also hired debt advisers. Why the oil price has gone negative: Crude market facing a perfect storm as plunging demand leaves over-supplying producers paying to get rid of the black stuff Unprecedented is a word in wide - but often inaccurate - usage at the moment, but it is appropriate when it comes to the current conditions in the oil market. This week has seen WTI Crude, the main American oil benchmark, briefly going to a price of negative $37 at one point. In other words, producers have to pay people to take it off their hands. Essentially, what has caused this week's plunge is the demand side becoming as much of a problem as the supply side of the oil market. The recent and ongoing slump was initially triggered by the supply side in the form of a breakdown in the fragile peace between Saudi Arabia-led cartel OPEC and Russia. The Yarakta Oil Field owned by Irkutsk Oil Company in Russia, one of the countries at the centre of the storm OPEC and Russia typically work together to manipulate the supply of oil to the world market to ensure the price of a barrel is roughly where they want it. This largely takes the form of cutting supply when demand falls and letting it creep up when demand is strong. This came to an abrupt end last month though as the two main players had a sharp disagreement on how much each party should reduce output, and the result was both refused to cut back, creating a glut. The oil price had already been under continuous pressure for years due to the rapid increase in shale oil production in North America, which makes use of hydraulic rock fracturing methods that did not exist before. Demand has now dropped off just at the wrong time, due to the 'black swan' event dominating all our lives at the moment, the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. Planes are grounded and people aren't driving much. This has created a perfect storm. It should be noted though that the other major yardstick for oil, the Brent Crude price, remains positive albeit at a paltry $20 per barrel. Better, but still a 21-year low. This difference largely stems from the fact that there has been a severe shortage of viable storage for WTI Crude, meaning it has to be offloaded to the market with greater urgency. Storing oil incurs a cost, and if the price is too low these costs are no longer worth incurring. Facilities may refuse to take it even if they have space, further exacerbating the situation. Brent Crude is more often stored at sea in oil tankers, which have not yet been put under pressure to the same extent as the land-based storage used for WTI. The only hope of easing this situation in the near term is for Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major producers to drastically cut production. Whether the discord can be bridged is questionable. An oil pump jack in a Texas oil field, where available storage facilities are running low The demand side will not come to the rescue any time soon as it will require the ending of the virus crisis and a strong recovery in the global economy. There are many implications of the situation beyond the price of a barrel. While the big players can ride this out for a long time, it will decimate their profits and potential to pay out dividends to their shareholders. This hits investors big and small straight in the pocket. Smaller firms in the industry or connected to it face an even worse situation, and many could well go under. The knock-on from oil firms of all sizes struggling is that they cut staff and capital spending, which impacts the economy bother locally and globally. There is an upside in the form of cheaper fuel for businesses and individuals, but the benefits of this take time to come though into the real economy. We all notice this reality when we go to get petrol and find the price still stubbornly over 1 a litre in most places. Such benefits only have a chance of counterbalancing the costs on macro level for countries which are not big exporters of oil, of course. Two women doctors who were part of a group that got assaulted by a mob in Taatpati Bakhal in Indore in Madhya Pradesh on April 1 returned to the area on Tuesday to offer saplings as a sign of moving on through forgiveness. They were welcomed with loud claps and cheering by those present in the locality, and videos of the two giving saplings to 48 people discharged from an isolation centre, went viral soon after on social media. Doctors Trupti Katdare (40) and Zakia Syed (36), who were part of a five-member team that had gone to quarantine relatives and acquaintances of a COVID-19 patient, were injured when stones were pelted by a mob on April 1. "It was an emotional moment giving saplings to those returning after 14-day isolation period as a precautionary measure. We have forgiven and forgotten the stone pelting incident. People here are now cooperating with health officials to fight the coronavirus outbreak. The bitterness is gone," Dr Katdare said. Indore is among the cities in the country worst hit by the virus outbreak, with 915 COVID-19 cases, and 52 deaths from the infection. Indore is one of the cities where the COVID-19 situation was "especially serious", the Centre had warned on Monday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Phoenix, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - The Stock Day Podcast welcomed PCT LTD (OTC Pink: PCTL), a company that focuses its business on acquiring, developing and providing sustainable, environmentally safe disinfecting, cleaning and tracking technologies. CEO of the Company, Gary Grieco, joined Stock Day host Everett Jolly. Jolly began the interview by noting the Company's recent increase in sales, and asked whether or not this trend is expected to continue. "Yes, we had this big rush to sell, but now what is occurring is we are beginning to get another line of distributors," explained Grieco, noting that the Company currently has three new distributors and is expecting to add an additional three to four distributors within the next ten days. "Each one of these distributors is already in business," said Grieco. "What they are doing is shifting from using the harsh chemicals to using our product in their businesses," he continued, adding that hospitals have also expanded their use of the product in their facilities. "Although the initial panic-buying has subsided, we'll be growing certainly this month and into the foreseeable future," shared Grieco. The conversation then turned to dilution and outstanding shares. Grieco noted that dilution occurred prior to January 2020, but shared that any shares that are currently being issued are meant for growth. "We are in a position as a company on a cash flow basis to cover the burn-rate," said Grieco. "So, we finally have free available cash flow," he added. "We have to expand very rapidly. We see a need, starting in July, to start delivering at least 25 systems a month," said Grieco. Jolly then commented on the Company's latest press release detailing a distribution agreement with the UK NHS company. Grieco shared that the agreement will likely begin with five systems starting in July and will later expand to fulfill the needs of their healthcare system. Grieco then addressed rumors that the Company is expanding into China. Grieco shared that the Company signed an MOU in January of 2020, which required the Company to deliver systems. "When the pandemic broke, we took that out of the equation," said Grieco. "What we have done is tabled any discussions until late summer," he continued. "I don't feel that we should be shipping any systems anywhere as long as we need them here in the United States." "How are you going to manage this rapid growth?" asked Jolly. Grieco expanded on the potential of the Company's Fort Wayne facility, sharing that the Company can grow by about 40% with this facility. "The Little River facility will be strictly for R&D and speciality orders on equipment," said Grieco when explaining the Company's plan for growth moving forward. "We're going to shift all of the manufacturing to Fort Wayne," he continued, noting that the Company is also taking precautions to make necessary upgrades as they continue to grow. To close the interview, Grieco shared that the Company has faced major challenges with success and is now on a rapid growth path which includes their work in the healthcare industry, as well as in the oil, gas, and cannabis industries. To hear Gary Grieco's entire interview, follow the link to the podcast here: https://audioboom.com/posts/7562220-pct-ltd-discusses-its-rapid-growth-and-expansion-plans-with-the-stock-day-podcast Investors Hangout is a proud sponsor of "Stock Day," and Stock Day Media encourages listeners to visit the company's message board at https://investorshangout.com/ About PCT LTD: PCT LTD ("PCTL") focuses its business on acquiring, developing and providing sustainable, environmentally safe disinfecting, cleaning and tracking technologies. The company acquires and holds rights to innovative products and technologies, which are commercialized through its wholly-owned operating subsidiary, Paradigm Convergence Technologies Corporation (PCT Corp). Currently trading on OTC, "PCTL" aspires to and is actively engaged in preparations for up-listing its common stock to a national securities exchange. The Company established entry into its target markets with commercially viable products in the United States and now continues to gain market share in the U.S. and U.K. Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21B of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Such statements are based on expectations, estimates and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those presently anticipated. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to: the ability of PCTL to travel to the NYC area for the installation of equipment; PCT Europe Ltd.'s ability to perform as expected, the response of the UK NHS to the first and subsequent installations of PCT's Annihilyzer Infection Control System; PCTL's ability to raise sufficient funds to satisfy its working capital requirements; the ability of PCTL to execute its business plan; any other effects resulting from the information disclosed above; risks and effects of legal and administrative proceedings and government regulation; future financial and operational results; competition; general economic conditions; and the ability to manage and continue growth. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those indicated. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements PCTL makes in this press release include market conditions and those set forth in reports or documents it files from time to time with the SEC. PCTL undertakes no obligation to revise or update such statements to reflect current events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200416005907/en/ Contacts Gary Grieco, CEO and Chairman, PCT LTD (843) 390-7900 Office (843) 390-2347 Fax www.para-con.com www.pctcorphealth.com www.survivalyte.com About The "Stock Day" Podcast Founded in 2013, Stock Day is the fastest growing media outlet for Nano-Cap and Micro-Cap companies. It educates investors while simultaneously working with penny stock and OTC companies, providing transparency and clarification of under-valued, under-sold Micro-Cap stocks of the market. Stock Day provides companies with customized solutions to their news distribution in both national and international media outlets. The Stock Day Podcast is the number one radio show of its kind in America. Stock Day recently launched its Video Interview Studio located in Phoenix, Arizona. SOURCE: Stock Day Media 602-441-3474 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54690 The federal prosecutor whom Mr. Barr appointed to review the governments response to Russian election interference, John H. Durham, is examining whether the C.I.A. or other intelligence agencies overstated President Vladimir V. Putins support of the Trump campaign, a central finding of the 2017 assessment. His team has interviewed intelligence analysts, questioning whether Obama-era intelligence officials hid evidence or manipulated analysis about Moscows covert operation, people familiar with the Durham inquiry have said. Some of Mr. Trumps allies immediately criticized the Senate report; Fred Fleitz, a former C.I.A. officer who briefly served in the Trump administration, dismissed it as a whitewash. Many Republicans believe that the intelligence agencies overstated Russias support for Mr. Trump and argue that Moscow was trying to sow chaos in the United States, not support any one candidate. The report released Tuesday was the latest installment in an inquiry by the Senate Intelligence Committee into the broader Russia matter. Senators are expected to release one final chapter in the coming months examining contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. When the inquiry began in early 2017, it was one of the most closely followed in the history of Congress, casting a cloud over Mr. Trumps presidency that could not be dismissed as merely partisan. But with the investigation into the same topic by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, long since put to rest; an impeachment fight over a largely unrelated matter behind the country; and a pandemic reshaping nearly every aspect of life, the Russia inquiry has now largely become an afterthought for most Americans. The Senate Intelligence Committee had already given the work of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. an interim stamp of approval, but the 158-page report released on Tuesday presented new detail about the governments attempts in late 2016 and early 2017 to make sense of Russias attacks. Much of the reports contents were considered highly sensitive and blacked out by the Trump administration before release. The war of words between the Centre and Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal government rose by a few more notches on Tuesday after the Union Home Secretary wrote a second letter to the state "directing the chief secretary of West Bengal to comply with the directions of the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs)". "It has been brought to the notice of this ministry that both the IMCTs (Inter-Ministerial Central Teams) at Kolkata and Jalpaiguri have not been provided with the requisite cooperation by the state and local authorities. In fact they have been specifically restrained from making any visits, interacting with health-care professionals and assessing the ground-level situation," said the letter to Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha. "This amounts to obstructing the implementation of the orders issued by the central government under the Disaster Management Act and equally binding directions of the Supreme Court." "You are, therefore, directed to comply with the MHA order dated 19th April, 2020, and make all necessary arrangements for the IMCTs to carry out such responsibilities as have been entrusted to them," it added. The Union Home Ministry on Monday had said the COVID-19 situation was "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and had formed six IMCTs for on-the-spot assessment and for issuing necessary directions to the four states -- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal. While one central team arrived in Kolkata, another reached Jalpaiguri district on Monday. One of the central teams later visited certain areas of Kolkata escorted by the Border Security Force (BSF) and state police personnel. The central team was seen coming out of the BSF office in south Kolkata at around 4.45pm. It then visited certain areas of the city. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) earlier on Tuesday had dubbed the ICMTs' visit as "adventure tourism", questioning why teams were not sent to states with much higher number of coronavirus cases and hotspots. The two IMCT teams were reportedly confined to their accommodation since their arrival. IMCT Kolkata team's head, Apoorva Chandra, said unlike teams that have gone to Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, his team received no cooperation from the Bengal government. "They were given the same notice as the state of West Bengal, but they received no problems," said Chandra, an additional secretary rank officer in the Ministry of Defence, adding that the teams on their arrival were assured of cooperation but then things changed. "We also met the chief secretary last evening at Nabanna (the state secretariat), we were assured we will again have a meeting and we will be going out for being taken around. But today we were informed there are some issues and we will not be going out," Chandra said. Earlier addressing reporters via a Zoom conference, TMC MPs Derek O'Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had been informed about the team's visit three hours after its arrival, which was unacceptable. "The ICMT team is on an adventure tourism. The CM was told about the team's visit three hours after the team landed," said O'Brien. O'Brien questioned why central teams did not visit states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh that have higher number of coronavirus cases and many more hotspots. Why central teams are being sent to West Bengal which does not appear in the list of the top 10 states in terms of infection, he asked. "The Centre has to clarify. Why the chief minister was informed after the team had arrived? In a federal structure, you have to first inform the state government. The motive behind sending such teams is not yet clear. It needs to be clarified first," he said. Bandyopadhyay, TMC's leader in Lok Sabha, hoped good sense would prevail and the Centre would henceforth consult the respective state before taking such a decision. "We have kept politics behind and want a joint fight against the pandemic. Do not take our graciousness for granted, we too can talk in the political language. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah should also leave politics behind and should not take Bengal's pledge for a united fight in tackling the pandemic for granted," O'Brien said. "What the central government has done by sending central teams is nothing but an insult to the people of the state." Responding to a question on "low rate of testing" in the state, Bandyopadhyay said that 425 tests are conducted everyday in West Bengal and from Tuesday the number would be increased to 600. He claimed Bengal initially had a dearth of testing kits sent by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Despite the state abiding by all the norms set by ICMR and the central government and doing its best in curbing the disease, West Bengal has been targeted by the Centre and the BJP, the Lok Sabha member said. "We would urge the Centre not to dilute the joint fight against COVID-19. The state government has followed all the rules and norms set by ICMR and the Union government. But the Union government without informing the state government had sent teams to the state government. It is not acceptable. Such steps are not only against the basic tenants of federalism but also tantamount to diluting the joint fight against the COVID crisis," Bandyopadhyay told reporters. Taking umbrage at the Centre for sending teams to assess the "serious" COVID-19 situation in the state, Banerjee on Monday wrote a letter to Modi underscoring the "unilateral" and "undesirable" action, keeping her government in the dark. Both the parliamentary leaders said it was not a question of "state vs state" and appealed to the Centre to cooperate with the states. They said once proper protocols are followed, then the state would be happy to coordinate with the government. (With inputs from PTI) A spokeswoman for the Victorian government said the ban was made after "extensive discussion and deliberation" at national cabinet, but did not mention any collective "decision" of national cabinet. The spokeswoman said the ban was enacted partly to ensure the increase in sales did not lead to firearms ending up in the hands of criminals at a time when police's enforcement capacity is reduced due to the pandemic. Most shooting ranges are closed under COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. Credit:Joe Castro With legal challenges to the bans on foot in Victoria and Queensland and non-Labor states showing no appetite for similar sales restrictions, the bans have made COVID-19 a new battleground over gun policy. Queenslands Chief Health Officer imposed a total sales ban on March 27 that meant even police could not buy ammunition or gun parts, with claims police only learnt of the decision at the same time as dealers. Queensland agriculture and firearms lobby groups within days persuaded the Palaszczuk Labor government to allow sales to primary producers. With support from the LNP opposition, as well as One Nation and Katter Party MPs, they have since forced much wider concessions for much broader categories of rural shooters. Several dealerships have nonetheless sent legal letters to Queensland Health as a precursor to court action with a view to challenging the ban in its entirety. Victorian industry counterparts have already filed a legal challenge to sales bans, with lobby groups claiming it could put dozens of dealers out of business, and gun lobby groups have taken out newspaper ads protesting the bans. Dealers and other interest groups led by the Victoria-based National Shooting Council last week lodged an appeal with Victorias Firearms Appeals Committee, an independent statutory body that reviews police decisions over licensing. 'No non-Labor state at this point has even shown any interest' With little official information provided about the reasons for the bans, firearms lobby groups are painting the moves as ideologically motivated. "Its starting to look like a political thing because its only happening in the Labor states," said Graham Park, president of the Shooters Union of Australia, which is based in Queensland. "No non-Labor state at this point has even shown any interest and we have gotten letters back from several states saying we have no interest in following that route. "We dont know why the other states did it." Mr Park said the legal challenge in Queensland was needed to prevent future "overreach" by officials. Authorities in WA and Victoria have cited public or community safety to explain their bans, without providing details, while no reasons were provided by Queensland Health when it added firearms to a list of "non-essential" retail types. AgForce policy officer Michael Allpass, who has been negotiating with the Queensland government on the issue, said AgForce "hasnt been advised at all as to how the original decision was made (in Queensland)". Loading "I did ask for an explanation but I wasnt given one," he said. "Theres no rhyme or reason to it. People are just making decisions on the spot in uncertain times." Victoria Polices licensing and regulation branch wrote to firearms dealers in the state on March 31 advising them that as of midnight the previous night their licences had been varied to stop sales of guns and ammunition to anyone not holding an occupational licence. The email, obtained by Brisbane Times, stated: "Following a decision by National Cabinet, the Licensing and Regulation Division has been advised there will be a suspension of all firearm transactions including the sale, hire and loan of firearms and ammunition for the reasons of Sport or Target Shooting, Clay Target Shooting and Recreational hunting." An attachment to the email said: "This decision has been made with the overall safety of the public in mind, ensuring people are not unnecessarily storing firearms and ammunition during an extremely difficult time for many in the community, which may be compounded by family and work-related pressures. "It also limits the number of unnecessary firearms and ammunition circulating in the community which have the potential to fall into the hands of criminals." Victoria Police did not answer questions about the references in its statements to a national cabinet decision, referring inquiries to the Prime Ministers office. WA Premier Mark McGowan said at the time of his governments ban: "Given the closure of firearm sporting clubs and shooting venues, and the need to comply with social distancing, there is effectively no need for over-the-counter sales at gun stores." In Queensland, Mr Allpass and Mr Park both said state government bureaucrats had attributed the move to deliberations in national cabinet. "They said, 'oh, this has come out of national cabinet' and I said I don't understand, what has national cabinet got to do with it?" Mr Allpass said. Mr Park said that when his group had asked officials for the ban to be amended, he was told: "It has to go back to national cabinet." "We said 'why?' And they wouldnt answer," Mr Park said. Mr Park, who sits on a state consultative committee for firearms regulation, said senior Queensland police officers had told him they had only found out about the sales ban when it was made public. The Queensland Police Service did not directly address questions about when it knew of the ban. A spokesman said that although police were responsible for regulating firearms, the QPS was also "compelled to adhere to all directions associated with emergency powers arising from the declared public health emergency". Hunting is an approved form of exercise in Tasmania Most shooting ranges are closed under COVID-19 social distancing restrictions and NSW has closed public hunting access to state forests. States have not expressly banned hunting, however, and Tasmania has included it in a list of approved forms of exercise, although it, too, has banned public land hunting. There were spikes in sales of ammunition reported early last month but this has been attributed to anticipated price rises because of the fall in the Australian dollar. A freight train departing from Manzhouli City in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region passes through China-Russia border on Feb. 19, 2020. File photo:Xinhua A China-Europe freight train loaded with 20 million face masks departed east China's Suzhou city on Monday and will arrive in Moscow in 12 days. In response to a supply agreement signed between China Sinopharm International Corporation and Russia in March, protective gear began to assemble in Suzhou before being transported to Russia on China-Europe freight trains. Zhang Fan, general manager in charge of the freight train service with Suzhou Newcity Investment and Development Company, said over 200 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of supplies such as surgical beds and syringes are expected to be sent to Europe over the next month. Statistics show that the number of freight trains and containers have both seen an increase of over 50 percent in Suzhou in March. As droughts become more frequent and intense, the fragmentation of water service in the U.S. among tens of thousands of community systems, most of which are small and rely on local funding, leaves many households vulnerable to water contamination or loss of service, a new Duke University analysis finds. These vulnerabilities aren't distributed equally, the study shows. Households in low-income or predominantly minority neighborhoods are likely to face the highest risks. Resolving this disparity and making sure the taps in these homes don't run dry will require a fundamental re-evaluation of how the nation's patchwork of community water systems (CWSs) is managed and funded. Small water systems already are at a disadvantage when it comes to protecting water security during drought, because of the financial constraints they face. Underlying patterns of segregation can amplify these weaknesses along economic and racial lines." Megan Mullin, associate professor of environmental politics at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment Mullin published her peer-reviewed article April 17 in a special drought edition of Science. Disparities in drinking water insecurity are rooted in segregation and the local political economy of public services, she explained. Because CWSs rely on user fees for their funding, they historically have extended service to neighborhoods or adjacent municipalities where residents are more able to pay. The result is that some communities get high-quality water service, while others - often rural communities or places where poverty is concentrated - get lower-quality service. Repairs or upgrades to pipes and other infrastructure are made less frequently, allowing leaks and increasing the potential risks of contamination. When drought arrives, these systems can't cope. "Drought aggravates vulnerabilities for small, under-resourced water systems. The user fee finance model then limits options for drought response, because policies that conserve dwindling water resources reduce revenue for water systems and make it harder for residents to pay their water bills," Mullin said. "Until now, people have tried to resolve these disparities through piecemeal approaches. We need to think more fundamentally about our reliance on user fees as a financial model for the delivery of such an essential service. States should consider equalizing resources across water systems to counter the legacy of racism and segregation, as we have done in public school funding," she said. To do this, policymakers need to have a clearer understanding about the nature and extent of demographic disparities between water systems, she said. Recent efforts to develop maps of water system service areas in several states show promise, she said, and should be replicated nationwide and integrated with data on drinking water finance, infrastructure, and water supply and use. Over the last year, Mullin has been leading a team of Duke students to produce such a map of North Carolina water systems, through a partnership with the state's Division of Water Resources. "Of the 50,000+ community water systems delivering water year-round in the United States, more than 80% serve fewer than 3,300 people," Mullin said. "Systems this small face tremendous challenges in delivering safe drinking water even under normal conditions, and as droughts become more frequent and intense, the challenges are going to mount." For these systems to become more resilient, they need to encourage and enforce water conservation. The strongest tools at their disposal for doing that are tiered pricing and mandatory use restrictions, but these reduce the water-use fees the systems depend on for funding and create an economic burden for low-income customers that could result in failure to pay and subsequent service shutoff. Equalizing resources across water systems, as states already do for public schools, would circumvent many of these trade-offs and improve water security to millions of American homes. LANSING, MI -- Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Fred Upton (R-MI) have teamed up with a pair of Texas representatives to request funding for local media outlets across the U.S. as part of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak. In a letter sent to President Donald Trump Monday, Dingell and Upton, along with Reps. Bill Flores (R-TX) and Marc Veasey (D-TX), said local newspapers, TV stations and other media are in need of funds as the ongoing crisis has crippled their budgets. The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting local communities across our nation in unprecedented ways. All Americans are attempting to understand the full measure of this crisis, even as it continues to evolve on a daily basis," the lawmakers wrote. "As in many of our nations most challenging times, the public turns to free and local media for life-saving information and breaking news, because local radio, television and newspapers are still the most trusted sources in times of emergency and disaster. "We urge you work with us in ensuring that local media can continue to inform communities, even as these outlets face unprecedented economic distress. The bipartisan letter was supported by 240 members of the House of Representatives. Specifically, the representatives asked President Trump to consider using federal advertising dollars planned for marketing campaigns by advertising in local media outlets. The representatives also asked that the federal government incentivize a portion of business funds distributed through the CARES Act. Businesses that use a portion of those funds on advertising in local media markets would receive an incentive for doing so. Americas radio and TV broadcasters take seriously our responsibility to report, inform, comfort and educate our hometowns during these unprecedented times, said National Association of Broadcasters President and CEO Gordon Smith in a press release. Unfortunately, with economic activity at a standstill, local broadcasters are struggling without the local business advertising dollars that sustain stations and help local businesses generate commerce. "We thank Reps. Dingell, Flores, Veasey and Upton and the over 240 Members of Congress who have expressed support for ensuring the future of trusted journalism, news and local media. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. READ MORE Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus 5 things that need to happen for Michigan to reopen its economy after the coronavirus crisis Medical experts say Michigans coronavirus death count isnt accurate. But is it too high or too low? Gov. Whitmer hints at how Michigan will start reopening, come May 1 Michigan Senate Republicans unveil plan for reopening economy during coronavirus pandemic The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) is set to host its second webinar under the topic "International Logistics: challenges and developments of the COVID-19 situation on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. The webinar will focus on the current challenges and opportunities in the logistics and transport of goods in international trade amidst the emergence of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The purpose of the virtual session is to help outline present, short- and medium- term perspectives in logistics and transportation. The second webinar is also expected to tackle the issue of shipping lanes and how the current situation has resulted in more cargo going back and forth between Brazil and the Arab countries at lower costs. Speakers to be featured at the event include Dennis Lister, Vice President, Emirates SkyCargo Products and Business Development; Sara Hassan Kamal Elgazzar, Dean, AASTMT College of International Transport and Logistics; Nicolas Buhmann, Manager, Maersk Line TradeLens (Global Trade Digitization); Fernanda Rezende, Transport Development Coordinator, National Confederation of Transport (CNT); Rubens Hannun, President, ABCC and Tamer Mansour, Secretary General and CEO, ABCC. During the session, participating logistics and infrastructure experts will discuss key measures aimed at addressing current challenges like shortages, the container flow, and the joint actions that may be taken to add bring benefits to the general society and the private sector. Meanwhile, Emirates SkyCargos Dennis Lister and Maersks Nicolas Buhmann will tackle the challenges of their respective fields--air and sea shipping--including insights for the South America-Arab trade when it comes to ensuring steady supplies and the availability of shipping containers, among other subjects. Rubens Hannun, President, Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, said: "We are excited with our second webinar session, which will focus on the logistics industry. The session will tackle the obstacles, challenges and opportunities in logistics and transportation, amidst the COVID-19 situation. There are many food security concerns in different countries, and food security can only be ensured through safe, reliable, permanent logistics. In line with this, the ABCC believes that the ongoing debate will also fast-track a medium-to-long-term solution involving direct shipping lanes linking up Brazil and the Arab countries. We have already been looking into this and have already started to plan alongside the Union of Arab Chambers at the request of the Arab League. Our goal is to create a work agenda that will culminate in the setting up of a private company to operate in logistics and marine transportation between Brazil and the Arab countries." The second webinar follows the success of the initial virtual session held recently and featured Tereza Cristina, Brazils Agriculture, Livestock and Supply Minister and Khaled Hanafy, Secretary General, Union of Arab Chambers--with discussions centering on supply chains. The webinar was viewed by some 800 people across Brazil and the Arab countries. The Chamber intends to host regularly held webinars for as long as the situation continues, in a bid to provide information to Brazilian and Arab companies, thereby helping keep trade going. -- Tradearabia News Service Photo: (Photo : unsplash/Hush Naidoo) One study has found that the coronavirus lingers in the testicles, which means that men are at higher risk of getting infected with the deadly disease. They studied 68 patients in Mumbai, India, and found that the virus has a worse effect on men. An oncologist at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, Dr. Aditi Shastri led the research, together with a microbiologist at the Kasturba Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Mumbai, Dr. Jayanthi Shastri, and found that the coronavirus attaches to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a protein that is found in large quantities in the testicles. They are also found in the heart, lungs, and the gastrointestinal tract, however, it is less prevalent in the ovarian tissue. READ ALSO: Can Coronavirus Be Transmitted Sexually? Coronavirus Stays Longer in the Testicles Than Other Parts of the Body According to their study, the virus can stay in the testicles for a longer period because they are walled off from the rest of the body, which is why women have been easily regaining their health from the disease compared to men. The study showed that men took an average of six days before the virus was out of their system, while women only took only an average of four days. This proves that COVID-19 stays on men's bodies longer than women. An expert in gender differences in the immune response of Georgetown University, Dr. Kathryn Sandberg said that women clear viruses more quickly than men, and a part of the reason is that women's immunity responds faster to invasions. They also found out some of the reasons why men are more susceptible to coronavirus. Studies show that men are more likely to be smoking and have a high blood pressure than women. Both of these affect the body's resistance against viruses, therefore making men at higher risk of contracting the virus. Stabbing Pain in the Testicles Researchers at Harvard Medical School found that some men who have tested positive with the virus had a stabbing pain in the testicles. The NHS told the patients to observe for any persistent coughs, fevers, abdominal pains, and difficulty with breathing. One patient reported having a strange "buzzing sensation" throughout their body early this month, while some shared online that they have a similar "fizzing sensation" Another one of the patients said that he had a burning sensation in their eyes which left them with fatigue and diarrhea. Birmingham-based surgeon, Dr. Viney told MailOnline that some viruses can affect the testicles like mumps. While there are some men that experienced symptoms in their testicles after being infected with the coronavirus, this should not cause much alarm because many of the doctor's male patients did not have the same symptoms. Nirupama Viswanathan By Express News Service CHENNAI: A group of people who have recovered after having tested positive for the Novel Coronavirus upon their return from the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi have come forward to donate their plasma for the plasma therapy clinical trial in the State. The main reason they said, apart from their wish to help critically ill patients, was to counter the 'baseless accusations' hurled against them ever since a large number of those who attended the Islamic gathering tested positive. A thirty-eight year old businessman Mohammad Abbas from Tiruppur was discharged from the ESI hospital in Coimbatore on Sunday. "As soon as I got discharged, I met the district administration officials and the dean of the hospital and told them that they may contact me anytime if they needed me to donate my plasma," he told Express. "It has only been one day since I was discharged but I've already spoken to others (from the Jamaat) who have recovered and they were all ready to donate," he added. Plasma therapy is the process of collecting the plasma from those fully recovered from COVID-19 and using it to help patients who are currently suffering from the infection. Those that have fully recovered are said to have COVID-19 antibodies in their plasma that may help facilitate recovery of those critically ill from the virus. Muhammed Usman Ali from Theni who also recovered from the virus told Express, "I was asymptomatic but got myself tested after the Jamaat told us that all of us should. It turned out that I was positive but I fought off the virus and have bounced back stronger than before. If the Government calls for us, we will all be there to donate our plasma." "There are about 42 people that I know of across the State who are willing to donate," he added. Sulthan from Chennai, an electrical engineer at a private firm, coordinated with Delhi returnees from across the State for this initiative although he was not among those who went to Delhi for the gathering. "Ever since it emerged that many among those who returned from Delhi tested positive, some sections have taken it upon themselves to instigate hatred towards Muslims rather than create awareness about the virus," he said. "Initially some of them were scared since they didn't know about plasma therapy but after I explained to them, almost everyone said they were ready," he added. The fact that many have voluntarily come forward to donate the plasma shows that they never intended to deliberately spread the virus as some people say, said the Nawab of Arcot, Mohammed Abdul Ali. "Islam says that we have to be loyal to the Government in whichever country that we reside. The entire religion cannot be blamed for the pandemic in this country; this is the work of certain mischief-mongers," he said. He commended those who have come forward to donate their plasma saying that it shows their sincerity and honesty. "However, I appeal to my Muslim brethren to refrain from going to mosques for special prayers throughout the month of Ramadan even if the lockdown is lifted," he said. "God forbid, if the virus appears again, it will be called the 'Ramadan virus' and the blame will again fall on them," he added. Champion Fiberglass Inc. (Champion), a Houston-area manufacturing company, has settled a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) accusing the company of discriminatory hiring practices. The EEOC said under a consent decree entered by U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks, Champion must pay $225,000 to compensate a class of non-Hispanic applicants and job seekers who were prohibited from applying for a laborer position. The consent decree also requires Champion to correct alleged discriminatory practices, like maintaining a Spanish-speaking preference and the exclusive use of word-of-mouth recruiting for unskilled laborer jobs. In the lawsuit, the EEOC alleged that the company violated federal anti-discrimination laws by engaging in systemic discrimination against a class of non-Hispanic applicants for employment who were not hired or even considered for employment by Champion because of their race and/or national origin. The EEOC alleged that Champion engaged in a pattern or practice of intentionally failing to hire or consider non-Hispanic applicants and job seekers for laborer positions. The EEOC also alleged that Champion impermissibly maintained a preference that its laborers speak Spanish and engaged almost exclusively in word-of-mouth recruiting in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII). EEOC alleged that, when a non-Hispanic, non-Spanish speaking job seeker responded to a posted sign advertising for laborer positions, Champion refused to even give him an application. According to the EEOC, these unlawful practices had an adverse impact on non-Hispanic applicants and job seekers and resulted in an almost exclusively Hispanic, Spanish-speaking laborer workforce for a job that did not need Spanish proficiency for the effective performance of the job. In addition to the monetary compensation to the class, the decree also contains injunctive relief. It prohibits Champion from maintaining a Spanish-speaking preference and from engaging in word-of-mouth recruiting as its sole means of recruiting for the laborer position. Champion is also required to assist the EEOC in locating potential victims of the alleged discrimination; change its recruiting, outreach, and hiring to comply with the law; implement policies and procedures about hiring criteria, the application process, and records maintenance; and develop and maintain policies and procedures addressing illegal discrimination in the workplace, including complaint procedures and guidelines for investigating complaints of discrimination. Source: EEOC Topics Lawsuits Talent Manufacturing The Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) said that its call to the business community and the private sector to adopt precautionary measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been met with a great response through the commitment to carrying out all safety instructions and the implementation of the remote working system. The SCCI has intensified its efforts to make sure that the business is running smoothly while implementing the precautionary measures across the emirate to contain the spread of the virus. Chairman Abdullah Sultan Al Owais underlined the keenness of the SCCI to support the national efforts to battle the spread of Covid-19, pointing to the vital role of the private sector in strengthening the government precautionary measures. As a representative of the business community and the private sector in Sharjah, the SCCI strives to enhance its role in finding channels of communication between the private sector and government departments and creating a fruitful movement conducive to many initiatives that serve the public interest and interests of the business community in Sharjah, stated Al Owais. Director-General Mohammad Ahmed Amin Al Awadi said: "The SCCI has developed its services and strategies to make it easy for the private sector and the members to benefit from the chambers online services." "We are also keen to provide them with everything they need to carry out their business easier, including the smart transformation support programs to enhance the private sector competitiveness," stated Al Awadi. Al Awadi shed light on the preventive and precautionary measures adopted by the SCCI to ensure the highest levels of safety for the health of its employees and customers, including the partial remote working system and the implementation of an awareness-raising program about the correct methods of prevention of Covid-19, as well as the daily sterilization of the chambers buildings and offices.-TradeArabia News Service By Express News Service Anupama Parameswaran, who will next be seen in Rowdy Boyz, has green-lit another project. We have learnt that the actor will play the lead in the Telugu remake of Malayalam survival drama Helen (2019), which was directed by Mathukutty Xavier and fronted by Anna Ben. According to a well-placed source, Prasad V Potluri, who will be bankrolling the film has acquired the rights for the Telugu remake and has roped in debutant Hanuman Chowdary as the director. "Potluri liked the original and spoke to Anupama about remaking it in Telugu. She has agreed to be on board, however, she is yet to sign the dotted line. The formalities will be done after COVID-19 lockdown gets lifted," says the source. It is also learnt that the Telugu version will be tweaked to suit the sensibilities of the local audience and the makers are still on the lookout for an actor to reprise Anupamas father role, which was originally played by Lal. Helen is a story about a happy-go-lucky middle-class girl, who fights for survival, after being locked up in a freezer. It may be noted that the Tamil remake of Helen directed by Gokul stars Keerthi Pandian as the female lead and the film marks the comeback of Arun Pandian. In most countries, mosques are off-limits or access to them has been restricted. The possibility of food shortages is a source of concern. In Kuwait the call to prayer has been changed, with people urged to pray at home. Sunnis and Shias split over the pandemic and fasting. Beirut (AsiaNews) Amid the global health emergency caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, more than a billion Muslims are getting ready to mark the beginning of Ramadan next week, 23 April. The start of the Muslim holy month dedicated to fasting and prayer varies by a few hours according to location, depending on when Muslim clerics can see the crescent moon. The month-long event will end in the evening of 23 May with the Eid al-Fitr, a festival that includes the sharing of food. This year however, the feast is at risk as people are forced to celebrate at home since all public places, like cinemas, restaurants and cafes, are closed because of the COVID-19 outbreak. During Ramadan Muslims traditionally abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset; smoking and sexual relations are also prohibited. After sundown, they break the fast with the iftar, the main meal of the day eaten in the evening. According to tradition, God revealed the Quran to the prophet Muhammad during this month, which is regarded as one of the five pillars (duties) of Islam together with the pilgrimage to Makkah, prayer, the profession of faith, and almsgiving. Ramadan was celebrated for the first time in 624 AD, the second year of the Hjira (622 AD), when Muhammad fled Makkah for the oasis of Yathrib (Madinah). Tradition has it that daily fasting begins when it is possible to distinguish a white thread from a black thread. Those who do not fast, like the sick and the elderly, must pray and perform acts of charity towards the poor every day. Many parents make children observe a partial fast, half day. This year, Ramadan will be celebrated for the first time under curfews and lockdowns with mosques and shops closed. In Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the authorities have banned access to mosques or placed limits to the number of people who can visit them. To address restrictions on travel and social life, including religious ceremonies, some Muslim organisations have promoted webinars and online video conferences. In addition to places of worship, the pandemic could also affect food supplies, at a time when food sharing is commonplace when fasting ends after sunset. In Saudi Arabia, supply companies boosted their strategic reserves of consumer goods ahead of the holy month; however, questions are being asked in the kingdom and in other countries, which are under a curfew, about how people will be able to shop safely and maintain social distancing during the emergency period. In previous years, Muslims used to decorate houses, streets and shops for the holy month. Today many are struggling even to get the food they need to feed their family. In Egypt, some stores have begun rationing products, making it harder for larger families. In a fatwa the Grand Mufti of Egypt Shawki Allam said to look at "the positive aspects" of this period in which many people are quarantined, so that the health crisis can be turned "into an opportunity for bonding and forgiveness and restoring the spirit of serenity and cooperation. In other parts of the Middle East, the call to prayer (adhan) is being used to encourage people to stay healthy. In Kuwait the traditional call was changed to include the words "pray in your homes" instead of the traditional "come to pray. In Turkey, the Presidency of Religious Affairs said that "every believer in good health must fast as God commands". Despite shortages, "fasting for healthy people does not pose particular risks in the spread of the disease. Finally, Ramadan at the time of the coronavirus has led to another split between Sunnis and Shias, with the former refusing to waive fasting, whilst the latter are open to suspending it for the sake of the health of people who have to work. For example, Grand Ayatollah Al Sistani has issued a fatwa whereby the obligation to fast does not apply to Muslims who fear infection. Log on if you are already subscribed or Subscribe... San Antonio police are searching for three men they say attempted to break into an ATM on the North Side on Tuesday. Just after 2 a.m., officers were called to Chase Bank, located at 10231 Wurzbach Road, for the individuals trying to steal the machine. When police arrived, they saw the ATM chained to a stolen Ford F-350 truck that was still running. Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland have developed a new hybrid material of mesoporous silicon microparticles and carbon nanotubes that can improve the performance of silicon in Li-ion batteries. Advances in battery technology are essential for sustainable development and for achieving climate neutrality. States and companies worldwide are eagerly looking for new and sustainable technologies to achieve climate neutrality in every sector of society, ranging from transportation and production of consumables to energy production. Once green energy is produced, it needs to be stored before it can be used in portable applications. In this step, battery technology plays an essential role in making the consumption of green energy a viable alternative. In the future, silicon will gradually replace carbon as the anode material in Li-ion batteries (LIBs). This development is driven by the fact that the capacity of silicon is ten times higher than the capacity of graphite, which is nowadays used as the anode material in LIBs. Using silicon in the anode makes it possible to even double the capacity of the total battery cell. However, silicon is facing severe challenges in battery technology due to its unstable material properties. Moreover, there is no technology available so far to produce feasible anodes solely from silicon. To minimise the reducing effect of high charging rates on the capacity of silicon anodes, researchers from the University of Eastern Finland have developed a hybrid material of mesoporous silicon (PSi) microparticles and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). According to the researchers, the hybrid material needs to be realised through chemical conjugation of PSi and CNTs with the right polarity so as to not hinder the diffusion of lithium ions into silicon. With the right type of conjugation, also the electrical conductivity and mechanical durability of the material was improved. Further, the PSi microparticles used in the hybrid material were produced from barley husk ash to minimise the carbon footprint of the anode material and to support its sustainability. Silicon was produced through a simple magnesiothermic reduction process applied to the phytoliths that are amorphous porous silica structures found in abundance in husk ash. The findings were published in Scientific Reports and Materials Chemistry and Physics. Next, the researchers are aiming to produce a full silicon anode with a solid electrolyte to address the challenges related to the safety of LIBs and to the unstable solid electrolyte interface (SEI). "The progress of the LIB research is very exciting, and we want to contribute to the field with our know-how related to mesoporous structures of silicon. Hopefully, the EU will invest more in the basic research of batteries to pave the wave for high performance batteries and to support the competitiveness of Europe in this field. The Battery 2030+ roadmap would be essential in supporting this progress," Professor Vesa-Pekka Lehto from the University of Eastern Finland notes. ### For further information, please contact: Professor Vesa-Pekka Lehto, tel. +358 40 355 2470, vesa-pekka.lehto@uef.fi Research articles: Timo Ikonen, Nathiya Kalidas, Katja Lahtinen, Tommi Isoniemi, Jussi Toppari, Ester Vazquez, Antonia Herrero-Chamorro, Jose Luis Fierro, Tanja Kallio & Vesa-Pekka Lehto, Conjugation with carbon nanotubes improves the performance of mesoporous silicon as Li-ion battery anode. Sci. Rep., 10:5589 (2020), DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-62564-0. Nathiya Kalidas, Joakim Riikonen, Wujun Xu, Katja Lahtinen, Tanja Kallio & Vesa-Pekka Lehto, Cascading use of barley husk ash to produce silicon for composite anodes of Li-ion batteries. Mat. Chem. Phys., 245:122736 (2020), DOI:10.1016/j.matchemphys.2020.122736. Nine times out of 10, he said, manual analysts produce more accurate results than the model. Using their experience, analysts are able to incorporate the uncertainty inherent in fire behavior, something the computer just isnt able to grasp. But where the computer model excels, Dr. Heemstra said, is in analyzing several fires at once and determining which one poses the greatest risk and therefore which one manual analysts should focus on. Australias national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, has developed computer software called Spark, which aims to improve upon Phoenix. Phoenix was built to predict fire behavior in forest and grass, Dr. Heemstra said, so for several other fuel types, like shrub land, its a bit like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Spark, because it uses unique equations for each fuel type, is more intuitive and reliable. It could be the next evolutionary step in firefighting models, Dr. Heemstra said, and the NSW Rural Fire Service hopes to use it as early as the next fire season. Whereas fire behavior models like Phoenix and Spark help predict the spread of a fire, drone technology may be able to predict where fires are likely to start. For the moment, drones are used mainly to monitor grassland fires. Forest fires burn particularly hot, and are volatile, making them unsafe for drones to fly over or for anyone nearby to operate the devices. The wildfire conditions in Australia are sufficiently severe that they verge on otherworldly. NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., has been exploring, with the CSIRO, the possibility of testing artificial intelligence for drones, rovers and satellites not yet developed but intended for future space exploration on the fires. This software would need to withstand extreme conditions on other planets, like hot temperatures, low visibility and turbulent winds, said Natasha Stavros, a science system engineer at J.P.L., in an email. A November 2019 study by J.P.L.s Blue Sky Thinktank, on which Dr. Stavros was an author, found that the fire-management technologies offering the highest return on investment were autonomous micro-aerial vehicles small drones typically weighing less than a quarter of a pound that would be able to navigate themselves through wildfires. Eventually, these drones would operate in autonomous groups or swarms, which could monitor wider areas. Their ability to communicate with one another and a distant control center could potentially be used in exploring other planets. Puducherry chief minister V Narayanasamy says he will lift the lockdown only after assessing the situation in neighbouring Tamil Nadu. In an interview, he says that tourism will not be allowed in Puducherry for the time being and the Union Territory will implement the odd-even scheme for the movement of vehicles even if the lockdown is lifted. Edited excerpts: Q: Out of the seven coronavirus cases in Puducherry, only three are active now. How did you manage that? A: We had announced the lockdown on March 23 and sealed the border with Tamil Nadu. We had around 6000 foreign tourists from February 22 to March 20. Around 20% of them were staying on the day of the announcement of lockdown and 80% had already left. They were staying in around 300 hotels across Puducherry. These included those who stayed at Auroville. So, we identified around 550 people who came in contact with the tourists in hotels and other places and put them in quarantine. I also announced a prison term of one year for anyone violating the restrictions. We have been able to contain the pandemic through these measures despite the situation in neighbouring Tamil Nadu going beyond anybodys imagination. The Prime Minister also told me you are a lucky person. Q: Are you satisfied with the Central assistance? A: Except rice, nothing has been given. I had also informed the Prime Minister that we have not been given the GST compensation for four months. We are yet to receive any additional grants. Besides, the arrears of the seventh pay commission havent been paid to us yet. Q: Are you allowing some economic activity in the UT? A: We have allowed agricultural activities, movement of foodgrains, harvesting, sowing, and opening of fertiliser, seeds and pesticide shops. We wanted to start government and unfinished construction but we are careful as far as industrial activity is concerned. Q: Will you lift the lockdown completely on May 3? A: Even if the Central government decides to lift it, we will take a call depending on the local conditions. But much depends on the situation in neighbouring Tamil Nadu where the number of coronavirus cases is significantly increasing every day. If the situation is serious there, we will not lift the lockdown. But whatever call we take will l be a well thought out one. Q: But what is your exit strategy whenever you decide to lift it? A: We will not allow any tourism in Puducherry for the time being. Similarly, we will not open our border with Tamil Nadu. We will go for odd-even formula in allowing movement of vehicles. We will allow two wheelers first and then four wheelers depending on the situation. As far as schools and colleges are concerned, the online classes have already started. We have told the government offices that only 33% of the staff will be allowed to come to work on a day, the officials will have to follow strict social distancing norms, use masks and sanitisers. Strict procedure will be followed in industries too. We have instructed that only 33% of the total capacity should be run, all buildings must be sanitised, employees should be from nearby places, they should go for health check-ups every day and insurance cover should be provided to them. We have told the industry to go slow and in a staggered manner. If any industry is found violating these norms, we will seal it. Q: What led to the fresh tussle between you and the L-G? A: The Central government announced 5kg of wheat or rice to every poor under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana. When we wanted to distribute free rice and wheat to the poor people, the L-G [Kiran Bedi] stalled it. She directed that instead of rice or wheat, money should be given to them. She even raised the issue during her video conferencing with President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu. But I got the letter from union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan saying that besides rice or wheat we also have to distribute dal. I also complained about it to the Prime Minister with whom I spoke a day after his video conference with chief ministers on April 11. I told him that she is not allowing us to distribute free rice to the poor as provided by the central government. Moreover, I told him that we have not been provided with any financial assistance so far. The Prime Minister said he will look into it. I also spoke to home minister Amit Shah and complained to him as well. The L-G is also blocking distribution of free rice to APL [above poverty line] families during the lockdown period. I now have written to the central government about this also. Q: Did the Prime Minister and the home minister give any assurance to you in this regard? A: The Prime Minister heard it and the home minister assured me that he will talk to her (Kiran Bedi). SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON French opposition MPs from across the political spectrum on Monday called for a vote in parliament on the government's plan to use a mobile phone app to trace infections. As France prepares to come out of confinement on the 11 May, ethical questions concerning the methods of tracking patients has been raised. The government announced its project called Stop Covid on 8 April, describing it as a smart-phone application designed to inform people if they have been in contact with the coronavirus. Health Minister Olivier Veran and Cedric O, the minister in charge of Digital resources said a special task force had been set up, overseen by experts from the national institute for digital and information technology (Inria). The app would function using bluetooth technology, each phone emitting a signal with its own anonymous ID number, and storing the signals coming from other people's phone apps nearby. If the user designates themselves as infected with covid-19, their phone ID is listed on a platform of confirmed virus cases. An automatic message is sent to anyone who has been in proximity of the infected person within the last 14 days. Strong opposition But the project, in its early stages, has already been met with stiff opposition. Members from all parties, be it from the far-right National Rally (RN), to the centre-right Republicains (LR), the Green party (EELV), the Socialists, and even members of the ruling Republique en March (LREM) party are calling for a vote. They believe the subject deserves more attention than a simple debate, already scheduled for 28 in the National Assembly and 29 April in the Senate. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe responded positively on Monday to their request, but said a vote is not necessary because the project doesn't warrant a law at this stage. "Since when do we debate a subject as dangerous to public and private freedoms ? What will the next stage be, eliminating the parliament?" asked Julien Bayou, secretary of the EELV Green party on Twitter earlier this month. This sentiment was echoed in a joint statement, by the leader of the Republicains (LR) Damian Abad and deputy Philippe Gosselin who agreed that "on such a senstive subject, each deputy must guarantee public freedoms." Public consultation 15 MPs, mostly from the ruling LREM party published an op-ed on the subject in Le Figaro on 8 April, declaring that "such a decision should not be taken hastily during a time of crisis, without a public consultation or parliamentary debate." They have called for a public consultation, similar to the one on climate change, on the use of new technology which they say "is intrusive and questions our fundamental rights." The initiative is being studied at a European level, and other countries have designed apps to function in a similar way, such as the Trace Together, launched on 20 March) in Singapore. Cedric O told France Info that "everything would be done" to have the app ready for the 11 May, but he wasn't able to say how long it would take to develop. Privacy concerns Several questions have been raised over the deployment of such a tool on a national scale, not least with regards to privacy and data storage. To reassure the various IT experts, the government has set up an open access website where the code can be developed collaboratively. The fact that the app cannot precisely judge distances between people as yet could lead to recording false data. Experts say bluetooth is designed to pick up signals between devices but it is not fully reliable at distinguishing exact distances between people, nor how long each of these contacts lasts for. Elderly not likely to use app The government has offered its assurance that bluetooth technology will better protect privacy because it is not designed to provide geolocalisation, but there are doubts of how far the system of anonymity can go. Being optional, it relies on a large number of the general public to connect, which experts estimate needs to reach 60 percent of the population to become efficient. And, as the MPs in the Figaro op-ed pointed out, not everyone is tech-savvy. The patients most likely to need such a tool, such as the elderly, are the ones least likely to use mobile phones. Before the health crisis Ms. Perez said she had briefly entertained the idea of a home birth but never thought of it seriously. Now, the pandemic has changed labor and delivery as we once knew it. Some hospitals are making changes in response to the concerns of pregnant women and to protect their own staff. Northwell Health, New Yorks largest health care provider with obstetric units at 10 hospitals, said it was testing expectant mothers for the virus before they are admitted. A mother who is infected but asymptomatic would be kept six feet away from her newborn except for breastfeeding. A mother showing symptoms would almost immediately be isolated from her child, said Dr. Nimaroff. Unfortunately, the mom cant bond with the baby, he said. There are a number of pregnant patients who have certainly developed the infection and many patients do test positive, he added. Some obviously are very sick from corona. But, Dr. Nimaroff said, the hospital is still a safe space to have a baby. In New York State, there are roughly 1,150 certified nurse-midwives, according to state figures. Most work in hospitals; a smaller number specialize in home births. Only three-quarters of the states allow licenses for midwives to practice out-of-hospital deliveries. Some states, like West Virginia and Georgia, do not offer licenses, making midwifery essentially illegal. Other states, like New York, place restrictive rules on home births, including a requirement that midwives have a written practice agreement with a doctor or hospital. Union Ministry of Home Affairs issues orders to extend lockdown beyond May 4, by two weeks in order to contain the coronavirus spread mainly in the red zones of the districts. As India remains in lockdown for over a month, the total number of cases reported in the country crosses 36,000 and death toll exceeds 1,200 according to DH's tally. Meanwhile, the government has announced that there will be considerable lockdown relaxation in many districts in the country from May 4. Citing concerns about freedom, liberty and economic turmoil, a small group of protesters rallied today in downtown Huntsville in support of the Reopen Alabama movement. About 20 people, including children, gathered outside the Madison County Courthouse. Some wore masks and carried signs demanding the reopening of Alabama, while others questioned the threat posed by the novel coronavirus pandemic. A group of people gathered at the Madison County Courthouse in Huntsville today to rally in support of reopening Alabama, which is currently under a coronavirus health order closing some businesses. Posted by al.com on Monday, April 20, 2020 Justin Armstrong of Huntsville organized the rally through the Reopen Alabama Facebook page, the online hub of a movement to restart businesses and public activities shut down by a state health order to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Rallies are being planned in other cities around the state, including in Montgomery on Tuesday. Todays rally follows much larger protests in numerous states including Michigan, Kentucky and Washington. Armstrong said he wants local leaders to hear the concerns of people who are suffering economically and help them. Speaking at a Huntsville briefing today, Mayor Tommy Battle didnt address the rally. But Battle said he anticipates beginning the process of reopening during the first week of May. Alabamas state health order, which closes non-essential businesses is set to expire on April 30. [Read more: Gov. Kay Ivey wont act immediately on call to reopen restaurants, stores] Armstrong, who is from Huntsville, said because of the state health order he lost his job at Workout Anytime, a gym in the nearby city of Athens. He said he was denied unemployment benefits and hasnt been able to reach anyone at the state Department of Labor to determine why. Alabamas unemployment rate jumped to 3.5 percent in March, up from Februarys record low of 2.7 percent, the state Department of Labor announced today. From March 16-April 18, the state paid unemployment benefits to 103,453 Alabamians, the Labor Department announced today in a press release unrelated to the protest. But many Alabamians, like Armstrong, have complained about the unemployment website crashing and being unable to reach anyone by phone. The Labor Department said today that an additional call center is opening with more than 60 employees to answer phones. Armstrong said if the government is going to prevent people from working, it has a responsibility to take care of its citizens. Im not looking for a handout, but if you tell me I cant work, then I expect the handout, he said. If not, let me go to work and let me be safe about it. Armstrong said he believes the novel coronavirus is a health risk, but the public should be allowed to make its own decisions about how to remain safe. Donny Letson, who owns a local business repairing medical equipment, said he is concerned about the government infringing on the rights of citizens under the premise of protecting people from the virus. Letson, who held a Reopen Alabama Now sign, said he does believe the novel coronavirus is a bad virus but questions whether shutting down is an overreaction. At a rally in Denver, two health care workers donning green scrubs and masks, stood in an intersection to block cars of protesters and remind people why shutdown orders are in place. Asked about the movement to reopen the country in an interview on Good Morning America, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, acknowledged the economic pain caused by lockdowns but said reopening too quickly could backfire. Letson said he doesnt believe saving the economy is a partisan issue, nor did he attend the rally because of his support for President Donald Trump. Huntsville resident Betsy Rosema, however, said she believes the virus has been overblown by the news media and Trumps political rivals. She said after Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House and acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate, the presidents enemies decided to use the coronavirus as a way to harm the president. It was all their ploy to get rid of him, she said. It was their final try before the election. They cannot stand this president and that is all it was. Rosema, who waved an American flag during the rally, acknowledged that people have been killed by the coronavirus. Most of these people are people that would have died anyway, she said. Theyre old, a lot of them are homeless, have other conditions. If they get a bad case of the flu, they die. Thats what old people do. Thats what happened with this. Its true that the majority of people 72 percent as of Friday killed by the coronavirus in Alabama were older than 65, according to the state department of public health. But health officials have said younger, healthy people arent immune from the virus or the potential for death. As of this afternoon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 746,000 novel coronavirus cases and 39,000 deaths in the United States. Alabama listed more than 5,000 cases and 113 confirmed deaths as of this afternoon. [Read more: As Alabama looks to reopen, state health official says people need to stay home] President Donald Trump arrives for the daily CCP virus briefing at the White House in Washington on April 20, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Trump Floats Funding for Oil Industry After Prices Plunge President Donald Trump has directed the exploration of giving funding to oil and gas companies after the market plunged. Oil prices fell to negative numbers on Monday amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump on Tuesday said that the United States will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future, he added in a social media statement. A man wearing a mask against the spread of the CCP virus looks at an electronic stock board showing world stock indexes at a securities firm in Tokyo, Japan on April 21, 2020. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo) Steven Muchin, the Treasury secretary, has helped formulate plans in recent weeks that saw millions in government funds go to airlines, restaurants, and other businesses. Trump adviser Stephen Moore said in an op-ed that many small- and medium-sized oil producers across the country are shutting down amid the unprecedented situation, calling for slashing taxes paid by onshore drillers as well as some royalties. The feds now collect about $6 billion a year in royalties. Canceling those payments would be a small price to pay to save an industry that employs several million workers. Under federal law, the president has the executive authority to take this action, he wrote. Under Trump, the United States became a net oil exporter for the first time in decades. As unemployment claims soar and struggling companies institute furloughs or other cuts, some workers are actually seeing a boost in pay. Many are at grocery chains and other businesses kept busy as large swaths of the economy shut down. National chains like Albertsons, Trader Joe's, Target, Costco, and Starbucks have all announced some form of temporary pay increase. Holiday Stationstores is promising up to two weeks paid sick leave for non-management hourly workers diagnosed with COVID-19 or on mandatory quarantine. In Billings, St. Johns United increased pay for all workers by $1.50 an hour. Our staff have come to work asking what they can do to be helpful, not asking for anything extra, said CEO David Trost. Trost said the pay bump represents our appreciation for all health care workers at all levels. The board of directors approved the pay increase for the duration of the states shelter-in-place order, which took effect March 28. It's set to expire April 24 but could be extended. City Brew has bumped its barista pay by $2 an hour. New Delhi, April 21 : The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has extended the effective dates for implementation of Approved Lists of Models & Manufacturers (ALMM) for solar PV modules and solar PVs by six months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The list will now be finalised by September 30 instead of the earlier date of March 31. With the objective of building energy security for the country and ensuring reliability of solar PV cells and modules, the MNRE had issued an order for enlistment of their models and manufacturers, complying with the BIS Standards, in ALMM List-I (for solar PV modules) & ALMM L ist-II (for solar PV cells). This mechanism proposed to have List-I specifying models and manufacturers of solar PV models and List-II specifying models and manufacturers of solar PV Cells. The ALMM Order stipulates that after effective date, all solar PV power projects which are government-owned/government-assisted/bid out as per Central government's Standard Bidding Guidelines, shall mandatorily procure solar PV cells and modules for such projects from the manufacturers approved and included in the ALMM Lists after effective date. MNRE has been directing all implementing agencies (of Central & state governments) to explicitly, upfront, include clauses in their tender documents regarding mandatory requirement of procuring solar PV cells and modules only from the ALMM Lists, once the ALMM lists become effective. It has reiterated that all stakeholders including solar PV cells and modules manufactures, renewable energy (RE) power developers, implementing agencies and RE power procurers, and most importantly, banks & financial institutions involved in lending to RE sector, align their activities in order to comply with the order. At least 100 front-line health and social care workers have been killed by COVID-19 in the UK as of yesterday. Nursing Notes, which keeps an accurate record of all who have died in the field and announces total deaths each morning, wrote Monday afternoon, The number of health and social care workers thought to have died from COVID-19 has now entered triple figures. This gruesome total is more than double the number of deaths recorded by the Conservative government, which only includes fatalities of those directly employed by the National Health Service (NHS). According to the Tories, only 40 health and social care workers had died as of Monday. Among the many tragic deaths is that of Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong, a 28-year-old mother of a two-year old boy. The nurse, who was eight months pregnant, was diagnosed with COVID-19 on April 5. Two days later, she was admitted to hospital where her baby, a girl, was delivered by an emergency caesarean operation. Mary died on April 12 of COVID-19. Her baby has survived. Marys husband is self-isolating and has been tested for COVID-19. Tragically, Marys father also died as a result of suspected COVID-19 at the end of March. Mary came to England from Ghana with her father when she was a teenager. She trained as a nurse and had been working at Luton and Dunstable University hospital. A GoFundMe page opened to support her family has raised more than 120,000 to date. Mary worked on a general ward at the hospital until her 28th week of pregnancy, finishing on March 12. She had worked at the hospital for five years and was working on ward 12 when she finished. Ward 12 is now a COVID-19 ward but not so when Mary was still working, according to hospital authorities. Reporting on Marys death, Channel 4 News said it had been told by sources at the hospital that there had been a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), including gowns, as well as the rationing of masks, during the period Mary was working there. Hospital authorities have denied there are any shortages. Other UK health workers who have died from COVID-19 over the last two weeks include: Gareth Roberts, a 65-year-old nurse, who had come out of retirement to help on the wards at Llandough hospital in Cardiff. He volunteered to do extra shifts because of the high demand. Gareth died on April 11. On April 14, a Mail Online article reported his familys claim that he had to do the job without adequate PPE. They say he had only a paper mask, plastic gloves and a pinny [apron]. Dr. Peter Tun, aged 62, died in the intensive care unit at Reading hospital on April 13. He worked as an associate specialist in neurorehabilitation. His son, Michael, told the BBC that his father had complained to hospital management when they took away PPE from his department for use elsewhere in the hospital. Josiane Zauma Ebonja Ekoli, an agency nurse, who died on April 13 in Leeds General Infirmary. The 55-year-old mother worked as a nurse for more than 30 years. She had worked on COVID-19 wards prior to her death. Her daughter told the Guardian that her mother had described the provision of PPE as poor. Amor Padilla Gatinao was 50 when she died on April 10, and had worked as a nurse for 18 years at St. Charles hospital in West London. Her husband Mario, speaking to Sky News, said he thought she had caught the coronavirus while working at St. Charles. He explained that when she became ill, he had called an ambulance, but she was refused admittance to hospital. He told Sky, I dont know why the government did not do more to protect NHS workers, like my wife. She was neglected. Dr. Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, 53, died in Queens hospital in Romford on April 8 after being in hospital for two weeks. He worked as a consultant urologist at Homerton hospital in east London. In March, while he was working as a doctor, he had Facebook messaged UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for PPE to be provided to front line staff as a matter of urgency and for the testing of health workers to be immediately actioned. He told Johnson that health staff are in direct contact with patients and have a human right like others to live in this world disease-free with our family and children. The lack of provision of PPE for front line health and care staff has become an international scandal. The Lancet medical journal wrote in a March 21 editorial, As the pandemic accelerates, access to personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers is a key concern. Some medical staff are waiting for equipment while already seeing patients who may be infected or are supplied with equipment that might not meet requirements Health-care systems globally could be operating at more than maximum capacity for many months... In the global response, the safety of health-care workers must be ensured. Adequate provision of PPE is just the first step; other practical measures must be considered, including cancelling non-essential events to prioritise resources; provision of food, rest, and family support; and psychological support. Presently, health-care workers are every countrys most valuable resource. A survey conducted by the Royal College of Nursing found that 50 percent of nursing staff felt under pressure to carry out procedures, even if the normal level of protection was not being provided. The survey showed half of the nurses working in high risk areas such as intensive care and high dependency units had been asked to reuse PPE equipment designed by manufacturers for single use only. For those treating COVID-19 patients in other areas the figure was nearly 40 percent. To be safe, health workers treating COVID-19 patients should be using a full-face visor, an FFP3 respirator mask and a long-sleeved fluid repellent gown and gloves. However, many staff are using only protective goggles, basic face masks and short sleeve gowns. According to the Department of Health, the UK is using 150,000 disposable gowns each day. Ministers reported 55,000 gowns had been delivered on April 17. A consignment of 400,000 gowns from Turkey was due to arrive April 19 but was delayed, prompting the government to send a Royal Air Force military transport jet to Turkey Monday to menacingly secure the shipmentwith two further Royal Air Force aircraft set to follow over the next 24 hours. Health workers fears about the lack of PPE spreading the disease were expressed this weekend by Dr. Rinesh Parmar, chairman of the Doctors Association UK. He told the Sunday Times, Many doctors are in an impossible position and have reported the rationing of gowns and visors, with some having to wipe down items that would normally be for single use. There is an emerging concern and fear among doctors that the rationing of PPE in this way may inadvertently lead to the spread of the infection to other patients, something we are desperate to avoid. The deaths of so many health and social care workers expose the long-term attack on health care facilities and resources that has taken place under successive Tory and Labour administrations. Between 2013 and 2016, the Tories, as they enforced savage austerity in order to pay for the bailout of the bankers, cut the value of the national stockpile of PPE by 40 percent. *** A frontline nurse in the Red Zone at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital made the following remarks to the WSWS regarding the revelation of at least 100 health and social care worker deaths: News of the death of more than 100 health and social care workers of Covid-19 is scandalous and shocking. As a front-line nurse, I condemn this government in the strongest terms for their inability to provide proper PPE, testing and other facilities which would have prevented the deaths of these health workers. There is no doubt that these staff were the victims of the criminal policies of the government. My colleagues who have got Covid-19 symptoms are still struggling to have a swab test done and in some cases were denied admission to hospital until their symptoms got worse. We are not allowed to wear World Health Organisation recommended PPE when looking after patients with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients in wards. Today, I learnt from a Royal College of Nursing survey that even in high-risk areas where aerosol generating procedures [medical procedures that can induce the production of airborne droplets of various sizes] are taking place, more than a quarter of colleagues across the UK do not have enough filtering face piece respirators (FFP3 or FFP2/N95) and fluid-repellent coveralls/gowns. A few days ago, I listened in anger at the governments demand to wash and reuse the disposable PPE and [Health Secretary] Matt Hancock saying that there was no magic wand to have PPE fall from the sky. He did not say that when his government wasted nearly three months in facing the coronavirus outbreak and when much needed funds for PPE were slashed over the last few years, knowing that a world pandemic could happen. This government has a magic wand to bailing out financial markets, banks and big companies while giving a pittance for working people. Infosys fell 2.11% to Rs 639.15 after the company announced Q4 March 2020 result after market hours on Monday, 20 April 2020. Infosys said its consolidated net profit (after minority interest) fell 3.1% to Rs 4,321 crore on 0.8% rise in revenues to Rs 23,267 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q3 December 2019. On a consolidated basis, operating profit fell 2.7% to 4,927 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q3 December 2019. Operating margin stood at 21.2% in Q4 March 2020 lower than 21.9% in Q3 December 2019. The result was announced after trading hours on Monday, 20 April 2020. "Considering the business uncertainty emanating from COVID-19, the company is unable to provide guidance on revenues and margins for FY 21 at this stage. The company will provide guidance after visibility improves," Infosys said in a release. Digital revenues stood at $1,341 million (41.9% of total revenues) in Q4 March 2020, year-on-year growth of 31.7% and sequential growth of 2.6% in constant currency. Infosys' consolidated net profit (after minority interest) rose 7.7% to Rs 16,594 crore on 9.8% rise in revenues to Rs 90,791 crore in the year ended March 2020 (FY20) over the year ended March 2019 (FY19). Operating margin stood at 21.3% in FY20, lower than 22.8% in FY19. Infosys announced final dividend of Rs 9.50 per share. "We had an exceptional year in financial year 2020 with growth of 9.8% and operating margin of 21.3%. While the immediate short-term will be challenging, looking ahead, we can see that there is a strong interest to consolidate with partners with high-quality and agile service delivery and strong financial resilience. I am confident we will emerge from this stronger," said Salil Parekh, CEO and MD. "We completed a satisfying year on multiple counts -growth in all verticals and geographies, significant increase in large deal wins, good client mining and operational discipline," said Pravin Rao, COO. "The impact caused by COVID-19 since last few weeks of March has led to significant displacement in the operating model while severely testing business continuity plans of companies." "We continue to remain focused on execution excellence in a period of high uncertainty. Our relentless focus on liquidity will be supported by our strong balance sheet of $3.6 billion cash, backed by accelerated cost take-outs and operational rigor," said Nilanjan Roy, CFO. "The final dividend of Rs 9.50 per share is a testimony of a strong free cash flow performance for FY 20." Infosys said it is resilient and prepared to navigate the COVID-19 impact for its employees, clients and stakeholders. The IT major said that with some impact due to project deferrals and softening of discretionary spends, there will be some margin pressure in the near term. In response to these new contours of projected demand, Infosys will work to optimize its cost structure and operational rigor, while continuing to invest in strengthening its digital capabilities. Infosys said it intends to not only nurture its vast pool of digital talent in a high-productivity environment, but also honor the job offers it has extended to the markets, in order to enhance the skill-sets it can bring to recovery-focused client environments. The company had approximately $3.605 billion (Rs 27,276 crore) in cash and cash equivalents including investments with zero debt as of 31 March 2020. Attrition rate for Q4 March 2020 stood at 20.7% against 20.4% last fiscal. Infosys had 2,42,371 employees as of 31 March 2020, against 2,28,123 in the same period last year. In its update on whistleblower matters, Infosys said the audit committee appointed an external legal counsel to conduct an independent investigation into the whistleblower allegations which have been previously disclosed to stock exchanges on October 22, 2019 and to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) on Form 6-K on the same date. As previously disclosed on January 10, 2020 the outcome of the investigation has not resulted in restatement of previously issued financial statements. The company cooperated with an investigation by the SEC regarding the same matters. In March 2020, the company received notification from the SEC that the SEC has concluded its investigation and the Company does not anticipate any further action by the SEC on this matter. The Company is responding to all the inquires received from the Indian regulatory authorities and will continue to cooperate with the authorities for any additional requests for information. Additionally, in October 2019, a shareholder class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the company and certain of its current and former officers for alleged violations of the US federal Securities Laws. The company is presently unable to predict the scope, duration or the outcome of these matters. Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UBLY Hopes are that by the time August rolls around the coronavirus pandemic will be contained so some recreational events can happen. According to Tim Juhl, who is with the Model T Ford International Club, the club would like to stop in the village on Aug. 8, for coffee and donuts, and to let people look at vehicles. Around 75-100 vehicles are expected. Juhls request was made and approved at the councils March meeting, before COVID-19 cases became an issue in the state and prompted the governor to issue social distancing and shelter in place orders. At that meeting, the council approved hosting the vehicle club, and approved closing Park Street to Harrison Street from 9 a.m. to noon to through traffic so the Model Ts can park and so pedestrians can safely view them. The Model T Ford International Club had planed to host its 64th annual gathering July 19 and 24 in New Philadelphia, Ohio. The club was founded in December 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Model T Ford International Club board has agreed to wait until May 15 to make a decision regarding this years annual tour in Ohio, and other events. In the meantime, while the car club is waiting to make a decision on its event, a local celebration become a victim of the virus. Village Trustee Steve Irvine informed council the annual Ubly Homecoming has been canceled this year due to virus. That decision was made at the April 16 village meeting. The meeting was able to be held because of a variety of methods, with some meeting at the Bingham/Village Government Center and others online following the social distancing guidelines per the governor. In attendance at the hall were President Jason Nicol, Trustees Brandon Zdrojewski, Gabe Turner, Sara Schmidt and Andrew Batzer. Trustees Jeff Rubin and Steve Irvine, Police Chief Dave Rothe, and Clerk Barb Butch attended via the Lifesize application. Treasurer Larry Gornowicz and DPW Supervisor Dave Franzel had excused absences. In other matters, Clerk Barb Butch reminded the council they need to contact Bingham Township Clerk Joe Trepkoski before June if they will be running for their positions on the November ballot. Up for re-election are Nicol, Butch and Gornowicz, as well as one, two-year trustee seat and three four-year trustee positions. As part of the 2020 - 2021 budget, the councils pay for meetings was increased from $95 to $100 per meeting. Approval was given to increase the clerks wages from $8,150 to $9,500 per year, and treasurer wages were increased from $5,100 to $5,500 per year. Plummeting oil prices, combined with other coronavirus pressures, are hurting the budgets of Gulf nations in particular. Gulf stock markets fell on Tuesday, and the Saudi riyal dropped in the forwards market after US crude oil futures collapsed below $0 on a coronavirus-induced supply glut. The Saudi stock index dropped 1.5 percent at market open with oil company Aramco down 1.7 percent, and shares in the Dubai market fell 1.4 percent, while the Abu Dhabi index lost 0.5 percent and the Kuwaiti premier index declined 2 percent. The cost of insuring against a potential debt default of Saudi Arabia the worlds biggest oil exporter increased slightly to 168 basis points from 166 on Monday, according to data from IHS Markit. US crude oil futures fell below $0 on Monday for the first time in history as demand cratered. Brent crude, the international benchmark, also slumped below $20 a barrel for the first time in 18 years. Lower oil prices, combined with other economic pressures caused by the coronavirus outbreak, are hurting the budgets of Gulf countries that rely heavily on crude exports, and have strained their currencies. All the Gulf states depend on oil income for most of their public revenues. The International Monetary Fund last week projected the six Gulf states along with oil exporters in the Middle East and North Africa will lose more about $230bn in oil revenues after oil prices dropped by more than 60 percent this year. The global lender also forecast that economies of the Gulf states will shrink by 2.7 percent, their worst performance in several decades. Low and very volatile The oil price will stay low for some time as supply exceeds demand and the current situation on global oil markets is reminiscent of the 1980s oil glut, former BP boss John Browne said on Tuesday. Browne, who ran BP from 1995 to 2007, said the negative prices were a US issue because of a lack of storage, though he said across the world demand was down while production was still high. The prices will be very low, and I think they will remain low and very volatile for some considerable time, Browne told the BBC. There is still a lot of oil being produced that is going into storage and not being used. This is very reminiscent of a time in the mid-1980s when exactly the same situation happened too much supply, too little demand and prices of oil stayed low for 17 years. The 1980s glut when oil prices tumbled in the mid-1980s ultimately led to geopolitical tremors across the world: The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 while Algeria faced a political crisis that spawned a deadly civil war. Browne said the demand for hydrocarbons would likely fall, partly as a result of a greater awareness of climate change. Demand for hydrocarbons will continue to be weak, he said. And that demand will be filled primarily by those who have no choice but to produce oil so the state oil companies of the world. US President Donald Trump said his administration would look at a proposal to block Saudi Arabian oil shipments to the US to help buoy the US shale oil industry against an unprecedented rout that threatens its survival. Well, Ill look at it, Trump told reporters at a daily news conference after he was asked about requests by some Republican legislators to block the shipments under his executive authority. Los Angeles County released a shocking new study on Monday that suggests COVID-19 coronavirus has spread like wildfire in southern California and is many times greater than the official count. Los Angeles County conducted a study by the University of Southern California (USC) and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The county said in a press release announcing the results. Based on the results of the first round of testing, the research team estimates that approximately 4.1% of the countys adult population has antibodies to the virus. Adjusting this estimate for the statistical margin of error implies between 2.8% to 5.6% of the countys adult population has antibodies to the virus. This translates to approximately 221,000 to 442,000 adults in the county who have had the infection. That estimate is 28 to 55 times higher than the 7,994 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported to the county by the time of the study in early April. Neeraj Sood, a USC professor of public policy at USC Price School for Public Policy and senior fellow at USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, was the lead investigator and said in a statement We havent known the true extent of COVID-19 infections in our community because we have only tested people with symptoms, and the availability of tests has been limitedThe estimates also suggest that we might have to recalibrate disease prediction models and rethink public health strategies. The information from L.A. County was matched with a similar study by Stanford University in Santa Clara County that suggests the coronavirus had spread further than thought in northern California. Attorney General Bill Barr is Reportedly Set to Force Governors to Open Up Their States without Sufficient Testing Supply as President Trump Grows Increasingly Desperate to Re-Open the American Economy! The Daily Beast released a story written by David Lurie that is warning Attorney General Bill Barr appears poised to take the lead and attempt to force governors to re-open their states during this coronavirus pandemic. This move violates the steps the Trump administration has set in its re-opening plan released last week even at the enormous risk of ramping up the spread of the virus just as it appears new infections are slowing down. In the process, Attorney General Barr is likely to become the face of Donald Trumps failures to stem the COVID-19 health crisis. The Daily Beasts David Lurie wrote Donald Trump is calling for his followers to LIBERATE the states from the social distancing measures that are staving off an even greater coronavirus death toll. Trumps enforcer, Attorney General Bill Barr, is now poised to support Trumps call for insurrection by turning to the federal courtsseeded with a legion of newly installed right-wing juriststo undermine critical public health protections on his boss behalfIf Barr and Trump get their way, the states will soon be opened up to the virus and thus to a massive number of needless deaths. David Lurie, in his Daily Beast article, is pointing out that AG Barr had already announced on Fox News that he would start scrutinizing actions taken by the states after April 30, 2020. Lurie suggests the attorney General will likely take the lead as usual based upon Donald Trumps wishes, and that Barr will have some help from the slate of conservative judges installed by the president over the past three years. There is every reason to believe that Barr, as well as many of the judges Trump, has placed on the bench, will enthusiastically comply with the new call to undertake an offensive against states emergency health measures. Lurie wrote The spectacle of having judges second-guessing the determinations of state health professionals serves Barrs and Trumps broader goal: to undermine the legitimacy and authority of governors. Some of the Democrats in swing states, who have received far more robust public support for their effective responses to the pandemic than has Trump for his catastrophically late efforts. The Daily Beast columnist also noted this plan to act as Trumps henchman should come as no surprise, as Barr has been remaking the Justice Department in his own image since being appointed by the president... Barrs efforts now to undermine the authority of governors is of a piece with his past work undermining the legitimacy of his own Justice Department, as well as the nations intelligence community and diplomatic corps, to help Trump escape the consequences of his criminal conduct during Robert Muellers investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and then his scheme to pressure Ukraine to announce an investigation of his 2020 rival, Joe Biden, he wrote. Lurie then warned Yet while Barrs past efforts to shred public confidence in governmental institutions have done a great deal of damage to the nation, the attorney generals latest effort to misuse the authority of the law, and of the federal courts, to help Trump out of a political jam is likely to have more immediate, and fatal, consequences. Empty L.A.: In the time of coronavirus [April 21, 2020] DocOnline Appoints Manasije Mishra as the New Managing Director BENGALURU, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DocOnline, a digital healthcare company, announces the appointment of Mr. Manasije Mishra as the new Managing Director of the company. He was previously the Managing Director of vHealth by Aetna and Max Bupa Health Insurance and brings several years of relevant experience to help DocOnline accelerate growth. Mr. Manasije Mishra will join the DocOnline board in India and replace Mr. Saurabh Tandon. He will work closely with the founders in executing the new business plans that include continuing to support the infusion of a new round of capital to cater to the next 24 months. Mr. Markus Moding, the previous CEO and founder of DocOnline will continue to stay in Bengaluru and work along with Mr. Mishra until July 2020. After that, he will join DocOnline AB, the Swedish holding company, as a Board member, even while continuing to serve on the Board of DocOnline India. He will continue to spend time in India and will focus on strategic international clients as well s fund raising initiatives. Mr. Hakan Winberg, Chairman of the Board of DocOnline AB, said "We are delighted to get Manasije on board. His vast experience and proven management capabilities will help in extending DocOnline's growth in India. We look forward to his significant and strategic contribution to our current and forthcoming initiatives in the country." Manasije Mishra, the new Managing Director of DocOnline India, said, "It's a privilege to work for an organization that is engaged in solving critical healthcare challenges in India. In the current public health emergency situation, private telemedicine providers like DocOnline have launched several initiatives to ensure support to our stressed healthcare system. I am looking forward to leading the team in this endeavour." DocOnline will offer an automated chatbot called 'USHA' to help people understand and analyse their coronavirus symptoms. This will help in classifying their COVID 19 risk as low, medium or high. Once the user classifies their COVID-19 risk, they could speak/chat/video call DocOnline's in house doctors using the free online consultation app. In addition, DocOnline has decided to offer free doctor consultations for all health problems until the situation abates. DocOnline has dedicated five doctors to support the Karnataka Government's COVID19 Helpline 104. These initiatives by DocOnline are directed towards supporting the community and the government in reducing the burden on our physical healthcare system. Being a quality primary healthcare provider, DocOnline has witnessed a major growth in business adding 200,000 new customers in the last two weeks. About DocOnline DocOnline Group (DocOnline Health India Private Limited and DocOnline Consulting Private Limited) is a digital healthcare company providing online doctor consultation, EMR and e-clinic solution through its proprietary platform. They harness innovative technology-based solutions to provide quality health care services through their in house team of doctors. Their motto is to provide quality healthcare to anyone, anywhere. They have offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gorakhpur and New Delhi. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1157820/DocOnline_New_MD.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Cath Kidston is to permanently to shut its 60 UK stores with the loss of more than 900 jobs. The fashion retailer confirmed its stores will not reopen once the coronavirus lockdown is over after the company's owners secured a deal to buy back its brand and online operations following its fall into administration. Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA), which has held a stake in the retailer since 2014, said it will buy the online business, brand and wholesale arm from administrators Alvarez & Marsal. It said the move will result in the 'cessation of the retail store network'. Cath Kidston is to permanently to shut its 60 UK stores with the loss of more than 900 jobs The company confirmed that only 32 of its 940 staff will see their jobs secured as part of the deal. Melinda Paraie, chief executive officer of Cath Kidston, said: 'While we are pleased that the future of Cath Kidston has been secured, this is obviously an extremely difficult day as we say goodbye to many colleagues. 'Despite our very best efforts, against the backdrop of Covid-19, we were unable to secure a solvent sale of the business which would have allowed us to avoid administration and carry on trading in our current form. 'I would like to thank all our employees for their hard work, loyalty and patience over the last few weeks as we worked through this process.' A spokesman for BPEA said: 'While we are disappointed that the Covid-19 crisis has resulted in the cessation of the retail store network and impacted many employees, we are pleased to have secured a future for a number of Cath Kidston staff and the Cath Kidston brand in the form of a viable digital business. 'Going forward we will continue to help the company grow through its e-commerce platform and international wholesale and franchise businesses. Associated British Foods boss George Weston said the group had been 'squarely in the path of this pandemic' but would not reopen Primark stores until the disease is under control 'We would like to thank Melinda and the company's management team for their hard work in managing through this difficult economic crisis and establishing a viable future for the business in the UK.' Meanwhile the UK's high street woes continue to grow amid the coronavirus lockdown as 68,000 Primark staff are furloughed across Europe. The owner of budget fashion firm Primark has also revealed a 248 million hit for unsold stock as all its stores remain shut. Associated British Foods boss George Weston said the group had been 'squarely in the path of this pandemic' but would not reopen Primark stores until the disease is under control. Mr Weston said the company would have 'had no option but to fire staff' were it not for the furlough scheme. A survey from the British Chambers of Commerce suggested around one in three British businesses has furloughed between 75% and 100% of its workforce. Primark has seen sales plunge from 650 million a month to zero as coronavirus has caused the 376-strong chain to shut completely, with no online business to fall back on. A message from the CEO of Primark, Paul Marchant, talking about store closures during the coronavirus crisis Half-year results showed pre-tax profits slumped as Primark was left with piles of stock it was unable to sell amid the global coronavirus lockdown, falling 42% to 298 million in the six months to February 29. Total charges in the first half soared to 309 million, compared with 79 million a year earlier, including the 248 million stock costs. However, Mr Weston said the company would not launch online in a bid to shift stock it has been unable to sell. He said: 'We will sell that stock in stores but it might take a while. 'It might be in a year's time but it's not going to deteriorate and we will just have to wait until we can open stores again safely. 'I think this is the cost of Covid rather than not having online operations.' Primark revealed on Monday it had agreed to pay an additional 370 million to suppliers to cover stock currently in production or yet to be delivered after facing criticism over order cancellations during the coronavirus crisis. John Lewis sales plunge by up to a third despite surge in online orders The John Lewis department store chain saw total sales tumble 17% in the weeks since March 15, after it closed all its sites on March 23. The high street retailer warned that a worst-case scenario would see the chain's annual sales plunge 35%. Nevertheless, John Lewis said online sales have jumped 84% as shoppers purchased more technology and food preparation products. The retailer said demand has particularly spiked in some of its 'less profitable lines', with people 'buying more Scrabble but fewer sofas'. Advertisement The fashion chain said the deal will cover products which were in production or due for shipment by April 17, having previously committed to pay for orders which were in transit or booked for delivery by March 18. Bosses also set up a fund to support the thousands of garment workers affected. Mr Weston laid bare the 'human tragedy' of the Covid-19 crisis as he reported half-year figures, as he said two of the group's employees have died from Covid-19 in the past three weeks while another remains in intensive care in the United States. Its food and agriculture business - spanning sugar, groceries and ingredients, including brands such as Twinings tea and Kingsmill bread - is helping the firm weather the crisis while cost cutting will also help it mitigate half the operating costs of Primark while stores remain shut. The company said it has seen a 20% jump in bread sales, while other store cupboard products such as Blue Dragon noodles and Ryvita crackers have also seen sharp sales increases. Mr Weston said: 'Much as I would love to be allowed to reopen Primark stores across the UK, continental Europe and the USA soon, because lockdown has so harmed our business and our supply chains, I know that we must not do so until we have suppressed this disease. 'When we are allowed to reopen we must make our Primark stores safe for our staff and our customers, even if that means ensuring there are fewer people shopping at any one time and so accepting lower sales at least until the remaining risk is minimal. 'In time, we can rebuild the profits. We can't replace the people we lose.' A survey from the British Chambers of Commerce suggested around one in three British businesses has furloughed between 75% and 100% of its workforce. Meanwhile High Street fashion chains Oasis and Warehouse have fallen into administration, leading to more than 200 immediate job losses. Closed shops on a quiet Kings Road in Chelsea, West London, as life in Britain continues during the lockdown Some 1,800 staff across the shops, concessions and head office will be furloughed and receive 80% of pay. The brands will continue to be sold online 'short-term' while the administrators try to sell the brand. The two brands, which run 90 stores, appointed auditor Deloitte to run the process. Businesses lost to coronavirus With the High Street struggling to cope with the national coronavirus lockdown, a few have started filing for administration. These include: Debenhams: 22,000 jobs at risk Carluccio's: 2,000 jobs at risk Brighthouse: 2,400 jobs at risk Chiquito: 1,500 jobs at risk Laura Ashley: 2,700 jobs at risk Oasis and Warehouse: 200 immediate job losses Flybe: 2,000 jobs at risk Advertisement The Oasis and Warehouse Group has been looking for a saviour for weeks but could not close a deal due to the pandemic. It is owned by failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing. The lockdown has already claimed Laura Ashley, electrical retailer Brighthouse, and restaurant chains Carluccio's and Chiquito. Many firms were already reeling after last year, the worst for the high street in a quarter of a century. Meanwhile, there are fears are building that gyms, pubs and restaurants may never reopen as landlords threaten them with eviction for unpaid rent during the coronavirus lockdown. Nearly 3,000 gyms and leisure centres now face the threat of closure, while top chef Yotam Ottolenghi has warned that restaurants are suffering the same issue. The Oasis and Warehouse Group has been looking for a saviour for weeks but could not close a deal due to the pandemic Pubs and non-essential shops have also faced trouble paying rent, amid fears they will not be able to reopen after the pandemic because they will have no cash left. Up to 100,000 jobs could be at risk at gyms with trade body UKActive calling for urgent action to protect places of exercise which remain shut due to the pandemic. Fresh legislation to protect commercial tenants was brought in last month, but it does not stop landlords forcing them to pay rent withheld due to the lockdown. A study of 34 non-food retailers including Dunelm, JD Sports, John Lewis and Next has found that many may not survive the pandemic sweeping the nation. Even after government support, more than half of major non-food UK retailers will run out of cash within six months, according to the report. The study was conducted by professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), in partnership with Retail Economics. It found that five out of the 34 major non-food retailers analysed already had negative cash flow at the outbreak of the pandemic. Candidates sitting for this years West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) examinations would know when they would be writing the papers after the COVID-19 lockdown. Mr Emeka Nwajiuba, Minister of State for Education, said this at the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 daily press briefing on Tuesday in Abuja. He said that WAEC and NECO examinations had been postponed indefinitely over COVID-19 but added that the ministry would soon announce the time for the examination when the lockdown was over. Nwajiuba said that the ministry was working on how school would be reopened after the lockdown, adding that nobody could reopen school except it was coordinated by the Ministry of Education. He said that student had been advised to learn via online platforms, stating that the ministry was working with Universal Basic Education (UBEC) and the State Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to ease the process. According to him, 15 states including Lagos and Anambra have already commenced learning through radio in accordance with approved standard, while also working with NTA and Radio Nigeria to provide educational contents Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Reader: Let's stay home and save lives To the editor: While Americans value hard work and personal freedom, it is not a just reason to endanger others' lives over it. Last Thursday, a group of conservative Michiganders met outside the Lansing Capital to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Stay-at-Home orders. Some protesters blocked traffic, including an ambulance. Others, not wearing facemasks or staying 6 feet apart from each other, held American flags, Confederate flags, and flags that read, "Don't tread on me." Wearing MAGA hats, they carried guns and handmade signs expressing the desire to re-elect President Donald Trump and, most of all, to go back to work. While people in America enjoy a lot of freedom compared with many countries and value work, this approach is misguided during this crisis. Gathering together in a large group, protesters are most likely furthering the spread of the corona virus and infecting many people. Each person likely transmits the virus to 40 other people and the infection rate grows exponentially from there. While these protesters asked for freedom, they were impinging on the freedom of others: the elderly, those with underlying medical conditions, and the general population (likely including themselves). While these citizens resented being told they couldn't work, buy non-essential products from stores, or gather in large groups because of their convictions of personal freedom, they were endangering the lives of their fellow Americans. They are not considering their fellow citizens' freedom to live, their right to life. While work is important to provide others with goods and services and keep the economy strong, Americans often place too much value on capitalism. While the right combination of capitalism and socialism has made our country great, many people link their personal worth with their paychecks. If they're not working they feel like they're not contributing to society, that they're worthless because they're serving no purpose. We are all connected, everyone deserves the freedom to live, and all people have inherent worth beyond a non-essential (or essential) job. Let's all stay home, stay safe, and save lives. Emma C. Johnson MIDLAND FAIRFAX, Va., April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WidePoint Corporation (NYSE American: WYY ), the leading provider of Trusted Mobility Management (TM2) specializing in Telecommunications Lifecycle Management, Identity Management and Digital Billing & Analytics solutions, today reported that the company received approximately $20.0 million in contract awards and extensions during the first quarter of 2020. WidePoint recorded 39 contractual actions during the quarter, including new contract wins as well as exercised option periods and contract extensions with current clients. These awards are an amalgamation of contracts from both federal government and commercial clients. Highlights include: A new contract for Telecom Lifecycle Management services from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Option contracts for Managed Mobility Services exercised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Contract extensions with the Office of the Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Contract extension for wireline managed services from a leading real estate development corporation based in California An Identity Management contract renewal and expansion for E-Authentication from the Federal Highway Administration Many of the clients mentioned above are on the forefront of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly every business, regardless of industry, is facing new working paradigms, and as a result, weve seen an increase in demand for our managed services, said Jin Kang, WidePoint President and Chief Executive Officer. In particular, weve seen many of our clients extend existing contracts while they confront the COVID-19 pandemic. WidePoint remains committed to supporting our government and commercial clients, and we look forward to delivering our vital TM2 solutions to help our customers through this challenging time and beyond. Jason Holloway, WidePoints Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, added: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way the world works not only today but beyond this crisis. As organizations move more toward a virtual and mobile work environment, strong identity authentication solutions are becoming essential for access and enterprise security. WidePoints federally accredited and certified Identity Management solutions are well placed to meet those demands. About WidePoint WidePoint Corporation (NYSE American: WYY) is a leading provider of trusted mobility management (TM2) solutions, including telecom management, managed mobility services, identity management, and digital billing and analytics. For more information, visit widepoint.com . To aid society in the fight against COVID-19, prisoners have been set to work turning out cloth masks and protective gear, to help overcome shortages, instead of the leatherware and carpentry goods they usually make. A total of around 100 inmates at prisons in Aomori, Kyoto, Osaka, Kakogawa, Yamaguchi, Iwakuni and Takamatsu are aiming to produce 66,000 masks each month, to meet orders received from the private sector in March. Protective gear, which is in short supply on medical front lines, is being produced at prisons in Kyoto and Osaka, with around 4,600 sets to be dispatched monthly. Prisoners in Tsukigata in northern Hokkaido as well as in Yokohama are also preparing to join in with production. At the Mine Rehabilitation Program Center in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which houses first-time offenders, eight inmates have made around 1,800 cloth masks in total following a request from the city of Mine in late March. Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness By Andrew Hazen Published: April 21 2020 The Promise of Hope Foundation along with RENU Contracting Restoration and Milburn Flooring is launching a new campaign to Cover Our Kids by teaming up to donate non-surgical masks to our communities in need Promise of Hope, RENU and Milburn have purchased over 100,000 masks. With a portion of the masks already delivered and the rest arriving by the end of this week they are donating the masks to school districts starting distribution on April 22nd. Superintendents from Bayshore, East Islip, Brentwood and Islip school districts will meet at Bayshore High School to receive their mask donation this Wednesday at 12:30pm at the back of the building. The team is currently coordinating drop-off dates with schools like Amityville, Wyandanch, William Floyd, Patchogue-Medford, Miller Place and more for the remainder of the masks. Next week they are planning to launch the Cover Our Kids campaign in Nassau County school districts as well. The shipments of non-surgical masks are being brought to the RENU and Milburn warehouse in Copiague where Promise of Hope and RENU volunteers will be dividing up 5 masks per bag for each student to take when they come to pick up their meals. These masks will go home to families who may not have the means to get masks they are required to wear should they need to go out in public where they cannot properly social distance. The operation will be done by volunteers with proper PPE and will be delivered to schools with prior logistical planning. The mission is to get some form of PPE in homes where it may otherwise be difficult to access so that families who may have to go to a public place will be allowed to enter and most importantly, be safer. Since the Covid-19 crisis began RENU Contracting Restoration has been doing essential work through their disinfecting cleaning services for many facilities and schools around Long Island and in the Westchester area. Both Milburn Flooring and RENU have worked with Long Island and Westchester school districts for decades and were searching for a way to give back to the community, most especially to families who may be in need of more help during this time. The Promise of Hope Foundation has already donated hundreds upon hundreds of hand-sewn washable masks to communities across Long Island through its volunteers tireless efforts and with their personal sewing equipment. They have been providing those masks to places like Stonybrook Hospital, East Hampton Town, Columbia Hospital, St. Michael's Senior Housing, Northport VA Hospital, Port Washington Police District and Port Washington Fire Department. The Cover Our Kids campaign was put into action to make sure our students and their families are taken care of and are able to have protection. Geneva, April 21 : Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), warned that "the worst is yet ahead of us" in the coronavirus pandemic that has infected millions and killed thousands across the globe. Addressing the media here on Monday, the WHO chief said: "Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us... Let's prevent this tragedy. It's a virus that many people still don't understand," the Evening Standard newspaper reported. "There is no secret in WHO because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous. It's a health issue. "This virus is dangerous. It exploits cracks between us when we have differences," he added. Ghebreyesus said that the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff have been seconded to work with his agency, suggesting that was a sign of the WHO's transparency. "Having CDC staff means there is nothing hidden from the US from day one" the WHO chief said, adding: "Our CDC colleagues also know that we give information immediately to anyone." In one of his starkest comparisons yet, the UN health agency chief also alluded to the Spanish Flu more than a century ago, reports the Evening Standard newspaper. He said the coronavirus has a "very dangerous combination... like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people". Ghebreyesus called the illness "Public Enemy Number One" and said: "We have been warning from day one: this is a devil that everybody should fight." As of Tuesday morning,a total of 170,324 people have so far died of the disease, while the global number of coronavirus cases stood at 2,477,426, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The US with 42,335 deaths and 787,370 cases currently accounts for the highest number of infections and fatalities in the world. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Jets are parked on runway 28 at the Pittsburgh International Airport on March 27, 2020 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Due to decreased flights as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, close to 70 American Airlines planes are being stacked and parked at the airport. The U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday it has disbursed $2.9 billion in initial payroll assistance to 54 smaller passenger carrier and two major passenger airlines, while it finalized grant agreements with six major airlines. The Treasury is initially giving major airlines 50% of funds awarded and releasing the remainder in a series of payments. In total, Treasury is awarding U.S. passenger airlines $25 billion in funds earmarked for payroll costs. Airlines must repay 30% of the funds in low-interest loans and grant Treasury warrants equal to 10% of the loan amount. Treasury said Monday it has finalized grant agreements with Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and United Airlines. Air carriers have been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic and seen U.S. travel demand fall by 95%. Hundreds of small-scale farmers across the UK have joined a new initiative to help connect the public with food producers who many be suffering as a result of Covid-19. Farms to Feed Us, a not-for-profit organisation run by volunteers, aims to help link consumers with farmers and food producers during the pandemic. The ambition of the initiative is to provide an online database highlighting the location of farms and where they can deliver. The coronavirus crisis has led to an explosion of consumer interest in sourcing food directly, and many producers are experiencing unprecedented demand. And yet the massive collapse in sales to restaurants, event catering, and the high street is causing mass wastage and loss of income for many farming businesses. The majority of producers on the database exclusively supplied the food service sector and have had to completely redesign their business to adapt to the changing situation during the crisis. Set up by Cathy St Germans, who founded the Port Eliot festival, Farms to Feed Us wants to channel the current high levels of public interest in buying local to promote coronavirus-affected firms. "Our hope is also that this moment of increased engagement with local and short-chain food supply, as well as big questions about food security, sovereignty, and sustainability, will provide strong foundations for the future," Farms to Feed Us said. "The database is growing every day as we gather new information, and as more and more farms and producers sign up, please check back regularly. "Its designed to be lo-fi so you can print it off and write on it, for those neighbours and relatives who may not use the internet or social media, and we also have a website version in the pipeline, to follow in the next few weeks." The Google document allows farmers to enter details such as their address, where they deliver, what they deliver, and even their methods of production. Businesses such as butchers, fishmongers and small farm shops also feature in the database. To find local farm shops near you during the coronavirus crisis, FarmingUK also provides an online list featuring thousands of locally-run businesses. The planet had no way of knowing that an entire nation of 205 million people was waking up on April 22, 1970the first Earth Dayplanning to rise in its defense, but it nonetheless cooperated in the effort. The temperatures were generally mild and the skies generally clear in the East and West, and it was sunnier and warmer still through most of the South and Plains states. The Pacific Northwest was expecting some showers, but the Pacific northwest was always expecting showers. Many businesses had adopted the Earth Day message and a lot of them pledged to donate money or stage events in support of it. That mornings issue of the New York Times included a full-page ad taken out by Seventeen magazinewhose audience was made up of just the kind of kids and teens the Earth Day organizers were hoping to reach. It featured a moody picture of a young couple walking along a beach, with text that read, TodayEarth Daywe salute millions of earnest young people who have accepted the challenge of seeking solutions for our environmental ills. Having reached the moon in the Sixties, perhaps in the Seventies we shall rediscover the earth! If there was something a little insincere in all of the corporate enthusiasman attempt to cash in on a good cause and, in effect, take a free ride on the work of all those earnest peopleit still showed that on the side of the environment was the right place to be. In city after city, community after community, people turned out. Events were staged on 1,500 campuses and in 10,000 schools, with speeches, marches, community clean-ups and even teach-ins pressed for by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, an Earth Day organizer. Boston school children picked up cans and bottles in vacant lots. Sacramento students did the same and even did the heavy work of gathering up abandoned tires and carting them off for proper disposal. More than 1,000 students from Cleveland State University picked up trash from around the city and loaded it into garbage trucks that had been made available for the day. In New York, students from a Brooklyn high school cleaned the beaches that abut the borough. Students in Manhattan picked up trash in a park on the islands upper east side, next to the East River and near the Mayors mansion, an area that was meant to be scenic but was spoiled by rubbish. College students gathered in subway stations along the dirty, neglected Lexington Avenue Line and washed the windows of the trains when they made their stops. Story continues Inevitably, with college students involved and the high-spirited energy of the 1960s uprisings in play, some of the protests became equal parts theater. Students at Florida Technological University held a trial for a Chevrolet, found it guilty of poisoning the air, and sentenced it to deaththough despite their efforts to destroy it with a sledgehammer, they couldnt quite carry out the execution. Students at the University of Minnesota held a solemn ceremony in which they buried an internal combustion engine. Students in Cleveland paid tribute to the citys founder, Moses Cleaveland, with one rowing to more or less the spot on the once-clean, now-filthy Cuyahoga River where the long-ago explorer was said to have come ashore. The student then looked around, declared it too dirty a place to build a colony, and rowed back off. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter In Denver, where the high elevation and thin air increases the destructive impact of automobile exhaust, high school students pedaled bicycles to the state capital as a symbol of protest against cars. Nelson spoke at a Denver teach-in and deftly connected the environmental movement with the anti-war movement. Environmental degradation, he said, is a problem perpetuated by expenditures of tens of billions of dollars a year on the Vietnam war, instead of on our decaying, crowded, congested, polluted urban areas that are inhuman traps for millions of people. In Washington, D.C., students marched on the Department of the Interior and gathered on the Mall near the Washington Monument. Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes spoke there, also connecting the environmental movement to the Vietnam war, but doing so with the stridency and passion of an activist, compared to the more measured tones of Nelson, a politician. Even if that war were over tomorrow, he said, we would still be killing this planet. We are systematically destroying our land, our streams and our seas. We foul our air, deaden our senses and pollute our bodies. New York City, determinedas it so often isto do things bigger, better, more ostentatiously than any other place in the nation, delivered on that effort. Mayor John Lindsay closed Fifth Avenue from 14th Street to 59th street, giving the boulevard over to marchers and speeches. Bunting in orange and blue, the citys colors, hung from lamp posts, and balloons stamped with environmental slogans were distributed. That the balloons if not the bunting would surely enter the waste stream later that daycreating mounds of garbage that were just one more part of the environmental problemseemed, at least at the moment, less important than conveying the environmental message. Downtown in Union Square, near New York University, booths were set up promoting various parts of the environmental causecurbing air pollution, controlling population, building cleaner cities. At least 100,000 people moved through the square that day, many of them stopping at the booths to learn more about the various issues. Con Edison, the city power company, which was long criticized for its poor environmental record, feared protests and even violence and while it remained open for businessa power company could hardly shut downit kept its doors locked and stationed security guards at each one. But there was no violence; these were not the angry protests at the Democratic Convention in Chicago from two years earlier. This was a happyif deeply worriedstatement of love for the planet. The demonstrations and celebrations kept going all day, all over the country, ending well after nightfall, which arrived, as it always did, sequentially, with the turning of the newly appreciated Earth bringing darkness first to the Eastern time zone, then to the Central, then to the Rocky Mountains, and then to the Pacific. The question then became, what would America do when Wednesday turned to Thursday, when April 22nd turned to April 23rd, and the nation woke up to a world that was no less dirty than it had been the day before. Philomel From RAISE YOUR VOICE by Jeffrey Kluger, published by Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright 2020 by Jeffrey Kluger Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) Forty-one more COVID-19 patients have recovered from the disease in the country, bringing the total number of those who have survived the potentially deadly infection to 654, the Health Department reported Tuesday. It also reported 140 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country-wide total to 6,599. Of them, 437 have died, including nine new fatalities. Last week, the department said more than 80 percent of coronavirus patients either exhibit mild symptoms or none at all. The countrys case fatality rate, meanwhile, stands at 6.6 percent, which is slightly higher than the global average of 6.4 percent. Total recoveries have surpassed the tally of deaths for the seventh consecutive day, as the DOH started including in its report patients who have gotten well while under home quarantine. Previously, its recovery count only included those confined in hospitals. The DOH also explained that it takes around 13 days up to more than a month for patients to recover, depending on the severity of their symptoms. To contain the spread of the virus, the government has placed Luzon under enhanced community quarantine for a month now, suspending most work, classes, and mass transportation so people would stay home. The Luzon-wide quarantine has been extended until April 30 amid daily spikes in new infections. Other local government units across the country enforced their own lockdowns. President Rodrigo Duterte is due to decide this week on the fate of the lockdown, but health experts have recommended a modified quarantine, which will allow the easing of quarantine measures in areas with few or no COVID-19 infections. The Philippines confirmed its first case in late January, a month after the coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan, China. COVID-19 has since infected more than 2.4 million worldwide and killed over 170,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 global tracker. To date, the Philippines has the third most number of cases in the Southeast Asian region, following Singapore and Indonesia, according to Johns Hopkins University. John Lewis has handed almost 1 million to its former managing director as hundreds of staff lose their jobs and the chain faces one of the toughest periods in its history. The business paid out 939,773 to Paula Nickolds, who was ousted from the department store business in January, John Lewis Partnership's latest annual report document reveals. The group also confirmed an 892,362 pay packet given to Rob Collins, who had been managing director of the group's Waitrose supermarket arm until he stepped down in October when the group's restructuring was announced. This comes as some 400 staff members were made redundant and John Lewis furloughed 14,000 staff after closing all of its 50 stores in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Beleaguered staff were also told they will receive the lowest staff bonus since 1953 as it revealed a 23% plunge in profits for the year to January 25. Group sales at the embattled high street giant nose-dived to 146 million at the start of the year, down from 452 million three years ago. The employee-owned company is now fighting for survival, having been dragged into the deepening high street crisis. The John Lewis department store chain saw total sales tumble 17% in the weeks since March 15, after it closed all its sites on March 23. The business paid out 939,773 to Paula Nickolds, who was ousted from the department store business in January, John Lewis Partnership's latest annual report document reveals John Lewis sales have plunged after it was forced to shut stores in face of coronavirus despite a surge in online orders Businesses lost to coronavirus With the High Street struggling to cope with the national coronavirus lockdown, a few have started filing for administration. These include: Debenhams: 22,000 jobs at risk Carluccio's: 2,000 jobs at risk Brighthouse: 2,400 jobs at risk Chiquito: 1,500 jobs at risk Laura Ashley: 2,700 jobs at risk Oasis and Warehouse: 200 immediate job losses Flybe: 2,000 jobs at risk Advertisement The high street retailer warned that a worst-case scenario would see the chain's annual sales plunge 35%. Nevertheless, John Lewis said online sales have jumped 84% as shoppers purchased more technology and food preparation products. The retailer said demand has particularly spiked in some of its 'less profitable lines', with people 'buying more Scrabble but fewer sofas' The John Lewis Partnership group said its Waitrose supermarket chain saw sales surge as shoppers stocked up on essentials. Waitrose sales increased by 8% in the period since January 26 as supermarkets were buoyed by the crisis. Sales increased both in store and online as shoppers bought more essentials like rice, pasta and long-life milk. Who is Sharon White? Ex Ofcom chief faced with the 'mammoth' task of turning around John Lewis Dame Sharon White Dame Sharon White took over the helm at John Lewis Partnership in February. The former Ofcom chief, 52, has enjoyed a glittering career in the civil service, but joined with no retail experience. Earlier this year, the three most senior executives left the brand. Ms White was already tasked with steering the partnership through a tough restructuring, merging the two firms and axing a third of head office staff - before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Independent retail analyst Richard Hyman said: 'It is a mammoth challenge. They've got a new leader with no experience of business, let alone retail. 'How quickly is Dame Sharon going to become a genius retailer? Because that's what they need.' Last month, new chairwoman Dame White outlined a plan to return the group to profit growth, including 'right sizing' its store estate and slimming down its head office. Advertisement Demand for home delivery has been 'especially strong', it said, with the company increasing its delivery capacity by 50%, which puts it 'in good stead' ahead of the end of its contract with Ocado in September. The John Lewis Partnership group said it is set to receive 135 million in savings from the business rates holiday and will reduce operating costs, including a cut of almost 100 million to marketing spending. In a letter to partners, recently appointed chairwoman Sharon White said: 'We are confident that the future of the business is strong. 'Our short-term trading has though been significantly affected, principally because of the closure of all 50 John Lewis branches. 'The Partnership has been trading for nearly a century. It has survived a World War and bombings, economic crashes and crises. 'Thanks to you, we shall also come through Covid-19 and emerge stronger.' At the beginning of March - just before the nationwide lockdown was announced - bosses announced 'dire' results at one of Britain's best-loved names. In March, bosses told 80,000 staff that their much-coveted bonus had been cut to about 370 each the lowest level since 1953. New boss Dame Sharon White, who joined from regulator Ofcom in Feburary, said it could take five years to return John Lewis to its former glory. She said: 'We need to reverse our profit decline and return to growth so that we can invest more in our customers and in our partners. This will require a transformation in how we operate as a partnership. OUSTED JOHN LEWIS BOSS HANDED ALMOST 1M PAYOUT John Lewis handed an almost 1 million payout to its former managing director, according to new figures from the retail giant. John Lewis Partnership's latest annual report document revealed that the business paid out 939,773 to Paula Nickolds, who was ousted from the department store business in January. Ms Nickolds had worked for the business for 25 years before her departure, after failing to arrest a decline in John Lewis' trading performance. The employee-owned company said the payout was in respect of her notice period, contributions to her legal fees and career development support. The group also confirmed an 892,362 pay packet given to Rob Collins, who had been managing director of the group's Waitrose supermarket arm until he stepped down in October when the group's restructuring was announced. The payouts come after hundreds of redundancies at the business, including 400 job losses linked to the closure of Waitrose stores and the loss of 75 head office roles. John Lewis has also furloughed 14,000 staff after closing all of its 50 stores in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. It also comes after the group said it will pay out its lowest staff bonus since 1953 as it revealed a 23% plunge in profits for the year to January 25. Advertisement 'These are the most challenging but exciting times in retail for a generation.' Ms White was already tasked with steering the partnership through a tough restructuring, merging the two firms and axing a third of head office staff - before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Profits fell from 541m in 2017 to 162m last year, and outgoing chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield, 53, warned they would be 'significantly lower' in the year to January 2020. John Lewis has struggled with rising bills for rents, rates and staff a tough environment that has also taken a toll on its department store rivals. The department stores posted a 37 million loss in the year to January 31, compared to 93million profit the year before. Waitrose posted profits of 212 million. The 156-year-old department store's price promise has been in place since 1925. It states that customers who found lower prices elsewhere on the high street would receive a refund for the difference. It is rigorously enforced by John Lewis, which checks its bricks-and-mortar competitors regularly for sales and promotions. But heavy discounting at rivals such as Debenhams and House of Fraser, and the rise of Amazon, has led many to suggest it is out of date. John Lewis will close three branches of grocery arm Waitrose in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire; Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield; and Waterlooville, Hampshire this year, in addition to the seven it closed last year. The 400 employees affected who wish to stay with the group will be 'actively supported' to do so. Cath Kidston confirms its 60 UK stores will not reopen after coronavirus crisis putting 740 jobs at risk as Primark owner furloughs 68,000 workers across Europe with chain's sales plunging from 650m a month to zero Cath Kidston is to permanently to shut its 60 UK stores with the loss of more than 900 jobs. The fashion retailer confirmed its stores will not reopen once the coronavirus lockdown is over after the company's owners secured a deal to buy back its brand and online operations following its fall into administration. Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA), which has held a stake in the retailer since 2014, said it will buy the online business, brand and wholesale arm from administrators Alvarez & Marsal. It said the move will result in the 'cessation of the retail store network'. Cath Kidston is to permanently to shut its 60 UK stores with the loss of more than 900 jobs The company confirmed that only 32 of its 940 staff will see their jobs secured as part of the deal. Melinda Paraie, chief executive officer of Cath Kidston, said: 'While we are pleased that the future of Cath Kidston has been secured, this is obviously an extremely difficult day as we say goodbye to many colleagues. 'Despite our very best efforts, against the backdrop of Covid-19, we were unable to secure a solvent sale of the business which would have allowed us to avoid administration and carry on trading in our current form. 'I would like to thank all our employees for their hard work, loyalty and patience over the last few weeks as we worked through this process.' A spokesman for BPEA said: 'While we are disappointed that the Covid-19 crisis has resulted in the cessation of the retail store network and impacted many employees, we are pleased to have secured a future for a number of Cath Kidston staff and the Cath Kidston brand in the form of a viable digital business. 'Going forward we will continue to help the company grow through its e-commerce platform and international wholesale and franchise businesses. Associated British Foods boss George Weston said the group had been 'squarely in the path of this pandemic' but would not reopen Primark stores until the disease is under control 'We would like to thank Melinda and the company's management team for their hard work in managing through this difficult economic crisis and establishing a viable future for the business in the UK.' Meanwhile the UK's high street woes continue to grow amid the coronavirus lockdown as 68,000 Primark staff are furloughed across Europe. The owner of budget fashion firm Primark has also revealed a 248 million hit for unsold stock as all its stores remain shut. Associated British Foods boss George Weston said the group had been 'squarely in the path of this pandemic' but would not reopen Primark stores until the disease is under control. Mr Weston said the company would have 'had no option but to fire staff' were it not for the furlough scheme. A survey from the British Chambers of Commerce suggested around one in three British businesses has furloughed between 75% and 100% of its workforce. Primark has seen sales plunge from 650 million a month to zero as coronavirus has caused the 376-strong chain to shut completely, with no online business to fall back on. A message from the CEO of Primark, Paul Marchant, talking about store closures during the coronavirus crisis Half-year results showed pre-tax profits slumped as Primark was left with piles of stock it was unable to sell amid the global coronavirus lockdown, falling 42% to 298 million in the six months to February 29. Total charges in the first half soared to 309 million, compared with 79 million a year earlier, including the 248 million stock costs. However, Mr Weston said the company would not launch online in a bid to shift stock it has been unable to sell. He said: 'We will sell that stock in stores but it might take a while. 'It might be in a year's time but it's not going to deteriorate and we will just have to wait until we can open stores again safely. 'I think this is the cost of Covid rather than not having online operations.' Primark revealed on Monday it had agreed to pay an additional 370 million to suppliers to cover stock currently in production or yet to be delivered after facing criticism over order cancellations during the coronavirus crisis. The fashion chain said the deal will cover products which were in production or due for shipment by April 17, having previously committed to pay for orders which were in transit or booked for delivery by March 18. Bosses also set up a fund to support the thousands of garment workers affected. Mr Weston laid bare the 'human tragedy' of the Covid-19 crisis as he reported half-year figures, as he said two of the group's employees have died from Covid-19 in the past three weeks while another remains in intensive care in the United States. Its food and agriculture business - spanning sugar, groceries and ingredients, including brands such as Twinings tea and Kingsmill bread - is helping the firm weather the crisis while cost cutting will also help it mitigate half the operating costs of Primark while stores remain shut. The company said it has seen a 20% jump in bread sales, while other store cupboard products such as Blue Dragon noodles and Ryvita crackers have also seen sharp sales increases. Mr Weston said: 'Much as I would love to be allowed to reopen Primark stores across the UK, continental Europe and the USA soon, because lockdown has so harmed our business and our supply chains, I know that we must not do so until we have suppressed this disease. 'When we are allowed to reopen we must make our Primark stores safe for our staff and our customers, even if that means ensuring there are fewer people shopping at any one time and so accepting lower sales at least until the remaining risk is minimal. 'In time, we can rebuild the profits. We can't replace the people we lose.' A survey from the British Chambers of Commerce suggested around one in three British businesses has furloughed between 75% and 100% of its workforce. Meanwhile High Street fashion chains Oasis and Warehouse have fallen into administration, leading to more than 200 immediate job losses. Closed shops on a quiet Kings Road in Chelsea, West London, as life in Britain continues during the lockdown Some 1,800 staff across the shops, concessions and head office will be furloughed and receive 80% of pay. The brands will continue to be sold online 'short-term' while the administrators try to sell the brand. The two brands, which run 90 stores, appointed auditor Deloitte to run the process. The Oasis and Warehouse Group has been looking for a saviour for weeks but could not close a deal due to the pandemic. It is owned by failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing. The lockdown has already claimed Laura Ashley, electrical retailer Brighthouse, and restaurant chains Carluccio's and Chiquito. Many firms were already reeling after last year, the worst for the high street in a quarter of a century. Meanwhile, there are fears are building that gyms, pubs and restaurants may never reopen as landlords threaten them with eviction for unpaid rent during the coronavirus lockdown. Nearly 3,000 gyms and leisure centres now face the threat of closure, while top chef Yotam Ottolenghi has warned that restaurants are suffering the same issue. The Oasis and Warehouse Group has been looking for a saviour for weeks but could not close a deal due to the pandemic Pubs and non-essential shops have also faced trouble paying rent, amid fears they will not be able to reopen after the pandemic because they will have no cash left. Up to 100,000 jobs could be at risk at gyms with trade body UKActive calling for urgent action to protect places of exercise which remain shut due to the pandemic. Fresh legislation to protect commercial tenants was brought in last month, but it does not stop landlords forcing them to pay rent withheld due to the lockdown. A study of 34 non-food retailers including Dunelm, JD Sports, John Lewis and Next has found that many may not survive the pandemic sweeping the nation. Even after government support, more than half of major non-food UK retailers will run out of cash within six months, according to the report. The study was conducted by professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), in partnership with Retail Economics. It found that five out of the 34 major non-food retailers analysed already had negative cash flow at the outbreak of the pandemic. The state Health Department has said it's too soon to tell whether the drop-off is a result of the testing change, though Gov. Mark Gordon has said that the projected peak of the disease in Wyoming has not yet arrived. Patients have tested positive for coronavirus in 21 of Wyoming's 23 counties. Only Platte and Weston counties are without confirmed cases. Wyoming has the lowest recorded number of coronavirus deaths of any state. Alaska and South Dakota each have the second fewest deaths related to the virus, with seven each, according to the New York Times. More than 16% of Wyoming's cases required a hospital stay. In about 5% of the cases, health officials don't know if the patient was hospitalized. In about 49% of the cases, the patient came in contact with a known case. In another 19.1% of the cases, the patient had traveled either domestically or internationally. Community spread has been attributed to about 13% of the cases. In about 16% of Wyoming's cases, health officials don't how the person was exposed to the virus. The state's per capita case ranking has fallen in recent weeks; Wyoming has more cases per 100,000 people than six states, a number that was once as high as 20, according to the Times. BEIRUT - A gunman shot dead nine people Tuesday, including five Syrians, and left their bodies in several locations in a mountain village southeast of the capital Beirut, the prime minister and state news and said. A motive for the killings was not immediately known, said the state-run National News Agency. It said the shooter fled to nearby fields and was being chased by security forces. Such shootings in Lebanon, where many people keep rifles or pistols in their homes, are rare. Lebanon is home to more than a million Syrian refugees and other Syrians who are residents. NNA said a pump action rifle and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were used in the shootings. Prime Minister Hassan Diab denounced the horrific crime, his office said in a statement. The prime minister called on security agencies and judicial authorities to accelerate the investigation to disclose its circumstances and identify the perpetrators. The dead included five Syrians and four Lebanese whose bodies were left behind at several locations in Baakline, local LBC TV reported. It is similar to the shootings that happen in America, Marwan Hamadeh, a member of parliament from Baakline, told reporters in Beirut. He urged security forces to detain the shooter, saying there are some indications that he might be a mentally unstable person. Baaklines mayor, Abdullah al-Ghoseini, told the daily An-Nahar newspaper the motive behind the shooting was unclear, adding that it took place in an area that includes housing units for Syrian workers. Al-Ghoseini later told LBC the shooting started at 3:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) and search operations for the shooter were still ongoing five hours later. He added that the Syrians who were killed had been living in the village for nearly 10 years. The shooting comes as Lebanon experiences its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. A crash in the value of the local currency against the U.S. dollar has led to a sharp increase in prices. Anti-government protests resumed Tuesday calling on the Cabinet to work on improving living conditions in the nearly bankrupt country. The TMC on Tuesday dubbed as "adventure tourism" the visit of two central teams to West Bengal for an on-the-spot assessment of the COVID-19 situation, and asked why such delegations were not sent to states with much higher numbers of infections and hotspots. Addressing a digital press conference, TMC MPs Derek O'Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was informed about the inter-ministerial central teams' (IMCTs) visit three hours after their arrival in the state, which they said was unacceptable. "The IMCT is on an adventure tourism. The CM was told about the team's visit three hours after the team landed," said O'Brien. He also questioned why central teams did not visit states such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh that have higher numbers of coronavirus cases and many more hotspots. Why central teams are being sent to West Bengal which does not appear in the list of the top 10 states in terms of infection, the TMC leader in Rajya Sabha asked. "The Centre has to clarify. Why the chief minister was informed after the team had arrived? In a federal structure, you have to first inform the state government. The motive behind sending such teams is not yet clear. It needs to be clarified first, he said. The Union home ministry had said on Monday the COVID-19 situation was "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and formed six IMCTs for an on-the-spot assessment and issuing necessary directions to the four states -- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal. While one central team arrived in Kolkata, another reached Jalpaiguri district on Monday. Bandyopadhyay, the leader of the Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha, hoped that good sense would prevail and the Centre would henceforth consult the respective state before taking such a decision. "We have kept behind and want a joint fight against the pandemic. Do not take our graciousness for granted, we too can talk in the political language. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah should also leave behind and should not take Bengal's pledge for a united fight in tackling the pandemic for granted," O'Brien said. "What the central government has done by sending central teams is nothing but an insult to the people of the state, he added. Responding to a question on "low rate of testing" in the state, Bandyopadhyay said that 425 tests are conducted everyday in West Bengal and from Tuesday the number would be increased to 600. He claimed West Bengal initially had a dearth of testing kits sent by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Despite the state abiding by all the norms set by ICMR and the central government and doing its best in curbing the disease, West Bengal has been targeted by the Centre and the BJP, the Lok Sabha member said. "We would urge the Centre not to dilute the joint fight against COVID-19. The state government has followed all the rules and norms set by ICMR and the Union government. But the Union government without informing the state government had sent teams to the state government. It is not acceptable. "Such steps are not only against the basic tenants of federalism but also tantamount to diluting the joint fight against the COVID crisis, Bandyopadhyay told reporters. Taking umbrage at the Centre for sending teams to assess the "serious" COVID-19 situation in the state, the West Bengal Chief Minister shot off a letter to the Prime Minister on Monday, underscoring the "unilateral" and "undesirable" action, keeping her government in the dark. Both the parliamentary leaders said that it was not a question of "state vs state" and appealed to the Centre to cooperate with the states. They said once proper protocols are followed, then the state would be happy to coordinate with the government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) DeSantis was heavily criticized for refusing to order a statewide stay-at-home order after coronavirus cases started to climb in South Florida in March. Spring breakers flocked to beaches around the state throughout the month, many of them flaunting the governors recommendation that they gather in only small groups. DeSantis issued an executive order in late March requiring travelers from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to self-isolate for 14 days upon arriving in the state. Air Force signs agreement for oral fluid coronavirus testing at Air Force installations Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs / Published April 20, 2020 ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) -- The Department of the Air Force signed an agreement April 17 with Curative, Inc., to deploy and scale an oral fluid coronavirus test, which recently received a Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization, across Air Force installations. The Department of the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office, in coordination with the Defense Health Agency and Joint Acquisition Task Force established by the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment and DHA, is managing the $13 million research and development Blanket Purchase Agreement with the COVID-19 testing startup. The Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) and DHA are the healthcare R&D funds manager, and approved the investment as a risk reduction alternative to nasal swab testing. Successful testing could also lead to broader use for testing the U.S. population. The agreement provides for the initial production of more than 40,000 test kits and associated training for military medical personnel. Testing is expected to begin in the next two weeks. The agreement establishes one laboratory, in addition to Curative's existing lab, and eight testing sites at yet-to-be named military installations across the continental United States. Each lab is expected to process up to 50,000 test examinations per day. These orally administered tests have an average turnaround time of 24 hours. "For over two years, we've been accelerating our government purchasing system to work with innovative tech startups who need fast decisions and cash," said Dr. Will Roper, the Air Force's acquisitions czar. "We had the right innovation network in place to find this potentially game-changing test and strike a deal at wartime speeds. Our men and women in uniform, and our nation, need a highly-scalable coronavirus test." In addition to scalable production, Roper said the oral swab test could be self-administered and sealed for laboratory processing without taxing healthcare workers or medical supplies. "The entire chain of events required for testing appears to scale. Our job now is to demonstrate this quickly," Roper said. Clinical studies suggest Curative's oral fluid test has equivalent sensitivity to nasopharyngeal swab tests that require a nurse. Curative has deployed its oral test kit at drive-thru and other centers in Los Angeles, testing more than 57,000 people at a rate now grown to approximately 5,000 per day. The Air Force hopes to scale this an order of magnitude in a manner replicable for national need. "Though our starting point is the military, we're ensuring there are no ceilings to going bigger," Roper said. "We assigned our best and brightest from the Rapid Capabilities Office to build the plan. They're living up to their name." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Air Force builds facility in Guam to accommodate Roosevelt sailors with COVID-19 LOS ANGELES, April 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Air Force announced Monday it joined efforts to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 among sailors from aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, which docked in Guam last month. According to a press release from the Air Force, the 36th Wing constructed an Expeditionary Medical Support System or EMEDS, on the grounds of U.S. Naval Hospital Guam, where hundred of sailors infected with COVID-19 are being treated. On Monday, the Navy reported that 94 percent of the crew from the Roosevelt had been tested for COVID-19. Of those, it said 678 sailors had tested positive while 3,904 others negative. The EMEDS facility, estimated to be completed within a coup of days, consists of 11 medical units, and six warehouse units, the USAF said. "It really is a culminated effort of many different units from multiple bases to pull off the logistics of getting all the supplies here for this operation," noted Lt. Col. David Johnson, Troop Commander for the operation. Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska provided assistance by flying over medical supplies, the press release added. No criminal charges will be filed in connection with an audit of North Dakota's Department of Commerce that raised concerns of mishandled state money. State Auditor Josh Gallion last fall brought his concerns to Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who referred the investigation to South Dakota to avoid any perceived conflict of interest. South Dakota's Division of Criminal Investigation tapped Burleigh County State's Attorney Julie Lawyer to review for potential criminal charges. On Monday she sent her findings to Stenehjem: "Based on the facts of this case, no criminal charges will be filed in this matter." She reviewed the investigation for potential charges of misapplication of entrusted property and public servant's interest in public contracts. The former can be a misdemeanor or a felony depending on property value; the latter is a class A misdemeanor, which carries a maximum punishment of up to a year in jail. "After thorough review of the reports and North Dakota Century Code, I have not found any violations of criminal law by the Department of Commerce or its employees," Lawyer wrote. Gallion's audit findings were that agency officials skirted public bid requirements in developing North Dakota's 2018 "Be Legendary" logo and also mishandled appropriations, charging more than $850,000 to the wrong two-year budget cycle. Lawyer found "no facts that support an allegation of any direct or indirect benefit to any public servant in this case" after reviewing allegations that Gov. Doug Burgum and Commerce Commissioner Michelle Kommer had connections to contracted parties. A Minnesota marketing consultant with ties to Burgum's software background designed the new logo. Separately, the $850,000 related to a grant agreement with Grand Forks County for construction at Grand Sky, an unmanned aircraft facility. Delayed construction led to Commerce extending the grant agreement through summer to last fall, when the state's new two-year budget cycle began. Kommer called it "an honest mistake honestly made." Gallion, a Republican, has drawn criticism from some state legislators for publicizing results of audits before lawmakers can completely review the findings. Last fall, he told the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee -- a group of state lawmakers that receives and reviews audits -- that he has "an obligation" to notify the attorney general of "a potential misappropriation of law." Gallion reiterated his position Tuesday after reviewing Lawyer's findings. "It's important to clarify that the auditor's office -- we apply our auditing standards, accounting principles, the state's fiscal policies, rules, appropriation laws, and when we find a discrepancy, we have an obligation to report that discrepancy," he told the Tribune. He also notified Stenehjem last fall of the State Library potentially mishandling funds, but the attorney general didn't pursue charges. Kommer and some state lawmakers at the Nov. 6 committee meeting expressed concerns about what repercussions the Commerce investigation might have. In a statement Tuesday, Kommer called Lawyer's conclusions "a great day for Commerce, confirming what we have known in our hearts for the last six months, but its also a sad day for North Dakota as there was absolutely nothing in the audit report that warranted this kind of wasteful scrutiny that has taken a great deal of emotional and financial toll on those affected." Kommer personally retained an attorney as the investigation unfolded. Sen. Jerry Klein, R-Fessenden, who chairs the audit committee, was pleased with Lawyer's finding that "there's no criminal intent." "Other than potentially paying something in the wrong period, nobody got any extra money, nobody got any less money, the work was done for the contracts that were let," he told the Tribune on Tuesday. Burgum in a statement said Lawyer's findings reaffirm "what we knew all along: that Commerce team members acted legally, in accordance with legislative intent, and with the best interests on behalf of our states citizens." He also said Gallion's Commerce Department and State Library audits "have created an environment of real fear among state employees." "This fear became a reality as hardworking, dedicated public servants had to hire their own legal counsel -- at their own personal expense -- to defend themselves against false criminal allegations that in any real-world audit would have been considered non-material classification errors and been mentioned in a footnote of an audit, versus being a headline in a press release," the governor said. Gallion responded that his office "does not make the determination on criminality." "At the auditor's office, we do the preliminary work when there is that discrepancy, and that's where our work stops," he said. "We don't go any further." Burgum said the 2021 Legislature could take steps to ramp up the audit committee's oversight, "so the committee can determine after a fair hearing what audit items reach the threshold of a need for criminal investigation." Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 9 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Budapest Business Journal talks with Aniko and Fausto Di Vora, co-owners of Italian restaurant Faustos, about the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the restaurant industry in general and on Faustos itself. BBJ: The restaurant suspended its operations on March 16 due to the coronavirus pandemic. How are you preparing for reopening once the epidemiological situation eases? Will there be protective measures for employees? Faustos: Naturally, every catering establishment will need to replan its method of operating in the light of the changed situation. We wish we were at a point where we could begin preparations, but we think that reopening restaurants will only happen several long months later, and there will surely be new safety regulations from the authorities. One of the most important aspects will be ensuring the appropriate distance between guests. We are in a fortunate situation, as the restaurant has a large guest area on three floors, so we will be able to take care of this easily. It would also be helpful if rapid tests would become available by then, which we could use to test our employees, even on a weekly basis. This is very important and we will do this one way or the other. Wearing masks will certainly be necessary for the chefs, and we will consider it for our servers as well; our guests would surely appreciate it. By the way, in Italy, where it looks like restaurants could reopen in the beginning of summer, the current thinking is that a minimum distance of two meters between guests and masks for the entire staff will be required. BBJ: How are you helping your employees while the restaurant is closed? F: We have never even considered laying off our employees. We were among the first to announce we were closing, days before limitations on the opening hours of restaurants were imposed. When we made the decision and discussed the further steps with the staff, we saw that they all calmed down. They knew that they would have to make ends meet on a lower salary, but they did not mind, as everybody was filled with fear when coming to work during the last week. They received their paychecks for March, and are currently on paid leave. We have been working together for years, and none of us have ever rested so much at one go; none of them have ever been able to spend so much time with their families and children, looking at the positive side. However, this can only be a peaceful rest if they have at least a minimal financial security and see where they could return to. BBJ: Are you planning to introduce alternative business models, such as home deliveries, if the state of emergency persists for a prolonged period? F: When we decided to close, we did not consider home deliveries, partially because we dont think it suits our cuisine. Also, we thought that, as in the case of nearby countries, life would slowly start again in a regulated fashion after two months of very strict curfew regulations. Today, it can be seen that the model used here is much more permissive in terms of restricting the movement of people, so in the case of Hungary, the reopening of restaurants may be more delayed. In the meantime, customers call us a lot expressing interest in home deliveries, so from May 1, we will try to prepare our guests favorite dishes in a way that they could enjoy them as if they were eating it here. This situation will be completely new to us too, but we cannot sit idly, possibly until fall. BBJ: Do you expect your clientele to change as a result of the pandemic, for example that there will be fewer tourists? F: Our restaurant became 26 years old this year, and ever since opening it has built its operation on the satisfaction of Hungarian and international guests living in Hungary. Naturally, our good reputation attracted many foreign tourists, but we have always put an emphasis on the domestic clientele, it was our key aim to have them return to us regularly. We have developed our cuisine, selection, dishes, menu, and our entire structure of operation keeping this aspect in mind, even if it went against the trends. This is the Faustos philosophy, so this has to work in the future. Sadly, we will not see foreign guests for a good while, and while will be somewhat of a setback, a good part of our clientele is domestic returning customers, who have been visiting us for many years, a number of them even on a weekly basis. We will continue to do our best, and we are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to once again pay back the trust our guests have vested in us for years. BBJ: What will be the most permanent effects of the pandemic on the domestic restaurant business? F: As every player in the sector is facing hard times, it will be transformed; there will be a kind of cleanup, which is not necessarily a problem. Sadly, many places will close due to the lack of tourists, but we think that most of the really good establishments are here to stay, reopening in a reformed, maybe transformed fashion. The sectors labor market will change as well, returning to a more normal state. It will be the end of far-fetched employee demands without the performance to back it up. However, a professional and reliable workforce will remain of the same value, they will still be able to feel safe. We are optimistic; we have experienced many difficulties over the years, this current crisis, although it will unfortunately do a lot of damage, can also bring about the renewal of businesses operating on strict professional foundations and principles, which will be a welcome benefit for domestic guests. Photo courtesy of the venue "It came along at one of those periods in American TV drama where black actresses in particular were getting star turns in the hour-long format, thanks to Shonda Rhimes' 'Scandal' and 'How to Get Away With Murder,'" said Stephane Dunn, director of Morehouse College's Cinema, Television and Emerging Media Studies program. "It was an expansion of this sort of rarity and, to me, the embodiment of hip-hop's cultural and global influence, The way 'Empire' most dramatically marked a rather radical entry was in delving into and exploring the homophobia of the culture as well as the taboo topic of mental illness." Chadwick Bosemans future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be at an end. The actor is reportedly in the middle of a contract dispute with Marvel that could conclude his time with the studio before the highly anticipated sequel. Is Boseman about to make the same mistake that Terrance Howard, a.k.a. the original War Machine, did after Iron Man? Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman | Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Disney Marvel moves forward with Black Panther 2 Black Panther remains one of Marvels most successful stand-alone films to date. Not only did the movie make $1.3 billion in theaters, but it also snagged several nominations at the Academy Awards, including a nod for Best Picture. Despite this success, Bosemans TChalla did not enjoy a lot of screen time in Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame. Marvel fans were unhappy with this decision, which has shed some doubt on the characters future in the MCU. Black Panther 2: Everything we know about the sequel so far https://t.co/oRbBhWmPSZ Digital Trends (@DigitalTrends) April 6, 2020 To make things even worse, Black Panther 2 is not scheduled to open in theaters until May of 2022. The first movie premiered in 2018, making this one of the longest waits for a sequel in Marvels history. With filming likely to start in 2021, Marvel has been very tight-lipped about the sequel. And one inside source claims that Boseman is at a standstill with the studio over a pay raise. Is Boseman about to leave the MCU? An insider told We Got This Covered that Boseman has demanded a pay increase from Marvel but the studio is refusing to meet his request. If the reports are true, then this is a very similar situation to Howard, who was replaced by Don Cheadle after in Iron Man 2. The source claims that Marvel has a backup plan in the event that Boseman leaves. The studio wants to introduce Namor in a future project and have him become the MCUs top black superhero. A new rumor claims that Chadwick Boseman might be done as #BlackPanther due to a pay dispute with Marvel! https://t.co/NaXXKlYcBQ pic.twitter.com/6BrpByy55W MCU Fanatics (@MCU_Fanatics) April 19, 2020 Namors name has already popped up in theories regarding the main plot of Black Panther 2. Most of these reports have Namor being the movies main villain, with him defending Atlantis against Wakanda. Marvel has not confirmed any of these reports. With the movie still under development, a lot could change between now and when production gets underway. Will Letitia Wright become the new Black Panther? Although TChalla was the focal point in the first movie, Letitia Wrights Shuri almost stole the show. The actress reprised her role in Infinity War and Endgame and will likely play an important part in the upcoming sequel. There has even been some speculation that Shuri will replace TChalla as the new Black Panther, though that might not happen until the third film in the franchise (assuming Marvel is planning a trilogy). Black Panther SHURI Concept Fan Art Has Us Hyped for BLACK PANTHER 2https://t.co/zQoJxS9W9Q pic.twitter.com/f0UldJZSjN ComicBook NOW! (@ComicBookNOW) November 24, 2018 We cannot confirm that Shuri will take on Black Panthers mantle, but this is something that happened in the comics. If Marvel decides to adapt that storyline in a future film, then the door would obviously be open for Shuri to become the new Black Panther. Until then, fans will have to wait and see what Marvel confirms in the coming weeks and months. Boseman posts about Operation 42 While we wait to hear more about Bosemans dispute with Marvel, the actor recently sparked concern over his gaunt look. Taking to Instagram, Boseman shared a photo of himself to promote the initiative, Operation 42, and fans were shocked by how much weight he has lost. I am hearing stories of desperation from people all over the country, and we know our communities are suffering the most and urgently need help, Boseman captioned the post. Celebrating #JackieRobinsonDay with the launch of Thomas Tulls #Operation42 Black Panther fans immediately noticed how much weight Boseman appears to have lost and expressed their shock in the comments. Alright man, what's going on with Chadwick Boseman. pic.twitter.com/Sfw25UF1FQ Ahmed/KD Defender (@big_business_) April 16, 2020 Boseman worked with Operation 42 to donate millions of dollars worth of personal protective equipment to hospitals in African American communities. Black Panther 2 is set to hit theaters on May 6, 2022. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ivany Atina Arbi and Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta and Bandung Tue, April 21, 2020 10:02 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd33111e 1 National COVID-19,West-Java,West-Java-Governor-Ridwan-Kamil,religious-freedom,intolerance,Bekasi-regency Free Two local figures of Jayamukti village in Bekasi regency, West Java, attempted to disperse a Sunday service held privately by a family in their own home, in what many see is yet another case of religious intolerance in the province. In a short video that went viral on social media, a man wearing kopiah, baju koko and sarong (male Muslim attire in the country) was seen entering a home while shouting that no religious services were allowed inside the building. He was accompanied by another man in a blue shirt and jeans. The two were later identified as a local Muslim cleric and the head of the neighborhood unit (RW). The family members seemed to try to calm the two men down by saying that it was just "a usual Sunday service", but the cleric insisted on stopping the activity. The 30-second footage was first posted by one of the family member Arion Frederick on his Instagram account @arionsihombing, although he later removed the post. However, it has been reposted by a number of accounts as of Monday. West Java's Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB) head Rafani Achyar confirmed the incident, saying that the Christian family had initially intended to report the cleric to the police. "However, they decided not to file a report after the Bekasi chapter of the FKUB mediated the matter," Rafani said, adding that the two parties had agreed to consider the incident a misunderstanding. In a series of Instagram stories, Arion also informed the public on Sunday evening that the case had been settled and ended peacefully with the help of the Bekasi Police, the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the FKUB. "The mediation facilitated by the Bekasi Police, NU and FKUB resulted in a good agreement. I hope we all learn something from this; to keep being tolerant of diversity," he said on Sunday evening. "My father said this incident shouldn't have triggered hatred [among religious followers] who knew about it. Love is the best solution to all problems. Stay safe for all of us, and keep being positive. God bless. Arion also posted a video on his Instagram with a caption saying that his family had accepted the apologies conveyed by the local cleric, who had promised that such an incident would not happen again in the future. West Java, deemed as one of the most religiously conservative regions in the country, has repeatedly seen cases of attacks against minority religious groups, ranging from protests against the constructions of churches and Hindu temple as well as the forced sealing of mosques belonging to Muslim minority sect Ahmadiyah. The province has repeatedly ranked as one of Indonesias most intolerant provinces in some surveys published by a number of think-tanks. Read also: Indonesian churches call for online worship, sermons amid concerns over COVID-19 The incident in Bekasi prompted criticism from the public, many of whom slammed the local figures for violating the right of every citizen to practice their beliefs. West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil also deplored the incident in a comment posted in Arion's original video on Sunday. "This should have not happened, as to worship is the right of every citizen. Besides, praying at home instead of at public spaces is encouraged during the COVID-19 pandemic," Ridwan wrote in the comment section through his official Instagram account @ridwankamil. Bekasi regency is now among a number of areas in West Java enforcing large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 740 and killed at least 62 in the province. With the partial lockdown, schools, public spaces and offices are closed, while religious gatherings are also forbidden. Residents are told to stay, work and pray from their homes and restrict their movements to slow down the diseases transmission. As of Monday afternoon, more than 6,700 people have been infected by COVID-19 nationwide, with at least 590 deaths. [April 21, 2020] College Consensus Publishes Aggregate Consensus Ranking of 100 Best Online Colleges and Universities for 2020 CHAPEL HILL, N.C., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- College Consensus (https://www.collegeconsensus.com), a unique college ratings website that aggregates publisher rankings and student reviews, has published their ranking of the 100 Best Online Colleges and Universities 2020 at https://www.collegeconsensus.com/online/best-online-colleges/ . The University of Florida takes the first spot again this year, with Rutgers University-New Brunswick, The University of Illinois, Western Carolina University, and The University of Iowa rounding out the top five. To identify the Best Online Colleges and Universities for 2020, College Consensus combined the latest results from the most respected college rankings with thousands of real student reviews to produce a unique consensus score for each school. According to Consensus editors, "College Consensus gathers the publisher rankings and student reviews from around the web and distills the results into simple, easy to understand scores so students can quickly and easily compare schools." While most rankings only provide one perspective - such as student experience, surveys of administrators, or expert opinion - the Consensus philosophy is to open up and show prospective college students the full range so they can make the most informed decision possible. As the editors explain, "The College Consensus methodology pulls together rankings from: Forbes Money U.S. News & World Report The Wall Street Journal Wallethub Washington Monthly Then we average student reviews from sites like Cappex, Niche, Student Review, and more, to get the full picture of how students see their colleges, which we call the Student Review Rating. Put them together, and we have the College Consensus." Learn more about the College Consensus rankings methodology at https://www.collegeconsensus.com/about/ . To help prospective college students and their families evaluate the educational options open to them, College Consensus has identified the best online colleges and universities, according to the combination of published rankings and student reviews. To qualify for the ranking institutions have to have a Consensus Score and offer at least 5 fully online bachelor's degree or bachelor's completion programs. Rounding out the top 25 (in alphabetical order) are: Appalachian State University Dickinson State University Florida International University Fresno Pacific University George Mason University George Washington University LeTourneau University Rutgers University - Newark Southwestern Adventist University University of Arizona University of Central Florida University of Denver University of Massachusetts University of Minnesota-Crookston University of Missouri University of Utah University of West Florida Valley City State University Washington State University Webster University "Online college education has come a long way," Consensus editors note; "a child born in the same year as the first fully online degree could very well be earning their doctorate online right now." Online education has gone from being a novelty or suspect to being a standard for higher education, especially for working adults: "While predatory, unscrupulous online 'colleges' once threatened to make online degrees a punchline," according to the editors, "today the most prestigious colleges and universities from the Ivy League to research giants like MIT and Stanford offer fully online programs." In other words, " The best online colleges for undergraduates are some of the best colleges, period." That's why the College Consensus ranking of the Best Online Colleges & Universities is a valuable guide for college-bound young people, nontraditional-aged students, working professionals, and everyone else. As the editors explain, "Online degree completion programs offer affordable options and unmatched convenience, especially when compared to their 'brick and mortar' counterparts." With flexible scheduling, affordable tuition costs, and a wide variety of format options (such as accelerated courses, cohort plans, asynchronous lectures, online collaboration, and more), online programs have become ideal for working adults. The College Consensus Online Colleges & Universities ranking points them to programs that are really concerned with their success. College Consensus is an innovative approach to college rankings. We combine the latest results from the most respected college ranking systems with thousands of real student review scores. College Consensus also offers expert advice and guidance on all aspects of college life, from finding the perfect college, to getting accepted, paying for it, and finding your professional path after graduation. Carole Taylor Social Media & Marketing Manager, College Consensus [email protected] (512) 710-9901 http://www.collegeconsensus.com/ https://www.facebook.com/collegeconsensus/ TW: @CollegeConsens IG: @CollegeConsensus View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/college-consensus-publishes-aggregate-consensus-ranking-of-100-best-online-colleges-and-universities-for-2020-301044062.html SOURCE College Consensus [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Australia's best new facial treatment has been revealed in a competitive beauty competition after thousands voted for their favourite products online. The Trilogy Vitamin C Booster Treatment, retailing for $39.95, has been crowned the 2020 winner at the annual Beauty Heaven beauty awards. Touted by beauty enthusiasts, the New Zealand product has been praised for the powerful ability to brighten skin and improve radiance after two weeks. The Trilogy Vitamin C Booster Treatment, retailing for $39.95, has been crowned the 2020 winner at the annual Beauty Heaven beauty awards The serum contains all natural antioxidant-rich ingredients including a six per cent potency of Vitamin C, daisy extract and mandarin oil, which boosts glow, helps improve skin texture and even pigmentation. The popular product also contains plant-derived hyaluronic acid, which is a hydrating 'wonder ingredient' that assists with moisturising the skin. 'I have been using this booster now for three weeks and I can confirm that the skin of my face feels softer, smoother, fresher and therefore more youthful,' one reviewer wrote on the Beauty Heaven website. 'This serum is really powerful and used wisely can transform your skin into a more even complexion,' another added. Touted by beauty enthusiasts, the New Zealand product has been praised for the powerful ability to brighten your skin and improve radiance after two weeks As the booster contains all natural ingredients, the Vitamin C powder is separated and sealed within the lid of the product and must be released into the antioxidant concentrate. The product description also states the potency can vary depending on the freshness of the Vitamin C powder. Prior to using, shake the liquid well to infuse the ingredients together and activate the booster, then replace the lid with the provided glass dropper. As the booster contains all natural ingredients, the Vitamin C powder is separated and sealed within the lid of the product and must be released into the antioxidant-rich concentrate For optimum results, the product must be used continuously for two weeks by applying two to three drops on your face twice daily. Online customers recommended avoiding using the serum with other strong products and to follow the booster with a moisturiser. The runner-up for the best new treatment product category was the La Roche-Posay Effaclar K (+) Anti-Blackhead Moisturiser. Hundreds of people lined the streets of San Marcos on Monday to honor a police officer who was killed over the weekend as he and two other officers answered a domestic violence call for help. The body of Officer Justin Putnam was transported from the Travis County Medical Examiners Office in Austin to Thomason Funeral Home in San Marcos in a moving procession that brought out people of all ages to pay their respects. Putnam, 31, was a five-year veteran of the San Marcos Police Department. Sitting and standing under trees and in vehicles, everyday citizens, many of them waving flags, were joined by first responders in police vehicles and fire trucks as well as city workers in bucket trucks from the San Marcos Electric Utility. On ExpressNews.com: San Marcos police officer killed and two others injured in ambush shooting Saturday The motorcade traveled down Interstate 35, wove through the Blanco Vista neighborhood where Putnam lived, drove by the San Marcos Police Department and took Wonder World Drive toward the funeral home. We are honored that so many people have come out to pay their respects to fallen officer Justin Putnam, read a post on the San Marcos Police Departments Facebook page. Today our heavy burdens were briefly lifted by the warmth and love of this community and all of Hays County. Putnum and Officers Franco Stewart and Justin Mueller responded to the 911 call for help at about 6 p.m. Saturday at Twin Lakes Villas Apartments in the 2900 block of Hunter Road. When the officers arrived, interim Police Chief Bob Klett said, they found one victim outside. Fearing there were other possible victims inside with the alleged assailant, the officers attempted to enter the apartment and were met with rifle fire. There was nothing they could do to escape the gunfire, Klett said Sunday. On ExpressNews.com: San Marcos police identify officer killed in shooting Putnam, 31, joined the department in 2014 after graduating from Texas State University magna cum laude, Klett said. Stewart, 27, joined the department in December after serving with the McAllen Police Department for two years in addition to a brief stint with U.S. Border Patrol. Mueller, 38, has been with the department for 13 years. He began as a telecommunications operator in 2007, and became an officer in June 2019. Texas Rangers are investigating. Donations are being accepted to help the families of all of the officers, and information is available on the departments Facebook page. Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts in San Antonio. To read more from Elizabeth, become a subscriber. ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 Gordon Steidl appears before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board in 2006 at the Thompson Center in Chicago. (Milbert O. Brown / Chicago Tribune) Nearly nine years after being freed from prison, where he served 17 years for a double murder in the Downstate city of Paris before being freed for lack of evidence, Gordon Randy Steidl has won a second multimillion-dollar judgment in his case against the people who put him behind bars. A federal judge on Wednesday emtered a $3.5 million agreed-upon judgment in a long-running wrongful conviction and malicious prosecution case against former Paris Police Chief Gene Ray, former lead detective James Parrish and former Edgar County States Attorney Michael McFatridge. Advertisement Steidl also had sued the Illinois State Police. The state settled that portion of the suit in October 2011 for $2.5 million. So the total award for Steidl was $6 million. But the state has refused to defend McFatridge, who was accused of fabricating evidence against Steidl, so a battle remains over who will pay $1.6 million of the judgment, said Flint Taylor, one of Steidls attorneys. Advertisement Taylor called the settlement one of the largest in a wrongful-conviction case in central Illinois. I think it affirms what the evidence has shown, which is that Steidl was innocent of the crime which he was convicted for and that he suffered terribly for being wrongfully convicted, he said. In the settlement agreement, none of the defendants admit wrongdoing. Steidl was initially sentenced to death and served a dozen years on Death Row. He was freed in May 2004, after a federal court granted him a new trial and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan declined to retry him. Nearly four years later, onetime co-defendant Herb Whitlock was released from prison, after an appellate court overturned his conviction. Both were convicted in separate trials of the July 6, 1986, murders of newlyweds Karen and Dyke Rhoads whose murders remain unsolved. Critics of the prosecutions, including a former State Police lieutenant who probed the case, concluded Steidl and Whitlock were railroaded by police and prosecutors who put lying witnesses on the stand. Whitlock last year settled his case for an undisclosed amount. Advertisement Despite the broad criticism of the prosecution, Steidl is still fighting to get a declaration of innocence from Gov. Pat Quinn. Now whats left is to make sure that the governor does the right thing and grants him an innocence pardon, Taylor said. Twitter @ReporterHal The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has said 90 per cent of people who contract the coronavirus (COVID-19)infection will recover fully. Mr Ehanire while responding to questions at the daily Presidential TaskForce (PTF) briefing on Monday said people are afraid due to the high number of confirmed cases that they forget about those recovering. An ambulance can do a large number of things, so the sign of an ambulance does not immediately translate to COVID-19. That is over the top of apprehension. It can happen but in this case, I dont believe so. There is no reason for apprehension because over 90 per cent of those who have COVID-19 will recover. Nine out 10 will recover, so what is the fear about. Only that the numbers are so large that we forget that people recover and few get very sick, that is just about four or five out of 100, Mr Ehanire said. As of Tuesday morning, Nigeria has recorded 665 cases of COVID-19. Of these, 188 infected people have recovered and have been discharged while 22 people have died. Some of the people who have died from the disease in Nigeria were said to have underlying medical conditions. According to Worldometer.info, over 2 million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded globally of which 169,940 people have died and 645,164 have recovered from the disease. Testing Mr Ehanire said the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will double its testing capacity from 1,500 to 3,000 persons daily. He also explained that the high number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was as a result of increased testing and social mobilisation at the grassroots to combat community transmission of the virus. He also said a robust national Response Action Plan is presently under development to address the challenges arising from Nigerias entry to COVID-19 community transmission phase. Thirteen molecular diagnostic laboratory nationwide have been activated so far by the NCDC and the target this week is to double the national testing capacity which stands at 1,500 a day. READ ALSO: Our strategy now focuses on the community and we have increased testing and social mobilisation at the grassroots. The worrying increases in the frequency and numbers of new persons with COVID-19 being recorded daily, is attributable to this new strategy, in combination with the increased community transmission, he said. Isolation Mr Ehanire said any traveller coming into Nigeria must be quarantined for 14 days at a designated facility, in order to forestall re-importation of COVID-19 into the country. With regard to re-importation of the virus, all persons entering Nigeria from abroad, now go to mandatory supervised 14-day quarantine at a designated facility. State governments are collaborating to prepare a minimum of 300 beds for isolation and treatment, and explore all options including engaging hotels for quarantining persons who may have COVID-19 with or without symptoms and may need only little clinical management, he said. READING East MP Matt Rodda has launched a petition demanding that Britains self-employed workers are fully covered by the Governments income protection scheme. He said: Small businesses are the bedrock of the local economy. Many local residents are self-employed and they deserve to be treated fairly by the Government at the is difficult time. Small businesses and self-employed people need urgent help to support them and their families. Ajay Devgn, who is currently the basking in the magnanimous success of his last release of Tanhaji, will be next seen in Maidaan. Helmed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma, his upcomer is based on a true story, Maidaan will hit theatres in winters 2020. The mega movie star is known for his dapper personality, brilliant acting skills, and surreal versatility enjoys a massive fanbase. But did you know that Ajay Devgn is a Naturalists and loves to spend time observing nature beauty? If not, then take a look at these Ajay Devgn's photos which makes his love for nature quite evident. Ajay Devgn is a Nature Lover and it is evident from these pics The Total Dhamaal actor looks super-relaxed in this Insta post. Shot in the exotic location of Maldives, Devgn is truly sinking the beauty of the gorgeous island in this picture. Read: Movierulz, TamilRockers Leak 'Bhuj: The Pride Of India' Full Movie Online For Download In this Ajay Devgn's lovely picture with his wife Kajol and little munchkin Yug Devgn, the Golmaal actor can be seen enjoying their boat ride. In the background, one can see the beautiful ocean and some lush green trees. The Devgn family is all smiles for the camera, and seem really happy. Read: Ajay Devgn And Madhuri Dixit: Times When The Two Shared Screen Space Together The Singham star looks charming, as he poses with a poker face in this picture of his. The way Ajay has captured the serene blue sky with few sun rays piercing it looks splendid. This Ajay Devgn's Instagram photo was clicked his London. Read: Ajay Devgn Starrer 'Bhoot' Was First Offered To This Actor? Learn Interesting Trivia Yet another Ajay Devgn's Instagram picture, which makes us wonder who much he loves nature is this monochrome image of the De De Pyaar De actor. One can see Devgn eyeing the scenic view of a stunning evening from his balcony. To our surprise, this Ajay Devgn's pic was shot by his son Yug. Read: Ajay Devgn Starrer 'Company' Was The Debut Film Of THIS Actor! Learn Interesting Trivia AJ's film Shivaay was filmed in several locations, mostly in the snow-covered Himalayan mountains. This picture was taken during the filming of the action drama. One can see some stunning mountains drenched in the snow in this Ajay Devgn's Instagram picture. All Pictures Source: Ajay Devgn Instagram Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment. A 62-year-old woman in Pathanamthitta, in central Kerala has tested positive for coronavirus 19 successive times, which doctors say underlines the erratic behaviour of the Sars-CoV 2 virus that continues to worry health officials who are fighting hard to flatten the Covid-19 curve. The woman has been in hospital for the last 42 days. The 62-year-old woman, who contracted the diseases after she came in contact with the Italy-returned family, tested positive even after 19 tests. She is not showing many symptoms also. We tried combination drugs several times, said Pathanamthitta district medical officer Dr N Sheeja. She said she has sought the advice of the state medical board in this regard. Follow coronavirus latest updates here. She was admitted to the hospital on March 10 after she came in contact with a family which returned from Italy. The family infected eight others. Three-member family came to their home in Keralas Ranni on February 29 on a three-week leave and attended many functions before testing positive a week later and transmitted the disease to many others. She doesnt have other health problems now. Though she is asymptomatic she can transmit the disease to others. In Kozencherry government hospital we are planning to transfer her to Kottayam medical college hospital if the next result also turns positive, said one of the doctors treating her. The late onset of the disease has now emerged as another worry for overworked health officials. In Kozhikkode (north Kerala) a person returned from Dubai on March 18, tested positive at least 29 days after he was exposed to the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) had prescribed a 14-day incubation period for coronavirus but Kerala had extended it to 28 days to ensure that an asymptomatic person or a patient is disinfected completely. In Pathanamthitta a girl student, who travelled in a compartment in which some Tablighi Jammat members were also travelling, tested positive 22 days after her trip. Under observation she remained asymptomatic throughout but turned positive when her observation period was about to end. She was asymptomatic even after she tested positive on April 6, said doctors. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Monday also saw highest single-day rise in confirmed cases as 705 more got infected, taking countrys tally to 9,214. Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistan has seen its highest rise in deaths in a single day from the coronavirus, with 17 new cases taking the countrys death toll from the highly contagious virus to at least 192, according to government data. Monday also saw the highest single-day rise in cases in Pakistan, with 705 confirmed cases taking the countrys tally to 9,214, according to the data. The country has been easing its lockdown in order to stave off an economic crisis from stagnating growth. So far, at least 2,053 patients have recovered from COVID-19 in the country, leaving the active case tally at 6,969. The increase in cases has occurred in conjunction with a modest increase in testing capacity, as the government aims to ramp up to 25,000 tests a day. Pakistan has conducted 111,806 tests, or 0.53 tests per thousand people. The government appears to be far off its target, however, with only 5,347 tests conducted on Monday, as per government data. After an initial outbreak sparked mainly by cases of travellers from neighbouring Iran and other countries, Pakistan has seen a spike in local transmission of the virus, which accounted for 65 percent of all cases as of this week, the countrys de facto Health Minister Zafar Mirza told reporters. Mirza also said the government was working on setting up a platform to allow Pakistani doctors in the global diaspora to return to the country and help efforts to fight the coronavirus. On Sunday, doctors unions across the country formed the Grand National Health Alliance in protest against what they say is a lack of proper personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and other steps to keep doctors safe from the virus. The move came days after young doctors protesting the lack of PPE kits clashed with police outside a main government building in the eastern city of Lahore. A group of protesters is holding a hunger strike at that protest site, demanding better protection for healthcare workers. Ramadan measures On Monday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan met senior religious leaders from across the country to reiterate the governments commitment to reopen mosques under a 20-point set of guidelines to ensure proper physical distancing. The religious leaders delegation fully supported the prime ministers position on the lockdown, said a statement released by Khans office after the meeting. The religious leaders assured [the government] of their full cooperation. Mirza, the health minister, said all the religious leaders some of whom had unilaterally declared they would be reopening mosques for congregational prayers last week agreed that they would abide by the governments code of conduct. 200415104659080 Religious leaders have taken the responsibility to implement those SOPs, he said. In this respect, there is an understanding that if, God forbid, we find out that the virus is spreading more rapidly because of this, then we will take appropriate steps, while taking the [leaders] in confidence. The governments plan for reopening mosques includes ensuring that worshippers stand more than two metres (six feet) from each other; removing prayer mats and carpets from mosque floors; and cleaning mosque floors with chlorinated disinfectants. The government has also banned elderly and sick people from attending prayers, has asked that ablutions be performed at home, and that all worshippers wear face masks. Prayer leaders have been told to discourage discussions between worshippers after the conclusion of prayers. The plan also has specific arrangements for special tarawih prayers that are observed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is to begin later this week. Mosques will hold limited tarawih prayers, and will not be allowed to serve meals to break the fast at sunset or before the fast at sunrise. Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim. Atlantic Honda - First Responder and Healthcare Professional Appreciation Offer Select Honda dealerships are now offering the Honda First Responder and Healthcare Professional Appreciation Offer. This offer provides select and eligible first responders and healthcare personnel, and their spouses, with $500 towards a new 2019 or 2020 Honda model when financed or leased through Honda Financial Services.* The Atlantic Honda dealership is one of the participating dealerships that is offering this new-vehicle credit from Honda. All models in the new Atlantic Honda inventory are 2019 and 2020 model year vehicles. Those models include the Honda Accord, the Honda Accord Hybrid, the Honda Civic Sedan, the Honda Civic Hatchback, the Honda CR-V, the Honda CR-V Hybrid, the Honda Fit, the Honda HR-V, the Honda Insight, the Honda Odyssey, the Honda Passport, the Honda Pilot and the Honda Ridgeline. Information on any model in stock at Atlantic Honda can be found by browsing through the dealership online inventory or by contacting the sales department. For additional information on Honda incentives and new Honda models, car shoppers and drivers in the Long Island area are encouraged to contact the Atlantic Honda staff. The dealership team can be reached through online messaging, by phone at the number of 631-665-0005 and with visits to the store. The Atlantic Honda dealership is located at 1375 Sunshine Hwy., Bay Shore, New York 11706. *Eligible through 7/6/20. $500 toward Cap Cost Reduction or Down Payment Assistance with the lease or purchase of a new and not previously reported sold 2019/2020 Honda model to qualified first responders and health-care professionals when financed or leased through Honda Financial Services. Cannot be used with Zero Due at Signing Lease Program. Fleet sales and Honda Courtesy Vehicle Program vehicles are not eligible. Not redeemable for cash. Incentive paid to dealer and requires dealer participation. Not all customers will qualify. See dealer for details. Company Taps Restaurant Industry Veteran Pete Pascuzzi to Lead Next Phase of Growth HOUSTON, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mexican Restaurants, Inc. (MRI) today announced the appointment of Pete Pascuzzi as the companys new CEO. A restaurant industry veteran of more than 35 years, Pascuzzi will lead MRIs next phase of growth, managing the overall operations and strategy of the companys five restaurant brands across four states. Pascuzzi has a proven track record of transforming restaurant operations to increase sales, profitability, market share and employee retention. Were thrilled to appoint Pete to the position of CEO as we continue to grow as a company, said Berke Bakay, Chairman of the Board. Petes deep restaurant industry expertise and exemplary leadership history make him the perfect fit to lead MRI to the next level. He brings years of experience managing every aspect of restaurant organizations, including operations, marketing, R&D, finance, human resources and training. Pascuzzi comes to MRI from Falcon Holdings Management, a leading national franchisee with more than 300 restaurants under the Carls Jr., Hardees, Churchs, Long John Silvers and Taco Bell brands, where he was president for three years. Previously, he also served as brand president of Ovation Brands, COO of Homestyle Dining Co. LLP, and COO of Perkins & Marie Callenders. This is an exceptionally difficult time for the restaurant industry as a whole. I am honored and humbled that the MRI Board has welcomed me to the executive team during this challenging time, said Pascuzzi. MRIs brands are well known for their family-friendly value and food quality, and I am laser-focused on ensuring our business moves to the next level. About Mexican Restaurants, Inc. Mexican Restaurants, Inc. (MRI) is Houston-based restaurant company that currently operates and franchises five brands and more than 40 restaurants in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arizona. Its brands include Casa Ole, Montereys Little Mexico, Uberrito Fresh Mex, Tortuga Mexican Kitchen and Crazy Joses. For more information, visit https://mexicanrestaurantsinc.com. Media Contact: April Lynch Lynchpin Strategic Communications Ph: (713) 922-1895 Email: april@lynchpincomms.com Advertisement The mayor of the city of Bergamo, Italy's coronavirus epicentre, has published pictures of a church and cemetery empty of victims' coffins for the first time in weeks, as symbol of 'hope' for the country. Bergamo mayor Giorgio Gori took to Twitter to share the first images of the city's cemetery now clear where once hundreds of bodies were being held. He celebrated a recent decrease in deaths and infections in Italy, urging its population they had passed through the 'most difficult phase' of the pandemic. Italy has been one of Europe's hardest-hit countries for infections and fatalities, recording 181,228 confirmed cases and 24,114 deaths, according to research by Johns Hopkins University. It is second only to Spain in Europe, and the third worst-hit in the world with Spain second and the US leading. A very different picture - a cemetery in the city of Bergamo, Italy's coronavirus epicentre, stands vacant after weeks of holding the coffins of coronavirus victims In contrast the the mayor's image of an empty cemetery hall this week, this was the kind of scene that shocked Bergamo in March when halls - including this one at the city's church of San Giuseppe - were packed with coffins ahead of being transported away by the army In the images posted online by mayor Gori, a church and cemetery in Bergamo now stands vacant. The city in northern Italy's Lombardy region has been regarded as the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy. Images of the interior of the church of San Giuseppe in Seriate, Bergamo taken in late March, show the grim reality the Italian province has witnessed in recent weeks with lines of coffins filling the place of worship. Mayor Gori said from March 1 until Easter Bergamo had suffered more than 600 deaths due to coronavirus. He added he wanted to thank its citizens for staying indoors amid the growing death toll. The church of San Giuseppe in Seriate, Bergamo - where many coffins were blessed as the death toll mounted - is pictured here in late March A priest blesses the dead lined in the hall of the church of San Giuseppe in Seriate, Bergamo on March 28. Bergamo's mayor has since posted a picture of an empty cemetery hall in what he hopes will prove a symbol of hope for Italy After tweeting the picture he said: 'The news I can give you today is finally positive. In these weeks there has been a decrease in the infections and deaths (from coronavirus). 'The image of the church from the cemetery that was occupied by the coffins of many of our neighbours gives us the idea that we have gone through the most difficult phase and we can keep on having hope'. Gori added: 'We said that we could beat the virus and it seems it is happening.' Italian soldiers, some of them wearing face masks, are pictured in March next to some of their trucks in Bergamo where local crematorium staff were reported to be handling 24 bodies a day In images that shocked Italy, army trucks were seen parked up as they prepared to take coffins out of the city in March A fleet of army trucks on a highway in Bergamo, on March 18, transporting the coffins of coronavirus victims out of the city after the local cemetery became overwhelmed by the virus death toll He said the situation in Bergamo had 'almost gone back to normality' and that 'four hotels are still hosting patients' discharged from hospitals. Quarantine measures in Italy are expected to be eased on May 4, with citizens possibly permitted outdoors to exercise. New cases of coronavirus in Italy have continued to decrease slightly daily in recent weeks, as have numbers of new deaths. On Saturday, Italy recorded 3,491 new cases and 482 new deaths; on Sunday 3,047 and 433; and on Monday, 2,256 and 454. Last night, we were treated to another xenophobic tweet straight from the bowels of Trumps phone. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! the president wrote. And Im here to tell you not to buy into his hysterics. Travel restrictions were already in place before this alarmist tweet. As it stood, few people could come to the US anyway. Travel to and from Mexico and Canada has been restricted to a short list of essential travelers because of coronavirus, and people returning to the US from other countries not only face exit screening in most places, they also face restrictions if coming from a country heavily affected by the pandemic; and even that definition shifts weekly. Most people from China and Europe are barred from entering as well. More importantly, no one wants to come to the US the epicenter of the outbreak right now. In other words, this executive order is nothing more than a distraction meant to take our eyes off the ball and away from his colossal failure to manage the Covid-19 crisis. Trump wants you talk about something other than the failures of the dangerous dilettante in the White House. If enacted, it would also do colossal damage to an economy already in free-fall. Theres nothing new about this administration doing everything it can to deny refugee and asylum claims that policy has been in place since the former attorney general Jeff Sessions worked to break up families and throw children in cages. Later in 2019, the Trump administration instituted the Migrant Protection Protocols and, under AG Bill Barr, the remain in Mexico policy. Between these two programs, Trump and his cronies have long ensured that most asylum claims are either unable to be processed or denied. In Mexico, applicants looking to lawfully apply for asylum are forced to brave inclement weather and dangerous conditions in early morning hours to get on long lists and make court appearances. Then those court appearances are often canceled and rescheduled at hours that clients cant make. For instance, they might have showed up in Juarez for a scheduled court date and end up dumped by border officials in Nogales, on the Arizona border, after the hearing was canceled. Nogales is a six-hour drive from Juarez. According to Human Rights Watch, as of November of last year, more than 56,000 asylum seekers, including 16,000 children (about 500 of whom were under 12 months old) had been sent back to wait in Mexico. Trump responds to question about coronavirus death by saying: 'A lot of people love Trump' From the Muslim ban, to chants of build that wall, to kids in cages and canceled asylum hearings, there is nothing new here to see. Trump campaigned on a promise to institute regressive, xenophobic policies in violation of international human rights norms once in office and that is precisely what he has done. The only difference between now and then is that the raging child in the White House insists on making things worse by squandering resources and personnel on his racist endeavors to win political gains with white supremacists in the middle of the worst health crisis weve seen since the flu of 1918, and the worst economic crisis weve undergone since the Great Depression of 1929. You dont have to be a Democrat to see the problem with that. While we have never truly been the land of the free that we lay claim to in our national anthem, thanks to our essential workers like immigration attorneys on the border, store clerks, janitors and medical personnel we continue to be the home of the brave. Unfortunately, we are also the home of the sick, with the US leading the world in number of deaths and cases of coronavirus and a shameful lack of testing. There is only one way to end this monstrosity of a presidency vote the child in the Oval Office out in November, along with all the politicians who supported his legacy of human rights violations, divisiveness and indifference to human suffering. If we dont, things could still get worse and not just for immigrants. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The number of newly reported coronavirus cases and deaths continues to decrease in southeast Michigan, but Kent Countys chief health officer says it could be well into May by the time this side of the state sees decreasing numbers. Kent County Health Department Director Adam London told MLive on Monday, April 20, the number of new cases and deaths reported in the county continues to climb higher each day because the county is still weeks out from hitting its peak. The actual prevalence of illness is increasing, and thats something we expect because I dont believe were at the peak of illness here in Kent County, London said. I think we may still be a month or more away from that. He added that part of the increase in new case numbers is thanks to wider availability of testing in recent days. Generally, a positive case is now recorded by the county within a day or two of the actual test, London said. As of Monday, April 20, the number of cases in Kent County totals 550 and the number of deaths 24, according to county data. A week before, on April 13, there were 311 cases and 13 deaths. A week before that, on April 6, there were 177 cases and five deaths. While the number of new cases reported each day continues to rise in Kent County, that figure has declined in recent days statewide, thanks to decreases largely in southeast Michigan. The difficulty in predicting when the plateau will occur is due in part because there hasnt been a surge in cases, thanks to social distancing efforts, London said. Rather than a sudden spike, like he said was seen in southeast Michigan, cases in Kent County and in West Michigan are gradually climbing upward. Its much tougher to predict the top of a plateau when the plateau is shaped like a gentle hill instead of a mountain point, but I think during the month of May is going to be where we feel the most demand, the most cases, he said. With Gov. Gretchen Whitmers revised stay-at-home order to expire on April 30, London said its imperative that any reopening of the economy is done in a way to minimize a surge in COVID-19 patients and deaths. Things wont exactly go fully back to normal until a vaccine or effective anti-viral medication is produced, he said. We need to approach that in a smart way, because this can get ugly in a hurry and it can cost lives by doing that, if its not done very carefully, he said. London said he understands that people are becoming exhausted with the stay-at-home order. Nonetheless, he urged them to continue following social distancing and hygiene guidelines. People in West Michigan have prevented illness. They have saved lives in the past several weeks, London said. Were not through this yet, and so to the extent possible that people can make good decisions, smart decisions to protect themselves and others in the community, its greatly appreciated and it has made a difference so far. London said his department is concerned as well about the impact of social distancing on suicide rates, overdoses and mental health, as well as the lack of preventative health screenings not happening right now. Coronavirus is a very, very serious virus. This pandemic is very serious, Londson said. It could get worse if we were to withdraw from all our precautionary actions, but theres also a lot of other things that were worried about right now, including the economy and jobs and poverty. Were in a difficult spot right now, and were all in this together. Without social distancing, modeling shows that between 5,000 and 10,000 residents of Kent County alone might have died from coronavirus, London said. Statewide, there are 32,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,468 associated deaths as of Monday. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. Read more Michigan coronavirus coverage here Monday, April 20: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Michigan is ramping up coronavirus testing. Thats easier said than done. Michigan company maps data to analyze, predict spread of coronavirus Pakistani Soldier, 5 Militants Killed in Firefight Near Afghan Border By Ayaz Gul April 20, 2020 Authorities in Pakistan said Monday at least one soldier and five "terrorists" were killed in clashes in a volatile district that borders Afghanistan. The early morning violence in North Waziristan erupted after a group of armed militants assaulted a security outpost in the former terrorist stronghold. A military statement said Pakistani "troops effectively engaged the terrorists" and a post-attack operation in search of the assailants was underway in the area, about 10 kilometers west of the district center of Miranshah. The rugged mountainous Waziristan district had for years served as a sanctuary for local and transnational terrorist groups blamed for plotting attacks on both sides of the traditionally porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistani military officials say a major counter-militancy ground and air offensive over the last six years has cleared most of the district of terrorists, and a reconstruction effort is currently underway there. North Waziristan, however, has experienced an increase in violence this month, resulting in the deaths of at least five Pakistani soldiers and about two dozen militants. The resurgent hostilities come at a time when Pakistani troops are working closely with civilian authorities to assist in relief operations in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, and enforce ensuing lockdowns to limit the spread of the pandemic in Pakistan. The virus, which causes COVID-19, has infected nearly 8,500 people and killed 176 since Pakistan detected the outbreak in late February. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Fourteen aircraft parade in a formation known as an elephant walk along the runway at Andersen Air Force Base on Monday, April 13, 2020. By Lin Yuan The US militarys recent ground parade in Guam, a procession of military aircraft taxiing in a formation right before a minimum interval takeoff known as an elephant walk, sparked extensive speculations. The parade was analyzed by some media as a move to demonstrate its militarys deterrence and sufficient combat force in the Asia-Pacific region despite the COVID-19 pandemic. US militarys elephant walk in Guam carries deep overtones. As the spacing between the participating aircraft is less than the minimal takeoff separation, the elephant walk in Guam is generally considered more for show than for real combat and carries deep overtones. First, its meant to turn the tide on the Guam trust crisis. As an important outpost of the US military in the Pacific Ocean, Guam is of great value both in terms of geography and the stationing of troops. After the COVID-19 broke out globally early this year, the Governor of Guam Leon Guerrero promoted her island as an island paradise that was coronavirus free, which, however, was soon refuted by the fact that Guam became the epicenter of the pandemic spreading in the US Navy, as reported by New York Times. As the governor declared a state of emergency across the island on March 14, safety of the military personnel at Naval Base Guam was brought to public attention in US. To a large extent, the ground parade was conducted to address this concern. Second, it serves as demonstration of US combat readiness. The widespread COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the US militarys war preparedness. The US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper decided to put a halt on the movement of all overseas American service members before mid-May, the rotation of 2,500 US marines to Darwin, Australia was postponed indefinitely, whether the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) will take place on schedule is uncertain, and COVID-19 cases have been confirmed on four aircraft carriers of the Pacific Fleet. All these have led the US militarys war preparedness to be seriously questioned, which is partly the reason why it exhibited its advanced aircraft in Guam - to showcase its readiness to fight in response to doubts. Third, it showcases Americas resolve to return to the Asia Pacific. The US Indo-Pacific Command head Adm. Phil Davidson recently submitted to the Congress a report on whats needed to enhance American presence in the Asia Pacific that requested USD20 billion over six years, sending a strong signal that the Pentagon is shifting its focus to the Asia Pacific. In contrast, the importance of the region and the US militarys combat capability there has been doubted both within and outside the country. Australian scholar Ashely Townshend recently published an article, saying that the US troops in the Asia Pacific are barely holding up in face of the "stricken warships, stalled deployments and Washingtons acute preoccupation with its own poorly handled humanitarian crisis". The muscle-flexing in Guam is both to root for Davidsons report and to demonstrate the importance attached by the Pentagon to this region. US militarys frequent muscle-flexing calls for an alert. Its possible that Guam will come to a tougher time after the parade of elephant walk, and Americas constant muscle-flexing in the Asia Pacific calls for high alert. On the one hand, Guam may come to a hard time. According to USNI news, 950 sailors onboard the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier berthing at Guam had tested positive for COVID-19 as of April 14, constituting 62% of confirmed cases in the US Navy. As Guam is under the double pressure of preventing imported cases from American soldiers and clustered infections on the island, the local medical and public emergency systems are under a lot of strain. Moreover, the safety of American troops at the Andersen Air Force Base and the Naval Base Guamin Apra Harbor may be subject to greater threats, potentially affecting the combat-readiness activities. On the other hand, the Asia-Pacific region is exposed to more uncertainties. The show of elephant walk on Guam was intended to tell the world that the US military still views the Asia Pacific as the main battlefield where major powers compete even in the most difficult times. Going forward, as the items on the $20billion wish list are fulfilled, the US militarys capability of carrying out all-terrain combats encompassing the land, sea, air, space, and cyber domain, combined combats of various services and coordinated operations with allies in the region will be significantly enhanced. In the next step, the US military is likely to adopt more aggressive, even provocative, steps in the region, which will create more uncertainties for the regional situation. 'Unrealistic': Norway's New Defence Plan Roasted Despite Meeting NATO's Demands Sputnik News 06:56 GMT 20.04.2020 While Norway is projected to comply with NATO's defence spending goal by parting with two percent of its GDP as early as next year, well ahead of the 2024 deadline, it is only due the country's economy shrivelling amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to Norway's brand new defence plan, presented by Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen and Prime Minister Erna Solberg, the Scandinavian nation will boost its defence spending by NOK 16.5 billion ($1.6 billion) by 2028, national broadcaster NRK reported. Among other things, Norway will receive two new battalions and more helicopters for its special forces. The Home Guard forces will be strengthened with 11 districts and 37,000 "equipped and trained" soldiers. Defence Minister Bakke-Jensen insisted that the government was highly prioritising defence and stressed that actual military operations were more active than they've been for many years. He emphasised that the new plan will boost air defence and add around 2,500 soldiers over the next eight years, through rebuilding one battalion at Skjold in Troms and another one "where the Army finds it suitable". Crucially, Norway will end up complying with NATO's spending goal of 2 percent of GDP as early as next year, well ahead of the 2024 deadline, but only due the country's economy shrinking amid the coronavirus pandemic. Norway currently spends around 1.8 percent of its GDP on defence. Defence minister Bakke-Jensen himself conceded that meeting the goal early is mostly because Norway's is forecasted to shrivel due to measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which in the past weeks brought Norway's economy to a halt. With about 400,000 Norwegians out of work in the nation of 5.3 million, its economic prospects don't look promising anymore. However, despite checking an important box, the new plan was met with harsh criticism from several sides, as it is well below what Defence Chief Haakon Bruun-Hanssen recommended last autumn, barely satisfied his minimum request. In the words of Bruun-Hanssen, Norway's participation in NATO's rapid response forces or other international operations "would come at the expense of demands for national preparedness". First, the plan sparked internal discontent. According to Torbjrn Bongo, the chief of the Norwegian Officers' Federation, the plan required a "high degree of efficiency cuts" calling it "unrealistic". Bongo also ventured that the plan might have an opposite effect, weakening defence. "It won't be possible for the military to carry them out", Bongo told national broadcaster NRK. "We fear that the cuts and assumptions in this long-term plan will contribute towards weakening defence in some areas, not strengthening it." Second, Norway's opposition parties were also dissatisfied, as Labour and the Socialist Left, both members of the left-of-the-centre "red" bloc, called for more boots on the ground, especially in Northern Norway, which is seen as a strategic area due to its close proximity to Russia. "The most important needs are personnel, in all branches", Labour defence spokesperson Anniken Huitfeld said. The national conservative Progress Party, which withdrew from the government over disagreements in immigration policies and handling so-called Daesh* wives and their children in particular, is critical of the fact that important defence decisions are being postponed. According to its spokesman Christian Tybring-Gjedde, Norway must take advantage of the opportunities the coronavirus crisis presents. Lastly, there are no plans to replace Norway's lost frigate Helge Ingstad that sank following a dramatic collision with a tanker after NATO drills in late 2018. This means that the Navy will have to make do with the currently available vessels for several more years. The Norwegian Armed Forces consists of four branches, the Army, the Navy (which includes the Coast Guard), the Air Force, and the Home Guard, as well as several joint departments, and includes a peace-time force of 23,000, as well as some 40,000 reserve personnel. * Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/"Islamic State") is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and other countries Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address " Massive fireballs" and "huge explosions" have been seen near Maidstone in Kent as firefighters responded to an explosion on a farm. Kent Fire and Rescue Service responded to an incident on a farm in Knowle Hill, Ulcombe, on Tuesday. Firefighters said the blaze has now been put out and crews are damping down any remaining hot spots, however a number of chickens were killed. They said that gas cylinders exploded after the fire broke out resulting in "loud bangs heard by the local community." There are no reported human casualties, the fire brigade said. Two fire engines and a bulk water carrier were dispatched to the scene with firefighters tacking the inferno with hose reel jets. The cause of the fire is not yet known. It comes as witnesses nearby said they saw "massive fireballs" and "huge explosions". One man wrote: "Huge explosions near me in Kent near Ashford/Maidstone. "Massive fireballs. Seen from four miles away. Anyone know anything? He later added: Im near Ulcombe in Kent. Walking east from Sutton Valence. Three explosions. First had a fireball at least 250/300ft high. Im guessing I was four miles away. A total of 57 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours from Maharashtra's Pune, one of the prominent coronavirus hotspots, a Health official said on Tuesday. With this the tally of coronavirus positive cases in Pune district now stands at 813 while the number of the people who have succumbed to the viral infection rose by three to 54, he said. "While a 57-year-old COVID-19 positive woman died in Sassoon Hospital due to respiratory failure on late Monday night, another 51-year-old woman succumbed to the infection in Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital onTuesday," the official said, adding that one more death was reported from neighboring Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) area. Of the total 813 COVID-19 cases, 703 patients are from the Pune municipal limits. While the PCMC area has reported 59 cases so far, the number of patients from rural areas in the district is 51. A total of 19 patients, including a three-year-old boy and a 92-year-old woman, were discharged from hospitals after recovering from the COVID-19 disease, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The World Health Organisation is accused of conspiring with the Chinese government to cover up the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in New York. Residents from one of the earliest and hardest-hit counties in the US claim the World Health Organisation (WHO) failed to quickly declare a pandemic, monitor China's response to the outbreak, provide treatment guidelines, advise members on how to respond including through travel restrictions, or coordinate a global response. The WHO on 14 January tweeted that there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel virus identified in Wuhan, China. That position was cited by Donald Trump when announcing the US's 60-90 day review of the agency, saying it failed to investigate credible reports in December 2019 from sources in Wuhan that conflicted directly with the Chinese government's official accounts. Kling et al v World Health Organisation was filed in the US District Court, Southern District of New York, by Westchester residents Richard Kling and Steve Rotker, of New Rochelle, and Gennaro Purchia, of Scarsdale. New Rochelle became an early coronavirus hot spot after a lawyer tested positive for Covid-19 on March 2. A total of 23,803 have tested positive in Westchester, and 242,786 in New York, through to April 18, according to the state's health department. With 17,671 deaths in total, New York State is the hardest-hit region of the United States' 775,846 cases and 41,302 deaths. The lawsuit accuses the World Health Organisation of gross negligence and seeks damages for what the plaintiffs call "incalculable" harm to the 756,000 adult residents in the county that would be part of the class action. While China is not named as a defendant, the country faces multiple private lawsuits in the US seeking damages related to the pandemic. The World Health Organisation did not immediately respond to email requests for a response to the lawsuit. Uber has been handed a major victory on behalf of delivery platforms after the Fair Work Commission's full bench accepted the company's argument that its 60,000 drivers are not employees. The Commission found that former Uber Eats driver Amita Gupta was not an employee of the company and rejected her unfair dismissal claim. Amita Gupta, supported by her husband Santosh, has lost her unfair dismissal case against Uber Eats in the Fair Work Commission. Credit:James Alcock The decision is a blow to the Transport Workers Union, which had argued Mrs Gupta was an employee of the company - giving her protection against losing her job unfairly - when it ended her access to Uber Eats for failing to hit delivery time standards. University of Adelaide law professor Andrew Stewart said Justice Iain Ross and Vice-President Adam Hatcher largely rejected Uber's argument that drivers run independent businesses but still concluded Mrs Gupta was not an employee. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan Tue, April 21, 2020 17:40 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd35a2d1 1 National TKI,migrant-workers,North-Sumatra,Riau,aceh,COVID-19,coronavirus,virus-korona-indonesia Free Dozens of Indonesian migrant workers returning from Malaysia have been caught attempting to sneak past border authorities via illegal routes. The Indonesian Navy spotted and secured a fishing vessel carrying 22 undocumented Indonesian migrant workers from Malaysia in Tanjung Tumpul in Asahan regency, North Sumatra, on Monday. Belawan I Naval Base commander Adm. Abdul Rasyid said the authorities were keeping a close watch on the countrys borders with Malaysia because there were concerns that illegal migrants might enter Indonesia and spread the coronavirus disease upon arrival. The Navy would continue patrolling the sea, as well as a number of routes that were found to have been used as illegal entry points by migrants, he said. This is the umpteenth time that we have detained migrant workers who returned from Malaysia. It has become a major concern for us amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Abdul said on Monday. Belawan 1 Naval Base spokesperson Second Lt. Mega Patijurjana said the authorities had conducted medical tests on passengers of the all-male fishing vessel to determine whether they posed any public health risks. All migrant workers are currently isolated at a hospital to curb the spread of COVID-19, Patinurjana said. Batubara regency, located along North Sumatra's eastern shoreline, also saw an influx of migrant workers returning from Malaysia via illegal routes, with 94 people recently caught entering the area. Seventeen migrant workers managed to escape, while the 77 others were immediately placed under quarantine at a hospital to stem the spread of COVID-19, Batubara Regent Zahir said on Monday. Read also: COVID-19 pandemic forces Indonesian mothers to do it all He said the migrant workers originated from various provinces across the country, including Riau, Jambi, East Java and Central Java. The North Sumatra provincial administration previously repatriated some 513 Indonesian migrant workers from Malaysia after they were cleared following COVID-19 testing. Many of them had police records in Malaysia for overstaying their visas. All recently repatriated migrant workers had been put in isolation for 14 days at a special facility in Cadika Lubuk Pakam Park in the province's Deli Serdang regency or at Suwondo Air Base in the provincial capital Medan. North Sumatra had 84 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday afternoon, with at least nine deaths linked to the disease. Authorities also previously caught Indonesian migrant workers returning via illegal routes from Malaysia in other provinces, including Riau Islands. Last week, the Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) apprehended 47 migrant workers returning from Malaysia via illegal routes in the Nongsa waters of Batam, Riau Islands, on April 15. None of them had shown any COVID-19 symptoms when authorities screened them, Bakamla chief Vice Adm. Aan Kurnia said. Indonesian migrant workers began returning home after Malaysia extended until April 28 its movement control order, which is technically a lockdown. The coronavirus has infected more than 5,400 people and killed at least 89 there. Read also: Indonesia to evaluate partial lockdown as companies, factories continue business as usual Other provinces, including Riau and Aceh, have also seen an influx of Indonesian migrant workers returning from Malaysia since earlier this month. The Riau administration's communications and information agency head, Chairul Riski, said 4,444 migrant workers from the neighboring country had returned home through the province. The figure accounts for arrivals from the fourth week of March to April 1, Chairul said on April 2 as quoted by Antara. He went on to say that the migrant workers had largely entered the province through Tanjung Harapan Port in Meranti Islands regency, Sri Junjungan Port in Dumai city and Sri Laksamana Port in Bengkalis regency. Meanwhile, the East Aceh Police have stepped up monitoring after some 500 migrant workers returned to the province from Malaysia last week. East Aceh Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Eko Widiantoro said the returnees had been placed in isolation and were required to comply with a 14-day quarantine rule. He said the authorities in East Aceh had also been tracking the arrival of domestic workers from other regions that were considered hot spots for COVID-19 contagion, such as North Sumatra and the capital Jakarta. Well keep compiling data to keep track of their locations in our region. This emergency health protocol has to be done in concert [with related stakeholders] to maximize our mitigation efforts, Eko said on April 15. As of Tuesday afternoon, the number of people infected by the coronavirus had reached 7,135, with 616 fatalities, according to the government's official count. Of the figure, Riau has recorded at least 35 confirmed cases with four fatalities, while Aceh has seven confirmed COVID-19 cases and one death linked to the disease. (rfa) Scared to lose its monopoly Irans state-run broadcaster has slowed down the expansion of the Internet in the country by refusing to allocate parts of its unused frequency bands. The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT) and local internet infrastructure companies need 700 and 800 MHz frequencies to develop the fifth generation of the mobile Internet and increase the network's capacity and speed in Iran. But this can further weaken the weaken state TVs monopoly on the production of videos and the flow of information. Iran communications authorities believe that 700 and 800 MHz frequency bands are the best option for the development of fixed and mobile Internet in the country, and it can lead to a reduction in the costs of connectivity cost and an increase in quality. The lower the frequency, the larger would be its wavelength and the higher its coverage and resistance to disruption. Through the application of low frequencies, operators can create more and better coverage with the least amount of investment, and broadband networks are less expensive for the consumer. However, the higher the frequency, the higher the number of communication towers needed, and the higher the cost of coverage. Furthermore, with additional towers more optical fiber is required. Presently, such frequencies are no longer used by television networks, and they are released for the development of mobile Internet in the modern world. Although it has been long since the Islamic Republic television dropped these groups of frequencies, it still refuses to give them up for developing the Internet in the country. The ICT Minister, Mohammad Javad Jahromi, has admitted that the mobile network in Tehran has reached its maximum nominal capacity, and the only way to increase the bandwidth capacity is to add the frequency exclusively possessed by the state-run radio and television network. "We've been trying to get hold of the frequencies for three years ... but they have not cooperated", Azari Jahromi has lamented. Firing back, the deputy director of development and technology of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Reza Alidadi, has argued that the state-run radio and television networks are currently planning to broadcast in HD and 4K and it needs the unused frequencies. "Therefore, in no way IRIB can release any frequencies," Alidadi has argued, adding, "Considering the current needs and ongoing plans of the IRIB, it is not possible to free any band, and new transmitters must be installed and run on all bands." For its part, MICT's Deputy in Regulatory Affairs, Nastaran Mohseni, has responded by demanding, "Where on earth 700-800 [analog] bands are used for increasing the quality of HD or 4K broadcasting?" In the meantime, reports also say the analog system has lost its efficiency for the IRIB operation; therefore, it should be surrendered to the local internet operators who are unhappy and suffering from a severe shortage of frequencies. Earlier, a member of the board of directors of the Information Technology Organization of Iran, Behzad Akbari, had noted, "If we want to make the 5G service dominant, the IRIB must release the plethora of frequencies at its disposal to be used for the development of the 5G." Nevertheless, if the fifth generation of mobile Internet becomes dominant in Iran, its extremely high speed could practically make online TVs available for all and end the IRIB's radio&TV monopoly in the country. Based on official data, the IRIB has more than 100 international, national and provincial radio and television networks. Still, the organization has seen a decline in its audience as satellite and Internet networks have expanded. The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), according to the country's Constitution, is the sole organization allowed to run radio and television networks in Iran. According to Article 175 of the Constitution, the appointment and dismissal of the head of the IRIB rest with the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A council consisting of two representatives each of the President, the head of the Judiciary, and Majlis (the Islamic Consultative Assembly or parliament) supervises the operation of the organization. Protesters gather outside the Capital Complex in Harrisburg, PA on April 20, 2020. They are calling for Gov. Wolf to reopen up the state's economy during the coronavirus outbreak. Read more TL;DR: Gov. Tom Wolf extended Pennsylvanias stay-at-home order until May 8, while protesters rallied outside the state capitol in Harrisburg calling for life to get back to normal, despite the coronavirus. Here are photos and video of the rally, where many protesters are not wearing masks. Also, my colleague Tom Avril explains why some people get really sick from the coronavirus, and others dont. Ellie Silverman (@esilverman11, health@inquirer.com) What you need to know Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a bill that would have allowed more Pennsylvania businesses to reopen. Coronavirus is largely spread by people without symptoms. That makes reopening the economy harder in many ways. The first coronavirus patient was accepted at Temple Universitys Liacouras Center, which the city has turned into a field hospital. Philly jails still arent doing enough to stop coronavirus spread, the ACLU says in new lawsuit. In case you forgot, you must now wear a mask when you go shopping in Pennsylvania. Local coronavirus cases As of Monday evening, there are more than 22,400 reported cases in the Philadelphia area. Track the spread here. PHILADELPHIA: 9,553 confirmed cases SUBURBAN PA: 8,219 confirmed cases SOUTH JERSEY: 4,688 confirmed cases Gov. Tom Wolf extended Pennsylvanias stay-at-home order until May 8 and protesters rallied outside the state capitol in Harrisburg. Many protesters were not wearing masks, gathered despite social-distancing guidelines, and demanded that, despite the coronavirus, their lives get back to normal. Public health officials advised against these protests: If you come to Harrisburg and youre not practicing social distancing, then you are putting all of yourselves at risk, warned Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvanias health secretary. See photos of the protest here, and here is a video. We have believed that as a person has greater exposure to the coronavirus, they have higher chances of being infected and getting worse symptoms. But, my colleague Tom Avril explains, new evidence suggests this is only true to a point. For many people with severe symptoms, their immune system has gone haywire. This overwhelms the lungs with inflammation, causing the bodys response to the virus to be worse than the virus itself. There seems to be some combination of other factors at play, explaining why many people suffer mild symptoms or none at all. Helpful resources You got this: You can now place an order for curbside liquor pickup in Pa. Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores have been closed for a month, but starting today, Pennsylvania launched curbside pickup at more than 50 stores in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Online stores technically reopened April 1, but because of overwhelming demand many people have been unable to order anything. Now, you can get wine from the stores curbside pickup; just follow these instructions. Dont want to head to a state store? Here are other options for alcohol, like local wineries, distilleries, and craft breweries. Do this at home: Here are the best puzzles and games to play right now. How to take care of your car if youre not driving it a lot. Have a social distancing tip or question to share? Let us know at health@inquirer.com and your input might be featured in a future edition of this newsletter. What were paying attention to Enjoy getting our journalism through email? You can also sign up for The Inquirer Morning Newsletter to get the latest news, features, investigations and more sent straight to your inbox each morning Sunday-Friday. Sign up here. A further irony is that David Combe's association with the Soviet Union - which has brought his career as a professional lobbyist to the brink of disaster - has been common knowledge inside ALP circles for years. Certainly such a close colleague as Bob Hawke knew about it. Within weeks, however, the new prime minister would expel Mr Ivanov and order his ministers to sever professional ties with Mr Combe. On Sunday, March 6, the day after Bob Hawke's election win, Valerly Ivanov arrived at the home of David Combe with two bottles of champagne under his arm. Mr Combe has been on visits to the Soviet Union as a guest of their government. His most recent trip was towards the end of last year. He has maintained an association with the Soviet embassy in Canberra for many years. Sometimes he has taken his holidays on Russian cruise ships. Paul Everingham and David Combe at National Press Club. May 27, 1983 Credit:Staff photographer Early in 1976, he and his family had to cut short a cruise on the Soviet ship Leonid Sovinov in Fiji because of a political row in Australia over revelations that the Iraqi Government had offered to give the Labor Party $500,000 towards its campaign expenses in the 1975 election. The offer was refused. Mr Combe was deeply affected by the 1975 sacking and defeat of the Whitlam Government. He investigate the proposition that the CIA had played a role in the undermining of the Whitlam Government. This led Mr Combe into taking a greater interest in the Australian security services, and probably led the security services into taking an even greater interest in him. He played a role in the 1977 decision of the ALP national executive to ask the US Congress and Administration to investigate claims that the CIA played a roll in the downfall of the Whitlam Government. The US embassy rebuffed the ALP. A woman passes a mural by Irish artist Emmalene Blake on a gate in South Dublin thanking healtcare workers for the work they are doing during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire A staff member at a pharmacy in Holywood, Co. Down, is pictured wearing a protective visor and face mask. Photo: REUTERS/Jason Cairnduff Volunteers disinfect an alley at the Santa Marta favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty Images) A public health information advert is seen on a lampost in Dublin as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue.April 21, 2020 REUTERS/Jason Cairnduff People are seen jogging past a social distancing sign in Dublin as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues. April 21, 2020 REUTERS/Jason Cairnduff Independent.ie's live blog is here to keep you informed of what's going on in Ireland and across the world during the coronavirus pandemic. 23:10: Multi-million euro investment announced to buy digital devices for disadvantaged Leaving Cert students The Government is planning a multi-million euro scheme to help disadvantaged students get through the end of the school year and their exams, Education Minister Joe McHugh has said. Tonight, Mr McHugh said tablets, smart phones and access to data will be among the measures in the scheme, to be announced tomorrow. It is understood the investment involved will be about 7m and thousands of exam candidates will benefit. Many will be in schools in the Department of Educations DEIS programme for disadvantaged communities, but others will be in non-DEIS schools. The issue of students with less access to technology was identified at an early stage in the Covid-19 lockdown. Read More 22:30 When asked if a number seasonal workers for Keelings, who arrived from Bulgaria last week, are considered essential workers, Mr Varadkar said agricultural workers are essential, but it is not essential for them to "have to come in from another country." "Agricultural workers are defined, not just in Ireland but across Europe, as essential workers, because the harvest has to come in. It's not essential though that they have to come in from another country," he said. "So ideally, and this is what we're working on, if possible, is to have Irish people, if they're willing to take up those jobs. If they're not, then it'll be possible to bring people in from other parts of the European Union, but it'll have to be done with self isolation for 14 days with precautions and we'll have to make sure that's properly monitored." Read More 22:30 There are no plans to close Ireland's borders, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said. Mr Varadkar said it is vital the border remains open in order to allow essential supplies in and for Irish citizens to return home. "Even though we're an island, we have a land border with the United Kingdom, ie Northern Ireland, we're not going to close that. We have a common travel area with the United Kingdom. "We're also part of the European Union, and we need to keep our borders open in order to allow supplies to get in, that's absolutely essential medical supplies, food, lots of other things, and with them of course comes pilots and hauliers, and we also need to keep our borders open so our citizens can come home and the essential workers can get in and out." 22:15 Mr Varadkar said social distancing "could be with us for a very long time," after lockdown restrictions are lifted. He encouraged businesses to consider how they will implement the measure once restrictions are eased. "If you were told, next week or the week after that it's going to be possible to open your business or open your facility in a few weeks time, how would you do with social distancing. "I know some sectors like the construction industry are already very much looking at how they could open sites with social distancing. You can see for example, in schools and in Denmark how they're doing it with, you know, kids spread out more, hand washing. "I think everyone needs to be thinking about where they work and how they might be able to adapt to this new norm of social distancing, which could be with us for very long time." He added that schools and businesses will be given guidance on how they should operate once they are allowed reopen. "We're not going to just leave it up to the principal, we will engage with the teachers unions about it so they'll have a big role to play, and bodies like the National Standards Authority are already issuing guidance for business in particular, as to how they might reopen with precautions with social distancing. "In fairness, some people are doing this already. Our supermarkets have already learned operate in a different way. And that's what we're all gonna have to do as a society, at least until we either have a vaccine." 21:45 Plans to lift coronavirus restrictions gradually will be announced on May 5 - Taoiseach Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said plans to lift restrictions will be announced on May 5, but restrictions will not change before then. "There won't be any change to the restrictions until May 5. But at the moment we are preparing a plan, which will have ready before the May 5, and we will share with the Irish public on May 5 which sets out in a stepwise fashion in different steps how we will reopen our economy," he told RTE's Prime Time. "How will we reopen our society, and what criteria we'll use to decide how to do that. So I think everyone understands it won't be done in one goal, in one fell swoop, and won't be back to normal on day one. "What we'll do is set out a whole series of steps that we can take, and every two to three weeks we'll review them and see how we're doing. And if we're doing well we can move to the next stage which is more reopening." He added: "I'd love to be able to say that we're going to do X and Y, and not Z, but the plan isn't agreed or finalised yet. "I don't want to say that we're going to do X and Y now, only to turn around in a few days time and tell you we're going to do Y and Z instead, so when you hear it from me, it's the plan, and it's not going to change." 21:20 Education Minister says Leaving Cert could 'potentially' start on July 29 Education Minister Joe McHugh has said this years Leaving Cert exams could potentially start on July 29. Mr McHugh took part in an online discussion organised by youth organisation Spunout.ie this evening during which young people asked him about the delayed Leaving Cert exams. The date we are going to be looking at is that Wednesday, July 29, and I will confirm that in a couple of days, he said. 20:20 Galway Races organisers plan to run festival behind closed doors The 2020 Galway Races festival has been cancelled amid new restrictions put in place by the Government on mass gatherings over 5,000 people. No gatherings over 5,000 people will take place before at least the end of August, the Government announced this evening. As a result, a number of summer festivals and concerts are set to be cancelled. In a statement this evening, the Galway Race Committee said that it will be "huge disappointment" for racegoers but that they are planning for the possibility of holding the festival behind closed doors. "It may prove possible to run the Galway Races behind closed doors, dependent on Government policy and the approval of Horse Racing Ireland and Irish Horse Racing Regulatory Board," a spokesperson said. "This would be for the benefit of the racing industry, our valued partners and our television audiences at home and internationally. We are currently planning for this scenario and we will update you on progress as and when we can. The organisers offered their "deepest gratitude" to staff at the HSE and front line workers for "their dedication and perseverance". "We look forward to being able to welcome you all back to Ballybrit when it is safe to do so. For now, please look after yourselves." Customers who have already paid for admission tickets and corporate hospitality will all be issued a full refund. Read More 19:30 Breakdown of the confirmed cases in Ireland The latest data, as of midnight, Sunday 19th April (15,464 cases), reveals: 56pc of cases are female and 43pc are male, with 491 clusters involving 3,447 cases The median age of confirmed cases is 48 years 2,323 cases (15pc) have been hospitalised Of those hospitalised, 315 cases have been admitted to ICU 4,180 cases are associated with healthcare workers Dublin has the highest number of cases at 7,781 (50pc of all cases) followed by Cork with 1,053 cases (7pc) Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 60pc, close contact accounts for 35pc, travel abroad accounts for 5pc As of midnight Monday 20th April, 111,584 tests have been carried out. Over the past week, 20,822 tests were carried out and of these 4,025 were positive, giving a positivity rate of 19pc. Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: "An analysis of 15,186 cases reveals that 8,377 (55pc) have fully recovered from COVID-19 in the community, while 856 (6pc) recovered and were discharged from hospital. "We are now in our eighth week since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Ireland. In that space of time we, as a country, have managed to suppress the virus in our community. "As we move forward we must look to protecting our vulnerable populations and maintain the progress we have made so far. There is no room for complacency." 18:06 Death toll reaches 730 as 44 further deaths reported A total of 44 further deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 730. There are now 16,040 coronavirus cases in Ireland as another 388 cases have been confirmed this evening. The latest deaths include: 37 deaths located in the east, 2 in the west, 2 in the north-west and 3 in the south of the country the people included 26 females and 18 males the median age of todays reported deaths is 87 33 people were reported as having underlying health conditions The death toll now stands at 730, after validation of data at the HPSC this week resulted in the denotification of one death. 18:00 21/04/2020 TidyTown competition 2020 cancelled The TidyTowns competition will not go ahead this year due to public health concerns linked to coronavirus, Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring has announced. In a statement, Mr Ring said the decision to cancel the annual competition was made in the interest of protecting the health and safety of TidyTowns volunteers. However, the competition will go ahead in 2021. For over 60 years the TidyTowns competition has captured the imagination of communities the length and breadth of the country. Generation after generation of local volunteers have given their time generously to make the TidyTowns competition the success it is today, he said. The whole ethos of the competition is that people come together within the community and work collaboratively to make their areas attractive and welcoming. It involves people of all ages working together outdoors in groups to enhance the environment in which they work and live. I know that many TidyTowns Committees have been wondering if the competition will proceed this year and I believe it is important to provide certainty to all of the Committees around the country at this stage. For me, the health and welfare of the volunteers on the TidyTowns Committees is paramount. Given the current restrictions around public gatherings, travel, and adherence to social distancing, it would not be appropriate to ask voluntary groups to work on TidyTowns projects in their communities at this time. I have therefore decided that the TidyTowns competition will not go ahead this year. 17:10 21/04/2020 All mass gatherings of over 5,000 people banned until at least August No mass gatherings of over 5,000 people will take place until at least the end of August, the government announced this evening. All mass Gatherings have been restricted since March 24 with further advice due to come on May 5. However, some events require licensing and the involvement of the HSE and gardai. A government spokesperson said that event promoters should be informed that events requiring licences in excess of 5,000 will not be considered for the period up to the end of August. Read More 16:25 21/04/2020 Country set for deep recession as economy to shrink by 10pc and mass unemployment grows The country is set for a deep recession this year that will eclipse the worst seen in the financial crisis causing mass unemployment and deep scarring that will last for years, new Government forecasts show. The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which manages funding for the State, has massively hiked its estimate for how much it will borrow this year to a new range of 20bn to 24bn. The NTMA previously said it expected to borrow between 10bn and 14bn this year and that was mostly to pay off old bonds. The new higher estimate is based on an expected Government spending deficit a shortfall between the cost of running the State and the income raised mostly through tax and spending. Far from plotting a rapid V-shaped recovery, the economy will grow by 5.8pc next year and the average unemployment level in 2021 will be 9.7pc, a figure last seen in October 2014. Read More 15:01 21/04/2020 Six-week delay in rolling out childcare for health workers branded as 'unacceptable' The six week delay in rolling out a childcare scheme for healthcare workers is "unacceptable", Labour party leader Alan Kelly has said. Mr Kelly's remarks come as the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) are set to discuss renewed government proposals for how to provide childcare for front-line workers. There has been calls from opposition politicians and unions for a solution to the issue from the onset of the coronavirus crisis. Mr Kelly said schools and creches closed more than six weeks ago and "we still have not seen a viable childcare solution for healthcare workers from Government that has been approved by NPHET." 14:00 21/04/2020 UN urges world to quickly scale up medicines and vaccines The UN General Assembly has demanded global action to quickly scale up the development of and access to medicines, vaccines and equipment to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Tuesday that rushing to ease coronavirus lockdowns could lead to a resurgence of the outbreak. The UN resolution is asking Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to work with the WHO and make recommendations to ensure that all people have equitable and timely access to testing, medical supplies, drugs and future vaccines, especially in developing countries. African officials have been outspoken about the need for medical supplies across the 54-nation continent, where health systems have historically been underfunded and will be overwhelmed by the virus. Even under a best-case scenario, Africa will need 44 billion dollars (35bn) for testing, personal protective equipment and treatment of coronavirus, according to a report last week by the UN Economic Commission for Africa. The worst-case scenario estimates that 446 billion dollars (361bn) would be needed. 07:45 21/04/2020 WHO warns rush to ease virus rules could cause resurgence The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of the illness. The warning comes as governments across the world start rolling out plans to get their economies up and running again. Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said: This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future. He said governments must remain vigilant to stop the spread of the virus and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. Despite concerns from health officials, some US states have announced aggressive reopening plans, while Boeing and at least one other American heavy-equipment manufacturer resumed production. Elsewhere around the world, step-by-step reopenings are under way in Europe, where the crisis has begun to ebb in places such as Italy, Spain and Germany. 07:25 21/04/2020 GPs 'won't see patients in homes' due to infection spread fears Private nursing home operators are struggling to get on-site visits from GPs due concerns over infection spread. Many general practitioners are now opting to treat residents remotely in a bid to limit the risk to themselves and the other patients on their GP register. Speaking to the Irish Independent, a senior source in the GP sector said that while a large number of GPs were attending virus-hit nursing homes, there are others who "definitely aren't". It comes as Dr Jack Lambert, a consultant in infectious diseases at the Mater Hospital, said he had Covid-19 positive nursing home patients in his care that hadn't seen a GP in weeks. "In many cases the GP care is being done over the phone," he said. Read More 07:17 21/04/2020 'Schools and buses are not designed for social distancing' - Principals' leader Schools and school buses are not designed for social distancing, a principals' leader said as a national conversation gets under way over when it will be safe for teachers and pupils to return to classrooms. Even a partial reopening has raised concerns among teachers, principals and others about how it can be achieved while observing public health-led physical distancing rules expected to be in place for some time. While there is no suggestion that schools will open their doors immediately after the current lockdown, which extends until May 5, Health Minister Simon Harris kicked off the debate at the weekend, floating the idea of a "one day a week" reopening. Education Minister Joe McHugh, who has declared schools closed "until further notice" on public health grounds, has not got involved in speculation. Read More 07:12 21/04/2020 Nursing home residents with coronavirus can be put in the same room under new guidelines Nursing homes which have run out of single rooms for residents who have the coronavirus can cohort them in a single area, according to updated guidelines. The guidance said that residents who have the virus can all be placed together in a multi-occupancy room, however other residents who may even be probable cases should not be accommodated there. The new rules come as private and public nursing homes continue to deal with outbreaks of the coronavirus leading to deaths and illness among many elderly residents. It emerged yesterday that a hospital group has taken over the "operational management" of Dealgan House nursing home in Dundalk, Co Louth, due to a serious outbreak of the virus in the facility. Read More 07:00 21/04/2020 Honohan warns against virus loans as ministers debate support schemes Former Central Bank of Ireland governor Patrick Honohan, who famously took to the airwaves in 2010 to announce the State's bailout programme, has warned that pandemic loans to companies may not be the right way to keep them afloat. Mr Honohan's comments came as the Government considered options to help firms that might go to the wall as a result of the coronavirus lockdown, taking tens of thousands of jobs with them. The best path, Mr Honohan argues, is for the Government to make grants to firms, as the financial instruments being used at present "are likely to leave beneficiary firms over indebted when the pandemic crisis has passed". Mr Honohan's comments come amid a debate inside Government over how to aid companies. Harbor Springs to host Winter Fest this Saturday The City of Harbor Springs is hosting a winter themed and family-friendly event to shake off the cabin fever this Saturday. Photo: (Photo : Instagram/aplusk) Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis announced on Sunday that they are launching their Quarantine Wine, and 100 percent of the proceeds will go to various charities to provide for coronavirus relief efforts. The couple is teaming up with Battle Creek Vineyards and Nocking Point Wines to create a wine that they are dedicating to the quarantine period. On Twitter, they posted a video, saying they are launching a Quarantine Wine wherein all the cash they collect will go to charities that feed families and provide supplies and PPE equipment that will be used by the medical frontliners. Kutcher added even owners of small businesses and those who are in distress are part of the benefactors. On their website, they are selling two bottles of the "beautiful Oregon Pinot Noir" priced at $50 that has an interactive front label that says "meant to be written on by YOU." Kunis and Kutcher are asking their fans and followers to support them by snapping a picture of them enjoying a happy hour with a friend or a loved one with the bottle of wine, adding hashtags #QUARANTINEWINE, #PPE, and #SOCIALDISTANCING to help share to the world about the awesome wine and the fundraising cause. "Quarantine Wine" Proceeds to be Given to Charities Give Directly, America's Food Fund, Direct Relief, and The Frontline Responders Fund are the four charities that were chosen by the couple. Give Directly provides cash directly to families that are living in areas that received the biggest impact by the coronavirus. At the same time, America's Food Fund makes sure that families would have a safe and reliable food source. Direct Relief helps provide personal protective equipment to medical frontliners and EMS workers and The Frontline Responders Fund purchases and delivers ventilators and PPE to medical facilities around the US. Mila Kunis said that they had fun tasting the wines because they were delicious. Ashton Kutcher followed through by sending a toast to the ones viewing their video, especially for those who are doing their best to keep people safe. Celebrities Are Helping Charities Kim Kardashian West shared Kunis and Kutcher's video on her Twitter with a series of heart and wine emojis showing her support to the couple's fundraising cause. Apart from the Kunis and Kutcher couple, many Hollywood stars have donated to charities and their local communities and are advising their followers to do social distancing during the global health crisis. Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi donated $1 million to the All-In Challenge. Amy Schumer gave KN95 masks to a New York hospital where her best friend Jen Cloudman is working. The host of "Live with Kelly and Ryan," Ryan Seacrest donated $1 million to help those residing in New York and Los Angeles. Amal and George Clooney also gave more than $1 million to six charities that are close to their hearts. Russia hopes to resolve the issue of restoring air links with Georgia in the near future, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "Unfortunately, the air travel is still frozen," he recalled. "I hope that in the near future we will be able to solve this problem," TASS cited the minister as saying. Lavrov also announced Russia's readiness to discuss the opening of a trade representation in Georgia, if Tbilisi makes such an offer. "We will be ready to restore diplomatic relations," he pointed out, noting that the severance of diplomatic relations was not initiated by Russia. "We have to wait until the Georgian colleagues approach this issue," the top Russian diplomat believes. "I dont think that this will add any benefits, but if there is an offer, we will definitely consider such an opportunity, Lavrov assured. The Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kaduna state, Muhammed Sanni Dattijo has debunked reports that Governor Nasir El-Rufai is now in Intensive Care Unit, ICU, as his coronavirus case worsened. Dattijo who disclosed this on Monday, said the stories on social media were mere fabrications, as the governor is hale and hearty and working from isolation. He urged the public to ignore fabricated reports on El-Rufai. Mallam Nasir el-Rufai at 2:06pm, Monday 20 April. Alive and Well. Working from isolation. To all the folks tweeting about him in ICU, you shall see it before he does inshaAllah, he tweeted and displayed photo of the governor at the isolation centre. COVID-19 has kept the shuttered Alamo grounds quiet, but controversy continues to rage over the handling of human remains discovered on the grounds as the Texas Historical Commission considers whether to remove and temporarily store four burials. The Texas General Land Office, which oversees the Alamo, and the nonprofit Alamo Trust are requesting permission to exhume the burials, including one of an infant or young child, as preservation work continues on the church, one of the most recognized structures in the Southwest. But a Native American group that already has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to be included in the handling of the remains at the site opposes the two entities permit application. Ramon Vasquez, an executive member of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, said in a letter to the commission that he doesnt want partially intact skeletal remains unearthed in recent months to be stored on shelves, like those of dozens of other burials from San Antonio missions that are stored in archaeological research facilities. On ExpressNews.com: Native American group filed new claims in Alamo lawsuit Vasquez echoed objections Tap Pilam has raised in its lawsuit that the human remains treatment protocol is managed by American Indian groups with little or no direct lineal connection to Mission San Antonio de Valero, which became the military fort known as El Alamo under Spanish rule. A majority of the 1,000-plus burials documented in the missions Catholic cemetery records were bands of indigenous people now known collectively as Coahuiltecans the aboriginal people from South Texas, Vasquez wrote. The Alamo Trust last year tapped, as members of a committee guiding the handling of human remains, representatives of federally recognized Mescalero Apache, Tonkawa, Alabama-Coushatta, Caddo, Seminole and Cheyenne-Arapaho tribal organizations. Some of them live in Oklahoma. Vasquez said Tap Pilam, formed in 1994, has worked with archaeologists at the Alamo in the past and even shared our own research with them to further their own scholarly work. That is why I find it appalling that the lineal descendants would be intentionally left out of this process, he said in an April 16 letter to the commission. The Land Office continues to stand by its process for care and handling of remains through its Alamo Mission Archaeology Advisory Committee, whose members are versed in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. A permit application submitted by Raba Kistner, the Alamo Trusts archaeology consultant, outlines a process for sensitively documenting the burials, then cleaning and storing the bones, bone fragments, beads and other funerary objects. The burials would be stored temporarily in an environmentally controlled vault at the Alamo to allow preservation work to continue, then reburied in the Monks Burial Room, located inside the church. In its application, Raba Kistner explained why each of the four burials must be removed to allow for placement and monitoring of sensors and other work underway to study the foundation and walls of the church. Preservation work in recent years has revealed that the thick limestone walls of the church, which was used for worship in the mission era and as a cannon station and refuge during the 1836 battle, are not reinforced, but are hollow or filled with rubble. Preservation experts are worried that the weight of the buildings century-old concrete roof could be adding structural stress to the walls. There is no doubt we are in a much-needed race against time to protect the only remaining structures from the Battle of the Alamo, Land Office spokeswoman Karina Erickson said in an email, referencing the church and adjacent Long Barrack. Erickson dismissed statements by Tap Pilam that the burials might be kept in storage for 10 years. Remains would be reinterred as soon as field work is completed, and any statement otherwise is yet another preposterous attempt by Tap Pilam to spread misinformation, she said. Specifically, the permit (application) states, Reinterments of all burials and disarticulated remains or bone fragments will occur at one time, following the completion of the field work and analysis of the project associated with the execution of the Alamo Plan. On ExpressNews.com: Work continues in Alamo Plaza, despite pandemic One of the key points of disagreement is whether DNA testing should be used to identify human remains found at the Alamo. Tap Pilam supports DNA testing, but the Alamos protocol discourages use of destructive analysis. The permit application states that because up to nearly 300 years have likely passed since the remains were buried, DNA analysis would not only destroy the bone forever but be unlikely to provide any more certainty about the deceaseds existence other than their region of origin. The historical commissions Antiquities Advisory Board and Executive Committee discussed the matter last week via teleconference, and the committee is set to meet via teleconference at 10 a.m. Saturday to continue discussions and possibly take action. Members of the public will be given access to the meeting as state law requires by calling toll-free, 1-844-721-7241. The access code is 3560787. shuddleston@express-news.net Twitter: @shuddlestonSA MANISTEE COUNTY, MI A 30-year-old Michigan man was killed in a rollover crash in Manistee County. Troopers from the Michigan State Police Cadillac Post say Travis James Johnson of Cadillac was killed when a 2002 GMC he was driving failed to make a turn off Big Four Road onto Millard Road in Springdale Township at 9:41 a.m. on Saturday, April 18. The vehicle left the roadway before rolling over. Johnson was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. A 28-year-old male passenger, also from Cadillac, was transported to Munson Hospital in Manistee where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Alcohol and drugs are believed to be a factor in the crash, police said. Troopers were assisted at the scene by Manistee County Northflight EMS units Alpha 4, Bravo 17 and the Cleon Township Fire Department. CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday issued a statement assuring the healthcare workers that the government would support them in the fight against the pandemic which has turned out to be a key challenge for humanity. This comes after two major incidents in Chennai alone where the final journey and last rites of two doctors who died fighting COVID-19 were disrupted and prevented by agitated commoners. About a week ago, an orthopedic surgeon who hailed from the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh had died in Chennai due to COVID-19. When the authorities had decided to cremate his mortal remains at a government crematorium, they faced stiff opposition from the public in the locality. The opposition from the public is said to have been caused over unfounded allegations that the cremation could lead to the spread of the virus. It was after the intervention of several higher authorities that the doctors mortal remains were cremated. A similar incident took place during the late hours of Sunday when an ambulance carrying the mortal remains of a senior doctor was attacked, forcing the injured passengers to flee from cemeteries in two localities. The burial was performed amid police protection only in the wee hours of Monday. The government appealed to the public to cooperate and consider all those working towards saving lives as equal to God. Health workers, medical professionals, police and civic authorities leave behind their families and risk their personal safety to prevent the spread of the virus, the state government said. Our government considers every life important and is taking decisions and announcing welfare measures in this regard. The efforts of front-line workers is being lauded across the country, the statement added. The Chief Minister stated that the recent incidents had caused him deep pain and anguish, despite the clear guidelines that the government had issued for cremating or burying the dead. I would like to emphasize that the State government will take suitable action to prevent such incidents. Doctors and frontline workers need not fear. The government stands in solidarity with you, the CM said. While the Chennai City Police has arrested over 21 individuals for the violence that occurred on Sunday night, the City Police Commissioner has also stated that those who oppose and obstruct the cremation of Corona casualties would be dealt with strictly. Chennai City Police handle tweeted that Those who obstruct the burials or cremations of coronavirus casualties would be booked under the Goondas Act. GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Beyond Campus Innovations (BCI), a leading eLearning development and consulting company, is supporting educational institutions as they navigate the transition to online learning in response to COVID-19 distancing requirements. In addition to instructional design support, BCI is offering free faculty development materials and webinars to create online learning experiences that increase student retention and accomplish desired learning outcomes. With the vast majority of universities operating online, BCI is providing instructional design support for campus staff and faculty. In the coming weeks, BCI is opening access to free development materials, including a faculty training guidebook and ongoing webinars, to aid in the migration from classroom learning to eLearning. It's crucial to student success that faculty be trained in eLearning-specific techniques to foster engagement, participation, recall and application. Instructional design resources will be available for summer and fall courses and will include multimedia support for institutions that want to create world class online learning versus strictly distributed learning. Resources are created by BCI's highly trained and experienced instruction design professionals who are well-versed in all aspects of online education and distance learning, including internal collaboration, technology capacity, data-based decision making and strategic planning. All of BCI's resources are aimed at improving and enhancing the online experience. As institutions are forced to confront the new requirement of online learning only, BCI is here to aid in what can be a smooth and successful evolution of learning. "It's crucial that institutions develop a plan and find the resources necessary to establish a quality instructional experience, as well as implement the structure to support students at a distance," says Dr. Jon Bellum, President of BCI and a former Provost. With a focus on increasing student retention using proven eLearning techniques and specific faculty training, BCI is helping institutions keep students enrolled, learning and succeeding, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, BCI is providing six months of free access to the Professional Development Series for Colorado nonprofits, municipalities and state governments. For more information about BCI services, free resources and to register for upcoming webinars, visit https://beyondcampus.com/. About Beyond Campus Innovations Beyond Campus Innovations (BCI) is a wholly-owned entity of the Colorado State University (CSU) System Foundation. As a leading eLearning development and consulting company, BCI partners with businesses, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and educational institutions to deliver state-of-the-art eLearning solutions that meet the needs and demands of modern learners. BCI draws upon CSU's experience as a highly successful and well-respected institution of higher education, both in the eLearning space and as a traditional brick and mortal institution. Using advanced custom education technology solutions and the knowledge of proven experts and credentialed faculty, we bring effective learning strategies and tools to every level of learner. CONTACT: Ann Friedrich, Beyond Campus Innovations [email protected] (O) 720.699.8489 SOURCE Beyond Campus Innovations Related Links https://beyondcampus.com President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his condolences to Canada over a shooting attack in Nova Scotia. "We are shocked and saddened with the senseless horrific shooting attack in Nova Scotia, Canada. Our prayers are with our Canadian friends!" he said on Twitter on Monday Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba also offered their condolences to Canada. "Impressive is the dedication of a constable who gave her life to stop a criminal. My deepest condolences go to the families of the victims and to the people of Canada," Shmyhal said on Twitter on Monday. "Dear Canadian friends, we are shocked by this despicable act and we share your pain. I wish speedy recovery to those wounded," Kuleba said on Twitter. A doctor collects samples of workers at an industrial park in HCMC for Covid-19 testing, April 20, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. 800 doctors and nurses from several frontline hospitals across Vietnam will participate in a tuberculosis vaccine trial against Covid-19. Dr Nguyen Viet Nhung, director of the Central Lung Hospital in Hanoi, said on Monday his hospital has sought the Ministry of Health approval for a trial to find out if the Bacillus CalmetteGuerin (BCG) vaccine would mitigate the level of lung damage in Covid-19 patients. It would also compare the symptoms vaccinated patients have with those of other groups, he said. The vaccine has already been tested on some Covid-19 patients and people who had come into close contact with them, but the results have not studied yet. The Ministry of Health had assigned the hospital to work with the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to study the effects of BCG on Covid-19. There have been studies on the vaccines effect on Covid-19 mortality rates, but researchers have been unable to confirm it protects from the coronavirus. In March medRxiv, an online archive and distribution site for complete but unpublished manuscripts in the medical, clinical and related health sciences founded by Yale University in the U.S. and other stakeholders, published a preprint showing that countries which widely use TB vaccination have a lower Covid-19 mortality rate. But it warns that preprints "should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information." The study has become a prerequisite for a series of experiments around the world. American scientists are evaluating the impact of BCG. If it proves effective, it will be tested on 4,000 health workers. In the Netherlands, 400 frontline doctors have been vaccinated for the experiment. A similar study has begun in Australia. However, there have been cases of the vaccine causing complications in adults. Nhung warned that people should not inject the vaccine at home. "If you rely on vaccines but do not strictly implement preventive measures recommended by the Ministry of Health including wearing masks, regularly disinfecting hands, social distancing ... then there will be outbreaks with devastating outcomes." Of Vietnams total of 268 Covid-19 cases, 215 have been discharged. The country has gone five days now without a new infection. A day after it allowed industrial activities in non-containment areas in line with the Union home ministry guidelines, the Punjab government drew a lukewarm response from industries in the state. The 2,200-odd factories manufacturing essential goods, which were permitted to resume operations by the state government earlier, have continued to operate, but very few other industrial units came forward to seek permission to resume their operations in all the districts, except Ludhiana, on day two of the easing of the coronavirus lockdown norms. The officials of industries department received a few queries from local industries in some districts, but there were hardly any applications received from units for permission to resume production even with limited capacities. Around 60 applications were received through email In Ludhiana, where permissions were granted to resume production to 842 units in the past three weeks. We have been getting these many requests for permission daily from mostly factories manufacturing essential items. Those which fulfil the norms are granted permission to operate, Mahesh Khanna, general manager, district industries centre, Ludhiana, said. Barring spinning mills and some other medium and large units, most other industries in Ludhiana, which is home to 95,000 registered units, have decided not to resume operations. In other districts such as Amritsar, Patiala, Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran, the number of queries ranged from three to 12 throughout the day. Darshan Singh, general manager, DIC, Bathinda, said he had received a few requests and would put up the file to the deputy commissioner after all formalities were complete. Punjab has a total of 2.52 lakh registered units. However, industries director C Sibin said the response in the first couple of days would not be the correct way to read the situation. The government gave the go-ahead for allowing industrial activities in non-containment areas on Monday. The actual picture will become clear in one weeks time. Also, we are taking steps such online approvals to streamline the process, he said. The state has 35 containment zones in 13 districts and five industrial districts of Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and SAS Nagar (Mohali) account for two-thirds of the coronavirus cases. The Union home ministry had on April 15 issued detailed guidelines allowing factories in rural areas, special economic zones, industrial townships, and industrial estates, besides export-oriented units (EoUs), in non-Covid hotspots and containment zones to reopen from April 20 onwards. However, the state government kept going back and forth for three days by first imposing stricter conditions related to boarding and loading of workers and transport on all categories of industries and then totally refusing to lift any curbs before giving the clearance for easing of the curfew norms. These flip-flops and stringent norms apart, industry leaders, battered by the month-long coronavirus-induced lockdown, continue to harbour doubts about the restoration of the broken supply chain, dip in demand and raw material. Bulk and retail markets are shut in most parts of the country except for those selling essentials. If anyone resumes production, the problem is where is he going to sell and payments are also an issue, PHDCCI (Punjab) ex-chairman RS Sachdeva said. APPLY ONLINE, START OPERATIONS Industries minister Sunder Sham Arora said the industrial units which want to start operations can apply online, take permission and start operations. The industries department has started the online approval system to facilitate them during the curfew period. The general managers of District Industries Centres have been authorised by deputy commissioners to issue the permissions, he said in a statement. He said online facility would reduce the time and also dispense with the physical visits to offices for obtaining the permissions. Blurb: Industry leaders apprehensive about starting operations as they dont find any market to sell the goods SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to Maharashtra top cop over Palghar lynching case in which three people including two Hindu ascetics were killed, allegedly in the presence of police on April 16, 2020, during the national lockdown. A press release on Tuesday from the human rights body said Maharashtra DGP has been asked to submit a detailed report within four weeks which should also include action taken against the culprits and the relief offered to victims kin. The death of three persons in such a cruel manner by the unruly mob that too during the countrywide lockdown, under extra vigil by the administration and police, amounts to gross violation of the right to life of the victims, the NHRC notice said. The victims identified as 70-year-old Kalpavruksha Giri, 35-year-old Sushil Giriboth Hindu sadhus-- and their driver Neelesh Telgade, were lynched last Thursday in Gadhchinchale village, 110km from Palghar. The victims were reportedly attempting to go to Gujarat to attend the last rites of their religious guru but were attacked by a mob that apparently mistook them for child-lifters. A video of the incident went viral on Sunday, where unarmed policemen were seen watching the incident without making any intervention. The incident led to a political controversy with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attacking the Shiv Sena led state government for alleged negligence and cover-up claiming its handling of the incident was political as it involved Hindus. The NHRC notice also cites media reports to question alleged police inaction. The video of the attack on the deceased persons went viral, on 19.04.2020, which showed that police personnel were also present when the victims were being attacked, the NHRC communication on the matter said. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has warned against communalisation of the incident and he was backed by NCP chief Sharad Pawar who said it was not the time for settling old political scores. Also Read : No time to settle political scores: Sharad Pawar on Palghar lynching blame Uddhav said swift action had been taken in the case with arrests of over 100 suspects including five key accused. He added that two policemen had also been suspended for dereliction of duty. A probe by additional director general (CID) has also been ordered into the case. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Eamon Holmes has been told his comments risked undermining trust in science and public health bodies by the broadcasting watchdog after the TV presenter passed comment on a conspiracy theory that claims coronavirus is spread by 5G telephone masts. Appearing on ITVs This Morning earlier this month, Holmes responded to mention of the debunked theory by saying I totally agree with everything you are saying but what I don't accept is mainstream media immediately slapping that down as not true when they don't know it's not true. In discussion with co-host Alice Beer, he added: "No-one should attack or damage or do anything like that but it's very easy to say it is not true because it suits the state narrative. That's all I would say, as someone with an inquiring mind." Now, broadcasting standards body Ofcom has said it has offered guidance to the presenter over his comments - arguing they "risked undermining viewers' trust in advice from public authorities and scientific evidence". In a statement the body added Holmes "ill-judged" comments "were also highly sensitive in view of the recent attacks on mobile phone masts in the UK, caused by conspiracy theories linking 5G technology and the virus." The conspiracy theory, which has been propagated on social media throughout the pandemic and is widely discredited, claims that 5G technology is responsible for the global pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 160,000 people and infected nearly 2.5 million. Brendan Wren, professor of microbial pathogenesis at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, previously said a connection between the technology and the virus would be "both a physical and biological impossibility". Mr Holmes followed up on his comments the following day by denouncing the idea, saying there was "no scientific evidence to substantiate any 5G theories". However, he did not apologise for the incident and said he had been "misinterpreted", in comments taken into account by the watchdog. Eamonn Holmes responds to backlash over 5G coronavirus controversy A spokeswoman for the body said: "Broadcasters have editorial freedom to discuss and challenge the approach taken by public authorities to a serious public health crisis such as the coronavirus. "However, discussions of unproven claims must be put fully into context - especially at a time when mobile phone masts in the UK are being attacked, risking significant harm to the public." An ITV spokeswoman said the broadcaster has "noted the guidance given by Ofcom". Alongside the ruling the body announced it would sanction ESTV over a London Live interview with conspiracy theorist David Icke about the virus, saying it "risked causing significant harm to viewers". ESTV "failed in its responsibility to ensure that viewers were adequately protected", the regulator added. Ofcom will now consider whether to impose a further sanction and is "directing London Live to broadcast a summary of our findings on a date and form to be decided by Ofcom". A spokeswoman for London Live apologised for the incident, saying: "London Live respects Ofcom's decision in this case and apologises for any harm this may have caused." In 2012, E. Santi was appointed CEO of Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW). This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at other big companies. Then we'll look at a snap shot of the business growth. And finally - as a second measure of performance - we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels. Check out our latest analysis for Illinois Tool Works How Does E. Santi's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies? At the time of writing, our data says that Illinois Tool Works Inc. has a market cap of US$49b, and reported total annual CEO compensation of US$15m for the year to December 2019. That's less than last year. While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it's worth noting the salary is lower, valued at US$1.3m. We note that more than half of the total compensation is not the salary; and performance requirements may apply to this non-salary portion. When we examined a group of companies with market caps over US$8.0b, we found that their median CEO total compensation was US$12m. There aren't very many mega-cap companies, so we had to take a wide range to get a meaningful comparison figure. Now let's take a look at the pay mix on an industry and company level to gain a better understanding of where Illinois Tool Works stands. Speaking on an industry level, we can see that nearly 16% of total compensation represents salary, while the remainder of 84% is other remuneration. Readers will want to know that Illinois Tool Works pays a modest slice of remuneration through salary, as compared to the wider sector. Thus we can conclude that E. Santi receives more in total compensation than the median of a group of large companies in the same market as Illinois Tool Works Inc.. However, this doesn't necessarily mean the pay is too high. We can better assess whether the pay is overly generous by looking into the underlying business performance. You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Illinois Tool Works, below. Story continues NYSE:ITW CEO Compensation April 21st 2020 Is Illinois Tool Works Inc. Growing? On average over the last three years, Illinois Tool Works Inc. has seen earnings per share (EPS) move in a favourable direction by 12% each year (using a line of best fit). In the last year, its revenue is down 4.5%. This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently. A good result. The lack of revenue growth isn't ideal, but it is the bottom line that counts most in business. You might want to check this free visual report on analyst forecasts for future earnings. Has Illinois Tool Works Inc. Been A Good Investment? Illinois Tool Works Inc. has served shareholders reasonably well, with a total return of 20% over three years. But they probably don't want to see the CEO paid more than is normal for companies around the same size. In Summary... We compared total CEO remuneration at Illinois Tool Works Inc. with the amount paid at other large companies. Our data suggests that it pays above the median CEO pay within that group. Importantly, though, the company has impressed with its earnings per share growth, over three years. Looking at the same time period, we think that the shareholder returns are respectable. While it may be worth researching further, we don't see a problem with the CEO pay, given the good EPS growth. Shifting gears from CEO pay for a second, we've picked out 2 warning signs for Illinois Tool Works that investors should be aware of in a dynamic business environment. If you want to buy a stock that is better than Illinois Tool Works, 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. The Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro is now available in the US for $500. While you may be tempted to pick up this rugged device, the main audience for it is companies and their employees as it's packed with multiple business-oriented features. Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro now available in the US The phone is launching on the Verizon network with support for the carriers Push To Talk Plus service. Later on, the Microsoft Teams software will be updated to support the Walkie Talkie feature. Another incoming update will enable the second SIM slot on the phone. Microsoft Teams already supports Shifts, Tasks and Praise, which helps managers organize teams. The phone has pogo pins for charging so you can put it on a dock at the end of your shift and it will be ready for the next shift (thanks to 18W fast charging). The software natively supports being shared by two employees. And if heavy use depletes the 4,050mAh battery before the day is over, it can easily be swapped out with a spare. Mobile point of sale functionality Barcode scanning The phone has a built-in camera-based barcode scanner and is compatible with several laser-based scanner accessories that can turn this into a mobile point of sale system. Theres also NFC with enhanced security and reliability features, including EMV Level 1 (it stands for Europay, Mastercard and Visa). The Galaxy Xcover Pro can go out in the field with you as it is rated for drops from 1.5m heights (MIL-STD-810 certified) and can survive 1.5m underwater for 30 minutes (IP68). The 6.3 1080p+ AMOLED screen has a Glove mode and can detect touches from wet fingers. There are also two programmable keys, which can act as shortcuts for the most commonly used functions. Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro The phone is available online through Samsung, Verizon and Microsoft (as well as other distributors) and can be bought unlocked. Brick and mortar stores will get it soon. This really is a device for companies, mind, and companies like assurance that products they depend on will not be discontinued quickly. Samsung commits to keeping the Xcover Pro available for at least two years and releasing security updates for it for three years. PS. dont confuse this with the Galaxy Xcover FieldPro which also became available in the US earlier this month. The FieldPro is a more premium offering (still aimed at companies rather than individuals) and goes for over $1,000. Source SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Department of Justice said a 27-year-old Sacramento man plead guilty on April 20 to impersonating an FBI agent in mid-February. Court documents show on Feb. 11, Daniel Arushanov went to a Red Roof Inn in Sacramento and told a hotel employee he was a special agent with the FBI. Officials say Arushanov claimed to the employee he was investigating underage prostitution then demanded to see a guest list for the hotel. The employee asked the Sacramento man to show his badge but he refused and told the employee to call the FBI. Officials say Arushanov left the hotel after the phone call. Officials say one employee later identified Arushanov as the man who posed as an agent and he was arrested for impersonating a peace officer. We depend on the cooperation of the public, said Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan of the FBI Sacramento Field Office. It is essential that people trust us to be who we say we are. If contacted by the FBI, the public can always call their local FBI office or law enforcement agency to verify that contact as genuine. Please call 911 if you feel you are in danger. The FBI and Sacramento County Sheriff's Office investigated the case and officials say Arushanov faces a maximum of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 15. Surveillance goes viral Apple and Googles partnership has sparked concerns among some digital privacy experts, as Sara Morrison reports for Recode. The concerns are both specific to Google, in particular, whose advertising business model depends on data collection, and general to the moment, governed increasingly as it is by public and private regimes of mass surveillance. One way or another, everyone from location-data brokers to law enforcement can get access to a lot of your data through these companies devices, she writes. How will Apple and Google prevent their tool from being abused by governments with access to it? At the same time, Apple and Google appear to have taken good-faith measures to ensure user privacy, according to Jennifer Granick, the surveillance and cybersecurity counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. Crucially, the tool records only the proximity of one phone to another, not their locations, and protects its data to keep users anonymous. The urgency of the pandemic has made even staunch privacy defenders more amenable to the prospect of increased surveillance. These massive companies have the infrastructure and resources to do this, Charlie Warzel at The Times says. And theres this feeling of almost, Thank God someones stepping up. Theyre trying to engineer this in a very privacy-focused way. At the same time, I fear the consolidation of power of companies that already have huge amounts of it. [Related: How Apple and Google are tackling their Covid privacy problem] Setting privacy concerns aside Bluetooth contact tracing is not a replacement for manual contract tracing, according to Jason Bay, who spearheaded the development of Singapores app. There are two key reasons for this, as Sidney Fussell and Will Knight explain in Wired: Bluetooth cant distinguish whether an infected person was within 6 feet for a length of time, or behind a glass wall, or in the apartment next door, or wearing a mask and gloves, they write, so the number of false positives could overwhelm health officials. For a contact-tracing app to be effective, roughly 50 percent to 70 percent of a population has to use it. But in Singapore, only about 20 percent of people have downloaded the governments app. To be sure, manual contact tracing would be an enormous undertaking, Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, writes in The Times. He estimates the government would need to recruit an army of 300,000 people to do the work. But the good news is that there are millions of people now looking for employment, Casey Newton writes at The Verge. Helping state and county health programs hire contact tracers, he says, would be a wise use of stimulus money. For now it seems worth saying that theres little evidence that phones are good at contact tracing and a lot of evidence that human beings are, he writes. As we prepare to begin reopening society, the biggest investment we need to make is in people. Even together, armies and apps arent enough Because of the shortage of tests in the United States, contact tracing of any kind is currently impossible to do on a large enough scale. A comprehensive contact-tracing program would entail performing 2.5 million tests per day, according to one estimate, but nationwide daily testing capacity has plateaued at about 145,000. Closing the gap, Ezekiel Emmanuel and Paul Romer write in The Atlantic, would require a nationwide mobilization of laboratories, not to mention funding from Congress. The bottom line is that any contact-tracing strategy has to be part of a much broader and coordinated public-health effort, according to Shirin Ghaffary at Recode. Having an app tell you youve been exposed to Covid-19 is helpful, but its only the first step were seeing in effective international responses, she writes. For these notifications to be of any use, people need access to proper testing, health care systems, and financial support to get through a period of quarantine and potential illness. Without that infrastructure in place, Apple and Googles tool may prove as fruitless as a virus without a host, little more than a piece of code. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - The Purdue University Senate voted on several hot-topic resolutions at its April meeting. The meeting started with remarks from President Mitch Daniels. President Daniels told the senate today the school has "every intention and expectation" of having students back on campus come August. Rumors to the contrary have been discussed since Daniels launched the safe campus task force at the end of March and promised big changes. Daniels said applications to the university are also higher than ever thanks to an extension in the deadline. He confirmed that Purdue applied for federal aid as soon as it was available and they should be getting that money soon. He said the money will be used to help students, potentially through the university's emergency fund. Provost Jay Akridge said 122 students have benefited from Purdue's emergency funds. This money is going to students who have had heavy financial impacts from the coronavirus. The University Senate voted on several important resolutions. One was regarding the civics test President Daniels has been pushing for more than a year. The resolution would require students to pass a civics literacy test in order to graduate from Purdue. Several senators voiced concern for forcing such a high-stakes exam on students, and questioned why the university was forcing knowledge that should have been learned in the K-12 system. The senate voted down the resolution with 51 opposed, 28 in favor and two abstentions. JoAnn Brouillette, Purdue Trustee and Chair of the Academic and Student Affairs Committee, said in a statement, The Board was very impressed with the faculty proposal and their recommendations for civics literacy. We are disappointed in the senates failure to approve the committees work, but look forward to meeting with the faculty committee ourselves and considering next steps. The senate also made a big vote on a resolution that would make standardized test optional for admission to Purdue. Those in favor say the SAT and ACT limits the pool of diverse applicants. Others say these tests are imperative to gauge ability in students looking to enter the STEM courses Purdue offers. IU-Bloomington officially became a test-optional university at the beginning of this year. Its applicants will not be required to have the tests starting in August. The senate voted against this resolution, with 39 opposed, 28 in favor and four abstentions. The senate ended its Monday meeting early due to time concerns. It will resume its meeting and finish its agenda on Monday, April 27th at 3pm via zoom. Antibody tests for the coronavirus has showed the number of infections in the Los Angeles county , California could be 28 to 55 times higher than the number of reported confirmed cases, suggesting the possibility that many more people are infected in the United States than currently known. The total number of infections stood at 787,960 on Tuesday, up by 25,240; and 42,364 fatalities, up by 1,433, continuing declining single-day toll from the record high yet of 4,591 last Friday. The Los Angeles county anti-body testing results point to a more widespread presence of the infection in the population than understood and, more worrying for public health officials, many of those of infected could be asymptomatic and thus be carrying out the virus without realizing it, and passing it on. The antibody testing, also called the serology test, checks for antibodies in people who may or may not be symptomatic, unlike the tests being used more popularly now that only checks people who are demonstrating all or one of the symptoms of the disease caused by the coronavirus. Researchers of the University of Southern California conducted the study on 863 individuals and found, as they reported Monday, about 2.8% to 5.6% of the countys adult population has antibody to the virus, that is approximately 221,000 to 442,000 adults in the count. And that estimate, they said, is 28 to 55 times higher than the 7,994 confirmed cases of Covid-19 reported to the county at the time the study was conducted. We havent known the true extent of Covid-19 infections in our community because we have only tested people with symptoms, and the availability of tests has been limited, lead investigator Neeraj Sood, said in a statement. He is a professor of public policy. The estimates also suggest that we might have to recalibrate disease prediction models and rethink public health strategies, he added, with obvious implications for the rest of the country. New York began antibody testing Monday and these tests form a crucial part of all plans of reopening the country to make sure the virus was not left undetected among asymptomatic populations. But these are only beginning to be tolled out now as the country continues to grapple with a shortage the usual kits. States have asked the federal government for help. As lockdown protests continued across the country three Three Republican-ruled states in the south have announced plans to begin easing the restrictions. South Carolina allowed the the reopening of department stores and flea markets on Monday, Georgia will allow gyms, spas and saloon to start from Friday and Tennessee will not extend the lockdown after April 30. The Chadian army earlier this month captured fifty-eight Boko Haram jihadists in Lac province. Forty-four of them have reportedly committed suicide in their cells on Thursday night. They were brought to justice on Wednesday after being captured during the Chadian armys counter-offensive to the deadly attack on one of its bases. The Fifty-eight prisoners were transferred to a detention center on the outskirts of Ndjamena and handed over to the judicial authorities on Wednesday. But on Thursday morning, 44 of them were found dead in their cells, according to the Chadian authorities. A coroners report says they swallowed a poison. His autopsy report shows that there was consumption of a lethal substance that produced a heart rhythm disorder in some and severe asphyxiation in others, Ndjamenas prosecutor, Youssouf Tom, said in a statement. Fourteen prisoners have survived and, for them, the legal proceedings continue, according to a government source. Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Submit It's hard to imagine anyone other than Val Kilmer playing the "Iceman" to Tom Cruise's "Maverick," but if Kilmer had his way years ago, he never would have been in Top Gun. The Daily Beast ran an excerpt from his just-out memoir, Im Your Huckleberry, in which Kilmer reveals he "didn't want the part." "I didnt care about the film," Kilmer writes. "The story didnt interest me." Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise on the set of Top Gun, directed by Tony Scott. (Photo: Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images) Kilmer's agent, who also repped Cruise, persuaded him to meet with director Tony Scott. Kilmer agreed to audition for the role of Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, but didn't try all that hard. "I showed up looking the fool, or the goon. I wore oversize gonky Australian shorts in nausea green," Kilmer recalls. "I read the lines indifferently. And yet, amazingly, I was told I had the part. I felt more deflated than inflated. I had to get out of there." Scott chased after Kilmer and promised that while the script is "insufficient," it "will get better." "I know youve been told this before, I know youre a serious actor, but you are perfect for this role," Scott said. "Its as if they wrote it for you. It has to be you. Its not the lead, but Im going to make you feel like it is. And this kid we found, Tom Cruise, he has it, man, and you two together, and Kelly McGillis you know her from Juilliard, shes nine feet tall and utter perfection." Kilmer remembers Scott as "a wrecking ball to my consciousness. I had never before been treated with such passion." The director kept the same energy on set, which helped fuel Kilmer. "Ultimately, he overwhelmed my disdain for the project with pure unadulterated positivity," he writes. Kilmer reveals he didn't hang out much with Cruise off-set. "The actors broke into two campsmine and Toms, a reflection of the rivalry between our two characters," Kilmer says, noting how his crew were "the party boys." He adds, "Tom refrained from our revelry, with good reason. From day one, he was laser-focused on a singular goal: to become the greatest action hero in the history of film. He was up nights learning lines; he spent every waking hour perfecting his stunts. His dedication was admirable. Of course even more admirable is the fact that he achieved his goal. I also love that hes a Mark Twain fan. Tom is a comrade I respect and admire, though as creatures we hail from galaxies far, far away from one another." Story continues Kilmer says his "favorite moment" with Cruise involved a "small prank." "I gave him an extremely expensive bottle of champagne but placed it in the middle of a giant field and made him follow scavenger-hunt-style clues to find it," he shares. "I hid behind a bleacher and watched him lug the giant crate to his motorcycle. He never did thank me for the Iceman-style bit. I thought it would break the ice, but I guess the ice was just right." When he saw the film for the first time, Kilmer knew Top Gun was a hit after "the first five minutes." "The editing and sound were stupendous. The minute it was over I made a mad dash across the lot to the office of the films producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer," Kilmer writes. "'Don,' I screamed with stars in my eyes, 'youve done it!'" He continues, "In the final analysis, Top Guns iconic endurance is the result of the untiring dedication of Don, Jerry, Tony, and Tom. Optimism can work wonders. Infusing things with light was a sport Tony Scott had mastered, and one I would emulate for many years to follow." Im Your Huckleberry is out now. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: JACKSON, Miss., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Magnolia Health is providing assistance to network providers in Mississippi who are seeking relief amid the COVID-19 pandemic through the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the CARES Act. Magnolia Health is sharing access to a dedicated online portal of Provider Financial Support & Resources, where network providers can research benefits they may be eligible for and work directly with experts to apply for them. The portal was developed by Centene Corporation, a leading multi-national healthcare company. As part of the Centene family, Magnolia Health is providing access to these resources to aid Mississippi providers in grant writing and business loan applications, among other key activities. "Our providers are on the front lines every day, taking care of the most vulnerable populations across Mississippi," said Aaron Sisk, CEO of Magnolia Health. "In support of our provider partners and their fight against COVID-19, we are providing access to these key benefits and resources to help network providers that are being economically impacted." The program will help providers apply for various benefits including small business loans, a paycheck protection plan, and various grants they may be eligible for. This includes Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), behavioral health providers and community-based behavioral health organizations, Centers for Independent Living (CILs), and long-term service and supports organizations operating on the front lines. This resource also helps providers explore additional funds through state offered loans and grants by working with nationally recognized healthcare consultants, organizations, state government agencies and former SBA executives. In addition to the online portal, provider partners will have access to webinars and one-on-one consulting with key experts. Magnolia Health and Centene have made it a priority to support providers, especially small providers, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Centene previously announced that its plans, including Magnolia Health, would reduce the administrative burden to providers by eliminating the need for them to collect co-pays and removing authorization requirements for COVID-19 related treatment. If you are a Magnolia Health provider looking for more information about benefits you may be eligible for, please visit https://www.centene.com/covid-19-resource-center/provider-assistance.html for more information. About Magnolia Health Magnolia Health is a long-term solution to help the state of Mississippi enhance care for Medicaid recipients, while most effectively managing taxpayer dollars. A physician-driven, Mississippi-based Coordinated Care Organization (CCO), Magnolia is backed by its parent company, Centene Corporation (Centene). Centene has more than 30 years of experience in Medicaid and other government-funded programs such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and long-term care. For more information about Magnolia, visit www.magnoliahealthplan.com. About Centene Corporation Centene Corporation, a Fortune 100 company, is a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. The Company takes a local approach with local brands and local teams - to provide fully integrated, high-quality, and cost-effective services to government-sponsored and commercial healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members (including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans) as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace, the TRICARE program, and individuals in correctional facilities. The Company also serves several international markets, and contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person. Centene focuses on long-term growth and the development of its people, systems and capabilities so that it can better serve its members, providers, local communities, and government partners. Centene uses its investor relations website to publish important information about the company, including information that may be deemed material to investors. Financial and other information about Centene is routinely posted and is accessible on Centene's investor relations website, http://www.centene.com/investors. Note on SBA Announcement The information provided does not represent all of the information available or that you may need for making your financial decisions or completing your application. The Federal and State government(s) are best able to provide resources and assistance. We recommended that you contact your financial institution or advisor before making any financial decisions. SOURCE Magnolia Health Related Links http://www.magnoliahealthplan.com Sri Reddy, who is known for slamming many Tollywood biggies on social media, has recently taken a dig at south siren Nayanthara. Sri Reddy has commented on Nayanthara's past relationships with married and unmarried men. Sharing a post on Facebook, Sri Reddy wrote, "If u r judging som1 that your shit I don't care. You guys don't have b*lls to comment any big heroines, a*s holes, Nayan also was der in relationship with married and unmarried! You guys have b*lls to comment her??that's the difference star heroines n struggling heroines??ahaan." (sic) Well, this statement is indeed disgusting and derogatory towards Nayanthara. For those who are unversed, Nayanthara was in a relationship with Simbu during the initial days of her career. After the picture of Simbu and Nayanthara's passionate kiss went viral on the internet, they broke up with each other. Nayanthara had also confessed that she won't work with him in future. After breaking up with Simbu, Nayanthara started dating Prabhu Deva and they were in a relationship for a long time. But after break up with him in 2012, she started concentrating on her movie career. Currently, she is in a relationship with director Vignesh Shivan. Talking about Sri Reddy, she has always been countering South actresses. A few days ago, she had commented on Samantha Akkineni and Trisha Krishnan's private body parts. She wrote, "Samantha lemons,trisha grapes are nothing infront of me.." (sic) Last year, Sri Reddy had also posted about Nayanthara. She had written, "Few people are thinking that my list is huge, wrong my list is very very small ..if Trisha, Nayantara, Samantha are good actresses, top heroines if they open up about their list, after listen that huge list you people will die." (sic) Also Read : Sri Reddy Targets Samantha Akkineni & Trisha Krishnan, Says She Has Bigger 'Assets' Than Them Sri Reddy is the flag bearer of #MeToo movement in the South film industry. In 2018, she had Stripped in public and claimed that several Tollywood producers have s*xually exploited her in the pretext of giving roles in films. She had made shocking allegations against celebrities like Sundar C, Viva Harsha, Abhiram Daggubati, Kona Venkat, Nani, etc. Premier Brian Pallister announced Tuesday the Workers Compensation Board will return close to $37 million in surplus funds to employers. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Premier Brian Pallister announced Tuesday the Workers Compensation Board will return close to $37 million in surplus funds to employers. "This will keep our workers compensation structure strong, but it allows us to return money to businesses at a time when cash flow is a real challenge," Pallister said at a news conference. In May, eligible employers will receive a credit to their account based on 20 per cent of 2019 premiums, he said. News of the refund was warmly greeted by business. "Its absolutely good news," said Jonathan Alward, director of provincial affairs with the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. He said the refunds will help businesses reduce their costs. Last May, Manitoba businesses received refunds totalling $74 million. "This has real benefits and not just to the private sector," Pallister said. Of the $37 million, an expected $29 million will be returned to the private sector, with approximately $7 million going to small businesses in Manitoba, the WCB said in a press release. 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. In the health-care sector, which includes regional health authorities, CancerCare Manitoba and Riverview Health Centre, it equates to a $6.2-million refund, Pallister said. A news release said the WCB board of directors has approved and authorized returning the $37 million in surplus funds to employers. Earlier this month, the WCB announced it would defer premium payments until the end of May, not charge businesses interest or penalties for non-payment until October, extend the payroll-reporting deadline until the end of May and ensure that coverage remains active for accounts that choose to defer payments until the end of October. The WCB is a mutual workplace injury and disability statutory corporation funded by employer premiums. It insures more than 34,000 employers and 76 per cent of the Manitoba workforce. Staff NEW YORK, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- African Asset Finance Company Inc. ("AAFC"), a New York-based non-bank financial and equipment leasing firm, today announced the final close of a $30 million redeemable preferred share offering, led by Roha II LP. The financing was completed in two equal tranches. AAFC intends to use the proceeds to strengthen its equity base for funding and growing a diversified portfolio of equipment leasing contracts in Ethiopia and other African markets, with a focus on agricultural and medical equipment. "The successful completion of this financing demonstrates the strong support shown by our investors," said Frans VanSchaik, CEO of AAFC. "The proceeds enable us to continue growing our business and deploy capital in equipment leasing contracts for mission-critical use in sectors that serve fundamental human needs, and we trust the additional equity will reinforce our ability to access financing despite the challenging conditions that exist today. Notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced strong new lease bookings in Q1, and we took measures as early as January to pre-empt supply chain issues. Moving forward, we will continue to monitor conditions, both in the markets we serve and in our global supply chain as we seek to stay ahead of developments." Brooks Washington, managing partner of Roha, commented, "We continue to be very impressed with AAFC's financial and operating performance and their impact on the local African communities they serve. We are excited to support Frans and his team's mission of accelerating economic development by removing hurdles caused by equipment shortages and insufficient access to financing across multiple African markets." Business Update During the first quarter of 2020, AAFC's leasing activities exceeded management's initial expectations. Profitability was well ahead of plan, and bookings of new equipment leases continue to be on target, with a heavy emphasis on agricultural and medical equipment. In addition, AAFC's Ethiopian subsidiary Ethio Lease closed a landmark collaboration agreement with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Transformation Agency, which will help increase productivity and ensure gains for local smallholder farms in Ethiopia. About Roha Roha Group Inc is a US-based investment firm that responsibly builds businesses in Africa. Roha focuses on businesses that address unmet demand for fundamentally important products and services. Roha's investors consist mostly of leading US-based family offices. The firm's portfolio includes Juniper Glass, Raxio Group, and AAFC. About Ethio Lease Ethio Lease is the first privately-owned equipment leasing company with a license from the National Bank of Ethiopia. Ethio Lease is a subsidiary company of African Asset Finance Company Inc. For additional information, please visit https://ethiolease.com/ . About African Asset Finance Company African Asset Finance Company Inc (AAFC) is a rapidly growing specialty finance company. AAFC specializes in providing flexible equipment leasing and asset-based lending solutions to businesses across underserved African markets. Launched in 2017 and headquartered in New York, the company maintains an international presence. For additional information, visit www.aafc.com . International Media Contacts for AAFC: Nick Rust Prosek Partners +1 (646) 818-9252 [email protected] SOURCE African Asset Finance Company (AAFC) Related Links https://www.aafc.com Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh on Tuesday said when the entire world is fighting the novel coronavirus outbreak, Pakistan-backed terrorists are making attempts to disrupt peace in the Union Territory. A recent report suggested that many terrorists at their training centres and launching pads in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir are suffering from coronavirus infection, the director general of police (DGP) said. He said that Pakistani agencies are helping the terrorists infiltrate into India through the International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC). Singh and R R Bharnagar, the advisor to Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu, on Tuesday held a meeting with senior police officers via video-conferencing to review the security situation as well as the COVID-19 crisis in Kashmir Valley. Referring to the recent terror attacks, the DGP said, "When the entire world is making efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, Pakistan and its sponsored terrorists are making all-out attempts to disrupt the measures being taken to safeguard the lives of the people in J-K." He said that even during the present health crisis Indian forces would continue to consolidate peace while maintaining good security and law and order grids. He said that Pakistan agencies are engaged with various activities at their launching pads in Pakistan and PoK to push in terrorists this side both from IB and LoC to further its nefarious designs of disturbing peace and normalcy and lives and livelihoods of the people. Bhatnagar appreciated the role of the police and other security forces in tackling the coronavirus situation and assisting the civil administration and the health department in combating it. He said Jammu and Kashmir Police along with the other security forces are contributing in a big way and added that all the necessary measures are being taken to contain the spread of pandemic. Addressing the meeting, the DGP said Jammu and Kashmir Police along with the other formations and departments are involved day and night in fight against the pandemic and added that it is important to ensure that government orders and the health protocols are followed on the ground. The DGP asserted that no unauthorized traffic and movement of the people be allowed except in cases where such movement is exempted. He appreciated the efforts of police officers and jawans for providing the necessary help to the people in need at their doorstep. He also complimented the large number of volunteers who have come forward to assist the police in extending a helping hand to the needy people. He thanked social and religious leaders for their significant contribution along with police and administration in sensitizing general people about the dangers of COVID-19 and need for strict adherence to social distancing norms and advising them not to gather or participate in any religious or social congregations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Care homes stricken and running out of body bags. Shelters as crowded hotbeds of infection. An entire jail emptied for deep cleaning, dozens of inmates infected and not moved and isolated. Staff are holding the line: some running scared, some ordered home to self-isolate, some getting sick. While the COVID-19 outbreak appears to be reaching a plateau in the outside community, within these other walls a second outbreak is running rampant. Amid allegations of slow and inadequate responses to protect our most vulnerable populations, this week, provincial officials said efforts to contain outbreaks on that second track in congregate settings like long-term care homes must be redoubled as the rest of the population practises social distancing. On Tuesday, Toronto Public Health reported that the majority of Torontos 190 deaths 69 per cent have been in these settings. These populations were already at greatest risk from the virus, many with underlying health conditions. Many have said that COVID-19 is the great equalizer, that it doesnt discriminate, but thats sadly not the fact, said Coun. Joe Cressy, who chairs Torontos board of health. It is preying on the most vulnerable and, in particular, those who are experiencing poverty. He said unless we protect those in congregate settings, we will continue to see mass outbreaks and we will continue to see unnecessary fatalities. With this in mind, we check in on where things are at and the best ways to protect the elderly, the homeless and the incarcerated. Shelter system As of Tuesday, there were at least 149 cases in the shelter system and outbreaks at 11 different sites, according to Toronto Public Health. Toronto bears the responsibility for much of the GTAs homeless population, with roughly 8,000 people experiencing homelessness at any given time and a shelter system already bursting at the seams. Homeless advocates and front-line workers have called for protective measures to be put in place more quickly, starting with creating more space. An open letter from 313 physicians and nurse practitioners asked for local health agencies to order that there be at least two metres between clients, and for the city to open more than 7,000 hotel rooms and other spaces to help with appropriate distancing. As of April 19, the city was counting over 1,100 people in COVID-19 shelter programs at community centres, hotels and elsewhere and a total 7,153 using the shelter system. The letter also called for testing for all shelter, respite and drop-ins sites, something the city is now pushing the province to do. Front-line workers and city officials have also raised the problem of not having proper personal protective equipment (PPE). On Tuesday, the city announced it had received three million surgical masks primarily for long-term-care and shelter workers. Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and part of a coalition calling for more changes, said the worst has started and could have been prevented with proper distancing. All we can do now is demand that the city not let it get worse, she said. Without further measures, the CCLA is threatening legal action. In a letter, they say the shelter system is being operated in a way that violates Charter rights and freedoms as well as breaching the Ontario Human Rights Code. Mary-Anne Bedard, head of the citys shelters, support and housing administration, said they shared the urgency in the letter and have worked to create nearly 1,300 spaces and will continue towards a goal of 2,000 by the end of this month. Everything that can be done is being done and we take this responsibility very seriously. Jails and prisons There are outbreaks in six federal prisons and, in a number difficult to compile, provincial jails across the country. Where it hits, it hits hard. On Monday, for example, Ontarios Ministry of Solicitor General revealed it has shut down a Brampton jail for cleaning and moved 60 infected inmates and 49 others to a Toronto jail, where they are in isolation. Eight correctional officers from the Brampton jail also tested positive. In his daily roundup of federal inmate and staff cases, University of Ottawa criminologist Justin Piche on Monday said there were 352 cases. There has been one confirmed death of a federal prisoner, a man in his 70s in B.C. Whats being called for ranges from temperature measuring for intakes and staff, increasing access to PPE, no staff working between institutions, early releases, and police and Crown discretion to reduce the number of people being incarcerated. Ontarios jail population, for example, is down by more than 2,000 inmates since the pandemic hit. In provincial jails, there is a mix of inmates awaiting trial and those serving sentences shorter than two years. This situation appears more challenging than federal prisons, where many are serving long sentences, and there appears to be more consistency in containment. While provincial jail populations are shrinking, federally the picture is unclear. Public Safety Minister Bill Blair has asked the Parole Board of Canada and Correctional Services Canada to reduce prison populations by releasing eligible and low-risk, non-violent offenders, but no plan and no data have been made public. Advocates and Indigenous leaders have pushed to make use of existing provisions to decarcerate. This includes a call by a Dalhousie University law professor for the Governor General to invoke a discretionary mercy power that allows for clemency in exceptional circumstances. Last week, Blair referred to around 600 federal inmates being released last month, which is average, according to Blairs press secretary. There are about 14,000 inmates in federal prisons, and many would not be eligible for release due to the nature of their offences. The Star asked for federal data on parole and releases but had not heard back in time for this story. Seniors homes Its unclear how many hospitals will follow Premier Doug Fords promise to send SWAT teams of doctors and nurses to help long-term-care homes combat COVID-19. What is indisputable, say families, staff, unions and operators, is the need. Many homes, desperately, need more of everything: hospital staff willing to replace front-line workers, PPE, testing of all residents and staff and, for a stealth virus like COVID, the expertise of infectious disease doctors. Dr. Susy Hota is the medical director of infection prevention and control at the University Health Network, one of roughly 100 UHN staff volunteering with the Rekai Centres two downtown Toronto nursing homes. Hota is teaching the homes to focus on details. Take the temperature of all staff twice a day. Look for symptoms of respiratory illness. Clearly identify the rooms of residents who are isolated with COVID. And, one of the most important changes, learn the proper donning and doffing of PPE to prevent infection. Hospital expertise is just one part of a much bigger solution. Ontarios government-funded long-term-care homes and privately owned retirement homes are two distinctly different systems. But both are struggling with COVID outbreaks, in part because of low-paid, part-time staff who work in multiple jobs to make a living wage. Both sectors must follow a temporary government order that requires staff to choose one work location, to stop the virus spread. Cathy Hecimovich, CEO of the Ontario Retirement Communities Association, said the association and its retirement home members will work with the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) to absolutely limit the number of workers coming in and out of retirement settings. Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at the Sinai Health System, said the Ontario government must place permanent restrictions on work in multiple homes and help long-term-care and retirement homes provide full-time work for employees. Until the pandemic is under control, every action must be connected to infection control, said Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of CanAge, a national seniors advocacy group. Focus on testing, with quick results. Do better contact tracing. Organize easier and faster access to PPE. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. And, find ways to occupy residents with dementia, who are inclined to wander through other residents rooms. UHNs Hota said long-term care has challenges, because it is a home. Homes need to meld the infection control standards of a hospital, she said, with a setting that is comforting, a place where people live. Read more about: Drug resistance is a major obstacle in cancer treatment -- leading to relapse for many patients. In a new study, published online April 20, 2020, in Nature Cell Biology, researchers from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Children's Mercy Kansas City, and The University of Kansas Cancer Center report on a promising new strategy to overcome drug resistance in leukemia, using targeted doses of the widely-used chemotherapy drug doxorubicin. The study's researchers found that low doses of the anthracycline antibiotic doxorubicin inhibit the interaction between two molecular pathways that work closely together to promote tumor growth and resistance to therapy. The targeted approach also clears the way for cancer-targeting immune cells to do their work, an unexpected and novel finding, according to the study authors. "In low doses, doxorubicin actually stimulated the immune system, in contrast with the typical clinical doses, which were immunosuppressive, killing healthy immune cells indiscriminately," says John M. Perry, PhD, a researcher with the Children's Mercy Research Institute at Children's Mercy. He completed his postdoctoral work at Stowers and is first author of the report. The findings are the result of a decade-spanning collaborative effort among researchers at the Stowers Institute, Children's Mercy, The University of Kansas Cancer Center and other institutions, evolving from their studies on how normal, healthy stem cells self-renew. Early in their studies, Stowers Institute Investigator Linheng Li, PhD, and Research Specialist Xi He, MD, showed that the protein kinase Akt could enhance Wnt signaling via phosphorylating beta-catenin, thus promoting tumorigenesis in the gut. Perry further investigated the Wnt/beta-catenin and PI3K/Akt pathways in the hematopoietic (blood-forming) system. Using a mouse model with genetic modifications of the Wnt/beta-catenin and PI3K/Akt pathways, Perry found that the two pathways cooperate to drive stem cell renewal, thus resulting in excessive blood-forming stem cell production. But instead of just expanding the stem cells, the permanent activation of the pathways caused the mice also to develop leukemia. Intrigued, the researchers shifted their focus to inhibiting interaction between those same pathways to target leukemia stem cells. Many drugs that directly target the Wnt/beta-catenin or PI3K/Akt pathways eventually fail because cancer cells evolve resistance to them, and broadly-acting chemotherapeutic drugs can have harsh side effects and systemic toxicity. The researchers collaborated with Scott Weir, PhD, and Anuradha Roy, PhD, at The University of Kansas (KU) Cancer Center, to search for an alternative among the compounds cataloged in the center's small molecule library. advertisement "Our idea was to find a drug with the goal of blocking the interaction between Wnt/beta-catenin and PI3K/Akt and reduce the toxicity," says Li, who serves as liaison between Stowers and the KU Cancer Center and co-leads the center's cancer biology research program. The team conducted high-throughput drug screening, which showed that doxorubicin did the best job of inhibiting the interaction between the two pathways. They found that the drug's inhibitory powers worked at low doses, which offers an advantage over administering it at high doses as a chemotherapeutic drug where it can cause lasting heart damage in some patients. Samples collected from pediatric leukemia patients at Children's Mercy were also central to the study. A diagnostic sample was collected from each patient before and after chemotherapy treatment to compare therapy-resistant leukemia stem cells to therapy-sensitive leukemia stem cells. Then the samples were transplanted into mice to test whether they developed leukemia and whether low-dose doxorubicin treatment improved their survival and reduced leukemia development. "We found that mice receiving patient sample transplants with therapy-resistant leukemia stem cells rapidly developed leukemia, but low-dose doxorubicin treatment improved survival by reducing leukemia stem cells," Perry says. "However, mice receiving patient sample transplants that did not contain therapy-resistant leukemia stem cells did not respond to low-dose doxorubicin treatment. These results showed that chemoresistant leukemia stem cells from patients could be functionally reduced with low-dose doxorubicin treatment, at least in an in vivo animal model assay." After successful testing in mouse models, the researchers worked with Tara Lin, MD, at the KU Cancer Center to conduct a small-scale clinical trial to test low-dose anthracycline treatment on adults with treatment-resistant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The trial used daunorubicin, a chemotherapy drug in the same class as doxorubicin, which is widely used in treating AML. Bone marrow was collected immediately prior to treatment and again post-treatment. Half of the study participants responded to the treatment and had reduced numbers of leukemia stem cells exhibiting the Akt-activated beta-catenin biomarker. advertisement In addition to these encouraging results, the overarching study also revealed surprising insights into immune escape -- a hallmark of cancer development in which cancerous cells evade the immune system and proliferate. Mechanistically, they found that leukemia stem cells express multiple proteins known as immune checkpoints, which turn off immune responses that might otherwise recognize and eliminate leukemia stem cells. Another team member, Fang Tao, PhD, uncovered that beta-catenin binds to multiple immune checkpoint gene loci. Low-dose doxorubicin treatment reduced expression of these immune checkpoints, including PD-L1, TIM3, and CD24, which exposed otherwise resistant leukemia stem cells to immune-mediated cell killing. Going forward, at Children's Mercy, Perry is conducting further research to understand ways to screen other drugs that synergize with low-dose doxorubicin to kill resistant cells while reactivating anticancer immunity in pediatric patients. His team has recently launched a clinical trial on low-dose doxorubicin in pediatric patients. At Stowers, the Li Lab is investigating similar strategies for overcoming cancer therapy resistance in solid tumor cancers including breast cancer, glioblastoma, and colon cancer. "The research holds promise as a more effective strategy to overcome cancer therapy resistance and immune escape that can be used in combination with other cancer therapies including chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy for patients with leukemia and other types of cancer," Li says. Low-dose doxorubicin also avoids the harsh side effects of high-dose doxorubicin, potentially offering patients a better quality of life. In high doses, doxorubicin damages the heart muscle. Even when patients survive long-term, highly toxic anticancer treatments often cause long-term health problems and reduced life expectancy. "Pediatric patients should live another half-century or more, so we need to do a better job of ensuring not only long-term survival, but healthy and productive lives," Perry says. 26 Pro-Government Afghans Killed in Fighting By Ayesha Tanzeem April 20, 2020 As many as 26 members of Afghan local forces or pro-government militias were killed over the past two days in northern Afghanistan in fighting with the Taliban, according to the Ministry of Defense and local officials. On Sunday night, Taliban fighters attacked local Afghan forces in Khwaja Ghar district in Takhar province. Mohammad Jawad Hijri, a spokesman for Takhar's governor, told VOA fighting continued for hours and the attack was only repulsed after reinforcements arrived. A Defense Ministry statement said 17 of those killed belonged to the Afghan local army, which is different from the regular national army in Afghanistan. Officially called the Afghan National Army Territorial Force, the local force under the leadership of the army was created in 2018 to allow locals to guard their own territories. "[T]hey work extremely well, producing determined fighters with local knowledge who protect the civilians in their areas and often stand their ground more than regular troops because they have nowhere else to retreat to," wrote Kate Clark, the co-director of Afghanistan Analysts Network in a dispatch about the local force. Meanwhile, provincial officials in Balkh confirmed a separate Taliban attack Saturday in the Shulgra district that killed nine men and wounded seven others. All of them belonged to local militias known as anti-Taliban uprising forces. The Taliban have not yet commented on these incidents, but the insurgent group has come under heavy criticism for continuing attacks that often kill innocent civilians. For a week in February, leading up to the Taliban's signing a historic deal with the United States to end the war in Afghanistan, all sides agreed to reduction in violence. Security incidents around the country dropped to a trickle. The Afghan government and its allies were hoping the reduction in violence would continue but the level of Taliban attacks increased soon after the week was over. Findings by Afghanistan's local Tolonews channel showed the Taliban have carried out more than 2,000 attacks on Afghan security forces since the signing of the deal on February 29. A countrywide cease-fire was supposed to be one of the top items on the agenda of talks between the Taliban and other Afghan factions. Those talks have been postponed due to a delay in the release of as many as 5,000 Taliban prisoners by the Afghan government. However, in the past two weeks, the Afghan government has released around 361 prisoners in batches, and the Taliban has released around 60 security forces personnel held by them, raising hopes that the two sides may be inching closer to the start of talks. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here. A few days after preliminary results from a large-scale antibody study in Santa Clara County suggested coronavirus infections in the county are underreported by a factor as large as 50 to 85, results from a newly-released antibody study conducted in Los Angeles County contained similar findings. The L.A. antibody study was conducted by the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on April 10 and 11, and is part of an ongoing study where 1,000 residents will be tested each week. Unlike the Stanford study, where participants were recruited via Facebook ads, participants in the Los Angeles County were recruited by market services firm LRW Group, which used a large proprietary database to create a random sample of the county population. Of the 1,000 individuals tested in early April, 4.1 percent were found to have COVID-19 antibodies. When adjusting for statistical margin of error, the study finds that 2.8 percent to 5.6 percent of the county's adult population has already been infected, which translates to 221,000 to 442,000 people. There were nearly 8,000 confirmed cases when the study was conducted, which leads researchers to believe the county is underreporting infections by a factor of 28 to 55. The Santa Clara study found a 1.5 percent prevalence of antibodies, a figure researchers scaled up to 2.5 percent to 4.2 percent when adjusting for population and test performance characteristics. The weighted figures suggest underreporting by a factor of 50 to 85, whereas the unweighted figure suggests underreporting by a factor of 30. If infections are this vastly underreported, then the mortality rate of COVID-19 is substantially lower than current estimates. There was no official adjusted mortality rate reported in the Los Angeles County study. Simply dividing the number of deaths on April 11 by the number of infections is not an accurate metric, as there is a significant lag time between infection and death. The Stanford researchers, who conducted their study on April 3 and April 4, projected deaths through April 22 and divided that figure by the number of infections to calculate a "true" mortality rate of .12 to .20 percent when using the weighted figures. However, a number of outside researchers cautioned against using the weighted estimates and recommended using the unweighted figure instead. When using the unweighted numbers and the study's lagged death projections, one gets a "true" mortality rate of .35 percent, a number almost identical to the mortality rate calculated following antibody tests in a hard-hit German town. In order to gauge the "true" mortality rate in Los Angeles County, one would need a projection for deaths through April 29 to match the 19-day lag the Stanford researchers used when making their new mortality rate calculations. "We haven't known the true extent of COVID-19 infections in our community because we have only tested people with symptoms, and the availability of tests has been limited," said lead investigator Neeraj Sood, a USC professor of public policy at USC Price School for Public Policy and senior fellow at USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. "The estimates also suggest that we might have to recalibrate disease prediction models and rethink public health strategies." County health officials stated that despite the lower mortality rate, the fact that only four percent of the population has been infected highlights the need for control efforts, whatever those may be. "Though the results indicate a lower risk of death among those with infection than was previously thought, the number of COVID-related deaths each day continues to mount, highlighting the need for continued vigorous prevention and control efforts," said co-lead investigator Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer at L.A. County Department of Public Health. MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here. Eric Ting is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com | Twitter:@_ericting BATON ROUGE, La., April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A number of metrics are being examined by experts to determine how successful, or unsuccessful, the nations response to the coronavirus pandemic has been thus far. For LSU Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Brian Wolshon, that metric is traffic. Specifically, Wolshon and a group of fellow researchers are studying the impact of social distancing directives on human travel behavior, using highway volume data as a representation of personal activity and interaction. The research involves a comparison of roadway travel statistics throughout the state of Florida in March 2019 versus March 2020 to identify and track differences between rural and urban areas, freeways and arterial roads, etc. The goal of the project is to understand the early impacts of government restrictions on social interaction with the expectation that it will be possible to determine its effectiveness in limiting the timing and extent of infections and use the resulting data in future operational, strategic, and recovery planning efforts. What the group has determined, so far, is that: Overall traffic volume decreased by 47.5% during the study period. The greatest decline occurred later in the study period, suggesting multiple factors contributed in an additive way to increase the change in travel behavior. Issuance of emergency declarations were key to reductions in travel; however, other actions, such as school closings, a shutdown of theme park operations, and the shuttering of bars and restaurants also played a part. Whether the reduction in travel demand was due to the closure of activities or a function of increased fear arising from the lethality of the coronavirus will require further exploration, Wolshon said. There was a lag in response time between urban and rural areas. The most important unanswered question is did reduced level of travel reduce sickness and fatalities from the coronavirus? Wolshon said. Time will tell. We were focusing on the onset and spread of the virus, not the peak of the curve or the drop. We hear lots of evidence that it did, especially if you look at the spread stats through Florida to this point. They were definitely below New York, Louisiana, Michigan, etc., despite having way more people. Story continues We also still need to direct correlation between trip reduction and actual numbers of infection, transmission, and lethality for the virus. And we need to get data on people who sheltered in place and their health outcome. Working alongside Wolshon is Scott Parr in the Department of Civil Engineering at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University; John Renne with the Florida Atlantic University School of Urban and Regional Plannings Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions; Pamela Murray-Tuite with Clemson Universitys Department of Civil Engineering; and Karl Kim with the University of Hawaiis Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Pacific Urban Resilience Lab, and National Disaster Preparedness Training Center. The groups initial findings are detailed in a paper titled, Traffic Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Statewide Analysis, which is under review in the American Society of Civil Engineers journal, Natural Hazards Review. [The team works] on lots of things, collaborative research in resilient and emergency traffic, so we do lots of collaborative research and instructional projects, Wolshon said. I was at a conference in Honoluluwe were having a call and discussing how traffic was less and where and when and why it was happening. So I literally coordinated the team through texts and wrote an initial work plan over the middle of the Pacific Ocean on the flight back [from Hawaii]. The team decided to use Florida as its testing ground, Wolshon said, because its Department of Transportation has a real-time, interconnected network of hundreds of traffic flow sensors throughout the state. Its data is logged and stored continuously and has been for years. Its also open to sharing the data, most of which is available online. We are still working on analysis of statewide evacuation movements during Hurricane Irma for a separate project, so we already knew how to collate, process, and organize the data from the (FDOT) files based on that project, Wolshon said. Effectively, we were doing the same thing but in the opposite direction. We were looking at traffic going down instead of going up like it does in evacuations. Next steps for Wolshon and the group are to analyze the positive aspects of the data in terms of reduced congestion and delay, especially as they relate to helping move freight and supplies, reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions, and increase safety and travel time reliability. They will also study other modes of transportation like regional rail, airlines, etc. Like us on Facebook (@lsuengineering) or follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@lsuengineering). Josh Duplechain LSU College of Engineering 225-235-1610 josh@lsu.edu We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form In just two months, the value of Irish beef exports to China has fallen by 71pc as coronavirus crisis hit demand in the world's No. 2 beef market after the United States. CSO trade data seen by the Farming Independent shows that Irish monthly beef exports to China peaked in December at 1,300t worth 7.5m. However, by February of this year exports had fallen to just 413t worth 2m. Irish beef exports to China increased significantly in 2019 with the first year of full trading by Irish beef exporters seeing volumes reach 12,000t worth 31m, according to Bord Bia. At the same time, beef exports to Hong Kong more than trebled in value, to 27m. However now a sharp slowdown in business in China's once-booming hotpot chains, barbecue restaurants and steakhouses is hitting the global beef industry hard, after top exporters had ramped up supplies to meet surging Chinese demand. China is the world's No. 2 beef market after the United States and fastest-growing, thanks to rising incomes that have driven imports up at least 20% a year for the last five years. Though the Chinese are much bigger consumers of pork, the viral African swine fever epidemic, first detected in August 2018, slashed the country's pig herd by around 50pc and also got consumers switching to more beef. Imports in 2019 hit 1.7 million tonnes, up 60pc on the prior year, with about 70pc consumed in restaurants, according to analyst and industry source estimates. Imports were flooding in just as the flu-like virus emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, coinciding with the country's most important holiday and a major shortage of pork. Much of those are still sitting in cold storage after many restaurants were forced to close for at least six weeks from early February amid lockdowns in some cites and widespread travel restrictions. Foodservice sector income plunged 43pc in the first two months of the year to 419.4 billion yuan ($59.6 billion), statistics bureau data showed last month. Beef demand from restaurants has probably dropped 70-80pc, Ambrose Cheung, Asia commercial manager at major Australian processor Bindaree Beef told Reuters. Though retailers are purchasing much more, consumers typically buy cheaper cuts such as brisket and shin shank and eat less overall when cooking or ordering home than when they go out, Cheung said. "Not many people order a tenderloin online," he said. Exporters in Argentina, one of China's top suppliers last year, say March beef exports slumped to around 15pc of levels seen late last year. Demand could remain tepid until June, said Bindaree's Cheung, with people still wary about eating together. Property owners, renters and tenant advocates across the Capital Region are worried about what skyrocketing unemployment will do to New Yorkers living arrangements. At the United Tenants of Albany, the staff is hearing from renters who were already struggling to pay their rent and have now lost their jobs. Executive Director Laura Felts said she intervened in an illegal eviction when a landlord boarded up a tenants door to keep him out of his apartment after the eviction moratorium was put in place March 16. We are extremely concerned about the eviction landscape when courts reopen and warrants go live again, Felts said. The UTA has an emergency fund designed to give one-time grants to renters at risk of losing their housing. The state and federal government sets the rules about who is eligible for the money. There is now a waiting list for the grants, Felts said. Most of the calls to the UTA staff come from tenants whose landlords will not fix problems with the apartment, Felts said. Shes heard about sewage being backed up and mold growth both harder to live with during the stay-home order in place to slow the spread of COVID-19. Patricia Mccauslin, who lives along Clinton Avenue, Albany, said she has been served with an eviction order after repeatedly asking her landlord to fix plumbing problems in her apartment. Mccauslin, 64, said she signed a month-to-month lease with the property owner six months ago for the one-bedroom apartment. She was paying $600 a month, but when water from leaking pipes started penetrating the walls and ceilings, the landlord dropped the rent to $500. The last she heard from her landlord, Mccauslin said, he told her he can't afford to make repairs to the apartment. The landlord, Ronnie Xianrong, said he asked Mccauslin to hire a plumber herself and he will pay her back when he returns to Albany from Florida, or she can take the cost out of her rent. He said he has not tried to evict her. Latest coronavirus-related cancellations, postponements The latest coronavirus numbers in NY Sign up for the Times Union coronavirus newsletter Full coronavirus coverage Mccauslin, a widow, said she is the caretaker for her roommate, who suffered a stroke. They are both on fixed incomes, she said. Mccauslin paid the rent in February, but withheld rent for March and April. Mccauslin is afraid to go out because she has upper respiratory problems, but she is looking for a new apartment. She is relying on Meals on Wheels and the food pantry for food, she said. The leadership of Under One Roof is also worried about a wave of evictions. The organization is a coalition founded by the New York Capital Region Apartment Association in response to the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. Jaime Michelle Cain, a real estate lawyer who advises Under One Roof, said calls for rent strikes have left renters misinformed. Despite calls for rent suspension in New York, the terms of each renters lease are still in place. If you dont pay rent for the duration of the eviction moratorium put in place March 16 and scheduled to end in mid-June, your landlord will have the right to evict you, Cain said. This is not about landlords collecting rent to put in their pockets, Cain said. They need to pay taxes, which are not under a moratorium, pay their employees and utilities. When a rent strike is proposed it jeopardizes the whole structure. Deborah Pusatere, president of the apartment association and a leader of Under One Roof, said 40 percent of her tenants didnt pay their rent in April. Pusatere owns DeKita LLC and has 63 units, almost entirely in Albany, currently occupied by renters. Of the 25 who didnt pay, 13 still owed rent from March, she said. Of those, 10 refused to pay because they know I cant evict them, she said. Pusatere said she had an $18,000 tax bill due April 1. She had to borrow money to pay it. Landlords were not eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program, and insurance policies written for business disruption do not pay out when tenants can't pay their rent. The policies only cover physical damage to the property, said Jesse Holland, president and founder of Sunrise Management and Consulting, which has 1,500 residential tenants. In Troy, property owner Emily Menn vented on Facebook on March 29, after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-Bronx, put out a call to cancel rent. Ocasio-Cortez is one of several co-sponsors of legislation proposed Friday by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) calling for rent and mortgage payments to be canceled nationwide amid the pandemic, as well as the creation of a relief fund for landlords and mortgage collectors. Im sick of being physically and financially threatened, Menn wrote on Facebook. Come April 1st, if you can afford to pay your rent, pay your rent. If you can't, you should have talked to your landlord by now. If you're posting rent strike propaganda, unfriend me [because] I'm about to unfriend you. Menn is the managing partner of Devil's Hole Ranch Properties, which owns 67 units in 10 buildings in Troy. Rent ranges from $750 for one-bedroom apartments to $1,600 for bigger units. In her post, Menn explained how she spends the money when her tenants pay rent 25 percent to mortgage, the rest to taxes, maintenance, insurance, staff and contractors - before she pays herself. The state-ordered moratorium on evictions - in place until mid-June - was absolutely appropriate, Menn wrote and she condemned landlords who evict tenants illegally. But she was seeing far too many posts on social media about guillotining landlords, Menn wrote, and its just not funny. Speaking by phone a day later, Menn said the post was too emotional, born of frustration and fear. When you run a small business you always worry about money, she said. Im also worried about the mental health of my tenants and about them losing their jobs. Im worried the physical safety of both myself and my maintenance crew and about my tenants getting COVID-19. Bigger landlords are in a similar position. Holland, of Sunrise Management and Consulting, said all of Sunrise's tenants are affected in some way, even if its just the stress of an unprecedented crisis. Where they are in the financial picture makes a difference. We know some people are having a much harder time than others, Holland said. The toughest time were having is with the people who wont talk to us. In this situation theres nothing to be embarrassed about and people will need help. Menn urged tenants who think they cant pay their rent to reach out to their landlords and make arrangements for payment plans or discuss exchanging work for rent. If someone has a set of skills I can put to use, Im always going to do it, Menn said. Anyone in Southeast Texas who wants to be tested for coronavirus will now be able to do so as the region looks toward a potential date to begin reopening businesses and other operations. Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick made the announcement and others at a press conference Monday afternoon on the steps of the courthouse. County judges from Hardin, Jasper and Orange counties also attended the meeting with members of the media. The region reported 30 new positive cases of coronavirus on Monday, bringing the total to 368. This is the largest single-day increase recorded for the six-county region, which also includes Newton and Tyler counties. The spike is attributed, in part, to a backlog caused by problems with a machine that had been processing the test kits in New Jersey. It went down and had to be rebooted. Jefferson County recorded 27 new cases on Friday, six on Saturday and 17 on Sunday. Related: SE Texas records 13 coronavirus-related deaths More Information Helpful numbers (409) 550-2536: Hotline for residents of Jasper, Jefferson, Hardin, Newton, Orange and Tyler counties who want to be tested for coronavirus. 211, option 6: For general coronavirus inquiries. See More Collapse Test results previously had been taking between 48 and 72 hours to come back. During the conference, Branick said the six-county hotline set up to streamline the coronavirus screening and testing process had received a total of 4,476 calls since its inception. Of those calls, 2,367 people were referred for testing. The Jack Brooks Regional Airport and Silsbee testing sites have tested 1,489 and 686 people, respectively. Branick said the county was making criteria for being tested much less severe moving forward because the county has received confirmed cases in asymptomatic individuals and to get more information about how widespread infections are. This data will help inform decisions about reopening operations. While the testing criteria will be relaxed, individuals still must call the six-county hotline to be given an appointment time and a unique patient number. Related: Data shortcomings cloud coronavirus impact He implored residents who were experiencing symptoms but didnt want to be tested for fear of not being able to work while waiting for results to be tested and not put their co-workers at risk. He added that this is a public health, not a law enforcement, issue. Any information about undocumented people who are tested will not be given to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Although the number of people calling to be tested has slowed, Branick said the spike also could be attributed to the return of 78 tests taken at a Beaumont nursing home April 11. The results showed 10 additional employees and residents tested positive, bringing the confirmed cases to 19. Branick said individuals whose tests came back negative or invalid were being tested again. Just as soon as those test results came back, the county on Monday set up another large set of kits, this time for 114 Chik-Fil-A workers from two Beaumont locations. Branick said the franchises owners did everything they were supposed to, including closing for cleaning, after four employees tested positive for coronavirus. As part of the response, in conjunction with the Beaumont Emergency Operations Center and Altus Hospital, a temporary testing site was set up at a former fire station on College Street to test the employees Monday morning. Related: 10 new cases bring coronavirus count to 19 at Beaumont nursing home He also confirmed that the countys mobile medical unit could be used for testing people who have problems with transportation, including in the southern part of the county. He also said he told Jefferson County Public Health Authority Dr. Cecil Walkes Monday afternoon that the county had additional tests for the unit if he wanted. The issue prompted confusion late last week when Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bill Bartie announced on Thursday that the mobile medical unit would be stationed at the subcourthouse in Port Arthur and able to test anyone, regardless of their symptoms or other risk factors. On Friday, when he expected the unit to open, Jefferson County Commissioner Michael Shane Sinegal said he and Commissioner Everette Bo Alfred were working on getting more test kits to potentially open more testing sites, but they were unaware of any plans to open a site Friday. Branick said he previously told Walkes the unit could be used for testing Were ready, willing and able to do that, Branick said during the news conference, adding that the county couldnt help with the expansion of testing if theyre not aware of the plans. Related: Port Arthur delayed in getting coronavirus testing site Walkes could not be reached for comment late Monday. On Monday Bartie said members of his emergency management staff told him that the county would begin testing anyone who wanted to be checked. People who are interested just need to call the main COVID-19 screening and testing hotline and they will get an appointment. Bartie said he hadnt talked to Walkes again but assumed the expanded testing would include the mobile medical unit. I really wish they would give us a number of people theyll test per day, because the numbers (of people being tested) in Port Arthur are not what they should be, he said. Its not a good representation according to our population. Thats not a good sampling. I know you cant test everybody, but you have to have a representative sample so you can make some type of good guess and get an analysis of whats going on. Sinegal, whose precinct includes Port Arthur, said he had not been made aware of Branicks Monday conversation with Walkes. He noted that he understands hes a Jefferson County commissioner and not included in the six-county response group. He echoed Barties concerns that Port Arthur residents have not been tested at a rate that keeps pace with other areas. Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox The judges on Monday also gave more information about how they will be determining the best way to reopen businesses and other operations. Branick acknowledged that there are people who believe the counties havent gone far enough in their emergency orders to shut down operations, while others feel they have gone too far. I appreciate the concerns both of those groups have, he said. I dont disagree with any one of them, but the six county judges have been guided by the desire to protect individuals health as well as the hospitals desire to treat all sick individuals. Hardin County Judge Wayne McDaniel said he hopes by the end of the week to have more information about how the counties will reopen. In making those decisions, the judges will look at local data, information from local medical professionals and the governors orders to make these plans. Branick noted that the counties can make their orders more restrictive than those handed down by the governor but not less. He anticipates local businesses will first be allowed to reopen with some restrictions before full operations can begin. All the judges thanked community residents for largely abiding by their stay-at-home orders and credited them for keeping the number of positive cases low enough that hospitals could handle them all. kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/KaitlinBain Good Morning, welcome to Information Nigerias Newspaper headlines for today, 21st April 2020. Here are the major headlines. Lockdown: No Lecture Sessions During Lockdown Emir Of Sokoto As Muslims gear up to begin the Ramadan fasting in the next coming days, the sultan of Sokoto and of Jamaatu Nasril Islam (JNI), Alhaji Muhammad Saad Abubakar III, has ordered that there would not be public lectures as well as congregation prayers. FG Extends Closure Of Airports By Two Weeks In a new development due to the increasing number of Coronavirus cases in the country, the Federal Government has extended the closure of airports in the country by two weeks. Taskforce To Maintain Rivers State Borders, Not Police Wike The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has revealed that the state government would establish a task force to replace federal security agencies manning its borders. Killings In Katsina Will Be Met With Decisive Force Buhari President Muhammadu Buhari reacted to the latest attacks by bandits in Katsina State, saying it will be met with decisive force. President Buhari made this known in a statement issued by his media aide, Garba Shehu, on Sunday night. Lagos Begins Enforcement Of Face Mask Wearing In Public Spaces Following the increase in the confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Lagos state, the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has announced that the state would begin the enforcement of nose mask-wearing in the next coming days. Sacked Kano Commissioner Apologizes For Mocking Kyari Muazu Magaji, former commissioner of works and infrastructure in Kano state, who was sacked over his comments on the death of Abba Kyari, has apologized. Guest At Kyaris Burial Asked To Stay Away From Aso Rock Garba Garba Shehu, senior special assistant on media and publicity to the President Muhammadu Buhari, says there is nothing extraordinary about asking people who attended the burial of Abba Kyari to stay away from Aso Rock. Lockdown Killings In S/East, Call Your Men To Order Abaribe Tells IGP Enyinnaya Abaribe, Senate Minority Leader, has decried the alleged extrajudicial killings of innocent Nigerians in the South East by policemen enforcing the COVID-19 lockdown. Governor Umahi Imposes Dusk Till Dawn Curfew On Ebonyi State Governor of Ebonyi State David Umahi has imposed a curfew in the state between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm. The governor made this known during a state broadcast at the new government house, Abakaliki. Presidency Clarifies Late Abba Kyaris Age The presidency has come out to clarify the age of late Abba Kyari, the former chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, which has sparked public debate since his death. Help India! By Mahibul Hoque, TwoCircles.net Mumbai: If you have donated to PM Cares fund launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a relief fund to combat the Coronavirus pandemic, chances are that your donations have been siphoned off to a proxy relief fund created by people close to Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha(BJYM), the youth wing of the ruling rightwing BJP. Support TwoCircles Following the outbreak of COVID19 pandemic in March, PM Modi had launched the PM Cares fund. It immediately attracted criticism for neglecting the already established Prime Ministers National Relief Fund which was set up in 1948 and had a balance of Rs 38 billion. The top leaders from the Maharashtra BJP unit have been participating in social media campaigns and nominating others to contribute to the PM CARES Fund in the state. However, the link provided by these leaders does not lead to the official government relief fund but a proxy site called pmcaresfund.online, whereas the official link to PM Cares fund is pmcaresfund.gov.in. In identical posts, BJP leaders from the state had posted screenshots or posts of their contribution to the fund using the hashtag #IndiaNeedsUs, including Union Minister Raosaheb Patil Danve (BJP MP from Jalgaon constituency), Unmesh Patil (state BJP general secretary), Suresh Halwankar (MLA and BJYM state president), Yogesh Tilekar (BJPs Mumbai city spokesperson) and Shaina NC. The hashtag was first shared by one Kunal Nitin Marathe on April 17 with the caption in Marathi. The translation of the above caption is My country needs me in the fight against corona, I dedicate my share of salt #NaMo strengthening his hand #PMCARE, you should also dedicate a significant contribution to the fund to achieve this challenge. This was later picked up by many BJP as well as its youth wing leaders, shared widely through their social media handles. On April 18, however, the leaders modified the caption and started nominating persons to donate through the bogus website. Their post read: #IndiaNeedsUs My country is my identity and today My country needs me. In the nations fight against Corona, by dedicating my share, I am strengthening Prime Minister Shri #NarendraModi jis initiatives which serves the best interest of our country in such times of crisis. I appeal all my fellow Indians to dedicate your share of the funds to the #PMCARE in the best of your capacity. Please accept the challenge and tag, nominate your friends. Let us all together efficiently plunge ourselves in the service of this nation under the leadership of our Prime Minister Modiji. And yes, share your photo / screen shot. #IndiaNeedsUs #MyContribution2Nation In the case of State Minister of Consumer, Food and Public Distribution Danve, his Facebook unedited post was liked 1350 times, overall garnering 3.2 thousand likes and was shared 242 times. In another instance, former minister of Energy, New and Renewable Energy Chandrashekhar Bawankules unedited post was liked 131 times before it was edited. While some BJP leaders later on April 20 deleted posts in which they nominated other leaders to donate through the phony website, MP Patil and state BJP secretary Halwankars tweet still had the same link where they mentioned pmcaresfund.online, the sham website. Deep Connections? The fake website is currently not opening and it is not clear how much donation was made through the website. Although it might appear that the online donation campaign mentioned the hoax website by mistake, but in an investigation, this reporter found a connection between the website and close allies of BJYMs Maharashtra unit. When searching details of these websites on Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a US based non-profit organization which maintains database of internet usage, it was found that the proxy website was based out of Mumbai. The website was created on April 15 and the domain name was almost identical to governments website. On further investigation of the source code of the website, it was established that the sham pmcaresfund.online was setup by an unknown digital media solutions venture named Sai Ventures Business Network. This saiventuresbusinessnetwork.com is closely linked with the BJYM. One Rahul Sharma, who also claims to be the head of social media of BJYM Maharashtra unit, identifies himself as the founder of Sai Ventures Business Network on LinkedIn. His Twitter handle (@rabwins) has mostly retweets of BJYM members or BJP officials. On the other hand, Sai Ventures Business Network has its own Twitter handle @saiventuresind- and mentions Rahul Sharma (@rabwins) as its founder. Even @saiventuresind handle has retweets of people close to the Maharshtra BJYM or its office bearers. We reached out to the contact number mentioned on Sai Ventures Business Network website but the person who answered the call said that it was a wrong number. Similarly, Danve was also not available for a comment though we tried to reach him over the phone. "It's a bit of a stretch to say that it's business as usual, given the unprecedented impact of Covid-19, but we've tried to maintain 'office routines' as much as possible so that there was as little disruption as possible. What was your initial response to the crisis/lockdown and has your experience of it been different to what you expected? Brett Morris, CEO of Nahana Communications Group Comment on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the agency and creative industry or economy as a whole. How is the agency responding to the crisis and current lockdown? The world has really turned to creativity during this time. Why do you think this is the case and what does this mean for the industry, agencies and their clients/brands? How has the lockdown affected your staff? What temporary HR policies have you put in place regarding remote working, health & safety, etc.? How are you navigating physical distancing while keeping your team close-knit and aligned and your clients happy? What are you busy working on? Any initiatives/campaigns relating to the coronavirus? Has this global crisis changed your view of the future of advertising/marketing in any way? Any trends youve seen emerge as a result of the crisis? What is your key message to fellow industry folk? "So, the typical workday is actually very productive and probably more productive than an office! But there are two sides to that because non-stop video calls and WhatsApp groups can take it out of you, so we need to make sure that we take regular breaks and try to have a dedicated lunch break. Its easy to get caught up in the adrenaline of it all! CEO at Nahana Communications Group CEO, Brett Morris account of work-life in the time of Covid-19.It was obviously a very tough call but I believe that president Ramaphosa took decisive action where other countries have faltered. Businesses around the world had been in turmoil for many months already, and disruption at this early stage is was the only way to avoid the ordeal that some countries have been dealing with for 3 or 4 months. We are by no means out of the woods and weve got massive challenges ahead so were all going to need to be very creative in how we help the country recover from this pandemic.The impact has been catastrophic in some sectors like tourism and hospitality but, outside of a few outliers like FCMG and pharmaceutical, every sector has been very hard hit. So like many of our clients, the communications industry will also be significantly impacted. I do think that communication has a huge role to play and that businesses, like in any recession, should not indiscriminately cut marketing spend.We are aiming to be more engaged and more responsive than ever before so that we can add as much value to our clients as possible in this difficult time. As agency partners, we are working hard to give our clients strategic guidance of what they can expect, how to engage sensitively during the lockdown, changes in sentiment, possible behaviour changes, etc. Its also not going to be a simple case of before and after lockdown. There will be a long recovery process after lockdown. So, were going to need to be more creative than ever before, helping our clients maximise their spend and marketing assets.Creativity has always been one of the business most valuable assets. In good times we tend to take creativitys power for granted but this is truly an unprecedented time in the worlds history and so it calls for unprecedented creativity.The safety of our people and their families is always our utmost priority and sometime before lockdown, we put a number of protocols in place to make sure that we were working in as safe an environment as possible. We also gave all our staff the option of working from home before the lockdown was implemented so most of our staff were already set up at home beforehand so we could minimise the disruption as much as possible. But theres no doubt that the stress of this situation takes its toll and we provide professional always-on counselling support for our staff, which they can make use of throughout lockdown.We stay close to each other, and our clients, through technology. Were aiming to use this time to get better at communicating with each other and to help our clients get even better at communicating with South Africa. We may not be seeing each other in person for a while but I think that we will be more connected than ever.Yes, weve worked on a number of campaigns across a number of brands like the stay at home message from Toyota. Toyota also did a big campaign leading into lockdown around basic education and prevention of Covid-19.Yes, I think you will see brands become more creative and more empathetic than ever before.I think a lot of clients have become more empathetic and are realising more than ever how their role as corporate citizens is more entwined in their brand than ever before. People vote with their wallets and this is a time that consumers will go to the polls. The actions brands take during this time will be remembered for a long time to come.Our clients are at the heart of the South African economy and we as an industry have a responsibility to help guide them through this incredibly difficult time. So, while we may be physically isolated or not, this is not a time for any of us to disengage. This is a time to take control, to take responsibility and make the most out of this difficult situation. This is a time for all of us and all businesses to stand up and be counted. We need to help guide our clients around what they can or should be saying and doing. We are communications experts and communication has never been more important than right now.And the good news is that there is no such thing as a creativity lockdown! I have no doubt that with a little bit of creativity and some tenacity, we will get through this and emerge on the other side as better human beings and more creative than ever before! NJIT undergrads continue to earn the nation's top academic honors, the latest being a new university record of four students named Goldwater Scholars this year by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. The scholarship is recognized among the country's most prestigious for STEM undergraduates pursuing research careers. This year's NJIT Goldwater Scholar class, doubling last year's total, is the largest from any academic institution in New Jersey and equals second-most across the nation, beating out universities such as Columbia University (3), Harvard University (3), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2) and Princeton University (2). Of the more than 5,000 applicants this year, only 396 students from 461 colleges and universities nationwide have been named Goldwater Scholars. "This was the best NJIT has ever done with this program. ... The reason so many of our students received this prestigious scholarship this year, first and foremost, is due to the strong qualifications of our nominees," said John Carpinelli, NJIT's campus representative for the Goldwater program who has overseen the scholar nominee selections since 2010. "Undergraduate research has become a part of NJIT's culture, and the wealth of opportunities for interested students to obtain meaningful research experiences has created a much larger pool of strongly qualified candidates to nominate for the Goldwater program." NJIT's 2020 Goldwater Scholars will now each earn a prize of up to $7,500 per year for up to two years to support their education and research. Here they are: Sydney Sweet is a junior majoring in chemical engineering, whose nanoparticle research is aiming to improve health care for Type 2 diabetes patients. During a first-year NJIT Provost Summer Research Fellowship with her professor Xiaoyang Xu, she began a study of hydrogels for the delivery of heart regenerative therapeutics, and contributed on a review paper on nanotechnology-mediated devices to treat obesity published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Biomaterials. Since then, she's earned a $3,000 seed grant for research to improve diabetes drug delivery -- work she's presented at the 2019 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) national conference in Orlando, Fla. "My research is exciting because I am developing a novel oral delivery system using nanoparticles that can offer a safer way to deliver drugs than how they are typically administered now via subcutaneous injections, therefore improving outcomes and quality of life of diabetes patients," said Sweet, an Albert Dorman Honors College scholar. Through NJIT programs, she's also landed her current co-op at Infineum, and a study-abroad opportunity in Melbourne, Australia, last year, which she says has shaped her future career plans. On Her Scholarship and Future: "Living in Melbourne for six months greatly expanded my worldview. ... The city's sustainability efforts and wildlife conservation inspired me to pursue nanomaterials research in the future that could improve alternative energy sources to combat climate change. I am grateful for the opportunities that may arise from being a Goldwater Scholar, but my greatest takeaway is the empowerment that it's already sparked in me to pursue my own research path." Joseph Torsiello is a sophomore dual majoring in applied physics and mathematical sciences involved in research spanning everything from nanotechnology to mosquitoes. As part of his 2019 NJIT Provost Summer Research Fellowship alongside professor Dibakar Datta, he's been applying molecular dynamics simulations to study friction properties of two-dimensional materials, namely grapheme, which could enhance the engineering of nanotechnologies. However, Torsiello, an Albert Dorman Honors College scholar, sees himself pursuing a Ph.D. in physics. That aspiration has been spurred on by his research using a laser-based technology called lidar (light detection and ranging) to measure backscattered light from spinning blades of nanodrones, as well as the wings of flying mosquitoes. Working with lidars in the lab of physics professor Benjamin Thomas, Torsiello generates numerical simulations that can help monitor mosquito populations more precisely. "This is extremely important for many areas where mosquito diseases are prevalent. ... I'm excited to continue this research to help control these populations," said Torsiello. On His Scholarship and Future: "I hope to continue research involving numerical simulations that produce results that benefit everyone. It's an honor to perform research at NJIT and to be a Goldwater Scholar, as both will have allowed me to figure out more about my future career interests and myself overall." Sara Abdelhamid is a sophomore chemical engineering major researching the impact that different bottom shapes of industrial stirring vessels have on the production quality of everything from the taste of our food, to the effectiveness of our drugs, to the texture and fragrance of our home goods. She started her work as a second-year student in the mixing lab of NJIT Distinguished Professor Piero Armenante, and has since been constructing her own customized mixing systems for her research at NJIT's Makerspace. Her work has been recognized nationally, receiving first prize in the 2019 AIChE Conference's Undergraduate Poster Competition. "In industrial mixing processes, the slightest increase in power dissipation can cost millions of dollars," said Abdelhamid. "My research is providing clear answers to the question of how different tank bottom shapes affect power dissipation and just suspended speed, or the minimum impeller speed needed to keep solids suspended off the vessel's bottom. ... The findings I soon hope to publish have the potential to make industrial mixing processes much more efficient and cost-effective." This semester, she is taking part in a co-op in Johnson and Johnson's consumer R&D department, investigating consumer products and ways to overcome production problems. She'll add her new Goldwater Scholarship to her many other accolades as an Albert Dorman Honors College scholar, which include Edward Rogers and Professor Kenneth MacFadyen, Chemical Merit and NJIT Honors scholarships, as well as selection into the McNair Scholars Program. On Her Scholarship and Future: "Coming from an Egyptian immigrant family, I have always been curious about the world outside my classroom and community, and about cultures beyond mine. The Goldwater Scholarship is a key milestone in shaping my career and establishing endless connections with scientists, mathematicians and engineers beyond my field of study. In the future, I plan to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering with a focus on pharmaceuticals." Philip Zaleski is an 18-year old junior majoring in applied mathematics who began showing his talents with numbers at an incredibly early age. He started taking AP calculus exams when he was 10, counting toward his college calculus course credits. "My father is a mathematics lecturer at NJIT and my two older brothers were both applied math majors who were all extremely willing to talk to me about their work. ... They really inspired me to get involved in math research early on," recalled Zaleski. Arriving at NJIT at age 14, Zaleski has since earned numerous distinctions including being inducted into NJIT's chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon National Mathematics Honorary Society and receiving multiple Daljit Singh & Devinder Kaur Ahluwalia Scholarships. He is currently analyzing and creating mathematical models that explain fundamental physical processes, including how and why charged droplets become unstable. Though his recent NJIT research fellowship with mathematics professor Shahriar Afkhami, he's published work in the MDPI journal Fluids to better model the behavior of electrified droplets, such as those used in inkjet printing or electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. On His Scholarship and Future: "I was incredibly happy to receive the scholarship, as all the hard work that the people at NJIT and I had put into my application had finally paid off! I plan on applying to graduate schools for applied math and hopefully following in the footsteps of my father by teaching at the university level and furthering others in the knowledge of mathematics." ### The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation was established by Congress in 1986 to serve as a living memorial to honor the lifetime work of Senator Barry Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years in the U.S. Senate. About New Jersey Institute of Technology: One of only 32 polytechnic universities in the United States, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) prepares students to become leaders in the technology-dependent economy of the 21st century. NJIT's multidisciplinary curriculum and computing-intensive approach to education provide technological proficiency, business acumen and leadership skills. NJIT is rated an "R1" research university by the Carnegie Classification, which indicates the highest level of research activity. NJIT conducts approximately $170 million in research activity each year and has a $2.8 billion annual economic impact on the State of New Jersey. NJIT is ranked #1 nationally by Forbes for the upward economic mobility of its lowest-income students and is ranked 53rd out of more than 4,000 colleges and universities for the mid-career earnings of graduates, according to PayScale.com. NJIT also is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top 100 national universities. BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The accusations that the novel coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic was created in the laboratory or in a laboratory in China's Wuhan are false and wrong, several French scientists have said recently. Driven by a malicious intention of scapegoating China to cover up the lax U.S. response to COVID-19, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been repeatedly calling the novel coronavirus "Chinese virus" or "Wuhan virus" in public, largely accountable for the virus disinformation. "What we do know is we know that this virus originated in Wuhan, China," said Pompeo in a comment requested by the Fox News. "The U.S. government is working diligently to figure it out." Luc Montagnier, a French Nobel prize winning virologist in 2008, told French media last week that "there was manipulation around this virus ... It is not natural. It's the work of professionals, of molecular biologists." In response, several French scientists have recently refuted the remarks by Montagnier. The hypothesis that a virus was created in a lab in Wuhan sounded "a conspiracy vision that does not relate to the real science," said Jean-Francois Delfraissy, an immunologist and head of the scientific council that advises the French government on the COVID-19 pandemic, when interviewed by French television BFM TV. "Everyone in the scientific community agrees that COVID-19 is a coronavirus. From time to time there are coronaviruses different from the others, as are SARS and MERS with a pathogenicity which has appeared," he added. Both Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) are caused by coronaviruses, and the COVID-19 virus is also known as SARS-CoV-2. "The world of viruses is a world in perpetual evolution," Delfraissy noted. According to Olivier Schwartz, head of the virus and immunity department of France's Pasteur Institute, studies have shown clearly that the novel coronavirus was not man-made in the laboratory. "Professor Montagnier spreads whimsical theories," he told the French weekly L'Obs, previously known as Le Nouvel Observateur. "Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, was not created in the laboratory. We see this by studying the genetic heritage of the virus, which has been sequenced by Chinese teams and then verified in many other laboratories, including the Pasteur Institute," said Schwartz. "This virus is clearly part of the coronavirus family tree. It is close to Sars-CoV-1, with which it has 80 percent homology," he explained. "Above all, the same virus is found in different animals, in particular the pangolin and the bat. And there, the percentage of similarities is greater than 95 percent. So, by drawing up the family tree of this virus, we know that it is derived from viruses that circulate in nature," he said. WASHINGTON (April 21, 2020)--The percentage of women and girls in Nicaragua's second-largest city who reported experiencing physical violence by their partners during their lifetimes decreased from 55% in 1995 to 28% in 2016, according to a new study published in the journal BMJ Global Health. Researchers at the George Washington University's Global Women's Institute (GWI), in partnership with the Autonomous National University of Nicaragua at Leon and InterCambios, a Nicaraguan nongovernmental organization, recorded the decline in a follow-up study conducted on intimate partner violence (IPV) in the city of Leon 20 years after the initial prevalence study. Led by GWI Director Mary Ellsberg, the research team also found that women and girls reporting physical violence by partners in the 12 months preceding their study interviews decreased from 28% to 8%. The team recorded similar decreases in emotional violence over respondents' lifetimes (from 71% to 42%) as well as the preceding 12-month period (from 43% to 23%) of the study. No significant difference was found in the prevalence of lifetime sexual violence between the two time periods.* "The only other country to our knowledge with a documented reduction in IPV prevalence is the U.S., where the Justice Department reported a similar decrease in IPV victimization between 1994 to 2012," Dr. Ellsberg said. "That Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, shows a comparable reduction in IPV to the U.S. is a stunning achievement." Intimate partner violence is defined as physical violence, sexual violence, stalking or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse. Thirty-five percent of women globally experience sexual or physical IPV or nonpartner sexual violence at some point in their lives, according to the World Health Organization. Though efforts to address violence against women and girls around the world increased over the last 25 years, few studies measured a long-enough period to adequately measure large-scale and sustained reductions in IPV and to identify the proven strategies that work to reduce violence. GWI led the first study to measure population-level change in IPV prevalence over a 20-year period. It conducted the study in Leon by comparing prevalence of physical, emotional and sexual violence against women and girls between 1995 and 2016. During that time period, the influence of the Nicaraguan women's movement over social policies and the movement's efforts to increase women's knowledge of their rights spurred multiple sectors of Nicaraguan society to address violence against women and girls, resulting in legislative and judicial reforms as well as collaboration among the police, government ministries, civil society organizations and others to protect and support victims. The study included additional data findings: Physical IPV Lifetime (happened at least once during their lifetime) decreased from 55% to 28%. 63% decrease in violence when controlling for possible factors that could influence the results, such as age and education 12-month prevalence (happened in the 12 months preceding study interviews) decreased from 28% to 8%. 71% decrease in violence when controlling for possible factors that could influence the results, such as age and education Emotional IPV Lifetime decreased from 71% to 43%. 66% decrease in violence when controlling for possible factors that could influence the results, such as age and education 12-month prevalence decreased from 43% to 23%. 51% decrease in violence when controlling for possible factors that could influence the results, such as age and education Sexual IPV Lifetime decreased from 20% to 15%, but that change was not statistically significant. The researchers noted the reduction in violence was not primarily because of demographic shifts, such as increased education or age, but reflected a true decrease in the prevalence of IPV. They concluded that violence against women and girls is preventable through large-scale, structural interventions undertaken by advocacy groups, civil society organizations, national governments, international donors and other sectors. Now, however, the ongoing violence in Nicaragua and the COVID-19 crisis may threaten those gains. "Defenders of women's rights have been prominent in the movement calling for election reforms and justice for those who were killed or arbitrarily detained," Dr. Ellsberg said. "As for COVID-19, we can assume that many more women will experience domestic violence, so the need to reestablish services and support for women and girls suffering from violence is even more critical." ### The Sexual Violence Research Initiative through the South African Medical Research Council supported this research. *This study's findings showing decreases in intimate partner violence prevalence were captured before the Nicaraguan government's crackdown on social unrest, which began in 2018 and has since hampered the work of the women's advocacy groups in Nicaragua. The study also preceded the coronavirus pandemic in Nicaragua. WA has a new set of residential and commercial tenancy laws in a government attempt to arrest the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. For renters, landlords and tenants, this means there is a ban on evictions for six months under both residential and commercial tenancy agreements. New laws mean a moratorium on residential and commercial evictions in WA. Credit:Paul Harris But there are some exceptions, according to the state government. This is to preserve some protections for landlords against tenants who aren't suffering hardships attempting to take advantage of crisis by avoiding their agreement obligations. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has set up a service which enables people to report suspicious emails to the UK government. (Getty) The UKs cyber security agency has launched a new campaign to help tackle online fraudsters and scammers using the coronavirus pandemic to con their victims. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has set up a service which enables people to report suspicious emails to the UK government. Developed alongside the City of London police, the Suspicious Email Reporting Service will allow people to forward emails they believe to be scams to the centre for analysis and further action. The NCSC has warned that criminals are increasingly looking to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic as a way to scam people. The NCSC said the new campaign builds on its existing takedown services, which have removed over 2,000 scams related to coronavirus in the last month, including over 450 fake online shops selling fraudulent COVID-19 related items and other scams. A recent survey by TSB found that 42% of people believe they have been targeted by a bogus email since the outbreak of the coronavirus. Read more: Ebay and Amazon urged to clamp down on coronavirus profiteering Jeremy Fleming, director of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) which oversees the NCSC, wrote in the Daily Mail that the current crisis is changing the world very fast the scale of activity among opportunistic cybercriminals seeking to profit from the virus should concern us all. The centre has also launched a Cyber Aware campaign offering online safety advice to UK internet users, including tips on how to protect passwords, accounts and devices, and guidance on the secure use of video conferencing services. Video calling platforms have become increasingly popular as millions of people are now using apps such as Zoom to work from home and keep in touch with friends and family as the governments around the world ordered people to stay at home and practice social distancing to combat the spread of coronavirus. Zoom has come under scrutiny concerning data security and privacy measures, including reports of a vulnerability which allowed a cyber-attacker to remove attendees from meetings, spoof messages from users, and video calls being hijacked by strangers. Story continues Zoom has taken a number of steps to improve its security settings in response to concerns and has stopped all new feature development to focus on security. NCSC chief executive Ciaran Martin said: With greater use of technology, there are different ways attackers can harm all of us. But everyone can help to stop them by following the guidance campaign we have launched today. The UK police have issued warning that in some cases scammers are impersonating the government and other organisations online to exploit coronavirus worries. Read more: Coronavirus: 10 million hand sanitiser bottles heading to landfill Adam French, consumer rights expert at consumer group Which?, said: Impersonating legitimate organisations or government officials is a common tactic scammers use to reel in victims, and worryingly the coronavirus outbreak has seen more of these types of scams come out of the woodwork. Consumers should be on red alert and extra cautious before clicking on any unsolicited emails, texts or answering calls. Make sure your software and antivirus devices are up to date, and consider reading Which?s advice on how to spot a fake URL, that might trick you into handing over your login details and passwords. The idea that the Queen isn't interested in clothes has always struck me as off the mark. I'm not suggesting Her Majesty wouldn't prefer curling up with a copy of Horse & Hound over an issue of Vogue, but no one can look as immaculately turned out as she has, successfully negotiating her way through 90 years of potential sartorial landmines, without acquiring an impressive knowledge and appreciation of cut, colour and silhouette, as well as a thorough understanding of the potency of genuine style. She possesses far too many made-to-measure outfits, much too distinctive a personal style (what is now popularly called A Signature Look) and has conducted far too many genuinely "out there" experiments in colour and headwear for us to believe she doesn't find the process of Dressing The Part diverting. The Queen wore bright pink for a visit to Queensland in 2002. The notion that the young Queen Elizabeth II was somehow too wholesome to care about frocks was part of a deliberate policy on the part of her parents. When they reluctantly ascended to their thrones in 1938, George VI and Elizabeth deliberately distanced themselves from anything that smacked of metropolitan modishness, partly through natural inclination, partly to portray themselves as the antithesis of the immaculately dressed abdicator Edward VIII and his brittle but oh so chic American wife Wallis Simpson, whose well-documented obsession with style was viewed as distinctly "un-British". The idea that the Queen isn't interested in clothes has always struck me as off the mark. Positioning themselves as the quintessential British family fond of dogs, horses and wary of anything that might be deemed pretentious involved judicious image tweaking. For George VI's and Queen Elizabeth's first official royal visit to Paris in 1938, deemed vitally important in shoring up Anglo-French relations in the face of growing German aggression, Queen Elizabeth (dismissed as a dumpy frump by Wallis) commissioned Norman Hartnell to whisk her up a confection of frothy gowns that accentuated her English Rose charm. Today this would be called branding. Initial findings from a government lab says that exposure of the coronavirus to sunlight destroys it quickly. Said experiment was conducted on controlled lab condition. This may point to hot temperatures as a weakness to exploit and mitigate virus spread. Another tidbit is that any surface exposed to daylight will have an incidence of fewer transmissions. The presumption is that the coronavirus is vulnerable to high heat and extreme humidity. This is what the Yahoo News outlet has gotten hold off, and is a promising find in combatting the coronavirus. The significance of this research is that direct exposure to the right temperature will burn it off any surface. According to the study, "transmission from surfaces outdoors is lower during daylight" and when the area is hot with higher humidity conditions. The researchers conclude that sunlight can kill the virus. Summertime and similar hotter climates will likely reduce the incidence of COVID-19, especially exposed areas to sunlight or anywhere with excess heat. This report indicates that getting involved in outdoor activities is good, but with stay home orders given in every state, this appears impossible unless you have your own yard. The Department of Homeland Security said,"that enclosed areas with low humidity, such as airplane cabins, may require additional care to minimize the risk of transmission." However, DHS also said that any conclusions need more data to back it up, but took a conservative stand to the news. Findings of the DHS lab However, the DHS Lab says that "outdoor daytime environments are lower risk for transmission." Another lab finds that simulated sunlight for 60 minutes will rapidly kill the virus in aerosols without the need to expose the viral particules in real sunlight. Also read: Titanic Artefacts: 12 Most Shocking Things Discovered from the Wreck Conclusions were gleaned from viral bits suspended in saliva. Conditions were painstaking reproduced in the lab in several weather conditions. According to Harvey Fineberg, who heads several committees related to health, he said nothing is made public yet and will present the study in an April 7 letter to the president. While the lab results are new, scientists have predicted, based on available data on the disease's spread, that warmer, wetter climates would be less hospitable to the spread of the coronavirus. An early analysis by scientists observed that the virus was spreading more slowly in countries with warmer climates. What other scientists think Qasim Bukhari, a computational scientist at MIT and a co-author of the analysis said that they are not trying to imply that the virus will go away and that everything will be fine when it is hot. He said,"The real question now, is whether enough people have already been infected that the summer temperatures won't prevent continued transmission." According to Arthur Anderson,"[Ultraviolet] light breaks DNA into fragments. If the virus is floating around in the air and there's bright sunlight, the UV component in sunlight will break the DNA or the RNA into pieces." Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned that weather may have an effect on the virus, but conservatively answered the question. Related article: Israeli COVID-19 Treatment Reports 100% Survival Rate @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Washington A $500 billion coronavirus relief deal reached today between Congress and the Trump administration wont include a new infusion of cash for New York state and its cities and counties. The direct aid to state and local governments had been one of the final obstacles in the negotiations that dragged on for more than a week, according to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who pushed for the measure. As a result of Republican opposition, Syracuse will miss out on $51 million in emergency aid to help the city deal with a financial crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Onondaga County would have received $41 million in emergency aid under Schumers proposal. All told, New York state and its municipalities stood to receive $17.35 billion from the $150 billion that Schumer wanted to include in the final bill to help local governments stretched thin by the pandemic. The direct payments to state and local governments would have been distributed under a formula based on need. New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, would have received $2.5 billion of the states total. Oneida County ($20.3 million) and Oswego County ($10.4 million) would have been the next largest aid recipients in Central New York after Syracuse and Onondaga County. Republicans had pushed back on Schumers proposal, arguing that it was delaying Congress from approving an emergency package aimed at helping small businesses. The final deal, expected to come to a vote in the Senate Tuesday afternoon, includes more than $300 billion to replenish the Paycheck Protection Program, a forgivable loan fund for small businesses. The U.S. Small Business Administration program ran out of its initial $349 billion in funding on Thursday. The loans had been available for only two weeks. Related: CNYs largest bank made more small business loans in a week than in 2019 Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said he succeeded in negotiating to include about $75 billion in aid for hard-hit hospitals and health centers in the final deal. Republicans and Democrats agreed to take up the issue of aid to state and local governments in the next round of negotiations for a fifth bill aimed at providing coronavirus relief. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned Monday that without additional help from the federal government, the state will have to cut its aid to schools, hospitals and local governments by 20% in the upcoming fiscal year. Cuomo said that the U.S. economic recovery will be more difficult and prolonged if cash-strapped states and local governments are forced to make steep cuts in their spending over the next year. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon has warned that the pandemic will leave the county with a budget deficit of $50 million to $100 million. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said the financial blow caused by the virus and the shutdown of the economy will cost the city between $14.5 million and $20 million through the next fiscal year. A Schumer spokeswoman said Democrats won a concession for New York that will be included in the next relief bill. The measure will allow states to use federal funds to cover revenue losses from the economic shutdown. For now, the federal aid can be used only for costs related to suppressing the virus. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Wegmans, Tops, others want shoppers to wear masks, but wont ban people who dont 5 die of coronavirus at CNY nursing homes, adult care facilities Coronavirus: How we might restart the CNY economy while keeping the virus at bay Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Mark Weiner anytime by: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 Asian shares skidded on Tuesday after US oil futures plunged below zero with storage for crude nearly full as demand collapses due to the pandemic. Shares fell in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai and New York stock futures retreated after the S&P 500 sank 1.8 per cent overnight, giving up some big gains from last week. In a stunning development, the cost to have a barrel of US crude delivered in May plummeted to negative USD 37.63. It was at roughly USD 60 at the start of the year. Traders are still paying more than USD 20 for a barrel of US oil to be delivered in June, which analysts consider to be closer to the true price of oil. Crude to be delivered next month, meanwhile, faces a stark problem: traders are running out of places to keep it, as factories, automobiles and airplanes sit idled around the world. We could merely be in the eye of the hurricane as the epicenters of its rage remain centered around demand devastation and crude oil oversupply," Stephen Innes of AxiCorp. said in a commentary. At a minimum, oil prices will be the last asset class to recover from lockdown. End transport demand will only occur in the final stages of reopening when border crossing is allowed, and travel restrictions get lifted," he said. Tanks at a key energy hub in Oklahoma could hit their limits within three weeks, according to Chris Midgley, head of analytics at S&P Global Platts. So traders are willing to pay others to take that oil for delivery in May off their hands, so long as they also handle figuring out where to keep it. Almost by definition, crude oil has never fallen more than 100%, which is what happened today, said Dave Ernsberger, global head of pricing and market insight at S&P Global Platts. I don't think any of us can really believe what we saw today, he said. This kind of rewrites the economics of oil trading. Few traders are buying and selling U.S. oil to be delivered in May. When trading contracts for it expire on Tuesday, the earliest delivery they'll be able to buy is for June. Brent crude, the international standard, fell nearly 9 per cent on Monday to USD 25.57 per barrel. On Tuesday, US crude for June delivery rose 99 cents to USD 21.42 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the standard for international oil pricing, dropped 19 cents to USD 25.38. The historic drop in WTI prices is an indication of the downward pressure which many other crude oil grades could face, given the oversupply situation," Sushant Gupta of Wood Mackenzie said in a report. On the bright side, given the very low prices right now, It also provides an opportunity for large consuming nations in Asia such as China and India to expedite filling up their petroleum reserves." Gupta said India, for example, still has up to 13 million barrels of spare capacity out of a total of 39 million barrels of storage capacity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Wakefield, Massachusetts--(Newsfile Corp. - April 20, 2020) -Byrna Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: BYRN) (CSE: BYRN) ("Byrna" or the "Company") is postponing the reporting of its first quarter 2020 results and its associated filings due to logistics caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent global events pertaining to COVID-19 have impacted the Company's and its consultant's ability to rely on timely information for its financial reporting obligations. The Company's personnel at the corporate headquarters in Massachusetts have been subject to a stay at home order in effect through at least May 4, working remotely with their auditors and other third parties. Subject to completion of the audit of its fiscal year ending November 2019, also delayed for COVID-19 related reasons, the Company will report results for the first quarter 2020 as soon as possible. The Company is afforded the postponement by a 45-day extension announced by the Ontario Securities Commission under the "Ontario Instrument 51-502", dated March 23, 2020. The OTCQB also affords the Company a cure period of 45 calendar days to file its quarterly report following the original due date. Ensuring a safe and healthy working environment for our workforce is a primary focus for Byrna and we continue to implement and enforce additional precautionary health and safety measures. The Company will continue to seek to manage operational risk and preserve capital during this very difficult time. The Company ratifies that management and the Company's insiders remain subject to the Company's Insider Trading Policy and confirms that there have been no material business developments since October 2019 when the Company filed its third quarter interim financial results other than as announced. About Byrna Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: BYRN) (CSE: BYRN) Byrna is an emerging non-lethal technology company, specializing in the development and manufacture of innovative less lethal equipment and munitions. For more information on the Company, please visit the corporate website here or the company's investor relations site here. The Company recently launched its breakthrough Byrna HD personal security device, which looks to be the leading choice in the consumer and private security markets for non-lethal home protection, personal safety, and security. Forward Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. All information contained in this news release, other than statements of current and historical fact, is forward-looking information. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "guidance", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "strategy", "target", "intends", "objective", "goal", "understands", "anticipates" and "believes" (and variations of these or similar words) and statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might," "occur" or "be achieved" or "will be taken" (and variations of these or similar expressions). Forward-looking information is also identifiable in statements of currently occurring matters which may continue in the future, such as "providing the Company with", "is currently", "allows/allowing for", "will advance" or "continues to" or other statements that may be stated in the present tense with future implications. All of the forward-looking information in this news release is qualified by this cautionary note. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding its ability to file its first quarter financial statements for the three months ended February 29, 2020 and its associated filings, and its ability to manage risk and preserve capital under the market conditions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Forward-looking information is not, and cannot be, a guarantee of future results or events. Forward-looking information is based on, among other things, opinions, assumptions, estimates and analyses that, while considered reasonable by Byrna at the date the forward-looking information is provided, inherently are subject to significant risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors that may cause actual results and events to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. The material factors or assumptions that Byrna identified and were applied by Byrna in drawing conclusions or making forecasts or projections set out in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to reliance on third parties for audit related services, health and availability of employees and consultants working on the financial statements and audit, continued access to all the Company's books and records notwithstanding office closures, and the Company's ability to complete the filing of its financials for the year ended November 30, 2019 and its associated filings, and the financial and product market conditions and other events including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Should one or more risk, uncertainty, contingency, or other factor materialize, or should any factor or assumption prove incorrect, actual results could vary materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Accordingly, the reader should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Byrna does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information after the date of this news release or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law. For further information contact: Investor Relations Lisa Wager, CLO (978) 665-2721 lisa@byrna.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54672 Today famous Azerbaijani and Russian writer, doctor of philological sciences, professor of the philological faculty of Moscow State University, honored art worker of Azerbaijan Chingiz Huseynov celebrates his 91st birthday. On this day, Vestnik Kavkaza spoke with Chingiz Hasanovich about his life, literature and overcoming obstacles. - Chingiz Huseynovich, happy birthday to you! How do you feel on this wonderful day? - Thanks! I feel more or less normal. - How do you celebrate your birthday? - Due to the situation with the coronavirus, I will celebrate my birthday like it's Alexander Pushkin's Boldin Autumn. When there was a cholera quarantine and Pushkin escaped from the epidemic in Boldino, he wrote magnificent, wonderful stories and gave them to the invented author Belkin, Belkin's Tale. I am also in quarantine now, so we can say that this is my Boldinsky autumn. It remains only to write. - What are you writing now in self-isolation ? I'm finishing the novel. There is still a lot of work to do - both simple text repair and capitalization. And this is such a wonderful opportunity - work, write for your pleasure. - What will the new novel be called? - I called it "To Horseshoe." As you know, a horse must be shod, and if not, it will not run for a long time. Therefore, such a name - "Horseshoe horseshoe." - What is your new book about? - This is a novel about our present day, about the events of 10 years ago, showing a full description of reality. We have long forgotten how to censorship, in connection with the dominance of a certain ideology, freely cover the entire space of life from top to bottom. Therefore, our novels are half-hearted, and yet this form implies the coverage of space from the highest rank, from the sphere of the deity, to the very bottom. Therefore, I made an attempt to look at our modern world. Mostly, events take place at my points of residence, in the Moscow-Baku-Jerusalem triangle. In this space, I consider myself a free artist and write what the pen tells me. And the pen, as you know, is a divine tool, and you just can't use it - it should be used to express big ideas, big human problems, and not fool everyone or work for a piece of bread or for a reward. I think that this year I will finish it all the same, and it will be seen there how to publish it. Today, writing a book is 20% of the effort, and the remaining 80% is publishing it. - We are sure that all your plans will be realized. - I think they will be. In any case, I am full of desire to work. Coronavirus made my wife and I write a little more actively, she also writes now. So we continue to do our job. Parts of the Houston area were hit hard by hailstorms over the weekend, and that can leave lasting damage for roofs and homes. Luisa Aparicio is a real estate agent who lives in Katy and had hail damage in 2016. When her house received quarter-sized hail on Saturday, April 18, she quickly went into action and called a roofer. There was damage, and now things will go through her homeowners insurance to agree on what needs to be fixed and covered. Aparicio said thats why the insurance is there, and getting things checked out is best for peoples homes if they have seen hail. Prime Property: Get Houston real estate news sent directly to your inbox I strongly suggest you get your roofs inspected. It could cost you in the long run, said Aparicio in a Facebook post. If you had hail on your property, consider reaching out to a reputable roofer to inspect for damage, Carlos Hinojosa, project manager with Logans Roofing & Exteriors, said. So, what our company does is we provide free roof inspections, and then we assist the homeowner through navigating through the insurance claim process, said Hinojosa. The next steps would be calling the insurance company to tell them there was property loss, the date it happened and then to schedule an appointment with an adjuster. Hinojosa and the adjuster would then get on the roof to assess the damage together. He said they would also check around the property for other property losses, like on gutters, windows, fencing and swing sets. While all of those affected items are typically covered, Hinojosa said it depends on the language of each policy. Breaking News: Get email alerts from Chron.com sent directly to your inbox He explained that making sure a roof has no damage after a hailstorm is critical and that for many people, a roof is an afterthought. You know, you come inside your house, and everything is where its supposed to be, right? And everything looks good, and you take it for granted, he said. Well, the most important structure that you have in your house that is protecting not only you and your family, but your possessions, is your roof. He said as hail hits shingles, it can impact the aggregate (rocky material). Then, the asphalt-type material, can begin to deteriorate, which exposes the layers below. The Texas heat bakes the roof and begins to degrade the shingles, Hinojosa said. They start small, right? But you know how Texas is: we get this crazy weather. Water will find a way in your roof. And then youll have a drip. Youll probably never see it, he said and added it can slowly impact insulation, rafters and then Sheetrock, parts that are not inexpensive to repair. Morning Report: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox Like many roofers, Logans offers free inspections, where someone will come to a home, get up on the roof and check things out. If there is damage, they can help to file a claim. To submit the claim, there will be a contract where the homeowner agrees to use them for all repairs. Logans is based in Missouri City, where it has been operating for nine years. It serves the Katy and Fort Bend County areas. For more information, visit www.logansroofing.com or call 832-440-0278. tracy.maness@hcnonline.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - AJN Resources Inc. (CSE: AJN) (FSE: 5AT) ("AJN") is pleased to announce the appointment Mr. Sik Lap (Jacky) Chan to the Board of Directors and Mr. King Sun (Jerry) Tsang as Financial Manager. Mr. Sik Lap (Jacky) Chan, BSc (Hon), MPhil, MAusIMM, MAIG Mr. Chan is a professional geologist and valuer with more than 12-years' experience in the mining industry. He has been involved in the planning, implementation and supervision of various exploration programs, resources/reserve estimation, open pit and underground production, feasibility studies, JORC report compilation, Engineering/Procurement/Construction (EPC)/ Management, valuation and listing preparation for mineral assets in different stock exchanges. The projects he has handled are across a number of commodities with locations in Australia, China, North America, Central and South-East Asia. Mr. Chan has held senior management positions in diverse international exploration and mining companies providing him experience in corporate management, government liaisons, business development and environmental, health and safety. He has also undertaken a number of senior executive roles with mining consulting and valuation companies. Mr. Chan obtained his Bachelor of Science degree with first class honors in the Department of Earth Sciences from the University of Hong Kong in 2004. He subsequently obtained a Masters in Philosophy and lectured, both at the University of Hong Kong from 2013 to 2014. Mr King Sun (Jerry) Tsang Mr. King Sun (Jerry) Tsang is currently an Executive Director and the Chief Financial Officer of Code Agriculture (Holdings) Limited (HKSE:08153) and the Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of China Cloud Copper Company Limited (HKSE:00033). Mr. Tsang is a Certified Public Accountant in Hong Kong and his qualifications include Juris Doctor (JD) and Bachelor of Business Administration (Accounting and Finance). Mr. Tsang brings extensive capital markets and financial experience to AJN. About AJN Resources Inc. AJN is a junior exploration company. AJN's management and directors possess over 75 years of collective industry experience and have been very successful from exploration, to financing, to developing major mines throughout the world with a focus on Africa and especially the DRC. For further information, please contact Investor Relations: Sheena Eckhof Director, Investor Relations sheena@eckhofconsulting.com Visit us at www.ajnresources.com Tel: (778) 218-9638 On Behalf of the Board of Directors Klaus Eckhof CEO and President klauseckhof@monaco.mc To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54652 GENEVA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday called the "One World, Together at Home" concert broadcast and live-streamed on Saturday an enormous success and thanked the many musicians, comedians and humanitarians who have made it happen. "So humbled, and the whole WHO community is very grateful for the support that poured over 8 hours," he said at the beginning of a virtual press conference from Geneva. "WHO is proud to have co-organized this event with Global Citizen and Lady Gaga, and I also want to thank my colleague Paul Garwood who came up with the idea and has worked incredibly hard for several weeks to make it happen," he noted. Tedros said that the event raised more than 127 million U.S. dollars to support several organizations responding to COVID-19, including 55 million dollars for WHO's Solidarity Response Fund. So far, according to the WHO chief, the Solidarity Response Fund has raised more than 194 million U.S. dollars from over 270,000 individuals, corporations and foundations. Stargazers will have a chance to see the oldest meteor shower ever recorded this week as it explodes across the skies of Australia and New Zealand. The Lyrid Meteor Shower will be visible from April 22 to April 23, with 10 to 18 meteors to shoot across the sky each hour from Wednesday night. The cosmic phenomenon will be most visible under clear skies and in areas with low light pollution between midnight and dawn. Astrophysicist Dr Brad Tucker from the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory told Daily Mail Australia only a lucky few will get a chance to see it in the southern hemisphere. Stargazers will have a chance to see the oldest meteor shower ever recorded this week as it explodes across the skies of Australia and New Zealand 'The only places are really Brisbane and north, so Darwin is OK. Southern parts of Australia will not really see anything,' Dr Tucker said. 'Place like Sydney with the light pollution and being far south won't see really anything unfortunately. The amount of light pollution has not really changed (as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown) as people are still at home with house lights and street lights.' The best chance of seeing longer meteors which streak horizontally across the sky - called earthgrazers - will be during the peak between midnight and dawn. The spectacle is an annual event, usually seen between April 16 and 25, but this year's display is expected earlier. As it coincides with a new moon, especially dark skies will provide an even more brilliant show for keen stargazers. The Lyrid may not be the brighest of meteor showers, but it is one of the oldest observed and will be most visible on Tuesday April 21 The event was first sighted in ancient China in 687 BC, more than 2700 years ago, according to EarthSky. Lyrid gets its name from the Lyra constellation. The Lyrids are rock and dust left behind by the comet C/1861 G (Thatcher) as the Earth drifts through a cloud of debris left behind by the icy space rock. Every year, the Earth intersects with Thatcher's dusty tail and particles of the comet are seen streaking through the sky where the usually burn up. Specks of meteor travel at about 110,000 mph. While meteor showers create streaks in the sky that can be seen on Earth from miles away, the meteoroids that cause them are actually quite small. Some meteors leave brilliant trails behind them in the form of ionized gas. PICTURED: The Milk Way lights up the skies over the New South Wales Central Coast 'These meteoroids are sand- and pebble-sized bits of rock that were once released from their parent comet. 'Some comets are no longer active and are now called asteroids'. To locate where the meteors will be passing through, viewers can use the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra to find what astronomers call the 'radiant.' This is the point in the sky from which the meteors become visible to us on Earth. In some cases, meteors have been observed passing through the sky at a rate of 100 every hour but on average the meteors come by at about 15 to 20 per hour. Though the Lyrid aren't the brightest shower observed by humans -- the Perseuds and Geminids both outshine them - it is one of the oldest. To locate where the meteors will be passing through, viewers can use the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra to find what astronomers call the 'radiant' For the past 2,700 years, astronomers have monitored the Lyrids with the first ever recorded viewing coming from ancient China in 687 BC. The shower on May 22, 687BC was recorded in Zuo Zhuan, which describes the shower as 'On day xin-mao of month 4 in the summer (of year 7 of King Zhuang of Lu), at night, fixed stars are invisible, at midnight, stars dropped down like rain.' The next year that Earthlings can observe Thatcher will be in 2276 as the Comet comes with a 415-year orbital period. Singapore will extend its partial lockdown by another four weeks after reporting thousands of new coronavirus cases in recent days, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Tuesday. The tiny city-state reported 1,111 new cases earlier Tuesday to increase its total to 9,125, the most in Southeast Asia. It marked the second straight day of over 1,000 new cases after a single-day high of 1,426 were announced on Monday. Foreign workers staying in crowded dormitories account for nearly 80% of infections. Lee said the sharp upsurge in cases was due to aggressive testing of workers in the dorms, including those who are asymptomatic. Although the viral clusters in the dorms have remained largely contained, Lee said circuit-breaker measures that shut down nonessential businesses and schools until May 4 will be extended to June 1 or until infections ease. He said this will allow the government to detect and contain the virus spread early if there is a transmission from the dorms to the wider community. Although the number of new cases in the wider community has dropped to below 30 per day, Lee said there is still a number of cases that cannot be linked to any clusters, suggesting a larger, hidden reservoir of cases in the community. Many will be disappointed by the extension of the circuit breaker, especially our businesses and workers, who are hurting greatly, Lee said in a televised speech. But I hope you understand that this short-term pain is to stamp out the virus, protect the health and safety of our loved ones, and allow us to revive our economy. Praised for its swift response and meticulous tracing of contacts in the early stage of the crisis, Singapore is grappling with an explosion of cases in foreign worker dorms that were largely overlooked earlier. Singapore has nearly 1.4 million migrant workers, a third of its labour force, including more than 300,000 in the construction sector alone. More than 200,000 workers from Bangladesh, India and other poor Asian countries live in 43 registered dormitories that house up to 20 in a room with shared facilities. Tens of thousands more stay in factory converted dormitories that serve as temporary quarters at construction sites. The health ministry said that all types of foreign worker dormitories will be locked down starting Wednesday. It said the government is also monitoring workers who live in shophouses as well as private and government housing. It said some 180,000 construction workers and their dependents have been ordered to quarantine themselves at home. Lee said workers in essential services like cleaning and maintenance are also being tested and housed separately to ensure they dont become potential channels for cross infection. Iran's Health Ministry confirms 1,297 new COVID-19 infections 03/29/20 Source: Mehr News Agency A spokesman in the Iranian Health Ministry said that 1,297 people have tested positive for the COVID-19 disease in the past 24 hours which brings total infections to 84,802. Official Iran's statistics on coronavirus as of April 21 Infections: 84,802 Deaths: 5,297 New Cases: 1,297 Recovered: 60,965 Kianoush Jahanpour said that the results are based on 365,723 tests carried out across the country. He put the number of fatalities during the past 24 hours at 88. This the seventh consecutive double-digit death toll after the country experienced above 100 daily deaths every day before April 15. The total death toll is standing at 5,297, Jahanpour added. The spokesman went on to say that 60,965 patients have recovered and left hospitals while 3,357 others are in critical condition. He called on people to follow social distancing guidelines and pay attention to health protocols as the country's economy is gradually opening up. On Tuesday's episode of MasterChef Australia: Back to Win, caterer Courtney Roulston was eliminated from the series early. But viewers hardly cared, and were more concerned that Poh Ling Yeow appeared to be missing from the emotional final scenes when Courtney hugged the remaining chefs goodbye. Panic broke out when the show's favourite contestant, as well as fellow cook Tracy Collins could not be seen in an overhead shot of the group. Not there! On Tuesday's episode of MasterChef Australia: Back to Win, fan favourite Courtney Roulston was eliminated. But two people appeared to be missing from the emotional final scenes as Courtney hugged the remaining contestants goodbye 'Where's Tracy?' one viewer asked on Twitter, with another responding, 'And Poh. Maybe they did a runner?' Poh may have been missing from the elimination clip, however, she featured heavily in a preview for an upcoming mystery box challenge, which aired immediately after Tuesday's episode. Before Tuesday's episode, fans had criticised MasterChef producers for giving Poh too much airtime. Where is she? Fans on Twitter noticed that Tracy Collins (left) and Poh Ling Yeow (right) could not be seen in an overhead shot of the group In a Facebook fan group, Masterchef Australia 2020, many viewers branded this year's series 'The Poh Show'. 'Is this the Poh show?' asked one fan, while another commented, 'It always was the Poh show, even when she was with Julie [Goodwin] it was still the Poh show. Just over it.' The 47-year-old first appeared on MasterChef back in 2009, and placed runner-up behind Julie Goodwin, before appearing as a mentor on last year's season. Others blamed the show, claiming MasterChef had framed Poh as this year's standout contender. 'Please MasterChef Australia, I know you can't alter the pre recorded episodes but when you catch up, PLEASE don't put so much attention on Poe [sic], she is not the most important person there,' wrote one fan. Where are they? 'Where's Tracy?' one viewer asked on Twitter, with another responding, 'And Poh. Maybe they did a runner?' Another added: 'Honestly. Headline for tonights show "Pohs [sic] Riskiest Move" is she the only cook tonight?' One viewer claimed they were already 'over' Poh after a little more than a week into the new season. 'I am a bit over Poh already. If she wins after being told she is the favourite...' they wrote. Another commented: 'Poh had more lives than a cat in the first series. Hopefully, this series will be fairer to all contestants.' Still there! Poh (pictured) may have been missing from the elimination clip however she featured heavily in a preview for an upcoming mystery box challenge which aired immediately after Tuesday's episode But other fans were quick to defend the judges' favourite, with one viewer labelling her 'the best'. 'I can't understand why everyone hates Pho [sic]! I think she's funny, self depreciating [sic] and not up herself at all,' wrote one fan. 'Yes the camera follows her a lot. But I don't blame her for that. I really like her.' Meanwhile, it's not the first time Tracy has caused mystery around her appearance - or lack thereof, on the show. 'Who the hell is she?' It's not the first time Tracy has caused mystery. On Monday, MasterChef fans were confused her appearance - with many mistaking her for Courtney Roulston Squad: During Monday night's episode of MasterChef, Tracy (right) led the purple team in a BBQ challenge. She had not had much airtime the week prior Tracy had minimal airtime last week, but she finally appeared during Monday night's episode. The 44-year-old restaurateur got her time to shine as she was the appointed leader of the purple team for the BBQ challenge. Many MasterChef viewers were confused by Tracy's sudden appearance and voiced their confusion on Twitter - with some even mistaking her for lookalike Courtney. 'Who the hell is Tracy on MasterChef Australia? I've never seen her before,' one person wrote, while another asked, 'Has Tracy been here this whole time?' Meanwhile, Sydney Swans caterer Courtney, 40, was eliminated on Tuesday after she failed to remove a 'poo chute' from one her prawns, then struck more disaster when her salad dressing got stuck in a bottle during a two-round pressure test. 'One dish was incomplete and that was yours, Courtney. And that's why you're going home,' judge Jock Zonfrillo said as he eliminated her. MasterChef continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten Out: Meanwhile, Courtney Roulston (pictured) was eliminated after she failed to remove a 'poo chute' from one her prawns and had a salad dressing mishap during a two-round pressure test H-E-B has added items from a James Beard Award-winning chef to its lineup of chef-inspired meals-to-go. The mega supermarket chain is now selling several signature dishes from chef Hugo Ortega at select Houston-area stores, according to a Monday release. Ortega was named Best Chef Southwest at the James Beard Foundation Restaurant & Chef Awards in 2017. His restaurants include Hugo's, Caracol, Backstreet Cafe and Xochi. To-go meals: H-E-B adds meals to-go from Houston restaurant Coltivare The to-go meals are available at several locations including 1701 West Alabama St.; 2300 North Shepherd Dr.; 3663 Washington Ave.; 5225 Buffalo Speedway; 5895 San Felipe St.; 5106 Bissonnet St.; and 6055 South Fwy. Selections include meatloaf with red wine-mushroom gravy, garlic mashed potatoes green beans ($12), corn pudding ($8) and brioche butterscotch bread pudding ($9). All are from Backstreet Cafe, a River Oaks neighborhood restaurant with American bistro fare. You can also get a trio of items from Hugo's restaurant in Montrose, which serves authentic Mexican cuisine, including carnitas ($12), tres leches cake ($9) and Tamal Azteca ($8), a layered tortilla casserole. Through the wonderful program started by H-E-B, we can now serve our neighbors and friends not just from our own front doors but while people are doing their shopping for their families," Ortega said in the release. "It was difficult to pick which dishes to add to the shelves at H-E-B but we decided on signature dishes that would be comforting and easy to reheat at home, and we also wanted to make sure and have some vegetarian options since we are known for these options on our restaurant menus." H-E-B is also selling chef-inspired meals-to-go from James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherds Underbelly Hospitality, downtown's Cherry Block Craft Butcher and Kitchen, Midtown staple Brennans of Houston and Heights Italian restaurant Coltivare. The meals-to-go program, which spans Houston, San Antonio and Austin, brings much-needed economic assistance to Texas restaurants as they struggle to keep the lights on amid the coronavirus pandemic. The restaurants set the price for each meal and receive 100 percent of the proceeds. Regulatory News: Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) ("PSH") today announced that it has purchased, through PSH's agent, Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), the following number of PSH's Public Shares of no par value (ISIN Code: GG00BPFJTF46) (the "Shares"): Trading Venue: London Stock Exchange Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 21 April 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 21,000 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 1,562 pence 19.20 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 1,524 pence 18.73 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 1,547 pence 19.02 USD Ticker: PSHD Date of Purchase: 21 April 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 9,000 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 19.10 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 18.90 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 19.01 USD Trading Venue: Euronext Amsterdam Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 21 April 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 22,000 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 19.60 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 18.74 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 19.08 USD PSH will hold these Public Shares in Treasury. The net asset value per Public Share related to this buyback is 30.21 USD 23.93 GBP which was calculated as of 14 April 2020 (the "Relevant NAV"). After giving effect to the above buyback, PSH has 199,604,703 Public Shares outstanding, or 205,403,312 Public Shares calculated on a fully diluted basis (assuming that all Management Shares had been converted into Public Shares at the Relevant NAV). Excluded from the shares outstanding are 11,352,047 Public Shares held in Treasury. The prices per Public Share were calculated by Jefferies. The number of PSH Management Shares and the one special voting share (held by PS Holdings Independent Voting Company Limited) have not been affected. About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005763/en/ Contacts: Media Contact Camarco Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk Young people massacred in gas-rich Cabo Delgado province after they refused to join the group, police say. An armed group in northern Mozambique killed at least 52 people in a village on April 7 after residents refused to join them, police said. The criminals tried to recruit young people to join their ranks, but there was resistance on the part of the youths. This provoked the anger of the criminals, who indiscriminately killed cruelly and diabolically 52 young people, police spokesman Orlando Mudumane told the state-owned broadcasting service on Tuesday. The killings took place in the village of Xitaxi in Muidumbe district. Mudumane said the people were massacred. Police said they have launched a hunt for the attackers. Armed fighters have in recent weeks stepped up attacks as part of a campaign to establish an Islamic kingdom in the gas-rich region, seizing government buildings, blocking roads and briefly hoisting their black-and-white flag over towns and villages across Cabo Delgado province. For more than two years the armed group mainly targeted isolated villages, killing more than 700 people, according to medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and displacing at least 200,000, according to a local Catholic archbishop, Dom Luiz Fernando. Ohio police broke up a large Amish barn party with more 100 attendees and four men were hit with charges, after the group defied stay-at-home orders amid the coronavirus pandemic. Geauga County Sheriffs Office were called to the large party just after midnight Sunday on the 13400 block of Bundysburg Road in Huntsburg Township following a noise complaint. There officers found 100 people drinking and partying in a barn. One man was so intoxicated he had to be transported to a nearby hospital, officers said and was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge. Ohio police broke up a large Amish barn party with more 100 attendees just after midnight Sunday on the 13400 block of Bundysburg Road in Huntsburg Township (road above) In the incident one man was arrest, another issued a summons for violating stay-at-home orders, and two were charged with underage drinking. 'When we got there, there was a barn full of people some of them ran,' Geauga Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand said to Fox8. 'There was one that was too intoxicated to run and that person had to e transported by ambulance.' The sheriff stressed the importance of abiding by social distancing and lockdown rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as there are over 12,000 cases of the virus and over 500 deaths in the state of Ohio. Locals have raised concerns over large gatherings in the Amish community despite stay-at-home orders. Groups of buggies pictured outside a home in the area above A large group of Amish people playing volleyball in Huntsburg Township pictured above 'There is some concern out there and we are getting reports of large gatherings happening. If we get calls, or find out about them, we will go there, break them up and get them out of there. We wont tolerate this and we have to keep everybody safe,' he said. Governor DeWine has social distancing and stay-at-home orders in place for the state through May 1. Residents in Huntsburg Township have sent local news outlets in the area photos of the Amish continuing to have large gatherings despite lockdown orders. 'It is disappointing. I wish it wouldnt happen, those folks are all placing themselves at risk,' Geauga County Health Commissioner Thomas Quade said, sending a letter to Amish Bishops informing them on the increase in COVID-19 cases in the Amish community and asking for churches to be closed for the rest of the month. 'In our country, there is a lot of checks and balances, the figures cannot go wrong.' 'Because they are being checked by not only the governments, but by doctors themselves.' IMAGE: A medic shows a sample for COVID-19 rapid tests at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo "The vaccine pipeline will take a long time. It will take almost one year," Dr Randeep Guleria, director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Sheela Bhatt in the concluding segment of an exclusive two-part interview. Can we expect a vaccine soon? There is a lot of research going on, not only at AIIMS, but at multiple institutions. Vaccine, is a treatment to prevent the disease for stable patients. So the long term efficacy will be the vaccine. The vaccine will take maybe a year or so. You must understand any vaccine has first to be made, then it has to be seen that it is effective. It has to have good efficacy. There is no point having a vaccine that is not effective. It has to be safe. So studies have to be done that it does not itself cause side effects or causes aggravation of the disease. Then it has to go to mass manufacturing. You should understand that you will not have large number of doses available on day 1. So you will have to prioritise who you are going to vaccinate first. High risk groups, health care workers... So the vaccine pipeline will take a long time. It will take almost one year. While planning India's strategy did you study China... The Indian strategy is based on what is happening globally. Not only China. What happened in Italy, Spain. There is a lot of data. You learn from what others have done good and what others have done bad. What is most puzzling thing for you about this coronavirus? What is interesting is that this virus is still evolving. You will see a lot of issues which occur which is unique as far as the coronavirus is concerned, its infectivity. The fact that it is spreading much more rapidly than previous coronaviruses in the community. It is more infectious. Its ability to survive in the environment, on surfaces, for a long period of time. One report says it is able to jump species. One study from New York suggests that it has gone from a human being to a lion, to a tiger. That is itself interesting. Because this means that the virus is still able to evolve and is able to jump species. It still has the ability to try to fool people who are trying to kill it. IMAGE: Doctors flash victory signs on their way home after completing the mandatory 14 days of quarantine at the Taj Vivanta Hotel in Guwahati, Monday, April 21, 2020. Photograph: PTI Photo As you are a doctor I should trust you, but let me ask: Are these figures of death and infected Indian patients correct? Is it being collected properly by the medical fraternity? In our country, there is a lot of checks and balances, the figures cannot go wrong. Because they are being checked by not only the governments, but by doctors themselves. The Registrar General of India with AIIMS conducts a verbal autopsy to find the cause of death. It is done in a scientific manner. They are being fed into a national system. And we are not looking only at positive cases, but we are also looking at clinical cases. So you may have patients with severe pneumonia who get admitted, they are also getting reported by the Integrated Diseases Survellance Programme. So one is also looking at how many severe pneumonia cases are being admitted. How many (COVID-19) positive tests are coming. The data is being cross-checked by various mechanisms which are epidemiological, which are lab based, and which are based on clinicians looking at the cases. And the number of patients coming to hospitals. All that is suggesting that the data is focused, and it is something that one can rely on. In drug protocols, in SOPs (standard operating procedures), what is the element you find working well? We are looking at two groups of drugs. One is hydroxychloroquine, the other is some data suggesting a drug which is available in the US, which India is also trying to get -- Remdesivir, which is used for Ebola patients. Recent studies suggest it may also be useful. So we have started using it? No, we are getting, it is not available in India. The DCGI (Drug Controller General of India) and we are trying to get it for patients on what we call grounds of compassionate use. How do you explain such low numbers of cases in East India, but so many more in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat? There are a lot of factors that need to be looked at. It could be related to travel, overcrowding and where the first case came. And how it has evolved over a period of time. A cluster dwells, or a number of cases dwell if you have one person coming and he has given it to a large number of people. You can also have some areas where you have what is known as a superspreader. The one person who can spread it to a large number of people. So we need to know whether in these areas you had someone who spread it very quickly to a large number of people, that is also possible. IMAGE: Employees undergo thermal screening before entering the Parliament House area, Monday, April 20, 2020. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo More than a billion people are locked in their houses. What kind of mental impact do you see in them? How do you look at this strange phenomenon? I agree that there is something we need to look at. There are a lot of issues. One is physical, the other is mental. For physical issues, people need to develop yoga and exercise programmes. Regarding mental issues I would say we are in an era where technology is helping people a lot. You can stay in touch with entire families through your phone. You can talk to them, you can see them, through FaceTime or through WhatsApp. You can stay in touch with the world globally. So by doing all of this, and by doing meditation, all the mental stress can be brought down to a large extent. Think of 20 years ago, when there was no mobile phone, you just had landlines, then there would have been much more serious mental issues. Through the Net, you can talk to friends, relatives anywhere in the world. AIIMS has started a helpline, for psychological support to people. Our department of psychiatry is offering that. We are counselling a lot of people. Are you surprised by the fatality figures in India? Is it a surprise or did you expect it? I think it's good. It just shows that our country and we as a population have been able to sincerely follow the lockdown and have listened to what the honourable prime minister said. We were able to achieve that and that's what the figure are showing. There are certain countries where people have not followed lockdown orders and that has led to a huge increase in the number of cases subsequently. I think in terms of doing things in a right manner, we have succeeded to some extent. Ruslan Nazarov, head of the Murmansk Region Branch of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, at a mobile field hospital in the village of Mezhdurechye on April 15, 2020. Lev Fedoseyev\TASS via Getty Images Russia has seen a surge in coronavirus cases in recent days. The country has made early efforts to stem the outbreak: in late January, it shut its border with China in an attempt to stop the virus entering. Major cities have also been locked down since March 30, with people allowed only to leave their homes to buy essential goods or for medical emergencies. But Russia still appears not to have stemmed the outbreak efficiently enough, with hospitals overflowing and doctors complaining about the lack of protective equipment. President Vladimir Putin, who has been largely absent from the front lines of the crisis, has also delivered mixed messages on the virus: On April 14 he said the country was having "a lot of problems," only to say five days later that everything was "under full control." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. While the US and some of Europe's hardest-hit countries were battling the coronavirus outbreak, Russia was still reporting low numbers of confirmed cases in comparison. But the number of infections has surged in recent days, leaving President Vladimir Putin to admit that the country is facing an "extraordinary crisis." Though the Russian government took measures early it shut its border with China in late January it has overseen a chaotic response to the crisis, largely due to mismanagement and a lack of communication. Scroll down for an overview of the country's response. As the rest of the world struggled with the coronavirus outbreak, Russia was still reporting low numbers of confirmed cases. But in the last few days, this has changed. A man walks past a giant statue of a Russian Matryoshka doll in Suifenhe, a Chinese city on the border with Russia, on April 12, 2020. Huizhong Wu/Reuters Russia, which has seen its outbreak start far later than those in other countries, confirmed more than 6,060 new infections on April 19 alone its highest daily increase yet. Daily new coronavirus cases in Russia from February 15 to April 19, 2020. Worldometers Source: Worldometer, The Moscow Times The country currently has more than 47,000 recorded cases and more than 400 deaths. Story continues Coronavirus cases officially reported in Russia from February 15 to April 18, 2020. Worldometers Source: Worldometer But the country actually started its coronavirus response relatively early. When China started acknowledging its coronavirus cases in late January, Russia closed 16 out of its 25 border crossings with China. Traffic police officers stand guard near the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow on April 20, 2020. Maxim Shemetov/Reuters Source: Financial Times But this didn't stop the virus from entering Russian borders. By the end of March, the country had recorded some 2,000 infections and hundreds of daily infections. An employee of a flower shop destroying unsold flowers in Russia's Saint Petersburg on April 13, 2020, as lockdown restrictions led to a slump in flower sales. Anton Vaganov/Reuters Source: Worldometer Moscow, in particular, has been the hardest hit by the virus. On March 30, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced citywide lockdown on the capital city's 12 million residents. A view of Zemlyanoi Val Street, Moscow, on April 19, 2020. Sergei Fadeichev\TASS via Getty Images One the same day, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said he thought the measures should be rolled out to Russia's more than 80 regions, including the major city of Saint Petersburg, according to Reuters. Source: Politico Moscow's lockdown banned people from leaving their homes unless it was to shop for essentials, in a medical emergency, or to walk their pets within 110 yards (330 feet) of their homes. The Red Square in Moscow on April 18, 2020. Alexander Shcherbak/TASS Forms of outdoor exercise, including jogging, are also forbidden, according to the Moscow Times. Source: The Moscow Times From April 13, drivers had to apply for permits if they wanted to travel in a vehicle or public transport around the city. A digital passcode is seen on a screen of a driver's mobile phone during a digital pass check on the North-Eastern Chord, a highway in Moscow, on April 16, 2020. Artyom Geodakyan\TASS via Getty Images Traffic police set up checkpoints around the city to stop vehicles and inspect drivers' permits to check for permission to travel during the lockdown, The Moscow Times reported. To obtain a pass, people must first prove their reason for traveling. Some passes, like for medical emergencies, expire after one day. Those exempt from using passes include public officials, security guards, judges, lawyers, public notaries, and journalists. Source: The Moscow Times Moscow's health system has been overwhelmed with the sudden growth in COVID-19 cases. This video, shot on April 13, shows dozens of ambulances forming massive lines just to enter hospitals. One ambulance driver said that he waited up to 15 hours to get to the hospital, The Moscow Times reported. Source: 1TV, The Moscow Times Meanwhile, Moscow's Health Department warned the city could run out of intensive care beds by the end of April. Beds are seen in a new infectious disease hospital for COVID-19 patients in the village of Voronovskoye, Russia, on April 17, 2020. Sputnik to Xinhua via Getty The department added that it's rushing to make space for more coronavirus patients in 24 hospitals across the country. Source: Moscow Times, Reuters To cope with the demand, authorities are building makeshift coronavirus hospital outside Moscow. It is poised to admit up to 500 patients. An aerial view shows a new infectious hospital for patients infected with the coronavirus disease on the outskirts of Moscow on April 17, 2020. Denis Voronin/Moscow News Agency/Handout via Reuters Authorities in China and the UK have also been building makeshift coronavirus hospitals to cope with their outbreaks. Source: Business Insider Doctors in Russia have also complained about the situation. A prominent medical union accused the government of covering up cases and forcing staff to treat patients without any protective equipment. Patients suspected of the coronavirus are brought by ambulance to Kommunarka Hospital in Moscow on April 17, 2020. Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Anastasia Vasilyeva, the head of Russia's Alliance of Doctors trade union, said in a video that authorities were referring to coronavirus cases as an ordinary pneumonia, which has caused confusion. Vasilyeva also said that authorities are refusing to equip medical staff properly or give them accurate information about the virus. "While the whole world is facing an outbreak of a new coronavirus, Russia is facing an outbreak of community-acquired pneumonia," Vasilyeva said. "And as usual, we're facing the lie of the authorities." Russian authorities have denied her claims. Source: Business Insider Throughout the crisis, President Vladimir Putin has kept a very low profile, choosing instead to pass on the responsibility for handling the outbreak to regional officials. Putin chairs a meeting with members of Russia's Security Council via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on April 16, 2020. Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via Reuters "Putin doesn't have a gut feeling for this," Konstantin Gaaze, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, told Politico. "He is OK with sharing some authority because he himself doesn't know what is right and wrong in the current circumstances." On April 14, Putin admitted the country was having "a lot of problems" and that the public-health situation is "changing practically every day, and unfortunately not for the better." Putin chairs a meeting with members of the country's Security Council via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on April 16, 2020. Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via Reuters "We have a lot of problems, we don't have anything especially to brag about and we definitely mustn't relax," Putin said according to The Guardian. He also told Russian officials that they needed to "consider all scenarios for how the situation will develop, even the most complex and extraordinary." Source: Politico But just five days later, on April 19, Putin told the country in an Easter video message that the situation was "under full control." Vladimir Putin addresses believers during the Orthodox Easter celebrations at his residence outside Moscow on April 19, 2020. Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via Reuters Sitting by a fireplace in his Moscow residence, Putin said: "All levels of power are working in an organized, responsible and timely way," according to Reuters. "The situation is under full control. All of our society is united in front of the common threat," he added. Meanwhile, hotspots have emerged in several other regions in the country, including the northeastern region of Komi, where officials reportedly lied about its coronavirus outbreak before admitting to a huge influx of cases. Passengers wearing face masks go through security screening at the Suifenhe railway station on April 17, 2020. Huizhong Wu/Reuters Komi is Russia's third most-infected area after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and is recording some 100 new infections every day, The New York Times reported. Suifenhe, a Chinese city bordering Russia, also recently saw a rise in coronavirus cases after hundreds of people traveled there from Moscow, according to The Guardian. Suifenhe has since imposed strict lockdown measures and cracked down on travel from Russia. Read the original article on Business Insider (CNN) At least nine people were killed, including one Mountie, during a weekend shooting rampage in small-town Nova Scotia. At a media conference Sunday evening, police described chaos with multiple 911 calls coming in late Saturday at a property in Portapique, Nova Scotia. "When police arrived at the scene the members located several casualties inside and outside of the home," Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Chief Superintendent Chris Leather told reporters. Police said they are not certain how many people died or were injured. The deceased officer was identified as Constable Heidi Stevenson, a mother of two and 23-year veteran of the RCMP. Leather said a search for the suspect lasted overnight and led them to several crime scenes, miles apart. The suspect was eventually spotted late Sunday morning at a truck stop several miles away from the crime scene. "The search for the suspect ended this morning when the suspect was located and I can confirm that he is deceased," said Leather. Nova Scotia RCMP identified the suspected gunman as Gabriel Wortman, 51. He eluded police for several hours overnight Sunday as fires were reported in many locations in the area. The manhunt was complicated by the fact that the suspect is believed to have been wearing as least part of what looked to be an RCMP uniform, and may have been driving a vehicle made to look like a police car, Leather said. "Of course that's an important element in the investigation, the fact that this individual had a uniform and a police car at his disposal certainly speaks to it not being a random act," Leather said. A law enforcement told CNN earlier that authorities were searching half a dozen crime scenes, beginning in Portapique and stretching to Enfield, where the suspect was apprehended. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had warned the public on Twitter that Wortman may have been wearing a RCMP uniform and driving a silver Chevrolet Tracker that appeared to be a police vehicle. But they clarified that he was not employed by the RCMP. As they chased the gunman, police told residents to stay inside and lock their doors, warning that he was considered "armed and dangerous." Stephen McNeil, the Premier of Nova Scotia, called the shooting spree "one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province's history." At a media conference on Covid-19, he told reporters: "I never imagined when I went to bed last night that I would wake up to the horrific news that an active shooter was on the loose in Nova Scotia." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted, "Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the shooting," adding "we're keeping all of you in our thoughts." KINSHASA (Reuters) - Ibrahim points down to the empty main boulevard in downtown Kinshasa, Congo's capital, which has resembled a ghost town since April 6 when the government imposed a neigbourhood-wide lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Twenty-three floors below Ibrahim's home, officials in white hazmat suits spray disinfectant over the usually crowded avenue that slices through the heart of the world's largest French-speaking city. "I can't go and play outside because I risk getting contaminated," Ibrahim said. The 11-year-old misses his school friends, but can see the upside. "I am also happy because since the lockdown started we don't have to study so much," he said later over the washing up. Cooped up with his father, three brothers and three sisters in a three-bedroom apartment, Ibrahim is still luckier than most children in Kinshasa. The vast majority of the city's 11.6 million residents live in informal settlements crammed with overcrowded shacks. Only 15% have running water in their homes, and a third have their own toilet, according to a survey by the U.N. children's fund (UNICEF). Congo has suspended commercial flights and ordered schools and restaurants to close among other measures to contain the virus, which has infected over 300 people and killed 25. But a stringent city-wide lockdown of the type enforced in Europe or in Ibrahim's plush neighbourhood of Gombe just would not work in poorer districts, said Nick Rice-Chudeau, a water and sanitation expert at UNICEF. "People have to go outside their house to use the shared latrines," Rice-Chudeau said. "Even if people could access a water truck, how would they store enough water for more than two weeks at a time?" Then there's the problem of money. "If we do a total lockdown, they wont be able to find anything to eat," said Roger Kamba, head of the presidential taskforce on combatting the coronavirus. Story continues For Ibrahim's father Nathalis, a lawyer, the implications of the lockdown are not so extreme, but it is still a struggle managing a house full of children on his own. His wife Michelle, who works at the finance ministry, was stranded on holiday in South Africa when Congo shut down its airspace on March 20. Nathalis stockpiled games like scrabble and Uno before the lockdown and lets the kids burn off energy climbing up and down the stairs as he tries to keep to a routine of studying, praying and household chores. "Her absence pains me, but with God's help...we'll survive," he said. (Reporting by Benoit Nyemba; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Ed Osmond) The Supreme Court Tuesday said there was a need to wait for sometime before any direction is given to the Centre for bringing back Indian citizens stranded in USA in the wake of coronavirus pandemic as efforts are being made by both, New Delhi and Washington, to provide assistance to them. The top court said the US government was extending visas of stranded Indians who are spread across America and at this stage its is difficult to pass direction for bringing them back. The apex court, which was hearing a plea seeking direction to the Centre to bring back Indian citizens stranded in USA due to travel restriction, observed that the coronavirus pandemic is a worldwide problem and every country is doing its best to deal with the situation. "They cannot be brought in, no matter how much we want. Assistance is being given to them. They are spread across US and cannot be brought back. The US government is extending the visas. Let us wait for some time," a bench of Justices N V Ramana, S K Kaul and B R Gavai said. USA is reported to be worst affected by COVID-19 with deaths of over 40,000 and more than 7.25 lakh cases of virus infection. Senior advocate Vibha Datta Makhija, who filed the plea, told the bench that application for visa extension costs around 500 US Dollars and there was no guarantee of visa getting extended. "It is a different government. We cannot control their decisions. Indian government can request the US government to not create problems in the visa extension," said the bench, which heard the matter through video-conferencing. The petitioner told the bench that evacuation of Indians from foreign countries amid coronavirus pandemic was done earlier and some of the people stranded in the USA are in dire need of help. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that evacuation from foreign countries was done earlier but "now, internationally it has been stopped". Taking note of the submission, the bench observed that it cannot pass an order for evacuation at this stage. Makhija said there are international commitment to meet along with the guidelines of World Health Organisation (WHO) and also rights of citizens. However, the bench said "The court will not tell the government to do anything in a particular manner. It is a worldwide problem. Each country is doing their best. These are not matters for court's intervention." It said the government would lay down the roadmap. When the petitioner said that several persons stranded in USA are in high distress and some of them are suffering from diseases, the solicitor general suggested that they can convey the issues to the designated nodal officer for the particular country. Separately, the bench also heard a plea seeking evacuation of around 800 Indian fishermen who are stranded in Iran amid restrctions due to the pandemic. The solicitor general informed the bench that there is an "inter-provincial lockdown" in Iran. "We are in touch with the Embassy of Iran. The Iranian authorities have been in touch with them. They are on a long term visa. There is Inter-provincial lockdown in Iran," he said. Mehta said that Indian Embassy and consulate have also been in touch with these fishermen and making arrangements for adequate food supply to them. The counsel appearing for the petitioner raised the issue of supply of food and water to these fishermen and claimed that they have received a memo from Iran over WhatsApp as per which, the Embassy has not paid to the company which was given charge to supply food to them. However, Mehta said all necessary help have been extended to them through the Embassy. "The government is helping. Whatever can be done, will be done. Situation has gone out of hand across the world," the bench observed. "They are on long term visa, have WhatsApp connectivity through which you are speaking to them. Let the government handle the situation as per the conditions," it said. The petition has claimed that these fishermen, who are mostly from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Gujarat, are stranded in boats stationed in shores of Bandar-e Moqam and Lavan Island in Hormozgan province of Iran. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 12, 2020 | 07:01 PM | GRAVES COUNTY Graves County now has 82 confirmed cases of coronavirus. The Graves County Health Department on Tuesday announced 14 new positive cases of COVID-19. Eleven of the new cases are isolating at home. They include a teenage girl, a woman in her 30's, a man in his 60's, a man in his 70's, a woman in her 70's, a man in his 80's, a woman in her 80's, two women in their 90's, a man in his 90's and a woman in her 100's. The other three cases are isolating in a local hospital. They include a woman in her 80's and two women in their 90's. "Isolation is truly the key to keep from becoming infected," said Kathy Gifford, Nurse Supervisor for the local health department. "Doing nothing is a hard choice," said Noel Coplen, Director of the local health department. "But staying at home and doing nothing in this situation saves lives." Noel Coplen, Director of the local health department, said residents must make social distancing a priority for the sake of the entire community. Jaroslava Brychtova, an internationally acclaimed Czech artist who made large-scale glass sculptures with her husband and collaborator, Stanislav Libensky, pioneering new ways to work with glass, form and light, died on April 8 in Jablonec nad Nisou, a town in the Czech Republic. She was 95. Her death, from what was thought to be heart failure, was confirmed by Katya Heller, whose Heller Gallery in Manhattan represents the couple. From the late 1950s until 2002, when Mr. Libensky died, Ms. Brychtova and her husband created an ambitious body of work that could be likened more to painting, sculpture and architecture than to something that rests on a tabletop. Some works topped 13 tons and towered 14 feet. Many featured negative space, like cuts, to allow light to penetrate. The best of them merged art and science through the material of colored glass to profound effect. A wealthy, California beach town near Silicon Valley is to become one of the first communities in the world to test all its residents for both active COVID-19 and for the presence of antibodies revealing if they already had the disease. Residents of Bolinas, a reclusive Bay Area town, who are older than four can available of free testing between Monday and Thursday. The $400,000 study was privately backed by the town's residents and will be administered by staffers at University of California San Francisco, who will use the results to track the spread of the outbreak around the state. The town was identified by researchers as a uniquely situated community to teach the medical community about how the disease spreads. The second location chosen for the study is Mission District, an inner city neighborhood with Latino roots in San Francisco, where testing will begin on Saturday. A health care worker prepares a nasal swab diagnostic COVID-19 test on a person at a drive through in Bolinas Monday. The new project is a privately-funded guerrilla-style operation lead by Venture capitalist Jyri Engestrom and Cyrus Harmon, founder of the startup Olema Pharmaceuticals, partnered with UCSF scientists to test the whole town of 1,600 residents A sign is seen upon entering Bolinas, a coastal enclave in Northern California, where all residents are being tested for the novel coronavirus and its antibodies this week Bolinas has been identified as being uniquely situated to teach the medical community about how the disease spreads because it lies two miles from a highway with no through road There have been no confirmed coronavirus cases so far in Bolinas but many residents are older than 60 and at higher risk from contracting COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. Telluride, Colorado, and Fisher Island, Florida, are two other wealthy towns providing free diagnostic tests for all their residents. Bolinas is known as a coastal enclave that fought against becoming a tourist hotspot, even resorting to pranks and moving road signs in the days before GPS to avoid welcoming visitors. The average home price in Bolinas has climbed to over $2.5 million, according to Curbed, and is also the part-time home of Academy Award-winning couple Joel Coen and Frances McDormand. More than 300 residents almost a fifth of the town's population of 1,680 was tested by Monday evening and most had pre-registered for a test by Friday, according to the Mercury News. HOW DO 'STRIP' BLOOD TESTS FOR CORONAVIRUS WORK? Simple blood tests for coronavirus, like Premier Biotech's, work much like pregnancy tests. After the sample of blood is collected, a technician injects it into the analysis device - which is about the size of an Apple TV or Roku remote - along with some buffer, and waits about 10 minutes. The blood droplet and buffer soak into the absorbent strip of paper enclosed in the plastic collection device. Blood naturally seeps along the strip, which is dyed at three points: one for each of two types of antibodies, and a third control line. The strip is marked 'IgM' and 'IgG', for immunoglobulins M and G. Each of these are types of antibodies that the body produces in response to a late- or early-stage infection. Along each strip, the antibodies themselves are printed in combination with gold, which react when the either the antigen - or pathogen, in this case, the virus that causes COVID-19 - or the antibody to fight are present. Results are displayed in a similar fashion to those of an at-home pregnancy test. One line - the top, control strip - means negative. Two lines - the top control line and the bottom IgM line - in a spread-out configuration means the sample contains antibodies that the body starts making shortly after infection. Two lines closer - control and IgG - together mean the person is positive for the later-stage antibodies. Three lines mean the patient is positive for both types of antibodies. Advertisement Dr. Aenor Sawyer, an assistant professor at UCSF and a Bolinas resident, said the town is uniquely situated to teach the medical community about how the disease spreads because it lies two miles from a highway with no through road. 'So we're fairly isolated, rural, and (with) stable ecosystems right now for the last several weeks. So it will be very interesting to see the footprint of the virus in this arena,' Sawyer said. Volunteers direct the town's residents to drive into four testing bays set up for nasal swabs and finger pricks. The swabs are used to test for the coronavirus, while the finger prick is used to collect blood samples that will be tested for antibodies which can help show who has been infected and recovered. 'Because diagnostic tests cannot detect the presence of the virus once it is cleared from the body (which can happen whether a person was asymptomatic or recovered on their own), both types of test are essential to understanding how widely the disease has already spread in these communities,' a statement from UC San Francisco said. 'In order for us to respond effectively,' added Dr. Diane Havlir, head of UC San Francisco's HIV/AIDS division, 'we need more local community epidemiology like this study to get a sense of where we stand, and where active infection may still be occurring, so as public health officials begin to release constraints on movements we can avoid resurgence of the disease.' Test results will be returned within 72 hours and those who are actively infected will receive immediate follow-up calls from UCSF experts. Those who test negative are urged to continue to shelter in place as the virus may still spread further. A second round of testing will follow in two weeks time if enough funding is secured, the Los Angeles Times reports. The widespread free testing was spearheaded by two locals, venture capitalist Jyri Engestrom and pharmaceutical company executive Cyrus Harmo, and completely funded by private donations. The community was inspired by the Italian town of Vo', outside Venice, which gained control of coronavirus spread by two rounds of testing. Town resident Dr. Aenor Sawyer of the University of California San Francisco Medical Center speaks to the media Monday about the free COVID-19 testing in Bolinas. She said the town is uniquely situated to teach the medical community about how the disease spreads Signs of the free COVID-19 testing at a drive through at Mesa Park in the town of Bolinas on Monday. All 1,680 residents can avail of free testing through until Thursday Volunteers check in drivers at a COVID-19 test at a drive through in Bolinas. The wealthy town is part of a privately funded drive to have all its residents tested in partnership with UCSF 'It's this question of, well, do you just sit around and wait for the federal government to do something or do you try to take action and help?' said Engestrom, who is from Finland but a resident of the town, told Mercury News. The town joins other isolated, wealthy communities of Telluride, Colorado, and Fisher Island, Florida, is using their own wealth to secure testing for their community. Bolinas residents were quick to try and close down any spread in their community, hanging signs telling travelers to stay away once a shelter-in-place order was issued in California the weekend of March 21 and even turning back tourists trying to enter the town. 'Why not Bolinas? It's a terrific place. A community expressed the motivation and willpower to partner with the scientific community and policymakers to get this information,' said Dr. Havlir said. 'Wealthy people? Whatever. It's a motivated community.' Remote Bay Area town Bolinas where all 1,680 residents will be tested for active covid and antibodies to if they have already had the virus, one of the first communities in the world to offer such widespread community testing for free in partnership with UC San Francisco The average home price in Bolinas is over $2.5 million and it is home to Oscar-winning couple Joel Coen and Frances McDormand. Pictured is a typical on piles house on the lake in the town. Residents in Bolinas were quick to post signs telling tourists to stay away when the outbreak first hit. The whole twon is now to be tested even though there are no confirmed cases The testing in Bolinas is the first of a two-part study in which UCSF researchers will examine the spread of the disease in both rural and urban areas. Researchers have chosen the Mission District, a vibrant inner city neighborhood with Latino roots in San Francisco, for the second location. Testing will start there on Saturday. 'There are two paired sites that are going on right now: One here in Bolinas, which is very rural and people are quite separated and it's isolated. And another, less than an hour's drive away, in the Mission District of San Francisco, where it's very densely populated, people live very close to each other, and it's very connected,' said Dr. Bryan Greenhouse, an assistant professor at UCSF and one of the study's researchers. 'By sort of bookending the different types of communities that we're evaluating within a short period of time, we hope to be able to extrapolate much more to different places throughout northern California.' Effective testing is considered essential if shelter-in-place and shutdown orders are to be lifted. 'All our public health decisions, including when it will be possible to relax regional and statewide shelter-in-place orders, are driven by rough assumptions about how this virus behaves based on very limited data,' said Dr. Greenhouse. 'Studying in detail how the virus has spread in these two distinctive communities will give us crucial data points that we can extrapolate to better predict how to control the virus in similar communities nationwide.' Some residents in Bolinas expressed concerns about the testing and asked if their DNA would be shared on a database, which the organizers denied. 'This study stands to benefit people at three levels individuals who will get to learn their disease status, the community for the opportunity to isolate and eradicate the virus, and worldwide through improved ability to understand how this virus spreads,' said Aenor Sawyer, MD, MS, a Bolinas resident and UCSF orthopedic surgeon who has served as project medical director and a liaison between Bolinas community members and university researchers. 'This effort has been made possible by extraordinary volunteerism and partnership between the community, local agencies, public health officials, UCSF staff and students, and many others. We hope that this effort can provide a reproducible model for how other communities can build partnerships to provide rapid and comprehensive pop-up testing to their residents, as UCSF begins assisting with testing capability statewide.' While there are no confirmed cases in Bolinas, cases of coronavirus jumped to 199 in Marin County on Monday. Ten people diagnosed with the virus in Marin have died, 140 have recovered and 33 have been hospitalized including four in Marin hospitals Monday. There were 33,866 confirmed cases and 1,229 deaths in Califorina as of Tuesday morning. Illinois College is offering additional funding for MacMurray College students who transfer to the school. The college has pledged to match students expected 2020-21 charges at MacMurray College, which is closing at the end of this semester. That means MacMurray College students can anticipate their cost to attend Illinois College about what they planned to pay to attend MacMurray for the upcoming academic year, said Evan Wilson, dean of admission and student financial services. As MacMurray Colleges crosstown neighbor, we want to help every student who wants to stay in Jacksonville to continue their education have that opportunity, Wilson said. We believe the MacMurray students we have been working with have the potential to accomplish great things at Illinois College and we do not want finances to be an obstacle. The amount of additional financial aid will vary for each student, but it could be up to an additional $4,000 for some. All MacMurray College students in good academic and social standing will be accepted to Illinois College. Rochelle Eiselt YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan presented the priority issue that will be discussed with Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov during a videoconference. Yesterday I had a videocall with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Today, a videoconference with participation of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Co-Chairs will probably take place. Our present-day priority issue concerns one thing when the region and the world is focused around the fight against the coronavirus pandemic the preservation of ceasefire, ruling out any risks is more than a priority issue. We will work in this direction. The rest, later, he said. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan Necker Island has been Richard Branson's personal fiefdom for 40 years. But as his Virgin-branded businesses are battered by the coronavirus crisis, the billionaire is turning to his Caribbean hideaway for cash. Branson wrote to staff on Monday saying he plans to "raise as much money against the island as possible" as the pandemic lays waste to industries where Virgin competes, including airlines, hotels and cruises. While it's true that Branson has been hit hard by the economic fallout from COVID-19, the move to put his own home on the line is also a result of the lukewarm response to his pleas for government bailouts of Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Australia, which collapsed into administration on Tuesday. Richard Branson denies Necker Island is a tax haven, saying it's his home. Credit:virgin.com Decades of media-friendly exploits, from attempts at world records to glitzy airline route launches and a bid to establish the world's first space-tourism company, have become a millstone as states balk at coming to the aid of one of the world's best-known entrepreneurs. The Deepwater Horizon was an offshore drilling rig that exploded on April 20, 2010. The incident killed 11 crewmen and caused the largest marine oil spill in history. The explosion caused a massive environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. The petroleum spill devastated marine life and polluted more than 1,300 miles of shorelines, putting thousands out of work. The incident highlighted the risks that come with drilling for oil. The Deepwater Horizon incident expended more than ten years and billions of dollars for cleanup efforts. BP, the former oil-giant, denied the spill reached Mexico, despite claims from scientists and fishermen. Mexican communities affected by the spill have yet to receive a cent in compensation even after a decade. 'We've been abandoned.' Riverside communities along the Gulf of Mexico thrived primarily due to their fishing industry that supported tens of thousands of families. However, the fish stocks began to decline a year after the BP oil spill as more than 5m barrels of crude oil destroyed marine life, coral reefs, and birds in the area. The oil giant took full responsibility for the incident following public and political outrage in the U.S. They paid out over $69 billion---more than $10 million of which went to affected fishermen and businessmen. The company left out Mexican fishermen. They claim the ocean's currents propelled the spill in the opposite direction. The community that once had freezers full of fish began seeing empty coolers. Saladero, a village situated on the bank of the Tanchochin River, made a living from fishing in the lagoon. Ninety-five percent of the village's residents relied on the 65-mile body of water that stretches from Tampico, Tamaulipas to Tuxpan, Veracruz. Now, the youngsters and working people in the village are forced to work as maquilas or production plants in faraway cities. "Before, we had money in our pockets," Juan Mar Aran, a fisherman for 60 years, said. "Now, we depend on our children. We've been completely abandoned." Struggling For Nothing Before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, fishermen in the Saladero community caught more than 11,000 kilograms of shrimp, 36 kilograms of bass, and 281,000 kilograms of oysters. In 2019, they only reported 1,000 kilograms of shrimp, 20 kilograms of bass, and no oysters. Enrique Aran, the president of the Saladero fishing cooperative, said British Petroleum only compensated Americans supported by President Obama. Mexican fishermen were mocked and discriminated against "We're struggling for nothing," he said. The Mexican government withdrew a lawsuit against BP in 2018, settling the case for $25.5 million. The secret deal was uncovered by Buzzfeed and Poder, a transparency group. The Mexican government, which was then under former president Enrique Pena Nieto, also made several multimillion-dollar deals---including several oil-drilling sites and gas pipelines---with British Petroleum. Under Nieto's administration, reports by various scientific institutions, as well as a lawsuit filed by 10,000 fishermen, were classified by the government. The extent of the damage was kept from the public. In Saladero, primary schools see fewer than 30 students. Dozens of abandoned boats also line the riverbank. College students were forced to drop out to start working and send home remittances. "There's no money because there's no fish," a resident said. "We need compensation. We want justice." Want more news? Check these out: (Newser) Another $378.5 million is on its way to victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. The Justice Department said Monday that this will be the fifth round of payments, from a government fund of forfeited money, that altogether will total more than $4 billion, NBC reports. More than 38,000 victims have received some of the $2.7 billion paid so far. The government said the fund has received more than 65,000 petitions for payment. "This office continues its efforts to seek justice for victims of history's largest Ponzi scheme," said the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. story continues below Madoff has asked to be released from prison, which prosecutors have opposed. He's serving a 150-year term at a federal medical center in North Carolina. A motion filed by his lawyers also says he's suffering from terminal kidney failure, and he's now citing fear about the coronavirus. On Monday, a Senate Republican urged the attorney general to not release Madoff early, per Fox News. "When making decisions about who to release early," Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana wrote, "it is imperative the Federal Bureau of Prisons strongly considers the financial, emotional and physical devastation that some inmates have caused by their crimes." (Madoff has asked President Trump for clemency.) When the Chakraborty family applied to become Australian citizens they never imagined they would pledge their loyalty to the country from their Docklands apartment. Nor that Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp would be beamed into their living room via video-conferencing app Zoom to conduct the ceremony. Tuhin and Rupsa Chakraborty with their daughter Tulip. They will be among the first people to become Australian citizens through an online ceremony. Credit:Eddie Jim But in these inside times, the City of Melbourne will become the first council in Australia to host virtual ceremonies as part of a federal government trial to ensure people can still become citizens in the middle of a pandemic. "Its a bit of a surprise to get this opportunity during the COVID-19 crisis," Tuhin Chakraborty said. DECATUR Lee Enterprises, parent company of the Herald & Review and newspapers and websites in 76 other markets, has launched a local marketing grant program that offers matching funds to businesses impacted by the COVID-19 virus. For 130 years, our company has partnered with local businesses to deliver their message to the people they serve, both in times of great prosperity and in times of great challenge, said Ray Farris, Lee operating vice president and vice president of advertising. While COVID-19 has created obvious difficulties for all of us, the ability of businesses to market to their customers remains essential to their sustainability and recovery. Our companys greatest assets, by far, are the local communities we serve, and were firmly committed to supporting them through this grant program. COLUMN: Support local Central Illinois businesses. We can help. What helps make our community so special and unique? Its the small businesses that give our town its personality, its flair. Lee Vice President of Local Advertising Joe Battistoni said the program will be available to locally owned and operated businesses impacted by COVID-19, and will provide matching advertising credits for use in Lee print and digital publications. While our companys scale is national, our primary focus has been and always will be on our local business communities in the markets we serve, Battistoni said. Our initial, more targeted efforts to support local businesses during these challenging times have been very well received. Through this local grant program, we are making a much broader portfolio of marketing products available, which allows us to take a far more comprehensive approach to overcoming the unique challenges our local business partners face as a result of this pandemic. Grants will range from $250 to $15,000 worth of matching advertising credits each month, Battistoni added, and will be awarded in April, May and June. COLUMN: In these difficult times, Central Illinois must come together With COVID-19 now in our communities, Central Illinois residents need to pull together as one. Important safety and health guidelines, includi Visit bit.ly/decaturgrant for more information. "This is a great opportunity for Central Illinois businesses to take advantage of our robust audiences, and we are very proud provide this support for local businesses during this challenging time," said Barry Winterland, general manager of Lee Enterprises-Central Illinois. "We will be reaching out to existing clients, but encourage all businesses to apply for the grant. It is just a matter of time before our economy opens back up, and we offer the biggest audiences across our suite of products to connect Central Illinois businesses with their customers. When the economy starts to take off, these grants will ensure our local businesses are ready to recapture their share of the spending" While we will do our best to reach out to as many current advertisers as possible, based on the amount of businesses affected by COVID-19 in our area, we encourage all business owners not to wait to be contacted by a member of our sales organization, but to apply immediately for the assistance, and you will be contacted within 48 hours," said Jamie Reynolds, regional advertising director. "All businesses, regardless of whether you are a current advertiser or not, will be considered, so we encourage all businesses to apply. Funds are available for all of our platforms, including our websites, the newspaper, digital applications and more. We can help with website and social media assistance, rankings on search pages, or access to the largest audience right here in the Decatur area." PHOTOS: Volunteers during COVID-19 in Central Illinois One of Northern Ireland's best-known fashion retailers, SD Kells, has safeguarded its future with a "significant" financial package from Ulster Bank. The loan has been agreed with the bank through the UK Government backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). The family-run retailer, which began as a draper's shop in Lisnaskea in 1928, operates 19 stores here, employing around 170 workers. And the company said the new loan is a lifeline for the business and staff. Managing director Ian Kells said: "Turnover has halted yet expenses carry on. This is the reality for our business and many others across Northern Ireland. "By delivering this loan Ulster Bank has provided us with a vital lifeline that will protect the jobs of dedicated colleagues across all of our stores and plug the gap until it's safe to resume normal trading, whenever that may be. "Every day presents a new challenge. "These are difficult times for all businesses and unfortunately we've also had to respond to sudden unexpected events too." Earlier this month the retailer's flagship premises on Bedford Street in Belfast city centre was targeted in a ram-raid burglary. "We're committed to successfully navigating this crisis and Ulster Bank has delivered the resources to facilitate that," Mr Kells continued. Nigel Walsh, director of corporate and commercial banking at Ulster Bank, said: "This family business has played a central role in the economic fabric of towns and cities across Northern Ireland for almost a century, and Ulster Bank is proud to have supported the business throughout that journey. "There is an understandable sense of trepidation among business owners, but we're committed to serving the needs of local businesses of all sizes and across all sectors." Bakery-based staff at Burtons Biscuit Co have received a 100 thank you payment in recognition of their outstanding support during the coronavirus outbreak. Around 1,800 of Burtons 2,200 employees received the payment last week for their work at its five UK production sites Blackpool, Edinburgh, Llantarnam, Dorset and Livingston. Staff who are or who have recently been absent from the bakeries due to illness were among those to receive it. The way in which our bakery colleagues are meeting the challenge head-on, and following the guidance were providing, is hugely appreciated by everyone within and outside the company, said Simon Browne, managing director of Burtons, which owns brands including Maryland Cookies, Jammie Dodgers and Wagon Wheels. The nation needs the food industry like never before and we really appreciate how our bakery workers are going the extra mile in extremely challenging circumstances. This is enabling us to play a key role in bringing some normality to peoples everyday lives at a time when they really need it. Burtons has also implemented several measures to enhance the safety and wellbeing of its employees while enabling ongoing business continuity. These include ensuring staff maintain social distancing policies across all its bakeries and installing plastic screens at production line workstations where there is the potential for risk of direct contact or distancing of less than two metres. Production lines have also been slowed down and, in some cases, stopped to ensure compliance. Weve followed the government guidelines and taken steps to provide the safest possible working environment for all our bakery colleagues, which is enabling us to maintain production, Browne added. Its a tribute to everyone who works for us, and to the bakery workers in particular, that weve continued to bake across our five production sites while implementing social distancing and other safety measures during a time of higher-than-usual levels of absence due to the virus. Supporting the frontline workers The business is also supporting the NHS, frontline emergency and care workers and charitable organisations across the UK, providing free biscuits to people in need. As part of the nationwide Clap for Heroes campaign which sees people across the UK clapping for NHS workers at 8pm every Thursday Burtons is donating the equivalent volume of every single biscuit produced between 8pm and 9pm each Thursday to the NHS. In week one, the equivalent of more than 93,000 packets of biscuits were donated and the company has pledged to make the weekly donation for as long as the clapping campaign continues. Burtons isnt the only company to send thank you to staff. Earlier this week, Mr Kipling manufacturer Premier Foods revealed every factory worker would be awarded two additional days annual leave, a 250 cash bonusv and a hamper of products to recognise their tremendous resilience. Sunrise star Edwina Bartholomew has shared a gushing tribute to her husband Neil Varcoe on the couple's second wedding anniversary. Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the 36-year-old shared a number of stunning photographs from their nuptials at their property in NSW. 'Two years since our amazing three day wedding/festival/camping extravaganza,' Edwina begun, happy to share her cherished memories. 'Everyday you excel at being a husband and a dad': Sunrise's Edwina Bartholomew, 36, (R) has gushed over husband Neil Varcoe (L) as they celebrate their second wedding anniversary She went on to praise her journalist husband, who she now shares newborn daughter Molly with. 'Everyday you excel at being a husband and a dad,' she wrote. 'Your OCD, annoying at other times, has really come into its own during this global pandemic, as has your love of basic food groups and frozen goods.' Loving: 'Your OCD, annoying at other times, has really come into its own during this global pandemic, as has your love of basic food groups and frozen goods,' Edwina wrote She then joked about how the husband and wife are opposite to each other in almost every way, which makes for perfect balance. 'I worry. You don't. I'm impatient. You're patient. I make mess. You clean up. I get cold. You build a fire,' she wrote. 'We are opposites in many respects but we are both extremely lucky to have each other and all the wonderful people in our lives.' Opposites attract: 'I worry. You don't. I'm impatient. You're patient. I make mess. You clean up. I get cold. You build a fire,' Edwina wrote of her husband Neil (both pictured) The couple tied the knot at their property 'Warramba', which sits just outside of Lithgow, roughly 225 kilometres from Sydney's CBD, in April 2018. Edwina stunned during the ceremony in a restored ornate white gown which featured lace detail in front of a star-studded guest list including Sam Armytage and David Koch. Edwina and Neil have gone from strength to strength since the wedding, with them welcoming daughter Molly in December last year. Honest: The Channel Seven presenter, who welcomed Molly (R) after a total of 36 hours in the hospital in December, has spoken candidly about the trials of motherhood Speaking of their expanded brood in January, Edwina praised Neil. '[He] has been so amazing,' Edwina told The Herald Sun. 'They say you fall in love with your husband again after you have a baby. And that was definitely the case for me,' she cooed. The Channel Seven personality, who welcomed Molly after a total of 36 hours in the hospital, has spoken candidly about the trials of motherhood. So sweet! 'They say you fall in love with your husband again after you have a baby. And that was definitely the case for me,' she told The Herald Sun In her interview with The Herald Sun, Edwina admitted she broke down in tears due to exhaustion less than 24 hours after giving birth. 'I couldn't sit down, I couldn't feel comfortable standing up and you're walking around like a zombie and you also have to care for and feed this tiny human,' she said. Molly arrived a week after her due date, with Edwina taking to Instagram on December 20 to make the happy announcement. In this weeks Bacon Bits, we will focus more on the response during this COVID-19 crisis. The most important pillar in the Black community for decades has been the Black church. Its been the first agency to provide Black people wraparound services that include mental health, basic needs support, transportation, education, workforce development, social capital and more. In years past, when Black people were sick, they went to see the Black doctor (found in the church). When Black people were hungry, you know you could get food (in the church). When Black people were about to get evicted, they went to see the Black lawyer (found in the church). A conglomerate of professionals, counselors and social services, the Black church has been the mecca for provisional care for the Black community. As Black people struggled to find assistance in a world where systemic racism was supreme, we had to look to the hills for our help (in the church). Additionally, the intersection between Black churches and philanthropy cant be denied. The aggregation of Black churches in Central Indiana raise millions of dollars yearly through tithes and the generosity of churchgoers and donors that want to see their dollars go directly toward the support and safety net for Black communities. That donorship is down as Black churches scramble to help a disenfranchised community from falling through the cracks. Navigating COVID-19 is a colossal challenge. Like most nonprofits and community-based organizations, we were not equipped well enough to sustain an environment where our communion (with churchgoers) was forced to fragmentize. Organizations like United Way of Central Indiana and donors and funders across our region have recognized the importance of the Black church as the single most important support system for our community. Churches are now being invited to competitively bid for these precious grant dollars that can help ease the suffering thats disproportionately affecting their communities, caused by not only the current COVID-19 pandemic but also historical neglect. This is seismic and an innovative moment, as funding decisions are now broadening to acknowledge the key role of the Black church. The efforts dont stop there. As you keep hearing the overtones of: Funders dont care about Black people Funders dont care about Black people Funders dont ca (in my Kanye West voice) Jay-Z said, Men lie, women lie, numbers dont. So lets look at some numbers. The Indy Chamber recognizes that the small business community faces an existential threat with the impact of COVID-19. As a result, in partnership with the city of Indianapolis and several private and philanthropic partners, through its Business Ownership Initiative (BOI), has created a Rapid Response Loan Fund to help entrepreneurs fill the gap until additional help arrives. Stacia Murphy, project manager for the Indy Chamber, explains, Our focus on inclusion and equity is reflected in early outcomes of this loan product, with more than half of loan recipients being entrepreneurs of color and/or women-owned businesses, and one-third Black small business owners.These numbers are consistent and mirror client breakdown since the inception of the BOI micro-lending program that began in 2012. Are our systems of support perfect? No. But is there progress? Yes. The needs of the Black community are not falling on deaf ears. There are countless meetings of people and groups advocating and addressing the needs of the Black community, and there are many other organizations such as Local Initiatives Support Corp (LISC), Forward Cities, Kheprw Institute, the Indy Black Chamber and Black-owned Halo App, a tech-startup based in Indianapolis, that are answering the calls for economic relief. The numbers are staggering. The disparate impact of COVID-19 on the Black community is heart-wrenching, but well understand it better, by and by. Well understand how more and accurate data can help inform decision making. Well understand better where help is needed the most in the Black community. Well understand that even though the Black church and many Black businesses have been hit hard, that we will survive and thrive during COVID and beyond. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. (Romans 6:8-9) My call to action is to give, to tithe and sacrifice more abundantly. Let the church say!? Alan Bacon is a humanity advocate, community leader, musician, and innovator. Contact him at alankeithbacon@gmail.com. In a hearing that stretched more than four hours Monday, Californias Assembly Budget Committee held its first legislative oversight hearing on how Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to lead the state through the coronavirus pandemic and how an estimated $7 billion in emergency expenses are being spent. With the deadline to rework the states budget just weeks away, the 11 legislators spread across the committee room expressed frustration over how little information they have received so far. "The emergency powers that were granted were with an understanding that this would be for a certain amount of discreet time, said Assemblyman Phil Ting, a Democrat from San Francisco who chairs the Budget Committee. It wasn't the sense that there was a blank check or we would just be notified after expenditures were already committed to. Gabriel Petek, an analyst with the States independent Legislative Analyst's Office, recommended that the state must soon shift from reactive to proactive in order to address the expected financial consequences from the crisis. Saying that we have moved on from the initial phase of this episode, he said the legislature would need more detailed information going forward, specifically on Newsoms plans for the coming months, the costs of those plans, and how the governor would propose to pay for them. That information, Petek said, has not yet been made available to lawmakers. While most of the legislators took time to champion the governors quick actions to issue statewide social distancing orders and success at "flattening the curve" of Californias confirmed cases of the deadly COVID-19, they said they had largely been left out of key-decisions and that often, they learned about statewide orders from the media or in real-time during Newsoms daily updates. The need to get accurate information to the constituents about what was happening was tough, Assemblyman William Brough, Dana Point Republican, said. Assemblyman Jim Wood, a Democrat from Santa Rosa, opened his comments by commending the governors work, but insisted it had been hampered by resistance to include lawmakers in key discussions and called it a missed opportunity. Story continues More: California could be the state hit hardest financially by coronavirus. Is it ready? Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, said he applauded the administration for the multi-faceted approach to slow the spread, and added that a lot has been done right. Having said that, he added, its time to see what we can do better." He also expressed concerns about how rural communities might be left out of recovery plans, with much of the focus on urban centers where bigger outbreaks occurred. We are often told in rural California that we are going to be taken care of later, he said, adding, later never comes. Others questioned the degree to which Newsom was able to act alone despite the emergency declaration. The vice Chair, Assemblyman Jay Obernotle, a Republican who represents the 33rd District in the southeast part of the state, raised concerns about whether Newsoms actions went beyond the limits of his office. My question was not whether this was needed, whether or not this was wise, Obernotle asked. My question was whether the governor had the statutory authority to spend on social safety net programs. State officials promise details in the coming weeks Members of Newsoms administration, including officials from the Departments of Emergency Services, and Health and Human Services, Finance, who attended the hearing via video conferencing, attempted to respond to the committees demand for details, and answer the wide range of questions Among the topics on lawmakers minds were: the financial status of the unemployment insurance fund, the scale of COVID-19 testing needed to transition back toward normalcy, how and when federal funding would be distributed, and other issues they will need to be briefed on before tackling a budget revise due in mid-May. But there were some questions they couldnt yet answer. Vivek Viswanathan, the chief deputy director for Budget at the Department of Finance, said they were working on the May revision, but that there is considerable uncertainty. He added that he and his department would have more to say about spending in the weeks and months to come, but that federal support would be key. Already, $15 billion in federal funds is coming to California, split between state and local governments. It is not enough, he added, saying the funding will not eliminate some of the painful choices California will have to make. In one somewhat tense exchange between Ting and Marko Mijic, the acting director at the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development in the Department of Health and Human Services, Ting repeatedly asked exactly how many tests California would need to conduct before lifting some social distancing orders. Mijic who responded by emphasizing that there is an issue with the supply chain, and that there arent enough swabs to collect specimens was not able to provide an answer. Promising that the agency would have the information this week, he said that the state is on track to achieve Newsoms goal of having enough capacity to conduct 25,000 tests per day by May 1. To date, 290,500 tests have been conducted. Administration officials also declined to address a controversial $1 billion contract the state entered into to get face masks from a Chinese company with a history of selling defective products, saying that revealing details of the deal could negatively impact the supply chain. At the end of the hearing, Ting concluded that especially with so many questions remaining there will need to be more discussions between the legislature and the governors administration. Emphasizing that lawmakers worked hard in recent years to shore up state reserves, we want to have a say in how this reserve money is being spent, he said. The committee will meet again next Monday to focus on recovery. We have full faith in the governor, Ting added, but we feel like we have a very important role to play especially in the appropriation of resources. Gabrielle Canon is a California Reporter for the USA Today Network. You can reach her at gcanon@gannett.com or on Twitter @GabrielleCanon. Stay safe and informed with news from one of the country's most dynamic places. Subscribe to the In California newsletter today. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California Assembly budget committee oversight hearing on coronavirus Vietnam needed to invest in the digital economy and seize the opportunities it provided to improve labour productivity. Many firms would have been forced to close down if there were no electronic transaction floors or online distribution channels amid COVID-19. Photo thuongtruong.com.vn The information was released at the annual Vietnam economic evaluation report released by the National Economics University on Monday. The annual report aims to provide an overall evaluation of the economy and prospects for upcoming years. The report showed that the digital economy could contribute 7 to 16.5 per cent a year to labour productivity growth from 2020-30. This means the digital economy could play an important role in the productivity and effectiveness of the economy. Researchers from the university said the digital economy would influence the productivity of sectors relating to science and technology, finance, banking, insurance, real estate and information. It was forecast that the industrial and construction sector would contribute 56 per cent to the countrys labour productivity growth in the next decade. Of which, the manufacturing and processing industry would take the lead for labour productivity growth in the country. Prof Tran Tho Dat, chairman of the universitys council and a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Group, said this was the first research in Viet Nam to quantify the impacts of the digital economy on labour productivity, whilst looking towards 2030. The report includes research from both official and unofficial economic sectors as well as household businesses. In addition, it also looked at the impacts of COVID-19 on the economy and policy suggestions in response to the pandemic. To Trung Thanh, head of the universitys Science Management Department and co-editor of the report, said the main message of the publication was that in the context of the economy being hit by big shocks like COVID-19, it was time to review the foundations of the economy. It would be an opportunity to restructure, he added. Labour productivity in Viet Nam was at a very low level and increasingly lagging behind other countries in the region and around the world. Incentives for productivity growth had also been exhausted and ineffective. It was the reason that digital economy would be an opportunity for improving labour productivity, thus achieving sustainable development and at the same time withstand shocks from the outside. Nguyen Kim Hung, deputy head of the Science Institute on Small-and-medium Enterprises Management (SISME), said COVID-19 had hit production and business activities, especially the tourism, transport and restaurant sectors. Of which, many companies had seen a sharp decline in turnover and zero profit. In the first quarter of the year, 35,000 more businesses halted operations than new operations were established. However, Hung said it was time to screen more qualified businesses and help them change management and business methods using a digital transformation platform. Do Hoai Nam, chairman of UPGen Vietnam, said Viet Nam was hard to compare with other countries in terms of science and technology, but it had a pretty big market. Digital platforms have contributed an important part to creating a favourable business environment, especially in technology services such as map apps and website design, he said. Online sales revenue of some supermarkets in Ha Noi had increased by 20 per cent amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Specialists in the e-commerce sector said many firms would have been forced to close without electronic transaction floors such as Tiki, Lazada and online distribution channels. Vu Tu Thanh, deputy regional managing director of the US-ASEAN Business Council in Viet Nam, said the Government should manage companies doing business on digital platforms based on the number of transactions, then calculate the benefit sharing ratio of said parties. This would form the basis to calculate taxes, fees and the responsibilities of related parties. VNS A catalyst for digital change There is no time when speed matters more than when a pandemic strikes, and what is unfolding with the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide speaks volumes to this. This weekends Orthodox Easter celebrations in Greece were a low key affair for Michalis Stratakis and his wife Nancy. They still ate lamb, but the meat was oven-cooked instead of carved off a whole animal that had been spit-roasted for hours over charcoals. They painted eggs red according to Greek tradition and played games with family members in Athens, but over cell phone screens from their home on the Greek island of Crete on Sunday, rather than at the usual raucous feast of about 20 friends and relatives. It was heartbreaking, to tell you the truth, because we didnt have the feeling of family, says 44-year-old Stratakis, an accountant. We spoke to them through the camera, but its not the same when you cant hug your parents and your sisters and your friends. Still, Stratakis is aware that the pared-down Easter celebrations were a necessary sacrifice to protect elderly relatives and his country, too. Greeks traditionally depart urban centers for the countryside and islands in advance of the Orthodox calendars most sacred date. But this year, authorities monitored churches, enlisted street patrols, and deployed drones to enforce strict bans on movement amid a plethora of other measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Experts say that both the stringency of those measures, and the way Greeks have largely abided by them, have been key to Greece avoiding the worst ravages of the global pandemic. How Greece is coping The coronavirus outbreak in Greece should have been a disaster. As a popular tourist destination, Greece received 27.2 million visitors in 2017 alonepresenting a potentially significant risk of COVID-19 from international travelers. The countrys population is the second-oldest in the E.U. (behind only Italy), its health sector has been ravaged by austerity, and its crippled economy is still nearly 40% smaller than it was in 2008, before the last global financial crisis. Officials said in 2019 that, after three bailouts and drastic cuts to its public healthcare system due to austerity, there were only 560 ICU beds in the entire country of 11 million. (Thats 5.2 beds per 100,000 people, compared to Germanys 29.2.) Story continues And to make matters worse, the Greek Orthodox Church announced on March 9 that coronavirus could not be transmitted by communion wine or wafer a doctrine that was immediately disputed by health experts. (The Greek Churchs governing Holy Synod subsequently said that Easter would be marked on a small scale behind closed doors, according to the Church Times.) And yet, Greece has avoided the worst of the global pandemic so far, with only 2,245 confirmed cases and 116 deaths as of April 21, one of the lowest counts in the European Union. Greeces Mediterranean neighbors are not so lucky. To its west, Italy is one of the worst-affected countries in the world, with nearly 200,000 confirmed cases and more than 23,000 deaths; Spain has been similarly hit, with slightly more confirmed cases than Italy but fewer deaths. To its east, Turkey, which did not record its first COVID-19 case until March 11, now has more than 90,000 infections and 2,140 people have died because of the virusalthough comparisons of Istanbuls 2020 death rate to previous years figures hint the actual death toll could be much higher. Recent spikes in countries with low case counts, like Singapore, show that the virus can quickly gain a foothold even in countries doing well. But experts say there are still lessons to be learned from Greece. Keep up to date on the growing threat to global health by signing up for our daily coronavirus newsletter. Municipal workers disinfect Syntagma square on March 23, 2020 in Athens, Greece. | Milos Bicanski/Getty Images What Greece did right The key to Greeces success, analysts say, was the governments early steps to contain the virus ahead of most of Europe. In late February, before a single death from the disease had been recorded, carnivals were canceled. Schools and universities nationwide were closed on March 10, when there were just 89 confirmed cases in the country. Cafes, restaurants and tourist spots were closed three days later. The Greek government moved quickly not despite its crippled public healthcare system, but because of it, experts say. I dont think it was a very difficult decision, because of knowledge that the health system wouldnt be able to cope, says Dr. Stella Ladi, a former public policy adviser to the Greek government and currently an assistant professor in public management at Panteion University in Athens and Queen Mary, University of London. When the government banned all non-essential travel starting from March 23, it was with one eye to the situation in Italy, where hospital ICUs were overwhelmed and people with the disease were lying untreated in hallways. Officials knew it would take a far smaller outbreak for the same scenes to repeat themselves in Athens. In Italy unfortunately, one person is lost every two minutes, said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announcing the lockdown on March 22. We have to protect the common good, our health. At the time, there were 624 confirmed cases and 15 deaths in Greece. By comparison, when the U.K. announced its own lockdown the same day, it had 6,650 confirmed cases and at least 335 deaths. The government also began daily television broadcasts about the situation, warning citizens that the weak healthcare system meant harsh measures had to be implemented early in order to save lives, even if the economy was hit hard. The communications strategy was equally important as the early measures, Ladi says. Every day at 6 p.m., people stop doing whatever theyre doing to see what the developments are, says Panos Tsakloglou, a Professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business. The lockdown measures have been greeted with widespread support for the same reasons, experts say. The public knew the healthcare system was not going to work, so they accepted it, Ladi says of the early lockdown. The importance of good health in Greek culture, Ladi says, is another reason for Greeks easy acceptance of the lockdown. From a cultural perspective, every discussion, every wish for the future, always ends with a word for good health, she tells TIME. Its not debatable whether health is more important than keeping your shop open. Health is more important and the shop comes second. It was not a contested issue like in other places. The government also used the lockdown to increase healthcare capacity, growing the number of ICU beds from 565 in early March to 910 at the end of the month. And an agreement between the Greek government and private hospitals means they have begun taking on patients with non-coronavirus-related ailments, freeing up space for COVID-19 patients in public hospitals. Migrant camps A woman helps a child with a mask after members of NGO But just like everywhere else, the virus and the lockdown are colliding with longstanding inequalities. That means that even as Greece performs well compared to other countries, many of its inhabitants are more at risk than others. Thats especially true when it comes to the five refugee camps on the Greek islands, where around 40,000 people are held in legal limbo in squalid conditions. In the most overcrowded camp on the island of Lesvos, which is served by just three doctors, more than 18,000 people are crowded into less than a tenth of a square kilometer, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Many live under sheets of tarpaulin or in makeshift huts in the camp, which was originally designed to hold less than 3,000 people. The population density there is six to eight times higher than the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where the virus spread even faster than it did in Wuhan at the peak of Chinas outbreak, according to the IRC. So far, there are no cases of COVID-19 in the most overcrowded camps on the Greek islands. But two camps on the mainland have been put under quarantine after 44 cases were confirmed among migrants being held there, according to Apostolos Veizis, the director of medical programs at Medecins Sans Frontieres in Greece. And on Tuesday, 148 people were reportedly diagnosed with COVID-19 at a hotel holding refugees southwest of Athens. When we talk about social distancing, it is something that cannot be applied in this reality, Veizis tells TIME. I can guarantee you if a case were to happen tomorrow in Moria [the camp on Lesvos], it would not be easy to manage. On April 16, the Greek government said it would relocate 2,380 people (the most elderly migrants and those with preexisting health conditions, along with their families) away from the Greek islands to camps on the mainland. But it also announced on Monday that nationwide restrictions on the movement of migrants would continue until May 10 13 days longer than the rest of the country. Such restrictions put people trapped in the camps more at risk, Veizis says. Forcing people to live in overcrowded and unhygienic camps as part of Europes containment policy was always irresponsible but now more than ever due to the COVID-19 threat. Economic toll Despite managing to keep its overall case count and death toll low so far, the coronavirus crisis is shaping up to have dire effects on Greeces already struggling economy. Greeces output relies quite extensively on sectors that are particularly hard hit by the crisis, like international shipping and tourism, says Tsakloglou, the economics professor. Tourism directly made up 11.7% of GDP in 2018, and as much as 30.9% when indirect income is included. And while the government has brought in stimulus measures to shore up businesses during the lockdown, the countrys high debt to GDP ratio means it might be difficult for the country to continue borrowing if the crisis stretches into months or years. As a result the fiscal measures that are available are relatively limited, Tsakloglou says. Still, he says the likelihood of Greece needing yet another bailout remains low. It will be lower still if Greeks continue to abide by government restrictions. After the Easter weekend, Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias acknowledged the difficulty of remaining under lockdown and said the government would begin to ease restrictions bit by bit at the beginning of May. Hardalias also thanked citizens for the very high level of collective responsibility they showed over the holiday. For Stratakis in Crete, the sense of responsibility is keenly felt. Although people do not like following government orders, he says, close family ties and respect for the elderly are emphasised in Greek society. Nobody would forgive themselves if they had the virus and they gave it to their parents, he tells TIME. We couldnt imagine not celebrating Easter with our relatives next year because they got the virus and left this world. Please send tips, leads, and stories from the frontlines to virus@time.com. Correction: April 22 The original version of this story misstated the dates on which Greek schools and universities were closed, and cafes and other businesses shuttered. Greek schools and universities were ordered closed nationwide March 10; cafes and other businesses were allowed to stay open until March 13. The original version of this story misstated the year during which Greece received 27.2 million visitors. It was 2017, not 2019. BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban expects to present a plan early next month for a gradual return to normal from the coronavirus lockdown, national news agency MTI quoted him as saying on Monday. MTI cited Orban as saying in an interview with Catholic Maria radio that by May 3, Hungary would be prepared to handle any rise in infections and that from that point onwards it could afford to seek ways to get back to normal, step by step. "I will be able to talk about that on May 3 or 4 at the earliest, but I hope that by then, building on the experience of several other countries, I can present a calm ... serious plan to the country," Orban said. Orban, who has been in power since 2010, said he expects the recession to be smaller than most observers have forecast, but that the rebound could be slower than the most optimistic projections. There is little clarity about the impact of the crisis on Hungary's economy. The central bank has said repeatedly that it still expects it to keep growing in 2020, while Finance Minister Mihaly Varga expects a 3% recession. Orban on Friday said he would consider it a feat to keep the growth rate around zero. He said on Monday that there was still no guarantee that the epidemic could be kept under control, but by May 3 the country would have enough hospital beds and ventilators for those who need them. Hungary has 1,984 confirmed infections, and 199 deaths. The country, which has a population of just under 10 million, has only done 48,057 tests so far. (Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Gareth Jones and Nick Macfie) Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris is personally donating one million FDA-approved ASTM Level 1 Procedure Face Masks to health care workers and first responders working on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis across the United States. In Chattanooga, Erlanger Medical Center will receive 6,000 face masks. The nationwide donation comes as supplies for personal protective equipment are in high demand and short supply in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the influx of patients at U.S. hospitals and medical centers being treated for the virus, critical supplies like face masks have been rapidly depleted, leaving tens of thousands of health care workers in a vulnerable state as they race to save lives and protect communities. We are extremely grateful to our nations health care workers serving on the frontlines of this unprecedented global health crisis, said Mr. Morris. These heroic men and women continue to dedicate their lives to save the loved ones of others, and we are all honored to support them on behalf of everyone at Bass Pro Shops and Cabelas, and the communities we serve. Convoy of Hope is utilizing its national network of partners and volunteers to identify appropriate local hospitals and medical facilities, and help distribute the masks based on area needs and demands. The donation will provide thousands of hard-to-find masks to every local community with a Bass Pro Shops or Cabelas store, boat center, distribution center, and White River Marine Group manufacturing facility over 200 communities in total. Each community will receive thousands of face masks for area health care providers. The generosity of Johnny Morris will make a significant impact in the battle against coronavirus across North America, said Jeff Nene, national spokesperson for Convoy of Hope. At a time when our health care workers are being pushed to the limit physically and emotionally, were grateful for partners like Johnny and his incredible team of Outfitters who continue to place a priority on giving back and helping our medical professionals safely perform their live-saving duties. The logistics of the donation have been in the works since in the onset of the crisis. Mr. Morris worked with Bass Pro Shops partner Rusty Sellars, CEO of True Timber, to source the masks through his apparel and fabric suppliers. President Trump said Monday he was likely to win re-election by a 'landslide,' while complaining that the poll numbers for his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic should be higher. 'A lot of people love Trump right? A lot of people love me. You see them all the time. I guess I'm here for a reason, you know. To the best of my knowledge I won. And I think we're going to win again, I think we're going to win in a landslide,' Trump said. The president had been asked by PBS Newshour's Yamiche Alcindor if by downplaying the virus - for example, not wearing a mask - he got some people sick. President Trump said Monday that he believed he would win re-election 'in a landslide' after a reporter asked him if initially downplaying the coronavirus threat got some Americans sick Trump continued to hold campaign rallies through February and into early March. The president continued to point to his travel bans with China and Europe as proof that he did enough Alcindor spoke of an interview she had conducted with a person who said his family got sick 'because they listened to you' and didn't take enough precautions. Instead of answering the question head-on, Trump talked about his supporters and then pointed to his initial action on the coronavirus, a late-January travel ban from China, which excluded American citizens. 'And yet in January, a certain date - you know the date better than I do - we put on a ban of China, where China can't come in and before March we put on a ban of Europe, where Europe can't come in,' Trump said. In February and March the president made a number of questionable statements about the spreading coronavirus and also continued actively campaigning through early March. When Alcindor pointed out that the president was still holding campaign rallies - such as a March 2 rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, he wouldn't admit that was the case. 'I really don't know about rallies. I really don't know about rallies,' he said when she insisted he was still campaigning in March. 'I know one thing I haven't left the White House in months,' he said, adding that the one time he did leave the White House was for a trip to Norfolk, Virginia on March 28 to bid adieu to the USNS Comfort - the hospital ship heading to New York. At another point in the briefing, Trump complained that poll numbers for his team's coronavirus response weren't higher. 'Look, I don't understand, when I see, uh, polling and approval ratings for the job,' he said. 'This group should get a 95, it really should. And we're really helping the governors a lot.' The Real Clear Politics polling average says that 47 per cent approve of the president's handling of the coronavirus crisis with a slightly higher amount - 50.7 - disapproving of his actions. The president suggested one problem was that 'the media foments a lot of anger.' 'For instance, I'll be asked a tremendously hostile question from somebody and then I'll answer it in a hostile way, which is appropriate otherwise you look foolish,' the president explained. 'Other it looks like you walk off the stage and bow your head.' 'I can't do that,' he said. As the Muslims holy month of Ramadan commences this week, Lagos State Government has disclosed plan to open neighbourhood food markets... As the Muslims holy month of Ramadan commences this week, Lagos State Government has disclosed plan to open neighbourhood food markets on Wednesday, April 22. This is to enable residents stock their stores with food items in preparation for the annual fast. The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, who disclosed this, explained that the neighbourhood food markets would hold in 27 selected public schools in the state, at 14 local government areas. Lawal pointed out that the neighbourhood food markets were basically set up in order to provide Lagosians access to food supplies during the lockdown. He added that the makeshift markets in the neighbourhoods are platforms for families that do not have the capacity to buy foodstuff in bulk to have access to a market during the current lockdown in the State. The Commissioner explained that the markets would enable shoppers buy produce and other daily needs such as beverages, vegetables, fish, poultry products, bread and other essential needs at competitive, affordable and farm gate prices. According to him, the selected schools within which the markets are situated are St Judes Primary School, Ilasamaja; Ilupeju Primary School, Town Planning Way, Illupeju; Papa Ajao Primary School all in Mushin Local Government; Local Government Primary School, Idimu; Meiran Community Primary School, Meiran in the Alimosho Local Government area; Sijuade Primary School, Ijesatedo; Lagos Progressive Primary School, Mbah Street, Surulere; Obele Secondary School, Lawanson; and Aguda Grammar School, Aguda all in the Surulere Local Government area. Others are Ikeja Primary School; Opebi Primary School, Ikeja; United Christian Primary School, Marine Beach; Ijora Oloye Primary School; Ire Akari Nursery and Primary School II, Iganmu all in the Apapa Local Government Area of the State; St Jude Primary School, Ebute Meta; Fagba Junior Grammar School, Iju; Stadium Junior Grammar School, Ifako; Ikota Primary School, Lekki-Epe Expressway, Ikota; St Georges Primary School, Ikoyi; Araromi Baptist School, Beckley Road; Lagos Island; St Emmanuel Primary School, Ogudu; Ajao Estate School, Anthony; Sam Ethnan Airforce Base, Ikeja and Ejigbo Model Primary School, Ejigbo. Also included are St Theresa Roman Catholic Primary School, Epe; Awolowo Way, Oke Oyinbo, Epe; Anglican Primary School, Aradagun/Mosafejo Aworo/Ajido Road, Badagry; and Government Technical College, Awolowo Way, Oke Ota-Ona, Ikorodu. The Commissioner urged Muslims to use the opportunity of this years Ramadan for inner reflection, self-discipline and self-improvement by offering prayers to God for the end of the current COVID-19 pandemic in Lagos State in particular and the world in general. He also advised residents of the State to take individual responsibility during this lockdown period by acting positively so that the chain of COVID-19 transmission could be broken in the State. The donation of 30,000 face masks to the Midland Regional Hospital by Tullamore's twin city in China, Luzhou has been hailed by local councillors. The masks will help frontline staff combatting Covid-19 pointed out Cllr Tony McCormack, at this month's meeting of the Municpal District, praising Director of Services, Tom Shanahan for his role in the development. The Chinese donation is very generous, said Mr Shanahan who recalled that a delegation from Luzhou visited the town last year and held an official meeting with the council in the Town Hall. He added: We will send a letter to the mayor acknowledging the very kind gesture. The donation was facilitated by Birr native, Patrick Parsons, eldest son of the Earl and Countess of Rosse who initiated the twin city arrangement between Tullamore, Offaly and Luzhou. Speaking to the Tribune this week by phone, Mr Parsons, who also holds the hereditary title of Lord Oxmantown, said a comprehensive memorandum of understanding had been agreed between Tullamore and Luzhou. He said he had facilitated a similar agreement between Nottingham in England and the Chinese city previously. Mr Parsons is married to a native of China and has spent over 20 years living and working in the country. He added that his family and Birr Castle had links with China stretching back over a century. Mr Parsons outlined that Luzhou was famous in China for the production of an alcoholic spirit, Luzhou Laojiao, similiar to the Offaly county town's association with the Tullamore D.E.W. whiskey brand. The Birr native organised the initial visit of a delegation from the city to Tullamore in July 2018. That delegation was led by Guo Qing, the Vice Mayor of Luzhou Municipal People's Government, and was welcomed to Tullamore Town Hall, by Cllr Declan Harvey, then Cathaoirleach of Tullamore Municipal District and Cllr Danny Owens, then Cathaoirleach of Offaly County Council. Also present were Barry Cowen TD, Ann Starling, then President of Tullamore Chamber of Commerce, Dominic Doheny, President of the Construction Industry Federation and executive members of Offaly County Council. Speaking during the formal meeting at the time, Mr Parsons said, he chose Luzhou because he felt it was a ''good match'' for Tullamore. ''China is looking very much to develop business relationships with Ireland and Tullamore has a lot to offer. So I hope there will be good business opportunities. If we have a twinning, I think it will help focus the attention and it will be putting Tullamore far ahead in Ireland as a place to do business with,'' commented Mr Parsons. Barry Cowen thanked Mr Parsons for his foresight in bringing the delegation to Tullamore. He said it was important ''to explore the potential that may exist and that is there to be tapped into in relation to our two jurisdictions.'' Cllr Danny Owens echoed what Deputy Cowen said, saying, it was a ''huge opportunity'' with ''massive potential,'' in the area of business and tourism. ''I would encourage everyone to put their heads together and try and explore all the possibilities,'' he urged. Vice Mayor, Guo Qing, told those present that ''Chinese people do not have much knowledge of Ireland. So for us, Ireland is a mystery and we need more knowledge.'' Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson's blood will be used by medical researchers who are developing a vaccine for coronavirus after they won their battle with the illness. The beloved actor joked about the creation of a 'Hank-ccine' while appearing on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! over the weekend. The married couple were among the first high-profile individuals to contract COVID-19 - which infects the respiratory system and can be fatal - and they fell ill whilst in Australia where Tom Hanks was making his new movie, Baz Luhrmann's upcoming Elvis Presley biopic. 'Hank-ccine': Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson's blood will be used by medical researchers who are developing a vaccine for coronavirus after they won their battle with the illness. The couple are seen in January 2020 above After going public with their diagnosis and keeping fans updated on their condition whilst in isolation Down Under, they made a full recovery and were allowed to return to their home in Los Angeles. Upon arriving back in the US, Tom, 63, and Rita, 63, enrolled in a medical study to determine if their antibodies would be useful for scientists working on developing a vaccine. Now the Saving Private Ryan star has revealed that they have been approved to donate blood because they do 'carry the antibodies'. Tom hopes if his and his wife's blood proves to be useful in the fight against coronavirus and has joked he's responsible for the creation of a 'Hank-ccine'. Under the weather down under: The married couple were among the first high-profile individuals to contract COVID-19 and they fell ill whilst in Australia where Tom Hanks was making his new movie, Baz Luhrmann's upcoming Elvis Presley biopic Antibodies: Upon arriving back in the US, Tom, 63, and Rita, 63, enrolled in a medical study to determine if their antibodies would be useful for scientists working on developing a vaccine On the public radio game show he said: 'We just found out that we do carry the antibodies. WHAT ARE THE CORONAVIRUS SYMPTOMS? The virus, called COVID-19, is transmitted from person to person via droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles or railings. Coronavirus infections have a wide range of symptoms, including fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Mild cases can cause cold-like symptoms including a sore throat, headache, fever, cough or trouble breathing. Severe cases can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory illness, kidney failure and death. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure. Advertisement 'We have not only been approached; we have said, do you want our blood? Can we give plasma? And, in fact, we will be giving it now to the places that hope to work on what I would like to call the Hank-ccine.' The Forrest Gump actor previously revealed that his producer-and-actress wife Rita suffered much worse coronavirus symptoms than he did and he was concerned for her health. He said: 'Rita went through a tougher time than I did. She had a much-higher fever and she had some other symptoms. 'She lost her sense of taste and smell. She got absolutely no joy from food for a better part of three weeks. She was so nauseous, she had to crawl on the floor from the bed to the facilities. It lasted a while.' Now that Tom and Rita are back on their feet, their using their energy to advocate for mail-in voting. 'We as Americans and as voters should be able to request the options that work for us,' Wilson said. 'We don't want to have to risk our health or our vote. So to make that easy, mail-in ballot, absentee ballot, I think that's a really great compromise.' The Oscar-winning actor then thanked essential workers during the current public health crisis. The virtual parties began in late March and often include celebrity endorsement. On Monday night, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson took part in the livestream broadcast 'We can wash our hands, we can responsibly social distance, we can wear the masks,' Hanks said. 'We can do these things. Some of it is literally the least we can do. But the most we can do is give some props and some credit to all those people who are out there: first responders, delivery people, shelve stockers, food folks. Everybody that's working on food banks all around the country in order to keep us all moving.' 'In November, we need to have every voice heard,' Wilson said. 'It's important.' 'As Michelle [Obama] once said, democracy moved forward, man. It's always on the march,' Hanks added. 'And that means we gotta join the parade.' New Delhi: A day after 53 journalists tested positive for the coronavirus COVID-19 in Mumbai, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party government in the national capital will conduct test on mediapersons for the novel virus. Responding to a tweet in which a person requested the Chief Minister to organise mass COVID-19 test for mediapersons in Delhi on the lines of the one that was held in Mumbai, Kejriwal said, "Sure. We will do that." Sure. We will do that https://t.co/ehcY5OMiEP Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 21, 2020 A special camp was organised at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai on April 16 and 17 for COVID-19 testing of journalists, during which the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) collected the swab samples of 171 mediapersons, including electronic and print media journalists, photographers and cameramen. "Out of the 171 mediapersons, 53 tested positive for coronavirus," BMC spokesperson Vijay Khabale said on April 20, adding that most of those who tested positive are asymptomatic at present. Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav too urged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to hold a similar camp to conduct test for coronavirus on media. "Honorable Chief Minister is requested to conduct tests for all mediapersons in the state. Like other Corona warriors, they should also be ensured proper security and facilities," he tweeted in Hindi. ______ ___________ __ __ _____ __ ______ ___________ __ ___ _____________ __ __-__ ______ __ ________ __ _______ __ ____ ___ ___ ___ ____________ _______ ______ __ ______ ____ ____ __, ______ __ _____ ______ ________ __ ___ ______ _______ __ ________ _________ _____ ________ Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) April 21, 2020 On Monday, the total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi rose to 2081, with 78 fresh cases and two deaths being reported in a day. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung, West Java Tue, April 21, 2020 18:18 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd361cfa 1 National COVID-19,coronavirus,ventilator,PPE,medical-equipment,Pindad Free State-owned weapons manufacturer Pindad has developed several medical devices and equipment to boost the country's capacity in the fight against coronavirus amid great demand of supplies in view of the rising number of COVID-19 cases. One of the devices is the Pindad VRM, a manual resuscitator ventilator, and Covent-20, a kind of portable ventilator specifically designed for emergency, such as when patients are being transported in ambulances. The others are disinfectant fog canons, available in three sizes and installable on vehicles to spray disinfectant up to 10 meters far, and mobile disinfection chambers. All the devices were about to be tested at the Health Facility Security Center (BPFK) before entering mass production, Pindad deputy secretary Herryawan Roosdyanto said. The prototypes were showcased to Regional Representatives Council (DPD) Speaker La Nyalla Mahmud Mattalitti and DPD member Eni Sumarni during a work visit to the company's headquarters in Bandung, West Java, on Monday. "Pindad is currently in the process of requesting a feasibility test at the Health Facility Security Center," Herryawan said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Monday evening. The company also produced hazmat suits, safety goggles and face shields to address the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical workers handling coronavirus patients in hospitals across the country, he said. Read also: Raw materials coming from India to produce COVID-19 medicine All of the devices and equipment were developed in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) standards, including the disinfectant in the mobile disinfection chamber, according to Pindad. "The [disinfectant liquid] is safe, toxic free, contains no alcohol and is pH neutral, because the WHO is concerned about carcinogenic substances," Herryawan said. In the meantime, Pindad's disinfectant fog cannon had been installed on vehicles belonging to the Bandung Fire and Disaster Mitigation Agency to spray disinfectant on the streets in the West Java provincial capital. The lack of protective gear and supplies has taken a toll on healthcare workers around the world, including in Indonesia, where dozens of nurses and doctors working on the front lines of the coronavirus battle have reportedly been infected by the fast-spreading virus. Indonesia has been struggling to meet demand for medical equipment and protective gear for healthcare workers as the number of infections continues to surge. The Health Ministry announced 375 new coronavirus cases in the country on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 7,135. The death toll has reached 616 so far, making Indonesia the country with the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities in Southeast Asia. At least 24 doctors and 16 nurses have died from the disease since Indonesia's first two coronavirus cases were announced on March 2, according to the Indonesian Association of Doctors and the Indonesian National Nurses Association. (vny) Easter gifts to residents of villages in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, and Khmelnytsky regions were assembled and handed over by farmers with LLC Agrocompany Prykarpattia. Agrocompany Prykarpattia LLC, part of the UkrLandFarming Group of Companies owned by Oleg Bakhmatyuk, donated Easter presents to low-income families and the elderly. Easter gifts to residents of villages in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, and Khmelnytsky regions were assembled and handed over by farmers with LLC Agrocompany Prykarpattia, which is part of the UkrLandFarming Group of Companies, as reported by Ukrainian News with reference to the company press service. Company employees paid visits to land lessors in all villages where the enterprise has production capacities. According to Agrocompany Prykarpattia, they have been distributing Easter gift packages for a few years already, which has become an established tradition. The main focus is on supporting low-income families and the elderly, who this year received from the company the assembled food packages. "For us, this is not only an opportunity to wish these people happy holidays, but also an opportunity to support those who are in need in these difficult times," says Halyna Ivanchuk, the company director. As reported earlier, in late March this year, Agrocompany Prykarpattia LLC provided assistance to the Regional Clinical Center for Emergency Health Care and Disaster Response for the purchase of protective gowns for all ambulance teams operating in the region, helped the Horodenky Central District Hospital and the Monastyrsk District Hospital in Ternopil Region with acquiring lung ventilators, while four ultrasonic inhalers were purchased for the Chemerovets Regional Hospital in the Khmelnitsky region. The enterprise is part of the Ukrlandfarming Agricultural Holding owned by businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk. In order for the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms to remain meaningful, law-abiding citizens must have the ability to acquire a firearm even during a pandemic. In fact, the right to self-defense is especially vital during national emergencies, when police forces may have additional responsibilities or limitations that make it harder for them to respond to every call for help. Americans have recognized the gravity of the current situation; firearm sales have skyrocketed since the crisis began. Unfortunately, a small minority of states and localities supported by gun-control advocates have sought to deny Americans their right of self-protection by closing gun stores, effectively preventing non-gun-owners from acquiring a firearm. These measures are unconstitutional and must be reversed. The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has created an unprecedented national public-health emergency. Many states and localities have taken dramatic action to mitigate COVID-19s spread. These emergency orders including requiring non-essential businesses to close have imposed restrictions on citizens liberties and disrupted daily life. Some of these temporary restraints are likely constitutionally permissible given the severity of the pandemic. However, even during a crisis, the government cannot completely ignore citizens fundamental rights. As the Supreme Court recognized in its landmark Heller decision, the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home. Therefore, the Second Amendment necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table. A federal appellate court recognized that one such untenable policy choice is prohibiting the commercial sale of firearms. The Second Amendment must protect, at a minimum, the right of law-abiding citizens to acquire at least some firearm for use in the home for self-defense. A government regulation entirely preventing citizens from obtaining firearms during this time of national crisis therefore would strike at the heart of the Second Amendments protection. This is not to say that states are prohibited from taking steps to ensure that citizens engage in social distancing or other reasonable measures while purchasing firearms. But, even accepting such measured policies as permissible, the pandemic cannot justify completely stripping Americans of their Second Amendment rights. In fact, it is precisely in times of social upheaval that the fundamental right to engage in armed self-defense is most necessary. Story continues The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Americas response to it demonstrate why the current need for armed self-defense is so acute. For example, responding to the pandemic will lead to potentially unprecedented strains on police departments resources and staffing. These limitations already have led to reduced police response to certain crimes and to announcements that some criminal laws simply will not be enforced until conditions improve. In Philadelphia, for example, the police have announced that they will delay arrests for crimes including drug offenses, theft, and prostitution. In addition to the additional strains caused by responding to the virus, police forces may be further hampered as officers contract the virus. Police officers heroic willingness to put themselves in harms way unfortunately means that they are at high risk of infection. As of late March, over 1,000 NYPD officers had tested positive for the disease. And to make matters more dangerous, at least 16 states including California, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Texas have released thousands of inmates into the public in order to avoid making prisons an incubator for COVID-19. Such a policy may well slow the spread of the disease, but it likely exposes innocent citizens to at least some additional danger of victimization. It therefore is not surprising that the United States Department of Homeland Security recently classified employees of firearm retailers as essential critical infrastructure workers. Law-abiding Americans have noticed these potential disruptions of police protections and threats to their safety. Gun sales are surging in many states, with sellers reporting an uptick in first-time buyers. Federal background checks have increased by at least 36 percent, to a pace virtually unmatched since the FBI started performing the checks in the late 1990s. Many individuals who had previously concluded that they did not need firearms to defend their homes have determined that, given new circumstances, they must exercise the fundamental right of armed self-defense. The pandemic cannot justify entirely eliminating that right at the peak of its importance. And yet, some states and localities including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, and certain counties in California have attempted to shut down all firearm retailers within their borders. They have done so by ordering all non-essential retail businesses to close and then deeming firearm retailers non-essential. While some jurisdictions including Pennsylvania and New Jersey have lifted these prohibitions after facing a backlash, not all have, and the threat they represent to the Second Amendment remains substantial. Recently, Everytown for Gun Safety (Everytown), an organization dedicated to gutting the Second Amendment and financed in large part by failed presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, has circulated a document addressed to State and Local Officials Responsible for Promulgating and Enforcing COVID-19 Emergency Closure Orders. Everytown argues that such officials can order the closure of every gun retailer within their borders without running afoul of the Second Amendment. Their argument is meritless. Everytown asserts that closure orders are constitutional because they are not specifically targeted at guns or gun stores. According to Everytown, even if closure orders burden individuals constitutional rights by shutting down places such as houses of worship, political rallies, or gun stores, they are immune from legal challenge so long as they are universally applied and do not target constitutionally protected activities. This argument is wrong on several levels. It simply is not true that so long as a law is generally applicable, it can obliterate fundamental constitutional protections. The Second Amendment is not merely an anti-discrimination provision; it affirmatively protects the fundamental right to self-defense, and states cannot engage in games to avoid its protections. Additionally, the closure orders are not truly generally applicable because they contain numerous exceptions such as allowing liquor stores to remain open while requiring all gun stores to close. In support of its position, Everytown points to a Supreme Court decision, Alcara v. Cloud Books, which allowed New York to shut down an adult bookstore because prostitution occurred on the premises. Everytown argues that, because New York could shut down a bookstore that engaged in First Amendmentprotected speech for reasons unrelated to restricting speech, states can shut down every gun store within their borders so long as the reason is unrelated to restricting gun ownership. This argument is absurd on its face, but a closer inspection of the case relied on by Everytown suggests that it actually undermines the organizations argument. First, the Supreme Court held that New York could shut down a single bookstore, not every bookstore in the state. The court noted that the burdens to free speech that stemmed from closing a bookstore were minimal because the owners remain free to sell the same materials at another location. It may well be the case that a state could shut down a single gun store that refused to comply with reasonable social-distancing requirements, but shutting down all gun stores is another matter entirely. Second, the Supreme Court noted that even a generally applicable law that placed a disproportionate burden on constitutionally protected activity would likely be unconstitutional. In New York, prostitution was not prohibited in bookstores but permitted at other public locations. However, that is exactly what is happening in states that are forcing gun stores to close while allowing grocery stores, liquor stores, and marijuana shops to remain open. Those states are making the affirmative decisions that gun stores are non-essential and therefore must be shut down while other stores can remain open. The Constitution prohibits the determination that liquor stores are more essential than the fundamental right to self-defense. Some governors have honestly admitted that their closure laws rely on a view inconsistent with the Second Amendment as the basis of their treatment of gun stores. For instance, when asked why firearm retailers had not been deemed essential in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy admitted to his real motivation: A safer society for my taste has fewer guns and not more guns. The Second Amendment prohibits the governor of New Jersey from substituting his taste regarding the importance of the fundamental right to self-defense for the protection enshrined in the Constitution. Finally in the Cloud Books case, the court recognized that the prohibited activity prostitution bore absolutely no connection to any constitutionally protected activity. But the conduct restricted by COVID-19 closure orders, selling firearms, is inseparable from the right of self-defense protected by the Second Amendment. As numerous courts have recognized, if the right to possess a firearm for self-defense is to have any meaning, it necessarily must also include the right to acquire a firearm. And it is also why a North Carolina district court held that a law forbidding the sale or purchase of firearms and ammunition during a state of emergency struck at the very core of the Second Amendment, and could not stand even if it were limited in duration. COVID-19 business-closure laws if applied to all firearm retailers would significantly burden law-abiding citizens fundamental constitutional rights to acquire and use firearms for self-defense. Such a law would amount to a flat ban on commercial firearms purchases remarkably akin to the ban on handguns in the home that the Supreme Court in Heller invalidated as a per se violation of the Second Amendment. Such a complete ban bears no similarity to shutting a single bookstore as was allowed in the Cloud Books case. First, in Cloud Books the Supreme Court allowed for the closure of one bookstore and not all bookstores. Additionally, even if the Supreme Court were to allow for the closure of all brick-and-mortar bookstores, books and virtually every other consumer good could still be acquired over the Internet. The same cannot be said of firearms. Federal law requires all sales of firearms from licensed dealers to take place in person at the licensees business premises. As one Pennsylvania justice recently explained, Unlike the vast majority of other items, the sale and transfer of firearms sold at retail cannot be completed merely by way of telecommunication and mailing under existing law. This is not to say that gun stores are immune from any regulation intended to protect the public from the spread of COVID-19. States might conclude that less intrusive measures are necessary to safeguard public health, similar to allowing restaurants to continue to sell takeout while prohibiting them from serving diners in the store. For example, states could (1) limit the number of people allowed in a firearm store simultaneously to maintain social distancing; or (2) mandate enhanced sanitizing procedures for retailers that remain open. The federal government has even confirmed that licensed firearm dealers may conduct firearm sales through a drive-up or walk-up window, further minimizing the in-person contact required to purchase a firearm. Any state would find it difficult to explain why these mitigation measures are sufficient to keep liquor stores in business even though there is no constitutional right to a six-pack of beer but not to keep open retailers whose activities are essential to the exercise of a fundamental right recognized in the text of the Constitution. No matter what gun-control advocates claim, public-health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic do not give governments carte blanche to trample on the constitutional rights of their citizens. Mandating the closure of all firearm retailers across an entire state or locality would do just that. State and local governments have a duty to protect their citizens from public-health emergencies, but the Constitution requires them to do so in ways that are respectful of those citizens fundamental rights. More from National Review Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 23:43:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- All available evidence suggests that the new coronavirus has an animal origin, and is not a virus "manipulated or constructed" in a lab or somewhere else, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Fadela Chaib said here on Tuesday. "WHO is, as I said, a science-based organization, and we think the origin is animal," the spokesperson told journalists at a virtual press briefing. "It (the novel coronavirus) most probably has its ecological reservoir in bats, but how the virus came from bat to human is still to be seen, to be discovered." "There is certainly an intermediary host, another animal, that transmitted the disease from bats to humans," she added. The WHO spokesperson underlined that the WHO is combating two pandemics. "We have the pandemic with the virus, but we are also combating 'infodemic'. And when you have a new virus, like this one, it is to be expected that a lot of spurious theories about the origin of the virus be relayed." She pledged that the WHO welcomes all countries to support efforts to find the origin of the virus, noting that several working groups, including Chinese experts, are very active trying to find the origin of this virus. Enditem Companies that take on extra debt are more likely to cut corners and put their workers' safety at risk, an international study has found, warning governments will have to lift scrutiny of businesses in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The study, released on Wednesday and co-authored by Australian National University academic Dr Di Fan, found companies that lifted their debt levels by 20 per cent recorded a similar increase in breaches of health and safety regulations. Businesses that sharply increase debt are more likely to breach occupational health and safety, a study has found. Credit:James Davies Not only did firms get hit with fines for breaches that included those related to the deaths of workers, profit margins fell by 1.3 per cent after the first safety breach. Sales growth dropped by 3.6 per cent and return on assets edged down by 1.3 per cent. The authors, who studied high quality data on 4000 British manufacturing firms, found that while businesses may have increased debt in a bid to boost overall productivity, managers sought to cut corners to reduce financial pressures on the operation. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) has been one of the worst-performing large stocks in the entire S&P 500 in over the past decade, and is off to a horrendous start to 2020 thanks to COVID-19. WTI crude oil prices plummeted more than 100% to negative $3 per barrel at the time of writing on Monday, and at least one large option trader is betting the worst is yet to come for Exxon. The Trades On Monday, Benzinga Pro subscribers received three option alerts related to an unusually large Exxon option trade: At 9:32 a.m. a trader sold 518 Exxon put options with a $30 strike price expiring on May 8 near the bid price at 40.1 cents. The trade represented a bullish bet worth $20,771. At 12:02 p.m. a trader bought 2,500 Exxon put options with a $42.50 strike price expiring on Jan. 15, 2021 at the ask price of $7.35. The trade represented a bearish bet worth more than $1.83 million. At 1:04 p.m. a trader sold 661 Exxon call options with a $44 strike price expiring on Friday at the bid price of 47 cents. The trade represented a bearish bet worth $31,067. See Also: 9 Worst-Performing Stocks Of 2020: Buy, Sell Or Hold? Why It's Important Even traders who stick exclusively to stocks often monitor option market activity closely for unusually large trades. Given the relative complexity of the options market, large options traders are typically considered to be more sophisticated than the average stock trader. Many of these large options traders are wealthy individuals or institutions who may have unique information or theses related to the underlying stock. Unfortunately, stock traders often use the options market to hedge against their larger stock positions, and theres no surefire way to determine if an options trade is a standalone position or a hedge. In this case, given the relatively large size of the largest Exxon trade, it could represent an institutional hedge. Exxon's Difficult Outlook WTI crude oil prices crashed to their lowest levels in history on Monday, dropping under $5 per barrel on concerns the U.S. is running out of storage. Oil prices have plummeted as demand has completely dried up due to travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders related to COVID-19. Story continues The spread between front month and second month oil futures contracts expanded to its widest level in history, and May WTI futures contracts even briefly dipped into negative territory for the first time in history. Earlier this year, analysts at Redburn estimated Exxon needs crude oil prices of around $74/bbl to cover costs. Despite the historic weakness in the oil market on Monday, Bank of America analyst Doug Leggate raised his price target for Exxon from $62 to $70 and reiterated it as a top stock pick for yield investors. While the players have changed, we continue to see the 1998 oil crisis as the playbook to advocate layering exposure across the energy sector, Leggate said in a Monday note. Mondays sell-off pushed Exxons dividend yield to 8.3%. Earlier this month Exxon announced a 30% cut to its 2020 capex, prioritizing its dividend yield and balance sheet in the near-term. Bullish sentiment among StockTwits messages mentioning Exxon was at 62.3% on Monday, down from its 2020 high of 91.8% on Jan. 15. XOM Chart by TradingView new TradingView.widget( { "width": 680, "height": 423, "symbol": "NYSE:XOM", "interval": "D", "timezone": "Etc/UTC", "theme": "light", "style": "1", "locale": "en", "toolbar_bg": "#f1f3f6", "enable_publishing": false, "allow_symbol_change": true, "container_id": "tradingview_93501" } ); See Also: How To Read And Trade An Options Alert Benzingas Take The bad news for Exxon bulls is that the puts purchased on Monday dont expire until January of next year, suggesting the large buyer doesnt expect a share bounce-back anytime soon. The break-even price on the puts is $35.17, meaning Exxons share price would need to drop at least another 15.7% from here for the put buyer to break even on the contracts. Do you agree with this take? Email feedback@benzinga.com with your thoughts. See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) The Philippine National Police will immediately arrest without any warning those who will violate the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine guidelines. Based on the national polices data, there are 136,517 quarantine violators for the past 35 days of the ECQ which started March 17 to contain the spread of COVID-19. PNP Chief PGen. Archie Gamboa announced on Tuesday that those who disobey the protocols will not be warned anymore and will be subjected to proper inquest procedures once arrested. Violators of the ECQ will be charged under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act, and Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes the act of resistance and disobedience to a person in authority. These violations of law carry with it appropriate penalties and fines," said Gamboa in his online press briefing. "But what will be more burdensome for the violators are the tedious judicial process and the implications of a derogatory record to their personal criminal profile." Gamboa also said 12 additional teams of the PNP Special Action Forces have been deployed in strategic locations in Metro Manila to further enforce the ECQ. The rising cases of quarantine violations pushed Gamboa to assign more PNP-SAF and Armed Forces of the Philippines members in quarantine checkpoints. We should learn from the experience of other countries which prematurely relaxed the enforcement of lockdown and caused a resurgence in infections," the country's top police officer said. "Lets not be complacent." Meanwhile, Gamboa reported there are now 74 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the police ranks. Twelve officers recovered and three died from the virus. The PNP is also now building a 120-bed facility in the PNP grandstand grounds that will serve as a quarantine facility for policemen that have probable, suspected, or confirmed COVID-19 infections. We will not allow the continued increase in the cases of our law enforcers, who are the countrys last line of defense in maintaining order amidst our fight against COVID-19, he said. - The expectant nurse said she thought she could not contract the coronavirus - Jasmine urged people to be careful and take the disease seriously as it could affect anyone at any given time - The medic revealed she tested positive for coronavirus on March 22 although she had not had contact with any COVID-19 victim at the hospital where she worked Jasmine Jones, a US nurse expectant with twins is one worried mother after contracting the dreaded coronavirus. Before catching the virus, the mother of two, with a pair of twins on the way, was not worried and never thought she could become a victim. READ ALSO: Mtoto wa Diana: Khaligraph hilariously mocks Bahati, refers to him as Diana's son in new song READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Davido's fiancee Chioma Rowland beats disease Narrating her ordeal to Women's Health Mag blog, Jasmine disclosed she was worried for her unborn babies and was super stressed out to a point she felt like she was walking on eggshells. ''I am a 26-year-old nurse from Indianapolis, Indiana. I am married with two kids and have two more on the way. My youngest is 11 months old, and my oldest is three. My twins (a boy and a girl) are due on June 10. Up until last month, I had my pregnancy plan in place. I continued to work my regular 12-hour shifts at the hospital until I physically couldn't anymore. And when the time came, I would deliver my twins vaginally, as I have done with my other kids. COVID-19 has literally impacted every aspect of my life: the physical, mental, and financial. It's hit me hard, and I hope that in sharing my story, other people will take the virus more seriously. This may sound naive, but before I tested positive, I actually wasn't worried that COVID-19 would get to me.'' Jasmine said. The nurse revealed she tested positive for coronavirus on March 22 although she had not had contact with any COVID-19 victim at the hospital where she worked. ''On the days before I tested positive, everything was pretty normal. I was working my 12-hour shifts and wasn't caring for any patients with the virus at least none that I knew of. But on March 22, I tested positive for novel coronavirus. And now everything has changed. I have no clue if my babies will be born healthy, and I'm really scared,'' she revealed. READ ALSO: Eko Dydda shares first video from undisclosed quarantine centre hours after his arrest Jasmine added that she may have contracted the virus at the hospital because they were not provided with relevant protective gear while dealing with patients when the disease first broke out. ''My hospital didn't even have much protection or protocol in place for the nurses in terms of handling COVID-19 patients. We had gloves and N95 masks that were being rationed. But at the time, I just dont think anyone expected novel coronavirus to spread to the degree that it has," she stated. The nurse added that she got extra worried since she thought she had put her entire family at risk. ''After I got off the phone with the nurse, I started crying because I was like, "Oh my goodness, I have contracted this deadly virus. I've probably infected my entire family. What am I supposed to do?" And of course, I was worried about the twins, too. I had no idea how any of this was going to affect them. I immediately felt stressed and anxious,'' Jasmine added. READ ALSO: Wataalamu wanasema kuna hatari kubwa katika kulala sana, jihadhari hasa kipindi hiki cha coronavirus She wrapped up by urging people to take the disease seriously as it could affect anyone. She also urged health workers, specifically those on the frontline, to be extra careful to avoid infections. ''At this point, I am praying for a miracle. Im just hoping this all turns around. This is a life-changing time for me, being pregnant with twins, and I feel like I can't celebrate it because of everything else that's happened. But I hope that, by sharing my story, I will encourage people to start taking the virus more seriously. Healthcare workers are putting ourselves at risk for the publicso the least you can do for them is take measures like staying home and social distancing to try to slow the spread of the virus. Pleasemy babies and I, along with my fellow healthcare workers, are depending on you,'' Jasmine said. 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. Mulamwah and his girlfriend speak out for the first time after he quit comedy | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Lululemon has apologized and parted ways with an art director who promoted the sale of 'bat fried rice' t-shirts that have been dubbed racist. Trevor Fleming shared a link on his Instagram page to the website of California artist Jess Sluder, who was selling 'quarantees' bearing an image of a pair of chopsticks with bat wings on the front. The long-sleeved t-shirt also showed a Chinese takeout box with bat wings on the back, plus the words 'no thanks'. It riled critics who said the two were trying to stir anti-Asian sentiment during the coronavirus pandemic. Lululemon official, Trevor Fleming (right), promoted the sale of a t-shirt on the website of California artist Jess Sluder, under the name 'bat fried rice'. It bears an image of a pair of chopsticks with bat wings on the front and a Chinese takeout box with bat wings on the back 'We acted immediately, and the person involved is no longer an employee of Lululemon,' the firm said in an Instagram response to a customer on Tuesday The post was shares Sunday and hashtag 'Lululemon insults China' was viewed 204 million times on China's Weibo platform by Tuesday afternoon, with some commentators demanding a boycott of the brand. The exercise apparel label issued statements on Tuesday apologizing for, and distancing itself from the t-shirt design that triggered outrage and accusations of racism online. 'At lululemon, our culture and values are core to who we are, and we take matters like this extremely seriously,' a spokesperson told DailyMail.com Tuesday. 'The t-shirt design is not a lululemon product. We apologize that an employee was affiliated with promoting an offensive t-shirt, and we take this very seriously. 'The image and the post were inappropriate and inexcusable and we do not tolerate this behavior. We acted immediately, and the person involved is no longer an employee of lululemon.' It called the image and the post inappropriate and inexcusable, and apologized that one of its employees had been affiliated with promoting the offensive t-shirt. Fleming did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters to seek comment. On his LinkedIn account, he said he worked at lululemon up to April 2020. Fleming said in a statement on his Instagram page: 'I deeply apologize for putting the URL in my bio. I did not design the t-shirt, nor did I participate in any part of its creation.' Jess Sluder apologized for being insensitive and said in a statement the design was 'to create light during these dark times' Fleming said: 'I did not design the t-shirt, nor did I participate in any part of its creation' Sluder did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Sluder apologized for being insensitive and said in a statement the design was 'to create light during these dark times'. Reports of racially charged assaults on Asians have grown since the pandemic first emerged in a market selling wildlife in China late last year, before spreading worldwide to infect 2.4 million people, with more than 169,000 deaths. Early studies said the virus could have come from bats. Before it was removed on Sunday, the post on Sluder's Instagram account read, 'Where did COVID-19 come from? Nothing is certain, but we know a bat was involved.' It added, 'Beginning today, my limited edition #quarantees are now available. Link in bio or DM for details...Thank you for your support and sense of humor! #humornothat #batfriedrice.' However, in the following days, Instagram users left more than a thousand comments on luluemon's official account, accusing it of xenophobia. China blocks Instagram within the country with what is known as its Great Firewall. A separate statement posted on lululemon's official Weibo account on Tuesday did not apologize, but said the design was not a lululemon product and the firm opposed 'any discriminatory behaviors.' It was not the first time lululemon has faced criticism of being insensitive. In 2013, Chip Wilson, the founder of the cult yoga clothier, apologized for remarks suggesting that some women's bodies 'don't work' in the brand's pants. Marie Jones, 96, of Montgomery, NY, passed away on April 18, 2020, with her loving family at her side. Jones was born on July 16, 1923, in Westerville, Ohio, the daughter of Fred and Harriett Buck. She graduated from Westerville High School in 1941, then attended and graduated from Bliss College. Marie Buck and Harness Racing Hall of Famer Hal Jones were married in 1950, a union that lasted 65 years, until his passing in 2015. They started out working at Mac Dot Farm in Westerville, Ohio. Then, from 1951 to 1969, they managed Pickwick Farms in Bucyrus, Ohio, for USTA President Walter Michael. Marie was the farm secretary, while also raising their two boys, Mike and Steve. Hal built Blue Chip Farms for the Kimelman family, then managed Hanover Shoe Farms and Lana Lobell of New Jersey before he and Marie purchased their own farm in 1982. They bought and developed Cameo Hills Farm in Montgomery, NY. Hals horsemanship was important, but Maries management of the finances gave them the ability to own and build their dream. That dream continues to this day, as her son, Steve, and his wife, Kathy, and their two boys, Tyler and Jake, continue the family legacy. Maries primary caregiver at the end of her life was her son, Michael, and her granddaughter, Ayden. She was very appreciative of them, and happy she was able to be at home, with family, her entire life. Marie is survived by her sons, Michael and Steve (Kathy); sister, Rosie; grandchildren, Ayden, Matt, Auriel, Tyler and Jake; and great-grandson, Emerson. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in her memory can be made to Goshen Historic Track, 44 Park Place, Goshen, NY 10924. Services will be private at the request of the family. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Marie Jones. (Cameo Hills Farm) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 16:54:01|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close YANGON, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A vehicle of the World Health Organization (WHO) transporting COVID-19 surveillance samples was attacked by the United League of Arakan (ULA)/ Arakan Army (AA) group in Myanmar's Rakhine state, Myanmar's state-run media reported Tuesday. With a driver and a health worker aboard, the vehicle transporting the samples to the national laboratory in Yangon was attacked by the armed group near Yarmaung bridge in Minbya township of Rakhine state on Monday evening. The two on board were injured and sent to township hospital for treatment. The United Nations Myanmar Tuesday confirmed the death of the driver on their Facebook page. Founded in 2009, the Arakan Army is a Rakhine armed group and the armed wing of the United League of Arakan. Enditem The chief minister of Manipur, N Biren Singh informed on Twitter that his state is coronavirus-free as both the patients in the state, who were earlier declared coronavirus infected, made a full recovery and tested negative for the infection. I am glad to share that Manipur is now Corona free.Both patients hv fully recovered and have tested negative.There are no fresh cases of the virus in the state.This has been possible because of cooperation of public &medical staff and strict enforcement of lockdown @PMOIndia, Singh tweeted Sunday evening. I am glad to share that Manipur is now Corona free.Both patients hv fully recovered and have tested negative.There are no fresh cases of the virus in the state.This has been possible because of cooperation of public &medical staff and strict enforcement of lockdown @PMOIndia N.Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) April 19, 2020 The first case in the state was of a 23-year-old woman with a travel history to Europe. She had recently returned from the United Kingdom after which she was tested positive for the coronavirus. The second case in the state was of a 65-year-old man who was found to have contracted the infection after he returned from the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhis Markaz Nizamuddin. Indian states which are coronavirus free The declaration by the chief minister of Manipur of having defeated the highly contagious infection came on the heels of the announcement made by another Indian state, Goa, which yesterday claimed that it had successfully thwarted the spread of the coronavirus and all the seven patients who had tested positive for the contagion initially have recovered from their illness. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday announced that Goa is now a zero Coronavirus case State after the seventh patient tested negative in the state on Sunday. Prior to that, the lone coronavirus patient in Arunachal Pradesh had also recovered. Sikkim, too, has managed to steer clear from the pandemic. As per the notification issued by the Union Home Ministry regarding the relaxations in the lockdown, which has come into effect from Monday, these states can allow business activities while following the mandatory safety protocol. Tony Webster, Flickr A 15-year-old boy is in custody after a Beaumont woman died Monday from a fatal shooting that took place over the weekend. Officers responded to the Florida Park Apartments in the 900 block of Florida Avenue Sunday morning in reference to shooting that occurred, according to a news release from the Beaumont Police Department. MCLEAN, Va., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Steampunk is excited to announce that it has been awarded entry into the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program under the Air Force Commercial Solutions Opening for its Design Intelligence human centered design (HCD) approach to technology innovation and application modernization. Under this AFWERX sponsored SBIR entry, Steampunk has the opportunity to work not only with the US Air Force and the Department of Defense, but also with all (11) eleven SBIR participating Federal Agencies. "[We] have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research process in an attempt to speed up the experience, broaden the pool of potential applicants and decrease bureaucratic overhead. Beginning in SBIR 18.2, and now in 20.1, the Air Force has begun offering 'Special' SBIR topics that are faster, leaner and open to a broader range of innovations." AFWERX and Air Force Research Laboratory note. "This award under the SBIR program and AFWERX represents Steampunk's entry into the Defense marketplace, and we could not be more excited," said Steampunk CEO Matt Warren. "As a 'mission first' company, dedicated to sharing in our clients' toughest challenges, we are honored to bring our commercially proven Design Intelligence solutions to the men and women of the Department of Defense." The SBIR program allows nimble and streamlined contracting options to provide commercially proven solutions to Government customers. As a member of SBIR program, Steampunk is eligible for sole source contract awards to organizations within the eleven participating Agencies for design-led technology application including DevSecOps, Data Exploitation, Digital Platforms, and Cybersecurity. "The SBIR program provides amazing flexibility for organizations in and out of DoD to reach novel solutions quickly. Steampunk's Design Intelligence approach accelerates speed to capability, and with higher levels of adoption and satisfaction, all by keeping the Warfighter at the core of the process," added Nick Trzcinski, Senior Vice President, Defense Sector for Steampunk. About Steampunk Steampunk is a Change Agent in the Federal contracting industry, bringing new thinking to clients in the Defense, Homeland, Federal Civilian, and Justice & Legislative sectors. Through Design Intelligence, our Human-Centered delivery methodology, we are fundamentally changing the expectations our Federal clients have for true shared accountability in solving their toughest mission challenges. As an employee owned company, we focus on investing in our employees to enable them to do the greatest work of their careers and rewarding them for outstanding contributions to our growth. If you want to learn more about our story, visit http://www.steampunk.com. Media Contact: Robert Pearson, Chief Marketing Officer [email protected] | 571.344.5538 www.steampunk.com | @Steampunk_inc SOURCE Steampunk, Inc. Related Links http://www.steampunk.com ALBANY, N.Y. After some New York schools claimed they were planning to reopen before the end of this school year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that those schools would be in violation of his executive orders. Schools are closed all across the state. Period. There's no plan to reopen schools. Period, he said. According to Cuomo, the decision to reopen schools will come after a plan is developed that includes improved health standards. But the state has not reached that stage yet. If we make a decision to reopen schools - we then would need a whole plan on how to reopen a school -- with the right public health standards -- with disinfecting, with all the precautions. which is a major, major undertaking. So, we're not there yet, he said. On Monday, Cuomo also pushed for the federal government to provide a 50% bonus for essential public workers. COVID-19 cases jumped again in Bexar County on Tuesday, and the areas top leaders cautioned residents to stay at home as much as possible and maintain a 6-foot social distance from others if they are out in public. There were 51 new cases of novel coronavirus, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at the daily city-county briefing, bringing the total in Bexar County to 1,080. But there were no additional deaths; the number of deceased stands at 39 for the second day in a row. Monday saw just 19 new cases and no new deaths. Last week also saw two consecutive days with no additional deaths. Stay the course, Nirenberg urged residents. Its working. The majority of people infected with the virus are self-isolating at home. Only 82 are in the hospital; of those, 41 are in intensive care and 24 are on a ventilator, the mechanical device that pumps oxygen into the lungs. At the briefing, Nirenberg announced that he and County Judge Nelson Wolff had appointed the economic transition team that will work with a panel of health experts named last week to develop a plan for reopening businesses and easing the stay-at-home restrictions. Were going to be opening up slowly and methodically, said Dawn Emerick, director of Metro Health. The restrictions have been successful in slowing the spread of COVID-19, officials say, but theyve had disastrous effects on the local economy, spurring tens of thousands of residents to seek unemployment assistance and laying waste to the citys tourism and restaurant industries. It is imperative that we begin to chart a course for life after this pandemics surge, understanding that how and when our full economy resumes will have critical implications on our general publics health and our regions resiliency, Nirenberg and Wolff wrote in a joint memo to City Council and Commissioners Court. Kevin Voelkel, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas president, and Julissa Carielo, Tejas Premier Building Construction president, will helm the economic transition panel made up of business leaders in many sectors including health care and hospitality, union officials as well as faith leaders and city and county officials. The panel will consider how each sector can adopt social-distancing measures, preventative health and safety measures employers can take to protect their workers and guidelines on how to look for and contain new infections among customers and their employees. A plan is expected by May 1. Nirenberg, Wolff and Emerick said the city and county also are working with the state to determine when more of the city can open up. Abbott has named his own panel of business executives and lobbyists to assess that question and is expected to unveil his plan Monday. Emerick said San Antonio could be included in mobile testing through the Texas National Guard, based on Abbotts announcement on Monday that teams would be mobilized to help with testing throughout the state. First responders In other coronavirus-related developments, one more San Antonio firefighter has tested positive for the disease, a fire department spokesman said Tuesday, bringing the total to six. Overall, 52 uniformed fire department personnel are in quarantine. All of the firefighters with the virus and those in quarantine are from the same station. At the San Antonio Police Department, the number of sworn police officers testing positive remains at six the same number reported Monday. The number of SAPD employees quarantined at home has decreased by one to 11. Eight of those in quarantine are sworn police officers, while three are civilians. In Texas, more than 20,000 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed and 519 people have died. More than 6,400 patients diagnosed in Texas have recovered. Area reports In Comal County, 45 people have tested positive for COVID-19, officials reported Tuesday. That number grew by two Monday when a Garden Ridge resident in their 30s and a Spring Branch resident in their 50s were diagnosed with the virus. Both people live with previously confirmed coronavirus patients. They are self-isolating at home, officials said. Comal has had two more patients recover, bringing that total to 32. Six people have died, while seven cases remain active, and of those, two are hospitalized while the others are isolated at home. Kendall County reported a total of 15 cases of coronavirus. Eight are Boerne residents; six are from unincorporated Kendall County; and one is in Fair Oaks Ranch. Of those Kendall cases, 11 are travel-related; two are the result of close-contact; and one was community transmission. A Boerne spokesman said that of the 15 positive cases, 13 people have recovered. The two employees at Cibolo Creek Health and Rehabilitation Center who tested positive for COVID-19 continued to be quarantined at home Tuesday. No resident had tested positive as of Tuesday. Atascosa County reported 14 total cases, with five still active. Eight people have recovered, and one person died. Guadalupe County reported 60 positive cases, with no deaths. In Wilson County, 23 cases have been confirmed. Two people have died. Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts in San Antonio. To read more from Elizabeth, become a subscriber. ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 A home where a 4-year-old was reportedly shot is pictured on Secane Drive in Northeast Philadelphia. Police said the child was taken to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital Monday night and pronounced dead. Read more The only evidence that a 4-year-old girl had been fatally shot inside a home at Secane Drive and Dunks Ferry Road in far Northeast Philadelphia just before midnight Monday were the pieces of yellow police tape tied to porch railings and dozens of droplets of bright red blood on the front steps and down the walkway. At noon Tuesday, nobody had been arrested in connection with the childs death. Her parents, who along with another man and woman were in the house at the time of the shooting, were at Police Headquarters being questioned by homicide detectives, police said. A .357 revolver with five live rounds and one spent cartridge casing was found on a living room sofa, said police, who added that the investigation had determined that it was extremely unlikely that the child shot herself. Investigators have determined that the bullet that struck the child was fired from inside the property, the department said in a statement. The loss of a young life is especially tragic, particularly when it is the result of the irresponsible handling of a firearm, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. Our homicide unit is working diligently to ascertain all of the facts, and help ensure justice for the precious and innocent victim. Officers from the Eighth District were called to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital just before midnight Monday to investigate a report of a shooting. Hospital personnel told the officers that a child had been brought there by a private car and was suffering from a gunshot to the abdomen. The child was pronounced dead at 12:13 a.m. Tuesday. Hours later, neighbors said they did not know the family but expressed shock that such a tragedy happened in their community, where shootings are rare. How did a 4-year-old get shot? asked a woman who passed by the house on her morning walk. I was crying last night. I didnt know them, but its so sad now that they dont have their daughter. I dont even know what to say, Im sorry, but I dont I dont know who it is, the circumstances but its a tragedy, thats all I know. My friend from work called me because she knows I live here," said Pat Corrigan, who has lived on the block for 54 years. I dont really know what happened. I was trying to read about it, but its scary. Just scary, said Kate Mihalek, 27, who has lived on the block for two years. In a major respite to Deloitte and KPMG, the auditors of the crisis-hit IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN), the Bombay High Court on Tuesday said that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) cannot take action against the audit firms. The government is seeking a five year ban on Deloitte Haskins & Sells and BSR Associates, a unit of KPMG, for their alleged fraud in IFIN, a subsidiary of IL&FS. Pronouncing the order through video conference, the high court said that National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) cannot ban the audit firms for five years. In March, NCLT had rejected the pleas of debt-ridden IL&FS auditors, challenging their impleadment in the case. The high court upheld the constitutionality of section 140(5), which seeks removal of existing auditors, but said that it would not apply to auditors who have resigned. The court also squashed the criminal complaint filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), calling it "bad in law" and saying that it there was "non-application of mind." The court has given eight weeks' time to the corporate affairs ministry to appeal in the Supreme Court. In October 2019, Deloitte Haskins and Sells had moved the high court challenging the constitutional validity of Section 140 (5) of the Companies Act, to remove auditors, and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) plea at NCLT seeking a ban on auditors for five years. In August 2019, KPMG arm BSR & Associates had moved the high court seeking relief from proceedings of the NCLT that sought a five-year ban on former auditors of IFIN. The audit firms argued that how the NCLT had no jurisdiction to ban them claiming that existing law says only those auditors on board can be penalised. While Deloitte Haskins & Sells and BSR Associates resigned as auditor of the debt-laden IL&FS group in FY18, BSR Associates stepped down in June 2019. Law firm Veritas Legal was representing Deloitte in the case, while AZB & Partners was advising BSR in the dispute. By Chitranjan Kumar Also Read: Herculean task! Uday Kotak-led IL&FS board draws resolution plan for 70 entities with Rs 36,500 crore debt Also Read: Coronavirus impact: SEBI extends measures to curb market volatility, short selling till May 28 Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 05:42:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close OTTAWA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The death toll has risen to 22 in the shooting in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Tuesday afternoon. In a news release, Nova Scotia RCMP confirmed an additional four victims of the mass shooting, bringing the total death toll to 22, excluding the gunman. The shooting is the deadliest mass killing in Canadian history. The gunman, identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, was killed Sunday noon after police intercepted him near a gas station. He was wearing an authentic police uniform and driving a vehicle that resembled a police car. The RCMP searched for the gunman for about 12 hours from late Saturday night into Sunday morning as he drove more than 150 kilometers along rural roads and highways. It will take days to unravel the lone suspect's violent path across the province as police probe 16 different crime scenes, including the five structure fires where RCMP have found human remains. The RCMP said they are focused on learning more about this tragedy, including accurate victim information and whether others may have aided the suspect. Except a 17-year-old girl, the 22 victims were adults, including an RCMP woman and a pregnant woman who was killed on the side of the road. Others were injured in the shooting, including a police officer. Canadian Public Safety Minister Bill Blair urged Canadians to be patient and wait for accurate information to be released from the RCMP. At his press conference on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the tragedy reinforces the need for gun control legislation in the country. "We're now looking for right way and right moment to bring it forward." Enditem The second order of personal protective equipment (PPE) from China has been doubled to 130m and will start arriving this week. The HSE has confirmed the second order of PPE from China has doubled from an original 67m to 130m in a bid to accelerate supply. HSE chief executive, Paul Reid, confirmed at a press briefing on Sunday that 33m items of PPE have been distributed across hospital and social care settings following the arrival of 31m worth of stock from China in the first order. There were initial issues with the quality and size of some items received in the first order, some of which could not be used by frontline staff. However, Mr Reid said that any product issues have since been addressed as part of the revised second order, which has been scaled up to 130 million and will start arriving in the coming weeks. Among the items of equipment ordered are 11m gowns and overalls, 7.5m gloves, 6m respirator masks, 10m surgical masks, and 2.5m face shields. The supply of PPE will always remain a major challenge for us because the demands are very significant,Mr Reid said, adding that the HSE is looking at other potential sources of materials outside of China. The HSE chief acknowledged that Covid-19 outbreaks are impacting around 40% of nursing homes and emphasised that residential care facilities are being prioritised for PPE supplies. Last Friday alone, he said, 750,000 pieces of PPE were delivered to almost 400 nursing homes across the country. Previous to that, in recent weeks, 1m pieces of PPE were delivered to 550 public and private nursing homes. The HSE also confirmed that it has secured more than 2,000 ventilators from some 21 suppliers. Meanwhile, Tadgh Daly, chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, said he is encouraged by the level of engagement with Health Minister Simon Harris following a meeting on Tuesday. Its a work in progress and we are meeting twice a week to address any issues as they arise so we are encouraged by the level of engagement with the sector, he said. Mr Daly said Covid-19 testing is happening but contingency plans are needed to ensure the staffing of nursing homes. The latest restrictions in operation since Friday, March 27 mandate that everyone should stay at home, only leaving to: A police constable who encouraged people to stay indoors during the coronavirus lockdown with his rendition of the Rocky Horror Picture Show's Sweet Transvestite has become an online sensation with four million hits. PC Tim Jones took five minutes out of his shift to belt out the famous song from his theatre 'dream role' in his patrol car. The Gloucestershire police officer posted the video on Facebook on April 3 and it has now been seen around the world. PC Tim Jones belted out Sweet Transvestite from his theatre 'dream role' in his patrol car to encourage people to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic He wrote alongside the video: 'Dream Role. Stay at home. It's simple really! Keep safe and keep smiling.' The amateur actor jokes that he is 'probably a little bit too old to do this now and would have to fight off some competition' for the role before smashing the musical hit. Mr Jones also encouraged people to stay home in the video saying he saw many people out and about who 'can't all be working'. He says: 'What are you doing people, stay at home please and do what the Government says.' Mr Jones thought people would 'have a laugh' at his expense and joked the video might end his 18-year police career, but instead he was overwhelmed with online praise He asks people to stay home, watch TV, spend time with their families and look after each other during the pandemic. The police officer thought people would 'have a laugh' at his expense and joked the video might end his 18-year police career, but instead Mr Jones was overwhelmed with online praise. He was stunned by the positive comments, posting on Facebook today saying: 'Just taking a break and sat reading through some of the lovely messages and comments as the sun rises in the UK. 'I wish I could reply to them all. I am genuinely overwhelmed but trying to find a way to get through them all. Please bear with me.' His Rocky Horror video was part of of the 'musical theatre self-isolation challenge', where people record a song every day for 25 days One viewer said: 'You would be some neighbour to have on the shift! Cheers for the joy you are bringing to thousands of people... Loving all your songs but this one just kills me.' Mr Jones has starred in Cheltenham Playhouse productions, including his award-winning and 'hauntingly spectacular' performance as Sweeney Todd in 2017. His Rocky Horror video was part of of the 'musical theatre self-isolation challenge', where people record a song every day for 25 days. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has congratulated Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms Elizabeth II on her birthday. He wrote this on Twitter. "On behalf of all Ukrainians, I have the pleasure to convey warm greetings to Her Majesty the Queen on Her Majesty's Birthday! The Queen is a symbol of courage, faith & devotion. I wish Her Majesty & all Britons good health, harmony & well-being," the tweet reads. Elizabeth II turned 94 on April 21. According to Daily Mail, Elizabeth II is to mark her birthday with the rest of the royal family via videoconference. Her Majesty is currently in isolation at Windsor Castle with Prince Philip, 98. op (Natural News) Today, news broke that a Stanford study found coronavirus infections to be 55 to 88 times more prevalent than previously reported. The bogus, misleading headline was trumpeted at Breitbart.com and most of the independent media as the latest effort to try to claim the coronavirus is no worse than the flu. The problem with this breaking news? Its completely false. As we show below, 13 out of 14 positives documented in the study were likely false positives. In fact, the study is based almost entirely on false positives due to the faulty test kits that were used by Stanford researchers. Those test kits, it turns out, were made in China by a biotech manufacturer rated at the very bottom in a list of test accuracy rankings. And just like all the other China-made test kits that are exported to the USA, they are intended to create complacency across the USA by making people believe the coronavirus isnt dangerous at all. This is achieved by China exporting kits which produce huge numbers of false positives. Combined with the very low number of actual test subjects used in the study, the data are so horribly bad that the study is worthless (and the conclusions are bogus). In fact, its worse than most of the so-called climate science thats often cited by progressives who claim the oceans will rise so fast that New York City will be under water in a decade or so. Lets take a look at how this study falls apart. NATURE openly admits the study may be bogus due to unreliable antibody test kits We begin at Nature.com, which begins with a tantalizing headline that fits perfectly with the conservative narrative which claims the coronavirus is no big deal: Antibody tests suggest that coronavirus infections vastly exceed official counts, says the Nature headline. The subhead continues, Study estimates a more than 50-fold increase in coronavirus infections compared to official cases, but experts have raised concerns about the reliability of antibody kits. Notice that last phrase: but experts have raised concerns about the reliability of antibody kits. You see, if the antibody kits arent better than 97% reliable, the entire study falls apart due to false positives. The study involved running antibody tests on 3,300 people (who were not a random sample) living in Santa Clara county. Although the paper goes to great lengths to try to obfuscate the actual number of people who tested positive, the raw truth is that the study found just 50 people who tested positive for covid-19. Yes, 50 people. Thats it. Out of that 50 people, the researchers then claimed that 48,000 to 81,000 people must be infected in Santa Clara county. The methodology for this is is highly questionable, as you might imagine. But the far bigger realization here is that nearly all the positives are false positives. Heres why: False positives are very high when testing a large population for a rare infection using inaccurate tests The antibody test used in this research was made in China, and that particular test was shown to be the least accurate antibody test among nine manufacturers. Stanford claimed the test accuracy was 99.5%, but thats the claim from the (dishonest) Chinese manufacturer. Chinese manufacturers always lie about the accuracy of their tests, and the USA has been flooded with horribly inaccurate tests from China that produce false positives and false negatives. This is part of Chinas strategy to sow chaos across the USA during this pandemic. (And conservative publishers are falling for it, going right along with Chinas narrative.) The real accuracy of this test is actually 87%, as revealed below. That doesnt seem like much of a difference from 99.5% at first, but this 87% figure renders the entire study bogus as youll soon see. Heres an article on Medium.com that exposes the critical faults with this study: Peer Review of COVID-19 Antibody Seroprevalence in Santa Clara County, California From the review: The high reported positive rate in this serosurvey may be explained by the false positive rate of the test and/or by sample recruitment issues. The most important raw result by the authors is the claim that 50 out of their 3330 participants tested positive on an antibody test, showing that they were already infected So false positives could account for many if not all of the 50 reported positives in their study. If we compare to the 50 reported positives in the study, at the upper end that kind of false positive rate would mean 40/50 = 80% of the positives in the study could be false positives. Read more details (and see the math) at Medium.com. The antibody test used by Stanford is made in China by Hangzhou Biotest Biotech (and isnt reliable) ExtremeTech.com has an outstanding explanation of this: (emphasis added) 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. There is some additional reason to be skeptical about the particular test used. In another pre-print, researchers from Hospitals and Universities in Denmark rated the Hangzhou-developed test last in accuracy of the nine they tested. In particular, it had only an 87 percent specificity (it misidentified two of 15 negative samples as being positive). That is a far cry from the 99.5 percent calculated by Stanford Now, the reason this matters will become obvious. Suppose youre testing 3,300 people for an infection that, in reality, just 1% of the population actually has. With just 87% specificity, the antibody test may identify up to 13 out of 100 people as being positive when theyre actually negative. So for every 100 people tested, you may get: 1 accurate positive thats really positive 13 fake positives that are really negative In other words, you will get 13 times as many false positives as true positives. So when Stanford researchers tested 3,300 people and produced 50 positives, the reality is that there might have been only 4 true positives along with 46 false positives. Or as Balaji Srinivasan explains on the Medium.com post above, false positives could account for many if not all of the 50 reported positives in their study. And that means Stanford researchers vastly overestimated their projections of positives onto the population at large. So when theyre claiming 48,000 to 81,000 people in the county have the covid-19 infection, the real number is more like 3,400 to 5,800. And even that is a projection based on a sample size thats too small to render any sufficient degree of confidence to the projections. The Stanford study authors openly admit that if the test accuracy is poor, the findings are worthless From the full paper at Medrxiv.org: We consider our estimate to represent the best available current evidence, but recognize that new information, especially about the test kit performance, could result in updated estimates. For example, if new estimates indicate test specificity to be less than 97.9%, our SARS-CoV-2 prevalence estimate would change from 2.8% to less than 1%, and the lower uncertainty bound of our estimate would include zero. In other words, the Stanford researchers warn that if the test accuracy is less than 97.9%, the entire study may be meaningless, since the confidence boundaries go below zero percent. We already know the test accuracy (specificity, in particular) is only 87%. Thus, the papers conclusions are bogus. The number of real infections isnt 55 times more widespread than previously thought, as Breitbart.com erroneously reports. Similar headlines have been swirling around conservative and independent media all day, sort of like a delusional victory lap of bad math that reminds me a whole lot of the bad climate science thats routinely cited by Leftists. Peak Prosperity explains all this better than anyone in the following video, which goes point by point through the failure of the Stanford study: Test subjects self-selected the sample pool was NOT randomized (it was enriched with covid-19 patients) The final nail in the coffin of this bogus study is that the people included in the sample werent randomly selected. They were self-selected by responding to a series of Facebook ads placed by Stanford researchers. Given that, in early April when the study was conducted, it was very difficult for people to find a way to get tested for covid-19, its a certainty that people who believed they were infected signed up for the study in order to get tested. Thus, the sample pool was enriched with people who had reason to believe they were already infected with the coronavirus. Thus fact alone renders the entire study worthless. You cant test any hypothesis on the population at large if the sample isnt truly random, and this one wasnt random at all. It was self-selected to create preference for people who were already infected. Its even worse: Self-recruited test subjects may have recruited other infected people to participate. Via the Medium.com post linked above: The second mechanism that could significantly enrich the number of COVID-19 cases in the study is if symptomatic or exposed people recruited other symptomatic or exposed people to get tested. Recall that recruitment of study participants was done through Facebook. People who thought they had symptoms or exposure could be sharing links to the study in private groups, WhatsApp chats, email threads, and the like. If one of those groups was for people who had COVID-19 symptoms or exposure, then its game over: you could get a super-recruiter event where one person recruits N other enriched people into the study. That could significantly boost the number of positives beyond what youd see in a random sample of Santa Clara. In other words, the open recruitment nature of the study allowed people who thought they were already infected to literally recruit other people they may have exposed. Once again, this renders the entire study bogus. Summary of the major problems with the bogus Stanford study The authors owe us all an apology The study used the China-based manufacturers claimed accuracy for the antibody test . That claimed accuracy is, of course, a lie. The real accuracy (specificity, which determines false positives) is only 87%. . That claimed accuracy is, of course, a lie. The real accuracy (specificity, which determines false positives) is only 87%. People were recruited for testing by placing ads on Facebook! Thus, the sample wasnt even random and was likely to include people who had reason to believe they were already infected. The test specificity and sensitivity was verified using only 37 positive samples and 30 negative samples at Stanford. This number of samples is far too small to establish sufficient confidence in the test itself. The researchers wildly extrapolated just 50 positive tests to claim that 48,000 to 81,000 people are now infected in Santa Clara county. Got that? Out of just 50 positives, they claim up to 81,000 people are infected. Out of the 50 positive, its highly likely that 46 of them were false positives, with only 4 true positives, due to the lack of specificity (accuracy) of the antibody tests that were used. From Josh Rushton of Columbia University, Concerns with that Stanford study of coronavirus prevalence: I think the authors of the above-linked paper owe us all an apology. We wasted time and effort discussing this paper whose main selling point was some numbers that were essentially the product of a statistical error. Im serious about the apology. Everyone makes mistakes. I dont think they authors need to apologize just because they screwed up. I think they need to apologize because these were avoidable screw-ups. Theyre the kind of screw-ups that happen if you want to leap out with an exciting finding and you dont look too carefully at what you might have done wrong. Anyone claiming this study proves covid-19 is widespread and no more dangerous than the regular flu hasnt looked at the real science I find it interesting that the very same indy media pundits and publishers who have, for weeks, been claiming the covid-19 tests produce huge numbers of false positives are suddenly latching onto this bogus study to claim the fatality rate isnt any higher than the flu. If the false positive rate is high, that means fewer people have the infection, which means the fatality rate is higher. What we are watching every day across independent media is people contradicting their own arguments, usually without any awareness they are doing so. Those who say, Anyone with a flu shot will test positive for covid-19 are really arguing that the fatality rate for covid-19 is far, far higher than anything currently known because if the false positives are high, that means the true number of infections is low, which makes the fatality rate much higher. Once again, it comes down to understanding the math and being able to look at the science with a sense of critical thinking. Sadly, we dont see much of that demonstrated across any media today not the mainstream media, not independent media and not conservative media, either. If you want to stay informed, read Pandemic.news. We approach this with real, independent thinking and good, solid numbers that continue to be proven true, day after day. Remember when we projected 45,000 to 90,000 USA deaths by the end of July? It now appears we will cross the 45,000 threshold by Wednesday. Once again, we are the most accurate media source on covid-19 and projected deaths. Its because we understand the science and the math. And no, this isnt just the flu. Its something far worse and far more dangerous. Heath workers across the globe are continuously fighting on the frontlines in this war against coronavirus. Besides the risk of contracting the virus, theyre also facing the stress of an unprecedented health care challenge, on a daily basis. To show them respect and thank them for their selfless acts, people around the world are thanking them by clapping. In fact on March 22 at 5 pm, people in India collectively stood on their balconies to clap and thank emergency workers for their untiring service. Now, Google has shared an Instagram story related to this trend of clapping and its both surprising and sweet. Google shared that this year the search for the word clapping has hit a record high and India is among the third in the list of countries where people searched for it the most. The world is also asking when to clap, Google added in their story. Heres what they shared: Google Instagram story image 1. Google Instagram story image 2. Google Instagram story image 3. Google Instagram story image 4. Google Instagram story image 5. Every now and then, Google finds news ways to thank the frontline workers be it with special doodles or YouTube videos. They also shared a story weeks ago on heathcare workers and how best everyone can help them. Unsurprisingly, the answer is by staying at home and breaking the chain of the virus spread. What do you think about Googles Instagram stories? The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine plans to perform evacuation flights from Israel, the USA, Thailand and several other countries next week. "Well start with Israel, because that's where the visa issue is the most pressing. Then the United States, where the tourist visas of our citizens expire also. Then Bali, Indonesia, Thailand. Europe also has a number of countries from which we will have to take our people away by planes due to the closures within the Schengen area," Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Kryklii said in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine. He said that it is planned to take Ukrainians away from Italy and Spain. At the same time, all citizens returning to Ukraine will be obliged to undergo a mandatory 14-day observation. According to Kryklii, more than 9,000 citizens, who want to return to Ukraine, have registered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Friend system. At the same time, according to the minister, many Ukrainians, after returning to the country, try their best to avoid quarantine, which significantly complicates all evacuation processes. "Despite this, of course, we will definitely continue to arrange outcoming flights. We will start with the most critical countries where people already have their visas expired so that there is no reason for readmission. We already plan these routes and will start to operate the relevant flights a week after Easter, I think," the minister said. ol By Park Si-soo Kim Hong-seok, a prolific actor in the 1980-90s, died of a heart attack on Sunday. He was 63. According to police, he was found unconscious at his home on Sunday morning. Rescue workers said he had no vital signs when they arrived. Kim's family said the actor had no chronic disease that could be linked to his death. An autopsy was conducted on Tuesday. Unless anything suspicious is found, his funeral will be held on Wednesday. Graduating from Dongguk University, Kim debuted in 1977 through MBC TV. He starred in several hit drama series in the 1980-90s including "Three Families Under One Roof(1988), "Jealousy"(1992) and "Autumn in My Heart"(2000). He spent the last several years preparing for a drama production. He is survived by his wife and two daughters. One expert reminds consumers that airlines are required to offer refunds for canceled flights Southwest Airlines may have escaped major cancellations from New Years weekend, but its in the hot seat now. The discount carrier pulled 658 flights off the board on Thursday, according to FlightAware. Another 519 were canceled on Friday, and there are another 230 cancellations predicted for Saturday and 19 for Sunday. In an email to ConsumerAffairs, a Southwest spokesperson explained that ongoing staff challenges most likely coronavirus-related sick calls from wor... More than a month into this crisis, Southeast Texas is opening testing to more people who want it. But the region remains hampered by uncertain numbers about how many people are being infected by this disease and even dying from it. Until there is vastly more testing, public officials and medical authorities wont have a clear understanding of where we are in this battle. And without that basic information, they will be unable to plot the path toward reopening that so many people are focused on now. One comparison illustrates this problem. As of last week, more than 500 residents of mostly rural Hardin County had been tested for the virus as compared to only 144 in the larger city of Port Arthur. As a result, only 29 Port Arthur residents had been officially listed as testing positive for the disease when the actual numbers are almost certainly much higher. Jefferson County Health Authority Dr. Cecil Walkes said less than 1% of the population has been tested for the virus despite projections that as many as 40% of the population could become infected. Area officials had a plan to open a new testing site in Port Arthur last Friday but it inexplicably collapsed, with more than 35 people showing up for tests but finding no medical personnel to administer them. The need for that new testing site remains as strong as ever, and local officials should try to get it set up as soon as possible. Having it open every day of the week would clearly be preferable, but given the chronic shortages of testing kits and medical personnel that been common throughout this crisis almost everywhere, a lesser schedule would be better than nothing. Southeast Texas has officially recorded 13 deaths from coronavirus so far and more than 300 positive case, with fewer than 40 people hospitalized. But experts believe that the number of infections and deaths is much larger, with some infected people exhibiting no outward symptoms and some infected people dying before they can be tested. Gov. Greg Abbott must do all he can to get more testing kits and protective equipment delivered to places like Southeast Texas that need them, especially since he is moving Texas toward reopening faster than most other states. He announced that the Texas National Guard will be deploying 25 45-member teams to various parts of the state to increase testing. Southeast Texas must see at least one of these teams. Employers and employees in the region want to get back to work as much as he does. But that can only happen when its clear that the virus has diminished considerably and our ability to test has been dramatically increased. Without that basic data, we run the risk of a premature reopening that leads to a second surge in infections, hospitalizations and deaths. That would be even worse than our current ordeal. The only way to avoid that is with better data, and the only way to get that is with more testing. This must be the priority of every public official and medical leader in Southeast Texas. The power of poetry to bring about change is indisputable. Be it political crises of the past or global health crises such as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, poetry is capable of altering the mood. Bollywood actors and poets have been taking to social media to share verses about the situation, urging people to stay strong. The most recent contribution comes from 'Andhadhun' actor Ayushmann Khurrana, who shared a video of him reciting his ode to essential service providers, calling them Frontline Warriors. In his poem, Khurrana talks about how the collective behaviour of mankind has brought on this unfortunate situation and how we all want to rewind to the time of normalcy. The actor urges people to respect doctors, nurses, police and security guards even when things are fine. Mujh jaise Bollywood hero hain bas naam ke (We Bollywood heroes are heroes in name only), says the actor. They are putting us and our lives before theirs and we should respect how they are fighting to keep us all protected, he asserts. Last month, megastar Amitabh Bachchan also took to social media to express his views on COVID-19 with a dash of poetry. The actor recited a poem in the Awadhi dialect on precautionary measures in the current situation. The 77-year-old reminded people not to touch anything without washing hands. Hum kahen chalo hamahu kar det hai jaisan bole sab. Aave da corona vorona, thengwa dikhaub tab. (I said let me follow what people are saying. Let corona vorona come, I will defeat it), Bachchan recited. Poetry has not only creatively documented history through the ages, but has also spread hope. Even in solitude, poetry never abandons you. We have seen in the past that poetry has been used to bridge the gap between the present situation and the bright future. This is what is happening now. Actors are also using verse to express themselves, says internationally-acclaimed poet Sonnet Mondal, who himself has penned verses on the deadly virus. Former secretary of the Sahitya Akademi, Eastern Region, Angshuman Kar, has also written some poems about the present situation and its impact on the common man. I am writing on whatever I am seeing around myself. The plight of people is forcing me to write poems. The way people are trying to help each other across the globe is also motivating me to write, says the poet, adding My creative instincts are inspiring me to think of the post-Corona world as a borderless universe and I want to convey the same to the people through my poetry since its the best source of expression. Mayor Garcetti Foresees Extreme Budget cuts in the future; L.A. faces one of the worst Fiscal seasons due to COVID-19 Monday, April 20. The Mayor of Los Angeles provided an update surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayor Eric Garcetti outlined city structures that were directly affected by coronavirus. From a fiscal perspective, L.A. is in its worst economic shape since the recession. Eric Garcetti put a budget in place to stabilize the citys economy. Within the Annual State of the City Address, Eric Garcetti confirmed a second wave of the virus. The second wave will factor into decisions made around lifting the Stay at Home Order. Mayor Garcetti covered the CARES Corps. He stated it would help with testing, that focuses on contact tracing of the virus. The CARE Corps. Is looking to be a long-term solution for the current systematic disparities that Los Angeles is facing. Documented on April 17. The CARES Corps. proposal is a bridge between government and local businesses, by providing job training, loan programs, and unemployment insurance. The focal point is to match solutions to the need of every community. The CARES Corps mission includes working on the frontlines such as attaining food supply, health safety, and medical necessities. Other actions under this initiative includes childcare, assistance for the elderly, and expanding more care towards families and people with disability. It is a fusion of federal leadership, public health, and local government. This is looking to assist with preventing reduction in resources for all Americans when there is high demand on every scale. The Mayor of Los Angeles authored this proposal with the Mayor of Oklahoma City, David Holt and founding director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, Mark McClellan to outline a brand new infrastructure. As of Monday, April 20. Eric Garcetti summarized the current COVID-19 statistics surrounding Los Angeles. There were 17 additional deaths confirmed on Monday, this brings the total coronavirus related deaths in the L.A. County to 617. There were 1,491 new COVID-19 incidents reported April 20. In summary, there is a total amount of 13,816 coronavirus cases in the Los Angeles region. Although, there is evidence of the coronavirus curve is bending, Los Angeles is still in the preliminary stages of the pandemic. Angelenos should expect the numbers to increase in the future. ADVERTISEMENT Various parts of the L.A. City structure have been affected by COVID-19. Mayor Garcetti noted that there is a need for extra trash pick-up, since more Angelenos are at home. L.A. County waived that extra charge for the double pick-up schedule. As new data and information come to light, L.A. natives have more questions. There is a 3-1-1 hotline that one can call for answers and solutions surrounding COVID-19. The City workforce filled roles they never expected. The L.A. Department of Water and Power (DWP) deliver food to the elderly. Employees in the sanitation department and Parks and Rec. help build and staff shelters needed for COVID-19. Mayor Garcetti dissected the fiscal vision that COVID-19 altered in Los Angeles. 70 million dollars was approved to be borrowed from the citys special and reserved funds. Some of that will be reimbursed by the federal government, but some of it will not. There are budget changes in place to plan for economic stabilization. There is less money available to remove graffiti around the city. The city government initiated a hiring freeze. The Mayor of L.A. acknowledged the weaken economic system and the poor fiscal state Los Angeles is facing, but the health and lives of Angelenos came first when the Mayor of the city was making the budget related decisions. Mayor Garcetti stated within his annual address, The choice between saving lives and saving our economy is a false choice. The only way we can save our economy is by saving lives The new Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) (the Act) expanded the traditional role of the company secretary (Secretary) from the recording of minutes, issuing notices and filing of statutory documents to include an advisory and guidance role to the shareholders and directors of the company. The Act requires them to assist the Board of Directors (Board) to comply with the constitution of the company and to further guide them in their duties and responsibilities. Among other duties, the Secretary is to advise the Board on any changes and development in the laws affecting the operations of the company. This article looks at the expanded roles of the company Secretary, their obligations and the effect of non-compliance under the Act. Who qualifies as a Company Secretary The Act places some restrictions on who can become a company Secretary. The Secretary can be an individual or a corporate entity who has a reasonable in-depth knowledge of company law and legislation to assist the company in making its decisions. The Act requires any person appointed as a Secretary to have obtained a professional qualification or tertiary level qualification that enables that person to have the requisite knowledge and experience to perform the functions of the company Secretary. Where the person has not obtained the above qualification, he/she must have been trained under the supervision of a qualified company Secretary for a period of at least three years. However, where a person is a member in good standing of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, Institute of Chartered Accountant or a lawyer that person qualifies to serve as a Secretary of a company. Appointment and Removal of Secretaries Secretaries are usually appointed at the formation stage of the company by the first directors. The directors can appoint subsequent secretaries through a board resolution. Practically, the letter of appointment must indicate the remuneration and conditions of the appointment which must be accepted by the Secretary. The written consent to serve as Secretary must be lodged with the Registrar Generals Department (RGD). The Secretary can be removed by the directors through a board resolution or by voluntary resignation by the Secretary. The Secretary also has the right, to claim any unpaid remuneration and for damages if the said removal was in breach of contract. It is worthy to note that where the company operates for more than six months without a Secretary , it is liable for a fine of twenty-five penalty units (GHS 300.00) each day after the six months. Duties of the Company Secretary Maintaining the Statutory Register of the Company: The Company Secretary is to ensure that at all material times, the company keeps its register of members (shareholders), directors and Secretary and notify the RGD where there are changes in them. Register of Directors (ROD): The content of the ROD includes the present and former names of the directors, residential address, business occupation as well as the nationality of each director. The ROD also indicates the date of appointment of the directors as well as dates of removal or resignation if any. The content of the ROD includes the present and former names of the directors, residential address, business occupation as well as the nationality of each director. The ROD also indicates the date of appointment of the directors as well as dates of removal or resignation if any. In recent times, most investors in conducting due diligence on the directors request for notarized identity cards (preferably bio-data pages of valid passports) as well as their resume. The ROD folder must also include the letters of appointment of each of the directors as well as the consent by each of them. Register of Members (ROM): The ROM must indicate the full names, date, and place of birth of the member, nationality, proof of identity, residential and postal address of the shareholder, the class of the various shareholders, the number of shares currently held by each member, date of acquisition of the shares, the person who transferred the shares and any supporting documents that justifies the sale of shares. Register of Secretary (ROS): The content of the ROS also requires the present and former names of any Secretary the company has ever worked with, it's business or residential address, its date of appointment as well as the removal. Keeping Books and Records of the Company The Secretary is required to properly keep all the corporate books and records of the company. Among the records of the company includes but not limited to the corporate register, the registration documents which is the certificate of incorporation and certificate to commence a business, business operating permit among other things. The Secretary is also to ensure that all minutes of meetings held within the calendar year are properly recorded and kept in the records of the company. In modern times, secretaries are advised to scan all minutes of meetings as well as corporate documents and store them digitally to avoid it being lost permanently. Filing of Annual Returns and Financial Statement The Act requires the company to file its annual and financial statements at the RGD. This is required to be done once every year. The annual returns must include particulars of members of the company, each beneficial owner of the company. The annual returns must include the companies audited financial statement, signed by a director and the Secretary. It must be filed within thirty-six days after completion of the financial statement and it has been duly signed by the directors. In default, the company is liable to pay an administrative fine of Fifty Penalty Units (GHS 600.00) for each day the default continues . Advisory and Guidance Role by the Secretary Among the novel duties imposed by the Act on all secretaries, is the duty to provide some level of guidance and assistance to directors and shareholders on their duties and responsibilities. The Secretary must, therefore, be abreast with all the duties and obligations of the directors and members before he/she/it can proffer any advice for the directors and members. The Secretary must further assist the Board to comply with all the requirements of the constitution and any other applicable law. Again, where there is any change in the law that affects the operations of the company, the Secretary is legally mandated to advise the Board on such changes. This duty is, therefore, a bit technical and companies are advised to get professionals, preferably lawyers to handle the role effectively. Penalties imposed by the Companies Act for non-Compliance The Company Secretary must be aware of the penalties and amount payable by the company should there be the default for non-compliance. This will give the Secretary the required capacity to advise the board on compliance with the constitution of the company. The summary of some offences and the applicable penalties is tabled below: Nature of Breach Applicable Penalty Units Nature of Breach Applicable Penalty Units Guarantee Companies: Where a guarantee company (NGO) carries on the business of profit-making other than nonprofit business. An administrative fine of 50 Penalty Units (GHS 600.00) for each day the company carries on that business Registered Office: Failure to have a registered office 25 penalty units (GHS 300.00) for each day that the default continues Error and omissions in registration documents submitted to the RGD. An administrative fine of 150 Penalty Units ( GHS 1,800.00) Secretary: Carrying on business for more than six months without a Secretary 25 penalty units (GHS 300.00) for each day that the default continues Failure to Notify RGD on change of Alteration/changes of business. An administrative fine of 50 Penalty Units (GHS 600.00) Minutes of Board Meeting: Failure to keep minutes of board meetings of the board of directors. The Company and each officer is liable to pay 250 penalty units (GHS 3000) Misleading Name: Where a Company fails to change its misleading name after being notified by the Registrar Administrative fine of 25 penalty units (GHS 300.00) 50 penalty units ( GHS 600.00) for each day the default continues False Report: Furnishing the RGD with false reports, returns, and accounts Liable for a fine of not less than 250 penalty units (GHS 3000) and not more than 500 penalty units (GHS 6,000.00) Failure to Allow Inspection: Where a company defaults in keeping a register or prevents the RGD from inspecting its register it is liable to pay an administrative fine of 50 penalty Units (GHS 600.00). The Court also has the power to cause an inspection into the register of the company. Stated Capital: where a company raises its share capital but fails to deliver the same to the RGD for registration after 28 days. An administrative fine of 25 penalty units (GHS 300.00) for each day the default continues Misleading Information: Providing misleading information to the RGD on the Register of Members Liable to a fine of not less than 150 (GHS 1,800.00) penalty units or not more than 250 penalty units ( GHS 3000.00) to a term of imprisonment not less than one year and not more than two years Failure to Issue Share Certificate: Where a Company fails to issue share certificate within 2 months An administrative fine of 50 penalty units (GHS 600.00) for each day the default continues Annual General Meeting (AGM): Failure to have an AGM within a calendar year The Company and its officers are liable to pay an administrative fine of 150 penalty units (GHS 1,800.00) Minutes of General Meetings: Where a company fails to keep minutes of its general meetings The Company is liable to pay an administrative fine of 250 penalty units (GHS 3,000.00) In summary, the duties of the company Secretary have been made technical. This is because the Secretary is to advise the board and shareholders on their duties to avoid any breaches in the companies' constitution. Companies must, therefore, ensure that they appoint a Secretary with the requisite skills to carry on the duties of the Secretary as defined by the Act to avoid potential breaches. BATESVILLE, Ind., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE: HI) will hold a conference call and simultaneous webcast Thursday, May 7, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. ET. They will discuss the results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2020, which ended March 31, 2020. The live webcast, including a slide presentation, will be available at http://ir.hillenbrand.com under the "Events & Presentations" tab and will be archived on the company's investor relations website through Friday, June 5, 2020. To access the conference call, listeners in the United States and Canada may dial +1 (833) 241-7251, and international callers may dial +1 (647) 689-4215. Please use conference call ID number 5866796. A replay of the call will be available until midnight ET, Thursday, May 21, 2020, by dialing +1 (800) 585-8367 toll free in the United States and Canada or +1 (416) 621-4642 internationally and using the conference ID number 5866796. Hillenbrand will issue a press release reporting its results after the market closes on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. The full text of the release and financials will be available at http://ir.hillenbrand.com. About Hillenbrand Hillenbrand (www.Hillenbrand.com) is a global diversified industrial company with businesses that serve a wide variety of industries around the world. We pursue profitable growth and robust cash generation to drive increased value for our shareholders. Hillenbrand's portfolio includes industrial businesses such as Coperion, Milacron Injection Molding & Extrusion, and Mold-Masters, in addition to Batesville, a recognized leader in the death care industry in North America. Hillenbrand is publicly traded on the NYSE under "HI." SOURCE Hillenbrand, Inc. Related Links http://www.hillenbrand.com A man stuck in isolation hooked a fish using using drone without taking a single step outside the house. Sam Romeo, 29, said he was at a friend's home in Sans Souci, in Sydney's southern suburbs, on Friday when he became overwhelmed with boredom and decided to give fishing a try. In the footage shared on Instagram Mr Romeo could be seen flying the drone off a balcony with bait attached to the end of a fishing line. After 30 minutes the drone snapped up a small whiting and Mr Romeo flew the fish back to the balcony. Videographer Sam Romeo (pictured) was able to use his drone to catch a small fish from a balcony in Sydney's southern suburbs 'When youre being responsible and staying at home but the fish are calling,' he captioned the post. Mr Romeo told Daily Mail Australia he had previously experimented with delivering items using his drone and decided to try fishing. 'I've done a few jobs where I've hung a few things off the drone such as delivering wedding rings for a ceremony,' he said. Despite having no previous fishing experience Mr Romeo was able to secure a fish using his unorthodox but effective method. Mr Romeo said he carefully measured the length of the line so the fish would not be able to pull the drone under the water Mr Romeo said he carefully measured the fishing line length between the bait and the drone so he could still see the fish without making it too short. 'I wanted it to be long enough that if the fish pulled the drone wouldn't go under the water,' he said. Although he said it was a fun experience the fish had to be returned back to the ocean due to its size. 'We threw it back because it was undersized and we didn't want to get in trouble,' Mr Romeo said. JACKSON COUNTY, Mississippi -- Nearly 60 percent of COVID-19 cases treated by Singing River Health System have involved Moss Point residents, according to data from SRHS. Coupled with Pascagoula cases, more than 75 percent of those treated by SRHS have come from the eastern side of the county, according to the data released Monday morning. At that time, there had been 209 total cases in Jackson County, with SRHS treating 154 of those. The data also showed 31 other cases treated involving residents from outside Jackson County. As of Monday, there were 55 other COVID-19 cases which were not treated by SRHS. Even if those cases were all residents of other areas in Jackson County, Moss Point would still account for 43.1 percent of all cases. Overall, the news continues to be good for Jackson County. Tuesdays update from the Mississippi Department of Health reported only two new cases in the county for a total of 211, with no new deaths. Harrison County had six new cases, no new deaths, and now has 151 cases, while Hancock County had no new cases, no new deaths, with a total of 53 cases. Statewide, the MDH reported 204 new cases (4,716 total) and 14 new deaths (183 total). Monday, the MDH reported 359 COVID-19 patients were currently hospitalized, with 189 in intensive care. The Mississippi coast totals now stand at 415 cases (8.8 percent of the state total) and 16 deaths (8.7 percent of the statewide count. There have also now been 79 long-term care facilities across the state with COVID-19 outbreaks, with 435 individual cases across those 79 facilities. Of those, 27 individual cases are in LTC facilities in Jackson County (6.2 percent of the state total), representing 12.8 percent of all cases in the county. The MDH also updated statewide testing figures Monday, which show that 52,364 people have been tested for the coronavirus, with the 4,716 positive cases representing 9 percent of those tested. African-Americans continue to comprise the majority of statewide cases at 51.3 percent. In Jackson County, African-Americans have been patients in 47.9 percent of cases; with whites comprising 42.7 percent. Coastwide, however, whites have made up 50.4 percent of all cases. Little has changed for the 60+ age group, which continues to comprise the largest bulk of all cases (33.1 percent) and the overwhelming majority of COVID-19 deaths (89.6 percent), as well as 65 percent of all cases requiring hospitalization. Overall, 74.4 percent of cases have not required hospitalization. The MDH has updated its reported on underlying conditions present in those who have died from the virus. Of 183 deaths, 101 involved patients with cardiovascular disease; in 82 cases, diabetes was present; hypertension was found in 80 cases; and 57 patients were obsese. (Note: patients can, and frequently do, have more than one underlying condition). Last week, Gov. Tate Reeves extended his stay-at-home order until next Monday (April 27). He did, however, allow beaches to reopen, but left the decision of when to open to the local county governments, which oversee state-owned public beaches. While Harrison County opened its beaches this week, the Jackson County Board of Supervisors voted Monday morning to keep county beaches in Pascagoula and Ocean Springs closed until next Monday. Ocean Springs Front Beach, in particular, had been a problem area with crowds gathering until Reeves order all state beaches closed. Everythings been going very smoothly on the beaches, supervisor Troy Ross explained. Weve had no large crowds, the pathways have remained open and with the governors shelter in place order not ending until next Monday we thought it would make sense to have the beaches open concurrent with the end of the shelter in place. Once the beaches open next Monday, signs will be posted reminding beach-goers of social distancing requirements, which supervisors say will be enforced. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: Even as Uttar Pradesh's tally of COVID-19 cases soared to 1294 on Tuesday, a professor of Allahabad University and 16 foreigners were among 30 people arrested by Prayagraj police for hiding their links to the Tablighi Jamaat event in New Delhi last month. Professor Mohammad Shahid, who had allegedly attended the Tablighi Jamaat event, was arrested for purportedly helping the foreign attendees by arranging their illegal stay at a mosque in Prayagraj after the lockdown was announced. The professor is accused of not intimating the district administration of the presence of the jamaatis who had attended the event. Of the 16 foreign nationals arrested, nine are from Thailand while six from Indonesia. Besides, one jamaati each from Kerala and West Bengal were also arrested. As per police sources, all the jamaatis were hiding inside the Abdullah mosque in Shahganj and Hera mosque in Kareli area of Prayagraj. On further investigation, it emerged that all the foreigners, especially Indonesians, had engaged in religious preaching despite visiting India on tourist visas. They did not have permission to visit Prayagraj, still they visited the city and were hiding in a mosque, said a senior police official. As a result, an FIR against all the foreigners as well as Professor Shahid was lodged under Shahganj police station area. As per Prayagraj SSP Anirudhh Pankaj, all the foreigners and their facilitators were arrested for violating the provisions of the Foreigners Act and further action was being taken against them. So far, there has been just one COVID-19 case in Prayagraj and the patient has been discharged after treatment. But in the state, around 79 per cent of the coronavirus cases are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat. Till April 20, the state had a total of 1026 active cases of which 814 were linked to the Tablighi Jamaat. PHILADELPHIA The horror of the coronavirus pandemic took an especially macabre turn on Sunday afternoon when a Ford pickup truck pulled up behind the Philadelphia Medical Examiners Office with five or six bagged bodies stacked in its open cargo bed. The driver got out, spoke briefly to a medical examiners employee who seemed unnerved by the delivery, and then climbed onto the cargo bed, walking on bodies that had been covered by mats, according to an Inquirer photographer who was working near the site in University City. He pulled the bodies by their feet to the edge of the truck bed. The remains were offloaded one at a time onto gurneys and wheeled up a ramp into a refrigerated trailer. The unidentified driver wore torn jeans, a blue jacket and a dark blue cap. As workers look on, left, the driver of a pick-up truck stands on the bodies in the truck bed as he uncovers them from beneath a mat in the Joseph W. Spellman Medical Examiner Building parking lot on Sunday, April 19, 2020. (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)TNS The Medical Examiners Office confirmed that a transfer of human remains from a local hospital had arrived in an unapproved manner. It is absolutely counter to existing and longstanding Medical Examiners Offices normal transfer protocols, said Communications Director James Garrow, and the transferring hospital was strongly reminded of those protocols. He declined to identify the hospital. But scrawled in black marker on two of the white body bags were the words Albert Einstein Medical and Einstein Med Center. In response to questions, a spokesperson for Einstein Healthcare Network, which operates Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, issued a statement late Monday saying it was demanding an immediate update on pandemic protocols from its transportation contractor. Like other hospitals in the region, Einstein contracts with a funeral home to handle the transfer of remains to the Medical Examiners Office. The pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for hospitals, the statement said. We deeply apologize, the statement said, and are making every effort to ensure we continue to provide the respectful, compassionate care that we are known for. The pickup truck arrives, with bodies under the mats in the cargo bed, at a space near the Joseph W. Spellman Medical Examiner Building in University City on Sunday, April 19, 2020. (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)TNS It was about 3:30 p.m. when the dark blue Ford F-150 XLT arrived in the rear of the Joseph W. Spellman Medical Examiner Building on University Avenue. Thats where city officials have placed three refrigerated trailers, bought to relieve the overcrowding occurring at hospitals and funeral homes as deaths soar from COVID-19. In Philadelphia, more than 9,200 people have been infected and at least 365 have died. Each of the trailers can hold up to 40 bodies. Garrow said he did not know and would not know if all or any of the people in the truck had died of COVID-19. Because the remains were sent for overflow storage, the office does not necessarily have jurisdiction to conduct investigations, he said. The trailers were not purchased exclusively to hold COVID-19 fatalities, according to Garrow and Deana Gamble, a spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney. Rather, they provide additional holding space, as funeral homes exhaust their capacity and families need more time to make arrangements. For instance, executives at the Mercy Fitzgerald hospital campus in Darby Borough have secured a refrigerated truck that currently holds about 20 bodies. In normal times, said Gregory McDonald, dean of the School of Health Sciences at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and the deputy coroner of Montgomery County, the body of someone who dies in a hospital or care home would be released to a funeral home. Remains would be sent to a medical examiner or coroner for investigation only in cases of unnatural death, such as suicide, homicide, or accident, he said. A Philadelphia city official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said local hospitals sometimes contract with transportation services to move bodies to the morgue. City workers from the Department of Licenses and Inspections have been diverted to the morgue to help unload remains, the official said. On Monday, it was clear that driving bodies across city streets in a pickup truck did not accord proper respect and dignity to the dead. But World Health Organization guidance indicates that the incident posed no public health risk. Cadavers do not transmit disease, except in limited, particular circumstances during an autopsy, the agency advised last month. Theres no evidence of someone becoming infected from exposure to the bodies of people who died from COVID-19, the agency said. By Jeff Gammage, Elizabeth Robertson, Mike Newall and Tom Avril, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS). Staff writer Ellie Rushing contributed. DURHAM, Calif. - Those driving the Midway between Durham and Chico might be seeing some familiar faces. The coronavirus has canceled graduation for schools all across the country but the Durham community decided it was time to celebrate its graduating seniors. Durham's Safe and Sober Committee thought of the idea and through the help of community donations, the committee was able to buy each student a sign reading "Class of 2020" paired with their senior photo. Congratulations, Class of 2020! Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy, along with Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava, on Tuesday inspected Azadpur Mandi in northwest Delhi, officials said. "Further to the decision of @narendramodi govt to permit 24x7 operations at Azadpur Mandi-Delhi, inspected this market which facilitates procurement & sale of harvest from across the nation. Govt has also ensured easy movement of trucks for ferrying farm produce across the country" Reddy tweeted. Social distancing was maintained during the inspection, the officials said. The Delhi government had on Monday decided to allow Azadpur Mandi, Asia's largest wholesale market for fruits and vegetables, to operate round-the-clock, a move aimed at providing relief to farmers and traders amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Delhi Development minister Gopal Rai had said from Tuesday, vegetables and fruits will be sold from 6 am to 10 pm and thereafter, trucks will be allowed to enter the market between 10 pm and 6 am. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nollywood actor, Yul Edochie has taken to social media to express frustration as people continue to beg him for money amid the Coronavirus lockdown. In a post via his Twitter page, Yul lamented that it had been three weeks since nothing had entered his pocket, as he also is affected by the lockdown which had limited his making of money through movies. The actor noted that he doesnt engage in money rituals, adding that people should not be deceived by such roles he played in movies because they were not real. Some folks are still sending me account numbers, after 3 weeks of lockdown. Come on now guys, na all of us dey the matter oo. 3 weeks nothing don enter, no work. Na for film I dey do money ritual, its not real. I dey wait for alert from Federal Govt. e don red everywhere, he wrote. Some folks are still sending me account numbers, after 3 weeks of lockdown. Come on now guys, na all of us dey the matter oo. 3 weeks nothing don enter, no work. Na for film I dey do money ritual, its not real. I dey wait for alert from Federal Govt. e don red everywhere Yul Edochie (@YulEdochie) April 20, 2020 KanyiDaily recalls that on 13 April, President Muhammadu Buhari extended the lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja for an extra two weeks on top of the original time frame. As it stands, the lockdown will now last until midnight on 27 April. The global economy has never faced a challenge like the coronavirus, but its in Africa that the pain could be deepest and recovery slowest. Why it matters: Years of progress on alleviating extreme poverty will be undone, and economies that had been among the worlds fastest growing could face deep recessions. Thats even if Africa averts a Europe-style public health catastrophe. Flashback: Long before we began to see any of the health impacts of this virus, Africa was already feeling the brunt of the economic impact, says W. Gyude Moore, a former Liberian public works minister now at the Center for Global Development. As China shut down ports and then factories early in the outbreak, countries like Kenya that rely heavily on trade with China were hit hard. As demand for exports fell, revenues plummeted particularly in oil exporters like Nigeria and Angola. Meanwhile, investors were fleeing emerging markets. Borrowing costs increased and existing debts weighed more heavily, just as spending was needed to prepare for a public health crisis. Many African countries went into lockdown even before they had significant outbreaks. Economies are largely informal so most people cant earn money without leaving home and massive stimulus packages are out of the question. Some fear the health crisis will yield security crises across the continent, foreshadowed by the recent deadly crackdowns in Kenya from police enforcing a curfew. What they're saying: The UN warns that 29 million more Africans could be pushed into extreme poverty, reversing a decades-long decline. Jakkie Cilliers of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa says it could rise as high as 94 million in a slow-recovery scenario. could be pushed into extreme poverty, reversing a decades-long decline. Jakkie Cilliers of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa says it could rise as high as 94 million in a slow-recovery scenario. Marius Oosthuizen of CUSP Consulting predicts "a difficult period in the next two to three years, and then a medium-term filled with lots of difficult challenges to overcome before we see a return" to high growth levels. of CUSP Consulting predicts "a difficult period in the next two to three years, and then a medium-term filled with lots of difficult challenges to overcome before we see a return" to high growth levels. Rwandan President Paul Kagame told the FT it could take a generation or more" for the continent to recover. He says at least $100 billion in international support to the continent is needed this year alone. Where things stand: G20 countries agreed last week to freeze payments on bilateral loans to poor countries until the end of this year. China is party to that agreement, and it holds the lion's share of Africa's bilateral debt. But it tends to renegotiate debts on a country-by-country basis to maximize political leverage. "Some African governments already bilaterally petitioning China for relief say Chinese envoys are citing provisions in loan agreements that would transfer collateral, in some cases strategic state assets, into Beijings hands," WSJ reports. What to watch: Moore, who was in government during the 2014 Ebola outbreak, said at that time the rest of the world could mobilize resources to help three small countries." "At this point, though, every country and territory is fighting the same thing." The bottom line: Moore says that if Italy can't even get the help it's demanding from the EU, "you can imagine what the response to Africa will be." Go deeper: African nations scramble for supplies John W. McDaniel, 60, of Marion County, Ohio, died of COVID-19 at a Columbus hospital on Wednesday A 60-year-old Ohio man who dismissed the states coronavirus lockdown as a political ploy and claimed the governor didnt have the authority to close businesses because of the pandemic has died of COVID-19. John W. McDaniel tested positive for the coronavirus in late March and died at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus last Wednesday. On Facebook, he had dismissed the killer virus as a 'political ploy' that he said officials were using to exert control over the public. 'Does anybody have the guts to say this COVID19 is a political ploy? Asking for a friend. Prove me wrong,' he wrote in a March 13 post. He later claimed governors did not have the 'authority' to shut down bars and that anyone who was worried about becoming sick should 'just' not go out. It is unknown if McDaniel had any underlying health conditions which could have contributed to his death. According to his obituary, he battled cancer in the 80s. He is survived by his wife and their two adult sons. It is not known if any of them have fallen ill or become infected. McDaniel was the president of his company's industrial manufacturing company. His death comes as public officials continue to struggle to temper growing public unrest and impatience with lockdown orders against the persistent virus threat. On March 13, McDaniel wrote that 'this Covid19 is a political ploy' McDaniel posted a series of Facebook messages blasting the state-imposed coronavirus lockdown. He criticized Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, saying he didn't have the authority to order businesses to shut While some states with fewer cases are confident about gradually opening gradually in the next few days and weeks, others, like New York, are holding off until testing is more widely available and reliable. McDaniel is survived by his wife and two adult sons. Health officials expressed condolences to the family after his death was announced last week Ohio - which has 12,516 cases and has recorded 491 deaths - is among the states where people feel the need to get back to work outweighs the public health crisis. A quarter of the state's cases are among the prison population. There have been angry protests there this week in retaliation against the ongoing stay-at-home order. McDaniel is the first resident in his county to die of COVID-19. On behalf of the entire Marion County community, we express our deepest sympathies to his family and friends, Marion Public Health Commissioner Traci Kinsler said in a press release issued Wednesday after his death. Our thoughts go out to the Marion County community, as well as all Ohioans, and those across the world battling this illness and the families of everyone affected by this pandemic. Governor DeWine announced on Monday that schools across Ohio will stay closed for the remainder of the school year while classes continue remotely. Protesters gather outside of the Ohio State House in Columbus, Ohio on April 20, 2020. Thousands of people have attended anti-lockdown rallies in cities across the country demanding their states be reopened because stay-at-home orders are violating their constitutional rights Ohio Gov. Mike DeWhine tweeted on Monday to say he had 'full respect' for protesters but wanted them to understand the public health threat of reopening the state too early He said he has 'full respect' for protesters but is begging people to keep on practicing social distancing. 'We've won a battle, we've done well, but #COVID19 is still out there and most Ohioans are still susceptible to it. The spread concern is still as strong today as it was a month ago,' he said in one of a series of tweets on Monday. 'I have full respect for protesters, but I just ask them to be safe. 'My job is to listen to the people of Ohio and guide us in a way that gets us through this by losing as few people as possible while trying to put our economy back together,' he said in another tweet. President Trump has contributed to the tensions. In a string of tweets last week, he urged the governors of Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia to 'liberate' their people by reopening. DeWine was the first governor in the nation to shutter schools statewide. On April 16, the United States federal government put out a report outlining what must take place for America to be able to "open up" the country in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The bottom line is that America must remain in semi-lockdown for at least another month-and-a-half, with most businesses closed and folks staying at home. President Donald Trump has been demanding, or at least hoping, that the country would be able to open up soon. He first expressed the wish in late March that the state-by-state measures could end by April 12, so that churches could be packed for Easter. That didn't happen. Cases increased by 600,000 since he made that statement. Then, he said that he, as president, had "total authority" to force a state to end its lockdown and "open up." That's unconstitutional under America's federal system. Ultimately, however, the report the federal government issued tasks state governors with the responsibility for deciding when they can safely relax stay-at-home orders. According to the standards set, it's going to be a while before the U.S. will return to normal. There are three "stages" starting with Phase One, which is a kind of semi-lockdown that would still restrict large-scale social engagements, proceeding to Phase Three, where restrictions would be mostly lifted and bars and restaurants would be able to reopen. In order for a state to be able to move on to another phase, the guidelines advise that it should experience 14 days of declining coronavirus cases and hospitals must be able to treat all cases. That means that even if every state were to miraculously see a perfect turnaround starting from the day the guidelines were issued, it would still be 42 days, or until June, for the country to get back to "normal." As it happens, the country and most states are not yet in a situation where new cases and deaths are declining. Every day since March 31, there have been over 25,000 new cases detected in the United States. On both April 15 and 16, the number of new cases was over 30,000. The number of cases detected is also somewhat under-recorded. Testing capability is still limited, and a shockingly high 20% of people who get tested have the virus, compared to just 2% in the Republic of Korea, implying that coronavirus is more widespread in the U.S. than the numbers suggest. The number of new deaths was over 2,000 for each of the past three days at the time of writing. As for individual states, some have been successful at slowing the spread of coronavirus, including California, Washington, and Colorado. However, in most states, the crisis has not abated. In fact, the number of cases in sparsely populated rural states, where some governors have not issued stay-at-home orders, is starting to increase rapidly. Case numbers in North Dakota, Arkansas, and Oklahoma have all risen by over 25% in the past week. The world does not yet have a wealth of information to know what will happen if restrictions are completely lifted. So far only two countries have been able to control the outbreak and reduced new cases to a level low enough to allow opening of normal life China and South Korea. Restaurants have opened for full service in China, but many have dividing boards between seats. Hotels are accepting new guests, but tourism is down. Movie theatres were briefly opened before being closed again. Citizens are tracking their health on apps. The United States, however, does not have the capabilities or experience to use such kinds of mobile tracking apps. South Korea has just successfully held its 21st General Election, with high turnout. But they also have not opened everything yet. Bars in Seoul had to close again for a week. So, it is clear that opening up the country is not an easy process even after the spread of coronavirus is brought under control. Americans are understandably tired of staying at home. I am still in America right now, and I sure am! But if we relax anti-coronavirus measures too soon, then the problem will get worse, and we'll be locked down even longer. 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. Truong Duong (C) is at the Binh Duong People's Court in Binh Duong Province, April 21, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Binh Duong Newspaper. A Binh Duong court sentenced a man to 11 years in jail Tuesday for planting explosives at the provincial tax office last year. Truong Duong, 40, was found guilty of engaging "terrorism to oppose the people's administration." Two of his accomplices, Pham Anh Dao (also known as Lisa Pham), 39, and Ha Xuan Nghiem, 57, are on the run. Duong, a driver for a foreign company in Thu Dau Mot Town of the southern province, worked with a terrorist organization called the "Provisional National Government of Vietnam," the indictment said. Last August, he was asked by Pham, a member of the organization, to plant an explosive at the Binh Duong tax office. Pham instructed Duong to go to a convenience store in town and receive a package delivered by Nghiem. Four bombs made with around 1.2 kg of gunpowder were in the package. On September 30, Duong took the explosives inside an urinal on the tax office's first floor. An explosion followed 20 minutes later, collapsing walls and shattering glass in the building. There was no casualty. Duong was arrested four days later. He admitted his crime to the court and asked for his sentence to be reduced. Besides his prison sentence, Duong was ordered to compensate the Binh Duong Tax office with VND800 million ($34,000) for damage caused. The "Provisional National Government of Vietnam" was established in 1990 in the U.S. Its aim is to overthrow the Vietnamese government through violence and acts of terrorism, according to the Ministry of Public Security. The organization is headed by Dao Minh Quan, who has proclaimed himself the "prime minister" of this "government." The public security ministry declared it a terrorist organization in 2018. Vietnam has already issued international arrest warrants against Quan and six other members, all of whom are living either in the U.S. or Canada. In August 2018, two of its members, both Vietnamese-Americans, were jailed for making plans to sabotage the country's celebration of the Reunification Day on April 30. The organization is also accused of being behind a petrol bomb attack that burnt 320 motorbikes at a police warehouse in the southern Dong Nai Province in April 2017; and a failed terror attack at HCMC's Tan Son Nhat International Airport later that month. A HCMC court in December 2017 sentenced 15 Vietnamese to between five and 16 years in prison for the two attacks. Martinez said his uncle told him what happened as soon as he got to his relatives' home. The uncle arrived home from work just in time to see the top floor of the building explode, Martinez said. A motorcyclist is dead after crashing into the back of a four-wheel-drive trying to reverse park north of Brisbane, police say. Emergency services, including critical care paramedics, were called to the scene near the intersection of King Street and Gallipoli Drive in Caboolture about 12.45pm on Tuesday. A Queensland police spokesman said the rider was heading east on King Street when he was involved in a collision with the back of a 4WD that was trying to reverse park. The 50-year-old local man, who was riding the motorbike, was declared dead at the scene. Police had advised motorists to avoid the area, until the crash was cleared about 3pm. New Mexico was recently ranked near the top by a consumer website, in terms of the fastest responses to the crisis brought by COVID-19. This was according to Finder.com, an online page offering resources for selecting services and making decisions related to finances. Relatively, New Mexico is ranked 4th of all the 50 states for the speed in declaring a state of emergency, which took place on the same day the first COVID-19 case was discovered. Also, the list is taking into account when states shut down businesses and schools and the issuance of stay-at-home guidelines. Specifically, West Virginia, Michigan, and Delaware were the top three in the ranking. Nebraska is ranked last, one of the many states that have not issued a stay-at-home order or closed establishments. New Mexico's Response to COVID-19 In the Public Holding Statement, which the New Mexico Tourism Department released recently, it expressed support for Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and the state's Department of Health in their initiatives to alleviate the possibility of community spread of COVID-19 in this global crisis. Substantially, obedience with the government's proactive measures can undoubtedly save lives, and this is New Mexico's top priority, especially in this public health emergency. Indeed, the residents' health and wellbeing is the utmost importance to the state's Tourism Department. To ensure the utmost importance is given attention, the state continues to be in close collaboration with the Department of Health, the Office of the Governor, other agencies of the state, national partners and the tourism partners across New Mexico to guarantee that the public health preservation becomes the top priority. Moreover, the Tourism Department is devoted to back all of the initiatives of public health, reduce the negative economic effect, and evaluate probable recovery plans. Among the Best States Because of Low Infection Rate Recent reports have it that New Mexico is presently among the best states in the US to survive because of the low infection rate. This is partly a sign that its strict social distancing implementation, as well as its policy on stay-at-home order, are effectively working. More so, the strict reinforcement and implementation of social distancing order and stay-at-home policy are just a few steps needed to take for COVID-19's flattening of the curve. Simultaneously, vaccines to combat infections and fatal viruses are unfortunately still unavailable in the market. COVID-19 Cases in the US As of this writing, the US is first among all the countries of the world with the most number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Records show that there are 794,330 cases of the said virus and 42,634 deaths in the country. Presently, there are over 2.5 million COVID-19 cases, and over 170,000 deaths worldwide. This number, according to health experts, is expected to rise as soon as the mass testing for the infectious disease is done, and the policy on stay-at-home has been lifted. Check these out! By Lan Shunzheng At present, confirmed cases have appeared in militaries of multiple countries with a large number of related personnel having been quarantined amid the spreading novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic across the world. This will undoubtedly have a greater adverse impact on the normal training and deployment of the military. Virtual reality (VR) training will thereby play an immense role in solving the current difficulties faced by the militaries. US soldiers conduct training with VR devices. Traditional military training means restricted amid the pandemic In the case of the pandemic, traditional training means will no longer be feasible. To curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Pentagon has closed its recruitment center, and no one is allowed to get in or out without permission; canceled or slashed training activities, exercises including NATOs Defender Europe 2020, US-Israel Eagle Genesis, and India-led "Milan-2020" having been cancelled or postponed indefinitely. Besides, some important figures in the militaries of various countries have to "work from home". US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist were "physically quarantined" before, and could only communicate with others via video calls. These measures are necessary in such a special period. However, the long-term impact on future military combat readiness cannot be neglected since the end of the pandemic remains unclear. The lack of training may lead to skill degradation and even decline in joint operation capability and interoperability. The picture shows participants taking flight training via VR technology. VR technology facilitates non-contact training When traditional training means are restricted, VR technology opens up another viable path. People have been quite familiar with VR technology. The integration of some technologies and hardware such as computer graphics technology, multimedia technology, sensor technology, human-computer interaction techniques, network technique, stereoscopic display technology and simulation technique can generate the technology of VR. It can in turn establish a highly realistic computer simulation environment in the senses of vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste, and users can interact with the environment to have immersive experience. The VR technology can function to simulate more realistic rehearsal of concept exercises (RCOs), and has been highly valued by the military since its birth. At present, the VR technology has been widely used in the military field, ranging from individual training software, table-mounted flight training device, immersive virtual reality training environment and multi-site complex tactical team training device. The VR training has many advantages. In addition to the most obvious ones of saving training funds, reducing logistics support pressure, shortening equipment development cycle and avoiding accidental casualties and equipment damage during training, the technology also allows single or multiple participants to complete training tasks in different virtual environments without going outside and physical contact, and this advantage is more evident in the pandemic. The picture shows a soldier carrying out sky-diving training via VR technology Data show that the US Army's Close Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT) system can establish a virtual combat environment for combat personnel to complete combat training tasks in an artificially synthetic environment. A virtual system of this kind enables quarantined units or individuals to keep training in a virtual environment amid the pandemic, effectively alleviating the decline in combat capability caused by the break-up of actual training. In this way, the troops can comply with the anti-pandemic guiding principles of quarantine and not going out during the pandemic, and meanwhile maintain combat readiness to a certain degree. To sum up, in view of the impact of the pandemic, VR technology will draw more attention from various countries for its non-contact feature, and may become popular with the militaries across the world in the future. . The Dharavi slum sprawl in Mumbai on Tuesday reported 12 new COVID-19 cases with one death, a senior BMC official said. With this, the total number of the coronavirus- afflicted people in the congested locality, believed to be the Asia's largest slum with the highest population density in Mumbai, reached 180. The number of the deceased has gone up to 12 with a 62-year-old man succumbing to the coronavirus infection earlier in the day, the official said. The new cases, including three women patients, were found in Mukund Nagar, Madina Nagar, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, and Muslim Nagar localities of Dharavi. Meanwhile, the official said that about 62 per cent (113) of the total 180 cases were reported from five high risk zones of the slum sprawl. He said 83 of the 113 cases were detected through fever camps and community screening. While the maximum 44 cases were reported from Kalyanwadi high risk zone, 27 cases were reported from Mukund Nagar. Areas like Muslim Nagar and Madina Nagar have reported 23 cases altogether, followed by Social Nagar (13) and Dr Baliga Nagar (6). Another civic official said one more perosn tested positive for coronavirus in Dadar Police Colony. Dadar has so far reported 25 COVID-19 cases (including one in Police Colony). With three more persons testing positive for coronavirus, the tally of such cases in Mahim rose to 17 including one death. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amissah is said to have travelled from Kumasi to Accra to buy fish with a female friend. When the matter was called, Amissah failed to appear before the Court hence the bench warrant was issued for his arrest. The matter has been adjourned to April 27 by the Court, presided over by Mrs Afia Owusuaa Appiah. Police Chief Inspector William K. Boateng told the Court that on April 13, this year, Inspector James Addo, stationed at Kokrobite in Accra, was in charge of a patrol team detailed for Operation COVID-19 duties at Kokrobite and its surroundings. He said whilst on their normal patrols at Bortianor, along the beach, Amissah was spotted and when he was questioned as to how he managed to travel from Kumasi to Accra despite Government's Restrictions Order, he was unable to give any legitimate reason for his travel. Prosecution said Amissah told the Police that he came over to buy fresh fish at the seashore in the company of his female friend who stayed at Darkuman. He was arrested and brought to the Kokrobite Station. In his cautioned statement he admitted having violated the Restrictions of Movement. ---GNA WEST HAVEN The Westie spirit grew Monday. Walmart of West Haven employees donateed several cases of Gatorade, water, and Lysol disinfectant spray and wipes to members of: the West Shore, West Haven and city of West Haven Allingtown fire departments; the West Haven and New Haven police departments; and the Connecticut State Police to aid first responders in the coronavirus fight. Among those receiving the supplies in the Walmart parking lot at 515 Sawmill Road on behalf of the departments were West Haven Mayor Nancy R. Rossi; West Shore Fire Department Chief Stephen Scafariello; West Haven Fire Department Chief James P. OBrien; acting city of West Haven Fire Department Allingtown Chief Michael T. Esposito; West Haven police Sgt. Patrick Buturla and Officers Ahmed Arnold, Kevin Bowerman and Kim Simone; and Walmart store manager Tamara Sweeney and asset protection associate Nyijal McMillan, according to a release. The New Haven Youth Department was part of the partnership. The department also has donated to create bags for families during the trying time of the coronavirus pandemic. Walmart and other West Haven businesses also have mobilized to donate cleaning supplies, face shields and medical gowns to help protect people from COVID-19, the release noted. NEWTOWN BOROUGH >> The Newtown Borough Council welcomes the new year with three new members of council and a new borough mayor. District Court Judge Mick Petrucci was on hand on January 3 to administer the oath of office to the towns new mayor, Republican John Burke, who replaces longtime mayor Charles Corky Swartz who decided not to run for... LANSE, MI - One Upper Peninsula prosecutor says Michigans stay home order doesnt have language prohibiting motorized boating - and hes very unlikely to charge people who take their boats on the water as long as theyre using common sense. Baraga County Prosecutor Joseph OLeary said theres nothing in Gov. Gretchen Whitmers order that specifically bans motorized boating during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reports. However, the governors office is saying it does. RELATED: Fishing, boating vital in easing stress during coronavirus pandemic, conservation group says in lawsuit The governors ban sparked a protest in Baraga County over the weekend. Dozens of people fished out of motorboats at the Baraga Marina on Sunday, despite cold weather, Upper Michigan Source reports. Protesters argued that it is possible to fish out of a motorboat and abide social distancing guidelines. Plus, with many people not working, fishing is a recreational activity that will keep them busy. RELATED: Protesters angry with Gov. Whitmers stay-at-home order gridlock Michigan Capitol Whitmers order allows non-motorized boat like kayaking and canoeing, identifying them as "outdoor physical activities, the AP reports. In my opinion, fishing is an outdoor physical activity with or without a motor attached, OLeary said on the Baraga County website. If two people from different households are sitting on opposite ends of a boat, theyre very unlikely to have a problem with OLearys office, the AP reports. However, he urges common sense and social distancing, warning against sitting side-by-side, sharing bottles, large groups on boats, and tying boats together. However, the prosecutor cautioned would-be boaters that other law enforcement agencies, such as the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, have different opinions on the governors order, the report said. Violations are misdemeanors and carry fines. Michigan is under a stay home order through April 30. As of Monday, there were 32,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Michigan, with 2,468 total deaths. The state is releasing recovery data once per week; so far, 3,237 people have recovered from the virus. RELATED: New Michigan coronavirus deaths at lowest number in two weeks Read more Michigan coronavirus coverage here. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. READ MORE: Tuesday, April 21: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Gov. Whitmer reacts to Michigans youngest coronavirus death, urges continued social distancing How to treat COVID-19? Michigan doctors say protocols change day by day, week by week Open source On April 21, Russian mercenaries landed two attacks on Ukrainian positions, using the mortars of Minsk-banned calibers. Ukraine's Defense Ministry press office reported that both ceasefire violations occurred in the Luhansk region. Eight mines fired from 120 mm mortars landed on positions of Ukrainian troops in Krymske and Novotoshkivske. "The Joint Forces ceased hostile attacks by decisive actions and the effective use of weapons", the message said. The Ukrainian troops took no casualties. The situation remains stable in all sectors of disengagement of forces in Donbas. The ceasefire is observed, the Defense Ministry claims. On April 20, Russia-backed militants violated the ceasefire in Donbas 13 times and applied weapons that are prohibited by the Minsk agreements. This was reported by the press service of Ukraines Defense Ministry. Nine attacks were observed in the Donetsk region, one in the Luhansk region. The occupants attacked Avdiivka defenders with grenade/rocket launchers, large-caliber machine guns, and small arms. Ukrainian positions were also shelled next to the Taramchuk settlement. As a result of enemy shelling, one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and three others were injured. Regulatory News: Total (Paris:FP) (LSE:TTA) (NYSE:TOT): Given the declaration of the state of health emergency due to the epidemic of Covid-19, as well as in application of the provisions of Ordinance n 2020-290 of March 23, 2020, the Combined Shareholders' Meeting of the Company to be convened on Friday May 29, 2020 at 10:00 am, will be held at the Company's registered office, 2 Place Jean Millier La Defense 6, 92400 Courbevoie without the physical presence of shareholders and other members and persons entitled to participate. No admission card to this Meeting will be issued. The agenda for the Shareholders' Meeting is unchanged. The shareholders are informed that Mses Patricia Barbizet and Marie-Christine Coisne-Roquette, shareholders of the Company, will act as scrutineers for the Shareholders' Meeting. The Shareholders' Meeting will be streamed live in full on the Company's website www.total.com/investors/shareholders-meetings. All useful information relating to this Meeting is regularly updated on this page of the website. In this context, shareholders are invited to exercise their voting rights before the holding of the General Meeting, either by internet via the secured Votaccess platform, or by returning their postal voting form, or also by giving proxy. Proxies to third parties will be treated in accordance with article 6 of decree n 2020-418 of April 10, 2020. The detailed procedures relating to the exercise of the right to vote prior to the Shareholders' Meeting will be specified in the notice of the General Meeting. Insofar as the Shareholders' Meeting will be held without the physical presence of the shareholders, it will not be possible to ask oral questions, amend the resolutions or propose new resolutions. However in order to promote shareholder dialogue, shareholders will have the possibility to ask questions on the dedicated transmission platform which will be accessible three days before the day of the Shareholders' Meeting, i.e. as from May 26, 2020, as well as the day of the Shareholders' Meeting. As in previous Shareholders' Meeting, the Chairman will devote an hour to answering live on the day of the Shareholders' Meeting as many questions as possible. In addition, shareholders have the possibility of sending written questions, no later than the fourth business day preceding the date of the Shareholders' Meeting, i.e., May 25, 2020 by registered letter, to the registered office. To be taken into account, these written questions must be accompanied by a certificate attesting to the registration of the shares in a registered securities account of the Company or in a bearer share account by an intermediary referred to in article L. 211-3 of the French Monetary and Financial Code. About Total Total is a major energy player, which produces and markets fuels, natural gas and low-carbon electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to better energy that is safer, more affordable, cleaner and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, our ambition is to become the responsible energy major. Cautionary note This press release, from which no legal consequences may be drawn, is for information purposes only. The entities in which TOTAL S.A. directly or indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. TOTAL S.A. has no liability for their acts or omissions. In this document, the terms "Total" and "Total Group" are sometimes used for convenience where general references are made to TOTAL S.A. and/or its subsidiaries. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" may also be used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. This document may contain forward-looking information and statements that are based on a number of economic data and assumptions made in a given economic, competitive and regulatory environment. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are subject to a number of risk factors. Neither TOTAL S.A. nor any of its subsidiaries assumes any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information or statement, objectives or trends contained in this document whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005995/en/ Contacts: Total contacts Media Relations: +33 1 47 44 46 99 l presse@total.com l @TotalPress Investor Relations: +44 (0)207 719 7962 l ir@total.com The State Department believes anti-United States propaganda coming from Russia, Iran, and China has converged at an accelerated rate during the coronavirus pandemic, Politico reports. A report produced by the department's Global Engagement Center found that while the three countries have pushed similar messages about the U.S. in the past, the campaigns were fairly narrow, focusing mostly on supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and criticizing the U.S. for bailing on international agreements. In the months since the pandemic surged, the State Department says there's been a lot more cohesion. Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran are propping up conspiracy theories accusing U.S. troops of spreading the virus, claiming China's response to the initial outbreak was strong (especially compared to U.S. negligence), and suggesting all three governments are managing the crisis well while the U.S. economy flounders. Washington doesn't believe it's a coincidence since the Chinese Communist Party, normally stringent in their internet censorship, is allowing Russian disinformation to spread throughout the country. Lea Gabrielle, the head of the GEC, said Beijing "went from letting Russian disinformation claiming the U.S. was the source of the virus proliferate in Chinese social media, to raising questions on state media about the origin's source, to promoting disinformation that the U.S. was the source of the virus. Read more at Politico. More stories from theweek.com How close are we to herd immunity? Georgia's dangerous coronavirus experiment The Navajo Nation outbreak reveals an ugly truth behind America's coronavirus experience Principals have been told to plan for classes with only 10 children, stagger start times and put hand sanitiser in every classroom as the state government prepares to have all public school pupils back full-time by late July. The government's decision to bring all NSW public school students back in four phases, starting with one day a week, has divided parents. Some welcome the brief return to normality for their children while others saying a single day would be confusing and disruptive. Letitia and Jerom Zwart's three children Jasper, 7, Evie, 10, and Maddie, 16, are all learning at home. Credit:James Brickwood Educators are also divided over the best way to return to the classroom, with Catholic Schools NSW and the P&C Federation backing an approach advocated by the NSW Teachers Federation to bring back kindergarten and senior high school students first. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian ended weeks of speculation on Tuesday when she announced the plan for public schools to return to normal over four stages, beginning with all students attending for one day a week from May 11. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (21) Our County Health Department head yesterday applauded the increase in testing for COVID-19. Today the county mayor announced plans to reopen the county May 1. Both have been quiet on ramping up testing. Mrs. Barnes says it will increase but her news piece in the Chattanoogan does not give specific numbers. The news piece in Times Free Press on the county mayor decision has no information on test ramp up. Figures from County Health department show in the last week, 149 tests were analyzed with 13 mores cases showing positive. That is 19 tests per day in a county with population of about 368,000. So with less than one half of 1 percent of county population tested and no firm statement as I hear of testing ramp up, it is considered safe to go about "normal life as of May 1. I saw there are caveats, like if you are old or fragile, stay hidden. If 1 percent of Hamilton County is to be tested to give a benchmark, that would mean over 19 days about 100 people per day need random testing. I see no plan for that. An aside, the cruise ship stuck in Yokohama, Japan had about 700 cases and around 350 of them had no symptoms. Only Saturday could one be tested because they felt a need. The mayor's chief of staff points out data for having a plan of reopening wont be here for at least 10 days. There is no stated plan for random sampling of people in Hamilton County like testing that just got noted in Los Angeles County. As a contractor lab for the county, Baylor Schools lab was touted to be capable of 300 tests per day. Then the number was 70. What it is in reality I do not know. What seems to be the case is testing capability is still really low and changing really slowly. So my take is May 1 is a goal, not a reality based in sound science or sound science en route. Our populace is again akin to living in a mushroom farm with food source and light availability. Why the fear of laying the cards out in plain English I do not understand, nor the inability of journalists in this community to ask. Pam Sohn is a welcome exception. She has been spot on in wondering aloud what is up. Back to the Silence. Prentice Hicks An empty market in south-east London as coronavirus has battered the economy. (Claire Doherty/In Pictures via Getty Images) Real wages in Britain were still lower than before the 2008 economic crisis even before the coronavirus struck, official figures show. The average employees pay in February was worth less than just before the global financial crisis over a decade ago, when rising prices are taken into account. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures published on Tuesday do not show how pay has fared since the economy began to seize up under the weight of the coronavirus and lockdown. But separate surveys suggest many households have seen their incomes slide in recent weeks, with work drying up, job losses mounting and pay slashed for millions of furloughed workers. The ONS figures show average pay packets before tax came in at 511 a week in February. But the official statistics body also compared its value over time using constant 2015 prices, as typically rising average prices erode the actual value of wages. This showed average pay in real terms is 2 lower than its peak before the credit crunch in March 2008. Read more: UK unemployment rose just before coronavirus crisis hit Frances OGrady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said it showed Britain was on the brink of another economic crisis before we have recovered from the last one. She said Britains workers had suffered the longest pay squeeze in centuries, with official figures showing a feeble decade of growth, productivity and earnings since the last crisis. She called for pay to be increased for staff putting their health at risk by continuing to work, and for higher and quicker support through universal credit for those incomes have suffered or vanished. Our frontline heroes desperately need a pay rise. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Richard Munson, 73 years of age, of Imperial, passed away Thursday afternoon, April 16th, 2020 at the Chase County Community Hospital in Imperial with his wife by his side. He was born on December 5, 1946 in Fort Dodge, IA. He was the third child of Franklin Louis and Mary Jane Alice (Garrett) Munson who lived on a farm near Burnside, IA. Annette and Gary welcomed him into their family which would later include Martha. Richard was baptized and confirmed at the Immanuel Lutheran Church at Burnside. Rich was very involved in his church and 4-H. He often had jobs helping other farmers throughout high school. Richard was never afraid of work just like his parents. In fact, it gave him pleasure and pride. Richard graduated in 1965 from Central Webster High School, at Burnside, IA. He attended Peru State College at Peru, where he graduated in 1971 with a BFA in music education. During that time, he met his future wife, Letitia Marie Buss. They were married at St. Paul's Lutheran Church at rural DeWitt on September 4, 1971. Richard was a public school music educator for 36 years all across Nebraska. Richard finished his teaching career at Chase County Schools in Imperial. Over the years, he did many other jobs as well from welding to machinery sales and repair to road construction. He was also an active member of the Cuming County Choraleers, Lions club, Nebraska Ambassadors of Music, Nebraska Band Masters Association, Nebraska Music Educators Association, and the Nebraska Education Association. After retirement, Richard has continued his passion for music by giving lessons and doing instrument repairs. He has continued working in the garage on tractor restorations and small engine repair. The state of Oregon is releasing the names of nursing care and assisted living facilities where a resident or staff member has tested positive for the virus. A resident who tested positive may no longer be at the facility, but rather may be in the hospital, the state notes. The facility will remain on the list until 14 days have passed without any residents showing symptoms of the virus. Those are labeled recovered. Staff members who contract the coronavirus do not continue to work when ill. Healthcare at Foster Creek has become the site of the largest known cluster of coronavirus cases and deaths in the state, with 50 confirmed cases among residents and staff. The state confirmed earlier this month that the new coronavirus has spread to at least 34 senior care homes throughout Oregon and nearly 90 homes are under investigation for possible cases. But the Oregon Department of Human Services did not originally provide basic information that could alert the public about the extent of the problem, citing patient privacy concerns. After multiple requests from The Oregonian/OregonLive, the department began posting the information online, Here is the list posted by the state on Friday, April 17. It will be updated twice a week. Click this link if the table does not appear. Calling nursing homes ground zero of the coronavirus crisis, federal officials said Monday they plan to start tracking and publicly sharing information on infections and deaths in such facilities to help spot trends and early signs the virus is spreading in communities. The move comes as critics, industry officials and local leaders have called for more aggressive actions by the federal government to track infections in homes and contain outbreaks by helping them get greater access to testing and masks, especially given the vulnerability of elderly residents. Its our intention to make that information public," Seema Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said during a call with reporters, adding that details were still being worked out on when or how the information would be distributed. Because the federal government has not been releasing a count of its own, The Associated Press has been keeping its own tally from media reports and state health departments, finding at least 8,496 deaths linked to coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide. But the true toll of the mostly frail and elderly people who live in such facilities is likely much higher, experts say, because many homes have not reported their deaths and state counts may not include those who died without ever being tested. For the federal tracking of infections, Verma said homes could start reporting by the end of this week and that questionnaires from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will collect information on deaths as well as confirmed and suspected cases, including among workers. She also said nursing homes will also be required to tell patients and family members within 12 hours of a confirmed infection. --Staff and Associated Press reports Debbie Johns, left, and Elizabeth Mitchell, right, work at the Chestnut Hill Hospital. Read more Each workday morning, Debbie Johns drives her 23-year-old Ford Probe a little more than two miles from her lifelong Mount Airy home to Chestnut Hill Hospital, where she clocks in for her 7 a.m.-to-3:30 p.m. shift. On the cobblestone sidewalk outside the hospital, scrawled in pastel-colored chalk, are the words: Because of You, We Have Hope." At the entrance, theres a big, hand-painted wooden sign in blue, dug deep into the grass: Heroes Work Here. Johns, 53, smiles to herself. No, shes not a doctor or a nurse struggling around the clock, desperately and tirelessly, trying to save lives from the deadly coronavirus. But shes in this war. Were a part of it, she said. As hospital housekeepers, Johns and her cleaning partner, Liz Mitchell, are trying to stop the spread of the virus, pick up the pieces, and prep each room for the next scared patient. You never know what youre going to walk into, said Mitchell, 64. "Ever. As soon as Johns and Mitchell arrive, they suit up in the same protective gear as the nurses: an N95 mask and eye goggles, a blue gown, two pairs of gloves, two pairs of footies, and a hairnet. They stock their carts with bleach, anti-bacterial spray cleaners, washcloths, linens, toilet paper, tissues, microfiber mops, and wipes, then head up to the fifth floor. This used to be designated for heart patients. Now its for those battling the coronavirus. Some have tested positive. Others are awaiting results. Here they come! The A-team! is the way the nurses always greet them, Johns said. Its like were a family. And that helps, especially in times like these. READ MORE: 9 Philly-area stories of suddenly losing work in the coronavirus crisis: I feel like Ive been benched They include us in everything, Mitchell said. They make us feel like were part of the front line. One morning in early April, there was no doubt. Mitchell and Johns arrived on the floor with all their cleaning supplies. The mood was particularly somber. The women could see that the nurses, even behind goggles and masks, were distraught. They were all crying, Mitchell said. They soon learned a woman in her early 60s had died overnight. It was someone younger than me, Mitchell said. Less than a half-hour later, another patient succumbed. Before Mitchell and Johns could catch their breath, loud alarms sounded. Doctors and nurses were frantic, sprinting into another room. The patient was whisked off to the intensive care unit. Two people died back to back on the same morning. And another goes to the ICU," Mitchell said. It was a wake-up call about just how bad this coronavirus is, she said. It was a reality check for all of us, how hard it is. Everyone feels the pain, Johns said. The scary part is, you cant tell who will get better and who wont. ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters. Whether a patient has died, been discharged, or transferred, Mitchell and Johns wait at least an hour to enter the room and clean. The nurses bag the trash, and Mitchell and Johns take the bags, doubled in plastic, to what they call the biohazard dirty utility room. Then they set about to spray, scrub, wipe, and mop every surface and change the linens. When they opened the door to the room where the first patient died, Mitchell and Johns were stunned. You could see how the medical staff worked to save the patient. There were gowns, tubes, tubing, equipment, things were everywhere, Mitchell said. We cleaned it all up, but it was hard, she said. But having things clean and sanitized is so very important, Johns said. READ MORE: Every day is a fresh hell for undocumented domestic workers in a world turned upside down by coronavirus In pre-coronavirus days, patients often had relatives and friends at their side when Mitchell and Johns came to clean. Now, there is no one. Some patients are asleep or not able to communicate," Johns said. But some can talk. I always say, Hi, hang in there. I try to keep it light, talk about the weather. But I do tell them Im praying for them. The patients are wonderful," she added. They keep you going. Thats why I get up and do what I do. Its not for the pay. Its all about the patients.... Their loved ones cant be there with them. But I can be there. On one recent morning, Mitchell entered the room of an elderly patient who was feeling better and looking forward to finishing the job she had left cleaning out her drawers at home. She was weak, but so happy, Mitchell said. Hospital housekeepers acknowledge theyre frightened they could contract the virus. Im very scared, said Ruby Johnson, who works on the fourth floor at Chestnut Hill Hospital. Im cautious. I dont want to catch it. I dont want to bring it home to my family. Every day, Johnson, who has high blood pressure, takes two buses and a subway home to her husband and grown son in North Philadelphia. I still dont feel safe, even though Im geared up, she said. After I get out of a room, I cant take my clothes off and shower. I stay in the same uniform.... I try not to think about it. I give it to God and pray on it and hope it doesnt come my way." Jesse Wilderman, secretary-treasurer of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, calls housekeepers like Mitchell, Johns, and Johnson unsung heroes in this battle were fighting. Too many [environmental service] workers are just scraping by, working for poverty wages and relying on public assistance to put food on the table for their families, he said. Yet they show up every day, putting themselves in harms way to make sure patients can get safe care. When they get home, Mitchell, Johns, and Johnson take off their uniform of black pants and a gray top and immediately throw them in the washer before they see their families or eat dinner. Their work shoes never make it inside. They try to rest and prepare for the next day. We just never know whats going to happen, Johns said. Sometimes it really does feel like a war. PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-21 17:48:06 Event to take place on May 4, 2020 at 10:00 am (ET) / 4:00 pm (CET) Daix (France), April 21, 2020 Inventiva (Euronext: IVA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing oral small molecule therapies for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) and other diseases with significant unmet medical need, today announced that it will host a webcast presentation with two Key Opinion Leaders on May 4, 2020 to provide an update on its Phase IIb NATIVE (NAsh Trial to Validate IVA337 Efficacy) clinical trial evaluating lanifibranor for the treatment of NASH ahead of the release of headline results, which is expected in June 2020. With the participation of Prof. Sven Francque, M.D., Antwerp University Hospital, co-principal investigator of the NATIVE clinical trial, and Prof. Pierre Bedossa, M.D., Paris-Diderot University, the central pathologist in charge of the biopsy analyses of the NATIVE clinical trial, the Company will discuss the trial design and present the characteristics of the patient population. At this stage, the trial remains blinded, in line with the protocol. During this event, which had initially been scheduled to take place during the International Liver Congress 2020 (European Association for the Study of the Liver), Inventiva will explain the methodology used for the analysis of patient biopsies in the NATIVE clinical trial, and compare the different screening approaches currently used in NASH clinical trials, in particular the Steatosis, Activity, Fibrosis (SAF") and NAFLD Activity Score (NAS") scoring systems. Pierre Broqua, CSO and cofounder of Inventiva, said: "After the analysis of all biopsies in the NATIVE clinical trial announced in mid-March, this webcast represents the last event before the expected publication of the trials headline results in June 2020. Prior to the clinical data release, we would like to review the different aspects of the trial in detail and we are delighted to benefit, on this occasion, from the participation of Prof. Sven Francque and Prof. Pierre Bedossa, two highly recognized experts in the NASH field. In particular, we will focus on how the trial design and our innovative screening strategy based on the SAF score enabled us to meet our patient recruitment objectives, including a high percentage of patients with severe steatohepatitis associated with advanced fibrosis. The event details are as follows: Date: Monday, May 4, 2020 Time: 10:00 am - 11:30 am (ET) / 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm (CET) Speakers: Prof. Pierre Bedossa, M.D., Paris-Diderot University, pathologist in charge of the biopsy analyses of the NATIVE clinical trial Pierre Broqua, CSO and cofounder of Inventiva Prof. Sven Francque, M.D., Antwerp University Hospital, co-principal investigator of the NATIVE clinical trial Connection details: Option #1 Webcast: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/dmwekswt Option #2 Conference call: Numbers: France: +33 (0) 1 70 70 82 21 Belgium: +32 (0) 2 400 3439 Germany: +49 (0) 69 2443 7403 Netherlands: +31 (0) 20 715 7566 Switzerland: +41 (0) 44 580 6084 United Kingdom: +44 (0) 203 009 5709 United States: +1 646-787-1226 Access code: 5267504 The presentation document and the link to the webcast will also be available on Inventivas website in the Investors Investor Presentations section. A replay of the event will be available at: http://inventivapharma.com/investors/investor-presentations/ . About lanifibranor Lanifibranor, Inventivas lead product candidate, is an orally-available small molecule that acts to induce anti-fibrotic, anti-inflammatory and beneficial vascular and metabolic changes in the body by activating all three peroxisome proliferatoractivated receptor (PPAR) isoforms, which are wellcharacterized nuclear receptor proteins that regulate gene expression. Lanifibranor is a PPAR agonist that is designed to target all three PPAR isoforms in a moderately potent manner, with a wellbalanced activation of PPAR and PPAR, and a partial activation of PPAR. While there are other PPAR agonists that target only one or two PPAR isoforms for activation, lanifibranor is the only panPPAR agonist in clinical development. Inventiva believes that lanifibranors moderate and balanced panPPAR binding profile contributes to the favorable safety and tolerability profile that has been observed in clinical trials and preclinical studies to date. Inventiva is currently evaluating lanifibranor in a Phase IIb clinical trial for the treatment of NASH, a common and progressive chronic liver disease, for which there is currently no approved therapy. About the NATIVE Phase IIb trial The NATIVE (NAsh Trial to Validate IVA337 Efficacy) clinical trial is a 24-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase IIb clinical trial evaluating lanifibranor for the treatment of patients with NASH. The main purpose of the trial is to assess the efficacy of lanifibranor in improving liver inflammation and ballooning, the two histological markers included in the definition of the regulatory endpoint of NASH resolution. To be considered for inclusion, patients were required to have: a diagnosis of NASH confirmed by liver biopsy; a cumulative score of inflammation and ballooning (as measured using the SAF scoring system) of three or four out of four, indicating the presence of moderate to severe inflammation and ballooning; a steatosis score greater than or equal to one, indicating the presence of moderate to severe steatosis; and a fibrosis score less than four, indicating the absence of cirrhosis. The primary endpoint of the trial is a reduction in the combined inflammation and ballooning score of two points compared to baseline, without worsening fibrosis. Secondary endpoints include NASH resolution, improvements in each of the steatosis, inflammation, ballooning and fibrosis scores from baseline as measured using the SAF score, improvements in various other fibrosis measures, improvements in several metabolic markers, improvements in steatosis, inflammation and ballooning as measured using the NAS score, and safety. The trial randomized 247 patients with NASH at more than 70 sites in Australia, Canada, Europe, Mauritius and the United States. Results of the trial are expected in June 2020. About Inventiva Inventiva is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of oral small molecule therapies for the treatment of NASH, MPS and other diseases with significant unmet medical need. Leveraging its expertise and experience in the domain of compounds targeting nuclear receptors, transcription factors and epigenetic modulation, Inventiva is currently advancing two clinical candidates, as well as a deep pipeline of earlier stage programs. Lanifibranor, its lead product candidate, is being developed for the treatment of patients with NASH, a common and progressive chronic liver disease. Inventiva is currently evaluating lanifibranor in a Phase IIb clinical trial for the treatment of this disease for which there are currently no approved therapies. Inventiva is also developing odiparcil, a second clinical stage asset, for the treatment of patients with MPS, a group of rare genetic disorders. A Phase Ib/II clinical trial in children with MPS VI is currently under preparation following the release of positive results of the Phase IIa clinical trial in adult MPS VI patients at the end of 2019. In parallel, Inventiva is in the process of selecting an oncology development candidate for its Hippo signalling pathway program. Furthermore, the Company has established a strategic collaboration with AbbVie in the area of autoimmune diseases. AbbVie has started the clinical development of ABBV157, a drug candidate for the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis resulting from its collaboration with Inventiva. This collaboration enables Inventiva to receive milestone payments upon the achievement of pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, in addition to royalties on any approved products resulting from the collaboration. The Company has a scientific team of approximately 50 people with deep expertise in the fields of biology, medicinal and computational chemistry, pharmacokinetics and pharmacology, as well as in clinical development. It also owns an extensive library of approximately 240,000 pharmacologically relevant molecules, approximately 60% of which are proprietary, as well as a whollyowned research and development facility. Inventiva is a public company listed on compartment C of the regulated market of Euronext Paris (Euronext: IVA ISIN: FR0013233012). www.inventivapharma.com Contacts Inventiva Frederic Cren Chairman & CEO info@inventivapharma.com +33 3 80 44 75 00 Brunswick Group Yannick Tetzlaff / Tristan Roquet Montegon / Aude Lepreux Media relations inventiva@brunswickgroup.com +33 1 53 96 83 83 Westwicke, an ICR Company Patricia L. Bank Investor relations patti.bank@westwicke.com +1 415 513 1284 Important Notice This press release contains forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates with respect to Inventivas clinical trials, clinical trial data releases, clinical development plans, , and anticipated future activities of Inventiva. Certain of these statements, forecasts and estimates can be recognized by the use of words such as, without limitation, believes, anticipates, expects, intends, plans, seeks, estimates, may, will and continue and similar expressions. Such statements are not historical facts but rather are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management's beliefs. These statements reflect such views and assumptions prevailing as of the date of the statements and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause future results, performance or future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual events are difficult to predict and may depend upon factors that are beyond Inventiva's control. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline product candidates that the clinical trial results will be available on their anticipated timeline, that future clinical trials will be initiated as anticipated, or that candidates will receive the necessary regulatory approvals. Therefore, actual results may turn out to be materially different from the anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements, forecasts and estimates. Given these uncertainties, no representations are made as to the accuracy or fairness of such forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates only speak as of the date of this press release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements. Please refer to the Universal Reference Document filed with the Autorite des Marches Financiers on February 7, 2020 under n D.20-0038 for additional information in relation to such factors, risks and uncertainties. Except as required by law, Inventiva has no intention and is under no obligation to update or review the forward-looking statements referred to above. Consequently, Inventiva accepts no liability for any consequences arising from the use of any of the above statements. Attachment Jacksonville Beach, Florida, on April 19, two days after Governor DeSantis announced beaches would reopen. Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images Were committed to keeping our readers informed. Weve removed our paywall from essential coronavirus news stories. Become a subscriber to support our journalists. Subscribe now. On Monday in Georgia, where caseloads are still climbing daily and over 700 people have died from the coronavirus, Governor Brian Kemp announced that businesses including gyms, barbers, and hair stylists will be able to open on Friday. Theaters and restaurants will be allowed to open on Monday, if owners enforce proper social distancing, though bars and clubs will remain closed. As part of Kemps small step forward, religious services will also be allowed to hold in-person services. Though just last week, Kemp claimed that his priority was to increase the states testing capacity so that his administration could make a more informed decision on when to reopen, he revised that plan, citing the economic toll of COVID-19 on the states businesses: I know the impact of this pandemic on hardworking Georgians in every zip code and every community. Kemp also cited White House leadership, reiterating the presidents desire to reopen the economy and get Americans back to work. Trumps leadership, however, has amounted to a message that governors should call your own shots as the federal government fails to deliver on adequate levels of testing. And in that absence of information, some Republican governors have decided to push forward. Though the primary federal model of the viruss impact on individual states asserts that Georgia shouldnt relax social distancing until after June 15 and that dozens of Peach Staters will die every day in the coming week Kemps decision risks a second wave of outbreaks before the first one ends. He is, however, following the advice of conservative pundits who have suggested that some Americans should bear additional hardships: While the statewide shelter-in-place order ends on April 30, seniors and the medically fragile are encouraged to shelter-at-home until May 13. As public health officials continue to stress the importance of social distancing at this stage in the pandemic, the governors of Tennessee and South Carolina both stated they would loosen restrictions shortly after Kemps announcement. Governor Henry McMaster announced that South Carolina department and retail stores, as well as flea markets, can open on Tuesday if they adhere to social distancing minimums: Businesses must limit customers to five per 1,000 square feet of retail space, or 20 percent occupancy. McMaster also allowed for beaches, public piers, and wharfs to reopen, if local officials determine it is safe in their area. In Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee announced that the vast majority of businesses could reopen on May 1, a week from Friday. While the maintenance of social distancing within retail stores and restaurants will be an important, if simple, tool in returning local economies to their pre-pandemic state, the decisions made by this southern trifecta come as we are still learning about the nature of the coronavirus including the dangers of spreading COVID-19 in air-conditioned rooms, which are ubiquitous in southern states in May. But even prior to the decisions to reopen, governors like Brian Kemp and Floridas Ron DeSantis who announced the opening of some beaches last Friday have already shown a willingness to overlook life-saving information about the virus. On April 2, well into the national outbreak, Governor Kemp said that he only just found out that COVID-19 could be transmitted by asymptomatic carriers, calling his newfound knowledge a game-changer. DeSantis, on the day he announced beaches were back, still did not know how to wear a mask: And heres Florida Governor Ron DeSantis putting on his mask... pic.twitter.com/YKLHu7nuBo Rex Chapman (@RexChapman) April 18, 2020 Some terrible ideas never go away, especially ideas that help politicians to disguise weakness as strength. One such scheme in the Beltway bag of tricks is the proposal to punish a hostile foreign power by allowing it to be sued in court. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) and Martha McSally (R., Ariz.) are the latest to try this tactic, proposing a bill that would allow Americans harmed by the coronavirus or their estates if they have died from it to sue China for damages. To pave the way, Senators Blackburn and McSally would strip of sovereign immunity any foreign state (i.e., China) that even accidentally discharges a biological agent upon the world. Sounds ferocious, right? Except no American victim would actually get compensation, because Beijing would, of course, ignore the lawsuits . . . except to exploit them as a (further) excuse not to cooperate with American and foreign investigations; as a further basis not to honor its treaty obligations; as a reason to step up its aggression in the Far East; and as a rationale for retaliating by encouraging other countries to strip sovereign immunity from the United States, so that our nation and officials may be sued and indicted for harms real and imagined abroad. This is foolish on so many levels it is tough to know where to begin. Great powers should never pretend that national-security challenges are mere litigation matters. Throughout the Clinton and Obama years, Republicans rightly argued that Democratic administrations were recklessly treating international terrorist organizations, aided and abetted by hostile foreign governments, as if they were just a crime problem. Most prominently, al-Qaeda considered itself at war with the United States, projecting force on a par with a nations and mass-murdering Americans. Yet, our government treated it as if it could be quelled by indictments, subpoenas, asset forfeitures, and other legal maneuvers court cases in which the murderous group enjoyed the presumption of innocence, assistance of counsel, copious discovery of government intelligence files, and so on. Story continues This approach emboldened our enemies. It told them that we lacked the will for combat, intelligence activities, and governmental seizures of territory and treasure. We were content, instead, with the simulacrum of national defense: high-profile court proceedings that, far from posing a meaningful deterrent, encouraged more attacks. Such proceedings are an exquisite way for a government to choreograph the appearance of action arrests (cum press conference vows to bring our foes to justice) followed by indictments (more press conferences), hearings, long trials, and harsh sentences. The months turn into years of media coverage. It can make a few mostly low-level defendants look like a caliphs army. People may not notice that weve actually hauled into court only a handful of foreign operatives, all of whom the enemy has long since replaced as it continues its hostile operations. In the interim, the enemy has hit us again and again, realizing it has relative immunity: Were relying on lawsuits while its hierarchy orchestrates forcible attacks from overseas safe havens, outside the jurisdiction of our police and courts. As I recounted in Willful Blindness, in the eight years between the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and its 2001 destruction, our enemies plotted repeated attacks against our country, targeting skyscrapers, military installations, embassies, and a naval destroyer. Our response was courtroom prosecution. It looked like a vigorous, sustained effort but, in the end, we convicted a grand total of 29 mostly low-level terrorists the few we could get our hands on. It was not until after the shocking 9/11 attacks that President Bush sought, and Congress enacted, an authorization of military operations that resulted in decisive attacks on the enemys safe havens. Purposeful diplomatic warnings, at least for a time, discouraged rogue state sponsors of terrorism. Making lawsuits the response to foreign provocations also distorts governmental responsibilities. The courts do not have a national-security function. In our system, the defense of the nation is committed to the political branches that are accountable to the American people whose lives are at stake. It is the president and Congress who are supposed to deal with provocations by foreign powers, using diplomatic, military, intelligence, and other government capabilities to seek accommodations including any monetary compensation for victims of willful or accidental harms. We quite intentionally insulate our courts from this political role. The judiciarys duty is not to safeguard the public; it is to ensure that parties in court cases are afforded the laws due-process safeguards. A bill that makes the judiciary responsible for responding to and punishing China over the COVID-19 disaster is a bill that takes that responsibility away from the political branches where it rightfully resides, and gives it to the non-political branch charged with protecting Chinas rights as a litigant. That would not be most Americans idea of justice. And then there is the reciprocity problem. No nation is more active on the world stage than the United States. No nation, then, has more interest in upholding the doctrine of sovereign immunity than ours. We are deeply involved in overt military operations and covert intelligence operations; our diplomatic officers, as well as our other appointed and elected officials, play a decisive role in policies that dramatically affect people in other countries, mostly for the good, but sometimes for ill, including lethal ill. Sovereign immunity from liability in court proceedings prevents American officials and operatives from being hauled into foreign courts, ensuring that disputes among foreign powers are handled diplomatically. How much would the rogue regimes in China, Russia, and Iran love a world in which the United States, the defender of the international order, undermined the basic protections of that order? How much would they exploit the implicit invitation to use the kangaroo courts of their vassals as a weapon against the West? No one should know better than Senator McSally, a heroic veteran Air Force officer and combat pilot, that if sovereign immunity were eroded, American operatives who act in American interests overseas would be vulnerable to foreign prosecution. Their ability to travel internationally would be paralyzed by the threat of arrest. The precedent would be terrible in another way, too. Sovereign immunity protects American officials from even intentional harm caused to other countries. The Blackburn/McSally bill, by contrast, would make China liable in U.S. courts even if the harm it caused was unintentional i.e., even if, as seems highly plausible, the coronavirus was unleashed in a lab accident. While Chinas misfeasance was probably unintentional, its cover-up has been the opposite: willful and insidious. Day after day come righteous complaints from U.S. lawmakers and American officials that Beijings lack of transparency is costing us the time and data that we need to save lives. What incentive, exactly, would China have to be transparent to act against its own totalitarian, paranoid, insular nature if disclosure were guaranteed to result in its being sued by thousands of American claimants, whose lawyers would spread that information far and wide in civil complaints designed to frame its actions in the worst possible light? Furthermore, lets bear in mind that no nation on earth is as active as ours in scientific research on substances whose accidental mishandling let alone purposeful deployment could have catastrophic consequences. No nation on earth is as active as ours in humanitarian interventions that, however well-intentioned, sometimes result in considerable collateral damage. Do we really want to encourage the adoption of a principle that sovereign immunity from lawsuits should be denied to a country that was acting within its legitimate rights if its actions caused unintentional harm? The United States would be a safer place if we shed the green eye shades and rose-tinted glasses, stopped regarding China as a coveted market and potential strategic partner, and started seeing it for what it is: a hostile, aggressive power that seeks to displace us on the world stage. If there is a silver lining in the COVID-19 catastrophe, it is this moment of clarity. We should now realize that the best path ahead involves severing our complex tangle of financial and commercial relations with Beijing, and publicly shoring up our support for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and other regional allies menaced by China. Perhaps President Trump could stop referring to the monstrous Xi Jinping as if he were a friend, and to Xis regime as if its intentions were benign. We dont court war, but we do want to make clear that we can tell our friends from our foes and act accordingly. China has much to answer for. We should be in aggressive diplomatic negotiations, working with like-minded nations to demand those answers. Our government should seek compensation for Americans harmed by Chinas negligence in allowing the pandemic to spread and covering it up a tall diplomatic order when we are concurrently seeking cooperation and reasonably civil relations. But enabling lawsuits is the wrong way to go about that task. The United States must protect sovereign immunity, not degrade it by political gestures that, however well-intentioned, could embolden Beijing and make U.S. officials vulnerable without actually helping a single American. More from National Review Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai should hold themselves personally responsible for protecting data collected through their efforts to trace the spread of Covid-19, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote in a letter to the CEOs on Tuesday. "If you seek to assure the public, make your stake in this project personal," wrote Hawley, a prominent tech critic. "Make a commitment that you and other executives will be personally liable if you stop protecting privacy, such as by granting advertising companies access to the interface once the pandemic is over." Apple and Google announced earlier this month that they have teamed up in an effort to combat the spread of the new coronavirus. The companies will release tools allowing public health authorities to create apps that will notify users who opt-in if they have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19. The system, known as contact tracing, will use Bluetooth connections in phones. The partnership has drawn both praise and skepticism just as lawmakers across the political spectrum had agreed that a national privacy law was urgently needed. Several proposals are on the table, but relief measures for the ongoing pandemic have been top priority in Congress over the past several weeks. In his letter to Cook and Pichai, Hawley said that even though the companies promised to use anonymized data in the project, data can often be "reidentified" by cross-checking it with another data set. "Pairing the data from this project with the GPS data that both your companies already collect could readily reveal individual identities," Hawley wrote, adding that the project "could create an extraordinarily precise mechanism for surveillance." Hawley said Google's record on privacy furthered his concerns. As attorney general of Missouri in 2017, Hawley had investigated Google on antitrust grounds. Since then, as a member of Congress, Hawley has frequently criticized what he sees as weak enforcement of antitrust and consumer protection laws on tech companies including Google and Facebook. Neither company commented directly on Hawley's letter, but highlighted the privacy protections for the contact tracing project that they had previously announced. Users have to opt-in to having their data collected for contact tracing, which is based on rotating Bluetooth identifiers, rather than users' locations. The contact tracing is done on a users' device with only non-identifying keys stored on Google and Apple servers. Even if a user tests positive, the system will not identify them to anyone notified. Hawley acknowledged in his letter that his request was unusual, but said, "A project this unprecedented requires an unprecedented assurance on your part." Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. WATCH: Why the U.S. government is questioning your online privacy Pakistan has discreetly removed the names of around 4,000 terrorists from its watchlist, including that of one of the major planners of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup has revealed. Due to Pakistans long history of exporting terror to India and the rest of the world, the country has been placed under grey list by Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog for terror funding. Dissatisfied with Pakistans efforts to curb terror-funding, the FATF in February noted that Islamabad had addressed only 14 points out of 27 conditions to get off the grey list. Also read: 5 times India dissed Pakistans propaganda during Covid-19 crisis The FATF is to again evaluate Pakistans progress in June. The New York-based startup Castellum, which automates watchlist compliance, has found that in the last year and a half, Pakistan has deleted 3,800 names from the Proscribed Persons List, without explanation or notification to the public. The Imran Khan government removed about 1,800 names from its terrorist watchlist since March 9th without any public explanation, including Zaka ur-Rehman, an alias of the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader and alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, the Castellum report said. According to a FATF report, Pakistans terrorist watchlist had about 7,600 names in October 2018. Also read| Bizarre: India dismisses Pak PMs tweet on discrimination against Muslims Castellum.AI, which regularly uses new data sources, added the Pakistan Proscribed Persons List to its database on March 9. Between March 9 and March 27, Castellum.AI data showed that the Khan government removed 1,069 names from the Proscribed Persons List, and that all those names then appeared on Pakistans official denotified list. Since March 27, another 800 or so names have been deleted. To ensure that the AI looked at only the most likely cases where internationally listed terrorists were removed, the startup first downloaded the official Denotified List, then screening the names against its watchlist database. Following this, the AI removed all matches that did not match all name parts and removed all matches where the listed persons were not citizens of Afghanistan or Pakistan (the Proscribed Persons list seems to only have these two groups). Then the AI ensured that exculpatory information does not exist, for example, IDs that do not match, or news reports that the individual is deceased. The AI also ensured that the name, if not exact, matches an official alias. For example, Zaka Ur Rehman, who is more commonly known as Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, but has an official alias Zaki Ur Rehman. In the case of Zaka Ur Rehman, the difference between Zaka and Zaki fits within the parameters of an accurate phonetic translation. Castellum.AI also searched for the Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders full name, Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, on the Pakistan Proscribed Persons list, and he was not on the list. This means that if the removed name is a false positive, that Pakistan has not added the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader to its terrorism watchlist, the report said. Pakistans Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) lead, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), has provided no explanation for removal of the names. Castellum.AI provided data to the Wall Street Journal who in turn contacted the Pakistani government for comment. On April 15, an article was published in a Pakistani newspaper, saying that names were removed because the list has been bloated up to 7,000 names with multiple inaccuracies such as the names of dead individuals, Afghan nationals, untraceable names without proper identifiers. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) President Trump on Tuesday suspended immigration into the U.S. for 60 days, calling it an essential move to protect American workers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement left Bay Area immigrants, advocates and employers angry and confused as they digested the potential impact on their own communities. The executive order was being drafted on Tuesday, according to Trump, who said he expects to sign it Wednesday. It will apply only to individuals seeking permanent residency and will not apply to those who enter the U.S. temporarily, he said. By pausing immigration well help unemployed Americans first in lines for jobs as America reopens, Trump said during a news briefing Tuesday. It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labor flown in from abroad. We must first take care of the American worker. The White House said Trumps concerns for the economy during unprecedented times drove the proposal, but critics decried it as a tactic to mollify his anti-immigration base. Advocates said the measure could stoke xenophobia. We cant on the one hand claim that we are all in this together and on the other start excluding any members of our communities, said Morgan Weibel, executive director of the Tahirih Justice Centers Bay Area office. The national nonprofit helps survivors of gender-based violence. Any sort of restrictive move which scapegoats immigrants for economic hardship that were all facing right now in this pandemic is only going to exacerbate that climate of fear amongst the immigrant population, Weibel said. Trump also confirmed that his administration is considering a second immigration-related executive order that he will likely not sign on Wednesday, but could issue at a later date. It's unclear what measures would be included in the secondary order. We can do that at a different time if we want, Trump said. The president first floated the suspension in a late-night tweet Monday, saying he would shut down all immigration to the U.S. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! he tweeted Initial reports said the suspension would last 90 days and would apply to those seeking temporary work visas, except for people in the fields of agriculture, supply chain and health care. But in his announcement Tuesday, the president appeared to significantly scale back on his original plan. Some observers agreed with the White House position that the move makes sense in an economy where more than 22 million people have been laid off in the past month. This is a prudent response to a crisis thats going on, said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for Immigration Reform, which seeks to reduce immigration levels. It doesnt make any sense to continue taking people in when the economy is in free fall right now. This is a temporary halt due to exigent circumstances. In a draft version of the order, technology workers who have skilled-worker H-1B visas could have been required to update certifications that they are not displacing American workers under the order, Bloomberg said. The initial order likely would have clamped down even further on H-1B visas, a mainstay in Silicon Valley. But after fierce blowback from business groups, Trump decided not to include skilled-work visas in the initial ban, the New York Times reported. The work permit program does not provide for permanent residency. The U.S. grants 85,000 new H-1B visas a year to for-profit employers. A March lottery selected those who could apply this year, with a deadline of June 30 to submit full applications. Advocates have said the administration is making it harder than ever to get the skilled-work visas. 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. Barring H-1B visas would fundamentally undermine startups and our innovation economy, when theyre already vulnerable, said Peter Leroe-Munoz, general counsel and senior vice president of tech and innovation policy at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a trade group that represents many tech employers. Their need for top tech talent continues; it has not changed during the COVID crisis. Some experts said the immigration ban seems largely political, given that most U.S. immigration programs are already on hold. The State Department is no longer processing new visa applications, refugee resettlement has stopped and naturalization ceremonies have been canceled. Asylum seekers have been largely shut out of the country. Weve seen several times before during this administration, when things get politically hairy for them, they tend to do something big on immigration, said Sarah Pierce, an immigration attorney and policy analyst for the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. I think its very possible that this is just a lot of noise to distract the public from the administrations failings regarding the response to the virus. Some claim the presidents order is a tactic to significantly restrict legal immigration to the U.S. a key component of Trumps presidency. I think this is an effort by Donald Trump and people in the administration whove always wanted to reduce immigration as much as possible to use the current crisis to (do so), potentially indefinitely, said Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy. Pierce made similar points. This administration has always framed legal immigration to be made a public safety threat and an economic threat, she said. Now they have a massive economic crisis on their hands so I can definitely see them weaponizing this to decrease immigration overall. One of Trumps most aggressive moves amid the pandemic was to ban asylum seekers in March from seeking refuge in the U.S. on the grounds that it posed a grave risk to public safety. Thousands of asylum seekers who show up at the southern border are not given a chance to petition for asylum and are immediately returned to Mexico. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. San Francisco Chronicle saff writer Anna Bauman contributed to this report. Carolyn Said and Tatiana Sanchez are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com, tatiana.sanchez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @CSaid, @TatianaYSanchez VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadas environmental record outperforms a majority of comparable high-income countries around the world, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian policy think-tank. As Earth Day approaches, its important to acknowledge that Canada has an excellent environmental record when stacked up against the worlds richest, cleanest and most developed countries, said Elmira Aliakbari, associate director of natural resource studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Environmental Ranking for Canada and the OECD . The study ranks 33 high-income countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on a wide range of environmental indicators that relate both to the protection of human health, such as air pollution, and the preservation of Canadas ecosystems, such as water quality. Canada ranks 12th overall with a score of 67 out of a possible 100.0above the OECD average (62.2). Notably, many of the top ranked countries are clustered closely together. For example, Canada and 2nd place New Zealand (which scored 74.7) are less than eight points apart. Sweden ranks 1st with a score of 80. On some important measures, Canada ranks particularly high, including 1st and 4th best on two separate air quality measures, 4th best in fertilizer use and 8th best for low-emitting electricity production. These results are especially impressive considering that, compared to the other OECD countries, Canada is much larger and colder (which means more fuel consumption and emissions) and has a large natural resources industry. The reality is most wealthy, developed countries have established sound environmental protection systems, and Canada compares favourably, Aliakbari said. This Earth Day, Canadians can be proud of our environmental record. MEDIA CONTACT: Elmira Aliakbari, Associate Director, Natural Resource Studies Fraser Institute Story continues To arrange media interviews or for more information, please contact: Bryn Weese, Fraser Institute Tel: (604) 688-0221 ext. 589 E-mail: bryn.weese@fraserinstitute.org Follow the Fraser Institute on Twitter | Become a fan on Facebook STAMFORD They wont be gathering at Cove Island Park for food, fun and festivities this year, but supporters of ARI of Connecticut will soon be walking to raise funds for the nonprofits services for people with developmental disabilities. The Stamford-based organization hopes the 300-plus walkers who would have participated in Sundays 14th annual Walk for Independence will still help them meet their $40,000 goal, ARI President & CEO Susanne Kuligowski said. Were going to be making the best of it, she said. Were asking people to walk with their dogs, with family members and keeping an appropriate distance with neighbors and friends. Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, organizers have re-cast the annual walk as a virtual event available for viewing on the groups Facebook page, YouTube and the ARI website. The day starts with Kuligowskis welcome at 10:45 a.m. Sunday, followed by the yearly warm-up with Eleanor Casale of Dance with El. The first day of the walk begins at 11:15 a.m. Sunday, and participants are encouraged to put in 1 to 3 miles a day until the walk officially concludes on Saturday, May 2. Walkers can don this years bright blue T-shirts, which are being distributed, and take to their neighborhood streets or wherever theyd like to participate. Some of the sponsors, including First County Bank, Liz Sue Bagels and Connecticut Pharmacy, have gathered teams to walk around their businesses during the week. Police officers and local officials will deliver video speeches, and updates will be posted online throughout the week. To keep the coronavirus at bay, ARI was forced to temporarily close its day programming, which reaches more than 100 individuals with developmental disabilities, Kuligowski said. Staff has been providing residential services for about 50 people living on their own or in group homes and with their families. With workplaces closed, many family members found themselves all working from home, which provides both comfort and stress, Kuligowski said. ARI staffers have helped by celebrating Passover and Easter traditions such as egg dyeing with families and taking time out to send thank you cards to frontline health professionals. The organization plans virtual programming, including conference calls with individuals about current events and Zoom meetings geared to practicing work skills and building resumes with individuals. It takes a little more time, Kuligowski said. Its just a little bit different. ARI of Connecticut, which has roots in the city back to 1952, stands for Always Reaching for Independence. Its mission is to enrich the lives of people with disabilities and their families by enabling them to achieve their fullest potential at home, at work and in the community. Walk participants are asked to post photos of their efforts to the ARI facebook page and send them to Gerard Gasparino, manager of development and recreation, at gasparinog@arict.org. Those interested can donate and spread the ARI mission by visiting www.arict.org. T-shirts are available for all donating $50 or more and will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information or to register to walk, become a sponsor or donate visit www.arict.org. Claim On the third Friday in January Coronavirus was already spreading around the world but the government brushed aside the threat in an hour-long COBR meeting and said the risk to the UK public was low. Response At a very basic level, this is wrong. The meeting was on the fourth Friday in January. The article also misrepresents the Governments awareness of Covid 19, and the action we took before this point. Health Secretary Matt Hancock was first alerted to Covid 19 on 3 January and spoke to Departmental officials on 6th Jan before receiving written advice from the UK Health Security Team. He brought the issue to the attention of the Prime Minister and they discussed Covid 19 on 7 January. The governments scientific advisory groups started to meet in mid-January and Mr Hancock instituted daily coronavirus meetings. He updated Parliament as soon as possible, on January 23rd. The risk level was set to Low because at the time our scientific advice was that the risk level to the UK public at that point was low. The first UK case was not until 31 January. The specific meaning of public health risk refers to the risk there is to the public at precisely that point. The risk was also higher than it had been before - two days earlier it had been increased Very Low to Low in line with clinical guidance from the Chief Medical Officer. The WHO did not formally declare that coronavirus was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) until 30 January, and only characterised it as a global pandemic more than a month later, on 11 March. The UK was taking action and working to improve its preparedness from early January. Claim - This was despite the publication that day of an alarming study by Chinese doctors in the medical journal The Lancet. It assessed the lethal potential of the virus, for the first time suggesting it was comparable to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed up to 50 million people.' Response - The editor of the Lancet, on exactly the same day 23 January - called for caution and accused the media of escalating anxiety by talking of a killer virus and growing fears. He wrote: In truth, from what we currently know, 2019-nCoV has moderate transmissibility and relatively low pathogenicity. There is no reason to foster panic with exaggerated language. The Sunday Times is suggesting that there was a scientific consensus around the fact that this was going to be a pandemic that is plainly untrue. Claim - It was unusual for the Prime Minister to be absent from COBR and is normally chaired by the Prime Minister. Response - This is wrong. It is entirely normal and proper for COBR to be chaired by the relevant Secretary of State. Then Health Secretary Alan Johnson chaired COBR in 2009 during H1N1. Michael Gove chaired COBR as part of No Deal planning. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps chaired COBR during the collapse of Thomas Cook. Mr Hancock was in constant communication with the PM throughout this period. At this point the World Health Organisation had not declared COVID19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and only did so only 30 January. Indeed, they chose not to declare a PHEIC the day after the COBR meeting. Examples of scientific commentary from the time: Prof Martin Hibberd, Professor of Emerging Infectious Disease, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: This announcement is not surprising as more evidence may be needed to make the case of announcing a PHEIC. WHO were criticised after announcing the pandemic strain of novel H1N1_2009, when the virus was eventually realised to have similar characteristics to seasonal influenza and is perhaps trying to avoid making the same mistake here with this novel coronavirus. To estimate the true severity of this new disease requires identifying mild or asymptomatic cases, if there are any, while determining the human to human transmission rate might require more evidence. Dr Adam Kamradt-Scott, Senior Lecturer in International Security Studies, University of Sydney, said: Based on the information we have to date, the WHO Director-Generals decision to not declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern is not especially surprising. While we have seen international spread of the virus, which is one of the criteria for declaring a PHEIC, the cases in those countries do not appear to have seeded further local outbreaks. If that was to start to occur, it would constitute a greater concern but at the moment the outbreak is largely contained within China. Claim - 'Imperials Ferguson was already working on his own estimate putting infectivity at 2.6 and possibly as high as 3.5 which he sent to ministers and officials in a report on the day of the Cobra meeting on January 24. The Spanish flu had an estimated infectivity rate of between 2.0 and 3.0, so Fergusons finding was shocking. Response - Infectivity on its own simply reveals how quickly a disease spreads, and not its health impact. For that, it is necessary to know about data such as associated mortality/morbidity. It is sloppy and unscientific to use this number alone to compare to Spanish flu. Claim - No10 played down the looming threat from Coronavirus and displayed an almost nonchalant attitudefor more than a month. Response - The suggestion that the governments attitude was nonchalant is wrong. Extensive and detailed work was going on in government because of Coronavirus, as shown above. Claim - By the time the Prime Minister chaired a COBR meeting on March 2 the virus had sneaked into our airports, our trains, our workplaces and our homes. Britain was on course for one of the worst infections of the most insidious virus to have hit the world in a century.' Response - This virus has hit countries across the world. It is ridiculous to suggest that coronavirus only reached the UK because the Health Secretary and not the PM chaired a COBR meeting. Claim - 'Failure of leadership' by anonymous senior advisor to Downing Street. Response - The Prime Minister has been at the helm of the Government response to Covid 19, providing the leadership to steer his Ministerial team through a hugely challenging period for the whole nation. This anonymous source is variously described as a senior adviser to Downing Street and a senior Downing Street adviser. The two things are not the same. One suggests an adviser employed by the government in No10. The other someone who provides ad hoc advice. Which is it? Claim - The government sent 279,000 items of its depleted stockpile of protective equipment to China during this period in response to a request for help from the authorities there. Response - The equipment was not from the pandemic stockpile. We provided this equipment to China at the height of their need and China has since reciprocated our donation many times over. Between April 2-April 15 we have received over 12 million pieces of PPE in the UK from China. Claim - Little was done to equip the National Health Service for the coming crisis in this period. Response - This is wrong. The NHS has responded well to Coronavirus, and has provided treatment to everyone in critical need. We have constructed the new Nightingale hospitals and extended intensive care capacity in other hospitals. Claim - Among the key points likely to be explored are why it took so long to recognise an urgent need for a massive boost in supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers; ventilators to treat acute respiratory symptoms; and tests to detect the infection. Response - The Department for Health began work on boosting PPE stocks in January, before the first confirmed UK case. Discussions on PPE supply for COVID-19 began w/c 27 January (as part of Medical Devices and Clinical Consumables), with the first supply chain kick-off meeting on 31 January. The first additional orders of PPE was placed on 30 January via NHS Supply Chains just-in-time contracts. BAU orders of PPE were ramped up around the same date. Friday, 7 February, the department held a webinar for suppliers trading from or via China and the European Union. Over 700 delegates joined and heard the Departments requests to carry out full supply chain risk assessments and hold onto EU exit stockpiles where they had been retained. Monday, 10 February, the department spoke with the major patient groups and charities to update them on the situation regarding the outbreak and to update them on the steps it was taking to protect supplies. Tuesday, 11 February, the department wrote to all suppliers in scope of the Covid 19 supply response work those trading from or via China or the EU repeating the messages from the webinar and updating suppliers on the current situation relating to novel coronavirus. The NHS has spare ventilator capacity and we are investing in further capacity. Claim - Suggestion that lack of grip had the knock-on effect of the national lockdown being introduced days or even weeks too late, causing many thousands more unnecessary deaths. Response - The government started to act as soon as it was alerted to a potential outbreak. Mr Hancock was first alerted to Covid 19 on 3 January and spoke to Departmental officials on 6th Jan before receiving written advice from the UK Health Security Team. He brought the issue to the attention of the Prime Minister and they discussed Covid 19 on 7 January. The governments scientific advisory groups started to meet in mid-January and Hancock instituted daily meetings to grip the emerging threat. We have taken the right steps at the right time guided by the scientific evidence. Claim - Scientists said the threat from the coming storm was clear and one of the governments key advisory committees was given a dire warning a month earlier than has previously been admitted about the prospect of having to deal with mass casualties. Response - The government followed scientific advice at all times. The WHO only determined that COVID 19 would be a global pandemic on 11 March. Claiming that there was scientific consensus on this is just wrong. Sage met on January 22 but the first NERVTAG meeting was held on 13 January (NERVTAG is the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group see here https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/new-and-emerging-respiratory-virus-threats-advisory-group ). Claim - The last rehearsal for a pandemic was a 2016 exercise codenamed Cygnus, which predicted the health service would collapse and highlighted a long list of shortcomings including, presciently, a lack of PPE and intensive care ventilators. Response - The Government has been extremely proactive in implementing lessons learnt around pandemic preparedness, including from Exercise Cygnus. This includes being ready with legislative proposals that could rapidly be tailored to what became the Coronavirus Act, plans to strengthen excess death planning, planning for recruitment and deployment of retired staff and volunteers, and guidance for stakeholders and sectors across government. Claim - By February 21 the virus had already infected 76,000 people, had caused 2,300 deaths in China and was taking a foothold in Europe, with Italy recording 51 cases and two deaths the following day. Nonetheless NERVTAG, one of the key government advisory committees, decided to keep the threat level at moderate. Response - This is a misrepresentation of what the threat level is. This is about the current public health danger and on February 21, when the UK had about a dozen confirmed cases, out of a population of over 66 million, the actual threat to individuals was moderate. In terms of the potential threat, the government was clear on 10 February the Secretary of State declared that the incidence or transmission of novel Coronavirus constituted a serious and imminent threat to public health. The European bureau chief of Chinas state-run publication China Daily has called President Trump a racist a**hole for claiming China must have the most deaths from the global coronavirus pandemic. We dont have the most-in-the-world deaths the most in the world has to be China, Trump said during Fridays White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing. Its a massive country. Its gone through a tremendous problem with this, a tremendous problem. And they must have the most. China Dailys Chen Weihua, an outspoken critic of the Trump administrations coronavirus response, responded by tweeting that Trumps suggestion was coldblooded. He added in a later tweet that Trump is like a mad dog with rabies biting everyone, only to divert attention from his failures, before tweeting that it was irresponsible and immoral for Trump to suggest that the virus could have come from a Wuhan lab. He also floated a theory pushed as Chinese propaganda that a U.S. military athlete brought the disease to China. In 2018, U.S. officials flagged the Wuhan Institute of Virology as the potential starting point of a future emerging coronavirus outbreak, citing the lack of safety protocols applied to the Institutes research on SARS-like coronaviruses in bats. While there is no documented evidence that China has more coronavirus deaths than the U.S., reports have detailed how China covered up the initial coronavirus outbreak, with the Chinese Communist Party recently restricting research into the pandemics origins and censoring reports of thousands of asymptomatic cases. Radio Free Asia reported in March that Wuhan residents were dismissing the governments reported death counts, anecdotally referencing steep increases in funerals and cremations to estimate at least 40,000 deaths during the citys lockdown. Chen Weihua has been outspoken on Twitter about what he claims is the racist U.S. response to the pandemic, echoing a tactic used by other Chinese media outlets to suggest any scrutiny of Chinas handling of the coronavirus is xenophobic. More from National Review LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / CLS Holdings USA, Inc. (CLSH)(CLSH) ("CLS" or the ''Company''), a diversified cannabis company operating as Cannabis Life Sciences, announced today its March 2020 revenue of $1.063 compared to March 2019 revenue of $1.068 million. Gross margin for March 2020 was $500,000 compared to $392,000 in March of 2019, an increase of 27%. "Our Oasis retail operations saw a 27% increase in customers served from 12,937 in March of 2019 to 16,435 in March of 2020, despite state-wide restrictions on business and tourism due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Our retail dispensary was closed following a March 20th state mandate, and thereafter all retail operations were suspended for 3 days while we successfully transitioned to a delivery-only platform that is now executing at a high level and fulfilling upwards of 95% of orders on a "same day" basis", said Andrew Glashow President/COO".. Oasis has streamlined operations by developing a driver delivery model that is maximizing retail efficiency. Oasis is receiving an average of 350 orders per day and has seen average order size of approximately $80, an increase of 2 times our average in-store order in February of 2020. Retail operations are now operating 14 hours a day versus the pre-COVID-19 24 hours a day, "CLS' March performance would not have been possible without our dedicated staff who have helped successfully pivot our business to accommodate for these unprecedented restrictions," said Jeff Binder, Chairman/CEO ."We recognize that it is a privilege to operate as an essential business during this crisis, and our team will continue our quest to remain the locals' choice by making active efforts to stimulate the local economy and provide outstanding medicine and service every day." CLS' wholesale and branded products City Trees division is now producing all its products from its new state of the art manufacturing facility in North Las Vegas. This is an exciting development that allows City Trees to produce our high quality, safe, independently tested branded products cost effectively. Having control over manufacturing provides us with the opportunity to make products to order and develop new unique offerings. We look forward to sharing our first new internally developed products very soon. Story continues The operational disruptions caused by the pandemic have created logistical issues for many of our City Trees customers. We have a high degree of respect for the decisions these operators have made in the interest of employee and customer safety. As a result, we have experienced a decline in City Trees' revenue but this slowdown has allowed us to create some exciting synergies with our Oasis retail operations. We look forward to the day when the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, and we can show off our new products and environmentally friendly packaging to our wholesale customers. About CLS Holdings USA, Inc. CLS Holdings USA, Inc. (CLSH) is a diversified cannabis company that acts as an integrated cannabis producer and retailer through its Oasis Cannabis subsidiaries in Nevada and plans to expand to other states. CLS stands for "Cannabis Life Sciences," in recognition of the Company's patented proprietary method of extracting various cannabinoids from the marijuana plant and converting them into products with a higher level of quality and consistency. The Company's business model includes licensing operations, processing operations, processing facilities, sale of products, brand creation and consulting services. http://www.clsholdingsinc.com . Twitter: @CLSHusa Oasis Cannabis has operated a cannabis dispensary in the Las Vegas market since dispensaries first opened in Nevada in 2015 and has been recognized as one of the top marijuana retailers in the state. Its location within walking distance to the Las Vegas Strip and Downtown Las Vegas in combination with its delivery service to residents allows it to efficiently serve both locals and tourists in the Las Vegas area. In February 2019, it was named "Best Dispensary for Pot Pros" by Desert Companion Magazine. In August 2017, the company commenced wholesale offerings of cannabis in Nevada with the launch of its City Trees brand of cannabis concentrates and cannabis-infused products. http://oasiscannabis.com Photo: Oasis Cannabis Dispensary. Las Vegas, NV Founded in 2017, City Trees is a Nevada-based cannabis cultivation, production and distribution company. Offering a wide variety of products with consistent results, City Trees products are available in dispensaries throughout the state of Nevada. https://citytrees.com Photo: City Trees production lab. North Las Vegas, NV Forward Looking Statements This press release contains certain ''forward-looking information'' within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and ''forward-looking statements'' as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, the ''forward-looking statements''). These statements relate to, among other things, the impact of the COVID-19 virus on our businesses, the results of our initiatives to retain our employees and strengthen our relationships with our customers and community during the pandemic, the effect of our initiatives to expand market share and achieve growth following the pandemic, and results of operations during the pandemic. In some cases, we have also attempted to estimate our present operations and results of operations. These statements are estimates, and even if presently accurate, such statements or results could change quickly as a result of the rapid changes we are experiencing during this pandemic, and such changes could be adverse and material. The continued spread of COVID-19 could have, and in some cases already has had, an adverse impact on our business, operations and financial results, including through disruptions in our processing activities, the businesses or our wholesale customers, and our retail dispensary operations as well as a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession. Due to the speed with which the COVID-19 pandemic is developing and the uncertainty of its magnitude, outcome and duration, it is not possible to estimate its impact on our business, operations or financial results; however, the impact could be material. In some cases, you can identify forward looking statements by terminology such as ''may,'' ''might,'' ''will,'' ''should,'' ''intends,'' ''expects,'' ''plans,'' ''goals,'' ''projects,'' ''anticipates,'' ''believes,'' ''estimates,'' ''predicts,'' ''potential,'' or ''continue'' or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are only predictions, are uncertain and involve substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, levels of activity or performance to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity or performance expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity or performance. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date that they were made. These cautionary statements should be considered together with any written or oral forward-looking statements that we may issue in the future. Except as required by applicable law, we do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to reflect actual results, later events or circumstances or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. See CLS Holdings USA filings with the SEC and on its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com for additional details. Contact Information: Corporate: Chairman and CEO Jeff Binder 888-438-9132 Investor Relations: SOURCE: CLS Holdings USA, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/586004/CLS-Holdings-Announces-March-Financial-Results-and-Momentous-Sales-Performance-Amidst-COVID-19-Business-Restrictions Regular shoppers at One Good Woman in Camp Hill likely had the pleasure of meeting Joe OConnor. The tall, lanky man with the Brooklyn accent and husband to shop founder, Holly OConnor, would chat with customers, sharing sometimes long and lively stories. He was as much a part of the specialty shop as the scent of freshly roasted coffee and friendly service. On April 13, OConnor, 78, passed away from complications related to COVID-19. A celebration of his life will be held at a later date, according to his obituary. Just weeks earlier, the Chestertown, Maryland resident, who had a passion for poetry, posted a message on Facebook sharing he had tested positive for the virus. READ MORE: Harrisburg school board member killed by COVID-19 worked front lines as a social worker despite risks I was tested Monday and received word today. I am doing this as a public service so folks I know and love can put a real face on this illness, OConnor wrote. He described symptoms of fever and extreme tiredness, much like the flu. The concern now is the fever could spike and the congestion could move to my lungs. The scary part is there is actually nothing I can do about that except bed rest and lots of water, he continued. In the days following his death, friends, acquaintances and former One Good Woman customers posted remembrances on social media. His glorious wife owned my favorite shop in all of the world and he was there for moral support, deliveries, and to tell the longest stories youve ever heard. He knew everything about politics, travel, literature, but he mostly just loved Holly, Hol as he always called her, wrote Jenna Wray Dworkin. You could not help but like him. Some would say he was a little bit eccentric. I always thought he was a brilliant thinker who wasnt afraid to go outside the box. And he didnt suffer fools easily, shared Stephen Drachler, a Harrisburg-area communications specialist. My heart is breaking as the world has lost one heck of a nice guy. I know Holly better than Joe, but every time I was in his presence, he was fully engaged, a consummate gentleman, sharp-witted, and an all around wonderful human being, wrote Karen Reed Hallowell. For more than 20 years, OConnor was One Good Man, working behind the scenes of the business. In fact, the retired advertising entrepreneur is credited with naming the shop, inspired by one of his mothers favorite sayings, It only takes one good woman. In 2016, the OConnors sold the business to longtime customers Michele Koch and Mechelle Webster. In retirement, the couple moved to Chestertown and focused on OConnors passion for poetry. He spearheaded a teaching press to help students write poetry at his alma mater, Saint Vincent College. The school started the Joe OConnor Poetry Series, an annual publication of chapbooks by people in the college community. The first book was published last fall and a subsequent book tour brought them back to Harrisburg for a visit. From 1966 to 1967, OConnor served in the 19th Combat Engineer Battalion in the Republic of Vietnam. He also was an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous for 35 years, volunteered for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society, ran for public office and sat on various advisory boards. In his final Facebook post, OConnor shared this: This disease is out there, and you have no idea how wide-spread it is, protect yourself with great distancing practices. And know you have the fully measure of my care and concern." 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. Two surfers were cited Monday after climbing over a chain-link fence to access a beach thats closed to the public because of the coronavirus outbreak, deputies say. The men had been seen Monday afternoon climbing over the fence and heading to the beach with their surfboards, according to the Lincoln County Sheriffs Office. Otter Rock residents reported they were disregarding the closure, and a deputy spotted two men matching their description climbing back over the fence about two hours later. The men, Max Gause and Konnor Owens of Cottage Grove, were cited for criminal trespassing. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter The sheriffs office said the area is among those that deputies are patrolling after an uptick in reports of trespassing on public and private property, as well as people congregating in violation of state and local orders. The sheriffs office said its taken the very moderate approach of educating people first, instead of immediately enforcing the order. But, the agency said, while education has had some positive impact on most, this incident was an example of individuals openly disregarding a closed and barricaded area as well as warnings from a nearby resident. -- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Misinformation and fake news are some of the other unwanted side effects of the coronavirus pandemic. From drinking hot water in order to flush down the virus to now covering your legs to protect yourselves from the virus, there are plenty of false claims that have sent us in a tizzy. Twitter/@nailainayat Yes, that's what this Pakistani Minister apparently said recently, making an outrageous statement. Sadly, despite the unnecessary panic that's created, there are some people who just don't get the point. Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan, Pakistan's assistant to the Prime Minister said over legs in order to combat the virus from spreading neeche se. You read that right! Virus can enter neechay se, explains Firdous Ashiq Awan. pic.twitter.com/RziF4vW1lG Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) April 18, 2020 Awan can be seen explaining how the virus can enter not just from the mouth and nose but also from underneath. She further asked people to cover up all body parts to prevent catching coronavirus. The video was shared by journalist Naila Inayat on Twitter with the caption, "Virus can enter neechay se, explains Firdous Ashiq Awan," has kicked up a storm on social media. In a similar case, Governor of Nairobi, Kenya, Mike Sonko very confidently claimed that alcohol killed the coronavirus. In a media briefing held last week, he confirmed that the Covid-19 care packages being distributed in Nairobi consist of small bottles of cognac, Hennessy. In the video, he can be heard saying, "We are giving some small bottles of Hennessy in the food pack which we give to our people. I think from the research conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and various other health organisations, it has been believed that alcohol plays a major role in killing the novel coronavirus or any sort of virus." This is wild. The governor of Nairobi, Kenya @MikeSonko announced that are giving small bottles of Hennessy in food packs being distributed to the citys poor families amid the coronavirus pandemic. Because Alcohol kills Covid19. Dont believe me just watch pic.twitter.com/8IzFWnjdTa King of Leon. (@MightiJamie) April 16, 2020 The WHO maintains that alcohol does not protect against coronavirus, and advises people to minimise its consumption and we are pretty sure that covering legs doesn't have any effect. If you come across anyone making a bizarre claim about COVID-19 related issues, refer to WHO myth busters to clarify things. The first-quarter 2020 earnings season has been set in full motion. However, corporate earnings are expected to suffer significantly on account of the coronavirus outbreak that spread like wildfire across the United States and all over the world in the second half of the first quarter. Global economic activities came almost to a standstill in March as either partial or full lockdowns were imposed. In the absence of any vaccine or line of treatment, enforcing of social distancing was the only option to curb the spread of the deadly virus. Despite the coronavirus-induced economic disaster and stock market turmoil, five stocks with a favorable Zacks Rank are set to beat first-quarter earnings estimates this week. Disappointing Economic Data in Q1 Several disappointing data revealed how badly the U.S. economy was hurt in the first quarter due to lockdowns, both domestic and international. In March, unemployment soared to 10 million and retail sales plunged by 8.7%, marking the highest ever monthly decline. Industrial production slipped 5.4%, the largest decline since 1946 and the manufacturing sector was down 6.3%. The ISM Manufacturing index contracted and the services index witnessed a sharp decline. Moreover, U.S. home-building activity collapsed in March with housing starts plunging 22.3%. This was the worst monthly decline since the 1980s. Building permits declined 6.8% and consumer confidence witnessed a stiff decline. The 11-year long historic bull run of Wall Street came to end on early March with all the three major stock indexes entering the bear market. In fact, several corporate giants warned about stiff business decline and withdrew their previously issued rosy outlook for 2020. As of Apr 17, 47 S&P 500 members reported first-quarter 2020 earnings results. Total earnings of these companies are down 31.1% from the same period last year on 2.9% higher revenues. Of the total, 68.1% surpassed EPS estimates and an equivalent proportion outpaced revenue estimates. Overall, first-quarter earnings for the S&P 500 Index were projected to be down 14.1% year over year on 1.2% higher revenues. (Read More: Is the Market Ahead of Itself?) Our Top Picks We have narrowed down our search to five stocks. Each of these stocks has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and a positive Earnings ESP. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Our research shows that for stocks with the combination of a Zacks Rank #3 or better and a positive Earnings ESP, the chance of an earnings beat is as high as 70%. These stocks are expected to soar after earnings release. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. The chart below shows the price performance of our five picks in the last quarter. Story continues Netflix Inc. NFLX is a provider of Internet television (streaming services) and DVD-rental services. It streams movies, television shows and documentaries across a wide variety of genres and languages. The company has an Earnings ESP of +2.38%. Netflix has an expected earnings growth rate of 45.8% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year earnings has improved 1% over the last 30 days. It has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 57.6%, on average. The company is set to release earnings results on Apr 21, after the closing bell. Silgan Holdings Inc. SLGN manufactures and sells rigid packaging for consumer goods products in North America, Europe and internationally. It operates through three segments: Metal Containers, Closures and Plastic Containers. The company has an Earnings ESP of +0.68%. Silgan Holdings has an expected earnings growth rate of 7.4% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year earnings has improved 0.4% over the last 30 days. It has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 2.2%, on average. The company is set to release earnings results on Apr 22, before the opening bell. Citrix Systems Inc. CTXS is a leading provider of virtualization, networking and cloud computing solutions to more than 400,000 organizations worldwide. It offers secure digital workspace technologies which are cloud-based, and can be managed across both hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures. The company has an Earnings ESP of +1.58%. Citrix Systems has an expected earnings growth rate of 15.3% for next year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for next year's earnings has improved 0.3% over the last 30 days. It has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 6.3%, on average. The company is set to release earnings results on Apr 23, before the opening bell. Eli Lilly and Co. LLY discovers, develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers endocrinology products for diabetes, osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and men, and human growth hormone deficiency and paediatric growth conditions. The company has an Earnings ESP of +1.67%. Eli Lilly has an expected earnings growth rate of 12.1% for the current year. It has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 5.2%, on average. The company is set to release earnings results on Apr 23, before the opening bell. FirstEnergy Corp. FE generates, transmits, and distributes electricity in the United States. It operates through Regulated Distribution and Regulated Transmission segments. The company has an Earnings ESP of +0.52%. FirstEnergy has an expected earnings growth rate of 5.7% for the upcoming year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for next year's earnings has improved 0.8% over the last 30 days. It has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 5.5%, on average. The company is set to release earnings results on Apr 23, after the closing bell. Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. Theyre also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases. Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +50%, +83% and +164% in as little as 2 months. The stocks in this report could perform even better. See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report FirstEnergy Corporation (FE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Citrix Systems, Inc. (CTXS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Silgan Holdings Inc. (SLGN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research The Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Professor Peter Quartey, says President Akufo-Addo's decision to lift the ban on partial lockdown will save the Ghanaian economy from potential recession. He noted that allowing businesses to re-open would eventually boost the economy, considering the fact that the informal sector made up 80 per cent of the economy. Prof Quartey, reacting to the lifting of restrictions on movement at COVID-19 hotspots in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Monday, expressed optimism that the Ghanaian economy would turnaround in 2021 in view of the prudent measures the Government had put in place to rejuvenate the private sector. "I have expectation that we will stabilise the economy and experience some growth in 2021 to an appreciable level. "Though we might overrun our budget deficit this year and might have a debt to GDP ratio with unsustainable threshold...It's not surprising because we are not in normal times," Prof Quartey explained. He, therefore, lauded Ghana's Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, and his South African counterpart for leading a debt relief for Africa. Ghana would have a freeze in principal and interest payments amounting to 500 million dollars from the World Bank, which would create a fiscal space to aid the Ghanaian economy to be resilient. Prof Quartey noted that locking down COVID-19 hotspots for three weeks saw a lot of businesses folding up, invariably reducing the economic output of the nation. He noted that with happening at the global stage, most of the ports had been closed, therefore one cannot import goods easily, whilst importers cannot get raw materials as quickly as possible. Additionally, the demand for certain products have gone down, the services industry like hotels and restaurants are operating at low levels, therefore a contraction of the economy is very likely. Prof Quartey further explained that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) might decline for two consecutive times, should the country fail to revamp the economy. He said since Ghana was not immune to external shocks, President Akufo-Addos decision to lift the ban would save the economy from potential recession. Were not immune from the global economy, therefore whatever happens in the global stage, we will have our fair share. "I think Ghana is well linked to the global economy because we export our products, we also import from China and other countries so whatever happens in those countries will certainly affect us," Prof Quartey said. He noted that a recession would occur where there were two consecutive GDP decline for two quarters within a year. "I think for the next two quarters, our GDP is likely to decline and, therefore, were not immune to a recession, but Im hoping we can turn things around from 2021, Prof Quartey noted. "This year, it's more of trying to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, and curtail the spread and so we should do all the things that are necessary. He, however, was of the opinion that the joint police-military force should not have been withdrawn immediately to enforce the social distancing in commercial vehicles and the markets. 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 Air defences confronted Israeli aggression and intercepted missiles before they could hit targets, state media says. Syrian air defences shot down several missiles launched by Israeli warplanes on Monday night over the historic city of Palmyra in the central Homs province, the state media reported. Air defences confronted an Israeli aggression over Palmyra and intercepted several hostile missiles, SANA said. The missiles were downed before they could hit their targets, it added. Syrian state television gave no further details about the attacks, the latest to hit Syria in three weeks. The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the Israeli air raids targeted Iranian and Iran-backed fighters in the desert near Palmyra. It had no immediate word on casualties adding that Israeli warplanes were flying over neighbouring Lebanon. Iran, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has sent thousands of fighters to back his regime in the nine-year civil war that has left hundreds of thousands of people dead and displaced millions. The attacks came hours after Irans Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif met al-Assad and his Syrian counterpart in Damascus. Israel has in the past used Lebanons airspace to launch attacks on Syria. Israeli drones and warplanes were seen flying over Lebanon earlier on Monday, The Associated Press news agency reported. There was no immediate comment from Israel. Last month, Israeli warplanes fired missiles on the Shayrat airbase, also in the central province of Homs. Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks in Syria targeting government troops as well as allied Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. Last week, an Israeli drone fired two missiles at a car carrying members of Lebanons Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Syria close to the border with Lebanon. No one was hurt in the attack. Israel on Saturday accused Hezbollah of provocative activity along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier and said it would complain to the United Nations Security Council. Participants in India for a global dialogue and survey initiated by the United Nations have listed security threats, terrorism and conflict, climate change and environment and equal access to basic services as the main global trends and challenges impacting nations. The world body launched the UN75 initiative in January 2020, in which participants from 186 countries were invited to discuss their priorities for the future, obstacles to achieving them, and the role of global cooperation in overcoming these challenges. The initiative was launched as the United Nations is marking its 75th anniversary at a time of great upheaval, with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to spread, exacting a heavy toll on lives, societies and economies in all regions of the world. As of March 2020, over 13 million people in nearly all UN Member States had taken part in the initiative, with more than 40,000 completing the one-minute survey, and more than 330 dialogues held in 87 countries. The public's priorities for the world we want to create' emerging in the UN75 initiative were environmental protection, protection of human rights, less conflict, equal access to basic services, and zero discrimination. In addition to the survey, participants in various dialogues were asked to share their vision for the world they want to create. The dialogues presented a slightly different order of priorities emerged than from the survey. For participants in the dialogues in India, the key priority areas were a a more secure and peaceful world, free of violence, conflict and terrorism, a world with equal access to basic services, "a world that protects its ecosystems and respects its natural resources, a world free of poverty and unemployment. In dialogues in India, the key issues that were raised were worrying impacts of climate change and changes in environment, increasing poverty and inequalities, the need for reduced inequalities within and between countries security threats, challenges caused by population changes, including population growth, shifting demographics and increasing population movements within and between countries. Discussions in more than 20 dialogues found that breakdown of trust between governments, and between people and governments will increase. These included multiple dialogues held in Afghanistan, Argentina, Fiji, India, Italy, Nigeria, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Slovenia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tunisia, the United States of America. Better support for international standards, enforcement of international agreements and improved implementation with concrete action, oversight and a prevention approach, with specific reference to scaling up implementation of the disarmament agenda and the SDGs were points raised in eight dialogues, including multiple dialogues held in Afghanistan, Argentina, India, Mexico, Slovenia, and South Africa, including youth dialogues. Preliminary findings of the survey, based on data collected between January 1, 2020 and March 24, 2020 found that an overwhelming majority 95 per cent --of respondents agreed on the need for countries to work together to manage global trends, with a noticeable uptick from late February, as the upheaval caused by COVID-19 spread around the world. Support cut across all age groups and education levels. Ideas on strengthening international cooperation included more effective partnerships with civil society and the private sector, and greater involvement of women, youth, indigenous peoples and vulnerable groups in policymaking. Climate and environment topped the list of issues that will most affect humanity's future with more than double the responses of any other issue. Conflict and violence came second, and health risks third, having risen sharply since early March. The top five future priorities that emerged were: environmental protection, protection of human rights, less conflict, equal access to basic services, and zero discrimination. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he hopes to use the milestone 75th anniversary of the world organisation for reflection on the multilateral cooperation the world needs at this time, both in addressing the immediate pandemic and in achieving the longer-term goals for which the United Nations was founded. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The European Union is ready to provide Ukraine with overall assistance in the situation with wildfires against the Chornobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine's representative to the EU Mykola Tochytsky said following a conversation with European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic. "During our conversation, European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic assured that the EU is ready to provide its overall assistance to Ukraine for the settlement of the situation with wildfires in the Chornobyl zone. We highly appreciate the EU's readiness to help Ukraine," Tochytsky said on Twitter. (UPDATE: Two charged with murder in shooting death of 21-year-old near CMU campus) (UPDATE: 21-year-old fatally shot at Mt. Pleasant apartments; suspect in custody) MT. PLEASANT, MI -- The Mt. Pleasant Police Department was investigating a fatal shooting Monday evening at an apartment complex near Central Michigan Universitys campus. Officers responded shortly before 6 p.m. April 20 to Campus Habitat Apartments, located in the 700 block of Edgewood Drive, for a report of a shooting. A male victim was pronounced deceased at the scene, police said. Officers identified a person of interest and are speaking with witnesses. Police said there is no risk to the public. The name of the victim is being withheld pending notification of family members. An investigation into the fatal shooting is ongoing. Michigan State Police, Isabella County Sheriffs Department, Central Michigan University Police, Mobile Medical Response, and Mid-Michigan Investigative Narcotics Team assisted Mt. Pleasant police at the scene. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Yes, Theyre Open" is a new web series highlighting local bars and restaurants that are still open for takeout, delivery or pickup during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Live streams from the featured restaurants are broadcast on the Advance Facebook page every weekday around 3 p.m. On Tuesday, the Advance visited Joyces Tavern in Eltingville. The bar, located at 3823 Richmond Ave., offers burgers, sandwiches and salads for pickup or delivery from noon to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from noon to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Call 718-948-0220 to place an order. Staten Island restaurant owners: If you would like your establishment featured for free as part of Yes, Theyre Open, email reporter Victoria Priola at vpriola@siadvance.com. For a full list of restaurants and bars that are still open for takeout, delivery and curbside pickup, click here. YES, THEYRE OPEN: Joyces Tavern in Eltingville (3823 Richmond Ave.) is open for pickup and delivery. Hours are Sunday through Thursday noon to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday noon to 9 p.m. Call 718-948-0220 to place your order. Posted by Staten Island Advance on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 MORE ON YES, THEYRE OPEN Pier 76, 76 Bay St. Johns Deli, 173 New Dorp Lane. Mezcals, 20 Bradley Ave. ONeills, 1614 Forest Ave. Maxs Es-Ca, 1559 Richmond Road. Harvest Cafe, 694 New Dorp Lane Tropical Smoothie Cafe, 1650 Richmond Ave., 1407 Forest Ave. and 7001 Amboy Road Kings Arms Diner, 500 Forest Ave. Giovannis Trattoria, 3800 Richmond Ave. Reggianos, 7339 Amboy Road Beso, 11 Schuyler St. Blue, 1115 Richmond Terrace In Fine Fettle, 961 Jewett Ave. West Shore Inn, 3955 Victory Blvd. Better Gourmet Health Kitchen, 2333 Hylan Blvd., 400 Forest Ave., 4077 Victory Blvd. and 877 Huguenot Ave. Campania Coal Fired Pizza, 3900 Richmond Ave. Call It A Wrap, 1198 Forest Ave. Beans and Leaves, 422 Forest Ave. A staff member at the Northampton County Juvenile Justice Center in Easton has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, President Judge Michael J. Koury Jr. announced in a news release. The staff member was last at work on April 13 and is self-quarantining for 14 days, the release from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts said. Staff and juveniles are being monitored for symptoms but none have shown any or tested positive, the news release said. County probation departments as well as the juvenile justice center staff have been notified. Facility administration is working with families to provide information and updates, the news release added. The employee will have to be symptom free for 72 hours prior to returning to work and will be tested before entering the building in the 600 block of Ferry Street, the news release said. Once notified of the positive test, the center implemented protocols to further protect the health and safety of employees and juveniles, including cleaning and disinfecting of the facility four times daily, the news release said. The county began to take action on March 11 at the building to try and prevent the spread of the virus, the news release said. The facility, which includes juvenile court, a detention center and a treatment location, was closed to visitors and limited to essential personnel, the news release said. Video conferencing is being used for family and clinical visits, the news release said. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Counties across the Bay Area will begin enforcing mandates to wear face coverings in some public settings Wednesday, following health orders handed down last week intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Health officials across the region introduced face-covering orders on Friday, but opted to delay enforcing them until Wednesday to allow people time to procure a mask or materials to make one. Starting Wednesday, face coverings will be required for anyone visiting an essential business, like a bank, health clinic, grocery store or pharmacy, and waiting for or riding public transit including Muni and BART or when entering public places like government buildings. The masks do not need to be medical-grade to be effective ordinary handkerchiefs, towels and scarves can suffice, health officials have said, provided they can be worn snugly around the nose and mouth. The public has been strongly discouraged from seeking medical-grade masks so they will be available for health care workers. Droplets expelled from breathing and sneezing are a transmitter for the coronavirus, and people can be contagious even without showing symptoms. San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties and the city of Berkeley will start enforcing face-covering rules Wednesday. Sonoma Countys order has been in effect since Friday. Health officials in Santa Clara County said last week that they were strongly urging all individuals to wear face coverings when out of their homes to perform essential activities, but stopped short of compelling people to wear a mask. Officials in Napa County are considering a similar rule. Health officials have signaled that donning a face covering will become a part of everyday life, since wearing one will likely be necessary even after shelter-in-place orders are relaxed. The face-covering orders, however, do not replace mandates to practice social distancing. The orders do not require masks to be worn at home, in cars alone or with members of the household or when exercising or taking fresh air outdoors. 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. Masks are important and everyone should follow the rules, but they are not a replacement for social distancing. People still need to keep their distance to protect public health, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said. Businesses and transit drivers will also be required to post signs about the face-covering requirements and refuse service to anyone not wearing the proper protection. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa By The Associated Press Apr. 20, 2020 | 07:10 PM | WASHINGTON A chorus of governors from both parties pushed back hard Monday after President Donald Trump accused Democrats of playing a very dangerous political game by insisting there is a shortage of tests for coronavirus. The governors countered that the White House must do more to help states do the testing that's needed before they can ease up on stay-at-home orders. Kansas's Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said the current federal effort "really is not good enough if were going to be able to start to open our economy. We cannot do that safely without the tests in place. The plea for stepped-up coordination came on the latest day when the Trump administration provided discordant messaging: Trump blasted state leaders on Twitter for being too dependent on federal government and said later that some governors just didn't understand what they had, while Vice President Mike Pence assured governors the government was working around-the-clock to help them ramp up testing. Pence sought to soften the administration's message amid growing clamor from both parties for a national testing strategy to help secure testing swabs, chemical reagents and other crucial supplies. When it comes to testing, were here to help, Pence told governors during a videoconference from the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Associated Press obtained audio of the call. Pence said the administration sent an email to officials on Monday detailing current testing capacity by state. But Marylands Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said much of the unused lab machinery listed for his state was in federal labs that the state does not have access to. Pence agreed to open up federal labs to help states. Hogan announced Monday the state received 500,000 tests from South Koreaa game-changing deal that was negotiated by his wife, Yumi Hogan, who grew up outside Seoul. "They want the states to take the lead, and we have to go out and do it ourselves, and so thats exactly what we did, Hogan said. Trump didn't take that lying down. In his daily briefing, he said that some governors have more capacity than they understand. He named Hogan and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, among leaders he said don't grasp the extent of available testing already in their states. The governor of Maryland could have called Mike Pence, could have saved a lot of money, Trump said. I dont think he needed to go to South Korea. He needed to get a little knowledge--would have been helpful. In Kansas, which has about half the national testing rate, Gov. Kelly said part of the problem has been caused by how FEMA has gone about distributing testing material and other supplies. In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said his state is working with another federal agency, the Food and Drug Administration, to find a source of reagent, the chemical used to analyze test results, so it can ramp up testing. A lot of good things are going on, but were not there yet, DeWine said. Democratic Montana Gov. Steve Bullock said his state received 5,000 nasal swabs on Monday from FEMA evidence the federal government is listening. But he added: It doesnt get us far enough. In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the states should take the lead on testing but its up to the federal government to help sort out supply chain issues facing testing manufacturers. What the states will run into is when you talk to those labs ... they buy machines and equipment from national manufacturers, said Cuomo, who is expected to meet with Trump at the White House Tuesday. And those labs can only run as many tests as the national manufacturers provide them chemicals, reagents and lab kits. Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said, We need the reagents, we need the test kits and I think thats the sort of general cry from other states." As Pence spoke with the governors, Trump took to Twitter with a more combative tone than his vice president, complaining that the radical left and Do Nothing Democrats were playing politics with their complaints about a lack of tests. Now they scream ....'Testing, Testing, Testing,' again playing a very dangerous political game, Trump tweeted. States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing - But we will work with the Governors and get it done. This is easy compared to the fast production of thousands of complex Ventilators! Public health experts say the country needs to dramatically increase its testing infrastructure if it is going to safely roll back restrictions and reopen businesses without risking a major spike in infections. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, told ABC's Good Morning America Monday that the country is currently running about 1.5 million to 2 million tests per week. But, we really need to get up to, at least, you know, maybe two times that, three times that. The White House said the Pentagon is finalizing negotiations with a Maine medical company to ramp up production of nasal swabs under the Defense Production Act. An Ohio manufacturer of cotton swabs has also agreed to convert its facilities to allow for 10 million testing swabs per month. Testing was an issue on Capitol Hill, too, where the administration and Congress were inching toward agreement on an aid package of more than $450 billion to boost a small-business loan program that has run out of money. The deal is expected to add funds for hospitals and COVID-19 testing, as well. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The temporary closure of an Alberta meat processing facility due to a COVID-19 outbreak isn't expected to result in beef shortages, but the reduction in capacitywill mean that ranchers will bear the brunt as their costs rise and prices for their product fall. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses Canadians on the COVID-19 pandemic from Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Trudeau says the country shouldn't expect beef shortages despite a large processing facility temporarily closing after a COVID-19 outbreak, but prices may go up. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick The temporary closure of an Alberta meat processing facility due to a COVID-19 outbreak isn't expected to result in beef shortages, but the reduction in capacitywill mean that ranchers will bear the brunt as their costs rise and prices for their product fall. Cargill Inc.'s High River, Alta., plant temporarily shuttered operations Monday after a worker died from the coronavirus and hundreds of other employees tested positive. Meanwhile, a second plant JBS plant in Brooks, Alta. recorded 67 cases as of Monday. It has reduced operations, according to the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, which represents the 60,000 beef farms and feedlots in the country. The company says it is trying to ensure the facility remains open, though a union representing federal meat inspectors says it's a matter of time before it is forced to temporarily halt production. These two facilities make up 70 per cent of Canada's beef processing capabilities, according to the CCA. Alone, the Cargill plant processes some 4,500 head of cattle daily or more than one-third of the country's total beef-processing capacity. With the Cargill closure and JBS's reduction, Canada has likely seen a reduction of nearly 40 per cent in its processing capacity, said Mike von Massow, an associate professor in the food, agricultural and resource economics department at The University of Guelph. However, shoppers aren't likely to see empty freezers in the grocery store meat section any time soon. "In the short run, I don't think we as consumers will see any tangible difference," he said. The prime minister echoed that message Tuesday, reassuring Canadians they would continue to find beef products on grocery shelves. "We are not at this point anticipating shortages of beef, but prices might go up," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his daily update on the coronavirus pandemic. "We will of course be monitoring that very, very carefully." Beef producers and associations have said they will prioritize ensuring Canadian supply before exports, he said. Canada exports about 45 per cent of its beef and cattle production annually, according to the national association, and ships to 56 countries, with the U.S. receiving 74 per cent of beef exports. The closure is expected to be brief. It's likely the Cargill plant will be closed for about two weeks the duration of the virus's incubation period, said von Massow. That's roughly how long the temporary closure of a pork processing plant in Quebec lasted. Olymel announced March 29 it would temporarily close its hog slaughter and cutting plant in Yamachiche, Que., for 14 days after nine plant employees tested positive for COVID-19. The closure gave employees the time to self-isolate at the recommendation of the public health department. The plant resumed operations on April 14. A two-week closure allows staff to self-isolate to prevent further spread, deep clean a facility and implement any other measures to help physical distancing after reopening, said von Massow. During a closure, inventories can be diverted and processing capacity can be increased at other facilities to avoid a shortage, he said. It would take months-long closures, as well as multiple plants shuttering to create a possible shortage. Ranchers, though, are likely to suffer even from these short-term closures, he said. If they have to send their cattle further for processing, transportation costs rise and that will come out of the price they're paid for their product. If they decide to hang on to their animals longer, they'll face increased overhead costs, like feed, said von Massow. In the past week, ranchers have seen a nearly 30 per cent drop in price, said Dennis Laycraft, executive vice president at CCA. Try our Dish The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Dish arrives in your inbox every other Friday. See sample. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The group's economic scenarios project the industry could lose more than $500 million in revenue by the end of June. It is calling for immediate government action. That includes improving the availability of cash advances, said Laycraft. "It's not easy to deal with lenders when the value of your product is falling sharply and no one's really sure what it'll be worth in that environment." The group also wants price insurance program premiums brought back down to normal levels, he said. "For young and newer producers that have more debt, that's a pretty important thing." This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2020. By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 20, 2020 | 04:53 PM | FRANKFORT He thanked students for their sacrifice, and announced that his team is looking into ways to have either drive-in style or virtual graduation ceremonies. "For many this is hard, I know we had seniors looking forward to an in-person graduation." Beshear continued, "Those of you that are missing out on these opportunities, we need your help, we need your sacrifice. Your willingness to do it will help us save lives." Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman provided an update on unemployment claims. She says they are averaging 13,000 new claims per day, and tackling an average of 25,000 calls every day. If you have applied for unemployment, do not reapply and do not open another claim. According to Coleman, when people reapply it slows the whole process down and creates a delay in payments. They have hired an additional 1,000 staff members at their call centers, and an automatic call system has been set up to help people find out when they will receive their payments. Through their efforts, wait times have gone from hours to minutes. During his Monday update, Governor Andy Beshear recommended that schools across Kentucky continue Non-Traditional Instruction for the remainder of the school year.After an all-time high of 273 confirmed cases yesterday, today's total is 102 new cases, but Gov. Beshear said the largest lab is closed, so today's numbers are probably artificially low. There have been 3,050 total cases confirmed in Kentucky out of 32,830 tests administered. 1,017 have been hospitalized, with 263 currently in hospitals. Beshear said 532 have spent time in Intensive Care Units, with 147 currently in the ICU. Beshear says a total of 1,134 have recovered from the virus.Watch the entire video here: Flash A batch of medical supplies provided by the Chinese government to help North Macedonia battle the coronavirus was handed over to the European country soon after its arrival at Skopje International Airport on Saturday. Chinese Ambassador to North Macedonia Zhang Zuo and Deputy Prime Minister of North Macedonia Bujar Osmani, who is under self-isolation, spoke at a handover ceremony via video link. Zhang said that China will bear in mind that North Macedonia's leaders and friends from all walks of life have expressed their solidarity with the Chinese government and people when China was at a critical moment in its fight against the coronavirus. As North Macedonia currently faces the challenge of the pandemic, China in return offered medical supplies in response to the urgent request of North Macedonia, he added. The ambassador noted that since the outbreak of the pandemic, China has maintained close communication and cooperation with North Macedonia, sharing experiences and providing assistance as possible as it can. He said that China is willing to explore flexible and diverse ways of fighting the coronavirus with North Macedonia and promote mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. For his part, Osmani expressed his gratitude to China for providing medical supplies at the most critical moment in North Macedonia's battle against the coronavirus, adding that the fight against the pandemic requires solidarity, cooperation and mutual assistance of all countries and ethnic groups. He said that North Macedonia hopes to borrow China's experiences in coronavirus fight and win the war at the earliest. There are a total of 1,207 confirmed coronavirus cases in North Macedonia, of which 179 are recoveries and 51, fatalities, according to the latest figures from the country's health ministry. U.S. soldiers from 2nd Infantry Division at the Rodriguez Range in Pocheon, South Korea, on April 16, 2019. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images) Trump Pushes South Korea to Pay More for US Troops President Donald Trump said hes pushing South Korea to pay more toward the 30,000-strong U.S. military forces in the country, and confirmed he has rejected one offer of increased payments. Addressing a question during the daily press briefing on April 20, Trump said a reduction in troop numbers wasnt on the negotiating table. Its not a question of reduction, its a question of, Will they contribute toward the defense of their own nation?' he said. Were defending nations that are very wealthy. South Koreas a very wealthy nation. We are negotiating for President Moon and for South Korea to help us out monetarily. Trump has previously said the U.S. military presence South Korea was $5 billion worth of protection. Trump noted that U.S. troops have been on the Korean peninsula for eight decades. U.S. troops have been deployed permanently in South Korea since the Korean War, where they operate under a unified command with local troops predominantly to counter the threat from the north. Trump emphasized the positive alliance between the two countries, saying that they had a wonderful relationship, and praised Moon, but said the current arrangement wasnt fair. Before I came onboard, they paid very little, if anything, said Trump. Last year I went to them, and now they are paying $1 billion a year. And I went to them again, and I said, Look, Ill be back, because thats just a fraction.' Were asking them to pay for a big percentage of what were doing, said Trump. The United States seeks up to $5 billion a year, South Korean lawmakers told Reuters in 2019more than five times the $890 million they say South Korea agreed to pay last year. President Donald Trump speaks during a coronavirus task force press briefing at the White House on April 18, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) Neither country has officially verified the numbers. Now theyve offered us a certain amount of money, and Ive rejected it, Trump said during the April 20 briefing, but he didnt state the amount. Whats going to happen, I cant tell you, but well find out fairly soon. He had earlier said that they were asking South Korea to pay for a big percentage of what were doing. I think the taxpayers in our country want to hear these things, said Trump, after describing how he wanted other allied countries to start paying more. When Trump came into office, he chastised NATO members and other U.S. allies for paying too little toward shared defense and suggested that withdrawing from alliances was on the table. That led some observers to interpret the newly-born America First foreign policy strategy as a shunning of old alliances. However, the Trump administrations U.S. National Defense Strategy and the National Security Strategy emphasized the importance of partnerships as a cornerstone of tackling the renewed great power competition with Russia and China. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (L) and President Donald Trump shake hands in the Oval Office at the White House on April 2, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) In 2019, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Trumps repeated calls for other countries to increase their financial contributions have made a real impact, with tens of billions of dollars added. What hes doing is to help us adapt the alliance, which we need because we live in a more unpredictable world with a more assertive Russia using violence and force against a neighbor, Ukraine, Stoltenberg said. And therefore, NATO has to adapt. NATO countries in 2014 agreed to spend at least 2 percent of their GDPs on defense, a commitment which not all have met. By comparison, South Koreas military spending has increased, growing by 9.3 percent in the latest budget, and by more than 7.5 percent in the previous two years. South Korea is among the top customers for U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS), according to the Congressional Research Service. From 2008 to 2016, ROK FMS contracts with the United States totaled $15.7 billion, and commercial acquisitions totaled $6.9 billion. BEIJING, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sogou Inc. (NYSE: SOGO) ("Sogou" or "the Company"), an innovator in search and a leader in China's internet industry, today announced that the Company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. The Annual Report is available on the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.sogou.com/. The Company will provide a hard copy of the Annual Report containing the audited consolidated financial statements of the Company, free of charge, to a shareholder or holder of the Company's American depositary shares upon written request. About Sogou Sogou Inc. (NYSE: SOGO) is an innovator in search and a leader in China's internet industry. With a mission to make it easy to communicate and get information, Sogou has grown to become the second largest search engine by mobile queries and the fourth largest internet company by MAU in China. Sogou has a wide range of innovative products and services including the Sogou Input Method, which is the largest Chinese language input software for both mobile and PC. Sogou is also at the forefront of AI development and has made significant breakthroughs in voice and image technologies, machine translation, and Q&A, which have been successfully integrated into our products and services. For investor enquiries, please contact: Jessie Zheng Sogou Investor Relations Tel: +86 10 5689-8068 Email: [email protected] For media enquiries, please contact: Rachael Layfield Brunswick Group Tel: +86 10 5960-8600 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Sogou Inc. Related Links www.sogou.com Primark has seen sales slump from 650million a month to zero as it has no online business to fall back on while all its 376 stores remain closed due to the coronavirus lockdown. The fashion retailer's owner, Associated British Foods, said it has furloughed 68,000 Primark workers across Europe and looking to start discussions with landlords to seek help with their lease payments. As clothes remain unsold, Primark's inventory has reached 1.5billion and the retailer expects to take a 284million hit from stock languishing in its warehouses which will unlikely be sold at full price once stores reopen. No shopping: All of Primark's 376 stores remain close due to the coronavirus lockdown Chief executive George Weston said: 'ABF has been squarely in the path of this pandemic. At Primark we have 68,000 of our people receiving furlough payments from governments across Europe, without which we would have been forced to make most redundant. 'From making sales of 650m each month, since the last of our stores closed on 22 March, we have sold nothing.' The announcement comes along the company's half year results to the end of February, which show pre-tax profits fell 42 per cent to 298million. Although the results do not cover the lockdown period, which in the UK started on 23 March, ABF saw exceptional charges rising to 309million, compared with 79million a year earlier, because of the 248million stock costs. Weston said that while the effects of Covid-19 on the first half were not too marked, trading in the second half would be 'radically different'. In light of the disruption to its business, ABF said it wouldn't be providing guidance and wouldn't be paying a dividend. ABF shares were trading 3 per cent lower at 19.34 on Tuesday morning. It comes as yesterday the group announced it would pay an additional 370million to its suppliers to cover stock currently in production or finished product to be delivered after facing criticism over order cancellations. The deal will cover products which were in production or due for shipment by April 17. The group had previously committed to pay only for orders which were in transit or booked for delivery by March 18. Weston said they would not reopen stores until it was safe to do so and that the group had 'people and cash resources to meet the challenges ahead'. Two of ABF's employees have died from Covid-19 in the past three weeks while another remains in intensive care in the United States. ABF's food business, which includes Twinings tea and Ovaltine, has seen a'significant increase in demand' in recent weeks ABF's food business, which includes brands like Twinings tea, Blue Dragon sauces and Ovaltine, is helping the firm weather the crisis as it has seen 'significant increase in demand' in recent weeks. Adam Vettese, an analyst at investment platform eToro, said of Primark: 'What was once Associated British Foods' golden goose has stopped laying eggs.' But he believes that the group 'has plenty in reserve to ride out this crisis, even if it does emerge severely bruised'. Emma-Lou Montgomery at Fidelity Personal Investing notes that while ABF diversification plays in its favour, the lack of online business leaves Primark behind its peers. She adds: 'What is emerging is the potential resilience of ABF, which as a company with a history in food stuffs and a more recent success in fast fashion, seems, at face value, a haphazard mix of businesses. 'However, the value of diversification is becoming apparent. The bitter pill that has to be swallowed on the fashion side may yet be sweetened by the fact that its food businesses continue to operate at full capacity.' 'While Primark isn't its only business, ABF doesn't have the luxury of having an on line business, like its peers which means its other businesses have become much more important in the context of maintaining cash flow.' Mass Communication Specialist Julio Rivera/U.S. Navy via Associated Press Regarding Restore Capt. Croziers command (Editorial, April 17): The Chronicles Editorial Board is absolutely right. Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, the courageous commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, should be reinstated as soon as he recovers from COVID-19. Ive been calling for his reinstatement for several reasons. The Navys response to the coronavirus outbreak on Croziers ship has been nothing short of negligence, contributing to the death of a sailor, positive test results of over 600 sailors and the undermining of the morale of the crew. Attempting to silence this heroic whistleblower also sends a chilling message to anyone who dares to question the chain of command. Then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly was auditioning for the permanent job and put the lives of sailors at risk as a result. Modly mocked Crozier for pleading to take the sailors off the ship, which in the end was actually done. It was ludicrous for the Navy to rely on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that dont take into account the tight conditions on a ship. The Navy must provide personal protective equipment, testing and isolation spaces for anyone who falls ill and proper medical care for patients not just on the Roosevelt, but on every ship. We must never knowingly sacrifice our service members and our military readiness. The Cabinet agreed to ban the issuing of licences for any event involving more than 5,000 people until the end of August. Stock photo The summer season of music festivals will be cancelled under new Government restrictions on mass gatherings. The Cabinet agreed to ban the issuing of licences for any event involving more than 5,000 people until the end of August. A memo was brought by the Department of the Taoiseach requesting that no new licences for festivals or concerts will be issued for the coming months. The move is aimed at allowing concert promoters time to inform performers that events had been cancelled. The measure does not affect sporting events. Read More In the Cabinet memo, ministers were told that National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) will make the ultimate decision on mass gatherings. However, local authorities needed to be told not to issue licences for large scale events which were due to take place in the coming months. Government sources said they expect Nphet to make a similar decision on mass gatherings but the groups final recommendation on the issue may not come until the end of the month In a statement, the Department of the Taoiseach said all mass gatherings have been restricted since March 24 and this will be updated before the end of the current lock down on May 5. However, there are a number of largescale future events which require licensing and the involvement of the HSE and Garda Siochana, and public consultation in that licensing process which fall to be determined in advance of that by local authorities, it said While the issue of restrictions on future mass gatherings is a decision to be taken by the NPHET, in the case of these particular events, and taking account of the impacts on the integrity of the licensing process in the short-term due to restrictions on stakeholder involvement, local authorities have been advised by Government that event promoters should be informed that events requiring licences in excess of 5,000 will not be considered for the period up to the end of August, it added. Phuket Town food giveaway organiser charged for not enforcing social distancing PHUKET: The organiser of a free food giveaway held in Phuket Town yesterday (Apr 20) has been charged for not enforcing social distancing as required under the health regulations issued under the Emergency Decree in order to to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. COVID-19Coronavirushealthpolice By Eakkapop Thongtub Tuesday 21 April 2020, 01:11PM People queue to receive free food being given away at the Clocktower Circle in Phuket Town yesterday (Apr 20). Photo: Eakkapop thongtub People queue to receive free food being given away at the Clocktower Circle (in the backgroun) in Phuket Town yesterday (Apr 20). Photo: Eakkapop thongtub People queue to receive free food being given away at the Clocktower Circle (in the backgroun) in Phuket Town yesterday (Apr 20). Photo: Eakkapop thongtub The food giveaway was held at the Surin Circle (also called the Clocktower Circle) in Phuket Town at 4pm, Capt Udom Petcharat of the Phuket City Police explained. The donation was of 1,000 free food boxes, with the giveaway announced on social media, he explained. People from all over came to pick up food. They rushed to get the food, with no social distancing, he said. The rush of people and the crowd formed was recorded on video and posted online, with the peoples behaviour receiving harsh criticism. Capt Udom explained that the organiser of the giveaway, who he did not name, had failed to manage the event properly in order to avoid any potential spread of COVID-19. A representative of the organiser did present himself at Phuket City Police Station yesterday afternoon, he added. He has been charged with performing an act that breaches the [health] order that bans any public gatherings that risk the disease spreading, Capt Udom confirmed. Capt Udom declined to identify under which section of which law the organiser was charged. Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana has repeatedly warned that breaking the order was punishable under Section 52 of the Communicable Disease Act 2015, which can incur a maximum penalty of up to one year in prison or a fine of up to B100,000, or both. Breach of the order may also be punished under Section 18 of the Emergency Decree, which may incur a penalty of up to two years in prison or a fine of up to B40,000, or both, the order noted. (See here.) Of note, in issuing the order for people in Phuket to wear face masks at all times while in public, Governor Phakaphong warned that breach of that particular order would constitute a breach of Section 51 of the Communicable Disease Act, which has a maximum fine of up to B20,000. (See story here.) In response to the incident yesterday, Muang District Chief Anuphap Rodkwan Yodrabum said that any person organising any such giveaway must inform their local administrative officials first. I want to thank the donor [in this case for their good intentions], but any person who wants to give away food or other essentials must notify their local administration before holding any such giveaways in the future. They can hold their giveaways at their local District Office or police station, where social distancing can be managed, he explained. Everyone needs to avoid the risk of spreading the disease, Mr Anuphap said. UPDATE: Phuket Provincial Police Chief Maj Gen Rungrote Thakurapunyasiri later confirmed that the organiser was fined B1,000 and placed on probation for the incident. Maj Gen Rungrote said he expected the action taken by police would help prevent any further such incidents. The Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, on Tuesday confirmed the eighth coronavirus case in the state. He also said only a partial lockdown was feasible in the state. Mr Mohammed announced the new case while briefing journalists at the end of an extraordinary stakeholders meeting on the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor chaired the meeting where a possible lockdown of the state was discussed ahead of the coming Islamic holy month of Ramadan. At the end of the meeting, the attendees agreed that only a partial lockdown would be feasible in Bauchi, the governor said. The meeting was attended by religious, traditional and political leaders in the state, as well as representatives of security agencies. Mr Mohammed, who delivered a summary of the closed-door meeting that lasted about two hours, said though more cases of COVID-19 are being recorded, only a partial lockdown would work for the government and people of the state. After a thorough discussion with all stakeholders of Bauchi, we have thoroughly discussed the problems and challenges on the prevalence of the COVID-19 in Bauchi, he said. We have also taken cognizance of the fact that Ramadan is approaching, and the majority of the people have always considered this moment as period of worship. And looking at all the decisions taken by the Jamaatul Nasirul Islam, and opinions expressed by our emirs, our ulamas, we came to the conclusion that the committee on COVID-19 in Bauchi will sit down with a cross-section of jlama and clergymen to come out with clear guidelines on a partial lockdown on Bauchi State. He said the partial lockdown was also necessitated by the number of cases recorded in some other northern states. This is being considered because we have a resurgence with what is happening in Kano, our neighbours and even here in Bauchi. Even as we are meeting, I understand that there is another case that has been mentioned that has been found to be positive among the WHO staff and now we have three active cases. Stressing that his government would not relent in efforts to curtail the spread of the pandemic, Mr Mohammed said he now has the full backing of the stakeholders to do all that is needful. The stakeholders of Bauchi have taken responsibility and they have given the government of Bauchi the mandate to take any action that will stop the prevalence or escalation of this COVID-19 pandemic. We are therefore going to sit down and come up with clear guidelines but taking into cognisance what we will do to ensure sensitisation and congregation following the protocols established by WHO in terms of social distancing and sensitisation. He said the partial lockdown will involve more stringent measures that will affect the whole state. A palliative committee The governor also said a palliative committee has been set up and will be headed by the Emir of Bauchi, Rilwanu Adamu. And we are going to have a committee on palliation to be headed by His Royal Highness the Emir of Bauchi and other members that will comprise clergymen, ulamas, politicians, women and youth groups so that we will be able to deepen corporate social responsibility, he said. He said the committee and the COVID-19 committee headed by the deputy governor have been charged to come up with clear guidelines on the implementation of things that will affect tafsir (sermon), congregational prayers, the market, and transportation. Bauchi has eight recorded cases of COVID-19, according to the NCDC. Of this figure, the state currently has three active cases, while five have been discharged. On Sunday, a WHO staff who had a travel history to Kano was confirmed to be positive. And in response to the development, the state ministry of health ordered the sealing of the WHO/UNICEF office after decontaminating the facility. "Were comfortable and confident that we have sufficient funding in order to continue to trade during this period to restructure the business," he said. Loading While Labor called on the federal government to buy a stake in Virgin or lend it money, Prime Minster Scott Morrison made it clear the company should turn to private investors as a priority. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg named former Macquarie Bank chief Nicholas Moore as an envoy to talk to the company, but the federal government played down any idea this would lead to an equity investment or debt guarantee from the commonwealth. Mr Morrison described the move into voluntary administration as the "road out" for Virgin, while restating the governments policy of having two airlines to ensure competition with Qantas. "It is very important in usual times but it will be even more important as we emerge from the coronavirus economic crisis, ensuring that we have those carriers in place," Mr Morrison said. The future of the airline will be decided in as little as two to three months. Mr Strawbridge said there had already been an "overwhelming" response from more than 10 potential buyers. Virgin chief executive Paul Scurrah said where the airline flies, the size of its fleet and how many people it employs will all depend on its new owners. Virgin employs around 10,000 people directly and another 6000 indirectly, who face a nerve-racking wait as the administrators negotiate with creditors and new investors.Workers will continue to be paid or, if stood down, are able access the Jobkeeper payment. Virgin confirmed on Tuesday morning it was unable to service its $5 billion in debts after the Morrison government declined to offer it financial assistance. Virgin had already grounded most of its fleet and stood down 80 per cent most of its workers. It will keep flying a minimum network of government-subsidised flights during the administration process. Geoff Dixon, who was chief executive of Qantas when Virgin launched in Australia in 2000, said on Tuesday it was vital his one-time competitor continues to fly for the health of the travel and tourism industry, which is "on its knees" due to the summer bushfires and the coronavirus shutdown. Virgin Australia CEO Paul Scurrah. Credit:Louise Kennerley Virgin had made aviation "very, very aggressive and competitive" in Australia, he said, which was a key reason for the success of our tourism industry. "I am a little surprised given how vital it is to tourism and travel to a country like Australia that the government hasnt come to the party," Mr Dixon told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Loading "Governments shouldnt be in the business of owning airlines, but I think this is a very, very special situation of no one's making." Virgin has about 30 per cent share of the domestic market and operated about 7 per cent of international flights in and out of Australia. There had been doubts about Virgin finding new investors or a new airline setting up in Australia because the pandemic has devastated the aviation industry globally. Mr Frydenberg said the appointment of Mr Moore was aimed at ensuring "we continue to maintain two airlines", suggesting government could yet lend support to ensure its survival. Mr Strawbridge said he intended to close expressions of interest from new investors within three weeks and to lock down a deal within five weeks after that. Local private equity firm BGH Capital is one outfit that is interested in Virgin and may team up with investment giant Australian Super, while one of the country's biggest wealth managers, MLC, said on Tuesday it would consider investing superannuation monies in the airline if it would provide good economic returns for members. Travel credits for cancelled flights and frequent flyer points remained valid for the time being, but their ultimate value would be decided by anyone who buys the business. Virgin has paused loyalty point redemption for four weeks. Mr Scurrah said parties interested in buying Virgin agreed it had the right strategy going into the crisis, as the loss-making airline cut back routes and costs to improve financial performance while committing to flying internationally and its budget arm TigerAir. "We didnt trade our way into this problem - we had our oxygen cut off," Mr Scurrah said. Peter Harbison, chairman of the industry research firm CAPA Centre for Aviation, said Virgins transformation already underway to bring it back to a domestic focused airline would be accelerated through the administration process. Mr Scurrah said the last of nine different bailout proposals to the Morrison government to avoid a collapse was for a $200 million "top up" that would have sealed a refinancing deal negotiated with other parties. He said the government rejected that on Monday, triggering its administration. "The government has made their intention clear and well do everything we can to come out of this with great new owners who can capitalise us to the extent that we need to be successful," Mr Scurrah said. The Australia Council of Trade Unions president Michele ONeil said the government could have stepped in and saved 16,000 jobs at any time over the past four weeks. "Virgin Australia can still be rescued," she said. "It must keep trading in administration, and then come out of administration with new shareholders that include the Federal Government." Virgin's existing major shareholders Singapore Airline, Etihad Airways and Chinese groups HNA and Nanshan will likely be wiped out through the restructure. Loading However Virgin Australia co-founder Richard Branson, who still owns 10 per cent of the company through his Virgin Group, signalled his involvement might continue. "We are determined to find a way through this situation to keep the airline going," Virgin Group CEO Josh Bayliss said in a statement. Mr Strawbridge was also asked if he expected a challenge to his appointment given Deloitte had been working with Virgin for some weeks and therefore could be viewed as no longer independent. He said he was confident that there was case law allowing this. In 2018, KordaMentha won a similar challenge to its appointment to Network 10 which it had been advising. This will really give us an opportunity to take a look and see where we are, said Del. Luke E. Torian (D-Prince William), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. What were really trying to do is make sure weve got the resources available to deal with the covid-19 right now. . . . Then were going to have to reprioritize some spending. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Two funds have launched to ensure emergency supplies reach New Mexicos Native communities. New Mexico Department of Health data shows that Native Americans, who represent about 11% of the states population, make up about 41% of the states COVID-19 cases. Pueblo Relief Fund The All Pueblo Council of Governors and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center created the Pueblo Relief Fund to help the states 19 pueblos. The fund was kickstarted by a $30,000 donation from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico. The money will buy masks, food and cleaning supplies in bulk from the centers vendors to be donated to pueblo governments and distributed among tribal members. The first food delivery purchased with the fund will be on Thursday, said Beverlee McClure, vice president of culture and community engagement at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Pueblo artisans and hospitality workers have lost their incomes, McClure said. The pueblos dont have the financial reserves to address this once-in-a-lifetime situation . But these new funds are wonderful in showing New Mexico and the nation are recognizing tribes as part of our heritage, our culture and our economic base. J. Michael Chavarria, Santa Clara Pueblo governor and chairman of the All Pueblo Council of Governors, said pueblo budgets are at the breaking point. Our pueblos in New Mexico voluntarily closed our casinos at great financial cost in order to prioritize the health of tribal members and our non-Indian neighbors, as well, Gov. Chavarria said during a virtual roundtable discussion Friday. Several pueblos anticipate losses of $10 million. New Mexico Gas contributed $25,000 to the Pueblo Relief Fund, while the New Mexico Community Foundation and Albuquerque Community Foundation each donated $10,000. McClure said individual donations have reached about $46,000. To donate, visit https://pueblorelieffund.org. Native American Relief Fund The New Mexico Community Foundation created the Native American Relief Fund with the Santa Fe Community Foundation and the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs. The fund will provide emergency grants for tribal governments and nonprofits to buy food, water, masks and cleaning supplies for Navajo, Apache and Pueblo communities. JoAnn Melchor, president and CEO of the New Mexico Community Foundation, said the project aims to raise $3 million. We are focused on hearing community voices, letting them tell us what they need, Melchor said. Were looking at what we can do now with this money to support communities in the future with things like infrastructure. Melchor said the Thornburg Foundation committed to a $50,000 contribution, the Water Foundation committed $25,000 and the LANL Foundation committed $5,000. Donations can be made at https://nmcf.org/programs/native/ or by calling (505) 356-4110. New Delhi, April 21 : Eight members of a family have tested coronavirus positive in the posh Civil Lines area of Delhi, a senior official said on Tuesday. The Oberoi Apartment complex has since been sealed and police have been deployed after these eight persons tested positive. Residents of the housing complex include big businessmen, a former Union Minister, an Aam Aadmi Party leader, and others. It is only 1 km from the Chief Minister's residence. Deputy Commissioner Nidhi Shrivastava said apart from these eight members of a family, no other positive case from the premises has so far come to the notice of the authorities. Samples of the other residents have been taken for testing though the reports are yet to come in, she added. It was learnt that a woman member of the family had returned from London, following which she had self-quarantined herself. However, she later tested positive and so did her family members. Authorities said that the family was undergoing treatment at a private hospital, where the condition of the family head was said to be serious whereas the others were stable. Civil Lines Residents Welfare Association vice-chairman Narender Bhiku Ram Jain said the development was a mere accident. "The family had taken all precautions and quarantined itself. It did not have any contact with others in their housing complex. Since Civil Lines residents live in big houses, they don't venture out unnecessarily. They are also using face masks and sanitisers. So, there is no reason for more cases of coronavirus to come up in the Civil Lines," he added. The complex doesn't have multi-storeyed apartment buildings but one or two-storeyed houses which have adequate distance between them. The area has been sanitised and samples of all 70 residents have been sent for testing, Jain said. CALGARY, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Vermilion Energy Inc. ("Vermilion") (TSX,NYSE: VET) will release its 2020 first quarter operating and condensed financial results on Tuesday, April 28, 2020 after the close of North American markets. The unaudited financial statements and management discussion and analysis for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 will be available on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval ("SEDAR") at www.sedar.com, on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml, and on Vermilion's website at www.vermilionenergy.com. Annual General Meeting and Webcast Details Vermilion will hold its Annual General and Special Meeting on April 28, 2020 at 3:00 pm MT. With the emergence of COVID-19, and in light of limits on larger gatherings and our concern for the health and safety of our employees and shareholders, our meeting will be held virtually. Shareholders can participate electronically at https://web.lumiagm.com/131477895. Please see our Virtual Meeting Guide at https://www.vermilionenergy.com/files/2020_Virtual_Meeting_Guide.pdf for detailed instructions on how to access the meeting, vote on resolutions and submit questions. Following the formal portion of the meeting, a presentation will be given by Anthony Marino, President & Chief Executive Officer. Guests may also view the event at https://web.lumiagm.com/131477895 by registering as a guest. The live webcast link, webcast slides, and archive webcast link will be available on Vermilion's website at http://www.vermilionenergy.com/ir/eventspresentations.cfm. About Vermilion Vermilion is an international energy producer that seeks to create value through the acquisition, exploration, development and optimization of producing properties in North America, Europe and Australia. Our business model emphasizes free cash flow generation and returning capital to investors when economically warranted, augmented by moderate organic production growth and value-adding acquisitions. Vermilion is targeting growth in production primarily through the exploitation of light oil and liquids-rich natural gas semi-conventional resource plays in Canada and the United States, the exploration and development of high impact natural gas opportunities in the Netherlands and Germany, and through oil drilling and workover programs in France and Australia. Vermilion holds a 20% working interest in the Corrib gas field in Ireland. Vermilion's priorities are health and safety, the environment, and profitability, in that order. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the public and those who work with us, and the protection of our natural surroundings. We have been recognized as a top decile performer amongst Canadian publicly listed companies in governance practices, as a Climate Leadership level (A-) performer by the CDP, and a Best Workplace in the Great Place to Work Institute's annual rankings in Canada, the Netherlands and Germany. In addition, Vermilion emphasizes strategic community investment in each of our operating areas. Employees and directors hold approximately 5% of our fully diluted shares, are committed to consistently delivering superior rewards for all stakeholders, and have delivered over 20 years of market outperformance. Vermilion trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VET. SOURCE Vermilion Energy Inc. Related Links http://www.vermilionenergy.com MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2020) The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) non-profit organization has lowered Estonia's rank in its latest edition of the World Press Freedom Index, published on Tuesday, following the Estonian government successfully shutting down of Sputnik Estonia. In late 2019 Sputnik Estonia was pressured by the country's authorities into shutting down its operations in the country. The authorities cited EU sanctions imposed on Dmitry Kiselev, the head of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, which includes Sputnik Estonia. However, the outlet itself has not appeared on any sanctions lists. The watchdog group lowered Tallinn's ranking from 11 to 14. Among other reasons for lowering Estonia's rating that were listed by the RSF are verbal attacks on journalists by the far-right populist party EKRE, as well as allegations of the owner of the Postimeesi newspaper interfering with the outlet's work. CHANDIGARH: Punjab Police commandos on Tuesday donated their blood to save Sub-Inspector Harjeet Singh whose hand was chopped off by a group of Nihang Sikhs in Patiala recently. According to reports, this was done on the instruction of Punjab Police DGP Dinkar Gupta. The 4th Commando unit of Punjab Police donated nearly 4-5 units of blood to the Harjeet Singh who is said to be recovering fast at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. S-I Harjeet Singhs hand was chopped off by a group of Nihang Sikhs in Patiala. He was then rushed to PGIMER for treatment. The incident occurred after Harjeet Singh was trying to enforce curfew at the Patiala Sabzi Mandi on April 12. The PGIMER informed that it will require 4-5 months of physiotherapy for his hands to become functional. "Singh was operated on April 12, the surgery has been successful. It was complicated surgery as the hand was chopped off. For functional success, it will require 4-5 months as physiotherapy is needed," said Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER Chandigarh. The policeman`s hand was chopped off, and few others were injured when a group of Nihang Sinks allegedly attacked them at a vegetable market in Punjab`s Patiala district on Sunday. , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Coronavirus Cases in India latest updates: The country recorded 1,329 new cases and 44 deaths in 24 hours. According to the latest data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India has so far recorded 18,985 confirmed coronavirus cases including 15,122 active cases, 3,259 cured/discharged, 1 migrated, and 603 deaths. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Delhi stands at 2,081 with death toll at 47 following Maharashtra which is the worst-hit in India with coronavirus tally at 4,666, while 232 people succumbed to the virus in the state. Maharashtra also has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the country. Gujarat is the third state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 1,939 and death toll at 71. Meanwhile, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan has launched 'COVID India Seva', an interactive platform for citizen engagement on COVID19 on Tuesday. It is aimed at enabling e-governance delivery in real-time and answering people's queries. The Covid India Seva will work as a dashboard at the backend that will help to process large volumes of tweets, converts them into resolvable tickets, and assigns them to the relevant authority for real-time resolution. "Trained experts will share authoritative public health information swiftly at scale, helping to build a direct channel for communication with citizens," the union minister said. India is witnessing a rapid increase in coronavirus cases. Also Read: Coronavirus lockdown India: Does your district fall in 'red zone' hotspots? Check out full list here Also Read: Coronavirus in India: COVID-19 cases cross 17,000; check state-wise tally, deaths, list of testing facilities Follow BusinessToday.In for all live updates on coronavirus: 10.56 pm: Delhi-Noida border completely shut The Delhi-Noida border has been completely shut on advice from medical department with certain exemptions, informed Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Suhas LY. Personnel involved in COVID-19 management activities, central government employees, doctors, and media personnel with authorisation, as well as goods transport and ambulances have been exempted from this, an order stated. 10.28 pm: Coronavirus in India Government of India to conduct a telephonic survey to gather feedback from citizens on prevalence and distribution of COVID19 symptoms, reported ANI. Calls will be made to mobile phone numbers from 1921 during which respondents will be asked to take the survey. It will be carried out by National Informatics Centre (NIC). 9.27 pm: Coronavirus update India Under ICMR's new strategy for #COVID19 testing among pregnant women expectant mothers residing in coronavirus hotspots or part of large migration gatherings from from hotspot districts presenting in labor or likely to deliver in next 5 days will be tested even if asymptomatic. 9.20 pm: IN PICTURES: MoS G Kishan Reddy visits Delhi's Azadpur Mandi Delhi: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy inspected the Azadpur wholesale market, earlier today. pic.twitter.com/fIHB4lbH0I ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 9.09 pm: Coronavirus in India: Health Ministry lists rules for importing remains of COVID patients, suspects Ministry of Health and Family Welfare list guidelines as standard operating procedure for importation of human remains of confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients. Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) releases guidelines/standard operating procedures for importation of human remains of #COVID19 patients/suspects: MoHFW pic.twitter.com/iZUMKbFLao ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 9.07 pm: Coronavirus update India Odisha Revenue and Disaster Management Department issue Standard Operating Procedure for smooth movement of all kind of goods and workers, as well as for opening vehicle repair shops during coronavirus lockdown. Odisha Revenue & Disaster Management Department has issued Standard Operating Procedure for smooth movement of all types of goods, workers and opening of vehicle repair shops during lockdown. pic.twitter.com/SEQYE4FAwu ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 8.49 pm: Prepaid mobile recharge, caregivers of senior citizens, flour mills exempted from COVID-19 lockdown, MHA clarifies In a letter to states and union territories, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has clarified that prepaid mobile recharge services, caregivers who stay with senior citizens, and food processing units in urban areas like flour mills, dal mills, bread factories, milk processing plants and such had already been exempted from nationwide lockdown in view of coronavirus outbreak. However, social distancing measures will have to be followed at workshops and other facilities allowed to run, Bhalla added. 8.34 pm: Korean company begins producing COVID-19 rapid test kits at Manesar South Korean company SD Biosensor has started production from its facility in Manesar, Haryana, informed Indian Embassy in Seoul. The facility has a production capacity of 500,000 rapid test kits per week, which will be further enhanced in the coming weeks to meet growing demand, the Embassy informed. 8.23 pm: Coronavirus update India: Cabinet to convene at PM Modi 's residence The Union cabinet will meet at the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 22, Wednesday. The status of coronavirus outbreak in India is expected to be the primary agenda for the meeting tomorrow. 8.17 pm: Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra Maharashtra reported 552 new COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths today, taking tally of cases to 5,218 and death toll to 251. A total of 722 patients have been cured so far, including the 150 patients discharged from hospitals today, informed Maharashtra Health Department. 8.11 pm: Delhi coronavirus cases Delhi government has demarcated three new containment zones in the national capital, taking the number of such areas to 87 from 84. Number of COVID19 'containment zones' in Delhi raised to 87 by Delhi government. pic.twitter.com/AGGx6QNp50 ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 7.59 pm: Coronavirus news: China refutes claims of faulty rapid test kits China has rejected claims from some Indian states indicating that rapid testing kits for detecting COVID-19 were yielding inacurrate results. ICMR had suspended such test kits for 2 days after suspicions were raised by Rajasthan and West Bengal. 7.51 pm: Lockdown in Maharashtra Maharashtra government has revoked relaxations and exemptions from coronavirus lockdown for Mumbai and Pune regions as 'people are not behaving responsibly', stated Chief Minister's Office. The lockdown exemptions will remain in place for other parts of the state. 7.40 pm: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan urges Red Cross to encourage cured COVID-19 patients to doneate blood for plasma ttherapy There have been reports that convalescent plasma can play a crucial role in the recovery of #COVID19 patients. For this, we have requested Red Cross volunteers to approach people who have recovered from COVID19&motivate them to donate blood: Dr Harsh Vardhan,Union Health Minister pic.twitter.com/BFxJkCFkgz ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 7.23 pm: Coronavirus news: Punjab suggests three-pronged strategy for Centre to bail out states CM Captain Amarinder Singh today suggested the Centre a 3-pronged strategy to bail out states from #COVID19 crisis, including a 3-month special financial package&extension to 15th Finance Commission till Oct 2021 for submission of its final report: Punjab Chief Minister's Office pic.twitter.com/Q3udRETV4q ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 7.19 pm: Coronavirus updates: SEBI rolls out measures to facilitate fund raising Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India has decided to take certain measures to further facilitate fund raising by corporates through capital markets in line with its ongoing efforts to ease processes amid the coronavirus crisis. Securities and Exchange Board of India has decided to take certain measures to further facilitate fund raising by corporates through capital markets in keeping with its ongoing efforts to ease processes in light of #COVID19: Office of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pic.twitter.com/cDBWyeO7Pu ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 7.10 pm: Singapore extends partial lockdown till June 1 Singapore has extended the "circuit breaker" period until June 1 to control the spread of the deadly coronavirus as cases in the country surged to 9,125. In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the government is committed to do its "utmost" to keep it this deadly virus at bay. 7.04 pm: Coronavirus news: Quarantined man dies after jumping from hospital's 3rd floor A man who was quarantined in Ranchi's Lake View Hospital died after jumping from the third floor of the hospital, Ranchi Police has confirmed. 6.54 pm: Coronavirus updates: IAF airlifts 57 people to Kargil Indian Air Force airlifted 57 quarantined people in a C-130 aircraft from AFS Hindan to Kargil after they tested negative for coronavirus. The evacuees had completed their quarantine periods at Air Force Quarantine Facility, Hindan, reported ANI. 6.44 pm: Coronavirus in India Rajendra Singh, Member, National Disaster Management Authority, called on IAF Chief RKS Bhadauria to discuss coronavirus relief operations. Singh appreciated India Air Force for their help in transporting medical and essential supplies to different parts of country. 6.19 pm: Coronavirus in Delhi: 2081 cases reported, 47 dead: CM Arvind Kejriwal Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal informed that 2,081 coronavirus cases have been reported in in the national capital till April night, of which, 431 have recovered and 47 have lost their lives due to the virus. Currently, there are 1,603 active cases in Delhi, he added. 6.11 pm: 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: 6.02 pm: Coronavirus updates: MyLab gets TBD approval for funds to ramp up test kit production Technology Development Board (TDB), a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has approved financial support to Pune-based MyLab Discovery Solutions for ramping up production of COVID-19 diagnostic kits they have developed. Mylab is the first indigenous company to develop real-time PCR based molecular diagnostic kit used for detecting COVID 19. 5.59 pm: Govt tech think tanks mulls best pratices to revive Indian economy post COVID-19 Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous technology think tank under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, is working on a white paper to strategise revival of Indian economy after COVID 19. This document would mainly focus on strengthening Make in India initiatives, commercialisation of indigenous technology, developing a technology-driven transparent Public Distribution System (PDS), efficient rural healthcare system, reducing imports, adoption of emerging technology domains like AI, Machine Learning, Data Analytics and many more, a government statement said. 5:55 pm: India's COVID-19 cases rise to 18,985, death toll goes up to 603 Total number of COVID-19 positive cases rise to 18,985 in India (including 15,122 active cases, 3,260 cured/discharged/migrated people and 603 deaths), says Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Total number of #COVID19 positive cases rise to 18985 in India (including 15122 active cases, 3260 cured/discharged/migrated people and 603 deaths): Ministry of Health and Family Welfare pic.twitter.com/uRLLpgDmJb - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 5:50 pm: Delhi Police constable tested positive for coronavirus, complains about lack of facilities A Delhi Police constable, who had tested positive for coronavirus, complains about lack of facilities and medical care at Chaudhary Brahm Prakash Ayurved Charak Sansthan, Delhi, where he has been quarantined. #Delhi We will take care of the well being of our staff and their family. We are following procedures and guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). We will get in touch with hospital administration so more facilities can be provided: DCP Delhi-West https://t.co/mScfwhzJKK - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 5:45 pm: Have asked all state govts to distribute ration to poor, says Ram Vilas Paswan Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday said that the government has surplus grains stock of 539 lakh tonnes. There will no shortage in the near future. We have asked all the state govts to distribute ration to the poor in their states. The Centre has clearly said that no poor should go hungry, he added. 5:35 pm: 10 new cases reported in Karnataka in last 24 hours Ten new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Karnataka from 5:00 pm yesterday till 5:00 pm today. With this, 418 positive cases have been confirmed in the state now, which includes 17 Deaths and 129 Discharges, according to statement issued by the state health department. 5:30 pm: 29 new COVID-19 cases, 15 deaths reported in West Bengal in last 24 hours As many as 29 new coronavirus cases reported in West Bengal in last 24 hours, while total death toll reached 15, says state chief secretary on Tuesday. 5:25 pm: Pune's mobile app Saiyam tracks home quarantined citizens In order to effectively track the home-quarantines citizens and ensure they are actually staying in the home, a mobile application named Saiyam has been developed by the Pune Municipal Corporation under Smart Cities Mission (SCM). The city administration has appointed dedicated teams for five zones to conduct a follow-up with people under home quarantine on a daily basis. The teams will check on people who have recently returned from international trips and those discharged after treatment for COVID-19. 5:20 pm: Odisha gets 5,356 kg of PPE, sanitisers on Tuesday "Total 459 packets (5356.7 kg) of PPE (Personal protective equipment) and sanitisers etc. were delivered to Odisha State Medical Corporation (OSMC) on Tuesday by Air India AI-1473 from Delhi," says Director, Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar. 5:15 pm: Central team reviewed COVID-19 situation in Pune A inter-ministerial central team on Tuesday reviewed Pune Municipal Corporation's control room to monitor COVID-19 situation in city. Pune: A Inter-Ministerial Central Team today reviewed Pune Municipal Corporation's Control Room to monitor COVID19 situation in city. The Team held a meeting with administration officials including the divisional commissioner & collector etc.#Maharashtrapic.twitter.com/MUN1Qd9MV8 - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 5:10 pm:Central team not receiving cooperation from West Bengal govt, says home ministry Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) visiting West Bengal's Kolkata and Jalpaiguri districts aren't receiving cooperation from State government and local administration. They're being stopped from visiting the areas and not being allowed make on-spot assessment of situation, says home ministry. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla writes to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha. Letter states,"It has been brought to notice of this ministry that both IMCTs, at Kolkata & Jalpaiguri respectively, have not been provided with requisite cooperation by state & local authorities" pic.twitter.com/yukzKy32PU - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 5:05 pm: Centre issues guidelines to states for HIV/cancer treatments The centre has issued detailed guidelines to all states that while we focus on COVID19, all other services need to be provided, be it for dialysis, HIV/cancer treatments etc, says Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry. At the same time required infection management prevention should be in place, he added. 5:00 pm: 4,49,810 tests for COVID-19 conducted so far in India, says ICMR "4,49,810 samples have been tested so far in Inda. 35,852 samples were tested on Monday, of which 29,776 samples were tested in 201 Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) network labs and remaining 6,076 samples were tested in 86 private labs, says R Gangakhedkar. 4:50 pm: India's coronavirus count tops 18,000 Till now, there are 18601 positive cases. So far, 3252 people have recovered including 705 people who recovered yesterday. This takes our recovery percentage to 17.48%, says Lav Agrawal, Joint Secy, Health Ministry. 4:40 pm: ICMR advises states to not use rapid testing kits for two days ICMR Deputy Director Dr Raman Gangakhedkar said that states advised not to use rapid testing kits for two days as a lot of variations were reported in results. Kits will be tested and validated by on-ground teams and we will give advisory in the next 2 days, he added. 4:35 pm: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee urges citizens to stay at home West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Saturday visited Rajabazar area in Kolkata and asked citizens to stay at home and cooperate in the fight against coronavirus. 4.25pm: Gujarat coronavirus news update Eleven migrant workers were arrested in Gujarat while they were heading from Surat to their native places in Odisha on bicycles on Tuesday. They were arrested under IPC Sections 188 (disobedience to police order), 269, 270 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life). 4.15pm: Maharashtra coronavirus news update A total of 49 policemen tested positive for coronavirus, since 22nd March till 4 am today. As many as 13,381 people have been arrested since 22nd March till 4 am today, for violation of restrictions during the lockdown. And, the state police has seized 41,768 vehicles have been seized in the same period. 4.05pm: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan may go into self-quarantine after it emerged that he came in contact with an individual who tested positive for coronavirus last week. According to IANS, Khan met Faisal Edhi, the chairman of Edhi Foundation, on April 15. 3.55pm: Directorate General of Health Services and Government of India have given permission to Dr. Vishal Rao, H.C.G Bangalore Institute Of Oncology Specialty for plasma therapy in treating coronavirus patients. Directorate General of Health Services, Government of India gives permission to Dr. Vishal Rao, H.C.G Bangalore Institute Of Oncology Specialty for plasma therapy in 'COVID19 Severe SARS-Cov-2' disease. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/K4WDnBvfKn - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 3.50pm: British Airways carrying 250 passengers to depart from Amritsar today A special British Airways flight, carrying 250 passengers, including 28 Indians will depart for London from Amritsar on April 21. On April 18, British Airways' another relief flight carried 260 stranded passengers from Amritsar. 3.45pm: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan launches 'COVID India Seva' Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday launched the 'COVID India Seva'. The initiative will serve transparent e-governance delivery in real-time and answering citizen queries swiftly. Launched @CovidIndiaSeva to respond to citizens' queries in real time Experts will share authoritative public health information reg #COVID19 swiftly at scale, helping to build a direct channel for communication with citizens. Post your queries!#CovidIndiaSeva@PMOIndiapic.twitter.com/9dPKh9Qklc - Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) April 21, 2020 3.40pm: 47 staff members of AMU quarantined after patient tests positive for coronavirus Forty-seven staff members of a medical college attached to Aligarh Muslim University were quarantined after they came in contact with a coronavirus patient. The authorities at AMU's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College have also suspended a doctor for referring the patient to the emergency wing of its hospital instead of isolation facility. 3.35pm: Kangana Ranaut donates Rs 5 lakh to daily wage workers of "Thalaivi" Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has donated Rs 5 lakh to Fim Employees Federation of South India's (FESI UNION) relief fund and daily wage workers of her upcoming film Thalaivi. 3.30pm: Rajasthan coronavirus news update On Tuesday, Rajasthan reported 83 coronavirus cases, taking total number of positive cases in the state to 1,659 now. 25 deaths have been reported till date, according to Rajasthan Health Department. 83 new #COVID19 cases have been reported in Rajasthan today, taking total number of positive cases in the state to 1659 now. 25 deaths have been reported till date: Rajasthan Health Department pic.twitter.com/G65UP2OesI - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 3.25pm: Karnataka coronavirus news update The Karnataka Government might spare its employees from salary cuts in April despite it faces severe resources' crunch due to the lockdown. As of now, there is no problem with April salary and we can manage. But if May also turns out to be a wash-out (in terms of revenue collection), then the situation is going to be very tough, a senior minister said. 3.20pm: Tamil Nadu coronavirus news update Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Tuesday appreciated six-year old R. Hema Jayasri for donating her savings of Rs 543 towards COVID-19 relief. In a tweet, Palaniswami expressed his happiness to note young children growing with an attitude to help others. 3.15 pm: Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik has announced a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to healthcare workers who die in the line of duty while treating COVID-19 patients 3.04 pm: Coronavirus update today KBS Sidhu, Special Chief Secretary, Punjab said on Tuesday that British Airways special chartered flight carrying 222 UK nationals and 28 Indians will depart for London shortly from Amritsar International Airport. British Airways special chartered flight carrying 222 UK nationals and 28 Indians will depart for London shortly from Amritsar International Airport: KBS Sidhu, Special Chief Secretary, Punjab. #COVID19pic.twitter.com/k3WVyXXKbL - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 2.59 pm: Coronavirus news: Singapore reports 1,111 new COVID-19 cases Singapore reported 1,111 fresh novel coronavirus cases, taking the city-state's total count to 9,125 on Tuesday. The health ministry said that a majority of the cases were migrant workers living in dormitories. 2.55 pm: Gujarat coronavirus news update Gujarat reported 88 fresh COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, according to Health Ministry, taking the total number of novel coronavirus cases to 1,939 in the state. 131 people have recovered so far while 71 have succumbed to the virus. 2.46 pm: Coronavirus live updates: Govt says West Bengal issued the same notice as other states Apurva Chandra Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence & IMCT team leader said on Tuesday that IMCT teams have gone to other states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, there they are getting full support of state govts. They were given the same notice as West Bengal but they have faced no problems since yesterday. IMCT teams have gone to other states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,& Rajasthan, there they are getting full support of state govts. They were given the same notice as West Bengal but they have faced no problems since yesterday: Apurva Chandra Addl Secy MoD & IMCT team leader pic.twitter.com/7ok9PuAFkR - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 2.40 pm: Haryana coronavirus news Haryana Health Department said on Tuesday said that cumulative positive COVID19 cases (including 14 Italian Nationals) stand at 252 now, of which 142 have been discharged. Total 2 deaths reported till now. Cumulative positive #COVID19 cases (including 14 Italian Nationals) stand at 252 now, of which 142 have been discharged. Total 2 deaths reported till now: Health Department, Haryana pic.twitter.com/iHEKp68h82 - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 2.34 pm: Tamil Nadu coronavirus news Around 25 persons, comprising journalists, working for a Tamil TV news channel have been tested positive for COVID-19 in Chennai, a Tamil Nadu government official said on Tuesday. 2.26 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus latest update Mumbai Police have booked 1,330 people for not wearing masks at public places in the city flouting the order issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), an official said on Tuesday. The BMC had made wearing face masks/clothes mandatory from April 8 in the wake of increasing cases of novel coronavirus in Mumbai. 2.17pm: Chhattisgarh coronavirus news A 12-year-old girl hailing from Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district reportedly died of exhaustion and dehydration on Monday after walking for 3 days on foot and covering 150 km on her journey back home from Telangana, where she had gone for work. The girl began her journey on April 15, bud passed away on April 18 morning near Bhandarpal village, which is 50 km from her native village. 2.07 pm: Mumbai coronavirus updates 25 paramedics, comprising 19 nurses of Pune's Ruby Hall Clinic tested positive for novel coronavirus, Hospital CEO told PTI. Pune is one of the 14 COVID-19 hotspots in Maharashtra identified as red zones or containment areas. The other hotspots are Mumbai, Mumbai suburban districts, Thane, Nagpur, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Yavatmal, Aurangabad, Buldhana, Nashik, Kolhapur, Amravati, Palghar. 1.57 pm: Coronavirus live updates: Send us home, says 220 stranded Indians in Japan A group of 220 Indians stranded in Japan reached out to the Indian Embassy in Tokyo urging it to be sent to India. The stranded Indians in a signed letter, assured that they will isolate themselves when back home to the country and cooperate with the authorities, PTI reported. 1.50 pm: Goa coronavirus news Girish Chodankar, President of Goa congress said on Tuesday that Goa CM is boasting of covering 5 lakhs houses in just 3 days with 7000 surveyors. Central Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan also tweeted declaring Goa as COVID19 free. This hurry of BJP govt is a worry for every Goan. Goa CM is boasting of covering 5 lakhs houses in just 3 days with 7000 surveyors. Central Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan also tweeted declaring Goa as #COVID19 free. This hurry of BJP govt is a worry for Goan: Girish Chodankar, President of Goa Congress https://t.co/VsW2lLqiJL - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 1.44 pm: Odisha coronavirus news Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik said on Tuesday that the state government will provide Rs 50 lakh insurance to all medics, health personnel, both in public and private sector, as well as members of other support services. He added that strict action will be taken against anyone who dishonours the work of these healthcare workers. Any act against them (health personnel) is an act against the state. In case anyone indulges in any act that will disturb or dishonor their work,very strict criminal action will be taken against them including invoking provisions of National Security Act: Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik pic.twitter.com/hLluvzkCBE - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 1.39 pm: Delhi coronavirus latest news Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal conducts surprise inspection at a shelter home for stranded migrant labourers at Ludlow Castle School to examine the facilities available there and compliance of social distancing norms. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal conducts surprise inspection at a shelter home for stranded migrant labourers at Ludlow Castle School to examine the facilities available there and compliance of social distancing norms. pic.twitter.com/iYHciC0CEb - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 1.29 pm: West Bengal coronavirus update The TMC on Tuesday slammed the central government over the visit of Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (ICMTs) to West Bengal to monitor some districts in the wake of COVID-19 cases. The party questioned as to why such teams were not sent to the state that have much higher count of cases and red zones. "The ICMT team is on adventure tourism. The CM was told about the team's visit three hours after the team landed," TMC MP Derek O' Brien said. 1.22 pm: Assam coronavirus latest updates: Government offices in Assam start functioning amid lockdown All the government offices in Assam have resumed functioning from Tuesday with 33% workforce in attendance. According to the state government directive, all officials from the post of deputy secretary and above are required to mandatorily attend office in Assam secretariat, the directorates, the assistant director and above officials are also required to be present on duty and assistant commissioner and above for other corporations. Adequate precautionary measures have been made in Assam secretariat and other government offices to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus. The state government has also provided transport facilities for Assam secretariat employees by arranging 16 buses. 1.16 pm: Coronavirus in Haryana latest update Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij said on Tuesday that the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in the state is 13.15 days as compared to 7.5 days of the national average. With 56.7 percents recovery rate against 16.38 percents of all India rate of #coronavirus cases Haryana is moving fast towards normalicy. There are 108 active #COVID19 patients as on today in #Haryana Death rate in Haryana is 0.79% against 3.15 % of National. - ANIL VIJ MINISTER HARYANA (@anilvijminister) April 21, 2020 1.10 pm: Uttarakhand latest news In Pics: Badrinath in the Chamoli district received snowfall on Tuesday. The temple will open on May 15. Uttarakhand: Badrinath in the Chamoli district received snowfall today; Portals of the Badrinath Temple to open on May 15. pic.twitter.com/s1ceHStbpo - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 1.04 pm: Madhya Pradesh update: Cop dies in the state A police inspector passed away due to COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district on Tuesday. The inspector was posted at a police station in Ujjain. He was suffering from high blood pressure and was initially treated at a hospital there for 4 days after he got infected with the virus. Another cop also died earlier after contracting the disease in the state. 12.57 pm: Coronavirus cases in India: Lok Sabha secretariat employee tests COVID-19 positive A Lok Sabha secretariat employee tested positive for novel coronavirus on Tuesday. The employee is the member of a housekeeping staff in the secretariat and has been admitted to the RML Hospital in Delhi. The person's family has also been put into isolation. 12.49 pm: Coronavirus Delhi news Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Anil Baijal are holding meeting with District Collector and Deputy Commissioner of Police of all districts of Delhi via video conferencing over the current COVID-19 situation. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Anil Baijal are holding meeting with District Collector and Deputy Commissioner of Police of all districts of Delhi via video conferencing over #COVID19. (File pics) pic.twitter.com/IhaeQ37lEl - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 12.39 pm: Coronavirus live updates: Maharashtra worst-hit state in India; Delhi, Gujarat follow suit The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Delhi stands at 2,081 with death toll at 47 following Maharashtra which is the worst-hit in India with coronavirus tally at 4,666, while 232 people succumbed to the virus in the state. Maharashtra also has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the country. Gujarat is the third state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 1,939 and death toll at 71. 12.29 pm: Lucknow latest update on COVID-19 Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath holds a meeting with senior officials over coronavirus situation in Lucknow. 12.26 pm: Coronavirus Rajasthan update Rajasthan government has stopped rapid testing for COVID-19 and informed the Indian Council of Medical Research about the issue. The government complained that kits showed wrong results during coronavirus testing. 12.19 pm: Bhopal coronavirus latest update 2 more Bhopal gas tragedy victims died due to COVID-19 on Tuesday. This takes the total count of such deaths in the Madhya Pradesh's capital to 7, an official said. According to a PTI report, a 70-year-old Bhopal gas tragedy survivor passed away on April 17, while another 60-year-old mishap victim succumbed to novel coronavirus on April 14. 12.13 pm: Delhi coronavirus cases: Kejriwal govt will conduct tests on media personnel Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter on Tuesday to say that his government will conduct COVID-19 tests on media persons in the national capital following 53 cases of reporters testing positive for the virus in Mumbai. Responding to a person's tweet urging the CM to arrange mass coronavirus test for media personnel in Delhi like the one conducted in Mumbai, Kejriwal answered, "Sure. We will do that." Sure. We will do that https://t.co/ehcY5OMiEP - Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 21, 2020 12.05 pm: Odisha coronavirus cases 5 more people were tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday taking the total count in the state to 79, officials told PTI. 11.59 am: Coronavirus news update According to media reports, a Group of Ministers' meeting will be held on Tuesday evening where the lockdown exit plan is likely to be deliberate upon. 11.53 am: Coronavirus Maharashtra update: 472 more cases reported on Tuesday Maharashtra recorded 472 more fresh novel coronavirus cases till 10 am on Tuesday, taking the total count in the state to 4,676. 9 more people succumbed to COVID-19, taking the death toll to 232, according to Public Health of Department, Maharashtra government.(ANI reports) 11.42 am: Gujarat coronavirus cases Gujarat Health Department said on Tuesday that 6 more COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state taking the death toll in the state to 77. The total count of coronavirus positive cases has climbed to 2,066 in Gujarat comprising 131 recoveries/discharges and 77 deaths. 6 more deaths in Gujarat due to #COVID19, death toll rises to 77. 127 new COVID-19 positive cases reported in the state taking the total of positive cases to 2066 including 131 recoveries/discharges and 77 deaths: Health Department, Gujarat - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 11.37 am: Coronavirus Uttar Pradesh cases update Raebareli has reported 33 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total count of confirmed coronavirus cases in Uttar Pradesh to 1,258, while the death toll is at 18. Out of these new cases, 31 are Tablighi Jamaat members hailing from Saharanpur. 11.28 am: Coronavirus in India: Doctors, medics across the country to hold candlelight protest on Wednesday The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has said that doctors and medics across India will light candles as a mark of protest against attack on doctors, and healthcare workers. The medical body has demanded a law to protect the medical staff and has announced white alert on April 22 and black day on April 23. 11.21 am: Maharashtra lockdown latest updates Watch: Pune Police make lockdown violators do sit ups in sinhagad road on Tuesday. #WATCH: Violators of #CoronavirusLockdown were made to do sit ups by Pune Police in Sinhgad Road, today. #Maharashtrapic.twitter.com/kDAXp6cR04 - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 11.15 am: Lockdown in Madhya Pradesh news Cops punish the violators of coronavirus lockdown in Indore. Madhya Pradesh: Police personnel punish the violators of #CoronavirusLockdown in Indore. pic.twitter.com/ZXzs07fq6G - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 11.05 am: Delhi coronavirus news: 3 cops test COVID-19 positive 3 personnel of Delhi Police have been tested positive for novel coronavirus infection. All 3 cops were in the Nabi Karim area of Delhi which is one of the 84 containment zones in the national capital. 10.56 am: West Bengal coronavirus update Sweet shops in Kolkata remain open amid lockdown curbs across the country. The West Bengal government earlier amended the lockdown steps and permitted sweet shops to remain open from 8 am to 12 pm. West Bengal: People gather at sweet shops in Kolkata after state govt made new amendments for sweet shops to remain open from 8 am to 12 pm. Earlier sweet shops were allowed to operate for 8 hours (8 am to 4 pm). pic.twitter.com/5QCNmM1dD2 - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 10.49 am: Madhya Pradesh coronavirus news Following Uttar Pradesh, the Madhya Pradesh government has now sent 150 private buses to ferry back around 2,000 students stranded in Kota, Rajasthan. The buses will reach Kota on Tuesday evening and will bring the students back to their home districts in MP on Wednesday morning. 10.42 am: Coronavirus news: Check BusinessToday.In coronavirus tracker to get state-wise details 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. 10.34 am: Coronavirus updates: PM Modi praises civil servants for leading fight against COVID-19 Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter on Tuesday to laud the efforts of civil servants in ensuring that India successfully combats novel coronavirus pandemic. "On Civil Services Day, tributes to the great Sardar Patel, who envisioned our administrative framework and emphasised on building a system that is progress-oriented and compassionate," PM Modi tweeted. Today, on Civil Services Day I convey greetings to all Civil Servants and their families. I appreciate their efforts in ensuring India successfully defeats COVID-19. They are working round the clock, assisting those in need and ensuring everyone is healthy. - Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2020 10.24 am: Coronavirus live updates: US accuses China of hoarding PPE, selling it at high rates A White House officials has alleged that the United States (US) has evidence that China purchases 18 times more quantity of personal protective equipment (PPE) and masks in January and February, which the country is now selling at high rates. 10.17 am: COVID-19 pandemic: not possible to establish the exact source of novel coronavirus, says WHO The World Health Organisation has said that it is not possible to ascertain the exact source of novel coronavirus at this state. WHO Regional Directors for Western Pacific Takeshi Kesai said Tuesday that no findings have been determined adding that the evidence has suggest an animal origin though. 10.11 am: West Bengal coronavirus cases West Bengal's Health Department said on Tuesday that after getting the first set of rapid test kits from ICMR on Sunday, it conducted 78 rapid tests on Monday- 64 in Howrah and 14 in Kolkata. Only 2 cases were found to positive both from Kolkata. In our continuous endeavour to ramp up #COVID19 testing,upon receiving the first set of rapid test kits from ICMR day before yesterday, 78 rapid tests were carried out yesterday-64 in Howrah&14 in Kolkata. Only 2 cases were found positive,both from Kolkata:Health Dept,West Bengal pic.twitter.com/QN2dWWtwh3 - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 10.05 am: Arunachal Pradesh lockdown updates Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said on Tuesday that the a total of 439 samples have been collected as on April 20 out of which 405 testes negative, while the results of 34 are awaited. As on April 20, total samples collected in Arunachal Pradesh are 439 of which 405 tested negative, 0 tested positive and results of 34 are awaited: Chief Minister Pema Khandu pic.twitter.com/OgQJ4w02Km - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 9.58 am: Coronavirus cases live updates: Until a vaccine is found, adapting to COVID-19 pandemic will have to be the new normal, says WHO The World Health Organisation has cautioned that the relaxation of lockdown rules to stem the further spread of novel coronavirus must be gradual adding that if curbs were to be lifted too soon, there will a resurgence of infections. A WHO official said in an online press conference on Tuesday, said that until a vaccine is discovered, adapting to the pandemic will have to become a new normal. 9.49 am: Rajasthan lockdown news Rajasthan recorded 52 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday. These cases comprise 5 in Jodhpur, 4 in Bhilwara, 2 each in Dausa, Jaisalmer and Tonk, 34 in Jaipur, 1 each in Jhunjhunu, Nagour and Sawai Madhopur. 52 #COVID19 positive cases reported today in Rajasthan so far-4 in Bhilwara, 2 each in Dausa, Jaisalmer & Tonk, 34 in Jaipur, 1 each in Jhunjhunu, Nagour & Sawai Madhopur and 5 in Jodhpur. Total positive cases rises to 1628, including 25 deaths, 205 recovered: State health dept pic.twitter.com/OKGzGFdhri - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 9.39 am: Coronavirus live updates: Turkey imposes 4-day lockdown from Thursday Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has announced a 4-day lockdown in 31 cities from Thursday to stem the further spread of COVID-19. The country has enforced such steps over the past 2 weekends, but Erdogan said on Monday that the lockdown will be for a longer duration this time due to a national holiday falling on Thursday. The total number of novel coronavirus cases in Turkey, jumped to 90,980 on Monday, with over 120 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 2,140 in the country. 9.29 am: Delhi lockdown news: Azadpur mandi open 24x7 The Azadpur sabzi mandi (vegetable market) is open 24 hours, 7 days now. Officials said that the vegetables and fruits can be sold from 6 am till 10 pm and trucks will be permitted from 10 pm till 6 am. #WATCH Delhi: Traffic outside Azadpur Sabzi Mandi today; the vegetable market will now remain open for 24 hours. Movement of trucks allowed from 10 pm till 6 am; vegetables and fruits will be sold from 6 am till 10 pm. #CoronavirusLockdownpic.twitter.com/beQQmwzGbF - ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 9.24 am: Karnataka coronavirus news An 80-year-old man who died on Monday was tested COVID-19 positive. Karnataka has recorded 16 deaths as of Monday while the total count of novel coronavirus cases in the state have jumped to 395. 9.15 am: Coronavirus updates: Donald Trump suspends immigration to US US President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday announcing that he will temporarily suspend immigration to the United States and will sign an executive order regarding the same. "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States," Trump tweeted. US is the worst-affected country in the world with largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with over 7,74,000 infections, which were up by 20,000 on Monday, while the death toll has topped 42,000. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 9.06 am: India coronavirus cases past 18,000-mark; death toll nears 600-level India has so far recorded 18,601 confirmed coronavirus cases including 14,759 active cases, 3,251 cured/discharged, 1 migrated, and 590 deaths, according to latest data by Health Ministry. 8.58 am: Coronavirus latest news: Oil prices rebound in US after falling below $0 US oil prices bounced back on Tuesday after trading below $0 for the first time ever. US crude turned positive in the wake of concerns about how the market can face up to the fuel demand wrecked by the coronavirus pandemic. Reuters reported that US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery was up $38.73 at $1.10 a barrel by 0117 GMT after settling down at a discount of $37.63 a barrel in the previous session. 8.45 am: Delhi corona cases A person has been tested positive for COVID-19 in Rashtrapati Bavan after which 125 families have been asked to isolate themselves as a preventive step. The person is the family member of a sanitation worker in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. According to sources, all families dwelling near the infected patient were put under quarantine according to Health Ministry's guidelines. 8.30 am: Hotspots in Delhi increase to 84, 5 more added on Monday Delhi administration added 5 more containment zones (red zones or hotspots) on Monday, taking the total count of such areas to 84 in the national capital. These hotspots are Block 34 of Trilokpuri, Block - G of Jahangirpuri, Block AF of Shalimar Bagh, Flat number 265 to 500 of Sanjay Enclave and Lane 24-28 of Tughlaqabad Extension. New Delhi, April 21 : Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday visited a shelter home for migrants and asked the officials to constructively engage the stranded migrants. In a series of tweets, Baijal said the basic amenities in the shelter homes were being provided by the district administration and the DUSIB. "Visited shelter for stranded migrant labourers and DUSIB night shelter. Took stock of situation & interacted with residents there. Basic amenities are being provided by the district administration & DUSIB," he said. He also urged the officers to "constructively engage people, explore options for physical fitness/recreation, maintaining social distancing norms and ensure good quality timely food. Health department to plan for rapid testing," he added. So far, several schools in the national capital have been converted into shelter homes to provide accommodation to the migrants left homeless amid the lockdown. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text A new bipartisan report from the Senate Intelligence Committee reasserts the panel's position that Russia launched an "unprecedented" election interference campaign in 2016 to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. The Senate Intelligence Committee is chaired by Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina. The 158-page, heavily redacted fourth volume of the Senate Intelligence panel's ongoing investigation into Russian election interference and the US government's response to it undermines the president's years-long campaign to frame the intelligence community's 2017 assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to aid Mr Trump as a "hoax" perpetrated by career US intelligence officials who do not like him. The 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) is "a sound intelligence product," the Senate report concludes. Tuesday's report also keeps Mr Burr's committee at odds with Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, who concluded in their own 253-page report in 2018 that intelligence officials exhibited "tradecraft failings" during their investigation and assessment of Russian election interference and Mr Putin's motives. The 2017 ICA "reflects strong tradecraft, sound analytical reasoning, and proper justification of disagreement in the one analytical line where it occurred," the report concludes. The Senate report also states that it found no evidence the US intelligence officials who compiled the 2017 ICA that found Russia interfered in 2016 to back Mr Trump were operating under political pressures or otherwise politically motivated. "In all the interviews of those who drafted and prepared the ICA, the Committee heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions," the report states. "All analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content, and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper for the analytic process." In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Burr commended the intelligence community's work in 2017 and echoed its warning that Americans should be on guard for repeat efforts by the Kremlin in 2020 to spread misinformation before the presidential election on 3 November. One of the ICAs most important conclusions was that Russias aggressive interference efforts should be considered the new normal," Mr Burr said. "That warning has been borne out by the events of the last three years, as Russia and its imitators increasingly use information warfare to sow societal chaos and discord. With the 2020 presidential election approaching, its more important than ever that we remain vigilant against the threat of interference from hostile foreign actors," he said. The Senate Intelligence Committee has not announced when it will release the fifth and final volume of its report, which, in total, is expected to be nearly 1,000 pages. That final volume of the report could be the most politically sensitive one yet, as it will focus on US counterintelligence efforts in 2016, when Russia was trying to make contact with advisers on the Trump campaign, including the president's son Donald Trump Jr, his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Special Counsel Robert Mueller reported last year that his team found evidence of numerous links between members of the Trump campaign and people with ties or who claimed to have ties to the Russian government. Mr Mueller, however, declined to bring any charges against Mr Manafort, Mr Kushner, Mr Trump, or any others on the campaign for their contacts with purported Russian agents over concerns that it would be difficult to prove to a jury they willfully broke campaign laws prohibiting such behaviour. A moon bear that has been rescued from a farm in Nam Dinh Province and moved to Vietnam Bear Rescue Center in Vinh Phuc Province on April 21, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh. Three endangered moon bears were taken to a bear rehabilitation center in Vinh Phuc Province Tuesday, following their rescue from a Nam Dinh farm. The bears, all aged under 10, were raised on a farm in Hai Xuan Commune, Hai Hau District, Nam Dinh Province. The farm initially had four bears, but one of them died, said the Nam Dinh Forest Department. The bears were voluntarily handed over to the government by the farm owner last month, and temporarily placed under the care of local forest rangers. Due to the nationwide social distancing campaign launched over the Covid-19 pandemic, the bears could only be taken to the Vietnam Bear Rescue Center in Vinh Phuc, about 140 km to the northwest of Nam Dinh, after April 15. The bears were transported Tuesday morning by animal welfare charity organization Animals Asia. The bears were in stable health, said Shaun Thompson, Senior Veterinary Surgeon with Animals Asia. The bears would undergo a 45-day quarantine at the center, having their health checked and existing diseases treated. Vietnam is home to both the moon bear and the sun bear, species listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The country currently has over 600 bears kept in farms, and only a few hundred roaming in the wild, it has been reported. Many bears are kept in cages to extract their bile, believed to be a remedy for various ailments. Although commercial bear bile extraction was banned in 2005, farms already having the animals were allowed to keep them. Under current Vietnamese law, violation of wildlife protection regulations is punishable by up to seven years in jail. Representative Image The ripples of the overnight freefall in the WTI May crude oil contracts is being felt in the Indian commodities market, with Moneycontrol now learning that the clearing corporation of the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) of India (MCX) -- Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing Corporation (MCXCCL) -- has blocked pay out to brokers. Thats because over 95 percent of all trades in crude oil futures in India pass through the MCX platform.The contracts are settled on the last day of trading of the MCX crude oil contract using the settlement price of the NYMEX front month contract.The MCX April contract expired on April 20. Given the restrictions imposed due to the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic, trade now halts at 5 pm instead of the earlier 11:30 pm. The issue arose because the US market opens for trade at 7 pm (IST). WTI opened lower and continued to trade in the negative. So, had our market been open for trade, traders would have had the opportunity to settle/exit their positions. Now, as per the MCX rules, contracts need to be settled at taking into account the price of the front month contract, i.e. May 2020 in this case, which was trading at a negative $37.63 per barrel around 11 pm. As per an April 21 circular issued by MCXCCL, the settlement price has been arrived at converting the NYMEX crude oil front month contracts settlement price of a negative $37.63/bbl into Indian rupees, which works out to Rs 2,884 per barrel or lot. "Our market shuts at 5 pm and NYMEX crude traded in the negative late in the night. It is at those prices that MCX is settling its April expiry contract. When our market closed, neither were clients able to cut down their positions nor were brokerages able to seek additional margin against client positions. We had taken hundred percent margin exposure due to expiry day," a broker told Moneycontrol. Another broker with an office in Mumbai suburbs added, We can't imagine negative price settlement in crude contract that are cash settled unlike NYMEX where one has to take delivery. Brokers are upset with MCX and asked why is settlement happening at a negative price. As per cash settled contract, the price can't go into negative territory unlike a delivery contract, a broker said. Traders with a long position in the April 2020 contract would now have to pay around Rs1 lakh for every one lot of crude, i.e. 100 barrels, at the MCX quoted closing price of Rs 965 on April 20. This is assuming the person would have paid the full value of the contract. However, most traders would not have expected to lose the entire value of the contract and are now staring at a loss of over Rs 2.88 lakh. To gauge the extent of the problem, around 11,000 contracts remained open at the end of the day. Market sources pegged the loss for all long positions around Rs 418 crore. MCXCCL first announced a provisional settlement at Re 1 by mentioning that the final or differential settlement, if any, would be carried out separately. However, it later froze or blocked the amount against deposits by those brokers who held long positions at close of trade on April 20 to meet the final settlement. The only silver lining for brokers is that market regulator Sebi and the exchange is in touch for easing the pain in the crude oil segment, sources told Moneycontrol. MCX refused to comment on this story. The problem that brokers face is getting clients to pay up, especially in those long positions in which traders have paid the entire amount upfront. As brokers don't have much option to recover money and as these options including a provision for arbitration and can be challenging in the court it is an expensive affair for broker to collect amount," a source told Moneycontrol. The clearing members with short positions, who are in profit, have to be paid by MCXCCL, who is obligated to pay because it party offering the counter guarantee. Earlier, that responsibility was the exchanges but now it is with clearing corporations. If there is a shortfall in collection from any defaulting member, then CCL has to use the settlement guarantee fund to make good the pay out. The National Officers of the NPP, led by the General Secretary, John Boadu, on Sunday, April 19, 2020, donated a huge consignment of Personal Protective Equipment to all the 275 constituencies and 16 regions of the country to support the national effort towards the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The items that were donated by the party leadership include dozens of Veronica buckets, hand sanitizers, antiseptic liquid soaps, bucket stance, waste bins, washing bowls, antiseptic bar soaps, face masks, among other items recommended by health experts as useful in preventing people from contracting and spreading the virus. The items were received on behalf of each of the 16 regions by the respective regional chairmen for onward distribution to the various constituencies under their jurisdiction. In presenting the items to the regional chairmen at a short ceremony held at the party Head Office, John Boadu, charged the regional chairmen to ensure that, not only should the items get to the people but to also ensure that, together with their regional and constituency executives, they lead the public education campaign against the pandemic in their respective communities. He stressed that, the NPP, which is a key stakeholder in the life of the country, wholly supports the measures being rolled out by government to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the country. The NPP General Secretary also eulogized President Akufo-Addo for showing leadership in this period of global health crisis. President Akufo-Addo, has, thus far, risen to the occasion in demonstrating exemplary leadership in this period of global health catastrophe to the admiration of the continent and world leaders, and it is important that as a party, we support the President wholeheartedly in this fight. It is one thing to ask school children to stay home, but it is entirely another to look at religious leaders in the face and tell them not to gather their congregants for church service or mosque prayers. It will take only a bold leader who prioritizes human life over everything else to be able to do this. Indeed, whilst it is true that the President has been careful not to be on the wrong side of a frustrated citizenry, it is also true he has also been very daring and audacious, he observed. John Boadu was assisted to make this presentation by some of his colleagues including the National Organizer of the party, Sammi Awuku; the 3rd National Vice Chairman, Omari Wadie; the National Treasurer, Kwabena Abankwa Yeboah; the National Youth Organizer, Lawyer Nana Boakye; the National Nasara Organizer, Abdul Aziz Futah; the partys Director of Finance and Administration, Collins Nuamah; and Evans Nimako, the Director of Research and Elections. Source: npp Headquarters 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 Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 17:14:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Aerial photo taken on April 19, 2020 shows a reservoir for reclaimed water in Altay, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Ding Lei) URUMQI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- As the weather gets warmer in the city of Altay in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, forest ranger Song Shaojian leads his workmates into the woods to clean up ditches blocked by fallen leaves and weeds, preparing for the upcoming spring irrigation. Located on the outskirts of Altay, the forest was a desert eight years ago. "Grass was scarce, let alone trees, because there was no water," said Song, who lives in a town about 5 km away from the forest. To combat water shortage for desert afforestation, Altay, with a population of 100,000, turned its eyes to urban domestic sewage. In 2012, the local government built a reservoir with a storage capacity of 5.19 million cubic meters of reclaimed water, which is processed from urban wastewater. After an efficient sewage treatment process, reclaimed water that meets the irrigation standard will flow into the reservoir through pipes before helping irrigate trees and restore the ecology. "We store reclaimed water in winter for irrigation in spring and summer. We reuse urban wastewater for desert greening in a sustainable way," said Liu Zhiqiang, head of Altay's environmental management demonstration park for reclaimed water reuse. Thanks to the reclaimed water irrigation project, over 330 hectares of poplars were planted in the area between 2012 and 2015. Song also embarked on his desert greening career there. To help trees grow better, forest rangers like Song need to go into the forest every day to clear ditches and open pipes for irrigation. At the same time, they also need to observe the growth of trees so that they can be treated early in case of pests and diseases. The ecology in the desert sees a noticeable change. "It was scorching in the summer. With trees gradually growing up, we now feel that the wind is weaker and it is not that hot during the daytime," said Song. In 2016, the local government built a tree seedling cultivation base to go full steam ahead with its desert greening projects. So far, over 860 hectares of trees have been planted in the desert. "Now the most pleasant thing every day is to take a walk on the edge of the forest, enjoy the fresh air and appreciate the trees that I planted," Song said. Enditem Over the weekend, Silicon Valley leader Marc Andreessen broke his usual silence and gave some advice to Silicon Valley: Its time to build. The famed investor urged CEOs, entrepreneurs and investors alike to welcome new companies into their circles. The blog post details high-flying pieces of advice that could each land in a unique angle depending on where you sit. But as venture capitalists rush to prove they are open for business, the true test these days is a bit more grounded: cut checks and signed term sheets. The words are eerily similar to the thesis of NextView Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital firm, and its new remote accelerator program, announced today. During this current COVID crisis, we have seen many VCs publicly saying that they are open for business, but we wanted to put our money where our mouth is, according to partner David Beisel. Using money earmarked from its current fund, NextView will invest $200,000 for an 8% stake in fewer than 10 pre-seed and seed startups. The program will be fully virtual and is investing in founders that drive change in the everyday lives of everyday people. Rob Go, the co-founder of NextView, tweeted about the launch today. 3. Startups looking to redesign the everyday lives of everyday people often look a little whacky and non-traditional. They aren't your typical enterprise SAAS sold to IT departments. Most VC's appetite for these kinds of companies will go down during this pandemic. But not ours. Rob Go (@robgo) April 20, 2020 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js The NextView accelerator is launching at a time when historical incubators like Y Combinator and 500 Startups are rethinking their independent strategies. Today Y Combinator announced its upcoming batch will be fully remote, and last month 500 Startups said it is scrapping its cohort model. Story continues The firm also publicly said what it didnt like about traditional accelerator programs, like big batch sizes and flashy demo days. Accelerators were at their best when they were small and intimate. YCs initial batch was just eight companies, Beisel said about the small number of participants. But over time, accelerators became more of a numbers game. Beisel added, traditional accelerator demo days originated as a way to showcase startups to follow-on investors, but eventually evolved into an elaborate show attempting to satisfy many constituents. Still, an unavoidable truth about demo days is that it connects startups to founders and ideally that first check. What happens to deal success when you dont have a buzzy room of journalists, venture capitalists and bright lights on founder faces? After YC and 500 Startups hosted their first-ever virtual demo days this year, weve heard grumblings of mixed results. Y Combinator last week changed from always investing in YC graduates to reviewing on a case by case basis, hinting at conservatism within the accelerator. NextView also approaches post-accelerator funding conservatively. The firm says it will connect its small cohort to next-round investors, but will intentionally not lead the next round of financing. The firm is being upfront about its choice to not lead follow-on investing to avoid potential signaling issues for future financings. The company will participate with at least pro-rata for all companies in any subsequent round of financing to help the cohort. An optimistic read of this decision is that NextView is viewing its accelerator as a separate function of its investment firm and wants to be more of a helper than a robust pipeline for deal flow. Alternatively, it could mean that the firm doesnt want to over-promise capital in an unpredictable time for the economy. And in the chance that it does find a gem within this batch, it would be surprising for NextView to not invest in the company. The bottom line is that NextView is launching an accelerator and investing in startups during a time when many are not. So while well wait to see how successful the firm is in cultivating young startups with ripe returns, for now its building. And in todays new normal, building is a welcome sign. WASHINGTON - The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), along with the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) have released a consensus statement that provides recommendations for a systematic approach for the care of patients with an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The document is jointly published in Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, the official journal of SCAI, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. According to recent studies, cardiovascular disease patients who develop COVID-19 have a higher risk of mortality. However, many patients in need of care for the management of various heart diseases may not be infected with this coronavirus. The document identifies several challenges in providing recommendations for AMI care during the COVID-19 epidemic: cardiovascular manifestations in the COVID-19 patient are complex and variable, the prevalence of COVID-19 in U.S. populations remains unknown, and personal protection equipment (PPE) is not uniformly available. "During the COVID-19 pandemic we wanted to ensure that patients continue to benefit from the tremendous advances made in the care of patients with cardiovascular disease over the past three decades," said Ehtisham Mahmud, MD, FSCAI, SCAI president and lead author of the writing group. "Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the standard of care for STEMI patients, and in this document, we outline an approach to providing that therapy at PCI-capable hospitals while also ensuring health care worker safety with appropriate PPE." The writing group recommends informing the public that exposure to the virus can be minimized, that that patients continue to call the Emergency Medical System when presenting with acute ischemic heart disease symptoms, with the intention of primary PCI when indicated. Fibrinolysis at referral hospitals (non-PCI capable) is appropriate with a plan of care for rescue or pharmacoinvasive PCI. The document also provides strategies for maximizing the safety of medical personnel with appropriate use of personal protection equipment and masking patients. ### About the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) is a professional member organization representing 5,000 invasive and interventional cardiologists in approximately 75 nations. SCAI's mission is to promote excellence invasive and interventional cardiovascular medicine through physician education and representation, and advancement of quality standards to enhance patient care. For more information about SCAI, visit http://www.scai.org and http://www.secondscount.org. Follow @SCAI on Twitter for the latest heart health news Trai Byers, left, and Taraji P. Henson in Tuesday's episode of "Empire." (Chuck Hodes / FOX) When Empire premiered in January 2015, the Taraji P. Henson- and Terrence Howard-led drama made waves. With its King Lear-inspired story line set in the world of hip-hop, the Fox series had massive social media buzz and high ratings to match, scoring at least nine straight weeks of ratings growth: the type of debut networks and creators dream of. Five years later, as Empires sixth and final season comes to a close Tuesday, the enduring impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has compromised its bow an unceremonious end for a show that quite literally helped change the landscape of television. We were in the middle of shooting and then all of the sudden it was just like, Nope, uh-uh, showrunner Brett Mahoney said recently in a phone interview. I mean, we didn't even finish the day. It was just like, No, go home because weve got to be concerned about health and safety, which is real. Henson added: We got it, but then it was like, OK, when are we coming back? When are we going to finish? Created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, Empire follows the Lyons, hip-hops first family. Theres Lucious (Howard), a former gangster rapper turned music mogul; Cookie (Henson), his ride-or-die ex-wife, who served 17 years in prison to protect her family; and their three sons, Andre (Trai Byers), Jamal (Jussie Smollett) and Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray), who battle it out to inherit the Empire Records throne. With its mix of high drama of the camp variety flashy musical numbers and sociopolitically inspired story lines, the show was the fastest-growing new drama on television since Foxs medical hit House 10 years prior. And it helped that everyone from Patti LaBelle and Mariah Carey to Don Lemon and Andre Leon Talley made cameos. It came along at one of those periods in American TV drama where black actresses in particular were getting star turns in the hour-long format, thanks to Shonda Rhimes Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder, said Stephane Dunn, director of Morehouse Colleges Cinema, Television and Emerging Media Studies program. It was an expansion of this sort of rarity and, to me, the embodiment of hip-hops cultural and global influence, as was [Starzs] Power. The way Empire most dramatically marked a rather radical entry was in delving into and exploring the homophobia of the culture as well as the taboo topic of mental illness. Story continues That interesting and imperfect mix of competing radical and conservative viewpoints, as Dunn described it, is exactly what forced critics, the industry and audiences to take notice of this all-black show not to mention radio and club-worthy tracks initially produced by music heavy-hitters Timbaland and Jim Beanz . On reflection, Empires unapologetic approach to storytelling is what Henson most enjoyed about playing its female lead, who brought all the urban glitz and edge of iconic 1970s black films to its modern rags-to-riches story. We were bold in our storytelling, she said. We came through kicking down doors. There was no topic that we would not take on, head-on, and they had the damn right cast to do it! That's what helped shift the paradigm of writing [in the industry] and things that are getting greenlit now and the fact that a black cast did it and it was successful globally. Initially, the show wasnt set to premiere internationally. That is, until fans began downloading Empire illegally online, prompting the network into action, Henson remembered. The saga of the Lyon family, a hip-hop dynasty, turned "Empire" into a TV sensation when it premiered in 2015. (Chuck Hodes / Fox) Showrunner Mahoney (CSI: Miami) joined the Empire team in Season 4, after ratings had dipped as they do after such a massive debut. But the show still had a devoted fan base that hung onto every action of the Lyons and, to an extent, saw themselves reflected there. Mahoney said the biggest challenge at that point was just living up to what Empire was because it was so big and had been so successful. It had also told so many stories, so it was [figuring out] what were the new stories we were going to tell that would have an impact and that the audience would respond to, he continued. What are the stories we could tell that would hit the culture and depict the culture but then also sort of maybe inform the culture. That meant, for example, staging the first black gay wedding on prime-time television between Smolletts Jamal and his partner near the end of Season 5 Smolletts last after he was written off the show following allegations that he staged an attack on himself earlier that year and revisiting the topic of mental health in the black community by putting Cookie in therapy. For the shows last season, the task at hand for Mahoney and the writers was to give fans a satisfying series finale and honor the titan Empire has been. But the spread of COVID-19 soured those plans: Production ended abruptly in the middle of shooting what would have been Episode 19 of 20, making Episode 18 the series finale. What our intent was [to end the show] has been turned upside down, he admitted. But there was a beat of that in the materials we had shot [from Episode 19], so I just cobbled something together that got me there. Longtime Empire fans like Janelle Gary, a 36-year-old former email marketing specialist who lives in the Columbus, Ohio, area, already arent happy. She first tuned into the show near the end of its record-breaking first season and has been waiting with bated breath for its finale. I'm slightly annoyed because I know there were supposed to be additional episodes that didn't get filmed because of the virus, and I know that means the story lines are going to be incomplete, she said. As a viewer, it's going to feel like I'm not getting the closure I really want concerning the Lyons. To that end, Mahoney says the team hasnt given up on the idea that they might still be able to film the intended finale once the pandemic is under control. And if we can't, then we'll find some creative way to hopefully at least give the fans that type of closure, and also give everyone that's working on it the type of closure that we wanted, he said. Maybe it's a Zoom table read, or maybe we just release the script. But we really would like to finish the show. No, we want to shoot that baby, Henson interrupted. [Fans] want to see Cookie in her fur, honey. They don't want to watch me read that looking crazy. We need to give people what they deserve because they have been loyal fans, and it just wouldn't be right. Gary made her wishes clear. I absolutely would want those final two episodes at a later date, she said. And if they're able to bring back Jussie Smollett for the final episode, I would truly appreciate that, even if only a brief appearance. Empire Where: Fox When: 9 p.m. Tuesday Rating: TV-14-DLSV (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14 with advisories for suggestive dialogue, coarse language, sexual content and violence) Redline Communications, a leader in broadband networks, along with its partner Al-Rushaid Technologies, has been selected by one of the worlds largest oil companies to provide seamless connectivity in its oilfields in the Saudi Arabia. Al-Rushaid Technologies is the ICT and Telecom powerhouse of Al-Rushaid Group and one of the fastest-growing technology solutions providers in Saudi Arabia. The first phase of this multi-year contract is valued at over $1 million. This new Redline terrestrial network will complement the existing satellite-based networks and enable industrial-grade, ultra-reliable, low latency, broadband connectivity to a diverse array of critical assets in the customers area of operations. This cutting-edge network will deliver significant efficiencies through digital transformation across the entire value chain and facilitate enhanced collaborative, security and safety applications. Redlines new Virtual Fiber family of products was formally selected after an extensive, highly competitive proof-of-concept evaluation. The Redline and Al-Rushaid partnership was successful in demonstrating an unprecedented ability to deliver mission-critical networks in harsh industrial environments while providing military-grade security and long-range, broadband connectivity to both fixed and mobile remote assets. Rasheed Al-Rushaid, vice chairman of Al-Rushaid Group and President of Al-Rushaid Technologies said: We are happy to partner with Redline and see this association as a catalyst for growth and new business opportunities, not only in Oil & Gas but in all business segments across Saudi Arabia. We are excited to expand our business into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf Region, building upon our continuing success in the region. We look forward to our continued partnership with Al-Rushaid Technologies, a highly respected partner, stated Stephen J Sorocky, CEO of Redline Communications. TradeArabia News Service Shares of aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT) rose 1% in premarket trading on Tuesday after it reported strong first-quarter results. The Bethesda, Maryland-based company, which builds a wide variety of aircraft, aerospace and defense systems, posted earnings of $6.08 per share, topping Refinitiv's estimates of $5.80. Revenue grew 9.2% from the prior-year quarter to $15.65 billion, beating expectations of $15.08 billion. 02bf6fe48a2732cfd6aa91d92adb68f5.png The company's results were driven by higher sales in the aeronautics business, where it saw a 14% increase to $6.36 billion on the back of increased volume in production, sustainment and development of its F-35 fighter jet program. Lockheed also recorded 11% sales growth in its missiles and fire control business to $2.6 billion and a 10% increase in its space division to $2.9 billion, while revenue in the rotary and mission systems segment was flat from a year ago at $3.7 billion. Looking ahead, the company also revised its outlook for fiscal 2020. While the full impact the Covid-19 virus will have is unknown, Lockheed Martin lowered its sales guidance due to disruptions to production and supply chain activities that were caused by the pandemic. It now expects revenue to range from $62.25 billion to $64 billion, which is down from the previous forecast of $62.75 billion to $64.25 billion. Earnings per share are still anticipated to be between $23.65 and $23.95 for the year. Overall, CNBC reported that analysts do not expect the U.S. defense sector to experience much disruption from the pandemic since companies in this space have more stable cash flows compared to industrial markets. In a statement, Lockheed Martin Chairman, President and CEO Marillyn Hewson commented on the strategy it is using to combat the potential impacts of the coronavirus. "As we confront the challenges introduced by the global pandemic, our corporation remains focused on providing vital national security solutions for our customers while maintaining a safe and healthy environment for our employees," she said. "I'm so proud of the work the dedicated men and women of Lockheed Martin are doing as part of our strong portfolio to deliver critical products and services for our customers and long-term value for our shareholders." Story continues Following its inital pop, the stock headed lower after the market opened. With a $108.34 billion market cap, shares of Lockheed Martin were trading around $380.54 on Tuesday. GuruFocus estimates the stock has declined around 2% year to date. 1792e36e64e987b4349a4dab7655e19e.png According to the Industry Overview page, Lockheed Martin is the largest player in the aerospace and defense sector at 20.2%, followed by Raytheon Technologies Corp. (NYSE:RTX), Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA), Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC) and L3Harris Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LHX). Gurus who are currently invested in the stock include Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio)' Renaissance Technologies, Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio), Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio), John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio), Jeremy Grantham (Trades, Portfolio) and Ronald Muhlenkamp (Trades, Portfolio), among others. Disclosure: No positions. Read more here: Halliburton Braces for Drop in US Oilfield Activity Following $1 Billion Loss Top 5 Buys of the Yacktman Focused Fund T. Rowe Price Japan Fund Adds 3 Stocks to Portfolio Not a Premium Member of GuruFocus? Sign up for a free 7-day trial here. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. CNN presenter Richard Quest has confirmed testing positive for coronavirus but with few symptoms. He plans to continue to work. Quest, who hosts Quest Means Business from New York told viewers on Monday, I am thankful and grateful that I dont seem to have any of the horrific symptoms of the others. I just have a nasty cough which, thankfully tonight because of our excellent technical staff, you havent heard me too much spluttering away. I have caught coronavirus. I am blessed in that I have few symptoms just a cough. I am saving my prayers and thoughts for those less fortunate. Stay in. And protect lives. Richard Quest (@richardquest) April 20, 2020 Two other on-air figures at the network, Chris Cuomo and Brooke Baldwin, recently tested positive. Source: Deadline (Photo : Pixabay) Can you tell the difference between an emoji and an emoticon? Do you have FOMO over something? Could even a firewall stop a flame war? Were you also trolled? If you already know what these tech terms mean, congratulations -- you're not a virtual noob. But have you ever questioned why we call online instigators trolls? Before you dish out another helping of nerd-word salad, read and understand these weird and wonderfully layered origins of tech phrases that get tossed around each day. FOMO: When envy becomes anxiety What it means: FOMO is an acronym for "fear of missing out." This describes the tension that arises over your social choices, together with your friends posting pictures of a party while you're at another (or worse, home alone). Where it comes from: A 2004 op-ed in Harvard Business School's The Harbus used FOMO to describe the tendency of freshmen college students to exhaust themselves by seeking to attend each campus event. Noob: A slur for newbies What it means: Noob is a condescending term for a newbie gamer or technological neophyte, aka a newbie. Alternative spellings include newb and n00b (with zeros). Where it comes from: The term 'newbie' can be traced as far back as the 1850s. The term refers to "someone is new at something." However, it wasn't really that common until around 2000s that the shortened, pejorative form, noob, was used among online gamers every day. Firewalls: IT's unsung heroes What it means: Firewalls are programs that prevent cyberattackers from hijacking your phone, tablet, computer, or network. The first commercial firewall software program shipped in 1992. Where it comes from: Physical firewalls are literal walls, typically made of concrete, which can be built to stop fires from spreading to other parts of a building. The term stayed around for several generations. So you've got a firewall fabricated from steel in the floorboard of your vehicle, and one protecting the password of your Wi-Fi router. Flame war is hell, online What it means: Posting or sending vulgar, hurtful, and offensive messages on the internet is called flaming. Get two or more people doing it to one another and you have a flame war. Where it comes from: Both the term and the behavior it describes developed in the early '90s on Usenet dialogue forums (just like modern-day group chats, but with strangers). Emoticons vs. emojis What they are: Emoticons (a portmanteau of "emotion" and "icons") are strings of ordinary keyboard symbols that, arranged a certain way, ending up forming images like the iconic smiley face. :-) Emojis (combining the Japanese words for "picture" [eh] and "character" [moji]) are single-keystroke pictures -- for example, the other iconic smiley. Where they came from: The first emoticons came in an online bulletin board on Sept. 19, 1982, when a college professor urged laptop technology students to use :-) for posts supposed as a funny story and :-( for the sad stuff. Emojis sprung to life in 1997 while Japanese cellular carrier SoftBank released a fixed 90 beautiful characters. Meme-ing of life What they are: Memes are low-effort creations combining photos lifted from the news or social media with snappy and witty textual content or captions. They gain viral popularity throughout the internet because they create a pointed cultural joke or truth. Where they came from: Controversial British evolutionary biologist, atheist, and writer Richard Dawkins coined the term in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins borrowed the term from the Greek phrase mimeme, which roughly translates as "imitated thing." ALSO READ: Coronavirus Best Medicine is Laughter! Reading Funny Memes Can Boost Your Immune System, Says Expert Trolls, trolls everywhere What the term means: A troll is a web miscreant who selects fights, begins arguments, or otherwise upsets others by posting provocative, off-topic, offensive feedback in online communities and forums. The first known use of trolls online dates back to 1992. Where it came from: Although the trolls most humans think about hail from Scandinavian folklore, net trolls certainly get their name from a fishing technique. Trawling (or trolling) is when you cast a net off the returned of a boat, then pull it around slowly to catch fish. The form is like how trolls bait their victims by using spewing vitriol across internet forums. ALSO READ: Here Are The Best Twitter Responses To Troll-Fueled #BoycottStarWarsVII Hashtag 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government announced that the Azadpur wholesale market will operate round-the-clock from Tuesday. Though the government reasoned that the decision was taken to ensure enough supply of vegetables and fruits in the city, the move could potentially backfire given that Delhi is trying to flatten the coronavirus curve through a lockdown. Keeping in mind the fragile situation, the administration will restrict entry through coupons to 1,000 people at the mandi at a time only to avoid large crowding at Asias largest fruit and vegetable market. "The Azadpur Mandi caters to the people and procures produce from farmers across the country. There was a decline in the supply of fruits and vegetables from the market. To eradicate all such issues, it was decided that the mandi will remain open for 24 hours," Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai said on Monday. ALSO READ| Delhi HC asks authorities to ensure no dearth of food, water for homeless workers during lockdown While farm arrivals in the market nearly dropped by 50 per cent post-lockdown, prices of fruits and vegetables had shot up as a result in the city. Farmers were also facing trouble in supplying their farm produce due to the odd-even scheme as well as the restriction of movement. Recently, Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) of the Azadpur wholesale market had announced implementation of the Odd-Even rule. Social distancing norms were ordered and a full body sanitiser was installed at the entrance gate for disinfecting those arriving at the mandi. "Vegetables and fruits will be sold from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Every 4 hours, the entry of 1000 people will be allowed through the coupons. From 10 p.m. till 6 a.m, trucks will be allowed to enter and leave the market," Rai asserted. The government has been making arrangements to ensure hygiene and sanitation in the area, he said. "For this purpose, 600 sanitation workers will be deployed. Monitoring in-charges have been appointed to ensure smooth functioning of the market. I have held meetings with the traders and they were told to maintain social distancing at all costs," the minister added. ALSO READ| No community transmission yet, but is a possibility: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain Civil defence volunteers roped in Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (Azadpur) chairman Adil Ahmad Khan said 600 sanitation workers have been engaged for cleanliness. Similarly, 900 civil defence volunteers will ensure social-distancing at the wholesale market. We have also requested the Delhi Police to deploy two battalion at the Mandi, he told the media. The rules of one truck per trader has been withdrawn following the demands of the traders, the official said. No exclusive timings for vegetable, fruit sale The committees recent decision to allow sale of vegetables from 6 am to 11 am and fruits from 2 pm to 6 pm has been revoked. Fruits and vegetables will be now available from morning 6am to 10 pm at night in the wholesale market, the senior mandi official said. Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has reiterated its stance on the lifting of lockdown measures aimed at protecting the public against the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis is asking the state to plan a timeline for allowing hospitals to schedule elective surgeries. The cancellation of elective surgeries was one of the states first actions at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to increase room in hospitals it knew would inevitably be needed. Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) penned a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo asking the state Department of Health begin developing a timeline to lift the ban. We look to your office and the New York State Department of Health to provide consistent, prudent guidance as to proper prioritization of surgical cases, in consultation with hospital administrators and leadership of the various statewide surgical subspecialty societies to reduce and eliminate the backlog of surgical cases existing to New York State residents expediently and safely, Malliotakis wrote. The assemblywoman cited physical health, as well as the financial impact on patients who are unable to work because of their need for surgery. The financial impact will also be felt by hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, and those that are employed at these places, she said. Now that it appears that the worst part of the COVID-19 outbreak is over, it is imperative that all facilities begin to develop protocols to deal with prioritizing surgeries based on issues related to medical necessity and time sensitivity. One of my constituents has been waiting for a mastectomy. Another suffers from great pain due to a kidney condition. We will have another public health issue on our hands if we do not address this soon, Malliotakis said. Friends and family out for a day at the beach, protesters, a pottery shop and a trumpet player all have received warnings or citations for breaking Bay Area shelter-in-place orders. Law enforcement agencies across the region have fielded thousands of complaints since the orders took effect March 17 in six counties, just days before the rest of the state joined in the restrictions because of the coronavirus outbreak. Although the nature and number of complaints vary by location, most are related to nonessential businesses from hairdressers to smoke shops continuing to operate or crowds congregating at beaches and other recreational areas. In San Mateo County, where shelter-in-place orders prohibit nonessential travel more than 5 miles from home, including exercise, the Sheriffs Office issued more than 650 verbal warnings and more than 300 written warnings for violations of the countys order over the weekend, officials said in a news release. Fines can range from $50 to $1,000, and they can be challenged in court. Most law enforcement agencies say theyve seen numbers go down as the regulations become better known, and other departments have stepped up their efforts as problems have surfaced. Deputies in San Mateo County issued four formal citations three in Half Moon Bay and one in El Granada and more than 300 parking tickets to people who left their cars, mostly along Highway 1, to head to the beach. Most people seemed to be aware of the health orders but decided to take the chance in coming out to the beaches and complied with the verbal warnings, officials said. In Pacifica, police approached 408 beachgoers last weekend and ordered 275 who live more than 5 miles away to pack up their belongings and go home, according to a Police Department statement. This is alarming because unsafe conditions are occurring and, as a result, the city, in coordination with the state, may be left with no choice but to close the beaches entirely to everyone unless conditions improve, Mayor Deirdre Martin said. Alameda County sheriffs deputies have received more than 2,000 calls about violations of the health orders, mostly about businesses that residents believe should be shut down. The sheriffs compliance squad warned some merchants they should shut down, but none was cited, said Lt. Ray Kelly, a Sheriffs Office spokesman. Three citations have been issued to protesters outside juvenile hall after they were previously warned about violating shelter-in-place orders, Kelly said. Most people are making an effort to comply, Kelly said. With the Bay Area entering the sixth week of staying at home, he added, its really been a non-issue. Were not really trying to interact with people in a negative way, Kelly said. Especially when we know theyre out of work, worried about their families. Were not looking to add to anybodys stress. Sonoma County also is trying to educate people before issuing citations, said Sgt. Juan Valencia, a Sheriffs Office spokesman. But you go by a place three times and theyre still in violation, you have little choice, he said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The Sheriffs Office has warned seven people renting vacation houses in violation of the health orders and six nonessential businesses still in operation, Valencia said. One warning was issued for a social gathering and nine citations were issued, many of them for violating the health order while committing a crime. The most controversial citation, Valencia said, involved a fruit-stand operator who had been warned three times that he lacked handwashing stations or sanitizer, as well as signs required by law. The fruit stand also lacked a business permit. In Santa Cruz, seven Fremont residents were fined $1,000 for trying to buy drinks during that countys shelter-in-place order. San Francisco police said they have issued 14 citations eight to individuals and six to businesses. Those receiving citations include a repeat protester outside a Planned Parenthood office and a man who refused to stop loitering in a group at the corner of Leavenworth and McAllister streets. Four more people were verbally warned, as was a pottery shop with an open gate and customers inside. An employee insisted the store was closed, police said. Perhaps the most unique violation that earned a citation in San Francisco involved a man playing a trumpet at the corner of California and Hyde streets. Police said he had been previously warned. Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan La lucha recien empieza y nos falta mucho por hacer, pero hoy compartimos la buena noticia de que 21 de nuestros policias internados en hospitales de la @PoliciaPeru y en las clinicas que hemos contratado ya han vencido al COVID-19 y salieron de alta. #CuidamosNuestraPrimeraLinea pic.twitter.com/GiEdBwXDWV CLEVELAND, Ohio Rates of violent crime in Cleveland remained mostly flat during the coronavirus pandemic. Domestic violence cases, robberies, shootings are up slightly, while rapes and burglary reports dropped, according to statistics released by the city. Police statistics and municipal court data show that as violent crimes stayed mostly steady in the weeks since Ohio Gov. Mike DeWines March 22 stay-at-home order, arrests and criminal charges declined compared to last year. Cleveland police released crime statistics for the first two weeks following the governors stay-at-home order, compared with the same weeks in 2019. That data shows: One more homicide 12 fewer rape reports Eight more robberies Five more shootings 59 fewer burglaries From March 22, 2019, through April 15, 2019, Cleveland police filed 1,029 criminal charges, Cleveland Municipal Court data shows. In the same time frame this year, 513 charges were filed, including a 37 percent decrease in felony cases. Ohio officials and advocates pointed to two specific areas of concern in the wake of the governors order. They anticipated domestic violence cases would rise because people are confined mostly to their homes, and that child abuse cases would drop because schools closed. School officials are crucial in recognizing and reporting suspected child abuse. In Cleveland, domestic violence cases for March 2020 increased by 30 over March 2019. Child endangering cases dropped from 58 in March 2019 to 45 in March 2020, according to the most recent data released by the police department. Melissa Graves, the CEO of the Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center, said her agency received about an 80 percent increase in calls to their therapists and advocates since the governors stay-at-home order. She also said calls to the centers hotline remained about the same. She said thats concerning because more people are likely unable to call the hotline because they are stuck at home with an abuser. She said calls to the hotline usually happen during the daytime when an abuser is at work or out of the house. Now the hotline gets more calls late at night when an abuser is sleeping. What that says to us is that the need is great, Graves said. Were also hearing the abuse is escalating and getting more frequent and severe. Graves said their shelter remains open and is operating at full capacity while accounting for social distancing concerns during the pandemic. She said advocates could find alternative housing for those who need it when the shelter is full. One area where law enforcement saw a significant decrease was in the issuance of traffic tickets. Traffic tickets in Cleveland declined 71 percent from the time the governors orders were issued until Thursday, according to municipal court data. Some suburbs, including Parma, saw a 95 percent decrease in traffic tickets during the same time and the Ohio State Highway Patrol issued 92 percent less tickets across the state. Likewise, traffic crashes are down significantly across the state. To reach the Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Centers hotline, call or text 216-391-4357 (HELP) or live chat online at DVCAC.org/get-help Read more from cleveland.com: Some Ohio communities see 90-percent drop in traffic tickets after Gov. Mike DeWine issued stay-at-home coronavirus order 94-year-old beaten to death in Cleveland Cleveland City Councilman attacked while passing out food on street in Hough neighborhood Cleveland cop accused of chasing, threatening man with gun North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervises a "strike drill" for multiple launchers and tactical guided weapon into the East Sea on May 4, 2019 KCNA | Reuters U.S. intelligence indicates that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un recently had cardiovascular surgery, NBC News reported Tuesday, citing American officials. The intelligence also suggests that Kim could be incapacitated, NBC added, citing some of those officials. The update came after the South Korean currency, the won, took a hit following an unconfirmed report that Kim was seriously ill. Kim has been out of public view for several days, according to officials cited by NBC. The new report also seemed to contradict what South Korea's presidential office had told NBC News. "We confirm that Chairman Kim Jong Un is currently touring provincial areas with his close aides and we do not detect evidences to support speculation about his ill health," South Korea's presidential office told NBC News in a statement. "Even North Korea's Worker's Party, military or cabinet aren't showing any special movements such as emergency decree. We believe that Chairman Kim is active as normal as he has been," the office said. Robert O'Brien, President Donald Trump's national security advisor, said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday that the United States is monitoring Kim's status. "We're monitoring these reports very closely," he said. "As you know, North Korea is a very closed society." The White House and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. Kim Jong-Un visiting the People's Theatre to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the State Merited Chorus in Pyongyang. Speculation about Kim's health first arose after his absence from the April 15 anniversary birthday celebration of founding father, and Kim's grandfather, Kim Il Sung. Daily NK, a South Korean newspaper that focuses its coverage on North Korea, said late Monday that Kim on April 12 received a cardiovascular procedure at Hyangsan Hospital. The outlet also reported that Kim was recovering in a villa near the hospital. The latest revelation comes after President Donald Trump said Monday that he wants South Korea to pay more for the U.S. military presence there. Seoul and Washington are currently negotiating a new agreement specifying how both countries share the costs of the 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea. "South Korea is a very wealthy nation. They make our television sets, they make ships, they make everything. And, I give them great credit. We've been defending them for many, many decades," Trump said Monday. "I've gone to them in the past. Last year I went to them, now they're paying a billion dollars a year, and I went to them again and I said, 'Look I'll be back because that's just a fraction,'" he added. "Again, the relationship is great, but it's just not a fair relationship." The Kim dynasty and North Korea under its youngest leader North Korean leader Kim Jong Un salutes during a visit to the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces on the occasion of the new year, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 10, 2016. KCNA | Reuters It is unclear how many children Kim Jong Un's father had, it is believed that the former North Korean leader had six children by four different women. Kim Jong Un's mother, named Ko Yong Hui, had a total of three children in the 1980s: two sons, Kim Jong Chul and Kim Jong Un and a daughter named Kim Yo Jong. Kim Jong Un was put forward as the "Great Successor" in 2009 and was made a four-star general the following year. His father, Kim Jong Il, died in 2011 and was believed to be about 70 years old at the time of his death. As planned, Kim took over and was probably around 28 years old. "Some speculated that an uncle and an aunt would serve as co-regents of a kind," explained Jay Nordlinger, author of "Children of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of Dictators." The uncle was Jang Song Thaek and in December 2013, "Kim Jong Un left no doubt about who was in charge: He had his uncle arrested and executed. He then killed all the Jang relatives he could get his hands on, no matter how old they were or where they lived." While little is known about the North Korean leader and his immediate family, Kim is believed to be about 36 years old and is married to a woman named Ri Sol Ju. He has at least one child, a daughter, named Kim Ju Ae, who was disclosed to the world by former basketball star Dennis Rodman. If Kim dies, analysts believe that Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, will assume control of the nation with a group of loyalists until another successor is named. Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un. Jorge Silva | Reuters In 2018, Kim became the first North Korean leader to cross the 38th parallel to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-In. Both Koreas are technically still at war, as the Korean War of 1950-1953 ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. Under Kim, the reclusive state has conducted its most powerful nuclear test, launched its first-ever intercontinental ballistic missile and threatened to send missiles into the waters near Guam, a U.S. territory. North Korea is the only nation known to have tested nuclear weapons this century. Since 2011, Kim has launched more than 100 missiles and conducted four nuclear weapons tests, which is more than his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, launched over a 27-year period. North Korea spent most of President Donald Trump's first year in office perfecting its nuclear arsenal, but promised to stop testing of its nukes after the U.S. and international community offered the possibility of relief from crippling economic sanctions. President Donald Trump makes a statement before saying goodbye to North Korea leader Kim Jong Un after their meeting in the Capella Hotel after their working lunch, on Sentosa island in Singapore June 12, 2018. Susan Walsh | Reuters You wont believe it. The newest liberal idea for funding coronavirus relief, as explained in the New York Times this morning, iswait for it now!a wealth tax on the rich! Since were not supposed to be touching our faces right now, youre not allowed to smack your forehead and exclaim, Why didnt I think of that!? Why is it that liberals have all of the best new old ideas? Heres the heart of the proposal from Yale professor Daniel Markovits: The wealthiest 5 percent of American families now hold $57 trillion, or two-thirds of all household wealth in the country (up from about half in 1960). An exemption for the first $2.5 million of household wealth would exclude the bottom 95 percent from paying any tax at all and leave the top 5 percent with total taxable wealth of roughly $40 trillion. A 5 percent tax on the richest 5 percent of households could thus raise up to $2 trillion. Since Markovits is a law professor, the first question of my cross-examination will be: So why do you want to help out the big banks? Because there are lots of small business people in this country who have (or had) ill-liquid assets worth more than $2.5 million who will have to take out bank loans to pay their one-time 5% wealth tax. Great business for Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase. And more debt to service is just what the small business sector of the economy needs right now. Second question for Prof. Markovits: I note that Yale has (or had) an endowment of $30 billion. Will your wealth tax apply to Yales endowment as well?. . . AhI thought not. By the end of this week, I predict well see the sequel in the Times or The Atlantic: With oil prices so low, this is the ideal time for [wait for it now!]a carbon tax! This seems like the ideal time to counter with the sage axiom of my mentor M. Stanton Evans: Any country that can land a man on the moon can abolish the income tax. Therefixed it for them. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday condemned the lynching of three persons in Palgarh in Maharashtra and demanded stringent punishment for the cultprits. Three men, who were mistaken for thieves, were allegedly lynched on Thursday night in Palgarh. "Strongly condemn the brutal mob lynching of three persons, including two sadhus in Palgarh near Mumbai. There is no place for such mob violence and brutality in a civil society and the perpetrators must be given stringent punishment, Gehlot tweeted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Southwest Airlines has told the city of Midland that the daily direct flight from Midland to Las Vegas will be removed during the month of May. Airports Director Justine Ruff told the Reporter-Telegram of the cut, which is expected to be part of a larger group of cuts the airline is expecting to make over the next few months. Last Ship Belonging to a Major Cruise Line Finally Reaches Port A global scramble to bring cruise passengers home amid the CCP virus pandemic reached its endgame on Tuesday as the last ship at sea operated by a major company headed into the Italian port of Genoa to disembark its passengers. Prior to docking, Costa Deliziosa, which departed Venice on a round the world voyage on Jan. 5, was identified by Cruise Lines International Association as the only one of its vessels still carrying a significant number of passengers. The association, known as CLIA, is an umbrella organization covering 95 percent of all cruise ships, including those owned by the industrys largest operators. Costa Deliziosas arrival in Genoa follows worldwide efforts by many cruise operators to bring their ships safely home and repatriate those on board, amid numerous outbreaks of the virus that have left the industry reeling. The Costa Deliziosa cruise ship sails past St. Marks Square, visible in background, in Venice, Italy, on May 24, 2015. (Luigi Costantini/AP) Some ships have struggled to find safe harbor, with authorities at destinations turning them away because of fears the disease would spread. Other vessels have been subjected to controversial quarantines. As of Tuesday, Costa Cruises said there were 1,519 passengers on board and 898 crew members on board the Deliziosa. The vessel was originally due to return to Venice on April 26 after a 113-day voyage. The ship was cleared to keep sailing even after operator Costa Cruisesan Italian subsidiary of the U.S.-based Carnival Corporationsuspended other sailings in March. That decision followed CLIAs move to halt all operations from U.S. ports as the coronavirus pandemic worsened and outbreaks were reported on several vessels. Although the Costa Deliziosa has continued to sail around the world, prior to this week no one had left the ship in more than a month. Some passengers disembarked and traveled home when the ship stopped off in Perth, Australia, on March 16. The only passengers allowed to step ashore were those with booked flights. The ship docked in Barcelona on Monday where 183 Spanish and Portuguese passengers left the ship and 112 French guests, the cruise line said. The remaining passengers, including Americans, Italians, and some French citizens, are expected to leave the ship in Genoa. Among them, American passenger Dana Lindberg told CNN Travel she was unsure what would happen when the ship arrived. I still have no idea what that means for me getting back to the USA, she said on Monday. I dont know if we stay on the ship waiting for a flight, go to hotel, or if a flight will be offered on Wednesday. The cruise line said on Tuesday that it had organized transportation to the various countries of residence. Lindberg said her voyage on the Costa Deliziosa was a once in a lifetime trip that shed had planned since early 2018. Boarding the world cruise in January, Lindberg did not consider that the itinerary would be impacted. It was only in February, as COVID-19 fears ramped up, that the ship revised its voyage to avoid Asia. There are no reports of COVID-19 on board. Those on board were briefly quarantined to their rooms after a passenger left the ship in Sicily for health reasons, but the quarantine was lifted after this passenger tested negative for COVID-19. A group of fellow Spaniards on board the Deliziosa Costa cruise ship on April 19, 2020. (Alejandro Mezcua via AP) End of Global Cruising Costa Deliziosas scheduled docking on Tuesday follows the arrivals of two other CLIA cruise ships a day earlier. MSC Magnifica disembarked its passengers in Marseille, France, ending a world voyage that also began back in January but has, since March 10, only involved stops to take on fuel and provisions. There were no cases of COVID-19 on board. I think it is safe to say that this is an unprecedented situation and I am not sure that anyone has experienced anything like this before, said Magnificas captain, Roberto Leotta, in a statement. But the trip has not been dramatic at all. Our guests are very happy. They have always been safe, and they have received the same service as on a normal cruise. Leotta described the crew and passengers on board as a big family. In the United States, the Pacific Princess arrived in Los Angeles on Monday after setting sail on a 111-day world cruise back in January. Most of its passengers had returned home to the United States after disembarking in Australia on or around March 21. Only passengers who couldnt fly due to medical reasons remained on board the ship. Princess Cruises says there were 115 passengers on board and no known cases of COVID-19. Final Voyage While Deliziosa is the last CLIA ship to arrive at port, theres one more cruise ship with a handful of passengers on board thats yet to dock. Pheonix Reisen cruise ship Artania is currently traveling back to Germany with eight guests, according to the cruise line. The Artania cruise ship set sail on a 140-day world cruise from Hamburg, Germany, to Bremerhaven, Germany, on Dec. 21, 2019. Some 36 passengers tested positive for COVID-19 following a check from Australian health officials upon the Artanias arrival in Fremantle, Western Australia. In a statement, Phoenix Reisen said these passengers were subsequently disembarked and quarantined in local hospitals. Another passenger disembarked and tested positive for coronavirus earlier in the voyage. Three people who were on the ship have since diedtwo male passengers and one male crew member. Healthy passengers stayed on board the ship until their repatriation flights, which took place on March 29. The majority of passengers on board were from Germany. The Artania was quarantined in Fremantle for 14 days before it was granted permission to leave Australia on April 18. Its now traveling back to Germany via Southeast Asia. Its due to stop at Bali on April 23 and Manila on April 28 in order to drop some crew members home. The eight passengers on board the Artania chose to travel back by sea due to health reasons. The ship is expected in Bremerhaven on May 31, 2020. The CNN Wire and Epoch Times staff contributed to this report Tim Mason became the CEO of Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc (LON:EYE) in 2016. This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. Next, we'll consider growth that the business demonstrates. Third, we'll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels. View our latest analysis for Eagle Eye Solutions Group How Does Tim Mason's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies? According to our data, Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc has a market capitalization of UK36m, and paid its CEO total annual compensation worth UK1.3m over the year to June 2019. While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at UK320k. We further remind readers that the CEO may face performance requirements to receive the non-salary part of the total compensation. We examined a group of similar sized companies, with market capitalizations of below UK161m. The median CEO total compensation in that group is UK265k. Pay mix tells us a lot about how a company functions versus the wider industry, and it's no different in the case of Eagle Eye Solutions Group. Talking in terms of the sector, salary represented approximately 64% of total compensation out of all the companies we analysed, while other remuneration made up 36% of the pie. Readers will want to know that Eagle Eye Solutions Group pays a modest slice of remuneration through salary, as compared to the wider sector. Thus we can conclude that Tim Mason receives more in total compensation than the median of a group of companies in the same market, and of similar size to Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc. However, this doesn't necessarily mean the pay is too high. A closer look at the performance of the underlying business will give us a better idea about whether the pay is particularly generous. The graphic below shows how CEO compensation at Eagle Eye Solutions Group has changed from year to year. Story continues AIM:EYE CEO Compensation April 21st 2020 Is Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc Growing? Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc has seen earnings per share (EPS) move positively by an average of 21% a year, over the last three years (using a line of best fit). Its revenue is up 22% over last year. Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. It's also good to see decent revenue growth in the last year, suggesting the business is healthy and growing. It could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future. Has Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc Been A Good Investment? Given the total loss of 29% over three years, many shareholders in Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc are probably rather dissatisfied, to say the least. It therefore might be upsetting for shareholders if the CEO were paid generously. In Summary... We examined the amount Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc pays its CEO, and compared it to the amount paid by similar sized companies. We found that it pays well over the median amount paid in the benchmark group. However we must not forget that the EPS growth has been very strong over three years. Having said that, shareholders may be disappointed with the weak returns over the last three years. Considering positive per-share earnings movement, but keeping in mind the weak returns, we'd need more time to form a view on CEO compensation. Moving away from CEO compensation for the moment, we've identified 2 warning signs for Eagle Eye Solutions Group that you should be aware of before investing. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. Tuesday, April 21, 2020 Travis Kupp, a member of our Emerging Fellows program checks the possibility of a unified Asia through trade ties in his fourth blog post. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the APF or its other members. Globalization is not on the decline, but it is evolving. Developments over the last two decadesincluding a financial crisis and a pandemichave accelerated the change in economic relationships between and within all regions of the world. Trade with neighbors, in particular, have come into the spotlight as nations narrow their focus. Asia is no exception. Over the coming years, China and India will be playing an economic game with the rest of the continent that could lead to Asian unity or heightened distrust and paranoia. Deep trade integration could bring a form of economic unity to Asia that would totally eclipse Western markets. The rise of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a signal of what could be realized across the continent. The regional organization has come to develop relationships with other Asian and Pacific nations, including China and later India. As the geographic scope of partnership has increased, so has the complexity of pursuing common interests in light of imbalanced power. Indias recent decision to not participate in ASEANs proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is indicative of these limits. India is an attractive market for exports but has concerns that the terms of RCEP could result in a flood of imports, especially from China, harming its domestic industry and agriculture. While Indias economy continues to experience strong growth relative to the rest of the world, it is not yet capable of competing directly with its advanced Eastern neighbor in the trade arena. In one possible future, Indias growth outpaces China and it makes the necessary structural changes and infrastructure investments to dramatically increase its exports. These developments occur while the encircling Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) struggles through a decelerated Chinese economy and underwhelming returns on its massive foreign investments. India takes advantage of these trends to strengthen its trade relationships in both Southeast and Central Asia, creating a new balance of geo-economic power in the region. China reluctantly recognizes this new state of the world, scales back its assertiveness to avoid military conflict, and becomes a more amenable partner in a broader trade union across the continent. In another future, Indias infrastructure remains inadequate to take advantage of its demographic and economic growth lead. The BRI successfully draws Central Asian nations closer into Chinas orbit of influence, heightening tensions with interested neighbors Russia and India. China uses RCEP as a lever to increase pressure on Japan, Vietnam, and others with respect to its territorial disputes. Nations across Asia face a difficult choice whether to cave to Chinese pressure or face the economic consequences of their trade sanctions. The rest of world seeks to better balance its flow of trade with China while taking a careful approach to relationships in the rest of Asia, mostly seeking less risky deals closer to home. What unity exists in this future Asia is predicated on whether you are under Chinese economic influence or not. Trade integration promotes peace, but it does not erase borders nor national interests. While disputes about exactly where some Asian nations begin and end may not be settled anytime soon, successful strengthening of trade agreements could lead to unprecedented regional integration and stability. While unanticipated events in the coming decades could accelerate the balance of power in favor of China or India, what is certain is that trade relationships with these two nations will be a determining factor for Asias future. The way these regional economic alliances develop will either create a newfound unity or an uneasiness felt around the globe. Travis Kupp 2020 20.04.2020 LISTEN As a musician, you ever wondered how some artists get to rank their songs and profile to be easily discovered on google search engine ranking first page even sometimes when the keyword is slightly not related to you or your music? Yes, its done by properly optimizing your profile on search engines. This term is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This tip should guide you towards optimizing your profile properly on search engines and help set up your user persona on Google (Knowledge Panel). Its slightly techie but hey, am sure its not as rigorous as composing lyrics for your next single so let's do this. The first thing you need to do is to ensure you have a website, set your tracking and analytics platforms on it because it shows the amount of site traffic that comes from each digital channels working together, what pages of your site are being indexed, any crawl or site redirect errors and penalties you may be dealing with. Make sure you build a Scheme Data with your website or assist the search engines with relevant information about you on media publications strong enough to have a healthy knowledge panel. You need to understand ranking factors to help you rank higher on organic search results. Consistent and uniques content, fast loading websites with mobile-friendliness and backlinks are the three ranking factors to keep in mind with your SEO music marketing. Ensure to do research on which keywords to use in the contents you use on your website or linked to your publications online because this will help Google understand what your content is about and help it rank higher. If you have a website, you need to pay attention to On-site Optimizations. Make sure that your composition of the two main components of SEO Metadata; Title tag and Meta Descriptions are spot on. Tailor your SEO metadata to include your biggest keywords e.g. your name/album name in the header and in the title of your page. If possible get a Wikipedia article and lots of publications about you on high profile websites, this speeds up the process for your keywords and also a Google Knowledge Panel. About Kwao Lezzes-Tyt Kwao Lezzes-Tyt who was born as Kwao Richard is a Ghanaian A&R and publicist. He has worked with several top musicians including Stay Jay, Dr Cryme, Lungi Naidoo, Jojo Abot, Ahkan, Moelogo and others. Connect with Kwao Lezzes-Tyt today on: Facebook - https://web.facebook.com/kwaolezzes Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kwaolezzes/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/kwaolezzes Rajendra Singh and Chandan Paswan walked 12 kilometres from east Delhis Kailash Nagar to north Delhis Model Town on Sunday. It took them a little over three hours in the scorching heat to complete the torturous journey, but considering that they got their monthly salary at the end of it, it was well worth the effort. Their joy was, however, short-lived; with barely 2km left to reach back home, they fell prey to three robbers wielding knives, who assaulted them and made off with their phones and the money. We had briefly halted at a traffic junction in Shastri Park, about 2km from our home, to rest our tired legs. Thats when three men pounced on us. They choked us and punched us before running away with our money and mobile phones, Singh, 32, one of the two men, said. For Singh, it was sheer desperation that forced him to make the arduous walk. He works at a cosmetics shop in Sadar Bazaar and was left with just about 5,000 when the lockdown was announced on March 24. By the beginning of April, most of that money was exhausted. My two sons are five years and 18 months old. Buying milk and daily grocery finished off whatever little I had, Singh, who lives in a rented home in Kailash Nagar, said. By Saturday, he had just 150 in his pocket. We didnt have money for my childrens milk. It was then that I decided to call my employer for help, he said. His employer, who lives in Model Town, agreed to help, but said he would not be able to transfer the money to his bank account or e-wallet. I told him I would walk to his home on Sunday, Singh said. On Sunday, Singh asked his colleague Chandan Paswan, who lives with his uncle in nearby Usmanpur, if he would like to accompany him and he agreed. We just had tea and set out at 9am with the 150 in my pocket and our phones. We carried a bottle of water each, but finished that within minutes of our walk, Singh said. The cash in their pocket didnt come handy as they found no shop open on the way. They reached their employers home around 12.30pm. We waited outside for 15-20 minutes while our employer had his lunch. He finally gave 6,000 to me and 5,000 to Paswan. But no one offered us water or food, Singh said. As they walked back, they were fortunate to find a shop from where Singh spent his loose change to buy two water bottles and some snacks. Our legs had blisters, but we continued to walk --- at least our money problems were sorted for next few weeks, he said. And then they reached the traffic junction in Shastri Park around 3.30pm. Suddenly, three men carrying knives jumped us and asked us to hand over our cash. We lied to them and said we were daily wage earners, but they choked both of us and searched our pockets, Singh said. The robbers took it all --- the salaries totalling 11,000, the phones and 100 in loose change that Singh had on him. They fled into a forested area nearby. They even punched me and injured me in my eye, Singh said. With no phone to even call the police, the men walked to Paswans home which was closer. We used his uncles phone to call the police. The police took us to Shastri Park police station and kept us there till 9pm without offering us even water. Instead, they scolded us for walking and not calling the police control room number if we were short of food, Singh said. Would the police have given me cash or brought me milk for the children if I had called them? Singh said. The police have registered a case of robbery and efforts are on to arrest the suspects and recover the stolen cash and phones, DK Gupta, deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara), said. Well ensure that both families are cared for, the DCP said when asked about the treatment they received at the police station. Singh, meanwhile, has been forced to borrow 500 from his neighbour to sustain his family for a few days. I dont know what Ill do after that, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON There is, rightly, growing support for a minutes silence to honour the (at time of writing) 49 verified deaths of NHS staff during the pandemic. The military allusion is appropriate; this is indeed the new front line. It is a matter of national shame that the bravery of NHS staff is not always matched by the quality of the personal protective equipment they are given. The latest amendments by Public Health England to the guidance about reusing and substituting gowns are alarming. So alarming, indeed, is the situation in some hospitals, GP surgeries, nursing homes, care homes and pharmacies, that leaders in healthcare are warning that frontline staff may soon be unable to carry out their duties because of the extreme risk to their own health, and indeed that of their families and the wider community if they become infected. The UK is left in a position where ministerial statements and news reports are dominated by the progress of a planeload of kit running late from Turkey. The 400,000 gowns included will be exhausted at the current rate of use by the weekend at the latest. It is indefensible, even if ministers and officials are working hard to remedy things. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers an speech at his Jerusalem office on March 14, 2020, (Gali Tibbon/AFP via Getty Images) Netanyahu, Rival Gantz Clinch Israel PowerSharing Deal JERUSALEMIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his election rival Benny Gantz signed a deal on April 20 to form a national emergency government, ending a year of political deadlock. The power-sharing agreement was clinched after weeks of negotiations. Netanyahu, who is under criminal indictment in three corruption cases, will remain prime minister for 18 months, after which Gantz will replace him, according to the agreement signed by both men. Netanyahus trial on charges that include bribery, fraud, and breach of trust is due to begin May 24. He denies any wrongdoing. Over the past year, Netanyahu, who has been in power for more than a decade, has presided over a caretaker government following three inconclusive elections in April and September 2019 and on March 2, just as the country began grappling with the outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. We have prevented a fourth election. We will protect democracy. We will fight coronavirus and care for all Israels citizens, Gantz said on Twitter after signing the deal. Netanyahu tweeted the Israeli flag. Until he takes over as premier, Gantz, a former armed forces chief, will serve as defense minister, with his political allies receiving the same number of ministerial portfolios as Netanyahus Likud party. The new Israeli governments first priority would be managing the CCP virus crisis. Israel, with a population of about 9 million, has so far confirmed more than 13,500 COVID-19 cases and 177 deaths. Restrictions to curb CCP virus transmission have sent unemployment above 26 percent. On the campaign trail, Gantz pledged not to serve in a government led by a prime minister facing criminal charges, but backtracked last month, saying the enormity of the CCP virus crisis necessitated an emergency unity government. The decision to join forces with Netanyahu enraged many of Gantzs political allies who split from the party and will be part of the opposition in Israels 120-member parliament. The Epoch Times contributed to this report. The British School of Bahrain (BSB) has joined the global fight to find a vaccine for Covid-19 by contributing to the [email protected] (FAH) project, which has recently become the biggest supercomputer on Earth. The BSB Senior School deputy head, academic, Adrian White, initiated the ambitious idea of joining the project. The combination of innovation, community support, and global partnerships are aligned to BSBs ethos and it was clearly a programme the school felt compelled to join. BSBs Hhead of IT, Mahesh Maniyeri, said: The world is working together to fight against Covid-19, and BSB is keen to do its part within the global struggle. We realised that distributed computing would significantly speed up the research for a vaccine for Covid-19 and so we felt we absolutely had to utilize BSBs extensive campus-based computing power to fight coronavirus. We have over 300 computers on campus, which are not currently being used during the schools physical closure, and realised that this is a great opportunity for BSB to contribute to FAHs search for a new vaccine. BSB is using its powerful ICT suites to join the global distributing computing platform to help scientists and researchers understand how the protein that makes up the Covid-19 virus, works. Proteins are the key component of the virus and understanding this part of it informs us how the virus functions. FAH performs molecular dynamic simulations of protein dynamics by using a virtualised supercomputer, which is an integration of thousands of computers worldwide. Researchers and scientists send tasks to the network of computers which run simulations and send the data back with their individual results. FAH has become one of the worlds largest supercomputers and this power is being used to great benefit in the search for a vaccine. Executive headmaster John Maguire expressed his pleasure, saying: The school has invested heavily in ICT over recent years and we are pleased that it can be used even when campuses are closed across Bahrain. Everyone must do their part, and I am very pleased that BSB is contributing to both the global and local communities. The British School of Bahrain (or BSB), was established in 1995 and this year it is celebrating 25 years of delivering English National curriculum to students based in Bahrain. Today, BSB is using cutting edge technology to deliver a full virtual school entirely online to all age groups. - TradeArabia News Service [April 21, 2020] Tellabs Optical LAN enables McGough's Open, Healthy and Smart office DALLAS, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tellabs, the leading provider of Passive Optical Network (PON) solutions, announces that McGough installed, and operates, a Tellabs Optical LAN solution that successfully delivers flexibility in support of their network connectivity in a spacious, productive, healthy and smart modern workplace at their new headquarters. The Tellabs Optical LAN solution is based on PON technologies that is adapted for enterprise networks, supports advanced IP/Ethernet protocols and promotes the use of fiber cabling deep inside buildings. Optical LAN speeds IT staff productivity with simplification, reduces network vulnerability points and offers the best network capacity and connectivity density. McGoughs new, modern and distinctive corporate headquarters transforms a 60-year-old trucking terminal into a 21st century work environment, and then further expands their office footprint with a brand-new two-story wing built from the ground up. This state-of-the-art modern office allows their employees to team together in an open, healthy and flexible floorplan design meant to stimulate great collaboration and creativity; featuring flexible workstations, huddle areas, many sun-soaked windows, break stations, extended ceilings and natural light filled conference rooms. To best match their diverse architectural needs, construction demands and corporate goals, they chose Tellabs Optical LAN which ideally addressed their building challenges with: More flexible design that breaks traditional network barriers Offering ease of use with the more automation and less human touch Ensuring least disruptive future path to new technologies, including wireless It is very important to us to have the ability to easily, and with the lowest possible costs and least disruption to our business, to change network technologies. Wi-Fi is a great example of a rapily evolving technology. By building this network with singlemode fiber, and Tellabs Optical LAN, we have put ourselves in the best position to support whatever the future brings, said Paul Boespflug, McGough Chief Technology Officer. Tellabs Optical LAN truly is the best choice for modern, open, healthy, and smart buildings. Optical LAN uniquely connects any network design, cable, service and IoT endpoint. It offers faster installs with dynamic connectivity of users, devices, and services. Plus, it scales bandwidth capacity, and number of connected devices, with true network needs, said Rich Schroder, Tellabs President and CEO. You can read more about the Tellabs Optical LAN system installed at McGough headquarters by accessing our more detailed case study available on our website. about McGough McGough is a premier general contractor and construction management firm offering full-service real estate capability. The firm, incorporated in 1956 by Peter McGough and his six sons, remains a family-owned company today. McGough is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota with branch offices in Iowa, North Dakota and Texas that facilitate project development and construction activities nationwide. McGough was born of passion and true craftsmen, and these roots have continued to shape the company through its evolution. We are dedicated to delivering high-quality buildings that perform optimally for owners throughout their lifespan and employ high-quality practices in doing so. Over the many decades weve been in business, we have built not only great buildings, but also exceptional experiences for our customers and partners. We value the passion and commitment that drive our reputation for quality. to learn more, visit www.mcgough.com about Tellabs Tellabs is leading network innovations with access technologies built to exceed todays demands while delivering modern high-performance solutions for the future. Fast and secure access has never been in more demand for enterprise and government connectivity. Tellabs sole focus is to deliver simple, secure, scalable, stable access to optimize network performance. Tellabs has delivered carrier-class access solutions to service providers for more than two decades. We are now expanding that leadership by defining the future of enterprise networking that connects the campus, buildings and inspires people. to learn more, visit www.tellabs.com Media Contact John Hoover +1-707-206-1751 [email protected] A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/552e12b5-5185-4e5f-95e0-83344c3c39f8 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (29) An intensive care nurse has told of the final moments she spent with a dying coronavirus patient and how she held her hands until she passed away. Juanita Nittla, 42, has revealed how she watched 'the heart rate hit zero' and saw the the patient flatline as music requested by the family played in the background and the patient's daughter listened on the phone. The senior sister, who has been working with critically ill Covid-19 victims at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North London, said she then gave the patient a bed bath, wrapped her in a white shroud put a sign of the cross on her forehead before placing her in a body bag. Ms Nittla says she is unable to sleep as she thinks about those that have died in her care and feels 'responsible for someone's death' when even the support provided by the ventilators cannot save their life. In the heartbreaking account from the coronavirus frontline, Ms Nittla told the BBC, how she saw a nurse in her 50s lose her battle with the infection. She told how the patient 'looked very comfortable' before closing the curtains on the eight bed ward and turning off the alarms. Juanita Nittla, 42, who has been working with critically ill Covid-19 victims said she is unable to sleep as she thinks about those that have died in her care Music requested by the family was played as medical staff fell silent, and Ms Nittla then placed the phone next to the patient's ear, asking the daughter to speak as support provided by the ventilator was withdrawn. She said: 'I saw flashing lights on the monitor and the heart rate hit zero - flat line - on the screen. 'I stood beside her, holding her hands until she passed away.' Ms Nittla then disconnected the tubes providing sedation drugs, and heard the patient's daughter still talking to her mother. She took the handset and told her she had died. The patient passed away less than five minutes after Ms Nittla started to turn off the ventilator. She added: 'With the help of a colleague, I gave her a bed bath and wrapped her in a white shroud and placed her in a body bag. 'I put a sign of the cross on her forehead before closing the bag.' Ventilators take over the body's breathing process after coronavirus has caused the lungs to fail. However for some seriously ill patients the support from the breathing machine is not enough, and doctors have to make the tough decision on whether to withdraw treatment. The gradual process involves removing the drugs and oxygen the patient is receiving until they flatline after which the tubes are withdrawn. Speaking about how she deals with the trauma, Ms Nittla told the BBC: 'It is daunting. I do have nightmares. In this photograph, taken by Ms Nittla, it shows how her colleagues hold their hands together and say 'stay safe!' before beginning their shifts Ms Nittla has been working at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North London 'Sometimes I feel like I am somewhat responsible for someone's death. Ms Nittla, who has reduced lung capacity after suffering with Tuberculosis last year, said: 'I put everything aside and do my job. 'At the end of my shift I do think of the patients who died in my care, but I try to switch off when I step outside of the hospital.' Due to a massive surge in the number of admissions, the hospital's critical care unit has expanded from 34 to 60 beds. Ms Nittla added: 'Before the start of the shift we hold our hands together and say 'stay safe!'. Patients are put on ventilators after coronavirus has caused the lungs to fail but for some seriously ill patients the breathing machine is not enough. Pictured: A patient using a ventilator to breathe Ventilators are used to help a person breathe if they are battling coronavirus 'We keep an eye on each other. We make sure everyone is wearing the gloves, masks and protective gear properly.' Since speaking to the BBC, Ms Nittla has been asked by the hospital to remain at home, due to her underlying health condition. It has emerged that the number of health and social care workers to have died of coronavirus has surpassed 100 in the UK. Doctors, nurses, care home workers and allied healthcare professionals have all been lost in Britain's fight against COVID-19. The Government has only confirmed the death of 27 NHS workers, but nursing platform NursingNotes says the number was at least 106 by this morning. Its records show Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people accounted for 75 per cent of healthcare workers deaths, despite them only being 20 per cent of the workforce. In separate figures released today it emerged that the true number of coronavirus victims in the UK may still be 41 per cent higher than daily Government statistics are letting on. Weekly data published today by the Office for National Statistics showed that at least 13,121 people had died in England and Wales by April 10. Department of Health statistics had, by that date, announced only 9,288 fatalities - the backdated deaths increased the total by 41.2 per cent. That suggests the death toll of 16,509 confirmed yesterday could in reality be closer to 23,000. And care homes in England and Wales had recorded the deaths of at least 1,644 residents by April 10 - 10 per cent of all the UK's COVID-19 deaths. Today's update is one of the first real official glimpses of the crisis gripping the care sector. Fifteen per cent of all people dying with COVID-19 were succumbing to their illness outside of hospitals, the stats showed, revealing the crisis cannot be managed solely by the NHS. And one in every three people (33.6 per cent) who died of any cause between April 4 and April 10 had coronavirus. That week, authorities recorded the most deaths for a single week in 20 years, with 18,516 people dying - 8,000 more than average. Around 6,200 of those were officially linked to the coronavirus, suggesting a further 1,800 were indirect 'excess' deaths or COVID-19 sufferers who never got tested. Yangon, April 21 : A World Health Organization (WHO) vehicle transporting COVID-19 surveillance samples was attacked by a rebel group in Myanmar's Rakhine state, state media reported on Tuesday. With a driver and a health worker aboard, the vehicle transporting the samples to the national laboratory in Yangon was attacked by the Arakan Army group near Yarmaung bridge in Minbya township on Monday evening, reports Xinhua news agency. The two on board were injured and sent to township hospital for treatment. The UN Myanmar Tuesday confirmed the death of the driver on their Facebook page. Founded in 2009, the Arakan Army is a Rakhine armed group and the armed wing of the United League of Arakan. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text COLLINSVILLE The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis is investigating a gunshot victim in Collinsville who later died. Devin T. Judd, 23, of Lenzburg, Illinois, was suffering from a gunshot wound when he arrived at the Hampton Inn in Collinsville at about 11:20 p.m. Sunday, according to the case squad. He was taken by the Collinsivlle Fire Department to St. Louis University Hospital where he was later pronounced deceased. 1. Yes. The downtown area needs a good draw. Some quality taverns would be a plus. 2. Yes. Too many storefronts are vacant. Bars could help to bring in needed revenue. 3. No. Putting a number of bars downtown is just asking for trouble. Dont change things. 4.No. Several churches have located downtown. Putting bars close by would be a bad fit. 5. Unsure. It would depend on how the law is written and what standards are enacted. Vote View Results The British Embassy in Spain will host a virtual Q&A session on Facebook this Wednesday, 22 April, from 1 to 5pm to answer any concerns UK foreign residents have about the current coronavirus pandemic or how this impacts on the actions they need to take during the Brexit transition period. As embassy and consulate staff must now work from home, it is not possible to run the usual type of Facebook Live Q&A session. Instead, a post inviting questions will be published on the Brits in Spain Facebook page at 1pm and staff will endeavour to answer as many as possible until 5pm. This session is aimed at UK nationals resident in Spain who have questions about the implications of the current crisis on residency or access to healthcare, for example. General questions about the restrictions during the state of alarm will also be answered. Once the session has closed, all of the questions and comments will be reviewed to determine what is concerning UK nationals most. Over the course of the following week (by 30 April), a series of short videos on key topics and a Q&A document will be published. For more information, click here. After nine days without a new confirmed case of COVID-19, the St. Francois County Health Center reported two new cases on Tuesday. That brings the total confirmed cases to 24 in the county. Of those, 21 have recovered. In general, cases are going down, Health Center Director Amber Elliott said on Tuesday during her live update on Facebook. So thats a good thing. "In addition to, not just us, other parts of the state, they are seeing cases being reported going down. So thats good that we are probably headed in the right direction for now. Everyone is anxious to get back to normal life, Elliott said, but we have to careful how we do that. Our healthcare partners, weve had discussions with them and the general consensus is that weve got to be careful as to pulling back those stay-at-home orders and be strategic, Elliott said. And thats why those phases to move back to recovery or a more familiar way of life, thats why those are so important. Missouri has not released its plan for reopening the state yet. But the White House has released its three-phase plan. Although the state is continually reassessing, Elliott doesnt think the statewide stay-at-home order will be extended through May. It currently runs through May 3. It doesnt sound like it, Elliott said. It sounds like, at a national level, they are wanting to head towards the phased levels of recoveries. She also said she doesnt foresee the county order being extended longer than the state order. Over the past week, the health center is aware of about 100 residents that have been tested, bringing that total number of residents tested to 321. Thats the less than 1% of our population, Elliott said. If you look at the testing capacity of the state, they are also testing a little less than 1% of the state population at this time. Elliott emphasized the need for testing and said its a gap in the system. Testing in a concern throughout the entire state, Elliott said. Ive heard from other health department directors and that is a concern across our state and in other places in our country. I think its getting better in general, but its still an issue. She knows there has been a lot of reports of people have problems getting tested, but that decision is up to healthcare providers. We have to put faith into them to use their clinical judgement to test people, Elliott said. And certainly when people are tested, we are able to know if someone is positive or not, and we are able to do our part in isolating and quarantining the appropriate contacts. Elliott said she has been getting questions about testing in nursing homes after a recent outbreak in a facility in Jefferson County. Locally, we have had people tested here and there in nursing homes, Elliott said. Again, this is done through the provider of the nursing home ordering that test. All of those to date to are negative, so thats good. "Thats not to say that we couldnt have a situation like we see in other places. Its just where we are here in this moment. But we havent seen anywhere where they are testing an entire facility like what we are seeing to the north of us. Nikki Overfelt is a reporter for the Daily Journal. She can be reached at noverfelt@dailyjournalonline.com. 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 Delhi government will give 2,000 food coupons each to every MLA and MP in the city for distribution among the needy in their constituencies in the wake of coronavirus lockdown, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday. Addressing the media online, Kejriwal also said the government will start COVID-19 testing for mediapersons from Wednesday. "We have set up a centre. All media houses and journalists will be informed about it. Interested mediapersons can undergo tests from tomorrow morning at the centre," Kejriwal said. He said his government would give free ration to around one crore people in the national capital in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown. There are 1,603 active coronavirus cases in Delhi, while 47 people have died of COVID-19 so far, Kejriwal said, adding that 83 per cent of the deaths were related co-morbid conditions. He said that the Delhi government will procure 60 new ambulances and an order has been issued for the same. Out of 1,397 samples taken, 78 were found infected with COVID-19 on Monday, he said. The total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi rose to 2081 on Monday, with 78 fresh cases and two deaths being reported in a day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) General practitioner Preeya Alexander has provided answers to the questions she has been bombarded with by anxious parents in the lead up to the influenza season. Among the queries the Melbourne GP has received are: My child has an egg allergy - can they still have the flu shot? Can the flu shot give me the flu? What if my kid under nine years of age is getting their first ever flu shot? Dr Preeya Alexander (pictured) has explained everything you need to know about children getting the flu shot over winter The GP - who publishes medical insights on her Instagram The Wholesome Doctor - advised if a child under nine years of age is having their first ever vaccination in their life, they will need two doses of the shot for the same flu season. 'At least four weeks apart - this is to ensure the right immune response is mounted. After the initial year - only one dose per year is needed,' Dr Alexander said. Dr Alexander said kids and adults with an egg allergy can be safely vaccinated against the flu. The influenza vaccine is grown in eggs but the traces of egg protein that remain after the vaccine is made are extremely tiny. The Department of Health says it's very rare for people with egg allergy to experience adverse effects such as hives, wheezing, vomiting or abnormal pain after getting the flu shot. One common misconception Dr Alexander addressed was whether getting the flu shot can give you the flu. 'The flu vaccine does not give you the flu - it is not a live vaccine, it contains inactivated virus and so cannot give you influenza,' she said. 'You may experience aches after the vaccine, or a slight fever, but it's short lived and not the flu.' The general practitioner from Melbourne has been bombarded with questions from anxious parents in the lead up to the influenza season The Australian government recommends that everyone over the age of six months old has the flu shot every year. Dr Alexander said the best time to get the annual flu shot in Australia is in April - no earlier or later - and will last three to four months before its effectiveness declines. 'The influenza vaccine needs to be given yearly, preceding influenza season ideally - if you choose to do it. The vaccine and the strains it covers varies year to year and the effectiveness wears off after three to four months,' she said. 'Any child over six months can receive the flu vaccine as long as they are not allergic to the vaccine or a component.' In Australia, children aged under five and over six months can receive a government funded vaccine so parents don't need to pay for it. All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged over six months are eligible for a government funded vaccine too. For kids over the age of five, parents are required to pay for it privately, which usually costs around $20. 'Kids in this age group are at increased risk of influenza complications like pneumonia and so reducing risk of influenza with the vaccine is strongly recommended,' she said. Children over five who have a chronic medical condition such as asthma or diabetes are qualified for a government funded vaccine. Halt: Healthcare workers stand in the street to block a protest by hundreds of people who gathered in Denver, Colorado, to demand the stay-at-home order be lifted by the state governor. Photo: REUTERS/Alyson McClaran "You can go to work, why can't I?" the irate protester holding a "Land of the Free" placard shouted at the nurse in scrubs who was blocking her way. She was heading to a demonstration at Denver's Capitol building, but a group of healthcare workers was standing in the middle of the road. Mobilised under the banner of "Operation Gridlock", hundreds gathered in Colorado's capital city, insisting the economic cost of the shutdown was no longer worth the lives it would save. In incredible scenes that illustrate yet another rift in US society, the demonstrators were met by medics wearing green scrubs and face masks, who were there, they said, as a reminder of why the measures were in place. "Go to China if you want communism," the woman, wearing a Stars and Stripes T-shirt, shouted at them from her car. "This is a free country." There have been widespread demonstrations against the lockdown as the jobless figure hit 22 million and restrictions were extended in most states. Protests have also erupted in Brazil, Kenya, Paris, parts of Russia, India, Lebanon and Iraq, as more than half the global population remained under some form of enforced confinement. With the International Monetary Fund forecasting the worst global recession in a century, Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, warned of a risk of increased social unrest and violence "that would greatly undermine our ability to fight the disease". President Donald Trump appeared to praise the actions of the protesters during his White House briefing. "These are great people," he said. "They are picketing a little bit because they want to get back to work. They've got cabin fever. They want their lives back." Democrat Jay Inslee, Washington's governor, branded Mr Trump's messages "schizophrenic". "To have an American president encourage people to violate the law, I can't remember any time during my time in America where we have seen such a thing," he said. Mr Trump, under pressure to rescue an economy in freefall, has been looking for a way to ease the restrictions. A number of governors say a shortage of tests, which health experts touted as the best way to get people back to work safely, is among the more significant hurdles. The US is conducting two million tests each day, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said the nation needed to treble the pace of testing. Mr Trump said the administration was preparing to use the Defence Production Act to compel US facilities to increase production of test swabs by 20 million a month. Red states including Texas began partially lifting restrictions yesterday. Meanwhile, Colorado, which has recorded 420 coronavirus deaths, is under a stay-at-home order until Sunday, with Democratic Governor Jared Polis planning to reopen the state in phases. In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro addressed demonstrators in Brasilia. He is one of the few global leaders to have openly railed against lockdown measures to combat the virus, doggedly asserting that the economic risks of shutting down Brazil's economy outweigh the dangers posed by a disease he refers to as a "little cold". The protest included calls for the armed forces to shut down Congress and the Supreme Court and to return to military rule. Meanwhile, scientists in Italy urged the government to conduct psychological tests to determine how long people could stay confined at home. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is to announce a new set of social guidelines this week that could include the tests, the 'Corriere della Sera' newspaper reported. Reports of domestic abuse have surged and scientists worry about the long-term impact of such isolation. Mr Conte's government is now debating how it can lift the stay-at-home order and reopen businesses while there is still no coronavirus vaccine. In France, police struggling to enforce lockdown restrictions have come under attack, with clashes reported in the poorer regions of a dozen cities in the past week. In the northern Paris suburb of Villeneuve-la-Garenne early yesterday, violence erupted when a young motorcyclist was injured in a collision with an unmarked police car. About 50 youths threw stones and set off fireworks at police, who retaliated with tear gas. Clashes between disaffected youths and police also broke out in other Paris suburbs, as well as in Bordeaux and the port of Le Havre. A police source said it was difficult to enforce lockdown in crime-prone areas where they and emergency workers were often attacked - even when things were normal. Arrests or police checks often spark clashes in poor neighbourhoods where youth unemployment can be up to 40pc. In Russia, at least 1,000 people rallied against lockdown restrictions yesterday in Vladikavkaz, a regional capital in the North Caucasus. Hundreds of locals packed the city's main square, demanding to see the governor. Concerns over the economic fallout of the lockdown are often mixed with inherent distrust in local authorities widely perceived as corrupt. Coronavirus has infected 2.4 million people around the world, with the death toll standing at more than 165,000. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Visit our Covid-19 vaccine dashboard for updates on the roll out of the vaccination program and the rate of Coronavirus cases Ireland Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] A countrywide lockdown announced by the government to fight COVID-19 left the stray canines in distress. With resources less for even humans, it is a very critical time for these stray dogs as they are exposed to severe shortage of food. In a unique endeavour, Indore Municipal Corporation has set up a roti bank for stray dogs that are starving. The motivating force behind it, Vandana Jain, who runs a campaign, Dogitization in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, says, The municipal corporation has always helped us. With their help, we created a roti bank, where we make 5,000 rotis and then we distribute it through NGOs. Jain started Dogitization to create awareness amongst citizens of Indore to be kind and compassionate towards the street dogs. She also encouraged everyone to win the trust of the dogs and eventually send off each dog of the city to dog sterilization clinics. Vandana and her group lovingly address each stray dog as laddoo. She says, Its sad that humans divided themselves in upper and lower castes, and they also created levels in animals. Godmen appeal to us to worship cows, give them roti and chaara. But no one talks that about dogs. I feel till the time kutta word is used, people will never respect this life. Indore Municipal Corporation has set up a roti bank for stray dogs So, in order to make people fall in love with the sweetest and most faithful living creature on earth, she promotes them as laddoo instead of kutta (dog). Everyone should try it. Speak to a dog on the street and call him laddoo and offer him food and you will see how the dog starts wagging its tail, it will make an instant bond with you, she says. In these trying times, Jain is thankful for the support she is getting from the administration. She says, I convinced the additional SP, Maneesha Pathak Soni to allow one toast manufacturer to also make toasts for these street dogs and she granted us the permission. Dogitization could manage to order 1,200 kg toasts in 16 hours for hungry dogs. She says, That goes on to show how kind this city is. Without the citys support, we could not have done this. We wish all the happy laddoos of Indore a healthy, happy life! SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Al Shafar General Contracting (ASGC Group) announced a contribution of Dh5 million ($1.36 million) to the Community Solidarity Fund Against Covid-19, which was launched by the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department in Dubai. The group emphasised that social responsibility is one of the important pillars of the welfare of societies. A strong partnership between public and private sectors is vital to tide over the challenges in the current environment, it said. The contribution from one of the leading specialised groups in the countrys construction sector is the latest in a series of donations from the private sector to support the Community Solidarity Fund Against Covid-19. The Community Solidarity Fund Against Covid-19, announced by the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department (IACAD) aims to facilitate community contributions and donations towards combating the Covid-19 outbreak under the guidance and directions of the UAEs leadership. TradeArabia News Service Hundreds of people, including those involved in essential services, were stuck on the border with Delhi on Tuesday morning after the Ghaziabad district magistrate (DM) issued an order to seal all borders to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Gautam Budh Nagar too followed suit on Tuesday evening, and sealed its borders with the national capital, claiming that those who travel to and from Delhi were more susceptible to the virus. The order was issued under the National Disaster Act 2005 and came in force with immediate effects. The order has been passed to contain the spread of Covid-19. People involved in essential services will be provided passes by the concerned officials, said Suhas LY, district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar. According to data released by the districts health department on Tuesday, three Noida patients contracted the disease in Delhi, and are under treated there. The escalating situation on Tuesday forced Ghaziabad DM Ajay Shankar Pandey to go to the border, accompanied by police officers, on Tuesday afternoon. Pandey had issued the closure direction late on Monday, under provisions of the Disaster Management Act, prohibiting any travel between Ghaziabad and the national capital. The order came after at least six people in Ghaziabad, who health and district officials said had travelled to Delhi, tested positive for Covid-19. However, as a result of the directions on Monday night, hundreds of commuters were left stranded at the borders for hours on Tuesday. Doctors, transport workers and bankers were among those stuck on either sides of the border after the police refused to allow their entry or exit. I was headed home to Raj Nagar Extension [in Ghaziabad] after night duty from my hospital. I was stuck up at UP Gate border as the police did not allow entries. From 8.30am to 11am, I was stuck, like hundreds of other people in their vehicles, a doctor from a Delhi government hospital designated as Covid-19 facility, said. The police did not allow me to enter, despite my producing my duty pass and ID card, the doctor added. I had to call up my contacts, who contacted the Ghaziabad police, after which I was allowed to leave. But all this took me about three hours to enter into Ghaziabad. The police even told me that I should stay in Delhi. I have more duties lined up on Wednesday and dont know whether I will be able to attend to these or not, the doctor said. Bishambhar Dayal, an employee of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) from Sanjay Nagar in Ghaziabad, had to report for duty at 12.30pm on Tuesday and was headed to a depot at Sukhdev Vihar. I came to the Kaushambi border, but the police did not allow me to go to Delhi. I showed them my ID card and my duty pass, but they still refused, Dayal said. I moved to UP Gate but the cops there too denied me passage to Delhi. So, I have informed my officers and went back home, Dayal said. A number of ambulances carrying patients also got delayed at the border. Pradeep Jain, a senior officer working with a central public sector enterprise and resident of Ramprastha Greens in Ghaziabads Vaishali, said he would prefer to work from home rather than attending office in Delhis Vasant Vihar, if conditions at the border remained as they were on Tuesday. I had to wait for two hours and many vehicles carrying essential items were stuck at UP Gate border. Tuesday was the second day when a few employees were directed to attend office. With these conditions prevailing, however, I would prefer to work from home, he added. This happened despite the order stating that people involved in essential supplies or valid pass holders will be allowed to move. Senior government officials of the national capital told HT that the UP government did not communicate the decision to the Delhi government on time. Later in the day, to resolve the gridlock, the Delhi government sent a team of officers led by east Delhi district magistrate Arun Kumar Mishra, to meet his Ghaziabad counterpart. The Delhi Police also apprised Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and chief secretary Vijay Dev about the condition at the border. Joint commissioner of police (eastern range) Alok Kumar on Tuesday said the sudden restriction by the Ghaziabad administration had led to the severe snarls at the borders. Senior police officers from both Ghaziabad and Delhi came to the border. We are also in touch with the Uttar Pradesh administration to ease the situation as soon as possible, Kumar said. A Delhi Police officer deployed at the border said they deployed eight companies (around 70 personnel) at the border. The Ghaziabad police, however, claimed no one working or involved in providing essential services was stopped. People who are not attached to any essential services are not allowed to travel to Delhi. However, while there may have been some hiccups, those attached to essential services are not being stopped, Anshu Jain, circle officer, Indirapuram, said. The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration also meanwhile said all workers involved in essential services would have to get passes issued from the authorities concerned, in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, to travel between the states. However, officials said the district chief medical officer will issue a list of medical professionals to the police, to ensure they are not stopped. ( With inputs from Sweta Goswami, Anvit Srivastava and Preety Acharya) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Peeyush Khandelwal Peeyush Khandelwal writes on a range of issues in western Uttar Pradesh from crime, to development authorities and from infrastructure to transport. Based in Ghaziabad, he has been a journalist for almost a decade. ...view detail Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) -TransCanna Holdings Inc. (CSE: TCAN) (FSE: TH8) ("TransCanna" or the "Company") is pleased to announce Lyfted Farms has been engaged by Central Valley Growers to Operate a Commercial Cannabis Greenhouse Facility located in Stanislaus County. Lyfted Farm's 'Higher Standard Farm Management Agreement' includes the provision of genetic stock, crop cultivation, labor, compliance oversight, and distribution of finished product over an initial 5-year term to commence May 1st, 2020, with two 5-year options to extend. Under this agreement, Lyfted Farms will receive a base fee with an incentive fee of all budgeted net proceeds. "In building our company, we have committed to setting a 'Higher Standard of Growing' for our industry. We keep this in mind in all that we do but especially in selecting our employees, executive team members, and business partners. Endeavoring to dispel the lingering stigma around the cannabis industry serves as part of the impetus that drives us to set this standard. Thus far we have been successful in doing so, as reflected in our unwavering regulatory compliance, a track record of safe, successful operations, and impeccable performance under numerous Development Agreements in Stanislaus County over the last two years. We continue to raise this standard in formally establishing our relationship with Central Valley Growers, which is owned by a Central Valley family with a 25 year legacy in traditional agriculture", commented Bob Blink, President and CEO of TransCanna. "Central Valley Growers could not be more excited to partner with an industry leading cannabis operation such as Lyfted Farms. Our longstanding relationship with CEO Bob Blink makes us confident in both Lyfted Farms' future success as well our strong belief that Lyfted Farms will always have the community of Stanislaus and its constituents top of mind in conducting our operations", commented Nav Athwal, General Manager, Central Valley Growers. About TransCanna Holdings Inc.TransCanna is a California-based, Canadian-listed company building cannabis focused brands for the California lifestyle, through its wholly-owned California subsidiaries. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.transcanna.com or email the Company at info@transcanna.com. Investor Relations: Glenn Little ( Glenn.L@TransCanna.com ) 604-349-3011 Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54677 Only days from its highest animal-admission month, Dorchester County's only animal shelter is in trouble. With over 4,000 coronavirus cases confirmed across South Carolina, the closing of nonessential businesses and a number of residents unemployed, donations and adoptions at Dorchester Paws have plummeted. In comparison to this time last year, Dorchester Paws is seeing over 100 fewer adoptions. It also is down $12,000 in donations. Kim Almstedt, executive director of the shelter, said funding is critical for the nonprofit located in a county where the population has grown by thousands over the years. It costs $300 to $400 to care for each healthy animal that comes through the shelter. Beyond feeding and cleaning, each animal goes through a full health evaluation. This includes vaccinations and spaying or neutering. For animals with severe health concerns, costs are often greater. If a dog comes in with heartworm issues, treatment and care costs can be up to $1,000. In one year, the shelter averages around 4,000 admissions. In 2019, the staff saw a little over 3,700 new animals. A lot of people dont know what resources we put into every single dog and cat," Almstedt said. With local animal control limiting some of its services during the pandemic, the shelter is also seeing a slight decline in the number of dogs and cats that come in. But that's going to change soon. Storm Moll, a cat enrichment specialist and three-year staff member with the shelter, said May marks the shelter's kitten and puppy season and its highest admission month. It typically sees around 400 new animals in that month. Now, with the pandemic causing the shelter to dramatically limit volunteers and extending the adoption process because of remote services, the staff knows it's going to be a stressful time. This is coupled with the fact that they also work in a building constructed in 1972 that is a victim of routine flooding and consistently needs patchwork repairs. "We're going to be operating way over capacity," said Maddie Moore, development and marketing director for the shelter. Donations, adoption and fostering are really the main ways the surrounding community can help support Dorchester Paws, staff members say. Residents can donate and sign up to foster animals online at dorchesterpaws.org. Building 'disintegrating' It's easy to miss the Dorchester Paws facility when driving down U.S. Highway 78 in Summerville. The campus is surrounded by trees. The only thing that indicates its location is a sign sitting next to a long path that eventually leads to the hidden facility. Someone recently left a dog in a crate beside that sign, staff recall. Because the person who left the crate didn't notify employees about the drop-off, which is illegal, the dog was left out unnoticed, likely for hours, they say. Someone coming in for an appointment noticed the crate. It took most of the day to get (the dog) to trust us," said April Howard, an animal services manager with the shelter. And he's been adopted already. More people surrendering their animals, legally or illegally, is one of the many things staff have to manage during the pandemic. They've also had to limit the number of staff members at the facility. But prior to the coronavirus pandemic, there were already some challenges. Every year in September, the entire shelter has to be evacuated because of hurricanes, Almstedt said. The shelter is in such a low-lying area that its drains can't keep up, she said. The kennels end up flooding from the inside out with sewage and waste. This year alone, the shelter has had to close twice due to flooding. "The building itself is disintegrating," she said. It's been nearly 50 years since the building has had a renovation. And since that time, Dorchester County's population has grown considerably. Because of this, the number of animals in need has, too. To help To donate, adopt or foster animals, residents can visit the shelter's website at dorchesterpaws.org. Residents are also advised to call ahead to make appointments about surrendering pets. Address: 136 Four Paws Lane, Summerville, SC 29483. Number: 843-871-3820 Recently they raised enough money and got approval to move into a brand-new shelter in 2021 that will be located north of the crossing of Mallard and Orangeburg roads in Summerville. This was after Dorchester County Council approved a $1 million capital contribution to the shelter in 2018. The design of the facility is slated to finish in October. But the recent significant halt in funding is increasing the chances that the move-in date will be delayed. Staff members say they must first make sure they can function financially in their current state. So on top of taking in a high volume of animals, staff are also having to consistently patch up an old building. This sometimes means funds that could be used to benefit the animals have to be used to make repairs around the building. Now, this could mean using some funds for the new facility to stay afloat during the pandemic. To avoid spending another hurricane season having to fully evacuate the shelter, they hope the community will help out just a little more. We need those funds to make it happen," Moore said. What the animals deserve For a lot of the staff at the shelter, their fondest memories at Dorchester Paws are centered on what's called "foster failures," the only type of failure they promote, Moore said. Fostering a pet means sheltering an animal at home and taking care of it until it is ready for adoption. This creates more space at the shelter, where they have 80 dog kennels and 100 cat kennels. A foster failure is when a foster family decides to fully adopt a pet. Moll's fondest memory at the shelter is when this happened twice for an extremely shy cat named Oliver at the shelter whose original owner died. Im glad that we were able to find him the right home," she said. The hope is that in the future, more residents will look to become foster families for animals or adopt them. When this happens, the staff's job become easier. More funding means more resources staff can send home with foster families to help them look after pets. But ultimately, the new shelter is what they look forward to the most. There, they will have more space for volunteers and animals, and they can do things like spay and neuter all pets in the community instead of just the ones they shelter. They also will be able to put more money into activities and resources for animals that come through the shelter. That way, there will never be a reason to delay taking in any animals in need. "It's what the community deserves. It's what the animals deserve," Moore said. A California woman is being praised for going above and beyond to ensure that a cracked duck egg she found in a park hatched, by incubating it in her bra for over a month. Betsy Ross, an independent contractor from Visalia, California, was walking with her family in a public park when her kids noticed that someone had maliciously smashed up all the duck nests that were there. Miraculously, one of the duck eggs had survived the massacre with only a small crack. It wasnt leaking, so the kids begged her to save it and try to help it hatch. She had never hatched and egg before, and she didnt think she could save it, but the children were already upset because of the nests, so she said yes. That was the start of a remarkable journey that saw the young mother of three carrying a duck egg with her everywhere she went for 35 days. Photo: Betsy Ross/Bored Panda Betsy didnt have an incubator, and after contacting the local wildlife rescue organization, she learned that they didnt take eggs, so she had to find a way to hatch it herself. The best spot she could think of to keep it warm was in her bra, closed to her chest, and after researching how to hatch a duck egg online, she realized that her choice had been perfect, as the eggs basically require warmth and humidity. She also read that she had to rotate it a few times a day. My boobs sweat in heat (gross I know), Ross said in an interview with Bored Panda. I carried it in my bra for 35 days and slept with it there as well. Im a plus size girl so it just kinda fit right between my breasts. Photo: Betsy Ross/Bored Panda Wherever Betsy went, so did the duck egg, and she even slept with it in her bra too. The only time they parted was when she showered. Thats when she would hand it to her husband for a few minutes, figuring that if mother ducks left the nest every once in a while to get food, her egg would survive too. As time went by and the embryo inside the egg grew, Betsy started researching on the internet what to do when a duckling is hatching, and learned that it needed much more humidity, and that she had to stop rotating it. Her bra wouldnt do anymore, so she started a hatching box herself. Photo: Betsy Ross/Bored Panda At 35 days, I started hearing faint peeps which the internet said was called pipping and its beak was pushing out of the lining, the woman said. But things werent as simple as you would think. A day after putting the duck egg in the hatching box, she noticed that something was wrong and called a vet. It turned out that the duckling inside was beingshrink-wrapped in the membrane and she had to peel away the shell and make sure the birds beak was where it could breathe. The little duck eventually got out of the egg, but it was still attached to the yolk on the bottom, which, she was told, was because he had hatched a bit early. She later learned on Reddit that it was either because the incubation temperature was too low, or because the temperature wasnt stable. Photo: Betsy Ross/Bored Panda I got a wet paper towel and wrapped it around the shell with the yolk and put Neosporin on it so it wouldnt get infected. Maybe not the best idea but I was scared, Betsy said. Even after the duckling absorbed the yolk, it was too weak to stand, or even move, for a couple of days, but its human mom didnt give up on it, keeping an eye on it and giving it water from time to time. He (it turned out to be a male) eventually built up the strength to walk and Betsy built him a special carrier and took him everywhere with her. Photo: Betsy Ross/Bored Panda When the duckling was old enough, Betsy called one of her connections at the animal rescue and found him a home at a nearby farm where a young girl couldnt wait to meet him. He is doing well and has a new human girl who loves him, Betsy Ross said. Photo: Betsy Ross/Bored Panda This story sounds remarkably similar to that of Daisy the Duck, whose Malaysian master reportedly hatched her from a restaurant egg that was meant to end up as a snack known as balut. Meiji acquires stake in Japfa's dairy firm Meiji, Japan's dairy giant, has agreed to acquire a 25% stake in Japfa's dairy company, AustAsia Investment Holdings, in a US$254.4-million deal that aims to expand its presence in China's dairy sector. This follows its establishment of Meiji Dairies last year. Meiji said, "In China we are engaged in the milk and yoghurt business, ice cream business and confectionery business, and the businesses are steadily expanding. In particular, the market for chilled milk has been growing significantly mainly in East China due to consumers' preference of the taste of chilled milk and health consciousness." The company added, that in response to the rapid growth of demand for its products, it will expand production capacity of the existing Meiji dairies milk and yoghurt factory in Suzhou from 2021, as well as build another site in Tianjin in H2 2022. Singapore-based Japfa said it will continue to own a 75% stake in AustAsia Investment Holdings and will continue to manage the subsidiary's farming operations in China, where it claims to be one of the leading producers of premium raw milk. As at the end of last year, AustAsia owned about 80,000 head of cattle, five modern dairy farms in Dongying and Shandong, as well as two farms in Chifeng in Inner Mongolia. The deal is expected to be completed by July 2020. Indonesia President Joko Widodo has banned people in the world's most populous Muslim nation from travelling back home to celebrate the Islamic holiday during the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement came amid warnings from health experts of a chance Indonesia will face an outbreak of coronavirus cases that could infect more than a million people following Ramzan, unless the government takes stricter measures in a country home to about 230 million Muslims. Widodo initially just banned nearly 6 million of the country's civil servants, soldiers, police officers and state-owned employees from going on the annual exodus known as mudik to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the dawn-to-sunset fasting during Ramzan. In the annual mass exodus, millions of Indonesians usually cram into trains, ferries, cars and planes, resulting in massive traffic jams and fully booked flights. Last year, about 33 million Indonesians left big cities to visit relatives during the holiday. Widodo said government surveys that showed a risky 24% of people insisted on returning home for the holiday caused him to issue the ban. He asked his administration to prepare measures in enforcing the restriction. As of Monday, the nation had reported at least 6,760 infections including 590 deaths from COVID-19, more fatalities than any Asian country other than China. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Advertisement By The Associated Press May. 20, 2020 | NASHVILLE By The Associated Press May. 20, 2020 | 07:40 AM | NASHVILLE Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Monday that businesses across the majority of the state will begin reopening as early as next week. The Republican governor said his mandatory safer-at-home order will expire on April 30, which will pave the way for 89 out of the states 95 counties to begin opening businesses. However, Lees announcement does not apply to the states counties with the largest cities, including Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Madison, Shelby and Sullivan counties areas that are not overseen by Tennessees Department of Health but have their own public health districts. While I am not extending the safer at home order past the end of April, we are working directly with our major metropolitan areas to ensure they are in a position to reopen as soon and safely as possible, Lee said. Some businesses will be allowed to reopen as early as April 27, but its unclear exactly which ones will be granted such clearance. Lee told reporters that such details would be finalized by his economy recovery team later this week. Most Tennessee state parks will reopen on Friday. Officials in other states are also moving ahead with plans to relax restrictions in coming days: Businesses in Ohio are expected to reopen on May 1. In South Carolina department stores and some other retail businesses that had previously been deemed nonessential would be allowed to reopen on Tuesday, but they must abide by social distancing guidelines. People will also be able to gain access to public beaches on Tuesday. Parts of the Outer Banks of North Carolina are also moving forward with lifting restrictions for entry. In Georgia, gyms and beauty salons can open beginning Friday. Restaurants and theaters will be allowed to reopen on Monday. A few days ago in Texas, non-essential businesses were allowed to begin curbside pickup, and this week hospitals may begin to perform some elective surgeries. More announcements are expected on April 27; Texas hopes to let its stay-at-home order to expire April 30. A man whose gang had allegedly attacked a police team was arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura district on Tuesday, an official said. The accused, Wasim, came here from Rajasthan to meet his family but was nabbed by police near Shani Deo temple in Kosikalan area, said Mathura SP (rural) Shrish Chand. One pistol and a live cartridge was recovered from Wasim, the superintendent of police said. Wasim's gang had attacked a police team on January 28. In the attack, sub-inspector Ajai Awana had sustained injuries and he is undergoing treatment in J P Hospital Noida, the SP said. Police had arrested another member of this gang, identified as Bhuri alias Shahrukh, on Saturday while efforts are on nab the other accused in the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 20-year-old Co. Clare man didnt know who his father was for almost two decades until the two met when they were both behind bars in the last 12 months. That is according to solicitor for the man, Daragh Hassett, who described the circumstances of how the two men met like something from a British soap. At Ennis District Court, Mr Hassett stated that his clients father is well known to the courts and an alcoholic. He said: There was one occasion when my client was in custody and so was his father and that is how they met. Mr Hassett stated his client, before the court where he pleaded guilty to two public order charges, would have seen his father over the years but wouldnt have known he was his father but the connection was made in the last 12 months. He said: It is like something from a British soap - they were trying to rekindle a relationship that never existed through both of them appearing in court at the same time and on various occasions both in custody. Mr Hassett stated that his clients mother is also an addict and he said: It is an awful cycle. I see an awful lot of good in this man, but he needs to deal with his demons. He needs to stop drinking. He has huge anger - a lot of pent-up anger on issues that need to be addressed. The accused man was before the court for telling two gardai in a drunken outburst that they were "dirty paedos" when he was trying to enter a homeless hostel, Laurel Lodge, in Ennis on January 27 last. Sgt Aiden Lonergan told the court that the man told gardai: "Ye see your dirty daughter, Ill rape her. Ye think this is funny? Wait til youre blasted with a AK-47." The man told the court: I apologise to the gardai but I cant remember what I said. Judge Patrick Durcan stated: Your behaviour was terrible. Daragh Hassett said that his client is currently homeless and was brought up in a home "that was essentially a party house. He said: There was heavy drinking, drug abuse. You could say what you wanted and do what you wanted and the gardai were always the enemy and that was the house he grew up in. Mr Hassett stated that his clients mother is volatile and "is a nice woman when she doesnt have drink taken but not so nice when she does have drink". He said that when his client has drink taken, he can be messy and there is a thug in him and the gardai were on the receiving end of it. On the night, he acted out very badly and said things he shouldnt have said. Sgt Lonergan stated that the accused has five previous convictions for public order offences and the man said: I was drunk for every one of those. Judge Durcan remanded the man on bail to appear in court for September 9 and ordered a pre-sentence probation report. Residents in one New York county filed a lawsuit Monday against the WHO, accusing the organization of hiding data on the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News reported. Three residents of Westchester County, considered to be the epicenter of a pandemic in the country, said that WHO was unable to announce the pandemic in time and test Chinas response to the initial outbreak. The plaintiffs demand compensation for damage caused to 756,000 residents of the district. The WHO mishandled and mismanaged the response to the discovery of the coronavirus and upon information and belief, engaged in a cover-up of the COVID- 19 pandemic in China, part of the suit read, according to the New York Post. County residents also believe that WHO was causing and/or contributing to the subsequent spread of the coronavirus all over the world, including to the United States of America and the State of New York. According to them, the organization failed to provide the world with instructions for treating or responding to a pandemic outbreak, including restricting travel and coordinating a global pandemic response, Reuters reported. As Johns Hopkins University reported, 776 COVID-19 deaths as of Monday night. 'During the lockdown if you terminate your employee, then you will face action under the NDMA.' 'This will be the first time something like this will happen in the history of India.' IMAGE: An empty street in New Delhi with all shops shut during the national lockdown. Photograph: Arun Sharma/PTI Photo Advocate Tosif C Shaikh, along with two of his lawyer colleagues -- Rajesh G Inamdar and Amit Pai -- has sent a suo motu legal notice to three software companies warning them of consequences for sending termination notices to many employees and announcing salary cuts for others. Citing the prime minister's appeal to employers not to lay off any employee during the lockdown period, the lawyers sent the legal notices to the companies for issuing termination letters to nearly 100 employees. Shaikh tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com it is illegal for companies to sack employees and added that anyone who who has been sacked during this period can approach them to get justice. You have sent a legal notice to software companies who sacked their employees during the lockdown. Could you please explain why? On March 22, Prime Minister Narendra (Damodardas) Modi called for a nationwide lockdown. At the same time, the ministry of labour and many state governments brought out a government resolution stating that no employer will terminate the services of any person employed by them. However, in this situation many companies in Pune sacked employees and put them on notice period. Now our argument is that when there is an all-India lockdown, how can these people go and apply for jobs? Earning a livelihood is a fundamental right according to the Supreme Court of India and by sacking someone you are snatching away that person's fundamental right. Therefore, we filed this suo motu complaint against these companies. But what locus standi do you have to send a notice to these companies since you do not represent the employees who are sacked? These companies are violating sections 51 and 55 of National Disaster Management Act (external link). One cannot sack employees. Prime Minister Modi requested companies not to sack employees, he didn't order them not to do so. Don't these companies have the legal right to sack an employee? During the lockdown if you terminate your employee, then you will face action under the NDMA. This will be the first time something like this will happen in the history of India. I have issued this notice in the public interest. But many companies don't have money to pay salaries. Therefore, they may be terminating a worker's services. Don't you feel this move from your side looks more a publicity stunt rather than in the public interest? This question is of livelihood. What has publicity got to do with it? I am sure companies can manage (salaries) for one month. If companies sack their employees during this time, where will the employees go? Indirectly, by sacking the employees, you are abetting them to commit suicide. Who will be responsible for that? But the question is, where will the company give money from when they don't have money? The companies must bear losses for their employees. So many years they must have made profits and therefore now they can book losses. How will an employer pay salaries when revenues are nil? Why aren't you looking at this from this perspective? They too have approached the Supreme Court and are challenging the GR (government resolution). Some companies work on a global level and if global companies are not paying, then how can they pay money? They are right from their perspective, but then what do employees do because they are facing the burden of financial hardship? Companies run for profit and they must have made money earlier so they can bear some losses for two or three months. Will you be fine if the companies sack employees after the lockdown? Yes, that is okay because they won't have an option to pay salaries post the lockdown (as they will run out of cash). If a shopping mall is shut, how do you expect people working at the mall to get salaries? There is no business during the lockdown. You made money from that employee for so many years and now you say you cannot pay for two months. We are giving salaries to our maids during the lockdown even if they are on leave. So why can't these shop owners give salaries to their employees for two months? What does the law say about the right to terminate services in the private sector? It all depends on the agreements and contracts between employee and employer. They can get sacked by getting a month's salary or three months's salary. That all depends on the agreement. In these circumstances, I feel the government must intervene between employer and employees because of the lockdown. (I fear) white collar job holders will end up like unpaid labourers. What has been the reply from the software companies to whom you sent notices? Some of them have come forward and stated that they are now ready to pay the salaries of those employees they sacked during the lockdown. Some of them are also ready to withdraw their termination notices to the employees sent during the lockdown period. What are the rights of employees at this time? No employer must terminate employment during the lockdown and that is stated in the government circular. The Maharashtra government has issued a circular even to landlords that they must not take rents for three months. A recent news report stated that two airlines have asked their employees to go on leave without pay during the lockdown. Can they do that? It is illegal. The airlines cannot do that. Great Britain has begun a coronavirus job retention scheme. Is an option similar to that possible in India? Yes, that is the best option. All over the world countries like America and Britain are spending around 8 to 10 per cent of their GDP on coronavirus (economy protection measures). In India we are spending just above 1 per cent of GDP (economy protection measures). It is too less. SS White/SHUKLA Medical headquarters in Seminole/St. Petersburg, FL Thank you, S.S. White, said Scott Talcott, Pinellas County is fortunate to have generous and nimble manufacturers like you. A local manufacturing company in Seminole/St. Petersburg has shown its creative and fighting spirits by setting up a quick production line to make face masks and distribute them free of cost. S.S. White Technologies makes components for aircraft systems. Its parts are used in 95% of all the airplanes in the world. Its subsidiary, SHUKLA Medical, manufactures orthopedic instruments. The companies operated in New Jersey for decades, but in 2018 purchased a manufacturing building from eyeglass manufacturer Essilor off of Park Street in Seminole and relocated their entire operation to sunny Florida. Its 125 employees have known S.S. White for its progressive management and its family-like environment. And its no wonder. The owner, president of this historical company (it was founded in 1844) was hired as a factory worker 47 years ago. Then, 32 years ago, the worker purchased the factory and became the president of the company. President Rahul Shukla says, I have never forgotten my roots and I think of every employee as a member of my family. The management stayed a step ahead of the worsening crisis of COVID-19. When the total cases reached only 4,000, Mr. Shukla called a general meeting and told all employees that things will get much worse soon. Three weeks ago, the management rearranged the work spaces to create a minimum of six feet of distance between workstations. They allowed non-manufacturing workers to work from home, broke a single shift into three shifts and announced an appreciation bonus of $30 per day for all production workers. The company quickly changed all faucets and fixtures in all the restrooms so that employees do not need to touch handles, faucets or towel dispensers. The company installed foot pedals on the doors so employees do not have to touch the door handles. They revised their badge reader system, which allows employees to clock in and out, to be hands-free through their proprietary software. They installed additional hand sanitizers and purchased a large supply of disposable gloves. Purchasing the masks proved to be a problem. Amazon did not have them, eBay did not have them. The management knew if the governor issued a stay-at-home order, the company would be required to stay open because they manufacture critical aerospace and automotive parts as well as medical products. Therefore, it was important to have face masks for the protection of employees who need to come to work. It soon became evident that masks were not available and it would not be fair to compete for masks with medical professionals who need them more. Rather than throw his hands up in despair, the president of S.S. White called the head of operations and HR Manager and said, "Our engineers can design intricate medical instruments and aerospace parts. Why can't they quickly design washable cloth masks?" VP, Subra Naglapura, agreed. HR Manager, Sheryl Sheppard, was asked to head the project. Design Engineer, Brian Servedio, whose expertise is in making metal instruments to extract worn out orthopedic implants, got on his CAD software and started cranking out designs. It took only a half-day to come up with a design for a washable, reusable mask with creative nuances. In the meantime, Ms. Sheppard sent an email to employees asking for workers who wanted to work on this project. She was looking for three people; fifteen came forward to work on the project. Drawings, Work Instructions and Bill of Materials were prepared in hours. Rahul Shukla instructed the team to obtain as much raw material and machinery as possible. Orders were placed for sewing machines, fabric, thread, labels, and filtering material. Templates and toolings were quickly designed. The company is well versed in expediting how to get raw material in a matter of days. Most material was received the next day. Mr. Rahul Shukla had thrown the challenge to his team on Thursday, April 2, to design the masks and set up production lines. On the afternoon of Monday, April 6, five production lines were up and running in the cafeteria. The masks will be supplied at no cost, first to their 125 employees, then for the employees immediate families, then to any local medical organization that requests it, and then for employees of other local manufacturers. "We know how to design and manufacture complex aerospace and medical parts. Making masks is child's play for our team", said VP Subra Naglapura. Sheryl Sheppard, the project leader said, everyone on the mask team, (she calls them Mask-ateers) is excited to be contributing to this huge crisis in our small way." When Mayor of Seminole, Leslie Waters learned about S.S. Whites efforts, she said, S.S. White is to be lauded for their efforts. My personal compliment to Mr. Shukla, S.S. White President, a true leader in our community. Scott Talcott of Pinellas County Economic Development asked Ms. Sheppard if S.S. White can make a few more masks for workers of another local manufacturer, National Molding. National Molding makes seals for a possible vaccine for COVID-19. They also fill, and seal flu reagent vials. When Sheppard told Talcott and Doug Storey of National that S.S. White was more than happy to help, they were thrilled. Thank you, S.S. White, said Scott Talcott, Pinellas County is fortunate to have generous and nimble manufacturers like you. For more information or to contact our HR Manager, Sheryl Sheppard, call (727) 626-2831 or email at Sheryl@sswhite.net. Click on the links to learn more about S.S. White Technologies Inc. and/or SHUKLA Medical. Fifty years on, Earth Day is still observed, but it no longer carries the force or attracts the attention of the first one. Thats partly because it helped to bring so much progress. The environmental threats we face today are harder to see and understand than the ones that aggrieved Americans in 1970. But the success of the steps taken in the subsequent years proved there could be less conflict between material progress and safeguarding the planet. Unlike mainland China, the three countries and territory did not lock down their economies and populations. The Chinese model, also adopted by Italy, could have serious economic repercussions. The speed of intervention, a good healthcare system, and a cooperative population favoured success in the three democracies. Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are winning the fight against coronavirus without resorting to a strict lockdown. Unlike mainland China, but also some Western countries, the governments of the three countries and territory did not halt economic activities, and have not excessively limited the freedom of movement of their citizens. Since the pandemic crisis broke out in January, Taiwanese, South Koreans and Hong Kongers have been able to go out. Whilst in Europe and the United States there is still a debate as to whether or not to open public places, bars and restaurants in South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan continue to operate. The only real constraint for their populations is wearing protective masks and gloves, and respect social distancing. So far, this has worked. All three have seen the number of new cases drop. Hong Kong did not report any cases yesterday; Taiwan had two; South Korea, 13. Overall numbers also remain low, which is leading to further easing of restrictions. Countries like Italy that adopted Chinas draconian approach have experienced serious economic repercussions. South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are considered more "democratic". The value of their policies is even greater if we take into account that all three share common elements. Speed of action is the key to their success, boosted by the excellence of their respective health systems. The three countries and territory quickly closed the borders with China, the epicentre of the pandemic, imposing strict quarantine measures for those entering their territory. Health authorities also launched mass testing to identify infected people, and map all their contacts with others. All this was favoured by government transparency with the authorities keeping citizens regularly informed of developments. According to many observers, the active cooperation of the affected populations also contributed decisively to the containment of the epidemic. The large turnout at polling stations in South Korea on 15 April, in compliance with the health standards established by the government, is a concrete example. Now however, many in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong fear that improved conditions may lead people to let their guard down, creating the possibility of a new wave of infections. For this reason, the three governments remain on high alert. Taiwan even simulated an emergency with 500 new cases in a single day, followed by the rapid introduction of a more aggressive lockdown. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) The Department of Health on Tuesday said the 43 Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) personnel who tested positive for COVID-19 did not contract the viral disease from processing test samples. Sinisigurado po ng kagawaran na mahigpit pong sinusunod ng mga empleyado ng RITM ang lahat ng infection prevention and control protocols at hindi po nakuha ang virus mula sa pagpoproseso ng kanilang mga tests, DOH Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said during a virtual press briefing. [Translation: The department assures that RITM employees strictly follow all infection prevention and control protocols and they did not get the virus from processing test samples.] She also said they have issued stricter guidelines to prevent further infections. Vergeire said they continue to test and trace close contacts of the sick RITM staff to determine how they got infected in the first place. She had earlier told CNN Philippines that an initial report shows that employees caught the virus in their communities when they went out after their shifts. Vergeire added that of the 43 RITM staff who tested positive, two are aged 60 and above. Elderly people are considered to be at a higher risk for fatal complications due to COVID-19. RITM scaled down test processing operations to give way to the implementation of safety measures, with the countrys leading COVID-19 testing center only able to process 1,200 tests per day. The Health department said its testing capacity will increase to 2,000 a day by Saturday. To ease RITMs backlog, some samples have been sent to other accredited COVID-19 testing labs like St. Lukes Medical Center, The Medical City, Makati Medical Center, Chinese General Hospital and Detoxicare Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory. RITM's priority is processing the test results of all its employees, but it continues to accept samples from Muntinlupa, Paranaque, Las Pinas, and Pasay City. Sinisigurado po namin na hindi maantala ang ating mga resulta, lalong-lalo na pot ginagawa natin ang expanded testing sa ngayon," Vergeire said. "Inaasahan po natin na makakahabol po tayo sa mga backlog sa katapusan ng buwan na ito." [Translation: We are making sure that our results will not be delayed, especially now that we have expanded testing. We expect to catch up with our backlog by the end of the month.] By PTI NEW DELHI: Providing a relaxation in compliance requirements, the government has given time till September-end for a certain section of companies to conduct their annual general meetings. The relaxed deadline would be applicable only for companies whose financial year ended on December 2019, the corporate affairs ministry said on Tuesday, amid the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide lockdown. Under the Companies Act, 2013, companies have to hold their Annual General Meetings (AGMs) within nine months from the end of their financial year. The ministry said it has received several representations from stakeholders with regard to difficulty in holding AGMs for companies whose financial year ended on December 31, 2019, due to COVID-19 related social distancing norms and consequential restrictions. "...if the companies whose financial year (other than first financial year) has ended on December 31, 2019, hold their AGM for such financial year within a period of nine months from the closure of the financial year (ie.by 30th September 2020), the same shall not be viewed as a violation," it said in a circular. According to the ministry, a company can hold its AGM within six months from the closure of the financial year and not later 15 months from the date of last AGM. If it is the first AGM, then a company can conduct the same within nine months from the end of a fiscal. Earlier this month, the ministry allowed companies to send notices for extraordinary general meetings through e-mails to shareholders. This facility would also be applicable to companies planning to transact business only through postal ballot without convening a general meeting. The ministry has already permitted corporates to hold extraordinary general meetings and board meetings through video conferences and to seek approval for proposals through an electronic voting facility. These measures have been taken in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 18:58:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HAIKOU, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Hanging an iron wire-made birdcage on his safety belts, Wu Yufeng climbed up 36-meter-high pylons, fixed a cage on the top and then put a bird's nest into the cage. Wu, who works with China Southern Power Grid branch company in south China's Hainan Province, has installed about 60 artificial nests in recent three years. "We've just placed another six nests, one of which has five eggs in it," said Wu, noting that bird eggs or fledglings were often found in the nests because it was the breeding season for birds, so they had to be very careful with the nests. To allow birds and cables to co-exist in harmony, Hainan Power Grid Company changed its traditional way of repelling birds and has been attracting and protecting birds by offering homes for them. About 3,000 artificial nests have been installed on the transmission lines over the past three years. With a mild climate, Hainan is a paradise for birds. Especially from March to July each year, the breeding season for birds, a large number of birds nest and lay eggs. As the transmission lines usually pass through wetlands, ponds and fields where birds flock, electricity pylons become their ideal places to nest. When the birds build nests, the twigs and other stuff they are carrying are easy to touch the wires and cause circuit failures, which can impose a great challenge to line maintenance. "We used to install devices to repel birds through ultrasonic waves and spikes, or just remove the nests. However, they did not really work, and birds were frequently got injured or even killed by the spikes," said Gao Yisong, an employee with the company. Gao said sometimes new nests were built two or three days right after the original ones were removed, and workers had to play cat and mouse with the birds. Why not offering new homes to birds in safe places if they cannot be stopped from nesting? After observation and research, the company began to choose certain areas to install artificial nests on transmission lines and attract birds to settle down. The artificial nests are made of stainless steel wires or iron wires that are anti-corrosion and aging resistant. "We moved the existing nests into the artificial ones and fix them in safe places on the towers, and then guide birds to perch or breed, "said Gao. "In 2017, we selected four lines for the pilot application. After four months of observation, no trip-out caused by birds nesting was reported," said Gao. More than 70 percent of artificial nests were inhabited in recent three years, said Jiang Qing with the company, noting that short circuits caused by birds have reduced from 12.2 percent in 2017 to 6.9 percent last year. "The power grid has become safer and more stable, and birds have been getting less hurt around the pylons," said Jiang. The company plans to install about 1,000 artificial nests this year to enhance the effect. "From driving birds away to attracting and protecting birds, the company's move has contributed to the ecological balance and protection," said Lu Gang, the director of Haikou Duotan Wetlands Institute. Hainan has been striving to build itself into a pilot national ecological zone. The local power grid company is cooperating with experts to research the migration routes and distribution of birds, to protect birds while reducing birds' damages, and make more significant contributions to the island. Enditem A Chinese captain and crew of a cargo ship pled guilty to attempted murder after they jettisoned two Tanzanian stowaways they suspected might have the coronavirus into a river where man-eating sharks prey on humans.The cargo ship had arrived at Durban harbor from Singapore; while it was at rest the stowaways, Amiri Salamu, 20 and Hassani Rajabu, 30, climbed the anchor chain to board the ship, according to The Daily Mail . On March 26 the ship sailed; the next day out on the ocean the stowaways were found on the main deck. They reportedly would not say where they had come from, prompting the crew to worry they carried the coronavirus and thus isolating the two men while they pondered what to do.National Police Authority spokesperson Natasha Cara stated,She added,The Chinese captain of the MV Top Grace, Cui Rongli, and the crew built a raft of plywood, plastic drums and rope, then reportedly gave each of the men two bottles of water and a life jacket but no food before they were told to use their hands as paddles as they were ejected from the ship.When the MV Top Grace docked at Richards Bay, the African Maritime Safety Agency impounded the ship and Rongli was arrested. He and five other crew members pled guilty on April 18 to attempted murder. The Daily Mail noted,Defense lawyer Willie Lombard insisted,Rongli was fined roughly $5,400 and each crew member roughly $2,700 in a plea bargain agreement; Rongli was fined $2,700 more for misconduct and roughly $540 for not reporting the stowaways. Dispatch Live reported that Kara stated of the captain and crew, "They were handed over to immigration officials after paying their fines." The Weija police have arrested a 26-year-old man for stealing a car at West Hills Mall in Accra. The suspect identified as Samuel Klutse, stole the car at the parking space of the Mall while the owner went shopping. The Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Effia Tenge, told DGN online that the Weija police arrested the suspect on April 19, around 2pm along the Bortianor Road. She said the complainant, who is a car dealer, reported to the Weija police that he received a call from the suspect that he was interested in buying the vehicle which is a Toyota Yaris with registration number GR8 3022-19 which was being offered for sale. She said the two agreed to meet at the West Hills Mall for Klutse to inspect the car before buying. "The complainant said when he got to the mall, he called the phone number of suspect several times but he refused to answer. DSP Tenge continued that the complainant parked the vehicle at the car park and entered the mall to buy a few things. On his return from the Mall, the complainant realised the car had been taken away and quickly called the police emergency lines for assistance. The PRO said with the assistance of the Weija patrol team, the suspect was arrested along the Bortianor -Kokrobite road with the car. She revealed that the suspect was still in the custody of the police awaiting prosecution. ---Daily Guide Confusion after Trump, without giving details, says he will temporarily suspend immigration due to coronavirus. United States President Donald Trump caused confusion and anger after saying in a late-night Monday tweet that he will temporarily suspend immigration due to the coronavirus pandemic. Referring to the coronavirus, or the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, Trump tweeted that he will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! The president offered no other details at the time. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany issued a statement on Tuesday morning echoing Trumps past comments about immigration. At a time when Americans are looking to get back to work, action is necessary, she said. Later on Tuesday, Trump confirmed the order would last 60 days and apply narrowly to those seeking permanent immigration status. He said there would be exemptions, but did not elaborate. Trump added that other actions were being considered, but he remained focused on the initial order, which he said he would probably sign on Wednesday. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 The US has already effectively halted most immigration. Due to the pandemic, almost all visa processing by the State Department, including immigrant visas, has been suspended for weeks. The US has also suspended the refugee programme, and is turning back all undocumented migrants and asylum seekers who attempt to cross the border between official ports of entry. Trump has taken credit for his restrictions on travel to the US from China and hard-hit European countries, arguing the restrictions contributed to slowing the spread of the virus in the US. But he has not extended those restrictions to other nations now experiencing virus outbreaks. It is also unclear what effect those restrictions have had, with critics pointing out that the curbs had exemptions that allowed travel from those effected countries to continue for some. Scapegoating Democrats, immigration lawyers and advocates immediately slammed Trumps Monday announcement, saying his proposed executive order amounts to xenophobic scapegoating. From the beginning Trump has flailed about seeking someone to blame for his own failure. Obama. Governors. China. Speaker Pelosi. People of Asian descent, tweeted Virginia Democrat Don Beyer before details began to emerge about the proposed ban. Immigration has nearly stopped and the US has far more cases than any other country, he said. This is just xenophobic scapegoating. From the beginning Trump has flailed about seeking someone to blame for his own failure. Obama. Governors. China. Speaker Pelosi. People of Asian descent. Immigration has nearly stopped and the US has far more cases than any other country. This is just xenophobic scapegoating. https://t.co/hurkmuvlvg Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) April 21, 2020 American Gateways, a Texas-based immigration rights organisation, said stopping immigration to the US is xenophobic and ignorant and is being used to scapegoat immigrants. Policies to lessen the impacts of the COVID-19 in the US should be based in science and public health, and not used to scapegoat an entire group, Rebecca Lightsey, executive director of American Gateways, said in a statement. Immigration lawyer Charles Kuck said on Twitter that he had received calls and emails from several clients trying to figure out if their wife, husband, mom, dad, doctor, nurse, accountant, farmworker, etc are going to be barred from coming into the US while Trump remains President. Lots of clients calling, emailing, texting, and tweeting this am trying to figure out if their wife, husband, mom, dad, doctor, nurse, accountant, farmworker, etc are going to be barred from coming into the US while Trump remains President. Charles Kuck (@ckuck) April 21, 2020 A distraction Critics say Trumps expected move effectively achieves a long-term Trump policy goal to curb immigration, making use of the health and economic crisis that has swept the country as a result of the pandemic to do so. Trump, elected in 2016 in part on his vow to stamp out irregular immigration, had staked his re-election in November on the strength of a US economy now sapped by the economic shutdown to stop the pandemic. He has since been pressing for states to begin easing restrictions that have left a record 22 million people seeking unemployment benefits. It makes sense to protect opportunities for our workforce while this pandemic plays out, said Thomas Homan, Trumps former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Its really not about immigration. Its about the pandemic and keeping our country safer while protecting opportunities for unemployed Americans. But others online accused Trump of distracting from what they call the failures of the US response to the coronavirus. Trump was accused of initially downplaying the gravity of the virus and the US faced testing complications. The US has by far the worlds largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 43,900 deaths and 816,000 infections as of Monday. [Trump] is trying to distract from 42,500 Americans dead and counting! Dont fall for it! activist Amy Siskind tweeted early on Tuesday. Trumps shiny coins to distract from coronavirus mishandling: *Monday-absolute authority *Tues-defund WHO *Wedn-adjourn Senate *Thurs-reopen plan *Fri-liberate *Monday-ban immigrants He is trying to distract from 42,500 Americans dead and counting! Dont fall for it! Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) April 21, 2020 Trumps proposed executive order will likely face legal challenges. Our nation faces an extraordinary health crisis at this time, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) tweeted. Xenophobia and racism are not the answer. On March 19, the company told its employees that they would have the three weeks of flex time, but suggested salaried workers could use it to work remotely. There may be times when you are using this special time but still have capacity to work remotely, Spectrum said in a memo to the staff. We certainly encourage and appreciate that; we need you now more than ever. In other memos to various Spectrum departments, the company said that roughly 60 percent of call center workers would still need to go to the office, and that people in management roles would be expected in their usual workplaces. Spectrum has further revised its policy on working remotely since then, said Ms. Blanchard, the company spokeswoman, so that a significant majority of office and call center employees are now doing their jobs from home. She would not specify how many are working remotely or when that shift had happened. The changes have not fully addressed the concerns of rank-and-file employees and executives, some of whom have said that Spectrum was still not doing enough to protect its workers, according to the person with knowledge of the company. As of Monday, nearly 8,000 people had signed a petition on the website Change.org demanding that more Spectrum employees be allowed to work from home. The petition was posted last month by a person identifying as a worker at the company. Our families at home are under mental agony, thinking of us getting exposed to virus at work, the petitioner wrote under the name Johnny E. A little flexibility working during this time really helps all. The work we do can be done remotely without any obstacles. We do on-call and work through the nights from home all the time. I do not see a reason why we cannot work remotely during these difficult times. Jeanine Ramirez, an anchor at NY1, Spectrums local news channel in New York City, said in an interview that the company should allow more employees to work remotely. NEW DELHI (AP) India recorded its biggest single-day spike in coronavirus cases on Monday as the government eased one of the world's strictest lockdowns to allow some manufacturing and agricultural activity to resume. An additional 1,553 cases were reported over 24 hours, raising the national total past 17,000. At least 543 people have died from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, and epidemiologists forecast the peak may not be reached before June. The shelter-in-place orders imposed in India on March 24 halted all but essential services, sparking an exodus of migrant workers and people who survive on daily wages out of India's cities and toward villages in rural areas. Authorities picked up travelers in a fleet of buses and quarantined many of them in empty schools and other public buildings for 14 days. Starting Monday, limited industry and farming were allowed to resume where employers could meet social distancing and hygiene norms, and migrant workers were allowed to travel within states to factories, farms and other work sites. In the event a group of migrants wish to return to their places of work within the state where they are presently located, they would be screened and those who are asymptomatic would be transported to their respective places of work, Indias home ministry said in a letter to state governments. However, government surveys in the central Indian state of Maharashtra, the worst-hit by the virus, have suggested few companies eligible to restart operations can do so because they are required to transport and shelter workers as a virus-prevention measure. While a partial lifting of a curfew permitted the restart of coal plants and oil refineries, animal feed and agro-industry, and other labor-intensive manufacturing such as brick kilns, much of the country remained under lockdown. India's airspace was closed to commercial traffic, its passenger rail system, buses and metros were halted, e-commerce was restricted to food and other essentials, and schools, stadiums and houses of worship remained closed until May 3. Story continues India is also continuing to ramp up testing, build up stocks of ventilators and personal protective equipment and prepare makeshift isolation wards and dedicated COVID-19 hospitals. In Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra and home to Asia's largest slum, city authorities were planning to administer hydroxycloroquine to thousands of slum-dwellers over 14 days to gauge whether the drug helped to slow the spread of the disease in a place where social distancing norms aren't possible to achieve. It was unclear how many people would participate in the experiment, or when it would begin. President Donald Trump has touted the malaria drug to treat COVID-19, though its efficacy against the disease is unproven. A 40-year-old man facing extradition to the UK on 39 charges of manslaughter and a charge of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration has been remanded in custody at the High Court in Dublin. Ronan Hughes, 40, from Silverstream, Tyholland in Co Monaghan, was detained on Monday following the execution of a European Arrest Warrant in the Irish Republic. He faces 39 charges of manslaughter and a charge of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration in connection with the deaths of 39 migrants found in a refrigerated lorry container in Essex. Police activity in 2019 at the Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, Essex (Aaron Chown/PA) Essex Police said in a statement that the UKs Crown Prosecution Service had authorised manslaughter charges against him and immigration offences. Hughes will apply for bail next Wednesday and has been remanded in custody until then. His extradition hearing is due to be held in Dublin on May 1. Hughes said nothing during the short hearing in Dublins Central Criminal Court on Tuesday morning apart from thank you judge. Judge Paul Burns said he considered the warrant to have been duly executed and was satisfied the person in court is the person it had been issued for. He said Mr Hughes had been informed of his rights to surrender to the request to be extradited. The 39 Vietnamese nationals were found in a lorry container parked on an industrial estate in Grays on October 23 last year. Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Maurice Robinson (Elizabeth Cook/PA) On April 8, Maurice Robinson, 25, of Craigavon in Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter at the Old Bailey in London. He previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property at the same court on November 25. He is due to be sentenced at a later date. In February, Eamonn Harrison, of Mayobridge, Northern Ireland, was granted permission to appeal against his extradition to the UK under the terms of a European Arrest Warrant issued by Essex Police. The 22-year-old is facing 39 manslaughter charges, one of human trafficking and one of assisting unlawful immigration. A further hearing in Harrisons case will be held in Dublin on May 7. HARRISBURG The unparalleled decision a month ago to close the state-owned stores that sell nearly all of Pennsylvanias liquor and much of its wine prompted some people to drive across state lines to stock up, risking a misdemeanor charge. Although Ohio, West Virginia and Delaware have cracked down, vehicles with Pennsylvania tags continue to crowd liquor store parking lots in New York, New Jersey and Maryland border towns amid continuing restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf began closing businesses in March, and the Liquor Control Board, after consulting with him, soon shut down its retail outlets. Many liquor cabinets are running low and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Boards pivot to online sales has been, for most, an exercise in frustration in a state of nearly 13 million people. Most people dont have a large store of liquor in their house. For one thing, its expensive, said alcohol writer Lew Bryson, of Langhorne. I think people are running out of their daily drink, and thats putting the pressure on. A couple weeks after the outlets closed, the liquor board restarted its meager online sales system, ramping up this past week by bringing back some workers to fill boxes for home delivery. Before the pandemic, the state liquor board did about 180,000 daily transactions, but as workers began returning, it had only been able to fill more than 4,000 online orders a day. On Saturday, the board announced 175 of the nearly 600 stores will begin taking orders by phone starting Monday for curbside service, with each customer limited to six bottles. The month of relative sobriety has reinvigorated the perpetual debate over the states Depression-era liquor store system. Pennsylvania has about six liquor stores compared to 20 for typical control states for every 100,000 adults, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. States without government control systems have about 35 stores per 100,000 adults. I think without intending to, the governor just reopened the privatization discussion, said state Rep. Jeff Pyle, an Armstrong County Republican who chairs the House Liquor Control Committee. He said people are angry. They walk up to that store, they see all those bottles and they want to know why they cant have them, Pyle said. The liquor board is an independent agency, but its three members include Wolfs former chief of staff, Mary Isenhour, and former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, whom Wolf elevated as chair. You can say this is on (the) PLCB, but lets not debate whos driving the boat. This is Wolfs show, Pyle said. David Ozgo, an economist with the Distilled Spirits Council, said Pennsylvania has options that would help it get much more revenue coming in. You dont have to open all your stores. Try opening half of them, Ozgo said. Then you can use those other employees to make sure things stay clean, and monitor people as they come into the stores. Liquor system spokeswoman Elizabeth Brassell said the sharp drop in cash flow has been an issue, but the board is in no immediate danger of running out of money. Were exploring options for additional revenue generation and pursuing conversations with the Wolf Administration, Treasury and legislative leadership to ensure operations may continue through the ongoing public health crisis, she said. Distilleries have been allowed to continue production and sales, although some report their inventory is rapidly drying up. Retail beer outlets have remained open during the shutdown of what were deemed non-life-sustaining businesses, and Pennsylvanias breweries and wineries are also able to sell to the public. Workers at the Zelienople-based ShuBrew microbrewery pulled an all-nighter to retool its website and operations. Owner Zachary Shumaker said the 25-employee business went to online ordering and curbside pickup. Trivia night was also moved online. At Maggies Farm Rum Distillery in Pittsburgh, sales started slow but have now seriously drained inventory. Owner Tim Russell said he was compelled to purchase rum in bulk from a Virgin Islands producer to rebrand, bottle and sell. He plans to donate a portion of those proceeds to the pandemic response. The revenues been great but its just not sustainable, Russell said. So at some point were going to have to stop selling rum. Drinkers other options have been limited. In Claymont, Delaware, state police set up a checkpoint to screen out-of-state drivers near a large liquor store. In Freeland, Maryland, customers from Pennsylvania crowded an understaffed liquor store, raising concerns about COVID-19 transmission. And in Kirkwood, New York, all seven vehicles in a liquor store parking lot Thursday afternoon sported Pennsylvania plates. Pennsylvania State Police spokesman Ryan Tarkowski said troopers have only charged one person with violating the prohibition against transporting alcohol across state lines in the past month. We are focused on voluntary compliance not on getting people unnecessarily involved in the legal system during this time, Tarkowski said. State police say crimes of all sorts have plummeted during the past month, including a roughly 75% drop in DUI arrests. Deb Beck, an advocate who has worked in drug and alcohol treatment for decades, said she was concerned that some with alcohol use disorder may end up cut off from a liquor source and unable to find their way to treatment or detox under medical supervision. People can get in very serious trouble in a hurry, said Beck, president of the Drug and Alcohol Service Providers Organization of Pennsylvania. I suspect that may be an issue, particularly for people who are down and out. The coronavirus outbreak and the lockdown ahead of Akshaya Tritiya is a credit negative for the gold jewellery retail industry in the short term, according to ICRA Mumbai: The coronavirus outbreak and the lockdown ahead of Akshaya Tritiya is a credit negative for the gold jewellery retail industry in the short term, according to ICRA. Gold jewellery buying is considered auspicious during Akshaya Tritiya, which falls in the last week of April this year. Over the last two years, the domestic gold jewellery retail industry has been affected by factors like weak consumer demand amid slowing economic growth, rapid rise in gold prices and faltering rural output, regulatory policy interventions and cautious lending environment, ICRA said in a report. Given this background, the widened outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdown, ahead of the critical Akshaya Tritiya season is a credit negative for the gold jewellery retail industry in the short-term, it added. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak The lockdown has resulted in closure of retail stores across the country. Besides there has been supply chain disruption with restriction on movement of non-essential goods, ICRA added. As the stores are currently non-operational and recovery in demand is likely to be slow and gradual given that jewellery is a non-essential product and consumers typically defer their discretionary spends, jewellery retailers shall witness sharp moderation in footfalls over the next few months. Especially, sales during Akshaya Tritiya, which falls in the last week of April 2020, shall witness considerable impact, ICRA Vice President K Srikumar said. In addition to industry revenues being impacted, relatively stable fixed costs in the form of employee payouts and rentals shall affect the earning profile of the retailers, he pointed out. Any invocation of force majeure clauses given the above adverse impact in the rental agreements remains to be seen. Nevertheless, over the long term, gold jewellery demand shall continue to benefit from the cultural underpinnings, evolving lifestyle, growing disposable income, favourable demographic dividend and the growing penetration of organised sector, he added. Home-working King Willem-Alexander has revealed he gives a photograph with Queen Elizabeth pride of place in his study. King Willem of the Netherlands, 52, shared a glimpse inside his home office at the Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague yesterday. And the photographs revealed several personal snaps from past visits to the UK, including one of the couple during a trip to the Royal Ascot and another with the Queen, 93, ahead of the Order of the Garter Service in 2019. Meanwhile photographs of Queen Maxima's, 48, office revealed a glamorous and trendy room with an enormous monchrome mural covering the walls. King WIllem-Alexander, 52, shared a glimpse inside his home office as he works from home amid the coronavirus pandemic, revealing he keeps a photograph with Queen Elizabeth, 93, in his study The Dutch royal can be seen posing alongside his wife Queen Maxima, 48, and the Queen in the photograph, which was taken ahead of the Order of the Garter service at St George's Chapel last year In another photograph on display in his office, King Willem and Queen Maxima can be seen enjoying a day out at the Royal Ascot King Willem posed for snaps as he undertook royal duty from his study in his home yesterday. On the huge wooden bookshelf behind him were an array of personal family photographs, including a snap of his wife Maxima and a shot of the couple cuddling up with their children Princess Alexia, Catharina-Amalia and Princess Ariane. Another personal photograph appears to show a black-and-white baby photograph of one of his daughters, while a fourth appears to pay tribute to his parents. But the snaps also revealed an affection for the UK, with King Willem featuring two photographs from his trip to Britain last year. In the photographs, which were shared yesterday, Prince Willem-Alexander can be seen conducting video calls from his office from his home One of the photographs shows King Willem and Queen Maxima laughing together while attending the Royal Ascot as guests of Queen Elizabeth last June. And another shot shows the couple posing alongside the Queen as she awards King Willem with a Supernumerary Knight of the Garter. The event, which took place last June, is a special honour reserved only for foreign royals at the prestigious annual Order of the Garter service. The Order of the Garter is a a 700-year tradition founded by Edward III in 1348, and recognises contributions of great public service from those honoured - usually Lords and Ladies of the UK. The King's trendy home office was renovated as part of the 63 million (54.96 million) renovation works Although the Order has a limit of 24 members, excluding The Queen and Prince Charles, foreign royals have been given honorary 'Stranger Knight' status since 1813, with controversial recipients over the years including Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany before World War I. While King Willem's office is packed full of family photographs, Queen Maxima's appears slightly more stripped back from personal belongings. In photographs released of the Queen working from home, she can be seen chatting on a video call while in a trendy and modern room decorated with a monochrome wallpaper. The carpet, chairs and elegant desk are all coloured in a rich, royal blue. Meanwhile snaps of Queen Maxima's home office reveal a trendy black and white monochrome wallpaper Meanwhile the shelves of the bookshelf are a golden yellow colour, matching her gold lamp and a gold sculpture on the Queen's desk. The couple's palace in The Hague has only recently been refurbished due to structural issues. Renovations, which finished last year, took five years and cost 63 million (54.96 million). It's Mitt Romney from Utah, who voted to convict Trump on one count of abuse of power during his impeachment trial. Duckworth and Durbin are among 13 Democratic senators asked to serve on the task force, which has been named the Opening Up America Again Congressional Group. In the House, a mix of 32 Democrat and Republican representatives were invited to participate. "We had the conference call with the president; it went on for an hour," Durbin said. "The highest priority we identified was more testing equipment. We cannot reach the point where we know how bad this virus is or how well we are doing with it until we test more people." Durbin said another conference call took place Friday morning between Vice President Mike Pence and senators on the task force during which they emphasized the importance of testing. EAST LONGMEADOW The Cartamundi plant here and its workers usually makes classic games like Monopoly and Trouble and churn out canisters of Play-Doh, all for toy giant Hasbro. But today theyre making personal protection equipment, manufacturing 50,000 plastic face shields per week, for donation to local hospitals during this COVID-19 pandemic. The project is a partnership between Rhode Island-based Hasbro and global card-and-game company Cartamundi, which owns popular playing card brands like Bee as well as the factory . U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, visited the plant Tuesday for a private tour with Cartamundi Executive Vice President Phillip Wauters. He said he plans to return with Gov. Charlie Baker on Saturday. The Springfield Democrat stressed the need for PPE equipment and increased testing so the economy can successfully reopen. Testing is so important. People need that confidence before they can go back to work, Neal said. This (equipment) will help with that. The plant, built from 1963 to 1965 by the former Milton Bradley Co., was sold from Rhode Island-based Hasbro to Belgian game and card manufacturer Cartamundi in 2015 . Caratamundi isnt the only local manufacturer to convert at least part of its operations to PPE. Universal Plastics in Holyoke is making face shields and acrylic intubation boxes. Smith & Wesson makes face shields both at its Springfield plant and its plastics factory in Deep River, Connecticut. But the sprawling 1.2-million-square-foot plant in this industrial park only has 25 employees working right now making the masks. That's well below the more than 500 employees normally at the plant, a number that includes 300 production workers but not 100-or-so temporary workers who often transition to full-time status. We want to get back to making toys and games, said Gary Brennan, vice president of operations for Cartamundi East Longmeadow. And Cartamundis customer, Hasbro, wants to start making games, said Kathrin P. Belliveau, senior vice president of global government affairs and corporate social responsibility, and Tom Courtney, executive vice president of and chief global operations officer. After all, folks are home right now looking for something to do. They might want to play Monopoly, Sorry! or Clue. The company is happy to protect lives, but it wants to get back to making Life. Cartamundi is taking precautions to prevent the spread of disease and build confidence. "We've already started," Brennan said. "You wouldn't recognize our operations." There are contamination shields on production lines, he said. The staff has been broken up into teams, each with its own specific areas of the plant, entrances, restrooms, and other facilities. The populations dont mix. Reporters on Tuesday's tour, and Neal himself, had to have their temperatures taken before entering the plant. Hasbros purpose is to make families lives, childrens lives better, Courtney said. Play is important. Beirut (AFP) - Lebanon's parliament voted to legalise growing marijuana for medical use on Tuesday, amid an economic crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The lawmakers met in a 1,000 seat conference hall to maintain appropriate social distancing, while outside anti-government protesters demonstrated in a vehicle convoy. As the country struggles with a battered economy, MPs also approved the re-allocation of $40 million from a World Bank loan to help fight COVID-19, which has officially infected 677 people and killed 21 nationwide. Outside the venue, dozens of demonstrators sought to revive a massive anti-government protest movement that had rocked Lebanon from October, before the virus forced a nationwide shutdown. They drove a noisy convoy of cars covered in slogans, drivers honking their horns and passengers brandishing the national flag and leaning out of the windows -- while wearing face masks. Another item on the agenda of the three-day session were proposals for a divisive general amnesty, but that motion was sent back for revision by a parliamentary committee. "Today, instead of passing a general amnesty law... they could pass a law on the independence of the judiciary," said Jad Assaileh, a young demonstrator. "We want to recover the stolen money," he said, referring to allegations that Lebanon's ruling elite transferred billions out of the country while regular citizens were prevented from withdrawing their savings by the banks. Similar protests took place in the cities of Sidon and Tripoli. The vote to legalise the growing of cannabis for medical use was aimed at boosting revenues for the crippled economy. Lebanon previously banned growing, selling and consuming cannabis, but illicit production in the country's east has developed over decades into a multi-million-dollar industry. Lawmakers also passed a law to fight corruption in the public sector and set up a national body in charge of stamping out graft. Story continues - Discord over amnesty plan - The proposal for a general amnesty to free thousands of detainees and to suspend arrest warrants for thousands more remains a contentious issue. Supporters -- which include Shiite movements Hezbollah and Amal as well as the Sunni Future Movement -- say an amnesty could lessen overcrowding in jails housing 9,000 prisoners. But its detractors, including the president's Christian parliamentary bloc, say the bill is merely an attempt to boost popular support. The amnesty has long been a demand of the families of some 1,200 so-called "Islamist detainees", most of whom hail from the Sunni-majority city of Tripoli, where the former premier's Future Movement is dominant. They are accused of carrying out crimes including fighting and assaulting the army, taking part in clashes in the city, and planning explosives attacks. Families have also clamoured for the release of thousands more detainees from the eastern regions of Baalbek and Hermel, where Hezbollah and the parliament speaker's Amal Movement are powerful. Most of these are accused of drug-linked crimes including growing hashish illegally, or other offences such as stealing cars. - No dollars - Lebanon's worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war is now compounded by the lockdown. Poverty has risen to 45 percent of the population, according to official estimates. Protests had petered out after a new government took office in January, and demonstrators have largely remained at home since the coronavirus lockdown started mid-March. But on Friday, hundreds again protested in Tripoli to mark six months since the street movement started to demand an overhaul of a ruling class widely deemed inept and corrupt. One of the most indebted countries in the world with a debt equivalent to 170 percent of its GDP, Lebanon defaulted on payments for the first time last month. As the country faces an acute liquidity crisis, banks have banned transfers abroad and gradually restricted dollar withdrawals until suspending them last month. The Lebanese pound has for decades been pegged to the dollar, but in recent months lost half of its official value on the black market. The official exchange rate remains 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar. The banks earlier this month set their rate at 2,600 pounds to the dollar, but money changers were offering more than 3,200 pounds for the greenback on Tuesday on the black market. On Tuesday, the central bank asked banks to allow depositors with foreign currency accounts to withdraw their savings in Lebanese pounds at the "market rate", likely to signify 2,600 pounds to the dollar. As New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio seek to prepare the population to get back to work under unsafe conditions, New York City is still the epicenter of the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. At time of writing, New York state has 252,094 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and New York City alone has over 136,806. At least 18,929 people have died in New York, the vast majority of them in New York City. While testing remains incredibly difficult to access, especially for the working class, test results in the city are coming back positive at a shocking rate of 48 percent. As the ruling class watches their stock values skyrocket from the comfort of their second homes, the working class, many of whom are deemed essential workers and cannot work from home, is risking infection and death in order to keep food on the table. In addition to these essential workers, New York Citys large homeless population is at particular risk. As of this writing, 460 confirmed infections had been recorded in the citys shelters, and 27 people have died. Due to underreporting and lack of testing, the real numbers of infected and those who have died from COVID-19 is likely much higher. Concerning the total number of infected or dead homeless people throughout the city, a shelter social worker told the WSWS, I dont think DHS [Department of Homeless Services] has surveyed that and if they did [they] havent let us know. This lack of information has put both shelter residents and workers at great risk. While no official numbers for shelter workers who have contracted the virus have been released, the social worker reported that two of her colleagues had fallen sick with COVID-19. Like other healthcare workers, social workers face an incredible lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and have faced heavy consequences and firings for talking to the press concerning the lack of equipment. There are, on any given day, as many as 80,000 people experiencing homelessness in New York City. The number of homeless adults in the city has increased by 139 percent over the last 10 years. According to Thursdays All Shelter Census, the citys Department of Homeless Services (DHS) reported 57,000 people as having received accommodation in the citys shelter system that day. A staggering 20,023 of them were children. Hygiene supplies and adequate space to isolate are hard to come by within the shelter system, which is a patchwork of 450 different shelters with varying policies and resources. Shelters have seen an increase in residents amid the pandemic, including from recently released inmates from Rikers Island, where COVID-19 has ravaged the prison population. This increase, in addition to higher retention rates, has left the already densely packed facilities struggling to isolate residents who have tested positive for the virus. The completely overwhelmed city hospitals are sending homeless people who have the virus back to the shelters if their symptoms are not grave enough to require admittance to an intensive care unit (ICU). Social distancing especially in the womens and mens shelters where multiple people have to share rooms is all but impossible. If this is a worldwide epidemic, we should have a fair chance to protect ourselves, Roberto Mangual told the New York Times, who stays at the Clarke Thomas shelter on Wards Island. We dont really have that chance in a mens shelter, to be honest. A 69-year old homeless man living in a shelter told the Times that he believed he had contracted the virus, saying: I was around a lot of people coughing, throwing up, sneezing. The situation is perhaps just as dire for homeless people who are not able to gain admission to a shelter. In New York City, one must be registered in the citys homeless database, which requires a referral to the DHS. The absolute exclusion criteria, which sets the terms for who may be rejected from the DHS, bars some of those most vulnerable in the homeless population--especially those suffering from serious mental health issues, and even those unable to independently manage chronic illnesses. These chronic health conditions, which can result in a person being left out on the street, disproportionately affect homeless people and put them at even higher risk of dying from the virus. Under these conditions, many homeless people have increasingly taken shelter in the subway system as well as on the streets. A video recently posted by a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) worker shows train car after train car on the 2 Line occupied by homeless people seeking shelter, and the minimal protection it affords from the virus. These desperate measures put the health of those taking them at risk, as well as both the MTA workers who are working with limited, if any, protective equipment, and the many thousands of essential workers who still commute. Homeless people who are unable to find accommodation in the DHS also face particular risk with respect to hygiene amid this crisis. People without a home lost access to all of their bathrooms, when coffee shops and public buildings were closed to stop the spread of the virus, James Winans, head of the Bowery Mission, told CNBC. Their bathroom was at a Starbucks, at a library, at a recreation center. The city has taken entirely inadequate measures to secure housing for the homeless. As of April 11, city officials reported that 6,000 homeless people would be moved to hotels around the city in order to self-isolate. However, the Department of Social Services (DSS) has only secured around 1,000 hotel units for this effort, setting a six-person to unit average. Such conditions will only contribute to the spread of the virus. The desperate conditions facing the homeless are the product of years of austerity and attacks on the working class undertaken by the Democratic Party in New Yorks city and state governments. Years of capitalist bonanzas on the real estate markets have driven up rents in the city beyond the reach of the working class and have left even workers with relatively well-paying jobs living paycheck to paycheck. Now, as the crisis sparked by the pandemic is ravaging the working class population and most vulnerable layers of society, the state and city are planning further devastating cuts to social welfare programs, including Medicaid, and to public education. The resources exist to provide both emergency and regular housing to all New Yorkers. At least 250,000 New York City apartments are empty, leaving three apartments for every homeless person, whether in need of isolation or not. As the Socialist Equality Party demands in its March 17 program of action for the working class, To the extent that private property gets in the way of emergency measures, it must be swept aside. . office buildings and similar structures, many of which are now empty, must be converted into hospitals and clinics and used to provide emergency housing for the homeless and for students who are being forced to leave college dormitories. People place high expectations on the private sector to take a lead in addressing the most pressing social, environmental and political issues facing the world today. Changing demographics, declining trust in government, the ubiquity of social media and a pervasive desire to see change across a spectrum of social and environmental issues has given birth to democratization of activism, and this has become one of the top challenges facing corporate brands today. PR pros find themselves increasingly aware of activist cultures growing influence, yet still often unprepared to manage unexpected events and controversial issues when they arise, according to the latest edition of an annual report released by the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations. The USC Annenbergs 2020 Global Communication Report, which focused on activist groups and their impact on the communicators sector, found that nearly two-thirds of PR pros (63 percent) believe activists are more influential today than they were five years ago, and about the same number (64 percent) think activists will become even more influential in the coming years. That said, activists seem to be the least of companies or clients worries when it comes to formulating positions on social issues. According to PR pros, 60 percent admit they rarely involve activist groups when creating a new initiative for their company or clients. In fact, the communicators surveyed said any decisions regarding what social issues companies address is influenced primarily by the views of senior executives or the companies or clients customers. PR pros ranked activists dead last for influence on the formulation of corporate policy, trailing the media, government officials and even influencers. While only about a quarter of PR professionals themselves identify as activists, an overwhelming majority (84 percent) believe corporations should take a public stand on societal issues directly related to their business, and an additional 28 percent said they think corporations should take a public stand on issues unrelated to their business as well. PR professionals were asked what social or political issues their company or clients were most likely to take a public stand on. A majority of communicators (30 percent) cited diversity/inclusion as an issue their company or clients would most likely proactively take a public stand on, followed by climate change (26 percent), healthcare (12 percent), education (11 percent) and gender equality (six percent). Homelessness, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, gun control and immigration bottomed out the list. According to PR pros, the potential long-term impact on a company or brands reputation was cited most often as the single primary reason for responding to an activist attack (69 percent), followed by potential legal liability (40 percent), the scope of media interest (35 percent), the validity of the accusation (32 percent) and the threat the attack has on company values (23 percent). A majority of communicators surveyed (37 percent) said they believe their company or clients are moderately well-prepared to respond to an attack from an activist organization. About a third (32 percent) believe theyre not at all or only slightly prepared to deal with such attacks. About the same number (31 percent) consider themselves a great deal or considerably prepared. Nearly half (49 percent) said they consider the potential reactions from activist groups a great deal or considerably when planning an initiative or new policy for their company or clients. Fewer than a third of PR pros (29 percent) reported that their organization has policies in place regarding employee activism. About the same number (31 percent) said their company supports employees involvement in activist groups. More than half of the PR pros surveyed (56 percent) said they believe activism is more effective at raising awareness of social issues than in influencing the political process (21 percent) or creating long-lasting change (12 percent). In fact, fewer than half of communicators polled (44 percent) are convinced that activists are particularly effective at achieving any real change whatsoever. Data for USC Annenbergs 2020 Global Communications Report was collected through a live online survey of nearly 840 PR professionals conducted between January 21 and February 24. A large number of President Trump supporters rally on Main Street in Huntington Beach on April 17 to protest business closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Los Angeles Times) The small groups of people who have gathered, and continue to gather, to protest coronavirus restrictions in this state and many others are right about one big thing: The damage being done by the stay-at-home orders is enormous. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs after most states ordered nonessential businesses to close until further notice. And many of those companies will probably never reopen. People teetering on the brink of poverty are being pushed over the edge. The lockdowns have been particularly difficult for people with mental health issues and for families roiled by domestic violence. Schoolchildren are losing invaluable learning time, and if the closures continue for much longer, the kids most in need of help may end up at a permanent disadvantage. And theres reason to believe that people are dying of illnesses and injuries other than COVID-19 because treatments are being delayed or people are afraid to seek care in a hospital. Things are worse than most of us have ever seen. On that we can all agree. But does the pain and suffering justify the immediate lifting of restrictions as the Operation Gridlock protesters demand? Absolutely not. Theres too much at stake. One sign spotted in Huntington Beach on Friday during a gathering of 100 or so protesters summed it up pretty well: Live free or die. The signmaker might have invoked the slogan, which happens to be the unironic state motto of New Hampshire (a state currently on lockdown), as a statement of principle. But in this pandemic a more apt slogan might be "Live free and die." At the core of the protests is the argument that the treatment is worse than the disease itself. We respectfully disagree. We have lost some civil liberties and many jobs in recent weeks, but that is a temporary, if painful, condition. We will start to get our freedoms back once the restrictions are lifted, and though may take months or even years, the economy will recover. The roughly 42,000 Americans who have lost their lives to COVID-19 so far, however, are permanently dead. And a significant number of the more than 780,000 Americans who have confirmed cases of COVID-19 may suffer from lifelong complications such as diminished lung function and heart damage. Story continues Theres also the curious notion that the relatively low rate of cases in some places proves the stay-at-home restrictions arent necessary. It's not happenstance that California has suffered fewer cases and deaths than other states, notably New York. California was the first U.S. state to adopt strict statewide social distancing measures. There's good reason to believe that this foresight has "flattened the curve" in California and avoided thousands of infections. Other states have also seen their rates of infection drop far below projected levels since their shelter-in-place edicts went into effect. Lifting the restrictions too early could undo all the pain the state has suffered so far and prolong the shutdown misery. For that matter, so could too many more of the sorts of protests we've been seeing. If coronaviruses could dream, no doubt they would have fantasies about encountering large numbers of unprotected people from far-flung places congregating in close conditions, spraying respiratory droplets with every shout, and finding an easy ride to new places and people to infect. Its worth noting that although the protests have gotten a lot of media attention, they are relatively small and dont represent the attitudes of most Americans. A joint poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal found that more people fear lifting the restrictions too soon. Furthermore, the demonstrations have been supported and populated to some extent by conservative fringe groups, armed militia members and conspiracy theorists such as Infowars' Alex Jones, who have latched on to the coronavirus restrictions to push their dangerous worldviews. The protest in Sacramento on Monday, for example, was co-organized by Freedom Angels, an anti-vaccination group that was at the forefront of opposition to the states tightening of childhood measles vaccinations. The nation does need to get back to work soon, albeit with an abundance of caution, given the absence of proven treatments or vaccines for COVID-19. But the inability to test for the disease on a mass scale makes any effort to resume normal life a step into the dark. If people are going to risk their lives, and those of others, to protest anything, we wish it would at least be for a cause that might actually help. Like, say, demanding more testing. People in Wuhan are waiting for the 14-day quarantine arrangement after they arrive in Beijing, China, on April 8, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) Missouri Becomes First State to File Lawsuit Against CCP Over Virus Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is suing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for what his office said were actions to suppress information related to the pandemic in December 2019. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, claims Chinese authorities actions led to harsh effects and deaths in Missouri, Schmitt said on April 21. His state is the first to take legal action against the CCP amid the pandemic. During the critical weeks of the initial outbreak, Chinese authorities deceived the public, suppressed crucial information, arrested whistleblowers, denied human-to-human transmission in the face of mounting evidence, destroyed critical medical research, permitted millions of people to be exposed to the virus, and even hoarded personal protective equipment (PPE)thus causing a global pandemic that was unnecessary and preventable, the lawsuit states. It alleges that CCP officials kept serious evidence of human-to-human transmission of the CCP virus from the World Health Organization (WHO) until Dec. 31, 2019. And when the Chinese regime did tell the WHO about the epidemic, they denied there was human-to-human transmission. The virus has done irreparable damage to countries across the globe, causing sickness, death, economic disruption, and human suffering, Schmitt said, adding that the impact of the virus is very real in Missouri, leading to thousands of infections and numerous deaths. Medical staff wear protective clothing to protect against a CCP virus patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 25, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images) 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, the state attorney general stated. 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. They must be held accountable for their actions. It has been known that by at least mid-December, Chinese authorities were aware of human-to-human transmission in Wuhan. Yet, the regime didnt make this admission until Jan. 20, after around 5 million people had left Wuhan. CCP officials on Jan. 23 implemented the first containment and quarantine measures for Wuhan and Hubei Province. Missouris lawsuit represents a growing chorus of critics of the CCPs response and coverup of the virus outbreak. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said an independent investigation is necessary into how China dealt with the outbreak. An independent review would identify for us about the genesis of the virus, about the approaches to dealing with it, and addressing it, about the openness with which information was shared by the WHO, she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) announced they would allow Americans to bring lawsuits against the CCP. Chinas Communist Party must face consequences for its role in the origin and spread of the coronavirus, Blackburn stated in a press release on April 20. Authorities have suspended a search for seven people who possibly were in Cedar Bayou near Baytown late Monday night. Coast Guard officials said Tuesday afternoon that several factors prompted the decision to suspend the search, which began after watchstanders received a mayday call around 9:40 p.m. Monday from a man claiming his 27-foot boat was taking on water. The mariner radioed that there were four adults and three children onboard. The size of the workforce in the world's oil and gas industries, buffeted by collapse in global demand due to coronavirus lockdown coupled with an oil-price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia that led to supply glut, has slumped dramatically in last one month. The beleaguered oil and gas industry shed around 51,000 drilling and refining jobs in March, and the situation is likely to get worse in April as oil futures prices plunged to historic low, according to a Bloomberg report. According to research consultancy firm BW Research Partnership, job losses in March jump by 15,000 when ancillary jobs such as construction, manufacturing of drilling equipment and shipping are included in the list. The firm calculated the data by analysing figure released by the US Department of Labour combined with its own survey data of about 30,000 energy companies. "We're looking at anywhere between five and seven years of job growth wiped out in a month," Philip Jordan, the company's vice president told Bloomberg. "What makes it sort of scary is this really is just the beginning. April is not looking good for oil and gas," Jordan added. Oil and gas companies are expected to let go of around 30 per cent of its employees in the first quarter of 2020, according to an estimate by BW Research. US oil futures slipped below zero for the first time on Monday as demand for energy collapsed in wake of coronavirus pandemic which has frozen economic activity globally. The contract for West Texas intermediate crude (WTI), the benchmark for US crude prices, slumped below $0 per barrel level on April 20. The May crude futures witnessed sharp sell-off ahead of Tuesday's expiration and closed Monday's trade at minus $37.63 a barrel, down 306 per cent. Company wise, US-based Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil field service companies, laid off 3,500 workers at its headquarters in Houston last month, while oil-field services firm Canary Drilling Services fired 200 staff and implemented across-the-board salary cuts. Among others, Oklahoma-based Recoil Oilfield Services LLC laid off 50 workers after losing its contract with shale giant EOG Resources Inc. Oilfield service companies, that provides hefty amount of the jobs in oil and gas sector, are worst hit by the crisis, as such companies are weaker than the oil companies and are likely to start disappearing quickly, Bloomberg quoted Dan Eberhart, the chief executive Canary Drilling Services, as saying. BW Research, in its previous report released last week, claimed that clean energy workers, such as solar panel installers and electric vehicle manufactures, lost more than 106,000 jobs in March. Overall, energy-related job lost stood at 303,000 last month, the firm reportedly said. By Chitranjan Kumar Also Read: US oil prices fall below $0 per barrel: What really happened? Also Read: Why petrol prices won't fall even though US crude oil costs $0 Advertisement Matt Hancock tonight insisted the coronavirus lockdown must stay until there is no risk of a second peak - as scientists warned the outbreak might not be fading. The Health Secretary vowed not to compromise the national effort against the disease as Professor Jonathan Van-Tam told the daily Downing Street briefing that while hospital occupancy rates had dipped in in London the picture in other parts of the UK was 'more of a plateau'. The figures - along with another 828 deaths being declared in the UK - add weight to the arguments of those who want to err on the side of caution despite the devastation being wreaked on the economy. Divisions have emerged between Cabinet 'doves' such as Mr Hancock and 'hawks' who believe the NHS has capacity and would prefer to loosen the draconian social distancing measures earlier. The PM has intervened from his recuperation at Chequers to snuff out speculation about an imminent easing, with Downing Street making clear his priority is avoiding a 'second peak' in the outbreak. There are reports Mr Johnson's inner circle has stopped using the phrase 'exit strategy' and instead wants to signal a 'next phase' of lockdown, with varying levels of restrictions set to continue for the rest of the year until the virus gets 'close to eradication' or a vaccine is found. Australia has successfully suppressed cases to very low numbers. Scientists have been telling ministers behind the scenes that control of the outbreak is still so uncertain that even slight changes to the curbs on normal life could result in a disastrous flare-up. Mr Hancock said tonight: 'We have been clear that we will not risk lives by relaxing the social distancing rules before our five tests have been met. 'First, that the NHS can continue to cope, second, that the operational challenges can be met, third, that the daily death rate falls sustainably and consistently, fourth, that the rate of infection is decreasing, and most importantly, that there is no risk of a second peak.' Deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof Van-Tam said: 'It is not absolutely clear that there have been peaks, nor is it absolutely clear that the number of cases is dropping.' He warned that meant 'we must keep pushing' on social distancing. In other developments today: The UK has announced another 828 deaths from the coronavirus today, taking Britain's total number of victims to 17,337. Although the rise in fatalities is the biggest since Saturday, April 18 (888), and almost double the number that were announced yesterday (449), it does not necessarily mean the outbreak is getting worse because the deaths are backdated; Official figures suggest the true number of coronavirus victims in the UK may be 41 per cent higher than previously announced. Mortality data released by the ONS imply the death toll might be closer to 23,000 up to April 10; Mr Johnson appears to be gearing up to take back the reins of government, speaking to Donald Trump on the phone today, although Downing Street insisted he is not doing any 'official work'; An RAF plane sent to collect crucial PPE for the NHS from Turkey still has not started its return journey with ministers admitting it might be 'days' before the supplied arrive; The House of Commons has returned from its Easter recess, but only to approve a 'virtual' Parliament that will kick off tomorrow. How members of the cabinet are currently split over the ending of the lockdown. Mr Johnson (top left) and Matt Hancock (bottom left) are classed as 'doves'; Michael Gove, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak (right, top-to-bottom) as 'hawks'; and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (top centre) is among those in the middle, with Gavin Williamson (centre) and Alok Sharma (centre bottom) Professor Jonathan Van-Tam told the daily Downing Street briefing that while hospital occupancy rates had dipped in in London the picture in other parts of the UK was 'more of a plateau' Deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof Van-Tam (left) said the stubborn level of hospital admissions meant 'we must keep pushing' on social distancing. Health Secretary Matt Hancock reiterated at the update that the lockdown will not be relaxed until there is 'no risk of a second peak' Easing coronavirus restrictions will lead to a resurgence of the illness and 'we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living', WHO warns The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of the illness. The warning comes as governments across the world start rolling out plans to get their economies up and running again. Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said: 'This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future.' He said governments must remain vigilant to stop the spread of the virus and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. Despite concerns from health officials, some US states have announced aggressive reopening plans, while Boeing and at least one other American heavy-equipment manufacturer resumed production. Elsewhere around the world, step-by-step reopenings are under way in Europe, where the crisis has begun to ebb in places such as Italy, Spain and Germany. Advertisement There is no prospect of lockdown measures being eased before the current period comes to an end on May 11. However, some senior Tories have been pushing plans for an easing soon afterwards, pointing out that the NHS is still below surge capacity and could 'run hot' to limit the economic meltdown. Before his illness there were rumours Mr Johnson was alarmed about the devastation being wrought on UK plc. However, the premier, who was released from hospital a week ago, is now seen as aligned with the Cabinet 'doves' cautious about shifting too early. According to the Times, Mr Johnson is thought to be leaning towards 'a longer lockdown that aims to drive the virus close to eradication, allowing occasional flare-ups to be isolated and shut down through testing and contact tracing'. Mr Hancock, who also contracted coronavirus, is also urging a safety-first approach, regarding a second wave of the virus as more dangerous than the impact of lockdown. Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Trade Secretary Liz Truss, and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove are thought to be more hawkish about the need to ease restrictions sooner - although they have been toeing the line in public. Downing Street has been furiously playing down hints that schools could partly reopen in the middle of next month, with June now looking the earliest timetable. Government scientists have been warning that the situation is currently so finely balanced that even marginal loosenings could have disastrous effects, One Cabinet source told the Guardian the government's advisers on Sage had suggested any easing would push up the rate of transmission - known as R. The source said: 'The scientists are very clear. There's no loosening of measures we can do that won't bring the R back over 1. 'There may be some small changes on their own that could do it, but the question is whether behaviours change in other ways and push the R above 1. 'The second you have the R above one then you're back to exponential growth. 'We did have an R of about 3. And we've driven that down. But even a small increase in transmission could put you above 1.' There are claims that Mr Hancock (pictured taking the daily briefing in Downing Street tonight) is being lined up as a fall guy for the government's coronavirus blunders Matt Hancock 'lined up as fall guy' for government coronavirus failures Matt Hancock is being lined up as the 'fall guy' for the government's coronavirus failures, it was claimed today, as the Health Secretary faced growing criticism over his 100,000 daily testing target. Mr Hancock has been one of the government's most visible ministers during the outbreak after returning to the frontline following his own battle with the disease. But he is under increasing pressure from critics who have questioned the wisdom of promising to increase the number of tests to six figures a day by the end of this month. They have also attacked Mr Hancock over his handling of PPE shortages which have seen doctors, nurses and care home staff blast the government for failing to do enough to keep them safe. Government inside sources said Mr Hancock has 'not had a good crisis' while a former Cabinet minister said some in Whitehall believe the Health Secretary had developed 'a sort of Messiah complex'. Some now expect Mr Hancock to be moved from the Department of Health before a widely-anticipated future inquiry is held into the government's response to the outbreak. Advertisement Amid calls from senior Tories for the government to spell out an exit strategy, one MP told The Times that fighting for his life in intensive care had changed Mr Johnson. The MP said: 'The Prime Minister is in a funny place, I think he's quite frightened. His illness and the warning from the doctors has really hit him hard. 'To find himself floored like this has really got into his head. He has become really tentative.' There are growing signs that Mr Johnson could be back in action soon, with Downing Street confirming he is now receiving daily updates and speaking to deputy Dominic Raab by phone - although he is still not doing official work. But while his spokesman insists that Mr Johnson is not doing any 'official work', it emerged that he is speaking to the US president this afternoon. Mr Johnson will also have his audience with the Queen by phone later in the week - although his deputy Dominic Raab will take PMQs in the Commons tomorrow and chair Cabinet on Thursday. The No10 spokesman said of the conversation with Mr Trump - whose wife Melania called Ms Symonds to pass on best wishes: 'It is an opportunity to thank the President for the messages of support he has sent to him. 'But it is also the case it will allow the PM to get an update on the international G7 response, as the US is the chair.' While there are some ministers taking stronger positions either way, the bulk of the Cabinet - including Mr Raab - are content to wait for more evidence. Scientists have been asked to present options for the lockdown by the end of the month. As tensions rise, Mr Hancock is reportedly being lined up as the 'fall guy' for the government's coronavirus failures - particularly his high-profile 100,000 daily testing target. Mr Hancock has been one of the government's most visible ministers during the outbreak after returning to the frontline following his own battle with the disease. But he is under increasing pressure from critics who have questioned the wisdom of promising to increase the number of tests to six figures a day by the end of this month. They have also attacked Mr Hancock over his handling of PPE shortages which have seen doctors, nurses and care home staff blast the government for failing to do enough to keep them safe. Government insiders told the Telegraph Mr Hancock has 'not had a good crisis' while a former Cabinet minister said some in Whitehall believe the Health Secretary had developed 'a sort of Messiah complex'. Some now expect Mr Hancock to be moved from the Department of Health before a widely-anticipated future inquiry is held into the government's response to the outbreak. Is the UK's REAL coronavirus death toll 40% higher? The Office for National Statistics data, which reveals the true scale of coronavirus deaths, is now considerably higher than the Department of Health's daily updates The true number of coronavirus victims in the UK may still be 41 per cent higher than daily Government statistics are letting on. Weekly data published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that at least 13,121 people had died in England and Wales by April 10. Department of Health statistics had, by that date, announced only 9,288 fatalities - the backdated deaths increased the total by 41.2 per cent. That suggests the death toll of 16,509 confirmed yesterday could in reality be closer to 23,000. And care homes in England and Wales had recorded the deaths of at least 1,644 residents by April 10 - 10 per cent of all the UK's COVID-19 deaths. Today's update is one of the first real official glimpses of the crisis gripping the care sector. Fifteen per cent of all people dying with COVID-19 were succumbing to their illness outside of hospitals, the stats showed, revealing the crisis cannot be managed solely by the NHS. And one in every three people (33.6 per cent) who died of any cause between April 4 and April 10 had coronavirus. That week, authorities recorded the most deaths for a single week in 20 years, with 18,516 people dying - 8,000 more than average. Around 6,200 of those were officially linked to the coronavirus, suggesting a further 1,800 were indirect 'excess' deaths or COVID-19 sufferers who never got tested. The record number of fatalities coincides with what now appears to have been the peak of the UK's COVID-19 outbreak on April 8, when NHS hospitals recorded 803 coronavirus patients dying. Advertisement England, Scotland and Wales have announced another 873 deaths from the coronavirus today, taking the UK's total to 17,382. This rise in fatalities is the biggest increase since Saturday, April 18 (888), and almost double the number that were announced yesterday (449). Although the rebound looks bad on a graph it doesn't mean the outbreak is getting worse because the deaths are backdated - 43 of them actually happened in March, and 493 were spread across Saturday, Sunday and Monday. NHS data shows April 8 remains the deadliest day so far in the epidemic and, with today's announcements added, the day believed to be the peak of the outbreak saw 815 hospital fatalities. But the true number of coronavirus victims in the UK may still be 41 per cent higher than daily Government and NHS statistics are letting on. Weekly data published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that at least 13,121 people had died in England and Wales by April 10. Department of Health statistics had, by that date, announced only 9,288 fatalities - the backdated deaths increased the total by 41.2 per cent. That suggests the death toll of 17,382 confirmed today could in reality be closer to 25,000. And care homes in England and Wales had recorded the deaths of at least 1,644 residents by April 10 - 10 per cent of all the UK's COVID-19 deaths. Today's update is one of the first real official glimpses of the crisis gripping the care sector. Fifteen per cent of all people dying with COVID-19 were succumbing to their illness outside of hospitals, the stats showed, revealing the crisis cannot be managed solely by the NHS. And one in every three people (33.6 per cent) who died of any cause between April 4 and April 10 had coronavirus. That week, authorities recorded the most deaths for a single week in 20 years, with 18,516 people dying - 8,000 more than average. Around 6,200 of those were officially linked to the coronavirus, suggesting a further 1,800 were indirect 'excess' deaths or COVID-19 sufferers who never got tested. The record number of fatalities coincides with what now appears to have been the peak of the UK's COVID-19 outbreak on April 8, when NHS hospitals recorded 803 coronavirus patients dying. A leading expert at the University of Oxford argued yesterday that the peak was actually about a month ago, a week before lockdown started on March 23, and that the draconian measures people are now living with were unnecessary. Professor Carl Heneghan claims data shows infection rates halved after the Government launched a public information campaign on March 16 urging people to wash their hands and keep two metres (6'6') away from others. He said ministers 'lost sight' of the evidence and rushed into a nationwide quarantine six days later after being instructed by scientific advisers who he claims have been 'consistently wrong' during the crisis. Professor Heneghan hailed Sweden - which has not enforced a lockdown despite fierce criticism - for 'holding its nerve' and avoiding a 'doomsday scenario'. He was among a group of scientists today who argued that the peak in the number of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales happened on April 8. Commenting on the death data released by the ONS, a panel convened by the Science Media Centre said the death rate had been consistent for the last 13 days. Prof Heneghan said: 'From an epidemiological perspective we can say that the numbers are consistent with the peak happening on April 8. 'We've now tracked for 13 days that that has been consistent - it hasn't jumped up. 'All of the other data surrounding this, the triangulation of the data is showing us that is the case.' But he added: 'What we are worried about is that in the background someone has made an error and pulled out some data sets. 'Looking at what the ONS are doing now is hugely impressive - I think we can be clear that in this peak it occurred on April 8 and in the last 13 days we've seen no change to that.' The House of Commons returned from its Easter recess today - but only to approve a plan for 'virtual' sittings, with MPs expected to grill First Secretary Dominic Raab over Zoom tomorrow [April 21, 2020] Pre & Post COVID-19 Market Estimates-Global Wearable Patch Market 2020-2024 | Growing Prevalence of Chronic Diseases to Boost Market Growth | Technavio The wearable patch market is expected to grow by USD 5.96 billion during 2020-2024. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact can be expected to be significant in the first quarter but gradually lessen in subsequent quarters - with a limited impact on the full-year economic growth according to the latest market research report by Technavio. Request a free sample report This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005706/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Wearable Patch Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) The growing prevalence of chronic diseases and incurable conditions, such as cancer, cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, and asthma, is driving the demand for wearable patches. The burden of these chronic diseases is rapidly increasing worldwide and they are associated with high mortality rates. Wearable patches are gaining popularity as they are convenient for physicians as well as patients. With the aim of making healthcare services accessible to people in remote areas, healthcare providers are increasingly using wearable patches to remotely monitor the health of patients. Thus, the growing prevalence of chronic diseases is expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR43181 As per Technavio, the increasing demand for cloud-based solutions will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. This research report also analyzes other significant trends and market drivers that will influence market growth over 2020-2024. Wearable Patch Market: Increasing Demand for Cloud-based Solutions Technological advances in IT have made processes more efficient and quicker. Hence, the healthcare industry is adopting such technologies. With growing focus in patient information privacy and safety, the pressure to manage data has increased the demand for economic solutions such as cloud computing. Adoption of cloud computing, healthcare organizations will be able to remotely access data through wearable patches. The storage of data from wearable patches on the cloud will eliminate the need for backups and the effects of system issues. Thus, the increasing demand for cloud-based solutions is expected to drive the growth of the market. "Factors such as the growing interest in transdermal medicines, and the increasing use of emerging technologies will have a significant impact on the growth of the wearable patch market value during the forecast period," says a senior analyst at Technavio. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Wearable Patch Market: Segmentation Analysis This market research report segments the wearable patch market by application (clinical and non-clinical) technology (regular and connected), and geographic landscape (North America, Europe, APAC, MEA, and South America). The North American region led the wearable patch market in 2020, followed by Europe, APAC, MEA, and South America respectively. During the forecast period, the North American region is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to the rising number of health-conscious individuals in the region. Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Request a free sample report Some of the key topics covered in the report include: Market Drivers Market Challenges Market Trends Vendor Landscape Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Competitive scenario About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005706/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 13:50:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NANJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Nanjing, the capital city of eastern China's Jiangsu Province, has donated 150,000 face masks to support its sister city Florence to fight COVID-19, the city government said. The masks arrived in Florence and a handover ceremony was held in the Italian city on Saturday. Dario Nardella, the city mayor of Florence, expressed his gratitude for the timely assistance from China. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the sister city relationship forged between Nanjing and Florence in 1980. Nanjing is willing to share experience in fighting the virus and do what they can to help Florence, said the Nanjing municipal government. The deep relationship between Florence and Nanjing also embodies the beautiful friendship between Italy and China, said Nardella, noting that he would visit China after the pandemic to further promote exchanges and cooperation. Enditem Students will return to NSW schools full time from July under a plan to gradually return children to classrooms, beginning with one day a week from mid-May. Schools will be able to check temperatures, hand sanitiser will be available in every classroom and start times will be staggered, while teachers will be given priority for COVID-19 testing, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Tuesday. Premier Gladys Berejiklian, flanked by education officials, announces a gradual return to classrooms Credit:Rhett Wyman Remote learning will continue for the first two weeks of term two, which begins next Wednesday, and students will return for one day a week from May 11. Attendance will gradually be ramped up during the remainder of the term, and the government aims to have schools resume full time when term three begins on July 21. "Initially it will just be a day a week, and then progressively two days, and then we hope by the end of term two we'll be in a position to have students going back to school in a full time capacity by term three," she said. All the departments in the central government have been asked to include 'transgender' as a separate category of gender for recruitment in civil services and other central government posts. All the departments in the central government have been asked to include "transgender" as a separate category of gender for recruitment in civil services and other central government posts. A memorandum issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said the inclusion of "Third Gender/any Other Category" is based on the provision of The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act notified in the Constitution of India on 5 December 2019. The matter regarding inclusion of 'Third Gender/any Other Category' in the application forms in recruitment to various posts under the central government was under consideration of the government for quite some time," the memorandum said. Based on the provisions of the Act and the legal opinion obtained on the subject, civil services examination rules, 2020 have been notified on 5 February 2020, providing for inclusion of 'transgender' as a separate category of gender for the said exam, the ministry said. All the ministries and departments of the Government of India have also been requested to modify the examination rules for inclusion of 'Transgender' as a separate category. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act ensures non-discrimination against a Transgender Person in education institutions, employment, and healthcare. It also mentions recognition of transgender persons and confers upon them the right to go by self-perceived gender identity. The Act also allowed establishment for National Council for Transgender Persons to advise, monitor and evaluate measures for the protection of their rights. Eric Feaver, the man who led the state teacher's union for decades and guided a sweeping public employee merger, announced his retirement Tuesday. The Montana Federation of Public Employees said that Feaver will be replaced by Amanda Curtis, a former Butte teacher and legislator who also ran a quick-patch campaign for Montana's U.S. Senate seat in 2014. Curtis won an unopposed election among union members. Feaver was often the loudest voice in the room in education debates, whether at the legislature or on the campaign trail. He and the union he led supported measures that increased funding for public education, vociferously opposed proposals that expanded the role of private school, and railed against legislation that eroded the role of labor organizations. He was first elected to lead what was then the Montana Education Association in 1984, and saw through a merger to create MEA/MFT in 2000. He continued to lead the union through another major merger to create the 23,000-member MFPE in 2018, adding state employees into the union. While the union was often of major donor for Democrat candidates and typically aligned with that party on issues, he wasn't afraid to break with big names including opposing a final preschool proposal from Gov. Steve Bullock that would have included private preschools. Llew Jones, a Conrad legislator who was a driving force in education policy in the House and Senate since 2005, recalled Feaver as a passionate advocate on the union's behalf. I believe Eric Feaver did a good job for his union and the folks he represented, said Jones, a Republican. We didnt agree on a lot of political issues, but were actually pretty decent friends. Lance Melton, who leads the Montana School Boards Association, applauded Feaver for finding common ground on education issues with a group that represented a management foil. Ive had tremendous battles with Eric over the years, Melton said. The last 10 years have been an opportunity to work side by side on a lot of issues. ... Its been a privilege working against him and beside him. Feaver wasn't afraid to play "a very confrontative role," at the legislature, Melton said. Sometimes somebody needs to mention the elephant in the room. Eric has played that role pretty remarkably, he said. It may not always make people happy or even make me happy, but it certainly does help people cut to the chase and focus on problems. Rachel Schillreff, who leads the Billings Education Association, said Feaver was a steadying force during the merger that created MFPE, and proactively discouraged factions between teachers and state employees. There were some of us that weren't sure. He personally called a lot of us, she said. Hes just very hands-on that way. That same hands-on approach helped ensure his re-election for more than three decades, she said along with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Montana education landscape. Hes got 30 years of experience and he can tell you the number of the bill from the 1980s that changed the law and who brought it forward and where they were from, she said. He knew what he was talking about, and he had been there. For as much as Feaver fought for access and inclusion in Montana education debates, he extended those same ideals into his union, Schillreff said. Hes frequently quoted as saying, 'just say yes,' she said. It opens up a lot of doors for you when you get to participate on a state level or a national level. Jones said Feaver became increasingly flexible, and the two worked together on recent legislation giving schools the option of using learning programs based on student proficiency without seat time requirements. The Eric Feaver that I met 20 years ago would have been deadly opposed to that, I would think, he said. Melton said that it was that kind of flexibility and work behind the scenes that made Feaver a more nuanced player in Montana politics than it seemed while testifying on bills at the podium. Anybody that sees him at a distance and makes snap judgments about who he is and where hes going with things really needs to take a deeper look, Melton said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 New Delhi, April 21 : Three more policemen have been found coronavirus positive in the national capital. All of them are deployed at the Central district's Nabi Karim police station. The trio have been isolated from other staff and police personnel who came into their contact have been asked to stay in home quarantine. Earlier, eight policemen in the Chandni Mahal police station of the same district had tested positive for the coronavirus. Also, a constable who was posted at the immigration counter at the Indira Gandhi International Airport's Terminal-3 was found positive for the coronavirus. He has been hospitalised. However, a traffic police ASI who had tested positive for the coronavirus has recovered and has been discharged from the hospital. A constable in Delhi Police's special cell also tested positive for coronavirus two days ago. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 21 Trend: The current format of negotiations on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is good and useful, Trend reports referring to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Lavrov was answering Deputy Director General of Trend News Agency Gulnara Mammadzades question during a briefing. The Russian foreign minister stressed that of course, the UN Security Councils resolutions on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are the well-known documents. "They were adopted at the height of the hostilities, and envisaged, first of all, the complete cessation of hostilities and switching to the conflict settlement, the Russian foreign minister added. They confirmed the territorial integrity of the Azerbaijan Republic. But they also demanded to stop the war and start negotiations, Lavrov said. Since then, the negotiations have started more than once. There were agreements in 2001 and subsequent agreements in different formats. So far, the format of negotiations has already been established with Baku, Yerevan, the OSCE Minsk Group represented by three co-chairs and the personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, the Russian foreign minister added. The format is useful and good. This format reflects the requirement of the UN Security Council about the necessity to end the war and begin to negotiate." The Russian foreign minister added that there are Madrid principles, there are documents that Russia prepared in 2010-2011, which is known as the Kazan document. There are the projects that were distributed at the meeting of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in April 2019 in Moscow and are now being actively discussed, Lavrov added. These documents envisage phased settlement of the conflict, assuming at the first stage the solution of the most pressing problems - liberating of a number of districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh region and unblocking transport, economic and other communications, the Russian foreign minister said. So I am convinced that when we will decide to sign these documents, this will be the most important step in the implementation of the UN Security Councils resolutions that demanded to end the war and to start negotiations, Lavrov said. We have started negotiations, now we need to come to an agreement. We are striving for this as the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group." The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts. This is an opinion column. Rep. Mo Brooks assembled a crack team, charged with making a plan to reopen Alabamas economy. Its 14 members included a dentist, a gastroenterologist, an orthopedic surgeon and an Alabama lawmaker who has been fighting for years to execute more prisoners in this state, even if that means bringing back the electric chair. It should come as no surprise, Brooks committee is ready to throw open Alabamas businesses. In its report to Gov. Kay Ivey, the committee recommended rescinding Alabamas stay-at-home order immediately. What was missing from Brooks committee? Anyone with a background in epidemiology, public health or infectious diseases. Brooks, of course, has a troubled relationship with science. In Congress, hes argued that sea-level rise isnt the result of climate change but, rather, rocks falling in the water. And as recently as late February, he argued on Twitter that only the government-run health care systems of foreign countries had coronavirus fatalities and Americas private system had a perfect record. American healthcare: ZERO dead. Think about it, he said on Feb. 26. Since then, more things have happened and weve all had plenty of time at home to think about it. Almost 800,000 Americans have tested positive for the disease and more than 42,000 have died. Our country has more than three times as many cases as any country in the world, at least among those honest enough to share their real numbers. Its no wonder the closest thing Brooks could find to an expert in viruses is a bone doctor and a dentist. When it comes to science, he doesnt have sense enough to delete his own dumb tweets. Brooks is incapable of changing his mind, and in a blistering statement he released with his committees report, he called Iveys stay-at-home order a nanny-state directive that doesnt trust individuals to make the best decisions. Of course, Brooks is livid, and he should be. This crisis has upended and debunked nearly all of his core beliefs. The idea that people dont need government assistance? Tell that to anyone whos still waiting on their stimulus checks. The belief that private enterprise alone can solve our problems? Tell that to the small businesses relying on loans from the government to stay afloat. Rugged individualism? There are moments in history when the common good must take precedence. This is one of them. Brooks has been wrong about most things of consequence, and that could soon become clear to all but his most strident supporters. To be fair to Brooks, he didnt assemble this committee on his own initiative. Gov. Kay Iveys office asked him, among the seven members of our U.S. House delegation, for such input. Theres been no shortage of good ideas, Ivey said of their contributions on Tuesday. (And thanks to Brooks, no shortage of bad ones.) And for a moment Tuesday morning, as governors in Tennessee and Georgia barged ahead and threw open their doors, it looked like Alabama might follow. But theres a Hollywood plot-twist here that few folks, if anyone, outside of the governors office saw coming. Ivey ignored Brooks and his committee of know-betters. She ignored her cavalier peers in neighboring states. She ignored everyone but the experts. In a press conference at the state capitol, Ivey said that her stay-at-home order would stay in place at least through the end of the month. Her decision about when to lift it would hinge on data, not a date, she said. "Until we get enough testing done, we can't fully reopen the economy," she said, adding that no one wants to reopen businesses more than her. Less than 1 percent of Alabamians have been tested for coronavirus, and only 57 of Alabamas 67 counties have a place where residents can get a test if they need one. Thats not enough, the governor said. When asked what level of testing she thought would be enough, Ivey deferred completely to the experts. "My opinion doesn't count, she said. It's the health professionals. Imagine that. An elected official listening to people whove spent their lives studying the most important issue before us scientists, experts, people who really know things. We have someone who can tell the difference between what she wants to be true and what actually is. She listened to people who know more than her, not those who think they know more than everybody else. Who knows how long it will last. This is an unusual occurrence in this place. But for the moment, Alabama has something that looks a lot like Leadership? Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group. You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram. More columns by Kyle Whitmire A love letter for the Post Office The time to expand Medicaid is now. When will Alabama? How about never? Finding meaning in the ruins of coronavirus and Legos This is the most dangerous election. And the most important. Alabamas governor went on Twitter for a coronavirus Q&A. It was a disaster. Alabama is stuck on autopilot What Ill take from the quarantine: My daughters first steps Stop with the California comparisons, Kay Ivey Lieutenant governor demands Alabama coronavirus task force do its job If Alabama has to go back to work, so should the Legislature In grief for normal life The truth will tell itself As a former House of Representatives member for District 23, I have known Brenda Richards for many years and want to encourage District 23 voters to vote for her for the Idaho Senate. Brenda is a dedicated public servant, the former elected Treasurer for Owyhee County, an Owyhee Initiative leader and a long-time Owyhee Cattle Association member. She's served on public lands advisory boards and has represented Idaho well in national and regional agricultural groups. She's a long-time active Owyhee conservative Republican with dedicated experience in many aspects of Southern Idaho life. Brenda also has the personal characteristics necessary to succeed retiring Sen. Bert Brackett as a real leader in Idaho's Senate. She has Brackett's support and will be a great successor to his many years of service. Brenda brings a broad array of personal traits to this position. She's knowledgeable, and not afraid to ask questions and to learn from those around her. She's a thoughtful individual, cognizant of the many constituencies of her area. She'll listen to all sides, in the long tradition of District 23 members including Frances Field, ret. Brenda also has a winning personality and is not afraid to listen to different perspectives on the issues. She's a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights, pro-life anti-abortion. She supports public education; she and her husband Tony have successfully raised three sons in Owyhee schools. She's a thoughtful individual, a solid Republican and will be a great replacement for Sen. Brackett in the Idaho Senate. I would also like to offer my support for Matt Bundy, who is running for open seat 23A. Matt has broad experience as a Mountain Home city councilman, (16 years) high school teacher and Air Force veteran. He has the requisite experience and judgment to represent District 23 well in the House. These two candidates have my endorsement for Idaho Legislature, District 23. I hope you'll support them with your vote in the spring GOP primary. Rep. Stephen Hartgen, ret. (2008-2018) Idaho House of Representatives Love 1 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Pakistani authorities have removed almost 4,000 names from a terror watch list, including nearly 1,900 names that were struck off since early March, according to a US-based tech firm that tracks watch lists globally. While Pakistans National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) maintains a list of banned terror groups, separate lists of proscribed terrorist individuals are maintained by authorities in the countrys four provinces. The terror watch list of Punjab, Pakistans most populous province that has a sizeable presence of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), was analysed by California-based Castellum.AI for a report posted on the firms website on Sunday. At its peak in October 2018, Punjab provinces proscribed persons data or terror watch list had about 7,600 names, according to a report from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Castellum.AI said in its report that some 3,800 names had been removed from this list without explanation or notification to the public. The report further said that since March 9 this year, Pakistani authorities had removed some 1,869 names from the list. Of these, 1,069 names were struck off between March 9 and March 27, and about 800 were removed subsequently. All these names were placed in a denotified list, a term used in Pakistan to signify an official removal from a watch list. Castellum.AI contended LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhi, one of the alleged masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was among those whose names were removed from the list. However, this couldnt be independently confirmed. Moreover, Castellum.AI cited the removal of a terrorist named Zaka-ur-Rehman from Zhob in Balochistan for the reference to Lakhvi in its report, claiming the name was an alias. However, Lakhvi hails from Okara in Punjab, where he was born and is not known to have operated in Balochistan. Reports in the Pakistani media last week said names were removed from the terror watch list because it had bloated up to 7,000 names with multiple inaccuracies, such as the names of dead individuals, Afghan nationals, and names of untraceable persons. Castellum.AI said there was also no explanation on NACTAs website as to why about 3,800 names were removed from the terror watch list since October 2018. It said it was also not clear why Pakistan publicly maintains the Denotified List if the individuals on it are dead or their listings have multiple inaccuracies. In February, Pakistan was given four months by the FATF to fully implement a 27-point action plan to counter terror financing and money laundering after the country failed to meet repeated deadlines to complete the programme. The FATF said Pakistan had so far delivered only on 14 of the points in the plan. However, reports have suggested that Pakistan may have got a reprieve because of the Covid-19 crisis, with the multilateral watchdog putting off a review of the countrys performance till October. It is possible that these delistings are part of Pakistans efforts to implement FATFs action plan, but not announcing removals or the reasons for them poses many challenges. FATF standards call for transparency in listing procedures, Castellum.AI said in its report. Transparency supports due process for affected individuals and facilitates compliance. Obligated entities within Pakistan, as well as financial institutions who process Pakistan-related transactions globally, need clarity to effectively comply with AML/CFT (anti-money laundering/counter-financing of terror) laws and regulations, it added. Pakistan should clarify if individuals moved from the proscribed to denotified list are still a threat, state the reason for a list change, and identify the reason an individual was listed in the first place, Castellum.AIs report said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rezaul H Laskar Rezaul H Laskar is the Foreign Affairs Editor at Hindustan Times. His interests include movies and music. ...view detail As many as two lakh small and big industries located in Pune metropolitan region, comprising of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), remained shut despite a relaxation of lockdown rules by the state government on Monday. According to Ajit Deshmukh, general manager, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), no permission will be granted to these companies to restart operations till May 3, as all the industrial areas fall under the category of containment zones and have been sealed. The state government had announced partial lifting of lockdown in areas where there are few Covid-19 cases. This was aimed at restarting the business operations in safe industrial zones in the state of Maharashtra starting April 20. However, many industries from Chakan and other industrial belts of Pune district remained closed in absence of permission from MIDC. Unavailability of workers is another mitigating factor. The permission is not given as these industries fall under PMC and PCMC limits which have been declared as containment zones. Moreover, the workers who stay in the residential areas away from the industries will have to travel through the containment zones, an activity which has been banned under the Epidemic Control Act. We have also blocked the permission-related link on our websites. The companies will remain shut till May 3 as specified in the state governments order, said Deshmukh. Dilip Batwal, secretary, federation of Chakan industries, said, The district administration will allow us to resume operations if transportation is not involved. Making arrangements for accommodation, food and transportation of employees is not possible for all firms. We have no option but to wait till May 3. We had verbally requested the MIDC to make such arrangements for the labourers and workers, but they excused by stating that they do not have any infrastructure. Currently, only 567 companies are functioning, mostly dealing with pharmaceuticals and chemicals. Deshmukh said that most of the industries are located in Pimpri, Chinchwad, Akurwadi , Bhosari industrial clusters besides big manufacturing units are located in Chakan, Ranjangaon and Hinjewadi. For those industries in non-containment zones such as Chakan and Ranjangaon, the workers coming there, mostly stay in PMC and PCMC limits which have been announced as containment zones. Save Our Energy Industry by Slashing Royalty Payments, Energy Taxes Now Commentary Americas domestic energy producers are under siege. The price of U.S. crude oil fell to negative territory on April 20, from roughly $50 a barrel a year ago. This collapse in price is sending nearly the entire oil and gas industry into bankruptcy. What is going on here? Saudi Arabia and Russia have flooded the international market with cheap oil at the very time of a massive drop in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This perfect storm for Americas drillers sent prices into this unprecedented tailspin. Low prices are good news for U.S. motorists and manufacturers, for sure. Get ready for $1 per gallon gas prices in some places. But the market saturation in cheap oil is a scheme by the Saudis to regain the power they lost when innovative U.S. drillers cracked the code to unleash the most prolific and unexpected oil and gas boom in the history of North America. Because of their grit and determination, and for leading us out of the 2008 to 2009 recession, I love this industry. I wrote a book about the frackers in 2015, and, for full disclosure, I get some limited funding from energy firms. Under President Donald Trumps policies, which were highly supportive of American energy independence, the United States became a net exporter of energy, and OPECs energy dominance was over. But now, Russia and Saudi Arabia want their price war to shut down American energy production while the world isnt looking. They are succeeding. Many small- and medium-sized producers, from Texas to North Dakota and Pennsylvania, have been shutting and are even fighting off bankruptcy. These companies are amazingly resilient and are experts at slashing production costs for the sake of survival. Almost no one (other than radical environmentalists) favors decapitating an industry that has made America an energy powerhouse, created as many as 5 million new jobs, and almost single-handedly pulled our nation out of the 2008-2009 recession. Oil remains one of the necessary elements in societys ability to prosper and function. For example, the blue-collar jobs in oil production, transportation, refining, and petrochemical manufacturing were all deemed essential workforce (even in California!) during this period of national emergency. It would be dangerous and shortsighted to hand over energy production to foreign regimes that are less than friendly to the United States and have proven themselves to be less than dependable suppliers. One smart retaliatory move would be to slash the taxes paid by our onshore drillers and royalties on drillers in the Gulf of Mexico and on federal lands. These royalties paid to Uncle Sam can range from a tax of between 12 percent and 18.5 percent. Ending the royalties through the end of the year would lift the after-tax price paid to drillers by as much as $5 a barrel. This would apply to about 4 million barrels of oil per day on federal properties. The feds now collect about $6 billion a year in royalties. Canceling those payments would be a small price to pay to save an industry that employs several million workers. Under federal law, the president has the executive authority to take this action. America has become the worlds largest oil and gas producerand the Russians and the Saudis want to end that supremacy. Trump can and should make sure they dont succeed by slashing the taxes and royalties this critical industry pays until the coronavirus crisis is over. Stephen Moore is an economics journalist, author, and columnist. The latest of many books he co-authored is Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy. Currently, Moore is also the chief economist for the Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity. Special Coverage: For our latest coverage of the CCP Virus Outbreak, visit our new section and sign up for our daily newsletter. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Mrs and Mr Burk from Ludwigsburg smile after they got their ice cream in a parlor in Ludwigsburg, southern Germany amid the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: THOMAS KIENZLE/AFP via Getty Images A German regional authority has responded to the challenge of lifting the virus lockdown by issuing regulations on how to eat ice cream in public. While governments across Europe debate how to restart their economies, the state of Lower Saxony is focusing on more pressing issues. Customers buying an ice cream are allowed one lick in the shop to prevent it dripping on their clothes, before retreating to a safe distance to enjoy the rest, the regional government announced yesterday. Ice cream shops are among thousands of businesses that will reopen for the first time in a month as Germany begins to lift its lockdown. As with restaurants and cafes, eating on the premises is strictly forbidden and customers are not allowed to consume food until they are at least 50 metres away. But with spring temperatures already soaring above 20C, the regional government has ordered a special exemption to prevent ice cream melting. "A pragmatic approach is permitted when applying the regulation in the case of ice cream," the state's official website notes in starchily legal German. "An initial swift lick of a scoop while rapidly proceeding away from the ice cream parlour can be permitted in order to prevent ice cream from dripping on to clothing or the floor," it says. "However, the safe limit of 50 metres applies to the consumption of the remaining ice cream." The rules were ridiculed on social media. "Here in Lower Saxony the virus stays within a 50m radius of ice cream parlours: you can only lick your ice cream once so that nothing drips and then you have to run 50m out of the 'danger zone', otherwise it's up to you... Absolutely crazy," one Twitter user wrote. Angela Merkel urged Germans to remain disciplined and continue to observe social distancing as the country began to lift its lockdown yesterday. "We have to be gradual, slow and careful," the chancellor said. "It would be a shame if we knowingly took a backwards step." ( Daily Telegraph, London) Visit our Covid-19 vaccine dashboard for updates on the roll out of the vaccination program and the rate of Coronavirus cases Ireland Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (Image: PTI) Kerala has won global acclaim for the success of its cluster-containment model in the fight against COVID-19. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has emerged as the undisputed hero, energising the entire operations of the state machinery while co-ordinating with the Centre to mount special drives to rescue Keralites stranded in high infection pockets around the world. His daily media briefing commanded prime time viewership on TV channels, providing a substitute for the staple offering of evening TV soaps that went for a toss due to the lockdown and social distancing norms. However, a strange cause effect syndrome has gripped the scene, with the effect itself becoming the cause of trouble for the Chief Minister. The implications could not have been lost on an Opposition, finding itself rudderless against a turbo-powered government heading towards its fifth year in power with aplomb. The scope of a political slugfest has filled the Opposition with some renewed confidence, just as the Vijayan government found itself under increasing pressure of its past failures despite a brilliant track record in handling similar emergencies. The Chief Minister had been involved in much of what is now finding global acceptance as the Kerala model. A misstep by the government with a fund-raising effort to drive the COVID-19 defence provided the Opposition an unexpected opportunity to attack and it would have been naive for them to let that go to waste. The Chief Minister called for a repeat of what has come to be known as the salary challenge under which government employees would forego a months salary as contribution to the chief ministers disaster relief fund. The idea, mooted by Vijayan on the occasion of the devastating floods of 2018, has always remained controversial. Though supposed to be a voluntary effort, the state government sought to make it mandatory, which was later challenged in the courts. 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 fund has been dogged by allegations of large-scale misuse, including allocations to engage leading lawyers to defend party men named as accused in sensational political murders. The state Lokayukta even admitted a complaint that the state Cabinet had illegally transferred money from the fund to the families of prominent Left Democratic Front (LDF) leaders who had died in recent times. According to the accounts, as stated by the Chief Ministers Office, the fund had collected Rs 4,798 crore in the wake of the 2018 floods, but could disburse only Rs 3,080 crore over the last two years, leaving an unutilised amount of over Rs 1,700 crores. In the face of mounting criticism, the move for another salary challenge has been dropped altogether, marking the first climb down by a government that appeared invincible until the other day on the basis of its superlative performance in fighting COVID-19. Discomfiture over the salary challenge gone awry was nothing when compared to the embarrassment brought by engaging Sprinklr, an American IT company, to collate and analyse health data relating to people sent to isolation and home quarantine as part of the state governments coronavirus protocol. Making the situation all the more difficult is the fact that the deal was signed without the law department being brought into the picture. Sensing the huge opportunity, the Opposition has launched a frontal attack on the Chief Minister for engaging a US company that is already facing data theft charges. Vijayan initially dismissed the allegation contemptuously as an Opposition grudge against the governments goodwill for its work, but when he found the going too tough, the celebrated daily media briefing with its high TPR ratings was called off abruptly. As the cancellation betrayed a growing sense of vulnerability over the controversial deal, the media briefing has since been restored on a selective basis. The message has already gone out loud and clear. A firefighting operation by the IT secretary, who is also the Chief Ministers chief adviser, has produced entirely unintended results, further exposing the deal, sought to be justified as free offering by an Indian-owned US company. No one has yet asked the all-important question as to why a company should provide a free service to any client. Perhaps, the answer is found in the fact that the Sprinklr is a service provider to the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which is now actively pursuing the development of a vaccine to cure the COVID-19 virus. That also provides clues as to where the health data collected from corona patients and those under observation may be headed. Bengaluru, April 21 : Alarmed by the increasing number of asymptomatic cases across the state, a worried Karnataka government directed all the people, especially those above 55 years of age, to undergo Covid-19 test at the earliest to ensure they are free from it or get treated if they turn positive, an official said on Tuesday. "As we have received more medical kits and rushed them to state-run hospitals and designated private labs across the state to conduct hundreds of coronavirus tests daily, the people, especially seniors, should take the test and know their health status. If they test positive, they should get admitted to Covid-19 state-run or designated private hospitals for treatment. If negative, they should stay home till the lockdown is lifted on May 3," the health official told IANS here. State health department data revealed that of the 390 cases reported till Sunday, 256 were asymptomatic and 134 symptomatic, who were primary and secondary contacts of the virus patients. Asymptomatic patients are also those who do not have overseas travel history or were in contact with Covid-19 patients, but display the symptoms at a later stage. Though Karnataka is in the 10th position in the national Covid-19 tracker with 418 positive cases, including 128 discharged and 17 deaths till date, thousands of people remain untested across the state. A total of 13,546 people, including 3,871 primary contacts and 9,673 secondary contacts, have been shortlisted to take the test across the state in the next 10 days. "Results of these tests are crucial for the state in the run-up to the 19-day extended lockdown till May 3," the official noted. According to state health commissioner A.K. Pandey, the number of Covid-19 tests has shot up four times to about 2,000 a day from 500 daily till April 15 at 17 labs across the state. "As the tests will double with 10 more labs being set up this week and 30 more by May-end, people should volunteer to take the test in their interest and welfare though they may not have travelled abroad recently or got into contact with any positive case or infected person," pointed out the official. In an advisory through the media and radio/television, the state government has exhorted the people, especially senior citizens, even with minor symptoms like cold, cough, fatigue, throat pain or fever to undergo the Covid-19 test so that they can get treated at an early stage. The guidelines from the Centre stipulate that senior citizens should not only stay in the house, but also avoid visitors at home, maintain at least one-meter distance and check pulse, blood pressure and sugar level to ensure they remain healthy and active during the lockdown. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Protesters gather outside the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg on April 20, 2020. They are calling for Gov. Tom Wolf to reopen the state's economy during the coronavirus outbreak. Read more The Ostrich Alliance. That is the label a Brazilian professor from Sao Paulo applied to the leaders of Brazil, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Nicaragua who continue to deny the threat that the coronavirus poses to their people. All share a common disdain for science. Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarussian, calls the disease a psychosis and refuses to impose social distancing. Nicaraguas Daniel Ortega calls it an act of God. Trumps buddy, Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro, downplays coronavirus hysteria and excoriates state governors as job killers for imposing quarantines. In contrast to the ostrich club, the leaders who have been most successful in combating COVID-19, such as those of South Korea, Taiwan, and Germany, openly respect science and listen to their scientific advisers. READ MORE: How Germany kept death rate down and South Korea got masks for everyone I Trudy Rubin Yet, President Donald Trump openly joined the Ostrich Alliance last week. Of course, Trumps disdain for science is no secret. Our country is paying a high price for his weeks-long refusal to take COVID-19 seriously, despite many warnings. He promotes unproven drugs. And he refuses to institute a nationwide plan for antibody testing, which is a vital prerequisite for an economic restart. But last week, the presidents war on science reached a fever pitch, as he egged on demonstrators who were protesting stay-at-home restrictions at several state capitals. In my weeks of covering this crisis worldwide, I have never seen anything so shameful. LIBERATE MICHIGAN! Trump tweeted. LIBERATE MINNESOTA! Both are states whose Democratic governors put strict social distancing regulations in place, as have Republican governors in Ohio, Maryland, and elsewhere. They want their life back. Their life was taken away from them, Trump said at his April 19 briefing, as if health regulations were the enemy, not the virus. He was effectively urging demonstrators to ignore the back-to-work guidelines of his own task force, which require a two-week decline in cases before states start to reopen. That encourages reckless GOP governors such as Georgias Brian Kemp, who just ordered the opening of nail salons, massage parlors, gyms, and other close contact businesses, in violation of Trumps guidelines, without even consulting mayors. Meantime, the denigration of Democratic governors becomes Trumps tool to disguise his own failures. He styles himself a wartime commander in chief. Imagine if Winston Churchill had used his BBC speeches during the Blitz to attack the mayor of London rather than urge his people to stand firm against Adolf Hitler. But nowhere is the presidents ostrich-like behavior more dangerous than in the matter of tests. For weeks, Trump has misled the nation on the availability of testing for infected individuals, falsely claiming the United States was doing better at testing than other nations. Instead of coordinating the distribution of supplies at the national level as South Korea and Germany did Trump left governors from both parties struggling to obtain swabs and necessary chemicals and accurate test kits, in competition with each other. Trumps response is to criticize governors and call them ignorant. (Perhaps he is jealous that polling shows all governors to be far more popular than he is.) Nor has the president yet grasped the criticality of ramping testing way, way up in order for Americans to return safely to work. Most important, say epidemiological experts, there needs to be a national strategy, both to coordinate supplies and personnel and to do a large-scale scientific sampling of the entire population for antibodies. This is necessary to finally understand the extent of the disease, including how many people had it but showed no symptoms, and who may now be immune. Trump denies such a strategy is needed. READ MORE: Spain goes partly back to work with a message for America: test, test, test. I Trudy Rubin Germany, on the other hand, has already started conducting such a study, but then, Chancellor Angela Merkel is herself a scientist. As for the United States, We are still totally, absolutely operating in the dark, says Jennifer Pinto-Martin, executive director of the Center for Public Health Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania. It is incomprehensible to send people back to work without accurate, consistent testing, contact tracing, and social distancing. She adds that for testing to be effective, you need a consistent set of [national] testing protocols, with a testing model that takes into account differences within states, along with age, gender, and other factors. If each state goes off on its own, the overall results will be inconsistent, and we will remain ill-informed about the disease. But far from embracing science, Trump insists mass testing isnt necessary. It is more convenient for him to shift the burden to the states, even though that makes a safe return to work impossible. If some states reopen too soon (at his urging), Trump can also blame governors when the virus reemerges. We all want to get back to normal soonest. But it is unconscionable for Trump to abet the conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, Second Amendment fanatics, and conservative talk show hosts along with many genuinely fearful citizens who want to ignore the painful constrictions of science. By joining the ostrich club, and playing politics with science, Trump is also playing with our lives. Gates pleaded guilty in February 2018 to lying to the FBI and conspiring to conceal tens of millions of dollars that he and Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort earned in undisclosed lobbying for a pro-Russian politician in Ukraine. He remained Manaforts right-hand man when Manafort served as campaign chairman until that August. Gates was a key government cooperator and gave Muellers office ample basis to investigate coordination between the campaign and Russia or possible obstruction of justice, Jackson said. Dallas-based writer Jose R. Ralats new book, American Tacos, considers the evolution and taxonomy of the tortilla-wrapped street food that has become a culinary totem all across the country, and an obsession here in Texas. Cynics might call our taco mania a fetish at this point, but I find it impossible to be cynical about tacos. They are simply too central to my way of life. It was not always thus. Back in 1966, when I met my first taco at a Jack in the Box drive-thru during my freshman year at Rice University, Houston tacos were generally of the classic Tex-Mex school: crunchy fried shell, crumbled ground beef filling, garnish of chopped iceberg, tomato and grated yellow cheese. Spoon on a little red salsa (or squirt it out of a packet), and that was it. It took me a while to learn to love these tacos. There were plenty of bad ones, with dreary commercial shells or poorly seasoned picadillo or one-note salsa. But properly done, I came to understand, the Tex-Mex taco could delight. The version at the Spanish Village on Almeda always made me happy when it arrived on my combo plate. And a light bulb went off in my head when I first tasted the taco at the old Last Concert Cafe in the late 1960s, when you still had to knock on the door to get in, and owner Elena Mama Lopez still presided from her corner booth near the entrance. Flavor: Get the best food newsletter in Houston sent directly to your inbox Her taco wore a stealth ribbon of vinaigrette (it tasted a lot like bottled Italian dressing) on top of its lettuce and tomatoes, and it was a touch that galvanized the flavors, made them come alive. Right then I grasped a truism that lies at the heart of the tacos appeal: It exists not just to be savored as is but also to be tweaked and doctored into ones own idea of taco heaven. It might be hard to believe, but it wasnt until the early 1970s that gringo Houston snapped to the soft, interior Mexican-style taco elemental and ancient with its pre-Hispanic roots that now rules the citys taco scene. Sure, the soft corn-tortilla taco existed in home kitchens or scattered barrio spots. But not until the original 24-hour Las Cazuelas started drawing a wide, mostly young audience to the corner of Fulton and Quitman on the near northside, where they lined up late into the night after drinking and concertgoing and dancing, did the broader civic ideas about tacos began to shift. Ninfa Laurenzo propelled that change in 1973 at the original Ninfas on Navigation, where the dish that drew flocks of eager customers from across the city was Tacos a la Ninfa: mesquite-grilled skirt steak tucked into Norteno-style flour tortillas made on the spot, to be gigged with red or green salsa, maybe some pico de gallo. That specialty, tacos al carbon, helped to launch the whole fajita craze, complete with sizzling iron platters, loops of caramelized onion and a colorful circus of garnishes the do-it-yourself soft skirt steak taco still rules Texas today. By 1986, when Texas Monthly sent me out to eat tacos all over the state for an epic Taco Tour cover story, the Norteno flour-tortilla style was so popular especially in newly fashionable breakfast tacos that I worried our collective appreciation for corn tortillas was on the wane, along with our ablility to make superior ones. Would Texans lose their memory of what a well-made corn tortilla was supposed to taste like? I asked. (Spoiler: We didnt.) Back then I couldnt have imagined the sea change that lay ahead, and which Ralat documents in American Tacos. And I certainly couldnt imagine that Ralats current job as Texas Monthlys taco editor would exist at the magazine for which I then worked. I was smart enough to single out San Antonio as the states mid-80s taco capital, and to spotlight Brownsville as the shining light of the Rio Grande Valleys taco scene, but mostly I just tried to make a case that the taco deserved to be considered as more than an afterthought on the great Tex-Mex menu of life. Even some of the categories into which Ralat divides American tacos might have boggled my mind back then: genre-blending K-Mex (Korean-influenced) tacos, Jewish and kosher tacos, Sur-Mex tacos informed by the ingredients and culinary traditions of the Deep South, Alta-California tacos. When I came across a barbecued brisket taco in my travels across Texas, I actually joked about it. In San Antonio, I wrote approvingly, that as a filling almost anything goes, including Polish sausage, chilaquiles, dried-shrimp cakes, or would I pull your leg about something like this? chopped-beef barbecue. Now, in the fullness of time, barbecue tacos coexist with barbacoa tacos (which were strong in 1986 Valley taco styles) as an exciting new Texas foodway often with a Tex-Mex twist from Valentinas in Austin to 2M Smokehouse in San Antonio to Eddie Os BBQ in Houston. My colleague Chris Reid, the Chronicles barbecue columnist, has documented the barbecue taco phenomenon at Palomo Pit BBQ, JQs Tex-Mex BBQ and Tejas Chocolate & BBQ in the Houston area, just to name a few. If I ever get out of self-quarantine, a lot of these places are on my wish list. As for the chef-driven tacos of which Ralat writes, who other than Houstons Hugo Ortega has done more to establish ancient ways of corn-tortilla making in concert with beautfully modulated taco fillings whether it be beef cheeks (cachetes), crisp-skinned suckling pig or grilled octopus, all to be baptized with one of a dozen brilliant salsas? And when it comes to modern forms, where better to appreciate the latest Mexico City twists than La Vibra Tacos, the sleek semi-serve spot that deals in filigreed griddled-cheese wraps (costras) and the kind of salsa constellation that makes doctoring a joy? Its funny because in 1986, I pegged Houstons taco appeal as just a tad better than Dallas. That was not, at the time, a compliment. Just for the record, the Houston taco spots I name-checked were Ninfas; Merida; Doneraki; the nuevo-wavo Goode Co. Hamburgers & Taqueria; Cortes Meat Market & Deli; La Mexicana Supermarket & Deli; Taqueria Tepatitlan; Taqueria del Sol; and Taqueria Mexico. Now, 34 years later, I could make a case for this city as Texas taco capital just as strong as the one I once made for San Antonio. From flea-market stalls to fine dining, weve got it all. Mr. Ralat whos a great taco-dining companion, by the way might not agree. But then, thats the fun of reading his book and reflecting on the taco evolution that still rolls on, here and all across America. alison.cook@chron.com twitter.com.alisoncook [April 21, 2020] Tachyum Promotes Elena Zokhidova to VP of Finance After She Helps Elevate Company's Success Semiconductor startup Tachyum Inc. announced today the promotion of Elena Zokhidova to Vice President of Finance from Senior Director. She achieved the new position after nearly a year of helping the company successfully meet aggressive business goals. Zokhidova was recruited by Tachyum to help lead the company's financial operations throughout its growth phase and ensure that it is well positioned to meet pre-IPO compliance. Since joining Tachyum in June 2019, Zokhidova has helped successfully transform the company from an early-stage startup to a pre-revenue company while implementing processes to ensure future scalability. Among those financial achievements are the closing of Tachyum's Series A funding round and the completion of several corporate government transactions. As Tachyum's human resources lead, Zokhidova has identified recruiters, created processes which targeted and hired highly qualified engineers and technologists for the company as part of the development of the Prodigy Universal Processor (News - Alert) Chip and associated data center and AI applications. These employees join growing teams across Tachyum's global operation centers, including its US headquarters and EU R&D center in Slovakia. Additionally, Zokhidova successfully negotiated contracts, signed in 2019, with IP providers and one of the world's largest EDA companies to complete Tachyum's chip tape-out and design-for-test operations. "In a short period of time, Elena has come in, fortified our financial position and helped advance Tachyum as a well-regarded leader in the data processing community," said Dr. Radoslav Danilak, Tachyum founder and CEO. "We are lucky to have found a financial expert with not only experience in public accounting but one that fundamentally understands the microprocessor industry inside and out. Her success in helping companies rapidly scale out their business has become our own success as we contnue to grow our organization into the coming year and beyond. I am pleased that Tachyum retains her talents and congratulate her on her promotion to an even-more important position here at Tachyum." Zokhidova came to Tachyum from NVIDIA (News - Alert) Corporation, where she oversaw corporate revenue and served as the Financial Business Controller of the company's GeForce business unit. Her financial models were used to forecast new business opportunities, including long-term revenue, margins and cash flows, and made recommendations on potential deal structures. Prior to NVIDIA, Zokhidova was the Financial Business Controller of Advanced Micro Devices' (News - Alert) $2 billion semi-custom business, analyzing business opportunities and making recommendations to drive long-term profitability on future initiatives. Prior to her industry positions, she served as a Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers (News - Alert) and an Audit Assistant at KPMG, both companies among the Big Four multinational auditors. Zokhidova is a graduate of Tashkent Financial Institute in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Follow Tachyum https://twitter.com/tachyum https://www.linkedin.com/company/tachyum https://www.facebook.com/Tachyum/ About Tachyum Tachyum is leading the way in delivering transformative semiconductor solutions that provide industry-leading speed, power efficiency and cost. Whether enabling supercomputers more powerful than the human brain or turning everyday data centers into low-cost HPC and AI centers of excellence, Tachyum's unique approach disrupts markets and industries worldwide. Co-founded by seasoned architect and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dr. Radoslav Danilak, Prodigy, the world's first and only universal processor, begins volume production in 2021 and targets a $50B+ market that is increasing by more than 20 percent a year. With data centers consuming 3 percent of the planet's electricity - and doubling every 5 years - Tachyum's ultra-low power Prodigy is critical for continued data center growth. Tachyum has US offices in Santa Clara, California, and EU offices in Bratislava, Slovakia. For more information, visit https://tachyum.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005217/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Jonathan Ernst/Reuters President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would be issuing an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States in light of the lingering threat of the new coronavirus. The announcement, which would represent one of the most dramatic moves by a president over immigration policy in modern memory, was made via Twitter. The White House did not provide any immediate clarification, including when such an EO would be signed, which Trump did not specify in his tweet. Presidents enjoy wide latitude when it comes to unilaterally setting immigration policy, as affirmed by the courts. But its unclear if a blanket shutdown of all immigration would pass legal muster, or if that is what Trump is even proposing. The devil will be in the details, as is usually the case with this administration. Trumps previous bans, including those involving China and Europe as the coronavirus spread, were porous and contained exceptions for citizens (which wont matter here) and trade interests (which very well could). Trumps team is made up of immigration restrictionists, most notably top aide Stephen Miller. And it has proposed reducing legal immigration before. The onset of the coronavirus pandemic has emboldened this mindset among the president and his aides, as they seek to close borders to stem the flow of the virus, implement more hard-line immigration policies, and craft a new vision for the domestic economy. At one point, Trumps commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, even predicted that the coronavirus would result in job growth in America as consumers began turning to domestic suppliers and trusting them more. That obviously did not happen. Job loss has skyrocketed as the pandemic has shut down much of the country. And its hard to see how stopping immigration entirely would alleviate that fundamental problem, as not many people are likely immigrating anywhere at the moment, with travel coming to a halt and the pandemic being global and all. Nevertheless, the most committed of Trump supporters embraced his tweet as an act of divine political wisdom. Story continues Trumps promise to sign an executive order in light ofas he put itthe attack from the Invisible Enemy comes as he is enduring continued criticism over the federal governments inability to stand up a robust testing regime. It also is coming roughly the same time that he has begun encouraging states to consider reopening their economies and loosening social distancing guidelines because of the progress he says has been made in combating coronavirus. Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here 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. As crude oil prices slipped into a free fall with the US futures' market recording negative prices for the first time, India is closely looking at the opportunity for a good bargain to fill in its strategic crude oil reserves. Strategic crude oil reserves allow a country to tide over short-term supply disruptions. On Monday (April 20), US crude oil rates plunged below the USD 0 mark into negative territory for the first time in history. May U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures plunged to minus USD 37.63 a barrel, a fall or more than 305 percent, pummeled by plunging demand as a the Coronavirus pandemic continue to force most countries into nationwide lockdowns for an indeterminate period. This may well be the opportune time to buy from spot crude oil market and top up Indias existing strategic petroleum reserves (SPRs). Two years ago, in June 2018, the Narendra Modi government approved a plan to build two new caves of SPRs which, when complete and tanked up, will create additional capacity to maintain supplies for up to 11.5 days oil needs in an emergency. This will raise Indias crude oil storage capacity to equivalent of 87 days of demand by 2020, which include 67 days worth of commercial stocks held by refineries (apart from the armed forces stocks). One of the new caves is being built at Chandikhol, in Odisha, to store up to 4.4 million tonnes of crude oil; the other will be a 2.5-million tonne facility at Padur, Karnataka. This is besides the three SPRs India already has in Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur. The Visakhapatnam and Mangauluru facilities have been built to meet roughly 2.5 days of requirement each while Padur can meet 4.5 days of oil needs. These facilities can store up to 1.33 million tonnes, 1.5 million tonnes (Manguluru) and 2.5 million tonnes (Padur). The Cabinets decision in June 2018 to build new SPR caverns came exactly 45 days after a container ship carrying the first consignment of 2 million barrels of crude oil set sail from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the Mangaluru SPR. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has tied up with state-owned Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL) to store around 5.86 million barrels of crude oil in at the Mangaluru SPR at its own cost. This agreement was signed during Modis visit to the UAE in February 2018. In November 2018, ADNOC signed another agreement with ISPRL to store oil in half of the Padur strategic oil reserve site. The agreement allows ADNOC to sell oil to local refiners but give the government of India the first right to the oil in the case of an emergency. India, on its part, will save on costs for importing crude to store while retaining the first right of access in an emergency. In November 2018, the government had approved a plan allowing foreign oil companies to store oil in Padurs strategic storage, which it estimates will help cut costs by Rs 10,000 crore. India is a relatively recent entrant to the club building its oil stocks to deal with potential fuel supply disruptions and price shocks. India first decided to construct SPRs in 2004 as part of a broader strategy to deal with growing demand, stagnating domestic production, soaring global crude costs and dependence on the unsteady West Asian region for imports. India is set to overtake China as the biggest source of growth for oil demand by 2024. India's expanding middle class will be a key factor, as well as its growing need for mobility. Elena Malysheva, Russias star doctor and veteran host of popular TV program Zdoroviye (Health) on state-owned Channel 1, called COVID-19 a miracle of miracles. In a viral vlog shared on Facebook by the TV Center news agency on April 17, Malysheva said: "This virus is a miracle of miracles, a miracle of miracles! Children do not die, do not get ill, do not end up in intensive care up to 20 years old." The claim is false. Globally, statistics concerning children with COVID-19 come largely from a few studies from China that some scientists say are unreliable. These studies suggested that children younger than 18 were less likely to develop serious or critical conditions compared to adults. Still, these studies showed that children are not immune. Of 2,143 pediatric patients in one Chinese study, most had mild symptoms but one child, a 14-year-old boy, did die. Among children, infants had a higher risk of severe disease. In another one-month study of 1,391 cases at Wuhan Childrens hospital found that 13 percent had COVID-19. The median age was 6.7 years; as of March 10, only a 10-month old infant died. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated in a report published on April 6 that among 149,082 (99.6%) reported COVID-19 cases for which age was known, 2,572 (1.7%) were among children younger than 18 years. Of those, an estimated 5.7- 20 percent were hospitalized, 0.58-2.0 percent were placed in an intensive care unit and three died. The Russian health ministrys website has a COVID-19 page, but it does not include demographics. Some data can be found in an April 16 report available on the Russian Pediatricians Unions website. While mainly focused on Chinese and American studies, the report also cites data from the Russian Federal Children Reanimation-Consultation Center indicating that, as of April 12, 10 children were hospitalized with severe respiratory infection from COVID-19. Two of them were on ventilators (compared to April 8, when four children were in intensive care, three of them on ventilators). Another study published by the Journal of Health Management and Practice on April 16 had a rather gloomy prognosis regarding U.S. hospital care for children with COVID-19. After analyzing the U.S. and China data on COVID-19 infections among children with a modeling software, the study predicted, that [b]ecause there are 74.0 million children 0 to 17 years old in the United States, the projected numbers of severe cases could overextend available pediatric hospital care resources. Inside Russia, the COVID-19 pandemic is creating social tensions. On Monday, anti-quarantine protests broke out in the Russian North Caucasus, with the riot police cracking down on the protesters. A day earlier, on Sunday, President Vladimir Putin told the nation in a televised address that Russia had the coronavirus under full control. With Gods help everything will be good, he said. Russia, with a population of about 146 million, has a relatively low number of reported COVID-19 cases -- 52,763 -- with 456 deaths from the disease as of April 21. Doctors and public health experts criticized Putins address. The Moscow Times earlier quoted experts as saying that while health care in Russia is free and fully government funded, the government has neglected the system for over a decade, and it is already running out of capacity. Russian doctors were also quoted as saying that the relatively low number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Russia was mainly due to misdiagnosis and the use of pneumonia as a cover up for coronavirus cases. Public figures in Russia, including top lawmakers, have been pushing the idea that Russians are somehow immune from coronavirus. Indeed, Aleksandr Myasnikov, whom Putin put in charge of the governments COVID-19 Monitoring Center, has been nicknamed Doctor COVID doesnt take Russians for his frequent repetition of the phrase during TV appearances. Not quite a year ago, Texas school districts heralded House Bill 3 as a historic shot of new state education funding. It required pay raises for teachers and staff, allowed expansion of pre-kindergarten offerings, allocated money based on a more thoughtful definition of student needs and combined it all with local property tax relief. Today, school districts trying to prepare budgets for the coming year amid pandemic-induced school closures are warning that plummeting state government revenues make those funding guarantees uncertain at best. The economic disruption has hammeredTexass sales tax and oil sector income, and is likely to affect the commercial property values that shore up local property taxes. Northside Independent School District, the citys largest, now is developing a budget that contains no employee pay raises and a slower expansion of pre-k programs than it had anticipated last summer. Talk of possible layoffs has marked preliminary budget discussions at North East ISD, the second largest. I dont want people to panic about that because its far too early to know, Superintendent Sean Maika said in an interview Monday. The San Antonio ISD board will start budget workshops in May, but when it met last week, Chief Financial Officer Larry Garza outlined several potential problems in a slide titled Budgeting in Uncertain Times. We just dont have any guidance of what potential state cuts could occur, Superintendent Pedro Martinez said. The states are going to depend on how much federal assistance theyre going to get, and right now nobody really knows that answer because all states right now are losing revenue. Required Reading: Get San Antonio education news sent directly to your inbox Before schools and much of the country shut down last month, districts across Texas were adapting to big changes brought by the 2019 school finance overhaul. HB 3 requires districts to base their upcoming budget on current property values, instead of the previous years values, a big difference in much of the San Antonio area, where values had been rising year after year. The law gives districts more state money, but their property tax rates must be capped at levels determined by how fast local property values rise, among other factors, said Catherine Knepp, an associate at Moak, Casey & Associates, an Austin-based school finance consulting group. Districts were still figuring out how to do that, Knepp said, Then enter coronavirus. If property values go down instead of up, the state is supposed to supplement the losses, said Michael Amezquita, the Bexar County Central Appraisal Districts chief appraiser. I think the biggest (downward) shock in commercial values will likely be in 2021, although I'm sure folks will do their best to get it lower this year, he said. At the end of the day, based on what they did in HB 3, if a school district receives lower than expected certified numbers, as long as we pass our property value study, that really falls to the state, Amezquita said. Anything the local effort doesnt collect, the state has to make up for. But school district officials are unsure the state will be able to afford House Bill 3s promises. The Texas Education Agency itself doesnt know yet what the impact of the downturn will be to school funding, Northside ISDs chief financial officer, Rene Barrajas, told district trustees in a virtual meeting last week. In January, when everyone assumed property values were rising, TEA officials advised districts not to worry about their property tax rates being cut, because House Bill 3 is going to make up the difference, Barrajas said. But that was predicated on state revenue from oil selling at $50 per barrel, and the global slump had brought it to $20 per barrel, he said. (By Monday, with no place to store it, sellers of oil that must be delivered in May were paying buyers to take it, effectively putting the price per barrel below zero.) On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio homes are now classrooms as coronavirus shuts schools Trustee MLissa Chumbley was disturbed by the proposed lack of raises. I certainly understand the concern that we have from a budget perspective but Im trying to go back and think, When was the last time we did zero increase in compensation? Chumbley said. That was in 2010 and 2011, Superintendent Brian Woods said, when the state slashed public school funding after the Great Recession. School districts are afraid history will repeat itself, he said. The thing were trying to avoid is committing to a budget that would later on likely not until after the 2021 (legisltaive) session force cuts like we saw in 2011, Woods said. The North East ISD board wont hold its first budget session until May 18, but even that might be delayed, Maika said. Over the past few years, the district has lost a few thousand students, but Maika said officials do not expect the enrollment drop to accelerate. And state legislators have reached out to reaffirm their commitment to provide the funding guaranteed in House Bill 3, he said. A year ago, the district expected about $21.7 million in new state funding, but at this point, well probably take a very conservative approach to budgeting, Maika said. Were going to do our very best to do a budget, but we could fully well be making amendments throughout the year as more information comes from the state, he said. And if the district does have to cut back spending, layoffs could be on the table, he said. If we were to have to reduce, we would have to potentially reduce some of the people in the district, Maika said. Martinez, the SAISD superintendent, said school districts are promised federal relief money from legislation enacted last month, but Mike Morath, the Texas education commissioner, has told them not to make assumptions about how much, because the federal and state governments still have to write the rules. Martinez said he is not planning for layoffs now, but the state has also hinted that districts should save the federal money for next school year, an indication that state funding cuts could be coming. Its still early and Im still looking for guidance from the state about what could happen next year, he said. We just want to be conservative in managing our resources. Were still trying to understand the economic ramifications of the virus. The state funds schools based on average daily attendance. SAISD is projecting enrollment next school year will remain flat at about 48,500. But Gov. Greg Abbotts order Friday to keep schools closed through the summer creates a five-month hiatus during which many families could leave the district, said Steve Lecholop, a trustee who asked for contingency plans in case enrollment plunges. What will we cut if we have to cut because only 40,000 kids come back, for example? Lecholop said. With so many people losing their jobs now, and the mobility that we see in normal times, Im fearful that were going to see a huge amount of enrollment uncertainty. Garza is considering factors that include the possibility of reduced property tax collection rates, not just reduced property values. The district has yet to collect $50 million in currently owed property taxes from people who chose payment plans. Other uncertainties included the number of employees who would stay on next year amid the economic upheaval, and whether the pandemic would drive up the use and cost of health insurance. The high-poverty school district has spent more than $7 million on laptops and wireless hotspots so students could finish the academic year online. Another $741,000 has been spent on supplies for instruction, child nutrition and maintenance, including disinfectant sprayers, as a result of the pandemic and shutdown, Garza said. The San Antonio ISD Foundation is raising money through its Connect Campaign for the hotspots, and trustees hope to reimburse the remaining $6 million in technology costs through a bond scheduled for the November ballot. The district also is paying an extra $3 per hour to employees working on site for meal distributions and other functions, Martinez said. Some other districts are paying time and a half to employees who need to work outside their homes. The revenue losses have been balanced with savings in utility, bus fuel, overtime, substitute teacher and travel costs during the shutdown. Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar has said the state is in a recession. His office plans to release an updated economic forecast in June, but school districts must approve their budgets between June and August, depending on when their fiscal years begin. The pandemic has upended the property appraisal process, Amezquita said.. Appraisal notices usually go out to commercial properties April 1, but that was delayed to late April and notices wont be delivered to residential property owners until late May. Because of downtown development, some 27 percent of the market value of property in San Antonio ISD is commercial, the highest percentage for school district land in Bexar County, according to preliminary CAD figures for this year, followed by South San and North East ISDs at 22 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Harlandale and Northside ISDs have more than 19 percent. By law, we have to send a certified appraisal to every taxing jurisdiction by July 25. In all likelihood, we will likely send that as a certified estimate. I dont think well be certifying on time this year, Amezquita said. He also is anticipating a longer appeal process with more requests from property owners this year. Staff writer Shelby Webb contributed to this report. | Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Krista, become a subscriber. Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralva | Alia Malik covers several school districts and the Alamo Colleges District in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Alia, become a subscriber. amalik@express-news.net | Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN Human trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine developed at the University of Oxford are to begin on Thursday, health secretary Matt Hancock has announced. And one member of the Oxford team said that if trials are successful, millions of doses of vaccine could be available for use by the autumn of this year, in a breakthrough which would potentially signal the start of the worlds slow emergence from an outbreak which has already claimed 175,000 lives and caused devastating economic damage. Speaking at the daily Downing Street press conference, Mr Hancock said the government was throwing everything at the search for a vaccine and announced he was providing 20m to the Oxford team to help fund its clinical trials, with a further 22.5m going to researchers at Imperial College London. Despite a normal development time of 18 months or more for a vaccine, the Oxford researchers led by Professor Sarah Gilbert believe large-scale production could be under way as early as September about nine months after the novel virus was first spotted in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Mr Hancock said the government will now invest in manufacturing capability so that if either the Oxford or Imperial vaccine works safely, it will be made available to the UK public as early as humanly possible. Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou The development came as: The UKs coronavirus death toll in hospitals rose to 17,337, with a further 828 Covid-19 patient fatalities reported. Office for National Statistics figures showed that the week ending 10 April was the deadliest in England and Wales since 2000, with a third of the total 18,516 deaths registered being linked to coronavirus. Figures showed the total of 13,121 Covid-19 deaths in all settings including care homes, hospices and private homes recorded by the ONS in the period to 10 April was about 40 per cent higher than the 9,288 hospital deaths recorded by the Department of Health over the same timescale. Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said that hospital bed occupancy for coronavirus patients continues to drop in London and plateau in other parts of the country, but warned: We remain in a situation of danger ... We are not out of danger at this point. Downing Street said it absolutely stands by Mr Hancocks target of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of April, despite just 18,206 tests being carried out in the most recent 24-hour period. A furious row blew up over the UKs failure to participate in an EU medical equipment scheme, with Mr Hancock denying the claim of the Foreign Offices top civil servant that it was a political decision. Some 78 ventilators and a stock of PPE arrived from China, but there was still no sign of a consignment of protective equipment from Turkey promised by ministers over the weekend. Boris Johnson told Donald Trump he was on the road to recovery in a phone call to thank the US president for his best wishes during the prime ministers hospitalisation with Covid-19. Setting out the possible timeframe for a successful vaccine to be made available to the public in the UK, and eventually around the world, a member of the Oxford team, Professor Andrew Pollard, told Sky News: If you had a sailing wind and absolutely nothing goes wrong in all of that complex technical process and you have all the facilities available, you could have millions of doses by the autumn of this year. But to the very large scale, theres a huge technical effort to get there and I think its unlikely that that could happen before the end of this year. He explained: If the trials are successful theres a big technical hurdle to upscale doses of the vaccine to the millions, tens of millions or even billions that would be needed for the world. Its a very different manufacturing process to be able to make such large volumes of vaccine. The capacity to do that round the world is quite limited. Prof Pollard said the Oxford project had been given a headstart by work already done on the coronaviruses Sars and Mers following outbreaks in recent years. When this new virus emerged there was already work going on in Oxford on Mers coronavirus and a vaccine was being trialled on humans, he said. What happened was that the genetic code from the new coronavirus was discovered in January and it was possible to go back to that genetic code and make these new vaccines very rapidly. Theyve been developed in the laboratory and taken to a manufacturing facility in Oxford to make the first doses ready for trials. Prof Pollard made clear that the Oxford trial was not guaranteed to produce a successful vaccine, saying: We have to do the clinical trials in order to work out how well the vaccines work and also how long the protection from the vaccines might last if indeed it does protect. Imperials professor of global health David Nabarro, an envoy on Covid-19 for the World Health Organisation, has warned that it may never be possible to develop a safe and effective vaccine for the disease, and that humanity may have to find ways to go about our lives with this virus as a constant threat. Mr Hancock cautioned: Nothing about this process is certain. Vaccine development is a matter of trial and error and trial again. Thats the nature of how vaccines are developed. He said he had told Professor Gilbert and Imperials Professor Robin Shattock that the government will back them to the hilt and give them every resource they need to give them the best possible chance of success as soon as possible. The health secretary made clear that he believes the UK stands to reap a gigantic economic windfall if it is the first to reach the holy grail of a vaccine which could protect the whole world against Covid-19. The upside of being the first country in the world to develop a successful vaccine is so huge that I am throwing everything at it, he said. In the long run the best way to defeat coronavirus is through a vaccine. This is a new disease, this is uncertain science, but Im certain that we will throw everything weve got at developing a vaccine. The UK is at the forefront of the global effort. Weve put more money than any other country into the global search for a vaccine. And for all the efforts around the world, two of the leading vaccine developments are taking place here. Mr Hancock cautioned that hopes of a breakthrough on a vaccine should not tempt people to become complacent in social-distancing measures. He said: Coronavirus is a powerful enemy. But I believe that the power of human ingenuity is stronger. Every day the science gets better, we gather more information, we understand more about how to defeat the illness. But in the meantime theres one thing we can do and that is stay home, protect the NHS and save lives. I had been to Lutheran General Hospital on a few service calls for work and I know there were a few cases there, he said. I also work out at the Rosemont Health (and Fitness) Club. Before I got tested, before I was experiencing symptoms, I heard there was a confirmed case from there. I would guess I got it from one of those two places, but I cant say for sure. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as he arrives for a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, on July 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool) Canada Should Probe WHOs Handling of Pandemic, Say Experts As the United States withholds funding to the World Health Organization, experts are suggesting Canada engage in a review of the U.N. agencys handling of the COVID-19 outbreak along with other member states, with one saying Ottawa should follow Washingtons lead. J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa and the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington, said there should be a thorough investigation to examine how the WHO handled the outbreak and its interactions with its member countries, particularly China. As a smaller country and donor to the WHO, Canada should work in concert with a group of concerned democracies in ensuring that appropriate reviews at the WHO and within the U.N. are carried out, he said in an interview. While not suggesting halting funding to the WHO, Cole added that he supports sending strong signals of discontent to the WHO over the manner in which it and its director-general have handled the COVID-19 crisis. A thorough investigation of the possible nefarious influence of a certain country within that organization is warranted. Having multiple member countries work together from within the body to probe how the WHO has dealt with the crisis would be more effective, Cole said. I believe that working within the system, rather than from the outside after leaving it, has better chances of yielding constructive results. But that means real work, real dedication, and real leadership on the part of our politicians and officials, he said. Weve been cruising for too long while China has been very aggressive in its efforts to increase its influence within the U.N. Its time we took that challenge seriously. For around three weeks after the WHO was notified of the outbreak on Dec. 31, 2019, the agency echoed statements from Chinese officials that there was no evidence or a low risk of the virus being contagious. But a growing body of evidence shows the Chinese regime was aware the virus was spreading between humans well before it publicly confirmed human-to-human transmission on Jan. 20. On April 15, President Donald Trump announced that U.S. funding would be temporarily suspended pending a review to assess the World Health Organizations role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus, as he accused the organization of being too close to China. The United States is the single largest donor to the WHO, contributing more than $400 million in 2019roughly 12 percent of the agencys budget. Canada had contributed US$100.5 million as of the 2018-19 reporting period. Philip Carl Salzman, a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and emeritus professor of anthropology at McGill University, believes Canada should follow in Americas footsteps and put a hold on its funding to the WHO. I do not know of any special reasons that Canada should act other than the general one that China is as great a threat to Canada as it is to the U.S., he said in an interview. Ottawa has followed WHOs recommendations since the pandemic began and has remained firm in its support of the organization, although this week said there is a critical need for the WHO to carry out a post-pandemic investigation into its response. Global Affairs Canada said in a statement that the issue was raised during a call between International Development Minister Karina Gould and WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on April 20. The statement added that Gould started the conversation by conveying Canadas appreciation for the WHOs leadership in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, Gould said Ottawa is disappointed that the United States decided to halt funding to WHO, and said member countries will have to figure out a way to make up for the shortfall. On April 16, leaders of the Group of Seven countries, of which Canada is a member, called for a thorough review and reform of the WHO amid a lack of transparency and chronic mismanagement of the pandemic by the organization, according to a statement from the White House. The leaders recognized that the G7 nations annually contribute more than a billion dollars to the World Health Organization, and much of the conversation centered on the lack of transparency and chronic mismanagement of the pandemic by the WHO, the statement said. The leaders called for a thorough review and reform process. As questions mount about the relationship between the WHO and Beijing that may have influenced the organizations response to the virus outbreakand in turn CanadasOfficial Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer said Canada needs to hold WHO accountable for their dependence or reliance or over-confidence on the information that is coming from China, he said. We need to hold institutions accountable, we need to scrutinize their decisions, he told CTV News. Lets get these officials before committee. Lets stop vouching for the communist regime in China. BANGKOK (AP) India and Singapore announced their biggest single-day spikes in new coronavirus cases on Monday, as the crisis intensifies in parts of Asia. India's spike came after the government eased one of the worlds strictest lockdowns to allow some manufacturing and agricultural activity to resume. An additional 1,553 cases were reported over 24 hours in India, raising its total past 17,000. At least 543 people have died in the country, and epidemiologists forecast the peak may not be reached before June. India's shelter-in-place orders imposed on March 24 halted all but essential services, sparking an exodus of migrant workers and daily laborers out of Indias cities to their home villages. Starting Monday, limited industry and farming are allowed to resume where employers can meet social distancing and hygiene standards, and migrant workers are allowed to travel within states to factories, farms and other work sites. Singapores confirmed cases shot to 8,014 after 1,426 new infections were reported Monday, a single-day high for the tiny Southeast Asian city-state. Singapore now has the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia, a massive surge from just 200 on March 15. Authorities say most of the new cases were again linked to foreign workers. More than 200,000 low-wage workers from Asia live in tightly packed dormitories that became virus hotspots after they were overlooked earlier by the government. Officials have said that cases are expected to rise as testing at the dorms continues, but are hoping that a partial lockdown until May 4, mandatory wearing of masks and strict social distancing will help curb the virus. In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region: NO NEW CASES IN HONG KONG: Hong Kong reported no new cases on Monday for the first time in nearly seven weeks. Prior to Monday, the city had eight consecutive days of single-digit infections, dwindling from a surge in March as overseas residents flocked home amid outbreaks in the U.S. and Europe. Hong Kongs current tally is 1,026 cases, including four deaths. Story continues SRI LANKA PARTIALLY LIFTS CURFEW: Sri Lankas government has partially lifted a monthlong curfew, with the top health official declaring that the virus is under control. Sri Lanka had been under a 24-hour curfew since March 20. It was lifted during daytime hours in more than two-thirds of the country on Monday and will continue in the remaining districts including the capital, Colombo, until Wednesday. The curfew will remain in effect from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. until further notice. Sri Lanka had confirmed 271 cases and seven deaths as of Sunday. NEW ZEALAND'S LOCKDOWN EXTENDED: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand's lockdown will last another week. For nearly four weeks, nonessential workers have been able to leave their homes only to buy groceries or to exercise. Starting next week, construction and manufacturing can resume, and some schools will reopen, although home-learning will be encouraged. SOUTH KOREA'S INFECTIONS WANE: South Korea reported 13 new virus cases Monday as infections continue to wane in the hardest-hit city of Daegu. The new figure brought the national total to 10,674 cases and 236 deaths. With its caseload slowing, South Korea has relaxed some of its social distancing guidelines, including administrative orders that advised churches, gyms and bars to close. JAPANESE EXPORTS SINK: Japanese exports sank 11.7% in March as the pandemic slammed auto shipments to the U.S. The Finance Ministry said exports to the U.S. fell 16.5%, while those to China declined 8.7%. Trade has slowed precipitously, and the International Monetary Fund forecasts that the world economy is heading into its worst slowdown since the Great Depression in the 1930s. JAPAN TULIPS RAZED: Tens of thousands of tulips in full bloom were razed at a Japanese park to prevent crowds from gathering. The flowers were the centerpiece of a popular annual festival in Sakura city, east of Tokyo, that was canceled this year. People still gathered to admire the flowers, however, making social distancing difficult. We, of course, wish for many people to see our flowers, but this situation is now about human life. It was a heart-wrenching decision, but we had to do it, said Takahiro Kogo, a city official overseeing the park. BANGKOK EXTENDS ALCOHOL BAN: Thailand's capital, Bangkok, has extended a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages to the end of April as efforts continue to contain the coronavirus. The ban was originally imposed for April 10-20, when Thais would normally celebrate the Songkran New Year festival with drink-fueled merrymaking at large public gatherings. Celebrations of the holiday were also postponed. Alcohol sales bans were separately ordered in all 76 of Thailands provinces, which are also likely to be extended. A Bangkok official said people with alcohol dependency problems could receive free treatment at the citys medical facilities. AUSTRALIAN SOAP OPERA RESUMES: The long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours returned from a three-week production break on Monday and plans to resume full production next week with new coronavirus safeguards. Neighbours" production company Fremantle Australia said it is one of the few TV dramas in the English-speaking world to resume production during the pandemic. Neighbours first screened in 1985. It has been sold to more than 60 countries and has a larger following in Britain than Australia. Its Melbourne studio will be separated into three scene areas with no crews allowed to cross between the areas, Fremantle said. ___ This story corrects the total number of Singapore cases to 8,014. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Mohammad Naciri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 12:33 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd33e9a5 3 Opinion Women,Girl,women-empowerment,COVID-19,coronavirus,ASEAN,#COVID19,#coronavirus Free A crisis is a test of strength. It reveals the character of leadership and whether individuals and communities can come together in times of greatest need. In the past, the 10 countries of ASEAN have shown exceptional resolve in jointly overcoming crises, such as the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the 2004 tsunami and earthquakes. Once again, this crisis the COVID-19 pandemic is testing ASEANs collective resolve. While the pandemic spreads fear, insecurity and socioeconomic losses across the region, it can also be a powerful catalyst for ASEAN to strengthen its regional strategy for crisis response and recovery. The monsoon season looms and a region especially vulnerable to natural disasters may soon face more of them threatening many of the same people already hard-hit by the viral pandemic. Turning the crisis into an opportunity requires looking at the problem through a different lens. Engaging women as part of the solution to the COVID-19 response and recovery can offer a new perspective. In the first 100 days since the initial cases were reported to the World Health Organization, we have clearly seen how, as with all disasters, the pandemic has disproportionately hurt women and girls. Women face greater risks of infection because they make up the majority of healthcare workers physicians, nurses, midwives, community health workers and pharmacists -- who are on the front line caring for people who have been infected. Similarly, during disasters such as floods, women also face greater risks and mortality due to pre-existing gender inequalities. Women and girls also face greater risks of violence as countries impose at-home isolation, lockdowns, quarantines and curfews to try to stem the spread of the virus. Even before the pandemic, global research showed that as many as one in three women have experienced violence at the hands of their intimate partners globally. Now millions of women are confined with their abusers. The number of calls to domestic violence hotlines in Malaysia increased 57 percent in the month of March after authorities restricted peoples movements. In Singapore, calls to the NGO AWAREs Womens Helpline increased 33 percent in February compared with the same month last year. It is also clear that women are bearing the brunt of the pandemics social and economic impacts. In Southeast Asia, female workers are overrepresented in the hardest-hit sectors manufacturing, textile and garments, hospitality and tourism, care and domestic work and in the most vulnerable jobs with the least protection, the informal employment that includes the self-employed, domestic workers, daily wage workers and family members who help the family business. Around the region, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of female migrant workers, largely employed informally, have been forced to return home, where many face stigma and discrimination in addition to the loss of income. Even women in countries with relatively few confirmed coronavirus cases have not been spared. As global supply chains collapse, many female workers, including migrant workers and those in micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, have lost their livelihoods while having no financial or social safety nets. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, women and girls across ASEAN carried a disproportionate burden of unpaid care and domestic work. In Malaysia, they spent more than three times as much time in this work than men and boys do; in Cambodia, 10 times as much. With schools now closed across the region and healthcare systems stretched by the pandemic, women are now bearing an even greater responsibility at home, caring for children, ill family members and the elderly. Tackling the COVID-19 crisis with a whole-of-society approach that places gender equality at the center of disaster preparedness and response can fulfil the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 of caring societies. This year presents a unique opportunity as ASEAN is scheduled to extend to 2021-2025 its Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response. ASEAN can strengthen disaster response and recovery by empowering women to join in and lead emergency efforts and using gender data to highlight womens particular vulnerabilities and needs during disasters, such as the coronavirus pandemic. As ASEAN leaders come together to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, they could take concrete steps to formulate more inclusive solutions. These include using gender analysis to better understand the impact of the pandemic and inform the response, and actively engaging womens organizations in disaster management and decision-making. Finally, ensuring that economic stimulus packages target women and focus on jobs and social investment will be critical for a strong recovery. Placing women and girls at the heart of response and recovery can turn the current crisis into an opportunity to create a more resilient ASEAN Community that leaves no one behind. *** UN Women Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Now that former Vice President Joe Biden has locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, myriad advocacy and lobbying groups are vying for his ear as he fleshes out his foreign policy platform. And to get Bidens ear, they need to go through his advisers. Biden has already staked out drastically different positions from President Donald Trump with vows to reassess US-Saudi relations and reenter the Iran nuclear deal as well as his opposition to Israel annexing the West Bank. But as always, the devil is in the details. Will Biden fully undo the decades-long US-Saudi security partnership? What about the troubled US-Turkish alliance? To what extent and at what pace is he willing to move to lift Iran sanctions? How will he stop Israel from annexing the West Bank without using military aid restrictions as a pressure point? The man tasked with calibrating the answers to these questions is Tony Blinken, Bidens former national security adviser who has been in the vice presidents orbit for the better part of 18 years. Blinken now oversees a growing cadre of familiar faces from the center-left of Washingtons foreign policy establishment who are tasked with advising the campaign both formally and informally. That network includes several of Bidens other national security advisers during his tenure at the White House. Jake Sullivan, who helped oversee President Barack Obamas Iran nuclear negotiations, is advising Biden after coordinating foreign policy for Secretary of State Hillary Clintons failed 2016 presidential campaign. Another former national security adviser, Colin Kahl, has become the de facto point person for the Biden campaign on all Iran-related issues. Brian McKeon, Jeffrey Prescott and Julianne Smith, three of the vice presidents former deputy national security advisers under Blinken, are also advising the campaign. Notably, Prescott went on to serve as Obamas senior adviser for Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Gulf states after working for Biden. Ely Ratner, who served as Bidens deputy adviser under Kahl and is currently the executive vice president at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), is also providing informal outside counsel. Elizabeth Rosenberg, a senior fellow with CNAS energy, economics and security program, is also involved in hammering out the campaigns Iran policies. As a senior Treasury Department adviser under Obama, Rosenberg helped tighten sanctions on Iran in the lead-up to the nuclear deal negotiations while implementing sanctions on Syria and Libya. Bidens team of Obama alumni also includes one prominent foreign policy hand from the George W. Bush administration: Nicholas Burns, a career foreign service officer who supported the Iraq war and became the undersecretary of state for political affairs in 2005. Neither the Biden campaign nor any of his advisers made themselves available for interviews. Many of Bidens foreign policy gurus sit on the advisory boards for both Foreign Policy for America and National Security Action, two advocacy groups founded to push back against Trumps foreign policy. Many of them also worked at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which the vice president established after leaving office. A fourth major haven for exiled Obama administration officials under the Trump presidency is WestExec Advisers, a geopolitical consulting firm co-founded by Blinken. Blinken first served on President Bill Clintons National Security Council before signing on in 2002 as the foreign policy adviser for Biden, who as a senator served as chairman and top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee through 2008. Blinkens star rapidly rose after following his boss to the White House, where he eventually became Obamas deputy national security adviser and then deputy secretary of state under John Kerry who endorsed Bidens 2020 presidential bid all the way back in December. Like many of Bidens campaign advisers, Blinken was instrumental in crafting the Iran nuclear deal. The vice president has vowed to re-enter the accord, which would necessitate lifting the broad sectoral sanctions on Iran that have formed the crux of Trumps "maximum pressure" campaign. Even Burns called for a very strong effort to get to the negotiating table with Iran shortly after leaving the Bush administration in 2008. But Kahl and Rosenberg have taken a cautious approach to crafting the vice presidents sanctions messaging. After Bidens former primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and 33 other progressive lawmakers called on Trump to fully lift all financial sanctions on Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic, the vice president put out a statement that simply called for more humanitarian leeway in the current sanctions regime. For her part, Rosenberg largely maintained a neutral tone while moderating a CNAS panel on sanctions last week. But at one point she did refer to Iran as a rogue regime a common refrain echoed throughout Washingtons tight-knit foreign policy establishment for the last several decades. Speaking at a Capitol Hill panel hosted by Foreign Policy magazine and the dovish Quincy Institute in February, Smith cautioned, Theres tremendous uncertainty about the degree to which the next president can come in and get everyone back around the table and recommit to the deal, strengthen it and continue to address Irans nefarious activities throughout the region. And while Bidens advisers are still wary of Tehrans proxies throughout the region, the vice president has been in lockstep with the rest of his party in condemning Trumps January strike on Maj. Gen Qasem Soleimani, the former leader of Irans expeditionary Quds Force, while he visited Iraq. Following the strike, Prescott argued in a Foreign Policy op-ed, Many of the ideological architects of one of the United States most disastrous foreign-policy decisions the 2003 invasion of Iraq are spinning a tale to support the presidents most dangerous move to date. Still, Blinken also advised Biden when he voted to authorize Bush to invade Iraq in 2002, a specter that has loomed over Bidens modern political career. That vote dogged him in his 2008 campaign for president, and Trump mercilessly wielded Clintons Iraq war authorization vote as a cudgel against her in the 2016 campaign. Blinken was also with Biden at the White House when Obama put the vice president in charge of the Iraq portfolio. During that time, they were unable to conclude a status of forces agreement with the Nouri al-Maliki government, leading to the withdrawal of US troops. When the Islamic State rampaged throughout Iraq and Syria, Blinken was serving as Obamas deputy national security adviser and helped design the US strategy to dismantle the caliphate. Two weeks after leaving the Obama administration, Blinken penned a New York Times op-ed urging Trump to arm the Syrian Kurds despite Turkeys objections. He argued at the time that keeping the Kurds focused on Raqqa keeps [them] away from the Turkish-Syrian border and any effort by Syrian Kurds to join the area they control in a contiguous Kurdish region or state. He added that Trump should clearly reiterate US opposition to a Kurdish state. Trump ultimately did arm the Kurds, who were indeed integral in the US-backed effort to dismantle the caliphate. But he sparked bipartisan backlash last year when he withdrew US troops from the Turkish-Syrian border, paving the way for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ongoing offensive against them. Biden quickly joined the chorus of critics condemning the move as a betrayal of a close US partner. Bidens future approach to Turkey remains unclear, but he has clearly promised to reconfigure US-Saudi relations. Specifically, he has vowed to end US support for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans war in Yemen and impose consequences for his role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Blinken was already criticizing Trumps Gulf policy in 2017, when he wrote another New York Times op-ed criticizing Trump for siding with the Saudis after they spearheaded a regional blockade against neighboring Qatar that is still in place today despite gradually loosening restrictions. Ironically, it was Blinken and Bidens other advisers who initially urged Obama to back Saudi Arabias aerial campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, largely to placate the kingdoms outrage over the nuclear deal with Tehran. In Blinkens op-ed on the Qatar blockade, he noted that he was the first senior American official to meet the crown prince after he intervened in Yemen. Blinken recounted that he asked the crown prince Saudi Arabias end objective in Yemen. The answer: to remove every last vestige of Iranian influence. Many in Columbus over the weekend showed that though the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may be keeping them out of churches, it hasnt weakened their faith. About 3 p.m. on Sunday, 260-plus vehicles filled most of the parking lots outside of Pizza Ranch and across the street at Super Saver along 33rd Avenue to participate in a Divine Mercy Sunday celebration put on by the Knights of Columbus councils representing the three local Catholic churches (St. Bonaventure, St. Isidores and St. Anthony). It was really encouraging to see, said Father Mike Swanton, of St. Bonaventure. Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated on the second Sunday of Easter and dates back many years. Polish nun Faustina Kowalska reported visions and visitations from Jesus and conversations with him, according to Swanton. He asked her to paint the vision of his merciful divinity being poured from his Sacred Heart and specifically asked for a feast of Divine Mercy to be established on the first Sunday after Easter Sunday so that mankind would take refuge in him. In 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Faustina Kowalska as "the great apostle of Divine Mercy." The one-hour service saw attendees stay in their cars while Father Swanton was driven around in a truck bed greeting everyone with the image of the Divine Mercy and the Eucharist proudly displayed. Meanwhile, Spirit Catholic Radio 99.3 broadcasted a Chaplet, followed by the Rosary, for all to hear. Swanton said he felt it was important for folks to be able to come together and see one another. He also stressed the importance of people being able to at least receive a special blessing and see the Eucharist even though they werent able to receive it due to the social distancing limitations currently in place. I was expecting a big crowd because people have been cooped up for a while and human beings are social people. It was good to get out, even if we were in our cars, Swanton said. It was good to see Columbus Catholic come together. What added to the significance of the event was how it came together. Swanton said St. Isidores parishioner Joan Jahn had made a suggestion about having some kind of outdoor church service, and soon enough, the Knights of Columbus got involved. Longtime Columbus resident Jeff Gokie, a past Grand Knight who is a member of the St. Isidores Knights of Columbus and serves as family director for the Knights in a state-wide role, said it took about a week to make it happen. First, the three Knights councils began talking about how to pull off such a service. Then, they got the approval from Pizza Ranch, the Columbus Police Department and the East-Central District Health Department to make sure it was safe and OK to proceed. Then, they promoted it through the churches and social media. The fact that we had so many people young and old was pretty cool. It was really neat, Gokie said. It was about honoring God, honoring Jesus and what he does it was really cool to do that in public and show that even though were locked in at home, we have faith. We can show that to our community and give hope to people. We have a great faith-based community. Matt Lindberg is the managing editor of The Columbus Telegram. Reach him via email at matt.lindberg@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. A small garment factory in Los Angeles in 2015. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) Rosario Ruiz got a call from her boss in early April: The small factory on the southern edge of downtown L.A. where she sews T-shirts had work for her. It was getting into the mask business. The next morning, she left the home she shares with her 70-year-old father and walked the mile to work, fearful that she could catch the virus on the bus and pass it on to him. When she arrived, she learned her pay had changed. Instead of making 5 cents for every label that she sewed onto a shirt, she would be paid 20 cents for each pair of elastic straps she sewed onto a fabric mask. Before, she had made anywhere from $250 to $400 per week, depending on how many hours she worked and how simple the pieces were to sew. Now, she could get through about 300 masks per day, and expected to get $350 at the end of a 50-hour workweek. The minimum wage in L.A. is $13.50, but Ruiz would make $7 an hour. Mayor Eric Garcetti has called on the city's garment industry to step up during the COVID-19 crisis, as hospital workers face shortages of personal protective equipment and all Angelenos are required to wear masks when entering stores. In late March, City Hall launched a program called L.A. Protects to facilitate the manufacture and sale of 5 million non-medical masks for frontline workers in essential sectors. The city has partnered with a number of manufacturers known for following labor law, such as Reformation and Buck Mason, and is connecting more than 1,800 buyers to over 500 approved producers making masks to specifications provided by Kaiser Permanente. So far, nearly 2 million masks have been produced under the program. But even as theyre called upon to make protective gear during the pandemic, many garment workers in factories across Los Angeles are facing the same sub-minimum-wage pay and poor working conditions that have been standard in the industry for years. Marissa Nuncio, the director of downtown L.A.s Garment Worker Center, said many workers are simply out of a job during the coronavirus lockdown, as brick-and-mortar retail stores close their doors and overwhelmed e-commerce platforms such as Amazon prioritize shipping food and other necessities. Many garment workers are undocumented or paid under the table, rendering them ineligible for unemployment or other government benefits. The center has set up an emergency relief fund and is making food deliveries to workers facing the prospect of no wages for weeks to come. Story continues But dozens of worker center members like Ruiz have reported their factories switching over to mask production in recent weeks while maintaining conditions that put workers at risk of infection. "This is an industry that had workers working in very unsanitary conditions prior to [COVID-19], and we're seeing a lot of business as usual now," Nuncio said. "When workers are producing something that is so critically needed its unacceptable that theyre having to continue to work in unsafe conditions and for sweatshop wages." Businesses do not need official approval to remain open, but essential businesses that do continue to operate are required to follow infection control practices: keeping people six feet apart, providing access to hand-washing facilities or hand sanitizer, posting signs instructing people not to enter if they are experiencing symptoms of respiratory illness, and following L.A. County Department of Public Health recommendations on disease control. Each morning when Ruiz arrived at the factory, her boss doled out masks for workers to wear, piled up enough material for a days work, then left. The workers spread out their stations as far as they could to keep six feet apart, but the room was windowless and stuffy, with the doors kept shut. The CDC recommends that workplaces increase ventilation by opening windows or adjusting air conditioning to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. Ruiz has a green card, unlike many of the estimated 45,000 workers in L.A.s garment industry, but hasnt been able to find other work since coming to the U.S. from El Salvador in 2017 to take care of her father. She has avoided signing up for healthcare or SNAP benefits out of fear that the Trump administration might use that to threaten her immigration status. Since she is paid off the books, she isnt eligible for unemployment insurance if work dries up. Shes afraid of getting sick but needs to keep working to pay rent and buy food. I don't think that these working conditions are right," she said, adding that she wished her job site provided hand sanitizer, and required other workers to disinfect their hands on arrival (there is soap in the bathrooms). She also wishes the pay was different: "I want to be paid per hour, not per piece." Federal statistics show that basic labor protections are hard to find in the L.A. garment industry. A 2016 Department of Labor survey found that 85% of garment shops in Southern California failed to pay the minimum wage. Investigators in the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $2 million in back wages for 1,042 garment workers in 2019, up from $1.5 million the year before. The garments made in L.A. by underpaid workers in sweatshop conditions have been linked to orders from major retailers such as Fashion Nova, Forever 21, TJ Maxx and Ross Dress for Less in recent years. The workers interviewed for this article said that the masks they were sewing had no labels, and they did not know where they were being sold. They did not know the legal names of the businesses they were working for, as is common in the under-the-table industry, but shared the locations and photos of their workplaces with The Times. The industrys reliance on subcontracting, combined with state law that makes it difficult to hold retailers accountable, has left regulators playing wage theft whack-a-mole: Small factories under investigation can shut down and reopen under a different name overnight, both to avoid fines and present clients with a clean record. The difficulty of tracking down the right company to pay stolen back wages led the state to pass a law in 1999 that established the Garment Restitution Fund. Manufacturers registering as new businesses would pay a small fee into the fund, which could be drawn upon to pay out wage claims. For most of the fund's history, the wage claims outnumbered the registration fees, and workers faced a years-long waiting list for restitution. In 2019, however, Southern California lawmakers pushed for the state to chip in, and Gov. Gavin Newsom included more than $16 million in the state budget to clear the wait list. Nuncio, the Garment Worker Center director, said the new funds for back wages are an improvement, but that workers during the crisis still need basic protections now. "Most of society is being asked to stay home, because thats the safer thing to do," Nuncio said. "If were elevating garment workers to essential workers, brands need to elevate their labor standards and offer some form of hazard pay." Santiago, who asked to be identified only by his first name out of fear of reprisal from his employer, got the call that his downtown L.A. factory was switching to masks the same week as Ruiz in early April. His boss hadnt paid him his wages for two weeks before that, blaming the loss of business from the coronavirus, but Santiago had been going in whenever he could, hoping to eventually get paid. Before the crisis, he had made $260 a week sewing shirts for 9 hours a day, plus half a day on Saturdays. He is undocumented, and has been working in the garment industry for 17 years. Id like a just salary for those of us who are working in this time of crisis, Santiago said. Medical workers are being called heroes for risking their lives, and I think those of us working to make masks to support them deserve to be put in the same category. He estimated that the 15 people working in his factory churned out 1,500 to 2,000 fabric masks per day. The doors and windows of the shop were kept closed, and workers could spread out more than usual, but still sat only three feet apart. Santiago finally got paid at the end of his first week making masks: $230, in cash, for 50 hours of work. That's $4.60 an hour, for essential work. MasterChef Australia: Back To Win fan favourite Reynold Poernomo is at the centre of a heated debate over his ability to win the cooking competition. The chatter began on Tuesday in the Masterchef Australia 2020 Facebook fan group, when a viewer declared that 'Reynold will win this competition!' Others were quick to weigh in, with many agreeing - but others insisting he would soon be eliminated. Set to win? MasterChef Australia: Back To Win fan favourite Reynold Poernomo (pictured) is at the centre of a heated debate over his ability to win the cooking competition One Facebook commentator wrote: 'I love Reynold... but I'm not so sure' while someone else added: 'Nah, he's rubbish'. Another warned: 'Anyone can be taken out at anytime. Team challenges are the riskiest part of the show'. Someone else chimed in that 'tonight was his turn' to come up for elimination, while another person claimed: 'He's awesome and all. But he won't win. He has no chance.' Thoughts: The chatter began on Tuesday in the Masterchef Australia 2020 Facebook fan group, when a viewer declared that 'Reynold will win this competition!' The chef, who owns KOI Dessert Bar, had plenty of support however, with one person writing that the prediction that he may win is 'correct'. Another wrote: 'I would not be disappointed if he did. I like Reynold and he is talented'. Someone else added: 'Hope he does otherwise would like to see Poh' while another viewer wrote: 'I'm hoping'. Reynold has been a fan favourite since he first appeared on MasterChef in 2015, with many gushing over the 'hot' chef. Not convinced? Someone else chimed in that 'tonight was his turn' to come up for elimination, while another person claimed: 'He's awesome and all. But he won't win. He has no chance' Best of the bunch: The chef, who owns KOI Dessert Bar, had plenty of support however, with one person writing that the prediction that he may win is 'correct' Talent: Reynold has been a fan favourite since he first appeared on MasterChef in 2015, with many gushing over the 'hot' chef The 26-year-old, who has been dubbed the 'dessert king', won even more admirers when he tried his hand at a savoury dish earlier this week with great results. On Sunday night, fans praised the chef's versatility when he plated up a roast quail breast. One fan Tweeted: 'Reynold is [versatile], now even hotter somehow' while another chimed in: 'That actually looks amazing from Reynold, not just a one trick pony'. MasterChef: Back to Win continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 00:03:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A gunman on Tuesday killed eight people in the Druze town of Baakline in Mount Lebanon, the National News Agency (NNA) reported. The victims are six Syrian workers in agriculture and construction and two Lebanese citizens, NNA said. The perpetrator, who committed the murder with a pump action gun and a Kalashnikov rifle, fled the scene. The cause of the crime is still unknown. Enditem Reintegration ministry says Russia blocks its website because of info on Russia hiding data about COVID-19 infections in Crimea, Donbas Roskomnadzor, at the request of Russia's Prosecutor General's Office, has blocked the website of Ukraine's Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories due to news about the concealment of information about coronavirus (COVID-19) patients in Russia-occupied Crimea and Donbas, the ministry said on Facebook on Friday. "Claims were triggered by the news of the concealment of COVID-19 patients in Crimea and Donbas. Russia was concerned about data from Russia-occupied areas about the lack of tests, that only "officials" of the Russia-occupied administrations and the military were being checked, and that patients with relevant symptoms are diagnosed with the flu and doctors are obliged to not report accurate diagnoses," the ministry said. The Ministry of Integration notes that Roskomnadzor and Russia's Prosecutor General's Office continue to ignore information about fatalities in Russia-occupied areas and information from representatives of Russia-occupied Crimea that the Russian Ministry of Defense plans to deploy COVID-19-infected military personnel in Sevastopol. "We are sure that the concealment of real data by the Russia-occupation authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and in Crimea about the incidence of COVID-19 is just an excuse to block our ministry's website," the ministry said. The Borno State committee on COVID-19 has confirmed it has recorded four confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state. The deputy governor, Umar Kadafur, who is the chairman of the committee, on Tuesday also told journalists at the maiden briefing of the committee that so far 48 persons who had contact with the deceased index case have been tested. Of these, he said 44 of them turned out negative, while four other results are being awaited from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The centre had last night confirmed two cases. The state has recorded a fatality. New case The official said a traveler from Lagos to Borno was intercepted at Gombe State where he tested positive. The traveler, who was earlier counted amongst the five cases that were reported in Gombe, was later handed over to Borno since he was on transit to his town, Biu, he said. The deputy governor explained that with the transfer of the unnamed traveller to Borno, the state now has four confirmed cases. He said the state has traced 104 persons believed to have had contacts with the index case. Mr Kadafur said the new case has been moved from Biu to an isolation center in Maiduguri and is being monitored there. Presence of US forces in region causing insecurity: Iran ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency Mon / 20 April 2020 / 12:37 Tehran (ISNA) Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Seyyed Abbas Mousavi stressed that the presence of US forces in the region is illegitimate and causes insecurity. Speaking at a weekly press conference, held via video conference on Monday, Seyed Abbas Mousavi mentioned the recent provocative acts of US forces in the Persian Gulf and said, "As far as I know, American forces hindered Iranian forces' legal and routine patrol and they have received the response and necessary warnings". "The presence of US forces in the region is provocative and illegitimate. This is our region and we have to ensure its security by carrying out patrols," he added. Elsewhere in his remarks, Mousavi said, "Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif has traveled to Damascus today to meet with Syrian officials including President Bashar al-Assad". "The issue of developments in Afghanistan and Yemen is on the Foreign Ministry's agenda and Zarif has held conversations in this regard," he stressed. Emphasizing that Astana Process is still the most important political process for solving the Syrian crisis, the diplomat said, "The Astana meeting which was expected to be held in Tehran has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, but it does not mean that our consultations in this regard have been disrupted". End Item NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CHANGSHA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The customs of Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, said it has strengthened inspection of medical supplies for export. Two batches of masks were detained for further handling at the city's airport on Saturday due to incomplete information on quality certificate and unmatched item number with the registration information at the customs. The customs said companies that fail to declare truthfully or meet quality standards will be punished strictly, while law-abiding companies will enjoy convenient customs clearance. Statistics from the customs showed that Hunan's exports of medical equipment increased by 42.6 percent to 120 million yuan (16.9 million U.S. dollars) in March. The province's medical equipment exports to countries along the Belt and Road grew by 75.9 percent year on year in the first quarter to 48.6 million yuan, said the customs. Illegal presence of US terrorists source of insecurity in West Asia: IRGC Iran Press TV Monday, 20 April 2020 10:16 AM The Navy of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the main source of mischief and insecurity in the region is the illegal presence of US terrorist forces, reiterating the call for the full withdrawal of all American forces from the Persian Gulf and West Asia. The IRGC Navy issued a statement on Sunday in response to recent claims by the US Navy that 11 Iranian ships repeatedly came close to American military vessels in "dangerous and harassing approaches" in the Persian Gulf. "As has been said time and again, it is emphasized [once more] that the illegal presence of US terrorist regime is the [main] source and origin of mischief and insecurity in the region and the sole way to establish sustainable security in this region is the withdrawal of Americans from West Asia," the statement read. The IRGC added that during recent weeks, the US terrorist naval forces have repeatedly behaved in an "unprofessional" manner in the Persian Gulf, which has threatened regional peace and given rise to new risks. "Therefore, in order to prevent the continuation of illegal, unprofessional, dangerous and even adventurist behavior of the American terrorists and also to ensure security for Iranian vessels and fight fuel smuggling, the IRGC Navy increased its marine patrols in the Persian Gulf and on Farvardin 27, 1399 [corresponding to April 15, 2019] ... dispatched a group of its vessels, comprised of 11 boats, to the region, where they came face to face with the American warships and military vessels," it emphasized. The statement added that although the American vessels at first ignored warnings from the IRGC boats and behaved in an unprofessional and provocative manner, they finally had to clear the way for the IRGC Navy's boats and leave the area. "At the same time, the US Fifth Fleet, which is stationed in the region, offered an incorrect and purposeful narrative of this incident in its official statement, which signifies the interest of Americans in presenting a Hollywood-style account of what happened," the IRGC said. "We advise the Americans to follow international regulations and maritime protocols in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman and to refrain from any adventurism and false stories." "They must be sure that the IRGC Navy and the powerful Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran consider the high-risk behavior of foreigners in the region as a threat to their national security and a red line, and will give a decisive response to any miscalculation on their part," the IRGC statement said. In its statement on Wednesday, the US Naval central command alleged that the Iranian "vessels repeatedly crossed the bows and sterns of the US vessels at extremely close range and high speeds," and came within 10 yards of the US Coast Guard cutter Maui. Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami on Friday dismissed the reports of harassment by Iranian vessels as "baseless." Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also slammed the US presence, reminding Washington that its forces are "7,000 miles away from its borders." "US Navy can't seem to find its way around our waters... Or maybe it doesn't know what it's doing in our backyard, 7,000 miles from home," Zarif said in a tweet originally published in 2018 and reshared on Thursday. "Yearly reminder," Zarif commented under the original tweet. Iranian vessels, usually belonging to the IRGC, commonly patrol the Persian Gulf to ensure the security of the vital global energy hub. Tensions in the strategic waterway rose significantly last summer after a series of mysterious explosions targeted a number of oil tankers. The United States, quickly blaming Iran for the incidents without providing conclusive evidence along with other countries such as Saudi Arabia, has since deployed thousands of troops and military equipment to the region. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address For many of us, our pets are keeping us sane while we stay at home. But what if they need a bit of care? Vets are allowed to remain open as life-sustaining businesses. But many are taking extra precautions, limiting services, and changing how they operate. Heres how to see a vet right now, during the coronavirus pandemic. Are offices changing how they operate? Yes, and that is the first thing you should ask when calling: What services are available, and which ones are limited? The University of Pennsylvanias Ryan Veterinary Hospital announced that it will only be able to accommodate medically necessary urgent and emergency patients at this time due to the coronavirus. The hospital advises to call to determine whether the pet needs to be seen and its staff will advise you on the best plan of action. Many vets are continuing to provide urgent care, but call to check first. Make an appointment first All the veterinarians we spoke with urged that you call or make an appointment online; dont just bring your pet to the office. Some vets wont take an animal without an appointment during these times, and while others might, they dont recommend it. As with anywhere in public, you will have to wear a face mask, even if you never set foot in the office. READ MORE: How to adopt or foster a dog or cat in the Philly area during the coronavirus Ask about the vets social distancing plan Will you be able to stay with your pet? Will you have to wait outside? You should know how the visit will go, whether you will be able to physically come into the office or must stay outside due to social distancing. Lauren Robinson-Weiss, a veterinarian who works at both 2nd Street Animal Hospital in Philadelphia and All Creatures Veterinary Care Center in Sewell, Gloucester County, says both places arent allowing pet owners inside their offices right now. A staff member will come to your car, ask you questions about the animal, and then take your pet inside while you stay in your car. ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters [After the exam] we will call the client and go over the treatment plan, she said. They still get a full exam and we are doing the same thing, but we are limiting the number of people in the office. She said payments are done online, and she urges people not to pay with cash, again so there is less person-to-person contact. What if my pet needs to be spayed or neutered? The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has recommended delaying elective procedures. Its hard to say that all vets are adhering to this practice, but the ones we interviewed for this story were not providing elective surgery at this time. Can I have a virtual appointment? Can you get care without even going into the office? Yes, some vet offices will do this. Robinson-Weiss said her clinics are doing assessments by phone or video. How about getting medicine delivered? What about medicine? Robinson-Weiss said you can use an online pharmacy to get medicine delivered to your house. Are there vets who do house calls? Yes, some veterinarians will come to your home. One of those places is Vetter Pet Care, which operates in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Ryan Connell, who founded the business in 2017, says that the company offers mobile veterinary services (think annual wellness visits, vaccines, ear, eye, and skin issues, and other common ailments), but not emergency care. There are people who dont want to pack their pet up and go to a vet and we offer the convenience of coming to their home, Connell said. KYODO NEWS - Apr 21, 2020 - 20:55 | All, Japan, Coronavirus Japan will extend its suspension of visas held by foreign nationals to the end of May, a government source said Tuesday, having deemed it too early to lift travel restrictions meant to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. The Foreign Ministry announced on April 1 that it was suspending visas and short-stay visa waivers for people from more than 100 countries through at least the end of April. (An official in protective gear at Narita airport near Tokyo checks passengers arriving from South Korea on March 9, 2020.) Foreign travelers have almost completely stopped coming to Japan amid the travel restrictions, with government data for March showing a 93 percent drop from a year earlier. Meanwhile, the coronavirus has continued to spread in Japan, with more than 11,000 infections and at least 288 deaths as of Tuesday evening. The increase in cases prompted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week to declare a nationwide state of emergency. Japan has also banned the entry of foreign travelers who have been to any of 73 countries, including China, South Korea and the United States as well as most of Europe, within two weeks of their arrival. Japanese returning from abroad are required to be tested for the coronavirus and self-isolate for two weeks to watch for symptoms such as high fever and coughing. Coronavirus lockdown violation: FIR against Kannada TV anchor for organizing guest-packed wedding India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, Apr 04: An FIR (first information report) has been filed against a Kannada TV anchor allegedly for preparing to organise a guest packed wedding at his resort in the outskirts of Bengaluru, Karnataka. The accused TV personality identified as Akul Balaji allegedly made preparations for organising the wedding at a resort called Sunshine by Jade in Doddaballapura on April 18. How Bengaluru is containing the spread of the coronavirus When the locals alerted the police about the event, cops immediately swung into action and arrived at the resort. Nearly 20 people from Bengaluru were present there to attend the wedding ceremony despite restrictions on congregational activities. The accused was booked for flouting lockdown orders. Balaji is a film actor, television host and dancer who has worked in both Kannada and Telugu languages. He started his career by acting and hosting television shows and has participated in the Kannada Film Industry for almost a decade. Balaji married in the year 2008 and the couple has a son. According to North Korean media daily NK on 20th, North Korea's Supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, recently had a cardiovascular procedure. By adopting North Korea's internal source, NK reported, "Chairman Kim has undergone cardiovascular treatment at the Hyangsan Medical Center, a dedicated hospital of the Kim family, located in Myohyangsan District, North Pyongan Province on the 12th and is receiving treatment while staying in a special neighborhood near Hyangsan." The internal source told NK, "The procedure was directly performed by the surgeon in charge of Kimman You Hospital in Pyongyang. Also, all top surgeons from Chosun Red Cross General Hospital and Pyongyang Medical University Hospital were dispatched to Hyangsan Medical Center. The condition of Kim has improved, and most of the medical staff returned to Pyongyang on the 19th. Only part of them remains in Hyangsan Medical center looking after Kim." Previously, Supreme leader Kim didn't show up at Kim Il-sung's birthday the most important holiday in North Korea, which brought up many speculations about the health problems related to Kim. North Korean Media, such as Chosun Central Communications, told on the 16th, "On the day of the Sun, Choi Ryong Hae, Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and many high military officials visited Geumsusan Sun Palace, but there was no presence of Kim." After taking over the supreme leader position, Kim never missed this event. There was also a period when Kim did not expose himself early September in 2014, and the National Intelligence Service confirmed in the report that Kim had undergone surgery to remove the cyst on the ankle. South Korean authorities are cautious of this information, mentioning that the period of incubation is shorter than in 2014. A spokesman for the Ministry of Unification, Hye-sil Cho, said during a regular briefing on the 17th, "North Korean media have not yet reported Kim's visit to the Geumsusan Palace, so it is not appropriate to give a deliberate comment on the intention." On the 20th, Chosun Central News Agency reported that Kim had sent a message celebrating the 60th birthday of the President of Cuba, Miguel Mario, indicating that he is doing regular work. iProspect India, the digital marketing agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), has won the digital mandate for the Indian financial services and banking leader State Bank of India (SBI). As per the mandate, iProspect India will handle the entire gamut of digital duties Paid Media, Social Media, Creative, SEO (search engine optimization) and ORM (online reputation management) for the brand. The account was won following a multi-agency pitch and will be handled from the agencys Mumbai office. SBI is the largest Indian bank in terms of its balance sheet size and its number of branches. It caters to approximately one-third of the country's population and aspires to stay the preferred bank for the Indian Youth. SBI continues to be Indias largest commercial bank with its digital-first approach and its vision to be the first choice of the ever-changing modern India. To evolve its digital presence, iProspect India will help the bank achieve its digital marketing objectives by devising innovative digital campaigns, using proprietary tools and solutions. Commenting on the win, Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India said, One in every three Indians is an SBI customer. That is the mammoth reach of the Indian bank. We are delighted that our deep domain understanding of the banking sector and a unique integrated creative and media approach won us the mandate to partner with them in their digital outreach and communication strategy. #DigitalIndia is a reality now. On the partnership, Sweta Aggarwall, CMO, SBI added, iProspect India came in with a great creative-first, solution-driven, 360-degree digital marketing approach and we are looking forward to working with them. We want to ride the digital wave and delight not just the existing but potential new customers as well. NOTTINGHAM, England, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cronofy, a global innovator in business scheduling software, today announced the launch of the latest feature of their API, Conferencing Services. This feature gives software businesses and their users the ability to generate online meetings and conference dial-ins as a core function of Cronofy's API service. When creating an event with the Cronofy API, software businesses can now add an additional attribute to any event to give the attendees the option to connect remotely. Cronofy is partnering with 8x8, a California-based leading provider of cloud communications solutions including enterprise voice, meetings and messaging, to make this a zero configuration option for all parties. Links are generated and anyone can attend the meeting from their web browser. End-users with Google personal or G-Suite accounts will automatically generate a Google Meet link. It's important that this works for everyone, out of the box, but the Cronofy team appreciates that many companies have conference services that they prefer to use. In much the same way as end-users can link calendar services to their account, they can now authorise their conference service provider to ensure meetings are generated using the appropriate tool. This feature is launching with support for Zoom, Microsoft Teams and GoTo conferences. Additional services will be added in response to customer demand. Cronofy wanted to offer support for businesses who are suddenly adapting to remote work given the current global situation. The product roadmap was reworked to fast track delivery of the Conferencing Services API feature as video conferencing is becoming an even bigger part of scheduling meetings in the workplace. Making this as simple as possible for software businesses and their clients is just a small way that Cronofy are able to make a difference now and for the long term. This new feature of the API allows application developers to support this for their customers with minimal work. Cronofy has built this feature to provide turn-key support to anyone but with the configuration options needed to allow end-users to specify their preferred conference service. Importantly this will work no matter how an event is generated through the Cronofy API. This means that customers using our Real Time Scheduling or our Real Time Sequencing managed UI can simply add the instruction to the event templates and they'll automatically be able to support remote meetings. Cronofy is dedicated to being the best scheduling infrastructure for SaaS vendors. Conference services are a critical part of meetings, especially now. Delivering support for online meetings as a turn-key capability is absolutely consistent with that focus. Adam Bird, CEO, Cronofy The 8x8.vc service is designed to provide on demand access to secure video meetings for anyone with a web browser. We're genuinely excited that Cronofy is bringing this capability to any service that they're powering scheduling for. Emil Ivov, Head of Product, Video Collaboration, 8x8 About Cronofy Cronofy is a high-growth startup that's transforming scheduling to save everyone's time. It provides SaaS businesses with the technology they need to offer best-in-class scheduling to their users. Cronofy's clients include global brands like Indeed, GoDaddy, and LogMeIn. To find out more, visit www.cronofy.com . About 8x8 8x8, Inc is transforming the future of business communications as a leading Software-as-a-Service provider of voice, video, chat, contact center, and enterprise-class API solutions powered by one global cloud communications platform. 8x8 empowers workforces worldwide to connect individuals and teams so they can collaborate faster and work smarter. Media contact: Laura Green [email protected] 07749704379 SOURCE Cronofy Related Links http://www.cronofy.com Stay-at-home orders that have been imposed in the United States did not stop protesters from going to the streets and ask for the states to reopen despite the threat of COVID-19 still continuing to haunt the country and claim lives at a very alarming rate. On Sunday, hundreds of the protesters gathered outside the state capitol of Colorado in Denver demanding the government to end the shutdown. They are joined by demonstrators across different states in the US which includes Washington and Arizona in demanding their governors to lift the imposed lockdowns and open the businesses in the states which have been initially shut in order to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. The said protesters defied the social distancing guidelines released by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization indicated that they support US President Donald Trump who earlier said that the governors were taking a step too far in imposing these measures. Last week, in states including Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Kentucky several rallies which called for ease on the restrictions have also been held. According to some of the protesters they would prefer to get infected with SARS-CoV-@, the virus which causes the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 than exchange it for their freedom. Some of their signs even read, "Freedom over the illusion of safety" and "Freedom is essential." Read also: New York Morgue Use Bedsheets Instead of Body Bags for COVID-19 Deaths Protesters earned the ire of critics and netizens. The said protesters are now being dubbed as "COVIDiots", a term which has been widely used to describe people who break protocols set to protect the public from coronavirus for their selfish reasons. One photo in the protests that caught the attention and sparked the outrage of netizens and critics was a woman in Wisconsin who help up a sign that said she wanted a haircut. The said photo received tons of negative comments which said that if she died of coronavirus, nobody would be minding what her hair looked like. If you get infected with #Coronavirus & you die, I doubt you or anyone else will care what your hair looks like. This is a woman from todays protest in WI. Just dumb. pic.twitter.com/H5Fa1I87wA Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) April 19, 2020 People have also expressed their frustrations about the people who insist on freedom despite the fact that staying at home could be the only way that they stay safe and also not spread the disease to others. They said that these people continuing to defy orders are only prolonging the lockdowns instead of helping. In addition, an ER doctor expressed his disappointment with a particular protester who held up a sign saying that COVID-19 was a lie but was wearing more personal protective equipment (PPE) than those who are facing the virus in the frontlines. And that these people were able to acquire these PPEs which was supposedly intended for the frontliners amidst a scarcity in protective equipment. Moreover, another protester was called out for saying that facemasks were useless and were protesting about the usage being mandatory but was also using a bandana to cover her face. At the moment, the US holds the highest number of cases in the world with more than 800,200 cases and 42,946 deaths. Related article: Anti-Lockdown Riot Break Out in Paris After Evidence of Police Racism @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. COLUMBIA Gov. Henry McMaster allowed some businesses to reopen Monday, calling it a "gradual step" that will help South Carolina's economy recover faster than other states from the coronavirus outbreak. Still in a sign of tension over how quickly to resume normal activity in South Carolina, a top state public health expert said Monday that people taking precautions have helped finally slow the spread of the deadly and highly contagious virus. "Our current data does show us that social distancing and staying at home is working and that must continue," said Dr. Linda Bell, the state's chief epidemiologist. "And we realize that what we're asking is not easy, but it still must continue some time into the future until we have greater assurance that we're on downward side of the curve and for a more prolonged period of time." As an initial phase of rolling back mandatory closures, McMaster allowed the reopening of public beach accesses at noon Tuesday and retailers including department stores, florists and flea markets at 5 p.m. Monday. Hair and nail salons, theaters and gyms must remain closed. Thousands of businesses deemed essential, including grocery, liquor and gun stores, never had to close. "Our goal was to cause the most damage possible to the virus with the least permanent damage to South Carolina's businesses," McMaster said, adding the latest move will enable the state to "slingshot around the competition" when the crisis passes. Other Southern states are opening businesses back up, too. Neighboring Georgia is set to leapfrog South Carolina, as Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday that gyms, bowling alleys, and hair and nail salons can reopen Friday. Restaurants can resume dine-in eating, and theaters can have shows starting Monday. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee will let the state's stay-at-home order expire April 30 and will allow unspecified businesses to reopen Monday. South Carolina's latest emergency declaration, which includes to stay at home unless going to work or a business deemed essential, expires April 27. But it can be extended or amended. Bell warned Monday that while data indicates the patient numbers are leveling, they could easily spike if South Carolinians don't continue to adhere to strict social-distancing recommendations. "The risk of transmission still remains high," she said, urging people to "wear masks at all times when you're in public," as well as regularly washing hands and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces. Bell said state health officials would like to see a significant drop in cases over two weeks, which has been recommended by the White House for states to ease social- distancing measures. Bell did not offer an opinion on the governor's decision to relax some restrictions. McMaster countered that, while South Carolinians should not stop those public health efforts to curb the spread of the virus, the state needs to restart the economy. Close to 300,000 South Carolinians have filed for unemployment benefits in the past month. "South Carolina's business is business," he said. "And to the extent we can, we must let those businesses operate because people want to work, they need to work ... and we're going to do all we can to see they can do that and continue with their lives as much as possible under this very serious situation." McMaster said he could give no timeline for additional rollbacks, including the stay-at-home order, other than South Carolina "should be in the victory lane" within a month. A new, 29-member task force called "accelerateSC," which will begin meeting later this week, will offer recommendations. The governor insisted he was not putting the economy above people's health, noting businesses are supposed to limit the number of customers allowed inside doors. House Majority Leader Gary Simrill, R-Rock Hill, agreed with McMaster's decision, saying small businesses can operate while maintaining social-distancing measures. "Small business is the backbone of the economy," said the Rock Hill Republican. "As a state, what we need to do is let small businesses do what they do best, and that is innovate and survive." State Sen. Marlon Kimpson, a Charleston Democrat, said he does not think McMaster has been precise enough in pointing to specific data underlying his decision-making and worries that economic concerns are overriding public safety. The governor is in a tough position, but we cant let political pressure drive decisions around the safety of our citizenry because if we make the wrong decision here, it will only put us in a deeper hole both for the economy and public health, Kimpson said. None of us want to be home any longer than we have to, but I fear some of these decisions are going to come back to haunt us. McMaster's order allowing public beach access to resume Tuesday does not stop local authorities from adopting their own rules. Officials in several Charleston-area beach towns have already said their beaches will remain closed. "We're turning that back over to the mayors to make their own decisions," McMaster said. He noted that law enforcement officers are still authorized to disperse gatherings of three or more. State Rep. Alan Clemmons, a Myrtle Beach Republican, sent McMaster a letter last week asking him to consider reopening the beaches to local residents, citing the therapeutic effects it could have. "With the beaches closed and the parks closed, that only leaves you with 4-foot-wide sidewalks to walk on, Clemmons said. Opening a 300-foot-wide beach seems to make a lot more sense for those local residents to give them a chance to get out in fresh air and to find a little bit of relief from the isolation theyve been in." The rollbacks begin as the state's public health agency reported an additional 64 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, bringing the total to 4,439 South Carolinians since March 6; 124 of them have died. South Carolina likely will see 750 additional cases weekly through early May, a decrease in earlier forecasts from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. A forecast by University of Washington over the weekend showed South Carolina has already passed the peak of COVID-19 deaths and usage of hospital beds. According to the latest model, 217 coronavirus patients are expected to die by August far fewer than the 680 deaths predicted earlier last week. But McMaster said it was South Carolinians' compliance that prompted his announcement. "In light of the common sense being shown by the great people of South Carolina, we are ready to take some steps that will help," he said. Over the next month, accelerateSC will meet regularly to provide rolling recommendations. The advisory team includes business owners, health care and insurance executives, mayors, college presidents, bankers and a Baptist pastor. The all-volunteer team consists of five sub-groups focused on different aspects of the reopening, including a one-stop shop for residents to call for questions on issues such as unemployment, loans and licensing. Coordinating the group is James Burns, former chief of staff for Gov. Nikki Haley and an attorney at one of South Carolina's largest firms. Also last week, hospitals began resuming elective surgeries, a month after McMaster urged them to stop. Each is making its own calculations, said Schipp Ames, spokesman for the state Hospital Association. "Hospitals are really focused on trying to take care of COVID patients they have now and be prepared for any potential surge," he said. "We just recognize how unpredictable this virus has been. We continue to hope for the best and prepare for the worst." The task force includes Dr. David Cole, president of the Medical University of South Carolina, who said South Carolina will emerge into a "new normal." "It's up to us to take responsibility and make smart decisions," he said, adding that models have improved significantly. "It's not like we're moving blindly. We have to monitor. There will be more infections. But we can do it in a manageable manner." Andy Shain, Jamie Lovegrove and Mary Katherine Wildeman contributed to this report. Dhillon was the only non-lawyer who was granted special permission to sit at the advocates table, before the three judges in Indias top court, in 2018 and he was planning on travelling to Bangalore for the hearing as well before Covid-19 hit. On March 14th, 2020, the Karnataka High Court at Bangalore allowed an Intervention Application (IA) seeking a direction to maintain a legal transcripts of court proceedings. The IA was filed in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking audio-video recording of court hearings (Case No. 50892-2019). To read more about the case please visit Bar and Benchs litigation news article below: https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/karnataka-hc-allows-intervention-application-for-transcript-of-proceedings-in-pil-seeking-audio-video-recording-at-courts The IA was filed by Amrish Kilachand, a businessman who resides in Mumbai. The application is virtually identical to the one he filed in the Supreme Court of India in 2018 - which was successful. To read more about the case from 2018 please visit: https://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/06/prweb15579559.htm The only piece of evidence attached to Kilachand's IA in the current case in the Karnataka High Court at Bangalore are transcripts from the well documented case of Canadian activist and businessman, Satinder Dhillon. Dhillon who is the founder of Global Strategic Solutions is working in conjunction with the International Legal Alliance which was founded by well known Mumbai lawyer, Jamshed Mistry, to bring about change and more transparency to courts around the world. Mistry has been long time lawyer for both Kilachand and Dhillon and assisted in preparing the recent filings, just as he did in 2018. Mistry has also appeared in the Canadian courts on behalf of Dhillon. Kilachand who attended university in the United States and has a degree in Business Administration said that he believed the Indian courts needed to modernize their processes to come into the 21st century. "There needs to be more transparency and the citizens of India deserve proper access to justice. Transcription services are a very important addition that is needed in our legal system. These were Kilachands sentiments about IA. Dhillon echoed Kilachands sentiments and added in todays world how can it be that all court hearings arent recorded already"? We are glad the work we did in Canada is helping the courts in India. That alone has made the hardships worth going through stated Emmet Pierce - who resides in Canada and assisted Dhillon in his case. "We hope we are successful in this current case just as we were in 2018 in the Supreme Court of India" stated Mistry. To read the full story about the recent filing please visit: https://karnatakainterventionapplication.wordpress.com/ Dhillons case has become so well known around the world that a movie is being written about it by India's top screenwriter, Mr. Anjum Rajabali. To read more about the movie please visit: Indias Top Screenwriter Delivers Aamir Khan and Priyanka Chopras Next Script And Is Going To Write Biopic About Modern Day Revolutionary - Satinder Dhillon Next: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/10/prweb14758274.htm To read more about Dhillon please visit: http://www.satinderdhillon.com http://timesofcanadapresents.blogspot.com/ To read more about Global Strategic Solutions please visit: http://www.globalstrategicsolutions.international/ To read more about International Legal Alliance please visit: https://internationallegalalliance.com/ To read more about Jamshed Mistry please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamshed-mistry-061a769/?originalSubdomain=in Special Economic Zones (SEZ) developers in Tamil Nadu have urged the Centre to recalibrate the Net Foreign Exchange Earning (NFE) rules in order to attract companies that are looking at relocating their manufacturing facilities to India. SEZs in the State estimate a loss of around 15-20 per cent of export value owing to the Covid-19 scenario. Various countries are looking at relocating their supply chains in the backdrop of Covid-19 and there is a need to get ready for the opportunity that is coming up. These supply chains are being sought to relocate to countries like Vietnam and ... Pharmaceutical company Darnitsa has gathered sufficient stockpile of medicines, that can be used to treat difficult and critical patients, infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus. Doctors estimate COVID-19 positive intensive care patients, attached to lung ventilators, could require up to 50 different medicines. Darnitsa Group Chairman of Board Dmytro Shymkiv also mentioned that Darnitsa forms stockpiles of raw materials needed for production of medicines necessary in future. Ukraine must have a strategic stockpile of medicines. We are talking about sedatives, anesthetics, reanimation agents, antibiotics and muscle relaxants. Darnitsas product portfolio includes significant part of medicines, that can be used during emergencies, in particular - COVID-19 cases. We think these stockpiles would be enough to cover a 2-4 months treatment period. We also store raw materials in order to fix up the production of medicines needed for health care system, Shymkiv said. Shymkiv reminded that the Cabinet of Ministers included Darnitsas medicines into the list of medical agents, health care products and equipment needed to prevent the spreading of COVID-19, approved in March. Darnitsa also produces other medicines, not approved by the government, people might need in critical situations, he added. Because of the increasing number of the infected people in European Union, European Commission predicted a threat of deficit of medicines needed for treatment of COVID-19 patients. As reported earlier , pharmaceutical company Darnitsa got state registration on the substance of hydroxychloroquine, a medical agent included into the national protocol of coronavirus infection treatment as an agent of experimental therapy. The company also continues to get ready for a production of a medicine, based on hydroxychloroquine. Also Darnitsa changed the production plans in order to increase making of the antiviral Immustat and fever reducer Paracetamol-Darnitsa, that can be used during the epidemics of virus infections. The company sent additional 100,000 packages of Immustat to the pharmacies and will also produce 1.6 million packages of Paracetamol-Darnitsa in April. Pharmaceutical company Darnitsa was founded in 1930. Since 1998 the company has been a leader in Ukraine in terms of medicines production by volume. Darnitsa took 13.76 percent of Ukrainian market in 2019. Cardiology, neurology, and pain problems solutions are among strategic directions of Darnitsas portfolio development. Zagoriy family is the beneficiary of the company. Journalist Masrat Zahra, who was booked for uploading anti-national posts, was questioned by police on Tuesday in connection with the case filed against her under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, officials said. Zahra was questioned for more than an hour at the Kashmir's Cyber Police Station in Shergarhi area of the city, they said. After the questioning,the freelance journalist said she has answered the investigators' questions. "I met the concerned police officials of the case and answered their questions regarding the investigation, I have not been arrested and the investigation is going. Thanks all for the support," she tweeted. Ahead of her appearing before the police, Zahra said she was going to defend her rights as a journalist. "So wish me good luck because it's time to defend my rights as a journalist, Going inside cyber police station," she tweeted. Zahra is one of the two journalists in Kashmir who were booked on Monday for reportedly posting anti-national content on social media and publishing a "fake" story, police said. While she was booked for a Facebook post about slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, Srinagar correspondent of The Hindu Peerzada Ashiq was booked for a story about recent Shopian encounter in which two militants were killed. "A case has been registered against Zahra for uploading anti-national posts with a criminal intention to induce the youth and promote offences against tranquillity," a police official had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Trump said on Tuesday that he would order a temporary halt in issuing green cards to prevent people from immigrating to the United States, but he backed away from plans to suspend guest worker programs after business groups exploded in anger at the threat of losing access to foreign labor. Mr. Trump, whose administration has faced intense criticism in recent months for his handling of the coronavirus crisis, abruptly sought to change the subject Tuesday night by resuming his assault on immigration, which animated his 2016 campaign and became one of the defining issues of his presidency. He cast his decision to suspend immigration, which he first announced in a late-night tweet on Monday, as a move to protect American jobs. But it comes as the United States economy sheds its work force at a record rate and when few employers are reaching out for workers at home or abroad. More than 22 million Americans have lost their jobs in the economic devastation caused by the virus and efforts to contain it. Mr. Trump said that his order would initially be in effect for 60 days, but that he might later extend it based on economic conditions at the time. While numerous studies have concluded that immigration has an overall positive effect on the American work force and wages for workers, Mr. Trump ignored that research on Tuesday, insisting that American citizens who had lost their jobs in recent weeks should not have to compete with foreigners when the economy reopens. Los Angeles, April 21 : Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt made a cameo in John Krasinskis show "Some Good News" as a laidback weatherman. To the delight of fans, the 56-year-old Oscar-winning star popped in to make a surprise cameo on the recent episode of Krasinski's internet show, which highlights positive news amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, reports etonline.com. Though most of the show was a recap of Krasinski's virtual prom, Pitt made an appearance halfway through to give an update on the weather. "We should do a check on the weather. Brad, how's it looking out there?," Krasinski star asked. The video then cuts to a balcony with some palm trees in the background with Pitt, in a green sweater and paperboy cap, briefly peeking outside. "Looks, ahh, pretty good, yeah," the "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor" said in a laid-back tone, before the video cut back to Krasinski. This isn't the first time that Pitt has served as a weatherman. He has made several appearances on "The Jim Jeffries Show" to share depressing weather forecasts in the past. EDWARDSVILLE After last weeks firing of Madison County officials over allegations of corruption, both political parties are seeking to paint themselves in a positive light. Both sides also are positioning themselves for the Nov. 3 elections, including the county board chairmans race pitting incumbent Republican Kurt Prenzler against Democratic challenger Bob Daiber. Democratic Party officials said they will focus on restoring good government. Newly-elected Democratic Party Chairman Randy Harris last week said the election will be about bringing about the changes we desperately need at both the national and the county level. Local Republicans said they acted quickly when details of the allegations surfaced and proved they sent a strong message to voters. I would have thought it would be quiet after the primary, and then we have to deal with the county board stuff, said Ray Wesley, Republican Party chairman. Im disappointed that we had to deal with it. It was a tough situation. It just proves that we dont turn a blind eye to it, he said. We certainly dealt with it swiftly; we dealt with it decisively. That shows strength when were able to do that. On Thursday, the county board terminated Madison County Administrator Doug Hulme and Information Technology Director Rob Dorman over allegations they improperly accessed emails and other data for political purposes. The allegations followed the January 2018 raid on county administration offices and the seizure of computers. An investigation of the case was turned over to the Illinois Attorney Generals Office, which announced no charges would be filed because of a lack of evidence. On April 6, numerous documents relating to the case were unsealed, creating a firestorm of allegations centering on Hulme and Dorman. The board met in closed session for about an hour during Wednesdays regular meeting, then for about three hours at a special meeting the next night where they voted 26-1, with one abstention and one absence, to fire Hulme and Dorman. The lone no vote was by Don Moore, R-Troy. Abstaining was Phil Chapman, R-Highland, upon advice by Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons because of a conflict of interest. Jim Dodd, D-Alton, was absent. Both sides have issued numerous news releases. Democratics criticized the Prenzler administration and compared the situation to Watergate. They called for stronger protection for legal communications by county officials, requests that also had been made prior to the released details of the allegations against Hulme and Dorman. The allegations describe an alarming series of crimes and violations of the public trust. By illegally accessing the confidential information of citizens, crime victims and children, said Gibbons in the press release. There is real risk to the safety of individuals as well as liability for taxpayers and jeopardy to ongoing investigations and court cases. It is a shocking abuse of power requiring immediate steps be taken to create stronger safeguards to protect the information security and confidentiality, as well as the taxpayer dollars of the citizens and public we are sworn to protect, he said. Democratic circuit clerk candidate Amy Gabriel expressed concern about the data breech, saying all county residents should feel secure that private and confidential information remains exactly that, private and confidential. Democrats also painted Madison County Auditor Rick Faccin, a Republican who fought the administration on numerous issues and filed suit to keep them from having access to financial data, as a hero. Rick wasnt just fighting for his office, said East Alton Mayor Joe Silkwood, a Democratic auditor candidate. He was fighting to protect the citizens of Madison County. To me, thats a hero. On April 16, Hulme and Dorman were placed on paid administrative leave and Prenzler said there would be an independent, third-party investigation. After that meeting, the Republican Party issued a release saying it was cleaning up corruption in the county administration. Our actions as a county board last night sent a strong message to the taxpayers of this County that we have zero tolerance for such conduct within our county government, regardless of party affiliation, Wesley said in the release. The board took swift action at the first publicly available meeting to remove the two individuals in question. He also commended the actions of Madison County Treasurer Chris Slusser, a Republian, for his actions. Slusser was identified in some released documents as bringing concerns to investigators and helping them. Republican candidates for countywide offices also issued statements. As a professional auditor, I had to pass an ethics exam and I continue to teach ethics in the classroom to future accountants. It is my first and foremost duty to always make ethical decisions for the county, regardless of politics, said county board member David Michael, R-Highland, who is running for auditor. County board member Tom McRae, R-Bethalto, who is seeking the circuit clerks seat, said Republican leaders took immediate action once the documents were unsealed rather than circling the wagons. Exactly how all this will play out is unclear, with Harris and Wesley both acknowledging the coronavirus pandemic has changed the political landscape. Both said normal fundraising and meet-and-greet opportunities during the summer would likely be severely curtailed, with less money available for advertising and other activities because of economic hardships created by the pandemic. * Volunteer to provide critical services. Its a way to assist others while also helping you find purpose and avoid isolation. Mentors and tutors, for example, are always in high demand and both roles can easily be filled remotely. You might also want to volunteer to answer helpline calls related to the pandemic. Visit https://createthegood.aarp.org. * Identify vulnerable older adults in your family or neighborhood and make a plan to have someone reach out to them on a regular basis by phone, text, email or virtual chat. This is an excellent opportunity to introduce someone unacquainted with Zoom, Skype or FaceTime to this new method of communication. * If you are working from home, consider virtual lunches or happy hours. Its important to take time to catch up with your colleagues on a more informal level. (And you might even glean a few tips on successfully navigating the new world of telework.) Go old school. Reach out to a family member or friend by sending a letter or postcard. Enclose a photo or two in the letter to spark a fond memory. If there is one thing that this pandemic has made clear, its that personal connections are immensely valuable and sorely missed. Lets resolve to keep those links strong and vibrant during this crisis, especially for our most vulnerable family, friends and neighbors. Dave Holmquist is volunteer state president of AARP Nebraska. According to reports by Amazon workers, management at an Amazon warehouse in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area did not inform employees that one of their coworkers called in sick with symptoms of COVID-19 and then tested positive. On April 14, workers were informed that a worker who last worked on April 6 was infected with COVID-19, having worked a little over a week without any information or extra precautions. The Harrisburg case was confirmed on the same day that company officials reported the first death of an Amazon warehouse employee in California two weeks earlier, on March 31. Workers at United Parcel Service (UPS) and the US Postal Service (USPS) have reported similar situations in which management kept workers on the job without informing them of confirmed cases and without providing them with adequate protections. A worker at the Harrisburg facility, who will be referred to as Michael due to his fears of retaliation, told the World Socialist Web Site, There is a confirmed case at my job, and we all found out way after the fact, with no closure. Michael said employees started noticing that the company was doing extra cleaning around the warehouse, but that they had not been told why. They were having employees do it too. I have not been asked yet and would probably refuse. Workers received a text message late Tuesday afternoon telling them that there was a confirmed case of COVID-19 at their warehouse. Michael said that Amazon told employees that the last day the person was at the warehouse was April 6th supposedly. We dont know who they are, what department they were in, or anything. He continued, We were told they would be reviewing the camera footage to see who was close to the person and then reaching out to those people. But I have not heard of anyone being contacted. The ones reviewing the footage are not doctors, and they have our lives in their hands. He was angry that Amazon did not shut down the facility for even a day. While the company has made belated efforts to conduct temperature checks on workers and provide limited masks and cleaning supplies, he asserted it is not enough. The masks themselves have caused Michael to experience breathing problems and fatigue, since the workers are still pressured to work at high speeds despite the added gear. When Im packing and wearing my PPE, I can barely work, he said. The mask makes glasses fog up, and I cant breathe, all while working very hard. I legit feel like Im going to pass out. The problems will clearly get worse as the weather warms up. Amazon is already notorious for forcing workers to work in extreme heat. The companys website tells prospective employees that temperatures in the warehouses range up to 90 degrees, but workers have countered that they go much higher. Michael also pointed out the impossible situation that workers are put in, having to choose between staying home or getting paid. Amazon claims they will not fire an employee who stays home because they feel sick, yet they will not get paid for time off unless they test positive for the virus, placing enormous pressure on workers to come to work sick. They havent even given us any extra paid time like personal or vacation, Michael explained. We dont even have sick time normally, so if we do not have the virus and are not told by Amazon or a doctor to quarantine, we will not get unemployment. So it really screws us and puts us in a shifty predicament. This is the same problem that workers face in many industries, such as nursing homes, meatpacking and food processing plants, and grocery stores. Despite now being deemed essential by employers and the government, these workers and many others are scraping by on poverty wages, frequently lacking paid sick time. Without widespread testing, workers who are not aware that they are infectedand are facing immense financial pressures to continue workingwill unknowingly infect others. Under conditions in which management mandates that production continue despite the dangers to workers lives for the sake of Amazons profits, workers are now speaking out and organizing wildcat walkouts and demonstrations. Job actions and protests by Amazon workers have already taken place in Illinois, Michigan and New York, as well as Italy, France and Spain. Im really in shock over all this and feel there are going to be more cases, and I am very concerned that I have to trust them to tell us, Michael said. At the end of the day, especially now that more and more warehouses have confirmed cases, they need to systematically shut down. We shouldnt be working. Coronavirus: Schools to reopen in France with younger pupils In three weeks, but families can say no (ANSAmed) - PARIS, APRIL 21 - The first pupils to return to school will be elementary school children when schools reopen in France, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said Tuesday, addressing the National Assembly's cultural and education affairs commission. President Emmanuel Macron had announced earlier that French schools were reopening on May 11. Students will return to school "gradually", the minister said. Lessons will take place for "small groups" of maximum 15 children. Some organizational issues "still need to be defined", said Blanquer. The first week - until May 18 - will see the return of elementary school children while middle and high school students will resume lessons on May 18. As of May 25, all students will be back in school, alternating between the classroom, long-distance learning and physical activities outdoors. Families will be given the opportunity to decide whether they want to send their children back to school, provided they follow online classes if they remain home. (ANSAmed). Through the 1990s and into the next century, the British oil major BP grew rapidly under the swashbuckling leadership of John Browne, charging to the frontiers of oil exploration, acquiring rivals Arco and Amoco, and becoming the worlds third largest oil major behind Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell. The rapid growth did not come without costs. In 2005, an explosion at the companys Texas City refinery killed 15; in 2006, a BP-owned pipeline spilled thousands of barrels of oil into Alaskas Prudhoe Bay. Browne was gone by 2007, but three years later, the legacy of aggressive expansion and cost-cutting would come back to haunt the company and nearly destroy it. The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform on April 20, 2010, ended BPs decades growth and forever changed a company where the pressure to deliver financial returns took priority over all else. Today, 10 years later, BP is profitable but a much smaller company. To pay off $69 billion in fines, settlements and expenses related to the tragedy, BP sold $75 billion in assets, including refineries in Texas City and Carson, Calif., and a stake in a large oil drilling joint venture in Russia. It scaled back its offshore ambitions and operations in the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea, and put a new emphasis on safety and environmental responsibility. BP says it has reduced unplanned and uncontrolled spills and other releases from its global operations by 65 percent over the past decade, raising its safety standards, adding and expanding training programs, and adopting new technologies to prevent accidents. The company also has become an industry leader in the energy transition, pledging to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 while investing in technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, developing cleaner fuels and operating the largest electric vehicle charging network in United Kingdom. In a speech in February, BPs recently appointed CEO Bernard Looney praised his predecessor, Bob Dudley, for guiding the company through a decade of epic challenge. We recovered, we returned to growth, Looney said. Ten years on, we are a safer, stronger and more disciplined company. Going Green: BPs new CEO sets net-zero carbon goal to fight climate change It took 11 deaths, an oil spill of 3.2 million barrels and widespread damage to the Gulf Coasts environment and economy to get there. Dudley, the first and only American to lead the British company, became CEO following the ouster of Tony Hayward, whose public relation gaffes including taking a sailing trip during the crisis and telling reporters his priority was to bring the well under control because, I want my life back became untenable. Dudley announced that any BP employee or contractor was empowered to stop operations if he or she believed safety was at risk. That, however, had been the case on the Deepwater Horizon platform, said Loren Steffy, a former Houston Chronicle columnist and author of Drowning in Oil, a detailed examination of the catastrophe. But no one exercised that authority. A lot of them worried about it, Steffy said. But none of them stopped the work because the cost of doing so was so great that the pressure to keep going completely overwhelmed any individual concern. Founded as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1908, BP became one of Britains most vital companies when Winston Churchill switched the British Navy from coal-fired ships to fuel oil just before World War I. After World War II, the state-run company diversified its holdings beyond the Middle East to places such as Alaska and the North Sea. The British government sold its remaining shares in 1987, paving the way for a major round of expansion. Under Brownes leadership in the 1990s, BP bought rivals such as Arco and Amoco in multibillion dollar deals. At one point, the British company even had ambitions to buy its longtime rival Shell. Robert Bea, a BP expert and retired engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said Brownes focus on finances over engineering ended up becoming the companys undoing. Cutting costs to help pay for acquisitions and boost investor returns, he said, undermined safety with disastrous results even before Deepwater Horizon. Investigators with the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, for example, blamed the 2005 Texas City Refinery explosion on organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels at BP. Theres nothing wrong with saving money but youve got to do it sensibly, Bea said. Theres two types of money todays and tomorrows. When you leave out tomorrows money, thats safety. You have to make investments to prevent disasters. Fuel Fix: Get energy news sent directly to your inbox After the Deepwater Horizon, Dudley fought hard to change that reputation and over his 10-year tenure inspired a new workplace culture and retooled operations around the world to make them safer. Despite the vasts amount of money spent by company on clean up, restoration, lawsuits and criminal and civil penalties, eight out of Dudleys 10 years as CEO were profitable. The company turned a $4 billion profit on $278 billion of revenue last year. Its a different company now, said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, director of the BP settlement-funded Subsea Systems Institute at the University of Houston. Theres a new culture of safety, a culture of how do we prioritize safety and environmental stewardship over profits. The company that emerged after 2010 much chastised, now has very different leadership in very different ways of doing business. Deepwater Horizons legacy, Krishnamoorti said, is still felt in other ways. Technology known as blowout preventers, which stop crude oil or natural gas from rushing up the well and into drilling rigs, has advanced greatly since the accident. Meanwhile, drones, robots and drilling technology used to monitor the burning and sinking drillship, cap the underwater well and prevent it from leaking again are now used onshore and offshore for monitoring and safety. The offshore industry, he said, is employing robots more widely to do dangerous underwater jobs or crawl into tight spaces reducing risks to workers. Ultimately, Krishnamoorti said, unmanned platforms will become the industry standard. This is still a work in progress, he said, and we are learning by doing. Pandemic: Several BP offshore workers test positive for coronavirus Environmentalists, however, dont believe BP or the offshore industry have changed and that technology has not been able to deliver on its promises. Diane Hoskins, executive director of the Washington-based environmental group Oceana, said offshore drilling and production is just as dirty and dangerous as they were 10 years ago. The group released a 35-page report tied to the 10th anniversary of Deepwater Horizon, detailing the damage and providing its own analysis of the offshore industry. Eighty-five offshore oil industry workers have died on the job and nearly 2,000 injured between between October 2011 and December 2018, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the agency created in the aftermath of Deepwater Horizon to oversee offshore drilling. More than 4,700 offshore spills released a combined 20,400 barrels of crude between 2011 and 2018, the agencys figures show. That should be ringing alarm bells for everyone concerned about the environment, Hoskins said. Despite efforts by the Trump administration to open greater expanses of federal waters to drilling, the offshore oil industry never fully recovered from the Deepwater Horizion tragedy. By the time the Obama administration lifted its six-month moratorium on offshore drilling, the so-called shale revolution was underway, sucking away capital for offshore development. When the boom went bust, the industry downturn that lasted roughly from 2014 to 2016 hit the offshore energy sector particularly hard. The oil industry slowly began to recover in 2017. BP followed other oil majors by expanding shale holdings and operations, buying the U.S. shale assets of the Australian mining company BHP for $10.5 billion. With 114 drilling permits filed in 2019, BP is ranked as one of the top 25 drillers in Texas. BP still owns and operates four offshore oil production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and has plans for a $1.3 billion expansion of the companys Atlantis field off the coast of Louisiana. More: Read the latest oil and gas news from HoustonChronicle.com But just as the oil industry was beginning to recover, buoyed by higher prices and success in bringing down costs both on- and offshore, the coronavirus pandemic has collapsed demand and prices, creating an unprecedented crisis for the industry. BP has responded by cutting its budget by 25 percent. The British oil major now plans to spend $12 billion on new projects, down from the previously announced $16 billion. Ryan Todd, an analyst with the Houston investment bank Simmons Energy, said most of the $1 billion of cuts to the exploration and production portion of the companys budget will be aimed at its shale operations and will likely result in a 70,000 barrel-per-day drop in production. And despite having $32 billion of cash and credit on had, Todd said BP will still need to divest more than $10 billion of assets this year to maintain dividends to investors and continue paying off its obligations for the Deepwater Horizon accident. A $5.1 billion deal to sell BPs remaining Alaskan assets to Houston oil company Hilcorp Energy Co. is among the pending sales. The coronavirus pandemic is almost certain to change both BP and the industry again. A decade ago, a disaster of another type off the coast of Louisiana made it clear that BP and the industry could no longer operate as they had a lesson learned at an intolerable cost. Looney, BPs new CEO, remains convinced that the company must change again by embracing the transition to clean energy technologies. The company began to invest in solar and other clean energies in the 1990s; Looney said the company plans to invest more as it moves toward its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. We dont expect progress to be a straight line, Looney said. But make no mistake, the direction is set. We are heading for net zero. There is no turning back. sergio.chapa@chron.com twitter.com/SergioChapa Jonathan Bardon, at the launch of his book in 2007 (Paul Faith/PA) Tributes have been paid to the noted Irish historian Dr Jonathan Bardon. The Lord Lieutenant of Belfast Fionnuala Jay-OBoyle led the tributes on Tuesday after it was announced that the Dublin-born academic had died. It is understood the 78-year-old had been ill. The Lord Lieutenant is greatly saddened to learn of the death of the distinguished Belfast historian Jonathan Bardon who wrote with such distinction on the city. She extends her deepest condolences to his family. BelfastLieutenancy (@BLieutenancy) April 21, 2020 Dr Bardon authored the critically acclaimed book The History Of Ulster, as well as writing scores of radio and television programmes on the history of Northern Ireland, and working at the Queens University Belfast. His most recent work was the Short History Of Ireland series for BBC radio. He received an OBE in 2002 for services to community life. Very sorry to hear if the death of our former colleague Dr Jonathan Bardon. A gentleman and a scholar. https://t.co/ffAIF4r7ez QUB History (@QUB_History) April 21, 2020 Ms Jay-OBoyle was described as greatly saddened by his passing in a tweet by her office, and extended her deepest condolences to his family. South Belfast MP Claire Hanna described the historian as a friend and neighbour of her family. Very sorry to hear of the death of Dr Jonathan Bardon, a friend & neighbour of my family for decades. His books are breathtaking in their depth & reach, essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of this island, and a life-long influence on my own thinking. pic.twitter.com/Girht3WsuP Claire Hanna (@ClaireHanna) April 21, 2020 I am very sorry to hear of the death of Dr Jonathan Bardon, who was a friend and neighbour of my parents and myself for decades. He was most supportive to me personally, she said. He had been ill for some time and I send my condolences to his wife, Carol, and family. A Dubliner (from Booterstown), Belfast was his adopted home and he produced a staggering volume of work. His History Of Ulster and his History Of Ireland in 365 episodes, which was broadcast on Radio Ulster every evening for a whole year were quite breathtaking in their historical depth and reach and even-handedness and are essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of this island. The Mafilm Studio complex in Fot on the outskirts of Budapest will be expanded to cater for foreign and Hungarian productions, the government film commissioner said. Under the project, four new soundstages will be built on 9,600 square metres, boosting total studio capacity fivefold, to 12,200sqm, Csaba Kael told Kossuth Radio. Implemented under the governments economic protection action plan, the Fot base expansion will be Hungarys largest ever state-funded film studio development project, Kael said. It has Europes largest outdoor water tank which was used in the shooting of Blade Runner 2049 and Terminator: Dark Fate. The Hungarian motion picture industry is a success sector of the Hungarian economy with direct film production spending exceeding 100 billion forints (EUR 283m) every year since 2017. The contribution of the film industry to the countrys GDP is outstandingly high by European comparison. Budapest is the second most popular filming location on the continent after London, Kael told the programme. He noted the 30% tax rebate foreign productions receive in Hungary under a government decree enacted three years ago. (Alliance News) - Avation PLC on Tuesday said it is currently leasing 11 aircraft to Virgin Australia. Avation also noted the troubled airline continues to operate flights. Virgin Australia on Monday moved toward voluntary administration, making the carrier the largest yet to fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic. The cash-strapped airline had appealed for an AUD1.4 billion, around USD894 million, loan to continue operations, but the federal government refused to bail out the majority foreign-owned company. Avation said: "The entry into voluntary administration is a procedural step to allow Virgin Australia to be sold or for a 'restructure and refinance of the business and bring it out of administration as soon as possible' said the administrator." Avation also noted it is aware there are reports of "10 or more interested buyers" for Virgin Australia. "Both state and federal governments in Australia have made statements about the necessity for a second locally based airline to service Australia with domestic and international routes," the aircraft leaser said. Avation has 11 ATR 72 aircraft under operating lease to Virgin Australia. Of these 2 ATR 72 aircraft are subleased to, and operated by, another airline. Avation also provides two Fokker F100 jet aircraft under finance lease. Administrators are now expected to be appointed to try to find a buyer for the company and manage creditors - which is expected to take two to three months. Virgin had stood down 8,000 staff, suspended all international routes and scrapped all bar one domestic route after Australia shut its borders to limit the spread of Covid-19 and imposed tough restrictions on movement. Shares in Avation closed 6.5% lower in London on Tuesday at 130.00 pence each. By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. A house party on Six Nations Saturday night attracted at least 25 cars and the ire of the elected band council. The party at a residence on the reserve continued into the early hours of Sunday morning, according to a media release issued by council. Six Nations Police is investigating. Band councillor Nathan Wright expressed frustration at the partygoers, whose actions he said undermined the efforts of Six Nations COVID-19 emergency control group to contain the disease. Just the blatant neglect and disregard for their procedures and their work was a disappointment and discouraging, Wright said. The house party was one of what the band council statement described as a number of large gatherings on the territory Saturday night. (We) unequivocally condemn these actions, council said. Any large gathering further endangers the lives of our residents and community and creates unnecessary risk for our frontline workers. In response, Six Nations will step up security at access points to the territory, which are already limited to residents and essential employees. Wright said the specifics of the enhanced security measures are still being ironed out. The decision to further reduce access was taken after what council described as an outpouring of calls from concerned community members about Saturdays incident. Wright didnt know if anyone at the house party came from outside the territory or whether police issued any tickets to attendees. Nine Six Nations residents have contracted COVID-19, with one reported death. Seven residents have recovered. I think the community in total is doing a fabulous job, regardless of the few incidents over the weekend, Wright said. However, band council cautioned that those figures are not an accurate reflection of Six Nations COVID-19 cases since only approximately 200 residents have so far been tested, and Six Nations members living off-reserve arent included in that data. We are still in the first phase of this pandemic, and the numbers of confirmed cases are expected to increase across the province of Ontario, council said. We cannot become complacent simply because our numbers are lower than in surrounding communities. Wright said councils message to residents continues to be to stay home, practice physical distancing, and follow the directives of Ohsweken Public Health. Storyful An affable deer created somewhat of a buzz in a neighborhood near Salt Lake City, Utah, he regularly visited over the holiday period.The deer, nicknamed Cooper by local residents, has been playing with children in the neighborhood of Herriman and was even spotted posing for photos, reports said.Herriman resident Angelica Lujan recorded footage of the tame deer interacting with her children outside of her home on South Rowell Drive.Speaking to KSTU, a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources representative said despite the deers friendly attitude, the best thing for the animal is for people to leave him alone.People dont realize these beautiful, cute deer can be aggressive as they get older. Weve had times in the past where these friendly deer, they do get aggressive, said Scott Root, Conservation Outreach Manager, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.Weve had kids hurt at bus stops. Bad things happen when we feed deer in a residential area, Root added. Credit: Angelica Lujan via Storyful Of the reported 100,000 inmates temporarily released in Iran amid the countrys COVID-19 outbreak, more than 1,000 are foreigners, the Iranian government said Tuesday. "What Iran has done in guaranteeing prisoners' health and granting furlough to them is a significant move, said judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili at a news conference. The Islamic Republic has released tens of thousands of prisoners since February in an effort to reduce crowding in the jails. Among those temporarily released are British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, UK resident Aras Amiri and US Navy veteran Michael White. Last week, a panel of United Nations experts urged Iran to broaden the criteria for release to include prisoners of conscience and dual and foreign nationals. The experts pointed to the cases of human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and human rights defenders Narges Mohammadi and Arash Sadeghi, as well as Iranian-Swedish national Ahmadreza Djalali, Iranian-British-American national Morad Tahbaz and Iranian-Austrian nationals Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb all of whom have requested they be temporarily released from Irans prisons. In response, Esmaili said Iran had an excellent track record, and that the panel should cover what America and Britain have done regarding their detainees. On Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced the government would extend furloughs for prisoners through May 20. The UN and rights organizations have warned of the potential for the novel coronavirus to quickly spread through Irans crowded jails, including at Evin prison, where many high-profile foreign prisoners are held. Last month, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran Javaid Rehman wrote that he was concerned about overcrowding, poor nutrition and a lack of hygiene in Irans jails, noting that many detainees already suffered from malnutrition and disease. With 5,297 dead and more than 84,000 infected, Iran is one of the Middle Eastern countries worst affected by the novel coronavirus, only recently overtaken in case numbers by Turkey. A number of senior officials, including a member of Irans Council of Experts, are among the dead. Despite the rising death toll, Iran has lifted its ban on travel between provinces and allowed certain shops and factories to reopen. Restaurants, theaters, swimming pools, shopping malls and other high-risk facilities remain closed. During his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on the United States to lift economic sanctions, which Tehran says are hampering its coronavirus response. This story contains reporting from Agence France-Presse. Given that by now the best scientific and medical brains are all studying the effects of the novel coronavirus, one would assume that we may have the symptoms and signs associated with the disease somewhat figured out. Well, one would be wrong. Reuters In a rather bizarre turn of events in Wuhan, two doctors who were in contact with the patients of COVID-19, and who later fell ill because of the disease, are now showing a new symptom. The new symptoms have doctors all over the world puzzled, and more importantly, worried. Wuhan is the city where the first case of the novel coronavirus broke out. Reuters As per a video released by China Central Television, or CCTV, the skin colour of the two doctors has changed drastically over a period of time. The doctors who are showing this new bizarre symptom have been identified as Dr Yi Fan and Dr Hu Weifeng, colleagues of Dr Li Wenliang, the man who tried to blow the figurative whistle on the virus. CCTV While Dr Yi is a cardiologist, Dr Hu is a urologist who has been bedridden for over 99 days, as per the report that was filed. The Science Times a website operated by a community of scientists tried to speculate as to how something like this could take place. The first reason that they and the doctors treating Dr Yi & Dr Hu gave was that it could be the virus itself. Because the virus attacks the respiratory and the renal systems, this has an effect on the lungs, liver, and kidneys, all of which play a vital role in ridding the body of wastes. The article postulates that because the livers have stopped functioning normally, they had to put both the doctors on a life-supporting machine which causes certain hormonal imbalances. CCTV The second reason, that the doctors gave was that certain medicines, which have been given to most Chinese people who were treated for the virus, causes the pigmentation of the skin to change. Reuters In any case, the team of doctors looking after Dr Yi & Dr Hu are assuming that their skin condition will return to normal, once they are taken off the treatments and the medicine. Global Times, the tabloid division of the Chinese state-run People's Daily newspaper soon put out a video showing that Dr Yi has already started getting his colour back. Yi Fan, a Wuhan doctor whose skin was darkened after the #COVD19 virus damaged his liver, has almost fully recovered. In an interview with CCTV, he said he can now sit down and chat after nearly 40 days of treatment. pic.twitter.com/3hoXIMb7eI Global Times (@globaltimesnews) April 21, 2020 However, people are taking this news of recovery with a pinch of salt. Anything coming out of China is pure propaganda at this point - believe nothing question everything Corinne Smith (@SmithTsmith3) April 21, 2020 Don't trust Chinese propaganda FOMONAUT (@cryptophiles) April 21, 2020 Whatever the case may be, whether Dr Yi is indeed recovering or not, two things are becoming clearer. Our knowledge of the virus and the way it behaves is still frighteningly non-existent, and that people are increasing deficit of trust as far as China is concerned. Mathias Tulasi, the Chief Executive Officer of Literacy Ambassadors Ghana (LAG), a non-governmental literacy organisation has lamented over the statement made by Hon Lydia Alhassan for prosecuting those without face masks. His full statement below The call by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso West Wugon, Lydia Alhassan, advocating for prosecution and conviction of people who do not put on face masks when they step out from their homes is problematic and not the best way forward. We could all recall that during the last address given by President Akufo-Addo on COVID-19, he admonished Ghanaians to put on their face masks anytime they go out of their residence as a way of curbing the spread of the disease. Against that background, it is, therefore, prudent on our part especially on the part of the government to put up measures to get the face masks for those who do not have and cannot afford it. Individuals and organisations should equally support the efforts of government in that regard so that every Ghanaian can own a nose mask. It is, therefore, sad for Hon Lydia Alhassan to have suggested that the government should prosecute those who do not put on face masks thus would help prevent the spread of the deadly virus when she cannot even tell us the number of her constituents she supported with the face masks. It's proper that we all adhere to the various protocols outlined to help fight the spread of COVID-19 and we must all at this crucial moment be seen advocating for government to supply the citizenry with free face masks and not saying those without it should be prosecuted. U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History in Washington on Oct. 22, 2019. (Shannon Finney/Getty Images) Citizens Against Government Waste Compiles Earmark Database as Potent Reminder Against Costly, Inequitable, and Corrupting Practice House Democrats, and some Republicans as well, want to restore earmarkstaxpayer-funded special interest projects once dubbed the gateway drug to federal spending addictionbut Tom Schatz has a new tool to stop them. The earmark database is a potent reminder that the practice is costly, inequitable, and corrupting, the Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) president told The Epoch Times on April 21. Earmarks are unique spending measures inserted, often anonymously, by individual senators and representatives in appropriations bills for parochial projects that frequently benefit a campaign donor, family member, or the members own financial interest such as real estate. From the $50 million for an indoor rainforest in Coralville, Iowa, in 2004; to the $25 million for the University of Alaska to study how to trap energy from the aurora borealis in 1993; and the $500,000 to restore the boyhood home of Lawrence Welk in Strasburg, North Dakota, in the first Congressional Pig Book in 1991, the database has all 111,114 earmarks worth $359.8 billion that members of Congress have added with the taxpayers money for their own parochial purposes, Schatz said. The database is searchable by date, state, chamber of Congress, name of the sponsor, whether the funds requested exceeded the incumbent presidents budget request (if any), and the type of legislation that contained it. A brief description of the funded project is also included. Earmarks first became significant in the 1960s when Democrats controlled the White House under President Lyndon Johnson and both chambers of Congress. Then when Republicans, led by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia, took over the House majority in 1994, the number and value of earmarks increased, a trend that continued after Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, retook the majority in 2007. But extensive media coverage and resulting public disgust ended most earmarking in 2011. Sporadic efforts since then have failed to restore earmarks, but, as The Epoch Times reported earlier this year, the campaign has gained momentum in recent months, with earmarks now called community projects. A senior aide to House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) told The Epoch Times in January that there is general support for increased congressional involvement in funding community projects and for reforms to ensure public trust in such a process. Conversations on moving forward with community project funding in the fiscal year 2021 appropriations bills will continue in the coming days. A return of earmarks also is supported by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Most, though not all, House Republicans remain opposed to any restoration of earmarks. Schatz was skeptical when asked by The Epoch Times if he sees any way earmarks could be made acceptable. In the three years from 20082010 that members of Congress were required to include their names along with their earmarks, the 81 members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, or 15 percent of Congress, got 51 percent of the earmarks and 61 percent of the money. That pattern is why, Schatz said, it is not possible for there to be a fair allocation of earmarks since they are written into the appropriations bills and controlled by a small, powerful group of representatives and senators. States represented by the highest-ranking members of the congressional appropriations panels consistently got the most earmarks, both in terms of numbers and total dollar value, he added. Former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) referred to earmarks in 2005 as the gateway drug for federal spending addiction. Schatz agreed with that description, saying, Earmarks cause members of Congress to vote for bills that they ordinarily would not support in exchange for a few million dollars in projects, a process akin to legalized bribery. Schatz also said earmarks are irresistible to senators and representatives because they believe bringing home the bacon helps them get reelected, but recent history disproves the idea. That concept was formalized by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, under whose leadership earmarks doubled from $7.8 billion in 1994 to $14.5 billion in 1997, Schatz said. His 1996 policy memo on principles for appropriations bills instructed the chairmen of the appropriations subcommittees to look for any Republican members who need a specific district item in the bill. This politicization of the practice led to another doubling of earmarks to $29 billion in 2006, the incarceration of members of Congress, staff, and lobbyists, and the loss of the Republican majority. Contact Mark Tapscott at Mark.Tapscott@epochtimes.nyc Alleging anomalies in the Public Distribution System (PDS) in West Bengal, the BJP demanded a CBI probe into it. The party claimed that a section of poor people in the state are not getting foodgrains and starving. BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha further demanded that state food supplies minister Jyotipriyo Mullick be immediately removed for "failing to perform" his duties. "Despite the central government providing ration, the state is not delivering it to the poor. There is a scam going on in the state, PDS scam. The poor people are being deprived. We want a CBI inquiry into this scam. The chief minister must order a CBI inquiry so that the truth comes out," Sinha said. HItting back, Mullick said the allegations against the state government are baseless and politically motivated. We are providing free ration to more than 7.5 crore people of the state. If he has names of those who didnt get ration, let him publish those names, we will look into it. Making allegations to score political brownie points are not appreciated at this time of crisis, he said. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, expressing concerns over the state's PDS. "The situation of PDS in the state has reached alarming levels of concerns," he said. Last week, BJP MP John Barla wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging similar anomalies in the PDS. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Executive Body of the Republican Party of Armenia has issued a statement expressing its concern over and frustration with the foreign policy that the Government of Armenia is leading in regard to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The statement reads as follows: In light of the information provided by the minister of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation in regard to the developments unfolding in the current phase of negotiations over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Republican Party of Armenia expresses its concern over and frustration with the foreign policy that the Government of Armenia is leading. The foreign policy doesnt arise from the national interests of Armenia and may lead to devastating consequences for the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh and will undermine the strong positions of the Armenian side. Between 2008 and 2018, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandyan, who were generally leading Armenias foreign policy, never considered the phased approach to the settlement of the conflict and considered it inadmissible, unfeasible and unequivocally rejected it. In case of the phased version, it will be impossible to envisage exercise of the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination through the expression of free will, something that is of vital importance for the Armenian sides. This is clearly seen in the project implying a phased approach to the settlement declared by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov in regard to the discussions in the current stage of the negotiations. The foreign minister of Armenia failed to refute his Russian counterparts statement on the new project presented to the sides in April of last year. Therefore, the Republican Party of Armenia strongly condemns the several misleading and dishonest statements that the incumbent Armenian authorities have made about the absence of a document for negotiations. Once again, the Republican Party of Armenia declares that any option for the settlement that is not based on the principle for guaranteed exercise and acknowledgement of the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination, as well as the international guarantees for security of the population of the Republic of Artsakh will be rejected." CHICO, Calif. - Another Chico business is helping out by doing what they can during the coronavirus pandemic. Klean Kanteen is donating water bottles to help in the fight against the virus. The company announced for every $30 you spend on their website, they will donate a bottle. "You buy more, and we'll donate more," the company said. "It's that simple." The company has partnered with Grassroots Aid Partnership who are delivering aid to those hardest hit by the pandemic. Volunteers are helping the unemployed, children who rely on school meals and others. To buy a bottle and see how many the Chico-based company has sold so far, you can do so on their website, HERE. The Texas Railroad Commission has a unique chance to save the states oil and gas industry from one of its own worst habits setting fire to over 100 billion cubic feet of natural gas each year, transforming a valuable asset into waste and pollution with zero benefit to anyone. Now, as commissioners eye production cuts in response to collapsing oil prices, they also have an opportunity to stem the profligate practice known as flaring. The measure under consideration is called proration. Last used in the 1970s, it allows the commission to set a monthly production ceiling equal to market demand, with shares allocated among the states producers based on a variety of factors. Often described as a way to raise prices by limiting supply, authority for proration actually comes from the commissions statutory obligation to prevent the waste of natural resources and protect property rights. Flaring, of course, is the very definition of waste. Since 2013, operators in Texas have burned off roughly a trillion cubic feet of natural gas enough to meet the yearly needs of every Texas home three times over. In 2019, Permian operators alone flared almost 300 billion cubic feet of gas, sending over a million dollars a day up in smoke. Read more on proposed regulations: Texans can work together to stabilize the oil industry, address climate change during coronavirus [Opinion] Royalty and mineral owners including 600,000 individual Texas households often lose out to excess flaring. Thats because most of the states oil and gas producers lease their mineral rights, and many of these owners dont get paid for gas thats flared before it gets to market. Flaring waste is a problem that predates the immediate economic crisis, and it will continue to dog the industry in the eventual recovery unless something is done. The issue has been especially acute in the Permian basin, where production has exploded in recent years. And its a concern that the commission, industry and the public have all agreed must be addressed. Thats why some stakeholders including EDF support the idea of using flaring levels as one of the metrics for allocating production under any proration plan. For example, the Texas Land and Minerals Owners Association (TLMA), whose members together hold over 3.5 million of acres of oil and gas properties filed comments urging the commission to take flaring into account and avoid results that give flaring wells an unfair benefit. University Lands (UL), which manages oil and gas leases on 2.1 million acres in West Texas to fund higher education, likewise called on commissioners to use their proration authority to address Permian flaring, saying that it could help in reducing oil supply, reducing the waste of natural gas, and demonstrating to an observing public the industrys commitment to continued environmental stewardship. The environmental benefits of doing what University Lands, TLMA, EDF and others suggest are enormous. Flaring emits a hit parade of toxic air pollutants including soot, benzene, and formaldehyde, along with nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. Flaring is also the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the oil patch and a significant contributor to the regions growing methane problem. The issue is such a blight on the industrys reputation that even companies opposed to proration at a recent hearing still want the commission to do something about flaring. Using a flaring metric in any proration process would create added incentive for producers to operate more efficiently and with less pollution and provide fair reward to those that already do. Conversely, proration without a flaring metric provides absolutely no guarantee that flaring will fall simply because production does. Proration offers an ideal moment for the Railroad Commission to act on behalf of all Texans, now and for years to come, whether they live in the oil patch or not. Missing the opportunity would mean more waste, less money, and needless harm to our health. Anderson is the senior energy director at Environmental Defense Fund. The Kano State Government said it will commence the evacuation of almajiri pupils to their respective states so they can reunite with their families. Almajiri is ideally a system of Islamic education practiced in northern Nigeria, where young children leave their homes to live with Islamic scholars and learn about the religion. Almajiri derives from an Arabic word, al-Muhajirun meaning a person who leaves his home in search of Islamic knowledge. However, the system has over the years been bastardised with thousands of such children roaming the streets of Northern Nigeria as beggars and without any form of education. The system has been blamed for significantly contributing to the over 10 million out of school children in Nigeria. A statement signed by the Kano commissioner for information, Muhammad Garba, on Monday indicated that the measure to evacuate the children was taken to decongest the streets He said considering the fact that schools were closed three weeks ago, the almajiri seminaries remain congested with pupils having no shelter and nowhere to go. READ ALSO: According to him, preparations have been concluded for the handing over of 432 almajiris to the Katsina State government on Tuesday at the Kano/Katsina border. He said the measure, which was also adopted after due consultation, is in line with its proactive measures to control the spread of the deadly coronavirus in the state. The commissioner said the state government is in contact with concerned states to ensure the process is successful. He gave a list of the number of pupils and their states: Katsina, 432 Yobe, 63 Kaduna, 198 Jigawa, 663 Bauchi, 101 Zamfara, 01 Gombe, 09 Nassarawa, 10 Kano (LGs), 117 Niger Republic, 01 Mr Garba assured that the exercise would be continuous until all the almajiris are evacuated and sent to their states of origin. He called on the public to religiously observe the stay at home order and personal hygiene in order to be safe. Kano has already recorded 59 cases of the dreaded coronavirus. Advertisements Deputy of the Prosperous Armenia Party Gevorg Petrosyan has posted the following on his Facebook page: Who can explain what the government is doing? If the health minister is lying by saying that there is an increase in the number of coronavirus cases, he must be dismissed immediately. If he is right, then what is the government doing and who will be held responsible for the restrictions that were set in vain? As if that wasnt enough, now there are talks about Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov assuring that there is a certain document on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and it seems as though there is no substantiated refutation Who is creating this situation and why? Whats keeping the government from consolidating all the forces with potential? Armenia is buried in disappointment, unemployment, dangerous uncertainty in regard to foreign policy issues, despair, depression, hunger and diseases The coronavirus pandemic may threaten press freedom and worsen the crises that reporters around the world are facing, according to this years World Press Freedom Index, which evaluates the landscape for journalists in 180 countries and territories. The report, published on Tuesday by the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, said the United States and Brazil were becoming models of hostility toward the news media. It also singled out China, Iran and Iraq for censoring coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. The pandemic has already redefined norms. New laws that some governments have passed with the ostensible goal of slowing the spread of the virus ones that broaden state surveillance, for instance have raised concerns about long-term negative effects on the news media and freedom of expression. The pandemic has allowed governments to take advantage of the fact that politics are on hold, the public is stunned and protests are out of the question, in order to impose measures that would be impossible in normal times, Christophe Deloire, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, said in a statement. Artsakh air defense forces shot down Azerbaijani unmanned aerial vehicle on Tuesday, Artsakh defense ministry reported. According to the source, there have been frequent cases of flights of the opponent forces in areas adjacent to the contact line of the armed forces of Azerbaijan and Artsakh. The report also note that they are both training and reconnaissance. In addition to fighter jets and helicopters, UAVs are also involved, which often try to penetrate the Republic's airspace for reconnaissance purposes. The defense ministry calls on the Azerbaijani side to refrain from provocative steps and assures that any offensive actions will receive a worthy response. Materials from the wreckage of the UAV will be published later. Eight crew members of a Singapore-owned container ship are missing and thought to have been kidnapped after it was stormed by pirates off Benin, the ship's German management firm said Tuesday. Shipping firm Transeste said that the vessel, the Tommi Ritscher, had been boarded on Sunday while at anchor off the port of Cotonou. It added that an operation to recover the ship found 11 crew members safely aboard, but "regrettably, eight crew members remain missing and are now believed to have been kidnapped by the pirates". "The Benin Navy led an operation assisted by a Nigerian Special Taskforce to board the vessel early today confirming the safety of the 11 crew members and the absence of the pirates and eight seafarers." "Our thoughts are with the families of the missing seafarers during this difficult time and we are updating them regularly on the situation." Benin lies at the heart of the Gulf of Guinea, which which stretches some 5,700 kilometres (3,500 miles) from Senegal to Angola. Coastal waters in the centre of this vast region have become an epicentre of pirate attacks, lootings and kidnappings for ransom. Last year, out of 162 incidents of piracy and maritime armed robbery reported around the world, 64 occurred in the the Gulf of Guinea, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Tennessee Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, has held that a doctor who was permitted to practice medicine in Tennessee without a license under a statutory exemption does not meet the requirements of the Tennessee Health Care Liability Act to testify as an expert witness in a lawsuit against another doctor. The Tennessee Health Care Liability Act requires a person who sues a doctor for medical negligence to have an expert witness testify to the applicable standard of care, a deviation by the doctor from the standard of care, and that the deviation caused the injury. The expert witness must have been licensed to practice medicine and must have practiced medicine in Tennessee or a bordering state during the year before the alleged wrongful conduct occurred. In December 2011, Thomas J. Killian, M.D., performed a cardiac procedure on Randall Josh Young at TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville. Two days later, Mr. Young died from a stroke. Mr. Youngs wife, Vickie S. Young, sued Dr. Killian and his medical group, Frist Cardiology, PLLC, in the Davidson County Circuit Court. She claimed that Dr. Killian failed to monitor her husband properly before and during the procedure and that he should not have performed the procedure on a patient in Mr. Youngs medical condition. Mrs. Young identified Jason A. Rytlewski, M.D., as the expert witness who would testify that Dr. Killians care was negligent and resulted in her husbands death. Dr. Rytlewski was not licensed to practice medicine in Tennessee or a bordering state during the year before Mr. Youngs death, but he was in a fellowship program at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine during that time. Tennessee law allows doctors to practice medicine without a medical license for the limited purpose of their training in a fellowship program. The circuit court ruled that Dr. Rytlewski was qualified to testify as an expert witness because he was exempt from the licensure requirement during his fellowship at Vanderbilt. The circuit court allowed the defendants to request appellate review of this ruling. The Court of Appeals declined to hear the case, but the Supreme Court granted the appeal. In the unanimous opinion, authored by Justice Sharon G. Lee, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the circuit courts ruling, holding that Dr. Rytlewski was not qualified to testify as an expert witness. The Court noted that it was bound by the intent of the Tennessee Legislature in enacting the Health Care Liability Act and was required to give effect to every word and phrase of the Act as written. Under the plain language of the Act, the Legislature intended two separate requirements for a medical expert witnessthat the witness be licensed to practice medicine in Tennessee or a bordering state and that the witness be practicing medicine in Tennessee or a bordering stateand the Court was required to give effect to both of these requirements. The Court concluded that practicing medicine under a statutory licensure exemption was not sufficient to satisfy the Acts first requirementthat the witness be licensed to practice medicine in Tennessee or a bordering state--and therefore Dr. Rytlewski was not qualified to testify as an expert witness in this case. To read the opinion of the Court in Young v. Frist Cardiology, PLLC, authored by Justice Sharon G. Lee, please visit the Opinions section of TNCourts.gov. United States Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday said more help is on the way for Tennesseans in the fight against COVID-19, after the Senate passed legislation to provide an additional $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program to continue to make loans, $75 billion for hospitals, and $25 billion to strengthen testing. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), over 34,000 Tennessee small businesses have been approved for more than $6.5 billion from the Paycheck Protection Program, created by the CARES Act and more help is on the way," said Senator Alexander. "Today, the Senate passed legislation that will provide an additional $310 billion for this program to continue to make loans, which will help keep paychecks coming to hundreds of thousands of workers in Tennessee and across the country. Since the government has temporarily shut down the economy because of this disease, the government must help those who are hurt by it. Visit the senators website to learn more about how to take advantage of the Paycheck Protection Program. Senator Alexander continued, The legislation also includes $75 billion for hospitals and clinics to help address the harm caused by COVID-19, and an additional $25 billion to strengthen testing, including over $1 billion to launch a new competitive shark tank to pull out all the stops and create new technologies. There is no safe path forward to combat the novel coronavirus without adequate testing. To contain COVID-19 and persuade Americans to leave their homes and return to work and school, the United States will need tens of millions of diagnostic tests. We should squeeze every test possible out of current technologies, but we need tens of millions more to really get a handle on how far and wide this disease has spread. If theres a bold idea out there that will work, this bill will help make sure the funding is available to get these tests in the hands of health care providers quickly. We also should improve serologic tests to determine whether someone already has had the disease and has now created the necessary immunity to hopefully fight off the disease in the future. Just last week, owners of a senior living facility gave a COVID-19 diagnostic test to 2,500 employees and residents of its 26 communities in Tennessee and Kentucky. The owner, Gary Keckly, told the Tennessean, Because of the fear, we decided the only way to make sure residents didnt have the virus was to test them. There is no substitute for testing everybody. Governor Lee and our states leaders understand the importance of testing the governor announced on Wednesday that Tennesseans can now be tested for COVID-19, regardless of traditional symptoms. The expanded testing efforts launched over the weekend, and more than 11,000 COVID-19 tests were administered. Senator Alexander concluded, Congress has now given federal agencies up to $63 billion to develop tests, treatments, and vaccines. This is the time for both the government and its industry partners to step up and pull out all the stops. Photo: (Photo : Instagram/schwarzenegger) On Saturday, Arnold Schwarzenegger wore a black mask that has "We'll Be Back" written on it as he rode a bike with two of his five children, namely, Patrick, 26, and Christina, 28. The words written on his mask reminds us of the iconic words "I'll Be Back" when he starred as a killer robot in the film "Terminator" in 1984. The 72-year-old shared a photo of himself wearing the black mask while sitting on his bike in front of the Santa Monica Pier in California. He added a caption saying that they will be back and get through this together. He is also telling his followers to buy masks from the link in his bio if they want to protect themselves while still being fashionable. He also tagged a community organization "After School All-Stars" that provide food assistance and virtual programming to students during a crisis. The former governor of California co-created and donated $1 million to the "Frontline Responders Fund" through GoFundMe. The group provides personal protection equipment to medical professionals such as masks, gloves, and gowns. Former Mr. Olympia said that he never believed that he would be sitting on his couch complaining of what is happening to the world. He always thought that everyone should do their part to make things better for the world. Schwarzenegger also said that he is proud to be able to protect the real action heroes that are working in the hospitals as frontliners. He is asking everyone who can, to help support the heroes by clicking the link in his bio. The "Terminator" actor is included in a fundraising team with his fellow actor Edward Norton. Norton donated $10,000 and helped raise $2,660 from six donations. Gwyneth Paltrow also contributed $100,000 to the fund, while Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey gave $25,000. Famous computer scientist, Paul Graham donated $1 million, and Ron Conway, a Silicon Valley angel investor, donated $50,000. Donations already reached $7 million toward the goal of $10 million as of writing. Proceeds of the donations will go directly to Flexport.org, who organized the fund. Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively donated $1 million earlier this month to the Feeding America and Food Banks Canada. The "Deadpool" star shared on his Twitter and Instagram that they are donating because the coronavirus has "brutally impacted" the elderly and low-income families. He asks his followers to give if they can and to take care of their bodies and hearts. He added that everyone should be bringing joy to others by calling someone isolated and connecting with them. He ended the post with a joke saying (Hugh Jackman's # is 1-555-:'( -HUGH)." Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos also donated $1 million to help those that were affected heavily by the pandemic in their community. The source said that their contribution would be allocated for the purchase of ventilators and some to the organization WIN, who organizes running 11 women's shelters in New York City. (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia is running out of time to contain the raging coronavirus pandemic and the government should immediately ramp up stimulus by tens of billions of dollars to lessen the economic shock, according to the nations top business lobby group. President Joko Widodo should boost spending to at least 1,600 trillion rupiah ($102 billion) over the next six months to counter the economic hit from the virus, said Carmelita Hartoto, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. About 600 trillion rupiah is needed to cover wages of millions of people out of jobs while another 400 trillion rupiah should be spent on social safety net programs and the health system, she said. Widodos government has in recent weeks announced a string of emergency measures, worth about $28 billion, aimed at supporting a health system already buckling and an economy now grinding to a halt. It has at the same time faced criticism over its failure to act sooner as Covid-19 cases and the death toll from the disease surge, and millions of Indonesians find themselves jobless with little access to financial assistance. The government spending and stimulus have been far too small, Hartoto said. We dont have much time and we cant afford to get it wrong with this pandemic. Southeast Asias largest economy is projected to grow 2.3% this year with Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati warning of a more dire outcome of a contraction of 0.4% under a worst-case scenario. The government has suspended a cap on the budget deficit -- introduced in the wake of the Asian financial crisis two decades ago -- to give itself the leeway to boost spending. Bigger Stimulus The government estimates the budget deficit will reach 5.07% of gross domestic product this year, compared to an initial target of 1.76%. Its a figure that appears paltry compared to other economies in the region and elsewhere. The stimulus proposed by the chamber of commerce would take the fiscal response closer to 10% of GDP. Story continues We need it to be four times bigger, Hartoto said. With 1,600 trillion rupiah, the government can still meet expectations in markets and among the people. In other words, this will reassure the public that we are serious about addressing the health issues. The chamber, known as Kadin, wants 300 trillion rupiah to support the recovery of small and medium enterprises and 300 trillion rupiah for the industry, especially labor-intensive and strategic businesses. The call for a bigger and faster fiscal response came after Jokowi, as the president is known, took the extraordinary step of banning travel ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr next month, amid fears the annual exodus could spread the virus. The president has rejected calls for a complete lockdown in Indonesia, citing the impact on jobs and businesses. Infections in Indonesia have quadrupled this month alone with officials saying the pandemic may peak only toward end of May in a country of 270 million people. The virus has infected more than 7,000 people and claimed 616 lives, official data show. 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. Joe Biden has laid out his official position on the Tiger King Joe Exotic, declaring: "What are we watching?" While Donald Trump is considering a presidential pardon, Mr Biden seemingly had no interest in the antics of the zookeeper convicted of wildlife crimes and a murder-for-hire plot. Mr Biden and his wife Jill Biden were on a Zoom Q and A session with granddaughter, Finnegan Biden, when asked about any recent shows they've been watching. "This is hysterical. So everybody is watching this Tiger King show, so I turned it on and we watched about 20 minutes," Ms Biden said. "And pop [Mr Biden] looks at me and said "what are we watching" I mean it was like, so crazy." Joseph Maldonado-Passage, known as Joe Exotic, is serving a 22-year sentence for hiring a hitman to murder animal-rights activist Carole Baskin. In the US alone, about 34 million unique viewers watch the Netflix documentary over its first 10 days of release, according to tracking company Nielsen. In a coronavirus press briefing in early April, Mr Trump was asked if he was considering calls from his son, Donald Trump Jr, of a presidential pardon for the zookeeper who claims he was wrongly convicted. "I know nothing about it. He has 22 years, for what? What did he do? Are you on his side? Are you recommending a pardon?" Mr Trump asked. "I'll take a look." Mr Trump Jr has been campaigning for a closer connection between politics and the prisoner, Tweeting memes on superimposing images of the president and Mr Biden onto mugshots and glamour shots of Mr Exotic. I was an Elizabeth Warren voter, and I would love for Elizabeth Warren to be president. But I am less than enthusiastic about Joe Biden choosing Warren for vice president because of one reason: the Senate. Public discussion of vice presidents usually focuses on how they will or won't help the party win the presidency. Massachusetts Senator Warren or Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders could help energize the left wing of the party. California Senator Kamala Harris, or former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, or even Michelle Obama who Biden today said he would appoint "in a heartbeat" could help turn out black voters. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar or Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer might help Biden in the upper Midwest, where Hillary Clinton lost the national electoral vote in 2016. But these factors need to be balanced against another important election the contest for the United States Senate. Many of Biden's choices could affect Democratic Senate contests. And if Biden defeats Trump but loses the Senate, he hasn't really defeated Trump. The 2020 presidential contest is hugely important if we're to minimize ongoing damage from the coronavirus pandemic, or roll back the damage Trump has done on everything from pollution standards to the immigration system. But as vital as winning the presidency is, wresting back the Senate from Republican control is arguably even more important. The GOP Senate has flooded lower courts with far-right, often unqualified political hacks as judges. Democratic appointees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer are both in their 80s; we need a Democratic Senate to confirm them, or Mitch McConnell might just block replacements for four years, as he blocked Obama's last appointment for almost a year. Unless Democrats get back control of the Senate, we're looking at a judiciary that will reflexively strike down progressive priorities, from healthcare to voting rights. A Democratic president without a Democratic Senate isn't going to be in a position to fix what Trump broke, much less confront climate change, expand voting, or empower unions. Democrats are currently in a minority in the Senate, 53-47. They have a real chance to win the chamber back, though. Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Mark Kelly is currently polling 8 points ahead of incumbent Martha McSally. Democrats also look well-positioned in Maine, North Carolina, and Montana though they're likely to lose Doug Jones' seat in Alabama. One thing is clear, though: any Democratic victory in the Senate is going to be very close. The last thing Democrats want to do is put safe seats in play. But some of the candidates Biden is considering for vice president could do just that. Joe Biden would pick Michelle Obama as VP 'in a heartbeat' Trump nearly took Minnesota in 2016, for example. Amy Klobuchar always wins her seat easily, but Republicans would have a real chance to win a special election if she became VP and left the Senate in 2021. In Massachusetts, the governor there is a Republican, which means that if Warren left office, a Republican would probably be appointed to the seat in the short term. Vermont's governor is also Republican, so Sanders' replacement would similarly come from the GOP. And while Massachusetts and Vermont are both reliably Democratic, special elections can produce unexpected results: in 2009, Republican Scott Brown won a special election in Massachusetts, replacing Ted Kennedy and badly undermining Barack Obama's legislative program. Even in the worst-case scenario, it's almost impossible to imagine Republicans taking a Senate seat in very blue California which means that Kamala Harris is probably a safe vice presidential choice. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois would also be replaced by a Democratic governor, and the incumbent would then be heavily favored to win a special election. Governor Whitmer obviously wouldn't tip the balance of the Senate if she were selected as VP. Neither would Stacey Abrams, who has declined to run for either of the two open US Senate seats in Georgia. Former HUD Secretary and presidential candidate Julian Castro would also be a safe choice as far as the Senate is concerned. Of course, the Senate isn't the only consideration. Biden has said he intends to choose a woman as his vice president, which rules out Sanders and Castro. He's also, presumably, interested in selecting someone who would be ready to take on the duties of president an especially important consideration, given Biden's age and the increased health risks for the elderly during this pandemic. Abrams, who has never held national office, is less conventionally qualified than the senators and governors who have been mentioned for the post. Warren would be very qualified, and I admit I'd be excited if Biden chose her. But I'd also be worried. The country is in crisis; chances are that in November, we'll still be struggling with the pandemic and a massive economic recession. We need to do more than half-win. And that means Biden needs to pick a vice president who will help him win the Senate as well as the presidency. CNN reports the North Korean leader has serious health problems. A website linked to the South Korean government claims that the strong man from Pyongyang has undergone surgery for cardiovascular problems. Analysts: sister Kim Yo-jong favored for possible succession. Pyongyang (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Seoul denies that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has serious health problems. The statement came after CNN, citing an anonymous source within the US government, reported yesterday that the strong man from Pyongyang is in "grave danger" after a surgical operation. The swirl of rumors began with an article in the Daily NK reporting that Kim underwent cardiovascular surgery on 12 April for obesity problems, too much smoking and overwork. The website, which is based in Seoul and is linked to the South Korean Unification Ministry, does say that the Pyongyang leader is in a critical condition. Kim has not appeared in public since April 11, when he chaired a high-level meeting of the Workers' Party, which has ruled North Korea since the end of World War II. The alarm was sounded on April 15, after he was not seen at the ceremony for 108 years since the birth of his grandfather Kim Il-sung, the founder of the regime. Observers note that the South Korean authorities do not deny the fact that Kim has undergone surgery. The health of the North Korean leader is a top secret issue, and it is almost impossible to have verified news on the subject. He had already disappeared for 40 days in 2014, when he is rumored to have undergone surgery to remove a cyst in his leg. Meanwhile, analysts speculate on who, in case, could take his place. Aside from a coup d'etat by the military and intelligence, the most serious candidate is Sister Kim Yo-jong, who would have the support of the Armed Forces and would guarantee the succession of the Kim family, a non-secondary aspect in a closed and traditionals society like the Korean one. Kim Yo-jong is already part of the regime's nomenclature. Of late she often joins her brother in official ceremonies, and gave her first public speech last month. She is viewed as a more moderate leader, who has encouraged relaxation in relations with the Trump administration. A Birmingham construction firm has completed a 450-bed field hospital in Miami as Florida braces for a possible surge in coronavirus patients. Robins & Morton finished the hospital inside the Miami Beach Convention Center more than a day ahead of schedule, the company announced Monday. The project is a state and federal partnership in response to the pandemic. Robins & Morton received the project award on April 6 with an original deadline of April 27. On April 8, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the hospital needed to be ready to receive patients by April 21. Related: Birmingham firm converting Miami center into hospital We already had a tight deadline, but we knew we could do it, Robins & Morton Senior Project Manager Johnathan Peavy said in the announcement. Selected to build the hospital by the Army Corps of Engineers, Robins & Morton had to turn more than 250,000 square feet of exhibit hall into a functioning hospital and construction crews had to install medical gas lines, duct work, plumbing, electrical and data wiring and patient-room headwalls with patient communication, equipment and oxygen connections. The design included 400 acute care patient rooms, 50 isolation rooms, nurses station and support areas. The temporary hospital built by Birmingham firm Robins & Morton inside the Miami Beach Convention Center has 400 acute care rooms and 50 isolation rooms. The company announced completion of the project April 20, 2020. Robins & Morton engaged more than 20 trade contractors from South Florida and selected RLF Architects of Orlando, Florida, for project design and engineering. More than 250 people worked on the project in two shifts around the clock. Everybody had a sense of purpose, Peavy said in the announcement. It was pure synergy. We hit the ground running, and everything just clicked with the team. It was an urgency shared by everyone on the project, the company said. The teams motto was every minute is a life, Scott Fote, RLF Senior Vice President, said in the announcement. While Robins & Morton is based in Birmingham, it also has offices in Miami and Orlando. The Japanese government has outlined details of its plan to hand out 100,000 yen, or more than 900 dollars, in cash to all residents as part of its economic response to the coronavirus outbreak. The cash handouts will go to every person listed on Japan's Basic Resident Register, regardless of nationality. Internal Affairs Minister Takaichi Sanae outlined the program at a news conference on Monday. Takaichi said the handouts will be distributed quickly. Applications and payments will be made without human contact to prevent infections and minimize clerical work at municipal offices. Every person on Japan's Basic Resident Register as of April 27 is eligible. This means the program covers Japanese residents, as well as foreigners who are registered as residents and carry a visa of more than three months. Municipalities will send application forms to the heads of every household. Applicants will have to provide a bank account number, with copies of their ID and bank account information. The sum will then be transferred to the account. People can also use an individual identification system, known as the "My Number Card", to apply online. Each municipality can decide when to start accepting applications. Those will be accepted over a period of 3 months. Municipalities also decide when to start paying the handouts. The internal ministry says some of them may begin as early as next month. People who wish to decline the cash benefit need to indicate it on the application form. The Internal Affairs Minister says she has no intention to apply for it herself. By PTI NEW DELHI: Cautioning people against giving communal colour to the coronavirus pandemic, former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has said such behaviour could explode and make it much harder for different communities to get along. Rajan's comments come in the wake allegations that Tabligh-e-Jamat members violated social distancing guidelines and ignored all instructions by organising a massive gathering last month at their centre in Nizamuddin area of Delhi. The gathering is believed to have emerged as a super-spreader of coronavirus with thousands of cases across the country linked to Jamat members. So far, coronavirus has infected around 19,000 people and took over 600 lives in the country. "We see in India that some allegation that this was a Muslim plot. I mean, that kind of behaviour can explode and make much harder for her communities to get together within her country," Rajan said while speaking at the University of Chicago's virtual Harper Lecture series. Rajan along with 11 others has recently been appointed to an external advisory group of IMF MD Kristalina Georgieva to provide perspectives from around the globe on key developments and policy issues, including responses to the exceptional challenges the world now faces due to the coronavirus pandemic. Rajan, 57, who headed RBI for three years until September 2016, said nationalism that was already pretty strong before the virus is getting accentuated by the effects of COVID-19. Citing an example, he said, "China points finger at the US and says that was US intelligence plot and the US points finger at China and says that this was concocted by China." Rajan, who is currently working as a professor at the prestigious University of Chicago, said no part of the world is immune to COVID-19. "Everywhere in world is going to be affected, (and) global supply chain has been disrupted for some time. In the second quarter of calendar year 2020, we can see decline in GDP by 30-40 per cent," he said. Despite rebound in economic activities in the second half of 2020, global economic growth will still be negative for the year, he said. "I see (global) economic recovery underway a year from now," he noted. Today we'll evaluate China Lesso Group Holdings Limited (HKG:2128) to determine whether it could have potential as an investment idea. Specifically, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), since that will give us an insight into how efficiently the business can generate profits from the capital it requires. First up, we'll look at what ROCE is and how we calculate it. Next, we'll compare it to others in its industry. Last but not least, we'll look at what impact its current liabilities have on its ROCE. Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it? ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. All else being equal, a better business will have a higher ROCE. Overall, it is a valuable metric that has its flaws. 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 China Lesso Group Holdings: 0.21 = CN4.2b (CN41b - CN21b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019.) Therefore, China Lesso Group Holdings has an ROCE of 21%. See our latest analysis for China Lesso Group Holdings Is China Lesso Group Holdings's ROCE Good? When making comparisons between similar businesses, investors may find ROCE useful. Using our data, we find that China Lesso Group Holdings's ROCE is meaningfully better than the 8.7% average in the Building industry. I think that's good to see, since it implies the company is better than other companies at making the most of its capital. Setting aside the comparison to its industry for a moment, China Lesso Group Holdings's ROCE in absolute terms currently looks quite high. Story continues You can click on the image below to see (in greater detail) how China Lesso Group Holdings's past growth compares to other companies. SEHK:2128 Past Revenue and Net Income April 21st 2020 When considering this metric, keep in mind that it is backwards looking, and not necessarily predictive. ROCE can be misleading for companies in cyclical industries, with returns looking impressive during the boom times, but very weak during the busts. ROCE is only a point-in-time measure. What happens in the future is pretty important for investors, so we have prepared a free report on analyst forecasts for China Lesso Group Holdings. How China Lesso Group Holdings's Current Liabilities Impact Its ROCE Short term (or current) liabilities, are things like supplier invoices, overdrafts, or tax bills that need to be paid within 12 months. Due to the way the ROCE equation works, having large bills due in the near term can make it look as though a company has less capital employed, and thus a higher ROCE than usual. To counteract this, we check if a company has high current liabilities, relative to its total assets. China Lesso Group Holdings has current liabilities of CN21b and total assets of CN41b. Therefore its current liabilities are equivalent to approximately 50% of its total assets. China Lesso Group Holdings's high level of current liabilities boost the ROCE - but its ROCE is still impressive. The Bottom Line On China Lesso Group Holdings's ROCE So to us, the company is potentially worth investigating further. China Lesso Group Holdings shapes up well under this analysis, but it is far from the only business delivering excellent numbers . You might also want to check this free collection of companies delivering excellent earnings growth. I will like China Lesso Group Holdings better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider 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. DUBLIN, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Indian IoT Energy Market 2019-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Various numbers of advances in M2M/IoT technology has been a part of energy sector such as initiated energy-efficient innovations driven by Big Data analytics as well as M2M/IoT Application Platforms. Smart meters based on the energy-saving IoT played are widely used globally. Additionally, IoT based M2M solutions enable interaction, resource sharing and interoperability between different domains. IoT technology addresses focuses on energy grids and smart Grids and its key issues such as failure in distribution network, grid security, line losses, and overloading. Depletion of energy resources day by day, global focus has been shifting in order to conserve energy and green energy usage with the deployment of IoT solutions. These applications enable power utilities to control assets from a random geographical location at any time. Additionally, IoT technology offers sophisticated solutions for renewable energy sector and its key issues such as renewable energy installations, fault management, plant monitoring, and performance monitoring. Some of the major players operating in the Indian IoT energy market include IBM, Intel, Gemalto, HCL Technologies and others. These players adopt various organic and inorganic growth strategies such as merger and acquisition and product launch to strengthen their presence in Indian market. The report covers: A comprehensive research methodology of Indian IoT Energy market. A detailed and extensive market overview with key analyst insights. An exhaustive analysis of macro and micro factors influencing the market guided by key recommendations. Analysis of regional regulations and other government policies impacting Indian IoT Energy market. Insights about market determinants which are stimulating Indian IoT Energy market. Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues. Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players. Key Topics Covered 1. Report Summary 1.1. Research Methods and Tools 1.2. Market Breakdown 1.2.1. By Segments 2. Market Overview and Insights 2.1. Scope of the Report 2.2. Analyst Insight& Current Market Trends 2.2.1. Key Findings 2.2.2. Recommendations 2.2.3. Conclusion 2.3. Rules & Regulations 3. Competitive Landscape 3.1. Company Share Analysis 3.2. Key Strategy Analysis 3.3. Key Company Analysis 4. Market Determinants 4.1. Motivators 4.2. Restraints 4.3. Opportunities 5. Market Segmentation 5.1. Indian IoT Energy Market by Solution Type 5.1.1. Asset Maintenance 5.1.2. Connected Logistics 5.1.3. Monitoring & Management 5.1.4. IoT Analytics 5.1.5. Others 5.2. Indian IoT Energy Market by End-user 5.2.1. Oil & Gas 5.2.2. Mining 5.2.3. Wind 5.2.4. Solar 5.2.5. Others 6. Company Profiles 6.1. Flutura Business Solutions, LLC 6.2. Altair Engineering, Inc. 6.3. Capgemini Services S.A.S. 6.4. Gemalto N.V. 6.5. HCL Technologies, Ltd. 6.6. Cisco Systems, Inc. 6.7. IBM Corp. 6.8. Intel Corp. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ypre84 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Some of the vital frontline workers who continue to risk their health and well-being to help stop the spread of the coronavirus could be receiving a small token of gratitude: A tasty cheeseburger. Burgerville, the popular Pacific Northwest burger chain, is planning on donating 4,500 cheeseburgers to frontline workers as part of its Burger Breaks campaign. The giveaways started with burger deliveries to Oregon Health & Science University, Legacy Emanuel and PeaceHealth, and will continue over the next few weeks in areas across the Northwest, including Portland, Vancouver, The Dalles, Longview and Corvallis. Our hearts go out to the medical and emergency workers fighting this pandemic, Burgerville CEO Jill Taylor, who used to be a pediatric nurse at Doernbecher Childrens Hospital, said in a release. We know people want to support people providing essential services, they just dont know how. Burgerville is a company built on community, and we knew our fans would join us if they had a way. Burgerville, which announced the charitable campaign Tuesday, said it plans to deliver burger feasts to hospital and essential employees too busy for mealtime during their shifts." Workers at hospitals, fire stations, police departments and grocery stores are among the frontline workers in line to receive food. To enhance the burger donations, Burgerville has created an avenue for anyone to join the cause. People who wish to donate a burger to frontline workers can do so online and Burgerville will double the donation, distributing three burgers to frontline workers for every one burger donated. The burger chain is also accepting cash donations for future Burger Breaks at its drive-thrus and on the Burgerville app. To burger it forward or nominate a frontline business for a burger delivery, visit www.Burgerville.com/BurgerBreaks. Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories The Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, which includes Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore, and Midlands Louth Meath Community Health Organisation, have extended gratitude to people sticking to Covid-19 restrictions. Mr Trevor OCallaghan, CEO of Dublin Midlands Hospital Group said: The Dublin Midlands Hospital Group would like to acknowledge the great support the community is giving our frontline workers at this time. "While the numbers of cases and deaths are increasing, the national predictive modelling being undertaken by the Department of Health is showing encouraging reduction in the reproduction rates of the virus. "This is very positive for us all to see and testament to people adhering to the guidelines. We can also update you that most Hospitals have had ICU discharges, and this is another encouraging development. However, last week was very difficult for us all locally, following the news of the deaths of two healthcare workers from St Lukes in Kilkenny, the 12 deaths in St Mary's in the Phoenix Park and nine deaths relating to CHO 8 community mental health services in Maryborough on the campus of St Fintans, Portlaoise. "This is deeply sad for the families and the staff who are caring for those residents and I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to all. I would also like to acknowledge the work of the medical and nursing team in the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise who provided clinical assessment to support the clinical teams within Maryborough over a number of days ahead of the bank holiday weekend and who remain available to this service on an ongoing basis. "The activity across Hospital sites is increasing and all sites are seeing increasing non-covid ED activity, while continuing with care of Covid positive illnesses. We are working very closely with our CHO 8 partners who are seeing increasing pressure on their community nursing homes and residential units and we are endeavouring to support our colleagues by providing expert medical and nursing support in the area of Care of the Older Person, Respiratory Medicine, PPE capacity management and Infection Prevention and Control Guidance. "In that regard, we are officially announcing our Covid 19 Acute and Community Support Teams who will provide expert advice and guidance available to nursing homes and residential units in the CHO 8 area. A dedicated email RAFT.MRHT@hse.ie and mobile number 086 035 7351 which is operating Monday-Friday 9am 4pm and weekends 9 am 2pm. A more established model is also working within the CHO7 area South Dublin, Kildare West Wicklow which includes our Hospitals in St James, Tallaght University Hospital and Naas General Hospital. "Our staff are collaboratively working with our community colleagues to respond to these rapidly emerging challenges. All our staff are working long hours, weekends, working in different locations or maybe doing different job roles. These are extraordinary times and we have an extraordinary workforce that are highly regarded across the country as we have seen from the Shine Your Light campaign. Thank you to each and every staff member. "Our Emergency Departments are open 24/7 for people who are seriously ill or injured and if their life is at risk. If you or someone else needs urgent care please do not delay going to the ED. Stroke and heart attacks are life-threatening medical emergencies. If you or someone else is showing signs of a stroke or heart attack, dont wait, call 999. Routine matters should continue to present to their GP or Out of Hours practice in the first instance. You can find a full list of GPs and Out of Hours on www.hse.ie "Please do not delay in seeking urgent medical help, particularly if you have symptoms of stroke or heart attack." The main stroke symptoms can be remembered with the word FAST: Face dropping Arms weakness Speech difficulty Time to act The symptoms of a heart attack can include chest pain, pain in other parts of the body, shortness of breath, nausea, an overwhelming sense of anxiety, feeling light-headed, coughing, vomiting, and or wheezing. If you need medical advice, please call your GP. Pat Bennett, Chief Officer, HSE Midlands, Louth and Meath said, Over the last week, the scale of the challenge that we are facing at the moment has continued to reveal itself. "The announcement by An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, last week that the current lockdown will continue at least until 5th May, after the Bank Holiday Weekend, confirmed just how acute the current crisis is. "All of this underlines once again the importance of the role our frontline workers are fulfilling on behalf of the people of the Midlands Louth Meath. Without these efforts, the situation would be infinitely more challenging. "It has been dispiriting for all of us to see the number of people who have lost their lives over the past weeks. We offer our sincere sympathies to the loved ones of those who have died. We will continue to fight to save as many lives as possible. "The coming weeks will continue to be exceptionally challenging. To suggest otherwise would be to ignore the realities of what is happening around the world, in our country, and in our own area. "The courage and commitment of healthcare workers on the frontline of this crisis all across the Midlands Louth Meath is something that is truly inspirational. You are part of this frontline and it is something that you can be so proud of. "I want to again thank our frontline workers for everything they are doing across all our services in the Midlands Louth Meath. In whatever role you are working in across our organisation, what you are doing is essential to our collective efforts. This is deserving of immense gratitude. For further information on Covid 19, testing, cocooning and minding your mental health during Covid 19 please visit: www.hse.ie. (Newser) Georgia's economy will start reopening this week, Gov. Brian Kemp has announced, despite the fears of health officials and some business owners that it's not safe yet. Gyms, bowling alleys, salons, and tattoo parlors can open their doors Friday, as long as they observe hygiene and social distancing guidelines. Theaters, private social clubs and dine-in restaurants can reopen April 27, the New York Times reports. Local governments that want businesses to stay shut will not have that choice, Kemp said, adding that "local action cannot be taken that is more or less restrictive." The owner of a restaurant in Savannah worries that infections could increase again, per the AP. "I'd rather stay closed an extra week and wipe this thing out," he said. story continues below Certain retailers, including department stores, and public beaches can reopen Tuesday in South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster said. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Monday that his state's stay-at-home order won't be renewed when it expires April 30. "The vast majority of businesses in 89 counties" can then reopen May 1, Lee's office said. Ohio businesses also can reopen May 1. Inadequate testing remains an issue, and Kemp said he's working on that. His decision, he said, was based on "favorable data, enhanced testing and approval of our health care professionals." Georgia's death toll climbed past 700 on Monday; the state has reported 19,000 people have tested positive. (Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that reopening too soon could backfire.) Here's the already iconic image of a divided America in the middle of a pandemic. In one of a smattering of protests over the weekend against coronavirus lockdowns, a supporter of President Donald Trump in Denver jeered at a counterprotesting medical worker from a silver Ram truck. "This is a free country," she said, before telling the medical worker to "go to China." Trump later defended these scenes, arguing that the protesters - some of whom were mobilized by far-right, pro-gun groups on Facebook and assembled near city halls or other public buildings in mostly small numbers over the past few days - were agitating against governors who "have gone too far" in their imposition of restrictions on daily life. A recent poll found that a majority of Americans fear that the government is moving too quickly to lift restrictions. But Trump may pull at this seam in the coming weeks, hoping to focus his base's ire on domestic opponents even as he finds it impossible to dispel the scrutiny of his own missteps in the early stages of the crisis. Still, the economic anxiety in the United States, as is the case elsewhere in the world, is all too real. New projections from Columbia University researchers suggest that a coronavirus-provoked recession could spike U.S. job losses - and poverty - to five-decade highs. Far from U.S. state capitals, protests are building against lockdowns in poorer countries. About 2 billion people around the world depend on day work and live in countries whose governments are mostly unable to compensate for their loss of wages. "If people don't work, they don't get paid, and there is a risk of hunger," Catia Batista, professor of economics at Lisbon's Nova University, told my colleagues. "The natural response is unrest." But critics and experts argue that Trump and his supporters' desire to open up the U.S. economy is premature. The country may be in the beginning of a long "plateau" in its battle with the virus - registering about 2,000 deaths a day for the past week - but still lags behind in testing a necessary proportion of its population. Countries such as Germany and South Korea moved to ease restrictions this week, but they have established far more efficient and widespread regimes of contact tracing and testing for the virus. Even then, they remain wary about the possibility of a second wave ravaging their countries. "We must not be careless or irresponsible, even for a moment," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday, as small retailers in some German states began reopening. In contrast to Trump, Merkel urged local authorities to maintain and enforce social distancing rules to ensure that the country's slowdown in infections would continue. In South Korea, some restaurants and shopping malls have restarted business, while various offices are slowly encouraging their employees to return - though with new precautions, including distancing measures and temperature checks. The country's authorities, who have been singled out for their proactive handling of the outbreak, remain concerned about the possibility of new flare-ups. "We're looking at the trend of group infections though it has mostly been small clusters over the past two weeks," Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told reporters. "If we let our guard down in social distancing, [the virus] could come back and greatly hurt and endanger our society." Austria was one of the first European countries to begin restarting its economy, but it did so from a position of relative safety and strength. "Apart from the early lockdown, a rigorous mobile testing and health monitoring program caught cases early and kept people at home," noted Denise Hruby in Foreign Policy. "Just 10 percent of cases have ended up hospitalized, such a low rate that three-quarters of the country's intensive care unit beds remain vacant and patients from Italy and France have been taken to Austria for treatment." Such conditions don't exist yet in the United States. And none of the indignation of Trump supporters over their apparent loss of rights during a global public health crisis can be heard in the messaging from authorities in countries that are slowly trying to restart their economies. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, perhaps the world leader most feted in her management of the crisis, cautioned Monday against moves that would risk "any of the gains we have made." "As is the case in other parts of Europe, Germany's partial reopening comes amid warnings from officials that a full return to normality is still far off," wrote my colleague Rick Noack. "Last week, Spain allowed some workers to resume operations, even though it extended the restrictions that have kept citizens locked inside their homes for weeks. And while Austria reopened many shops, it also tightened rules on the use of face masks in public settings." Even in Sweden, whose government's unwillingness to impose strict lockdowns has been hailed by some U.S. conservatives, authorities insist they aren't exactly keeping their heads in the sand. "We don't have a radically different view," Foreign Minister Ann Linde said in an interview with Radio Sweden. "The government has made a series of decisions that affect the whole society. It's a myth that life goes on as normal in Sweden." A heart-wrenching video has shown a captive tiger appearing to be depressed as it walks in circles non-stop inside a tiny enclosure at a Chinese zoo. Viral footage captures a white Bengal tiger going round and round in a small outdoor exercise area as tourists overlook the enclosure from a walkway above. The Beijing Zoo said that the tiger had been given psychological counselling after its keepers noticed the strange behaviour at the end of March. A heart-wrenching video has shown a captive tiger appearing to be depressed as it walks in circles non-stop inside a small cage at a Chinese zoo The video, which has amassed more than 10 million views, shows the seemingly distressed tiger pacing endlessly as it created a large circular mark on the ground with its unchanged path. Horrified Chinese web users and animal lovers have raised concerns over the health state of the captive big cat. One commenter wrote: There is no enough room [for the tiger]. Its ill, mentally ill. Another one said: The tiger looks depressed. Viral footage captures a white Bengal tiger going round and round in a tiny outdoor exercise area as tourists overlook the enclosure from a walkway above The Beijing Zoo responded last Sunday and said that the video wasnt filmed recently as the big cat was taken away from display at the end of March after the zookeepers noticed its stranger behaviour. The picture shows the white Bengal tiger at the Beijing Zoo The Beijing Zoo responded last Sunday and said that the video wasnt filmed recently as the big cat was taken away from display at the end of March after the zookeepers noticed its stranger behaviour. This kind of behaviours is expected after animals have stayed in a zoo for a long time, a staff member told the press. The Beijing Zoo also claimed that the tiger had been given psychological counselling to help the animal return to normal. We have taken the animal to receive behaviour training. We also brought more food and toys for the tiger. Its like psychological counselling,' the zookeeper added. Visitors wearing protective masks look at cheetahs at the Beijing Zoo amid coronavirus crisis The disturbing footage comes as another appalling video has revealed Chinese visitors using fishing poles to feed captive tigers in a so-called 'interactive programme' offered by a wildlife zoo. Yunnan Safari Park in south-eastern China has come under fire after the video sparked outrage on Chinese social media. The programme was branded by the wildlife park as educational and a way to keep the animals active. The zoo said that it had cancelled the activity permanently. They told the press that the tigers had never attacked anyone since the park opened over 10 years ago. From the outside, the roughly diamond-shaped Nexen tower is one of the more recognizable features of Calgarys skyline. On the inside, its a barren landscape. All 37 floors are empty. Office landlords in major cities around the world are facing a hit from the coronavirus. In Canadas energy capital, theyre suffering from a triple dose of misery: the pandemic, an oil crash and a severe hangover from a building spree. More than 20 per cent of office space is vacant, and one firm projects more than 33 per cent of downtown will be open by early 2021, creating a cycle of falling rents, declining values and a huge crater in local government finances. Its a cruel twist for a once-thriving city that has more corporate head offices than any other in Canadas west, where downtown space was nearly impossible to get during last decades energy boom. The tight market then, and the oil markets quick rebound from the 2008 financial crisis, spurred a wave of development that expanded downtown office space by millions of square feet. Now theres an epic glut. Net asking rents what the landlord receives for high-quality office space have fallen to less than $15 per square foot, according to data from Altus Group Ltd. Thats less than half the cost in Vancouver and Toronto, two of North Americas tightest office markets, says Ray Wong, vice-president of data operations at Altus. Four buildings are already completely empty, with the Nexen tower, at 600,000 square feet, being the largest after Chinas Cnooc Ltd. moved its diminished staff in the city to a new location. And new buildings, such as the two-tower Brookfield Place development that opened three years ago, are still being absorbed by the market. The office market is more than likely going to see vacancy increase, probably substantially, said Todd Throndson, Calgary managing director for Avison Young. Canadas oil companies have been hit uniquely hard by the prolonged period of lower prices that started in 2014. The industry is dependent on the higher-cost oilsands, and in recent years those firms have focused on trimming head-office staff to cut expenses and become more competitive with cheaper U.S. shale production. The industry also has been suffering from a lack of pipeline capacity that has made it harder to get its crude to U.S. refineries, weighing on local oil prices and restraining producers ability to grow. There was the Calgary that everyone was used to: boom, bust, boom, said Roelof Van Dijk, CoStars director of market analytics for Canada. Whereas now, its been bust for a long time. His firm sees the citys downtown office availability rate rising to 33.1 per cent by the first quarter of next year, exceeding vacancies in other energy-driven cities such as Houston and Dallas. Its going to hurt assessment values and the taxes that theyre paying on these properties. That creates a huge crater in city finances, Van Dijk said. The crisis has already claimed a major victim in property developer Strategic Group, which put a chunk of its commercial real estate portfolio into creditor protection last year. The firm said that since mid-2014, 78 tenants occupying almost 575,000 square feet of space either didnt survive or deserted their leased space. The crisis has rippled throughout the city, hitting both business owners and residents. The decline in downtown property values hurt other businesses by shifting about $250 million in property taxes to other non-residential properties from 2015 to 2018. To ease the burden on companies, the city last year raised residential property taxes. Those increases are coming at a difficult time for residents, many of whom lost their jobs during the oil downturn. Calgarys unemployment rate was 8.6 per cent last month and is sure to spike higher. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has raised the spectre of 25 per cent unemployment for the province. Those figures all are threatening to worsen in the months ahead after oils shocking collapse. Western Canadian Select, the benchmark grade produced by the oilsands, has traded below $4 (U.S.) a barrel this month, far below the levels Calgarys oil companies need to be profitable. Kenney has said the industry can expect at least 18 months of depressed prices. That will likely mean more job cuts and more empty space. Landlords and tenants will need to work together to weather the crisis ahead, Throndson said. Already he knows of one landlord that is allowing its tenants to pay only operating costs and taxes while skipping net rent for a while. Another went to its bankers early on in the crisis and worked out a deal to only pay interest costs on its debt for the rest of the year, he said. Over the longer term, to rescue its office market, Calgary will need some larger change in its economic course, whether thats an influx of technology companies or a rebound in the oil industry caused by a federal commitment to a national pipeline, Throndson said. For CoStars Van Dijk, diversifying the economy will be key. Many oil-market analysts are projecting demand will peak in the 10 to 20 years ahead, and Canadian oil, which is typically costlier to produce, process and ship to market, may not fare well in that environment, he said. The question is, Is this the industry that you want driving the economy? Van Dijk said. Whether its 10 years, 20 years, 50 years down the road, eventually that gravy train is going to dry up. Read more about: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday extended the "circuit breaker" period until June 1 to control the spread of the deadly coronavirus and assured full care for foreign workers, including Indian nationals. In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Lee said the government was committed to do its "utmost" to keep it this deadly virus at bay. "We will extend the circuit breaker for four more weeks, i.e. until June 1," said Lee while giving an update on the COVID-19 and the rising number of cases among foreign workers living in dormitories. Singapore reported 1,111 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, a majority of them foreign workers living in dormitories. A total of 9,125 people have been infected in the country. Noting that businesses and workers would be hurt by the extension, the Prime Minister said, "But I hope you understand that this short-term pain is to stamp out the virus, protect the health and safety of our loved ones, and allow us to revive our economy." "The Government will continue to help our businesses and workers cope during the extended circuit breaker period. We will provide the same level of support to our workers and businesses as we are doing now," he said. Lee last addressed the nation on April 3 to announce the "circuit breaker" measures that kicked in four days later, forcing people to keep their distance from one another in an effort to limit the virus' spread. Since then, the number of new cases reported in the wider community has gone downw, but in foreign worker dormitories, cases have shot up over the past week as a result of crowded living conditions and active testing for the virus. Highlighting the government's aggressive testing of foreign workers in dormitories, Lee said that almost all the migrant workers infected had only mild symptoms. "This is not surprising as they are generally young, and thus much less likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19," he said. Medical resources are being stepped up to protect the health of migrant workers, Lee said. "We will also pay special attention to the older workers, who are more vulnerable. We are pre-emptively moving them to a separate dorm, where they can be monitored more closely," he said. The Prime Minister also emphasised that his government will take care of the foreign workers just as it cared for Singaporeans. "We will care for you, just like we care for Singaporeans. We will look after your health, your welfare and your livelihood. We will work with your employers to make sure that you get paid, and you can send money home, and we will help you stay in touch with friends and family," he said. The holy month of Ramzan begins in a few days' time and arrangements will be made for Muslim migrant workers, he said. "When Eid comes next month, we will celebrate with our Muslim friends, just as we celebrated the New Year with our Indian friends last week. This is our duty and responsibility to you, and your families," Lee said. Apart from the workers living in dorms, two other groups of migrant workers are being monitored closely. Workers who live in shophouses, private housing, or HDB flats and workers in essential services, this group is still working during the circuit breaker, helping to keep Singapore going, Lee noted. Some are cleaning housing estates and or hawker centres while others are maintaining key infrastructure like our broadband networks. These essential workers are being housed separately. They are being being tested to make sure that they are healthy, and to pick up any infections early, he said, adding that the clusters in the dorms have remained largely contained, and have not spread to the wider community. Singapore is now the worst-hit country in Southeast Asia, surpassing coronavirus cases in Indonesia and the Philippines. The country has introduced measures such as closing of schools and non-essential businesses to control the spread of COVID-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Washington, April 21 : The US Air Force has announced that it has joined efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic among sailors from the virus-stricken aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, which docked in Guam last month. According to a statement from the Air Force on monday, the 36th Wing constructed an Expeditionary Medical Support System or EMEDS, on the grounds of US Naval Hospital Guam, where hundred of sailors infected with COVID-19 are being treated, reports Xinhua news agency. On Monday, the Navy reported that 94 per cent of the crew from the Roosevelt had been tested for COVID-19. Of those, it said 678 sailors had tested positive while 3,904 others negative. The EMEDS facility, estimated to be completed within a couple of days, consists of 11 medical units, and six warehouse units, the USAF said. "It really is a culminated effort of many different units from multiple bases to pull off the logistics of getting all the supplies here for this operation," said Lt. Col. David Johnson, Troop Commander for the operation. Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska provided assistance by flying over medical supplies, the statement added. "Google's mobility data...suggest our degree of social distancing has been lower, and it is highly plausible that this is caused at least partly by our more relaxed policy, and that it contributes to faster spread of the infection." While comparisons with Scandinavia aren't flattering, the situation in Sweden is so far nowhere near as bad as Spain (446 deaths per million), Italy (398), France (310) or the United Kingdom (243). Britain's true figure will be even worse once deaths in care homes and private houses are included in the official tally, as occurs in Sweden. About a third of all Swedish victims were residents of care homes - a result the government concedes has been a major containment failure and stain on its record. Tuesday was the country's worst single-day, with 185 new recorded deaths. However that number represents a lag from weekend reporting and Deputy State Epidemiologist Anders Wallensten has claimed the peak may have already been and gone in Stockholm, the epicentre of the outbreak. Wallensten told reporters on Tuesday that modelling from hospital data and random testing suggested up to one third of the capital's population will have contracted the virus by May 1, and claimed the worst may be over. Others aren't so sure. Carina King, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at Stockholm's Karolinska Institutet, said she was concerned by the approach and a lack of transparency from the bureaucracy about the scientific assumptions underpinning the plan. "Asking questions comes from a place of concern, not criticism for the sake of it," she said. "The concept of herd immunity - which I know the government has said is not the strategy, but will be a result of the strategy - is problematic because there is just not enough information yet to know that we can achieve it. "Saying this pandemic will only end when we get to the point of herd immunity ignores the huge amount of research that's going on with vaccines and better treatment. By trying to obtain herd immunity much quicker, there may have been lives that could have been saved in the long run if we had slowed down the transmission." Loading She added that the World Health Organisation was also not convinced that herd immunity could be achieved, and cited emerging reports that suggest the long-term impacts of infection - such as damage to organs - are still not known. "I hate that saying 'it is too early to tell', but it really is too early to tell." It's also too early to tell whether allowing businesses to stay open will soften the hit to the Swedish economy. The government is bracing for the unemployment rate to hit 9 per cent - up from 7.4 per cent before the outbreak. Nearly 100,000 Swedes have registered as unemployed since the start of March. Sweden's strategy has been led by the highly respected Folkhalsomyndigheten public health agency and its chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell. While experts are divided over the plan, many agree the public has huge faith in the agency and Tegnell, who Haggstrom ventured "may currently be the most popular public figure in Sweden". One of the fundamental planks of Tegnell's light-touch approach is an assessment the measures will be more sustainable in the long-term. Another is a belief that Swedes have a huge inherent confidence in their public institutions and are more likely to follow advice than other Europeans. People congregate in Stockholm's Ralambshovsparken. Credit:AP "For all our crying about governments treating us like children and talk of the nanny state, something like this happens and everyone suddenly demands the state does more," said Coats Chandler, who has lived in Sweden for five years. "But we can actually all do our bit and act like responsible citizens, and that's what Sweden expects of its people: to act responsibly. "The Swedish state, and the agencies that act on their behalf, look after people. People trust that if they are unemployed, or need education and healthcare, that they will be looked after. "I trust it to a certain extent but still have that niggling doubt. And there are definitely groups of Swedish people questioning the approach, which is actually quite an unusual set of circumstances for Sweden." Professor Johan Giesecke, who first recruited Tegnell during his own time as state epidemiologist, used a rare interview last week to argue the Swedish people would respond better to more sensible measures. He blasted the sort of lockdowns imposed in Britain and Australia and warned a second wave would be inevitable once the measures are eased. "The Swedish government decided early in January that the measures we should take against the pandemic should be evidence-based. And when you start looking around at the measures being taken by different countries, you find very few of them have a shred of evidence base," he said. Giesecke, who has served as the first chief scientist of the European Centre for Disease Control and has been advising the Swedish government during the pandemic, told the UnHerd website there was "almost no science" behind border closures and school closures and social distancing and said he looked forward to reviewing the course of the disease in a year's time. WALLDORF (dpa-AFX) - German software major SAP SE (SAP) reported Tuesday a profit in its first quarter, compared to last year's loss with good growth in revenues. Going ahead, the company maintained its fiscal 2020 outlook. The company late Monday announced the departure of Co-CEO Jennifer Morgan in April end, as the firm simplifies its leadership structure amid the coronavirus pandemic. The shares were losing around 3 percent in the morning trading in Germany. For fiscal 2020, Sap expects, as announced on April 8, non-IFRS total revenue in a range of 27.8 billion euros to 28.5 billion euros, up 1 percent to 3 percent at constant currencies. Non-IFRS operating profit is still expected to be in a range of 8.1 billion euros to 8.7 billion euros, down 1 percent to up 6 percent at constant currencies. SAP also backed outlook for non-IFRS cloud revenue and non-IFRS cloud and software revenue. The outlook reflects the estimated impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Further, Sap now expects an operating cash flow of approximately 5 billion euros, down from previous view of 6 billion euros, and free cash flow of about 3.5 billion euros, down from previous view of 4.5 billion euros. SAP also confirmed its previously announced 2023 ambition. Further, the company said it does not plan to conduct further share buybacks in 2020, and the dividend proposal of 1.58 euros per share was unchanged. Regarding its COVID-19 response, the company said it is slowing hiring and reducing discretionary spend to ensure financial flexibility. For the first quarter, profit after tax was 811 million euros, compared to last year's loss of 108 million euros. Basic earnings per share were 0.68 euro, compared to loss of 0.10 euro a year ago. Non-IFRS profit was 1.02 billion euros, compared to 1.08 billion euros last year. Non-IFRS earnings per share were 0.85 euro, compared to 0.90 euro a year ago. Total revenue for the quarter grew 7 percent to 6.52 billion euros from last year's 6.09 billion euros. As said earlier, business activity in the first two months of the quarter was healthy, while COVID-19 crisis rapidly intensified towards the end of the quarter. The company noted that a significant amount of new business was postponed, resulting in significant year over year decrease in software licenses revenue. In a separate statement, Sap announced that Morgan, aged 48, will step down as co-chief executive officer on April 30, just six months after sharing the post with Christian Klein, who will now continue as the sole CEO. SAP said the current environment requires the company to take swift, determined action, and decided to transfer from Co-CEO to sole CEO model earlier than planned to ensure strong, unambiguous steering in times of the coronavirus crisis. Morgan joined SAP in 2004 and was appointed co-chief executive officer, together with Klein, in October 2019 after the departure of long time chief executive officer Bill McDermott. In early April, Sap extended the contract of its Chief Financial Officer Luka Mucic for another five years until the end of March 2026. In Germany, Sap shares were trading at 110.76 euros, down 2.62 percent. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de By PTI MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Thursday said the Maharashtra government will expose the "conspiracy" behind the recent migrants' unrest in Mumbai, and accused the opposition BJP of leaving no chance to disturb the Uddhav Thackeray-led dispensation in the state. An editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said outstation trains depart not just from suburban Bandra, but also from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Mumbai Central and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in the metropolis. But, the crowd gathered only at Bandra. Television news channels completely ignored a similar situation at Surat in Gujarat, it claimed. "What do you call this? It is a big conspiracy and we will unmask it. The state government will nail attempts to see the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to create disturbance. We are sad that the opposition should stoop to a new low," the Marathi daily said. Ignoring lockdown norms, over 1,000 migrant workers who earn daily wages gathered near Bandra station on Tuesday demanding transport arrangements to go back to their native places, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the coronavirus-enforced curbs till May 3. The Sena said the present crisis has affected a cross-section of society, but daily wagers are the worst hit and the government needs to take a different stand for poor people. "The country is in a financial crisis, and running a state is also not easy. Till yesterday, the state looked after these people and now they want to run away. This is 'beimani' (cheating). Those who stay here in critical times are the real sons of the soil," the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said. The government should ensure that those who want to run away creating troublewill not return, the Sena said. It should find out the background of people who gathered at Bandra. These people violated the lockdown rules and tried to damage the state, it claimed. "What were the police doing during this period? These people didn't have any luggage with them if they were planning to go to their native places," it noted. Hitting out at the BJP, it alleged the opposition party does not leave a chance to disturb the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government (comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress), and would stoopto any level to do that. The Sena said there were no rumours about resumption of train services. "There was a circular in this regard. It was news. How did the Railways take reservations after April 15? When there was no clarity that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will extend the lockdown, it was a crime to take 40 lakh reservations and create confusion," it said. The Railway Ministry is "also responsible" for what happened in Bandra, the Sena said. "Will Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Devendra Fadnavis demand Railway Minister Piyush Goyal's resignation?" it asked. - Nancy Maimunah, a student at Moi University, was among the people who were swept by heavy floods in Chesagon - She was not accounted for during the first day of rescue operation - Maimunah was, however, traced and rescued the following day after 48 hours in the murky waters - She was airlifted to Moi Teaching and Referal Hospital (MTRH) for specialised treatment - The tragic incident has claimed 12 lives and displaced more than 400 families When flash floods swept Chesogon area in Elegeyo-Marakwet county on Saturday, April 19, lives, houses and properties of unknown value were destroyed. Nancy Maimunah, a Moi University student was among the people who were swept by the heavy floods and her family presumed she was dead, especially after the first day of rescue mission ended without her being accounted for. READ ALSO: Lawyer Ahmednasir terms daily COVID-19 updates nonsense, asks govt to conduct mass tests Nancy Maimunah was rescued from Chesogon floods after 48 hours. Photo: Lemiso Sato Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Magazeti ya Jumanne, Aprili 21: Marehemu Ken Walibora alitabiri kifo chake kupitia vitabu vyake On Monday, April 20, the family of the 21-year-old girl heaved a sigh of relief after their daughter was pulled out the mud and stagnant murky waters alive. She was immediately airlifted to Moi Teaching and Referal Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret for specialised treatment, she was unconscious when she was rescued. Tears of joy rolled down the cheeks of Maimunah's parents when they set eyes on her. Maimunah was airlifted to Moi Teaching and Referal Hospital in a police chopper. Photo: Lemiso Sato Source: Facebook Just like other eye witnesses, they could not believe their daughter had made it after 48 hours of battling for her life in flashy and murky waters that claimed 12 lives including two police officers. The two officers were based at Chesogon Police Station which was swept by the floods. Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya said they were still looking for 22 people who are yet to be accounted for. More than 400 families have been rendered homeless following the tragedy. Nancy Maimunah. Photo: Brian Bwayo Source: Facebook Natembeya noted the government has set aside one primary and secondary school in the area to offer temporary accommodation for the affected families as the government continues to make plans for a permanent solution. The tragedy occurred at the time Kenya Metrological department has warned of more heavy rainfall in many parts of the country. Chesogon area where floods swept houses and killed 12 people. Photo: Original. Source: Original The government is now appealing to people living in areas prone to landslides and mudslides to move to safer areas. Garissa, Taita Taveta and Kisumu have been listed among counties likely to experience heavy floods in the coming days and residents have been urged to be vigilant and take precautionary measures before the tragedy strikes. Story by Davis Bwayo: TUKO.co.ke correspondent 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 He was stranded, broke and desperate to get to his wife | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke (Newser) One of Earth's oldest known meteor showers will usher in Earth Day 2020. The annual Lyrid meteor shower, first recorded some 2,700 years ago in China, will peak around 10pm local time Tuesday until about 5am Wednesday, which is Earth Day. Up to 20 meteors will be visible per hour as fragments of the comet known as Thatcher (C/1861 G1) slam into our atmosphere, per Live Science. Meteors may also be seen 2.5 days before and after peak viewing time. This April, a new moon will prevent interference from moonlight, per Space.com. But it's still best to get far from light pollution and let your eyes adjust to the darkness. NASA suggests you "lie flat on your back with your feet facing east and look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible." (Read more meteor shower stories.) While South Korean and Chinese officials have dismissed US reports North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is gravely ill, an expert in Asian affairs says anything is possible given the secrecy of the country. Reacting to speculation over Kims health following a cardiovascular surgery, the Australian National Universitys John Blaxland, a professor in international security and intelligence, said his situation could deteriorate quickly. Speaking on Nines Today show on Wednesday, and asked if Kim could be in serious trouble or even dead given his documented poor health, Professor Blaxland said its quite possible. Both his father and grandfather died of a similar condition, he said. Kims health has repeatedly come under the spotlight in recent years, with speculation fuelled by his heavy smoking and obesity. There has been concern over Kim's weight and health for some time. Source: Getty Daily NK, a Seoul-based speciality website reported on Tuesday, AEST, that Kim, who is believed to be about 36, was recovering after undergoing the procedure on April 12. It cited one unnamed source in North Korea. Conflicting reports over Kim Jong-uns condition Two South Korean government officials rejected a subsequent CNN report citing an unnamed US official saying the United States was monitoring intelligence that Kim was in grave danger after surgery, but they did not elaborate on whether Kim might have undergone surgery. South Koreas presidential Blue House said there were no unusual signs from North Korea. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States doesn't know the condition of North Korean leader, but wishes him well. Robert OBrien, Mr Trumps national security adviser, told Fox News the White House is monitoring the reports very closely. Bloomberg News quoted an unnamed US official as saying the White House was told that Kim had taken a turn for the worse after the surgery. However, authoritative US sources familiar with US intelligence questioned the report that Kim was in grave danger. A Korea specialist working for the US government said: Any credible direct reporting having to do with Kim would be highly compartmented intelligence and unlikely to leak to the media. Story continues Kims poor health fuelled by obesity and smoking Kims health has repeatedly come under the spotlight in recent years, with speculation fuelled by his heavy smoking and obesity. Anna Fifield, the Washington Post's Beijing bureau chief and recent author of Kim biography The Great Successor, said on Tuesday his health has been a concern for some time. You dont need to be a doctor to see he is extremely unhealthy, she said. He is 36 years old but he seems to walk and breathe and move around like a very old person. Ms Fifield said experts had predicted his weight it roughly 136kg, and combined with his height of 5ft7, he is deemed extremely obese. Vipin Narang, a professor of political science at MIT and expert in nuclear weapons issues and strategy, told CNN he is usually pessimistic on such matters however the current speculation has some merit. You have a guy who's obese, a chronic smoker, has gout, presumably some form of diabetes. They've surely thought about this contingency given his health. North Koreas secrecy makes verifying sources difficult Kim is a third-generation hereditary leader who rules North Korea with an iron fist, coming to power after his father Kim Jong Il died in 2011 from a heart attack. He is the sole commander of North Koreas nuclear arsenal, which Trump tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to give up in 2018 and 2019 summits. Reporting from inside highly-secretive North Korea is notoriously difficult, especially on matters concerning its leadership, given tight controls on information, particularly regarding Kim. Ms Fifield stressed however such speculation coming from North Korea needs to be treated with a certain level of doubt. We always need to be extremely cautious about speculation from North Korea because it's very difficult to verify, she explained on Twitter on Tuesday. There have been past false reports regarding its leaders, but the fact Kim has no clear successor means any instability could present a major international risk. Asked about how any North Korean political succession would work, US presidential advisor Robert OBrien said: The basic assumption would be maybe it would be someone in the family. But, again, its too early to talk about that because we just dont know what condition Chairman Kim is in and well have to see how it plays out. Recent meetings give insight into Kims health In recent years, Kim has launched a diplomatic offensive to promote himself as a world leader, holding three meetings with Trump, four with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and five with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Ms Fifield said those meetings had enabled the world to get a glimpse of his true health. So of course we see him on official North Korean television which is all highly edited and is all part of the propaganda of North Korea but we got an exclusive glimpse into his health and real situation when he came out in 2018, she said. Donald Trump meets with Kim Jong Un. Source: AP At that time doctors tried to assess and glean as much information as they could about his health. So for example, they counted how many breaths per minute he was doing and they concluded he was either very nervous or he was really struggling to breathe. China is North Koreas only major ally. Speaking to Reuters, an official at the Chinese Communist Partys International Liaison Department, which deals with North Korea, expressed the belief that Kim was not critically ill. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing was aware of reports about Kims health, but said it does not know their source, without commenting on whether it has any information about the situation. Daily NK said Kim was hospitalised on April 12, hours before the cardiovascular procedure, as his health had deteriorated since August due to heavy smoking, obesity and overwork. It said he was now receiving treatment at a villa in the Mount Myohyang resort north of the capital Pyongyang. My understanding is that he had been struggling (with cardiovascular problems) since last August but it worsened after repeated visits to Mount Paektu, a source was quoted as saying, referring to the countrys sacred mountain. Kim took two well-publicised rides on a stallion on the mountains snowy slopes in October and December. Speculation about Kims health first arose due to his absence from the anniversary of the birthday of North Koreas founding father and Kims grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on April 15. North Koreas official KCNA news agency gave no indication of his whereabouts in routine dispatches on Tuesday, but said he had sent birthday gifts to prominent citizens. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison refused to comment on the matter at a press conference on Tuesday until he received confirmation of Kims state. 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. (CNN) When Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland addressed the media at his Monday afternoon news conference, he made it clear his wife, Yumi Hogan and not the federal government was the reason his state secured half a million coronavirus test kits. Maryland's first lady was born in South Korea and became a US citizen in 1994. She not only used her native language to help secure the tests but also helped negotiate the deal. "We convened countless calls, nearly every night, sometimes it seemed like all night," said Hogan of the 22 days he and the first lady worked in conjunction with the Korean government to land the mother lode of hard-to-come-by coronavirus test kits. On Saturday, both Hogans were on the tarmac at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, greeting a chartered 777 Korean Air plane with no passengers aboard. Inside were enough test kits from Korea's LabGenomics for Maryland to perform 500,000 tests. "The administration made it clear over and over again they want the states to take the lead, and we have to go out and do it ourselves, and that's exactly what we did," said Hogan on Monday, his wife in a pink coat, silk scarf tied around her shoulders and a blue face mask, standing to the side of the podium. Hogan dubbed the test kit mission "Operation Enduring Friendship," relying heavily on the bond he and his wife had established with South Korean Ambassador to the US Lee Soo Hyuk. "She truly is a champion of Operation Enduring Friendship," said Hogan. However, Yumi Hogan is not a professional diplomat, or a politician or someone proficient in the intricacies of scientific approvals needed by numerous government agencies for the test kits to be used in the United States -- all of which were secured. She is an artist, an abstract painter whose work is typically centered on nature and is done on hanji, paper made from native Korean trees. Her art is actually how she met Hogan, 20 years ago, at an art show, where he was more interested in the artist than her work. They married in 2004, in a ceremony that included traditional Korean elements. From Korea to Maryland The stately, brick Maryland governor's mansion in Annapolis is a long way from Jeonnam, Korea, the rural countryside where then-Yumi Kim spent her childhood, one of eight children, on her parents' chicken farm. She was young when she married her first husband, and the two moved to America. She had three daughters before divorcing and moving with the girls to Maryland, in search of a strong school district and a place to practice her art and teach. When she met Hogan, he was not only a confirmed bachelor but also a wealthy businessman with his own real estate development company. Though politically passionate, Hogan wasn't a much of a career politician, which made his victory after a grueling 2014 governor's race something of a surprise. Yumi Hogan served as a helpful campaigner, and when her husband won, she became the first Asian American first lady in Maryland and the first Korean American first lady in any state in America's history. When she moved with her husband into the governor's mansion, much was made in the press about her special kimchi refrigerator, which she has used many times, cooking meals for guests and events. Life as Maryland's first lady Her tenure as first lady took an unpredictable turn just five months after Hogan's inauguration, when he was diagnosed with late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Yumi Hogan became caretaker and unofficial nurse, helping the governor through grueling chemotherapy treatments and supporting him at home while as he recovered. A year after his diagnosis, Hogan was cancer-free, but his illness had an impact on Yumi Hogan's initiatives. Her projects as first lady shifted, as she devoted time to discussing and sharing the benefits of art therapy, as well as teaching art to cancer patients. Her own work also reflected the couple's personal struggles. A 2016 gallery showing included paintings inspired by Larry Hogan's health. "(They) also depict the sudden change that affected my life. After my husband was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer, I began to use more colors and lines," she told The Baltimore Sun at the time. "It is my intent to make people feel and understand the unpredictable breath of nature though my works." But since March 28, the start of Operation Enduring Friendship, Hogan's brushes have come second to her determination to use her understanding and knowledge of Korea, its people, its language, its protocol, in an effort to get Covid-19 tests for the state she serves as first lady. On Monday, Hogan told the press about an event he had attended with his wife in Washington in February, where South Korean President Moon Jae-in videotaped a message to the governor, calling him a "sawi," Korean for son-in-law. "I had no idea just how much that would truly come to mean," Hogan said Monday. It seems like every major company that has access to large amounts of public data is releasing COVID-19 related maps to track the spread of the virus. The latest to join the fray is Facebook as they partnered with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to release a symptom map of counties in the USA. Unlike Apple and Google who released COVID-19 mobility reports based on its user movement data collected from their respective Maps applications, Facebook is aggregating symptom data from opt-in surveys that are conducted in partnership with the researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. They believe that they are suited for creating such a tool as they have a user base of over 2.5 billion. They have stated that the data collection will be conducted in a private manner where only the researchers will have access to individual data and Facebook will only receive aggregated data to update its maps. The symptom map is currently only available in a county-by-county basis for the USA, but Facebook plans to expand this tool to all the countries where it operates. Regarding the accuracy of such a tool, its difficult to decide. On the one hand, having more information is great for public officials, but collecting data through opt-in surveys poses many problems. Problems like users falsely reporting symptoms or users not reporting their symptoms at all. People could create multiple accounts and easily generate more incorrect data and it is unclear as to what Facebook is doing to prevent this. Along with this, there are also concerns about Facebook collecting this data in the first place, considering its track record with its data collection practices. To check out Facebook USA COVID-19 symptom map, click here. Source Nguyen Dac Tuu, 76, of Nguyen Trai Ward, Ha Dong District, Hanoi, was very happy when his pension for April and May was brought to him at home. Two post office staff make a payment for pensioners at home in Doi Can Street, Hanoi. VNA/VNS Photo This is the first time I have received the pension at my house, he said. Normally, Tuu goes to the cultural house in his residential area to pick up the cash. The amount pensioners get depends on their contributions while working, with a minimum of VND1.6 million (US$68) monthly. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, the Vietnam Social Security has organised the delivery of pension payments for April and May to the homes of the elderly nationwide to protect them from the virus. Tuu said during social distancing if the agency did not pay the money at home, elderly people like him would be in dire straits. "The money is not much, but for me, it is very important," he said. It helps me and my wife cover our daily expenses, he said. Also in Nguyen Trai Ward, Nguyen Van Dung, 90, said: It shows the special attention of the local administration and the social agency to the elderly people." Nguyen Thi Hang, 77, of Doi Can Street, Ba Dinh District said receiving her pension at home not only saved travel time but also ensured the safety of elderly people amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Nguyen Ngoc Nga, of Ly Nam De Street, Cua Dong Ward, Hoan Kiem District said: It is a very humane policy, creating conditions for the elderly to live happily and healthily during the time of social distancing." The four are among 440,000 people in Hanoi who received their pension for April and May in cash at home under the policy of the social agency, running between April 16 and May 10. Data from the citys Social Security Agency shows that paying the pensions for 440,000 people for the two months amounts to more than VND3.94 trillion ($168.6 million) in cash. Implementation plan The city has mobilised more than 1,500 employees of the Hanoi Post Office to work with heads of residential areas to deliver the cash. Nguyen The Vinh, head of the residential area No 6 of Nguyen Trai Ward said he took the post offices staff to each pensioner's house to hand over the cash. It was estimated that more than 100 elderly people in the residential area received their pension at home on the first day of implementing the policy on April 16, he said. At first, pensioners very worried about the form of the payment. They did not know whether the payment would be slow or fast, he said. In reality, it took a few minutes for them to receive the payment, he said. Dinh Thi Thu Huong, director of the Centre 1 Post Office, said after the post office was assigned to pay pensions in Ba Dinh, Hoan Kiem and Tay Ho districts, the office made a detailed plan to ensure the timely payment. Nguyen Cong Dinh, director of Social Security Unit in Ba Dinh District, said the post office staff called each elderly person to remind them to prepare documents to make sure the payment happened smoothly. The payments were doled out successfully thanks to close co-operation among the ward authority, police and the post office staff, he added. Cashless payment Dang Dinh Thuan, deputy director of the citys Social Security Agency, said Hanoi had 580,000 retired people in total. The agency had made efforts to encourage retirees to receive their pension via bank accounts to ensure safety and move towards a cashless society, he said. As a result, the number of retired people who agreed to receive their pension via their bank accounts had hit nearly 140,000, equal to nearly 24 per cent of the total number of retirees, he said. VNS Hanoi: Hundreds of old people queue to get free bus pass Hundreds of old people from 60 to 80 years old have queued outside of Thuy Loi University in Hanoi in order to apply for a free bus pass. Aging is a success, not a burden More than 20 years after retirement, Professor Vu Trong Hong has not stopped working. This time last year, residents were celebrating Black Restaurant Weeks in Houston. As we all know, if it's one thing Houstonians love, it's food. Who can blame them? As the fourth-largest city in the country and the most populous in Texas, there's bound to be plenty of options for foodies to choose from. A Russian Sukhoi Su-35 intercepted a United States of America Navy Sixth Fleet's P-8A Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft twice in about 100 minutes over the neutral waters of the Mediterranean Sea on April 19, 2020. While Russia claims the US P-8A plane was moving towards its military bases, the American Navy countered it by accusing the Sukhoi-Su35 pilot of flying in an unsafe and unprofessional manner during the intercept. Russia scrambled its 4++ Generation twin-engine Su-35 fighter from Syria's Hmeymim airbase for the intercept after tracking the US P-8A aircraft. During the second intercept, the Su-35 came within 25 feet of the P-8A, claimed the US Navy. A video released by the US Navy shows the Russian fighter jet coming close to the P-8A. BREAKING: Another unsafe #Russian intercept of @USNavy P-8 in international airspace above #Mediterranean Sea! The Russian aircraft got within 25 feet of the P-8, putting both crews in harms way. We expect nothing less than professional & safe interactions!@USEmbRuPress pic.twitter.com/gDdcQQRkOi U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet (@USNavyEurope) April 19, 2020 According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the US warplane was moving towards its military facilities in Syria necessitating the intercept. "On April 19, the Russian equipment controlling the airspace over the neutral waters of the Mediterranean Sea detected an air target performing a flight towards Russias military facilities in the Syrian Arab Republic. A fighter jet from the air defence alert quick reaction force of the Hmeymim airbase was scrambled to identify the target," Russian news agency TASS quoted the ministry as saying. However, the US Naval Forces Europe-Africa/US 6th Fleet Public released a statement accusing Russian warplane of indulging in unsafe and unprofessional flying during the second intercept. "For the second time in four days, Russian pilots flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner while intercepting a US Navy P-8A Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft in US Sixth Fleet, 19 April, 2020. On April 19, 2020, a US Navy P-8A aircraft flying in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea was intercepted twice by a Russian SU-35 over a period of 100 minutes. The first intercept was deemed safe and professional. The second intercept was determined to be unsafe and unprofessional due to the SU-35 conducting a high-speed, high-powered maneuver that decreased aircraft separation to within 25 feet, directly in front of the P-8A, exposing the U.S. aircraft to wake turbulence and jet exhaust." FULL PRESS RELEASE: https://t.co/2wYBDwKOqr U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet (@USNavyEurope) April 19, 2020 "The unnecessary actions of the Russian SU-35 pilot were inconsistent with good airmanship and international flight rules, seriously jeopardizing the safety of flight of both aircraft. While the Russian aircraft was operating in international airspace, this interaction was irresponsible. We expect them to behave within international standards set to ensure safety and to prevent incidents, including the 1972 Agreement for the Prevention of Incidents On and Over the High Seas (INCSEA). Unsafe actions increase the risk of miscalculation and potential for midair collisions, the US statement added. The Russians countered the US charge plane by claiming that "the aircraft of Russias Aerospace Force performed and perform all flights in strict compliance with the international rules of using the airspace over neutral waters". After the second intercept, the US Navy warplane changed its course and descended following which the Su-35 returned to its base. On April 15, 2020, too, a Russian Su-35 had intercepted and flew inverted of a US P-8A in the same area. According to the US Navy, the Russian plane had on that occasion too had come within 25 feet of the P-8A. U.S. intelligence agencies have received information that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in "grave danger" following surgery, a U.S. official with knowledge of the matter told CNN on Monday night. He was last spotted on April 11 at a government meeting, and was absent at a birthday celebration on April 15 for his late grandfather, state founder Kim Il Sung. Rumors swirled in 2014, when Kim Jong Un was briefly out of the public eye. Upon his return, he was seen using a cane, and South Korea intelligence determined that he had a cyst taken off his ankle, CNN reports. Daily NK, a Seoul-based nonprofit that monitors North Korea, has reported that Kim is recovering from heart surgery, and his condition is improving. Officials with South Korea's Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service told The Associated Press they were unable to immediately confirm the CNN or Daily NK reports, and are investigating both. More stories from theweek.com Excess mortality data suggests as many as 25,000 uncounted coronavirus deaths The Navajo Nation outbreak reveals an ugly truth behind America's coronavirus experience California becomes 1st state to endorse coronavirus testing for people without symptoms WA Education Minister Sue Ellery says nobody knows how many students will turn up to schools for the beginning of term 2, though she is confident teachers and principals will manage. But the state's teachers' union says those working in schools would prefer a gradual return of students once individual schools worked out what they could accommodate. Teachers are concerned about managing social distancing. Credit:Jason South There was no fixed plan for term 2, Ms Ellery said. It was always going to be a combination of students attending school, distance education, and online learning. 21.04.2020 LISTEN A Circuit Court in Accra presided over by Her Honour Mrs Christiana Cann has sentenced a mason to 20 years in prison with hard labour for defiling his 13-year-old stepdaughter. Eric Kofitse, pleaded guilty for defilement and was convicted on his own plea by the Gender-based Circuit Court. Chief Inspector Kofi Atimbire, the prosecutor in the case while presenting the brief facts to the court said the complainant is a driver, while the accused is a mason. According to him, the complainant is a driver who lives at Dansoman whilst the accused is a mason and lives at Christian village near Achimota. Chief Insp. Atimbire said the girl (victim) is 13 years old and a class four pupil. The prosecutor told the court that, the girl lives with the mother and the accused person who is the stepfather. He said since 2019, the accused person started having sex with the victim anytime the mother left home to trade. The accused person then threatened her not to tell anyone about it else, he will stab her to death in the night when she was asleep. According to the prosecutor, Initially, the girl could not tell anyone for fear of being killed by the accused person. When this continued for some time, she managed to inform the mother on three occasions but she (mother) told the daughter she will talk to her husband to stop. He told the court that, during the early part of March 2020, the accused again had sex with the victim who reported it again to the mother. The mother got worried and sent the girl (victim) to her cousin in Nsawam. The victim who could not stand the persistent sexual attacks from her stepfather had to run to her biological father at Dansoman. The victim later fell sick while she was with her father and was taken to the hospital where medical examination on 17 April 2020 proved that she was seven weeks pregnant. It was then she told the father what she went through while she was staying with her mother. A complaint was lodged at the Achimota police station and accused was arrested. Accused admitted the offence. He was charged and put before the court. ---Starrfm.com.gh Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images This weekend thousands of rightwing Americans took to the streets in several states to protest against the coronavirus lockdowns, or stay-at-home rules, issued by their governors. Although most of the protests were marginal counting dozens of people at best conservative and liberal media outlets devoted considerable attention to them. Although officially protesting against the lockdowns economic costs and what they viewed as infringements on their liberty, the protesters were expressing the usual hodgepodge of rightwing grievances. As always, opposition to abortion and immigration and support for President Trump and the second amendment were prominent. But perhaps my favorite slogan was a surprising one spotted at a rally in Minnesota: Be like Sweden. For years, Sweden has been the poster child of the US far rights feverish dystopias of European socialism Breitbart, in particular, has an unhealthy obsession with the country. To see American rightwingers champion one of the few European countries still governed by a leftwing government is therefore truly astounding. The anti-lockdown protesters have obvious parallels with the early Tea Party mobilization of 2009, down to their prominent display of the Gadsden flag the yellow flag with the picture of a snake and the text Dont tread on me, a historical American symbol appropriated by the Tea Party. The Tea Party movement was the most important US political movement of the early 21st century, but it has been almost completely written out of US political history in the wake of Donald Trumps shock electoral victory. Conservatives and liberals have always interpreted the Tea Party through their own ideological lenses: where conservatives saw a spontaneous grassroots movement, liberals saw an Astroturf operation bankrolled and organized by powerful rightwing interests. For the sake of Trump's re-election, he is keen to move discussion from public health to the economy Story continues A similar split in narratives has emerged over the anti-lockdown protests. Conservative media outlets have emphasized the grassroots aspect of the Lockdown Rebellion, staying quiet about the protests financial and organizational connections. In contrast, liberal media outlets have focused primarily on these ties, notably to the family of Trumps secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, a longtime and generous funder of rightwing political causes. Just like the Tea Party, the anti-lockdown protests are a combination of Astroturf and grassroots. In the case of the Tea Party, the two were united on socio-economic issues Taxed Enough Already but divided over socio-cultural issues, mostly because the Astroturf branch did not want to weaken the movement amid potential divisions over immigration and religious issues like abortion. While Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, the well-financed rightwing groups that supported the movement, were successful in keeping the supportive rightwing media on socio-economic message, socio-cultural issues often dominated at the grassroots level, with opposition to abortion and immigration as well as thinly veiled racism focused on President Obama (including birtherism, the false idea that Obama was not born in the US). There is one crucial difference between these two rightwing protests, however: while the Tea Party attacked the White House, the anti-lockdown protesters clearly support it. In fact, Trump and the protesters are cheering each other on publicly. Pro-Trump banners are omnipresent at the protests, and Trump has repeatedly praised the very responsible protesters. Related: US anti-lockdown rallies could cause surge in Covid-19 cases, experts warn On Friday, when rightwingers were announcing their protests on social media, the president loudly encouraged them in a series of all-caps tweets: LIBERATE MINNESOTA!, LIBERATE MICHIGAN!, LIBERATE VIRGINIA. An interesting selection of states, which shows that there is more at stake than just frustrations over the lockdown. Almost 95% of Americans are under lockdown at the moment; 42 states have issued stay-at-home orders. This includes many states with Republican governors, however late and reluctantly they came to that decision. But the protests largely target states with Democratic governors. Moreover, the three states singled out by President Trump in his tweets are key targets of his 2020 campaign holding Michigan and flipping Minnesota are crucial for his re-election. He hopes to swing Virginia by mobilizing rightwing voters on gun rights and the lockdown. For Trump, the anti-lockdown protests provide him with visible popular support for his Covid-19 strategy. For the sake of his re-election, he is keen to move discussion from public health to the economy. Given that a clear majority of Americans support the stay-at-home policies, Trump needs the momentum to shift. The protests can help him, by taking his struggle from the White House to the streets, and thereby to the media. However as many Republicans found out the hard way, in the Tea Party era - the streets are more difficult to control than lobby organizations and rightwing media. New Delhi, April 21 : A Delhi court asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday to file a detailed response on the bail application filed by corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar in a money laundering case. Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar asked the ED to file the reply by April 24. During the hearing through video link, ED's counsel Amit Mahajan opposed Talwar's bail application following which the matter was adjourned till next date. Talwar, in his bail application, said since the probe was complete, no purpose would be served by keeping him in custody, and added, there was no chance of investigation being hampered. The ED had, on December 4, 2017, registered a case against the NGO Advantage India, controlled by Talwar, for alleged violation of FCRA rules and had begun investigation to trail the crime proceeds. The agency alleged the foreign contribution obtained by the NGO in 2012-13 and 2015-2016 was "not used for the mandated purposes". Rs 90.72 crore funding was received from MBDA England (leading European missile manufacturer) and Airbus France under the corporate social responsibility grant. According to ED, Advantage India didn't spend funds on mandated purposes. A criminal conspiracy was hatched to divert funds for non-mandated purposes, by booking bogus expenditure in the books of account on the basis of forged documents, the ED alleged. nemployment increased by 22,000 to 1.36 million in the three months to February, before the coronavirus pandemic gripped the UK, official figures showed. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of job vacancies plunged by 52,000 to 795,000 for the quarter. Economists also revealed on Tuesday that unemployment increased by 22,000 to 1.36 million in the three months to February, before Covid-19 gripped the UK. David Freeman, ONS head of labour market statistics, said they were able to use PAYE data for the first time to cover a more recent period. A general view of the parking area of a hardware store during the partial reopening of shops after the Austrian government loosens its lockdown restrictions during the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna Customers queue at the Trastevere market, as new restrictions for open-air markets are implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Rome, Italy People wearing face masks work in a hardware store during a partial reopening after the Austrian government eased restrictions following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Eisenstadt, Austria A man wears a protective face mask and gloves at the newsstand as the Italian government allows the reopening of some shops while a nationwide lockdown continues following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Venice, Italy Customers wearing face masks push shopping carts in front of a DIY store in Vienna, Austria, after it re-opened on April 14, 2020, following a "shutdown" in a measure to limit the spread of the new coronavirus Customers queue at the Trastevere market, as new restrictions for open-air markets are implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Rome, Italy, Customers wearing face masks push shopping carts in front of a DIY store in Vienna, Austria, after it re-opened on April 14, 2020, following a "shutdown" in a measure to limit the spread of the new coronavirus Gianfranco Mandas wears a face mask as he sorts out clothing in his children's clothes shop after it was allowed to opens following restriction measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, in Rome A worker checks the temperature of a customer at the entrance of a supermarket, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Turin, Italy Customers wearing face masks push shopping carts in front of a DIY store in Vienna, Austria, after it re-opened on April 14, 2020, following a "shutdown" in a measure to limit the spread of the new coronavirus "Respect the 2 meters distance" banner is seen at a fish stand as the Italian government allows the reopening of some shops while a nationwide lockdown continues following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Venice, Italy, A man wearing a face mask shops in a hardware store during a partial reopening after the Austrian government eased restrictions following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Eisenstadt, Austria Camilla Cocchi wears a face mask and gloves as she sorts out clothing in her children's clothes shop after it was allowed to reopen following lockdown measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, in Rome People queue to enter a hardware store during a partial reopening after the Austrian government eased restrictions following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Eisenstadt, Austria People wearing protective face masks and gloves walk in the streets as the Italian government allows the reopening of some shops while a nationwide lockdown continues following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Venice, Italy, Customers hold flowers in front of a DIY store in Graz, Austria, after it re-opened on April 14, 2020, following a "shutdown" in a measure to limit the spread of the new coronavirus Mr Freeman said: Our final data wholly from before the coronavirus restrictions were in place showed the labour market was very robust in the three months to February. For the first time, we have brought forward information on the number of employees in work using PAYE data to cover a more recent period. These experimental statistics show a softening picture in March, but cover the month as a whole, including the period before the coronavirus restrictions were in place. It comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of the illness. The warning comes as governments across the world start rolling out plans to get their economies up and running again. Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said: This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future. He said governments must remain vigilant to stop the spread of the virus and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. Stimulus checks were sent out to most Americans last week. And according to a very informal poll of Hearst Connecticut readers, most of that money is going towards rent or mortgage payments in the Nutmeg State. We asked Connecticut residents to tell us how they spent or plan to spend their stimulus checks. Out of about 40 people who responded, 38 percent said they would spend some or all of it on rent/mortgage payments. China's Vice Minister of Public Security Arrested in Corruption Probe By Joyce Huang April 20, 2020 China's vice minister of public security, Sun Lijun, has been arrested for alleged "severe violations of party discipline and law," the Communist Party's top anti-graft body said late Sunday in what observers say is an indication of corruption. Analysts describe Sun as an "invisible hitman," who had played a key role in top leader Xi Jinping's past efforts to maintain social stability by rounding up dissidents including Falun Gong followers and rights lawyers during a 2015 crackdown. They add that his arrest, which follows the jailing of former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei earlier this year for bribery, is baffling, but indicates undercurrents in Xi's power fight amid the global coronavirus pandemic. There has been rife speculation that Xi's authority has been seriously challenged after China failed to swiftly contain the outbreak. Political purge "This isn't a corruption probe. This is sending a chilling effect to anyone else inside the party, which allows Xi to control them with fear so that he can further consolidate his grip of power," a rights lawyer told VOA on condition of anonymity. The lawyer likened Sun's being purged to Mao Zedong-style infighting. Mao was founder of the People's Republic of China and advocated strict Communist Party control over all aspects of life. The lawyer said he suspected that Sun was ousted because he was seen as "not loyal enough." Another rights lawyer also said that, according to the ministry's statement, Sun was accused of "being disrespectful" an indication that he may be seen as disloyal to Xi. Late Sunday, China's Ministry of Public Security released a statement, throwing support behind what it calls the "timely and correct" investigation into Sun as it showcases Xi's pledges to root out corruption. The ministry said Sun "had long ignored the party's political discipline and rules." Officials did not elaborate on the alleged corruption. Instead, the ministry went to great lengths to explain how party members should pledge "absolute loyalty" to the core a reference to Xi and refrain from double-dealing as what they called a "two-faced man." Sun, 51, led the ministry's First Bureau, which manages the country's army of state agents while handling domestic political security and Hong Kong's security affairs. Prior to that, he served as the ministry's director of the office of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan affairs and a deputy director of the 610 Office, which was in charge of suppressing Falun Gong practitioners. Sun was last seen in Wuhan by Xi's side, helping to contain the coronavirus outbreak and keeping social order there. Wuhan was where the outbreak was first reported. Exiled tycoon Guo Wenqui said that Sun was never considered a protege to Xi since Sun formerly worked under Meng Jianzhu the former secretary of the Communist Party's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission before 2017. Shanghai Gang Guo said both Sun and Meng belong to a group known informally as the Shanghai Gang, led by Xi's political rival, former President Jiang Zemin. Jiang oversaw the return of Hong Kong from British rule and is credited with reforms that helped turn China into a global economic power. The exiled tycoon called Sun a "murderer," saying Sun should be held responsible for the persecution and torture of detained dissidents at home and abroad over the years. Guo also blames Sun for the seizure of the tycoon's assets. Guo also said Sun had stashed away assets worth of billions in his wife's bank account in Australia, where Sun's wife and 19-year-son currently live as citizens. Xi's "scapegoat" Thailand-based Wang Xili is a Chinese political dissident in exile and says he does not think Sun's arrest is part of a corruption probe or due to political infighting. Wang says he believes the party is trying to use Sun as a scapegoat to cover up past wrongdoings in persecuting rights lawyers. Wang also says Sun himself also deserves blame for what happened during the 2015 crackdown. "Sun Lijun was the commander-in-chief of the July 9 crackdown [against rights lawyers]. Many sources have revealed that all investigators [including state agents] had to report directly to SunUpon Sun's arrest, [the authorities] will either doctor the documents or take whatever necessary actions before they seal up these documents for archiving and forbid anyone to read," Wang said. The political dissident said his personal experience with China's security apparatus shows its latest shake-up is a tactic used by the Communist Party to shift blame so that Sun's bosses, including Xi, won't be held accountable in the future for the persecution of lawyers. Sun's arrest has sparked heated discussion on Twitter with some users calling his case a wake-up call to many of his party comrades, who will end up being sacrificed if they take the wrong side. On Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging site, thousands of online comments, however, were censored except for those that mostly voiced support for Sun's arrest. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A 28-year-old man wanted on a count of aggravated assault exchanged gunfire with New Orleans Police Department officers who tried to arrest him Tuesday morning, police said. One officer was hit in the arm; the suspect, Horace Toppins IV, was captured without being injured, NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said. Ferguson said that officers patrolling New Orleans East received information that Toppins, wanted for aggravated assault, was at an apartment in the 6700 block of Bundy Road about 8:45 a.m. After NOPD officers entered the apartment, Toppins and the cops fired at each other, with one officer being struck in the right arm, Ferguson said. Paramedics took the injured officer to University Medical Center for wounds that are considered non-life threatening. Ferguson said he later spoke with the officer, who was responsive and in great spirits. Police booked Toppins with attempted first-degree murder. His bond amount was not immediately set. If convicted of attempting to murder the officer, Toppins could face between 20 and 50 years in prison. The officer was not identified. One woman who was inside the apartment at the time of the shootout posted video on Facebook Tuesday morning. In the clip, the wounded officer is lying on the ground on his back and is being tended to by fellow first responders, who tell him "You're OK, you're OK" and "just relax." The video is filmed through the cracked door of a bedroom where at least two women are huddled along with a toddler girl and a boy. At least one of the children is crying while both women also sob hysterically. The woman who posted the video described herself as a relative of Toppins' children's mother. She told WWL-TV that she heard at least five booms and a smell similar to that of fireworks fill up the apartment. She described the children as his babies. "It was crazy," the woman said. Referring to Toppins, she added, "He said he was going out like a 'G,' whatever that's supposed to mean." The woman who identified herself to WWL as Kendra DeSilva said she was also praying that wounded officer healed, calling him a hero. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up "He's a hero to me," DeSilva told WWL-TV. "He saved us." Tuesday was not the first time Toppins was accused of aiming a gun at police or shooting someone. In May 2016, at another New Orleans East apartment complex, he allegedly pointed a pistol at NOPD officers who arrived to investigate the sound of gunshots. Toppins didnt fire that time, retreating into an apartment for a while before surrendering. Toppins posted $15,000 bail, but later he landed back in jail following allegations in August 2016 that he shot his girlfriend in the elbow before forcing his way into her familys apartment. He pleaded guilty in November 2017 to both cases, admitting to counts that included aggravated assault upon police and aggravated assault with a firearm. He was sentenced to three years in prison with credit for time he had spent in jail after his arrest in the second case, criminal court records show. Ferguson on Tuesday did not describe the aggravated assault case for which Toppins was wanted. The chief said police were aware that Toppins had a history of domestic violence but did not elaborate. Citing NOPD policy, Ferguson said the officers who fired their weapons will temporarily be placed on desk duty while an internal investigation into the shootout unfolds. Ferguson on Tuesday said investigators hadnt yet determined who shot first or how many bullets were fired. Ferguson said NOPD intends to publicly release body-worn camera video of the gun battle in the coming days to comply with transparency policies. The wounded cop was the third NOPD officer shot in a week in New Orleans East. About 9:10 p.m on April 14, a man who was suspected of pulling on car door handles to see if they were unlocked shot two officers who tried to detain him near the corner of Strathmore and Briarheath drives, according to NOPD. Officers fired back and hit the alleged shooter, 21-year-old Dwight Clark, who was arrested on two counts of attempted murder. The officers and Clark all suffered leg wounds. NOPD plans to publicly release video associated with the shootout involving Clark later this week. LipoFullereneTM N, a 100% natural-derived Fullerene cosmetic ingredient launched on April 1st this year by Vitamin C60 BioResearch Corporation (VC60), a cosmetic ingredients manufacturer, won the 2nd Prize of the Most Innovative Functional Ingredients in "BSB Innovation Prize Awards 2020", an European cosmetic ingredients contest. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005983/en/ Natural Fullerene, for global sustainability (Graphic: Business Wire) About BSB Innovation Award BSB, a cosmetics consulting company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, gives the awards to cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients selected according to their own criteria. This prestigious award in the cosmetics industry has its history since 2003. About 100% natural-derived LipoFullereneTM N LipoFullereneTM has been highly reputed as a raw material for anti-aging cosmetics, and it has been renewed. VC60 spent almost 5 years to develop the natural-derived Fullerene, which is then stably dispersed in olive squalane to make a 100% natural-derived cosmetic ingredient. Sustainable and environmentally friendly natural-derived fullerene The natural-derived Fullerene is produced from cedar of domestic forests that are FSC certified (A Canadian certification system to provide a standard for sustainable forest management). The processing of the cedar to Fullerene is powered by hydroelectric power, a type of clean energy. Furthermore, the package has been changed to a pouch container, which reduces the waste by about 90% compared to the conventional products. The product is designed in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Production process of the natural-based Fullerene https://www.vc60.com/en/naturalfullerene/ About the logo The natural-derived Fullerene logo is given to cosmetic products containing the natural-derived Fullerene cosmetic ingredient in the recommended concentration (1%) or higher. The natural, high-performance natural-derived Fullerene, which is also sustainable and environmentally friendly, is expected to draw more attention thanks to winning this award. For further contribution to a sustainable society, VC60 plans to switch all fullerenes for various fullerene cosmetic ingredients to the natural-based Fullerene in the future. About Fullerene Fullerene is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was discovered in 1985 by Harold Kroto, Richard Smalley and Robert Curl who engaged in the research of interstellar matter floating in cosmic space. They were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery. Among the several intrinsic properties of fullerene, one of the most characteristic properties is its "anti-oxidative potency" which is an ability to eliminate reactive oxygen species and free radicals. About Vitamin C60 BioResearch Corporation VC60 whose research on the antioxidant activities of fullerene led to two break-through ingredients for the personal care industry. Fullerene on its own is insoluble in water and thus not an ideal ingredient for personal care applications. VC60 found a way around that by encasing fullerene in water-soluble polymers. The result was Radical Sponge for water-based solutions and a few years later LipoFullerene for oil-based solutions. And now, VC60 has developed not only two but also 6 types of fullerene cosmetic ingredients. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005983/en/ Contacts: Vitamin C60 BioResearch Corporation Manager, Sales Marketing International Mayumi HOMMA mayumi.homma@vc60.com Tel.: +81-3-3517-3252 URL: http://www.vc60.com/en/ The US Senate has approved a bipartisan, USD 480 billion emergency package that replenishes a depleted program to help devastated small businesses, funds hospitals and ramps up nationwide testing during the coronavirus crisis. The measure, which passed by unanimous consent after more than a week of negotiations between Democrats, Republicans and the White House, now heads to the House of Representatives where a vote could occur as early as Thursday. The effort is the government's latest massive cash injection to prop up a collapsing economy amid struggles to contain a pandemic that has killed 43,000 Americans and left some 22 million people jobless. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri on Tuesday demanded that authorities include city's fair price shopkeepers in the scheme under which ex-gratia of Rs one crore is given to the kin of Delhi government's employees if they lose their life in the fight against coronavirus. The city government had announced the ex-gratia for its employees including, doctors, nurses, sanitation workers. In a letter to the Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Bidhuri said that fair price shop owners distributing foodgrains during the lockdown should be covered under the scheme. He claimed a ration shopkeeper who had distributed foodgrains to around 1,600 people in Roopnagar tested positive for the virus, and demanded that all fair price shopkeepers be provided personal protective equipment. The Delhi government is providing free ration to over 70 lakh cardholders and also lakhs of other people who do not have ration cards but have applied for it. The leader of opposition also requested Baijal for the release of outstanding commission amounts of the shopkeepers. He sought LG's intervention in the "flaws" in ration distribution and said the expiry of ration coupons should also be extended from 48 hours to one month to enable all the needy to get foodgrains. In a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Bidhuri demanded that Delhi should pay three months' rent to financially weak people like street hawkers and those in low-salary jobs to help them tide over difficulties of the lockdown. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Even as states move ahead with plans to reopen their economies, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that a second wave of the novel coronavirus will be far more deadly because it is likely to coincide with the start of flu season. "There's a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," CDC Director Robert Redfield said in an interview with The Washington Post. "And when I've said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don't understand what I mean." Having two simultaneous respiratory outbreaks would put unimaginable strain on the health-care system, he said. The first wave of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has already killed more than 42,000 people across the country. It has already overwhelmed hospitals and revealed gaping shortages in test kits, ventilators and protective equipment for health-care workers. In a wide-ranging interview, Redfield said federal and state officials need to use the coming months to prepare for what lies ahead. As stay-at-home orders are lifted, officials need to stress the continued importance of social distancing. Officials also need to need to massively scale up their ability to identify the infected through testing and find everyone they interact with through contact tracing. Doing so prevents new cases from becoming larger outbreaks. Asked about the appropriateness of protests against stay-at-home orders and calls on states to be "liberated" from restrictions, Redfield said: "It's not helpful." He said he, along with members of the White House coronavirus task force, have been clear about the importance of social distancing "and the enormous impact that it's had on this outbreak in our nation." As part of the White House guidelines released last week for a gradual reopening of the country, testing by CDC teams is already underway in nursing homes in four states for asymptomatic cases. The four states are Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota and Tennessee, according to a federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan has not yet been released. The CDC has also drafted detailed guidance for state and local governments on how they can ease mitigation efforts, moving from drastic restrictions such as stay-at-home orders in a phased way to support a safe reopening. Redfield said that guidance will be "in the public domain shortly." CDC has about 500 staff in the states working on a variety of public health issues, and most of them will be pivoting to the covid-19 response, Redfield said. CDC also plans to hire at least another 650 personnel as experts to "substantially augment" public health personnel in the states and assist with contact tracing, among other tasks, he said. But he acknowledged a much larger workforce is needed. Redfield said the agency is talking with state officials about the possibility of using Census Bureau workers, Peace Corps and AmeriCorps volunteers to build "an alternative workforce." The Census Bureau had earlier suspended field operations because of the pandemic and census personnel are already located in every jurisdiction, Redfield said. If there is an agreement to use census workers, they could be trained "to be part of a comprehensive contact tracing effort," he said. "These are all discussions that are going on to try to determine what is the optimal strategy to be used," he said. "And it may be some combination of all three." Former CDC Director Tom Frieden has estimated that as many as 300,000 contact tracers would be needed in the United States. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials - which represents state health departments - estimate 100,000 additional contact tracers are needed and call for $3.6 billion in emergency funding from Congress. In the coming summer months, U.S. health officials need to persuade Americans to think ahead to the fall and the importance of getting flu shots. That way, public health officials can minimize the number of people hospitalized from flu. Getting a flu vaccination, Redfield said, "may allow there to be a hospital bed available for your mother or grandmother that may get coronavirus." Luckily, the arrival of the coronavirus in the United States came as the regular flu season was already waning, he said. By itself, a severe influenza season can strain hospitals and clinics. If the first wave of the coronavirus and flu season had peaked at the same time, he said, "it could have been really, really, really, really difficult in terms of health capacity." During the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, the United States experienced its first wave in the spring, followed by a second, larger wave in the fall and winter, during typical "flu season" time for the country. TORONTO (AP) Police fanned out across more than a dozen crime scenes Monday after a rampage by a gunman disguised as a police officer left at least 18 dead and homes in smoldering ruins in rural communities across Nova Scotia the deadliest mass shooting in Canadas history. Officials said the suspect, identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, also died in the weekend attack. Authorities did not provide a motive for the killings. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather told a news conference Monday that police expect to find more victims once they are able to comb through all the crime scenes, some of which were houses set ablaze as victims were inside, adhering to government calls to stay at home because of the coronavirus pandemic. Leather said police teams were spread out at 16 locations across central and northern Nova Scotia. He said some of the victims knew Wortman and some didnt. Were relatively confident weve identified all the crime scenes," Leather said. We have had five structure fires, most of those being residences, and we believe there may be victims still within the remains of those homes which burnt to the ground." The dead included a policewoman. Another officer was wounded by gunfire and was recovering at home, Leather said. The 18 innocent lives lost will be remembered throughout Canadas history, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said . Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted how close-knit the small province of Nova Scotia is. "The vast majority of Nova Scotians will have a direct link with one or more of the victims. The entire province and country is grieving right now as we come to grips with something that is unimaginable, Trudeau told a news conference. The pandemic will prevent us from mourning together in person, but a vigil will be held virtually to celebrate the lives of the victims, Trudeau added, saying it would take place Friday night through a Facebook group. Trudeau asked the media to avoid mentioning the name of the assailant or showing his picture. "Do not give this person the gift of infamy," he said. The 12-hour rampage began late Saturday in the rural town of Portapique, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Halifax, where police warned residents to lock their doors and stay in their basements as the attack unfolded. The town, like all of Canada, had been adhering to government advice to remain at home because of the pandemic and most of the victims were inside when the attack began. Several bodies were later found inside and outside one house on Portapique Beach Road, the street where the suspect lived, authorities said. Bodies were also found at other locations within about a 50-kilometer (30-mile) area from the neighborhood where the shootings began, and authorities believe the shooter may have targeted his first victims but then began attacking randomly. Authorities said the gunman wore a police uniform and made his car look like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser. His ability to move around the province undetected was surely greatly benefited by the fact that he had a vehicle that looked identical in every way to a marked police car, Leather said, adding that the gunman was also either wearing a police uniform or very good copy. He said at one point the suspect was forced to abandon his car and then carjacked other vehicles to continue to circulate around the province steps ahead of our investigators. Authorities believe he acted alone. RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki said he was not well known to police and no note from the suspect has been found. She said police were still studying the crime scenes to determine what weapons were used. According to his high school yearbook, Wortman long had a fascination with the Mounties. Gabes future may include being an RCMP officer, his yearbook profile said. The dead officer was identified as Constable Heidi Stevenson, a mother of two and a 23-year veteran of the force. Two health care workers at local nursing homes were also among those killed, according to Von Canada, a long term health care company, which identified them as Kristen Beaton, a continuing care assistant, and Heather OBrien, a licensed practical nurse. OBriens daughter, Darcy Dobson, wrote in a Facebook post that, A Monster murdered my Mother. Murdered her, without a second thought. The pain comes and goes in waves. I feel like Im outside of my own body. This cant be real. At 9:59 am she sent her last text message to our family group chat. By 10:15 she was gone. School teacher Lisa McCully, who worked at a local elementary school, also was among the dead. Our hearts are broken along with those of her colleagues and students at Debert Elementary," Nova Scotia Teachers Union President President Paul Wozney said. Police initially said Wortman had been arrested Sunday at a gas station in Enfield, outside Halifax, but later said he had died. It was not clear how, and they did not provide further details, although one police official said that there was an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and police at one point. Wortman, who owned a denture practice in in the city of Dartmouth, near Halifax, lived part time in Portapique, according to residents. He is listed as a denturist a person who makes dentures in the city of Dartmouth, near Halifax, according to the Denturist Society of Nova Scotia website. Atlantic Denture Clinic, the practice Wortman owned, had been closed for the past month because of the coronavirus pandemic. Neighbor Nancy Hudson said she met Wortman about 18 years ago when he bought the property on Portapique Beach Road, which is a short walk from her home, and she and her husband used to socialize with him. There is another side to Gabe. He had some issues, especially with his girlfriend, Hudson said, adding that he was obsessed and jealous. It was a red flag. Speaking to reporters Monday, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said that even in the midst of such anguish now was not the time to gather together to mourn. We cannot forget that in the midst of this tragedy we are still fighting a deadly virus, McNeil said. Now more than ever we need your cooperation. It takes inner strength. The best that we can honor the victims of this tragedy is to continue to act in a way that protects our fellow Nova Scotians. Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada. The country overhauled its gun-control laws after gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreals Ecole Polytechnique college in 1989. Before this weekends rampage, that had been the countrys worst mass killing. Trudeau said Monday his government would introduce further gun control legislation prohibiting military-style assault weapons, a measure that had already been planned before the coronavirus pandemic interrupted the current parliamentary session. Indias Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has called on the countrys states to roll out a data-tracking tool aimed at helping to control the spread of Covid-19. Many Indian state authorities are already collecting data from telecom towers via a mobile surveillance system that tracks users movements, reports The Hindustan Times. However, the additional tool advocated by the DoT would allow authorities to contact users in specific areas with SMS alerts in order to enforce quarantine measures. The paper confirmed that despite sounding intrusive, use of the alert platform is permitted under Indias telegraph act, which allows for government co-opting of telecom services for the public interest under exceptional circumstances, such as the ongoing pandemic. The act is authorised by the home secretaries of every Indian state. A government spokesperson told the paper that the tool provided a non-intrusive way of checking if a person is within the tower area, adding that no personal subscriber data is shared with state authorities. The tool can be used in all of Indias regional languages. However, legal experts challenged the governments claims, with the paper reporting that such a surveillance platform could only be used following an order from both federal and state governments. Currently, they argued, surveillance is taking place without any clear legal authority or limits. The coronavirus lockdown has made life harder for farmers during the ongoing harvest season as authorities enforce new rules to stagger crop sales in the usually chaotic mandis, or agricultural markets, where it is easy for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) to spread. Social distancing rules have doubled the time and labour required to clear harvested stocks, say farmers in Punjab and Haryana, two of the countrys largest producers of foodgrains. Cultivators are in the middle of winter-sown harvesting. Two key winter crops being harvested now, wheat and oilseeds such as mustard, account for nearly three-fourths of seasonal farm incomes. Authorities in Haryana and Punjab, two food-bowl states, have started issuing coupons or permits to farmers for ferrying grains to markets, which are being run with fewer staff. These trade stamps are being issued to farmers through commission agents, who act as intermediaries in the supply chain. Farmers in these states with harvests must move their grains on specified dates and at specified timings to contract sales at markets regulated under the Agriculture Produce Market Committee Act. Earlier, it was easy to harvest field after field. Now, you cant harvest all of your crop at one go. Theres no storage space on my farm, Jaipal Singh Nain of Haryanas Mukarpur village said, pointing to what he calls is a trolley limit imposed by the authorities. Officials are permitting no more than 50-60 quintals (100kg each), nearly as much as a tractor-pulled trolley or carriage can hold, Nain said. Farmers said they did not mind practising social distancing, but want governments to compensate them. Two days of rain last week has spoiled nearly 25% of my wheat. The government should announce higher bonuses for wheat, said Nirmal Singh, a farmer from Punjabs Muktsar. Labour costs have doubled because farmers are now being required to first hold the harvested crops before transporting them to the state-regulated markets on specified dates. Punjab is looking to harvest nearly 14 million tonnes of wheat, as India eyes a bumper harvest of the winter staple. The state has set up over 3,500 market yards to eliminate crowding, while Haryana has set up nearly 2,000. Since procurement, which refers to the governments buying of the produce at federally fixed minimum support price, is staggered, both Haryana and Punjab will extend the date by which operations will be wrapped up, an official, requesting anonymity, said. Of total wheat sown in 31 million hectares, 63-67% has already been harvested in the country, the official said. Experts say they expect kharif or summer sowing to begin around the usual third week of June. Completion of sowing of paddy may take longer time though through the transplantation method under which the crop is first planted in nursery beds before saplings are moved to larger fields, said Arun Sundaresan, an agricultural scientist with Gromore, a hybrid seed manufacturer. Farmers with power tillers and mechanised farms should see the least disruptions to sowing, he said. Winter pulses were sown in 16 million hectares, official estimates show. Of these, harvesting has been completed for gram, lentil, urad, mung and field peas, the official cited above said. Sugarcane harvesting has been also been completed in states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Punjab. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON European holidaymakers can be optimistic that a summer getaway is still possible despite the coronavirus pandemic, the European Commission's president has said. A week after telling jet-setters hoping for a European holiday to not make any plans this summer, Ursula von der Leyen has now suggested that holidays could be possible by finding 'smart solutions.' 'I think we are going to find smart solutions to have a summer vacation,' the German said in an interview with Portuguese news outlet Expresso. 'Maybe a little different, with other hygiene measures, with a little more social distance, but it is impressive to see that we have found solutions. So I am optimistic about summer holidays.' Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission's president (pictured in the European parliament) has said holidays in Europe could be possible by finding 'smart solutions' Von der Leyen was responding to a question about whether Europeans would at least be able to holiday in the country where they live. However, she did not explicitly state in her comments whether she was talking about holidays abroad or domestically. For many countries in Southern Europe, the prospect of no income from tourism is particularly dire, and such countries will be eager to find ways to accommodate visitors as soon as possible. Von der Leyen said it was 'good' that countries are beginning to lift 'restrictive measures' but warned that governments should do so 'with care, step by step and always with vigilance.' Her comments will provide some optimism for the many people who have been forced to cancel their holiday plans due to the global coronavirus crisis. While travels to countries further abroad are still unlikely with flight restrictions in place, a holiday closer to home could provide people with that much-needed escape after months in lockdown. 'It is difficult to predict what the next months will be like, but what I see is that we are beginning to learn to live with the virus', said von der Leyen, who added that she was 'impressed' with solutions that are being found by sectors to cope with the crisis. 'For example, I am impressed to see how innovative the economy is, in the way production has changed,' she said. 'Workers work in shifts, with smaller groups, with social distance, with new hygiene measures.' Such measures, she hopes, can also be used to reopen the tourism sector that so many countries in Europe benefit from. Her comments came after the European Commission published a series of guidelines to the 27 EU countries on how to improve coordination when it comes to lifting the measures in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus. One of the measures in these guidelines is for governments to ensure that hospitals, and particularly intensive care units, have the capacity to treat patients with Covid-19 and also other diseases. European countries, particularly those in the south like Spain, produce a lot of income through tourism. Tourist hot spots face a dire summer economically without income from tourism. Pictured: A beach in Spain lies empty as tourism is restricted because of the coronavirus crisis Von der Leyen's comments are more optimistic than those she gave last week in an interview with German newspaper Bild, in which she said 'I'd advise everyone to wait before making holiday plans. 'At the moment, no one can make reliable forecasts for July and August. We will need to learn to live with this virus for many months, probably until next year.' These comments came after France warned European countries to keep their borders closed until September, while saying that French borders would have strict controls imposed on them until October 30. Meanwhile, French president Emmanuel Macron has called for external borders with the passport-free Schengen zone, of which Britain is not a part, to remain closed until September. For British people, holidays outside the country will be more unlikely. While tourists in mainland Europe can travel more easily to other countries, Britons rely heavily on airlines. Last month, budget airline easyJet grounded all of its flights indefinitely, while British Airways stopped its flights from Gatwick Airport on April 1. Airlines that fly tourists all across Europe have grounded flights and furloughed staff, while borders between European countries remain closed or heavily restricted BA later furloughed 36,000 of its employees on a modified version of the government's job retention scheme. Luton-based carrier easyJet confirmed it will get a 600million loan from the government's coronavirus fund, and is borrowing an additional 400million from creditors. The decision sparked a row with founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou who had previously urged directors to scrap a 4.5billion order with Airbus for more than 100 new planes. Meanwhile, Jet2 has cancelled all flights and holidays until mid-June because restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic show no sign of easing. The travel firm, which is Britain's second-biggest holiday company and owned by Dart Group, said in a statement that its holidays and flights would not now restart until June 17. Since April 4, Britons have been warned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) against all non-essential global travel abroad 'indefinitely'. According to the latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, European countries in the EU, the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK have seen a combined total of 947,693 confirmed cases on the coronavirus, with 164,656 total deaths. A technical snag, which cropped up during proceedings conducted through video conferencing in the Delhi High Court, led to a delay in the hearing of plea of an HIV positive prisoner seeking to be released on interim bail for 90 days as he fears catching coronavirus in jail. The technical fault occurred with the mike of the Delhi government counsel on Monday due to which he was not audible to judges and the advocate for the prisoner after which the matter was adjourned for Wednesday. "There is a technical fault with the mike of Ravi Nayak, counsel for NCT of Delhi. He is not audible. Hence hearing cannot be completed. List on April 22, a bench of Justices Jayant Nath and Prateek Jalan said in its brief order. The court was hearing the interim bail plea of a murder convict on grounds that he was suffering from HIV stage-II and was vulnerable to being infected with COVID-19 in jail. Advocate K Singhal, representing the convict, said the video conferencing was being conducted through 'Cisco WebEx' software and initially the government counsel's voice was clear but later on, he was not audible. While the judges were conducting proceedings from their residence, the two advocates joined the hearing from their respective houses. The hearing went on for around 15 minutes and later it was adjourned to April 22, he said, adding that this could happen with anyone and no one was at fault. Singhal informed that the man's wife and daughter were also HIV positive and on March 15, the high court had suspended his sentence for two weeks to consult and receive treatment at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital here. Jail authorities were also taking him for treatment to various government hospitals. On April 3, the man again approached the high court seeking extension of the period of interim suspension of sentence by 60 days, which was rejected by the high court. Thereafter, he file a fresh plea which is pending in the court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) This is the moment two hungry birds eye up a family of toy poodles as their prey outside a penthouse flat. Footage shows a couple of huge condors perched outside a woman's apartment in Chile, looking to feast on the three dogs on the other side of the glass. The clip was widely shared by Spanish media which claims it took place near the Spanish stadium, in the metropolitan city of Las Condes. In the 50-second footage, the puppies can be seen barking excitedly from inside the flat at the huge birds prowling outside. The birds in turn seem equally interested in the dogs and, at one stage, one even tries to bite one of the animals. Local media noted that the dogs remain safe as the windows were closed at the time. The footage was posted on Tik-Tok by user Gabriela Leonardi and shows the impressive size of the two South American Andean Condors as they walk around the side of the apartment looking for a way to reach the poodles. The poodles, pictured, bark excitedly as they see the huge birds on the other side of the glass The condor, pictured, is the largest flying bird in the world in terms of combined measurements of weight and wingspan - which can stretch to some 10 feet 10 inches (3.3 metres) It has distinctive white feathers around black plumage, pictured, and its bald head can change colour depending on its emotional state The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies them as 'near threatened' in their red list and it is the largest flying bird in the world in terms of combined measurements of weight and wingspan - which can stretch to some 10 feet 10 inches (3.3 metres). It has distinctive white feathers around black plumage and its bald head can change colour depending on its emotional state. The clip has been viewed more than 160,000 times since being posted on the social media platform. S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster, in his communications, has noted that he anticipates he will open up South Carolina sooner rather than later compared to other states. South Carolina will eventually be completely open for business. But steps toward that outcome should be taken because the entire population is adequately protected until a vaccine appears, not because patience has run out. If decisions are made out of impatience, thats the time its needed most for welfare of the entire state. RICHARD UJVARY Waterlily Way Summerville Library services Charleston County Public Library staffers have missed seeing our patrons at our branches over the past few weeks. I want to express my gratitude for our communitys continued support and patience as we evaluate and adjust our operations to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 during this unprecedented time. Our mission is to serve the Charleston County community, especially during times of need, and our services are needed more than ever. Whether you need help navigating an uncertain job market, support with remote learning, help finding food resources or simply want a distraction from the stress of current events, we are working tirelessly to serve you in any way possible. We continue expanding our digital resources and virtual programming, all of which are available for free on our website and social media. If you dont have internet access, were providing free public Wi-Fi outside most of our branches (visit www.ccpl.org for a full list) and have also started a remote telephone service. We want our community to have as many ways to connect with us as possible. Though our buildings are temporarily closed, we hope libraries continue to be a key part of the lives of Charleston County citizens. ANGELA CRAIG Executive Director, Charleston County Public Library Calhoun Street Charleston Mental health needs As a provider of behavioral/mental health services, Im concerned that many South Carolinians will not receive needed services. The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is only treating existing clients. During this time of uncertainty and fear, therapeutic services are needed more than ever. Treating only existing Medicaid clients is not going to be adequate. We anticipate an increase in demand from people relying on Medicaid as older people become displaced or unemployed and no longer have an option to use private health insurance. They will apply for Medicaid, but what mental health services will be available? Where will their children and families get the help they need? Given the current crisis, we predict an increase in folks with anxiety, depression, traumatic stress, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse and even domestic violence as families are faced with an avalanche of problems. We need to find a way to support as many people as we can while we adjust to life in this new reality. Without this support, a bad situation will only get worse, and the new challenges we face will become overwhelming, which may add to the severity of this pandemic. Our fear is that lives will be put at risk by the mental toll, which can match the physical toll of this virus. KIMBERLY ADKINS, LPCS Pebble Beach Cove Bluffton Climate change crisis An April 14 letter to the editor drew parallels between the bite of the COVID-19 and climate change. The writer stated, Though weve known about climate change for more than 50 years, weve failed to adequately address the threat. The writer is correct about the time frame, but the subject in the 1970s was global cooling and glaciation, not global warming. Readers can Google the term global cooling. TIM CALNON Morgan Place Drive Isle of Palms Funny perspective Celia Rivenbarks April 14 op-ed, Im in it for COVID-19 experts bookcases, had me laughing out loud. It was so nice to have some comic relief. I will be watching the NBC Nightly News from a new perspective. Her columns never disappoint. MARILYN SCHAFFNER Tugboat Lane Summerville R iots erupted on the outskirts of Paris for a second night as young people fought with police and unleashed fireworks amid growing unrest over the impact of lockdown restrictions. TV stations broadcast footage of disturbances in the suburbs of Villeneuve-La-Garenne, Aulnay-sous-Bois and Asnieres as riot police moved in. The disorder, which affected at least seven banlieue areas around the capital, follows disturbances over the weekend triggered by an incident in which a motorcyclist was injured in a collision with an unmarked police car during a chase. The male driver was treated in hospital and is reported to be preparing to file a criminal complaint. Litter burns in the street during clashes in Villeneuve-la-Garenne / AFP via Getty Images Police have said they will launch an internal inquiry but trouble broke out first over the weekend and then again, more extensively, last night as residents vented their anger at allegedly oppressive police treatment towards the largely ethnic minority population in the poorer neighbourhoods. The banlieues have long been flashpoints of anger over social and economic grievances and have suffered higher death rates than central Paris since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in France. The clashes will add to fears of wider disorder once the French lockdown begins to be eased from a planned date of May 11. Meanwhile, Frances transport and environment minster said today that international flights outside the Schengen zone had been halted. People fire fireworks during clashes in Villeneuve-la-Garenne / AFP via Getty Images Elsewhere in Europe, Italys premier Giuseppe Conte said he would announce later this week his countrys plans for a gradual easing of its lockdown from May 4. The restrictions, which have closed most businesses and prevented people leaving their homes for all but essential needs, have been in place in Europes worst-hit nation since March 9. Loading.... Denmark will increase the maximum number of people allowed to meet in public to 500 from May 10, up from a 10-person limit, broadcaster TV2 reported today. The new limit will be in effect until September. Hungary has received reports from several countries about the limited emergence of bioterrorism, the director-general of the Military National Security Service told a meeting of parliaments foreign affairs committee. The Islamic State terrorist group and other organisations have called on their followers to spread coronavirus and the signs of this are prevalent in India, Egypt and the United States, Lieutenant-General Janos Beres told the body. Meanwhile, army chief of staff Ferenc Korom told the committee that Hungary is still involved in 11 foreign operations with 1,200 troops. Health services have been boosted in all of those operations, he said. Hungary has evacuated several of its troops from the EUFOR peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina after soldiers in the mission tested positive for the virus, he said, adding that 15 soldiers were also withdrawn from Mali. Around 1,500 samples have been taken within the Armed Forces of Hungary, Korom said, adding that the coronavirus case count was in the single digits so far. In response to a question by Zsolt Nemeth, the Fidesz head of the committee, about the role of the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine in handling the pandemic, Korom said the centre headquartered in Hungary was responsible for coordinating information-sharing among NATO member states. Answering a question from conservative Jobbiks Koloman Brenner, Korom said Hungary had no plans to withdraw its forces from any of the missions they are involved in. On the subject of organised crime rings, Beres said the criminal groups were becoming increasingly active in several countries, noting activities by the Italian mafia and similar activities in Nigeria and in the Balkans. Cybercrime is also on the rise, Beres said, citing the example of the spreading of fake news. The national security services main task at present is to monitor the global Covid-19 situation and identify potential future clusters, he said. The service is also monitoring the viruss effect on the international security environment, Beres said. The virus has so far resulted in a decrease in the intensity of conflicts in crisis zones like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, he said, adding, at the same time, that the situation was expected to re-escalate once the outbreak subsides. Europe, he said, also had to be prepared for a potential rise in migration pressure from the Middle East and Africa as a result of measures taken in the countries of those regions. Several countries have also altered their military operations due to the virus, he said. Many of them have pulled their forces from Iraq after training missions were suspended there. The virus has also speeded up the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and many soldiers in Mali have become infected with the virus, Beres said. Many defence contractors have also suspended their operations or have transitioned to producing protective equipment against the virus, he said, adding that several manufacturers were gearing up for a resumption of their activities after the pandemic. He noted that several countries have involved their armed forces in their epidemic response efforts, with Hungary having involved its own military in almost all areas. The Military National Security Services most important future task will be to monitor how the armed forces of neighbouring and other European countries return to their regular operations, Beres said. Illinois soon could run out of state funds to pay jobless benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new study produced by the Tax Foundation has found the state to be one of the least-prepared for an economic crisis like the one the country is experiencing. Even though some of Illinois neighboring states have more claims, Illinois will exhaust its trust more quickly than most, said Jared Walczak, director of State Tax Policy with the Center for State Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation. Illinois has enough to pay out about 11 weeks of benefits before borrowing. That places the state 40th in the country in terms of how many weeks a states trust fund can cover. The ranking is based on 2020 fund solvency levels and initial and continuing claims as of April 4. States like Illinois have very little in the fund, Walczak said. Theoretically, when that runs out, they could draw from other state funding sources, though Illinois doesnt have a lot of those available as a state that has still a mountain of unpaid bills and basically nothing in the rainy day fund. When all state options are exhausted, Illinois could turn to the federal government to take out loans from the federal unemployment compensation trust fund. However, that could place a future burden on Illinois businesses. A state like Illinois, that went into this with what the federal government would consider an insolvent (trust) fund, will be further penalized by having to pay it back with interest, Walczak said. If it takes a while to pay that back, which in Illinois case, youd expect it to take some time, businesses in the state will have to pay higher federal unemployment insurance taxes to compensate for the fact that the state is in arrears to the federal government. Other states were better prepared for an economic crisis, with six having funds to pay more than a year of benefits. Walczak said Illinois is among those that simply didnt plan well. Illinois is in the red on its regular budget because of unpaid bills. It has $4 million in its rainy day fund, Walczak said. Unfortunately, the state did not use any of the last roughly 11 years of economic growth to prepare for this sort of event or any recession. Walczak said the recent CARES Act signed into law by President Donald Trump gives an additional $600 each week to unemployed workers, but doesnt help the state pay its obligation. This is really helpful for those who are laid off, but states are still obligated to come up with the money for the regular benefits that they are supposed to provide in this combination federal and state unemployment compensation system, Walczak said. According to the report, Wyoming would have the longest-lasting trust fund, with money to pay 321 weeks of benefits. California is at the bottom of the list, likely lasting only four weeks before looking for new sources of money. YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. The air defense units of the Defense Army of Artsakh located in the southern direction of the contact line detected Azerbaijani ORBITER UAV entering Artsakhs air space on April 21 and down it, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of Artsakhs Defense Ministry. Artsakhs Defense Ministry once again calls on the Azerbaijani side to refrain from provocative actions and assures that any attempt will be adequately responded. We will publish the parts of the downed UAV later, says the statement. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan Iran urges foreign forces to leave after naval incident Iran Press TV Monday, 20 April 2020 10:18 AM Iran has told foreign forces, who maintain an illegitimate presence in the region, to leave it and avoid provoking the Islamic Republic's warning. "As stated by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), we firstly call on the foreign forces, who are present in the region illegitimately, to end their presence here," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Monday. "We want them to leave the region as soon as possible, whatever may be the motive for their presence here," he said. "Secondly, observe transit regulations and not compel our forces to issue warnings and reminders," the spokesman said, addressing the foreign forces. On Sunday, the IRGC's Navy issued a statement, calling the illegal presence of US terrorist forces the main source of mischief and insecurity in the region. The statement reported how the Navy had earlier been forced to increase its maritime patrols in the Persian Gulf in response to repeated "unprofessional" behavior by US naval forces. Mousavi's comments and the IRGC statement came after attempts by the US Navy and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to misrepresent the increase in the IRGC's naval patrols. The US Navy alleged earlier that Iranian boats had repeatedly come close to American military vessels in "dangerous and harassing approaches" in the waters, while Pompeo claimed in remarks to the Fox News that the Corps had behaved "in ways that were inconsistent with international law." Mousavi asserted, "This is our region, and if our Armed Forces are supposed to patrol it, it should be unimpeded." "Iran has existed in the region for thousands of years. The security of the region is provided by the Islamic Republic and the regional countries," he added. Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami has dismissed the allegations of harassment by Iranian vessels as "baseless," while Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has slammed the US's regional presence by reminding Washington that its forces are "7,000 miles away from its borders." 'US seeking to hide economic terrorism' Separately, Mousavi addressed a Saturday tweet by Pompeo, in which the US top diplomat called on the United Nations Security Council to prolong arms embargo against Iran. The embargo will be lifted in October 2020 in line with the Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed a 2015 international nuclear agreement between Iran and other countries. The US left the agreement in May 2018 and returned the sanctions that it had lifted. Washington has ever since been calling on other countries to similarly violate the deal by toeing the sanction line and refusing to conduct trade with Tehran. The Islamic Republic has denounced the US pressure as "economic terrorism," and Mousavi said the US' focus on expiration of the arms embargo is aimed at "deflecting" the world's attention from it. He advised Washington to rather stop its "frenzied and voracious" arms sales to the regional countries instead of concerning itself with Tehran's situation. Regional dialog The spokesman, meanwhile, pointed to the shift that has come about in various countries, including the regional ones' priorities in light of the new coronavirus' pandemic. He pointed to the relative convergence of the countries' positions and perspectives in the aftermath of the outbreak, saying the Islamic Republic has consistently been prepared for dialog and cooperation with the regional countries, especially the Persian Gulf's littoral states. He referred to various initiatives that have been proposed by Tehran to enable the prospect, noting that the country has always announced its readiness for "unconditioned" negotiation. Despite the uncertain health condition across the international community, Iran is prepared for dialog and interaction at whatever level and under whatever circumstances with the maritime states, especially those with which relations have been characterized with misunderstanding, the official said. 'US prime suspect of spreading coronavirus' Mousavi also addressed attempts by the US at trying to allege that the new coronavirus has been spread from a laboratory in China. The Islamic Republic is against any "politicization" of the pandemic, he said. The US is generating the rumors while it is itself "the prime suspect" of spreading the virus, the spokesman said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address What does Vicki need her hair and nails done for? She has no show to appear on. Reply Thread Link say what you want about bethanny but she truly has a great company and they've done amazing things. she's a lot but she gets the job done. Reply Thread Link Typical Vicki Behavior!!! Bethenny always puts her money where her mouth is in things/situations like this and I always can appreciate that Reply Thread Link Bethenny always just goes above and beyond. Her work ethic and ability to manage disaster relief is just awe inspiring. Reply Thread Link Bethany be out here. I remember her doing a lot of aid for either Harvey or I think Maria, or maybe both. Reply Thread Link If I'm not mistaken, her organization was the first to touch down in PR and give people actual assistance. Reply Parent Thread Link It was, Mark Cuban lent her his private jet so they could bring provisions to PR since Trumpito closed the ports and Comercial airports so PR couldnt get help Edited at 2020-04-21 08:48 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link Yep I remember seeing her relief aid for Maria. Reply Parent Thread Link bethenny always puts her money where her mouth is tbh meanwhile sitting through that HORRIBLE cocktail party on RHONY the other night with the trump fundraiser dude with the scary teeth was the worst Reply Thread Link Omg, right? And someone give Sonja an intervention. It's not even remotely funny anymore to watch. Reply Parent Thread Link both sonja and dorinda are just not fun to watch anymore when they get like that Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Watching Sonja is how I felt about watching Kim Richards all those years on RHOBH. It's embarrassing, awkward, and sad to watch. I think Dorinda is next. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link omg was he??? Lmao great background context for those women avoiding the party guests Reply Parent Thread Expand Link It's just so hard not to think about yourself all the time, isn't? I mean, the essentials of a MANICURE! Reply Thread Link I've never watched any of the shows besides BH and VPR so someone correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like Bethany is the only non-asshole to come out of these shows. In the past few years, she seems to truly want to do good in the world. Reply Thread Link She's an asshole when she's dealing with people one-on-one, but she's proven herself to be a good humanitarian. Reply Parent Thread Link i mean... bethanny *is* an asshole, but she does actually cares about others because she still manages to be fairly grounded (which cannot be said for much of the castmates across the RH brand). her way of thinking is "shut the fuck up, i know struggle, you don't know struggle, and i don't want others to struggle like i did.", if that makes any sense Reply Parent Thread Link lol it does make sense, thanks Reply Parent Thread Link I think she's a genuinely good person, it's just..most people don't like how brutal she is lol. When I say she has zero filter, she has ZERO filter. But as a businesswoman, that works very well in her favor. Personal relationships? Not so much lol Reply Parent Thread Link Bethenny is a tough cookie, probably because of her childhood and overall life experience. She was the poorest among her castmates when RHONY began, she was looked down by everyone, but she managed to be the richest of them all. When she came back to the show, she definitely made it clear she isnt going to be a pushover again, which is why she definitely fights back like a beast if a cast mate says or does something not so nice about her. Her big personality also gets her a lot of air time on the show lol. She can be an asshole, self absorbed... just like any rich New Yorker... but shes tolerable if you compare her to all the other RH franchise casts. Reply Parent Thread Link Sometimes even serial killers help little old ladies across the street. Reply Parent Thread Link TX, yall Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick on reopening the economy: "There are more important things than living."@DanPatrick, you are a fraud. You have allowed gun violence to run rampant and now you say this? You just killed the Pro Life movement. https://t.co/SrjJwZIhHy Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) April 21, 2020 good on bethany, but my soul hurts from how evil and/or incompetent our state and federal govts have beenTX, yall Reply Thread Link Glad Im in Austin but I keep getting so worried since were in Texas well be forced to open up early. We have like no testing so everyone thinks were super healthy but we have no tests! I dont trust the numbers Reply Parent Thread Link i'll miss the food but truly cannot wait to leave this trash state Reply Parent Thread Link my mom already had a tough enough time getting people to stay home when they were sick, and this was before everyone started shutting down and laying off people. she's probably beside herself with worry, at this point. Reply Parent Thread Link This man is pure evil, I hate that he represents us Reply Parent Thread Link i'm not surprised that family van!!! is confusing her individual wants for communal needs. Reply Thread Link "Vicki along with Tamra were fired from the OC franchise" wutt Reply Thread Link Yup! It was announced right after the last reunion ep aired. In tamras case she was offered a few eps at the start of the next season to wrap up her story, and she passed. She and Vicki were seen filming something in the weeks afterwards, but I never followed up on what it was, if anything. Reply Parent Thread Link ah ok. thx for explaining, damn. never thought vicki would be fired. didnt she lie abt cancer or some shit? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Vicki you're supposed to be our friend, our soulmate, our sister!! Reply Thread Link honestly, salons should probably be among the last things to reopen. Reply Thread Link I mean one of the first things Im going to do when its safe to reopen is get a mani/pedi, but youre damn sure Im waiting until the experts say its safe to reopen. Im guessing that if places do reopen in stages, nail salons wont be first priority. My mayor has extended our closures until at least May 16, but Ill probably wait until a while after that just in case. Reply Thread Link Yeah I want my hair done as soon as its safe not before! Like yeah I want nice hair but I want to live and not get others sick as my main priority. People complaining about wanting to shop and get hair done are awful like at least say you want to open up the economy because you need rent money. But your hair or boredom? shut up! Reply Parent Thread Link It just kills me what people are pissed about. I need my eyes re-examined because I suspect my prescription has changed and my teeth cleaned, but I'm not out there protesting health care that can be delayed. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Omg my county executive held a virtual town hall tonight and all these ADULTS were whining about campgrounds Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah my mayor did the same thing and a group of shitty business owners put out an ad in the paper being like "We wanna open NAOW!" And it's like first of all, according to CDC info, 344 people have died just in this immediate area so far and there are 6,169 active cases currently. There were literally 8 full pages of obituaries in the sunday newspaper. And secondly, even with unemployment and that extra boost from the government, most people are still broke as fuck and can't afford to shop for fancy jewelry or stay in hotels or eat at restaurants or anything like that. People are so shortsighted, it drives me insane. Edited at 2020-04-21 08:58 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I am ready for a full body massage, but I don't want to go until the CDC gives the okay. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link fingers crossed bb Reply Parent Thread Link [April 21, 2020] Be Faster With the All-New Razer Blade Stealth 13 Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today revealed the all-new Razer Blade Stealth 13, taking Ultrabook gaming to the next level. The Blade Stealth 13 is the first Ultrabook with a 13.3" 120Hz display, powered by the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU and a faster 25W variant of the Intel (News - Alert) Core i7-1065G7 processor. The Blade Stealth 13 also packs a faster, more efficient keyboard and more efficient LPDDR4X memory, all within the signature matte black aluminum chassis. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005319/en/ The all-new Razer Blade Stealth 13 is the world's first Ultrabook to feature a 120Hz display and a powerful NVIDIA (News - Alert) GeForce GTX 1650 GPU (Photo: Business Wire) "The Razer Blade Stealth 13 is the world's most powerful Ultrabook and we just made it better," said Brad Wildes, Senior Vice President of Razer's Systems Business Unit. "The new Razer Blade Stealth 13 introduces the next evolution of ultraportable gaming, providing users the perfect balance between fun and function." Gotta See Fast The all-new Blade Stealth 13 features the world's fastest 13.3" display with a 120Hz refresh rate - a feature currently available only on the Blade Stealth 13. The increased refresh rate delivers fast but crisp visuals, making targets easier to see and text easier to read. The display offers a 1920x1080p resolution and is finished with a matte coating for improved glare reduction. For creators and touch users, the Blade Stealth 13 is also available with a gorgeous 4K touch display featuring Gorilla Glass. The 4K panel is perfect for editing photos and video in creative suites or watching movies on the go. Every Blade Stealth 13 covers 100% of the sRGB space and comes custom-calibrated from the factory to ensure a vivid, color-accurate experience whether gaming, creating or watching. Flanking the sides of the beautifully custom-calibrated display are ultra-slim 4.9mm bezels topped-off with an HD webcam complete with an IR sensor for seamless access via Windows Hello. The HD webcam is essential for staying connected with family, taking meetings from the hme office, or hosting classes over long distances. Gotta Be Fast The latest Blade Stealth 13 is powered by the all-new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU with 4GB of GDDR6 memory and 1,024 NVIDIA CUDA cores, for up to an 80% increase in performance over the GeForce GTX 1050. The new GPU allows gamers to enjoy the latest battle royale games on a 13-inch notebook, an experience only possible on the Blade Stealth 13. Coupled with NVIDIA Optimus Technology, the Blade Stealth 13 is optimized to provide performance when wanted and battery when needed. Paired with the new GPU is a 25W variant of the Intel Core i7-1065G7H quad-core processor with clock speeds of up to 3.9Ghz GHz when using Intel Turbo Boost technology. The 25W processor is a significant step up over the standard 15W variant and allows for longer sustained boost clock speeds. The increased power combined with the longer sustained boost speed means higher frames, faster renders, and less downtime. For those that need maximum performance, the Blade Stealth 13 is lined with a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port, an Intel exclusive technology, allowing for fast data transfer and a seamless plug and play action with a Razer Core X eGPU (sold separately). The addition of the Core X eGPU allows users to pair almost any GPU with the Blade Stealth 13 and GeForce GTX 1650 Ti for dual-GPU functionality when handling intense rendering or modeling workloads. Gotta Go Fast The Blade Stealth 13 has been updated with a new keyboard featuring a full-sized right shift key and half-height directional keys for a faster and more efficient typing experience. Equipped with single-zone Razer Chroma RGB backlighting, the keyboard can be customized to match any of the 16.8 million colors and unique lighting effects available in Razer Synapse 3. In addition to the new keyboard, the Blade Stealth 13 features a new 16GB kit of LPDDR4X memory capable of 3733MHz while being more energy efficient. The new integrated memory means that CPU intensive applications, such as gaming or photo editing, will receive noticeable performance gains while not taxing the battery as heavily. The Blade Stealth 13 remains the world's most compact gaming laptop available today, measuring in at only .60" x 11.9" x 8.27" and a mere 3.1lbs, while packing the punch of a full-sized gaming laptop. PRICE & AVAILABILITY The all-new Razer Blade Stealth 13 will start at $1,799.99 USD / 1,999.99 MSRP and will be available on April 21st at Razer.com and through select retailers in the United States and Canada. The Razer Blade Stealth 13 will come soon to Europe, China, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. For more information, please visit https://www.razer.com/gaming-laptops/razer-blade-stealth. PRODUCT ASSETS Download product images HERE Download the product specification sheet HERE ABOUT RAZER Razer is the world's leading lifestyle brand for gamers. The triple-headed snake trademark of Razer is one of the most recognized logos in the global gaming and esports communities. With a fan base that spans every continent, the company has designed and built the world's largest gamer-focused ecosystem of hardware, software and services. Razer's award-winning hardware includes high-performance gaming peripherals and Blade gaming laptops. Razer's software platform, with over 80 million users, includes Razer Synapse (an Internet of Things platform), Razer Chroma (a proprietary RGB lighting technology system), and Razer Cortex (a game optimizer and launcher). In services, Razer Gold is one of the world's largest virtual credit services for gamers, and Razer Fintech is one of the largest offline-to-online digital payment networks in SE Asia. Founded in 2005 and dual-headquartered in Irvine and Singapore, Razer has 16 offices worldwide and is recognized as the leading brand for gamers in the USA, Europe and China. Razer is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (Stock Code: 1337). Razer - For Gamers. By Gamers. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005319/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A suspected robber accused of raiding a service station while wearing a PPE mask has said he has health problems - and "wouldn't stand a chance" if he got coronavirus in jail. Mark Kenny (48) allegedly held up staff and stole cash while armed with a metal implement and wearing a mask and gloves. He pleaded for bail, saying he has an autoimmune disease and wouldn't last "two or three days" if he becomes infected. Judge Anthony Halpin said he could not accept responsibility for this and refused him bail. Mr Kenny, with an address at Cherryorchard Grove, Ballyfermot, is charged with robbery at the Maxol service station on Walkinstown Avenue on April 18. Objecting to bail, Garda Micheal Muldoon said it was alleged the accused went to the service station at 4.40pm on a red push bike. He was wearing a navy jacket, blue latex gloves and a PPE face mask and went to buy cigarette papers. When the cash register was opened, he allegedly produced a "shiny metal implement" and threatened staff. Gda Muldoon said the accused pulled 455 from the till and fled the scene on the bicycle towards Kylemore Road. Gardai searched the area and came across the accused at the Kylemore Luas stop. He had a large amount of cash in small denominations inside the waistband of his trousers, Gda Muldoon said. A red pedal cycle was found abandoned nearby, as were blue latex gloves and a PPE face mask. Mr Kenny was arrested. It was alleged the accused was "caught red-handed" moments after the fact, in the process of making his escape from the scene and still in possession of "vital evidence". Gda Muldoon said an investigation file was being prepared and directions for trial on indictment would be sought. Applying for bail, defence solicitor Roy O'Neill said Mr Kenny was staying at a city centre hotel. He had a number of health issues including an autoimmune disease which meant prison "may not be the best of locations" for him, Mr O'Neill said. Gda Muldoon said he had considered that before making his objections and no bail conditions would allay his concerns about releasing the accused. Mr Kenny then gave evidence asking the judge for bail. Drugs He said that he was on drugs for his condition and if he got coronavirus in prison, "I wouldn't stand a chance I wouldn't last two or three days." Judge Halpin said the accused was presumed innocent. He said he could not accept the responsibility that if he did not give Mr Kenny bail "he has three days if he contracts coronavirus". He refused bail and remanded Mr Kenny in custody, to appear in Cloverhill District Court on April 24. The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) in dated contracts fell below zero earlier this week, sending shockwaves across the world. Though prices for American light crude stabilised on positive territory the next day, they were still as low as a couple of dollars a barrel for May contracts. Contracts for June were at around $20 a barrel, but speculative trading is continuing on WTI on May contracts, with dealers trying to clear their books due of stockpiles. The fall in prices is not only due to a lack of storage capacity, though it is true that most consumers now have no spare capacity for stockpiling. Other factors are in play to this historic fall in American oil prices. The market is awash with oil. Production cuts of 9.7 million barrels a day agreed by OPEC+ will only begin to make an impact next month. Meanwhile, nervousness in the energy markets has led to speculative trading, with some hedge funds benefiting from the price drops, and hopes of a quick pick up in the global economy after the coronavirus pandemic is over are rapidly diminishing. The example of China, which is restarting its economy gradually, is not encouraging: estimates suggest that lifting lockdown restrictions on the major economies will at best lead to 50 per cent of pre-lockdown activity in the short term. Global energy demand will need many months to pick up once the crisis is over. Saudi Arabia and Russia may have agreed major cuts in oil production given the glut in the market but the US, not wanting to lose market share, did not commit to cuts despite the fact that a major part of excess supply in the global oil market is due to increased American output. US shale oil has added four to five million barrels a day to the markets. The markets were volatile even before the COVID-19 crisis, and will probably continue to be so until there is a clear idea of the economic fallout of the pandemic worldwide. Arguments about a quick recovery once the lockdowns are lifted, the so-called V-shaped recovery, or a slightly longer U-shaped curve, look increasingly shaky. The energy market is one of the main sectors impacted by recovery prospects, and oil prices look set to be sluggish for some time to come. The shale oil industry in the US might be the most affected by a prolonged oil-price slump, but this does not mean other producers are immune. The Gulf region, where almost a third of global oil is produced, will also be affected. Benchmark Brent crude prices are still around $20 a barrel, half the price many producers need to break even, and countries that rely heavily on energy exports will inevitably be hit. Many Gulf countries have adjusted their budgets to factor in low oil prices, drawing on currency reserves built up over the years to finance large deficits. But lower oil prices still represent a daunting challenge for many Gulf states. Though speculative trading cannot be ruled out, most Gulf producers have long-term commitments with Asian clients, and spot sales are not a major part of their trade. This might fend off some of the negative impacts of the current crisis, but low prices in global markets will definitely hurt the Gulf producers. A significant negative by-product of the oil-price slump is its impact on oil companies. US companies are braced for tens of thousands of layoffs, and are likely to face financial difficulties servicing their huge debts. The picture in the Gulf is different in that most of the big oil companies are national companies with enough cash reserves to ease the burden of low revenues for a while. Many have undergone restructuring in recent years to make them more cost-effective. As the global pandemic accelerates, painful decisions that countries have mulled over for a long time will need to be taken, and the combination of the pandemic and low oil prices might accelerate moves by Gulf states to reduce their reliance on oil. *A version of this article appears in print in the 23 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Light Traffic is seen along 42nd street in New York City on March 27, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images) Tornado Warning Issued for New York City, Later Downgraded The National Weather Service (NWS) sent out a tornado warning Tuesday afternoon for Manhattan and The Bronx in New York City, but it was later downgraded to a severe thunderstorm warning. Strong winds and heavy rains swept through the area. Its not clear if a tornado actually touched down in the city. Immediately take shelter on lower floors. Stay away from windows, read a warning from New York Citys Emergency Management alert system. OKX issues Tornado Warning for Bronx, Nassau, New York (Manhattan), Westchester [NY] till 3:00 PM EDT https://t.co/72rRBJPyVx NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) April 21, 2020 .@NWSNewYorkNY Tornado Warning issued for Manhattan, The Bronx: 2:30 PM to 3:00 PM on 4/21. Immediately take shelter on lower floors. Stay away from windows. https://t.co/t918yhlx8z. Multilingual and ASL Link: https://t.co/blJLuS6ozW. NYCEM Notify NYC (@NotifyNYC) April 21, 2020 The warning also covered Nassau and Westchester counties, and it was in effect from 2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET A severe thunderstorm warning remained in effect until 3:45 p.m. for Brooklyn and Queens. New York City is currently the U.S. COVID-19 epicenter. Attorney Matt Berry Our team of lawyers averages over 20 years of experience in their respective practice areas, which is rare among law firms of any size. Matt Berry was recently honored by two of Georgias most respected attorney award programs. Super Lawyers Magazine recognized Berry as one of the states top 5% for the second consecutive year. Selection is determined using a patented process that includes voting of other Georgia attorneys, independent research conducted by the Thomson Reuters editorial team, and nomination by a special panel of highly rated attorneys. Berry also earned a spot on Georgia Trend Magazines annual list of the states Legal Elite for the eighth consecutive year. This honor has particular significance inside and outside of the legal community because it is based entirely on the voting of other attorneys practicing in Georgia. Berry leads a team of 10 lawyers who have earned a reputation for providing top-tier legal representation in the areas of consumer bankruptcy, creditor harassment litigation, social security disability, and credit report litigation. He took publication of the honors as an opportunity to reflect on what differentiates the firm he founded over three decades ago from others that practice across Georgia. Our team of lawyers averages over 20 years of experience in their respective practice areas, which is rare among law firms of any size, said Berry. This means that, in the great majority of cases, our lawyers have previously resolved issues that may arise in our clients cases, and this also contributes to a stress-free experience for those who place their trust in us to deliver great outcomes. Berry is no stranger to recognition for excellence in the practice of law. He holds a 10/10 rating from Avvo, one of the industrys most respected lawyer rating services. About Berry & Associates: Since 1989, Berry & Associates has been standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Georgians in their most important legal matters. The firms roster of 10 experienced attorneys provide top-tier representation to clients in bankruptcy, creditor harassment, social security disability, and credit report litigation matters. Samsungs latest health tracking app for its Galaxy Watch werables promises easy, on the go blood pressure monitoring. The trick is that you need to calibrate the initial measurement with a stand-alone blood pressure monitor. During that procedure, you'll need to start your Galaxy Watch's blood pressure tacking feature which relies on the optical heart-rate sensor to measure your blood pressure through pulse wave analysis. Samsung recommends using the Galaxy Watch Active2 for the monitoring and that you repeat the calibration process once a month to ensure accurate readings. The new Samsung Health Monitor app is still in development but has been cleared by the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) meaning it should be available soon. Once you have gone through the initial setup you will be able to select the measure my blood pressure setting from your Galaxy Watch. The accompanying smartphone app also allows users to track and compare blood pressure values for longer time periods and gives tips on pulse data. Source A 96-year-old woman has died of coronavirus, 102 years after her older sister died of the Spanish Flu. Selma Esther Ryan, died from coronavirus in an assisted living facility in Austin, Texas, on Monday 14 April. Ms Ryans sister, Esther, died from the Spanish Flu when she was aged five, in 1918, six years before Ms Ryan was born. On the day of Esthers death, her mother gave birth to twin boys, named Karl and Victor. Ms Ryans daughter, Vicki Spencer, told KXAN that she and five other people at the facility where she lived, developed fevers in early April. She said that she was not able to be with Ms Ryan while she was ill: Over the next five days I watched through the window as she got sicker and sicker. It was so hard to not be with her. Recommended US conservatives lead protests against coronavirus lockdown in Texas Ms Spencer added that Ms Ryan was tested after she passed away, where it was confirmed she had contracted Covid-19. Over the weekend, an anti-lockdown protest took place in Austin, where demonstrators protested against the social distancing measures ordered by governor Greg Abbott. Mr Abbott started the process of re-opening Texas on Monday, by allowing people to visit state parks again. On Sunday, the governor said he was keen to reopen Texas, but wanted to make sure it was done gradually. We dont want to be a part of the problem, we want to be a part of the solution in opening up Texas again, at the right time, safely and in the right way, he said. Googles dedicated coronavirus page shows that Texas has upwards of 18,923 confirmed cases and at least 5,334 deaths. According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, nationally there are upwards of 776,513 people who have tested positive for coronavirus. The death toll has reached at least 41,313. A rift has grown between wife of the president, Asmaa al-Assad, and the Makhlouf family, who are strong financial backers of the regime reports Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. A war of settling accounts has begun between Bashar al-Assads relatives that includes his uncle Mohamad Makhlouf in Russia, cousin Rami Makhlouf in Damascus and his wife Asmaa al-Assad, sources reveal. A high-ranking source from Damascus told The New Arab on condition of anonymity that the Makhloufs were the reason behind the scandal of the Takamol Company belonging to Asmaas cousin Muhannad al-Dabbagh. The ordeal prompted Syrian Trade Minister Atef al-Naddaf to announce last week that Takamol would be banned from integrating smart cards into the distribution of bread in Syria. The source added that the Makhloufs revenge was due to what was caused by the first ladys intervention in dividing up Syrias economic cake since her recovery from cancer last year. She put her hands on Rami Makhloufs investments, primarily the Bustan Charitable Society, and trusteeship on the mobile communication companies Syriatel and MTN. New managers were also appointed by Asmaa after documents and accounting books were confiscated from the Ramak area of the Damascus Free Zone. According to sources, the scandal occurred when President Assad bought a 30 million dollar painting for his wife. However, the purchase came as part of a plan to strip Asmaa al-Assad and return the blows that she had directed to the family of Mohamad Makhlouf, reducing the familys role in Syrias economy. The issue reached the point of seizing some of Rami Makhloufs funds, for to a minor customs issue, which forced him to pay to be released from custody. The Takamol Company gained prominence in 2016 after it signed a contract with the Assad government, through which it obtained 400 Syrian pounds per smart card it produced. The cards were approved for use in distributing fuel, sugar, rice, tea and bread. Sources from Damascus estimate that Takamol distributed around 3 million smart cards. After the companys first experience in distributing fuel last year in Lattakia, and then in Damascus, sources confirm that Takamol earns three Syrian pounds per liter of petrol for public vehicles, and five pounds per liter for private cars. The company earns 100 pounds every time a smart card is used to meet a familys needs for fuel, household gas and other rationed supplies. An assistant to a former minister in the Assad government, who asked not to be named, confirmed that the recent scandals surrounding Asmaa al-Assad came after a Russian green light, and came on a backdrop of the first lady extending even to Russian stakes. The source revealed to The New Arab that the billboard disgrace occurred under Russisan auspices through Moscows state media, with the goal of pitting the street against Asmaa and Bashar al-Assad by exposing their luxuries while everyday Syrians suffer from poverty, especially after lockdowns imposed by coronavirus. The Russian newspaper Gosnovosti reported that, in recent days, Bashar al-Assad bought a painting for 30 million dollars, as a gift for his wife to decorate one of the walls of her palace. The painting is by British artist David Hockney, and is called Splash. It was sold at an auction in London last month to an unnamed person as an agent of Bashar al-Assad. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Rebecca and Bruce Austin in central Illinois have six kids ranging in age from 4 to 22. Five kids still live at home, and all of them came to the Austins through the foster care system. All told, they see 14 doctors. Many states promise to provide health care to help foster and adoptive families keep kids healthy, but recently in Illinois, thousands of children temporarily lost coverage when the state switched their health plans. Some of Rebecca and Bruce's children got caught in the coverage gap, which has the Austins wondering whether the state will fulfill its end of the bargain. Three of the Austins' children see psychiatrists. One has regular visits with specialists for epilepsy and other health conditions. Another has therapy four times a week for movement and speech delays. "A typical day is pretty crazy," Rebecca Austin said in an interview before the coronavirus shelter-in-place orders were issued. "I say I'm a stay-at-home mom, but with all the doctors' appointments and therapies and appointments and stuff, I'm on the go all the time." Their lives are full and busy already, and Austin is concerned Illinois' health plan change will make juggling health care even more of a challenge. The Austins live in Windsor, a rural town about 25 miles from the nearest hospital in Charleston, Illinois. Since February, the state has been moving all current and former foster children covered by Medicaid into health plans provided by private insurers that contract with the state. It's a change to what's known as Medicaid managed care. The shift has many families like the Austins concerned, because the initial phase of the rollout was rocky and because it's not clear whether familiar, nearby health care providers will be designated as in-network. More states move to managed care Most states already use managed-care companies to run their Medicaid health plans, which means state agencies pay insurance companies to provide health care to people in the Medicaid program. Proponents of the managed-care model say it can lower costs while increasing access to care. States that switch to managed care often find their budgets become more predictable, because they no longer pay providers for each service. Instead, they pay insurers a set amount per enrollee for all health care needs. But Michael Sparer, a health policy professor at Columbia University in New York City, said evidence is both limited and mixed as to whether managed care lowers costs and increases access to care. Success depends on whether states hold insurers to their promises to maintain an adequate provider network, he said. "Network adequacy refers to a health plans ability to deliver the benefits promised by providing reasonable access to enough in-network primary care and specialty physicians, and all health care services included under the terms of the contract," according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Sparer said success with Medicaid managed care also hinges on whether states "have the ability and have the oversight thats required to make sure that the program works effectively." In recent years, Illinois switched most of the state's Medicaid enrollees into managed care. Former foster children moved onto those plans on Feb. 1, and current foster children are set to eventually join them. The switch was initially planned for April 1, but the state has postponed the move for at least 30 days, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. Some child advocates question whether the move is in the children's best interests. Many foster children have serious physical and mental health needs, and the switch could disrupt long-standing relationships with therapists and other providers, critics of managed care argue. For thousands of families like the Austins, this means figuring out whether their children's providers will still be in-network or whether they'll have to use new doctors, who might be farther from home. Austin said her family found a managed-care plan that allowed them to keep most of their children's providers. But when the February switch was finalized, the Austin children were among the 2,500 former foster kids whose health coverage was interrupted. The "end date" for her kids' coverage had been incorrectly listed in the computer system as Jan. 31 one day prior to the coverage start date, Feb. 1, Rebecca said. This effectively left them without insurance. State officials blamed a glitch in the system for the error. John Hoffman, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, said in a statement that the agency worked with managed-care organizations "immediately to correct the error, resolving it within days." For the Austins, the error meant they had to cancel appointments and had problems getting prescriptions filled. "My daughter who has epilepsy, her medicine was a little over $1,000," Austin said. "I didn't have $1,045 to pay her for the medicine and, so, we were in a panic as to what to do because she had to have the medicine." Phone calls to pharmacies and insurers were onerous, she said, but she ultimately resolved the issue. Still, the Austins' youngest, 4-year-old Camdyn, missed two weeks of therapy sessions, while they waited for the new insurer to approve them. Austin worries these delays will slow his progress. Making Medicaid managed care work Heidi Dalenberg is an attorney with the ACLU of Illinois, which serves as a watchdog for the state's child welfare agency. She said managed care can be beneficial, helping ensure all kids get regular well-checks and prevent doctors from overtreating or overmedicating children. But those benefits will be realized only if the state has prepared for the transition and holds insurance companies to their contract requirements, she said. That includes ensuring managed-care organizations, or MCOs, have appropriate provider networks so children have access to doctors close to home. "When it doesn't work is when you have an MCO that is more worried about cutting costs and denying approvals for care than they are in making sure that kids get what they need," Dalenberg said. A retired federal judge is monitoring Illinois' efforts to ensure foster children don't lose access to care in the switch to Medicaid managed care, Dalenberg said. Hoffman, the state DHS spokesman, said the switch to managed care, provided by the insurer YouthCare Illinois, will help improve health care for current and former foster children by coordinating and providing services. "Right now, when a family needs a provider for their child, they're left to navigate a complex system alone," Hoffman said in a statement. "With YouthCare, families have a personal care coordinator who helps manage their overall care, researches providers and schedules appointments." He said the problems caused by February's glitch have been resolved and will not resurface when 17,000 current foster children eventually get switched into managed-care plans as well. The Austins' foster daughter will be among them. And Austin worries her daughter will be forced to switch to a therapist an hour's drive away, since the one she sees nearby is not in the managed-care network. "She has established a relationship with that counselor. She's been going there for almost two years and now we have to start all over again," Austin said. "And that's trauma. That's a huge trauma." Illinois said even providers that are not in-network when the switch goes into effect can be paid for services during a six-month "continuity of care" period, and insurers will try to expand their networks during that time. The Austins are trying to be optimistic, but the state's track record doesn't give them much assurance. This story is part of a partnership that includes Side Effects Public Media, Illinois Public Media, NPR and Kaiser Health News. Jobs in education, health care and garbage collection are surviving Australia's worst crisis since the 1930s Great Depression. Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe is forecasting unemployment almost doubling to 10 per cent by June, reaching a level unseen since early 1994. Australia is facing the sharpest downturn in generations as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens the world economy. Within weeks, the jobless rate is expected to revisit double-digit levels last suffered almost three decades ago, during the long aftermath of the last recession. The hospitality sector, which includes cafes, pubs and hotels, has taken the biggest hit from the coronavirus shutdowns and border closures - with the number of jobs plunging by a quarter since late March. Jobs in education, healthcare and garbage collection are more likely to survive a recession as unemployment doubles within weeks to the highest level in almost three decades. School teachers (stock image) are barely affected by the worst economic crisis in more than 80 years, with their education sector job numbers falling by just 0.1 in the three weeks to April 4 even as classrooms were shut Dr Lowe is also forecasting the steepest economic contraction since the 1930s with teenagers more likely to lose their jobs. The jobs surviving coronavirus - and the ones that aren't Education and training: down 0.1 per cent Electricity, gas, water and waste services: down 1.1 per cent Health care and social assistance: down 2.5 per cent Retail: down 2.7 per cent Transport, postal and warehousing: down 3 per cent .... Arts and recreation services: down 18.7 per cent Accommodation and food services: down 25.6 per cent Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics analysis of Australian Taxation Office payroll data, March 14 to April 4 Advertisement 'So the crisis will have reverberations through our economy for some time to come,' he said today in a televised address. School teachers, however, are barely affected by the worst economic crisis in more than 80 years, with their education sector job numbers falling by just 0.1 in the three weeks to April 4 even as classrooms were shut. CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman said teachers were likely to remain in high demand, even if COVID-19 forced lessons online. 'Education is quite resilient: teachers are effectively public servants, an essential service,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday. 'There is the opportunity to move online now as well.' The electricity, water and waste services sector suffered a small decline of 1.1 per cent, Australian Taxation Office payroll data showed. 'If you look at utilities, that's broadly unaffected - certainly they're essential services,' Mr Felsman said. The electricity, water and waste services sector suffered a small decline of 1.1 per cent, Australian Taxation Office payroll data showed Health care jobs fell by 2.5 per cent, as elective surgery was cancelled so hospitals could ramp up their intensive care capacity with more ventilators. 'If you look at those skilled job vacancies, we're not far off record numbers for diagnostic and nurses and doctors,' Mr Felsman said. The retail sector was only slightly dented with a 2.7 per cent drop. The $130billion JobKeeper package, giving $1,500 fortnightly wage subsidies to six million workers, has stopped specialty shop staff from joining the ranks of the unemployed. Supermarkets have also hired more staff to cope with the panic buying of toilet paper, pasta and rice. 'We have been the likes of Coles and Woolworths announce they are going to hire people to deal with the surge in demand,' Mr Felsman said. The transport and warehousing sector slipped by just three per cent with bus drivers and furniture removalists still working. The retail sector was only slightly dented with a 2.7 per cent drop, as supermarkets hired more staff (pictured is Coles shop assistant) to cope with unprecedented demand for toilet paper, pasta and rice At the end other of the spectrum, jobs in the hospitality sector, known as accommodation and food services, plunged by 25.6 per cent. CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement Teenage workers overall were the worst affected with their employment levels plunging by 9.9 per cent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics analysis of tax office data showed. This occurred as Prime Minister Scott Morrison ordered the shutdown of non-essential businesses, including pubs, clubs, gyms, in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19. The mining sector was another surprise casualty, with jobs plunging by 8.4 per cent as Chinese demand slowed for iron ore and coal as a result of their coronavirus lockdowns. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Tuesday 517,000 people had filed for the JobSeeker unemployment benefits since mid-March. In early March, 718,600 were already without work, with the new addition of these newly unemployed likely to see the jobless rate in April jump to a 26-year high of 9.5 per cent. Fairfax County, Virginia, Public Schools is canceling face-to-face virtual instruction for now and launching an outside review of its distance learning, as a second attempt to launch online offerings sputtered Monday morning and as new evidence emerged that employees warned of possible technical troubles weeks ago. After abruptly canceling online learning last week, Fairfax, one of the country's largest school districts, tried again Monday morning. But parents, teachers and students reported difficulties logging in to Blackboard, the district's virtual learning platform. For some who could get online, class materials took a long time to load, audio would not play or video froze repeatedly. In a midday message to families, Fairfax administrators said the 189,000-student school district would continue "with distance learning today despite the continuing problems." The message noted that system updates implemented by Blackboard over the weekend had not corrected technical problems. But late Monday, Superintendent Scott Brabrand wrote in a message to families that the division would "move away from Blackboard . . . as a tool for face to face instruction." He said students and teachers would continue to use the technology to "access instructional resources and supports." Brabrand also said he had retained a law firm, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, to conduct a "comprehensive, outside review" of how Fairfax rolled out distance learning. The firm, which specializes in information technology and cybersecurity, is slated to deliver a report in the next few weeks. In addition, the superintendent formed a three-member advisory council to help resolve "distance learning challenges," he wrote. The council will examine best practices in the private sector, as well as suggest improved educational technology, Brabrand wrote. In the immediate future, Fairfax teachers will refrain from real-time video instruction, and use tools such as Google Classroom, pre-recorded videos and learning packets, Brabrand wrote. He said the system is working to replace the live instruction feature previously provided through Blackboard. "Teachers will contact students over the next several days about virtual learning opportunities and the platform that will be used," Brabrand wrote. He added that he recognizes the ongoing stumbles are "frustrating and disappointing for everyone." In a statement, Blackboard said it was "working around the clock" to fix the problems and that the system is "currently working properly." The debacle followed a disastrous debut of online school last week. That ended in massive technological troubles, possible privacy breaches and online harassment of students and teachers, which led Fairfax to cancel school for several days. On Sunday evening, a group of technology specialists sent a letter to the school board that included emails, documents and screen shots proving they had repeatedly raised the alarm about technological, safety and security concerns in the weeks before the rollout. A particular problem last week was the use of guest links, which allowed anyone to get inside Fairfax virtual lessons, and the fact that students could use any name they chose when they entered classrooms, leading some to choose obscene or racist usernames. "Major, major issues with inappropriate names as students enter [virtual classrooms]," a technology specialist posted in an internal forum in late March, almost three weeks before Fairfax launched online learning as school districts closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic. "And, with a guest link, really anyone can enter." Also on Sunday, the Fairfax Education Association, which represents 4,000 educators in the school system, wrote to the school board and Brabrand demanding a public apology to the division's technology employees, known as school based technology specialists or SBTs. The employees put in long days over the past month to debut online learning, association President Kimberly Adams wrote, but their hard work was belittled during a school board meeting last week, during which higher-ups attempted to cast blame on the specialists. "We know that - despite claims otherwise - SBTs operated under the guidance and provisions laid out by upper [Fairfax County Public Schools] leadership," Adams wrote, "and are in no way responsible for the complete fiasco that occurred during the first week of distance learning." In addition to a public apology from Department of Information Technology Assistant Superintendent Maribeth Luftglass, Adams' association is asking for a public statement from Brabrand recognizing how hard SBTs have worked since schools closed on March 13. Adams' letter also requested "consideration of hazard pay" for the SBTs who kept reporting to school buildings throughout the still-active shutdown to get online learning up and running. Lucy Caldwell, the system spokeswoman, said "the superintendent appreciates the massive amount of work performed by the SBTs in preparation for distance learning. He also appreciates their concerns and will review their suggestions and recommendations carefully." Documents provided by the technology specialists in their letter to the school board Sunday, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, confirm that guidance such as the decision to use guest links came from upper management. On March 19, technology specialists participating in a training session on how to use Blackboard's video platform were told, "If you have a generic, just an open session with an open link, that is fine. OK, that is fine." During that same training, several specialists asked whether it might be possible to send individual email invitations to students - a solution resembling the privacy protections Fairfax ultimately adopted, which require that participants authenticate their identities as students before joining virtual classrooms. They received no clear answer. The Post previously reported that Fairfax's struggles to debut online learning stemmed from the division's failure to apply software updates for nearly two years, little consideration of basic privacy features and scant guidance given to teachers. Many teachers told The Post that they had grown used to using Google Classroom and found the decision to use Blackboard as the primary online platform unsettling and disappointing. In internal communications, many technology specialists voiced the same concern ahead of the rollout. The switch to Blackboard "is a BIG ask for our teachers who have spent hours of time building out their Google classrooms," one specialist wrote in early March, in an online chat attended by Luftglass. "I feel Blackboard is going to exacerbate teacher stress," another specialist wrote later, closer to the debut of online schooling. "It doesn't seem like an efficient use of time to push a tool that teachers dislike and have little familiarity with." Another predicted: "Blackboard really would be a massive source of stress for us on Monday." Technology specialists also raised concerns that Fairfax students would take advantage of a feature allowing them to enter any username when they joined online classrooms. That anxiety proved well founded, as students last week picked names including the n-word. Some who joined a German class chose the names "I LOVE ADOLF HITLER" and "OVEN SURVIVOR #2," according to images obtained by The Post. On March 24, a technology employee posted that, although teachers can remove users with inappropriate names, the person can simply rejoin, leading to a "cat and mouse game." In another post, also in March, a technology specialist mentioned that one Fairfax teacher had conducted a practice session with 22 students. Those students had forwarded the guest link to enter the classroom to older friends in high school, according to the post, leading to chaos. The specialist concluded: "What's the county's response to these behaviors?" Robb Watters, a parent of a Fairfax second-grader, is pulling his child from the system and home schooling for the rest of the year. He called the teacher last week to tell her. Elsewhere in the division, a sixth-grade teacher emailed parents on Monday to share his frustration: He had tried to log in to Blackboard, only to get kicked out. Twice. As a backup plan, the teacher wrote, he had uploaded the week's assignments to Google Classroom. He suggested that parents and teachers check that site instead. "Good luck and don't take this personally," the teacher wrote. "It's not your technology. And I am so sorry." The Supreme Courts decision in Ramos v. Louisiana ruled that the Constitution requires a unanimous jury verdict to convict anyone accused of a serious crime. Most Americans probably thought this was already the law. It was generally accepted as the law when the Bill of Rights was written, and for a century thereafter. But two states, Louisiana and Oregon, have laws allowing convictions on a 102 vote, which survived a challenge in 1972 (Louisiana repealed its law in 2018 for new prosecutions). The Courts 63 decision was written by Justice Gorsuch, over a dissent by Justice Alito that was joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kagan. Justices Thomas, Sotomayor, and Kavanaugh all wrote separate opinions offering different reasons for joining the Courts ruling. The very non-unanimous Court reveals some fascinating divides and may give us a preview of the Courts thinking about bigger questions looming down the road. The various Ramos opinions covered three heated battlegrounds in constitutional law: (1) whether to read the Constitution to mean what it meant when it was written; (2) when and how to overturn existing precedents; and (3) whether neutral, non-discriminatory laws should be invalidated if they were written for a discriminatory purpose. (For Supreme Court aficionados, Ramos also delved on the side into two other long-running questions: how much weight the Court should give to social-science data or to a consensus among the states, and why and how parts of the Bill of Rights apply to the states.) Looming behind those debates about judicial methods are differing views of how to resolve big-ticket questions that will come before the Court in the future, some of them quite soon. Unanimous in 1791 A regular hot topic in the Supreme Court is originalism: whether the Constitutions language should be read to mean what the people who ratified it understood it to mean at the time. In this case, at the time mostly means 1791, when the states ratified the Sixth Amendments guarantee of a trial by jury. Story continues In Ramos, however, there was surprisingly limited debate over originalism. The Sixth Amendment says only trial by an impartial jury, and in fact, the Senate in 1791 deleted James Madisons original reference to unanimous juries, which had passed the House. But the Court found that a verdict by a unanimous jury was a universal and longstanding assumption in the common law of the time, dating back to the 14th century and explicitly included in the constitutions of six states. No justice seriously attempted to argue the point. The Court concluded that the Senate had simply left the term impartial jury as a stand-in for the prevailing assumptions about what a jury trial meant, including unanimous verdicts. Nor did any justice quarrel with the view that the Sixth Amendment must mean today what it originally meant. The use of originalism is sufficiently routine now that the Courts liberals no longer see the point in protesting it in cases when they agree with the outcome. The only real debate over how to read the Sixth Amendment was about the 1972 decision, Apodaca v. Oregon. Justice Gorsuchs majority opinion savaged Apodaca for engaging in a cost-benefit analysis instead of looking at the history of the ancient guarantee of a unanimous jury verdict. Justice Alitos dissent argued that history could not answer the whole question: If many aspects of 18th-century jury practice were not mandated by the Constitution, some review of which functions were essential was required. While Alito has a point, Gorsuch has the better argument, given the extensive evidence that legal scholars, state constitutions, James Madison, and the House of Representatives all considered unanimous verdicts a sufficiently fundamental part of the jury system to describe it as such. History, as usual, had the answer all along. Divided in 1972 The biggest divide on the Court was over stare decisis, the doctrine that says the Court should follow its own prior precedents. Each of the five opinions laid out its own view of precedent. The unique problem was Apodaca. Four justices in that case agreed that the Sixth Amendment did not require unanimous juries. Four agreed that it did, and that the 14th Amendment applied that requirement to the states. In the middle, Justice Lewis Powell (often the swing justice of his day) agreed with the dissenters that the Sixth Amendment required unanimity, but decided that the 14th Amendment did not impose all Sixth Amendment rules on the states. The opinion of the four-justice plurality could not be the law, because a majority of the Court had rejected their view of the unanimity requirement. The opinion of Justice Powell could not be the law, since he was writing only for himself, and the Court in later decisions had rejected his entire dual-track theory that rights could be only partially invoked against the states. Justice Gorsuch concluded that this meant Apodaca amounted to no controlling opinion at all, and should be disregarded. This is a controversial stance, and one that touches a hot-button history. In the 1978 Bakke case, which preserved racial preferences in college admissions, another 414 split on the Court found Justice Powell writing alone again, crafting an intermediate position that was inconsistent with each of the other two blocs. The whole shift in emphasis to diversity as a rationale for racial preferences was Powells alone. Which Bakke opinion represented the law has been a long-running dispute; Justice Alitos dissent suggested that Gorsuchs approach would have treated Bakke as largely leaving a clean slate for the Court to return to later. Gorsuch, for his part, warned of the danger of idiosyncratic swing justices: Every occasion on which the Court is evenly split would present an opportunity for single Justices to overturn precedent to bind future majorities. Justice Alito, in dissent, was scornful: Three Justices take the position that Apodaca was never a precedent. The only truly fitting response to this argument is: Really? Only Justices Ginsburg and Breyer entirely embraced Gorsuchs view, although Justice Thomas, while reiterating his typical skepticism of precedent, was more concerned with the 14th Amendment precedents that he has been writing about for years. Justice Sotomayor took pains to insist that she agreed with Gorsuch only because the case involved criminal procedure (an area where she feels that pro-prosecution precedent should carry less weight) and because Apodaca is a universe of one an opinion uniquely irreconcilable with not just one, but two, strands of constitutional precedent well established both before and after the decision. She would be less inclined to join decisions that threatened vast regulatory and economic consequences from overturning precedents. By contrast, both Justice Kavanaughs opinion and Justice Alitos dissent delved deep into the nuances of stare decisis, in ways that offer tantalizing glimpses of the elephant in the room in any discussion of stare decisis: Roe v. Wade. Kavanaugh stepped back and laid out a scholarly, multi-factor test for deciding when to follow precedent. While he was more respectful of the importance of precedent than Gorsuch, he also noted that in just the last few Terms, every current Member of this Court has voted to overrule multiple constitutional precedents and warned that the Court needed a structured methodology and roadmap for when to overrule precedents if it was going to treat them in a neutral and consistent manner. Kavanaugh came right out and said one thing that previous justices have often only danced around: It matters how wrong the previous decision was, and disagreement over whether a decision was wrong is sometimes the real dispute when judges joust over stare decisis. In this regard, he agreed with Gorsuch, who put the matter bluntly: No one on the Court today is prepared to say [Apodaca] was rightly decided, and stare decisis isnt supposed to be the art of methodically ignoring what everyone knows to be true. Kavanaugh ultimately concluded that Apodaca was egregiously wrong, and this weighed heavily into his analysis. So did his view (alone on the Court) that the new Ramos rule would not apply retroactively, and so would not unsettle too many convictions. Kavanaugh also argued belying the habit of painting courts as ivory-tower institutions doing purely academic work that the Court may also scrutinize the precedents real-world effects on the citizenry, not just its effects on the law and the legal system. On the subject of abortion, Kavanaugh went out of his way, in listing some of the Courts most notable and consequential decisions that entailed overruling precedent, to include Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Casey, in 1992, claimed to uphold Roe entirely on the grounds of the vital importance of stare decisis. Justice Scalias now-legendary dissent in Casey eviscerated the Court for claiming that its hands were tied by precedent, even as it rewrote both the flimsy legal rationale of Roe and its medically obsolete trimester framework. By classifying Casey as an overruling of precedent, and adding a footnote defending that view of the decision, Kavanaugh is openly signaling his agreement with Scalias critique of Casey as an unprincipled hash. For Justice Alito, Casey is a more direct memory: He was on the Third Circuit panel in that case, and would have upheld the entire Pennsylvania abortion law that the Court struck down in 1992. But his approach in Apodaca, joined by Roberts and Kagan, emphasized the vital role of precedent: We begin with the presumption that we will follow precedent . . . the Court should have a body of neutral principles on the question of overruling precedent. The doctrine should not be transformed into a tool that favors particular outcomes . . . If individual Justices apply different standards for overruling past decisions, the overall effects of the doctrine will not be neutral. While this is not actually that far from Kavanaughs framework, the respectful treatment of precedent here and the alliance between Alito and Roberts, on the one hand, and Kagan, on the other, raises further tea-leaf-reading questions about where Alito and Roberts will draw the line in the future. Ed Whelan sees a pragmatic strategic effort by Kagan to draw Alito and Roberts away from the instincts of Gorsuch and Thomas, in particular, to overturn more past decisions. The Long Shadow of Bigotry What set Justice Alito off even more than Justice Gorsuchs take on precedent was the opening of Gorsuchs opinion, laying out the Jim Crow roots of Louisianas 1898 adoption of non-unanimous juries, and the roots of Oregons law in the Ku Klux Klans domination of Oregon politics in the 1920s and 1930s. This was not, strictly speaking, relevant to the question before the Court: No justice argued that the openly racist roots of the two states non-unanimous jury laws was a basis for striking them down, especially given that neither law was itself racially discriminatory (although Justice Kavanaugh argued that such laws could continue to have discriminatory impact by ensuring that a lone black juror on a white jury could not stop a conviction). Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Sotomayor all argued, however, that the tainted origins of these laws was a further reason not to give as much weight to societys interest in keeping Apodaca as a precedent. Justice Alito, joined by Roberts and Kagan, was having none of this: Too much public discourse today is sullied by ad hominem rhetoric, that is, attempts to discredit an argument not by proving that it is unsound but by attacking the character or motives of the arguments proponents. The majority regrettably succumbs to this trend . . . what does that have to do with the broad constitutional question before us? The answer is: nothing . . . Some years ago the British Parliament enacted a law allowing non-unanimous verdicts. Was Parliament under the sway of the Klan? The Constitution of Puerto Rico permits non-unanimous verdicts. Were the framers of that Constitution racists? Non-unanimous verdicts were once advocated by the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association. Was their aim to promote white supremacy? And how about the prominent scholars who have taken the same position? Racists all? Of course not. So all the talk about the Klan, etc., is entirely out of place. This is not an academic point. Many of the recent legal challenges to Trump-administration policies, such as the travel ban and the census citizenship question, depend on the argument that Trumps bad motives are more important than whether he has constitutional powers or whether his policies actually discriminate in unlawful ways. The Court has thus far turned back those challenges on narrow grounds without deciding the broader questions about the role of motive. Chief Justice Roberts has played a starring role in those decisions. Its not only liberals, however, who are challenging government action based on bad motives, and not only executive motives that come under scrutiny. Just as the 1898 Louisiana convention was open about promoting white supremacy when it eliminated jury unanimity requirements, many states enacted Blaine Amendments in the preceding decades as a result of campaigns that were no less openly anti-Catholic. Those amendments, barring public funds from going to religious schools, are under legal assault, including in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which was argued before the Supreme Court in January. The battle lines over the bigoted origins of longstanding laws could tell us something about how Espinoza will come out. Surely, between Espinoza and the torrent of legal resistance suits against Trump actions, the question is much on the justices minds. More from National Review House Majority Leader Hoyer Urges Democratic Leaders to Prioritize Remote Voting The House of Representatives is expected to vote on changing the rules that govern how members vote during the COVID-19 pandemic. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) urged democratic leaders in the House to consider a set of recommendations to enable remote voting and committee work. He said it was to prepare Congress to comply with social-distancing guidelines. Hoyer sent the letter Tuesday to the chairs of the House Rules Committee and the Chair of the House Administration, writing, As you know, I have already indicated my clear preference for voting by the use of video-conferencing technology that millions of Americans now use to conduct business. These systems allow one to see and identify the person who is speaking and hear what is being said with little doubt about the identity of the participant. Hoyer advocated for video conferencing for floor and committee business. House Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern (D-Mass.) made a recommendation for proxy voting, which does not require a high level of technology and remains relatively impervious to hacking. This system would enable Members to vote remotely in a secure way, without using the kind of technology that is susceptible to hacking or interference by foreign bad actors, McGovern said in a statement April 16. In the statement, McGovern went further to clarify that the rule would need to be put into a resolution and be implemented only for the duration of the pandemic. The vote would be taken by proxy by those who are physically present. Those not present in the House chamber could send a letter to the clerk with explicit instructions, authorizing another member to vote on their behalf. Generally, Democrats have been more vocal about supporting remote voting, and Republican members of the House have voiced their opposition to changes in the voting procedure. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Minority leader on the Rules Committee told the Washington Examiner, There is a lot of opposition to this in our ranks. He continued, I see a lot of dangers, and I dont see many advantages. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have also expressed reservations about remote voting. McGovern said that with the uncertainty about the length of stay-at-home orders, Congress needs to consider all the options for carrying out their legislative responsibilities. He called on Republicans and Democrats alike to vote in favor of the temporary rule change and allow remote voting in committees. I also discussed the need to get our committees working again, especially to provide oversight on the trillions of dollars being spent by the Trump administration to combat this pandemic. Making changes to the standing rules of the House and putting in place technology to allow for virtual hearings and markups is complicated and cant be done overnight, said McGovern. By Express News Service GUWAHATI: A process is underway in Assam to release declared foreigners from the detention centres following a recent order of the Supreme Court that was taken up by the Gauhati High Court. To decongest the detention centres during the COVID-19 pandemic, the SC had on April 13 directed the release of the declared foreigners who have been in detention for two years or more. Two days later, the Gauhati HC issued an order directing the border branch of Assam Police to ensure the conditional release of such declared foreigners within the next seven days. Officials, however, refused to share the details on the number of people released so far. We shall be submitting the information to Honble Gauhati High Court as per their direction, Special Director General of Police (Border) Mukesh Aggarwal told this newspaper. However, a source in the states prisons establishment said 83 people had been released till Monday. Till yesterday, 83 people were released from the six detention centres. The process will continue. The people, who have been released, fulfilled all conditions, the source said, adding There are some detainees who havent been able to arrange sureties. The border branch of Assam Police is the nodal agency in the process. Among others, it arranges the conveyance of people released to drop them at their residences. The conditions for the release include execution of bond with two sureties of Rs 5,000 each, declaration of verifiable address of stay after release, capturing and storing of the biometrics of the iris of both eyes and all 10 fingerprints and photos in a secured database, declarations that the detenue shall report once every week to the police located within the vicinity of his/her verifiable address of stay after release, that s/he shall notify any change of his/her address to the police on the same day and in case of violation of any of the conditions, s/he will be liable to be apprehended and produced before the Foreigners Tribunal (FT). The various FTs deal with the cases of doubtful citizens. When the Border Police suspect an individuals nationality, it brings the matter to the notice of the FT. The FT then summons the individual for a hearing during which s/he has to prove his or her Indian citizenship with documentary evidence. If s/he fails to do that, s/he will be declared a foreigner and sent to a detention centre. Sometimes, people are declared foreigners ex-parte if they repeatedly ignore the summons. Canadian police on Tuesday raised the death toll from a weekend mass shooting in Nova Scotia province from 18 to 23, saying remains were discovered in burnt out homes and vehicles. "We believe there to be 23 victims, including a 17-year-old. All other victims are adults, both men and women, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement. "We have recovered remains from some of the locations of the fires," it said, noting that at least five homes and buildings, as well as vehicles had been lit on fire by the gunman. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pharmacy Owner Arrested For Stripping Young Lady Who Stole Milk In Delta The owner of a popular pharmacy outlet in Delta State, Mr Ndobu has been arrested by the police after he oversaw the stripping of young lady who stole milk in his shop. The incident happened in February at Willmart supermarket along old Lagos Asaba Road. Ndobu who is reported to be an Anglican Church KNIGHT was arrested and detained today at OWA OYIBU Divisional Police Station. His arrest was facilitated by Behind Bars Human Right Foundation in collaboration with Nigeria Police Area Command in Agbor. According to the Human Right Group, BBI, who tracked Ndobu after the incident, asides been stripped naked, beaten up and filmed, He also shaved off her hair while they made a video of the scene and posted on social media. It was also discovered that the lady does not have a child, the milk she stole wasnt for her child as claimed and she is suspected to be a Kleptomaniac because of her history of stealing and the kind of items she takes from their owners. BBI was able to reach out to some organizations who can rehabilitate her as they monitor the case of the Store owner who took law into his hands. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks during a political bureau meeting of the ruling Workers' Party, April 11, according to the North's state media reports the day after. A South Korean media outlet reported, Monday, that Kim received a cardiovascular surgery on April 12 and his condition was improving, while CNN reported he is in grave danger. Yonhap By Kim Rahn Speculation is rising on the physical condition of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, following reports of a suspected cardiovascular surgical procedure. While South Korean online media dealing with North Korea issues reported he was recovering from the recent operation, CNN reported he was "in grave danger." Citing a local source in the North, the South Korean media outlet the Daily NK reported Monday that Kim underwent the surgery at Hyangsan Medical Center near Mount Myohyang in North Pyongan Province, an exclusive hospital for the Kim family, April 12, and has been receiving treatment at his vacation home nearby. According to the Daily NK, the procedure was performed by a surgeon from Kim Man Yu Hospital, the North's most up-to-date medical facility in Pyongyang, attended by other renowned doctors in the country who were mobilized to Hyangsan. Most of them were sent back to Pyongyang, Sunday, as Kim's condition was improving and only a few are still there to check on his condition, the source said. However, CNN reported, Tuesday morning (KST), that the U.S. had monitored intelligence that Kim was in a serious condition after the surgery, citing a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter. However, citing an official from the Chinese Communist Party's International Liaison Department, Reuters reported Kim was not believed to be critically ill. Kim's grandfather and the country's founder Kim Il-sung as well as father Kim Jong-il all died from acute myocardial infarction, and the latter is known to have suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and hyperlipidemia. Experts have noted the current leader could easily develop cardiovascular system-related diseases because of his family history, obesity and smoking habit. Regarding the reports, Cheong Wa Dae said later in the day that there had been no unusual signs to suggest Kim was suffering from a health problem. "As to the reports on Chairman Kim Jong-un's health issue, we have nothing to confirm, and so far we haven't spotted any specific signs within the North," presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok said in a message to reporters. An official from the unification ministry also said it had no official comment about the reports. Ranking officials of North Korea attend a ceremony at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, April 15, to mark the anniversary of founder Kim Il-sung's birth, in this photo released by the North's state-run Rodong Sinmun, April 16. Current leader Kim Jong-un did not attend, raising speculation about his health. Yonhap The Trinamool Congress-ruled government in West Bengal on April 21 barred an inter-ministerial central team to go out on the field and get ground reports on alleged cases of coronavirus lockdown violation. The team that was sent to Bengal has not been allowed to leave the hotel where it was lodged, reported NDTV. Apurva Chandra, a senior Defence Ministry official who was heading the team in Kolkata, has alleged that despite providing due notice, the work of the Bengal team has seen impediments since April 20. He said: We were assured we could visit places today. Today we were informed there were some issues and we will not be going out. Teams have gone to other states, there they are getting full support. They were given the same notice as West Bengal. but they have faced no problems since yesterday. For live updates on coronavirus, click here The Centre has sent six such teams to four states to investigate alleged irregularities in COVID-19 data, lockdown violation, and review the overall situation in certain districts. Central teams are now present in Maharashtras Pune, Rajasthans Jaipur, Madhya Pradeshs Indore, and West Bengals Kolkata, Howrah, 24 Parganas North, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Midnapur East and Kalimpong. The teams were sent to four districts in Bengal, of which three districts, as per state government data, did not report a single COVID-19 positive case in the last 14 days. 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 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has, however, alleged that the team arrived in Kolkata much before Union Home Minister Amit Shah had formally informed her about it over a call. In Charts | Economic impact of lockdown on Centre and states Dubbing the act as a breach of protocol, she informed the Prime Minister in written communication that the selection of districts and observations made unilaterally were not factually correct. The Bengal government has also questioned the Centre as to why such inter-ministerial teams were not sent to states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi. It further claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre has sent the teams only to states ruled by non-BJP governments. Notably, MP is the only BJP-ruled state where the Centres team was sent. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 19:41:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Keren Setton JERUSALEM, April 21 (Xinhua) -- After three consecutive elections in more than a year, a unity government is expected to be formed in the coming days in Israel with two main political rivals' announcement of a power-sharing agreement. After weeks of negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister and leader of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu and leader of the Blue and White party Benny Gantz reached a compromise, ending a long period of political paralysis for the country. The threat of a fourth election has been removed, for now. "I promised the state of Israel a national emergency government that will work to save the lives and livelihoods of the citizens of Israel," Netanyahu tweeted, after the announcement. Israel, which is battling to curb the spread of the coronavirus in recent weeks, has been under a care-taker government for over a year, making policy and budget decisions difficult. More than 180 Israelis have died of the virus so far, with almost 14,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19. The government will be defined as an emergency for the first six months in light of the virus in the country. The agreement stipulates a three-year period in which the government will rule. According to the deal, it will be Israel's largest cabinet ever with between 34 to 36 ministers. For Netanyahu, Israel's longest serving prime minister, the deal is a victory. Busy fighting off corruption charges, he is expected to make his first court appearance in the coming weeks. In the agreement, the Likud, gets veto power on the appointments of the attorney general and the state attorney, people who have a major influence on Netanyahu's future. The Likud also gets a say on judicial appointments. Also, if the Supreme Court rules Netanyahu cannot lead, the agreement ensures an automatic new election and not the formation of a government. Under the power-sharing deal, Netanyahu will serve as prime minister for 18 months before being replaced by Gantz, who will serve as prime minister for another 18 months, as part of a rotation deal that will be bound in law. "Netanyahu achieved most of his goals," said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on government and politics at the Bar Ilan University, "He wanted to dismantle the opposition and he secured several advantages for himself." "Gantz has no political experience and demonstrated that he does not have any experience in negotiations," Gilboa told Xinhua. "Gantz had more to lose, and he was facing a growing gap with his supporters," said Dr. Yonatan Freeman, from the Political Science Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "They both failed to form a government three times," Freeman said. "Public opinion wanted unity and not an election. A fourth election will see much greater disunity." "There is a good chance Netanyahu will not give up. If he decides to break up the government, he would find and a good excuse to do that because he is a superb manipulator, a political magician and the other side is no match for him," Gilboa added. "Gantz and Netanyahu see eye-to-eye on almost all policies, Israel under Gantz will not change its course," said Freeman. Gantz was Israel's military chief under Netanyahu and the two are accustomed to working together. Palestinian officials immediately condemned the part of the coalition agreement that calls for promotion of annexation. It seems that for now, Netanyahu has secured his position for another 18 months. If he overcomes the supreme court hurdle, he will be able to conduct his trial from the cushy position of Israel's prime minister. An empty farm hut was torched by unidentified persons near a village along the Tripura-Mizoram border, following which rumours were circulated that a communal clash took place between the Mizos and the Chakmas living the areas, officials said on Tuesday. The incident came two days after two India Reserve Battalion (IRB) personnel from Mizoram were assaulted by a mob allegedly hailing from a Tripura village while they were keeping vigil to prevent cross border movement in a bid to contain the spread of novel coronavirus. A Chakma couple constructed a kutcha house near Kawnpui village in North Tripura district for using it during shifting (jhum) cultivation, Tripura Deputy Inspector General of Police (Northern Range) Lalhminga Darlong said. "The house was set on fire on Monday evening by unidentified persons. However, it has been vacated after the harvest and no casualty was reported," Darlong told PTI. He said police launched an investigation into the incident at Kawnpui village incident. Kawnpui is close to Zomuantlang village in Mamit district of Mizoram across the border, where the two IRB personnel were beaten up on Saturday. Two persons of Kawnpui were arrested in connection with the assault. Following the arson, rumours were circulated on social media on Tuesday that members of several Mizo organisations clashed with the people of Kawnpui, who were predominantly Chakmas. Darlong said no such clashes took place. "There was no communal clash. The situation is under control," he said. The Tripura police, IRB personnel from Mizoram and local volunteers are making efforts to guard the inter-state border, the DIG said. B Vanlaltana, president of Mizoram's apex student organisation Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), claimed that the rumours were spread to damage the reputation of the Mizos. Vanlaltana said he, along with 13 MZP leaders, visited Zomuantlang, Kawnpui and other border villages on Monday to take stock of the situation. They talked to villagers and police officials of both Mizoram and Tripura, he said. Central Young Chakma Association president Jatirmoy Chakma told PTI that they are condemning the assault and the arson, and demanded punishment for the culprits. The Chakma leader also urged people not to communalise the issue. Chakmas, who are Buddhists, were originally residents of Chittagong Hill Tracts in the erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). They left their homeland when it was submerged by the Kaptai dam project in the 1960s. They also allegedly faced religious persecution and entered India through the then Lushai Hills district of Assam, which is now Mizoram. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Representative Doug Collins: Chinese Government Not to Be Trusted Congressman Doug Collins (R-Ga.) wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reconsider a recent decision to import Chinese citrus, in light of the COVID-19 coverup. The Georgia lawmaker sent a letter to Undersecretary Greg Ibach at the USDA Monday, expressing his concerns about the import of unlabeled citrus from the Chinese government as their dishonest handling of the pandemic has devasted the U.S. economy. Collins wrote on Twitter today, Chinas coverup of COVID-19 and their continued lies about its origin have shown us all first-hand that we cannot trust the word of the Chinese government. That is why I am calling for USDA to reconsider the United States allowing citrus imports from China. The U.S. Department of Agricultures Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) April 14 authorized the import of five varieties of citrus fruit from China. APHIS scientists determined that pummelo, Nanfeng honey mandarin, Ponkan, sweet orange, and Satsuma mandarin fruit from China are safe for import to the United States after analysis. I am concerned with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services recent decision to authorize the importation of fresh citrus from China, wrote Collins. While I understand that these regulations have been in progress for some time in connection with foreign trade agreements, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us all first-hand that we cannot trust the word of the Chinese government. The USDA says that a series of measures are taken by growers, packers, and shippers to minimize the risk of pests before import, but Collins suggests that the Chinese government does not tell the truth and should not be trusted. The representative said that the United States could not trust that China will follow the agreed-upon protocol for checking produce. This approval specifically relies on the Chinese government to enforce protocols for eliminating the risk that imported Chinese citrus could carry plant pests and other quarantined species, Collins wrote. As Chinas early coverup of the COVID-19 outbreak and their continued lies about its origin have proven, the Chinese government cannot be trusted to act in the best interest of public health. As such, I ask that you reconsider permitting imports of Chinese citrus and, at a minimum, put systems in place to independently verify the safety of any citrus imported from China. The representative was also concerned that the import from China would adversely impact the U.S. produce market, at a time when the economy is suffering. Collins shared his concern for the USDA Agriculture Market Services recent announcement that it would temporarily waive Country of Origin Labeling (COOL). This announcement may harm demand for American products, wrote Collins. Additionally, I worry that a lack of enforcement could be exploited by some retailers seeking to disguise imported commodities as domestic commodities. In light of these concerns, I ask that you consider narrowing the waiver to only apply to commodities for which demand exceeds the domestic supply. Collins wants the USDA to prioritize U.S. farmers as they are on the front-lines working for the health of the American people. During this unprecedented time, it is critical that agencies and elected officials work together to protect and uplift Americas hardworking farmers who continue to work tirelessly to put food on our tables, said Collins. To support American farmers during the pandemic, President Trump announced a $19 billion-dollar coronavirus relief plan for farmers and ranchers on April 17. Included in the project are likely to be both direct payments to individuals and a program to purchase food from U.S. farmers and ranchers to be distributed throughout the U.S. through food banks. PHILADELPHIA - A 4-year-old girl who apparently was shot inside her familys home in Philadelphia has died from her wounds, authorities said. It wasnt clear who was holding the gun when the girl was shot at least once in the stomach late Monday night. She was driven to a hospital in a private vehicle and was pronounced dead there early Tuesday. The girls name has not been released. No other injuries were reported in the shooting. It wasnt clear how many people were in the home at the time. The shooting remains under investigation. The report, "China's Fight Against COVID-19", features six chapters with topics ranging from social mobilization to treatment plans. It was compiled in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary China Studies at Tsinghua University and the School of Health Policy and Management at Peking Union Medical College. Experts said the report can help readers understand the rationale behind many of China's decisions, practices and sacrifices. This will, in turn, help reduce uninformed speculation about China's actions including a city-wide quarantine and revision of death counts. At the start of the outbreak, foreign media and officials frequently criticized the Wuhan lockdown as draconian and excessive. On Friday, after China amended the city's death toll to 3,869 to account for previous inaccuracies, some foreign media and politicians interpreted the move as China under-reporting its real death count. Zhou Weisheng, a professor with the College of Policy Science at Ritsumeikan University in Japan, said if China had not imposed the lockdown on Wuhan and some other cities, the number of infections might have been 10 times higher. "Considering the lack of effective treatment methods for COVID-19, cutting off the source of infection by locking down Wuhan and some other cities as soon as possible was the right measure," he said. Mao Yonghui, a senior kidney doctor at Beijing Hospital who was tasked of treating severe patients in Wuhan, said most doubts can be addressed if foreign politicians and media have a basic understanding of the monumental endeavor the whole nation made to contain the virus. Mao said when her medical team arrived in Wuhan on Feb 7, the medical system in the city was overwhelmed, "the hospitals were overcrowded, the staff were overworked, and there were not enough testing kits," she said. "Given how unpredictable and ferocious the novel coronavirus is, keeping data, especially during the early days of the outbreak, is a daunting task for any country, and reporting errors are inevitable." After 42,000 medical workers and medical supplies poured into the city, "records kept since our arrival are meticulous and thorough, because we had the manpower and resources to do so," Mao said. "China updating its figures to present a more accurate picture is an act of honesty and responsibility that should be recognized and emulated," she said. "The action should not be taken out of context to smear the authenticity of China's data," she added. Chen Jianguo, president of Tongji Medical College in Wuhan, said the key to China's success are strict quarantine, building makeshift hospitals, and unwavering logistical support from the government. "Reality has proven that China's methods and systems work," he said. Mao echoed Chen's assessment, adding that China's low death rate is also the result of abundant medical staff and senior doctors across different medical fields working in unison. All these factors combined lowered the death rate of severely ill patients at her wards to around 3 percent, she said. At Tongji Hospital's Zhongfa Xincheng branch in Wuhan, where Mao was on deputation, there were about 40 doctors and over 100 nurses taking care of 100 patients, she said. "The high staff-to-patient ratio meant doctors could have enough energy and time to treat each patient carefully, and this greatly improved the cure rate." Having a multidisciplinary team of medical experts is "absolutely critical in lowering the death rate for severely-ill patients given how the virus, as well as treatments for it, can impact so many parts of the body simultaneously," she said. "Many patients died not directly because of the virus, but due to other underlying health problems," she said. "Having respiratory doctors is not enough, you need a multidisciplinary team that can fully monitor every major organ, and make sound judgments on how the disease and treatment will impact the body and act accordingly." As for logistics, Mao said she received medical supplies from Beijing in less than 16 hours. "This incredible logistical efficacy is what allowed us to save more lives," she said. "It takes a whole-of-society effort to achieve a shipping speed that can outrun death. "If foreign media and politicians question the authenticity of our low casualty figures, they should ask themselves: have they gone to the extent that China did in supporting their doctors and patients?" SOURCE China Daily Related Links http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/ Chennai, April 21 : Memes mocking DMK President M.K. Stalin aired on Sun News channel have angered the party leaders. The memes said to be aired by oversight on Monday are said to have cost some people their jobs at the channel, said an insider. The Sun TV network is promoted by Kalanidhi Maran, a relative of Stalin. The party's Lok Sabha member representing Dharmapuri constituency, S. Senthilkumar, in a tweet condemned the airing of the memes, if they were really shown. "If not real, issue a clarification," he said. "Strongly condemn this insensitive act," Senthilkumar tweeted. He also said the channel should not anger the party cadres. "Let things like this never happen," Senthilkumar said. Senthilkumar was not available to comment when contacted by IANS. At a meeting with Mohammad Javad Zarif, President Assad lambasted the politicisation of the coronavirus by the West and discussed the latest developments in Syria writes SANA. On Monday, President Bashar al-Assad received Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the accompanying delegation. At the start of the meeting, Assad offered condolences to Iran and its people for the victims of the coronavirus, voicing regret that this pandemic has become a subject of political investment by some states in the West, mainly the United States, which continues to impose sanctions on states despite of these exceptional humanitarian circumstances. He said the coronavirus crisis has exposed the failure of the Western regimes as well as their immorality, because the pandemic showed that these regimes only serve a select few of individuals with vested interests, instead of serving their peoples. Meanwhile, Zarif said the US administration, with its continuing refusal to lift the blockade on Syria and Iran, has revealed its inhumane nature to the world. The meeting tackled the latest political developments, including the Constitutional Committee, the Astana process, and the developments in the north of Syria in light of the continuing transgressions by Turkey against Syrias sovereignty and territory, whether through direct occupation of territory or by increasing the number of what it calls observation points, which are actually military bases. Assad said Turkeys actions on the ground exposes its true intentions, with its lack of commitment to the agreements it entered whether in Astana or Sochi, all of which stipulate a recognition of Syrias sovereignty and territorial integrity. Zarif denounced the Wests current attempts to re-exploit the issue of chemical weapons in Syria, saying that it is shameful that this pretext would be used again in light of the situation around the world, not to mention all the doubts and inconsistencies that emerged regarding this issue recently. In the same context, Minister Walid al-Muallem discussed with Zarif and the accompanying delegation the historical relations between the two countries and means to improve and bolster them, stressing the need to build upon the distinguished strategic levels of these relations in all fields, particularly in light of the mutual challenges facing the two countries peoples. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (17) Senate Republicans and Democrats reached a deal Tuesday on a $484 billion coronavirus relief package for small businesses, hospitals and testing. The Senate could vote on legislation as soon as 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and will need unanimous support to pass it. The House could approve the bill as early as Thursday. The deal would allocate $310 billion more into the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides forgivable loans for small businesses. $60 billion of that would be set aside for small institutions, according to a bill summary released by his office. Half of the $60 billion would go to lenders with assets of less than $10 billion, and half would go to those with assets between $10 billion and $50 billion. Another roughly $60 billion would go to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, $10 billion of which would be in the form of grants. The program, which is separate from the PPP, quickly went through the $10 billion originally allotted to it as part of the first small business plan. US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, speaks to reporters after leaving the Senate floor following a failed attempt to add an additional $250 billion to small business coronavirus relief funds, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, April 9, 2020. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images The bill grants $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for coronavirus testing. Out of the testing funding, $11 billion would go to states, people familiar with the deal said. The remaining funds would go to agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. Up to $1 billion may be used to cover the costs of testing for the uninsured. The bill clarifies that agriculture companies are eligible for the EIDL program, after previous concern they were not. Here's what the bill would include: $310 billion total for PPP, with $250 billion unrestricted and $60 billion set aside for smaller institutions $50 billion for EIDL loans and $10 billion for EIDL grants $75 billion for hospitals $25 billion for testing, $11 billion of which will be distributed to states $2.1 billion for Small Business Administration administrative expenses "I welcome this bipartisan agreement and hope the Senate will quickly pass it once members have reviewed the final text," McConnell said in a statement, criticizing Democrats for resisting the passage of additional small business funding earlier this month "in a search for partisan 'leverage' that never materialized." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday morning that he believes the Senate will pass an additional relief bill for small businesses later in the day. Schumer, D-N.Y., told CNN that he spoke "well past midnight" with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and "came to an agreement on just about every issue." The government has been under pressure to replenish a fund allocated to small businesses as part of the $2.2 trillion relief bill President Donald Trump signed late last month. The program offers forgivable loans to companies that agree to maintain payroll. Its funds, which totaled $349 billion, ran out last week, putting pressure on businesses that retained employees in hopes of obtaining the loan. "Staff were up all night, writing. There's still a few more I's to dot and T's to cross, but we have a deal. And I believe we'll pass it today," Schumer said. The coronavirus pandemic has forced Australias second-largest airline, Virgin Australia, into a voluntary administration agreement under which it will be run by an outside entity. The airline said Tuesday it had entered into an agreement with the global financial services company Deloitte after the Australian government rejected its request for a $887 billion loan. Administration is the equivalent of provisions in U.S. bankruptcy laws that are used to restructure financially ailing companies. Vaughan Strawbridge, one of the airlines new administrators, said in a statement that the intention was undertake a process to restructure and refinance the business and bring it out of administration as soon as possible. Strawbridge says there are already several parties who have expressed interest in taking part in a restructuring plan. Virgin Australia was already mired in over $3 billion in debt when the government shut down international flights in and out of the country to limit the spread of COVID-19, forcing Virgin to ground most of its fleet and the majority of its 10,000 employees. The airlines possible collapse would have left rival Qantas Airways with a virtual monopoly in Australia. Virgin Australias major shareholders include British billionaire Richard Bransons Virgin Group, which owns a 10 percent stake in the struggling airline. While the coronavirus has hurt international trade at U.S. ports, the movement of goods between the Pacific Northwest and Alaska remains healthy. "Alaska is our largest market in our domestic trade, accounting for approximately 80% of domestic containerized cargo. We are the lifeline for people in Alaska. In fact, Puget Sound's trade with Alaska is estimated at more than $5 billion. In March, we saw an 11% year-over-year increase in our Alaska volumes driven by a spike in demand for grocery supplies by major retailers," said Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) Chief Executive Officer John Wolfe. Port of Seattle Commission President Peter Steinbrueck said Alaska is "highly, highly dependent" on receiving goods shipped from the NWSA's seaports of Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. "These essential items for Alaska include groceries, consumer goods, automobiles, construction equipment, materials and supplies, and so forth on the inbound. Outbound, Alaska sends seafood. We're gearing up for the big seafood season. There are many uncertainties right now. We're trying to work through them to maintain that operationality. Hopefully the economic challenges can be overcome here as well with regard to keeping things flowing," Steinbrueck said. Jim Jager, external affairs director for the Port of Alaska, said, "Shippers have plenty of capacity to handle additional seafood cargo and they should not feel too much financial pain if COVID-19 significantly reduces 2020 commercial fishing harvests." Jager said TOTE Maritime and Matson deliver the majority of food and consumer goods to Anchorage twice a week. "These vessels depart the Port of Tacoma on Wednesdays and Fridays and take a little less than three days to reach Anchorage, depending upon weather and tides," Jager said. "TOTE services Alaska with two ships that sail directly between Tacoma and Anchorage. Matson uses three ships that also provide twice-weekly service to Kodiak and once-weekly service to Dutch Harbor. Story continues "TOTE and Matson have maintained normal Alaska shipping schedules throughout the COVID-19 pandemic," Jager continued. "The Port of Alaska noticed a slight seasonally adjusted increase in container volumes in late March/early April as local retail managers adjusted their orders to accommodate COVID-19 shopping patterns, but that surge seems to be settling back to normal as local retail stores restock their shelves." Wolfe said NWSA terminals also have been operating normally throughout the coronavirus crisis. "It's critically important that we keep this gateway functioning at a high level and there is confidence this gateway is going to stay open. Each and every day we are reaching out to the industry and all the stakeholders to be part of the solution and recovery in the very near term," Wolfe said. "It's critical that we continue to provide the transportation infrastructure that's necessary in this global crisis medical supplies, foodstocks, equipment, a whole range of things that come through our ports. We have a critical role here in terms of ensuring that continuity in the supply chain." See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Photo credit: Hardy et al. From Popular Mechanics A paper published in Scientific Reports studied plant fibers, refashioned into string, that were discovered as part of an ancient flint tool. This new evidence suggests human ancestors were more intelligent than previously thought. The string is between 41,000 and 52,000 years old, making it the oldest string in the world. A cave in southern France has been home to a small treasure for thousands of yearsa tool used by Neanderthals. This simple toolwhose function remains unknown but could have been part of any number of items such as a basket or snareprovides evidence that our ancestors understood the math behind pairs, sets, and numbers. The Abri du Maras excavation sitewhere the tool was foundhas previously revealed other fibers that led to the hypothesis of Neanderthal string production in the past, but conclusive evidence was lacking, according to the paper. Bruce Hardy, a paleoanthropologist and one of the paper authors, was studying the stone tool when he noticed there were little bits of white embedded within the stones surface. It was a mass of twisted fibers, Hardy told NPR. Adding that as soon as he saw the fibers, it was clear that we had something. Archeologists dug up the tool approximately 10 feet under the surface, which was then analyzed using light microscopy. Photo credit: M.-H. Moncel The light microscope revealed that Hardy found a three-ply cord fragment derived from the interior bark of an unidentified evergreen. Marie-Helene Moncel, another paper author and research team member, told NPR that the fragment was intentionally placed on the stone to create a working tool. Moncel is certain that due to the location where the find was made in conjunction with previous discoveries at the Abri du Maras site, the tool was created by a Neanderthal. Still, some in the scientific community believe that the possibility exists that early Homo sapiens may have forged the tool using the tree fibers to create the string. Paleoanthropologist John Shea told NPR that just because Neanderthal remains have been found in the area, that doesnt preclude the presence of early man inhabiting the same space at the same time as well. Story continues You have to keep an open mind, he said. Source: NPR You Might Also Like New Delhi: In a move that has been seen as an effort to stop opportunistic" takeovers and acquisitions of Indian businesses by Chinese establishments amid the global economic meltdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the government on Saturday tweaked its Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy to ban investments via the automatic route from countries that share a border with India. FDI from these countries would now require prior approval from the government of India. China, on Monday, criticised the move saying the changes violate the World Trade Organisation (WTO)s principle of non-discrimination and called for the revision of discriminatory practices. Chinas FDI inflows into India are relatively low compared to other major countries such as Mauritius, Singapore and Japan. However, according to a study by the Gateway House Indian Council on Global Relations, China has created a significant place for itself in India in the past five years in the technology domain through venture investments in start-ups and the online ecosystem. Chinese tech investors have put an estimated $4 billion into Indian start-ups and Chinas tech footprint can be ascertained from the fact that 18 of Indias 30 Unicorns (start-ups with a valuation of $1 billion) are funded by Chinese nationals. Such funding is making an impact disproportionate to its value, given the deepening penetration of technology across sectors in India, the study said. Tik Tok, owned by Chinese firm Bytedance, is now one of the most popular applications in India, while Xiaomi and Oppo have over 70 per cent share in the smartphone market in India. These are investments made by nearly two dozen Chinese tech companies and funds, led by giants like Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent which have funded 92 Indian start-ups, including unicorns such as Paytm, Byjus, Oyo and Ola, the report read. According to the study, BigBasket, an online grocery service, has investments from Chinese firms Alibaba Group and TR Capital. The Alibaba Group also has investments in Paytm Mall and Paytm.com. Similarly, popular food delivery services such as Swiggy has received funding from various Chinese firms. Its rival Zomato too has raised money from Alibaba Group and Shunwei Capital. The study finds the absence of major Indian venture investors for Indian start-ups as one of the main reasons behind Chinas penetration into the Indian tech market. For instance, Alibabas 2015 investment in 40 per cent of Paytm, a digital payments platform, paid off barely a year later when in November 2016, the government of India demonetised large number of currency notes and simultaneously promoted a move to a cashless economy. Paytm benefitted from Alibabas superior fintech experience, which it applied to India seamlessly, making it a dominant player, the report stated. Amit Bhandari, Fellow, Energy & Environment Studies Programme, Gateway House, and one of the authors of the study, said the depth of Chinese funding and influence in the start-up space can be gauged from their motivation of these investments. If you look at other investors, there are three-four groups. There is Softbank, Naspers, Sequoia and other American investors. These are all financial investors. When a financial investor puts in money, they are looking for an exit at some point in time. They would be looking for a return very clearly, which is money. From the Chinese side, the big investors are Alibaba, Tencent, and to a certain extent, ByteDance. These are operational companies. They are not looking for an exit. So, they would be willing to take losses for a number of years as long as it means that they are able to get a foothold in the Indian market. So, the motivation of a company and a fund can be different, Bhandari said. He said theres a need to monitor investments that are predatory and, therefore, the change in FDI policy. If say Alibaba invests in a company and is willing to take losses for five-10 years to drive others out of business, those are predatory practices, these cannot be permitted because then you are destroying other companies. That is why there is a need to monitor who is investing from China. If you are a financial investor out of Hong Kong, there is no issue. But if you're an Alibaba, then I think it should be seen what is your motivation, how much are you getting, and what will be your control, Bhandari said. Chinese investments in the tech space are mostly small in sizes, the report found. The largest Chinese investment in India is $1.1 billion acquisition of Gland Pharma by Fosun in 2018. This accounts for 17.7 per cent of all Chinese FDI into India. The study identified just five other investments by Chinese companies that exceed $100 million. This includes the $300-million investment by MG Motors. Most Indian start-ups depend on foreign venture capital funding in the absence of any Indian investors willing to commit large sums of money during initial, often loss-making, stages of a start-up. That leaves Western and Chinese investors as the dominant players in the Indian start-up space, the study found. While the latest tweak in FDI policy is aimed at curtailing opportunistic takeovers of Indian companies, it may also put a strain on Indian start-ups. In the current economic meltdown, start-ups' valuation is going to take a severe blow. Right now, companies are in distress. At this point, if somebody comes with capital, they can actually take advantage of this distress and cut off much better deals. However, there should not be a distress sale of Indian companies, Bhandari added. Gov. Kate Browns office told lawmakers Monday of a draft plan to reopen Oregon. The plan, which the governor and her staff aim to finalize during the week of May 4, could include requirements that county officials submit formal requests to Brown and certify they have enough protective gear available for their first responders. Before lifting the March 23 stay-home order, the plan would likely require a declining number of identified coronavirus cases and increasing the states capacity to test people and trace their recent contacts. Similar to federal plans to lift stay-home orders, Oregons first phase could include schools and organized youth activities; sit-down restaurants; gyms; bars; personal services; large venues such as churches and theaters; plus visitors to hospitals or senior care centers; and non-emergency medical procedures. This is not everybody back in the workplace, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, Browns legislative director, told state lawmakers during a conference call Monday afternoon. Modeling suggests Oregon may not be able to reopen parts of its economy until late May at the earliest. Here are more developments to know Tuesday: CASES: A 45-year-old Marion County man was the latest patient to die of COVID-19, expanding Oregons death toll to 75. Nearly 2,000 people across the state have contracted the virus. Coronavirus cases have been linked to 31 of Oregons 36 counties. SUPPLIES: Gov. Kate Brown announced Monday that the Oregon National Guard will distribute 400,000 masks, gloves and face shields to all of the states nursing homes and long-term care facilities to protect workers and residents from COVID-19. The Oregonian/OregonLive has reported that coronavirus deaths in senior care homes make up the majority of Oregons death toll. FINANCES: President Trumps Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated a key tax benefit for people who work at home or write off a home office. That means Oregonians working remotely during the coronavirus pandemic arent likely to be able to write off the associated costs on their 2020 taxes. ONLINE SCHOOL: Students across Oregon are attempting a new way to learn as schools remain shuttered through June. But for Hailey Eckstein, who attends a public online charter school, nothing has changed. She offers advice for other students to succeed at home. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter #TEAMOREGON: Share the stories of kindness that are helping you get through this tough time. Take Beavertons Five Oaks neighborhood, where chalk artists have left inspiring messages like Stay strong and Were all in this together on sidewalks near mailboxes. TRACK: The meet goes on. An Oregon man has created an app thats allowing high school runners to compete against each other and track officials to stage virtual meets. INDUSTRY: Daimler Trucks resumed manufacturing at its Swan Island factory on Monday, nearly four weeks after putting 600 Portland employees on unpaid furlough. CLOSURES: The tight-knit and tourism reliant communities of Astoria and Warrenton find ways to stay positive and connected, even as business owners worry the pandemic could deliver Oregons Coast a debilitating economic blow. Hong Kong: US crude prices bounced back into positive territory Tuesday, a day after crashing below $0.00 for the first time owing to crippled demand and a storage glut, while the commodity rout sent Asian equities sharply lower. West Texas Intermediate for May delivery was changing hands at $1.10 a barrel after diving to an unprecedented low of -$37.63 in New York as the pandemic brings the global economy, transport and factory activity to a halt. The sell-off in May futures came because the contract expires later Tuesday, meaning traders needed to find buyers to take physical possession of the oil -- a job made near-impossible as storage becomes scarce. However, focus is now on the June contract, which had trading volumes more than 30 times higher. That rose towards $21 a barrel, from $20.43 on Monday. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was changing hands at $25.75 for June delivery. The collapse in WTI "was driven by a precipitous drop in demand caused by the market expectation that the US lockdown could continue into May", said Tai Hui at JP Morgan Asset Management. He added that firms were still churning out oil because stopping output "is not feasible for some producers since it could permanently damage their oil fields. Hence, giving their oil away for one month could still make sense in the long run." Oil markets have been ravaged this year after the pandemic was compounded by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. While the two have drawn a line under the dispute and agreed with other top producers to slash output by almost 10 million barrels a day, that is not enough to offset the lack of demand. Equity markets were deep in the red, having enjoyed a healthy couple of weeks thanks to massive stimulus measures and signs of an easing in the rate of new infections globally. Tokyo ended the morning 1.6 percent lower, while Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul, Taipei and Manila were also more than one percent lower. Shanghai and Singapore both shed 0.8 percent, and there were also losses in Jakarta and Wellington. The losses came despite signs that the virus, which has infected almost 2.5 million people and killed 170,000, is easing as global lockdowns begin to take effect, allowing some countries to slowly return to normality. Analysts warned the drop in stocks could be an indication that the recent surge may have been too much too quick and another sell-off is possible. The South Korean won, Australian and New Zealand dollars and Russian ruble were all down more than one percent, while the Indonesian rupiah sank 0.9 percent. The global and local response to the COVID-19 pandemic has made two things clear: fighting a global crisis requires swift and serious action, and when we work together we can do it. Now, as we begin to flatten the curve and start planning for Canadas economic recovery, we have a choice. We can either go back to business as usual, or we can build a greener, more resilient economy that leaves no one behind. The choice we make now will determine how prepared Canada is for the other global crisis: the climate crisis. To fight COVID-19, our city, province and country have mobilized like never before. Governments have adapted, working together despite their differences. They declared an emergency, built new programs to address unemployment, and provided programs for small business to slow the economic impacts. Our industries have retooled to meet the demand for critically important medical equipment including PPE and ventilators. Our retail supply chain has responded to address surges in demand and ensure the safety of their employees and shoppers. Our service sector has adapted by moving their programs online. And individuals have changed their habits and made huge personal sacrifices to help limit the spread of COVID-19. Everyone is doing what they can to help flatten the curve because leaders, the media, and people across our country understand the urgency. We need to approach the climate crisis with the same urgency and level of action. While climate change cant be stopped by something as simple as physical distancing, it can be addressed by flattening (and reversing) the curve of our greenhouse gas emissions. For decades, the international scientific community has warned us: act now or face a worldwide catastrophe. Now is the time to act. While we need to restart the economy quickly, we must steer the ship in the right direction. If not, the health of our people and planet will not be the only victims of the climate crisis; our economy will be driven once again into chaos. Even Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, has warned us of the economic consequences of failing to respond to climate change. The World Bank has developed a sustainability checklist for economic recovery efforts in response to COVID-19, which links prosperity to resilience and a low-carbon economy. As with the current crisis, which hit our most vulnerable the hardest, the climate crisis disproportionately affects seniors, women, BIPOC, and people living in poverty. We must, therefore, ensure our approach to the climate crisis leaves no one behind. This is our opportunity to chart a new course, a transformative path. We can build a more resilient low-carbon economy that also creates jobs and builds more affordable housing. This means all levels of government partnering to deliver massive home retrofit programs, raising the energy efficiency standards of all new building construction, and retooling manufacturing to supply these energy efficiency efforts. This means investment, like never before, into a transportation system that gets people out of their cars and using public transit, while we electrify our vehicles. This means investments in green energy, so that as we transition towards electric power for heating our buildings and for transportation, the energy comes from a less carbon intensive source. Most of all, this means connecting economic stimulus to building resilience and reducing GHG. Over the coming weeks and months, we will see how our leaders respond. Will they take the advice of global scientific experts with the same gravity and resolve as they are listening to public health experts? Will our global community unite and mobilize to address the climate crisis despite our political, social and economic differences? Our choices today will impact all of our futures. We have the chance to learn from the current crisis to help us avoid another more devastating one. Mike Layton is a member of Toronto city council representing Ward 11 (University-Rosedale). Read more about: Facebook has said it will allow groups on its platform to organise protests against social distancing, so long as the protesters plan to abide by social distancing rules. Protests have sprung up across the US in recent days in defiance of lockdown measures aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus. Many of the demonstrations have been organised through Facebook groups, some of which have in excess of 70,000 members. The groups experienced a surge in popularity since last week after President Donald Trump's call to "LIBERATE" three states by ending strict confinement rules. Save your great 2nd Amendment, he tweeted. "It is under siege." Social distancing guidelines in the US state that people should remain at least six feet (1.8m) apart from one another. Despite this, hundreds of people ignored such precautions by converging on Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Monday to protest a statewide stay-at-home order. Recommended Facebook groups organising armed marches in the US to protest lockdown Facebook shut down other groups planning protests in California, Nebraska and New Jersey, however dozens of similar groups remain active. The move outraged conservative figures like Donald Trump Junior, who claimed it went against the First Amendment put in place to protect freedom of speech and the right to protest. "Why is Facebook colluding with state governments to quash people's free speech," Trump Jr. tweeted. "Regardless of what you think about the lockdowns or protests against them, this is a chilling and disturbing government directed shutdown of people's 1st Amendment rights. Very dangerous!" 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US Show all 15 1 /15 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US Protesters form a motorcade against lockdown orders outside the State House in Annapolis, Maryland on 18 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US People take part in a protest for "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" outside the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing on 15 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US Alex Jones, host of conspiracy theory outlet Infowars, joins the 'Reopen America' protest against lockdown measures in Austin Texas on 18 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US A group of protesters rally against lockdown orders outside the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond on 16 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US A protester holds a sign comparing Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to a Nazi during a demonstration at the State Capitol in Lansing over coronavirus lockdown measures AP 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US A 2020 Trump Unity sign is displayed during a protest against coronavirus lockdown measures at the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan AP 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US Anti-lockdown protesters drive by the Ohio State House in Columbus on 18 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US Protesters form a motorcade in opposition to state lockdown measures outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on 15 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US A protester takes part in a rally outside the Ohio State House in Columbus on 18 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US People take part in a protest for "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" outside the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing on 15 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US Protesters form part of a motorcade in opposition to state lockdown measures outside the North Carolina State Legislature in Raleigh on 14 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US Protesters rally against lockdown measures outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on 15 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US Protesters form a motorcade in opposition to state lockdown measures around the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on 15 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US Police urge people to spread out during a protest against lockdown measures outside the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond on 16 April AFP/Getty 'Live free or die': Anti-lockdown protests sweep US An armed protester taking part in a demonstration against coronavirus lockdown measures outside the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan EPA A Facebook spokesperson told The Independent on Monday that it would abide by government rules, stating: "Events that defy government's guidance on social distancing aren't allowed on Facebook." A request for comment on which state governments it had been in conversation with was not immediately answered. Last week, the tech giant said it would target users who spread misinformation and engage with conspiracy theories relating to the coronavirus pandemic on its social network. Anyone posting false or dangerous content will be directed to official information from the World Health Organisation that debunks unfounded claims, it said. When asked on Monday about how he felt about Facebook being used to organise protests to defy state-enforced restrictions, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it was being "classified as harmful misinformation" and that such groups were being taken down. "At the same time, it's important that people can debate policies, so there's a line on this," he told Good Morning America. "More than normal political discourse, I think a lot of the stuff that people is saying around a health emergency like this can be classified as harmful misinformation." US state governors from the Democratic Party asked the White House to urge protesting Americans to maintain isolation, BBC News reported. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said the "phenomenon was nationwide" and asked for "help on the national level". The governor called the protests a wonderful American tradition. But it's just so dangerous to do that, she said, noting the fear of COVID-19 cases spiking in less-affected regions of her state. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, also a Democrat, requested the same, requesting the Trump administration let the public know that it is important for us to reach these minimum thresholds, before we began easing restrictions. US Vice President Mike Pence promised the governors to grant their request. Protests against restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 took place throughout US. Nearly 2,000 people took part in the demonstrations, most of whom endorse the policies of US president Donald Trump. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) The countrys prime coronavirus testing center is set to return to its full operations on Saturday after dozens of its employees tested positive for COVID-19, Health Spokesperson Ma. Rosario Vergeire said on Monday. The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City was forced to scale down its laboratory operations on April 18 after 43 of its employees contracted the coronavirus disease. Since Saturday, theyve started scaling down processes and its going to last until Friday because were trying to decontaminate and we have yet to receive the report because as of yesterday they were still trying to do the contact tracing and the investigation. This coming Saturday they would be fully functional again, Vergeire told CNN Philippines. The health spokesperson said the RITM is still conducting an investigation into the high number of confirmed cases among its staff, but the initial report points that the employees caught the virus in their communities when they went out after their shifts. She added it remains unclear if the 40 employees are from the RITM hospital or the testing laboratory. Related: RITM prioritizes staff testing after at least 40 employees contract COVID-19 Vergeire assured the public of the testing integrity of the RITM, the facility that can process the most number of COVID-19 samples at 2,000 tests daily. RITM is our national reference laboratory and therefore they practice disinfection control procedures and it is just unfortunate that this kind of infection has happened within RITM, she said. RITM Director Dr. Celia Carlos said the first known case in their laboratory was an encoder. She said due to the decrease in staff and volume of specimen received by the facility, the turnaround time for testing has been prolonged to more than five days. there are also approximately 5,000 specimen pending confirmation in their laboratories. RITM is prioritizing processing the test results of all its employees, but continues to accept samples but only from Muntinlupa, Paranaque, Las Pinas, and Pasay City. The other testing samples that cannot be accommodated by RITM have been sent to the other subnational laboratories in the country. As long as proper infection control procedures are being implemented, it should not be risky. That's why we are reiterating to those applying for laboratories for COVID-19 testing centers that there should be protocols that we are implementing so this kind of risk should be minimized, Vergeire said. Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya has expressed his disappointment after the UK High Court rejected his plea against extradition to India. The liquor tycoon said he would continue to pursue legal remedies. The appeal dismissal clears the decks for Mallya's extradition to India to face the charges in the Indian courts. Mallya, who owes 17 Indian banks an estimated Rs 9,000 crore, is accused of fraud and money laundering. I am naturally disappointed with the High Court decision. I will continue to pursue further legal remedies as advised by my lawyers. I am also disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9000 crores. Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 20, 2020 Post court order, Mallya wrote as series of tweets saying despite his offer to repay in full, banks were reluctant in accepting the money. "Please note that the allegations against me and others are specifically and only related to three tranches of borrowing from IDBI Bank for a total of Rs 900 crores in 2009," he tweeted. Mallya added, "This loan was subsumed along with loans from other Banks within the Master Debt Recast Agreement of 2010. Following the DRT order for the payment of approximately Rs 5,000 crore by way of principal and Rs 1,200 crore by way of unapplied interest making a total of Rs 6200 crores". This loan was subsumed along with loans from other Banks within the Master Debt Recast Agreement of 2010. Following the DRT order for the payment of approximately Rs 5000 crores by way of Principal and Rs 1200 crores by way of unapplied interest making a total of Rs 6200 crores Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 20, 2020 The banks have already recovered in cash a sum of Rs 2,500 crores, which is 50 per cent of the principal amount, Mallya wrote in another tweet."I have repeatedly offered to repay the Banks in full but, sadly to no avail," Mallya said. The Banks have already recovered in cash a sum of Rs 2500 crores which is 50 percent of the Principal amount. I have repeatedly offered to repay the Banks in full but, sadly to no avail. Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 20, 2020 Now, Mallya has 14 days to apply for permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court. If he applies, the UK Home Office would wait for the outcome of that appeal. But if he does not, under the India-UK Extradition Treaty, it would then be expected to formally certify the court order for Mallya's extradition to India in 28 days. The former Kingfisher Airlines boss had appealed to the higher court against his extradition ordered by the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London in December 2018, and then signed off by then UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid in February last year. Also read: Coronavirus in Delhi: COVID-19 patient shows signs of recovery after plasma therapy Also read: Coronavirus lockdown India live updates: Rajasthan records 52 new COVID-19 cases; country's tally past 18,000 CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Two Tennessee brothers who stockpiled thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and other highly sought after safety supplies during the coronavirus outbreak will not be fined, Tennessee officials announced Tuesday after reaching a settlement. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III launched an investigation on March 14 into price-gouging allegations against brothers Matthew and Noah Colvin, who were featured in a story by The New York Times after they took a 1,300-mile (2,092 kilometres) journey through Tennessee and Kentucky to purchase hand sanitizer, cleaning wipes and face masks to sell online. Matt Colvin told the newspaper he posted 300 bottles of hand sanitizer for sale on Amazon for between $8 and $70 each and immediately sold them all. It was crazy money, he told the newspaper. As part of the states settlement, the brothers will no longer be allowed to sell emergency or medical supplies at an excess price during the pandemic, Slatery said. The brothers also wont face a fine. On March 15, the Colvins surrendered all their supplies, including about 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, to local nonprofits in Tennessee and Kentucky. Matt Colvin later said he thought he was performing a public service and was simply fixing inefficiencies in the marketplace. Disrupting necessary supplies during an unprecedented pandemic is a serious offence, Slatery in a news release. It became clear during our investigation that the Colvins realized this, and their prompt co-operation and donation led to an outcome that actually benefited some consumers. It has been around two months since Washington and the Taliban signed the historic peace agreement that signalled the start of the withdrawal of US and allied forces troops from Afghanistan within 14 months. However, the recent breakdown in talks between the Taliban and Kabul over prisoner exchanges and de-escalation, and mounting mutual recriminations between the Taliban and Washington, threaten to fuel another re-escalation in violence and to derail the agreement unless tensions can be contained quickly. Given the current climate, the Taliban may seize the anniversary of the Spring Offensive to ratchet up military pressure on Kabul. The Taliban has warned that the Doha Agreement it signed with the US on 29 February 2020 is on the verge of collapse due to US violations of the accord and Kabuls delays in releasing Taliban prisoners. They accuse US forces of breaching the agreement by continuing to target civilians in drone strikes, cautioning that said violations create mistrust and would force them to retaliate which, in turn, could precipitate spiralling violence. The movement also insisted that they have not attacked international forces, in keeping with the agreement, and that they limited their attacks to government security forces in the countryside and have not targeted government forces in the cities, or military facilities. A US military spokesman denied the accusations. US forces are committed and will remain committed to the articles of the agreement, he said. He called on the Taliban to cease the violence, stressing that US forces would continue to assist Afghan troops if they come under attack, in accordance with the agreement. General Scott Miller, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, and Taliban leaders met in Doha on 11 April in order to resolve differences and give a fresh push to the fragile peace process. Nevertheless, the fact that the agreement did not stipulate that the Taliban must completely cease hostilities while simultaneously giving the US forces leeway to intervene militarily to support Kabuls forces in the event of an attack creates a large and dangerous loophole that both sides could easily exploit while pointing the finger of blame at each other. Under the Doha Agreement, the US committed to withdrawing its approximately 5,000 troops from five US bases in Afghanistan within 135 days in exchange for the Talibans pledge to guarantee that the country will not serve as a shelter or operational base for extremist groups bent on targeting the US or its allies. The Taliban also committed to reduce violence, enter into prisoner exchange negotiations with the government and work to reach a comprehensive settlement that will end the conflict and achieve peace. The agreement also states that the withdrawal of the remaining approximately 8,000 US troops is contingent on the ceasefire holding and on the progress of negotiations between the government and the Taliban. However, the talks between the government and the Taliban, which controls 40 to 70 per cent of the country and has a force of 20,000 to 40,000 militants, ground to a halt over the number and rank of the prisoners to be released. At the same time, tensions have surged again. After the week-long truce that preceded the Doha Agreement, Taliban militants resumed attacks against government forces, compelling the latter to retaliate. The retaliatory operations were backed by US forces. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani maintains that he is not under any obligation to release the 5,000 prisoners that the Taliban have asked for. Kabul has also expressed its concern that if it released the 15 senior commanders that the Taliban asked for, they would return to combat. On the other hand, the government stated that it was prepared to release an initial 400 lower ranking militants as a gesture of good faith and it went ahead and released 300 of them. Following the meeting between General Miller and Taliban commanders, the Taliban reciprocated the gesture, releasing 20 out of approximately 1,000 government POWs. However, they have not returned to the negotiating table. Negotiations, which were supposed to start 10 March, have been repeatedly postponed. When, at last, a videoconference was convened, the Taliban quickly withdrew, describing the meeting as futile. Even though the situation, whether between the government and the Taliban, between the Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) group, and even within government itself, does not bode well, nothing is likely to halt the US and coalition troop withdrawal during the stipulated 14-month period. US President Trump is calling the shots on this and he is adamant on bringing most US troops home in time for the upcoming US presidential elections. On 3 March, Trump personally phoned the senior Taliban negotiator to congratulate him on the Doha deal and urge him to remain committed to it. This month, Washington announced plans to slash $1 billion in US aid to Afghan security and has threatened to cut another billion as a means to pressure the Afghan president into being more flexible with the Taliban in order to reach a peace agreement that will facilitate a complete US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The US lost around 2,300 troops in the nearly 20-year-long war against the Taliban. Trump also noted that the US has been spending $50 billion a year on Afghanistan. He would have also been conscious of the wishes of the USs coalition partners who have sustained more than 1,300 dead and many more times that number of wounded, and also lost untold sums of money in that war. Even if the Taliban and President Ghani reach a power-sharing agreement that halts the war, other conflicts could erupt. For example, the Taliban could find itself at butting horns with one of the many other political/tribal factions, or with IS whose influence in Afghanistan has increased since the collapse of its caliphate in Syria and Iraq. The group has staged many terrorist attacks since the Doha Agreement. Its Khorisan affiliate claimed responsibility for the attack against the presidential palace during Ghanis oath taking ceremony 9 March. In early April, it fired five missiles at a US air base. Russia has warned that the situation will deteriorate severely in Afghanistan, in which at least 20 terrorist organisations are active. Finally, tensions between the Ghani camp and that of his rival in the presidential elections in September 2019, Abdullah Abdullah, could also be potentially explosive. Ghani won the polls with 50.64 per cent of the vote compared to 39.52 per cent in favour of Abdullah, who claimed massive fraud. Tensions between the two sides, which has weakened the governments negotiating position with the Taliban, could escalate into a violent power struggle. Abdullah held a parallel swearing in ceremony on the day that Ghani took his oath in Kabul. He is not facing Ghani alone. A number of hardline military leaders who had fought the coalition against the Taliban and in the civil war in the 1990s took part in Abdullahs parallel ceremony. *A version of this article appears in print in the 23 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: have sold personal data of a whopping 267 million users for just Rs 41,500 (approximately 500 Euros). The data includes email addresses, names, IDs, dates of birth and phone numbers. Thankfully, no passwords of the 267 million users were exposed by the hacker, according to the cyber risk assessment platform Cyble. The Cyble researchers executed the sale and were able to download and verify the data. "At this stage, we are not aware of how the data got leaked at the first instance. It might be due to a leakage in third-party API (Application Programming Interface) or scrapping," the company said in a statement. Given that the data contains sensitive details on the users, it might be used by cybercriminals for phishing and spamming, it warned. Photo: Cyble official portal In December last year, reports surfaced that a database containing names and phone numbers of more than 267 million users was exposed online. The database was made available for download on an online hacker forum, according to a blog post on the website Comparitech. A Facebook spokesperson had said at that point of time that "we are looking into this issue, but believe this is likely information obtained before changes we made in the past few years to better protect people's information". The Cyble researchers recommended users to tighten their privacy settings on their Facebook profiles, and be cautious of unsolicited emails and text messages. "We are currently indexing the data at our darkweb monitoring platform, and retail users can access it via AmIbreached.com," the company informed. Facebook faced intense scrutiny after personal data of 87 million users were harvested by UK-based political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) slapped Facebook with a $5 billion fine as a result of the breach. The giant in November last year revealed that at least 100 app developers may have accessed Facebook users' data for months, confirming that at least 11 partners "accessed group members' information in the last 60 days". Facebook found that the apps -- primarily management and video streaming apps -- retained access to group member information, like names and profile pictures in connection with group activity, from the Groups API (application programming interface). Not just Facebook, Cyble last week informed that dumped over 5 lakh credentials of those who attended office conference calls via Zoom, and gave away those for free on the Dark Web. ALSO READ: Zoom not a safe platform, says MHA advisory; SpaceX, Google ban use "Cyble purchased more than 530,000 on an underground hacking forum for next to nothing. Several of the company's clients were among the stolen credentials, which also included personal meeting URLs and Zoom host keys," claimed the report. Cyble confirmed that the credentials were indeed valid. Bleeping Computer also got in touch with some of the compromised account owners and were told that the passwords were correct. One hacker interviewed by Motherboard who claims to have traded exploits found in Zoom on the black market said that Zoom flaws typically sell for between $5,000 to $30,000. Spin Master Corp. said it won a record damages award against a Chinese company that was making unauthorized copies of its Bakugan childrens toys. The Suzhou Intermediate Peoples Court awarded 15.5 million renminbi ($3.1 million), which the companys lawyers believe is the most ever given to a foreign patent owner in a Chinese court case. The figure was based on sales of copycat products in China. Patent cases havent been producing very big awards, in China, said Spin Masters lawyer Doug Clark, who works for the Rouse law firm in Hong Kong. There is a willingness of the courts to take a broader view of damages. Foreign patent owners have long complained about the low amounts they can get in compensation from Chinese companies that copy their patented inventions. New patent legislation would increase statutory damages and allow for punitive damages of as much as five times the initial amount set by the court. Toronto-based Spin Master has been aggressive in protecting its products against copycats around the world. Last year it settled a lawsuit against its biggest rival, Mattel Inc., over a competitor to Bakugan, in which players roll a ball that opens into a mechanical figure when it lands on special cards. Last year, Spin Master won a suit against another Chinese company that was selling Bakugan knock-offs in the Asian nation, but with a lower damage amount. And its not just Bakugan. After local prosecutors declined to act, Spin Master successfully filed a private criminal action against another firm that was selling counterfeits of its Hatchimals on Alibaba and other e-commerce sites. Three people were sentenced to three years in prison and the companies were fined, according to the lawyers. The companys efforts arent limited to China. In December, it won an order in a New York court that halted sales of a copy of its Air Hogs Zero Gravity Laser toy. Read more about: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) late Tuesday said the importation of human remains of confirmed/suspected Covid-19 cases into India is not recommended as it released a lengthy set of guidelines/standard operating procedures for bringing back bodies of those dying of coronavirus. It said that if human remains of the suspected/confirmed case of Covid-19 arrive at Indian airports, the concerned Airport Health Officer (APHO) will verify the death certificate mentioning the cause of death as confirmed Covid-19/suspected Covid-19. The APHO will also verify the no objection certificate (NOC) for the transportation of remains of the deceased issued by the Indian Embassies/ High Commissions/Consulates and the embalming certificate issued by an authorized agency. The concerned airline shall ensure that the external packing of human remains (coffin) is undamaged. APHO to verify the documents and inspect the packing in accordance with the provisions under the Indian Aircraft (Public Health) Rules, 1954, the guidelines said. Follow coronavirus latest updates here. It also suggested steps to be followed in case of damage to the coffin. If there are any obvious signs of damage to the external packing (coffin), the handlers shall use full PPE, cover the coffin in plastic sheets to avoid any contact with the body/ body fluids before hand-over of the human remains to the concerned authority for final burial/incineration. It said the personnel handling the human remains should follow the laid down procedures for donning and doffing of Personal Protective Equipment and follow other protective measures for Covid-19, like hand-washing with soap and water, etc. to ensure that they remain protected during the procedure. The packaging (coffin) shall be buried/incinerated following the norms for burial/incineration for human remains with high risk pathogens. The handlers would be monitored for 28 days and the designated vehicle shall be disinfected as per the norms, it said. In all such cases, the APHO shall direct the concerned airline (carrying the damaged packing containing human remains) to carry out the disinfection of the aircraft as per the norms. In addition, the staff handling the cargo (Human remains in question) shall be quarantined for 28 days, said the guidelines The ashes remaining after cremation pose no risk to the relatives who handle such mortal remains and will be cleared in accordance with the provisions under the Indian Aircraft (Public Health) Rules, 1954, the SOP said. Any death onboard during the pandemic is to be suspected of Covid-19, unless proved otherwise. According to the SOP, The pilot in command of the aircraft has to inform about the death onboard to APHO for taking appropriate measures. The crew will cover the dead body with sheets/blankets and move the passengers from nearby seats to other seats. If the remaining flight time is more than 8 hours, the pilot would seek permission to land at the nearest airport. There is a separate set of procedures if the aircraft lands in Indian territory with an onboard casualty. The pilot in command of the aircraft has to mention in the General Declaration, the details of any illness/symptoms reported/experienced by the deceased prior to death and submit it to the APHO. All passengers will have to disembark before the body is handled inside the aircraft. Trained staff from the airport, using full PPE, shall move the deceased from the aircraft seat to a wheelchair. The wheelchair shall be taken out onto the tarmac. At the tarmac, a nasal swab shall be taken by the State Health Authorities and sealed in triple layered package (refer to guidance on sample collection and packaging) for testing at a designated lab. Thereafter, the body shall be placed in an air-borne pathogen resistant body bag and hermetically sealed. It said law enforcement agencies have to be informed as per the provisions of the rules. The relatives of the deceased, if not co-passenger(s), will be informed immediately. If applicable, the APHO will issue a brought/received-dead certificate. If the arrival of relatives of the deceased is expected to be delayed till the tst report is received, the body shall be kept in mortuary of the designated hospital, with full sanitization process. Under the SOP, the body would be transported in a designated vehicle to the burial ground/crematorium. The guidelines for the disposal of a highly infectious dead body are to be followed. According to the guidelines, Autopsy in confirmed Covid-19 cases is not recommended. If report is Covid-19 negative, natural process as per law to be adopted. The guidelines also prescribed the disinfection and decontamination of the aircraft according to approved procedures. The vehicle used for carrying the body will also have to be disinfected as also the tarmac area where the body is kept while drawing sample and during sealing. Under the SOP, airlines will provide the detailed list of passengers and crew to the APHO for further surveillance by the IDSP for next 28 days. While people are focused on maintaining their physical and fiscal health, there's another threat they're likely not considering a digital one. It should come as no surprise that cyber criminals are taking advantage of current events to profit, but companies and individuals need to do more to protect themselves. It's time to ramp up your cybersecurity efforts to protect your data and users. The most common exploits against businesses are as follows: Phishing with crisis-related content Ecommerce fraud leveraging in-demand wholesale products Pandemic-related phone scams Tried-and-true phishing scams are just one method that scammers employ. When victims open their inboxes to see messages purportedly from their financial institutions or even employers, they want to act quickly to avoid any unwanted consequences. However, the links in those messages bring phishing victims to sites that imitate those institutions sometimes shockingly well. When the victim types their credentials into the login form, they are not signed into a trusted website. Instead, their information is sent to the scammer who can then access the user's account, including private and financial information, on the legitimate website. Related: The One Cybersecurity Risk You're Probably Not Even Thinking About Cyber criminals use email for another type of attack, one in which they purport to be from a medical organization such as the World Health Organization or the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering. Although both organizations are legitimate and have been tracking the global health crisis, these emails do not contain the helpful information that the recipient might expect. Rather, the attachments contain malware that infects the victim's computer. These infections can track the victim's computer usage, steal sensitive data or use the infected system to spread to other computers, as was the case with malware known as AZORuIt that began circulating in early February 2020, Proofpoint reports. In some instances, the malware might hijack the user's system until they pay an exorbitant fee to "unlock" their data. Of course, there is no promise that cyber criminals will make good on their word or that the malware will be fully removed from an infected computer. However, many victims are willing to pay the price because they lack backups or the tools to restore the data themselves. The risk of malware is even greater with so many people now working remotely to promote social distancing. Employees transfer others' sensitive data from devices and over connections that may have more vulnerabilities than company devices and systems. Related: Five Ways To Protect Your Company Against Cyber Attacks Where do these attacks originate? Cybersecurity firm FireEye has detected increased activity in China, North Korea and Russia, and users in the U.S., Europe and Iran are frequent targets. Research shows a spike in domain name purchases that relate to current events since late February domains that could be used in phishing attacks according to research by Recorded Future. These cyber criminals don't even need to be skilled and experienced programmers, either. Resecurity, an American cybersecurity company, reports that one Russian hacking forum, XSS, even sells phishing kits that would-be scammers can deploy against their targets for just a few hundred dollars. That's a small price to pay for the potential payoff. Related: 4 Tips for Keeping Your Data Secure While Everyone Works From Home Although the World Health Organization has released an advisory about these cyber attacks, most people are concerned about the risks of the illness in the physical world. IT teams and companies have worked to increase awareness of these attacks, but it might already be too late for people who have fallen prey to such scams. These digital infections can take hold before anyone is aware. Your final checklist of what to look out for: Fraudulent emails, seemingly coming from your bank, or healthcare provider asking you to take action via the email (log-in, open attachments, etc.) Offers or opportunities to acquire in-demand solution products for resale Unusual opportunities being proposed Phone scams from the government or other industries Be safe out there. Related: Six Steps To Take When Leading Your Business Through A Crisis Ecommerce Entrepreneurship Grows as Unemployment Rises The Online Sales Easy Button Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump announced in a tweet late Monday night that he plans to suspend immigration to the United States, a move he said is needed to safeguard American jobs and defend the country from coronavirus pandemic, which he called "the Invisible Enemy." "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" the president wrote, announcing the plan at 10:06 p.m. Trump, who is running for reelection on his immigration record and his effort to build a wall on the Mexico border, has long been frustrated with the limits on his ability to seal off the United States by decree. An executive order suspending all immigration to the country would take the president's impulses to an untested extreme. Two White House officials said that an executive order is being drafted and that Trump could sign it as soon as Tuesday. The order, which was discussed among senior staff members Monday, would suspend nearly all immigration under the rationale of preventing the spread of infection by foreigners arriving from abroad. The United States has more confirmed coronavirus cases, by far, than any other country, with more than 775,000; the next highest country is Spain, with 200,000 cases. The United States also has far more confirmed virus-related deaths - more than 42,000 - than any other nation; Italy has recorded more than 24,000 deaths and Spain just fewer than 21,000. It remains unclear what exceptions Trump could include in such a sweeping immigration order, or whether would-be immigrants could reach the United States by demonstrating that they are free of the virus. The White House officials said they thought the order would not be in place long-term. The president's announcement caught some senior Department of Homeland Security officials off guard, and the agency did not respond to questions and requests to explain Trump's plan late Monday. The United States already has placed broad restrictions on travel from Europe, China and other pandemic hot spots, while implementing strict controls at the country's land borders. International air travel has plummeted. Halting immigration to the United States could affect hundreds of thousands of visa holders and other would-be green card recipients who are planning and preparing to come to the United States at any given time. Most of them are the family members of Americans. For Trump's executive order to work, it would have to direct the State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to immediately stop the issuance of immigration visas. Such a move appears to have no modern precedent and would potentially leave the fiances, fiancees, children and other close relatives of U.S. citizens in limbo. The State Department issued about 460,000 immigration visas last year, and USCIS processed nearly 580,000 green card approvals for foreigners who applied for permanent residency, the latest U.S. statistics show. Alex Nowrasteh, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said the president likely does have the authority to issue such an order during a time of crisis. Nowrasteh said there are at least two legal justifications for Trump to close the border to all immigration: Title 42 of the U.S. Code enables the president to halt immigration for health reasons, while a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding his travel ban gives him legal precedent. If such an order were signed, it would be unprecedented in American history, Nowrasteh said. During the height of the 1918 flu pandemic, the United States allowed more than 110,00 immigrants to enter the country. And during World War II, the United States accepted more than 170,000 immigrants with green cards and more than 227,000 temporary agricultural workers, mostly from Mexico, on the bracero guest worker visa program. The president already has largely halted most forms of immigration into the United States, Nowrasteh said. This latest move continues his restrictionist immigration policies and takes them to a new level, using the pandemic as the reasoning. On March 18, the State Department canceled most routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments at its offices overseas, effectively shutting down almost all new kinds of travel into the United States. The State Department also stopped all processing for refugee resettlement. Later that week, however, authorities resumed processing H-2A visas for seasonal guest workers. The country's agricultural laborers have been officially declared "essential workers," including hundreds of thousands of people who enter the country under that temporary visa. Nowrasteh said he was surprised that it took Trump so long to use the pandemic and the cause of public health as justification to achieve one of his highest policy priorities. "The president has been opposed to legal immigration for his entire administration," he said. "This is an opportunity to close it down entirely, and this is about as legitimate as you can get in terms of a broad justification for doing so." Trump already has cited the health emergency to enact the kind of enforcement measures at the U.S. border with Mexico he has long extolled, moves that have essentially closed the border to asylum seekers and waved off anti-trafficking protections for underage migrants. During the past few weeks of the coronavirus crisis, U.S. border authorities have expelled 10,000 border crossers in an average of just a little more than an hour and a half each, which has effectively emptied out U.S. Border Patrol holding facilities of detainees. U.S. border authorities say the measures are in place to help federal agents, health-care workers and the public by preventing potentially infected migrants from crossing into the United States, while minimizing the population of detainees in U.S. immigration jails. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21 Trend: Turkmenistan is negotiating with Fitch Ratings to determine the country's investment rating, Minister of foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov said at a government meeting, Trend reports with reference to Online newspaper of the Oil and Gas Complex of Turkmenistan. Meredov noted that this work is carried out within the framework of strengthening cooperation between Turkmenistan and international financial institutions. Certain proposals were made to obtain an investment rating of Turkmenistan. Fitch Ratings is one of the three largest international rating agencies. These agencies help potential investors determine which country to invest in. Rating agencies analyze the economic situation of countries, calculate investment risks and publish ratings of States. Fitch Ratings' long-term credit ratings are assigned on an alphabetic scale from AAA to D. They have Investment grade and Non-investment grade. AAA is considered as the best quality companies in the investment class, while BBB is medium class companies, which are satisfactory at the moment. In the speculative class BB is more prone to changes in the economy, and D is considered to be a Default. There is a law in the legislation of Turkmenistan about foreign investment. In accordance with this law, Turkmenistan aims to attract and effectively use foreign investments in local projects. They arrive 24 hours a day in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, groups of men, women and children deported by the United States. Each time, at the edge of the international bridge, Ricardo Calderon Macias and his team get ready. They put on masks and gloves. They prepare their thermometers and health forms. They wonder, sometimes aloud: Will anyone in this group test positive? "We're worried that eventually, with these deportations, we're all going to get infected," said Calderon, the regional director of the Tamaulipas state immigration institute. Since the coronavirus struck the United States, immigration authorities have deported dozens of infected migrants, leaving governments and nonprofit agencies across Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean struggling to respond. When some countries resisted continued deportations, U.S. officials said they would screen migrants slated for removal. But they did not commit to administering coronavirus tests. In many instances, the screenings, which consist primarily of taking a person's temperature, have failed to detect cases. Even though overall deportations declined this month, the United States has returned thousands of people across the Western Hemisphere in April. President Donald Trump said late Monday that he would "suspend immigration" to the United States. Even before that announcement, officials in the region were concerned about the deportations. Guatemala's health minister spoke this month of the worrying number of infected deportees sent from the United States - the "Wuhan of the Americas," he said, referring to the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus originated. Mexico's Tamaulipas state, across the Rio Grande from the southern tip of Texas, is receiving about 100 deportees per day, officials there say. In some cases, repatriation workers have noticed that deportees are visibly sick as they arrive. Those deportations are blamed for at least one new outbreak in a Mexican migrant shelter. On Monday, the Mexican government asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to test deportees for the virus, but the DHS has not committed to doing so, according to a Mexican official with knowledge of the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe diplomatic talks. In Guatemala, at least 50 deportees have tested positive, about 17% of the country's total confirmed cases. Three-quarters of passengers on a deportation flight to Guatemala City last month were infected, according to the country's Health Ministry. Guatemalan officials said last week that they would suspend returns from the United States. In Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, three people sent back from the United States in early April have tested positive, officials said. The country has 62 ventilators and a population of 11 million. The Trump administration reportedly was planning another deportation flight to Haiti this week. "Rather than be deported where they face serious harm if they fall ill and risk infecting thousands of others, they should be released from detention into the care of their friends and families so that they may safely quarantine," a coalition of 164 human rights and religious organizations said in an open letter pleading for suspension of deportations. In Mexico over the past week, two deportees tested positive for the virus. Calderon's team spotted a deportee in Reynosa who was visibly ill, with a dry cough, red eyes and a fever. They wondered how the man, who arrived from Atlanta, had made it through U.S. health screenings. A second man was deported to Nuevo Laredo from Houston "without knowing he was a carrier of the virus," the Tamaulipas state government said in a statement, and was sent to a migrant shelter in the city. That case apparently prompted an outbreak in the shelter, Casa del Migrante Nazareth; 14 others have since tested positive. "The risk we face is bringing a massive contagion into our own country," said Raul Cardenas, the city manager of Nuevo Laredo. "We're mortified that these deportations are continuing." U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported Monday that 220 of the roughly 32,000 detainees it holds have tested positive. But given limited testing, officials say privately, the actual number is probably much higher. In an email, ICE said it had deported 2,985 people in the first 11 days of April, on track for a significant decrease from previous months. Between January and March, ICE deported an average of 20,881 people per month. The agency did not respond to questions about continuing deportations during the pandemic. On its website, the agency says it conducts medical screenings of detainees before they board deportation flights. Any detainee who fails a screening or is suspected of being contagious "will be denied boarding and referred to an ICE approved facility for screening," the agency says. Starting last week, it said, "any detainee with a temperature of 99 degrees or higher will be immediately referred to a medical provider for further evaluation and observation." Acting ICE director Matthew Albence told Congress last week that the agency had released about 700 people with underlying conditions that make them particularly vulnerable during the pandemic but was not considering further releases of others at high risk. In the email to The Washington Post, an ICE official wrote that the agency's "expectation is that each country will continue to meet its international obligation to accept its own nationals." On Monday, a federal judge in California ordered ICE to review the cases of all high-risk detainees to consider their release. U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal said ICE "likely exhibited callous indifference to the safety and wellbeing" of vulnerable detainees. U.S. officials say the pandemic requires the suspension of immigration laws, including shutting down the asylum system. But they also say they're bound by law to continue deportations. "ICE is trying to thread the needle between getting folks out of detention facilities as quickly and safely as possible but not releasing them en masse without testing," said one DHS official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. The agency has discretion to parole certain detainees, such as asylum seekers with pending cases. But many of its detainees have been charged with serious crimes and must be held, the official said. The official said the DHS is unlikely to administer tests to every deportee unless foreign governments make that a condition for taking people back. Many migrant shelters in Mexico and Central America, worried about the outbreak, have closed their doors. Some deportees have spent decades in the United States and aren't easily able to find housing or food after being sent back to their country of origin. Under new rules applied during the pandemic, Central Americans who are caught crossing the border are now also deported to Mexico. Mexico has raised concerns with the DHS that border agents are expelling Ecuadoran migrants and other third-country nationals who are not supposed to be returned under the emergency agreement, the official said. The Rev. Francisco Gallardo, who runs a migrant shelter in Matamoros, called the possibility that deportees will arrive infected "a great concern for us." "The deportees arrive at a bus station where migration officials receive them, but they don't have a serious health protocol in place," Gallardo said. "They just check for fevers and that's it. The migrants are already vulnerable, and this just adds to the level of discrimination." He decided to close the shelter two weeks ago. - - - Sieff reported from Mexico City. Miroff reported from Washington. Gabriela Martinez in Mexico City contributed to this report. Globally destructive economic instability has pushed fuel prices into drastic retreat, leading to some very rare good news for South African motorists. This is according to the Automobile Association (AA), following the release of unaudited mid-month fuel price data by the Central Energy Fund. Skitterphoto via Pixabay A reduction in global oil production Market remains highly volatile "Coming in the wake of Marchs record fuel price reductions, South Africa is probably set for a second month of record fuel price drops for some fuel types," the AA comments. "The irony is that this has come at a time where motorists and businesses are severely limited as to how they can use their vehicles."The mid-month data showed petrol down by a massive R1,89 a litre, with illuminating paraffin dropping by R1,88 and diesel by R1,17.The AA says that the factors that initially caused the plunge in oil prices before the Covid-19 pandemic placed much of the world in lockdown, has now been resolved."The spat between Russia and Saudi Arabia has ended with an agreement which is expected to see global oil production reduced by nearly ten million barrels a day in a bid to support oil prices. However, it may be a case of too little, too late."World commerce has all but collapsed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even assuming a rapid end to the pandemic, it will take many months for the global economy to work up a new head of steam, and possibly years before it returns to pre-COVID-19 levels. We expect it to be a long while before substantial oil price hikes are a reality," notes the AA.The AA says that even the rands vast crash against the US dollar since March has not been enough to offset the steep decline in oil prices."The rand has gone from an average exchange rate against the dollar of R15,65 on 2 March to its current level of around R18,25. In any other circumstances, a crash of 17% in six weeks would see South Africans facing a massive fuel price hike. Instead, we are set for another large drop."The AA says the market remains highly volatile and cautions these figures could be very different by month-end. "But as matters currently stand, when South Africans come out of lockdown at the end of April, fuel prices will be around three rand a litre lower than when they went in," the AA concludes.It is expected that the fuel price will continue to drop during May. One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021 Phone apps designed to help limit the spread of coronavirus have had only modest uptakes so far. When Singapore launched the first smartphone app of its kind last month to identify and alert people who had interacted with carriers of the novel coronavirus, the city-state of roughly 5.7 million people had just 385 cases of infections. But even as cases in the country which is in lockdown have surged past 9,000, only about one in five people have downloaded the app, TraceTogether, which uses Bluetooth signals to log when people have been close to one another. The modest numbers in a tech-savvy country where trust in government is high shows the challenges facing public health authorities and technology experts around the world who are looking to exit lockdowns and who believe contact-tracing apps can play an important role in restarting economies. A few countries, including South Korea and Israel, are using high-tech methods of contact tracing that involve tracking peoples locations via phone networks. But such centralised, surveillance-based approaches are viewed as invasive and unacceptable in many countries for privacy reasons. Scientists and researchers from more than 25 countries published an open letter on Monday urging governments not to abuse such technology to spy on their people and warning of risks in an approach championed by Germany. We are concerned that some solutions to the crisis may, via mission creep, result in systems which would allow unprecedented surveillance of society at large, said the letter that gathered more than 300 signatures. The Bluetooth approach, being pursued at various stages by governments across Europe and Latin America, as well as in Australia and many Asia nations, requires a majority of people in a geographic area to adopt it for it to be effective. The apps should be voluntary, and would need to be downloaded by at least 60 percent of the population to achieve the so-called digital herd immunity needed to suppress COVID-19, say researchers from the University of Oxfords Big Data Institute. An app in India, believed to be the second in the world to go live after Singapore, has reached 50 million downloads on Android phones, which dominate the market. Thats a small fraction of Indias 500 million-strong smartphone user base, not to mention its population of more than 1.3 billion. 200415191026597 It requires quite a bit of effort on your side as a user and the value is not very tangible, said Frederic Giron, a Singapore-based analyst with market research firm Forrester, referring to TraceTogether. Singapores Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced new anti-virus efforts on Tuesday and said we will need everyones cooperation to install and use apps such as TraceTogether, though he stopped short of saying it would be mandatory. The efforts in Singapore, India and elsewhere are still in their early stages. A joint initiative announced last week by Apple and Google could give the concept a boost, in part by smoothing key technical issues. The apps also have limited utility during lockdowns, but could prove much more appealing when people are again in frequent contact. Italian carmaker Ferrari, for example, is rolling out a voluntary contact-tracing app as part of its programme for safely reopening its factories. In Australia, the government has suggested such apps could be mandatory, though that approach is fiercely opposed by European governments and privacy advocates. Apple and Google say they will not support compulsory tracing apps. 200407181941637 Trust deficit The Bluetooth-based apps are designed to be more privacy-friendly than tracking techniques that use GPS or mobile phone data. They use Bluetooth to broadcast and receive an encrypted, pseudonymous signal from nearby phones and create a log of interactions that remain on the phone, so users names and numbers are not disclosed. If a person tests positive for COVID-19, people who were near that person for a certain period of time can be alerted via their phones. The India app also has other functions and uses GPS data to identify infection clusters. Some people in Singapore and India say they are willing to use such an app, even at some cost to their privacy. Right now, I dont care about privacy, at least amid this crisis, said Bengaluru-based Ganga Bopaiah, who works for an IT services company and already uses the Indian app, known as Aarogya Setu, which means health bridge. As long as COVID-19 is around Id use it. In fact, I will use it more after the lockdown eases. Still, privacy is a contentious topic in India, especially in light of recent tensions between the government and the countrys minority Muslim population. 200323153737040 There is always an element of doubt when the government is asking you to divulge personal information, said Harish Iyer, an Indian LGBT rights activist who has not downloaded the app. Self-quarantine orders in Indias slums have also fanned mistrust among some Muslims who believe health workers are gathering personal data under the guise of containing the pandemic. Background gripes The Indian government has been heavily backing the Aarogya Setu app, sending emails to companies including Facebook and Google requesting them to promote the app, an official at Indians IT ministry said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also recommended that people download it. Singapore has not pushed TraceTogether as heavily to date, though the prime ministers comments on Tuesday suggest that is changing. A big complaint about TraceTogether is that it doesnt work in the background on an iPhone, meaning the app has to be open at all times, which drains power and can interfere with other processes. Apple does not permit iPhone apps running in the background to access Bluetooth, for security reasons. The new tools Apple has promised as part of its joint effort with Google will solve that problem, but only for apps that adhere to other requirements such as forgoing any use of location data and not being mandatory. The TraceTogether developers this week welcomed the efforts by Google and Apple, and said they would work with the companies upcoming technologies to improve the app. NEW YORK, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Harvest Partners, LP ("Harvest" or the "Firm") announced today that Jamie Toothman has joined Harvest as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. In this role, Ms. Toothman will oversee the Firm's legal and compliance matters and provide legal support for funds managed by Harvest. Prior to joining Harvest, Ms. Toothman was a Senior Vice President at Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., where she managed fund formation and operations, regulatory compliance and other legal matters across a variety of strategies, including private equity and credit opportunities. Ms. Toothman began her legal career at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, focusing on private and public acquisitions, capital markets and other corporate transactions. Michael DeFlorio, President of Harvest, said, "Having a seasoned professional with experience managing legal and compliance matters, across multiple investment strategies within private equity, makes Jamie a valuable addition to our leadership team. Her expertise will add to the Firm's continued growth, while also helping us navigate an ever-changing global regulatory environment." Ms. Toothman commented, "I am excited to join the Harvest team and look forward to working with the firm in supporting its continued success and commitment to excellence and integrity." Ms. Toothman holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from the University of Michigan. About Harvest Partners, LP Founded in 1981, Harvest Partners is a leading New York-based private equity investment firm that focuses on investments in middle-market companies in the business services & consumer, healthcare, industrial services and manufacturing & distribution sectors. Its control and non-control strategies leverage Harvest Partners' 35+ years of experience in financing organic and acquisition-oriented growth companies. For more information, please visit www.harvestpartners.com. Contact: Caroline Luz Lambert & Co. 203-656-2829 [email protected] SOURCE Harvest Partners Related Links http://www.harvestpartners.com (by Lorenzo Trombetta) BEIRUT - The novel coronavirus will also change Ramadan, the traditional month of the year during which 1.5 billion Muslims around the world who are called to purify their body and soul will fast from dawn to sunset. The fast is broken every night with family and friends to eat, pray and spend time together until late at night. This year the new moon of the Islamic month of prayer, fast, celebration and rest will be sighted between Thursday and Friday. And for 28 days, until approximately May 22, tens of millions of Muslims in the Middle East and around the globe will have to deal with restrictive measures imposed by authorities in several countries to limit as much as possible the spread of the virus. But social distancing and quarantine are not respected in the same way in different countries. With the exclusion of Pakistan, where over 8,000 cases and 170 deaths from Codiv-19 have been registered, community prayers on Friday have been banned in all Arab-Islamic countries. And authorities nearly everywhere have ordered the closure of mosques and sanctuaries. The symbolic locations of the three most important holy cities of Islam will be empty. The holiest sites of Makkah and Medina in Saudi Arabia and the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem will be without pilgrims. For weeks now the Shiite sanctuaries of Karbala, Najaf, Kazimiya and Samarra in Iraq, and Qom and Mashhad in Iran have been deserted. No ritual prayer can be attended at night in mosques but only at home, in front of the television. With restaurants and public locations shut down from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf, and the imposition of a nighttime curfew in many countries, it will be hard to imagine the traditional Iftar dinners - the ritual daily meal to break the fast - which are usually seen on the streets of cities from Cairo to Damascus and Baghdad, illuminated by lanterns, an icon of Ramadan together with the crescent moon. "There will be no gatherings outdoors but family visits will continue", said Maher, a retailer in Aleppo, a war-torn Syrian city. In Syria, where the conflict has continued intermittently, has entered its tenth year and there is desperate need to boost the economy. "Markets are crowded and almost nobody respects security measures during the day", Maher told ANSAmed. "Stores are open, everybody is shopping for Ramadan". There is no widespread perception in Syria of the dangers posed by Codiv-19. In government-controlled areas, in those under Kurdish control in the east and under Turkish influence in the north-west, 30 positive cases and three deaths have been registered. But authorities don't have the tools to carry out tests. In nearby Lebanon, where over 600 positive cases and 20 deaths have been registered and formally attributed to coronavirus, Ramadan will be celebrated in a more subdued manner. "There is a lot of fear and this will force us to stay at home", said Hasan, who lives in Beirut with four kids and who has elderly parents. But it is hard to abandon the idea of a month of family gatherings: "Rather than going out, we will move in with my parents so that we will be able to be together without going out every day". Many will certainly be spending their nights watching television as broadcasters are ready with programs for "Ramadan 2020, everybody at home". The first function to observe the Civil Services day took place in Delhis Vigyan Bhawan on 21 April, 2006. Civil Services Day is celebrated every year on 21 April. It is observed as an occasion for the civil servants to rededicate themselves to the cause of citizens of the country. Civil servants are said to be the backbone of administrative machinery. The ultimate responsibility of running the administration rests with the cabinet ministers, but owing to their small number they cannot manage everything on their own. This is where civil servants come into play. The ministers formulate policies and it is up to civil servants to carry them out at different levels of governance. History There is a reason as to why Civil Services Day is celebrated on 21 April. On this day, the first home minister of Independent India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, addressed the probationers of Administrative Services Officers in 1947 at Metcalf House, Delhi. He referred to civil servants as the steel frame of India. The first function to observe this day took place in Delhis Vigyan Bhawan on 21 April, 2006. How it is celebrated The Government of India presents the Prime Ministers Awards for Excellence in public administration to districts or implementing units for carrying out priority and innovative programmes. The scale of this award process is large as many districts send their entries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended his greeting to civil servants and their families. He appreciated them for their efforts in the fight against novel coronavirus. Today, on Civil Services Day I convey greetings to all Civil Servants and their families. I appreciate their efforts in ensuring India successfully defeats COVID-19. They are working round the clock, assisting those in need and ensuring everyone is healthy. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2020 President Ram Nath Kovind wished present and past civil servants and their families on Civil Services Day. The President wrote, Our civil services have played a key role in implementing policies and programmes for public welfare. The Congress paid its tribute to civil servants for their unwavering commitment towards public service and excellence. Today, on Civil Service Day, we salute the unwavering commitment of civil servants across India towards public service and excellence. Their utmost dedication to the citizens cause has enabled the smooth functioning of Govt. machinery even in such trying times. pic.twitter.com/oPHyqDBtdE Congress (@INCIndia) April 21, 2020 The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Twitter wrote: On #CivilServicesDay, we salute the Steel Frame of India for their exemplary service to the nation. You are also at the forefront of our battle against Coronavirus, working round the clock with full dedication and determination to defeat it. pic.twitter.com/7f97zcxkXe BJP (@BJP4India) April 21, 2020 Several other politicians also hailed civil servants on the occasion On #CivilServicesDay, my compliments to the civil servants for their efficiency and hard work in implementing policies & welfare programs. The way our administrative officers are working with utmost dedication along with health workers & police to defeat corona is highly laudable Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) April 21, 2020 Greetings to all the civil servants of our country on #CivilServicesDay. Considered to be the steel frame of India, our civil servants have risen to the occasion in this health crisis and are working unabatedly in defeating the pandemic. I salute their #IspatiIrada. pic.twitter.com/zjyHXtF0CL Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) April 21, 2020 Assyrians Mark Easter in Turkey Amid Safety Fears An Assyrian monk walks up the steps at the ancient monastery of Mor Gabriel, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Midyat in southeastern Turkey, Jan. 13, 2009. ( Reuters) MIDYAT, Turkey -- The lone priest tending a remote monastery in southeastern Turkey gave uninvited visitors food and water when they darkened his door in 2018. The men were Kurdish militants, authorities said, and for his act of charity, Sefer Bilecen now faces charges of terrorism. The case against Bilecen, 44, has rattled the tiny community of 5,000 or fewer Christians still living in their ancient homeland near the borders with Syria and Iraq. Most of their brethren have left since the 1950s, fleeing poverty and a long-running conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish fighters. At the height of the insurgency in the 1990s, dozens of Syriac Christians were assassinated by unknown gunmen. When a fragile peace was restored, Syriacs, who are also called Assyrians, began returning in the mid-2000s to reclaim ancestral lands and centuries-old churches. Thousands more make annual pilgrimages to family homes and holy sites. Churches in the main town of Midyat and nearby villages stood mostly empty as the coronavirus pandemic kept the faithful away when the Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter today. Read the full story here. South Dakota has enough machines for needed testing for the coronavirus but is lacking the supplies to do the tests, Gov. Kristi Noem said Monday in a news conference. Noem also said she had a conversation with Vice President Mike Pence on Monday morning about the shortage. "We do have more capacity and machines that are across the state. What my communication has been with the administration is that I can have the machines, but I need the supplies to run the machines," Noem said. "I've been actively advocating for the supplies specific to the equipment we have here in South Dakota." The governor said the lack of supplies is making it challenging to address COVID-19 outbreaks across the state. "Especially in light of the situation we have with hot spots, in order to expertly address those and aggressively go after situations like that, I have to have the supplies available," Noem said. "We're continuously working with the administration to secure the supplies that we need to use the capacity we have in place, but also working with the outside sources and private suppliers." Noem said the state is "doing well" overall though. "I would like to be a lot more aggressive, so that why I am continuing to advocate for more supplies. That's been my message to the vice president," Noem said. "While the vast majority of the state is doing very well, we do have concerns in areas of the state that are hot spots, and we are aggressively testing there." Medical board established Noem announced Monday the formation of a Medical Review Committee to look at President Trump's re-opening plan for America. "This committee will be a part of making sure that we're looking at that and applying those recommendations that are coming from the White House to South Dakota, to see what steps can be taken here in South Dakota," she said. The committee will be comprised of Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon, Avera Health Chief Medical Officer Dave Erickson, Avera Medical Group Chief Medical Officer Kevin Post, Monument Health President/CEO Paulette Davidson, Monument Health Chief Medical Officer Brad Archer, Sanford Health Sioux Falls President Paul Hanson and Sanford Health Sioux Falls Chief Medical Officer Allison Suttle. Predicted peak unchanged Noem said South Dakota's peak of COVID-19 cases is still projected for mid-June. "I know that warm weather is coming and that a lot of people are getting antsy to get through this COVID-19 virus. I just want to remind everybody that we all want to get back to normal, but we still have to continue our mitigation efforts for several more weeks," she said. The governor said she understands the economic concern with growing unemployment, furloughed health employees and the closure of Smithfield Foods are tough, but health precautions still need to be taken to mitigate the spread of the virus. "Everything I have been talking about for weeks, we need to continue to do to make sure we are continuing to flatten that curve," Noem said. "We're in a good spot in South Dakota. We're being aggressive in making sure that people are taking the personal responsibility to be disciplined in their actions each and every day in how they conduct their way of life. That's why I'm continuing to remind you about your responsibility." Contact Assistant Managing Editor Nathan Thompson at nathan.thompson@rapidcityjournal.com. 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. Advertisement The Northeast is bracing for severe weather just a day after a tornado touched down in Florida and the deaths of three people were blamed on strong storms. Jerry Oliver Williams, 61, died late Sunday night when winds flipped the home Williams shared with his wife and child in a rural Alabama county, authorities said. The area was under a tornado warning at the time. 'He was in a mobile home, and the mobile home was destroyed by a tornado. He was in the wreckage of the mobile home. His wife and child were with him, and they were OK,' said Coroner Derek Wright of Alabama's Henry County. A suspected twister also resulted in one death in Marion County, Mississippi, said Coroner Jessie Graham. The Storm Prediction Center received more than 250 reports of possible tornadoes, high winds, hail and storm damage from east Texas to central Florida on Sunday and Monday. A tornado touched down on Interstate 75 in north Florida (pictured) The tornado touched down in Homosassa Springs, Florida, where it caused damage to homes and businesses (pictured) on Monday Tornado damage is seen in a residential neighborhood of Homosassa Springs, Florida, on Monday Jerry Johnson, 70, died when his home took a 'direct hit' from the storm in the Sandy Hook community, Graham said. The National Weather Service (NWS) said it had received reports of large hail and broken power poles in the area, and emergency management officials said 20 homes were damaged. In south Georgia, Wilcox County Coroner Janice Brown a 95-year-old woman died in a house fire early Monday that the state fire marshal's office suspected was caused by a lightning strike. Heavy storms were in the area at the time, said Brown, who declined to identify the victim since extended family members hadn't been notified. The deaths came as firefighters worked through storms to contain a blaze at the main music building at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Authorities haven't determined the cause of the fire, but it happened while strong storms with lightning were in the area. Firefighters saved most of the instruments and uniforms belonging to Alabama's Million Dollar Band, Mayor Walt Maddox said in a tweet. Rainfall totals in excess of 2 inches were widespread, and isolated spots in central Alabama received more than 8 inches of rain in a day, the weather service said. A suspected twister resulted in one death in Marion County, Mississippi, said Coroner Jessie Graham. A Baxterville, Mississippi, home was destroyed by a tornado on Monday Firefighters worked through storms to contain a blaze at the main music building at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa (pictured). Authorities haven't determined the cause of the fire, but it happened while strong storms with lightning were in the area More than 10,000 homes and businesses in Alabama were still without power as of Tuesday afternoon. The Storm Prediction Center received more than 250 reports of possible tornadoes, high winds, hail and storm damage from east Texas to central Florida on Sunday and Monday. A tornado touched down on Interstate 75 in north Florida, tossing a portable building being hauled by a truck into a nearby pickup truck, where the driver suffered minor injuries, authorities said. Terrifying footage shows the moment the twister hovered over the interstate before touching down. Teams from the NWS will assess tracks to determine where tornadoes struck. Forecasters warned residents in the South to prepare for more severe weather through Thursday. This forecast shows a new storm system that is expected to begin in the Southwest and end in the Southeast on Thursday Several states in the South are under severe weather warnings through Thursday night Some states will see between 2-3 inches of rain through Thursday (depicted above) The storms hit a week after a two-day outbreak of more than 100 tornadoes that began Easter Sunday and killed at least 36 people across the region. Forecasters warned residents in the South to prepare for more severe weather through Thursday. According to Weather.com, a new storm system will move in Tuesday and threaten to bring large hail, damaging wind gusts, tornadoes and flash flooding across several states. The storm will begin in the Southwest before entering the High Plains on Tuesday. Forecasters said the system will then head toward the Southeast, which could see some strong tornadoes. Meanwhile in the Northeast, the Storm Prediction Center said more than 36 million people in Washington, DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Newark and New York City are under the threat of severe weather beginning Tuesday afternoon and into the evening along the Interstate 95 corridor. The major threat for the Northeast will be damaging wind gusts of 50mph, forecasters said. Forecasters also said to residents in the Northeast should expect small hail and heavy rain. Pastor Tony Spell is seen as he welcomes local residents for Eastern mass at the Life Tabernacle megachurch challenging state orders against assembling in large groups to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Baton Rouge Louisiana U.S., April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Louisiana pastor Tony Spell has been charged with aggravated assault, local news outlets reported. Spell is accused of backing a church bus in the direction of a man who was protesting his church on Sunday. Police previously charged Spell with six misdemeanors after he refused to stop holding in-person church services despite stay-at-home orders put in place to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Louisiana pastor Tony Spell, who repeatedly defied state orders to hold in-person services, has been charged with aggravated assault after an incident in which police say he drove a bus toward a person protesting his evangelical church. Spell, of Life Tabernacle Church in the city of Central, near Baton Rouge, turned himself in to police on Tuesday and was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, NBC News reported. Police say Spell backed a bus toward a man, identified by WAFB9 as Trey Bennett, who was protesting church services at Life Tabernacle on Tuesday. A video of the incident shows the bus coming into very close proximity to Bennett. Spell told WAFB he just wanted to get out of the bus and "confront the protester," but his wife convinced him not to. "That man has been in front of my church driveway for three weeks now. He shoots people obscene finger gestures and shouts vulgarities," Spell told WAFB. Bennett told WAFB that he never used profanity or obscene gesture and that he holds signs as he protests. One of those signed read "CAUTION: Coronavirus incubator. Do not enter. You may die." Police previously charged Spell with six misdemeanors when he refused to stop in-person services despite stay-at-home orders due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. While many churches have transitioned to live-streamed services to protect parishioners from COVID-19, Spell told Insider on April 1 that he doesn't like such services because he can't "lay hands" on his parishioners as he can in person. Story continues "I cannot baptize people in a livestream. I can not lay hands on people in a livestream. I cannot pray for people in a livestream, and this is our biblical command to lay hands on the sick and when they recover baptize them by immersion in water, which we do every day," Spell told Insider. According to The Advocate, one of Spell's congregants has died, and a lawyer hired to represent the church has been hospitalized after both tested positive for COVID-19. While it's unknown where they caught the virus, Spell claimed the coroner's determination that the congregant died from coronavirus was "a lie." Central police chief Roger Corcoran told NBC News that authorities aren't denying Spell's freedom to practice religion. "They're trying to make a mockery of this, like he's some kind of victim," Corcoran said. "No one, not one person, is trying to stop him from preaching the word." According to WAFB, there's a second warrant for someone else who tried to swerve their truck onto a protester standing in the road. Read the original article on Insider Newly-released SBS drama "The King: Eternal Monarch" caught plagiarism controversy for allegedly using a Japanese-style temple in ints opening credits. The much-anticipated fantasy-romance series, starring Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun, premiered last April 17 and attained record-breaking ratings for its timeslot on the network. It has now aired two episodes. The story of this drama presents two parallel universes: one having a democratic ruling similar to modern-day Korea as we all know it, and the other one is an alternative universe wherein Korea is an empire governed by one ruler, which is a monarch. Lee Min Ho portrays the character of Emperor Lee Gon, and Kim Go Eun is detective Jung Tae Eul. They are set to team up to close the entry point between two worlds and protect the people they love the most. Despite the evident success, the drama is already under fire for a controversy that flared up online following its first episode. People noticed that the fictional world of the Korean Empire, illustrated in title video for the show, seemed to have used the images of buildings that are quite the same as the Japanese temples. On April 20, an internet community forum post pinpointed that a particular building that was seen in the opening scene of the drama is quite similar to the Todai-ji, which is one of the seven most influential Buddhist temples in Nara. Thus, the series resulted in criticisms from the online community. Some of the netizens consider it a bit offensive that a Japanese building is being used in a scene that was supposed to represent the Korean Daehan empire. Plus, it was also seen that the Korean royal emblem was covered with CGI-created cherry blossoms, considering that the drama is about two worlds that also and highlights ancient Korean society. Some viewers also noticed the similarities between the Imperial Seal for the fictional Korean Empire and the real Imperial Seal of Japan. Dismayed viewers commented: "I know it's a drama or movie, but if you're going to make a work on ancient Korea, shouldn't you do your assignment in historical research to produce this?" "I'm not going to watch it ever." "Is that how far your imagination can go..." "What is this? This isn't even a story about Japanese occupation." This issue goes beyond the concern of plagiarism since both countries, Korea and Japan, have a long history of historical disputes starting from at least the seventh century. Fast forward to the modern day, there are some sentiments about Korea that are often tied to Japan, such as making the country its imperial colony way back 1910, which sparked up for more issues like Japan's use of Koreans as forced laborers and "comfort women" during the World War II. The visible depictions of even a fictional Korean history that appear to have been influenced by Japanese tradition has, therefore, become a controversy. SHANGHAI, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE: ZTO) ("ZTO" or the "Company"), a leading and fast-growing express delivery company in China, today announced that it filed its annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on April 21, 2020. The annual report can be accessed on the Company's investor relations website at http://zto.investorroom.com as well as the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company will provide a hard copy of its annual report containing the audited consolidated financial statements, free of charge, to its shareholders upon request. Requests should be directed to the Company's IR Department at [email protected]. About ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE: ZTO) ("ZTO" or the "Company") is a leading and fast-growing express delivery company in China. ZTO provides express delivery service as well as other value-added logistics services through its extensive and reliable nationwide network coverage in China. ZTO operates a highly scalable network partner model, which the Company believes is best suited to support the significant growth of e-commerce in China. The Company leverages its network partners to provide pickup and last-mile delivery services, while controlling the mission-critical line-haul transportation and sorting network within the express delivery service value chain. For more information, please visit http://zto.investorroom.com. SOURCE ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. Related Links http://zto.investorroom.com PI Industries on Tuesday said it will continue partial operation of its plants located at Panoli and Jambusar in Sterling SEZ, Gujarat, to ensure supply of crop protection products during the lockdown. In a regulatory filing, the company also said it expects that "all its manufacturing plants would be operational once the lockdown period is over on May 3 or such other date as per the directives issued by the Government of India from time to time". Manufacturing of crop protection products has been exempted from the lockdown rules. PI Industries said the activities at the company's manufacturing plants are being carried out with all safety, security and other measures as required by the government and health advisories. However, the company's personnel based at its offices located at Gurugram and Udaipur are working from home and providing the required support to other functions including the plant, it said. The situation will continue to be closely monitored and appropriate actions initiated which will also be communicated at the appropriate time as required, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former challenger, Benny Gantz, agreed Monday night to establish a unity government, a deal that finally breaks a yearlong political impasse and keeps Netanyahu in office as he faces trial on corruption charges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former challenger, Benny Gantz, agreed Monday night to establish a unity government, a deal that finally breaks a year-long political impasse and keeps Netanyahu in office as he faces trial on corruption charges. After three inconclusive elections in the past year, the creation of the new government forestalls what had appeared to be an inevitable fourth election and offers a deeply divided Israel a chance for national healing as it battles the coronavirus pandemic. For Netanyahu, the agreement buys him time to try to resolve two contentious issues central to his legacy: to sidestep his prosecution or at least prevent it from driving him from power, and to extend Israeli sovereignty over occupied Palestinian territory. The deal, announced by both mens political parties at 7.15 pm, adds to Netanyahus tenure as Israels longest-serving leader and, coming after his conservative coalition failed to win a majority, cements his reputation as a canny political survivor who can never be counted out. For Gantz, a former army chief and relative political novice, however, the agreement may have the opposite effect. The move was a stunning turnabout after his repeated campaign vows that he would never serve with a prime minister under criminal indictment and a disappointment to many of his supporters who saw it as a capitulation to a leader they had wanted to oust. Under the deal, which the two leaders cast as an emergency government to fight the coronavirus, Gantz will be named deputy prime minister and is to get a turn as prime minister halfway through their three-year term, in October 2021, switching roles with Netanyahu. But given Netanyahus political cunning, Israeli analysts were skeptical that he would hand over power when the time came or even that the new government would last that long. Gantz won at least a measure of insurance: Their rotation agreement would require 75 of the 120 members of parliament to vote to overturn it, and if the government is disbanded early he would become prime minister. But Netanyahu, whose trial on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges is now set to begin on 24 May, will have an effective veto over appointments of the next attorney-general and state prosecutor. Netanyahu had also sought an assurance which he did not achieve that if the Supreme Court rules that a criminal defendant cannot serve as prime minister, the new government would pass legislation overriding such a decision. But Netanyahu did win a clause saying that such a decision by the court in the next six months would immediately lead to new elections. Netanyahu could then try again for a 61-seat majority that would enact the override he would need to retain power. Anshel Pfeffer, a biographer of Netanyahu, said he expected that, rather than try to torpedo the deal when Gantzs turn comes as prime minister Netanyahu had reason to protect it because he is still assured of one of the top two jobs in Israel. Hes not only won this, hes bought Gantzs services as a bodyguard, Pfeffer said. Gantz is bound to protect Bibi, because its the only way he becomes prime minister, he said, using Netanyahus nickname. And for the next three years, Bibi can go on trial, they can say the most terrible things about him in court, and he can lose, but until he loses his last appeal, hes protected, Pfeffer said. Despite the sense of urgency to form a joint government to fight the virus sweeping through the country, the final sticking points in the negotiations were political. According to representatives of Gantzs centrist Blue and White party, they included differing approaches to President Donald Trumps proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu has pledged to swiftly and unilaterally annex large swaths of the occupied West Bank while Gantz has said he would support annexation only with international consensus, which appears highly unlikely. The final agreement delays consideration of annexation until 1 July at the earliest. It declares that annexation must be done in a way that safeguards Israels interests, including the needs for preserving regional stability, protecting existing peace agreements and aspiring for future ones. But it leaves those determinations up to the government and says that Gantz is only entitled to consultation with Netanyahu on annexation, not a veto. The two-month delay gives opponents of annexation, who say it would reignite the conflict and deal a death blow to already dim hopes of a two-State solution, a brief window to build international and domestic support to try to block such a move. A government coalition based on a commitment to annex more occupied Palestinian territory is a threat to a rules-based world order in general, but to peace, security and stability in West Asia in particular, Saeb Erekat, the veteran Palestinian negotiator, said in a statement. Annexation means the end of any possibility for a negotiated solution. The deal between Gantz and Netanyahu first envisions an emergency government lasting for six months, when only legislation related to the battle against the coronavirus can be taken up by parliament except for bills concerning the Trump plan, the two sides said. A coronavirus Cabinet will be formed, jointly led by Netanyahu and Gantz, to coordinate efforts. The Trump administration plan, announced in January, gives Israel most of what it has sought over decades of conflict while offering the Palestinians a state with limited sovereignty. Under the plan, Israel would control a unified Jerusalem as its capital and would not be required to uproot any West Bank settlements. For now, it offers a vital lifeline to Netanyahu, who can fight his corruption trial from the prime ministers office. By taking aggressive steps to combat the coronavirus, Netanyahu had already gone a long way to reasserting his leadership and varnishing his international profile. I promised the State of Israel a national emergency government that would work to save the lives and livelihoods of Israeli citizens, he wrote on Twitter. I will continue to do everything for you, citizens of Israel. Gantzs assent to a joint government led to the immediate breakup of his party, dismantling the most formidable adversary Netanyahu faced during his last 11 years in office. Many of Gantzs former supporters have accused him of betraying them by joining Netanyahus right-wing and religious coalition. Some analysts said the decisions may have ended Gantzs nascent political career. Gantz has argued that given the public health crisis, it was the only responsible choice. We prevented a fourth election, he said in a Twitter post Monday night. We will preserve democracy. We will fight the coronavirus and take care of all of Israels citizens. The coronavirus is known to have infected more than 13,600 Israelis and has claimed at least 173 lives so far. The country has been under lockdown, with potentially devastating economic consequences, and is only beginning to allow some businesses to resume operation under strict conditions. The deal announced Monday divides the numerous ministries of Israels government in half. Gantz and his allies get defence, justice, strategic affairs, economy, labour, communications, agriculture, culture, tourism and diaspora affairs, among others. The spoils for Netanyahus cohort include health, finance, interior, internal security, transportation and housing. The foreign ministry will shift hands from Gantzs bloc to Netanyahus after 18 months. The primary goals of Gantzs campaigns were to unseat Netanyahu and to uphold the rule of law after years of vitriolic attacks by Netanyahu and his supporters on the police and the judiciary. Despite Gantzs vows to protect the judiciary, his former partner in Blue and White, Yair Lapid, noted scornfully that Netanyahu had come away with control over a key committee that oversees the appointment of Supreme Court judges, who must retire at 70. So the compromise in the judge-appointing committee is that Bibi chose all of the committees representatives, Lapid wrote on Twitter. Gantz, he added, had agreed to allow the criminal defendant to appoint all of the judges who will discuss his case. There is no limit to the disgrace. After the last election, on 2 March, a diverse, Gantz-led array of anti-Netanyahu forces, ranging from Arab and Islamic parties to Jewish ultranationalists, gained a slim majority of 61 parliamentary seats. Cooperating to form even a minority government proved impossible, but Gantz and his allies did at first agree to try to deny Netanyahu yet another term, either by enacting term limits or by passing a law to bar an indicted lawmaker from forming a government. Those efforts are now dead, and Netanyahu still towers above every rival as he has for as long as many Israelis can remember. Even giving Gantz the benefit of the doubt that its better to be a part of the government, Bibi has broken up Blue and White, the only party thats come close to challenging him in the past 10 years, said Tal Shalev, political writer for the Walla News website. Gantz doesnt have any achievements that come close to equalling the huge score that Netanyahu has just gotten. David M Halbfinger and Isabel Kershner c.2020 The New York Times Company Bijnor : , April 21 (IANS) A sub-inspector (SI), who was part of a team which escorted nine Tablighi Jamaat followers to a quarantine facility in Bijnor district after their return from Delhi, was declared corona positive on Monday, making him the first policeman in Uttar Pradesh to be infected with the virus. Of the nine persons who escorted to the facility on April 13, six tested corona positive on Friday last week. After the sub-inspector tested positive on Monday evening, 45 police personnel, who came in contact with the 59-year-old police official, have also been put under quarantine and the Nahtaur police station has been sanitised. The other members of the rescue team, three constables and a few health department workers, were declared negative in the report, a senior government official said. Superintendent of police (rural) Sanjay Kumar said, "A group of nine persons had returned from Delhi to their native village, Nargadi, on April 13. After getting the information, a joint team of police and health department went to their homes to quarantine them. A case was also registered against them for violating the lockdown. Of them, six turned out to be suffering from COVID-19." Later, the rescue team was also tested, and the report of the sub-inspector came positive. His family lives in Badaun and he lives alone in Bijnor. So far, 23 people, including four women, have tested positive in Bijnor district. Over 15 hotspots in the district have been sanitized and sealed by police and health department. Britains pubs, hotels and restaurants could face a bloodbath as the coronavirus lockdown is lifted, with up to a third of the sector at risk of closing down, an industry body has warned MPs. UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls called for urgent action to defer rent payments that have built up during the outbreak and to extend the employee furlough scheme for premises which may be forced to continue social-distancing measures as late as Christmas, long after the rest of the country has left lockdown. Ms Nicholls said that large numbers of hotel and restaurant staff are already missing out on furlough payments because income from tips and service charges is not included. And she said as many as 500,000 have been excluded from the scheme because they had not received a payslip by the start of March in an industry where many jobs are seasonal. Giving evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committees inquiry into the economic impact of coronavirus, Ms Nicholls said: It is undoubtedly the case that we are not going to be able to save every business and we are not going to be able to save every job in hospitality. Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou The government must legislate urgently to allow unpaid rent to be deferred to the end of loans or leases, or businesses will face a mountain of debt when quarterly payments come due in June, she warned. Pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants were the first to be affected by the lockdown and were likely to be the last out, with venue capacities restricted for months to come by the need to observe social-distancing measures such as separating out tables or imposing limits on numbers of drinkers, she told MPs. If we dont get that intervention on rent and we are forced to remain closed until Christmas, I think you could put a third of the sector at risk, Ms Nicholls said that government grants for the hospitality sector during the Covid-19 crisis had failed to reach as many as two-thirds of businesses including 10,000 pubs because they operate from premises above the rateable value threshold of 51,000. She called on chancellor Rishi Sunak to ditch the cap, which she said would improve the sectors chances immeasurably. And she said that only 1 per cent of HospitalityUK members had been able to make successful claims on insurance policies covering forced closures or the inability to access premises even when they had paid extra for policies including closure due to pandemics and notifiable diseases. More than 70 per cent had seen claims turned down by insurance companies. Meanwhile, more than half (58 per cent) were still waiting for decisions from their banks on coronavirus business interruption loans (CBILs), as lenders insisted on applying viability and appropriateness tests on businesses which often make losses in their early years of operation. One or two banks were saying they will not lend into the hospitality sector, full stop, she said. She welcomed Mr Sunaks decision to move the deadline from 28 February to 19 March to qualify for furlough payments. But she said the chancellor had added a requirement for participants to have received a payslip, which excluded 350,000 to 500,000 people. And she said that the scheme covered only income that was contractually guaranteed, so workers in hotels and fine dining who receive as much 40-50 per cent of their pay from the tronc system of pooled tips or service charges were ending up receiving as little as 40 per cent of their normal earnings. Many of these were lower-paid staff like waiters earning only 9 or 10 a hour in basic pay, who are able to boost that to 20 through tips in normal circumstances, she said. Ms Nicholls warned that even an end to the lockdown will not ease the sectors woes. With social-distancing restrictions in place, businesses are only going to be able to reopen at 30-50 per cent of normal revenues, she said. She called for the furlough scheme to be extended for businesses required to remain closed beyond June or those which can only open at reduced volumes and for continued access to government grants for the hospitality industry. Otherwise we will have done all this for nothing, because businesses wont be able to stand up by themselves when we remove the support, she warned. After hearing Ms Nichollss evidence, committee member Rushanara Ali said: There are still hundreds of thousands left who will not benefit from the extension to 19 March. That is a lot of lives, a lot of families, who are still not going to be supported and who need support urgently. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 01:26:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TIRANA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The Parliamentary Commission of Laws on Tuesday approved the Albanian government's request to extend the state of natural disaster until June 23, local media reported. The commission held an online meeting to discuss the request aimed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Lawmakers are expected to vote for the decision during a session on Thursday. Speaking at the online meeting, Minister of State for Reconstruction Arben Ahmetaj said the extension serves to keep the number of infections under control and will allow authorities to intervene immediately if necessary. Deputy Minister of Health and Social Protection Mira Rakacolli told lawmakers that health specialists had predicted an increase in infections in the next 14 days as a result of the easing of anti-virus measures. The Albanian government declared a state of natural disaster on March 24. To date, health authorities have reported a total of 609 coronavirus cases, with 354 recoveries and 26 fatalities. For the first time in six weeks, the capital city Tirana reported no new cases, but 25 new infections were registered nationwide. A total of 60 medical staff have been infected in Albania, of whom 41 have recovered. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 16:00:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close URUMQI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- From down in the gutter in her marriage and career to a "beauty queen" in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Khemernisa Abdulla has penned an empowering anthem for women with her own life experience. "Women must learn to be beautiful and confident," said Khemernisa, 33. "This is a very good lesson I learned from the setbacks in my marriage and business." Khemernisa used to be "a plain-looking wife" that her ex-husband resented. But in the past few years, she has bid farewell to a painful marriage and a life of poverty and started a renowned hairdressing salon in rural Xinjiang. Currently, she makes about 3,500 yuan (495 U.S. dollars) a month from her beauty business. "I am super proud of myself," she said. Khemernisa was born in a village at the edge of the Taklimakan Desert in southern Xinjiang. The village was mired in grinding poverty, with an average field area of fewer than 0.03 hectares per capita. Most locals made ends meet by raising domestic animals or becoming migrant workers. Khemernisa did not worry financially before 2014: Her ex-husband was a construction worker in the county with a handsome salary. "In the past, women in the village had very low status," she said. "A woman had to be obedient to her husband and do whatever she was told to." Khemernisa would spend all her time attending the elderly and their child in the family, and never bothered to dress herself up or put on any makeup. Eventually, her husband began to give her the cold shoulder. "He was determined to divorce me, and I was devastated," she said. "But I knew I couldn't keep him by my side anymore." The then weak-minded Khemernisa yielded to her husband's demand yet again. In 2014, she took the 20,000 yuan from the divorce and took her daughter to her parents' house. Her parents were poverty-stricken themselves, and her two brothers were still in school. So her then-60-year-old father had to go outside to find a job to support the family. "At that time, I had no salary, and I had my daughter tagging along, so I just cried in my bed," she recalled. Khemernisa then took the divorce money out to do a little business. She opened a clothes store, but the tepid business soon forced it to close. Devastated, Khemernisa started introspection. "I thought my business failure boiled down to one thing: that I didn't care about beauty and fashion myself," she said. In 2016, taking advice from her brother who was attending a vocational school, Khemernisa went to the county to study hairdressing and cosmetology. A year later, she mastered the techniques of perms, hair dyeing, facials, neck-care and handcare. She also developed a sense of fashion and started to wear makeup. In 2018, she opened the first-ever beauty salon in her home village. The business won support from local officials, with the village exempting a year of rent for her. The regional women's federation donated beauty machines and beds to her salon, which soon became a "fashion center" in the village. Dilnar Eziz is a noodle shop owner in the village. She goes to Khemernisa's beauty salon for treatments every week. "I have never done beauty treatments before," Dilnar said. "Now that I am making my own money and paying my own bills, I might as well treat myself a little better." Business got increasingly better at the salon, and Khemernisa became more confident. Now she is the breadwinner in her family and even covers the tuition fees for her brothers. In late 2019, her family shook off poverty. Many local women saw her success and are following Khemernisa's footsteps in creating businesses of their own, said local official Hou Xinyu. "We try to help women realize their potential," Hou said. "Women should be more confident and self-reliant," Khemernisa said. "Love beauty and love yourself." Enditem BEIRUT (AP) An Israeli airstrike in central Syria killed nine fighters, including six who were not Syrians and some who were loyal to the militant Hezbollah group, an opposition war monitor said Tuesday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave no nationalities for the foreigners who were killed on a military post in the desert near the historic central town of Palmyra. It said the dead included some fighters loyal to Lebanon's Hezbollah group. Israel says it has been behind a series of airstrikes mainly targeting Iranian and Hezbollah forces in Syria that have joined the countrys war fighting alongside the government. It rarely confirms the attacks and did not comment on Monday's airstrike. Syrian state TV reported the countrys air defenses shot down several missiles launched by Israeli warplanes Monday night. The station gave no further details about the attack, the latest of several to hit central Syria in the past three weeks. The Observatory said late Monday the Israeli strikes targeted Iranian and Iran-backed fighters in the desert near Palmyra. It added that Israeli warplanes were also flying over neighboring Lebanon. The strikes came hours after Irans Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif was in the Syrian capital Damascus, where he met with Assad and his Syrian counterpart. Tony Abbott's former chief of staff Peta Credlin has slammed Malcolm Turnbull for claiming she effectively ran the country. In his tell-all memoir A Bigger Picture, Mr Turnbull suggested Ms Credlin 'dominated' Mr Abbott during his two years as PM until September 2015. 'You were really dealing with Peta and Peta was running the country and that was obvious, and dominating Abbott,' he told the ABC's 7.30 program on Monday. Ms Credlin hit back on Tuesday afternoon, telling The Australian Mr Turnbull lacked character. She said: 'There is a lot I could say in relation to Mr Turnbull's conduct in politics. Malcolm Turnbull has claimed his bitter rival Tony Abbott's controversial chief-of-staff Peta Credlin (pictured in November 2019) 'owned' her former boss 'However, while I find the man absolutely lacking in character and his highly personal attacks to be unedifying, I respect the office he once held, and the great party he once led, to add further to his commentary. 'In the end, the electoral test speaks volumes. I was part of a team that won 25 seats off Labor, and he led the team that handed them 14 seats on plate - so you be the judge.' Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Abbott described Mr Turnbull's comments as 'odious' and used the opportunity to heap praise on Peta Credlin rather than criticise Mr Turnbull. Ms Credlin, who advised the PM during his time in the top job, was an 'extraordinarily capable person,' Mr Abbott told the Today Show. 'She was an important part of the Abbott Government. She was a fine thinker, a great organiser and a trusted colleague. 'She deserves a great deal of credit,' he said. Abbott has described Ms Credlin as a 'fine thinker' who 'deserves a great deal of credit' for her role in the Abbott Government. Pictured together in 2015 Speaking to the ABC, Mr Turnbull said of Ms Credlin: 'It was as though she felt, ''I've created you, you're my creation'' and she felt she owned him. It was a truly bizarre relationship. 'Credlin and Abbott destroyed their own government due to their own follies and then set out to destroy mine.' Ms Credlin, who served as an adviser to Mr Turnbull during his brief stint as Liberal Opposition Leader in 2008 and 2009, has described her other former boss as a 'reprehensible human being'. 'He has no moral compass,' she told Sydney radio 2GB broadcaster Ben Fordham last week. 'I've never met a more reprehensible human being.' In his new book, Mr Turnbull said he had 'never known a leader more dominated by another than Abbott by Credlin'. The former prime minister described Turnbull's comments as 'odious', but used the opportunity to heap praise on Peta Credlin rather than criticise Mr Turnbull 'The relationship was completely asymmetric, he worshipped and feared her and she on the other hand treated him with disdain,' he wrote. Ms Credlin went on to land a job with Sky News and News Corp, which Mr Turnbull also targeted in his memoir, accusing the organisation of working to dump him as PM in August 2018. Mr Turnbull pointed the finger at News Corp's 89-year-old executive chairman and founder Rupert Murdoch, whose titles include The Australian, Sydney's The Daily Telegraph and Melbourne's Herald Sun. He also included Sydney 2GB breakfast radio king Alan Jones, whose views on national security, immigration and multiculturalism are influential among the conservative side of the Liberal party. Had he remained as PM in 2018, Mr Turnbull alleged they would have conspired with right-wing Liberals in an attempt to deliberately lose the 2019 election - so Tony Abbott could lead the Coalition to victory in 2022 from Opposition. 'Now, just describing that sounds unhinged, doesn't it?' Mr Turnbull told 7.30. Mr Turnbull has suggested Ms Credlin dominated Mr Abbott during his two years as PM until September 2015 (when they are pictured), until he himself overthrew him in a leadership coup 'But that was Abbott's agenda and as Rupert acknowledged to me, it had the support of one of his most senior and most influential editorial executives and it went a lot further than that. 'So it was crazed and it was part of Alan Jones' agenda. They tried to foment a coup at the end of 2017.' Mr Turnbull overthrew Mr Abbott as a first-term PM in September 2015. He also claimed Murdoch shopped the plan out to Seven Network majority owner Kerry Stokes to have Mr Abbott replace him again as leader. 'Look at what Rupert Murdoch said to Kerry Stokes. ''We've got to get rid of Malcolm ... Three years of Labor wouldn't be so bad'',' Mr Turnbull said. 'The one thing those plutocrats knew, the billionaire proprietors knew, was that I did not belong to them ... They wanted to have, again, a prime minister who they felt they had some control over, they had an ownership of, and they wanted to feel as they had done with Abbott - that they were in charge.' Tony Abbott (left) talking to Malcolm Turnbull in 2009 when they were in opposition together. Mr Abbott was ousted from the Prime Ministership by Mr Turnbull in 2015. Mr Turnbull in turn lost the Prime Ministership in 2018 and immediately resigned his seat In the Coalition, Mr Turnbull blamed right-wing power broker and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who launched two failed leadership bids in August 2018 within the same week. He also blamed Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who he had regarded as a confidante until he backed Mr Dutton's leadership tilt. As prime minister, Mr Turnbull backed same-sex marriage and policies to tackle climate change, to the chagrin of conservatives within his party. He suggested right-wing Liberals and conservative media 'would have preferred (ALP leader) Bill Shorten to be prime minister than me.' 'A Liberal Party that they could not control was not a Liberal Party they wanted to have. It was - it is all about raw power, I'm afraid.' Malcolm Turnbull (left) in August 2018 when he was still prime minister, with then treasurer Scott Morrison (right) He told 7.30 that although he knew the party had become very factionalised and 'tribal', that he had tried to work with everyone despite being warned to trust no-one. With everybody telling him not to trust everybody else, the former prime minister said it would have been easy to become lost in a sea of paranoia. 'I was determined to look past that,' he said. The former investment banker and journalist said when the 'coup' occurred it was not because he was so unpopular as a leader that the Coalition thought they'd lose the election. 'They overthrew my government and overthrew my prime ministership not because they thought I'd lose an election but because they thought I would win it,' he said. Mr Turnbull said his political enemies hatched a plot to remove him from power, let the Coalition lose the 2019 election and suffer in Opposition so Tony Abbott could be returned to power in 2022 as Prime Minister once again 'Murdoch acknowledges that one of his senior executives was part of the Abbott plan to bring down the government with the goal of sending us into opposition so that Abbott could come back as leader after the election and bring the party back to victory in 2022.' Mr Turnbull, a Liberal moderate, resigned in August 2018 and was replaced by his preferred successor Scott Morrison, a socially-conservative Pentecostal Christian who was backed into the leadership by the party's moderate and centre-right factions. Government MPs had hoped Mr Morrison, who was treasurer under Mr Turnbull, would be able to end deep Liberal Party divisions sparked by Mr Abbott's overthrow in 2015 and Mr Turnbull's earlier downfall in 2009 over emissions trading policies. An embittered Mr Turnbull resigned from his Sydney eastern suburbs seat of Wentworth after losing the top job. This destroyed the Coalition's one-seat majority and left his colleagues in minority government until the May 2019 election returned them to power for a third, consecutive term with a narrow, three-seat majority. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Youve heard these words before, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy. They are especially well known because Jesus quoted them to the devil himself when He was being tempted in the wilderness. Jesus said, Do not put the Lord your God to the test (see Deuteronomy 6:16, quoted in Matthew 4:7). But what, exactly, does this mean, and how does it apply to Christians and the coronavirus? On Easter Sunday, a pastor in Louisiana defied the states ban on large gatherings, calling his congregation to meet together in celebration. They were not going to be intimidated by a virus. The government was not going to shut them down. Now, it is reported that the churchs lawyer, who was present in recent church gatherings, is battling COVID-19. Another parishioners has now died, allegedly of the virus, although the pastor disputes this. On March 22, a highly respected pastor in Virginia defied his states guidelines, calling his congregation together. During the service, he pointed out proudly that there were more than 10 people present, encouraging them to greet one another freely. He also proclaimed that God is larger than this dreaded virus. His proclamation was certainly true. God is infinitely larger than this virus or any virus. Unfortunately, this greatly loved pastor has since passed away, another victim of COVID-19. At present, four other family members have tested positive. His daughter, one of those infected, is now urging others to follow the states safety guidelines. What is the lesson here? Should we cower in fear before a virus? Certainly not. Should we obey every last whim and dictate of the government, even when local administrations are guilty of dangerous overreach? Absolutely not, as the Department of Justice recently affirmed as well. But we should not put the Lord to a test. In other words, we should not willingly and needlessly put ourselves in harms way and expect a miracle from Him. In Matthews Gospel, we read that the devil, apparently in a vision, took Jesus to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Amazingly, Satan quoted the Bible to Jesus, as unbelievable as that sounds. (Its sad but true that the devil knows the Bible a lot better than many Christians do.) And the devil seemed to have a point. After all, wasnt it written in Psalm 91:11-12 that Gods angels would protect His devoted people, not letting them strike their feet against a stone? If Jesus was really Gods Son, making Him the most devoted servant of all, then surely this promise applied to Him. Prove it, the devil was saying. Jump off the pinnacle of the temple, and let the angels catch you. Jesus replied, It is also written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test. (See Matthew 4:5-7) Do you see the point? Its one thing if youre preaching the gospel overseas in an isolated village and suddenly all the villagers come down sick. Some of them even die. There you are, all by yourself, doing Gods work. And you have no medical help. Either God delivers you or you, too, will get sick or even die. You can certainly look to Him for protection and healing. There is nothing presumptuous about it. Or the Lord might send you on a mission to bring the gospel into a dangerous region. You know that you could be killed because of that mission. But you are willing to risk your life for Jesus, and you have counted the cost before embarking on your mission. Its another thing entirely if you willingly put yourself in the place of danger when you dont have to, then expect God to protect you. Its even worse when you turn things into a public test, thereby bringing potential reproach on the name of the Lord. The pastor in Louisiana is obviously bold and unashamed about his faith. And he is not afraid to stand up to the government when he feels his rights are being threatened. But when he says that he and his people are not afraid to die for Jesus and for freedom, with all respect, I believe he misses the point. First, there is no need to play with a potentially deadly disease. Why die prematurely if God has a longer purpose for your life? Second, what about the others whom you might infect? What about innocent people you might stand next to in a grocery store, unknowingly transmitting the virus to them? You might say, But the Bible commands us to gather together in Hebrews 10:25, and no one is going to stop me from doing that. Actually, the text is calling us not to get into the habit of isolating ourselves. It is not commanding us to attend every single public service. Nor is it commanding us to gather in large groups. And it is certainly not telling us to ignore public safety guidelines. Really now, do you quote Hebrews 10:25 when your children come down with chicken pox, taking them to the church service to infect others? Or do you wisely stay at home? Im all for being bold in our faith, and Ive personally put myself in harms way to bring the gospel to others. And if the Lord gives us a command, we obey it, regardless of the consequences. But I also understand that it is wrong to put the Lord to the test. My brand new book, When the World Stops: Words of Faith, Hope, and Wisdom in the Midst of Crisis, begins with two chapters designed to help us overcome panic and fear. Faith is our foundation. But the book also includes a chapter titled, A Little Wisdom Goes a Long Way. May we be people of both wisdom and faith. And that means not putting our God to the test. And may these two pastors whom I referenced in this article be best known for their lifelong gospel work rather than for these specific, virus-related events. A hotel in Washington, D.C., owned by President Donald Trump is asking the government for a break on its rent payments, according to a new report. Trump International Hotel, located a few blocks from the White House, has seen revenues plunge in recent weeks because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and is looking to cut costs, The New York Times reported. The outbreak has crushed the hotel industry as shelter-in-place guidelines issued by state governments encourage people to remain at home and avoid unnecessary travel. The 263-room hotel is owned and operated by the Trump organization, the real estate company currently headed by the president's sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. But the hotel is situated in a federally owned building on Pennsylvania Avenue, and the company makes monthly rent payments to the General Services Administration, a federal agency that manages government buildings. The company told the Times that it has asked to delay its monthly rent payments of about $268,000 a month. The White House, when reached for comment, referred CNBC to the Trump International Hotel. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC. But Eric Trump, the president's son and the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told the Times that the company is seeking relief that might be available to other federal tenants. "Just treat us the same," Eric Trump in a statement to the Times on Tuesday. "Whatever that may be is fine." The GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC asking whether it's considering offering relief to Trump International Hotel and whether it has received requests from other federal tenants. Ultimately the agency answers to the White House, and that could make things awkward. "Companies across the country have pleaded for relief from lenders and landlords, but the Trump Organization's submission presents a particular predicament," the Times reported. "If it denies the request, the agency risks running afoul of the president, who appoints its leader; but if it accommodates the Trumps, the agency is likely to draw fire from critics." The coronavirus has spread to dozens of countries globally, with more than 2.5 million confirmed cases worldwide and over 171,810 deaths so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There are at least 788,900 cases in the United States and at least 42,485 deaths, according to the latest tallies. Read the full report here. WASHINGTON, D.C. - A bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives group whose members include Ohio Republicans Dave Joyce of Bainbridge Township and Anthony Gonzalez of Rocky River on Monday released a set of public health and economic recommendations for reopening the United States after the coronavirus pandemic. Members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus" say they asked the White House and congressional leaders to consider their public health, economic rescue, and stimulus recommendations for inclusion in the next phases of Coronavirus response. In a press conference to reveal the recommendations, Joyce called COVID-19 a two-headed monster thats created crises in both public health and the economy. Finding the balance between lives and livelihoods is not going to be an easy one, but this bipartisan check list at least offers us some in-depth guide to reopening the country while keeping Americans safe from this deadly virus, said Joyce. We need to accept the fact that COVID-19 will be part of society until we have a vaccine. But more importantly, we need to plan for it. The group, whose 50 members are evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, want a robust, rapid testing system to monitor the virus along with a federal database to trace contacts of people who are diagnosed. They say the nation also needs an adequate supply of personal protective equipment (N95 masks, goggles, gloves, etc.) for all first responders, front-line health care workers, and employees in essential sectors, as well as access to protective masks for all K-12 school children and teachers. They say workplaces that open for business will need to configure workspaces to maintain required social distancing and provide appropriate PPE resources, as well as cleaning and sanitization to ensure a safe workplace is maintained. Industries where people gather in large groups like restaurants, airlines, theaters and public transit will have to follow stricter standards to operate, they suggest. They also argue the nation needs to reach key levels of PPE, ventilators and pharmaceuticals before reopening and should bring its supply chain for those items back to the United States from overseas. They also recommend historic investment in infrastructure, including air, railroads, tunnels, bridges, water and broadband, to improve U.S. competitiveness over the next half century. Weve got to be able to be responsive, in a way that helps all Americans, said Marietta GOP Rep. Bill Johnson, another member of the group. I look forward to getting our economy back open. More coverage: Northeast Ohio firms start mask sales during the coronavirus pandemic and donate $50,000 worth to local institutions Rep. Jim Jordan wants Judiciary Committee to probe stay-at-home orders effects on liberty Can a debt collector grab your stimulus check? In Ohio many cant, says AG Dave Yost Sen. Rob Portman and five Ohio Congress members to advise White House on reopening the economy What Ohio members of Congress want in a fourth coronavirus stimulus bill How to track your federal stimulus check New Cleveland company gets federal approval to produce ventilators during coronavirus pandemic Feds approve new mask sterilization process from Mentors STERIS Battelle to expand coronavirus mask decontamination to 60 sites around the country Coronavirus response may drag on Trump in 2020 election, conservative pundits say Feds will use extra Great Lakes Restoration Initiative money to fight water pollution and invasive species Coronavirus boosts demand for Elyria-based Invacares oxygen products and beds Navy veteran running for Ohio congressional seat turns coronavirus-related firing of ships captain into campaign issue Sherrod Brown wants essential workers to get up to $25,000 in hazard pay during coronavirus pandemic Cleveland-area native Thomas Modly resigns as acting Navy secretary amid coronavirus firing flap Belize's beautiful wildlife provides an endless source of inspiration for artists of all ages young people around the world have a lot of pent-up energy right now. Belizes The Lodge at Chaa Creek has launched an international arts competition to encourage young artists to use their newfound indoor time constructively, and to help remind the world of natures beauty. With the Coronavirus pandemic forcing schools to close and many people to stay indoors, young people around the world have a lot of pent-up energy right now. We want to help put that youthful energy to good use, Bryony Fleming Bradley, Chaa Creeks managing director said. We also want to encourage young people to think about the beauty of the natural world outside, and invite them to use their talents to express that beauty. So many young people are doing the right thing by staying indoors. And thats something we want to acknowledge and reward with The Lodge at Chaa Creeks Color Belize Art Competition, Ms Bradley explained. The competition, which runs from April 15 to July 15, 2020 is open to young people seven to fourteen years of age, regardless of where they live, as long as they can create colourful depictions of their favourite Belizean wildlife. Belize is filled with beautiful, exotic wildlife, from toucans, parrots, macaws and other birds, to big cats like jaguars and cougars, to monkeys, tapirs, armadillos, and butterflies. And our Caribbean waters are filled with dolphins, rays, gorgeous whale sharks and colourful tropical fish. If you live in or have visited Belize, you probably already have a favourite bird, fish or other animal, and if you havent, you can use your imagination or books or go online for inspiration, she said. To enter, young people are encouraged to draw, paint, sketch, or use any medium they wish to capture the look and feel of their favourite wildlife creature, as long as its an animal native to Belize. The images must be available for submission on canvas, paper, or art sheets that are at least 8.5 by 11 inches, Ms Bradley advised. In addition to a full colour image, artists must include their full name with a short biography, a description of what medium and materials were used in creating the artwork, as well as a paragraph explaining what the artist loves about their favourite animal, or why that animal is important to them. All entries must be accompanied by the name of a parent or guardian, with a short statement from them giving permission to enter the Color Belize Art Competition. Initially, were accepting electronic copies emailed to our judges at marketing@chaacreek.com with Color Belize Art Competition, in the subject line, but artists must keep the originals so that the winning works can be displayed at The Lodge at Chaa Creek for our guests to enjoy, she said. Artists can enter as many times as they like, with three categories of prizes awarded to winners. First Place - Three days and nights for a family of four, complete with guided visits to Chaa Creeks Belize Natural History Museum, Butterfly Farm, and the Maya Medicinal Plant Trail, as well as early morning birding walks, canoeing and tubing along the Macal River, and other activities. Second Place - Two days and nights for a family of four with the same activities included in the first-place prize. Third Place - Artists receive Chaa Creek tee-shirts and have their signed artwork hung alongside the first and second place winners at a special display at The Lodge at Chaa Creek. Winners will be announced by August 1st, 2020. If you win, people from all over the world will be enjoying your artwork, so be sure to keep your originals safe, Ms Bradley advised. By staying inside, were all working together to defeat this Coronavirus, and as soon as possible. And by entering this contest, youre helping people remember what we all have to look forward to after the pandemic is over. And you may even have an opportunity to treat your family to a great Belize vacation and see your favourite Belize animal in its natural surroundings, Ms Bradley said. Ms Bradley added that interested parties can contact Chaa Creek directly to learn more about the Color Belize Art Competition. The Lodge at Chaa Creek is a multi-award winning eco resort set within a 400-acre private nature reserve along the banks of the Macal River in Belize. It was recognised by National Geographic with first place honours at the 2017 World Legacy Awards held in Berlin. Swiss Re Corporate Solutions appoints Matthias Grass as chief financial officer, where he will be responsible for ensuring the Swiss Re business unit achieves its financial targets and implements its strategy. He will oversee a team of around 200 finance professionals in offices around the world. Subject to approval by the relevant authorities, Grass will assume the role on July 1, 2020 and join the Swiss Re Corporate Solutions Executive Committee. He will relocate from Bratislava to Zurich. Since joining Swiss Re in 2013, Grass has served as chief financial officer of Group Operations and chief financial officer for Swiss Res service companies. During this time, he significantly improved cost management, operations and steering across the Swiss Re Group. He also played a key role in implementing the global operations strategy and expanding the companys presence in Bratislava. Previously, Grass spent eight years with McKinsey & Co., where he held numerous positions of increasing seniority. A German national, Grass holds a masters in Finance from the London Business School in the UK and a masters in Science and Business Administration from Handelshochschule Leipzig in Germany. He speaks German, English and French and has lived and worked in Europe and Canada. Matthias has shown he is an effective leader who has achieved ambitious targets, inspired his people, and helped grow our very successful Bratislava operation, stated Andreas Berger, CEO Swiss Re Corporate Solutions. I am pleased he will join Corporate Solutions during this transformative time in our development. Matthias will be a driving force in refining our strategy as we advance corporate insurance for the benefit of our customers. Grass succeeds Martin Mueller, who has been appointed head Global Finance Transformation for the Swiss Re Group. Mueller served as chief financial officer of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions since November 2017. Id like to thank Martin for his many contributions to Corporate Solutions, particularly his leadership during our strategic review, Berger continued. By overseeing the successful implementation of our management actions, Martin has helped us make significant progress in our return to profitability, which I am confident Matthias will help Corporate Solutions achieve in 2021, as committed. Source: Swiss Re Corporate Solutions Topics Swiss Re Germany New Delhi, April 21 : The Rashtrapati Bhawan on Tuesday issued a statement saying that no employee of the President's House has been detected with COVID-19. "A COVID 19 positive patient from Central Delhi, who was neither an employee of the President's Secretariat nor a resident of the President's Estate expired on 13.04.2020 with co-morbidities at B.L. Kapoor Hospital, New Delhi," said a statement issued by Deputy Press Secretary to the President Nimish Rustagi. After contact tracing of the deceased, a family member of an employee of the President's Secretariat was found to have been in contact with the deceased. The concerned employee along with the family is a resident of Pocket 1, Schedule A area of the President's Estate. "As required under the guidelines, all the seven members of this family were moved to the quarantine facility at Mandir Marg on 16.04.2020," read the statement. One of the family members who was in contact with the person who died, tested positive. All other family members including the employee of the President's Secretariat have tested negative. Meanwhile, 115 houses in Pocket 1, Schedule A area of the President's Estate were identified for movement restriction and residents have been told to remain indoors. Doorstep delivery of essential commodities are being provided to these families. "It may be clarified that till date no employee of the President's Secretariat has tested positive for COVID-19 and the Secretariat along with the Local Administration is taking all the preventive measures required under the government guidelines," the statement added. So far the national capital has reported 2,081 cases of COVID-19 and 47 deaths related to the pandemic. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Police have released bodycam footage of a woman deliberately coughing in an officers face as she was arrested. Charlene Merrifield, 39, was stopped by police in Hebburn, South Tyneside, following reports of a woman attempting to attack a man with a knife and damaging cars in the area. Bodycam footage shows Merrifield being abusive towards officers as they put her in the back of a police van, before leaning forward and coughing loudly in the direction of one PC without covering her mouth. The officer tells her: You gan on like that and I swear to God youll gan to jail, right, Im not joking. Merrifield, of no fixed address, was initially arrested on suspicion of affray after police were called to Lyon Street on 8 April. Officers found her nearby with two bricks in her hands, however she was not found to be in possession of a knife. A Ford Focus car was also discovered with a windscreen wiper snapped off. She later admitted assault of an emergency worker, criminal damage and a public order offence, along with breach of a suspended sentence, when appearing before magistrates. Northumbria Police decided to release the footage of her appalling behaviour after she was jailed for 21 weeks. Chief Inspector Nicola Wearing, of Northumbria Police, said: Our officers come to work each day in order to keep people safe and protect the communities they serve. They do so knowing they could be faced with potentially dangerous situations. Charlene Merrifield, 39, who was jailed after coughing in a police officer's face as he arrested her on suspicion of affray in Hebburn, South Tyneside, on 8 April 2020. (Northumbria Police) However, at a time when our communities across Northumbria are pulling together and showing the incredible spirit that this region is famed for, there remains a small minority who show a total disregard for both the law and the welfare of others. Charlene Merrifield knew exactly what she was doing as she decided to intentionally cough at one of our officers, which is absolutely appalling. I hope this case highlights how seriously offences of this nature are being taken in the light of the current pandemic. BENZIE COUNTY The City of Frankfort is closing city hall for two weeks after an individual who had visited later tested positive for COVID-19. "On Monday, April 20, 2020, the City of Frankfort became aware that an individual that was in City Hall on Friday, April 17, 2020, was confirmed positive with COVID-19 Monday morning (April 19)," stated a post on the city's Facebook page. "Although all staff at city hall and this individual maintained proper social distancing during this interaction, it was determined that it is in the best interest for the safety and well-being of City of Frankfort employees and the public to mandate a two-week quarantine. The City of Frankfort has communicated this situation with the Benzie-Leelanau Health Department. Unfortunately, City Hall will be closed until Monday, May 4, 2020." Employees will be working remotely. Workers will still be monitoring the water and wastewater system. Josh Mills, superintendent for the city, said the visitor met with him in the city council chamber, a large room where business could be conducted while observing social distancing. "It came known to us on April 20 that that person I met with was a confirmed positive case, and without hesitation, the decision was made to close city hall down for two weeks. It is more precautionary than anything," Mills said. Mills said he considered the visitor an essential worker who works with the city closely on matters of health and safety, including matters pertaining to law enforcement, emergency medical services and the fire department. He said he met with the visitors two to three times a week for anything between 15 and 40 minutes, with the last meeting held on April. 17 and that the discussions were on matters pertaining to COVID-19 and providing essential services. "We were discussing COVID-19 and trying to protect Benzie County and the City of Frankfort," Mills said. "We discussed how to implement things from a health and safety standpoint." Mills said, in hindsight, the meetings could have been held over the phone, but he considered the visitor essential to the operation of the city, and that all social distancing rules were followed as set by state orders. "We took precautionary actions," he said. "We maintained social distancing at all times. There was hand sanitizer right there." While city hall had been closed to the public, people were still being seen by appointment for the time being. "In the end, we thought we were doing the right things, and we got burned," Mills said. Nobody else met with Mills in that room afterward on April 17, but meetings were held in the room at other dates when the individual had talked with Mills. City staff are considered necessary workers so they can get tested even if there are no symptoms. Staff were already on half-shifts to minimize their exposure, according to Mills. Trash bags normally purchased at city hall can be purchased from Family Fare. Anybody seeking to contact city workers can leave a message at (231) 352-7117 or email Joshua Mills, city superintendent at jmills@cofrankfort.net. The most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office has backtracked on his claim that the UKs failure to participate in the EUs procurement scheme for medical kit and ventilators was a political decision. Sir Simon McDonald, the permanent under secretary at the department, initially told MPs that ministers had been briefed by the UKs mission to the EU on what was on offer from Brussels promoting outrage from opposition parties. His comments directly contradicted previous government statements on the issue, after No 10 blamed the decision not to participate in the emergency scheme to provide gowns, ventilators and other medical equipment, on a communication problem in March. But hours later in a letter published by the foreign affairs select committee Sir Simon said: Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, I inadvertently and wrongly told the committee, that ministers were briefed by UKMIS on the EUs joint procurement scheme and took a political decision not to participate in it. Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou He added: This is incorrect. Ministers were not briefed by our mission in Brussels about the scheme and a political decision was not taken on whether or not to participate. The facts of the situation are as previously set out. Owing to an initial communications problem, the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in four joint Covid EU procurement schemes. As those four initial schemes had already gone out to tender we were unable to take part. Stewart McDonald, an SNP MP who sits on the foreign affairs committee, however, said: Im afraid [Sir Simons] letter of clarification to [committee] fails to meet its objective in fact it raises more questions than it answers. This has longer to run. During the session in Westminster on Tuesday afternoon, the Labour MP Chris Bryant asked Sir Simon why the UK had not taken part in the scheme which aims to provide member states with crucial medical equipment to fight covid-19 in the coming weeks. The senior civil servant said it was a political decision, adding that the governments representation in Brussels had briefed ministers about what was available, what was on offer and the decision is known. Speaking after Sir Simons appearance at the foreign affairs committee, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, told the Downing Street press conference: As far as Im aware there was no political decision not to participate in that scheme. He added: When we did receive an invitation in the Department for Health it was put up to me to be ask and we joined, so we are now members of that scheme. But as far as I know that scheme has not yet produced a single item of PPE. It comes after the government was widely criticised for failing to join the scheme last month when infections of coronavirus were on the rise in the UK, and at the time a government spokesperson said: Owing to an initial communication problem, the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in four joint procurements in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Downing Street had claimed there had been a mix up which meant emails from the EU about the procurement scheme were not received and would consider participating in future procurement schemes. The lack of British involvement in the schemes led to claims that it was motivated by Brexiteer ideology in Mr Johnsons administration a claim denied by Downing Street. Naomi Smith, of pro-EU campaign Best for Britain, said: If it was a political decision not to join Europe-wide schemes to bulk-buy PPE and other essential medical equipment, then the government prioritised its own image over the countrys health. That decision has been disastrous. Frontline workers deserve much better. We urge the government to seek participation in future schemes as soon as possible, so we can source the medical supplies Britains hospitals and care homes desperately need. - 428 construction workers were stranded in UP Diliman after the lockdown was imposed - A post on Facebook revealed that 311 workers didn't get support from their employees and have resorted to picking fruits from any fruit-bearing tree on the campus, as well as catching whatever live creature they can, like stray cats and rats - The UP administrators have done what they can for the construction workers, considering that they were also responsible for many teachers and students stranded within the campus - The admin has already contacted the contractors but the latter allegedly failed to do their part PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed A Facebook post by Alfred Allan Jose, a member of the Quezon City COVID-19 Food and Goods Donation, outlined the plight of stranded construction workers in UP Diliman who were allegedly left off by their employers to fend for themselves amid the lockdown. As per the post of Jose, there were 428 stranded workers who got stranded on the campus because of the lockdown. Out of this number, 311 did not receive ample support from their employees. Having grown hungry, they resorted to eating any fruit from fruit-bearing trees that they could find on the campus. They also allegedly went to the extent of catching stray cats and rats just to feed themselves. The administrator of UP are also taking care of stranded teachers and students on the campus, and while they have already rendered help to the construction workers, they could only do so much for them. Since the workers were not from Quezon City, they didn't receive assistance from the barangay. Thankfully, kindhearted people were willing to help them, along with a number of organizations. One pledged to deliver 400 pandesals per day to help the workers, and the group of Jose also delivered 4 canvas of rice, which were divided into 14 sites for the workers. Here are some of the photos from the post of Jose, detailing the ordeal that the construction workers went through. The contact number for those who want to extend help to the construction workers are also found in the post. Stranded construction workers in UP Diliman reportedly resorted to picking fruits, catching 'creatures' to quell hunger Source: Facebook 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, the government faced problems when they imposed the initial community quarantine, which was elevated into the now ongoing enhanced community quarantine. It also suspended transportation causing massive problems with commuters. The coronavirus outbreak started out in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China. Scientists believed that the virus came from an animal at one of Wuhan's wet markets. At present, the Philippines is under a state of calamity while the entire Luzon is under an enhanced community quarantine. 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! One netizen made a difference by giving food to a Grab driver. Cha Calubaquib posted about how happy the Grab driver was when she gave him chicken for his family. You will find how truly inspiring the story is through the video that we created just for you. Check out all of the exciting videos and celebrity interviews on our KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel! Source: KAMI.com.gh New Delhi: Popular television face Hina Khan, who successfully moved into Bollywood with Vikram Bhatt's 'Hacked' this year. She will next be seen in a short film titled 'Smart Phone', the first look of which was released two years back around the same time. The project is finally ready and stars Kunaal Roy Kapur, Akshay Oberoi in lead roles. The trailer of the short film is out and the movie will release on April 24, 2020. Watch the trailer: 'Smart Phone' tells the story of how in today's time we are addicted to the gadget the most. It promises to be a thrilling ride of our addiction story. Hina is seen in this project in a total desi look, something which is in contrast with her on-screen hep image. She has ditched her glam avatar for a desi look and is seen clad in a saree with a thick accent. Her character is shown to have arrived in the big city of Mumbai after marriage and is shown talking to her mother over the phone and narrate everything. But the twist comes in when her husband's (Kunaal) friends come over for a game of cards and like we saw in Mahabharat, prompting the former to put his wife at stake after losing everything else. And shockingly he does that. Let's wait for April 24 to know what happens next... Small businesses still waiting to receive financial support Democrat leaders say they have reached an agreement on a nearly $500 billion aid package for small businesses. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says the package will include additional funding for hospitals and virus testing. Senator Schumer says they could vote on the package as soon as Tuesday afternoon. Trump claims he will temporarily suspend immigration into US due to coronavirus fears In a late-night tweet, President Trump said he would sign an executive order to temporarily stop immigration to the U.S. In the tweet, the president said the suspension was to fight the coronavirus. The immigration shutdown comes after the president banned some travelers to and from China and Europe in January and March, respectively. Gas prices plummet An unprecedented drop! Coronavirus causing falling demand in oil prices. Oil futures dipped below zero - falling as low as negative $40 on Monday. Traders essentially offered to pay someone else to deal with the oil they were due to have delivered next month the high amount of oil production, and a lack of places to store it also contributed to the drop. Mendocino man arrested for burglarizing 2 businesses, deputies say New this morning, a northern California man could be facing hefty jail time. He's charged with looting during a state of emergency. Mendocino Sheriff's Deputies Friday arrested 51-year-old Neal Waldron of Covelo. Deputies say he burglarized at least two businesses, a clothing and grocery store; and possibly a third business. Because the crimes happened under the "state of emergency" - the charges face enhanced sentencing of up to three years in prison and $10,000 in fines, as well as a mandatory minimum sentence of six months in county jail. Chico Doctor shares advice on managing COVID-19 anxiety and stress If you find yourself feeling a bit more stressed and anxious than usual youre not alone. One Butte County health care provider says he is seeing more patients come in asking for help coping with anxiety. Much of which attributed to the coronavirus pandemic. The owner of Chico Immediate Care says when patients are struggling with anxiety or depression for a reason as specific as a global pandemic -- it's quite normal to feel stressed out he cautions that medications are a short-term solution. Durham community celebrates graduating seniors Graduation ceremonies this season are taking on a different look and feel. But not how communities are honoring students from the class of 2020. Members of the Durham Safe and Sober Committee coordinated the effort to line the midway Monday evening with signs for each senior of the graduating class, featuring the students' senior picture. Community members paid for the project, it was a way to recognize graduating seniors who have had the end of their high school career altered. Local organization distributing essential worker kits Community members have come together to create and distribute what is being called "essential worker kits." The organization "Tiny Homes for Camp Fire Survivors" coordinated this effort. Volunteers put together and gave out around 200 kits Monday in Oroville, to grocery store employees, postal service workers, and gas station employees. The kits - mostly from donated items contained 2 pairs of gloves, a mask, sanitizer, tissues, and a cliff bar. BETHESDA, Maryland -- Army doctors working at hospitals within the Defense Health Agency have prototyped an isolation chamber that can be placed over the head and chest of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The Agency has asked the FDA for an emergency use authorization, paving the way for rapid implementation to help protect health care providers on the front lines of the pandemic. The "COVID-19 Airway Management Isolation Chamber" is a barrier device constructed by draping clear plastic sheeting over a box-like frame made of common PVC piping. The chamber captures and removes viral particles emitted from a patient's nose and mouth using a flow of air or oxygen, which comes in through holes in the piping on one side, and is sucked out by a vacuum on the other. Vacuum lines are common features in hospitals, but even if one is not available, a vacuum pump and HEPA filter can be easily connected to the device. The chamber was invented to supplement standard personal protective equipment used by doctors and nurses by creating a safer environment for performing airway management from examination to intubation. Intermediary airway management represents those options a healthcare provider might use prior to intubation. In making these intermediary options safer and more available, the use of the CAMIC may allow patients to avoid the need for intubation altogether. Among the inventors, are Maj. Steven Hong, Cpt. Timothy Blood, and Cpt. Jonathan Perkins at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center; Maj. Douglas Ruhl, at Madigan Army Medical Center; Mr. Nathan Fisher at the Army's Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center; Maj. Charles Riley at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital; and 2nd Lt. Joseph Krivda at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. "Clinicians at both hospitals spent many sleepless nights and weekends toying with designs and testing models," Dr. Ruhl said. "The device can also contain infective particles during other airway treatments, like high-flow oxygen, a nebulizer, or a CPAP, and hopefully decrease the need for ventilators." The device was modeled and tested at Walter Reed and Madigan with computer modeling at TATRC. To measure the effectiveness of the invention, smoke was used as a proxy for airborne viral particles and a particle counter was used to measure distribution within and around the prototype. The study was submitted for publication in the New England Journal of Medicine. In addition to the emergency FDA authorization, the Army has filed two provisional patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. "It was impressive to see several DOD departments understand the importance of this concept and make it a priority to help expedite reviews and approvals," Dr. Ruhl said. TechLink, the Department of Defense's national partnership intermediary for technology transfer, is seeking U.S. companies and entrepreneurs to review and license the invention for manufacturing from the U.S. Army. Quinton King, senior technology manager at TechLink, is facilitating the licensing process in direct support of the Army. An emergency use license will be offered to expedite the use of this technology against COVID-19. "This invention allows intermediary airway management prior to intubation and hopefully avoiding intubation while keeping medical personnel safe," King said. "Because this device can be produced relatively cheap and fast, we're hoping this technology can be quickly delivered to those battling COVID-19 at medical facilities around the country and around the world. This technology could help save the lives of patients, and the doctors and nurses treating them." ### Licensing inquiries can be sent to Quinton King at quinton.king@montana.edu According to a Harvard study, we are not out of the woods yet because the coronavirus will re-emerge until 2024. What this means is that by 2024, the contagion is still a threat to most countries who suffer deaths by the thousands. This may indicate that we will need to keep social distancing to prevent any outbreaks and to control the existing pandemic. The findings were more conservative that matched President Trump's outlook that was forward-looking, that most states could get started will less social distancing by April's end. Details of the study The study was done by five researchers connected to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, then published it in the journal Science on Tuesday. Its theme is about the re-emergence of the coronavirus as imminent in four years. Based on the study, the maintenance of social distancing should not remain as draconian as now and whether it should be implemented for two years straight as the "new norma." Instead, there should be intermittent social distancing as a preventive measure. Having a vaccine is critical to normalize everything. It should have the capacity to deal with a large number of patients. Letting down our guard is not smart, even if the COVID-19 seems to abate it should not mean that is 100% gone if a resurgent wave of the coronavirus can escape notice which can happen in 2024. This was mentioned by the proponents of the study. Because of the threat presented by the coronavirus, countries for the first time have all adopted social distancing, school closures, and staying at home to stave off the virus. All these activities should be followed, even if the results are dire for many. It's that or the coronavirus kills a chunk of populations. Also read: Israeli COVID-19 Treatment Reports 100% Survival Rate This pandemic that was ignored by the WHO until it was too late, is one of the biggest threats to the world from the second world war. To date, the deaths from COVID 19 is 130k -/+, infecting more than 2 million all over the globe. After Italy and China, the U.S. has gotten 792,759 cases and 42,514 deaths as of April. 21,2020. America has its modern Pearl Harbor in March 2020, as the virus took so many lives in New York, with Hart Island as a giant mass grave for Americans dying from the virus of foreign origin. Are we ready for the next four years? The impact is so great that WHO has warned that the contagion is not at its peak! And the International Monetary Fund has said the recession told the U.S., this will be one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. China, the country which is now under enquiry about the origin of the coronavirus, has begun to lift their lockdown before other countries do. Even social distancing is less than before, as the Beijing regime 'declares' victory over the coronavirus. But, they still have measures like keeping control on the populace. Some Euro states are moving with baby steps to restart their sleeping economies until all is normal again. President Trump is optimistic that the distancing measures will be lifted in the U.S. when all back-ups are in place. He targets May 1 as the opening date. When the coronavirus does re-emerge in 2024, one big factor is the immunity that can be developed, soon after in 5 or more years it will diminish. Related article: Subways May Have Spread Coronavirus in America @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In retaliation to the coronavirus pandemic, Mexico was unable to enforce initiatives immediately. A little over a month ago, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador shared videos of himself and encouraged people to go to establishments. Now the nation has begun to respond. Although it states it has screened more citizens, Mexico's death ratio to reported cases is the highest in Latin America, implying it doesn't do enough to distinguish cases. Mexico City hospitals are starting to reach a breaking point right after receiving 100 more COVID-19 patients needing intubation in just two days, quoting Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, as reported by a newspaper publication. Mexico's Lack of PPE According to the state health department, at the end of March at the IMSS General Hospital in Monclova in the northern state of Coahuila, at least 51 workers had been diagnosed with the latest coronavirus, and two medical doctors and a hospital administrator had died. The hospital is the first hot spot in Mexico for the coronavirus-related disease. The Monclova outbreak was the first in a sequence of hospital infections that shaken Mexicans and raised concerns regarding the Social Security Institute, the nation's largest public health provider. Doctors and nurses across the world have been staging rallies. Baja California Governor Jaime Bonilla exploded at government authorities over his border state's shortage of protective equipment, claiming healthcare professionals were "dropping like flies." The nursing staff at a government hospital struck by Mexico's worst coronavirus pandemic have been advised at the beginning of the outbreak by their supervisors not to wear safety masks to prevent sowing mass hysteria among patients, nurses as well as other medical personnel. Flare-ups at some other medical facilities accompanied the Monclova outbreaks. Two personnel at Hospital No. 26 developed symptoms in the resort town of Cabo San Lucas, so officials checked the entire staff- forty-two of them had the virus. Check these out! The Effect of AMLO's Policy Since coming to power in December 2018, new regulations adopted by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have complicated matters more. To maximize profits and prevent corruption, Lopez Obrador centralized government purchases of pharmaceuticals. Yet somehow, it only resulted in drug shortages. He decided to launch an adjustment campaign that frustrated IMSS head German Martinez so much that he resigned last May. Martinez considered healthcare budget reductions "inhumane." In addition to this, Lopez Obrador has reportedly capitalized on the outbreak of coronavirus, as he sees the economic crisis as an opportunity to promote his revolutionary agenda. Similarly, Lopez Obrador overhauled Insabi, another significant public health program targeting the most impoverished Mexicans. Borja, the head of medical benefits at the IMSS, said that "the important thing is what we've learned from these outbreaks," such as the need to disinfect medical facilities immediately. In recent days, Mexican officials have acquired a lot of imported medical equipment that should address their shortages, he added. They have reported incentives of 20 percent for IMSS healthcare personnel who deal with patients with COVID-19. Kerala High Court on Tuesday took suo motu notice of news reports about deteriorating water quality of Periyar river and sought reports from State Pollution Control Board and Water Authority. A Divison Bench headed by Justice Devan Ramachandran sought a report on the matter and posted it for hearing on April 24. We want to know how this happened, we want to know the truth of this, the court observed. Earlier, there were news reports that the water of the river had turned black at some isolated places. In another hearing, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to file a report on a petition challenging its agreement with US-based company Sprinklr for processing of data related to coronavirus patients. A bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and TR Ravi sought a report and emphasized that the issue should be treated seriously and slated the matter for further hearing on April 24. We dont want the COVID-19 epidemic to be substituted by a data epidemic. We are proud Kerala has done well in controlling COVID. But we also have concerns about data confidentiality. Information you are uploading on the server is your responsibility, the court said. Why do you require Saas now when the COVID cases are low? Where is the guarantee that the data will remain confidential? Unless you are able to guarantee us data confidentiality, the uploading of information to a third party server will remain a problem, it added. The court said that it cant accept the submission that the data is not sensitive information. If Kerala government thinks the information is not sensitive, something is amiss, the court said. Health data is sensitive. Where is the guarantee that the data will remain confidential? What was the requirement of a third-party service provider? The government should explain how they accepted New York as the jurisdictional court in case of a dispute, it said. Justice TR Ravi said that he saw in an interview that the contract did not even go to the law department. The government will have to explain why this was so, he added. The Kerala government told the High Court that the contract was necessary for the compelling circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The counsel for the Central government said that the policy of the Centre is that government machinery should be used for data collection and data processing. The Centre also wants to request the Kerala Govt to keep it within the country. Kerala High Court told the state government that it does not want it to upload the data unless it can tell that data is confidential from Sprinklr as well. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App A low-cost, easy-to-build non-invasive ventilator aimed at supporting the breathing of patients with respiratory failure performs similarly to conventional devices, according to new study that may help manage symptoms in those with severe manifestation of COVID-19. The research, published in the European Respiratory Journal, noted that non-invasive ventilators are used to treat patients with breathing difficulty and respiratory failure, a common symptom of more severe disease due to novel coronavirus infection. According to the researchers, including those from the University of Barcelona in Spain, non-invasive ventilation is delivered using facemasks or nasal masks, which push a set amount of pressurised air into the lungs. They said this supports the natural breathing process when the disease has caused the lungs to fail, enabling the body to fight infection and get better. The current study describes a free to replicate, open source model for the ventilator, the researchers said. According to the scientists, the prototype ventilator could support treatment for coronavirus and other severe respiratory diseases in low-income parts of the world. "In light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the escalating need for respiratory support devices around the world, we designed a ventilator that can be built at a low cost using off-the-shelf components," said Ramon Farre, Professor of Physiology at the University of Barcelona. "The ventilator is intended to support hospitals and health systems that are struggling to meet the demand for ventilatory support due to coronavirus and other severe lung diseases," Farre said. The scientists designed, built and tested the low-cost non-invasive ventilator using a small high-pressure blower, two pressure transducers, and a controller with a digital display, which, they said, are available at a retail cost of less than USD 75. The researchers also tested the device using 12 healthy volunteers, and compared with a commercial ventilator. They said the participants' breathing was partially hindered by having them wear bands around the chest. This mimicked obstruction at the upper airways to simulate different levels of chest tightness and breathing difficulty caused by disease, the scientists added. The participants wore face masks fitted over the nose to facilitate breathing and were asked to score the level of comfort or discomfort they experienced both with and without ventilatory support. With the new device, the researchers did not observe any faulty triggering of changes to the levels of air pushed from the ventilator during use. According to the team, the device effectively supported spontaneous breathing rhythm, suggesting that the prototype assists natural breathing well. It also found that the feeling of breathing relief provided by the prototype was virtually the same as what was reported using the commercial ventilator. The scientists said they also carried out respiratory "bench testing" -- a process where lung modelling is used to assess how well the ventilator supports the breathing of patients with different levels of airflow obstruction or restriction. In this, they tested the new ventilator under 16 different simulated conditions, covering real-life settings where non-invasive ventilation is used in clinical practice. The test revealed that, across all simulated conditions, the prototype ventilator worked effectively to support the lungs to operate efficiently and there was no faulty triggering, according to the study. "Our tests showed that the prototype would perform similarly to a conventional, high-quality device when providing breathing support for patients who, although with great difficulty, can try to breathe by themselves," Farre said. "This low-cost device could be used to treat patients if commercial devices are not available, and it provides clinicians with a therapeutic tool for treating patients who otherwise would remain untreated," he added. The researchers highlighted that the prototype only provides breathing support and is a non-invasive ventilator. They said it is not intended for the most severely diseased patients in intensive care units, who are intubated and require a mechanical ventilator to take full control of the patients' breathing. "World Health Organization data suggests that around 80 per cent of people who get coronavirus recover without needing hospital treatment, but those who do develop severe symptoms can experience breathing difficulties, which is distressing and puts health systems under additional pressure," said Leo Heunks, intensive care medicine researcher from the European Respiratory Society, who was not involved in the study. The study noted that low-cost solutions like the newly developed ventilator could provide treatment for patients, potentially improving outcomes and helping to alleviate pressure on health systems by reducing the need for more invasive types of ventilatory support. It also provides an open-source description with full technical details on how to build the non-invasive ventilator. According to the scientists, the device can be built with no prior knowledge of ventilation, and with only basic engineering skills. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran increases range of naval missiles to 700km without foreign help: IRGC commander Iran Press TV Monday, 20 April 2020 4:41 PM The commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy says the country has increased the range of its naval missiles to 700 kilometers without any assistance from other countries. "There was a time when the farthest range of our naval missiles did not exceed 45 km and even that was achieved with assistance from American military advisors," Brigadier General Alireza Tangsiri said in an interview on Monday. "However, we have developed subsurface and surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 700 kilometers, which have been totally made by domestic military elites," he added. Elsewhere in his remarks, Tangsiri emphasized that foreigners are the source of insecurity in the region and said, "Wherever the Americans have been present, insecurity has followed and we know of nowhere [in the world] where the presence of the Americans has led to security." He pointed to a recent naval incident between the IRGC's Navy and the US warships in the Persian Gulf and said, "The Americans in this adventurism blocked the way to our vessels in violation of international regulations and even refrained from giving a radio response, but were faced with our forces' strong move." Tangsiri noted that the presence of the Americans in the Persian Gulf has led to a large increase in the number of maritime incidents, adding, "Since the arrival of the Americans in the region, 550 oil tankers have been targeted [in various attacks] and regional security has been decreased by 55 percent." In a statement on Wednesday, the United States Navy claimed that 11 Iranian ships repeatedly came close to its military vessels in "dangerous and harassing approaches" in the Persian Gulf. It alleged that the Iranian "vessels repeatedly crossed the bows and sterns of the US vessels at extremely close range and high speeds," and came within 10 yards of the US Coast Guard cutter Maui. In response to the US claim, the IRGC Navy issued a statement on Sunday, saying the main source of mischief and insecurity in the region is the illegal presence of US terrorist forces, reiterating the call for the full withdrawal of all American forces from the Persian Gulf and West Asia. "In order to prevent the continuation of illegal, unprofessional, dangerous and even adventurist behavior of the American terrorists and also to ensure security for Iranian vessels and fight fuel smuggling, the IRGC Navy increased its marine patrols in the Persian Gulf and on Farvardin 27, 1399 [corresponding to April 15, 2019] ... dispatched a group of its vessels, comprised of 11 boats, to the region, where they came face to face with the American warships and military vessels," it added. Iranian vessels, usually belonging to the IRGC, commonly patrol the Persian Gulf to ensure the security of the vital global energy hub. Tensions in the strategic waterway rose significantly last summer after a series of mysterious explosions targeted a number of oil tankers. The United States, quickly blaming Iran for the incidents without providing conclusive evidence along with other countries such as Saudi Arabia, has since deployed thousands of troops and military equipment to the region. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address EUGENE, Ore. -- The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations released new data that shows Oregon could start easing social distancing measures starting May 25. The data shows Oregon's deaths per day is projected to continue in a downward trend. Starting May 25, the data shows the containment strategy phase. This means social distancing measures can start being relaxed but there must be sufficient testing, contact tracing, isolation, and still limitations on gathering sizes. Another graph shows the total number of deaths in Oregon is now projected to be at 131 by Aug. 4. This number can change depending on if Oregonians continue to follow current social distancing measures and the stay-at-home order. Gov. Kate Brown announced last Tuesday her plans to reopen the state. She did not give a hard date on when the state will reopen. The governor has the final say on when Oregon can start the reopening process. If you would like to see the full list of data, click here. They faced each other in a busy intersection in downtown Denver, the din of honking cars blaring around them. The man, wearing turquoise medical scrubs and an N95 mask, stood silent and resolute, blocking traffic in the middle of the road. Opposite him, an unidentified blonde woman poked her head out the window of a silver Dodge truck. "This is a free country. Land of the free," she yelled at him, pulling out a homemade poster displaying those very words. "Go to China if you want communism. Go to China." Video footage of the confrontation, originally shared to Twitter by a user named Marc Zenn, has since been viewed more than 8 million times. On social media, some said it was made for the history books. Others called for the Pulitzer Prizes to take a look. One tweet simply said, "This is America." By Monday morning local time, 'Go to China' was trending on Twitter in the United States as many took to the platform to share and discuss the protester's controversial remarks. Indeed, many say the faceoff - between a woman in a stars-and-stripes jersey demanding a return to normalcy, and a man in medical garb blocking her path - illustrates a rift that is now tearing at the seams of the United States: between those who want to reopen society despite the coronavirus pandemic, and those working on the front lines to handle its devastation. "You go to work. Why can't I go to work?" the woman asked in the video. "I've saved people's lives, too!" It was unclear whether the man and others in medical garb had planned to stage a counterprotest or merely blocked the cars. On Monday, the Denver Police Department confirmed that the individuals wearing medical gear had been asked by officers to exit the roadway and complied. They were not cited or otherwise disciplined, a spokesman for the department said in an email. Since the middle of last week, similar demonstrations - many of them organized under the banner "Operation Gridlock" - have broken out in state capitals around the country, as crowds of protesters have demanded that both Democratic and Republican governors reopen their states' economies, even though covid-19 is still killing thousands of Americans each day. Efforts in at least four such states have been organized by a trio of far-right, pro-gun provocateurs, The Post reported, with many taking the form of drive-in or drive-by protests near statehouses. On Sunday, those efforts arrived in Colorado. For four hours, a crowd of protesters filled downtown Denver, the site of the viral video. The rode in trucks and vans and on motorcycles and even a horse as they honked and waved "Don't Tread on Me" flags, according to the Denver Post. Zenn, who first shared the viral post, wrote: "Two nurses, who have witnessed first hand the toll covid is taking in Colorado stood up and peacefully protested. Here is how they were treated." Photos of the confrontation were also shared to Facebook by photojournalist Alyson McClaran. She identified the individuals standing in the middle of the street as health-care workers, although The Washington Post could not independently confirm that. Colorado is currently under a stay-at-home order until April 26, and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has said he wants to reopen the state in phases, starting with a reversal of that order. As of early Monday, state health officials had reported more than 9,700 cases of the virus in Colorado, including at least 422 fatalities. In total, more than 40,680 people have died of covid-19 in the United States since the first death was reported in February. But pressure on Polis and other governors has nonetheless been mounting. Douglas County, in Denver's southern suburbs, has been making its own plans to reopen, and Ashley Smith, the mayor of Canon City, Colorado, wrote a letter to the governor telling him that small businesses in her town were growing increasingly upset. "It's gone from frustration into anger," Smith told Colorado Public Radio over the weekend. "It will definitely be the breaking point for folks, and I'm really worried." On Sunday, President Donald Trump spoke out in favor of those protesting the stay-at-home measures, saying that the restrictions enacted by some governors "have gone too far." By then, however, other images of the demonstrations had already spread across the Internet, snapshots of the rising anger against the government over stay-home orders that have shut down the economy. Over the weekend, photos emerged of a woman outside a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store near Los Angeles, carrying a sign that read "Give me liberty or give me death." The image was snapped by Jamie Lee Curtis Taete in Huntington Beach, California. Eerie images of protesters, with their faces pressed against glass windows looking into the Ohio statehouse, drew cinematic comparisons. Images from these incidents have not only stunned those staying at home but also people overseas. Many Britons took to social media Monday to comment on the spreading protests. Many appeared confused by scenes of people taking to the streets during a period of lockdown and social distancing measures. Some referred to the protests as "crazy," while others noted, "Only in America." - - - Hassan reported from London. COVID-19 survivors should donate blood plasma: Maulana Saad India pti-PTI New Delhi, Apr 21: Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, who has been booked by the Delhi Police for holding a religious congregation here during the lockdown, on Tuesday appealed to coronavirus survivors to donate blood plasma for infected people. In a letter issued on Tuesday, Saad said he and some other members of the organisation are exercising self quarantine. He said most of the members who were quarantined did not have any infection and they tested negative for COVID-19. "Even from amongst the ones who tested positive for the disease, a majority of them have now undergone treatment and are now cured while I and a few others are still under quarantine. "It is required that such people who are now cured of this disease should donate blood plasma to others who are still fighting the disease and are under treatment," he said. On Monday, he had urged the followers of the organisation to pray at home in the month of Ramzan. Pray at home during Ramzan: Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi to followers While addressing an online briefing on Sunday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal cited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation last month, a major hotspot, and the large inflow of travellers from other countries to Delhi as the reasons for the spread of the virus, and said the city was "fighting a difficult battle". The Delhi Police crime branch, had on March 31, lodged an FIR against seven people, including the cleric, on a complaint by the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin police station for holding the congregation in alleged violation of the orders against large gatherings to contain the spread of coronavirus. Later, the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) was added to the FIR. The cleric is wanted by the Delhi Police and he responded twice to them. He is currently under home quarantine. Oh New York, New York. A city so incredible you say its name twice like a prayer. 'Curious Fashion' is a monthly column by feminist researcher, writer and activist Manjima Bhattacharjya. Read more from the series here. *** New York has been on my mind since it became an epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. People wrote about how the city had gone quiet, deflated into a shell of itself, everyones lives now lonely Ed Hopper paintings. Through social media, we saw thousands of New Yorkers numbed or slayed by the virus, self-quarantined in tiny apartments eating canned peaches and drinking water to survive the days, weeks, months of illness. On 15 April 2020, New York City had 1,11,424 cases of coronavirus and 10,899 deaths, steadily recording the highest number of daily deaths than any other city. Oh New York, New York. A city so incredible you say its name twice like a prayer. In my mind, New York is synonymous with fashion. Its where Ive bought atrocious clothes Ive never actually worn, as if I become suddenly emboldened the minute I cross the Lincoln tunnel to come in view of the Manhattan skyline. When youre in New York you feel fashionable. Ghosts of fashion icons past whisper to you, pushing you to be a more glamorous version of yourself, as if youre part of a vintage photograph thatll someday be on someones wall. (Only this can explain an NYC purchase of a postbox-red top with faux fur around the wrists and neck, as if I was auditioning for a role in Cabaret off-Broadway.) New York always reminds me too, of the roots of fashion the hard nails, nitty gritty business of it. When Im there on work trips, I stay in mid-town Manhattan or what used to be called the Garment District or the Fashion District. From being a den of vice in the 1800s, it became the heart of the countrys garment industry by the 1900s, an area inhabited by Jewish immigrants from East Europe put to work in garment factories through various circumstances. Like the invention of the sewing machine that enabled mass production of garments at double the speed of hand-sewn garments and met at the other end by increased demand for mass-produced clothing across the country. It became a formal self-contained district when a fight with the Fifth Avenue Association led the latter to demand zoning laws from the city council. Fifth Avenue had all the fancy retail stores, but its residents didnt want immigrant workers in the vicinity. Ironic, given that these immigrants were the ones making the very clothes they sold. But the retailers wanted to keep their upper-class consumers away from their working-class producers, and so launched a campaign that demanded the workers stay within a marked zone. The city council complied, which essentially quarantined garment workers into this bounded zone which became the Garment District. Men whod fared well in the garment industry and other residents became invested in developing this district into an architectural spectacle through which they could stake a claim as true citizens of New York. Many of New Yorks iconic buildings and architectural forms came up in the Garment District. The trademark New York loft, for instance, the form the garment factory took with more light and air after tenement factories were banned because of health hazards (smallpox had apparently spread through clothes made in these tenements that were cramped, filthy and unhygienic). By the 1970s the fall of the district was imminent as manufacturing moved away, newer immigrants like the Asians and Hispanics occupied these areas and mob-controlled violence became rampant. Today it is a mixed-use district, with offices of different kinds but still visibly a centre of wholesale garment trade. Shops in rows have notices outside the door, New-York style, warning people that they wont sell you the odd button or pyjamas or feathers or yardage so dont come in to ask. Occasionally the impact of manufacturing having moved elsewhere shows up with window signs saying CLOSING SHOP. EVERYTHING MUST GO. Sometimes I stand for a moment on these streets and think: this is where it all started. It was in these buildings, these former garment factories where the seeds of New Yorks important role in fashion were sown. But it was also here that the struggle for womens rights started, with most of the workers in these factories being women. The history of 8 March or what we celebrate as International Womens Day has its roots here. The story goes that on 8 March 1857 women workers in the garment and textile factories in the area rose up in protest of low wages and abysmal working conditions. Police violently dispersed the protest but it laid the seeds of a labour movement. These women went on to form a labour union around the same time a few years later. In November 1909 came the New York shirtwaist (meaning blouses) workers strike, also called the Uprising of the 20,000. After a call for action (in Yiddish unusual because male trade unionists spoke English) by trade unionist Clara Lemlich, 15,000 women workers walked out of their factories and onto the streets of New York in angry protest. The strike ended four months later, after they successfully negotiated with factory owners for higher wages, shorter hours and equal treatment to women who were part of the labour union and those who werent. A year later, in March 1911, tragedy struck. A massive fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory killed 146 women workers, most of whom were Jewish and Italian immigrants between 13 to 23 years of age. The factorys supervisors had locked the factory doors from the outside to prevent workers from leaving early. Thats why workers could not escape when the fire caught, leaving the young women to burn or jump out in flames from windows. The catastrophic consequences forced authorities to take up labour legislation seriously. The following years saw more protests held on 8 March by women workers and trade unions around the world not only for changes in working conditions, but for peace, for the end to war and poverty, and for suffrage and womens right to vote. New York is not just the epicentre of this pandemic, but central to the histories of both fashion and womens rights. All those songs, movies, essays, those paeans to New York are not without reason. You either love New York or you hate it, but you cant not feel something for it. I dont doubt New York will be back in business, but Im taking a moment today to hold it in my thoughts and send out a prayer for it. Twice. Manjima is the author of Mannequin: Working Women in India's Glamour Industry (Zubaan, 2018) 95-year-old man raises 9,300 for Friends of Noble's Hospital A 95-year-old man has raised more than 9,300 for the Friends of Noble's Hospital. Retired farmer Bob Corkish has been inspired by the achievement of Captain Tom Moore in the UK who raised millions of pounds of the NHS. Mr Corkish who lives at Southlands Residental Home in Port Erin is attempting to walk 100 laps of the whole ground floor to raise money for Friends of Noble's Hospital. He initially set a fundraising target of 500. Now, in a matter of days, he has raised over 9,300. WASHINGTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of US mattress manufacturers, including Brooklyn Bedding, Corsicana Mattress Company, Elite Comfort Solutions, FXI, Inc., Kolcraft Enterprises Inc., and Leggett & Platt, Incorporated, as well as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO ("USW") (collectively, the "Mattress Petitioners"), applaud the Commerce Department's decision to initiate eight investigations into unfairly traded mattresses. Today's decision formally commences antidumping investigations on unfairly traded imports of mattresses from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam, and a countervailing duty (subsidy) investigation on subsidized mattresses from China. "Today's initiation decision by the Commerce Department is a critical step that allows both Commerce and the US International Trade Commission to fully investigate the imports from these eight countries and their impact of the US mattress industry," says Yohai Baisburd, counsel to the Mattress Petitioners. "Commerce reviewed the over 3,000 page petition, gathered additional information, and confirmed our calculations of estimated dumping margins ranging from 42.92% to 989.90%," continued Baisburd. Commerce also initiated a subsidy investigation on Chinese government programs. The country-by-country estimated margins are provided below. Country Estimated Dumping Margins Cambodia 326.49% to 675.83% Indonesia 213.44% to 429.74% Malaysia 42.92% Serbia 57.37% to 183.16% Thailand 414.77% to 763.28% Turkey 267.55% to 609.51% Vietnam 481.72% to 989.90% The investigations now continue with the injury phase at the International Trade Commission, which is expected to vote by May 15, 2020. The Department of Commerce initiation fact sheet is available at https://enforcement.trade.gov/download/factsheets/factsheet-multiple-mattresses-ad-cvd-initiation-042120.pdf. The Mattress Petitioners are represented by Cassidy Levy Kent (USA) LLP. SOURCE The Mattress Petitioners WASHINGTON Americans have come to expect that they will know who their next president is on election night, but thats likely to change this fall. In fact, because of a huge increase in mail-in voting in states that are not used to it, the presidential election could take a week or more to be decided. Public officials and advocates are just now beginning to grapple with how to prepare themselves, and the country, for this unprecedented situation. Its a culture shift thats going to be required, said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, in an interview. We should be prepared to wait at least a week before results can be certified. Gupta, who oversaw the Justice Departments civil rights division from 2014 to 2017, said her organization one of the oldest civil rights groups in the country would work with other groups over the next several months to raise awareness and create an expectation among both voters and journalists that results should not be expected on election night. People are going to have to be able to be patient to wait for the results, Gupta told Yahoo News. Thats an uncomfortable position for a lot of people. The medias not used to it. The publics not used to it. Workers prepare ballots for a mail-sorting machine during the presidential primary in Washington state on March 10. (Lindsey Wasson/Reuters) But, she said, election officials need to be able to do their job to make sure they are counting every ballot. The danger would be if there is false pressure that gets built in and people are disenfranchised because of this false pressure. Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said that if we have a vote-by-mail state that is really close, I would rather be in a position where everybodys vote got counted. I think that should be our gold standard, is that everyone who wanted to participate was able to participate. I'd rather get it right than get it at 10 oclock on Election Day night, Perez said in an interview on Skullduggery, a Yahoo News podcast. The coronavirus will remain a major presence in American life, no matter what, this fall, but what that will look like is hard to predict. The summer could see a downturn in cases followed by a major second wave of outbreaks. Or there could be a steady string of flare-ups in different parts of the country as the nation tries to restart economic and public life. Story continues In any case, the demand for mail-in voting in the fall will be dramatically higher than normal. Most states have already switched their primaries this spring and summer to emphasize vote-by-mail. And a new poll released Sunday showed 72 percent support for switching the fall elections entirely to mail-in ballots, a position that goes beyond even what voting rights advocates want. Limited early and day-of in-person voting is vital. But most of the states that will be watched the most closely on election night are certain to be counting exponentially more mail-in ballots than they ever have. Of the six swing states that are likely to decide who the next president is, only one has conducted the majority of past elections by mail: Arizona, where 79 percent of the vote was by mail in 2018, according to statistics compiled by the Brennan Center for Justice, a voting rights organization at New York University. Two of the other six swing states have at least fairly robust experience with voting by mail. Florida saw a third of its voters cast ballots by mail in 2018, and in Michigan it was one out of every four voters. But two of the six swing states have very little experience with remote voting: Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. They had 6 percent and 4 percent mail-in voting in 2018, respectively. Lexi Menth holds a vote-by-mail ballot at a rally for Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Seattle on Feb. 22. (Jason Redmond/Reuters) Wisconsin conducted a primary election on April 7 in which mail-in ballots came from more than 80 percent of the electorate, according to a report by the state elections commission. And it took six days for results to be reported. But while mail-in ballots take longer to count, they are undoubtedly a safer way of voting amid a pandemic. Wisconsin officials have already traced seven new infections back to in-person voting during the primary. Part of the delay in counting the Wisconsin mail-in ballots stemmed from the fact that any that were dropped off at a post office and postmarked by Election Day were eligible to be counted. Most states set cutoff dates that are before Election Day and dont count ballots that arrive after that cutoff date, but Megan Lewis, co-founder of the Voting Rights Lab, a group founded to roll back obstacles to voting, told Yahoo News that states should count ballots that are postmarked up to Election Day itself. That would add another layer of complexity to getting a result. Turnout in the Wisconsin primary was close to the record level set in 2016, even with the grave concerns most voters had about the risks to their health. That was a good test run for the states first time conducting an election mostly by mail. But in a general election, participation goes up exponentially, meaning a state like Wisconsin will likely have to count almost twice as many ballots this fall. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is gearing up for a June 2 primary that was supposed to take place on April 28. It got pushed back to help the state deal with the pandemic public safety crisis. Pennsylvania had been one of 18 states that required a reason to vote by mail until last fall. Now anyone who wants to vote by mail can do so, in the June 2 Pennsylvania primary and in the general election this fall. Requests for mail ballots have skyrocketed. As of Monday, Pennsylvania had received 296,168 applications for no-excuse mail-in ballots, which were not an option in previous elections, according to data supplied by the secretary of states office to Yahoo News. In addition, there were 101,118 requests for absentee ballots, which is already more than the 84,000 absentee ballots that were used in the 2016 Pennsylvania primary. Its not just swing states or those that lean left that are preparing for an increase in mail voting. A majority of states have already told the federal government that they plan to use their portion of the $400 million Congress set aside in March to help them prepare for changes to their elections. Although many Tennessee voters are already eligible to vote absentee by-mail, we typically see only 1.5% to 2.5% of voters participating by mail. We expect there will be an increase in absentee by-mail requests, wrote Tre Hargett, Tennessees secretary of state, in a letter notifying the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) that his state will avail itself of the $7.9 million it was given. Election workers carry a ballot box full of votes in San Diego on June 5, 2018. (Mike Blake/Reuters) We will use the funds to purchase necessary supplies for counties to process an increased number of requests and will likely require extra scanners and more personnel to process and count ballots, Hargett wrote. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill wrote a letter to the EAC notifying it that his state would be making preparation for possible increased absentee election activity related to the November 3, 2020 General Election ... to pay for increased absentee election costs. Democrats are pushing to include more money in the next coronavirus relief package, which is expected to be taken up by Congress in May. The Brennan Center has released an itemized list of how much it would cost to prepare all 50 states for the fall, to the tune of $2 billion. In Wisconsin, election officials said that having nearly a week to count their results in the April 7 primary was a very good thing. The extended tally period allowed [the Wisconsin Elections Commission] and local election officials to see the benefit of being able to carefully process ballots and results sets without the pressure of an end-of-the-night deadline, Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the WEC, wrote in a report this past Saturday. It helps to reinforce the message that accurate and secure elections and tallies take time to produce, Wolfe reported. Suzanne Smalley and Daniel Klaidman contributed reporting. _____ Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please refer to the CDCs and WHOs resource guides. Read more: Israeli activist Ayman Haj Yahya has been identified as the individual indicted for allegedly spying for Iran after he was arrested on March 16 by the internal security agency Shin Bet and Israeli police. Haj Yahya a well-known political leader and activist within the Palestinian community in Israel was accused of having contacts with Iranian intelligence to recruit Arab citizens in Israel. He was charged in court in the central city of Lod with serious infringement of the security of Israel on Sunday. Israeli authorities allege that Haj Yahya was in contact with Iranian agents during a trip to Europe and also communicated with a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) group in Lebanon. Haj Yahya had been a leading member of the Arab-nationalist political party Balad that won three seats in the Israeli Knesset in the last election. Balad is part of the Joint List alliance, which collectively won 15 seats, making it the third-largest political party in Israel. Haj Yahya left Balad in 2014 over the partys position on the Syrian civil war to establish his own political movement, which advocated for a boycott of elections and Palestinian integration into Israels political system. A senior member of Balad, speaking to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said the allegations against Haj Yahya were political charges. Nevertheless, Haj Yahya faces a very serious case, he said. A request for comment from Israeli police was not answered by the time of publication. Espionage case? Yonah Jeremy Bob, an Israeli intelligence analyst with the Jerusalem Post in Israel told Al Jazeera that, based on available information, the case against Haj Yahya did not tantamount to a full-fledged espionage operation against Israel. It is too early in the case and the gag order is still too broad to know anything for certain. The available information indicates the spying charges are general and did not necessary lead to any kind of specific disaster, he said. If so, the charges may lead to a less severe prison sentence than for a person accused of spying activities which concretely endangers a major state secret or a person who undertook violent actions themselves against Israel. Not unusual Another Palestinian leader in Israel told Al Jazeera the case against Haj Yahya was not unusual because it targets Palestinian leaders in Israel with harassment, threats, and often lodges criminal cases against them. Sheikh Raed Salah, centre, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, arrives at the Israeli Rishon Lezion Justice court [File: Jack Guez/AFP] Israel law bars its citizens from having contacts with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and others Israel considers its enemy or terrorist organisations, he noted, also speaking anonymously. As Palestinian Arabs in Israel, we dont see eye to eye with Israels political and security parameters, he said. He pointed out to the case against Sheikh Raed Salah, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who was sentenced to 28 months in prison for inciting terror for protesting against Israeli attempts to control Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islams holiest site in Palestine. He also highlighted the case of former Knesset member and Palestinian leader Azmi Bishara, who now lives in Qatar. Bishara resigned his Knesset seat in 2007 after he was indicted for aiding the enemy during the 2006 war in Lebanon. Fearing arrest, he moved to Egypt and has not returned because of what he called a racist climate in Israel. Commenting on the charges against him, Bishara said in an interview with Al Jazeera in 2007 that Israel tends to prosecute Palestinians who have contacts with the Arab world and the Middle East region to avoid admitting the separate national character of its Arab Palestinian citizens. Actually we do not accept that the enemies of Israel are our enemies as Arabs and Palestinians. We think we are part of the Arab world too, and not only citizens of the state of Israel, he said. Follow Ali Younes on Twitter: @ali_reports Register with JOC.com and receive 5 free pieces of content for the first thirty days. After thirty days, you will receive 3 pieces of content and after sixty days you will receive 1 piece of content. To receive full access, Subscribe Today . You can also subscribe to our daily newsletter. Register President Donald Trump's announcement on Twitter that his administration would temporarily stop immigration into the U.S. amid the pandemic ignited both confusion and outrage Tuesday as the true consequences of the order remained unclear and advocacy groups feared yet another crackdown on vulnerable immigrants. "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" Trump tweeted late Monday night. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 Administration officials did not respond to requests for comment about what impact such an order would have on the wide range of legal immigrants already in the U.S. including those who rely on temporary work visas or are currently applying for citizenship or legal permanent residency. At the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing later Tuesday, Trump said the suspension would only apply to those seeking legal permanent residency authorization, commonly known as "green cards." He said the order would not apply to those on temporary work visas, specifically singling out farm workers. MORE: DHS to houses of worship: Start planning now for life after COVID-19 crisis Although it remains unclear when the order will start impacting green card applications done outside the country, Trump said he planned on signing the order Wednesday and that it would last for 60 days. "By pausing immigration, we will help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens," Trump said. Story continues In-person interviews were already suspended under U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services coronavirus protocols, meaning applicants already in the country could not complete the process. Reaction criticizing the move swiftly followed Trump's Monday night announcement on Twitter. "Trump failed to take this crisis seriously from day 1. His abandonment of his role as president has cost lives. And now, he's shamelessly politicizing this pandemic to double down on his anti-immigrant agenda. Enough, Mr. President. The American people are fed up," Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., shot back in a tweet. MORE: What it's like being undocumented during the novel coronavirus Former Obama White House policy adviser Doug Rand said Trump's announcement would further complicate the process for applicants already struggling with the impacts of COVID-19. "What it means is you can't live with your spouse in the United States," said Rand, who now heads Boundless Immigration, a legal support group for green card applicants. "You can't even see them, potentially, until the government decides that this temporary period is over." Rand said the indefinite nature of the ban resembles Trump's move to block immigrants from Muslim-majority countries in 2017. A version of trump's "Muslim ban" remains in place, although it includes many categories of exemptions after immediate legal challenges brought the policy to the Supreme Court. Trump says his expected executive order temporarily banning all legal immigration would "be in effect for 60 days" and he will then evaluate it. "By pausing immigration, we'll help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens." https://t.co/7A501H2OYF pic.twitter.com/sbHqGcaSPl ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 21, 2020 Green card applicants primarily include family members of U.S. citizens and those already established and employed in the U.S. Green card applicants also include those seeking humanitarian protections and as well as a much smaller pool of applicants from countries with low levels of U.S. immigration that participate in the diversity visa lottery program. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement Tuesday morning that, "At a time when Americans are looking to get back to work, action is necessary." 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. While it wasn't clear what prompted the president's move at this time or on what legal grounds an executive order might be based, the announcement is part of a recurring pattern of Trump leaning on executive authority to announce sweeping immigration restrictions during an election year. "This is a desperate attempt by the Trump administration to shift blame away from its incompetent response to the Coronavirus while tens of thousands of Americans are dying across the country," said Paola Luisi co-director of the immigrant advocacy group Families Belong Together. PHOTO: A photo shows a closed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) building and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field office, after an employee may have been infected with the novel coronavirus in Tukwila, Wash., March 3, 2020. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images, FILE) Nationalist messaging was a hallmark of Trump's 2016 campaign as he vowed to be "tough" on China, targeted Mexican immigrants as a source of crime and proposed a ban on Muslim immigrants. The political pattern became clear in 2018 when Trump seized on the news that a group of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. had formed a caravan. Trump responded by sending U.S. troops to the southern border, where their support of immigration officers was limited to basic logistical duties including the installation of barbed wire. MORE: Trump abruptly removes inspector general named to oversee $2T in stimulus spending Throughout his presidency, Trump has added real action to the rhetoric. The administration has already leveraged legal authorities this year to implement highly restrictive immigration measures in the name of public health amid the pandemic. Prior to Monday's announcement, USCIS had already stopped all in-person services for new visas and green cards, with naturalization ceremonies on hold until at least May. Asylum interviews for refugees were canceled with the promise they'll be automatically rescheduled after USCIS resumes normal operations. PHOTO: President Donald Trump listens as Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 17, 2020, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP, FILE) The administration has also barred foreign nationals traveling from China and several European countries with narrow exceptions for immediate family members. In addition to the current restrictions on legal travel, U.S. Customs and Border Protection continues to refuse entry to unauthorized travelers while immediately removing those who cross illegally under an expedited process that largely cuts out the typical administrative review and adjudication process. Federal authorities deported or "expelled" more than 6,300 unauthorized immigrants from the border in March "in the interest of public health" under Title 42 of the U.S. Code, according to CBP. Trump's Twitter announcement raised further questions about the fate of the most vulnerable immigrants and refugees who rely on humanitarian visas which have previously been excluded from certain immigration restrictions. "Already at-risk groups like immigrant survivors of violence, who are among the communities hardest hit by the pandemic, will be further marginalized," said Archi Pyati of the Tahirih Justice Center, an advocacy and support group for human trafficking victims. "People are suffering across the country because of an unprecedented global health crisis and its impact on our economy -- not because of immigrants," If Trump's tweet Monday evening means all non-citizens would be unconditionally barred from entry, the move would be unprecedented in U.S. history. Immigration had already slowed when the deadliest pandemic of the 20th century hit in 1918. At the time, even the "Spanish Flu" didn't prompt a full closure of U.S. borders. The number of immigrants arriving in the U.S. dropped to 110,618 in the year 1918, down from 1,218,480 in 1914, according to Census Bureau data. ABC News' Ben Gittleson, Anne Flaherty and Libby Cathey contributed to this report. What to know about coronavirus: How it started and how to protect yourself: coronavirus explained What to do if you have symptoms: coronavirus symptoms Tracking the spread in the US and Worldwide: coronavirus map Trump's threat of total immigration ban ignites outrage, confusion originally appeared on abcnews.go.com THIS NEWS RELEASE IS INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION IN CANADA ONLY AND IS NOT AUTHORIZED FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Predator Mining Corp. (TSXV:GPY) (Golden Predator or the Company) announces that it has filed a preliminary short form prospectus (the Prospectus) with respect to a marketed offering (the Offering) of 10,000,000 units (Units) at a price of C$0.25 per Unit (the Issue Price). Each Unit consists of one Class A common share (a Common Share) of the Company and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant, with each whole warrant (a Warrant) exercisable for one Common Share at an exercise price of C$0.35 for 36 months following the completion of the Offering. Warrants are subject to acceleration of the expiry date to 30 calendar days upon notice provided to the warrant-holder by the Company in the event that the volume weighted average price of the Common Shares is equal to or higher than $0.75 for a period of 5 consecutive trading days on the TSX Venture Exchange or other Canadian stock exchange on which the Common Shares are principally traded. The Offering will be conducted on a best efforts agency basis under the terms of an agency agreement to be entered into between the Company and Clarus Securities Inc. (the Agent). On closing of the Offering the Company has agreed to pay the Agent a cash fee equal to 7.0% of the gross proceeds of the Offering. The Offering will be conducted in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario, and in such other jurisdictions as are agreed to by the Company and the Agent. PowerOne Capital Markets Limited has been appointed as special advisor to the Company. The net proceeds raised from the sale of the Units under the Offering will be used by the Company for the completion of a feasibility level study to determine the parameters for heap leach reprocessing at the Companys Brewery Creek Property, metallurgical column and geotechnical testing, preparation of an updated mineral resource estimate for the Brewery Creek Property, and for working capital and general corporate purposes. The Offering is expected to close on or about May 12, 2020 and is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to the receipt of regulatory approvals and the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The securities being offered have not, nor will they be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons in the absence of U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from the U.S. registration requirements. This release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities in the United States. ABOUT GOLDEN PREDATOR MINING CORP. Golden Predator is advancing the past-producing Brewery Creek Mine towards a timely resumption of mining activities, under its valid Quartz Mining and Water Licenses, in Canadas Yukon. With established resources grading over 1.0 g/t Gold and both a technical report and feasibility level study underway considering the economics of a restart of heap leach operations at the Brewery Creek Mine, 2020 proves to be a pivotal year for the Company. Drilling continues to expand the open-ended resources and untested targets across the 180 km2 brownfield property located 55 km by road from Dawson City, Yukon. The Company has a Socio-Economic Accord with the Trondek Hwechin First Nation. For further information: Janet Lee-Sheriff Chief Executive Officer 604-260-0289 info@goldenpredator.com Andy Cohen revealed his one-year-old son Benjamin Allen already loves the sound of applause on Monday. 'This is the 'waiting for Clappy Hour' moment of the day,' the 51-year-old Bravo producer captioned an adorable snap of his son staring out the window ahead of New York's daily salute to nurses and doctors. The Manhattanites are among some of the city's more than 8.3 million residents, who are paying tribute to medical staffers and essential workers by cheering in unison through their windows and balconies. Doting dad: Andy Cohen revealed his one-year-old son Benjamin Allen already loves the sound of applause on Monday via Instagram The citywide tribute came about as word spread on social media last month urging residents to collectively make some noise for healthcare workers at 7pm. It only seems natural Cohen, who has recently recovered from coronavirus, would join in to thank the frontline workers that assisted him on his battle against the deadly illness. The ritual appears to be a new staple in their routine before bed, as he posted two different shots of his youngster in a pair of banana pajamas and another in orange trousers and a black long sleeve. Reunited: It only seems natural Cohen, who has since recovered from coronavirus, would join in to thank the frontline workers that assisted him on his battle with the fatal illness Cohen calls having to be separated from his son, as he suffered from COVID-19, the 'very worst part' of his experience. Speaking on SiriusXM's Radio, Andy said: 'Today is a huge day for me, not only am I back on the radio and Watch What Happens Live but I have been quarantined from Ben for the last 12 days or so and I'm gonna get to see him right after the show. 'My doctor, two doctors, said it would be safe to see him yesterday and I freaked out on Saturday night, worried... so I was like let me just add a day to that - so I'm going to see him today.' 'This is the 'waiting for Clappy Hour' moment of the day,' the 51-year-old Bravo producer captioned an adorable snap of his little one staring out the window ahead of New York's daily salute to nurses and doctors Andy also detailed the symptoms he suffered throughout his sickness including a tight chest and loss of appetite. 'It took 10 or 11 days to work through my system, and it takes a bit to get my energy back,' he said. 'You go downstairs to make a piece of toast and you come back and you need to relax.' He continued: 'I took a lot of Tylenol, a lot of Vitamin C and liquidsmy symptoms were a fever, tightness in my chest, a cough, very, very achy, a lot of aches and pains in the body and very tired. Some chills, loss of smell and appetite.' After U.S. crude oil fell into negative territory yesterday, one expert has warned that the oil industry crisis could force many companies to stop operating. U.S. oil companies have different production costs and different debt burdens, and the most vulnerable are those that have borrowed heavily in anticipation of higher prices, former FERC commissioner and current managing director of Berkeley Research Group, Branko Terzic, said as quoted by Sputnik. "There are 1,000 producers, and some of these are small producers where the well just runs on its own and it produces, and it probably won't be shut down because the costs are very low," Terzic said, adding "WTI is low because it is land blocked and has to go through pipelines. Secondly, storages are probably full, and thirdly, the country is in shutdown. There is just no market for oil. The refineries don't need it. I haven't used my automobile in a week, and I used to drive every day." Indeed, the crisis in demand has been recognized widely as the main reason for the oil price crash that pushed WTI to unprecedented levels: at the time of writing, although back into positive territory, WTI was trading at just $1.40 per barrel. Brent crude was trading at $25.36 a barrel. Warnings about a rise in bankruptcies have been coming in from energy experts for months. Earlier this week, Rystad Energy warned that as many as 533 U.S. oil companies go bankrupt if oil stays at around $20 a barrel. "$30 is already quite bad, but once you get to $20 or even $10, it's a complete nightmare," said Rystad's head of shale research, Artem Abramov, as quoted by CNN. He added, "At $10, almost every US E&P company that has debt will have to file Chapter 11 or consider strategic opportunities." By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: [The stream is slated to start at 10:45 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is holding his daily press conference on the Covid-19 outbreak, which has infected more than 253,300 people across the state as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. On Monday, Cuomo said the death toll from Covid-19 is still "horrifically high," even as some projections of the state's outbreak suggest it may be on the verge of a "descent." He stressed the importance of testing, saying the state is "starting the largest antibody testing ever done" to determine who has already been infected. Cuomo is scheduled Tuesday afternoon to visit President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss the outbreak. The coronavirus has infected more than 788,000 people in the U.S. and has killed at least 42,374, the highest death toll of any country. Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.4 million people and has killed at least 171,700, according to Hopkins data. CNBC's Will Feuer, Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report. Read CNBC's live updates to see the latest news on the Covid-19 outbreak. Russia has reported its second-highest number of new coronavirus cases and a record one-day death toll as the country's crisis continued to worsen. There were 5,642 new cases reported on Tuesday, bringing the total from 47,121 to 52,763. That figure is second-only to 6,060 new cases recorded on Sunday. Meanwhile another 51 people died from the virus, bringing the total from 405 to 456. it is the largest single-day toll so far after 48 deaths, also recorded Sunday. The figures were released as a top government health official refused to rule out the possibility that coronavirus was manufactured in a lab and called for a 'thorough study' into its origins. Russia reported 5,642 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases to 52,763. It is the second-highest daily infection toll after 6,060 reported Sunday Russia also reported 51 deaths from the virus on Tuesday, the highest one-day total of the crisis so far as the outbreak rapidly worsens Russia announced 5,642 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday and 51 new deaths, both record one-day tolls (pictured, a coronavirus ward in Pirogov City) Veronika Skvortsova, head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) and ex-health minister, was asked if the pandemic virus could be artificial. 'This question is not that easy. It demands a very through study,' she said on Russia's Channel One. 'None of the versions can be ruled out.' She said: 'We can see that a fairly large number of fragments distinguishes this virus from its very close relative, SARS. 'They are approximately 94 per cent similar, the rest is different I think that we must conduct a very serious research.' Even as Russia's crisis worsened, the Kremlin claimed to have cured the first three patients used blood plasma taken from people who had already recovered. 'We are hoping that the number of such recoveries will continue to grow, and that this method of treatment will help us cope with the coronavirus pandemic,' Moscow deputy mayor Anastasia Rakova said. The treatment works by flooding an infected person's bloodstream with antibodies which fight the virus, taken from someone whose immune system has already beaten it. A major search is underway for donors after 60 out of 1,679 recovered patients came forward in Moscow where there is a cash reward. Russia now has a total of 52,763 cases of coronavirus and 456 deaths, as the country's outbreak accelerates after months where it performed better than the rest of Europe A government worker sprays disinfectant at Savyolovsky Railway Station in Russia Two people checked out after 10 days following blood plasma transfusion procedures at Sklifosofsky hospital in Moscow, and another after a fortnight at City clinical hospital number 52. The number of Covid-19 cases cases in Russia began rising sharply this month, although it had reported far fewer infections than many western European countries in the outbreak's early stages. Russia has carried out more than 2.1 million tests for Covid-19, according to official figures. A total of 139,000 people remain under medical monitoring. In Moscow, the authorities announced cash incentives to recovered coronavirus patients to donate blood plasma, offering 54 for a maximum per person 600 millilitres. A major new Russian coronavirus hospital built from scratch on a greenfield site in 36 days has taken its first 20 patients. The mammoth emergency 92 million complex will initially hold 800 patients - 300 more than originally announced - amid fears of the city's capacity being overrun. By PTI UNITED NATIONS: Indian peacekeepers serving in the UN missions across the world continue to provide essential humanitarian and healthcare assistance to the local communities notwithstanding the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic. Indian peacekeepers with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) repaired an important road intersection in Khor Adar, restoring connections between Bunj and Melut. "#UNMISS continues assisting local communities across #SouthSudan, despite challenges (from) #COVID19; our #peacekeepers (from) India repaired a major intersection in under a month, enabling people in a region of Malakal 2 resume road travel (between) 2 major towns, a tweet from UNMISS said. The engineers from the Indian Horizontal and Mechanical Company undertook intensive rehabilitation of the roadways to reopen the main supply routes between Bunj and Melut and Malakal. An UNMISS report quoted Commanding Officer Lieutenant-Colonel MPS Ghai as saying that recent floods had destroyed the five-kilometer main junction connecting two major towns in the Upper Nile region-Bunj and Melut. "We knew that we absolutely had to do something to help them as soon as possible," he said. Rehabilitation of the roadways helped improve conditions for local communities living in the area and enabled humanitarian assistance to reach them swiftly. The Indian contingent worked with local authorities, providing labour, machinery and technical expertise. Ghai said that he is very proud of the dedication shown by the Indian troops as "they worked extra hours and performed punishing physical labour in harsh weather conditions without complaints." Local authorities in Malakal expressed their gratitude to the UNMISS peacekeepers. "What the Indian engineers from UNMISS have done is almost a miracle," Acting Governor James Agwer Awer said in the UNMISS report. In addition to road repairs, UNMISS peacekeepers have also built an artificial water channel to facilitate irrigation for farms and created a playing field for young sport enthusiasts in the region. United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) healthcare peacekeepers are working relentlessly to prevent the COVID19 spread. Commanding Officer Lt Col GS Suri of UNIFIL Naqoura Hospital, who is also an ENT surgeon from India, said extra measures have been taken to establish triage centre outside the hospital and patients coming into the hospital are examined for fever and other COVID symptoms. An UNIFIL article said Suri and many other healthcare practitioners like him in the forefront of COVID-19 response are putting their own health at risk to protect fellow peacekeepers and the host population in south Lebanon. UNIFIL medical team is implementing rigorous precautionary measures and World Health Organization guidelines to ensure their own safety as well as that of their patients. UNIFIL has been providing medical supplies and equipment as part of the mission's broader efforts to assist the local population and communities in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. On UNIFIL's part, the Mission has taken all necessary precautionary measures to prevent any infection of the virus among the Mission's more than 11,000 military and civilian peacekeepers as well as the host populations. The oil price in London crashed to a 21-year low just hours after US crude tumbled into negative territory for the first time ever. Brent crude, which is extracted from the North Sea and serves as an international benchmark, fell as low as $16 a barrel on Wednesday morning. That was the lowest level since July 1999, and followed an unprecedented slump in the price of the US benchmark hours earlier. The oil price in London crashed to a 21-year low just hours after US crude tumbled into negative territory for the first time ever. So-called West Texas Intermediate (WTI) hit a low of minus-$40.32 a barrel on Monday, having never before fallen below zero. This is because storage facilities in the US are almost full, including at the main hub in Oklahoma, forcing sellers who have nowhere to put the oil to pay buyers to take it off their hands. Earlier this year, Brent and WTI were close to $70 a barrel. The slump sent shares in major oil companies into reverse, with BP down 3 per cent and Royal Dutch Shell off 4.2 per cent on the FTSE 100 index in London. Fears are mounting that the two firms may be forced to cut their dividends to save cash if the oil price rout continues. The BP and Shell payouts are a crucial source of income for many savers, investors and pension funds in the UK. Oil has been hit by a collapse in demand caused by the Covid-19 outbreak at a time of ample supply, leaving the world unable to store it. Lockdowns around the world have closed factories, shops and offices, grounded aircraft, and taken many vehicles off the roads. Barrel price hits the bottom The two major oil price benchmarks are Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI). Brent originates from oilfields in the North Sea while WTI comes from the US. Analysts believe that a lack of storage space for WTI in the US triggered this weeks panic. With fears mounting that there would be nowhere to store the oil, WTI prices fell to such an extent that sellers had to pay buyers to take delivery. Former BP chief executive Lord Browne of Madingley warned demand for oil may have peaked and prices could remain low for years. Demand is down, production is still high and, as a result, the prices will be very low and I think they will remain low and very volatile for some considerable time, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. Randeep Somel, equities investment director at M&G, said: Never in the history of the oil market has demand come to a halt as we are seeing. There are only so many storage facilities. As these continue to fill up, the oil must be shipped further afield, and the buyers want compensation for that. The oil production cartel Opec, which includes Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, has pledged along with Russia to cut production by 10 per cent in a bid to prop up prices. But those cuts have not yet come in, and analysts warn that they will have little impact because demand for oil has dropped by 30 per cent. The recently agreed supply cuts do little to solve the near-term oversupply problem, said analysts at independent research group JBC Energy. In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that leading oil producers could hold talks again if needed. US President Donald Trump said it would take advantage of the historic drop to replenish the national stockpile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which can store 727m barrels, if Congress approved. This is intended for use in case of emergencies such as the 1991 Iraq War, or in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. Chris Beauchamp, analyst at trading firm IG, described the situation as a complete dislocation in the crude oil market. It's official: Murray State becomes member of Missouri Valley Conference The virus behind the world's COVID-19 pandemic can stay infectious in the air for more than 12 hours, early research out of four major US laboratories suggests, as more scientists warn it may have been underestimated by authorities such as the World Health Organisation. It is still unclear how much of the SARS-CoV-2 virus you would need to inhale to get sick. But researchers from America's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and elsewhere found it was "remarkably resilient" in the air when aerosolised into smaller particles compared with the two other deadly coronaviruses to emerge in humans, SARS and MERS. After 16 hours, particles of the new virus could still infect cells in a dish and looked intact under the microscope. "That's very unusual, we'd expect them to be ripped apart in the air by then," said infectious disease aerobiologist Professor Chad Roy, one of the co-authors of the research. "We scientists don't use this kind of bold language lightly so health authorities need to take note." The work has not yet been put through rigorous peer review but was released this month ahead of publication as scientists around the world fast-track their usual, often protracted process in the face of a fast-moving and dangerous new virus. Professor Roy said the team was confident in the findings as they had been replicated across four different labs, including the US army's virology hub Fort Detrick. CHENGDU, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Organizers of the 31st Summer World University Games in Chengdu, China have launched a global campaign to solicit visual designs for the event. The deadline for submission is June 1, the Chengdu 2021 Organizing Committee said on Monday. An eligible submission should include a panoramic picture featuring a core image as well as a set of extension pictures. The Chengdu 2021 Summer Universiade will take place between August 18-29 next year, after the FISU and local organizers changed dates twice. More than 10,000 athletes are expected to be competing at Chengdu 2021 across 18 sport disciplines, including rowing, shooting and wushu. Pedestrians walk in front of the IBM building in New York. Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. IBM Shares of IBM dropped 3% after the company reported a 3.4% decline in revenue in the first quarter from a year ago amid the spread of coronavirus. The computer hardware company also withdrew full-year guidance given the uncertainty around the pandemic. OneOk, ConocoPhillips, Occidental, Pioneer Natural Resources Energy stocks struggled on Tuesday as oil futures for June fell sharply. OneOK plunged 4.6%, after being downgraded to neutral from buy by Goldman Sachs, according to FactSet. Occidental Petroleum fell 2%, while Pioneer Natural Resources slid 3% and ConocoPhillips lost 4%. Pioneer ended the day in the green. Travelers Shares of The Travelers Companies jumped 2% but ended the day flat despite reporting an earnings and revenue miss. The insurance company earned $2.62 per share for the first quarter, compared to Refinitiv consensus estimate of $2.85 per share. Its quarterly revenue also came short of expectations, as the company cited higher "catastrophe losses" amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, the company announced a 4% dividend hike. Alteryx, Salesforce, Workday, Fortinet Shares of technology software stocks tanked on Tuesday. Shares of Alteryx cratered more than 10.9%, Salesforce fell 7.5%, Workday dropped 7.1% and Fortinet sunk 9.9%. Philip Morris International Shares of the tobacco stock fell 6% after warning that the pandemic would hurt its full-year results and withdrawing its guidance for 2020. The company also announced better than expected results for earnings and revenue for its first quarter. Hertz Global Shares of the global car rental company sank 8.2% after it said it has laid off about 10,000 employees in North America to cut costs and offset the impact Covid-19 is having on its sales. The company said in a government filing that it has "experienced increased rental cancellations and declining forward bookings." The stock is down 73% since the start of 2020 as the coronavirus brings both domestic and international travel to a halt. Beyond Meat Shares of the alternative meat company popped 7.4% on news that Starbucks will debut Beyond Meat products on its menu in China. The partnership with the world's largest coffee chain marks Beyond's entry into the Chinese market. Equifax Shares of Equifax jumped 3.4% after reporting quarterly earnings that topped expectations. The credit reporting agency said its quarterly revenue was its best in any quarter since the 2017 cyber breach incident, although it did withdraw its full-year forecast due to uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. Chewy Shares of the pet food delivery service dropped 2.9% following a downgrade to neutral from buy at UBS. The firm said the company's long-term positives are now reflected in the shares after the stock's 62% rally. SAP Shares of SAP dropped 5.4% after abandoning its dual CEO structure that had been in place for the past six months, naming Christian Klein as sole CEO of the business software giant. SAP said the move was made to give customers more clarity, and that co-CEO Jennifer Morgan will depart April 30. With reporting from CNBC's Yun Li, Jesse Pound and Tom Franck. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump, who has often used his daily coronavirus briefings to criticize Democratic governors in places like New York and California, extended his reach Monday to swing at a GOP state leader who has become a critic of the president's insistence that states are prepared to ramp up testing. Trump and other White House officials have sought for days to deflect criticism from states that the federal government has not done enough to meet the testing needs required to begin reopening businesses and lifting stay-at-home orders. Among the most vocal governors pushing back on that narrative has been Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. Hogan, a Republican and the chairman of the National Governors Association, has emerged as a spokesman for governors of both parties during the crisis on states' needs for testing, ventilators and other medical gear. He has become a regular fixture on Sunday political shows and cable television and drew national attention Monday for announcing that his state had secured 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea. More: Anti-quarantine rally in Pennsylvania draws about 2,000 people in latest protest "This is probably the number one problem in America, and has been from the beginning of this crisis, the lack of testing," Hogan said on CNN on Sunday. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan speaks during a news conference in Annapolis, Md., Friday, April 10, 2020. Trump fired back Monday, and took the rare step of repeatedly criticizing a governor from his own party during the daily briefing with White House reporters. "Some of the governors like, as an example, the governor from Maryland, didn't really understand the list, he didn't understand too much about what was going on," Trump said, referring to a list of some 5,000 laboratories nationwide the administration has said is prepared to accept addition coronavirus tests. "So now I think he'll be able to do that. It's pretty simple. They have tremendous capacity. We hope to be able to help him out." Story continues Trump went on to criticize Hogan's purchase of tests from South Korea. The president said that Hogan "could have saved a lot of money" if he had asked Washington instead. He later said "a little knowledge" would have been helpful for the governor. "He really didnt know about the federal laboratories," Trump said. "If he did know about it, he would have been happy." Hogan has, in fact, been arguing for additional testing for weeks. Governors and some health officials have said labs are hamstrung by a lack of swabs and reagents needed to conduct the tests. Trump threatened this weekend to use the Korea War-era Defense Production Act to speed the manufacture of swabs. Hogan responded after Trump's Monday press conference by tweeting he is "grateful" to Trump for sending a list of labs, and that they will be "critical for utilizing the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea." Im grateful to President Trump for sending us a list of federal labs and generously offering Maryland use of them for #COVID19 testing. Accessing these federal labs will be critical for utilizing the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea. Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) April 21, 2020 Trump has had an on-again, off-again relationship with several Democratic governors, lurching between heaping criticism and praise on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for instance. Before Monday, he had generally not criticized Hogan, a centrist Republican who represents a heavily Democratic state. While he criticized Hogan, Trump said Cuomo would visit the White House on Tuesday. Over the weekend, the president played a series of videos of Cuomo praising Trump and the federal response to the virus. Contributing: Michael Collins, Savannah Behrmann This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Trump criticizes Republican Gov. Larry Hogan over testing Migration is a vital part of the lives of Latin Americans. Within the 20th century's second half, and in the 21st's, millions of people from Latin American countries have relocated to the developed North. However, in the past decade, a set of specifically severe displacement crises in Central America and Venezuela has upturned the trend with countless Latin Americans going to neighboring nations and putting down origins. Four million Venezuelans have gone to nearly every country in Latin America, with the most significant figures in Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Ecuador. Meanwhile, another batch of 100,000 Nicaraguans relocated to Costa Rica. Tens of thousands or probably even hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Hondurans have opted to stay and settle in Mexico as it becomes more difficult to move to the U.S. Nevertheless, if migration is considered a global concern, the picture in Latin America is noticeably different. Displacement Crises Following a Common Pattern In other nations of the world, displacement or dislocation crises are following a familiar pattern. Every time people are fleeing their country due to a significant problem, the state functions' collapse, or merely common violence, UN agencies act to assist the nations that receive the migrants. Relatively, the majority of these displaced officially get assigned as refugees, and the overseas community organizes to develop camps and provide the refugees with food, housing, and schools. But the experience of Latin America could be quite different. Countries in this region have attempted to incorporate the fleeing countries into their labor market, the local neighborhoods, as well as the education system. Now, the majority of the government has avoided using the term "refugee" to favor the treatment of the arriving individuals as essential parts of the new communities they are hosting. Migration Response through Creative Thinking It may be doubtful for a region like Latin America that didn't have too much recent experience with mass immigration movements pivot so fast to do this. Partially, this can be explained by economic connections and cultural affinities that are much. How did a region that had limited recent experience with mass immigration flows pivot so quickly to do this? Some parts of this can be explained by cultural affinities and economic ties that are much constricted, although not always uncomplicated, in-between immediate neighbors. Nevertheless, international leadership may have been helpful as well. By the time the agencies of the United Nations, as well as of international donors, started focusing on the region, the Latin American nations had already developed their pattern for welcoming migrants and avoided the notion of "granting refugee status to favor treatment of the migrants' recent arrivals." Additionally, as part of the different and creative measures for migration response, the region has also developed unique ways of providing the migrants legal status, work-based visas, temporary protections, the utilization of regional mobility agreements under Mercosur and Unasur, or not too often, asylum. Undeniably, such measures have been quite imperfect. The majority of the arriving migrants look for a job in the new country hosting them. However, it is typically in the informal economy, even for people with considerable skills like engineers, nurses, teachers, lawyers, and doctors. Education is free, although, in practice, it is frequently challenging to have a child without the necessary documentation, registered in school. Relatively, most countries in Latin America, with the remarkable exceptions of Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Argentina, and Costa Rica, had begun to make it more difficult for migrants to come in even before the COVID-19 crisis had the borders closed further. This means growth in the irregular populace in most nations, and greater dependence on smugglers to move people. The absence of international attention, though, cuts both ways. This may well have contributed to the local improvement within Latin America, although it also means that nations have been left alone to handle overcrowded schools, housing, and hospitals in major communities that receive migrants. Check these out! The Omega field base in Russian Arctic National Park is transitioning to its summer operation mode. "The station's daily living from May to October will be supported by solar panels," said Alexander Kirilov, head of the national park. The first solar panels were installed in Russian Arctic National Park on Cape Zhelaniya (Novaya Zemlya archipelago) in 2013, as part of the joint pilot project of the Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University, the national park and the Russian Satellite Communications Company. To date, the park has independently switched three stations to alternative energy sources during the summer time. All in all, the protected area has 132 working solar panels. They are located on building roofs, which protects the costly equipment from curious polar bears. "It is the solar panels that supply the most energy for Arctic explorers. During the summer, we save up to 2.5-3 metric tons of fuel by using alternative sources of energy," underscored Alexander Kirilov. The energy from the solar panels is enough to power all household appliances, even the boiler and the washing machine. He also said that the park experimented with wind energy, but modern wind turbines cannot withstand strong gusts of wind and break down when the wind speed reaches 20-25 m/s. Meanwhile, solar panels have proven very dependable and consistent. One more important advantage of green energy is that it does not release harmful emissions into the air. According to the plans, the Omega base will switch over to eco-friendly energy sources all year round and will not use diesel fuel even during the dark winter months. President Donald Trump on Monday said he is temporarily suspending immigration to protect American jobs threatened by the dire economic consequences of the coronavirus outbreak. India has been the top country of origin for legal immigrants to the US in recent years, with over 126,000 in 2017. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! theAmerican president said in a post on twitter Monday evening. More than 22 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in last four weeks of stay-at-home lockdowns in force in most parts of the United States. It was not immediately clear from President Trumps tweet what kind of immigrants would be impacted new immigrants are mostly those applying for Green Cards on professional and family visas, refugees and asylum seekers. The Trump administration was considering suspending some work visas and Green Cards for 120 days, CNN reported Tuesday morning citing sources. HT was not able to independently verify it. But temporary foreign workers hired on H-1B, tourists and business visitors the most popular visas for Indians are unlikely to be impacted because they are on non-immigrant visas. The order is likely to be challenged in court, said industry sources. A response was awaited from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services for what to expect, and who are likely to be impacted, or not. It was not clear if immigrations applications already in the system will be frozen because of the order, and if that could happen to Green Cards as well. More than 1 million new immigrants are admitted to the United states every year. India sent the most in 2017 with 126,000 people, according to a Pew study. It was followed by Mexico (124,000), China (121,000) and Cuba (41,000). Overall, people from Mexico comprise the largest group of foreign-born US national in 2018 at 25%, followed by India and China, with 6% each, according to the same report. There were no indications Tuesday when the US president planned to issue the executive order, which could effectively shut down the legal immigration system for an indefinite period. While Trump has striven to block all illegal immigration, a key election promise, he has explicitly and repeatedly supported legal, merit-based immigration. The annual diversity visa, granted to residents of underrepresented countries, have been discontinued and intake of refugees has also been curtailed. The number of immigrant visas have dropped by about 25% from 617,752 in 2016, the year before President Trump took office, to 462,422, according to official US data. There has been a growing chorus of demand from Republican lawmakers and conservative analysts and commentators in recent days demanding a suspension of immigration in view of the increasing job losses due to the epidemic and the shutdown in place to slow and stop it. 25 million Americans are unemployed today. All immigration should be halted until every citizen who wants a job has a job, Paul Gosar, a Republican congressman from Arizona and staunch Trump ally, wrote on Twitter last week. And Jeff Sessions, former US attorney general and estranged Trump aide who has been an immigration hawk, has called on the federal government to IMMEDIATELY halt immigration to the United States until Americans are back to work. Northern Ireland could be facing a "cancer epidemic" as a legacy of the coronavirus pandemic, experts have warned. A Queen's University professor said many cases could be diagnosed at a later stage, making them more difficult to treat. It comes as health officials here revealed there had been a near 70% drop in red flag referrals this year. Professor Mark Lawler from QUB collaborated on research with the University of Split in Croatia and King's College London. He told the Belfast Telegraph that efforts to fight the pandemic have had an unintended negative impact on cancer patients. "Obviously we have to try and find a balance in fighting the pandemic, but we need to remember that cancer is a very common disease," he said. Published in the European Journal of Cancer, the research said 3.7m people are diagnosed with cancer every year across Europe with 1.9m deaths. Prof Lawler said the figures could rise significantly without action. "What we're worried about is seeing delays in urgent cases, diagnosis, surgery and chemotherapy. That's going to have an effect on both diagnosing and treating cancer. Our focus is always about diagnosing the cancer as early as possible." Prof Lawler encouraged those with cancer symptoms, such as abnormal bleeding or new lumps in the body, not to put off visiting their GP. "If we don't do that, we're worried that down the road we'll see greatly increased diagnosis of cancer at a later stage when it will be much more difficult to treat," he added. "We also need good data to plan for government policy to make sure those services can deliver." Cancer Focus NI CEO Roisin Foster agreed the current situation would create serious problems in the future. The charity is still providing family support and counselling despite struggling with a 70% drop in income. "We are hearing of mothers travelling alone for treatment as their partners are at home with school-aged children and the family is otherwise socially isolating," she said. "This, combined with suspending screening programmes, means that we will be storing up considerable problems for the future - late diagnosis, more complex treatment, psychological impacts, impacts on families including bereavement - and all at a time when charities like ours are facing real concerns about our future. We fully appreciate the impact of coronavirus is to the forefront of everyone's mind. But sadly cancer has not disappeared. "We would urge people to be all the more vigilant about the signs and symptoms of cancer and contact your GP if you have concerns." Meanwhile, new figures from the Public Health Agency have shown that cancer services in Northern Ireland have seen a 60-70% drop in red flag referrals this year. In January, a report suggested that red flag referrals alone accounted for 28% of all cancer diagnosis here in recent years. The PHA said there has also been a significant drop in those attending Emergency Departments with serious issues like suspected strokes and heart attacks. They said most services are still open with robust infection procedures in place. Patients with non Covid-19 symptoms are assessed in separate areas to minimise the risk of infection. Health Minister Robin Swann said: "I understand that some people may think it is best not to attend their GP or ED when they know the service is under such pressure and I recognise people are making every effort to allow the health services to focus on Covid-19. "However, if people are feeling unwell or worried about their symptoms, they should seek medical advice without delay." Former CIA agents have said they were prevented from killing Osama Bin Laden in the build-up to 9/11 because of a bill signed by President Bill Clinton. New documentary The Longest War details how the agency could have assassinated the head of Al Qaeda before September 11 when they had him cornered. The terrorist was constantly moving around to avoid detection, but at points he would surface and the U.S. would confirm his location so they could launch a strike. Local tribal leaders in Afghanistan told them to bury explosives underneath crossroads that would blow up his convoy when it passed. But their hands were tied because of the Memorandum of Notification enacted by President Clinton in August 1998 that meant deadly action was forbidden. The agents and officials working in intelligence in the late 90s also say that Bin Laden wasn't considered much of a threat. 'The CIA had a so-called "lethal finding" [bill] that had been signed by President Clinton that said that we could engage in "lethal activity" against bin Laden, but the purpose of our attack against bin Laden couldn't be to kill him,' then-CIA station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan, Bob Grenier explains in the documentary that aired Sunday on Showtime. President Bill Clinton (left) said the CIA could engage in 'lethal activity' against Osama bin Laden (right), but the purpose of the attack couldn't be to kill him Then-CIA station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan, Bob Grenier, explained in the Longest War film that aired on Showtime Sunday: 'We were being asked to remove this threat to the United States essentially with one hand tied behind our backs' A 9/11 Commission report states that it authorized the CIA to attack Bin Laden in other ways. 'We were being asked to remove this threat to the United States essentially with one hand tied behind our backs,' Grenier added in the documentary. Grienier who was the CIA station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan at the time of a particular mission in the 1990s explained how 'bin Laden was constantly moving, and we were using Afghan tribal networks to report on his travels and his whereabouts'. When they did finally narrow down where he would be, they had to decline the missile attack on December 20, 1998 in Kandahar. 'Our tribal contacts came to us and said, "Look, he's in this location now. When he leaves, he's going to have to go through this particular crossroads." And so what they proposed was to bury a huge cache of explosives underneath those crossroads so that when his convoy came through they could simply blow it up,' Grenier explained in the documentary. 'And we said absolutely not. We were risking jail if we didn't tell them that.' The following day the language of the memorandum was upgraded so it was understood the CIA could kill bin Laden is there was no other option to capture him alive. 'And if President Clinton had taken action and killed Osama bin Laden, there wouldn't have been a 9/11,' Marty Martin said in The Longest War. 'And if there wouldn't have been a 9/11 there wouldn't have been an Afghanistan, and if there wouldn't have been an Afghanistan there wouldn't have been an Iraq' However decisions were made not to carry out numerous attacks on bin Laden's camp in 1999 and 2000. The memorandum was also downgraded again in 1999 to 'capture not kill' language. Marty Martin, who was a CIA counterterrorism officer at the time, said in the documentary that the threat from the al-Qaeda leader 'was real' but the US missed opportunities to prevent the thousands of deaths from 9/11. 'And if President Clinton had taken action and killed Osama bin Laden, there wouldn't have been a 9/11,' Martin continued. 'And if there wouldn't have been a 9/11 there wouldn't have been an Afghanistan, and if there wouldn't have been an Afghanistan there wouldn't have been an Iraq. What would the world be like?' The Longest War is directed by Greg Barker (Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden). He said in an interview about the documentary film that despite warnings, bin Laden wasn't regarded as a serious enough threat. 'It's hard to believe now, but back in the late '90s, most of the Washington national security establishment including President Clinton, the State Department, the Department of Defense simply did not view Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda as a serious threat,' Barker told Yahoo! 'The handful of US officials who saw the looming threat clearly and there were some, mostly mid-level officers at the CIA's bin Laden unit and the counter-terrorism branch at the FBI tried in vain to raise alarm bells at the highest levels, but were often ignored and even ridiculed.' Clinton's term lasted 1993 to 2001, when President George W. Bush took office. Just 10 hours before the September 11 attacks, Clinton admitted to an audience in Australia that he's had opportunities to kill bin Laden. 'I'm just saying, you know, if I were Osama bin Laden he's a very smart guy, I've spent a lot of time thinking about him and I nearly got him once,' Clinton told a small group of business leaders in Melbourne on September 10, 2001. 'I nearly got him. And I could have killed him, but I would have to destroy a little town called Kandahar in Afghanistan and kill 300 innocent women and children, and then I would have been no better than him. And so I just didn't do it.' The recording emerged in 2014 when Michael Kroger, the former head of the Liberal Party in Victoria, remembered he had a tape. The sexual assault of a disabled Kurdish woman near the Altun Kupri checkpoint in northern Iraq cast a shadow on relations between ethnic groups in the region and raised concern among women's groups who fear that sexual assaults are increasing in the region. The victim, whose name has not been publicized and whose face is blurred in media reports, is a 40-year-old woman who is mentally handicapped. Though she has been moved to a shelter in Erbil according to Kirkuk news outlets, she lived with her husband in Altun Kupri, a town also known as Prde on the Kirkuk-Erbil border. Her husband, a Turkmen, is also disabled and in his 70s. The rape occurred on April 1 and became notorious because the men who assaulted the woman filmed the crime and posted the video on Facebook. The footage shows a policeman and another man believed to be a member of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). The fact that the two are Turkmens has brought an ethnic dimension to the case. Massoud Barzani, head of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said in an April 10 statement that the crime had tarnished the dignity of all Kurds. He called on the Iraqi federal government as well as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to conduct a total and joint investigation. The Kurdish Regional Parliament also called for a quick and efficient inquiry into the assault. The predominately Turkmen town lies on the main road between Erbil and Kirkuk, 59 kilometers (37 miles) north of Kirkuk city and nearly 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region. The city is within the constitutionally disputed areas between Erbil and Baghdad. On April 11, Lt. Gen. Saad Harbiya, commander of military operations in western Baghdad, said at a press conference that two men had been arrested and handed over to the Kirkuk police force, and that legal action was pending. But the police would give no details on the men's identities. Al-Monitor contacted Kirkuk police spokesperson Afrasyaw Kamil and PMU spokesperson Muhanad al-Akabi, but they did not respond. Kamil told Rudaw that the two persons seen in the video posted online have been arrested and that one of them is a police officer, as earlier reports indicate. There were reportedly other assailants who were not seen on the screen. As of now, eight people have been arrested in relation to the case. During the investigations, they admitted to their crimes, and arrest warrants have been issued for six other persons, Dilan Ghafoor, a Kurdish lawmaker from Kirkuk in the Iraqi Parliament, told Al-Monitor. One of the assailants is affiliated with the Turkmen Brigades," a branch of the Iranian-backed PMU. "More suspects may be arrested as investigations continue. We will monitor the inquiries and will not let anyone distort the issue along ethnic lines. Such crimes are committed in every community. Abu Raza Al-Najar, spokesperson for Northern Front of the PMU, denied that any of the perpetrators had links to the PMU at a press conference April 12. We, as Erbil volunteer lawyers, visited the Prde court and saw all the documents related to the case. The case is expected to be sent to the Kirkuk criminal court by next week, Aso Hashim, a lawyer leading a team of volunteer lawyers from Erbil, said last week. Two suspects are arrested and charged under Article 393 of Law No. 111 of 1969 of the Iraqi penal code on sexual intercourse against consent. Since they admitted to their crime and because of the aggravating circumstances, no other proof is needed to convict them. They could be sentenced to life imprisonment or even death." Hashim, contacted again by Al-Monitor on April 20, said that the number of suspects had reached 21, including a woman allegedly involved in prostitution. "10 men have confessed that they raped the disabled woman," he said, adding, "The investigations are ongoing and they will reveal whether it was a case of rape or prostitution." He indicated that the mentally unstable woman had been pushed into prostitution by her husband, who has been arrested on charges of humiliating his wife, meaning he had sent her to the men who assaulted her and filmed it. The sexual assault case has sparked a debate on whether the local authorities could have done more to protect the disabled woman by putting her in a shelter, as it was clear that she could not care for herself. Ghafoor said the administration of Kirkuk is to blame for not protecting the family properly. But Aryan Ahmed, a spokesperson for the KRG Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, told Al-Monitor that the authorities are supporting the victim through all means available and she has been taken to a shelter. The Iraqi government and the United Nations have been cooperating on a national strategy to combat violence against women since 2018. However, womens rights organizations maintain that domestic violence against women is increasing across Iraq, including the Kurdistan region. According to data from the General Directorate for Combating Violence against Women and Family, a branch of the KRG Interior Ministry, within the first half of 2019, 112 women have been killed or committed suicide, and there were 47 cases of rape and sexual assault. Malak Haider al-Zubaidi died April 19 of severe burns after she was hospitalized in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. According to local media reports, her husband Mohammed Al Mayahli, a police officer, allegedly set her on fire. Horrific footage of her screaming in the hospital about unbearable pain caused outrage on social media. These assaults also include gang rapes. Lavan, an eight-year-old Kurdish girl, was abducted last April from her school and gang raped in downtown Erbil. The police arrested three suspects, but they were freed on bail in June. Lavan's father Luqman Ismail said at a press conference that members of the police had threatened to kill him if he did not drop his charges against the suspects. Ismail identified one of the perpetrators as the bodyguard of an influential KDP official and accused the judges of letting him off the hook. KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani ordered the three accused persons re-arrested as well as two other assistants, reassuring the father that no one can escape justice. In June 2019, a court in Duhok sentenced a man to death for killing a 10-year-old girl after attempting to rape her. Shirin Kawa Garmiani, a lawmaker in the Kurdistan parliament and a member of the womens rights legislative committee, told Al-Monitor, We hope the judiciary will play its independent role in bringing the wrongdoers, whoever they might be, to justice. There are many factors behind the culture of violence against women and children in Iraq. Many social, economic and political hardships are the result of decades of devastating wars, internal unrest and economic sanctions in the country. Those who assault women are psychologically sick, Kurdish sociologist and journalist Latif Hussein told Al-Monitor. Unfortunately, in Iraq and the Kurdistan region, the inefficiency judicial institutions creates a bad social environment where such heinous crimes are encouraged because assailants think they can get away with it. Uttar Pradeshs move to evacuate students from the state stuck in Rajasthans Kota last week has mounted pressure on other states to follow suit and ensure the return of their people stranded in other states. States like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand have asked Rajasthan to facilitate the return of their stranded students as they were making arrangements for their travel back home. Uttarakhand had earlier arranged for the return of its students from Rajasthan. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said he spoke to Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday about the issue. A large number of Rajasthanis, including migrant workers, shopkeepers, private employees, small businessmen are stuck in Assam, [rest of the] Northeast, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and other states. They are feeling frustrated and desperately want to return... Gehlot said he told Shah if the Centre allows them to return, only then would they be eager to go back to their workplaces once the lockdown is lifted. He said the Centre should have given at least five days to migrant workers and others to return to their homes. Gehlot added Shah has assured him the Centre will soon take a call on the issue and inform him about it on Wednesday. Gehlot said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should facilitate the return of migrant workers and others, including five lakh Rajasthanis, to their homes when the Centre can help in the evacuation of foreigners stranded in India. Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren said he would request for a special train to transport migrant workers and others struck in other states. He said the Uttar Pradesh governments move has triggered demands from the people in his state for a similar step. We are getting calls from parents demanding similar arrangements. Soren said he spoke to the Prime Minister and complained about one nation, two sets of rules and sought clearance from the Centre for making arrangements to ensure that the students of his state return to their homes. Officials in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh said they are inundated with calls mostly from students seeking help in returning to their states. Amitabh Kundu, distinguished fellow, Research and Information System for Developing Countries, said the government should formulate ways for allowing the workers to commute during the lockdown by issuing electronic passes. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON He is adored by millions of fans around the world. And Hollywood actor Chris Hemsworth is about to make even more hearts melt in an upcoming documentary for National Geographic. In a sneak peek for the network's Born Wild Earth Day special, the 36-year-old Thor star smiles joyfully as he feds a baby koala with a syringe at the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital on the Gold Coast. Too cute to bear! Chris Hemsworth feeds a baby koala affected by the Australian bushfires in a sneak peek of National Geographic's Born Wild Earth Day specia On Tuesday, Chris said he felt 'honoured' to be a part of the series, which showcases the work of the hospital and 'Friends Of The Koala' group did earlier this year during the Australian bushfire crisis. 'I'm honored [sic] to be a part of @natgeo's Born Wild series, Chris wrote on Instagram. 'They put the spotlight on @friends_of_the_koala @currumbinwildlifehospital and the incredible work they're doing to rehabilitate the wildlife affected by the devastating fires in Australia. 'I got to meet an adorable koala cub named Ember and follow her recovery journey. Check out this special premiering on #EarthDay.' In March, the actor also shared a photo of himself cuddling the 'cub', more commonly known as a joey. Who's cuter? In March, the actor also shared a photo of himself cuddling the 'cub', more commonly known as a joey 'Fantastic visiting @friends_of_the_koala and seeing first hand the incredible work and commitment to conserving koalas and preserving and enhancing their habitat,' he wrote at the time. Friends Of The Koala is a non-profit community group run by volunteers, which focuses on rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing koalas in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. Earlier this year, Chris and his wife Elsa Pataky put their support behind the 'Koala Comeback Campaign'. Worthy cause: Earlier this year, Chris and his wife Elsa Pataky put their support behind the ' Koala Comeback Campaign '. Posting identical photos of themselves posing with photographer David Yarrow on Instagram, they encouraged followers to buy a powerful image he had shot of a koala who'd survived a bushfire that ripped through its habitat Posting identical photos of themselves posing with photographer David Yarrow on Instagram, they encouraged followers to buy a powerful image he had shot of a koala who'd survived a bushfire that ripped through its habitat. 'Join me today in becoming a Koala Hero by supporting the #koalacomeback Campaign!' the Avengers star asked his followers, letting them know that 50 per cent of funds will go towards Earth Alliance's Australia Wildfire Fund. The genetically-blessed couple's other bushfire relief efforts included auctioning off a personal training session and donating $1million to firefighters and residents affected. The charitable duo live in Byron Bay with their children India Rose, seven, and twins Tristan and Sasha, five. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has introduced Covid India Seva, a Twitter handle that aims to offer fast, real time responses to user queries about Covid-19 related topic. The handle was announced by union health minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, who stated that on the @CovidIndiaSeva handle, "experts will share authoritative public health information regarding Covid-19 swiftly at scale, helping to build a direct channel for communication with citizens." The channel is being hosted on Twitter Seva, which is specifically designed for such tasks. The Covid India Seva handle will work as an official digital hotline of sorts, through which individuals can seek help from government authorities. Twitter has further claimed that its multi-lingual platform (in which Hindi is the second most used language after English) will help the government reach out to a wider volume of users and answer their queries. This can further help curb any Covid-19 related misinformation on Twitter, by providing an official information channel for users to interact with. Twitter India, on this note, has said that it is attempting to upskill government employees to better use its platform as part of Covid-19 response management. Twitter has already offered official Covid-19 helplines at a state level for the governments of Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and along with the convenience of the format of seeking help, has further underlined that "tweeting with your query does not require you to reveal any private or sensitive information such as contact details, identity documents, personal health records, etc." Further highlighting the platform's role through the Covid-19 pandemic and nation-wide lockdown, Mahima Kaul, public policy director of Twitter India, said in a statement, "To navigate this global health crisis, we need a collaborative approach between the government and our industry. Our work has never been more critical and our service has never been in higher demand. People from all parts of the country are taking to Twitter to be equipped with the quality information from authoritative sources." The Twitter handle for Covid India Seva is now live, and can be accessed in all supported Indian languages by simply tweeting to @CovidIndiaSeva. The U.S. News & World Report's top 25 high school rankings for 2020 show many repeats from 2019, with Alabama's magnet schools grabbing many of the top spots. Montgomery County's Loveless Academic Magnet Program was the only Alabama high school to rank in the top 100 nationally, coming in at number 23. The (U.S. News) Best High Schools rankings provide the most comprehensive, data-based information on nearly every public high school in the country, said Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News. Families can use this information to see how their local schools compare on graduation rates and state assessments, as well as academic performance by students who are traditionally underserved those who are black, Hispanic or from low-income households. Don't Edit This is the second time U.S. News' rankings includes nearly every American high school. The methodology, first used in 2019, focuses on six factors: College readiness (30%), which includes how many students took and passed Advanced Placement and/or International Baccalaureate exams during the 2017-18 school year, Reading and math proficiency (20%), from testing in the 2017-18 school year Reading and math performance (20%), calculated as expected performance given a school's student body characteristics, Underserved student performance (10%), evaluating how well an underserved subgroup scored on state assessments compared with the average for non-underserved students among schools in the same state, College curriculum breadth (10%), calculated as the percentage of seniors in 2017-18 who took and passed multiple AP/IB exams, and Graduation rates (10%) based on the 2017-18 school year. Alabamas Education Report Card, created by the Alabama State Department of Education, calculates grades based on many of the same indicators, but makes no considerations for the expected performance of students based on race and socioeconomic characteristics. Don't Edit In addition to overall ranking, U.S. News ranked top STEM, charter, and magnet schools. Mountain Brook High School is the only Alabama school on the STEM list, coming in at number 184. Alabama has only one public charter high school, and it was not ranked individually. Seven Alabama magnet schools were ranked, with Montgomerys Loveless Academic Magnet Program, or LAMP, taking a number 12 spot nationally. Huntsvilles New Century Technology High School is ranked 48th nationwide. Don't Edit U.S. News described its top-ranked public schools for 2020 as "those whose students demonstrated outstanding scores and achievement levels in state math and reading state assessments, passed and participated in a diverse array of college-level exams, and graduated in high proportions." In addition to national rankings, U.S. News ranked high schools within each state, and schools ranked in the top 25 are shown below. Huntsville City and Montgomery County each have three high schools in the top 25, the most of any Alabama school district. Hoover City, Madison City, and Shelby County each have two high schools in the top 25. Don't Edit Alabama's top 25 schools have some things in common, but are diverse in other ways: All but four of the schools were in the top 25 last year, Only one school has more than 50% of its students classified as economically disadvantaged At 18 of the schools, fewer than one in four students are in poverty, Nineteen of the top 25 earned an A on the most recent state report card, and six earned B's, Nine schools have fewer than 1,000 students, 16 have more than 1,000, The smallest high school on the list has 403 students, and the largest has nearly 2,900, Ten of the 25 schools spent less than the state average per student funding ($9,423 for the 2018 fiscal year) Eighteen of the 25 are located in cities or suburbs, Eleven are located in and around the Birmingham area, and Five of the top 25 are magnet schools with selective admission requirements. Here are Alabama's top 25 high schools, counting down to number one. Rankings of all Alabama high schools can be found at this link. Don't Edit Don't Edit #25 - Hartselle High School Hartselle City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 21% Enrollment: 1,037 Total spending per student (2018): $9,566 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $2.217 Rank in 2019: #21 Don't Edit #24 - Oneonta High School Oneonta City schools 2019 report card grade: B Student poverty level: 32% Enrollment: 472 Total spending per student (2018): $9,669 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $1,453 Rank in 2019: #19 Don't Edit contributed #23 - Fayette County High School Fayette County schools 2019 report card grade: B Student poverty level: 51% Enrollment: 404 Total spending per student (2018): $9,423 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $1,195 Rank in 2019: #154 Don't Edit #22 - Hoover High School Hoover City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 23% Enrollment: 2,859 Total spending per student (2018): $10,984 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $3,767 Rank in 2019: #26 Don't Edit Grissom PTSA FB page #21 - Grissom High School Huntsville City schools 2019 report card grade: B Student poverty level: 29% Enrollment: 1,803 Total spending per student (2018): $7,734 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $1,851 Rank in 2019: #24 Don't Edit Don't Edit #20 - W.P. Davidson High School #20 - Davidson High School Mobile County schools 2019 report card grade: B Student poverty level: 32% Enrollment: 1,628 Total spending per student (2018): $7,838 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $839 Rank in 2019: #36 Don't Edit #19 - Cullman High School Cullman City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 29% Enrollment: 935 Total spending per student (2018): $10,024 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $2,696 Rank in 2019: #14 Don't Edit contributed #18 - Auburn High School Auburn City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 20% Enrollment: 1,875 Total spending per student (2018): $10,370 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $3,582 Rank in 2019: #13 Don't Edit Trisha Powell Crain #17 - Hewitt-Trussville High School Trussville City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 7% Enrollment: 1,530 Total spending per student (2018): $10,918 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $3,391 Rank in 2019: #20 Don't Edit Shelby County Schools #16 - Helena High School Shelby County schools 2019 report card grade: B Student poverty level: 18% Enrollment: 1,312 Total spending per student (2018): $8,236 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $1,469 Rank in 2019: #23 Don't Edit Don't Edit #15 - Huntsville High School Huntsville City schools 2019 report card grade: B Student poverty level: 20% Enrollment: 1,788 Total spending per student (2018): $7,842 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $1,651 Rank in 2019: #15 Don't Edit #14 - Arab High School Arab City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 29% Enrollment: 751 Total spending per student (2018): $9,978 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $1,821 Rank in 2019: #10 Don't Edit #13 - Ramsay High School Birmingham City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 26% Enrollment: 801 Total spending per student (2018): $10,664 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $2,845 Rank in 2019: #11 Don't Edit #12 - Fairhope High School Baldwin County schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 21% Enrollment: 1,689 Total spending per student (2018): $8,858 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $2,009 Rank in 2019: #12 Don't Edit #11 - Spain Park High School Hoover City Schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 19% Enrollment: 1,597 Total spending per student (2018): $11,958 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $3,868 Rank in 2019: #9 Don't Edit Don't Edit #10 - Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School Montgomery County schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 17% Enrollment: 539 Total spending per student (2018): $9,333 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $1,703 Rank in 2019: #17 Don't Edit #9 - Oak Mountain High School Shelby County schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 13% Enrollment: 1,552 Total spending per student (2018): $9,050 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $2,438 Rank in 2019: #6 Don't Edit #8 - Bob Jones High School Madison City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 19% Enrollment: 1,812 Total spending per student (2018): $9,256 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $1,771 Rank in 2019: #5 Don't Edit #7 - James Clemens High School Madison City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 16% Enrollment: 1,983 Total spending per student (2018): $9,380 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $1,933 Rank in 2019: #7 Don't Edit #6 - Vestavia Hills High School Vestavia City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 8% Enrollment: 2,008 Total spending per student (2018): $11,686 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $5,294 Rank in 2019: #8 Don't Edit Don't Edit #5 - Booker T. Washington Magnet High School Montgomery County schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 19% Enrollment: 403 Total spending per student (2018): $11,367 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $2,173 Rank in 2019: #28 Don't Edit Contributed #4 - Homewood High School Homewood City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 21% Enrollment: 1,231 Total spending per student (2018): $14,045 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $6,247 Rank in 2019: #4 Don't Edit #3 - Mountain Brook High School Mountain Brook City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 0% Enrollment: 1,059 Total spending per student (2018): $16,103 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $8,614 Rank in 2019: #2 Don't Edit #2 - New Century Technology High School Huntsville City schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 13% Enrollment: 473 Total spending per student (2018): $7,449 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $1,552 Rank in 2019: #3 Don't Edit #1 - Loveless Academic Magnet Program Montgomery County schools 2019 report card grade: A Student poverty level: 5% Enrollment: 513 Total spending per student (2018): $9,978 Local spending per student, included in total above (2018): $2,527 Rank in 2019: #1 Don't Edit On the same day Gov. Phil Murphy said officials would soon share a broad blueprint on how New Jersey will begin to re-open from the near-lockdown the state has been under for weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney on Monday unveiled a plan that could furlough 100,000 state workers. The caveat to Sweeneys proposal is that many of those employees would be able to collect payments that would exceed regular wages because of the recent expansion in unemployment benefits. Health officials said another 177 New Jersey residents have died of COVID-19, pushing the states death total to 4,377. At least 88,806 have tested positive since March 4, though 80 to 85% of cases are mild or moderate. In addition, the number of people hospitalized has decreased for five straight days, an indication that the spread of the virus is slowing, Murphy said. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage Heres a roundup of coronavirus news: Trump says hell suspend immigration because of coronavirus, offers no details: President Donald Trump said Monday that he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States because of the coronavirus. He offered no details as to what immigration programs might be affected by the order. QuickChek now offers curbside pickup in response to coronavirus: Convenience store chain QuickChek announced it is now offering curbside pickup at all stores in response to the coronavirus pandemic. To use the service, customers must place an order on QuickCheks app, select the curbside pickup option, enter the make and color of the car, and call the store upon arrival. After 2nd driver dies of coronavirus, union says NJ Transit needs to give them hazardous duty pay: After a veteran NJ Transit bus driver with 28-years behind the wheel became the second to die from the coronavirus, bus union officials said they need hazardous duty pay and on-site testing for the coronavirus. The Amalgamated Transit Union New Jersey State Council is also demanding more frequent bus sanitizing and masks, protections they said are needed for workers and riders. Lakewood venue will host small wedding ceremonies, mayor says. AG says thats not OK: A Lakewood event space is being used to hold socially distant wedding ceremonies amid the coronavirus outbreak, the mayor and religious officials said Monday, though state and county officials say the venue was not approved to re-open. Lakewood Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg said the arrangement to have small ceremonies at Ateres Reva, a catering hall attached to a school on Summer Avenue, was made in consultation with municipal officials and police. Man threatened to run over people at coronavirus test site, cops say. Murphy again calls out knuckleheads.': A man who threatened to run over patients seeking coronavirus tests at a Rite Aide pharmacy and an unregistered motorist who told police she was out playing Pokemon Go where among New Jerseys latest installment of people accused of offenses tied to the pandemic, officials said. N.J. releases statewide list of coronavirus cases, deaths in nursing homes: The state of New Jersey after weeks of refusing to release a list of nursing homes where the patients have died or tested positive for the coronavirus finally released an accounting of facilities where COVID-19 has taken a toll among the elderly. State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Monday the state has continued to reinforce the obligations of facilities of their obligations to provide the number of cases. Worldwide coronavirus cases: More than 171,000 of the approximately 2.5 million people who tested positive for the coronavirus have died, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. As of 7 a.m. Tuesday, at least 656,000 have recovered. U.S. cases: In the United States, more than 42,000 of the roughly 788,000 to be infected have been killed, the center said. More than 73,000 have recovered as of 7 a.m. Tuesday. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. The Associated Press and NJ Advance Media staff writers Nicolette Accardi, Matt Arco, Larry Higgs, Noah Cohen, Ted Sherman and Avalon Zoppo contributed to this report. Missing Lawyer Wins Award -- Receives Human Rights Prize NEWS PROVIDED BY ChinaAid April 21, 2020 MIDLAND, Texas, April 21, 2020 /Standard Newswire/ -- A panel of judges unanimously chose to grant the annual Lin Zhao Freedom Award to disappeared lawyer Gao Zhisheng. As an attorney, Gao served people prosecuted by the Chinese Communist Party for decades. For his work, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. China, however, targeted him, and he spent years locked away. While behind bars, he suffered multiple counts of torture, which he described in his piece "Dark Night, Dark Hood, and Kidnapping by Dark Mafia." Gao was released from one of his sentences in 2014, but authorities monitored him closely in his home, even blocking him from receiving dental care. During the three years he lived in that apartment, he secretly penned Unwavering Convictions, a book which describes atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist Party. ChinaAid smuggled the book out of China and published it with the Carolina Academic Press and the American Bar Association. The book, which has been translated into English, can be purchased here. On Aug. 23, 2017, two of Gao's supporters sneaked him out of his house and brought him to the neighboring Shanxi province. There, they hid for 23 days, but officials eventually found them, and Gao vanished into police custody again. He has never been found. Because of the pressure placed on his family, Gao's wife and children fled to the United States in 2009. For his sacrifice, Gao has been named this year's recipient of the Lin Zhao Freedom Award. Named after Lin Zhao, a young woman who was executed for standing up for her beliefs and later exonerated, the prize recognizes Chinese rights activists who have suffered for their resilient stances. To be considered, nominees need to meet two basic conditions: (1) Adhered to the spirit of non-violence against injustice and oppression as promoted by Lin Zhao, promoting freedom and democracy, truth and reconciliation, and doing an excellent job in promoting rule of law and civil society in contemporary China. (2) Suffered unjust treatments and persecutions in the process. ChinaAid believes Gao's work and life have embodied these factors. SOURCE ChinaAid CONTACT: Office phone: 432-689-6985 Media phone: 432-553-1080 General inquiries: info@chinaaid.org Media inquiries: media@chinaaid.org Related Links http://chinaaid.org DALLAS, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Don Miguel Foods, LLC announced today, out of an abundance of caution, it will temporarily pause operations at its facility and resume production on Monday, May 4. The closure is in response to further spread of COVID-19 in the area and the impact on the production facility. Given the design of the facility, the company decided it was the best decision to pause the operations for 14 days to ensure the safety of its approximately 700 employees. Don Miguel Foods is a wholly owned subsidiary of MegaMex Foods Corporation and produces tacos, burritos, chimichangas and other Mexican prepared foods products for retail and foodservice outlets. "We are focused on the health and well-being of our team members and it remains our top priority," said Ryan Gaynor, Don Miguel Foods plant manager. "Our production professionals have been doing an outstanding job, doing their part to help keep food on the tables during this difficult time. I am very proud of them and I know we all look forward to being back together on May 4. In the meantime, we continue to strategically manage our supply chain and am confident we will continue to meet the needs of our customers during this time. We know we play a critical role in ensuring our products are available to consumers, where and when they need them." Under its pay program, all Don Miguel Foods employees will continue to receive 100 percent of their base pay and benefits during the 14-day pause in production. The company has been taking team members' temperatures, providing masks and additional personal protective equipment and enacted enhanced safety and sanitation protocols and will continue to focus on employee safety. MegaMex Foods is a joint venture between Herdez Del Fuerte and Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL). FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This release contains forward-looking information based on management's current views and assumptions. Actual events may differ materially. Please refer to the cautionary statements regarding "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Statements" that appear on pages 30-35 in the company's Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended Jan. 26, 2020, which can be accessed at hormelfoods.com in the "Investors" section. SOURCE Don Miguel Foods DALLAS, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aimbridge Hospitality, the world's leading hotel management company, announces it has launched Aimbridge Aid, a charitable foundation with a sole mission to provide financial support for associates and the communities Aimbridge Hospitality serves during times of crisis. "In times of a natural disaster or crisis, such as the global pandemic we are currently facing, we understand the importance of continuing to support our associates," said Dave Johnson, CEO of Aimbridge Hospitality. "While our immediate priority remains to take care of critical needs of associates impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Aimbridge Aid is a means to quickly care for associates facing hardships from natural disasters in the future, through the generosity of other Aimbridge Hospitality associates and our valued partners." The foundation will activate assistance programs allowing associates in the U.S. facing catastrophic financial impact to apply for financial assistance with funds distributed through a direct grant or an application process by the Aimbridge Aid committee based on timing and assessment of need. Aimbridge Aid anticipates raising funds by donations from other Aimbridge Hospitality associates, as well as donations by Aimbridge Hospitality partners and guests. Aimbridge Aid will act as the vehicle to collect and distribute funds to impacted associates. For more information or to make a donation, visit https://www.aimbridgehospitality.com/aid/ . About Aimbridge Hospitality Aimbridge Hospitality is the leading, global, third-party hotel management company operating branded full service, select service, luxury hotels, destination resorts, convention centers and lifestyle hotels. Aimbridge merged with Interstate Hotels & Resorts in 2019, and now represents a premium portfolio of more than 1,400 branded and independent properties in 49 states and 20 countries. Aimbridge is based in Plano, Texas and has additional corporate offices in Atlanta, Calgary, Chicago, Fargo, Puerto Rico, San Clemente, Scottsdale, Toronto and Washington, D.C. Aimbridge's International Division, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, has supporting offices spread across Europe in Amsterdam, Birmingham, Glasgow and Moscow. For more information on Aimbridge Hospitality, please visit www.aimbridgehospitality.com and connect with Aimbridge on LinkedIn . SOURCE Aimbridge Hospitality Related Links http://www.aimbridgehospitality.com Dang Thi Huong refused an opportunity of a better life in Australia, returning to Vietnam to support women facing violence at home. On a sunny day in April, a small house on Hanois Au Co Street was filled with the buttery smell of baking. Cooking and baking help the women earn up to VND7 million ($297.8) per month. With 50 percent of their rental fee covered, they also have the chance to learn English, yoga and other soft skills. All for free. HopeBox, a two-year-old social enterprise empowering women who have experienced domestic violence, was established by Dang Thi Huong, who has rescued and offered vocational training to many. Huong is one in ten Vietnamese to attend Australia-Vietnam Young Leadership Dialogue in 2017, presenting her idea of supporting Vietnamese women who had experienced domestic violence. Photo courtesy of Huong. "I witnessed my friends being beaten by their husbands, so while studying in Australia, I decided to return home to help and connect with women like Thuy," said Huong, who worked as a housekeeper and food vendor before earning her masters in Australia. In 1999, Huong, 13, left her family in the northern province of Vinh Phuc to work for a family in Hanoi. She sent her entire VND150,000 ($6.4) per month to her parents, living with Huongs older brother and younger sister. After four years, she was allowed to attend evening continuation classes, but was fired after two months when her employer complained she stayed up too late and did not focus on her job. The 17-year-old girl resided beneath the stairs of an old apartment block, selling food during the day while attending evening classes. "My goal was to enter university and change my life. My mother did not want me to stay in Hanoi, but if I had returned home, my education would have suffered." To make enough money for her family, she woke at 2 a.m. to cook sticky rice she sold outside schools until 8-9 a.m., after which she sold tea and snacks until midnight. Huong came across many types of people in the two years beneath the stairs, eventually carrying a knife due to harassment by from drug addicts. "A big deal will grow smaller and a smaller deal become nothing," Huong remembered her mother telling her. In April 2006, Huong became a trainee at a social enterprise focused on teaching hospitality skills to homeless children. In time, she started work as a waiter and cashier at a five-star hotel. Huong received a scholarship for a business management program at Box Hill Institute in Australia in 2012. Thanks to her progress, she earned another scholarship for a masters program in entrepreneurship at Swinburne University of Technology. In 2017, she was selected as one in ten Vietnamese to attend Australia-Vietnam Young Leadership Dialogue, presenting her idea of supporting Vietnamese women who had experienced domestic violence. Talking of a friend she had supported since 2013, Huong said: "She was beaten by the husband whenever he got drunk. I think the only way to help those like her is to give them a job." In 2017, she gave up working as a business analyst at a technology firm in Australia and returned to Vietnam. One year later, HopeBox was born with three founders. At this social enterprise, women suffering from violence are taught how to bake and prepare gift boxes. Depending on their skills, some directly join production, while others manage. "We see each other as family members. Learning and working has given me the most beautiful experience of my life," Thuy said. Huong (second from right) and visiting South Korean students at HopeBox in February, 2020. Photo courtesy of Huong. Covid-19 has had an adverse effect on HopeBoxs earnings, but Huong has no intentions to close up shop, afraid the women may again enter a cycle of violence and have no means to support their children. Instead of making lunch boxes, they are now making cakes, snacks and pasta sauce to serve home-cook clients. "I always look for a solution to help HopeBox overcome obstacles," said Huong. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (Nick Ut / Associated Press) Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested on Tuesday that he would not allow local officials to take any action that would loosen the statewide restrictions that he put in place more than a month ago. I imagine there'll be some examples of people just getting ahead of that collaborative spirit, he said. And we may have to dial a little bit of that back. The governor said his advisors were seeking to better organize various conversations with county and city leaders over relaxing the restrictions. He said he'd provide an update on Wednesday on how current conditions in California compared to the requirements in his six-point blueprint. In particular, Newsom promised an in-depth look at the challenges related to testing for the coronavirus and tracing potential cases of COVID-19 in communities across the state. He said the state was now averaging about 14,500 tests a day, fewer than his target of 25,000 a day by the end of April. He cited administration statistics from the most recent 24-hour period which showed a 3.3% increase in hospitalizations and a 3.8% increase in patients being treated in intensive care wards as evidence that a significant shift toward reopening California businesses and community events was premature. If we pull back too quickly, those numbers will go through the roof," Newsom said. "And I don't think any of the people, in their goodwill and the spirit in which they are wanting to loosen things up, want to see those numbers increase. His comments come as a few local agencies have been asking Newsom to consider loosening the restrictions. San Luis Obispo County officials said they had bent the coronavirus curve and were beginning to craft a "phase two that would allow some businesses to reopen. This is not to be a light switch that returns the community to where it was in January, said county public health officer Penny Borenstein. Rather, officials are working to implement gradual changes. Story continues Supervisor Bruce Gibson said that any changes would be guided by science and would need the approval of Gov. Newsom. The county, which has reported 132 cases and one death, asked Newsom on Monday to grant it the authority to implement a phased reopening of our local economy. Sutter County had a similar request. In Los Angeles County, where more than 100 coronavirus deaths were recorded over the weekend, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said allowing stay-at-home rules to end too soon could worsen the situation. I know many of you are feeling frustrated or wondering when well be able to lift the Safer at Home order. But lifting the restrictions too soon could risk lives. My promise to the people of L.A. is that evidence and medicine will continue to guide us through this crisis, the mayor said on Twitter. Last week,the Newsom administration highlighted six key indicators for altering his stay-at-home mandate, including the ability to closely monitor and track potential cases, prevent infection of high-risk people, prepare hospitals to handle surges, develop therapies to meet demand, ensure schools, businesses and child-care facilities can support social distancing, and develop guidelines for when to ask Californians to stay home again if necessary. The first tweet about a Nova Scotia gunman appeared at 11:32 p.m. local time on Saturday and referred to a firearms complaint in Portapique. The public is asked to avoid the area and stay in their homes with doors locked at this time. It wasnt till 6:02 on Sunday morning, CTV reports, that the Nova Scotia RCMP sent another tweet about an active shooter situation. An hour later, they named the suspect and showed his photo. It interested me, reading online in the dark in Toronto, to know about gunfire in a distant province, but who in Nova Scotia bothers with social media at that hour? Newsrooms, already skeletal, were emptied. Nova Scotians needed a province-wide alert, like the shockingly loud Amber Alerts that so annoy people in Ontario who think bad things never happen to small children. The victims in rural Nova Scotia look so happy in their photos, full of family love, happy to be alive in their homes during this pandemic of random death. Then came another kind of death just as difficult to prepare for, to fend off. If only we could go back in time to warn them about bullets, not just viruses. Nine of the 19 victims from Sunday's mass shooting in Nova Scotia. Clockwise from top left: Jamie Blair, Const. Heidi Stevenson, Sean McLeod and Alanna Jenkins, Jolene Oliver, Dawn Madsen, Frank Madsen, Gina Goulet and Lisa McCully. Facebook/RCMP/Handout The province will study RCMP errors later but the answer will be obvious. They thought about the first shots the way we thought about a mysterious fever. Nothing so catastrophic could ever happen. But the purpose of government and policing is to plan for the worst. The reaction to the news was standard. The alleged gunman seemed normal, had a steady job, once made free dentures for a cancer patient, what a guy, same old story. But he didnt sound normal to me, or to many other women. There are always signs. In junior high, he was fascinated by guns. A friend at university said he was unpopular so she was kind to him and he seemed to settle down. His high school yearbook said he hoped to join the RCMP. Given that he wore a fake uniform and drove a fantasy cruiser, it became clear that the roots of his obsession had run long and deep. A neighbour said he had had problems with an ex-girlfriend. He drank heavily and was jealous. He owned at least two refurbished police cars bought at auction. He once burned down a neighbours shed. He seems to have initially trained as a mortician though he didnt seem gentle enough for that profession. One newspaper initially tweeted, Nova Scotia mass shooter was a denturist with a passion for policing, and a more aware generation disagreed. Women want an end to the standard presentation of killers as men with harmless hobbies, or enraged by the lockdown, or maddened by a recalcitrant girlfriend. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is right to ask that the killer not be given the fame or infamy he craved. Best to offer love and compassion to the victims and their families, to prepare for the next monster with a gun. I thought the 1989 Montreal Massacre would put an end to gunnery love but in 2020, I must still beg a Liberal government to ban handguns and assault rifles. The alleged killer likely planned his rampage, with at least 20 victims in 16 different places. Some people he knew well. One was a female RCMP constable who had the job he had wanted all his life. He cooked his hate for years. What accelerant did he store up for those remarkably fierce fires? Most important of all, many if not most of his victims, at least at this point, were female. Its called femicide and we diminish these killings by not highlighting that. The dead killer was a police wannabe, which is a type. Often there was no nefarious intent, one male crime commentator said of those he had encountered. Men tend to see it that way. But cop fetishism, this need to control, is a huge red flag for women. For men like this, the pandemic is useful, the virus very much like their bullets. Odds are that their victims will be at home, on high alert but still vulnerable to two horrible kinds of death. The pandemic will end. The men with guns will keep killing. With guns, it never ends. Correction - April 24, 2020: This article was edited from a previous version to update an incorrect photo caption. The victims are identified clockwise from the left, not from the right. Heather Mallick is a columnist based in Toronto covering current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: is a columnist based in Toronto covering current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @HeatherMallick Paris has seen a second night of riots break out over police 'heavy-handed' treatment of ethnic minorities during the coronavirus lockdown. Anger erupted in the French capital last night and during the early hours of Monday morning over alleged 'racist' police attacks. In response, police used tear gas and baton charges in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, northern Paris, on Monday morning as fireworks exploded in the street. Armed police were seen moving through the area as groups of protesters congregated. Fireworks were again seen being launched at police last night as heavily armed riot police took to the streets of Paris. It comes after a 30-year-old was critically injured in the neighbourhood in a collision with an unmarked police car. A man firing fireworks during clashes in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, in the northern suburbs of Paris on Monday night Trash burning in the street during clashes in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, in the northern suburbs of Paris, during the early hours of this morning A French police officer holding a 40-millimetre rubber defensive bullet launcher LBD (LBD40) walking in a street during clashes in Paris on Monday night Riots have broken out in the Parisian suburb of Villeneuve-la-Garenne following allegations of heavy handedness against ethnic minorities by police forces. (Pictured: An officer asks a journalist to step back in the suburb early on Monday morning) President Emmanuel Macron has extended France's social distancing measures until May 11. Its daily death toll from the virus fell to the lowest level in three weeks today as 395 deaths were recorded, bringing the total to 19,718, though deaths are typically under-reported over the weekend. Fireworks dyed the sky red above the Parisian suburb early this morning, videos posted on social media show. Bins were also filmed blazing and filling the air with smoke as armed police moved into the area. Videos of the trouble posted by the French journalist Taha Bouhafs, who is from an Algerian background, includes one of him being manhandled by police leading to allegations of racism. Mr Bouhaf's earlier images show tear gas canisters being fired by the police, who were hit my numerous fireworks. The early morning violence followed prosecutors opening an enquiry after a 30-year-old motorcyclist was critically injured following a collision with an unmarked police car in Villeneuve-la-Garenne. A police officer pointing a 40-millimetre rubber defensive bullet launcher during clashes with protesters in Paris on Monday night Tension with the police erupted again on Monday evening in Villeneuve-la-Garenne near Paris, where a motorcycle accident involving the police had provoked the first clashes with residents two days before A firework explodes in the middle of the street in the French suburb early this morning Protesters fired fireworks at buildings and into police officers in early hours of this morning A car waits at a cross roads in the neighbourhood as fireworks explode overhead Friends of the victim, who have not been named, claimed the incident on Saturday night was an example of police heavy-handedness against ethnic minority communities during the lockdown. 'The very badly injured man comes from an Arab Muslim background,' said a source close to the case. 'He is critical in hospital, and people in the area have reacted very badly to what has happened.' A local police spokesman said: 'Police and their reinforcements have been the target of rioters, who have thrown stones and fireworks. 'The violence started in Villeneuve-la-Garenne and has spread to other towns and estates nearby.' Last week prosecutors in Beziers, in the south of France, announced that officers were facing criminal charges after a father-of-three died while under arrest for breaching the Coronavirus lockdown. Three officers were videoed dragging Mohamed Gabsi, 33, along the ground during a curfew. Des unites de police repondent aux feux dartifices par des tirs de grenades lacrymogenes.#VilleneuveLaGarenne pic.twitter.com/A7CP6hRCjS Taha Bouhafs (@T_Bouhafs) April 19, 2020 A firework pictured exploding over a street in the north Parisian suburb early this morning Protesters let off fireworks. The riots were triggered after a 30-year-old man was severely injured in a collision with an unmarked police car in the area Police threw tear gas and baton charges as they moved to disperse protesters in the area A police officer was seen carrying a large gun as they moved through the neighbourhood They are suspected of 'intentional violence by a public official leading to manslaughter' and 'non assistance of a person in danger'. The offences come with a potential combined prison sentence of 15 years plus, said local prosecutors. The case is particularly sensitive because Mr Gabsi was a Muslim, and Beziers is run by a far-Right mayor who is supported by the National Rally party, which used to be called the National Front. Mr Gabsi had suffered a heart attack by the time he arrived at a local police station, and witnesses saw two of the officers sitting on top of him in their patrol car. Mr Gabsi's suspicious death follows numerous complaints about police racism as forces across France enforce one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe. A spokesman for France's Human Rights League described the death of Mr Gabsi, who was from an Arab background, as a 'scandal that shows how the poor are being killed' by the lockdown. French journalist Taha Bouhafs, who is from an Algerian background, is manhandled by police Two officers hold the journalist's arms behind his back. He was reporting on the protests France on Tuesday reported a total of 19,718 deaths from coronavirus since the start of the health emergency. A total of 152,894 cases have also been detected in the country. Its stringent lockdown measures are 'working', Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told a press conference today. French authorities have said they will publish plans for ending the lockdown 'within two weeks', and begins to air their strategy 'in the coming days'. 'It is likely that we are not going to see an end to confinement that would happen in one move everywhere and for everyone,' Mr Philippe said, revealing details of the strategy. The French lockdown could lead to a 10 per cent contraction in the French economy this year. The country has been in lockdown from March 17, and this will continue until at least May 11. China has been reopening its factories and businesses ever since the lockdown in the country was lifted. Viral videos and images of tourists hotspots there being over crowded did make some people wonder whether social distancing needed to be forgotten that quickly. To add to that a newly surfaced video and some images show a Chinese factory holding a kissing contest. In this bizarre contest, factory employees who participated, kissed each other from opposite side of a Plexiglas barrier. Asiawire According to a report, the furniture factory named Yueya invited 10 couples only some of whom were married to take part in a reportedly lighthearted event meant to lift spirits. In the video, staff members can be seen wearing separated by a piece of transparent plastic board, to avoid the exchange of saliva. The event was organised to celebrate the reopening of the factory and it reportedly took place on its premises in the city of Suzhou, in East Chinas Jiangsu province. A furniture factory in E. China's Suzhou attracts people's attention as its employees celebrated resumption of work in a special way- kiss competition with a clear disinfected glass between each pair of participants. pic.twitter.com/G0CBiU4ioK Global Times (@globaltimesnews) April 19, 2020 Factory owner Mr Ma reportedly said that the prop was placed between the contestants to minimise the risk of infection. But given that social distancing was not being adhered to, there's plenty to worry about. The other factory workers, meanwhile, cheered on as the couples landed smooches on either side of the Plexiglas. Some of the participants were actually married couples who both work in the factory. This pandemic has made everyone very tense. They havent been able to relax, and that might cause mistakes in the production process. Thats why I arranged the kissing contest to make everyone happy. To avoid any accidents, we put a piece of Plexiglas between everyone and disinfected it with alcohol several times, the report quoted Mr. Ma as saying to local media. #China A furniture factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu had a "Kissing Contest" to celebrate the factory resuming work. The organisers said this event can help the factory workers relax & there's a transparent glass between the kissers. Allegedly some of the participants are not couples. pic.twitter.com/9BWWpBkaAs W. B. Yeats (@WBYeats1865) April 19, 2020 Even after the lockdown has been lifted in China, the country has been seeing a steady rise in COVID-19 cases again. Events like these might work to weaken the countrys fight against the pandemic. File photo A Nigerian soldier who killed a man in Abia state during the lockdown order has been apprehended and thrown into prison. He has also been dismissed from the army. This was revealed by the Abia State government who condemned the shooting of some Abians by security operatives and the consequent loss of their lives. In a statement, Chief of Staff to the Abia State governor, Dr. A.C.B. Agbazuere, said that while government appreciates the commitment and industry of heads of security agencies and some other security personnel in the state, the breeding recklessness of some security men in the state must be nipped in the bud forthwith. While government appreciates the commitment and industry of heads of scurity agencies and some other security personnel in the state, the breeding recklessness of some security men in the state must be nipped in the bud forthwith. The statement added: Government hereby reassures all that anybody who takes the life of an Abian must definitely face justice. The soldier who killed an Abian at Umuokereke Ngwa has been dismissed from the army and is in prison awaiting final justice for murder. All other arm bearers must learn their lessons. A word should be enough for the wise. The company, which also owns photo-sharing network Instagram and messaging service WhatsApp, has directed Facebook and Instagram users to its Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information Center and used educational pop-ups that Zuckerberg said more than 350 million people had clicked on by mid-April. Google also is working to direct people to credible health information. Searching coronavirus cures on its site brings up an information box that reads, To date, there are no specific vaccines or medicines for COVID-19, and includes a link to the WHO. The moves to prioritize accuracy and downgrade or remove misinformation are a major change from how the tech giants previously approached the free flow of information on their platforms. "It was definitely, within the companies, a shift, Andy Pattison, the WHO's manager of digital solutions, told the Associated Press. Now Pattison and his team flag misleading information on the virus and sometimes lobby for misinformation to be removed from Facebook, Google and YouTube. Falsehoods long a problem Misinformation and disinformation, which is false information deliberately spread to sway opinion or obscure the truth, long have lurked on social media. But now the stakes are higher. "There's really a wide range of different kinds of harms associated with misinformation generally, and specifically in this case of coronavirus, says Dipayan Ghosh, codirector of the Digital Platforms & Democracy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School. These range from people making uninformed political decisions to death, Ghosh says. And because of the grave risks, the platforms could potentially be considered responsible if something terrible happens, he says. Angie Drobnic Holan, editor in chief of PolitiFact, a nonpartisan fact-checking organization in Washington, says people create and spread misinformation for reasons including profit or political ideology or because they think mistakenly the information is correct. PolitiFact is one of the fact-checking groups partnering with Facebook. In recent weeks, all of the content PolitiFact has checked is related to the virus, including the claim about drinking bleach. Its site, PolitiFact.com, is also investigating coronavirus claims and rating them on a Truth-O-Meter with colors ranging from red (false) to green (true). "It's overwhelmed the national conversation, Holan says. It's also energized those who educate the public so facts win out over fiction. "People in the information community are really activated like never before, Holan says. There are all kinds of conversations happening among fact checkers, journalists, the platforms, philanthropies about how to make sure people have good, solid, factual information." Talks with platforms The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has provided health information to a number of platforms, including Facebook and Google, says Benjamin Haynes, an agency spokesman. The discussions have included how linking to CDC content in a variety of ways could help users track down credible content and stave off misinformation. The responses by different companies have been both proactive and reactive, says Ghosh. Google, for example, is proactively providing information on the number of coronavirus cases in a user's county, state and country and giving links to the WHO. It also includes COVID-19 alerts and lists of Common questions and Common searches when a user searches for virus-related material. Reactive responses include using content-moderation algorithms to identify posts that contain misinformation and having users flag potential misinformation, Ghosh says. The problem with reactive responses is that the misinformation is out there before it is taken down. YouTube, for example, removed videos that said 5G wireless networks caused the virus. Some of those videos had hundreds of thousands of views before they were taken down, the AP said. Mission impossible Even with the stepped-up efforts, it is impossible for the social media platforms to catch all the misinformation online, according to Holan, who urges people to be wary about what they forward or share. Everyone from tech companies to journalists to governments to average people has a role to play, she says, since misinformation is not a problem that only one group is going to solve." A British 'ISIS rapper' who was once suspected of being Jihadi John has been arrested at a hideout in Spain. Police sources said today that British-Egyptian jihadist Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary was the 'foreign terrorist fighter' detained in a raid in Almeria on Monday. Authorities described him as 'one of Europe's most wanted terrorist fighters' with an 'extremely violent criminal profile' and a 'criminal record in the ranks of ISIS'. Police said Abdel Bary and two others had been hiding at an apartment in Almeria after sneaking into Spain from North Africa and using the coronavirus pandemic as cover to keep a low profile. British terrorist Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary (pictured) is reported to be the 'foreign terrorist fighter' detained by Spanish anti-terror police in a raid in Almeria Abdel Bary is thought to have been arrested after a raid in the early hours of yesterday in an an area of Almeria called Cerro de San Cristobal After joining ISIS, Abdel Bary issued threats against the West and even posted a picture of himself holding the severed head of a Syrian solder Abdel Bary and the two others were arrested in a raid in the early hours of yesterday in an an area of Almeria called Cerro de San Cristobal. Police said today that their agents had conducted an 'anti-terrorist operation' that 'culminated in the arrest of one of the most wanted Daesh foreign terrorist fighters in Europe', using an alternative name for ISIS. The official statement did not name the man arrested but police sources and Spanish media have identified him as Abdel Bary. 'Another two people have been arrested and the authorities are currently working to establish their identity and their relationship with the other man,' police said. Authorities said they had pounced after gathering intelligence that the fighter intended to return to Europe via Spain and may be hiding in the country. 'Various lines of investigation were activated to find out his possible clandestine arrival in Spain and locate the chosen place to hide,' police explained. 'After a complex investigation it was possible to determine the circumstances of his arrival on the Almeria coast, as well as his subsequent movements, finally achieving his location and arrest. 'Those arrested adopted iron-clad security measures, both in their journey from North Africa to our territory and in the movements they made in Almeria. 'The detainees, already in Spain, adapted their behaviour to the state of emergency [in place] as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, making few exits, separately, and always with masks to avoid being detected.' Police said Abdel Bary 'had spent several years in the Syrian-Iraqi conflict zone and has both very peculiar personality traits and an extremely violent criminal profile, which caught the attention of the European police and intelligence services'. In 2013 Abdel Bary (pictured) travelled to Syria to fight with ISIS, becoming one of the earliest foreign fighters to join the terror group Abdel Bary, a British-Egyptian former rapper from Maida Vale in London, is the son of Adel Abdel Bari who helped to kill more than 200 people in Islamist bombings in Africa in the 1990s. The younger Abdel Bary was born in Egypt but moved to the UK as a six-year-old after his father was released from prison and was granted political asylum. Before Abdel Bary left London he was an ambitious rapper known as Lyricist Jinn and L Jinny whose tracks were played on BBC radio stations. Friends later described how he had converted to radical Islam after growing angry with British authorities over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2013 he travelled to Syria to fight with ISIS, becoming one of the earliest foreign fighters to join the terror group. Abdel Bary issued threats against the West and even posted a picture of himself holding the severed head of a Syrian solder. He initially emerged as a suspect in the hunt for Jihadi John, who carried out the beheadings of ISIS prisoners including journalist James Foley. Jihadi John was eventually revealed to be Londoner Mohammed Emwazi, one of a gang of terrorists who were known as the 'Beatles' because of their British accents. Abdel Bary (pictured) was born in Egypt but moved to the UK as a six-year-old after his father was released from prison and was granted political asylum Spanish police released this footage of three suspects being arrested after they were discovered at an apartment in Almeria By 2015, Abdel Bary had apparently become disillusioned with ISIS and was being hunted in Turkey after fleeing Syria. The same year his father was jailed in the United States for his role in the 1998 al-Qaeda-linked embassy bombings in Nairobi and Tanzania. In October 2015, Abdel Bary junior tried to have a Spanish woman flown to Turkey to join him as his bride, but the plan was thwarted by Spanish authorities. Maria de los Angeles Cala Marquez, from Huelva, was jailed for two years in June 2018 after admitting trying to travel to Turkey to meet up with Bary and help him return to Europe. The former hotel chamber maid was arrested when she tried to board a flight to Istanbul and travel to a secret location where Bary was on the run from western intelligence services. According to the prosecution indictment, Cala Marquez admitted she had intended to travel to Syria to marry Abdel Bary. The young woman had arranged her trip to Syria via Turkey and had contacted several intermediaries online to help to provide her a safe path to ISIS territory. But the plot was foiled by Spain's Guardia Civil paramilitary police who captured her at Madrid Airport in October 2015. By PTI NEW DELHI: India has all the right to protect its domestic industry in such a crisis situation, and making government approval mandatory for FDI from neighbouring countries is not a violation of norms of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), experts say. The reaction followed after a Chinese embassy spokesperson said, India's new norms for foreign direct investment (FDI) from its neighbouring countries violate the WTO's principle of non-discrimination and are against the general trend of free trade. "There is no agreement pertaining to FDI in the WTO. The WTO norms do not cover investments related issues, so India is well within its rights to take such a decision for its industry," Biswajit Dhar, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said. ALSO READ: Decision to tighten FDI norms for investors from neighbouring countries timely, say experts He said there are provisions for investors only with regard to exports and imports such as local content requirements. Explaining further, Dhar said a WTO member country can not impose the minimum local content requirements for certain countries as that would be violative of global trade norms. "India on its own is liberalising FDI policy. Taking any decision to protect its industry does not cover under the WTO norms," he added. Sharing similar views, Professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Rakesh Mohan Joshi said in such a crisis situation, India has to take the decision to protect its industry from takeovers and acquisitions. "There are no violations of WTO norms in this," he said. An industry expert too said any country should not take advantage of this pandemic as domestic industries are facing severe credit flow issues due to lockdown on account of COVID-19 disease. The government on Saturday made its prior approval mandatory for direct or indirect foreign investments from countries that share a land border with India to curb "opportunistic takeovers" of domestic firms following the COVID-19 pandemic, a move which will restrict FDI from China. Countries which share land borders with India are China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Afghanistan. Under the government route, the foreign investor has to take prior approval of the respective ministry/department. Through the automatic approval route, the investor just has to inform the RBI after the investment is made. On this, Chinese embassy spokesperson Ji Rong said in a statement. that: "The additional barriers set by the Indian side for investors from specific countries violate WTO''s principle of non-discrimination, and go against the general trend of liberalisation and facilitation of trade and investment". Sumit Kochar- Senior Wealth and Transaction Advisor, Findoc Group, said, this policy move by the government has come as a combat effect after China's central bank recently raised stake in Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) to a little over 1 per cent, thereby picking stake in one of the biggest lenders whilst the stock is trading low. "It may restrict Chinese investors from picking Indian companies at all times. The move may end up harming FDI inflows in future," Kochar said. Jing Wang and his team at Empa and ETH Zurich usually work on measuring, analyzing and reducing airborne pollutants such as aerosols and artificially produced nanoparticles. However, the challenge the whole world is currently facing is also changing the goals and strategies in the research laboratories. The new focus: a sensor that can quickly and reliably detect SARS-CoV-2 the new coronavirus. But the idea is not quite so far removed from the group's previous research work: even before the COVID-19 began to spread, first in China and then around the world, Wang and his colleagues were researching sensors that could detect bacteria and viruses in the air. As early as January, the idea of using this basis to further develop the sensor in such a way that it could reliably identify a specific virus was born. The sensor will not necessarily replace the established laboratory tests, but could be used as an alternative method for clinical diagnosis, and more prominently to measure the virus concentration in the air in real time: For example, in busy places like train stations or hospitals. Fast and reliable tests for the new coronavirus are urgently needed to bring the pandemic under control as soon as possible. Most laboratories use a molecular method called reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR for short, to detect viruses in respiratory infections. This is well established and can detect even tiny amount of viruses but at the same time it can be time consuming and prone to error. An optical sensor for RNA samples Jing Wang and his team have developed an alternative test method in the form of an optical biosensor. The sensor combines two different effects to detect the virus safely and reliably: an optical and a thermal one. The sensor is based on tiny structures of gold, so-called gold nanoislands, on a glass substrate. Artificially produced DNA receptors that match specific RNA sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 are grafted onto the nanoislands. The coronavirus is a so-called RNA virus: Its genome does not consist of a DNA double strand as in living organisms, but of a single RNA strand. The receptors on the sensor are therefore the complementary sequences to the virus' unique RNA sequences, which can reliably identify the virus. The technology the researchers use for detection is called LSPR, short for localized surface plasmon resonance. This is an optical phenomenon that occurs in metallic nanostructures: When excited, they modulate the incident light in a specific wavelength range and create a plasmonic near-field around the nanostructure. When molecules bind to the surface, the local refractive index within the excited plasmonic near-field changes. An optical sensor located on the back of the sensor can be used to measure this change and thus determine whether the sample contains the RNA strands in question. Heat increases reliability However, it is important that only those RNA strands that match exactly the DNA receptor on the sensor are captured. This is where a second effect comes into play on the sensor: the plasmonic photothermal (PPT) effect. If the same nanostructure on the sensor is excited with a laser of a certain wavelength, it produces localized heat. And how does that help reliability? As already mentioned, the genome of the virus consists of only a single strand of RNA. If this strand finds its complementary counterpart, the two combine to form a double strand a process called hybridization. The counterpart when a double strand splits into single strands is called melting or denaturation. This happens at a certain temperature, the melting temperature. However, if the ambient temperature is much lower than the melting temperature, strands that are not complementary to each other can also connect. This could lead to false test results. If the ambient temperature is only slightly lower than the melting temperature, only complementary strands can join. And this is exactly the result of the increased ambient temperature, which is caused by the PPT effect. To demonstrate how reliably the new sensor detects the current COVID-19 virus, the researchers tested it with a very closely related virus: SARS-CoV. This is the virus that broke out in 2003 and triggered the SARS pandemic. The two viruses SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV2 differ only slightly in their RNA. And validation was successful: Tests showed that the sensor can clearly distinguish between the very similar RNA sequences of the two viruses, explains Jing Wang. And the results are ready in a matter of minutes. At the moment, however, the sensor is not yet ready to measure the corona virus concentration in the air, for example in Zurich's main railway station. A number of developmental steps are still needed to do this for example, a system that draws in the air, concentrates the aerosols in it and releases the RNA from the viruses. This still needs development work, says Wang. But once the sensor is ready, the principle could be applied to other viruses and help to detect and stop epidemics at an early stage. Prof. Dr. Jing Wang Advanced Analytical Technologies Phone +41 58 765 61 15 jing.wang@empa.ch Editor / Media contact Karin Weinmann Communication Phone +41 58 765 47 08 redaktion@empa.ch G Qiu, Z Gai, Y Tao, J Schmitt, G A Kullak-Ublick, J Wang; Dual-Functional Plasmonic Photothermal Biosensors for Highly Accurate Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Detection; ACS Nano 2020, doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.0c02439 Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 04:21:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The largest number of humanitarian relief trucks in six years crossed from Turkey into northwest Syria in March with aid for 2.8 million displaced people, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the fast pace was continuing this month as part of a step-up of the cross-border response efforts. This is to address the needs of 2.8 million people, including hundreds of thousands of people displaced since Dec. 1, Dujarric said. In March, more than 1,480 trucks carrying food, shelter material, water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition assistance were sent into northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa and the Bab al-Salam border crossings, he said. "These are authorized by the Security Council," the spokesman told correspondents at a regular virtual briefing. "This is the largest number of trucks sent in a single month since the cross-border operation began in 2014." The pace of deliveries continues to increase this month, he said. More than 300 trucks crossed into northwest Syria in the first week of April alone, Dujarric said. They were monitored by the UN Monitoring Mechanism to ensure the humanitarian nature of the deliveries. The deliveries are continuing daily, and 55 more trucks crossed on Tuesday, setting the pace for another record aid delivery month, he said. However, the needs remain incredibly high due to the mass displacement caused by intense hostilities earlier this year, and there are significant concerns about a further increase in the needs due to COVID-19. Enditem An Indian-American nonprofit organisation has collaborated with a group of women physicians to work together in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic as part of their efforts to assist people in distress in the US. Sewa International and South Asian Women Physicians of North America (SAWPNA) will collaborate and work together to respond to the pandemic and do as much as they can to alleviate the problems posed by this coronavirus, they said. Given the nature of this pandemic, and the deep stresses and strains that individuals, communities, cities and states are struggling with, we believe that it is essential, indeed imperative, that we work together to stem the tide of this pandemic, help those who are afflicted to find medical care, and support those who are in some kind of financial or personal distress, the two organisations said in a joint statement. SEWA International so far has raised USD 500,000 and seeks to raise USD 3.5 million to help facilitate this work over the next few months. Its 1,000 plus volunteers over the past six weeks have set up eight helplines to offer information and resources about travel, health, visas and visa status; delivery of masks to first-responders and those on the frontlines, and delivering food, groceries, and medicines to those who need them. It has also helped seniors in the community with medical advice, and delivering grocery/meals; helping international students by connecting them to doctors, foreign consulates for helping them with visa and travel updates; assisting stranded students with accommodation needs and food; and providing consultation with doctors and lawyers to those who need them. Volunteers from SEWA have also been making and delivering masks; and raising funds to buy essential Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to help those in distress. SAWPNA, a unique group that brings together South Asian women physicians and women physician-scientists together, will offer key information on the nature of the virus, medical response to deal with it and any advances in the research to respond effectively to those who contracted the virus, such as the convalescent blood plasma therapy. In New Jersey-based Sewa4Community, a collective effort of more than 40 organisations, has raised over USD 30,000 in donations for various COVID-19 related relief efforts. So far it has donated USD 23,000 to various food pantries and soup kitchens in New Jersey. Some of the beneficiaries include Elijah's Kitchen, North Brunswick High School, food pantries in Monroe, Hightstown, Plainsboro, Parsippany, Bordentown, Morristown townships and MCFOODS, it said in a statement. Around 150 volunteers from the tri-state area are working to sew masks, procure N95 masks and other PPE and connect with medical centers in need. So far 6,500 masks and 85,000 gloves have been donated to various hospitals including Lantern Medical Center, Holy Name Medical Center, Jersey Shore Medical Center, Centra State Hospital, UMDNJ, RWJ, and JFK Medical Center, it said. We need to support the food pantries and medical centers who serve our communities, enabling them to have the necessary resources to meet the rising demand, said Rajesh Sharma, Central Jersey Coordinator for Sewa International, one of the organisations whose volunteers are involved in making mask. Sewa Atlanta has raised 15,000 to carry out their relief efforts in the state. Indian American artists in New Jersey held a Concert for Hope over this weekend to cheer up for the healthcare workers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) U.S. President Barack Obama (L) nominates chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to be CIA director at an event in the White House on Jan. 7, 2013. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Brennans Role During the 2016 Elections, In His Own Words News Analysis The role played by the CIA during the 2016 investigation into the Trump presidential campaign is receiving more attention as Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, says he is laser-focused on uncovering what the CIA provided to the FBI as part of the Crossfire Hurricane probe. In 2016, we know from great work that [former chairman of the House Oversight Committee] Trey Gowdy did at the time that the CIA gave information over to the FBI in 2016, Nunes told Fox News in an interview. We now are laser-focused on that. We need to know exactly what did the CIA give to the FBI in 2016? Thats what our investigation is now focusing on. Based on publicly available information, including statements from the man himself, John Brennanwho served as CIA director under President Barack Obamaappears to have played a key role in establishing the FBIs counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trumps campaignincluding making repeated use of questionable foreign intelligence during the period leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Brennan, in congressional testimony and media interviews, has provided significant insight into his own actions and those of the CIA in connection with the investigation of the Trump campaign, including the obtaining of foreign intelligence on people connected to the campaign. Brennans Own Words On May 23, 2017, Brennan testified before the full House Intelligence Committee, and made a number of notable admissions regarding his role in providing information on individuals affiliated with the Trump campaign to the FBI: Sometime this summer, there was information that the CIA had that was shared with the bureau. But it wasnt the only period of time where such information was shared with the bureau. Brennan said that the CIA was uncovering information, intelligence about interactions and contacts between U.S. persons and the Russians. And as we came upon that, we would share it with the bureau. The CIAs information collection and subsequent dissemination of intelligence to the FBI was a point that Brennan reiterated several times, including during a Feb. 4, 2018, interview with Chuck Todd on NBCs Meet the Press: The CIA and the intelligence community had collected a fair amount of information in the summer of 2016 about what the Russians were doing on multiple fronts. And we wanted to make sure that the FBI had full access to that. During his May 2017 congressional testimony, Brennan also said, I know that there was a sufficient basis of information and intelligence that required further investigation by the bureau to determine whether or not U.S. persons were actively conspiring, colluding with Russian officials. Brennan repeatedly noted during his testimony that he made sure that anything that was involving U.S. persons, including anything involving the individuals involved in the Trump campaign was shared with the bureau [FBI]. Brennan also appeared to invoke the use of incidental collection of U.S. citizens information that had been obtained under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), during an Aug. 17, 2018, interview with MSNBCs Rachel Maddow. Any time we would incidentally collect information on a U.S. person, we would hand that over to the FBI because they have the legal authority to do it. We would not pursue that type of investigative, you know, sort of leads. We would give it to the FBI, Brennan said. So, we were picking things up that was of great relevance to the FBI, and we wanted to make sure that they were thereso they could piece it together with whatever they were collecting domestically here. According to reporting from The Guardian, Britains Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was involved in collecting information regarding then-candidate Trump and transmitting it to the United States already in late 2015. The GCHQ is the UK equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). In January 2017, the BBC reported that in April 2016, the CIA director [Brennan] was shown intelligence that worried him. It wasallegedlya tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the U.S. presidential campaign. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper personally confirmed foreign intelligence involvement during congressional testimony in May 2017: Sen. Dianne Feinstein: Over the spring of 2016, multiple European allies passed on additional information to the United States about contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians. Is this accurate? Clapper: Yes, it is, and its also quite sensitive. The specifics are quite sensitive. The BBC reported that this foreign intelligence was passed to the U.S. by an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic States. The BBC noted that the CIA cannot act domestically against American citizens so a joint counter-intelligence taskforce was created. Brennan later appeared to discuss the formation and use of the joint task force during his August 2018 interview with Maddow: Maddow: So, its an intelligence-sharing operation between Brennan: Right. We put together a Fusion Center at CIA that brought NSA and FBI officers together with CIA to make sure that those proverbial dots would be connected. Brennan had previously discussed the task force formation during his Feb. 4, 2018, interview on Meet the Press: Todd: You ran the inter-agency task force out of the CIA beginning in summer 16included the FBI as concerns were rising about this Russian interference. What can you say about what you believed the evidence that the FBI had to get that FISA warrant and how much of the Steele dossier was a part of it? Brennan: We, the CIA and the intelligence community, had collected a fair amount of information in the summer of 2016 about what the Russians were doing on multiple fronts. And we wanted to make sure that the FBI had full access to that. During this same interview, Brennan was asked about any use of Five Eyes intelligencereferring to the intelligence alliance between the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealandand how that, or any other information, would have been relayed into the FBI: Todd: Did the Papadopoulos thing come through the CIA via the Five Eyes thing? That would have been a piece of information that gets to the FBI? Is that how that works? Brennan: Im not going to get into details about how it was acquired. But the FBI has a very close relationship with its British counterparts. And so the FBI had visibility into a number of things that were going on involving some individuals who may have had some affiliation with the Trump campaign. Worth noting is that Brennan refused to address the origin of the intelligence and instead shifted focus onto the FBI and away from the CIA. Notably, it was Brennan himself who said during his May 2017 congressional testimony that his intelligence served as the basis for the FBI counterintelligence investigation, I was aware of intelligence and information about contacts between Russian officials and U.S. persons and it served as the basis for the FBI investigation. But there is a problem with Brennans use of that intelligence. On April 22, 2018, Nunes disclosed in a Fox News interview with Maria Bartiromo: There was no intelligence that passed through the Five Eyes channels to our government. We now know that there was no official intelligence that was used to start this investigation. Bartiromo: Youre telling us that in order for the FBI, the Department of Justice, to launch an investigation into so-called collusion between President Trump and the Russians, there was no official intelligence used. Then how did this investigation start? I dont understand sir. Please explain. Nunes: I think that is the point. We dont understand. Weve never understood. We have access to these finished intelligence products and weve never seen one. We thought, well, maybe there was one that went through a different channel, that was kept really quiet, that was secret, that was kept from the Congress and other folks. Well, in fact, after our investigators reviewed this, that is not what happened. There was no Five Eyes Intelligence Product, as its been reported. There was no product. And I think thats a major problem. Despite this lack of official intelligence, Brennan testified that he had briefed the Gang of Eightreferring to the House and Senate leaders, as well as chairpersons and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committeesin August and September 2016 on the information he had obtained. It also appears that Brennan had personally informed the Obama White House. We kept Congress apprised of these issues as we identified them. Again in consultation with the White House, I personally briefed the full details of our understanding of Russian attempts to interfere in election to congressional leadership, specifically Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein, and Richard Burr; and to Representatives Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes, and Adam Schiff between 11 August and 6 September, Brennan said during his May 2017 congressional testimony. Brennan testified that he provided the same briefing to each of the Gang of Eight members. But this statement seems at odds with later findings from Nunes, who noted that Brennan in August 2016 privately briefed then-Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) about the Steele dossier, which contained uncorroborated allegations about Trump and his campaign. We now know that John Brennan briefed Harry Reid on the dossier in August 2016. At the same time, he never briefed me or Paul Ryan who was the speaker of the House at the time, Nunes told Bartiromo. Nuness discovery appeared to be bolstered by then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who strongly indicated that Brennan knew of the dossier in August 2016 during his questioning of former FBI lawyer Lisa Page on July 16, 2018: So you give a brief on August the 25th. Director Brennan is giving a brief. Its not a Gang of Eight brief. It is a one-on-one, from what we can tell, a one-on-one briefing with Harry Reid at that point. Shortly thereafter, Meadows told Page: We have documents that would suggest that in that briefing, the dossier was mentioned to Harry Reid. Does that surprise you that Director Brennan would be aware of [the dossier]? Page, who was part of the FBIs team investigating the Trump campaign in 2016 and later joined special counsel Robert Muellers investigative team, responded to Meadows question, noting, If the CIA had another source of that information, I am neither aware of that nor did the CIA provide it to us if they did. For his part, Brennan has repeatedly played down his knowledge of the Steele dossier during his congressional testimony, in which he said, I know that there were efforts made by the Bureau to try to understand whether or not any of the information in that [Steele dossier] was valid, but I dont have any firsthand knowledge of it. Brennan would continue to minimize his knowledge of the specifics of the dossier during later interviews, such as the one he did on Meet the Press in February 2018: Todd: When did you first learn of the so-called Steele dossier and what Christopher Steele was doing? Brennan: Well, it was not a very well-kept secret among press circles for several months before it came out. And it was in late summer of 2016 when there were some individuals from the various U.S. news outlets who asked me about my familiarity with it. I had heard just snippets about it. I did not know what was in there. I did not see it until later in that year. I think it was in December. But I was unaware of the providence of it as well as what was in it. And it did not play any role whatsoever in the intelligence community assessments that were done that was presented to then-President Obama and then-President-elect Trump. Brennan noted at several different points that the Steele dossier wasnt used during the creation of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) ordered by Obama. But in an Oct. 25, 2017, CNN interview, Clapper told a slightly different story: Clapper: Some of the substantive content, not all of it, but some of the substantive content of the dossier, we were able to corroborate in our Intelligence Community assessment from other sources in which we had very high confidence The Intelligence Community Assessment was essentially an intelligence product from Brennan and Clapper, and played an important role in advancing the Russia-collusion narrative following the election of President Trump. Notably, NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers publicly dissented from the findings of the ICA, assigning to it only a moderate confidence level. During congressional testimony on May 9, 2017, Rogers elaborated further, noting, I wouldnt call it a discrepancy. Id call it an honest difference of opinion between three different organizations and in the end, I made that call It didnt have the same level of sourcing and the same level of multiple sources. Despite the moderate confidence level assigned by Rogers, the ICA was presented to Obama by Brennan, Clapper, and FBI Director James Comey in early January 2017along with a written summary of the Steele dossier, which was provided as a two-page attachment. During Brennans May 2017 testimony, then-Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked Brennan about the unmasking of U.S. persons: Gowdy: Have you ever requested that a U.S. persons name be unmasked? Brennan: Yes I have Gowdy: Do you recall any U.S. ambassadors asking that names be unmasked? Brennan: I dontI dont know. Maybe its ringing a vague bell but Im notI could not answer with any confidence. Gowdys question is almost certainly in reference to former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power. According to a July 27, 2017, letter to then-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Nunes noted that one official, whose position had no apparent intelligence-related function, made hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama administration. That official was later identified as Samantha Power, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. For her part, Power has denied that she was the person making the unmasking requests. Brennans statements over the past three years raise significant questions about his role and that of the CIA during the 2016 elections. As Attorney General William Barr noted during a May 2019 interview with CBS News: I had a lot of questions about what was going on. I assumed Id get answers when I went in and I have not gotten answers that are satisfactory. And in fact, [I] probably have more questions, and that some of the facts that Ive learned dont hang together with the official explanations of what happened. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Good morning. (Heres the sign-up, if you dont already get California Today by email.) On Monday, officials in Los Angeles County released preliminary results of a study that suggest roughly 4.1 percent of the countys adult population has already had the coronavirus, which translates to between 221,000 and 442,000 people, factoring in adjustments for statistical margin of error. Thats a much, much higher number than confirmed case counts indicate. (As of early Tuesday morning, the county had 13,816 cases.) We havent known the true extent of Covid-19 infections in our community because we have only tested people with symptoms, and the availability of tests has been limited, Neeraj Sood, a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California and lead investigator on the study, said in a statement. Dr. Barbara Ferrer, L.A. Countys public health director, said in a statement that the early results pointed to the possibility that many people may have been unknowingly infected. President Donald Trump vowed on Monday to look at a potential embargo on Saudi oil shipments to the United States as record low oil prices turned negative for the first time ever. Trump indicated he was open to the idea at the daily White House briefing when a reporter asked him to respond to the proposal issued by some Republican lawmakers who represent hard-hit shale oil-producing states, where the global oversupply of oil coupled with decreased demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic have drastically accelerated layoffs. Right now, the highest number of Saudi oil tankers in years is on its way to our shores, tweeted Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. Given todays crude oil prices, I call on President [Trump] to prevent them from unloading in the United States. Why it matters: The new pressure to ban the oil from some within his own party indicates that the Trump-brokered Saudi-Russian agreement to end the price war earlier this month has not been enough to placate Republicans who had previously formed the last line of defense for the embattled kingdom on Capitol Hill. (OPEC and Russia had committed to cutting 9.7 million barrels of oil per day under the deal.) For his part, Senate Armed Services Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., renewed his calls to place tariffs on Saudi oil in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday. Despite recently agreed to production cuts by Russia, Saudi Arabia and members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the global oil market is still well oversupplied as the price of oil has failed to stabilize, wrote Inhofe. It remains clear that the Saudis and Russians continue to flood the global oil market in what I view as an effort to crush American oil and gas producers and capture their market share. Inhofe was instrumental last year in blocking provisions that would have ended US support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen as part of a major defense bill. He also successfully removed a provision that would have sanctioned Saudi officials complicit in murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Whats next: While Inhofe wants Trump to use Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act to impose tariffs just as the president has done with steel and aluminum it was not immediately clear what executive authority Trump potentially would use to outright ban Saudi oil. Know more: Karen Young examines what Bloody Monday means for the economic future of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf oil producers. Its bleak. Got milk? Wades Dairy of Bridgeport does, and is bringing back home delivery via the milkman to Valley residents. Those who cant get to the store during the coronavirus pandemic now can get milk, cheese, yogurt, butter and other products delivered safely to their doorstep. They say that what goes around comes around and its time for us to bring back home delivery of fresh Clover Farms milk and a whole lot more, said company President Douglas Wade. We did home deliveries for 100 years up until 1992 and my nostalgia for the days of the milkman are long overdue for a return engagement. Home deliveries started Monday to the lower Naugatuck Valley, and other towns throughout southern Connecticut. This is something old and new, and I never thought wed be starting this up again, said Wade, a fourth-generation member of the family business. Our world is kind of turned upside down ... and weve had to reinvent ourselves. Many Valleyites, including Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti, recalled when local dairies used to deliver milk to a tin box on a homes back porch. The more things change the more they remain the same, he said. It harkens back to a time when people didnt leave their homes much. Not because they were quarantined, but because they had no way of traveling. Im thankful to Wades on behalf of our residents. It is another business coming up with a way to make things a little bit better for all. While Wades wont be delivering with the old-school horse and buggy, customers can expect to see an employee pull up in a 16-foot refrigerated box truck with the goods. Of course, social distancing and safety is a top priority for both Wades customers and employees. Our employees will deliver the items in a milk crate, and will call the customer 10 minutes before they arrive, and drop off with no contact, Wade said. Derby Mayor Richard Dziekan said the return of the milkman was great. Its pretty surreal to see things like milk delivery coming back to the forefront because of the pandemic, Dziekan said. In some ways we have returned to a simpler way of doing things and in other areas, technology has become essential for us to do business. It has been interesting to see how our local businesses have reinvented themselves and adapted to the challenges presented by COVID-19. Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller agreed. We have seen how technology has truly benefited us, but in many other areas, its the simple things like old-fashioned milk delivery that will make a huge difference for many people, Miller said. Its great to see businesses adapting to these challenging times and coming up with creative solutions to not only keep themselves going, but also to benefit the community at large. Nancie Gray of Milford, vice president of special events/marketing for the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, signed up and received her first home delivery Monday. Having a family member who is considered high-risk, I have been researching options for home delivery for all of our necessities, Gray said. Our household averages three to four gallons of milk a week. I was so excited when I heard that Wades Dairy was going to be doing home delivery. They dropped off on time. They came fully masked and gloved, called just a few minutes before arriving and just dropped off on my side porch as requested. I highly recommend this for others so convenient. Those interested in home delivery can place on order via email to homedelivery@wadesdairy.com, call 203-579-9233 or visit www.wadesdairy.com to see product list. There is a $20 minimum on orders, a $10 delivery fee and a $6 milk crate fee for the first delivery only, provided the crates are returned on the next delivery. jean.sos@snet.net It's in area under Chinese occupation for 60 years: MEA on China constructing bridge across Pangong lake No signs of talks on LAC, but Chinese psy ops in full swing Infrastructure construction to safeguard territorial sovereignty: China on building bridge over Pangong lake What to expect from the Indo-China military commander level talks We will continue to deal with Chinese PLA in firm, resolute manner: Army chief 20 flights with COVID-19 medical equipment from China to reach India this week India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 21: The government has placed requests for flights between April 21 and 27 with the Civil Aviation administration of China as planeloads of COVID-19 related medical supplies are expected to reach India over the next one week. Chinese companies are in the process of sending 20 planeloads of medical supplies this week. These include RT-PCR test kits, Rapid Antibody tests, thermometers and personal protection equipment. The major consignees according to the Ministry of External Affairs were Imperial Life Sciences, Matrix Lans, Invex Healthcare, HLL, companies of Tata, Adani and Reliance group. India's COVID-19 death rate lower than many developed nations like US, UK: Medical experts There were four states in this list- Assam, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Karnataka. The consignments included 6,50,000 testing kits received in two cargo flights last week. Imports of COVID-19 related medical equipment and keeping the drug production supply chain open is the best signal from China for bilateral ties, Indian Ambassador to China, Vikram Misri had said. Australia's second biggest airline, Virgin Australia, collapsed on Tuesday, putting 16,000 jobs under threat as the cash-strapped carrier announced that it entered voluntary administration to recapitalise the business after being battered by the coronavirus pandemic, which has crippled the global airline industry. The move came after the airline, which suspended almost all flights last month following wide-spread travel bans, failed to secure A$1.4 billion (USD 887.60 million) loan from the federal government. In a statement, Virgin Australia said the group has entered into voluntary administration to recapitalise the business and help ensure it emerges in a strong financial position on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis. The group's board of directors has appointed accounting firm Deloitte as voluntary administrators. Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah said COVID-19 had triggered the worst aviation crisis in history. 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 events of the past 24 hours have been incredibly challenging for the wonderful people of the Virgin Australia Group, he said. It has been a necessary decision made by our board, brought on by an unprecedented global pandemic, COVID-19. This is not just something that is hurting Virgin Australia. We know it's hurting the industry globally and is the worst aviation crisis we've ever seen in our history. We're not immune to that. Our board made a very courageous decision last night to put the company into voluntary administration and do so quickly, with the intent of working with our administrator, Deloitte, to come through and be as strong as we possibly can on the other side of this crisis. We'll come back leaner, stronger and fitter, and play our role in making sure that the economy of Australia - which is currently devastated by the impact of COVID-19 - recovers as quickly as it possibly can for all Australians, he added. Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group, which owns a 10-per cent stake in the airline, issued a statement warning that if the airline in Australia disappears, Qantas would effectively have a monopoly of the Australian skies. He also tweeted a message in support of the Virgin Australia team. "I am so proud of you and everything we have achieved together," he said. "This is not the end of Virgin Australia, but I believe a new beginning. I promise we will work day and night to turn this into reality." Virgin Australia employs about 10,000 people directly and supports about 6,000 other jobs indirectly. Last month, almost 8,000 employees were asked to stand down temporarily until at least the end of May and take leave without pay. The airline suspended its international flights post COVID-19 and currently flies only one domestic service between Sydney and Melbourne. Its subsidiary Tigerair Australia has shut all routes currently. Administrator Vaughan Strawbridge from Deloitte said several parties had expressed interest in the business and they were "progressing well on some immediate steps", the ABC News reported. He said it would take about three weeks to assesses more than 10 expressions of interest that had come through, and the whole process would be over within "two to three months". Strawbridge said he did not plan to make any of the airline's 10,000 employees redundant, but how many aircraft it kept, and how many routes it continued to fly on, would not be clear until the new owners took over, the daily said. The national airlines Qantas has also grounded its international fleets and slashed domestic routes. Qantas has temporarily stood down 20,000 of its workers. There is more pain for the crude oil market as demand, which has already been falling before COVID-19, has plunged about 64 per cent in April so far and is likely to fall by another 20 million barrels a day calling for more production cuts, according to a report. Generally, the global demand for crude oil remained at around 100 million barrels per day (mbpd) during pre-COVID-19, and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced a 10 mbpd cut last month but it seems that is not enough. "Crude demand is expected to decline by over 20 mbpd in April alone. Typically, global demand is around 100 mbpd. Given this scenario, supply curbs would have limited influence and consequently, Brent prices will settle in the USD 25-30 range for the second quarter and may increase marginally in H1 (second half) of 2020," Crisil said in a note on Tuesday. "The huge inventory build-up and lack of storage facilities will also more pressure on prices. Overall, Brent can average USD 30-35 in 2020, with a strong downward bias," the report warned a day after the American crude futures prices (West Texas Intermediate or WTI) fell over 305 per cent to a negative USD 40 bpd on Monday as those who had booked earlier refused to take delivery due to lack of storage. The Crisil note said the first half of April saw Brent prices plummeting 63.6 per cent to USD 26.9 a barrel, while prices of WTI had also fallen similarly by 63.1 per cent. But, on April 20, WTI prices turned rapidly negative as traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rushed to offload their May futures positions a day before expiry of contracts on April 21. WTI futures are traded on the NYMEX with contracts settled in physical crude. The problem is that those who had gone long are unable to find storage facilities for the oil and had to liquidate their contracts before expiry or pay someone else to buy their stock. This caused a 305 per cent plunge in WTI prices into negative territory, a first in the history of the industry. However, the June WTI NYMEX futures are hovering at around USD 21, while Brent for June delivery is USD 25 a barrel. "Demand for crude was declining already due to the slowdown and the COVID-19 pandemic-driven lockdowns crushed it further. Consequently, oil demand is expected to contract by 8-10 million barrels per day in 2020 assuming demand recovery begins from the third quarter of the year. But if recovery doesn't happen by then, further demand destruction is on the way," the report said. "On the supply side, we see producers reining in output following a strategic deal between the Opec, Russia and the US. Under this agreement, OPEC+ may cut production by 9.7 mbpd for May and June, but gradually ease the curb to 7.7 mbpd between July and December 2020, and to 5.8 mbpd till April 2022 to stabilise prices. This is expected to reduce some surplus in the market by the end of 2020," the report said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The iftaar that never happened: BSF jawans were killed while buying bread Ramadan 2021: When does it begin? Know Shehri and iftar timings, check moon sighting in India With Ramzan set to begin, Naqvi urges Muslims to pray from home India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 21: All religious leaders have decided and made an appeal to the Muslim community to hold prayers from home, Union Minister, Mukthar Abbas Naqvi has said. The statement was made in the wake of Ramzan beginning on April 24. He said that all religious leaders and social organisations have made an appeal to the Muslim community to hold prayers from home. This would be applicable to Iftar and other customs to be performed at home, he also said. Further he also urged the people to maintain social distancing norms. 'Social distancing, virtual religious meet': WHO issues guidelines for safe Ramzan practices Last week, Naqvi directed state waqf boards to ensure strict implementation of lockdown and social distancing guidelines during the holy month of Ramzan starting next week amid the coronavirus pandemic. At a meeting via video conferencing, Naqvi asked the state waqf boards'' officials to create awareness among people to offer prayers and perform other religious rituals like "iftar (breaking of fast)" during Ramzan, which begins on April 24 or 25, staying inside their homes. More than seven lakh registered mosques, eidgahs, imambadas, dargahs and other religious and social institutions come under state waqf boards across the country. The Central Waqf Council is the regulatory body of state waqf boards in India. "We should cooperate with health workers, security forces, administrative officers, sanitation workers. They are working for our safety and well-being even putting their own lives at risk in this coronavirus pandemic," Naqvi said. "We should also demolish rumours and misinformation being spread about quarantine and isolation centres by creating awareness among people that such centres are only meant to protect people, their families and the society from the pandemic," the minister said. Naqvi told all the state waqf boards and religious and social organisations that everyone should remain cautious of any type of fake news and conspiracies aimed at creating misinformation.A "Authorities have been working for safety and well-being of all citizens of the country without any discrimination. Such type of rumours and conspiracies are a nefarious design to weaken the fight against coronavirus," he said. "We should work united to win this fight against corona by defeating any type of rumour, misinformation and conspiracy," the minister said. Naqvi asked officials of all the state waqf boards to play an active and effective role in ensuring that people follow the guidelines of the Union Home Ministry, state governments and the Central Waqf Council while fulfilling religious responsibilities during Ramzan. In view of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, all religious and social activities and mass gatherings in all the temples, gurdwaras, churches and other religious and social places of the country have been stopped, he said. Similarly, any mass gatherings in mosques and other Muslim religious places of the country has also been stopped, Naqvi said. He said that due to the COVID-19 threat, religious leaders as well as religious and social organisations from all regions of the country, have appealed to people to offer prayers and perform all other religious rituals staying inside their homes during Ramzan.A Most of the Muslim nations of the world have also banned mass gatherings at mosques and other religious places during the holy month, he pointed out. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in cooperation with all the state governments, has been working effectively for the safety and well-being of the people, he said. The cooperation of the people has brought great relief to India in the war against COVID-19 Naqvi said, adding that several challenges are still there before the country. "We can defeat these challenges of the coronavirus pandemic by following all the guidelines of the central and state governments strictly," he asserted. Chairman and senior officials from state waqf boards such as Uttar Pradesh (Shia & Sunni), Andhra Pradesh, Bihar (Shia & Sunni), Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Andaman & Nicobar, Assam, Manipur, among others participated in the meeting. State waqf boards from Rajasthan, Telangana, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttarakhand also participated. NORWOOD, Mass., April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MariMed Inc. (MRMD:OTCQX) (the Company or MariMed), a leading multi-state cannabis and hemp operator focused on health and wellness, announced today that Betty's Eddies, its proprietary, in-house award-winning national cannabis brand, will now be available for retail purchase in Nevada. The expansion is part of MariMeds plan to increase the licensing and distribution of its proprietary Brands and Products into high-growth legal state markets. Bettys Eddies has been one of the top performing cannabis brands in multiple states across the country, earning the LeafLink award for Best Selling Medical Product in 2019. Betty's Eddies are gluten-free, vegan fruit chews made from organically grown fruits and vegetables. Containing full spectrum cannabis oil, Bettys Eddies are produced in a wide variety of dosages and flavors, also offering limited edition varieties by market. Bettys Bedtime variety has proven to be a top seller in all markets, helping our customers achieve much needed rest and sleep. In Nevada, MariMed has partnered with Solace Holdings at their state-of-the-art licensed production and manufacturing facility in Las Vegas. A variety of Bettys Eddies are now being sold in Nevada, and can be found at Nuwu Dispensary in Elko, Nevada, with several more retail locations to be added this month. Ryan Crandall, Chief Product Officer and SVP of Sales at MariMed, Inc., commented, "With a successful launch in the Massachusetts market and continued growth in Maryland and Rhode Island, Betty's Eddies has achieved substantial sales growth through the last quarter of 2019 into the first quarter of 2020. The Bettys brand is one of the most popular cannabis brands in the United States today, with innovative new varieties appealing to a wide range of consumer preferences. As we continue to grow into new markets, we have the opportunity to serve a broader consumer profile and therefore to evolve our product offerings in line with the market demand. Story continues According to BDS Analytics, Nevada surpassed retail sales expectations in its first year of adult-use sales, and sales are expected to surpass $1.2 billion by 2022. With over 45 million visitors a year from all over the world, Nevada is a key market to building an internationally recognized cannabis brand. Bob Fireman, CEO of MariMed, Inc., commented, As the cannabis marketplace continues to grow and cannabis consumers explore new and health-focused consumption options, we believe demand for our brands in Nevada and across our other markets will grow in lock step. MariMed is dedicated to producing the safest, highest quality products and we are excited to introduce them to Nevada adult-use consumers. To be added to the email distribution list, please email MRMD@kcsa.com with MRMD in the subject. About MariMed: MariMed Inc., a multi-state cannabis operator, is dedicated to improving the health and wellness of people through the use of cannabinoids and cannabis products. The Company develops, owns, and manages seed to sale state-licensed cannabis facilities, which are models of excellence in horticultural principles, cannabis cultivation, cannabis-infused products, and dispensary operations. MariMed has an experienced management team that has produced consistent growth and success for the Company and its managed business units. The Company is at the forefront of science and innovation through research developed by its lab technicians and medical advisors resulting in industry-leading products and brands, including "Kalm Fusion", "Betty's Eddies" and Bourne Baked Goods. These precision dosed products are focused on specific medical symptoms and are licensed and distributed across the country. In 2019, with the enactment of the 2018 US Farm Bill, MariMed formed MariMed Hemp, a wholly owned subsidiary, to leverage its seed to sale cannabis platform and experience into the emerging hemp-based CBD industry. MariMed Hemp has developed and is marketing a portfolio of CBD brands and products to multiple retailers and direct to consumers both domestically and internationally. Important Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This release contains certain forward-looking statements and information relating to MariMed Inc. that is based on the beliefs of MariMed Inc.'s management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events, including estimates and projections about its business based on certain assumptions of its management, including those described in this Release. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risk and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, including, among other factors, changes in demand for the Company's services and products, changes in the law and its enforcement and changes in the economic environment and developments in, and the outcome of, GenCannas Chapter 11 proceeding. Additional risk factors are included in the Company's public filings with the SEC. Should one or more of these underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as "hoped," "anticipated," "believed," "planned, "estimated," "preparing," "potential," "expected," "looks" or words of a similar nature. The Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements. None of the content of any of the websites referred to herein (even if a link is provided for your convenience) is incorporated into this release and the Company assumes no responsibility for any of such content. All trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. Company Contact Jon Levine, CFO MariMed Inc. Tel (781) 559-8713 Media Contact Abigail Diehl MariMed Inc. adiehl@marimedinc.com Annie Graf KCSA Strategic Communications agraf@kcsa.com A Virgin Australia plane at Kingsford Smith International Airport after Australia implemented an entry ban on non-citizens and non-residents due to the coronavirus outbreak By Jamie Freed and Paulina Duran SYDNEY (Reuters) - Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd on Tuesday succumbed to third-party led restructuring that could lead to a sale, making Australia's second-biggest airline the Asia-Pacific region's biggest victim of the coronavirus crisis gripping the industry. Airlines around the world have been seeking government aid to survive after grounding the bulk of their fleets due to an unprecedented plunge in travel demand that is forecast to cost the industry $314 billion in revenue. Virgin reported an annual loss for seven consecutive years even before authorities worldwide began restricting movement to slow the spread of the virus, which has led to around 70 deaths in Australia. It nevertheless commanded a secure share of Australia's normally lucrative domestic aviation market before calling in administrators with debt of A$5 billion ($3.15 billion). More than 10 parties have already expressed interest in recapitalizing Virgin, which is continuing to fly a skeleton schedule under its current management team, said Vaughan Strawbridge of Deloitte. Virgin appointed Strawbridge as voluntary administrator to lead a sales process after the government rejected a plea for a A$1.4 billion loan to keep the airline afloat. "Generally you get the best outcome where you sell it as a whole, so that is definitely the preferred approach," Strawbridge told reporters on a teleconference. A sale is most likely to involve a deed of company arrangement, which is a binding agreement with creditors, and the aim is to complete the sale within a few months, he said. Australian private equity group BGH Capital is among the interested parties, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity. BGH declined to comment. Administration is Australia's closest equivalent to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy provisions used to restructure companies in the United States. Moody's said unsecured creditors were likely to take a significant haircut on the value of their debt as part of any deal, and that it might be preferable to putting the company in liquidation with uncertain recovery prospects. Story continues The government has appointed Nicholas Moore, who for a decade led investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd , to engage with the administrator to find a "market-led solution" with a view to keeping two airlines on key routes, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told media at a separate briefing. Virgin employs 10,000 people directly and 6,000 people indirectly. It competes with larger rival Qantas Airways Ltd , which would have a virtual monopoly in Australia if Virgin stopped flying. Qantas' share price jumped as much as 7.2% on Tuesday to its highest since March 12 before the gain narrowed sharply to 0.3% in afternoon trade. Virgin, which grew rapidly after the 2001 collapse of Australia's then second-largest carrier Ansett, has a share of around one-third of the domestic market but that could decline under a restructuring plan. Rico Merkert, a professor of transport at the University of Sydney Business School, said Virgin should focus on running a core fleet of Boeing Co 737 planes on domestic capital city routes rather than also flying regional turboprops and widebodies both at home and abroad. Strawbridge said the airline was seeking talks with Boeing about the future of its order for 40 737 MAX planes. The model has been grounded globally for over a year after two fatal crashes. More than 90% of Virgin's shares are controlled by a group of investors including Singapore Airlines Ltd , Etihad Airways, Chinese conglomerate HNA Group and Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which have all suffered a sharp deterioration in revenue because of the pandemic. Branson on Twitter said his company would work with administrators, management, investors and government to return Virgin Australia to health. Etihad said in a statement that it had worked with the company and stakeholders in recent weeks to try to find a solution and avoid administration, but it was unable to provide funding to Virgin due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis on its own business. Singapore Airlines declined to comment, while HNA and Nanshan could not be reached immediately for comment. (Reporting by Jamie Freed and Paulina Duran; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Christopher Cushing) Need to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for THE CITYs daily morning newsletter. Reports popping up all over the internet lengthy Facebook threads, frustrated tweets, and heartbreaking Instagram stories point to a wave of anti-Asian sentiment, unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic, in the city and beyond. Meanwhile, local Asian-American community advocates say official tallies arent capturing the magnitude of whats happening, prompting groups and individuals to begin collecting complaints themselves. Weve been suffering from business slowdowns, from bias crimes and hate crimes and yet [City Hall] is still working on a plan, said Jo-Ann Yoo, executive director of the Asian-American Federation. All of this was happening in January. Here we are in mid-April and theyre still working on a plan. The City Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which enforces human rights law in the city, on Sunday announced it was just launching a special task force to deal with the rise of anti-Asian incidents. While this task force is welcome news, we still believe the city needs to do more to meaningfully address the uptick in and prevention of these incidents, said Joo Han, deputy executive director of the federation, in a statement. The city Commission on Human Rights, which also investigates employment and housing discrimination, says it has teamed with other agencies, Asian community organizations and politicians to coordinate a dozen COVID-19 public education events since February. Five of them took place before the states PAUSE began, and five were in Mandarin or included interpretation services, officials added. Since the start of the year, nearly 250 bias incident complaints have been reported to the commision, officials said. Of these, 105, or 42%, were directed at Asian-Americans.The CCHR is investigating 18 of these reports, and have resolved nine cases. The commission did not provide numbers for previous years for comparison. Han said the AAF and its partners are hoping to work with city officials to reach out to Asians in New York to educate them about their rights and safety measures available to them, and create a process that encourages reporting without putting the individuals at risk or creating more over-policing of communities of color. Unreliable Statistics Recently released NYPD statistics only included one recorded report of a hate crime directed toward Asians this year through April 12 down from three during the same period in 2019. Police created a new hate crime category called Other Corona, which has logged 11 incidents. All of those attacks targeted Asian people, the Wall Street Journal reported. Put another way, reported attacks against Asians were actually up 300%, not down 67%. Hate crimes only include criminal acts spurred by bias not all racist incidents, like hurling slurs. According to the police departments guidelines, a hate crime is motivated because of the identification of the victim, which could include their race, ethnicity or religion. And even 11 seems extremely low to advocates and politicians like Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou (D-Manhattan), who reports a huge increase in people contacting her office about racist verbal and physical assaults. The incidents began in January, just as news of the coronavirus spreading in Asia ramped up, she said. Now, its an everyday thing. After Niou, the only Asian woman in the state legislature, appeared on a segment of PBS MetroFocus discussing the issue in late March, victims flooded her inbox and phone. An Asian woman had acid thrown on her. A two-year-old Asian baby was stabbed. These are only 2 of the 100s of anti-Asian hate crimes during #COVID19. If you've seen or experienced one report it here: https://t.co/eQ1fveog1z#NoAAPIHate #STOPAAPIHATE pic.twitter.com/ZXR1jgKogX Asian American Federation (@AAFederation) April 20, 2020 Every time that they air it, I get at least Im not even kidding at least 20 to 40 emails, 10 or 12 texts, if they know me. People who follow my Twitter account DM [direct message] me reaching out to me telling me what happened to them, she said. Theres two viruses going around, two epidemics. One is the virus itself, COVID-19. The other one is xenophobia and racism, she added. The state attorney generals office, through its new hate crimes hotline, is also seeing an influx of calls complaining of hate crimes or bias incidents. Although it is difficult to draw any major conclusions about the prevalence of bias in the state given the recency of the hotline, the majority of the complaints received are instances of anti-Asian verbal taunts in New York City, a spokesperson at the attorney generals office said. Pretty Horrific Questions over accounting of hate incidents has led some groups to take the task into their own hands. Were on edge, said Jan Lee, Chinatown resident and co-founder of Neighbors United Below Canal. I tell my family members to not go outside alone. Even my partner and I only go out in the daytime. He monitors incidents reported through a Facebook group called Crimes Against Asians, created by the English-language Asian media site NextShark. It is just a constant scroll every day of new stories. And a lot of it is backed up by video evidence, so you cant say that people are making it up, he said. Its actually pretty horrific. Not all of these incidents are reported to police, community members said. And even when a report is made with police, some who spoke with THE CITY said, sometimes theres little or no action taken. In one case noted by the group, a young Asian-American family reported being harassed in late March by a white homeless woman on a Midtown street covered by the 17th Precinct. The woman allegedly approached their toddler shouting racial slurs, including the n-word. The childs mother, who spoke to THE CITY on the condition of anonymity, said she called police right after the incident. She said she took a picture of the woman and preserved her buildings recording of the altercation. But she said when two police officers heard the description of the woman, they told the family they were familiar with her and that she could not be committed to a hospital for mental health reasons because she knew her name and birthday. They asked me whether she had lunged at us with a closed or open fist, the woman said, and asked if my husband was black. The mother asked for a report number but the officers declined, saying an investigator would follow up with the family, she recalled. She missed a call from the NYPD investigator on the day of the incident and called back for the next five days, but could not reach anyone with information about her case, she said. A friend of the woman connected her to the CCHR, but she was unsure whether a civil complaint was the right step. Im not trying to sue her for money, she said. I just want her to not kill my child. Three weeks after the incident, she said she received a call from the precincts captain, who notified her that the investigation had been closed. You really are just saying, Lets wait till the next time when my daughter is alone, or with my elderly nanny and then my daughter really does get attacked, she said. You are basically saying, like, Talk to me when you are dead, when your daughter is dead. The citys Human Rights Commission confirmed the woman did not file a case with the agency. The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment. Making the Case The Asian-American Federation has created a survey to track incidents and to connect victims of hate with needed support. For some reason, hate crimes against Asian American community and the potential of that wasnt taken seriously, said Yoo. Groups are collaborating to document complaints of bias, too, like the Anti-Semitism Accountability Project, or ASAP, which has teamed with the America China Public Affairs Institute to create its own bias incident reporting tool. The idea for the project, launched on April 15, is to encourage people to report seemingly minor racist acts, said Fred Teng, president of ACPAI, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to fostering U.S.-China relations. The issue is sometimes, by itself, it might not seem like a major crime that you can prosecute someone for someone spits on your face, or just trips you over, or something like that, he said. However, if we start to document that and to show there is a trend, there is an effort across a spectrum, I think that we can make a case and we can have our lawmakers and others pay more attention to it. Often, he added, victims are reluctant to report being attacked. Many of the people, they get punched on the subway just one punch, they didnt get hurt or anything they just go home! They dont report it! Teng said. Happening Everywhere That thinking also motivated Boram Lee and Ja Young Choi, doctoral students at Harvard, to create a crowdsourced map of racist incidents. At first, because Boram and I are based in Boston, we were getting most of our submissions from the Boston area, said Choi. Then somebody from New York City contacted us, and they wanted us to make a map for their city. So at first we separated the two maps, and we made one for Boston, and one for New York City. But then we started to realize that this was not confined to certain cities. Its happening everywhere. The endeavor is expanding to include racist incidents all over the U.S. The pair recently teamed with Kenneth Tam, an artist, whose WE ARE NOT COVID project has documented anti-Asian hate and bias from the East Village to Ecuador. A lot of things that are on the document I feel like are super subtle, just these really quick offenses that again, if taken individually, someone could easily overlook it or try to minimize it, said Tam, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant. But placed in context with all these other incidents you realize this is a really intense phenomena thats going on, he added. What you experienced is not an anomaly but part of a much larger, dangerous trend. Those documenting hate hope their tools will spur those who might not have reported an incident, fearing it too minor, to come forward. Just because its not physical violence or just because you dont feel this is serious enough to bring to the police doesnt mean that this is a trivial matter, said Choi. It is scary, and it shouldnt be happening to Asians and Asian-Americans or any race for that matter. Want to republish this story? See our republication guidelines. SUPPORT THE CITY You just finished reading another story from THE CITY. We need your help to make THE CITY all it can be. Please consider joining us as a member today. DONATE TODAY! The authorities want to allow walks in parks and visits to museums The Ministry of Health will propose an easement of quarantine measures in Ukraine to the Cabinet of Ministers. Healthcare Minister Maksym Stepanov said this during a briefing. The minister stated that the country could allow walks in parks, but they will be limited by the number of people in one company. The rules for the use of personal protective equipment will also be clearly outlined. In addition, the Ministry of Health will allow visiting museums and libraries. However, people will be obliged to follow all the quarantine restrictions on social distancing and personal protective equipment. "We also envisage a number of mitigating measures for quarantine restrictions but all of them will be very clearly regulated," the Minister concluded. As we reported earlier, there are 6125 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ukraine. As of the morning of April 21, 161 people died from coronavirus, 367 patients were cured. 710 people are being checked for the presence of coronavirus at present. People socialize at a pub in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 8, 2020. Swedish authorities have advised the public to practice social distancing due to the pandemic, but still allow a large amount of personal freedom. (Andres Kudacki/AP Photo) Pandemic Lockdown: Are We Just Delaying the Inevitable? Commentary Most Western countries have been in lockdown for more than a month to slow the spread of the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Schools have been emptied and all businesses deemed nonessential have been closed by government order. This is an enormously expensive strategy. Our governments are basically printing money to keep this system of forced unemployment going. While we have no idea what the final economic cost will be, we already know that we are saddling the next generation with crushing debt. Social costs such as depression, suicide, spousal abuse, and other pathologies might be even worse than the financial cost. The rationale behind these extraordinary measures has been to flatten the curvein plainspeak, to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed by a surge in admissions. The theory of the experts is that all of the social distancing measures and closures will accomplish that task. We have all lived with these new restrictions on our liberties, and the spirit of cooperation and goodwill is high. We are a resilient species. Yet there are questions that should be asked. Those of us lucky enough to live in a free society should exercise our right to do so. Its now apparent that hospital systems havent been overwhelmed by the feared surge in admissions. In fact, even in the worst-affected areas, the hospital systems have held up. In some lightly affected areas, hospitals are actually underused because normal procedures have been rescheduled to accommodate a surge that never came. The social distancing measures adopted by most people have no doubt contributed to keeping those numbers low. However, there is less evidence that the draconian measures, such as closing schools and most small businesses, were necessary in the first place. Not every country has adopted extreme lockdown measures. Sweden is an example of a countryacting on scientific advice that it found compellingthat advised its citizens to take sensible social distancing steps, but didnt close most of its primary schools and small businesses. Most restaurants remain open, as do most small businesses. Its hospital system remains intact, and it doesnt appear that the death rate is much different than in countries that are locked down. The experts who warned Swedish leaders that they must close their schools and businesses or face catastrophic deaths have so far been proven wrong. The World Health Organization insisted that Sweden follow its advice and enter lockdown along with the rest of Europe, but Sweden prefered to follow its own course. Its probable that when the virus has run its course there, the Swedes will have a much easier time getting their country back to normal. Its also likely that the Swedes will be immune from the next wave of the diseasehaving achieved herd immunitywhile citizens of locked down countries remain susceptible to the virus. Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan are some of the other countries that took sensible steps, but didnt close their primary schools or businesses. Their hospital systems and economies remain intact. Its also probable that their citizens are now largely immune to the virus. And its beginning to look like those countries got it right, and we, the lockdown countries, got it wrong. Many experts make a compelling case that although social distancing is an excellent way for individuals to avoid catching the virus, nationwide shutdowns of the economy and school closures simply prolong the life of the virus in a community and make no difference in the overall number of deaths. One such expert is Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel of Tel Aviv University. Hes one of a number who argue convincingly that regardless of whether a country locks down or remains open, the coronavirus peaks and subsides in exactly the same way. Put simply, Sweden wont have a higher mortality rate than Britaindespite the fact that Britain shut its economy down at enormous cost. Knut Wittkowski, a former biostatistician at Rockefeller University, makes the same argument. Is it possible that the leaders of most of the worlds nations have made a colossal mistake by shutting down economies, causing the biggest worldwide depression since the 1930s? Our leaders need to come clean with us. What is their game plan? Why did they close our schools and businesses? Why didnt they do what Taiwan or Sweden have done? They said they wanted to flatten the curve. The curve has been flattened. Do they now have some magic plan to stop the virus from making its way through the community, as every virus has done since the dawn of time? Do they have some plan to make the virus disappear? If so, they should tell us what it is. If not, they should begin the painful process of getting the economy moving again. The first step should be reopening the schools and selected businesses. As with any flu, schoolchildren will get sick, but most wont. Yes, they will infect parents and others, but all viruses do that. It is a normal part of a school year. Did closing the schools ever make sense, or did it just prolong the life of the virus in the community? Did our leaders close the schools just because everyone else was doing it? The available evidence already shows that the overwhelming percentage of healthy people infected will get sick and recoveror not get sick at all. Nature has designed healthy bodies to cope with respiratory illnesses. We also know that this virus seems to go mainly after elderly people with compromised health. This pandemic has starkly revealed how ill-prepared our nursing and home care systemand indeed, our entire medical systemare to protect the most vulnerable from infectious disease. Clearly, changes must be made that reflect the new reality. But we need to protect the elderly and infirm without compromising our childrens future. As a grandfather, Im thankful that this particular virus goes after us and not the young. I dont want to catch this virus, and I plan to voluntarily do as much social distancing and hand washing as practical to avoid getting it. But shouldnt those steps be left to the individual and not mandated by government? And most importantly, isnt keeping the country strong for our children our most important obligation? If I do get sick, I know that the vast majority of healthy people recover from viral respiratory illnesseseven this nasty one. Could it be that we are giving in to irrational fears? Is it possible that some combination of a highly politicized media and our social media addiction has amplified this pandemic beyond all reason? Its worth noting that the last significant pandemic, the 2009 swine flu, killed far more people worldwide than the CCP virus has, but generated nowhere near the level of media coverage or sheer panic as this one. Do we even remember that pandemic? And shouldnt we keep in mind the distinct possibility that the next virus might single out our young? Dont we need to rebuild a strong economy to prepare for that awful possibility? An economy in shreds will leave us hopelessly unprepared. Dont we need to do that now, and not in a year or two, when every last virus has left the country? If the plan is to wait for a vaccine, that appears to be at least a year or two away. Is it reasonable to live in lockdown for a year or two years? Would even seniors in compromised health want to spend the last stage of their life in isolation from their families? Even if a vaccine is found in a year or so, anyone who gets a flu shot knows that it may or may not be effective. Is it reasonable to put our lives in suspended animation while we wait for a new drug to be discovered? So unless our leaders have some secret plan to somehow make this virus disappear, shouldnt we protect the vulnerable as best we can, but start reopening schools and businesses now? Dont we need to get our kids back to school, and people back to work? And doesnt it make sense to take a close look at how Sweden and the other countries that didnt resort to these draconian, freedom-crushing strategies remained open, so we can learn from them? Are we not simply delaying the inevitable when we adopt knee-jerk measures such as school closures that simply keep the virus around longer? And finally, are we capable of learning from this experience so we can do better when the next horrid little bug comes along? Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge and a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Special Coverage: For our latest coverage of the CCP Virus Outbreak, visit our new section and sign up for our daily newsletter. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government is asking its Crown corporations, universities and other publicly funded bodies to map out temporary workforce cuts of up to 30 per cent. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government is asking its Crown corporations, universities and other publicly funded bodies to map out temporary workforce cuts of up to 30 per cent. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The province sent a memo last week to various agencies asking that they cut spending to free up money for health care and the battle against COVID-19. The memo asks each group to lay out three different scenarios for workforce reductions in the next four months 10 per cent, 20 per cent and 30 per cent. Those plans are due this week, and Premier Brian Pallister says the province will discuss what changes can be realistically achieved. The Progressive Conservative government has already asked non-front-line civil servants to agree to reduced work weeks to help free up money. The University of Winnipeg says it has already laid off recreation staff and others who provide services that require students to be physically on campus. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2020 In response to COVID-19 and tornadoes that swept through the greater Chattanooga area, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated 40,000 pounds of food items to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. A semi-truck from the Atlanta Bishops Storehouse arrived at the Food Bank on Monday.Laura Kirkpatrick, director of Agency and Government Relations for the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, greeted Church officials at the site including President John Griffey of the Chattanooga Stake (greater Chattanooga area) and President Alex Agee (of the Chattanooga branch).We are grateful to the Latter-Day Saints for their generous food donation that will help to provide meals to people in crisis across our service area. Without this gift and the outpouring of help from our community, we would not be able to respond to the tremendous need we are facing today, Ms.Kirkpatrick said. Thousands of people who never needed to depend on assistance before are now turning to the Food Bank for help. Thats in addition to the one in eight people in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia including one in five children who didnt have enough to eat before the pandemic and tornadoes struck our area.The Atlanta Bishops Storehouse is a regional storehouse. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has hundred of bishops storehouses in operation. According to officials, Storehouses have always been a part of the Lords Church. He has continually instructed His people to seek out the poor and help care for their needs, and He established storehouses as a means of providing those people with needed resources.The first storehouse that we know of was the one operated by the high priest, prophet and king Melchizedek (see Genesis 14:20) who was the keeper of the storehouse of God (Genesis 14:37-39). Joseph of Egypt also built storehouses in times of plenty and opened them in times of scarcity (Genesis 41:36). During His ministry, Christ tended to all those who suffer. After His death, the Apostles and other disciples followed His direction to care for the poor (see Matthew 19:21).Storehouses are filled with commodities provided by fast offerings and other generous donations from members. The Church has farms and ranches that are part of a vast food production and processing system. Many food items are produced under the Deseret label. Food and supplies from the storehouse are used to help Gods children everywhere, including those affected by natural disasters, wars or economic crises."We help where we are able, President Griffey said. But, as President Russell M. Nelson stated, We still need help from heaven. This is why we are grateful for President Nelsons call for all of us to unite our faith together. Latter-day Saints are pleased to stand with our brothers and sisters in the greater Chattanooga area to lift where we can and call upon Heavenly Father and His Son to bless every child of God, no matter race, religion or ethnicity. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is engaged in COVID-19 relief efforts across the globe, with over 110 projects in 57 countries. We are especially pleased to partner with the Chattanooga Food Bank.The Chattanooga Area Food Bank services several counties in the Tennessee/N. Georgia area. Last year, the Food Bank distributed 13,077,415 meals in 20 counties in SE Tennessee & NW Georgia. The Food Bank welcomes additional donations at this time. Learn more about how to donate to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank by visiting http://www.chattfoodbank.org. An opposition group in Chad has accused forces aligned with rebel and retired Gen. Khalifa Haftar for the killing of its leader last week, Libya Observer reports. Republican Party said its leader Gorbal Jadi Nakour was assassinated on April 18 alongside with his body guard. Without providing evidence, the party, the Libyan media reports, has accused forces affiliated to the east-based rebel warlord for the killing and vowed to bring the perpetrators to book. Nakour, Libya Observer notes, a close friend to Haftar as many of the partys fighters had taken part in the the war in Libya since the beginning of Haftars military operations in Benghazi in May 2014 and including the ongoing Haftars offensive to topple UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) headquartered in capital Tripoli. The Egypt, UAE, Russia, France and U.S-backed Gen. launched the surprised offensive April last year arguing that the operation was meant to flash out terrorists who control the GNA. In another report, the GNA forces managed to capture a Chadian commander fighting for Haftar in Western Sirte and tasked with recruiting mercenaries, Libya Observer reports citing Abdelhamid Abu Zayan, Commander of security and protection force of Sirte-Jufra liberation room. The mercenaries are offered 3000 dinars (over $210) a week for fight in Haftars ranks. Posted by North Africa Post North Africa Post's news desk is composed of journalists and editors, who are constantly working to provide new and accurate stories to NAP readers. Some retail shops in South Carolina have begun to reopen in the wake of Gov. Henry McMaster's lifting of a closure order, welcoming back customers while putting in measures intended to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. Store owners who were reopening said being shut down was a financial hardship and seemed eager to allowing a limited number of shoppers inside their doors assuming customers are ready to come out. Sandler's Diamonds and Time is set to reopen its Columbia and Mount Pleasant stores on Wednesday, though owner Victor Sandler wonders how many people will be ready to browse the merchandise right now. "I'm very skeptical about it but we will see. Who needs jewelry now?" he asked. Other retailers were more enthusiastic. The owner of Britton's clothing store on Devine Street in Columbia was cleaning and preparing to open even as the governor was making his announcement. The shop would continue to take safety precautions after opening Tuesday, allowing only 15 people to be in the store at a time, including the staff, said Stacy Levinson. "Safety is first and foremost," Levinson said. The governor's order, which went in effect at 5 p.m. Monday, requires stores to limit themselves to either 20 percent of regular occupancy levels or five customers per 1,000 feet of space, whichever is less. Levinson said she is glad to be getting the high-end clothing store open again after the hardship of being closed for a month. To help the community amid the pandemic, the store will donate 10 percent of its sales to a local charity in the coming months, starting with in-home meal providers Senior Resources. Cola Kicks, a sneaker shop in Columbia's Five Points neighborhood, had a line of customers waiting outside shortly after it reopened to customers Tuesday morning. The store's reopening announcement on social media said that the number of shoppers inside would be limited and that extra cleaning would be taking place every hour. When announcing his change in orders on Monday, McMaster emphasized that he thought safety and increased business could coexist in the state, even while acknowledging that the coronavirus outbreak remains serious and precautions need to continue. "We want to do as much damage as possible to the virus while doing the least possible damage, at least long-term damage, to our businesses," he said. McMaster's executive order specified that specific categories of stores were allowed to reopen including department stores, furniture and clothing retailers, florists and flea markets. Many of these shops have been open only for curbside service or have closed entirely. The governor's order did not reopen close-contact businesses such as hair stylists, nail salons, gyms and theaters. Even with the order lifted, some retailers are continuing to be cautious about reopening. Department store Belk will reopen its 35 South Carolina locations on May 1, subject to local recommendations, according to spokeswoman Jenny Anderson. Stores will open initially with hours from noon to 6 p.m. and with all recommended safety precautions in place, including a limit on the number of shoppers allowed in the store, she said. Megan Fink, a spokeswoman for Palmetto Goodwill, said its 31 retail stores in 18 coastal and Midlands counties will reopen Saturday, and its career centers will reopen Monday. It was already deemed an essential business by McMaster but voluntarily closed in March. With word this week that other retailers would be opening from the governor, "the timing seems right," Fink said. Though its resale locations have been closed, Goodwill has still been receiving donated goods. Limited staff have been sanitizing donations. Fink said when doors open, the retail stores should be fully stocked. Customers will notice some changes, like limits on how many people can be inside at once and directional signage. "We want to make sure we're protecting our community," Fink said. And given Goodwill's purpose helping people get back to work, its services are more important than ever during coronavirus. Revenue from the retail stores funds the career centers. Half-Moon Outfitters, which operates stores in Charleston, Greenville, Columbia, Mount Pleasant and North Charleston, said its stores were open Tuesday only for curbside service. Katherine Smith, the company's marketing director, said the sporting goods retailer was not ready to open its doors to customers just yet. The staff, she said, was busy restocking the stores and ensuring they had the right safety measures in place for when business does resume. Half-Moon locations will have hand sanitizer available at the entrances to the stores, and the employees will police how many customers are in the stores at one time. Though music stores have been allowed to reopen, one of the states oldest, the nearly century-old Fox Music in North Charleston, cant get fully back to business. After having to furlough the entire staff last week, reopening the doors isnt really an option, general manager Joseph Fox said Tuesday. We just dont have the capacity to open right now, Fox said. The store has been selling some keyboards during the closure, which Fox delivers to customers houses. But $700 keyboard sales cant make up for a loss of $7,000 piano sales. The business has also absorbed tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue from piano rentals because of the cancellation of Charlestons Spoleto Festival USA Fox Music was supposed to supply 27 pianos for the event combined with the postponement of weddings. Fox said hes confident the business will come back. Weddings will get rescheduled and churches, another top customer, will reopen. Until the store can get funding from the federal governments Paycheck Protection Program, the pool of forgivable funding that small businesses can use to cover payrolls, Fox cant bring employees back. Ed's Editions, a West Columbia bookstore, will not reopen its doors immediately. The store will wait until the evidence that the spread of the virus is ebbing becomes more clear, said Irene Albritton. Once that is clear, the store will open with reduced hours, she said. While it has been closed to shoppers, the bookstore has seen an increase in online sales, which already had been providing about half of the store's business, she said. Mr. K's Used Books in North Charleston plans to open sometime next week and is putting together a plan to keep customers and employees safe, said Kit Gilson, managing director of the family owned business. Staffers will wear masks and encourage customers to keep six feet of separation. "We'll only reopen if we can ensure there's a shopping experience that is safe for our staff and customers," she said. The store has offered pick-up services while it has been closed, but Gilson said the service was not highly publicized and was only useful if customers knew specifically what they were looking for. "The allure of a bookstore is being able to come in and browse, and we haven't been able to offer that," she said. Over at the normally bustling Mount Pleasant Towne Centre, remained eerily desolate with nearly every storefront locked Tuesday, including anchor tenant Belk. The early afternoon traffic was limited to a couple of joggers and a landscaping crew. David Wren, Emily Williams, Mary Katherine Wildeman and Andy Brown contributed to this report. South Korea and China have cast doubt on claims North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is seriously ill after undergoing heart surgery. Daily NK, a Seoul-based speciality website, reported late on Monday citing an unnamed source in North Korea that Kim, 36, was recovering after undergoing the procedure on 12 April. CNN also cited a US official as saying Washington was "monitoring intelligence" that Kim was in grave danger after a surgery. However, South Korea and China have said they do not believe Kim is fighting for his life. Two South Korean government sources rejected the CNN report without elaborating on the surgery, according to Reuters. The presidential Blue House said there were no unusual signs coming from the reclusive state building nuclear weapons. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends a meeting in Pyongyang on 11 April. (AP) An official at the Chinese Communist Party's International Liaison Department, which deals with North Korea, also said the source did not believe Kim was critically ill. Speculation about Kims health was raised after he missed a celebration honouring his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il-sung on 15 April. He had been seen four days before that at a government meeting. South Koreas presidential office said in a statement no suspicious activity had been detected in North Korea that may have given backing to the reports. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects an air defence unit earlier this month. (AP) The absence of Kim Jong-il, Kims father and predecessor as the countrys leader, from a parade celebrating North Koreas 60th anniversary in 2008 was followed by rumours that he was in poor health. Read more: Kim Jong-un sends South Korea friendship letter after coronavirus deaths It was later revealed he had a stroke, after which his health declined further until his death in 2011. Credible information about North Korea and especially its leadership is difficult to obtain and even intelligence agencies have been wrong about its inner workings in the past. People in a train station in Seoul watch a TV news broadcast on Tuesday showing file footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. (AFP via Getty Images) There have been reports North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un is recovering from heart surgery. (AFP via Getty Images) CNN quoted Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former CIA deputy division chief for North Korea, as saying rumours had circulated recently about Kims health. Story continues There have been a number of recent rumours about Kims health (smoking, heart, and brain), it quoted Klingner as saying. Read more: Kim Jong-un rides white horse up mountain in stunt aimed at US If Kim is hospitalised, it would explain why he wasnt present on the important April 15th celebrations. But, over the years, there have been a number of false health rumours about Kim Jong-un, or his father. Well have to wait and see. North Korea insists it has not had a single case of coronavirus, but those claims have been challenged by scientists. BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- China's agricultural products will continue to rise in quality this year as production stabilizes and supply is secured for important products such as grains and pigs, according to a report on Monday. The China Agricultural Outlook (2020-2029) released by the China Agricultural Outlook Conference 2020 summarized and reviewed the market situation of 18 major products in 2019, made projections on production, consumption, trade and prices in the next 10 years, and analyzed existing uncertainties. It said China's capacity to effectively supply major agricultural products and ensure their quality will continue to improve. Crop pattern will continue to be optimized and the varieties of rice and wheat will improve. The total cropped area will be reduced accordingly, with the area of food grains at 800 million mu (about 53.33 million hectares), according to the report. The yields of rice, wheat and corn in China in 2020 are expected to reach 209 million tonnes, 134 million tonnes and 267 million tonnes respectively. The dairy industry will experience significant improvements in quality and efficiency, and aquaculture will rapidly develop, and the supply of green, high-quality and safe products will increase, the report said. The China Agricultural Outlook Conference, organized by the Agricultural Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has issued the China Agricultural Outlook report for six consecutive years. The report updates agricultural monitoring information, and guides the production and market adjustment of agricultural products. An Ohio man is dead from COVID-19 weeks after claiming the coronavirus pandemic was a political ploy. John W. McDaniel died at age 60 on Wednesday, April 15, in Columbus, Ohio, according to an obituary in the Marion Star. The newspaper said Johnny McDaniel was the first coronavirus death in Marion County; the obit said he died with his loving family by his side from complications from Covid-19. The New York Post reports social media posts show McDaniel angrily dismissed coronavirus concerns last month and said Ohio Gov. Mike DeWines stay-at-home order was bulls--t. Does anybody have the guts to say this COVID-19 is a political ploy? Asking for a friend. Prove me wrong, he wrote March 13 on Facebook. Days later, the Republican governor announced a stay-at-home order, closing all non-essential businesses and telling residents to stay home with few exceptions, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and takeout food from restaurants. He doesnt have that authority. If you are paranoid about getting sick just dont go out. It shouldnt keep those of us from living our lives, McDaniel wrote. The madness has to stop. According to the Post, McDaniels Facebook comments have since been deleted but screenshots have been circulating online. Ohio man, 60, who blasted COVID-19 lockdown as 'political ploy' dies after contracting #coronavirus. https://t.co/QU5gmcwh5H Bruce Bourgoine (@BruceBourgoine) April 21, 2020 Others have similarly dismissed the coronavirus as hype or a hoax, staging protests in Ohio and other states to demand reopening businesses. Health officials have continued to encourage social distancing, sheltering in place, and other precautions to slow the spread of coronavirus. "Practically every day I see a tweet or blog post about someone who wrongly thought COVID-19 was a hoax dying of COVID-19 and all I can think about are the members of the media and politicians who misinformed that person and who assuredly feel zero responsibility, CNN host Jake Tapper wrote on Twitter Monday. McDaniel is survived by a wife and two sons. In his obituary, the family pleaded for everyone to continue practicing social distancing to keep each other safe. More than 2.5 million cases of coronavirus and 171,000 deaths have been confirmed worldwide, including more than 788,000 cases and 42,000 deaths in the U.S. Ohio has confirmed nearly 13,000 cases of COVID-19 and just over 500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Dr. Anthony Fauci: If states reopen too fast, its going to backfire Trump tweets call to LIBERATE! states with stay-at-home orders Coronavirus: Facebook shuts down anti-quarantine protest events at request of states Coronavirus relief bill: Deal reached on major parts of $500 billion package, Schumer says US crude prices turned negative for the first in history this week. Heres why and what it could mean to you. Prices of benchmark United States crude turned negative on Monday, dropping as low as -$40.32 per barrel before settling in the negative thirties. And prices fell under pressure again on Tuesday. Why are oil prices crashing? And how could it affect you? Why did US oil prices turn negative? In a word oversupply. Right now there is so much excess crude sloshing around the US and global markets that producers and traders are literally running out of places to store it both on land in tanks, and even at sea on oil tankers. When prices turn negative, that signals that traders are willing to pay to have oil taken off their hands. I kept hearing about oil futures? What are those? Oil trades as so-called futures contracts that allow buyers to purchase barrels of oil at a predetermined price for delivery at a predetermined future date. This is a binding agreement that legally requires buyers and sellers to make good on the deal when the contract comes due. On Monday, the futures contract that obliged buyers to take possession of US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude in May was set to expire the next day. And because traders were worried about where they could possibly store the crude they were obliged to take possession of, they dumped the contracts, sending them into negative territory. Brutal. Will the same thing happen to WTI thats set to be delivered in June? Prices for WTI for June delivery were under pressure on Tuesday, but they hadnt yet turned negative. But if storage remains an issue, the pressure is unlikely to ease up. Why is there such a massive glut of crude? The world was already awash in crude going into this year. Then the coronavirus struck, ushering in containment measures that shut down businesses, closed borders, disrupted international travel and locked down consumers. Those disruptions decimated demand even more. And just when things couldnt get any worse, Saudi Arabia declared an oil price war. What is an oil price war and why did the Saudis declare one? The Saudis, who are the de facto leaders of the OPEC oil price fixing cartel, wanted non-OPEC producer Russia to agree to deep production cuts to offset the coronavirus demand hit and buoy prices. When Russia refused to do as the Saudis wanted, Riyadh responded last month by lowering the price it charges for Saudi crude and pumping oil with abandon. Thats when prices really started to nosedive. But doesnt that hurt the Saudis too when prices nosedive? For sure, but not as much as other producers. The Saudis can pump oil more cheaply than any other entity, which gives them a serious advantage if they want to steal market share from higher cost producers. But they cant weather such low prices indefinitely. The kingdom needs oil to fetch $83 a barrel to balance its budget. Which producers were hurt the most? Any country that relies heavily on oil for the lions share of its income is getting clobbered right now. So are US shale oil producers, because their cost of production is relatively high. Many US oil producers need crude to fetch between $46 to $54 a barrel to break even, let alone to turn a profit. It doesnt help that a lot of companies in the US shale patch borrowed big time to drill new wells, which are simply not profitable when prices crash. Which is why President Donald Trump personally got involved in oil markets. What did Trump do? He turned relationship counsellor. He called up Saudi Arabias de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and asked them to call a truce and strike a deal to stabilise oil markets. Did Trump succeed? Yes and no. Saudi-led OPEC and its allies did agree to a record production cut of 9.7 million barrels a day. But the markets were hardly impressed because even that historic curb is not enough to counter the blow coronavirus has delivered to demand. So US shale producers are still under the gun. Big time. And running out of room to store all the crude they are producing. How soon until they run out? By some esimates, very soon. Rystad Energy analysts reckon the oil storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, which is where US oil bought on futures contracts is delivered, could run out of room by mid-to-late May. Is it just the shale oil corporate big shots and shareholders who get hurt by this? No. The people who work for those firms could lose their jobs if their firms go under and, as of March, some 156,000 people were employed in the US oil and gas sector. But the damage could spread to businesses that feed from oil and gas extraction. And if these firms go under, that means less tax revenue to fund government programmes. Remember, your income is my income. My income is your income. Thats how the economy works. Were all in it together. What about petrol prices? Will negatively priced oil mean Ill fill up my tank for free? No. While the cost of petrol has declined along with demand in the wake of lockdowns, petrol prices arent just determined by the price of oil. There are also refining costs, distribution and marketing, as well as taxes that determine what you pay at the pump. Check out this rather engaging graphic produced by the US Energy Information Administration. Set roughly 64 years before The Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows an 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, who would eventually rise to become the authoritarian ruler of the dystopian nation of Panem, and the central villain of the original Hunger Games series. In Collins prequel, Snow is chosen to be a mentor for the 10th annual Hunger Games -- for a young girl from District 12, the future home of Katniss Everdeen. The premise of the prequel proved to be controversial with some fans after an excerpt from the novel appeared on EW.com in January. FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed Facebook logo is seen placed on a keyboard in this illustration By Fanny Potkin JAKARTA (Reuters) - Facebook Inc is preparing to apply for regulatory approval in Indonesia to launch mobile payments in partnership with three local digital fintech firms, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The plan, if approved, could be among the first such services under the unified payment service Facebook Pay it, which the social media platform unveiled in November. It allows users across its various platforms including WhatsApp and Instagram to make payments without exiting the app. The move comes amid early partnership talks between the social network and ride-hailing and payments firm Gojek. Four sources said Facebook wants to capitalize on the Indonesian market and is preparing for regulatory approval in the country. The three e-wallet operators are Indonesian ride hailing firm Gojek's GoPay, fintech startup OVO, which is backed by Singapore-based riding hailing firm Grab, and state-backed LinkAja,the people said. Bank Indonesia assistant governor Filianingsih Hendarta, who heads Payment system policy, told Reuters local firms had approached the regulator to ask about tentative approval for a payments partnership with Facebook. "So far no one submitted the formal application. Some of them just came to discuss during the consultative meeting with BI (Bank Indonesia)," Hendarta said. Reuters reported in August that Facebook's WhatsApp had been in talks with these firms to launch digital payment services in Indonesia. A spokeswoman for Facebook said the company was seeking to bring digital payments to more countries and believed "digital payments will... open up extraordinary opportunities for businesses to grow." "We are in conversations with partners in Indonesia, however the discussions are ongoing and we do not have anything further to share at this stage," she added. OVO CEO Jason Thompson said: "As an open ecosystem platform, we're always seeking new partnerships to increase cashless transactions... including with Facebook." Story continues Gojek declined to comment. LinkAja was not immediately available for comment. Facebook is keen to accelerate its expansion in Southeast Asia. Indonesia, home to 260 million people and the region's largest economy, is one of the largest markets globally for Facebook and WhatsApp, with over 100 million users. Facebook is also in separate talks to partner with Gojek, which counts Alphabet's Google and Chinese e-commerce JD.com among its backers, two sources said. "The talks could lead either to a strategic partnership, a collaboration, or an investment," one person with knowledge of the matter said. The talks, which predate the coronavirus outbreak, are at an early stage. Elsewhere in Asia, Facebook has held talks to buy a multi billion dollar stake in Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd's telecom unit, media reports said. Gojek declined to comment. Facebook referred Reuters to its general statement. Having evolved from a ride-hailing service founded in 2010 to a one-stop app offering online payments, food ordering and even massage services, Gojek is valued at $10 billion. (Reporting by Fanny Potkin; Editing by Miyoung, Kim Coghill and David Gregorio) YEREVAN. The Gevorg Chavush, and The 75th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War silver collector coins have been issued, the Central Bank of Armenia informed. Gevorg Chavush Gevorg Chavush (Gevorg Ghazaryan, 1870-1907) is a hero of the Armenian liberation movement, a fedai. He received education at St. Karapet Monastery School in Moush. He participated in the self-defense battles of Sasun (1891-1894). In September of 1894, the Turkish government arrested and sentenced Chavush to 15 years in prison. In 1896, he made a prison escape to Sasun, then met General Andranik and became armed companion with him. In 1901, Chavush participated in the battles of Berdak, Norshen and Arakelots monasteries, in 1904 - in the Sasun uprising, led the self-defense operations of Ishkhanadzor and Talvorik. Chavushs fighting group heroically fought against dominant Turkish forces in various parts of Western Armenia. On May 27, 1907, Turkish troops surrounded the Chavushs detachment in the village of Sulukh in the Mush valley, where at the approaches to the village, near the bridge Chavush was killed in an unequal battle. Chavush is one of the prominent figures of the Armenian liberation movement, who rose up against the Turkish regime in Western Armenia, a selfless fighter dedicated to the liberation of his people. In Yerevan the monument to Chavush (sculptor Levon Tokmajyan) was erected on the square named after him. There are also streets, schools in Yerevan and other places of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh that are named after him. Obverse: a shield and a sword against the background of the rays of sunshine. Reverse: prototype of the sculptural portrait of Gevorg Chavush (a fragment from the memorial complex dedicated to the Armenian hajduk, sculptor Yu. Minasyan) and an eagle with a sword. Designed by Karapet Abrahamyan. Minted in the Lithuanian Mint. Face value 1000 dram Metal/fineness silver 925 Weight 33.6 g Diameter 40 mm Quality proof Edge ribbed Quantity 500 pcs Year of issue 2020 The 75th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War The Great Patriotic War (started June 22, 1941 - ended May 9, 1945) was the war people of the USSR fought against fascist Germany and its allies, an important and decisive part of World War II (1939-1945). More than 500,000 Armenians with the other peoples of the Soviet Union fought heroically on all fronts against the enemy, of which about 200,000 was killed in the fighting. 106 Armenians were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 27 got the Orders of Glory (of three classes), and more than 70,000 were decorated with orders and medals. There were over sixty Armenian generals and one admiral in the command staff of the USSR Armed Forces, who led large military units. Among them were Army General H. Baghramyan (later Marshal of the Soviet Union), Soviet Navy Admiral I. Isakov (Hovhannes Isahakyan), Aviation Marshal S. Khudyakov (Armenak Khanperyants), H. Babajanyan (later Chief Marshal of Armed Troops), Generals M. Parseghov, S. Galajev, S. Martirosyan, H. Martirosyan, N. Safaryan, A. Karapetyan, H. Tumanyan, B. Arushanyan and many others. May 9 is a Great Victory Day for families living in any part of the former Soviet Union. Our fathers and grandfathers made that victory and served as an example of heroism and true patriotism to future generations. Obverse: the monument Mother Armenia in Yerevan and the 1st class Order of the Patriotic War. Reverse: a shield and the St. George Ribbon. Designed by Karapet Abrahamyan. Minted in the Lithuanian Mint. Face value 75 dram Metal/fineness silver 9250 Weight 67.2 g Diameter 50 mm Quality proof Edge ribbed Quantity 500 pcs Year of issue 2020 Notice Collector coins are made of precious metals and are issued to present to the society the national, international, historical and cultural, spiritual and other values of the country, to immortalize these values in the metal and to meet the demands of the numismatic market. Like any other currency the collector coins have face value which makes them the means of payment. However, the face value of these coins is much lower that their cost price which includes the cost of the precious metal used for manufacturing of the coin, mintage and other expenses. Low face value and high cost price allow these coins to be considered as the items of collection and not the means of payment used in money circulation. The collector coins have also the sale price set by the Central Bank of Armenia. As items of collection, the collector coins are issued in very restricted quantities and are not reissued. Danny Meyer Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer did the right thing in returning the $10M loan that his chain received under the Paycheck Protection Plan. After intense Congressional criticism, Harvard University (sort of) follows his lead. The stomachs of many Shake Shack fans would have turned sour had the company kept the loan that was intended for small businesses, rather than a $600M enterprise. During 2016, I used to work in New York's Flatiron District close to that neighborhood's beating heart, Madison Square Park, where Meyer launched Shake Shack. I often hung out in that park, and marveled at the long lines of 20-somethings waiting patiently at Shake Shack to pick up their orders of burgers, hot dogs, fries, chicken breast sandwiches and even an occasional shake. Many of those Shake Shack customers worked at tech companies located in what was then known as Silicon Alley, and the supporting cast of media, PR firms, advertising agencies and social media sites. The COVID-19 pandemic has walloped the Flatiron District. Many of those Shake Shack fans won't have jobs to go back to as the outbreak results in business shutdowns and severe downsizings. Some of those impacted businesses will close because they didn't have the team of lawyers that Shake Shack used to gather the required documentation needed to participate in the PPP. The army of Shake Shack fans and now unemployed Flatiron workers would not have looked too kindly if their favorite restaurant survived due to COVID-10 support, while their jobs went under. Ruth's Chris Steak House may hold on to its $20M PPP loan because it serves an expense-account crowd, not worried about their next paycheck. Meyer made the right PR move. And speaking of expense accounts, Harvard is in line for $9M in aid under the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act. Under that grant, the school is required to allocate at least half of that windfall for emergency grants to students. The Harvard Crimson reported that some of the money may wind up to bankroll technology and housing. Harvard is blessed with an endowment of $41B and a fiscal 2019 operating surplus of $300M. Why did it take the money in the first place? Even Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos expressed unease about shoveling tons of money to rich schools, while other educational institutions are barely able to scrape by. "We hope that the presidents of these schools will take the Secretary's advice and direct CARES Act funds to students in need, no matter where those students are enrolled," said a DeVos spokesperson A Harvard spokesperson told Newsweek on April 16 that the college needs the CARES cash to address the "substantial costs" incurred during the pandemic. "Like nearly all sectors of the economy, higher education has experienced significant disruption due to the coronavirus pandemic; most immediately with our efforts to reduce the population on our campuses, move classes online, and shutter most research labs, while at the same time, working to support staff and our local communities, as well as rapidly escalate our research around treatments, diagnostics and vaccines for COVID-19," the Harvard spokesperson said. After a storm of criticism from Republican Senators Ted Cruz (TX), Josh Hawley (MO.), Rick Scott (FL) and Congressmen Mark Green (TN), and Thomas Massie (KY), Harvard is now directing all the CARES aid to financial assistance. That's admirable but super-wealthy Harvard, which boasts of the world's largest endowment, is using cash that could be better spent in support of struggling schools that might not survive the pandemic. But Harvard isn't the only big moneybags college soaking up CARES aid. Ivy League schools Columbia University and Cornell are in line for $12.8M, while Yale eyes $7M and Princeton expects $2.5m. At the very least, they should follow Harvard's footsteps and give 100 percent of the money to their needy students. And when that happens, Harvard president Lawrence Bacow should drop by the Shake Shack at 92 Winthrop Street, which is down the block from Harvard Square, and enjoy a celebratory burger. I bet Danny Meyer would pick up the tab. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday demanded that the Centre release more wheat to the state in view of the increasing demand for ration by people amid the lockdown. The Food Corporation of India reserves, he noted, are full of wheat stocks. The demand for ration has increased during lockdown as a large number of families are asking for wheat to be distributed through public distribution system. The state government has requested the central government to release more wheat so that no one suffers from hunger during this crisis, Gehlot said. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) reserves are full of wheat stocks and new crop will also be ready soon. In this situation, I am hopeful of a positive decision from central government and that more wheat will be released for ration to the states soon, he tweeted. The chief minister said that the state government will provide all possible help to the underprivileged until the economy is back on track. However, he said, the role of central government is crucial in bringing the economy on track. He said that destitute and those not covered by any social security scheme are the state government's 'target group' and the government will support them. We understand that the problems faced by the middle class are different and the problems of the lower middle class are of different nature. The state government is making efforts for the welfare of all sections, but the role of central government is crucial in bringing the economy on track, he said. Gehlot said that a number of states have written several letters to the central government seeking help and have demanded a relief package. I hope the government of India must be working on it and announcement for financial assistance to the states will be made soon, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Researchers from the Biophysics and Bioengineering Unit of the UB have created a non-invasive low-cost ventilator, to support patients with respiratory diseases in areas with limited means. Researchers published the results of the study in the European Respiratory Journal together with open source technical features to build it. Non-invasive ventilators are usually used to treat patients with respiratory failure: for instance, those with severe symptoms with COVID-19. Non-invasive ventilation is administrated through facial masks that bring pressured air to the lungs. This support to the natural breathing process, when the disease causes the lungs to fail, enables the body to fight the infection and therefore improve. The study was carried out in the Biophysics and Bioengineering Unit of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona, led by Ramono Farre, professor of Physiology and member of the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) and the Respiratory Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERES). Considering the growing need for ventilator support devices everywhere due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we designed a ventilator that can be built with commercial elements at a low cost. The ventilator is aimed at hospitals and health systems to help cover the demand of respiratory equipment due to the coronavirus and other severe lung diseases." Ramono Farre, Professor of Physiology, University of Barcelona. The article describes how to build the ventilator in open code, and it can be copied in areas with limited means. The research team has designed, built and carried out the tests for the ventilator using a small high-pressure turbine, two pressure transducer and a monitor with digital screen. In order to build it one needs a basic knowledge on engineering, but no previous knowledge on ventilation, although the application in patients requires a medical supervision. To assess the efficiency of the prototype of the ventilator compared to a commercial device, the research team tested it in twelve healthy volunteers. The participants' breathing was obstructed to simulate different levels of lung rigidity and respiratory obstruction. Participants wore facial masks over their nose to ease breathing and marked their feeling of comfort or discomfort, both with and without a respiratory support. The tests showed the ventilator adapted to the spontaneous breathing rhythm and provided a feeling of breathing relief similar to a commercial ventilator. The team carried out a respiratory test bank, in which they used lung simulators to assess the response of the ventilator in patients with different levels of air flow obstruction and lung rigidity. The test was carried out in sixteen different simulation situations, covering conditions of real life in which non-invasive ventilation is usually used in clinical practices. In all the simulated cases, the prototype of the ventilator was efficient so that lungs could efficiently breath. "Our tests showed the prototype could behave similarly to a high-quality conventional device providing support to patients who, with difficulties, can try to breathe by themselves", notes Farre. The prototype is a non-invasive ventilator that provides respiratory support; therefore, it is not aimed at those patients with severe cases who are intubated and need a mechanical ventilator in the intensive care unit. Scientific support to new prototypes The Biophysics and Bioengineering Unit of the UB has experience on instrumentation to treat respiratory diseases, specially in the field of sleep apnoea. Recently, Farre and his team provided advice on the design of emergency ventilator device prototypes from Protofy.xyz, GPA Innova and GAS N2. The three devices, built with the support from the Hospital Clinic and Can Ruti, and the UB, are under clinical studyu with patients, after the initial approval to conduct the study given by the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Products (AEMPS). Farre's team has also provided support to the device carried out by the Technical University of Valencia, now in its final phase of development. Katie Price was held at gunpoint in a terrifying kidnap attempt last year. The 41-year-old star has candidly opened up about the horrific ordeal - which allegedly took place last autumn when she was away with her children - and how she was threatened for a fifth time shortly before she flew to Scotland to film Channel 4's 'Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins'. Speaking to Ant Middleton in the premiere episode on Monday (21.04.20), she said: "I'm not here for sympathy, I'm just saying, I have been through a lot of s**t and I'm still going through it... "I don't even know where to start. My fifth kidnap threat happened two weeks ago. Then my mum being told she was terminally ill last year. "Then my horse escaped on my front road and died in my hands. My dog got run over in my driveway. "Then held at gunpoint in South Africa with my kids. That's the first time I've ever had a proper gun to my head thinking we're going to die. F***ing horrific." The former glamour model insisted she has "to be the strong one" to cope in difficult situations. She explained: "That's the only way I deal with it, I have to be the strong one. "That's why. What can I do? It is like when I got told my son was blind what can I do sit in a corner and cry? "You can't, you have to get on with life, you have to deal with it. That is what I do all the time." Katie previously stepped up security at her home following the kidnap threat. An insider said: "Katie was really shaken up by the recent kidnap threat against her and the kids. "Since then she has asked her team to get extra advice and support about how they can stay safer." Scientists developing a second coronavirus vaccine will soon start recruiting volunteers for clinical trials to begin in June. A lab at Imperial College London was yesterday pledged 22.5million by Health Secretary Matt Hancock for its efforts to make a jab to protect against COVID-19. It plans to begin human experiments in around six weeks' time and will follow in the footsteps of a University of Oxford project which starts testing tomorrow. While the Oxford vaccine will try to stimulate the immune system using a common cold virus taken from chimps, the researchers at Imperial are using droplets of liquid to carry the genetic material they need to get into the bloodstream. Both will then work, in theory, by recreating parts of the coronavirus inside the patient and forcing their immune system to learn how to fight it. Mr Hancock yesterday said his department was 'throwing everything' at the race for Britain to become the first country in the world to make a coronavirus vaccine and promised 44.5million of extra funding for the two universities. Developing vaccinations usually takes many months or years but researchers are hurtling towards human trials. They say the process has been made easier because the virus is not mutating and is similar to other viruses seen in the past. Scientists at Imperial College London are working on a vaccine for which they hope to start human testing in June (Pictured: Researchers in the Department of Infectious Disease at the University) WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VACCINES CREATED BY OXFORD AND IMPERIAL COLLEGE? The science behind both vaccine attempts hinges on recreating the 'spike' proteins that are found all over the outside of the COVID-19 viruses. Both will attempt to recreate or mimic these spikes inside the body. The difference between the two is how they achieve this effect. Imperial College London will try to deliver genetic material (RNA) from the coronavirus which programs cells inside the patient's body to recreate the spike proteins. It will transport the RNA inside liquid droplets injected into the bloodstream. The team at the University of Oxford, on the other hand, will genetically engineer a virus to look like the coronavirus - to have the same spike proteins on the outside - but be unable to cause any infection inside a person. This virus, weakened by genetic engineering, is a type of virus called an adenovirus, the same as those which cause common colds, that has been taken from chimpanzees. If the vaccines can successfully mimic the spikes inside a person's bloodstream, and stimulate the immune system to create special antibodies to attack it, this could train the body to destroy the real coronavirus if they get infected with it in future. The same process is thought to happen in people who catch COVID-19 for real, but this is far more dangerous - a vaccine will have the same end-point but without causing illness in the process. Advertisement Dr Robin Shattock, heading up the effort at Imperial College, said the early volunteers would be given low doses of the vaccine to test its safety. If it proves to cause no major side effects, he explained, the doses would be gradually increased until they got to a point where people received enough to give them immunity against COVID-19. There is 'absolutely no guarantee they will work', Dr Shattock said, but animal trials being carried out since February have been successful. Speaking on Radio 4 this morning Dr Shattock said: 'I think its great that weve got two different approaches [Oxford and Imperial]. 'Ours is different in that we are essentially using nucleic acid, RNA, to deliver the code for the surface protein of the virus. And so we deliver that in, essentially, a liquid droplet. 'The Oxford group are doing something similar but are using a viral particle to deliver their genetic code to the cells following injection. 'Why its good to have both approaches is that there are many risks of failure along the way. So by having two approaches we increase the chances of having an effective vaccine in the UK. 'And both these approaches could have complementary activity and so they could eventually be combined if we need to have a prime and boost to make an even more effective vaccine for certain populations.' The science behind both vaccine attempts hinges on recreating the 'spike' proteins that are found all over the outside of the COVID-19 viruses. If the vaccines can successfully mimic the spikes inside a person's bloodstream, and stimulate the immune system to create special antibodies to attack it, this could train the body to destroy the real coronavirus if they get infected with it in future. The same process is thought to happen in people who catch COVID-19 for real, but this is far more dangerous - a vaccine will have the same end-point but without causing illness in the process. The Oxford vaccine, known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 will be trialled on up to 510 people out of a group of 1,112, all of whom will be aged 18 to 55. GERMANY APPROVES HUMAN COVID-19 VACCINE TRIALS Human trials of a coronavirus vaccine are set to begin in Germany after the company BioNTech got approval from the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut for its candidate jab. The vaccine, named BNT162, is said to be one of just four approved programmes and is being carried out alongside drugmaker Pfizer, which will later look to trial the vaccine in the US. The trial will work by giving 200 volunteers, aged between 18 and 55, gradually larger doses of the jab to see how their body reacts and whether it successfully creates immunity to the spikes found on the outside of the coronavirus. BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said: 'We are pleased to have completed pre-clinical studies in Germany and will soon initiate this first-in-human trial ahead of our expectations. 'The speed with which we were able to move from the start of the program to trial initiation speaks to the high level of engagement from everyone involved.' If early tests are successful and people do not appear to suffer serious side effects, larger scale trials will take place afterwards. Advertisement It is already recruiting volunteers in London, Bristol and Southampton. The Oxford Vaccine Centre is taking part but is not currently recruiting volunteers. The Imperial College Hospital in London is involved in the trial of the Oxford vaccine - it is not yet trialling the vaccine made by the university with which it shares its name. Imperial Medicine tweeted yesterday: 'The Imperial College NHS Trust are looking for healthy volunteers to participate in a #COVID19 #vaccine trial, for which they will receive up to 190-625 reimbursement for time, travel and contribution to the trial.' Oxford's effort is the first British-made vaccine to go into real-world trials and carries with it huge hopes that it will provide a key to getting out of lockdown and banishing COVID-19. The virus has now infected more than 125,000 people and killed 17,339 in the UK and the UK is on course to end up one of the worst-hit nations in the world. Mr Hancock said developing vaccines is an 'uncertain science' which usually takes years but that manufacturing capacity will be ramped up in case the jab is a success and is suitable to roll out to the public. Oxford University's trial will take six months and is limited to a small number of people so scientists can assess whether it is safe and effective without using huge amounts of resources - each patient must return for between four and 11 visits after the jab - and without the risk of large numbers of people being affected if something goes wrong. Imperial College Hospital in London (left) and University Hospital Southampton (right) are recruiting volunteers from their catchment areas for trials of Oxford University's coronavirus vaccine Bristol Children's Vaccine Centre (pictured, its catchment area) is recruiting volunteers for trials of Oxford University's vaccine Speaking at yesterday's coronavirus briefing at Downing Street, the Health Secretary said: 'In the long run the best way to defeat coronavirus is through a vaccine. 'After all, this is a new disease. This is uncertain science, but I am certain that we will throw everything we've got at developing a vaccine. WHAT IS THE OXFORD VACCINE AND WHO CAN GET ONE? The vaccine is called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) from chimpanzees that has been genetically changed so it is impossible for it to grow in humans. Clinical teams at the Oxford University's Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group began developing the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in January. The team have gone through stages of vaccine development that usually take five years in just four months. They were a step ahead of other groups because they already had a base vaccine for similar coronaviruses. The intellectual rights to its vaccine are owned by the University of Oxford and a spin-out company called Vaccitech. The first part of the trial will involve 510 health volunteers aged between 18 and 55. Then the trial will move into older age groups, looking at the safety and immune response to the vaccine. Half of all the trial volunteers will get the new coronavirus vaccine and the other half will get a vaccine licensed to protect against meningitis. Volunteers will not know what they are given. Andrew Pollard, who is part of the Oxford team, said there may be hurdles when testing the vaccine on older people. 'For most vaccines the immune system in older adults, particularly those over 70, doesn't make such good responses,' he said. 'If we did see weaker responses in older adults we also have in our plan that we would look at giving additional doses in that age group to try and improve the immune response.' According to the World Health Organisation, more than 70 COVID-19 vaccines are in development worldwide but the UK now joins only the United States - two studies - and China in beginning human trials. Advertisement 'The UK is at the forefront of a global effort. We've put more money than any other country into the global search for a vaccine and, for all the efforts around the world, two of the leading vaccine developments are taking place here at home at Oxford and Imperial [College London]. 'Both of these promising projects are making rapid progress and I've told the scientists leading them that we'll do everything in our power to support.' He pledged a total of 44.5million to the projects in Oxford and London to enable scientists to go ahead with trials and getting the vaccine used in people. The Oxford project was given a head-start by work already done on the coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS following outbreaks in recent years, Andrew Pollard, who is part of the Oxford team said. But chief scientific adviser to the Government, Sir Patrick Vallance, has warned the success of a new vaccine is a 'long shot'. He told the Guardian: 'All new vaccines that come into development are long shots. Only some end up being successful. 'Coronavirus will be no different and presents new challenges for vaccine development. 'This will take time and we should be clear it is not a certainty.' There are currently more than 100 vaccine projects under way around the world, Sir Patrick said. The new jab is based on an adenovirus, which is the type that causes common colds, which was taken from chimpanzees and damaged so it is unable make humans ill. The virus was genetically engineered so that it makes 'spike' proteins found on the outside of the COVID-19 viruses and are essential to its ability to infect people. By injecting these proteins into the body but without the rest of the coronavirus, scientists hope to train the immune system to recognise those proteins as a disease-carrying invader and work out how to attack it. If successful, this will mean that a vaccinated person will not become ill if they catch the real coronavirus because their body has already learned to attack the proteins that will be on the outside of it. Therefore, the immune system will in theory be able to destroy it before it is able to cause any symptoms. Mr Hancock said: 'The team have accelerated that trial process, working with the regulator, the MHRA, who have been absolutely brilliant. 'And as a result, I can announce that the vaccine from the Oxford project will be trialled in people from this Thursday. 'In normal times, reaching this stage would take years and I'm very proud of the work taken so far.' Oxford professor says new vaccine is unlikely to be mass-produced by the end of 2020 A professor working on the new coronavirus vaccine has said it may not be produced on a large scale until next year. Professor Andrew Pollard, who is part of the team developing the inoculation at Oxford University, said millions of doses could be made by the autumn of this year. But to produce and distribute it around the country after successful trials could take much longer, he added. He told Sky News: 'If you had a sailing wind and absolutely nothing goes wrong in all of that complex technical process and you have all the facilities available, you could have millions of doses by the autumn of this year. 'But to the very large scale, there's a huge technical effort to get there and I think it's unlikely that that could happen before the end of this year. 'If the trials are successful there's a big technical hurdle to upscale doses of the vaccine to the millions, tens of millions or even billions that would be needed for the world. 'It's a very different manufacturing process to be able to make such large volumes of vaccine. The capacity to do that round the world is quite limited. 'When this new virus emerged there was already work going on in Oxford on MERS coronavirus and a vaccine was being trialled on humans. 'What happened was that the genetic code from the new coronavirus was discovered in January and it was possible to go back to that genetic code and make these new vaccines very rapidly. 'They've been developed in the laboratory and taken to a manufacturing facility in Oxford to make the first doses ready for trials.' Prof Pollard also said the Oxford trial was not guaranteed to produce a successful vaccine. He added: 'We have to do the clinical trials in order to work out how well the vaccines work and also how long the protection from the vaccines might last, if indeed it does protect.' Advertisement University of Oxford scientists are confident they can get the jab for the incurable virus rolled out for millions to use by autumn. Whether a vaccine can be developed and distributed around the country before the end of the year will depend on the speed of the trials and whether it can be mass-produced once it has been proven to be successful. Mr Hancock added: 'If either of these vaccines safely works, then we can make it available as soon as humanly possible. 'After all, the upside of being the first country in the world to develop a successful vaccine is so huge that I am throwing everything at it.' Professor Saul Faust, a director of clinical research at University Hospital Southampton, said that if the trials are successful the vaccine could be available for larger trials later this year and, later, for public use. She said: 'Vaccines are the most effective way of controlling outbreaks.' Explaining how the vaccine that will be trialled at the hospital works, Professor Faust added: 'This vaccine aims to turn the virus' most potent weapon, its spikes, against it - raising antibodies that stick to them allowing the immune system to lock onto and destroy the virus.' Around half of the people in the trial will be given the COVID-19 vaccine candidate and the others will receive a 'control'. For this, researchers will use the MenACWY vaccine, which is a vaccine already used by the NHS to protect against meningitis. Work on the vaccine, developed by clinical teams at the Oxford University's Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group, began in January. Britain will join only the United States - with two studies - and China in beginning human trials. These trials started in March, putting them around a month ahead of the Oxford study. Professors Andrew Pollard, Sarah Gilbert and Adrian Hill, who are leading the trial said in a statement: 'The Oxford Covid vaccine team are delighted with Tuesday's announcement by the Secretary of State for Health of funding for the evaluation of the new COVID19 vaccine. 'This week we will start the process of vaccine evaluation in our first human studies and are currently focusing all efforts on preparing for the start of the trials. 'Although it seems like a very long time since the work started, in reality it is less than four months since we first heard of an outbreak of severe pneumonia cases, and began to plan a response. 'Our brilliant team has been working tirelessly to get to this point using our skills and experience in vaccine development and testing, and will do the best job possible in moving quickly whilst at all times prioritising the safety of the trial participants.' The vaccine is made from a version of a common cold virus combined with genes that make proteins from the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) called spike glycoprotein, which play an essential role in the infection pathway of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But WHO expert David Nabarro and Oxford University's Professor Gilbert warned on Monday there is no guarantee a vaccine will actually be developed. Dr Nabarro told the Observer: 'You don't necessarily develop a vaccine that is safe and effective against every virus. Some viruses are very, very difficult when it comes to vaccine development. Prof Gilbert, who is a professor of vaccinology, told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'The prospects are very good, but it is clearly not completely certain. That's why we have to do trials to find out.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 15:57:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TIANJIN, April 21 (Xinhua) -- In 1972, Richard Sears, a young American from the state of Tennessee, began learning Chinese because of his fascination with traditional Chinese culture. "Chinese characters are the only ancient script now still in use in the world and it's a miracle of human history," said Sears in fluent Chinese. As a primitive form of Chinese characters and the oldest fully developed characters in China, Jiaguwen, or oracle bone inscriptions, were first discovered in 1899 and named for their inscriptions on tortoise shells and animal bones. Drawn to the ancient language, Sears often went back and forth between China and the United States. As a computer engineer in his country, he continued to learn Chinese until the 1990s. In 1994, after stricken by a severe heart attack, he made a decision. "At that time, I almost died. Later on, I was thinking that if I had only one day left to live, I would call my friends and say 'goodbye' and if one year left, I would make the ancient Chinese characters available online," Sears recalled. In the following days, Sears started programming and building a database of oracle bone inscriptions. It took him seven years just to scan the characters in Chinese ancient books. In 2002, the Jiaguwen enthusiast's website was launched, though with only a few page views per day in the beginning. However, it surged to 600,000 per day in 2011 after a blogger recommended the site on Chinese social media platform Weibo. "I became a web celebrity overnight and was given a nickname 'Uncle Hanzi,'" Sears said with a smile. Hanzi means Chinese characters. During the past 26 years, he has accumulated a great deal of information on his website -- more than 96,000 ancient Chinese character forms from archeological sources. "Every character fascinates me. I hope to take people back to the origin of Chinese characters and see how each of them evolved into what it is today," he said. Up till now, the website has been continuously updated, giving lovers of the ancient language from all over the world free access to browse at their leisure. "When I analyze each character, I wonder what did the ancient Chinese think," said Sears. In order to reveal the mystery behind the ancient characters, he spent a great deal of money and time buying and going through dozens of books, living on a shoestring. After visiting many Chinese cities, Sears learned more about China and ancient Chinese culture. He said when he came to China in the last century, few Chinese could speak good English. However, English education has been popularized across the country in recent years. Similarly, Chinese language and culture were mysterious and not known by people in most countries, but now, more and more people in the world are learning Chinese, even Chinese history, traditional Chinese medicine and so on, Sears added. At present, the 70-year-old American has made his home in China with his friend's support. Apart from taking part in some social activities, Sears devotes all his efforts to the study of Chinese characters. Since the end of last year, Sears has been working with a Chinese technology company on a smartphone application for children to learn about how the characters evolved. The app, which shows the step-by-step evolution of the first batch of 108 characters with augmented reality technology, is expected to be launched on June 1. "When I die, I hope my website will live on, and I'm planning to write a book about my research. This will be my gift to China," he said. Enditem North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not gravely ill, two South Korean government sources said on Tuesday, following reports he had undergone a cardiovascular procedure and was now in "grave danger". Kim was receiving treatment after undergoing the procedure, a South Korean media report said late on Monday, amid speculation over Kim's health following his absence from a key anniversary event this month. The reports about Kim's health are not true, two South Korean government sources said. The presidential Blue House said there are no unusual signs coming from the North. Daily NK, a Seoul-based speciality website, cited unidentified sources inside the isolated state saying Kim is recovering at a villa in the Mount Kumgang resort county of Hyangsan on the east coast after undergoing the cardiovascular procedure at a hospital on April 12. CNN reported that Kim was in "grave danger". An authoritative US source familiar with internal US government reporting on North Korea questioned the CNN report that Kim is seriously ill, even though he has been out of the public eye for an extended period. There has been speculation over Kim's health after he was absent from an event marking the anniversary of the birthday of its founding father and Kim's grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on April 15. On April 12, North Korean state media reported that Kim Jong Un had visited an airbase and observed drills by fighter jets and attack aircraft. Two days later North Korea launched multiple short-range anti-ship cruise missiles into the sea and Sukhoi jets fired air-to-surface missiles as part of military exercises, South Korea's military said. The missile tests were done on the eve of a national holiday in North Korea to celebrate the birthday of Kim Il Sung. US-North Korea denuclearisation talks stalled at the end of 2019 and analysts say this years string of tests and military drills appear aimed at underscoring North Koreas return to a more hard-line policy. Reporting from inside North Korea is notoriously difficult, especially on matters concerning the country's leadership, given tight controls on information. Former SBI Director Truba says authorities planning to notify him of suspicion Former Director of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) Roman Truba has said that the authorities are planning to notify him of suspicion and promised a tough response to this challenge. "The authorities are going to notify me of suspicion. I am accepting the challenge. My response will be tough," he said on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. As reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Truba as Director of the SBI and appointed Iryna Venedyktova as Acting Director of SBI. Venedyktova is a member of the Servant of the People party. She chairs the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy. Truba appealed to court against the president's order on his early dismissal. Earlier, Ihor Holovan, the lawyer of fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, said that Canadian experts confirmed the identity of Truba's voice on recordings made in his office, which proves that persecutions of Poroshenko were politically motivated. Truba treated the results of the expertise skeptically. Later, a court confirmed that Truba artificially created reasons for SBI investigators to file appeals to Shevchenkivsky, and not Pechersky District Court of Kyiv. Poroshenko's lawyers made this public. Cities and towns across America are dotted with local meeting spots for patrons to gather for a cocktail. Many establishments have historical significance once frequented by renowned patrons, while others offer their eclectic charm. Check out our list of the 10 Most Famous Bars in the US and be sure to order their signature cocktail for the full experience. 10. Green Mill Cocktail Lounge // Chicago Step back the age of Prohibition Era with a visit to Chicagos Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. Initially opened in 1907, this prominent Jazz venue is a nod to Paris Moulin Rouge. In the 1920s, Al Capone frequented the lounge and always sat at his favorite table strategically positioned to see both the front and back entrances. This historic venue is complete with secret tunnels that Al Capone and his men used to allude authorities. Though visitors are not allowed to tour the tunnels, patrons can still experience some of the top jazz performances in the world. 9. Tonga Room // San Francisco Located in the basement of the Fairmont Hotel, visitors to the Tonga Room, step into the same Polynesian paradise experienced when the club first opened in 1945. This unique restaurant and Tiki Bar offers an indoor pool complete with live musical performances atop a floating stage. Theres even a tropical rain shower occurring every hour around the perimeter of the bar. Guest can enjoy a full Happy Hour Buffet featuring umbrella drinks, including their famous Mai Tais. 8. Vesuvio // San Francisco Dating back to the 1950s, Vesuvio, located in the North Beach area, is a compact bar, rich in history. Its most well-known patron is Jack Kerouac, who was a regular at this beatnik and bohemian styled venue known at one time as Ground Zero. There is even a pedestrian walkway named Jack Kerouac Alley. 7. King Cole Bar // New York City King Cole Bar, located in the prestigious St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan, is known as the birthplace of the Bloody Mary. In 1934, bartender Fernand Petiot curated the perfect recipe for a vodka and tomato juice-based cocktail and garnished it with a stalk of celery. Though the concoction was originally named Bloody Mary, the high-end bar renamed it Red Snapper to create a more elegant name for the hotels elite clientele. No matter which name you use, the drink remains the signature cocktail of the King Cole Bar. 6. Green Dragon Tavern // Boston Soak in our nations history while sipping a pint at this historical Boston Establishment. Green Dragon Tavern was a favorite watering hole for some of the most well-known names in history, such as Paul Revere, John Adams, and John Hancock. The tavern is dubbed the Headquarters of the American Revolution, and its rumored to be the spot where plans for the Boston Tea Party were formed. 5. Chumleys //New York City Chumleys leather booths and eclectic decor stay true to its 1920s history. This decades-old establishment was once a well-known hangout for some of the most iconic creatives in history, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Simone de Beauvoir. While their gatherings mostly took place in the underground area that has since collapsed, the eatery is today known today for its upscale cuisine. 4. Round Robin and Scotch Bar // Washington, DC Those heading to Washington, DC to tour the White House can add Round Robin to their list of historical presidential spots to visit. Since 1847, the bar has been a popular meeting place for leaders of our nations. With its dark leather interior and presidential decor, patrons can sip on the bars signature drink, Mint Julep, while imaging what types of important decisions were discussed within those walls. 3. Carousel Piano Bar & Lounge // New Orleans Those heading to Carousel Bar in New Orleans expecting a rotating bar with glimmering lights will not be disappointed. This unique French Quarter lounge is located inside the historic Hotel Monteleone. Grab a spot at the 25-seat rotating bar gingerly, making a full rotation every 15 minutes. The bar offers a mix of traditional and contemporary libations, including its famous concoction, Vieux Carre, a blend of Bullet Bourbon, Sweet Vermouth, Benedictine, and Bitters. 2. Tootsies Orchid Bar & Lounge // Nashville No list of bars is complete without representation from the Music City. Tootsies opened its doors in 1960 and have been delivering the best in honkey-tonk ever since. Some of the nations most famous Country Music stars have played this iconic venue, including Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Patsy Klein. Patrons can explore the lounges three floors offering live music performances while sipping Tootsies famous Apple Pie Shine. 1. The Mint Bar // Wyoming Since 1907 this Sheridan, Wyoming tavern, has been a favorite among cowboys and ranchers. With walls decorated with pictures and memorabilia, this cozy pub is a must-do for travelers to the area. The owners have dubbed the phrase, Meet you at The Mint, where guests can saddle up the bar and order a cold one. Assistant Professor Dr. Murtuza Jadliwala of the Computer Science (CS) Department has been awarded the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development or CAREER grant. This most prestigious $499,512, 5-year award for early career faculty funds Jadliwala's research on securing modern ubiquitous sensing and computing technologies, such as mobile, wearable and Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems, against private data inference and exfiltration threats. Jadliwala is the director of the SPriTE (Security, Privacy, Trust and Ethics in Computing) Research Lab in the Department of Computer Science at UTSA. "Dr. Jadliwala is one of our rising stars and our ninth home-grown NSF CAREER awardee, a remarkable achievement for a CS department with only about 20 tenure-track/tenured faculty. I also credit the excellent tradition of mentorship and nurturing for early career faculty within this department," says Dr. Sushil Prasad, Computer Science department chair. "My project is motivated by the fact that we as humans are living in a society where we are constantly surrounded by sensors, which are continuously sensing every smallest activity/event in our lives," Jadliwala explains. "We have sensors in our pockets in the form of smartphones, sensors on our bodies in the form of smartwatches and sensors in our immediate surroundings in the form of smart home devices and appliances. There is no doubt that these devices have improved our lives significantly by enabling useful applications, but at what cost?" Jadliwala explains that sensor data collected by (or originating from) modern ubiquitous sensing and computing systems, such as smartphones, wearables and IoT devices, can be easily exploited to significantly compromise users' privacy unless the current weaknesses are addressed. Although individually some of these devices and applications (running on them) may provide limited means for privacy protection, they do not holistically work across all the different types of devices, sensors, and applications surrounding users. "The main challenge is that most of these device and sensor platforms are pretty heterogenous in nature, produced by different manufacturers, running different operating systems or operated by different providers," says Jadliwala. "As a result, these different systems don't talk to each other when it comes to holistically protecting users' privacy. For instance, a protection mechanism on your smartphone that restricts when an application accesses your phone's camera might not help protect against a snooping surveillance camera in your house." To overcome these challenges, Jadliwala and his research team will focus on uncovering new security and privacy risks in modern ubiquitous sensing and computing environments comprising of functionally heterogeneous and isolated sensors, devices and applications. The team will also design and evaluate a promising new approach to protect against uncoordinated and unregulated sensing and actuation in such environments. This approach will efficiently and securely determine sensitive user-contexts and share it in a user-friendly fashion across a diverse set of sensing devices and applications to provide complete or holistic privacy protection. Using his research findings, Jadliwala will develop a curriculum in mobile and IoT security that local high school teachers can implement in their classrooms. "After talking to educators in the San Antonio Independent School District, I was excited to learn that cybersecurity courses are already being offered in some of the high schools in our community," he explains. "However, the problem is that the high school teachers are not always exposed, or get an opportunity to expose themselves to the recent advancements in the field. One of the goals of the project will be to train the teachers themselves by involving them in our research. This is a classic example of how research and education can come together. The teachers can then take those research experiences and design effective curriculum for their own students." Local high school students will also have an opportunity to participate in cybersecurity summer camps, which Jadliwala is currently planning. "For enrollment at these camps, we will specifically target students from San Antonio area's underrepresented and impoverished communities, who ideally would not be able to afford attending expensive educational camps in the summer," says Jadliwala. The team will also offer a summer camp for veterans who are interested in a career in cybersecurity. ### By Express News Service RANCHI: Jharkhand on Tuesday witnessed third COVID-19 fatality as 54-year-old woman died here in Ranchi. Notably, the deceased has been identified as the second coronavirus positive woman at Hindpiri in Ranchi who had come in direct contact with the Malaysian woman who had been tested positive for the first time in Jharkhand. Jharkhand so far has also registered three deaths of coronavirus, two in Ranchi while other person was from Bokaro. "The woman was tested negative for coronavirus on Monday. Test result of a repeat sample is being awaited," said state's Principal Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni. Remarkably, this is second victim of coronavirus in the same family after her 60-year-old husband died on April 12 in RIMS. The woman, along with other family members, was admitted to COVID-19 ward of RIMS after she was found positive. In Jharkhand so far, a total of 45 people have been tested positive till date. Out of the total 45 cases tested positive, 25 are from Ranchi, 10 from Bokaro, 3 from Hazaribagh, 2 each from Dhanbad and Simdega. One person each from Giridih, Deohga and Koderma has also been tested positive of coronavirus. >>> Vietnam supports Laos in COVID-19 fight Minister of Information and Communications and Vice President of the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Association Nguyen Manh Hung handed over the gifts to the Laos-Vietnam Friendship Association through the Lao Embassy in Hanoi. The medical supplies include 500 protective suits and 18,500 face masks, including 17,500 medical masks and 1,000 antibacterial cloth masks. Speaking at the handover ceremony, Minister Hung said that the gifts, despite being small, deeply reflected the sentiments of the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Association members toward the Lao people, contributing to promoting the special solidarity between the two nations and affirming their commitment to holding hands to overcome difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He showed his belief that despite those difficulties, the two countries will actively promote the cause of national development, construction and defence to reap bigger achievements for the happiness and prosperity of their people. For his part, Laos Ambassador to Vietnam Sengphet Houngboungnuang expressed his sincere thanks to the Vietnamese people and the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Association for their valuable affections given to the Lao people. 100,000 face masks presented to Indian people On the same day, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, who also chairs the Vietnam-India Friendship Association, presented 100,000 antibacterial cloth masks to Indian Ambassador Pranay Verma to assist the South Asian nation in the fight against COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the biggest challenges the humankind has faced over the last 100 years, he said, noting that Vietnam and India can share many practical experiences and valuable lessons to jointly defeat this outbreak. Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung (fourth from right), who also chairs the Vietnam-India Friendship Association, presents 100,000 antibacterial cloth masks to Indian Ambassador Pranay Verma on April 21, 2020. (Photo: NDO/Lam Thao) The official added with the wish to help India prevent the disease, the Vietnam-India Friendship Association has called on businesses in the information and communications sector to donate 100,000 antibacterial cloth masks to the Indian people. The small gifts demonstrate the Vietnamese peoples solidarity and friendship with their Indian peers, he noted. Offering thanks to the Vietnam-India Friendship Association, Ambassador Verma said the face masks will be distributed widely to the Indian people. He also said the Vietnamese and Indian Prime Ministers held phone talks on April 13 during which they agreed that their agencies would keep in touch in the time ahead to coordinate the countries response measures against the pandemic and boost cooperation in other spheres of bilateral ties. In an earlier meeting with Ambassador Verma, Minister Hung touched upon the big changes in social activities amid the COVID-19 outbreak such as working from home, online learning, e-payment, and online health checkup. Vietnam plans to put the 5G network and devices into operation this October. Meanwhile, India is known as a software workshop of the world. Therefore, he said he hopes IT businesses of the two countries will enhance collaboration in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and dealing with global issues like cyber security. Verma also shared his views on current technological issues like 5G technology, e-Government building and IT manpower training which, he believes, Vietnam and India have their own advantages in, and can work together for common development. Vietnam offers medical supplies to foreign armies The Ministry of Defence and its units have offered medical supplies to the armies of China, Laos, Cuba, Germany, Hungary, and Cambodia in support of their fight against COVID-19. Worth nearly VND19 billion (US$826,000), the supplies include gloves, face masks, protective suits, thermometers, and hand sanitiser, among others. The offer is part of the Vietnamese armys efforts to join hands with its foreign counterparts to drive back COVID-19, protecting peoples health and ensuring socio-economic development. Photo credit: Getty + Instagram From Cosmopolitan Princess Sofia of Sweden is helping out at a local hospital during the coronavirus pandemic. She won't be tending to patients, but she will help with cleaning and cooking tasks. Following in the footsteps of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Princess Sofia of Sweden is doing her part to help people as the coronavirus pandemic continues. According to a People report, Sofia took part in a rigorous online training program in order to assist nurses on the frontlines at Sophiahemmet Hospital, where she also serves as an Honorary Chair member. In addition to Sofia stepping up to the plate, at least 80 people per week have signed up for the same training Sofia received to help the hospital's emergency efforts. Photo credit: Getty + Instagram While Sofia's helping out at Sophiahemmet Hospital for now, a spokeswoman from the hospital confirmed that Sofia will not have any direct interaction with patients. Instead, she'll help doctors and nurses with housekeeping tasks, such as working the kitchen, disinfecting medical equipment, and cleaning up every morning. The hospital has yet to see any confirmed cases of coronavirus, but the country as a whole has had 12,500 cases total. Here's a look at Sofia on her first day of work in blue and white scrubs, white sneakers, and a simple bun: Photo credit: JONAS EKSTROMER - Getty Images "In the crisis we find ourselves in, the Princess wants to get involved and make a contribution as a voluntary worker to relieve the large workload of health care professionals," the royal court said in a statement. On the royal Instagram account she shares with her husband, Prince Carl Philip, Sofia shared that she feels honored to help out. To have the opportunity to help in this difficult time is extremely rewarding, she wrote. You Might Also Like Britain could hold a minutes silence next week in honour of those NHS workers who have lost their lives fighting coronavirus. The symbolic gesture was originally floated by health unions Unison, the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives. Now Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden admits it could take place after labelling it a very good idea. The minutes silence would occur in addition to the weekly Clap for Our Carers, which has been running each Thursday since 26 March. And the public could pay their respect at 11am on 28 April, International Workers Memorial Day. Unison general secretary Dave Prentis insists it would be the ultimate tribute for those who have selflessly joined the fight against Covid-19. There have been 49 verified fatalities among NHS staff on the frontline, though the true total is thought to be considerably higher, with 16,509 deaths in the UK overall as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. Weve become used to hearing a great roar on a Thursday night for key workers but this respectful silence will be a poignant reminder of the risks they run to keep us safe, said Donna Kinnair, general secretary at the Royal College of Nursing. I hope the public gets behind this with the same affection they show when applauding our people. The public could go silent to honour fallen NHS workers next week (Getty) While Mr Prentis added: This is the ultimate tribute to remember workers whove lost their lives and put themselves in harms way to keep us safe and vital services running. Every year the sacrifice of workers around the world is recognised but this year has a special significance because of the pandemic. Thousands of key staff are on the frontline while the rest of us are in lockdown. Thats why weve issued this call for the whole country to take part and remember the sacrifices theyve made. The best tribute we can all pay them is to stay inside to protect the NHS. The minutes silence is a thank you to all the workers including nurses, midwives, cleaners and care staff whove died from this devastating virus. Mr Dowden said on Monday: As Culture Secretary, I have responsibility for ceremonials and things like minute-silences, and we are actively looking into that and think it is a good idea. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Esther Samboh (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 14:25 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd34bcf8 1 Business COVID-19,coronavirus,consumer-behaviour,lifestyle,psychology,survey,Kantar-Indonesia Free People around the world are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic differently. Some are anxious, others unperturbed. Some may find it difficult to get organized, while for others there is no option but for life to go on as normal. People find a sense of security and the freedom to socialize and leave the house the most difficult things to give up in their daily lives, according to market research firm Kantar Indonesia. The change in lifestyle has generally resulted in a three-stage emotional journey stemming from behavioral shifts, according to a Kantar Indonesia report titled COVID-19 Impact on Indonesian Attitudes & Behavior: Learning for Brands. How Indonesians are feeling on COVID-19. (JP/File) The first is a short-term stage marked by sudden disruption, along with lifestyle changes and a growing sense of a loss of freedom amid quarantine. This is followed by confusion and uncertainty, which is indicated by mental fatigue due to prolonged lockdown, the economic impact kicking in and thoughts about life and livelihoods arising. The third is the acceptance of the new normal, with long-term behavioral shifts and a new outlook on life. People take time to adjust to the new normal they have been presented with, which has a sudden impact on day-to-day behavior, the document explains. As the COVID-19 [situation] lasts, people increasingly worry about finances. They prepare to plan for the long term and let go of heavy spending occasions, it reads. With the acceptance of the new normal people will move toward a more long-term alignment, find new ways to manage life. Stages of consumers emotional journey during COVID-19 pandemic. (JP/File) Kantar Indonesias stages of emotional journey and feelings were created based on surveys on Indonesians psychological state amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with recent academic research into the impacts of COVID-19 on societys mental well-being. Psychology experts are warning of the pandemics profound and pervasive impact on global mental health as people around the world struggle to cope with isolated living and anxiety spikes. Read also: Pandemic shifts business landscape, strategy Based on a sample of 6,428 people, Kantar Indonesia measured Indonesians COVID-19 anxiety meter and found an exponential increase in anxiety over the novel coronavirus within two weeks in March. On March 25, 68 percent were concerned but said they knew what to do, while 10 percent were very concerned and dont know what to do. On March 13, the numbers had been at just 30 percent and 13 percent, respectively. We see that Indonesians are concerned but assured, Kantar Indonesia wrote. Indonesia and Malaysia are the only countries in the region that have maintained a net-positive sentiment in their social media chatter about COVID-19. Australian drug smuggler Cassie Sainsbury intends to become a translator after learning Spanish during her stint in a Colombian prison. The former personal trainer from Adelaide was arrested at El Dorado airport in April 2017 after 5.8 kilograms of cocaine was found packed in headphone boxes inside her suitcase. She was released early from her six-year sentence at El Buen Pastor women's prison in Bogota on April 17 due to concerns of overcrowding in prisons amid the coronavirus pandemic but must remain in Colombia. Cassandra Sainsbury (pictured), known as 'Cocaine Casse', hopes to work as translator after becoming fluent in Spanish while serving time in a Colombian prison Since starting parole, her former lawyer Orlando Herran said she was already looking forward to the future and finding employment. 'She wants to work and is in the process of getting the relevant paperwork, but as the offices are closed the process is difficult at the moment,' Mr Herran told news.com.au . 'As she speaks both languages she could work as an English teacher, translator, or something of the sort.' The 24-year-old must stay in Colombia for another 27 months as part of the terms of her early release, but can live a relatively normal life, with the only requirement being meetings with authorities once every six months. There are also restrictions in place that prohibit her from going to bars or venues that are deemed high risk. Mr Herron said her legal situation was complicated as she was not allowed to leave the country as terms of her parole, but had also been given an order to be expelled from the country when her sentence is completed. 'She cant currently travel as there are no flights, [but] there is a possibility that they change this [so she can leave the country],' he said. Sainsbury was arrested with 5.8 kilograms of cocaine (pictured) concealed in her luggage at Bogota's El Dorado International Airport in April 2017 The former personal trainer from Adelaide (pictured with her partner Joslianinyer Pico) will have to stay in Colombia for another 27 months as part of her parole conditions When she walked free, Sainsbury left behind her Venezuelan fiancee Joli Pico, 29, who is serving time for theft. She had been engaged to fellow Australian Scott Broadbridge at the time of her conviction but that relationship ended, and she found love with Pico behind bars. 'Honestly, it was the least thing that I expected to find in prison,' she told 60 Minutes in an interview on Sunday. 'Ive actually had experiences with women beforehand, but I guess I never pictured myself in a proper relationship with a woman. But here I am,' she said. It has been speculated the pair- who became engaged after a nine-month romance- would reunite on the outside, but a fellow inmate said Pico still has a long sentence to finish and Sainsbury would need to leave Colombia. During the interview, Sainsbury claimed she was raped by the drug mastermind called 'Angelo' who gave her the cocaine to smuggle in exchange for a $10,000 pay cheque. Although she has always maintained that she believed she would only be transporting documents, she said the sexual assault made her realise he would follow through on threats made on her family if she did not meet his requests to take drugs. 'He simply had the threat above me saying that if I didn't do what I was asked to do, that I was it was my family,' she said. James McAvoy has revealed the NHS saved his life after he underwent 'botched' surgery. The X-Men actor, 41, made the admission and expressed his eternal gratitude towards the NHS during an appearance on Tuesday's episode of Good Morning Britain, as he discussed donating 275,000 to the Masks For NHS Heroes campaign. Speaking about his mission to provide PPE equipment to NHS staff on the COVID-19 frontline, he said: 'The NHS has been there for me from the day I was born. Brave: James McAvoy has revealed the NHS saved his life after he underwent 'botched' surgery 'Throughout my life, me personally, they saved my life, which I won't go into too much. 'For the lives of my loved ones and my family, you know, I would be without multiple members of my family and I mean close, close family if it weren't for the work of the NHS. 'And as horrible as this experience is that we are all going through, it is teaching us just how important our welfare system is and our healthcare system is and how important it is that we respect, and that we reward and protect those who are in the business of protecting us.' When asked by Piers Morgan to elaborate on his near-death experience, the IT Chapter Two actor said: 'I think a lot of us are in that similar position In a less developed society random everyday things might kill us you can fall over and bang your head and you've got this beautiful thing called the NHS which will save your life. Support: The X-Men actor, 41, made the admission and expressed his eternal gratitude towards the NHS during an appearance on Tuesday's episode of Good Morning Britain, as he discussed donating 275,000 to the Masks For NHS Heroes campaign (above in a campaign video) 'You can have a little botched surgery, which is what happened to me, and the NHS is there to save your life. 'You quickly realise in a situation like this just how close we are to all of that falling apart, how delicate and how precious it is and how much we need to look after it going forward.' James also discussed the staggering success of the Masks For NHS Heroes campaign which was set up by a group of four doctors, and has raised almost 2million so far. Praise: He said: 'You can have a little botched surgery, which is what happened to me, and the NHS is there to save your life' Their mission is to 'purchase certified PPE to donate directly to the NHS front line and protect staff and patients'. On the battle to provide frontline NHS workers with PPE, he said: 'I honestly can't go into pointing fingers. But there is clearly a problem somewhere along the line whether it's a shortage of supplies or a problem in distribution. 'Either way, there is a failure there somewhere and what Masks For NHS Heroes is trying to do is trying to augment what is coming in from the government already. 'We are trying to help plug gaps and put fingers in dams and so far the British people, and people around the world, have been so incredible at responding to the appeal and we have made just under 2 million pounds so we are trying our best.' Vital: James also discussed the staggering success of the Masks For NHS Heroes campaign which was set up by a group of four doctors, and has raised almost 2million so far Last month James claimed that his generous 275k donation to the NHS was not simply to help buy supplies for staff - but to show how much they are valued and supported by the public during the coronavirus crisis. The star told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'One of the main reasons I wanted to give money, and why I upped the amount of money, was not just to get [Personal Protective Equipment] across there, which is so important, but secondarily I'd say it was more to show a sign of support to the frontline staff. 'I've heard that morale is incredibly low and they're feeling exposed and vulnerable and like they haven't been supported properly. 'I think we've got to protect those incredible doctors and surgeons and porters and the lady that fills the vending machine at the hospital, and we've got to protect all of those people by staying indoors, we've got to protect all of those people by social distancing and by taking it seriously, and I think people are starting to take it more seriously. Generous: James, who last year starred in the likes of Glass and IT: Chapter Two, has helped to buy the likes of masks, visors and gloves for hospitals after the medics launched the crowdfunding page on Thursday 'They've got to protect their families, and I just wanted to help start a conversation that says to the NHS, we value you so much.' James added that he has a personal sense of value toward the NHS, explaining: 'They've saved my life and the lives of my family multiple times, and they probably will be doing it at some point in the near future again, so please please please know we value you.' James, who last year starred in the likes of Glass and IT: Chapter Two, has helped to buy the likes of masks, visors and gloves for hospitals after the medics launched the crowdfunding page last month claiming that they were 'going to war without armour'. The campaign's target was initially 200,000 and it has already surpassed this, currently standing at 1.9million with a new goal of 3million. James said on Instagram: 'Money donated today will save lives Help us to help the government to help the NHS.' The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board on Monday reopened its special order program in a limited capacity four days after two wine distributors sued the board over their inability to ship wines directly to retailers and restaurants. The PLCB quietly posted a notice on its website Monday morning announcing that it would allow holders of wine expanded permits to place special orders beginning Wednesday, and they can begin picking up the orders Friday at 14 designated locations across the state by appointment-only. Distributors, including MFW Wine Co. that filed the lawsuit, had been unable to complete special orders since March 16 because the state stores shut down and special orders are routed through those stores. With the stores shuttered, there was no way for licensees to pick up their orders, even though they and wine distributors both were considered essential businesses on the governors list. While the move to resume special orders is a step in the right direction, said Jason Malumed, of MFW Wine, the action doesnt address the key components of the lawsuit, which will continue to move forward. Instead of solving issues raised in the lawsuit, Malumed said, the move highlights the severe limitations of the program. An initial status hearing with the court was set for Tuesday and the trial is set for April 28, he said. A6 Wine Co. is the other party in the lawsuit. The PLCB didnt notify him or other distributors of the change announced Monday, he said. He doesnt know the location of the stores where licensees can pick up the orders. Mondays announcement simply listed 14 municipalities in 14 different counties. Either way, because of the month-long pent-up demand, he said everyone eligible is going to be trying to place orders and pick them up this week. Its going to be a mad house, he said. Itll probably end up causing more uproar. We should be able to direct deliver to our licensees instead of scheduling an appointment and getting another set of hands, a possible vector of disease, on everything in the middle of a pandemic. The way it works, distributors such as MFW sell products to licensees (restaurants, bottle shops selling wine-to-go, etc.) entirely through the PLCBs special order system. The orders are of products not carried by PLCB. Previously, all of those orders would be delivered to one of the PLCBs stores, where the licensee would go to pick them up. That said, the distributors have had the legal right to directly deliver orders to licensees since 2017. But the PLCB hasnt taken action to make that happen, according to the lawsuit. Thats the main contention in the lawsuit, Malumed said, and its come to a head because if this direct-delivery system was put in place as intended in 2017, then he said the closing of the physical stores across Pa. this year for the pandemic would not be adversely impacting distributors and licensees like it is. Instead, he said the distributors could be directly shipping the products like they have wanted to for years. Elizabeth Brassell, spokeswoman for PLCB, said she could not comment on the allegations in the lawsuit. We will respond through appropriate legal channels, however we wont comment publicly on active litigation, she said. Brassell said PLCB has been working for the last few weeks to bring the resumption of Special Order to life, as we also developed and introduced new solutions for accepting and fulfilling record numbers of e-commerce orders and establishing a curbside pickup program during these uniquely challenging times. Malumed said direct shipping would save money for residents who buy these products, licensees such as restaurants and grocers and distributors, because the PLCB could no longer slap on their fee of about $1.75 per bottle for their overhead costs. The fee for these special orders, which are pre-ordered and pre-sold by distributors, is the same as for products that the PLCB sells in its stores. The difference, Malumed said, is that there is no real overhead cost to PLCB for special orders. The PLCB has insisted on inserting itself in each transaction between distributors and licensees, but that involvement is not necessary, he said. This is all for products that PLCB is barely touching, he said. They receive the products, scan them and put them in a pile for us. They are doing very little work. Under Pa. law, the PLCB cannot assess this markup for direct deliveries. Instead, distributors would continue to pay the standard markup of 10 percent, an emergency tax of 18 percent, a rounding-up factor and local municipal sales tax. But not the PLCBs overhead fee on top of those other assessments. The extra costs and restrictions in Pa., are a massive disadvantage for restaurants and licensees, in the Commonwealth compared to other states, Malumed said. The situation right now highlights the fact that PLCB should not be involved in wholesale transactions, which is why were bringing the lawsuit Malumed said. Because of the states sovereign immunity, the wine distributors are not guaranteed that they could recoup their legal fees if they prevail. They could, however, ask for damages and use any damage award to pay legal fees. The law says we are allowed to deliver directly to customers, Malumed said. A customer could be a licensee, or a regular consumer is also allowed to buy Special Order products. Now, instead of having to go to a store, we could literally ship our product directly to consumers, making it much easier on them. As it stands, the PLCB only is allowing for direct-delivery of a minimum purchase of 50 cases, and only of state-listed items, the lawsuit said. And which businesses can handle that big of a purchase? Almost exclusively large grocery chains, the petition noted, adding that this is patently unfair to the thousands of smaller, legal license-holders who simply cannot purchase in such quantity and is in direct violation of Act 39." Jill Weber is proprietor of the Jet Wine Bar, 1525 South St, , in Philadelphia. Jill Weber, the proprietor of Jet Wine Bar at 1525 South St. in downtown Philadelphia told PennLive recently that so many of the citys wine extended permit-holdersplaces such as Di Bruno Bros, Tria, Bistro Romano, Fishtown Social are struggling to get the variety of wines into their shops that they are used to selling. So if you cant do a 50-case minimum, or can [get] but dont want state-listed, you have to do limited wineries," she said. "We can get Pennsylvania wine and a few other direct-shipment. But, we will all have the exact same selection in another week or so. Malumed said the lawsuit has been entirely supported and funded by members of the trade. If the public is interested in getting involved, they set up a GoFundMe to help cover some of the legal fees. READ: No curbside booze pickups Monday, but new details released about limits of phone-order program Female NHS staff are putting themselves at risk due to not being able to access correctly sized protective gear during the coronavirus emergency, doctors warned. The British Medical Association, the professional organisation for doctors, hit out at the fact personal protective equipment (PPE) tends to be designed for the size and shape of male bodies, despite the fact that 75 per cent of NHS workers are women. Its warning comes as the government faces mounting criticism over the drastic shortage of PPE which includes essential items such as hand sanitiser, gloves, visors, aprons, and face masks that is placing frontline health workers at risk of contracting the potentially deadly virus. Dr Helen Fidler, who is deputy chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) UK Consultants Committee and a member of the BMA Council, told The Independent: It is vital that to keep staff in clinical environments safe they have an adequate supply of PPE and that it fits correctly. However, we are aware that in the current crisis, female doctors and other NHS staff are having issues with filtering face-piece (FFP) masks and other PPE not being available in smaller sizes as they tend to be designed to the size and shape of male bodies. Dr Fidler, who is a consultant gastroenterologist at Lewisham and Greenwich Trust, added: This is in spite of the fact that 75 per cent of NHS workers are women. Correctly fitted PPE is essential for the protection of staff and patients, and smaller sizes need to be made available urgently. There have been 49 confirmed deaths of NHS staff since the coronavirus crisis started, but the actual figure is expected to be substantially larger. Rose Gallagher, professional lead for infection prevention and control at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: One-size-fits-all protective equipment has been a problem for frontline healthcare workers who have to wear this specialist life-saving equipment for up to 12 hours at a time. Nurses can find it very difficult to deliver care to patients if this equipment is so uncomfortable it bruises the skin and makes them feel hot and unwell. Nurses wearing PPE need adequate breaks to rest and rehydrate, which requires them to remove and then replace the personal protective equipment. However, many nurses are expected to work without adequate PPE or to use PPE that has not been produced to meet the required safety standards. Nurses are now also being asked to reuse what has up to now been single-use equipment, which is completely unacceptable. Ministers must get a grip on this issue and ensure that no nurse is needlessly put in danger by a lack of masks, eye protection or gowns. The nursing sector is predominantly made up of women, with nine out of 10 nurses in the UK being female. Frances OGrady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said: Every day, frontline workers are being forced to risk their lives because they dont have the proper protective equipment to do their jobs safely. With women making up nearly eight in 10 of the NHS workforce, its a disgrace we dont have protective uniforms in womens sizes. Our workers deserve better. A nurse in an intensive care unit in Scotland hit out at the dearth of protective gear that fits women in a message shared by her friend on Twitter earlier in the month. The nurse said: PPE, which myself and my colleagues are wearing for all of my 12.5 hour shift, with only 2 30 min breaks to eat, drink and pee, plus the time we are working without being paid, is designed and made to fit men. The majority of nurses are female. Our PPE is therefore tightened to fit us and believe me its uncomfortable enough before that. This is everyday sexism and its an absolute horror show already. But females deserve PPE which is designed for smaller faces. The president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists told The Independent doctors should not be looking after patients amid the Covid-19 crisis if they do not have protective gear. A poll of more than 6,000 doctors across the UK by the BMA found a substantial proportion are working without PPE, while a study by the RCN discovered half of nurses have felt pressure to work despite not having suitable protective gear. British 'ISIS rapper' Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary snuck into Spain by boat after posing as an undocumented migrant, it was claimed last night. Spanish state broadcaster TVE said the jihadi reached the city of Almeria in a patera, the wooden boats Africans traditionally use to reach Europe from as far afield as Senegal. It said Bary had reached Spain 'a few days ago.' Another unconfirmed report on Tuesday night in national Spanish newspaper La Razon claimed he was intending to return to the UK as soon as possible. Police have said they are aware of the way Bary reached Spain and confirmed he came from North Africa - but have not yet admitted he arrived in a 'patera.' British terrorist Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary (pictured) is reported to be the 'foreign terrorist fighter' detained by Spanish anti-terror police in a raid in Almeria Abdel Bary is thought to have been arrested after a raid in the early hours of Monday in an an area of Almeria called Cerro de San Cristobal They revealed they had arrested one of Europe's most wanted Foreign Terrorist Fighters earlier on Tuesday along with two other men they were trying to identify. Bary, who shared sickening social media images of himself holding a decapitated head in Syria in 2014, will appear before a Madrid judge on Wednesday in a closed hearing. He was held during a dawn raid on Monday by heavily-armed cops. The anti-terror officers led him out of his hideaway in Almeria city centre with a jacket over his head. The 29-year-old was once a key suspect in the hunt for the man dubbed Jihadi John filmed putting a knife to American journalist James Foley's throat before boasting of having carried out his beheading. The executioner was subsequently named as Londoner Mohammed Emwazi in February 2015. After joining ISIS, Abdel Bary issued threats against the West and even posted a picture of himself holding the severed head of a Syrian solder A spokesman for Spain's National Police confirmed Tuesday, referring to ISIS by its acronym Daesh: 'National Police officers have developed a counter-terrorism operation which has culminated in the arrest in Almeria of one of the most wanted Daesh Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Europe. 'Another two people have been arrested and the authorities are currently working to establish their identity and their relationship with the other man.' Revealing all three had recently entered Spain from North Africa illegally, the National Police said in a statement: 'The detainees adapted their behaviour to Spain's Covid-19 State of Emergency, going outside very little, separately and always with face masks on to avoid being detected.' Bary was not named in the statement put out by Spanish authorities, who described the main suspect as being of Egyptian origin. Well-placed police subsequently confirmed the 'dangerous' Foreign Terrorist Fighter they had arrested was Bary. He was born in Egypt but moved to the UK as a six-year-old after his dad was released from prison and applied for political asylum with his wife and family. Before leaving for Syria in 2013 he made a name for himself as a rapper and some of his music was played on Radio 1. Police sources said Tuesday that British-Egyptian jihadist Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary was the 'foreign terrorist fighter' detained in a raid in Almeria on Monday. Authorities described him as 'one of Europe's most wanted terrorist fighters' with an 'extremely violent criminal profile' and a 'criminal record in the ranks of ISIS'. Police said Abdel Bary and two others had been hiding at an apartment in Almeria after sneaking into Spain from North Africa and using the coronavirus pandemic as cover to keep a low profile. Abdel Bary and the two others were arrested in a raid in the early hours of Monday in an area of Almeria called Cerro de San Cristobal. Police said that their agents had conducted an 'anti-terrorist operation' that 'culminated in the arrest of one of the most wanted Daesh foreign terrorist fighters in Europe', using an alternative name for ISIS. The official statement did not name the man arrested but police sources and Spanish media have identified him as Abdel Bary. 'Another two people have been arrested and the authorities are currently working to establish their identity and their relationship with the other man,' police said. Authorities said they had pounced after gathering intelligence that the fighter intended to return to Europe via Spain and may be hiding in the country. 'Various lines of investigation were activated to find out his possible clandestine arrival in Spain and locate the chosen place to hide,' police explained. 'After a complex investigation it was possible to determine the circumstances of his arrival on the Almeria coast, as well as his subsequent movements, finally achieving his location and arrest. 'Those arrested adopted iron-clad security measures, both in their journey from North Africa to our territory and in the movements they made in Almeria. 'The detainees, already in Spain, adapted their behaviour to the state of emergency [in place] as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, making few exits, separately, and always with masks to avoid being detected.' Police said Abdel Bary 'had spent several years in the Syrian-Iraqi conflict zone and has both very peculiar personality traits and an extremely violent criminal profile, which caught the attention of the European police and intelligence services'. In 2013 Abdel Bary (pictured) travelled to Syria to fight with ISIS, becoming one of the earliest foreign fighters to join the terror group Abdel Bary, a British-Egyptian former rapper from Maida Vale in London, is the son of Adel Abdel Bari who helped to kill more than 200 people in Islamist bombings in Africa in the 1990s. The younger Abdel Bary was born in Egypt but moved to the UK as a six-year-old after his father was released from prison and was granted political asylum. Before Abdel Bary left London he was an ambitious rapper known as Lyricist Jinn and L Jinny whose tracks were played on BBC radio stations. Friends later described how he had converted to radical Islam after growing angry with British authorities over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2013 he travelled to Syria to fight with ISIS, becoming one of the earliest foreign fighters to join the terror group. Abdel Bary issued threats against the West and even posted a picture of himself holding the severed head of a Syrian solder. He initially emerged as a suspect in the hunt for Jihadi John, who carried out the beheadings of ISIS prisoners including journalist James Foley. Jihadi John was eventually revealed to be Londoner Mohammed Emwazi, one of a gang of terrorists who were known as the 'Beatles' because of their British accents. Abdel Bary (pictured) was born in Egypt but moved to the UK as a six-year-old after his father was released from prison and was granted political asylum Spanish police released this footage of three suspects being arrested after they were discovered at an apartment in Almeria By 2015, Abdel Bary had apparently become disillusioned with ISIS and was being hunted in Turkey after fleeing Syria. The same year his father was jailed in the United States for his role in the 1998 al-Qaeda-linked embassy bombings in Nairobi and Tanzania. In October 2015, Abdel Bary junior tried to have a Spanish woman flown to Turkey to join him as his bride, but the plan was thwarted by Spanish authorities. Maria de los Angeles Cala Marquez, from Huelva, was jailed for two years in June 2018 after admitting trying to travel to Turkey to meet up with Bary and help him return to Europe. The former hotel chamber maid was arrested when she tried to board a flight to Istanbul and travel to a secret location where Bary was on the run from western intelligence services. According to the prosecution indictment, Cala Marquez admitted she had intended to travel to Syria to marry Abdel Bary. The young woman had arranged her trip to Syria via Turkey and had contacted several intermediaries online to help to provide her a safe path to ISIS territory. But the plot was foiled by Spain's Guardia Civil paramilitary police who captured her at Madrid Airport in October 2015. Coronavirus update: 27 journalists of a Tamil news channel have been tested positive today after getting in contact with a colleague, who tested positive on Sunday. Coronavirus update: Twenty seven journalists working for a Tamil news channel has been tested coronavirus positive today after getting in contact with their colleague tested positive on Sunday. Reports reveal that the infected colleague, who is 24-year-old, works as a sub-editor and got infected from his father, who works as a sub-inspector. In all, 94 samples were taken from the organization and 27 resulted positive. Though all the results from the samples taken are not yet out, all the contacts of all these 27 journalists including their family members have been quarantined. Moreover, the office of the channel has also been sealed. Further, on April 19, another reporter working for a Tamil daily also tested COVID-19 positive and was immediately quarantined with his personal contacts and the ones living with him. The reporter also attended a press meeting and all the journalists who were a part of the meet will also get tested. Moreover, there are also reports of 53 journalists from Mumbai tested COVID-19 positive. Further samples of 167 journalists were also taken. Meanwhile, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is making sure to conduct these tests in camps for all the working journalists. Also Read: Coronavirus India: 25 families in Rashtrapati Bhavan asked to self-isolate after an employees relative tests positive Journalists including me waiting for Corona test in Chennai after 3 journos in the city test positive. pic.twitter.com/iJaR2rxrYm J Sam Daniel Stalin (@jsamdaniel) April 20, 2020 Talking about Tamil Nadu, the state has recorded total 1,520 cases with 457 cured from the virus and 17 deaths. As per health Minister Satyendar Jain, 78 more cases have been reported from the national capital of the country in the last few hours, taking the total number of cases in Delhi to 2,081 with 47 deaths. Total number of coronavirus cases in India has reached 18,601 with the death toll at 590. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Since the Constitutional court decriminalised the use of cannabis in the home in September 2018, many have had a huge shift in their attitude towards the plant. More people than you think are embracing this new dawn. Lets light upCypress Hill once sang (quoting Genesis 1:12) on the track Legalise it from the seminal album Black Sunday I have given you all the seed-bearing plants on earth to use. But the many so-called Christian countries subscribing to the Bible South Africa included didnt see it that way.I remember as a teen (and I know Im not alone), the stern lectures from my parents about the horrors of the gateway drug that was Cannabis/Marijuana/Ganja/etc. If I saw anyone smoking the weed, I could be certain they would land up in prison for a few years. After that, they would suffer a life-long torment of addiction to class-A drugs and live on the streets.Two decades later and the lessons I was to have learned have been turned on their head: instead of users and sellers going to prison, this plant could land up being the business and health industry injection that South Africa needs so desperately.There is an important distinction between legalisation and decriminalisation. While we live under the current ruling (decriminalisation), it is still possible for police to arrest if they see fit, with no clear guidelines. And selling cannabis is still an illegal pursuit. Legalisation would provide clear legislation keeping everyone safe.Despite its illegality, activist and weedtrepreneur (yes, its a word) Tyrone Platt is bringing a professional approach to the fledgling industry, in as much as is possible under the conditions under which he works. He speaks of the incredible business opportunities, as well as the friends and community, he has found in the world of cannabis. The abiding tale that people tell of the cannabis world is of positivity, community, health improvement and economic freedom.Consumers, too, also still fear prosecution regardless of the decriminalised status of the plant. What really stood out during conversations with several, was that their main focus was not getting stoned but rather their appreciation for the community that cannabis creates.Quanita Booley, aka That Kin Connie, is an activist and enthusiast who began her crusade just two years ago and has become a force to be reckoned with. Her involvement with The Global Cannabis March held this year in Cape Town showed the sheer numbers of people who are still to this day fighting for their right to embrace the plant fully.Last year, the second Cannabis Expo was held in Sandton, and as a child of the 80s, this is certainly something to be amazed by. The director of the Cannabis Expo, Silas Howarth, expressed incredible joy at the diversity and democratisation in the industry. People from all walks of life are getting involved, helping each other and helping themselves. What they all seem to know is the immense capacity for economic growth in South Africa.As we discovered in our research, people from Africa consume almost double the amount of cannabis than those in other countries do. Africa has the land, the capacity and the desire to supply the globe, with the chance of pulling many nations out of the poverty zone and in franchising many with the opportunity for small scale farming.People like Jeremy Acton, leader of Iqula Lentsango: The Dagga Party of South Africa has been fighting for decades for legalisation, and firmly believes in the economic and ecological possibilities for the plant.This plant is essential to a sustainable future as the global economy depletes the planet's non-renewable resources (oil, metals, soil, etc). Legal cannabis production could allow everyone to participate equitably as producers in an economy and not just be consumers. This plant is our future, he said.Not everyone will agree that cannabis should be legalised. However, we cannot ignore the existence of the culture, that it is immense and that it is going nowhere but forward. PHILADELPHIA Federal authorities are seeking partnerships with health care institutions in the region to stop coronavirus-related fraud schemes. U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain sent a letter to hospital leaders asking for their assistance in identifying those suspected of perpetrating coronavirus-related crimes and urged them to report suspicious conduct to his office. McSwain said federal authorities stand ready to investigate and prosecute those who seek to exploit the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for their financial benefit. McSwain identified several types of coronavirus-related crimes, including hoarding and price gouging of critical medical supplies and advertising or selling of fake or non-existent medical equipment for phony cures. Criminals are seeking to take advantage of the pandemic by perpetrating frauds, hoarding vital medical supplies, or engaging in price gouging. If left unchecked, these bad actors can inhibit hospitals, physicians, and other health care professionals, as well as governmental agencies and the public, from successfully saving lives and mitigating the spread of the virus, McSwain wrote in the letter dated April 16. For health care institutions, illegal hoarding and price gouging of health and medical supplies is of critical concern, McSwain said. The letter identified the health and medical supplies that the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services has designated as scarce under the Defense Production Act, and advised that hoarding or selling the supplies at exorbitant prices will trigger criminal penalties and civil enforcement remedies. The letter identified more than a dozen critical health and medical supplies covered by the Defense Production Act, including: N-95 and other filtering face piece respirators; portable ventilators; personal protective equipment such as Tyvek suits, face masks, surgical masks, surgical gloves and face shields; medical or surgical gowns; drug products with active ingredient chloroquine phosphate or hydroxychloroquine HCl; and disinfecting devices intended to kill pathogens and other kinds of microorganisms by chemical means or physical means, and other sanitizing and disinfecting products suitable for use in a clinical setting. McSwain encouraged hospital employees to report any coronavirus-related suspicious activity or fraud schemes to his office and to the national hotline at The National Center for Disaster fraud at 1-866-720-5721 or at disaster@leo.gov. We are all extremely grateful for the vital work these health care professionals are performing on a daily basis. I look forward to collaborating with area health care systems and hospitals to protect the community and enforce the laws of the United States during this time of national emergency, McSwain said. This article is written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll apply a basic P/E ratio analysis to Chongqing Machinery & Electric Co., Ltd.'s (HKG:2722), to help you decide if the stock is worth further research. Chongqing Machinery & Electric has a P/E ratio of 8.73, based on the last twelve months. That means that at current prices, buyers pay HK$8.73 for every HK$1 in trailing yearly profits. Check out our latest analysis for Chongqing Machinery & Electric How Do You Calculate A P/E Ratio? The formula for price to earnings is: Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share (in the reporting currency) Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Chongqing Machinery & Electric: P/E of 8.73 = CN0.438 CN0.050 (Based on the year to December 2019.) (Note: the above calculation uses the share price in the reporting currency, namely CNY and the calculation results may not be precise due to rounding.) Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good? A higher P/E ratio means that investors are paying a higher price for each CN1 of company earnings. That isn't a good or a bad thing on its own, but a high P/E means that buyers have a higher opinion of the business's prospects, relative to stocks with a lower P/E. How Does Chongqing Machinery & Electric's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers? One good way to get a quick read on what market participants expect of a company is to look at its P/E ratio. The image below shows that Chongqing Machinery & Electric has a higher P/E than the average (5.3) P/E for companies in the industrials industry. SEHK:2722 Price Estimation Relative to Market April 21st 2020 Its relatively high P/E ratio indicates that Chongqing Machinery & Electric shareholders think it will perform better than other companies in its industry classification. Clearly the market expects growth, but it isn't guaranteed. So investors should always consider the P/E ratio alongside other factors, such as whether company directors have been buying shares. Story continues How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios When earnings fall, the 'E' decreases, over time. Therefore, even if you pay a low multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become higher in the future. Then, a higher P/E might scare off shareholders, pushing the share price down. Chongqing Machinery & Electric saw earnings per share decrease by 58% last year. And over the longer term (5 years) earnings per share have decreased 18% annually. This growth rate might warrant a below average P/E ratio. Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. Thus, the metric does not reflect cash or debt held by the company. Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings. Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio. So What Does Chongqing Machinery & Electric's Balance Sheet Tell Us? Net debt totals 60% of Chongqing Machinery & Electric's market cap. This is a reasonably significant level of debt -- all else being equal you'd expect a much lower P/E than if it had net cash. The Bottom Line On Chongqing Machinery & Electric's P/E Ratio Chongqing Machinery & Electric's P/E is 8.7 which is below average (9.6) in the HK market. Given meaningful debt, and a lack of recent growth, the market looks to be extrapolating this recent performance; reflecting low expectations for the future. Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine. Although we don't have analyst forecasts you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow. But note: Chongqing Machinery & Electric may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20). 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. Covid-19 has brought about extraordinary changes to the way we live our lives, even if it's pretty much business as usual on most farms. It's impossible to escape the pandemic's effects. Even if no-one you know has been directly affected by the virus, there is much uncertainty surrounding agriculture. The constant stream of bad news is dragging many of us down, but you have to try not to let it affect your farm business. And if you have been pretty much pretending it's not happening, you can't ignore the reality that there are potentially severe consequences the pandemic will have on your livelihood. Here are 10 crisis management tips to help farmers get through this: 1. Deal with issues under your control It seems pretty obvious but the number one tip is to deal with what you can control. There is no point wasting energy worrying about prices, bank repayments, and potential outcomes of the crisis - the reality is that nobody really knows. Food will certainly be required to feed the world, so continue to farm as normal and don't make any drastic decisions which will affect the future of your business. 2. Plan, plan, plan Take some time and make a plan to cover any hurdles. If livestock cannot be sold and must be retained on-farm longer, then plan for it by increasing fertiliser, buying more feed or renting more land. If the milk processor has difficulty collecting or processing milk at peak, then a new feed regime or milking once a day are options to consider. Whatever the challenge, make a plan for what you can control. 3. It will end There is peace of mind in knowing that this crisis will end, just like all other crises. 4. Ask for help If you feel overwhelmed or the virus has visited your family or farm business, please ask for help. Irish people are great to pull together in times of need to help each other. There has been a great 'pulling on of the green jersey' for the cause. Identify those who can and are willing to help you, but again don't be afraid to ask for help. 5. It's only money Health is wealth, so the first priority must be to keep yourself, your friends and families safe from the virus. Respect the HSE guidelines and act as if you have the virus, to protect others around you. If profitability does drop, remember its only money and there is always a solution to money issues. 6. We will always have enough food and shelter After health, food is the next priority for survival. Irish people will never run short of food thanks to our farmers, who produce enough food to feed nearly 50 million people. Fill the freezer and let others do the panic buying. 7. Don't procrastinate - make decisions There are three options for every question: a) decide yes b) decide no or c) procrastinate or sit on the fence. Option c is not good for your mental health. Be brave and make decisions and don't procrastinate. 8. No time for cute-hoorism There are always those who see a way around the rules or spot an opportunity for opportunism. This is no time for cute-hoorism; make decisions for the common good as well as your own. 9. Use the lessons to effect change Winston Churchill famously said "never let a good crisis go to waste". There will be valuable lessons to be learned for all of us and our businesses from this crisis. Whether it is less travel, eating home-grown produce or supporting local businesses, learn from the change and use it to take your take your farm business to the next level when the crisis ends. 10. Plan the celebration for when it ends Plan a big celebration for you and your family when this crisis is over. Social distancing, self-isolation and quarantine are challenging practices for human beings; there will be cabin fever, stress and tension, but it always helps to have something to look forward to. Farmers are robust and resilient characters - they are well experienced at dealing with crises at farm level and in the wider agricultural industry. Farmers now have an opportunity use these crisis-management skills and stand out from the crowd in the fight against Covid-19. The South Korean government says it is investigating reports that North Koreas Kim Jong-un is in a fragile condition after undergoing an unspecified surgical operation. Officials from the South Korean intelligence services said they were looking into a CNN report that said the Norths leader was in grave danger, citing unnamed US intelligence sources. An earlier report by Seoul-based news outlet Daily NK said Mr Kim was staying at a countryside villa outside Pyongyang while he recovered from heart surgery, and that his condition was improving. The Souths Unification Ministry, which handles affairs relating to North Korea, said it could not confirm either report but was investigating the matter. However, a government source said that South Korea was yet to see any unusual signs coming from the North regarding Mr Kims health condition. They added that the Norths leader appeared to be handling state affairs as usual and that it had no information about rumours regarding his health. According to the Norths official news agency, the ruler presided over a meeting on 11 April, in which he discussed coronavirus prevention. Kang Min-seok, a spokesperson for South Koreas presidential Blue House, told reporters: We have no information to confirm regarding rumours about Chairman Kim Jong Uns health issue that have been reported by some media outlets. Also, no unusual developments have been detected inside North Korea. And the Reuters news agency quoted a Chinese intelligence source as saying he did not believe Mr Kim was critically ill. Neither Chinese nor South Korean officials denied reports Mr Kim had undergone surgery, however. Speculation about the state of Mr Kims health has grown since he was conspicuously absent from events on 15 April commemorating the birth of his grandfather Kim Il-sung, the founder of the nation. The date is a national holiday and one of the most important in the North Korean calendar. Dozens of top officials attended a flamboyant military parade at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, Kim Il-sungs mausoleum, but Mr Kim was nowhere to be seen. It is notoriously difficult to glean information about the closed-off country or its dictatorial leader other than what little is proclaimed by the Norths state media. Mr Kims movements were last reported in KCNA, the countrys official news agency, on 11 April, when he chaired a meeting of the ruling partys politburo. His absence from the 15 April events led to speculation at the time that he might be attempting to distance his own rule from the legacy of his grandfather or perhaps that he had been struck down with coronavirus. North Korea has officially declared zero Covid-19 cases, a claim met with scepticism by experts. Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un rides a horse during snowfall in Mount Paektu in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on 16 October 2019 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un visits the newly built Pyongyang Orphans' Primary School on 2 February 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a women's company under Unit 5492 of the Korean People's Army in November 2019 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects the test-fire of intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 at an undisclosed location in July 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un celebrates the successful test-fire of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 at an undisclosed location in July 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a potato at the Samjiyon Potato Factory in North Korea in October 2018 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un rides a horse through a forest in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on 16 October 2019 EPA Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a block of frozen fish at a processing facility in North Korea in November 2018 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un celebrates the succeful launch of a strategic submarine-launched ballistic missile in August 2016 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un shakes hands with Donald Trump as they meet for the first time at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore in June 2018 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump share a glance as they meet in the Demilitarised Zone in Panmunjon, Korea in June 2019 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects mushrooms at Pyongyang Mushroom Farm AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a super-large multiple rocket launcher ahead of a test in September 2019 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects an apple farm in South Hwanghae Province in September 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects an apple farm in South Hwanghae Province in September 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects dental wares at a newly built factory in June 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un visits Farm No 1116 in September 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un visits a motor factory in November 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un rides a horse during snowfall in Mount Paektu in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on 16 October 2019 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects the Command of the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army at an undisclosed location in August 2017 AFP/Getty It is not the first time Mr Kims health has been a matter of speculation. In 2014, he disappeared from the public eye for more than a month and then was pictured using a cane on his return. South Koreas spy agency said he had undergone an operation to remove a cyst from his foot. Duyeon Kim, a North Korea expert at Crisis Group, noted that Mr Kim wasnt the first North Korean leader to be subject to such reports. Weve been here with his father and grandfather and were wrong too many times before, she said. Its easy to speculate. In one case, it began as a gesture of goodwill from one woman to her neighbors. Now the idea of bringing donuts or pizzas directly to a group of neighbors during the coronavirus pandemic is gathering steam in Central New York. Glazed & Confused donut shop in Syracuse and Toss 'n Fire Pizza of North Syracuse are each using their food trucks to deliver a communal but distanced food experience in local neighborhoods. If enough people in one area sign up for a specific time period, the trucks will deliver for the closest thing to a neighborhood gathering youll find during this time of stay-at-home mandates. All required precautions still apply. Its so great to see the smiles especially the kids looking out through the windows when we drive up, said Glazed & Confused owner Paul Valenti. Glazed & Confused, at 211 N. Clinton St. in downtown Syracuse, got the idea a few weeks ago when a woman in Cicero placed an order for donut deliveries to dozens of her neighbors. She just wanted to do something nice for her neighbors but didnt want anyone to know it was her," Valenti said. So she made the orders, gave us the addresses and we left the boxes on the doorsteps, rang the bell and left. Then people got this nice surprise waiting for them. After posting about it on social media and getting a positive response, Glazed & Confused hatched the idea of offering the service to other neighborhoods. In most of these cases, however, each household places its own advance order for a specific two-hour time frame. Usually its one lady or gentleman in a neighborhood who rallies everyone together, Valenti said. But it all happens during the same time so it gives people a sense of having a community experience, even if theyre still stuck in their own homes. The idea is similar at Toss n Fire, where owner Nick Sanford calls it Pizza Truck Driveway Service. One person in the neighborhood "hosts' the truck on an off-street driveway. Then neighbors can call in advance and arrange pickup during that specific two-hour period while observing social distancing during the process. Toss 'n Fire is currently offering the service up to 20 miles from its brick-and mortar shop at 315 N. Main St. (Route 11) in North Syracuse. It does ask for a minimum order of 60 10-inch pizzas. People have been super enthusiastic about it, said Sanford, who launched the first driveway event last week in Camillus. Hes doing it now a couple of times a week, and is booking several weeks ahead. Though its tempting to call it a neighborhood pizza party, Sanford stresses the need for people to take the appropriate precautions. We space out the pick-up time when you order, he said. People may be able to wave at their neighbors when they pick up, but they do have to take it back home. Still, he said, it offers a sense of community. "People do get the idea that this is something that a particular neighborhood can do together,'' he said. Toss 'n Fire and Glazed 'n Confused are even working on plans for a joint pizza-and-donuts event in specific neighborhoods in the near future. (Both shops are also still open for pick-up). Glazed & Confused can do its neighborhood deliveries up to twice a day, Valenti said. The truck was in Radisson this morning and is scheduled to hit East Syracuse tomorrow morning and Camillus tomorrow afternoon. The deliveries have been helping Glazed & Confused showcase its donuts to people who might not otherwise have visited the shop. I think something like 60 percent of the people in some neighborhoods hadnt even heard of us before, Valenti said. While overall business is less than normal," the deliveries have helped Glazed & Confused avoid layoffs and even add a driver in recent weeks. Its worked out so well that Valenti is thinking of continuing the concept even after the pandemic ends and things get back to normal. Maybe we can do it on Saturdays, he said. We could start having a weekly neighborhood donut drop when this is all over. RELATED Updated list of CNY restaurants offering pickup or delivery Syracuse restaurant finds its niche helps it stay open, aid others MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Wegmans, Tops, others want shoppers to wear masks, but wont ban people who dont 5 die of coronavirus at CNY nursing homes, adult care facilities Coronavirus: How we might restart the CNY economy while keeping the virus at bay Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook. Weather Alert ...Gusty Winds on Lake Champlain and along the Lake Shore... Gusty winds are occurring on Lake Champlain this morning with speeds in excess of 50 mph being measured at Colchester Reef and will continue through mid morning. These winds are likely occurring along the Champlain islands as well as the adjacent lake shore of Vermont and could result in some damage to trees or isolated power outages. - President Akufo-Addo has announced a freeze on payment of a $500 million debt and its interest by the World Bank - He explained that the move was spearheaded by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and his South-African counterpart, Tito Mboweni - The call for debt relief forms part of a plan to make the Ghanaian economy more resilient Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in The World Bank has frozen repayment of some $500 million Ghana owes, as well as interest accrued on it, for the rest of the year 2020. As part of his seventh update to Ghanaians on Ghanas plan of action in combating the coronavirus, President Akufo-Addo revealed that the move forms part of a broader pan-African effort for debt relief. He explained that this is due to the negative impact of the coronavirus on economies in Africa. READ ALSO: IMF extends time for debt payment for 25 poor countries According to the president, African finance ministers, led by Ken Ofori-Atta of Ghana and his South African counterpart, Tito Mboweni, achieved a nine-month debt standstill from the World Bank. This is for the benefit of all member countries that qualify for such a package and are part of the International Development Association (IDA) and starts from Friday, May 1, 2020. President Akufo-Addo explained that the amount involved is $44 billion and it is likely to create a greater fiscal space to help make the Ghanaian economy much more resilient. Praising Ofori-Atta for his efforts so far, the president called on him to ensure that there is even a bigger debt relief package for Africa YEN.com.gh earlier reported that Ken Ofori-Atta called on China to assist African countries with debt reliefs. According to him, the move would help ease the economic burden on African countries reeling from the impact of the outbreak. He estimates the cumulative effect of the coronavirus could severely affect Ghanas economy. READ ALSO: COVID-19: AU report shows that Africa could lose $500 billion in tax revenue Read the best news on Ghana #1 news app. Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana Nana Addo shouldn't share the food to the kayayo's only - Market women cry out | #Yencomgh Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram Source: YEN.com.gh [April 21, 2020] Kalloghlian Myers LLP and Paul Bates Commence Shareholder Class Action Against TILT Holdings, Inc. Kalloghlian Myers LLP and Paul Bates Barrister have commenced a shareholder class proceeding against TILT Holdings, Inc. and its former directors and officers. The class proceeding alleges that, to justify its lofty share price when it listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange in December 2018, TILT improperly inflated the value of its goodwill. However, unbeknownst to investors, TILT's goodwill was not calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting standards. The Statement of Claim alleges that the truth about TILT's goodwill was revealed in its very first quarterly filing for the period ending December 31, 2018, just five weeks after TILT over-stated the value of its goodwill, when TILT disclosed for the first time that its goodwill needed to be written down by nearly US$500 million. On this news, the price of TILT's shares dropped, causing steep financial losses to investors. The proposed class action was commenced in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and is brought on behalf of all individuals who acquired TILT's shares between October 12, 2018 and May 1, 2019. "TILT's investors are angry about their very substantial losses as a result of TILT's $500 million goodwill impairment charge which came as a surprise just five weeks after it listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange," says Garth Myers, a lawyer at Kalloghlian Myers LLP, co-lead counsel to TILT's shareholders. If you acquired TILT shares or purchased TILT shares in its US$119 million equity capital raise, contact Kalloghlian Myers LLP: Email: [email protected] Telephone: (647) 969-4472 Website: www.kalloghlianmyers.com/tilt Kalloghlian Myers LLP is a Toronto law firm specializing in class actions, civil litigation and investor protection. Kalloghlian Myers LLP's broad class action practices focuses on obtaining justice for victims of securities fraud, financial crimes, physical and sexual abuse, discrimination, and other forms of misconduct. Kalloghlian Myers LLP is also co-lead counsel in a securities class action against CannTrust Holdings Inc. Paul Bates has extensive experience in high-stakes business litigation, class actions, and appeals. In his 37+ years of professional experience, Paul has appeared at all levels of the Canadian court system, including the Supreme Court of Canada, generating countless reported decisions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005747/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] After spending his time in digging the throwback pictures, Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor is now celebrating a good beard and hair day. Posting a selfie on Instagram, he posed with an attitude and gave shout-out to himself. Good beard & hair day, the Gunday actor captioned the picture. Photo artist and Shraddha Kapoors rumoured boyfriend Rohan Shrestha wrote clean and clear on the comments section. Arjun is having quite some fun with his pet pug Maximus during the lockdown phase. He shared an Instagram story of his loved one on Monday where the cute canine won all hearts. He also shared a video recently, describing his love for Maximus. In his video message, the Namastey England star requested pet parents to take special care of their pooches during the tough times. Calling him the Godfather and spoilt brat of the house, Arjun revealed that his pug is just 4 years old. Arjun recently took a ride down the memory lane when he shared a picture with Hollywood star Will Smith from his 2000 India visit. The Pursuit of Happiness actor can be seen posing with Arjun and his close buddy and designer Kunal Rawal. Just hanging out with my boys. The fresh prince @willsmith himself looking spiffy as ever back in the day when he visited what seems like eons back & @kunalrawaldstress in a rare image wearing a tie..., Arjun wrote. Follow @News18Movies for more European Union leaders meeting via a video call on Thursday are not expected to make any final decisions on exactly how to finance economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, diplomats and officials told Reuters. During a preparatory discussion with EU national envoys on Monday, the blocs executive estimated the global outbreak could wipe off as much as a tenth of the continents economic output. The Executive Commission told the 27 member states envoys that it wanted to finance a new recovery fund via increased so-called headroom in the blocs next joint budget, the sources said on Tuesday. The sources participated in the discussion behind closed doors, or were briefed on it. While the budget covers 2021-27, the Commission would ask for a temporary increase for 2021-22 of guarantees by member states for the EU budgets own resources and thus the head room to allow the Brussels-based executive to raise more cash against that. Countries such as Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, part of the fiscally conservative north that has so far firmly held out against any form of EU-wide debt mutualisation essentially the issuance of bonds backed by the whole bloc told the gathering that such a recovery fund must be temporary. European Union finance ministers agreed on April 9 to provide 590 billion euros ($640bn) worth of support, bringing the EUs total fiscal response to the epidemic to 3.2 trillion euros ($3.5 trillion). One hundred billion euros ($108bn) will go to a scheme to subsidise wages so firms can cut working hours, not jobs. The European Investment Bank will step up lending to companies with 200 billion euros ($216bn), and the euro zones European Stability Mechanism (ESM) bailout fund will make 240 billion euros ($260bn) of cheap credit available to governments. In an editorial published by Politico magazine, European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta said the euro zones fiscal response to the coronavirus crisis has been inadequate so far and threatens the single market. Budget action should be proportionate to the magnitude of the shock, should not aggravate fragmentation stemming from differences in initial fiscal positions and should not skew the playing field within the European single market, Panetta said on Tuesday. The fiscal response of European countries has thus far been inconsistent with these principles, Panetta, formerly senior deputy governor of the Bank of Italy, added. The threat to the single market is clear: uneven fiscal support implies that a firms location, rather than its business model, will be the decisive factor in determining whether it survives this crisis. ALBANY In a pouring rain, protestors honked horns and flashed signs outside the Executive Mansion on Tuesday to demand Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo grant clemency to inmates with compromised immune systems as COVID-19 case are continuing to increase in New York prisons. Three advocates spoke at the rally but many more blared car horns to voice their support to releasing more inmates. The governor already authorized the release of hundreds of parolees, who were jailed for technical violations, in response to the pandemic. The coronavirus has infected 219 inmates, killing five. Sixty-two prisoners who were infected have recovered and are out of isolation. COVID-19 has infected 813 state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision employees (two deaths) and 35 parolees (four deaths), the agency's website states. "There are those who are in prison right now who are dying. People are contracting COVID and they're dying," said Thomas Kearney, a regional coordinator for the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign and a former state prison inmate. "COVID plus prison equals death." He said the governor's efforts must go "a hell of a lot further" than what the state has already done. Prisoners are quarantined for at least 14 days if they test positive for COVID-19. Prison officers, parole officers and civilian staff all must wear face masks while on duty. Inmates have been provided with face cloth coverings. In a statement, Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, noted DOCCS lifted all technical parole violation warrants for inmates who pose no threat to public safety. On April 14, the agency began releasing prisoners with 90 or fewer days left on their sentence, are 55 or older and whose underlying crime was not a violent crime or sex offense. State officials say they have identified 171 more inmates for release in the coming days. Three of the prisoners who died were at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Westchester County, where 43 inmates have contracted the coronavirus (13 recovered). Other deaths of inmates were at Otisville Correctional Facility (eight infected, three recovered) in Orange County and Queensboro Correctional Facility (no other cases) in Long Island City, Queens. Other prisons with high numbers of COVID-19 include Fishkill in Dutchess County (45 infected, 10 recovered), Bedford Hills, a women's prison in Westchester County (21 infected, four recovered), Wende (23 infected, 11 recovered) in Erie County, Green Haven (18 infected, seven recovered) in Dutchess County and Great Meadow in Washington County (10 infected, three recovered). "How many more must die?" Kearney asked. "Five is too many. Not one more!" Jolene Russ of Schoharie County, whose husband is an inmate in Elmira Correctional Facility, said social distancing does not exist in prison. She said she understands prisoners still must eat, recreate, shower and go to commissaries in close proximity to other inmates. "Our prisons have become nursing homes," Russ told reporters. "The governor will tell you that COVID in a nursing home is like fire to dry grass. In these prisons COVID is like like fire to dry grass as well." Advocates, who also protested outside Bedford Hills and Otisville prisons, were with various groups including Parole Justice Albany, Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration, the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, Parole Preparation Project, VOCAL-NY, Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, New Hour for Women and Children Long Island and New York Communities for Change. " Apple's new low-cost iPhone SE is selling better than expected, based on an analysis of shipping times, according to a new research note from TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. However, he still predicts that iPhone shipments in the quarter ending in June could decline 20% or 25% year-over-year because of reduced demand stemming from the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Apple warned in February that it would not meet its goals for sales in the March quarter because of reduced demand in China as well as production problems stemming from that country's response to Covid-19. However, Apple's warning was made before the pandemic spread globally, and before parts of the United States, including Apple's headquarters in California, started locking down. Last week, Apple released a new iPhone in the midst of the crisis -- the first iPhone it launched without a major launch event. The iPhone SE uses a classic iPhone design that was first introduced in 2014, updated with modern chips and cameras. It's the lowest-priced phone in Apple's current lineup, starting at $399 in the United States. Kuo argues that the strong reception for the iPhone SE suggests consumers are gravitating to lower-priced phones, which has implications for Apple's business and the companies that supply it with parts. "The most difficult challenge from COVID-19 for smartphone brands is the negative impact on consumer confidence or purchasing power after the pandemic outbreak, resulting in consumers preferring to choose lower price/spec models or to stop purchasing smartphones," Kuo wrote. Ultimately, Kuo is not optimistic about iPhone sales in the June quarter, as countries around the world have gone on lockdown to slow the spread of Covid-19, hurting consumer confidence and demand. "We cut 2Q20 iPhone shipment estimation by 30% to 3537 million units due to negative impacts from COVID-19. But it may have further downside risk," Kuo wrote. Kuo argues investors in Apple and its supply chain should focus more on the effects Covid-19 is having on consumer demand, not Apple's ability to launch new products. He writes that Apple has done much of its essential design and verification work by deferring to partners in Asian factories, and that there's a "likelihood" that new iPhone models will go into mass production in September and October, depending on how complex their designs are and if they support millimeter wave 5G service. Apple has historically released new iPhones in September. Apple may also delay an iPhone model planned for spring 2021 to the fall, Kuo added. Kuo regularly publishes research about Apple centered around its suppliers, and he has accurately described Apple products in the past before they were announced. Apple reports its 2nd quarter earnings on April 30. Elisabeth Herrema, the wife of Dutch industrialist Tiede Herrema who was kidnapped by the IRA in the infamous siege of Monasterevin, has died. On October 3, 1975, Dr Herrema was kidnapped by IRA members Eddie Gallagher and Marian Coyle and held for ransom for 36 days. The crime came to international attention. Gardai learned of their location and for the final 18 days of the incident, there was a siege that also involved the Army at the house in Monasterevin, Co Kildare. It came to an end when he was released unharmed on November 7, when the IRA members threw their guns out the window of the house. Gallagher and Coyle had believed Ms Herrema would become distressed and this would put pressure on the Liam Cosgrave government to do a deal. Instead, the steely Ms Herrema, who was flown out of the country for fear she would be targeted, went on TV and persuaded the Dutch government at the time Ireland could handle the problem. Joe Brennan, who was deputy to the Irish ambassador at the Hague at the time and who coincidently had been learning Dutch from Ms Herrema's aunt, was a good friend of the family and said he would miss her dearly. "Elisabeth was a remarkable lady. She had a wonderful gift for friendship," he told the Irish Independent. "They were married for 70 years and Tiede adored his wife. She went on TV to say she wanted her husband back, of course she did, but that the authorities here had it under control," he said. "She gave them enormous strength." The couple left Ireland following the ordeal, but were made honorary citizens and continued to make regular visits here, including to Aras an Uachtarain. "They never held it against Ireland and they loved coming back here, meeting with their friends eating at the Unicorn restaurant," Mr Brennan said. "Their son studied at Trinity College Dublin." The couple even met with the captors subsequently to say that they held no grudge. Ms Herrema, who was 94, passed away on Sunday after a battle with illness. She is survived by her husband, who was a Dutch resistance fighter in World War II and was imprisoned in a concentration camp. Dr Herrema turns 99 today. "They picked the wrong person to abduct," Mr Brennan said. The West Bengal government is cooperating with the inter-ministerial central teams visiting the state to assess COVID-19 situation, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said on Tuesday, but made it clear they cannot roam around with them leaving all work to fight the pandemic. Kolkata: The West Bengal government is cooperating with the inter-ministerial central teams visiting the state to assess COVID-19 situation, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said on Tuesday, but made it clear they cannot roam around with them leaving all work to fight the pandemic. "We are helping them. There's no question of not doing that. But our stand is that we all are busy in fighting coronavirus... they cannot get information sitting in cars or at the guest house. "We will share all information they want, taking time out of our busy schedule, but we will not be able to roam around with the central team shutting all our work, Sinha told reporters at the state secretariat. Sinha's comments came after the Union Home Ministry said the West Bengal government was not cooperating with the central teams visiting the state for on-the-spot assessment of the COVID-19 situation. The arrival of two teams from Delhi, without prior information here, for an on-the-spot assessment of the COVID-19 situation has become the latest flashpoint between the Centre and the state government. In a letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said it has been brought to the notice of the ministry that the two inter-ministerial central teams, visiting Kolkata and Jalpaiguri, have not been provided with the requisite cooperation by the state and local authorities. Sinha criticised the manner in which the teams were sent to the state by the central government. He said despite Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi protesting the visit of the central teams to West Bengal, he met the representatives at the state secretariat on Monday and met them again on Tuesday morning at the place where they have put up. "In this (federal) set-up, it would have been a good thing if the Centre had given us a prior intimation that teams are sent to West Bengal. The chief minister has written a letter to the prime minister protesting this. "Despite that the team led by Apurva Chandra met me at the secretariat yesterday. We had briefed him. I met them again this morning at the BSF guest house at Gurusaday Road. They told me they want to go around the city. We said we will be providing one officer to accompany them and they can go wherever they want to within Kolkata... and today they moved around in the city," Sinha said. The IAS official went on saying, "Any form of Centre-state feud is not desired but it will not be correct if you blame the state only for that. Both sides should show similar discipline, and we are expecting that." "We have told them (the team in Kolkata) to take all precautionary measures if they are visiting any hotspot area. We have also urged them not to get down from the vehicles frequently, and if they want to, they must enquire whether it is safe to move around that particular place or not... We have to look after their safety and security," the official said. The chief secretary further stated that if the team visiting Kolkata expresses wish to go to areas in Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas district, the state will think over it. They have not expressed desire to go to other places apart from Kolkata, but if they want to visit Howrah and North 24 Parganas we will think on it, he said. Sinha, however, was critical of the team visiting North Bengal and said they should have met him before straightaway going to the northern districts. They should have met the chief secretary because he is only authorised to meet any representatives from the central government. hey violated the protocol, he said. "I spoke to them (team in North Bengal) on Monday and twice on Tuesday. I am in touch with the team and have shared the progress to the team leader. If they want to go anywhere we will look into it before deciding," Sinha said. Asked when will the teams be leaving, he said, "They have not been invited by us as a guest so we do not know about that". [The stream is slated to start at 3:00 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is holding his daily press conference on the Covid-19 outbreak, which has infected more than 88,800 people in the state as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The New Jersey Department of Health is ordering Andover Subacute Rehabilitation Center to "cease all admissions" and hire additional staff related to nursing and infectious disease after more than 70 suspected Covid-19 deaths overwhelmed the facility, Judith Persichilli, the state's health commissioner, said on Monday. The state is working to alleviate the overloaded mortuary system. It ordered 20 refrigerated trucks to serve as temporary mortuaries a few weeks ago and has set up an additional location in central New Jersey that will serve as "temporary storage" for the deceased, said Col. Pat Callahan, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, on Thursday. The coronavirus has infected more than 810,500 people in the U.S. and has killed at least 43,000, the highest death toll of any country. Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.5 million people and has killed at least 174,000, according to JHU data. CNBC's Jasmine Kim contributed to this report. Read CNBC's live updates to see the latest news on the Covid-19 outbreak. The Odisha government on Tuesday rushed rapid response teams to Bhadrak and Jajpur districts after the state recorded the highest single day spike in coronavirus cases for the second time in a fortnight on Monday with 18 people including 10 from these two districts with travel history to Kolkata testing positive. The government also asked people with travel history to West Bengal during the last 28 days, to quarantine themselves at home. The total number of Covid-19 infections in Odisha has now risen to 79. Previously, 15 cases were detected on April 3 and 18 on April 5, most of them from Bhubaneswar. Follow coronavirus latest updates here. On Monday night, five more people including a 12-year-old boy were tested positive in Balasore town which is now emerging as a Covid-19 hotspot. All five are family members of a 58-year-old man who had tested positive on April 18. Odisha health and family welfare department officials said the 10 workers of Jajpur and Bhadrak districts who had tested positive were working in West Bengal and had returned to Odisha in the last 28 days evading the lockdown by travelling in small vehicles or goods trains and other means. Chief spokesperson of state government on Covid-19, Subroto Bagchi, said 24 of the 79 cases in Odisha had travel history to West Bengal where the number of Covid-19 cases is rising sharply. In Kolkata, 54 new cases were reported on Monday. Five people from Bhadrak, aged between 48 years and 66 years, had slipped through the Odisha-Bengal border between March 28 and April 9. Quarantined in their homes, they were all asymptomatic till they tested positive on Monday. Another five people of Jajpur district, aged between 28 years and 64 years, working as labourers in Howrah and Burrabazar area, too had returned from Kolkata in the last 28 days. Jajpur district collector Ranjan Das said one of the five Covid-19 patients detected in Bhadrak had travelled with five people from Jajpur in a van while they were returning from Kolkata on March 29. As the five got down at Sathipur on March 30 morning, the district collector appealed to residents of villages situated adjacent to Sathipur to inform the officials if anyone with travel history to Kolkata had reached the villages after March 30. Most people from West Bengal are clandestinely trying to sneak into the villages. Its not possible for the state administration and police to keep watch on every village. So the grampanchayats are extremely important in detection of potential Covid cases, a health department press release said. A senior police official said though every effort is being made to seal the Odisha-Bengal border, many people were crossing over into the state in ambulances. Though all modes of passenger transport services have been suspended for over a week, a large number of people have been entering Odisha by smaller roads connecting the two states through private vehicles like cars, auto-rickshaw, mini-buses and trucks. We have little way of knowing how many of them are genuine. Instead of going to hospitals in Kolkata, many of the patients from Bengals Midnapore district are flooding AIIMS Bhubaneswar and SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. They may prove to be the greatest source of infection, said the official. An AIIMS official said in the last one week, the number of patients from Bengal has gone up. With more and more people from Bengal entering Odisha through numerous roads, Odishas Director General of Police Abhay visited the states border with Bengal in Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts on Tuesday to oversee its sealing. Odisha has 38 villages that share the border with Bengal. Of the 38 villages, 35 are in Balasore and rest are in Mayurbhanj district. A two-year-old tribal girl in Balasore district was among the 18 who tested positive on Monday, making her the youngest Covid-19 patient in the state. The girl in Nilagiri block was running fever and had a cold following which she was taken to the district headquarters hospital in Balasore where her swab sample was taken. Officials said they were intrigued by the girls case as she did not have any travel history. The Queensland government is yet to set up a $100 million infrastructure fund it promised for the regions a year ago. Treasurer Jackie Trad offered a three-year coal royalty freeze for big mining companies in May 2019 if they agreed to contribute $70 million to a community infrastructure fund to build in some of the towns in which they operated. Towns like Moranbah, which is surrounded by 26 coal mines, could benefit from the infrastructure fund. Brisbane Times understands mining companies are ready to throw tens of millions of dollars into the fund, but the government was yet to set one up, with Treasury officials still finalising how it would work. The government pledged $30 million to kick-start the fund and hoped miners would chip in $70 million. ALTON State Rep. Monica Bristow, D-Alton, is providing volunteer opportunities and information for healthy individuals to safely help others and their communities amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. As weve been social distancing, many people have reached out to my office to ask what they can do to help, said Bristow. By visiting online resources, residents can find out what we need around the state and ways to help in safe ways, as well as find what their local community needs by searching for opportunities by county. JOHNSTON Iowas prison chief reported Monday that two staff members and one inmate have tested positive for coronavirus as the state works to reduce the number of offenders confined in close quarters in the states nine prisons. Beth Skinner, director of the state Department of Corrections, confirmed that a second correctional officer at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville had tested positive for COVID-19. The employee had not been at work since April 9 so DOC officials did not expect any exposure to inmates or staff. The inmate, who tested positive over the weekend, had been transferred on Thursday to the Coralville prison from Henry County in southeast Iowa. Skinner said Iowas prison population has been reduced from 8,495 inmates in March to 8,370 on Monday the lowest population since June 30, 2017, but still 20.7 % over the prisons design capacity. Since March 1, 811 offenders have been released from prison. Another 748 were admitted. Were working closely with the Board of Parole, which has authority to release those that would likely succeed in a community setting, Skinner said Monday during Gov. Kim Reynolds daily COVID-19 news briefing. Together, our agencies are working to find a balance between good public safety and the safety of the institutions for our staff and those incarcerated. Currently, she said, 482 offenders have been approved for release and another 92 for future releases. The department is assessing the number of beds available in community-based corrections housing, where 10 offenders and four staff members have reported positive COVID-19 results. Department officials, she said, are exercising our options to keep these individuals in their communities as long as it does not pose an imminent public safety risk, while working with county sheriffs to stop admissions and revocations (of probation and parole) from county jails during the coronavirus outbreak. We had been expecting positive cases and have been planning for months, Skinner said. Skinner told reporters her department has implemented preestablished action steps and procedures for identifying COVID-19 contacts with staff and offenders and quarantining those exposed. Those steps include the deployment of clean teams to disinfect high-traffic or possibly contaminated areas and to quarantine offenders who have or are likely to develop COVID-19 and prevent their transfer to another facility or release. Visitation has been suspended at all prisons until further notice, she said. All inmates are screened at intake and quarantined for 14 days. she said. All staffers are to wear masks, and inmates are strongly encouraged to wear masks. All inmates at the Coralville prison are required to wear masks since there has been a positive case there, and their temperatures are checked twice daily. Inmates with COVID-19 symptoms are quarantined. Also Monday, Skinner said Iowa Prison Industries has been instrumental in producing personal protective equipment and other items need to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, including 62,378 masks, 6,305 face shields, 7,661 gowns and 16,060 gallons of hand sanitizer. Shake Shack is returning a $10 million federal loan to be distributed to other struggling businesses after the fast food chain secured additional funds.The restaurant announced it was returning the loan on Sunday after the $350 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), authorized by Congress to sustain businesses struggling during the coronavirus pandemic, ran dry on Thursday. The chain has 189 restaurants with nearly 8,000 employees.Shake Shack's CEO Randy Garutti and founder Danny Meyer wrote in a statement posted to LinkedIn.Shake Shack was the target of several media reports over the weekend for receiving emergency funds meant for small businesses while posting annual revenues of $100 million. PPP rules allow any business with less than 500 employees per location to apply for emergency funding, however.Garutti and Meyer wrote.The restaurant chain and Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, which operates a number of restaurants and cafes around New York City, had furloughed or laid off thousands of employees in the early weeks of coronavirus-induced lockdowns, the executives said.Garutti and Meyer slammed lawmakers for underfunding the program and called for Congress to approve additional emergency relief to save the small businesses that missed out on the first wave of aid and are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.the businessmen wrote.Lawmakers are haggling over an extension to the PPP program this week. Congressional Democrats blocked Republican attempts to pass a clean funding bill for the program last week, demanding an additional $251 billion be earmarked for certain businesses, such as those owned by women, minorities, and veterans.The move elicited harsh criticism from Republicans that say House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding emergency funds for small businesses "hostage."Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said on Sunday. Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Committee on Health, Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, says he is struggling to make something meaningful out of President Akufo-Addo's 7th COVID-19 update to Ghanaians on Sunday. Assessing the president's address, the NDC stalwart opined that the decision to lift the restrictions on movement in areas earmarked as epicentres of the pandemic, cannot be one backed by science, but more on political lines. To him, going by the figures, which shows an ascendency in the recorded number of cases in 10 out of 16 regions, it was scientifically wrong to lift the partial lockdown. ...clearly, where we have reached now the virus is still spreading to other regions. We have realised that at least, every three days the virus spreads to the extent that it has now reached 10 regions when we started with only two regions. So what it tells you is that the virus is still spreading. When the lockdown started, the country has recorded less than 200 cases and when the President was speaking, he said his action was backed by science. So, now where is the science in this current action of the president; the science being in the figures of the cases we have recorded? he quizzed. Power Corrupts Speaking on Okay FMs Ade Akye Abia Morning on Monday April 20, 2020, the Juaboso MP posited that the president's decision buttresses the fact that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. With this President we have, from today onwards, if anyone says he can do anything in this country, I will never doubt that person; he is capable of doing anything and everything under the universe...the country belongs to all us and it is not for one person, he opined. Unscientific, Purely Political To him, the decision is not based on any scientific data but purely political, pointing out that the President should have known the difference between the need for a lockdown and the issue of social intervention and proportionate distribution. We extended the lockdown when the figures were 144 but now we have recorded over 1000 cases with over 15,000 outstanding samples to be tested...and yet the President has lifted the lockdown. If you look at the mathematics, where is the science that the President said he based his decisions on?...I am struggling to make sense out of this.... ...From where I sit, I see it that it is purely a political decision taken by the President. Quite apart from that, there is no science in it because if some areas in a region record less than 30 cases and less than 20 cases and the President locks down these areas and another area records above 50 cases but such an area is not lockdown even for a minute and you tell me it is based on science, I am struggling to see the science in it.... If you introduce social intervention and we find out that the distribution is not transparent, we have every right to complain and that doesnt mean that you must flare up. It is wrong for you to say that since your child refused to stay inside then he should go out and die. Up to now, I have not been able to make anything out of what the President said yesterday, he indicated. Watch Video Below Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Letter to the Editor, The ochre-colored African wind wafts through the Tanzanian veldt, ruffling the low acacia trees that grow scrubily between august Baobabs. The sun is setting and the malarial mosquitoes start their evening hymn. In between the metropolitan mounds of termite nests an animal is waddling. Some would call it an ugly animal; it looks like an anteater: same oblong, awkward body and pointed snout. But unlike an anteater, this animal is covered in reptilian scales, somewhat like a large, land-locked and ambling four-legged fish. The animal is called a pangolin and it is being hunted. Hiding behind one of the termite mounds is Andwele, from the Bantu-speaking Nyamwezi ethnic group, and he is poor. He hasnt been able to provide for his family in some time and his children are hungry: there has been a persistent drought in this part of Africa and Andwele has been unable to make ends meet. Never before has it taken so long for the rains to come. It is as if the climate itself has changed. As Andwele was returning from his meager farming plot in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro he stumbled upon the pangolin as the animal was breaking open a termite mound foraging for food. Andwele loves and respects animals but he hasn't eaten and has a cousin that can get almost a months salary for a live pangolin. He catches the ugly animal but while he does so his heart breaks as it looks at him with pleading puppy-dog eyes. But Andwele is hungry and so are his children so he stuffs the pangolin in his rucksack and the next day travels to Arusha to sell it. Three weeks later the pangolin has traveled 9300 kilometers and finds itself in a small metal cage in a market in a medium-sized Chinese City. Although the city is considered medium by Chinese standards it is home to eleven million people. The animal is emaciated and covered in sores from being transported across the ocean in unhygienic conditions. It shares its cage with a bat, similarly covered in festering sores and lying listlessly at the bottom of its cage; resigned to its pending demise. Soon the owner of the stall removes the bat, the pangolins companion for the past four days. The two animals have been sleeping together, breathing together, shitting together. But now the bat is gone; it is being skinned after its head has been chopped off; the owner preparing it according to the traditional Chinese method. Two weeks later a mysterious, pneumonia-like disease is spreading rapidly in the densely populated city. But it is the Chinese New Year and people are traveling all over the world to be with their loved ones. One of those people is Xi-Li who has traveled to Bergamo in Italy to be with her family. To celebrate the Lunar New Year they decide to eat a traditional Italian meal at a trattoria on the Piazza Vecchia. Xi-Li hasnt been feeling well; she has a slight temperature and a dry cough but shes traveled all this way and decided to enjoy the special occasion. In three weeks shell be dead. Also at the restaurant is Massimo. Massimo lives in New York but travels to his home town often. A week after his meal he travels back to New Rochelle and kisses his wife hello. She notices he has a slight temperature but he insists he is fine. It is the eve of their anniversary and tomorrow they travel to Ft. Lauderdale to embark on a ten-day Caribbean Cruise; first Port of Call the tiny half Dutch half-French Caribbean Island of Sint Maarten. A month after his cruise Massimo lies in an emergency hospital tent. He has been intubated with a respirator because he is too ill to breathe on his own. He might not make it. Ten thousand of his fellow New Yorkers havent. His wife didnt. All across the globe life has drastically changed. Normal will never be the same again. The world cowers in fear of a new pandemic. Economies are collapsing. Oil prices have collapsed. Governments are struggling. Three billion people are forced to stay inside. And there is only one thing on everyones mind: COVID-19. The above is just one of the scenarios for the origin of a virus that has been dictating the human experience for the past three months, but it is the most plausible (5G towers and lab-grown conspiracies aside). The renowned scientific journal Nature mentions that researchers have noted that coronaviruses are a possible cause of death in pangolins (and) are a good candidate as a source for intermediate spreadpangolins are protected but illegal trafficking is widespread. It is almost certain that they are the sourcelikely having infected a bat with the bat infecting a human in turn The global spread of the pandemic and our ability, or inability, to manage the infection has highlighted the role environmental degradation and social inequalities have played in these unusual times. It has highlighted the global nature of the human experience and that an act of wildlife crime (exacerbated by a just as urgent but not as highly publicized climate crisis) has resulted in communities, economies, and societies now being on the brink of collapse. It is no accident that my native Sint Maarten has per capita one of the highest per capita COVID-19 cases and deaths in the Caribbean region. The prioritizing of the bottom line over the welfare of citizens has been the focus for the economic development of the island since the tourism boom in the 1960s, with a reliance on a model dictated by fast economic growth to the detriment of environmental and societal safeguards. Island communities must now place focus on economic, social and environmental sustainability as our guiding principle should we want to survive. One of the clearest and most obvious mistakes many of the islands in the Caribbean have made is an over-reliance on the Cruise Tourism industry. The Cruise Ship model for development, even before this crisis, has proven to not adequately account for the welfare of island societies and the natural resources critical to our ability to develop sustainably. We should learn from this lesson and not have multinational tour companies dictate the governmental and economic policies of the Caribbean. Mass tourism on the islands, coupled with an unrestrained and ill-planned thrust to develop just for developments sake, has resulted in significant discrepancies between various social strata, discrepancies further highlighted by the virus. In order to emerge from this successfully, the Caribbean has to alter the way we do business. Islands such as Bonaire should learn from what is happening around them, and islands such as Sint Maarten and Aruba should learn from their own experience and move away from an economic model almost solely dependent on mass, lower-income tourism. Islands such as Bonaire and Saba are better positioned to emerge from this crisis scarred but not broken. Islands such as Sint Maarten and Aruba, who have invested significant infrastructure into courting mass cruise tourism and budget-minded travelers, often to the detriment of the population and the environment, will be broken for some time and will struggle to emerge successfully from this crisis. Now should be the time for a renewed focus on building the resilience of our communities; counteracting deforestation, reigning in unsustainable coastal development, ensuring proper solid waste management, preventing pollution from entering our air and water, are all issues which exacerbate the negative health and economic effects faced by Caribbean Residents in a post-pandemic reality. As Caribbean people we cannot afford to lose focus; the region must get rid of the usual economic model that focuses on profit over people, further exacerbating income inequality. When we emerge from our houses we need to place emphasis on a more inclusive, sustainable future. After this crisis there has to, finally, be greater emphasis on the critical role the three pillars of Sustainable Development must play in terms of resiliency, especially considering the potential new crises in what is predicted to be an above-average Hurricane Season. There also has to be closer regional cooperation, cooperation that does not adhere to the usual model defined by former colonial powers who apparently consider a billion euro grant to southern European countries more important than providing relief to former colonies whose natural and human capital have fostered their own economic development. There has been no time in history that calls for a greater Caribbean unity than now as we emerge from one of humanitys most existential crises. The old ways wont work, and despite what we are going through we cannot function in isolation nor can we depend on former colonial countries and western or eastern superpowers to support our development; that much is clear. But there are encouraging signs. The encouragement provided by seeing our Caribbean environment healing should push us to foster and encourage further healing. Being isolated whilst being unified as a human race, unified by our common human experience of being shut indoors, physically isolated from friends and family, should unify us as global citizens while putting emphasis on local solutions for our societal ills. We cannot go back to business as usual; let us use the healing of nature to enter into a new phase of economic development, of finally being sustainable. Let us perpetuate that healing. Let us allow it to guide us into a more sustainable future. Let us ensure that wild areas and the animals that inhabit them are conserved. Let us manage our natural resources so that the goods and services they provide will be enhanced and secured. Let us make sure that the climate crisis is sufficiently addressed so that we can end poverty and global hunger so that people like Andwele are no longer forced to hunt wild animals to feed their families. Let us ensure, as we emerge from our cocoons, that we are on the right side of History. That we rise from our confinement to a renewed, holistic and reinvigorated Caribbean society. Happy World Environment Day! Tadzio Bervoets Interim Director Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance Sur Salinja 30 Kralendijk, Bonaire As the coronavirus contagion spreads around the world, it is increasingly exposing major socio-economic fractures which governments have long ignored. Underfunded health systems are collapsing under an overload of patients, meagre social safety nets cannot cover those in need, and the absence of proper labour protections has left hundreds of millions jobless and strapped for cash. At the same time, the pandemic has highlighted issues of incompetence and lack of leadership in ruling elites across the world. It is increasingly clear that many political leaders underestimated the threat of the outbreak in China and chose to placate markets instead of preparing their nations for an emergency. Others in South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, and elsewhere took adequate action, communicated transparently with the public and managed to avoid a national disaster. This revelatory aspect of the pandemic is what makes it particularly dangerous to populist strongmen across the world. They are now at a growing risk of being exposed for who they are incompetent leaders who do little more than satisfy the interests of narrow business circles around them, while leaving their nations to economic precarity and social insecurity. These populists have been promoting nationalist, protectionist, and hate-based agendas to manipulate the public, all while denying the pressing emergencies of our times. This is evident in their indifference toward climate change and refugee crises and in their responses to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. This global health crisis requires global collaboration, responsibility and solidarity, which goes against everything they stand for, and it is moving too fast for their populist rhetorical strategies to work. In response, strongmen have doubled down on racism in their rhetoric and sought to undermine traditional vectors of authority and legitimation that are necessary to understand facts. Government agencies, the media and credentialled academics are needed to convince the public of the significance and implications of the bare facts of the pandemic. They have all been relentlessly attacked and questioned by populist politicians who are desperately trying to distract public attention away from the catastrophic consequences of their inaction. At the same time, populist leaders have launched desperate efforts to try to instrumentalise the pandemic to consolidate power and/or ensure their re-election. In Hungary, Prime Minister Victor Orban declared a state of emergency on March 11. Less than three weeks later the Parliament voted in a law allowing him to rule indefinitely by decree in the name of combating the coronavirus. But these powers go far beyond what is necessary to fight the outbreak as they include provisions for jail sentences for anyone found to have obstructed anti-pandemic measures or spread false information. Orban is clearly trying to preclude potential public anger over his mishandling of the crisis loosening his grip on power. Even before the pandemic, the Hungarian health system was in bad shape; controversial measures taken to free up beds for COVID-19 patients and inadequate supply of protective gear and equipment for hospitals have cast further doubt on the Hungarian governments strategy to handle the crisis. There has also been criticism of government spending on non-essential sectors, including sports. In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has actively opposed any measures against the pandemic. He has claimed that the virus is just a fantasy, a measly cold, and that he wouldnt feel anything if infected. He has gone as far as attending rallies against lockdowns imposed by local authorities. He has not only attacked the media repeatedly and questioned advice by scientists and the WHO, but has actively been involved in misinformation. When 25 of Brazils 27 governors signed a joint letter demanding Bolsonaro back strict anti-outbreak measures, he accused them being job exterminators who want to sabotage his re-election in two and a half years. Thus, instead of taking the lead on the pandemic response, the strategy of the Brazilian strongman is to incite the public against local authorities and blame the looming economic crisis on them, to cover up his own mishandling of the situation and the failure of his right-wing policies to bring prosperity to Brazil. Similarly, US President Donald Trump has focused his efforts on manipulating public opinion instead of working with state authorities to resolve the crisis. But unlike Bolsonaro, he has had to backtrack on his claims that the coronavirus outbreak does not pose a threat to the US. After his about-face, he focused his efforts on covering up the fact that he launched a delayed response to the pandemic and has mishandled various aspects of the crisis. When Democrats and reporters accused him of messing up, he blamed the outbreak on China, the lack of a workable test on the Obama administration and the shortage of ventilators on various governors. Instead of focusing on solving these issues, he announced the suspension of all immigration into the US to protect jobs as the virus spreads. With his eyes on re-election in November, Trump has taken over daily briefings on the pandemic from Vice President Mike Pence and transformed them into election campaigning opportunities, touting what he sees as achievements of his administration instead of informing the public of the state of the nation. He and the Republican Party have pushed through various measures and packages to bail out big businesses which have donated to his campaign and whose support would be essential for his re-election. Orban, Bolsonaro and Trump are just three examples of a global trend of strongmen mishandling national responses to the pandemic. In the end, this is not just a health crisis but one of national and global governance. It is fast becoming yet another proof of the utter failure of populism to provide anything other than empty and hateful rhetoric. Populist leaders cannot provide any kind of social or economic solutions to national and global problems and the pandemic is making this ever more apparent. Perhaps this tragedy will be that last straw that broke the camels back which will bring the demise of populism across the world. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. 3i Infotech launched Remote Worker as a Service, as part of its Altiray Services. This VPN-as-a-Service is a unified secure access gateway that facilitates remote working from anywhere and anytime by hosting any on-premise server or application. It also enables organizations to move to the cloud with ease, and embrace Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and mobility in a hybrid IT environment. In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, many organizations who believed they had well-equipped solutions to allow seamless remote access to employee, are finding cracks in their foundation with work from home now becoming a necessity. From lack of collaborative tools, inability to connect to in-house applications, to a lack of interpersonal training to help employees navigate through remote work situations, organizations are scrambling to meet the demands of remote workers. Remote-Worker as a Service solution from 3i Infotech simplifies access to the customers central infrastructure and applications without the worry of cumbersome configurations and needless time delays. It creates a seamless, safe and secure end-to-end socket layer connection in combination with secure mobile access (SMA) to ensure security without any installation at the clients end, thereby enabling remote users to connect to internal network resources over the Internet using an encrypted connection. It also helps to control all mobile devices of an organizations network and provides a cost-effective single sign-on (SSO) to any application on the network or in the cloud from a single URL. While preventing unauthorized access to corporate applications, Remote Worker also facilitates employees to upload and share files securely. 3i Infotechs existing customers are using this Remote Worker solution to connect to their product suite seamlessly from any location and from any device. The technology partners for 3i Infotechs Remote Worker are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and Alibaba Cloud. The Altiray umbrella of 3i Infotech has years of deep domain expertise across the BFSI, Healthcare and Government spectrum. Based on a curated technology stack, the solutions enable easy technology adoption and are effortlessly scalable. Mobility, together with new-age technologies like Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Augmented / Virtual Reality (AR/VR), are an imperative part of digital transformation. Altirays offerings cater to all levels of the mobility maturity curve, covering Consulting, Design & Development, Data Testing, Support, Data Intelligence & Co-Innovation. 3i Infotech has a very strong foothold and customer base in geographies like India, North America, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South Asia. The Company with its comprehensive set of IP based software solutions & IT Services solutions, has invested in the areas of TaaS, DevOps, Agile, and CT (Continuous Testing framework) to meet the demands of enterprises. Hundreds in Orange County Protest Orders to Stay at Home SAN CLEMENTE (CNS)Hundreds of people protested in San Clemente and Huntington Beach over the weekend of April 1819 against the state, county, and local orders requiring people to stay at home to reduce exposure to COVID-19. The majority of protesters in downtown San Clemente on Sunday did not wear protective face masks or stay at least six feet apart, according to news reports. Human rights attorney Leigh Dundas told Fox11 she was concerned about constitutional rights. I understand there is a virus. I understand that it is serious, but the constitution was meant to be used in times such as these, Dundas said. I dont believe that locking us indefinitely in our houses with very few of our first amendment rights for a period of months, possibly years is something that is allowed under the constitution even with the gravity of the virus. Nurse Donna Vidrine spoke out against the demonstration. I think these people are disrespecting the healthcare professionals, she said. Nurses and doctors do not have the choice to stay home. We have to take care of these people who are gathering against the rules of the city of San Clemente. More than 200 protesters gathered the afternoon of April 17 at Walnut Avenue and Main Street in Huntington Beach, police said. The department called in every available officer when protesters began violating local public assembly ordinances by walking in the middle of the street and carrying signs with sticks large enough to use as weapons, the Huntington Beach Police Department said on social media. Once we had sufficient officers in place, they utilized great restraint in dealing with circumstances that could have escalated into significant police action. We were able to contact the organizers of the protest and disperse the majority of the crowd peacefully without incident or without any arrests. Police asked the public to be patient and continue to stay at home so as not to endanger lives. These are people expressing their views, President Donald Trump told reporters on April 17 at the White House coronavirus taskforce briefing. He has also told reporters, Theyve got cabin fever. They want to get back. They want their life back. (Bloomberg) -- Revenue at Adyen NV, which processes payments for companies including Uber Technologies Inc. and EBay Inc., grew by over a third in the first quarter, despite a hit in fees from the travel and accommodation sector. The payments company typically only publishes earnings on a biannual basis but made an exception due to the coronavirus crisis. The company said it posted net revenue of 135.5 million euros ($147.3 million) for the first quarter of the year ending March 31, up 34% year-on-year. The Amsterdam-based company said it processed 67 billion euros of payments for the period, an increase of 38%, but warned that the prospect of a deep economic recession brought on by a prolonged pandemic could hurt earnings. Despite the threat, it made 169 new hires in the quarter, boosting its workforce by about 14% since the end of last year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin declined to 47%, from 56% last year, due to the new hires and marketing campaigns, and a hit to net revenue in March from the crisis. Adyen shares rose as much as 4.1% in Amsterdam on Tuesday. KBC analyst Thomas Couvreur said the results were unsurprising and in line with expectations, adding he expects a similar impact for the company in the month of April, with some recovery toward the summer as restrictions are lifted. As a company we are very well positioned to deal with the impact resulting from the virus, said Adyen Chief Financial Officer Ingo Uytdehaage in an interview, adding the biggest risk to his company is the uncertainty over how long the crisis will last. If we as an economy go through a very deep recession, of course thats also going to impact us.The company said it was hardest hit in the travel and accommodation sector, where processed volumes fell by around 90% by the end of March compared to the first week of January. In-store retail was also similarly impacted, but online sales have started to rise to compensate for that, it said. Story continues Still, Adyens lack of debt and positive cash flow has given the company room to maneuver, including to continue hiring as it invests for the long-term, Uytdehaage said. Its main customers are also large global companies that so far have been able to respond reasonably well to the crisis, he said.Adyen backed its outlook, with the finance chief saying its too early to change that view. The company still expects to grow net revenue at a rate between the mid-20s and low-30s in the medium term. It also plans to increase EBITDA margin to above 55% in the long term. The company doesnt define what it perceives as medium or long-term.Riding the boom in cashless payments, Adyens shares have increased three-fold since its initial public offering in June 2018. The Amsterdam-based company offers merchants payments processing both online and in stores and in a variety of local payments methods. (Updates with share price, analyst reaction in 4th paragraph) 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. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 19) Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario is urging the government to protest Chinas creation of new districts that cover features in the South China Sea, including the Philippine-claimed Spratly Islands, Scarborough Shoal and Fiery Cross Reef. Del Rosario said just as the Philippines protested Chinas reported sinking of a Vietnames fishing vessel, it should also protest its declaration of the new districts. He added that these recent incidents involving China in the disputed waters should keep Filipinos vigilant, even as the world faces the coronavirus pandemic, which started in Wuhan, China. These show that China has been relentless in exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic as it continues to pursue its illegal and expansive claims in the South China Sea to the prejudice of Filipinos, the ASEAN states and the international community as a whole, Del Rosario said. Chinese State-owned China Global Television Network reported Saturday that China has established two new districts covering Paracel Islands, Zhongsha Islands, which is home to Scarborough Shoal, Woody Island, Spratly Islands, and Fiery Cross Reef. The report said Xisha district will administer the Paracel and Zhongsha islands and its surrounding waters, while its government will hold office on Woody Island, which is claimed by both China and Vietnam. The Paracel Islands are both claimed by China and Vietnam. The entirety of Zhongsha Islands is both claimed by China and Taiwan, while Scarborough Shoal is also claimed by the Philippines. The CGTN report also said that another district, called Nansha, will be governing the Spratly Islands and its surrounding waters. Its government will hold office on Fiery Cross Reef. China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan have overlapping claims over Spratly Islands. Fiery Cross Reef, meanwhile, is claimed by China, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. Xisha and Nansha districts are both part of Sansha City, which administers the Paracel, Zhongsha and Spratly islands. CGTN described the city as covering two million square square kilometers, but only covering 20 square kilometers of land. It also said some 1,800 people live in the city. China has so far put up two research stations, and sank a Vietnamese fishing boat in the South China Sea amid the coronavirus pandemic. While these actions were widely seen as China taking advantage of the global health crisis, "none of these [incidents] are new," according to Washington-based think-tank Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. "There's nothing different today that China wasn't doing six months ago," AMTI director Gregory Poling said in an online forum hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. "It has been steadily increasing its presence... it's been steadily increasing the frequency of harassment of Southeast Asian oil and gas operations, fishing operations, etc.," Poling said, adding that China is showing no signs of stopping in order to establish control of contested waters. "I think people are a little more scandalized. They have assumed that amid the global pandemic, we would see a calming and that hasn't happened," he added. President Rodrigo Duterte has nurtured ties with China despite its continued aggression in the West Philippine Sea areas Manila claims and occupies in the South China Sea. A 2016 ruling by a Hague-based arbitral tribunal backed by the Permanent Court of Arbitration voided Chinas sweeping claims over virtually the entire South China Sea based on so-called historical rights, but Beijing continues to reject this decision. Chinese President Xi Jinping has convinced Duterte to "shelve differences" to make way for joint oil and gas exploration. CNN Philippines Tristan Nodalo and Eimor Santos contributed to this report. On Monday, the first day of the easing of Covid-19 lockdown norms, factories in most states did not resume work, with some deciding to continue with a hard lockdown until its designated deadline of May 3 and companies claiming that the requirements for reopening were far too stringent. Some economists expressed hope that the relaxation of restrictions would get activities accounting for 45% of the economy going; however, reports from the states suggest that at least on Day 1, there was only a marginal improvement in terms of economic activities. The ministry of home affairs, in guidelines issued on April 15, allowed factories in rural areas, special economic zones, industrial clusters and townships in non-Covid hotspots to reopen from April 20 onwards. It said these would have to maintain social distancing norms on the shopfloor and also make arrangements to either safely transport the workers or out them up temporarily onsite. The state governments were required to issue guidelines for factories and commercial establishments to operate. Even as companies tried to get their workforce organised, some states announced fresh guidelines on Monday. The Haryana government , for instance, directed that a maximum of 1,000 workers for every rural block and 2,000 per municipal corporation would be allowed for industries and commercial establishments. Till Sunday, the rule was that all units in non-Covid areas could work -- with up to 50% workforce. Permissions will be granted by the designated approval committees on first come first serve basis in the first phase (for allowing the workers as per new limit), said a senior Haryana government official, who asked not to be named. These conditions will, however, not apply for workers deployed onsite in construction projects. In the biggest industrial cluster of Punjab, Ludhiana, around 99% of about 95,000 units remain closed on Monday after chief minister Amarinder Singh decided to continue the hard lockdown till May 3. The officials said the decision to withdraw the permission given to industry was taken after a review by the CM. President of the Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings (CICU), Upkar Ahuja, said there was no benefit of opening a certain sector till the complete supply chain is permitted to operate. Telangana on Sunday night announced that no relaxations would be given to industry and a complete lockdown will continue till May 7. On Monday, Tamil Nadu, which has reported 16 deaths and 1,477 positive coronavirus disease cases till Monday afternoon announced that the complete lockdown would continue till May 3. Essential and other services as already permitted will continue. Suitable orders will be promulgated if the virus spread reduces, depending upon the situation, based on the recommendations of the committee, a government statement said. Indias biggest state, Uttar Pradesh, saw a lukewarm response with industries in major clusters such as Kanpur, Lucknow, Moradabad, Bareilly and Varanasi not opening as they fall in red zones. Elsewhere, industry leaders cited fear of strict restrictions which include in-situ boarding and lodging for workers and closing of industries which fail to comply with orders and booking of factory owners if a worker tested positive for Covid-19. UP permitted companies in 11 industries including cement, textiles and paper to resume production from Monday with 50% staff and strict hygiene and social distancing conditions. The government has imposed such tough conditions that it is not possible for us to run. No industrialist wants an FIR against him if any coronavirus positive case is reported from his units, said Pankaj Kumar, national president of the Indian Industries Association. He said that except those listed in the essential goods category, no other unit resumed production on Monday. The situation was better in Gujarat, with a government statement saying that nearly 4,000 units including ceramic units in Morbi, engineering units in Rajkot and Kutch, chemical units in Ankleshwar and automobile units in Sanand resumed operations. In neighbouring Rajasthan, most units including those making the famous Makrana stone, did not start operations. My estimate is that about 5% units in industrial areas and 20% in rural areas started operating, said Suresh Agarwal, president of the Federation of Rajasthan Trade and Industry (FORTI). The guidelines do not work for us, especially regarding accommodating labourers in the factory premises, he said. Jute factories in West Bengal, key to provide packaging bags for wheat procured in the country, did not resume operations till late on Monday with permission from the state government awaited, company executives said. Government officials did not respond to queries seeking comment. In Uttarakhand, the government received only 500 applications from a total 65,000 units to resume work from April 21. In Maharashtra, which has about 450,000 ndustries, applications were received from only 300. Maharashtra has set an online system to seek permission for industries to run. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Chef Anne Burrell has taken her love life off the back burner and is serving up a whole new future! The host of Food Network's "Worst Cooks in America" is engaged to Stuart Claxton, who works in ad sales marketing at Univision. Burrell, 50, announced the news on Tuesday that Claxton, 48, had proposed in her hometown of Cazenovia, New York, where the pair are quarantining with her family. People first reported the news. Stuart Claxton, Anne Burrell and that ring! (Anne Burrell) "I mean, I am 50. It didnt seem it would be in the cards for me," Burrell told TODAY Food. "I had always been so focused on my career. [Marriage] wasnt something I thought of." The couple first met on the dating app Bumble nearly two years ago. Claxton said he had no idea the lady he matched with was a Food Network star. "When they made Anne, they broke the mold," Claxton told TODAY. "It was a wonderful surprise. You know, on social, the photos are never as good as the real thing. When she sat down in front of me, I was like, 'Wow, shes so hot.'" Burrell said she was equally smitten. When the coronavirus shutdowns happened, the couple decided to quarantine in Burrell's hometown to be near her mother. Claxton had already been planning a proposal but decided he needed to come up with a plan to pop the question in quarantine. "Fortuitously, I brought the ring," he said. "Annes mother has a townhouse and lovely apartment. I asked her for permission to ask Anne to marry me and we then started planning and getting things together." With the help of Anne's 75-year-old mother, Claxton set up a romantic dinner date in the townhouse for the couple. "Annes mom dressed up the room and decorated it and set the table. It was better than I would have come up with myself," Claxton said. "We had a lovely dinner. I kept bringing the conversation around to our past and relationship and kept getting these bemused looks from Anne." Story continues Finally, he got down on one knee and Burrell enthusiastically said yes. "We finished dinner and I had to clean myself up because I was bawling," Burrell said. "And then we met up with everyone else. My mom had Champagne ready and we had a toast and that was really fun." Burrell said the "silver lining" of getting engaged in quarantine was being close to her mother and Claxton's 15-year-old son, Javier. But don't expect wedding bells just yet, considering how difficult it is to plan during a pandemic. We havent started talking about wedding planning yet because stuff is so up in the air," Burrell said. "We just want to bask in the glow of this right now." By Jesse Coy Nelson Stories have appeared recently about spikes in COVID-19 cases in Japan, and the U.S. government urging its citizens to return home. Several readers commented with exactly what was on my mind. Why should any U.S. citizen abroad expect a better situation in the U.S.? In the case of South Korea, which I consider my home, I did feel odd returning from my winter travels at the end of February to what seemed to be the new center of COVID-19 cases. A month and a half later, South Korea's situation seems to have stabilized. On the Johns Hopkins University "sick map," South Korea is now 17th. Nobody can predict the future with certainty regarding COVID-19. But I am more than happy to remain in South Korea. As cases in the U.S. jump with more testing, I would have concerns with living in the U.S. at this time. As business continues to grind to a halt, and more people are in self-quarantine, anxiety will increase. The same can be said for any area. Europe had its first taste of this situation with Italy. Soon one country after another passed South Korea in case numbers. There was Spain and Germany, then France and Switzerland, and now even Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal. All of this undoubtedly makes EU citizens rethink open borders policies. Continental Europe is approximately 33 percent larger than the continental U.S., so a size comparison is valid. There is also a similarity in the U.S. when it comes to states setting policy, just as individual EU countries have been setting their own policies to combat COVID-19. But it is not the U.S.' size that would worry me if I were residing there at this time. Several other factors differentiate the U.S. from other countries. Considering the high cost of health care, college tuition, and average household debt, financial ruin could be a few paychecks away. Socially, while other countries have left-right political divides, this divide in the U.S. has become super-charged. Sensationalistic editorializing fuels U.S. news outlets. Tempers flare. This is a recipe for disaster when mixed with future anxieties and cabin fever. South Korea may have received a blessing in disguise by being struck early by COVID-19. Unlike the U.S., this country has already had experience with SARS and MERS in the recent past. South Korea also has no true land border, so the ability to control passage in and out of the country is a great benefit. In addition, there is a more unified national spirit in South Korea on average when a job needs to be done. This is ingrained in recent Korean history if one considers South Korea's state of devastation directly after the Korean War only 67 years ago, compared to its current status in the world. So during this current global crisis, I see nothing compelling me to be "home" in the U.S. There is a saying that home is where the heart is. My response is simple: I am home. The author (razoripress@yahoo.com) is an associate professor at Dongseo University, as well as a freelance writer and avid traveler, who has visited 104 countries to date. New Delhi, April 21 : Demand generation will be a major challenge for the Indian auto industry, as the lockdown measure is expected to dent the economy hard, an industry body said. The auto industry has been struggling for some time now, earlier the general economic slowdown had hampered its growth during 2019, and now the production, sales and financing constraints unleashed by the lockdown has further dented the sector's fortunes. Currently, production at factories and suppliers have been halted so are the functioning of dealerships. The lockdown which has been deemed necessary to curb the spread of COVID-19, has dealt a heavy blow to commerce, leading to a temporary closure of shopping malls, grounding of aircraft, shutting down of factories and deserted market places. According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers' (SIAM) Director General Rajesh Menon: "Indian automobile industry is going through its most stressful period with specific challenges related to demand, supply and availability of finance because of COVID-19 related lockdown." "Demand creation would be a major challenge." Consequently, the industry body has sought a stimulus package from the Centre. "Government should include Temporary Reduction in standard GST rate by 10 per cent across all vehicle categories in the stimulus package," Menon said. At present, automobiles attract 28 per cent or more GST, excluding Cess charges, insurance cost and other sector-specific taxes. "Incentive based 'Vehicle Scrappage' scheme including 50 per cent rebate in GST, road tax and registration charges for the purchase of the new vehicle," he said. The automobile industry has repeatedly sought an 'End of Life' policy from the Central government as a measure to arrest the falling sales. The policy, if implemented, is expected to encourage customers to go in for new purchases which will be backed-up by government incentives in lieu of their old vehicles. As the revenues take a hit, the original equipment manufacturers are struggling to meet fixed cost and working capital requirements, he said. The domestic passenger vehicle sales have halved in March compared to the same period of last year. A total of 1,43,014 passenger vehicles were sold in March 2020 in India, 51 per cent lower than the 2,91,861 units sold in March 2019. Commercial vehicle sales plunged 88 per cent to 13,027 units last month, compared to 1,09,022 units during the year ago period. Three-wheeler sales stood at 27,608 units, 58.34 per cent lower on a year-on-year basis. Similarly, two-wheeler sales were recorded at 8,66,849 units in March 2020, compared to 1,440,593 units in March 2019, a decline of 39.83 per cent. Production of vehicles last month declined by 33.61 per cent to 1,447,345 units, including passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, three-wheelers, two-wheelers and quadricycles, as against 2,180,203 units in March 2019, the data showed. As per SIAM's estimate, the Indian auto industry is losing Rs 2,300 crore in production turnover for every day of closure. Presently, the automotive industry accounts for almost 50 per cent of manufacturing gross domestic product (GDP), 15 per cent of goods and services tax (GST) and employees 37 million people directly and indirectly in India. (Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in) As workers look on, the driver of a pick-up truck stands on the bodies in the cargo bed as he uncovers them from beneath a mat. Read more The horror of the coronavirus pandemic took an especially macabre turn on Sunday afternoon when a Ford pickup truck pulled up behind the Philadelphia Medical Examiners Office with five or six bagged bodies stacked in its open cargo bed. The driver got out, spoke briefly to a medical examiners employee who seemed unnerved by the delivery, and then climbed onto the cargo bed, walking on bodies that initially had been covered by mats, according to an Inquirer photographer who was working near the site in University City. He pulled the bodies by their feet to the edge of the truck bed. The remains were offloaded one at a time onto gurneys and wheeled up a ramp into a refrigerated trailer. The unidentified driver wore torn jeans, a blue jacket, and a dark blue cap. The Medical Examiners Office confirmed that a transfer of human remains from a local hospital had arrived in an unapproved manner. It is absolutely counter to existing and longstanding Medical Examiners Offices normal transfer protocols, said Communications Director James Garrow, and the transferring hospital was strongly reminded of those protocols. He declined to identify the hospital. But scrawled in black marker on two of the white body bags were the words Albert Einstein Medical and Einstein Med Center. In response to questions, a spokesperson for Einstein Healthcare Network, which operates Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, issued a statement late Monday saying it was demanding an immediate update on pandemic protocols from its transportation contractor. Like other hospitals in the region, Einstein contracts with a funeral home to handle the transfer of remains to the Medical Examiners Office. The pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for hospitals, the statement said. We deeply apologize," the statement said, "and are making every effort to ensure we continue to provide the respectful, compassionate care that we are known for. It was about 3:30 p.m. when the dark blue Ford F-150 XLT arrived in the rear of the Joseph W. Spellman Medical Examiner Building on University Avenue. Thats where city officials have placed three refrigerated trailers, bought to relieve the overcrowding occurring at hospitals and funeral homes as deaths soar from COVID-19. In Philadelphia, more than 9,200 people have been infected and at least 365 have died. Each of the trailers can hold up to 40 bodies. Garrow said he did not know and would not know if all or any of the people in the truck had died of COVID-19. Because the remains were sent for overflow storage, the office does not necessarily have jurisdiction to conduct investigations, he said. The trailers were not purchased exclusively to hold COVID-19 fatalities, according to Garrow and Deana Gamble, a spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney. Rather, they provide additional holding space, as funeral homes exhaust their capacity and families need more time to make arrangements. For instance, executives at the Mercy Fitzgerald hospital campus in Darby Borough have secured a refrigerated truck that currently holds about 20 bodies. In normal times, said Gregory McDonald, dean of the School of Health Sciences at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and the deputy coroner of Montgomery County, the body of someone who dies in a hospital or care home would be released to a funeral home. Remains would be sent to a medical examiner or coroner for investigation only in cases of unnatural death, such as suicide, homicide, or accident, he said. A Philadelphia city official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said local hospitals sometimes contract with transportation services to move bodies to the morgue. City workers from the Department of Licenses and Inspections have been diverted to the morgue to help unload remains, the official said. On Monday, it was clear that driving bodies across city streets in a pickup truck did not accord proper respect and dignity to the dead. But World Health Organization guidance indicates that the incident posed no public health risk. Cadavers do not transmit disease, except in limited, particular circumstances during an autopsy, the agency advised last month. Theres no evidence of someone becoming infected from exposure to the bodies of people who died from COVID-19, the agency said. At the same time, COVID-19 has shaken and altered the way that Americans die and how survivors mourn and say goodbye. 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. New York City, an epicenter of the outbreak, has begun burying unclaimed remains in mass graves. Everywhere, funeral services have had to be postponed because of the danger of people gathering in crowds. Garrow said the Philadelphia Medical Examiners Office releases no information about remains being held in storage. This was an expected transfer, meaning staff at the Medical Examiners Office knew to prepare to receive a transfer, he said. Upon receipt, MEO staff ensured the bodies were safe and not damaged from the transit and transferred them into storage. Out of respect for the dead, the MEOs policy is to not release information about, or a census on, bodies sent to the morgue for storage. Staff writer Ellie Rushing contributed to this article. Could Virus See Rohingya 'Floating Coffins' Crisis Return to ASEAN? By VOA News April 20, 2020 Malaysia is using COVID-19 as an excuse to reject Rohingya Muslim refugees, human rights groups say, bringing flashbacks of 2015 when boat refugees died after escaping Myanmar in what the United Nations called "floating coffins." The Malaysian military confirmed it had turned back at least one "suspicious boat" full of Rohingya Friday, though Amnesty International said it had received information that there are a handful of other boats in limbo, possibly heading to Malaysia and Thailand. "Refusing to help the people on these boats would not be willfully blind, it would be consciously making their plights even worse," Clare Algar, senior director for research, advocacy and policy at Amnesty International, said. She added, "The battle against COVID-19 is no excuse for regional governments to let their seas become graveyards for desperate Rohingya people." The nearly 400 refugees were then rescued by Bangladesh after almost two months at sea, but 30 others may have died on the journey, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The agency said the Rohingya were malnourished and in need of medical care. When turning away the refugee boat, Kuala Lumpur said it was merely enforcing its "movement control order," one of the measures to fight the virus that also included thousands of arrests of citizens and a crackdown on speech. The pandemic has left refugees vulnerable to infection around the world. In Greece, activists want the government to evacuate the refugee camp on Lesbos island, which is holding seven times the number of people allowed. In Guatemala, the government has stopped receiving deportation flights from the United States after dozens of asylum seekers returned to the Central American country infected. Malaysia had the most COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia last month, but it has since been narrowly surpassed by Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore. However Algar noted that Malaysia can both carry out its international refugee duties, while at the same time also fighting the pandemic. She pointed to another boat full of Rohingya that Malaysia brought to shore earlier this month. The Muslim majority country has taken in those more than 200 refugees, including putting them in quarantine, without harming the rest of the population. The Rohingya have been fleeing from Myanmar for years, where the Buddhist majority has engaged in what the United Nations referred to as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing." "Haven't the people of Rakhine State suffered enough?" Maria Chin Abdullah, a Malaysian Member of Parliament, said last month, referring to the region in Myanmar where Rohingya live. "Recent years have brought nothing but pain and violence for the communities there." Boats believed to be carrying refugees have also been spotted off the coast of Thailand, which is sandwiched in between Myanmar and Malaysia, according to Amnesty International. Bangkok has not said whether it will accept any of the Rohingya refugees coming by boat if they arrive in Thailand. The country, which was the first outside China to report a case of COVID-19, had 2,765 cases and 47 deaths as of Monday, while Malaysia had 5,305 cases and 88 deaths, according to data compiled by the World Health Organization. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address AP Photo/David Goldman The information in this post is from the Associated Press. NEW YORK (AP) The streets are eerily quiet. Barely a soul walks by. But when Rabbi Shmuel Plafker arrives at the cemetery, it's buzzing: Vans pulling in with bodies aboard, mounds of dirt piling up as graves are dug open, a line of white signs pressed into the ground marking plots that are newly occupied. Some of the few signs of life in this anguished city are coming from those tending to the dead. As the world retreats and the pandemic's confirmed death toll in New York City alone charges past 10,000, funeral directors, cemetery workers and others who oversee a body's final chapter are sprinting to keep up. Plafker, the chaplain at Staten Island's Mount Richmond Cemetery in Richmond, grips in hands covered by rubber gloves the long list of burials he must preside over this day. In the notes section beside each person's name, the reason for their demise: "COVID." "COVID." "COVID." "There's a tremendous sadness," he says. "Were it not for this, they would be living, some healthy, some not so healthy. But they would be alive." Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman Mount Richmond Cemetery is run by the Hebrew Free Burial Association, which buries Jews who die with little or nothing. A century ago, it buried garment workers killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and those who fell to the Spanish flu. More recently, it was Holocaust survivors who fled Europe. And now, those dying of the coronavirus. A stream of people trusted with preparing Mount Richmond's dead for burial continues to arrive at the cemetery, carefully washing the bodies as Jewish law dictates, then placing them in a white shroud. The Torah calls for burial as soon as possible. These days, it's more of a challenge than ever. Companies that transport the dead to their final resting places are backed up, part of a chain reaction of hold-ups that includes overbooked funeral homes and cemeteries that are turning families away. "The casket companies have no caskets," says James Donofrio, a funeral director who handles Mount Richmond's arrangements. Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman Hebrew Free Burial stocked up on caskets before the coronavirus unleashed its worst, just as they did with protective gear for workers, garments for the dead and other supplies. They think they have enough. Then again, they thought the mortuary cooler they ordered a month ago to fit an extra four bodies would be enough extra space. Now they have a refrigerated trailer big enough to hold 20. Amy Koplow, who runs Hebrew Free Burial, worries about staff maintaining such furious pace and raising enough money to cover the costs being run up. But they've vowed to plod on. They were used to burying one person on an average day. A "crazy day," Koplow says, would be five. Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman The other day, they put 11 people in the ground. Staffers find themselves exchanging texts about death certificates at 2 a.m. and fielding dozens of calls at a time. It takes its toll on everyone. Plafker looks at the trees in bloom and the grass sprouting and finds spring's signs of rebirth so paradoxical given the death that surrounds him. He thinks of the centuries-old words he recites on the High Holy Days, that seem to carry so much more weight now. "How many shall pass away and how many shall be born," it says. "Who shall perish by water and who by fire? Who by sword and who by wild beast? Who by famine and who by thirst? Who by earthquake and who by plague?" Now, it seems, a plague is upon him. Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman Between travel restrictions and potentially exposed family members kept in isolation, many funerals now have no mourners on site. When they do, they are prohibited from gathering at the graveside, instead listening to rushed services by phone from cars parked 50 feet away. Michael Tokar comes along this day to bid his father farewell, waiting in his car for directions when Donofrio arrives with news. "We have a problem," an apologetic Donofrio says. "The body ain't here. We're going to have to do the funeral tomorrow." There was a snag in getting the hospital to release the remains. So the son dutifully returns a day later. Tokar's father had a cough and fever and a home health aide got him to the hospital. Two days later, he was dead, with the coronavirus listed as the cause. Don't Edit Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman As Tokar sits in his car, his phone rings. Plafker is on the line. The service is beginning and the rabbi delivers a play-by-play of the ritual. "I'm going to help the men lower the body," he tells him. The crew is dressed in white protective suits, masks and gloves, looking more fit for a moon landing than a funeral. They use orange straps to place David Tokar in his grave. "We're going to cover him now," Plafker says, before asking the son if he wanted to talk about his dad. "He was born 92 years ago," he began, reciting a collection of facts that form a portrait. He collected stamps. He loved the racetrack. He adored his grandchildren. The rabbi reads a Psalm and tells Tokar his father will live on in the hearts of those who loved him and that he hopes this "terrible plague" will finally pass. In 10 minutes, it is over. Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman A few rows away, Thomas Cortez, a gravedigger, readies another grave. Two of his friends have fallen ill and he and his colleagues worry they will too. It is sad work, he admits, but it must continue. Another funeral is about to begin. Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman Cortez, left, and Plafker look into the mortuary cooler after someone presumed to have died from coronanvirus arrived from a hospital as they keep pace with a surge in burials at Mount Richmond Cemetery. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Don't Edit David Goldman Cortez accompanies a casket as it's brought to the plot for burial at Mount Richmond Cemetery. The group serves Jews who mostly die with little or nothing. A century ago, it buried garment workers killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and those who fell to the Spanish flu. More recently, it was Holocaust survivors who fled Europe. And now, those dying of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman Cortez directs his co-worker where to stop the pickup truck carrying a casket as it's brought to a plot for burial. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Don't Edit Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman Tokar holds the ring of his father after it was returned to him before his burial at Mount Richmond Cemetery. "My father wore this ring all his life, and I want to keep it for me. It's the best memory. It's like part of my father." (AP Photo/David Goldman) Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman Jason Boxer wipes away tears while observing from the car the burial of his father, Allen Boxer, at Mount Richmond Cemetery. "He was kind and gentle and had the biggest heart of anyone you'd know," said Boxer of his father, a U.S. Army veteran. "It's hard, very hard," he added of not being able to stand at the grave during the service. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Don't Edit AP Photo/David Goldman The casket of someone presumed to have died from coronavirus waits to be buried without any family present at Mount Richmond Cemetery. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Such a lack of clarity would further highlight the limits of Trump's unorthodox personal diplomacy with Kim, which has included three meetings over 13 months of fitful nuclear disarmament talks. Though the negotiations have gone dormant since last summer, Trump sent Kim a note in late March that included an offer to cooperate in efforts to defeat the coronavirus pandemic, according to the leader's sister, Kim Yo Jong, who is a high-ranking official in the ruling party. Boris Johnsons official spokesman has said the prime minister has full confidence in Matt Hancock, and insisted Downing Street absolutely stands by the health secretarys target of 100,000 daily tests for coronavirus by the end of April. The comment came as the latest figures then available showed that 19,316 tests were conducted in the 24 hours up to 9am on Monday, with nine days left to Mr Hancocks deadline. And later figures for the following 24 hours showed that testing dipped to just 18,206 people on Monday, bringing to total number of tests carried out over the course of the outbreak to 535,342. A report in The Telegraph today suggested that Whitehall figures were distancing themselves from the target, quoting Downing Street sources as describing it as arbitrary and irrational. But Mr Johnsons spokesman dismissed the claim as wrong, claiming that the unnamed insider quoted could be anyone. We are absolutely standing by the target, said the PMs spokesman. We have said throughout that that is a government target and we are working hard to hit it. Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou The Telegraph quoted an insider close to Downing Street as saying that the 100,000 target had been devised by Hancock to buy time in response to media pressure and might come back to bite him. The unnamed source said: Hes not had a good crisis. The prime minister will say he has confidence in him but it doesnt feel like that. Referring to the source, Mr Johnsons spokesman said: Whoever they are and it could be anyone given that description they are wrong. Asked whether Mr Hancock enjoyed Mr Johnsons full confidence, the PMs spokesman replied: Yes. A coronavirus drive-through testing centre (AFP/Getty) Some 13,460 of Sundays tests were conducted at Public Health England, NHS and devolved administration labs and 5,856 at the network of 27 new commercially operated drive-through centres. The drive-through network is due to be expanded to 50 by 30 April in the push to meet Mr Hancocks target. But the number of tests completed fell well short of the 39,250 daily capacity available, despite the government extending eligibility beyond NHS staff and care home workers and their relatives to also include firefighters and other essential workers. In all, 97,063 health and care workers and family members had been tested by Monday morning to see if they could return to work after self-isolating. NHS staff absence rates in England are down significantly since the start of the month to 4.3 per cent of doctors and 8.3 per cent of nurses, said Downing Street. The PMs spokesman declined to say whether eligibility for tests could be expanded to include people like supermarket workers or bus drivers in order to ensure capacity is used to the full. We have always said that as capacity increases we will be able to widen the number of eligible groups in the programme, he said. BLOOMFIELD, Conn., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cigna Foundation and New York Life Foundation today launched the Brave of Heart Fund to provide monetary grants to survivors of front-line U.S. healthcare workers who give their lives in the fight against COVID-19. The Cigna Foundation and the New York Life Foundation are each making initial contributions of $25 million to seed the Fund. The New York Life Foundation will also match the first $25 million of additional individual donations received. Together, the companies hope to raise more than $100 million to protect these families from financial hardship and provide behavioral and emotional support. The Fund will be administered by the nonprofit E4E Relief, the nation's leading provider of charitable employee relief funds, and will begin accepting applications in May. In addition to financial assistance provided by the Cigna Foundation, Cigna will provide behavioral and emotional health support to the families to help them cope with feelings associated with grief, including anxiety, loneliness, and depression. These offerings are an expansion of Cigna's efforts to support both front-line healthcare workers and the general public by providing webinars, articles, and podcasts to help people manage fear and anxiety, and build resiliency during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. "As we've seen in the past, trying times bring out the best in us, as individuals and communities. Our nation's healthcare workers and volunteers are embodying this every day, as they answer the call of duty with bravery and selflessness," said David M. Cordani, Cigna President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are proud to partner with New York Life to support the families of these American heroes who give so much while treating others. Through the Brave of Heart Fund, we will bring greater peace of mind to these families, by helping to relieve the emotional and financial burdens they will face in the aftermath of this health crisis." New York Life Chairman and CEO Ted Mathas stated, "In tough times, true heroes are revealed. The heroes today are not only the courageous and selfless frontline healthcare workers and volunteers who, without hesitation and without question, have put themselves in harm's way to help those who desperately need it, but also their families who are living with the anxiety and fear of what may happen to their loved ones in the days ahead. The Brave of Heart Fund is our way to honor these heroes by doing what New York Life and Cigna do best supporting these individuals and their families with financial and emotional support and being there when we are needed most." Families of doctors, nurses, technicians, orderlies, cafeteria workers, custodians, volunteers, and others working on the frontlines of healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic are eligible to apply for support from the Brave of Heart Fund. They may receive grants valued at up to $75,000 per family for medical care and counseling, housing, food, transportation, education, and other needs as they manage the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and begin to move forward. Given the urgency of the evolving crisis and the significant impact COVID-19 will have on the mental and emotional health of the families affected, the Fund is being created on an accelerated basis and will be ready to accept applications for its first grants in May 2020. Initial $15,000 grants seek to provide peace of mind by covering families' immediate expenses based on financial need. Eligible families also can receive up to an additional $60,000 to aid their recovery based on need. The Brave of Heart Fund is the latest in a series of steps Cigna has taken to help protect customers, communities, health care providers and employees from the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has already committed to several actions through May 31, 2020. Key activities include: Waiving cost-sharing for COVID-19 diagnostic testing, telehealth screenings and treatment.* Making it easier for customers to be treated virtually by their own physicians. Making it easier for hospitals to transfer patients to long-term acute care hospitals and subacute facilities. Waiving prior authorizations for emergency department visits and home health care services. Providing free, supportive resources for the general public on how to manage anxiety, fear and improve resiliency. Launching a Mindfulness for Health Care Workers program. Donating medications to Washington University for a clinical trial on COVID-19 treatment. for a clinical trial on COVID-19 treatment. Providing Cigna employees with 80 hours of emergency time off for COVID-19 related needs through 2020. Providing additional compensation and additional assistance to reward Cigna employees who must continue to work onsite, including Cigna's front-line healthcare professionals. Making contributions from the Cigna Foundation to international and domestic non-profit organizations to support for health care professionals and provide relief for families and children facing food insecurities. Individuals and corporations can donate to the Brave of Heart Fund by visiting www.braveofheartfund.com. The site also includes links to a variety of resources for healthcare workers and their families. The Fund will be administered through E4E Relief, a subsidiary of the public charity Foundation For The Carolinas, working in partnership with New York Life and Cigna. E4E Relief has nearly 20 years of experience in helping compassionate companies respond to large and small crises, such as natural disasters and family emergencies, allowing employers to quickly care for their most important resources their people. In the past five years, E4E Relief has received more than $200 million in donations and awarded more than $90 million in charitable grants, supporting relief efforts for 4 million people worldwide. About the Cigna Foundation The Cigna Foundation, established in 1962, is a private foundation funded by contributions from Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) and its subsidiaries. The Cigna Foundation supports organizations sharing its commitment to enhancing the health of individuals and families, and the well-being of their communities, with a special focus on those communities where Cigna employees live and work. About Cigna Cigna Corporation is a global health service company dedicated to improving the health, well-being, and peace of mind of those we serve. Cigna delivers choice, predictability, affordability and access to quality care through integrated capabilities and connected, personalized solutions that advance whole person health. All products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Cigna Life Insurance Company of New York, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Express Scripts companies or their affiliates, and Life Insurance Company of North America. Such products and services include an integrated suite of health services, such as medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, vision, supplemental benefits, and other related products including group life, accident and disability insurance. Cigna maintains sales capability in over 30 countries and jurisdictions, and has more than 170 million customer relationships throughout the world. To learn more about Cigna, including links to follow us on Facebook or Twitter, visit www.cigna.com. * The treatments that Cigna will cover for COVID-19 are those covered under Medicare or other applicable state regulations. The company will reimburse healthcare providers at Cigna's in-network rates or Medicare rates, as applicable. These benefits apply to customers in the United States who are covered under Cigna's employer/union sponsored insured group health plans, insured plans for US based globally mobile individuals, Medicare Advantage and Individual and Family Plans (IFP). Cigna will also administer the waiver to self-insured group health plans and the company encourages widespread participation, although these plans will have an opportunity to opt-out of the waiver option. Media Contact Ellie Polack 1 (860) 902-4906 [email protected] SOURCE Cigna Related Links https://www.cigna.com Courtney Roulston came fifth place on the second season of MasterChef Australia back in 2010. But during Tuesday night's episode, the Sydney Swans caterer, 40, became the second contestant to be sent home on MasterChef: Back To Win. Yellow team members were put through a two-round pressure test after losing the BBQ challenge during Monday night's episode. 'No favourites here!' MasterChef's Courtney Roulston (pictured) is the second contestant to be eliminated from the competition after failing to complete her dishes Judge Jock Zonfrillo tasked them with cooking dishes from his three-hatted Adelaide restaurant Orana, including its signature scarlet prawns. But Courtney failed to remove a 'poo chute' from one her prawns, sending her into the elimination round with Ben Ungermann and Reece Hignell. In the elimination round, the trio had to make a delicate kohlrabi salad with burrata foam and a damper served with lamb butter by following Orana recipes. Oh, chute! Judge Jock Zonfrillo discovered a poo shoot in one of Courtney's scarlet prawns sending her into the elimination round with Ben Ungermann and Reece Hignell On the chopping block! Reece (left), Courtney (centre) and Ben (right) made a kohlrabi salad with burrata foam and a damper served with lamb butter in the elimination round The fatal mistake: Courtney's salad dressing got stuck in the bottle, and she was forced to serve an unfinished kohlrabi dish (right) After cooking the dishes, Courtney had to assemble and present them right in front of the judges. But her salad dressing got stuck in the bottle, and she was forced to serve an unfinished kohlrabi dish. 'One dish was incomplete and that was yours, Courtney. And that's why you're going home,' Jock said as he eliminated her. But there was no hard feelings and Courtney immediately gave the judge a hug. No hard feelings: Courtney gave Jock a hug and went up to co-judge Andy Allen before she jokingly wrapped her hands around his neck as she said: 'You were supposed to be my friend!' 'No favourites here!' co-judge Melissa Leong (centre) said She then went up to co-judge Andy Allen and jokingly wrapped her hands around his neck as she said: 'You were supposed to be my friend!' 'No favourites here!' judge Melissa Leong said. 'I gave it my all today. I'm most proud that I had a crack, I came back. I feel like finale dishes from 10 years ago is what we just cooked today,' Courtney said as she left. 'The competition is tough but it's the greatest experience you can get.' MasterChef: Back To Win continues Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel 10 SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG said on Monday it will keep its factories in Brazil, South America's top auto producer, shut through the end of the month, but that a decision has not been made on whether it will reopen them in May or later. The automaker has just reached a tentative deal with its unions that will keep workers net salaries intact, Volkswagen said. Gross salaries will be reduced but Brazil's government will help make up the difference with subsidies. If approved, the deal would put Volkswagen's workers in a better position than those at rival General Motors Co , who have taken pay cuts as large as 25% even including the subsidies introduced as part of Brazil's coronavirus response. Automakers have all but shut down their plants in Brazil due to the coronavirus outbreak. But as the production hiatus has grown, companies have been negotiating how to cut payroll costs. The carmakers are also aggressively lobbying Brazil's federal government for emergency loans as most do not have enough cash on hand to keep paying salaries for months. They have asked for as much as 100 billion reais ($18.88 billion), Reuters reported, although there is no guarantee the government would be willing to accept that request. The president of Brazil's development bank BNDES, which would issue the loans on behalf of the government, said on Sunday that negotiations with automakers should be finalized in May. Unionized workers at Volkswagen were voting on the proposal Monday, through the end of the day. Even as most of the industry remains shuttered, tiremaker Pirelli said on Monday that it was resuming limited production at its two Brazilian factories incorporating social distancing and other health measures. (Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) By PTI NEW DELHI: The Indian Army is readying separate teams to be deployed in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan to help those countries boost capabilities to deal with rising cases of coronavirus, official sources said on Tuesday. A 14-member Indian Army team was sent to Maldives last month to help the island nation set up coronavirus testing laboratories and train local medical professionals to fight the pandemic. Earlier this month, India dispatched a 15-member team of Army to Kuwait as part of bilateral cooperation between the two countries. The sources said the teams for Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan are being readied as part of India's policy of extending helping hand to all friendly countries in the region to fight the pandemic. India has also been playing a key role in pushing for a common framework in fighting the pandemic in the SAARC region. ALSO READ: Army prioritises troop movement for Northern Command, office opened partially At a video conference on March 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for formulating a joint strategy to fight COVID-19 in the SAARC region and proposed an emergency fund with an initial offer of USD 10 million from India. It is understood that India has already made the contribution. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a grouping comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. All the SAARC member nations are reeling under adverse social and economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. As part of its policy to help friendly countries to deal with the pandemic, India is also supplying anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to 55 countries. A number of countries including the US, Mauritius and Seychelles have already received the drug. Hydroxychloroquine has been identified by the US Food and Drug Administration as a possible treatment for COVID-19 and it is being tested on more than 1,500 coronavirus patients in New York. The demand for the drug has swelled rapidly after India decided to lift a ban on its export. In the neighbourhood, India is sending the drug to Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh Nepal, Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, sources said. A 40-year-old man facing extradition to the UK on 39 charges of manslaughter and a charge of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration has been remanded in custody at the High Court in Dublin. Ronan Hughes, 40, from Silverstream, Tyholland in Co Monaghan, was detained on Monday following the execution of a European Arrest Warrant in the Irish Republic. He faces 39 charges of manslaughter and a charge of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration in connection with the deaths of 39 migrants found in a refrigerated lorry container in Essex. Hughes was arrested on Tuesday in Co Monaghan by police in the Republic of Ireland on foot of a European Arrest Warrant. Expand Close Police activity in 2019 at the Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, Essex (Aaron Chown/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Police activity in 2019 at the Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, Essex (Aaron Chown/PA) Essex Police said in a statement that the UKs Crown Prosecution Service had authorised manslaughter charges against him and immigration offences. Hughes will apply for bail next Wednesday and has been remanded in custody until then. His extradition hearing is due to be held in Dublin on May 1. Hughes said nothing during the short hearing in Dublins Central Criminal Court on Tuesday morning apart from thank you judge. Judge Paul Burns said he considered the warrant to have been duly executed and was satisfied the person in court is the person it had been issued for. He said Mr Hughes had been informed of his rights to surrender to the request to be extradited. The 39 Vietnamese nationals were found in a lorry container parked on an industrial estate in Grays on October 23 last year. Ten teenagers, including two 15-year-old boys, were among those found dead. Expand Close Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Maurice Robinson (Elizabeth Cook/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Maurice Robinson (Elizabeth Cook/PA) On April 8, Maurice Robinson, 25, of Craigavon in Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter at the Old Bailey in London. He previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property at the same court on November 25. He is due to be sentenced at a later date. In February, Eamonn Harrison, of Mayobridge, Northern Ireland, was granted permission to appeal against his extradition to the UK under the terms of a European Arrest Warrant issued by Essex Police. The 22-year-old is facing 39 manslaughter charges, one of human trafficking and one of assisting unlawful immigration. A further hearing in Harrisons case will be held in Dublin on May 7. Correction: A previous version of this article said each inmate under review is at least 60 years old and has a health condition. While some fit both categories, most are one or the other. New Jersey officials are considering releasing up to 1,105 prisoners as the coronavirus death toll rises behind bars, but none have been set free so far. Each inmate under review is at least 60 years old or has a health condition putting them at extra risk, according to corrections spokesman Matthew Schuman. Those denied parole in the past year or set to be released within the next three months may also be temporarily sent home. Anyone convicted of murder, sexual assault or other serious crimes is not eligible, and no one is guaranteed release, according to the executive order signed by Gov. Phil Murphy April 10. At least 15 inmates have died of COVID-19, according to the departments public statistics, and the virus has spread to every prison in the state. More than 370 officers and 82 prisoners have tested positive, but few are being tested. New Jersey oversees about 18,000 inmates overall, many of whom live in near-capacity prisons. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage The order requires officials to create a series of lists of potentially eligible inmates. After each list is created, county prosecutors and the state attorney generals office have five days weigh in, and a newly created Emergency Medical Review Committee has seven days to make recommendations for each prisoner. State Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks then has three days to make a final decision, according to the order. Those released to their homes will likely not be allowed to travel far and may have ankle bracelets, and their relatives and any victims must be notified. The department must also help inmates sign up for services they need, such as Medicaid. The review committee is co-chaired by Suzanne Lawrence, with the corrections department, and Steve Tallard with the parole board, according to Schuman. About 700 county jail inmates were already released last month. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Blake Nelson can be reached at bnelson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BCunninghamN. World War I symbolism gets lost on Americans. Our historical memories are short and selective, and the War has largely vanished from view, as historian Geoffrey Wawro writes at Time magazine. But in Europe, of course, where some armies suffered ten times the casualties as U.S. troops, and where millions of civilian died and towns were bombed into oblivion, the memory of the Great War is very much alive. In Ypres, Belgium, the War has been memorialized every day since 1928 (with the exception of four years of German occupation during WWII) by the Last Post Association, a devoted company of buglers who play the military song at the Menin Gate memorial every evening to commemorate the British dead at the Battle of Ypres. As of this writing, theyve held their 31,748th ceremony. In Britain itself, and around the world, the tune has a long history as a symbol, like the poppy, of Remembrance Day. Just like Taps in the U.S., the Last Post is a bugle call, writes the Last Post Association, played in the British Army (and in the armies of many other lands) to mark the end of the days labours and the onset of the nights rest. It has come to represent a final farewell to the fallen at the end of their earthly labours and at the onset of their eternal rest. Robert Graves summed up the songs association with death in his 1918 poem, The Last Post: The bugler sent a call of high romance Lights out! Lights out! to the deserted square. On the thin brazen notes he threw a prayer, God, if its this for me next time in France O spare the phantom bugle as I lie Dead in the gas and smoke and roar of guns, Dead in a row with the other broken ones Lying so stiff and still under the sky, Jolly young Fusiliers too good to die. I imagine Mark Knopfler, a lover of poetry, might be familiar with Graves verse. In his own rendition of the Last Post, above, Knopfler commemorates 17,000 Northumberland Fusiliers killed in the War, who came from his home region and suffered more casualties than any other regiment. Recorded on Remembrance Day, November 8, 2018, the 100th anniversary of the Wars end, Knopflers version is both restrained and fiercely overdriven, recalling Hendrixs Star-Spangled Banner in some of its flashier moments of vibrato. Rather than one of his usual iconic guitars, he plays a custom instrument that howls like a keening bugle. The recording was part of a project in which musicians around the world played the ceremonial call on a variety of instruments. For comparison with Knopflers creative interpretation, see a straightforward rendition played above by a member of the Australian Royal Military College Band. The bugle call reminds us of the war dead we may have forgotten, and the millions killed by starvation and influenza after the armistice. And perhaps it also reminds us of the importance of collective mourning for the dead in our own extraordinary historical moment. Related Content: Guitar Stories: Mark Knopfler on the Six Guitars That Shaped His Career Mark Knopfler Gives a Short Masterclass on His Favorite Guitars & Guitar Sounds The Great War: Video Series Will Document How WWI Unfolded, Week-by-Week, for the Next 4 Years Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness (Photo : Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay ) Advertisement Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay Like Us on Facebook Advertisement As coronavirus cases in the United States and throughout the Latin Americas spike, U.S. President Donald Trump has started biting the hard reality that going back to normal won't be as easy as expected. Trump Temporarily Suspends Immigration Trump on Monday evening announced that he is set to sign an executive order that should temporarily suspend immigration to the country as part of the efforts to build a stronger defense against the COVID-19 strain, CNN reported. The U.S. president has yet to detail his plans for suspending immigration and how bordering countries will be impacted amid the latest move from the White House. It is also unclear whether his decision will affect green card holders. The announcement came following the release of data from Johns Hopkins University wherein the U.S. is said to have registered 784,599 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 42,138 deaths. The country logged 24,859 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours. De Blasio Expands Feeding Program New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's free meals program will start serving kosher meals to 10 Queens and Brooklyn locations as part of the program's overall goal of feeding people in New York during the COVID-19 crisis. According to the New York Post, the move came amid increasing protests from the City Council's Jewish Caucus wherein concerns about the programs "priorities" were fired to the de Blasio administration. As of Monday, New York reported 253,060 confirmed coronavirus cases and 18,611 deaths. It remains the hardest-hit state in the U.S. Venezuela Thanks Russia for COVID-19 Aid Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday expressed gratitude to Russia for the country's pledges of medical aid amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, the Anadolu Agency reported. Maduro revealed that he spoke with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, regarding the humanitarian aid offered by the country. Putin, according to Maduro, promised "new shipments of health supplies." The news came amid continued bad blood between Venezuela and the U.S. as the latter has been firm on its diplomatic and economic sanctions as the White House recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaido as the president instead of Maduro. As of Monday, Venezuela registered 256 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least nine deaths. Colombia Extends Lockdown Following the increasing number of coronavirus cases in the country, Colombian President Ivan Duque announced on Monday that the while manufacturing and constructions segments will reopen, the community quarantine will be extended through May 11, Reuters reported. Duque added in his announcement that the government may also start allowing other segments to operate again but necessary measures need to be taken to ensure that the further COVID-19 infections will be prevented. So far, Colombia has recorded 3,977 confirmed coronavirus cases and 189 deaths. Bolsonaro Under Fire for Jumping into Anti-Lockdown Bandwagon Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been widely criticized by state governors following his appearance in the anti-lockdown protests that call for the strict quarantine measures in some locations, BBC News reported. In his address to hundreds of people who protested on Sunday outside the army headquarters in Brasilia, Bolsonaro called the protesting parties as "patriots" as they claim individual freedoms from the government. Brazil is the hardest-hit country in all of Latin America, with 40,743 confirmed COVID-19 cases and around 2,587 deaths as of Monday. Advertisement TagsTrump Suspends Immigration, Colombia Extends Lockdown, Bolsonaro Joins Protests LIBERATE MINNESOTA! LIBERATE MICHIGAN! LIBERATE VIRGINIA. With these three short tweets last week, President Donald Trump attempted to kick off the post-lockdown phase of Americas coronavirus crisis. It should be called: American Russian roulette: The COVID-19 version. What Trump was saying with those tweets was: Everybody, just go back to work. From now on, each of us individually, and our society collectively, is going to play Russian roulette. Were going to bet we can spin through our daily lives work, shopping, school, travel without the coronavirus landing on us. And if it does, well also bet it wont kill us. As a society, we will be betting that as large numbers of people stop sheltering in place, the number of people who will still get infected with COVID-19 and require hospitalization will be less than the number of hospital beds, intensive care units, respirators, doctors, nurses and protective gear needed to take care of them. Because it is clear that millions of Americans are going to stop sheltering in place their own president is urging them to liberate themselves before we have a proper testing, tracking and tracing system set up. Until we have a vaccine, that kind of system is the only path to dramatically lowering the risk of infection while partially opening society while also protecting the elderly and infirm as Germany has demonstrated. And as individuals, every person will be playing Russian roulette every minute of every day: Do I get on this crowded bus to go to work? Do I get in the elevator at the office if there is another person on it? Do I go into the office lunchroom? Do I use this toilet or that drinking fountain? Do I send my kid back to school? Do I stay in a hotel? Ride an airplane? Let the plumber in? Do I go to the doctor to check that strange lump? What will be so cruel about this American version of Russian roulette is how unfair it will be. Some people will have to send their kids back to school because they cant afford to stay home from work. Some bosses will demand their employees show up, but some of those employees may be afraid to come back. This is the state of play when you have a president who one minute is responsibly issuing sober guidelines for when and how people should go back to work, and the next minute is telling states they are responsible for getting the testing, tracking and tracing units that we need in place, and then, in the third minute, is inciting people on Twitter to liberate their workplaces, cities and beaches even though none of the conditions are in place to do so safely. Liberate? We were not in jail! We were not doing something wrong! We were doing what our president, governor, mayor and national epidemic experts told us to do: behave responsibly and shelter in place to break the transmission of this virus. Trump was cynically trying to curry favor with his base by implying Democratic governors, following his own national guidelines, were unfairly locking up people, depriving them of their livelihoods. So, folks, forget about all those White House briefings. You dont have to tune in another day. When the president is calling on governors to let their people go before comprehensive testing facilities are in place, he is basically saying that, until there is a vaccine, we are betting on herd immunity. Achieving herd immunity requires that more than two-thirds of a community be immune, a process that could involve many more deaths. That may work out for some places and people. It may not. I do not know. Every choice in dealing with this virus is fraught with huge trade-offs between saving lives and saving the economy that sustains lives. I just know three things: First, this is the bet Trump is urging you to make in his liberate tweets when he should be ordering out the National Guard and mobilizing American industry to get testing everywhere. Second, this bet will fall very unfairly and unevenly in our society when so little testing and tracing is in place. Third, if this is the future, every business, restaurant, hotel, theater, sporting facility, factory, nonprofit and government office needs to ask itself: What does my business look like when, on the best days, the responsible people coming to my door will be wearing a mask, gloves, distancing 6 feet apart and volunteering to have their temperature taken before they enter, and the irresponsible ones wont be? How do I handle that? Whom do I serve? What kind of business will I really have? Because that will be our economy until we have a vaccine or herd immunity. Bottom line, my fellow Americans: Your president is telling you that youre on your own to make these decisions. And if this strategy works, you can be sure that he will take credit. And if it doesnt, you can be sure that he will tweet that it was all Anthony Faucis idea. Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who lost his UK High Court appeal against an extradition order to India, has said that he is "disappointed" with the ruling but will continue to seek legal remedies as advised by his legal team. The 64-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss reiterated that he has repeatedly offered to pay the Indian banks the loan amount owed by his now-defunct airline, an offer which the banks have rejected. I am naturally disappointed with the High Court decision. I will continue to pursue further legal remedies as advised by my lawyers, Mallya said in a statement on Monday evening. I have repeatedly offered to repay the banks in full, but sadly to no avail, he said. The dismissal of the appeal this week means Mallya has 14 days to apply for permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court. As he has now indicated his intention to seek further legal measures, the UK Home Office would wait for the outcome of that appeal before it can formally certify the court order for Mallya to be extradited to India. The businessman, who has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail after his arrest on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017, also expressed his disappointment with the media narrative which quotes Rs 9,000 crore as the amount owed in the fraud and money laundering case brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him. I am also disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9,000 crore. Please note that the allegations against me and others are specifically and only related to three tranches of borrowing from IDBI Bank for a total of Rs 900 crores in 2009. This loan was subsumed along with loans from other banks within the Master Debt Recast Agreement of 2010. Following the DRT (Debt Recovery Tribunal) order for the payment of approximately Rs 5,000 crore by way of Principal and Rs 1,200 crore by way of unapplied interest making a total of Rs 6,200 crores, the banks have already recovered in cash a sum of Rs 2,500 crores, which is 50 per cent of the Principal amount, he claimed. Mallya refers to paragraphs contained within the High Court judgment handed down by Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing, the two-member bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London presiding over the appeal, which refers to these specific amounts. The judgment notes that between April and November 2009, five banks the State Bank of India (SBI), the Bank of India, the Bank of Baroda, the United Bank of India (UBI) and United Commercial Bank (UCO) extended loans to Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) totaling Rs 1,250 crore, leaving a shortfall of Rs 750 crore from the desired infusion of Rs 2,000 crore. The KFA then approached an additional bank, the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), to make up that shortfall. The Requesting State, the Government of India (GoI) seeks the extradition of the Appellant (Mallya) in respect of these loans. It is said that the loans were obtained by means of a conspiracy to defraud and by means of fraudulent misrepresentations; it is further said that the Appellant engaged in money-laundering some of the proceeds of the loans, the judgment states. In the judgment handed down on Monday, the High Court judges upheld the December 2018 extradition order of the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London and accepted that there is a prima facie case both of misrepresentation and of conspiracy, and thus there is also a prima facie case of money laundering. Mallya's legal team had claimed that the loan defaults by KFA were the result of wider issues faced by the aviation industry at the time. But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, managed to establish a blueprint of dishonesty against the businessman and co-conspiring bankers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Cowlitz County commissioners Tuesday approved a resolution asking Gov. Jay Inslee to lift coronavirus-related restrictions on fishing, gun sales, worshiping and other activities prohibited under his stay-at-home order. And later in the meeting, Commissioner Arne Mortensen voted against extending the countys COVID-19 emergency declaration, but the two other commissioners voted to extend it. Cowlitz County Sheriff Brad Thurman requested the resolution to lift restrictions following a conversation among elected officials last week, Commissioner Joe Gardner said. Thurman said the protective measures are restricting citizens rights. He told the commissioners Tuesday that citizens are responsible for making their own decisions based on advice and guidelines that are publicly available. Children are taught to look both ways before they cross the street, he said, but thats not written in law. Gardner said it would be better for emergency response efforts if citizens were more focused on general safety guidelines, instead of a blanket order on what is deemed essential and nonessential. Commissioner Dennis Weber said the resolution is intended to remove inconsistencies within the stay-home order. Hunting and fishing is allowed in Oregon, but not Washington, he said, and home improvement stores are deemed essential but home improvement projects are not permitted. Its important for people to understand that it isnt attempting to completely abolish any of the public health measures that are part of the emergency resolutions, Weber said. It still does keep in place social distancing and testing and other important activities that are essential in making sure this place is safe. The resolution asks Inslee to rescind proclamations that restrict citizens rights to: Construct homes. Hunt and fish based on Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife previously published regulations. Exercise their right to assemble and engage in religious activities. Exercise their Second Amendment rights by accessing retailers engaging in firearms sales, transfers and selling of ammunition. Exercise their right to pursue evictions for non-payment of rent under the Landlord Tenant Act. Four members of the public spoke on the resolution during the meeting: One was in favor and three were opposed. Bill Josh said the resolution would help address the areas housing crisis by allowing private construction projects to move forward. And people can hunt and fish safely while following social distancing guidelines, he said. Those who were opposed said lifting the restrictions could jeopardize the health and safety of Cowlitz County residents. The restrictions are science and medically based, one woman said, and whether to lift them shouldnt be a political discussion. Sally Jones said she could support working with the governor to possibly loosen restrictions on hunting, fishing and home construction. But allowing evictions, buying guns and gathering for religious activities are not in our best interest. Summer ONeill said its absolutely inappropriate for the government to support issuing eviction notices to local families, particularly coming from the board of health. As a landlord, she thinks its frankly unconscionable to allow evictions during a pandemic, ONeill said after the meeting. That will make people homeless, which will make them more susceptible to the virus, and therefore the community more susceptible to the virus, she said. ONeill, who is the chairwoman of the Cowlitz Democratic Central Committee, added that she was sad to see our county commissioners kind of perpetuate political garbage in the middle of a pandemic. Bill Josh, who is a Republican, told The Daily News after the meeting that he didnt see the resolution as partisan or politically-motivated. In regards to people losing their employment and people losing housing or not being able to construct homes, its not a Republican or Democrat thing, he said. It affects everybody and its indifferent to your political party. And its not just Republicans who like to fish. The Daily News also received a few more reactions from the public, all opposed to the resolution. Gary Lindstrom, a Kalama landlord, said he fully endorses the decisions made in Washington, Oregon and California to not evict tenants during the pandemic. Now is not the time for partisan politics, he wrote in a letter to the commissioners. It is a time to listen to those who understand the ways of the virus and for the safety of our American people and importantly medical personnel and first responders. Which one of us has a guaranteed bed at Peacehealth and a ventilator? Before reopening businesses and activities, the focus should be on lowering the rate of infection, Lindstrom said. Other local landlords, however, have said the freeze on evictions removes one of their tools to collect rent and leaves them holding the bag. They said they are working with tenants who are struggling to pay their rent, but a blanket eviction moratorium isnt the right answer. Inslee already is considering the issues outlined in the resolution and plans to have more to say about next steps this week, a spokesperson for the governor said Monday. Opinion polls show the public overwhelmingly supports social distancing measures, and a Newsweek story released this week said COVID-19 cases in Kentucky increased after a week of protests to reopen the state. Thurman said the countys resolution is an expansion of letters sent by the commissioners last week asking the governor to allow construction and fishing and hunting to resume. The resolution also asks Inslee to discuss the emergency orders with legislative leaders and to cease entering into multi-state agreements. In addition, the resolution asks the state to stop releasing inmates from state prisons prior to completion of their sentences with no verifiable data that the inmates would be at less risk of contracting COVID-19 when out of state custody. Emergency declaration extension Also during the meeting, Mortensen said he voted against extending the emergency declaration because information about the virus is conflicting and does not justify measures he believes violate the Constitution. A fundamental rule in humanity is you are not obligated to commit suicide or economic suicide. That is what is being asked of us now, Mortensen said. Based on those elements, Mortensen said its really unwise to continue the resolution. Commissioners Gardner and Weber both voted to extend the emergency declaration, so the measure passed. At the end of the meeting Mortensen said hed like to discuss with the other commissioners the possibility of opening the next meeting to the public. County residents could watch Tuesdays meeting on KLTV or call in, but there were audio problems with both methods and numerous delays in discussion due to confusion. Mortensen said hed like to use tape to set up 6-foot social distancing guidelines in the County Administration Building so the public could come participate in person. Weber, who had called in to the meeting, said figuring out the technology might solve the problem. The commissioners may discuss the matter during a workshop tomorrow. Petrol prices at the pump could drop another 20 in Melbourne after oil prices in the United States plunged below zero for the first time in history. Demand for oil has dried up as billions of people around the world stay home to contain the coronavirus, creating a global supply glut. The average unleaded price at Melbourne service stations was down to 99 on Tuesday morning and is expected to keep falling. Dr George Rivers, an economist at Monash University business school, said he expected the average retail price would easily drop to 80 a litre by June. *Updated 4/22 Recently, a tiger at a zoo in New York tested positive for COVID-19. Officials believe the tiger was infected after being exposed to a zoo employee who had the virus. The tiger was the first animal in the U.S. to test positive for COVID-19. This has raised questions for livestock and pet owners, who worry that their animals could become sick from the virus, or could spread it further. The risks for animals seem to be relatively low so far, Ohio State University and Pennsylvania State University researchers say, but there are still precautions to take. Can animals get COVID-19? Some of them can. A few cats and dogs, who live with COVID-19 patients, have tested positive for the virus in other countries, according to Ohio States College of Veterinary Medicine. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed two cases of COVID-19 in pet cats in New York April 22. These cats were the first pets to test positive in the U.S. Both cats had mild respiratory illness, and are expected to make full recoveries. The USDA reiterated that there is still no evidence that pets play a role in spreading the virus in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the tiger that tested positive was the first of its kind. OSUs veterinary college says research is limited, but a few studies from China and the Republic of Korea suggest cats are susceptible, dogs are less susceptible, and pigs, ducks and chickens may be resistant. Are livestock at risk? There have been no reported cases of COVID-19 in horses or livestock so far, OSUs College of Veterinary Medicine says. There are other types of coronaviruses that affect livestock, but they are not related to the current outbreak. Some of them can be very contagious between animals, but are not often passed on to different species. What do I do if I think my animal has COVID-19? If your animal gets sick after being around a COVID-19 patient, the CDC says, call your veterinarian before taking your animal to the clinic. Tell your vet the animal had contact with a COVID-19 patient. Some vets may offer telemedicine appointments. From there, the vet can determine what to do next. Ohio State advised animal owners to call ahead before visiting a veterinarian for anything, even if it is an emergency. Some clinics have shifted hours and payment options. Some clinics are doing parking lot or curbside check-ins. Can I catch it from an animal? The CDC says there is no evidence that animals can pass COVID-19 to humans. Suresh Kuchipudi, clinical professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences with Penn State, said in a Penn State article that based on the best scientific information we have there is no need for concern that pets and other domestic animals will pass this virus to people. OSU did note the virus is very contagious between people. The college advised farms to limit the number of people in barns, clean and disinfect surfaces frequently and encourage sick people to stay home. Kuchipudi also noted that there are other diseases that animals can spread to people, so it is always important to wash your hands and practice good hygiene. How can I protect my animals? Because there is a risk of spreading COVID-19 from humans to animals, the CDC recommends keeping pets away from other animals and people outside of the household, until more research about how the virus affects animals develops. If you get sick, limit contact with your animals, and ask someone else in your household to take care of your animals while you are sick. If you have to care for your animals, wash your hands before and after and wear a cloth face covering. OSUs veterinary college says pet owners can still take their dogs for walks outside. Walks are good exercise and are important for physical and mental health. It is important, however, to keep your dog on a leash so they stay close, stay away from crowded areas and maintain a distance of six feet from other people. The Dodge brand's #TheMuscleBehindUs social campaign is giving the Brotherhood of Muscle the opportunity to recognize those who serve as first responders and other essential workers on the frontlines of the pandemic crisis. The social campaign encourages members of the Brotherhood of Muscle to submit stories and photos of their heroes whose work is essential to keep their communities safe, using #TheMuscleBehindUs hashtag. The new 30-second videos "Strength" and "Horsepower," recognizing these essential workers, including paramedics, police, firefighters, doctors, nurses, grocery workers, utility workers and freight drivers, can be viewed now on the brand's social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and DodgeGarage.com. "Dodge wants to honor those on the frontlines of this crisis who are working fearlessly everyday to protect our communities and the people who live in them," said Tim Kuniskis, Global Head of Alfa Romeo and Head of Passenger Cars Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA North America. "We're calling upon the Brotherhood of Muscle to tell us the stories of the heroes in their lives who are performing extraordinary work, day in and day out, during this pandemic, and we'll share the most compelling stories and honor these brave individuals across our social media channels, including a page dedicated to them on DodgeGarage.com." To bring together and keep the brand's social media following of more than 11 million enthusiasts entertained when at home, Dodge is offering social content, including "Hide the Hellcat," hiding the Hellcat logo in posts across its social media channels. And with sporting events cancelled, Dodge will soon give fans something to cheer for when it takes its videos featuring some of the brand's most thrilling and heart-pounding stunts and creates brackets for enthusiasts to pick their favorites. The brand will also launch weekly "How Much Horsepower" quizzes in May, where fans will be asked to guess how much horsepower they see in the select videos posted across the brand's social media channels for a chance to become eligible to win select prizes and merchandise. More content will roll out across Dodge social media channels from April through the end of summer in August, including "Horsepower from Home," featuring some of Dodge//SRT's lead exterior and interior designers and engineers live from their home garages. From what's under the hood to how it sounds behind the wheel, these Dodge experts will give intimate, yet informal tours of what's in their garage. Dodge//SRT For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge. Their influence continues today as Dodge proudly offers a complete lineup of performance vehicles that stand out in their own segments. For 2020, Dodge literally expands its high-performance Charger model lineup, adding a Widebody exterior to America's only four-door muscle car. The 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat maintains its reign as the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world. The 2020 Dodge lineup also features the 2020 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye, 2020 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, the Challenger R/T Scat Pack Widebody and the 2020 Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320. The 2020 Dodge Durango SRT, the fastest, most powerful and most capable American three-row SUV, completes the brand's performance lineup. These visceral performance models join a 2020 brand lineup that includes the Durango, Grand Caravan, Journey, Charger and Challenger. Dodge is part of the portfolio of brands offered by global automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. For more information regarding FCA (NYSE: FCAU/ MTA: FCA), please visit www.fcagroup.com. Follow Dodge, SRT and FCA news and video on: Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com Media website: http://media.fcanorthamerica.com Dodge brand: www.dodge.com Dodge Garage: www.dodgegarage.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/dodge or https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/dodgeofficial or www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA Twitter: www.twitter.com/dodge or www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA YouTube: www.youtube.com/dodge or www.youtube.com/fcanorthamerica SOURCE FCA Permian Basin oil producers were likely not surprised Monday morning when crude prices began falling on the New York Mercantile Exchange. But as the day progressed, they watched with deepening disbelief as prices not only continued to fall but, for the first time since futures trading began, turned negative -- significantly negative, closing at -$37.63. Plains All-American issued a posted price bulletin with the price for West Texas Intermediate at -$41.25. David Arrington, who has the oil price posted daily on the digital bulletin board outside his downtown Midland office, said attempts to post the negative price crashed the board. Arrington said that Brent crude the international standard continued to trade at world market prices. The negative price is only for the U.S., he said in a phone interview. The reason is refiners. They told us a month ago were not consuming enough gasoline. A half-dozen refiners have shut down, theyre not producing any gasoline because theres nowhere for it to go. Other refineries have reduced operations. The negative price means operators are paying to have their oil taken off the production site. You have to think if it makes sense to pay someone to take your oil, Arrington said. Ive shut in my oil. I have guys out there this afternoon turning all my wells off. Weve been warned this is coming; this is not a surprise, he said. Matt Gallagher, president and chief executive officer of Parsley Energy, agreed. Unfortunately, we predicted this, he told the Reporter-Telegram by email. Todays drop in oil prices underscores the need for proration. We are not in normal market conditions and it is clear the time for action by everyone, our companies, our state government and the federal government is now. Companies have reduced production. The Texas Railroad Commission is considering prorating, and many in the federal government are reviewing their options but as you can see by todays market, the time to act is now, he said. There was also reaction from elected officials who represent the Permian Basin. There is no way to sugarcoat this news -- oil producers are in for the fight of their lives, U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway said in a statement on social media. To stop prices from hemorrhaging further, its critical that we act quickly. Following House Republicans calls to use SPR, the Department of Energy is in negotiations for contracts with nine U.S. companies to store domestically produced crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which will help alleviate the storage shortages. Given todays news, I am calling on the Department of Commerce to conduct an expedited anti-dumping investigation into Saudi Arabia. Enough is enough. We must use all the tools available in our arsenal. It wont be easy but we will get through this downturn, just like we have in the past. Its in our West Texas DNA. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said via Twitter: Absolutely devastating. As I wrote in @dallasnews, the best way out of this crisis is to safely re-open our economy. US energy producers are on the brink of bankruptcy & millions of jobs, as well as our hard-earned energy independence, hang in the balance. There are steps Congress & the admin can take now to help weather this storm, including funding the SPR & ensuring energy producers have critical access to capital. We will defeat this pandemic, and when we do, we will need our energy producers to help fuel our economic recovery. Nikki Kantelis, assistant professor of practice, Center for Energy Commerce at Texas Tech University, told the Reporter-Telegram in an email that Mondays events were the result of a few factors, beginning with the expiration of the May contract today. Coming into the day, there was open interest of a little over 100,000 contracts (equivalent to over 100,000,000 barrels of production), she wrote. These open positions need to be closed out. There is no storage available to put incremental production: Not in storage tanks, not in pipelines, not at refineries, not on ships (floating storage). A negative oil price means essentially, you have to pay someone to take your crude oil production (as we have previously seen with natural gas prices at WAHA in West Texas). This is likely to shut in crude oil production. In fact, we have already seen that happening. If it was uneconomic to produce oil at $20 a barrel, it certainly is at negative prices. Kirk Edwards, president of Latigo Petroleum, told the Reporter-Telegram by email, You are seeing the May contract that has two more days left on it. What is happening is all of the oil speculators got caught trying to hold the May contract too long. If they cant sell it, they have to take physical delivery of the oil, which, of course, no one can do since there is no storage. This is called a short squeeze and it is devastating to those speculators. I bet there are some bankruptcies just from todays actions. Brett Wiggs, chief executive officer of Midland-based Oryx Midstream, said by email that Permian production shut-ins are focused on lighter API areas that produce West Texas Intermediate Light between 44.1 and 49.9 API gravity to address near-month pricing impacts. While his company does not operate storage at Cushing, Oklahoma, Oryx does have storage capacity in the Delaware Basin. Wiggs said the company is in a decent position on storage, but this market is changing on a minute-by-minute basis and May is totally up in the air. In an email, Daniel Yergin, vice-chairman of IHS Markit, said, The May crude oil contract is going out not with a whimper, but a primal scream. But what matters now for the oil price is the June contract, and the markets expectation for the depth of the demand crash and how much it is offset by cuts by producers, the iron hand of economics, and by slow opening up in parts of the world. The June contract closed at $20.43, down $4.60 a barrel. Kantelis said the June contract will respond to the markets expectations of supply and demand for June. She said the deal to cut global oil production by nearly 10 million barrels, almost double that amount if other nations like Norway and Brazil participate. This agreement is set to begin in May and if the market senses that the parties will in fact abide by the agreement, that will signal a slowdown in the oil glut, and may help stop the price fall. On the demand side, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an estimated 20 (million) to 35 million barrels a day of demand destruction. The longer economies are shut-down. the more demand for energy will decrease, the lower the price. The only thing we can say for certain, is prices are uncertain, she said. Arrington said that four weeks from now, as the June contract nears expiration, oil prices could crash yet again if supplies continue to swamp demand. Were not out of the woods yet he said. But he sounded an optimistic note. Remember, the cure for low oil prices is low oil prices, he said. The world cannot live on negative oil prices or on $20 oil prices. This is temporary. We all have to remember steady wins the day. We dont need to get hyped up and worried, though this is the first time this has happened in my lifetime. Stay calm and take a deep breath. Adelaide's property market could potentially benefit once uncertainties resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak dissipates. Andrew O'Shea, project director of the Botaniq development on Adelaide's city-fringe, said the COVID-19 outbreak could cause large companies and government subsidiaries to consider decentralising and moving to smaller business hubs, like Adelaide. "Adelaide is a much more commercially viable option for businesses due to reduced rental costs and offers an easier lifestyle for employees," he said. O'Shea said while the commercial property segment is currently experiencing pressure due to the outbreak, Adelaide does not have the uncertainties seen in Sydney and Melbourne, where prices are skyrocketing. "The one thing we have in our favour in Adelaide is that we don't have the spiking property increases. Such fluctuation can create uncertainty for buyers," he said. Furthermore, O'Shea believes that once the outbreak has been contained, investors will be able to take on opportunities in the property sector, particularly in commercial properties. Also read: Commercial investing: Do's and Don'ts "We should see a jump in the commercial and retail valuations towards the end of the year," he said. O'Shea said Adelaide is the ideal market for investors who have a safe approach and a long-term strategy. Adelaide currently has several developments in its inner-city and city-fringe regions that could help investors explore what the market has to offer. "These will provide a safe and consistent rental yield as employment within the city is strong and we have a good education and health industry platform in South Australia. Such industries and city employment are fantastic at creating more and more opportunities for employment and small business that is connected to supporting this industry," he said. Adelaide is also proving to have a resilient residential rental market. Figures from SQM Research show that over the month of March, Adelaide's vacancy rate was at 0.9%, the second lowest amongst all state capitals. The city reported a decline in vacancy rates despite the uncertainty in the economy due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Adelaide also recorded increases in weekly rents for both houses and units over the first three months of the year, according to separate figures from Domain. Prince William is following in his fathers footsteps. Prince Charles opened the first Nightingale hospital in London at the beginning of the month and the Duke of Cambridge just launched another one in Birmingham. The royals took part in their respective openings via video conference, and royal experts believe that William upstaged his father by giving a better presentation. Prince William and Prince Charles | Richard Pohle WPA Pool/Getty Images Prince William follows Prince Charless lead The Nightingale hospitals were opened because of the coronavirus pandemic. Charles dedicated the first hospital in London at the start of April and William followed his lead by opening the second in Birmingham. Both of the openings featured a similar format with William and Charles speaking to the hospital staff on a big screen. The royals are currently in isolation and have been conducting royal engagements via video for safety. According to Express, Prince William kicked off the event by speaking to a handful of staffers prior to the big opening and thanked them for their work on the front lines. He spoke ahead of the opening to some of the staff that had been involved in the build of this hospital, royal expert Lizzie Robinson shared. He thanked them all for their Herculean effort that its taken to turn this site into a hospital so quickly, whether thats military staff, medical staff, logistical staff. Robinson added that William was later projected on a big screen, where he thanked all of the staff for helping get the hospital up and running. While this is the second Nightingale hospital the royals have dedicated, Robinson and her fellow expert, Chris Ship, argued that Williams opening was far better than the first. Did William upstage his father? Ship pointed out how the organizers of the Birmingham opening did a better job spacing people out and practicing social distancing. The big screen that was used for Williams presentation was also more visible, something that may have given him a slight edge over his father. Theyd all been spaced out and they were watching Prince William on this giant screen, Ship stated. Actually I thought it was slightly better than the London one because Prince Charles was outside on quite a small screen. Robinson agreed with Ships assessment. She added that Charless presentation was difficult to see because it was outside, a technical glitch the royals figured out for Prince Williams event. During his speech, William credited the National Health Service for funding the emergency medical center to deal with the pandemic. He then praised the NHS staff for their selfless commitment and for pulling together the people of Britain. William is currently staying at his country estate, Anmer Hall, with Kate Middleton and their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. Prince William opens up about his father getting the coronavirus Apart from the hospital opening, William recently opened up about his fathers battle with the coronavirus. According to Express, William revealed that he was worried about Charles when he first heard about the diagnosis, especially considering his age. I have to admit, at first I was quite concerned, he fits the profile of somebody, at the age he is at, which is fairly risky, and so I was a little bit worried, Prince William admitted. Charles tested positive for COVID-19 at the end of March. Luckily, he only suffered mild symptoms from the virus and was released from self-isolation a few weeks ago. He is currently living at his estate in Scotland with his wife, Camilla Parker Bowles. William went on to say that Charles has battled through various chest infections and colds through the years and that he was confident his dad would make it out okay. So far, Charles is the only senior member of the royal family to test positive for the coronavirus. And so, I thought to myself, if anybody is going to be able to beat this, its going to be him. And actually, he was very lucky, he had mild symptoms, Prince William added. What does Prince Charles miss during the crisis? William also revealed which activity his father misses the most during the pandemic. The Duke of Cambridge, who is second in line to the throne, explained how Charles is an avid walker and misses his daily strolls. He is a mad walker. Loves just waking. So I think he found it quite difficult, William explained. Especially, also I think with his mental health, being stuck inside and not being able to go for walks. Prince William assured royal watchers that the royals are doing everything in their power to protect the older members of the monarchy. This includes Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, who are isolating at Windsor Castle. Queen Elizabeth departed Buckingham Palace at the beginning of March. Her Majesty travels to Windsor Castle every year for Easter and is expected to return to London once the current crisis is under control. William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, are doing the same at Anmer Hall. They are also homeschooling their three kiddos because schools throughout the United Kingdom are currently closed. Prince Charles has not commented on the reports surrounding Prince Williams recent engagement. MUSCATINE The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors approved publishing a notice of intent to appoint an interim Muscatine County Attorney to serve from the time when Alan Ostergren leaves on May 1 until the general election on Nov. 3. The supervisors also selected an ad hoc committee to review applications of interested candidates for the position. The committee will be made up of Ostergren and supervisors Nathan Mather and Santos Saucedo and will make a recommendation to the board based on the applications received. We had to improvise a little due to the buildings being closed about how those people who are interested can reach out, administrative services director Nancy Schreiber told the board. The notice is ready for you guys to approve for publication. Interested parties have until May 1 to submit applications. The decision does not preclude the supervisors from calling for a special election if the circumstances change. A special election can be called at any point prior to the interim attorney being appointed. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he will be signing an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! a Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States", Trump said in a tweet late on Monday. ALSO READ: Coronavirus in US: Our COVID-19 tests more than India, 9 other countries combined, says Trump ALSO READ: China fumes over India's FDI move to block takeover of companies; calls it WTO violation Asked when they expect the outbreak to be controlled enough that people can safely attend gatherings of 10 or more people, just 10 percent predict that such gatherings will be safe by the end of April or earlier, while 21 percent expect them to be safe by the end of May. More than twice as many 65 percent say it may take until the end of June or later for people to safely gather in groups of 10 or more. BOSTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sappi North America, Inc., a leading producer and supplier of diversified paper, packaging products and dissolving pulp, today released its 2019 Sustainability Report, illustrating the bright future for sustainability within the company. The report provides an overview of the continued progress toward Sappi's sustainability goals, and highlights its long-standing commitment to employee safety standards, innovation and a low carbon footprint across the operation. "As a diversified and resilient organization navigating through this unprecedented time, our commitment toward sustainability remains intact and at our core," said Mike Haws, President and CEO, Sappi North America. "Our results from 2019 have established a foundation for future investments and growth that will continue to support all of our employees and their local communities, which is needed now more than ever." Sustainability Achievements Sappi North America's 2019 results reflect its commitment to improving environmental, social and business performance. Highlights include: Record-breaking safety performance. Sappi achieved a Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate of 0.25 for the yearthe lowest in Sappi North America's history for the second consecutive year. Sappi achieved a Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate of 0.25 for the yearthe lowest in Sappi North America's history for the second consecutive year. Over 75% of our total energy needs were met with renewable fuel. This gives us one of the lowest carbon footprints in the industry at just 0.38 tons of CO 2 generated per ton of product made. This gives us one of the lowest carbon footprints in the industry at just 0.38 tons of CO generated per ton of product made. Investment in employees. The company provided an average of 105 hours per employee of training across the organization in 2019. The company provided an average of 105 hours per employee of training across the organization in 2019. Continued innovation to align with a global sustainability platform. Sappi North America made significant strides in research related to utilizing the full value of trees to create products, while minimizing the impact on the environment. Sappi North America Looks Ahead to the Next Five-Year Goals and Aligns with UN "We have achieved much since launching our Vision 2020," said Sandy Taft, Sustainability Director, Sappi North America. "In the years ahead, we expect our progress to accelerate as we align our goals with seven of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals most relevant to us. Through that focus, we can make a real difference, using more clean energy to mitigate climate change, working with our partners in the forests and continuing to deliver economic growth in our communities." To read more of Sappi North America's 2019 Sustainability Report and learn about its sustainability initiatives, please visit: https://www.sappi.com/sustainability-north-america. About Sappi North America, Inc. Sappi North America, Inc., headquartered in Boston, is a market leader in converting wood fiber into superior products that customers demand worldwide. The success of our four diversified businesses high-quality Coated Printing Papers, Dissolving Pulp, Packaging and Specialty Papers and Casting and Release Papers is driven by strong customer relationships, best-in-class people and advantaged assets, products and services. Our high-quality Coated Printing Papers, including McCoy, Opus, Somerset, and Flo, are the key platform for premium magazines, catalogs, books, direct mail and high-end print advertising. We are a leading manufacturer of Dissolving Pulp with our Verve brand, a sustainable fiber, which is used in a wide range of products, including textile fibers and household goods. We deliver sustainable Packaging and Specialty Papers for luxury packaging and folding carton applications with our single-ply packaging brands, Spectro and Proto, and for the food and label industries with our specialty papers, LusterPrint and LusterCote. We are also one of the world's leading suppliers of Casting and Release Papers with our Ultracast, PolyEx and Classics lines for the automotive, fashion and engineered films industries. Customers rely on Sappi for high technical, operational and market expertise; products and services delivered with consistently high quality and reliability; and, state-of-the-art and cost-competitive assets and innovative spirit. Sappi North America is a subsidiary of Sappi Limited (JSE), a global company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with more than 12,000 employees and manufacturing operations on three continents in seven countries and customers in over 150 countries. SOURCE Sappi North America, Inc. Related Links http://www.sappi.com Kaiser Permanente, one of Northern Californias largest health care providers, is building a $14 million lab in Berkeley that will boost the systems coronavirus testing capacity from about 1,200 tests a day to 5,000 by the time the lab opens in early June, Kaiser officials said. Kaiser is conducting one of the highest volumes of COVID-19 diagnostic testing in the region it has 4.5 million members in Northern California so its ability to increase testing will play a critical role in the states efforts to lift shelter-in-place restrictions. Widespread testing is necessary so that health officials can quickly identify positive cases and trace each ones contacts to tell them to self-quarantine. If contact tracing is done correctly, that process with widespread testing should help contain the virus to small pockets of people, rather than spreading undetected in the broader community. Kaiser had been eyeing the new lab space a warehouse across the street from its current lab, which conducts COVID-19 tests and other tests for expansion in the distant future. But it expedited construction as the need to ramp up testing became apparent. If shortages of required swabs and chemical reagents ease in the coming months, Kaiser officials hope to double their capacity and run 10,000 tests a day. Statewide, about 14,500 tests a day are conducted mainly at medical offices and drive-through testing sites. On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the first at-home test, which may soon make testing more accessible. The test is by a North Carolina company, LabCorp. Gov. Gavin Newsom had set a goal of testing 25,000 people a day by this week. But on Monday, he said even that number was inadequate for the state, although he didnt say how many daily tests he thought would be better. Meanwhile, Kaisers new lab is expected to give a significant lift to testing in the state. Were very confident once weve expanded to about that 10,000-tests-a day level ... well be able to provide the level of testing thats necessary to help reopen the state and support our patients, said Kaisers Dr. Brian Missett, an associate executive director of the Permanente Medical Group. Dr. Jeff Schapiro, regional director of medical microbiology who oversees the Berkeley lab, is on the state task force on testing. The $14 million is coming from Kaisers capital spending budget, which pays for the construction of hospitals, medical office buildings and other projects. Now Playing: The top of Salesforce Tower is illuminated with artist Jim Campbells contribution in support of medical workers and first responders fighting Covid-19 with video of clapping hands and prayer flags. The artists Day for Night, video show atop the tower, changed at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, with clapping hands taking its place, then changed at 8:30 p.m. to prayer flags until 12:30 a.m. Video: Carlos Avila Gonzalez Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. As it moves toward its 10,000-daily-tests goal, Kaiser officials said they expect to test more people without symptoms, such as health care workers and nursing home employees who may be exposed to the virus at work and would need to be retested periodically. Testing is available to Kaiser members and Kaiser employees who have Kaiser insurance. In the setting where were trying to assist in reopening the state, you will see asymptomatic people being tested, and itll likely be in the setting where they have a possible exposure risk, Missett said. Kaiser is doing most of its testing using Roche diagnostic tests and the Roche Cobas 8800 system, which can process hundreds of tests at a time and provide results within 24 hours. It is also using the Cepheid 45-minute test in a few labs, but not yet in medical offices because it has received too few test kits from Cepheid. Antibody testing blood tests that show whether someone has had COVID-19 will be a key part of Kaisers testing strategy. But because many antibody tests are in early stages of development and of questionable accuracy, Kaiser is waiting for some better tests to come along, Schapiro said. Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho Joint Efforts by State and Military Slow Spread of CCP Virus in Tasmania The Australian Defence Force, working together with a number of other state and federal agencies, has helped lower the spread of the CCP virus in the northwest area of Tasmania. Strategies of stricter policing, higher volume testing as well as a joint operation to reopen North West Regional Hospital (NSRH)where an outbreak occurredhas seen the spread of the virus ease. Speaking at a press conference on April 19, Premier Peter Gutwein said that the governments actions to quarantine thousands of people, close hospitals, increase testing, and aggressively trace contact seemed to be having the desired effect. I want to say very clearly to Tasmanians, that in the terms of the outbreak on the North West Coast, the steps that we have taken appear to be working. But we all need to remain disciplined, we need to ensure that we follow the rules and we do everything that we can, he said. Tasmanian Minister of Health Sarah Courtney announced the re-opening of NWRH on April 17. The hospital will be run by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) under orders from the Australian Medical Assistance Teams (AUSMAT) until regular staff are out of their 14-day quarantine. The emergency department will be open 24 hours, the rest of the facility will be closed. Two crews of specialist cleaners are set to start work on the North West Private Hospital to get it up and running as quickly as possible. Source of the Outbreak A healthcare worker was said to have misled contact tracers which prompted staff and residents to be tested at Melaleuca Nursing Home, Eliza Purton Home for the Aged, and Coroneagh Park. The positive case at Melaleuca Home was moved to a hospital and close contacts of the confirmed case and some staff are required to self-isolate for 14 days. High-volume testing was carried out across the region with up to 500 people tested for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. A partnership that includes global pathology company Healthcare Sonic has made the increased testing capacity possible. Plans are on the way to set up new testing and mobile clinics which will be based in the northwest region. Policing Quarantine Orders Tasmanian police are now supported by the Fire Service, Tasmania State Emergency Services, and ADF in efforts to police quarantine orders. A 57-year-old woman was arrested and charged with two counts of failing to comply with the directions of the Director of Public Health. She was bailed out and returned to her room to continue quarantine, according to a police statement. Police were first called to attend Wrest Point Casino at the request of staff on Saturday morning, in relation to a woman in quarantine who was failing to comply with directions of the Director of Public Health by continuing to leave her room to smoke, ignoring the safety measure in place at the accommodation facility. It was also alleged that the woman had been abusive to staff. This is unacceptable behaviour. The directions are in place to protect the community and these blatant breaches put the staff of the hotel, attending police and members of the Tasmanian community at risk, said Inspector Rebecca Davis. As of 6 p.m. on April 19, a total of 70 people have recovered from the CCP virus and 8 have died, according to state records. A total of 195 people have been diagnosed with the virus and an estimated 111 are from the northwest region. In comments to the media on Sunday, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne called for an independent global inquiry into the coronavirus, focusing on the Chinese regimes response to the pandemic and the genesis of COVID-19. Paynes comments, which were immediately endorsed by the Labor Party opposition, echoed the anti-China attacks by US President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration over the past week. Her remarks were a clear attempt to whip-up anti-Chinese xenophobia and to scapegoat Beijing for the global crisis of the capitalist system, which has revealed the inability of every government in the world to protect the health and safety of ordinary people. Speaking on the Australian Broadcasting Corporations Insiders program, Payne said that her concerns regarding government transparency about the virus had reached a high point. She specifically called for transparency from China and did not name any other country or government. Payne was hinting at claims that the Chinese regime covered-up the extent of the pandemic when it began in Wuhan. While Beijing undoubtedly carried out a campaign of damage control, the assertions of senior figures in the US government that its response to the crisis was stymied by a lack of information from China is a sham. In January, US officials received intelligence briefings warning that the virus would likely develop into a global pandemic. In response they did nothing to improve the inadequate healthcare system, while preparing a multi-trillion dollar bailout of the countrys banks and corporations. Throughout February, Trump downplayed the virus, as did leading Democrats and outlets such as the New York Times. The attitude of Australian governments was the same. Well into February, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was declaring that mass gatherings were safe, and that Australia would suffer minimal impact from the pandemic. Only when the virus began spreading rapidly and after insistent demands from medical experts did the federal and state governments introduce lockdown measures. Paynes reference to the genesis of the virus was also drawn from the playbook of the White House. Over the past week, senior figures in the US administration, including Trump, have asserted that the virus may have originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The claim, for which they provided not a shred of evidence, began as a conspiracy theory circulating on extreme right-wing and fascistic websites. It contradicts the assessment of virtually every medical expert and virologist that COVID-19 likely emerged in a Wuhan wet market. Perhaps most significantly, Payne stated that any inquiry should be conducted independently of the World Health Organisation (WHO). She said this under conditions of a frontal assault on the global body by the US government, which has accused it of being soft on China. Just days earlier, Trump had announced that the US would halt funding to the WHO, in a move the WSWS characterised as a crime against humanity, because of its damaging impact on the global response to the pandemic and other health crises. While Trumps move was broadly condemned, Morrison sympathetically said that there were legitimate questions to be raised about the WHOs handling of coronavirus. Other government representatives were more explicit, with Liberal MP Tim Wilson accusing the WHO of having been captured by China and of putting politics first. In other words, the Australian government is again positioning itself as one of Washingtons chief political attack dogs in a bellicose campaign against China, and any international organisation viewed as an obstacle to US interests. This has been the case under successive Australian governments, Labor and Liberal-National alike since the US began a vast military build-up against China in 2011, which has been escalated into a full-scale trade and economic war by the Trump administration. As it has done repeatedly, Labor has been a determined advocate of the US line. Its shadow foreign minister Penny Wong responded to Paynes comments by declaring that the government must follow through on its anti-China rhetoric. Wong called on Payne to launch an international campaign for the US-inspired call for a global inquiry. We welcome this idea from Senator Payne, but what we would say is we need to move from idea and words to action, and we hope Senator Payne, as Australia's chief diplomat to get out into the international community to gain support for this idea, Wong said. The US and Australia are cynically seeking to exploit the pandemic to ramp-up pressure on China, isolate it from potential allies throughout the Asia-Pacific and internationally, and legitimise aggressive economic, diplomatic and military measures against Beijing. That Australian governments are placing the country on the frontlines of a US confrontation with China was underscored by the response of its Canberra embassy. It released a statement yesterday accusing the Australian authorities of grossly interfering in Chinas internal affairs and misrepresenting facts. The broader agenda underlying the anti-China campaign has been spelled out by federal government MP Andrew Hastie, who chairs the parliamentary committee on security and intelligence. Although he is a backbencher, Hastie has been elevated to great prominence over the past several years and has functioned as a mouthpiece of the US and Australian intelligence agencies that have spearheaded the ever-more bellicose stance towards Beijing. Hastie has initiated a petition on his official parliamentary website demanding that governments take action on Australian sovereignty. It repeats the unsubstantiated assertions of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the main domestic spy outfit, that there has been a Chinese campaign of foreign interference targeting virtually every aspect of Australian society. The petition declares: The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the true cost of relying too heavily on an authoritarian regime like China for our economic security and prosperity. It warns that Australian institutions, universities, and assets are now contested; our sovereignty and independence will be diminished if we dont continue to push back. Hastie calls for Australia to be united as a nation to wage a campaign for sovereignty in the struggle against authoritarian regimes. The unsubstantiated claims of foreign interference have been aggressively promoted by the entire political and media establishment for more than five years. They served as the ideological justification for draconian foreign interference laws, passed with bipartisan support in 2018, which pave the wave for the illegalisation of anti-war activities and organisations. Hasties petition is a warning that frame-ups and victimisations of Chinese-Australian individuals and of anyone who opposes the preparations for conflict with China will be escalated. It is also a particularly putrid expression of the attempts by governments to divert attention from their own responsibility for the coronavirus crisis and the deepening social hardship caused by the destruction of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Governments are whipping-up nationalism and xenophobia in a bid to blunt mounting social anger from below, and to promote the fraudulent claim that we are all in this together, as part of what the federal government has dubbed team Australia. This campaign has already led to a rise in the number of racial attacks on Chinese- and Asian-Australians. Over the past week, a number of incidents have been reported in which people presumed to have been of Chinese descent have been physically-attacked, spat at and accused of being responsible for the pandemic. Underscoring the widespread hostility to racism and nationalism among ordinary people, Hasties petition has been signed by fewer than 3,000 individuals. By contrast, the hashtag #IStandWithAsianAustralians trended on Twitter yesterday in response to reports of the racist assaults. People queueing outside a shop 2 metres apart during the lockdown. (PA) The British public are far more supportive of the coronavirus lockdown than anyone expected, according to a pollster. Chris Curtis, a pollster at survey agency YouGov, said new exit strategy data showed people are in no hurry to see the governments stringent social distancing measures eased. The public has been more pro-lockdown than anyone expected, which means ending it could be more politically difficult for the government than starting it, he tweeted. People are currently withholding judgment on whether we should do so in three weeks but they currently have quite strict criteria on when we should start easing restrictions. A cyclist rides past a billboard reading 'Please Believe These Days Will Pass', an artwork by Mark Titchner, in Shoreditch, east London, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. According to the YouGov data, 74% of those surveyed believe the measures should be lifted "gradually, compared with just 18% who think they should end "all at once". The majority, 78%, also believe the government should prioritise the economy over giving people more freedom over their free time. Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice The survey shows that reopening schools is currently the publics top priority, with measures such as allowing people to meet in small groups considered less important. Encouraging non-essential workers to go back to work was considered a top priority by just 19% of those asked. An image of Queen Elizabeth II and quotes from her broadcast appear in London. (PA) It comes as health secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday that the nation owes it to those who have died with coronavirus not to "throw away the progress" made in the fight against the disease. He told the daily press conference: "We owe it to them and to ourselves not to throw away the progress we've made so far. "We've been clear that we will not risk lives by relaxing the social distancing rules before our five tests have been met. "And most importantly that there is no risk of a second peak." Hancock said 17,366 people have died in UK hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus, an increase of 852. Story continues Several countries around the world have started easing lockdown measures in the past few days despite the World Health Organization (WHO) warning they should gradually lift restrictions. In Spain, the government is assessing already how to roll back one of Europe's strictest lockdowns, starting from next Monday by allowing children to go out onto the streets for brief periods. Italian premier Giuseppe Conte also indicated that moves to relax the restrictions would be announced by the end of the week. Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump has pushed for easing stay-at-home orders and tried to look ahead to restarting the economy by announcing a framework for state governors to follow. Coronavirus: what happened today? Click here to sign up to the latest news, advice and information with our daily Catch-up newsletter Unlike some forecasts that focus on a projection based on a single set of assumptions, these analytic models were used to create worst-case, best-case and most-likely scenarios, and can adjust in real time as the situation and data change. For example, the models can factor in social distancing's dampening effect on disease spread. Cleveland Clinic is using the models to support its decision making. With this information, Cleveland Clinic can predict and plan for future demands on the health system, such as ICU beds, personal protective equipment and ventilators. After reviewing possible COVID-19 surge scenarios generated by the models, Cleveland Clinic elected to activate a plan that prepared it for the worst-case scenario and has built a 1,000-bed surge hospital on its education campus for COVID-19 patients who don't need ICU care. The hospital system also used the models to inform decisions about organizing and activating new labor pools. "These predictive models were developed jointly by two organizations that understand patient populations, data and modeling," said Chris Donovan, executive director of Enterprise Information Management & Analytics at Cleveland Clinic. "We are sharing the models publicly so health systems and government agencies globally can use them in their own communities. Our hope is that others contribute their ideas and improvements to the models as well." The GitHub link where the models are available has been visited more than 1,700 times in the past two weeks, resulting in more than 50 downloads. At the heart of the work is an epidemiological SEIR model in which people move through the stages of Susceptible, Exposed, Infected and Recovered over time. The SEIR model developed by SAS and Cleveland Clinic is based on a University of Pennsylvania open source model that has been recoded and expanded on the SAS analytics platform and continuously improved with real-time feedback from Cleveland Clinic epidemiologists and data scientists. The resulting models include flexible control of model parameters and different model approaches that consider regional health and demographic variations and state-level assumptions. "These models can help hospitals, health care facilities, state departments of health and government agencies forecast the impact of COVID-19 and prepare for the future," said Steve Bennett, Ph.D., Director of SAS' Global Government Practice. "The models can also assist more vulnerable, less developed health systems in the fight against COVID-19." Dr. Bennett is the former Director of the National Biosurveillance Integration Center at the US Department of Homeland Security, and one of many SAS experts working with customers like Cleveland Clinic on the current crisis. SAS has a long history of working with health care and life sciences organizations and is active in the response to COVID-19 in these industries and others. The models developed with Cleveland Clinic apply advanced analytics to data in order to help hospitals optimize the use of medical resources like ventilators and hospital beds. SAS is also focused on the use of analytics to improve situational awareness, ensure demand-planning stability, develop vaccines, and enhance contact traceability. For more on how SAS is helping counter the pandemic, visit the SAS COVID-19 Resource Hub . About Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, it was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. Cleveland Clinic has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States. U.S. News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation's best hospitals in its annual "America's Best Hospitals" survey. Among Cleveland Clinic's 67,554 employees worldwide are more than 4,520 salaried physicians and researchers, and 17,000 registered nurses and advanced practice providers, representing 140 medical specialties and subspecialties. Cleveland Clinic is a 6,026-bed health system that includes a 165-acre main campus near downtown Cleveland, 18 hospitals, more than 220 outpatient facilities, and locations in southeast Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Canada; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and London, England. In 2019, there were 9.8 million total outpatient visits, 309,000 hospital admissions and observations, and 255,000 surgical cases throughout Cleveland Clinic's health system. Patients came for treatment from every state and 185 countries. Visit us at clevelandclinic.org. About SAS SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright 2020 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. SOURCE SAS Related Links http://www.sas.com The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has awarded the University of Kentucky Superfund Research Center (UK-SRC) a five-year, $8.7 million grant to conduct research aimed at better understanding and minimizing the negative health and environmental impacts of chlorinated organic compounds found at Superfund sites across the Commonwealth and the U.S. Funded by the National Institutes of Health's NIEHS Superfund Research Program since 1997, the UK-SRC integrates multidisciplinary research, training and community engagement around a common theme: reducing risks posed by environmental contaminants in vulnerable communities. Kentucky is home to 20 (13 active) Superfund sites that are on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List. They include manufacturing facilities, processing plants and landfills where hazardous waste has been improperly managed. According to Dr. Bernhard Hennig, director of the center and a professor of nutrition and toxicology in UK's College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, expertise in engineering, public health, as well as environmental, nutritional and biomedical sciences is needed to address the complex environmental and health problems pollution causes in Kentucky. The center includes more than 30 researchers from five colleges across the university -- bringing the best together for a high-impact collaboration that advances our knowledge of chemical contaminants in our environment." Dr. Bernhard Hennig, director of the center and a professor of nutrition and toxicology, University of Kentucky UK-SRC researchers also collaborate with colleagues from other state and national agencies and work within affected communities to educate individuals about strategies that may help combat the effects of contaminants and improve overall health. "The group of researchers is unique in that they are conducting basic research that is making an immediate impact in our community," said Nancy Cox, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. "The more than 20 years of ongoing funding is a testament to the university's effort to pursue national prominence in environmental and health research while addressing issues of extreme importance to Kentuckians." The UK-SRC has four research projects and five cores. Hennig and Dr. Kevin Pearson, College of Medicine, lead the two biomedical projects. These projects focus on the idea that positive lifestyle changes, such as healthful nutrition and increased physical activity can help reduce negative health effects from exposure to persistent organic pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), trichloroethylene (TCE) and per- and polyfluoralkyl substances (PFAS). UK College of Engineering's Kelly Pennell, Dibakar Bhattacharyya, and J. Zach Hilt lead the two environmental science projects. These projects are aimed at developing new methods to expedite cleanup of halogenated organic compounds through advanced material-based technologies, smart filters, and fate and transport science to reduce exposure risks. The five cores include the Administrative Core led by Hennig and includes Research Translation Coordinator Lindell Ormsbee, College of Engineering, the Community Engagement Core led by Dawn Brewer, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the Data Management and Analysis Core led by Pennell, the Biomonitoring and Chemistry Environmental Analysis Core led by Andrew Morris, College of Medicine, and the Research Experience and Training Coordination Core led by Hilt. The highly competitive grant puts the UK-SRC in the NIEHS's nationwide family of Superfund Research Programs. UK has one of only 10 multi-project centers funded in 2020, placing it in a very elite group of just 23 centers nationwide. Hennig says the funding was also secured with help from UK's Proposal Development Office (PDO), which helps faculty, staff and students seek and secure external funding for research, scholarship and creative activities through the submission of competitive grant and contract applications. "We want to thank Kathy Grzech and her team from the PDO for their tireless work on this complex proposal," Hennig said. "They are an invaluable resource on campus, and we credit the success of this proposal to their expertise and guidance throughout the proposal development process." Last week, the Pennsylvania state Senate approved two bills that would provide much needed clarity and common sense to the process of deciding which businesses can safely operate during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Senator Camera Bartolotta (R-46). Pennsylvania Senate Bill 613 requires the governor to create clear guidelines for businesses to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comply with mitigation strategies and follow CDC guidelines. Pennsylvania Senate Bill 327 restores local control and county governments the option to develop and implement their own plans to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, following CISA guidelines. Governor Wolf vetoed both bills. In a veto message, Wolf said, "This is not an easy decision, but it is the right course for Pennsylvania. Reopening tens of thousands of businesses too early will only increase the spread of the virus, place more lives at risk, increase the death tolls, and extend the length of the economic hardships created by the pandemic." The bill was approved last week along party lines in the House and Senate. On Monday afternoon there was a simultaneous noon rally in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg to urge Governor Wolfe to consider reopening Pennsylvania businesses[.] "Independence"? (Photo credit: ErgoSum88 [cropped].) When we use the phrase "mom and pop stores," we sometimes forget that they are just that: small businesses run by mom and pop. In many cases, both partners are also life partners, and as such, they do not have another income they can rely upon. They have made sacrifices and put in the hard work necessary to build that American dream and to ultimately be a job-provider to those in their communities. A prolonged shutdown will kill mom-and-pop entrepreneurs the backbone of our country. Businesses were left to navigate through the unique circumstances that have been created by the unexpected and sudden nature of the shutdown, coupled with the vague uncertainty of the timing and protocol for reopening. With little or no ability to adopt a new business model for revenue generation, Geno Levi Salon found itself scrambling when the governor issued the mandated shutdown. Cindy Levi explained, "Both my husband and I derive our livelihood from our salon business, as do many other small business owners around the country. For those of us with that entrepreneurial spirit, the consequence of this situation is huge. Not only has our personal income to cover our own expenses gone to $0, but it is now 100% our personal responsibility to cover the monthly expenses of our business in order to keep it afloat until re-opening. There remained the issue of what this would look like from a financial standpoint for their staff, many of whom provide the primary income in their households." The "essential business" label has left many consumers frustrated. Norm Candelore of Candelore Barking Beauties: "Professional dog grooming is about more than just bathing and haircuts. Grooming is vital to our pets' health. Grooming detects health issues early. Expressing of anal glands to prevent impacted cavities, overgrown toenails can cause hip complications and damage paw pads, and ear infections due to overgrown hair all require necessary treatments." Candelore adds, "What our governor has done to our business has led to 21 employees out of work." Mike Pasalocua, owner of Angello's Restaurant, a former police officer, has been running his restaurant for 38 years. The last two years, his sales increased. He finally had reserve capital. Mike was planning to buy a new catering van in 2020. He was full steam ahead until he wasn't. "It all came to a crashing halt," said Pasalocua. "I've spent the entirety of my reserve money. I kept managers on salary for three weeks. We did our best to save food, work through reservations, and clean the restaurant top to bottom. After meeting payroll, payables due to vendors, utilities, lost inventory, mortgage loans, first quarter taxes, insurance and maintenance issues, I have no money to pay myself." We are not stoking the fires of industry, and as a result, we are witnessing the far-reaching effects of industrial slowdowns. Something we don't even consider as we pop open that can of Coke or beer: The supply of carbon dioxide (CO2) used for carbonation and essential for beer and soft drinks is dwindling. Ethanol-producers are necessary to the production, and their production has been diminished due to the low number of ethanol plants still in production. Then there is the energy component already reeling from a mild winter, depressed natural gas prices, higher than normal inventories, and challenging market conditions, we learn that the coal industry is now facing headwinds from halting economic activity. Jimmy Brock, president and CEO of CONSOL Energy, said, "Our primary customers and power plants are struggling with low power prices and even lower capacity factors, as a result of unparalleled low demand. With the industrial and manufacturing sectors shuttering operations, and the residential electricity needs unable to make up for commercial demand, we have seen coal production quickly come offline, leading to thousands of workers, small businesses, and entire communities, feeling the widespread uncertainty as many others across the nation." CONSOL Energy's, commitment is to the safety and health of their employees and that is paramount to anything they do. Recently they made the decision to temporarily stop production at their Bailey Mine in Greene County PA in response to two positive cases of COVID-19. About the move Brock said; "That decision was one we did not take lightly but was the right thing to do for our employees, their families and our communities". He added; "As we continue to find solutions in these challenging times, my hope is that we do not forget about the miners whose critical work every single day ensures reliable, low-cost electricity that serves as the feedstock to the very economy we are attempting to re-open, and that so many Americans depend on" . As Americans our hearts break for those who lost their battle with COVID 19. Entrepreneurs have weathered many storms over the years, none quite like this, but I believe they are up for the challenge with our support. We can, and have, demonstrated the ability to heal; physically, emotionally, and now financially. We will roll up our collective sleeves as we have always done and do what is necessary to restore and reopen American businesses, and by doing so, put Americans back to work. We will have a new normal, no doubt, but we will adjust, and we will move on. We are a creative people, we Americans. We will figure out a new path to economic success. We will persevere. You can count on it. All that is necessary is for state governments to give us back that freedom to move forward. Trusting, as they should, that we will do it in a thoughtful, careful, and safe way. Rose Tennent of Pennsylvania is on the Advisory Board for the Women for Trump Coalition and has been a prominent figure for 20 years as a syndicated conservative political talk show host. www.roseunplugged.com I want to take this opportunity to thank Patrick for his excellent leadership and many significant contributions to AIAs success during his time with us. His dedication, professionalism and insights have been invaluable, said Hak Leh. I am delighted that Sze Keed will be our new CEO in Singapore. Sze Keed has deep experience of the Singaporean life insurance market and she has a superb track record of delivery and execution. I am confident that under her leadership AIA Singapore will realise its full potential. Sze Keed originally joined AIA back in 2013 and boasts more than 27 years of experience within the financial services industry, holding a broad range of senior management roles. She is currently chief distribution officer for the Singapore arm and said she is excited and truly honoured to make the step up. I would like to thank Patrick for his guidance and tremendous support over the years, she said. Looking ahead, I will continue to be guided by AIAs promise to help our customers live healthier, longer, better lives. I look forward to bringing our product propositions, high-quality advice and innovative service to as many people as possible in Singapore as we strive to deliver the best outcomes on behalf of our customers. Teow also had kind words for his replacement. I have thoroughly enjoyed my career at AIA, he said. I am extremely proud of the teams we have built and the achievements we have delivered together. I have worked very closely with Sze Keed for many years and I am pleased to be handing over my responsibilities to her, which I know she is ideally positioned to carry out. AIA is an exceptional company filled with outstanding people and I know that it will continue to enjoy great success for many years to come. TORONTO and NUCLA, Colo., April 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp. (CSE:WUC) (WSTRF) ("Western" or the "Company") announces the extension by nine months of the common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") issued to investors in non-brokered private placements that closed on May 4, July 30 and August 9, 2018 (the "2018 Private Placements") and the amendment of the trigger price in the acceleration clause of each Warrant. No Warrants issued to investors in the 2018 Private Placements have been exercised, and a total of 2,671,116 Warrants are being amended. Each Warrant currently entitles the holder to purchase one common share (a "Common Share") in the capital of the Company at a price of C$1.15 per Common Share at any time prior to 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on May 4, July 30 and August 9, 2020, respectively (the "Original Expiry Dates"). Each of the Original Expiry Dates is extended by nine months such that the Warrants will expire on February 4, April 30 and May 9, 2021, respectively. In addition, each Warrant is currently subject to an acceleration clause that allows the Company to accelerate the expiration date of the Warrant if the closing price of the Common Shares of Western is equal to or greater than C$2.50 for a period of five consecutive trading days (the Acceleration Clause). Western is amending the Acceleration Clause of each Warrant by lowering the trigger price from C$2.50 to C$1.83 effective at 5:01 p.m. (Toronto time) on each of the Original Expiry Dates. All other terms of the Warrants remain the same, including the applicable legends. No Warrant is held by an insider or a related party to the Company. In accordance with the rules of the Canadian Securities Exchange, no compensation warrants issued in connection with the 2018 Private Placements are being extended. The amendments to the Warrants remain subject to final regulatory approval. About Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp. Story continues Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp. is a Colorado based uranium and vanadium conventional mining company focused on low cost near-term production of uranium and vanadium in the western United States, and development and application of kinetic separation. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information: Certain information contained in this news release constitutes forward-looking information or a forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, forward-looking statements). Statements of that nature include statements relating to, or that are dependent upon: the Companys expectations, estimates and projections regarding exploration and production plans and results; the timing of planned activities; whether the Company can raise any additional funds required to implement its plans; whether regulatory or analogous requirements can be satisfied to permit planned activities; and more generally to the Companys business, and the economic and political environment applicable to its operations, assets and plans. All such forward-looking statements are subject to important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Companys ability to control or predict. Please refer to the Companys most recent Managements Discussion and Analysis, as well as its other filings at www.sec.gov and/or www.sedar.com , for a more detailed review of those risk factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the Companys forward-looking statements, and that these statements are made as of the date hereof. While the Company may do so, it does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements at any particular time, except as and to the extent required under applicable laws and regulations. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: George Glasier President and CEO 970-864-2125 gglasier@western-uranium.com Robert Klein Chief Financial Officer 908-872-7686 rklein@western-uranium.com A ministry-mandated mediation between warring factions of the Peel District School Board is disintegrating after the two trustees who have the backing of Black communities pulled out and the boards anti-racism chief who launched a human rights case against the board went on a leave of absence. Ontarios Ministry of Education had directed the embattled board to retain a mediator by April 17 and submit an interim report by mid-May. These directives arose from a three-month review of the school board that found widespread systemic anti-Black racism and other discrimination in Peel schools. Trustees Kathy McDonald and Nokha Dakroub told the Star they informed Education Minister Stephen Lecce last week that they were not going to participate in the mediation. I am not mediating when they have ramped up their attacks on the Black community. The disdain for my community is palpable, McDonald said. Since the review concluded, it became apparent to me there is insufficient appetite around the board table to tackle the issues presented in the report effectively, Dakroub said. Separately, an email last week by director of education Peter Joshua to principals, vice-principals and other administrators which the Star has seen said Poleen Grewal, the boards associate director of equity, was on a leave for the next several weeks. There was no reason given for this. Her absence makes uncertain how the board will meet the ministry requirement that it provide a confirmation of participation by all members of the board and the director and associate directors in the interim report due within a month. In March 2019, Grewal took the board and Joshua to the Human Rights Tribunal alleging racism, harassment and creation of a poisonous work environment. A few months later, she added allegations of reprisals by the board, including against her son. The board denied all allegations in its responses to the tribunal. This latest round of unravelling comes amid demands by major Black community organizations seeking the ouster of Joshua as well as Brad MacDonald, the chair of the board of trustees, and vice-chair David Green. One of those demands came in an online petition by Peel Advocacy, a multi-racial coalition of individuals and organizations. The petition has about 2,000 signatures. The other came in a letter directly to the board by 18 organizations. It is without a shadow of a doubt that the Director of Education has been derelict in his duties and must be removed immediately from his position, their letter to the board said. We also ask that the chair and the vice-chair be relieved of their current positions for displaying poor leadership and judgement since their tenure. The Star has seen this letter. Last week, the board issued sincere apologies to the Black community, an action also mandated by the ministry review. The review showed we need to do a better job of how we respond to and address incidents of anti-Black racism and other instances of discrimination, the note of apology said. The board committed to rebuild trust and listen to the voices of students, educators and the community so we can move forward But then again this is Peel, a train wreck that keeps sliding on its own debris. Not listening is precisely the issue that has provoked the latest splintering among trustees. At issue are two points: 1. Board-issued letters banning a key Black activist from its campuses and warning another outspoken one. 2. The board ignoring letters from major Black community organizations. Both points were raised in the boards public meeting last week, which was livestreamed. The following are snippets of the discussion unfolded between trustee Kathy McDonald and chair of trustees Brad MacDonald. The dialogue uses their first names to avoid confusion over their last names. Trustee Kathy: Why did we as a board and administration through the Department of Education try to silence Mr. (Kola) Illuyomade with two warning letters and Mr. (Idris) Orughu with a trespass letter? Chair Brad: Thats out of order. You cant ask that in public. Trustee Kathy: Im rephrasing my question. When a random community member not a named individual is trying to advocate for the community and we deliberately silence the person, does this not constitute anti-Black racism? Chair Brad: We cant specifically answer that question because its generic. On the second issue: Trustee Kathy: On March 27, 18 Black community organizations wrote to the board of trustees to articulate their concerns about anti-Black racism as well as demands they had. To date there has not even been an acknowledgment to the letter. No response to this letter. Not even a Noted. I will get back to you later. Why is it that this board even after the review continues to disrespect the community? Chair Brad: That email was addressed to all trustees, so we were all accountable to decide to address it or not As much as I speak for the board, the practice is to take direction from our trustees, the majority take that decision and I write that letter. Trustee Kathy: Excuse me, that is a cop-out. Trustee Nokha Dakroub had asked for a private session to address this letter. Every trustee with the exception of Balbir Sohi and me voted not to have a private session. Chair Brad: Im ruling that out of order that was an in-committee session and youre not allowed to talk about it in public. What is the effect of this forked-tongue approach by Peel? That apology has no effect on me, said Colin Browne, 19, who studied in Peel board schools since Grade 2 and graduated last year. Peel broke me. Without community members I would be nowhere. I was always treated lesser than others. Id get picked on by teachers. In Grade 11, I had to argue with my teacher about my rights to use the bathroom. But what about students in Peel now? How do they feel? It takes more than a few letters and a statement to apologize. Youve got to know what youre talking about. Browne is now a member of the fledgling Peel Advocacy group that began the online petition. If youre really sorry, you reach out to the Black community and ask, How can we make this right, said Idris Orughu, the activist who has been banned from all Peel board properties. They dont even see us as important to reach out. Instead, we got a robocall saying theyre sorry. The board sent a letter of trespass to Orughu dated March 9, days after he won an advocacy award from the city of Brampton. The letter, viewed by the Star, accuses him of making harassing and threatening comments to members of the board resulting in the requirement for police intervention. The 18 organizations letter also demanded that the letter of trespass be rescinded. We, the community, have been around Idris consistently since the beginning of the school year, they wrote. None of us has ever witnessed the behaviour that was described in this letter and view this as an attempt to silence a respected organizer in the community. This letter is baseless, and without proof or merit. The writers shouldnt hold their breath. That debris from that wreck is treacherous. FortiGuard Labs Threat Analysis Report Introduction Affected platforms: Windows Impacted parties: Companies that engage with biomedical firms Impact: Remote control of infected computer, information stealing, keylogger Severity level: High During our research into COVID-19 threats, FortiGuard Labs has run into a number of unique types of spearphishing lures. For example, one of these targets companies that engage with biomedical firms, and as a result, they may be at risk of losing financial resources, data, or intellectual property. Within the last couple of days, for example, our spam traps noticed the following email sent out into the wild. While this seems to be a run-of-the-mill malicious email template, complete with spelling mistakes and grammar issues, the interesting angle taken by this attacker is that it purports to be from a biomedical company focused on life science research, with distributors worldwide. Particularly, the biomedical company claims to work with diseases and cell functions, with the possible intent of using their name to garner favor and a quick reply from the targeted company so they can conduct more COVID research. According to the email headers, one target for this spearphishing campaign is a chemical company in the Czech Republic that produces industrial goods for small customers and large enterprises. The email seems to have originated from the IP address of 45[.]55[.]49[.]33. Digging around further, it appears that this IP address may have been compromised by an unknown attacker. The following analysis provides further insight into how this occurred: Looking at the header information of the file, we see the following information: X-Authenticated-Sender: cpb2.medionline.cl: angeles.ureta@airesgifts.cl Research on the domains airesgifts[.]cl and cb2[.]medionline[.]cl reveals the same IP address of 45[.]55[.]49[.]33: Performing an internet search on both IOCs also revealed the following post from a user on the Zimbra Forums page: The individual in the screenshot above posted the topic strange activity and then summarized how they came across some interesting email being sent from an account that does not exist on their server, even though they have various security protocols in place. By investigating existing Zimbra vulnerabilities, we came across CVE-2019-9621 and CVE-2019-9670 that when combined as seen here in this Metasploit Module can enable a Server Side Request Forgery (SSRF) exploit that allows unauthenticated remote command execution and the execution of unauthorized commands on the server. As shown in the first email image above, the lure comes with an attached archive which contains a malicious binary that affects the Windows platform. (SHA256: CFC573D1EA473DCB5BCFB0C3F869CC73F464DC3E697DCA44D245C402803A5C90) Due to the nature of this email, we suspect that this was a targeted spearphishing campaign, rather than the usual sort of spray and pray campaign, and as a result, only companies that could potentially aid in COVID research should be impacted, rather than general individuals in the public space. The final payload of this attack is an infostealer named Formbook. Given that this attack is trying to leverage the COVID pandemic, while at the same time having specialized targets, the severity level it carries could potentially be significant if it is able to take critical supply chain organizations offline. Telemetry This threat has been seen to contact three domains. The first is www[.]chocolatecoveredcyanide[.]com. Our telemetry observed the following for this domain. Country Visit Counts India 384 Nigeria 8 Saudi Arabia 6 United States 5 Philippines 3 Cyprus 3 We noticed that this domain was most active when the COVID threat was in the midst of becoming a global pandemic. This latest email campaign, run in the month of April, has also started to generate a few hits. The second domain contacted by Formbook is www[.]pilazo[.]com. Country Visit Counts United States 23 Cambodia 12 Saudi Arabia 8 Germany 8 Austria 5 United Kingdom 3 Cyprus 3 Nigeria 2 Japan 2 Similar to the first domain, we began seeing serious spikes in activity beginning in February. There was also some traffic detected during the end of March and the second week of April. The third domain this Formbook variant contacts is www[.]elina-teresa[.]com. Our telemetry shows the following data. Country Visit Counts India 165 United States 2 Indonesia 1 While we saw expected spikes in February, we have also seen traffic as recently as the first week of April. Technical Analysis When FortiGuard Labs first acquired this Formbook variant, VirusTotal reported that only 13/71 vendors had detected it, and only then with a generic name. As one of the thirteen vendors, we detected it as MSIL/GenKryptik.EHNS!tr. The relatively low number is probably because of the two layers piled on top of the actual Formbook threat, which we will outline below. The first layer is actually a trojanized version of what appears to be a school project allowing teachers to input grades for students. After a translation service is used, the following appears Using dnSpy, the .Net Formbook binary can be decompiled and the source code can be analyzed. Indeed, our analysis of the code supports the idea that this is an actual app used for student management. However, malicious code has been inserted into the initialization component of the trojanized app when the executable is launched. The Class2 class (along with Class1) performs a rudimentary form of steganography in order to decrypt and load the next layer. The left side of the picture above contains the code, while the right side contains the image that houses the binary data. This binary data is then sent to a decryptor function to create another .Net executable, which is subsequently loaded into memory via a call to the Invoke() function. One method to analyze this new executable would be to dump it from memory, after it has already been decrypted, through the above-mentioned steganography trick. Using dnSpy, it is possible to step through the code right up until the launch of the new executable. The MZ header of the newly decrypted executable can be seen in the rawAssembly variable, at which point it can be saved to a new file by right-clicking the variable name and bringing up the context menu. The second layer, named ReZer0, has several malicious functions. The AntiSB() function makes sure that this malware is not being executed in a sandbox environment. The malware code on the left resembles old anti-sandbox code on the right that we found posted in a programming forum. However, the newer malware code seems to be updated. In a similar fashion, the AntiVM() malware code also matches the rest of the forum code. The function detects Virtualbox by checking the registry and associated drivers. VMWare is detected in the same way. WINE is checked for by looking at kernel32.dll and seeing if it contains the wine_get_unix_file_name API. QEMU is avoided by checking for specific registry entries. Furthermore, the WMI database is also queried for video controller information to check for the presence of virtual machines. The RunPS() function enables the execution of PowerShell in a hidden window, which in turn is used to modify certain Windows Defender options via the CheckDefender() function. Specifically, this layer attempts to set the following options: Option Outcome DisableBehaviorMonitoring Do not monitor behavior DisableBlockAtFirstSeen Do not block at first seen DisableIOAVProtection Do not scan downloaded files/attachments DisablePrivacyMode Do not display threat history SignatureDisableUpdateOnStartupWithoutEngine Do not get definition updates DisableArchiveScanning Do not scan archives DisableIntrusionPreventionSystem Do not protect network against known vulnerabilities DisableScriptScanning Do not scan script during malware scans SubmitSamplesConsent Never send samples MAPSReporting Send no information to Microsoft about threats HighThreatDefaultAction Allow high level threats to continue executing ModerateThreatDefaultAction Allow moderate level threats to continue executing LowThreatDefaultAction Allow low level threats to continue executing SevereThreatDefaultAction Allow severe level threats to continue executing To completely disable Windows Defender, the threat may also modify Windows Defender registry settings. In the initial days of the lockdown, Disha Patani had shared a 'Bored in the House' dance video with Tiger Shroff's sister, leading to speculation that the actress spending her quarantine days with her rumoured boyfriend's family. Now, Tiger's sister Krishna has revealed whether Disha is actually staying with them or not. In an interaction with Mumbai Mirror, Krishna stated, "She isn't, but she lives close by. We go grocery-shopping sometimes. He and Disha have been friends for ages. We connected over fitness. Since Tiger is a loner, I figured she is a cool girl if my brother is spending so much time with her." Disha and Tiger have been rumoured to be dating for a while now, although they have never confirmed their relationship. Krishna also said the lockdown has helped her reconnect with Tiger. She said, "I don't see him as much as I used to before he joined films. Now, we're bonding more, having dinner together every day. We hadn't done that in a while. At night, we play board games." She added, "We have a typical sibling relationship, with him teasing me all the time. He has the best sense of humour; it just takes time to understand. We try to help our mother with household chores, but aren't the best at it." Her boyfriend Eban Hyams is spending the lockdown with her. The two returned from two-month trip to Dubai and Mizoram before the lockdown began. Meanwhile, her father Jackie Shroff is stuck at their farmhouse between Pune and Lonavala. Read: Video of Eban Hymas, Krishna Shroff Working Out Together is Couple Goals Follow @News18Movies for more She is deferring rent for her store and drawing down family savings to pay the bills. While she is in a position to receive a paycheck loan in the second round of funding, Herbes is angry that larger business got money in the first round. And she is skeptical that it will be any different this time. By now, most of us are really itching to get outside and go for a hike, a walk, or a bike ride. While we still have not received the official green light to get up and get moving again we believe it is getting real close. In anticipation of being able to enjoy Upstate New Yorks great outdoors once more, here is a list of a dozen great places to plan on visiting to get back in touch with nature. Some of these are little known and may become your next favorite hiking or walking place. Others are old favorites. Whichever you choose, be sure and check with the official website included to see opening dates, hours and rules. And, if you must, wear a mask, keep your distance from others and take out what you take in. But, no matter what..enjoy getting back to nature soon! File photo of early fall foliage on Prospect Mountain in Lake George.Mike Lynch | NYup.com While many of the thousands of tourists who revel in the honky-tonk atmosphere of Canada Street (the villages main thoroughfare), others seek out the peaceful calm that lies in the natural surroundings of the Queen of American Lakes. A hike to the top of Prospect Mountain can be a tasking, yet, ultimately rewarding experience. It is about a 3-mile round trip. The summit offers a spectacular vista of the village, lake and mountain ranges in the distance. Plus, there are some fascinating historic artifacts residing at the top. Most curious are the hulking, rusting remains of the Prospect Mountain Cable Incline Railway, which operated here for decades. Built in 1895, it was at the time the longest incline railroad in the world. The trails website suggests that this hike might be too rigorous for children to undertake. (You can also drive to the top). Located on the Stone Church Brook, the Stone Church got its name for its striking similarities to a cathedrals stained glass window.Stefani Reynolds | NYup.com A wonderful place for a leisurely to moderate stroll with your family and kids (and dogs)! Beautiful surroundings including a 30-step staircase, a lake, a 3.5 mile loop hiking trail, an overlook and (drum roll please) a cave. Yes, you can enter the cave and check it out. Oh, and if you are looking for a stone church, well, if you enter the cavern - you are in it! The Stone Church is the name of this ancient cavern on the Stone Church Brook in Dover Plains hewn by time in the formation similar to a churchs cathedral stained glass window. According to local legend, the site was a refuge for Pequot Sachem Sassacus and his warriors as they fled from the English Army in the 1600s. An interesting place to explore. Currently closed, check here for updates. Bridges and stonework on gorge trail at Fillmore Glen State Park in Moravia.David Lassman|Syracuse.com A popular outdoor site for all kinds of recreation and nature exploring. There are a series of hiking trails to choose from at this Cayuga County park, ranging from easy to challenging. You will trek through stone canyons, get close to several waterfalls and pass over stone bridges. Some of the views are spectacular. Even on a hot day, it can feel a bit chilly in the depths of the gorge. Campsites also available, as well as a naturally fed swimming area. Vroman's Nose in Middleburgh, NY.Sgt. Bender's father | Wikimedia Commons This Schoharie County landmark is one of the premier hiking destinations in Central New York. It is two miles from the parking area to the, well, tip of the nose. The hike is perfect for the whole family and the viewing area at the top cannot be beat. Known as The Dance Floor, it is a large, flat rock area which is a perfect place for resting, having a picnic, maybe painting a picture or perhaps practicing your photography skills. The 20-mile view is one of the best in Upstate. In the fall months, this can be a very busy place. John Boyd Thacher State Park in Voorheesville, NY.Stephen D. Cannerelli | Syracuse.com This place has it all. Excellent hiking paths, stunning views and some very unusual natural features. One of the paths, the Indian Ladder Trail, has you descend a staircase 60 feet and then walk along the cliffs of the Helderberg Escarpment. It is always exciting to have your path take you under a waterfall (yes, you will get a little misty). Top of the world views of the foothills of the Catskills, the Adirondack Mountains, Mohawk Valley, Hudson Valley, the Capital District (Albany) and the Green Mountains of Vermont. There is a total of 12 miles of hiking trails here. Cumming Nature Center in Naples, NY.RMSC Rochester | Wikimedia Commons There are several interesting hiking trails at this 900-acre environmental education center. Among the sites you will see along your path are the recreation of an 18th century homestead, an observation tower, a 35-acre beaver pond, and numerous trail signs identifying plants of all kinds. The park is most popular in the spring when acres of colorful wildflowers sprout up along the 6 miles of paths. Catskills Giant Ledge in Big Indian, NY.Ben Perry | Wikimedia Commons Some Upstate hiking trails draw you deep under a canopy of tall trees and green ceilings, offering you wonderful views of forests and streams. Others take you up and into bursts of sunlight and open vistas. The Great Ledge (near Panther Mountain) is one of those. The hiking trail here will expose you to no less than five awesome flat ledges which offer you unimpeded views for miles of Catskill Mountain splendor. The trail is about 6 miles in length and many have called this one of the best hikes in the Catskills. Frick Pond Loop (east of Roscoe, NY) Easy, interesting, accessible and rewarding. This 2-plus miles walking path takes you through some old hardwood forests, around a pretty pond, up and down some log steps, deep into a hemlock grove and over a boardwalk which takes you over a protected wetlands. Many beautiful flowers in the spring, gorgeous Western Catskills vistas in the summer, and a pageant of blazing colors in the autumn. Charlie Major Nature Trail near Skaneateles, NY.Russ Nelson | Wikimedia Commons A great and secret Finger Lakes hiking trail. It follows along Skaneateles Creek and basically is the route of the old Skaneateles Short Rail Line railroad tracks. Very pretty, with some surprises along the way. The railroad operated for about 150 years. Along the way you will walk through patches of tall trees, open glens, and some public areas (picnic areas and a childrens playground). History lovers will enjoy finding the secrets along the way, including remnants of railroad structures and rusting artifacts from the days when this was a busy rail route from New York City to the Finger Lakes (the railroad tracks are gone). The trail is mostly dirt and cinder for easy use, and it wanders back and forth several times over bridges crossing the creek. Previously closed, check the towns site here for updates. Heres a wonderful nature center in the Southern Tier. Along with the many hiking trails here, there is an interesting interactive museum which attracts more than 30,000 visitors a year. The museum is closed during the current COVID-19 situation, but the trails are open. Get lost in yourself as you wander the 10 miles of hiking trails spread out before you. Most are on the easy side and can be done by all ages and at all paces. There are benches and sitting areas to relax on at various points throughout the grounds allowing the visitor to enjoy the beautiful views of the Chemung River Valley in front of them. This 9-mile path, near Saratoga, is (for the most part) a ribbon of macadam winding its way through forests, fields and over creeks. This makes this trail perfect for those in wheelchairs and those with mobility issues. Views are pretty and the bird watching in the spring and summer is excellent. Host group is always improving and updating the amenities to welcome hikers, bikers and walkers on this trail (playgrounds, picnic areas, parking pull offs, etc.). This is a very popular walking trail and is the only trail in the state to be declared a National Recreation Trail by the U.S. Department of Interior and National Park Service. The newest entry on our list, Robs Trails were completed in 2008. These hiking trails offer a unique look into the Finger Lakes region as these trails connect the only two undeveloped Finger Lakes, Canadice and Hemlock Lake. Beautiful walking trails take you through an area that is totally unpopulated and virgin, as far as outsiders go. The City of Rochester purchased much of the shoreline of Hemlock Lake in the 1890s to protect their primary source for that growing citys water supply, leaving vast areas here undeveloped. Once a hardwood forest converted to cropland, Robs Trail showcases ecological communities, scenic vistas and geological features typical of the Finger Lakes Region. The trails touch each of the two lakes at their shores. The two trails were built by the Central and Western Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. READ MORE Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Cuomo: State will expand coronavirus testing to look for antibodies Get outdoors! Exploring Clark Reservation State Park in Onondaga County Coronavirus: DEC confirms that state-owned boat launches have been reopened Coronavirus: Can I hire someone now to paint the exterior or interior of my home? Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Instrumentation with improved reliability and accuracy will be key to facilitating higher productivity Agilent Technologies has unveiled the results of its most recent Pharma Lab Leaders Survey, conducted in association with the global research firm Frost & Sullivan. The survey gathers insights from pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and contract research laboratories around the world. Respondents included 650 laboratory managers, directors, and supervisors from China, Germany, India, South Korea, Switzerland, Austria, and the United States. The laboratories surveyed are involved in a range of activities from disease research to manufacturing. Respondents highlighted their unique industry challenges, laboratory pain points, and goals for the future. Globally, the primary focus was on achieving quicker results (55%), superior quality (44%), and data integrity (43%). Over half of the respondents indicated that quality standards are getting more stringent in their laboratories, with over 80% finding that their current workflow requires further optimization. In India, it was found that sustainability goals were a key priority for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, especially reducing carbon emissions (70%). With regard to challenges, 85% of lab managers felt that more reliable and accurate instrumentation would be crucial to further optimizing workflows. More lab leaders in India are concerned about increased demands to get generic medicines to market quicker than any other region (3rd ranking in Indias regional survey). Bharat Bhardwaj, India Country General Manager, Agilent Technologies said, At Agilent, we endeavor to enhance our offerings in line with the evolving needs of the industry. This survey has helped us better understand key pharmaceutical objectives, requirements, challenges, and operational pain points in a laboratory setting. Based on the new insights, we will continue to design and deliver solutions that help our customers drive efficiency across their labs. The top strategies being deployed globally by lab leaders to more efficiently move drugs through the pipeline are: Buying more sophisticated instruments that deliver a greater degree of specificity (85%) Improving documentation of the sample chain of custody (70%) Employing better-qualified staff (56%). In comparison to other regions, 54% of the surveyed lab leaders in India felt that increasing the existing number of instruments would improve and optimize workflow procedures. This is one of the top strategies being deployed to progress drugs through the pipeline and to market faster. Amid the prevailing coronavirus situation in the country, Mumbai Police leaves no opportunity to drive home the governments stay at home message with a comic spin. In a tweet posted on Tuesday, Mumbai Police conveyed that all those who are thinking of venturing out of their homes during the coronavirus lockdown should immediately abort the mission. The tweet carried a still from Ranveer Singh starer Gully Boy featuring Alia Bhatt and read That face when he says he is going out for a walk during lockdown. Mumbai Police is known for its witty and slapstick social media posts on matters of importance to the general public. Just yesterday, Mumbai Police tweeted a clip from a gaming video and posted, Every player knows - when in a red zone, always stay at home! Earlier this week, it turned to iconic numbers from King of Pop Michael Jackson and encouraged everyone to stay at home to beat coronavirus. Its Dangerous outside, better do what you can - stay home to beat Corona! the tweet read. India has reported 47 coronavirus deaths and 1336 new cases in the last 24 hours. According to the Ministry of Health, Indias total number of coronavirus cases jumped to 18,601 on Tuesday. The figure includes 14759 active cases, 3252 cured or discharged patients and 590 fatalities.In Maharashtra, coronavirus cases near 5000-mark while in Delhi the Covid-19 tally is slightly over 2000 cases. 7 Indian states have more than 1000 coronavirus cases, these include Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. WYOMING, MI -- The 56-year-old Wyoming man fatally injured in a house fire Sunday has been identified. Wyoming police identified the man as David Lynn Walton. The 12-year-old boy injured in the fire continues to improve and is listed in stable condition, according to Wyoming Department of Public Safety. Related: Boy, 12, improving after fire kills man While the cause of the fire remains under investigation, foul play is not suspected at this time. The fire was reported around 3 a.m. Sunday, April 19, in the 100 block of 35th Street SE. Before police and firefighters reached the scene, five family members had escaped the house. A memorial has been set up out of the burned-out home. Also on MLive: Suspected retaliation over homicide leads to 12 arrests in Kalamazoo Consumers Energy employees work, quarantine together to avoid coronavirus West Michigan fishermen challenge Gov. Whitmers stay-at-home order Over the last month or two, as the coronavirus has burst into public consciousness, we have witnessed a long-running show called Liberals Behaving Badly. Liberals like Nancy Pelosi initially pooh-poohed the virus and criticized President Trump for taking meaningful action against it by blocking travel from China. But once it became apparent that the virus would be a significant problem, they did a 180 and began to accuse Trump of not doing enough. We have all seen this ad nauseam, and there is no need to catalog thousands of instances. For an effective push-back against a ritual recitation of fake Democratic Party talking points, check out this colloquy between Congressman Dan Crenshaw and lefty Bill Maher: .@billmaher tries to blame Trump for China Virus @DanCrenshawTX drops a Truth MOAB on him. pic.twitter.com/KsYXH2h8I0 Benny (@bennyjohnson) April 18, 2020 We have also seen an outpouring of hope from liberals that conservatives will die from the virus. I cant readily think of a parallel in our history. During and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for example, I dont recall a single conservative saying that, looking on the bright side, its mostly liberals who are dying. Conservatives just dont think like that. This time around, however, many liberals are both blaming conservatives for the virus and rooting for conservatives to die. Which seems a bit odd, since the main centers of infection are all in blue zones like New York City, Detroit and New Orleans. One Fabiola Santiago, an actual columnist for the Miami Herald, believe it or not, rooted for conservative deaths after warm weather caused people to return to Miamis beaches: It isnt easy to pack so much stupidity into a single tweet. In the first place, why does Ms. Santiago assume that those on the beach were Republicans? My guess is that most were not. And what is this about valu[ing] money over health? Has going to the beach suddenly become lucrative? When all you know how to do is chirp DNC talking points, you can be dumber than would normally be possible. President Trump tweeted an appropriate response: So Ms. Santiago deleted her tweet and offered this insincere apology: I deleted the tweet commenting on people at the beach because it didnt accurately convey my sentiment and I want to apologize for the phrase I used that offended many people. When a person says that what she said doesnt reflect her true opinion, you can be pretty sure that it does. Its just another day in Liberal Land. The hate flows freely, and it would be a Sisyphean task to keep track of it, let alone try to rebut it. The lesson, though, is clear. In the past, conservatives were much too willing to give liberals a pass with regard to motivation. Conservatives have generally thought that liberals are well-meaning, just ill-informed. There certainly are liberals in that category. But there are a great many liberals for whom that characterization is too kind. Many liberals are simply hateful people, and their ideology reflects that hate. The media are outraged that President Trump is talking about re-opening the country, following their previous position that he sure was taking his sweet time at opening up the country. Fortunately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's death forecasts from the Wuhan coronavirus have shrunk from 1.7 million Americans in mid-March; to 100,000 to 200,000 two weeks ago, provided there were massive suppression efforts; to -- most recently -- 60,000. Every week, it seems, we're another two weeks away from the "apex." According to a model recently published in The New York Times, if Trump had issued social distancing guidelines just two weeks earlier -- on March 2, rather than March 16 -- instead of 60,000 Americans dying from the Chinese coronavirus (projected!), only 6,000 would have died. If that's what a two-week quarantine would have done, then how about a four-week quarantine? By the end of the month, 90% of the country will have been shut down, quarantined and socially distancing for FOUR WEEKS. A majority of Americans have already been under these self-isolation rules for three weeks. (And most of the rest live in rural communities 16 miles from one another.) Two weeks is the magic number. Test positive for the Wuhan: self-quarantine for two weeks. Come into contact with someone who has it: self-quarantine for two weeks. Traveling from New York, New Jersey or Connecticut: self-quarantine for two weeks. With cold and flu viruses, people develop symptoms after just five days. But to be extra safe, we're assuming the Wuhan virus can be transmitted for a full two weeks after contact. After two weeks, you're either sick or the infection has passed through you with no symptoms. Again: It's been three. Does social distancing work or doesn't it? After four weeks of self-isolation, won't 90% of the country be Wuhan-free? Or are we in a sci-fi movie with a virus that can live forever without a host? For the tiny percentage of the country not in self-isolation for the past three weeks, either because they are essential workers or because they are screw-offs, let's add them to the "vulnerable" list. Everyone take special precautions around doctors, nurses, grocery store employees and people who don't follow orders -- just as we do around the elderly and immunocompromised. By May 1, even most of the slackers will have worked through the Wuhan. There haven't been any large gatherings for them to attend, and almost everyone else has been staying 6 feet away from them. They've had a month to infect one another and either live or die. In any event, unless all the claims about social distancing are nonsense, then a ONE-MONTH nationwide quarantine should have killed off the Wuhan in 90% of us, allowing a return to mostly normal life. (It goes without saying that Trump's travel bans will have to remain in place.) I notice that the same people telling Americans they must remain at home indefinitely were indignant about closing bathhouses in response to the AIDS epidemic. Back then, the media and all gays except Randy Shilts said: How dare you ask us to shut down the bathhouses! They're part of gay culture. It would be like asking Catholics to stop visiting the Sistine Chapel! But putting the entire country under stay-at-home orders? No problem. Another liberal about-face since the AIDS era gives me an idea for how to re-open the country. Liberals are furious with Trump for expressing optimism about the experimental drug hydroxychloroquine. When it came to AIDS, the gay community's successful campaign to compel the FDA to allow "compassionate" use of unapproved drugs was a civil rights milestone on the order of Selma. In a 1990 editorial, for example, The New York Times praised the "educated and articulate" gay spokesmen for bringing about "changes in the traditional methods of testing drugs," adding that the new procedures were "a compassionate response to AIDS sufferers." By contrast, today the media are absolutely ghoulish in their hope for hydroxychloroquine to fail. The drug is approved for malaria patients, so it's "safe"; it's simply not approved specifically to treat the Chinese virus. The reason for the media's hostility to hydroxychloroquine is obvious: Trump expressed enthusiasm for the treatment, so liberals are required to take the opposite position. It's just like the Democrats' recent infatuation with open borders. Until Trump, nearly every Democrat was for -- or claimed to be for -- border security, deporting criminal aliens and ending the anchor baby scam. But as the Times' Frank Bruni said, Democrats are "defining themselves as antonyms to Trump." Why else, he wondered, would Democrats push policies like open borders, "which won't go down well with many of the voters the party needs"? Perhaps we could use this liberal neurosis to our advantage. To re-open the country, we need Trump to come out against it. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 JACKSON, MI -- Super hero parking. Heroes work here. The signs of support for frontline workers can be seen around Jackson. Ribbons on trees, decorated front doors and windows and signs in yards are all examples of how Jackson residents are showing their support to healthcare and other essential workers. Scroll down to see all of the images. MORE: Art, Beer, Wine Festival at Ella Sharp Park rescheduled due to coronavirus Ready for Takeout Tuesday? Why not try these 5 Jackson-area restaurants Road crack sealing on I-94 beginning in Jackson County Quarantine pet portraits: More things that give us hope in Jackson County amid COVID-19 A sign supporting frontline healthcare workers in a yard in Essex Heights in Jackson on Monday, April 20, 2020. Signs of support can be seen throughout the Jackson area.J. Scott Park | MLive.com Ribbons are seen hanging from trees on Saturday, April 18, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com Signs are seen at Henry Ford Allegiance Health in honor of the employees who work there on Thursday, April 16, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com Whoite ribbons and other decorations on the front door of a home on Jackson's southwest side on Monday, April 20, 2020. Signs of support can be seen throughout the Jackson area.J. Scott Park | MLive.com A message is seen on a billboard at the intersection of South Cooper Street and East Michigan Ave. on Thursday, April 16, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com Whoite ribbons and other decorations on the front door of a home on Jackson's southwest side on Monday, April 20, 2020. Signs of support can be seen throughout the Jackson area.J. Scott Park | MLive.com A design made out of cut out hearts is seen at the Bigbby Coffee on Cooper Street, Monday, April 13, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com A message for essential workers and first responders on the window at American 1 Credit Union Resource Center on Thursday, April 16, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com A window design is seen in Napoleon, MI, on Thursday, April 16, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com A message honoring essential workers hangs in front of Modern Waste System in Napoleon on Thursday, April 16, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com Signs are seen on the side of M-50 supporting essential workers on Thursday, April 16, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com Whoite ribbons and other decorations on the front door of a home on Jackson's southwest side on Monday, April 20, 2020. Signs of support can be seen throughout the Jackson area.J. Scott Park | MLive.com Signs are seen around Napoleon in support of essential workers on Sunday, April 19, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com White ribbons, hearts and the words "Stay Strong" in the window of a home on Probert Road on Monday, April 20, 2020. Signs of support can be seen throughout the Jackson area.J. Scott Park | MLive.com A prayer wall is placed outside of Brookside United Methdost Church, 4000 Francis St. in Summit Township on Monday, April 20, 2020. Signs of support can be seen throughout the Jackson area.J. Scott Park | MLive.com Signs are seen in Napoleon on Sunday, April 19, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com To purchase photos, please visit the gallery below. He's the new Masterchef Australia judge who is becoming known for his rugged good looks. And on Tuesday nights episode, Jock Zonfrillo sent his fans into a frenzy when he paid homage to his Scottish roots by stepping out in red tartan pants. Many shared their thoughts on Twitter about how sexy they thought the restaurant owner looked, with one even calling his ensemble 'erotic'. Can't stand the heat in the kitchen? On Tuesday, Masterchef Australia judge Jock Zonfrillo (pictured) caused a social media frenzy when he wore 'erotic' tartan trousers on the hit show 'Excuse me, why did I find that little glimpse of Jock's tartan trousers so erotic,' asked one woman. Another added: 'Oh be still my beating heart and Scottish heritage. Jock in Tartan trousers on Masterchef'. 'Just when I thought I couldn't be more attracted to Jock, he wears a tartan pants,' said another. 'Jock can taste my crumpets anytime he wants if you know what I mean,' another said, referring to one of the dishes being cooked in the pressure test. All the right ingredients! Fans on social media praised Jock's ensemble with one saying he could 'taste her crumpets anytime he wants' Speaking to The Daily Telegraph this week, Jock admitted that he's a little 'embarrassed' about his new heartthrob status. 'Listen, I'm in my mid-40s,' he told the publication. The restaurateur went on to insist that he is 'awkward' in real life. 'I find it embarrassing. It's very flattering... but I'm Captain Awkward,' he said. New lineup: Jock has made quite the impression on MasterChef Australia fans for his rugged good looks. Pictured left to right: Gordon Ramsay with MasterChef's new judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong an Jock Zonfrillo Jock is happily married to his third wife, businesswoman Lauren Fried, who is pregnant with their second child. He has two other children from his first two marriages. MasterChef: Back to Win continues Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel Ten Conroe resident Abdullah Syed looks forward to Ramadan each year. Some of my best memories are from Ramadan, he said. Known as a time for fasting, prayer and reflection, the holy month in the Muslim faith, which starts Thursday this year, also offers the opportunity to get together with friends and family. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Coronavirus live updates: H-E-B adds Houston restaurant star to list of to-go options In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, however, a number of those traditions will no longer be possible. Ramadan is all about community, Syed said. To not have that is going to be very hard for people. In fact, he decided to head back to his family in California this week, driving straight through to San Diego, to avoid spending Ramadan alone. Focus on God and family The whole point of Ramadan is to go down to the bare necessities, Syed said. You only focus on God and family. The best advice I have is to take this time to realize whats important to you. Mohamed Abdellatif, also a resident of Conroe, agreed that without the usual distractions, Ramadan will offer a chance to focus on what truly matters. QUARANTINE FALLOUT: Coronavirus forces girls to forego quinceanera rite of passage Now you get to spend more quality time with your family, he said. Usually, youre so busy, thinking about tomorrow. Your mind is occupied with other things. Abdellatif serves as principal of Masjid Abu Huraira, 1701 Sawdust Rd. in The Woodlands. Normally, his calendar would be full during Ramadan, leading prayers and giving lectures. Im very busy during Ramadan, Abdellatif said. Now, I can focus on the family. This time, it will be a different experience, but its a good change. Its a good opportunity to focus on family and home. It actually gives us a chance to pray more. Yasmin Saleh, who has lived in The Woodlands for the past 15 years, said that she is enjoying the extra time spent with her children. Im taking it one day at a time, she said. MORE FROM LINDSAY PEYTON: Houston experts spell out what moms need to know about breastfeeding, COVID-19 Initially, she hoped that the shelter-in-place restrictions would be lifted in time for Ramadan, but she keeps a close watch on the news and Harris County Public Health department updates. This Ramadan, we will have to just stay inside, Saleh said. Usually, she anticipates Ramadan festivities, prayers as a community late into the night and spending time with friends. That, Im going to miss, she said. Time for charity Ramadan is also a time for charity, and Saleh has been focusing her attention on that. It is beyond my imagination what people are going through, she said. With the current situation, our Muslim community in The Woodlands is looking for opportunities to help and to give back. Already, she has led an effort to deliver breakfast to area medical staff and also helped donate needed items at senior facilities. She also helps with the food pantry serving the Muslim Community. Saleh said that at the mosque she attends, Al-Ansaar Masji, Imam Rihabi Mohamed was quick to move everything online. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Houston-area nonprofits adapt to COVID-19 with more people needing help and fewer dollars, volunteers coming in Dr. Rihabi is very tech-savvy, she said. Once this situation started, and they decided to close the mosque, he was on Zoom. Online connections The Imam also moved Sunday school and adult classes online. Saleh said that his use of technology helped her feel connected to the community. Al-Ansaar Masjid is connecting with community members, offering prayers, delivering prayers, classes and counseling online. The holy month of Ramadan will not be the same this year, Mohamed said. We encourage congregants to worship at home, avoid crowds during this pandemic, and do our part to reduce the transmission of the virus even if that means closing the gates of mosques or totally stopping services. Before COVID-19, he explained that during the holy month, area Muslims would come together for extra prayers, to break fast with communal meals called iftars, share food and shake hands. The gathering, visiting, shaking hands and hugging has completely stopped, Mohamed said. VIDEO: Montgomery County Food Bank gets help from National Guard Still, just as fasting is a means to worship during Ramadan, he is confident that abstaining from social contact perhaps serves a higher purpose. During this pandemic, avoiding crowds, following the advice of health officials, caring for others, staying in touch via phone, text, email and giving them hope, are all acts of worship, Mohamed said. Whoever practices these acts out of love and sincerity for humanity will be rewarded by God. He points to the Quran, where God says, And whoever saves a life, it will be as if he saved all of the humanity. Fasting during Ramadan is also a way to remember the less fortunate, Mohammed said. He has already seen his congregants step up to help and post messages on social media offering to help neighbors. One read, If anyone runs out of food, please dont go to sleep with an empty stomach. Dont be afraid or embarrassed to send me a private message. We will be more than happy to share whatever food we have and will drop what we are doing and go. Help and support Checking on neighbors, offering help and support, remembering mercy and love is what Ramadan is all about, the Imam continued. Our faith offers us many ways of coping with difficult situations, he said. I strongly believe that this pandemic will not affect Ramadan. It will open doors for believers to do good deeds and worship God at home with their family members. Ramadan is a time to walk back into faith and find tranquility by connecting with God, Mohamed said. We will not let COVID-19 kill our spirit of giving in Ramadan, he said. If COVID-19 is strong, our faith is stronger. This is the time of spending in charity and this is the time to be united. Saleh also is spending time thinking about the value of human connection. We are missing that connection with others, regardless of their religion or anything, she said. Maybe we can learn to tolerate others more. Nadeem Siddique, a resident of The Woodlands, said this Ramadan is an opportunity to serve the community especially as more and more need becomes apparent in the face of the pandemic. Already, he is working on an effort to provide 18 area families in need with a Ramadan basket. These are families that never ask for anything, Siddique said. Fasting during Ramadan is not simply about refusing food and drink, he explained. The purpose is focus, he said. It teaches you that you have the ability to refrain and to reconnect spiritually to what really matters. What is important, to him, is spending time with family and helping those in need. Theres a lot out of our control right now, Siddique said. Either you focus on what you cant control and become depressed or you focus on what you can do. Were trying to make the most of this time together. Its a time of reflection, of understanding how the Creator wants us to behave. Lindsay Peyton is a Houston-based freelance writer. Predominantly black communities in the New Orleans metropolitan area have infection rates for the coronavirus that are often far above those in nearby white communities, according to data released Monday by the state Department of Health. The data, which shows the rate of COVID-19 infections in Louisiana at a neighborhood level, further highlighted the sharp racial divide in who is being most impacted by the virus and added further clarity on the disparities that have made the pandemic far more deadly for Louisiana's black residents. Previously released data had shown the coronavirus was taking a far greater toll on black Louisiana residents than other races. As of Monday, about 59.3% of the victims who ultimately succumbed to the coronavirus in Louisiana were black, a rate about 1.8 times as high as the African-American share of the states population. The new data divides known infections by U.S. census tract. It provides a stark look at the high rates of infections in predominantly African-American areas and its relatively lower prevalence in nearby white neighborhoods. Tracts in the Hollygrove and Dixon neighborhoods, for example, have already seen between 1% and 2% of their largely black population test positive for the coronavirus. Just blocks away, in predominantly white Lakeview, the infection rate was half that. Black communities in Gentilly and New Orleans East surpassed overwhelmingly white areas Uptown by even higher rates. And the two tracts that make up Algiers Point each had infection rates below 1%, while the rest of New Orleans West Bank saw rates of up to 2.5%, depending on the community. Similar divides were seen in Jefferson Parish, where whiter suburbs on the east bank saw far lower rates than more diverse areas of Kenner or black communities on the West Bank. When you look at that map its really glaring, the areas that are lit up on this map are the areas that are clearly, predominantly African-American, said Thomas LaVeist, dean of Tulane Universitys School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Louisiana is one of just a few states providing information on cases at such a granular level. Census tracts are relatively small geographic areas that comprise portions of neighborhoods or communities, and up until now, the state had provided information on infection rates only by parish. The new data has some limitations: roughly a quarter of the cases throughout the state are excluded because the patient's address could not be matched to a location, or because their census tract contains fewer than 1,000 people, which the state said would raise privacy concerns. Still, while the data does not identify individuals by race, it shows a dramatic difference in how white and black communities are faring in the face of the pandemic. And it may provide a roadmap for a testing regime to ensure the state is effectively targeting communities that continue to be hotspots. New Orleans City Councilman Jason Williams said the data reflects what black residents have experienced in New Orleans for decades a disproportionate impact on their communities when disaster strikes. 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 "Whether youre looking at the impact of floodwater and who is stuck on roofs or in the Convention Center or an invisible threat from a virus like this, its consistently the most marginalized population and that should not be surprising to anyone," Williams said. How did coronavirus get to New Orleans? Scientists scrutinize virus genome for answers The first confirmed coronavirus case was announced in Louisiana on March 9, but its likely the disease was circulating silently through New O Those working in the city's service industry, which includes a large number of black workers, don't have the ability to shelter in place the way those in white-collar professions do, Williams said. "There are no poor people at home engaged in Zoom conferences and Zoom meetings," said Williams, referring to the popular video-conferencing software. "If you are a grocery store clerk at Rouses, you cant handle that job with Zoom, that doesnt help you." Because white and black residents tend to live in segregated neighborhoods, the people those workers interact with are more likely to be of the same race, LaVeist said. Other factors, such as the greater predominance of multi-generational households in African-American communities, may also contribute to a greater level of infections, he said. This map says to me that people tend to associate with people in their own racial and ethnic group and they tend to live in neighborhoods with like people, LaVeist said. If this virus had entered this community in Metairie, wed see the clusters to the west of the city instead. Outside of the New Orleans area, the new data also shows racial divides. In addition, it shows an expected pattern, with infections apparently spreading more rapidly in more urban or densely populated areas than in more rural ones, said Dr. Susan Hassig, an epidemiologist at Tulane University. The question is, how many people can an infected person interact with? Hassig said. If youre in New Orleans you can interact with a whole lot of people. If youre in Winn Parish, not so many. +2 'I will not be bullied': LaToya Cantrell firm in decisions about coronavirus stay-home orders Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Monday offered the strongest defense yet of her decisions last week to extend stay-home restrictions in New Orleans t The new data could also provide a guide to policy makers as they determine how to deploy tests and other resources to combat the virus, LaVeist said. If there are 10 people, I want to know if there are 20, he added. I want to find all 20 of those people and get them out of circulation, I want to stem that mini-outbreak in that neighborhood. Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced efforts to do more thorough testing of the city's hardest-hit areas on Monday, something that Williams said he supports as a good first step. "I think it's only the beginning. I think the mayor sees it that way as well," Williams said. Leading Provider of MRO Software Visit Clients First in booth #4023 at MRO Americas to learn how to automate the entire Maintenance Repair and Overhaul process. - Michael Conti, Clients First Leading integrated MRO software provider, Clients First Business Solutions, announces 2020 Exhibitor Sponsorship at MRO Americas Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Dallas, TX, September 1-3, 2020, #MROAM. Clients First Business Solutions exhibits in booth #4023 at the MRO Americas. Its the 25th annual MRO Americas produced by Aviation Week. The MRO Americas conference is a world-class venue for all those involved in the MRO sector. Attendees exchange ideas, best practices, share experiences, debate issues and gather knowledge. The conference will focus on crucial industry challenges. Its the best conference to gather key intelligence and generate real business leads. Meet with the Clients First team to learn how ProMRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) helps aviation, equipment maintenance, repair, and overhaul companies automate and become more profitable. ProMRO helps to quote faster, track labor and material costs, track work history of customer aircraft and equipment, serial numbers, invoicing payables financials, customer management, and marketing, in one easy-to-use system. Clients First will be introducing a new PartsBase integration at MRO Americas 2020. The PartsBase and ProMRO integration save time by seamlessly linking the PartsBase capabilities into your normal workflows. Parts requested by customers are tracked from start to finish using the intuitive ProMRO CRM system dashboards. Whether you are a shopper or a seller, PartsBase combined with ProMRO streamlines your workflow. Automation and the use of quality data are paramount to achieve a more efficient transparent procurement and sales process. Prosperous companies in the aerospace industry, for example, have moved past paper faxes and outdated Excel files to real-time modern integrated systems that capture good data. Profitable aerospace companies invest in real-time integrations with their customers and suppliers. Robust quality data sets allow aerospace, defense, and aviation supply chain companies to capitalize using business intelligence tools to identify inefficiencies and market trends to help serve customers better with higher quality margins. Clients First look forward to discussing the following integrated MRO software benefits: Eliminate duplicate entry from one system to another and free up staff time for other tasks Eliminate error-prone spreadsheets that do not tie back to a central database Utilize a REAL-TIME software solution that will better manage inventory, labor, and expenses Stay informed by reviewing profitability on the fly, create change orders if needed Reduce quoting or job creation errors by utilizing Service Profiles which allows job or task templates to be created Easy Core Tracking Flag FAA-approved Item specific Vendors for purchasing of inventory or repair items Print 8130s, easily create new compliance reports Utilize the inherent document management Accessible on ANY Internet-enabled device About Clients First Business Solutions Since 2003 Clients First Business Solutions has been offering local businesses ERP software implementation, support, and training services. Clients First is in the business of helping businesses of all sizes implement business software for their organization. We have seven offices covering the entire United States. Our goal is to help you improve your business processes, reduce overhead and realize a competitive advantage in your industry. Your business benefits from our teams expertise by increasing ROI and improving your bottom line. We offer an affordable Quick Turn Implementation plan including any legacy data, so you are operating more efficiently on the first day of use. We also offer full implementation services for more complex needs along with a US-based development team to tackle unique business challenges and scenarios. Our team supports Dynamics 365 solutions and Acumatica cloud ERP. Our team is well versed in Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Project Accounting, and EDI. We specialize in manufacturing, supply chain management, PartsBase integration, job shops, MROs, field service, project accounting, aviation, and industrial repairs. We also have a US-based development team to promptly address your needs. Please contact us to learn more call 800-331-8382 or email info@promrosoftware.com STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- None of Staten Islands nine New York City Housing Authority developments made the list in a state pilot program targeting coronavirus cases in the citys housing projects announced Monday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the partnership with on-demand healthcare provider Ready Responders to bring health care services, including COVID-19 diagnostic testing, to NYCHA residents. The initial health program will be featured at NYCHA developments in the other four boroughs, and the state will be distributing 500,000 cloth masks, which will be enough to meet the needs of each of the systems authorized residents, and 10,000 gallons of hand sanitizer to public housing communities across the city. We have a need and a responsibility to get the assistance we need to low-income communities, Cuomo said at his Monday press briefing. Were doing it as a pilot program to see how it works. If it works well, well go further with it. Members of Staten Islands delegation of elected officials said they are working to get Staten Islands population the help they need. Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore), whose district encompasses seven of the boroughs NYCHA developments, said Staten Islands omission from the pilot program help to perpetuate health disparities. I understand this is a pilot program, but I am reminding the governors office that the North Shore of Staten Island has an abundance of NYCHA complexes, disparate rates of COVID infections, with limited to no testing until now, all in the absence of a public hospital, she said. 38 Life on lockdown: Coronavirus in NYC *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** The governors office did not respond to a request for comment as to how the developments were chosen for the pilot program. Public Advocate Jummane Williams said he was glad to see the governor targeting NYCHA communities, but that more needed to be done. Unfortunately, that roll-out is too small and too slow, with this pilot program not even touching Staten Island, where weve seen a spike in cases and a lack of testing in areas like Mariners Harbor, he said. People in need dont have time for a prolonged pilot program they need immediate aid. Rose pointed out that testing in Mariners Harbor is heavily being handled by the outpatient Beacon Christian Community Health Center. The organizations CEO, Dr. David Kim, said poorer Staten Islanders, particularly those without cars, have had difficulties getting tested. NYCHA Chair Greg Russ issued a statement expressing his gratitude for the the work being done at all levels of government to help NYCHA, affirmed the organizations commitment to the health and safety of its residents, but did not address Staten Islands omission from the pilot program. We are grateful for this partnership, and we will continue to connect NYCHA residents to meal programs, wellness, health/mental health services, rent hardship programs, and now, thankfully, the crucial testing all New Yorkers need to overcome this pandemic, Russ said. City Council Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island), whose district contains the boroughs remaining two NYCHA developments, said Staten Island needs to be part of the pilot program. Leaving our borough out would only exacerbate the long-standing inequities in healthcare services between Staten Island and the rest of the city, he said. We talk about testing, testing, testing. We need more testing and Staten Island should be immediately included in this pilot. Borough President James Oddo noted that the pilot represents the first developments to be chosen, and said that his office is pushing for Staten Island developments to be included as quickly as possible. Bay of Plenty Do you want to work for one of the most well respected contractors in the business? Work on one of the most exciting long... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Fourteen-year-old student Haley Marks pain and uncertainty came through loud and clear in her poem, Not the Vacation I had Imagined, which was published as recently as a South Jersey Times letter. As a teacher (at Haverford College in Pennsylvania) and a parent, I empathize with Haleys overwhelming sense of anxiety and fear. Many of my own students are suffering with this during the pandemic as well, and I feel powerless to help them. However, as a scientist, I was saddened that she believes scientists and doctors have no clue concerning a COVID-19 cure. I wish to reassure Haley and others that scientists and medical professionals do, indeed, know what to do. In laboratories across the world, scientists are working around the clock to improve diagnostic tests, develop therapeutic treatments and create a wide variety of innovative vaccines. Rutgers University just received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for a simpler test that uses saliva. Gilead Sciences existing antiviral, Remdesivir, is showing great promise as a treatment, and experimental vaccines include Modernas mRNA-1273. While it may seem that scientists have no clue as we suffer through the worst of this, please believe that scientists are hard at work and they will come through for us. Its what they do. Shirley A. Lang, Westville Make May Day reopening day I say, reopen the economy on May 1, also known as May Day. May is a wonderful month. The world traditionally celebrates the departure of winter and the rejuvenation of life. I grew up in Woodbury Heights, where every May we would have a May fair and dance around the maypole. I wonder if they still do that? The coronavirus has not caused death to millions, as some had predicted. And, I do not believe it's because of governments glorious mitigation efforts. I do not respect the way governments handled this. The response has been way overblown and caused a panic. Now, we have to deal with economic difficulties that the government caused. The leadership of both parties is hurting the nation. New Jerseys economy does not belong to Gov. Phil Murphy or state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester. They are on a path that will end the free-market economy and erect a centralized one where political bosses and their donors rule over economic activity. Murphy seems to want a more authoritarian government. Hes testing the waters to see how much he can get away with without causing a rebellion. Plus, he and Sweeney want to see how much federal money the state can get. They need a bailout for their monstrosity of government. Coronavirus response is being used by Democrats for a smear campaign against President Donald Trump. Democrats do not want to open the country back up promptly. They have no desire to release our prosperity and let us get back to work. I say, open up the country and celebrate the festival of spring. Lee Lucas, Gibbstown Remove the closed signs now Regarding the coronavirus retail business shutdowns: The public is more than ready for a six-letter word to disappear from storefronts across America and a four-letter word to take its place. Eliminate CLOSED and replace it with OPEN. David M. Levin, Vineland Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. TORRINGTON Earth Day celebrations are on hold because of crowd concerns during the coronavirus pandemic, but that doesnt mean the day should be ignored. Torrington canceled its traditional Earth Day event scheduled for April 25, and is planning an Earth Day 50/Clean Up the World Day in September. Meanwhile, event organizer Jeremy Leifert, assitant city planner, is encouraging families, in small groups, to get outside and do a little cleanup on their own. The event is promoted by the Torrington Conservation Commission. We have a list of areas in the land use office that we keep up with all year, Leifert said. If people call, they can find out where to go, and Ill provide maps if they need them. Ive been promoting this and encouraging people to do that. Earth Day events in Torrington are traditionally held at Coe Memorial Park. But there are plenty of other problem sites with excessive litter in the city that are in need of attention any time during the year. People can pick one and well work out a location for them, Leifert said. There are 60 to 80 sections in town that are problem areas. For example, the skate park near the high school is a place thats in need of regular cleanup. This year, theres no dumpster available at Coe Memorial Park for people to drop off trash after a cleanup. Theyll have to take it home and put it in their own garbage cans. But public works staff can hand out bags and gloves on Saturday. Well meet outside of City Hall in the parking lot, Leifert said. We have the supplies available. This year would have been Torringtons 15th Earth Day event. The one in the fall will make up for it being canceled, and by then, there will be plenty to do, Leifert said. The fall cleanup isnt usually as well-attended as this one, but maybe more people will come this year, he said. Whatever residents decide to do on Saturday, Leifert encouraged them to do it outdoors, in groups of five people or fewer. If youre going stir crazy, go out in a family group, he said. You can just do your own neighborhood if you want. For location ideas and supply information, contact Leifert at Jeremy_Leifert@torringtonct or 860-489-2221. For information on Earth Days 50th anniversary, visit www.earthday.org/earth-day-2020; for Clean Up the World, visit www.cleanuptheworld.org. I have been in Dachau today from the time the first American troops entered until the place was cleared. I will tell you about it chronologically with no attempt to embellish so that you may judge for yourselves. At 3:00 a.m. on April 30, 1945, TIME war correspondent Sidney A. Olson cabled those words back to news bureau chief David Hulburd. The day before, the Nazis infamous first concentration camp had been liberated. In the resulting report from Dachau that ran in the following weeks issue the one that proclaimed the impending Allied victory with an image of Adolf Hitlers face crossed out the magazine relayed Olsons descriptions of box-cars of bodies, the eerie death chambers, the joy of the survivors. And yet, even in a story that leaves readers with no doubt about the cruelty of the Nazi regime, editors left some of the goriest details of Olsons cabled account on the cutting room floor. But the cable itself survived. Typed copies of the first-person account were tucked away with Olsons belongings, largely untouched until after his death in 1995. Its a document that sheds light not only on the history of World War II and the Holocaust, but on the role of American war correspondents and how their observations informed public opinion about the conflict. As the upcoming 75th anniversary of that liberation prompts the world to once again promise never to forget what happened then, the correspondents family hopes that what Olson saw will never be forgotten either. Sidney Olsons career on the politics beat was booming, but as the 1930s came to an end, he longed to be elsewhere. In July 1939, TIME co-founder Henry Luce had hired Olson, a college dropout from Salt Lake City who had worked his way up to become the Washington Posts then-youngest city editor, to be a contributing national affairs editor. Three months later, Germany invaded Poland, launching World War II, and Olson spent almost every day that followed begging Luce to send him abroad to cover the war. Story continues Twice I was almost set. Once I even had my shots and my uniforms; each time Luce, over my dead body, prevailed on me to stay to help handle the journalistic problems at TIME, Olson recalled in an April 1950 letter to the journalist George Frazier. Even as he was promoted and took on more responsibility at the magazine, he was ready to give it up. Through all those years, I had only one ambition; to see the war first-hand and write about it, Olson wrote. In the summer of 1944, Olson got another opportunity to make his pitch: Luce asked him to pick any trip in the world as an assignment for after Election Day. I did; Olson recalled. I chose a year-long round-the-world trip to all war theatres as a war correspondent. And so, after the election, Olson said goodbye to his wife, his 7-year-old daughter Whitney and his 2-year-old son John. That December, he joined the ranks of some 1,600 accredited war correspondents. By next year, a week hence, a tremendous grind begins for mewith no limits except those of my mind and body, he wrote in his diary, from London on Christmas Eve. He was empowered by a sense of patriotic duty. Now am at least partially free of that national guilt-complex all we Americans seem to have, he told Luce in a Dec. 27 letter, of not really participating in the war. A noncombatant's certificate of identity issued to Sidney A. Olson designating him a war correspondent by the War Department on Dec. 14, 1944. | Courtesy of Sidney A. Olson Papers, Collection of Allen and Whitney Clark Olsons personal war story began in a muddy trench in Kapelsche Veer in the Netherlands, in the wake of the Battle of the Bulge. By Feb. 25, he had flown most of the front repeatedly in Piper Cubs and only had my helmet blown off once, per a cable to TIME. On March 29, ahead of interviewing the legendary General George Patton, he cabled TIME news bureau chief David Hulburd suggesting the magazine put Adolf Hitler on the cover in two weeks hence, arguing that the wars end was nigh. There is plenty of bloody fighting going on but its very much like Joe Louis circling a groggy opponent looking for the exact spot to produce a quick kill and its very hard to realize that this is finally it. Olson (second from left) visiting U.S. troops somewhere in England in January 1945 and standing next to the 390th Bomb Group's commander Colonel Joseph A. Moller (second from right). | Courtesy of Sidney A. Olson Papers, Collection of Allen and Whitney Clark Before Olson arrived in Europe, the Soviet Red Army had already begun liberating concentration camps in Eastern Europe; they reached Auschwitz, where one million Jewish people died, in January of 1945. Then, on April 11, 1945, the U.S. had liberated Buchenwald and had Dachau, located on the site of an abandoned munitions factory near Munich, in its sights. Since the camps establishment in 1933, nearly 200,000 people had been imprisoned there; in the first months of 1945, it saw more than 100 deaths a day. By the time three U.S. Army divisions approached the Dachau complex, the main camp and its subcamps together held 67,665 registered prisoners, about one-third of whom were Jewish. The other two-thirds were characterized as political prisoners, opponents of the Nazi regime the very earliest Hitler haters as Olson put it in his cable such as Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, and other minority groups including Jehovahs Witnesses and Roma people. On April 26, three days before the Americans arrived, Nazi SS officers evacuated about 7,000 Dachau prisoners in a so-called death march, part of their attempt to retain hostages and to minimize the number of prisoners telling liberators about the abuses they suffered. Many died of starvation or were shot dead if they trailed behind. The next day, the date of Olsons cable to TIME, happened to be the correspondents 37th birthday. Unbeknownst to him at the time, it was also the day Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was found dead in his underground bunker in Berlin. Detainees from Dachau concentration camp gathering on the former place of roll call after the liberation by American soldiers in 1945 | ullstein bild via Getty Images Olsons account of the horrific conditions at Dachau was part of the most graphic coverage of the war to date. Journalists had received reports about the existence of concentration camps and of the massacre of millions of predominantly Jewish people, but reports of these statistics still seemed abstract to many at home. In 1945, the vast majority of Americans believed reports about concentration camps, but seriously underestimated the number of people killed in them. (Interestingly, a separate survey that year revealed that most Americans thought it was important for the public in the U.S. as well as in Germany to be confronted with photos of the atrocities.) The camps seemed abstract to many of the journalists on the front lines too until they saw for themselves. Correspondents were often mistaken for liberators; in some cases, they had in fact beat the liberators to Nazi-occupied areas. In a second cable, Olson said he heard a German tried to surrender to New York Herald Tribune correspondent Marguerite Higgins, and that the Nazis raised a white flag when she arrived. Correspondents bosses back in the U.S. couldnt quite believe the stories either. In many cases, they excised details they thought must have been exaggerations, explains Ray Moseley in Reporting War: How Foreign Correspondents Risked Capture, Torture and Death to Cover World War II. The May 7, 1945, cover of TIME | Cover Credit: BORIS ARTZYBASHEFF The final edit of Olsons account that appeared at roughly 800 words in the May 7, 1945, issue of TIME was mostly celebratory with Olsons desired cover image of Hitler, his face crossed out with a red X. The story starts with Olson entering to the sight of dead bodies, then transitions to the celebrations of the inmates. There is nothing you can do when a lot of hysterical, unshaven, lice-bitten, half-drunk, typhus-infected men want to kiss you, he explained. It is no good trying to explain that you are only a correspondent. The piece ends on a heartwarming note: One giant Russian held me for at least 30 seconds while he kissed all over the U.S. insignia on my coat. This arc is no coincidence, says Barbie Zelizer, director of the Center for Media at Risk at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Remembering to Forget: Holocaust Memory through the Cameras Eye. Though it was normal for correspondents cables to be edited before appearing in print and there is no record of the editors decision-making process, the framing of this particular example was part of a trend, reflecting an effort to stay on that idea that the war is over. It leaves out paragraphs from the original cable about skirmishes and fighting that was still taking place at the camp details that, as Zelizer puts it, could have been a whole other story. There is a kind of urge to deliver a false absoluteness that the battles are behind you, says Zelizer, who reviewed Olsons files, at a moment in time when certainty was just about the last thing anyone could imagine. Some of the goriest details were also left out. The TIME article excludes Olsons description of a Nazi fatally shot in the back, slumped over his sandwich and beer, still bleeding out. Editors also took out Olsons account of what was, for him, the most dramatic experience of the day. As we got out of the camp, the Germans began to shell Dachau, he writes. The shelling after everything else literally scared the living daylights out of us. And he was already at his wits end. undefined After Olson and two other journalists, Walter Ridder of the Saint Paul Dispatch and Howard Cowan of the Associated Press, are nearly mistaken for SS troops, the correspondents made it to their Jeeps amid the crash of German shells, while still looking out for mines and booby traps. U.S. troops liberated the survivors of the Dachau death march in early May. By Victory in Europe Day, May 8, Olson was in Paris. Crowds on the Champs-Elysees celebrate Victory in Europe at the end of World War II with a joyful procession on May 8, 1945 | Getty Images Read Olsons report in the May 7, 1945, issue of TIME, here in the TIME Vault By the next month, Olson was home. In the years that followed, when his war experiences came up, he too left out some of the gorier parts. He segued to Fortune and LIFE, then moved to Hollywood in 1950 and did a six-month stint screenwriting for Paramount Pictures, before pivoting to advertising. He retired in 1973. He didnt seem visibly rattled by his war experience, his family recalls, but he didnt want to talk about it either. His son John, now 77, remembers browsing LIFE in the post-war era; whenever he came across World War II-related coverage, hed ask his father about it. The liberation of Dachau came up once, and while John has long forgotten the actual exchange that followed, his body language spoke volumes. I could see him tense up just talking about it, John says. Similarly, Olsons granddaughter Margot Clark-Junkins tried to ask him about it after visiting the site of Dachau while studying abroad. He just kind of gazed down the river and said I dont really like to talk about that,' she recalls. And I dropped it right then and there. But now, his family wont drop it again. In the year or so after Olsons death in 1995, Olsons daughter Whitney Clark, now 82, would periodically bring out her late fathers papers for the family to look through. But it was only in 2018 that Clark and her daughter Clark-Junkins took on the task of organizing the World War II-era papers, including the file on the liberation of Dachau. Clark-Junkins, 55, hopes to turn her grandfathers account into a book. Clark initially only wanted to keep the files in the family, but changed her mind, believing people outside the family should know what Olson saw too, now more than ever, given the surge of antisemitism and rising nationalism worldwide 75 years later. The horror has to be kept alive, says Clark. Right now its really stunning how everyone seems to want to slip-slide into some form of prejudice. I think we should make a big deal out of it and just remind people, were letting it go again. The fear of the otherwhy cant we get over that? With the Russian-Turkish ceasefire in place, families are starting to return to their homes, although they have been warned about the remnants of war and the stability of buildings writes Smart News. The Response Coordinators Group of Syria has documented the return of 36,267 displaced families to their villages and towns in Aleppo and Idleb countryside, since the implementation of the ceasefire agreement on Mar. 6, 2020. The group documented the number of returning families, until Apr. 20, 2020, at about 185,000 people, to villages and towns of the Aleppo and Idleb countryside, areas far from the frontlines with the Syrian government forces. In a statement on Apr. 16, 2020, the Coordination Response Team cautioned returning civilians of the remnants of war in the area and the that the buildings would be unstable and fall in those towns. The team also called on humanitarian organizations to reactivate their previous work in these areas, to provide basic services. In late April, the team stated that the number of people displaced due to the Syrian government forces and Russian military campaign in Idleb and Aleppo reached one million people This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. [April 21, 2020] The Compass Experiment Selects Longmont, Colorado as Second Community for Local News Site LONGMONT, Colo., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Longmont Leader, a new digital-only news outlet serving the residents of Longmont, Colo., will launch later this spring. The announcement was made today by Mandy Jenkins, general manager of The Compass Experiment, a local news laboratory founded by McClatchy (OTC-MNIQQ), the second largest local news organization in the US, and funded by Google News Initiative's Local Experiments Project. Jenkins also announced that The Longmont Leader has acquired all the assets of the Longmont Observer, a community-operated, free, nonprofit, hyperlocal news website run by local volunteers. The assets include email lists, donor lists, archives, the URL and social media accounts. On the launch date, visitors to the Longmont Observer website URL will be redirected to the new Longmont Leader website. "We were drawn to Longmont because we want to help bring together its residents around a shared passion for the city, its people and its local businesses," said Jenkins. "But as the city has been growing, local news sources have been shrinking. We intnd to build on the great work of the Longmont Observer with a news site that is hyper-focused on all things Longmont. During this challenging time brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, trustworthy local news and information is needed more than ever." Longmont is a town 33 miles north of Denver with a population of 86,000 according to the 2010 census. A third of the community's residents are Latinx. "We're excited to pass the torch to the Longmont Leader and look forward to collaborating with them to ensure that local news thrives in our community," said Scott Converse, founder of the Longmont Observer and Longmont Public Media. The Longmont Leader is currently hiring a local team that includes a business development leader as well as an editor, assistant editor and two reporters, at least one of whom will be a bilingual Spanish/English reporter. Articles will offer comprehensive coverage of local news and events. Because the region has a strong culture of participatory media, Longmont Leader will also be a home for community columns and citizen journalism produced in partnership with Longmont Public Media. "Local news has provided a vital service to communities around the world at this challenging time," said Megan Favat, Strategic Partner Lead, Global Partnerships, Google. "We are delighted that the great journalism that the people of Longmont have counted on for three years will continue and grow with the Longmont Leader and the team that Mandy is putting together." The Longmont Leader is the second news operation funded by The Compass Experiment. Mahoning Matters, an Ohio-based digital-only news outlet, launched last October to serve residents of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. About The Compass Experiment The Compass Experiment is an initiative co-founded by McClatchy and Google News Initiative's Local Experiments Project to explore sustainable business models for local news. About McClatchy McClatchy operates 30 media companies in 14 states, providing each of its communities with strong independent local journalism in the public interest and advertising services in a wide array of digital and print formats. McClatchy publishes iconic local brands including the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. McClatchy is headquartered in Sacramento, Calif. #ReadLocal About the Google News Initiative The Google News Initiative is our effort to help journalism thrive in the digital age through evolving business models to drive sustainable growth, elevating quality journalism and empowering news organizations with new technology. Contact: Jeanne Segal [email protected] M) 202-271-8880 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-compass-experiment-selects-longmont-colorado-as-second-community-for-local-news-site-301043979.html SOURCE McClatchy [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Navy seize plane carrying 358 kilos of cocaine Pampa del Hueyate, Chiapas Elements of the Secretary of the Navy have reported the seizure of a plane and its load of cocaine after it was discovered landed in Chiapas. The small plane was intercepted on Sunday between Huixtla and Mazatan, the Ministry of the Navy announced, after entering Mexican territory from Guatemala. The Cessna was picked up by radar, which had elements of the Fourteenth Zone Naval de Puerto Madero mobilized on the ground with the support of a helicopter from the Mexican Navy. The plane was forced to land on a clandestine runway located in Pampa del Hueyate, approximately 42 kilometers to the northwest of Puerto Chiapas. By the time personnel arrived, the plane had been abandoned. There were no arrests. Elementos de la Secretaria de Marina (Semar) were successful in seizing the plane and its cargo which consisted of 358 kilos of cocaine, 14 drums of plane fuel and two motorcycles. While the whole world is still dealing with the lockdown to fight the novel Coronavirus, China is now getting back to the normal life routine. Reuters Recently, a factory in China got flak for organizing a weird kissing contest. A video shows how participants were called to kiss with plexiglass in between. The video now has over 10 million views on all Chinese social media platforms. Now, thats the opposite of social distancing, isnt it? The furniture factory, known as Yueya invited around ten couples to participate in the bizarre contest. Check out the post here- #China A furniture factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu had a "Kissing Contest" to celebrate the factory resuming work. The organisers said this event can help the factory workers relax & there's a transparent glass between the kissers. Allegedly some of the participants are not couples. pic.twitter.com/9BWWpBkaAs W. B. Yeats (@WBYeats1865) April 19, 2020 Some of the couples were reportedly married and lowered their protective face masks to kiss through the glass. The employees were also seen wearing blue boiler suits. According to Global Times, the contest was organized to celebrate the easing of restrictions imposed on the people of China amid the lockdown. Reuters The owner of the factory, Mr. Ma said, the glass had been placed between participants to minimize the risk of infection. He also said, Some of the participants were actually married couples who both work in the factory. This pandemic has made everyone very tense. They haven't been able to relax, and that might cause mistakes in the production process. Heres what people on the internet think of the kissing contest- Ridiculous. Can #Chinese spell this word? Or we shd all ban the travel fm and to #China fm this moment on, for another outbreak of #WuhanVirus #COVID19 will start very soon#MakeChinaPay#ChinaLiedPeopleDied (@zi6Yao4) April 19, 2020 I just dont know why China always does these stupid things that shows how foolish they are ... Rodman Lok (@LokRodman) April 20, 2020 Could be a kiss of death What does the #CCP wanted everyone dead Windwens (@Windwens9) April 19, 2020 both humiliating and risking at spreading virus, hope they sanitize before next one kiss the board FreeHK (@FreeHK29884349) April 19, 2020 I put all my savings into the factory closing in a week#CCPVirus LinPig (@mil8751) April 19, 2020 The bizarre competition raised many eyebrows on social media and people also pointed out that none of the participants were maintaining social distancing. WALLDORF (dpa-AFX) - SAP's (SAP) Jennifer Morgan will step down as co-chief executive officer just six month after sharing the post with Christian Klein. Morgan will depart the company, effective 30th April. Klein,39, will continue as sole Chief Executive Officer of the company. SAP said the current environment requires the company to take swift, determined action which is best supported by a very clear leadership structure. So it has decided to transfer from Co-CEO to sole CEO model earlier than planned to ensure strong, unambiguous steering in times of the coronavirus crisis. Morgan and Klein took over the Co-CEO role in October 2019 after the departure of long time chief executive officer Bill McDermott. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. T he Queen has paid tribute to the police in the wake of the devastating shooting in Canada after a gunman killed 18 in the deadliest such attack in the countrys history. In a letter to the Governor-General and the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, she paid tribute to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for their bravery and sacrifice". The gunman disguised as a police officer shot people in their homes and set fires in a 12-hour rampage across Nova Scotia, leaving 18 dead. Officials said the suspect, identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, also died in the weekend attack. Authorities did not provide a motive for the killings. The Atlantic Denture Clinic, owned by Gabriel Wortman, is guarded by police in Dartmouth / AP Her Majesty, who is Queen of Canada, on Tuesday said: Prince Philip and I have been deeply saddened by the appalling events in Nova Scotia, and we send our condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who have lost their lives. I also pay tribute to the bravery and sacrifice of the officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other police services who selflessly responded to these devastating attacks, and to the emergency services who are supporting those who have been injured and affected. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Nova Scotia and all Canadians at this tragic time." A police officer was among those killed. She was named as Royal Canadian Mounted Police constable (RCMP) Heidi Stevenson , a married mother-of-two who had served in the force for 23 years. Constable Heidi Stevenson / NOVA SCOTIA RCMP/AFP via Getty I Two health care workers at local nursing homes were also killed, according to Von Canada, a long-term health care company, which identified them as Kristen Beaton, a continuing care assistant, and Heather OBrien, a licensed practical nurse. Several bodies were found inside and outside one home in the small, rural town of Portapique, about 60 miles north of Halifax what police called the first scene. Bodies were also found at other locations. The governors of Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee announced Monday they would allow for the reopening of some types of closed businesses. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said those businesses will be able to open by next week, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said some businesses can reopen by this Monday at 5 p.m., and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said that his states stay-at-home mandate would end by April 30. Hair salons, barbers, gyms, and other businesses will be allowed to open in Georgia on Friday, Kemp said. On April 27, restaurants and theaters will be able to open under social distancing guidelines, although bars and similar venues will be closed. Due to favorable data & more testing, gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, their respective schools & massage therapists can reopen Friday, April 24 with Minimum Basic Operations, Kemp wrote on Twitter. By taking this measured action, we will get Georgians back to work safely, without undermining the progress we all have made in this battle against COVID-19, Kemp said, adding that it is a small step forward and should be treated as such. Lee confirmed that Tennessee businessesfor the most partcan open May 1. These businesses will open according to specific guidance that we will provide in accordance with state and national experts in both medicine and business, he said in a statement. Social distancing works, and as we open up our economy it will be more important than ever that we keep social distancing as lives and livelihoods depend on it. McMaster went a step further and said a number of retail stores in the state can open at 5 p.m. on Monday, including furniture, jewelry, clothing, shoe, book, flower, and other types of stores. Over the weekend, the mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, ended restrictions on beaches, allowing people to walk, run, and swim under social-distancing guidelines. Across the United States, dozens of governors have issued stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19. Their announcements came as local governments were feeling pressure to roll back stay-at-home measures and reopen the economy after more than 20 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance when businesses were forced to shutter. Last week, President Donald Trump expressed a strong willingness to reopen the economy and created a task force to implement it. We can begin the next front in our war, which we are calling Opening Up America Again,' Trump said in a briefing. To preserve the health of Americans, we must preserve the health of our economy. From The Epoch Times Italian police shared a video online on Tuesday in which they are seen using drones to hunt down a man lying alone on a beach, before issuing him with a fine. The police officers can be seen flying a drone to survey the beach from above before finding the unaware sunbather, and then closing in on him while riding quad-bikes. As the officers approach, the man sits up from his sunbed, visibly surprised to see two well-equipped police officers standing over him. Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte confirmed on Tuesday that the country would lift some lockdown measures on May 4, but that this would be done on a regional basis. Italian police are seen in a video shared by Rimini's local police force patrolling the beach in a car and on quadbikes, using drones from above to survey the area for quarantine rule-breakers The video was taken in Rimini in Italys Emilia-Romagna region on the east cost. It is one of the most famous seaside resorts in the country and has around 15 kilometers of beaches. Shared by the City's public relations office, the was intended to demonstrate how the police were enforcing the nationwide lockdown rules and covering large areas like parks and beaches using drones and all-terrain vehicles. However, the video and photos had the unintended effect of prompting a backlash against the police's heavy handedness. Comments under the images said the police were going too far, and that the man was already practicing social distancing before the police surrounded him. One comment read 'this in not necessary' with another person wrote 'you are dictators'. Another commenter noted the sunbather for setting a good example of 'social distancing'. Some people online even turned one of the images into a meme. The man was spotted by the drone completely alone on the 15km beach on the east coast of Italy. Moments later, the police on quad-bikes moved in to surround the sunbather The drones allow police to cover larger areas, like parks and beaches, when patrolling for people breaking the lockdown rules. However, they have been criticised for their approach According to the Italian Interior Ministry, 17,500 people were reported over the weekend for failing to comply with social distancing measures that are in place to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. On Sunday alone, 8,641 were sanctioned for illegitimate travel, 74 for false declarations and nine for violating quarantine. On Tuesday Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, confirmed that the country would start to reopen on May 4 but the government will not be lifting all the measures that are in place. Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, wrote on Facebook that the government is looking to live some of the coronavirus restrictions in the country on May 4 The country has been under some of the strictest lockdown measures among western democracies since the nationwide quarantine was imposed by Conte on March 9, restricting all but necessary movement. At that point, some regions were already under quarantine. 'Many citizens are tired of the efforts that have been made so far and would like a significant loosening of these measures, or even their total abolition,' Conte said in a Facebook post. 'I would like to be able to say, let's open everything. Right away,' Conte wrote. 'But such a decision would be irresponsible. It would make the contagion curve rise uncontrollably and would jeopardise all the efforts that we have made until now.' He said that by the end of the week, he would reveal the steps the country will take to loosen restrictions, reopen the economy and emerge from the coronavirus crisis, but also said that they would take into account different regional circumstances. 'We have to reopen on the basis of policy that takes into consideration all the details and cuts across all the data. A serious policy, scientific,' Conte wrote. 'A reasonable expectation is that we will apply it from May 4.' Italy's north, the region hardest-hit by the virus and the country's economic engine, has been straining to restart industry after a shutdown of nonessential manufacturing on March 26. Some in Italy's poorer south have said it is unfair that they are subject to the same lockdown conditions as the north, despite fewer coronavirus cases and a lower population density in many areas. The Mediterranean country's 60 million citizens have been barred from walking more than 200 metres (650 feet) from their homes without a significant reason. Italy has been under a national government enforce quarantine since March 9, with all but essential movement and activity banned to prevent the spread of the coronavirus In recent days, some businesses have already received permission to reopen with a much-reduced workforce. In laying out the challenges ahead, Conte cited how, in allowing businesses to reopen as part of 'Phase 2', officials needed to consider how workers would get to and from work in order to avoid congestion which could risk a second wave of infections. Earlier this month, Conte gave a task force, made up of economists, lawyers, sociologists and other experts, the job of studying the post-lockdown measures needed to restart the economy while protecting worker's health. Italy reported its first drop on Monday in the number of people currently suffering from the virus since recording its first infection in February. Since then, Italy became the epicentre of the virus in Europe. It has seen a total of 181,228 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and the official death toll is 24,114 - second only to the United States. Italy saw just 2,256 new coronavirus cases on Monday, 20 April - their lowest level in over a month as the total number of people infected fell for first time since pandemic began Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 16:47:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday urged the European countries to oppose U.S. economic pressures on Iran amid COVID-19 pandemic, state TV reported. The U.S. economic pressures on the Iranian people are more "inhumane" when the entire world is gripped with the novel coronavirus issue, Rouhani said in a telephone conversation with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. The continuation of such "inhumane" measures is a "brutal crime," he said, urging the European countries to stand up to the U.S. "violation" of international rules and regulations. "We expect European countries, especially Italy, to take appropriate stances against such violation of the rules in these difficult circumstances," he noted. 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 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. Spending on homelessness by the City of Los Angeles will remain steady, despite the city's financial distress, underscoring a commitment to addressing the issue. The budget line is projected to reach just shy of $430 million in the next fiscal year, up a little from $429 million the year before. $179 million will come from voter approved Proposition HHH, which will be used to subsidize the construction of supportive housing for people who are homeless and particularly sick. (The proposition authorized the city to sell $1.2 billion in bonds to make this happen. So far, only one building has actually opened, but nearly 1,700 units are under construction in 24 other buildings.) $113 million will come directly from the city's general fund, up from $106 million the year before. Of this money, $38 million funds the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which oversees individual case management, the annual homeless count, shelters and other services. The remaining $75 million goes to individual city departments that have their own programs for working with homeless residents, including police and sanitation. $100 million comes from the state of California. This money supplements the construction and operation of shelters for people experiencing homelessness, rental subsidies, and a myriad of other services. Before we get too optimistic, though, remember this: most spending on homelessness in Los Angeles comes through the budget of L.A. County, not the city. Last year hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on homeless services, housing subsidies and medical care. However, much of that money came from Measure H, which is funded by a $0.25 sales tax. Given sales tax revenue is currently taking a big hit, it's difficult to know what the long-term economic effects of the coronavirus recession will have on homeless services. Both the city and the county are hoping for greater help from the federal government. For now, the federal government is largely picking up the tab for the hotel rooms at the center of local efforts to move the oldest and sickest people indoors. However, local officials have said there may be more funds from the federal government in coming months. READ MORE ON THE BUDGET Terrorists are calling for attacks on UK hospitals and other vulnerable places during the coronavirus outbreak, a senior police officer has revealed. Protective security advice is being distributed to NHS trusts by counterterror officers, amid warnings that extremists are exploiting the pandemic to radicalise new recruits. The national coordinator for the Prevent counter-extremism programme told The Independent that Isis supporters were encouraging people to target the places that appear most vulnerable. Chief Superintendent Nik Adams said jihadis were calling for attacks during lockdown in the hope that police and security services would be distracted and overwhelmed. Were seeing the exploitation of the circumstances to encourage acts of violence, he added. The reality is were very prepared for any such eventuality, and monitoring any literature being disseminated around the world. We are working closely with colleagues across the Five Eyes countries, with academics and community advisory networks to monitor how that information is playing out, and making sure that protective security advice is being adapted for the places that might be considered more vulnerable now. Isis had inspired attacks around the world by calling for supporters to launch massacres on soft targets including tourist attractions and transport hubs. But with lockdown measures in force, hospitals have become some of the most crowded places in the country while previous targets are deserted. Security advice, drawn up by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, is routinely given to large venues, places of worship and other places that draw crowds. Man who plotted attacks at tourism hotspots convicted of terrorism offences Hospitals have been attacked by terrorists and armed groups in several countries, such as the Isis-claimed massacre at a military hospital Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2017. Such attacks normally occur during ongoing conflicts. We are looking for evidence of people mobilising towards violence and taking on some of those narratives that are coming out of Isis propaganda, Chief Superintendent Adams said. He raised concerns that coronavirus conspiracy theories were being used as a hook by extremist groups to draw in new recruits. The closure of schools, rising unemployment and extended lockdown measures mean that more people are spending time online, often alone, and could be more vulnerable to these tactics. Ch Supt Adams said false claims linking 5G technology to the spread of coronavirus were being monitored very closely by counterterror police. Its being pushed out by extreme right-wing groups as a hook to get people onto chat forums, where they can then talk about other hate-related conspiracy theories and draw people into their narratives, he added. From that, they can pick up those individuals who are must vulnerable to encourage them, radicalise them and take them towards terrorism. Police are concerned about people made more vulnerable by mental health issues and other factors in their lives, who have seen contact with teachers, psychologists, social workers and substance abuse services fall away during the lockdown. Were becoming more concerned not just about young people spending time online but the impact of isolation, and the changing risk picture, Ch Supt Adams said. My fear is that people have got more opportunity to spend more time in closed echo chambers and online chat forums that reinforce the false narratives, hatred, fear and confusion that could have a radicalising effect. In the short term there is a lack of statutory services to spot those changes and intervene to protect people. Police are concerned about the impact of children spending more time online alone (Getty Images) Referrals to Prevent over radicalisation fears have fallen since the start of lockdown, and the senior officer said he fears it means people arent seeing some of those behavioural changes and theyre not reaching out for help. Ch Supt Adams added: We are still effectively supporting the people we know about who are vulnerable to radicalisation, but the challenge is all those people out there who we dont currently know about because of all those protections that are not in place. Of more than 5,700 people who were referred to Prevent in 2018-19, the largest group, 38 per cent, were individuals with a mixed, unstable or unclear ideology followed by suspected Islamists and far right extremists on 24 per cent each. The largest age group was children and young people aged 20 and under, and a third of referrals were from education workers who are bound to raise concerns formally under the controversial Prevent duty. The government announced an independent review of the programme in January 2019 but it has been hit by controversy that saw the lead reviewer step down amid a legal challenge. Only 4 per cent of people were flagged to Prevent last year by their friends and family or community members, and Ch Supt Adams appealed for support. Close friends and family who are still engaging with people at home and online can spot those changes in behaviour and language, the sense that someone is really buying into some of these narratives, he said. Theyre the ones that have the opportunity to reach out to us and get advice and help. Advice on online safety can be found on the Lets Talk About It website. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yog Adityanath on Tuesday asked the states medical authorities to promote Plasma Therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients after examining its efficacy. The chief minister, while chairing a high-level meeting of officials to take stocks of the UP anti-coronavirus fight, also stressed upon the need for thorough testing of people living in and around the areas declared hotspots, said Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi. He said the chief minister also appealed to the people, visiting hospitals for emergency treatment, to go to the only to the hospitals approved by the Medical and Health Department. Awasthi said the chief minister has pointed out that several news items on positive results of plasma therapy in the treatment of COVID-19 patients have appeared in media recently. "In view of this, the efficacy of the new treatment protocol should be examined and promoted in the state, said Adityanath, while chairing the meeting in which, he also instructed officials to ensure availability of oxygen for the COVID-19 patients. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recently allowed states to start clinical trials of the plasma therapy for COVID-19. Nearly 100 institutes have shown interest to study how safe and efficient is Plasma Therapy in treating COVID-19 patients. Several states like Kerala, Gujarat and Punjab have already started using Plasma Therapy for the corona-infected patients. Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients. In this treatment, plasma from a cured COVID-19 patient is transfused to a critically ill coronavirus patient. Also Read: Pandemic Podcast: How the lockdown is affecting women The idea behind this therapy is that immunity can be transferred from a healthy person to a sick patient using convalescent plasma. This therapy uses antibodies from the blood of a cured coronavirus patient to treat another critical patient. The recovered COVID-19 patient's blood develops antibodies to battle against COVID-19. Once the blood of the first patient is infused to the second patient, those antibodies will start fighting against the coronavirus in the second person. The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour. Several countries around the world including the United Kingdom and the United States have also started plasma therapy trials. While the meeting, the chief minister also issued directions to halt inter-district and inter-state transportation and ensure that ration is available to one and all, said Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awasthi. Talking about the need to visitonly approved hospitals for emergency treatment, Awasthi said, "If anyone falls ill, he/she should go to the hospitals, only approved by the medical and health department, and not to any other place. Do not go to non-approved hospital for emergency. Going to the emergency units of non-approved hospitals will also pose a danger to the lives of other patients. Emergency services have been allowed in only those hospitals, where there are sufficient equipment and trained staff," he said. He said the chief minister has also directed that people in areas which have been declared COVID-19 hotspots should be thoroughly tested, and so should be the people living in the vicinity of hotspots. "Pool testing can also be done in areas, where it is needed. Special arrangements should be made for testing in Kanpur, were the burden of testing is high," he said. CM Adityanath also laid stress on the need for the people, put in quarantine, to follow the social distancing norms, said wasthi. Referring to COVID-19 cases in Rae Bareli, Awasthi said, "People placed under quarantine in Rae Bareli had first tested negative, while in the second test, they were tested positive for COVID-19." Seeking to promote the use of Aarogya Setu app, Awasthi said the app keeps one aware of ones surrounding and the possible coronavirus threat. Aarogya Setu app has been downloaded by nearly one crore people in the state. This is a big achievement. The app generates alert, and almost 200 alerts have already come. This will be used by the health department and concern district magistrates," he said. Follow latest updates on the COVID-19 pandemic here Sanitisation of shelter home and community kitchens too should be done regularly, and medical tests of those working here should also be done. Adherence to the home quarantine by students, who have returned to their home in the state from Kota, should be informed on the '1076' Mukhyamantri helpline, a statement issued by the UP Government said. Tributes have been pouring in for Manjeet Singh Riyat, an Emergency Medicine Consultant who died of coronavirus on the National Health Service (NHS) frontlines at the Royal Derby Hospital in the East Midlands region of England on Monday. Riyat, 52, from the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton, was the first Accident and Emergency (A&E) consultant from the Sikh community in the UK and was well-loved by his colleagues, who described him as the "hugely respected" father of their emergency team. "Mr Riyat, known to his colleagues as Manjeet, was a widely respected consultant in emergency medicine nationally," Gavin Boyle, Chief Executive of the hospital, said in his tribute. "Manjeet was the first A&E consultant from the Sikh community in the country and was instrumental in building the Emergency Medicine Service in Derbyshire over the past two decades. He was an incredibly charming person and well loved. Manjeet knew so many people here across the hospital, we will all miss him immensely," he said. Riyat qualified from the University of Leicester in 1992 and went on to train in Emergency Medicine at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Lincoln County Hospital. During this time, and prior to the introduction of paramedics in the region, he acted as team leader for the Accident Flying Squads at both hospitals. Riyat was also one of the first Clinical Research Fellows in the UK and contributed to the birth of academic Emergency Medicine. Susie Hewitt, Consultant Emergency Medicine, on behalf of the Emergency Department team at Royal Derby Hospital, said: "Despite his many achievements, Manjeet was most at home as a highly visible shop floor Emergency Medicine Consultant. He was consistently generous with his remarkable clinical knowledge to everyone in the team. "He had that rare gift of maintaining constant joy in the intellectual challenge of clinical medicine combined with gentle kindness and compassion for his patients. He was a powerful advocate for the sickest patients and was well known for his fair, no-nonsense approach. By contrast, Manjeet could be relied upon to lift the mood with his dry humour and sense of fun." She described her former colleague as enormously valued and much loved as a colleague, supervisor and mentor as well as for his wise counsel and discreet support in tough times. "Manjeet was fiercely proud of his wife and two sons and often shared the achievements and exploits of the boys with equal good humour. He always kept sight of what is really important in life and set an example by living life in keeping with his high standards and strong values. He will be hugely missed," she said. In 2003, Manjeet became one of four Consultants in Emergency Medicine at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and was the first person from the Sikh community to be appointed as an Emergency Medicine Consultant in the UK. He became Head of Service for the Emergency Department in 2006 and made contributions to clinical governance and patient safety. His NHS Trust said he also played a significant role as part of the consultant body through his appointment as Deputy Chair and later Chair of both the Medical Advisory and Medical Staffing committees. His passion for teaching and contribution to medical education was said to be a constant thread during his career. As Derby College Tutor for Emergency Medicine, he oversaw the training of junior doctors from multiple specialties in the Emergency Department. He also spent 17 years serving as an educational supervisor to dozens of regional Emergency Medicine trainees and took particular pride in his work supporting trainees in difficulty for the Deanery. Riyat was an active Advanced Life Support (ALS), Advanced Paediatric Life Support and Advanced Trauma Life Support instructor and was instrumental in setting up ALS courses in Derby as Course Director. The UK's Royal College of Emergency Medicine appointed Manjeet as a College Examiner in 2007. Dr Kathy McLean, Chair of the NHS hospital trust, praised his contribution to the NHS in Derbyshire and across the field of emergency medicine across the UK. "I had known Manjeet from when he first joined the Trust in the early 2000s and he very quickly made an impact with his focus on patient care and high standards. It was clear that he was an outstanding emergency medicine doctor and generations of families in this region have benefitted from the care he provided," she said. "Manjeet was hugely popular across the hospital and a warm and embracing figure, a person who many of our staff looked up to. I met him again shortly after returning to the Trust as Chair and was greeted with a big hug. This is a terribly sad day for all of those who had the pleasure to have known him and to have worked alongside him. I want to offer our condolences to all his family and friends at this sad time," she added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An economic support package being readied to help the European Union recover from the coronavirus crisis may need be to worth around 1.6 trillion euros ($1.7 trillion), the EUs industry chief Thierry Breton said. The European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services told French TV station BFM TV he was working on plans around that type of figure with Economics Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni. According to him, that would represent some 10% of EU GDP. Breton also said a Marshall Plan was needed to help the European tourism industry - in a reference to the U.S. aid program launched to help Europe after World War Two. Member states disagree over the technical aspects of how to finance such a plan, and national leaders are expected to defer a final decision on it when they meet by videolink on Thursday, diplomats and officials said. There are also differences over how big such a fund needs to be, Reuters reported. The dismissal of the appeal this week means Mallya has 14 days to apply for permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court London: Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who lost his UK High Court appeal against an extradition order to India, has said that he is "disappointed" with the ruling but will continue to seek legal remedies as advised by his legal team. The 64-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss reiterated that he has repeatedly offered to pay the Indian banks the loan amount owed by his now-defunct airline, an offer which the banks have rejected. I am naturally disappointed with the High Court decision. I will continue to pursue further legal remedies as advised by my lawyers, Mallya said in a statement on Monday evening. I have repeatedly offered to repay the banks in full, but sadly to no avail, he said. The dismissal of the appeal this week means Mallya has 14 days to apply for permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court. As he has now indicated his intention to seek further legal measures, the UK Home Office would wait for the outcome of that appeal before it can formally certify the court order for Mallya to be extradited to India. The businessman, who has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail after his arrest on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017, also expressed his disappointment with the media narrative which quotes Rs 9,000 crore as the amount owed in the fraud and money laundering case brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him. I am also disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9,000 crore. Please note that the allegations against me and others are specifically and only related to three tranches of borrowing from IDBI Bank for a total of Rs 900 crores in 2009. This loan was subsumed along with loans from other banks within the Master Debt Recast Agreement of 2010. Following the DRT (Debt Recovery Tribunal) order for the payment of approximately Rs 5,000 crore by way of Principal and Rs 1,200 crore by way of unapplied interest making a total of Rs 6,200 crores, the banks have already recovered in cash a sum of Rs 2,500 crores, which is 50 per cent of the Principal amount, he claimed. Mallya refers to paragraphs contained within the High Court judgment handed down by Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing, the two-member bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London presiding over the appeal, which refers to these specific amounts. The judgment notes that between April and November 2009, five banks the State Bank of India (SBI), the Bank of India, the Bank of Baroda, the United Bank of India (UBI) and United Commercial Bank (UCO) extended loans to Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) totaling Rs 1,250 crore, leaving a shortfall of Rs 750 crore from the desired infusion of Rs 2,000 crore. The KFA then approached an additional bank, the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), to make up that shortfall. The Requesting State, the Government of India (GoI) seeks the extradition of the Appellant (Mallya) in respect of these loans. It is said that the loans were obtained by means of a conspiracy to defraud and by means of fraudulent misrepresentations; it is further said that the Appellant engaged in money-laundering some of the proceeds of the loans, the judgment states. In the judgment handed down on Monday, the High Court judges upheld the December 2018 extradition order of the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London and accepted that there is a prima facie case both of misrepresentation and of conspiracy, and thus there is also a prima facie case of money laundering. Mallya's legal team had claimed that the loan defaults by KFA were the result of wider issues faced by the aviation industry at the time. But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, managed to establish a blueprint of dishonesty against the businessman and co-conspiring bankers In a heartwarming incident, a YouTuber and vlogger rediscovered his love for the city of Los Angeles, United States, following an act of kindness by a fellow resident. Popular YouTuber Casey Neistat recently took to Twitter to narrate an incident when he accidentally bumped a fellow resident's car while parking his truck. "I scratched a guys car this morning when parking my truck, total accident," Neistat wrote on Twitter, adding that the bump had left a "small but noticeable scratch" on the car. "I left the owner note on the wiper and he texted me..." Neistat further added. In a further tweet, Neistat also clarified that he drove a 17-year-old truck with no rear view mirror and also that he was a terrible driver. In the note that he left on the scratched car's windshield, Neistat had owned up to the accident, apologised for it and even left his phone number so that he can be contacted by the car-owner for damages. The man's response, however, shocked Neistat and is now going viral on social media. Responding to Neistat's note, the car owner sent a text message to the YouTuber, telling him that it was everything was alright. The man further asked Neistat to not pay him any damages and instead donate that amount to a local food bank to help out those in need due to the coronavirus crisis. Neistat goes on to donate generously and even shares a screenshot with the car-owner by way of proof. The donation was made in the name of "Mr Scratched Car". The post has been going viral on Twitter with over one lakh sixty thousand likes and over 13,000 shares. Many marveled at the generous "collaboration" between the YouTuber and the car-owner. donation made in the name of mr scratched carcasey you are a legend Luke Martin (@VentureCoinist) April 20, 2020 10/10 human interaction, love this FaZe Banks (@Banks) April 20, 2020 I would have got that bag then gone to my insurance no (@realmousepotato) April 20, 2020 Love it! As soon as everything hopefully gets back to normal we can tackle your driving skills together... Nico Rosberg (@nico_rosberg) April 20, 2020 U.S. Navy Complains Of Second 'Unsafe' Russian Jet Interception In Four Days By RFE/RL April 20, 2020 U.S. military officials have complained that a Russian fighter jet came dangerously close to a U.S. surveillance plane in the Mediterranean Sea, the second such encounter in four days in the region. In its statement on April 19, the U.S. Navy did not say where exactly the encounter occurred, only that it happened over international waters. Several aircraft tracking sites said the incident occurred in the eastern Mediterranean, not far from the Syrian coast. The Russian Su-35 fighter jet approached the P-8A plane twice on April 19, and during the second time, it came within 8 meters of the U.S. plane, the Navy said. "The second intercept was determined to be unsafe and unprofessional," it said. A similar encounter occurred in same vicinity on April 15, the Navy said. The Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement on Facebook on April 20, confirming the encounter and saying the Sukhoi jet was dispatched from the Hmeimim air based to meet the U.S. plane, but gave no further details. The P-8A Poseidon is an anti-submarine, anti-surface-warfare plane. Russia has a sizable naval contingent based at the Syrian port of Tartus, in support of Russian air and ground operations in Syria. U.S., NATO, and Russian planes routinely engage in cat-and-mouse flying encounters around the world. Russian long-range bombers regularly fly close to NATO member borders and U.S. surveillance planes frequently skirt Russian waters in the Baltic and Black seas, monitoring and probing Russian defenses. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-navy-complains -of-second-unsafe-russian-jet-interception- in-four-days/30565377.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 More than 70 per cent of Australia's coronavirus patients have recovered from the deadly disease. Out of Australia's 6,629 cases of COVID-19, 4,268 people have beaten the infection at a recovery rate of 70.37 per cent. There have been 71 deaths in Australia from the virus, with 28 of those in New South Wales and 15 in Victoria, while all other states and territories have deaths in single figures, with no deaths recorded in the Northern Territory. From the peak of nearly 5,000 active cases on April 4, Australia had less than 2,000 on Tuesday morning. Shoppers obey social distancing measures and queue outside of a grocery store in Sydney Australia's latest coronavirus statistics, with 6,641 cases including 4,673 recovered patients and 71 deaths Australia's recent efforts to flatten the curve of infection have been very successful, with travel bans, social distancing measures, closed borders and business shutdowns slashing the number of new cases each day by up to 90 per cent in less than a month. Stage three restrictions on gatherings and leaving the house without a valid reason brought in on March 31 are expected to crush the curve further over the remainder of April. The extraordinary figures come off the back of Australia's high testing rates, which are among the highest in the world. Just under 20,000 people-per-million have been tested, compared with 11,666 people-per-million in U.S. In the UK, 7,101 people-per-million have been tested and in France that figure is 7,103. Australia recorded just 13 new coronavirus cases on Monday, but the Government insisted they would leave the easing of restrictions to medical experts. Australia is flattening the coronavirus curve with statistics showing a dramatic drop from 460 new cases on March 28 to just 13 new cases on Monday Medical staff wait for patients at the Bondi Beach drive-through coronavirus testing facility State and territory leaders will meet on Tuesday to discuss which of the country's strict lockdown measures could be the first to be lifted. But despite just eight cases being recorded on Australia's mainland on Monday, premiers in both Queensland and Victoria have warned social distancing measures will be here to stay for at least another three weeks. It is understood leaders will first look at easing measures like the sanctions on limiting public gatherings to two people. Gatherings considered to be high-risk like funerals - which are limited to a maximum of 10 mourners - will likely stay in place, The Australian reported. Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said the risk 'will be far greater than any reward' to consider opening restaurants, bars and cafes at this stage. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said easing coronavirus restrictions too early will pose many risks for the community 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 just want to make it clear, the notion pubs are opening any time soon, its not going to happen,' he said. 'I think there are some areas we might be able to make some changes around the way people interact with others, around some of those more social measures.' He urged people to stay the course with restrictions so as not to undo the progress the state has made. 'So many people have lost their jobs, there's been so much pain, so much hardship. Let's not make that worth nothing by then having the very outbreak that we've been trying to avoid,' he said. Victoria's state of emergency ends on May 11, and Mr Andrews said leaders would be discussing which prerequisites would need to be met before restrictions are eased. Under stage three coronavirus restrictions all playgrounds have been closed around the country since March 31 His Queensland counterpart Annastacia Palaszczuk said leaders had to be wary of easing restrictions too soon.' 'If we saw a trend of these really low numbers I think its only right that people would be saying to government, "What can you do to make our lives a little bit easier, and a little bit less restrictive?"' she said. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the infection rate was a reflection of how seriously Australians were taking distancing orders. 'When it comes to social distancing, quarantine, isolation measures, we'll continue to take the medical advice and that's served Australia well,' he said in Canberra. Premier Andrews said the numbers were not an invitation to roll back the rules. Many beaches around the country have also been closed in an effort to prevent any unnecessary mass gatherings A nurse screens a patients outside a coronavirus clinic in the Barossa Valley, north of Adelaide How many Australians have been tested for COVID-19? NSW: 168,626 (Total) 3,489 (Today) VIC: 86,000 (Total) 4,000 (Today) ACT: 7,063 (Total) 67 (Today) QLD: 85,870 (Total) 1,135 (Today) TAS: 6,697 (Total) 377 (Today) WA: 29,469 (Total) 581 (Today) SA: 44,278 (Total) 968 (Today) NT: 3,731 (Total) 18 (Today) TOTAL: 431,000 Advertisement 'They are simply a validation that this strategy is working and we'll have options if we can continue to see this sort of performance,' he said. His counterpart in Western Australia agreed. 'This is an outstanding result, one we can all be very proud of,' Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said on Monday. 'Western Australia has done an incredible job but we can't let it go to waste now - we need everyone to stay the course. We cannot get complacent. 'Border restrictions have proved invaluable in stopping the spread.' The number of new cases of coronavirus might be dropping but almost half of Australians say it's too early to be thinking about easing tough social distancing restrictions. Shoppers queue behind marked lines to enforce social distancing measures at Bunnings Warehouse in Artarmon in Sydney New polling from Essential Research finds 49 per cent of the 1,051 people surveyed believe it's too early to lift lockdown. More than a quarter said it should be done either within the next month or by the end of May. Just one in 10 wanted the strict rules to be relaxed as soon as possible. Younger Australians aged between 18 and 34 were the most likely to want an early easing, at nearly double the overall rate. NSW residents were also the most eager to get back to life as normal as soon as possible. But more than half of those living in Victoria and Western Australia said it was too soon. The polling also looked opinions of the contact tracing app the federal government is developing, based on Bluetooth connections made by a user's mobile phone. The government says it wants at least 40 per cent of the population to download the app, saying it could lead to restrictions being eased sooner. Essential found 38 per cent of respondents would be willing to use the app while another 33 per cent didn't want it on their phones. Younger people were the most likely to agree to try it out. But there are major privacy concerns. Nearly two-thirds of people said they would be concerned about the security of their personal data if they had the app on their phone. And nearly three in five were uncomfortable with the thought of the government tracking all their movements. People's confidence in the government's use of data collected from the app was split, with a third each saying they were worried or had no concerns. India: Vaccines for COVID-19 may not provide a panacea, says Indian Doctors by T. Jacob John and Prathap Tharyan April 21,2020 | Source: The Hindu Over the initial phase of the national lockdown (March 24 to April 14), India reported a 20-fold increase in confirmed SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 cases (468 to >10,000), and a 36-fold increase in deaths (9 to 330). Increased testing may partly account for this; but testing is still inadequate and this data represent underestimates. The case-fatality of 2% to 3% is indicative of the large number of deaths India can expect. Debates about the relative merits of mitigation to flatten the curve versus allowing herd immunity to build naturally are increasingly irrelevant. The failures in widespread testing for infection or for immunity imply that transmission-chains via asymptomatic, mildly-symptomatic and pre-symptomatic people remain undetected. Most countries, including India, are inadvertently employing hybrid strategies. The lockdown (an extreme example of mitigation) has been extended to May 3. The dire socio-economic consequences and the scale of human tragedy that play out daily make a prolonged total lockdown undesirable. Alongside infection-control, a strategic plan of action to mitigate suffering and to stimulate economic recovery is urgently needed. As a series of measures In a recent interview, the Union Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan, asserted that lockdowns and social distancing are the most effective social vaccines available to fight the pandemic. A social vaccine has far broader implications. So what is a social vaccine? A social vaccine is a metaphor for a series of social and behavioural measures that governments can use to raise public consciousness about unhealthy situations through social mobilisation. Social mobilisation can empower populations to resist unhealthy practices, increase resilience, and foster advocacy for change. This can drive political will to take action in the interests of society and hold governments accountable to address the social determinants of health by adopting progressive socio-economic policies and regulatory mechanisms that promote health equity and reduce vulnerability to disease. When applied to pandemics, the effectiveness of a social vaccine is determined by the extent of dissemination and uptake of accurate information about personal infection risk and methods to reduce the risk through consistent core messages disseminated through a variety of means. A social vaccine addresses barriers and facilitators of behaviour change, whether attitudinal, social, cultural, or economic, and supplements information, education, and communication (IEC) with targeted social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) strategies. Uganda and Thailand used these strategies effectively during the HIV/AIDS pandemic to bring down the incidence of HIV infection, before highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) was introduced in 1995. They demonstrated how an effective social vaccine helped flatten the curve till effective treatments were discovered that dramatically reduced mortality, viral loads and infection transmission. Lessons from HIV pandemic The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is believed to have made the zoonotic jump from monkeys through chimpanzees to humans in Africa as early as the 1920s, but the HIV/AIDS epidemic was detected in 1981 and was a pandemic by 1985. From 1981 till December 2018, around 74.9 (range: 58.3 to 98.1) million people worldwide were HIV-infected, and around 32.0 (range: 23.6 to 43.8) million died (43%, range: 41 to 45%) from AIDS-related illnesses. The early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic were also a time of global panic. The cause was unknown (till 1984) and diagnostic tests were unavailable (till 1985). Since there was no treatment, a diagnosis of HIV infection was a death sentence. Widespread fears of contagion rendered many infected people homeless and unemployed. Many were denied access to care. Stigma, discrimination and violence towards infected individuals, their families, social groups (sex-workers, gay men, drug users, truck drivers, migrants), and even health workers, were common. Criminalising sex-work and injecting drug use followed. Conspiracy theories, misinformation and unproven remedies were widely propagated. The blame game targeted world leaders and international agencies. The preparedness of health systems, societal prejudices and socio-economic inequities were starkly exposed. Reducing HIV transmission centred on acknowledging that everybody was potentially infected even those apparently healthy and that infection occurred predominantly through sexual transmission and intravenous drug use. The core preventive messages involved being faithful to one sexual partner or 100% condom use during sexual intercourse outside stable relationships; resisting peer-pressure for risky behaviours, and harm reduction for intravenous drug use. These measures conflicted with prevailing cultural, social, religious, behavioural and legal norms. IEC and SBCC activities targeted (and partnered) individuals, families, community leaders, peer-led community networks and social and health systems to change attitudes and behaviours. Religious and community leaders were key change agents. For example, the Catholic Church in Uganda did not initially support promoting condoms for safe sex since its use prevents life. After large numbers of people died of AIDS, their tacit acknowledgment that their religion did not preclude the use of condoms to prevent death was an important turning point. Thailand pioneered the effective use of social marketing of condoms for safe sex and used humour to defuse social taboos about publicly discussing sex. These strategies and advocacy against stigma and discrimination were successfully adapted in India. These skills and experiences can be innovatively adapted for the current pandemic. How it can work The core infection-control messages are available from official sources. Maintaining physical distancing in social situations (unless impossible) and wearing cloth masks or facial coverings in public (especially where distancing is impossible) by 100% of people (and 100% of the time) is key to preventing infection along with regular disinfection of oneself and ones surroundings. Effective and innovative IEC and SBCC strategies should address the barriers and facilitators to implementation. People are more likely to practise these behaviours if all leaders (without exception) promote them publicly and consistently, the whole community believes in their importance, and if proper information, support, and materials are available and accessible. Coercive or punitive methods are invariably counter-productive, as was seen with HIV/AIDS. A social vaccine also requires people to hold leaders accountable to invest in: rapidly scaling-up testing; meeting the basic and economic needs of vulnerable sections; providing psychological support where needed; not communalising or politicising the pandemic; providing adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) to front-line workers in health, sanitation, transport and other essential services; and not compromising the privacy and dignity of infected individuals and their families in the interest of public health. Building trust is key if government-imposed mitigation strategies are to be embraced by the population. Re-purposing and funding relevant industries and small and medium businesses to produce materials such as PPE, hand sanitisers and medical equipment; community groups to supply cloth masks, soap, etc., and innovative social marketing of these are other essential components of the social vaccine. The components of the social vaccine should be in place before relaxing or lifting the lockdown. There is still no biomedical vaccine for HIV/AIDS. Considering the limited efficacy and uptake of influenza vaccines, vaccines for SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 may not provide a panacea. Effective treatments to reduce deaths with COVID-19 may emerge, but till then, and even afterwards, a social vaccine is needed. A social vaccine can build societal immunity to the devastating effects of future pandemics by the lessons learned about addressing the root causes, and our responses to the current one. ORLANDO, Fla., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: VAC) will host a conference call with investors at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday, May 8, 2020 to discuss first quarter results. Participants may access the call by dialing (877) 407-8289 or (201) 689-8341 for international callers. A live webcast of the call will also be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at ir.mvwc.com. Investors will be able to access an audio replay of the conference call at ir.mvwc.com from 10:00 a.m. on May 8 until 10:00 p.m. on June 8. To access the replay, dial (877) 660-6853 or (201) 612-7415 for international callers. The conference ID for the recording is 13701413. About Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation is a leading global vacation company that offers vacation ownership, exchange, rental and resort and property management, along with related businesses, products and services. The company has a diverse portfolio that includes seven vacation ownership brands. It also includes exchange networks and membership programs, as well as management of other resorts and lodging properties. As a leader and innovator in the vacation industry, the company upholds the highest standards of excellence in serving its customers, investors and associates while maintaining exclusive, long-term relationships with Marriott International and Hyatt Hotels Corporation for the development, sales and marketing of vacation ownership products and services. For more information, please visit www.marriottvacationsworldwide.com. SOURCE Marriott Vacations Worldwide Related Links http://www.marriottvacationsworldwide.com He followed William Shatner in the role of James T. Kirk in the recent run of Star Trek films. So Chris Pine certainly knows what it's like to fill big shoes and he may be doing it again. The 39-year-old actor is in negotiations to star in the remake of The Saint from Paramount Pictures reported Deadline on Tuesday. Leading man: Chris Pine (seen in May 2019) is in negotiations to star in the remake of The Saint from Paramount Pictures reported Deadline on Tuesday. The 39-year-old actor Dashing: The reboot comes over 20 years after Val Kilmer led the big screen version of the action/romance flick in 1997 The 39-year-old actor The reboot comes over 20 years after Val Kilmer led the big screen version of the action/romance flick in 1997. The new flick is set to be helmed by Rocketman director Dexter Fletcher with Seth Grahame-Smith penning the screenplay. The Saint is centered around the fictional character, Simon Templar, who is Robin Hood-esque figure described as 'a buccaneer in the suits of Savile Row, amused, cool, debonair, with hell-for-leather blue eyes and a saintly smile.' At the helm: The new flick is set to be helmed by Rocketman director Dexter Fletcher (seen in London back in January) with Seth Grahame-Smith penning the screenplay Origin: It all began with the 1920s novel series written by Leslie Charteris before it became a radio show Handsome: hen in the 1960s it became a television series starring Roger Moore It all began with the 1920s novel series written by Leslie Charteris before it became a radio show. Then in the 1960s it became a television series starring Roger Moore. Finally in 1997, Kilmer starred in the live-action film directed by Phillip Noyce alongside Elizabeth Shue. In the film the character was a thief for hire whose job is to steal the process for cold fusion leaving him at odds with a traitor bent on knocking over the Russian government. Heyday: Finally in 1997, Kilmer starred in the live-action film directed by Phillip Noyce alongside Elizabeth Shue He was also at odds with the woman who holds its secret. The film had a domestic gross of $61.3million and worldwide total of $169.4million. Chris Pine can be soon in sequel Wonder Woman 1984 which has been rescheduled for release on August 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. tech2 News Staff Zoom, a US-based video calling platform that surged in popularity during COVID-induced lockdowns has been in the news one too often for a variety of security and privacy faux pas in the last few days. These issues have resulted in a Zoom boycott around the world. Major global bank Standard Chartered warned its employees against using the app. Companies like Google, Elon Musk's SpaceX, and even schools in New York have banned the use of the Zoom app. Zoombombing is also a major concenr. It is a hacking technique where an uninvited guest joins a video call and hijacks the screens of all participants. The widespread scrutiny forced many users to look for Zoom-alternatives. (Also read: Meet Now, Jitsi, Houseparty and more: Group video chatting alternatives to Zoom for work and play) The app is currently available in beta mode. While the platform will eventually be available for both mobile and laptop, currently the website for the app reads: "We are facing tremendous demand for NAMASTE and hence you may face some temporary connectivity issues. Please check back soon". The platform allows you to place a video conference call by creating a meeting link and sharing it with the participants, just like Zoom. It will allow group video calls with multiple people simultaneously, however, the number of maximum participants has not been revealed yet. Namaste's mobile app will reportedly let you switch to the rear camera by tapping on the "toggle" option while you are on call. It will also give the option to not use the camera for calls at all and only do an audio call. Most videos calling apps offer that feature. As per a report by Republic World, this platform is the brainchild of a Mumbai-based web application and software development company called Inscripts. The app version of Namaste is expected to launch this week for both Android and iOS users. A word of warning: The app isn't necessarily more secure than Zoom. The app is still in beta, which means that there are still unpatched and undiscovered bugs that are being worked on. The app's security features have also not been tested in the wild yet, and it's only after its safety and privacy features are examined by third-party security experts that the app can be deemed secure enough for most use-cases. If you have concerns, you can easily choose from a number of other apps and services that enable video conferencing for free, whether for business or private purposes. You can check out our recommendations here. How to host a meeting on Namaste? Step 1:Currently, you can use it by visiting the link here and tap on "Create new meeting" Step 2: Add your name and you will get Meeting URL, Meeting ID and Meeting code Step 3: Share the Meeting ID, code and URL by simple copy-pasting with other participants so that they can join. In Namaste, it is not necessary that only the host can invite people to join the meeting, infact, whoever has the meeting details can join it. Do note, the platform is currently in beta and is prone to various security issues. We would recommend you sign up only once the stable version is rolled out. Correction: The technology desk incorrectly reported that the Say Namaste app, launched by a Mumbai startup, was backed by the government of India. The Centre has since clarified that it isnt behind the app. We apologise for the error, and have since amended the article. Totally normal president having a totally normal pandemic briefing with reporters. From an exchange between PBS NewsHour reporter Yamiche Alcindor and impeached President Donald Trump: I think we're gonna win in a landslide. And a lot of people love Trump right? Are you concerned that downplaying the virus got people sick? Video below. Yamiche: Are you concerned that downplaying the virus got people sick? Trump: And a lot of people love Trump right? A lot of people love me I guess I'm here for a reason pic.twitter.com/DhoPq90MZI ALCINDOR: You held rallies in February and March TRUMP: I took coronavirus very seriously Trump: I rly don't know abt rallies. I know 1 thing, I haven't left the WH in months, except a brief moment to give a wonderful ship, the Comfort- @Yamiche : You held a rally in March. Trump: Did I hold a rally? I'm sorry, I'll hold a rally. Did I hold a rally? Charlotte, NC, 3/2: pic.twitter.com/qjAiyVcKbe The President seems depressed by approval ratings pic.twitter.com/AUOs8gnO3H if you've never been at a club at 3am when one dude starts grinding his teeth and talking your face off well, this presser is a decent substitute. .@Yamiche relays a story of someone who went to a funeral for a family member in mid-March, said they went partly bc the president wasn't wearing a mask, taking it that seriously. Trump responds by starting out: "And a lot of people love Trump, right?" Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) April 20, 2020 Six weeks since the confirmation of the states first coronavirus case, customers and workers are covering up across Connecticut. A gubernatorial order enacted Monday night requires citizens to wear face coverings in public settings where they cannot physically distance themselves from others. State and local officials are grappling with some resistance but hope to encourage widespread compliance without resorting to penalties for those who refuse. Anybody coming into that particular facility, starting with grocery stores, has to wear a mask, Gov. Ned Lamont said in an April 15 news conference. I think this is the way that were going to get this virus behind us sooner and make sure that we can get everybody back to work as soon as we possibly can. Covering up Well before the mandate was enacted, masks had become commonplace among grocery store employees who have dealt with a surge in customers since the crisis began, a result of the states temporary ban on sit-down dining. Now the industry expects those customers to cover their faces as well. Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop which has the largest grocery presence in the state implemented a mask directive for customers on Monday, across its more than 90 locations in Connecticut. We have signage in store entrances and in-store radio reminding customers that face coverings while in public places are mandated, said spokeswoman Maura OBrien, adding the chain provides protective gear to employees. Norwalk-based Stew Leonards Market began issuing face masks on April 3 at its grocery stores and wine shops in Norwalk, Danbury and Newington. (We are) asking customers to wear masks and also providing masks to shoppers who arrive without one, said spokeswoman Meghan Bell. If a shopper has a health condition that prevents them from wearing a mask, well make an exception. The cooperation extends to other essential industries, including manufacturing. All of Sikorskys employees, contractors and business-essential visitors are required to wear masks at the companys facilities in Stratford, Shelton and Bridgeport. And Stamford-based Goodway Technologies implemented the mask mandate on Monday. Weve not had any negative feedback to date, said Goodway spokesman Tim Robb. In the past month, protective gear has become prevalent among retailers, too. At Funky Monkey Toys & Books in downtown Greenwich, employees handling curbside orders, deliveries and online-order fulfillment have been required to wear masks and gloves since mid-March. I think that not only have the masks and gloves helped keep our limited staff safe, but they also reassure our customers that we operate in a safe and sanitary fashion, said owner Jared Greenman. Keoughs Paint & Hardware in Ridgefield obtained masks about a week and half ago. It requires employees to wear them. Most of our team were glad to be able to wear masks, said Bill Keough, the stores owner. They can be uncomfortable to wear 10 hours a day, but, in general, everyone is cooperating. Staff at restaurants such as Fiesta on Main in downtown Stamford which is re-opening Thursday after a two-week hiatus are taking similar precautions for handling pickup and delivery orders. Weve learned to make our own masks and have spent the last few days sewing, washing and getting ready to open back up with new safety precautions, said co-owner Victor Mathieu. During this time, we have had to change so much and so quickly, it has become a regular thing for us to make change after change to try and stay up to date with the safest measures to keep our customers, our staff and ourselves safe. Voluntary participation The mask requirement has faced some opposition, highlighted by an attorney who has filed a lawsuit contesting the mandate. Lamont and local officials around the state have indicated they would enforce the order mostly by encouraging compliance, though some said they would seek to penalize egregious offenders. Last week, Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo instituted his own order that all grocery, restaurant and any other worker coming into contact with food wear gloves and a face covering. I think its very smart, Camillo said Tuesday. Weve been advising people to do this for weeks and I think people are doing it because its not just something you do to take care of yourself, but others around you. When youre out and you know youre going to be in close contact with other people, then this is something thats important to do. In Bridgeport, several residents commented during Mayor Joe Ganims Facebook Live Town Hall meeting Tuesday that they had seen people not covering their faces. Ganim responded that if the stores need help from the city, we will be providing that help in whatever form that it takes, which could be a guy dressed in a suit, might be somebody from the Health Department, it might be someone in a uniform. But we will enforce what is now the order of the city of Bridgeport. Sustained resistance will be met with all the penalties for resisting what is appropriate for being told you cant enter an establishment, private property or youre violating a city ban and a state order, Ganim said. It will not be tolerated. We will support that (ban). Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton has fielded similar complaints about bare-faced shoppers, but indicated the city would use restraint in enforcing the law. Were not sending the police into the store and yelling at them to put a mask on, he said. I just dont have enough cops to do that. Instead, he recommended that residents speak with the store manager or not shop there. If youre not comfortable in there, dont go there, Boughton said. Go somewhere else. New Milford Police Lt. Lee Grabner said his department would continue to watch for any issues. We have found everyone to be very receptive and cooperative to the ongoing changes in light of the public-safety health concerns, Grabner said. In Ansonia, law enforcement will respond to complaints and assist in gaining compliance, said Ansonia Corporation Counsel John P. Marini. And Wallingford Police Capt. Richard Homestead said his department will intervene if a customer without a face cover does not comply with a store employees instructions to put on a mask or leave the establishment. If the person refuses to comply with a responding officers request to put on a mask or leave, her or she will be arrested and charged with class A misdemeanor of criminal trespass, according to Homestead. Still, he said, Lamonts directive is challenging because it is vague regarding enforcement. Its filled with a lot of holes, Homestead said of the language in the order. It leaves a lot of room for interpretation. If a person cant wear a mask for medical reasons, we arent allowed to ask for documentation. Ken Borsuk, Katrina Koerting, Michael P. Mayko, Julia Perkins, Alexander Soule and Luther Turmelle contributed reporting to this article. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Srinivas BV sent legal notices to BJP leaders Sambit Patra and Amit Malviya as well as a television channel on Tuesday for allegedly defaming him by accusing him of liquor smuggling. The notices sought a "public apology" from Patra, a national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its IT cell head Malviya and the channel for "lowering the image" of Srinivas and defaming him. The BJP took a dig at the Congress on Tuesday, after its youth wing functionaries were caught allegedly smuggling liquor, saying this has exposed the opposition party's "character". Srinivas dubbed the arrest a "conspiracy", which, he claimed, was aimed at defaming his organisation's relief work to help poor people during the ongoing nationwide lockdown. In a tweet, he also warned of legal action against those defaming him. According to the Delhi Police, Shravan Rao (34) and Manish (24) were arrested from a spot near the Delhi-Gurgaon border on Sunday night with illicit liquor. Patra said while lakhs of BJP workers are busy bringing food to the needy during the lockdown, "national office-bearers of the Congress are smuggling expensive liquor" into the national capital. The legal notices sent by Srinivas's lawyers stated, "It is put to your notice that my client (Srinivas) is not involved in any such activity and the said vehicle does not belong to my client." The notice sent to Patra stated that he had, in a tweet, claimed that the vehicle allegedly involved in liquor smuggling belonged to the Youth Congress president. In a statement, the IYC said Patra, in a tweet on Tuesday, levelled "imaginary" allegations of illegal liquor being smuggled in Srinivas's car, which has been given permission for essential services. The tweet was similar to another tweet by Malviya. The television channel ran several items regarding the said tweets without cross-checking the claim made by the BJP leaders, the notice said. It is pertinent to mention that the car mentioned in the tweets and the news broadcast by the channel does not belong to Srinivas. The IYC statement alleged that the tweets aimed to malign the image of its president and halt the social work being carried out by the organisation across the country. The notices warned of civil and criminal proceedings if the "defamatory" news and tweets were not withdrawn and a public apology was not tendered. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) world Coronavirus impact | Donald Trump to suspend immigration into US Details of Trump's executive order were not immediately known. He also did not indicate when he will sign such an order. Washington, April 21 : US President Donald Trump has said that he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend all immigration to America because of the coronavirus pandemic, it was reported on Tuesday. Taking to Twitter late Monday night, the President said: "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our great American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States." It was not immediately clear when the suspension would go into effect or how long it would last but the order would likely trigger political and legal pushback, reports Xinhua news agency. The White House is yet to comment on the development. The order would mark an extraordinary use of executive power by Trump, who has imposed travel restrictions on a group of nations and regions -- measures that have led to chaos abroad and at US airports. During his presidency, Trump has maintained a hardline stance on immigration and border security, and pushed for a series of controversial measures, including erecting a border wall along the nation's southern border with Mexico in a bid to deter illegal immigrants. The US has already agreed with both Canada and Mexico to extend border restrictions on non-essential travel until at least mid-May, said the BBC in a report. In recent weeks, emergency powers have been used to expel thousands of undocumented migrants on the US border with Mexico. The public health measure lets officials override immigration laws, expediting removal processes. Trump's announcement comes at the US has reported 786,968 coronavirus cases, with 42,308 deaths, both figures the highest in the world. -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed Rural independent TDs have told Fianna Fail and Fine Gael that they are willing to discuss government formation - if the two parties are serious about their approaches. A group of five rural TDs - Mattie McGrath, Richard O'Donoghue, Danny Healy-Rae, Michael Healy-Rae and Michael Collins - met with Fianna Fail TD Dara Calleary and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe at the Department of Agriculture tonight to discuss the policy document the two parties released last week, a conversation Michael Healy-Rae called "frank and honest". Mr Healy-Rae said that while he was open to a government, he wanted to avoid being used as "fodder". "We want a government. We want politicians who will listen to the people and listen to the opposition. "It is of utmost importance that we all really knuckle down. The one thing that I don't want as an individual or a part of this group is to be used as a type of fodder - that they're talking to us, but they're not really talking to us. Do Fianna Fail and Fine Gael want to deal with us or are they only going through the motions? Are they serious about doing business? "Time is too precious to be going through the motions." Mr Healy-Rae said that the group was not afraid of going into a government which will have to make "hard decisions". Mr McGrath said that the group would not "shirk from its responsibilities", but that they accepted the formation of a government would be a "hard road". He said that the conversations were "very frank and blunt". The group of independents, which also includes Laois-Offaly TD Carol Nolan, will now put together a suite of proposals for spending and legislation before negotiations move onto a more formal footing. During the course of the meeting, the group of TDs outlined their priorities for the coming five years, as well as concerns over the impacts which the Covid-19 outbreak will have on rural Ireland. "A standalone senior ministry for agriculture and separately for fisheries are two areas that I would see as a red line," said Cork South-West TD Michael Collins. Mr Collins said that the two areas had been the "poor relation" of Irish politics. He said that he would give due consideration to a government which he felt understood the concerns of rural Ireland. "I'm very interested in listening to what they have to offer and if they're serious about delivering for rural Ireland, I would give serious consideration into entering into government." George Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention / Reuters CLEVELAND, Ohio - Earlier this year, Eric Ludwigs business selling customized photo albums, scrap books and souvenirs to major cruise lines was sailing smoothly. Then the cruise ship market sank under travel restrictions meant to keep the deadly coronavirus from spreading. After his cruise ship market evaporated, Ludwig righted Pulsar Eco Products financial ship by branching into sales and distribution of disposable masks needed as personal protective equipment (PPE) in the fight against COVID-19. The Chinese factory that produces many of the Cleveland companys paper novelties invested in mask production equipment as the virus swept through China. When it hit the United States, Pulsar teamed up with KMK Promotional Sales of Chagrin Falls to import and sell roughly 2.5 million of the masks every week to customers including the Mayo Clinic, the United States Navy and Walmart. At the same time, the companies began importing extra masks to donate to institutions that need them. The firms are giving masks valued at $50,000 to local businesses and organizations including University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Childrens, MedWish International, Heinens, Dollar General, The Weils, Menorah Park, Arden Courts and the Chagrin Valley Chamber of Commerce. These are all places that we have relationships with, says Ludwig, who runs Pulsar with his brother, Mike. We think they do wonderful work. We want to support them. The mask selling decision by Pulsar and KMK, whose usual business entails producing items like water bottles and giveaways for corporations, has kept the firms from having to lay off any employees during the downturn caused by the pandemic. Pulsar employs 20 people; KMK has a dozen on its roster. It would have crushed me personally to have to lay off my people, said KMK owner Barry Jacobson. To be able to pivot has allowed us to keep employees working and to provide hundreds of thousands of masks as donations. Ludwig anticipates the companies will continue selling and distributing masks as social distancing restrictions are lifted. He said theyre discussing ways to make their masks cool and different by producing designs other than the standard blue, and branching into retail sales. The way a retailer needs them to be packed and sold is different than in the health care world, says Ludwig. Health care might want 50 in a box, while a gas station might want five in a pack." He thinks theres a good chance that people will continue wearing masks as they venture more into the public realm. Six months to a year ago, it was odd to see someone wearing a mask, says Ludwig. It might become part of the new normal. More coverage: Rep. Jim Jordan wants Judiciary Committee to probe stay-at-home orders effects on liberty Can a debt collector grab your stimulus check? In Ohio many cant, says AG Dave Yost Sen. Rob Portman and five Ohio Congress members to advise White House on reopening the economy What Ohio members of Congress want in a fourth coronavirus stimulus bill How to track your federal stimulus check New Cleveland company gets federal approval to produce ventilators during coronavirus pandemic Feds approve new mask sterilization process from Mentors STERIS Battelle to expand coronavirus mask decontamination to 60 sites around the country Coronavirus response may drag on Trump in 2020 election, conservative pundits say Feds will use extra Great Lakes Restoration Initiative money to fight water pollution and invasive species Coronavirus boosts demand for Elyria-based Invacares oxygen products and beds Navy veteran running for Ohio congressional seat turns coronavirus-related firing of ships captain into campaign issue Sherrod Brown wants essential workers to get up to $25,000 in hazard pay during coronavirus pandemic Cleveland-area native Thomas Modly resigns as acting Navy secretary amid coronavirus firing flap Advertisement Matt Hancock's 100,000 daily coronavirus tests target was today savaged by MPs as 'stupid' and 'arbitrary' as ministers appeared to admit NHS staff have been struggling to access checks. The Health Secretary has just nine days left to reach his goal of six figure daily testing but the latest numbers show fewer than 20,000 tests were actually carried out yesterday despite capacity being at just shy of 40,000. Ministers this morning announced that they were expanding the number of drive-through testing sites from 26 to 50 in an apparent admission that staff in some parts of the country have faced an uphill battle to get tested. Other key workers will also now be eligible for tests, including transport workers and supermarket staff. Local Government Minister Simon Clarke said increasing the number of testing sites will 'bring those centres closer to more people and make it more viable to go there'. The move comes after numerous horror stories of self-isolating and potentially very unwell workers having to travel for multiple hours to get tests only for some of them to be told to come back another day. Photographs taken yesterday also showed near-empty test centres at the likes of Twickenham Stadium in West London, the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, Brighton and Hove Albion FC and Plymouth. The government has failed to get anywhere close to matching the number of tests carried out to the available capacity in recent weeks but despite this, the Health Secretary remains adamant that he is sticking to his 100,000 target. But there is rising Tory fury over Mr Hancock's decision to set such a high bar, with senior figures concerned about the backlash which could follow if he fails to deliver on his promise. Some Conservative MPs believe Mr Hancock will have to 'carry the can' if he falls short of the target as they said he should have climbed down on the issue more than a week ago. One senior Tory MP told MailOnline the target is 'stupid' and added: 'Matt was extremely unwise to come up with such a high and round figure and to make a dogmatic commitment rather than an aspiration. 'He was under pressure at the time. If he wanted to reverse out of it he should have started reversing a week ago. It is pretty clear that he is not going to hit the target and he ought to be levelling with people.' A Number 10 insider echoed a similar sentiment, telling The Telegraph: 'The problem is with this arbitrary target. There is a faint irrationality behind it, just because there was a clamour for mass testing. Hancock's 100,000 target was a response to a criticism in the media and he decided to crank out tests regardless. 'He's not had a good crisis. The Prime Minister will say he has confidence in him but it doesn't feel like that.' Matt Hancock, pictured at today's Downing Street press conference, has come under fire for his 100,000 coronavirus tests target The test centre at Twickenham rugby stadium in West London yesterday appeared to be lying empty The empty coronavirus testing centre for NHS staff and registered care workers at the Ricoh Arena yesterday An opposition source told MailOnline they believed the target was an act of 'desperation' because of public pressure over testing levels. They also suggested that the target may have been set when the government believed antibody tests could play a role in hitting the figure. Antigen testing shows if someone currently has the disease while antibody shows if someone has had it and now has immunity. The UK was hopeful of obtaining working antibody tests earlier in the crisis but no country in the world has yet found one which is sufficiently accurate to be rolled out. That means that to hit the 100,000 figure all of the tests will have to be antigen which is a more laborious check to carry out. 'I think Hancock was told that he would have the antibody tests and then they completely disappeared,' the source suggested. Mr Hancock claimed that demand for tests among NHS workers had been lower than expected over the Easter weekend which had allowed the government to expand testing to other groups like social care staff. But health chiefs have maintained some of their staff are still struggling to access tests with particular concern about people who may need to be checked but who do not have access to their own transport. Mr Clarke said this morning that expanding the number of testing sites would help increase access to testing. 'We are absolutely determined across the whole of the UK to hit this target,' he said. 'As I say, we are going to move from 26 current testing facilities to 50. That will in turn obviously bring those centres closer to more people and make it more viable to go there. 'We're increasing the groups of key workers who can go and be tested.' Ministers continue to struggle to explain why there is such a large discrepancy between the number of tests being carried out and available capacity. Asked about the gap, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said: 'Ministers have been very clear that any spare capacity should be used to test NHS and social care staff and their families. 'As a result of the increased capacity which we have available, other critical care workers can now also get tests so that they can continue their vital work on the frontline.' The NHS Covid-19 testing centre in Plymouth, Devon, yesterday is empty when photographed yesterday An empty drive-through Covid-19 test centre for NHS workers at Brighton and Hove Albion FC's Amex Stadium yesterday Allan Wilson, president of the Institute of Biomedical Science, which represents thousands of NHS lab staff, said: 'There is just over a week left until this target, which appeared to be plucked out of the air, but lab staff are not being sent samples. 'Part of the problem is that testing centres are in really remote areas, so people are not able to travel miles to get to them. We have consistently said all along that this target will not be reached. Staff at the large mass testing centres in Milton Keynes, Manchester and Glasgow are being sent home as there are no samples to process.' Mr Johnson had earlier set a much more ambitious target of 250,000 tests-a-day during a briefing on Mach 19 before the lockdown as imposed, but he did not attach a date to when that would be achieved. Britain, with 125,000 confirmed cases of the disease, is testing 5.54 people per 1,000 - 0.5 per cent of its population - according to the latest figures. The UK sits well below nations with similar rates of infection, including Italy, Germany and Spain, which are all testing more than 20 people per thousand, according to statistics compiled by Oxford-led researchers. Early testing for COVID-19 and isolating those who are positive as well as those they have come into contact with, is seen by the World Health Organization as crucial to bringing the pandemic under control. Two flagship NHS testing sites stood empty as pictures taken yesterday showed few people were arriving to give samples. Both Twickenham rugby stadium and Chessington World of Adventures in west London did not appear to have many patients arriving on Monday. Health Secretary Matt Hancock in Downing Street today. He has been criticised by a insider close to No10 for setting a 'arbitrary' coronavirus testing target A member of the military testing a person at a coronavirus test centre in the car park of Chessington World of Adventures on Saturday The coronavirus test centre set up in an IKEA car park was operating smoothly with more than 500 people booked to undergo a test. A queue of 30 cars built up prior to the gates at the shuttered IKEA store in Wembley, North West London, being opened for NHS and other key workers to have a nasal and throat swab taken. Army personnel in uniform could be seen assisting at one of the five mobile bays set up in the car part of the furniture super store. Staff said approximately 30-40 appointments an hour had been pre-booked. Those who had supplied their car registration number did not have to queue and were waved inside by security guards in yellow high viz jackets. Only NHS staff and key workers with an appointment were allowed inside the centre with members of the public turned away. One NHS nurse leaving said she had been told to expect an email with the results after 48 hours. She said: 'It seems to be running smoothly. There was no problem in making an appointment and it all went well. I just have to wait now for the result, and hope that I am all clear.' The IKEA test centre can handle up to 700 tests a day but staff said on average they had been seeing 500 people. And testing of key workers for the coronavirus was operating well at the Chessington site in Surrey this morning. Nurses, care home assistants and other critical workers were queuing into the main roads as they waited for the centre based at the Chessington World of Adventure amusement park to open. Army medics joined NHS nurses to carry out the swab tests at four bays where the examinations are conducted on patients while they sit in their cars. Some 500 tests are set to be carried out today, a staff member claimed. Patients today described the testing process as efficient, with most being offered the examination within 24 hours of a request. Care home assistant Elena, 32, told MailOnline: It was very easy to get the test. I asked to come last night and I am here now. She added: I work in a care home. There are ten or 12 people with Covid-19 out of a total of 67 residents, so I think I need to know if I ill so that I do not pass it on. Simon, 44, a support worker for disabled children, said: My mum has been showing symptoms of the Coronavirus so I want to find out if Ive got it or not. I told my boss about my mum on Sunday night and the called me up on Monday with an appointment. I want to go back to work but I dont want to give it to the kids so I want to make sure. Nurse Yvonne, 53, said: I have been showing symptoms I have a cough and a fever so I want to know if I am infected or not. I have been working on a ward where some of the patients have tested positive for Covid-19. It was very easy to get this test. I told my line manager last night I was feeling unwell and I got this appointment for first thing today. A coronavirus test centre is seen at Twickenham stadium is pictured (above) on Monday On another day in coronavirus news: Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves accused the Government of ignoring offers from British manufacturers to fill the gap. Dentists and anaesthetists became the latest groups to warn that they are working without adequate PPE. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals and NHS trusts in England, warned that the NHS's supply of face masks could be jeopardised if the Government begins advising the public to wear them, saying 'clear evidence' would be needed before advice was changed. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, Sage, which advises the Government, will reportedly consider the evidence at a meeting today. Manjeet Riyat, the first Sikh to work as an A&E consultant in the UK, was named among the latest healthcare workers to die after contracting Covid-19. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Clarke said the UK was seeing 'exponential growth' in terms of testing capabilities. 'We are doing our very best to make sure we hit that target,' he added. 'It's the right target, it's both what our science and the WHO's (World Health Organisation's) approach would suggest is the right thing to do.' The Government is working to ensure more key workers are eligible to have the tests so 'every possible slot is filled', he continued. Mr Clarke said it was 'highly unfair' to Mr Hancock to suggest that the Government's ambition to reach 100,000 tests a day was not 'empirically grounded'. He added: 'As I say, we are going to move from 26 current testing facilities to 50. That will in turn obviously bring those centres closer to more people and make it more viable to go there. 'We're increasing the groups of key workers who can go and be tested.' It follows a major report which said testing and contact tracing in the wider community is the 'most promising approach' in the short term to helping lift the Covid-19 lockdown. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study said isolating people with coronavirus and tracing their contacts so they also isolate - an approach abandoned by the UK Government early on - is the key to controlling further outbreaks of coronavirus. It comes as former health secretary Jeremy Hunt took to social media on Monday to say contact tracing 'needs to be our next national mission'. Mr Hunt, who is chairman of the Health Select Committee, added on Tuesday: 'Mass contact tracing is the only internationally proven alternative to mass lockdown. We need to act fast.' The OECD report said Covid-19 infections would 'rebound rapidly' if countries just moved to lift their lockdowns completely, and urged them to ramp up contact tracing. The study argued that 'strong and effective testing, tracking and tracing (TTT) is needed' and 'is the most promising approach in the short run to bringing - and keeping - the epidemic under control without resorting to widespread lockdowns of social and economic life'. It added: 'The TTT approach may be used to block the initial or recurrent spreads of a pathogen, aiming for a rapid extinction of local, well-defined outbreaks that collectively can control an epidemic.' The Government has come under intense scrutiny over its testing and contact tracing policy after Public Health England advised ministers in early March that contact tracing should be stopped. The UK approach has contrasted with other countries such as Singapore and South Korea, which have successfully kept up contact tracing to contain their outbreaks. Germany, which has a far lower case and death rate than the UK, has also worked on contact tracing. Mr Hancock told MPs on Friday that contact tracing was part of the strategy going forward and would be introduced again, admitting that 'it wasn't possible when we had a small number of tests'. The Government is hoping that a contact tracing app being developed by NHSX will enable larger-scale contact tracing and will 'assist individuals to do contact tracing themselves', Mr Hancock said. Mr Clarke said contact tracing was an issue for the Department of Health when asked about it on the Today programme. It follows reports that around 5,000 environmental officers offered their help with contact tracing but did not get a response from ministers. Public Health England has repeatedly suggested there was little point to continuing contact tracing once the virus started spreading on a large scale in the community. Vietnam reports no new COVID-19 cases over three days No new case of COVID-19 was detected as of 6am on April 19, making it three full days the country has gone without any new infection of the coronavirus, according to the national steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control. As of April 18, up to 201 out of 268 COVID-19 patients, or three quarters, across the country have fully recovered, reported the Treatment Subcommittee under the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control. Three more people, including a man from the UK and a married couple from Brazil, were given the all-clear on April 18 after treatment at hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. One of them is a 34-year-old British man who after initially testing positive had a number of subsequent tests during treatment at the Can Gio COVID-19 Treatment Hospital which all came back negative. The couple from Brazil, a 45-year-old woman and her 49-year-old husband, had been treated at the Cu Chi COVID-19 Treatment Hospital in HCM City. All three patients will have to undergo quarantine for the next 14 days and their health will be monitored. Among 67 patients currently in hospital with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, 14 have recorded one negative test, and five have twice tested negative, according to the subcommittee. There are 62,998 people currently in quarantine nationwide. Among these, 279 people are quarantined at hospitals, 11,338 others are kept at concentrated quarantine sites and 51,381 are self-quarantined at home. Vietnamese people returning from Italy test negative for COVID-19 All 55 Vietnamese citizens returning from Italy on a specially arranged flight that landed on Saturday morning, have tested negative for COVID-19. Three Italians also on the flight, which touched down at a Nang International Airport, have also been told they are not carrying the virus. Director of the citys Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Dr Ton That Thanh said sample test results released in the evening were all negative. More tests will be carried out in the coming days. He said the Vietnamese citizens are isolated at the citys Military Training School in Hoa Vang District, 20km west of the city centre, for health checks and monitoring for two weeks. The three Italians are quarantined at a hotel in the citys downtown Hai Chau District. The Vietnam Airlines (VNA) flight was arranged between the Vietnamese government and the Italian Embassy in Viet Nam and the Vietnamese Embassy in Italy. It took a number of Italian citizens home on Friday, then returned the following day bringing back Vietnamese residents. Total recovered COVID-19 patients rise to 201 browser not support iframe. The Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control has reported that three more patients have been cleared of the virus, raising the total recovered tally to 201. They include a man from the UK and a married couple from Brazil, were given the all-clear after treatment at hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. All three patients will have to undergo quarantine for the next 14 days and their health will be monitored. As of April 18 afternoon, Vietnam reported no new cases of COVID-19 over the past two days. The countrys number of confirmed patients with SARS-CoV-2 stands at 268 and no fatalities has been reported./. Medical supplies presented to Lao security departments The Public Security Department of central Thua Thien-Hue province presents rice to the Security Departments of the Lao provinces of Salavan and Sekong (Source: cand.com.vn) The Public Security Department of central Thua Thien-Hue province on April 18 presented medical supplies and necessities to the Security Departments of the Lao provinces of Salavan and Sekong to support them in the COVID-19 fight. The gifts include 10,000 face masks, 50 sets of protective clothing, 1,000 pairs of medical gloves, disinfection machines, two tonnes of rice and 200 boxes of instant noodle, with a combined value of 200 million VND (8,570 USD). On this occasion, agencies and organisations in the central province also granted over 1,300 bottles of hand santinizer, 1,000 face masks, 100 boxes of instant noodle, among others to the Security Departments of Laos. The gifts are expected to help Lao officers, soldiers and people in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and tighten relations between the Thua Thien-Hue Public Security Department and the Security Departments of Salavan and Sekong. Thua Thien-Hue shares a 84-kilometre border line with the two Lao provinces. COVID-19 fight in Thailand, Malaysia sees improvements Thailand on April 18 confirmed 33 more COVID-19 infection cases, raising the total in the country to 2,733. Apart from 47 fatalities, 1,787 have been discharged from hospitals. The Health Ministry said the countrys COVID-19 death rate is 1.7 percent, or four times lower than the worlds average while the recovery rate reaches 62.5 percent. The situation is improving in the country with new cases tend to decrease due to the flight limit order. The same day, Malaysia announced additional 54 infections, the lowest since the government imposed the social distancing order a day earlier. Meanwhile in Singapore, 942 more cases were reported in the past 24 hours, a record in the Southeast Asian nation, bringing the total to 5,992. In Indonesia, 325 new infections pushed the total to 6,248, including 535 deaths. It surpassed the Philippines in terms of infections and deaths in the region. Also on April 18, the Philippines confirmed 209 new infection cases and ten deaths, bringing the total to 6,087 and 397, respectively. German newswire lauds Vietnams economic policy amid COVID-19 The Deutsche Welle (DW) newswire on April 17 ran a story praising Vietnams successes in fighting COVID-19 with all of its power while the global economy is facing depression due to the pandemic. The article quoted a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as saying that the world economic growth is forecast to drop by 3 percent this year. For the first time in 60 years, the Asian economy has been predicted to not expand. Meanwhile, the Chinese Government has announced that its economy downsized 6.8 percent in the first quarter. However, Vietnam has so far done a fairly good job in economic term. Though the figure in the first quarter is lower than the estimate, the growth still hit 3.82 percent, it said. Talking with DW, Carl Thayer from Australias University of New South Wales, said it was a noteworthy achievement. According to the article, Vietnam launched a strategy to contain SARS-CoV-2 from early. Therefore, data from the Johns Hopkins University showed that the total number of infection cases has only reached 268 to date. Despite social distancing measures, electronics and medicine-pharmaceuticals sectors still grew by 14 percent and 44 percent, respectively, in the first quarter, said the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK) in Vietnam, adding that the Vietnamese Government is adopting different measures to prevent economic slowdown. It said like other countries, Vietnam has also faced difficulties, especially in services, tourism and aviation. The tourism sector lost 3-4 billion USD in the first quarter. Thayer also added that Vietnam could succeed in maintaining the balance between protecting peoples health and economic benefits in the short term. WASHINGTON - The federal government gave national hotel and restaurant chains millions of dollars in grants before the $349 billion program ran out of money Thursday, leading to a backlash that prompted one company to give the money back and a Republican senator to say that "millions of dollars are being wasted." Thousands of traditional small businesses were unable to get funding from the program before it ran dry. As Congress and the White House near a deal to add an additional $310 billion to the program, some are calling for additional oversight and rule changes to prevent bigger chains from accepting any more money. Ruth's Chris Steak House, a chain that has 150 locations and is valued at $250 million, reported receiving $20 million in funding from the small business portion of the economic stimulus legislation called the Paycheck Protection Program. The Potbelly chain of sandwich shops, which has more than 400 locations and a value of $89 million, reported receiving $10 million last week. Shake Shack, a $1.6 billion burger-and-fries chain based in New York City, received $10 million. After complaints from small business advocates when the fund went dry, company founder Danny Meyer and chief executive Randy Garutti announced Sunday evening that they would return the money. They said they had no idea that the program would run out of money so quickly and that they understood the uproar. "Late last week, when it was announced that funding for the PPP had been exhausted, businesses across the country were understandably up in arms," the two wrote in a letter posted online. "If this act were written for small businesses, how is it possible that so many independent restaurants whose employees needed just as much help were unable to receive funding?" "We now know that the first phase of the PPP was underfunded, and many who need it most, haven't gotten any assistance." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has tried to defend the program in recent days, wrote on Twitter that he was "glad to see" Shake Shack return the money. In all, more than 70 publicly traded companies have reported receiving money from the program, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., criticized the program, saying that "companies that are not being harmed at all by the coronavirus crisis have the ability to receive taxpayer-funded loans that can be forgiven." "I am concerned that many businesses with thousands of employees have found loopholes to qualify for these loans meant for small businesses," Scott said. "Unfortunately, when it comes to the PPP, millions of dollars are being wasted." Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., chairman of the committee overseeing small businesses, addressed the criticism Monday morning on CNBC, saying that hotels and restaurants are some of the first and hardest-hit companies and that many of their locations are owned by true small businesses or individuals. But he said that there have been "some people approved, some companies, that I believe should not have been, even under the intent of the law, and that comes down to the certification process and how they were certified into the system." Some of the companies receiving money are clients of JPMorgan Chase, adding fuel to criticism that Wall Street banks had helped their clients obtain large amounts. The bank put out a statement Sunday saying that it is "proud to have secured more funding for small businesses than anyone else in the industry" and that 80% of its PPP loans have been for businesses with less than $5 million in revenue. More for you Analysis finds 48% obesity in sample of COVID-19 patients JPMorgan explained that larger companies may have been served more quickly because its commercial banking unit, which serves larger clients, was able to complete "most of the applications it received" while many more applications poured in from traditional small businesses. The PPP program was intended to benefit workers at businesses and nonprofit employers with fewer than 500 employees that are unable to obtain credit elsewhere, according to the Small Business Act, which formed the basis for the program. But after intensive lobbying by the restaurant and hotel industries during the weeks leading to the passage of the $2 trillion Cares Act economic stimulus package, Congress allowed separate subsidiaries and locations to apply as businesses, even if they were part of a national or international chain. Thus multiple Ruth's Chris locations could apply under separate entities even though the parent company employed about 5,740 people at the end of last year, according to public filings. Other industries and advocates lobbied against affiliation rules as well, including the private equity industry. Hotels, with three-quarters of their rooms empty and nearly 4 million people out of work, have been taking advantage of the program. Philadelphia's Hersha Hospitality Trust and Condor Hospitality Trust, a Maryland-based owner of 15 hotels in eight states, reported last week that they had applied for loans. Mnuchin has called the PPP a success, saying in a statement Friday that the program provided funding to more than 1.6 million small businesses in all 50 states. "The vast majority of these loans - 74% of them - were for under $150,000, demonstrating the accessibility of this program to even the smallest of small businesses," Mnuchin said. He told CNN on Sunday that an additional $300 billion "should be sufficient to reach almost everybody." Executives at some chains have defended the PPP the way it is written, saying that the size of the parent company matters little because most of the money is required to go to workers, as a minimum of three-quarters of each loan must go to payroll in order for the government to forgive the debt. "Employees don't care if we're big or we're a small business. They just want their job back," said Jon Bortz, founder and chief executive of Bethesda, Maryland-based Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and board chairman for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the industry's top lobbying group. The AHLA has also argued that hotel owners should not have to spend three-quarters of stimulus funding on payroll. Ruth's Chris, a steakhouse chain based in Florida, sought the stimulus money so that the company would be "well positioned to emerge from this situation a strong and viable entity," it said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. As the program ran out of money, however, leaving thousands of small businesses without money to pay their workers, criticism mounted about some of the money going to national brands. The initial PPP "was flawed from top to bottom," said Florida small business owners Duncan and Rita MacDonald-Korth. "The program has done very little to help genuine small businesses and instead has benefited large companies who have used subsidiary entities to benefit disproportionately and unfairly." The couple created a petition asking that the program be limited to companies with fewer than 250 employees and that half of it be reserved for those with 50 employees or fewer. Some critics point out that executives at larger chains often receive multimillion-dollar annual compensation packages. Other chains, such as Marriott and Hilton, have been criticized for inflating the value of their shares in recent years with share buybacks and dividend payments that left less cash on hand to pay workers once the pandemic hit. Some chains, including those big hoteliers, have since cut executive pay and paused buybacks and dividends. Hilton said it is not seeking support from the Treasury Department. In their letter, the Shake Shack executives said they were trying to do the best they could for their employees under the rules created by the government, but they acknowledged that other businesses could use the money more than they could. "Our people would benefit from a $10 million PPP loan but we're fortunate to now have access to capital that others do not. Until every restaurant that needs it has had the same opportunity to receive assistance, we're returning ours," they wrote. Transparency of the small business spending has also become a paramount issue, as the legislation does not require the Small Business Administration to disclose the recipients, even though the agency typically discloses the name, address and executives for loans received. Leading congressional Democrats are pressing the Trump administration to provide more data about how the money is being distributed. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., along with Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote to Mnuchin and Small Business Administration Administrator Jovita Carranza on Friday asking that PPP be replenished. President Donald Trump said at his daily coronavirus briefing Sunday that he hoped to reach an agreement for additional funding on Monday. "I think we are getting close to a deal," he said. - - - The Washington Post's Erica Werner contributed to this report. Rashami's Bank Statements Showing Lakhs Transferred To Arhaan Leaked By Fans The screenshots of Rashami's bank statements are going viral on social media and fans have been trending #FraudArhaanKhan. Many fans slammed the actor and asked him not only to return the money but also to apologize to her. Fans Support Rashami A fan wrote, "We need justice for @TheRashamiDesai. She has earned money with lot of her hardwork and #FraudArhaanKhan misused her money. What a shame to society." Another fan tweeted, "Bloody looser fraud ramlaal @imArhaanKhan threating Rashami.... Shame in you u bloody tujhe Salman Khan jaisa superstar ne exposed National TV pr kia fir bhi tujhe sharam nhi aaya #FraudArhaanKhan." Are the Screenshots Genuine?; Is Arhaan Threatening Rashmai? Bollywoodlife report suggested that Rashami's spokesperson confirmed that the screenshots are genuine. It is also being said that the Naagin 4 actress has been facing some threats from Arhaan. A user tweeted, "Today an independent lady #RashamiDesai who was saved by #SalmanKhan once again need our support..Rashami has fallen into depression, she is worried and she is facing threats from that b@stard fraud @imArhaanKhan ..We Rashamians will protect her from this sw!ne.#fraudarhaankhan." Devoleena Supports Rashami Meanwhile, Devoleena Bhattacharjee has extended her support to Rashami. The actress tweeted, "Suna hai Ramlal ne proof maanga hai ki woh fraud hai..I would say why doesnt he go and ask #Salman sir the same... how shameful creature yeah..ek toh itne paise le liye uparse dhamki de raha hai..#bloodycoward." Actress Asks Fans Not To Encourage Arhaan She further wrote, "And guys please ignore this ramlal completely.dont tag his name anywhere especially with rash. it doesnt matter to him u talk good or bad about him.what matters to him is publicity. so dont encourage him at all.." 16/03/2020 Trying to stop the spread of Coronavirus.........Farmers wear protective gloves at the sales ring at Tuam mart. Photo: Ray Ryan A range of protocols are actively being discussed between ICOS Co-operative Marts and the Department of Agriculture to try and resume a limited and strictly enforced auction process in livestock marts as quickly as possible. It would see stringent measures are being proposed that would be strictly enforced to ensure a limited and tightly controlled attendance of buyers and sellers. They would attend by appointment only and social distancing would be rigorously adhered to during the process. General visitors, members of the public or other farmers would not be allowed to enter marts under any circumstances while Covid-19 measures are in place. Ray Doyle livestock & environment executive of ICOS said they had been working with department officials for some time and have taken detailed legal and public health advice to put forward a workable protocol to protect all our communities from Covid-19 in line with the necessity to maintain and evaluate the true value of livestock via a competitive auction process. He also stressed that any discussions would be subject to approval by health authorities. Some of the points being discussed include: 1) All potential sellers must contact their local mart and advise mart staff of the type, breed, age, approximate weight and any other details of the livestock to be sold. Farmers cannot simply turn up with livestock to sell. 2) The Mart staff will subsequently contact these sellers with a defined time and date for delivery of livestock to the mart for sale. 3) All sellers on entry to the mart premises must present authorised proof of entry either pre-sent by email, text or as a printed copy for mart staff. Bringing personal I.D. is advisable. 4) All sellers will remain in their vehicles while on the mart grounds and should manoeuvre their vehicles as advised by mart staff. 5) Sellers must advise mart staff of the way they wish to have their cattle numbered /allotted for sale at the point of unloading and leave details of their mobile or other contact numbers. 6) All sellers will be required to vacate the mart premises immediately after the unloading of their livestock is complete. 7) Sellers will be advised of the approximate selling time of their animals and any details such as weights, etc. and can advise the mart staff of a minimum advised price, sell them on the market or have the mart contact them via mobile phone at point of sale to accept the highest bid or not. 8) All buyers must first pre-register with the mart to attend any sales. 9) A limited and defined number of buyers will only be allowed in the sales area (actual number will depend on the ability to maintain the distancing requirements of a minimum 2 metres with sign-off by local DAFM staff). Designated areas will be allotted to each buyer and will be strictly enforced by mart staff. Seating and/or designated areas will be decided by a lottery or other agreed mart protocols if the number of buyers requesting to attend is greater than the agreed number of allocated spaces. 10) No members of the general public are allowed into mart premises. Persons other than mart staff must have permission to attend with a specific allotted time to gain access. Entry/exit to mart will be strictly controlled by mart staff at the main entrance point. 11) All pedestrian areas of the mart office and administration areas will be clearly marked with the required social distancing signage. 12) Only mart staff will load any animals onto the buyers transport while maintaining social distancing requirements at all times. 13) Mart office staff will be shielded at counters with appropriate protection screens. 14) All persons, staff and customers will be asked to sanitise hands on entry to and exit from the mart facility. A research scholar waiting to meet his newborn baby, a graduate worried about the job offer in Bangalore and a pregnant woman whose four-day work trip now stretches interminably are among the at least 220 Indians stranded in Japan and getting increasingly desperate to return home. Stuck in a foreign land as COVID-19 tightens its grip on many countries, dwindling financial resources and expired medical insurances are adding to their tensions. The group of 220 Indians, including 92 dependants, have collectively reached out to the Indian Embassy in Tokyo asking to be evacuated to India, which has been under lockdown since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement on March 24. In a signed letter, the stranded Indians have also assured that they will quarantine themselves when back and cooperate with authorities. Japan's partial lockdown is also a source of worry with some saying they live in constant fear of getting infected with the coronavirus that has infected more than 2.4 million people and claimed over 1,70,000 lives. Rahul Joe, a research scholar at the University of Hokkaido till his contract expired last month, was all set to move back to Ahmedabad to be with his pregnant wife. The date was set and the tickets booked. We were blessed with a baby girl two days back and I don't know when will I able to see my baby for the first time. My medical insurance expired with my contract and now I am scared that if I fall ill I will have no means to get myself treated," Joe told PTI over the phone from Tokyo. With the number of cases rising in Japan, the country on April 16 expanded the state of emergency to the entire nation in an attempt to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading further and straining the healthcare system. The country has reported more than 11,000 cases. However, it is not like the lockdown in several other parts of the world as Japan's post World War-II constitution lays out strict protections for civil liberties, Joe said. "Public transportation is operating as normal. Most state of emergency measures are in form of requests and instructions. Violators cannot be punished unless they fail to comply with orders related to storage or shipment of emergency relief goods and medical supplies. So the risk is even higher. We are stuck inside and living in constant fear," Joe said. For Kamal Vijayvargiya, a four-day trip to the country has taken on nightmarish overtones and he can't wait to get back home to Jaipur. "I am in the business of tea and I come to Japan annually for business meetings. I came on March 18 and now I am stuck here. At present, I am staying in an office friend's single room but I cannot stay too long because herself she is a dialysis' patient and it is risky for me to be here, he said. A 28-year-old pregnant woman, from Ahmedabad like Joe, said she also went to Japan for four days and has no clue when she will get back home "I was in the first trimester of my pregnancy when I came to Tokyo in March. It was an official trip for four days but first the janta curfew and then the travel restrictions. It has been a month now, my office has arranged for accommodation and other necessities are being taken care of but it is depressing to be indoors all day in a foreign country without any clarity," she told PTI on the condition of anonymity. Akhilesh Sharma, a Ghaziabad resident, has been in Tokyo since December for a project that was to end in March. He has been living off his savings since then. "The embassy did help me with a discounted voucher to stay in a hotel but how long can that be managed? A fresh graduate from Nihon University, who was supposed to join a firm in Bangalore from April 10, is now worried about the plans. My studies were over here. I had a job offer. I was supposed to join them in April. The offer has not been withdrawn yet but I am still worried considering all the about layoffs and paycuts, the young woman said, refusing to be identified. According to Indian government officials, bringing back stranded Indians is an ongoing process. Some questions have come about Indians abroad. It is a situation where we cannot give a definite answer because the lockdown is still there. We need to assess the situation... it will be the government's decision on how we manage the return of Indians from other countries," Dammu Ravi, COVID-19 coordinator, said at press conference. "Our ambassadors and high commissioners in all these countries are in regular touch with all Indians abroad and giving all support to them. The MEA COVID control room helplines are active, teams are taking calls and guiding them in these matters. The situation is under control. We will review at a later stage about their return," the MEA official said earlier this month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 18:28:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LUSAKA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- "My daughter has for a long time been encouraging me to take Chinese language lessons. She has become quite good at it, thanks to her school. She is now my tutor and we are having such a great time learning from home," Sanyambe Mweemba said. Mweemba, who lives in Zambia's capital Lusaka recounted to Xinhua how for a long time she had wanted to learn the Chinese language but never got that chance, as she was always too busy with her job. "Had it not been for the government's restrictions on movement, I may not have started these lessons any time soon. The move has enabled me to venture into one of my passions. I am currently looking out for any online courses on Chinese language," she enthused. Mweemba said she chose to learn the Chinese language because she is an entrepreneur who is also fascinated by the Chinese culture. "Learning another language sharpens ones' cognitive skills and makes intercultural interactions meaningful," she explained. She further said that in today's world, being multilingual sets one apart and exposes them to a wide range of opportunities to better themselves and those around them. And her daughter who is also Mweemba's tutor said she enjoys taking her mother through Chinese language lessons because they also help her to stay focused on mastering the language and to keep busy. "Mom is such an enthusiastic learner and always willing to put in her best. That has encouraged me to read more," says 12-year-old Rejoice. Mweemba has since implored the global community to take advantage of this period to learn new skills that would be useful long after the pandemic pointing out that there still remains a lot that people do within their confinements that can greatly contribute to the wellbeing of the nations. "Homes can be innovation hubs from which can emerge great ideas to better lives going forward," she added. Mweemba's story puts meaning to the expression every cloud has a silver lining. Her narrative is but one of the numerous examples of a silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic's manifold challenges. It also tells of the need to emphasize the hopeful side of a situation that might otherwise seem too gloomy on the surface. Within the pandemic and everything about it are stories of families spending more time together and people birthing new ideas that are going to better lives in the near future. There are also stories of more people embracing the use of technologies to enhance their lives. "It is important for people to be encouraged to look on the bright side of things. Maintaining a positive outlook also helps to boost the physical and mental wellbeing, as well as the immune system," said a Zambia Public Health specialist Rhodah Nchinga. Nchinga further advised societies to keep busy while observing measures aimed at curtailing the COVID-19 pandemic by spending their time investing in creative ventures that can be beneficial now and beyond. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday warned that mosques will be forced to shut down during the upcoming month of Ramzan if people did not follow the official directives issued to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic that has infected over 9,000 people in the country. Khan's warning came days after the government allowed congregational prayers in mosques during the month of Ramzan after the clerics agreed to follow the government guidelines on social distancing while praying in mosques. According to the agreement, people above the age of 50, minors and those suffering from flu will not be allowed to enter the mosques. The worshippers must maintain a distance of six feet when praying and people should wear face masks and avoid shaking hands or embracing others. The prime minister said that Pakistan decided to keep mosques open in Ramzan because we are an independent nation and take decisions according to our own situation. Khan made the comments while addressing the media along with his key team of advisors about the country's fight against the pandemic. He, however, urged people to pray at home and those attending mosques should follow official guidelines. He warned that the government would be forced to shut down mosques if it was found that official directives on the matter were not followed. I don't want that police arrest people who want to pray in mosques, he said. Pakistan on Tuesday reported 16 more deaths from the coronavirus, taking the country's toll to 192, while the number of confirmed crossed 9,000. The prime minister said that Pakistan faces a bigger challenge in dealing with the pandemic than other countries as it has to tackle poverty due to the ongoing lockdown and the crisis' impact on the country's cash-strapped economy. Our challenge is very big, including how to tackle poverty in the wake of coronavirus lockdown. But we will come out of it, he said. He also warned that those involved in hoarding and smuggling would be treated as criminals and dealt with strictly. Planning Minister Asad Umar said a smart tracking system has been developed to identify coronavirus patients, trace their contacts and tackle the spread of the disease. Umar said that the new system would be in place in about a week. Faisal Sultan, the prime minister's personal physician and focal person on coronavirus, said that the spread of virus in the country was under control and it was estimated that the tally would reach 12,000 by April 25. Our situation is better than many developed countries. But we can only keep it under control by following the guidelines, he said. Advisor on Security Moeed Yusuf said that the land border with Afghanistan has been opened to facilitate the movement of people but border with India was still closed. We are in touch with India to let the stranded people cross over, he said. Yusuf said that special flights were being allowed to bring back Pakistanis from different countries and this week 6,000 of them would be brought back, followed by another 7,000 next week. The Prime Minister and his advisors earlier attended the meeting of National Command Centre on COVID-19. Meanwhile, 796 new cases were reported, taking the country's tally to 9,216 despite government's efforts to control the disease. The Ministry of National Health Services reported that 16 people died during the last 24 hours, taking the total toll to 192. A total of 2,066 patients have recovered. The worst-hit Punjab province reported 4,195 cases, Sindh 2,764, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 1,276, Balochistan 465, Gilgit-Baltistan 281, Islamabad 185 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 50 cases. So far 111,806 tested had been conducted including 5,347 during the last 24 hours. Prime Minister Khan said that the international community can now understand the suffering of the people of Kashmir as various parts of the world are protesting against lockdowns meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus. India on Sunday trashed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's comments alleging targeting of Muslims in the country in the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic. "Instead of concentrating on fighting COVID-19, they are making baseless allegations against their neighbours," the MEA spokesperson said in New Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The sharp fall of 25 per cent in the Brent crude oil price to below $19 a barrel over two days is not a good news for domestic oil producers, such as ONGC, Oil India and even Vedanta, whose subsidiary Cairn India is involved in oil production and exploration, as well as Reliance Industries (RIL). Oil marketing companies (OMCs), too, will be hit in the short run, but they stand to gain if oil prices sustain at lower levels. 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. 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Digital Editor The Edo State Police Command says it has rescued four kidnapped victims and arrested 146 suspects for various crimes in different parts of the state. The Commissioner of Police, Lawan Jimeta, who disclosed this on Tuesday in Benin City, said that the victims and suspects were secured in the last five weeks. Mr Jimeta said those rescued included one Chike Uzor, two Dangote Group drivers kidnapped along the Benin Bye-Pass and one other person. He said the victims, who were rescued unhurt, had since been reunited with their families. The commissioner said the command killed one robbery suspect and arrested 146 suspects within the period. He explained that out of the 146 suspects, 20 were arrested for alleged kidnapping, while 69 suspects were caught for cultism. According to the commissioner, 42 out of the suspects were caught for alleged robbery, one for alleged murder, two for alleged rape, six for alleged burglary and six for fraud. He also disclosed that 18 vehicles were recovered by the command within the period under review, as well as 13 Arms, 33 ammunition, while 28 of the suspects had been charged to court. Mr Jimeta stressed that the command had decongested all police cells while those with bailable offences were given bail forthwith in line with the directive of the police high command. He reiterated the commands commitment to continue to synergize with sister security agencies as well as other security outfits and the good people of the state. The command urged the residents to be more vigilant and to report any clandestine activity in their domain for prompt response by the police and other security agencies, Mr Jimeta said. (NAN) At least 20 police personnel were injured in a clash with a mob which alleged that the authorities were secretly disposing of the body of a person who died due to COVID-19 in West Bengal's Alipurduar district. Image used for representational purposes only. Photograph: PTI Photo The incident happened on the banks of the Teesta river in Salkumarhat area in the early hours of Monday, police said. Locals alleged that a police team arrived in the area with an earth mover after midnight to secretly dump the body of a person who died of COVID-19. As locals got wind of the alleged plans, the officials met with resistance, they claimed. As the clash continued, the policemen opened fire, injuring a youth, while leaving the spot, the locals alleged. Three police vehicles were also torched by the mob. The policemen could only leave the area by a road that passes through the Jaldapara forest, officials said. Denying the allegations of the locals, Superintendent of Police Amitava Maity told reporters that a case has been lodged and they are trying to identify those behind the incident. He said it was being investigated who was behind the firing. Director General of Police Virendra, who was on a visit to Malda to supervise the preparedness to tackle coronavirus, said 20 policemen were injured in the mob attack and the condition of one of them was serious. He said the attack on police is unfortunate and if the locals had any grievances they should have taken it up with the authorities. Meanwhile, 751 people were arrested in Kolkata till 8 pm on Monday on various charges for violation of the total safety restrictions, police said. A total of 14 vehicles were also impounded during the period as the occupants could not cite valid reasons to bring out their cars, they said. Excessive smoking, obesity, and overwork were some of the reasons which led to the heart surgery of the North Korean leader. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un who underwent heart surgery earlier this month is in grave danger after the procedure, according to media reports. CNN quoted a US official as saying that they are monitoring intelligence input about Kims health. On 15 April, Kim had missed the celebrations of his grandfather Kim Il Sungs birth anniversary leading to speculations about his health. Kim was last seen at a government meeting on 11 April. After the surgery, the 36-year-old leader is recovering at his private villa in Hyangsan County. Meanwhile, The Korea Herald quoted Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House) spokesperson Kang Min-seok's text message to reporters in which he said, So far we have detected no unusual signs in North Korea. The daily also noted that another South Korean official responded to the CNN report via the Yonhap News Agency to state that nothing particularly pointed to Kims failing health, saying he had made several public appearances until recently. South Korean online newspaper Daily NK put out an article saying that Kim had undergone the surgery on 12 April. The procedure was carried out at a hospital in the county of Hyangsan on the country's east coast. Excessive smoking, obesity, and overwork were some of the reasons which led to the surgery. This is not the first time that Kims absence in public has triggered speculation about his health. In 2014, State media reported that the North Korean leader was afflicted with an uncomfortable physical condition after he was seen with a pronounced limp and he failed to attend a crucial parliamentary session. Extensive testing to identify asymptomatic individuals and quarantining those diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with continued social distancing - not a lockdown alone - is the sole effective strategy to contain the pandemic in India, recommends the first India-specific epidemiological model for Covid-19s spread in the country. Lockdowns are not very effective, especially India-wide lockdowns, because the disease will inevitably flare up again after the lockdown ends, said Gautam Menon, professor of biology and physics, Ashoka University, Delhi. We stress that a comprehensive testing and quarantining regime is the only real long-term solution, until a vaccine is found. Termed as INDISCI-SIM, the first detailed state-level epidemiological model for India has been developed by scientists from Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), Chennai-based Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science at Bengaluru and Ashoka University under the banner of the Indian Scientists Response to Covid-19 a voluntary group of more than 400 scientists. Follow coronavirus latest updates here. On Tuesday, principal scientific advisor to the government of India K VijayRaghavan in his reaction to INDISCI-SIM tweeted, Thanks all involved. These are useful analyses and are being looked at carefully along with other inputs. The model involves nine different detailed compartments susceptible, exposed, pre-symptomatic, asymptomatic, mild symptomatic, severely symptomatic, hospitalised, recovered and dead - and compares each stage with non-pharmaceutical interventions such as lockdown, quarantining and expanded testing to drawn an inference on propagation of the disease. This is possibly the most vigorous model with several built complexities that can be further broken down to state, city or district levels, said Bhalchandra Pujari, Centre for modeling and Simulation, SPPU. In case of the virus and depending on a person, the patient may take one of these nine paths. Our model demonstrates how one phase of a typical population will travel from one compartment to another. For instance, the window of recovery is highest for tested asymptomatic individuals followed by mildly symptomatic, while its the least for severely symptomatic and critical. Model simulations do not quantify the economic costs of the lockdown, said Pujari. Extension or not of the lockdown after May 3, India must increase testing capacities faster than the propagation of the disease. Opening up transport pan-India is not a good idea as per our model. Menon said INDISCI-SIM is the most detailed and versatile among current models for the diseases trajectory in India. We plan to release an on-line tool in which anyone can test different scenarios for themselves, including policy makers and other researchers. The program will also be made publicly available, added Menon. Subsequent versions of the model will incorporate district level description, in addition to differing health care capacities across different regions and their implications for disease spread. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON FMCG majors HUL and Nestle India on Tuesday said all of their manufacturing plants have resumed operations but are unable to utilise full capacities due to restrictions on the movement of workers by local authorities in various states and lesser staff deployment at factories. Both the companies said they are working with local authorities and the state governments to ease the restrictions so that plants can operate in full capacity. "Most of our factories, many of our distribution centres and majority of our suppliers are operating, but in general, not at their full capacity," a HUL spokesperson told PTI when asked about the status of operations at the company's plants. Explaining why the plants are not fully functioning, the spokesperson said, "We continue to face local or state restrictions in the movement of our people who are working in the essential goods supply chain". "We continue to work with local and state government authorities to get our operations towards the required capacity that the people in our country expect from us." Nestle India, which manufactures popular instant noodles Maggi, Nescafe coffee, Cereal infant cereal and KitKat chocolate, also said its plants have become operational but at a scaled down level due to restrictions imposed by local authorities and state governments. The company said it has received permission to operate all units along with distribution centre, warehouse and suppliers, but are on scaled down operations. "The scaled down operations at various locations are essentially on account of applicable social distancing norms and the lesser deployment of people. "The scaling up, scaling down or suspension of operations at various locations is dependent on the directions of the Central and State Governments and authorities," Nestle India said in a regulatory filing. Nestle India said it is "closely monitoring the situation and will take all necessary measures as directed by the Central and State Governments and authorities, from time to time". However, the company said it can not access the impact of coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown on the company at this time. Nestle India, a subsidiary of NESTLE SA of Switzerland, operates eight factories in India. HUL said that to optimise its available man power resources, it has shifted to larger order sizes and direct shipping from factories but that is not sufficient to meet demand. "We have moved to larger order sizes and direct shipping from factories to compensate, but this is far from efficient," said the HUL spokesperson. HUL, a subsidiary of UK-based FMCG major Unilever, owns popular house hold FMCG brands, which includes Lux, Lifebuoy, Surf Excel, Rin, Pond's, Vaseline, Lakme, Dove, Pepsodent, Brooke Bond and Kissan. The company owns 28 factories producing its goods from categories such as beauty and personal care, home care and food & refreshment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Harris County Public Health on Tuesday released a racial and ethnic breakdown of coronavirus cases outside the city of Houston. Patients are: 25 percent Hispanic 23 percent African American 18 percent white 4 percent Asian/Pacific Islander 1 percent other The health department was unable to provide this data for the remaining 29 percent of its 2,049 patients. This was due to incomplete data collection by labs that process coronavirus tests, early cases where demographic information was not collected and patients who declined to provide this information. Harris County as a whole is 43 percent Hispanic, 29 percent white, 20 percent black and 7 percent Asian. Dr. David Persse, Houstons health authority, said April 8 that black residents disproportionately were suffering the worst consequences of the virus. He said this was due to social disparities in health care and high rates of chronic illness among African Americans. More than 2 million people live in Harris County outside the city of Houston, which includes unincorporated areas and 33 municipalities. Previously, the county had released only the race and ethnicity of residents who died of the virus. The health department on April 10 began publishing geographic case data. zach.despart@chron.com After 22 years in the General Assembly, Themis Klarides, who as state House minority leader is the highest ranking woman in the legislature, will not seek reelection. My time in public service isnt over, she said in a Tuesday morning interview. She declined to be specific, but the next two-year cycle of the General Assembly runs into the 2022 campaign for governor. Klarides, a 54-year-old Republican from Derby, made the announcement in a news release after 9 a.m. A lawyer, she first won election in 1997, joining the state House of Representatives in 1998 along with Rep. John Frey, R-Ridgefield who earlier this spring announced he would not run again. More recently, Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, announced he also would not run again. The General Assembly is up for a seismic change in leadership, with Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz also not seeking reelection. Engaged to Greg Butler an Eversource executive from Madison, Klarides, the first woman to lead the House Republicans, said it was a combination of personal and professional considerations that she thought about for months. Ive been honored and proud to do this, she said. She informed her GOP caucus Tuesday during a morning conference call. Her deputy leader, Rep. Vincent Candelora of North Branford, would be a likely successor. Vinnys been an amazing partner, Klarides said of Candelora. But first, there are the pieces of the current session to consider. Legislative leaders plan to abandon the session without returning to the Capitol. The legislative session will expire under state statute at midnight May 6, forcing lawmakers to start a special legislative session in an election year. Im still the leader until November and we still have to fight for everything, and get the state back on track both healthwise and the economy, she said. This is truly a citizen legislature and we are blessed to serve those that bestow their trust in us, she said. I have tried to live up to those expectations every day for the last 22 years. Times change and we have to move on and make decisions about balancing life and how we can best serve those that rely on us. This is the end of an extremely fulfilling and challenging chapter in my life. But anyone who knows me understands that my commitment to public service is ongoing. Klarides thanked all the current and former colleagues that she has served with, Republicans and Democrats. She is most proud on a statewide level of her support for taxpayer issues and opposition, most recently, to the implementation of tolls. Locally, her commitment to charities and nonprofit organizations has been a priority. With the General Assembly unlikely to meet again before its May 6 adjournment date, she said she is eager to likely get back in special session to continue working on 2020 laws. Government must respond to those who need it most in this time of crisis: the workers who find themselves unemployed, our seniors and first responders who sacrifice daily, she said. We must help them so that they, in turn, can care for their loved ones. I commit to continuing to work to find solutions and common ground that make sense for the taxpayers who ultimately will have to foot the bill. Klarides, whose sister Nicole Klarides-Ditria represents Seymour in the legislature, said the 22 years is a long way from her 1997 election campaign. I was an odd ball in the sense that I had never done anything like run for office, the leader said. The whole place has changed in a lot of ways. I think its become a lot more partisan in the past several years. Its been interesting to see the path Ive taken from the new kid on the block, a shy person listening and learning, to now. kdixon@ctpost.com @KenDixonCT The Health Minister has refused to rule out the re-use of vital Personal Protective Equipment if the situation calls for it. Robin Swann said the Department of Health had not yet asked anyone to re-issue or re-use the equipment, but said that could change in the future. "At this minute in time I will say quite clearly that in Northern Ireland the Department of Health has not asked anyone to re-issue or re-use PPE, but there may come a point when we do so," he said. "I hope it doesn't happen. We're working strenuously across all government departments on our three pillared model on the way we obtain PPE, working strongly with the Department of Finance as to how we get those international supplies in, how we are supported by our colleagues across the UK and also how we're looking to manufacturers here locally. "But what I will not do is give a reassurance that, as Minister, I cannot stand over. "That's a hard message and it's not a message many politicians will give but it's one that I want to make clear to the members of our health service. I will do all I can to make sure they have the PPE when they need it, as they need it, but I'll never make them a promise I cannot stand over. "I am working very closely with the Finance Minister Conor Murphy we are near enough finalised in our order for PPE with China and we're looking forward to that arriving very, very soon." Expand Close Assurance: Charlotte McArdle Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Assurance: Charlotte McArdle Department of Health Chief Nursing Officer Professor Charlotte McArdle reassured health workers the Department is doing everything possible to make sure demand for PPE is met. "Large quantities of PPE have been flowing out into the independent sector for the last few weeks to care homes and domiciliary care," she said. "We have now received positive feedback from the sector, but with the very high level of usage it's important that we continue to work as part of the UK NHS national supply chain. We know we've to keep focusing our efforts on this matter. The Department is working tirelessly to ensure staff are able to provide their roles safety." Kanye West has teamed up with Chick-Fil-A to provide 300,000 meals to vulnerable people during the coronavirus pandemic. The 42-year-old rapper and the fast-food franchise have joined forces with the Los Angeles' Dream Centre, a nonprofit Christian organization, to provide around 11,000 meals a day to those in need in Los Angeles. 'Every morning I wake up and stand in the parking lot with our dedicated staff, I am blown away that day after day, week after week, there is enough food to provide to folks that need it,' Dream Centre founder Matthew Barnett told Fox News in a statement. Chicken for all! Kanye West has teamed up with Chick-Fil-A to provide 300,000 meals to vulnerable people during the coronavirus pandemic; seen with Kim Kardashian in February Lucky LA: The 42-year-old rapper and the fast-food franchise have joined forces with the Los Angeles' Dream Centre, a nonprofit Christian organization, to provide around 11,000 meals a day to those in need in Los Angeles 'The Los Angeles Dream Centre has transformed into the Grand Central Station of food distribution and other basic essentials. 'I'm so grateful that our team has stayed healthy, and that we've found a safe way to meet the urgent needs within our community. 'I can't say thank you enough to the various donors who've made this a reality. This is what a neighbourhood, a community, and a church should always look like.' Happy man: The rapper has four children - North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm - with Kim; seen with North Barnett added that the Jesus Is King rapper's generosity enabled the organisation to deliver to vulnerable people who need to remain isolated in their homes. Kanye's association with Chick Fil-A is well documented, having referenced the fast food chain on 2019's 'Closed on Sunday'. But the company has previously faced controversy for its opposition to same-sex marriage, including donations to controversial Christian groups criticized as being anti-LGBT. However, in November 2019, the chain stopped the donations and said it would focus on education, homelessness and hunger. Doing good: Meanwhile, Kanye's wife Kim Kardashian revealed last month her shapewear line SKIMS is looking into helping produce face masks to help make up for the widely reported shortages Meanwhile, Kanye's wife Kim Kardashian revealed last month her shapewear line SKIMS is looking into helping produce face masks to help make up for the widely reported shortages. The mother of four explained that 'we have five factories all in different countries' while appearing on The View from home. 'And we have been exploring that, of how to make like medical-grade masks, how to make things that would be helpful in the hospitals,' she said. 'I've been working with our partners in other companies that have donated masks and we're working with our fragrance company to get sanitizer made.' Earlier Kim announced on Instagram that her shapewear line would be giving $1 million to 'families affected by COVID-19.' Lovely lady: And the reality TV siren also donated $1M; here she is seen in her new SKIMS launch, the ribbed collection She said on The View that the money will go to Baby2Baby which is 'helping moms and babies and you know, for the longest time I worked with them donating, you know, diapers and strollers and tons of baby stuff that I've had throughout the years.' Also this week, the high school graduate has been promoting her fragrance collaboration with her mother Kris Jenner in time for Mother's Day. And Kylie and Kris Jenner have started distributing boxes of hand sanitizer to medical centers across southern California. Through Kylie's skincare brand Kylie Skin and its major investor, Coty, the reality stars were able to produce thousands of bottles of antibacterial gel for healthcare workers. Another generous one: And Kylie and Kris Jenner have started distributing boxes of hand sanitizer to medical centers across southern California; seen on Monday Good solution: Through Kylie's skincare brand Kylie Skin and its major investor, Coty, the reality stars were able to produce thousands of bottles of antibacterial gel for healthcare workers And now pictures are emerging of the truckloads of the bottles being delivered to people on the frontline fighting COVID-19. One of Kylie's personal physicians, Dr. Thais Aliabadi, revealed on Saturday that Kylie Skin had just donated 6,000 pounds of the bottles to be distributed to different hospitals. '@kylieskin donated 6000 pounds of hand sanitizers to us yesterday. These pallets will soon be distributed to the hospitals and clinics around Los Angeles. 'THANK YOU again @kyliejenner for your generous donation. The loving gift that keeps on giving' Staying home for her little one: The cosmetics guru is seen with her daughter Stormi, aged two Aliabadi shared a photo of the stylish bottle emblazoned with the Kylie Skin logo along with a message for first responders. 'Dedicated, in partnership with Coty, to 1st responders supporting our communities.' is written on the label underneath text which details the solution is 'Alcohol Antiseptic 80%'. She also posted a few snaps of a fork lift truck moving pallets of the bottles, illustrating Kylie's generosity. It was announced last month that her Kylie Cosmetics brand would be producing hand sanitizers for hospitals across California to help fight the spread of infection. A representative for Kylie Skin confirmed that the hand sanitizer would be made by Coty's factories and will not affect the production of Kylie Skin products. The lip kit mogul has also donated $1 million to help supply protective wear to healthcare professionals fighting coronavirus on the front lines. [April 21, 2020] Aaron's, Inc. Announces First Quarter 2020 Earnings Call and Webcast ATLANTA, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aaron's, Inc. (NYSE: AAN), a leading omnichannel provider of lease-purchase solutions, will host a conference call and webcast on Thursday, May 7, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss its first quarter 2020 financial results scheduled for release before the market opens on that day. President and Chief Executive Officer, John W. Robinson III, and Chief Financial Officer and President, Strategic Operations, Steven A. Michaels, will host the call. The public is invited to listen to the call by dialing 1-844-802-244 a few minutes before the scheduled start time and requesting to join the Aaron's, Inc. call. For international participants the number is 1-412-317-5137. The call will also be accessible by visiting the Investor Relations section of the company's website at Aarons.com. The webcast will be archived for playback at that same site. About Aaron's, Inc. Headquartered in Atlanta, Aaron's, Inc. (NYSE: AAN), is a leading omnichannel provider of lease-purchase solutions. Aaron's Business engages in the sales and lease ownership and specialty retailing of furniture, consumer electronics, home appliances and accessories through its approximately 1,500 company-operated and franchised stores in 47 states and Canada as well as its e-commerce platform, Aarons.com. In addition, Progressive Leasing, a virtual lease-to-own company, provides lease-purchase solutions through over 20,000 retail locations in 46 states. Vive Financial (formerly Dent-A-Med, Inc.), provides a variety of second-look credit products that are originated through federally insured banks. For more information, visit Aarons.com, ProgLeasing.com, and Vivecard.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aarons-inc-announces-first-quarter-2020-earnings-call-and-webcast-301044444.html SOURCE Aaron's, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A pregnant woman has opened up about making the difficult decision to have a home birth amid the coronavirus pandemic because she fears 'hospitals aren't safe for black women' like herself. Early on in her pregnancy, Marbre Stahly-Butts, 34, from Brooklyn, New York, hired a doula to be an advocate for her when she gave birth in the hospital because she knew that black women have the highest maternal mortality rates in the U.S. But the lawyer told Good Morning America that her birthing plan changed after she learned new COVID-19 restrictions would force her to choose between having her doula or her partner, Kesi Foster, in the delivery room with her. Choice: Marbre Stahly-Butts, 34, from Brooklyn, New York, has chosen to have a home birth because of the new hospital restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic Stahly-Butts was 37 weeks pregnant when she and her partner decided to have a home birth with a midwife and doula present. 'Hospitals are not safe for black women,' she told GMA. 'Because of long-standing racism and systemic failures in and out of the healthcare system, hospitals are sites of death and trauma for many black birthing mothers.' While explaining her decision to have a home birth, Stahly-Butts referred to the maternal mortality rate data that was released by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in January. Black women in the U.S. are two-and-a-half to three times more likely to die during or in the months after giving birth than white and Hispanic women, according to the findings. 'It's something throughout the pregnancy process has really scared me a lot,' explained the mom-to-be. Fears: The lawyer learned she would have to choose between having her doula or her partner, Kesi Foster, with her in the hospital. She was also concerned her baby could be quarantined Stahly-Butts said she specifically asked about maternal mortality rates when interviewing OBGYNs, and she also hired a doula 'pretty early on' because the alarming stats 'really scared' her. 'We've seen a lot of data that indicated that having a doula and an advocate at the hospital made a huge difference in terms of outcomes for black women specifically,' she said. The anxiety that she had about her pregnancy was only exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, which is affecting black Americans at exceptionally higher rates. Stahly-Butts lives in New York City, where black and Latino people are dying from COVID-19 at twice the rate of white people, according to data released last week. Concerns that her newborn baby could possibly be quarantined after delivery if she tested positive for the novel virus or was showing symptoms also led to her choosing a home birth for her child. Birth plan: Stahly-Butts, pictured in 2018, was 37 weeks pregnant when she and her partner decided to have a home birth with a midwife and doula present The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that while 'hospitals and accredited birthing centers are the safest settings, each woman has the right to make a medically informed decision about delivery.' Most home births are without complications, but 'research suggests that planned home births are associated with a higher risk of infant death and seizures than are planned hospital births,' according to the Mayo Clinic. Stahly-Butts believes a home birth is her best option during the pandemic, and she is happy that she was able to make the decision for herself. 'I'm really blessed and lucky that I got to make a choice about how I wanted to undertake my maternal care,' she told GMA. Earlier this month, Nancy Pedroza, 27, from Fort Worth, Texas, was rushed to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest by masked emergency workers after her unborn child's heart rate suddenly dropped during her home birth. The first-time mother had decided to have a home birth amid the coronavirus pandemic, but she ended up welcoming her baby boy in the hospital after her midwives were forced to call an ambulance. Pedroza, who was joined by her partner Ryan Morgan, spent hours laboring in a mask before giving birth to a healthy baby boy named Kai Rohan Morgan on April 8. The Union Commerce Ministrys decision to impose restrictions on foreign investment from neighbouring countries, especially China, to stop opportunistic takeovers of Indian companies is a move in the right direction. The latest regulations are comprehensive enough to block hostile takeovers attempted in any manner. The government, however, should be mindful of the fact that cheaper investment targets can attract suitors from across the world and not essentially China. There are several countries having sovereign funds with deep pockets. Privately managed hedge funds also have great buying power. Though they may not pose a strategic threat to India, any takeover of Indian companies at such dirt-cheap valuations would be disastrous for the economy. However, the government cannot shut the country to foreign money because any such move would trigger a flight of capital. So it should have a balanced approach. The withdrawal of lockdown in areas not affected by the coronavirus and restarting production lines would give new life to companies. Though nearly a third of production is for exports, India has been a domestic-focused economy. The country could offset the loss of demand if steps are taken to increase the buying power of the poor, who make up 30 per cent of the population. Prime minister Narendra Modi should lead the country in this hour of crisis through a political consensus. Even if a suggestion comes from a rival party, it should be adopted if it is for the public good. The government should be commended for acting on preventing Chinese companies from taking over Indian companies, though the suggestion had come from former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Such a constructive relationship between the government and opposition parties would go a long way in helping India to put a united fight against the coronavirus. Attorney General William Barr waded further into a debate over governors' stay-at-home orders meant to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, saying he would not rule out legal action against states if he thought their actions infringed civil liberties. Governors across the nation have closed businesses and schools and banned social gatherings in the face of a pandemic that has killed more than 45,000 Americans. Over the past week, a smattering of scattered protests have called for those orders to be eased to dull the disease's heavy economic toll. 'We're looking carefully at a number of these rules that are being put into place. And if we think one goes too far, we initially try to jawbone the governors into rolling them back or adjusting them,' Barr said during a radio interview on the Hugh Hewitt show on Tuesday. 'We're looking carefully at a number of these rules that are being put into place. And if we think one goes too far, we initially try to jawbone the governors into rolling them back or adjusting them,' said Attorney General Bill Barr 'And if theyre not and people bring lawsuits, we file statements of interest and side with the plaintiffs ... As lawsuits develop, as specific cases emerge in the states, well take a look at them.' His comments come after the Justice Department recently sided with a Mississippi church that sued the city of Greenville over state shut-down orders on the grounds it was imposing on religious freedoms. In that case, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest in support of Temple Baptist Church, which claims Greenville is seeking to prevent it from holding drive-in church services that comply with social-distancing guidelines. Some states are aiming to reopen parts of their economies, while others have taken a more cautious approach, saying they need more testing before things can return to normal. President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 1, 2020, in Washington, as Adm. Karl Leo Schultz, commandant of the Coast Guard, national security adviser Robert O'Brien and Attorney General William Barr listen Protestors hold signs and wave flags along Grant Street during a demonstration, Monday, April 20, 2020, in Pittsburgh. Protestors want to reopen Pennsylvania's economy even as new social-distancing mandates took effect at stores and other commercial building Barr said the administration would first engage in 'jawboning' to try to persuade states to reopen A store stands closed as the coronavirus keeps financial markets and businesses mostly closed on April 21, 2020 in New York City. New York City, which has been the hardest hit city in America from COVIT-19, is just starting to see a slowdown in hospital visits and a lowering of the daily death rate from the virus Barr said on Tuesday that stay-at-home orders come 'disturbingly close to house arrest' but could, in some cases, be justified to protect public safety. He said there was a distinction between stay-at-home orders requiring people to maintain a distance of 6 feet (1.8 m) or to wear masks in public. Those orders 'are fine' because they reduce the risk of transmission. Barr said he was more concerned about 'blunter' orders which call for staying at home or shutting down a business 'regardless of the capacity of the business to operate safely.' Barr spoke after Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday ordered a relaxation of state stay-home orders. Georgia gyms, tattoo parlors, and bowling alleys can open as soon as Friday under Kemp's latest orders. Hair salons and massage therapy, as long as social distancing guidelines are practiced. By Monday, movie theaters and restaurants will be allowed to open. South Carolina's Gov. Henry McMaster is allowing local authorities to make decisions on when to open the state's beaches, pulling back overriding state orders. Department stores and some other retail businesses may open as soon as Tuesday. Republican governors in Florida and Tennessee are also taking steps to peel back their stay-home orders. However some Democratic governors have said they will keep stay-home orders in place until coronavirus testing improves dramatically or until their states can meet health targets like those released by the White House last week. Trump has made comments defending groups of protesters who have blasted stay-home orders imposed by state capitols, and sent out tweets calling to 'LIBERATE' three Democratic-run states where protests were being held. White House guidelines by the coronavirus task force issued last week call for coronavirus and flu-like cases to be on a 'downward trajectory' for a 14-day period before states should move to a 'Phase One' reopening. The Small Business Administration has admitted that a data breach on its website exposed the personal information of nearly 8,000 business owners applying for Economic Injury Disaster Loans. On Tuesday, the government agency confirmed that the glitch occurred on March 25 and affected 7,912 applicants, whose phone numbers, addresses, Social Security numbers and dates of birth could have been seen by others on the online portal. 'We immediately disabled the impacted portion of the website, addressed the issue, and relaunched the application portal,' a spokesperson told ABC News. The SBA says it has contacted those affected and offered them a year of free credit monitoring. The Small Business Administration has admitted that a data breach on its website exposed the personal information of nearly 8,000 business owners applying for Economic Injury Disaster Loans The SBA's Economic Injury Disaster Loan offers small business owners loans of up to $2million if they have been impacted by natural disasters. Recently, the program was expanded to include those affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and people have been applying en masse. The SBA said only the disaster loan program was affected, not the Paycheck Protection Program, which did not begin until April 3 and which is handled by a separate system. However, many business owners are applying for Economic Injury Disaster Loans or Advances, as opposed to pr as well as the Paycheck Protection Program. Applications for disaster loans are submitted directly to the SBA website, and could be approved in a number of days. Meanwhile, paycheck protection loans are sought through banks before they are approved by the SBA. Some small business owners say the fact that their personal information could have been stolen in the SBA glitch has added extra stress to an already difficult time. Bed and breakfast owner Eric Levinson told CBS that he went online to apply for a loan and found 'someone else's date of birth, Social Security number, email, phone numbers and business address all filled in on the loan registration page' where he was supposed to enter his own information. He says he deleted the other person's details before entering his own. Ten minutes later, he received a phone call from another business owner who stated that all of the entered data was visible to others. 'On top of the stress I have trying to keep this business going, now I don't know who else could have seen that information, The SBA says it has processed nearly 27,000 disaster loans totaling nearly $5.6 billion. The SBA Website is pictured. The glitch was fixed quickly and all those affected were notified by the agency The agency also says it had processed more than 755,000 disaster loan advances, $10,000 each and totaling nearly $3.3 billion as of Monday Congress and President Donald Trump reached a tentative agreement Tuesday to add $300 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, which ran through its initial $349 billion appropriation last week after the SBA approved more than a million loans. Thousands of business owners have applications waiting to be sent to the SBA for approval, or are waiting to apply. We write in response to Paul Sperrys recent RealClearInvestigations article contending that Victoria Coates is Anonymous, the author of a September 2018 New York Times op-ed lambasting Trump and later a bestselling book. Sperrys sources all of which are, ironically, anonymous are pursuing the wrong target. The evidence they cite is flimsy and unpersuasive. Coatess authorship has been denied on the record by the books agent and disputed by every named source who talked to Sperry, including people whose loyalty to Donald Trump is beyond question. The fact that this White House so concerned with anonymous internal leaks has continued to employ her in a sensitive and responsible position, negotiating an energy agreement with Saudi Arabia and Russia, suggests that not everyone in the administrations senior ranks shares the view of Sperrys unnamed sources. As Coatess former colleagues during her time writing for RedState, we add our own view of why they are barking up the wrong tree. We have not spoken with her about this controversy and speak only for ourselves, on the basis of having known Coates for years and having worked closely with her. To begin with, writing the above-mentioned article and book would be out of character for the Victoria Coates we know, who has been tight-lipped about her service for this administration, and whom we have never known to talk out of school, even in private, in a negative way about any of her various employers. At RedState, we often had spirited internal debates about politics, policy, personnel, and the sites positions. Coates was always the soul of discretion. Sperrys sources fault her for writing under a pseudonym, but several of the early RedState contributors did so. Coates was then working as an Ivy League art-history professor and, unsurprisingly, was initially concerned about reconciling this with a public profile as an outspoken conservative. The decision to switch to using her own name on the site was entirely her own. This is not the sort of thing that should get your loyalty questioned in the Trump White House. Story continues Anonymous originally went to the New York Times and self-identifies as Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration, as the title of the op-ed phrased it, in language evoking the left-wing #Resistance. The op-ed concludes with a glowing ode to John McCain. The book describes McCain as one of Americas last great statesmen. Anonymous told a Reddit AMA: If there are royalties from the sale of this book, Ive pledged to donate them substantially to nonprofit organizations focused on government accountability and on supporting those who stand up for the truth in repressive regimes around the world. Here at home, I hope one of the recipients will be the White House Correspondents Association to help support a new generation of young reporters in a time when truth is under attack. Neither sympathy for the Left nor an embrace of the Times or the White House press corps are at all characteristic of Coates. And she has never been any sort of fan of John McCain, to put it mildly. Few people who worked for Don Rumsfeld were. Sperrys sources complain that Coates gave money to Mitt Romney in 2012, but they neglect to note that Coates advised Romneys opponent, Rick Perry, during the 2012 primaries and donated to Romney in the general election against Barack Obama. Donald Trump also supported Romney against Obama. Surely, this White House cannot be skeptical of everyone who was against Obama in 2012. In perhaps the most far-fetched part of his argument, Sperry writes: In February 2018, several months before the anonymous Times opinion piece appeared, a Reddit user posted an unusual question using the same Academic Elephant pseudonym Coates employed. Could I be sued by the company I work for if I write an anonymous opinion piece for the local newspaper, if everything I say is true? the poster asked, adding that Im reasonably certain that Ill have support from my coworkers. Here is a fuller excerpt from the Reddit post, which Sperry omits: I want to write an anonymous opinion piece to the local newspaper mostly so that I can light a fire under corporates ass. . . . Most of the things I would write about are more petty grievances, but nothing illegal. For one, they have a policy that they never give out raises. All employees make bare minimum wage, with the store manager making $15/hr. We have a mentally disabled employee who has been working here full time for 20 years, and the only raise he got was when minimum wage increased. No paid vacation time, no sick time. You are technically allowed to take one week off a year, but because its not paid for most people dont. You are not allowed to shop at the store you work at, and no employee discount (its supposed to discourage theft). Speaking of, recently another location in the area had its [sic] entire staff fired due to mere suspicion of theft, so everyone is terrified right now. But then there are things that I am inclined to believe are OSHA violations: we havent had hot water in my building for two months now, and we regularly handle biological waste both human and animal with our bare hands (we are welcomed to use gloves, but we have to provide our own). We also have to lift and move heavy items, some weighing much more than 50lbs, without the aid of a forklift, or with lifting belts. That does not sound much like the White House. Nor does it make any sense that Coates, a sophisticated woman who knows many lawyers (us included), would post this rambling diatribe seeking legal advice from Reddit. A great deal of energy is expended in Sperrys piece arguing that Anonymous shares intellectual influences and references with Coates. But many of these are broadly shared among educated conservatives: Reagan, Thatcher, Hayek, Tocqueville, Athenian democracy, the Founding Fathers, first principles, prominent American historians. A companion article complains that both use SAT-level words. One purported similarity is that Coates and Anonymous are both committed to stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons in order to protect Israel, a stance that also happens to be the position of the Trump administration. Anonymous is a woman, the investigators deduced, noting the authors disapproving remarks alleging a Trump habit of addressing accomplished female professionals as sweetie and honey. This is the sole basis on which Sperry hangs the contention that Anonymous is a woman. We would hope that a gentlemanly regard for treating accomplished women with respect is shared by at least some men within this White House. A major focus of Sperrys argument is that Coates and Anonymous are both represented by the same literary agent, Keith Urbahn, who worked with Coates when both were research assistants for Rumsfeld. But as Sperry notes, Urbahn represents a number of authors critical of Trump (including Jim Comey, John Bolton, and Marie Yovanovitch) and would be a natural choice to represent Anonymous. (Full disclosure: Urbahn also represents Erick Erickson, as well as any number of other conservative writers). Frankly, fingering a friend of Urbahns looks like an effort to pressure him into revealing the name of his client. Sperry spends a good deal of space repeating vague speculations about Coatess views of Trump, which cannot be verified due to the absence of any identified sources. The fact that she had advised Ted Cruz during the primaries was well known when the Trump administration hired her. Sperry complains that there are no examples of her publicly praising the president, which is perhaps a telling phrase, but one that misunderstands the discretion required to be an adviser on national security. We understand why the Trump White House is so worried about anonymous internal leaks. No White House in memory has been subjected to so many hostile news stories claiming to be based on anonymous sources. But blaming the wrong person makes it harder, not easier, to stop the leaks. People inside the White House who are running anonymously to the media about Victoria Coates, perhaps as part of a bureaucratic turf war, are disserving this president. More from National Review Belgian Air Force F-16s have been filmed intercepting armed Russian fighters as they overfly a US Navy ship in the Baltic Sea. USS Donald Cook, a destroyer with the Navy's 6th Fleet, was operating off the Lithuanian coast last week, according to the Allied Air Command. Video of Friday's encounter filmed from the cockpit and through a pilot's 'Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System' was released by the Belgians. The Russian jets - which appear to be armed with air-to-surface missiles - were reportedly flying in international air space. Belgian F-16s intercepted Russian fighter doing low flybys over the USS Donald Cook (pictured) last week. The US Navy 6th Fleet destroyer was operating in the Baltic Sea off the Lithuanian coast last week, according to the Allied Air Command Video of Friday's encounter was filmed from the cockpit and through a pilot's 'Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System' (pictured) Belgian Air Force footage taken of the intercept shows the Russian jets (pictured) A Belgian F-16 is seen shadowing Russian Su-24, Su-27 and Su-30SM fighters (pictured) One of the Russian jets is pictured on a low fly by over the USS Donald Cook The footage shows the F-16s shadowing Russian Su-24, Su-27 and Su-30SM fighters. Previously, the Russians have conducted low flybys with unarmed jets, the Aviationist reports. Russian jets flying low over US Navy warships, and vice versa, are typically uneventful. On May 25, 1968, a Soviet Tu-16 Badger-F crashed into the sea close to the USS Essex in the Norwegian sea after a few flybys. More recently, a Russian fighter jet on Sunday intercepted an American Navy spy plane in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea for the second time in four days, the United States military said. The Belgian footage includes a closer look at one of the Russian fighters One of the Belgian F-16s that engaged the Russians is pictured The Belegian Air Force tweeted details and images of its F-16s intercepting the Russians last week. Russian jets flying low over US Navy warships, and vice versa, are typically uneventful The US Navy released a brief, seven-second video clip showing a Russian SU-35 fighter plane fly within 25 feet in front of a P-8A Poseidon aircraft a maneuver that the Pentagon said was 'unsafe and unprofessional.' The American military said that the Russian pilot twice intercepted the US Navy aircraft 'over a period of 100 minutes.' 'The first intercept was deemed safe and professional,' according to a statement from the US Navy's Sixth Fleet. LONDON Britains Parliament is going back to work, and the political authorities have a message for lawmakers: Stay away. U.K. legislators and most parliamentary staff were sent home in late March as part of a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. With more than 16,500 virus-deaths in Britain and criticism growing of the governments response to the pandemic, legislators are returning Tuesday at least virtually to grapple with the crisis. House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle plans to preside over an almost-empty chamber, with space being made for a maximum of 50 of the 650 members of Parliament. Other lawmakers will be able to ask questions from home using videoconferencing program Zoom, beamed onto screens erected around the wood-paneled Commons chamber. Hoyle acknowledged there are bound to be bumps along the way as the tradition-steeped 700-year-old institution takes a leap into the unknown. But he urged lawmakers not to travel to Parliament. I do not want members and House staff putting themselves at risk, Hoyle said. A small number of legislators will meet in person Tuesday to approve the new digital arrangements. Taped spaces will keep them 2 meters (6.5 feet) apart. The virtual Parliament will have its first big test Wednesday during the weekly Prime Ministers Questions session. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will stand in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is still recovering from a bout of COVID-19. Dozens of British lawmakers, advisers, civil servants and journalists have had coronavirus symptoms, likely contracted in the cramped precincts of Parliament and other government buildings. Johnson spent a week in the hospital, including three nights in intensive care, after contracting the virus. The 55-year-old leader is recuperating in the countryside, and there is no word on when he will be healthy enough to return. Opposition politicians have been largely supportive of the national lockdown that was imposed on March 23 and runs until at least May 7. But political unity has frayed as Britains coronavirus death toll mounts. Official statistics released Tuesday show that at least 1,500 more people with the new coronavirus have died in Britain than the 16,500 whose deaths have been announced by the government. Opponents are attacking Johnsons Conservative government over a lack of testing for the virus, shortages of protective equipment for medical workers and an elusive strategy for ending the lockdown. The government says it is too soon to consider easing the restrictions. But it acknowledges that widespread testing so that infected people can be identified and their contacts traced and isolated will play a key part. The number of tests being performed has grown from 5,000 to near 20,000 a day still a long way off the governments promise of hitting 100,000 a day by April 30. Britain is not the only country grappling with how to conduct politics during the pandemic. Legislatures in France and Italy are working on a reduced schedule, while lawmakers continue to meet in Germany and Poland with social distancing measures. The U.S. Congress has postponed its return until May, while Canadian lawmakers have agreed to a mix of digital and in-person sittings starting next week. Its unclear how fully British lawmakers will be able to scrutinize the government under the new digital arrangements. Approving legislation is on hold because theres no way yet for lawmakers to vote. In the House of Commons, thats done by the time-honored, time-consuming method of having legislators traipse out of the Commons and walk through yes or no lobbies. Hoyle said authorities are urgently seeking a way that voting can be done remotely. The pandemic has already upended everyday activity in the cramped, crumbling parliamentary complex, where several thousand people work, served by bars and restaurants, a post office and even a hairdresser. Even before parliamentarians were sent home March 25, Hoyle had suspended alcohol sales on the premises, to encourage staff not to linger. The virtual arrangements are likely to curb Parliaments spontaneity and subdue its often raucous atmosphere. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative lawmaker who serves as leader of the House of Commons, accepted that the new digital Parliament will not be perfect. But he said we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. And, he added, things have been worse. In 1349, the Black Death forced Parliament not to sit, Rees-Mogg wrote. Today, we can do better thanks to technology, Mr. Speaker and a determination to keep our democracy going. Meg Russell, director of the Constitution Unit at University College London, said the new arrangements were unique and unprecedented. But she said politics would be more difficult without face-to-face and informal contact. Politics is a lot more consultative than people think, she said. Informal conversations and things which go on out of the public eye are really crucial to the way that Parliament runs. ___ Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak Press Release 21 April 2020 HONG KONG - Rosewood Hotel Group today announces the launch of Rosewood Raise, a comprehensive relief initiative developed in support of the Group's associates who have been impacted by COVID-19, as well as the communities in which the Group operates. Rooted on the foundation of Relationship Hospitality, a belief that true hospitality springs from the nurturing and building of strong and lasting relationships with associates, guests, partners and communities, Rosewood Hotel Group has always recognized and revered the power of people in creating the exceptional experiences that drive the industry. Developed in dedication to these very individuals that have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the Group's hotels and destinations, Rosewood Raise supports an associate relief fund and community-focused efforts, including donated hotel rooms and meal preparation and supplies for essential workers. Advertisements Rosewood Raise Associate Relief Fund Managed by the Emergency Assistance Foundation, Inc., a 501c(3) charity created to design and operate multiple employer-sponsored disaster relief and employee hardship funds, the Rosewood Raise Relief Fund aims to assist staff in corporate offices and managed hotels across its three brands - Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, New World Hotels & Resorts, KHOS. The fund will support associates whose jobs were amongst the first and most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, prioritizing those facing financial difficulties due to health-related needs, as well as local communities that have been especially affected by the pandemic. Upon the containment of the current crisis, the relief fund will continue to support the Group's associates against future adversities and hardships. In its first two weeks since formation, the fund has received initial pledges of close to USD $2 million from Rosewood Hotel Group's corporate executives and associates, including salary contributions and a commitment from the company to match all employees cash contributions to the fund. To learn more about the Rosewood Raise relief fund and to contribute, please visit www.rosewoodraise.com. Rosewood Raise Community Efforts On the property level, several of the Group's hotels and resorts are supporting the local communities in which they operate, engaging in Rosewood Raise efforts across the globe. Among the first properties in the portfolio to be affected by COVID-19, New World Hotels & Resorts' hotels in Wuhan and Guiyang saluted their cities' medical workers by providing complimentary accommodations. Across the ultra-luxury Rosewood Hotels & Resorts brand, many properties throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and North America are supplying necessities and meals to medical associates, first responders and area hospitals, as well as to local organizations and charities aimed at assisting families and individuals in need. Both Rosewood Bangkok (Bangkok, Thailand) and Rosewood Miramar Beach (Montecito, USA) have created Rosewood on the Move food delivery services to offer complimentary comfort meals to frontline workers in the hotels' respective regions. Rosewood Miramar Beach, specifically, has already served over 1,500 meals to essential personnel throughout Santa Barbara, CA, ranging from police officers and fire fighters to waste handlers and grocery store attendants. Additional properties preparing meals for key workers at their local hospitals include Rosewood London (London, UK), Rosewood Hong Kong (Hong Kong, SAR), and Rosewood Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi, UAE). "I have always believed that people are the beating heart of the hospitality industry," said Sonia Cheng, chief executive officer of Rosewood Hotel Group. "Through Rosewood Raise, we wish to stand in solidarity and with gratitude for our associates, and in support of the local communities that are so deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our hope is that through this initiative we can provide assistance to our associates and communities who are facing serious hardship and let them know their Rosewood family is here to support them through this unprecedented time." Through the launch of Rosewood Raise, Rosewood Hotel Group is committed to continuing to identify and execute future opportunities to support its associates and the global community through multi-layered fundraising activities and community service projects in the years ahead. About Emergency Assistance Foundation The Emergency Assistance Foundation (EAF) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, public, non-profit organization designed to administer inclusive employee disaster relief and hardship funds. Employee Relief Funds are the fastest way to get financial assistance to employees impacted by COVID-19. EAF's low-cost model and strategically curated systems allow employers to quickly provide financial assistance to domestic and international applicants during times of crisis while remaining compliant with GDPR and IRS regulations. In times of Presidentially Declared Disasters, EAF's unique Immediate Response Program awards grants to applicants in need within a few days of verification. Employee Relief Funds also offer the opportunity for employees to make tax-deductible donations to assist their coworkers in need. Currently, EAF administers more than 200 funds serving over eight million employees around the globe. For more information, visit www.emergencyassistancefdn.org. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tours an emergency field hospital being prepared at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, N.J., on April 2, 2020. (Michael Mancuso/Getty Images) New Jersey Governor to Unveil Blueprint for Reopening Economy New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday he will soon unveil a plan that will lay out what he called a broad blueprint for reopening the states economy. Speaking at his daily COVID-19 briefing in Trenton, Murphy did not specify a timeline for a return to some new normalcy, but said, Weve got to be in a completely different place in the next four to six weeks. On Tuesday, he told a briefing that while hospitalizations had largely leveled off, it would be at least several more weeks before the state could relax social-distancing measures and open up businesses and schools. We have a significant flattening of the curve, Murphy wrote in a tweet Tuesday. Thats not enough for us to go back to business as usual. Not by a long shot. We need to begin to see this curve finally start its decline. Murphy said at the briefing New Jersey also needed to roughly double the number of people it was testing on a daily basis, and that it needed to boost its ability to trace contacts of people who test positive and to isolate them to prevent further spread. Im not marrying myself to 15,000 or 20,000 either. Thats a bare minimum, Murphy said of the target number of tests per day, adding that he expected a 24-hour turnaround on results. Currently, a COVID-19 test takes between 5 to 7 days. Paramedics and healthcare officials are seen outside Andover Subacute and Rehab Center, during the CCP virus outbreak, in Andover, N.J., on April 16, 2020. (Stefan Jeremiah/Reuters) The United States has been working to increase its testing capacity as it contends with an onslaught of infections, with a Johns Hopkins tally on Tuesday noting over 814,000 cases and more than 43,000 deaths. However, testing in the country has been held back in part by a lack of trained professionals to perform the tests and a shortage of personal protective gear to ensure the safety of the employees collecting samples. Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News Sunday that the current rate of 150,000 tests per day nationwide can be increased to 300,000 per day by working with governors to activate all of the laboratories in their states around the country that can do coronavirus testing. At Mondays briefing, Murphy said the state has turned over every stone in an effort to boost testing. In a tweet Tuesday, Murphy again emphasized New Jersey was doing all it can and called on federal authorities to help. Were punching above our weight and working with all partnersincluding our states flagship university @RutgersU [Rutgers University]. But the federal government must step up in a big way here, Murphy wrote. New Jersey is one of the hardest-hit states amid the outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Department of Health data released Tuesday shows 92,387 confirmed cases and a death toll of 4,753, with 379 new deaths in the past 24 hours in the state. New Jerseyans who borrowed money for college from private lenders will get the same help as those who received student loans from the federal government as the coronavirus shuts down the states economy. An estimated 200,000 state residents could benefit from the policy announced Tuesday by Gov. Phil Murphy and Marlene Caride, commissioner of the state Department of Banking and Insurance. Those borrowers who hold commercially-owned Federal Family Education Program Loans or private student loans, received no benefits from the $2 trillion stimulus law, which suspended payments, interest and attempts to collect on loans owned by the federal government until Sept. 30. Now they will receive help. The agreement with the private lenders postpones payments for at least 90 days, waives fees for late payments, ensures that borrowers who miss payments do not receive a negative credit rating and stops debt collection lawsuits for 90 days. Far too many New Jerseyans struggle with crushing student loan debt in good times, and our current crisis has only exacerbated the problem, Murphy said. This initiative will provide much needed relief to New Jerseyans who are struggling with student loans and other financial obligations during this crisis." Murphy said last month that those with loans from the New Jersey College Loans to Assist State Students program could seek similar payment relief programs. The private borrowers who are part of this latest agreement are: Aspire Resources, Inc., College Ave Student Loan Servicing LLC, Earnest Operations LLC, Edfinancial Services LLC, Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corp., Lendkey Technologies, Inc., Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri, Navient Corp., Nelnet, Inc., SoFi Lending Corp., Tuition Options LLC, Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority, and Vermont Student Assistance Corp. Borrowers can check the type of student loans they have and who services them at nslds.ed.gov or 1-800-433-3243. The contact information also would be on monthly billing statements. State residents with questions or problems can call the Department of Banking and Insurance Consumer Hotline at 1-800-446-7467 on weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. or can go online and click on Consumer Assistance - Inquiries/Complaints at https://www.dobi.nj.gov. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. A wellhead on a fracking site leased by Oasis Petroleum in the Permian Basin oil production area near Wink, Texas. / Reuters WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said on Monday that his administration was considering the possibility of stopping incoming Saudi Arabian crude oil shipments as a measure to support the battered domestic drilling industry. "Well, I'll look at it," Trump told reporters at a daily news conference after he was asked about requests by some Republican lawmakers to block the shipments under his executive authority. Trump said he had heard the proposal immediately before the news briefing. "We certainly have plenty of oil, so Ill take a look at it," he said. U.S. crude oil futures collapsed to trade in negative territory for the first time in history on Monday, amid a coronavirus-induced supply glut. Futures ended the day at a stunning minus-$37.63 a barrel as desperate traders paid to get rid of oil as storage space was close to running out. The collapse in prices has threatened to tilt the once-booming U.S. oil industry into bankruptcy. Trump described the drop as short-term and stemming from a "financial squeeze," but said the oil industry was hurting from a lack of demand, as states have imposed stay-in-place restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. "The problem is no one is driving a car anywhere in the world, essentially. ... Factories are closed, businesses are closed," Trump said. "We had really a lot of energy to start off with, oil in particular, and then all of a sudden they lost 40%, 50% of their market." He said the global producer group known as OPEC+ had agreed to cut production by some 15 million barrels per day, and said weak prices could force more declines for economic reasons. "They have to do more by the market, it's the same thing over here. If the market is the way it is, people are going to slow it down or they're going to stop. That's going to be automatic, and that's happening," Trump said. Story continues Trump reiterated that his administration plans to top up the nation's emergency crude oil stockpile as prices plunge. The Department of Energy is in the process of leasing some of the roughly 77 million barrels of available space in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to U.S. oil companies to help them deal with dearth of commercial storage as the coronavirus outbreak crushes domestic energy demand. The administration initially wanted to purchase the crude oil directly, but Congress has yet to approve the funding. Asked if he still wanted lawmakers to approve the funding, Trump said the space in the SPR would be filled either way. TROY A projected $2.9 million budget gap has Troy City School District officials looking at cutting as many as 25 jobs and programs as they strive to put together a balanced 2020-21 school year spending plan during the coronavirus pandemic, district and union officials said Monday. The school district may layoff 20 teachers due to budget cuts, said Seth Cohen, past-president and current executive board member of the Troy Teachers Association. The last time the district faced major teaching reductions was in the 2009-10 budget when about 50 staff reductions were proposed. The level of state aid is not helping Troy, which lost $2.2 million in additional aid that was proposed in the states executive budget, said Superintendent John Carmello. Its devastating for the kids of Troy. The freeze in aid while on the surface may seem fair and equitable, its inequitable and unfair, Carmello said. While Troy is losing the $2.2 million, a wealthy suburban district is only losing $65,000, Carmello said. It hits poor urban districts harder than suburban districts, Cohen said. The school district has drafted three budget proposals so far this year. Tuesday night the district Board of Education will receive a fourth budget proposal from Carmello., The district tossed out its first two spending plans as the state warned that school funding would stick to current levels, creating the spending gap. The state is warning that more aid cuts could come because of massive revenue shortfalls due to the pandemic. We were having a good budget season before the coronavirus hit," Carmello said. The district has pointed out in its budget presentations that the state could reduce aid after the budget is adopted. The school board received a proposed $116,264,136 million budget to review at its April 8. Meeting. This budget was short $2,985,327 with revenues of $113,278,809 . Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The district has a tax levy cap of 2.13 percent for the upcoming school budget year. The districts current property tax levy is $37,200,798 in the 2019-20 budget of $114,174,990. Since the last budget presentation, the district administration has been reviewing the budget proposal. Cohen said the districts unions have met with the administration to discuss what purchases can be halted and which programs can be delayed The first draft budget was for $116.96 million with a $1.1 million budget gap between expenses and forecast revenues of $115.81 million. The second draft budget of $116.36 million cut the budget gap to $903,934 spending gap between the projected budget and revenues of $115.46 million. The school board will see the fourth proposed district budget when it meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Troy Middle School. The meeting will be livestreamed at https://stream.meet.google.com/stream/5a942135-df6e-41f2-8557-2618ea589afd. Anyone wishing to follow the meeting will have to log in using the credentials: Username: meet@troycsd.org and Password: AprilBoardMeet. Anyone wishing to comment at the meeting should email their remarks to BOE@troycsd.org. The written comments will be read aloud at the meeting. A mask, if you're going to be anywhere near Djokovic: Fan's advice to Leylah Fernandez Young Canadian tennis player Leylah Fernandez's post on social media on what she should wear on-cour... The build-up to the 2023 presidential election is gradually gathering momentum despite denials by some of the personalities touted to be interested in the race even when their campaign posters have continued to flood major cities across the states of the federation. They include those of personalities like Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and the immediate past governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. Oshiomole/el-Rufai Campaign posters, which showed that the APC National Chairman, Oshiomhole, would be vying for the 2023 presidential election, emerged in September 2019. That was few months after he led his party to victory in the February 2019 presidential election. The poster, with the message: Mandate 2023, had the former Edo State governor as a presidential hopeful with Kaduna State governor, el-Rufai as his running mate. But Oshiomhole publicly disassociated himself from the plot. Fayemi/el-Rufai On another hand, Governor el-Rufai was also tipped as a possible running mate to his Ekiti State counterpart, Kayode Fayemi. The plot to draft the Ekiti State governor into the 2023 presidential race had been on the cards for a while, but the voice of those projecting him got drowned at a time by that of TInubus supporters. However, it was hope rekindled, when Fayemi emerged as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) in May last year. The calculation in some camps within the ruling APC is that the Ekiti State governor would be a more acceptable candidate if the party decides to zone its presidential ticket to the South. The belief of those pushing the Fayemi agenda is that being a Christian, he will not only enjoy the support of the predominant Christian South, but that of the North, which will, no doubt, present a Muslim as his running mate. Umahi/el-Rufai Another set of 2023 presidential campaign posters that surfaced recently on the streets had it that Governor el-Rufai would be pairing the governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, in the 2023 presidential poll. However, Umahi has dissociated himself from such arrangement. The governor in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Francis Nweze, insisted that such bears the imprint of detractors and political desperados who thrive on gossips, rumours, and have resorted in producing a smokescreen where they attempt to drag the name of the governor to the mud via the poster. The statement further read: One could not help but come to a sane conclusion that enemies of the state probably quoting the harmless expression of an Igbo born industrialist, Chief Cletus Ibeto, who said when it is time, we will send Umahi, decided to steer the hornets nest and hit up the polity with such embarrassing poster. In as much as Governor David Umahi has towering credentials that in any contest makes him visible, he has not made public any intention to contest for any position in 2023, let alone choosing a successor as he is a governor who is presently committed to delivering of dividends of democracy to his Ebonyi people as he believes that politicking ends immediately after election. We, therefore, call on all lovers of good governance, Governor Umahis ambassadors and the general public to ignore such posters as it is nothing but the handiwork of mischievous elements who are determined to put the governor against his admirers. In truism, 2023 is too far to start politicking now. Ibikunle Amosun The immediate past governor of Ogun State (now senator representing Ogun Central), Ibikunle Amosun, is not left out of the denial game over the 2023 presidential campaign posters. He not only disowned posters announcing his presidential ambition, but said the time had not come to address the issue of 2023 presidency. Some campaign posters bearing his name and picture for the 2023 presidential race had surfaced online late last year, but Amosun then said that linking him to the 2023 presidential contest stood logic in the head as he had not spent a year in the Senate. In a press statement made available by his media aide, Bola Adeyemi, the former Ogun State governor said: My attention has just been drawn to a poster, suggesting I had thrown my hat into the 2023 presidential race. It definitely defies logic that such a move would be my preoccupation or in any way linked to me, when indeed I have not spent a year in my current assignment as the senator representing Ogun Central District. Abba Kyari There were also 2023 campaign materials, which suggested that the Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Abba Kyari, might join the contest for his principals successor. The campaign materials surface online last month and they include campaign shirts and face-caps, with the inscriptions: Sustainability 2023 and Towards sustaining the good policies and ideologies of President Muhamadu Buhari. However, Kyari, who is seen by many as Nigerias defacto vice-president given the enormous power he wields, could not react to the development until he passed on last Friday. Atiku Abubakar The former vice-president (1999-2009) was the candidate of the PDP in the February 23, 2019 presidential election, but was defeated by President Buhari, who contested the poll on the platform of the APC. Atiku has not indicated interest in taking another shot at the presidency, but campaign posters announcing his 2023 ambition have been trending on social media. While some of the posters are silent on the platform Atiku will use to actualise his ambition, others have the PDP logo on them, and they had inscriptions such as Atiku 2023, Vote Atiku Abubakar for 2023 presidency, Movement 2023: Atiku is coming and Atiku, my choice 2023. among others. The former vice-president has not openly associated himself with the various support groups promoting the 2023 campaign, but his media aid, Mazi Paul Ibe said of the development: The support groups are everyday Nigerians who believe in an idea and, most times, they express themselves without recourse to anyone. Bola Tinubu The APC national leader has not officially declared intention for the 2023 presidency, but there have been pockets of endorsements in that regard from different quarters. Equally, some groups have sprung, urging him to run. Some of the groups have also gone to the extent of printing campaign materials in Tinubus name to show how serious they are. One of the support groups Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) Network Vision was recently inaugurated in Ondo State. Coordinator of the group in the state, Akinlolu Ayodele, said the BAT vision is a network movement to showcase the values and promote the essence of Tinubus leadership qualities. The APC national leader in a series of tweets signed by his media office and posted on his official Twitter handle, said: We have seen pictures of face caps, T-shirts, shirts and even leaflets with Bola Tinubu 2023 embossed on them. We hereby, through this medium, categorically deny any knowledge of the group and dissociate Asiwaju Tinubu from the groups unsolicited and unwarranted materials. Lamido Sanusi The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who was recently deposed as Emir of Kano by the state government over alleged insubordination, is also being linked to the 2023 presidency via the poster game. Branded campaign vehicles with Sanusis pictures recently emerged on line. The vehicles had the inscription: All Nigerian Youth Project 2023, Lets Save Nigeria. A former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, who posted a photograph of one of the vehicles on his Twitter page, however, stated that Governor el-Rufai, who is using the dethroned Emir of Kano to push his presidential ambition. Yahaya Bello Equally trending is the 2023 presidential campaign poster of Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, who was recently inaugurated for a second term in office. The poster with the APC logo and colours, has the message: All Progressives Congress Continual of Good Governance. Vote for Governor Yahaya Bello as President, Federal Republic of Nigeria. However, like others Bello has distanced himself from the campaign poster suggesting his interest in the 2023 presidency. A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Onogwu Muhammed, said Bello has no prior knowledge of the purported materials, adding that he had no links with the group or individuals behind them. The posers Against the backdrop of the denials, the question many have asked is: What are the mischief-makers out to achieve with the circulation of campaign posters of individuals, who have neither declared interest nor commissioned them to canvass for them? While only members of the various support groups of the political gladiators or their respective agents are in a better position to proffer answers to the question, members of school of thought are of the view that despite the refutations, the poster game has nothing to do with mischief-makers as being claimed by the politicians. While there is nothing wrong in any of the aspirants using the poster game as a dummy to feel the peoples pulse concerning their respective ambitions, Nigerians cannot afford a long waiting-game, as the earlier they assess those aspiring to lead them after the present dispensation, the better for the polity. Post Views: 37 The US president says he will sign an executive order to suspend all immigration because of coronavirus. US President Donald Trump has said he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend all immigration to the US to fight the coronavirus. On Twitter, he cited "the attack from the Invisible Enemy", as he calls coronavirus, "as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens". There are no other details so far. It comes as the White House also argues the worst of the pandemic is over and the country can begin reopening. The US has already agreed with both Canada and Mexico to extend border restrictions on non-essential travel until at least mid-May. Travel has also been sharply restricted from Europe and China, though people with temporary work visas, students and business travellers are exempted. The president's announcement comes as the administration seeks to reopen parts of the US from the Covid-19 shutdown. BBC [April 21, 2020] Global Light Vehicle Sales to Decline to 70.3 Million in 2020 due to COVID-19 Impact, According to IHS Markit Global light vehicle sales are forecast to be down 22 percent to 70.3 million units this year in the wake of COVID-19, according to the most recent analysis from IHS (News - Alert) Markit (NYSE: INFO). Likewise, regional forecasts have been impacted substantially, and impacts are being felt as facilities across key regions remain closed, while recovery gets underway in others. These forecasts are informed by the latest update of the IHS Markit global economic forecast update issued by the Economics and Country Risk team, which indicates a 2020 global real GDP growth hard and fast into "real" recession, down about 3 percent, with a very sharp reduction in near-term demand/supply followed by a slow recovery. "The unexpected and sudden nature of the impacts of the pandemic are hitting the autos sector hard, with unprecedented levels of uncertainty around prospects for meaningful global recovery," said Colin Couchman, executive director, global autos demand forecasting at IHS Markit. "Market fortunes are expected to be mixed, as delayed and destroyed demand interacts with massive global supply disruption," he said. Mainland China Recovery Underway, albeit Tentative Though most factories in China are back to work, IHS Markit forecasters caution that it will take time for plants to fully recover, especially as revised COVID-19 working practices make it virtually impossible to rebound to previous operational capacity, among weakened demand conditions. Mainland China is expected to have a sales decline of more than 15.5 percent year over year, to 21 million units, with concerns on secondary impacts from the global contagion, which could further disrupt the recovery. While nearly all dealers across mainland China are back to work, and there are signs of an encouraging uptick in showroom traffic, consumer confidence remains fragile. So far, 12 cities have introduced various incentives to spur sales, including New Energy Vehicle subsidies, scrappage incentives and increased license plate quotas. As in other parts of the world, the industry awaits clarity on any prospects for government-sponsored auto incentives. Regional Impacts Developing as Situation Continues to Evolve Regional impacts will vary as the virus runs its course and consumer confidence is tested. As of now, IHS Markit predicts a disorderly and jagged recovery profile across the world, as governments, consumers and businesses struggle to interpret prevailing market conditions. Key regional insight on the key auto markets follows: United States The US light vehicle market is expected to decline 26.6 percent from 2019 levels to 12.5 million units this year, according to the latest IHS Markit forecasts. This is on the heels of a rough first quarter as COVID-19 began to impact key states and stay-at-home orders have prevented dealers from a traditional sales effort with shuttered showrooms. While online sales are allowed for most states, declines have been substantial, though inventories remain high. April and May sales are forecast to be historically low, according to IHS Markit analysis, as forecasers assume restrictions will continue in much of the country. In comparison, the lowest monthly selling pace in recent history was an 8.8 million unit reading, realized back in December 1981. Europe Across western and central Europe, IHS Markit forecasts a 24.9 percent drop in light vehicle sales, to 13.6 million units for the year. European markets will experience mixed recovery cycles, based on local restrictions and guidance, together with varied economic support and stimulus provision. COVID-19 lockdowns remain in place across Europe, especially in Italy, Spain, France, and the UK with dealerships shuttered. The timetable for ending lockdown restrictions varies, with some countries considering extending provisions, while others have revealed cautious exit strategies. Markets to watch for grassroots of recovery include Germany, Denmark, Austria and the Czech Republic. Production Expected to Reflect Demand Levels Global light vehicle production is expected to drop 21.2 percent due to COVID-19 - an 18.8 million unit decline over 2019, according to the latest IHS Markit forecasts. The biggest disruption is expected to hit in the first half of the year, with output in Q1 expected to be down by 24 percent year over year and in Q2 by 44 percent as lockdown measures intensify. The balance of the year is forecast to ease, but overall, the second half of the year is expected to be down by nearly 8 percent, compared to an overall decline of 35 percent in the first half. Much of China has now returned to work and more than half of vehicle manufacturing facilities were reported to be at full capacity at the end of March. However, the pace of production has been adjusted to align with inventory and demand levels. April forecasts reflect extended downtime, staggered resumption patterns and ongoing supply chain description across the region. Across Europe, the return to work is varied, with some auto manufacturers making preparations for a gradual return to production beginning this week, and some already underway - though component supply remains critical to restart operations. In some countries, for example France and the United Kingdom, government advice currently prevents any meaningful activity until the beginning of May at the earliest. In North America, IHS Markit forecasts reflect shutdowns in production from mid-March through early May, at a minimum. In those nine weeks, an estimated 2.75 million units will have been lost, with risk of further extensions on the horizon as the virus continues to impact various regions around the country. US production across 14 states accounts for 66 percent of total North American light vehicle production with 46,000 vehicles produced every day before the outbreak. Concern surrounds the state-by-state ending of stay-at-home orders that could result in a patchwork of factories returning to work. Due to the tightly integrated supply chain across the US and throughout North America, restarting of vehicle assembly requires coordination across the states along with neighboring Canada and Mexico. Japan continues to display heightened downside risks as the state of emergency takes hold; until now OEM operations have typically been subject to short, frequent downtime actions, often tailored to individual assembly lines or vehicle programs. As the domestic situation deteriorates and exports are severely reduced, the actions could become more widespread. "Overall, as manufacturing begins to recover, workforce safety measures will be key and will impact production levels as OEMs define a new normal for their work environments, keeping social distancing in mind," said Mark Fulthorpe, executive director, global automotive production forecast, IHS Markit. "We might expect varied return to work cycles and shift patterns, as well as stronger health guidelines, including checks for those returning to work." About IHS Markit (www.ihsmarkit.com) IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions for the major industries and markets that drive economies worldwide. The company delivers next-generation information, analytics and solutions to customers in business, finance and government, improving their operational efficiency and providing deep insights that lead to well-informed, confident decisions. IHS Markit has more than 50,000 business and government customers, including 80 percent of the Fortune Global 500 and the world's leading financial institutions. Headquartered in London, IHS Markit is committed to sustainable, profitable growth. Automotive offerings and expertise at IHS Markit span every major market and the entire automotive value chain-from product planning to marketing, sales and the aftermarket. For additional information, please visit www.ihsmarkit.com/automotive or email [email protected]. IHS Markit is a registered trademark of IHS Markit Ltd. and/or its affiliates. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners 2020 IHS Markit Ltd. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005541/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The number of domestic and sexual abuse cases being reported daily has increased by as much as 50% since the Coronavirus lockdown started in Lagos, the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team has revealed. According to the LSDSVRT, before the lockdown they received 8 domestic abuse cases daily but now that number has increased by 50% as the lockdown has made it difficult for victims at home to avoid their abusers. According to Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, Coordinator of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team, the state has now added more helplines while virtual meetings are now being used to resolve abuse cases. Before the lockdown, the LSDSVRT used to receive an average of eight new cases daily, since the lockdown came into effect, we started to receive an average of 13 new cases daily and this is coming from our major hotline. Vivour-Adeniyi said to SaharaReporters on Monday. Because of this pandemic, we had to include two other hotlines and we have our USSD short code that people are taking advantage of to report, as well as social media. We have increased our accessibility and we have seen an increase in calls; people calling to report cases, get advice and psycho-social support as well as people calling on behalf of others. During this period, because of the restriction on movement, provision of shelter is last resort when there is no other option. Options include survivors being moved to family members house. We have been able to insist or encourage the alleged abusers to leave the house for the wife and the children and we have had online mediation. We leverage on sexual assault referral centres and primary healthcare centres. We have 67 primary health care centres that provide sexual assault management services. If the incident has happened, the survivors need to have access to the test, which would be done and we need to be able to collect and present the evidence needed in securing a conviction. She also warned perpetrators, that the long arm of the law will soon catch up with them. She added, Perpetrators of sexual and domestic violence may think because this lockdown is ongoing, they can act with impunity. The Lagos State Government would ensure that the long arm of the law catches up with such persons. The post Domestic/sexual violence cases rise In Lagos by 50% during the COVID-19 Lockdown appeared first on . Share this post with your Friends on Palghar mob lynching: BJP leader Uma Bharti on Tuesday sent a letter to Maharastra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray demanding strict action on the Palghar mob lynching case. She also invoked his father Bal Thackeray in the letter. BJP leader Uma Bharti has, in a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, expressed anguish over the Palghar mob lynching incident. While referring to the Chief Minister as the son of a great father (Bal Thackeray), she demanded strict action against those responsible for the killings. The former Union Minister, has in a letter to the Maharashtra Chief Minister, invoked the name of Bal Thackeray saying, You are the son of a great father and you are a man who is known for honouring the saints. She demanded that strict action should be taken against police officers, spotted in the video, for allegedly not fulfilling their responsibility. Three people were beaten to death in Palghar on suspicion of being thieves. The policemen are also accused of murder. They too should be booked under Section 302 of the IPC. If they wanted, they could have saved the lives of the sadhus by opening fire in the air, she added. The firebrand BJP leader further asserted that the Chief Minister would be part of the act if he fails to bring the culprits, including the policemen, to book. Also Read: Coronavirus India: 25 families in Rashtrapati Bhavan asked to self-isolate after an employees relative tests positive The BJP leader further stated that the Maharashtra CM may not be personally responsible for the gruesome incident but as the violence took place in his state, Thackeray is duty-bound to bring the accused to justice. Bringing the perpetrators to book will be your atonement, she added. The former Union Minister said she is observing a fast today in remembrance of the victims and added after the lockdown gets over she would visit the place to hold prayers for the slain sadhus. Also Read: US President to temporarily suspend immigration amid coronavirus pandemic Palghar police on Sunday arrested 110 people, including 9 juveniles, in connection with the lynching of three persons by the villagers, suspecting them as thieves. Three people, who were travelling from Kandivali in Mumbai to Gujarat via interior roads of Palghar, were beaten to death on April 17 by Gadchinchle villagers, suspecting them as thieves, police said. The three men were taken to the hospital where they were declared brought dead, police said. Also Read: Coronavirus update: India case count crosses 18,000, death toll at 590 For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Fruitandnuttrees.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 6 Jan 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the fruitandnuttrees homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the fruitandnuttrees homepage on Twitter + the total number of fruitandnuttrees followers (if fruitandnuttrees has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the fruitandnuttrees homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the fruitandnuttrees homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if fruitandnuttrees has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the fruitandnuttrees homepage on Delicious. Basic Information PAGE TITLE Fruit and Nut Trees Fruit Bearing Plants DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. Domain and Server DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE English UTF-8English DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache/2.2.22 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.22 OpenSSL/1.0.0-fips mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 (W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.4) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux The language of fruitandnuttrees.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Operative System running on the server. Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Type of server and offered services. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for fruitandnuttrees.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND The type of Facebook page. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The URL of the found Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Wealthy Americans are fleeing the US for multi-million dollar private bunkers around the world and luxury real estate in New Zealand to wait out the coronavirus pandemic among other "elites" and billionaires. As the US death toll reaches more than 42,000, America's rich are hoping to escape the global health crisis in lavish underground shelters with all the comforts of high-end living at the end of the world, from hospital-grade air filtration and safe rooms stocked with several years' worth of food to home theatres and gyms. Underground bunker manufacturers have seen a spike in requests for shelters in New Zealand, according to Bloomberg, while luxury real estate agents have field dozens of calls from rich Americans and Silicon Valley executives scouting properties across the country. Vivos says it has installed a 300-person bunker in the country's South Island, and Rising S Bunkers has built roughly 10 bunkers across New Zealand over the last several years. Gary Lynch, general manager of Texas-based Rising S, told the Los Angeles Times that his phone has been ringing nonstop since March. Shelters cost up to $11m, with amenities like luxury bathrooms, game rooms, shooting ranges and even surgical beds. According to Vivos, the company which has bunkers from Indiana to Germany, among other locations also has moved two dozen families into a 5,000-person shelter in South Dakota "on a former military base that's about three-quarters the size of Manhattan," Bloomberg reports. Air filtration devices "suck in air and remove harmful particles such as bacteria or nuclear fallout dust, providing clean air for up to 15 occupants," the Times reports. Bunkers can also have escape tunnels, hidden doors, bullet-proof glass and "pepper spray portals" to ward off intruders. Former cryptocurrency startup chief Mihai Dinulescu fled the US for New Zealand last month before the country had closed its borders to foreign travellers amid the pandemic, Bloomberg reports He says he had connected with another 10 venture capitalists and Silicon Valley expats trying to enter the country before a lockdown. In 2018, New Zealand had put in place restrictions on foreigners buying properties in the country, though the list of rich Americans with properties in "billionaire's playground" include hedge fund billionaire Julian Robertson and PayPal co-founder and Silicon Valley data and surveillance investor Peter Thiel, who owns two estates in the country. New Zealand had ordered residents to self-isolate early in the outbreak, which health officials say had helped significantly slow the spread of Covid-19. The country has more recoveries than cases (roughly 1,500) and 13 reported deaths in a country of 4.9m people Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Managua, Nicaragua, April 21, 2020 Guatemalan authorities should immediately investigate the robbery of journalist Carlos Ernesto Chocs home, determine if it was related to his reporting, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On April 18 at around 1:30 a.m., an unidentified individual broke into Chocs home in El Estor, Izabal department, and stole his work equipment, including a camera and two cellphones, but did not take any money or anything else in the home, Choc, a correspondent for environmental and local news website Prensa Comunitaria, told CPJ in a phone interview. Choc told CPJ that he believed the robbery was an attempt to intimidate him and make him stop reporting on water shortages in a community near El Estor. He said he and his children were sleeping in the same room as the items that were stolen. A close neighbor told me that many people knew I was working with this issue of water and that there were people interested in censoring that, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Choc told CPJ, citing government mandates for locals to use more water for cleaning in light of the pandemic. Guatemalan authorities must swiftly and thoroughly investigate the robbery at Carlos Chocs home to determine if it was related to his reporting and take appropriate steps to ensure his safety, said CPJ Central and South America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick, in New York. Journalists in Guatemala must be able to report safely on key issues related to public health without facing retaliation or intimidation. Choc said he reported the crime to police the day it occurred, and that Prensa Comunitarias team also filed a report on the theft with the office of the Prosecutors Office for Crimes Against Journalists in Guatemala City. Government officials in the area are investigating the incident, Daniel Ordonez, director of the Prosecutors Office for Crimes Against Journalists, told CPJ via phone. We believe the robbery might be linked to his work because only his equipment was stolen, Ordonez told CPJ. Yesterday, the prosecutors office issued protective measures to Choc and his family, including giving him a direct line to the prosecutors office and increasing police patrols near his home, according to a document from the office that CPJ reviewed. Choc faced criminal charges in 2017, along with another local journalist, for documenting the death of a fisherman in a peaceful demonstration, as CPJ documented at the time. Choc remains under substitute measures, similar to parole, while he waits for the judge to respond to his request to drop the case. A recent report on Guatemala, published by CPJ, shows that journalists covering environmental issues in smaller cities and rural areas face a higher risk of being persecuted. At least six journalists have been killed in Guatemala in direct relation to their work since 1992, according to CPJ research. The immediate concern is fighting and winning this war against coronavirus and the safety of the people, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tells Firstpost. The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, which at present is grappling with the crisis of growing number of coronavirus positive cases and 76 deaths second after Maharashtra with 223 deaths may extend lockdown beyond 3 May, if the state is not completely out of danger. The current government came to power in the state by toppling the 15-month-old Congress government after a long political drama that culminated just two days before the complete lockdown of the country announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi began on 25 March. The state has functioned without a cabinet since then. Madhya Pradesh is the only state in the country with no health minister during this pandemic. Ahead of a likely cabinet expansion on Tuesday, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, discusses in detail about his strategy to combat COVID-19 pandemic, plans to reboot the economy and redress agrarian issues. What is the Madhya Pradesh governments approach towards lockdown? Government is well prepared to fight this havoc and were leaving no stone unturned for the well-being of people. Right from the moment I took oath as the chief minister, I focused my attention on dealing with this disaster. The first challenge before us was to supply adequate medical equipment, medicines, masks, PPE kits etc. Now the supplies have been ensured. Initially, cases of coronavirus infection were less in Madhya Pradesh. At present, the number of such cases has increased. But, in many districts, conditions are now better than before. Weve made complete monitoring arrangements. Senior and competent officers are looking after the mechanism of the system in every field. We have given necessary guidelines to government and private hospitals, and medical colleges. We also organised a training program for private hospitals after meeting with the Nursing Home Association. Many private hospitals are proposing to give their entire hospital to deal with this epidemic. We have appointed separate cells, separate officers and set up control centres. Work is being done for better implementation of the protocol that we have got for prevention of COVID-19 by the Central government. There will be no reduction in the supply of basic needs. Madhya Pradesh Health Department, medical staff and administration are working with full vigour to control the spread of the virus. Telemedicine centres have been set up in all the districts to help doctors directly communicate with the COVID-19-affected people through video calling. An app has been developed to monitor the quarantined persons, with the help of photo-based geo-tagging method. Training modules are being provided through WHO and UNICEF to impart immediate training to nurses and paramedical staff. To solve the problems faced by citizens during the lockdown, round-the-clock control rooms and call centres have been set up at the state and district levels. All kinds of essential facilities are being provided adequately in the affected areas. Are you planning to relax it gradually, if so how? The good news is that in many places we have been able to control the infections. Initially, some cases were found in Jabalpur but now the situation is under control there. The situation in Bhopal has also improved. Gwalior and Shivpuri got completely free of COVID-19 infection. The positive news makes us believe that if we all come together and fight this disaster following the rules of social distancing and staying indoors, we can defeat this menace. For me, the first priority in any situation is the well being of every single person in Madhya Pradesh. Right now, my duty is to protect their health. It is our responsibility to maintain patience and extend mutual support for a few days more to fight the pandemic. Click here for Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates I hope we will overcome this crisis very soon and succeed within this period itself. In case were unable to get out of danger completely even after the lockdown, or if some more time is required to handle the crisis, the lockdown can be extended. The final decision will be taken on the basis of the outcome after lockdown ends and in the interest of the state. Madhya Pradesh was much below the ladder in terms of COVID-19 positive cases and fatalities (first case of death on 25 March) initially. Why did it become the second state after Maharashtra in terms of deaths (76 deaths) gradually? It is a challenging time not only for the state but for the whole country. We are trying our best. Initially, there were few cases in Madhya Pradesh, primarily in Jabalpur. But after that, there was a rapid increase in the number of cases around major cities like Indore and Bhopal. Tablighi Jamaat members from Madhya Pradesh, who attended the Markaz event in Delhi in March, came back and scattered into many corners and prime areas of the state. They responded reluctantly, didnt come forward willingly and thus indirectly spread the infection. People with foreign travel history visited Indore, Bhopal and a few other places concealed the fact due to lack of awareness or other reasons. But we have increased medical facilities and are consistently trying to strengthen medical infrastructure across the state. New cases are still being found but we have divided the state into different zones. More than 400 containment areas and hotspots have been created in 26 districts. Weve done 100 percent survey and contact tracing in all such areas. Screening and quarantining of more than 55,000 people have been undertaken. Arrangements have also been made to ensure the availability of all essential commodities in such areas. Indias cleanest city consecutively for three years Indore seems to have a growing number of cases 897 cases and 52 deaths and has become a Coronavirus hotspot. What is the plan to contain it? Indore is the prime commercial centre and densely populated city of the state. A large number of people from Indore travel abroad for business. Initially, such people concealed their travel histories and spread the infection by coming in contact with others. We are giving special attention to cases of infection found in the city. In Indore, the entire government staff, including the police and administration, along with public representatives, social workers, organizations, media and the public, has been fighting the battle against coronavirus wholeheartedly. I am confident that we will win this battle soon and Indore will set an example. I have reviewed the situation of the epidemic in Indore and the rest of the state, through video conferencing. I have instructed on effective implementation of the strategy of Identify, Isolate, Test and Treat (IITT) in all districts. With this strategy, we will be able to conquer coronavirus soon. The coronavirus testing rate in Indore is much higher than the rest of the state. A total of 5,120 samples have been taken in Indore, out of which 1,000 samples have been sent to Delhi for testing. So far, 3.9 lakh persons have been surveyed in the infected areas. Nearly 13 lakh people have already been surveyed in the entire city and another 21 lakh will be surveyed in the next seven days. I have also given clear instructions for fair price ration to be sent to all districts in sufficient quantity and there should be no delay in the distribution. If there is no shop, the ration will be delivered at home. In order to ensure that vegetable and fruit crops are not spoiled, decentralised purchase of these perishable commodities can be arranged in a protective manner outside the city. As per the instructions of the Centre, a containment plan has been prepared and implemented. Under rapid action, we have increased the number of investigation teams in the affected areas, in which three types of teams are working. One team creates public awareness and provides consultation, the second team collects samples by visiting homes and the third team provides psychological support to people by allaying their fears. We have arranged for the sample collection from home instead of hospitals so that a suspected infected person can be tested and isolated at the same time. In Indore, Bhopal and surrounding regions, instructions have been given for strict adherence to social distancing. Coming back to power after 15 months, what according to you are the immediate concern, hurdles and challenges in combating COVID-19 pandemic? The immediate concern is fighting and winning this war against coronavirus and the safety of the people. Hurdles and challenges are part of life. Although this situation is unprecedented, we have faced tough times earlier as well but have overcome and won every time with the support of the people of Madhya Pradesh. This time too, I firmly believe that with the support of the people, we will surely win. Saving lives is the biggest challenge in this fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In the state, doctors, paramedical staff and even police have been attacked during the lockdown. What action will your government take against miscreants and what measures will be taken to prevent more such incidents? We are continuously trying to counsel such persons so as to remove fears and misinformation about COVID-19, yet such incidents happen, which is very unfortunate. The Central government, the state governments and the entire administrative machinery of the country are repeatedly requesting people not to panic and to cooperate with relief workers. Instead, some incidents have been very disappointing. Recently, such incidents occurred in Uttar Pradesh too. No one will be spared if found disobeying the law, risking the lives of others or not cooperating. Those who attacked the officials are already behind bars under the provisions of the National Security Act and strict action will be taken against them. What has the government done for migrant labourers and workforce in the state? Adequate arrangements to provide food and ration to all the needy have been made. Many labourers from MP work outside the state; more than 5,70,000 workers had come to the state till 3 April. In view of the danger of infection, these migrant workers have been lodged separately in 2,792 places. Food has been arranged for them at 4,671 places in which private individuals and institutions are cooperating. Regular health check-up of migrant labourers is being done. This is the reason that only one labourer has been found coronavirus positive in the rural area, who is being regularly monitored and given required treatment. For monitoring health of migrant labourers, separate testing centres have been set up at 1,804 places at the Gram Panchayat level. A list of such labourers, who are ill, has been prepared and they are being monitored till recovery. Recently, more than Rs 88 crore has been deposited in the accounts of 8,85,000 labourers, amounting to Rs 1,000 per worker, to help them meet their daily needs. Food arrangements have been made for daily wagers and also for those who do not fall under the BPL category but are unable to generate income due to lockdown. Instructions have given to provide two square meals to them from the amount available under the Panch Parmeshwar scheme of the Rural Development department. Has the state government been effective in sending essential goods to poor localities? Three months advance ration has been provided by the government to all the ration cardholders of the state. Apart from this, I have directed all district administrations that ration should be provided to the poor, labourers or any other person stuck in any district without food. So far, ration has been made available to more than five crore beneficiaries. On average, two lakh people are being fed daily in rural areas and 2.5 lakh in urban areas. The ration is also being given to those who dont have ration cards. How do you plan to reactivate the economy in the state? It is, indeed, an unprecedented disaster and is surely going to disturb the economy of the state but we need to be well-prepared to face upcoming conditions at the earliest. This fact is in our checklist for the betterment and welfare of the state. The state is facing a monthly loss of around Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 3,000 crore, and were deeply concerned. We have formed a state-level committee to discuss measures to reboot the states economy and to regain the economic and financial momentum once the crisis ends. Wheat procurement is already in process. We are also planning to start the manufacturing industries soon in keeping with the central guidelines regarding COVID-19. Weve already permitted transportation of goods, to keep the supply chain hassle-free. The production in the pharmaceutical sector is already on. We will gradually reopen remaining commercial activities across the state depending on the situation. For now, we have also allowed small economic activities in the green zones and small towns of the state. We will strictly follow the guidelines issued by the Government of India on restarting certain industries from 20 April onwards. But it should be kept in mind that no labourer from the infected area would be allowed to report to work. All protective measures should be adhered to at the workplace. As far as possible, arrangements should be made for the workers to stay in the workplace. When are you going to appoint ministers in your cabinet? There are allegations that the absence of a health minister has affected the fight against COVID-19. In my opinion, this is not the right time to play such political games but we live in a democratic system, where everybody has the right to speak. However, allegations are not true. It is a fact that the council of ministers plays a crucial role in governance and ensuring the welfare of the state. As soon as I was sworn in as the chief minister, our primary focus was to prepare for this unprecedented battle, keeping in mind the safety of all public representatives as well. I am continuously coordinating with our MLAs and MPs and with their consultation, I am making decisions for the welfare of the state. Recently, we formed a 10-member committee to look after different aspects of this fight against COVID-19 and to support the mechanism built to fight this pandemic. As far as cabinet formation is concerned, whatever decision is taken, you will certainly get information about it. Once the COVID-19 pandemic gets over, what would be your biggest challenge as the chief minister? What about the problems faced by farmers due to non-fulfilment of loan waiver promised to them by the Congress government? Farmers are the backbone of our economy. Providing them with the right value of their crop will be our priority. We have already initiated procurement of wheat except in some districts that are affected by the pandemic. The crop loan scheme that provides crop loans to farmers at zero percent interest will also be continued in the year 2020-21. The previous government was considering shutting down this secure facility. Farmers are our priority and Madhya Pradesh government has been working relentlessly for the welfare of farmers. In this hour of crisis, we will give additional facilities to farmers. Agricultural activities will be encouraged in the state once this crisis gets over. As a respite, Rs 2,990 crores of crop insurance for FY 2018-19 and 2019-20 are being distributed immediately. I will do everything possible to ensure that farmers are not affected by this pandemic. I am also restarting the Sambal Yojna for the poor which can really make a difference in their lives. (Newser) It's quite a headline: "New Zealands Prime Minister May Be the Most Effective Leader on the Planet" declares the Atlantic. The headline is above an analysis by Uri Friedman on how Jacinda Ardern has led her country of 5 million people amid the pandemic. In Friedman's view, the 39-year-old is masterfully balancing decisive action with empathy, as embodied in the prime minister's frequent Facebook Live chats to residents that somehow "manage to be both informal and informative." None of that would matter much, however, if not for this: Arden's approach and policies "have produced real, world-leading results," writes Friedman. The AP has details on that, starting with a few impressive stats: The nation reported just five new cases Tuesday, down from 90 per day in early April. And only 13 people in the country have died so far. story continues below "We have the opportunity to do something no other country has achieved: elimination of the virus," Ardern said last week. "But it will continue to need a team of 5 million behind it. Arden put the country in lockdown in late March, much earlier than other world leaders did and at a time only 100 New Zealanders had tested positive. The AP notes that New Zealand's relatively small population and the fact that it's an island nation were big helps. Still, "New Zealand got everything right," says Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccine expert at the University of Auckland. "Decisive action, with strong leadership and very clear communications to everybody." A story at the Washington Post agrees, including her on a list of several female world leaders who have "won recognition as voices of reason" amid the outbreak. (Ardern also won praise for her handling of last year's mosque shootings.) Turkey to impose 4-day-curfew The curfew will start on April 23 and end midnight on April 26. Turkey plans to extend the weekend curfew this week in 31 provinces as part of measures against the coronavirus, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. THE CURFEW WILL BE IMPOSED IN 31 PROVINCES Starting on Thursday, April 23, which is a public holiday commemorating the foundation of Turkish parliament, Turkey will impose curfew in 31 provinces to contain the spread of the virus. Turkey observes the National Sovereignty and Childrens Day on April 23 every year. This year marks the centennial of the Grand National Assembly. Erdogan's remarks came after a Cabinet meeting that was held via video link for the fourth time. TICKERS: RRI; RVSDF Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports (4/21/20) Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable speaks to CEO John-Mark Staude and geologist Erika Sweeney about Riverside Resources' Los Cuarentas Project and the company's spinout, Capitan Mining. Maurice Jackson: Today we're going to discuss the highly prospective gold and silver project located in Mexico. Joining us for a conversation is Dr. John-Mark Staude along with Erika Sweeney of Riverside Resources Inc. (RRI:TSX.V; RVSDF:OTCQB). Pleasure to speak with both of you regarding the value proposition of Riverside Resources where knowledge is golden. Dr. Staude, before we delve into today's interview, please introduce Riverside Resources and the opportunity the company presents to the market. John-Mark Staude: Riverside is a prospect generator. We have programs in Canada and in Mexico, and we provide a diversified opportunity for discovery in gold, silver and copper. Maurice Jackson: Back in January (Interview), Riverside Resources introduced the Los Cuarentas Gold-Silver project, which is located in Sonora, Mexico, between two highly valued mining and development operations. In that interview, Riverside had reported the completion of some preliminary field work and reported some high-grade rock samples, of which the highest sample was nearly 26 grams per ton. Take us to the Los Cuarentas, where I understand Riverside has some more exciting details regarding target mapping, new rock sample results and permitting. What can you share with us? John-Mark Staude: Sonora, Mexico, is a great location for mining; it's one of the main mining states in Mexico. To the west of Los Cuarentas project is the Mercedes Mining District operated by Premier Gold Mines. To the north we actually have Santa Gertrudis where we have Agnico Eagle, and to the south we have the Las Chispas mine, very high-grade silver that's going with Silvercrest. For us, Los Cuarentas with this structural zone here is a great area for big discoveries in former mining districts. Immediately to the east of us is a former mining center as well, so we love this location. Maurice Jackson: Erika, what are we looking at here? Erika Sweeney: As a geologist, this is a very exciting map. Here, we actually found out that we're able to double our targets from 3 to 6. What is unique is that all six targets are on different structures. What's very important to note is that all of them have very high-grade samples. Whether we are discussing historicals or the recent Riverside samples, all are very high grade. We're looking at a high-grade sample reporting at 25.7 grams per ton, 18 grams per ton, and we have historical samples up to 29 grams per ton, which was parallel to the main mine site and it's all continuous. There is just so much to see out there, and we want to move forward with drilling it because there was a mine here before that produced maybe 100,000 tons of ore. I think there is a lot more to go and see based on our findings. For the Santa Rosalia target, you're looking at at least one kilometer in strike length of high-grade mineralization. When you get to Santa Rosalia Sur you actually have almost two-kilometers of length of high grades and alteration that can be pretty significant for upside. Maurice Jackson: John Mark, what is the next unanswered question for Los Cuarentas? When can we expect a response and what will determine success? John-Mark Staude: For us, as a prospect generator, the next unanswered question is drilling and exploration. We actually have the drill permit; next we need to find a partner. If we can get a partner, perhaps a mid-tier gold or silver producer, that would be ideal. They have the skills to carry the project forward. We have done the work generating, working together, consolidating, so for us the next unanswered question is how big can this be? Can we expand the former resources and come up with more discoveries on this really endowed piece of land? Maurice Jackson: Switching gears, John Mark, how does a strong gold price and low ore costs impact Riverside resources? John-Mark Staude: My gosh, it is excellent. For us, owning gold in the ground has been our objective. Now with a rising gold price, we're very active. We can see the potential of a portfolio of projects. We have projects in Canada and in Mexico and for us a rising gold price is ideal. We also have royalties on our projects, so as they get developed for the shareholders of Riverside the sky's the limit. It's a wonderful time and we're very excited, super active right now and trying to get more properties and more partners and really moving ahead. It's making a big difference. Maurice Jackson: Speaking of costs, sir, can you provide us an update on the share price and the capital structure? John-Mark Staude: Riverside's in a very strong financial position. For us we really see good upside potential and are very excited about the next coming months for Riverside. Our current share prices are 11 cents US or about 15 cents Canadian. That for us is a low. In fact, I'm buying more shares at these levels. The share structure continues to be tight at 63 million shares. We have a good cash position as well of over $2 million cash and we have $0 debt. Maurice Jackson: John Mark, before we close here, there was a recent spinout, was there not, with Riverside? John-Mark Staude: Thank you for asking! During the first half of this year we've received approval through the plan of arrangement on our spinout company called Capitan Mining. Current shareholders of Riverside will get about one share of Capitan Mining for every four shares of Riverside. That's progressing well and right now we're financing Capitan. Even with the advent of COVID-19, Riverside's resolve to increase shareholder value remains a constant and very core of our day-to-day operations. We have a fabulous CEO in Alberto Roscoe, and we have a great team in Mexico. For us, the shareholders of Riverside, this is a time that we can really, really be excited about the great upside and great potential of both Capitan Mining and Riverside Resources. Maurice Jackson: In closing, sir, what keeps you up at night that we don't know about? John-Mark Staude: For us, one of the key things right now is the COVID and how long is this going to last? For us, we have to make sure that we always manage the company carefully, follow through with what's needed. For us, we see the future is bright because we do see we're getting through it but that's very important that we don't want anyone to get ill and we want to really look out after all the people in the communities that we live in and work. Maurice Jackson: Finally, what did I forget to ask? John-Mark Staude: Why is Erika here talking about the project? It's because we're so excited to these great young people to be a part of our team, and having taken the lead on our projects. Erika and peers are valuable additions in helping us to grow. Also, this is one of the first times you hear us talking about Mexico because we're growing a lot in Canada this past year. Riverside continues to go strong in Canada. So we're very excited by this but in Canada you'll also see continued news flow coming out from Riverside. Maurice Jackson: Riverside Resources (www.rivres.com) trades on the (TSX.V: RRI | OTCQB: RVSDF). Riverside Resources is a sponsor of Proven and Probable and we are proud shareholders of Riverside resources for the virtues conveyed in today's message. Before you make your next bullion purchase, make sure you call me. I'm a licensed representative for Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments where we provide a number of options to expand your precious metals portfolio from physical delivery, offshore depositories, and precious metal IRAs. Call me directly at 855.505.1900 or you may email [email protected]. Finally, we invite you to subscribe to www.provenandprobable.com, where we provide Mining Insights and Bullion Sales. Dr. John-Mark Staude and Erika Sweeney, thank you for joining us today on Proven and Probable. Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world. [NLINSERT] Disclosure: 1) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Riverside Resources. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: Riverside Resources is a sponsor of Proven and Probable. 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You understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this forum at your own risk. Images provided by the author. Muranga Governor Mwangi wa Iria is known for his ability to shoot straight and arrogantly to defend anything he believes in. He did exactly this shortly after the first COVID-19 case was recorded in Kenya, calling on men to have their hair shaved by their wives at home rather than risk being exposed to coronavirus in the barbershops. READ ALSO: COVID-19: Serikali yajiandaa kuweka masharti magumu zaidi ya kafyu ikiwa Wakenya wataendelea kuvunja amri Murang'a Governor Mwangi wa Iria. Photo: Mwangi wa Iria. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Kenyans angry at Uhuru for allocating Raila KSh 72M. "Evacuate citizens in China first" Addressing his Muranga people in his Gikuyu vernacular, wa Iria likewise advised all ladies to do their hair at home and avoid salons. While this advice sounded somehow disparaging on the face of it, he was quick to lace it with a softener, noting that by attending to each other, couples get a chance to discuss family matters and that he personally practices this. His message worked like magic. The mantra mundu enjwo ni muka (let a man be shaved by his wife), gained root and was readily embraced across Mount Kenya region where men have been widely trooping to social media to proudly showcase their wives newly found prowess in haircutting. Women have likewise been guiltlessly parading their homemade 'matutas' for all to see, all the while avoiding catching coronavirus in salons. It is not just wa Iria who has managed to curb COVID-19 spread by addressing his constituency in the language they understand best. A day after his address on the government's move to announce partial lockdown of four counties, President Uhuru Kenyatta came under fire from a section of Kenyans after he gave an interview on COVID-19 to three Kikuyu vernacular radio stations namely Kameme FM, Coro FM and Inooro FM. President Uhuru Kenyatta addressed three radio stations in vernacular to emphasise message on the dangers of coronavirus. Photo: PSCU. Source: Facebook The President, in elementary Gikuyu, discussed the various measures taken by his administration to curb COVID-19 from spreading and the need for the masses to heed to those measures. His appeal was warmly received across Central Kenya - especially in the villages where for the first time, the hitherto ignorant natives started taking the disease seriously and observing measures to curb its spread. What those who criticised the president did not realise is that he was simply breaking down his message from the previous day to a highly-vulnerable constituency that did not understand it. He was effectively giving a cue to other leaders to prioritise raising awareness in every corner of the country using the language their constituency feels at home with, be it Maasai, Kamba, Kalenjin or Dholuo. But most leaders, particularly politicians, have fallen short on this front, with many having hibernated and quarantined their voices and influence since COVID-19 came to Kenya. The latest survey by Infotrak laid bare the dissatisfaction of Kenyans with their MPs intervention in the fight, for instance, a majority saying parliamentarians went missing when the people needed them most. Shockingly, many elected leaders have been active in pointless politicking as witnessed recently when 146 Jubilee MPs and Senators wrote to the registrar of political parties objecting changes in the party. They must understand that they have, through acts of omission, directly contributed to the now growing spread of COVID-19 in rural Kenya. They are the reason their constituents are behaving as if coronavirus never existed. But it is not too late to salvage the situation. It is time the leaders from different political persuasions cut short their paid holiday and make it their responsibility to raise awareness among local communities. Let them reach their people and educate them in vernacular on the grave state of affairs and the need to take precaution. Just the way they fervently campaign door-to-door during election campaigns, it is time politicians personalised this war and utilised all available but safe channels to make the village folk understand the need to wear masks, regularly wash hands, and observe social distancing among other health guidelines. They must shout these messages from rooftops and hilltops, and tirelessly repeat this for the messages to sink. Just as Uhuru, wa Iria and some other leaders have succeeded in hammering the message home, the adoption of localized campaigns by all leaders will make the battle against COVID-19 much easier. The writer is Robert Mungai, a regular commentator on social, economic and political issues. 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from Covid-19 in Kenya | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke 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. Britain's Prince Charles gave the Namaste gesture to musician Ronnie Wood at the Prince's Trust Awards in London in March. Read more Normally, college professor Ravi S. Kudesia shakes hands plenty with colleagues, business associates, and others. Of course, these are not normal times. In the age of coronavirus, handshakes are verboten. Besides, the assistant professor of human resource management at Temple Universitys Fox School of Business is cocooned at his Philadelphia residence, teaching and meeting via Zoom, without much opportunity to engage in firm grips. But what about when the economy reopens, possibly as early as this month, in parts of the country as the curve flattens? Then what? I will be a staunch advocate of namaste for as long as this COVID thing is an issue, he said, mentioning the customary, contact-free Hindu greeting often accompanied by a slight bow of the head and palms pressed together (a gesture known as anjuli mudra). Ill be leaning into that, both because its beautiful but also because of safety." For a virus-shaken public, reengaging in old habits may not come easily. Of foremost concern, arguably, is that germ transferring ritual known as the handshake. Our five-digit appendages, after all, touch our faces all the time (as has become abundantly clear when asked not to), get used to blow our noses, suppress sneezes (when the elbow protocol is forgotten), and are used to clean ourselves in the bathroom. Despite the customs ancient history and cultural significance in America, the handshake may be seeing its time come and gone, like the hat tip. Certainly, that would be the case if Anthony Fauci, the demigod of all things coronavirus, has his way. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force suggested recently that Americans should never shake hands again. When you gradually come back, you dont jump into it with both feet, Fauci said in a Wall Street Journal podcast. You say, what are the things you could still do and still approach normal? One of them is absolute compulsive handwashing. The other is you dont ever shake anybodys hands. Then the doctor added: I dont think we should ever shake hands ever again, to be honest with you. ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters. Could the handshake really come to an abrupt halt for all time? Kudesia argued that the likelihood is pretty small. He ventured that in three years, any reduction in the practice would be negligible. Consider the Lindy effect, Kudesia said. Thats the idea that the longer something has been around, the longer it is likely to stick around in the future. The habits handhold appears to have ancient origins, showing up on B.C. art and in The Iliad. The handshake wasnt born out of courtesy or goodwill, but fear, said Pamela Eyring, president of the Protocol School of Washington that offers business etiquette and communications skills around the world. Roman men, for example, clasped hands to show friendship and that they had laid down their weapons, the story goes. The 18th-century Quakers get credit for popularizing the practice in America as a more democratic greeting than the status-laden bow or curtsy of Europe. By the 1970s, the usually male ritual among the general population extended to women as they entered the workforce in larger numbers. Now, the two-pump shake has become a choreographed dance of information signaling and receiving, Kudesia said, noting the practice is one of the few appropriate ways of making physical contact in a professional setting. Handshakes are your first impression. Remember the fuss over the seemingly never-ending viselike grippers between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron at early meet and greets? At 2017 Bastille Day celebrations, the men white-knuckled each other for at least 25 seconds, neither alpha male willing to give. But despite its entrenched history, if ever there was a time to let go for good, this might well be it. Rosemary Frasso, director of public health for the College of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University, said COVID-19 has created a public health opportunity that should not go to waste. Fauci is talking about a paradigm shift in our culture in a moment when people are tuned in, she said. The whole COVID pandemic is like a global cue to action. Its really important to leverage it. Frasso, also an associate professor of public health, teaches her students about the stages of change model. The first three of six stages are precontemplation, when a person is unaware his behavior is causing a health problem; contemplation, when he starts weighing the pros and cons of that behavior; and preparation, when he decides to take action soon for a healthier life, she explained. Lots of us are in the contemplation and preparation stages, said Frasso, noting that her own office door has a sign saying the space is a handshake-free zone. Most of us, if not all, will know someone who gets pretty sick, and maybe with one or two degrees of separation, or not at all, someone who dies, she added. Thats going to make this realer in a way than anything else has. In her own case, Frasso said she used to shake hands when she met a new person, even putting her other hand on top, offering a warm greeting but also a double dose of germs. Going forward, I wont be doing that, she said. A clean break wont be easy, of course. The trick may be a ready alternative to fill the void. Already, Western cultures are looking eastward. On a few occasions, Prince Charles has been spotted ditching the five-finger grip in favor of namaste, though the future king still caught the virus, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has encouraged his citizens to adopt the Indian greeting. Meanwhile, Tanzanias President John Magufuli touched a shoe-clad foot dubbed the footshake with the opposition leader last month. Then there is the elbow bump, fast becoming an American favorite, though some have wondered if that really is safer, given the advice to sneeze into the bend. Still, germaphobe Trump tried it out during an early coronavirus press briefing when a health executive extended his crooked arm. While protocol expert Eyring expects the culturally built-in handshake to make a healthy comeback eventually she urges an abundance of caution in the meantime. Generally, when Im with people, I shake hands a lot, said Eyring, who teaches the proper approach, complete with eye contact. Its safe to say we need to be more protective for a while. I do recommend, instead of shaking hands, putting your hand over your heart. Its very common in the Middle East, she added, and it looks professional. Lkadaba@gmail.com @KadabaLini Today A mix of clouds and sun. Not as harsh by the afternoon. Tonight Partly cloudy. Tomorrow Mostly cloudy and not as cold. There might be a passing rain or snow shower, mainly north or west. A fact-finding committee of a Delhi government hospital looking into the allegations levelled by family members of a male coronavirus patient that he was "not attended properly" at the facility, has rejected the claims. The daughter of the patient, in a video posted on Twitter, had alleged that her father was made to wait unduly long in the ambulance while being shifted from a private facility to the LNJP Hospital here, a dedicated COVID-19 facility. She also claimed that the man was not served any food after his admission on April 18 and was fed only the next morning. The LNJP Hospital had constituted a fact-finding panel, which looked into the matter and came to a conclusion that the "allegations are not ingrained in facts and stemming from the emotional distress" of discovering a family member to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the report said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Roddy Alves shared throwback snaps and discussed her journey to come out as transgender in an emotional new video. Speaking to Truly, the former CBB star, 36, who shot to fame as the Human Ken Doll Rodrigo Alves before her transition, said 'the Ken Doll has gone' in the clip. The star shared a photo of herself as a young boy at the beach and opened up about the vile bullying she had to endure in childhood. Scroll down for video Inspiring: Roddy Alves shared throwback snaps and discussed her journey to come out as transgender in an emotional new video She said:'As a young child I was always very in touch with my feminine side. I was diagnosed with Gynecomastia which is an excess of chest breast tissue. 'The boys at school bullied me, physically abused me. I dedicated myself to languages, I was always first to come to class. I can speak six languages now. 'Bullying gave me the strength to be a better person.' Roddy shot to fame due to her multiple plastic surgeries when she was living as a man, attracting a huge social media following and worldwide fame. Heartbreak: The star shared a photo of herself as a young boy at the beach and opened up about the vile bullying she had to endure in childhood Strong: She said: 'The boys at school bullied me, physically abused me. I dedicated myself to languages, I was always first to come to class. I can speak six languages now' Past life: Roddy shot to fame due to her multiple plastic surgeries when she was living as a man, attracting a huge social media following and worldwide fame - but said she never felt comfortable as Ken (pictured September 2018) Yet she said she 'never felt comfortable as Ken', saying: 'I didn't like it because Ken is a male doll.' 'I never had surgery to be a Ken Doll lookalike, it just happened. When I look at photos of Rodrigo, I see a very glamorous man. 'But I knew I was unhappy, I was forcing that smile.' Doing a photoshoot in 2017 to represent gender fluidity where she dressed as a woman was the turning point for Roddy. She said: 'It felt amazing, I had surgery to make myself more feminine 'I always dressed as a woman at home in secret. That caused me a lot of depression Glamour: Roddy has now started her transition, and has undergone breast and face feminisation surgery (pictured January 2020) 'That made me anxious as i wanted to come out as a transgender woman. I was worried what my family would think. I was worried about losing my Ken Doll fans.' Roddy has now started her transition, and has undergone breast and face feminisation surgery. She said: 'Everything changed, I feel like a woman. I had breast surgery, with 825cc of pure silicone. 'The Ken Doll has gone.' She added: 'I was worried how people would react to me going out in public as a woman but I don't get recognised now.' Roddy recently revealed she's signed up to be an NHS volunteer amid the COVID-19 lockdown. The reality star exclusively told MailOnline that due to recent stress surrounding the coronavirus outbreak she's gained two pounds so she's donating some of her clothes to charity. Brave: Doing a photoshoot in 2017 to represent gender fluidity where she dressed as a woman was the turning point for Roddy (pictured February 2020) The Celebrity Big Brother star told MailOnline that she originally planned to flee to Brazil during the pandemic, but after returning to the UK she's following the government's advice to stay at home. She said: 'As soon as lockdown was rumoured to happen, I booked a flight to Brazil with my family, since here in London I have very few friends and nobody pretty much. 'I thought that being with my family at times like this would be appropriate, but then when I was ready to fly out from London to Rio de Janeiro my flight was cancelled and then I found myself stuck at home in London.' 'I have been keeping myself, busy I have a vast closet from when I was a man and a third of the outfits I have already given to charity.' Rodrigo also told MailOnline that she would sell the rest of his clothes on eBay and donate the proceeds to the No Kid Hungry charity which aims to end child hunger in America. The star went onto reveal she's signed up to be an NHS volunteer to help with various tasks such as delivering medicine during the pandemic. Following her recent stress around the outbreak, Rodrigo also told MailOnline: 'My new dresses dont fit me anymore. From size 10, I am now size 14. 'I am very anxious and I also take a lot of female hormones that also contribute the weight gain. 'I have been feeling very lonely also since I cant see it meet anyone. In the evenings I do my hair and make up with a glass of wine and pose for selfie photos. 'When I am at home I still keep up with my high standards of grooming and I am always dressed nicely on high heels that cheers me up a lot.' Myanmar & COVID-19 Myanmar President Orders State, Regional Govts to Battle Hate Speech Amid COVID-19 Fight An illustration for the Panzagar anti-hate speech campaign. MANDALAYMyanmars President has ordered state and regional governments to encourage government employees to participate in anti-hate speech activities amid a rise in social media comments accusing certain groups of spreading COVID-19. The order, signed by the permanent secretary of the Presidents Office, states that everyone has the right to be treated with respect and to live without fear of violence, intimidation or discrimination based on group identity or personal characteristics. Warning that the spread of hate speech could lead to discrimination and violence within communities and affect social harmony, the Presidents Office ordered all ministries and their agencies, departments and offices to encourage all of their personnel to participate in and support anti-hate speech activities. All ministries and all regional and state governments are to ensure that their personnel, officers, staffwhether from the military or other security forces, or civil servantsand local people under their control or direction shall take all possible measure to denounce and prevent all forms of hate speech. All ministries, their agencies, departments and offices shall further encourage all personnel to participate in and support anti-hate speech activities, the order reads. Human rights activists and others engaged in anti-hate speech campaigns welcomed the order from the Presidents Office, which follows a rise in hate speech online in relation to the spread of COVID-19 in the country. I think the Presidents Office wants to control the haters and hate speech, which have spread over social media in relation to COVID-19 cases in recent days, and which could lead to communal unrest and threaten the peace and harmony of society, said writer Ma Thida (Sanchaung), who is on the board of directors of PEN International, a global association of writers. In recent days, Myanmar has seen an increase in hate speech on social media over the spread of COVID-19, especially regarding cases traced to a religious gathering hosted by two Christian pastors. The two pastors and two of their followers are facing lawsuits for breaching the governments COVID-19 control directives. However, some people have attacked the pastors and their followers through social networks as coronavirus spreaders. Half of the coronavirus infections in Yangon have been traced to a religious gathering organized by the pastors. Video clips of a sermon in which Pastor Saw David Lah criticizes Islam and Buddhism have been widely circulated, accompanied by comments expressing hatred of Christianity by some nationalists and religious extremists. Ma Thida (Sanchaung) welcomed the governments action to maintain social harmony, saying activists across the country had been struggling against hate speech for a long time. However, other activists who have worked to eliminate hate speech, discrimination, communal conflict and violence said the governments order was too vague to prevent incitement of violence while also preserving freedom of expression. Issuing an order like this alone will not be effective in eliminating hate speech. The government needs to more precisely define hate speech. Otherwise [legitimate] comments, opinions and criticism will be mistaken for hate speech, creating a threat to freedom of expression, said Yangon regional parliament lawmaker Ko Nay Phone Latt, a leader of the Panzagar (Flower Speech) campaign against hate speech. It was just a bad flu, Michael Lucidonio told himself. On March 20, the son of South Philly cheesesteak mogul Tony Luke Jr. had a fever and some nausea not at the time widely recognized as a symptom of COVID-19. Over the next week, on his doctors advice, he stayed home in South Jersey with his wife and daughter, rested, tried to recover. The first lock-down measures had just taken effect. Lucidonio didnt know if he had been exposed to the virus, and didnt think he was exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms as it was. But within 10 days, Lucidonio, 35, was in the intensive care unit at Jefferson Washington Township Hospital, his lungs ravaged by the coronavirus. His best shot at survival, doctors decided, was a ventilator. Before he went under, he begged his pulmonologist: Please dont let me die." And he looks at me and goes, Dont worry, buddy. I got you,'" Lucidonio said Tuesday. And then I woke up, 2 days later. The doctor had kept his promise. Lucidonio was on the mend. A month after his brush with death, Lucidonio and his father are speaking out about their experience with COVID-19 to get the doubters to take the virus seriously. People have to really understand that even if they believe it doesnt affect them, there are people who will die from their carelessness, Tony Luke said. READ MORE: Still think coronavirus is just like the flu? Heres why COVID-19 is more dangerous. With Lucidonio out of the hospital and improving steadily for nearly a month, they also want to provide hope for others going through the same terrifying ordeal. They want to remind other families, worried about sick loved ones, that recovery from the virus is possible even after being on a ventilator. The familys history made Lucidonios illness especially hard. His older brother, Tony III, died of an overdose in 2017. In the years since, Tony Luke has become an outspoken advocate against the stigma surrounding addiction. But when Michael grew ill, the prospect of losing another child was almost too much to bear, he said. Michael thought a lot about his brother, too. After days of increasingly worsening symptoms, including a cough, he got permission from a doctor to get a COVID-19 test. He was still waiting on results when his breathing grew more labored. His doctor told him to get to the hospital. Though he nearly collapsed on the way in, he waved away his wife, Michelle, as she tried to support him to the door. He didnt want her going inside. Admitted to the hospital almost immediately, waiting on the results of a chest X-ray, Lucidonios thoughts spiraled. Im soaking it all in how did I get here? I was fine two days ago, he said. And then I realized it was March 31, three years and four days after my brother had passed away, and I realize Im the exact age to the day my brother was when he passed. Is this just the expiration date that we have? he thought. And then a nurse entered, and told him the doctors recommendation: intubation, and a ventilator. READ MORE: If you need a ventilator for COVID-19, odds are 50-50 youll survive. But doctors are learning more every day. He made a last, frantic phone call to Michelle, who tried to calm him on the phone. Then she hung up and collapsed on the dining room floor in shock. His dad reacted similarly. When they called and said they were putting him on a ventilator, I remember just falling to the ground, crying, begging God, please, please dont let this happen to me again, Tony Luke said. ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters. Lucidonio doesnt remember any of the next two days. For the worst of this, I slept through it, as ridiculous as it sounds, he said. But this was so brutal on my parents and my wife. What she went through, it was so much worse than what I went through. Though he was alone in the hospital, nurses and physicians kept in touch with the family, even texting Michelle on his behalf from his phone when he briefly woke up, still on the ventilator, and tried to text her. After he was taken off the ventilator, he said, hospital staffers kept his spirits up. He was the first COVID-19 patient at Jefferson Washington Township to be taken off a ventilator, he said, and after he woke up, staff would come by his isolation unit and tap on the window, flashing him a thumbs-up. Part of why Im speaking out is to let people know how appreciative and grateful I am," he said. Theyre the reason I got to come home to my wife and daughter. Nearly a month after his hospitalization, Lucidonio is mostly symptom-free, though he still feels weak sometimes like a broken cell phone that cant keep a charge," he said. He and his parents talk on the phone every day. For me, until hes 100%, theres still a small part of me thats going to worry, Tony Luke said. Im elated, and grateful, and I continue to say my rosaries every single day. I cant wait to hear him say, I feel great today. And I cant wait to hear, Theres a vaccine." Become a Poker Hero and Craft the Ultimate Strategic Deck of Soldiers to Take into Battle and Defend the Kingdom from Invasion Advertisement Matt Hancock today appeared to admit that some frontline workers who have needed a coronavirus test have struggled to get one as he said the government is piloting a number of schemes to 'make it easier' for people to get checked. The UK currently has the capacity to carry out almost 40,000 tests a day but the latest numbers show that just under 20,000 tests are actually being carried out. Ministers have struggled to explain why there is such a large discrepancy between the two numbers but Mr Hancock told the daily Downing Street press conference the spare capacity means more tests can now be offered to more people. The Health Secretary conceded that drive-through testing centres - a key part of the government's operation - would not be suitable for everyone and that the government is rolling out plans which will see swabs sent directly to the people who need them. Meanwhile, the government's testing tsar Professor John Newton said ministers are also implementing proposals to send swabs direct to care homes, with 'mobile delivery' methods for the checks also being looked at. The comments came as Mr Hancock said he is sticking to his 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of the month target as MPs said the number was 'stupid' and 'arbitrary'. The Health Secretary has just nine days left to reach his goal of six figure testing and this morning ministers announced the number of drive-through sites will be increased from 26 to 50. Local Government Minister Simon Clarke appeared to concede that some staff have faced an uphill battle to get tested due to the location of the sites as he said adding more of them will 'bring those centres closer to more people and make it more viable to go there'. The move comes after numerous horror stories of self-isolating and potentially very unwell workers having to travel for multiple hours to get a test only for some of them to be told to come back another day. Photographs taken yesterday also showed near-empty test centres at the likes of Twickenham Stadium in West London, the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, Brighton and Hove Albion FC and Plymouth. There is rising Tory fury over Mr Hancock's decision to set such a high testing target with many in Westminster deeply sceptical he will hit the goal. One senior Tory MP told MailOnline the target is 'stupid' and added: 'Matt was extremely unwise to come up with such a high and round figure and to make a dogmatic commitment rather than an aspiration. 'He was under pressure at the time. If he wanted to reverse out of it he should have started reversing a week ago. It is pretty clear that he is not going to hit the target and he ought to be levelling with people.' A Number 10 insider echoed a similar sentiment, telling The Telegraph: 'The problem is with this arbitrary target. There is a faint irrationality behind it, just because there was a clamour for mass testing. Hancock's 100,000 target was a response to a criticism in the media and he decided to crank out tests regardless. He's not had a good crisis.' Matt Hancock, pictured at today's Downing Street press conference, has come under fire for his 100,000 coronavirus tests target The test centre at Twickenham rugby stadium in West London yesterday appeared to be lying empty The empty coronavirus testing centre for NHS staff and registered care workers at the Ricoh Arena yesterday An opposition source told MailOnline they believed the target was an act of 'desperation' because of public pressure over testing levels. They also suggested that the target may have been set when the government believed antibody tests could play a role in hitting the figure. Antigen testing shows if someone currently has the disease while antibody shows if someone has had it and now has immunity. The UK was hopeful of obtaining working antibody tests earlier in the crisis but no country in the world has yet found one which is sufficiently accurate to be rolled out. That means that to hit the 100,000 figure all of the tests will have to be antigen which is a more laborious check to carry out. 'I think Hancock was told that he would have the antibody tests and then they completely disappeared,' the source suggested. Mr Hancock told today's press conference: 'I think it is terrific that we have managed to increase capacity to over 39,000 tests a day which is higher than our planned trajectory. Of course having excess capacity means that we can then expand who that capacity can be used by and also increase the availability to more people and make it easier to access. One example is that we have introduced home testing where a test can be sent out and taken and then returned so that the individual doesnt need to move. Obviously home testing will be particularly helpful to those living in care homes for whom a trip to a drive through testing centre might be a difficult thing to do. Drive-through tests are one of the main ways in which people are getting checked along with the testing of patients and staff inside NHS hospitals. Prof Newton said drive-through centres are not necessarily ideal for some people to access as he revealed some alternatives are in the works. Speaking alongside Mr Hancock he said: We are piloting a number of different ways of getting tests out to people both directly sending swabs to care homes, also as the Secretary of State mentions, testing at home. Also mobile delivery so there are a number of ways we can get the swabs to the people rather than expecting the people to come to the swabs. Coronavirus tests have now been opened up to a large selection of workers ranging from health to social care to the police to the fire service. Transport workers and supermarket staff are also now being included. Mr Clarke said this morning that expanding the number of testing sites would help increase access to testing. 'We are absolutely determined across the whole of the UK to hit this target,' he said. 'As I say, we are going to move from 26 current testing facilities to 50. That will in turn obviously bring those centres closer to more people and make it more viable to go there. We're increasing the groups of key workers who can go and be tested.' Asked about the gap between the number of tests carried out and the available capacity, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said: 'Ministers have been very clear that any spare capacity should be used to test NHS and social care staff and their families. 'As a result of the increased capacity which we have available, other critical care workers can now also get tests so that they can continue their vital work on the frontline.' The NHS Covid-19 testing centre in Plymouth, Devon, yesterday is empty when photographed yesterday An empty drive-through Covid-19 test centre for NHS workers at Brighton and Hove Albion FC's Amex Stadium yesterday Allan Wilson, president of the Institute of Biomedical Science, which represents thousands of NHS lab staff, said: 'There is just over a week left until this target, which appeared to be plucked out of the air, but lab staff are not being sent samples. 'Part of the problem is that testing centres are in really remote areas, so people are not able to travel miles to get to them. We have consistently said all along that this target will not be reached. Staff at the large mass testing centres in Milton Keynes, Manchester and Glasgow are being sent home as there are no samples to process.' Mr Johnson had earlier set a much more ambitious target of 250,000 tests-a-day during a briefing on Mach 19 before the lockdown as imposed, but he did not attach a date to when that would be achieved. Britain, with 125,000 confirmed cases of the disease, is testing 5.54 people per 1,000 - 0.5 per cent of its population - according to the latest figures. The UK sits well below nations with similar rates of infection, including Italy, Germany and Spain, which are all testing more than 20 people per thousand, according to statistics compiled by Oxford-led researchers. Early testing for COVID-19 and isolating those who are positive as well as those they have come into contact with, is seen by the World Health Organization as crucial to bringing the pandemic under control. Two flagship NHS testing sites stood empty as pictures taken yesterday showed few people were arriving to give samples. Both Twickenham rugby stadium and Chessington World of Adventures in west London did not appear to have many patients arriving on Monday. A member of the military testing a person at a coronavirus test centre in the car park of Chessington World of Adventures on Saturday The coronavirus test centre set up in an IKEA car park was operating smoothly with more than 500 people booked to undergo a test. A queue of 30 cars built up prior to the gates at the shuttered IKEA store in Wembley, North West London, being opened for NHS and other key workers to have a nasal and throat swab taken. Army personnel in uniform could be seen assisting at one of the five mobile bays set up in the car part of the furniture super store. Staff said approximately 30-40 appointments an hour had been pre-booked. Those who had supplied their car registration number did not have to queue and were waved inside by security guards in yellow high viz jackets. Only NHS staff and key workers with an appointment were allowed inside the centre with members of the public turned away. One NHS nurse leaving said she had been told to expect an email with the results after 48 hours. She said: 'It seems to be running smoothly. There was no problem in making an appointment and it all went well. I just have to wait now for the result, and hope that I am all clear.' The IKEA test centre can handle up to 700 tests a day but staff said on average they had been seeing 500 people. And testing of key workers for the coronavirus was operating well at the Chessington site in Surrey this morning. Nurses, care home assistants and other critical workers were queuing into the main roads as they waited for the centre based at the Chessington World of Adventure amusement park to open. Army medics joined NHS nurses to carry out the swab tests at four bays where the examinations are conducted on patients while they sit in their cars. Some 500 tests are set to be carried out today, a staff member claimed. Patients today described the testing process as efficient, with most being offered the examination within 24 hours of a request. Care home assistant Elena, 32, told MailOnline: It was very easy to get the test. I asked to come last night and I am here now. She added: I work in a care home. There are ten or 12 people with Covid-19 out of a total of 67 residents, so I think I need to know if I ill so that I do not pass it on. Simon, 44, a support worker for disabled children, said: My mum has been showing symptoms of the Coronavirus so I want to find out if Ive got it or not. I told my boss about my mum on Sunday night and the called me up on Monday with an appointment. I want to go back to work but I dont want to give it to the kids so I want to make sure. Nurse Yvonne, 53, said: I have been showing symptoms I have a cough and a fever so I want to know if I am infected or not. I have been working on a ward where some of the patients have tested positive for Covid-19. It was very easy to get this test. I told my line manager last night I was feeling unwell and I got this appointment for first thing today. A coronavirus test centre is seen at Twickenham stadium is pictured (above) on Monday On another day in coronavirus news: Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves accused the Government of ignoring offers from British manufacturers to fill the gap. Dentists and anaesthetists became the latest groups to warn that they are working without adequate PPE. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals and NHS trusts in England, warned that the NHS's supply of face masks could be jeopardised if the Government begins advising the public to wear them, saying 'clear evidence' would be needed before advice was changed. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, Sage, which advises the Government, will reportedly consider the evidence at a meeting today. Manjeet Riyat, the first Sikh to work as an A&E consultant in the UK, was named among the latest healthcare workers to die after contracting Covid-19. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Clarke said the UK was seeing 'exponential growth' in terms of testing capabilities. 'We are doing our very best to make sure we hit that target,' he added. 'It's the right target, it's both what our science and the WHO's (World Health Organisation's) approach would suggest is the right thing to do.' The government is working to ensure more key workers are eligible to have the tests so 'every possible slot is filled', he continued. Mr Clarke said it was 'highly unfair' to Mr Hancock to suggest that the Government's ambition to reach 100,000 tests a day was not 'empirically grounded'. He added: 'As I say, we are going to move from 26 current testing facilities to 50. That will in turn obviously bring those centres closer to more people and make it more viable to go there. 'We're increasing the groups of key workers who can go and be tested.' It follows a major report which said testing and contact tracing in the wider community is the 'most promising approach' in the short term to helping lift the Covid-19 lockdown. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study said isolating people with coronavirus and tracing their contacts so they also isolate - an approach abandoned by the UK Government early on - is the key to controlling further outbreaks of coronavirus. It comes as former health secretary Jeremy Hunt took to social media on Monday to say contact tracing 'needs to be our next national mission'. Mr Hunt, who is chairman of the Health Select Committee, added on Tuesday: 'Mass contact tracing is the only internationally proven alternative to mass lockdown. We need to act fast.' The OECD report said Covid-19 infections would 'rebound rapidly' if countries just moved to lift their lockdowns completely, and urged them to ramp up contact tracing. The study argued that 'strong and effective testing, tracking and tracing (TTT) is needed' and 'is the most promising approach in the short run to bringing - and keeping - the epidemic under control without resorting to widespread lockdowns of social and economic life'. It added: 'The TTT approach may be used to block the initial or recurrent spreads of a pathogen, aiming for a rapid extinction of local, well-defined outbreaks that collectively can control an epidemic.' The Government has come under intense scrutiny over its testing and contact tracing policy after Public Health England advised ministers in early March that contact tracing should be stopped. The UK approach has contrasted with other countries such as Singapore and South Korea, which have successfully kept up contact tracing to contain their outbreaks. A coronavirus test centre is seen (above) at Twickenham stadium in west London on Monday. Few cars appeared to be arriving at the centre that day Germany, which has a far lower case and death rate than the UK, has also worked on contact tracing. Mr Hancock told MPs on Friday that contact tracing was part of the strategy going forward and would be introduced again, admitting that 'it wasn't possible when we had a small number of tests'. The Government is hoping that a contact tracing app being developed by NHSX will enable larger-scale contact tracing and will 'assist individuals to do contact tracing themselves', Mr Hancock said. Mr Clarke said contact tracing was an issue for the Department of Health when asked about it on the Today programme. It follows reports that around 5,000 environmental officers offered their help with contact tracing but did not get a response from ministers. Public Health England has repeatedly suggested there was little point to continuing contact tracing once the virus started spreading on a large scale in the community. U.S. officials are tracking whats happening in North Korea but dont know the current situation with Chairman Kim Jong Un, a top official said Tuesday. American officials are watching the reports closely about Kim, who is rumored to be struggling after undergoing surgery, national security adviser Robert OBrien told reporters outside the White House. Its too early to talk about because we just dont know what condition chairman Kim is in and well have to see how it plays out, he said, responding to a question about who would succeed North Koreas leader. The basic assumption is it would kin, given Kim is the third member of his family to control North Korea. Kims sister, Kim Yo Jong, is considered the most likely successor. OBrien suggested little is known about Kims situation because of the lack of reporters there but said officials are keeping a close eye on it. The adviser likened top officials like Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Vice President Mike Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as watchmen on a tower who constantly keep watch on Americas adversaries to make sure the American people stay safe as we battle this coronavirus here at home. Thats true whether its North Korea or Iran or Venezuela or any other country, he added. President Donald Trump was in touch with Kim in the somewhat recent past, OBrien disclosed. Reports sourced to anonymous sources and blared on some American news media claimed Kim is close to death following surgery but the outlets later walked back the claims. In one case, MSNBC anchor Katy Tur said that Kim is brain dead, citing two unnamed U.S. officials. She later deleted her Twitter post, writing, Ive deleted that last tweet out of an abundance of caution. Waiting on more info. Apologies. South Korea said Tuesday no unusual activity was detected in its reclusive neighbor. We have no information to confirm regarding rumors about Chairman Kim Jong Uns health issue that have been reported by some media outlets. Also, no unusual developments have been detected inside North Korea, Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said in a statement. Japanese officials said theyre monitoring the situation. From The Epoch Times nubia has been pushing the boundaries of gaming phone hardware with its Red Magic line but now the company is going another route with a midrange series dubbed nubia Play. The first phone in the series called nubia Play 5G was just announced in China and brings a 6.65-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with the same 144Hz refresh rate as the flagship Red Magic 5G alongside 5G connectivity thanks to the Snapdragon 765G SoC and a generous 5,100mAh battery. The display features a 240Hz touch sampling rate, a built-in fingerprint scanner and a clean cutout-free design with classic top and bottom bezels. Around the back, we find a 48MP main Sony IMX582 shooter alongside an 8MP ultrawide snapper aided by two 2MP modules one for macro shots and another for depth data. The front-facing camera comes in at 12MP. The right-hand side of the phone features the two capacitive shoulder buttons for enhanced gaming utility. Under the hood, we have the Snapdragon 765G paired with 6/8GB RAM and 128/256GB UFS 2.1 storage. The massive 5,100 mAh battery supports 30W fast wired charging while the software front is covered by nubiaUI 8.0 on top of Android 10. The nubia Play 5G will be available in black, blue and white colors and is already up for pre-order in China. The base 6/128GB model is going for CNY 2,400 ($340/INR 26,030), theres also an 8/128GB trim for CNY 2,700 ($380/INR 29,380) and a top of the line 8/256GB variant for CNY 3,000 ($425/INR 32,645). Official sales in China are scheduled to start in three days - on April 24. Source Doctors should not treat patients without the protective equipment they need to keep them safe, the president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists has told The Independent. As hospitals in Britain struggle to provide doctors with the gowns, masks and other equipment they need to safely deal with patients, Professor Ravi Mahajan who represents the largest specialism working with coronavirus patients said it now appears the UK no longer has sufficient reserves. He said his organisation would support staff who chose not to work if they felt it was unsafe. In an unprecedented move, the RCOA president said trust was being lost in Britains top health officials, as the UK hospital death toll increased by 449 to 16,500 patients. Public Health England medical director Yvonne Doyle, appearing alongside chancellor Rishi Sunak at the No 10 daily press briefing, said staff would have to decide themselves if they had enough protective equipment before choosing not to work, adding: People have to make their decisions based on whether they are in a risky situation or not. The Independent understands supplies of gowns, which were not included in the original pandemic stockpile, are reliant on new international deliveries, while hospitals have been sent masks with lower safety specifications than requested. At one trust, nurses were given cagoules rather than gowns to protect themselves. Anaesthetists sedate patients who need a ventilator tube in their windpipe to help with breathing. This puts doctors at risk of infection due to the small particles of virus released from a patients airway. A survey by the RCOA, due to be published later this week, found almost one in five anaesthetists reported being unable to access the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to do their jobs safely, with a quarter saying they felt pressured to treat patients without having adequate PPE. Professor Mahajan, a consultant at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, spoke out after Public Health England issued new advice to doctors on Friday night suggesting single-use respirator masks could be folded and kept in a plastic bag to be used again. Prof Mahajan said he could find no evidence for the suggestion and said it would put doctors at greater risk. He said: What we are advising our members is that you have to take stock of everything. Your health, the patients, the compromises that you may have to make, are they safe enough? Take the whole picture into account. And then if your decision is, I cant provide this treatment at this time, then we would support you. He added if the new advice was a compromise because of the global pandemic situation then, we have to be upfront about it, and we have got to be honest and transparent about it. Because of the lack of honesty and transparency, I am not very confident that this guidance provides the same level of protection. Welcome to lockdown Britain Show all 20 1 /20 Welcome to lockdown Britain Welcome to lockdown Britain Westminster Bridge stands deserted on the morning after Boris Johnson announced the UK was in lockdonw PA Welcome to lockdown Britain The clock tower in Leicester on the day after the prime minister put the UK in lockdown PA Welcome to lockdown Britain The A23 north of Brighton is relatively empty on the morning after the prime minister put the UK in lockdown AFP/Getty Welcome to lockdown Britain The Bullring in Birmingham on the day after the prime minister put the UK in lockdown PA Welcome to lockdown Britain A sign informing residents that bingo is cancelled for the forseeable future in Eyam, Derbyshire AFP/Getty Welcome to lockdown Britain Empty streets in Skegness the day after the prime minister put the UK in lockdown PA Welcome to lockdown Britain Reverend Paul Unsworth prepares food parcels for the homeless in London Getty Welcome to lockdown Britain Streets of Windsor are deserted on the morning after the prime minister put the UK in lockdown AP Welcome to lockdown Britain The Greyfriars Bobby statue in Edinburgh after Boris Johnson urged the public to stay indoors Getty Welcome to lockdown Britain Gallowtree Gate in Leicester on the day after the prime minister put the UK in lockdown PA Welcome to lockdown Britain An isolated couple watch the prime minister's announcement that the UK is to be put in lockdown in Weybridge, Surrey Reuters Welcome to lockdown Britain People jog in Battersea Park in London the morning after the prime minister announced the UK is going into lockdown with people only allowed outside for essentials and daily exercise Reuters Welcome to lockdown Britain McDonald's on High Wycombe High Street High Street displays a sign for takeaway only shortly before closing indefinitely as the prime minister announced that the UK is tto be put in lockdown Getty Welcome to lockdown Britain Deserted streets of Bristol after Boris Johnson urged people to stay indoors Tom Wren/SWNS Welcome to lockdown Britain Kathryn Hadley and her husband David who are in self-isolation in their home in Clutton, Somerset. David has terminal cancer and Kathryn is in a wheelchair Tom Wren/SWNS Welcome to lockdown Britain Residents of Marsden, West Yorkshire head home from the shops on the day Boris Johnson urged the public to stay indoors AFP/Getty Welcome to lockdown Britain Dennis's kebab van remains open for business in a deserted High Wycombe High Street as the prime minister announces that the UK is to enter lockdown Getty Welcome to lockdown Britain Drawings of rainbows stuck on a tree in Davenham, Cheshire Reuters Welcome to lockdown Britain Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London after the prime minister announced the UK is to enter lockdown PA Welcome to lockdown Britain Deserted streets of Bristol after Boris Johnson urged people to stay indoors SWNS When you get reassurances, which are then not followed by the reality, then trust starts to get eroded. And thats whats been happening in the last week. The promises that were made and the problems that were explained and how those problems are being addressed have not materialised. There is that erosion of confidence because statements in public are not matched by the reality on the ground. Prof Mahajan questioned the UKs available stockpile, saying the recent shortages gives me an impression that we havent got enough buffer in the system. You havent got enough stockpile to buy time. It is a common sense inference that if youre having to depend on the plane arriving with the stockpile, and that determines whether or not you can meet national demand, then then you must be at a very low level of reserve. An RAF plane has left for Turkey to collect a consignment of gowns, while another delivery of 144,000 gowns from Myanmar was unloaded on Monday. At Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust, staff have been issued with cagoules instead of gowns. One member of staff said while the gowns were waterproof they questioned whether they were as safe: I think staff are generally worried now. I think will see a lot of staff go off with stress and anxiety as a way of avoiding to refuse to care for their own safety. At another trust, a manager who had received only a few thousand of what they really needed, added: I cant be the only one now without enough to get through this week. The Royal College of Nursing last week advised nurses they had the right to refuse to treat patients if they did not have adequate PPE. At Downing Street, the chancellor insisted the government was doing all it could. Mr Sunak said: Absolutely everybody working incredibly hard on the front line deserves to have the equipment they need to do their jobs safely and were working round the clock to make sure we can deliver on that. Were improving our sourcing internationally and domestically to make sure we can get the PPE we need in what is a very challenging international context. Over 3,000 Ventilators Delivered to Australian Stockpile Ventilator manufacturing company ResMed has delivered more than 3,000 ventilators to Australias national stockpile to assist in the federal governments response to the CCP virus pandemic. The San Diego-based company with Australian origins is known for making sleep apnea and ventilator machines. It has upped its production to meet an order for a total of 5,500 ventilators by the government. They have now delivered more than half of the order. These will be added to the existing 4,400 units in the national stockpile. In the coming months, a further 2,000 units are expected from Australian manufacturer Grey Innovation, through a deal worth $31 million (US$19.5 million). Domestic manufacturing has become an increasing priority for the Australian government since the outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.. While the ResMed products will be built in their Sydney facility under strict safety and cleanliness checks, the components are manufactured in China. ResMed assures customers the components made in China are safe for use. In the United States, President Trump has also taken measures to protect its nations production of equipment by evoking the Defence Production Act. The act orders companies to bolster their efforts to make masks and ventilators in America. Science and technology minister Karen Andrews said the delivery from ResMed follows extensive work across government. The Government has been working hard to secure supply and increase the domestic manufacture of ventilators as we respond to the COVID-19 crisis, Andrews said. ResMed is a wonderful Aussie manufacturer that has stepped up in these unprecedented times to ramp up its production of ventilators. ResMed is a terrific example of the incredible manufacturing capacity that Australia has right here at home and shows how Aussie ingenuity can save lives, she said. The government purchased 3,260 units from ResMed, 260 are Astral invasive ventilators which are preferred for intensive care units (ICU), and 3,000 are Lumis non-invasive ventilators. An additional 240 Astral ventilators and 2,000 Lumis ventilators are expected in the coming months. These additional ventilators will help to ensure we have sufficient supplies to meet the increased demand we expect in the coming months, Minister Hunt said. Our national aim over the next few months is simple, suppress the virus, increase our testing and tracing, and slowly ease the restrictions, he said. ResMed President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Douglas said the company is proud to support the Australian government in its efforts to overcome the CCP virus spread. We will continue to work with the Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory governments, as well as with suppliers and governments from around the world, in a strong public-private partnership to support health care workers, Douglas said. The amount of people taken to hospital for COVID-19 treatment, for ICUs, and ventilators has dropped. As of April 19, a total of 184 people were in the hospital with COVID-19, 51 in ICUs, and 33 on ventilation. By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the constitutional guarantee of trial by jury requires a unanimous verdict for serious crimes, siding with a Louisiana man convicted of murder and paving the way for potentially hundreds of defendants found guilty by divided juries to receive new trials. Only two of the 50 states, Louisiana and Oregon, have permitted non-unanimous verdicts. Writing for the court in the 6-3 ruling, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that the non-unanimous verdict requirement in both states traced back to past racist policies intended to reduce the power of non-white jurors to influence the outcome of trials. The ruling, overturning a 1972 Supreme Court precedent, means that Evangelisto Ramos, who was convicted by a 12-member jury on a 10-2 vote, is likely to get a new trial. Ramos, found guilty in the 2014 New Orleans murder of a woman named Trinece Fedison whose body was found in a trash can, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The justices concluded that the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment, which guarantees the right to an impartial trial, requires that jurors be unanimous to convict in serious criminal cases. Gorsuch noted that historically some minor crimes do not require a jury trial. Louisiana updated its law to prohibit non-unanimous verdicts starting last year but that change did not apply retroactively. The ruling could benefit hundreds of inmates convicted with non-unanimous verdicts in Louisiana and Oregon by leading to new trials. "We are heartened that the court has held, once and for all, that the promise of the Sixth Amendment fully applies in Louisiana, rejecting any concept of second-class justice," said Ben Cohen, a lawyer for Ramos. The office of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement that the state's priorities have not changed as a result of the ruling. "Our law has since been changed and the Supreme Court has now issued this new ruling, yet our focus remains the same: to uphold the rule of law and protect victims of crime," the statement said. Story continues Gorsuch said there is evidence that when the Sixth Amendment was enacted, it was assumed there must be a unanimous verdict. "This court has repeatedly and over many years recognized that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimity," Gorsuch wrote. Two other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, joined Gorsuch and three liberal justices - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor - in the majority. A 1972 Supreme Court ruling that state court juries did not have to be unanimous drove the divisions among the justices in the case. The majority voted to overrule that precedent, but the three dissenting justices said there was not a compelling reason to overturn it. Writing in dissent, conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the ruling "imposes a potentially crushing burden on the courts and criminal justice systems" in Louisiana and Oregon. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan and conservative Chief Justice John Roberts also were in dissent. How the court addresses overturning its own precedents is a topic of contention, with high stakes for abortion rights. Abortion rights activists fear that the court's 5-4 conservative majority may seek to undermine or overturn its landmark 1973 ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide. The court is currently weighing a challenge to Louisiana abortion restrictions that could indicate which way it is heading, with a ruling due by the end of June. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham) The silence was striking. On a normal day, the well-child waiting room at Berkeley Pediatrics bustles with children playing, infants crying and teenagers furiously tapping on smartphones. On a recent Monday, the room was deserted, save for a bubbling tropical fish tank and a few empty chairs. Every book, puzzle and wooden block had been confiscated to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. There was not a young patient to be seen. Since March 17, when Bay Area officials issued the nations first sweeping orders for residents to shelter in place, patient volume at the 78-year-old practice has dropped by nearly 60%. In accordance with guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, its seven doctors have canceled well-child visits for almost all children older than 18 months. And some parents balk at bringing in even babies for vaccines, opening the door to another potential crisis down the road. In the days after the COVID-19 clampdown, the office scrambled to set up tele-health for sick visits. Still, this small, independent practice has gone from seeing more than 100 patients a day to about 40. It has laid off six staff members, and the physicians have taken a 40% pay cut. This is a very different beast, said Dr. Annemary Franks, who joined the practice in 1993. Ive never seen in a week the entire thing fall apart. Across the U.S., thousands of pediatric practices that provide front-line care for the nations children are struggling to adjust to a dire new reality: crashing revenue, terrified parents and a shortage of protective equipment, from gloves and goggles to thermometer covers. All while they are being asked to care for young patients who could well be infected with COVID-19 and prime vectors for transmission without showing symptoms. How well these practices adapt will be key as the nation looks to weather the pandemic: Pediatric offices provide a crucial release valve for the health care system by treating the broken bones, lacerations, colds, flus and chronic illnesses that might otherwise flood overburdened emergency departments. If its a month or two of care this way, OK. But if this is months and months and months, were going to see more practices go under, said Franks. We dont have some pot of money that we have sitting around to get us through this. Were fee-for-service. You get paid for what you do. Like many practices, Berkeley Pediatrics improvised overnight in the face of COVID-19. The brown-shingled Craftsman that houses the practice was quickly divided into two halves: upstairs for well patients, downstairs for those who are sick. They opened a back entrance up an unused set of stairs so well patients could bypass the sick. Before they get an appointment, all children are screened by phone for signs of the virus. When possible, sick children are treated via a video visit. If a child with respiratory symptoms needs to be seen in person, a doctor meets the child in the familys car in the parking lot, dressed in gown, gloves and face shield. Everyone who enters the office whether child or caregiver is checked for fever. The practice has only 75 plastic thermometer covers left, and supplies are on back order. The doctors wear surgical masks even for well-child visits. Every day I think to myself, Thats exactly the opposite of what I was taught in medical school and what I was trained to do, said Dr. Olivia Lang, another physician at Berkeley Pediatrics. Im not supposed to wear masks and scare my patients, but Im doing it every day. Tele-health makes eye contact challenging, she said. And in an effort to avoid in-person appointments, health care providers have resorted to prescribing antibiotics over the phone for symptoms suggesting ear infections and strep throat, without doing lab work. Were supposed to be good stewards of antibiotics, and thats being dismantled, Lang said. Another challenge is the availability of personal protective equipment, a struggle for all health care workers. Pediatric practices do not routinely keep stocks of the heavy-duty N95 masks, and they seldom use gowns or even simple surgical masks. Now, with hospitals facing critical shortages of PPE, pediatricians are often low on the list to get supplies. 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. Now Playing: Jessica Boykin, 32, had stuck plenty of people with needles by the time she graduated from the nursing school at Los Medanos College in 2018, but nothing prepared her for the coronavirus pandemic. Now she's an ER nurse on the front lines, where equipment and staff are short. Many nursing students who are just inches away from graduation are hoping to join her, and begging the state to bend its licensing rules so they can work. Video: SFGATE Pediatricians are considered at particular risk of infection, given preliminary research that suggests children infected with COVID-19 are more likely than adults to have mild cases and may be contagious while showing no symptoms at all. At Berkeley Pediatrics, staff members are wiping down gowns after seeing a patient and reusing them. When she gets home, said Dr. Katrina Michel, she stops in the garage, strips off her clothing and leaves it on the floor. She tells her two young children not to touch her until shes had a chance to shower. Ive never been afraid to go to work for my personal safety before, she said. She worries, too, for the well-being of her patients, as the efforts to contain the novel coronavirus increasingly interrupt basic care. Across the country, pediatricians report that some parents are canceling routine checkups and vaccination appointments including first-time vaccinations for infants because they worry about infections at the office. We dont want to create a pertussis outbreak because we didnt vaccinate all of our babies on time, said Michel. Its not just missed vaccinations that are a concern. Pediatricians are tracking growth and development at well-child visits. For newborns, that includes checks for weight loss, jaundice and congenital diseases. Jenny Gold is a senior correspondent with Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. Email: jgold@kff.org, Twitter: @JennyAGold Press Release 21 April 2020 In the hospitality world, Bill Bensley needs no introduction: He's designed 200+ boundary-pushing, jaw-dropping hotels in 40 countries; he's completely redefined and "rewilded" luxury hospitality in Asia; and he's a true sustainability pioneer. And no one does it all with more humor and honesty Advertisements Interview by Beth McGroarty, VP, Research & Forecasting, Global Wellness Institute. VP, Research & Forecasting, GWI, Beth McGroarty: It seems ridiculous to ask, but how are you doing during the pandemic? Bensley: Most people know I'm an eternal optimist, so while it sounds funny, super well. It's an excuse to stay in my office and dive really deep into what I truly love, my design work, in a way I haven't been able to for years. Pre-COVID, I traveled 30 weeks a year; that's 60 percent of my life. If there was a new play in London or I wanted to check on a resort in South Africa, I'd book a flight. Why the hell not?! I loved it, but nowlike everyoneI'm grounded. This whole thing has been an epiphany for me: I was flying too much and didn't need to. I've been designing hotels for 37 years, and normally, I'd hop on a plane with 400 pounds of drawings and fill up a ballroom to make a presentation. Now, I'm using Zoom, and last week, I made my first major presentation virtually for three different hotels in Vietnam. And you know what happened? They didn't fire me! All the props and on-site presentations were a crutch I didn't need. GWI: How do you think COVID will change travel post-virus? What new desires and demands will rise? We were already flirting with extinction before the crisis and preoccupied with issues like sustainability and overtourism. You recently said that the old "luxury is dead" Bensley: And now it's going to be deaderdeader than a doornail. I really believe that COVID will make us re-think travelclear away the junk. I think we'll travel less post-crisisI know I willbut mostly I think people will be radically more selective about where they go. That's a positive for our world. Certainly, the "monied" people are going to go to places that are more remote and places in deep nature. I think social distancing will remain with us for years. GWI: Positive given the nightmare of overtourism Bensley: Southern Thailand had such beautiful beaches and great corals, but all of that has been shittered(laughing) that's the technical term for destroyedbecause of mass tourism. These huge busloads of tourists were given booties to walk on and crush the corals, so they're basically dead. I think COVID will curb that kind of overtourism in Thailand and in many other parts of the world and prove a catalyst for a better, less destructive tourism. GWI: Any other COVID silver linings? Bensley: Yes. We have realized that the inherent problems of the wildlife trade have made the world ill, and it will keep up the pressure on places like China and Vietnam to stop this insatiable consumption of the world's wildlifeand all the poaching that ends up on the dining tables of Asia's rich and famous. Since COVID, China has declared that wildlife is illegal to catch and eatforever. The whole reason for our Shinta Mani Wild tented camp in the Cardomam National Forest has been to be a stronghold against illegal wildlife poaching for Asian dining tables. We take out 12-20 snares a day. Researchers recently defrosted two pangolins from a 2017 Singapore raida fave to eat in China and believed to cure all illsand found the flesh has sister COVID viruses. Terrifying. Consuming wildlife has brought the world to its knees, and this experience will, I pray, make it stop. A "blue" lining: I've been in Bangkok for 37 years, and right now, the time before our New Year's festival Songkran, we usually have the hottest and most polluted skies. I have never seen blue skies like this. COVID is one hard way to grasp the unbelievable impact that just a couple of weeks without cars and polluting the air can make. GWI: Coronavirus has, obviously, rocked the travel industry. How has it impacted your four properties? Any advice for other owners? Bensley: We just closed our hotels: no customers. But at Shinta Mani, I still have to patrol and protect the several million hectares of forest, so I'm still employing most of our 115-person Wilderness Alliance army, and it's coming out of my pocket, but I won't let it go. In our Siem Reap hotels, we employ 240 kids, and they're already very poor, and the $200-$300 they make a month supports, on average, eight family members. I'm keeping employees on payroll and will grin and bear it as absolutely long as I canand hope other owners will too. One issue is people wanting their money back for reservations, but some hotels are taking people's deposits to pay their staff, etc. I call bullsh*t: Hospitality needs to live by standards, or we lose all respect. COVID is no excuse to take people's money to pay for your mismanagement. We, of course, encourage people to postpone not canceland we're offering all kinds of extras if they do. But the right thing to do is to give people a full refund if they want it. GWI: Tell us about a few upcoming projects you're excited aboutso we can fantasize about future travel Bensley: We'rehopefullyjust about to open a Capella in Hanoi across from the opera house. The property has layers of history: It was first an actor's residence, then a whorehouse, then an army depot. It's a 42-room hotel with a really European feel, and all of the suites are based on different opera characters at the turn of the last century: It has a diva floor, a drama floor, and actress and actor floors. I had a ball with this project! The World Wild "human zoo" project in Guangdong, China, is my favorite because it will have such a powerful impact on the country's young people. It's a massive zoo and seven-hotel project where 95 percent of this huge piece of land is for rescued, abused animals to run wild (there will be no predators)while 5 percent is for human "viewing cages." A train will take people (and we expect 5-10 million visitors a year) to eight different whistle-stops, and at each, they will experience something like an amazing Broadway show, educating them on different aspects of wildlife, environmental protection and sustainability. So far, we've designed 2,400 hotel rooms for brands like Four Seasons and Conrad. Right before COVID, we had this giant meeting with the Communist leader of southern China and 48 of his entourage. We filled up a ballroom with 130 feet of drawings and mesmerized them for six hours. At the end, their leader gave his full approval, saying this was the best thing we could possibly do. So the project is on strong legs! We're committed to designing the "zoo"a better word is the sanctuaryof the future. I've hired a zoologist from England full time, and for a year and a half, he's been researching the very best practices for wildlife from all over the worldand getting expert opinions from Africa to Australia. GWI: One final thought about human life and travel post-COVID? Bensley: We willand we mustlearn to slow down and appreciate Mother Earth. Read Bensley's important, new Sensible Sustainable Solutionsa 20-page, easy-to-read document on how to build and operate a better, more sustainable hotel. business Petrol, diesel prices in India not cheap despite crude oil prices being at historic lows - here is why High Rupee-Dollar ratio has off-set the low prices of oil as India is a net importer from the OPEC block ST. LOUIS, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG) today announced that it has agreed to sell 35 U.S. interior elevators to Zen-Noh Grain Corporation. The completion of the sale is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval. "This transaction will allow Bunge to operate more efficiently and reinvest in higher returning areas of the company while reducing costs and strengthening our balance sheet," said Greg Heckman, Bunge's Chief Executive Officer. "Bunge will continue to be an industry leader in the U.S. grain marketplace through global grain trading and distribution with our export terminals in Destrehan, Louisiana, which we are expanding, and EGT, our joint venture in the Pacific Northwest. We will also continue our strong presence in the soybean processing business and milling operations." Through certain supply agreements, Bunge will be able to access a larger and stronger origination and distribution network through Zen-Noh to better serve American farmers and global export customers. In addition to the export terminals in Destrehan and the EGT joint venture, Bunge will retain ownership in Bunge-SCF Grain, Bunge's joint venture with SCF, and the Bunge elevators in Indiana that directly support Bunge's soybean processing plant in Morristown. About Bunge Limited Bunge (www.bunge.com,NYSE: BG) is a world leader in sourcing, processing and supplying oilseed and grain products and ingredients. Founded in 1818, Bunge's expansive network feeds and fuels a growing world, creating sustainable products and opportunities for more than 70,000 farmers and the consumers they serve across the globe. The company is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and has almost 25,000 employees worldwide who stand behind more than 350 port terminals, oilseed processing plants, grain facilities, and food and ingredient production and packaging facilities around the world. Website Information We routinely post important information for investors on our website, www.bunge.com , in the "Investors" section. We may use this website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor the Investors section of our website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, presentations and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document. Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains both historical and forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather reflect our current expectations and projections about our future results, performance, prospects and opportunities. We have tried to identify these forward-looking statements by using words including "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "continue" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. The following important factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements: the outcome and effects of the Board's strategic review; our ability to attract and retain executive management and key personnel; industry conditions, including fluctuations in supply, demand and prices for agricultural commodities and other raw materials and products used in our business; fluctuations in energy and freight costs and competitive developments in our industries; the effects of weather conditions and the outbreak of crop and animal disease on our business; global and regional agricultural, economic, financial and commodities market, political, social and health conditions; the outcome of pending regulatory and legal proceedings; our ability to complete, integrate and benefit from acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and strategic alliances; our ability to achieve the efficiencies, savings and other benefits anticipated from our cost reduction, margin improvement and other business optimization initiatives; changes in government policies, laws and regulations affecting our business, including agricultural and trade policies, tax regulations and biofuels legislation; and other factors affecting our business generally. The forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release, and except as otherwise required by federal securities law, we do not have any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. SOURCE Bunge Limited Related Links http://www.bunge.com On March 22, the day after Bavaria went into lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19, I went for a walk in Marienplatz, the historic center of Munich and the heart of the citys shopping district, as well as a nexus point for many of the subway and regional lines. Its always bustling during the day. On this day, the plaza was fullof pigeons. Compare that to this past weekend, when Viktualienmarkt, an outdoor market adjacent to Marienplatz, was packed with people buying up fruits and vegetables, freshly roasted coffee beans, the famous German sausages, and, of course, Bavarias liquid gold: beer. Rows of bikes were parked along the markets perimeter, and friends chatted in small groups, most of them several feet apart. Over the last week, in tandem with the trees exploding with vibrant green leaves, Munichs residents have been cropping up more and more in public spaces, encouraged by signs that the lockdown is working. Despite having the most cases in the world after the U.S, Spain, Italy, and France, Germany has had a relatively low fatality rate, and has been able to slow the spread of the virus. The country performs at least 120,000 tests for COVID-19 every day, and a Munich university recently launched a randomized study of 3,000 households to find out which portion of people have had the virus. Last Wednesday, in a sign of hope, the federal government announced that some restrictions can now be lifted. In response, masks have returned to pharmacy shelves, and have started appearing on more faces. From next week on, wearing that accessory will be required in stores and on public transport in Bavaria. Restaurants that initially shut down have reopened, some with creative takeaway solutions. A pelmeni joint in Munichs stylish Maxvorstadt neighborhood is delivering bottled cocktails, including Quarantinis, for $38, and a popular ice cream shop nearby has hung a miniature stoplight outside of its door to manage the queue. On Monday evening, restaurants all over Munich arranged makeshift bars outside, where guests could order cocktails to go (drinking on the street is allowed in Germany). Customers lingered, standing a few feet apart while sipping long drinks and spritzers. Story continues Bavarias lockdown has been the strictest in the country, and Germanys southernmost state is reopening more slowly than the rest. On Monday, only garden stores, nurseries, and DIY stores were allowed to return to business. In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, meanwhile residents can now go shopping at bike stores, perfumeries, small boutiques, bookstores, and even IKEA. To comply with hygiene requirements, store owners in Munich planned to put up plexiglass, and in some cases, to require shoppers to push a cart as a way of maintaining distance. Its a tactic food shops have tried too: A few days ago, I walked into an organic store with my headphones in and stopped when I noticed an attendant urgently waving at me. He pushed a cart my way. Spacing! he said. At the newly reopened stores in Munich, lines were already forming early on Monday morning. After all, many city residents own garden plots, and the seasons asparagus crop wont transplant itself. Other stores in Bavaria will be able to open their doors next week, and hairdressers will be allowed to work again beginning on May 4. Everybodys itching for a haircut. A friend of mine in Munich called her stylist after the return date was announced; he told her he was already booked for eight days straight. In terms of social distancing, a big change was announced last week: In a concession to those living without partners or roommates, since Monday, people are allowed to meet friends from outside of the household againbut only outdoors and only one friend at a time. Though the rule just kicked in, already this weekend, a change was visible. We were on the Isar yesterday, and there were many groups where you can see that they dont live together, said Hannah Heinemann, who works for the city and was out on a walk on Sunday with Carlito Lawson, a business consultant. The Isar river runs through Munich; its banks are a popular spot for picnics, parties, and sunbathing. Since two or three days ago, its been like that, Lawson added. Everybody knows that Monday is the day restrictions will be relaxed. Thats the reason everybodys going outside. Even the enforcers of the rules were more blase. The police were there, but they just told people to maintain a distance, Heinemann said. Before we were afraid we could be fined. In the first weeks of the lockdown, people assumed that lingering outside was forbidden. The Munich police even tweeted that reading a book on a bench is not allowed. I regularly went on slightly frantic, hour-long walks or bike rides, and was careful not to pause even for a minute lest I get fined. With the sun shining every day, I kept my sunbathing indoors, soaking up as much of the direct sunlight that comes through my windows as I could. Embracing Freikorperkultur, or Free Body Culture, turned out to be less intimidating alone indoors, and I considered my nude tanning as cultural immersion. But about a week and a half ago, the states interior minister clarified that, in fact, people could indulge in a novel outside, eat an ice cream on a bench, or sunbathe in the park. He added that no one should feel unnecessarily harassed. Germanys enthusiastic sunbathers returned to the parks, benches began fulfilling their expected functions again, and lines formed outside of gelaterias. Schools are expected to reopen gradually beginning on May 5. Magda Eggeringhaus and Lotti Ulrici, both 15, have enjoyed their time away from the brick walls of their educational institution. We dont get as much homework now, Eggeringhaus said. But theyre ready to go back to the old way of life. Im happy that everything is opening again, Ulrici said. She and Eggeringhaus were chatting and snacking on pretzels on Theresienwiese, the field where Oktoberfest takes place every year. We can go out and skateboard; we can go shopping, she said. It feels normal again. However normal it might have begun to feel, major city events are falling, one by one. A summer music festival was recently canceled, along with a major spring folk festival. And there will be no Oktoberfest, the beer-drinking extravaganza that draws 6 million people from around the world to the city each year. (For comparison, Munichs population is about 1.5 million.) We have decided the risk is simply too great, Markus Soder, the Bavarian minister-president, said when announcing the decision on Tuesday. It hurts. It is a huge shame. Because the subway, the trams, and the buses feel like no-go zones right now, people are relying on their bikes more. Now, instead of car traffic, we have bike jams. Other forms of transport have made a comeback; I have never seen so many adults whipping by gleefully on Rollerblades as I have in the last four or five days. With the weather on its best behavior, spotting people doing plank-and-squat circuits in the parks has become normal. A week ago, I saw someone kickboxing while blasting metal on the riverbank, and someone else dance-walking wildly down the street. These are the types of sightings I barely blinked at while living in New York, but Munich has a more conservative personality. Ive also noticed more people being kind to each other, smiling in gratitude when someone makes space on the sidewalk, and engaging with each other on the street, in stores, and at restaurant takeaway counters. Under the duress of the pandemic, it looks like Munich might be letting its hair down. Originally Appeared on Vogue April 21 : Veteran writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar condemn the recent lynching of two innocent Sadhus in Palghar area. Three men were killed include two sadhus and their car driver in Palghar, Maharashtra. On April 16, a group of villagers in Palghar district of Maharashtra dragged out three men out of their car and beat them to death on suspicion that they were thieves. The attack on the three took place amid a nationwide lockdown. Three days later, videos of the incident on social media were amplified with an insinuation that it was a communally-motivated crime. Now, Javed Akhtar took to his social media and condemned the Palghar incident and demanded severe punishment. He tweeted, Those who are responsible for the lynching of the two seers and their driver should not be spared at any cost. There shouldnt be any tolerance for a barbaric and heinous crime like lynching in a civilised society Earlier, Javed Akhtar also expressed his anger over Moradabad incident, where a team of doctors, nurses and other staff were attacked during Covid-19 lockdown. He shared, I cant imagine how ignorant one has to be to attack those who are at the risk of their own lives are out there to save other lives What has happened in Moradabad is a matter of great shame I request the educated people of that city to some how contact and educate such ignorant Rajesh Asnani By Express News Service JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government has stopped the use of rapid test kits in the state after their accuracy rate was found to be just 5 per cent. When doctors tested COVID-19 patients with the kits at the Sawai Mansingh (SMS) hospital in Jaipur, the results were negative in 95 percent of the cases. A committee of experts from the Micro Biology and Medicine Department of SMS College, Jaipur, tested the kits on 100 confirmed COVID-19 patients but were shocked to find that only five of them were found positive while the other 95 were declared negative. The committee has prescribed that PCR tests are the correct way to diagnose COVID-19 as rapid testing has turned out to be quite unreliable. State Health Minister Raghu Sharma said, "After the test sample results, there is a question mark over the rapid test kits. We used it in the state as per ICMR guidelines but this experiment failed completely. We were hoping that the accuracy of the test will be more than 90 percent but it was just 5 percent. We have sent the report of the results to the ICMR. If the ICMR doesn't provide any satisfactory response, we may send all these kits back," he said. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot had also stated in a video conference with the media that the purchase of the kits was done only after consulting the ICMR. 10,000 rapid test kits had initially been sent to Rajasthan, with each kit costing Rs 600. These kits are also being demanded by many other states but after the doubtful results in Rajasthan, their usefulness is under a cloud. On Monday, 98 new COVID-19 cases were detected in Rajasthan of which 50 were in Jaipur. With this, the number of COVID-19 patients has reached 1576 in the state, while 25 people have died due to the infection. 26 districts have been hit by the virus in the state. A line of vehicles moves toward Aspen on Highway 82 on Friday morning following Thursdays snowstorms that brought nearly two feet of fresh powder to the area. Reports of nonresidents coming into the Aspen area to ride out the coronavirus crisis are on the rise. Kourtney Kardashian shared the sweetest 'Lady And The Tramp' moment with her seven-year-old daughter Penelope Disick on Monday. In the 41-year-old reality's latest Instagram, the mother daughter recreated the iconic spaghetti kiss scene from the hit 1955 animated Disney classic. 'My lady,' the mother-of-three captioned the recent throwback shot, outside a beachside restaurant. Adorable: Kourtney Kardashian shared the sweetest 'Lady And The Tramp' moment with her seven-year-old daughter Penelope Disick on Monday Kardashian's little girl, who she shares with ex Scott Disick, looked smitten in a beige hoodie, as she sat with her legs crossed with the plate of pasta on her lap. The Poosh founder, who was sporting an over-sized blue sweatshirt layered over a white top, kneeled over, while sharing a string of spaghetti with Penelope. If the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star's recreation looks familiar, she first intimated the cartoon with her then-21-month-old son Mason in 2011. Iconic: In the 41-year-old reality's latest Instagram, the mother daughter recreated the iconic spaghetti kiss scene from the hit 1955 animated Disney classic; pictured above Her younger sister, Kim Kardashian, 39, posted the photo of Kourtney and Mason on her website, while the pair were filming their spin-off reality show Kourtney & Kim Take New York. At the time, Kourtney and Scott, who dated off-and-on from 2006 to 2015, were living in New York with Kim, who was still briefly married to Kris Humphries. Since their final spilt, Kourtney and Scott have maintained a very amicable relationship, as they co-parent their children, also including five-year-old Reign Disick. Memories: If the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star's recreation looks familiar, she first intimated the cartoon with her then-21-month-old son Mason in 2011 Earlier this week, the proud dad posted a photo of his youngest attempting to pull Penelope off a lounge chair by his pool. 'My loves,' the Flip It Like Disick star captioned the shot of his kids enjoying their time under quarantine. Kourtney recently revealed during an Instagram Live that the kids are spending five days at her house and two at their dad's amid the coronavirus pandemic. 'My loves,' the Flip It Like Disick star captioned the shot of his kids enjoying some quality time together under quarantine She said: 'I think because the kids are going back and forth to both houses I try to schedule my work on those days. 'I think its even nice for the kids to get a different change of scenery, get into a different house. They have their own dog over there. Its just a different vibe in the different houses.' The kids are also spending some quality time with dad's girlfriend Sofia Richie, 21, who's quarantining at Scott's house. Stepmom material: The kids are also spending some quality time with dad's girlfriend Sofia Richie, 21, who's quarantining at Scott's house A source recently told HollywoodLife: 'Scott and Kourtney have done their best to make this quarantine as smooth of a transition for their kids as possible. 'When Scott cant be with the kids, he FaceTimes with them, calls, or texts whenever possible. Sofia is totally supportive of his relationship with the kids and has joined in on a few FaceTime chats, too.' And Richie's mom Diane Alexander, 52, approves of 'really good guy' Scott, recently telling Heat: 'I love him!' The National Identification Authority (NIA) has refuted claims that the Authority has unlawfully issued Ghana cards to some foreign nationals, specifically to a Chinese national. This follows a video circulating on social media suggesting that the possession of a Ghana card by a Chinese was unlawful. In a statement issued and signed by Mr Francis Palmdeti, the Head of Corporate Affairs, and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, the Authority said issuance of Ghana Card to resident foreigners in Ghana was backed by law. It said a Chinese or other foreign nationals may lawfully possess a Ghana card as contained in Section 2 (2) of NIA Act 2006, Act 707, and Section 7 of National Identity Register Act 2008, Act 750. "By virtue of these legal provisions NIA is mandated to register and issue Ghana cards not only to Ghanaians living in Ghana and abroad but also to foreigners legally resident in Ghana. "The NIA has since 2012 been issuing Ghana cards to qualified foreigners who have lived in the country for a cumulative period of 90 days and above as per the National Identity Register Regulations LI 2111 (2012)," it stated. Touching on some key features, the statement said the cards issued to Ghanaians had both ECOWAS Identity boldly printed with ECOWAS and the Ghana flag at the top left and right corners respectively. But the card issued to foreigners had boldly printed on its face in red NON CITIZEN and it was marked same in the National Identity Register (database). Although the law prescribes that the National Identity Card issued by NIA should be known as the Ghana card, it said this name was, however, not printed on the face of the cards issued to either Ghanaians or to foreigners. Thus, a Ghanaian or a foreigner may lawfully possess the Ghana card as long as he or she had complied with the respective registration requirements. It further stated that unlike the Ghana Card issued to Ghanaians which was valid for 10 years, the NON-CITIZEN Ghana Card issued to foreigners was, however, valid for one year, renewable annually. Eligible foreigners paid a fee of 120 dollars to register and acquire the Ghana card and 60 dollars for renewal. 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 SPRINGFIELD - A Springfield man who is awaiting trial following his arrest in January for illegal weapons possession was arrested again Monday night in Springfield for illegal weapons possession, police said. Eduardo Maldonado, 25, of Rochelle Street was stopped by Springfield police on Central Street for driving with a suspended license. When they searched the car prior to it being towed, they found a loaded .40 caliber Glock handgun with a 16-round magazine inside the vehicle, said police spokesman Ryan Walsh. Maldonado is charged with carrying a loaded firearm without a license, possession of a large-capacity firearm, driving with a suspended license, and failure to surrender a license with a suspended license to carry. Maldonado and another man were arrested on Jan. 28 by Massachusetts State Police after a traffic stop on Interstate 391 led to the discovery of a handgun and some heroin. Walsh said Maldonado had been released on bail following his arraignment for that arrest. Walsh said the weapon is the 10th unlawful firearm that Springfield police have taken off the streets since March 21. China held a launch ceremony for its first Type 075 amphibious assault ship in Shanghai on September 25, 2019. Photo: 81.cn China's Hudong Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai is expected to launch a new ship on Wednesday. Some military observers believe it could be China's second Type 075 amphibious assault ship. A new ship built by the Hudong Zhonghua company will undock from 1:20 pm to 2:50 pm on Wednesday, and a water area of 1,500 meters long and 350 meters wide near the dock will be restricted for navigation, according to a navigation notice released on the website of the Maritime Safety Administration of China on Monday. The notice did not specify the type of the ship. Since the Hudong Zhonghua shipyard is hosting the construction work of China's second Type 075 amphibious assault ship, and publicly available reports said in March that the ship would likely launch soon, some Chinese military enthusiasts speculated online that the ship mentioned in the Monday notice could be the Type 075. The release of the notice also coincided with an unverified photo posted on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform, on Monday, which showed the second Type 075 appeared complete, a sign of an imminent launch, military observers said. Thursday will be the 71st anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, and military enthusiasts said the launch of the second Type 075 on Wednesday, if it turns out to be real, could serve as a birthday present for the PLA Navy. Actor Arvind Trivedi, popular for having played Raavan on the cult television series Ramayan, initially turned down the role, and Paresh Rawal was the one who encouraged him to pursue the part. In an interview, Trivedis granddaughter revealed that the actor was working on a play with Paresh when he was offered the part of Raavan. When Ramanand Sagar told him that he will be playing Ravan, his granddaughter told Mumbai Mirror, Nana earlier rejected it because he was committed to the play. But then, it was Paresh Rawal ji himself who convinced Nana that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and that he should not give it a miss. He convinced and motivated him to take up the role and only then did he agree to do it. Also read: Raavan actor Arvind Trivedi watches Sita apaharan scene, has emotional reaction Recently, a video of Trivedi emotionally watching a scene from the show was widely shared online. Ramayan is being re-telecast during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, more than 30 years after it originally aired. The show catapulted its actors into stardom, and Trivedi was no different, despite playing the demon king Raavan. People used to come and touch his feet and used to tell him that they are his die-hard fans, his granddaughter added. She also recalled an incident when a couple asked the actor to bless their newborn child. When Trivedi was unable to personally visit them, he wrote back with a suggestion: that they name their daughter Vaidehi. They did. Follow @htshowbiz for more Head of Business Development at Allianz Insurance Ghana, William Annor Adu has disclosed that businesses have a moral responsibility to contribute to the Governments efforts to overcome the spreading of the novel coronavirus. "It is only wise and significant that we put all hands on deck in the fight against COVID-19," he added. Mr. Adu, who was speaking at the presentation of various items to the Ghana Health Service last Friday, further stated that it is in businesses interest to ensure normalcy is restored. As such, they have to contribute their quota towards stopping the spread of the virus. When the economy bounces back and every company is thriving, patronage of products and services increase, impacting positively on both the top and bottom lines of companies as well as creating more employment. We need to share the little we can so we all fight COVID-19, which is the common enemy, he stated. He further stressed that as an insurance company, its core mandate is to sell promises that cover the risks of clients (existing and potential) and perform when a loss or accident occurs by paying claims when due. Our customers can only patronize our products when they, their families and businesses are doing well and we need to help in that regard, he added. The company donated items such as hand soaps, hand sanitizers, Veronica buckets, Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) among other essential items needed to combat the pandemic. The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye who received the items expressed his outfits appreciation to Allianz and stated that the battle against COVID-19 will succeed with a strong collaborative effort from all stakeholders. The presentation by Allianz Insurance will go a long way to protect health workers and improve compliance with the education we are giving in terms of hand hygiene. We hope that when all this is over, our businesses will thrive and we will all be healthy, he added. Allianz operations in Ghana started in 2009. Allianz insurance customers enjoy an extensive selection of insurance covers for all classes of business. They provide a wide range of products and services such as Motor, Home, Travel, Injury and Disability Insurance. Allianz Insurance also underwrites SME insurance, Public Liability Insurance, Asset, Marine Hull and Cargo, Construction, Transport & Cyber Liability Insurance. On May 24th, 2018, Allianz officially launched its life insurance operations in Ghana. The company offers savings plans, funeral and term life policies for both the retail and microinsurance markets as well as group life products for companies, SMEs, groups, and associations. Source: Patricia Sefa Fisher/Peace Fm Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The district administration on Tuesday banned the movement of people between Ghaziabad and Delhi as per lockdown orders, an official said. However, people with valid passes and engaged in essential and emergency services will be allowed to move between the two cities, District Magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said. There is no relaxation in lockdown orders, and industries and offices in the district will not be open. Previous orders and conditions would remain in the same condition when the lock down was declared, he said. Two societies KDP and Girnar, which were COVID-19 containment zones, have now been opened, while Islam nagar colony and ATS society of Indira puram have been sealed, the officer said. Total 15 societies are sealed and declared hot spot, the DM said. Pandey said till Monday evening, 311 samples were received by the health department, including from ATS society, and 307 tested COVID-19 negative and four positive. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) State procurement worth from US$1,838 to be held via Ukraine's ProZorro from April 19 16:15, 21.04.20 3251 The new version of the law provides for increased liability for gross violations of tender legislation. Georgia Insurance Commissioner John F. King has been on the front lines during times of crisis for the United States for most of his career. A former Georgia police chief and current Major General in the U.S. Army National Guard, King has experience in emergency management, handling everything from natural catastrophes to top military operations. King says the COVID-19 pandemic happening now is beyond the scope of anything he has seen before in his service, which includes deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Response efforts to the pandemic are what he imagines the country must have gone through in mobilizing for World War II. This is the most unusual, most challenging event that I think Ive faced, King told Insurance Journal in an interview. Were responding to every state of our great union and [the militarys] never done that. Were working with all FEMA regions. King is back on the front lines during this crisis, overseeing the construction of COVID-19 state medical facilities and temporary hospitals and facilitating bringing military medical practitioners from across the U.S. to help relieve a very stressed medical system. He has so far been in Louisiana helping New Orleans turn its convention center into a hospital and was in New Jersey last week. The goal is to alleviate pressure on the local hospitals. He also chairs Georgias Emergency Preparedness Committee started by Gov. Brian Kemp to respond to the pandemic. I think what weve been learning is that we have to become more efficient; we have to be very clear in our communications, he said. While away, King continues to oversee Georgias insurance market. Although he is not physically in Georgia now, he said he has been in constant communication with staff at the Georgia Department of Insurance as they work to educate consumers and ensure insurers clearly communicate with policyholders. King was appointed by Kemp as insurance commissioner in 2019 after then-Commissioner Jim Beck voluntarily suspended himself from his elected position amid a criminal investigation. At the time, King was serving as chief of police in Doraville, Ga. As he navigates this unprecedented crisis, King said the close network of state insurance commissioners, particularly in the Southeast, has been incredibly helpful in cutting through the red tape and helping him reach decision makers in the various areas he has been deployed. That has helped the military teams he oversees get to work in the regions as quickly as possible. In New Orleans, the first call that I made was the insurance commissioner. He told me who were the key decision makers, the director of emergency management, and we compared the authorities that the insurance commissioner of Louisiana has versus what I have in Georgia, he said. His role as insurance commissioner involves communicating not only with consumers, but also with insurance companies and that communication, he said, has been essential during this crisis. Companies have reached out to his department and others he has spoken with said they are all trying to work together with the industry to find solutions that help consumers during this time. A lot of people outside this industry think that insurance commissioners go and beat up on insurance companies. In Georgia, and with my colleagues in the Southeast, I didnt get that feeling, he said. The insurance companies were calling us and asking us, Hey, what can we do? This is unusual, we need to stabilize, we need to communicate clearly, because theres a great deal of fear and a lot of misinformation.' He has been impressed with the marketing steps the industry has taken so far including issuing premium relief for auto insurance customers and offering flexibility to policyholders facing hardship. These moves show insurers are good corporate citizens, he said. In addition, input from the insurance industry has been essential to the department as it weighs proposals and evaluates if any actions it plans to take are clearly understood. King said he will be paying close attention to the controversial topic of business interruption and whether insurance policies cover losses from the shutdown. Because business shutdowns have come as a result of governors issuing stay at home orders, he said his interpretation is that these policyholders should be covered in many respects. We understand the root cause is going to be the pandemic, but theyre shutting down because of the orders from the governor, he said. We will address it if somebody files a complaint because they feel they should be covered we will act on that and conduct a thorough investigation. The issue is not black and white, he said, despite many reports of no coverage. The people are obeying a lawful order under emergency circumstance from a governor. Theyre going to get the protections from the insurance commissioners office, he said. Consumers across Georgia, he noted, are looking for help and the insurance department is one of the places they are turning to for information. At the same time, the insurance industry is also looking for guidance from the insurance department on how long the many emergency orders that have been implemented could last. Among Kings emergency orders include: directing all P&C insurers to refrain from canceling any commercial policies, including business interruption or business income coverage, for the cause of non-payment for 60 days, or longer, starting March 20; suspended activities and functions that require in-person interaction, including all onsite exams, audits, and licensing requirements; temporarily suspending all non-federal filing deadlines are temporarily suspended and waiving applicable late filing fees; immediate and expedited review for products that are critical due to the COVID-19 outbreak or its effects; waiving CE requirements through April 30 and canceling insurance agent applicant testing. The department is currently evaluating when these orders can be relaxed. The key now is how long can we sustain this pace, he said. We know that it is going to be very difficult to sustain the guidance and regulations that we published. They were intended to be for a short duration and under emergency conditions we have to obviously support our consumers, but we cant wreck the industry in the process. The crisis is far from over at this time he said, however, he wont make any decisions that could cause more problems. When one part of the country starts relaxing theres going to be this big push to try to get everybody else to, and thats why we have to pay a lot of attention and work very closely with the governors to make sure that were not turning the faucet on prematurely or else were going to cause more damage than what were trying to fix, he said. The current crisis has opened his eyes to the true authority the office of insurance commissioner carries, King noted. Because it is an elected position in Georgia, King said he is accountable to the public but also understands that companies are working really hard to work closely with us because we provide them the opportunity to do business in these tough times. Ive been very impressed with the fact that theyre all coming on board they want to help, he said. Managing his multiple roles right now has been made easier thanks to his staff. Were doing remote operating, I just happen to be a little bit farther away than the rest of my team, he said. King, calling himself an optimist, said he isnt worried about the long-term impact of the pandemic on the Georgia insurance market. The insurance industry, he said, has always underwritten innovation and this is another opportunity for it to do so. We will adapt; we will change the way we do business. We have survived worse, and I think we will come out of this completely on top of it. We just have to get through the initial shock of what were having to deal with, he said. But I never underestimate the ability of our great country and our great industry this is just another challenge and this industry will thrive. I have incredible confidence that our industry will thrive. He encouraged the industry to continue communicating with state insurance departments, noting insurers are coming out with innovative ideas such as premium reductions that are being incorporated into the decisions of regulators. Every insurance commissioner that I know of is listening very carefully to the industry because were all in this together, and were all going to come out of this together, but we have to have a transition. We have to help our country survive this, he said. Hear the full interview: Topics Carriers USA Georgia Market A health worker (R) holds a test tube containing a swab sample for CCP virus testing collected from a man at the Colombo Municipal Council office during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 disease, in Colombo on April 19, 2020. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images) Rite Aid Expands COVID-19 Self-Swab, Drive-Thru Testing With 11 New Locations Rite Aid is expanding its drive-thru testing locations for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, with 11 new locations opening on April 22. The pharmacy chain announced its new testing sites would be opening Wednesday in Delaware, Idaho, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Rite Aid first began piloting its drive-thru testing locations for the CCP virus on March 22, and the latest openings bring its self-testing sites to 24 locations across eight states. The new site locations opening Wednesday include: Dover, DE: 200 Pharmacy Drive in Smyrna 200 Pharmacy Drive in Smyrna Boise, ID: 3250 S. Eagle Road in Meridian 3250 S. Eagle Road in Meridian Grand Rapids, MI: 5995 Kalamazoo Avenue, SE in Kentwood 5995 Kalamazoo Avenue, SE in Kentwood Saginaw, MI: 4598 State Street in Saginaw 4598 State Street in Saginaw Central, NJ: 31 Mule Road in Toms River 31 Mule Road in Toms River Albany, NY: 1863 Central Avenue in Colonie 1863 Central Avenue in Colonie Akron, OH: 4053 South Main Street in Akron 4053 South Main Street in Akron Youngstown, OH: 713 North State Street in Girard 713 North State Street in Girard Erie, PA: 5430 Peach Street in Erie 5430 Peach Street in Erie Scranton, PA: 20 South River Street in Plains 20 South River Street in Plains Virginia Beach, VA: 2293 Upton Drive in Virginia Beach All test locations will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week and Rite Aid pharmacists will oversee the use of self-swab nasal tests. Each site will carry out some 200 tests daily, according to Rite Aid. Those who wish to qualify for testing at the sites must meet guidelines established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Rite Aid said a doctors note is not required, reported USA Today, however, individuals must be at least 18 years of age, possess a government-issued ID, and sign up on its website in advance. Those who wish to be tested for the CCP virus will take part in an online screening process. If individuals meet the criteria, they will be notified by the drugstore chain where to go to get tested, subject to availability. Those who qualify will be able to be tested at no cost. To ensure social distancing measures are maintained, the tests will be administered in Rite Aid parking lots, and individuals will be asked to remain in their vehicles throughout the process. Were really trying to make sure patients are educated about whats going to happen when they arrive, and then once theyre on-site, were here to help, company spokesperson, Christopher Savarese, told CNN. Testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, will be conducted by BioReference Laboratories. PWNHealth, a national clinician network that enables safe and easy access to diagnostic testing, will provide clinical oversight for the testing program. The pharmacy chain has partnered with Verilys Project Baseline to facilitate COVID-19 virus test screening, scheduling, and returning participants test results. More than 787,000 people have been reported to be infected by the CCP virus in the United States. At least 42,364 have died, according to a tracking map by Johns Hopkins University. However, the figures are believed by some experts to be unreliable owing to inaccurate data from China. Representational picture Most days, you can find Dayaram Kushwaha and his wife, Gyanvati, hauling bricks for stonemasons in a booming northern suburb of New Delhi. They bring their 5-year-old son, who plays in the dirt while they work. But now a hush has come over the clattering construction site, silenced by India's nationwide order to shelter in place to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Site managers no longer come to the intersection where Dayaram and many others stand, hoping to pick up work. Coronavirus News India LIVE Updates And so, with no way to feed his family or pay the rent, Dayaram hoisted his son Shivam onto his shoulders and began to walk to the village where he was born, 300 miles away. He tried not to worry about what would happen once he got there, with empty pockets instead of the money he usually sent home to help support those left behind. At least he would have a home. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show By dusk on the second day, Dayaram and around 50 others from his extended family had reached a deserted expressway running south out of the capital. The family were hungry, thirsty and tired, and the police were never far away. Every time they stopped to rest, officers would shout at them to keep moving in single file, to maintain distance from one another to avoid spreading the virus. Officers are under orders to enforce the lockdown, but on that day they were allowing people to move. Dayaram, 28, looked around. Thousands of other migrant workers were doing the same thing, in one of the biggest mass movements of people in the country since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. It began to rain. Dayaram's thoughts turned to his other son, 7-year-old Mangal, who had been left behind in the village with elderly relatives because it was too hard to care for two children while he and his wife worked. He missed him. In the middle of a pandemic, there was one consolation: "At least I will be with him." PUSH AND PULL For decades, villages across India have been emptying out. To many people, the decision is one of simple arithmetic: to earn $6 per day instead of $3 back home. In areas like the parched Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh state, home to Dayaram's ancestral village, living off the land has become increasingly difficult as rainfall recedes. Others seek something more abstract: the prospect of escape that pulls anyone toward a big city. But after the shutdown, the cities themselves began to empty. Dayaram and his family were among the first to move. As the days went on, and the situation became more desperate, hundreds of thousands of migrants emerged from factories and workplaces in search of a way home. Indian officials say the shutdown is necessary to beat coronavirus in the densely populated country of 1.3 billion people, with a health infrastructure that can ill afford a widespread outbreak. But for Dayaram and many of India's estimated 140 million migrant laborers, the epidemic is much more than a threat to their health it endangers their very economic survival. Also read: In pics | 1 million under lockdown in Dharavi - one of Asia's largest slums In the shutdown, India has banned domestic and international travel, and factories, schools, offices and all shops other than those supplying essential services have been shut. Taken together, the measures amount to one of the harshest lockdowns in the world. Cases here have spiked to nearly 17,000, with more than 500 deaths. On April 14, the government extended the curbs until at least May 3, prompting clashes between police and migrants trying to leave India's financial capital, Mumbai. Migrants are the backbone of the urban economy. Construction workers such as Dayaram are a necessity for India's rapidly expanding cities. Others clean toilets, drive taxis and deliver takeout. They predominantly earn daily wages, with no prospect of job security, and live in dirty, densely populated slums, saving money to send back home. That money is essential to the young and elderly left behind in villages. Around $30 billion flows from urban to rural areas in India each year, according to government and academic estimates. Now that infusion of money, transferred through rural banks or in worn stacks of rupees borne home on rare visits, has come to a halt. TURN BACK TIME The journey from New Delhi deep into rural India is one not just of distance, but of traveling back in time. Skyscrapers and well-paved toll roads give way to fields of wheat and okra. Bare-backed men till the land with buffalo; an elderly shepherd herds his goats down a dusty lane. After four days of walking and hitching lifts on a series of goods trucks, Dayaram, Gyanvati and Shivam reached their family's two-room concrete hut in Jugyai, a farming village of 2,000 people. In a dingy room in the house filled with sacks of grain and clothes, an unframed poster hangs on the wall. It depicts a handsome red-roofed house on a lake, sun setting behind snow-capped mountains. A pair of mallard ducks fly overhead. "I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other," it says. Though he can't read the English text on the poster, Dayaram agrees with the sentiment. He misses this village that can no longer sustain him. "It's not that I love Delhi," he said. "I need the money to survive. If we had it, we would have stayed here. This is home." His mother, 53-year-old Kesra, is more practical. She too had gone to New Delhi with her family, leaving the village behind. "Home is wherever the family is," she said. "At least in Delhi there is money to buy food." But now they are all back, and there is no money to buy food. Making it even worse, suspicion is never far away. The returnees must deal with new prejudice from villagers who used to be their friends. "I am scared," said Sai Ram Lal, a neighbor who works in a soybean-oil factory here. "It was spreading in Delhi, and I am worried that they have brought it here. We keep our distance. We don't interact with them like we used to before." For Dayaram, that has left him an outsider in his own village. "WE ARE LIKE GARBAGE" The Bundelkhand region is famous for the towering 16th century sandstone temples and mausoleums of nearby Orchha. It has its own distinct culture, and young men still listen to high-tempo music in the local Bundeli language on their mobile phones. The region used to get up to 35 inches of rain per year, according to the India Meteorological Department, but over the last decade, that has almost halved. For many of the villagers, who have traditionally earned their living farming, it is a slow-motion disaster, forcing most able-bodied men and women to migrate in search of work. It is early April, and even before the full onset of the fierce Indian summer, where temperatures climb toward 50 degrees Celsius, or 120 Fahrenheit, the air is already uncomfortably dry. In a neighboring village where the majority of Dayaram's extended family lives, two dozen men stood idling by the road. Only one, 62-year-old Lal Ram, has never been to Delhi. "I had some money, so I never went," he said with a shrug. He's also the only one with a ration card, a sore point for those who migrated to Delhi. The Targeted Public Distribution Scheme allows India's poorest to purchase 5 kilograms of subsidized grains per month each. But because the migrant workers are no longer permanent residents, they're left without access to the food doled out from a nearby grain silo. "Nobody listens to us," one of the men said bitterly. "We are like garbage." Harshika Singh, the top government official in the district where both villages lie, didn't respond to requests for comment on the migrants' case. Dayaram's father, 58-year-old Takur Das, was the first in the family to set off for New Delhi in search for work when it became increasingly difficult to make a living off the parched land. That was a decade ago. Eventually, he sent for his son, too. The work there was hard, but it was steady. "We can get some money for your wedding," he told Dayaram. Many people in New Delhi would struggle to find Alipur, the Delhi suburb where they settled, on a map. It rarely makes the national news but for misfortune involving laborers: 25 children rescued by authorities in a series of warehouse raids; four men, including two brothers, crushed to death by sacks of rice. Dayaram says his heart sank when he saw the crowded, tarpaulin-roofed slum where the family slept 12 to a room. His first thought was to run away back to the village. But he stayed. What else could he do? Dayaram talks continuously about fate. His marriage, his move to New Delhi, his flight back home all were decisions made not out of choice, but necessity. Dayaram's maternal aunt played matchmaker when it came time for him to marry. He and Gyanvati were from the same Kushwaha caste, from a lower rung of India's ancient social order who traditionally worked in agriculture. They first met a month before their wedding day. "She was OK," Dayaram said, a smile briefly crossing his face, remembering their meeting. "But whatever is in my fate is fine, whether it is good or bad." After Mangal was born, Gyanvati stayed behind in Jugyai to look after him. When he was 1A, she came to New Delhi with him, too. But after Shivam was born, they were faced with a choice: take Mangal, too, or leave him in the village. "It's easier to carry one child while working, but two is too difficult," Gyanvati said. "So we had to leave him behind." NO ALTERNATIVE The family's return this month coincided with harvest of the winter wheat crop. One morning, after a night on a rope-strung bed under the light of the pink supermoon, Dayaram put on a shirt ripped at the left armpit and headed to a nearby field. His sons trailed behind, picking unripe berries from a bush. Shivam, wearing the same faded shirt in yellow checks as when he left New Delhi, put his hand on his elder brother's shoulder. Dayaram, Gyanvati and three other relatives began cropping stalks by hand with well-worn scythes. After three days there, harvesting almost a ton of wheat, they received no payment just 50 kilograms of the crop to take to the village flour mill. The family's basket of lumpen potatoes would last a week. When that ran out, they would have to survive on bread alone. In good months in New Delhi, they were able to save 8,000 rupees, or about $100, a month to send back home, and to repay a loan taken out when Gyanvati fell sick early in their marriage. But soon, Dayaram said, he would be forced to borrow again from local money lenders, charging interest at 3% a month a rate that can quickly spiral into unpayable debts. Despite being separated for months at a time, Mangal and Shivam are still close. Both have their father's broad nose and mother's lively eyes, the same matching bowl haircuts with unevenly shorn sides. "They cut each other's hair," said Gyanvati, laughing. "That's why they look like that." Both boys shrugged when asked if they wanted to go school, as if the issue had never really been discussed. Dayaram worries that the shutdown will end any hope of providing his children with an education. "No parent wants their child to work as a laborer," he said. But there is no alternative, he said: "They will have to do what I have done." Beneath the brilliant red blossoms of the Indian coral tree, the family finished the field on the stroke of midday, a white sun directly overhead. Mangal and Shivam were tired from chasing dragonflies through the freshly cropped stubble, and sat quietly watching cartoons on a mobile phone. Dayaram came over to where they were sitting. He wiped the sweat from his brow, looked at his boys and smiled. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - Osoyoos Cannabis Inc. (CSE: OSO) ("Osoyoos" or the "Company") announced today that the Company has entered into an equipment lease (the "Equipment Lease") and a joint-venture agreement (the "JV Agreement") with 2623942 Ontario Limited (the "Licensed Producer"). Furthermore, the Company is also pleased to provide a corporate update regarding its next annual and special meeting of shareholders and results of management's operational cost-cutting measures. Equipment Lease & JV Agreement The Licensed Producer is a private, vertically-integrated health and wellness company based in Barrie, Ontario. The company's facility includes in excess of 3,000 acres of outdoor hemp-based farmland and a licensed production facility under the Cannabis Act (Canada). The Licensed Producer is focused on utilizing its proprietary strains of industrial hemp to develop a wide range of innovative CBD-based products and will also offer contract tolling extraction services to other third-party businesses. Pursuant to the Equipment Lease, Osoyoos has agreed to lease one of its Vitalis Q-180 Series extraction systems to the Licensed Producer to process their proprietary-grown biomass for a term of four years. Osoyoos will receive up to $100,000 in cash upfront over the first 60 days of the lease and will receive monthly lease payments of approximately $17,750 (plus applicable taxes) for the remainder of the term. Provided that all payments have been made under the Equipment Lease, the Licensed Producer may at its option buyout the equipment at the end of the term for $1. Osoyoos and the Licensed Producer have also entered into a five-year JV Agreement to offer third-party contract tolling extraction and processing services, effective April 17, 2020. Under the JV Agreement, Osoyoos has agreed to provide use of its other Vitalis Q-180 Series extraction system to the Joint-Venture in exchange for 50% of the net profits derived from such tolling services, which is defined as revenues minus direct costs, which are to be mutually agreed to on a quarterly basis. The parties have also agreed to form a management committee to oversee the joint-venture's business plan, accounting, day-to-day operations and terms of processing contracts. Furthermore, Osoyoos is guaranteed a monthly minimum rental payment and total minimum cumulatuve payments of $1.5 million under the JV Agreement. Mr. Graham Simmonds, Chief Executive Officer of Osoyoos, commented, "We are very pleased to have found a licensed partner with a similar vision to Osoyoos that will allow us to begin providing high quality processing and extraction services as originally planned by the Company." He continued, "Bringing these services within a 45-minute drive of Canada's largest population centre in the Greater Toronto Area is also a major opportunity for the Company. We will be working with our licensed partner over the coming weeks to develop the marketing and launch plan for the joint-venture and production facility." Corporate Update Osoyoos has scheduled its next annual and special meeting of shareholders to be held on July 20, 2020. The Company plans to file its notice of meeting and management information circular on its SEDAR profile on June 19, 2020 outlining such items that shareholders will be voting on at the meeting. The Company understands a number of other companies have delayed their annual meeting dates due to the continuing concerns related to COVID-19 and to mitigate potential risks to the health and safety of shareholders and employees, however, at this time, the Company will work to maintain its current meeting schedule. The Company will continue to evaluate the situation and will follow the guidelines and advice of Canada's Public Health Agency as well as regulations from provincial and territorial governments with respect of COVID-19. Effective March 31, 2020, Mr. Tyler Devenyi ceased to hold office as Chief Operating Officer of the Company. Mr. Devenyi continues to serve as a director of Osoyoos. Furthermore, the Company is pleased to announce that over the past sixty days' management has been focused on implementing operational cost-cutting measures that have resulted in a reduction of over 25% of its recurring monthly operating costs and expenses. Osoyoos has also entered into a listing agreement to market its warehouse facility in British Columbia for sublease and aims to reduce this liability in the near future. About Osoyoos Cannabis Inc. Osoyoos Cannabis Inc. is focused on building a leading cannabinoid processing and extraction platform to provide contract tolling extraction services, sale of bulk cannabinoid-oil and sale of other proprietary Osoyoos Cannabis-branded and white labeled products. The Company is also seeking out other opportunities within the cannabis industry both in Canada and internationally. For further information, please contact: Gerry Goldberg Executive Chairman (416) 460-3000 ggoldberg@osoyooscannabis.com DISCLAIMER & READER ADVISORY Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "may", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Company's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, this release contains forward-looking information relating to the execution of the Company's business plan. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to the parties. The material factors and assumptions include regulatory and other third-party approvals; licensing and other risks. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and the parties are not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54679 SPRINGFIELD Big Y now requires its staff and its customers to wear face masks and or face coverings, according to new guidelines sent out Tuesday by the Springfield-based supermarket chain. The requirement that employees cover up to prevent the spread of the coronavirus goes for stores both in Massachusetts and Connecticut. If local or state regulations allow for an exception due to underlying health conditions, employees with health concerns can be excluded from this requirement, the company said. Customers are required to wear cloth face coverings or masks in accordance with state or local regulations. Big Ys new guidelines include a mix of new rules and precautions already in place: All Big Y World Class Markets will have posted customers limits. Should capacity be reached at any point, a store employee will assist customers with queuing up outside the store using social distancing. Big Y requests shopping trips be limited to one person per household whenever possible. While in the store, government guidelines require social distancing of 6 feet when and where possible. Please observe one-way aisle directions where present. Checkout social distancing markers have been added to all stores as well. Big Y operates 83 locations throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut, including 71 supermarkets. The company employs nearly 12,000 workers. Guidance about the use of face masks has changed as scientists learn more about he coronavirus and how it spreads. No one was recommending them, then governments started recommending them and now some municipalities including Northampton require that people wear them out in public. Related Content: DUBLIN, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Medical Devices Industry Report 2020" has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report provides a detailed overview of the global medical devices market and delivers a comprehensive individual analysis on the top 510 companies, including Boston Scientific Corporation, Abbott Laboratories, Vascular Enterprises and Teleflex Inc. The report covers activities such as medical, equipment, medical, manufacturers, surgical and includes a wealth of information on the financial trends over the past four years. The analysis is ideal for anyone wanting to: See the market leaders Identify companies heading for failure Seek out the most attractive acquisition Analyse industry trends Benchmark their own financial performance A quick glance of this report will tell you that 70 companies have a declining financial rating, while 89 have shown good sales growth. Each of the largest 510 companies is meticulously scrutinised in an individual assessment and analysed using the most up-to-date and current financial data. Every business is examined on the following features: A graphical assessment of a company's financial performance Four year assessment of the profit/loss and balance sheet A written summary highlighting key performance issues Subsequently, you will receive a thorough 100-page market analysis highlighting the latest changes in the market. This section includes: Best Trading Partners Sales Growth Analysis Profit Analysis Market Size Rankings For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ekgsw2 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com NEW YORK, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Credit Suisse AG ("Credit Suisse") announced today that the intraday indicative value of its 3x Long Crude Oil ETNs (the "ETNs") was equal to or less than zero on April 21, 2020. On April 21, 2020 the intraday indicative value of the ETNs was equal to or less than $0. As disclosed in the pricing supplement relating to the ETNs, because the intraday indicative value was equal to or less than $0, the closing indicative value of the ETNs on April 21, 2020, and on all future days, will be $0. Accordingly, because the amount of any payment due to holders at maturity, upon early redemption or upon acceleration is determined by reference to the closing indicative value of the ETNs, holders of the ETNs will not receive any payment on the ETNs. Because the Closing Indicative Value of the ETNs will be $0 on April 21, 2020 and on all future days, investors who buy the ETNs at any time at any price above $0 will likely suffer a complete loss of their investment. None of the other ETNs offered by Credit Suisse are affected by this announcement. Title of ETN Ticker Symbol ETN CUSIP VelocityShares 3x Long Crude Oil ETNs linked to the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index ER due February 9, 2032 UWTIF 22539T316 Press Contacts Karina Byrne, Credit Suisse AG, telephone +1 212 538 8361, [email protected] Credit Suisse ETNs Telephone +1 800 320 1225, [email protected] Credit Suisse AG Credit Suisse AG is one of the world's leading financial services providers and is part of the Credit Suisse group of companies (referred to here as 'Credit Suisse'). Our strategy builds on Credit Suisse's core strengths: its position as a leading wealth manager, its specialist investment banking capabilities and its strong presence in our home market of Switzerland. We seek to follow a balanced approach to wealth management, aiming to capitalize on both the large pool of wealth within mature markets as well as the significant growth in wealth in Asia Pacific and other emerging markets, while also serving key developed markets with an emphasis on Switzerland. Credit Suisse employs approximately 47,860 people. The registered shares (CSGN) of Credit Suisse AG's parent company, Credit Suisse Group AG, are listed in Switzerland and, in the form of American Depositary Shares (CS), in New York. Further information about Credit Suisse can be found at www.credit-suisse.com. SOURCE Credit Suisse AG Related Links http://www.credit-suisse.com A homeless encampment made of tents and tarps lines the Santa Ana riverbed near Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., on Jan. 25, 2018. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images) Orange County Wins Legal Battle on Use of Hotel for Sick Homeless SANTA ANA, Calif. (CNS)An Orange County Superior Court judge refused on April 20 to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the county from using a state and federal program to house transients infected with COVID-19 at a Laguna Hills hotel. Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Delaney ruled that the states emergency declaration supersedes any covenants, conditions, restrictions, and reservations of easements, or CC&Rs, that would bar a change in the use of the 76-bed Laguna Hills Inn at 23061 Avenida de la Carlota as part of Project Roomkey. On April 16, Delaney had indicated he was inclined to grant the city of Laguna Hills request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the county from using the hotel as a shelter for transients either showing symptoms or who have tested positive for COVID-19. Delaney had said he felt the citys argument that the hotel would be a public nuisance fell short, but was leaning toward granting the TRO on the basis of the citys argument that using the hotel for a quarantine shelter for transients was a change in the covenants, conditions, and restrictions of the property, which would allow for neighboring property owners to object. But on April 20, Delaney ruled that the countyas an agent of the state under the governors declaration of emergencycan use the hotel to house sick transients to address this public health crisis. The judge noted in his ruling that governor can commander or utilize property in an emergency, regardless of the CC&Rs, and that political subdivisions such as the county can carry out those duties. The county is acting consistent with the governors orders in the context of this state of emergency, Delaney said in his ruling. Delaney set an April 30 date for a preliminary injunction hearing. We are disappointed by todays ruling, and are considering our options going forward, Laguna Hills Mayor Janine Heft said. The citys attorney, Kelly Richardson, argued in court on April 20 that the county doesnt have the power of the state of California to override CC&Rs. Richardson did not agree that the county had the authority to act as a political agent of the state. There is no law that a political subdivision like a county can usurp that state authority given only to the governor, he said. Its not just a technicality. Its a huge gap that no one addresses straight on. Richardson argued that Project Roomkey is an unconstitutional taking of property rights of neighboring lot owners, who could, under normal circumstances, object to a change in the hotels use. This is a blanket suspension of property rights without identifying which property rights were being suspended, Richardson said. The court doesnt take this lightly, which is why we requested further briefing, Delaney responded. Even in an emergency people do not give up their constitutional rights. But the judge added that careful balancing is required to also address the emergency. Attorney Kevin Dunn, who represents the county, said eight transients have been waiting to get into the hotel and noted Gov. Gavin Newsom made it clear on April 18 that the TRO should be denied. State Attorney General Xavier Becerras office filed a brief on the night of April 19 arguing against the TRO. Without Project Roomkey, state and local officials will lose an important tool to combat the virus, and more Californians will suffer and die, the brief reads. The state issued its orders, the county is required to carry out those orders, Dunn said. This is a public pandemic emergency on a different scale altogether You cant create a legal island that is immune to state authority. On April 17, the countys attorneys argued in a brief that granting the TRO would likely have a detrimental domino effect to encourage other cities and private parties to file similar suits. The proposed injunction has the effect of paralyzing the county, making it nearly impossible to respond to the governors state of emergency related to Project Roomkey. It is unlikely the county could find another hotel in south Orange County, and could lose the two other hotels it has leases with, if the TRO is granted, the attorneys said. They also argued that requiring consensus on a change in covenants, conditions, and restrictions, or CC&Rs, during a state of emergency is simply nonsense. Must a fire or police department obtain HOA [Homeowners Association] approval before cordoning off a neighborhood to fight a fire or for a crime scene? the attorneys wrote in the countys brief. Must the federal government request a Plaza Pointe HOA waiver to position troops on the streets of Laguna Hills to defend an attack against the United States? Orange County CEO Frank Kim said late on the morning of April 20 that the judges ruling clears the way to move transients into the hotel right away. Kim said in a declaration that he had to pick a hotel on a list given to him by state officials, and that the list turned out to be very limited. He said it is a never-ending challenge finding a hotel owner willing to do business with the county housing transients, noting that the operator of another hotel in Laguna Woods backed out of its lease following protests from the city and the retirement community neighboring it. Kim also said that his staff has told him that a requirement to clear the CC&R conditions would disrupt the whole program statewide and cause unnecessary delay and complications to this short-term emergency use of facilities, including hotels. There are three transients with COVID-19 from Mission Hospital who have been recommended to quarantine at the hotel, but they had not been able to check in because of the lawsuit, Kim said. Kevin Akash, president of the Laguna Hills Inns owner, Elite Hospitality Inc., said in court papers that he is proud to work with the county of Orange on Project Roomkey. Elite agreed to participate in Project Roomkey because it was the right thing to do, Akash said. We want to do everything we can to help our community during this time of crisis. By providing temporary lodging to those in need, we will allow them to isolate, stem the spread of the COVID-19, and lessen the impact on local hospitals and on our community as a whole. Akash said the hotel is uniquely well-situated for the program because it is next to the freeway on a major thoroughfare, is in an industrial and commercial area far from homes, and is close to four area hospitals. Most of the neighboring businesses are closed at this time, he noted. County officials say the hotelsincluding one in Orange and another in Stantonwill be lockdown facilities, with private security preventing the participants from coming and going. A fence has been erected around the property, as well. Attorneys for the city contended that the workers hired to care for the guests could shop at area stores and get food at local restaurants, spreading the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. They also questioned how the guests would be prevented from leaving the hotel. The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic. On April 20, another COVID-19-related fatality was reported in Orange Countythe 14th in just under than a week bringing the death toll to 33. Another 41 confirmed cases were also reported, bringing the total to date to 1,676. Despite a fluctuation of cases, we have seen in Orange County the number of hospitalized is comparatively low, Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Michelle Steel said. We are starting to see a stabilization of the number of cases in this area. Just 30 of the more than 90 residents in a hotel-turned-direct provision centre, the Skellig Star in the centre of Cahersiveen town, have been tested for Covid-19, public representatives were informed last night in a conference call with HSE doctors and personnel. There is mounting concern in the Kerry town over a lack of social distancing among the residents, after four were diagnosed with the disease on Tuesday. Community and business leaders were only informed on Saturday evening, after seeking a meeting with local management. Residents are entering shops and moving around Cahersiveen. Paul Collins of Remcoll Capital, the company running the 56-bedroom facility and in the process of buying the main building, says he has been requested by locals to lock down the building - but he cannot do so. "I can't lock down the centre. I just can't do that under law," he said. Mr Collins said he is travelling to Cahersiveen on Wednesday where he hopes to meet with local representatives. A group of 105 were moved to the Kerry town from Dublin hotels because of the Covid-19 emergency. Around ten people have left. Originally the plans were for 150 residents, however the original complement will not be reached because of new social distancing rules, Mr Collins said. At the time of their arrival, after concerns about Covid-19 were raised, the Department stated all the residents had been health screened. If the concerns locally are that the people may have recently arrived from a region affected by Covid-19, I can confirm that no one in the group of 105 has been in this country for less than two months, and all have been health screened by the HSE-led medical team at our reception centre in Baleseskin, North Dublin on their arrival," a spokesperson for the Department said on March 16th last. TD Danny Healy-Rae this morning said he wants an investigation into the whole matter, and said whoever made the decision to move people from a premises which already had an outbreak must suffer the consequences. I am calling for an investigation. To expose the people of Cahersiveen to this virus is wrong. He and other TDs were told last night in a video link call that just 30 of the residents of the Skellig Star had so far been tested for Covid-19; but that further tests would be carried out today, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Locals want the HSE to act in the interests of public health in the interests of the community and the residents. The facility is not allowing people to social distance. The HSE said it has no remit in ensuring the implementation of social distancing. It should have, local woman Maire O Reilly said this morning. Mr Collins said social distancing is being adhered to. A dog that went missing outside a San Francisco grocery store in December has been found in Los Angeles, much to the delight of its owner. Emilie Talermos efforts to locate Jackson, her blue-eyed mini Australian shepherd, included passing out flyers, starting a website called Bring Jackson Home and hiring a plane to fly a banner over the city after he was lost on Dec. 14. On Monday, Talermo said, she received a call from an animal shelter in Los Angeles: Someone had dropped off a dog and a scan of his microchip had turned up her phone number. Talermo, 31, said she was skeptical at first and asked the shelter to send a photo. They did and its him, Talermo said by phone. I just busted into tears. Friends picked the dog up from the shelter, Talermo said, and promptly called her on FaceTime. He licked the phone hearing my voice and wiggled his butt, Talermo said. On the website, Talermo wrote that Jackson had been stolen the morning of Dec. 14 outside the Good Life grocery store in Bernal Heights after she had tied him up and gone inside. She offered a $7,000 reward for the dogs return and said Monday people in the community had rallied to help her get word out statewide through flyers and social media. The support continued on Monday: Talermo said her car died about an hour before the shelter called, but a San Francisco Police Department detective who was assigned to her case is driving to Los Angeles to retrieve Jackson and bring him back. (An SFPD spokesman said he expected to have more information about the case Tuesday.) The shelter didnt say who dropped Jackson off, Talermo said, and she doesnt expect to learn where he has been for the last four months. 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. At this point Im just happy to have him back, she said. Hes fat, so hes at least been fed. And the timing worked out: Talermo is moving out of San Francisco this weekend, returning home to Jackson Hole, Wyo. - the source of Jacksons name - before eventually moving to Portugal. She said Jackson will be going along - he has an international chip and Talermo has dual European Union citizenship. Universe really delivered, Talermo said. Matt Kawahara is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mkawahara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matthewkawahara The government in the Republic of Ireland is to discuss tightening of its travel restrictions with the Northern Ireland Executive. The cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19 met on Monday to discuss long-term care facilities, testing and overseas travel including a tightening of travel restrictions at ports. "Ireland needs to find a balance which allows the airports and ports to stay open," a statement said after the meeting, "in order to allow the movement of supplies, essential workers, and for Irish citizens to be able to return home, but which also minimises the risk of transmission of the virus, including the requirement for people arriving into Ireland to restrict their movements for 14 days. The sub-committee discussed a range of options to see if there was a "better way" of achieving those objectives on travel. "These will now be discussed further with cabinet, and with the administration in Northern Ireland, before a final decision is made," the statement added. Read More In March, when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced a lockdown of schools and colleges as well as limits on public gatherings, First Minister Arlene Foster said it was "disappointing" the Executive was not informed ahead of the decision. We have had very good interaction, not only between ourselves at political level, but also at medical officer level, she said in a press conference alongside deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill. "We were just made aware, I think, about 10 minutes before the statement was made by the Taoiseach. We did not know what the content of that statement was going to be." Health authorities on either side of the border have been in near constant contact and have since signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus. Michelle O'Neill has said it is not the time to talk about lifting restrictions in Northern Ireland and focus should be on people staying at home. The Stormont Executive is working on its options on lifting local restrictions. Read More On Monday the Republic reported its highest daily toll of deaths notified during the coronavirus outbreak, with 77 fatalities confirmed. Officials, however, stressed not all deaths occurred in the past 24 hours. The total number of people with Covid-19 who have died in the country now stands at 687. The current period of lockdown measures, which has forced the closure of many businesses and prevents people leaving their homes in all but limited circumstances, is due to expire on May 5. The Taoiseach expressed concern that complacency around the Covid-19 restrictions was setting in. Leo Varadkar also said he would not speculate about when Ireland would reopen. "Certainly anecdotally and speaking to people, there does seem to have been an increase in traffic and an increase in people out and about," he said. "It is OK for people to be out and about so long as they observe social distancing. It is OK for people to travel provided those journeys are necessary." He said there was concern that there had been "a little bit of complacency setting in". "That worries us because we are making real progress in terms of predicting the rate the virus is spreading and we don't want to lose that," he said. Mr Varadkar said the Government will set out a road map about how Ireland will come out of lockdown but said he did not want to speculate about what restrictions would be lifted first. He said: "What we're working on is a plan that we will have before the end of April. "It would indicate how we reopen the country in different steps and the criteria for moving from one step to the next. Until then, I would rather not speculate or fuel expectations." Meanwhile Business Minister Heather Humphreys said ROI firms should start to plan how they will come back when Covid-19 restrictions lift. "The National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) have drawn up a number of guidelines for retailers on how to manage social distancing and what they need to do," she told Ireland AM. "There are also guidelines for manufacturing companies. JACKSONVILLE, Fla., April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 26, 2020, Miami-based charter plane carrier Miami Air International filed for Chapter 11 Reorganization and bankruptcy protection due to coronavirus-related losses, prompting concerns from the Florida legal community that Miami Air will evade financial accountability for a major plane crash last year. In May 2019, Miami Air Flight 293 crashed into the St. Johns River with nearly 140 passengers on board, many of whom were veterans and active service members returning to Jacksonville from the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay. Many passengers were severely injured in the crash, which has largely been attributed to pilot error, poor weather, and improper aircraft maintenance. When airlines fail to perform essential maintenance checks and meet basic safety standards, these companies can be held civilly liable for passenger losses in the event of a plane crash. Because Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection allows a company to re-organize its assets and operations, it is possible that Miami Air Flight 293 crash victims may see a shortened timeline for their injury claims. If the company is forced to shut down, victims may never receive compensation for their life-altering injuries. Nationally recognized for high-stakes aviation accident litigation, the attorneys at Spohrer Dodd are currently representing at least 20 plaintiffs involved in the Miami Air Flight 293 incident, and they are also accepting new cases related to this plane crash. At this time, Spohrer Dodd invites anyone with a claim to come forward and review their legal options, to ensure that victims can seek fair recovery. Contact Spohrer Dodd at https://www.sdlitigation.com/ today for press inquiries and information about this matter. SOURCE Spohrer Dodd Related Links https://www.sdlitigation.com Barcelona-based Indian actor Ajay Jethi hadnt even heard of Money Heist before he was offered a role in the shows fourth season. Its only when his manager told him about the global popularity of the show that Jethi went back and did his research. The actor played Pakistani hacker Shakir in the latest season of the show, which released on Netflix recently. In an interview to The Quint, Jethi said that he was surprised to learn that the show wasnt just popular in Spain, but also among the Indian and Pakistani communities. He said that he doesnt even have a television, leave alone a Netflix account. In an earlier interview to Manorama, he said, I arrived in Spain in 2005 on a work visa and since then, worked as a construction labourer for a year. I then shifted to a factory job and using the money from there, I took Spanish language lessons and acting classes. Jethi said in the Quint interview that he was apprehensive about publicising his involvement in the series, because before a project is finished, you have no idea what the final product will end up looking like. He said he feels grateful that after 17 years as a working actor, his efforts paid off. Its a small character, but I never expected to get this much love. Also read: Money Heist creator reveals why he was forced to kill Berlin on the show, doesnt agree with decision He continued, People from India, Pakistan, Australia, Canada sent me messages. I got a little emotional. Punjabis are proud of me because they feel Im one of them. Pakistanis were proud because my character helps The Professor. Asked about which Indian actors would be perfect in a local remake of the show, Jethi said, making a reference to Ayushmann Khurranas recent declaration that hed want to do roles like the Professors, Ayushmann Khurrana is a good actor, hes struggled hard to be where he is, but the first name that comes to mind when I think of The Professor; I think Irrfan Khan would take it to another level. For the Professors girlfriend, Jethi thought Vidya Balan would be a good choice. Follow @htshowbiz for more Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 22:09:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MACAO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, has affirmed China's Macao Special Administrative Region's (SAR) credit ratings at "AA", the Monetary Authority of Macao said on Tuesday. The rating agency reaffirmed Macao SAR's (long-term foreign and local currency issuer default) "AA" ratings, due to its strong fiscal and external positions as well as the SAR government's stringent fiscal prudence. Macao's expectations of default risk are therefore very low, it said. Meanwhile, Fitch pointed out that moderate economic diversification and a shift towards a more stable growth model could benefit Macao's economy over time. Macao owns credible policy framework, resilient linked exchange rate system, solid external financial position, stringent fiscal discipline and sound financial system, which would continue to support Macao's creditworthiness and economic resilience, according to the Monetary Authority. Enditem The Japanese government has decided to expand its supplementary budget for the current fiscal year that began April 1 by more than 80 billion dollars. The move is to help fund cash handouts aimed at easing the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The supplementary budget now comes to more than 230 billion dollars. It will partly fund an emergency economic package worth about 1.1 trillion dollars. The government will offer cash handouts of 100,000 yen, or about 900 dollars, to every person in the country. It made the decision after reviewing a plan to provide triple that amount to households whose incomes have fallen sharply due to the pandemic. It is extremely rare for the Japanese government to make a major change to a draft budget that has already been approved by the Cabinet. The government now hopes to enact it as early as next week. To cover the shortfall created by the revision, the government will issue additional bonds. The total amount of government bonds to be issued in this fiscal year will be about 540 billion dollars. The figure is larger than in fiscal 2009, following the global financial crisis, and means that 45.4 percent of Japan's annual revenue depends on funds raised from government bonds. NEW YORK, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Taiwan Fund, Inc. (TWN) (the "Fund") announced today the results of its Annual Stockholders Meeting held on April 21, 2020. The Fund's stockholders re-elected five individuals to the Board of Directors (the "Board"). William C. Kirby, Shelley E. Rigger, Anthony S. Clark, Thomas G. Kamp and Warren J. Olsen were re-elected by stockholders for one-year terms, expiring in 2021. Director Votes Cast for Votes Against/Withheld William C. Kirby 5,884,039 272,263 Shelley E. Rigger 5,797,032 359,270 Anthony S. Clark 5,796,256 360,046 Thomas G. Kamp 5,885,078 271,224 Warren J. Olsen 5,797,297 359,005 The stockholders of the Fund also voted to approve an Agreement of Merger reincorporating the Fund, currently a Delaware corporation, as a Maryland corporation by means of a merger of the Fund into a wholly-owned, newly formed Maryland subsidiary, with 72.72% of the Fund's outstanding shares voting in favor of approval of the Agreement. For Against Abstain Non-votes 5,448,370 239,308 7,370 461,254 ***** The Fund is a diversified closed-end investment company, which seeks long term capital appreciation primarily through investments in equity securities listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Shares of the Fund are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "TWN." For additional information on the Fund, including information on the Fund's holdings, visit the Fund's website at www.thetaiwanfund.com or call 1-877-217-9502. SOURCE The Taiwan Fund, Inc. Related Links http://www.thetaiwanfund.com A tradesman has died after an industrial accident at a quarry in South Australia. Police were called to the Truro quarry, north east of Adelaide, on Tuesday morning after reports of a man with a head injury. Upon arrival they found the 29-year-old from the Barossa region being treated by paramedics. He was later pronounced dead at the scene. A tradesman has died after an industrial accident at the Truro quarry in South Australia 7News reported the man had become became entangled in a conveyor. Crime Scene and SafeWork SA investigators are conducting inquiries into the incident. 'SAPOL Crime Scene Investigators are assisting Officers from SafeWork SA who have attended and are investigating the incident,' a South Australian police media statement reads. Safework SA confirmed the tragic accident is the first work-related death recorded in the state this year. 'SafeWork SA offers condolences to his family, friends and colleagues at this distressing and sad time,' a Safework SA media statement reads. 'Investigations are continuing and we are unable to provide any further information at this time.' A report will be prepared for the coroner. Paris/IBNS: Amid growing discontent against China internationally over the alleged epicentre of COVID-19 being Wuhan city and reports of silencing information on the death toll in the country, the French foreign office recently summoned the Chinese ambassador, Lu Shaye, to express its deep disapproval about Chinese diplomats claims that France had left its older citizens to die, media reports said. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a ministry statement: "Certain recent public stances by representatives of the Chinese Embassy in France are not in keeping with the quality of the bilateral relationship between our two countries or with the relationships of trust and friendship between the French President and President Xi Jinping and between myself and my counterpart, Mr Wang Yi." "I clearly expressed to the Chinese Ambassador to France my disapproval of certain recent remarks when he was summoned to the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in the morning of Tuesday 14 April," read the statement. French authorities objected to two published items in particular. In the first, the ambassador claimed that amid the coronavirus outbreak old-age pensioners in nursing homes are forced to sign statements foreswearing emergency treatment, and that healthcare personnel in care homes have abandoned their jobs from one day to the next, collectively deserted, allowing residents to die of hunger and illness, reported The Irish Times. The second item concerned a petition by French parliamentarians to admit Taiwan, which is not recognised by China, to the World Health Organisation (WHO), reporte the newspaper. In Germany, Julian Reichelt, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Bild criticised Chinese President Xi Jinping for his regimes' handling of the COVID-19 outbreak. "You [Xi], your government and your scientists had to know long ago that coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it. Your top experts didn't respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan. You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace, wrote Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Germanys largest paper, Bild, which had questioned if China, should pay for the massive economic damage the coronavirus is inflicting worldwide," reported Fox News. Reichelt added: You rule by surveillance. You wouldn't be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country. You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stalls where bat soup is sold. You are not only monitoring your people, you are endangering them and with them, the rest of the world. China denied the allegations: The letter from Chinas embassy said as reported by Fox News: I followed your reporting on the corona pandemic in general and China's alleged guilt in particular today. Apart from the fact that we consider it a pretty bad style to blame a country for a pandemic that is affecting the whole world and then to present an explicit account of alleged Chinese debts to Germany, the article ignores some essential facts. "We note that many countries now struggling with COVID-19 have had time to prepare for the cross-border spread of the pathogen after China reported its outbreak under IHR [World Health Organization] guidelines," the letter read. Meanwhile, putting pressure on China, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday asked Beijing to be transparent as possible over the outbreak of the infectious disease. "I believe the more transparent China is about the origin story of the virus, the better it is for everyone in the world in order to learn from it," Merkel told reporters in Berlin Monday, reported Channel News Asia. Germany has already taken on China by joining the UK, France and the US as Bild, the tabloid newspaper in the country, put together a 130bn invoice that Beijing "owes" Berlin following the impact of Covid-19. Image: Internet Wallpaper WASHINGTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Multiple trucks loaded with a total of more than 320 thousand pounds of food have been arriving at food banks in the Washington, DC/Baltimore and the mid-Atlantic area from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the past month to help relieve the economic impact caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Food delivery items are inventoried at Nation's Mosque, Hyattsville, MD Imam Talib M. Shareef oversees the donated food delivery from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Nation's Mosque in Hyattsville, MD Last week, trucks arrived at the Nation's Mosque in Hyattsville, MD, the Langston Hughes Community Center in Baltimore, MD and Masjidullah, Inc, a non-profit located in Philadelphia, PA. Each location received 40 thousand pounds of food. The donations included basic food and supplies such as peanut butter, applesauce, beans, flour, sugar, spaghetti and milk powder. The deliveries also included cleaning supplies and toilet paper. "This donation was enough to feed more than 200 families," said Talib M. Shareef, President and Iman of the historic Nation's Mosque, Masjid Muhammad, in Washington, DC, speaking of the donation to the Hyattsville mosque. "It's been an inspirational day and we're happy to be part of it," said Michael Brady, President of the Baltimore Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Mike called me and asked how much food I needed and I said 15 hundred pounds," said Imam Earl Al-Amin of the Muslim Community Cultural Center of Baltimore. "Mike called back and told me there were 40 thousand pounds on the way. We've been distributing it all day." El-Amin directed the delivery to the Langston Hughes Community Center in Baltimore. "I met Mike a few years ago and we've worked on several initiatives. "People ask: 'what's the connection.' The connection is the Creator," said El-Amin. "The connection will always be the Creator." "The food donations have been coming from Salt Lake City since March when the first truckload was delivered to the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, DC," said Kevin E. Calderwood, Area Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Our Greatest form of worship during this pandemic can be serving and reaching out following the example of Jesus Christ." Last week, deliveries were also made to the Mount Airy Net and Frederick Food Bank in Frederick, MD. This week a truck will go to Fairfax and Chantilly, VA, where the delivery will be shared by Food For Others and the Western Fairfax Christian Ministries. The Maryland Food Bank in Baltimore will receive a delivery next week, as will the St. Lucy Project in Manassas, VA. The St. Lucy Project will receive a second delivery next month. The deliveries have an approximate value of 360 thousand dollars. Contact: Colleen Henrichsen 202.213.4895 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Seoul: An online media report saying Kim Jong-un underwent a medical procedure is fuelling new speculation about the North Korean leader's health after his unprecedented absence from events last week marking his grandfather's birthday. The Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that gathers information from informants inside the isolated nation, reported on Tuesday that Kim underwent a "cardiovascular surgical procedure" and has now mostly recovered. It was impossible to immediately verify the report, which the Daily NK said was based on one person's account inside North Korea. Kim's health has deteriorated in recent months due to heavy smoking, obesity and overwork, the Daily NK report said. A 10-year-old girl from Texas who made hand sewn coronavirus masks for healthcare workers at her local hospital has died in a tragic ATV accident. Lexi Brooke Collins, from Munday, was killed on Friday in the accident. The fifth grader, whose mother is a nurse at the Knox County Hospital District, inspired her community when she made masks for Anson General Hospital workers earlier this month. With school closed Lexi spent hours sewing 100 colorful coronavirus masks. The hospital gave her a shout out on Facebook on April 6 saying: 'Thankful for a beautiful donation of masks by a special 5th grader from Munday, Texas. Thank you Lexi Collins.' Texas 10-year-old Lexi Collins, who made 100 coronavirus masks for medics in her community, died on Friday in an ATV accident Healthcare workers at Anson General Hospital smiling wearing the hand sewn masks Lexi made them in early April The hospital gave her a shout out on Facebook on April 6 saying: 'Thankful for a beautiful donation of masks by a special 5th grader from Munday, Texas. Thank you Lexi Collins' 'Thank you all for making my girls day by thanking her publicly!' Lexis mom, Jara Collins, wrote on Facebook following the hospital's post. 'She loves to sew, and Im a nurse so she wants to help out all the nurses she can. Praying you all stay safe throughout all this! Lexi is so glad to help out!' Her donation was in reply to the crisis plaguing hospitals across the country where there's a shortage of medical supplies to help COVID-19 patients. In Texas there are over 20,000 cases of coronavirus and over 500 deaths. 'Lexi was a remarkable child. She was bright, talented, wise beyond her years, but overall had the most precious spirit I've ever known,' Munday City Councilwoman Karen Logan said according to KTXS. Logan says the little girl's donation to local hospital was fitting as her mother, grandmother, aunt and uncle are all nurses. She was laid to rest in a funeral ceremony on Monday where mourners were required to wear masks and practice social distancing. Little Lexi pictured smiling with mom Jara Gray Collins on social media A Facebook tribute featuring a picture of Lexi smiling with her masks pictured above Lexi is survived by her parents Jacy and Jara Collins, brothers Talan and Grayson along with her grandparents Jerry and Rachel Gray 'Lexi lit up the world she lived in, from her grandparents houses to the hallways of Munday Elementary,' her obituary said. 'With the closing of schools the past few weeks, Lexi spent her days between her home and her grandmothers house. She spent countless hours making much needed facial masks (approximately 100) for the Knox County community and other surrounding counties. 'Like her mother Jara, Lexi was a giver and helper she gave smiles, love, and anything else she could to just make your day better and helped others with the days tasks or helping an upset friend smile,' it added. She is survived by her parents Jacy and Jara Collins, brothers Talan and Grayson along with her grandparents Jerry and Rachel Gray. In Munday people are tying turquoise ribbons around trees in Lexis honor, her favorite color. Turquoise t-shirts say that Live like Lexi are also being sold to raise money for the memorial. After over 53 years of occupation, an Israeli government is on a path to further annex occupied Palestinian territory. On June 28, 1967, the Israeli Knesset approved a decision to annex East Jerusalem to Israel and on April 20, 2020, the government partnership agreement laid the groundwork for what officials call extension of Israeli sovereignty. The agreement signed April 20 between former Israeli army chief Benny Gantz and caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu places some conditions before this is to take place. Under the deal, the Israeli government or the Knesset can begin annexation proceedings July 1 based on the peace plan of the Donald Trump administration. PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Saeb Erekat reacted angrily to the deal, saying it rules out any negotiated peace agreement. A government coalition based on a commitment to annex more occupied Palestinian territory is a threat to a rules-based world order in general, but to peace, security, and stability in the Middle East in particular, Erekat said in a statement following the announcement of the new Israeli government. Hanan Ashrawi, a PLO Executive Committee member, said the Israeli political establishment has united on the agenda of permanent colonization and annexation. It is now very clear that Israeli political parties are unequivocally committed to the entrenchment and permanence of the conflict as well as the perpetual oppression of the Palestinian people with the full support and backing of the Trump administration, which is clearly intent on implementing its dangerous and objectionable plan. Ashrawi noted in a press statement that Palestinians will fight tooth and nail the lawless and dangerous agenda regarding Israeli attempts to further encroach on Palestinian lands. The Palestinian leadership is very clear on where we stand. Annexation is a declaration of permanent aggression on inalienable Palestinian rights and the standing of international law. The Palestinian people will confront this lawless and dangerous agenda resolutely and with unwavering determination. The new emergency government appears to have given life to the Trump administrations almost forgotten peace plan for the Middle East, which includes the annexation of Palestinian occupied lands in exchange for a weak Palestinian entity with some land swaps in the Negev desert. The newly signed agreement refers specifically to the Trump plan, saying, In reference to the declaration of President Trump, the prime minister and alternate prime minister will act with the full consent of the United States, including in the matter of maps vis a vis the Americans and in international dialogue on the matter, all while pursuing to preserve the security and strategic interests of the state of Israel, including the need to keep regional stability, keep existing peace agreements and pursue future peace agreements, according to an unofficial translation of items 28 and 29 in the plan obtained by Al-Monitor. Aaron David Miller, who was a top adviser on Middle East peace in past Democratic and Republican administrations, told Al-Monitor that Netanyahu has avoided acting on annexation these many years. This [governing] agreement was driven not by the Palestinian issue, but by his determination to defend himself while on trial as prime minister. Thats his main priority now. He will push it to see whats possible and some of it may be possible. But he wont let it jeopardize the current arrangement, Miller, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said. The head of the Arab Joint List, which had recommended Gantz to become prime minister, expressed disappointment and frustration, calling the deal a slap in the face to the majority of Israelis. Gantz and Netanyahu's government of surrender is a slap in the face of the civilian majority who go to the polls time and time again to oust Netanyahu. Gantz was not courageous enough to triumph and chose to legitimize annexation, racism and corruption," Ayman Odeh tweeted in Hebrew. The list has 15 members in the Knesset. Political analysts saw in the wording of the Gantz-Netanyahu deal a loophole that could prevent the possibility of annexation provided Arabs are united. Fadi Elsalameen, a Palestinian American academic at Johns Hopkins University, told Al-Monitor that both Egypt and Jordan, which have signed peace deals with Israel, could threaten to end those pacts if the annexation is carried out. He said, For Jordan, it threatens its national security as it implies Palestinians should seek statehood in Jordan instead of a future Palestinian state. There is an opportunity for Jordan and Egypt to work closely with the Palestinians to coordinate an international refusal of annexation. The annexation threat could be a perfect opportunity to Palestinians to unite and make sure that the Arab world is also united in refusing the taking of Palestinian occupied territories and the destruction of the little that is left of the possibility of a negotiated peace agreement. We are in a war. In this war, medical researchers are scrambling to understand the way a novel, highly contagious virus operates, and to curb its spread and fatality rates. As historians try to bring insight and perspective to the covid-19 pandemic, they cite the Black Death of the 14th century, the cholera pandemics of the 19th century, the 1918 flu pandemic of 1918. But many forget that diseases were also a weapon in Adolf Hitler's arsenal. Most know of the Holocaust by bullets. And conflagrations. And the industrialized use of gas chambers and crematoriums. But the Nazis also purposely created conditions that gave rise to lethal epidemics. Those who liberated certain concentration camps, who tried to save deathly ill survivors, experienced many of the same problems as do health-care clinicians who now treat coronavirus cases: shock, unpreparedness and mental and physical fatigue as they lost patients. In the winter and spring of 1945, chaos reigned at Bergen-Belsen in northwestern Germany. The camp had morphed into the largest dumping ground for inmates shunted from the east, away from Allied forces. In its massive complex, those who had escaped the gas chambers and survived slave labor camps and death marches met a new Nazi version of hell. There were no medical facilities, and few latrines and water faucets. There were no provisions for the influx of thousands into already overcrowded barracks. Rations were minimal until finally, there was no food. Or water. Nearly 36,000 - a staggering proportion of the camp's inmates - died from infectious disease in the first four months of 1945. Typhus, the greatest of the killer diseases, became rife in February, after its arrival with an incoming transport. The disease thrived in the conditions of extreme overcrowding and poor sanitation. Owing to the inability to wash, the bodies and clothing of nearly every Bergen-Belsen inmate were full of lice. The bacteria in these parasites remained alive for weeks, putting every inmate in Bergen-Belsen's "Horror Camp" at risk. With its starved, closely packed thousands, Bergen-Belsen was also suitable for pulmonary tuberculosis, spread through coughing, sneezing or spitting. Having compromised immune systems, the inmates needed only to inhale a few germs to contract the disease. Additionally, in a place where it was impossible to wash one's hands (let alone use soap), find clean food to eat or water to drink and to properly dispose of human waste, nearly every inmate suffered from gastroenteritis. Evidence of victims' inflamed intestines was seen in severe abdominal pain and diarrhea. Other symptoms included nausea and a high fever. Without adequate hydration, the disease is fatal. By depriving Bergen-Belsen inmates of water during the second week of April, the Nazis ensured the deaths of thousands. The Nazis cared not about the horrific symptoms or spread of any of these diseases because they saw Bergen-Belsen's population (largely composed of Jews, but also captured resistance fighters, prisoners of war, Roma and homosexuals) as subhuman. And so, the SS stayed away, worrying only that escaped inmates would transmit the disease to local Germans. Partly for this reason, the Nazis turned Bergen-Belsen over to the Allies, nearly a month before the war's end. To secure a cease-fire, the Nazis warned the British about the camp that their army units were about to approach. The risk that escapees might spread typhus was "a matter of international concern." The British agreed to a no-fire zone, the posting of "Danger-Typhus" signs at road entrances and to escort the camp's Wehrmacht and SS officers to the front lines, leaving 120 administrative SS to remain in the camp during the handover. Without worrying about Nazi attacks, the British expected to be able to treat and contain roughly 1,500 typhus cases. They were wrong. When a British reconnaissance party went to check on supplies in the camp on April 15, it found thousands of ravaged souls stumbling along, hanging onto 10-foot-high barbed-wire fences for support or lying where they had fallen. A horrific compound held 41,000 prisoners. More than 10,000 corpses lay in huge piles on the ground. The deputy director of medical services, Brig. Gen. H.L. Glyn Hughes, learned that 17,000 inmates had died the previous month: an enormous grave pit was half filled. And he learned that the Germans had lied: There were not 1,500 typhus cases in the camp - there were at least 15 times that number. The effects of tuberculosis were also devastating. Weeks after the liberation, when British medical personnel could finally X-ray the chests of inmates who had managed to survive to that point, they found that 40 percent had TB. Given the dearth of medical personnel, few had the time to record other common symptoms: chest pain, weakness, fatigue and fever. In fact, it was impossible for British doctors who arrived in Bergen-Belsen to determine whether a given individual was stricken with typhus, tuberculosis, gastroenteritis or a combination of two or all three diseases. Among daunting tasks before the liberators: to contain the virulent epidemics by burying the 10,000 corpses as well as hundreds who succumbed each day in the liberation's aftermath, and disinfecting and evacuating to a hospital those who had a chance of survival. Under the guidance of a specialist in epidemic typhus, the British succeeded in eradicating the contagious bloodsucking organism within two weeks thanks to the massive use of DDT (anti-louse powder). And on May 21, after the last surviving inmate was evacuated to a makeshift hospital complex for 13,000, Hughes, at a ceremony attended by British rescuers and survivors, gave the order: flame throwers burned down the last of the more than 100 typhus-infected huts. Although it would be an untenable stretch to compare Bergen-Belsen to the coronavirus pandemic, today's news brings reminders of what the camp's rescuers faced. Within days they set up the largest hospital in Europe. The shortage of supplies (they did not even have thermometers) led to scouring the area for any item they might obtain. The lack of medical personnel necessitated recruiting well-enough inmates for various jobs, pressing German nurses and doctors into service and calling for help from not-yet-graduates of London's medical schools. Unprepared for covid-19, medical administrators have been forced to set up makeshift hospitals, scramble to obtain essential supplies and extend limited human resources. Medical schools have been graduating students early, so they can serve on the front lines. But perhaps the most telling parallel, the one that drives home the point that we are at war, is the need - anticipated and in some places, real - for triage. In Bergen-Belsen, Hughes was forced to institute a heart-wrenching policy. The best chance of saving the most people was to place sick inmates into one of three categories: those likely to survive, those likely to die and those for whom immediate, rudimentary care would mean the difference between life and death. Medics going into the huts would have to make quick determinations as to who should be evacuated to the hospital and whom to leave behind. A recent message from doctors, nurses and ethicists from Harvard Medical School's Center for Bioethics forewarns us of the potential need for a similar policy today. Like Hughes's highly focused plan at Bergen-Belsen, this would mean taking a population-wide approach: to achieve "maximal overall benefit for entire communities" hospitals would be "unable to offer or continue ICU treatment or ventilator support to those who have a too poor prognosis to justify using those limited resources." Medical personnel are discussing patient rating systems to guide such decisions. It took until the end of May 1945 - five weeks after the British entered Bergen-Belsen - for the daily death toll to sink below 500. This sobering reality reminds us both that in the throes of rabid contagions, data becomes ever important, and that we must be patient because combating covid-19 will take time. We are consumed each day by the toll of covid-19 in regions throughout our world. When, we wonder, will the devastating effects come to an end? The horrors of Nazi Germany are behind us. But pandemics remain, and forgotten history holds relevance. - - - Lerner is the author of "All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, a British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 09:27:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SEOUL, April 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's export posted a double-digit fall in the first 20 days of this month, showing signs of the global trade downturn caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, customs office data showed Tuesday. Export, which takes up about half of the export-driven economy, amounted to 21.73 billion U.S. dollars during the April 1-20 period, down 26.9 percent from the same period of last year, according to Korea Customs Service. Import retreated 18.6 percent to 25.18 billion dollars, sending the trade deficit to 3.45 billion dollars. The daily average export declined 16.8 percent in the cited period as the global trade was negatively influenced by the COVID-19 outbreak across the world. Semiconductor export reduced 14.9 percent during the 20-day period, with those for automobiles and oil products plunging 28.5 percent and 53.5 percent respectively. Shipment of telecommunication devices such as smartphone, plummeted 30.7 percent, and auto parts export dived 49.8 percent in the period. Export to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, dipped 17.0 percent, and those to the United States and the European Union (EU) tumbled 17.5 percent and 32.6 percent each. Shipment to Vietnam, Japan and the Middle East diminished in double figures in the 20-day period. Enditem For the first time since Anzac Day commemorations started in 1916, all services have been cancelled across New Zealand in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Kiwis are being encouraged to stand at the end of their driveways at 6am this Saturday, April 25, to remember the fallen. The Returned Services Association (RSA) and the New Zealand Defence Force have launched a website, standatdawn.com, where users can tune in to a service on the day. The service will include the playing of the Last Post, the Ode of Remembrance, the national anthem and an address by Minister of Defence and Veterans, Ron Mark. Veterans are encouraged to wear their medals just as they would for the official public gathering, the RSA says. Warkworth RSA president Bob Harrison says he intends to play the Last Post on his boom box at the end of his driveway. I wouldnt mind waking the neighbours, but being on a rural property I dont think they will hear it. He says locals may wish to pay their respects by laying a poppy or a wreath on the cenotaph on Church Hill in Warkworth. Mahurangi Matters understands that some residents are intending to rouse their neighbours at dawn by playing the drums. Residents of Totara View in Wellsford and Sunrise Boulevard in Snells Beach are among those who may be treated to a stirring performance. Meanwhile, due to Covid-19 restrictions, the RSA is unable to provide poppies for Anzac Day and so has instead created a virtual poppy that social media users can pin to their pages. The virtual poppy is provided to anyone who makes a donation at the associations lets not forget page on givealittle.co.nz. Their online appeal, which has replaced the physical collection of donations this year, has already raised $35,000. Market Queens and traders in Kumasi and its environs have heaped praises on the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto for the implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, which they say, has ensured continuous food availability during the period of the lockdown. The traders say they are grateful to the government and the Minister for ensuring that food items are available despite fears that the country could be plunged into hunger over lack of food. According to the Women Traders Association comprising members from Bantama, Kejetia, Ejisu and other major markets in the Ashanti Region, their economic fortunes have improved significantly since the lockdown because "there are enough food produce to trade on the market". "We were initially afraid when the President announced the lockdown that we will go out of business because there will be food shortage but thanks to the PFJ we are even far better off. We want to thank the President and the Agric Minister for spearheading this programme," they said in a statement. Describing the programme as a laudable and visionary one, the market women, in their signed statement by its Chairperson, Maame Adwoa Agyaamaa, called on Ghanaians, especially those with interest in farming, to embrace the PFJ initiative in order to guarantee the continued supply of food whilst improving the livelihoods of farmers across the country. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a coronavirus task force news conference at the White House in Washington, DC, April 20, 2020. EPA U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he rejected South Korea's offer on defense cost-sharing because the country is wealthy and should pay "for a big percentage of what we're doing" there. "They've offered us a certain amount of money and I've rejected it," Trump said at a White House coronavirus press briefing, referring to the stalled negotiations on how to share the cost for the upkeep of about 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea. "I just said it's just, look, you know, we're doing a tremendous service. We have a wonderful feeling and a wonderful relationship with each other, but we have to be treated equitably and fairly," Trump said. A South Korean newspaper reported earlier that the U.S. could consider reducing troop levels in South Korea as a means to pressure Seoul in the defense cost talks. Trump said the issue is not about troop levels but how much Seoul will be able to pay. "It's not a question of reduction," he said. "It's a question of will they contribute toward the defense of their own nation." An earlier news report said Trump rejected Seoul's offer to increase its contribution by 13 percent, leaving the two countries at an impasse in negotiations to renew their cost-sharing deal, known as the Special Measures Agreement. Under last year's one-year deal, Seoul agreed to pay US$870 million for the upkeep of 28,500 American troops stationed on the peninsula. "We're asking them to pay for a big percentage of what we're doing. It's not fair," Trump said. "We're defending nations that are very wealthy. South Korea is a very wealthy nation. They make our television sets. They make ships. They make everything. And I give them great credit." More than 4,000 South Korean employees with U.S. Forces Korea have been placed on unpaid leave since the beginning of April due to the absence of a new SMA. The previous agreement lapsed at the end of last year. "What's going to happen I can't tell you, but we'll find out fairly soon," Trump said, adding that he congratulates South Korean President Moon Jae-in on his party's landslide victory in recent parliamentary elections. The two spoke by phone Saturday, but neither side mentioned that the issue of defense cost-sharing was brought up. The White House said in a readout that they "discussed ways to further strengthen the United States-Republic of Korea security relationship." (Yonhap) Even in the face of the worst public health crisis in a century, the Trump administration sees fit to move full steam ahead in its campaign to put the interests of dirty energy barons over the environment. With economic damage from the coronavirus crisis mounting, President Donald Trumps personal friends in the energy industry are using their relationships to obtain bailouts, special favors and environmental rollbacks, while ignoring the existential threat of climate change. Trumps oil industry pals include Oklahoma billionaire and campaign donor Harold Hamm, the founder and executive chairman of Continental Resources Inc., labeled Trumps energy whisperer. And Trump friend Carl Icahn is a major investor in another major U.S. oil producer, Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Inc. In recent weeks, Occidental has been pressing lawmakers for a bailout, while Hamm and other oil producers are pushing the White House to examine whether Saudi Arabia has been unfairly selling cheap crude oil, thus pushing down prices and squeezing debt-laden U.S. producers. With oil prices taking an unprecedented drop into negative territory this week, Trump tweeted on Tuesday that his administration would extend a lifeline to battered domestic oil companies with no place to sell their products as storage tanks fill up amid plunging oil demand. We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!, Trumps tweet said. The sensible thing to do amid a plunge in energy prices and a supply glut would be to stay away from rescuing the dirty energy companies of the past and shift focus at both the federal and state level to encouraging the development of more clean energy. Texas leads the nation in production of wind energy, and the segment now accounts for more than 25,000 jobs in the state, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Texas is also a national leader in solar power. But its hard to imagine sensible policies emerging under this administration. Trump and the former corporate lobbyists who run his administration such as Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette already have offered favors galore to corporate cronies. Theyve waived penalties for owners of factories and power plants that break environmental laws. They are pushing to weaken automotive fuel efficiency standards and rules limiting coal power plant emissions. One of the Trump administration officials most jarring decisions is continuing with their policy of opening up public lands and public waters for as much oil and gas drilling as possible, even though low energy prices mean the federal government will earn far less from auctioning off drilling rights. Doing so makes little sense given that oil prices are at historically low levels, drilling rigs are shutting down and numerous energy companies are teetering on the verge of collapse. In Texas, the pro-industry Railroad Commission that regulates oil and gas is even considering halting some production in the state for the first time in 40 years. The only possible explanation for the Trump administrations oil leasing binge and head-in-the sand attitude about the climate consequences is the administrations fealty to the energy industry. Otherwise the decision to keep drilling makes no sense, even if youre a climate denialist. Instead, Trumps Interior Department, led by Secretary David Bernhardt, conducted an online sale of oil leases in Wyoming, Nevada and Montana, producing weak results. A federal lease sale of offshore energy experienced the weakest demand since 2016. It makes little sense to sell off public assets into a market where theres no prospect for a fair return to taxpayers. So why is the Trump administration doing so? The revolving door between Trumps Interior Department and the energy industry provides the most likely explanation. Bernhardt, a former energy lobbyist, had to recuse himself from specific issues involving former clients, but those recusals ended last year. And Bernhardts former clients have been actively engaged: A Public Citizen analysis found that former lobbying and legal clients of Bernhardt spent about $30 million lobbying the federal government since the start of the Trump administration. Further research found that Bernhardt and his top deputy held 12 times as many meetings with executives from the oil, gas, electricity, coal and mining industries as with conservation and renewable energy interests. When dirty energy meetings dominate the calendars of Interior Department officials, advocates for conservation and renewable energy dont stand a chance. Its a safe bet that, given the chance to prop up dirty energy companies over ordinary people, the Trump administration will pick the powerful over the public. Weissman is president of Public Citizen and a public interest advocate and activist, as well as an expert on corporate and government accountability. It is universally recognised that crises like pandemics enable governments to increase surveillance. On April 14, Prasar Bharati issued an office memorandum making it mandatory for its staff to install the Aarogya Setu app. The memo was issued the day prime minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation to announce that the nationwide lockdown would remain in force till May 3, although there will be partial easing from April 20. He too appealed to the people to download the app. Earlier, on April 6, he had asked BJP workers to promote the app among the people. Prasar Bharatis missive to all staff, regular as well as contractual, was prompter than the exemptions being allowed post April 20, which were issued by the Home Ministry on April 15. The memo directed that instructions must be issued to all security personnel to ensure that all those entering and leaving the premises of Prasar Bharati establishments should confirm they have activated the app. The public broadcasters path may be followed by other government agencies. Not just that, there are also reports that officials in some districts have made it mandatory for people to install the application and roped in RWAs and market associations to ensure compliance. Aarogya Setu has also been recommended by the Central Board of Secondary Education in schools and other educational institutions that it can influence. Government sources have claimed that till the point of writing almost 50 million users have downloaded the app since it was launched in early April. This makes it globally the fastest-ever downloaded app. There are apprehensions that the government may eventually make it compulsory, like Aadhaar once was, to run the downloaded app in order to either access government facilities and services or even to enter public spaces. There are two issues which need to be flagged in regard to the Aarogya Setu app. The first relates to how its capacity and utility in protecting a citizen from the coronavirus. When news of the governments move to design an app and release it came, it was first available in its previous avatar in the name of Corona Kavach, or a protective band against the virus. This avatar, developed by the national e-governance division of the ministry of electronics and information technology in association with the ministry of health and family welfare, has now been completely replaced with Aarogya Setu, developed by National Informatics Centre. From the beginning, the app has been projected as magical protective band to protect against the virus, and several fallacies exist about it. For instance, most reports state that the app will enable people to get an alert the moment they are within six feet of an infected person. This does not appear plausible because the app is not a diagnostic app, but the official release says that the app will enable people to assess themselves the risk of their catching the coronavirus infection It will calculate this based on their interaction with others, using cutting-edge Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence. Further ahead, it says, the app detects other devices with Aarogya Setu installed that come in proximity of that phone. The app can then calculate the risk of infection based on sophisticated parameters if any of these contacts has tested positive. A simple question should be posed at this stage -- Will the government allow anyone who has tested positive to move around freely in society and infect people? Will such a person not be quarantined? If the person had tested positive and has completed the quarantine period, in their home, a hospital or any other facility, or if the person has been cured, is it fair to reveal the persons identity or if this is masked, then does it make sense to create a scare? In the absence of any kind of complete transparency, one can deduce that this app works on the basis of contact tracing. The primary utility of the app, as of now, is that if an individual tests positive with the coronavirus, the app will be able to trace all smartphones that were within the distance that is considered to have passed on the germ. These people will then either be informed about this, or asked to quarantine themselves. The app is thus a post facto application and not a real-time alert device as is being understood by most people. The only alert that the smartphone will receive is that there are others in the vicinity who have downloaded the app. In a hyped-up situation where every infected person is being seen as offender, only those who have downloaded the app will be seen as responsible or patriotic individuals, while all others within the space will be profiled as the wrong people. It is universally recognised that crises like pandemics enable governments to increase surveillance. In India the 1897 Epidemic Diseases Act, which is still law and has been invoked now by the Centre, was very intrusive. Historian David Arnold said that the plague epidemic in the last decade of the nineteenth entury was long remembered, perhaps more for the draconian government measures and the upsurge of nationalist resentment it created than for the disease itself. The Aarogya Setu app is worrisome because it can become a surveillance tool of the government. In the event of an app like this becoming compulsory, it will make easy to keep track of even the social contacts of anyone who is a political adversary. The yeses that a person clocks in the process of installing the app after downloading it grants the government permission to use the data in future for purposes other than epidemic control. It has been seen, most starkly with the British Raj-era law mentioned above, that laws introduced during an emergency remain in force long after it has passed. For the moment, the government may be within its rights to recommend the use of the app. But to make it compulsory violates individual freedom and breaches everyones personal privacy. Much greater transparency is required, and it is time to stop projecting the Aarogya Setu app as a magic solution having divine powers. (Bloomberg) -- Reports of his imminent demise may prove to be exaggerated, but North Koreas young leader has clearly had a major health scare.Whatever is going on inside the reclusive nation could have massive implications for the region and the U.S. because Kim Jong Un is the dynastic dictator of a very fragile nation that has nuclear arms.No one knows how badly the coronavirus may have ravaged North Koreas already cratered economy. And now U.S. officials say theyve been told that Kim in his mid 30s, a smoker and overweight underwent cardiovascular surgery last week, with one saying he took a turn for the worse afterward. Some reports say hes still critically ill, though South Koreas presidential office said Kim is conducting normal activities in a rural part of the country. Kim has consolidated power since he took over in late 2011 when his father died. Hes shown a merciless streak, having his uncle and senior military officers killed. His half-brother was assassinated in 2017 at an airport in Malaysia with a nerve agent.While he may have taken out potential rivals, if he were to die its hard to know who would replace him. His sister has taken on a more prominent role, though no woman has ever ruled North Korea.Would a new leader keep lines of communication open to ally China, to the U.S.? Would they restart long-range missile tests to stamp their authority? Nuclear tests?Kim is, for better or worse, something of a known quantity. His demise would push the country into unchartered waters. Global Headlines Topsy-turvy | The oil market faced its worst crisis in a generation yesterday, with prices falling below zero and traders willing to pay $40 a barrel to get someone to take it off their hands. As Javier Blas and Will Kennedy explain, the most important global commodity is quickly losing all value as chronic oversupply overwhelms the worlds crude tanks, pipelines and supertankers. The plunge was related to the expiry of a West Texas Intermediate futures contract, with Brent still positive. But it also reflects a crisis in the market despite the OPEC+ deal to cut 10% of global output, and will hit economies already grappling with the coronavirus. Story continues Closing borders | President Donald Trump said hell sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration into the U.S. to contain the coronavirus. He didnt specify a time frame or who would be affected but tweeted that he made the decision in light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens. Congressional leaders are on the brink of a deal for fresh relief for small businesses. The House will vote this week on letting members cast future votes by proxy for colleagues who dont travel to Washington due to virus-related concerns. Lost love | When Covid-19 struck, Italians expected Europe to come to their aid. Instead, Germany and France hoarded protective gear and Christine Lagarde at the European Central Bank brushed off their financial distress. As a result, John Follain and Alessandra Migliaccio report, senior figures in Rome talk of unprecedented public anger toward the European Union as thousands die each week and the economy implodes. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Italy will present a plan this week to gradually ease its lockdown from May 4. Ruinous times | Small business owners the world over are being slammed by the maelstrom wrought by the coronavirus, but in Africa theyre particularly vulnerable because the poorest continent is worst equipped to get aid to those who need it most. The fallout could place a third of the 300 million informal jobs in Africa at risk, while between 9 million and 18 million formal jobs could be lost, according to McKinsey & Co. Food fight | The virus has done more than disrupt supply chains, its restarted a discussion about food self-sufficiency tinged with nationalism. Caroline Alexander and Agnieszka de Sousa report that at least 10 countries have introduced curbs on overseas sales of grains or rice since mid-March, and while many of those actions might not stick, that such threats were made at all serves as a wake-up call to governments. What to Watch The U.K. Parliament reopens today with the first order of business a plan for a virtual House of Commons that complies with social distancing rules. Democratic contender Joe Biden raised $46.7 million in March, his best monthly haul of the presidential campaign, even though the pandemic shut down large swathes of the U.S. and prevented in-person fundraising. Not long ago, Singapore was a global standard bearer for taming the virus outbreak now its home to Southeast Asias largest number of infections and is racing to regain control, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today extending the partial lockdown until June 1. Tell us how were doing or what were missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.And finally ... A conservative religious groups gatherings have spawned virus hotspots in Malaysia, India and now Pakistan. The Muslim missionary sect, Tabligh-e-Jamaat, hosted events in Kuala Lumpur, Lahore and New Delhi attended by tens of thousands of followers. Since then, Faseeh Mangi reports, more than 8,500 have tested positive. Theyre not alone. Religious groups have been linked to clusters around the world, from a church in South Korea to ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and Israel. 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. There was more embarrassment for the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Tuesday after it emerged that a Janata Dal (United) MP had broken lockdown norms and drove down from Delhi a week ago. Ahead of the news of JD (U) MP from Purnia , Santosh Kumar driving from Delhi, BJP MLA from Hisua, Anil Singh had created a furore by driving to Kota in Rajasthan to bring back his daughter three days ago. The antics of the two NDA leaders defying lockdown have not gone down well with either the JD (U) or BJP and both parties have demanded action against errant leaders. The state parliamentary affairs minister Sravan Kumar of the JD (U) on Tuesday demanded from the top leadership of both the parties, the BJP and the JD (U), to take cognizance of the breach of lockdown norms. If action is taken against officials, the BJP leadership also should take action. I also expect that JD (U) leadership will also take note of travels by party MP and seek clarification from him. After all they are the public representatives, said the minister. The BJP also echoed similar sentiments. Bihar government under the leadership of CM Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Modi is working seriously and tirelessly to enforce lockdown and help the citizens. No one is allowed to violate the rules and regulation of the Lockdown. Our government will look into the matter in a very neutral manner, if anyone is found guilty of breaking the accepted official procedure of travel during lockdown. Everyone must abide by the rules and strictly follow the system, said BJP spokesperson, Nikhil Anand. The Purnia MP did not respond to repeated calls made by the HT. However, a close associate of the MP, who is not authorized to speak to the media said that the MP came a week back and distributed relief materials to needy. After that he went into quarantine, he said. This, incidentally, is not the isolated case of preferential treatment to VIPs during lockdown. On April 11, a similar pass was issued to former ward councillor of Muzaffarpur by local administration to bring back his daughter from Kota. Muzaffarpur DM Chandrashekahar Singh accepted that certain passes were issued under special circumstances during the first phase of lockdown. These cases of lockdown violation at a time when the government has been maintaining that it will not evacuate thousands of students from Bihar stranded in Kota, has given the opposition an opportunity to attack Nitish Kumar. Only students of lesser mortals will remain stuck outside state while the CM will give special relief to specials. How long these dual policies of the government continue? It seems that CM is not concerned with migrants and students stuck up elsewhere, said leader of opposition, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. On Tuesday, Speaker of Bihar assembly requested Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who represents Kota parliamentary constituency to ensure proper care of students stranded in Kota. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Brian Decker, Malori Maloney and April Yates Decker, Maloney and Yates are criminal defense attorneys with Metropolitan Public Defender in Washington County. As we consider our mandate to protect our community by staying home, we must not forget the hazardous personal contact created by courts and jails as they go on about their daily work. Hundreds of our neighbors go into and out of our courthouses, jails, and prisons each day. Each juror summoned to court, each person arrested for shoplifting, each deputy going home at the end of a jail shift risks transmitting a deadly virus before even knowing they have it. We should be deeply concerned about the public safety risk posed to all who are working and living in our jails and prisons. As the jails on Rikers Island in New York and in Chicagos Cook County are already showing, the very structure of jail and prison confinement is conducive to disease transmission. The social distancing that experts urge is impossible in jail or prison. No judge intended for a prison term for theft to be a death sentence. No police officer intends for the arrest of someone on probation to result in the death of a family member. This increases the risk not only to the incarcerated, but also to deputies, medical staff and the families of those who leave a facility after their shifts. Each shift change and each arrest adds to the risk of an outbreak that would spill into the larger community. Book and release procedures are a revolving door of virus exposure in our police stations and jails. Reducing the number of people booked and locked up reduces the risk of such an outbreak and increases public safety. In the midst of this upheaval, some district attorneys have implied that the public would be endangered if our community further reduced jail and prison populations (Opinion: Ensuring public safety remains an essential during pandemic, April 8). Some asserted that a fair trial can be conducted while everyone sits six feet apart. We disagree. Share your opinion Submit your essay of 500-700 words on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification. Many held in our jails have not been convicted of a crime, but rather await their trial. The majority of those who remain in jail before trial are there because they are too poor to post bail. In Oregon, the jailed accused have the right to have a speedy trial within 60 days of arrest. If this does not happen, they generally must be released. In order to avoid the possibility of such releases, some prosecutors are advocating we tinker with due process in order to conduct trials during the pandemictrials with witnesses testifying behind masks, parties sitting six feet from their attorneys, and jurors preoccupied with the thought that just being there might get them sick. Such trials would be as unfair as they are impractical. The prospect of conducting jury trials during this crisis is much more dangerous than the possibility that poor people accused of crimes will be released from jail. Jury trials in this moment would be perilous for the participantsjurors, court staff, the accused, witnesses and attorneysas well as for due process. Courts and jails have taken steps in the right direction to reduce the jail population, limit hearings, facilitate court by phone and increase cleaning, but public safety demands more. Forcing 40 people into a room to conduct a jury trial would undermine the progress that has been made. On behalf of over 50 defense and civil rights attorneys who have given us their support, we call on Oregons leaders to limit bookings, further decrease jail and prison populations, and briefly halt all jury trials. If we choose inaction, we choose to value punishment over public safety. We risk the lives of all who come into contact with the criminal legal system: the woman accused yet presumed innocent, the man imprisoned for a drug crime, the corrections officer, the jail deputy, the court clerk, the prosecutor, the crime victim, the juror. Not to mention their spouses, their children, and anyone they encounter at the grocery store. The next government will be pre-occupied with getting the countrys economy back on track as it deals with the fallout of Covid-19, the Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said. Paschal Donohoe said Ireland is entering a severe recession and facing increased unemployment. He added that the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin are set to hold individual meetings with other party leaders this week in an effort to convince a third party into a coalition with them. Mr Donohoe said no matter who becomes the third party to prop up the coalition, tackling the Covid-19 pandemic will take precedence. Paschal Donohoe speaking to the press (Photocall Ireland/PA) In the space of 12 weeks our jobs market has gone from almost full employment to a scale of unprecedented unemployment that has risen with a speed and scale that is unprecedented. Mr Donohoe said the Department of Finance fiscal projections suggest Ireland will run a deficit of 23bn this year and GDP will fall by 10.5%. The early phase of any new government will be concerned with the economy and getting people back to work. We will not be able to do everything, choices will have to be made regarding economic recovery, reducing deficit and meeting expenditure needs. Changes we have made in our health service will be retained, we need to maintain public confidence in health services. He said Ireland is in a position of strength as it seeks to rebuild the economy after the coronavirus emergency. We will rebuild our economy again. As with the recovery of our public health, it will require focus. San Francisco Mayor London Breed has won nationwide praise for taking drastic early measures against COVID-19 that seem to have spared San Francisco the catastrophic fate of New York and other cities. But she hesitated over what to do with the city's estimated 8,000 homeless people during the pandemic until the issue came back to bite her. A COVID-19 outbreak at the city's largest homeless shelter had sickened at least 105 people by Friday, about a tenth of the entire San Francisco caseload. It led the city which had planned to pack the homeless into the Moscone Center, the city's gigantic convention hall, and other big venues to suddenly switch directions. While only 123 homeless people had been housed in six hotels as of April 3, last week the city said it had moved 447 people from shelters into some of the 2,082 rooms it had rented. That included all 340 residents of Multi-Service Center South, the shelter run by the St. Vincent de Paul Society where the outbreak happened. "Its really a massive undertaking that has the citys entire focus now," said Abigail Stewart-Kahn, the city's director of the department of homelessness and assistive housing. Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors San Francisco's city council on Tuesday unanimously passed an emergency ordinance requiring the city to rent 8,250 hotel rooms by April 26 for homeless people, discharged COVID-19 patients and exposed front-line workers. The board, as well as advocates for the poor and health care workers in San Francisco, had for weeks lashed out at Breed for her approach to the homeless, saying it epitomized the city's disgraceful handling of its most vulnerable population. The pandemic has exposed San Francisco's "deep disregard for the humanity of our unhoused people," said Dr. Rupa Marya, an internist at UC-San Francisco Medical Center. "COVID-19 is exposing the fracture lines of our society and bringing to the forefront who we don't care about." While negotiating room rates with hotel and motel owners for more rooms, San Francisco opted first to put only homeless people with confirmed COVID-19 infections into hotels, while preparing mass shelters for others living on the streets. Breed declared a state of emergency on Feb. 25, nine days before the city reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19, and took center stage as six Bay Area counties issued stay-at-home orders for all residents on March 16. But the mayor resisted using her authority to provide hotel rooms for the homeless, citing logistical difficulties. Staff and resources were needed to ensure "chaos" didn't overtake the hotels, she said. "I know that people are asking: Why don't we just open the doors and let everyone who is homeless have access to a hotel room? I wish it were that easy," Breed said at a news briefing. Some progressives took matters into their own hands, moving people out of shelters and into hotels despite the city government's reluctance. City Supervisor Dean Preston put up $10,000 of his own money to help reserve at least 30 rooms at the Oasis Inn near City Hall. On April 4, another supervisor, Matt Haney, led a guerrilla action with six staff members and about 25 guests from Hospitality House, one of the city's oldest shelters. The residents put their belongings on moving carts and pushed them to a nearby vacant hotel. Hospitality House prioritized those age 60 or older or those suffering from underlying health conditions. They made sure those people could care for themselves in a hotel room, said its executive director, Joe Wilson. "People are loving having their own bed, their own private bathroom," Wilson said a few days later. "We're urging the city to really step up and accelerate its actions." "Our position all along has been to get people into private rooms," said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco. "Why not do it early? The city is paying for the rooms." City officials estimate that renting 8,250 rooms will cost $58.6 million a month, including food and security. Up to $40 million of that could be reimbursed by the state. On April 3, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Project Roomkey, a statewide initiative that aimed to open up 15,000 hotel rooms to the state's homeless population, with a 75% reimbursement rate from the federal government. Around that time, Los Angeles home to the state's largest concentration of homeless, about 58,000 people began moving people into hotel rooms, pulling them out of shelters, hospitals and access centers, or off the streets. But Los Angeles has also moved slowly. The goal was to house homeless people in 15,000 hotel rooms, said Heidi Marston, interim executive director of Los Angeles' Homeless Services Authority, but as of Friday only 629 had moved in. "It gives them an opportunity to rest and recover," Marston said. "It's a good opportunity for us to engage with folks without the stress of having to live on the streets. We're committed to not going back to where we were." Unlike San Francisco, Los Angeles hasn't had a large outbreak at a homeless shelter, though authorities reported last Monday that four people staying in shelters in L.A. County have tested positive for the virus. In San Francisco, the city originally looked into large venues that could be used to "thin out" the shelters. A plan to house 400 people at the Moscone Center was scrapped after a publication for the homeless, Street Sheet, showed the plans involved putting mats on concrete floors divided by masking tape. The city has repeatedly cited logistical concerns in moving people into hotels, while saying that many living on the street preferred to stay there. "We dont want to be renting 3,000 rooms that sit empty for a couple weeks, but we want to be flexible enough to be able to manage the medical surge, as well as manage the need for our vulnerable populations, both in our shelters and on our streets, as well as in our single-room occupancy hotels," said Trent Rohr, director of San Francisco's Human Services Agency. Advocates for the homeless said the Multi-Service Center South outbreak could be repeated unless hotel rooms are quickly made available. "It's very scary to think about what's going to happen with them and very painful to know this could have been prevented," Dr. Juliana Morris, a primary care physician at UCSF who works with patients at shelters, said at a virtual news conference. "While Mayor Breed should be commended for her acting so rapidly to protect so many people in San Francisco, who got left behind were our unhoused," Marya said. This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation. By James R. Kern III Who remembers when it all began Out here in no mans land We've just begun to understand Out here in no man's land Low supply and high demand Here in no mans land Billy Joel , No Mans Land As we all celebrate Earth Day from a distance this year, I cannot wait to get back exploring Warren Countys natural treasures as soon as restrictions are lifted. Like so many other things, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned daily life upside down. Many crucial issues we have been facing are in a holding pattern. No greater issue impacting Warren County is the warehousing onslaught several municipalities have been facing. As I have mentioned in the past, the biggest driver of these applications is inadequate local zoning. Master plans require constant attention so that parcels of land do not become overdeveloped or improperly built-out. While warehousing is still on the forefront of our mind, we must also be cognizant of another future trend high-density housing. In the late 1990s, many municipalities faced a crisis brought on by poor zoning that, combined with New Jerseys Mt. Laurel court decision, lead to significant suburban sprawl. I foresee this could repeat itself as urban dwellers look west from the city. According to moveBuddha.coms online Moving Cost Calculator tool, the website saw searches for moving to New York City suburbs increase by almost 250% over the last four weeks compared to the same period in 2019. This should immediately raise red flags for municipal leaders. While we certainly have plenty of existing homes for sale, capacity in our schools and adequate infrastructure, I do not think we can anticipate how drastic this pandemic will change peoples view of city living. Let me say this: I support smart development and local leaders to make the right choices for their communities, but we must be proactive. New housing projects will not happen overnight (mostly because of the COVID-19 restrictions) but I promise once things settle down, more individuals and in turn developers will be looking here. This isnt a tomorrow or next-year problem, but its coming. Similar to the first signs of warehouse development in Berks County, Pennsylvania, five years ago, we must view this as a warning. Many of us and our families moved to this region of New Jersey to avoid the traffic, congestion and overpopulation; we must make sure our zoning can handle what is certainly coming. So lets enjoy Earth Day in this unique way in 2020 but make sure moving forward, we can continue to enjoy Warren Countys rural treasures for years to come. James R. Kern III, of Pohatcong Township, is a Warren County freeholder. Did a falafel vendor from Ashdod push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into signing a unity government agreement with Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz? What is certain is that the April 19 interview Channel 13 broadcast with a falafel shop owner named Yuval Carmi devastated financially by the coronavirus pandemic made waves throughout Israel and went viral on social media. Carmi told viewers that he can no longer feed his children, potentially making Netanyahu realize that if the economic crisis continues, he himself could collapse politically. Netanyahu served as finance minister between 2003 and 2005, so he perfectly understands the political force of an angry, unemployed and bankrupted public. Netanyahu also knows that the Israeli economy was hit hard by the coronavirus and wont bounce back easily. More than 1 million Israelis are currently unemployed, most of them losing their jobs in recent weeks following the governments decision to shut down businesses. One million unemployed is the highest rate ever registered in Israel, and Netanyahu bears the responsibility. When serving as finance minister, Netanyahu championed a bold economic recovery program that hit the weaker populations significantly, many of whom were traditional Likud supporters. These voters took their revenge in the 2006 elections, abandoning the party Netanyahu headed. The all-time low electoral gains of the Likud only 12 Knesset seats are not something that Netanyahu would easily forget. Since then, he has been careful not to economically harm his voters, many consisting of those from lower socio-economic classes. That is why when the interview with Carmi was aired, alarm bells started ringing in Netanyahus office. Carmi, a longtime Likud supporter, was in tears, and with him the journalist who interviewed him. "Im embarrassed, from my children, to tell them I have nothing I can buy for you. I have nothing to give them. I have nothing to give them to eat. I dont know what to do," he cried, saying he would rather burn himself. Carmi turned into a symbol of coronavirus victims. Political pundits described his interview as a watershed moment that could unify the people. On that day, independent entrepreneurs demonstrated in front of the Knesset, saying the Netanyahu government abandoned them. The demonstration only aggravated sentiments within the public that the coronavirus economy recovery plan presented by the premier offers no solutions for independent business owners facing financial collapse. On the day of Carmi's interview, Netanyahu kept refusing to sign a unity government agreement with Gantz, generating additional criticism for preferring his personal interests to the states. Gantz posted on his Twitter account the interview with Carmi, jabbing at Netanyahu that the "heartbreaking words of Yuval Carmi should serve as a warning sign for us, leaders of the public millions of Israelis will not forgive the one who will drag them to elections in these difficult times, only to get his hands on more Knesset seats." Evidently, Netanyahu realized the potential electoral damage he was facing and called Carmi personally the day after the interview. "I saw you yesterday [on TV] and you touched my heart. And Ill help you. Were going to help everyone. You have reached deep into my heart and the hearts of Israeli citizens," said Netanyahu, promising that they will overcome the crisis together. A few hours later, the coronavirus emergency government was established. Actor Arjun Rampal and his family have extended a helping hand in providing PPE kits to hospitals, doctors and nurses in the in the fight against the coronavirus. He also urged people to donate one kit for these corona warriors to keep them safe and healthy. The 47-year-old actor took to Instagram and shared a post in which he announced that the Rampal family has extended their support to MEDIQ LIFESCIENCES for providing PPE kits (made in India) in collaboration with Dr Darshan Doshi to the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) hospital doctors and nurses. The actor also urged others to contribute towards helping the frontline warriors. He captioned the post, "I request all of you to help here. The real hero's out there, (the doctors and nurses), the PPE. their health is in jeopardy daily, looking after ours, As unfortunately they are not equipped with the armour they need, making them sick by the coronavirus. If each one of you can donate just 1 uniform for these brave hearts, it will keep your soldiers safe and healthy. Please please be generous, they need this and we will get it to them. It's Rs 1200 for the best suits for them." Follow @htshowbiz for more False: Muslim Gujjars not barred from selling milk in district Una India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 21: There have been reports that the Muslim Gujjars of Hoshiarpur denied entry into Himachal Pradesh to supply milk. This has created unwanted tension in the area. The District Magistrate of UNA District, HP has clarified that there is no restriction on the supply of milk by milkmen from Punjab into the jurisdiction of district Und. There is a curfew imposed in the district Una and relaxation to the general public for sale and purchase is granted from 7 am to 10 am daily. Also, there is no restriction on use of private vehicles for supply of essential goods without valid passes. Milkmen entering the borders of district and from Punjab for selling milk using their private vehicles should get passes for the inter-state movement of their vehicles from the authorises officer in Punjab. There was a similar kind of issue when SDM Nangal (Punjab) stopped the lifting of milk from Haroli sub-division of this district. However this matter was resolved by issuing passes to the daily commuting milkman, the DM, Sandeep Kumar also said. Black residents in the metro area and other parts of the country have been hit disproportionately hard by the outbreak, health statistics show. However, Reed also said that the committee isnt being formed just to ask questions of the administration and that he intends for it to work with the mayor and city health officials, not as adversaries. During the board meeting, held via teleconference, Alderman Tammika Hubbard, D-5th Ward, said the committee would give aldermen more input into the citys efforts. There are many moves being made throughout this city and we know that we all havent been at the table making some of those decisions, Hubbard said. Alderman Sharon Tyus, D-1st Ward, added that while some of you think this has been a collaborative production in which people have worked together, it has not been in my community. Krewson spokesman Jacob Long responded that the mayor and the health director have routinely talked with all ward aldermen during joint telephone coronavirus briefings three times a week for over a month. PARIS (Reuters) - France suggested on Tuesday that a proposed European recovery fund would be more effective if it stands apart from the EU budget, even though that might be hard to stomach for some member countries such as Germany. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has sought to ease opposition in some northern countries such as Germany and the Netherlands to the joint issue of debt by proposing a temporary European recovery fund strictly focused on future investments. While France is open to the idea of creating the fund within the EUs budget, Le Maire said on Tuesday that it would be more effective if it was set up as a standalone special purpose vehicle. The standalone option merits being considered in its details because it seems to us to be more effective for raising debt quickly, Le Maire told journalists on a conference call. It has the merit of clarity by making a distinction between post-crisis recovery financing and financing the EUs current expenditures, he added. German Chancellor Angela Merkel indicated on Monday willingness to finance economic recovery through a bigger European Union budget and the issuance of joint debt via the European Commission. EU leaders are due to discuss how to finance the recovery when they meet by videolink on Thursday, although diplomats and officials say they are unlikely to make any decisions during the talks given persistent divisions. France wants the fund to be used to raise up to a trillion euros with its borrowing guaranteed by all EU countries depending on the size of their economies. Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Finland, however, have previously cautioned against the idea of joint borrowing. While housing the fund within the EU budget could ease the concerns of countries wary of joint borrowing, it could create pressure to divert spending away from existing programmes, reducing its boost to the economy. Gracias China!!!, Marcelo Ebrard, the foreign minister of Mexico, posted on Twitter on April 1, along with a photo of the plane that carried 100,000 masks, 50,000 test kits and five ventilators donated from China. Mexico may see as many as 700,000 cases of Covid-19, while the country has a mere 5,500 ventilators. Even though this will without a doubt have an impact on the United States, which shares a 2,000-mile border and robust trade with Mexico, its Beijing, not Washington, that is fast-tracking hundreds of ventilators to help the country meet its vulnerability. In another era, Mr. Ebrard would have expressed gratitude to his neighbor to the north and highlighted the enduring partnership with the United States. But now China is stepping in to fill a void left by President Trump, who has alienated longtime partners and undermined the countrys standing in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is not the first time that China has lent a helping hand to the region. Following the Great Recession of 2008, China, which financed a global stimulus representing 7 percent of the countrys gross domestic product, buoyed Latin American economies by devouring commodities like oil, timber and metallic minerals. China is now the second-largest trading partner in the region, and it has surpassed the United States to become the top trading partner of major economies, including Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. Since 2017, 19 nations in the region have signed on to the Chinese governments Belt and Road Initiative, a multibillion-dollar network of investment and infrastructure projects. The influx of financing and development assistance has afforded access to critical financing for cash-strapped and heavily indebted governments, which have faced growing public demand for paved roads, modern public transport and improved services. (Representative image: PTI) With social distancing becoming the new normal post the coronavirus pandemic, retailers may be under pressure to secure warehousing locations close to their customer base and that may drive demand for multi-storey urban warehousing facilities to reduce delivery time and transportation costs, according to a report by Anarock. Warehouses are currently restricted to cities' peripheral areas and far from the larger customer base. COVID-19 has already underscored the importance of e-commerce in the ongoing lockdown. With an uncertain post-pandemic future looming over the retail sector, retail players may now need multi-level warehouses within city limits to service cities, it said. With technology as a key enabler, such options can replace multiple single-storey warehouses on the city peripheries and thus save on overall operational and occupancy costs, the report noted. Today, fast delivery is a crucial requirement for the seamless omnichannel strategy of e-commerce players. The fallout of the coronavirus pandemic can exceed the current lockdown and social distancing may become the new normal, at least over the mid-term. In such a market environment, retailers will be under pressure to secure warehousing locations close to their customer base, it said. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Solutions like multi-storey car parking are already firmly in place in India's most crowded and land-starved cities. Multi-storey warehouses of five or more storeys with tech-enabled loading on every floor are the next logical move. Such warehousing facilitates maximum land utilization in land-starved cities like Mumbai. Multi-storey warehousing concept are already entrenched in South-Asian countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Tokyo The compulsions of faster e-commerce growth in a post-pandemic world can kick-start demand for tech-enabled multi-storey warehousing. Such solutions are already in place in South Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Tokyo, said Santhosh Kumar, vice chairman, ANAROCK Property Consultants. Budget 2020 packed several major announcements for the warehousing sector, including a plan to build a seamless national cold storage chain. The government also plans to create warehousing in line with Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) norms. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will map and geotag warehouses and cold storages. The primary demand for warehousing is currently concentrated around top cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune. Due to its locational and distribution advantage, Kolkata has also emerged as a warehousing and logistics hub in the east. However, the proliferation of e-commerce in smaller cities has kick-started a growing demand for warehousing in tier 2 cities such as Jaipur, Ludhiana, Coimbatore, Lucknow and Guwahati. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak India has advised its nationals in United Arab Emirates to refrain from making hate-speeches, after some of them drew flak, lost jobs and even faced charges for making posts on social media platforms, targeting Muslims. India and (the) UAE share the value of non-discrimination on any grounds. Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this Pawan Kapoor, New Delhis envoy to Abu Dhabi, posted on Twitter. He tweeted after posts by some Indians living in the UAE blaming Muslims for the spread of COVID-19 in India triggered backlash from several social media users in the Persian Gulf nation, including from a princess of the ruling royal families of the Emirates. A section of the Twitterati in West Asian nations also recently criticized Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Suryas now-deleted 2015 tweet on Arab women. Kapoor also tagged with his post on Twitter a recent tweet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, himself, underlining that the COVID-19 did not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking and it should be defeated with the spirit of unity and brotherhood. The tweet by New Delhis envoy to Abu Dhabi appeared to be a part of its image-makeover exercise in the UAE and other West Asian nations, where several social media users strongly reacted to the posts by Indian Twitterati blaming the Muslims for the spread of the pandemic in India. Princess Hend Al Qassimi, who belongs to a royal family of the UAE, recently reacted to some tweets by Saurabh Upadhyay, an Indian based in the Emirates, who made critical remarks about Muslims, referring to the spread of COVID-19 virus in a Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi. Anyone that is openly racist and discriminatory in the UAE will be fined and made to leave, she posted on Twitter. [April 21, 2020] United Kingdom Contactless Payments Market Study, 2020 - ResearchAndMarkets.com The "UK Contactless Payment Market 2019-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. UK Contactless Payment Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis by Device (Smartphones, Smartcards, Point of Sale Terminals and others) By End-User (Retail, Transportation, BFSI and Others) Forecast period 2019-2025 UK contactless payment market has held a major market share due to high adoption and awareness. Due to modernization trend, adoption is also growing in UK at a high rate. UK is leading the market with the value of $460 million in 2018 and is estimated to reach about $1.2 billion till 2025. UK is one of those countries which is rapidly transforming from conventional to contactless payment methods and digital technology is emerging as one of the supporting pillars for rapid transformation of financial services. According to UK Finance department, 7 out of every 10 account holders use online banking. Cash payments are continuously decreasing with the evolution of advanced technology in the financial sector. Approximately 62% of the total payments in 2006 were made through cash which has reduced to 40% in the year 2016 and in 2026, the number is estimated to decrease to 21%. With the increasing digital payments, financial institutions are trying to enhance security and handling of payment operations with the support of advanced technology. Cashless payments are being made safer with the use of NFC technology. NFC technology-based payment cards are being integrated into shopping stores, product and service outlets, BFSI institutions, and others.The cashless mobile payments are being facilitated by using apps installed in smartphones. Currently available cashless mobile payment platforms in the UK include Amex Pay, Apple (News - Alert) Pay, Barclays Contactless Mobile, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. Moreover, digital payments are continuously growing in the country making it vulnerable to cyber-attacks. According to Faster Payment Organization based in UK, in October 2017, UK has reported 152.6 million digital transactions and from October 2017 to September 2018, the country has recorded 1.9 billion numbers of digital transactions. The report covers: A comprehensive research methodology of the UK Contactless Payment market. A detailed and extensive market overview with key analyst insights. An exhaustive analysis of macro and micro factors influencing the market guided by key recommendations. Analysis of regional regulations and other government policies impacting the UK Contactless Payment market. Insights about market determinants which are stimulating the UK Contactless Payment market. Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues. Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players. Key Topics Covered 1. Report Summary 1.1. Research Methods and Tools 1.2. Market Breakdown 1.2.1. By Segments 2. Market Overview and Insights 2.1. Scope of the Report 2.2. Analyst Insight & Current Market Trends 2.2.1. Key Findings 2.2.2. Recommendations 2.2.3. Conclusion 2.3. Rules & Regulations 3. Competitive Landscape 3.1. Competitive Share Analysis 3.2. Key Strategy Analysis 3.3. Key Company Analysis 3.3.1. Overview 3.3.2. Financial Analysis 3.3.3. SWOT Analysis 3.3.4. Recent Developments 4. Market Determinants 4.1 Motivators 4.2 Restraints 4.1. Opportunities 5. Market Segmentation 5.1. UK Contactless Payment Market by Device 5.1.1. Smartphones 5.1.2. Smart Cards 5.1.3. Point of Sale Terminals 5.1.4. Other 5.2. UK Contactless Payment Market by End-User 5.2.1. Retail 5.2.2. BFSI 5.2.3. Transportation 5.2.4. Others 6. Company Profiles 6.1. Gemalto (News - Alert) N.V. 6.2. Giesecke+Devrient GmbH 6.3. IBM Corp. 6.4. Infineon Technologies AG 6.5. Ingenico Group S.A. 6.6. Prepay Solutions 6.7. Thales (News - Alert) Group 6.8. Verifone Systems, Inc. 6.9. Visa, Inc. 6.10. Wirecard AG For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/y0bw45 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005587/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] By mid-May the state will be able to significantly ramp up testing beyond the current 18,000 a week, medical officials and Gov. Ned Lamont announced on Tuesday. We could increase our testing capacity by maybe 10 times over the next month or so, Lamont said. That would dramatically improve and accelerate our ability to get back to work. More testing will give the state a much better idea of who can return to work and help Connecticut recover some of its lost economic activity in the coronavirus shutdown, the governor said during his daily briefing in the State Capitol, where he was joined in a teleconference by officials from Hartford Health Care and Quest diagnostics. But officials are still unsure whether those who recover from bouts with COVID-19 develop the kind of immunity that helps people battle reinfections of other viruses. The state Department of Public Health announced that 92 more people died from COVID-19-related causes between Monday and Tuesday, bringing the statewide total to 1,423. But continuing decrease in hospitalization indicate that the peak is over in Fairfield County and starting to decrease in New Haven County as the pandemic moves more into the Hartford region. Lamont said Quest Diagnostics has agreed to ramp up testing and is fully supplied to increase testing drastically by mid-May, meaning essential workplaces will get a better idea of the health of their work forces, while those whose businesses have been closed in the shutdown will get closer to planning reopening dates. Health officials are concerned about the percentages of state residents who might be infected with COVID-19, but have not shown symptoms, so they can be spreading infections without knowing it. About 40 percent of the people who are infected dont even show symptoms yet, and right now we only are able to test people who are showing symptoms, so were missing a lot of the folks out there, Lamont said. Its important that were able to capture that if were even able to get back to work safely. Mobile testing facilities will journey throughout the state and samples will get analyzed within 24 hours. Jeffrey Flaks, president and CEO of Hartford Health Care, whose facilities include Hartford Hospital and St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport, said the expanded ability of Quest, whose CEO Steve Rusckowski is a Torrington native, will help all its outpatient locations go up drastically from the current 500 tests a day to 2,600 for that system. So far in the state health crisis, 64,192 people have been tested and 20,360 have been found to have COVID-19, according to state health officials. We need that test information, said Rusckowski, who said that about half the tests in the state are currently performed by his company, which employs 850 people statewide. The first information is whether you are infected or not. What we believe will be helpful as we bring Connecticut back to work and bring life back to Connecticut is to be able to test for individuals to see for the broad population if they are expressing some of these anti-bodies. Once someone is infected, anti-bodies start to become measurable after a couple weeks, Rusckowski said. We believe there will be studies that will be done, and theyre highly likely to show that those anti-bodies will provide some immunity for a period of time. Weve seen it in other viruses and were hopeful thatll be the case with coronavirus as well. He said that two tests will be needed, with the second, an eventual blood test, to determine whether someone has developed anti-bodies that can possibly create an immunity. Rusckowski said that in Connecticut, Quest has about 120 patient service centers, with technicians drawing blood all over the state. He stressed that capacity is becoming easier for the company over the last four weeks, including the acquisition of chemical reagents to complete tests. I can tell you we have a number of our hospitals around the state that are already doing anti-body testing right now, maybe focused on first responders, see those folks, see whos been infected, see whos built up the anti-bodies, Lamont said. He hopes for a broader base of people to test. I think well focus a little bit on those critical industries where I said weve got to keep them going in many cases by law, like defense industries, he said. Earlier in the day, private nonprofit social service providers warned that the coronavirus is devastating their budgets and threatening their employees and residents, including halfway houses and other residential facilities. These folks are health care providers on the front lines and they should be treated as such, said Gian-Carl Casa, president and CEO of The Alliance: Voice of CT Nonprofits, during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. Paul Mounds, Lamonts chief of staff, said that non-profits were given fourth-quarter funding earlier than usual to non-profit providers. The fiscal year ends June 30. We will always continue to have conversations and discussions with them as it deals with the services they provide on behalf of the people of Connecticut through our budgetary structure, Mounds said during the news conference. kdixon@ctpost.com @KenDixonCT BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 21 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: An online meeting of the Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship of the Azerbaijani Parliament was held on April 20, Trend reports. The meeting was opened by Chairman of the committee Tahir Mirkishili, who acquainted the committee members with the issues on the agenda. It was noted that in connection with the project on amendments to the Law of Azerbaijan on state duty in the first reading, the proposed change was developed in order to reduce the state duty for a number of consular operations conducted in Azerbaijan or in the country's diplomatic missions abroad in line with the principles of social orientation. Committee members Ali Masimli, Aydin Huseynov, Mashur Mammadov, Vugar Bayramov, Anar Mammadov and Rufat Guliyev shared their views on this issue. Issues on the amendment to the decree 966 of the Azerbaijani President on the state commission on delimitation and demarcation of the state border between Azerbaijan and Georgia dated June 30, 2002; on the social protection of children who have lost parents and are deprived of parental care; on non-governmental organizations (public associations and foundations); on youth policy; on the social adaptation of persons exempted from punishment in prisons; on volunteer activities; on physical culture and sports; and on advertising and on the protection of children from harmful Information, were recommended by the parliament for consideration in detail in the second reading at a plenary meeting. Further, the committee members considered issues on introducing amendments to the Housing Code of Azerbaijan, the Code on Administrative Offenses, the laws of Azerbaijan on childrens rights, the law No. 141-IIQ on public procurement dated June 12, 2001, the regulation on the service in state tax authorities, and the decree No 952 of the Azerbaijani President dated August 28, 2013, on raising the pension of war invalids. The parliament also recommended considering them in the second reading at a plenary meeting. An article appeared online about the alleged loss in Poland of more than 150 tons of humanitarian cargo from an aircraft that was landing in Almaty airport for refueling. At the international airport in the southern capital, rumors about the possible theft of cargo were denied. Sources - https://en.nur.kz/ The plane arrived in the capital of Poland with help from China, which stopped in Kazakhstan, namely, Almaty for refueling. As a result, some Polish bloggers have suggested that part of the cargo may have been stolen in Kazakhstan because they had not counted 154 tons. In particular, this is reported by EurAsia Daily portal. The Mriya jet arrived in Almaty from Ukraine on April 12 to refuel and head to China, Almaty International Airport said. Then, in a similar manner, the ship was in transit from the Celestial Empire to Poland on April 14. Each time, a driver was offloaded from the boat's side to tow the plane to a parking lot. The airport emphasized that it was not possible to unload the contents of the flight without notice or permission, even in theory: at the opening of the bow section, crew members, including the captain, who is personally responsible for the cargo, were present. Border guards and customs officers were also present. It is noted that parking lots are under constant video surveillance and the records from cameras are stored for a month. In general, the information about the cargo theft spread was called fake. In addition, the airport drew attention to the fact that Polish bloggers had miscalculated their calculations. The maximum weight that this aircraft can lift is equivalent to 250 tons. An unknown author in Poland wondered why only 96 tons arrived instead of the 250 tons. The airport clarified: the author did not take into account that China had sent most of the masks, overalls, and the like to Poland. This cargo occupies a lot of space, but weighs much less. Satellite Swarms Create Otherworldly Light Shows Above Oregon, Washington, Coastlines Published 04/18/2020 at 6:54 PM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff (Portland, Oregon) As Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull put it in the song Apogee: Beware a host of unearthly daffodils / Drifting golden, turned up loud. Such a futuristic, even surreal sight is now a commonplace thing in the skies above the Earth, where the present seems to have met the world of sci-fi. Swarms of satellites are causing a stir around the planet, and in places like Washington, Oregon and their coastlines calls are coming in to various agencies and media asking What are those strange lights? (Above: starfall in Seaside; below, one of the satellite streaks in Portland early Saturday morning). Like Andersons Robert Burns-inspired song about the space shuttle program, these unearthly daffodils sometimes come in clumps with several streaking across the sky at once, and some reporting seing 30 to 60 at a time. Oregon Coast Beach Connection caught glimpses of more than seven in a three-minute period above Portlands Sylvan exit earlier this week while looking for the conjunction of the moon and three planets. Its an astounding and beautiful sight, all coming from Elon Musk (yes, the guy whos dating electronica musician Grimes) and his SpaceX program. Theyre a fleet of satellites called Starlink, which currently number 362 in the sky but will eventually be about 1,500. Their mission is to provide high speed internet to rural areas, especially those that cant be properly served by telecommunication companies. At first, theyll provide their internet backbone to North America and then eventually the rest of the world. In spite of the rumors, Starlink satellites are not using 5G technology, however satellites launched by China are. Since last May, Space X has launched six dedicated Falcon 9 flights for the Starlink network, each with 60 satellites on-board, said Jim Todd of Portlands OMSI. Space X plans to deploy nearly 1,500 Starlink satellites to provide global Internet connectivity. Thousands more will eventually be launched. If all goes to plan, they are scheduled to be publicly available by the end of 2020. Oregon Coast Beach Connection (which is trapped in Portland by the current stay-at-home orders and not able to visit the beaches) managed to capture a faint image of two of them early Saturday morning in a park in the West Slope area. The satellites are not bright by any means and thus are very difficult to photograph. In the photo above, look for the faint straight line in the sky, in the lower left, essentially the streak these make during a long exposure (approximately 30 seconds). These are probably a permanent sight now, although they dont always occur in swarms, which is when theyre at their most spectacular. Some satellites disappear from sight for days (from the perspective of places like Portland, Seattle, Seaside, Bandon or Yakima) as they move into passing overhead during daylight hours. Satellites are only visible when the sunlight reflects off them, which means they need to be in the right line of sight and angle between the observers location and the sun in order to be seen. Its possible theyre moving overhead at night but wont catch the suns reflection. Because of this, the best times to see them are often at various points just after sunset or just before sunrise. They are, however, expected to get fainter as they slowly move to a higher orbit. Some Starlink satellites are being built with less reflective surfaces as well, out of growing concerns theyll interfere with astronomy discoveries and research. Between that and the higher orbits its entirely possible many of them will fade away from sight. Todd said if you would like to try and see the Starlink satellites, check the website Heavens Above (heavens-above.com), and then select 'Starlink passes for all objects from a launch' for the calculated sightings. Each launch of Starlink (Starlink 1, Starlink 2, Starlink 3, Starlink 4) has periods of sighting opportunities. For example, with the Starlink 4 Launch, from now through May 9 they will be visible during the evenings near midnight. Soon, Starlink 5 will be launched in late April and new list of sighting times will be available soon after. For about 6 minutes each, the 60 satellites appear as a moving train of moderately faint magnitude points of light between +2 to +4, near the brightness of the stars in Ursa Minor, Todd said. Revolving around the Earth every 90 minutes, their motion varies greatly, appearing from west to east at anything from 20 to 40 degrees above the horizon. Todd suggests getting away from bright city lights. SpaceXs fleet of Starlink satellites also rather sadly herald the end of something awesome in the skies: the Iridium flare. This photo above is of an Iridium flare over Manzanita, which happens when these older satellites catch a glint of the sun and are rather bright. Theyre often mistaken for meteors. The beloved sightings of Iridium flares are nearly gone from Earths night skies, as the original set of 66 Iridium communications satellites have been decommissioned in 2019 and are being allowed to re-enter Earths atmosphere, Todd said. Oregon Coast Hotels for when the region reopens - Where to eat - Maps - 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 Unsold vehicles at a Hyundai dealership in Colorado, U.S. / AP-Yonhap By Kim Yoo-chul The government has vowed to provide "sufficient liquidity" to the ailing auto industry. With ongoing production shutdowns taking effect, the country's automotive companies are seeking to navigate the coronavirus pandemic. "Production problems in one or two suppliers, if any, would hit the overall production mechanism in the automotive industry," Industry and Trade Minister Sung Yoon-mo said at a meeting with executives of the country's top-tier automotive companies and their parts suppliers, in Seoul, on Tuesday afternoon. "The government is going to provide sufficient liquidity for auto parts suppliers and the overall industry to help them navigate the pandemic." The ministry did not give details about the "new liquidity support" or what specific forms it might take. The assistance is part of 29.6 trillion won additional financing announced on April. 8 to help the ailing local automotive parts suppliers and the overall industry as COVID-19 spreads. As the minister said, the automotive industry includes not only the leading car manufacturers but also a variety of companies whose core businesses are closely related to the manufacturing, or marketing of automotive parts, vehicles and designs. Therefore, the epidemic's impact on the automotive supply chain is substantial. The deeper into the supply chain, the greater the impact of the pandemic will be. Given this situation, first-tier, second-tier and third-tier suppliers to automakers with global supply chains such as Hyundai-Kia will be most affected by virus-related disruptions. "Let me tell you that the government is very closely monitoring the situation," the minister said. "If necessary and needed, the ministry will review adjusting previously announced financial assistance plans." Top and senior executives at Hyundai Motor and its sister affiliate Kia, General Motors Korea, Renault Samsung and SsangYong attended the meeting, according to press release from the ministry. Admitting that overall vehicle production in April would fall by about 30 percent, the minister said the ministry did not expect the industry to have a "meaningful and significant" rebound in production and outbound shipments in May and June. According to the trade ministry, vehicle manufacturing factories in Europe, the United States and India were closed. Of 313 factories operated by 14 global carmakers, including Volkswagen and BMW, 242 factories were shut down as of April 16, the ministry said. The auto industry is capital-intensive and constitutes one of the most important market sectors for the South Korean economy. It is one of the largest sectors and considered a bellwether of both consumer demand and the health of the overall economy with the shipbuilding, tech and chemical industries. Specifically, Hyundai-Kia's six plants in the United States, India, Brazil and Mexico stopped operations due to the pandemic directly affecting local parts suppliers. Europe and the United States take up about 70 percent of South Korean car manufacturers' exports and 54 percent of South Korean parts exports, government figures show. The 40-day socio-economic lockdown is more likely to knock the bottom out of Indian economy largely dependent on informal establishments and informal workforce. If 93% of the total workforce is informal, as the Economic Survey of 2018-19 said, this would mean a proportionate population is dependent on their income which is hit hard due to lockdown, enfeebling demand even further. No less than the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the champion of a market-driven economy, has come around to realise that "the poor and the middle class" are "the main engines of growth". One of its studies looked at data from 156 to 159 economies across most advanced, emerging markets and developing countries (EMDCs) for 1990-2012 and came to the conclusion that (a) rise in the income of the bottom 20% (the poor) drives GDP growth and (b) rise in the income of the top 20% (the rich) reduces GDP growth. This would mean that India needs to take better care of its urban migrants, most of whom seem to have lost their jobs, shelter and food and the rural landless and small or marginal farmers who are finding it difficult to harvest or sell their produce due to the lockdown. Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown VII: What India can learn from COVID-19 hit nations Mandis are dysfunctional and so are procurement and rural job guarantee scheme (MGNREGS), deepening the crisis for the bottom pile of India's economy. While the plight of these segments of the informal economy has attracted public attention, however inadequate or ineffective, there is one more group that is equally vulnerable but remains completely below the radar, the Muslims. The Muslims are the largest minority community with a 12.7% share of the population, relying far more on the informal economy than any other socio-religious or religious groups, including the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), as official data demonstrates and yet, their plight remains unnoticed and unaddressed. Employment and livelihood deprivation of Muslims The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2017-18 released in 2019 shows that the Muslims have the lowest share in labour market among the major religious groups. Measured in terms of labour force participation rate (LFPR) and workforce participation rate (WPR), Muslims have the lowest scores. (LFPR is ratio of people in the labour force (employed + unemployed) to the total population, WPR is ratio of employed to the total population.) A comparison with the SCs and STs demonstrates that the Muslims are worse off than those too. Two caveats are in order here: (i) such comparison can be made because the Muslims don't have SC and ST (very negligible) population; identified as they officially are as either belonging to 'general' category or other backward castes (OBCs) and (ii) such comparisons have been made by official committees in the past, the last one being the Post Sachar Evaluation Committee (PSEC) which submitted its report in September 2014. What both the above graphs mean is that the Muslims are worse off in the labour market than any other socio-religious or religious group. That makes them more vulnerable than the rest. Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown VI: How India's insurance-led private healthcare cripples its ability to fight COVID-19 This is not a new phenomenon. The PLFS of 2017-18 provides comparative data from earlier NSSO surveys of 2004-05, 2009-10 too showing the same result. In rural areas, the Muslims' WPR is lowest for all survey periods among the major religious groups. The same is true in urban areas too. The PSEC report of 2014, which mapped social, economic and educational progress of the Muslims since the Sachar Committee report of 2006, pointed at three main factors in its 2014 report: (a) relatively lower levels of education (b) absence of job reservations and (c) lowest level of women's participation in the labour force (FLFP) both in rural and urban areas vis-a-vis other major religious groups. Muslims' reliance on low productive self-employment The PSEC of 2014 collated socio-economic indicators for socio-religious groups from the NSSO surveys of 2004-05, 2009-19 and 2011-12 and showed that the Muslims had a higher share of informal jobs (self-employed), both in rural and urban areas and that a large number of urban households had shifted to lower productive (informal) employment. Prof. Amitabh Kundu of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who headed this committee, explains, in rural areas, the Muslim women's participation in the workforce is very low (lowest among all socio-religious and religious groups), most Muslims are landless and depend on crafts and trade. In urban areas, they depend on self-employment (carpenters, masons, etc.) and very few of them are in government jobs or employed in large industries or high-skilled organised sector jobs. When it comes to consumption expenditure (another measure of economic status), his report says that in rural areas the Muslims have had a higher per capita expenditure than ST Hindus and SCs for the previous two decades because (i) they are outside agriculture and (ii) more dependent on small manufacturing and services activities that fetch higher than agricultural wages. In urban areas, their consumption level is the lowest, lower than that of the SCs and STs. Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown V: Three ways govt can help farmers, migrant workers overcome the current crisis Poverty rate among Muslims Muslims also have a high percentage of the poor. The PSEC of 2014 did a comparative study of socio-religious groups for rural and urban areas using data from the NSSO surveys of 2004-05 and 2011-12. The findings are plotted in the following graphs. In rural areas, the Hindu STs were found to have the highest percentage of poor population, followed by Hindu SCs and Muslim OBCs. In urban areas, the Muslim OBCs had the highest poverty rate in 2004-05 and second highest in 2011-12. The PLFS of 2017-18 discontinued the practice of publishing a separate and detailed report for the religious groups and hence such a comparison can't be made now. PC Mohanan, who was chairman of the National Statistical Commission (NSC) when this survey report was cleared for publication in 2019, says a conscious decision was taken to limit the publication of only employment-related data, not other socio-economic indicators. However, that data is available to researchers. As a member of the PSEC of 2014 himself, Mohanan had recommended the need for more disaggregated data for socio-religious groups than what was available from the NSSO surveys of 2004-05, 2009-10 and 2011-12. That was because he felt more data was needed for properly addressing the problems associated with various religious minorities, including Muslims. Now even less data is being made available in public (from the 2017-18 survey). Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown IV: How reverse migration will affect the informal economy as livelihood options dry up Threat of further marginalisation of Muslims Recently, several instances of religious discrimination and further marginalisation of the Muslims have come to notice. Media reports show many cases of vegetable vendors being asked to establish their religious identity, including by demanding their Aadhaar cards, and those found to be Muslims being forbidden to do business in Hindu areas. In others, Muslim women are being refused groceries because of their religion and street vendors carrying religious flags marking their religious segregation. Such incidents are not restricted to private domains. A government hospital of a state refused to admit a pregnant woman for being a Muslim, leading to delivery of the child in an ambulance and subsequent death of the child due to lack of medical attention. An inquiry is in progress. Another government hospital in a different state is accused of separating wards on religion lines for treating COVID-19 cases. These instances may seem disparate and isolated ones confined to some states, but the grave danger they pose to India's growth and development prospects is huge, nevertheless. Also Read:Coronavirus Lockdown III: Is India's public healthcare system prepared to fight the COVID-19 menace? Religious discrimination endangers economic prosperity too Here is a multi-disciplinary global study spanning 109 countries over a period of 100 years that show religious discrimination is bad for the economic health of a country. This study, 'Religious change preceded economic change in the 20th century', published in July 2018 by the researchers from Universities of Bristol (UK) and Tennessee (US), found that economic growth comes after secular polity, not the other way round. The following graph, taken from this study, demonstrates the secularisation graph leading the development graph (GDP). The inference is clear. Religious discrimination has the potential to de-rail far more than just social harmony and democratic order of a country. Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown II: How serious could the impact be on Indian economy and GDP SAN FRANCISCO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA), a leading medical genetics company, today announced that it will report its first quarter 2020 financial results on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 and will host a conference call and webcast that day at 4:30 p.m. Eastern / 1:30 p.m. Pacific to discuss its financial results and recent highlights. The dial-in numbers for the conference call are (866) 324-3683 for domestic callers and (509) 844-0959 for international callers, and the Conference ID for both is 9557177. Please note after dialing in, you will be prompted to enter the Conference ID and then the pound "#" sign to enter the call. The live webcast of the call and slide deck may be accessed here or by visiting the investors section of the company's website at ir.invitae.com. A replay of the webcast and conference call will be available shortly after the conclusion of the call and will be archived on the company's website. Following prepared remarks, management will respond to questions from investors and analysts, subject to time limitations. We encourage our shareholders and those representing them to send in questions to [email protected]. About Invitae Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA) is a leading medical genetics company, whose mission is to bring comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medicine to improve healthcare for billions of people. Invitae's goal is to aggregate the world's genetic tests into a single service with higher quality, faster turnaround time, and lower prices. For more information, visit the company's website at invitae.com. Contact: Laura D'Angelo [email protected] (628) 213-3369 SOURCE Invitae Corporation Related Links http://invitae.com Police arrested a motorcyclist and impounded seven motorbikes in Mount Maunganui, following reports from the public in regard to the manner in which the bikes were being ridden. Reports from the public raised concerns about a group of five motorcyclists allegedly riding without helmets or safety gear, speeding and riding on both sides of the road and the footpath on Sunday. Enquiries were made at the time, however, due to the dangerous manner of riding displayed the group were not stopped. Later in the afternoon, the same riders were seen driving dangerously again, this time in Ohauiti. On this occasion one of the riders was stopped and arrested. A 20-year-old man will appear in court next month on a number of driving charges. Enquiries to locate the remaining riders are ongoing and the bikes they were riding have been impounded. "What these riders were doing was incredibly dangerous and could have resulted in serious injury to a member of the public, or to the riders," says Acting Senior Sergeant Wayne Hunter. "We're committed to locating the remaining offenders and holding them accountable for their actions. "We wont tolerate this behaviour in our community." By PTI KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday visited a number of places in the city and urged people to stay indoors and exercise necessary precaution to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Banerjee's short tour of the metropolis in the afternoon included the minority-dominated areas of Park Circus, Topsia and Rajabazar, and came amid the visit by central teams to the state to assess the COVID-19 situation. "I would request all my brothers and sisters to please stay indoors as this is the only way to stop the spread of this contagion. We have never witnessed such a lockdown, but it is needed to fight this disease. "If you face any problem, please let the police know about it. They will help you out," Banerjee said through public address system from inside her car. ALSO READ: COVID-19 LIVE The Union home ministry said on Monday morning the COVID-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and that the violation of lockdown measures risk the spread of the novel coronavirus. The central government has constituted six Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) to make an on-spot assessment of the COVID-19 situation in these places. A n elderly couple were sprayed in the face with fire extinguishers when their home was raided by a gang of masked men, police said. Detectives said a group of three or four suspects, who wore gloves and had their faces covered, made off with a small amount of cash after the despicable attack. They targeted the house in Hornchurch, east London, between 8.30pm and 9pm on Saturday, entering through the back door. The burglars let off fire extinguishers in the faces of the pensioners, and also cut the mans hand with a weapon, thought to be a screwdriver. He was later taken to hospital as a precaution. The attack took place in east London / Google Maps The woman, who was not injured, was pushed to the floor and forced to stay behind a chair as her partner was asked about money in the house. The Metropolitan Police said the raiders spoke with what may have been Eastern European accents. There have been no arrests and detectives are appealing for information. Trainee Detective Constable Ciara Arthur said: It is despicable that these callous individuals attacked an elderly couple in their home while the vast majority of Londoners are either working hard to keep each other safe or simply isolating to protect themselves and others. Curious just how far your dollar goes in San Antonio? We've rounded up the latest places for rent via rental sites Zumper and Apartment Guide to get a sense of what to expect when it comes to hunting down affordable apartments in San Antonio with a budget of up to $1,600/month. Take a look at the listings, below. (Note: Prices and availability are subject to change.) Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions. 1818 Rogers Road Listed at $1,504/month, this 1,418-square-foot three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment is located at 1818 Rogers Road. In the unit, you can expect carpeted floors, a dishwasher and a walk-in closet. When it comes to building amenities, expect on-site laundry. For those with furry friends in tow, this property is pet-friendly. Future tenants needn't worry about a leasing fee. According to Walk Score, this location is car-dependent, has minimal bike infrastructure and has a few nearby public transportation options. (Take a look at the complete listing here.) 7027 Farm to Market Road Next, there's this three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment situated at 7027 Farm to Market Road. It's listed for $1,510/month for its 1,150 square feet. Amenities offered in the building include secured entry. The apartment also comes with a balcony and a walk-in closet. Pet lovers are in luck: The property is both dog-friendly and cat-friendly. According to Walk Score, this location is car-dependent, is somewhat bikeable and has some transit options. (Check out the complete listing here.) 5623 Hamilton Wolfe Road Here's a 1,713-square-foot three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment at 5623 Hamilton Wolfe Road that's going for $1,511/month. Look for hardwood flooring in the apartment. When it comes to building amenities, expect on-site laundry, a gym and a swimming pool. For those with furry friends in tow, this property is pet-friendly. According to Walk Score, this location is somewhat walkable, is bikeable and offers many nearby public transportation options. (Check out the complete listing here.) 7739 Oakstone Place (Lindsey Place) Next, check out this 2,195-square-foot three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom residence that's located at 7739 Oakstone Place. It's listed for $1,515/month. The building has garage parking. The residence also has hardwood flooring, a dishwasher, a walk-in closet and a fireplace. Pet lovers are in luck: The rental is both dog-friendly and cat-friendly. There's no leasing fee required for this rental. Per Walk Score ratings, the area around this address requires a car for most errands, has minimal bike infrastructure and has a few nearby public transportation options. (See the complete listing here.) 107 Talavera Parkway Located at 107 Talavera Parkway, here's a 1,391-square-foot three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment that's listed for $1,519/month. In the apartment, you can expect carpeted floors, a dishwasher and a fireplace. The building boasts garage parking and secured entry. Pet lovers are in luck: The property is both dog-friendly and cat-friendly. Expect a $300 pet deposit. Walk Score indicates that this location is moderately walkable, has minimal bike infrastructure and has some transit options. (Check out the complete listing here.) Working with a tight budget? Here are the cheapest rentals recently listed in San Antonio. This story was created automatically using local real estate data from Zumper and Apartment Guide, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Additionally, if youre an agent or a broker, read on for real estate marketing ideas to promote your local listing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. More than 2,000 research staff in universities and institutes of technology are at risk of losing their jobs because of funding uncertainties triggered by Covid-19. There are about 4,500 research staff in higher education working on one to three year contracts for specific projects, funded by external agencies, and about half of them are due to finish this year. But the disruption and delays caused by the public health emergency has raised fears that the money will run out before their work is finished. As well as that, when one contract finishes, staff would normally expect to move to other projects in order to retain their expertise, but the coronavirus crisis is also casting doubt over future funding. Apart from the potential loss of jobs of highly-qualified staff, colleges are also worried about the threat to research, particularly at a time when innovation will be key to kick-starting the economy. Concerted efforts to protect the funding are underway, involving the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Business, Enterprise, and Innovation, funding bodies and the Higher Education Authority (HEA). Dr Joseph Ryan Chief Executive Officer of the Technological Higher Education Association (THEA), which represents the institutes of technology and TU Dublin, said they were seeking to ensure that individual researchers are supported to completion and were afforded the additional time necessary as a consequence of the pandemic. He said that the higher education sector would work closely with key stakeholders to ensure that we protect researchers and the system through the current crisis so that we have the prospect of rebuilding from a reasonable base. Dr Ryan pointed to example of the contribution that research was making to addressing challenges presented by Covid-19, including NUI Galway and Athlone Institute of Technology working collaboratively to address the shortage of personal protective equipment . This is just one in a series of actions across higher education in support of the public health service, he said. He cited other examples of institutes of technology working on parts for ventilators and helping their local healthcare facilities with the reagents needed for Covid-19 testing. Dr Ryan noted that the joint Fianna Fail-Fine Gael framework document acknowledged the centrality of education as a catalyst for the economic recovery to come and a concomitant commitment to invest in research, development, and innovation. There has been increasing recognition of the importance of research in driving innovation and supporting economic growth and, in the institute of technology sector alone, research expenditure almost tripled in the 10 years from 2006 to 2016. Institutes of Technology, are particularly recognised for partnerships with local industry and community organisations, driving regional economic activity. Google has issued a critical warning for Chrome users across Windows, macOS and Linux Google has issued a critical warning for Chrome users across Windows, macOS and Linux, and has advised users to update their apps to the latest version of the build. A stable release version 81.0.4044.113 of Chrome is being seeded by Google and will reach users in the coming weeks. In a short blog post, Google warned users of its popular browser Chrome to update to the latest version whenever available. This is due to a bug that made the browser vulnerable to attack and exploitation. Having said that, the details about this particular security risk is being kept under wraps as Google wants to first get the latest update to users that fixes the issue. The only information Google is currently providing about this exploit is its codename, CVE-2020-6457. This is followed by an extremely short description that reads Use after free in speech recognizer. While this vague-worded statement does little to give us a piece of detailed information on the vulnerability, Sophos, a cybersecurity specialists team explains that use-after-free bugs can be used to run untrusted codes, programs by hackers from the outside. This suggests that the exploit is capable of granting remote code execution powers which are considered to be the most serious kind of vulnerability. The attackers can bypass the regular security checks in place by using such an exploit which is why the security risk is marked as critical by Google. The browser can be used to run illegal codes and programs but the companys fix should be enough to patch things up. While the Chrome 81.0.4044.113 update is being released to more than 2 billion users of the browser, it could take some time for it to reach you. Nevertheless, here is how to update your Chrome browser manually in order to keep your data secure. How to update Chrome Google has said that a new version of the Chrome browser has been released and will be seeded out over the coming days/weeks. However, the bug fix is also marked as critical in the release blog which is why you can manually check for the update. Heres how. Click on the three vertical dots and that should open an in-line menu with various options. Go to Help and select About Google Chrome from the menu options. If youre running the latest build version 81.0.4044.113 then theres nothing for you to worry about, otherwise, check for updates regularly and install it as it arrives for you. A dog has been snatched from a suburban front yard before later being found dumped 20 kilometres away. Home security camera footage showed a group driving a Range Rover pull up outside a house in Delahey, in Melbourne's northwest, on April 8 and use an allegedly stolen remote control to open the house's garage. The remote had allegedly been stolen earlier from a parked car in a shopping centre. After the garage was opened, a Maltese Shih Tzu ran out and was picked up by a man who got back in the car, which was then driven away. The dog was found in Glenroy, 20 kilometres away, later that night and was returned to its owners. Thieves allegedly broke into the front yard of a home in Delahey, Melbourne before taking a Maltese Shih Tzu Police are appealing for anyone with information to come forward and are interested in speaking with the occupants of the Range Rover. In 2020, its worth keeping in mind that a third of the sitting senators are up for reelection. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is on the ballot this fall, as are Republicans from Maine, Colorado, and Arizona. So Democrats are trying to figure out how to gain control in Washington. If they can hold the seats theyve got, they need to gain three more to even up the ranks. The math is looking a bit more in Dems favor latelymoney is rolling in for candidates, and polls are shifting. But will that be enough to overcome to the daunting structural challenges they still face? And what about the sitting Dems who are endangered in the fall? Advertisement On Tuesdays episode of What Next, I spoke with Jim Newell, who covers Congress for Slate, about what this election season looks like for Democratic senators. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mary Harris: The three states Democrats are really focusing on are Arizona, Colorado and Maine. Jim Newell: Ill admit I am surprised that Maine is as competitive as it has been. Susan Collins has always won her races with about 60 percent of the vote and had bipartisan popularity. Shes pretty shrewdshell give the Dems one here and then side with Republicans there. But her favorability rating is really bad. A recent poll showed her at 37 percent approval. Watching her Brett Kavanaugh speech, I thought, This will polarize her numbers a bit more, but shell probably recover as time goes on. That hasnt happened. She is really in the fight for her life here. Advertisement Advertisement Her challenger is Sara Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. What do her chances look like? Most have the race as a toss-up right now because even though Collins is underwater, shes going to have a lot of money behind her, and Mitch McConnell, after that Kavanaugh vote, has saving Susan Collins as a priority. If you look at the polling, its in a dead heat. Well see how that progresses going forward. But Collins is absolutely vulnerable. Advertisement Lets talk about Arizona, where Mark Kelly is running. Hes former Rep. Gabby Giffords husband and was an astronaut. Hes just raised a massive amount of money. This race is shaping up to be a little bit similar to Martha McSallys last one, which she lost. She ran in 2018 for an Arizona Senate seat against Kyrsten Sinema. She lost by a few percentage points. Republicans had put McSally in as their future for the Senate in this state. Then she lost and they couldnt quite figure out whom they wanted to appoint to John McCains seat. There wasnt really anyone else who came to mind, so they appointed her. But shes polling pretty poorly against Mark Kelly. Hes out-raising her. Democrats have to win this seat, and theyre in pretty good position to do it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, Colorado. Thats where former Gov. John Hickenlooper is running. But hes not the only governor whos thrown his hat into the racewe also have Steve Bullock in Montana. A few months back, I remember that people were really worried that Chuck Schumer couldnt attract people to run for the Senate. What does it tell you that these big players in the Democratic world are now running? Advertisement Advertisement When Hickenlooper and Bullock were running for president, they swore left and right that they would never run for Senate. Theyre governorsthey dont want to just be one of 100 in a legislative body. But I think they just wanted to see if their presidential campaigns could go anywherethey did not. So then they looked at the Senate numbers and saw there was a pretty good path to victory. Hickenlooper nearly cleared the field of a lot of candidates who were running in the gubernatorial primary before he did change his mind. So he will win that. Hell be up against Cory Gardner, who won in 2014, a really good Republican year. This is an absolute must-win for Democrats. Its their No. 1 target. Hickenlooper is popular. Gardner is not that popular. If Dems do not win Colorado, they have significant problems. Advertisement Advertisement Part of the problem for Democrats has to do with where theyre running, and whether their states went for Trump in 2016. In Montana, a state that Trump won by 20 points, Gov. Steve Bullock was hesitant to throw his hat in the ring until after Super Tuesday, when Joe Biden surged and it seemed like he was well on his way to the presidential nomination. We should talk about Bullock because hes a Democrat leading a state that Trump wonbut hes very, very popular. Advertisement Advertisement That was a pretty clear case of Biden versus Sanders being the deciding factor there. And Schumer was persistent with Bullockhe flew to Montana. Bullock himself emphasized this in his presidential campaign to no avail: He won in 2016 with Trump at the top of the Republican ticket. There are differences between gubernatorial and federal elections. Sometimes red states might go for a Democrat for governor but then send a warm body to join the Republicans in Washington. So its still going to be really uphill. Fortunately, hes running against Steve Daines, the senator who won in 2014. Hes not really the most distinguished person. Advertisement If you want to convert all of these states, you need a lot of these middle-of-the road candidates who can appeal to the suburbs. Jim Newell It sounds like Daines realized he was going to have to contend with Bullock: He was raising money early on to have a war chest and hunker down just in case. Hes definitely feeling the fire right now. There are going to be some big structural impediments there, given that Trump is probably gonna win the state by, like, 20. So that means Bullock needs a lot of ticket splitters at the polls in order to pull that off. Lets talk a little bit about the liabilities for Democrats, because its not just that theyre looking to pick up seatsthey may also lose seats. And I think the seat most people are talking about is Doug Jones in Alabama. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Doug Jones is in another league. I think hes the most likely senator of either party to lose his seat this year. Why is that? Is it just that he ran against an especially weak candidate, Roy Moore, last time? Yeah, a historically weak candidate in a special election environment. Doug Jones was a very good candidate, but now hes running against either Jeff Sessions or Tommy Tuberville, who are both going to be fine for Republicans. Trump is going to win that state by 30 or so points. Thats gonna carry whatever Republican is there unless they have an especially acute liability, which I dont think will be the case again. Advertisement Advertisement Michigan is also a place where Democrats are on the ropes. Advertisement Not quite on the ropes, but they are paying attention. Thats where Gary Peters is the incumbent Democratic senator. You probably dont know anything about him because no one knows anything about him. Republicans have been running a lot of joke ads about how people dont even know his name. And Peters is running against John James, who ran for Senate in 2018 against Debbie Stabenow and lost by about 5 percentage points, which is pretty good in an overwhelmingly Democratic year against a pretty strong incumbent. Advertisement Are all these candidates indicating where the Democratic Party is going? I think its a continuation of the 2018 playbook, with the emerging growth sector of people who are coming toward the Democrats: suburbanites in the South and Southwest, young people who may have moved to the suburbs of some of these cities, ex-Republicans who are pushed away from Trump. And so Democrats in 2018 pick candidates who would appeal to them, candidates like veterans and ex-prosecutors, exCIA officials. All with pretty centrist beliefs, but also more open to things like gun control. This is a lot of what the future of the Democratic Party looks like. If you want to convert all of these states, you need a lot of these middle-of-the road candidates who can appeal to the suburbs. The left does not like this, but this is the segment of the party that is growing. Advertisement How are any of these candidates talking about getting out the vote, given the unique circumstances were in right now? I dont think anyones quite figured out how campaigning in the fall is going to be done. We know that rallies are suspended for the foreseeable future. If that continues throughout the fall, the entire campaign is basically going to be TV ads and webcam rallies. But whos going to actually go to those? So itll mostly be a war fought on the air. It remains to be seen whether well get back to normal-looking elections, whether the virus will be contained well enough by the fall or its going to be everyone in quarantine watching the campaign through paid media for the next seven months. It would be a good test for stuff like holding rallies and knocking on doorswhether a lot of that in-person stuff is bullshit. If we dont have that, its just a campaign with candidates doing local TV interviews and paid media with lots of advertising. If the results are pretty much the same, well see how much rallies actually matter. Is it silly for us to be talking about Senate prospects at this particular moment? Its early, and theres so much else going on. Im wondering what this conversation tells you about the state of politics right now. Well, the races are still going to happen. Its too early to make predictions about whos going to win control of the Senate, but these races are still going on in some form or another. The coronavirus just changes the message a little bit. It becomes: What has your senator done about the coronavirus? Did your senator vote for this relief bill? Did they push Trump hard enough when he wasnt taking the coronavirus seriously? So it changes the contours. But the campaigns arent pausing. Theres no national suspension of politics during all this, so dont think for a second that these are on the back burner right now. Listen to the full episode using the player below, or subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. GoldenEye (Credit: MGM) Quentin Tarantino must have really loved Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye. Because the British actor has revealed that the Pulp Fiction director called him over for a meeting in Hollywood, got him drunk, and was apparently desperate to get involved in the James Bond franchise. Brosnan was dropped the anecdote during a live 'watch-along' of GoldenEye on Sunday night, hosted by Esquire magazine. It was after Kill Bill Vol. 2, and he wanted to meet me, so I went up to Hollywood one day from the beach, and I met him at the Four Seasons, Brosnan began. Read more: No Time To Die wont be re-edited before release I got there at 7pm, I like to be punctual. 7:15 came around, no Quentin, he was upstairs doing press. Someone sent over a martini, so I had a martini, and I waited till 7:30, and I thought, where the heck is he? Word came down, apologies. So I thought, okay, I'll have another martini. Brosnan admits to being 'fairly snockered' (i.e. drunk) by the time Tarantino eventually showed up, and that when he did, apple martinis began arriving, and soon they were 'both fairly snockered'. Quentin Tarantino (Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) He was pounding the table, saying you're the best James Bond, I wanna do James Bond with you, and it was very close quarters in the restaurant. So I said 'Quentin, please calm down', but you don't tell Quentin Tarantino to calm down, Brosnan went on. Anyway, he wanted to do James Bond, and I went back to the shop and told them but it wasn't meant to be. No Quentin Tarantino for James Bond. What a shame. Read more: Bond star Honor Blackman dies at 94 Though he doesn't reveal the details of what Tarantino's Bond movie would have been about, Brosnan added 'That would be a good one to watch'. Brosnan would not make another Bond movie after 2002s Die Another Day, with Craig taking over the tuxedo for 2006s Casino Royale. He goes on to say that he now laments the humour missing in the current Bond movies. It's the humour that is not there now in the Bond movies, he says. It was the tongue-in-cheek. Connery's flippant throwaway, and Roger Moore's delightfully arch, tongue-in-cheek throwaway (style). So I tried to do the same, keep that lightness of touch. New Bond movie, No Time To Die, Daniel Craig's last outing as Bond, is set to land on 12 November. CORVALLIS, Ore. -- A recent study found that LGBTQ service members face an elevated risk of sexual victimization including harassment, assault and stalking while in the military than their non-LGBTQ counterparts. The study, one of the first funded by the Department of Defense to look specifically at LGBTQ victimization in the military, aims to inform future polices that will identify vulnerable populations and appropriate interventions to help prevent such experiences going forward. Previous research has found that experiencing sexual harassment and assault during military service can lead to negative health outcomes including PTSD, depression, substance use and suicidal behavior, all of which are often reported at higher rates among LGBTQ veterans than in the straight cisgender population. "We're really trying to understand the experiences and well-being of LGBTQ service members and help the military learn how they can improve those experiences," said lead author Ashley Schuyler, a Ph.D. student in OSU'S College of Public Health and Human Sciences. "Our findings suggest that LGBTQ service members do experience an elevated risk of sexual and stalking victimization, even in this post-'don't ask, don't tell' era." Published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress last month, the study surveyed 544 active-duty service members, ages 18-54, including about 41% who identified as LGBTQ and roughly 10% who identified as trans or gender-nonconforming. "Don't ask, don't tell," the law that barred openly gay, lesbian and bisexual people from serving in the military, was repealed in 2011, but "it seems like some of those effects could linger, including sexual prejudice and discrimination, which may elevate victimization risk," Schuyler said. The researchers considered that the culture of the military, with a high value placed on "masculine" ideals such as dominance, aggression and self-sufficiency, may compel some individuals to act out toward people they see as weaker to prove their masculinity to others. That environment may explain a disparity between men and women in the study: Female service members were more likely to experience sexual harassment than male service members, but the risk of harassment did not increase among women who identified as lesbian or bisexual. Among male service members, however, gay and bisexual men were significantly more likely to experience sexual harassment than straight men. "Our conclusion was that female service members have such an elevated risk of sexual harassment in general, that being bi or lesbian doesn't increase that risk," Schuyler said. Among all service members in the sample, those identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual had an increased risk of sexual harassment, stalking and sexual assault compared to heterosexual service members. More research is needed on how stalking manifests in the military, Schuyler said. It may look different on board a ship with service members confined in close quarters for months at a time, for example. "Something the military has started to acknowledge is this idea of a continuum of harm, where if you experience sexual harassment or gender discrimination behaviors, you're at higher risk of more severe encounters down the road, like assault," she said. "We're trying to understand where stalking fits into that spectrum of experiences, so we can intervene to help people who we know experience harassment or stalking and prevent potential assault in the future." The researchers recommend further investigation into victimization in the military, especially as the policies governing LGBTQ service continue to change. Such research was not possible during the "don't ask, don't tell" era. Schuyler said they'd like to see military leaders and health care providers be more educated about identifying victimization experiences and providing supports that are inclusive of LGBTQ people who have experienced sexual harassment, assault or stalking. With an increased understanding of those experiences, leaders can pinpoint targets for intervention to help stop sexual violence before it happens. ### Co-authors on the study were Cary Klemmer, Mary Mamey, Sheree Schrager, Jeremy Goldbach, Ian Holloway and Carl Castro from the University of Southern California. About the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences: The first accredited college of public health in Oregon, the college creates connections in teaching, research and community outreach while advancing knowledge, policies and practices that improve population health in communities across the state and beyond. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has mostly stuck to the state Capitol in Albany throughout the coronavirus pandemic with the exceptions all playing a supplementary role in the public presentation of his response to the crisis. Visits to testing facilities in New Rochelle, Westchester County, and on Long Island were where the governor displayed his can-do efforts to contain the coronavirus. Driving some ventilators back to an upstate nursing home reflected efforts to mute regional conflicts. Stopping by the temporary hospital at the Javits Center in Manhattan showed a wartime commander in action as he played nice with a tempermental commander in chief, whose help he needed to get the facilities up and running. With the crisis appearing to lessen in New York City, the governor appeared in Buffalo on Tuesday morning to talk about how while some regions reopen their economies, others might see future spikes in infections. Weve gotten through difficult situations before, Cuomo said. We went through 7 feet of snow a couple of years ago. That was fun. An afternoon visit with President Donald Trump will be the latest example of Cuomo using a White House trip to underscore how far he will go to get what he wants. The president has left him empty-handed after past meetings over border security, transportation and taxes, but there has arguably never been a more crucial day when the three-term governor needed help from the federal government. The state lacks the international sway to get the testing materials it needs from China in order to lift social distancing restrictions in the upcoming months. Schools, hospitals and local governments could lose 20% of their state funding, Cuomo warned Monday, unless a fourth federal stimulus bill includes $500 billion in aid to states. The governor has offered a few arguments for why New York should get billions in new money. Tax revenues and economic activity have plummeted in the Empire State, which the Cuomo administration has said could face a revenue shortfall of up to $15 billion. While the federal government has given some aid to the state, it has come with too many strings attached, according to Cuomo, who has argued that if airlines and small businesses received bailouts, why shouldnt states get unrestricted federal aid? At the Tuesday morning press conference, he also has also tried to incorporate the cause of front-line workers, saying the federal government should give them a pay raise, into his quest for more unrestricted funding. I think it is a terrible mistake not to provide funding for the states, Cuomo said. How about police? How about fire? How about teachers? Youre not going to fund schools? I dont get it. The governors attempts at persuading Trump have fallen short before, including in February when Cuomo tried to get the president to back away from freezing New Yorkers applications for the trusted traveler programs that allow easy passage through the U.S. border. Youre asking me if I have a high expectation of success? No, Cuomo told reporters at the time. But it makes me feel better knowing that I did everything I could to argue for the state of New York. That is my role. Nothing much came out of that February meeting though a provision in the state budget does give the federal government more access to state drivers license records. In recent weeks, Cuomo has found that the proverbial honey gets him more with Trump than confrontation for example, by saying nice things that the president can use at White House press conferences. That means he will try to continue walking a fine line with Trump, who has tried to use his White House appearances and tweets to hit his perceived political enemies during the crisis. It is something the governor has evidently seen before. Life is a fine, the governor said Tuesday. Life is a fine line. Being in government is a fine line. Everything is a fine line. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 14:27:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SYDNEY, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The virus-hit cruise ship, Ruby Princess, is scheduled to leave Australia's waters this week, spokesperson for New South Wales (NSW) police told Xinhua on Tuesday. The Ruby Princess has been linked to more than 600 COVID-19 cases and 21 deaths in Australia and as of Tuesday remained docked at Port Kembla, south of Sydney. So far the ship's departure has been delayed due to the concerns for the health of those still on board, with 190 cases recorded among crew members as of Monday. NSW police said that they would disembark at least 49 crew members from six countries on Tuesday. One of the 49 crew members has tested positive for COVID-19, who would be taken to a NSW Health-managed hotel to undertake a 14-day quarantine period. Once the 14-day quarantine period is exhausted, subject to a medical clearance by NSW Health, the crew member will be transported to Sydney Airport to fly back to his country of origin. The remaining 48 crew members have tested negative for the COVID-19. They were disembarked this morning, and arrangements would be made for flights to return them to their home countries. "The health of those on board and protecting the people of NSW always has been -- and will continue to be -- our number one priority," NSW Police Force Commissioner Mick Fuller said. "The movement of the first crew contingent today is an important milestone, and has us one step closer to the Ruby Princess leaving Australian waters." Enditem Mercedes-Benz Korea CEO Dimitris Psillakis, center, poses with Korea Alliance of Community Child Centers Chairman Nam Sae-do, left, and Kids & Future Foundation Executive Director Park Du-jun in this photo released on April 13, after the company's CSR committee provided emergency relief supplies for the underprivileged and for medical staff. Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Korea By Nam Hyun-woo The two leading import car brands in Korea, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, have showed a contrast in their cash flow in dividends and corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending last year. Mercedes-Benz posted unrivaled numbers in sales among import brands in Korea and delivered handsome dividends to its shareholders last year, but its contribution to society did not keep up with the brand's revenue growth here. On the other hand, BMW backpedaled in sales last year and did not send dividends to headquarters, but increased its CSR spending in the Korean market. To cope with repeated calls to enhance its contributions to the domestic market, Mercedes-Benz Korea has been steadily increasing its CSR spending during current CEO Dimitris Psillakis' tenure. But industry officials said it remains uncertain whether the company will maintain the same stance after Psillakis finishes his term here. According to Mercedes-Benz Korea's earnings report, the brand posted 5.44 trillion won ($4.39 billion) in sales last year, up 21.7 percent from 4.47 trillion won in 2018, consolidating its status as the top-selling import brand in Korea. Its operating profit also grew 40.9 percent to 218 billion won from 154.75 billion won during the same period. Following the solid numbers, Mercedes-Benz Korea gave 78.28 billion won to its shareholders Mercedes-Benz AG with 51 percent and Star Auto Holdings with 49 percent. This accounted for 55 percent of its net profit of 142.3 billion won last year. In terms of percentage, last year's dividend grew 40.7 percent from 55.7 billion won in 2018. Compared to the 40.7 percent jump in its dividend, the growth in its donation was weak, relatively, as it spent 3.05 billion won last year, up 14.2 percent from a year earlier. This is in stark contrast with BMW Korea's balance sheet for last year. According to its earnings report, BMW Korea's sales last year declined by 5.5 percent to 2.86 trillion won from 3.03 trillion won in 2018, in an apparent impact from its 2018 car fires problem which engulfed approximately 40 vehicles while being driven here. Following the slowdown, BMW Korea did not set up a dividend last year. Except for 2010, 2016 and 2017, the company has not been sending dividends to its shareholders for the past 20 years. Unlike its "conservative assessment" in terms of handling its dividend policy, the company is on track to pursue an aggressive CSR policy, with its donations growing by 36.1 percent to 1.81 billion won last year from 1.33 billion won a year earlier. In the previous decade, BMW Korea's donation spending amounted to 15.53 billion won, while that of Mercedes-Benz Korea stood at 15.09 billion won. In a yearly comparison, BMW Korea's donations grew significantly in 2012 to 1.95 billion won and it has since been spending a consistent amount between 1.33 billion won and 2 billion won. On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz Korea's donations remained below 457 million won from 2010 to 2013 and grew significantly over 1 billion won in 2014. The company has been increasing the amount of donations steadily since then. This is in line with Mercedes-Benz Korea's drive to enhance its CSR spending after Psillakis joined the company in 2015. After his appointment, the company's donations nearly doubled to 1.12 billion won in 2014 to 2.05 billion won in 2015. Also, in June 2014 the company initiated a series of CSR programs, including the launch of Mercedes-Benz CSR Committee, which is comprised of three Daimler AG subsidiaries and 11 official dealers in Korea. "Mercedes-Benz Korea started to expand its CSR efforts slightly belatedly, but is quickly enhancing its efforts, even though the amount seems relatively small compared to its towering prowess in the Korean market," an industry official said. "With Daimler Group facing a sharp drop in its net profit last year, it is uncertain whether the company will keep its recent efforts for the Korean market the same after Psillakis finishes his term." In view of the economic crisis due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) are seeking support from the government for the aviation industry to protect jobs and ensure that the services are maintained. Reportedly, air passenger demand currently is down 80 per cent. Along with it, the airlines are also facing a liquidity crisis threatening the viability of 25 million jobs. In a joint statement, the ITF and IATA have requested the government to prioritize the protection of health workers at the time of the COVID-19 crisis. Further, they requested the government to provide immediate financial and regulatory support for airlines to maintain the sustainability of terms and conditions for air transport workers. Along with it, in its joint statement, the two organizations have noted the aviation industry's contribution to curbing the Coronavirus crisis by keeping supply chains open and repatriating citizens. Along with it, reportedly, aviation professionals are also volunteering on the frontline to assist medical services. IATA's statement According to IATA's Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac, the airlines are facing the most critical period in the history of commercial aviation. He added that direct financial support is essential to maintain jobs and ensure airlines can remain viable businesses. "And when the world is ready to start travelling again, the global economy will need aviation at its best to help restore connectivity, tourism and global supply chains. That will require a harmonized approach with industry, workers, and governments working together," he said in a statement. Read: Odisha to provide Rs 50 lakh assistance to health staff who lose lives fighting COVID-19 ITF's statement According to ITF's General Secretary Stephen Cotton, the governments should understand the importance of the aviation industry in rebuilding the global economy and support the industry. "Bold decisions are required to invest in the future of airlines and protect the jobs and livelihoods of the transport workers who will lead the economic recovery when COVID-19 has been contained," he said. "Workers and the industry have joined forces, we invite more governments to join us in a coordinated approach to keep the industry and its essential supply chains moving," he said in a statement. Read: 'Open flight bookings only when decision to resume ops has been taken': Aviation minister India under lockdown Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14 announced the extension of the nationwide lockdown till May 3 in order to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus. He addressed the nation as the ongoing pan-India lockdown entered its 21st day. All transport services have been stopped, including Indian railways' passenger service goods trains are operational to ensure a steady supply of goods and services across the country. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries. Read: Hardeep Singh Puri lauds civil aviation sector; 227 flights carry 4047 tonnes of supplies Read: 'States, UTs cannot dilute lockdown instructions of Union government': MHA (With ANI Inputs) ALBANY In a pouring rain, protestors honked horns and flashed signs outside the Executive Mansion on Tuesday to demand Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo grant clemency to inmates with compromised immune systems as COVID-19 case are continuing to increase in New York prisons. Three advocates spoke at the rally but many more blared car horns to voice their support to releasing more inmates. The governor already authorized the release of hundreds of parolees, who were jailed for technical violations, in response to the pandemic. The coronavirus has infected 219 inmates, killing five. Sixty-two prisoners who were infected have recovered and are out of isolation. COVID-19 has infected 813 state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision employees (two deaths) and 35 parolees (four deaths), the agency's website states. "There are those who are in prison right now who are dying. People are contracting COVID and they're dying," said Thomas Kearney, a regional coordinator for the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign and a former state prison inmate. "COVID plus prison equals death." He said the governor's efforts must go "a hell of a lot further" than what the state has already done. Prisoners are quarantined for at least 14 days if they test positive for COVID-19. Prison officers, parole officers and civilian staff all must wear face masks while on duty. Inmates have been provided with face cloth coverings. In a statement, Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, noted DOCCS lifted all technical parole violation warrants for inmates who pose no threat to public safety. On April 14, the agency began releasing prisoners with 90 or fewer days left on their sentence, are 55 or older and whose underlying crime was not a violent crime or sex offense. State officials say they have identified 171 more inmates for release in the coming days. Three of the prisoners who died were at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Westchester County, where 43 inmates have contracted the coronavirus (13 recovered). Other deaths of inmates were at Otisville Correctional Facility (eight infected, three recovered) in Orange County and Queensboro Correctional Facility (no other cases) in Long Island City, Queens. Other prisons with high numbers of COVID-19 include Fishkill in Dutchess County (45 infected, 10 recovered), Bedford Hills, a women's prison in Westchester County (21 infected, four recovered), Wende (23 infected, 11 recovered) in Erie County, Green Haven (18 infected, seven recovered) in Dutchess County and Great Meadow in Washington County (10 infected, three recovered). Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "How many more must die?" Kearney asked. "Five is too many. Not one more!" Jolene Russ of Schoharie County, whose husband is an inmate in Elmira Correctional Facility, said social distancing does not exist in prison. She said she understands prisoners still must eat, recreate, shower and go to commissaries in close proximity to other inmates. "Our prisons have become nursing homes," Russ told reporters. "The governor will tell you that COVID in a nursing home is like fire to dry grass. In these prisons COVID is like like fire to dry grass as well." Advocates, who also protested outside Bedford Hills and Otisville prisons, were with various groups including Parole Justice Albany, Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration, the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, Parole Preparation Project, VOCAL-NY, Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, New Hour for Women and Children Long Island and New York Communities for Change. " President Donald Trump partially blocked immigration to the United States "to protect American workers" from the economic shock of the coronavirus, as the United Nations warned the world was facing "a humanitarian catastrophe". The UN alarm bell came as nations scrambled to fight the virus -- which has killed 177,000 people and infected more than 2.5 million -- as well as desperately seek ways to limit the vast damage inflicted on the global economy. With more than half of humanity under some form of lockdown, businesses shuttered and millions of jobs lost, the world is facing its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said it would hit the least privileged the hardest. "I want to stress that we are not only facing a global health pandemic, but also a global humanitarian catastrophe," WFP executive director David Beasley told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. "Millions of civilians living in conflict-scarred nations... face being pushed to the brink of starvation." The WFP warned the number of people suffering from acute hunger was projected to nearly double to 265 million this year. In the United States, where some 22 million people have lost their jobs, Trump said he would stop the issuing of green cards for 60 days, but exempt temporary workers such as seasonal farm laborers. "In order to protect American workers, I will be issuing a temporary suspension of immigration into the United States," he said. "It will help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens. "It would be wrong and unjust for Americans to be replaced with immigrant labor flown in from abroad." The US -- with nearly 45,000 deaths and more than 800,000 coronavirus infections -- is the hardest-hit country, and healthcare infrastructure in major hotspots such as New York City has struggled to cope. The huge patient numbers are also taking a toll on the mental health of doctors and nurses. "The same thing every day... is draining," said Heather Isola, a physician assistant. "What is it going to do to us? The anxieties, the PTSD, the experience of death and dying. Most people haven't seen death and dying like this." The director of the US Centers for Disease Control, meanwhile, called on Americans to prepare for a second wave of infections. "There's a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," Robert Redfield told the Washington Post. - Oktoberfest canceled - Some countries in Europe have started easing lockdowns as the spread of the virus is slowly brought under control, but the cancellation of more well-known events served as a reminder that the pandemic is far from over. In Germany, where small shops have been allowed to reopen, authorities canceled this year?s Oktoberfest, the beloved beer-swilling festival in southern Bavaria, for the first time since World War II. The German government's restrictions on large gatherings also mean the Berlin Marathon will not go ahead as planned this year in September, organizers said. Spain, which is set to allow children some movement in a week, said it was scrapping the annual bull-running festival in Pamplona. The pandemic has ripped apart the global sports calendar -- most notably forcing the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to next year. German football authorities are expected to announce plans on Thursday for its top-level league to restart matches in empty stadiums on May 9. But the Dutch football federation said it intended to end its season because of the extension of a ban on large gatherings. Across the Atlantic, the NFL draft -- a three-day annual glitzy marketplace to choose the top collegiate talent -- will be held online from Thursday, with teams making their picks from remote locations across the United States. - 'Now they die alone' - Global markets remain under intense pressure because of the pandemic. With billions locked down, economies halted and travel extremely limited, a dramatic drop in the demand for oil has sent prices crashing in recent weeks. Major cuts promised by the world's top oil producers have failed to stabilize the market, and the rout continued on Wednesday. Extraordinary stimulus measures worth trillions of dollars gave some boost to stock markets, but have failed to lift the overall mood on trading floors. Like with the food crisis warning from the WFP, the biggest impact of the loss of jobs and the overall economic downturn is being felt by the most disadvantaged. They include the millions of migrant workers from South Asia and elsewhere that toil in the Middle East to send money back home to their families. The pandemic shutdowns mean even their bodies cannot be sent home, and are instead being buried or cremated in the country where they die -- often without any loved ones present. "Nobody comes anymore, nobody touches, nobody says goodbye," said Ishwar Kumar, manager of a Hindu cremation ground in Dubai. Before the pandemic, people would come "to grieve and bring flowers. Now they die alone". burs-qan/fox Workers wearing protective gear bury an unclaimed COVID-19 victim, at a municipal cemetery in Tijuana, Mexico An elderly patient suspected of being infected with the coronavirus is transferred from a nursing home to an ambulance in Belgrano neighbourhood, Buenos Aires Nurses employed at Providence Saint John's Hospital and their supporters demand better protective equipment in Santa Monica, California A man stands at the entrance to his shop in downtown Yangon, Myanmar Aerial view of workers digging graves at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil Passengers wear facemasks against the spread of coronavirus on the Panama City metro A sign above the entrance to the shuttered London Palladium reads "Happy Birthday Ma'am", a birthday greeting to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II Residents run a checkpoint at the entrance to the Mudanjiang residential district in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province Migrants rush to take sanitisers and other items during a distribution effort outside their hotel near Kranidi, Greece A nurse listens to the relative of patient hospitalized at the Tacuba General Hospital in Mexico City People waiting for a food handout keep their distance outside the Badshahi mosque in Lahore, Pakistan Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana K P Singh on Tuesday sought monetary support and the required health infrastructure including test kits from the Centre to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the state. He raised the demand during a video conference of presiding officers of All India Legislative Bodies, an official statement said here. Apprising about the situation in the state, Singh appreciated the initiative of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for listening their views. He also urged the Lok Sabha Speaker to impress upon the Central government to provide extra financial support and health infrastructure to Punjab particularly to win the battle against the pandemic. Singh assured all his counterparts that all migrants stranded in the state due to the lockdown are safe and the Punjab government is taking good care of them and all arrangements have been made for their screening and safe stay. Stressing on the need for a long-term policy for monetary support to states, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker pointed out that the Centre has not yet provided any special financial help to Punjab particularly to fight the virus. He said only 10,000 test kits have been provided to the state against the requirement of one lakh test kits. He also raised the issue of safe transit of Punjabi pilgrims stuck in Maharashtra, who had gone to pay their obeisance at Takht Hazur Sahib (Nanded Sahib). During the discussion, it was decided that a control room in each legislative body will be set up. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UTICA, N.Y. The Johnson Park Center held a walk-in food giveaway Monday where people in need could line up, while practicing social distancing, to pick up food. Officials at the center say four-times more people are in need of their services since the pandemic started. We have quadrupled our numbers. Last week we served 1,200 households. Every week we are getting a food pantry truck from Syracuse or the Food Bank of Central New York, and every week we are giving out the food, said the Rev. Ursula Meier, COO. Representatives from the American Red Cross helped distribute food at Mondays giveaway. The center will distribute food through Wednesday from 3 6 p.m. each day. There will also be a drive-thru on Monday, April 27, from 2 to 7:30 p.m. Food for the giveaways was donated by Jimmy Johns and the Carbone Auto Group. US President Donald Trump has said he will temporarily suspend immigration into the United States to protect the jobs of American citiz... In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 In a tweet early today, Trump said:In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!The immigration ban generated thousands of reactions after Trump tweeted it.The responses foreshadowed the political fire the idea will ignite on Tuesday across the aisles in the U.S.America at the moment has an unprecedented job crisis, with about 22 million workers unemployed. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds waves after speaking during a ceremonial swearing-in at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa on May 24, 2017. (Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo) Iowa Sends National Guard Troops to Meat Plants, Governor Says Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced the states National Guard will be deployed to two meat plants to help with CCP virus testing and contact tracing for workers. As many as 1,000 National Guard troops will be activated and will be sent to plants, she said. Reynolds said that Iowa National Guard troops will help transport testing equipment to the packing plants, transport kits to labs, and possibly assist in cleaning facilities. Packing plants will not be closed, the governor also announced. Its important, because this isnt like a regular facility where you shut it down for two weeks, Reynolds said, according to KCCI. We are the largest hog producer in the country. We provide a third of the nations pork supply25 million a year. Significant outbreaks of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus have occurred at facilities operated by Tyson Foods Inc. and National Beef Packing Co. in Iowa. Reynolds said 250 National Guards members will be sent to the plants. At some point were going to have to be talking about euthanizing hogs, and were not that far from it, Reynolds told reporters on Monday. And that would be devastating, not only for the food supply but for the cost of food going forward. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced $19 billion would be used to bail out farmers amid the pandemic, including $3 billion in buy meat and dairy products. Connections to China? Tyson Foods late last year received approval from U.S. and Chinese authorities to export American poultry to China from all 36 its U.S.-based plants, Reuters reported. But in February, CEO Noel White said that the CCP virus outbreak in Wuhan forced the firm to slow its exports to China. A truck arrives at Smithfield Foods pork plant in Smithfield, Virginia, on Oct. 17, 2019. (Tom Polansek/Reuters) JBS SA, the Brazilian-owned meatpacking giant, said it will close down a pork processing facility in Minnesota. As we all learn more about coronavirus, it is clear that the disease is far more widespread across the U.S. and in our county than official estimates indicate based on limited testing, Bob Krebs, the head of JBS USA Pork, said in a statement. We have taken aggressive actions to keep coronavirus out of our plant and keep this critical infrastructure facility operational. In late January 2020, JBS SA announced a deal with Chinese food processing giant WH Group, saying that JBS will have direct access to Chinese consumers through WH Groups 60,000 points of sales, Agweb reported at the time. WH Group is also the owner of Smithfield Foods, which operates a number of plants in the United States, and a report last week revealed that the CCP-tied owners of WH Group had visited a Smithfield plant at the center of a COVID-19 outbreak roughly a month after the White House banned all travel from China. On April 20, people who watch the oil and gas industry closely experienced something that felt like it was out of a work of fiction. West Texas Intermediate crude prices went negative, as traders rushed to unload contracts for May deliveries that will arrive when the Cushing, Oklahoma hub is expected to be completely full. On one hand, yesterday's negative oil prices were a worst-case combination of cratering demand, and production being much slower to fall in line. On the other hand, this isn't just an oddity in the way commodities are traded, but a massive warning signal of structural problems in the oil industry. Negative oil prices weren't a quirk, but a warning shot Here's a short explanation of what happened on April 20. If you trade oil, you own oil futures, and those futures actually mean you're on the hook to take physical delivery of the oil. On April 20, many traders were facing having to take possession of oil at the Cushing, Oklahoma, oil hub in May -- when that facility is expected to be completely full. As a result, traders spent much of the afternoon doing almost anything they could to unload those contracts...including paying others to take them. That's when things went negative. Individual investors flooding capital into the United States Oil Fund (NYSEMKT:USO) may have played a big part in yesterday's crash. Bloomberg reported that perhaps 25% of outstanding May 2020 futures were held by that fund yesterday. This is what happens when investors who can't actually take the oil get caught in a massive imbalance between supply and demand. The underlying reason is the massive crash in demand for oil. Over the past four weeks, U.S. gasoline shipments have fallen more than 30%, while jet-fuel shipments are down 40%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Yet the world will have spent the month of April pumping even more oil than in any other month in history. Many U.S. producers have cut their output over the past few weeks, but Russia, Saudi Arabia, and others have spent April pumping even more oil than they were earlier in the year. The recent historic deal to take 10 million barrels per day off the market won't kick in until May 1, and the levels the cuts were set at are based on production under a prior deal that expired on April 1. The stark reality is finally starting to set in. West Texas futures contracts are below $30 per barrel all the way to April, well below the price that most U.S. oil producers need to just cover their production costs. Even Brent, widely considered the most important global crude-oil benchmark, is trading for less than $35 per barrel all the way into October deliveries. Investor takeaway: Tread lightly Yes, low oil prices are brutal, and are causing massive problems for the entire oil value chain right now. The negative prices we saw were a bit quirky, and it was mostly traders who got hit, not oil producers. But the underlying reason this happened is a huge warning signal that much of the oil industry is uninvestable right now -- outside a handful of the largest and best-capitalized companies, like supermajor Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.B) (NYSE:RDS.A), and integrated midstream and upstream giant Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX). These two companies have billions in cash on their balance sheets and well-structured debt they can support, and significant exposure to natural gas that will help offset the collapse in prices and demand for oil and refined products. Yet while these top oil stocks will be able to survive the next year just fine, it could take longer than that for the industry to recover. Even when economic activity picks up and oil demand rises, the world will be awash in hundreds of millions of barrels of oil, which will need to be worked through before oil production can start to recover. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on the federal government Monday to provide additional pay to the frontline workers battling the coronavirus. Cuomo called for hazard pay of 50% to those workers, like hospital staff, first responders, and transit employees, who have been deemed essential as much of the state has been ordered to work from home. Essential public workers are the ones on the front lines every day carrying us through this crisis, and we must ensure their efforts and sacrifice are appropriately recognized, Cuomo said. This crisis is not over yet, and as long as these workers continue to work and expose themselves to the virus, they should be properly compensated. Cuomo noted that many of the states frontline workers fall into more at-risk communities like the 41% who are people of color, and the one third who live in low-income households. Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island/South Brooklyn) said Monday that he supports a push for extra pay for those working in essential businesses. Workers on the frontlines right now are putting their lives on the line and making incredible sacrifices in order to keep our city running, our families healthy, and our communities clean and safe, Rose said. The least we can do is ensure theyre compensated for the work theyre doing under the toughest of circumstances. We need to do more than just say thank you, we need to have their backs. Congress is nearing a deal to continue funding a small business program as part of the federal governments bailout efforts in response to the virus. Cuomo, who reported Monday that the state had counted another 478 New York deaths overnight, noted the importance of assistance for businesses, but continued to call for further state funding from the federal government. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** He also announced the Reimagine NY task force of Mayor Bill de Blasio, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, along with other local elected officials, and experts on transit and housing. The group will be tasked with coordinating local reopening efforts as the state begins to lift mandates on social distancing. Cuomo has extended his New York on Pause mandates to May 15. What were doing here -- as a general rule -- will determine our future, Cuomo said. This is cause and effect on steroids. What we do today will determine tomorrow." The Delhi government will give 2,000 food coupons each to every MLA and MP in the city for distribution among the needy in their constituencies amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday. Addressing the media online, Kejriwal said 47 people have died of COVID-19 so far, adding that 83 per cent of the deaths were related to co-morbid conditions. Kejriwal also said the government will start COVID-19 testing for mediapersons from Wednesday. "We have set up a centre. All media houses and journalists will be informed about it. Interested mediapersons can undergo tests from tomorrow morning at the centre," he said. The chief minister said his government has also decided to provide free-ration to around 30 lakh people who do not have ration cards, asserting that there are currently 71 lakh beneficiaries of public distribution system and they are being provided free-ration by the government. Government will also distribute kits of daily-use items such as soap, oil, sugar, turmeric and salt along with ration for the month of May, he said, adding that it will start it from April 27 or April 28 onwards. "The Delhi government has prepared a plan of food security for the needy. We will provide free-ration to around one crore people and it means we will be providing ration to half the population of Delhi," Kejriwal said. The chief minister said the government has also decided to give 2000 food coupons each to every MLA and MP for distribution among the needy in their respective constituencies. "Every MLA and MP will distribute food coupons to those who did not have ration cards and could not apply for the same online. Those people getting e-coupon will also be given kits of daily-use items," he also said. There are 1,603 active coronavirus cases in Delhi, while 47 people have died of COVID-19 so far, Kejriwal said, adding that 83 per cent of the deaths were related co-morbid conditions. He said with a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, the Delhi government will procure 60 new ambulances and an order has been issued for the same. Out of 1,397 samples taken, 78 were found infected with COVID-19 on Monday, he said. Kejriwal requested people to take extra care of senior citizens those aged above 60 and not to allow them to step out of houses. He said 47 people have so far died of COVID-19, adding that 80 per cent of people, who died, were aged more than 50. The total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi rose to 2081 on Monday, with 78 fresh cases and two deaths being reported in a day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) During Pandemic, Safe Haven Should Be Used Instead of Abortion NEWS PROVIDED BY The Justice Foundation April 20, 2020 SAN ANTONIO, Texas, April 20, 2020 /Christian Newswire/ -- Allan Parker, The Justice Foundation President, announces TJF is offering free legal information to any pregnant woman in America who feels that she cannot care for the "infant life" (U.S. Supreme Court-Gonzales v. Carhart, 2007) in her womb at this time and needs an abortion. TJF can assist her with understanding her state's Safe Haven laws by which she can, without cost, release her baby to the community. She can simply release the baby to a hospital, fire station, or other designated place within a specified time after birth. If she is low-income, the state can also provide prenatal care and delivery of the child at no cost to the woman. Many women are feeling pressured by circumstances such as lost jobs, economic uncertainty, etc., into getting "emergency" abortions when they could be using the Safe Haven laws which are available in every state. See www.nationalsafehavealliance.org. Cynthia Collins, Operation Outcry Global Advisor and Founder of the Louisiana Abortion Recovery Group says: "Fear leads to death; hope leads to life. We need to offer women hope for the future, not death." The Justice Foundation can assist women to prevent being illegally forced to abort. Unlike abortions, Safe Haven is free and equally available to the rich and poor. There is no cost, no obligation, no legal procedure and the woman is totally free to release her child to the state with no obligation for future child support. Unfortunately, because of its financial bias, the abortion industry is not telling women about the free services provided by her state's Safe Haven law and Medicaid for those who have lost their jobs and are pregnant. The fact that the abortion industry is continuing its attempt to exploit the coronavirus crisis in order to stay open is absolutely deplorable. Their callous disregard of women's health and the infant lives in the womb and others could not be more obvious. The helpline number to contact thousands of pregnancy resource centers across the nation for free is the Option Line: 1-800-712-4357 or text "HELPLINE" at 313131. About The Justice Foundation To learn more about The Justice Foundation and The Moral Outcry movement, please visit www.themoraloutcry.com or www.thejusticefoundatiion.org. To book interviews with Allan Parker, Cynthia Collins, or other pro-life leaders involved with this initiative, please email The Justice Foundation media team at media@txjf.org. SOURCE The Justice Foundation CONTACT: Allan E. Parker, info@txjf.org Related Links www.themoraloutcry.com www.thejusticefoundatiion.org www.txjf.org When Gov. Phil Murphy holds his daily briefing Tuesday afternoon to provide updates on the coronavirus, hell have already crisscrossed the state. Tuesdays gathering at the Trenton War Memorial, which will be streamed on the governors YouTube channel, begins later than usual at 3 p.m. Thats because Murphy has two morning stops in South Jersey. After a 9:30 a.m. tour of the states soon-to-open third field hospital at the Atlantic City Convention Center, the governor will head to Wildwood at 11 a.m. to survey damage from fierce storms on April 13. Winds that gusted as high as 87 mph ripped up a section of the Wildwood boardwalk that day. Historic Congress Hall in Cape May was among the other buildings damaged that day. Another round of thunderstorms is in the forecast for Tuesday afternoon with wind gusts up to 40 mph. Murphy, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli and State Police Superintendent Colonel Pat Callahan will be joined by state epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan for their usual roughly 90-minute update. The governor also has a pair of television appearance Tuesday evening. At 8 p.m. he will appear on "All In With Chris Hayes on MSNBC. Then at 9 p.m. Murphy will join Chris Cuomo for an interview on CNN. On Monday, Murphy said hell give New Jerseyans a broad blueprint by the end of the week on how the state will begin to reopen from the near-lockdown orders he put in place to combat to the coronavirus and return to some new normalcy. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Finances Teacher pay Student impact In Vigo County (TNS) The coronavirus pandemic has brought changes to K-12 schooling in Indiana that no one could possibly have imagined just a few months ago: Closed schools, remote learning and uncertainty about the future.On the positive side, educators, students and families are learning and improving skills to creatively use technology and the internet. They are finding new ways to stay connected.But remote learning has its drawbacks: The lack of in-person interaction with teachers and others students; for some children, school offers a safety net if they face trauma at home; in some cases, parents may not be supporting children with remote learning.It has created challenges in serving vulnerable populations, including special needs students and those with limited or no access to internet or devices.Vigo County School Corp. superintendent Rob Haworth has much praise for what local educators have accomplished in a short period of time.At the same time, I dont believe what were doing replaces the depth and breadth of what children would get if they were in a classroom, he said.One big question mark, especially for the longer term, involves the impact of the economic downturn on school finances.These are difficult times, said Dennis Costerison, executive director of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials.We dont know when this [uncertainty related to pandemic] is going to end and what will be the true impact on the state budget.So far, the governors office has indicated the states intent to maintain tuition support through the end of the current biennium, or June 30, 2021, Costerison said. We appreciate that public education is a priority for them.But Cris Johnston, director of the states Office of Management and Budget, cautioned Wednesday, As it represents over 50% of the general fund budget, K-12 funding is a priority for the state. The duration of the adverse economic impact from the public health emergency is difficult to predict. Actual funding levels will be influenced by the availability of revenues from these future, uncertain economic conditions and the flexibility afforded with any federal assistance.Schools are funded primarily through state support (education fund) and local property taxes (operations fund), and its expected both will eventually be adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.I do not anticipate any immediate funding loss or cuts for school corporations as they conclude this school year and close out fiscal year 2020, said Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association.But state revenue already is affected.Indianas monthly revenue missed projections by $70 million for March, though year-to-date the state still exceeds projections by $30 million. Its anticipated the decline will be even greater this month.According to Spradlin, projected state revenue losses, which are significant, will surely drain a good percentage of the states rainy day reserve fund.Larry DeBoer, Purdue University professor and economist, says that perhaps a quarter of the Indiana economy has shut down. If the state experiences revenue losses at that rate, revenues would fall short by $1.1 billion by the end of fiscal year 2020, and $2.2 billion over the next six months.Federal stimulus and recovery funds will help schools in Indiana in the short-term, Spradlin said. Schools will need state guidance as they prepare their 2021 budgets later this year.Despite the challenges ahead, school districts continue to pay employees, both teachers and non-teachers. I have yet to hear of a school corporation not doing so, Costerison said.Among concerns he hears from association members is that some parents are saying even if school resumes in August, they wont send their children back to school; instead, they will home school or use virtual education.Because districts depend on enrollment for state support, that would hurt schools financially.Many school districts may have to do some borrowing, such as through tax anticipation warrants, something the Vigo County School Corp. anticipates doing, Haworth indicated.Under an executive order signed by the governor, all 92 Indiana counties have been ordered to waive late payment penalties regarding property taxes for 60 days after the May 11 deadline.Many people may delay property tax payments, which means schools could come up short at the June 30 distribution of funds and have to borrow to meet cash-flow needs.There will definitely be fiscal issues, but at least we are encouraged the governors office, Office of Management and Budget and Department of Education are working together to chart the course here and see where we need to go, Costerison said.Indiana also is delaying the deadline for state income tax payments from April 15 to July 15.A future financial hit could come in two ways, Costerison said. One would be an impact on property taxes. The concern is if assessed valuation falls due to business closings, You wont be able to collect as much, he said.A recession, which many economists say has already begun, also would hurt state funding, with revenue sources primarily the state income tax and sales tax. State revenues are really vulnerable to a recession, DeBoer said.Schools faced cuts during the Great Recession of 2009. There were some lean times there, Costerison said. But with the pandemic, Weve not faced something like this before. We just dont know how soon ... the economy will kick back in.One question surrounding the economic downturn is the impact on teacher pay.Teachers have strongly advocated for better pay, which the governor said would be coming in the next biennial budget cycle. That budget will be developed in the 2021 legislative session. How that process plays out with the pandemic fallout is also an unknown.There was great hope there would be a real emphasis on increasing dollars for teachers next budget session, Costerison said. Until we see the true impact, we dont know where that is going to go.State Rep. Tonya Pfaff, D-Terre Haute, also a high school math teacher, said the quick transition to remote learning shows the extraordinary lengths teachers have taken to quickly change their method of delivery, using new forums and formats.Their expertise and adaptability have proven essential as society responds to the coronavirus pandemic and school closure.I think that more than ever, parents understand the skills and abilities that a trained teacher brings to the learning environment every day and the difference it makes in the lives of their children, Pfaff said. I believe this will only enhance the calls to fairly compensate teachers for the extraordinary work they do every day, whether in a crisis or on a normal school day.Spradlin believes that while meaningful progress has occurred this year to improve low teacher pay in Indiana, continued progress will be immensely challenging, given the financial impact of the pandemic.The closing of schools and transition to remote learning has upended the school year, impacting testing, attendance, instruction and other factors, Spradlin said.Also affected is service to vulnerable populations in such areas as food service, education plans for special needs students, equity of access issues and limitations to wireless internet and broadband access.The abrupt change has tested the capacity of school corporations to provide remote or e-learning, Spradlin said.While school leaders and teachers are demonstrating timely and extraordinary leadership, prolonged or extensive remote or e-learning is a situation that was unimaginable and we are learning a great deal as we progress with our response to the pandemic, Spradlin said.Adam Baker, state Department of Education spokesman, said, Our entire learning environment has changed across the state. Every school has transitioned to remote learning, and that does pose challenges.The state IDOEs mission is to ensure schools are prepped and ready to the best of their abilities ... and that they have the resources they need from us, he said. IDOE has resources on its website.Also, the state and federal government have provided flexibility to assist schools in their efforts. Were all learning together how to navigate this new environment, Baker said.Terry McDaniel, Indiana State University professor of educational leadership, said the pandemic and e-learning/remote learning have had positive aspects as well.Educators have the opportunity to try new and creative ways to reach, and teach, students. They are using such tools as Zoom, Skype, YouTube and social media.Many principals are posting videos giving students day-to-day updates and offering words of encouragement.As a result of school-at-home, parents have a greater understanding of what a teachers job is like, McDaniel said.But he has concerns, including parents who wont support children with their remote or virtual learning.Another is the loss of social contact and the opportunity for students to practice communication and social skills with teachers and other students. Kids learn to get along with others in school, he said.Also, school is a safe haven for children who deal with trauma at home, such as abusive parents or other problems. Thats what really scares me, McDaniel said.Students have missed out on spring extracurricular activities, and for high school seniors, that includes all the special activities that take place their last year of K-12. There is a lack of closure, McDaniel said.Hes not as concerned about lost learning, although some high school students in more advanced classes might not get some of the instruction they otherwise would have received in school.But at the elementary and middle school level, I dont think much is lost, just a little more catch-up for teachers as they start the next school year, McDaniel said.The Vigo County School Corp. had no experience with remote learning until the pandemic forced curriculum leaders to come up with a plan, quickly.Our learning curve was steeper than those districts already engaged in some form of e-learning, he said. The district does not yet have a 1:1 program, in which it provides each students with a device although it will in future years.Learning packets that went home with K-8 students do not require access to devices or internet, although students can do optional activities using devices.I think our folks did an outstanding job of preparing our district for remote learning, Haworth said. The district has learned a lot, and May packets will be even stronger.Long term, Haworth has questions about the pandemics implications for education. Where does this somehow end and we get back to what is normal, if we will ever get back to a true what is normal, he said.Among the positives is witnessing the creativity, imagination, hard work and tenacity of district administrators, he said.Also, area superintendents have worked closely with each other to share ideas and best practices, he said. Hes been in regular communication with about 20 area superintendents.As the pandemic crisis has risen to the top of the priority list, others have taken a temporary backseat, including the timeline for a building program to address high school needs, Haworth said. Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021. PORTLAND, Ore., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to questions flooding in from small business owners, experts at The Caputo Group are extending their client advice to the community with weekly webinars and Q & A sessions. The webinars take place every Thursday at noon, covering the latest information from official sources that directly impact the health and security of small businesses. "We offer activities like this webinar to help keep everyone informed on the developments that are affecting their lives and their livelihoods," said Sophia Blanton, Sr Coordinator for The Caputo Group. This week's Special Focus: Cannabis Industry webinar will cover: Unique challenges faced by both cannabis & hemp vis-a-vis the CARES Act Cannabis is an "essential" industry, yet unable to access government programs Hemp's banking hurdles Advocacy and lobbying goals and tactics Cannabis's contribution to society and the economy during the crisis Hemp and the future Guest speakers will be: Jesse Bontecou of Oregon Retailers of Cannabis Association (ORCA), Courtney Moran Oregon of Industrial Hemp Farmers Association (OIHFA), and Todd Key of Greenlight Law Group. To register for the complimentary 60 minute webinar, cannabis businesses can visit: http://www.caputo-group.com/covid-19-sb-webinar/ The Caputo Group is analyzing and distilling the latest information to help guide and inform small business owners. "The Families First Coronavirus Response Act has created a number of hurdles for small businesses. We hope to keep owners fully updated on all the latest resources so they can weather this crisis," said Hunter Caputo, CEO of The Caputo Group. The Caputo Group offers a free self-assessment for cannabis businesses to identify how much time and money they lose to non revenue-generating tasks. They can take the risk assessment at: http://www.caputo-group.com/hemp-risk-assessment-landing/ . For additional support, The Caputo Group has a list of resources on their website to help small to midsize businesses navigate COVID-19. Through the website, business owners can sign up for a free personalized consultation from experts in restaurants, cannabis, brewing, construction and more. About The Caputo Group: Caputo Group, a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), offers complete support services for small to midsize businesses. For over 25 years, The Caputo Group has saved business owners hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential compliance issues and lawsuits. CONTACT: Katherine Tice (503) 944-9782 [email protected] SOURCE The Caputo Group Related Links http://www.caputo-group.com/ Asked who you were rooting for between the Sussexes and the British media, you couldnt be blamed for saying neither; this is a moot battle between two archaic and immoral institutions. But there have been moments, from her first tentative steps into the royal limelight to her admission to a journalist that she was not really okay, when women of colour like myself have found ourselves defending Markle. Yesterday, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sent a letter to the UKs largest tabloids ending all cooperation, was one of those times. No corroboration and zero engagement, the couple phrased it, refusing to offer themselves up as currency for an economy of click bait and distortion. Their letter criticised the lack of accountability in tabloid reporting, and reiterated its human cost. When power is enjoyed without responsibility, the trust we all place in this much-needed industry is degraded. Over the past four years, we have become well-acquainted with the racist treatment of Markle at the hands of the tabloid press, an extreme form of the scrutiny all women of colour are subject to in every domain: whether eating avocado toast made her a murderer; whether she was baring too much skin; whether her handwriting was the mark of a narcissist. Invasions of privacy became commonplace, most notably in the publication in 2018 of private letters between Markle and her estranged father Thomas. Other times, the scrutiny levelled at Markle was explicitly racialised, such as when the prime ministers sister Rachel Johnson described Markles rich and exotic DNA, or when the Mailonline ran a story on Markles mothers gang-scarred hometown with the headline Harrys girl is (almost) straight outta Compton. Its funny how the label of journalism can cover all manner of sins. Just yesterday journalists were arguing over the need to financially support their industry but that doesnt mean we shouldnt remain critical of the ways that publications can make their money. We have seen how press scrutiny can damage the mental and physical wellbeing of celebrities time and again sometimes fatally. In February, there were widespread calls for more press regulation following the death of Love Island presenter Caroline Flack, who was subject to trolling and abuse by the media in the weeks leading up to her suicide. Just days after she passed away, The Sun removed an article mocking Flack and ran fawning coverage lamenting the tragedy of her death. The same duplicity was visible in the tabloids reporting on Harrys mother, Diana. This would be an embarrassing U-turn were the tabloids guided by principle; given theyre guided by revenue, its them functioning exactly as they were intended to. Nonetheless, in both broadsheets and tabloids, journalists have often hidden behind the guise of critical reporting to further what is actually targeted abuse. In January, when Markle launched a legal claim against the Mail on Sunday, the paper argued that publishing her private letter to her father was in the public interest. Given that the paper historically prioritises sensationalist scoops over speaking truth to power, it seems unlikely that their defence was made in good faith. We should not allow publications to dress up their mistreatment of a woman of colour in the public eye as good journalism, or holding the monarchy to account. This move is also a welcome rupture of an outdated industry arrangement. Im a journalist, but couldnt be further from being a royal reporter, so the more I have learnt about the royals historical relationship with the media, the more baffled I have become by their entrenched, institutional ties. In January, when the Sussexes announced their step back from royal duties, one aspect of that was removing themselves from the so-called royal rota. This 40-year-old system provides exclusive access to events information and material to the Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Evening Standard, Telegraph, Times and Sun. Thats a whole lot of Murdoch and to outsiders like myself, an arrangement made all the harder to justify by Markles mistreatment by many of these outlets. As the couple renege their royal duties, it seems natural they also let go of these obsolete arrangements. I am not a monarchist in fact I believe that the sooner the institution is abandoned, the better. At the same time, I believe it is wrong that peoples lives are routinely torn to shreds often in ways that reproduce racism, sexism and other forms of oppression in the name of journalism. While I patiently await the revolution, I welcome any small move against the institutionalised harassment perpetuated by the mainstream press. Harry and Meghans may not be a radical act, but the power of this countrys immoral media machines wanes each time a public figure refuses to play ball. And as readers, I implore you not to play, either. Continuing European Investment Banking Expansion William Blair, a premier global boutique with expertise in investment banking, investment management, and private wealth management, today announced the hiring of Rainer Hepberger as a managing director. Mr. Hepberger joins the firm's healthcare investment banking team and will be based in the London office. "Our investment banking advisory business in Europe continues to grow, and we are committed to having the highest caliber of talent across our team to best serve our clients. In line with this, we are very pleased to enhance our healthcare capabilities with Rainer joining our team," said Anu Sharma, head of European investment banking. Mr. Hepberger joins from Raymond James, where he was managing director, healthcare, in its Munich office. Prior to that Mr. Hepberger was with William Blair, holding various positions on the healthcare investment banking team. Before that, he held senior positions at Innovacell Biotechnologie AG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Hepberger earned his M.B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Liechtenstein, and his Master of International Law (LL.M.) from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. "Rainer brings a wealth of experience to our healthcare investment banking team," said Brent Felitto, co-head of healthcare investment banking. "As our presence in Europe grows, we are excited to welcome him back to the team and are looking forward to continuing our advisory transaction momentum globally." In 2019, William Blair unlocked over $100 billion in value for clients, completing 245 transactions. More than one-third of M&A transactions involved cross-border counterparties, spanning 23 countries. About William Blair William Blair is a premier global boutique with expertise in investment banking, investment management, and private wealth management. We provide advisory services, strategies, and solutions to meet our clients' evolving needs. As an independent and employee-owned firm, together with our strategic partners, we operate in more than 20 offices worldwide.* For more information, please visit williamblair.com. *Includes strategic partnerships with Allier Capital, BDA Partners, and Poalim Capital Markets. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005141/en/ Contacts: Tony Zimmer William Blair Company, L.L.C. 312-364-8611 tzimmer@williamblair.com The nationwide pandemic response is challenging members of the National Guard and Reserve on two fronts. On one hand, thousands of National Guard members have been activated in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. On the other hand, many Guard and Reserve bases have halted Unit Training Assemblies (UTAs) for the near future, leaving bases manned only by mission-critical personnel. Both of these extremes are causing issues among Guard and Reserve personnel. Guard Members Have Been Activated. But Many Aren't Eligible for Full Benefits According to the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS), "Authorities are currently only allowing states and territories to put their Guardsmen on orders in increments of 30 days." This inherently limits the benefits Guard members are eligible to receive during their period of activation. National Guard members need to be on orders for 31 or more days in order to be eligible for Tricare Prime and other benefits, such as full Basic Allowance for Housing. Those who are activated for 30 or fewer days will not receive Tricare benefits and will receive BAH Type II, or non-locality BAH, which is often a less-valuable housing allowance. Members of the Reserve component who are on orders of 31 days or more should be automatically switched to Tricare Prime. However, this is not automatic for those who are on orders of 30 days or less, even if those orders get extended. The current situation requires Guard members to rely upon their current medical coverage at a time when they are being put on the front lines of an epidemic. In addition, there are no current plans to provide additional Tricare coverage for activated Guard members after they return to a traditional drill status. NGAUS is requesting that the Defense Department to provide transitional health care coverage for members after they return from COVID-19 missions. The Rest of the National Guard and Reserves Are on Standby and Aren't Drilling In order to slow the spread of COVID-19, most Guard and Reserve installations are closed to all but mission-critical personnel. This keeps the installations up and running and allows them to notify reservists about any mission or status changes. But these units have stopped UTAs and drills for the near future. Currently, each branch of the military is independently handling Guard and Reserve drill cancellations. The Navy, for example, has paused all Reserve training assemblies through May 11, which was the original cutoff date for the military's stop-movement order. Military officials have since announced their intent to extend the order; however, no end date has been announced. As a result, future drill dates are still in limbo. These drill cancellations make it difficult for Guardsmen and reservists to meet the training and service requirements necessary to qualify for certain benefits or earn service credit toward retirement. Each service member must earn 50 points each retention year in order to qualify for a Good Year toward retirement. While it is possible to earn points outside of drill assemblies, there are few opportunities in the current environment. Some units are allowing personnel to telework, but these opportunities do not apply to all service members. The DoD has also encouraged the liberal use of training waivers for certain annual training requirements. However, it is yet to be seen how the DoD will address the issue of those service members who will not be able to earn the minimum 50 points required to earn a year of credit toward retirement. Health Care and Life Insurance Benefits Won't Be Affected In good news, members of the Reserve component will not see cancellations of their Tricare or Servicemembers Group Life Insurance (SGLI), even if they are not currently able to attend monthly drills. Guardsmen and Reservists pay for their Tricare out of pocket via automatic withdrawal from their bank account, or via payments from their debit or credit card. Tricare has announced it will not cancel any benefits for non-payment until 90 days after the declared COVID-19 emergency response officially ends. However, the premiums are still required to be paid during this time and must be made up in a lump sum at the end of the 90-day window to prevent the member from being disenrolled from Tricare. SGLI premium payments are made as an allotment from the service member's paycheck. When service members are not paid, the SGLI runs a deficit that will be withheld from the service member's paycheck the next time they are paid. The SGLI program will simply make a lump-um withdrawal for the premium payments that were missed. Stay on Top of Your Military Benefits Military benefits are always changing. Keep up with everything from pay to health care by subscribing to Military.com, and get access to up-to-date pay charts and more with all latest benefits delivered straight to your inbox. BOSTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gravyty , the market-defining provider of fundraiser enablement powered by artificial intelligence (AI), today announced new product capabilities that help nonprofit, higher education, and health care leaders continue to secure fundraising revenue during the challenging times caused by the COVID-19 crisis. This includes the immediate availability of Gravyty Crisis Management for frontline fundraisers managing donor relations during the COVID-19 crisis, along with the Gravyty Guarantee program to widely spread AI and transformative fundraising efficiency to social good organizations, especially in these difficult financial times. Version 3.0 also includes deep and radical technological enhancements to Gravyty's AI engine that redefine the relationship cycle between fundraisers and donors. Gravyty First Draft - Fundraiser Enablement Powered by Artificial Intelligence Gravyty Guide - Fundraiser Enablement Powered by Artificial Intelligence As organizations navigate the challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis, IDC reports that "AI is a technology that can play a significant role in helping businesses and societies deal with and solve large scale disruption caused by quarantines and lockdowns." In fundraising, AI is proven to empower fundraisers to cultivate more relationships with prospects and donors. Now, more than ever the social good sector needs fundraising to drive revenue that keeps operations running. Colleges and universities are grappling with the financial realities of possibly canceling the fall semester, nonprofits are competing to stay in the black and serve their communities, and hospitals on the frontlines of the health crisis are dealing with major and unexpected changes to their business models. This release is about using AI to create fundraising efficiencies that place organizations in the best possible position to drive revenue during this crisis. Gravyty Crisis Management, an AI solution, and the Gravyty Guarantee, a first-of-its-kind AI assurance, come in direct response to the new and unexpected challenges faced by thousands of frontline fundraisers at nonprofits, colleges and universities, hospitals, and health care organizations caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. "We are living through an unprecedented crisis affecting every industry, and our world is changing minute-by-minute. Nonprofit organizations themselves are in crisis mode because of the financial strains that COVID-19 places on our economy. Artificial intelligence exists for operational efficiency and I am proud of the technology solutions we poured into Gravyty 3.0 so fundraisers can quickly and personally connect with as many donors as possible as they work to secure the future of their organizations," said Adam Martel, CEO of Gravyty. "The frontline fundraisers Gravyty serves have a unique role during these troubling times. Not only are they identifying unexpected and emerging needs, they're also finding donors to address these needs. And, when the time comes to rebuild our communities, it will be frontline fundraisers who lead that charge. We are honored to serve the frontline fundraisers who are working to make our world a better place during this crisis." Gravyty's AI makes relationship-building 2-3x more efficient, rather than completely changing the way fundraising works. With Gravyty 3.0 and AI, frontline fundraisers are greatly expanding outreach to personally engage more donors, in a time where significant gaps in donation revenues are emerging -- putting organizations at risk. Gravyty 3.0 includes: Gravyty Crisis Management Crises have a penchant for derailing revenue-driving activities and communication, while increasing operational challenges and unexpected needs. Gravyty Crisis Management removes these barriers by using AI to suggest new messaging during a time of crisis, who that message needs to reach, and prompts personalized outreach through frontline fundraisers. Within the first week of the COVID-19 crisis, a half a dozen Gravyty customers turned on a beta version of Crisis Management. Through fast feedback, we've developed this into a full-scale product used to reach thousands of potential donors. Towson University, for example, was one of the first organizations to use Gravyty Crisis Management, empowering its frontline fundraisers to reach thousands of donors with personalized and updated messaging on Towson's response to COVID-19. "Now, more than ever, it's critical that we reach all members of the Towson community to express how we're adapting amid COVID-19 and to highlight immediate needs that potential donors can help with," said Todd Langenberg, Associate Vice President, Development, at Towson University. "Gravyty Crisis Management has allowed my team to expand outreach and proactively build relationships. With Gravyty, one frontline fundraiser alone personalized outreach to almost 800 potential donors in less than two weeks. That's exactly the activity we need to see during this time." Gravyty Guarantee Through a first-of-its-kind AI assurance, Gravyty now guarantees that organizations will raise double the value of their contract in a single year, or the next year is free. Gravyty understands that during times of crisis, organizations can only invest in must-haves. To make up for any unforeseen gaps in revenue or emerging needs, frontline fundraisers must reach more prospects and donors than they ever have before. With the Gravyty Guarantee, any organization that wants to use AI to empower frontline fundraisers now can, without risk. This is not new territory. Gravyty customers such as The College of Charleston used Gravyty and AI to inspire 400 new gifts totaling more than $800,000 in a single fiscal year. During this same fiscal year, Gravyty also optimized the College of Charleston to work as a fundraising team 2.6x its size, without making any additional hires. The Gravyty Guarantee is supported by the Gravyty Live team, each with an average of 10+ years in fundraising, and by incredible new enhancements throughout version 3.0 of the Gravyty product suite. "In a market dominated with claims of artificial intelligence breakthroughs, Gravyty is leading the way with what matters most: ROI," said Lisa Alvezi, Director of Customer Success at Gravyty. "Gravyty has spent three years proving that AI is the catalyst that pushes philanthropy forward. Last year, we introduced Gravyty Live to prove that when AI is supported by people, it produces results. The Gravyty Guarantee is a natural progression, and it's the right thing to offer organizations that are trying to improve our world during these challenging times." Dynamic Engagement Roadmap The financial impact of the COVID-19 crisis forces organizations to expand fundraising outreach beyond anything we have seen in the past. To accommodate constantly changing priorities, Gravyty created a new Dynamic Engagement Roadmap. As a fundraiser's focus shifts, so does Gravyty's AI recommendations. For example, as needs grow or the fiscal year close comes near, the language and strategy of Gravyty prompts will change to focus on inspiring gifts from nondonors, LYBUNTS, SYBUNTS, and new prospects. Inspire Engagement with Custom Segmentation When AI adapts to a fundraiser's specific focus at any given time, the opportunity for meaningful engagement increases exponentially. This is important, especially in today's changing world. Frontline fundraisers have asked for the ability to customize how they segment outreach to donors and prospects, and Gravyty delivers with customizable segmentation tools that prompt engagement. With these new features, fundraisers can segment their outreach strategy based on geographical regions, donor types, and even affinity. Upgraded Engine As the COVID-19 crisis has evolved, it is clear that fundraisers need to expand their reach to more donors than ever before. Under the hood, Gravyty's engine received major upgrades that unlock previously untapped capacity for fundraisers. "When we talk about building artificial intelligence for fundraising efficiency at Gravyty, everything centers around enabling fundraisers to spend more time building relationships and interacting with donors. Tasks like syncing outreach to a CRM, tracking responses, and combing through myriad datasets to determine the perfect piece of prose are all necessary, but they are time-intensive and not the best spend of human capital. New capabilities within our AI take these tasks on for fundraisers, which is especially important in today's ever-changing environment. By leveraging big data and distributed systems, we're constantly learning faster and at scale so Gravyty's applications of neural networks, reinforcement learning, computational linguistics, and more pair hand-in-hand with a fundraiser's specific use case," explained Rich Palmer, CTO, Gravyty. For example, Gravyty now serves fundraisers with their next steps faster than ever before. And, optimized algorithms allow our AI to self-write personalized First Drafts in less than a second, so you spend less time with your data and more time with your donors. Gravyty AI-Enablement for Managers The organizations that successfully navigate this crisis will be those that increase meaningful frontline fundraiser activity and understand how those activities generate revenue and impact outcomes. However, at a time when managers are now tasked with motivating and keeping remote workforces on task, this challenge just became harder. Gravyty Manager Dashboards provide a continuous feed into AI-enabled fundraising programs on a single screen. With Manager Dashboards, managers ensure fundraisers are reaching individual goals and organizational objectives via real-time metrics. These metrics include weekly activity outcome comparisons, year-to-date giving, retention from previous-year giving, year-over-year participation, portfolio saturation, moves management, and more. Instant accessibility to this information means managers are always tracking the health of fundraising operations while directing impactful outcomes. Redesigned with Purpose Gravyty's entire product suite has been redesigned from the ground up to fit the workflow of fundraisers and to empower them to evolve what's possible. We started with the question: How can we increase the capacity for an organization to fundraise? Amid COVID-19, that question is more relevant now than ever before. Throughout the product suite, our new intuitive interface empowers fundraisers to transform fundraising like never before, while also giving them self-serve personalization preferences. And, Gravyty's entire suite of fundraiser enablement tools also receives significant enhancements to increase fundraising capacity. First Draft A newly redesigned First Draft brings all the information you need to know about a donor or prospect into a simple view. This includes a visual biography snapshot, so there's no need to wander in the CRM. Fundraisers also gain a view into Gravyty's AI with insight on why they are prompted to reach out to this person at this particular time. Additionally, fundraisers have easy access into their portfolio progress with each First Draft received, and a week-by-week comparison of KPIs -- including outreach, responses, and gifts received. Proving efficacy is key to any AI solution. Now with deeper integrations, UI-less email, and radical technological enhancements to Gravyty's AI, fundraisers gain rich insight into every email sent and will redefine relationship cycles with their donors. They'll know precisely who is reading their messages and how to strategically engage the donor or prospect in the best way possible. And, with this knowledge, our AI will adapt messaging to cater to that specific donor. This update also includes a calendar integration that makes scheduling a breeze. Fundraisers save time with real-time bi-directional calendar sync that enables appointment reminders, bookings, cancellations, and more. Connect Spread a culture of philanthropy. Gravyty Connect empowers organizations to strategically execute fundraising efforts outside of the central advancement office. With new updates, advancement leadership can choose to bring in deans, doctors, or other key stakeholders into their organization's stewardship initiatives. In fact, during the COVID-19 response, many Gravyty customers have expanded their outreach to supporters and donors through Gravyty Connect. Whether it's for a specific campaign, fund, or giving threshold, Gravyty customizes this experience to meet your organization's needs. Guide The new focus of Gravyty Guide is to streamline and enhance donor cultivation. Guide now provides fundraisers with easy access to three key cultivation touchpoints: follow-ups, birthdays, and stewardship opportunities. And, the weekly Guide also rewards fundraisers with a status check on the progress made over the last five business days -- always reinforcing how individual goals add up to organizational success. Stewardship Updates to Gravyty Stewardship are all about helping organizations build pipelines. With a streamlined look and feel, Gravyty makes it easy for a stewardship team or individual fundraisers to promptly and effectively show gratitude to donors. For example, organizations can set Stewardship Milestone parameters for specific giving levels or types of donors to ensure they receive the perfect personalized touch. Speaking of a personalized touch, fundraisers know that it goes beyond the message itself -- delivery is also critical. In an entirely new evolution of fundraiser enablement, Gravyty now uses AI to engage robotics and handwrite physical letters to donors and supporters. John A. Farkas, Jr., Major and Planned Giving Officer for WVIA Public Media uses Gravyty's handwritten notes feature to increase engagement with donors and build deeper relationships. "People want a special touch. With Gravyty's handwritten notes, I can inspire donors and prospects at a much faster pace than ever before. What would take me 15 to 20 minutes per touchpoint takes me only a couple of minutes, looks professional, and makes all donors and prospects feel special," said Farkas. Through our partnership with IgnitePost, John Farkas has opened previously closed doors. By asking Gravyty to send a handwritten note, crafted by a robot, he's securing more meetings and calls with the donors who he's working to build relationships with. For a free demo of Gravyty and more information about Gravyty Version 3.0, contact us here . About Gravyty Gravyty is the social good sector's first and leading provider of fundraiser enablement solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI). By unlocking the next evolution in philanthropy through AI, organizations receive efficiencies that inspire transformative giving. Gravyty empowers frontline fundraisers to personalize outreach at scale, build new relationships faster, deepen existing relationships with automated stewardship, and use philanthropy to drive their mission forward. Visit www.gravyty.com to explore how Gravyty and AI empower fundraisers to inspire donors to support world-changing causes at a pace never before thought possible. SOURCE Gravyty Related Links http://www.gravyty.com Unveils Patented Kiddie Voice System and New Product Line at AASA Conference MEMPHIS, TN / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / ATWEC Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK:ATWT), a US-based technology company specializing in child safety, today launched a new global Marketing Initiative for 2020, promoting its breakthrough child safety technology systems, vital protection required in an uncertain world. The Company has poured resources into a robust new marketing campaign, designed to draw interest and increase awareness for ATWT, its products, its stock, and its message. The campaign will be driven by the Company and independent consultants, working to reach new customers via social media and online presence, with new corporate websites due to be unveiled next month. The Company gave live interviews from the ATWT exhibit booth at the National Conference on Education in February, while demonstrating its latest vehicle safety products and services. San Diego hosted "The Personalization of Education" conference, with superintendents and administrators from across the globe attending on February 12-14. The event was sponsored by The School Superintendents Association (AASA), and is the most comprehensive professional learning and networking event for educators, with over 3,000 superintendents in attendance during the week. Alex Wiley, ATWT's founder and CTO, was in high spirits at the conference, reflecting the bold new direction ATWT has taken since December. "The energy for the push to protect our kids is unbelievable. People are looking to move Education into the future, focusing on the best ways to improve programs, curriculum, and awareness. What's best for students? Funding and legislation are the most effective ways to get these done, and ATWEC is taking the lead through breakthrough technologies." The Company showcased its patented Kiddie Voice child reminder alarm system (KV-4), designed to protect children getting on and off vans and buses, while also rolling out a unique line of cloud-based products and services. These new systems will enable parents and administrators to track, view & monitor students and drivers, in real time. The security will give parents and schools "peace of mind", thereby changing the transportation landscape. The Company also attended the American Federation of Teachers Conference, held in Jackson, Mississippi during the first week in March. The Company has seen immediate results, receiving several calls and e-mails since the conferences, with meetings scheduled for May as allowed. Darnell Stitts, the Company's COO, added "The Company has clearly made great strides since the end of 2019. With the contacts from San Diego, we have been able to ramp up interest and build consensus, so our sales push begins right now, and schools can be ready for an exciting new school year." Shareholders and other investors can find the disclosure related to these corporate organizational changes on the OTC Markets website, as well as the Company's website home page, www.atwec.com. Information regarding the AASA and the Personalization of Education conference can go to the website at www.aasa.org. About ATWEC Technologies, Inc.: ATWEC Technologies, Inc. is a child safety and security technology company, headquartered in Memphis, TN, in business since 1979. ATWT has developed three unique child safety devices which protect children while they are being transported, both to and from schools, events, and homes, and gives parents and administrators "peace of mind'. ATWT has been issued patent number 7,646,288, B2 for its KV-3 system by the US patent office, and its business model is associated with legislation designed to mandate these systems for school and other vehicles, on a state-by-state basis. The KV-3 and the Kiddie Alert backup systems are currently being sold to customers across the globe. The Company trades on the OTC Markets under the symbol "ATWT", and the Company's website is www.atwec.com. About The School Superintendents Association: AASA is the premier association for school system leaders, and serves as the national voice for public leaders and serves as the national voice for public education and district leadership on Capitol Hill. Safe Harbor Statement This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in the Company's disclosure information. All company or product names used are the property of their respective owners and may be the trade marks , service marks (SM), or registered marks (R) of other companies, and are used for information purposes only and to their owners' benefit, without intent to infringe. CONTACT: ATWEC Technologies, Inc. Darnell Stitts, Secretary & Director info@atwec.com 901-289-2621 SOURCE: ATWEC Technologies, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/585993/ATWEC-Technologies-Launches-New-Marketing-Initiative USD/GBP Exchange Rate Edges Higher Despite US Oil Prices Plummeting to 20-Year Low The US Dollar to Pound (USD/GBP) exchange rate fell today, with the pairing currently trading around 0.80. The US Dollar has continued to benefit from its safe-haven status today, despite a modest rise in risk sentiment as Europes coronavirus death toll, particularly in Spain and Netherlands, continue to drop. However, rising fears over the global economy and supply fears have sent US oil prices plunging to a 20-year low, leaving many investors flocking to safe-haven currencies as the worlds economic outlook continues to darken. Warren Patterson and Wenyu Yao, both analysts at ING, commented: Over the last month, the total number of active oil rigs in the US has fallen by more than 35 percent, highlighting the impact that the current low oil price is having on drilling activity. This drilling slowdown will translate into lower production in the coming months. Meanwhile, hopes have risen that New York could have seen the peak of Covid-19 cases, with the NY Governor, Andrew Cuomo, saying on Sunday that the state was on the other side of the plateau. The US Dollar (USD) is likely to perform strongly throughout the course of this week as markets continue remain anxious over the outlook for the global economy. GBP/USD Exchange Rate Falls as Downing Street Warns of Second Peak The Pound (GBP) fell today after Downing Street said that it was concerned about easing the lockdown due to fears over a second peak in coronavirus cases. A spokesperson for Downing Street said: The big concern is a second peak, and that will do the most damage to health and the economy. If you move too quickly, the virus could begin to spread exponentially again. The public will expect us to do every we can to stop the spread of the virus and protect life. Sterling traders are becoming increasingly anxious over the UKs economy as the nation enters another week of a nationwide lockdown. Meanwhile, today saw the release of the IHS Household Finance Index, which plummeted to its lowest since November 2011, leaving many investors fearing the worst for the British economy. Joe Haynes, an Economist at IHS Markit, comments: The latest data were compiled during the first week of April and therefore give an early indication of the severe impact on household finances from the public health emergency. USD/GBP Forecast: US Dollar to be Driven by Global Risk Sentiment US Dollar (USD) investors will be awaiting tomorrows release of the US Existing Home Sales figures for March. Any signs of improvement last month would boost the Greenback. However, USD traders will be monitoring Americas coronavirus crisis. If the death toll continues to increase, we could see fears for the economy begin to weigh on the US Dollar. Additionally, any improvement in the global economy following Europes easing cases of coronavirus, and we could see risk sentiment improve and weigh on safe-haven demand. The USD/GBP exchange rate will likely continue to perform well this week, however, as the UKs economic outlook continues to darken as the nation wrestles with its own Covid-19 outbreak. The Press Council of India on Tuesday issued a notice to the Maharashtra government over prohibition of door-to-door delivery of newspapers and magazines in the state, seeking an explanation and expressing concern over the issue. The Maharashtra government on Saturday decided to stop door-to-door delivery of newspapers and magazines to contain the spread of coronavirus infection in the state. The Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman C K Prasad noted with concern the order of the Maharashtra government, a PCI statement said. It said the order did not adhere to the central government's directive issued on March 23 to Chief Secretaries of all States and UTs to ensure operational continuity of print media in view of the threat of COVID-19 outbreak. The Press Council of India (PCI) had also advised all state governments and administrative authorities to take necessary measures to ensure the smooth functioning of media during the lockdown to combat the coronavirus outbreak. "Taking suo-motu cognizance on the issue, the Chairman has issued a notice for comments to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Maharashtra," the PCI statement said. The production and sale of newspapers and magazines is allowed at stalls and shops established for the purpose but the print media sector has been asked to avoid home deliveries, the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Office had said in a series of tweets on Saturday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NEW YORK, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amidst the current social distancing and isolation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, families are discovering new ways to cope while staying at home. While many outlets report a jigsaw puzzle shortage, StickTogether http://www.letsticktogether.com is meeting the demand with a range of over 30 sticker mosaic puzzle posters made in the USA. StickTogether Parrot fun The Strelecki brothers of Franklin, TN, ages 6 - 13, had a blast 'sticking' together.' Photo provided by The Strelecki family "We are grateful to see the many ways StickTogether is helping families cope with the current reality," according to company founder, Sylvia Stein. "So many parents are working from home while supervising their kids and their education. Our kits offer a stress-free, device-free break that results in a beautiful poster and provides a sense of accomplishment." The company has a loyal following amongst educators and librarians. Since closures began last month, Stein reports that families are increasingly seeking out StickTogether kits and have even begun displaying the images in windows and front yards as an expression of community and solidarity. The puzzles are assembled in a method similar to paint-by-numbers and have a unique twist as the image is not revealed until the puzzle is completed. A standard StickTogether poster measures 40 inches by 36 inches and costs between $29.99 to $36.00. Each kit includes a coded poster, color key and 3,996 stickers, enough to complete the image with extras. Two to five family members working continuously can complete a poster in about two hours, although most families break up the session over a period of several days. "I've begun saving the mosaic sticker posters for when I need to be on a conference call and can't be interrupted," says Larken Lech of Nashville, Tennessee. "My kids stay engaged and there's no fighting or bickering. It's been a lifesaver!" While families continue to stay at home the company is offering a $4.00 discount on each kit through the end of June using CODE: FAMILY. According to market research company, Ipsos, 59% of people surveyed complete puzzles to relax; 57% for fun; 42% as a brain booster and 34% as a social way to connect. "Our kits usually bring multiple generations together which is how StickTogether was born. Unfortunately, we are at a time when this isn't possible, and many feel isolated and in need of distraction," according to Stein. "We look forward to the time when people will again be able to gather together but until then we're glad to be able to offer an activity that provides quality time for families." StickTogether Products LLC offers dozens of options including Van Gogh's Starry Night, animals, seasonal and whimsical themes. In addition to librarians and teachers, the kits have become popular with faith and community groups, senior centers and special needs classrooms. The puzzles are recommended for ages five years to 105 and offer a collaborative activity in which the image starts as a mystery just a blank canvas and builds as everyone "sticks together," to create a masterpiece. The company is based in New York City with offices in Denver, CO. For additional information or to purchase a kit please visit www.letsticktogether.com or call (303) 941-7829. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/094si5x09g5mpwu/AADkZIBi_cpuVkKZbI005Ln5a?dl=0 Press Contact: Mary Ann Lombard Director of Business Development StickTogetherProducts LLC [email protected] Phone: (303) 941-7829 www.letsticktogether.com SOURCE StickTogether Products LLC Related Links http://www.letsticktogether.com Representative Image On April 18, New Delhi took a significant decision when it amended its extant FDI policy to make prior governmental approval mandatory for foreign investments from countries that share land border with India to curb opportunistic takeovers of domestic firms at a time when global coronavirus pandemic is upending the rules of the economic game worldwide. This amendment to the FDI rule states, A non-resident entity can invest in India, subject to the FDI policy except in those sectors/activities which are prohibited. However, an entity of a country, which shares a land border with India or where the beneficial owner of investment into India is situated in or is a citizen of any such country, can invest only under the government route. Along with this, another important shift entailed blocking the indirect acquisition of investments by entities based in China with the change in ownership of the investment also requiring clearance from the Indian government. Beijings reaction, predictably, has been strong with the Chinese Embassy in India stating that the additional barriers set by Indian side for investors from specific countries violate WTO's principle of non-discrimination, and go against the general trend of liberalisation and facilitation of trade and investment and hoping that India would revise relevant discriminatory practices, treat investments from different countries equally, and foster an open, fair and equitable business environment. The immediate cause for bringing this amendment may have to do with the backlash that the government has been facing since the Peoples Bank of China (PBoC) raised its stake in India's largest non-banking mortgage provider HDFC from 0.8 percent to 1.01 percent. However, there are larger issues behind this decision which are likely to transform the trajectory of India-China ties, especially after the negative externalities generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with Chinas economic drive at a time of acute economic crisis, concerns have been rising across the world about Chinese companies using this opportunity to buy up distressed assets at cheap rates. The ongoing economic crisis is presenting opportunities for takeover in several sectors and India will need to safeguard its own technological assets at a time when China's cumulative investment in India has been rising, exceeding $8 billion till December 2019. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show In particular, Chinese investors have been investing in Indian startup sector aggressively. India emerged as an attractive destination for the Chinese firms ever since the US-China trade war began to restructure the global supply chains. Indias response is part of a worldwide trend where Chinese predatory trade practices and weaponisation of trade has generated an intense backlash. This process has been accelerated by the current pandemic. Europe too has been raising alarm at the Chinese practices. Chinese investments in strategic industries have led European nations to more aggressively defend their economic interests. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis can open up new possibilities for Chinese inroads in Europe. However, there is a new resolve in Europe to fend off the threat of a Chinese takeover. In fact, Margrethe Vestager, the European Unions (EU) competition commissioner, recently suggested that European countries should consider taking stakes in companies to fend off this threat. Last month, the European Commission had called upon its member states to ensure protection of strategic assets from a likely Chinese takeover. Australia is also taking precautionary measures aimed at preventing sales of distressed corporate assets during the coronavirus crisis. So India is not alone in taking measures to ensure its strategic sectors are protected at a time of great socio-economic turmoil. Like most mature democracies, India too is coming to terms with the challenges of economic interdependence with a country such as China. The Trump administration in the United States has been talking of an economic decoupling from China for some time now. However, it took the pandemic for the rest of the world to take it seriously. For India the problem lies that trade with China has often been viewed as a positive in a relationship which is increasingly devoid of any positive sentiment. After the Doklam stand-off in 2017, the Wuhan reset with China was premised largely on India and China working towards a more robust economic relationship. Yet, Chinas reluctance to adequately address Indian concerns and the challenges posed by sectors such as trade and health also becoming national security challenges meant that New Delhi had had to finally bite the bullet. Beijing should recognise that while New Delhi will certainly lose in the process, it is a price it seems willing to pay in order to not only strengthen its own manufacturing and technological base, but also to demonstrate its resolve by standing up to Chinas shenanigans. InsurTechs, like all companies these days, arent immune to business challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic, which has left many businesses shut down or struggling to function in the face of quarantines and social distancing. Many will likely trim their staffs to conserve cash as they seek to reach profitability, but others, even those who have reduced staffing, are still moving ahead with growth plans, either through hiring or the launch of new digital products. In other words, theyre adapting. Selective Hiring Lemonade said it is continuing with targeted hiring to support an expansion in the Netherlands, even as the coronavirus pandemic creates significant growth obstacles for the economy at large. We recently launched in the Netherlands remotely, and our engineering teams continue to deploy updates to the Lemonade product daily. Therefore, were hiring for certain roles remotely, Daniel Schreiber, CEO and co-founder of the New York-based InsurTech, told Carrier Management via email. Lemonade, with more than 300 employees (according to its LinkedIn profile), launched its digital homeowners and renters insurance in New York in 2016 and has since grown nationally in the U.S. The company, which has raised nearly $500 million in venture financing to date, has since started offering contents and liability insurance in Germany and in early April began marketing similar digital coverage in the Netherlands. Schreiber said that the hiring is taking place even as Lemonade has taken pandemic-related precautions to ensure employee safety. Team Lemonade has been working from home, in all four global locations, since March 13. As a company built on a digital substrate, and while ensuring and prioritizing our teams safety and well-being, weve been able to continue being there for our customers in their time of need, Schreiber said. Stability and an Eye on Growth Hippo, a California-based InsurTech startup and managing general agent focused on digital home insurance, employs 250 people right now. The company, launched in 2015, has raised $209 million in venture financing to date, and it has grown organically and through its November 2019 acquisition of Sheltr, a tech-enabled services startup that provides home wellness checkups. Hippo Chief Insurance Officer Rick McCathron acknowledges hard times that its employees and many others are facing, but said the company is still moving ahead with product launches. At the same time, it is not expanding staffing for now but focusing instead on existing employees and filling business essential roles as they become open. These are trying times that have us focused on our current employee base to ensure their health and well-being while taking a longer look at the evaluation period of new open roles and continuing to hire to fill business essential roles, McCathron said. Even so, he added that Hippo is seeing some resiliency and immediate growth potential because of its business focus. For most Americans, home insurance is considered a necessity to own a home, so were not seeing the impact on revenue that many other startups in our D2C space are feeling, he said. But we are seeing some serious strain on homeowners across the country during these unique times and are developing new products and practices with our team to support them, like our virtual telemaintenance service. Layoffs, Product Refocus Bold Penguin, an Ohio-based InsurTech and commercial insurance technology provider, has raised more than $50 million in venture funding since its 2016 debut. The company, which employs at least 122 people (according to its LinkedIn profile), said it has reduced its staff due to economic conditions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bold Penguin would not disclose the specific numbers of cuts, but the company explained its actions were meant to ensure its viability and ability to continue to serve customers in new ways. Due to the economic conditions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been seeing a drop in quote activity across all experiences in small commercial. As a result, we made the difficult decision to make an adjustment to our staffing, primarily around the call center teams, marketing and some longer-range non-core initiatives, the company said in its statement. Bold Penguin explained the staff reduction was made in order to adapt to new business volume expectations but also to customer product demands shifting to self-service digital solutions, a shift in product requests that was dramatically accelerated in March. Bold Penguin said that it expects to hire back many of those it laid off once quoting activity begins to ramp back up and the macro environment for small businesses improves. The company added its adjustments internally will help it serve existing clients as well as new ones, both on the distribution side and the carrier side, to help them find creative ways to service their small business clients. While Bold Penguin said it is seeing a slowdown in quote-starts industrywide, it expects this to rebound. As many small to midsize businesses reopen after the shelter-in-place is lifted, we believe the inquiries and usage will gradually go up and digital transformation will be key for success, Bold Penguin said. We are grateful to be able to continue to focus on our mission during this challenging time: connecting small businesses, agencies and carriers to reduce the time it takes to quote and bind. Slice Labs, a New York startup with a cloud services platform and more than $30 million in venture financing, recently disclosed it was letting go 28 staff members, about a third of its colleagues. But CEO and co-founder Tim Attia said in a blog posting that the company, which also sells on-demand insurance, would work with the industry to help carriers adapt to a pandemic-era environment where digital options could be more in demand than they ever have. As we work closely with the industry through this process, it is clear that the need for digital transformation is ever apparent and that new insurance services are needed to protect workers and individuals going forward, Attia wrote. We look forward to helping carriers achieve the transformation theyre striving for. MEDFORD, MA The number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus rose by more than 100 over the weekend, according to the latest numbers from the city. As of Monday night, the case count stood at 519. The number of cases was below 400 as recently as Thursday night. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported 1,566 new cases of the virus Monday, bringing the statewide case count to 39,643. The number of Massachusetts residents who have died from the virus rose to 1,809. There are 9,253 cases in Middlesex County. Some 402 people across the county have died due to complications from the virus. A state of emergency remains in effect until at least May 4. With Massachusetts being among the states with the highest number of cases, it's not clear whether that will be extended. Echoing health experts, city officials ask residents to continue to stay home as much as possible and to wear masks or cloth coverings when going out for essential items. Medford total cases over time: City of Medford This article originally appeared on the Medford Patch Midland County confirmed one positive coronavirus case on Tuesday, bringing the official case total to 48 and three deaths, according to the daily afternoon state report. Bay and Isabella counties each recorded one case, with respective totals of 86 cases and two deaths, and 53 cases and seven deaths. Saginaw County added 14 cases and three deaths, bringing its total to 433 cases and 32 deaths. Gladwin County remains at nine cases and one death. The state on Tuesday added 967 new cases and 232 deaths, which includes 95 deaths identified by a state process of matching various records. Overall, Michigan is at 32,967 cases and 2,700 deaths. The average death age is 74, according to the state website, mich.gov, with the deceased ranging in age from 5 to 107. The state lists 39% of the deceased as 80-plus and 27% age 70-79. State statistics show 56% of coronavirus deaths are male and 45% are female. The state lists the total recovered at 3,237 cases, as of April 18, which represents COVID-19 confirmed individuals with an onset date on or prior to March 18, 2020, according to the state website, mich.gov. During this response, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing vital records statistics to identify any laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases who are 30 days out from their onset of illness to represent recovery status, according to the state website. The numbers will be updated every Saturday. The state lists the majority of races in positive cases as 33% Black/African American; 31% Caucasian and 24% unknown, and the top three races in deaths as 40% Black/African American; 43% Caucasian and 11% unknown The total positive cases are 45% male, 54% female 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 e-mail 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. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Photo credit: Shah Marai - Getty Images From Popular Mechanics The A-10 Warthog, which first entered service in the late 1970s, will keep flying in Air Force service until 2040or later. The A-10 will only be restricted to combat against enemies with little or no air defenses, ending the jets career as a tank killer. The U.S. Air Force has decided to keep the A-10 Warthog close air support jet in service until 2040. The jet, designed to dominate Cold War battlefields, will still be flying 50 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thats the good news. The bad news? The service is downgrading the jets mission, from one flying over tank columns on the ground to bombing bandits and insurgents in lightly defended airspace. The Air Force, Air Force Magazine reports, plans to cut 44 jets from the A-10s standing fleet of 281 aircraft. The remaining 237 jets will fly on in seven squadrons split among three active duty, three National Guard, and one reserve squadron, respectively. Retiring a portion of the fleet will enable the service to fund upgrades designed to keep the A-10 flying along much, much newer planes, and tap into the Air Forces new generation of networking and communications systems, boosting the airplanes overall usefulness on the digital battlefield of the future. Photo credit: JUNG YEON-JE - Getty Images In addition to the A-10s, the Air Force plans to cut 29 aerial refueling tankers, 24 C-130H transport aircraft (the current version is the -J), 24 Global Hawks drones, and 17 B-1B Lancer bombers. All of the manned aircraft are older planes, particularly the aerial refueling tankers, some of which entered service in the 1950s. Older planes are typically more expensive to keep in service, as sourcing spares and the lifespan of key parts becomes an issue. By retiring older planes, the Air Force hopes to free up funds to buy and support new planes. The A-10 is being kept on one condition, though: it is no longer designated to fly over heavily defended battlefields. The Air Force is convinced the aircraft, designed to unleash missiles, rockets, bombs, and its GAU-8/A 30-millimeter Gatling gun is no longer able to fly over double digit air defenses. These include the SA-11 Buk surface-to-air missile system, SA-15 Tor surface-to-missile system, SA-24 Needle shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile, and the truck-mounted SA-22 Pantsir-1 missile system. Story continues Instead, the Warthog is now relegated to supporting U.S. troops over lightly contested or defended air space. Think insurgents driving pickup trucks with machine guns bolted to the bed, plus a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile or two. Think Afghanistan or Somalianot Russia or China. Photo credit: NurPhoto - Getty Images What will replace the A-10 in the skies over Americas peer adversaries? The F-35, of course. In one respect thats the correct decisiondespite Americas fondness for the A-10, it would probably get shot down in droves by a competent enemy fielding modern air defense guns and missiles. The F-35 is faster and more responsive to the fast-moving ground battle, and its stealthy qualities make it less of a target. Its sensors and communications allow it to collect data on ground threats so the pilot can effectively counter them. The problem with the F-35 in the close air support role is that it lacks armament. The A-10 Thunderbolt bristles with weapons, from the GAU-8/A Avenger 30-millimeter Gatling gun (with 1,174 rounds) to Maverick missiles, 70-millimeter rockets, and guided and unguided bombs. The F-35, on the other hand, is armed with the GAU-22 Equalizer 25-millimeter gun (with just 181 rounds) and can carry just two laser- or satellite-guided bombs in its internal payload bays. The F-35 can carry more bombs on wing mounted pylons, but doing so increases the jets visibility to enemy radars. Still, the F-35 may not keep the close air support mission for long. The F-35A currently costs $45,000 an hour to fly, and the Air Force may decide that the mission should go toward a cheaper unmanned aircraft capable of flying missions over contested airspace. A better solution down the road might be large numbers of cheap but heavily armed drones, with the pilot of a manned aircraft planning drone strikes from a safe distance. The ideal aircraft for this mission? The A-10. The Air Forces decision is a mixed victory for fans of the A-10. The semi-mythical ideal of the A-10 as an invincible, titanium-armored valkyrie flying over legions of enemy tanks, flattening them like pancakes while avoiding volleys of enemy missiles, is over for good. Still, the 1970s-era Warthog is flying far longer than anyone ever expected and may even get the last laugh over the F-35. You Might Also Like A woman in her twenties with learning disabilities should be fitted with a contraceptive device against her will, a judge has ruled. The woman has had several children taken from her care already but is pregnant again and due to give birth soon. Specialists at Oxford University Hospitals told Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles that her physical health problems mean further pregnancies would put her at risk. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the judge she wanted to get three-monthly contraceptive injections, but doctors warned she may not turn up to get them done. A woman in her twenties with learning disabilities should be fitted with a contraceptive device against her will, Court of Protection judge Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles (pictured) ruled today She told the hearing, which was carried out via Skype due to lockdown restrictions: 'It's my body and it's my life.I should have the choice on what I want.' Mrs Justice Knowles analysed the case at a recent hearing in the Court of Protection, where judges consider issues relating to people who may not have the capacity to make decisions for themselves, and outlined her decision in a written ruling published on Tuesday. The judge decided that fitting a contraceptive device would be in the woman's best interests. She concluded that the woman did not have the mental capacity to make decisions about contraception. The judge said a contraceptive device should be fitted when the woman was having a planned caesarean section operation. Mrs Justice Knowles has ruled that the woman cannot be identified in media reports of the case. Bosses at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have responsibility for her care and had asked the judge to make a decision about contraception. Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every weekday. For much of the past six weeks, political campaigns were reluctant to focus too heavily on the coronavirus outbreak. Though some outside groups started to criticize President Trumps handling of the crisis, the virus was largely considered off-limits to many campaigns, which worried about politicizing the unending tragedy. That, however, has changed. Now, more than 50 percent of all political ads on TV are about the coronavirus, the first time that a majority of ads were focused on the outbreak, according to Advertising Analytics, an ad tracking firm. There were 33 unique ads centering on the virus that aired last week, spanning the presidential, Senate and congressional elections. Of course, some groups have been advertising about the pandemic for weeks. But five weeks ago, as states like New York, New Jersey and California shuttered schools and announced stay-at-home orders, less than 2 percent of ads touched on the coronavirus. Now, 54 percent are about the coronavirus. For Democratic candidates and liberal-leaning groups, one issue has dominated recent ads: the lack of personal protective equipment commonly referred to as P.P.E. for front-line medical workers. Those ads have characterized the shortage as a failure of the Trump administration. (Photo : REUTERS/Kacper Pempel) A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. The UK spy chief has warned the public about the increasing incidents of web scams as the world struggles amid the coronavirus pandemic. As people switch to working from home, thousands of phishing cases have been reported across the UK. Thus, on Monday, April 20, Jeremy Fleming, director of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), advised the public to be more vigilant about online fraud as people spend more time online. Also, GCHQ has launched a new cyber-awareness campaign to enhance Briton's awareness against online scams. Called "Cyber Aware," Fleming has called on the public to join the fight against online crime by taking simple steps to improve security such as updating passwords and reporting suspicious emails. GCHQ chief warns against web scammers during the coronavirus pandemic The threats from online scammers are "constantly evolving," as millions of people have now switched to working from home and are heavily dependent on the internet to support their family, friends, and neighbors. Criminals feed on people's fear about the virus by setting up bogus online stores selling items like face masks and hand sanitizer, or sending scam emails claiming to offer medical updates. Over 500 malicious coronavirus-related sites are being taken down by GCHQ's cyber-security arm so far. "[This] crisis is changing the world very fast... the scale of activity among opportunistic cybercriminals seeking to profit from the virus should concern us all", Fleming said. Meanwhile, thieves mostly aim at elderly people. The UK is the most heavily targeted country, according to research by cyber-security firm Trend Micro. The study also showed that 20.8% of global malicious coronavirus spam is sent to UK email addresses. "It's despicable that criminals are using the coronavirus outbreak as cover to try to scam and steal from people in their homes," said Security Minister James Brokenshire adding that we must ensure these cybercriminals do not succeed. Read Also: Your COVID-19 Stimulus Check Could Be Stolen From You; But There's A Tracker To Prevent That How to be "Cyber Beware" and protect yourself against web scammers In an article, Fleming reiterated the important role that internet users play in protecting the nation online. We all need to improve our online security "to protect ourselves and our livelihoods from cyber-attacks, fraud, and theft," Fleming said. As part of the GCHQ, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), launched a Cyber Aware campaign on Monday, April 20, to enhance public awareness over cybercrimes. This includes the following steps: Use the two-factor authentication, which uses a second step such as a text message to a mobile phone to allow users access; Choose random passwords; Keep email passwords different from others; Save passwords in your web browser; Update software and apps regularly; Back up data. NCSC Chief Executive Ciaran Martin has also launched a service for the public to report suspicious emails, in partnership with the police who will investigate the cases. People may forward potential scam emails to report@phishing.gov.uk using the Suspicious Email Reporting Service to report suspicious activities. If the reported accounts are found to be fraudulent, the linked websites will either be blocked or taken down. Flagging suspicious emails will also help in the fight against cybercriminals. Read also: COVID-19 Stimulus Check On The Way? Be Prepared For Potential Scammers; This App Will Help 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended greetings on Civil Services Day, saying like health professionals, the civil servants have also been leading the fight against coronavirus. "On Civil Services Day, I compliment all the civil servants of our country for effectively and efficiently translating policies into programmes," the Vice President tweeted. Their high professional standards have stood us well in times of peace as well as times of crisis like the current one, Naidu said. "Our civil servants along with doctors and medical professionals have been leading India's fight against COVID-19 ... We are grateful to all such warriors who have been risking their lives at the face of the infection to protect all of us," he said.. The duration of fight against coronavirus is still uncertain, he pointed out. "I am sure our experienced and able civil servants will assist the nation in winning the battle," the vice president said. Prime Minister Modiappreciated their efforts in ensuring India successfully defeats COVID-19. "They are working round the clock, assisting those in need and ensuring everyone is healthy," he said. "On Civil Services Day, tributes to the great Sardar Patel, who envisioned our administrative framework and emphasised on building a system that is progress-oriented and compassionate," Modi tweeted. He also shared his speech from Civil Services Day in 2018 in which he spoke about appreciation, evaluation and introspection for the bureaucracy. According to Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Civil Services Day is observed on April 21 as on this day in 1947, country's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel addressed the probationers of AdministrativeServicesOfficers. He referred tocivil servantsas the 'steel frame ofIndia'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Since the legendary Jack Bogle pioneered the sector, you can now buy low cost index funds to achieve an approximation of market returns. A talented investor can beat the market with a diversified portfolio, but even then, some stocks will under-perform. Shareholders of Deutsche Telekom AG (ETR:DTE) have lost -26% in the last five years, falling short of the market decline of around 8.9%. Furthermore, it's down 15% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders. But this could be related to the weak market, which is down 19% in the same period. See our latest analysis for Deutsche Telekom To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS). During the unfortunate half decade during which the share price slipped, Deutsche Telekom actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) improve by 4.5% per year. So it doesn't seem like EPS is a great guide to understanding how the market is valuing the stock. Alternatively, growth expectations may have been unreasonable in the past. Based on these numbers, we'd venture that the market may have been over-optimistic about forecast growth, half a decade ago. Looking to other metrics might better explain the share price change. We note that the dividend has remained healthy, so that wouldn't really explain the share price drop. It's not immediately clear to us why the stock price is down but further research might provide some answers. You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values). XTRA:DTE Income Statement April 21st 2020 Deutsche Telekom is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. Given we have quite a good number of analyst forecasts, it might be well worth checking out this free chart depicting consensus estimates. Story continues What About Dividends? It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Deutsche Telekom, it has a TSR of -10% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence! A Different Perspective While the broader market lost about 11% in the twelve months, Deutsche Telekom shareholders did even worse, losing 16% (even including dividends) . Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 2.1% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Deutsche Telekom you should know about. 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 DE exchanges. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close For the first time ever, the price of U.S. crude oil has gone negative as the coronavirus pandemic obliterates demand for energy. On Monday, traders and producers paid as much as $40 for the privilege of parting with a barrel of oil. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude sold for more than $60 a barrel just a few months ago. Following the outbreak of the coronavirus, a global collapse in economic activity, coupled with a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, brought the price of crude to its lowest level since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Plummeting prices have set off a mad dash to store oil, as producers hope to weather the storm and sell their supply after the pandemic. But storage space is finite and growing ever more expensive as buyers disappear from energy markets. Monday marked the first time that one months storage costs exceeded the spot price of oil. Rather than cover those costs, traders paid to get rid of their oil. The speed of the sell-off reflects the deadline of the May futures contract. Traders and exchange-traded funds in commodity markets exit positions by selling futures as they expire. Otherwise, they would receive physical shipments of oil which they dont want. (Its hard to store barrels of crude in a Tribeca loft.) Monday was the last day to exit May futures before their Tuesday expiration date. As traders rushed to offload their contracts, prices collapsed with a gap of $60 between May and June WTI futures. Commodity analysts call it contango when oil for delivery in the future costs more than oil for immediate delivery. The pandemic has hit U.S. oil producers harder than their peers because the domestic oil supply is landlocked. Unlike Brent crude a waterborne oil delivered by producers to the North Sea WTI is traded through Cushing, Okla. Because of the higher logistical barriers of transporting oil across land, West Texas oil trades at a discount to Brent, which fell by 9 percent to $25 a barrel Monday. Story continues The move in oil accentuates the near impossibility of stimulating the economy during a global shutdown. Just over a week ago, the U.S. and OPEC+ an expanded oil cartel that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to cut production by nearly 10 million barrels a day. Despite unprecedented international coordination, with the U.S. government intervening in energy markets for the first time, supply cuts have failed to prop up prices. No amount of output restrictions can force planes into the air or workers into the factory. And the pandemic comes at a time of massive global output driven by the U.S. fracking boom. Collapsing oil prices will hurt high-cost producers the most, including those in the U.S. and emerging economies such as Venezuela, Nigeria, and Angola. Shale producers lose money when the price of crude sinks below $50. Facing a protracted demand slump, high-cost producers will shut in supply, closing oil wells until prices stabilize. For highly leveraged U.S. shale companies, near-zero revenues will likely lead to bankruptcy. For petrostates such as Venezuela, negative oil prices could pose an existential threat. But when economic activity picks up, shuttered production is expected to cause a large increase in the price of oil: Demand will pick up just as wells shut down. In the long run, the U.S. may stand to benefit from depressed prices. For one, consumers will face lower prices at the pump, and businesses will pay less for energy. But beyond that, shale has an inherent advantage in that wells can be shut down and restarted relatively easily. Once markets normalize, oil and gas fields that have shut down will take years to bring back online, and shale producers will be well positioned to fill that demand. In the meantime, though, well likely see consolidation in the oil industry as oil majors with healthy balance sheets buy up distressed shale assets. More from National Review Story Highlights 44% in Latin America are satisfied with access to quality healthcare 36% in Latin America are confident in their national governments WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Although most of the recent discussions about the spread of COVID-19 have been focused on its neighbor to the North, Latin America is emerging as the next front in the battle against the disease, and it is doing so at a disadvantage. Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the two regions in the world where -- prior to the crisis -- less than 50% of the population was confident or satisfied with two elements that are crucial to combating the virus: the national government and people's access to quality healthcare. This is true in the Middle East and North Africa as well, but notably, both measures are worse in Latin America and the Caribbean. Satisfaction With Access to Quality Healthcare and Confidence in National Government Around the Globe, by Region In the city or area where you live, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the availability of quality healthcare?In this country, do you have confidence in each of the following, or not? How about national government? Satisfied with healthcare Confident in national government % % Southeast Asia 81 74 Western Europe 77 47 East Asia 76 40 Northern America 74 38 South Asia 68 76 East Central & South East Europe 55 44 Middle East & North Africa 48 48 Sub-Saharan Africa 48 60 Post-Soviet Eurasia 45 51 Latin America & Caribbean 44 36 Gallup World Poll, 2019 Latin American Countries at Most Risk from COVID-19 The widespread disruption and soaring death rates from the disease in Ecuador in just the past few weeks show the potentially devastating outcome that may occur in other countries throughout the broader region. Ecuador itself stands out in the region for residents' low confidence in their national government (21%) and satisfaction with the availability of quality healthcare (43%), but based on these two measures, other countries are at far more risk. Chief among these is Venezuela, where the healthcare system and the government have operated on the edge of collapse for years before COVID-19. In 2019, 18% of Venezuelans said they were satisfied with the availability of quality healthcare where they live -- which was the lowest level in the entire world last year -- and 26% expressed confidence in their government. The global pandemic may be the one-two punch that turns the crisis in the country into a disaster -- particularly as it absorbs the Venezuelan refugees who are fleeing the virus in other countries and returning home. Satisfaction with Access to Quality Healthcare and Confidence in National Government in Latin America, by Country Satisfied with healthcare Confident in national government % % Uruguay 73 55 Nicaragua 67 51 Costa Rica 63 28 Jamaica 62 44 Dominican Republic 59 41 El Salvador 54 72 Guatemala 54 46 Honduras 52 36 Argentina 52 27 Mexico 51 50 Panama 50 41 Bolivia 48 30 Paraguay 48 21 Ecuador 43 21 Colombia 42 33 Brazil 39 34 Peru 39 23 Chile 28 15 Venezuela 18 26 Gallup World Poll, 2019 Chile, Ecuador and Peru are also in a compromised position to face COVID-19, judging by their residents' evaluations of their healthcare systems and governments prior to the pandemic. All three countries were just starting to recover from episodes of severe instability in 2019. These three countries have also been on the receiving end of a massive exodus of Venezuelan refugees and migrants over the past five years, which has severely strained their healthcare resources and social programs. Brazil, the region's most populous country, is also among the most at-risk countries in Latin America in terms of satisfaction with healthcare or confidence in government. While fewer than four in 10 Brazilians are content with either, additional factors may exacerbate Brazil's risk. President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the risk that the disease poses, most recently appearing at a demonstration on Sunday, where protesters railed against stay-at-home orders and called for military rule. This stance, and the closely packed populations of the country's favelas, make millions of Brazilians particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Implications Latin American countries face significant challenges in controlling the spread and effects of COVID-19. Across the region, low levels of trust in government suggest populations are unlikely to trust the advice they receive from the government concerning efforts to restrict movement and the spread of the disease, or to trust the government's ability to enact the right policies. Additionally, Latin American populations' low levels of satisfaction with the availability of quality healthcare speak to a likely lack of effective medical treatment throughout the region. This is in addition to large majorities of Latin America's workforce not enjoying the job stability and security of formal full-time employment that would be necessary to observe long periods of shelter-in-place measures. These factors have been exacerbated by a lack of effective action to control the spread of the disease on the part of several countries in the region. Failure to act risks higher levels of infection that will further tax already stretched healthcare systems, making situations similar to those that have already occurred in Ecuador more likely in other countries throughout the region. The spread of COVID-19 may also be particularly devastating to Venezuela. With no effective means of providing healthcare to its population, a true humanitarian disaster may occur. Refugees from the country who had fled to neighboring countries have also returned home due to worsening economic conditions and lack of access to healthcare, potentially further stretching the country's meager resources. This configures a grim outlook for a region that was already struggling to resume economic growth, and that saw democracies tumble in several countries in 2019 over residents' frustrations with unmet social demands. For complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup's Country Data Set details. Learn more about how the Gallup World Poll works. (Photo : Image by Lars_Nissen from Pixabay ) Advertisement Image by Lars_Nissen from Pixabay Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Faizan Ali, University of South Florida and Cihan Cobanoglu, University of South Florida Due to the coronavirus, people around the world have canceled their travel plans. Governments and health officials have warned the public to avoid boarding cruise ships and long flights. Major events like conferences, trade shows and the Olympics have been canceled or postponed. As a result, many businesses in the travel and tourism industry are likely to find themselves in jeopardy. Predicting the economic impact of the coronavirus right now is akin to participating in a running competition without knowing how long the course is. However, a few things are already clear. Our study We conducted a study during the third week of March with more than 2,000 travelers from 28 countries. Via Amazon Mechanical Turk, we asked respondents about their travel behaviors during the pandemic. Our study showed that 63.8% of the travelers will reduce their travel plans in the next 12 months. More than half canceled their business travel immediately due to the coronavirus. Results of our study predict that, compared to last year, the travel industry, which includes businesses such as airlines, hotels and restaurants, will shrink by 50% in 2020, which would mean a significant loss of jobs and revenue. The number of international travelers could shrink from 1.4 billion to fewer than 1 billion people. That would be the first time the international traveler number has fallen that low since 2015. We also asked respondents to rate their perceived image of China and Italy, two of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. Interestingly, U.S. travelers' image of China and Italy has deteriorated. The image of China was damaged most significantly, as some people blame China for the spread of the virus. However, we expect that this image may recover soon, as research shows that travelers have a short memory about the negative aspects of a destination after a disaster. Sizing up the impact The travel industry has faced many challenges in the past, including the 9/11 attacks and the Great Recession, but none are similar in magnitude to the coronavirus. For example, the travel industry shrank by 31.6% after 9/11. In the U.S, the travel and tourism industry generated US$1.6 trillion in 2017 in economic output. A study from Tourism Economics, a company that consults in the tourism sector, predicts that the U.S. tourism industry will lose at least $24 billion in 2020, thanks to a widespread loss of spending at restaurants, hotels, theme parks and more. The World Travel and Tourism Council, which represents the global private sector of Travel & Tourism, predicts up to 50 million jobs in the global travel industry could be lost. While the economic impact of the coronavirus is significant, its impact on people's social interaction, too, will likely be felt for years to come. Faizan Ali, Assistant Professor, University of South Florida and Cihan Cobanoglu, McKibbon Endowed Chair Professor, University of South Florida This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Advertisement TagsGlobal Tourism, decrease, Over 50% According to the McKinsey & Company report, COVID-19: Investing in Black Lives and Livelihoods, 39% of jobs held by Black workers (seven million jobs in all) are vulnerable as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, compared with 34% for White workers. The majority of Black workers, by the very nature of their jobs, are putting their lives and health on the line to provide necessary goods and services to our society. "Black is Human" is the Burrell Communications Group community engagement platform created to uplift and empower the underserved in African American communities. The award-winning marketing communications agency is based in Chicago and has spent nearly 49 years curating targeted creative and community relations programs for major brands like McDonald's U.S.A, Toyota Motors North America, Walmart, Comcast and more. The "For Jason" PSA will be distributed across top-tier African American broadcast and digital media outlets, including TV One, Black News Channel, Revolt TV, iOne, Rolling Out and Bounce TV. The campaign's goal is to raise awareness of the severity of COVID-19 within the African American community, and provide streamlined access to critical and relevant information, via the Black is Human webpage. If interested in supporting the "For Jason" campaign, please follow and like the Black is Human Twitter and Facebook pages and share the video. For more information on the Black is Human initiative, please visit: www.blackishuman.com In an additional effort to support those most severely impacted by this global pandemic, Burrell will provide grocery deliveries to long-time community partner, Primo Center. Primo Center is a leader in providing family shelter, permanent supportive housing and other services to homeless families in the south and west sides of Chicago, including North Lawndale, Englewood, and Auburn-Gresham. This week, 64 households providing shelter for 191 children in the Chicago area will receive a generous donation of healthy foods and other supplies, courtesy of the agency. "We are proud to support those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and hope that other industry leaders will join us in our mission to provide much-needed resources to vulnerable communities," says Fay Ferguson, Co-CEO, Burrell Communications Group. Burrell provides further community engagement and support through Allies of Innocence. This initiative offers no-cost grief and trauma counseling to children and families affected by gun violence and other challenges. To learn more about Allies of Innocence, please visit: www.perspectivesltd.com/allies-of-innocence/ ABOUT BURRELL COMMUNICATIONS GROUP Celebrating more than 40 years of best-in-class transcultural communications, Burrell Communications Group is the largest U.S. agency specializing in communications to diverse audiences. The agency is known for its strategic thought-leadership and creativity. The foundation of its success lies in uncovering rich insights and a deep understanding of the Black community. Current clients include McDonald's U.S.A., Toyota Motors North America, Walmart, Comcast, AARP, Procter and Gamble, and more. SOURCE Burrell Communications Group Related Links https://www.burrell.com/ The Directorate of Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche, has noted that the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, may surrender soon. The Defence Headquarters noted that body language of the Boko Haram leader following the military offensive on the insurgents lately, showed that Shekau would soon surrender. The claim was revealed by Eneche at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday. Enenche, stressed that though, there was no official contact with Shekau, the body language of the terror leader showed that he was ready to surrender. If you talk about body language, the body language is there. If he makes any move in that regard, you will know, but from the onslaught from troops, they cant hide anymore. Recall that the Defence Headquarters had yesterday confirmed that several key Boko Haram terrorists/ISWAP leaders were killed in multiple airstrikes conducted by the Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole at Durbada in Borno State. Share this post with your Friends on He spoke softly but acted forcefully, likening a manuscript to a sculpture that required the most precise shaping. Passages author Gail Sheehy wrote of his barely audible critiques emitted from beneath his white pencil mustache. Angelou would remember his determination to get her to write a memoir, Caged Bird, and how he scrutinized every word and punctuation mark. Mr. Loomis spent more than a year working with historian John Toland on revisions for The Rising Sun, a Pulitzer Prize winner. Styron, best man at both of Mr. Loomiss weddings, would speak of his intolerance for bad writing, and his almost style of editing that would label a manuscript almost ready for publication. 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. CHESTER Gov. Tom Wolfs recent declaration of a fiscal emergency in the cash-strapped city appears to have reignited a dispute about who owns the assets of the Chester Water Authority and who can sell them. City Council is expected to vote on authorizing commencement of a bid process for those assets during a virtual meeting being broadcast over Facebook at 10 a.m. today, according to a meeting agenda. But CWA Solicitor Frank Catania said Tuesday that there is an injunction in place as part of more than a dozen pending legal actions that would preclude that vote from taking place. The tug of war currently playing out between the city and authority goes back to at least 2017, when Aqua America Inc. first offered to buy CWA for $320 million. Aquas Chief Executive Officer Chris Franklin previously said the company proposed a 10-year moratorium on rate hikes as part of that offer, but CWA rejected the proposal, foreseeing unabated future raises and development of currently protected land. Facing mounting pressure from deficits in recent years, however particularly those related to mounting pension costs the city has continued exploring a possible sale to help boost itself out of financial recovery status under Act 47. Chester initially seemed open to a proposed $60.2 million settlement from CWA that would include a 10-percent rate hike for its customers in exchange for the city releasing any claims to authority assets for 40 years. Aqua Pennsylvania, as a CWA customer, sued to halt that deal, alleging the hike would result in $75,000 being directly passed on to its customers with no corresponding benefits. Chester City Council approved a resolution to issue a request for proposal to value CWA assets shortly thereafter. The issue has since been a matter for the courts, though that cooled for a little while when the state began implementing drastic COVID-19 mitigation efforts earlier this year. Then came the fiscal emergency declaration last week. One line of a concise statement of facts issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development supporting the April 13 declaration appears to assign the CWA to Chester as an asset a determination the authority has staunchly contested in its multiple legal challenges. As the concise statement indicates, selling the utility assets of the CWA could generate millions of dollars in support of Chesters long-term fiscal recovery, but a resolution to the litigation related to the sale of authority assets is not imminent and defeat (in court) would result in the loss of a huge source of potential revenue for the city. A DCED representative did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday, but the CWA said in a blistering seven-page response to the statement Monday that the idea that the authority is the panacea to the citys problems is short-sighted government thinking at its worst and that selling its assets would be a counter-productive theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from ratepayers throughout Chester and Delaware counties. The response notes the city itself has not counted CWA as an asset in audited financial statements overseen by the DCED and what it identifies as an Act 47 Team going back to at least 2003. The city cannot claim in every single one of its audited financial statements going back decades that the authority is not a city asset, and then suddenly reverse course and now claim it owns the authority, according to CWA. Likewise, the Act 47 Team cannot sign-off just a few months ago on the 2016 Audit explicitly stating the authority is not a city asset, and now claim that it is. The CWA board was under the citys sole control until 2012, but it is now made up of three representatives each from Chester City, Chester County and Delaware County. About 22 percent of the CWAs 42,000 customers are in the city of Chester, while the remaining 78 percent are elsewhere in Delaware and Chester counties. Chester entered Act 47 status as a financially distressed city in 1995 and has since adopted amended recovery plans in 2006, 2013 and 2016. The citys current receivership consultant, Econsult Solutions, recommended selling the CWA in the most recent plan. But the CWA argues that any such sale would ultimately have a detrimental impact to both residential and business customers who would see their rates skyrocket. In its response Monday, the authority claimed that a sale to a private company would increase water bills for large commercial and industrial customers by more than $1 million per year and the average residential customer would see an annual water bill increase of $500. An April 11 letter from CWA Chair Cynthia Leitzell to Chester Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland indicates that the settlement offer is still on the table, however, and represents the only legal option available to the city. Kirkland said Tuesday that he is unable to have any kind of conversation with Leitzell while litigation is pending, but that his position remains the same as it was at the beginning of the process two and a half years ago. Were going to do the very best thing for our ratepayers, for our constituents and for the employees, Kirkland said. Were going to be very transparent in all that we do and its not going to be negotiated or worked out by the way of the newspapers. Were going to do this the right way and the legal way. City Solicitor Ken Schuster also indicated in an April 13 response letter to attorneys for CWA that the city intends to take up the RFP again in a fair and transparent manner, and directed all future communications to be done between attorneys so that there is no perception that the process is being circumvented. At the end of March, a NATO field hospital was dispatched to Luxembourg from Italy in order to support hospital infrastructures. The Luxembourg army proceeded to install the field hospital in front of the Municipal Hospital in Luxembourg City. To date, however, the facilities have not been put into service, as the hospital has not yet reached capacity. CHL's medical director, Dr Martine Goergen, described the facilities as "spartan" during a press visit on Monday, but said the beds received from the Army were a great luxury, and the Grand Duchy was fortunate compared to abroad. Ce lundi 20 avril, le Premier ministre, ministre d'Etat, @Xavier_Bettel et la ministre de la Sante, @LenertPaulette, se sont rendus au CHL pour une visite du Field Hospital.https://t.co/Fl95oHc66f #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/Gr0Gnz0cel CHL (@CHL_Luxembourg) April 21, 2020 The visit, which included the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health, began at triage, which is currently housed in tents supplied by NATO. Patients displaying Covid-19 symptoms are separated from other patients here. While other patients proceed to the interior of the building, potential coronavirus patients are tested outside the establishment. Dr Marc Simon, emergency doctor, explained those with symptoms were taken to a second tent where a doctor will carry out tests, including blood tests, EKG, and a scan if required. Around two-thirds of patients with Covid-19 require hospitalisation following the scan. Thus far, no patients have had to stay in the field hospital installed in the car park. The field hospital is also divided, with 10 of its 40 beds kept aside for patients with minor symptoms or who have not yet been confirmed, while the remaining 30 are designed for more serious cases. Dr Goergen explained the tents could allow them to hospitalise patients who had tested positive, but were not considered to have life-threatening complications, despite needing surveillance and care. Facebook / CHL Patients in the field hospital will be treated as though they are in a proper hospital room. Dr Goergen said there was sufficient equipment to provide oxygen to patients if needed. The hospital has also organised teams which can be called upon if required, so that staff are sufficiently spread out across the different areas of the hospital. The field hospital is prepared to be used straight away if the situation should further develop. As of Monday afternoon, 34 patients with coronavirus were in hospital at the CHL. The number of new cases is dropping on a daily basis, but the supplementary structures are nonetheless reassuring, said Paulette Lenert. Lenert said they were sufficiently prepared, although some might think it was excessive. However, the Minister of Health said they had learned from other countries and had prepared the additional tents so as not to overwhelm the Grand Duchy's healthcare system. The tents and equipment for the field hospital were supplied free of charge by NATO, with the Luxembourg government only contributing financially for transport or eventual damage. Once the epidemic is under control, the equipment will be returned. Drones have become a quick and relatively inexpensive way to capture on-the-ground images of geographic areas, offering valuable information to soldiers and others. But those images have a drawback: they often can't accurately be compared with images taken previously - images which generally were collected using different standards and formats - in order to determine how the terrain has changed over time. Researchers with the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping at the University of Houston are using a $1.89 million grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create a set of algorithms that would allow users to more precisely align datasets collected at different times and reliably estimate changes between images captured at different times. Craig Glennie, principle investigator with NCALM and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UH, said just-in-time data collected by drones can be helpful on the battlefield or in other circumstances. "More and more, people want to take older data and compare it to newer data and see if anything has changed, and there's not really a mechanism to do that with any confidence." The main investigators on the project are Preston Hartzell, an assistant research professor at NCALM who is also involved in a similar project funded by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and Glennie. The most complete datasets are collected by aircraft flying over an area, which allows researchers to use more powerful mapping equipment and to access GPS satellite data. The combination of more powerful equipment and GPS data makes those datasets more precise, Glennie said. Drone-collected data offers a different advantage - drones are small, nimble and less intrusive. But they aren't able to access GPS data as accurately and, because the equipment they carry is smaller and lighter weight, they can't collect as much information. To allow researchers to reconcile disparate datasets, Hartzell and Glennie will develop new algorithms - Glennie describes them as a new tool set - that can accurately highlight data signaling changes while ignoring extraneous or inconsequential data. NCALM is a National Science Foundation-supported research center, based at UH and operated in conjunction with the University of California-Berkeley to provide LiDAR-generated topographical data for researchers around the world. This project is an extension of its ongoing earth science work, including earthquake monitoring projects. Glennie said the results will be useful in mapping natural disasters, as well as for military applications, including to help Houston and other cities accurately gauge the extent of flood damage following a hurricane or other major storm. The resulting tools and methodology will be shared with other researchers through the open-source Point Data Abstraction Library. ### As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Trump administration is deepening its assault on public education. While starving desperate school districts of the funding needed to offset the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the minuscule amount being provided is through block grants, setting a precedent to further undermine Title I and other needs-based education funding. Out of the $2.5 trillion package, merely $30.75 billion, or 0.122 percent, is earmarked for public education funding. The misnamed Education Stabilization Fund will provide roughly $17 billion for K-12 education and $14 billion for higher education, with much of the funds liable to go to charter and private schools. Already, Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Cornell and Columbia, have received a combined $34.4 million, despite having endowments totaling $59.13 billion. President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos (AP / Evan Vucci) States have already lost tens of billions of dollars in revenues since the start of the pandemic, and the Center for Budget Policies and Priorities has estimated that roughly $500 billion in state funds will be lost in the coming fiscal year due to declines in tax revenues. This figure is over 16 times the amount provided for education by the CARES Act. While trillions of dollars are being funneled to Wall Street and the coffers of the rich, teachers and education workers are once again hearing the old lie: there is no money. Three weeks after the signing of the CARES Act, Department of Education (DOE) Secretary Betsy DeVos announced last Tuesday the distribution of $3 billion in funds for K-12 education through the Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEERF). Through this block grant disbursement, the Trump administration is using the pandemic to advance its reactionary agenda to dismantle education programs for the most impoverished working class youth. Under the block grant allocation method, Title I calculations were used to distribute the money proportionally to states as a lump sum, but each states Department of Education has free rein to distribute the money as it sees fit, instead of allocating it to those most in need. Such a funding method has been used to erode welfare and Medicaid funding since the 1990s, and right-wing education reformers such as Betsy DeVos have long advocated for the use of block grants to dismantle Title I spending, which provides funds to the most impoverished students and schools. In its 2021 proposed budget, the Trump administration sought to wholly replace the Title I program with a block grant system, and the current initiative is meant to set a precedent to justify this reactionary assault on yet another entitlement program. According to an April 14 DOE press release, the GEERF funds are an extraordinarily flexible emergency block grant which can go towards funding schools (including charter schools and non-public schools), postsecondary institutions, and other education-related organizations. The DOE statement on the grants also stressed that the application is streamlined to make it easier for governors to access the funds, encouraging them to truly rethink and transform the approach to education during this national emergency. During a White House briefing on the CARES Act, DeVos was clear on her intention, stating, Ive always believed education funding should be tied to students, not systems, and that necessity has never been more evident. Behind the rhetoric, DeVos underlying motive is to remove funding tied to students that are most in need, and to divert those funds to systems, including the expanding network of charter schools, religious schools and private schools which she has promoted for decades. DeVos calls her block grant proposals Educational Opportunity Scholarships, or merged funding streams. Block grant funding levels typically are fixed, whereas the Title I entitlement structure in education increases funding to respond to increased need due to economic downturns, natural disasters, or higher-than-expected costs, such as the current pandemic. The increased flexibility and lack of minimum standards pertaining to block grants means that states can make program cuts that federal law does not permit, or shift the federal funds to purposes other than education, including to replace lost revenues. Title I funding emerged with the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), a key component of the antipoverty reforms introduced with Lyndon Johnsons Great Society programs, the last reformist measures ever implemented by American capitalism. Funds were designated for those most vulnerable, impoverished and in desperate need of resources. Thirty years later, in 1995, the Clinton Administration adopted the reactionary slogan of school choice, providing money to privately-run and publicly-funded charter schools for the first time. In 2001, the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy first tied funding to standardized tests, with schools with low test scores labeled as failing and eventually closed. In 2009, as part of the then-record $787 billion bailout of Wall Street, the Obama Administration enacted the Race to The Top program, tying funding to accountability. Teachers were fired, schools were closed and education in cities like New Orleans became monopolized by charter schools. By 2012, at least 350,000 teachers had lost their jobs and countless schools throughout the country were closed. Under Obama, Title I funding was changed from being money guaranteed based on need and the percentage of students getting free and reduced lunches, to money granted based on whether districts lifted caps on charters, merit pay and vouchers. The present aim of the Trump administration is to finish the job of eliminating all funding for traditional public schools. Over 50 years after the Great Society reforms, America now has 43 million people who live below the poverty line, or twice as many as 50 years ago. Two and a half million children are now homeless. State funding to public education during the Great Recession was never restored, prompting a wave of teachers strikes beginning with the 2018 wildcat strike by West Virginia teachers. Since 2018, over 700,000 teachers across the US have been involved in strikes against unending austerity. In the present crisis produced by the pandemic, immense austerity is once again on the agenda, on a far greater scale than what took place after 2008. Political establishments in every country are plotting the complete destruction of public education, by enacting cuts beginning from childcare and continuing through higher education. In New York City alone, last week Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to cut $827 million from the citys education budget. Democrat David Age, the governor of Hawaii, intends to cut teacher pay by 20 percent as early as May 1. The state of Washingtons Democratic Governor Jay Inslee has cut 147 new items from the state budget, including $100 million for 370 new high school counselors, who are most desperately needed by students during the pandemic. In Kentuckywhere last year teachers carried our sickout strikes in defiance of their unionlast month the state Senate passed a budget bill that will withhold $1.3 billion from teacher pension funding unless teachers agree to cut retirement benefits for newly hired teachers. In Nevada, Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak has instructed districts to prepare to cut four percent from their budgets for this fiscal year and six percent in 2021, with potentially eight percent more if conditions worsen, saying the cuts will be "surgical and thoughtful." In the afermath of the wave of strikes by teachers over the past two years, which were contained and shut down by the unions based on promising teachers meager pay increases and school funding increases, these false promises have been cast aside during the pandemic, in the name of fiscal responsibility. Over the coming weeks and months, as districts and states begin implementing devastating cuts, there will be an enormous movement of workers, teachers and students in opposition to this austerity. There will be an insistence that this time the working class will not pay for the criminal activities of Wall Street speculators and corporate executives. Teachers must break with the Democratic Party and its appendages, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and all their state and local affiliates. To coordinate their struggles in a revolutionary direction, teachers must form independent rank-and-file committees and fight to link up with teachers across the US and internationally. Such committees must fight to unite the entire working class, including all education workers, autoworkers, logistics workers, health care workers and transit workers, to halt the pandemic and reorganize society in the interests of social need, not private profit. Karnataka to undertake Triaging: What does it mean and how do you pronounce it 55 plus with even slightest discomfort? Karnataka govt wants to do coronavirus test India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, Apr 21: If you are aged 55-plus, have co-morbid conditions and now experiencing even slightest health discomfort, its time for coronavirus screening in Karnataka as the government is keen on pushing pre-emptive measures to check its spread. Medical Education Minister Sudhakar K, who is in-charge of all matters related to COVID-19, told PTI on Tuesday the government would take it seriously even if such people feel uneasiness, tiredness or slightest of discomfort. We will do it (coronavirus test in such cases)we want to do it. We have issued guidelines for senior citizens, especially those with co-morbid conditions. Even if they have slightest discomfort, we want to take it seriously, the Minister said. How Bengaluru is containing the spread of the coronavirus Senior citizens (those above the age of 60) account for about seven per cent of the states population. The Minister also said about 2,300 real time reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (real time RT-PCR) tests, one of the most accurate laboratory methods for detecting, tracking, and studying the coronavirus, are being conducted a day in the State. The target is to ramp them up to a minimum of 10,000 a day by May 10, Sudhakar said. Seventeen people infected with coronavirus have lost their lives in Karnataka, which has reported 415 COVID-19 positive cases, including 114 discharges. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 14:20 [IST] The newly-created Congress consultative committee, headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met for the first time on Monday and discussed the revival of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, smooth crop procurement and the issue of stranded migrant labourers due to the nationwide lockdown to contain the deadly coronavirus disease. After the meeting, the opposition party reiterated its demand for immediate direct cash transfer of Rs 7500 in all Jan Dhan, pension and the PM-Kisan scheme accounts to enable the poor and the needy sustain themselves during the lockdown period. Giving details of the meeting, former union minister Jairam Ramesh said the Congress panel will prepare a detailed plan for revival of MSME together with steps to ensure smooth procurement of wheat, mustard and gram besides resolving the pressing issue of stranded migrant workers and submit it to the central government in a day or two. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday formed the consultative committee under the chairmanship of the former Prime Minister to deliberate on current matters, including those related to the Covid-19 outbreak, and formulate the partys views on various issues. The 11-member group also comprises former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, partys chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, general secretary in-charge organisation KC Venugopal and former union ministers P Chidambaram, Manish Tewari and Jairam Ramesh. The other members of the group are technology and data cell chairman Praveen Chakravarty, spokespersons Gaurav Vallabh and Supriya Shrinate, and social media department head Rohan Gupta. Ramesh said the panel will meet every other day to discuss the important issues faced by the country due to the pandemic. We have worked out a very concrete MSME revival package which we will submit to the central government in a day or two, Ramesh said, addressing a news conference through video conferencing. He said both the former Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi insisted that absolute priority be given to the MSME sector, which has social and economic importance and is the second largest employer after agriculture. Ramesh said the Congress will also make positive recommendations to the government to ensure smooth crop procurement and resolution of the problems of stranded migrant workers. He said the party once again urged the government to transfer Rs 7500 to all Jan Dhan accounts, all pension accounts of the elderly, differently abled and widows, and also those under the PM-Kisan scheme. I am sure a compassionate and a responsible government can find funds to provide for the vulnerable, he said when asked if the country has funds of this nature to spare. It is the matter of priorities. It is absolutely essential for the survival of tens and thousands of people who need immediate assistance to tide over the crisis, added Ramesh. He said the Congress will keep giving constructive suggestions to the government and hope it will take those positively. Rahul Gandhi too had also advocated constructive support to the government in his press conference last week. We need to work with the government in these difficult times with a positive mindset. We are extending our hand for constructive cooperation and hope the government will come down from its pedestal and accept our positive suggestions. We are giving these suggestions on behalf of the people of India, Ramesh said. The panel in its next meeting will discuss the lockdown exit strategy after May 3. Ramesh also alleged that the Centre was busy destabilising the Madhya Pradesh government and was caught napping in preparation for managing the Covid-19 pandemic as a result of which the action got delayed. The government did not act on time while dealing with the crisis and was busy in toppling the government in Madhya Pradesh. The government only woke up on March 23 but this is no time to play politics, he said. Separately, a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has been called on Thursday to discuss the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown situation. The meeting will be held through video-conferencing. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Monday requested the Government Inspectorate inspect rice exports in recent times. Rice is ready for export at Cua Lo Port in the central province of Nghe An. In a message sent to the inspectorate on Monday, PM Phuc said he wanted to clarify if there were signs of profiteering and negative actions in rice exports as well as press information reflecting the publicity and transparency related to customs procedures for rice exports. The inspection results must be completed and submitted to the Prime Minister in June. From now to June, exports of rice will take place as normal following Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anhs proposal to allow an export volume of 400,000 tonnes of rice in April and May each. Viet Nam is one of the largest rice exporters in the world but rice export volume is limited because the Government wants to ensure food security as it is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The volume of rice export is limited while the global rice price is rapidly increasing due to the demand for food reserves in many countries. Problems have been reported in carrying out customs procedures, with some businesses able to export rice and many others stuck with their rice stored at ports. VNS Rice export still allowed despite pandemic, natural disasters Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung on April 20 ordered advancing the export quota of 100,000 tonnes of rice from that set for May in order to ease difficulties for firms that have rice stuck at ports but are unable to submit customs declarations. Hitachi Vantara, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, introduced Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) E990, the companys new storage platform for midsize enterprise customers. The E990s high performance and low latency supercharge business applications, and industry-leading data de-duplication guarantees storage cost reductions. Hitachi Ops Centers powerful artificial intelligence (AI)-driven management software can also dramatically simplify storage provisioning for AI, machine learning (ML) and containerized applications. The E990 with Hitachi Ops Center provides an NVMe all-flash option for Hitachi Vantaras family of solutions for midsize enterprises, adding to a broad portfolio of powerful infrastructure solutions that feature best-in-class performance and include Hitachis signature 100% data availability guarantee for businesses of all sizes. The company also unveiled EverFlex from Hitachi Vantara, a program that provides simple, elastic and comprehensive acquisition choices for the E990 and the entire Hitachi Vantara portfolio. EverFlex adds consumption-based pricing models that range from basic utility pricing, to custom outcome-based services, to Storage as a Service. It will align IT spend with business use for midsize enterprises, enabling effective ways to lower cost, avoid wasting capacity and eliminate disruption. Industry-Leading Deduplication Reduces Storage Costs With data volumes forecast to rise to 23% and data storage budgets growing only 10% on average, midsize enterprises urgently need solutions to reduce storage costs. The new Hitachi VSP E990 with Hitachi Ops Center delivers industry-leading 4:1 data deduplication twice that of Hitachis closest competitor guaranteeing to free up 75% of storage capacity. AI-Enhanced Management Tools Radically Simplify Storage Provisioning Industry analyst firm 451 Research, now a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, suggests 43% of storage buyers feel unprepared to support increased future demands. Hitachi Vantara VSP E990 combined with Ops Center directly addresses this challenge. Ops Centers AI-enhanced management streamlines storage delivery by up to 90%3 for demanding applications. It also reduces manual storage provisioning tasks by up to 70% and delivers root cause issue analysis four times faster to accelerate troubleshooting. Trusted Performance That Wont Break the Bank Hitachi Vantara VSP E990 addresses the data infrastructure reliability challenges that many enterprises continue to face: One-third of enterprises still suffer outages or significant performance degradation as a result of storage reliability issues. VSP E990 delivers Hitachi Vantaras long-standing leadership in reliability to midsize enterprises at a price point they can afford. It features an all-NVMe architecture with the industrys leading and lowest-cost IOPS (as low as $0.03 per IOPS) and ultra-low latency for the most resource-hungry business applications. Predictable Pricing and Flexible Consumption New EverFlex adds greater choice in consumption-based pricing models that make pricing predictable for cloud-like storage usage. It starts by enabling customers to pay only for what they use and align technology spending with business use to reduce costs by up to 20%, eliminating the need to pay for the essential reserve capacity that every installation needs. Added services are available to further reduce costs and avoid disruptions to business by providing outcome-based operational services that help deliver more consistent service levels without placing additional burden on staff. VSP E990 Is Supercharged for Partners, Too The VSP E990 is ideal for partners to deliver innovation and benefits important to midsize enterprise customers. Hitachi Vantara continues to invest in its predictable, profitable and pioneering partner program with enablement tools, marketing resources and incentives designed for distributors and resellers focused on midsize enterprises. [April 21, 2020] Documate Empowers Law Firms and Courts to Maintain Operations During the Pandemic Outbreak SAN FRANCISCO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lawyers and court systems across the United States are maintaining operations during the pandemic outbreak by using Documate to create public-facing legal applications and systems that collect data, guide consumers, and generate documents. The software also helps them work more efficiently by significantly reducing the internal document drafting time. Documate is a code-free document automation and expert system builder that transforms documents into client-facing workflows. Using Documate's DIY workflow builder, lawyers can build their own technology companies or a "Turbo Tax for any area of law." That means the client can go onto a lawyer's website, answer a series of logic-based questions, and generate their documents automatically. "I'm convinced that this move to create accessible technology tools will transform the legal world," said attorney Paul Sutton, a Documate customer. "The exciting thing is that pretty much everyone can achieve incredible results without any formal 'coding' training," he said about Documate's Workflow Builder. Particularly now, attorneys are looking for ways to collaborate with clients online. With Documate, they can build an intake form and send the form to clients. When the client fills out the form, case documents will automatically be generated. Two common use cases Documate has seen are estate planning and family law, where some law firms are creating their own legal tech companies directly on top of Documate. "These workflows are powerful," said a San Diego law firm. "I can create decision-tree logic with conditional logic and complex calculations, and I can send it anywhere I want." Attorneys can even charge clients directly on Documate for documents to create new revenue sources. For example, a client can enter their information, generate an estate plan, and pay theattorney a flat fee online through Documate. The client could follow up with the attorney for additional work on an hourly basis. Some lawyers have been shifting their practices to give clients what they need right now. "At the onset of this pandemic, some lawyers saw an increased demand for advice and counsel related to the crisis. Businesses needed new leave policies and remote work policies. Other legal issues were solved through expert systems to guide business owners through whether they qualified for exceptions under various laws. Our attorney customers have built policy generators on Documate to help multiple clients at a time," said a Documate representative. Legal aid attorneys, in particular, have always sought out innovative ways to serve their clients. In rural counties, the nearest legal aid center could easily be three or four hours away from clients. Documate provides its software for free to LSC legal aid organizations through its partnership with the Legal Services Corporation and the American Bar Association. Software that creates automated interviews and workflows to provide individuals access to the legal system is more important than ever in the current climate. Not only does it help these attorneys provide more efficient services, but it also allows them to collaborate with clients online - critical during the pandemic, when many offices and courts are closed. Courts, like the Louisiana State courts, are already using Documate's software to offer services to criminal defendants. When Louisiana state courts shut down due to the pandemic outbreak, they needed to find a way to deliver services to the general public online, particularly to allow criminal defendants to communicate with their attorneys about documents from the jail. The court is using workflows built on Documate as a solution. For example, a defense attorney can enter a guilty plea on behalf of their client, read their client their rights over video conference, prepare the form based on the responses and send a link for signature to the defendant. The defendant then signs the guilty plea form on an electronic device in the jail. "The ability to collaborate on legal needs remotely allows lawyers, legal aid and the courts to continue operating throughout this crisis. We hope we can help the legal industry stay strong in this uncertain time," said Documate. About Documate Documate allows attorneys to create online tools and new revenue sources by creating powerful client-facing portals and applications that generate documents. Learn more at https://www.documate.org or book a demo at the link here. For those who don't have time to build out their documents, Documate also has a document automation developer program. Contact: Dorna Moini, Founder/CEO at Documate Email: [email protected] Related Images documate.png Documate View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/documate-empowers-law-firms-and-courts-to-maintain-operations-during-the-pandemic-outbreak-301044241.html SOURCE Documate [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] ABI Research whitepaper identifies the short-and long-term impacts the global pandemic will have on Freight Transportation and Logistics OYSTER BAY, New York, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- It is no surprise that the COVID-19 outbreak has led to panic buying of items such as toilet paper and sanitizing supplies. However, this buying behavior has led to a massive need for trucks to help restock stores, shrinking the capacity available for other products. The result is a historically tight trucking market that has dropped 20% in volume in just the last two weeks, states global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research. "Rising costs, shrinking capacity, and panicked customers are shaking up the freight transportation and logistics markets," says Susan Beardslee, Principal Analyst at ABI Research. The American Association of Port Authorities sees 1Q volume decreased by at least 20%, including blank sailings, which may cost carriers US$1.9 billion. Rail freight is also impacted with intermodal down by approximately 50%, including from California'sLong Beach and Los Angeles ports (the leading container ports in the United States and the busiest in the Western Hemisphere). Global air cargo volumes for the last month are expected to be down 9%. New restrictions on passenger travel from much of Europe to the United States will further affect air cargo capacity. DHL alone is reporting an impact of US $79 million to February earnings. All of this adds to the already existent decreases due to the China-U.S. tariff tensions. "In the short term, there has been more than a six-week delay in shipments for cargo sourced from China. Other markets from Vietnam to Mexico often rely on Chinese components and raw materials, creating a knock-on effect to the supply chain, including transportation and logistics. The initial loss of road transport demand has begun in the ports and is moving to the warehouses and inland routes. Cargo capacity demand in China is beginning to demonstrate some initial signs of growth, with airfreight between China and the United States growing 27% over the last 14 days, creating a demand/supply imbalance," Beardslee explains. This capacity challenge will move to containers (stranded outside of China) and trucks. However, as the virus has continued to spread outside of China, government actions have included restrictions on travel from 26 European countries to the United States. "Belly cargo" (air cargo) is transported via passenger flights, estimated to be 50% of all air cargo. When this capacity is drastically removed between Europe and the United States, availability will be significantly impacted and spikes in pricing are expected. "In the longer term, there is little visibility to forecast, which will have a material impact on transportation and logistics this year. The virus is now impacting the global supply chain, with a current estimate of 113 countries identified as reporting cases. Transportation requirements will be hard to predict. Both capacity and pricing swings are anticipated across transportation modes, with the associated impact to shippers worldwide," says Beardslee. Shippers need to evaluate options and model changes across modes of transportation, considering interruptions, delays, and significant price increases. Both manufacturers and retailers need to develop prioritization plans for customers, potentially with set limits per customer. Systems integration whenever possible (ERP, Transportation Management System (TMS), Warehouse Management System (WMS)), along with predictive analytics/scenario modeling, is ideal. "Finally, keep in mind that as some countries begin to scale up production and transportation, others may move into containment strategies to address an outbreak. This will require near-real-time visibility across modes and the flexibility to adjust everything from inventory quantities and locations to substitution whenever possible," Beardslee advises. For a clearer picture of the current and future ramifications of COVID-19 across technologies and industries, download the whitepaper Taking Stock of COVID-19: The Short- and Long-Term Ramifications on Technology and End Markets. About ABI Research ABI Research provides strategic guidance to visionaries, delivering actionable intelligence on the transformative technologies that are dramatically reshaping industries, economies, and workforces across the world. ABI Research's global team of analysts publish groundbreaking studies often years ahead of other technology advisory firms, empowering our clients to stay ahead of their markets and their competitors. ABI Research?????????????,?????????????? ?1990???,????????????????,????,?????????????????????????? ???????????????? For more information about ABI Research's services, contact us at +1.516.624.2500 in the Americas, +44.203.326.0140 in Europe, +65.6592.0290 in Asia-Pacific or visit www.abiresearch.com. Contact Info: Global Deborah Petrara Tel: +1.516.624.2558 pr@abiresearch.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/276887/abi_research_logo.jpg ALTON The blackboard may come to the blacktop as businesses and institutions offer up their parking lots and free WiFi services so area students can complete school-from-home assignments. The free WiFi access helps students in those households that dont have online service. The parking lots mean groups of students can take advantage of the wireless signal from the social distancing safety of their cars. People dont have to come into our building; they can actually sit in the parking lot and get access to the signal, said John Roberts, general manager of Roberts Motors at 4350 N. Alby St., Alton. We have about seven acres here at our facility and have WiFi access on pretty much the whole place 24 hours a day, he said. If we have 1,000 people pile into the lot we might have a problem. But Im sure we have enough bandwidth for as many people as want to use it at any given time. Roberts said he got the idea to offer the free WiFi at his business after hearing that many Alton area kids dont have such access to do their homework. With school buildings throughout the state closed for the semester because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Roberts figured that families and schools could use all of the help that they could get. Roberts Motors parking lot pupils simply need to choose guest WiFi; no password is needed. We have protections so they cant access anything they shouldnt, Roberts said. Its fully accessible for anybodys needs as long as its appropriate stuff. Lewis and Clark Community College is using its lighted marquee sign along Godfrey Road to promote free WiFi access. Interim President Lori Aris said the college created a free Wi-Fi parking lot next to the security building for its students and employees to utilize during the stay-at-home order, and the service is also available to any other student who needs to complete schoolwork. Its part of an overall effort to help students continue their education remotely this spring, she said. We are working daily with our students to understand their ongoing needs, she said. We have moved all of our student services online and communicate weekly with students on how to access all of the normal student support services online. We are also working to distribute laptops to students in need through a loan program, she said. We are awaiting nearly $1 million in CARES Act funding that will be distributed to students directly, and are working as a team internally to develop a distribution plan at this time. In mid-March, cable TV and internet provider Charter announced it would offer free broadband and WiFi access for 60 days to households with students in grades K-12 or in college who do not already have a Spectrum broadband subscription. Installation fees for the up to 100Mbps service are also being waived for new households with students. Charter continues to offer Spectrum Internet Assist, a low-cost broadband program delivering speeds of 30 Mbps, to eligible low-income households. The company has also opened its WiFi hotspots for public use. These are unprecedented times and Charter is committed to connecting students and educators in communities such as Alton through our 60-day internet offering and our ongoing work to maintain our networks and support our customers, said Wes Shirley, Charter Communications spokesperson. Local elementary and high schools also are stepping up the effort to keep students connected through the end of the school year. The Alton School District provided Chromebooks to students in grades 3-12 in addition to giving individual WiFi hotspots to students without internet access, according to Assistant Superintendent Kristie Baumgartner. However, due to limited quantities, many of the hotspots have been offered to the districts dual credit and advanced placement students as a first priority so they can still reach the requirements needed for college credit. We are very thankful to our businesses and community partners who are opening access to their WiFi networks should students and parents have a need, Baumgartner said. Access to the Alton School Districts wireless internet is also available to our students and parents by using the parking areas in the front of all schools. A total of 6,153 students are currently enrolled in the Alton School District. Illinois officials also are working to make people aware of drive-up publicly accessible WiFi hotspots. An interactive map at www.isbe.net lists the hotspots by ZIP code or municipality and how to access them. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the life of every Illinois student but not equally, said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carmen Ayala. The transition to remote learning has accelerated our efforts to close the digital divide among Illinois students and families. This map is one way to level the playing field in the short term and to increase access to the tools students and educators need to engage more deeply in remote education. The hotspots are available at sites including local colleges and libraries. The link to find them is http://illinois.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=23e8046edd2940bc8ad3ad1725e47cd0. BEIRUT - An Israeli airstrike in central Syria killed nine fighters, including six who were not Syrians and some who were loyal to the militant Hezbollah group, an opposition war monitor said Tuesday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave no nationalities for the foreigners who were killed on a military post in the desert near the historic central town of Palmyra. It said the dead included some fighters loyal to Lebanons Hezbollah group. Israel says it has been behind a series of airstrikes mainly targeting Iranian and Hezbollah forces in Syria that have joined the countrys war fighting alongside the government. It rarely confirms the attacks and did not comment on Mondays airstrike. Syrian state TV reported the countrys air defences shot down several missiles launched by Israeli warplanes Monday night. The station gave no further details about the attack, the latest of several to hit central Syria in the past three weeks. The Observatory said late Monday the Israeli strikes targeted Iranian and Iran-backed fighters in the desert near Palmyra. It added that Israeli warplanes were also flying over neighbouring Lebanon. The strikes came hours after Irans Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif was in the Syrian capital Damascus, where he met with Assad and his Syrian counterpart. Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times. Covid-19 cases doubling in 7.5 days now: Govt The number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in India is doubling every 7.5 days (based on analysis till April 19), with that in 18 states doubling even slower, the health ministry said in a briefing on Monday. Read more After 50 journalists test positive for Covid-19 in Mumbai, I&B Ministry to issue advisory After more than 50 journalists were found coronavirus positive in Mumbai, Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said precautions must be taken by all and his ministry would issue an advisory in this regard. Read more Police have to be a part of Covid-19 containment strategy, says expert As India grapples with the Covid-19 crisis, the government has categorised areas based on the spread of the disease. There are hotspots, which have been turned into containment zones, where no movement in allowed. Read more Govt considers demand by media The Information and Broadcasting ministry has agreed to radio operators making deferred payments of their license fee and referred to the finance ministry, demands of the print media industry for a reduction of customs duty on newsprint. Read more New York nurses sue state, 2 hospitals over inadequate coronavirus protection The New York State Nurses Association sued the state and two hospitals on Monday to force them to provide safety equipment and adopt measures to prevent COVID-19 from spreading among its members, highlighting the growing disputes over workplace safety during the coronavirus pandemic. Read more The bouncer barrage: Ishant Sharma reveals chat with MS Dhoni during 2014 Lords Test In 2014 India visited England for a five-match Test series looking to make amends for a disastrous tour in 2011 which saw MS Dhonis team get whitewashed 0-4 and lose its top billing in ICCs Test ranking to the Three Lions. Read more Clapping for health workers to fixing sleep schedules: Heres what people are searching for on Google People around the world are searching for various things as they stay locked in due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Google has highlighted some Search trends which people are searching for the most this week. Read more Henry Miller, Jodi Picoult, Kurt Vonnegut: Notable writers on writing, discipline and their daily routine The global pandemic that is upon has raised some serious questions around survival, existence, hope and inspiration as far as our day-to-day lives are concerned. Many among us are feeling challenged in terms of productivity, motivation, inspiration and hope. Read more Watch| Nothing hidden from USA: WHO amid war of words with Donald Trump on Covid-19 Protecting personal information Local official criticizes effort (TNS) Michigan is seeking to pinpoint who might be infected with coronavirus by following physical interactions in a technique called contact tracing. It calls folks one by one to let them know they might have been exposed.To help, the Department of Health and Human Services and local municipalities have enlisting hundreds of volunteers, "medical professionals and everyday Michiganders," to make the calls and help identify patterns and hotspots.But the state also has been running into a problem and some criticism.Many of the people the contact-tracers are trying to reach simply aren't answering calls because they are from unfamiliar numbers. Moreover, at least one local politician is calling the effort a big-data political ploy to collect personal information."I know a lot of you don't answer the phone when you see an unknown caller reaching in, but I implore you to answer the call if it comes," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Monday during her daily coronavirus briefing. "It could be a volunteer to tell you you've come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19."Part of what the state is up against is a proliferation of COVID-19 scams.Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigans chief medical officer, added that in the past few weeks 130 department of health workers have contacted 12,000 people who may have been infected. In addition, the state has trained 2,200 volunteers for this effort.Still, the World Health Organization has said contact tracing is crucial because "people in close contact with someone who is infected with a virus," are "at higher risk of becoming infected themselves, and of potentially further infecting others."Other states also have turned to contact tracing, some as part of their plan to re-open the economy, and tech companies said social media also may help.Massachusetts, for instance, has been identified as one of the first states to make a substantial investment in a contact-tracing program, budgeting millions and hiring 1,000 people as it aims to relax some social distancing limitations.While, Massachusetts has a smaller population than Michigan, about 7 million compared with 10 million, respectively, it now has about 6,700 more coronavirus cases than Michigan.On the West Coast, San Francisco is attempting to trace COVID-19 cases, news outlets reported earlier this month.To keep each person's information private and to provide residents with the information they need, state officials have said: "It is important for health department staff to speak directly with impacted Michiganders."The calls may be from various area codes, including 517.Lisa Lee, associate vice president for research and innovation at Virginia Tech, said that until a vaccine is developed, health authorities "have little choice but to use this old-fashioned, but highly effective public health practice."If done well," she said, "contact tracing is extremely effective in preventing the secondary spread of infectious conditions."She said that controlling the spread of the virus outweighed privacy issues, but data collection should be managed by a public health authority and only used for the public health purpose for which it was collected.On top of phone calls, tech companies also are seeking other ways to track interactions through social media.Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke on "Good Morning America" about efforts to join with Carnegie Mellon University researchers and using billions of Facebook users to track the pandemic.Zuckerberg said Facebook wants to "produce an interactive map based on the aggregate data that provides a daily updated county by county map of this, of the symptoms that people are experiencing, across the country."But one local official is accusing the state of politicizing the contact-tracing effort and raising privacy concerns.Livingston County Commissioner Wes Nakagiri, who represents Hartland and Tyrone townships, said the state's contact tracing efforts collects "confidential personal medical information of Michigan citizens and shares it with Democrat candidates."Nakagiri, a Tea Party activist who unsuccessfully sought to be the Republican party's nominee for lieutenant governor in 2014, said in a Monday interview with the Free Press he volunteered to do contact tracing because he "wanted to help."Yet, in a note on his website , he has called it a scheme and an "insidiously clever and deceitful way to take political advantage of the biggest public health crisis of our lifetimes."His conclusion was based on his claim that "according to training documents, confidential medical information gained from contact tracing is entered into the NGP VAN database." He gave detailed accounts of what he said he saw as a volunteer.NPG VAN is a privately-owned technology provider to Democratic and progressive campaigns and organizations that boasts on its website of helping to elect President Barack Obama and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.The organization's unusual name comes from the combination of two groups, NGP Software, which was founded by Nathaniel Goss Pearlman, and the Voter Activation Network.Radio station WHMI-FM (93-5) in Howell, reported that a state health department spokesman said that NGP VAN "was among those being considered for the task, but it was his understanding that the firm is no longer under consideration."In a follow-up website post , Nakagiri pointed to the WHMI report and said Whitmer denies plans "to share confidential health info," adding "the state can deny it all it wants" but people can decide for themselves what is happening.Late Monday, the state said the health department is contracting with Great Lakes Community Engagement, a firm that specializes in outreach campaigns, and Every Action VAN , which has overlapping top leadership with NGP VAN , "to provide software to help organize remote phone banking and track information and contacts." Researchers in France have reported findings resulting from a web-based survey called Vaccinoscopie 2019 that asked 1,500 parents across five European countries how they feel about and what they know about vaccination. The proportion of parents who were positive about the idea of mandatory child vaccination varied between countries. The proportion who felt less well-informed about vaccination also varied by country, with parents in France feeling the least well-informed. Image Credit: didesign021 / Shutterstock Vaccination coverage has fallen Over recent years, vaccination coverage in Europe has fallen to a sub-optimal level, which has led to the resurgence of diseases such as measles and epidemics that would otherwise have been preventable by vaccines. The main explanation for the reduced vaccination coverage is parents' hesitancy over having their child/children vaccinated. Since Andrew Wakefield's now-discredited 1998 paper making the unsupported claim that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine was linked to autism, parents across the globe became increasingly worried about vaccination. This led to to the emergence of the "anti-vax" movement, with the opinions of people who refused to be vaccinated or have their children vaccinated being echoed and amplified by social media. Last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed "vaccine hesitancy" as one of the top ten threats to people's health worldwide. People in the vaccine hesitancy group are less determined in their attitudes than anti-vaxxers leaning more towards indecisiveness and questioning rather than a complete objection. This group is, therefore, much more difficult to pinpoint, with them tending not to voice their opinions on social media and prefer to keep their thoughts to themselves due to fear of criticism. However, they represent an extremely worrying group to medical and healthcare professionals. Last year, the Wellcome Global Monitor survey assessing 2018 data found that one in three people in France thought that vaccines are unsafe. Only half of the people living in Ukraine trusted vaccination, and in both countries, there have been outbreaks of measles recently. In the UK, the proportion of children receiving both MMR jabs by the age of five had dropped for the fourth year in a row, and in June 2018, Public Health England announced that the prevalence of measles had increased by almost four times, compared with 2017. The Vaccinoscopie 2019 survey Now, Alain Martinot from Lille Hospital in France and colleagues have compared parents' opinions about vaccines across five European countries, namely France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and United-Kingdom. The Vaccinoscopie survey was filled out by 1,500 people 300 from each country who were parents to infants aged between 0 years and 35 months. For each country, 100 of the parents had babies aged 0-11 months, 100 had babies aged12-23 months, and 100 had infants aged 24-35 months. The study findings The proportion of parents who felt positive about vaccination ranged between countries, from as low as 73% in France to 94% in Spain, although the figure for Spain is still below the 95% that the WHO says is needed for sufficient protection of the population. In the UK and Germany, 3% of the study population objected to all vaccines, while the proportion of opponents in other countries was less than 1%. Across all countries, more than 90% were positive about the idea of mandatory vaccines against at least some diseases, although Germany and the UK had the most significant proportion of resistant individuals. Regarding vaccination knowledge, parents in France felt they were the least well informed (only 77% felt well-informed), compared with parents in the other four countries (90 to 94% felt well-informed). Furthermore, only 58% of parents in France had consulted the internet for information, compared with 70 to 81% in other countries. The trust in health authorities was also lowest in France, with only 68% rating their trust level at 7 to 10 out of 10, compared with 88% in other countries. The most common information source that decisions to vaccinate were based on was a GP or pediatrician consultation (ranged by country from 50% to 87%), followed by the internet (14% to 40%, depending on the countries' healthcare systems) and friends and family (9% to 30%.) The researchers conclude that parents approving of vaccination seemed to be associated with a better-perceived knowledge about vaccination. "If the health care vaccinator was the first source of information, the Internet was a valuable resource and friends and families might be influential," writes the team. Martinot and colleagues advise that in order to increase confidence in vaccination, local characteristics should be considered. "Evaluation should be harmonized at a European level, allowing to share public health best practices strategies," concludes the team. Imran Khan may be tested for the coronavirus or asked to go into isolation after a well-known philanthropist was tested positive for the COVID-19, days after meeting the Pakistan prime minister, his doctor said on Tuesday. Faisal Edhi, the son of late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi and chairman of the Edhi Foundation, met Khan last week. Khans personal physician and CEO of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, Faisal Sultan, told media that would meet Khan on Tuesday. I will meet him and recommend that he gets testedWe will follow all protocols in place and make recommendations accordingly, he said. The protocols recommend self-isolation for people who meet those tested positive for the coronavirus. Pakistan on Tuesday reported 16 more deaths from the coronavirus, taking the countrys toll to 192, while the number of confirmed spiked to over 9,000. It is not clear how Khan will run the government if he was asked to go into quarantine. Khan is currently working as per routine and also chaired a meeting of Cabinet. Earlier, Saad, the son of Faisal Edhi told the Dawn newspaper that his father started showing symptoms last week, soon after meeting Khan in Islamabad on April 15. The symptoms lasted for four days before subsiding, Saad said. He added that his father was currently in Islamabad and was doing better. He has not been admitted to any hospital and is self-isolating, he said. Faisal Edhi had met Prime Minister Khan to hand over a 10 million cheque for the premiers coronavirus relief fund. The Edhi Foundation was founded by the late Abdul Sattar Edhi and is the leading charity organisation in Pakistan. Members of the Borough Park community watch for U.S. Attorney William Barr as he leaves a meeting with Jewish leaders in January 2020. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan There's been an uptick in anti-Semitic incidents related to the coronavirus pandemic so far this year. On Monday, when releasing a report of anti-Semitic incidents from 2019, researchers at Tel Aviv University said they "cannot disregard the implications of the Coronavirus crisis during 2020." The global crisis has breathed new life into centuries-old rhetoric that blames Jews for the spread of disease and economic downturns. Rockland County, a coronavirus hotspot outside of New York City with a large Jewish population, has become a flashpoint. And Jewish organizations trying to congregate online have been targets of "zoombombing." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Every year, the Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University publishes a report on the state of anti-Semitic incidents around the world. When releasing its 2019 data on Monday which noted an 18% surge in incidents last year researchers also said they're already seeing an increase in anti-Semitism this year related to the coronavirus pandemic. "Although this report deals with antisemitism in 2019, we cannot disregard the implications of the Coronavirus crisis during 2020," Professor Dina Porat wrote in the report's executive summary. "It has inspired antisemitic expressions that we must address." Porat wrote that, in the first few months of 2020, there has been a rise in anti-Semitic expressions and "Jew-hatred," mainly originating from activists on the extreme right. The hateful rhetoric mimics age-old anti-Semitic conspiracy theories blaming Jewish people for economic unrest and global disasters, the report says. An example of that bubbled up in the United States as recently as Saturday. In an echo of Nazi propaganda, protesters at an Ohio rally held signs depicting a rat donning a Star of David and yarmulke that read "the real plague." Story continues The actions of the protesters drew disgust from people on Twitter, including local Democratic State Rep. Casey Weinstein. Rep. Casey Weinstein (@RepWeinstein) April 19, 2020 A Jewish community in New York has been the target of anti-Semitic attacks online Similar hateful rhetoric has bubbled up in social media posts from residents of a New York City suburb, prompting a response from The Anti-Defamation League. Rockland County, which has a population of more than 325,000 residents, has been a hotspot for coronavirus cases in New York. The county is about 30 miles from New York City, the global epicenter of the crisis, and is also home to a large community of Orthodox Jews. In Facebook groups and other social media platforms, some residents have attributed the high number of coronavirus cases to a failure of social distancing among the religious community. Members of the Jewish community walk amid vandalized tombs in the Jewish cemetery of Westhoffen, west of the city of Strasbourg, eastern France, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019. AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias In 2019, when the Rockland County Republican Party producing a campaign advertisement widely criticized as anti-Semitic, Ed Day, the county's Republican executive, called for its withdrawal, criticizing its tone but saying that its contents were "well-grounded." Day has now called for a containment zone around Spring Valley and Monsey, which are towns where a large number of Orthodox Jewish residents live. And on his Facebook page, Day had thanked police for breaking up a gathering of Orthodox residents at synagogue during Passover. In response, residents who blamed the high number of coronavirus cases to a failure of social distancing among the religious community posted hateful messages on Day's Facebook page. According to the Forward, some even called for patches with the letter "C" be sewn onto those infected with the virus. Eventually, the comments on got so bad that Day himself called it out and urged people who spotted the hateful rhetoric to contact the county's Human Right Commission, he told The Forward. "The language was getting to a point where it was starting to harken back to a time in our history, in the 30s in Europe, that nobody really has to be reminded of, obviously," Day told the outlet. "I made a comment at the top of the page that said, this is not something you need to be doing. And it stopped." "If I was truly anti-Semitic, I think probably one of the most anti-Semitic acts I could commit would be to let Jewish people get sick and die," he continued. Day didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. He told Forward that the containment zone idea was "based upon logic, science, reality" and not anti-Semitism. Surrounded primarily by family, David Neumann, center, wipes his eyes as he speaks to reporters in New City, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020, about his father, Josef Neumann, who was critically injured in an attack on a Hanukkah celebration. AP Photo/Seth Wenig Still, the cultural tension has sparked fear and uncertainty in a community that has seen a surge in violence in recent months. In December, a man broke into a Hanukkah dinner hosted at a Hasidic rabbi's Monsey home and stabbed five guests. A 72-year-old man died from his injuries in March. The month prior, a 30-year-old Orthodox Jewish man was stabbed several times on his way to morning prayers. "All of us in Rockland County residents, community leaders, and elected officials are facing this public health crisis together," Evan R. Bernstein, vice president of the ADL's Northeast Division, told The Yeshiva World, a news organization that serves Jewish communities. "The scapegoating and finger-pointing that we have seen in recent days, coupled with a surge in antisemitism online, serves no purpose other than to distract and divide us. Now is the time for unity, not for placing blame." The attacks recirculate old tropes and take advantage of new technologies The Kantor Center study notes that Jewish hatred during times of crisis is not new and that the kind of language used has relied heavily on centuries-old canards. For example, some have baselessly blamed Jews for poisoning water supplies and others have accused them of undermining the world economy "in order to facilitate their control over it," the study said. When there were coronavirus outbreaks at synagogues, some called it a punishment for the "rejection of Jesus Christ." The Anti-Semitism has resulted in a trend in cyber-attacks on Jewish institutions and groups trying to congregate online, the study said, with organizations being targeted by "zoombombing." Neighbors gather to show their support of the community near a rabbi's residence in Monsey, N.Y., Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019, following a stabbing Saturday night during a Hanukkah celebration. AP Photo/Craig Ruttle Earlier this month, for example, a group of 150 Yeshiva University students met virtually for a Passover event. During the Zoom conference call, a dozen or so people logged into the chat and started inundating it with hateful messaged and popular tropes among neo-Nazis. There were death threats, Holocaust references and references to "dirty Jews," one of the students told Huffpost. "Since the beginning of March 2020, there have been disturbing examples of Jews, Zionists and Israelis, as individuals and as a collective, being accused of causing and spreading the Coronavirus," the study said. "In the past, global and national calamities, natural disasters, plagues, tsunamis, earthquakes, as well as world wars and economic crises were followed by accusations against the Jews as their main perpetrators." Read the original article on Business Insider Nineteen Pro-Government Forces Killed In Afghan Attacks April 20, 2020 KABUL -- Afghan officials say 19 pro-government forces have been killed in Taliban attacks in the northern province of Takhar. The Taliban militants attacked local forces operating under the command of the Afghan National Army in Khwaja Ghar district from several directions overnight, district chief Mohammad Omar said on April 20. Omar said the fighting continued until early in the morning. The Defense Ministry said the attacks had been repulsed and that the Taliban had suffered casualties. The Taliban did not immediately comment on the assaults. Fighting has continued across Afghanistan after the Taliban inked a deal with the United States in Doha, Qatar, in late February. The agreement was intended to pave the way for prisoner exchanges between the militant group and the government in Kabul -- which have already begun -- and potential peace talks among Afghans. With reporting by dpa Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/nineteen-pro- government-forces-killed-in-afghan- attacks-/30566369.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 Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Bahrain see rising executions while Asia-Pacific region records lowest numbers since 2011. Saudi Arabia executed a record 184 people last year, according to Amnesty International, which said it was the highest number the rights organisation has ever recorded in a single year in the country. In its 2019 global review of the death penalty published on Tuesday, Amnesty reported Saudi Arabia stepped up its use of the death penalty even as the rest of the world saw a decline in executions, including in the Asia-Pacific region. Saudi Arabia executed 178 men and six women in 2019, just over half of whom were foreign nationals. The figure was 149 in 2018. The majority of executions were for drug-related offences and murder. Saudi Arabias growing use of the death penalty, including as a weapon against political dissidents, is an alarming development, Clare Algar, Amnesty Internationals Senior Director for Research, Advocacy and Policy, said. Only 20 countries are responsible for all known executions worldwide. Iran remained the worlds second-most prolific executioner after China, where the exact number of people put to death remains a state secret. The number of executions nearly doubled in Iraq, the report added. Global executions decreased for the fourth consecutive year to at least 657 in 2019 from at least 690 during the previous year the lowest recorded figure of the past decade. The top five executing countries in 2019 were: China (1000s), Iran (at least 251), Saudi Arabia (184), Iraq (at least 100) and Egypt (at least 32). Political weapon Amnesty International also documented the increased use of the death penalty against those from Saudi Arabias Shia Muslim minority. On April 23, 2019, there was a mass execution of 37 people of whom 32 were Shia men convicted on terrorism charges following trials that relied on false confessions extracted through torture, it said. Individuals are brought before Saudi Arabias Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), which was set up in 2008 to try those accused of terror-related crimes but is increasingly used to suppress dissent, according to Amnesty. In Iraq, the number of people executed almost doubled from at least 52 in 2018 to at least 100 in 2019, mostly due to the executions of individuals accused of being members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS). In South Sudan, authorities executed at least 11 people in 2019, the highest number recorded since the countrys independence in 2011. Bahrain also resumed executions after a one-year hiatus, putting three people to death during the year. For the first time since 2010, no executions were carried out in Afghanistan. Decline in Asia-Pacific region The Asia-Pacific region also saw a decline for the first time since 2011, with pause in executions reported in Thailand as well as Taiwan. In Singapore executions saw a sharp drop from 13 executions in 2018, to 4 in 2019, bringing its yearly total level in line with average figures of previous years. The death penalty is an abhorrent and inhuman punishment and there is no credible evidence that it deters crime more than prison terms, Algar of Amnesty said. A large majority of countries recognise this and its encouraging to see that executions continue to fall worldwide. In Malaysia, the country continues to observe the official moratorium on executions established by the previous Pakatan Harapan coalition government since July 2018. The new government of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, which came to power in March 2020, has not yet stated whether it would go ahead with the previous governments pledge to repeal the capital punishment. The countrys parliament is expected to reconvene under the new government on May 18. The enemy used proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars. The number of attacks by Russia's hybrid military forces on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, rose to 13 on April 20 with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action and another four as wounded in action. "On April 20, armed formations of the Russian Federation attacked the Joint Forces 13 times, blatantly violating the ceasefire commitments," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation Headquarters said in an update posted on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on April 21. "Unfortunately, as a result of enemy shelling on April 20, Ukraine lost one brave defender, three more soldiers were wounded and another one sustained combat-related injuries." Read alsoOne Ukrainian soldier killed, another two wounded in Donbas on April 20 The enemy opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, and small arms. Under attack were Ukrainian positions near the towns of Avdiyivka and Maryinka, and the villages of Taramchuk, Opytne, Pisky, Hnutove, Kamianka, Shumy, Novo-Oleksandrivka, and Krymske. According to intelligence data, one member of the enemy forces was killed and another three were wounded on April 20. The enemy did not attack Ukrainian positions from 00:00 to 07:00 Kyiv time on April 21. No casualties were reported among Ukrainian troops on Tuesday. Harvard University, which has an endowment of around $40 billion, received flack from U.S. public officials this week after accepting millions of dollars in relief funds from the federal coronavirus stimulus package. The $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which was signed into law on March 27, created a $30.7 billion Education Stabilization Fund." Nearly half of the money from the fund was dedicated to public and private higher colleges and universities. Of the roughly $14 billion set aside for higher education institutions, around $8.6 million is going to Harvard. All of the funds were expected to be given to students at the Cambridge school for assistance during the COVID-19 public health crisis, a university spokesperson told MassLive. By federal formula laid out in the CARES Act, Harvard was allocated $8.6 million, with 50% of those funds to be reserved for grants to students, the spokesperson said. Harvard is actually allocating 100% of the funds to financial assistance for students to meet their urgent needs in the face of this pandemic." The university added that Harvard will allocate the funds based on students financial needs. This financial assistance will be on top of support the school has already provided to students, including assistance with travel, living expenses and transitioning to online learning. Some lawmakers - including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, an alumnus of Harvard Law School - criticized the school for accepting the money due to the universitys already sizable endowment, which was reportedly $40.9 billion in 2019. Critics urged the school to return the funds. Thank you for my law degree and an excellent legal education. Youre very rich; many people are hurting. Now give the money back, Cruz tweeted. Other Republican lawmakers took to social media to express their anger, including Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and Sen. Josh Hawley of Minnesota. Brendan Carr, commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, tweeted that giving millions of dollars in aid to Harvard while small businesses go bankrupt amidst the pandemic is an embarrassment and a failure. Sending millions of taxpayer dollars to Harvardwhich has a $40+ Billion endowmentand to the Kennedy Center, while small businesses go bankrupt, is an embarrassment and a failure. They should immediately donate those dollars to businesses that wont otherwise make it. https://t.co/SasTMh9e3H Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) April 20, 2020 In a statement, Harvard University President Larry Bacow noted the school is not exempt from the financial consequences of the outbreak. He added that the universitys major sources of revenue - including tuition, its endowment, philanthropy and research support - are threatened. Bacow announced earlier this month that Harvard would be immediately freezing salaries for all exempt employees and instituting a hiring freeze to align its spending with its revenue decrease. The school was also expected to cancel or defer discretionary spending and review which capital project to suspend. Some of you may be wondering why we cant just dip into the endowment to support us through these difficult times, Bacow said. "We do intend to distribute as much from the endowment as we responsibly can, but there are limitations to the endowments capacity. Because of the recent declines in the markets, the endowment, while still large, is not as large as it was previously. In total, $270 million from the Education Stabilization Fund was set aside for higher education institutions in the commonwealth, with the University of Massachusetts Amherst seeing the most amount in the state at $18.3 million. More than $22 million was expected to go to five state colleges in Worcester, Middlesex and Essex counties. Boston University, another private school with a multibillion-dollar endowment, is expected to get $15 million from the CARES Act. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose endowment stood at $17.4 billion in 2019, is getting $2.5 million in federal funds. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education told the Lowell Sun that Secretary Betsy DeVos is concerned that sending millions of dollars to colleges and universities with large endowments "is a poor use of taxpayer money. DeVos, in a letter to presidents of higher education institutions, asked them to determine whether the schools actually need the money. If they do not, she urged them to send the aid to schools in need in their state or region, according to the Suns report. Related Content: The poorest countries in the world face food insecurity and malnutrition due to the coronavirus pandemic, a drop in foreign exchange earnings, export restrictions and the breakdown of supply chains, a senior World Bank official said on Tuesday. Mari Pangestu, the World Bank's managing director for development policy, underscored the need for global cooperation to avert food crises in the most vulnerable countries in remarks to an online meeting of agriculture ministers from the Group of 20 major economies. "Refrain from imposing export restrictions and avoid unnecessary import barriers and build up of stocks," she said, adding that global grain production and stocks were at near all-time highs, making restrictions unnecessary. Pangestu told the ministers that concerted national actions, international cooperation and additional funding to shore up agricultural production could limit the risks of food insecurity and malnutrition. "The G20 accounts for a large share of food trade and hence its actions will have significant global impact," she said, urging G20 countries to ensure that supply chains for food continue to flow and to prioritize food and food-supply logistics as essential. 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 Food security emerged as a growing concern during last week's virtual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund with finance ministers from around the world. In addition to the pandemic, which has triggered the deepest recession since the 1930s, the worst locust plague in decades is decimating millions of hectares of crops as it spreads across Africa, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Locust swarms have infested 23 countries, according to World Bank data. They have torn through large swathes of food crops in the Horn of Africa, where more than 24 million people are already "food insecure" and 12 million people are internally displaced, the Bank said in a recent blog posting. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations estimates that 821 million people, or nearly 11 percent of the world population, are undernourished, the highest rate since 2011. Pangestu said the Bank, which is making $160 billion available to respond to the pandemic over the next 15 months, is working closely with countries and international partners to monitor food supplies, and how the loss of income is impacting people's ability to buy food. She said it was critical to leverage community-based groups to distribute food, and implement social protection programs for the world's poorest. Digital technologies could also help monitor harvest conditions and link producers with consumers. Up to 80 percent of the workforce in some of the poorest countries are both producers and net consumers in the agricultural and food sectors, she said, underscoring the need to make food supply a priority. "Let's not repeat what happened in 2008 when trade restrictions amplified world food price spikes and caused 130-155 million more people to fall below the poverty line, especially in the most vulnerable countries," Pangestu said. G20 agriculture and food ministers agreed at a virtual meeting on Tuesday that emergency measures to contain the spread of the pandemic must not create "unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption to global food supply chains." Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here ABC News Former President Donald Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry and the estate of his late brother Robert Trump tried on Tuesday to convince a New York judge to dismiss a lawsuit by Mary Trump that accused her family of swindling her out of at least $10 million. Attorneys for the Trump siblings argued Mary Trump's claims are time-barred by a six-year statute of limitations and prohibited by legal releases she signed in 2001 when the family settled the estate of Fred Trump Sr., the former president's father. The Trumps also argued Mary Trump possessed "boxes and boxes of information" about the estate settlement that should have given rise to any claims at the time. Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol, center, poses with new monetary board members at the central bank's headquarters in Seoul, Tuesday. They are, from left: Suh Young-kyung, former head of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Sustainable Growth Initiative; Konkuk University professor Joo Sang-yeong; Lee; Cho Yoon-jet, a former South Korean ambassador to the U.S.; and Koh Seung-beom, who had his term as a member of the monetary policy board extended for another four years. The board members said at their inauguration ceremony that they felt a deep sense of responsibility in joining the board at a time of economic uncertainty induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Courtesy of Bank of Korea >>> Vietnam shares experiences in COVID-19 fight at G20 health ministers meeting >>> Vietnam reports no new COVID-19 cases for three consecutive days >>> Vietnam discharges three more Covid-19 patients, total recovery at 201 According to a report from the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, since the announcement of the latest case in Ha Giang Province on the morning of April 16, over the past four days the total number of COVID-19 in the country has remained at 268, of which, 160 entered Vietnam from abroad, accounting for 59.7%, while 108 were infected in the community, accounting for 40.3%. Yesterday, two more patients were declared to have recovered (Patients 156 and 241, who were treated at Bac Lieu Province General Hospital). The duo will continue to be self-isolated and monitored for the next 14 days. Meanwhile, all three critically ill patients have improved. So far, Vietnam has had 202 recoveries, accounting for 75% of the total number of cases, and suffered no deaths. The nation is one of only three countries in the world with more than 200 COVID-19 infection cases but no deaths. Among the patients still under treatment in Vietnam, 13 have tested negative once and seven have tested negative twice. A total of 62,998 people are under quarantine or health monitoring. Vietnamese-Cambodian people assisted during COVID-19 On April 19, nearly 150 emergency relief gifts were distributed to Vietnamese-Cambodian people in Phnom Penh. These included bags of rice, noodles and masks donated by Vietnamese businesses and benefactors to Vietnamese compatriots who are in difficult circumstances due to the impact of COVID-19. Vietnamese-Cambodian people in Phnom Penh receiving relief to help ease difficulties during COVID-19 prevalence. (Photo: Nhan Dan Newspaper correspondents in Cambodia) The Vietnam Business Club in Cambodia (VBCC) said that it had plans to help Vietnamese-Cambodian people before and after the epidemic, including through encouraging Vietnamese families to send their children to schools and creating favourable conditions for them to have jobs at VBCC member units to help them with long term livelihood. Previously, from April 13 to 18, the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia, in collaboration with VBCC and the Khmer-Vietnam Association, organised a vast relief programme in multiple Cambodian provinces and cities, helping thousands of Vietnamese and Khmer families amid the epidemic. The activities, with support from the home country and Vietnamese businesses in Cambodia, will continue until the end of the epidemic. On the morning of April 19, the Cambodian Ministry of Health announced that two more COVID-19 patients recovered, including a 34-year-old Vietnamese woman. After several days with no new infections detected and no deaths, 105/122 positive cases have been declared recovered by the Cambodian health sector. Russian media hails Vietnams anti- COVID-19 efforts On April 19, the Russian newspaper Rusvesna published an article entitled "Vietnam Miracle", praising the encouraging achievements in the battle against COVID-19 by the Vietnamese government and people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam. With a population of about 100 million people, a high population density and a shared border with China - the first epicentre of the global epidemic - only 260 cases of coronavirus infection have been registered in Vietnam so far, including about 200 recoveries, the article stated. The article by Rusvesna. The author of the paper also highly appreciated the control of the epidemic situation in Vietnam, saying that people from areas of the epidemic were checked, timely quarantine measures were organised, infections were detected at an early stage, and dozens of patients with COVID-19 were successfully treated. Thanks to experience in combating SARS in 2003 or H5N1 in 2004, Vietnam effectively coped with the crisis and the country managed not to become a hot spot for COVID-19. As a result, all Vietnamese support the Governments measures in the prevention of COVID-19, the article wrote. In addition to the fight against the epidemic, economic support measures from the government were announced by the government in early March to support the country's economy in the amount of US$1.2 billion, which should help Vietnam to remain one of the fastest growing economies in the region, according to the author. Despite the fact that last year's economic growth rate of 7% cannot be maintained, development will also be very significant, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicts. According to ADB experts, Vietnams GDP will grow by 4.8% this year, so Vietnam will retain its position as one of the locomotives of regional economic development. If it is possible to cope with the epidemic of coronavirus on a global scale, then next years GDP growth will return to the targeted 6.8% and will maintain its high pace in the medium and long term, the article concluded. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 23:52:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KIGALI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan biomedical engineers have developed a ventilator following the COVID-19 outbreak, which is the first locally made ventilator in the central African country. "We have produced the prototype of respiratory ventilators and we have conducted tests to confirm if it is functional. The machine is working well," Costica Uwitonze, one of the developers, confirmed with Xinhua on Tuesday. The prototype, developed by biomedical engineers from Integrated Polytechnic Regional Center (IPRC), was revealed to media on Monday during a test to check its functionality of supplying oxygen in lungs. Several technical tests on the machine had been made, using the lung simulator and gas flow analyser, Uwitonze said in a telephone interview, adding that the results of tests meet international standard. The developers came up with the idea of producing locally made ventilators following the reported breathing complications caused by COVID-19 in areas where the virus has killed people due to lack of ventilators, he said. He said they are looking forward to producing more locally made ventilators that are affordable to Rwandans and would be used to aid in breathing difficulties among COVID-19 patients and other ill patients who are physically unable to breathe on their own, once it is approved by the ministry of health. Sabin Nsanzimana, Director General of Rwanda Biomedical center, told Xinhua that it is the first locally made ventilator. "The production of local ventilators is just amazing and we must all support these young scientists to make it and invent more," he said in a written message. According to him, Rwanda doesn't have enough ventilators as it prepares for "all scenarios." Although Rwanda has needed medical supplies, it needs and continues to upgrade its stock as the situation evolves, he said. The developers said the locally made ventilators will be available at a much lower price compared to imported ones. Their supervisor, professor Stephen Rulisa from School of Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Rwanda, told Xinhua that the prototype works well and it is "really encouraging to see that our young engineers can produce something smart like this." The Rwandan health ministry on Monday evening said the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the central African country remained at 147, while the number of recoveries rose to 80. Enditem Dickinson College Farm is working hard to make sure the food it grows is not lost during the coronavirus pandemic. Jenn Halpin, director of the farm, said the farm creates a crop plan thats based on what can be used in the dining hall. That results in a harvest heavily tilted toward fall crops that will be available when the college is back in session. We do grow in the summer for the dining hall, but have learned over the years that the two camps of youth that come to Carlisle to use Dickinsons facilities arent big fans of vegetables, she said. As of Monday, no decision had been made as to whether the camps would be held at Dickinson this summer. The dining hall is one of three main outlets for the farms bounty. The farm also sells fresh vegetables alongside its brick oven pizza at Farmers On The Square each week and provides fresh vegetables to about 135 families in the Dickinson College community through its Campus Supported Agriculture program. Even so, the farm has built connections over the years that will make sure that any surplus it has goes to those in need. Typically in late summer when the harvest is coming in, workers at Dickinson College Farm will harvest and deliver food to Project SHARE. On rare occasions, the harvest time at the farm coincides with the gleaning schedule for Project SHARE, which brings volunteers out to the farm to pick produce to give to the food banks clients. The farm also works with the South Central Gleaning Project, which sends a volunteer to pick up donations, Halpin said. The farm doesnt have a lot of inventory now because its not yet into the production season. Still, when it heard Project SHARE was having trouble finding produce, it donated 400 pounds of cabbage. That kind of wiped out our bulk surplus, Halpin said. Last year, the farm donated just under 6,000 pounds of fresh produce to Project SHARE and around 1,700 pounds to the South Central Gleaning Project. Right now, the farm is working with a skeleton crew, Halpin said, but it has received permission to go ahead with summer staffing. That will bring five students back to Carlisle to work full time. Four apprentices will arrive in mid-May. Email Tammie at tgitt@cumberlink.com. Follow her on Twitter @TammieGitt. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Tue, April 21 2020 No one knows when this pandemic will end. Informed estimates point to a range spanning from several months to a year, even two. This projection includes the period when vaccines become available. When this storm passes, we will need to be ready to pick up the pieces of an economy despite the painful experiences of watching it grind to a virtual halt and a buckling health system. We must also be ready amid the grief, anger and frustration of people who have lost loved ones, their livelihoods and their sense of security, and the millions who are looking at being furloughed indefinitely if they havent been laid off already despite promises of government aid. Enter the proponents of the government-backed job creation omnibus bill, which has been controversial from the outset. The broad bill primarily aims to remove the barriers to the investment Indonesia sorely needs, such as the bureaucratic licensing procedures. It also eases requirements for layoffs and severance and relaxes environmental requirements for projects that are deemed low-risk. 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 TROY Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has begun notifying 280 employees they will be furloughed effective May 1 through July 31, according to an internal email shared with the Times Union. Employees will be eligible for unemployment and will be able to keep their benefits, but the benefits will be deducted from future checks once they return to work. Curtis Powell, vice president of human resources at RPI, wrote in an email to students and staff that the decision was a financial one, not a reflection of furloughed employees' skill or job performance. Latest coronavirus-related cancellations, postponements The latest coronavirus numbers in NY Sign up for the Times Union coronavirus newsletter Full coronavirus coverage "Many organizations in the United States, and throughout the world, continue to struggle with financial challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Rensselaer is no exception," Powell said. "As a result, the Institute has made the difficult decision to furlough a portion of our workforce whose duties and responsibilities cannot be performed remotely, or where the normal workload has diminished significantly due to the impact of COVID-19." While the campus has transitioned to a distance learning model, 237 students, primarily from other countries, remain on the campus. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The Troy college is among several in the region facing millions of dollars in revenue loss associated with room-and-board credits issued to students who went home for the semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The school, which serves nearly 8,000 students, stands to gain $4.8 million in relief aid from the federal CARES Act. Other private colleges in the Capital Region are facing similar budget uncertainty as they issue millions of dollars in room-and-board credits and refunds to college students. The first wave of federal stimulus funds is only expected to cover a fraction of the losses. The College of Saint Rose, in Albany, last week announced furloughs and temporary pay cuts to address a budget deficit widened by the coronavirus epidemic. Federal CARES Act relief funds are only expected to cover half of $3.1 million in losses associated with room-and-board reimbursements. Schenectady's Union College has furloughed 274 employees to address a $7 million immediate financial shortfall caused by the cancellation of on-campus instruction during the health crisis. Rajesh Kumar Thakur By Express News Service PATNA: Bihar is fighting against the outbreak of COVID-19 on war-footing said state health minister Mangal Pandey adding that it "would be the winner by annihilating the viruses of COVID-19". Claiming that the door-to-door screening started across the state from April 16 has more focus in the four worst coronavirus-hit districts, Pandey said, "More than 1,84,05712 people living in 33,86,685 houses have been screened till April 19 from April 16 by a team of 15,462 health workers, which is first of its kind mega drive ever taken at a time in the country". On being asked, Pandey said that there is no such dearth of medical workers with PPE kits and other items, which can either slow down the testings of COVID-19 pandemic in the state. He said that the state health department has implemented three-ways of screening amid the lockdown from individual to community levels. ALSO READ| No relaxation at all, lockdown to remain imposed till May 3: Bihar DGP "The department of health is expediting sample testings and in order to provide door-to-door screening and screening of more people, the capacity of sample testing has been increased in RMRI. Another RTPCR machine has been installed at RMRI with an enhanced capacity of 700 to 800 samples testing per day," Pande said. At six centres in the state, samples testing facilities have started from Patna to Muzaffarpur, and Darbhanga. "The manner in which people have followed the lockdown and shown their will and collective efforts in the war against the COVID-19 by implementing social distancing, we can say that Bihar has won the war to a great extent," he said. When asked about the growing number of positive cases,the minister said categorically, Pandey said, "The situation in Bihar is quite good as compared to other states of the country. If the number of corona positive cases in the state has increased, then patients are also recovering in that proportion, which is better in India." Putting figures of testing kits, he said that Bihar is the third state after Maharashtra and Rajasthan which has got 6240 Rapid Test Kits from the side of government of India and another consignment is exoected to come soon. He also said that the state health society has also stated an online session of yoga for the people stuck in their homes during the lockdown at 8 am. On being asked how the state health department is geared up to tackle the outbreak of AES, he said, "Awareness drives are going on in full swing in Muzaffarpur and other adjoining districts ahead of feared-outbreak of AES like viral fever among the children. A special dedicated hospital ward of G plus five floors are near completion at SKMCH in Muzaffarpur". ALSO READ| COVID-19: Bihar's health workers, going on door-to-door screening, to be classified as 'Stars' This special pediatrics ward would be a capacity of 100 beds with all modern life saving medical facilities at the estimate cost of around Rs 70 crore. He said that the state government is prepared to provide better health care facilities at SKMCH for AES patients now as the hospital may start functioning by May 15. New Socially Distant Dating From Home Service Brings the Matchmaker to Your Living Room Speed Dating From Home Is the New Way to Find Your Perfect Match Whether social distancing lasts a few more weeks or a few more months, one thing is for certain: The digital dating world may never be the same. Sure, you can swipe to your heart's or other organ's content on one of the many dating apps out there, but that can lead to long, drawn out days of chit-chat with no meet-up to show for it. Fortunately, a new dating service called Dating From Home is hoping to change all of that in these strange quaran-times (and beyond). RELATED: A Guide to Dating and Finding Love During COVID-19 Times Instead of being swept up in the vicious cycle of swipe, chat, ghost and repeat, Dating From Home hopes to forge more meaningful connections without having to put in the extra time. Think of it as the perfect blend of speed dating and matchmaking, except it's all done from the comfort of your couch. "Swiping became a superficial game, matches weren't converting to actual dates and you couldn't actually sense what someone was like through surface-level banter over text," Dating From Home founder Sam Karshenboym tells AskMen. "On live video, you can get a much clearer sense for someone's energy and personality versus a meticulously curated two-dimensional profile." With Dating From Home, you can forget about aimlessly swiping with no clear connection in sight. Instead, your dates are handpicked by Karshenboym based on your compatibility and shared interests, and then he (and his pup Ollie) will act as your friendly date night hosts for the evening. The speed dating round kicks off as you're introduced to your date via video chat, with Karshenboym helping to sidestep any of the usual awkwardness that comes along with first-date jitters. After that, you'll be able to see if sparks fly and if it's a connection worth pursuing. Best of all, Dating From Home's service can assist you whether youre in pursuit of a monogamous relationship or just some new friends. Interested? Here's how you can get set up from home: Fill out this survey about yourself and your interests. Karshenboym will then get to work to find your potential matches and set up a virtual date. Log on and meet five people in a series of two-minute speed dates. If you like someone, let your host know via private message! If they like you back, Karshenboym will let you both know after the date so you can exchange contact info and start planning your second date. Dating From Home's first speed dating session was already a huge success! In the span of just 20-25 minutes, five men and five women met and, in the end, four happy connections were made. So, what do you have to lose? Even if you don't meet your perfect match, one of these sessions just takes a few minutes out of your day ... and that's a lot better than spending your precious time and money on a date just to realize it's not meant to be, right? You can find out more about how you can meet your match on the Dating From Home website, or head over to @dating.from.home on Instagram. The latter, in particular, is especially worth a peek for all the fun and highly relatable dating illustrations from cartoonist Jason Adam Katzenstein. Its no secret that the online dating world has been broken for quite some time now, so its refreshing to see a service like Dating From Home thats combining personal connection with a fresh and efficient twist for todays digital age. It's bound to be a trend that will outlast our current self-quarantining and social distancing measures because it's a service the dating world needed long before COVID-19. And whoever said efficiency isnt sexy clearly doesnt know what theyve been missing. You Might Also Dig: YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. Pop star Lilit Hovhannisyan has returned to Armenia after being stranded in Brazil when the coronavirus pandemic hit during her world tour. When the plane took off and headed to Armenia, it was as if I was feeling the greatest joy that Ben Affleck felt at the end of Argo movie, she said on social media, referring to 2012 historic drama films final part where Afflecks character Tony Mendez is seen rejoicing after finally getting airborne. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan New Delhi, April 21 : While facial masks and hand sanitisers are mandatory as a preventive measure against the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, eye care specialists in India have stressed that as the virus can transmit through the eyes too, people should avoid wearing contact lenses to curb its spread. The opthalmologists point out the need for wearing glasses and taking good care of the eyes to reduce the risk of the virus entering into the eyes. "One of the rare manifestations of COVID-19 is a pink eye or conjunctivitis. Sometimes, patients may not have a fever, cold, cough or any other symptom other than mild conjunctivitis. These patients can also experience loss of smell and loss of taste," Ikeda Lal, Opthalmologist at Delhi Eye Centre and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi, told IANS. The recent study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, claimed that of the 1,099 patients across 30 different Chinese hospitals, nine had "conjunctival congestion." Symptoms of conjunctivitis, also known as pink eyes, include redness, watering, irritation, pain, discharge and photophobia. Discharge from the infected eye can be a potential source of contamination, the experts said. "Although there are very few reports of COVID-19 conjunctivitis and that too only from China, one should be careful when one develops conjunctivitis during this COVID era and get oneself tested immediately," Rajesh Sinha, Professor of Opthalmology, All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, told IANS. According to Sinha, when a person touches an affected surface and then touches the eyes or the face, the virus can enter the body. With spectacles, one can prevent virus droplets from coming in contact with the eyes. "It is advisable to wear glasses when you step out of the house, and those who wear contact lenses should switch to glasses immediately, " he added. To stop the spread of the deadly virus, Dr Lal further said: "Eyecare during coronavirus pandemic is very important. Do not rub your eyes, avoid wearing contact lenses. Those who wear contact lenses have a tendency towards rubbing their eyes, which can allow the virus to get into the eyes. "Stay at home and avoid going out as much as possible. Sunglasses or prescription glasses can be worn while going out to protect our eyes," Lal added. "One should take frequent breaks in between the sessions with monitor which may be webinars, web series, news channels, movies or video chats, intentionally increase your blink rate, put some lubricating eye drops or keep your eyes moist even by splashing water into the eye," Sinha said. On Tuesday, coronavirus cases in India reached 18,601, with 14,759 active cases, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a morning update."A total of 3,252 patients have been cured and discharged, while the death toll stood at 590," the Ministry said. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Fashionistas have stripped the shelves at Big W of almost every size of a $20 jumper four days after it was worn by Jules Sebastian in an Instagram photo. The 40-year-old stylist shared a selfie rugged up in a ribbed mustard knit on Friday afternoon to promote 'QuaranTEA with Jules', a new Instagram live series where she chats with creatives and business owners about the challenges of COVID-19. She posted a story on Saturday revealing she nabbed the bargain at Big W while shopping for party supplies for her son Archer's sixth birthday after dozens of her 151,000 followers asked where she had bought it from. Jules has been sharing regular glimpses of her life in lockdown from the $3.1million Maroubra home she shares with husband Guy Sebastian and sons Hudson and Archer in Sydney's eastern suburbs. The remarkably affordable top has already sold out in extra-small, small and extra-large, but you can still get your hands on a medium or large from select stores in Sydney. Fashionistas have stripped the shelves at Big W of almost every size of this $20 jumper four days after it was worn by Jules Sebastian in an Instagram photo Scroll down for video Limited stock is still available in Ryde and Macquarie outlets in the north and Hurstville to the south of the city, according to Big W's website. The versatile jumper can be dressed up or down, with jeans or a leather skirt for weekend walks or cosy tracksuit bottoms for evenings watching Netflix on the couch. It's not clear what fabric the garment is made from, but the product description confirms it's machine washable. Big W marketing executives are thrilled by the impromptu endorsement. 'Jules looks fantastic wearing the cosy mustard knit,' a Big W spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday. '[She] has inspired many Aussie women to shop Big W's affordable winter essentials range, including this particular piece which has been flying off the shelves and is now limited in stock.' The versatile jumper can be dressed up or down, with jeans or a leather skirt for weekend walks or cosy tracksuit bottoms for evenings watching Netflix on the couch It's been a successful week for the discount department store after a similar endorsement from celebrity stylist Donny Galella prompted a near sell-out of a $40 velour tracksuit. After inspecting the set in person, Mr Galella confirmed it 'feels luxurious' and looks considerably more expensive than its price tag. 'I have a feeling this will fly off the shelves,' he told Daily Mail Australia. Sizes eight and 18 have already done just that and are completely sold out, but you can still get your hands on sizes 10, 12, 14 and 16 in select Big W stores and from the brand's official site. Made from cotton and polyester blend velour, the tracksuit is soft, stretchy and stylish, making it the perfect choice for lounging around the house and working from home during lockdown which will continue for at least another four weeks. The health department does not know how many cases exist at nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, Dr. Gonzalez said. Over the next three weeks, the department plans to do antibody testing at some 28,000 residents and 9,000 staff at 1,000 long-term facilities. The youngest person to die so far has been a 29-year-old man identified by his father as Joshua James Sanchez. He went to the emergency room twice with symptoms and was denied a test until the third time, when he was already in respiratory distress, his father, Luis Angel Sanchez, wrote on Facebook. The elder Mr. Sanchez wrote that his own father also succumbed to the virus. You cannot understand this pain unless you experience it, he wrote. And I dont wish this disastrous experience on anybody. Michelle Garcia Mercado, a 23-year-old college student from Caguas, said her father struggled to get tested after learning that a co-worker had tested positive. Her father first had to test negative for flu and bacterial pneumonia. They told him to stay home, she said. Her father got a test only after coming down with body aches. While they awaited the results, Ms. Garcia, who helps care for her grandfather and feared she might be a virus carrier, tried to get tested herself but was turned away because she did not have symptoms. Her fathers result came back negative. Frustration over the slow testing has prompted some Puerto Ricans to protest from their balconies with pots and pans and from their cars in drive-by caravans. On social media, they address the governor with #WandaLasPruebas, demanding more tests. Some of the same activists led the protests that ousted former Gov. Ricardo A. Rossello last summer. People are tired already of sitting at home without clear information, said Zoan Davila, 31, a lawyer from Cayey who is a member of the Colectiva Feminista en Construccion, which organized a protest last week. They dont trust the state and what it is doing. Chestnut Hill Hospital is among the hospitals owned by Tower Health, which on Tuesdays started furloughing at least 1,000 employees. Read more Tower Health, citing the loss of as much as half its revenue, on Tuesday announced the furlough of at least 1,000 of the 14,000-plus employees in its seven-hospital system stretching from Philadelphia to Reading. Because of the suspension of non-urgent and elective services, the closure of many outpatient facilities, and the postponement of internal projects, sustained work is not available for some of our employees, Therese Sucher, Towers chief operating officer, said in an internal email. Sucher said that managers would inform the affected employees on Tuesday and Wednesday. During the furlough, employees will continue to receive benefits if they have them now and will be able to use their accrued paid time off to receive pay during their temporary leave, she said. Asked whether any Tower doctors or executives were taking pay cuts, a spokesperson said: As the impact of COVID-19 continues to evolve, we will evaluate appropriate cost-saving measures that could be implemented in the future. Unlike many other Philadelphia health systems, Tower has not provided an estimate of how much money it is losing because of postponed services and higher costs from the pandemic. The much larger University of Pennsylvania Health System, for example, said Monday that it is projecting a $450 million operating loss from mid-March through June before accounting for government aid, including $101 million received this month though the federal governments $2 trillion COVID-19 aid package. Under that CARES Act program, grants are based on last years Medicare payments to hospitals, not on COVID-19 costs, and Tower received $23.6 million. These funds, while helpful, do not come close to making up for the decline in revenue Tower Health has experienced in March and into April, a spokesperson said Monday. Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, which owns Mercy Fitzgerald and Mercy Philadelphia Campuses of Mercy Catholic Medical Center, Nazareth Hospital, St. Mary Medical Center, and Saint Francis Healthcare, this month announced an undisclosed number of furloughs. Shore Memorial in Somers Point, N.J., asked non-clinical workers to take voluntary layoffs. Einstein Healthcare Networks chief executive, Barry Freedman, said last Wednesday that his four-hospital system was expecting to furlough an unspecified number of its employees because of a projected $70 million operating loss from March through June. On the same day, Dixie James, Einsteins chief operating officer, told employees that leaders were taking significant pay cuts, ranging from 10% to 20% for executives and department chairs. Some doctors were asked to take a 10% percent pay cut through June to avoid furloughs. Details on Einstein furloughs were not yet available Tuesday. Temple University Health System, which said last week that it was losing $40 million a month because of COVID-19, is among several dozen nonprofit health systems whose financial outlook was revised to negative by Standard & Poors. "Health-care providers typically have many fixed costs, and it can be difficult to sufficiently flex down variable costs due to the need to maintain certain minimum staffing standards and prepare for COVID-19 patients, the ratings agency said Tuesday. Separate from its furloughs, Tower took the unusual step this week of posting information on its website about the number of COVID-19 patients it has at its hospitals, which include Brandywine in Coatesville, Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, Jennersville Regional in West Grove, Phoenixville in Phoenixville, and Pottstown Memorial Medical Center in Pottstown, along with its flagship Reading Hospital in West Reading. Tower Health has also completed the $50 million acquisition of St. Christophers Hospital for Children in North Philadelphia in a joint venture with Drexel University. Such patient counts by hospital have been closely guarded by state and city officials, who are supposed to be tracking available beds at hospitals. At noon Wednesday, Towers dashboard showed that the collection of hospitals had 165 COVID-19 inpatients, 26 of them in critical care and 28 of them on ventilators. The nonprofit said 113 patients with COVID-19 had died in its hospitals. Hyderabad, April 21 : Amid nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 outbreak, Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), has embarked upon the digital model of operations as it plans to conduct pre-bid meetings via video conferencing to sustain the momentum. Initially, pre-bid meetings for two Request For Quotations (RFQ) are likely to be held online. The RLDA has zeroed in on railway stations at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, and Dehradun in Uttarakhand, during the initial phase. "As a responsible organisation, we stand with the government and thus will be conducting all Pre-bid Meetings through video conferencing to fight this pandemic. All queries of the stakeholders shall be answered on the spot through video conferencing or later by e-mails. We are also committed to ensuring seamless operations by extensive use of digital technology and shall be implementing the e-filing system shortly for smooth functioning," said RLDA vice chairman Ved Parkash Dudeja. Ever since the lockdown was announced, RLDA has been adhering to the guidelines laid by the government to arrest the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees have been working from home and maintaining a smooth flow of communication via email, Whatsapp, video conferencing and leveraging other IT tools. RLDA has also sensitized the employees to maintain social distancing and take all necessary precautions to reduce the transmission risk of the coronavirus. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Gisela Swaragita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 09:04 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd32beab 1 Lifestyle coronavirus,pandemic,COVID-19,barbershop,haircut,beauty,barber,male-haircut Free Going out to get a haircut is a dangerous and discouraged event these days as the COVID-19 pandemic wears on. Many people have chosen to stay at home to protect themselves from the highly contagious virus and have postponed their beauty regimens until the end of the pandemic. Some are getting haircuts from family members, while others havent bothered to get a trim as they wont be seeing many people these days anyway. Odi Mardiansyah, 30, in quarantine with his pregnant wife in Prambanan, Yogyakarta, shared a video of himself trimming his wifes hair. My wife is eight months pregnant, and she is not comfortable if her hair is too long. We are afraid of going to the hairdresser, especially because of her condition. So she has her husband to cut her hair, he said. Meanwhile Dimas Ramadhana, 29, an employee in quarantine in Kemanggisan, West Jakarta, braves his fear once a month to get a shave from his trusted barber. Maybe Im just an adrenaline junkie, he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday with a laugh. My heart did beat faster when the barber approached me to put on the apron and started cutting my hair. Gabrielle Alicia, 22, a student in quarantine with her family in Bogor, West Java, has her favorite barber come to her house. He came to my house, and all six of us got a haircut, she said. The barber, Deddy Suharno, is willing to come to a customer's home as long as the location is within the Bogor area. I used to work at Christopher salon [at Lippo Mall, Bogor]. Prior to the pandemic, I could give 15-20 people haircuts [daily], Deddy told the Post. However, since March 24, Deddy has been out of work. The mall and the salon have closed indefinitely. With a wife and three children to feed plus parents at home in Ngawi, East Java, to support, Deddy has started to give door-to-door haircuts. He charges Rp 150,000 (US$9.68) for a haircut. I can cut hair for men, women and children of all ages, he said. I also take coloring, smoothing, cream bath and hair spa requests. To protect himself and his patrons, he always wears a mask and washes his hands before and after touching clients hair. Deddy can be reached on WhatsApp at +62 816-1747-0588. Read also: Tips from parents on helping children study at home during COVID-19 outbreak Another barber who has started making house calls is Iman, who lives in Tendean, South Jakarta. I have been cutting hair since 2015 at my parents barbershop in Depok, he said. Prior to the pandemic, he worked at a barbershop in Kemang, South Jakarta, and cut at least six peoples hair per day. When the pandemic got worse and businesses began to close, he lost his job. He started an independent in-home barber service. His price is Rp 50,000 per person in Jakarta and Rp 75,000 per person in Depok, Bogor and South Tangerang. Imans expertise is limited to cutting men and childrens hair. But if the customer is a woman and she wants a masculine haircut, I can do that, too, he said. To protect himself, he always wears cloth masks and sterilizes his tools. I also always use hand sanitizer and wear disposable rubber gloves, he said. Kindfolks Barbershop, a newly opened barbershop in Pamulang, South Tangerang, has also switched gears to door-to-door service to cater to the needs of people in Greater Jakarta area who want to look good while in quarantine and also to keep the businesss barbers employed. We just opened our business in March. We have two contract barbers and three freelance barbers, Aga, the owner of Kindfolks, told the Post. Now we have this initiative to give door-to-door service so we do not have to fire our newly recruited barbers. Kindfolk barbers will cut hair at customers homes for Rp 150,000 for an adult man and Rp 160,000 for children. However, they will give discounts if customers order for more than one person. [We do it] so our customers can still be presentable during conference calls from home and still look good for their loved ones, Aga said. For those who want to look sharp in the Yogyakarta area, Visible Barbershop in Terban also offers door-to-door service. Our price is Rp 35,000 per person. For door-to-door service, there's an additional fee of Rp 10,000 per 3 kilometers of distance from our place. We offer services such as consultation, haircuts and hair tonic [applications], Rian Fiddinul, owner of Visible Barbershop, told the Post. We always sterilize our tools and spray disinfectant on our shaving equipment before and after use. Our barbers are obliged to wear masks and gloves. They have to wash their hands or use hand sanitizers before and after seeing customers. After doing the job, they should immediately come back here, take a shower and change their clothes, Rian said. Through the service, which started on March 22, Visible Barbershop can shave 2 to 4 people per day. They specialize in cutting men and childrens hair, as well as women who want a traditionally masculine hairstyle. We hope this pandemic will be over soon, so we can operate normally, Rian said. (kes) By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition Leader in Kerala Ramesh Chennithala has yet again unleashed his tirade against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's involvement in the data leakage case of Sprinklr row. He has demanded for a CBI probe in the data leakage row. At a press meet held at his official residence at Cantonment House, Chennithala opined that even if Pinarayi doesn't react on the Sprinklr deal, the general public will make him answer. The Congress leader said that history will reveal that Pinarayi is a key accused in the Sprinklr row. He maintained that Pinarayi has cheated the people of the State by compromising on the personal details of coronavirus affected patients to the American company, Sprinklr Inc. "CM has been caught redhanded by the Opposition for which he is feeling awkward. Ever since I'd revealed the nexus between the LDF and Sprinklr, it has been based on documents and facts. A comprehensive probe has to be initiated on the deal where only a CBI deal can unravel the truth behind it," said Chennithala. Opposition Leader has also challeged Pinarayi to prove the allegations wrong. He also did not spare finance minister TM Thomas Isaac either. In an earlier Facebook post, Isaac had claimed that Rajasthan and Punjab was also sharing datas to American companies which have now been found not true. Photo: Chuck Allen/Unsplash Missed the most recent top news in Charlotte? Read on for everything you need to know. Two high-ranking NC politicians urge Gov. Cooper to allow Charlotte to host NASCAR race Add state treasurer Dale Folwell and N.C. speaker of the house Tim Moore to the ever-growing number of N.C. politicians asking Governor Roy Cooper to modify an executive order to allow Charlotte Motor Speedway to host a NASCAR race next month. Read the full story on The News & Observer. Charlotte nurse recovering after contracting COVID-19 A Charlotte-area nurse continues to recover after contracting COVID-19 while working at CaroMont Regional Medical Center. Alyssa Lobosco is currently recovering at Atrium Health Main in Charlotte. Read the full story on WCNC. Son of 93-year-old man raises concerns about Atrium's plan to relocate COVID-19 patients to nursing home Atrium Health tells WCNC Charlotte they've relocated people who have coronavirus from other nursing facilities to Huntersville Oaks. Read the full story on WCNC. SHARE Charlotte bringing people together to "do good" from home SHARE Charlotte brings together 400 nonprofits in the community and organizes Do Good Week. The whole thing is simply to do good it isnt about giving money it is all about giving your time, and you can do it from home. Read the full story on WCNC. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. The new Enspire for Enterprise visual identity provides an expressive new way to embody the companys expertise and experience in digital marketing, while asserting the bold and imaginative qualities crucial to delivering cutting-edge digital technology solutions. Enterprise Online, LLC, previously doing business as Web.com for Enterprise, revealed its new brand, Enspire for Enterprise, today. Recently acquired by Perseus Group, which is an operating group of Constellation Software Inc., Enspire for Enterprise has been a recognized market-leader for almost 15 years by delivering scalable digital marketing solutions to franchise, co-op, and other types of networked businesses. The rebrand is more than cosmetic; Enspire for Enterprise reflects the companys commitment to inspiration and innovation, passion for serving their customers, and mission to deliver bold, creative solutions that empower businesses to exceed their goals. We took this opportunity to ensure our name and brand are consistent with our approach and our values, said Denise Lynch, President of Enspire for Enterprise, We serve as an extension of our clients marketing teams and are honored to partner with them to deliver tailor-made solutions that meet the needs of their unique networks. We forge strong relationships in which our clients can confidently partner with us to achieve their goals. The new Enspire for Enterprise visual identity provides an expressive new way to embody the companys expertise and experience in digital marketing, while asserting the bold and imaginative qualities crucial to delivering cutting-edge digital technology solutions. The abstract E icon is not only symbolic of Enspire but also represents the varying sequence of interactions within a large network and the multitude of different individual people and businesses, near and far, who are served. The color palette is a vibrant interpretation of the energy and passion of the Enspire for Enterprise brand. With full-funnel solutions that scale to support thousands of locations, Enspire for Enterprises powerful business intelligence platform, Centermark, remains core to the companys services. Intuitive desktop and mobile layouts provide easy access for corporate business leaders and location owners alike to gain critical insights from their digital campaigns. The companys continued focus on innovation is evident on their product roadmap, as extensive new features are slated for release in the coming months. The Enspire for Enterprise rebrand includes a new logo, brand guidelines, and website. Please visit http://www.enspireforenterprise.com to learn more. About Enspire for Enterprise Enspire for Enterprise enables networked businesses to achieve and exceed their goals. The companys mission is to serve their clients by building bold, creative solutions that make businesses better. As an extension of each clients marketing team, they use cutting-edge digital techniques to accelerate growth for franchise, co-op, dealer-manufacturer, and large brand clients. Enspire for Enterprise has accumulated nearly 15 years of experience partnering with almost 100 multilocation and franchise networks to deliver digital marketing services to thousands of locations worldwide. Enspire for Enterprises strategy is to continue building its portfolio of services designed to help networks build their brands, engage their customers, and grow their businesses. For more information visit http://www.enspireforenterprise.com. Tea party activists have looked the other way on all of these things throughout the presidency of Donald Trump. But now they are appearing again in state capitals across the country, screaming and waving their Dont Tread on Me banners to vent at the lifesaving measures that governors have taken in the face of an epidemic that has already caused upward of 40,000 deaths in the United States. Footage of a huge shark circling a popular swimming spot in Sydney has sparked fears for swimmers' safety. A bull shark was spotted lurking near Yowie Bay Wharf at Port Hacking in the city's south on Tuesday morning. The sighting comes less than a week after another of the aggressive species was seen nearby at Gymea Bay, only metres from someone's backyard. Ocean Hunter fishing charters Captain Vic Levett told Daily Mail Australia sightings are likely to increase this time of year as sharks follow fish on their migration out to sea. A bull shark was spotted lurking near Yowie Bay Wharf at Port Hacking in Sydney's south on Tuesday morning 'The mullet from the estuaries they all school up this time of year and they aggregate around the mouth and then they move out to sea in huge numbers,' Mr Levett said. 'This is when the sharks net all the mullet around the beaches. It's always around April or May.' Mr Levett said there had been a resurgence in shark sightings since netting was banned for commercial fishing operations in and around Sydney Harbour about ten years ago. 'Bull sharks are always close to shore, they have always been in the estuaries,' he said. 'There is a lot less netting going on in the estuaries nowadays, Sydney Harbour is net free, Botany Bay is net free and Port Hacking is net free. So a lot of these fish are surviving.' The shark was spotted by a Sydney local around Yowie Wharf at Port Hacking (pictured) in Sydney's Sutherland shire Bull shark sightings have become so common that another fisherman reported catching and releasing 12 this year alone around Sydney Harbour. Mr Levett said they're getting smarter too. 'We're getting a lot more sharks in tune with fishing these days, they'll follow boats and we'll go out to sea sometime and stop the boat and look under the boat and their is a shark sitting under there waiting,' he said. But he said swimmers will need to take care if they're considering taking a dip in waters where the sharks have been sighted. 'I don't like bull sharks, I wouldn't like to swim with them,' he said. Bull sharks can grow up to 130kg in weight are are named because of their aggressive behaviour; typically posing a greater threat to humans than other species. China's FTC-2000G multirole combat aircraft bags first export contract People's Daily Online (Global Times) 10:13, April 20, 2020 With its first export contract for delivery of the FTC-2000G multirole combat aircraft to an undisclosed Southeast Asian country, Guizhou Aviation Industry Corp can expect a surge in interested customers, aviation experts predicted on Sunday. Local media reports reposted Saturday to the WeChat account of the Guizhou Province-based developer affiliated to the state-owned Aviation Industry Corpof China (AVIC) said the deal was signed in late January, about 15 months after the domestically developed plane's first test flight. The commercial process has been completed and the first batch will be delivered in early 2021, with full delivery expected to finish within two years, the reports said. The reports did not reveal further key details about the deal, such as the cost or the number of aircraft. "It took less than two years for the FTC-2000G from its test to signing its first export contract with a certain Southeast Asian country, which is an unprecedented speed in the history of AVIC's made-for-export warplane development," one report quoted Wang Wenfei, chairman of Guizhou Aviation Industry Corp, as saying. The deal shows the Chinese aircraft convinced the client with its performances, versatility and cost efficiency compared with competitors like the South Korea's T-50, said a Chinese military expert who asked for anonymity on Sunday. It is worth noting that COVID-19 did not hinder the deal, he told the Global Times. Senior military officers from 16 Asian and African countries have visited the Guizhou company to evaluate the FTC-2000G since its maiden flight on September 28, 2018 and its public debut at Airshow China 2018 in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province on November 6, reports said. If the first contract goes smoothly and satisfies the buyer, the product's reputation on the international market will be boosted and likely attract more business opportunities, the expert said. As an independently developed multirole aircraft, the FTC-2000G can serve as an attack aircraft with a large combat radius, strong penetration capability and conduct air-to-ground combat missions like close-in support, air interdiction and in-depth strike. When deployed as a fighter jet, the FTC-2000G has good mobility, situational awareness and high survivability in dogfights, aerial escort and patrol missions. The aircraft can also function as a transonic trainer with high safety and reliability and conduct medium- to advanced-levels of tactical combat training missions, the aircraft's chief designer Hu Jianxing said in the reports. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The government has given its nod to convert surplus rice available with Food Corporation of India (FCI) into ethanol to make alcohol-based hand-sanitisers. The decision was taken during a meeting of National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC), chaired by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan. Notably, the National Policy on Biofuels, 2018, allows the government to convert surplus quantities of food grains into ethanol. The FCI has a huge stockpile of 58.49 million tonne foodgrains (as of March 10), of which 30.57 million tonne is rice alone, while the rest is wheat. This is around 128 per cent more than the required buffer stock. As per the required norm, India needs to maintain a reserve of about 21 million tonne for rice as well as wheat as on April 1. Recently, the government had allowed sugar companies and distilleries to make hand sanitisers using ethanol. Sugar companies supply ethanol to oil marketing companies for blending with petrol. The sugar industry body ISMA also said last week a majority of sugar companies decided to make hand sanitisers to supply to hospitals and institutions by using a part of the ethanol/ENA production. Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has slammed the government for not making the excess food available for a vast majority of people who can't afford it. "Aakhir Hindustan ka gareeb kab jaagega? Aap bhukhe mar rhe hain aur vo aapke hisse ke chawal se sanitiser banakar amiron ke hathon ki safai kr rhe hain (When will the poor of India wake up? You are dying of hunger and they are engaged in cleaning the hands of the rich by making sanitiser from your portion of rice), the Congress leader tweeted. ? https://t.co/5NjoMmsJnK Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 21, 2020 The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in a surge of local brands launching hygiene products such as hand sanitiser and hand wash. As per a recent Nielsen survey, total of 152 new hand sanitiser manufacturers entered the fray in March. The coronavirus cases in India have reached 18,000, of which 14,759 are active cases, 3,251 have been cured/discharged and 1 migrated. The country has reported 590 deaths. Also read: Coronavirus Lockdown Live Updates: States advised to not use rapid testing kits for 2 days Also Read: Coronavirus crisis: Rajasthan stops rapid testing kits usage after several inaccurate results If Im being totally honest, I probably would not have written a book were it not for two friends, Dan and Stanford. After church one Sunday, Dan listened as I muddled through some thoughts for an upcoming retreat I was co-teaching with Stanford. That would make a great book topic, he said. I dismissed his encouragement with a laugh. But months later, when asked by a publisher if I had any book ideas, his words came back to me. Dan is one of a number of men over the years who have been friends, allies, and encouragers to me. Im not alone in this experience. Emily Hunter McGowan, a lecturer at Wheaton College, recently tweeted her acknowledgment to two men who played pivotal roles in her life by naming gifts they saw in her and encouraging her to develop them. Like me, many other women chimed in with similar stories of significant men in their lives. And, like me, many of these women are married. The idea that married women should have relationships with men theyre not married to raises alarm bells for many, and with good cause. Sexual indiscretions regularly make headlines. Pastors and other leaders now have to contend with the threat of polyamory. And a devastating number of marriages are shaken and shattered by affairs. Naturally enough, we feel an urgent inclination to batten down the marital hatches and protect husband-wife relationships. In church circles especially, men and women have practiced social distancing of a sort for many years. We lean on the oft-debated Billy Graham Rule. We give awkward side hugs. And more often than not, we outright avoid each other. My marriage of 16 years is precious, so wouldnt it be better to cut off all relationships with other men? After all, Paul advises us to [make] no provision for the flesh (Rom. 13:14, ESV) and stay away from every kind of evil (1 Thess. 5:22). However, I am increasingly persuaded that Pauls words about the rules on food and Sabbath also apply to man-made (or woman-made!) rules about married people avoiding the opposite gender: Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence (Col. 2:23). Colossians is clear that if we are to put our sinful natures to death, we dont need more caution tape so much as more Christlikeness. Sexual infidelity ultimately results from a lack of character, not a lack of constraints. After all, the safest dog in the neighborhood is not the one on the shortest leash but the one with the most discipline. Between legalism and license lies the messier space of wisdom and cultivation of virtue, writes Tish Harrison Warren in Its Not Billy Graham Rule or Bust. It is in that space where weas individuals and in relationshipsflourish. People need meaningful relationships with members of the opposite sex, and they need them to be safe, honoring, and full of integrity. Whats more, to suggest married people should cut off relationships with the opposite sex fundamentally misunderstands the nature of Christian relationships. On our wedding day, I promised myself to my husband alone, forsaking all others in the language of our vows. However, that forsaking applied only to the taking of other husbands and sexual partners. It did not mean forsaking relationships with any and all men. As a disciple of Christ, I am called to love, serve, help, encourage, and partner with other Christiansnot just the unforsaken half of the population in the womens ministry but also the male half. And even though my husband promised himself to me aloneforsaking all other spouses and sexual partnershe is still called for Jesus sake to love, serve, help, encourage, and partner with both men and women. Article continues below The New Testament makes this calling clear. Men and women who are adopted by God the Father become brothers and sisters to one another in the family of God. The Epistles emphasize this conviction in their consistent address of believers as adelphoi: brothers and sisters in the family of God. (See for example, 1 Thessalonians 1:4, 2:1, and 2:9 as three of 15 references in that letter alone.) This language is not just metaphorical, as in verses where believers are described as branches to Jesus vine or living stones in the temple. The familial language of the gospel is ontological. It describes a new reality of our being. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! enthused the Apostle John (1 John 3:1, emphasis added). What this means, then, is that as a daughter of God, Im called to see the men around me at church not as risks I ward off but as relatives I welcome. My goal is not so much to be friendly but to be familial, and this remains true regardless of my marital status. For in the body of Christ, do we not all need one another? If the eye cannot say to the hand, I dont need you, (1 Cor. 12:21), then how can being married mean that I say to half the members of Christs body, I dont need you? I cannot. I need my sisters and my brothers in Christ, and they need me. Cultivating healthy relationships between men and women within the family of God is something God calls us to as his beloved children. Of course, this requires wisdom, character, self-control, and the accountability of community. We are fallen and fallible and should not be glib about these or any other temptations. Yet God has called us to live as the family he has made us to be, which means that as a married woman, I must consider how to cultivate healthy, holy, and wholly appropriate community with the brothers God has given me. Especially in our current crisis, as we rethink how to do church and how to serve our communities, we need each other more than ever. We cannot isolate along gender lines. Someday soon, when this pandemic is over, I will worship with Dan and Stanford, my brothers in Christ. I will worship and serve alongside other men, too, some as acquaintances but others as true friends. All of us in the global church will get to worship and serve together again. And when we do, it will be wonderfully familiar and familial. Bronwyn Lea is the author of Beyond Awkward Side Hugs: Living as Christian Brothers and Sisters in a Sex-Crazed World (Thomas Nelson, April 2020). She lives with her family in Northern California and serves on the pastoral staff of her local church. Find her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. A object speculated to be a rare daylight meteorite was seen streaking across the skies of Groningen, in the Netherlands, on April 21. This footage, captured by a camera attached to the Groningen office of Gasunie, a Dutch natural gas company, shows a glimpse of the falling object. Im not an astronomer, but it does look like a meteorite or shooting star, Gasunie spokesman Michiel Bal told Dutch daily newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden. It is the first time that we have captured such a natural phenomenon. Dagblad van het Noorden also interviewed local astronomer Theo Jurriens, who could not definitively identify the streaking object as a daylight meteor, and added that such phenomena were very rare. Credit: Gasunie via Storyful The Central Government grants the Special Administrative Region a high degree of autonomy, which does not mean that the Central Government does not have or surrenders its supervisory power, the statement said. In Hong Kong, whenever the central government exercises power in accordance with the law, there are always people who clamor: The central government is intervening in Hong Kongs autonomous affairs. Let us ask these people: When Jimmy Lai publicly clamored to fight on behalf of the United States, why didnt you come out and express your opposition? At least one protester has been shot dead by unknown gunmen near Baghdads Tahrir Square, according to Iraqi media reports, hours after the partial easing of coronavirus containment measures. Several other people were wounded in the clashes that erupted near the capitals al-Khulani roundabout on Tuesday, the reports quoted security sources as saying. Last month, Iraq introduced a nationwide curfew and restrictions on travel as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. It then extended the curfew twice, before authorities on Tuesday partially lifted restrictions in Baghdad and a number of provinces on Tuesday. The move allowed some sectors of the economy to resume work within specific hours. Iraq shares an extensive border with Iran which in the Middle East has the second-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases behind Turkey while its overstretched healthcare system has suffered from years of sanctions, war and neglect. Political turmoil With Tahrir Square as their rallying point, Iraqis began protesting in October last year, calling for an overhaul of the countrys political system and the implementation of electoral and economic reforms. Hundreds of people have been killed since the protests first erupted, with rights groups accusing security forces of using excessive force against the demonstrators. Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi resigned in December under pressure from the widespread anti-government demonstrations. He remained in a caretaker capacity but constitutional deadlines to find a replacement were repeatedly missed amid fierce political in-fighting. Earlier this month, intelligence chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi was asked to form a government, becoming the third prime minister-designate in just over two months. Although the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has quelled the leaderless protest movement, its members have rejected al-Kadhimis nomination. NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday (April 21) condemned the Palghar mob lynching incident in which three persons, including two sadhus, were brutally killed on Thursday night (April 16). Pawar, howeber, slammed the opposition leaders for questioning the law and order situation in Maharashtra, stressing that it is not the time to engage in political slugfest and everyone should stay together in the fight against coronavirus. Referring to the lynching incident, the NCP chief said that it took place due to misunderstanding and immediate steps were taken by the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP coalition government in the state and over 100 people were arrested for their alleged involvement in this heinous crime. "Such an incident should not have happened, it is condemnable...I insist we should take care that the efforts of combating the crisis do not slow down. What happened was not good, it should not have happened. The incident took place out of misunderstanding (rumour), it is being alleged the law and order situation has deteriorated, demands are being made for resignations, Pawar said in his address via Facebook. It is to be noted that the BJP leaders had slammed the Maharashtra government for for the "administrative" failure to protect the Hindu seers. Meanwhile, sources told Zee Media that CID team is expected to reach Palghar on Tuesday to probe the incident. Palghar police is currently questioning the relatives of over 100 people arrested in connection with this case. The three men were lynched by villagers on the suspicion that they were thieves. The two saffron-robed monks Kalpavriksha Giri Maharaj and Sushil Giri Maharaj, who took a route passing through Gadchindhali village, were stopped by locals who suspected that they were child-lifters. During the attack on them even the police vehicles were damaged by the mob. Donald Trump vowed to temporarily ban immigration to the United States to combat the "invisible enemy" of the coronavirus, as the pandemic threatens to push the global economy into freefall. The president's late-night Tweet was scant on details but suggested a hardening of his anti-immigration crusade, a move likely to delight Trump's supporters ahead of November elections. The threat came as the death toll from the virus surpassed 170,000 worldwide, sending economies into a tailspin as governments anxiously try to chart a path out of the crisis. Freezes on whole sectors of commerce are playing out dramatically on oil markets, where shrinking energy demand and a supply glut have crashed prices. In hard-hit Europe, some countries are cautiously creeping out from confinement to soften the economic costs, though large gatherings appear to be out of the question for the forseeable future. While Germany is allowing smaller shops to reopen, authorities cancelled Oktoberfest, a beloved beer-swilling festival in southern Bavaria, for the first time since World War II. An employee of the Chaudoir funeral home in Namur, Belgium adjusts a cross on a coffin of a person who died of the COVID-19. Relatives will not attend the burial to protect them from the virus.. By JOHN THYS (AFP) Spain also announced it was scrapping its annual bull-running festival in Pamplona, a centuries-old tradition that normally draws hundreds of thousands. The US is now home to the world's deadliest outbreak, with more than 42,000 people killed and 784,000 infected nationwide. As the downturn starts to bite, President Trump has stoked conflict with Democratic state governors by lending to support to a spate of anti-lockdown protests. He also drew criticism with his vague announcement to temporarily halt immigration to the country, claiming it would save American jobs -- some 22 million of which have vanished in the wake of the virus. "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" he tweeted. The White House did not provide any further details about the measure or how long it would last. California Democratic Senator Kamala Harris shot back, accusing Trump of "shamelessly politicizing this pandemic to double down on his anti-immigrant agenda." Fear lingers in Wuhan Number of COVID-19 deaths in US and Europe since March 1, according to an AFP count and Johns Hopkins University. By Robin BJALON (AFP) Debates are raging worldwide over when and how to relax clampdowns on business and ordinary life. Many governments fear triggering another wave of infections but are also worried about the mounting economic costs and signs of social tension. In Europe, several countries including Germany, Austria, Norway and Denmark have begun to relax restrictions while still calling for the public to practice social distancing. Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has also promised to soon unveil a plane to start reopening the hard-hit country. In a sign of what lies ahead, the gradual awakening of Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus first emerged, remains tinged with fear about fresh outbreaks of the disease. The industrial city was released from quarantine two weeks ago, but many restaurants, for instance, have not reopened or are still only able to offer outdoor seating and takeout. "We have very, very few customers," said Han, the 27-year-old owner of a soy drink stall. "Everyone is worried about asymptomatic infected people," she said. "Business is just not as good as before." Singapore, meanwhile, has become a sober example of how infections may ebb and flow, with the financial hub extending lockdown measures Tuesday as it battles a second wave of contagion. "Many will be disappointed by the extension," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, acknowledging that businesses and workers were "hurting greatly". Hunger, abuse Number of people in serious food insecurity, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.. By Robin BJALON (AFP) Elsewhere, there is fear over how the most vulnerable will survive lockdowns that breed their own dangers. The number of people around the world suffering from acute hunger could nearly double to 265 million this year due to the economic impact of the pandemic, the UN's World Food Programme warned. The virus is "potentially catastrophic for millions who are already hanging by a thread," the WFP's Senior Economist Arif Husain said in a statement. In many parts of the world, including Latin America, weeks of confinement have also seen a surge in calls to helplines for victims of domestic abuse. Eighteen women have been killed by their partner or ex-partners during the first 20 days of Argentina's mandatory quarantine. Appeals to helplines have also shot up nearly 40 percent. "Every day, a women is abused, raped or beaten at home by her partner or her ex," said Ada Rico, from the NGO La Casa del Encuentro. "In normal times, we would help her to file a complaint. These days, the urgency is to get her out of the house as quickly as possible." Oil in turmoil Financial markets continued their roller-coaster ride after US crude futures sunk below zero for the first time on Monday, sending world equities spiralling. With energy demand sharply down and storage options are running out, many traders preferred to effectively pay someone to take the oil off their hands. On Twitter Trump ordered his administration to come up with a plan to aid US oil companies. "We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down," he wrote. The aviation sector has also been hammered particularly hard by the global economic pause, with cash-strapped Virgin Australia announcing Tuesday it had entered voluntary administration -- the largest airline so far to collapse. Meanwhile, activists warned that press freedom was becoming another victim of the virus, with countries like China and Iran accused of censoring reporting on the crisis. Some regimes are taking "advantage of the fact people are stunned...to impose measures that would be impossible to adopt in normal times", Christophe Deloire, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) told AFP. Similarly "in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, strongmen are consolidating their grip on news and information," the watchdog warned. burs-ssm/lc [April 21, 2020] Washington Windermere Realtor Partners with Talented Creatives to Redesign Website EVERETT, Wash., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Evan Ebert, a Realtor at Windermere Real Estate JS, recently concluded his creative project of launching a brand new website for his local real estate presence. The website can be viewed here: https://www.evanebert.com/ Far from an ordinary website launch, Evan sees this launch as a true maturation of his business and a lesson in the power of friendships and relationships. "I first spoke to my good friend Isaac Campbell last year about doing a fresh design of my website. It was essential to me that my website presence showcased the virtues of strong relationships I'm so grateful to have friendships with talented professionals like Isaac," says Evan Ebert. Evan goes on to state that his 5 years of experience in internet marketing has taught him that websites are a "digital salesperson that speaks on your behalf 24/7," and it's imperative that it presents a message that's " "I also teamed up with a talented videographer friend, Andrew Augusto, to create an introduction video for the site. Andrew was instrumental in helping me create a video that captures who I am and the value I bring to my clients." Ebert says that he wanted his website to serve several key goals: Educate clients in plain terms on the ins and outs of buying or selling a home Present his clients with a real look at who he is, in and outside of the industry Share his personal stories of real estate and tips to aid clients in their goals Evan Ebert's new website revamp would not have been possible without the help of his friends, which he says is precisely the ethical value that drives his passion to serve clients in real estate. About Evan Ebert Realtor: Evan Ebert is a licensed Realtor in Washington State, serving clients in Snohomish, King, and Skagit county. He is a licensee of Windermere Real Estate JS and is available to provide expert real estate service with a professional touch to any new clients. You can click here to get in touch with Evan: https://www.evanebert.com/ Media Contact Evan Ebert (425) 275-1628 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/washington-windermere-realtor-partners-with-talented-creatives-to-redesign-website-301044204.html SOURCE Evan Ebert Realtor [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA Detectives from Fairfax County's Major Crimes and Organized Crime and Intelligence Bureaus arrested 30 men earlier this month as part of "Operation COVID Crackdown," a sting operation to identify and apprehend predators using the internet to exploit children, according to a police news release. In each of the cases, the men, who range in age from 20 to 74, initiated explicit conversations with Fairfax County Police Department officers posing as children in order to solicit sex. Once the suspects arrived at an agreed upon location, they were taken into custody by detectives. Our detectives have remained vigilant and they recognized the increased threat posed by online predators in recent weeks, said Major Ed OCarroll, bureau commander, major crimes. I commend their ability to adapt during this unprecedented public health pandemic and to do so in the interest of protecting our children and bringing justice to those who commit these repugnant crimes. Police charged the following individuals with a combined 68 felonies: Row 1 from left to right: Cesar Vales II, 29, of Manassas, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Halmar Lizama Henriquez, 26, of no fixed address, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Juan Moreno Colindres, 65, of Maryland, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Moises Aguilar Cano, 36, of Manassas, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Renzo Portal, 26, of Centreville, charged with solicitation of a minor and soliciting a minor for prostitution Zachary Kearns, 31, of Oakton, charged with two counts of solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Row 2 from left to right Carlos Deras Lopez, 30, of Alexandria, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Franklin Galvez, 25, of Maryland, charged with solicitation of a minor and soliciting a minor for prostitution Jose Argueta Amaya, 32, of West Virginia, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Mohamed Mansaray, 23, of Alexandria, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Pedro Gonzalez, 50, of Fairfax, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Yuson Joshi, 27, of Woodbridge, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Story continues Row 3 from left to right: Carlos Giron-Reyes, 22, of Woodbridge, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Eric Womack, 36, of Washinton D.C., charged with two counts of solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Jean Pardo Pesantes, 22, of Maryland, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Jose Mejia Carabantes, 36, of Fairfax, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Nelson Sosa Grande, 38, of Fairfax, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Xavier Jackson, 24, of Springfield, charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Row 4 from left to right: Alfonso Diaz-Martinez, 36, of Sterling, was charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Concepcion Gonzalez, 38, of Reston, was charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Japher Flores Arriaza, 20, of Fairfax, was charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Kumar Bhandari, 37, of Annandale, was charged with two counts of solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Nelson Diaz Ramos, 32, of Annandale, was charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Tod Rehm, 74, of Fairfax, was charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Row 5 from left to right: Adam Wheeling, 26, of Haymarket, was charged with four counts of solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Christopher Barnard, 27, of Burke, was charged with solicitation of a minor and soliciting a minor for prostitution James Rosenberger, 28, of Warrenton, was charged with two counts of solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Kirrolos Guirguis, 25, of Herndon, was charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Naga Bollina, 42, of Ashburn, was charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties Thomas Kuglin, 39, of Chantilly, was charged with solicitation of a minor and attempted indecent liberties With the school closures and distance learning implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic, police warned parents to be more vigilant about their children's online activities. They should encourage their children to report any inappropriate conversations or when anyone attempts to coerce them into sending sexually explicit images of themselves. Additional internet safety information can be found on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website. Police ask anyone with information about other cases involving human trafficking or the exploitation of children to contact the Major Crimes Bureau at 703-246-7800, option 6. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Solvers by phone 1-866-411-TIPS. This article originally appeared on the Herndon Patch As reports of Kim Jong Un's poor health swirl, foreign intelligence services and North Korea watchers are closely monitoring the secretive dictatorship for signs that something is amiss, Newsweek writes in the article WHO IS KIM JONG UN'S SISTER? NORTH KOREA LEADER'S REPORTED HEALTH PROBLEMS PUSH KIM YO JONG INTO FOCUS. Kim is reported to have undergone cardiovascular surgery this week, which would explain his absence from a key ceremony last week celebrating the "Day of the Sun"a celebration of Kim's grandfather and North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung. Reports of his condition vary. CNN cited an unnamed intelligence official who said Kim was in grave danger following the surgery, while NBC News reporter Katy Tur tweeted that the dictator was in a coma, though later deleted the post "out of an abundance of caution." But South Korea's Yonhap News Agency cited an unidentified government official who said there were no unusual signs coming from North Korea to suggest that Kim was in a serious condition. Reuters, meanwhile, cited an anonymous source within China's International Liaison Departmentthe body responsible for dealing with North Koreaas saying Kim is not believed to be critically ill. If Kim's condition is as serious as some have reportedwhich is far from confirmedthoughts both inside and outside North Korea will soon turn to the question of succession. North Korea is an intelligence black hole, and even U.S. and South Korean intelligence have struggled to create an accurate picture of what is happening within its borders. One of the most prominent figures within Kim's regime is his younger sister Kim Yo Jong, 31, who has risen to become considered the most powerful woman in the country, and a key lieutenant to her older sibling. She is believed to be the youngest child of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's mistress Ko Yong Hui, who also gave birth to Kim and two of his older brothers. The oldest brotherKim Jong Namwas assassinated in Malaysia in 2017. Passed over by his father to become successor, Kim Jong Nam was living in exile in the Chinese city of Macau and had been critical of his brother's regime. The North Korean dictator is believed to have issued a standing execution order against Kim Jong Nam and is thought to be behind the 2017 assassination, which employed a nerve agent smeared on Kim Jong Nam's face as he waited for a flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The other brother38-year-old Kim Jong Chulwas also passed over by Kim Jong Il as his successor. Though still in Pyongyang and reportedly part of Kim's regime, former North Korean deputy ambassador to the U.K. Thae Yong Howho defected to the South in 2016has said the older brother does not involve himself in politics. Kim Yo Jong was given her first public role by her father in 2007, appointed as a junior cadre to the Korean Worker' Party. Under her brother's rule she has steadily risen through the regime's ranks. Kim Yo Jongwho currently serves as first vice-department director of the Korean Workers' Party Central Committeefirst came to international prominence when she represented North Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. During her visit south of the border, Kim Yo Jong met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and was pictured alongside Vice President Mike Pence. Kim Yo Jong has since been present at several of Kim's key appearances, such as his summits with President Donald Trump in Singapore and Hanoi, Vietnam last year. Still, being the sister of the supreme leader has not made her immune to party politics. After the embarrassing collapse of the Hanoi summit, Kim Yo Jong was reportedly sidelined and not seen in public for several weeks. But recent developments suggest she has returned to favor, taking on a more prominent role than ever alongside her brother. Last month, Kim Yo Jong issued her first public statement in defense of North Korean policy, attacking the South Korean government after it complained about a weapons test. The South described the test as "unhelpful" and called for a freeze on future launches. But Kim Yo Jong shot back, suggesting the test "was not aimed to threaten anybody" and describing the Southern complaints as "truly shocking" and a "truly senseless act" that would only "magnify our distrust, hatred and scorn for the south side as a whole." Kim Yo Jong also won a seat in March's parliamentary elections, when her brother gave up his seat to officially become leader of the country. This underscored reports that she was becoming more influential within the government and was amassing additional influence and responsibility. That influence has come with international scrutiny. Kim Yo Jong is among the North Korean officials blacklisted by the U.S. for "severe human rights abuses." Despite her prominent position, it remains unclear if she has enough support or pull to succeed her brother, if indeed his condition worsens or he dies. Leonid Petrov, a North Korea specialist and senior lecturer at the International College of Management in Sydney, told The Guardian that Kim's sister "won't replace the primary decision-maker." "North Korea is a Confucian country where seniority and masculinity are respected. She is Kim's most trusted ally, but no more than that," he argued. Indeed, according to Reuters, it could be because she is female and thus not seen as a threat that Kim has been so keen to promote her and willing to trust her with an expanded role. Still, Washington Post Beijing bureau chief Anna Fifield noted on Twitter than Kim Yo Jong is "the only Kim family member who could even possibly take over the reins from Kim Jong Un." Fifield added, "She's risen up the ranks and has taken on an increasingly high public profile in the last two years." The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Tuesday demanded a probe by a central agency into the lynching of three people, including two seers, in Palghar district of Maharashtra. VHP working president Rajesh Gupta also demanded that a special fast track court be set up to decide the matter within a month or two. The lynching incident took place on the night of April 16. Three men from Kandivali in Mumbai were travelling to Surat in a car when the vehicle was stopped at Gadchinchale village in Palghar district and the trio beaten to death with sticks by a mob on the suspicion that they were thieves. "The killings have taken place in the stronghold of CPI(M) and five prime accused in the case are still at large. There is no example of such brutality which has hurt the Hindu and Sant Samaj besides those believing in the human values across the country," Gupta told reporters here. He claimed that the nationalists were watching the situation with patience due to the ongoing lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. "The society has not activated itself physically (because of the lockdown) but that does not mean we will remain silent if the killers were not given exemplary punishment. The Maharashtra government should hand over the probe to a central agency because the lynching had taken place in presence of the local police who seem to be party to the incident," Gupta said. Taking a dig at Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, he said the political heir of Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray took two days to just give a reaction. "We demand all those accused in the case be arrested and tried in a special fast track court to hand over an exemplary punishment within a month or two. If our demand for probe and setting up of fast track court was not met, a campaign will be started after the lockdown to bring this 'Gunda Raj' to an end in Maharashtra," Gupta added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Twitter has marked the fifth annual National Tea Day in Britain with a debate on the perfect cup of brew. Kicked off by Delish, the catering company posted a selection of 16 teas of different shades to their Twitter account , asking followers 'which colour is right'. The thread started a lively debate on the best method to make the perfect cuppa, and many slammed the fourth row - calling the paler shades of tea an 'abomination'. Meanwhile others argued that milk should always be added after the tea has brewed, explaining that the fat content in the milk 'stops the milk from brewing properly'. Twitter has marked the fifth annual National Tea Day in Britain with a debate on the perfect cup of brew. Kicked off by Delish, the catering company posted a selection of 16 teas of different shades to their Twitter account , asking followers 'which colour is right' Taking to Twitter today, Delish wrote: 'It's National Tea Day! But it raises lots of questions including - what colour is right (see the scale below) and milk before or after the hot water? 'How ever you make yours, take time to have a cuppa and have a lovely day'. And shade '2D' proved to be one of the most popular, the exact middle shade from the selection. One user wrote: 'D2 is optimal. The bag and the milk should never touch', while another added: '2D but milk first before water'. And shade '2D' proved to be one of the most popular, the exact middle shade from the selection. One user wrote: 'D2 is optimal. The bag and the milk should never touch', while another added: '2D but milk first before water' Disagreeing, another said: '2D, Yorkshire Gold; milk first - controversially', and another tweeted controversially: 'Always milk first and the water has to be a rolling boil'. 'D2 and B3 and I always put the milk in last. Yorkshire Gold to see me through today. Hope you enjoy yours today too'. Winning another vote, a user wrote: 'D2, the only one that's not too dark, weak nor skimmed.' Addressing the lockdown another wrote: 'Depends on milk deficit and rationing in your fridge and in household.. As you only are allowed to buy 1pk '. Disagreeing, another said: '2D, Yorkshire Gold; milk first - controversially', and another tweeted controversially: 'Always milk first and the water has to be a rolling boil' And slamming the lightest coloured row 4, one wrote: 'It's tea flavoured milk!'. Others shared their more complex tea making skills, with a tea lover writing: 'At work, depends if teapot (bag or leaves) or teabag in mug to brew. Most like me brew with a tea bag (or 2) in mug with boiled water, leave 2 - 4 mins depending, then after spooning out bag pour milk (3 types) to desired colour (but a few put teabag & milk in then water'. Another said: 'D2. Bag first, squeeze bag with spoon against the cup to extract all the flavour add milk whilst swirling with a tea spoon. No sugar.' And naming a common pet hate of tea making, one tweeted: 'I'd also add put used tea bag straight in the bin don't let it sit on a spoon by the sink some people even have trays for used teabags? Why? The bin is right there and is only a tad more effort'. Protests have erupted in the states of Arizona and Pennsylvania over lockdown measures put in place to curb the transmission of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. Pennsylvania residents on April 20 became the latest to demand lockdown measures be lifted as state Gov. Tom Wolf announced its stay-at-home order would be extended to May 8. It had previously been scheduled to end on April 30. You must only travel, if needed, for businesses that are open, Wolf said in a news conference on Monday. Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs as a result of the lockdowns, which are aimed at curbing the spread of the CCP virus that emerged in mainland China last year, but have proven increasingly controversial as some orders close beaches, prevent people from buying seeds, and restrict travel. The economic damage has led to increasing agitation for relaxing social-distancing restrictions, especially as the rate of CCP virus hospitalizations and other indicators of the outbreaks severity have begun to level off in recent days. Some Pennsylvania residents demonstrated near the capitol in Harrisburg on Monday, holding signs, honking horns, and waving American flags. Many expressed uncertainty over the governments response to the spread of the virus. All the projections were wrong, but we are still telling people to stay home and businesses to close, said Mark Cooper, a retired truck driver. This is not quarantine, this is tyranny. Others, meanwhile, said the implemented measures have been critical in saving lives. They are dying everyday, said Yetta Timothy, a 43-year-old who was part of a counter-protest in Harrisburg. My life is on the line. The states demonstration came on the heels of large demonstrations held in recent days in states including Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Maryland, Washington state, and Colorado. An estimated 2,500 people rallied at the Washington state capitol in Olympia over the weekend to protest Gov. Jay Inslees stay-at-home order, defying a ban on gatherings of 50 or more people. Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators in Arizona on Monday defied recommendations of health officials to wear masks in public and to adhere to social distancing measures as they took to Arizona State Capitol, demanding that strict controls on public activity are lifted. Restrictions in Arizona put in place by Gov. Doug Ducey are set to be lifted on April 30, however he has been cautious in detailing how and when they might be eased. Ducey said last week that while he wants to see everyone get back to work and back with their lives, he wants that to happen when it is safe and healthy to do so. We appreciate the passion expressed by Arizonans today, and we share their desire to get back to normal as quickly as possible, Duceys spokesman, Patrick Ptak, said in response to Mondays demonstration. Mondays protests came after President Donald Trump encouraged people to protest stay-at-home orders in a handful of battleground states led by Democratic governors. Heading into the weekend, Trump issued separate tweets calling to LIBERATE MINNESOTA, LIBERATE MICHIGAN, and LIBERATE VIRGINIA, warning that Virginia was literally under siege over Second Amendment issues predating the lockdown. On April 18, Trump defended the demonstrations, saying: These people love our country. They want to go back to work. There are over 787,000 cases of the CCP virus across the United States and at least 42,364 deaths, according to a tracking map from Johns Hopkins University that collates official government data. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, in an April 20 interview on ABC, cautioned against lifting restrictions too early. What you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, youre gonna set yourself back. Its going to backfire. Thats the problem, Fauci said. Tom Ozimek and Reuters contributed to this report. From The Epoch Times $5 Million in Revenue Recognized in April PHOENIX, AZ, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Taronis Fuels, Inc., (Taronis or the Company) (TRNF), a global producer of renewable and socially responsible fuel products, today provided an update on the status of a key contract with a client based in Turkey. On April 21, 2020, the Company successfully shipped a 50KW mobile Venturi plasma arc gasification unit to fulfill an existing purchase order. The unit was previously announced as a $5 million sale to a reseller and marketing partner in the industrial sales and marketing space based in Turkey with its primary offices in Ankara, and regional offices in Dusseldorf, Germany. The unit is currently scheduled to arrive in Turkey in May. The unit will be shipped in two phases, with the first shipping via Miami, Florida on April 21, 2020. This shipment is scheduled to arrive in Gemilk, Turkey on May 27, 2020. The second shipment is traveling via Savannah, Georgia, departing on May 1, 2020, and is due in Gemilk on May 29, 2020. The shipments will then be transported over land to Ankara for delivery to the final destination on June 3, 2020. Once delivered, Taronis plans to immediately send an engineering and technical team to commission the unit in Ankara. Once fully operational, an official delegation from the Turkish Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources will attend a ribbon cutting ceremony that will include an official demonstration of the gasification technology in operation, as well as a demonstration of the end product, MagneGas, the Companys patented, renewable, hydrogen-based metal cutting fuel. The delivery of the unit represents a key financial milestone for Taronis Fuels. First, this shipment enables the recognition of $5 million in high margin revenues, which are expected to be recognized in full during the second quarter of 2020. Next, this is the final requirement set forth by the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources for the payment of four $4.69 million cash installments for five new 300KW Venturi plasma arc gasification units. The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources is expected to be a key partner in the financing of this initial five unit purchase, as well as additional purchases of up to 95 more units over the next two years. Story continues Lastly, the commissioning of the 50KW unit will enable the reseller to begin marketing the technology to government delegates from several neighboring markets with deep historical commercial ties to Turkey. The reseller and Taronis executed a 24 month joint marketing agreement in December 2019 for up to 50 additional units to be sold at $5 million each within the defined marketing territory. Multiple government and industry leaders from these target markets have committed to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony and evaluate the technology for immediate investment. This was a significant accomplishment for our engineering and technical team, commented Scott Mahoney, CEO of Taronis. This order was placed in January, just as the coronavirus pandemic began to impact the global community. Our team overcame incredible obstacles and disruptions within our global supply chain, including a lockdown in California and Florida that hindered our technical team on multiple fronts. Ultimately, our team prevailed, producing a top quality end product. The final successful step in this process was identifying a reliable shipping solution that could deliver the unit to its final destination in Ankara, which was no small feat given the number of shipping cancellations and disruptions to global trade and logistics today. We are very pleased to reach this critical crossroad in fulfilling our obligations and responsibilities to date with our partners and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources in Turkey. This milestone now triggers a series of positive and scaling financial developments for the Company. To prepare for the expected growth, we are in the final stage of launching new manufacturing facilities in Peoria, Arizona, where we plan to be able to produce upwards of 100 new gasification units annually for the foreseeable future. We do not view the shipment of this 50KW mobile unit as an end goal, but rather the beginning of an entirely new and exciting chapter in the growth story of Taronis Fuels as a global player in the industrial fuels industry of the 21st century, concluded Mr. Mahoney. To see pictures of the 50KW mobile unit and for other updates on Taronis Fuels, visit our blog and follow us on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram . About Taronis Fuels, Inc. Taronis Fuels, Inc. is a global producer of renewable and socially responsible fuel products. Our goal is to deliver environmentally sustainable, technology driven alternatives to traditional fossil fuel and carbon-based economy products. We believe our products offer a vastly cleaner solution to legacy acetylene and propane alternatives. Taronis is also dedicated to providing fundamentally safer solutions to meet the industrial, commercial and residential needs of tomorrows global economy. Our products have been rigorously tested and independently validated by global gas authorities as vastly safer than acetylene, the most dangerous industrial gas in use today. Lastly, we strive to deliver products that offer significant function superiority at a reduced cost to the end consumer. Through these efforts, we support 9 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. For more information, please visit our website at www.taronisfuels.com/ FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements relate to future events, including our ability to raise capital, or to our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects our current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our public filings with the SEC are available from commercial document retrieval services and at the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. The majority of office workers think working in an office is actually hurting the environment, according to new research. For Earth Day, a global poll of 2,250 office workers discovered that 77% reveal that working from home is one of most effective ways to help the environment. The average office worker reveals they save nearly an hour every single day just commuting to their jobs that's five hours in a single week that Global office workers could get back just by working from home. Office workers surveyed are increasingly becoming more aware of their carbon footprint. A whopping 84% worry about their environmental impact. The study conducted by OnePoll in conjunction with GoTo by LogMeIn aimed to uncover how office workers feel about working from home and their environmental impact. The survey of 1,000 U.S office workers, 250 office workers in India, the U.K., Brazil and Germany, 125 office workers in Australia and 125 office workers in New Zealand found that nearly half (48%) of surveyed office workers would happily take a pay cut if it meant they could work from home indefinitely. Over 75% of respondents say their commute to work is something they feel guilty about when it comes to the daily impact it has on the environment. From using plastic bags daily (67%) and improperly throwing away recyclables in the trash (61%) to using plastic straws (59%) and throwing away leftover lunches (59%), office workers are working to change their environmentally harmful habits. But, it's not just the environmental impact benefit that working from home proves appealing to workers. Respondents report they spend nearly an hour commuting on average to and from work. Beyond time-saving (72%) of office workers surveyed say saving money (66%) is a huge perk to working from home. Other benefits associated with working remotely include the ability to spend more time with family and friends (56%), feeling happier (45%) and being more productive (37%). Over half surveyed (57%) reveal that working from home provides them with the ability to embrace a more flexible schedule while a further 48% say they can save money on things like their commute or childcare when they work remotely. But, beyond that, 56% say they simply enjoy the ability to wear whatever they want when working from home. Another 46% of those studied say one of the best things about working remotely is the close access to their kitchen while a further 44% can get some of their weekend chores out of the way. A spokesperson for GoTo by LogMeIn stated: "We've long seen the benefits of remote work to allow employees to have more flexible schedules, but as most of the world has turned to full-time remote working amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the unexpected benefits is the impact this is already having on the environment," said Mark Strassman, SVP and GM for Unified Communications & Collaboration at LogMeIn. "It's clear from our survey that office workers are concerned about the impact their behavior is having on the environment, and allowing them to work full-time or even part-time remote can help to mitigate carbon emissions, save employees' time, and ultimately create a work culture where employees are happier and more productive." And 64% of workers surveyed say working from home makes them more productive. Medical personnel from St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton stand on the sidewalk as Fullerton and Brea firefighters, EMS and police join together in a show of support for healthcare workers. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Orange County officials Monday reported one additional coronavirus-linked death, raising the toll to 33. The county also announced an additional 41 COVID-19 cases, with the total now at 1,676. There were 142 cases reported over Saturday and Sunday, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. While the county saw a slowing in the number of infections early last week, with only seven new cases Monday and 21 cases Tuesday, the number shot back up over the days that followed. David Souleles, director of public health services for the county Health Care Agency, said during a Monday news briefing that hospitalizations have remained relatively flat for a while" and that the total number of cases has been doubling at a slower frequency. Those are all indicators to us that the efforts at social distancing and other efforts we have asked our community to undertake are helping to begin to flatten our curve a little bit, he said. Officials said the county is looking for ways to mitigate the impact of revenue losses due to the pandemic. Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Michelle Steel said that an ad-hoc committee bringing together business leaders to forge a plan to address the economic fallout will have its first meeting Tuesday. County Executive Officer Frank Kim said officials have been looking into expanding hotel capacity for first responders and people living in crowded housing units who may need a safer place to self-isolate. Of those who have died, 19 were at least 65 years old and 11 were 45 to 64. Two victims were age 25 to 34 and one was age 35 to 44. Twenty of the victims have been men and 13 have been women. County officials also released a breakdown of the victims by race and ethnicity, which showed that 11 of those who died were Asian, nine were Latino, eight were white and two were black. Information was unavailable for remaining victims. According to the Orange County Health Care Agency, 18,766 people have been tested by the county and commercial labs to date. Story continues Over the past few days, the county has seen various protests calling for the lifting of stay-at-home orders in California. In San Clemente's business district, protesters on Sunday held up signs that read Open Our Beaches, Let Me Be Free, Freedom Is Essential and The Media Is the Virus. On Friday, a group of more than 100 protesters gathered in Huntington Beach. County Supervisor Donald Wagner said that protesters have been lawfully exercising their 1st Amendment rights. What youre seeing is a number of people around the county rightly asking the question How do we get this county back open for business? he said. Folks are rightfully asking those questions and they want answers from their government. (Newser) A group of backpackers whose travel plans were thrown into disarray by India's nationwide lockdown ended up living in a cave for 25 days after running out of money, police say. The four men and two women were found in a cave near the popular tourist destination of Rishikesh in northern India, the BBC reports. Police say the travelers from the US, Ukraine, Nepal, Turkey, and France had been living in hotels and guesthouses in Rishikesh and moved to the cave because they were stranded by the lockdown and needed to save what little money they had for provisions. Transport in India has been halted since March 24 and authorities recently extended the lockdown until May 3. story continues below Police official Rakendra Singh Kathait says locals informed police after discovering that the tourists were living in the cave. "After receiving the information, we went to the cave and found the six foreigners," he says. "They told us that they decided to move into the cave because they were running out of money. We did their medical tests and sent them to a quarantine center." He says none of the group tested positive for COVID-19. Rishikesh was made famous when the Beatles visited for several weeks in 1968. Much like the Fab Four, the stranded tourists are now staying at an ashram, the Hindu reports. With an estimated 700 other tourists stuck in Rishikesh and thousands more across the country, the Indian government has launched the Stranded in India website to assist them. (Read more India stories.) Here's something that ought to kill off the snitching programs set up around the country by local governments to finger local businesses still open in the name of combatting the coronavirus: According to GatewayPundit: Talk radio great Jamie Allman filed a Sunshine law request for the actual emails of St. Louis County residents who've snitched on local entrepreneurs trying to make a living. Most of the complaints were unfounded, involving people "turning in" companies that were deemed essential by the county. Sure enough, he got them. Here. Apparently, some crummy little bureaucrat in the bowels of St. Louis's government went ahead and sent them to the clever shock jock names, email addresses, complaints, and all. Every COVID-19 snitch in St. Louis has just been outed. This undoubtedly would be embarrassing for the people who made those seemingly secret complaints, playing snitch in the same way as the ordinary snitches and their blotting-paper secret police controllers depicted in The Lives of Others, a brilliant film that won an Academy Award. On his Facebook page, Allman notes that the snitches were notifed on the form that their complaints would be made public. But I suspect that it might have been done in fine print, or the people snitching just didn't read it. Here ya go. The Gallery of snitches, busybodies, and employees who rat out their own neighbors and employers over the Panic-demic. A tiny few look like they have legit beefs. Most do not. But it's all public record and you make the call. This fishing expedition by the County resulted in at least 50 local businesses being notified by letter to close down or else. This is a result of my Sunshine Law request initiated after the St. Louis County Government asked for info to enlist soldiers in its war on small business for lack of any other solution. What"s shocking (or not so shocking) is that these people were notified ON THE FORM that their complaints would be made public. A lot of you are asking to share this and if you can , do. But on FB you can only post a PDF to a "group" page. GatewayPundit read through quite a few of them and posted its curation, noting: The 900-page file of complaints is, ultimately, sad. What could be more depressing than a mother begging government officials to put her daughter out of work? Or women asking the county to shut down their fiance's company? That "Lives of Others" scent hangs heavy on this one. It calls to mind that these people trusted the government to keep things all hunky-dory for them as they did the government's bidding, yet they undoubtedly ended up embarrassed with such a release. Because if they really knew that their names and emails would be released, would they have participated? Why not hold a televised snitch-a-thon telethon and see how many are willing to broadcast their names and emails in order to join the fun? Leftist governments enjoy this sort of thing, and rat-out-your-neighbor programs have been put up all over. Los Angeles's mayor called its snitch-on-business program "snitches get rewards." Snitching to the government is a staple of socialist regimes everywhere, and Comrade Bill de Blasio, who has significant experience learning and admiring the ways of communist Cuba and Sandinista Nicaragua (that place where everyone lied to the pollsters in 1990), certainly has been upfront about the importance of snitching in New York City. A culture of neighbor snitching on neighbor, as the Nicaraguan Sandinista example demonstrated, may be great for enforcing conformity on fealty to socialism, or social distancing, but it's a disaster for social capital. In any culture where neighbor spies on neighbor, everyone is distrusted, and people clam up, isolating themselves socially as surely as social distancing does, everyone wary of even his friends and relatives. Sometimes snitching is needed, as when the target is cartels or terrorists or spy rings. But in those cases, experienced police handlers protect their sources zealously and with force of law (right, Dick Armitage?) to ensure that they can have sources. Without that trust, snitching doesn't happen. City officials are different, though. In their calls to make snitching a way of life in the name of public health, they have little interest in protecting their sources once they've obtained and used their information. Hence, no one sounded the alarm when the program was created in St. Louis that maybe this wouldn't be the best way to do things. The snitches themselves must have felt they'd never be revealed, given that they were all lonely nobodies no one would notice. Well, it didn't happen that way. Now everyone knows them. This won't do much to win back their neighbors' trust in the post-coronavirus era. And it sure as heck should kill the snitch program in St. Louis. Allman should do another sunshine law filing to see how many will now snitch since his disclosures. Showa Denko K.K., CSR & Corporate Communication Office, Tel: 81-3-5470-3235 TOKYO, Apr 21, 2020 - (JCN Newswire) - HC Holdings K.K. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Showa Denko K.K. ("Showa Denko"); the "Tender Offeror") decided on March 23, 2020, through the Tender Offeror's representative officer, to acquire common shares (the "Target Shares") of Hitachi Chemical Company, Ltd. (the "Target Company") listed on the First Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. (the "Tokyo Stock Exchange") under the code number 4217, through a tender offer (meaning a tender offer under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (Act No. 25 of 1948, as amended; the "Act"); the "Tender Offer"). The Tender Offeror commenced the Tender Offer on March 24, 2020, and the Tender Offer was completed on April 20, 2020. Accordingly, we hereby announce the results thereof as follows.We also hereby announce that as a result of the Tender Offer, as of April 28, 2020 (the settlement commencement date of the Tender Offer), the Target Company will cease to be the subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. ("Hitachi") and will become a subsidiary of the Tender Offeror and consolidated subsidiary (a second-tier subsidiary company) of Showa Denko.I. Results of the Tender Offer1. Outline of Purchase(1) Name and Location of the Tender OfferorHC Holdings K.K.13-9, Shiba Daimon 1-Chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo(2) Name of the Target CompanyHitachi Chemical Company, Ltd.(3) Type of Share Certificates to be PurchasedCommon shares(4) Number of Share Certificates to Be PurchasedNumber of Shares to be Purchased: 208,218,230 (shares)Minimum Number of Shares to be Purchased: 138,812,200 (shares)Maximum Number of Shares to be Purchased: - (shares)(Note 1): If the total number of share certificates, etc., tendered to the Tender Offer (the "Tendered Share Certificates") is less than the minimum number of shares to be purchased (138,812,200 shares), none of the Tendered Share Certificates will be purchased. If the total number of Tendered Share Certificates is the minimum number of shares to be purchased (138,812,200 shares) or more, all of the Tendered Share Certificates will be purchased. Because there is no set number for maximum number of shares to be purchased for the Tender Offer, the maximum number of share certificates of the Target Company that will be acquired by the Tender Offeror in the Tender Offer (208,218,230 shares) is stated as the number of shares to be purchased. The maximum number is the number of shares (208,218,230 shares) obtained by deducting the number of the treasury shares owned by the Target Company as of December 31, 2019 stated in the "Consolidated Financial Summary (For the Third Quarter Ended December 31, 2019 (IFRS basis))" announced on January 28, 2020, by the Target Company (the "Target Company's Financial Summary") (146,683 shares) from the total number of the outstanding shares as of December 31, 2019 stated in the 71st Third Quarterly Report submitted by the Target Company on February 12, 2020 (the "Target Company's Third Quarterly Report") (208,364,913 shares).(Note 2): Shares less than one unit are also subject to the Tender Offer. If the right to demand purchase of shares less than one unit is exercised by a shareholder in accordance with the Companies Act (Act No. 86 of 2005, as amended), the Target Company may purchase its own shares during the period of the Tender Offer (the "Tender Offer Period") in accordance with the procedures under laws and regulations.(Note 3): The Tender Offeror does not intend to acquire the treasury shares owned by the Target Company through the Tender Offer.(5) Period for Purchase(i) Period for Purchase in the Registration StatementThe period is from March 24, 2020 (Tuesday) to April 20, 2020 (Monday) (20 business days).(ii) Possibility of Extension Based on Requests by the Target CompanyIf the Target Company submits a position statement stating that the Target Company requests an extension of the Tender Offer Period based on Article 27-10, paragraph 3 of the Act, the Tender Offer Period shall be extended to May 8, 2020 (Friday) (30 business days). However, no event falling under the above has arisen.(6) Price for Purchase4,630 yen per common share2. Results of Purchase(1) Whether the Tender Offer Has Successfully CompletedAs a condition for the Tender Offer, it was decided that if the total number of Tendered Share Certificates is less than the minimum number of shares to be purchased (138,812,200 shares), none of the Tendered Share Certificates will be purchased. However, because the total number of the Tendered Share Certificates (182,412,507 shares) is equivalent to or higher than the minimum number of shares to be purchased (138,812,200 shares), purchase of all of the Tendered Share Certificates will be carried out as stated in the announcement regarding commencement of tender offer and the tender offer registration statement.(2) Date of Public Notice of Results of the Tender Offer and Name of Newspaper that Published the Public NoticeBased on Article 27-13, paragraph 1 of the Act, the results of the Tender Offer were disclosed to journalistic organizations on April 21, 2020, at the Tokyo Stock Exchange by the method provided for in Article 9-4 of the Order for Enforcement of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (Cabinet Order No. 321 of 1965, as amended) and Article 30-2 of the Cabinet Office Order on Disclosure Required for Tender Offer for Share Certificates by Persons Other Than Issuers (Ministry of Finance Order No. 38 of 1990, as amended).(3) Number of Purchased Share Certificates, etc.Type of Share Certificates, etc.(i) Number of Tendered Share Certificates, etc. Converted into Shares(ii) Number of Purchased Share Certificates, etc. Converted into Shares- Share Certificates: (i) 182,412,507 shares (ii) 182,412,507 shares- Share Option Certificates: (i) - shares; (ii) - shares- Corporate Bond Certificates with Share Options: (i) - shares; (ii) - shares- Beneficiary Certificates of Share Certificates, etc.: (i) - shares; (ii) - shares- Depository Receipt for Share Certificates, etc.: (i) - shares; (ii) - shares- Total: (i) 182,412,507 shares (ii) 182,412,507 shares- (Total Number of Potential Share Certificates, etc.): (i) - shares; (ii) (- share)(4) Ownership Ratio of Share Certificates After Purchase- Number of Voting Rights Relating to Share Certificates Owned by the Tender Offeror Before Purchase; -; (Ownership Ratio of Share Certificates Before Purchase: -%)- Number of Voting Rights Relating to Share Certificates Owned by Specially Related Parties Before Purchase; -; (Ownership Ratio of Share Certificates Before Purchase: -%)- Number of Voting Rights Relating to Share Certificates Owned by the Tender Offeror After Purchase; 1,824,125 (Ownership Ratio of Share Certificates After Purchase: 87.61%)- Number of Voting Rights Relating to Share Certificates Owned by Specially Related Parties After Purchase; -; (Ownership Ratio of Share Certificates After Purchase: -%)- Number of Voting Rights of All Shareholders of the Target Company; 2,080,319(Note 1): The "Number of Voting Rights of All Shareholders of the Target Company" is the number of voting rights of all shareholders as of December 31, 2019 stated in the Target Company's Third Quarterly Report. However, because shares less than one unit were also subject to the Tender Offer, for purposes ofcalculating the "Ownership Ratio of Share Certificates After Purchase," the number of the voting rights (2,082,182) relating to the number of shares (208,218,230 shares) obtained by deducting the number of the treasury shares owned by the Target Company as of December 31, 2019 stated in the Target Company's financial summary (146,683 shares) from the total number of the outstanding shares as of December 31, 2019 stated in the Target Company's Third Quarterly Report (208,364,913 shares) is used as the denominator.(Note 2): The "Ownership Ratio of Share Certificates After Purchase" is rounded to two decimal places.(5) Calculation in the Case of Purchase by a Method of Proportional DistributionNo applicable matter has arisen under this section.(6) Method of Settlement(i) Name and location of head office of financial instruments business operator or bank responsible for settlement of purchase: Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. 1-5-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo(ii) Settlement commencement date: April 28, 2020 (Tuesday)(iii) Method of settlementA notice of purchase through the Tender Offer will be mailed to the addresses of the shareholders who accept the Tender Offer (the "Accepting Shareholders") (or the addresses of their standing proxies in the case of shareholders, including corporate shareholders, that reside outside of Japan ("Non-Resident Shareholders")) without delay after the expiry of the Tender Offer Period. Payment for the purchase will be made in cash. Under the instructions of the Accepting Shareholders (or their standing proxies, in the case of Non-Resident Shareholders), the tender offer agent will remit payment for share certificates to be purchased to the location instructed by the Accepting Shareholders (or their standing proxies in the case of Non-Resident Shareholders), or to the account of the Accepting Shareholders whose tender was accepted by the tender offer agent, without delay, on or after the settlement commencement date.3. Policy After the Tender Offer and Future OutlookThere is no change from the contents described in the "Announcement Regarding the Commencement of Tender Offer for Shares in Hitachi Chemical Company, Ltd. (Securities Code 4217)," published as of March 23, 2020, by the Tender Offeror.The Tender Offeror plans to carry out the procedure for making the Target Company a whollyowned subsidiary in order to obtain all of the Target Shares (excluding treasury shares owned by the Target Company), which will be carried out after the successful completion of the Tender Offer. Although the Target Shares are currently listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Target Shares will be delisted following the prescribed procedures in accordance with the Delisting Standards of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The future procedures will be disclosed by the Target Company as soon as they have been determined.4. Place Where a Copy of the Tender Offer Report Is To Be Made Available for Public InspectionHC Holdings, K.K.(13-9, Shiba Daimon 1-Chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo)Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc.(2-1 Nihombashi Kabutocho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo)II. Change in Subsidiary (a Second-tier Subsidiary Company)1. Reason for ChangeAs a result of the Tender Offer, as of April 28, 2020 (the settlement commencement date of the Tender Offer), the Target Company will cease to be Hitachi's subsidiary and will become a subsidiary of the Tender Offeror and consolidated subsidiary (a second-tier subsidiary company) of Showa Denko.2. Outline of Subsidiary (Second-tier Subsidiary Company) to be Changed (Target Company)(1) Name: Hitachi Chemical Company, Ltd.(2) Location: 1-9-2, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo(3) Title and Name of Representative: Hisashi Maruyama, President and CEO(4) Description of Business: Manufacturing, processing, and sales of functional materials and advanced components and systems(5) Stated Capital: 15,454,363 thousand yen (as of December 31, 2019)(6) Date of Incorporation: October 10, 1962(7) Major Shareholders and Shareholding Ratio (as of September 30, 2019)(Note):- Hitachi, Ltd. 51.24%- Goldman Sachs and Company (regular account) (standing proxy: Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd.) 5.89%- Credit Suisse Securities (Japan), Ltd. 3.74%- Japan Trustee Services Bank, Ltd. (trust account) 2.65%- Goldman Sachs International (standing proxy: Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd.) 2.08%- The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Ltd. (trust account) 1.94%- State Street Bank and Trust Company 510312 (standing proxy: Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Settlement & Clearing Services Department) 1.78%- State Street Bank and Trust Company 510311 (standing proxy: Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Settlement & Clearing Services Department) 1.50%- The Bank of New York GCM Client Account JPRD ISG (FE-AC) (standing proxy: MUFG Bank, Ltd.) 1.37%- Japan Trustee Services Bank, Ltd. (trust account 7) 1.02%(8) Relationships Between the Listed Company and the Target Company- Capital Relationship: N/A- Personnel Relationship: N/A- Business Relationship: Showa Denko, who is a parent company of the Tender Offeror sells functional chemicals, ceramics products, and electronic chemicals to the Target Company. Further, the Target Company purchases materials from, and provides analysis services to, Showa Denko.- Status as Related Party: N/A(9) Consolidated Operating Results and Consolidated Financial Position of the Target Company for Previous Three Years (International Financial Reporting Standards)Fiscal Year: Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2017 / Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2018 / Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2019- Equity Interests of Shareholders of Parent Company: 375,001 million yen / 400,383 million yen / 420,095 million yen- Amount of Total Assets: 609,155 million yen / 701,163 million yen / 708,659 million yen- Equity Interests of Shareholders of Parent Company per Share: 1,800.91 yen / 1,922.85 yen / 2,017.54 yen- Sales Revenue: 554,144 million yen / 669,234 million yen / 681,025 million yen- Net Income Attributable to Shareholders of Parent Company: 40,186 million yen / 36,324 million yen / 28,723 million yen- Basic Earnings per Share: 192.99 yen / 174.45 yen / 137.94 yen- Dividends per Share: 55.00 yen / 60.00 yen / 60.00 yen(Note): "(7) Major Shareholders and Shareholding Ratio (as of September 30, 2019)" is based on "Status of Major Shareholder(s)" in the 71st Second Quarterly Report submitted by the Target Company on November 12, 2019.3. Outline of Subsidiary that will Acquire the Shares (HC Holdings, K.K.)(1) Name: HC Holdings K.K.(2) Location: 13-9, Shiba Daimon 1-Chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo(3) Title and Name of Representative: Eishi Wakutsu, Representative Officer(4) Description of Business: Pure holding company(5) Stated Capital: One yen (as of April 21, 2020 (Note 1))(6) Date of Incorporation: December 9, 2019(7) Major Shareholders and Shareholding Ratio: Showa Denko 100% (as of April 21, 2020 (Note 2))(8) Relationship between the Listed Company and the Target Company- Capital Relationship: Showa Denko holds all of the outstanding shares of the Tender Offeror (one share (as of April 21, 2020 (Note 3))).- Personnel Relationship: As of today, Mr. Eishi Wakutsu, who is Showa Denko's Corporate Officer and General Manager of Corporate Strategy Department, also serves as the Representative Officer of the Tender Offeror.- Business Relationship: N/A- Status as Related Party: The Tender Offeror is the consolidated subsidiary of Showa Denko and constitutes Showa Denko's related party.(Note 1): As described in the "Announcement Regarding Fundraising, Capital Reduction of the Consolidated Subsidiary and Change in the Specified Subsidiary Company," which was separately disclosed today, with respect to Showa Denko and the Tender Offeror, Showa Denko's wholly-owned subsidiary Showa Denko's board of directors and the representative officer of the Tender Offeror also decided, on the same date, that the Tender Offeror will issue preferred shares by means of a third-party share allotment (the "Issuance of the Preferred Shares"), Mizuho Bank, Ltd. ("Mizuho Bank") and Development Bank of Japan Inc. ("Development Bank of Japan") will subscribe for all of such preferred shares, and a preferred share investment agreement will be executed among Mizuho Bank, Development Bank of Japan, Showa Denko, and the Tender Offeror, and that the Tender Offeror will issue common shares by means of a third-party share allotment (the "Issuance of Common Shares") (for details, please see "Announcement Regarding Fundraising, Capital Reduction of the Consolidated Subsidiary and Change in the Specified Subsidiary Company," disclosed as of today.). Though the Issuance of the Preferred Shares and the Issuance of the Common Shares, the amount of the stated capital of the Tender Offeror will increased by 285 billion yen to 285 billion 1 yen. In addition, through issuance of shares for subscription, the Tender Offeror plans to reduce the amount of its stated capital by 284.9 billion 1 yen, under the condition that as of April 30, 2020, the amount of stated capital of the Tender Offeror is 285 billion 1 yen and the amount of its capital reserves is 285 billion yen, which will be effectuated as of May 1, 2020. As a result, the amount of the stated capital of the Tender Offeror will be 100 million yen.(Note 2): Through the Issuance of the Preferred Shares and the Issuance of the Common Shares, Showa Denko will become the common shareholder, and Mizuho Bank and Development Bank of Japan will become the preferred shareholders. Because such preferred shares do not have voting rights, the ratio of the voting rights of Showa Denko will remain 100%, even after the Issuance of the Preferred Shared and the Issuance of the Common Shares.(Note 3): Through the Issuance of the Common Shares, the total number of the outstanding shares pertaining to the Tender Offeror's common shares will be 295 billion 1 shares, all of which will be held by Showa Denko (for details, please see "Announcement Regarding Fundraising, Capital Reduction of the Consolidated Subsidiary and Change in the Specified Subsidiary Company," disclosed as of today.).4. Number of Acquired Shares, Price for Acquisition, and Status of Shareholdings Before and After the Acquisition(1) Size of Shareholdings Before the Change- shares(Number of voting rights: -)(Ownership ratio of voting rights: -)(2) Number of Acquired Shares182,412,507 shares(Number of voting rights: 1,824,125)(Ownership ratio of voting rights: 87.61%)(3) Price for Acquisition Target Shares: Approximately 844,569 million yen(4) Size of Shareholdings After the Change182,412,507 shares(Number of voting rights: 1,824,125)(Ownership ratio of voting rights: 87.61%)(Note 1): With respect to the "ownership ratio of voting rights," the number of the voting rights (2,082,182) relating to the number of shares (208,218,230 shares) obtained by deducting the number of the treasury shares owned by the Target Company as of December 31, 2019, as stated in the Target Company's financial summary (146,683 shares) from the total number of the outstanding shares as of December 31, 2019, as stated in the Target Company's Third Quarterly Report (208,364,913 shares) is used as the denominator.(Note 2): The "ownership ratio of voting rights" is rounded to two decimal places.5. Date of Change (To Be Fixed)April 28, 2020 (Tuesday) (settlement commencement date of the Tender Offer)6. Future OutlookThe impact on Showa Denko's consolidated results due to this change to the subsidiary is currently under review. If modification of the financial forecast is required, or if any matters to be announced arise, they will be promptly disclosed.Full release can be viewed at www.sdk.co.jp/assets/files/english/news/2020/20200421_sdknewsrelease1_e.pdfAbout Showa Denko K.K.Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; TSE:4004, ADR:SHWDY) is a major manufacturer of chemical products serving from heavy industry to computers and electronics. The Petrochemicals Sector provides cracker products such as ethylene and propylene, the Chemicals Sector provides industrial, high-performance and high-purity gases and chemicals for semicon and other industries, the Inorganics Sector provides ceramic products, such as alumina, abrasives, refractory/ graphite electrodes and fine carbon products. The Aluminum Sector provides aluminum materials and high-value-added fabricated aluminum, the Electronics Sector provides HD media, compound semiconductors such as ultra high bright LEDs, and rare earth magnetic alloys, and the Advanced Battery Materials Department (ABM) provides lithium-ion battery components. For more information, please visit www.sdk.co.jp/english/.Source: Showa Denko K.K.Contact:Copyright 2020 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. UPDATE 23.04.2020 Voice of America (VOA) reporter Mukhtar Mohamed Atosh was arrested by police on 20 April in Baidoa for reporting on the death of a 14-year-old girl after she was raped. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), have strongly condemned the unfounded arrest and urge Somali authorities to release the journalist immediately. According to NUSOJ, on the day of Mohamed's arrest, Southwest Authorities had asked the Administration of Baidoa Hospital not to provide local journalists with any information about the young girl and deny the childs death at the hospital. Dozens of police officers raided Atosh's home and arrested him. He has been transferred from the Somali Crimes Investigation Department (CID) to the central prison and is charged with heavy crimes under the penal code. Atosh is a member of NUSOJ executive committee. NUSOJ General Secretary Omar Faruk Osman said: The arrest and detention of Mukhtar Atosh is an attempt to silence his reporting on a serious sexual assault and the ramification of his arrest is to stop local journalists spreading the truth. This intimidation must stop now, people must know the truth, the rape victim deserves justice and journalists must continue doing their work freely and without intimidation. IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: "We are particularly astonished to see that police forces would rather arrest a journalist than the criminals behind a rape. We urge the Somali authorities to release our colleague immediately. He has just done his job and deserves protection, not intimidation or threats". Journalist Mukhtar Mohamed Atosh has been released on bail on 22 April Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-20 20:32:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Medical experts sent by the Chinese government pose for photos with Malaysian Health Minister Adham Baba (C, front) , Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Bai Tian (L, front) and other senior health officials in Putrajaya, Malaysia, April 20, 2020. A team of medical experts sent by the Chinese government met with Malaysian health experts and medical personnel on Monday to share China's experiences in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei) PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, April 20 (Xinhua) -- A team of medical experts sent by the Chinese government met with Malaysian health experts and medical personnel on Monday to share China's experiences in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chinese experts met with Malaysia's Health Minister Adham Baba and other senior health officials, and also held a video conference session with health experts and doctors from more than two dozen public hospitals. Chen Chaw Min, secretary-general of Malaysia's health ministry, hoped the experiences shared by the Chinese experts could help Malaysia to better address the pandemic. The Chinese team will visit Malaysia's hospitals and laboratories, among other facilities, to get an understanding of Malaysia's measures against the COVID-19, Chen said. Chan said by sharing experiences, Malaysia and China could find out how to move forward with cooperation and come up with better measures in addressing the epidemic situation. The eight-member Chinese Anti-COVID-19 Medical team was organized by China's National Health Commission and selected by the health commission of Guangdong Province. They arrived in Malaysia on Saturday for a two-week program. The number of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia rose to 5,425 after 36 new cases were recorded on Monday. Piers Morgan slammed a government minister today over his failure to ensure NHS staff treating coronavirus patients have the protective equipment they need. The Good Morning Britain presenter criticised Local Government Minister Simon Clarke over his 'shameful' handling of the problem during the pandemic. Morgan said Mr Clarke 'didn't have a clue' how many healthcare workers had died from the virus - with Mr Clarke saying 49, but Morgan insisting it was over 100. Tearful nurses are being forced to wear these overalls after NHS staff in the Yorkshire and Humber area said they have been 'provided with clothing that resembles cagoules' The host also held up a photo from today's Daily Mail of nurses wearing cagoules because they did not have proper equipment to protect them from the infection. And Morgan, who was alongside Susanna Reid this morning, asked the Conservative MP: 'Would you send one of your family into a COV-19 ward wearing a cagoule?' It comes as Parliament returns today amid mounting criticism of the Government over its failure to ensure NHS staff have the protective equipment they need. During the interview, Mr Clarke urged every business in Britain that could help with providing PPE to contact the Cabinet Office to offer their resources. Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan slammed a government minister on Good Morning Britain today amid the ongoing personal protective equipment scandal On the number of healthcare workers who have died, Mr Clarke said: 'The figure for that is 49 and obviously every single one of those cases represents a human tragedy - we are determined we will understand in each case what has happened.' Morgan accused the MP of 'underestimating it by 50 per cent', but Mr Clarke insisted that the 'official government statistic' is 49. He added: 'Clearly we work to reconcile all the figures. We do not, when someone is hospital and tragically they die, always know their occupation at the outset. With great respect to the newspaper industry it doesn't quite hold to the same standards as data collection of the government.' Mr Clarke was also asked how many people in care homes have lost their lives, but he said this was being collated for an 'accurate figure rather than fuel speculation'. Local Government Minister Simon Clarke was criticised over his 'shameful' handling of the problem during the pandemic, during an interview by phone on the ITV programme today He added: 'I'm trying to explain the difference between how we get that figure, if you'll let me, which is that we know the number who died in hospitals and then we had the ONS data, which comes at a time lag, so the overall number of deaths in society at any given time. We're working to close that data lag.' Pressed further by Morgan, Mr Clarke continued: 'Piers, what matters is that we get the right PPE into the system, what matters is that we provide the right care, we matters it that we save jobs, what matters is that we shield the most vulnerable and those are the things that we are doing. Getting into this battle about statistics' But Morgan replied: 'They are not statistics, Mr Clarke, they are human lives, they are people's parents, they are people's grandparents, they are people's aunts, they are people's uncles. Don't you dare just call them statistics, because they are not. Morgan appeared alongside co-presenter Susanna Reid on ITV's Good Morning Britain today Mr Clarke said back: 'And don't you dare try and turn this into something that it isn't. What I'm saying is that we are working very hard to make sure we have proper facts.' Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Clarke said the UK was seeing 'exponential growth' in terms of testing capabilities. But he said organising contact testing was not his responsibility. Today host Nick Robinson asked Mr Clarke: 'I want to ask you about something for which you do have direct responsibility. Testing, as you know, is pretty pointless without contact tracing afterwards. 'If somebody is found to have symptoms you really want to find out who they've been in touch with and to isolate them. 'Have you, as Local Government Minister, spoken to councils yet about using the 5000 council environmental officers who are used to this sort of contact tracing and using them in this endeavour?' Mr Clarke replied: 'That falls under the agents of the HFC - the future contact tracing - we haven't taken responsibility for that role.' Robinson told him: 'But isn't this a problem of silos once again. 'There are 5000 environmental workers who have, I'm told and their institute says, offered to help contact tracing. This is what they do. This is what they understand. 'Public Health England only have about a couple of hundreds, they have 5000 potentially. And what you're saying to me is 'well, it's not my responsibility.'' Morgan held up a photo from today's Daily Mail of nurses wearing cagoules because they did not have proper equipment to protect them from the infection 'We are doing our very best to make sure we hit that target,' Mr Clarke added this morning. 'It's the right target, it's both what our science and the WHO's (World Health Organisation's) approach would suggest is the right thing to do.' The Government is working to ensure more key workers are eligible to have the tests so 'every possible slot is filled', he continued. Mr Clarke said it was 'highly unfair' to Mr Hancock to suggest that the Government's ambition to reach 100,000 tests a day was not 'empirically grounded'. He added: 'As I say, we are going to move from 26 current testing facilities to 50. That will in turn obviously bring those centres closer to more people and make it more viable to go there. 'We're increasing the groups of key workers who can go and be tested.' Ministers have insisted they are pursuing 'every possible option' to secure more kit but said that, with unprecedented global demand, the situation is 'very challenging'. The first of three RAF flights finally left yesterday for Turkey to begin collecting a consignment of personal protective equipment including 400,000 surgical gowns. But it is unclear when the items will arrive in the UK - with Mr Clarke, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland's MP, saying only that it would be in the 'next few days'. It comes as: Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves accused the Government of ignoring offers from British manufacturers to fill the gap. Dentists and anaesthetists became the latest groups to warn that they are working without adequate PPE. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals and NHS trusts in England, warned that the NHS's supply of face masks could be jeopardised if the Government begins advising the public to wear them, saying 'clear evidence' would be needed before advice was changed. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, Sage, which advises the Government, will reportedly consider the evidence at a meeting today. Manjeet Riyat, the first Sikh to work as an A&E consultant in the UK, was named among the latest healthcare workers to die after contracting Covid-19. The Government said meanwhile that 140,000 gowns had arrived from Burma - but with the NHS using 150,000 a day, the demand on resources remains intense. With fears that staff in hospitals and care homes are risking their lives, the TUC called for an independent inquiry into the Government's handling of the issue. The cagoule picture was released after nurses in the Yorkshire and Humber area said they have been 'provided with clothing that resembles cagoules'. A Royal College of Nursing official said: 'They are so worried and afraid. They cry before they go to work, they cry at work and they cry when they come home.' The latest figures show 16,509 patients had died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Sunday, up by 449 on the previous day. At the daily press conference yesterday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak insisted the Government was improving its sourcing of PPE internationally and domestically. But the medical director of Public Health England, Professor Yvonne Doyle, indicated that staff could refuse to work if they believe they are not properly protected. Peace talks with the Taliban are not going well. Using tactics common when Islamic terrorists negotiate with anyone, the Taliban agree to terms and then, when it comes time to deliver, insist on changing the terms. The Taliban has also demonstrated, but not admitted, that it cannot control all its factions when it comes to ceasefire agreements. The Taliban violence always continues, although Taliban leaders will not admit it. There are enough dead or wounded civilians and security personnel to refute Taliban excuses. The Taliban apparently believe the Americans will ultimately agree to some kind of deal and get out of the country. If not, the Taliban have already got a lot of their people out of jail and become more intimidating to Afghans who never believed the Taliban could convince the Americans to leave. The Taliban may be overestimating their capabilities. That would not be the first time the Taliban committed a major error and suffered a major setback. Coping With Covid19 Speaking of setbacks, Afghanistan now has to deal with the covid19 (coronavirus). It is not as much of a crisis as in other nations but it is having an impact. The virus has led to borders being closed to all but essential traffic. Pakistan is testing Afghan truck drivers for covid19 and about 20 percent of the drivers are sent back. Afghanistan has not got the resources to deal with covid19 and most of its medical resources available are still monopolized by the rich and powerful. The virus is more of a threat in the urban areas, where most of the 1,036 (so far) confirmed cases of the virus have been found. There have been 36 confirmed covid19 deaths so far. Covid19 is not as scary in Afghanistan because there are so many other deadly diseases or unnatural ways to die. One more does not make much difference and, since covid19 is most fatal for the elderly or those already ill from other afflictions, in most of the country covid19 deaths will not even be noticed. Covid19 is similar to the annual influenza outbreaks but infects and kills more people. Not a lot but enough to be declared a health emergency in most countries. In Afghanistan, a fatal cause of covid19 is just another death by a fever of someone seen as close to death already. This happens in the West as well, but much less frequently and usually by accident. For example, a lot of nursing home deaths in the West were, at first, not attributed to covid19 because nursing homes normally have frequent deaths. The victims tend to have a number of health problems that can eventually kill them. In the West just another fever as a cause of death is no longer acceptable even though it is what is happening. There is some interest in finding out how covid19 got into Afghanistan and nearby nations. Iran is considered the most likely source and is the one nation that has suffered the most. Many prominent politicians, military commanders and religious leaders have died from the virus in Iran. Most Iranians see that as a good thing because for two years now there has been growing antigovernment unrest. At first Iranian leaders, especially the religious ones who control the government, dismissed covid19 as something Allah was using to punish infidels (non-Moslems). That was incorrect and when prominent religious leaders began dying from covid19 ,many Iranians saw this as a sign that the heavenly powers did not approve of how the Iranian religious dictatorship was doing. To make matters worse, neighboring nations were attributing their local covid19 outbreaks to visitors from Iran. Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan have been most affected by this. Turkey and China have persuaded the Iranian government to be realistic about the covid19 problem. Despite that, the virus is still apparently out of control in Iran. China is apparently where Iran got covid19 because both China and Iran have tried to suppress discussion about how covid19 got into Iran via the regular passenger and cargo flights from Wuhan, the center of the covid19 outbreak in China and worldwide. Political Diseases Covid19 coming from Afghanistan is less a concern to Pakistan than getting Western troops out of Afghanistan and increasing Pakistani control there. Pakistan will always be deeply involved with what happens inside neighboring Afghanistan. In part because the current efforts by the Afghan Taliban to negotiate a peace deal with the U.S. is apparently inching closer to success. Attitudes inside Afghanistan are different. Most Afghans see the Taliban offer to negotiate as a scam because the Afghan Taliban are doing whatever Pakistan wants. The Afghan Taliban has always enjoyed a sanctuary in Pakistan, across the border from Helmand province where Afghans produce most of the world's heroin supply. Pakistan, or at least the Pakistani military, support the Afghan drug gangs by allowing, for a large fee, raw materials for turning opium plan sap into heroin to go from Pakistan to Helmand and for most of the heroin to be smuggled through Pakistan to the port of Karachi where the illegal drug can be smuggled to markets worldwide. The Afghan drug gangs pay the Afghan Taliban to protect the drug operations from foreign or Afghan interference. This is how most Afghans see the situation, which includes millions of Afghan addicts made possible by the availability of so much opium and heroin. While most of this stuff is exported some of it is sold locally, at a much lower price than in foreign markets. There are equally large numbers of addicts in Pakistan and Iran and the people in all those countries agree that the drug problem exists because of unofficial Pakistani support. That Pakistani effort is justified by its military's obsession with controlling Afghanistan even if it means supporting an Islamic form of government that would not be tolerated in Pakistan and the heroin production that is condemned by the people and governments of Afghanistan and all its neighbors. Despite this, the Americans are determined to go through the motions of obtaining a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban, who also have internal problems. The Afghan Taliban, at least those in Afghanistan, consist of many factions, usually based on geography and or tribal affiliation. These factions never agreed completely with each other and those differences have grown since the 1990s. Like everything else in Afghanistan, the Taliban began because of important tribal links. The original Taliban were Pushtuns from tribes in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. The original Taliban combat force was recruited in the mid-1990s from among Pushtun Afghan refugees from war-torn Afghanistan who were still in Pakistan. Even though the Russians were gone by 1988, the pro-Russian government that was left behind survived until 1991 because the Soviet Union that created it had dissolved and the economic and military aid that kept that Afghan government going, in only a small part of Afghanistan. The aid stopped in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved and by 1992 the Najibullah government the Russians had left behind also disappeared. The Pakistan backed Taliban entered Afghanistan in 1994. The Taliban were largely Afghans who had been studying in Pakistan-based, Saudi-financed religious schools. They portrayed themselves as pure and not partisan like the other factions in the civil war. The Taliban took control of Kabul and most of southern (Pushtun majority) Afghanistan. By the late 1990s, the victorious Taliban were still fighting the non-Pushtun northerners in an effort to control the entire country. The Taliban never did control all of Afghanistan. At this point, even a lot of Pushtuns could see that the Taliban were just another Pakistani effort to control Afghanistan or at least parts of it. There were reasons for that. Pakistan has twice as many Pushtuns as Afghanistan although with a much larger population the Pakistani Pushtun are a small minority in Pakistan versus a major (40 percent) minority in Afghanistan. That is one reason why Pakistan is so keen on having a large degree of control over Afghanistan, because that makes it more difficult for the Pushtun in both countries to unite. For thousands of years that has never happened but the potential was always there and late in the 20th century the idea of a separate Pushtunstan was gaining more supporters among Pushtun in both countries. Pushtunstan would be a nightmare for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pushtunstan would likely mean the disappearance of Afghanistan because the northern portions of Afghanistan occupied by Uzbeks and Tajiks could be absorbed by neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The Mongolian Shia Hazaras could be absorbed by Shia Iran as might some of the western border areas of Afghanistan where many Shia live. Pushtunstan would be a more troublesome neighbor than Afghanistan because it would mean Pakistan losing some of its northwestern territories and making the Baluchi tribes southwestern Pakistan (Baluchistan province) even more determined to secede. These separatist nightmares are made more likely because of decades of Pakistani efforts to gain more control over Afghanistan. The interference in Afghanistan has been going on since Pakistan was created in 1948 is illegal according to international law and opposed by every other nation in the region. Yet this interference has ancient origins. For over a thousand years, before the ancient silk road from China to India and the Middle East was replaced by more effective European cargo ships in the 16th century, the empires in what is now Iran and greater India (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) controlled portions of the silk road that went through Afghanistan. In effect, there is ancient Iranian influence in western Afghanistan while the influence in the east is Indian. The factionalism that has developed in the Afghan Taliban since 2001 is largely the result of more and more Taliban rejecting the Pakistani influence. That is something Pakistan has violently sought to suppress and Iran supports because the anti-Pakistan Taliban groups endanger the Pakistan-backed Afghan drug trade. A final complication is that in Pakistan it is the largely autonomous (from government control) military and the ISI intelligence branch that need the Afghan Taliban to justify their power and autonomy in Pakistan. This has caused a major rift in Pakistan where most Pakistanis back the elected government that, as the constitution stipulates, controls the military and not the other way around. The American attitude is that it will trust the Afghan Taliban and their Pakistani patrons only so far as the terms of any deal are observed. The Pakistani generals think they can play all this to their advantage. That would change if there were a change of government in Iran. The religious dictatorship of Iran is losing control because of decades of misrule, corruption and bad-behavior towards its own people. A new Iran government would probably be less anti-American and more willing to work with the Americans and Indians to reduce or eliminate Pakistani influence in Afghanistan along with the Afghan drug production. That would be very bad news for the Pakistani generals. The U.S. believes that the Islamic terrorist threat to Pakistan would encourage Pakistan to prevent the Afghan Taliban from again, as they did in the late 1990s, providing sanctuary for international Islamic terrorists. The Pakistani government has always supported some of those inside Pakistan, but only as long as these groups only attacked targets that Pakistan military approved of. These usually included India and Afghan government forces and their foreign allies. April 20, 2020: Over the last few days Taliban factions in the north (Takhar and Balkh provinces) and south (Uruzgan province) have been responsible for an increase in violence. There have been about a hundred casualties among the security forces plus a few civilian bystanders. The Taliban apparently suffered fewer losses. The Taliban factions involved are more interested in local issues than what the Taliban high-command, safely living in Baluchistan and Qatar, is demanding. The Taliban factions see their main goal as making money. Dealing with local obstacles often involves violence when bribes or intimidations wont work. In several parts of Afghanistan, especially the north, the local tribes have become a major obstacle for the Taliban. Much of the fighting in Takhar and Balkh involved local militias that have been fighting the Taliban for years. What with all this, the peace talks with the Americans dont mean much. April 19, 2020: The Afghan Taliban announced that its 2020 Spring Offensive will not start on time and is unsure what the new start date will be. This is all about covid19 and fear that many Taliban members will catch it and get sick or even die if allowed to leave their camps and villages to travel and fight. April 18, 2020: In the east (Khost province) Pakistani troops across the border in North Waziristan clashed with seven Islamic terrorists who had established a hideout near the Afghan border. All seven of Islamic terrorists were killed and found to be Pakistanis. Four soldiers were also killed. Much equipment and documents were seized. The seven men were planning attacks in Pakistan and were believed to have come from a base in Afghanistan. April 16, 2020: Outside Bagram airbase (near Kabul) six contractors (cleaners) were killed by gunmen. The cleaners were returning home after works. The Taliban denied responsibility so it might have been ISIL. The gunmen escaped into the darkness. April 14, 2020: The U.S. believes al Qaeda only has 200-300 members in Afghanistan and that these survive because they get along with the Taliban. The Americans want the Taliban to expel al Qaeda as part of a peace deal but the Taliban are trying to avoid doing that. April 10, 2020: In the east northeast (Nangarhar Province) an army raid near the main crossing from Pakistan found and seized a recently arrived (from Pakistan) truck that was carrying ten tons of explosives. The two men on the truck said they were paid to deliver half the load to someone in Nangarhar and the rest to someone in Kabul. Meanwhile, Pakistan has closed most of its Afghan border crossings to prevent the spread of the covid19. The crossings are expected to remain closed for at least another week. In eastern Iran over 80,000 Afghan refugees have returned from Iran since March 1st, most of them because of the spread of the covid19 virus inside Iran. This exodus is believed to be the source of the few covid19 cases found so far in Afghanistan. April 9, 2020: Outside Kabul five rockets were fired into Bagram airbase. Two were intercepted and the other three landed outside the base. ISIL took responsibility. In the south (Kandahar province) Pakistani soldiers and border fence workers were forced to retreat from the Spin Boldak where they were building the Pakistani border fence, guards stood watch as workers began building dozens of new border outposts on what the Afghans consider the Afghan side of the border in an area called Spin Boldak area. This took place south of Kandahar City, the original "home town" of the Taliban. Most of the construction work takes place at night but the construction sites are guarded day and night because local Afghans will sometimes attack. About half the 2,500 kilometer long Afghan border fence has been completed. Many Afghans dispute where Pakistan draws the border and the need for a border fence itself. Gunfire from the Afghanistan side of the border regularly kills or wounds soldiers and workers building the fence. Construction has been underway since 2017 and the attacks from the Afghan side have become particularly intense at times. So far Pakistan has had over a hundred soldiers and workers killed or wounded. Most of the Afghan-Pakistani border is still called the Durand Line. This was an impromptu, pre-independence (1893) invention of British colonial authorities and was always considered temporary, or at least negotiable, by locals. The need for renegotiation was mainly about how the line often went right through Pushtun tribal territories. However, the Afghans are more inclined to demand adjustments to the Durand Line and fight to obtain what they want. Thus recent Pakistani efforts to build more fences and other structures on their side of the border was an attempt to make the Durand line permanent and no longer negotiable. April 8, 2020: Pakistan had agreed to reopen Torkham and Chaman, the main border crossings with Afghanistan, three days a week starting April 10th. Afghan needs the cargo but Pakistan also wants the Afghans in Pakistan to go home. That was a problem because Afghanistan lacked the medical personnel to screen all those coming across. Pakistan has a lot of covid19 and Afghanistan has a lot less because it is so hard for anyone to get across the border. April 7, 2020: In the north (Samangan province) the Taliban lost about fifteen gunmen during four days of failed attempted to take control of two villages. The defending villagers lost two men, plus five wounded. There were also 22 Taliban wounded. The Taliban has had a hard time dealing with hostile tribes in the north and Samangan province is one of the most hostile areas for the Taliban. A year ago Taliban in Samangan again kidnapped many (about 60) truck drivers who refused to pay the Taliban for the right to use local roads without being attacked. This is an old problem in this area and the Taliban continue (since late 2018) having problems getting truck drivers to pay $93 protection money each to avoid being attacked as they transport coal to major towns and cities. The local Taliban declare that they control some key roads used by the coal trucks but local police, tribal militias and soldiers do not agree. The Taliban kidnapped at least fifty of the drivers back in December 2018 but quickly released them so it was difficult to see who really has the power in this area, which is traditionally hostile to the Taliban and drug gangs. Now the Taliban is trying armed attack on local villagers to change minds. This does not appear to be working. April 5, 2020: The Afghan government is willing to 5,000 release lower ranking Taliban but refuses to released 15 senior Taliban leaders that the Taliban are demanding be freed or there will be no peace deal. The Afghan government points out that these 15 men are capable leaders with a track record of success in planning operations gets a lot of soldiers, policemen and civilians killed. There is no popular support for letting the Fierce Fifteen, who already have a lot of blood on their hands, April 3, 2020: In the east (Khost province, adjacent to North Waziristan) seven members of a Haqqani Network bomb planting team when the roadside bomb they were emplacing went off. Haqqani takes their orders from the Pakistani military and the current Haqqani leader also runs the Afghan Taliban. March 25, 2020: In Kabul Haqqani Network was apparently behind an attack on a Sikh temple while there were 150 worshipers inside. The attackers were repulsed but not before they killed 25 people, including some of the Sikh inside the storefront temple. Sikhs are from India where the Sikh religion emerged from a Hindu faction centuries ago. That was how Buddhism came to be even earlier. India is an ally of the current Afghan government and provides economic and military assistance, Pakistan believes that by attacking Afghan Sikhs India may withdraw from Afghanistan. That is not likely but the Pakistani military is getting desperate because of economic problems, local opposition to involvement in Afghanistan and support for Islamic terrorists eager to attack India. March 18, 2020: The Taliban has declared a truce in their war against the government and foreign health efforts. This came in response to Taliban leaders realizing that believers (Moslems) were not immune to covid19 and the lack of health care in Taliban controlled areas would be one more version for the locals to form militias and drive the Taliban out. In 2019 Taliban violence against health workers left 51 dead and 142 wounded. This led to the shutdown of 192 clinics and other health facilities. Only 18 percent of them have been reopened this year. Now more of these facilities, most of them in Taliban controlled territory, will be reopened. Afghanistan does not know how many Afghans have been infected with covid19 because the government cannot afford to test many people. It is known that covid19 infections are coming in with Afghans returning from Iran and Pakistan. March 16, 2020: The United States kept up its large number of air attacks on Taliban forces. Despite the peace talks with the Taliban, the Taliban have not been able to abide by truce terms already agreed to and the U.S. responded by keeping up the airstrikes. The Taliban is still carrying out over a hundred attacks a day, nearly all against Afghan security forces and civilians. Attacking American troops is considered suicidal but some Taliban will try if they think they might get away with it. Married At First Sight's Michael Goonan has set the record straight on claims he was simply 'gifted' his wealthy parents' ice distribution company in Adelaide. In an Instagram Q&A on Monday, the 29-year-old businessman said: 'Everyone thinks I was gifted mummy and daddy's business. 'No, not like that at all. I haven't actually spoken to my father in ages. Work it out.' 'I haven't spoken to my father in ages': MAFS star Michael Goonan has set the record straight on claims he was simply 'gifted' his wealthy parents' ice distribution company in Adelaide Michael's father, Michael Goonan Sr., founded Adelaide Ice in the early 2000s and it went on to become South Australia's largest ice manufacturing business. The MAFS 'villain' is now the managing director of the company, which has offices in Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory. It's unclear what Michael meant when he said he hasn't spoken to his father 'in ages'. Success story: Michael's father, Michael Goonan Sr. (pictured), founded Adelaide Ice in the early 2000s and it went on to become South Australia's largest ice manufacturing business Close bond: Michael is known to be close to his mother, Julie (right), who visited him during Channel Nine's social experiment He may have been implying that his father is no longer involved in running the business. Alternatively, he may have been hinting at their strained relationship. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Michael Goonan Jr., for comment. Michael is known to be close to his mother, Julie, who visited him during Channel Nine's social experiment. Jet setter: The controversial reality star is no stranger to bragging about his luxurious lifestyle. Pictured last week boarding a private jet to Sydney with his girlfriend, KC Osborne During an episode that aired in February, Michael praised Julie while also admitting to his shortcomings as a son. 'I've never been the easiest boy to raise but you have always been my rock,' he said. 'I love you, mum. I really do.' The controversial reality star is no stranger to bragging about his luxurious lifestyle. 'When I was 24 I was actually able to afford a property over $1million. It has all paid off,' he said on Married At First Sight. 'I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a taste for a couple of watches and shiny toys.' Parts of Europe hit hard by the deadly coronavirus pandemic took tentative steps towards resuming normal lives on Monday, with Germany allowing some shops to reopen and Norway restarting nurseries. Governments across the world are debating how and when to ease the lockdowns that have kept more than half of humanity -- 4.5 billion people -- confined to their homes and crippled the global economy. After emerging in the industrial central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, the respiratory virus has claimed roughly 165,000 lives, with nearly two thirds of the victims in Europe. But there were encouraging signs over the weekend in Europe with daily death tolls dropping in Italy, Spain, France and Britain. In Germany, which been among the most successful in Europe to contain the disease and where authorities have declared it "under control", smaller shops in some regions were to re-open on Monday. Larger shops and those in major German cities will open later as part of an attempted phased return to a more normal existence that will also see some students go back to school from May 4. Adding another flicker of hope in Europe, Norway allowed children to go back to nurseries on Monday, although some parents expressed reservations over the decision. Hard-hit Spain, where a nationwide lockdown has been extended, also said it would ease restrictions to allow children time outside. Spain registered 410 new fatalities on Sunday, the lowest daily count in almost a month, and a figure that health ministry emergencies coordinator Fernando Simon said "gives us hope". Authorities are even starting to shut some makeshift facilities set up to relieve the overburdened health system, including a morgue at a Madrid ice rink. France also said a nationwide lockdown in force for a month was beginning to bear fruit. "We are scoring points against the epidemic," said French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. In the United States -- the country with the highest number of deaths and infections -- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the outbreak was "on the descent". Cuomo cautioned that it was "no time to get cocky", although the warmer weather lured New Yorkers out of their homes and into parks over the weekend. "I feel a little guilty being here, at the same time for my own mental sanity this is probably what I need," said real estate agent Taylor Henderson at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Across the other side of the world, New Zealand announced Monday that it will ease a nationwide lockdown next week, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying: "We have stopped a wave of devastation." Iran, which has the Middle East's deadliest outbreak, also allowed some "low-risk" businesses to reopen Saturday. - Bleak Ramadan - But after Christians around the world marked Easter with subdued ceremonies, Muslims in the Middle East and beyond are preparing for a bleak Ramadan -- the holiest month in the Islamic calendar -- which begins later this week. Mosque prayers have been suspended and Iftar feasts cancelled in many countries. Several countries' religious authorities, including Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, have ruled that prayers during Ramadan and Eid be performed at home. Mosque prayers have been suspended and Iftar feasts cancelled in many countries. "Our hearts are crying," said Ali Mullah, the prayer leader at the Grand Mosque in Mecca. "We are used to seeing the holy mosque crowded with people during the day, night, all the time... I feel pain deep inside." - Anti-lockdown protests - In the United States, which has the more than 759,000 confirmed infections and nearly 41,000 deaths, some are increasingly chafing under stay-at-home orders and are taking to the streets to protest. Anti-lockdown demonstrations over the weekend drew hundreds of people in states including Colorado, Texas, Maryland, New Hampshire and Ohio. Many waved American flags, and some carried weapons. But others stayed in their cars or wore protective masks. President Donald Trump fuelled another bout of fury over the weekend by lending support to the protests against the lockdown restrictions -- which medical experts say save countless lives. In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro -- who has repeatedly claimed the virus threat is overblown -- joined hundreds of protesters in Brasilia who objected to state governors' stay-home orders. Brazil has the most infections in Latin America, a region where an AFP tally on Sunday showed total cases had surpassed 100,000 with nearly 5,000 deaths. "Count on your president to do what is necessary so that we can guarantee democracy and what is most dear to us, our freedom," Bolsonaro told the protesters in an address that was interspersed with fits of coughing. burs-qan/kma BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand extended a nationwide ban on alcohol sales until April 30 as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 2,792 on Monday, but the health ministry suggested some measures could soon be eased. The extension of the alcohol ban will help control the spread of the coronavirus by discouraging social gatherings, said Pongsakorn Kwanmuang, spokesman for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. All other provinces have also extended the ban to the end of the month, an Interior Ministry official said. A previous 10-day ban in Bangkok, coinciding with an annual national holiday, had been due to end on April 20. The scheduled end date had varied in other provinces. The majority of the 27 new cases reported on Monday were in Bangkok, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government's Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA). The health ministry said it would propose to the CCSA that some measures imposed to curb the coronavirus' spread could be eased, starting with 32 provinces in Thailand where no cases have been reported in the last two weeks. This would include re-opening markets and malls next month, but not entertainment venues. "A transition will be cautious. There will be a balance so that businesses can more forward, but things will be different. There will be no waiting in barber shops and social gatherings at restaurants," Kumnuan Ungchusak, adviser to the Department of Disease Control said in a statement. Thailand has confirmed 47 deaths from the coronavirus. No new deaths were reported on Monday, for the third consecutive day. (Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Chayut Setboonsarng, Editing by Timothy Heritage) Acting ICE director Matthew T. Albence told Congress last week that the agency had released about 700 people with underlying conditions that make them particularly vulnerable during the pandemic but was not considering further releases of others at high risk. In the email to The Post, an ICE official wrote that the agencys expectation is that each country will continue to meet its international obligation to accept its own nationals. In 2009, Hui Zhang was appointed CEO of Yantai North Andre Juice Company Limited (HKG:2218). This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally - as a second measure of performance - we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid. Check out our latest analysis for Yantai North Andre Juice How Does Hui Zhang's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies? According to our data, Yantai North Andre Juice Company Limited has a market capitalization of HK$1.8b, and paid its CEO total annual compensation worth CN628k over the year to December 2019. Notably, that's an increase of 33% over the year before. We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at CN562k. We looked at a group of companies with market capitalizations from CN707m to CN2.8b, and the median CEO total compensation was CN2.1m. Next, let's break down remuneration compositions to understand how the industry and company compare with each other. Speaking on an industry level, we can see that nearly 84% of total compensation represents salary, while the remainder of 16% is other remuneration. Yantai North Andre Juice does not set aside a larger portion of remuneration in the form of salary, maintaining the same rate as the wider market. This would give shareholders a good impression of the company, since most similar size companies have to pay more, leaving less for shareholders. While this is a good thing, you'll need to understand the business better before you can form an opinion. You can see, below, how CEO compensation at Yantai North Andre Juice has changed over time. SEHK:2218 CEO Compensation April 21st 2020 Is Yantai North Andre Juice Company Limited Growing? On average over the last three years, Yantai North Andre Juice Company Limited has seen earnings per share (EPS) move in a favourable direction by 16% each year (using a line of best fit). It saw its revenue drop 21% over the last year. Story continues Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. The lack of revenue growth isn't ideal, but it is the bottom line that counts most in business. We don't have analyst forecasts, but you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow. Has Yantai North Andre Juice Company Limited Been A Good Investment? Yantai North Andre Juice Company Limited has generated a total shareholder return of 23% over three years, so most shareholders would be reasonably content. But they probably wouldn't be so happy as to think the CEO should be paid more than is normal, for companies around this size. In Summary... It appears that Yantai North Andre Juice Company Limited remunerates its CEO below most similar sized companies. Many would consider this to indicate that the pay is modest since the business is growing. The total shareholder return might not be amazing, but that doesn't mean that Hui Zhang is paid too much. It's great to see a company that pays its CEO reasonably, even while growing. But for me, it's even better if insiders are also buying shares with their own cold, hard, cash. If you think CEO compensation levels are interesting you will probably really like this free visualization of insider trading at Yantai North Andre Juice. 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. "At present, we have no credible information that ISIL is planning to attack the homeland of the United States, but that is not by any means the end of the story," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said. "Thats why federal authorities want grocery stores, gas stations and even COVID-19 testing sites to know that they now could be targeted by terrorists determined to strike inside the U.S. homeland even if such an event is unlikely." "On Friday, Harrells division within DHS, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, issued a nationwide notice saying, it is imperative that law enforcement be alert for potential individuals triggered by the pandemic to inflict further harm, and [that agencies] provide residents with information that can augment community safety and security. The story about how DHS fans the flames of fear is nearly as old as the terror attacks of 9/11.In 2014, an article in The Council on Foreign Relations revealed how DHS told a scared public that Al Qaida could weaponize Ebola and spread the virus across the country.Fast forward 16 years and that same scenario is being played out again, except this time it is with the coronavirus.Despite having no evidence that terrorists are weaponizing COVID-19, the Department of Homeland Securitys Assistant Director for Infrastructure Protection, Brian Harrell issued a nationwide alert, warning people that terrorists could purposefully infect grocery stores and gas stations with the coronavirus.An ABC News article titled, "COVID-19 is changing potential terror targets; grocery stores, even testing sites should be vigilant" explained that since most businesses across the country are closed, terrorists 'could' decide to target grocery stores and gas stations.Despite not having a shred of evidence to back up their claim, DHSs latest Minister of Propaganda, Brian Harrell said, now is the time to engage community businesses and other stakeholders to encourage vigilance and awareness.Asking law enforcement to remain vigilant during a pandemic is one thing; but it crosses the line when their mission appears to have changed to becoming harbingers of fear.DHS has crossed the line of credibility and entered into the world of fake news by asking law enforcement to warn the public of potential COVID-19 grocery store and gas station attacks.Two weeks ago, the FBI and DHS issued the same warning but in a less dramatic fashion. The number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in Maharashtra, the Indian state worst hit by the pandemic, reached 4,666, with 466 new cases surfacing on Monday alone. The tally in Mumbai, the worst-affected city, crossed 3,000 after 308 new cases were reported on Monday. Mumbai alone has 3,032 Covid-19 cases. It was the second highest single-day spike in the state since March 9 when the first Covid-19 case in Maharashtra was registered. On Sunday, the state recorded its previous steepest increase with 552 cases. Nine more Covid-19 deaths were reported in the state on Monday, taking the toll to 232. Of these, seven deaths took place in Mumbai and two in Malegaon of Nashik, each. The number of fatalities from the virus in Mumbai has now reached 139. Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope tried to ease concerns over the increase . The doubling rate in the state has now reached 7 days from two days in the past. We are trying to increase it even further, Tope said. Maharashtra took 30 days to cross 1,000 cases on April 7, but exceeded the 2,000-mark in just six days on April 13. The number cases rose from 2,000 to 4,000 in just six days. The state, Tope said, was conducting the maximum number of coronavirus disease tests. So far, we have conducted 76,000 tests and 50,000 tests... in Mumbai alone. We are also doing surveillance and contract tracing aggressively, he said. Dharavi in Mumbai reported 30 more cases on Monday, taking the tally in Asias most crowded slum to 168 with 11 deaths. Additionally, at least 53 journalists in Mumbai have also tested positive for the disease, officials said on Monday. Out of 167 samples, 53 have come positive for Covid19 and the number could go up, said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation official Vijay Khabale-Patil. The Mumbai mayor quarantined herself because she had met some of the journalists who tested positive on Monday. As a precautionary measure, I have decided to be quarantined in my home as in the last few days I have came in contact with many media persons, she said. The journalists have been sent to an isolation facility at a Goregaon hotel. Two civic body employees also tested positive on Monday. According to data from the state medical education department, Maharashtras mortality rate has dropped to 5.3% (223 cases till Sunday) from 7.41% (148 cases) since last Monday (April 13). This is still higher than the national mortality rate of 3.14% till Sunday, the data showed. Meanwhile, with the rising number of cases, the infection spread to three more districts in the state Parbhani (one case), Nandurbar (one case) and Chandrapur (two cases). Only four of the states 36 districts now remain free of he disease. The number is not still very alarming except that of Mumbai; all the other areas are quite under control. In Mumbai, it is limited in certain areas and we still believe that the growth is not exponential, said a senior official, requesting anonymity. The state health department has conducted 76,092 tests at various public and private facilities so far. Of these, 71,611 people have tested negative for the infection. The state has 364 active containment zones. As many as 5,648 survey teams, comprising doctors and support staff, have screened more than 2.08 million people for the infection. Around 331 patients have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the infection; 6,879 people are at government quarantine facilities, health officials said. On Monday, the state government partially lifted lockdown restrictions in some areas. Construction work in municipal corporation and municipality areas including in Mumbai and Pune was allowed. The state government has decided to allow industries to operate in all rural areas of the state,and manufacturing and other industrial establishments in special economic zones. Operations will be allowed to resume in industrial townships that are outside the containment areas except in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune Municipal Corporations limits. Construction of roads, buildings and irrigation projects outside the municipal corporation limits will also be allowed. It will take a couple of days to streamline all the things. We need to understand their difficulties and what more changes are required. All these need to be understood and acted upon. As public health is our top priority, we have put many conditions on industries for operating, said Harshdeep Kamble, development commissioner (Industries). Banks that collaborate, embrace Open X and transform into Inventive Banks are most likely to prosper Capgemini and Efma today published the World FinTech Report 2020 revealing that despite a widening gulf between traditional banks on one side and BigTechs and challenger banks on the other, traditional banks have an opportunity to thrive in today's market by embracing Open X1 and becoming Inventive Banks2 This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005963/en/ World FinTech Report 2020 Infographic (Graphic: Business Wire) The gap between what customers expect and what traditional banks currently deliver has never been wider, but now is the right time for banks to catch up from front to back-end to offer the best customer experience. With data-fueled, hyper-personalized experiences in real-time, BigTechs and challenger banks have demonstrated their ability to win customers over. In contrast, while traditional banks have invested heavily in front-end IT infrastructure to improve customer experience, efforts so far have not measured up to what has become customary across other sectors, especially with tech providers. For banks to remain appealing and competitive in this shifting landscape, the report highlights that they must transform into agile and customer-centric Inventive Banks by embracing Open X as well as take on a specialized role, rather than a universal one, such as supplier or aggregator within the new open ecosystem. The way forward: effective structured collaboration is essential for bank and FinTech partnerships to be successful Both Banks and FinTechs are currently frustrated by the lackluster results of their collaborations to date. The World FinTech Report 2020 revealed several pain-points: Only 21% of banks say their systems are agile enough for collaboration of banks say their systems are agile enough for collaboration Only 6% of banks have achieved the desired ROI from collaboration of banks have achieved the desired ROI from collaboration 70% of FinTechs don't culturally or organizationally see eye-to-eye with their bank partner of FinTechs don't culturally or organizationally see eye-to-eye with their bank partner More than 70% of FinTechs say they are frustrated with the incumbent's process barriers of FinTechs say they are frustrated with the incumbent's process barriers Half of FinTech executives say they have not found the right collaborative partner "The world has changed dramatically over the last couple of months. Businesses will evolve and emerge from the COVID-19 crisis in different and profound ways. For traditional banks, this will translate into an even greater need for digital experience through further collaboration with FinTechs. Since we began this report three years ago, FinTechs have moved from disruptors to mature players, and it is now essential for incumbent banks to consider them not only as formidable competitors, but as necessary partners of choice to meet changing consumer expectations," comments Anirban Bose, CEO of Capgemini's Financial Services and Member of the Group Executive Board. "Effective collaboration requires people, business, and process maturity. While, for traditional banks, failure is not an option, FinTechs are fast to market yet ready to fail. Inventive banks with the willingness and capabilities to collaborate at scale and industrialize innovation are most likely to prosper within the shared Open X ecosystem Traditional banks must invest in middle- and back-end operations to deliver a better customer experience According to the World FinTech Report 2020, to remain competitive and appeal to consumers, banks should prioritize middle- and back-end transformation through data-driven and customer-centric partnerships with FinTechs, which will ultimately also improve the front-end. Although overall investment in new IT development (vs. maintenance) increased from 24% in 2016 to 33% in 2019, middle- and back-end operations continue to be based on complex, often manual business processes, leading to a fragmented customer experience. The report highlighted that the front-end last-mile experience (e.g., packaging and delivering products to customers) is currently missing the mark, resulting in customers' dissatisfaction as they feel they do not receive a personalized relationship from their bank (50%) and cannot make direct-debit payments on several merchant sites (60%). Meanwhile, 48% of new-age customers (Generation Y and tech-savvy) are frustrated with the narrow range of products and services offered by their primary traditional bank, propelling them to switch within the next year to new-age players as they seek services that match their preferences and integrate with their other platforms/applications. Improving the full value chain, from front- to back-end, is essential to join the Open X wave and improve top- and bottom-line growth, augment productivity, enhance customer engagement, reduce costs, increase transparency, and boost employee satisfaction. Banks and FinTechs that prioritize effective collaboration will thrive in the Open X sharing economy Capgemini's "Open X Readiness Index" is a global benchmarking tool that measures the readiness of banks to effectively collaborate at scale with Startups by measuring their maturity across people, finance, business, and technology pillars. Featured in the World FinTech Report 2020, the index shows that leading collaborative banks are those with a dedicated and autonomous startup-partnership team and who demonstrate a fail-fast innovation approach to determine value and cut losses quickly. Readiness frontrunners are also early movers that invest in emerging technologies and have little dependency on legacy systems, making FinTech integration easier. "Traditional banks are at a critical juncture. They must embrace Open X or risk becoming irrelevant," said John Berry, CEO of Efma. "In order to keep up with ever-changing customer expectations in today's marketplace, incumbent banks must transform into Inventive Banks with collaborative support from qualified FinTech partners." Report methodology The World FinTech Report 2020 draws on research insights from the 2020 Global FinTech Executive Interviews and the Capgemini Open X Readiness Index. 2020 global FinTech executive interviews The 2020 edition of the report includes insights from focused interviews with senior banking executives of leading banks across regions. Capgemini's Open X Readiness Index Capgemini's Open X Readiness Index evaluates banks based on 98 data points to evaluate their collaboration readiness across four pillars People, Finance, Business, and Technology. Each parameter was assigned appropriate weightage, and final scores were mapped on a scatter plot (by rebasing score on 100). Banks' view of collaboration readiness is represented on the X axis, while the Y axis represents bank collaboration success. About Capgemini Capgemini is a global leader in consulting, digital transformation, technology and engineering services. The Group is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of clients' opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year+ heritage and deep industry-specific expertise, Capgemini enables organizations to realize their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. Capgemini is driven by the conviction that the business value of technology comes from and through people. Today, it is a multicultural company of 270,000 team members in almost 50 countries. With Altran, the Group reported 2019 combined revenues of 17billion. Visit us at www.capgemini.com. People matter, results count. About Efma A global non-profit organization, established in 1971 by banks and insurance companies, Efma facilitates networking between decision-makers. It provides quality insights to help banks and insurance companies make the right decisions to foster innovation and drive their transformation. Over 3,300 brands in 130 countries are Efma members. Headquarters in Paris. Offices in London, Brussels, Andorra, Stockholm, Bratislava, Dubai, Milan, Montreal, Istanbul, Beijing, Tokyo, and Singapore. Learn more: www.efma.com 1Open X leapfrogs the compliance-based approach of open banking and moves to a seamless eXchange of data and resources empowered by an eXpedited product innovation cycle that continuously improves customer eXperience. 2Inventive banks are prepared to adopt specialized roles in the new, open ecosystem with collaborative support from qualified FinTech partners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005963/en/ Contacts: Capgemini Press Contacts: Mary Sacchi (North America) WE Communications for Capgemini Tel.: +1 (212) 551 4818 E-mail: msacchi@we-worldwide.com Bartu Sezer (EMEA) WE Communications for Capgemini Tel.: +44 020 7632 3861 E-mail: bsezer@we-worldwide.com Efma Press Contact: Anna Quinn Tel.: +33 1 47 42 6771 E-mail: anna.quinn@efma.com A probe into poor maternity services and preventable baby deaths at an NHS hospital trust is now looking into nearly 1,200 cases. Letters were sent to 400 of the families today, inviting them to participate in the review into what happened at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH). More than 90 babies died or suffered severe harm and disability due to medical failings between 1979 and 2017. The inquiry was commissioned by then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in 2017, following concerns raised by the parents of Kate Stanton-Davies and Pippa Griffiths, who died shortly after birth in 2009 and 2016 respectively. Rhiannon Davies' daughter Kate Stanton-Davies (pictured together) died due to medical mistakes at Ludlow Community Hospital in 2009 Donna Ockenden, who is leading the review, said the number of cases involved had now reached 1,170, and urged any further families wishing to be included in the inquiry to come forward by the end of next month. She said: 'By writing to all these families I am giving them the opportunity to ask questions about our independent review so they can make a choice as to whether they want their care to be independently reviewed by my team. 'We appreciate that any contact can be unsettling for families, but it is vital that our independent review reaches out to all potentially affected families. 'I want to assure people that despite this Covid crisis, progress is continuing, and today I am making one last appeal to any family yet to get in touch to please do so by May 2020. 'I have made a commitment to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to deliver my final review report. We have to give ourselves the time to write the report and ensure it does justice to the testimony we have heard from families. 'So please get in touch by the end of May. Your story is important to us.' Richard Stanton and Rhiannon Stanton-Davies (pictured) from Ludlow, Shropshire, whose baby Kate Stanton-Davies died in 2009 shortly after birth due to there not being any doctors available in the maternity ward A total of 23 families were originally included in the review - before a further 330 cases were identified by the trust's own investigation into its maternity care. Those 330 families received letters on Tuesday, as well as 70 others who had come forward after hearing reports in the media. Earlier this year, hospital bosses announced that 1m it was paid by the NHS for providing 'good maternity care' was being returned. The trust claimed to be meeting 10 safety standards set out by NHS Resolution to be awarded the sum in September 2018. Weeks after the 953,391 payment was made, however, the trust's childbirth services were rated 'inadequate' by inspectors at the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The trust said an 'incorrect submission' had been made and that it had ordered an independent review. Kate Stanton-Davies died due to medical mistakes at Ludlow Community Hospital, pictured, in 2009 It had emerged that the funds were paid to SaTH while inspectors were still assessing it. Louise Barnett, chief executive of SaTH, said the trust had reassessed its submission to NHS Resolution and would be repaying the money. 'Although some good progress had been made, we did not have sufficient evidence to support the required 100% compliance in all of the standards,' she said, adding that internal auditors 'have been commissioned to undertake an independent review'. 'We acknowledge that our systems need to be more robust. We are continuing to review and strengthen our governance processes, to provide additional rigour and scrutiny at all levels, which I welcome,' Ms Barnett said. Top South Sudan Opposition Members Ditch Machar, Jump to Ruling Party By Dimo Silva Aurelio April 20, 2020 More members of South Sudan's main opposition party have defected to the ruling party led by President Salva Kiir, with one former member accusing First Vice President Riek Machar of running the opposition like a family dynasty. Dak Duop Bichiok, a former SPLM-IO (Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition) political bureau member, announced his resignation and that of hundreds of his followers in the diaspora at a Juba news conference late last week. "We are declaring that we are not any longer part of Dr. Riek Machar, and we are not alone. We have a group in Nairobi, Egypt, Khartoum and also in Addis Ababa and in the diaspora elsewhere in the world," he said. The defections began after Machar's wife, Angelina Teny, was appointed minister of defense in South Sudan's transitional unity government. Another recent defector, Yien Thiang, said Machar is biased when he appoints officials and squanders party resources. "The party has been turned into a family dynasty where the chairman and his family run it like his personal property. The functions of important organs like the political bureau and national liberation council have been rendered irrelevant. The chairman single-handedly manages the affairs of the party with impunity," Thiang told VOA's South Sudan in Focus. Bichiok, a former petroleum minister, said Machar no longer follows the party's regulations. However, Thiang and Bichiok declined to offer specific instances of Machar acting inappropriately. SPLM-IO spokesman Manawa Peter did not respond to repeated phone calls or text messages for comment on this story. Machar's Deputy Chief of Staff James Koang and other SPLM-IO officials announced their defections last month over allegations the party has lost its direction and vision. They, too, joined Kiir's ruling party. A former SPLM-IO official, Peter Adwok Nyaba, said he left the party two years ago because Machar refuses to share power. "It is the same situation, because if you read what they said, it is that this guy took the party even to a prison. So, he was managing it from the prison in South Africa as if he is the only person who can lead," Nyaba told South Sudan in Focus. Before South Sudan's transitional unity government was formed in February, Machar was in South Africa, where SPLM-IO representatives said he was being held under house arrest. Unless things change, Machar should expect more defections, Nyaba said. "The issue of lack of democracy, transparency and accountability is still there. The leader has refused to apply democracy, to listen to the people, and that is why people are leaving. And you will have more who will also get angry and will leave," Nyaba told VOA. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Police direct traffic as protesters gather Monday outside the Pa. capitol in Harrisburg Monday. No citations were issued to protesters who broke the state's stay-at-home order, Capitol Police said. Read more When two guitarists allegedly held a cover concert of Pink Floyds greatest hits on a porch in Rumson, N.J., on April 4, a simple hey you! from the cops didnt get the crowd of about 30 to disperse. The band kept playing and the crowd kept swaying in direct violation of Gov. Phil Murphys COVID-19 stay-at-home order, according to police. We were met with well wishes of F-the police and Welcome to Nazi Germany from this group of 40-50 year old ADULTS, Rumson police wrote on Facebook. And yes, they capitalized adults. As a result of the gathering, the 54-year-old homeowner who was one of the performers was charged with violating the governors emergency orders. Hes just one of more than 1,700 people charged with breaking the stay-at-home order in New Jersey from March 21, when they went into effect, through April 15, according to Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewals office, which releases a daily list of violators. I would much rather that we not be out there dealing with folks who are violating the orders, but this is the approach were taking," Grewal said in an interview. Were going to be vigilant and charge appropriately and name and shame people in our daily violations list. Meanwhile, across the border in Pennsylvania, only a handful of people have been cited for breaking Gov. Tom Wolfs stay-at-home order. From state police to municipal departments, Pennsylvania authorities said theyre enforcing the order with warnings, not citations. Its human nature when you tell somebody they cant do something, to ask Well what happens if I do? said state police spokesman Ryan Tarkowski. There is an enforcement piece there but its not our focus were really focused on obtaining voluntary compliance through education. The stark differences in enforcement of the stay-at-home orders were evident at recent protests of the very order itself in both states. On Friday, a protest organizer in Trenton was charged with violating the order, while a similar protest in Harrisburg Monday didnt result in any stay-at-home order citations, a Capitol Police spokesman said. Pennsylvania State Police have cited just three people statewide for violating the order and issued warnings to 24. Philadelphia police werent able to say if theyve issued any violations. And police officials in nine of the largest suburban Philadelphia police departments said they havent cited anyone for breaking the order. ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters. Norristown police Chief Mark Talbot Sr. said the stay-at-home order is a significant change from the norm and his department is using the least harmful means of gaining compliance. Weve seen a number of our residents out doing things that at least appeared to be in violation of the order, he said. Weve asked them to comply and so far we havent had anyone refuse to honor our request. The Philadelphia Mayors Office cant say how many violations have been issued, though, Generally, we are not aware of any, mayoral spokeswoman Lauren Cox said in a statement, adding that verbal warnings from police have been effective so far." But one city resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said he saw a crowd of 50 people releasing balloons in Pennsports Dickinson Square Park April 13 and he didnt hear any warnings or sirens from officers in three police cruisers who were on the scene. There was no attempt to get the crowd to disperse from the time I was there to the time I left, he said, noting he was on scene for about 10 minutes. On top of this, you could see several of the people involved at the gathering getting into and out of cars that had New Jersey license plates, which creates a whole new issue. On March 23, Grewal put New Jersey on notice that the time for warnings is over." Given his oversight of prosecutors in the state, Grewal set a uniform policy for reporting, charging, and prosecuting those who violate the orders. We made a conscious decision early on by reaching out to prosecutors, saying we want to be mindful of this conduct and charge in a consistent manner, he said. Those charged in New Jersey at the lowest level, with a disorderly persons offense like the guy who held a health supplement sales presentation at a gym or the man who was cited for reading his book on a lifeguard stand at a closed beach face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Those offenses make up 1,544 of the violators so far, according to Grewals office. If someone breaks the emergency orders in Philadelphia, on the other hand, the punishment is a code violation notice for failure to disperse, which comes with a $100 fine. Philadelphia police said they issued just four such citations from March 23, when the mayors stay-at-home order went into effect, until April 14, but the department was unable to detail whether they were standard failure-to-disperse violations or if they related to the stay-at-home order. Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaws directive on enforcement of the order states that if warnings dont work, officers are to call a supervisor who will evaluate balancing the health and safety of officers" with issuing $100 code violations. Pennsylvania State Police are writing summary offenses for violators under the Administrative Code of 1929, which calls for a fine of $10 to $50 and the syphilis-inspired Disease Prevention and Control Law of 1955, which calls for a fine of $25 to $300. The first stay-at-home order violation issued by state police was given to a York County woman who went out for a Sunday drive, according to PennLive. That citation was later withdrawn at the request of the York County District Attorneys Office. In the other two state police cases, stay-at-home violations were added as additional charges to those who were arrested in the commission of another crime, as committing a crime is definitely not one of the essential activities listed in the governors order. But state police arent tacking a stay-at-home order violation onto every arrest. It is solely up to the troopers discretion, Tarkowski said. In New Jersey, authorities are adding stay-at-home violations in many new criminal cases, like when a Pitman woman allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at her boyfriends house or when two guys held a craps game for 19 people on a Camden street. And at least 18 people in New Jersey have been charged with second-degree terroristic threats for coughing or spitting on an officer while claiming to have the coronavirus. Theres nothing that troubles me more than those out there committing other crimes who then attack our law enforcement officers with the threat of COVID-19," Grewal said. We dont tolerate attacks on cops any day but especially during a pandemic when theyre on the front lines." Grewal believes charging people who violate the stay-at-home order and releasing their names has been a deterrent to others. Were seeing the number of citations and violations going down and I think thats having a direct impact on public health in New Jersey, he said. Pennsylvania authorities said their warning-first policy is working, too. Weve found our voluntary compliance education approach has yielded positive results, but we do stand ready to enforce more aggressively if that becomes necessary," Tarkowski said. MILWAUKEE, Wis. In Lodi and Pewaukee, voters were told the system for requesting absentee ballots crashed. In Marshfield, Shorewood and Bristol, voters threw up their hands after spending hours in front of computers trying to request a ballot. In Milwaukee and Green Bay, dozens of couples said one member of their household received a ballot while the other didnt. Nobody cared, said Brenda Lewis, a 61-year-old Delafield resident who said her local clerk could find no record of her or her husband ever requesting an absentee ballot, even though both of them had. They should have done something, some sort of public service (announcement), something, just something, Lewis said. But nobody did. An investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the PBS series FRONTLINE and Columbia Journalism Investigations into Wisconsins missing ballot crisis reveals a system leaking from all sides, buckling under the weight of a global pandemic and partisan bickering that kept the logistics of Election Day up in the air until less than a day before polls opened. Inadequate computer systems, overwhelmed clerks and misleading ballot information hampered Wisconsins historic and historically troubling spring election. With the prospect of COVID-19 persisting into the fall and beyond, and more elections on the calendar ahead of the presidential ballot in November which could produce triple the number of votes by mail eyes will remain fixed on Wisconsin. Election officials have largely blamed the U.S. Postal Service for many of the missing absentee ballots that forced some citizens to don masks and stand in line on Election Day this month, increasing their risk of contracting the potentially fatal disease COVID-19. But the investigation by the Journal Sentinel, FRONTLINE and Columbia, based on interviews with voters, election officials and political experts, as well as responses from more than 600 people to an online questionnaire, shows the problems went far beyond mailing issues. Story continues People from nearly 100 Wisconsin cities and towns responded to the Journal Sentinel's online request for readers to share their information if they did not receive their absentee ballots. Many said they tried requesting their absentee ballots multiple times. Some people received too many ballots. Some received empty envelopes. Some gave up trying to navigate the states request system. Others got their ballots after Election Day. Three people two in Mequon and one in West Allis said they were mailed duplicate ballots. In Wauwatosa, one couple said they received envelopes with no ballots. In Milwaukee, three would-be voters said they received a form letter from Mayor Tom Barrett thanking them for requesting an absentee ballot but not the ballot itself. Officials sent ballots to college students to dorms they had been forced to vacate. For some Wisconsin residents wintering in New Mexico and Florida, ballots simply never showed up. Nineteen Wisconsin citizens across eight cities from New Auburn in the north to Bristol in the south said they requested absentee ballots only to later be told the system had no record of their applications. Tom and Altha Arden of South Milwaukee never received their absentee ballots for the spring election. I was not happy, said Milwaukee resident Tom Arden, 71. He said he and his wife requested absentee ballots two weeks before Election Day but found out from a City Hall staffer that no record of their request existed. It wasnt her fault, but thats not funny, Arden said. Its damn serious. Thats crazy that they dropped the ball as badly as they did. Wisconsin residents can request absentee ballots through letter, email or the state-run MyVote website. For presidential primaries, state law requires clerks to mail ballots within one business day from the time a request is received, if the request is made within 47 days of Election Day. Roughly 1.28 million absentee ballots had been sent, but as of Friday more than 150,000 absentee ballots had not yet been returned, according to the latest tallies from the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Less than 12% of votes cast in the 2016 spring election and presidential preference primary were absentee, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. This year, an estimated 73% of votes were cast absentee, although officials are still counting ballots. In response to the Journal Sentinel, FRONTLINE and Columbia investigation, Neil Albrecht, head of the Milwaukee Election Commission, acknowledged that thousands of ballots had not reached their intended recipients in Milwaukee. It was not an appropriate environment to be administering an election, said Albrecht. It was chaos, and chaos is never good for the administration of an election. Albrecht also pointed to inaccuracies with MyVote, the website run by the Wisconsin Elections Commission where voters can request and track the progress of their absentee ballots, including the date their ballot was mailed. Albrecht said the date actually reflects the date the mailing label was generated not the date a ballot was mailed. It typically took employees another three to seven days to assemble, mail and deliver the ballot, depending on how backlogged the office was, city election officials said. Asked whether he thought the website was misleading, Albrecht said the issue was an improvement opportunity. Still, he said the majority of problems lay with the post office, and that issues such as empty envelopes or people being unable to find their registrations were rare. According to Albrecht, dozens of staffers in Milwaukee worked seven days a week until 11 p.m. to process ballots. At the state level, Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesperson Reid Magney acknowledged inaccuracies with MyVote's ballot tracking feature and said the agency is looking at improving the feature "based on the user feedback we have received." However, Magney said the commission believes the majority of problems stem from the post office or mailing vendors used by local clerks. He said programmers looked through MyVote's code and logs but found no explanation for the large numbers of missing or late absentee ballots reported in late March. The more change you have close to an election, the more likely you are to have problems, Magney said. In Madison, City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl said there was no way humanly possible" to keep up with the volume of requests. According to Witzel-Behl, staffers were working 110 hours a week but still had a weeks worth of backlogs by mid-March. Their computer system became so bogged down by the volume of applications that it only began working quickly after 10 p.m., she said. You reach a point of working so many hours, your eyes glaze over, and you risk making an error, she said. In the town of Delafield, where Brenda Lewis and her husband faced problems, Clerk Dan Green said he was unsure why the system had no trace of the pair's absentee ballot applications. According to Green, the MyVote website crashed a few times, but he said citizens would not have been able to request ballots at all while the system was down. Citizens, officials still searching for explanations The lead-up to Wisconsins chaotic April 7 election was consumed by political infighting, changing deadlines, four lawsuits and a breakneck ascension through the court system that ended up on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. The result was a surreal Election Day that took place as the state topped 2,500 confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 100 deaths, with scores of voters across the state complaining that they had not received their absentee ballots. Facing furious voters, Milwaukee election officials called on the Postal Service the next day to investigate widespread reports of missing absentee ballots. U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, and Ron Johnson, a Republican, made a similar request in a letter two days later, asking the Postal Service to determine the cause of these failures, which appear to have disenfranchised many Wisconsin voters. Bob Sheehan, a spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service in Wisconsin, wrote in an email that the agencys Office of the Inspector General is investigating but would not comment further. In Wauwatosa, first-time absentee voter Jesse Weinberg said he and his wife received envelopes with no ballots inside. In an email provided to the Journal Sentinel, their city clerk apologized to Weinberg for the mishap and explained that employees had accidentally sent a tray of mail to the mailing room too soon, before stuffing the envelopes. Tom Richardson and his wife both received two ballots this year. Theyve been told by their local clerk to throw away the extra ballots. In Mequon, retiree Tom Richardson said he and his wife both received duplicate ballots. According to Richardson, his local clerk said the office had accidentally mailed a batch of duplicates and advised the couple to discard one set of ballots and mail in the others. Mequon City Clerk Caroline Fochs did not respond to calls and emails for comment. But in an email exchange with Richardson, a copy of which was provided to the Journal Sentinel and Columbia, Fochs assured the retiree that it is not possible for both ballots to end up being counted in the system. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee senior Haley Peldo said her absentee ballot was delivered to her previous registered address, not to the address she requested on MyVote. Luckily, Peldo said, she still knew the resident at her old home, who was able to bring the ballot to her. Peldo said several of her college classmates reported similar stories. "I managed to get it, but it was very confusing," she said. "I don't know how it would be the post office's fault that they got an entirely different address." Ryan Kapp, a college student in Minneapolis, said he waited for a week and a half before calling the clerks office in his hometown of Middleton to inquire why his absentee ballot had not arrived. According to Kapp, the employee told him his ballot had been accidentally mailed out without a street name, and that his was among several that were returned as undeliverable. They didnt concern themselves with it until I decided to call, Kapp said. After taking down his address for a second time, the employee sent out a replacement ballot, Kapp said. But it didnt arrive until April 10 three days after Election Day. The Middleton City Clerk's Office did not respond to a call or email seeking information on what happened. The vast majority of people who wrote to the Journal Sentinel in the online questionnaire said they requested absentee ballots at least two weeks in advance of Election Day but did not receive them on time. Paloma Chavez, four-months pregnant, said she applied for an absentee ballot on March 22, but it never arrived. On Election Day, the Milwaukee resident said she called and emailed both the Wisconsin Election Commission and the city office and was given conflicting information about her ability to receive an email ballot or qualify for curbside voting. I was shell-shocked, Chavez said. It feels like the one thing I have control over my voice is being taken away from me. Mistakes got made, but not on my end here. Another common problem reported by voters: Forty-four people across nine cities said they did not receive their absentee ballot even though other members of their household did. Many said they submitted their applications about the same time or even after their partners or roommates. Milwaukee resident Lori Yanny, 65, said she submitted her application for an absentee ballot just two hours before her husband on the same computer they share at home. Her husband received his ballot a week and a half after requesting it, Yanny said. Hers never arrived. Nor did a replacement ballot she requested on March 31. Yanny said she made the difficult decision not to vote in person due to coronavirus concerns. In the past 30 years, I have voted in almost every election even the little ones, she said. Albrecht, the Milwaukee election commission head, said applications are not always processed in chronological order. As a result, he said, Yannys application was mailed on March 22, the day after her husbands. He said a large number of ballots mailed on March 22 and March 23 appeared to have been lost in the mail part of what the city has called on the postal service to investigate. A cumbersome system In Wisconsins decentralized election system, much of the responsibility falls on local clerks, whose staffs are often tiny and not equipped to handle a surge in applications. At the state-level, the Wisconsin Election Commission maintains both the MyVote website, where voters can request and track their absentee ballot, and WisVote, where absentee applications and requests are stored. Each absentee ballot application submitted through MyVote is converted into an email. The state's 1,850 municipal clerks are in charge of opening each email, verifying the voter's identification, manually entering the application information into the statewide voter registration database and printing the mailing labels. However, most municipal clerks do not have access to WisVote, and must ask another official, such as a county clerk, to manually enter the applicant's information in the database. This system was designed for a world in which 5% of voters voted by mail, not for a system in which 70% of voters voted by mail, said Charles Stewart, a political science professor and election expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So something has to give, and the thing that ends up giving is probably the accuracy of the request for the ballot. Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said officials have limited time to make improvements for Wisconsin's upcoming elections, including a special Congressional race next month and the statewide primary in August. Democratic state lawmakers are even calling for a mail-in vote for the November presidential election, although Republicans are unlikely to hear the bill. There is not a lot of breathing room, Burden said. Reporter Daphne Chen is with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Catharina Felke, Elizabeth Mulvey and Stephen Stirling are from Columbia Journalism Investigations, with support from PBS Frontline. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin's absentee ballot crisis fueled by multiple failures Police responded to sporadic unrest in five Paris suburbs Monday night, after a weekend of tension with residents who accuse officers of overstepping their authorities in the midst of France's strict coronavirus lockdown. People burned cars, set fire to rubbish bins and shot fireworks at police in five cities bordering Paris to the north. Police claimed they were ambushed, and they responded with rubber bullets and tear gas. The police prefecture said fireworks were shot in Villeneuve-La-Garenne, after first incidents started in Asnieres and Nantrerre, where cars and bins were burned. The police prefecture said no one was injured, and nine people have been arrested, seven in Clichy-la-Garenne and two in Reuil-Malmaison. This was the second night of unrest after an incident between a motorcyclist and police Saturday sparked outrage on social media. Incident with police On Saturday, a 30-year-old man fractured his leg when he crashed into the open door of an unmarked police car stopped at a red light in Villeneuve-La-Garenne. A crowd gathered as police said the man resisted arrest and the group targeted officers with "projectiles" in a standoff that lasted nearly two hours. Police say they opened the door to ask the motorcyclist, who was riding without a helmet, for his papers, and that they narrowly missed being run over. The motorcyclist's lawyer says his client did not see anyone outside the car, and a complaint filed by the family claims the officers deliberately opened the door. The motorcyclist, who underwent an operation on his leg, is currently under judicial control, according to prosecutors, for previous incidents including extortion and drug possession. Investigations Prosecutors have opened an investigation into Saturday's incident, and the police has opened its own investigation into the man's violating the confinement measures and against the crowd for threatening security forces. Rights group SOS Racisme called for a full investigation, and urged police to use restraint "in this time of confinement and tensions". Earlier this month, prosecutors opened an investigation into the death in detention of a 33-year-old man arrested for allegedly violating the coronavirus confinement measures. By The Associated Press Apr. 21, 2020 | 09:34 AM | FRANKFORT A Kentucky lawmaker who challenged the states governor in last years Republican primary was arrested Tuesday on strangulation and assault charges. State Rep. Robert Goforth was arrested by the Laurel County sheriffs office in his hometown of East Bernstadt, according to the Laurel County jail. He was booked into the jail shortly after 4 a.m. The jail didnt provide any details about what led to the arrest. Goforth, 44, was arrested on charges of strangulation, fourth-degree assault and terroristic threatening, the jail said. He was being held on a $25,000 cash bond, according to the jails website. His initial court date was set for Wednesday. No attorney was listed for him on the jails website. Goforth was a relative newcomer to the legislature when he decided to challenge then-Gov. Matt Bevin in the states GOP primary. Goforth ran an aggressive campaign that garnered him nearly 40% of the vote against the incumbent. It showed Bevins political weakness despite the governors backing from President Donald Trump. Bevin never fully recovered from the lackluster showing, and lost a close election to Democrat Andy Beshear last November. Goforth represents a rural section of eastern Kentucky. He dropped out of high school to help support his family, then earned his GED, served in the Army and went on to college. He became a pharmacist and opened a small chain of pharmacies. Pakistan says it will repatriate thousands more citizens from the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), which had threatened to review labor relations if countries did not take back their nationals from the Gulf state due to the coronavirus pandemic. Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Aisha Farooqui said on April 19 that a third phase of repatriations would begin between April 20 and 28. Fourteen flights are scheduled to take Pakistani nationals from the U.A.E. during this period, the Foreign Ministry said. Six other flights are planned to repatriate Pakistani nationals from other countries, including Bahrain and Malaysia. The first Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying 227 "stranded passengers" from Dubai and other emirates left for Islamabad on the evening of April 18, Pakistan's consulate-general in Dubai said in a Twitter post. More than 40,000 Pakistani nationals have registered with the Dubai consulate to return home, the U.A.E. newspaper The National reported. Pakistan is a major labor supplier to the U.A.E., with more than 1 million Pakistanis living and working in the country. The U.A.E. said earlier in April it would review labor relations with states refusing to evacuate citizens as thousands of migrant laborers lost jobs or did not receive salaries from employers due to lockdowns imposed over the coronavirus pandemic. In March, the U.A.E. suspended all passenger flights, leaving migrants stranded in the country as authorities demanded foreign governments take their citizens. The U.A.E. and other Gulf states reliant on foreign labor have reported increased coronavirus infections among low-income migrant workers who often live in crowded conditions. Pakistan has warned it has limited quarantine and testing facilities to handle repatriated nationals, raising concerns laborers could become a vector for the spread of the virus. The pandemic is likely to impact the remittances Pakistani workers send home. With reporting by Reuters An anti-vaxxer vegan YouTuber says she has grown enough food to last for years in preparation for a 'new world order' she bizarrely believes will be brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Leanne Ratcliffe, otherwise known as Freelee the Banana Girl, follows an extreme vegan regimen which can see her eating up to 51 bananas and 2kg of potatoes in a single day. The Queensland woman made headlines on Monday after revealing she uses a bidet-style hose she calls a 'bum gun' instead of toilet paper and carries a water bottle with a spray nozzle attachment when she goes out to avoid using white ply. Some of Freelee's outlandish conspiracy theories about coronavirus are so dangerous that YouTube has been forced to take her videos down. Freelee lives in Far North Queensland with her partner Robin where they have hundreds of fruit trees Freelee said in a YouTube video that she uses a bidet-style hose (left) instead of toilet paper and made a compostable toilet (right) with her boyfriend The 40-year-old's latest clip features unfounded claims that the virus, which has infected 6,641 Australians and killed 72, is little more than a government ploy designed to put the working class in debt and give world powers to big businesses. Freelee claimed basic civil liberties, such as going outside and gathering in groups of more than two, will continue being used by the government beyond the 'supposed pandemic' as a way of controlling the population. This is despite Scott Morrison repeatedly saying the government will relax social distancing rules as soon as it is safe to do so. Freelee claimed in an interview with Daily Mail Australia that the social restructure will create a 'new world order'. 'The United Nations and the World Health Organisation, for example, are some organisations that influence policy-making in countries worldwide where they are not elected by the people,' she said. She also claimed the new hierarchy would eliminate small and medium businesses to ensure the world's finances are funnelled into the pockets of the super rich, allowing them to restrict movement with strict surveillance systems and create food shortages. Freelee said she and Robin are prepared for food supply chains to disintegrate and blasted people who are not prepared Freelee, who owns two acres of land in Far North Queensland with her partner Robin, used the video to blast people without access to land and sustainable food sources for not being prepared for the impending new world order. 'It is crucial for you to take responsibility for your own food supply, by growing it yourself,' she said. She described those who haven't planned ahead of the supposed food supply chain collapse as 'irresponsible' people who will inevitably become 'looters and beggars' to feed themselves. She has been vegan for 20 years and said she saves about $200 per week growing her own food Freelee said: 'We have planted hundreds of different fruit trees like mango, durian, mangosteen and jackfruit to name a few common ones' Freelee said the hundreds of fruit trees on her property will sustain her and Robin for the rest of their lives Freelee told Daily Mail Australia she and Robin have planted hundreds of fruit trees on their property in the Australian tropics which will sustain them for the rest of their lives once mature. 'Robin and I take responsibility,' she said. 'We're peaceful people and we don't want to become looters and beggars. If there was no food on the shelves, we could survive for years. Could you?' Last month Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Australians there is no shortage of food and no need to stockpile supplies. WHY VACCINES ARE IMPORTANT Immunisation is a simple, safe and effective way of protecting people against harmful diseases before they come into contact with them. Immunisation not only protects individuals, but also others in the community, by reducing the spread of preventable diseases. Research and testing is an essential part of developing safe and effective vaccines. In Australia, vaccines must pass strict safety testing before the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will register them for use. Approval of vaccines can take up to 10 years. Before vaccines become available to the public, large clinical trials test them on thousands of people. High-quality studies over many years have compared the health of large numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Medical information from nearly 1.5 million children around the world have confirmed that vaccination does not cause autism. People first became concerned about autism and immunisation after the medical journal The Lancet published a paper in 1998. This paper claimed there was a link between the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. Since then, scientists have completely discredited this paper. The Lancet withdrew it in 2010 and printed an apology. The UK's General Medical Council struck the author off the medical register for misconduct and dishonesty. Source: Australian Department of Health Advertisement Pictured: Robin harvesting fruit from the property he owns with with his partner Freelee Freelee also described a possible COVID-19 vaccine - which could end the pandemic - as 'the government's poison'. 'If you make the public fearful of something - something unknown - if you make them confused and desperate due to debt and frustrated from social isolation, then they will end up begging for the vaccine.' 'Create the problem, then bring the solution. People will be holding their arm out begging to be jabbed. And I can assure you, I won't be one of them.' Health experts and doctors have rubbished similar claims by anti-vaxxers and say parents should get their children vaccinated to protect them from illness. So far Electric Picnic 2020 is still happening this September, but local opposition is growing in Stradbally at having 70,000 people descend on their 'little town' in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The biggest festival in Ireland is still almost five months away. Recently EP Republic Ltd applied for the licence to hold it from Laois County Council. Read that story here. While there has always been huge support for the festival in Stradbally village and Laois, locals have been responding to a local opinion poll, and all of the comments so far are a resounding no. "Even though I have my tickets & I would desperately miss the picnic as its my favorite time of year I would also prefer to see it not go ahead this year its not worth the risk to everyones health even if there was a vaccine....... on another note could we trust a rushed made vaccine if one became available in the morning? Id be very sceptical if Im honest! Vaccines usually take over a year if not longer to be researched.....tried......etc......" local Sinead Neagh Moran comments. "Against, will be too risky still bringing crowds into the area never mind the amount of support staff that will be there a couple of months ahead of the event," said Diarmuid Drennan. Meanwhile Minister for Health Simon Harris has said he believes social distancing will be a reality until there is a vaccine, and "that's likely to be next year", putting doubt on any packed gatherings in 2020. Electric Picnic was expanded to a capacity of 70,000 people this year, and is sold out. It is due to take place from September 3 to 7. So what do you think? Are you hoping the biggest festival in Ireland can still happen in Laois, or should organisers cancel it for a year? Poll closes at lunchtime on Wednesday April 21. Have your say! Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 20:29:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A press conference of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council is held in Beijing, capital of China, April 21, 2020. (Xinhua/Chen Jianli) BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Most of the expectant mothers and children with COVID-19 showed only mild symptoms, and the treatment for them has seen good results, an official told a press briefing Tuesday. For instance, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the central China city hardest hit by the COVID-19 epidemic, some new mothers with COVID-19 had not only been cured but also given birth to healthy babies after treatment, said Guo Yanhong, an official with the National Health Commission. Most COVID-19 cases of children have also shown relatively mild symptoms, with few severe and critical cases, she said, adding that some experts believe this may be related to the immature development of children's autoimmune system. Some 200 COVID-19 cases among expectant mothers have been reported on the Chinese mainland, while the number of cases among children accounts for 2.4 percent of the total, according to Guo. Enditem They're considered the key to letting countries out of lockdown, allowing officials to get a clearer picture of the true size of the coronavirus outbreak. But the UK has still only carried out fewer than 5,000 antibody tests - despite mass schemes being carried out across the globe. Italy has begun screening the blood of 20,000 people a day, while one programme in the US will involve 40,000 healthcare workers. Germany plans to test 15,000 people and apply the findings to its whole population, and even Andorra has ordered 150,000 kits - enough to give its entire population two each. Antibodies are proteins in the blood which reveal if someone has already fought off an infection, including the deadly coronavirus. Health chiefs have plans to conduct the 'biggest surveys in the world' to discover how many of the population have some sort of immunity to the virus. But they are miles off the 5,000 per week target - Department of Health data shows only 600 were carried out at the Porton Down laboratory yesterday. Officials promised Britons would be able to do antibody tests in the comfort of their own home in the near future, buying them from Amazon or Boots. But officials claim the tests they have looked at are not accurate enough to be used, saying they range from between 50 and 70 per cent. Experts stress the more people screened, the clearer the picture on the true size of the UK's crisis, which began spreading on British soil in February. Medical staff carries out serological tests in Milan, Italy Coronavirus antibody testing in Oss, The Netherlands. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) said it would begin testing 10,000 samples weekly on March 19 Germany became the first in Europe to carry out large-scale coronavirus antibody testing last week. Pictured, and antibody test at the InfectoGnostics research campus in Jena, Germany Germany HOW WILL THE UK USE ANTIBODY TESTING? Surveillance testing Antibody testing is part of the fourth pillar of the Government's testing scheme called surveillance, which began at the end of February. Blood samples are being collected by Public Health England to be analysed at their Porton Down science campus near Salisbury. It uses a high accuracy antibody test operated by Public Health England to find out what proportion of the population have had the virus. The study will also give an idea of how many people with COVID-19 experience no or very few symptoms. This would help research into how much transmission is caused by asymptomatic cases. Research on antibodies The Government is also conducting national mass population sampling over the coming months to research immunity to COVID-19. The aim is to enrol 16,000 to 20,000 people who will undergo repeat testing using home kits. This roughly equates to one in 330,000 people. Over the course of six months to a year the results will show whether or not the antibodies produced as a result of contracting COVID-19 give protection against the virus and for how long. This is a grey area at the moment - scientists hope a person cannot be reinfected with the virus, but they can't be certain until the know more about the immunity antibodies give. Finding a home antibody test for the public Giving an antibody test to the masses is the key to getting out of lockdown, scientists believe. Britons have also been promised a home antibody testing kit that they could buy from Amazon or Boots - on the condition on a commercial one would pass reliability tests by scientists at Oxford University. But the team of academics have yet to approve any, meaning it could now be months before they are used in the UK, if at all. The tests were said to give 'false positive' results too often, meaning they incorrectly tells people they are immune. This might give people false confidence that they can't catch the bug and put them at risk of infection. After being stung by the faulty Chinese antibody tests, the UK Government is said to now be looking for 'home grown' devices made by British firms. Advertisement Last week, Germany was one of the first countries in Europe to announce plans to carry out large-scale coronavirus antibody testing. The country launched three studies. In the first, 15,000 samples will be taken every fortnight from blood donations. The second will look at blood samples taken from about 2,000 people in the country's worst-hit areas. Preliminary results from these two projects are expected to be published in May. In the third study, 15,000 people in 150 regions across Germany will be tested for antibodies for a representative study of the broader population. The research will begin next month. It's not clear what antibody test will be used for each of the studies and if they are the same one. The preliminary findings of a smaller study in Ganglet, involving 500 people, were published on April 10. Researchers found 14 per cent of those tested had antibodies to the virus, although this does not prove they were immune to catching the disease again. Commenting on the findings, Keith Neal, an emeritus professor in the epidemiology of infectious diseases, University of Nottingham, said: 'As they mention a 15 per cent rate of past infection will on its own slow the spread of the virus, probably by about 20 per cent.' Finland Finland's Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) has also announced a similar - but much smaller - antibody testing programme. Initially 750 people of working age will be randomly invited for a test per week, according Finnish broadcaster Yle. At first it will involve residents in the capital region, Helsinki, which has been the hardest-hit by coronavirus cases so far, and will then spread out over the spring. THL's research specialist Merit Melin told Yle that it's possible 40 to 50 per cent of those who have had a novel coronavirus infection were asymptomatic. Any positive sample will be checked again using a different test before an individual is confirmed to have been exposed. The results will be used to help the government decide what steps to take next, but it's unclear what antibody test they are relying on. US The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is analysing blood donations of Washington and New York City residents - two of the worst-hit regions in the States. It started enrolling people on March 30. A separate survey is looking at random samples of people across the country. A third study, run by Beaumont Health, the largest health care system in the state of Michigan, is looking at more than 40,000 health workers. Dr Matthew Sims, Beaumont's director of infections disease research, told 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' Monday the study would determine 'what percentage of the population is asymptomatic, what percentage got it and never knew it. He said: 'These are people, a lot of which are being exposed to patients who have COVID[-19]. So what we're going to be doing is looking at a relatively high-risk population to see whether or not they've developed antibodies.' Dr Sims said he expected the first set of results from the study 'in about a month', Fox News reports. The University of Southern California (USC) and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health are hoping to screen thousands of people in Los Angeles. In early April, 2,500 volunteers took part in a Stanford University antibody study (pictured) A health care worker takes a blood sample for an antibody testing by a finger-prick from a person at Mesa Park in the town of Bolinas, California WHY IS IT DIFFICULT FOR SCIENTISTS TO MAKE AN ANTIBODY TEST SPECIFIC FOR SARS-COV-2? Coronaviruses invade cells through so-called 'spike' proteins, but those proteins take on different shapes in different coronaviruses. The University of Texas at Austin were able to map the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 in mid February - a breakthrough for developing a vaccine. It was also a huge step forward for scientists developing an antibody test. There are questions about which antigens (proteins) are best for an antibody test target, 'although the viral spike protein is universally perceived as the obvious candidate', Anna Petherick, a lecturer in public policy at University of Oxford, wrote in The Lancet. Which part of the spike protein to use is less obvious, and is causing difficulty in creating a reliable antibody test. 'There is a lot hanging on the uniqueness of the spike protein,' Ms Petherick said. 'The more unique it is, the lower the odds of crossreactivity with other coronaviruses false positives resulting from immunity to other coronaviruses. 'The most similar of these is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which led to the SARS outbreak of 2002. 'But another four coronaviruses cause the common cold, and ensuring there is no cross-reactivity to these is essential. ' A team at New Yorks Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (NY, USA), has published details of antibody tests that use either the whole spike protein. Others, such as Peng Zho at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, who was part of the team that sequenced SARS-CoV-2s genetic code, have used the nucleocapsid protein and the spike protein. '[The] nucleocapsid protein is the most abundant viral protein, which means its easy to detect. But we also chose spike protein because its very specific,' Dr Zho said. 'Actually, for coronavirus, the most divergent protein is [the] spike protein.' Advertisement Early findings from 900 people published by USC suggested 5.6 per cent of the population had the virus. Researchers estimate that as many as 442,000 people throughout the county of nearly eight million adults had the virus as of April 9 - 55 times than confirmed positive cases at the time - 7,994. Dr Barbara Ferrer, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health, said the findings underscored 'the importance of expanded polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing' to curb the outbreak. In early April, thousands of volunteers took part in a Stanford University antibody study which aims to discover how many in California are 'immune'. A research team took 2,500 tests at the three sites throughout the county in Mountain View, Los Gatos and San Jose. Maryland is also taking advantage of antibody testing - it bought $9million worth of antibody tests from South Korea, it was revealed yesterday. Larry Hogan, the states Republican governor, said he had obtained 500,000 tests from LabGenomics following weeks of negotiations. In the latest sign of frustration with the Trump administration, Mr Hogan said his team worked to find and buy the tests- a 'worthwhile investment' for the states economong - in the absence of the federal government providing assistance to the states. Italy The Italian region of Lombardy has said it will start performing 20,000 coronavirus immunity tests per day from today, April 21, starting with health workers. The governor of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, said the region had been conducting a 'search for reliable serological tests'. Officials claim they now have a 'reliable' tests which has been developed at a research hospital near Milan. It is believed to be from diagnostic firm Diasorin, but this is not confirmed. The provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona and Lodi are next in line for the tests after their health systems were overwhelmed by the crisis. Similar plans are underway elsewhere in Italy - the national government wants to conduct a sample of 150,000 random tests, Italian media says. That process is at a less advanced stage, and the national government has not yet identified a test which it will use. The government of the hard-hit region Lombardy, with 67,000 cases to date, says the tests will 'certify immunity to the virus'. Giancarlo Maria Liumbruno, the director-general of the Italian National Blood Center, said the country has more than 1.7million blood donors they could screen to see if they've had COVID-19. South Korea South Korea - one of the few countries to flatten its curve without social restrictions - has become a primary source of antibody tests. Reports say the nation has used the blood-based kits for weeks, but details of an official programme are not clear. South Korea has been widely praised by leading scientists for its rigorous testing and contact tracing scheme - yesterday it recorded just nine new cases. Several firms based in the country have ramped up production, including Chucheon-based Boditech Med. The company is now manufacturing thousands of its iChroma COVID-19 antibody kits, which it claims are 96 per cent reliable, for various countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in South Korea said over 100 countries had requested cooperation to supply Korean diagnostic kits, local media report. Local diagnostic manufacturers said they were signing several export contracts daily, because tests manufactured in South Korea appear to the most reliable. Boditech and three other companies SugenTech, Humasis, and GenBody - are approved to export antigen/antibody rapid diagnostic test kits. South Korea, one of the few countries to flatten its curve and not impose social restrictions, today became the latest country to scale up its production of antibody tests (shown) ONLY 3% OF POPULATION HAVE HAD THE VIRUS, DUTCH STUDY SUGGESTS A study of Dutch blood donors has found that around three percent have developed antibodies against the new coronavirus, health authorities said on April 16. The number is an indication of what percentage of the Dutch population may have already had the disease - and thus could have some level of immunity to the virus. It's too soon to know if the UK or US population will have similar rates of immunity to that of the Dutch people. But if that were the case, 1.8million of the UK's 60million population and 9.84million of the US's 328.2million population would have already fought the disease. The figures are a low blow after British scientists have warned at least 60 per cent of the UK population needs to have got infected to dramatically slow the spread of the virus - which is 40million. The head of the Netherlands' National Institute for Health (RIVM), Jaap van Dissel, disclosed the results during a debate with parliament. There are 29,214 confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands, but only the very ill and healthcare workers are currently being tested. Recorded cases account for 0.17 percent of the Scandinavian nation's population. Advertisement The Netherlands The Dutch have been among the first globally to give an indication of how many in the population are currently immune. A study of blood donors found that around three per cent had developed antibodies against the new coronavirus, health authorities said on April 16. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) said it would begin testing 10,000 samples weekly on March 19 using the blood donation service Sanquin. But results are expected to go only to RIVM. RIVM is also carrying out a multi-year study - called the PIENTER study - which will look at how people of different age groups develop immunity. Some 6,000 will be invited from all over the country to take part. Andorra Andorra has ordered enough antibody tests to screen the whole population nearly twice over, it was revealed at the beginning of April. The tiny country with a population of 77,000 has placed an order for 150,000 of the coronavirus tests from South Korea, local media reported. Health minister Joan Martinez Benazet says the tests are 'absolutely reliable' and will arrive via Spain in the next two weeks. Once they do, Andorran health authorities plan to test the entire population to see if their body has developed immunity to COVID-19. 'We want to test the whole population for coronavirus antibodies within a few weeks,' the Andorran health minister said. 'That way we'll see how high the infection rate in the population really is and what measures we need to take so we can restart public life.' It's not clear what test was bought, or when they will arrive. Sweden BELGIUM HAS '100% ACCURATE ANTIBODY TEST' A Belgian biotech firm claims it has developed a foolproof coronavirus antibody test that is 100 per cent accurate. Liege-based ZenTech said it had started making tens of thousands of its government-certified tests a week. Zentech plans to roll them out in Belgium first before scaling up manufacturing to three million per month so the tests can be used in other European countries. The devices detect if someone has previously had coronavirus and has since recovered, even if they are unaware they were infected. Results take 15 minutes. Founder and CEO, Jean-Claude Havaux, said: '[The tests'] sensitivity is 100 per cent - meaning all patients who have COVID-19 antibodies, we see them with our test. 'We don't want, and don't intend for, these tests to be used by just anybody. It's not a pregnancy test. It's really pretty complicated to carry out and to interpret the results.' He emphasised that the test kits were only for medical professionals, first in Belgium and then later in other countries in the EU and beyond. Dr Pascale Huynen, clinic head of the microbiology unit in Liege's university hospital, confirmed ZenTech's test was reliable to 97 per cent. ZenTech's test, she said, simply indicates whether a patient has 'come into contact' with COVID-19 with a positive or negative result. It does not show the level of antibody response. But that in itself is useful for determining the spread of the virus in a population, and for patients who have not received a nasal swab tests that detect whether a person is in the infectious phase, thought to last around two weeks. Advertisement Two researchers are spearheading a project to see how many of Stockholm's 2.3million inhabitants have antibodies against the coronavirus. Professor Niclas Roxhed and Professor Jochen Schwenk from KTH Royal Institute of Technology will post serological self-test kits to 1,000 random addresses. They will apply their findings to the city's population. The research is hoped to trigger the roll out of antibody testing on a larger scale 'within a few months', the professors said. A research team at KTH has begun developing its own serological test for COVID-19 antibodies. However, Sweden hasn't announced any plans to use a surveillance scheme using antibody tests. Professor Johan Giesecke, an epidemiologist and advisor to the Swedish Government, says he thinks up to 50 per cent of the population in Sweden and the UK have already been infected, RealClearPolitics reports. So what is the UK doing? Currently Britons can only get a test if they are very sick with COVID-19 in hospital. NHS and key workers and their household members can also get swabbed if they have symptoms. But antibody testing is part of the fourth pillar of the Government's testing scheme called surveillance. What scientists discover from their analysis of blood samples in England will directly inform how the Government make big choices, such as easing the lockdown. A much higher percentage of people testing positive for antibodies is a good sign because it suggests the virus may be much less lethal than the 13 per cent death rate currently see in Britain. It would also suggest that thousands, potentially millions, have developed some form of immunity to the infection. However, there are still questions left unanswered about the level of antibodies someone has to produce to gain immunity, and for how long they are protected. Nevertheless, screening mass populations would give a much clearer picture of how the disease has spread. On April 3, the PM's spokesman said 3,500 antibody tests could be carried out per week to get an idea of how the virus was spreading. However, since that day, only 4,892 had been carried out - a rate of 271 a day. Currently people in the UK can only get a PCR swab test. Pictured: A woman gets tested at the 'drive-thru' COVID-19 swab testing facility in Bristol for NHS staff on April 21 The DHSC also said the programme is expanding 'during April so that we have the potential to test around 5,000 samples per week'. Infectious disease expert Professor Neal believes PHE's progress has been delayed because they have to check their own test is accurate first - using those 5,000 samples. DIY HOME ANTIBODY TESTS CAN'T BE RELIED ON, OXFORD UNIVERSITY STUDY FINDS Rapid coronavirus antibody home tests cannot be relied on to provide reliable results, an Oxford University study suggests. But researchers said laboratory tests showed promising results when indicating whether someone had developed COVID-19-specific antibodies. They found home antibody tests were accurate between 55 to 70 per cent of the time. Antibody tests analysed in a lab were correct 93 to 100 per cent of the time. PCR tests - which the Government is currently using - gave the correct result 95 to 100 per cent of the time. The authors write that there is an urgent need for robust antibody detection approaches to support diagnostics, vaccine development, safe individual release from quarantine and population lockdown exit strategies. However, the early promise of the fingerprick-type home tests has been questioned following concerns about sensitivity and specificity. The research indicates DIY commercial antibody tests for home-use are not sensitive enough. The investigations were led by the National Covid Testing Scientific Advisory Panel. Professor Derrick Crook, of the Nuffield Department of Medicine and NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, University of Oxford, is the corresponding author of the study that has not been peer-reviewed. The researchers write: 'The performance of current LFIA devices is inadequate for most individual patient applications. 'ELISA can be calibrated to be specific for detecting and quantifying SARSCoV-2 IgM and IgG and is highly sensitive for IgG from 10 days following symptoms onset.' The antibody IgM and IgG are the different antibodies the immune system produces - when it is attacked - depending on the stage of infection. In their pre-print study, the researchers tested samples from 40 people. The ELISA test detected both Covid-19 antibodies in 34 of the 40 patients, with the diagnosis confirmed with a separate test. IgG levels were detected in 31 out of 31 patients tested 10 or more days after symptom onset. Commenting on the findings, Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'It shows that the problem with the commercial rapid antibody tests is that they are not sensitive enough - they fail to pick up antibodies in over a third of people who do in fact have antibodies. 'However, these tests do have acceptable levels of specificity - that is, they are only picking up people who have genuinely been exposed to the Covid-19 virus. 'This means if your test is positive, you can be confident that you have been infected and have antibodies. 'But if your test is negative, you can't rule out that you might have been infected. ' Just as importantly, this paper shows that we do have a very good assay for use in the lab.' The authors summarise: 'Antibody testing is crucial to inform release from lockdown.' Advertisement 'I imagine PHE is currently testing their test against blood samples of people who have had COVID-19 compared to those who havent,' he told MailOnline. The programme may have stalled because the most precise serology (antibody) tests are manual and slow, Professor Neal said. Ideally they'd use an 'automated' test which is faster - and also likely to be used in Germany, Professor Neal said. 'Currently we dont have a particularly accurate antibody test in the automated list,' he added. 'What we need to know is how many people have had it, and those who had COVID-19 symptoms two months ago - are they immune now?' To answer the vital questions about the virus, Professor Neal said: 'The more you test, the more information you get. 'But if you double the tests, you only get 40 per cent more information due to confidence intervals. If you double it again, it gets harder. Thats why studies dont include everybody.' He said PHE could use blood banks to collect samples - an approach being taken by Holland and the US. The only issue with this, however, is that British donors tends to be more middle class females who donate blood, which doesn't paint an accurate picture of the UK population. 'There is no perfect sample frame,' Professor Neal said. 'But that doesn't matter, as long as you know who you have sampled.' What about a home antibody test? Britons have been promised a home antibody testing kit that they could buy from Amazon or Boots, which would reveal if an individual has already had the virus. The home antibody testing kits are currently woefully inaccurate, however, compared with the ELISA tests used in the laboratory which are reasonably precise. Scientists at Oxford University - who are investigating the reliability of these rapid tests, have yet to approve any, meaning it could now be months before they are used in the UK, if at all. England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty admitted on Thursday that the Government was still a long way off getting a reliable antibody test. He argues the 'one thing worse than no test is a bad test'. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency says no test under 98 per cent accurate is safe for mass-use. PHE have previously refused to reveal how accurate their desired commercial antibody test will be. One expert, Dr David Ho at Columbia University in New York, said even a good test might only pick up 50-60 per cent of people who have antibodies. This is because they are less sensitive - meaning they do not pick up on clues as well as antigen tests. Or, the test may be done too early, when there are not enough antibodies to detect, or too late, when the antibodies have dropped too low. Currently scientists are not 100 per cent clear on how long antibodies are in the blood. But its thought they peak around 21-28 days after recovery. An industry source - a distributor of antibody tests - told MailOnline the bar has been set far too high and that some of the best tests are just missing the mark by one of two per cent accuracy. 'There is not a single ImmunoAssay test in the world right now that could meet that standard,' the source said. 'Not one. Despite the fact there are millions in use across the globe.' They added that even though serological testing is not error-free, it is far quicker and cheaper than the PCR antigen tests conducted by PHE. What's more, PRC testing produces negative results which don't actually mean anything to the individual, or population data. 'A negative PCR test only reveals if you were clear of the virus three days ago - not whether you have it today,' the source said. 'Serological testing could reach 100,000 NHS workers a day. Even if it was only 80 per cent accurate, that's still 80,000 people per day who have now been correctly been assessed as negative or positive. 'How on earth can that be better than no test at all? There is no logic.' Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology at the University of Edinburgh, also argued even if tests aren't perfect, they would be useful. 'Antibody tests even if they lack some sensitivity can be used to estimate what proportion of the population has already been exposed to the virus,' she told The Guardian. 'This is really helpful in telling us whether there is likely to be widespread immunity in the population and thus how likely there is to be a second wave of infections (and how big that wave might be), once the social-distancing measures are relaxed.' WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Monday evening that he intended to close the United States to people trying to immigrate into the country to live and work, a drastic move that he said would protect American workers from foreign competition once the nations economy began to recover from the shutdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, Trump wrote on Twitter, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! In recent weeks, the Trump administration has said health concerns justified moving swiftly to bar asylum-seekers and unauthorized immigrants from entering the country, alarming immigration advocates who have said that Trump and his advisers are using a global pandemic to further hard-line immigration policies. But the presidents late-night announcement Monday signals his most wide-ranging attempt yet to seal the country off from the rest of the world. A formal order temporarily barring the provision of new green cards and work visas could come as early as the next few days, according to several people familiar with the plan. Under such an executive order, the Trump administration would no longer approve any applications from foreigners to live and work in the United States for an undetermined period of time, effectively shutting down the legal immigration system in the same way the president has long advocated closing the borders to illegal immigration. It was not immediately clear what legal basis Trump would claim to justify shutting down most immigration. Workers who have for years received visas to perform specialized jobs in the United States would also be denied permission to arrive, though some workers in some industries deemed critical could be exempted from the ban, the people familiar with the presidents discussion said. The number of visas issued to foreigners abroad looking to immigrate to the United States has declined by about 25 per cent, to 462,422 in the 2019 fiscal year from 617,752 in 2016. Several people familiar with the presidents plans said the Department of Homeland Security was separately weighing a large expansion of travel restrictions that already prohibited travellers from Europe and China. The restrictions would significantly shrink the number of people able to come to the United States for short-term visits. Trump and his advisers have argued inside the White House that doing more to bar people from other countries from coming into the United States, either for short-term visits or to live and work in the country for longer periods, could help limit the number of infected people who arrive from potential coronavirus hot spots around the world. And they argue that it could relieve pressure on the American health care system. But Trumps primary focus appears to be on protecting American workers as the virus ravages what had been a rapidly growing job market. Even before the pandemic, the president and some of his most hard-line advisers had been eager to reduce legal immigration, arguing that Trumps America First campaign pledge should be seen as protecting native-born Americans from having to compete with foreign workers. Stephen Miller, the architect of the presidents immigration agenda, has pushed repeatedly for regulations and executive actions that would limit the amount of immigration that is allowed each year, arguing that immigrants are a drain on American society, drive down wages and take jobs from native-born Americans. And the presidents restrictionist allies on Capitol Hill quickly praised word of his actions. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said on Twitter: 22 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last month because of the China virus. Lets help them get back to work before we import more foreigners to compete for their jobs. Immigrant rights groups angrily dispute the claim that immigration is bad for American workers, pointing to research that shows there is little connection between immigration and wages, and stressing the benefits of Americas immigrant culture. Charanya Krishnaswami, the advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA, responded to the presidents tweet with one of her own. When youre a xenophobe, bans on migration are the only tired, failed, hateful solution you can think of, Krishnaswami wrote. Suspending immigration wont make the US which currently leads among COVID cases worldwide safe. Our policies need to be grounded in public health, not bigotry. Trumps denigration of migrants was the centrepiece of his 2016 presidential campaign, and his assault on the nations immigration system was a defining feature of his first term in office. As he seeks reelection to a second term, Trump has made clear that he intends to energize his supporters by continuing to stoke a fear of immigrants. In the past several months, Trump has justified sealing the United States to migrants by highlighting the risk of spreading the coronavirus, even as his administration has been widely criticized for not taking precautions this year to prevent an outbreak. At the end of January, Trump blocked some travel from China, citing concerns about the spread of the virus. He later extended travel restrictions to most of Europe. Trump used authority granted to his surgeon general to immediately turn back migrants and asylum-seekers to their home countries, even though the Supreme Court refused to allow a similar policy in 2018. His administration has leaned into the policy, even rapidly turning away unaccompanied children that cross the border alone. Weeks later, Trump ordered the State Department to issue visa sanctions against any country that refused to accept an immigrant the administration wanted to deport. Even before the pandemic, Trump carried out some consequential immigration policies. In January, the president expanded his travel restrictions to 13 countries, virtually blocking immigration from Africas most populous nation, Nigeria. That same month, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to move forward with a wealth test that would deny green cards to immigrants who are thought to be likely to make even occasional and minor use of public benefits like Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers. Many advocates have said the so-called public charge rule has discouraged immigrants from seeking medical assistance at a time when the administrations top health officials are encouraging Americans to be vigilant for symptoms of the virus. Read more about: With 10 people from Bhadrak and Jajpur districts with travel history to Kolkata testing positive for Covid-19 on Monday, Odisha recorded 18 such cases on a single day. This forced the Naveen Patnaik government to rush rapid response teams there to oversee measures to contain the spread of the virus while asking people with travel history to West Bengal during last 28 days to quarantine themselves at home. Eighteen Covid-19 positive patients were detected in Odisha till late Monday night, taking total number of cases to 79. Previously, 15 cases were detected on April 3 and 18 on April 5, most of them from Bhubaneswar. On Monday night, five more people, including a 12-year-old boy, were tested positive in Balasore town that is now emerging as a Covid-19 hotspot. The five are family members of the 58-year-old man of Balasore who had tested positive on April 18. Odisha health and family welfare department officials said the 10 workers of Jajpur and Bhadrak districts, who had tested positive, were working in West Bengal and had returned to Odisha in the last 28 days evading the lockdown by travelling in small vehicles or goods train and other means. Chief spokesperson of state government on Covid-19, Subroto Bagchi, said 24 of the 74 cases in Odisha had travel history to West Bengal, that has of late become a hotspot. In Kolkata, 54 new cases were reported on Monday. Five people from Bhadrak, aged between 48 years and 66 years, had slipped through the Odisha-Bengal border between March 28 and April 9. Quarantined in their homes, they were all asymptomatic till they tested positive on Monday. Similarly, another five people of Jajpur district, aged between 28 years and 64 years, working as labourers in Howrah and Burrabazar area, too had returned from Kolkata in the last 28 days. Jajpur district collector Ranjan Das said one of the five Covid-19 patients detected in Bhadrak had travelled with five people from Jajpur in a van while they were returning from Kolkata on March 29. As the five got down at Sathipur on March 30 morning, the district collector appealed to residents of villages situated adjacent to Sathipur to inform the officials if anyone with travel history to Kolkata had reached the villages after March 30 morning. Most people from West Bengal are clandestinely trying to sneak into the villages. Its not possible for the state administration and police to keep watch on every village. So the grampanchayats are extremely important in detection of potential Covid cases, a health department press release said. A senior police official said though every effort is being made to seal the Odisha-Bengal border, many people were crossing over to Odisha in ambulances. Though all modes of passenger transport services have been suspended for over a week in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, a large number of people have been entering Odisha by smallers roads connecting the two states through private vehicles like cars, auto-rickshaw, mini-buses and trucks. We have little way of knowing how many of them are genuine. Instead of going to hospitals in Kolkata, many of the patients from Bengals Midnapore district are flooding AIIMS Bhubaneswar and SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. They may prove to be the greatest source of infection, said the official. An AIIMS official said in the last one week, the number of patients from Bengal have gone up. With more and more people from Bengal entering Odisha through numerous roads, Odisha DGP Abhay today visited the Odisha-Bengal border in Balasore an Mayurbhanj district on Tuesday to oversee the police arrangements of sealing the border. Odisha has 38 villages that share the border with Bengal. Of the 38 villages, 35 are in Balasore and rest in Mayurbhanj district. Meanwhile, in Balasore district, a two-year-old tribal girl tested positive, making her the youngest Covid-19 patient in the state. The girl in Nilagiri block was running fever and had cold following which she was taken to the district headquarters hospital in Balasore where her swab sample was taken. Officials said they were intrigued by the girls case as she did not have any travel history. A senior Vietnamese doctor has advised against administering the BCG tuberculosis vaccine, which is being trialed against COVID-19 in some countries including Vietnam, to adults under any circumstances. Vietnams National Lung Hospital director Nguyen Viet Nhung warned against giving the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, which is primarily used in tuberculosis treatment, to adults could result in unwanted reactions as he spoke to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday BCG was first introduced in the 1920s as a defense against TB a bacterial lung infection. According to Nhung, there is no scientific evidence of the vaccine protecting people from novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. He said scientists around the world have recently noticed that countries which routinely administer the BCG vaccine to newborns have reported lower numbers of coronavirus infections and deaths than those which either have discontinued their national immunization program or never had one in the first place. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a scientific briefing published on April 12 that it does not recommend BCG vaccination for the prevention of COVID-19 as there is no sufficient evidence that the vaccine results in a decrease in infections and deaths from the disease. Globally, two separate clinical trials are being carried out in the Netherlands and Australia to test if the BCG vaccine may lead to improved protection against COVID-19 or milder infection. In Vietnam, the Ministry of Health has asked the National Lung Hospital to cooperate with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in conducting research on this front. Some 800 health workers at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi and the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases will participate in the research, with a number of them receiving the BCG jab. Similar studies are also being conducted in member countries of the Francophonie an organization of French-speaking or France-influenced countries including Cambodia in Asia, for an assessment of the correlation between COVID-19 and the BCG vaccine, if any. In the absence of results from the research, Dr. Nhung emphasized his warning against administering the vaccine to adults. A young Japanese man recently suffered from complications after getting the BCG shot to prevent COVID-19, the hospital director said. Under Vietnams national Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), the BCG vaccine has been given to children during the first month or the first year of their life for over 30 years to prevent tuberculosis. Vietnam has so far confirmed 268 cases of COVID-19, a tally that has stayed unchanged since Thursday. Only 54 patients remained in treatment on Tuesday morning. No death related to the respiratory disease has been reported in Vietnam. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! JAKARTA, April 21 (Reuters) - Indonesia will ban the mass exodus tradition, locally known as 'mudik,' at the end of the Muslim fasting month in May in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus in the Southeast Asian country, President Joko Widodo said on Tuesday. "I have taken the decision that we will ban mudik," Widodo told a cabinet meeting. "That is why the relevant preparation needs to be done." Widodo cited a transport ministry survey that said 24% of Indonesians were insisting on joining the exodus after Ramadan in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country. (Reporting by Maikel Jefriando Writing by Stanley Widianto Editing by Ed Davies) The air humidifier market will witness a slow growth due to outbreak of COVID-19 in January 2020. Governments of several countries across the globe have enforced lockdowns to reduce the impact of the virus. Temporary shutdown of several industries has led to an economic slowdown, which will hamper the market growth. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/620 Surging consumer awareness related to health benefits of humidifiers, such as reduction in respiratory diseases and prevention of dried skin & lips, will support the adoption of portable air humidifiers. Warm mist humidifiers are anticipated to witness a rapid demand due to a bacteria-free environment offered by these devices. These humidifiers display demand in areas with cold and dry climates due to their capability to disperse warm water droplets in the room. The growing market demand for residential air humidifiers is supported by rising pollution levels in urban areas across the globe. USB-powered and portable humidifiers are expected to witness high penetration in residential buildings, supporting market growth. Market factors, such as increased convenience, high mobility, and purification functions, in advanced portable humidifiers are responsible for growing market share. The Asia Pacific air humidifier market led by China, Japan, and Australia will witness significant growth in market share. Growth in these regions is attributed to rising pollution levels and declining indoor & outdoor air quality. Increasing disposable income coupled with growing awareness about health risks caused by poor indoor air quality is accelerating humidifier sales. Government initiatives, such as Make in India, are empowering the manufacturing sector and encouraging domestic players to enter the air humidifier industry. Browse key industry insights spread across 315 pages with 667 market data tables & 32 figures & charts from the report, "Air Humidifier Market Share & Forecast, 2020 2026" in detail along with the table of contents: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/air-humidifier-market Some major findings of the air humidifiers market report include: Air humidifiers are witnessing high adoption in the residential sector owing to reduction of health risks associated with respiratory tract and skin. Rising urbanization coupled with high growth in the residential sector in Europe and North America is supporting the demand for air humidifiers in the region. and is supporting the demand for air humidifiers in the region. The declining indoor and outdoor air quality owing to rising pollution levels across the globe is strengthening the market. Key players operating in the air humidifier market are Procter & Gamble, Boneco, Dyson, Carel Industries, Honeywell International, Inc., Nortec Humidity, Armstrong International, Vornado Air, DriSteem, Winix, Pure, Carrier, Stadler Form, Philips, Condair, Winix, and Neptronic. The market players are focusing on expanding their geographic presence to cater to a wider customer base. Companies are laying emphasis on expanding their distribution networks by appointing authorized dealers for underserved markets. For instance, in March 2018, Neptronic announced the nomination of Techocontrol Sistemas S.A. de C.V., as a dealer for its products in Central and South Mexico including Mexico City. Industry players are also launching multifunctional products with air purification and humidification facilities to cater to growing market opportunities. Make an Inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/620 Partial chapter from report table of contents (TOC): Chapter 3 Air Humidifiers Market Insights 3.1 Industry segmentation 3.2 Industry landscape, 2015 - 2026 3.3 Impact analysis of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic 3.3.1 Global outlook 3.3.2 Impact by region 3.3.2.1 North America 3.3.2.2 Europe 3.3.2.3 Asia Pacific 3.3.2.4 Latin America 3.3.2.5 MEA 3.3.3 Industry value chain 3.3.3.1 Research and development 3.3.3.2 Manufacturing 3.3.3.3 Marketing 3.3.3.4 Supply 3.3.4 Competitive landscape 3.3.4.1 Strategy 3.3.4.2 Distribution network 3.3.4.3 Business growth 3.4 Industry ecosystem analysis 3.4.1 Distribution channel analysis 3.5 Technological and innovation landscape 3.5.1 Integration with smart devices 3.5.2 Noise reduction 3.5.3 Flexible air dispersion 3.5.4 Antimicrobial Humidification 3.5.5 Multifunctional Air Humidifiers 3.6 Pricing analysis 3.6.1 Price analysis, by region 3.6.1.1 North America 3.6.1.2 Europe 3.6.1.3 Asia Pacific 3.6.1.4 Latin America 3.6.1.5 MEA 3.6.2 Cost structure analysis, 2019 3.7 Regulatory Landscape 3.7.1 International standards 3.7.1.1 ISO 80601-2-74:2017 3.7.1.2 ISO 20789:2018(en) 3.7.2 North America 3.7.2.1 ANSI/AHRI Standard 611 (SI) 3.7.2.3 AHAM HU-1-2016 3.7.2.4 AHRI Standard 640 (I-P) 3.7.2.5 ANSI/AHRI Standard 620 (I-P) 3.7.3 Europe 3.7.3.1 CEN EN ISO 8185:2009 3.7.3.2 EN 15251:200 3.7.4 Asia Pacific 3.7.4.1 GB/T 23332-2018 (China) 3.7.4.2 YY 0786-2010 (China) 3.7.4.3 JIS T 0993-1:2020 (Japan) 3.7.5 Latin America 3.7.5.1 NOM-001-SCFI-2018 (Mexico) 3.7.6 MEA 3.7.6.1 SASO IEC 60335-2-98 Part 2-98: Particular requirements for humidifiers (Saudi Arabia) 3.8 Industry impact forces 3.8.1 Growth Drivers 3.8.1.1 Growing consumer health awareness across the globe 3.8.1.2 Rapid development of residential sector in Europe and the U.S. 3.8.1.3 Government policies related to industrial humidity levels in Asia and Europe. 3.8.1.4 Declining indoor and outdoor air quality due to rising pollution levels across the globe 3.8.1.5 Rapid expansion of commercial and industrial sectors in Latin America 3.8.1.6 Increasing consumer demand for advanced residential products in Asia and MEA 3.8.7 Industry pitfalls & challenges 3.8.7.1 Regular maintenance requirements 3.8.7.2 Health concerns 3.8.7.3 Impact of COVID-19 3.9 Innovation & sustainability 3.10 Growth potential analysis 3.11 Porter's analysis 3.12 Competitive landscape 3.12.1 Company market share analysis, 2019 3.12.2 Strategy dashboard 3.13 PESTEL analysis Browse reports complete table of contents (ToC): https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/air-humidifier-market About Global Market Insights Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology. Contact Us: Arun Hegde Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights, Inc. Phone: 1-302-846-7766 Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.gminsights.com SOURCE Global Market Insights, Inc. ETCHMIADZIN. In his video message of April 20, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan also touched upon the clergy, expressing qualifications and assessments on their activities. The Information System of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin has noted about this in a statement. The statement also says that these days when the Armenian people are preparing to pay their respects in prayer to the memory of the holy martyrs of the Armenian Genocide, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, despite not agreeing with the assessments and views expressed, currently refrains from referring to them. On the threshold of the day of remembrance of the holy martyrs of the Genocide, it is the patriarchal appeal of His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, to refrain from controversy and speculation, and to ask in the spirit of love, solidarity and unity, for the intercession of our holy martyrs, for the benefit of the strengthening of the homeland, for overcoming the challenges of national life, and for the welfare of our people, the statement also reads, in Particular. As reported earlier, PM Pashinyan had stated on Facebook livestream that in many cases, one can see politics in the actions of Armenian clergy. RADLogics We are looking forward to integrating RADLogics AI-powered solution across our hospital network throughout Moscow where imaging plays a crucial role in patient management specifically chest CT, said Dr. Sergey Morozov, MD, PhD, MPH, who serves as CEO of Moscow Diagnostics and Telemedicine Center RADLogics announced today new worldwide deployments and installations of the companys AI-Powered solution to support chest CT imaging for COVID-19 (Coronavirus) patients. To respond to the growing pandemic, the company has now deployed its solution at hospitals and healthcare providers in China, Russia, Italy, Serbia, and Brazil, and has engaged additional hospital systems and providers around the globe. Since we completed our initial research and shifted the companys resources and AI expertise to focus on COVID-19 solutions, weve seen incredibly strong demand from healthcare systems and providers around the world. Our system has enabled these hospitals to enhance their ability to manage symptomatic patients especially those with severe or worsening respiratory status, said Moshe Becker, CEO and Co-Founder of RADLogics. As weve seen in the surge of patients across the world, ERs and ICUs can become overwhelmed. Our solution improves patient care by providing doctors with a Corona Score that provides clinicians automatic measurements of disease extent of COVID-19 patients, thus allowing doctors to better manage a patients treatment. Designed for easy integration and installation both on-premise and via the cloud RADLogics algorithms are supported by the companys patented workflow software platform that enables rapid deployment of the solution at multiple hospitals using commercial cloud-computing resources through Amazon Web Services (AWS), that can process up to 1 million CT studies per day. RADLogics has distribution partners in several key markets including China (ChainZ), and Russia. Notable RADLogics deployments to date include the following installations: Russia Deployed by BinomixRay, after a pilot, Moscow Department of Healthcares Diagnostics and Telemedicine Center is considering to scale the solution system wide in Moscow. China RADLogics solution was studied through deployments in several hospitals, and the system was critical in the countrys efforts to manage the COVID-19 surge. Italy RADLogics system was initially deployed in the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy for investigational use as part of a pilot. Based on the effectiveness of the solution, it is in the process of being deployed widely throughout the hospital. Current epidemics are calling for new healthcare management approaches, and effective clinical management depends more on disease severity than on the virus identification, said Dr. Sergey Morozov, MD, PhD, MPH, who serves as CEO of Moscow Diagnostics and Telemedicine Center. We are looking forward to integrating RADLogics AI-powered solution across our hospital network throughout Moscow where imaging plays a crucial role in patient management specifically chest CT. It allows defining symptomatic patients and stratifying them into mild, moderate, and severe disease burden groups. This clinical risk assessment is greatly supporting decisions on treatment at home, at the hospital, or at the ICU especially when PCR results are pending or repeatedly false-negative. In Russia, we are leveraging CT to help determine which patients can be discharged from the hospital for home quarantine even when PCR is still positive, added Dr. Morozov, who served as Past-President of European Society of Medical Imaging Informatics. These massive imaging data sets should be read by physicians reliably and promptly. Radiology automation or intelligence augmentation on top of teleradiology systems empowers clinical decision making, which in turn saves lives of the patients, preserves scarce hospital resources, and prevents physicians burnout and morbidity. Since announcing the findings of the initial study that RADLogics CT image analysis algorithm achieved a high level of accuracy for detecting COVID-19 on CT, the company has processed thousands of additional patient cases in China, Russia, and Italy. Additional research and results on a dataset comprised with 110 confirmed COVID-19 patients from Zhejiang province, China is now available in preprint on arXiv.org. About RADLogics A healthcare software company developing artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions, RADLogics provides machine learning image analysis solutions to improve radiologists' productivity while enhancing patient outcomes. Based in Boston, MA, US, and Tel Aviv, Israel, RADLogics is one of the pioneers in using AI & machine learning image analysis and advanced big data analytics to search and analyze imaging data from CTs, MRIs, PET scans, and X-rays to help reduce diagnostics turnaround time from hours to minutes by automating detection and report generation functions. The companys patented AI medical image analysis platform enables rapid development of AI algorithms, and provides seamless integration into existing radiology workflow. Visit radlogics.com/coronavirus/ to learn more or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter. The Managing Director of Puma Energy Distribution Ghana Ltd, Henry Osei, has cautioned the public not to take for granted the decision by President Akufo Addo for the lockdown to be lifted. In his view, Ghanaians should continue to observe strictly the protocols set out by the government and its health authorities aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. His call comes on the heels of the announcement on Sunday by President Akufo Addo directing the lifting of the lockdown in Accra, Tema, Kasoa, and Kumasi which has, somehow, given people the wrong impression that the danger associated with COVID-19 is over. Sharing his thoughts on President Akufo- Addos speech and his directives for the lockdown restrictions to be eased, Henry Osei says We do not have to let our guards down as yet as the lifting of the restrictions does not in any way mean that the danger associated with the virus is over. According to him, the relaxation of the restrictions should rather make all of us disciplined and responsible so as not to put ourselves in harms way or imperil the lives of those around us he added. What we all need to do is to continue to observe the social distancing rule, wash our hands regularly with soap under running water, and use alcohol-based hand sanitizers as much as possible he emphasized. The announcement on the easing of restrictions by the President yesterday reportedly sent a large section of the populace in the lockdown zones into jubilation and there is a high possibility that people will settle into their normal routines pre-COVID-19, which will jeopardize the fight against the virus in the country and the strides made so far. Ghanas caseload has so far crossed the 1000 ceiling mark with the numbers likely to go up as health authorities continue to conduct testing of thousands of samples taken. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 05:18:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close "None of us will be safe until all of us are safe." UNITED NATIONS, April 20 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants a vaccine for COVID-19 to be available to all people around the world, said his spokesman on Monday. "It needs to be available for all -- for moral reasons but also that none of us will be safe until all of us are safe," said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman. There is competition among different developers, which is good. There is cooperation, which is even better, he told a virtual press briefing. "I think the critical part is when we do have a vaccine that works, that the vaccine is available to all, that the vaccine itself doesn't make the gap between the haves and the have-nots even greater." Photo taken on April 3, 2020 shows UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaking at a virtual press briefing at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Antonio Guterres said on the day that the international community should focus only on the battle against its common enemy of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is sweeping the entire world and bringing tremendous socio-economic impacts. (Xinhua/Xie E) The UN secretary-general has been in touch with the World Health Organization, which is in the lead on this issue, said the spokesman. "We want to make sure that the vaccine does not exacerbate the issues of inequality when it actually arrives and that it is shared for the benefit of all," he said. A teenage boy who murdered 20-year-old college student Cameron Blair by plunging a knife into his neck outside a house party in Cork city has received a life sentence that will be reviewed in 2032. The teenager, now aged 17, will be detained at Oberstown Children Detention Campus until he turns 18 next month when he will be moved to an adult prison. Passing sentence at the Central Criminal Court today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that "the deliberate recourse to knives by young men must be deterred and the public must be protected". He said Cameron's life was taken in an act of extreme violence which was clearly deliberate and unanticipated by him. He described the killing of Cameron as "shocking" and "awful" and pointed out that the defendant knew that the student was "not a threat" before he "viciously murdered" him. Referring to Cameron, the judge emphasised that he was a decent and hard-working young man that was held in high regard. He had also demonstrated friendliness and decency in his dealings with others on the night, he said. The boy, who cannot be named because he is a minor, pleaded guilty last month to murdering Cameron Blair on Bandon Road in Co. Cork on January 16, 2020. Cameron's parents Kathy and Noel Blair and younger brother Alan were supported in the courtroom today by several other extended family members. Mr Justice McDermott addressed the Blair family a number of times, saying on one occasion that the defendant's release from prison in the future may be of little comfort to them for the taking of Cameron's life and his guilty plea may appear to be inadequate for such a dreadful crime. However, it reflected the underlying sentencing laws and principles, he explained. Cameron was a native of Ballinascarthy in west Cork and a second-year chemical engineering student at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT). He died at Cork University Hospital (CUH) on January 16 after being stabbed in the neck while attending a student party at a house in Cork city. At a sentence hearing earlier this month, the court heard that Cameron had told his friend: "Don't worry lads, I don't want to be fighting" moments after the defendant stabbed him with the knife into his neck. The student, who was acting as a peacemaker outside the house party in Cork city, was not aware that he had been stabbed. The court was told that Cameron had "extended the hand of friendship" to his murderer earlier in the night when he suggested the teenager and his two friends be allowed come into the party. Cameron had told them they were "sound", the hearing was told. Cameron had also acted as a "good Samaritan" on the night when he brought a drunk homeless man into the house because he was concerned about him. In a letter of apology to the Blair family, the 17-year-old boy wrote that he was "deeply remorseful" for what he had done saying: "Cameron was nothing but nice to me on the night and did nothing wrong to me. It was never ever my intention for any of this to happen." The court heard that the defendant and his two friends had developed a paranoia as to whether somebody else had a knife at the party. The 17-year-old had "tapped" the kitchen knife on the back of his leg a number of times before he lunged forward in a downward motion and stabbed the student in the neck. Before delivering the sentence today, Mr Justice McDermott noted that the teenager had the intention to kill or cause serious injury to Cameron and there was no evidence of self-defence, which raised his culpability to a much higher level. "The dreadful reality is that the life of Cameron was taken in an act of extreme violence," he said. Mr Justice McDermott said the teenager was fast approaching his 18th birthday and pointed out that if he had taken a trial date it would not have concluded before this. He was not a very young child when he committed the murder and was in a later stage of development, he continued. Furthermore, there was nothing to suggest the teenager suffered from a mental disorder and he understood the nature and consequences of what he did when he stabbed Cameron, he said. Referring to the victim impact statements given by the Blair family, the judge said they were given with enormous dignity and restraint. He said that Cameron's participation in life transcended this awful crime and he was a decent and hard-working young man who was held in high regard. "It is the loss of his valuable life and his social, sporting and working life that is central to this," he added. Furthermore, Mr Justice McDermott said Cameron had demonstrated friendliness and decency in his dealings with others on the night. He explained: His family are bereft in this appalling murder and their suffering will be life-long and nothing I do today will relieve that. The defendant had extinguished Cameron's life by viciously murdering him and what happened on the night was simply awful, he said. "Why if the accused and his friends felt unwelcome at the house party did they not simply leave instead of arming themselves with weapons?" asked the judge. Mr Justice McDermott observed that Cameron had tried to calm down the situation and prevent it from escalating. He said it was clear from the evidence that the teenager and his two friends had behaved in a violent and intimidating manner and they could not be pacified. The defendant was waving a knife about on the night and laughing when he knew Cameron was only a short distance away from him, said the judge. The delivery of the fatal blow was "vicious, deliberate and cowardly" and had been unanticipated by the deceased. The aggravating factors in the case included that the teenager was a guest at the party and for no identifiable reason he had armed himself with a kitchen knife, he said. "He and his friends introduced knives into the situation and this was intended to intimidate and frighten those at the door of the house," he said. He knew Cameron was unarmed, he had invited him into the party and was not a threat to him. Another aggravating factor was the fact that the accused had ran away from the scene without getting any assistance for the student and later disposed of the knife and a pair of gloves. He also lied to gardai initially by trying to suggest that he and Cameron had exchanged punches, said the judge. The court heard that among the mitigating factors were the teenager's guilty plea which saved the Blair family the enormous burden of sitting through a trial, his age and the sorrow he had expressed. The judge said a probation report had been made available to the court in which the defendant said that he had produced the knife as he thought it would scare the deceased. Mr Justice McDermott then sentenced the teenager to detention for life with a review in November 2032 but said he must serve a minimum of 13 years. "The aggravating features require that this review only occur after a substantial period in custody," he said. The judge also emphasised that "the deliberate recourse to knives by young men must be deterred and the public must be protected". Furthermore, he said the teenager's release must be "very carefully considered and supervised". The defendant's earliest release date is January 24, 2033, and this will depend on how he responds in custody and the progress he makes in terms of his alcohol issues and his aggression, said the judge. He directed the preparation of detailed reports during his period of custody with the first report to be submitted in October this year and then one every three years up to the review in 2032. In summary, the judge said it was inevitable that the teenager would be transferred to an adult prison within a relatively short time of being sentenced. The sentence was backdated to January 24, 2020. [April 21, 2020] UJET Strengthens its Executive Leadership Team with Vasili Triant as Chief Business Officer UJET Inc., a leading provider of modern, mobile-first customer support communications and solutions, today announced the appointment of Vasili Triant as Chief Business Officer (CBO), as the latest addition to UJET's executive leadership team. In his role as CBO, Triant will spearhead UJET's global partnerships and alliances, and help to further UJET's position as one of the fastest growing cloud contact center solutions. Triant brings more than 20 years of deep expertise in Telecom, Unified Communications (UC), and Contact Center to UJET. He joins from Cisco (News - Alert) , where, as VP/GM of Contact Center, he achieved the fastest growth in over a decade through a focus on global alliances and enterprise cloud-readiness. Previously, he served as CEO for Serenova where he led the cloud software company through a significant phase of growth and industry recognition. Prior to Serenova, Triant led teams for LiveOps (News - Alert) , a global BPO with more 20,000 agents and UC leader ShoreTel (Acquired by Mitel in 2017). At UJET, Triant will utilize his sector expertise to drive initiatives surrounding development opportunities, partnerships, investments, and global alliances. Triant will work closely with UJET Founder & CEO Anand Janefalkar, Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Darcey Harrison, and the entire leadership team in order to further accelerate UJET's growth, corporate relationships, and market penetration. "We're constructing not just a great leadership team, but an entire company that are innovatos, who are committed to putting customers first, re-imagining user experiences, and helping companies transcend over to the smartphone era of customer support," said Anand Janefalkar, Founder & CEO, UJET. "We believe that with the addition of an industry veteran with the accomplishments, relationships, and track record of Triant, UJET is expanding our reach into all avenues of partnerships to help customers accelerate the move to a cloud-native and smartphone-centric platform." "Having been in the contact center industry for over two decades, I've seen how the market and its key players have grown and evolved, and have been keenly aware of gaps and pain points that so many customers experience as a result. UJET offers a truly unique solution with its unparalleled security, scale, reliability, and CRM integration," said Triant. "When I looked at UJET, I saw the perfect combination of a unique product, happy customers, and a great team. The decision to join was easy." Along with the addition of Triant, earlier this year, UJET added Darcey Harrison to its leadership team as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Harrison joined UJET with a long and prestigious track record of success across both software and hardware technologies including Markforged, Cisco Meraki, and Bank of America. Tweet this: .@UJETco bolsters its leadership team with the addition of @VasiliTriant as Chief Business Officer: https://ujet.co/?p=2949&preview=true About UJET UJET is propelling customer experience into the digital age by empowering support organizations to create intelligent workflows, make data actionable, and create a modern business model where organizations have the tools and technology they need to create an immersive, engaging, and one-of-a-kind experience for their customers. UJET is trusted by customer-centric, innovative enterprises including Google (News - Alert) , Instacart, Wag!, Atom Tickets, Getaround, and Grupo Bursatil Mexicano (GBM) to automate contact center processes and provide superior experiences that drive higher customer satisfaction. Learn more and request a demo at www.getujet.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005058/en/ [ Back To SIP Trunking Home's Homepage ] COVID-19 has caused immense damage to our world, affecting people's lives, as well as several economies around the world. Recently, news agencies in Europe ran a rather strange bit of news. The headline stated that Germany has sent a bill for 149 billion Euros to China for damages caused by the coronavirus. Reuters This surely is astonishing, however, not entirely true. According to FullFact.Org, the bill was essentially a mock-up sent by Germanys renowned news publishing outlet Bild, where they assessed the damages to its economy from the virus to total 149 billion or $161 billion. Germany has had over 1,40,000 confirmed cases while claiming the lives of over 4000 people. While not as severe as the situation in the US, Italy, the novel coronavirus has done irreparable damage to the nations people and the economy. Chinese authorities, when they came across the report, they werent happy. The Chinese embassy spokeswoman in Germany, Tao Lil issued a statement to the news publication, stating, I followed your reporting on the corona pandemic in general and China's alleged guilt in particular today. Apart from the fact that we consider it a pretty bad style to blame a country for a pandemic that is affecting the whole world and then to present an explicit account of alleged Chinese debts to Germany, the article ignores some essential facts. She further stated that such articles stir xenophobia and nationalism. Bild Bild Editor In Chief went on a video to respond to this letter, questioning Chinese authorities efforts while research stating, your laboratories in Wuhan have been researching coronaviruses in bats, but without maintaining the highest safety standards. Why are your toxic laboratories not as secure as your prisons for political prisoners? Would you like to explain this to the grieving widows, daughters, sons, husbands, parents of corona victims all over the world? He concluded stating, In your country, your people are whispering about you. Your power is crumbling. You have created an inscrutable, non-transparent China. Before Corona, China was known as a surveillance state. Now, China is known as a surveillance state that infected the world with a deadly disease.That is your political legacy. Fauci: US Economy Won't Recover Until Coronavirus Controlled By Ken Bredemeier April 20, 2020 The top U.S. infectious disease expert on Monday warned protesters who are ignoring their governors' stay-at-home orders that the country will not recover economically until the ravaging coronavirus is under control. Street protests against governors have erupted in several state capitals in recent days, with demonstrators calling for an easing of restrictions that have shut businesses and led to the layoff of 22 million workers. Some protesters have chanted, "Fire Fauci!", targeting Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has frequently cautioned President Donald Trump against reopening the country's economy too quickly for fear of a resurgence of the virus. Trump has pushed to restart the world's largest economy as quickly as possible, targeting May 1, and laid out a three-phase plan to return the country to a sense of normalcy. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC's "Good Morning America" show that the protesters could be hurting the chances for economic recovery. "This is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics, from the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus," he said. "Unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going happen," he said. "So what you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike (in more coronavirus cases), you're going to set yourself back." Fauci said that while it is painful to follow guidelines of a gradually phased reopening, moving too quickly and avoiding restrictions is "going to backfire. That's the problem." Trump has praised the protesters, saying that some governors "have gone too far" in imposing restrictions. He said that those angered by the stay-at-home orders had a right to demonstrate. He claimed, erroneously, that they are maintaining physical distancing guidelines by staying two meters away from each other. Last week, as the protests first erupted, he called for the demonstrators to "liberate" three states led by opposition Democratic governors in Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia. After several governors said over the weekend that they do not have enough coronavirus tests in their states, Trump said late Sunday an agreement is close with a U.S. company to shift its operations to make 10 million swabs a month. In addition, he said the government will use its authority to force a second company to boost its swab production by more than 20 million per month. Fauci said the U.S. is now testing about 150,000 people a day but needs to double or triple that figure. "We need a partnership between the federal government and the local people, including the governors, to help them get the things they maybe not have any access to," he told ABC. He said the goal of the tests remains to identify people with coronavirus, isolate them and then trace their contacts with others to see if they also have the disease. Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the White House coronavirus task force, told "Fox News Sunday" he believes there are a "sufficient" number of test kits available for "any state" to move into the first phase of new governmental guidelines for slowly returning the country to work and a sense of normalcy. But several governors disputed Pence's contention, including Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in the eastern state of Maryland, who is also chair of the National Governors Association. "The administration I think is trying to ramp up testing, they are doing some things with respect to private labs," Hogan told CNN. "But to try to push this off, to say the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing, somehow we aren't doing our jobs, is absolutely false." Democratic Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia told CNN that claims by Trump and Pence that states have plenty of tests were "just delusional." Meanwhile, Trump and Democratic lawmakers are close to a $470 billion deal that would add another $310 billion to the fund to help thousands of small businesses in the U.S. that have been forced to close their operations in the face of stay-at-home orders issued by 43 of the 50 U.S. state governors to curb the spread of the virus. Trump and Congress initially approved a $350 billion small business fund, but with thousands of businesses applying for the money, the fund ran out of money last week and the government stopped taking more applications for the cash. If businesses spend the money on paying workers over the next eight weeks, the government says it will foot the bill for the payments and the businesses will not have to repay the money. Otherwise, the money turns into a loan that must be repaid. The new funding will also add another $100 billion for hospitals and coronavirus testing, along with $60 billion for a separate small business loan program, officials said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address #COVID-19 has already loomed into our continent and countries, thus we need to engage the appropriate Disaster Management steps considering our situations, and focus on the Mitigation and Preparedness, rather than waiting for the disaster to explode so that we respond or recover, which made the US and the other European rich countries grieve. Stories Continues after ad Ismail Adan Disaster Management Department University of Nairobi Email: ismaelshirwac@students.uonbi.ac.ke The world is wrestling against the Coronavirus Pandemic which affected around two million people and claimed more than 120 thousand of lives. Almost every country in the world has experienced cases of this deadly virus, including my own country; the Republic of Somaliland, that imposed preventive measures to curb and curtail the spread of this virus amongst the population. Lockdowns, flight restrictions, school shutdowns, halting border movements, event cancellations, mosque/church closures, social distancing and most importantly encouraging hand wash, were the main activities carried out by every government to ensure the safety of its people which resulted in both social and economic impacts. Since the start of this outbreak in China, the virus is ravaging rich countries. The US and other five European countries with the most advanced health systems are now suffering the most with maximum deaths and multiples of that horror awaits in the developing world if they dont take it seriously. The top point of discussion of Africa, with my own country the Republic of Somaliland as its Eastern Horn, has been access to clean water and combatting cholera for many years. Poverty, malnutrition, higher maternal mortality rate, tuberculosis, malaria and the many unfortunate words which might not be available in the dictionaries of the developed world, are the top of the daily convo of African communities and their deprived health institutions. Thus, Africans need to understand this virus is NOT just a simple unfortunate incident among the many we were dealing with, but a DISASTER which could abolish the lives of all of us, leaving no one behind. The transmission is faster and easier, the risk is higher, and we cant have the capacity to respond. #COVID-19 as a disastrous hazard in Africa A disaster is a consequence of a sudden disastrous event which seriously disrupts the normal function of the society or the community to the extent that it cannot subsist without outside help. A disaster is not just the occurrence of an event such as an earthquake, flood, conflict, health pandemic or an industrial accident; a disaster occurs if that event/process negatively impacts human populations. Disasters combine two elements: hazard; a threatening event, and the vulnerability of affected people. The disaster occurs when a hazard exposes the vulnerability of individuals and communities in such a way that their lives are directly threatened or sufficient harm has been done to their communitys economic and social structure to undermine their ability to survive. No doubt, that Coronavirus threatened the lives of more than seven Billion lives on earth and has already killed many. Having said that, Disaster shatters when a threatening live event associates with the vulnerability of the subject community. African health service has been rated among the poorest in the world. According to WHO (2018), the continent under-performs all six dimensions of health services namely; Service availability, Coverage of essential interventions, Financial risk protections, Service satisfaction, Health Security and Coverage of non-SDG health targets. Access to essential services are low, and its quality remains a challenge. Lower respiratory conditions, HIV Aids and diarrheal diseases represent the top cause of both morbidity and mortality, as per the World Health Organization, and the situation seems to be even worst when you look at the situation of sub-Saharan countries. Also, The African vulnerability to this deadly pandemic is not only limited to Healthcare circumstances, but extends to social, cultural, as well as financial aspects. Social distancing is a preventive measure and we live together in extended families. Lockdowns have been enforced, and we live with what we get from our daily insecure jobs which put as in the dilemma of dying hunger or falling ill. Stay away has been told and we meet at the worship places in masses as Africa is a religious continent. In my country, Somaliland, and in many other countries people eat together, sit together, invite one another to meals or events, and are always dense at houses, workplaces, mosques/churches which makes almost impossible for people to stay apart. Moreover, Africas financial crisis is another vulnerability which makes the continent to be susceptible to the disease and incapable of combatting if it metastasizes throughout the unfortunate communities of Africa Modeling Disaster Management practice to Battle against COVID-19 Disaster Management is more than just a mere response and relief. It is a systematic process based on the key management principles of Planning, Organizing and leading which includes coordinating and controlling. It aims to reduce the negative consequence of an adverse event (Hazard), and has different phases at different levels; Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and recovery. It is a cyclical process which means the end of one phase is the beginning of another, and timely decision making during each phase results in greater preparedness, better warnings, reduced vulnerability and/or the prevention of future disasters. #-19 has already loomed into our continent and countries, thus we need to engage the appropriate Disaster Management steps considering our unique situations, and focus on the Mitigation and Preparedness, rather than waiting for the disaster to explode so that we respond or recover, which made the US and the other European rich countries grieve. Having said that, Governments and health authorities across the continent must adhere to the Disaster Management steps to reduce risk and manage to mitigate the effect with maximum preparedness. That is to say that there is something painfully predictable if we miss to put effort into mitigating this pandemic hazard through sticking to the Preventive measures told by WHO and medical professionals to reduce its spread and effect. Governments and Health Authorities should educate the public, encourage the STAY AT HOME and fight against the Fake news which could cost lives by misleading the people. Preparedness is the key. Every country including mine, the Republic of Somaliland, should asses their risk precisely, engage stakeholders including, Health professionals, Community heads, religious leaders, Media outlets, Business communities, and Financial institutions to improve readiness, raise awareness, mobilize resources, plan for emergency and set up an Early warning system together. The response is a critical stage for African countries to reach as they lack the basic facilities to manage incidents, However, we need to prepare for the worst, and arrange as much Logistics and Health facilities as we can for the response. Communication and coordination are also of paramount importance at this stage. Finally, as we bring the Emergency under control and reduce impact which I am hopeful, we will be able to recover, reconstruct and above all learn from the incident. Ismail Adan is a Sociologist and Social scientist based in Nairobi. He is specializing in Disaster Management at University of Nairobi Email: ismaelshirwac@students.uonbi.ac.ke Tell: +254740401951 The United States is currently the global hotspot for coronavirus and worst affected when it comes to the number of casualties the country has reported. However, despite being the epicentre of the disease right now, some citizens in the US are protesting on the streets of Denver demanding to revoke the lockdown and open the economy again. Author JK Rowling quoted Greek physician Hippocrates and said someone with an opinion breeds just ignorance pointing out science is the father of knowledge. The Harry Potter writer took to her Twitter handle to share a picture from the protest. In the photo a lady can be seen shouting from inside of her car without wearing any protective gear holding a placard that says, 'Land of the free', while nurses in front of her remain immovable, with their arms crossed. Rowling tweeted the picture to show solidarity with healthcare workers who are risking their lives at the frontlines to save ours. Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance -- Hippocrates Extraordinary photograph by Alyson McClaran pic.twitter.com/MtBRWTvKd3 J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 20, 2020 Read: South Korea: People Return To Work, Public Places As Country Relaxes Lockdown Restrictions The US has reported the maximum number of coronavirus cases and several states are under strict lockdown to contain the spread of the pandemic. On April 19, hundreds of protesters came out on the streets to demand ease in restrictions and to reopen the economy. Surprisingly enough, they received support from US President Donald Trump, who said some governors had gone too far in imposing the lockdown. Read: Coronavirus: Hong Kong Reports Zero New Cases For The First Time In Two Months Coronavirus outbreak New York City is the most affected region in the United States, where alone more than 10,000 people have lost their lives. As per the data, the total number of infected patients in the United States stands at 7,92,938, nearly four times that of Spain, which is currently the second most affected country. There are 6,78,031 active infections in the United States, of which 13,951 remain under critical conditions. The United States has reportedly treated 72,389 patients successfully, which is a few thousand less than China, Spain and Germany. The coronavirus outbreak has infected over 2.48 million people globally and has killed nearly 1,70,000 patients since it first broke out in December 2019. The virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the initial epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally. Read: Video: Ronit Roy Shows How To Make Face Mask With T-shirt At Home Read: UK: NHS Confederation Slams Govt For Promising PPE Kits Before Arrival (Image Credit: AP) The price of US oil has turned negative for the first time in history, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). That means oil producers are paying buyers to take the commodity off their hands over fears that storage capacity could run out in May. Demand for oil has all but dried up as lockdowns across the world have kept people inside. As a result, oil firms have resorted to renting tankers to store the surplus supply and that has forced the price of US oil into negative territory. The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for US oil, fell as low as minus $37.63 a barrel. The severe drop on Monday was driven in part by a technicality of the global oil market. Oil is traded on its future price and May futures contracts are due to expire on Tuesday. Traders were keen to offload those holdings to avoid having to take delivery of the oil and incur storage costs. June prices for WTI were also down, but trading at above $20 per barrel. Meanwhile, Brent Crude the benchmark used by Europe and the rest of the world was also weaker, down 8.9% at less than $26 a barrel. The oil industry has been struggling with both tumbling demand and in-fighting among producers about reducing output. Earlier this month, Opec members and its allies finally agreed a record deal to slash global output by about 10%. The deal was the largest cut in oil production ever to have been agreed. But some analysts said the cuts were not big enough to make a difference. It hasn't taken long for the market to recognise that the Opec+ deal will not, in its present form, be enough to balance oil markets, said Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at Axicorp. The leading exporters Opec and allies such as Russia have already agreed to cut production by a record amount. In the United States and elsewhere, oil-producing businesses have made commercial decisions to cut output. But still the world has more crude oil than it can use. And it's not just about whether we can use it. It's also about whether we can store it until the lockdowns are eased enough to generate some additional demand for oil products. Capacity is filling fast on land and at sea. As that process continues it's likely to bear down further on prices. It will take a recovery in demand to really turn the market round and that will depend on how the health crisis unfolds. There will be further supply cuts as private sector producers respond to the low prices, but it's hard to see that being on a sufficient scale to have a fundamental impact on the market. Meanwhile, concern continues to mount that storage facilities in the US will run out of capacity, with stockpiles at Cushing, the main delivery point in the US for oil, rising almost 50% since the start of March, according to ANZ Bank. We hold some hope for a recovery later this year, the bank said in its research note. Mr Innes said: It's a dump at all cost as no one, and I mean no one, wants delivery of oil with Cushing storage facilities filling by the minute. ---citinewsroom Several countries, international institutions and international media have hailed the initiative put forward lately by King Mohammed VI calling for a unified and concerted response to COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and for facilitating joint action by African countries. The initiative, which also suggests sharing of experience and best practices in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and bolstering cooperation to mitigate the health, economic and social impacts of the pandemic in the continent, was praised as an additional evidence of the Kings commitment to Africa. The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was among the organizations that welcomed the Kings proposal of a continental response to overcome the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. In a press release, the PAP welcomed the Kings initiative and his willingness to share knowledge and technology with the rest of the continent amid the extraordinarily overwhelming health crisis. For PAP, African countries need to mobilize further and pool efforts to overcome the unprecedented health war. The Pan-African Parliament also praised Moroccos preventive measures in the fight against the pandemic. The Lausanne-based International Network of Arab and African Journalists (RIJAA) also praised the Moroccan Kings initiative to fight the coronavirus pandemic in Africa, noting that this initiative is the concrete embodiment of a spirit of solidarity and inter-African cooperation. The Network highlighted, in a statement, the scope of the initiative proposed by the Sovereign to African presidents, in order to establish an operational framework aimed at monitoring African countries at different stages of their management of the coronavirus pandemic. This initiative is in line with the new African vision of the Kingdom of Morocco, which is based on the concepts of joint development and sustainable human development, the RIJAA said, adding that it also represents a concrete embodiment of partnership and cooperation between African countries and translates their solidarity in all circumstances. Argentinian political scientist Adalberto Carlos Agozino stated in an article aired by independent Argentinean news agency Total News that King Mohammed VI is the first head of State on the continent to promote an African initiative to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The King of Morocco has shown that even the coronavirus pandemic does not stop his African policy, wrote the Argentinian academic in his article entitled The African diplomacy of King Mohammed VI does not stop. He pointed out that since the beginning of the reign of King Mohammed VI, Morocco has stood out thanks to a foreign policy aimed at promoting sustainable development and strengthening South-South relations. Reporting on the Monarchs proposal to develop a collective African response to the coronavirus pandemic on the continent, French news website Mondafrique stressed that King Mohammed VI is mobilizing African heads of state to face the new Coronavirus. The website recalled that the Monarch has called on the continents heads of state to establish an operational framework to support the most vulnerable countries in the management of the various phases of the pandemic, in a context of health emergency on the continent. While WHO experts fear an alarming spread of the virus on the continent where respect for social distances and hygiene rules remains difficult to apply, the King of Morocco chooses to commit African countries to an action-oriented aid plan to deal with the health, economic and social impact of the pandemic on the continent, the media pointed out. The initiative launched by King Mohammed VI falls within Moroccos sincere commitments and strategic priorities regarding all the issues that concern the common destiny of African countries, whether these are political, economic, or related to security, health or environmental issues, commented columnist and expert in international law Mohamed Sadek. He noted that at a time when most countries, even within blocs that were thought to be strongly united, are pondering on their own sovereign measures to contain the pandemic, Morocco, sincerely convinced of the importance of South-South cooperation, proposed an initiative to properly, efficiently and effectively deal with the pandemic. BERLIN, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Volkswagen would pay 620 million euros (674 million U.S. dollars) in compensations for 200,000 customers in Germany who were deceived about diesel exhaust levels, the carmaker announced on Monday. "We are very pleased that we were able to confirm the personal settlement offer to so many at the end of the registration period," said Manfred Doess, chief legal officer of Volkswagen. Volkswagen had negotiated a settlement with the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) at the end of February. "We have thus saved tens of thousands of customers, Volkswagen and the justice system from lengthy procedures," Doess stressed. Starting in May, eligible customers would receive between 1,350 and 6,250 euros and in return waive any future claims. Originally, 470,000 people had registered for a mass lawsuit against Volkswagen in Germany. The final figure in the settlement was lower because it was agreed in the negotiations that only diesel owners who bought their cars before 2016 would be considered. On Monday, Volkswagen extended the registration period until the end of April so that new registrations, as well as the subsequent submission of missing documents, would be possible. In the next few days, approximately 21,000 cases that had "not yet been finally reviewed" would be processed, local media reported. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollars) You can write a letter to Congress, and ask your friends and family to do the same, encouraging your representatives to pass legislation that helps communities most impacted by the coronavirus. Send letters to Congress about unfair laws and regulations that have been made, or in regards to anything that is missing during this time, Dutta and Tapper write. They offer tips on properly and politely addressing leaders and tracking down contact information. GOLDEN, CO / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / Vitro Diagnostics, Inc. (OTCPINK:VODG), dba Vitro Biopharma announced the filing an investigational new drug (IND) application with the FDA for clinical use of AlloRx Stem Cells in the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the US. Recent umbilical cord stem cell therapies in China to fight the Coronavirus are producing encouraging safety and efficacy results. Seventeen critically ill patients treated with umbilical cord-derived stem cells that are comparable to AlloRx Stem Cells, responded quickly by no longer requiring ventilator assisted breathing and were discharged. Also, the Israeli firm Pluristem recently reported recovery in six patients treated with similar stem cells derived from the human placenta. Together with prior safety studies conducted by Vitro Biopharma and others, there is a strong & compelling argument to allow clinical testing of AlloRx Stem Cells for COVID-19 infections in our proposed Phase I study. Dr. Jim Musick, Ph.D., CEO said, "We are very pleased to have submitted our IND using our expanded regulatory team, including a renown regulatory expert in FDA clinical trial management. We are establishing strong communication channels with FDA officials to facilitate and expedite review of our application as well as subsequent steps to gain full FDA approval of AlloRx Stem Cells. Several clinical centers have expressed interest in our stem cell therapy. We are also pursuing other avenues for compassionate use and the COVID-19 Treatment Plan Acceleration Program. We are confident that our therapy is safe & effective based on our prior studies and those of others. MSCs block the cytokine storm that occurs in COVID-19 patients in acute respiratory distress through their powerful anti-inflammatory effects. The cytokine storm leads to the need for assisted breathing by ventilators, transfer to ICU and tremendous burdens on the US health care system. It is important to note that AlloRx Stem Cells are therapy for other viral attacks including influenza since stem cells block acute respiratory distress and damage to other major organs including cardiovascular, pulmonary and renal systems. AlloRx Stem Cells are very likely to assist in recovery from failure of various organ systems in COVID-19 survivors" About Vitro Biopharma: Vitro Biopharma, for over 10 years, has supplied major biopharmaceutical firms, elite university laboratories and clinical trials worldwide with Mesenchymal Stem Cells, MSC-Grow Brand of cell culture media, various stem cell derivatives and stem cell-derived differentiated cells. We also supply primary fibroblast cells and an expanding line of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) from various tumors including lung, breast, melanoma, pancreatic and colorectal tissues. Our CAFs are purchased by major pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical firms to advance immunotherapy of cancer. Out of years of research, we developed our patent-pending and proprietary line of umbilical cord derived stem cells AlloRx Stem Cells now being used in offshore regenerative medicine clinical trials. Our stem cells are used in regenerative medicine clinical trials with our partner in the Cayman Islands www.DVCStem.com. We have a recently approved clinical trial using our AlloRx Stem Cells to treat musculoskeletal conditions at The Medical Pavilion of the Bahamas www.tmp-bahamas.com in Nassau. Vitro Biopharma has a proprietary and scalable manufacturing platform to provide stem cell therapies to critically ill Coronavirus patients and other conditions including multiple sclerosis, OA, Chrohn's disease and numerous medical conditions that are under-treated by the current standard of care. Our cGMP manufacturing is ISO9001, ISO13485 certified and we are FDA registered. Our stem cells have been shown to be safe and effective in Phase I clinical trials. CONTACT: Dr. James Musick Chief Executive Officer Vitro Biopharma (303) 550-2778 E-mail: jim@vitrobiopharma.com Forward-Looking Statements Statements herein regarding financial performance have not yet been reported to the SEC nor reviewed by the Company's auditors. Certain statements contained herein and subsequent statements made by and on behalf of the Company, whether oral or written may contain "forward-looking statements". Such forward looking statements are identified by words such as "intends," "anticipates," "believes," "expects" and "hopes" and include, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's plan of business operations, product research and development activities, potential contractual arrangements, receipt of working capital, anticipated revenues and related expenditures. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, acceptability of the Company's products in the market place, general economic conditions, receipt of additional working capital, the overall state of the biotechnology industry and other factors set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulations, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE: Vitro Diagnostics, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/586090/Vitro-Biopharma-Submits-IND-Application-to-FDA-for-AlloRx-Stem-CellR-Therapy-of-COVID-19 Today we received bad news for the Okanagan, a mining outfit, Vancouver-based Flow Metals Corp., is proposing to prospect in the Peachland watershed. This is third such mining claim in our watershed. Exploration and development bring with them the potential to unearth and release uranium and other toxic materials into our water supply no matter how careful the operators claim to be. Flow Metals Corp. follows on the heels of another Vancouver based company, Troubadour Resource, its claim, Amarillo project, is near Glen Lake. Bitterroot Mines, also Vancouver based, has proposed work in the Trepanier watershed; Bitterroots North Brenda property is located 20 km west of Peachland. One wonders if all these mining outfits could or would propose to prospect and mine in their back yards, how would Vancouverites tolerate an open pit up Grouse Mountain, mining trucks on Lonsdale or tailing ponds leeching into the Capilano? Time and very poor track records have proven that the Gold Rush Era practices that regulate BCs mining and energy extraction are lacking. We know better than to fall for the promises of high paying jobs and community prosperity. Just look at the ghost towns that pepper our countryside. No wonder the Westuweten were blockading. After less than 19 years, Norandas Brenda Mines abandoned Peachland with a 4 square km garbage dump, dirty water and a failing tailings pond dam. Since the dam was only a temporary structure, Noranda planned to dump toxic water into the drinking supply of Peachland Creek. If it wasnt for the outcry of local resident activists and Mayor Keith Fielding mine executives would not have been forced to build a water treatment plant for the mine waste. Incidentally, when the mine originally lobbied council upon start up, they produced glossy brochures advertising sailboats and recreation activities on the tailing ponds after reclamation...so how is that working out? What promises have the three Vancouver based companies made to our local governments? The other legacy mining left us is fear of disaster; when our kids first attended Peachland Elementary, they had regular duck, dive and cover drills to teach children how to muster for evacuations in case the Brenda Mines tailings dam breeched and took out Beach Avenue. Nothing has changed, the pond is still there, the threat remains, and the dam is built similar to Mt. Polleys, the greatest environmental disaster ever in BC after the dam collapsed into the Quesnel River. The Okanagan is threatened if any of these mines follow through from prospecting to full-scale mining, another Brenda mines, and promises of a few average jobs for only 19 years of operations and an eternity of an abandoned equipment, garbage dump and dirty water left for taxpayers in perpetuity, some legacy. There is no commitment from these corporations to keep assets in excess of liabilities and remain financially viable in the long term; the government allows them to leave their garbage when they have finished using our crown land, while the citizens of this province are forced to pay for reclamation and clean up, we would get fined for leaving a single pop can in the bush. When the stewardship costs of the future are not paid in the present, this is the delusion of profit and stealing from the future and from our grandchildren benefits no one in the long term. The people of the Okanagan and our local governments need to have a say over what happens in their jurisdictions, especially when it comes to community watersheds. This is the prime use for these watersheds, and only activities that compliment providing water and the other free ecosystem services an intact watershed supplies like water storage, filtration, flood control and biodiversity should be permitted. Time to write to our MLAs and local elected officials and lobby to change the antiquated strip and ship laws that put short term profits of the few over long term health and prosperity of the many. April 22 is EARTH DAY. It is past time for our policy makers to act and understand that to have a sustainable province, mining or forestry sector, there must be sustainable forests for the communities that rely on them and the laws to protect both. Taryn Skalbania Peachland Though he seemed to enjoy retirement, Rob Gronkowski is done with it at least for now. After being dealt to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Tuesday afternoon, Gronkowskis agent Drew Rosenhaus told multiple reporters that he plans to honor his contract. The future Hall of Famer has one year and $10 million remaining on his current deal. Gronkowski will be reunited with Tom Brady in Tampa and it didnt cost the Buccaneers that much. All it took was a fourth-round pick, and New England threw a seventh-rounder in, too. According to ESPNs Adam Schefter, Tampa Bay was the only place Gronkowski was willing to play, so the Patriots didnt have much leverage. Plus, theyve only got about $1 million in cap space, and Gronkowskis hit is roughly $12 million. That math simply doesnt add up. All thats standing in the way is Gronkowskis physical, which hes reportedly already taken. More than three years after American intelligence officials concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee said in a declassified report released on Tuesday that it agreed with U.S. spy agencies' assessment that Russia sought to boost now-President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign. The bipartisan report found that the CIA, NSA and FBI had coherent and well-constructed grounds to conclude that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign aimed to undercut Trumps 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING ON JULY 16, 2018 : "I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be." Trump, who has consistently bristled at suggestions that foreign interference helped his upset victory in 2016, has sought to discredit the intelligence agencies findings as the politically charged work of "the deep state." Russia has denied that it was behind any efforts to meddle in U.S. elections. The committees chairman, Republican Senator Richard Burr, said that one of the intelligence community's "most important conclusions was that Russias aggressive interference efforts should be considered 'the new normal.'" Senator Kamala Harris, who sits on the panel, said in a tweet on Tuesday: "The facts are indisputable... We must do everything in our power to protect our electionsnow." The report comes as Trump seeks re-election, looking ahead to a November match-up in which he is set to face presumptive Democratic nominee former Vice President Joe Biden. SALT LAKE CITY, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CleanSpark, Inc. (CLSK), a diversified software and services company announced today that it has continued to make key hires to support product and revenue growth. CleanSpark most recently hired Marty Weishaar as Vice President of Marketing. Mr. Weishaar made the transition from his Executive position at Lending Tree, Americas largest online lending marketplace, and has led growth and acquisition marketing teams for over a decade. Since being appointed CEO in late 2019, Zach Bradford has worked toward strengthening the Cleanspark management team by filling key positions including Lori Love as CFO and Amer Tadayon as Chief Revenue Officer. Ms. Love previously served as the Executive Vice President of Finance and Operations at Provident Trust Group a $3B trust company in Nevada and Mr. Tadayon, a software industry veteran, has held executive roles at Cognizant and frog design. Mr. Weishaars addition to Cleanspark further rounds out an experienced management team that is poised to help take Cleanspark into the future with greater revenue growth and profitability. Our goal for 2020 is to continue our strong revenue and product sales trajectory with expectations of doubling 2019 year over year revenues, said CEO Zach Bradford. He added, We expect to accomplish this through focused direct sales and marketing of our products, specifically the addition of online marketing, which is something we havent concentrated on in the past. Parties interested in learning more about CleanSparks Microgrid platform are encouraged to inquire by contacting the Company directly at info@cleanspark.com or visiting the Companys website at www.Cleanspark.com. About CleanSpark: CleanSpark a software and services company which offers software and intelligent controls for microgrid and distributed energy resource management systems and innovative strategy and design services. The Company provides advanced energy software and control technology that allows energy users to obtain resiliency and economic optimization. Our software is uniquely capable of enabling a microgrid to be scaled to the user's specific needs and can be widely implemented across commercial, industrial, military, agricultural and municipal deployment. Our product and services consist of intelligent energy controls, microgrid modeling software, and innovation consulting services in design, technology, and business process methodologies to help transform and grow businesses. Story continues Forward-Looking Statements: CleanSpark cautions you that statements in this press release that are not a description of historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on CleanSpark's current beliefs and expectations. The inclusion of forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by CleanSpark that any of our plans will be achieved. Actual results may differ from those set forth in this press release due to the risk and uncertainties inherent in our business, including, without limitation: the fitness of the product for a particular application or market, the expectations of future growth may not be realized, timing of deliveries, demand for our software products; and other risks described in our prior press releases and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent filings with the SEC. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to revise or update this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, which is made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investor Relations CleanSpark, Inc. (801)-244-4405 21.04.2020 LISTEN Payboy Company has condemned the actions of some members of the Coalition of Aggrieved Menzgold Customers who assaulted their Agents in Tarkwa, Western Region. Payboy is a a one stop digital payments vendor that promotes several digital payment services solution for individual and corporate clients worldwide. The company has so far brokered (facilitatory role) debt settlement agreements between Menzgold and hundreds of its clients. In a statement released by the management of Payboy Company Limited on Monday, 20th April, 2020, they condemned the alleged unwarranted attacks on their agents and called on the Ghana Police Service to bring the perpetrators to book. Read the full statement from Payboy Company limited below: OBSTRUCTION OF BUSINESS AND ASSAULT OF PAYBOY AGENTS IN TARKWA BY CACM We sadly note that on Thursday 9th April, 2020, members of a group called Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold otherwise known as CACM, led by one Mr. Samuel Agyarko purported to be the chairman of the said group in Tarkwa, mobilized rioters prior to the commencement of our lawful business duties on the said day, besieged our office with over fifty (50) people partly armed, caused and threatened further unlawful physical contacts on the life of our agents and their properties, but for the intervention of a police officer on patrol's call for reinforcement, it would have resulted in a fatal mob lynch and loss of properties. We strongly condemn this unprovoked, unjustifiable and illegal unwarranted armed physical contact on our offcers and company, as it constitute an illegal interference with our lawful business operations. We kindly call on the Ghana Police Service especially the Tarkwa Police Command, to dutifully investigate this heinous illegality and to dispense their legally mandated duty to professionally bring these perpetrators to book in a bid to keep the public peace. We call on our staff, nationwide Agents and clients to remain calm as we explore the many available options under both criminal and civil legal remedies, to adequately seek redress in our quest to protect and enjoy our rights as lawful citizens of Ghana. MANAGEMENT RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das (PTI) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday allowed a few more measures to nudge banks to invest in small non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and microlenders gasping for money. As part of the measures, the central bank said banks can exclude the amount invested in these companies for the purpose of determining priority sector targets/sub-targets. This exemption is only applicable to the funds availed under TLTRO 2.0, the RBI said. Under PSL rules, banks have to necessarily lend a certain percentage of the total advances to economically weaker sections. The RBI is attempting to nudge the banks to lend to the small NBFCs and MFIs which were not getting sufficient funds under the liquidity easing measures announced by the RBI since banks preferred to invest in the papers of AAA-rated big companies. Smaller NBFCs and MFIs typically do not get preference since these companies are perceived to be high-risk borrowers and normally carry lower ratings. These firms are struggling for funds hit by the prolonged lockdown announced by the government to fight COVID-19. In order to incentivise banks investment in the specified securities of these entities (small NBFCs), it has been decided that a bank can exclude the face value of such securities kept in the HTM category from computation of adjusted non-food bank credit (ANBC) for the purpose of determining priority sector targets/sub-targets. This exemption is only applicable to the funds availed under TLTRO 2.0, the RBI said in an FAQ released on Tuesday. Under TLTRO 2.0 to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore, banks will have to deploy half of the funds in small NBFCs and MFIs. According to RBI circular, of the 50 percent earmarked for small companies, 10 percent should be invested in the securities/instruments issued by MFIs, the RBI said. A further 15 percent in securities/instruments issued by NBFCs with asset size of Rs 500 crore and below and 25 percent in securities issued by NBFCs with assets size between Rs 500 crore and Rs 5,000 crore, the RBI said. In other words, companies will receive a share of this money according to their size. On Monday, Moneycontrol reported that the RBI is unhappy with banks being selective and cherry-picking its instructions on the issue of extending loan moratorium facility to NBFCs. The RBI is of the view that it has never prohibited banks from doing so. There is an ongoing tug-of-war between the banks and NBFCs on this matter. Under TLTRO 2.0, banks have to deploy funds within 30 to 45 working days from the date of the operation. Funds that are not deployed within this extended time frame will be charged interest at the prevailing policy repo rate plus 200 bps for the number of days such funds remain un-deployed. The incremental interest liability will have to be paid along with regular interest at the time of maturity. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo made nice after an Oval Office meeting Tuesday, pledging to work together on the issue that has divided the White House and many of the nation's governors: More coronavirus testing. Cuomo called the meeting "functional and effective," while Trump described it as a "very productive" session in which he and the governor signed off on a plan to double testing in New York over the next few weeks. "We hope that this model will work with the other states as well," Trump told reporters at the White House. Speaking with MSNBC about the meeting with Trump, Cuomo said: "For me, the substance of the agenda was testing who does what, how do we get up to scale." The governor described the president as "inquisitive" about New York's timeline for reopening but said Trump did not attempt to impose a deadline for that milestone. He never editorialized on what he thought was an appropriate timeline, Cuomo told MSNBC. Trump and Cuomo also said they discussed the prospects of aid for New York in a future federal stimulus package. Cuomo told MSNBC that a Navy hospital ship sent to New York City to help fight the coronavirus is no longer needed, "so if they need to deploy that somewhere else, they should take it. The unusual visit from Cuomo, which the president announced a day earlier, came as the Empire State works to pull out of its particularly deadly bout with the virus. Trump and Cuomo, a Democrat, have lurched between slamming and applauding each other in closely watched news conferences during the health crisis. "What does testing mean, and how do we do it, and how can the federal government work in partnership with states? Cuomo asked reporters before heading to Washington, D.C., for his meeting at the White House. Since the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, Trump and Cuomo have taken turns praising and attacking each other over their responses on issues like testing, production of ventilators, and supplies of masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment. Cuomo has at times argued the federal government must do far more, and at other times has thanked Trump for the administration's effort. Story continues More: Donald Trump, Andrew Cuomo talk COVID-19 testing, state funding at White House Coronavirus: Amid coronavirus concerns, two-thirds of voter support mail-in ballots for November, poll finds During his White House briefings, Trump often cites Cuomo's praise while ignoring his criticism. During a news briefing On Sunday, for instance, the president played a series of videos in which the New York governor praised Trump and his team. But Trump has been dismissive of concerns raised by governors of both parties that states do not have enough testing capacity to begin reopening their economies something the president has indicated he would like to see happen sooner rather than later. The president, and public health officials in his administration, say states have more testing capacity than they realize. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence watch a TV clip of New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo during a White House news briefing on Sunday. Asked why Cuomo was visiting the White House, Trump said, "we get along, OK?" The president then noted the governor's "generous" praise of his team. "I appreciated it because it's not about me, it's about these people and thousands" of others involved in the response, Trump said. Hours before the meeting on Thursday, Cuomo told reporters he would tell Trump "the truth," both good and bad, about the administration's response to coronavirus. He added that Trump "has no problem telling me when he disagrees, and he tells me when he agrees ... I have no problem telling him when I disagree and when I agree." At times, Cuomo has attacked the Trump administration for the slow delivery of necessary supplies. Trump, meanwhile, has said Cuomo and other governors have requested too much equipment. Coronavirus origins: WHO says the virus came from an animal, not made in a lab Trump has criticized Cuomo by name over the governor's claim New York needed 30,000 to 40,000 ventilators to meet the expected increase in coronavirus patients. Trump said the request was too high. Now Trump and other governors are arguing over testing. The president said the federal government can help, but the governors are in charge of obtaining testing kits for their constituents. "The federal government has already made immense testing capabilities available, but some states need to take action to fully utilize it," Trump said. Cuomo said New York and other states have struggled to line up supply chains for test kits and need more assistance from the federal government. You shouldnt expect all these governors to run around and do an international supply chain while theyre trying to put together their testing protocol in their state, coordinating their labs, Cuomo said. Trump and Cuomo: Trump and Andrew Cuomo clash over who has power to reopen America's economy Trump and Cuomo have also differed on when states should reopen their economies, and whether the president has the authority to make those decisions. Trump has claimed, without citing evidence, he has the authority but governors and constitutional scholars say it is a state power. Contributing: John Fritze This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump, Andrew Cuomo agree to speed up coronavirus testing - Eric Omondi created a video imitating the famous Ghanaian pallbearers which also acted as a PSA for marijuana's illegality in Kenya - The comedian and his crew perfected the dance moves as they carried the casket with skills as good as those shown by the famous pallbearers - They looked classy in black suits, with gloves and surgical masks due to the risk of catching coronavirus Celebrated comedian Eric Omondi has created a video imitating the famous Ghanaian pallbearers who have become famous due to their incredible dancing skills during funerals. The comedian came up with a way of showcasing how marijuana is illegal in Kenya by attaching a video of him and his crew performing a dance while crying a coffin. READ ALSO: Police officers arrest fellow cops for disobeying alcohol ban in lockdown READ ALSO: Eko Dydda placed in forced quarantine after getting arrested while buying medicine for sick wife In the video shared on his social media pages, which started off with comedian Mulamwah cutting down weeds that resembled marijuana, Eric tried describing how weed could lead one into trouble in Kenya. The African president of comedy and his crew perfected the dance as they carried the casket with skills as good as those shown by the famous crew. They looked classy in black suits, with gloves and surgical masks to ensure they were safe from contracting coronavirus. READ ALSO: Cardi B's marriage in turmoil after Offset's baby mama leaks damning messages READ ALSO: Mtangazaji mtajika wa CNN Richard Quest, apatwa na coronavirus The video was viewed 115,000 times in just 15 hours on Instagram, with many impressed by how good they achieved crazy stunts such as those shown by the Ghanaians. The original pallbearers recently spoke to BBC and their leader, Benjamin Aidoo, revealed that they were close to 100 workers in the business. Benjamin explained they add drama and colour to a funeral according to the specifications of the client. He stated there were some people who prefered their procession to be solemn while other clients wanted it filled with vigorous eye-popping moves and skills. "I decided to add some choreography to it, so when a client comes we just ask what they want and we do it," Benjamin Aidoo told BBC. With Eric's new video, time will tell if Kenyans will also turn him into a meme while describing near-death experiences. 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from Covid-19 in Kenya | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke During a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Director of the Bureau for the Armenian Cause and Political Affairs of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun political party Kiro Manoyan touched upon the recent live broadcasts of Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on Facebook and stated that Pashinyan looks tired after all the work that has been done over the past month. Its clear that the man is doing quite a lot in these conditions, and not everyone realizes the problems and the governments actions to solve those problems, he said. As far as the potential of the government and Pashinyans team is concerned, Kiro Manoyan said even though they are making efforts, not all the members of government are ready to deal with this dire and unprecedented situation. He added that even though things could have been worse, there are also quite a lot of gaps and shortcomings. Metropole Hanoi reigns as one of Southeast Asia's most iconic hotels Earlier, the projects investors had submitted a proposal to increase the hotels investment from the current $48.7 million to $74.7 million to renovate the hotel and upgrade it to the Raffles brand as well as raise the hotels operational duration from 45 to 70 years. The two partners in the project are Hanoitourist Corporation and Singapores Indotel Ltd. The hotels $48.7 million investment has been disbursed in full. Currently, Metropole Hanoi has nearly 700 employees and contributes about VND130 billion ($5.65 million) to the state coffers each year. In 2017, Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF) belonging to VinaCapital one of the leading fund management firms in Vietnam transferred its stake in Metropole Hotel to Lodgis, a joint venture firm founded in November 2016 between US equity fund Warburg Pincus and VinaCapital with the initial seed capital of around $300 million. According to VOF's related announcement, the deal value approximated $100 million, equal to half of the hotel value of around $200 million. After the deal, the 50 per cent equity ownership in Thong Nhat Metrople hotel joint venture belongs to Lodgis, the joint venture between Warburg Pincus and VinaCapital. Currently, the joint venture, through Singapores Indotel Limited, still manages 50 per cent stake in Metropole Hotel. Earlier, VOF owned half of the stakes in the hotel, with the second half belonging to state-owned Hanoitourist which in January 2018 sold 5.26 per cent of its stake to other local firm Hanoi Import Export Union JSC (Unimex Hanoi), cutting its ownership to 44.74 per cent. As the city's first 5-star hotel, Metropole Hanoi has hosted many of the worlds celebrities. Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, built in 1901, is run by France-based global hotel chain AccorHotels Group. Located in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, it has good access to prime tourist destinations. As Hanois most iconic 5-star hotel, the boutique hotel has hosted many of the worlds celebrities, including Charlie Chaplin, Stephen Hawking, as well as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Famous English writter Graham Greene reportedly worked on his bestselling classic novel "The Quiet American" there. In more recent times, other patrons of the 5-star hotel included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and former US President Bill Clinton. Significantly, it is where US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met at the historic summit (February 2019) which was the second meeting between the two leaders after the first one that took place in Singapore in 2018. Award-winning conservationists and filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert said lockdowns around the world due to COVID-19 have created a chance to reimagine relations with the natural world and for young people to continue pushing for change. The husband and wife team were filmed with lions in the Mara Plains in Kenya in a section of a National Geographic film to mark 50 years of Earth Day. Born Wild: The Next Generation highlights how species are faring and the chances for their survival. The film also sees actor Chris Hemsworth head to southern Queensland's Currumbin Wildlife Hospital and NSW charity organisation Friends of the Koala to spotlight their rehabilitation efforts following the devastating summer bushfires. Dereck Joubert insists that we must seize on the coronavirus pandemic to push for a healthier environment. The Centre's decision to use surplus rice for making ethanol-based sanitisers triggered a political row on Tuesday with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claiming that while the poor are dying of hunger, the government is busy cleaning the hands of the rich, evoking a sharp response from Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who asserted that there was no shortage of food grains for the poor and asked Gandhi to shun his "negative mindset". The Kerala government also slammed the Centre for the decision with state finance minister Thomas Isaac questioning the "rationale of diverting food grains" to make sanitisers when cheaper options including soap and water were available. The reactions from opposition leaders came a day after the Central government approved that surplus rice available with Food Corporation of India (FCI) can be used for converting into ethanol to manufacture alcohol-based hand sanitisers and also for blending with petrol. The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC). "After all, when will India's poor wake up? You are dying of hunger and they are busy cleaning the hands of the rich by making sanitisers from your portion of rice," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi. The opposition leader also attached with his tweet a report about government's decision. After Gandhi's attack, Paswan hit back and questioned if the opposition leader does not want the economically weaker sections to use sanitisers and masks. "Does he (Gandhi) want only the rich to use sanitisers and masks while India battles the coronavirus? Should the poor be left to die? It is our long-term planning to have so much sanitisers that the poor can also afford it. He should shun this negative mindset which is dangerous for the country," Paswan told reporters. Sources in the ruling BJP-led NDA said it was decided to field Paswan to take on Gandhi as the matter is related to his ministry, and he is also seen as a credible voice on the matter. The Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution minister said the Modi government is committed to the poor and it has over 18 months stock of grains to supply over 81 crore beneficiaries of the public distribution system (PDS). "One priority is that nobody goes hungry. I believe it is wrong to say that things like sanitisers or masks are for the use of the rich. We want that even poor can use them," Paswan said. While the central government has made adequate provision of grains, it is the responsibility of states to ensure that they are supplied to intended beneficiaries in time, he added. Gandhi should rather find out if poor people in some places are still hungry and bring it to the notice of the state concerned or the Centre, the Lok Janshakti Party leader said. He noted that the government had already announced free ration for three months to PDS beneficiaries and asked states to give them three month of rations on credit. The Kerala minister also tweeted "what is the rationale of diverting food grains for manufacturing alcohol based sanitisers when cheaper options are available , including soap and water? Immediately distribute food grains free to every household on demand , whether they have ration card or not." After the Central government's decision, senior Congress leader Manish Tiwari on Monday had tweeted "doesn't the rice to ethanol decision for sanitisers, and blending fuel not mock the poor and hungry especially when crude is at USD 10- 12 a barrel ?. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) FILE PHOTO: People stand outside of the Uniqlo Global flagship store during a preopening in Berlin TOKYO (Reuters) - Casual clothing chain Uniqlo plans to reopen two stores in Berlin this week, the first in Europe to resume business after nearly all of its stores there were closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Japan's Fast Retailing Co <9983.T> operates 98 Uniqlo stores in Europe. All are closed except for one in the Swedish capital of Stockholm where stores and schools remain open, a company spokeswoman said. Although most Uniqlo stores in China, its biggest growth market, have reopened as coronavirus infections there have dropped, the outbreak disrupted the company's supply chain and forced it to shut over half of its 750 stores in the country. This month, Fast Retailing forecast a 44% fall in operating profit for the year through August. A worsening outbreak in Japan has forced it to temporarily close 289 stores and shorten hours at nearly 300 in its home market as of Tuesday. (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Edwina Gibbs) GREENWICH In a meeting to be held over Zoom, the Greenwich Board of Education will vote on a policy for grading school work that is done at home during the school closures due to the coronavirus outbreak. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday. Superintendent Toni Jones will give her superintendents update on distance learning, and board members will also vote on whether to accept early plans for renovations at Julian Curtiss School and the entryway to Greenwich High School. In the proposed policy, Greenwich High School students will be given the option to continue receiving a letter grade in all courses, as usual, or have all classes in marking period 4 reflected as pass/fail. No action is required by a student to receive the customary letter grades, but students desiring pass/fail will need to opt-in to that decision along with their parent or guardian. The Policy Governance Committee feels this provides GHS students the flexibility they need during this pandemic, Jones said in a note to families. RELATED: Design work begins for changes at Greenwich High, Julian Curtiss School Connecticut school districts, including Greenwich, have switched to at-home learning after schools were closed through May 20 due to the public-health crisis. Although many teachers, students and parents are in their sixth week of distance-learning, many districts have yet to decide how they will grade students for the work they are doing. The state Department of Education has suggested that schools adopt a pass/fail grading policy with guidance from the local district and school board. The CSDE supports the growing national consensus that, given the variability of online teaching and learning models, and issues of access and equity, it is appropriate to view the second half of the 2020 school year as a special case in terms of grading, GPAs and transcripts, Education Commissioner Miguel A. Cardona said in a letter. The decisions will be made at the local school district level. RELATED: Ridgefield superintendent discusses at pass-fail, graduation, spring events RELATED: Pass/fail considered for distance learning in New Canaan In a Greenwich Board of Education work session earlier this month, member Karen Hirsh said she would like to see grade level taken into consideration when it comes to grading. I hope that we especially take the high school levels into consideration, where students need their grades and GPA for consideration for college and other program applications, Hirsh said. Jones told the school board that high school students have reached out and expressed their opposition to pass/fail markings because that would affect their grade point averages. And then I have parents who reached out and said, My child is not coping at all with the entire situation, Jones said. Maybe they have people sick at home. We hear from families every day who are in challenging circumstances, and a pass/fail for those children would be a huge stress relief. Options extend beyond the standard pass/fail. For freshmen, sophomores and juniors, students could take a pass/incomplete, with a district-set timeline to finish the work and receive a pass/fail grade. The state says this would help a variety of students, including those who are sick or caring for sick family members, as well as those who need special-education services or mental-health services and may not yet be receiving them. Districts may want to recognize students who worked at a very high level during the pandemic, and confer a pass with distinction. The state also says districts should continue using recommendation letters to share information that cannot be conveyed in a grade or a pass/fail mark with post-secondary educational opportunities. In higher education in Connecticut, colleges and universities have adopted similar grading policies. Yale College adopted a universal pass/fail policy. The University of Connecticut, Southern Connecticut State University and Central Connecticut State University are allowing the option to request their pass/fail grading for their classes; the policy does not apply to all courses, and may not count toward accreditation or licensure, however. How to comment, access the meeting The agenda for the meeting and the Board of Education documents are posted at GreenwichSchools.org/BoardDocs. Residents who would like to publicly comment on the agenda items should submit their comments to boardofedmembers@greenwich.k12.ct.us at least 24 hours before the meeting. These comments will be posted on the districts e-governance website at GreenwichSchools.org/BoardDocs. Details on accessing the meeting are posted at GreenwichSchools.org/VirtualMeetings. The meeting can be accessed by phone at: 646-558-8656 and entering Meeting ID 996 4847 0697. Any questions regarding accessing the meeting should be sent via email to BOE Clerk Michael Antonaccio at michael_antonaccio@greenwich.k12.ct.us. jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com A group of rural doctors says 44 Alberta communities will be directly affected by recent government changes to the way physicians can bill for services. The Rural Sustainability Group was created to draw attention to what it calls an impending health-care crisis in Albertas rural communities. It says it has surveyed more than 300 physicians across the province. The responses we have received are quite alarming, said Dr. Samantha Myhr, who practises in Pincher Creek. Forty-four communities will be impacted by July from our initial data thats physicians who have been forced to make changes or look ahead to make changes after the pandemic in order to protect their ability to see patients or look after their patients at all. The total includes three communities Sundre, Stettler and Lac La Biche that have already been informed some of their doctors will be withdrawing emergency and obstetric services in hospitals. Alberta Health has said in recent weeks that the province would work with the health region to replace any doctors who leave, but the ministrys response changed Monday. Were preparing to announce changes to support rural physicians very soon, Steve Buick, press secretary for Health Minister Tyler Shandro, said in an emailed statement. Rural communities face long-standing challenges in recruiting and retaining physicians. The survey showed doctors in 41 additional rural communities would be informing their patients in the coming week that they will be making changes to some services by the end of July. Most clinics are letting their patients know through clinic websites or through local paper interviews, said Dr. Ed Aasman, who practises in Rocky Mountain House. Weve got a local Facebook page where well be putting those changes on. Aasman, whos also president of the Alberta Medical Associations rural medicine section, said most doctors have decided they will give up their hospital work. As an example, Myhr said her clinic is located down the hall from the hospital. As of March 31st, doing the same work in the clinic ... and in the hospital, its now valued less on the hospital side, she said. Whenever I am in the hospital, I am still paying overhead in my clinic and I am also not available to my clinic patients. That, I think, is the crux for most rural physicians that are trying to do everything. The provincial government walked away from bargaining with doctors in February and pushed through a number of changes three weeks ago to how they can bill for services. That has led to a lawsuit by the Alberta Medical Association, which argues doctors charter rights were violated by not having access to third-party arbitration. Doctors have said for weeks that the billing changes would force hundreds of clinics across the province, particularly in rural areas, to reduce staff or close their doors. Dr. Vicci Fourie, who works in Westlock, said the decision by many rural doctors to give up their hospital privileges isnt something physicians take lightly. This is not something that just happened and we decided overnight to do this, he said. We had lots of conversations with our rural MLAs. We had conversations with our mayors. Fourie said he had a 2 1/2 hour conversation with his United Conservative MLA, but got the sense he would just walk the party line. The rural doctors group said it would like the government to reverse the changes at least until the COVID-19 pandemic is over. It said it would also like to see the province return to the bargaining table with the Alberta Medical Association to consider the unique needs of rural physicians. Read more about: Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 22:14:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Banque Du Liban, Lebanon's central bank, issued on Tuesday a circular allowing depositors who have U.S. dollar accounts to withdraw their money in Lebanese pounds at a rate specified by the bank on a daily basis. The central bank previously issued a circular granting such a privilege for depositors who have fewer than 3,000 dollars in their accounts. According to a statement by Banque Du Liban, the new circular covers people who have more than 3,000 dollars in their banks accounts. The central bank's circulars came after the hike in the price of U.S. dollar against the Lebanese pound and the restrictions imposed by banks on depositors' cash withdrawals in the U.S. currency. Majdi Aref, a senior policy analyst at the Lebanese Institute for Market Studies, told Xinhua that depositors are certain to suffer losses because exchange rate at the banks must be lower than in the parallel market. Enditem Parents using BBC Bitesize and educational resources provided by a government-backed education programme to home school their children during the coronavirus pandemic continue to complain of technical glitches with the services. More than three million pupils logged on to the BBC platform for the first day of locked down lessons on Monday, while others struggled to navigate the Oak National portal with some saying they were unable to upload work sheets to the site. After some teething problems yesterday that have been carried over to today both the BBC and government-backed Oak National have said that they will help fix any errors that have been identified. Children unable to attend school in the UK have flocked to BBC Bitesize to take online lessons from celebrities such as Professor Brian Cox, Danny Dyer and Sir David Attenborough. Other famous faces recruited by the BBC include Countdown's Rachel Riley and Star Wars actor John Boyega. The Department for Education has also said free laptops and tablets will be given to children from disadvantaged backgrounds across England to help them learn from home. The move is part of a push to make remote education accessible for children while schools are closed. People took to social media to complain about the government-backed scheme led by Oak National Despite the star-studded line up, some parents experienced issues this morning and one said they were only able to find one lesson online. This is while parent's using one site said it had taken 'hours' to upload the work. One user chimed: 'Totally thought I had nailed home school thing then found an inbox with messages saying all of his work was blank - I'll be honest if you struggle as an adult or child with anxiety then this would tip you over. Took me over an hour to reload and resubmit two weeks of work.' Commenting on the government's platform, another user added: '@OakNational. Have you seen the science resources from @theASE? Would be good to use them when planning your primary science lessons - some of the info in the current lesson on light is not suitable for year 2 children.' People took to social media today to complain about the platform that the BBC is offering Another added: Disappointed to see errors in Y4 'Area & Perimeter' #Maths lesson 1- Main activity shape C and Lesson 2- Final Quiz Q.4 are incorrect. Can these be updated to show correct answers? @OakNational #oaknationalacademy #lockdownlessons #Homeschooling2020.' Others using the BBC's service claimed the lessons were not available to people who did not have a TV license. At present you need a TV license to be able to access BBC iPlayer, but the BBC Bitesize website is free to use and there are a number of resources on there available to the public. One user said: 'Activities on the maths year 3 are not working properly it doesn't allow you to choose the numbers.' Getting involved: Danny Dyer fans have vowed to enroll for extra tuition after the EastEnders star joined a huge host of stars to become tutors for a new BBC homeschooling initiative (Danny Dyer right). Rachel Riley (left) is also working on the scheme Lulu Byrne aged 13 and Maisy Byrne aged 15 take part in home schooling, studying mathmatics, english and sciences from their home in Liverpool as schools reopened after the Easter break yesterday Around 6,500 teachers and 1,500 parents were polled to find out the level of contact between schools and pupils, and comes on what would have been the first day of summer term for most pupils after the Easter break. Pictured: Parents have been tweeting images of their children working from home (left and right) on the first day back yesterday Isla Stanton,13, completes her school work at home as schools across the UK would normally be opening for the summer term this week. She is pictured on her first day back yesterday Another said: '@bbcbitesize your child profiles are not working. Setting DOB for 8 year old takes them to Classes for teenagers'. Many users of the platform criticised it for its design and have also slammed the BBC for not including enough female faces in the line up. One social media user said: 'Are you serious Danny Dyer? Where is Bethany Hughes, Lucy Worsley, Mary Beard etc.' Another added: 'I'm sure you could find a nice lady for home economics... you know, to address the balance.' This is while one said: 'Thank god Danny was available. Imagine if you'd had to ask a woman', another user replied: 'Good point where are all the women?' Social media users slammed the BBC for a lack of female teachers on the Bitesize platform Top lessons that were accessed on the platform today included Year 7 Maths, Year 5 English and Maths and Year 3 English. On the first day of school closures last month the online learning platform had received over 1.3 million users. The platform is delivering the various lessons on BBC iPlayer, the Red Button and the BBC Bitesize website and app. It is also available on BBC Four and BBC Sounds and schools up and down the country have been encouraging their pupils to use the resources that have been made available on the platform. Other experts taking part in teaching include Sir Brian Cox and Jodie Whittaker. Ed Balls has been recruited to deliver a maths class for 11 to 14-year-olds, while Attenborough will tackle oceans and mapping the world. Love Island's Dr Alex George, an A&E doctor working on the COVID-19 frontline, will also be part of the classes. He has previously given advice to students on how to deal with exam stress on BBC Bitesize. Celebrities Liam Payne and Mabel, TV presenter Anita Rani, and Strictly Come Dancing professional Oti Mabuse will work alongside over 200 teachers. Love Island star Dr Alex George will also join the innovative new programme England rugby player Maro Itoje is also part of the programme, reading excerpts from How To Be A Cat, for year six pupils. Alice Webb, Director of BBC Children's and Education, said: 'Education is one of the core pillars of the BBC so to see families across the UK engaging with the new content in such huge numbers is wonderful. We've had so much positive feedback from parents and teachers alike already and there's still much more to come!' The BBC unveiled plans earlier this month to support the education of 'every child in the UK' and provide 'rhythm and routine' for their frazzled parents. The programme includes BBC Bitesize Daily, which will feature six 20-minute programmes each day, aimed at different age groups. There will also be a maths and English lesson every day for different age groups, as well as daily education podcasts. Programmes on BBC Four on weekday evenings will aim to support GCSE and A-level courses, as students face a period of uncertainty during the lockdown. Oak National said it was aware of teething problems with the site and was working constantly to keep it updates. They said in a statement: 'Oak National Academy was developed in just under two weeks by a group of teachers and volunteers. 'Because it was produced at such pace, we have picked up a very small number of proofing errors and technical glitches in a couple of the lessons and resources. 'While almost all our lessons are up and running smoothly, we are working hard to fix any minor issues we encounter. We'd like to thank our users for sending us feedback, so that we can continue to develop.' MailOnline has contacted the BBC. 21.04.2020 LISTEN The Member of Parliament for Manhyia North, Hon Collins Owusu Amankwah has refuted claims from some executives of his constituency that he caused the arrest of his contender in the upcoming constituency primaries, Akwasi Konadu. He explained that there were a lot of apprehension in his constituency regarding a supposed fake hand sanitizer shared by Mr. Akwasi Konadu and the police, he later realized, invited him for questioning. Speaking on Akoma FM in Kumasi, a subsidiary of Media General, Hon Owusu Amankwah insisted the police were doing their work and he had no hand in it. He said he was so surprised when his attention was drawn to an audio recording by his constituency Second Vice-chairman Ernest Kofi Agyei purporting that he was the one who caused the arrest of Mr. Akwasi Konadu. The MP said since the voice note claimed that he was responsible for the arrest of his contender he had to report the matter to the Police because the issue bothered on defamation and false claims. "My brother I had heard people saying my contender had shared some items including some hand sanitizers which some claimed was fake but to cause his arrest on that was not my business. ...so I had to report the allegation which sought to defame my personality to the police and that was what I did. He stressed. Hon Owusu Amankwah further narrated that the second vice-chairman was arrested by the Manhyia Divisional Police on Sunday to explain why he was spreading falsehood on his person. "My brother is unthinkable for my own party member to associate me with something he knows I am not part of. So I guess the appropriate quarters to resolve such was the Police Station and rightly so they are conducting investigations after causing Kofi Agyei's arrest", the two-time MP explained Meanwhile, Hon OwusuAmankwah who was recently sworn in as Member of the ECOWAS Parliament said his priority is to help build and secure Manhyia North as a prosperous constituency. Hence issues of fake sanitizers and the likes are not part of his plans but added that he will always work to extricate his name from issues of criminality. He said he has so far helped 737 persons in his constituency to secure scholarships to pursue higher education. The completion of a 6-unit classroom block at Duase, the supply of 5,000 literature books to schools in the constituency, the roofing of the Buokrom MA and Duase Schools as well as the supply of furniture to basic and JHS schools were projects he wants to add up to the other 400 initiatives he has undertaken since becoming MP in 2012. "I am committed to adding up to the over 400 projects I have carried out in Manhyia North as I play my supervisory role on how the Common Fund is used in all the communities in the famous constituency", Hon Amankwah passionately stressed. Donald Trump vowed to temporarily ban immigration to the United States to combat the "invisible enemy" of coronavirus, claiming it would save American jobs as the world economy plunges into meltdown. The announcement, a drastic new step in the US President's anti-immigration crusade, comes as the globe tries to chart its way out of an unprecedented health and economic crisis. In just four months, the novel coronavirus has touched almost every nation on the planet, keeping billions of people at home and claiming more than 170,000 lives. The US is the host of the world's deadliest outbreak, with more than 42,000 deaths and 784,000 known infections nationwide. At least 22 million American jobs have also been lost as lockdowns suffocate commerce around the globe, resulting in the extraordinary spectacle of oil prices turning negative as demand evaporates. After lending support to a spate of anti-lockdown protests in parts of the US, President Trump said late Monday he would halt immigration to the country -- a move likely to please his right-wing base in an election year. "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" he tweeted. There were no further details about the measure or how long it would last. Rival Democrats accused the Republican president of politicising the health crisis to push his anti-immigrant agenda and deflect blame for initially downplaying the dangers of the virus. Fear lingers in Wuhan World map showing official number of coronavirus deaths per country, as of April 21 at 1100 GMT. By Simon MALFATTO (AFP) As death tolls in some of the hardest-hit countries stabilise, debates are raging over when and how to relax restrictions on business and ordinary life. Many governments fear triggering another wave of infections but are also weary of the mounting economic costs and signs of social tension. In a sign of what lies ahead, a gradual return of normalcy in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus first emerged, remains tinged with fear about fresh outbreaks of the disease. The industrial city was released from quarantine two weeks ago, but many restaurants, for instance, have not reopened or are still only able to offer outdoor seating and takeout. "We have very, very few customers," said Han, the 27-year-old owner of a soy drink stall. "Everyone is worried about asymptomatic infected people," she said. "Business is just not as good as before." In Europe, several countries are cautiously creeping out from confinement, buoyed by signs the worst of the virus may be behind them. But large gatherings appear to be out of the question for the forseeable future. While Germany is allowing smaller shops from florists to fashion stores to reopen, authorities cancelled Oktoberfest, a beloved beer-swilling festival in southern Bavaria, for the first time since World War II. Spain also announced it was scrapping its annual bull-running festival in Pamplona, a centuries-old tradition that normally draws a over a million people. In the UK, lawmakers encouraged to attend parliament via video link for the first time, following an extended Easter break. Ghana became the first African country to lift coronavirus restrictions, sparking both relief and concern on the streets in Accra teeming with citizens after a three-week lockdown. "It is a huge reprieve," hawker Jemima Adwoa Anim told AFP. "We had no money and at the same time couldn't step out to work to earn some cash." Afghans wait to receive free wheat from the government emergency committee during a novel coronavirus lockdown on the capital Kabul. By WAKIL KOHSAR (AFP) Elsewhere, fear is building about how the most vulnerable will survive lockdowns that breed their own dangers. In Latin America, weeks of confinement have seen a surge in calls to helplines for victims of domestic abuse. Eighteen women have been killed by their partner or ex-partners during the first 20 days of Argentina's mandatory quarantine. Appeals to helplines have also shot up nearly 40 percent. "Every day, a women is abused, raped or beaten at home by her partner or her ex," said Ada Rico, from the NGO La Casa del Encuentro. "In normal times, we would help her to file a complaint. These days, the urgency is to get her out of the house as quickly as possible." Oil goes negative The turmoil of the coronavirus fallout is playing out dramatically on the oil markets, where US crude prices bounced Tuesday but still fell below 0$ due to shrinking demand and a storage glut. The price of a barrel of US benchmark West Texas Intermediate has turned negative because once its May contract expires Tuesday, buyers will need to take possession of the oil or move it to storage. With demand sharply reduced due to the global economic freeze, there is little storage to be found, meaning traders preferred to effectively pay someone to take it off their hands. "This isn't surprising, given flights are grounded and people are driving much less for work and leisure," said Tai Hui at JP Morgan Asset Management. However, the oil market movements weighed heavily on US and Asian stocks, with Japan's Nikkei closing down nearly two percent and European equity markets opening in the red. The virus has hammered the aviation sector particularly hard, with cash-strappedVirgin Australia announcing Tuesday it had entered voluntary administration -- the largest airline so far to collapse. burs-ssm/lc Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 23:55:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian embassy in Lebanon announced on Tuesday the Syrian government's readiness to help its citizens return to their homeland amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the National News Agency reported. The embassy said the help covers Syrians who work outside the country, the elderly, pregnant women, people with special needs and those who have residency permits or study in foreign countries. However, Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel Karim Ali told Xinhua that Syria cannot, for the time being, receive its refugees because of the large number and the limited capacity to conduct COVID-19 tests and isolate the infected cases. "Of course, we welcome our people to return to their homeland but we are going through a very tough period now due to the virus," Ali said. Enditem Brian Lovett, a product manager at an ad-tech firm in Denver, started 3D-printing quaint little knickknackscoffee coasters and orchids potsfor his home back in 2018. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit his city, two of Lovetts close friends, both doctors in the emergency room of Denver Health, told him that their supplies of protective equipment would run dry within 10 days. So, Lovett set his 3D printers on a different task: churning out protective face masks at a rate of 20 each day. Like a wartime Father Christmas, Lovett delivers the masks to his friends each morning, leaving them on their doorsteps in vacuum-sealed boxes. Advertisement Lovett is one of thousands across America who have repurposed 3D-printing machinery to produce medical equipment, such as face shields and face masks, for doctors on the front lines of the pandemic, bypassing the government and usually taking no profit in return. In the absence of clear government guidance, these hobbyistsas well as small 3D-printing factoriesoften rely on friends working at hospitals to inform their designs as well as advice from like-minded volunteers online. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But without enough guidance, much of the volunteers output could be wastedor, worse, harmful to those they are trying to protect. Medical grade face masks and shields must be fit for purpose, and some hospitals are having to turn away much of the equipment because it is of poor quality, badly designed, or assembled incorrectly or in insanitary conditions. Those hospitals desperate enough to use it put their doctors health in the hands of people like Lovett, who works in advertising. Advertisement Advertisement Weve been offered 3D-printed face masks but had to reject them due to serious questions about their efficacy in preventing transmission of COVID-19, as well as potential issues with carbon dioxide, moisture build-up, and lack of proper fitting, said Andy Lin, who is the director of the Emerging Tech Lab at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in California and also a visiting lecturer in engineering at Caltech. One of the problems with 3D printing is that a network of people who are producing the same part can result in vast differences of quality, said Lin, who also coordinates local efforts to produce personal protective equipment, or PPE, at home. But for anyone producing PPE at home, hospitals have no way of verifying that parts were assembled in sanitary conditions, he said. Advertisement Advertisement One of the hospitals calls it the garage PPE, said Sarah Boisvert, founder of 3D-printing school Fab Lab Hub, who works with hospitals to 3D-print materials. This is a far more complicated problem than just making Christmas ornaments for your family. Lovett readily admits that he is not an expert. But he and others who want to help are stymied in part by a lack of clear government regulation around simple designs. Most citizen manufacturers are producing face shields, simple transparent visors that cover the face and project doctors from airborne pathogens. So long as they stop droplets entering the mouth, nose, and eyes, manufacturers of face shields can essentially build whatever they want, up to a point. But if they get things wrong, they can really do damage, not to mention waste time and energy and resources, said Boisvert. Some popular designs are too flimsy to withstand constant daily use, said Lin, while others sit too close to the face, making them unsafe for doctors who wear glasses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lovetts face masks are even more complexthey require special filters that are harder to make. But he is far from reckless. He checks each design with his friends in the ER and makes small tweaks per their recommendations. Ive probably gone through 24 designs in the past month, he said. Then, the masks are manufactured in a separate room. The equipment itself is wiped down with a pure isopropyl alcohol between every print. Anytime the masks are handles, Im wearing gloves, as well as a respirator. Advertisement Advertisement But for more information, he relies on other citizen manufacturersnot the government. A Slack channel he set up now has more than 550 members, who collaborate on designs, share best practises for production and make arrangements with workers from local hospitals. Advertisement Even well-equipped 3D-printing factories have had to work things out for themselves. In March, Max Friefeld, CEO of New Yorkbased Voodoo Manufacturing, cleared orders from his factorys 200 printers, which previously produced things such as phone cases and cookie cutters, and started producing an average of 500 protective face shields each day. Like Lovett, Friefeld said he has not printed medical equipment for hospitals before and has no prior relationships with any of them. For expertise, he relies heavily on his employees families and friends who work at local hospitals. And he is fashioning his 3D-printed masks using blueprints published by Czech company Prusa3D, which he has tweaked according to the requirements of hospitals in New York. Like Lovett, Friefeld is also relying upon informal networks of 3D printer operators; a Slack channel called 3D Corps serves as a source of vital information. But there, information flows so quickly that its almost impossible to focus, he said. Its like a firehose. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A government-recommended specification designed for the unique requirements of the coronavirus would be a godsend, because that would allow us and hospitals to all agree on a single design and kind of have everybody on the same page of what safe is, said Friefeld. But no such thing exists. Friefeld said hes started to adapt his designs according to those recommended by the National Institute of Health, which he calls very helpful, but Lin said these havent gone through rigorous testing. Despite these concerns, Boisvert doesnt want to entirely discourage people who want to help. Though 3D printers are expensive and ridiculously slow, they are relatively easy to run and can reach people beyond the front lines, she said. Lovett, for instance, said that his masks cost about $1 to make. If a hobbyist uses their resources to build PPE for friends and neighbors, that is going to have a lot of impact, said Boisvert. Advertisement Factories can also produce additional PPE for local areas that suffer from shortages. Stratasys says it has already produced more than 30,000 face shields, which have so far been shipped to more than 40 organizations, among them hospitals and fire stations in small towns. Advertisement Advertisement Beyond helping protect public health, theres another tangible benefit here: Pumping out bespoke masks and shields provides a lifeline for businesses that would otherwise be legally required to shut down. For Voodoo Manufacturing, the only other option was to close the entire factory. The state of New York has issued a shutdown order, so if it werent providing essential services, the companys employees would be out of a job. This is a product that we can make that will continue to pay our factory teams salaries so that they can continue paying their bills, said Friefeld. Were trying to help everybody out as much as possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, under Friefelds instructions, four two-person teams work tightly coordinated factory shifts to reduce the risk of infection, and the remaining laborers assemble face shields at home. If we werent producing [personal protective equipment], or something that was equally important, I dont think our employees would actually want to risk their health coming into work, he said. Boisvert, whose 3D-printing school, Fab Lab Hub, forms part of an international network of distributed manufacturers called Fab Lab, said that the next big step is to figure out how to coordinate large groups. When you have a coordinated effort, you can vet the best designs because you have a group that has more expertise than just your individual group, she said. While Americans wait for better government regulation, Boisvert recommends that volunteers work on things other than PPE. Lovett, however, urges something more radical: more coordinated effort on the part of the government to help. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. The number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Austria dropped from 90 to 10 cases per one million people, two weeks after the government required everyone to wear a face mask on April 6. According to Daily Mail, "Austria seemingly managed to reverse its crisis by making masks compulsory on April 6, following a spike in infections in late March." This contradicted what the United Kingdom (UK) government told its citizens. They are denying that masks are effective if used by the general public. However, Public Health England (PHE) says wearing a mask could spread the virus. It causes people to touch their face and increases the chances of a person acquiring the virus. Read now: 30 Percent of Patients Who had Coronavirus are Prone to Reinfection Amid Low Levels of Antibody: Study PHE added, "People also wear them for much longer than they are designed, causing them to become moist, unsanitary and an ideal environment for bugs to breed in." Fast action saves lives This isn't the case in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. As two of the first countries to make masks compulsory in Europe, they now enjoy a small infection rate per capita. Daily Mail said, "63 Czechs per 100,000 has been infected and less than two per 100,000 have died from the virus." It's lower in Slovakia, "21 per 100,000 people have caught it and just 0.2 per 100,000 have succumbed to the illness." In contrast, 182 out of 100,000 British have been infected, while 25 per 100,000 have died because of COVID-19. "The big mistake in the US and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren't wearing masks," said George Gao, the director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to Telegraph. Gao added, "This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role - you've got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth." COVID-19 spreads quickly because these droplets can stay in the air and travel far enough. USA Today cited a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which revealed that "liquid droplets from sneezes, coughs and just exhaling can travel more than 26 feet and linger in the air for minutes." Read now: CORONAVIRUS TIPS: Experts Say Routine and Patting Pets are Essential to 'Surviving' COVID-19 How a face mask works A face mask alone does not stop the spread of the disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "surgical masks do not stop people from catching coronavirus." Christine Francis, a consultant from WHO's Infection Prevention and Control said, "you must combine with hand hygiene and other preventive measures." It must be worn at all times if the person has a cough, fever, or difficulty breathing. The WHO added, "Masks are effective only when used in combination with frequent hand-cleaning with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water." Countries have seen varying degrees of success with face masks. 40 days since the 100th case of COVID-19, US, Italy and Spain have over 100,000 COVID-19-positive cases. The number of cases didn't slow down nor plateau because they didn't wear masks to slow down the spread. Meanwhile, Asian countries that enforced wearing face masks reported fewer cases. Hong Kong and Singapore has less than 1,000, while Japan has almost 3,000. South Korea has almost 10,000 cases, but the spread nearly plateaued at the 15th day until the 40th. Although China ranked fourth place at almost 100,000, the country also plateaued on the 20th day because they wore face masks. Benjamin Franklin once said Tell and I forget, teach and I may remember, involve me and I learn. Certainly, nobody is in doubt of the governments effort to curb further spread of the Corona virus pandemic in Kenya. Thumbs up to president Uhuru Kenyatta and the entire ministry of health for the indefatigable efforts experienced ever since first Corona case was identified in Kenya. We all know that it has been a sleepless night for the president and the other arms of government first to ensure that Kenyans life is saved from the pandemic as well as caution the citizens against the Corona virus pandemic effects both social and economically. The raft measures introduced no doubt have bore some fruits despite the fact Covid 19 cases still emerges. World over, it has been over emphasized that Corona virus disease that was first experienced in Wuhan Chine in December last year (2019) spreads primarily through droplets generated when an infected person coughs or sneezes or through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose. The WHO in conjunction with world governments have agreed as a matter of principal that to protect yourself from COVID 19, clean your hands frequently with alcohol-based hand rub (sanitizer) or wash with soap and running water on top of maintaining a physical distance of 1-1.5 metre and wearing mask whenever in public places. In Kenya, though with partial lockdown, the government has introduced other raft measures to enhance preventive measures against the spread of Corona virus. Among them is the introduction of the curfew as from 7pm to 6am, closure of all leisure points including hotel & hospitality industry, bars, social gatherings, reduced number of funeral attendances to only family members limited to 15 people and immediate burials of within 24 hours once someone passes on. Of course, the scaring one is how Covid 19 victims are buried. If you care to rember, think of what happened in Siaya. A man who succumbed to Covid 19 was hurriedly buried at 1am. In-fact by unknown and unidentified people and again in a shallow grave. Such has far reaching effects on our cultural belief system. Most communities in Africa believe that even the dead deserves descent send off for obvious reasons. Infact among the luhya and Luos of Kenya, burying is a whole ceremony of slaughtering. Now with Covid 19 as a game changer, that is a thing of the past. Covid 19 and African culture will be a subject for another day. Back to the pint, I want to categorically state that as a Kenyan and now in the village and at home as per the public health guidelines as emphasized by various government agencies, am puzzled with the manner in which Kenyans are responding to the government directives in line with curbing the spread of Covid 19? Many times I sympathise with the energetic and flamboyant Health Minister whenever he appears on my screen for Covid 19 updates. Kagwe as a typical Kenyan has at times militarized his speech in cautioning the Kenyans of the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic should they trivialize the government efforts in curbing the spread of the virus. He once said, If we continue behaving normally, this disease will treat us abnormally. To me this was a resounding warning and a call to Kenyans to change their behavior. However as if nothing is going on, Kenyans have kept on inventing ways to avoid government directives on curbing the spread of Covid 19. Shocking to me has been when I hear one just hires an ambulance as a means to violate the public health guidelines. Others travel with empty coffins from lockdown areas in pretense without minding of the risk they pose to their kin. Probably the government communication has been heavily top down without the involvement of the critical stakeholders who are Kenyans. Therefore, a call for participatory communication strategy as a key component in the fight against further spread of Covid 19. Participatory communication is an alternative approach to linear communication based on dialogue, which allows the sharing of information, perceptions and opinions among stakeholders and thereby facilitates their empowerment. Hence the aim of adopting participatory communication strategy will be to strengthen household and community leadership for the reduction of Covid 19 by enhancing the ministry of health guidelines at various dimensions. This will incorporate social behavior change communication as a force for unifying and promoting integration between government laid down measures to curb the spread of corona virus with the aim of strengthening effectiveness and impact of the government raft measures and creating more spaces for citizen participation and involvement of the very local population susceptible thereby promoting covid 19 preventative measures. Participation in development is the conscious decision to reach out to and involve those people that would be most affected by the proposed development programme. Specifically, participation refers to involving the un-empowered, the marginalized and the poorest people in any society. Its observed that communication is the complex process of creation, transmission, maintenance and transformation of information and ideas, using a mix of interpersonal and mediated channels, which are sustained by political, economic and social structures. I wish to note that participatory communication is a social process in which groups with common interest jointly construct a message oriented toward the improvement of their living conditions and the change of unjust social structures. It should be noted that participatory communication provides all people, including the marginalized with access to information and communication systems and an equal opportunity to participate in creating new information and challenging existing unjust social practices. Therefore, participatory communication is a powerful tool to facilitate this process, when it accompanies local development dynamics and it involves encouraging community participation with development initiatives through a strategic utilization of various communication strategies Importance of Community Participation. Community participation (CP) is an indispensable part of many development programmes and projects encouraged by national governments, the World Bank, UN agencies and non- governmental organizations (NGOs). Despite the differing perspectives of these various agencies, all agree that CP should be encouraged. Actions by the poor to influence decisions making through direct and informal means have emerged as an alternative way by which they can gain access to decision-making- processes and to resources, and thereby improve their wellbeing. Other the business as usual attitude and the application of treacherous means by Kenyans is due to the belief that its the duty of the government to fight the Covid 19 virus. However alternative media advocated by participatory communication or participatory development would be effective in changing the social behaviour of many Kenyans. Let ordinary villagers be trained and allowed to educate the rest of the friends on the dangers of certain behaviours. Sialo is a media trainer at Maasai Mara University in the department of Media Film and Communication and accredited journalist by the media Council of Kenya Three youths have been busted for allegedly hanging out on a building rooftop - only to be caught by a police helicopter using night vision technology. Footage released by police shows the trio, age 19, 20 and 21, drinking alcoholic beverages on top of the bulding in Jefferson Lane in Palm Beach, on the Gold Coast, at 11.20pm on Saturday. The trio allegedly appeared relaxed until a man from the helicopter began shouting through a megaphone at them. 'This is the police - to the three people on the building roof top. Yes, we can see you to the person in the hoodie in the middle with your cold drinks,' an officer could be heard saying in the PolAir footage. Footage allegedly showed the trio drinking cold beverages on top of the bulding in Jefferson Lane in Palm Beach, on the Gold Coast, at 11.20pm on Saturday 'The building is surrounded by police. You need to make your way to the ground floor immediately, please.' The youths appeared to immediately jump up and obey police instruction. To test they were listening the officer asked them to raise their right hand - and one cooperated with the instruction. Police will allege the trio - aged 19, 20 and 21 - were trespassing and in breach of social distancing laws CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement The trio were met by two officers and a police dog at the bottom of the building. One appeared to try and grab his bike but was instructed by the officer not to leave it. Police will allege the trio - aged 19, 20 and 21 - were trespassing and in breach of social distancing laws. The fine for breaking social distancing in Queensland is $1,334. The cost of the fine varies from state to state - for instance in NSW it is $1,000. Two men, 19 and 20, were also charged with possessing drugs, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The pair will appear in Coolangatta Magistrates Court on July 27. [April 21, 2020] Prospero Health Partners With GrandPad to Improve Access to Care for Vulnerable Seniors During COVID-19 Surge Prospero Health, a team-based home health care company, has partnered with GrandPad, the first purpose-built tablet for people over 75, to improve access to care for vulnerable seniors during the COVID-19 crisis. Nearly 100 Prospero patients are already engaging in live video interactions with their care teams using GrandPad, allowing Prospero to continue bringing comprehensive and compassionate care to patients' homes while adhering to strict social distancing guidelines. The COVID-19 risk to elderly and immuno-suppressed patients has isolated many in their homes, making it harder for clinicians and caregivers to attend to their medical and emotional well-being. From the potential for missed medications and falls to the risk of anxiety and confusion, these patients require even greater vigilance during this global crisis. Prior to this partnership, more than 80% of Prospero patients did not have access to a mobile device with video chat capabilities. Utilizing GrandPads addresses that barrier to access and allows Prospero care providers to continue visual observations that enable better identification of symptoms and behaviors than with traditional telephone interactions. The partnership with GrandPad provides an immediate boost to Prospero's telemedicine capabilities. "Our care model has been evolving o bring more virtual capabilities into the home, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated that effort," said Doug Wenners, Co-Founder and CEO of Prospero. "While there's no substitute for home-based visits, this crisis shows how important it is to provide other ways to engage with patients, and thanks to GrandPad we've been able to quickly mobilize." Prospero's clinical care model consists of multi-disciplinary teams of doctors, nurses and social workers who provide care in the home and through 24/7 telemedicine support. The GrandPad tablet is customized for ease of use by seniors and allows Prospero care teams to regularly check in on patients and collaborate with external specialists, primary care physicians and family caregivers. These connections are also essential for preventing loneliness, which can exacerbate existing clinical conditions for older adults. In-home care will still be available when clinically necessary. "Reconnecting seniors with caregivers and family members is critically important to maintaining physical and mental health during social distancing," said Scott Lien, Co-Founder and CEO of GrandPad. "Innovative healthcare companies like Prospero recognize the role technology can play in bridging this gap with telemedicine capabilities that support consistent access to care, clinical outcomes, and above all, quality of life." Prospero is committed to utilizing GrandPads to deliver care to at least 900 patients in the weeks ahead. About Prospero Health Prospero Health is a team-based home health care company providing compassionate care and support for a growing population of people living with serious health conditions. Prospero's multi-disciplinary care teams of doctors, nurses and social workers are specially trained to address complex medical needs, providing face-to-face and virtual telemedicine care in the home at scheduled appointments and anytime unexpected needs arise. Prospero serves patient communities in Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Philadelphia. For more information, please visit www.prospero-health.com. About GrandPad Based in Orange (News - Alert), California USA GrandPad is a privately held company on a mission to improve the lives of millions of seniors by reconnecting them with family, friends, and caregivers. The GrandPad - the first tablet specifically designed for seniors - comes ready to use out of the box and features a secure private family network and premium US-based customer service. There are no confusing buttons, no passwords or pop-up ads, and wireless connectivity and security are built into the device - eliminating the risks of scams and hacks. Users can play games, listen to music, and enjoy many other exclusive apps on the GrandPad. Additionally, caregivers/family members can video chat, receive voice emails, and share photos with the older person through GrandPad's companion app on i0S and Android. Visit GrandPad.net. Connect with us on Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter @grandpad_social. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005895/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] "The Holy Spirit is the master of harmony" and created harmony within the first Christian community. "Poverty is the mother of the community, poverty is the wall that protects the community". It is divided by money, vanity and chatter. Vatican City (AsiaNews) May the silence that exists in this time teach us to grow in listening skills, prayed Pope Francis as he introduced mass celebrated this morning at Casa Santa Marta. "In this time - he said - there is a lot of silence. You can even hear the silence. May this silence, which is a little new to us, teach us to listen, make us grow in listening skills. Let us pray for this." In his homily, the Pope commented on today's passage from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 4, 32-37) which describes the life of the first Christian community who had one heart and one soul, focusing on the causes of division. The Holy Spirit, he stressed, "is capable of working wonders, things that we cannot even think of. One example is the first Christian community, which is not a fantasy, what they tell us here: it is a model, that can be attained there where there is docility allowing the Holy Spirit to enter and transform us. A community that is we could say - 'ideal'. It is true that problems will begin immediately after this, but the Lord shows us how much we can achieve when we are open to the Holy Spirit, if we are docile. In this community there is harmony. The Holy Spirit is the master of harmony, he is capable of creating it and he did so here. He must do it in our heart, he must change many things about us, but create harmony: because he himself is harmony. Even the harmony between the Father and the Son: it is the love of harmony, He. And He, with harmony, creates these things like this harmonious community. But then, history tells us - the same Book of Acts of the Apostles - of many problems within the community. This is a model: the Lord has allowed this model of an almost 'heavenly' community, to show us where we should go." But then the divisions began, in the community. The apostle James, in the second chapter of his Letter, says: 'May your faith be immune to personal favoritism': because there were! "Do not discriminate": the apostles must come out to admonish. And Paul, in the first Letter to the Corinthians, in chapter 11, complains: 'I have heard that there are divisions among you': the internal divisions in the communities begin. This 'ideal' is to be achieved, but it is not easy: there are many things that divide a community, be it a Christian parish or diocesan or presbyteral community or a community of religious men or women... many things enter to divide the community". Let us look at the things that divided the first Christian communities, I find three: first, money. When the apostle James says this, that he has no personal favoritism, he gives an example because 'if one with the golden ring enters your assembly, you immediately make room for him at the front and leave the poor behind . Money. Paul himself says the same: 'The rich bring food and eat, they do, and the poor, are left standing', we leave them there as if to say to them: "Cope for yourselves". '' Money divides, love of money divides the community, divides the Church. Often, in the history of the Church, where there have been doctrinal deviations - not always, however quite often - money is behind it: the money of power, both political power and cash, but it is money. Money divides the community. For this reason, poverty is the mother of the community, poverty is the wall that protects the community. Money, personal interest divides. Even in families: how many families ended up divided by an inheritance? How many families? And they never spoke to each other again ... How many families ... An inheritance ... It divides: money divides ". "Another thing that divides a community is vanity, that desire to feel better than others. 'Thank you, Lord, because I am not like the others', the Pharisee's prayer. Vanity, feeling that ... And also vanity in showing off, vanity in habits, in dressing: how often - not always but how often - the celebration of a sacrament is an example of vanity: Those who attend in their best clothes, [to see] who does this, or that... Vanity ... the greatest celebration ... Vanity also enters there. And vanity divides. Because vanity leads you to becoming a peacock and where there is a peacock, there is division, always. A third thing that divides a community is gossip: it's not the first time I've said it, but it's a reality. It is the reality. That thing that the devil sows within us, like a need to talk about others. 'What a good person he is ...' - 'Yes, yes, but nevertheless ...': immediately the 'but': that is a stone to disqualify the other and immediately something that I heard said and so the other is put down a little." But the Spirit always comes with his strength to save us from this worldliness of money, vanity and gossip, because the Spirit is not of the world: it is against the world. He is capable of creating these miracles, these great things. Let us ask the Lord for this docility to the Spirit so that He transforms us and transforms our communities, our parochial, diocesan, religious communities: to transform them, to always go forward in the harmony that Jesus wants for the Christian community ". The Government has received a stinging rebuke regarding its Public Services Card project from the human rights council of the United Nations. The card, a project which went live in 2011 and has cost in the region of 70 million to the taxpayer to date, is used for the processing of welfare payments. It has come in for sustained criticism due to the lack of transparency the project exhibits in terms of data collection, and has been deemed illegal with regard to data protection law by Irelands own Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon. Last week the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston, a special function of the UNs Office of the High Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR), wrote to the Irish State expressing scorn for the confusing 20-year history of the project, and expressed fears that the unwieldy process has led to a situation in which low-income individuals and otherwise marginalised communities must now contend with formidable barriers to accessing their human right to social protection in Ireland. Mr Alstons argument, expressed in a 40-page letter to the Irish Mission in Geneva, ties into the argument that, both by requiring the card for welfare payments and for certain other statutory services, such as - at one point - passports and childcare subsidies, the less well-off and most vulnerable people in Irish society are being discriminated against. The resulting situation amounts to a form of de facto discrimination against these groups and individuals, Mr Alston said. He added that the fact that the Government had waived the requirement to possess a PSC in order to apply for the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment effectively acknowledged that the way in which the card had functioned prior to the current crisis was unduly burdensome and not conducive to facilitating needed access to governmental support. While the letter was delivered and received by the Government on April 14, it has only now been published. The Government had not immediately responded to a request for comment at the time of publication. Speaking today, Mr Alston said that while the steps required to obtain a PSC are manageable for most people, they can be a nightmare for the especially disadvantaged because of the bureaucracy involved. He cited the fact that the cards existence is frequently justified due to the prevalence of welfare cheats in Irish society. In fact, the PSC does relatively little to reduce identity fraud while already costing the Irish taxpayer at least 68 million, he said. The current Minister for Social Protection Regina Dohertys infamous assertion in August 2017 that the card is mandatory but not compulsory was also reserved for criticism, with Mr Alston dismissing it as a classic example of doublespeak. Government officials have claimed that the PSC is not compulsory but mandatory, he said. While this might be true for the well-off, those who rely on the government for assistance have no choice but to give up on their privacy and dignity in order to get help. Mr Alstons letter was warmly welcomed by Irish privacy groups including the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Digital Rights Ireland (DRI), who called on the Government to scrap the card. Elizabeth Farries, privacy rights spokeswoman with the ICCL, said the letter represents a very important moment in the campaign against the card. Last summer the Data Protection Commissioner asserted that the PSC project over-reach was illegal, she said. Now we have a UN expert agreeing that there is a lack of clear legal basis for the card and that it is de-facto discriminatory. It is time to scrap this project, which has violated our fundamental rights for so long, for once and for all," Ms Farries added. A cow took a stroll on the rooftops of a village under voluntary quarantine in Turkey's eastern province of Bayburt on Sunday (April 19) as local villagers remained at home. Villagers alerted the owner of the cow who chased it and managed to take it back to his barn after it strolled along three rooftops of conjoined houses. "She was strolling on third roof before her owner took the situation under control. I am glad he did because the fourth roof was mine," the village resident Yemane Yildirim told Reuters. Turkey's confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 86,306 on Sunday, the highest total for any country outside Europe or the United States. Turkey only reported its first coronavirus patient on March 10, but has seen the number of confirmed cases rise sharply since then. It now has the seventh-highest total in the world. So far it has tested more than 634,000 people. Ankara imposes a two-day lockdown on 31 provinces on the weekends and urges people across the country to adopt a 'voluntary' stay-at-home quarantine. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 05:47:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RIYADH, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese medical experts on Tuesday shared the prevention and control knowledge on the COVID-19 pandemic with the Chinese community in Saudi Arabia via webinar. The webinar, hosted by the Chinese embassy in Saudi Arabia, was attended by Chinese-funded institutions, overseas Chinese and Chinese students in the kingdom. The Chinese medical experts, who arrived in Riyadh last Wednesday, gave a detailed introduction to the transmission route of the coronavirus and the dos and don'ts for prevention and control, and answered questions raised by the attendees. Chen Weiqing, Chinese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said that since the outbreak, the embassy and consulate have maintained close contact with relevant Saudi authorities to ensure the safety and health of Chinese citizens in Saudi Arabia. Chen called on Chinese citizens in the kingdom to protect themselves and cooperate with Saudi's prevention and control measures. Ruan Yuesheng, deputy director-general of the Health Commission of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and head of the medical experts team, told Xinhua that in preventing and controlling the epidemic, Saudi Arabia is doing very well regarding its comprehensive working mechanism, prevention and control strategies, technical preparation and treatment capacity. Ruan pointed out that Saudi Arabia recently began to step up the large-scale detection of coronavirus, which is good for controlling the source of infection. Enditem A documentary about Vivian Liberto, the San Antonio woman who was Johnny Cashs first wife, is among the films included in an online film festival presented by South by Southwest and Amazon Prime. The SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection will launch April 27 on Amazon Prime. The lineup, announced today, will include 39 films: four narrative features, three narrative documentaries, 18 narrative short films, 11 documentary shorts and three episodic series. All the films were scheduled to screen at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March. The city of Austin canceled SXSW as a public health measure as concerns rose about the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. My Darling Vivian, directed by Matt Riddlehoover, tells the story of Liberto, the mother of Cashs four daughters. It includes previously unseen film and photos of Cash and Rosanne Cash and appearances by Reese Witherspoon, Tim Robbins and Whoopi Goldberg, among others. Cash met Liberto in 1951 while he was stationed at Brooks AFB. They were married in 1954 in St. Ann Catholic Church here after he returned from a deployment to Germany. Other films in the virtual festival include TFW NO GF, a documentary about the lost boys of the internet age, and Cat in the Wall, a narrative feature about the working-class residents of a London council estate who must work together to save the title feline. The SXSW 2020 Film Festival will stream from Monday through May 6 at amazon.com/sxsw. The full festival lineup is posted on that page. A subscription to Amazon Prime is not required to watch the SXSW films, though viewers must have an Amazon account. Jim Kiest is the arts and entertainment editor for the San Antonio Express-News. To read more from Jim, become a subscriber. jkiest@express-news.net | Twitter: @jimik64 Malayalam star, Dulquer Salmaan, who happens to the son of South superstar Mammootty, was last seen in the Hindi film Zoya Factor. He revealed in a recent interview that his marriage with wife Amal was a love/arranged marriage. Dulquer spoke about how he met his wife for the first time and how their families agreed for their marriage. The actor said, "After I returned from the US where I was finishing my studies, my folks were keen on getting me married. My friends and family suggested the name of one of my schoolmates who was five years my junior. My friends started matching her bio-data with mine. Now, it so happened that on most of my outings, I would notice the same girl there as well. Or at times when I decided to watch a movie, surprisingly, she would also be there watching that same movie and the same show. Since I was bumping into her often unknowingly, I somehow felt it could be some celestial sign that I should get married to her." Dulquer added that when he gathered the courage to approach Amal, he invited her on a coffee date. "I informed my parents about this girl. Both the families met and connected immediately. So I can say its a love-cum-arranged marriage, said the actor. Dulquer Salmaan and Amal got married in a private ceremony in Chennai in 2011. Their daughter Maryam was born in May 2017. Talking about her, the actor said "We have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter who is very talkative. She entertains the entire family throughout the day." In the same interview, Dulquer also spoke about his wife's reaction to all the female attention he gets on social media. When asked if Amal feels insecure about his female fan following, the actor told the publication: "No, not at all. Sometimes I also tell her to comment on me, but it's like ghar ki murgi dal barabar. My wife is very secure." Advertisement A Pennsylvania hospital transported corpses in the open cargo bed of a pickup truck in broad daylight, shedding light on the grim reality hitting hospitals and morgues where there's limited space to store the rising number of dead due to the coronavirus pandemic. Horrific photos show a Ford pickup truck stuffed with several wrapped bodies stacked on top of each other outside of the Joseph W. Spellman Medical Examiner's Office in Philadelphia on Sunday. The Medical Examiners Office confirmed that five or six bodies came from a local hospital in 'an unapproved manner'. The bodies were brought to the center to be stored in refrigerated trailers meant to ease the overcrowding at hospitals and funeral homes around the city. Shocking photos show bodies of corpses stacked in the back of a pickup truck and delivered to the Joseph W. Spellman Medical Examiner Building on Sunday afternoon. Workers pictured assisting the driver of the truck unload bodies in the truck onto a gurney The Medical Examiners Office confirmed that five or six bodies came from a local hospital in 'an unapproved manner'. The bodies were brought to the center to be stored in refrigerated trailers meant to ease the overcrowding at hospitals and funeral homes around the city. The driver of the pickup truck pictured standing on the bodies on Sunday When the pickup truck first arrived to the center the bodies in the cargo bed were covered in mats. They were then unloaded into refrigerated trailers on site Pennsylvania has over 34,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 1,300 deaths. A majority of those are in Philadelphia where there are over 9,500 cases of the virus and there have been 370 deaths so far. While it's not clear why the bodies were transported in such a manner, it paints a macabre picture of the COVID-19 crisis where hospitals are reeling from a lack of medical supplies, morgues are overwhelmed, and the number of dead continue to mount. A medical examiner employee was reportedly unnerved by the shocking delivery on Sunday around 3.30pm. He then helped pull the bodies out of the truck, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Workers offloaded the bodies one at a time onto gurneys and wheeled them into three refrigerated trailers at the site. Officials have declined to identify the hospital those bodies came from but two of those body bags were reportedly labelled 'Albert Einstein Medical' and 'Einstein Med Center', referring to the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. The Einstein Healthcare Network, which operates the Einstein Medical Center, said Monday it will go over pandemic protocols from its transportation contractor which transports bodies to funeral homes and to the Medical Examiner's Office James Garrow, a spokesman for Philadelphias public health department, said that the delivery was an isolated incident and was not up to standard transportation protocols. 'The Medical Examiners Office regularly works with hospitals throughout Philadelphia to ensure that bodies are treated with the utmost dignity and respect. Part of that relationship is well-established and long-standing transportation protocols,' he said in a statement, according to Trib Live. 'On Sunday, these protocols were not followed during what was expected to be a routine transfer of bodies for storage. The Health Department is appalled that this happened, and strongly reminded the referring hospital of the existing protocols. This is not normal or acceptable.' He did not know if any of those bodies were victims of COVID-19. The Einstein Healthcare Network, which operates the Einstein Medical Center, said Monday it was demanding an update on pandemic protocols from its transportation contractor. Einstein, along with other hospitals in the region, contracts with a funeral home to transfer bodies to the Medical Examiner's Office. However, the network acknowledged that the COVID-19 crisis has presented 'unprecedented challenges' for hospitals - meaning a shortage of medical supplies and staggering influx of bodies heading to morgues and for autopsies. 'We deeply apologize and are making every effort to ensure we continue to provide the respectful, compassionate care that we are known for,' the network said to the Inquirer. CALGARY, Alberta, April 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pulse Seismic Inc. (TSX:PSD) (OTCQX:PLSDF) (Pulse or the Company) Pulse Seismic Inc. will hold its annual general meeting (AGM) on April 23, 2020, at the office of the Company at Suite 2700, 421-7th Ave SW, Calgary, Alberta. This is a change from the previously announced meeting location as the conference facility previously arranged is no longer available due to the COVID-19 closures. The meeting time remains the same at 3:00 PM MDT. Recognizing the widespread cancellation of public events as a protection of individual and public safety given the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the Company is strongly encouraging shareholders to not attend the meeting in-person. In-person attendance at the April 23, 2020 meeting will be limited to those necessary to conduct the formal business of the annual general meeting. There will be not be a presentation following the meeting. The meeting will be audiocast live. To participate please dial 647-496-0229 (local Calgary) or 1-800-635-9460 (toll free North America) approximately 15 minutes before the commencement of the call. You will also be required to enter a participant passcode which is 512931#. A recording of the meeting will be posted on the Pulse website at www.pulseseismic.com , after the recording has been received by Pulse, from the service provider. Arising from this decision, if shareholders have not yet voted, Pulse encourages you to vote through one of the following channels as set out in the meeting materials that have been sent to common shareholders of the Company: by telephone: Call the number provided on your proxy form; or, online: Visit the website provided on your proxy form. Votes must be received by Pulses transfer agent, Computershare Trust Company of Canada, 8th Floor, 100 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5J 2Y1, no later than April 21, 2021. The Company mailed its notice of annual general meeting of common shareholders and management proxy circular to common shareholders of Pulse Seismic Inc. and the document is available online at the Companys website at www.pulseseismic.com or on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The management proxy circular contains information for shareholders regarding the annual meeting, including exercising voting rights on the election of Pulses Board of Directors and the appointment of Pulses auditor. Information regarding the advisory vote on the Companys approach to executive compensation is also disclosed in the management proxy circular. CORPORATE PROFILE Pulse is a market leader in the acquisition, marketing and licensing of 2D and 3D seismic data to the western Canadian energy sector. Pulse owns the largest licensable seismic data library in Canada, currently consisting of approximately 65,310 square kilometres of 3D seismic and 829,207 kilometres of 2D seismic. The library extensively covers the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin where most of Canadas oil and natural gas exploration and development occur. As always, Pulse remains committed to open communication with its investors. Please find management contact information below. Additionally, if you have questions for the Board of Directors please go to our website and you will find a link under the heading About Us-Contact The Board, where you can submit your question to the Chair of the Pulse Board of Directors, Robert Robotti. For further information, please contact: Neal Coleman, President and CEO 403-531-0689 Or Pamela Wicks, Vice President Finance and CFO Tel.: 403-531-0207 Toll-free: 1-877-460-5559 E-mail: info@pulseseismic.com Please visit our website at www.pulseseismic.com PDF available: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/9aa1b400-ca83-419b-9fc2-78743e54e604 Saudi Arabia gets physical with Russia in underground oil bout FILE PHOTO: The national flags of Russia and Saudi Arabia are seen during an OPEC meeting in Vienna By Olga Yagova MOSCOW (Reuters) - Behind a Saudi-Russian truce to stabilise oil markets with a record output cut, market players are seeing the two production heavyweights still trading blows in the physical market. It is here, rather than in the world of futures prices, that a long-standing battle for market share carries on, particularly in Asia, shipping data analysed on Monday by Reuters shows. The rivals said last week they were ready to take measures if necessary to balance the market by cutting combined output with other OPEC+ members from May. "Beyond the cooperative statements the fight is still going on," a source at a trading firm told Reuters, adding that Saudi Arabia's official selling prices (OSPs) signalled that the kingdom was targeting the Asian market, where demand remains relatively resilient during a global slowdown. Russia has relied on Asian markets as a destination for its oil output since launching the 1.6 million barrel per day ESPO pipeline. This connects Russian fields to Asian markets through the port of Kozmino, the country's main eastern export outlet, and also via a pipeline spur with China, the biggest Asian consumer. Saudi Arabia's state oil company Saudi Aramco and Russia's Energy Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Russia's state oil giant Rosneft declined to comment. Aramco cut its OSPs to Asia in May by $3 to $5 across all its grades, marking a second month of drastic cuts. Meanwhile, the price reductions on Aramco cargoes to Europe were smaller, with a few increases on its heavier grades. Likewise, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait slashed May prices on crude destined for Asia. High supplies of May-loading Saudi crude oil to Asian markets, along with lower OSPs, have tipped differentials of Russian grades like Sokol and ESPO Blend in Asia into freefall. Both grades, which usually trade at high premiums to the Dubai benchmark, hit record discounts. Story continues SPECIAL OFFERS Saudi Arabia is also gaining ground in Europe, Russia's backyard for oil and gas exports. Saudi sales to Europe are poised to surpass 29 million barrels in April, slightly less than the record of August 2016, shipping data available in Refinitiv Eikon showed. Supplies of Aramco's Arab crude oil including Arab Light, the closest grade to Russian flagship in terms of quality, will rise to Italy, Turkey, Greece, France and Poland in April. All of these countries are regular buyers of Russian oil. Polish refineries will import a record 560,000 tonnes of Arab Light crude via Gdansk in April, the data shows. Poland will not import any sea-borne Russia's Urals crude this month, for the first time in a long period, while Arab Light oil supplies to Poland will be steady in May, traders said. "As demand is falling the competition gets even tougher. (The) Saudis don't mind going the extra mile for the buyer," a source at a European refiner told Reuters. "Maybe Russia also should think of special offers." In an effort to further entice buyers, Aramco has offered refiners in Asia and Europe the option to defer payments for crude cargo deliveries by up to 90 days, Reuters reported. Russia's main advantage in the physical market fight with Saudi Arabia is its sprawling pipeline network, helping it place oil at cheaper rates compared to its rival which has to find tankers and pay for transportation, traders said. "Russian oil fields (are) connected to refineries in Europe and Asia and oil companies have long-term contracts with them," a trader in the European oil market told Reuters. "Unlike Saudi Arabia it is not subject to freight rates and vessel availability." (Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal in DUBAI and Gleb Gorodyankin in MOSCOW; Editing by Julia Payne and Alexander Smith) OCEANA COUNTY, MI Two men died in a fiery crash Monday evening east of Pentwater, and a woman was airlifted to a hospital in Grand Rapids after very heroic actions to save her by firefighters. The high-speed head-on collision occurred around 5:20 p.m. April 20 on North 176th Avenue in Colfax Township, according to a press release issued by the office of Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast. The crash occurred when a 2016 Honda Accord traveling north at a high rate of speed passed another vehicle in a no passing zone, lost control, went off the road and then over-corrected and drove into the southbound lane and into the path of a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan, according to the press release. The Honda Accord was engulfed in flames as a result of the crash. Killed at the scene were the Honda driver, Josue Morales, 20, of Hart, and his passenger, Enrique Guajardo, 23, of Donna, Texas. The driver of the van, Vicki Branch, was rushed by Life EMS to the Walkerville School parking lot where an Aeromed helicopter picked her up and transported her to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, according to the press release. She was reported in stable condition. The press release praises the very heroic actions" to save Branch by Walkerville Fire & Rescue, which arrived at the scene very soon after the crash." One particular firefighter laid his body over the hood of Ms. Branchs vehicle to shield her from the heat and flames from the Morales vehicle, the release states. His turnout gear was destroyed from the heat he absorbed. The crash occurred on a curved section of North 176th Avenue between Jackson Road and Rossel Lake Road. Agencies responding to the scene included Walkerville Fire & Rescue, the Oceana County Sheriffs Office, Michigan State Police, Mason County Sheriffs Office, Life EMS and Aeromed. Also on MLive: Takeout Tuesday: Where to grab a meal in the Muskegon area Muskegons Parties in the Park canceled this summer due to coronavirus Coronavirus hazard pay for Muskegon sheriff deputies shot down by county board IOWA CITY, Iowa | Governors in the Midwest are working to keep large meatpacking plants operating despite coronavirus outbreaks that have sickened hundreds of workers and threaten to disrupt the nations supply of pork and beef. In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly sent personal protective equipment and testing supplies to counties with meat processing plants. Gov. Kristi Noem said she didn't think it would be difficult to fulfill federal requirements to reopen a shuttered facility in South Dakota. And Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds warned of the dire cost of closing plants, even as she acknowledged the certainty of more clusters of infection at the facilities. JBS USA said Monday it was suspending operations at a large pork processing plant in southwestern Minnesota because of an outbreak of COVID-19 among workers the latest facility to be closed in the public health crisis. Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said 33 JBS employees and six close relatives had tested positive as of Saturday. Meat processing workers are particularly susceptible to the virus because they typically stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the line and congregate in crowded locker rooms and cafeterias. The JBS plant in Worthington employs more than 2,000 people and normally slaughters 20,000 hogs per day. We dont make this decision lightly, Bob Krebs, president of Colorado-based JBS USA Pork, said in a statement. We recognize JBS Worthington is critical to local hog producers, the U.S. food supply and the many businesses that support the facility. Iowa's governor has also warned of the threat to food supply if authorities clamp down too hard on facilities with outbreaks and has refused to shutter a sprawling Tyson Foods pork processing facility in Waterloo where dozens of workers are infected. Reynolds said the state is working with meat companies to test workers and prevent outbreaks from growing too large, even as she acknowledged that more clusters of positive cases are certain. These are also essential businesses and an essential workforce, she said. Without them, peoples lives and our food supply will be impacted. So we must do our part to keep them open in a safe and responsible way. Reynolds noted that Iowa produces about one-third of the nations pork. If hogs can't be processed, farmers will have to euthanize them, the governor warned. Were not that far from it and it will be devastating, not only for the food supply but for the cost of food moving forward, she said. Advocates for workers said Reynolds has little regard for a vulnerable workforce that includes many refugees and immigrants. Its sickening, said Democratic state Sen. Bill Dotzler of Waterloo, who has called for a temporary closure and stronger worker protections. Hospitals and medical clinics in his city reported a surge in patients Monday, and many of them were Tyson employees. A National Beef plant in Tama, Iowa, that had been closed for two weeks resumed production on Monday as scheduled. A day earlier, Reynolds announced that 177 workers out of more than 500 tested were positive for the coronavirus. The Kansas City, Missouri-based company didn't return messages. Cargill and National Beef have reported infections among employees at plants in southwest Kansas, prompting Gov. Kelly to direct an influx of federal tests and safety equipment to counties in that region. Tyson also has plants there but has not confirmed infections. Controlling those outbreaks is crucial: Plants in southwest Kansas account for 25 to 30% of beef processing in the U.S. It would be a disaster if we had to shut down, so were trying to do everything that we can to keep those plants online, Kelly told The Associated Press. Gov. Noem said the temporary closure of a Smithfield Foods pork plant in Sioux Falls that produces about 5% of the U.S. pork supply has already been devastating for regional producers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for safely reopening the South Dakota plant will be made public soon, Noem said. Its report will call for improved social distancing, expanded use of face shields and other protective equipment, and better communication between the company and workers. Theres nothing in this report that I think will be difficult to accomplish, said Noem. She declined to say how soon it might reopen. Smithfield Foods has said the indefinite closure disrupted its supply chain, forcing the closure of a facility in Martin City, Missouri. Smithfield also shuttered a plant in Cudahy, Wisconsin, after employees tested positive for the virus. Also in Wisconsin, a surge of infections has been linked to the JBS Packerland plant in Green Bay. Health officials said they didnt have an exact number of infections connected to the plant, but infections spiked by more than 100 in the surrounding county over the weekend. The plant remains open. In western Michigan, a JBS meat \packing plant that was closed over the weekend reopened Monday. Sixty people there have tested positive for the coronavirus, Allegan County health spokeswoman Lindsay Maunz told WOOD-TV. Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls; and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, contributed to this story. [April 21, 2020] Tech leader XOi continues to equip TDIndustries with tools for efficiency and top customer experience NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- XOi Technologies, providers of a cloud-based mobile application that connects field service contractors with an industry-leading online knowledge base and empowers them to complete more service requests, has announced the extension of its successful relationship with TDIndustries, the leading provider of maintenance, facilities management, and mechanical construction services throughout the Southwest United States. With XOi's AI-powered technology, TDIndustries is able to offer its innovative Visual Intelligence software platform, which allows customers to monitor repairs, instantly access recommendations and plan for future capital expenditures. "We are a servant leadership company, which means we are always actively looking to find ways to build relationships with our customers," said Chuck Swallow, vice president of strategic accounts at TDIndustries. "Our Visual Intelligence powered by XOi Technologies offers wonderful advantages to our operational processes, but its biggest impact is that it provides a new way to build trust between our technicians and owners That direct benefit cannot be overstated." Visual Intelligence offers TDIndustries an easy-to-use and accessible platform that empowers field technicians to connect with customers remotely through video and photo reports. Customers can also provide immediate video and photos to coordinate a diagnosis before a service call. "Companies like TDIndustries realize there's an urgent need to incorporate personalized technology into their operations," said XOI Technologies founder and CEO Aaron Salow. "The shortage of workers in the skilled trades is 6 million and growing. Solutions like Visual Intelligence help forward-thinking businesses be more efficient and continue delivering industry-leading customer experience, and those factors provide crucial value for companies that want to stand out from their competitors." For more information, visit www.xoi.io. About XOi Technologies As one of the fastest growing startups in Nashville, Tennessee, XOi Technologies is changing the way field service companies in the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing industries capture data, communicate with stakeholders, and service their customers. XOi Vision is a cloud-based mobile application that puts the resources remote field technicians need in the palm of their hands through access to a comprehensive library of manuals and diagrams, training content, and the ability to facilitate real-time remote video support. Workflow automation ensures every job is accurately and visually documented for both internal record and external customer transparency. Through artificial intelligence, Vision simplifies technicians' work, validates consistent quality, and transforms the customer experience. To learn more, visit http://www.xoi.io. About TDIndustries Beginning in 1946, TDIndustries, Inc. (TD) started as a three-person air conditioning distributor based in Dallas, Texas and has grown to a $700 million business with more than 2,700 employees providing maintenance, facilities management, and mechanical construction services throughout the Southwest. Specializing in the full life-cycle of the building (engineering, construction, operation, and maintenance), TD has a fleet of more than 400 vehicles helping to maintain facilities throughout the southern United States. With a heavy concentration in Texas and Arizona, TD has the resources to support owners from a standalone, single-business building to sprawling corporate or university campuses. Using our Visual Intelligence platform, powered by XOi Technologies, we provide modern facility maintenance reporting through video and photo documentation. This allows our customers to monitor repairs, instantly access recommendations, and plan for future capital expenditures. To see this system in action, go here: TD Visual Intelligence. For more information about TDIndustries, visit www.TDIndustries.com. MEDIA CONTACT: Heather Ripley Ripley PR [email protected] (865) 977-1973 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tech-leader-xoi-continues-to-equip-tdindustries-with-tools-for-efficiency-and-top-customer-experience-301043827.html SOURCE XOi Technologies [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Haryana Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora on Tuesday held a review meeting on the COVID-19 situation in the state, opening of industries and procurement of crops. She held the meeting with the deputy commissioners of all the districts, officers of the departments of Industries, Agriculture and Health and other officials through video conferencing, a statement said. Additional chief secretaries of various departments also attended the meeting through video conference, it said. The chief secretary told officials that following the recent directions of the Centre, some industries in the state have started operations and workers are getting employment. She directed the officials to monitor the industries and ensure that norms like social distancing were being followed, the statement said. The chief secretary said efforts should be made to provide work to the migrant labourers and police should be informed about their movement. Arora also directed the officials to start construction projects and brick kilns, it said. The additional chief secretary, Finance, Planning and Industry, T V S N Prasad directed all the DCs and officers of the department of Commerce to extend all possible help to the industrialists so that they do not face any difficulty. Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Rajeev Arora said the state government was committed towards the health of the employees engaged in the prevention of COVID-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seoul, April 21 : South Korean tech giant Samsung on Tuesday said that it is working on an image sensor that could be better than the human eye with resolution of 600MP, along other types of sensors that can register smells or tastes. "Not only are we developing image sensors, but we are also looking into other types of sensors that can register smells or tastes. Sensors that even go beyond human senses will soon become an integral part of our daily lives," Yongin Park, Head of Sensor Business Team, Samsung Electronics said in a statement. "We are excited by the potential such sensors have to make the invisible visible and help people by going beyond what our own senses are capable of," Park added. Samsung is among the industry leaders in smartphone image sensors. In May 2019, the smartphone maker announced industry's first 64MP sensor. Just six months later, Samsung brought 108MP sensors to the market, which made their way into Galaxy S20 Ultra smartphone this year. In 2019, the company was also the first to introduce image sensors based on 0.7Am pixels, bettering the industry standard that considered 0.8Am as the smallest possible size pixels could be reduced to. EastEnders fans were baffled when they believed a crew member accidentally appeared in the scene where Stuart Highway proposed to his girlfriend. A man was seen popping his head out from the bottom of the frame while Stuart carried out his vampirical proposal at the funeral parlour. He was dressed head-to-toe in vampire gear, complete with black cape and fangs, as he told his girlfriend Rainie Cross: 'I love you. Marry me.' Blundering worker: EastEnders fans were confused after believing a crew member accidentally appeared in Stuart Highway's proposal scene on Monday night However, his thunder was stolen by the unexpected appearance of a person peering from the side of the door frame - prompting viewers to speculate on Twitter. One said: 'Anyone else notice the crew member sneaking a peek around the doorframe in tonight's #EastEnders?' While another wrote: 'Seriously do they never check before they finish filming lol.' Unique proposal: The man was seen popping his head out from the bottom of the frame while Stuart carried out his vampire proposal at the funeral parlour Another viewer thought the man may be a new character as he believed he seemed to be part of the scene. The viewer wrote: 'Looked like he was part of the scene and the one who set off the lights and music. 'Rainie actually looks over at his direction when it happens.' But a spokesperson for EastEnders said no such blunder took place. Romantic Dracula: He was dressed head-to-toe in vampire gear, complete with black cape and fangs, as he told his girlfriend Rainie Cross: 'I love you. Marry me' Good intentions: Rainie, played by Tanya Franks, seemed terrified as she first walked into the dark funeral parlour before Stuart jumped out of a coffin They told MailOnline that the person was the funeral assistant who works at the funeral directors and was meant to be in shot. Rainie, played by Tanya Franks, seemed terrified as she first walked into the dark funeral parlour before Stuart jumped out of a coffin. She ran off and forced Stuart to chase after her and explain: 'I'm not what they say I am and you're not what they say you are either. 'You are the beautiful sister. You are the best daughter your mum and dad could have had. What a pair of idiots not to see it. 'I see it. Marry me.' However, his thunder was stolen by the unexpected appearance of a person peering from the side of the door frame - prompting viewers to speculate on Twitter Rainie cheekily pretended to reject his proposal before revealing she had just been winding him up to get her own back after being scared during the proposal. She said: 'Two can play at a wind-up. I loved it. I'll marry you.' Many viewers were enchanted, with one tweeting: 'Stuart and Rainie are literal nutcases, but somehow their relationship works. I love them.' Chennai, April 21 : The Federation of Islamic Organisations and Political Parties of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday demanded the release of Muslims from foreign countries arrested on the grounds of indulging in religious preaching in Tamil Nadu. In a statement issued here, the Federation, while condemning the arrest of Muslims who had come on spiritual tour to India from different countries, demanded their immediate release. "There are about 130 foreign Muslims from countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Ethiopia, France, Congo, Cameroon and Belgium who have been arrested and jailed in Tamil Nadu on the charges of indulging in religious preaching," MMK party leader M.H. Jawahirullah told IANS. According to the statement, the Muslims -- men and women -- had come with proper visa and it is condemnable that the Tamil Nadu government is treating them like criminals. They wondered if staying in a mosque and speaking to Muslims means religious preaching. The Federation also asked the Tamil Nadu government whether it has arrested and jailed the members of other religions who had come to the state. The Federation requested the state government to release them immediately and treat them with dignity till they go back home. : The Bar council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Tuesday requested the Chief Justice of Madras High Court to defer a decision on starting regular functioning of courts during the summer vacation between May 1 to 31 as the lockdown has been extended. "When normalcy has not been restored and the lock down being extended, the decision to function from May 1 is not feasible as the health related threat still subsists," council chairman P S Amalraj said in letter to Chief Justice A P Sahi. The council made the request as a staff attached to a government pleader's office in the High Court and a Sub Inspector in the country tested positive for COVID-19. It referred to the court's April 18 notification announcing pistponement of summer vacation and decision to commence regular hearing from May 1 and said the bar had already expressed the practical difficulties in conducting cases in subordinate courts during this pandemic situation. "When normalcy has not been restored and the lock down being extended, the decision to function from May 1 is not feasible as the health related threat still subsists. The corona virus scare which happened recently in the high court premises, clearly shows the capacity of the pathogen to create panic and fear. A few of such future occurences incourt premises are enough to infect the whole legal fraternity, including judges ,staffs and others, the communication claimed. The Council also pointed out that subordinate courts do not have proper facilities to safely conduct proceedings It requested that court proceedings be conducted only through video conferencing and to hear urgent matters only till the COVID-19 pandemic is over. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) MBABANE - There might not have been a huge celebration for his special day but a picture of His Majesty King Mswati III blowing candles from his birthday cake was enough to excite emaSwati yesterday. Due to the coronavirus pandemic which has hit hard many economies all over the world and caused deaths in many countries, the annual big celebration of His Majestys birthday could not be hosted. His Majestys birthday was on Sunday and a holiday in honour of the special day was yesterday. As has been the case in previous years, thousands of emaSwati and companies used various platforms to join hands and wished him a happy birthday. But it was yesterday that much excitement was witnessed and this was after photos of him posing next to his birthday cake went viral on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. It appears that the pictures removed the doubts that had engulfed many following reports by an online publication that His Majesty was not well. Excited Many social media users were seemingly excited at seeing him looking all healthy and happy. The cake was a fit-for-a-king two-tiered piece, with one decorated with purple and gold fondant as well as petal embellishments and the number 52 while he looked happy in a red and gold Arabian inspired shirt with gold embellishments and black formal pants. The pictures were accompanied by a video where he not only blew the candles from his cake but was extra cautious in terms of adhering to the regulations set out as precautionary measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The adherence is visibly seen as officers handling the cake wore masks and gloves. Also, there were a few individuals who got the opportunity to sing the happy birthday for him. The video shows less than 20 people who also kept a distance from each other. In an interview with Kings Office Chief Officer, Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze, he said he would not dwell much on reactions on social media but that he would reiterate a statement which was communicated by government to the effect that His Majesty was well and healthy. I can only emphasise on what government said. His Majesty is healthy and is respecting the guidelines and precautionary measures of curbing the spread of the coronavirus. Even individuals who come to the royal residence are made to adhere to the precautionary measures. The safety gear is available and sanitisers are there for them to wash their hands. As emaSwati, we continue to wish His Majesty a happy birthday, Lunwele loludze wena Waphakathi!, he said. Last week, government was forced to issue a press statement in response to the false reports that His Majesty was not well. In the statement, which was dated April 13, 2020 and issued by Acting Government Spokesperson Sabelo Dlamini, government said it had noted fake social media reports claiming that His Majesty King Mswati III was critically ill with COVID-19. This is purely fake news. His Majesty is well and in good health. Such fabrication perpetuated by elements intent on sowing confusion and panic is unacceptable and appalling. Government wishes to warn perpetuators of such misinformation that they are in breach of the COVID-19 regulations and risk prosecution, it was said in the statement. Government further advised the public to refuse to consume information that did not come from its authentic channels. Thiruvananthapuram, April 21 : Global pharmaceutical major Pfizer on Tuesday denied that it has partnered with Sprinklr to support the provision of any Covid-19 patient information from India. The clarification came after Pfizer was dragged into a controversy surrounding the Kerala government's deal with the US-based tech firm Sprinklr to handle data compiled from people who are quarantined due to the Covid-19 crisis. The Kerala government has faced criticism for allegedly compromising with the privacy of the quarantined people. Following news surfacing about the relations of Pfizer with Sprinklr, a Congress leader, here on Monday, had demanded a CBI probe into the deal. "Pfizer has reviewed news reports on access to Covid-19 patient data appearing in certain sections of the media and has found these to be entirely baseless," the company said in a statement. "We have not partnered with Sprinklr to support the provision of any Covid-19 patient information from India. We use Sprinklr's platform to manage content on our social media channels," the company said. Sprinklr is a leading customer and citizen experience management (CXM) platform that helps organisations reach, engage and listen to customers across social channels, messaging channels, forums, blogs and review sites. Spains best-known bull running festival in the northern town of Pamplona has been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, Pamplona city hall said today. The San Fermin celebration is centuries old and typically attended by hundreds of thousands of people. During the celebration half-tonne fighting bulls chase hundreds of daredevils, many of whom wear traditional white shirts and scarves, through the narrow streets of the city each morning. The municipal council agreed to suspend the event which is held each year between July 6 and 14. The San Fermin celebration in northern town of Pamplona is typically attended by hundreds of thousands of people Acting mayor of Pamplona Ana Elizalde told a news conference: As expected as it was, it still leaves us deeply sad. In this context there is no place for fireworks, bullfights or bull runs. We are supposed to wear masks, keep a social distance measures that are incompatible with what San Fermin is. People travel from all over the world to Pamplona to test their bravery and enjoy the festival's mix of round-the-clock parties, religious processions and concerts. A 50-year-old lawyer from Colorado who has run with the bulls 99 times at San Fermin cancelled his flight in February. Peter N. Milligan, who wrote a book about his experiences at the fiesta, had been planning to return to Pamplona this year. Spanish bullfighter Gines Marin performs with a bull at last year's festival on July 7 in Pamplona He said: 'I was expecting this. Considering the stay at home rules, I would imagine the city would have been overrun if they decided to proceed. Seems like a very smart decision.' He added: 'I know this cancellation will be devastating to our friends economically in Pamplona. Fiesta is a tough time to stay healthy under the best of circumstances.' Spain today recorded a fall in the number of new coronavirus cases but an increase in daily deaths, as 3,968 more people were infected and another 430 died. The 3,968 new cases - down from 4,266 yesterday - bring the total from 200,210 to 204,178, an increase of 2.0 per cent. The fall is notable because Spain typically sees an increase in new cases on Tuesdays when delayed weekend figures are fully accounted for. Deaths increased by 430 today, a higher jump than yesterday's 399 which takes the overall death toll from 20,852 to 21,282. This graph shows the daily number of new coronavirus cases in Spain. Today's figure was 3,968, slightly down from yesterday's 4,266 This chart shows the daily number of deaths. Today's figure of 430 is a slight increase from yesterday's 399 Coronavirus patient Maria Josefa Arias, 76, is taken to hospital by emergency technicians Marisa Arguello de Paula and Itxaso Garcia Giaconi in Galdakao in Spain Spain has been in lockdown since March 14, and the measures are expected to be extended with slight relaxations until May 9. Health emergency chief Fernando Simon says the rate of new infections in Spain is continuing to fall despite an increase in testing. The regular increase in cases of around 2-3 per cent a day is far lower than the 15-25 per cent which was typical at the height of the crisis in mid-March. On average, Spain's new infection count for Tuesday has been higher than on Monday, probably because of delays in reporting weekend figures. However, today's jump of 3,968 was smaller than yesterday's 4,266, which had marked a slight increase from Sunday's figure of 4,218. Against that, Spain had said yesterday that its 4,266 new cases included more than 1,000 older ones which had only just been confirmed. There are fears that the true death toll may be far higher than 21,282, which have been amplified since Catalonia started disclosing thousands more deaths last week after taking a tally from funeral homes. Those Catalan deaths have not been recorded in Spain's nationwide figures, despite the region's calls for the government to do so. Simon, the emergency response chief, has acknowledged that the 'real number of deaths is hard to know'. Even families burying their dead are not always certain what their loved ones died of. In a nursing home near Barcelona, an 85-year-old woman died on April 8 of 'possible' Covid-19, said her daughter Amparo, citing a doctor's death certificate. Amparo said her mother was not tested, accusing political leaders of not protecting citizens and dismissing the official tally as useless. 'Additional people have died because (politicians) have not made sufficient testing possible so that we can know the reality,' she said. 'We have left them to die alone.' Health workers wearing white protective suits transfer a patient from her home to the Hospital Infanta Leonor in Madrid on Sunday Healthcare workers prepare to move a coronavirus patient at the intensive care unit of the Povisa Hospital in Vigo, Spain The government has defended its count - which only includes those tested - and said that tracking confirmed deaths allows it to better study the outbreak's evolution. Suspected deaths should be analysed at a later stage, the government says. In other countries, such as Italy and the Netherlands, a large number of coronavirus deaths might not have been reported because of under-testing in nursing homes. From March 1 to April 10, Spain reported 16,353 coronavirus deaths. But according to the National Epidemiology Centre's database MoMo, there were 22,487 more deaths than normal for the time of year over the exact same period. A large part of the 6,134 difference is likely related to COVID-19, said Pedro Gullon, a Spanish Epidemiology Society board member. But it had to be carefully interpreted because it could also include non-coronavirus deaths of people who did not attend hospitals, he said. A justice ministry spokesman said it was 'ridiculous' to say that the real number of coronavirus deaths could be concealed. The issue is adding to friction between the government in Madrid and regions with a high degree of autonomy, including Catalonia, whose regional leadership has been waging a long campaign for independence. The leader of the main opposition People's Party, Pablo Casado, has demanded that 'all the truth be told' about the number of dead. A lawmaker from the far-right Vox tweeted: 'No smokescreen will cover the deaths you try to hide'. The San Fermin festival, which dates back to medieval times and was immortalised in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises was last called off in 1997 after Basque separatist group ETA assassinated a local politician. Sixteen people have been killed in the bull runs since officials began keeping track in 1910, most recently in 2009 when a 27-year-old Spaniard was gored in the neck, heart and lungs. The pandemic has also forced the suspension or postponement of major events such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the Coachella music festival in southern California, and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. T&T Supermarket says its customers are very willing to have their temperatures taken before entering stores, after the B.C.-based grocery chain on Monday rolled out a voluntary screening protocol for customers at all locations for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 11 a.m., not a single customer has declined the temperature check service so far, CEO Tina Lee said in an email. Our hope is to make T&T a safer shopping experience. We believe most customers realize that this is a team effort, to protect themselves and to protect our employees. The testing protocol, similar to testing adopted in some Asian countries, uses an infrared thermometer at a distance with no physical contact. Anyone with a fever will be kindly asked to rest at home and contact their health-care provider, Lee said While voluntary for customers, the company said body temperature screenings are in principle mandatory for staff, although a spokesperson added we will closely monitor the situation and adjust our practice if needed. Employees of the Loblaw Companies-owned chain that sells primarily Asian foods and goods must wear a mask and other protective gear and have their reading taken at the start of each shift. Those who log a fever are sent home with full pay. T&T, which has outlets in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, is independently operated stores bearing the Loblaws name do not have similar plans at this time, a Loblaw spokesperson said. Labour and employer law firm Ogletree Deakins in a note says while the screenings may identify some who have a fever (but not necessarily COVID-19), they will not identify all persons who may be contagious with the virus. Compulsory testing of all employees raises privacy and public relations concerns but is justifiable under new guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which cites the immediate threat of the virus contagion, the note said. In the U.S., companies including Amazon and General Motors are exploring ways to test their employees for COVID-19 before they come in to work. Regular tests for workers could keep exposure to sick employees to a minimum and boost employees confidence about coming back to work, corporate medical advisers and human-resources executives say. Yet companies face hurdles in rapidly building testing capacity for one, those people say tests remain tough to obtain in large quantities, and the practice raises potential privacy and liability issues. With grocery staff at the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, chains have implemented measures such limiting store capacity, one-way aisles and spacing stickers in checkout lines to limit the spread and protect staff and customers. Shields have also been installed at tills to protect cashiers. However, some experts say workers are still at undue risk and want a blanket ban on customers coming inside grocery stores, which should convert their business to curbside pickup and home delivery for food and other essential goods. Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, said he believes Canadas major grocery chains have considered such a ban but are concerned about the grocery experience. He added that T&T has moved to the forefront in Canada in offering tests to shoppers due to the culture of the organization and how they see themselves as caretakers of their own customers. Charlebois said the company wants to make sure shoppers are not compromised by fear, suggesting that temperature screening, while imperfect, is a gesture intended to make people less nervous about being inside a grocery store. Read more about: On the heels of the departure of Bruce Nichols, Deb Brody has been named v-p and publisher of the adult trade division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Brody is replacing Nichols, who was just hired as publisher of Little, Brown. Brody, who will take on the role effective April 27, has been at HMH since 2016, when she joined the publisher from William Morrow in the role of director of HMH's lifestyle and culinary program. In 2017, she was promoted to editor-in-chief at HMH, overseeing nonfiction. In that role, she worked on franchises like the Instant Pot titles and Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything series. In her new position Brody will, explained Ellen Archer, president of HMH, "lead the editorial team, overseeing its fiction, nonfiction, lifestyle and Mariner trade paperback lines." Under Brody's watch as e-i-c, HMH has acquired such titles as the bestseller Last Book on the Left, Neal Katyal's Impeach, and the forthcoming book by former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Brody, who is based in HMH's New York office, said she is "excited to move into this new role and continue the extraordinary publishing the company has always been known for, while making us a destination for diverse voices and fresh ideas. A Delhi Police constable, undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at a hospital in Najafgarh, alleged "lack of hygiene" in the facility. On Tuesday, the constable attached with Tilak Vihar police post shared a video alleging that around 20 patients, who are being treated in the same floor, shared a common bathroom and if anyone complained of soar throat or fever, they were not provided medicines. He further alleged that none of them is served hot water and since Monday, their bed-sheets have also not been changed and the pillow he was given is also dirty. He claimed that they were not provided sanitiser either. The constable alleged it had been four days since he was tested for the virus, yet his children who are at home have not been tested for coronavirus. Police, however, said they were following the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to carry out tests at the earliest as it takes at least four-five days in some cases to show symptoms. Through the video, the constable urged the authorities for help and requested them to admit him at a private hospital since he is a beneficiary under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS). Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Deepak Purohit has assured they will take care of the well-being of their staff and family and are following procedures and guidelines of Indian Council of Medical Research. A day after he was taken to hospital, a hand sanitiser and kettle for warm water was provided to him from the police station by the Delhi Police, he said. DCP Dwarka, Anto Alphonse, under whom the designated hospital falls, has also visited the hospital and spoken to the administration to ensure the cleanliness of the pillow and toilet, he added. The constable was tested on April 17 at the DDU dispensary in Tilak Vihar and his result came positive on April 18. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) On April 19, the city of Wuhan in Hubei province began issuing vouchers to spur consumer spending and support the resumption of work. The vouchers, worth a total of 500 million yuan (US$70.7 million), are being issued digitally through online platforms like WeChat and Alipay. However, they can only be redeemed physically in shops and restaurant, as a way to encourage people to go out after a long period of self-isolation and quarantine. Wuhan, the former epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, ended its 76-day lockdown on April 8. Retail sales, one of the major economic drivers for the city, came to a virtual halt during that time. According to local authorities, retail sales plunged 42.1% in the first two months of the year compared to 2019. The city is now using the vouchers to help stimulate consumer spending. Even before Wuhan, various cities and provinces across China have already launched voucher campaigns to entice people to spend at restaurants, retail stores, and cultural and tourism-related businesses. Gao Feng, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said earlier this month that vouchers in various forms have been handed out in seven provinces in China to boost spending. As of April 9, Hangzhou city in Zhejiang province had issued e-vouchers worth 220 million yuan, driving consumer spending by 2.37 billion yuan. Unlike countries that gave direct cash handouts to people in need, China has opted to give citizens coupons. Expert explained that people in China have high levels of savings and need stimulus to spend money. Liu Chunsheng, associate professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said cash subsidies have a limited effect on spurring consumption, because not all the cash will be spent, while vouchers ensure that money is allocated to retail sectors. Pan Helin, an expert in economics at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, said he believes the voucher programs would play an important role in revitalizing consumer spending in the short run. To leverage the role of voucher in boosting consumption, Pan said local governments should give priority to low-income earners and small- and medium-sized companies that were hit hard by the outbreak. Studies show that, compared to those with higher incomes, low-income families are more willing to use the vouchers. According to a survey conducted by Alipay, over 10 million businesses have benefited from the nationwide voucher campaigns, with over 90% of them being micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses. Service sectors such as restaurants, sports, and cultural and tourism were hit hard amid the outbreak. Pan said that rolling out vouchers in these sectors would help them bounce back quickly and meet pent-up demands from consumers. In addition, consumer spending in these service sectors would not reduce spending on daily necessities, avoiding the crowding-out effects caused by the expansionary fiscal policy. In order to better unleash the potential for economic activities, Pan said that local governments could require people to redeem the vouchers through lucky draws or first-come, first-serve basis, and set expiry date on consumption vouchers. This would encourage residents to go outside and spend money sooner, in a bid to ease the impacts caused by the outbreak. However, some experts also pointed out that, in order to expand consumption in the long run, local government should focus on creating more jobs and increasing people's income. Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that voucher programs could only be used as a temporary measure to revitalize consumer spending. Increasing the size of the "economic pie" should be the top priority for local governments at the moment. NYSE American: GPL | TSX: GPR VANCOUVER, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Great Panther Mining Limited (TSX:GPR; NYSE-A:GPL) ("Great Panther" or "the Company") announces changes to the Board of Directors and senior management team. New President and Chief Executive Officer Rob Henderson has been appointed President and CEO effective April 21, 2020. Mr. Henderson is a professional engineer and seasoned mining executive with 35 years of experience in operations, capital projects, and mining finance. Most recently, Mr. Henderson was President and CEO of Amerigo Resources Ltd., a copper producer with assets in Chile. He oversaw a successful $95 million debt financing to complete a major expansion project, safely increased production, lowered cash costs and extended the life of the operation to 2036. Prior to Amerigo, Mr. Henderson was SVP Technical Services with Kinross Gold Corporation. Additional information about Mr. Henderson can be found below. "We are thrilled to welcome Rob to the Great Panther team," said Lead Independent Director Bob Garnett. "His strong technical skills, combined with operating and executive experience and extensive track record in Latin America make him ideal to lead Great Panther through its next stage of growth." "I am very excited to join Great Panther as CEO," said Mr. Henderson. "My immediate priorities will be to continue building on cost and operating efficiencies at Tucano and grow production at all three mines. I see tremendous potential in the asset base and am looking forward to leading the company through this period of transition into a mid-tier precious metals producer." Board Chair and Interim President and CEO Jeffrey Mason has stepped down from both roles and has resigned from the Board of Directors; however, he will continue to provide consulting services to the Company to ensure a smooth transition of the executive duties to Mr. Henderson. Mr. Mason has served for the last six years as a Director on, or advisor to, the Board and has been Chair since July 2019. "The Board and senior management thank Jeffrey for his contributions and service as Board Chair and for stepping into the role of President and CEO on an interim basis for the past six months," said Mr. Garnett. "Jeffrey led our team to raise $41 million in additional debt and equity and to operational improvements. He is leaving to focus on an expanded active role as corporate, strategic, and financial advisor in the public mining industry, including board directorships at Auryn Resources Inc. and Torq Resources Inc." New Board Chair Great Panther's Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee has recommended, and its Board has approved, the appointment of David Garofalo as incoming Board Chair, effective immediately. Mr. Garofalo was most recently President and CEO of Goldcorp Inc. until its sale to Newmont Corporation in April 2019, creating the world's largest gold mining company. "I am delighted to be entrusted with the opportunity to perpetuate Bob Archer's entrepreneurial culture at Great Panther as I support our new CEO, Rob Henderson, in the optimization of our operations," said David Garofalo. "I believe Great Panther represents a compelling value proposition to gold investors and an excellent platform for growth." New Board Directors In addition to Mr. Garofalo, Joseph Gallucci and Alan Hair will join the Board effective immediately. Mr. Gallucci and Mr. Hair are both experienced mining professionals with strong track records of creating shareholder value in the mining industry. Additional information about Messrs. Garofalo, Hair and Gallucci can be found below. "We are excited to add these three seasoned executives with many years of business and senior management experience to our Board," said Mr. Garnett. "During their careers, they have each made significant contributions to the success of a number of public mining companies. We look forward to benefiting from their new perspectives and experiences as we position Great Panther for future success and deliver value to our shareholders." Robert (Bob) A. Archer Bob Archer will remain on the Board until the upcoming AGM on June 24, 2020 but will not stand for re-election at the AGM and will, instead, continue to serve the Company in an advisory capacity. Mr. Archer is a co-founder of the Company and served as President and CEO from 2004 until stepping down in 2017. He has remained a Director since that time and has served as Chair of the Safety, Health, Environment, Social, Technical and Operations Committee. "On behalf of the Board, we acknowledge and thank Bob for his long service and substantial contributions to the Company over many years," said Mr. Garnett. "As a co-founder of the Company, Bob's vision, dedication and leadership took Great Panther from a concept through its evolution from a single asset junior to an established producer with three operating mines in two jurisdictions. We look forward to the opportunity to recognize Bob more properly at the upcoming AGM." Slate of Directors Recommended to the Shareholders at the 2020 AGM The additions to the Board, together with the current and planned vacancies, will result in a slate of nine Directors at the 2020 AGM to ensure continuity, an orderly onboarding of the new CEO and Directors, along with the transition of committee roles and responsibilities. On or before the 2021 AGM, the Board plans to reduce the number of Directors to seven, of which six are targeted to be independent. This is believed to be the optimal size of the Board. New Vice President, Investor Relations Also joining the Company effective immediately is Meghan Brown in the role of Vice President, Investor Relations. Ms. Brown is a consummate investor relations professional with a 25-year track record in the mining sector. Most recently she was Vice President, Investor Relations with Leagold Mining Corporation, which merged with Equinox Gold in March 2020. Prior to Leagold, Ms. Brown served as Director, Investor Relations at Endeavour Silver Corp. from 2013 to 2017. Ms. Brown holds a BA from UBC and an MBA from Queen's University and is the Chair of the Board of the Canadian Cancer Society BC/Yukon. "We are delighted to add Meghan to the Great Panther team," said Mr. Garnett. "She is acknowledged as a professional among her peers in the investor relations field and we look forward to having her lead that important role for the Company. Her appointment also marks the third woman among our executive ranks, underscoring our commitment to ensuring a diverse leadership team." More About the New CEO, Rob Henderson Mr. Henderson started his career as an engineer at Rand Mines Limited in South Africa. He joined DeBeers in 2002 as Assistant Head of Technical Services, and later spent 10 years as Project Manager at two well-known engineering firms, Hatch Ltd. and Kilborn Engineering Ltd. Between 2006 and 2012 he was Senior Vice President of Technical Services at Kinross Gold Corporation. Mr. Henderson holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering and an MBA, both from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He is a member of the Professional Engineers Ontario and a director of BQE Water, a TSXV-listed mine water treatment company. More About the New Board Chair and the Two New Board Directors David Garofalo is the former President and CEO of Goldcorp Inc., a position he held from 2016 until its 2019 sale to Newmont Corporation. Prior to Goldcorp, he was President, CEO and Director of Hudbay Minerals Inc. (2010-2016), Senior Vice President, Finance and CFO and Director with Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited (1998-2010) and Treasurer of Inmet Mining Corporation (1990-1998). Mr. Garofalo was recognized as the Mining Person of the Year by the Northern Miner (2012) and was named Canada's CFO of the Year by Financial Executives International Canada (2009), among other industry awards. Mr. Garofalo holds a BComm (with distinction) from the University of Toronto. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant and a Certified Director of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D). He is a Director of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Joseph Gallucci is a capital markets executive with over 15 years of experience in investment banking and equity research focused on mining and metals. He is currently the Managing Director and Head of Mining Investment Banking at Laurentian Bank Securities. His career has spanned across various firms including BMO Capital Markets, GMP Securities, Dundee Securities, and he was a founding principal of Eight Capital where he led their Mining Investment Banking team. Mr. Gallucci has extensive experience in corporate finance, mergers, acquisitions, business and operational development, financings, and corporate strategy. He was directly involved in raising over $1 billion for mining companies with a focused expertise on Canadian base metal companies. He holds a BComm from Concordia University and an MBA in Investment Management from the Goodman Institute of Investment Management, also at Concordia. He is a Director of Skyharbour Resources Ltd. and Rockridge Resources Ltd., both TSXV-listed mineral exploration companies. Alan Hair is a mineral engineer and senior executive with over 36 years of experience in the mining and metals industry. Mr. Hair is the former President and CEO of Hudbay Minerals Inc., a company he joined in 1996 as a senior operations manager and at which he served in a series of progressively senior roles culminating in the position of President and CEO from 2016 to 2019. During his tenure at Hudbay, Mr. Hair oversaw the successful acquisition, construction, and development of the Constancia Mine in Peru. Mr. Hair holds a BSc in Mineral Engineering from the University of Leeds and the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is a Director of Bear Creek Mining Corporation. ABOUT GREAT PANTHER Great Panther Mining Limited is a Vancouver-based intermediate gold and silver mining and exploration company. Great Panther's operations include the Tucano Gold Mine in Brazil, and the Topia Mine and Guanajuato Mine Complex, comprising the San Ignacio and Guanajuato mines, in Mexico. It also owns the Coricancha Mine in Peru which is currently on care and maintenance. Great Panther trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange trading under the symbol GPR, and on the NYSE American under the symbol GPL. Forward-looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (together, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations for the future size and composition of the Company's Board of Directors. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements to be materially different. Such factors include, among others, risks and uncertainties relating to potential political and social risks involving Great Panther's operations in a foreign jurisdiction, the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, fluctuations in metal prices, fluctuations in currency exchange rates, physical risks inherent in mining operations, operating or technical difficulties in mineral exploration, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in respect of Great Panther, in its annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2019 and material change reports filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators available at www.sedar.com and reports on Form 40-F and Form 6-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov. There is no assurance that such forward looking statements will prove accurate; results may vary materially from such forward-looking statements; and there is no assurance that the Company will be able to identify and acquire additional projects or that any projects acquired will be successfully developed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. The Company has no intention to update forward looking statements except as required by law. SOURCE Great Panther Mining Limited Related Links www.greatpanther.com Ashley Mattingly, a former Playboy Playmate, was found dead in her home. She was 33. Gone Too Soon Ashley was found dead last week, as first reported by TMZ. Her brother and sister told people that she died of an apparent suicide and had left them a suicide note. Although other details of her death were yet to be disclosed, the family mourns her passing. Christy and William Mattingly told people that their sister lived in Travis County, a small town outside Austin, Texas. They only received news of her death Thursday (april 17) last week. "We learned late Thursday night that it is believed that our dear sister with a larger-than-life personality took her own life," William and Christy said in a statement on Monday, per People. The model was found unresponsive in her home. The authorities came when a good friend of hers called the police to check on her as they had not heard back from her for some time already, William and Christy narrated. "A friend, whom we are thankful for, called the police for a wellness check and she was found unresponsive at home. As part of an ongoing investigation, the police have notes that we are told she left behind and we are anxious to read them. She will continue to live on through nieces whom she loved dearly and always thought of no matter how far away she was, a twin brother, two sisters and numerous other friends and family members. We will forever cherish her memories and know that her joy is eternally sealed. We look forward to seeing her again," the statement furthered. The authorities are currently conducting an investigation to determine the cause of her death. Her siblings have not yet read the suicide note she left behind. "Ashley moved closer to home a couple of years ago and was living in Austin. It's maybe not secret that Ashley struggled with alcohol and substance abuse, but she wanted to and was working toward getting better," they said. The Austin Police Department told People that the incident happened in Bee Cave, Texas. It is a small town about 15 miles north of Austin. Suicide Awareness The thought of their sister committing suicide has taken a toll on the family. However, William and Christy said that they remain hopeful that their sister's death would raise suicide awareness. "Our hope is that Ashley's story can continue to shed a light on suicide awareness and prevention," their statement concluded. "We love you, Ashley." A former playmate, Carrie Stevens took to social media to express her sadness upon knowing Ashley's death. She posted a photo of herself with Ashley and Hugh Hefner, who died in 2017. "I am devastated," Stevens, 50, wrote on Twitter. "My friend #ashleymattingly took her own life. If you are struggling please reach out for help. She was only 33 RIP #playmatesister." Ashley Mattingly appeared in the March 2011 issue of Playboy magazine. Israeli air strikes late Monday in the area of the central Syrian city of Palmyra killed nine fighters loyal to the Iran-backed Damascus regime, a war monitor said Tuesday. Those who died in several missile strikes included three Syrians and six foreigners of unknown nationalities, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Since the start of the civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria targeting government troops as well as allied Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Syrian state media had said that Syrian air defences late Monday downed Israeli missiles over Palmyra in the central Homs province before they could reach their targets. Contacted by AFP, an Israeli army spokesperson declined to comment. Israel has repeatedly vowed to impede any Iranian encroachment in war-torn Syria across its border. Monday's attack came hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. Last week, an Israeli drone targeted a Hezbollah car in Syria near the Lebanese border, a source from the group said. Late last month, Syrian air defences intercepted an Israeli missile attack also targeting Homs province in the centre of the war torn country. The Observatory said the target was a military airport where Iranian forces were present. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday refuted reports that he chaired an webinar purportedly from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) session. The former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor rejected the claims as fake news in a post on his LinkedIn account. "A webinar, purportedly from an IMF session that I am supposed to have chaired, is circulating among Indian WhatsApp groups. I have not participated in any such webinar. I am afraid in this age of fake news it is hard to respond to every such occurrence. I can only say that I post all my relevant public statements on this site only," Raghuram Rajan said. "India seems to have supressed the curve so far. It looks like it might escape the worst of the pandemic, but will have to be cautious about it," a part of viral WhatsApp message said citing a webinar chaired by Raghuram Rajan. The overall message shared various takeaways from the webinar on the coronavirus scenario chaired by former RBI governor. In a separate LinkedIn blog, Rajan had said that the coronavirus pandemic is the greatest emergency perhaps since Independence. The former RBI Governor had warned the Centre that non-performing assets (NPA) could increase due to the outbreak. He had also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prioritise spending on the poor to help them get through the crisis. Meanwhile, India recorded 1,329 new cases and 44 deaths in 24 hours. According to the latest data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India has so far recorded 18,985 confirmed coronavirus cases including 15,122 active cases, 3,259 cured or discharged, 1 migrated, and 603 deaths. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Delhi stands at 2,081 with death toll at 47 following Maharashtra which is the worst-hit in India with coronavirus tally at 4,669, while 232 people succumbed to the virus in the state. Maharashtra also has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the country. Gujarat is the third state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 2,066 and death toll at 77. On the heels of separate allegations from Amnesty International and an al-Shabaab-linked news outlet that U.S. military airstrikes caused the deaths of civilians in Somalia, officials with U.S. Africa Command will launch a new report, to be released quarterly, tracking allegations of civilian casualties and the investigations that follow. That report is set to be released before the end of April, said Air Force Maj. Karl Wiest, a spokesman for AFRICOM. "Each quarter, AFRICOM will issue an update providing any new allegations and updating the status of assessments that have been closed or remain open," he said. "This initiative is designed to increase transparency regarding civilian casualty allegations that are reported to the command and will demonstrate the U.S. military's constant commitment to minimizing collateral damage in the pursuit of military operations." Earlier this month, the command released a rare announcement disputing two local reports alleging an April 10 airstrike in Somalia had resulted in the death of a civilian. Those reports were propaganda from the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabaab, officials said, adding that the only person killed in the attack was a terrorist who had killed at least six innocent Somalis. Related: Pentagon Denies Causing Civilian Casualties in Airstrikes over Somalia But as airstrikes have ramped up in the wake of an al-Shabaab attack on the Kenya-Somalia border that left three Americans dead, other allegations of civilian casualties have emerged. The human rights group Amnesty International this month claimed that the Defense Department had failed to disclose the deaths of two civilians in a February airstrike -- one that military officials claimed at the time killed only terrorists. Wiest said that specific allegation is still being investigated. "The command's civilian casualty allegation assessment process is precise, comprehensive, and led by a team of experts. There is no set timeline for the completion of civilian casualty allegation assessments as we have a rigorous process and we will not rush, nor cut corners," he said in an emailed statement. "I'll add that U.S. Africa Command goes to extraordinary lengths to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties, exercising restraint as a matter of policy that regularly exceeds the restrictions of the law of armed conflict. The command will continue to conduct its operations in this manner as it is the moral and ethical thing to do." He added that the planning and assessment process for strikes is meticulous, as is the follow-on analysis. "Our in-depth post-strike analysis relies on intelligence methods that are not available to non-military organizations, including Amnesty International," he said. The launch of the new quarterly report, he said, had not been motivated by Amnesty's allegations, but was an initiative begun by Gen. Stephen J. Townsend when he assumed command of AFRICOM last year as part of a larger effort to "review and revise" procedures to track, assess and report civilian casualty claims. "We will begin issuing these quarterly reports to demonstrate heightened transparency and commitment to protecting civilians from unnecessary harm," Wiest said. AFRICOM, which became operational in late 2008, has to date acknowledged only one incident of an airstrike causing civilian casualties: an April 1, 2018, incident in which a woman and child were reportedly killed in El Buur, Somalia. The organization Airwars.org, however, says it's tracking 68 alleged civilian casualty incidents since AFRICOM stood up, and estimates between 76 and 149 civilian deaths. The Jan. 5 al-Shabaab attack on Manda Bay airfield in Kenya has been followed by increased strike activity and multiple announcements from AFRICOM about the successful elimination of key leaders from the group. As of April 1, according to Airwars assessments, U.S. forces have conducted 32 airstrikes on targets in Somalia, a significant ramp-up from 2019, when AFRICOM conducted 63 total strikes for the year. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. Read more: Some Female Marines Wont Have to Shell Out for New Unisex Dress Blues Coat KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany -- Retired Air Force command chief master sergeant Juan Lewis is usually the one encouraging his tens of thousands of followers on social media and others in person to be positive and resilient in the face of life's challenges. But over the past few weeks, Lewis -- who's widely known as the "Fired Up Chief" for the uplifting talks he gave to airmen, starting when he was a command chief at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland -- was the one in need of support and motivation as he fought for his life after contracting the coronavirus. "This thing, it hit me so hard that it made me want to die," Lewis told Stars and Stripes over the phone from his hospital bed in the Dutch city of Sittard, which lies across the border from Geilenkirchen NATO Air Base in Germany. Lewis works there as the deputy commander of the 470th Air Base Squadron, which falls under the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base and supports about 2,300 Americans working for NATO. Geilenkirchen is in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, which has had nearly 29,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 857 deaths, according to the latest figures from the Robert Koch Institute, the country's public health agency. Lewis, 54, is unsure how he got the virus. "I was careful. I washed my hands, social distancing, and everything else that you can think of," he said. He's physically fit and rarely sick, but has a rare condition called Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome. People with underlying medical conditions "might be at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. He was moved out of intensive care last week after being hospitalized in early April. "I'm out of the woods, but I'm still struggling," he said. "I don't want to celebrate too early because I could have a relapse, but I do feel a hell of a lot better." His doctors told him that if he had not been fit from running, he likely would have died, Lewis said. His battle with the coronavirus started in mid-March when he came down with what he thought was a cold. His times for the 5-mile run he went on most mornings were around three minutes slower than usual, and he had a productive cough -- not a dry one, which the CDC says is a common coronavirus symptom. One day, while out with his wife, "I'm walking slower and slower and she's, like, Why are you walking so slow?'" His doctor told him to self-isolate, but holed up in his home, the symptoms worsened. "I had body aches, a fever, stomach cramps, sweating at night," he said. "It was just doing a number." He went to the emergency room and was admitted to the intensive care unit on April 4, he said. There, a test showed he had COVID-19. As the Fired Up Chief, Lewis has preached and practiced the power of positive thinking, but the virus sapped his mental and physical strength, he said. "I was like, Lord, just go ahead, I want to toss in the towel,' the pain was so bad," he said. "It hurt trying to breathe, the fever, just the chills." He's thankful for the many messages of support from friends, airmen he's mentored, even strangers who found him on Facebook. "I didn't get to read them all but the ones I did get to read were very, very inspiring and encouraged me to keep pushing," he said. Months of recovery lie ahead, he's been told. Walking a few steps with a walker, even brushing his teeth, is arduous. He's lost 40 pounds, prompting a friend to joke that "a KFC chicken leg has more meat on the bones than mine," Lewis said. The virus is still in his lungs, he said. His wife also tested positive for the virus but has recovered. He can't have visitors at the hospital, but on Sunday, his daughter called and told him to look out the window of his sixth-floor room. She and her boyfriend "were outside waving at me. That made me feel so good, it brought tears to my eyes," he said. He's posted several times from his hospital bed about his fight with the virus, hoping "to make people aware" and urge them to take the pandemic seriously, he said, even as some Americans demand that lockdown measures be lifted and the economy reopened. "I understand people in the States, some of them want to get back to normality, but the virus is still out there; it might even come back stronger. "And I don't know if that's the price they really want to pay," he said. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Global TMT Steel Bar Market has valued US$XX Bn in 2017 and is estimated to reach US$XX Bn by 2026 at a CAGR of about XX% during a forecast. TMT steel bar market is segmented by diameter, by application, by grade, and by region. On the basis of diameter, the TMT steel bar market is divided into 68 mm, 812 mm, and 12 mm & Above TMT steel bars. By application, TMT steel bar is classified into residential, commercial, and infrastructure applications. According to grade, TMT steel bar is bifurcated into FE-415, FE-500, FE-550, FE-600, and others. Geographically TMT Steel Bar market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. 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When we use Fe250 rods, a spacing of rods will be closer intervals whereas in the other case spacing will be more and thereby the quantity of steel required will be less and thus there is a cost reduction. Migration of rural areas people to urban will ask for increased shelter this will result in increased percent of residential buildings over year and year. The residential sector is estimated to hold the major share in the TMT steel bar market. Commercial application is anticipated to grow with the highest CAGR throughout the forecast period. Asia Pacific exhibits the dynamic growth in the TMT steel bar market owing to the surging construction industry and increased investment namely led by China. Europe is the second largest market for TMT steel bar market support and cooperation from the EU for the development of the coal and steel industries in Europe supplement the growth of the TMT steel bar market. Make an Inquiry before Buying: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/checkout/11074/Single ArcelorMittal Zenica, Balkan Steel Engineering Ltd., Essar Steel, HBIS Group, HUS Ltd., Metalopromet d. o. o. Kula, MM D, SIDERAL S.H.P.K., SIJ Group and TATA steel are major players of TMT steel bar market. Scope of the Global TMT steel Bar Market Global TMT steel Bar Market by Diameter Type: 6-8 MM 8-12 MM 12 mm & Above Global TMT steel Bar Market by Application Type: Residential Commercial Infrastructure Global TMT steel Bar Market by Grade Type: Fe-415 Fe-500 Fe-550 Fe-600 Others Global Elevator and Escalator Market by Region: North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Latin America Key Player Analyzed in Global Elevator and Escalator Market: ArcelorMittal Zenica Balkan Steel Engineering Ltd. Essar Steel HBIS Group HUS Ltd. Metalopromet d. o. o. Kula MM D SIDERAL S.H.P.K. SIJ Group Request for Report Discount: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/11074 Townsville hasn't recorded a single case of coronavirus in 12 days - prompting calls to separate the city from southeast Queensland to prevent the disease spreading and to allow lockdown conditions to be eased locally, salvaging the local economy. Long-standing MP Bob Katter and federal MP for Herbert, Phillip Thompson, have led the charge in demanding Townsville and the rest of North Queensland be isolated from the rest of the state. The politicians suggested implementing a barrier just south of Rockhampton, and having police stationed there to ensure nobody can cross between the regions. With North Queensland's relatively low infection rate, they - along with hundreds of local medical professionals and businesses - believe the region will be safer from coronavirus if a border of sorts were introduced. Katter's Australian Party have posted signs in Townsville urging the government to shut down North Queensland Pictured: People waiting for takeaway food in the community wearing face masks to slow the spread of coronavirus Mr Katter recently told Daily Mail Australia the area would be easy to isolate, and would save the lives of one million vulnerable people. 'We are an island, a demographic island surrounded by 320km of nothingness,' he said, adding that some might call it a 'wasteland'. The 74-year-old said the physical isolation of the region made it far easier to cut off than other cities. 'There are just six highways in and out of North Queensland. All we have to do is put on a hard hat, grab a stop sign and that's it, we're protected,' Mr Katter said. On Monday, Queensland didn't record a single case of COVID-19 in the entire state, and statistics show the rate of infection was dropping across the nation as a whole. Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously said if the downward trend continued, he would be willing to begin lifting restrictions by mid-June - but Townsville wants action earlier. Mr Thompson said Townsville should be able to ease restrictions almost immediately, given they already meet three of the four criteria to do so, the Townsville Bulletin reported. So far, the region has been successful in contact tracing, and are certain they have the means to identify and respond to an outbreak. A banner reading 'Premier, isolate North Queensland now!' was flown through Brisbane - organised by Bob Katter Mr Thompson suggested the government lock down North Queensland immediately, to give the region an opportunity to 'get back to some normality' and avoid the worst of the virus. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has not entertained the prospect. But Mr Katter said without it, about five per cent of Australia's population were being put at unnecessary risk. 'We will get it here if the border isn't closed off... It will be an act of monumental arrogance from the Queensland government,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'The only cases we've had up here so far have either come from southeast Queensland or overseas. So whose fault is that? Who didn't close the borders?' In the Balearic parliament on Tuesday, health minister Patricia Gomez disagreed with opposition party claims that the government and health service had been late in responding to the Covid-19 crisis. Describing the work of health professionals as "commendable", she referred to a "serious and sad" global health crisis in the face of which decisive measures were adopted. The Balearics had been able to see how other regions were dealing with the crisis, and then took measures to "plan ahead". She was willing to acknowledge that there were mistakes, but she added that from the outset the government had sought to buy medical supplies, as it could see "that things could get difficult". Gomez explained that there are currently 76,000 PCR and qualitative antibody tests and that tests will be carried out according to health criteria for specific sectors of the population, such as health and social care workers and the disabled. "It is clear that professionals on the front line are a priority," she stated; two per cent of IB-Salut workers have been infected. Sebastia Sagreras of the Partido Popular criticised the fact that there is insufficient safety equipment and maintained that the government's management of the crisis had been "very deficient". The minister "has failed in everything - results, empathy, humility and transparency". There were criticisms from the other opposition parties - Ciudadanos, El Pi and Vox - the minister getting some support from Miquel Ensenyat of Mes (one of the parties of the government pact). He observed that the crisis "had caught everyone off guard". The government had to make "very quick decisions". For our April radio and podcasting feature, I interviewed digital media specialist and former Jacaranda FM presenter Kriya Gangiah, who also headed up the digital strategy for the station and who nowadays owns her own digital media company. Digital media specialist, Kriya Gangiah. In a world of Netflix and Spotify, why do you think radio still has such strong staying power as a mass medium and as a channel for advertising? Comment on the impact of the coronavirus/Covid-19 on radio and the industry as a whole. Technology has also shown that radio shows can be done from anywhere, with presenters broadcasting from their bedrooms and their lounges. We have also seen an increase in on-demand content, where content creators are using digital platforms as an outlet. This is something that has been a long time coming but the coronavirus/Covid-19 is the push that we needed. What do you think is key for brands to remember when connecting with audiences via audio? How do you think the fourth industrial revolution will influence jobs in radio? What are some of the trends you see happening in the industry for 2020 and beyond? List a few things you think the industry can improve on. What do you love most about what you do? What is next for you? Any exciting plans you can tell us about? Here, she tells us why radio stations need to start thinking out of the box when it comes to creating content with regards to the fourth industrial revolution and elaborates on the positive influence that digital media will have on the radio industry.Radio will always be a medium that creates a personal connection and in the current situation, this is one of the things that people need the most. For this reason, radio has the power to still attract a consistent amount of listeners, which is a very attractive element for advertises. The personal connection also creates an element of trust between the listener and the DJ, resulting in product placements being better considered than an influencer on Instagram or Facebook.I believe that there has been quite a positive effect from a listener point of view, people that are craving a physical interaction that isnt the news, have it at the turn of a dial. From a business point of view, South African business will take a massive finance knock which means advertising revenues will drop and radio and television stations will see this overall.Radio has always been known as the theatre of the mind. When creating audio advertising you need to find a clever way for the listener to remember your ad in 30 seconds. Some people do this with jingles, others with the use of sounds or music. You need to bring your message across and make an impact. Repetition is also something key, the listener may not have taken in all the information on the first listen, having it repeat on radio and then also available on the radio's digital platforms will give the listeners additional opportunities to interact with the ad.We have already seen a great impact of the fourth industrial revolution on the radio industry, with it giving the ability to amplify its impact. Radio stations need to start thinking of themselves as holistic content producers with the opportunity to not only create traditional radio content but now they have the opportunity to create on-demand audio and visual content, live interactive and traditional events and touchpoints for listeners. It has opened up a new way of thinking about radio stations and this opens up new opportunities for jobs within the industry. If you can think outside the box and figure out a way to connect people with great connect, there is a space for you.Being a digital media specialist, I see the positive influence that digital media will have on the radio industry. South Africa is still developing in a few of these aspects but areas such as podcasting, internet radio, digital marketing, video streaming services and ways to bring all four of these elements into one will be areas to look out for in the years to come.One of the main areas that radio still struggles with is talent and people management. Every industry person has at least one story of how they have struggled with this. The problem comes down to leadership, talent development and a whole bunch of creatives in a corporate environment.I love the ability to connect with people and become an integral part of someone's day. Even if it's in some small way. It is very special to me.At the moment my digital agency is my core focus and it is at a point where we can see potential to really grow. There might be a few radio plans in the works, but we can talk once the ink is dry. The city of San Francisco released more detailed geographic data related to COVID-19 cases Monday, segmenting case numbers by city ZIP code. To date, the city has tested 11,250 people in S.F., with about 1,200 of the tests being returned positive, officials reported. City-wide, the rate of positive test results is 14.07 per 10,000 people. As Mayor London Breed stated in a press conference, the data illuminates "some of the disparities we knew" - that residents in some neighborhoods who are more at risk of income and health discrepancies have disproportionately tested positive for the coronavirus. "We see in the Mission there are more cases, which is consistent with our findings," Breed said. "About 25% of those infected are Latino, but the Latino community represents 15% of the population, so there's a huge disparity there." The Mission District, denoted by the ZIP code 94110, has the fourth-highest case rate in the city, with 22.51 cases per 10,000 residents. Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of the Department of Public Health, attributes this high rate of cases in part to instances of families living in multi-generational households where it is harder to socially distance. Parts of SoMa, the Bayview, the Dogpatch, Potrero Hill and Hunters Point have also weathered a significant number of cases. In SoMa, the worst-hit neighborhood and an epicenter of homelessness, health officials recorded 29.27 cases per every 10,000 residents. The zip code 94107, for instance, includes the MSC shelter, where a large COVID-19 outbreak occurred. As Colfax explained, populations "most affected by health disparities, income inequality and by structural racism are also going to be the areas most affected by this pandemic." "Unfortunately, health emergencies exploit the unequal in society," Colfax continued. "People with chronic illness, underlying health conditions and communities that have experience institutionalized stigma and discrimination are going to be more at risk for getting sick." Health officials currently have no plans to release fatality information by zip code. Colfax called the 20 deaths from COVID-19 in San Francisco "concerning," but noted the number is less than in other jurisdictions. As those numbers increase, he said, the city will share the "data as appropriate" on the city case tracker. For now, Colfax stressed the importance of not over-generalizing the data. Most importantly, the data omits results from one-third of all tests which did not include the locality information. It also does not suggest that being in any one neighborhood with a higher infection rate necessarily makes a person more prone to COVID-19. "I want to stress no zip code or neighborhood is inherently safer than another," Colfax said. "Every San Franciscan should continue to exercise precaution. This map should not make any one feel more relaxed or more fearful." The White House struggled to explain President Donald Trump's decision to ban immigrants from entering the United States Tuesday morning as Democrats called it 'xenophobic' and claimed it was more presidential scapegoating on the coronavirus. Additionally, lawmakers pointed out that immigration has essentially stopped as all visa processing by the State Department has come to a halt during the pandemic and accused the president of using a global health crisis to double down on his hard-line immigration policies. 'From the beginning Trump has flailed about seeking someone to blame for his own failure,' wrote Democratic Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia on Twitter. 'Immigration has nearly stopped and the US has far more cases than any other country. This is just xenophobic scapegoating.' Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York called the president: 'Xenophobe. In. Chief.' Sen. Chuck Schumer accused President Trump of trying to cause a distraction with his new order banning immigration The White House struggled to explain what President Donald Trump's new order meant as Democrats criticized the president for the ban White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany offered no additional details or explanation of President Trump's immigration ban in a statement on Tuesday morning The executive order would deny entry for people seeking most types of work visas for at least 90 days, Bloomberg News reported. It would exempt farm workers, healthcare professionals, holders of H-1B visas who can claim they are not taking an American job, refugee and asylum seekers and 'any alien whose entry would be in the national interest.' In the draft order, Trump says he's protecting the 'marginal worker.' 'I have determined that we cannot jump start the domestic economy if Americans are forced to compete against an artificially enlarged labor pool caused by the introduction of foreign workers,' Trump said. 'I have determined that the entry of most aliens as permanent or temporary workers in the immediate term would have adverse impacts on the national interest.' Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer accused the president of causing a diversion from the issues at hand, including having enough testing for the disease. Presidential Power on Immigration Policy Modern U.S immigration law which is about allowing foreign nationals to settle in the United States as opposed to just visiting dates back to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which ended the preference for white migrants and established a more broad entry system. Constitutionally, Congress has the power to make immigration law and the president i.e. Donald Trump - is tasked with carrying such laws out. The president can, however, control the administration of such laws, such as the timing of when and how they are implemented. But Trump has some power here too. The president has historic power to open and close borders, which courts have ruled comes from the inherent powers granted to an executive. Additionally, the Homeland Security Act of 2002 expanded the president's power over immigration in the wake of the September 11th attacks. The law gives the executive branch the power to secure the borders and establish national immigration enforcement policies and priorities. But the full range of that presidential power has yet to be tested in court. President Trump has tested it in bits and pieces. For example, in 2018, the Supreme Court upheld his travel ban on predominately Muslim countries, citing the president's authority to secure the borders. Advertisement 'It is another diversion. The agencies don't even know what it is. No one knows what it is,' Schumer said Tuesday morning on CNN. 'What we really need is a focus on testing, a focus on contact tracing, so that we can open up again.' The president announced the ban in tweet Monday night but with no additional details - a vagueness that caused confusion about what his order meant and left his administration scrambling for an explanation. The White House offered no clarity on the matter Tuesday morning. 'President Trump is committed to protecting the health and economic well-being of American citizens as we face unprecedented times. As President Trump has said, 'Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers.' At a time when Americans are looking to get back to work, action is necessary,' said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany in a statement. The president is looking to sign an executive order - as early as Tuesday - that would suspend nearly all immigration, using the argument it would stop the spread of infection by foreigners arriving from abroad, The Washington Post reported. And one of Trump's top aides offered no more details during an appearance on 'Fox & Friends.' 'The president's trying to do everything he can to put the health of the American people first during this crisis,' said National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien. He compared the decision to Trump's January move to ban some travel from China to try and contain the coronavirus. 'It's not dissimilar to the restrictions on travel from China that he implemented back on January 29th, at the very outset of this public health crisis. We think that those restrictions saved thousands or tens of thousands of American lives,' O'Brien said. Trump used his ban to argue he was on top of combating the virus from the start and that his early move saved lives. But the ban applied only to foreign nationals who had traveled in China within the previous 14 days and left many gaps for people to get through. The United States has the most cases of coronavirus of any country in the world with more than 799,000 infections. And more than 42,000 people have died from the disease, which has brought business to the country to nearly a halt and tanked the economy. Migrants in the 'Remain in Mexico' program walk on the Paso del Norte International Bridge to reschedule their immigration hearings amid the coronavirus outbreak Democrats criticized the president for failing to take early warnings of the virus seriously, a drum beat they kept up in the wake of his immigration ban. 'Trump failed to take this crisis seriously from day 1,' wrote former presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Twitter. 'His abandonment of his role as president has cost lives. And now, he's shamelessly politicizing this pandemic to double down on his anti-immigrant agenda.' Amy Klobuchar also accused the president of passing the blame. 'As our country battles the pandemic, as workers put their lives on the line, the President attacks immigrants & blames others for his own failures. The order I'd like to see tonight? Testing. Instead he twists 'the buck stops here' into this: 'the buck stops anywhere but here,'' the Minnesota senator wrote on Twitter. And former presidential contender Julian Castro called it 'a dumb move' that would continue to weaken the nation's economy. It's unclear how the presidential directive will change anything currently happening with regards to immigration to the United States. Citizenship ceremonies have stopped because of social distancing, as have visa interviews. The refugee program has been paused and any immigrant caught at the border is immediately turned back, which was a previous presidential directive from Trump. Trump's tweet offered few details on his new policy. 'In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!,' he wrote on Monday night. The order will exempt migrant farm workers who are essential to the nation's food supply and healthcare professionals, an administration official told The Wall Street Journal. The president tweeted Monday evening announcing his immigration plans A general view from the looking south to the El Chaparral Port of Entry to Mexico March 21. The president tweeted Monday: 'In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!' Trump's order will likely face legal challenges. The president has made his war on immigration a center piece to his campaign going back to the 2016 election, when he vowed to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. He also enforced U.S. policy that separated migrant children from their parents making illegal border crossings, a move he ended up reversing after coming under heavy criticism from Democrats. Even first lady Melania Trump and first daughter Ivanka Trump disagreed with that move. The president already banned travel from China in January, closed the U.S. to European travel last month and has banned all but essential travel from Mexico and Canada. Other countries have locked down their borders to try and contain the virus. Last month, the European Union imposed a 30-day entry ban on nonessential travel for non-EU citizens. Trump's decision also contradicts his recent proclamations he wants to get the country re-open for business. During his Monday briefing Trump talked about his supporters and then pointed to his initial action on the coronavirus, a late-January travel ban from China, which excluded American citizens. 'And yet in January, a certain date - you know the date better than I do - we put on a ban of China, where China can't come in and before March we put on a ban of Europe, where Europe can't come in,' Trump said. Sources told The New York Times the formal order banning new green cards and work visas could be implemented in days, shutting down legal immigration. Trump's tweet came hours after the price of U.S. oil traded below $0 for the first time ever. And there were 5.2 million new claims for unemployment benefits filed last week, according to the latest Labor Department figures released on Thursday. The staggering number of first-time claims was on top of the 16.8 million applications filed since the virus took hold in mid-March. Economists say the unemployment rate could reach as high as 20 percent in April, which would be the highest rate since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While accurate records didn't begin until 1948, economists say the unemployment rate rose to 25 percent in 1933. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on the U.S. side tell people on the Mexican side to stand back at the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico on March 31. In an address to the nation last month Trump announced a drastic ban on foreigners traveling to the United States from Europe. He had already banned travel from China John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) stands mostly empty due to the ongoing cutbacks in travel because of the coronavirus on April 16. The White House had already closed the U.S.-Canada border and the administration essentially shut down the nation's asylum system last month Trump's administration is currently relying on a seldom-used public health law to set aside decades-old national and international immigration laws. People seeking refuge in the U.S. are whisked to the nearest border crossing and returned to Mexico without a chance to apply for asylum. It may be the most aggressive clampdown on immigration by a president who's made reducing asylum claims a top priority. The administration tapped a law allowing the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ban foreigners if their entry would create 'a serious danger' to the spread of communicable disease. Trump's attempt to stop immigration comes amid anti-lockdown protests across the United States. Armed demonstrators waving Trump 2020 flags and ignoring social distancing rules called for America to reopen immediately on Monday. Crowds gathered close to one another in North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California, calling for their 'liberty'. Armed militia groups protested alongside young families and Americans out of work, all calling for businesses to be reopened. Some states mostly Republican-led ones have relaxed restrictions, and on Monday announced that they would take further steps to reopen their economies. In a dispute that has turned political, the president has been agitating to restart the economy, singling out Democratic-led states and egging on protesters who feel governors are moving too slowly. 'I'm going to win in a LANDSLIDE!' Donald Trump claims his coronavirus response will win him the election saying 'people love Trump' President Trump said Monday he was likely to win re-election by a 'landslide,' while complaining that the poll numbers for his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic should be higher. 'A lot of people love Trump right? A lot of people love me. You see them all the time. I guess I'm here for a reason, you know. To the best of my knowledge I won. And I think we're going to win again, I think we're going to win in a landslide,' Trump said. The president had been asked by PBS Newshour's Yamiche Alcindor if by downplaying the virus - for example, not wearing a mask - he got some people sick. Alcindor spoke of an interview she had conducted with a person who said his family got sick 'because they listened to you' and didn't take enough precautions. Instead of answering the question head-on, Trump talked about his supporters and then pointed to his initial action on the coronavirus, a late-January travel ban from China, which excluded American citizens. 'And yet in January, a certain date - you know the date better than I do - we put on a ban of China, where China can't come in and before March we put on a ban of Europe, where Europe can't come in,' Trump said. Trump continued to hold campaign rallies through February and into early March. The president continued to point to his travel bans with China and Europe as proof that he did enough In February and March the president made a number of questionable statements about the spreading coronavirus and also continued actively campaigning through early March. When Alcindor pointed out that the president was still holding campaign rallies - such as a March 2 rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, he wouldn't admit that was the case. 'I really don't know about rallies. I really don't know about rallies,' he said when she insisted he was still campaigning in March. 'I know one thing I haven't left the White House in months,' he said, adding that the one time he did leave the White House was for a trip to Norfolk, Virginia on March 28 to bid adieu to the USNS Comfort - the hospital ship heading to New York. President Trump said Monday that he believed he would win re-election 'in a landslide' after a reporter asked him if initially downplaying the coronavirus threat got some Americans sick At another point in the briefing, Trump complained that poll numbers for his team's coronavirus response weren't higher. 'Look, I don't understand, when I see, uh, polling and approval ratings for the job,' he said. 'This group should get a 95, it really should. And we're really helping the governors a lot.' The Real Clear Politics polling average says that 47 per cent approve of the president's handling of the coronavirus crisis with a slightly higher amount - 50.7 - disapproving of his actions. The president suggested one problem was that 'the media foments a lot of anger.' 'For instance, I'll be asked a tremendously hostile question from somebody and then I'll answer it in a hostile way, which is appropriate otherwise you look foolish,' the president explained. 'Other it looks like you walk off the stage and bow your head.' 'I can't do that,' he said. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Well, good afternoon everybody, said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine at the start of his coronavirus briefing in Columbus last Friday. First I want to say happy birthday to our daughter Anna. Anna is a journalist, reporter, and were very proud of her as we all are proud of all our children. Thats your first sign that you are not in MAGAland. As the top Republican in a state that voted decisively for Donald Trump in 2016, DeWine must be mindful of the alternate universe where journalism is treason. But the governor, a conservative whose campaign was endorsed by the usual panoply of groups that form the partys ideological nucleus pro-gun, anti-abortion, etc. might have a more complicated view. Cognitive dissonance is the price of being simultaneously pro-Trump and reality-based. Its an unavoidable condition for those who want to remain in the Republican political universe while also meeting real-world challenges. DeWine does, and is. He was the first governor to shut down schools in his state. He speaks of the virus calmly and knowledgeably, and his policies are geared to protecting public health, not fostering White House propaganda. Hes a classic old pro pol, says Republican strategist and Trump critic Mike Murphy in an email. He actually cares about government. Hes adroitly stretching his GOP base leash as far as possible to be a good governor. Because DeWine is a Republican, his performance entails risks more barbed than those faced by his Democratic counterparts. Democratic governors such as New Yorks Andrew Cuomo or Michigans Gretchen Whitmer must contend with a steady flow of disinformation and sabotage from the White House. But at least the attacks are not coming from the head of their own party. DeWine has to manage the demands of public health in a pandemic along with expectations that, as a Republican, he will somehow execute Trumps incoherent directives, which are marked by rhetorical aggression and policy passivity. Story continues On Meet the Press Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence said that there is a sufficient amount of testing for states soon to begin to responsibly reopen, even though less than 2% of the population will have been tested by the end of April. Pences statement, while not a blatant lie like Trumps March 6 assertion that Anyone that wants a test can get a test, is nonetheless absurd. DeWine later appeared on the same program and praised the White House. With the fantasy part of his job out of the way, DeWine moved on to reality. We really need help, he said, noting that his state has the capacity to test more if only the Trump administration would increase its own capacity. At his April 17 briefing, DeWine spoke knowledgeably and coherently about the precautions that will have to accompany easing of restrictions on commerce. These include masks, frequent cleanings and the imposition of barriers in workplaces to separate employees who would otherwise be too close together. He painted a realistic, but far from comforting, picture of a near future that does not resemble the near past. Watching DeWine honestly grapple with the pandemic in the midst of Trumps daily chaos is reminiscent of watching Senator Mitt Romney after Trumps impeachment. Romney publicly acknowledged the overwhelming evidence of Trumps guilt while his Republican Senate colleagues clung to the alibi that Trumps extortion of Ukraine amounted to routine, or perhaps merely bungled, foreign policy. Romney has been ostracized for taking an honest stand in a case where it was simply not possible to reconcile his duty to the Constitution and the truth with his fealty to the party. DeWine has so far managed to do his duty while avoiding collision with Trumpism. Watching the 73-year-old Ohio governor, you can almost imagine a viable future for competent conservative governance. DeWine proves you can be effective if youve got a pragmatic streak and some guts, Murphy says. Others should try it, too. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Francis Wilkinson writes editorials on politics and U.S. domestic policy for Bloomberg Opinion. He was executive editor of the Week. He was previously a writer for Rolling Stone, a communications consultant and a political media strategist. 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. By Sharon Bernstein and Makini Brice (Reuters) - When stay-at-home orders sparked by the coronavirus forced him to find new ways to reach young voters ahead of the November U.S. election, Felix Clarke turned to an online computer game. The New Hampshire college student logged in to Minecraft, dressed his avatar in the blue T-shirt worn by canvassers for NextGen America, the progressive group for which he works, and strolled virtually up to other players, making his pitch. "I pretty much used the same conversation starters I'd use in-person talking to other students at Plymouth State," Clarke said via a NextGen spokeswoman. "We talked in-game mostly about how to vote, why as the largest chunk of eligible voters it is so important that young people make their voices heard." Political groups large and small have turned to digital campaigning amid the social distancing restrictions affecting almost all Americans, using texts, social media and video chat to carve out a new form of organizing as the U.S. presidential election looms. The election pits Republican Donald Trump against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in a campaign taking place against the all-consuming backdrop of the pandemic. Republican organizers switched from holding packed, raucous rallies to setting up livestreams and social media events with just 24-hours notice, said Trump campaign spokesman Ken Farnaso. About 1,000 staff and hundreds of thousands of volunteers have switched to digital outreach, he said, while others make voice calls from their homes instead of crowded phone banks. "We are hosting virtual events, training members of the Trump Neighborhood Teams online, activating the massive volunteer network to make calls on behalf of the President, and continuing our efforts to register voters online," Farnaso said in an email. Biden's campaign built a studio in the candidate's home in Delaware, where the former vice president streams podcasts and town halls, and makes television news appearances. Story continues Organizers recruit volunteers via text messages, and hold conference calls and video chats with voters led by such backers as strategist Symone Sanders, said Biden spokesman Vedant Patel. 'VIRTUAL CLIPBOARDS' The Democratic party has trained 7,000 digital organizers over the past month and was connecting with voters using social media handles among other methods, chair Tom Perez said Friday. "We're not knocking on doors, but we have our virtual clipboards in hand, and we are engaging voters where they consume their news, talking about what we're fighting for," Perez told reporters. Reaching voters digitally - particularly younger voters who may be adept at technology and new media but jaded about politics - has involved a steep learning curve for some groups, and taken a lot of creativity, organizers said. Naseem Makiya, the founder of Outvote, an application for digital mobilizing, said his company had seen a dramatic uptick in inquiries. "When it's safe to organize door knocks and hold events, I think people will be really excited to go back to doing that ... (but) now they'll know there are these options digitally that can be just as impactful," he said. When Ohio's shelter-in-place order began in March, gay rights activist Brad Henry cast about for a way to salvage voter engagement efforts he had planned. At a neighbor's suggestion, Henry said, he decided to livestream dance parties involving DJs and bands to keep up that contact. On Saturday, his latest event featured drag performers Maja Jera and Jennifer Lynn as hosts and raised funds for healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic. Jen Miller, executive director of the Ohio League of Women Voters, also made an appearance. "Be a voter," she said via video from her home. "It's how we create a healthy democracy where everyone's voice is heard." (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California and Makini Brice in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Daniel Wallis) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is likely to constitute his cabinet on Tuesday afternoon, almost a month after he was sworn-in for the fourth time, said a high ranking official in the state government. A Raj Bhavan official said the ministers would take oath at 12 noon on Tuesday in a simple function in presence of certain selected BJP leaders and bureaucrats. The media would be kept at bay. There was no talk about formation of the cabinet till night but some development took place late night and we were informed about the cabinet formation and ministers taking oath on Tuesday, he said. A BJP leader familiar with developments said, There may not be more than 5 to 7 ministers initially. The cabinet may be expanded later when lockdown restrictions are lifted on May 3. Chouhan took oath as the chief minister on March 23. Since then he was facing flak from the Opposition and on social media for running his government without a cabinet and working particularly without a health minister while the Covid-19 situation continued to worsen in the state. Chouhan held discussions with the senior party leaders in Delhi in the past few days about the size of and faces in the cabinet, said the BJP leader quoted above. When Chouhan assumed office, coronavirus was rearing its head in the state with only seven cases registered in two districts. But in the span of about 29 days, the state has registered as many as 1,485 Covid-19 positive cases with 76 of them dead and as many as 26 of the total 52 districts affected. Madhya Pradesh has emerged as one of the worst-managed states in the country during the period, and Chouhan has blamed previous Congress government for the present situation in the state. Indore has emerged as one of the major Covid-19 hotspots in the country, prompting the central government to send a team on Monday to the city to assess and manage the situation. Senior Congress leader and former leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh said on April 10, To become a one-man army chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan put in peril lives of 7.50 crore people of Madhya Pradesh. The CM is busy in his branding and publicity instead of protecting people of the state from Corona. In Madhya Pradesh situation is going from bad to worse. Later, Congress Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha in a letter to the President of India urged him to impose a Presidents rule in the state if Chouhan fails to constitute his cabinet. He wrote again to the President, jointly with senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Monday to reiterate his demand. State BJP leader Dr Hitesh Bajpai said, Like media I also hear about the cabinet formation. I cant comment on the same. As far as Congress allegations are concerned these are politically motivated. They must understand that a chief minister delegates his powers to ministers. Hence, it cant be said that there is no health minister. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON China Steps up Patrols in Disputed Sea; Here's What Malaysia and Vietnam Will do By Ralph Jennings April 20, 2020 Malaysia and Vietnam, militarily weaker than China, are expected to protest through diplomatic channels over a Chinese survey ship fleet that entered disputed waters this month, inviting a long but nonviolent standoff. Both Southeast Asian countries are monitoring movement of the Chinese Haiyang Dizhi 8 fleet, which multiple news reports say passed through disputed tracts of the South China Sea last week. The same vessel spent four months in 2019 in an oil-rich tract of the sea claimed by Vietnam and blocked Vietnamese crews from exploring for oil underwater. This time both states will probably protest diplomatically to China but do little more, analysts believe. They lack China's overall military might. Malaysia's prime minister, in office for less than two months, also has little foreign policy experience. Against that muted response, China could keep its survey fleet in disputed waters and stymie the energy drilling efforts of Malaysia and Vietnam, experts believe. "It's just the status quo," said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. "China is doing its survey work and Malaysia's searching for oil, and occasionally they have harassment and close calls -- diplomatic pressure behind the scenes and then at some point weather changes or what not and China, if Malaysia doesn't cave in, takes the vessel and brings it back," Thayer said. This sort of friction surfaces regularly in the broader South China Sea dispute. China, Malaysia, Vietnam and three other governments claim all or part of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway. They prize it for fisheries, shipping lanes, oil and natural gas. China has grown more powerful than the other claimants over the past 10 years by landfilling tiny islets for military installations. Claimant states have made little headway diplomatically in settling disputes. The U.S. Navy periodically passes ships through the South China Sea as a warning to Beijing. New PM in Malaysia Malaysia's Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, a former interior minister appointed in March, will probably take a low-key approach to Chinese presence in the sea, analysts say. His predecessor Mahathir Mohamad had publicly questioned the basis for China's claims and warned against use of any warships. "This new prime minister is no Mahathir," said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. "He is not well known for taking a harsh diplomatic or political stand." Expect instead low-key negotiations between Malaysia and China, which in turn will move its vessels "peacefully but deliberately" in the disputed waters, Oh said. China resents Malaysia for filing documentation in December to the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf about plans to extend its rights in the South China Sea beyond 370 kilometers from its baselines, Thayer said. China claims about 90% of the sea and cites historical usage records as support. Malaysia began in October looking for oil and gas just outside those 370 kilometers. A British company-managed contract drillship West Capella became the "heart of the standoff" that has also attracted Chinese coast guard vessels, the U.S. think tank-operated Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative says on its website. The survey ship came last week with about 10 escort boats and might return with 20 or 30 an unprecedented show of force by China toward Malaysia said a scholar doing research for the Malaysian government. The vessel was sailing near China's mainland east of Hong Kong as of late Sunday, according to ship tracking website Marine Traffic. Vietnam learned from 2019 In July last year, the same Chinese energy survey ship began patrolling near Vanguard Bank 352 kilometers off the coast of southeastern Vietnam. Vietnam operates an undersea energy exploration platform near Vanguard Bank. The vessel left in October. Vietnamese and Chinese boats rammed one another in 2014 when China allowed an oil rig into disputed waters. But when the survey vessel showed last year, China just kept Vietnam away from its oil drilling site and the standoff came down to "who blinks first", Thayer said. Vietnam will probably protest again this time and avoid use of force, scholars say. In that case, Haiyang Dizhi 8's fleet could spend two to three months in disputed waters this year by using landfilled islands for resupply, said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam hopes eventually for backup from other Southeast Asian states, he said. "This is like the annual," Nguyen said. "It seems to me this is the second time the survey ship is back to the South China Sea. If the Southeast Asian countries do not collaborate right now, maybe next year the survey ship will be back again and maybe they will choose another area of the South China Sea for the survey." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Gauhati High Court judges on Tuesday contributed Rs 4.51 lakh to PM-CARES fund and the Chief Ministers Relief Fund to fight the COVID-19 outbreak in the country and Assam. Seventeen judges of the high court, including Chief Justice Ajai Lamba, made this contribution, an official release said here. State power generation and distribution farms also contributed over Rs 75 lakh to the Chief Ministers Relief Fund. The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited contributed Rs 55 lakh, while the Assam Power Grid Limited and the Assam Power Generation Company Gauhati HC judges contribute to Rs 4. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An IT worker, a bush camp dweller and an alleged rapist uncle are among 16 men charged across Australia with allegedly accessing a vile dark web stash of child abuse photos and videos. Four children have been rescued from harm and 738 charges laid against men in five different states after a tip off from US Homeland Security agents, in a mammoth police operation revealed this week. The lion's share of charges, 615 offences in total, were laid against a man, 61, from Echuca, a riverside town in Victoria's far north. A 37-year-old accused rapist uncle from Marayong, western Sydney, has been charged with 38 offences, including allegedly abusing his niece. The accused men, who were arrested during a two year-long police operation codenamed 'Walwa', come from strikingly different backgrounds. Others charged include a 44-year-old accused deviant living at a filthy Queensland bush camp and a suburban Sydney IT worker, Jason Paul Tarlinton, 37. Accused: IT worker Jason Paul Tarlinton, 37, from Leumeah in south-west Sydney, was charged with one count of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material and granted conditional bail Home office raid: Law enforcement agents are pictured examining Tarlinton's home study on April 9 Police set themselves up on the Leumeah family's back deck as investigators sorted evidence from his home into bags The arrests across five different states came following a tip-off from the US Homeland Security International (HSI) office (attache on left). A pink child's trampoline sits on back left Tarlinton was arrested and charged by police following a raid on the weatherboard home he shares with his family in suburban Leumeah on April 9. Photographs obtained by Daily Mail Australia show detectives examining Dell computers in his home office. Officers set up an outpost on his back verandah as investigators pored through the house, seizing the contents of his top bedstand drawer as evidence. Social media pictures show mostly happy photos of Tarlinton with his young family. Police video shows the man being escorted by police into the back of a waiting car. He was later charged with one count of using a carriage service to access child sexual abuse material. Accused paedophile's lair: The arrested Queensland man was living on a remote bush camp which consisted of a caravan and two shipping containers He was granted bail at Campbelltown Local Court. Conditions included that he not use the internet except for banking, shopping, work or other essential purposes, He was banned from using four email addresses, allowed to use only a Dell touchscreen laptop and a VPN for work-related reasons. Tarlinton was not related to any of the four exploited children and nor is he accused of having a relationship with any of those involved. He is yet to enter a plea. The typical suburban setting of his arrest was a far cry from the filthy bush camp where officers arrested a shirtless Queensland man, 44, as part of the same investigation on March 22. The man, who has not been named, was arrested at his squalid property which consisted of a caravan, two converted shipping containers, piles of tyres and electrical appliances plonked in a semi-circle. A general view of the remote bush camp where a shirtless man, 44, was arrested and charged with a string offences A rifle butt, wetsuit material and couch cushions were among some of the loose ends police found piled up on the filthy bush camp Search warrant: A police officer strolls past an overturned laundry basket to peek inside one of the two shipping containers located on the property Pictures released by the Federal Police show cask wine, a child's bed, a woodwork bench and a dirty couch inside one of the containers. The camp dweller was charged with three counts of possessing child abuse material, one count of using a carriage service to access such material, and unlawful possession of a firearm. The swathe of arrests followed information provided to Australian authorities by the US Homeland Security International Office. Investigators in Phoenix, Arizona, were investigating an marketplace 'where users paid for access to child abuse material'. The arrests come amid warnings from top police that there has been a surge of activity from predators on the dark web during the COVID-19 shutdown period. Four of the 16 men charged have already been sentenced and the rest remain before the courts. Mothers who drink alcohol while pregnant are putting their children at a greater risk of developing depression when they become teenagers, a new study revealed. University of Bristol researchers examined data on 14,541 women who were pregnant in the 1990s and looked at whether their children had developed depression at age 18. They found that 4,191 of the mothers involved in the study had consumed alcohol between 18 and 32 weeks of pregnancy. Children whose mothers consumed alcohol at 18 weeks had a 17 per cent higher risk of depression at age 18 compared to those whose mothers didn't drink. Mothers who drink alcohol while pregnant are putting their children at a greater risk of developing depression when they become teenagers, a new study claims. Stock Image The research used data from Bristol's Children of the 90s study, also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). This evolving study of thousands of people has tracked pregnant mothers, their partners and their children since the 1990s. While previous research has suggested that babies exposed to alcohol in the womb have a higher risk of a variety of adverse outcomes, few studies have investigated the association with mental health problems in late adolescence. Dr Kayleigh Easey, senior research associate in genetic epidemiology, said it can be difficult to assess the causal effects of alcohol use during pregnancy. 'We have to be careful in the interpretation of results given the sensitivity of alcohol as a risk factor and traditional views around low-level drinking,' she said. 'Our study suggests that children whose mothers consumed alcohol at 18 weeks' gestation have a higher risk of depression at age 18 compared to those who did not drink alcohol. 'What was really interesting here is that we also investigated paternal alcohol use during pregnancy and did not find a similar association.' The study examined the drinking of the women's partners - while the woman was pregnant - something unlikely to have a biological effect on the developing fetus. There was little evidence of any association between partner drinking and offspring depression in adolescence. 'Many of the indirect factors that could explain the maternal effects are shared between mothers and partners (such as socio-demographic factors); despite this, we only found associations for mothers drinking,' said Easey. 'This study also illustrates the importance of considering partner behaviours as well as maternal behaviours - both to help identify causal relationship and because these may be important in their own right.' Alcohol consumption during pregnancy is common, with 40-80 per cent of expectant mothers in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and 10-15 per cent in Canada and US reporting consuming alcohol when pregnant. 'This high percentage of women reporting alcohol use may be in part due to previous guidelines, which suggested that low levels of consumption are safe for the developing foetus,' the authors wrote. In January 2016, the Department of Health updated guidelines to advise pregnant women that the safest approach is to abstain from alcohol consumption during their entire pregnancy. Any effects of light to moderate alcohol use on childrens mental health are likely to be small, but the updated advice is precautionary, the team said. Children whose mothers consumed alcohol at 18 weeks had a 17 per cent higher risk of depression at age 18 compared to those whose mothers didn't drink 'Women can use this information to further inform their choices, and to avoid risk from alcohol use both during pregnancy and as a precautionary measure when trying to conceive.' It is well established that heavy alcohol use in pregnancy can cause foetal alcohol syndrome, resulting in physical and cognitive impairments, the team wrote. 'However, even at levels of alcohol consumption below that required for foetal alcohol syndrome, exposure to alcohol during gestation has shown to be associated with detrimental outcomes in the offspring' in a number of sprevious tudies. These include being small for gestational age as well as birth complications such as pre-eclampsia and placental abruption. They also found that there were behavioural outcomes such as increased risk of disruptive behaviour disorders such as ADHD and internalising disorders such as depression, anxiety and loneliness. Until now most of the research had been on the impact low level drinking while pregnant has on younger children - not on teenagers or adults. 'Our study highlights the potentially long-lasting detrimental effects of maternal alcohol consumption in pregnancy on offspring mental health,' the authors said. 'Although the associations we observed are small, they may nevertheless be important at a population level.' The research has been published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. French startup Alan has raised a $54.4 million (50 million) Series C funding round. Temasek is leading the round with existing investors (such as Index Ventures) also participating. Overall, Alan has raised $136 million (125 million) over the past four years. Alan has built a health insurance product for the French market. The company first started with a well-designed insurance product and wants to tackle all things related to your personal health in the future. The startup isnt partnering with an existing insurance company. It has obtained an official health insurance license. Compared to legacy products, Alan wants to be as transparent as possible with clear pricing and policies. Alan has a huge market opportunity in France as every employee is covered by both the national health care system and private insurance companies. In addition to its health insurance product, the company has been working on multiple products to help you stay on top of your health. For instance, Alan has partnered with Livi so that can easily schedule telemedicine appointments. Alan has launched a directory of doctors around you. With Alan Map, you can easily find a health practitioner without any surprise the company tries to predict how much youre going to pay so that you can check if youre 100% covered. You can also use Alan to keep track of your past appointments, get the phone number of a doctor youve already interacted with and more. Just like fintech companies are building apps that act as financial hubs, Alan wants to become a health hub. Whenever you have a question, you need a piece of information or you want to get reimbursed on your health appointments, Alan wants to become the entry point for those use cases. More recently, Alan has worked on some content about the coronavirus outbreak and COVID-19 symptoms. You can create an account and talk to a doctor through Livi for free. You can also get two months free on a Headspace subscription in case youre looking for a meditation app. With todays funding round, Alan plans to expand to other countries. It has already opened offices in Spain and Belgium and the company wants to be available all around Europe within five years. Alan currently covers 76,000 people. It represents $63 million (58 million) in revenue. At the end of 2018, Alans insurance covered 27,000 people. As you can see, the company is growing nicely. The governments of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi on Tuesday decided to arrange COVID-19 tests for media persons even as some journalists from a Tamil TV channel in Chennai tested positive for the infection in a fresh incident involving scribes. As media persons face mounting health risks in coronavirus coverage, Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang has given cash incentives totalling Rs 31.10 lakh to 176 journalists in the state in recognition of their work in reporting of the outbreak. The Centre also said it is considering sending an advisory to media establishments on the need for journalists to take adequate safety measures. "Not less than 25 people have tested positive from the 90 plus samples (for confirmatory RT-PCR test) taken," a Tamil Nadu health department official told PTI in Chennai, days after two journalists, including one who worked with the same channel confirmed positive for COVID-19. The official also said the test results of those associated with the television channel including some journalists were being collated. Tamil Nadu has recorded 1,596 coronavirus cases. Addressing the media online, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the government will start COVID-19 testing for media persons from Wednesday, two days after at least 53 journalists from Mumbai had tested positive for coronavirus. "We have set up a centre. All media houses and journalists will be informed about it. Interested mediapersons can undergo tests from tomorrow morning at the centre," Kejriwal said. The number of COVID-19 infections has crossed 2,000 in the national capital. The Uttar Pradesh Government said orders have been issued for coronavirus testing of accredited journalists who are interested. "Orders have been issued for coronavirus testing of accredited journalists state headquarter in Lucknow," Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi told reporters. State Director (Information) Shishir said, "Accredited journalists of state headquarter can get themselves tested for presence of coronavirus. This has started from Tuesday, and will be done in Lok Bhavan in Lucknow." On April 19, Hemant Tiwari, president of Uttar Pradesh Rajya Mukhalaya Manyata Praapt Samvadata Samiti, wrote a letter to the UP Government demanding coronavirus testing for journalists. In the country's most populous state, the COVID-19 cases have touched 1,300. During a special camp organised at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai on April 16 and 17 for COVID-19 testing of scribes, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) collected swab samples of 171 media persons, including electronic and print media journalists, photographers and cameramen. "Out of the 171 mediapersons, 53 tested positive for coronavirus," BMC spokesperson Vijay Khabale said on Monday, adding most of those who tested positive are asymptomatic at present. All the media persons found infected with coronavirus will be kept in isolation and a process was underway to find out suitable places, he said. Efforts were also on to trace their high and low risk contacts. The number of coronavirus cases in the country's commercial capital is over 2,000. On Monday night, the BMC decided to isolate the 53 media persons at a hotel in Goregaon for the next 14 days. Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar, meanwhile, decided to place herself under quarantine after some journalists with whom she had interacted recently tested positive for the coronavirus infection. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javdekar on Monday expressed shock over the Mumbai incident involving media persons, and said an advisory is being issued to all newspaper and media establishments to ensure that adequate precautions are taken. "It is shocking that more than 50 journalists of electronic media, particularly camera persons, have been found Corona positive in Mumbai. Every journalist should take proper care," Javadekar said in a tweet. "Advisory is being issued to all newspaper and media establishments to ensure that adequate care and precautions are taken. On the directions of Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa, the state Information and Public Relations Commissioner S N Siddaramappa wrote to the Commissioner of Health and Public Welfare to conduct a medical checkup camp for COVID-19 testing for journalists. Pointing out that there are about 1,000 journalists in Bengaluru alone, Siddaramappa asked the health commissioner to fix the date, time and place for the camp. Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar. had written to the chief minister, requesting that a medical camp be held to identify journalists affected with the virus, after which the latter gave the go ahead. "Dear friends in the media, you are toiling 24 hours a day without bothering about your life just like the doctors and police. Our concern is that you should not overlook your health while performing your duty. I request you to please take care of your health and undergo medical examination," Yediyurappa tweeted. In Sikkim, Chief Minister Tamang presented a cheque for Rs 31.10 lakh to Joseph Lepcha, president of the Press Club of Sikkim, on Monday for distribution of the cash incentive to the journalists of daily and weekly newspapers, besides those from electronic and digital media for coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in the state. A total of 135 journalists of daily newspapers will get Rs 20,000 each, while 41 journalists of weekly newspapers as well as of electronic and digital media will get Rs 10,000 each, Tamang said. The chief minister lauded the members of the media fraternity for their valuable contribution in ensuring timely dissemination of and information to the people on the coronavirus outbreak. He said the financial incentive is a small gesture from the state government to express gratitude towards the media persons who have risked their lives for gathering and dissemination during the difficult time of the COVID-19 outbreak. A Union Health ministry official also expressed concern over some journalists getting infected by coronavirus, and said when they attend the call of duty, they should take the required precautions. "Follow the norms of social distancing and wear face masks. Whoever needs to be tested as per sampling criteria will be tested," said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the ministry. Voicing concern over several journalists testing positive for coronavirus in Tamil Nadu and other states, PMK founder leader S Ramadoss urged media organisations to protect their staff and suggested that the government can do away with press conferences on COVID-19. While the operations of medical professionals and police personnel could not be scaled down in the fight against COVID-19, the work style of scribes may be altered so as to prevent them from getting infected, Ramadoss said in a statement. Rather than convening a press conference, the information sought to be conveyed in such gatherings can be sent to media houses as 'press releases,' he said, adding if video footages were needed by television channels, these could be arranged by government information and public relations wing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband has revealed how they spend several hours a day on video calls with their daughter complaining about home-schooling together, as her temporary release from an Iranian jail was extended for a month today. The British-Iranian mother, 42, was freed from Evin prison in Tehran on March 17, amdi the coronavirus pandemic. She had been due to return to prison over the weekend, but her family were told to return to the Prosecutor's Office today, where her furlough was extended. Now, her husband Richard Ratcliffe said he and daughter Gabriella have been spending several hours a day on video calls with Nazanin during her release from prison in Iran. He told BBC Radio 5 Live's Emma Barnett: 'Nazanin was out for three days back in the summer of 2018 and we had a couple of calls then, but it was so tense and so uncertain and they were being harassed all the time. 'This is a lot more normal. We have been complaining about the prosaics of home schooling and normal parenting - it's been nice to muddle our way through that together.' Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran, has had her leave from prison extended by a month, according to her husband Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and inset her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who revealed her jail furlough has been extended by a month He added Gabriella had initially struggled to understand why her mother had not come home during her temporary release. Mr Ratcliffe said: 'She would be very happy to speak to her, but then have a meltdown after every phone call.' He added: 'But that's melted away- she has suddenly become a lot happier to share and engage... it's not all been plain sailing but I think it's beginning to feel a bit more human again.' MP Tulip Siddiq tweeted this morning: 'Very happy to hear from Richard Ratcliffe that Nazanin's furlough has been extended for a month - in line with other prisoners in Iran.' Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter Gabriella. The British-Iranian woman has been living in relative isolation at her parents' house in Tehran during her release from prison The Labour MP added: 'Now is the time for our government to do all it can to make it permanent.' Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport while travelling to show her young daughter, Gabriella, to her parents in April 2016. The mother-of-one was sentenced to five years in prison, accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, which she denies. She was later afforded diplomatic protection by the UK Government, which argues that she is innocent and that her treatment by Iran failed to meet obligations under international law. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been living in relative isolation at her parents' house in Tehran while the country struggled to deal with the outbreak. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella She has had to wear an ankle tag during the furlough, and can only go within a 300-metre range of her parents' home. Her temporary release in mid-March followed the release of 85,000 prisoners in Iran to stop the spread of coronavirus. She said at the time: 'I am so happy to be out. Even with the ankle tag, I am so happy. Being out is so much better than being in - if you knew what hell this place is. It is mental. Let us hope it will be the beginning of coming home.' Human rights charity Amnesty International said they were 'very pleased' for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe. They added: 'There should be no question of Nazanin ever being sent back to Evin Prison. There are numerous reports of Covid-19 in Iranian jails, with detainees pleading for basic things like soap to help combat the disease. 'We're urging the Iranian authorities to finally do the right thing and free Nazanin permanently, allowing her to return to her family back here in Britain.' Fairfax, VAThe George Mason University College of Health and Human Services has received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to implement the Rural Opioid Telehealth Project, which will serve an estimated 177,000 rural, low-income residents of Virginia and West Virginia. The project will train medical professionals on how to appropriately prescribe opioids, screen for and identify the risk of opioid use disorder, and deliver treatment. The telehealth initiative will be carried out through Mason and Partners Clinics and the new Population Health Center, which will serve as hub-sites for the telehealth training. The grant will enable Mason to connect medical professionals with low-income residents of Virginia and West Virginia who have limited access to specialized care, yet are in high-risk areas for opioid use disorder and chronic conditions. In addition to the main goal of addressing opioid dependency in rural areas, the grant will also help provide other telehealth services to underserved patients. By expanding the MAP Clinics telehealth capabilities, the MAP Clinics can now directly combat the Coronavirus pandemic by screening for COVID-19 while helping their patients battle chronic conditions, treat substance use disorders, and address behavioral health issues such as anxiety and stress. Thanks in part to the USDA Grant, the nurse-managed MAP Clinics were able to rapidly deploy HIPAA-compliant telehealth units to meet the demand of underserved communities where there remains limited access to COVID-19 screening and on-going care for chronic diseases. Each unit consists of a tablet pre-loaded with HIPAA-compliant apps, consent forms, and teaching packets to help the end-users at each site effectively screen for COVID-19 symptoms. The grant allows MAP Clinics to partner with rural organizationslike the mobile care provider The Health Wagonto serve patients despite financial and transportation barriers and to reduce in person visits that can spread COVID-19 in rural parts of the Commonwealth. In 2017, West Virginia had the highest of opioid-involved overdose deaths at a rate of 49.6 deaths per 100,000 people. In 2018, an average of three Virginia residents died of an opioid overdose daily. Despite a decline in opioid deaths in 2018, there is still a need for opioid treatment--especially for medically underserved counties throughout these states. The College is committed to combating COVID-19 and the opioid crisiswithin the region and beyond. The Rural Opioid Telehealth Project is a tremendous opportunity to use telehealth capabilities to advance public health, says Rebecca Sutter, co-director of the Mason and Partners Clinics and the Population Health Center. About the College of Health and Human Services George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services prepares students to become leaders and shape the public's health through academic excellence, research of consequence and interprofessional practice. The College enrolls 1,917 undergraduate students and 950 graduate students in its nationally recognized offerings, including: 5 undergraduate degrees, 12 graduate degrees, and 11 certificate programs. The College is transitioning to a college public health in the near future. For more information, visit https://chhs.gmu.edu/. About George Mason University George Mason University is Virginia's largest and most diverse public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls 38,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity and commitment to accessibility. For more information, visit https://www2.gmu.edu/. He's been having fun with his friends at home during the coronavirus pandemic, labeling them the 'quarantine crew'. And Tyler Cameron was at it again on Monday, posting a cheeky Instagram shot in which he looked to be almost totally nude. The Bachelorette hunk, 27, stood alongside his friend Matt James in the scantily clad shot, wearing nothing but a skimpy pair black underpants, in front of which he held a pie. We're looking, Tyler: Tyler Cameron again showed off his enviable physique on his Instagram on Monday, appearing in a cheeky shot in which he looked to be almost totally nude 'Made you look,' Tyler captioned the image, along with a looking eyes emoji. The ex of both Hannah Brown and Gigi Hadid had a devilish grin on his face, as he modeled his chiseled torso and stacked arms. Next to him sat James, the maybe-next Bachelor, who was caught in the photo shoveling food into his mouth. The open-mouthed, heavy-lidded expression on Matt's face as he chowed down on a huge sandwich and tater tots, as well as Tyler's coin-slotted expression, suggests the pair may have been celebrating 4/20. Exes: The ex of both Hannah Brown and Gigi Hadid had a devilish grin on his face, as he modeled his chiseled torso and stacked arms in his latest Instagram snap; seen here on a recent TikTok chat with Brown Cameron's hair was wet in the photo, as was his leg, presumably from the makeshift slip-n-slide/wave machine he and his 'Quarantine Crew' had created and featured on social media. Quarantine Crew is the nickname Tyler has bestowed upon the group he's hanging out with in his hometown of Jupiter, Florida, which includes his two brothers Ryan and Austin, Matt and some other buddies. Until recently, the crew also counted Tyler's ex Hannah, 25, among its members, before she headed back to her home state of Alabama. The Crew: Cameron's hair was wet in the photo, as was his leg, presumably from the makeshift slip-n-slide he and his 'Quarantine Crew' had created and featured on social media Bros before...: Quarantine Crew is the nickname Tyler has bestowed upon the group he's hanging out with, which includes his two brothers Ryan and Austin, Matt and other buddies The fact that the pair who famously came close to true, lasting love on the dating show where they met were quarantining together made many a hopeful Bachelor Nation member openly speculate what was going on. But Tyler shot down hopes of a potential steamy rekindling with Brown last week. 'The tea is we are friends. She's a good friend, ' he said, as seen in a Tik Tok video posted by @bflyprincess3. Cameron also addressed his relationship with Hadid, who he briefly dated over the summer after his stint on The Bachelorette, calling her a 'good girl' and acknowledging that she's since reunited with her 'old man' Zayn Malik. A Boeing 767 of Icelandair has drawn a big heart over Iceland's capital city of Reykjavik during its arrival from China with medical supplies. The pilot of ICE1725 drew the heart shape over Iceland hospitals on midnight of April 20 to thank the medical staff fighting the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The aircraft was returning from Shanghai in China to Reykjavik. Icelandair is the flag carrier airline of Iceland and is headquartered at Keflavik International Airport near the capital city Reykjavik. A Boeing 767 from Icelandair has drawn a big heart over Reykjavik in Iceland, on arrival from China with medical supplieshttps://t.co/KzbjFK1Iqe pic.twitter.com/97Dlp5eynE Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) April 19, 2020 Air traffic tracker FlightRadar24 took to the micro-blogging site, Twitter and tweeted a picture of a green heart over the city of Reykjavik. The tweet has garnered over 4.2K retweets and 17.3K likes. As the world is battling the deadly pandemic, the medical fraternity and health workers around the globe are risking their lives to treat the patients on a war-footing. The pandemic that has gripped the entire world has so far infected over 25 lakh people and killed 1.71 lakh people. So far more than 1,000 people have been infected in Iceland. First of all: how are you both? I know no one ever asks, so I thought it best just to check. After all, it must be so hard for you, stuck in Los Angeles in rented accommodation with only Ellen DeGeneres and Beyonce for company. We all know how stressful moving house can be, and getting on the property ladder is never easy for a young couple like you. All those million-dollar mansions with their terrible Californian decor to traipse around, not to mention all those tiresome non-disclosure agreements to organise (cant have the pool guy shooting his mouth off), plus the constant worry that one of those clumsy British taxpayer-funded bodyguards might scald himself on your take-out coffee while protecting baby Archewell from marauding fans. I feel your pain. Still, it must be so much better than being holed up in that dingy little cottage in Windsor (which all those pesky British taxi drivers and cleaners and nurses paid millions to have done up), next door to the aged relative who wont even let you use the title she gave you, let alone give you permission to borrow Eltons jet. By the way, it was her birthday yesterday: 94, quite an age for a woman, maybe not something one necessarily wants to draw too much attention to. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are seen wearing masks in Los Angeles, US on April 17 P erhaps thats why, in your characteristically selfless manner, you decided to draw the spotlight back on yourselves. You are right, of course, about the newspapers: it is unacceptable for millions of readers to want to know whats going on in your lives. I mean, honestly: just because they pay for your security, stumped up tens of millions for your wedding and bunged you a couple more to do up Froggers does not give them the right, does it? But enough about you (for now). I suppose you may be wondering how were all doing back here in Blighty, which would be so typically kind and generous of you as its a well-known fact that you rarely think of yourselves these days, what with all the charity work and, of course, those elephants youre so connected with. Well, you know, its a bit up and down if Im honest. Not sure if youre aware although, Harry, I think you touched on it the other day in one of your insightful observations but weve had a bit of a pandemic thing going on, quite serious really. I hate to be a downer, but rather a lot of people have been dying, and its not over yet. So clever old you for distancing yourselves about 5,500 miles away behind high gates. As you can imagine, this nasty old virus is taking quite a toll on the morale of the nation, not to mention the economy and not everyone has wealthy relatives with deep pockets who can support them in times of financial hardship. Couple pictured attending the Endeavour Fund Awards at Mansion House, London, on March 5 Speaking of which, Harry, your father and brother, not to mention your grandparents have been doing a sterling job of keeping the countrys pecker up. William and Kate even did a Zoom interview on the television the other day. Strange, really, since neither of them had anything to promote. Anyway, there I must leave you. Do stay safe during these difficult times, and whatever you do, dont worry about the people back home. Because, to be honest, were certainly not worried about you. As Matt Hancock grapples with the headache of reaching his target of 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of April, I have a thought. I know of at least three private clinics in Harley Street offering testing to those who can afford it (currently the going rate for an antibody test is roughly 200). Why not requisition these at cost price and redeploy them for front-line NHS workers? My Ladyshave works on the dog Im as keen as any to start easing this lockdown for the sake of the economy, but I must confess that from a purely personal point of view, its actually proving quite a salutary experience. I can see how much time and money I used to waste on things I thought I needed but which now, just four weeks on, I realise were completely superfluous to my existence. Such as: 1. Manicures. Seriously. Was I really spending 50 quid getting someone else to paint my nails? What a prat. The only downside to this is that Ive developed a habit of filing my nails in front of the telly, something that is driving my husband slowly, but reliably, mad. 2. The gym. For the past few weeks, Ive substituted my regular classes with long walks. Admittedly, my knees are slightly killing me. But I realise that paying a fortune to do in an airless, smelly room (and in the company of people half my age and dress size) what I can effectively do free in the sunshine is or was absurd. 3. Bottled fizzy water. Before lockdown, I used to drink gallons of the stuff. Now I can no longer get it, Im using good old tap water again. I still crave the odd slug of San Pellegrino but otherwise Im saving a fortune both in cash and plastic. Sarah Vine's dog Snowy is pictured above . Sarah Vine writes she will no longer need to pay for dog grooming after lockdown 4. Hair removal. A fortnight into the lockdown, I dug out my ancient ladyshave and pressed it back into service. Granted, the results may not be entirely professional, but theyll do and in any case, Im 53. No ones checking that closely. 5. Dog grooming. I discovered last week that the ladyshave also works very effectively on small dog moustaches. Judge me if you like, but what can I say: needs must. 6. Make-up. After the initial Have you got the virus? on a Zoom video chat, your face soon becomes normal without it. Although I still cannot bring myself to ditch the mascara. 7. Office gossip. Not that there is any at the moment. But you know what? Who cares. 8. Heels. Like an old boyfriend. Yeah, we used to have a thing but Im way more comfortable without you in my life. 9. Shop-bought coffee. I think it was all about the ceremony of going to get a coffee, and the convivial multi-round. My cafetiere is just as good really and doesnt rip me off. 10. Eyebrow threading. The one exception that proves the rule. I cant pluck my own eyebrows, its too painful and Im too blind anyway. I now look like a live action version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. One other advantage of the lockdown: street cocaine prices have tripled. On the one hand, this is good fewer young people will have their lives ruined by the stuff. On the other, its a worry: with supply lines drying up, dealers will be tempted to cut it with even more toxic chemicals. Perhaps more of a priority for the police than arresting sunbathers. It's pillow the belt Given how much celebrities are relying on the internet to keep their starving egos alive at the moment, its hardly surprising social media is awash with narcissistic crazes. Last week we had the #MeAt20 one, which gave our stars a chance to showcase their youthful insouciance. Now we have the pillow challenge. Not in any sense of the word an actual challenge of any kind, it requires the individual concerned to pose naked wearing an item of soft furnishing. See Halle Berry (left), Nadia Sawalha, Tori Spelling and Gordon Ramsays model daughter Holly, with varying levels of success. Of course, some of us could manage this without the need for an actual pillow. Halle Berry posing with a pillow tied to her body on Instagram for the #MeAt20 Richard Branson is a long-time tax exile. There is something about the fact that he is now proposing to use Necker Island (or Brass-Necker Island as it shall now be renamed) to try to help refinance Virgin that smells deliciously of sweet justice Why most quiz geeks ARE blokes This seasons final of University Challenge culminated in a resounding victory for Imperial College. It has been a characteristically thrilling series with some stand-out personalities, not least Monday nights main rivals, Brandon Scowler Blackwell, of Imperial, and Ian Grandmaster Wang of Corpus Christi, Cambridge. And yet all anyone seemed to care about including, of course, the BBC, who hosted a tedious debate on the Today programme was the fact that there were no women in the final. This was presented as some kind of huge patriarchal conspiracy, when in fact we all know the truth: girls are far too cool to be on University Challenge. It is (and always has been) a show for super-geeks who by and large have an overwhelming tendency to be male. That is the absolute joy of it, and long may it remain that way. The man who trained the Queens corgis Roger Mugford warns that pets whove grown used to having their humans at home 24/7 will suffer when life returns to normal. He says they are building up a huge reservoir of over-dependency and suggests structured, short training periods of separation such as locking them in a room on their own for up to 30 minutes at a time. Hmm. I wonder if that could also work for husbands? Why did Footes work disappear for so long? Was this a case of historical erasure, or even intellectual theft? The truth is more subtle and interconnected, Jackson wrote. For starters, Foote was regarded as an amateur scientist. She was also an American working at a time when the most important work in the field was being performed in Europe. And the world at that time did not exactly welcome the contributions of a woman. Eunice Foote was disadvantaged not only by this lack of an academic community in America and poor communication with Europe, but by two further factors: her gender and her amateur status, Jackson wrote. Jackson acknowledged that Foote does seem to have been the first person to notice the ability of carbon dioxide and water vapor to absorb heat, and to make the direct link between the variability of these atmospheric constituents and climate change. He added, For that she deserves proper recognition, even if she was not able to explore, and perhaps did not recognize, the distinction between solar radiation and radiated heat from the earth. Hayhoe of Texas Tech put it this way: The conclusion she came to is correct, but the conclusion was not actually supported by her experiment, because she didnt distinguish between visible and infrared radiation and the greenhouse effect is primarily due to the latter, not the former. But Foote, she said, was the first person to say in print that if carbon dioxide levels were higher, the planet would be warmer. That alone, she said, was an amazing accomplishment, and she should be absolutely celebrated for that. Marveling at how much Foote was able to accomplish given the limited horizons for women of her time, Hayhoe pondered, What would she have accomplished if she had been born today? HUNTSVILLE, Ala. and DENVER, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Abaco Systems today announced it has partnered with AMERGINT Technologies to develop a lab-tested electronic warfare (EW) communications capability that can be quickly configured for war fighters. Combining Abaco's ruggedized VP430 RFSoC hardware platform with AMERGINT's SOFTLINK architecture, which moves signal and data processing into software, the companies have created a lower cost, rapidly available technology that reduces RF signal chain complexity, integration and field timing from weeks to days. Designed for advanced EW applications, the VP430 is a major step forward in performance and density. It enables the use of fewer boards and much less power while delivering increased processing throughput. SOFTLINK provides the ability to rapidly build software applications from an early prototype through to full operational capability, bringing a mature software implementation ecosystem to agile development methodologies. "We are delighted to be teaming with AMERGINT to help our customers make a fast start," says Peter Thompson, vice president of product management at Abaco Systems. "Modern militaries are increasingly relying on communication and weapons systems that utilize the entire RF spectrum, from microwaves, radars and satellites to infrared and lasers. And in today's contested environment, where new threats are proliferating and multiplying in number and complexity, it has never been more important to reduce time to market and time to deployment for new EW technologies. By pre-integrating AMERGINT's SOFTLINK libraries with our leading-edge hardware platforms, we're saving our customers valuable time, as well as reducing cost and program risk." A document from the U.S. Department of the Army, U.S. Army Concept for Cyberspace and Electronic Warfare Operation 2025-2040, underscores how today's adversaries have developed sophisticated capabilities that contest U.S. operationsby land, sea, air, space, cyberspaceacross the electromagnetic spectrum. Experts in the domain caution that the future operational environment will become increasingly more unpredictable, complex and potentially more dangerous, with the physical structure of cyberspace vulnerable to attack "by an array of destructive weapons, including high-power microwave munitions and laser systems, which are increasingly effective against digitized and miniaturized integrated circuits." While the Department of Defense is moving closer to buying commercially available products, most have not been tested for rugged environments that include extreme temperatures, high vibration and shock, high moisture or drynessuntil now. For more than 30 years, Abaco Systems has been a global leader in modular, high-performance, open architecture, standards-based rugged embedded computing, with many of its products and solutions found in high-profile military & aerospace sea, land and air programs, as well as in commercial and industrial organizations in which rugged reliability is required. "With U.S. military reliance on electronic communications and GPS navigation, even a short interruption can be disastrous to an operation," says Marc Verity, vice president of systems at AMERGINT Technologies. "Using proven modular software devices, nearly any signal, data processing or network transport capability can be designed, configured and deployed with our SOFTLINK technology. Customers using advanced Abaco Systems' platforms can now validate and deploy new capabilities without enduring complex software development cycles." About Abaco Systems With more than 30 years' experience, Abaco Systems is a global leader in open architecture computing and electronic systems for aerospace, defense and industrial applications. We create innovative, modular solutions based on open standards that are characterized by outstanding price/performance, ultimate rugged reliability and minimal SWaP. Our goal is to be a significant contributor to our customers' success, partnering with them to reduce cost, time-to-deployment and risk and supporting them over the long term. With an active presence in hundreds of national asset platforms on land, sea and in the air, Abaco Systems is trusted where it matters most. www.abaco.com About AMERGINT Technologies AMERGINT Technologies is an essential and trusted partner in the evolution of the space and defense industries that focuses on mission-critical communication and data paths through the capture, processing, transport and exploitation of vital mission data. Founded in 2008 by industry veterans, AMERGINT enables the crucial links its customers use to communicate with satellites, launch vehicles and other vital assets. Building reliable and secure software applications in close partnership with its customers, AMERGINT has delivered over 2,500 AMERGINT products hosted on cloud architectures and dedicated servers, testing, launching and operating space systems. www.amergint.com * Xilinx and Zynq are registered trademarks, and Ultrascale+ is a trademark, of Xilinx, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE Abaco Systems Related Links https://www.abaco.com The Duchess of Sussex donned a very meaningful outfit as she made her first post-Megxit TV appearance on Good Morning America on Monday. Meghan Markle, 38, selected the crisp white shirt from her charity collection for patronage Smart Works while she gushed about her Disney project Elephant in the interview, which was filmed last summer. The Duchess, who is currently living in Los Angeles, was also pictured wearing a personalised 60 ($79) 10k gold 'Shirley' horoscope pendant with Harry's Virgo star sign from sustainable brand Suetables during the appearance. The mother-of-one, who is known for her love of highly personalised jewellery, also donned the brands 122 ($159) 10k gold 'Vanessa Coin Zodiac' necklace with a Taurus charm, a nod to Archie's May birthday. Meghan Markle, 38, sent a message she was focused on her patronages during her interview with Good Morning America as she donned the Smart Works shirt from her charity collection Stylist Susie Hasler, who runs Styled By Susie, told FEMAIL the look was a 'conscious shift' from the traditional 'conservative royal look'. She revealed: 'Meghan choosing to wear a white shirt for her charity appearance marks a conscious shift away from the typical, conservative royal look.' The stylist added: 'It's a masculine style, which shows she's in charge, and asserting her power. 'She wants to ensure the focus is purely on her charity work - there are no girly frills to detract the spotlight.' The Duchess of Sussex donned the Misha Nonoo shirt from her charity collection, which she launched in September last year The Duchess launched the Smart Set collection last September, which saw every item sold by the retailers matched with one item donated to SmartWorks. Meghan privately visited Smart Works several times before being named as its royal patron in January last year and has a long-standing commitment to supporting women's empowerment. She released her sell-out Smart Set charity collection for the charity in September last month, and with every item bought during the sale of the collection, one was donated to Smart Works. At the launch of the collection, Meghan's best friend and designer Misha Nonoo credited the royal with coming up with the idea for the project herself. The Duchess was pictured wearing a personalised 60 ($79) 10k gold 'Shirley' horoscope pendant with Harry's Virgo star sign Despite stepping back from royal duties alongside Prince Harry last month, Meghan has been permitted to maintain her patronages. Meanwhile the royal has also long favoured delicate gold jewellery and has become known for selecting highly personal pieces for royal appearances. She has often worn pendants with the initials of Prince Harry and their son Archie. She is an advocate for many conscious jewelry lines, routinely shining a spotlight on them during her own moments center stage. The Duchess was pictured wearing 122 ($159) 10k gold 'Vanessa Coin Zodiac' necklace with a Taurus charm, a nod to Archie's May birthday The mother-of-one notably opts for brands with values that align with hers. On Monday, Disney - which owns ABC, the network GMA is aired on - released the interview along with footage from the documentary in which Meghan can be heard narrating. In the interview, Meghan said she was 'grateful' to have been involved in the Disney+ documentary Elephant which she hopes will teach people how similar humans are to elephants and how 'connected' we are. The couple moved from the UK to Canada and have now settled in Los Angeles. The proceeds from the Disney documentary will be donated to an elephant preservation charity. The release of Meghan's Good Morning America interview comes as the Duke and Duchess emailed newspaper executives at four publications they wouldn't 'engage' any longer with them unless it was through a lawyer On Sunday, Harry and Meghan told newspaper executives at four publications they wouldn't 'engage' any longer with them unless it was through a lawyer. Their message was sent from an official Sussex Royal email, despite the Queen banning them from using the title and them saying they plan to use Archewell. They emailed the editors of these popular publications: the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Sun and the Daily Express. It came hours after Prince Harry caused outrage by suggesting the coronavirus crisis sweeping Britain was 'better than we are led to believe through certain corners of the media'. Europes biggest budget airline insists passengers on cancelled flights can still get a refund even though it appears to be offering only vouchers for future travel. Passengers whose flights have been grounded as a result of the coronavirus pandemic are entitled to a full cash refund within a week of the departure date. Under the European air passengers rights rules, vouchers are only acceptable with the signed agreement of the passenger. Ryanair has cancelled almost all its flights during the coronavirus pandemic. Early on in the Covid-19 crisis, Ryanair offered online refunds, and was more customer-friendly than its main rivals, British Airways and easyJet. The Irish carrier wrote to passengers promising: Refunds will be processed within 20 working days back to the form of payment used for the original booking. In contrast, its competitors removed the option to request a refund online and steered passengers to accepting a flight voucher; easyJet has since reintroduced the option of a cash refund online, while BA requires passengers to call the airline. In the second week of April, passengers were warned that refunds would be delayed. Ryanair said: Our customer services team are experiencing an unprecedented high volume of requests due to the Covid-19 crisis and we are prioritising our most vulnerable customers. This has been compounded by government public health restrictions on non-essential work travel which means we have less staff available to us during this busy time. Please rest assured your refund request is currently in the queue and will be processed. But now it has made an about-turn, telling passengers: Please see below details of your travel voucher for the full value of your unused booking. This amount can be used for the purchase of Ryanair flights and other services at any time over the next 12 months. A spokesperson for Ryanair told The Independent: For any cancelled flight, Ryanair is giving customers all of the options set out under EU regulations, including refunds. But a passenger, Jamie Bowden, who was booked on a Ryanair service from Italy to Armenia on Monday, said: Click on the link to get a refund and you get, Vouchers, please have a voucher, any colour any time you want but please just have a f****** voucher. The Civil Aviation Authority is responsible for enforcing the European air passengers rights rules. The Independent has asked the CAA if it will take action against Ryanair or other carriers. Gender-based violence has been shown to increase during global emergencies. In a paper just published by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, researchers report that according to early evidence it is the same for the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are online in the journal Bioethics. Early results from China suggest that domestic violence has dramatically increased. For example, a police station in China's Hubei Province recorded a tripling of domestic violence reports in February 2020 during the COVID-19 quarantine. Other reports suggest that police have been reluctant to intervene and detain perpetrators due to COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons. Gender norms and roles relegating women to the realm of care work puts them on the frontlines in times of crisis, resulting in greater risk of exposure while excluding them from developing the response." Terry McGovern, chair of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia Mailman School, director of the Program on Global Health Justice and Governance, and senior author of the study For example: Globally women perform three-quarters of unpaid care work, including household disease prevention and care for sick relatives, and there is not a country in the world where men provide an equal share of unpaid care work. in China's Hubei province 90% of frontline healthcare workers are women as in many other parts of the world. However, the researchers make the point that it is not too late to include the voices of women in tackling COVID-19: Governments can incorporate gender considerations into their response. Technology can be leveraged to ensure women continue to receive essential services when they need them most. For example, emergency services and victim support can be maintained via text, phone, and online services. Telemedicine should be considered an alternative and secure way to provide women and girls access to contraceptives and abortion medication. "Recognizing, valuing, supporting women's roles and giving them a voice in global health governance can go a long way in avoiding unintended consequences, building resilient healthcare systems, and reducing intersectional inequalities and vulnerabilities across gender, race, class and geography," noted Neetu John, first author and assistant professor in Columbia Mailman School's Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, and the co-authors. The number of Covid-19 cases in India rose above the 20,000-mark on Tuesday, but the rate at which this threshold was crossed it took more than 8 days for the tally to double raises hopes that the country may be able to avert the sort of devastation seen in some other parts of the world. Globally, there are now 2.5 million infections and close to 175,000 deaths. In India, the number of fatalities as on Tuesday was 644. The outbreak in the country began in early March after people who flew in from abroad introduced the infection to others, and has grown largely in small clusters except for the one linked to the religious group in Delhi that led to thousands of infections after the government enforced what is the largest global shutdown in population terms. Our doubling time of cases is increasing. The current situation indicates that significant increase in number of Covid-19 cases is unlikely, said Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, the head of infectious diseases, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). In contrast with Indias rate of increase, the United States, which now has the highest number of infections at over 800,000, went from 9,000 infections to over 24,000 infections in three days. But within the 1,504 new cases and 54 new deaths on Tuesday lurked a statistic that threatens to reverse Indias gains: Maharashtra, the second-most populous state in the country, accounted for more than a third of all new cases recorded on Tuesday, and Gujarat, which till a week ago had a little over 500 infections, now has over 2,000 cases. At four days, Gujarats doubling rate was less than half the national average suggesting the spread was happening twice as well. Maharashtra, at 5,218 cases, now has more infections than the next two Gujarat (2,178) and Delhi (2,156) have cumulatively. We have managed to buy time to be able to provide hospital care to all our positive cases, and have tried as much to flatten the curve so that there is a possibility that we are able to push it so much that we might actually get a vaccine or an effective drug to treat patients, said Gangakhedkar added. This weekend, India will complete a month in lockdown a near-total interruption of normal life for more than 1.3 billion people, many of whom are from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds, stuck in cities where they had migrated to for work but now find themselves jobless. Schools, colleges and any transport of individuals between two cities seems unlikely for the time being. According to a Union health ministry last week, there are at present 170 hot spot districts, which house roughly 37% of the population and make up 29% of the geographical area of India. Now, we have added 61 more districts that have not reported any new case in the last 14 days, said Lav Agarwal, the joint secretary of the Union health ministry, during the daily government briefing on Tuesday. The lockdown will stay till May 3, but officials at the highest levels of the government are working on opening some regions and industrial sectors to ease access to products and employment. The lifting of the curbs must not be hasty, the head of World Health Organization said at a press briefing in Geneva on Monday, as signs poured in from the world over that the sweeping shutdowns had worked to suppress the spread of the disease. For now, authorities across the country are attempting to ramp up testing in order to get a better sense of the contagion, which will make the task of isolating the outbreaks easier and allow other regions to safely resume some activity. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Queen has sent a message of condolence to the people of Nova Scotia following the deadliest mass shooting in Canada's history. The Queen said: 'Prince Philip and I have been deeply saddened by the appalling events in Nova Scotia and we send our condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who have lost their lives. 'I also pay tribute to the bravery and sacrifice of the officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other police services who selflessly responded to these devastating attacks, and to the emergency services who are supporting those who have been injured and affected. 'My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Nova Scotia and all Canadians at this tragic time. Elizabeth R.' The Queen (pictured at Thames House in February) expressed condolences for the people slaughtered in Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers are pictured at the scene at a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia, on Sunday Pictured: The message issued by the Queen and Prince Philip following the slaughter in Nova Scotia Gunman Gabriel Wortman, 51, was shot dead by police after a 12-hour slaughter across the eastern province of Nova Scotia. Disguised as a police officer and driving a fake cop car, he reportedly 'executed point blank' constable Heidi Stevenson when she rammed his vehicle in an attempt to apprehend him. Lisa McCully, a teacher at Derbert Elementary, was informally identified by her sister in a heartbreaking Facebook post last night. Nurse Heather OBrien was also identified by her daughter in a Facebook post shared Sunday night that read: 'A monster murdered my mother today.' Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers at a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia Sunday. Police first announced that they had arrested Wortman at the gas station but later said he had died Workers with the medical examiner's office remove a body from a gas bar in Enfield, Nova Scotia on Sunday. Late Sunday morning, there were half a dozen police vehicles at the scene of the gas station where the suspect died. Yellow police tape surrounded the gas pumps, and a large silver-colored SUV was being investigated. Police said Wortman had been on the run since Saturday night, when officers were alerted to shots fired in the town of Portapique, around 60 miles from Halifax. Wortman appeared to slaughter most of his targets at random, but police sources told the Toronto Sun the first two victims were the gunman's ex-wife and her new boyfriend. A chef, pictured on April 20, 2020, prepares food for delivery in Rome under Italy's continuing lockdown, which has begun to ease for some businesses. Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters The head of Italy's civil protection service announced that the number of active coronavirus cases in Italy fell on Monday, for the first time since the outbreak began there, according to AFP. The drop of just 20 people is nonetheless a glimmer of hope for one of the worst-affected countries in the world, as death rates and new infection rates are also on a broad downward trend. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that he would announce plans to continue easing the country's lockdown by the end of the week. There have been 181,228 cases in Italy, and 24,114 people have died there of the virus. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The number of active coronavirus cases in Italy fell for the first time on Monday, two months after the country's battle against the virus began. Angelo Borelli, head of the country's civil protection service, told reporters that there were 108,237 active cases of the virus, down from 108,257 the day before, according to AFP. "For the first time, we have seen a new positive development," Borelli said, according to AFP. The active cases number is the total number of infections minus those who have recovered and those who have died. Here is a graph of active cases, via the data-tracking website Worldometers: Chart showing the number of active coronavirus cases in Italy as of April 20, when the total was 108,237 Worldometers With deaths trending downwards, and new cases at their lowest in just over six weeks, that 20-person difference in active cases is a glimmer of hope for one of the world's worst-affected countries. At the height of the pandemic, 919 people in Italy were reported dead from the virus on a single day. On Tuesday that number had more than halved, to 454. On Tuesday, the reported number of 2,256 new cases of the virus also suggested a slowing of its spread. It is the lowest number of new cases since March 10 the day Italy went into nationwide lockdown when 977 new cases were reported. Story continues Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte as he announced early lockdown measures on March 4, 2020. Remo Casilli/Reuters Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte suggested in a Facebook post on Tuesday that further easing of Italy's lockdown is coming on May 4, though not a total re-opening. "It's far too easy to say: 'We open everything,'" wrote Conte. Instead, he promised a detailed plan taking into account the needs of industries, services and different parts of the country, to be announced by the end of the week. Some shops have already reopened on a trial basis in Italy, and forestry workers and some manufacturers have returned to work, according to The Guardian. Read the original article on Business Insider After serving as a homeless shelter for about a month, Worcester Technical High School closed on Sunday in preparation for students to return. Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. laid out plans on Monday as to how the school would be cleaned prior to students, teachers and staff entering the school. Augustus said the vocational school will sit for 72 hours before crews go into the school for a deep clean on Wednesday. It will then be turned back over to Worcester Public Schools. We appreciate their support in allowing us to use that facility for several weeks, Augustus said Worcester Public Schools were scheduled to reopen on May 4. On Tuesday, Gov. Charlie Baker announced schools will be closed through the end of the school year. Twenty-seven states in the U.S. - including New Hampshire and Vermont - have already closed schools for the rest of the academic year. The individuals who stayed at Worcester Tech were transported to the DCU Center, which is acting as a field hospital. As of Monday evening, 46 positive patients within the homeless population were staying at the DCU Center. That was in addition to 13 other individuals being treated COVID-19. The Tech shelter just couldnt house the number of positive patients that we had so we quickly worked with the city and adjusted and transitioned part of the DCU toward COVID-positive homeless so that we could cohort folks there, said UMass Memorial Health Care CEO Dr. Eric Dickson. Were a little bit smaller on the acute care side now because of that but thats OK because we seem to have some extra capacity there. Worcester Tech was one of four spots opened by the city to offer shelter to the homeless population amid the coronavirus pandemic. It opened on March 20. North High School, Ascension Church on 44 Vernon St. and St. Johns Church on 44 Temple St. were also satellite shelters. Each could house up to 25 people. Related Content: A little historical context, first. On May 28, 1998, Osama bin Laden gave an interview to an American journalist and called America a "paper tiger." In mid-November 2001, shortly after 9/11, he said that when people see a strong and weak horse, they prefer the strong one. American Thinker has the original transcript: [W]hen people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. This is only one goal; those who want people to worship the lord of the people, without following that doctrine, will be following the doctrine of Muhammad, peace be upon him. In other words, Islam is the strong horse, while America and the West are the weak one. So when Islamic terrorists brought down the Twin Towers and slammed a jet into the Pentagon and took down a jet in Pennsylvania, people would flock to Islam and leave Christianity. For them, the cultural West equals Christianity. They fail to recognize that many Christians denounce Western excesses and don't equate Christianity with the West. By now, everyone knows that Islam is the religion of the sword because the Quran, traditions, and classical law promote it. It is built on conquest. When they win, Allah wins. When they lose, Islam loses because Allah is up to something, like teaching Muslims a lesson about abandoning true, original Islam. It is imperative that Islam win, by any means possible, even by the ultimate methods of jihad and qital. To us this is simplistic thinking, but they really believe it, and it is dangerous In the current American pandemic, radical Muslims are beginning to take notice that America appears weak. The worst public display of American weakness took place when CNN's Brian Stelter "crawled in bed and cried" over the coronavirus, saying "it's OK to not be OK right now." Is America again looking like a paper tiger and a weak horse? Here is one example of many leaders in the Islamic world who mock the American and Western public and cultural weakness. Houthi Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ubeidi, in a Friday, April 3, 2020 sermon in Sanaa, Yemen that aired on Al-Eman TV (Houthis Yemen), points out the European and American weakness. MEMRI has the relevant excerpt: Take a look at France, Britain, Italy, and Europe in general. Take a look at the West, the United States, and China. Take a look at the countries of east Asia, and at other countries. ... They are all hiding behind these masks, terrifie[d] of the disease. This is all because they have become arrogant and forgotten Allah. Allah Akbar! Death to America! Death to Israel! Cursed be the Jews! Victory to Islam! Allah Akbar! Death to America! Death to Israel! Cursed be the Jews! Victory to Islam! Allah Akbar! Death to America! Death to Israel! Cursed be the Jews! Victory to Islam! We have not stamped out Islamic fanatics by persuasion or by our own recent military action, in response to ISIS attacking the West. They are still out there. All it takes is more trucks mowing down crowds in the streets or one jet plane loaded with fuel or fanatics with assault rifles. Where are the men with chests (per C.S. Lewis, who fought in the trenches in WWI)? Where is the spirit of Teddy's rough riders? Where is the outlook today of the men and women who survived the Great Depression? Where is the courage of the WWII generation? Yes, where is the attitude of the Korean and Vietnam veterans who justly fought evil communism? We have few like them today. Today, many (not all) of us are wimps. Thankfully, Trump appears to be the strong horse as he (unjustly) has to wrestle with the hostile media and the disease, both moral and viral. And yes, he will still easily win re-election, and the GOP will take back the House. His performance over the past three-plus years, including during the pandemic, has been magnificent. Western Europe especially appears to be the weak horse. However, America is also sleepy right now with regard to Islamic terror. Despite the inner fortitude of the few, America and the West are vulnerable. It is time for us to be warned and therefore vigilant. Attacks are coming. Prepare mentally. James Malcolm Arlandson's website has recently posted or updated these articles: Thirty Sharia Laws, Why Tithing Does Not Apply to New Covenant Believers, Do I Really Know Jesus? Thirty Truths about His Life, Ten Big Differences between Christianity and Other Religions, and Jesus and Muhammad: Fifteen Major Differences. Greece quarantined a migrant hotel and a nearby town on Tuesday after 150 people tested positive for the new coronavirus. A total of 148 asylum seekers staying at the beachfront hotel and two staff members tested positive but are asymptomatic, said Nikos Hardalias, deputy minister for civil protection. The town of Kranidi -- some 166 kilometres (104 miles) southwest of Athens -- would be put under a two-week quarantine and a night-time curfew, Hardalias said after an emergency meeting with local officials. He said there were "many children" among the 470 asylum seekers at the hotel, which lies about five kilometres from Kranidi. The asylum seekers hail from sub-Saharan Africa, according to the migration ministry, which said a pregnant woman from Somalia was the first resident to test positive. A hotel employee had earlier tested positive for the virus but had not gone to work for the past 12 days. The hotel was locked down on April 16 but residents had previously moved freely to nearby shops and banks, local mayor Yiannis Georgopoulos told state TV channel ERT. "All those who came into contact with (the asylum seekers) will be tested tonight," Georgopoulos said. The UN's International Organization for Migration, which has responsibility for the asylum seekers, said it had "interpreters, psychologists, social workers and legal counsellors... in constant contact with all stakeholders to support in this challenging situation". Some 100,000 migrants and refugees are currently stranded in Greece with few options for onward travel after other European states closed their borders to asylum seekers in 2016. Migrant camps in the country have been under quarantine in recent weeks with authorities trying to keep residents apart from locals. Two camps on the mainland have registered cases. The ministry this week extended the camp lockdown to May 10. The virus has so far killed 116 people in Greece. Another 61 are in intensive care. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 02:35:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RAMALLAH, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah announced on Tuesday that five new cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Tuesday, raising the total in Palestine to 466. The ministry said in an emailed press statement that three cases were recorded in Kafr Aqab village, north of Jerusalem, including a six-year-old boy. In Gaza, Ashraf al-Qedra, Spokesman of the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, told a news briefing that two new cases were recorded in the Gaza Strip, raising the number of cases in the besieged enclave to 17. With the announcement of the new cases, the total infections in Palestine have risen to 466, including 317 cases in the West Bank, 17 in the Gaza Strip and 132 in East Jerusalem. The statement also said that 69 cases recovered and four deaths cases were recorded. Enditem More than 2,000 Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv, demonstrating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's deal to form an "emergency" government with his chief rival and accusing him of using the coronavirus crisis to escape prosecution on corruption charges. Demonstrators wore face masks and largely kept their distance from one another, in line with social-distancing rules, as speakers criticised Mr Netanyahu's partnership with rival Benny Gantz. Some held black flags, which have become the symbol of their campaign. Mr Gantz, who during three bitter election campaigns over the past year vowed never to sit in a government with Mr Netanyahu due to his legal problems, announced last month that he had accepted the prime minister's suggestion to form an "emergency" government to deal with the coronavirus crisis. The announcement infuriated many of Mr Gantz's supporters and caused his Blue and White party to fracture. "You don't fight corruption from within. If you're inside, you're part of it," said Yair Lapid, Mr Gantz's former political partner, who withdrew from the Blue and White alliance last month. Mr Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of justice and accepting bribes. He denies the charges and says he is the victim of a hostile media and aggressive police and prosecutors. Protesters have accused Mr Netanyahu of exploiting the crisis to evade his looming trial and cement his lengthy rule. Citing the pandemic, Mr Netanyahu's hand-picked justice minister delayed the prime minister's trial just two days before it was to begin until late May. Mr Netanyahu's coalition talks with Mr Gantz had reportedly stalled due to his demands to gain more control over judicial appointments and assurances that he can remain in office even if he gives up the prime minister's job in a proposed power-sharing arrangement with Mr Gantz. Under Israeli law, public officials, with the exception of the prime minister, must resign if charged with a crime. Terms of the agreement were not immediately announced yesterday. But Israeli media said it coered a three-year period - with Mr Netanyahu serving as prime minister for the first half and Mr Gantz taking the job for the second half. While interpreting medical information during the coronavirus pandemic can be stressful for anyone, imagine how hard this is for the deaf and hard of hearing community (DHH). Ashley Lawrence is a 21-year-old student at Eastern Kentucky University who studies education for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. She noticed that since much of the population is now opting to or being ordered by officials to wear protective face masks, the DHH community was being left out, according to a story by Huff Post. The DHH community relies on lip reading and facial expression while signing and communicating not only with each other, but from their friends and family, and if necessary, doctors and nurses. So she got productive with all the extra time she has while stuck at home. I felt like there was a huge population that was being over-looked, Lawrence told local news station LEX18. Were all panicking right now and so a lot of people are just not being thought of. Lawrence and her mother went to work sewing masks using plastic fabric and bed sheets, and experimenting with various attachments for people who use cochlear implants and hearing aids that are unable to wrap mask straps around their ears. To help them purchase supplies Lawrence set up a GoFundMe page titled, DHH Mask Project. She plans to distribute her specialized masks for free to those who request them so they can provide them to their doctors if they need medical attention. Those who rely on lip reading or ASL [American Sign Language] to communicate are often cut off from their source of communication when doctors and nurses don surgical masks, she wrote. For anyone who wants a mask, she suggested emailing dhhmaskproject@gmail.com. However, she noted they are struggling to meet the high demand. And those who want to contribute face masks to their own community, Lawrence said she would post a YouTube tutorial soon and would be willing to email the sewing pattern upon request. 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. Read more: By Express News Service VELLORE: As many as 20 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from the Govt Vellore Medical College Hospital (GVMCH) after getting cured of the viral infection. R Selvi, Dean of GVMCH, said, Fifteen of the patients are from Ranipet district and five are from Tirupathur. The patients were given a rousing welcome by Ranipet district collector S Divyadharshini and SP A Mayilvahanan at Melvisharam while Tirupathur collector MP Sivanarul and SP P Vijayakumar received the survivors at Ambur. Of the 15 patients belonging to Ranipet district, five are from Melvisharam, four from Wallajah, three from Kalmelkuppam and one each from Arcot, Banavaram and Ammur, officials said. They had returned from the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi. Survivors maintained that there was no need to get bogged down by the infection. Instead people down with the virus should hold their nerves to get cured. There is nothing to worry about. What we need to do is to keep cool and follow the advice of the doctors, said 55-year-old Abdul Raheem of Wallajah. Ranipet district has reported 39 positive cases so far. The total lockdown of hotspots, as part of the containment plan, has begun to yield the desired results in checking the progress of the virus, doctors said. Of the five patients belonging to Tirupathur district, 3 were from Ambur while Vaniyambadi and Tirupathur town accounted for one each, according to a senior officer of the health services. He said district collector Sivanarul appealed to them to act as messengers in carrying through the message of fighting the virus to the public. He greeted the discharged patients with fruits and flowers. SPRINGFIELD The number of unemployed people in Springfield dropped by 200 in March, according to the latest figures released Tuesday by the state. Those numbers also show the city with an unemployment rate of 5%, barely changed from the month before. As a region, Greater Springfield reported an unemployment rate of 3.9%, down from 4% the month before. Those numbers obviously dont show impact a statewide shutdown meant to stop the spread of the coronavirus has had on the economy. They are based on surveys of households for unemployment and of workplaces for jobs numbers completed March 8 through March 14. That was an age ago in economic terms. Gov. Charlie Baker imposed a shutdown of nonessential businesses on March 23, which was later extended through May 4. The latest numbers are also not adjusted for seasonal changes in the economy, things like landscapers and construction workers getting called back in the spring. They correspond to a statewide unemployment rate of 3.4%, also according to figures released Tuesday by the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Adjusted for such seasonal changes, the states unemployment rate rose one-tenth of a percentage point in March to 2.9%. A town-by-town comparison of the numbers is available at the state Labor Departments website. Local unemployment rates decreased in six labor market areas, remained unchanged in seven areas and increased in 11 labor market areas in the state during the month of March, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported. Compared to March 2019, the rates dropped in four labor market areas, remained unchanged in six areas and increased in fourteen labor market areas. Those falling rates were likely the result of people not looking for work, however. Fourteen of the fifteen areas for which job estimates are published recorded job losses in March. The largest losses occurred in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Barnstable, Springfield, Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury, and Framingham areas. The Worcester area recorded an increase in jobs over the month. Expect the April numbers, which will come out in May, to be much worse but much more reflective of the dire state of the labor market. More than half million Massachusetts workers filed new unemployment claims have been filed in Massachusetts in the month since COVID-19s impact began rippling through the economy, including 103,040 claims filed in the week that ended April 11. Data released Thursday by the U.S. Employment and Training Administration showd the fourth consecutive week of spiking claims as the new coronavirus has shuttered businesses and schools. Economists predict the national unemployment rate could land somewhere between 10.5% and 40.6%. A 40% unemployment rate would be worse than the Great Depression. Massachusetts unemployment averaged about 36% in 1933. That was President Franklin D. Roosevelt was able to implement his New Deal and the economy began to recover. Related Content: Too Hot To Handle's Francesca Farago and Kelechi 'Kelz' Dyke shared the only nude scene in Netflix's newest dating series. And now Australian star Harry Jowsey, 22, has finally revealed his reaction to finding out about his love interest Francesca's racy moment in the villa with another man. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia from Los Angeles, Harry took a swipe at Kelz, admitting he was 'a little disheartened' to find out about the pair's racy tryst. Scroll down for video Too Hot To Handle EXCLUSIVE: Harry Jowsey takes a swipe at co-star Kelz Dyke (left) after THAT shower with his TV love interest Francesca Farago (right) The wild Netflix show offers its single contestants the chance to win $100,000 - but warns if they cave into temptation by kissing, heavy petting or engaging in any sexual activity, the prize money will be deducted. Harry was the first to break the rules with model Francesca, and they went on to have many more costly experiences on screen. 'I knew': In episode four, Kelz and Francesca share a naked shower together, and while it was never addressed with their co-stars on screen, Harry said he was aware it had happened In episode four, Kelz and Francesca share a naked shower together, but it is never addressed with their co-stars on screen. Harry said he knew about their cheeky shower while he was in the villa, but was not mad at Francesca. 'In all honesty, I was still infatuated with her. She was trying to figure out if she could have feelings or something elsewhere with Kelz. I was proud of her if she can do that, especially with Kelz, it would be a bit hard,' he said with a cheeky laugh. 'He wanted to prove to himself that he can get her - but then, unfortunately not': Harry joked about Kelz (right) being unsuccessful with Francesca (left) Popular! Too Hot To Handle is ranked number one in the top ten watched Netflix shows after its debut weekend, even beating explosive docu-series Tiger King Lovebirds! Harry (right) was the first to break the rules with model Francesca (left), and they went on to have many more costly experiences on screen 'Kelz was a bit like a dog with a bone, and as soon as he saw his opportunity in that Francesca was a little but damaged and a little bit upset, he was like "it's time to swoop in".' 'At the start of the show he really wanted to have that chance with [Francesca] and then as soon as things slipped up with me, he thought it was his opportunity to shine and to prove to himself that he can get her - but then, unfortunately not,' Harry added with a laughed. When asked why Kelz never seemed to appear with the rest of the guys after the shower scene was filmed, Harry said: 'he essentially kinda put himself in a corner.' 'I did tell them straight off the bat': While his previous brush with fame was never addressed on Too Hot to Handle, Harry said he was transparent about his TV past with his castmates He's done this before! Harry (left) appeared on the Kiwi dating show Heartbreak Island in 2018. He won $100,000 with his then-girlfriend, Georgia Bryers (right) Despite the model claiming his past experience on reality TV didn't influence his cheeky behaviour on screen, he admits it did help prepare him a little. 'I've always been true to myself. I'm a massive idiot, so I never usually think about stuff that I do. I think that definitely going on this second show it was a way easier decision, because I knew exactly what I was getting into,' he said. Harry appeared on the Kiwi dating show Heartbreak Island in 2018. He won $100,000 with his then-girlfriend, Georgia Bryers Too Hot to Handle is now available to stream on Netflix EUGENE, Ore. The Lane County Board of Commissioners is set to consider a new ordinance requiring hotels and motels to take in unhoused people who are awaiting results of coronavirus tests in exchange for money or vouchers. The proposal comes after the county said it has run into trouble with establishments refusing to take in patients in exchange for payment. The potential implications of not quarantining patients awaiting COVID-19 tests or patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 who are unable to shelter in their homes will results in further spread of COVID-19 and will result in more deaths in Lane County, the ordinance says. The ordinance says there is an immediate need to provide housing for the treatment and testing of the areas unhoused. Lane County recently purchased a former Veterans Affairs clinic on River Avenue in Eugene to be repurposed to house homeless people who are recovering from COVID-19 or are waiting for test results. Lane County Health and Human Services is outfitting that site with the proper equipment, but leaders say hotel space may still be necessary in the meantime. It would allow us to not have to use our hotels for medical recovery," Jason Davis with Lane County Public Health said. "We will be using that for the remainder of this outbreak and then looking at that for the second wave as well." Davis said that they typically pick a hotel location "centrally-located" to where the unhoused population is and that the voucher given to a hotel is worth around $85 a night. A hotel would need to meet the appropriate standards, such as having enough privacy and outdoor entrances and exits. Several hotel operators have already filed letters with the county in opposition to the plan, citing security concerns and low staffing levels inside the hotels. In a letter to commissioners, Merete Hotel Management President Richard Boyles said the ordinance would create increased risks for hotel staff and guests. Merete operates numerous hotels across Oregon, with several in the Eugene-Springfield area. Passing this ordinance creates a zero-sum game where you are trading the health and well-being of one segment of Lane Countys population for that of another and has the potential to hinder the recovery of the already hard-hit hospitality industry in Lane County, Boyles wrote. Boyles suggested some hotels may be willing to help the county on a voluntary basis, given an agreed set of pre-conditions. Tina Patel is the managing director for ALKO Hotels, operating four local hotels with one currently in construction. Let us decide if we want to take it or not take it," Patel said. Patel said that she is concerned about the possibility of the virus spreading throughout the hotels and the safety of her staff. "The hotel industry is hit really hard by this pandemic, and this will take away what little business we have and what we are doing to pay the bills," Patel said. The ordinance is set for its first reading Tuesday and could be voted on as soon as May 5. - Lawyer Ahmednasir said the health ministry's daily COVID-19 announcements were nonsense - He said the government should conduct mass testing of between 250,000 to 500,000 people to get a clear picture of where the nation stood - Many Kenyans agreed with him that the government should issue more of preventive measures in the briefings City lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi has said Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe's daily coronavirus briefings are nonsense. The lawyer said only mass testing of between 250,000 to 500,000 people would help give a clear picture of where the country stood on matters COVID-19. READ ALSO: Coronavirus update: 11 more people test positive, national count jumps to 281 Lawyer Ahmednasir said only mass testing would Kenya get a clear picture of where we were. Photo: Daily Nation. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Jacque Maribe fondly remembers working in newsroom, 'fighting' for loaf of bread Taking to his Twitter, the flamboyant lawyer said the government's daily announcement of the number of people who had tested positive for the virus were mundane. "Kenya has to test between 250k to 500k for the coronavirus to have an idea on where we were. This daily announcement of 'x number of people has tested positive is nonsense upon stilts'," he said. READ ALSO: Gov't allocates Raila KSh 72M days after freezing former PM, VPs' pension budget Kenyans on Twitter seemingly agreed with him, especially on the number of people that the government had tested which they said was significantly low. A user identified as KOT said it was wrong to say Kagwe was overworking when the number of tested people had not hit 15,000. "That alone is an indication that the government is not doing enough. We don't have the true picture of the extent of COVID-19 spread in Kenya yet," he said. The lawyer said CS Kagwe's daily briefings were nonsense. Photo: Ministry of Health. Source: Facebook Another Twitter user identified as Natalie May Horeau also echoed the lawyer's sentiments saying she stopped watching the ministry's briefs after she found them boring. "I've now watched three of the daily updates on TV, a waste of time! Same thing each time! A friend said it's to attract sympathy and funding. Nothing useful!" she said. Here are more comments: Barely a week ago, Ahmednasir threw a similar shade at Kagwe saying he was blindly leading the nation through the pandemic with no discernible strategy. On Thursday, April 16, the Grand Mullah said Kagwe had been feeding Kenyans with the same menu for four weeks in a row and was leading Kenyans to "nowhere". 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 Ruth Matete is not telling the truth about her husband's death - Pastor John's manager | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke 3 1 of 3 KTVU Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Google Maps / SFPD Show More Show Less 3 of 3 San Francisco police are involved in a standoff in the Tenderloin neighborhood Tuesday morning after an officer-involved shooting involving a suspect reportedly brandishing a knife. Officers responded at 6:36 a.m. to a report of a person with a knife along the 500 block of Jones Street. Officers eventually found the person and an officer-involved shooting occurred. More information on the shooting and on the suspect's potential injuries were not immediately available. Advertisement China executed thousands of people last year while Iran was in second place with more than 250 death sentences, Amnesty International revealed today. The human rights watchdog said China 'continued to execute and sentence to death thousands of people' but said the country's exact figures were 'kept secret'. Around the world, confirmed executions fell five per cent to a 10-year low of 657, but that does not include any of the suspected thousands in China. Iran executed at least 251 people including four people who were under 18 when they committed the crime, Amnesty said. Amnesty also drew attention to Saudi Arabia, where a figure of 184 death sentences - an increase since 2018 - had already emerged in January this year. This map from Amnesty International shows the countries that carried out executions last year. China is believed to have carried out far more than any other country, but the figures are not made available The 2019 statistics are published in Amnesty's Death Sentences and Executions 2019 report which was released today. According to Amnesty's figures, 20 countries are known to have carried out executions last year. China, which carries out executions by lethal injection, is thought to have executed people for crimes including non-violent acts and drugs offences. 'Amnesty International believes that in 2019 China once again executed and sentenced to death thousands of people, remaining the world's lead executioner,' the report says. 'Figures on the use of the death penalty continued to be classified as a state secret, making it impossible to independently assess trends and any claims by state officials of limiting this punishment to a small number of cases. 'The death penalty remained applicable for 46 offences, including some non-violent acts which do not meet the threshold of the 'most serious crimes' to which the use of the death penalty must be restricted under international law and standards. The majority of cases appeared to involve murder and drugs offences, according to monitoring of sources including court rulings. Iran carried out at least 251 executions, a slight drop from 2018 after a change in drugs laws. At least 13 public executions took place in Iran and Amnesty voiced doubts about the fairness of the trials that led to a death sentence. This chart shows executions in Saudi Arabia, which last year increased from 149 to 184. For the second year running, more than half of the people executed were foreign natinoals This chart shows the number of executions in the United States, which was 22 last year. Nearly half of America's 50 states have abolished the death penalty Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt were all accused of using 'confessions' that may have been extracted through 'torture or other ill-treatment'. In one case, the Iranian authorities executed two 17-year-old cousins - Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat - in a prison in Shiraz on 25 April, the report said. They were both arrested aged 15 and convicted on multiple rape charges following what Amnesty described as an 'unfair trial'. Countries that carried out executions in 2019 Figures from Amnesty International China: 1000s Iran: 251 Saudi Arabia: 184 Iraq: 100+ Egypt: 32+ United States: 22 Pakistan: 14+ Somalia: 12+ South Sudan: 11+ Yemen: 7 Singapore: 4 Bahrain: 3 Japan: 3 Belarus: 2+ Bangladesh: 2 Botswana: 1 Sudan: 1 North Korea: at least 2 Syria: at least 2 Vietnam: at least 2 Advertisement Executions in neighbouring Iraq nearly doubled, according to the report, from 52 to around 100. Saudi Arabia executed 184 people, the country's highest figure in a single year and an increase from 149 the previous year. 'The use of the death penalty as a political weapon against Shi'a dissidents increased,' the report alleges. The Gulf kingdom, the only country which carries out executions by beheading, executed 84 of its condemned prisoners for drugs offences and 55 for murder. More than half were foreign nationals, including 35 people from Pakistan and 20 from Yemen. On April 23 there was a mass execution of 37 people, most of them convicted on dubious terrorism charges after confessions allegedly extracted through torture. The United States is the only Western country to use the death penalty, although 21 states have abolished it for state-level crimes. There were 22 recorded executions in the US last year, of which nine were in Texas, three each in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, two in Florida and one each in Missouri and South Dakota. Some 2,581 people are known to be on death row in the US, although 728 of them are in California where the governor has announced a moratorium on executions. Belarus is the last country in Europe which carries out executions, although figures are not made publicly available. There were at least two in 2019. Amnesty raised concerns about 'the secrecy in which executions were carried out in Belarus', meaning people were executed without warning to their families. India followed through with four high-profile executions when the men who raped and killed a 23-year-old woman in a notorious case in 2012 were ordered to be hanged. However, the executions did not take place until early 2020 and no death sentences were carried out in the calendar year 2019. Elsewhere, Japan carried out three executions - down from 15 in 2018 - but Amnesty voiced fears about prisoners with mental disabilities being condemned to death. Iran had the highest number of executions in the Middle East last year with at least 251, of whom some are thought to have been underage at the time they committed the crime which led to their execution Japan carried out three executions - down from 15 in 2018 - but Amnesty voiced fears about prisoners with mental disabilities being condemned to death The other countries who carried out executions in 2019 were Egypt, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, Singapore, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Sudan, North Korea, Syria and Vietnam, the report said. Amnesty says 106 countries have completely abolished the death penalty while another 36 do not carry out executions in practice. There was a 'significant downward trend' in executions in Pakistan, where at least 632 people were condemned but only 14 executions were definitely carried out. Afghanistan carried out no executions for the first time since 2010, although 14 new death sentences were imposed. Zimbabwe is among the countries taking steps towards abolition, but there have been calls to restore it in the Philippines. Highlighting the Saudi figures, senior Amnesty director Clare Algar said the kingdom's use of the death penalty against dissidents was an 'alarming development'. 'Also shocking was the massive jump in executions in Iraq, which nearly doubled in just one year,' she said. 'In countries from Belarus to Botswana and Iran to Japan, executions were being carried out without any advance notice to the families, lawyers or in some cases the individuals themselves. 'The death penalty is an abhorrent and inhuman punishment, and there is no credible evidence that it deters crime more than prisons terms. 'We are calling on all states to abolish the death penalty. There needs to be international pressure on the world's last remaining executioners to end this inhuman practice for good.' [April 21, 2020] Tektronix Adds Industry-First Technology Which Eliminates Pulse Tuning in New All-In-One 2601B-PULSE System SourceMeter BEAVERTON, Ore., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tektronix, Inc. today announced the new 2601B-PULSE System SourceMeter 10s Pulser/SMU Instrument, integrating a high-speed current pulser with DC source and measurement functions in one instrument. The new system incorporates PulseMeter technology for sourcing current pulses as short as 10sec at 10A and 10V without the need to manually tune the output to match device impedance up to 3H. This is critical for minimizing device self-heating, which for optical devices, can result in erroneous measurements and the potential for damaging test equipment. The new 2601B-PULSE also includes all current and voltage source measure unit (SMU) ranges that are available in Keithley's standard Model 2601B System SourceMeter (40V, 3A DC, 10A Pulse). In addition, Tektronix is also releasing version 2.3 of Keithley's Instrument Control Software "KickStart" to support the pulsing function of the 2601B-PULSE. "The 2601B-PULSE System SourceMeter affirms Tektronix's commitment to the advancement of technology through leading test and measurement solutions," says Chris Bohn, vice president and general manager at Keithley/Tektronix. "This new instrument will bring better testing capabilities for engineers, including those who rely on industry-first technology to take innovative strides in automotive applications, connected vehicles and autonomous driving." Advancement in Testing with LIDAR in Mind The 2601B-PULSE System SourceMeter was developed to serve the needs and complications of testing vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), which are mission-critical for automotive light detection and ranging (LIDAR) applications. The instrument is ideal for testing VCSELs and LEDs, semiconductor device characterization, fault power management testing, surge protection testing and beyond. Built-in dual 1 MS/sec,18-bit digitizers enhance the pulser's measurement function, enabling users to acquire both pulse current and voltage waveforms simultaneously, without the need to use a separate instrument. Unlike competitive instruments that require pulse tuning to minimize overshoot and undershoot on the pulse, the patent-pending 2601B-PULSE control loop system eliminates the need to manually tune for load changes up to 3 H. This ensures that the current pulse has no overshoot or ringing when sourcing pulses ranging from 10 sec to 500 sec at a current up to 10 amps, resulting in a fast rise time, accurate pulse output and high fidelity. Industry-First Technology New PulseMeter technology eliminates manual pulse output tuning no matter the amplitude and pulse width to ensure pulse fidelity. For automated system applications, the 2601B-PULSE's Test Script Processor (TSP) technology runs complete test programs from inside the instrument for industry-best throughput. In larger, multi-channel applications, the Keithley TSPLink technology works together with TSP scripting to enable high-speed, pulser/SMU-per-pin parallel testing. Because the 2601B-PULSE System SourceMeter offers full isolation that does not require a mainframe, it can be easily reconfigured and re-deployed as test applications evolve. Availability The model 2601B-PULSE System SourceMeter is now available worldwide, priced from $13,000.00 US MSRP. Each unit receives Tektronix's one-year warranty. For more information, visit tek.com/smu-2601b-pulse-sourcemeter . About Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, delivers innovative, precise and easy-to-operate test, measurement and monitoring solutions that solve problems, unlock insights and drive discovery globally. Tektronix has been at the forefront of the digital age for over 70 years. More information on our products and solutions is available at Tek.com . Follow us on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , and LinkedIn to stay connected. Learn more from our engineers on the Tektronix blog and read our latest announcements in our Newsroom . Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. All other trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tektronix-adds-industry-first-technology-which-eliminates-pulse-tuning-in-new-all-in-one-2601b-pulse-system-sourcemeter-301044005.html SOURCE Tektronix, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A Nigerian media personality, Toke Makinwa, and ex-Big Brother Naija housemate, Tacha Akide, on Wednesday, released their nude pictures after allegedly being threatened by the same blackmailer. According to them, the blackmailer, who was identified as Tommik Online, sent them emails using the same format. Both emails were titled, Copy of your Nude Photos That Can Go Viral. The sender demanded that they respond to the email or risk having the photos go viral. Sharing their experiences, both women said they will not succumb to the pressure of a blackmailer trying to con them with edited photos. Toke wrote, I am sharing this ahead of your threats to release these edited/false images because this is disappointing, this is not humanity, there is a pandemic killing people and theres also certain human beings wanting to exploit people in a time when we should all spread love and kindness. Stop with your bloody emails already. I am not the one, not yesterday, not today, not ever. I dont have any money to give you. They, however, decided to share their nude pictures on Instagram and screenshots of the email the blackmailer sent them so they can be left alone. Tokes photos appeared to have been taken during a recent photoshoot while Tachas was taken indoors. Toke s official makeup artist, Anita Adetoye, supported her clients claims, saying that no nude pictures were taken during the photoshoot. Tachas management said their client does not have and will not have such pictures of herself taken under any circumstances. They wrote, We understand that this is a difficult time for most people, but lets also be human and desist from any form of extortion, blackmails and thefts as we continue to fight COVID-19. A similar incident occurred on April 1 when the Queen of Waka Music, Salawa Abeni, released her nude pictures after being threatened by an unknown Nigerian. According to the 58-year-old music legend, the blackmailer who identified himself as Jason is an Osun State resident. She accused him of threatening to tarnish her image and destroy her career of over 45 years. She, however, decided to share her nude pictures on Instagram and screenshots of her chat with the blackmailer so that she can be left alone. Check out their posts below https://www.instagram.com/p/B_PHWfQFTIQ/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B_PcK3JjG6k/ GRAND RAPIDS, MI Spectrum Health is distributing thousands of donated, handmade masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The masks will be provided to care facilities, home-health workers and non-profit organizations affiliated with Spectrum Health those in the community who need them most, according to the health system, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevent recommended that everyone wear a reusable mask outside of their homes to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Masks that have been sewn and donated by West MIchigan residents that will be distributed by Spectrum Health. (Photo provided by Spectrum Health) Because people in the community have been so generous with their time and talents, we have collected more than 6,000 masks, Kurt Knoth, a Spectrum Health vice president, said in a statement. We encourage those who are able, to please continue making and donating masks. This will help us to reduce the community spread of COVID-19 by providing the reusable masks to the people within our communities in greatest need. Spectrum Health provided a link to a video on how to sew masks with the preferred design here. It is collecting homemade masks at designated drop-off sites. Organizations can email covid19supplies@spectrumhealth.org to request masks. Also on MLive: Electric Forest 2020 canceled due to coronavirus pandemic Michigan expands coronavirus testing to all in-person workers Consumers Energy employees work, quarantine together to avoid coronavirus As protests against coronavirus stay-at-home lockdowns proliferate across the US, several states are moving to ease their lockdowns in various ways even as their neighbours are maintaining or even strengthening theirs. Their decision to start opening up comes as the World Health Organisation warned that rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of infections. Many US governors take the view that the short- and long-term economic damage caused by wholesale lockdowns may outweigh the implications of the viruss spread, and are inclined to prioritise getting their states economies working again. Tennessee governor Bill Lee announced on Monday that the states stay-at-home order would not be extended past 30 April, and that businesses across most of the state would begin reopening as early as next week. However, the order does not cover counties with the largest cities, including Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga. Meanwhile, the governor of neighbouring Georgia, Brian Kemp, declared that some businesses would be able to open as soon as 24 April. Citing favourable data and more testing, he announced that those allowed to open for minimum basic operations will include gyms, fitness centres, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, aestheticians, their respective schools and massage therapists. And in Texas, which has lately seen protesters demanding to go back to work, state parks are reopening while officials said that later in the week, stores will be allowed to offer curbside service. However, governor Greg Abbotts phased reopening plan has come in for criticism from public health experts, who say Texass outbreak is not expected to peak until early May. Other state leaders including in hard-hit Illinois are also maintaining that the peak of the pandemic is far from behind them, and that only by staying the course can their citizens avoid a second surge in infections and deaths. Among those warning against lifting lockdowns prematurely is Trump administration adviser Anthony Fauci, who warned that If you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, youre gonna set yourself back. So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening, its going to backfire. Thats the problem. One governor who has come in for particularly harsh criticism over his lockdown policies is Floridas Ron DeSantis, who was initially slow to close public beaches and businesses where people tend to gather in large groups. He has since dedicated sporting events including wrestling as essential businesses, albeit with spectators banned from arenas. One mayor in his state, Lenny Curry of Jacksonville, has opened beaches in the mornings and evenings for exercise only as part of a path back to normality, but thousands of people have been seen flocking to them with scant regard for social distancing rules. With Associated Press The cars encircling the gold dome in Hartford Monday created a bulls-eye around the states approach to the coronavirus pandemic. The Capitol is the figurative center of Connecticut, and the cars contained a thousand or so protesters expressing weariness at Gov. Ned Lamonts mandates on the closure of schools and businesses and how people should behave in public. The other 3.56 million residents of Connecticut want the same things, but everyone is conditioned to every story having a beginning, middle and end. For those stuck in the middle without work, its understandable to want to speed up the narrative. The plot has also gotten muddled with so many colliding opinions across the nation. Many of the protesters surely felt a camaraderie in uniting with others of a like mind. But this is a case where we need to consider the voices of those who have been silenced. While horns blared and protesters waved signs and a few conspiracy theories, the number of deaths officially associated with COVID-19 complications had risen to 1,331. Our dead outnumbered the protesters. The governor, whose residence was later surrounded by an even more vocal crowd chanting for him to Open the state, responded by leaning on the reaction of Yale epidemiologist Dr. Albert Ko, who is one of the leaders of the ReOpen Connecticut advisory team. Ko suggested the demonstrators might take a different tone if they marched through an intensive care unit and witnessed the suffering of victims of the virus. Its a chilling perspective that should lead this discussion, but the voices of these protesters should not be casually disregarded. Lamont famously came to office as a businessman, and touts the business leaders he consults through his deep list of contacts. Some of these protesters, though, are owners of small businesses that are the foundation of any community. These people just want to get back to work. To their credit, this was a relatively civil protest, with most participants respecting the very guidelines they were vocal in rejecting. We will always celebrate civic participation. We wish there were more public turnout at most typical meetings of municipal boards. The position that personal rights are being violated, however, is misguided. Resistance not only fails to honor the sacrifices of others, it puts the lives of strangers at risk. Its understandable to want to dismiss an enemy that cannot be seen. No one would want to open their cafe in the middle of an active battlefield. Just because this enemy is invisible doesnt mean we arent at war. In this war, ignoring social distancing and protective masks and gloves is helping the enemy. So is opening businesses to the public before medical experts deem it safe to do so. This war will only be won by vigilant adherence to mutual respect. If this pandemic has proven anything, it is that Connecticuts center isnt really in Hartford, it is in every single household. Advertisement Poignant private home videos of the Queen playing with her younger sister Margaret were released by the Royal Family today to celebrate the monarch turning 94. The touching archive films from the Royal Collection Trust reveal candid memories of the two sisters growing up and provide a rare insight into family life for the Queen as a young Princess Elizabeth. The clips - sure to help boost the country's mood during the coronavirus pandemic - show Elizabeth playing with a pram as a toddler, on a seesaw and playing in a garden and dancing on a yacht with Margaret. In a strong display of unity, Prince William, Kate Middleton and Prince Charles led tributes for the monarch after a turbulent week for the Royal Family in which Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided to withdraw all forms of co-operation from many of the country's most popular news titles. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, joined by their son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, held a video call with the Queen later in the day to wish her a happy birthday, a spokesman for the couple said. Clarence House released four photographs of the Queen with Charles and his wife Camilla over the years, while Kensington Palace put out a picture of Kate and William with the monarch at the Chelsea Flower Show last May. Princess Eugenie also shared a black and white image of the Queen as she shared her best wishes. Captain Tom Moore wished the Queen a happy birthday from his Bedfordshire home as he was flooded with cards ahead of his centenary - and his daughter said her heart is 'bursting' over the 27million he has raised for the NHS. The Queen is marking her birthday away from her family as the lockdown continues. She is with her husband of 72 years, the Duke of Edinburgh, at Windsor Castle in Berkshire with a reduced household for their protection. Aides have been planning to set-up Zoom video calls to mark the celebration instead, allowing the Queen's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to wish her a happy birthday. With the UK in lockdown and thousands dead from the coronavirus outbreak, there will be no birthday gun salutes. The Queen decided the celebratory display of military firepower would not be 'appropriate' at this time. Usually a 21-gun salute is fired by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery from either Hyde Park or Green Park, followed by a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company. The footage released by the Royal Family today shows a young Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret dancing on a yacht Touching archive film, from the Royal Collection Trust, shows the monarch as a child - released to mark her 94th birthday The Queen and Margaret are seen playing in a garden together in their younger years The video from the Royal Collection Trust also shows a young Princess Elizabeth playing with a pram as a toddler Elizabeth and Margaret play on a seesaw in a garden when they were young children, in one of the clips released today Princess Elizabeth smiles for the camera while on a horse in a video filmed during her childhood The series of video clips of Elizabeth as a girl were released today to mark the monarch's 94th birthday 8th July 1941: Princess Elizabeth is pictured amongst a syringa bush in the grounds of Windsor Castle, Berkshire at the age of 15 The Queen has two birthdays - the day she was born in April and her official one in June, which is celebrated with the Trooping the Colour ceremony, but this has been cancelled in its traditional form this year. Kensington Palace wished the Queen a 'very happy 94th Birthday', and shared a picture of Prince William and Kate Middleton with the monarch at the Chelsea Flower Show. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall's Twitter account also sent its birthday wishes, with a collection of touching archive photos of Charles and his mother. The royal family are, like the rest of the country, staying away from one another as they follow the social distancing rules amid the pandemic. Captain Tom Moore wished the Queen a happy birthday from his Bedfordshire home as he was flooded with cards ahead of his centenary - and his daughter said her heart is 'bursting' over the 27million he has raised for the NHS. His message said: 'Happy Birthday your majesty. With the highest regards, Captain Tom Moore' Kensington Palace wished the Queen a 'very happy 94th Birthday', and shared a picture of Prince William and Kate Middleton with the monarch at the Chelsea Flower Show Prince Charles is presented with the runners-up prize by his mother, the Queen, following his team's defeat in the Silver Jubilee Cup match against France at Windsor Great Park on July 24, 1988 (the image was shared as part of the Clarence House tribute this morning) The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall's Twitter account also sent its birthday wishes, with a collection of touching archive photos of Charles and his mother Prince Charles and Camilla also wishes the Queen birthday best wishes on their Clarence House social media channels this morning Clarence House shared a selection of images from across the monarch's reign. Included among them was this image of Her Majesty and the Duchess of Cornwall at Royal Ascot last year Queen Elizabeth II with her baby Prince Charles in the grounds of Windlesham Moor, country home in Surrey. The image was shared as part of the Clarence House tribute this morning Princess Eugenie also wished the Queen (pictured at The Royal Society of Arts in her youth) best wishes on her birthday. She said: 'May today bring joy in a time when families can't be together celebrating with one another' Philip, 98, made his first major public statement on Monday since he retired nearly three years ago, thanking key workers including refuse collectors and postal staff for keeping essential services running during the Covid-19 outbreak. The couple's eldest son the Prince of Wales, who has recovered from the Covid-19 illness, is at Birkhall in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, with the Duchess of Cornwall, while the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex are all in their own separate homes around the country. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are staying at Anmer Hall, Norfolk, with their three children, while the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have quit as working royals, are thousands of miles away in Los Angeles. A Buckingham Palace source said the Queen's birthday will not be marked in any special way, adding that any phone or video calls she has with family will be kept private. The British Army was among the first to pay tribute to the monarch on its social media channels today. The Royal Air Force also paid tribute this morning. It shared a selection of images from Royal visits over the years MPs including Andrea Leadsom paid tribute to the Queen on social media today. The All on the board Twitter account also shared an image for the Queen this morning Former royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter wished Her Majester a Happy Birthday this morning. Others also shared their best wishes A large Royal Standard flies over Windsor Castle where the Queen celebrates her 94th birthday in isolation It is expected Royals will gather on a Zoom video call to with the Queen a Happy Birthday. Last year, 16 members of the royal family were able to visit Her Majesty to mark her birthday - but the current restrictions mean video and phone calls will have to be used instead. Writer and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth put on a special jumper to with the Queen a Happy Birthday today. He also read out a poem in a video on his Twitter account The Royal Family has already been active on Zoom during the lockdown, with Prince William and Kate Middleton enjoying conversations with school children and an interview with the BBC. They also revealed how they had been checking on the other royals, including the Queen and Prince Charles, through video calls. Kate said the family had been through 'ups and downs' during the lockdown 'like lots of families' since it was imposed on March 23, but they had stayed in touch with other family members using video conferencing apps. The bells of Westminster Abbey - the church where the monarch was married and crowned - will also stay silent on her birthday for the first time in more than a decade. The monarch has also said Government buildings will be exempt from flying flags if it creates a problem. The abbey is currently closed, meaning the celebratory peal which has taken place in her honour on her actual birthday - April 21 - every year since 2007, will not be able to go ahead, the abbey told the PA news agency. 'We are unable to ring our bells as the church is currently closed. So, it will be a virtual happy birthday this year via the abbey's social media channels,' a spokeswoman for the central London church said. The Queen - the nation's longest reigning monarch - has been a source of stability during the crisis. In a televised address to the nation, she stressed the country will overcome the virus, telling Britons: 'We will meet again.' She also delivered what was believed to be her first Easter address, with the resolute message: 'We know that coronavirus will not overcome us.' The royal family's Instagram Stories shared facts and photos about the Queen's childhood as part of activities for parents who are homeschooling to coincide with the week of her birthday. Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born at 2.40am on April 21 1926. She was the first child of the then-Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth was born by caesarean section at 17 Bruton Street, the Mayfair home of her mother's parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. She was never expected to be a monarch when she was born, but the abdication of her uncle Edward VIII in 1936 put her father on the throne, and changed her destiny. She wed Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten in 1947, and became Queen at the age of 25 when George VI died from lung cancer in 1952. Elizabeth II, who has been monarch for more than 68 years, is Head of State, the Armed Forces and the Commonwealth. She is less than two years away from her platinum jubilee of 70 years on the throne. The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery firing a 41 Gun Royal Salute to mark Queen Elizabeth II's 93rd birthday in Hyde Park, London last year. There will be no gun salutes this year In her 2019 Christmas message, she acknowledged the 'bumpy' path her family, and the country amid Westminster's bitter Brexit battles, had experienced during the past 12 months. During 2019, the Sussexes spoke about their struggles living in the public eye, and the Queen's second son Andrew gave a disastrous television interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and stepped down from public duties. The monarch spent the first weeks of 2020 dealing with the fallout from Megxit - Harry and Meghan's bombshell decision to quit as senior royals, which ultimately led to them walking away from the monarchy completely in March. The Queen has witnessed many turbulent times during her reign, but even she confessed of the global Covid-19 pandemic: 'While we have faced challenges before, this one is different.' The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that all available evidence suggests coronavirus originated inside bats in China. In a statement in Geneva on Tuesday, the health body also refuted claims the disease may have been manipulated or constructed in a laboratory. WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said it was not clear how the virus had jumped the species barrier to humans but there had "certainly" been an intermediate animal host. "All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed virus in a lab or somewhere else," she said. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday it was unclear how the virus was transmitted to humans. (AP) "It is probable, likely that the virus is of animal origin." It comes as US president Donald Trump launched an investigation into allegations the virus spread from a lab in Wuhan and demanded that China "come clean" about the origins of COVID-19. Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice Lets see what happens with their investigation. But were doing investigations also, Trump said at a White House news conference on Saturday. If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences. Donald Trump announced his administration is investigating China over the disease's origins. (AP) The investigation was announced after Fox News reported that unnamed sources believe the virus was initially transmitted from a bat to a human in a virology lab in Wuhan. "What we do know is we know that this virus originated in Wuhan, China," US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told Fox in response to the report. "We know there is the Wuhan Institute of Virology just a handful of miles away from where the wet market was. There is still lots to learn, he added, The United States government is working diligently to figure it out." According to a recent study carried out by polling agency YouGov, 70% of the British public think it is probably true that the source of COVID-19 pandemic was a live animal market in China. Story continues Of the 1,600 people surveyed, 17% believed it was definitely true. Just over half of Britons, 53%, think it is either definitely true or probably true that the virus was transmitted to humans via wild animals such as bats, pangolins and snakes. Coronavirus: what happened today? Click here to sign up to the latest news, advice and information with our daily Catch-up newsletter As COVID-19 first took hold, Steph McGovern and Channel 4 decided to broadcast her brand new daytime show from her home in Harrogate, Yorkshire. And according to The Sun, this has not gone down well with her irritable neighbours. Steph, 37, hosts The Steph Show from her house on a posh cul-de-sac, the publication reports, and the other residents are allegedly beginning to get hacked off by the to-ing and fro-ing it entails. Neighbourhood watch: As COVID-19 first took hold, Steph McGovern and Channel 4 decided to broadcast her brand new daytime show from her home Yorkshire The Sun claims 'the production equipment parked outside and the steady flow of deliveries for The Steph Show have gone down badly'. A source told the paper: 'This seemed a good move to get the new show on air as planned. 'But unfortunately it has now gone on for some time and neighbours are getting increasingly irritable. 'The thought of this carrying on for many more weeks has been too much for them to accept.' Uproar: Steph, 37, hosts The Steph Show from her house on a posh cul-de-sac, the publication reports, and the other residents are reportedly beginning to get hacked off by the to-ing and fro-ing it entails Not impressed: The Sun claims 'the production equipment parked outside and the steady flow of deliveries for The Steph Show have gone down badly' MailOnline has approached reps for comment. Channel 4 confirmed that 'The Steph Show currently has a production team of five people working on site. All are strictly following PHE guidelines.' The Steph Show launched on March 30 - with Channel 4 poaching former BBC presenter Steph for themselves - but opening numbers weren't great. Only 234,000 viewers tuned in for the debut episode. Steph recently revealed she was once told by the head of BBC Breakfast to change her 'lairy outfit'. Bold: Steph revealed that she was asked to 'tone down' her clothing choices by the former head of BBC Breakfast after turning up in a red dress and heels to work After turning up to work in a bright red dress and heels, the journalist was asked to 'tone down' her clothing choices by the former head of the BBC's morning news show, Alison Ford, who died from breast cancer in 2013. She admitted to The Telegraph's Stella Magazine She said: 'I turned up in a bright Topshop dress with big New Look heels, and was taken to one side by Alison and asked just to take it down a notch or two. 'I guess a lairy outfit combined with my accent would have meant Id have been hard to take seriously. I ncredible street art and graffiti has been popping up across the UK and Ireland over the last few weeks as the coronavirus pandemic grips the world. From London's street art epicentre of Shoreditch, to the small West Yorkshire town of Pontefract, the graffiti scene is flourishing with coronavirus-themed masterpieces. Rainbows and NHS logos have been incorporated into murals to pay tribute to frontline healthcare workers battling the pandemic in cities such as Liverpool, Glasgow and Dublin. Meanwhile, other artists have commented on the tense situation by depicting people in face masks - a now-iconic image of the global crisis. The artist, known only as The Rebel Bear has finished several murals, including one of a couple kissing through blue face masks. Street art depicting the badge of a superhero under a nurse and doctor uniform in Pontefract, northern England / AFP via Getty Images More than 40 versions of Rainbow Boy, by Chris Shea, aka State of the Art, have been painted across the country from Croydon to Biggins Hill. His work has helped raise 7,000 towards the NHS in their battle against the virus. Street artist raises more than 7,000 for NHS with Rainbow Boy murals 1 /12 Street artist raises more than 7,000 for NHS with Rainbow Boy murals Street artist State of the Art (also known as Chris Shea) has raised for than 7,000 for the NHS with his series of Banksy-style Rainbow Boy murals Chris Shea/@stateoftheart_ Street artist State of the Art (also known as Chris Shea) has raised for than 7,000 for the NHS with his series of Banksy-style Rainbow Boy murals Reuters Street artist State of the Art (also known as Chris Shea) has raised for than 7,000 for the NHS with his series of Banksy-style Rainbow Boy murals Chris Shea/@stateoftheart_ Street artist State of the Art (also known as Chris Shea) has raised for than 7,000 for the NHS with his series of Banksy-style Rainbow Boy murals Reuters Street artist State of the Art (also known as Chris Shea) has raised for than 7,000 for the NHS with his series of Banksy-style Rainbow Boy murals Chris Shea/@stateoftheart_ Street artist State of the Art (also known as Chris Shea) has raised for than 7,000 for the NHS with his series of Banksy-style Rainbow Boy murals Chris Shea/@stateoftheart_ Street artist State of the Art (also known as Chris Shea) has raised for than 7,000 for the NHS with his series of Banksy-style Rainbow Boy murals Chris Shea/@stateoftheart_ Street artist State of the Art (also known as Chris Shea) has raised for than 7,000 for the NHS with his series of Banksy-style Rainbow Boy murals Chris Shea/@stateoftheart_ Street artist State of the Art (also known as Chris Shea) has raised for than 7,000 for the NHS with his series of Banksy-style Rainbow Boy murals Chris Shea/@stateoftheart_ Other murals have also paid tribute to healthcare workers with many using superhero symbols to hail the NHS. It comes as the death toll continues to rise in the UK and Ireland. A few days after Amyiah Cohoon returned to Wisconsin from a school band trip to Florida in the middle of March, she developed a dry cough, a high fever and breathing problems. Amyiah, 16, was taken to the hospital twice, before being sent home and told to stay inside despite testing negative for the coronavirus. During her sickness, the Westfield Area High School sophomore posted on Instagram three times about what she still believed was a scary brush with Covid-19, hoping to alert others, including friends and family, to the danger. (Doctors have noted that negative results did not always mean someone was not infected.) I am still on breathing treatment but have beaten the coronavirus, Amyiah wrote in the third post on March 26. Stay home and be safe. The next day, a sergeant showed up at the Cohoons door. According to a police report included in the lawsuit, Amyiahs posts had made other parents at school upset. Amyiah would have to take the posts down or risk violating rules on disorderly conduct and be cited or arrested, according to the report. VANCOUVERPublic health officials need to do more to help Canadas homeless population as encampments and tent cities grow across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, an advocate says. The comments come as B.C. cities struggle to find adequate solutions to look after their homeless populations. Fourteen people were arrested Sunday over allegations they broke in to Lord Strathcona Elementary, a school on Vancouvers Downtown Eastside. A group calling itself the Red Braid Alliance was part of the protest over what its members said was a plan to highlight a demand for housing. Alliance member Listen Chen said she wasnt hopeful that the city would address the homeless problem. The city and the province both have the emergency powers to requisition every single empty hotel room in the city and to shelter people, she said. The city of Vancouver is negotiating with individual landlords to open up units, but I dont expect hotel landlords are lining up to open their rooms to a stigmatized population. Those arrested, ranging from young adults to seniors, face charges of break and enter, Sgt. Aaron Roed with the Vancouver Police Department said. The growth of such tent cities are a natural occurrence when homeless residents feel unsafe about their living conditions, and the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened those feelings, said Tim Richter, the president of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. If they dont want squats, if they dont want expanded rise in encampments then there needs to be a much better and safer response to homelessness today, Richter said in an interview. The necessary protections that public health is recommending for every other Canadian need to be in place for people experiencing homelessness. Victoria has requested the provincial government requisition its empty hotels to house its homeless population while in Vancouver, a camp at Oppenheimer Park has swelled to nearly 100 people with nearby residents concerned about violence they say is occurring in the park. Homeless populations have different health risk factors than other citizens, such as underlying respiratory concerns and poor health, Richter said, adding that increases the possibility of an outbreak sweeping through the sites. The fact we have so many people at great risk of this disease for no other reason than lack of a home and access to adequate health care tells you weve got a pressing housing emergency in our country, said Richter. B.C.s provincial health officer said she is aware of those concerns. We have two emergencies that were dealing with, said Dr. Bonnie Henry, during a media briefing Monday. The one, our overdose crises, has been compounded in many ways particularly for those who are homeless and under-housed, people who have substance use disorders, it has been compounded by the restrictions weve put in place to deal with the pandemic. The province announced a cross-ministerial team last week, headed up by Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction Shane Simpson, aimed at finding housing solutions. Simpson called for patience when asked about the groups concerns. I understand the urgency, frustration and barriers that people experiencing homelessness are facing right now. We are working to increase supports and will have more to say in the coming days. That being said, I cannot condone breaking the law and occupying a school at any time, he said in a statement. Both Henry and Simpson said they expect an announcement on housing to be made within the next few days. Read more about: Srinagar, April 21 : The Jammu & Kashmir Police foiled an attempt of weapon snatching at Shopian in south Kashmir on Tuesday and apprehended two persons, officials said. Police said a weapon snatching bid by two car-borne youth after hitting a policeman at a Naka in Shopian district was foiled. "The culprits were chased and caught by alert police team led by two officers," police said. "The interrogation of the culprits is on." Police are now trying to confirm the identity of the arrested duo and which outfit they belong to. M G Chetan By Express News Service BENGALURU: Police officers investigating the Padarayanapura violence strongly suspect that the attack on healthcare workers and police officials on Sunday night was planned. Sources said that more than 125 people came out at once which is an indicator that there was a conspiracy to carry out the attack. Though the premise of the attack was that the secondary contacts of a COVID-19 victim should not be moved to a hotel as planned and be home-quarantined, many people who had no idea about it took part in the attack. It is highly possible that there was more to it than just mob mentality, an officer, on the condition of anonymity, said. Also, it is said that the area has many people who are active members of organisations that have created trouble in the past. Though we have not been able to link their involvement to the incident at this juncture, it is a possibility that cannot be ruled out, another officer said.The police suspect that anti-social elements were waiting for an opportunity to create unrest in the area and used Sunday nights situation to trigger it. As part of the investigation, the police are analysing phone calls of several suspects. Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai too said that the incident appeared to be planned. Some people who have a nexus with the Karnataka Forum for Dignity might have done this. They were determined to violate the lockdown norms, he added.The police, who have arrested over 60 people, are interrogating them to know their links and possible conspiracy to breach peace. Police lapses also a reason? Meanwhile, the police are being blamed for failing to assess the situation thoroughly. Considering the notoriety of the area and the past incidents of violence there, the police should have been more careful. Deployment of more armed police should have been made, a retired police officer said. Dawn O'Porter has opened up about struggling with grief following the death of her close friend Caroline Flack earlier this year. The Love Island host, who passed away aged 40, was found dead in her London home on February 15 after taking her own life. Since her death, Dawn has regularly posted tributes to the star on her Instagram page and shared touching insights into their friendship. Touching: Dawn O'Porter has opened up about struggling with grief following the death of her close friend Caroline Flack earlier this year In her latest post on Tuesday, Dawn candidly detailed her experience with grief and shared an old photograph of the duo at an event together in 2015. Alongside the image, Dawn penned: 'This was a big night for me. Caroline showed up, as she always did. I keep waiting for it to feel easier. It doesnt. 'I guess this is just a feeling that a lot of us have to live with now. Grief shouldnt feel lonely when so many billions of people have felt it, but still it does.' Tribute: The Love Island host, who passed away aged 40, was found dead in her London home on February 15 after taking her own life Opening up: In her latest post on Tuesday, Dawn candidly detailed her experience with grief and shared an old photograph of the duo at an event together in 2015 She added: 'Maybe thats because no one can replace what you lost, and everyone is someone different to everybody else.' Reflecting on some of her friend's favourite qualities, she said: 'Caroline meant a lot to me. She meant a lot to a lot of people in a lot of different ways. Because she was special. That laugh. That humour. That loyalty. I miss it all.' Dawn also speculated on how Caroline would have dealt with coronavirus isolation, and said: 'To think she didnt even know about any of whats happened to the world. Shed still have worn her stick on nails in isolation, I bet. I miss you my love.' Throwback: Last week, the author shared as snap of herself and Caroline at a party together Last week, the author shared as snap of herself and Caroline at a party together. She touchingly wrote in the caption: 'Missing this one grabbing my boobs. I know it's still so new, but I can't imagine a day ever again, where I don't expect her to text.' Caroline tragically took her life at her Stoke Newington home on February 15, a day after learning the CPS would be pursuing a case of assault against her following a row with beau Lewis Burton at her home in December. Following her passing, Dawn was one of Caroline's many friends to post a tribute to her on social media along with a selection of photographs. Dawn thanked her 'funny' and 'silly' friend for all the memories and added that no dance floor will 'ever be the same again'. If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org. To be a doctor working on the coronavirus frontlines, only to have your dignity stripped in death with no proper burial is the saddest thing to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Dry Aishwarya Rao in Episode 9 of he podcast To be a doctor working on the COVID-19 frontlines, only to have your dignity stripped in death with no proper burial is the saddest thing to come out of this pandemic. In episode nine, Dr Aiswarya takes on burials and cremations in times of coronavirus. With the violence surrounding the burial of doctors in Chennai, it's high time the conversation shifts from handwashing and social distancing to the stigma related to burial/cremation of COVID-19 victims. Edited script of Episode 9: I am Dr Aiswarya Rao, and I am a paediatrician and public health consultant. Today on my show, Dr Aiswarya Explains, we are looking at a couple of really heart-wrenching incidents that occurred in Chennai, surrounding the death of two doctors that shook the public and the medical community over the past one week. Today as we enter Day 28 of the national lockdown which is a preventive measure for the containment of the coronavirus pandemic in India, we have exceeded 17,000 positive cases and 560 deaths. We are nowhere near the peak, let alone flattening of the transmission curve. More healthcare workers and frontline workers are susceptible to the infection and like in other countries, we are going to have our fair share too, in spite of our best efforts. We are looking at a long period of transmission ahead of us, along with a host of measures for its containment. Its a daily evolving and dynamic process and the Centre as well as state governments are doing as best as they can with the resources available and the existing health infrastructure. The key component here is the cooperation of the public at every step of the strategy utilised for outbreak control. On Sunday, Dr Simon Hercules, a neurosurgeon, died of COVID-19 infection in Chennai. A mob attacked the hearse carrying his body and stopped the burial. A week earlier, an orthopaedic surgeon from Nellore who was treated at a Chennai city hospital also succumbed to the virus. Local residents had protested the cremation of his body in a city crematorium fearing the virus may spread. Both incidents turned ugly very quickly, especially, the one that took place on Sunday night. The local residents resorted to violence, attacked the drivers of the ambulance which was carrying the dead body of the neurosurgeon. The body had to be abandoned in the middle of the road while the people accompanying it fled for their life. Later, a colleague of the deceased doctor came and drove the ambulance to another site of burial with police protection. He describes digging the pit himself with one shovel, with the help of another policeman, because the JCB that was prepared for the digging of the pit was abandoned by the its operator fearing public fury. Follow LIVE updates on the coronavirus outbreak here Much of Monday, news and on social media was filled with outrage by the medical fraternity and the general public at large for the lack of dignity accorded to the dead doctors in their death. And rightly so. The fury is understandable because the doctors acquired their infection during the discharge of their duties and in a sense sacrificed their life while trying to heal their patients. Similarly, several cases have been reported, of healthcare workers and police personnel on COVID-19 duty being attacked by angry mobs in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengaluru. I was immediately reminded of a similar incident from the frontline of the war against the HIV virus in which I was involved for nearly 15 years. In the early days of the epidemic, I have experienced hostility from neighbourhoods whenever there was an AIDS-related death. Often, we had to intervene in the middle of the night whenever there was a death to avert mob violence. I remember one of my patients, a young woman with HIV who committed suicide. This was in 2002. The post-mortem took a long time and the body was handed over late to us. By then, the neighbourhood of the TP Chatram burial ground created a ruckus. This is the very same burial ground which was the scene of the violence when Dr Hercules body was first taken on Sunday. Thankfully, in 2002, it started raining heavily (it was the month of November) and the crowd dispersed much to our relief. So we buried the girl in the pouring rain in the dark of the night with my car headlights providing the light. We didn't want to put the other lights on in the ground fearing it would attract a mob. The memory of the incident is deeply ingrained in me. I also distinctly remember another incident (one of several) where an elderly Catholic nun running a community care centre in a village in Theni district of Tamil Nadu had to bury a man who died of AIDS. She dug the pit herself with a shovel and spade, because the villagers refused to assist. Of course, much of the stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV has decreased today, and such incidents declined as treatment became more accessible and people with HIV began to live normal and productive lives. Coming back to the current situation in which the doctors were denied dignity in their death, in a tough note, the centre urged the states to take tough action against the mob attacking healthcare workers. The Chennai Police responded to the incident at the burial ground by arresting 20 persons who were allegedly part of the mob that attacked the ambulance. But is that enough? The 10 page FAQ the frequently asked questions by the MOHFW on their now much-visited website covers a variety of myths and misconceptions with facts and explanations, but there is nothing on death of a person with COVID infection and the subsequent risk of infection spread at the time of burial or cremation, or following that. There are six posters displayed on the website but none are addressing this issue. Also scanning the numerous public service messages that are circulating all over the television, radio, print and social media, there is nothing in India that addresses this specific fear. The manual on Outbreak Communication published by the World Health Organisation in 2005 outlines the best practices for effective communication with the public during an outbreak with the least possible disruption to economies and society. This is evidence-based, field-tested communication guidance and it has strategies that promote the public health goal of rapid outbreak control. The role of public communication during the pandemic cannot be understated. The five tenets of the communication are to build trust, announce early, be transparent, respect public concerns, and plan in advance. This communication strategy was put together largely drawing from the experiences culled from all the previous pandemics such as HIV, SARS, MERS, Anthrax and Bovine spongiform encephalopathy outbreaks to name a few. These were real lessons that were learnt from the field and applied scientifically. We must acknowledge that the public have concerns that are diverse and legitimate, especially in this day of 24x7 news coverage where everyone is bombarded with dreaded news about the pandemic and the havoc it is causing not only socially but also economically. Public health officials need to understand the fear of the public regardless of how unscientific or unfounded they may seem. The information developing arm of the Health Department both at the Centre and the state governments need to engage in a dialogue in which those responsible for issuing information respect public concerns as legitimate, seek to understand their foundation, and then give out messages accordingly that are simple, clear and full of facts. This risk communication is a two-way conversation. We cannot deny that there has been a failure of the government on providing timely messages to the public to allay their anxiety and concerns. The first cremation was obstructed one week back and the same was repeated on Sunday with even more violence. There is a recurring pattern here. Clearly, the messages continue to be about wash hands and social distancing only, even 2.5 months after the first case was reported in India, while there is a huge gap in the information provided to prevent tragedies like what happened on Sunday at a burial ground in Chennai. The interim guidelines issued by the WHO in late March (the Government of India too issued directive on 15 March) this year, on Infection prevention and control for the safe management of a dead body in the context of COVID 19 is quite simple and clear. Dead bodies do not transmit disease. A dead person cannot sneeze or cough or breathe. So, the common ways of spreading the infection end the moment a person dies. Viral replication also stops. The skin may contain viral particles, and therefore, the body has to be neatly wrapped in a cloth, and no need for a body bag. Only the healthcare workers preparing the dead body and the mortuary staff need to wear PPE. So long as there is no touch, there is zero percent chance of spread of infection. Both burning or burying a dead body are absolutely safe. The virus cannot climb up from the 8 feet deep pit. Neither can it survive the 4,000 degrees centigrade fire in the crematorium. Fumes don't carry the virus. These simple messages, if communicated properly to the public, could have averted indignities to both the doctors, who laid their lives while caring for their patients. The need of the hour is timely and simple information to the public, and not police action and punishment. That never works. I am Dr Aiswarya Rao, and this is me signing off, until I can meet you again with my next podcast. Thanks for listening. The Garda Mounted Unit is calling on the public to name its newest member - and Horsey McHorseface is already a contender. People are being asked to send their suggestions to the Garda Twitter page, with the winner being announced next Monday. Sergeant Brendan Duffy of the Garda Mounted Unit said the horse is young and mischievous. "This is a new horse we have after completing his six-week trial," Sergeant Duffy said. Name our new horse! We have a beautiful new horse that has joined the Garda Mounted Unit and we want you to help name him. Leave your suggestions in the comments section below. A winner will be announced next Monday 27th April at Midday. #NameTheGardaHorse pic.twitter.com/B5c1rRCOnR Garda Info (@gardainfo) April 21, 2020 "He's an eight-year-old Irish draft gelding and he hails from the midlands, near Monasterevan. He's a typical Irish draft: he's very intelligent, he's inquisitive, he learns quite quickly. He's also a little bit mischievous in a good sense. He's interested in learning new skills." Sergeant Duffy said they are hoping to give the horse a name from Irish mythology, as they have done for other horses in the unit. "What we're looking for is the public to name [the horse], similar to the other horses we have attached to the unit. The criteria for that is that they're named after Irish mythological characters. For example, some of the names that we have already are Setanta, Boru, Lir, Culann, Cu, so something along those themes." Some of the suggestions so far include Dochas, Lugs Branigan and Horsey McHorseface. The coronavirus pandemic could have a negative impact on births and marriages this year and is feared to accelerate population decline in South Korea, a senior finance ministry official said Tuesday. Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom said in a meeting on the nation's population policy that the coronavirus outbreak has reshaped people's everyday lives, prompting people to work from home and students to take online classes. "There are worries that shocks from COVID-19 could have a negative impact on births and marriages and accelerate a decline in birthrates this year," Kim said. Kim urged officials to take a "new approach" on population policy in the wake of the pandemic. South Korea's total fertility rate hit an all-time low in 2019, a clear sign of its population decline down the road. The country's total fertility rate, which refers to the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime, came to 0.92 last year, down from 0.98 a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. Last year marked the second consecutive year for the rate to fall below 1. South Korea was the only member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that had a total fertility rate below 1. (Yonhap) Beijing, April 21 : The skin of two Chinese doctors who were infected with coronavirus (COVID-19), turned dark after suffering liver damage from coronavirus infection, the media reported. Dr Yi Fan and Dr Hu Weifeng were got infected with the deadly coronavirus while treating patients at the Wuhan Central Hospital in January this year. 'When I first gained conscious, especially after I got to know about my condition, I felt scared. I had nightmares often," Dr Yi was quoted as saying by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Dr Yi and Dr Hu are colleagues with late whistle-blower Li Wenliang, who was punished for sounding the alarm of the virus and then died of the disease on February 7, reports dailymail.co.uk. "Their abnormal skin colour was caused by hormonal imbalances after their livers were damaged by the virus," the doctors treating the duo told CCTV. They were taken first to the Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital and then transferred to Tongji Hospital's Zhongfa Xincheng branch. Dr Yi confessed that the ordeal of battling the deadly disease had, to a certain degree, traumatised him. Footage released by Beijing TV Station shows Dr Zhan Qingyuan from China-Japan Friendship Hospital talking to Dr Yi and Dr Hu in their ward in Tongji Hospital. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More After announcing the acquisition of iconic British brand Norton Motorcycles, Indian motorcycle manufacturer, TVS Motor Company has said it has no plans to shift the bike's manufacturing to India from the UK. TVS acquired the UK's sporting motorcycles brand in an all-cash deal worth roughly Rs 153.2 crore (16 million pounds) through one of TVS' overseas subsidiaries. TVS said the manufacturing facility in the UK will continue to operate while retaining most of its employees. The headquarters of Norton, too, will remain in the UK but will be changed from its current Derby, Donington residence. Nortons latest and upcoming motorcycles include the Commando, Dominator and the V4RR, but TVS has made it clear that the company will stick to the premium segment. Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director, TVS Motor Company said, Norton will continue to retain its distinctive identity with dedicated and specific business plans. This also dashes any hopes for a TVS-BMW-like partnership which gave us the G 310 series and the Apache RR 310. President Donald Trump during a COVID-19 task force briefing on Tuesday said he will ban most immigration to the U.S. for 60 days in what he described as a solemn duty to blunt the sharp unemployment the nation has faced amid the pandemic. It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off ... to be replaced by immigrants flown in from abroad, Trump told reporters at the White House. We must take care of the American worker. Trump, who has pushed for certain areas of the country to begin easing stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines that have slowed the spread of the virus but spurred widespread business closures, said he would evaluate economic conditions after the two-month ban to ascertain whether immigration would be reopened. Trump noted the restrictions on immigration applied to those seeking green cards, not entry on a temporary basis. He said the new policy would be in effect following an executive order that he expects to sign on Wednesday. Trumps order would force the country to deny immigrants seeking most work visas, Bloomberg reported. The ban does not include health care or medical research professionals, or workers in food production and others directly helping to protect the supply chain, including farm workers, according to a draft of the order. Immigrants working in the U.S. technology industry on H-1B visas will need to provide updated certifications showing they arent displacing American workers. I have determined that we cannot jump start the domestic economy if Americans are forced to compete against an artificially enlarged labor pool caused by the introduction of foreign workers, Trump said in the draft order. I have determined that the entry of most aliens as permanent or temporary workers in the immediate term would have adverse impacts on the national interest. Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday sharply rebuked the president for the upcoming immigration executive order, which Trump announced without details in a 10 p.m. tweet Monday. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a former presidential candidate who recently endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, accused the president of scapegoating immigrants. Donald Trump is once again vilifying immigrants to cover for his own incompetence, Sanders said on Twitter. The American people are tired of his xenophobia and racism. The COVID-19 outbreak has crippled the economy as businesses have been forced to close and Americans stay home and avoid gatherings. More than 20 million Americans have filed for unemployment over the last several weeks. Since mid-March, the state of Massachusetts alone has received more than half a million unemployment benefits applications. Trump said he hoped the economy would significantly improve in the next two months, which will be the key factor on whether he keeps the ban in place for another 30 or 60 days or even longer, he said. The president also confirmed he was considering a second executive order that would eliminate some of the exceptions in the initial ban. He was adamant, though, that farm workers would not be impacted. I want our citizens to get jobs. I dont want them to have competition," Trump said, denying that he was pushing to limit legal immigration in addition to his administrations crackdowns on illegal immigration. "Were in a very unusual situation. Related Content: Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media EAST HAVEN Town officers came to the aid of a man overdosing on heroin Saturday afternoon, according to the East Haven Police Department. Lt. Joseph Murgo said officers were called to Frontage Road for a reported overdose in a vehicle at approximately 1:49 p.m., finding an unresponsive man in the drivers seat of his vehicle. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment How is it that celebrities like Oprah see negative racial disparities in every facet of American life, except in the one industry that kills for a living? Oprah recently opined about the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus in black communities. COVID-19, according to the guru of talk, is taking us out. Honestly, this is what happens when you look at everything in life through the broken prism of race. We as a people, as African Americans, have jobs that require us to be at work. For so many African Americans, there isnt this ability to telecommute, the multi-billionaire Oprah Winfrey told NBC News from the cushy confines of her multi-million dollar home. First of all, stop racializing things Oprah. People of every hue have these jobs and many are at higher risk of exposure regardless of their pigmentation. Millions and millions of people of any color are not able to telecommute. In fact, according to the Department of Labor, from 2017 to 2018 the vast majority of Americans did not telework. This includes 68% of Asian Americans, 74% of whites, 82% of African-Americans, and 87% of Hispanics. There is no doubt that there are numerous health disparities in the black community that largely contribute to the disproportionate impact of this virus. The public needs to be well-informed, not fed another us versus them narrative. Race is the easy scapegoat, because in and out of a pandemic it doesnt address personal responsibility and behaviors that lead to negative health outcomes. Im waiting for the Left to denounce these block parties, by the way (here and here). So while churchgoers in Kentucky were threatened by Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) with having their licenses recorded and the state health department showing up at their doors to force quarantine them, hundreds of block partiers in Florida were merely asked to go home no tickets, no heavy-handed State action. Dare I say it looks like a case of black privilege? Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot, you know the one who chose separate and unequal treatment by getting a haircut while telling the rest of Chicagoans that hair care is not essential, said of the coronavirus impact on African-Americans: the numbers take your breath away. Like Oprah, she told CBS News that the virus is devastating black communities. As of April 15th, the Chicago Department of Public Health reported a total of 386 deaths: 48.3% black, 21.4% Hispanic, 20.8% white, 3.7% Asian, 5.8% other, and 28.9% unknown. More importantly, 91% of Chicago residents who died, according to the report, had underlying chronic health conditions. I wonder if the 23,189 abortions in her county in 2018 take the pro-abortion mayors breath away? (Of course, Illinois doesnt provide any racial demographic data. Nationwide, abortions in the black community are 3-5 times higher than those in the majority population. Every abortion is tragic, regardless of hue, but its always interesting to me when the needless human construct of race is conveniently and politically invoked.) Even with the shoddy statistical reporting that has marked health organizations like the CDC, it is globally evident that people who are elderly and those with pre-existing conditions like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and lung-related issues are at much higher risk with COVID-19. Every life is precious, so lets not claim a larger victimhood status. People in poorer communities lack access to testing. People in wealthier communities have similar lack of access. Access to testing has been an abysmal failure, period. This disease doesnt care which pigmentation your skin has. Its ravaging our community, Oprah told the Today show. In this time of pandemic panic, we dont need hyperbole. We need honesty. Coronavirus is not ravaging the black community. Violent crime is. Fatherlessness is. Abortion is. Devotion to a political party that depends on perpetual narratives of victimhood is. Sadly, Oprah and the entire leadership of the Democrat Party proudly support and promote the pandemic of abortion in the black community which disproportionately kills hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable black lives every year. The number of black lives taken out annually in America by abortion is more than twice the current number (138,101 as of April 16th) of total coronavirus deaths worldwide. Thirty-five percent of abortions in the U.S. are among African-Americans, according to the CDC. If we applied that to the total number of U.S. abortions reported by the (pro-abortion) Guttmacher Institute in 2017 (862,320 abortions of which 301,812 of them were committed on black babies), there are an estimated 827 black lives wiped out by abortion every single day. Despite this, Oprah isnt sounding any alarm about the violence of abortion. Shes pushed abortion in numerous ways through her media empire, whether promoting Christian (charlatan) abortionist Dr. Willie Parker (now seemingly silenced by accusations of being a sexual predator), hosting the pro-abortion United State of Women summit, or featuring the #ShoutYourAbortion hashtag movement in her magazine. Its sad how those who escaped the violence of abortion work to ensure that others dont. Its even more heartbreaking when you read these words from Oprah to her mother where she thanks her that she wasnt aborted: Thank you. Thank you, because I know its been hard for you. It was hard for you as a young girl having a baby, in Mississippi. No education. No training. No skills. Seventeen, you get pregnant with this baby. Lots of people would have told you to give that baby away. Lots of people wouldve told you to abort that baby. You didnt do that. I know that was hard. I want you to know that no matter what, I know that you always did the best you knew how to do. And look how it turned out. With or without great achievements, every human life has equal and irrevocable value. No, Oprah. Coronavirus isnt ravaging us. Believing lies about ourselves is. Were not victims. Were victors. Black people have overcome so much in this country, from slavery to lynchings to Jim Crow. We dont need abortion. We dont need to make a colorblind virus racial. We need each other, as we have throughout this flawed but great countrys history black, white and every hue in between. Were always better when were united. innerActiv Organizations are facing an increase in threats posed by employees, contractors, and business partners. Mandiant has helped our clients investigate a broad range of insider security incidents including intellectual property theft.. OnGuard Systems, developer of innovative cybersecurity and Insider Threat solution, innerActiv, announced today its collaboration with intelligence-led security company, FireEye. Since 2004, FireEye has been delivering world-class cyber security solutions built with frontline expertise. Adding to the relentless innovation and defense capabilities that FireEye delivers, OnGuard Systems provides advanced insider threat protection and employee monitoring software integrated with the FireEye Helix security operations platform. Together, OnGuard and FireEye aim to give joint customers access to the most comprehensive systems to combat todays most advanced insider threats. This newest integration with FireEye Helix is designed to provide organizations of all verticals with: Continuous real-time insider threat risk analysis 360 degree identity, infrastructure, activity and data protection User activity and behavioral threat analytics Accelerated investigations Compliance tracking and reporting Insight into risks from onsite, offsite and remote employees We look forward to combining areas of expertise with FireEye to solve the ongoing risk caused by the insider. OnGuards products provide an exceptional analysis of risk based on user and data behavior as well as a means of protecting highly sensitive and valuable data in both digital and paper format. The innerActiv Helix integration will allow analysts to gain timely new insights on data risk and user activity from the endpoint perspective, often invisible to other security tools. Together with FireEye we will be able to serve all of our commercial and public sector clients demanding cyber security requirements, states Jim Mazotas, founder and CTO of OnGuard Systems. Organizations are facing an increase in threats posed by employees, contractors, and business partners. Mandiant has helped our clients investigate a broad range of insider security incidents including intellectual property theft for the benefit of foreign governments and extortion of employers by employees for financial gain, said Charles Carmakal, CTO of FireEye Mandiant. "The innerActiv and FireEye Helix integration is designed to benefit our mutual customers by combining the power of next generation threat analytics and real-time visibility into insider threats. For more information about the joint solution, contact integrate@fireeye.com and visit the innerActiv content posted on: FireEye Market FireEye Technology Partners Page About FireEye, Inc. FireEye is the intelligence-led security company. Working as a seamless, scalable extension of customer security operations, FireEye offers a single platform that blends innovative security technologies, nation-state grade threat intelligence, and world-renowned Mandiant consulting. With this approach, FireEye eliminates the complexity and burden of cyber security for organizations struggling to prepare for, prevent, and respond to cyber attacks. FireEye has over 8,800 customers across 103 countries, including more than 50 percent of the Forbes Global 2000. FireEye, Helix and Mandiant are registered trademarks of FireEye, Inc. in the United States and other countries. About OnGuard Systems OnGuard Systems provides innovation in employee monitoring and insider threat protection that allows organizations of all sizes to accurately identify and remediate risk that exists within their environment. innerActiv is the only software of its kind to provide protection extending to hardcopy data tracking and digital data storage in addition to user behavior and activity analytics. For more information, contact sales@inner-activ.com JERUSALEM Israels embattled prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has notched two critical victories in this weeks power-sharing agreement with his chief rival: He can stay in office throughout his upcoming corruption trial, and he can press forward with a potentially explosive plan to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu and former military chief Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White Party, announced their national emergency government late Monday, ending 16 months of political paralysis and narrowly averting an unprecedented fourth national election in just over a year. The emergency governments stated mission is to steer the country through the coronavirus crisis, which has killed over 180 Israelis and put a quarter of the country out of work. But after a bruising period of prolonged political stalemate, both men also appear to have been driven toward each other by their deepest survival instincts. Netanyahu and Gantz agreed to rotate 18-month terms as prime minister, and they have evenly divided key government ministries and parliamentary committees. In effect, each side will be able to veto the others actions. Commentator Sima Kadmon said the coronavirus crisis served as the pretext for the unlikely alliance. The real goal was Netanyahus effort to buy time, she wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily. An early test for the alliance will be an issue close to Netanyahus heart: the annexation of large parts of the West Bank. Such a move would destroy any lingering hopes of establishing an independent Palestinian state and draw widespread international condemnation. Netanyahu and his pro-settler base see an opportunity under the friendly administration of President Donald Trump who seeks re-election in November. Although their government is to focus on coronavirus issues for its first six months, Netanyahu persuaded Gantz to allow him to raise annexation plans in the Cabinet from July 1. Netanyahu could still face some obstacles. The deal says any move would require U.S. support and need to take into account the opinions of key allies. Gantz has given annexation only lukewarm support. But the vague language of their deal allows Netanyahu to present the proposal to parliament where he appears to have majority support for the idea even without Gantzs backing. Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called the coalition agreement a threat to regional peace and security. It is an international responsibility to hold the new Israeli government accountable, he said. The coalition deal has also come under heavy criticism in Israel. Through three bitter election campaigns in the past year, Gantz portrayed himself as the antithesis to Netanyahu and repeatedly vowed never to sit in a government with a prime minister suspected of serious crimes. After the most recent election last month, Gantz even began pushing legislation in parliament to ban the indicted Netanyahu from remaining as prime minister. Yet with the clock ticking, and his fragile alliance unraveling, Gantz accepted Netanyahus invitation last month to form a government together. The sudden announcement angered many of his supporters and broke up the Blue and White alliance, leaving him with only a shrunken version of the party. A fourth election would likely have sent Gantz into political irrelevance. Speaking in parliament Tuesday, Gantz vowed to uphold the rule of law. I took upon myself the mission to safeguard the democracy because I believe it is the most significant source of strength as a society, he said. Netanyahu also defended the deal as best for the nation. Yet for all of his talk in recent weeks about the coronavirus and national unity, leaks from the coalition negotiations indicated he was also motivated by his own personal survival as he prepares to go on trial. Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals. He denies the charges and says he is the victim of a hostile media and aggressive prosecution. Yair Lapid, who withdrew his Yesh Atid party from Blue and White last month and will likely be the next opposition leader, said Tuesday that he apologized to those he persuaded to vote for Gantz. There hasnt been a fraud like this since the state was established, said Lapid. You dont fight corruption from within. If youre in, youre part of it. While Israeli law requires public officials to resign if charged with a crime, that does not apply to sitting prime ministers. Although Netanyahu is supposed to step aside next year under the deal, it creates a new position of designated prime minister that would permit him to remain in office while on trial. Netanyahu has been desperate to stay as prime minister. As the case against him has gained steam, the office has provided him a high-profile stage to lash out against his opponents and rally his base. And last month, his hand-picked justice minister managed to delay Netanyahus trial until late May. Although Netanyahu will not be able to prevent the trial, he nonetheless will be able to continue to use his office as a bully pulpit throughout the proceedings. Several nonprofit advocacy groups filed challenges to the coalition deal, asking the Supreme Court to ban an indicted politician, such as Netanyahu, from being allowed to form a new government. If the court rules in favor of the challenge, the deal could unravel and the country could still be plunged into new elections. Yohanan Plesner, a former lawmaker who is now president of the Israel Democracy Institute, said the coalition agreement ends a difficult stalemate but offers little hope. He said the government would likely make progress on consensus issues, like rescuing the economy and passing a budget. But in other areas, including annexation, I very much expect it to be very difficult, he said. It will be mainly a government of mutual vetoes and paralysis. President Donald Trump during a COVID-19 task force briefing on Tuesday said he will ban most immigration to the U.S. for 60 days in what he described as a solemn duty to blunt the sharp unemployment the nation has faced amid the pandemic. It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off ... to be replaced by immigrants flown in from abroad, Trump told reporters at the White House. We must take care of the American worker. Trump, who has pushed for certain areas of the country to begin easing stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines that have slowed the spread of the virus but spurred widespread business closures, said he would evaluate economic conditions after the two-month ban to ascertain whether immigration would be reopened. Trump noted the restrictions on immigration applied to those seeking green cards, not entry on a temporary basis. He said the new policy would be in effect following an executive order that he expects to sign on Wednesday. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter Trumps order would force the country to deny immigrants seeking most work visas, Bloomberg reported. The ban does not include health care or medical research professionals, or workers in food production and others directly helping to protect the supply chain, including farm workers, according to a draft of the order. Immigrants working in the U.S. technology industry on H-1B visas will need to provide updated certifications showing they arent displacing American workers. I have determined that we cannot jump start the domestic economy if Americans are forced to compete against an artificially enlarged labor pool caused by the introduction of foreign workers, Trump said in the draft order. I have determined that the entry of most aliens as permanent or temporary workers in the immediate term would have adverse impacts on the national interest. Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday sharply rebuked the president for the upcoming immigration executive order, which Trump announced without details in a 10 p.m. tweet Monday. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a former presidential candidate who recently endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, accused the president of scapegoating immigrants. Donald Trump is once again vilifying immigrants to cover for his own incompetence, Sanders said on Twitter. The American people are tired of his xenophobia and racism. The COVID-19 outbreak has crippled the economy as businesses have been forced to close and Americans stay home and avoid gatherings. More than 20 million Americans have filed for unemployment over the last several weeks. Trump said he hoped the economy would significantly improve in the next two months, which will be the key factor on whether he keeps the ban in place for another 30 or 60 days or even longer, he said. The president also confirmed he was considering a second executive order that would eliminate some of the exceptions in the initial ban. He was adamant, though, that farm workers would not be impacted. I want our citizens to get jobs. I dont want them to have competition," Trump said, denying that he was pushing to limit legal immigration in addition to his administrations crackdowns on illegal immigration. "Were in a very unusual situation. Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. WASHINGTON Gov. Gavin Newsom and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom on Monday announced the donation and distribution of tens of thousands of laptops and other technology to help bridge the digital divide as Californias students learn online during the coronavirus stay-at-home orders. Companies including Apple, Amazon, T-Mobile, Verizon, HP and Microsoft have donated 70,000 additional laptops and tablet-type devices, or money toward them, for the state to distribute to students who may not have access to computers at home, building on earlier efforts to support distance learning among the disadvantaged. The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife Ann have each donated $1 million to the effort. Newsom also announced a $30 million investment from the state into acquiring more devices and further extending internet access, and said the city of Sacramento will deploy a proof of concept effort to convert seven city school buses into mobile hotspots. If the buses show promise, the state will deploy similar plans statewide. He said his team is working on plans to allow learning to continue into the summer, when many annual programs are likely to be unavailable due to social distancing efforts. The announcement follows a pledge earlier this month from Google to give out 100,000 internet hotspots and 4,000 Chromebooks to families in need. Newsom said Monday the Chromebooks have been distributed through regional education centers and the hotspots will roll out the first week in May. The governor noted that unequal access to technology and the internet is always a challenge to students having an equal shot at education, and the pandemic that has forced the closure of schools for the rest of the year is only exacerbating that phenomenon. The issues of equity, the issues of access and availability of laptops, computers and screens, issues of connectivity as it relates to internet, broadband all of those issues vexing even under natural (conditions) but particularly under the circumstances are made more acute and more fundamental, Newsom said. California has 6.2 million K-12 students, roughly one-fifth of whom lacked connectivity at home when the crisis began, officials said. That number has since been cut at least in half, officials have said. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Gov. Newsom also said the effort will only continue. Thurmond called for the pandemic response to once and for all close the digital divide for Californias students. Siebel Newsom said Mondays announcement should help hundreds of thousands of students access their education. 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. To all of these families, I want you to know that youve been on the governors and my mind every day since this crisis started, Siebel Newsom said. And I want you to know that we have your back and will continue to fight for you. Siebel Newsom spoke of her own experience juggling the learning needs of four kids, ages 10 and under, with her work noting that shes well aware her family has more resources than plenty of California homes. We all know education is fundamental to opportunity, and so our mission will not end until every child in California has what they need to continue learning while physically distanced, she said. This pandemic should not stand in the way of California students reaching their potential and realizing their dreams. Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan About 2,000 people honked, cheered and jeered against coronavirus restrictions Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., the latest and one of the largest rallies in a growing movement nationwide against governors balancing healthcare and economic concerns. Motorists honked horns while circling the Capitol. Protesters waved flags and signs that said "Freedom is essential" and "Rednecks 2 reopen PA," while urging Gov. Tom Wolf to end the shutdown of non-essential businesses. "Unfortunately, some people have lost their lives to the virus," said state GOP Rep. Aaron Bernstine, amid the signs for "Work not welfare" and "Church is essential." "My heart goes out to every one of those people. But my heart also goes out to the 1.5 million people in Pennsylvania out of work." But Wolf, a Democrat who threatened to veto a bill to ease restrictions from the Republican legislature, has said the nationwide lack of testing materials remained an obstacle to gradually reopening the economy. "We each feel that we are responsible citizens, said Matthew Bellis, a member of ReOpen PA, one of the groups that organized the rally, with Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine and End the Lockdown PA. We are adults and want to be treated as such. Banners flew across the West during the weekend demanding governors reopen states for business in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Washington state. But healthcare workers in Denver also demonstrated their concerns by wearing scrubs while blocking protesting motorists. Across Tennessee, hundreds of people urged an end to Gov. Bill Lees statewide shutdown order, with protests Sunday outside the Capitol in Nashville, and in cities including Knoxville, Chattanooga, Jackson and Memphis. After Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers extended his stay-at-home order to May 26, about 1,000 protesters protested the move with signs and flags Saturday in Brookfield and about 70 people turned out Sunday in Madison. Story continues We have never cowered to a virus in this country before ever, Kirsten Lombard, 53, of McFarland, said outside the Capitol building. I dont know why we are now. More protests planned More confrontations are on tap, organized through social media often with just a few days notice. Rallies are planned Tuesday in North Carolina, Wednesday in Virginia and Friday in Wisconsin. President Donald Trump supported protesters Sunday, saying that some governors have gone too far without naming them. I have never seen so many American flags at a rally as I have at these rallies, Trump said during a daily news conference. They want to get back to work. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told ABC News on Sunday that protests were largely in states with Democratic governors that shouldnt be exaggerated. But I think of it largely as a distraction and the presidents embrace of it as a distraction from the fact that he has not appropriately done testing, treatment, contact tracing, and quarantine, Pelosi said. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said protesting stay-at-home orders could backfire if easing restrictions leads to the spread of more illness. If you jump the gun, and go into a situation where you have a big spike, youre going to set yourself back, Fauci told ABC News on Monday. So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening its going to backfire. Thats the problem. Some of about 250 people who lined both sides of Meridian Street adjacent to the Governor's Residence on Saturday, April 18, 2020 hold signs. The protesters want businesses in Indiana reopened during the coronavirus pandemic. States announce plans to reopen In Tennessee, Gov. Lee announced Monday that the vast majority of businesses in 89 counties would be allowed to reopen May 1, but that he would work with business leaders and health officials six metropolitan counties to develop reopening strategies. While I am not extending the safer at home order past the end of April, we are working directly with our major metropolitan areas to ensure they are in a position to reopen as soon and safely as possible, said Lee. Social distancing works, and as we open up our economy it will be more important than ever that we keep social distancing as lives and livelihoods depend on it. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday that while still urging social distancing, he would allow restaurants, theaters and private clubs to reopen April 27. But he said bars, nightclubs and amusement park rides would remain closed. His stay-at-home order expires April 30, but he said the elderly and medically fragile should plan to remain sheltered through May 13. By taking this measured action, we will get Georgians back to work safely without undermining the progress that we have all made in the battle against COVID-19, Kemp said. Weekend protests voiced frustration More than 200 people rallied Saturday afternoon outside the Indiana Gov. Eric Holcombs residence to protest what they describe as government overreach in the efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Protesters compared Holcomb to a tyrant and argued that his orders violate the state and federal Constitutions. "He's not a king," said Elizabeth Fiscus of Greencastle. "We have separation of powers for a reason." Holcomb called the protest "an almost perfect Petri dish" to potentially spread the virus. But Holcomb has said his administration is doing everything it can to get through the crisis safely. "I totally get the anxiety and the impatience and the desire to get back out there and get back out the way things used to be," he said Monday. "We're on the right path." In Texas, Austin Mayor Steve Adler on Sunday said he was encouraged that Gov. Greg Abbotts plan to reopen Texas businesses would be governed by the science and the data. But he said protesters who defy social-distancing warnings are pretty selfish. About 300 protesters some from as far as Fort Worth or Corpus Christi chanted Let us work and Fire Fauci Saturday at what was called a You Cant Close America Rally on the steps of the Capitol. I was fortunate that it was a relatively small group, because any large gatherings like that, I think, were a real concern not just to the people that were there but to the community generally, Adler told MSNBC on Sunday. People who gather in situations like that, I think, are being pretty selfish. Contributing: Kim Strong, York Daily Record; Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Amelia Pak-Harvey, Indianapolis Star; Roberto Villalpando, Austin American Statesman. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronovius: Anti-quarantine protest in Pennsylvania draws about 2,000 Its been 33 days since California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the first statewide stay-at-home order, and 42 others soon followed suit. What it will take to reopen their economies is a question on everyones mind, and a consensus is forming: From the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Harvard University Center for Ethics to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , experts dont believe governments and businesses can safely reopen without wide-scale testing and tracing. To that end, some researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and separately at companies such as Apple and Google, are designing mobile apps to help fill that key role.For the past few weeks, MIT has been promoting its new Safe Paths platform , consisting of a mobile application called Private Kit and a Web application, Safe Places. Described by MITs white paper as a free, open source tool for agencies and individuals to trace positive cases of COVID-19, Safe Paths uses GPS and Bluetooth to log peoples locations in a secure diary, so if they wind up testing positive for the coronavirus, they can provide health officials with a record of where theyve been. Health officials can then use the Safe Places Web app to redact personally identifiable information from the location trail and release the information to the public, so other people can look up or even get automatic notifications if they recently crossed paths with any carriers.Associate professor Ramesh Raskar, the lead on the project, toldon Monday that his team is in discussions to implement the app in 15 municipalities in the U.S. and more than 20 governments internationally.Two things (interested governments) have to do: One is, they should contact us , he said. And two, through Ernst & Young we provide a training program for local health officials. So they can download our software, and EY can provide training on how to do interviews, how they record the data, how to release the data and everything. And then separately, the local officials need to promote the use of the apps amongst their citizens. The app, of course, is free, nonprofit, open source.Being open source and interoperable with other similar apps is crucial, Raskar said, if the goal is to build the base of knowledge about the locations and prevalence of COVID-19 cases in every community that will be necessary to reopen the economy. Absent an organized federal test-and-trace program, state and local governments will need to acquire that information themselves, hence projects like Safe Paths.In a recent joint announcement , Apple and Google said theyre working on a similar software kit, with plans to release application programming interfaces (APIs) in May that will allow interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities. Details have yet to be announced, but in the coming months, both companies will release a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform: a more robust solution than an API (that) would allow more individuals to participate, if they choose to opt in, as well as enable interaction with a broader ecosystem of apps and government health authorities, according to the announcement.Similar contact tracing mobile apps are underway around the world: In Europe, Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing is developing a scalable, interoperable software system for mobile-based contact tracing; in Singapore, the government used a tool called TraceTogether ; in Hong Kong, it was called StayHomeSafe In short, contact tracing in the United States and around the world will be a team effort. MIT said its working in various capacities with people from Harvard, Stanford, State University of New York at Buffalo, Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies; as well as with experts from governments and institutions in Canada, Germany, India, Italy, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.Above all, Raskar was adamant that contact tracing will still require interviews and organized work from public agencies, in addition to data yielded by mobile apps and software platforms.(Local governments) can show the maps on the 7 oclock news, or publish it in the newspaper the next morning, saying This is Starbucks at 2 p.m. at this grocery store. If you came in contact with this (place or person), then we want you to call us if you have symptoms or if youre an at-risk population. So even those citizens who dont have a smartphone can see this map and say Hey, I was at Starbucks at 2 p.m. on Tuesday and I wasnt careful, so I should probably call public health, he said. But we think that manual contact tracing by public officials is a very important piece of the puzzle. We dont think this problem can be solved purely by a piece of software. The government is working out a 70,000 crore financial package for the power sector that is battling to stay afloat amid plunging cash inflows, sharp drop in bill collections and unchanged tariffs that are bleeding their balance sheets. Power tariff collections, the primary revenue source for distribution companies (Discoms) that carry electricity to homes, factories and the corporate towers, have fallen by nearly 80 percent in the last monthly cycle, top government officials told Hindustan Times. The nationwide lockdown has put a hard stop across Indias broader economy as factories have remained shut, construction activity suspended, and restaurants and shops, other than those selling essentials, closed since March 24. Despite a fast approaching summer with temperatures pushing 40 degree centigrade in many areas across the north-western plains, peak power demand has fallen sharply as economic activity remains restricted to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Current power consumption has dropped to 125 gigawatts as compared to 165-168 gigawatts in April 2019, triggering a dramatic collapse in discoms bill collections. Most discoms, officials said, have reported revenue collections that are equivalent to about one-fifth of their average collections last year, mirroring the fiscal brittleness of Indias power sector. From about 55,000 crore that a discom used to earn during a 30-45 day cycle last year, the average collections during the last 30-odd days have fallen to about 12,000 crore. The Union power ministry will now seek to fast-track a 70,000 crore financial package that will aid the beleaguered power companies to navigate this difficult period. The package, which could be taken to the cabinet for approval as early as next week, is likely to offer a moratorium and restructuring of debt repayment by power companies spread over an eight-year period, officials said. A revision in the tariff structure, which will allow power companies to charge higher rates from consumers, is also a possibility after economic activity gathers pace and companies gradually start scaling up operations. The power sector has been hard hit with the lockdown since the producer has to pay for a fixed charge to keep the generation going despite much lower consumption. The Centre is looking to introduce several reforms including limiting cross-subsidies where industrial consumers pay a higher rate to enable discoms to keep rates of domestic consumers low. Thermal power companies that account for 70 percent of Indias power generation have had to put up with the system of paying for coal in advance and stocking these up by paying high railway freight rates despite falling demand, denting their cash position. The last issue is being resolved through a Usance letter of credit or deferred payment of credit, a power ministry official said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Tuesday criticised the Rajasthan government, saying Jaipur became a hotspot of coronavirus because of carelessness of the administration in effectively restricting public movement. He said the government should focus more on controlling the spread of the virus in Jaipur and less on taking credit for the "Bhilwara model" of aggressive containment. He alleged that police did not enforce the lockdown effectively, pointing out that people from Ramganj in Jaipur managed to reach Barmer and Sambhar despite a curfew. The minister told PTI the Jaipur police commissionerate was lax in enforcing the restrictions that led to the spread. "The state government is following the policy of appeasement and therefore there is no effective restriction of people's movement in Ramganj and nearby areas," he said. Jaipur MP Ramcharan Bohra has written to Home Minister Amit Shah to seek his intervention in tackling the situation in Ramganj. He has alleged that lockdown and curfew norms were violated and the state government failed in Ramganj. When contacted, Jaipur Police Commissioner Anand Srivastava said curfew and lockdown were enforced properly in the city and battalions of Rajasthan Armed Constabulary have been deployed in Ramganj. Ramganj, a densely populated locality in the walled city, reported the first case on March 27 after which curfew was clamped in the area. The coronavirus positive man infected many in his family and the locality, which later spread to various parts of Jaipur. A total of 619 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Jaipur and most of them are from Ramganj and nearby areas. Also, 13 patients have died in the state capital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Moscow Will Be Able to Sleep Soundly With Its Next-Gen Missile Shield: Here's Why Sputnik News 14:30 GMT 20.04.2020(updated 14:40 GMT 20.04.2020) The Russian military has been extremely tight-lipped about the development of a successor to the A-135 Amur anti-ballistic missile system, which has guarded the skies of the Russian capital for the past 25 years now. Still, occasionally a bit of information gets through, enabling observers to piece together details about the system's capabilities. The development of the A-235 Nudol missile defence system goes back to the late 1970s, when the highly secretive Vympel NPO design bureau was tasked with the creation of a missile defence system to succeed the A-135 Amur. The development of the A-135 began in 1971, and was successfully deployed in 1995. Moscow's work to create a missile defence system for the capital was allowed under the terms of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, a 1972 agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States which placed limitations on the number of anti-ballistic complexes each country could produce to two, armed with up to 100 anti-ballistic missiles apiece. Work on the A-235 was frozen in the 1990s due to lack of funds and warming relations between Moscow and Washington, but restarted in 2011 by Almaz-Antey, nine years after the Bush administration unilaterally terminated the ABM Treaty. In the years since, the A-235, codenamed the 'Nudol' (presumably after the Nudol River in Russia's Moscow region), has become one of the most closely-guarded secrets of the Russian defence industry. Key facts about the system: - The A-235's interceptor missiles will make use of the Don-2N radar the same large, pillbox-shaped missile defence and early warning system radar network outside Moscow that provides guidance for the A-135, although upgrades are expected to be made to accommodate the new missiles. - In addition to ballistic missiles, the A-235 is expected to be able to take on and defeat maneuverable manned and unmanned spacecraft in near space. - The system will consist of several types of solid-fueled rockets, with a range of up to 1,500 km, and the ability to accelerate to speeds of up to Mach 10. Unlike its predecessor, the A-235 is expected to use kinetic force (i.e. smashing into its targets at high speed), not nuclear or high-explosive fragmentation, to accomplish its mission. Don-2N radar system. Artist's rendering from the 80s DIA publication 'Soviet Military Power' - Another important feature of the A-235 is mobility with the interceptor warheads expected to be deployable aboard road-mobile transport vehicles. - Testing of the Nudol is thought to have started in either 2014 or 2015 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwest Russia, with about ten tests believed to have been completed since then. The latest test reportedly took place as recently as last week, when US Space Command reported on a Russian test of a direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) missile. The launch reportedly took place from Plesetsk on April 15, and Popular Mechanics speculates the missile used may have been the A-235. The Russian military has yet to provide any information regarding the suspected test. Amur No Slouch Either Although the A-235 is expected to be a significant improvement over the A-135 Amur, the current system is no slouch when it comes to protecting the skies around Moscow. The A-135 features a fully automated target detection and tracking system, including the ability to distinguish between real and potential dummy warheads. The system has received multiple upgrades, taking particular advantage of the miniaturization of components made possible in the 2000s. Commenting on the Nudol's expected capabilities, Viktor Murakhovsky, editor in chief of Arsenal of the Fatherland, a Russian military magazine, speculated that functionally, the A-235 will essentially be a deeply modernized version of the A-135, with the system's primary mission remaining the same: the defence of Moscow and the central Russian industrial region from ICBM attack. As for the Nudol's expected anti-satellite capabilities, the observer noted this would be a very welcome feature, "because the US's intention to deploy new weapons systems in space is very worrying. The Nudol effectively counters such threats." Plans to make the A-235 mobile are also important, according to Murakhovsky, given the Pentagon's 'Prompt Global Strike' initiative the concept of a massed precision-guided conventional airstrike meant to decapitate an opponent's ability to retaliate to an attack without resorting to the use of nuclear weapons. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address We recently saw a photo of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of the late Senator Robert Kennedy, with an image of Che Guevara in the background. At first, I thought that the lady was photographed in the wrong place. I tried very hard to give her the benefit of the doubt. After all, she is the widow of a former attorney general and U.S. senator plus sister in law of a president who almost went to nuclear war over Cuba. We were later told that Mrs. Kennedy is a big fan of Che because she has a "subversive streak." With all due respect to Ethel Kennedy, who just turned 92 this month, Che was not exactly nice to subversives. He usually locked or executed them. The lady's love affair with Che reminds me of what Howard LaFranchi of the Christian Science Monitor wrote a few years ago entitled "Bush and Che: different concepts of freedom." My favorite line is this: "The admiration for El Che no longer extends to his politics and ideology, certainly not to his Marxism," says Martin Krause, dean of the Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration in Buenos Aires and a longtime analyst of Argentine society. "It's a romantic idea of one man going to battle against the windmills, he's a Quixote. In other words, they don't have a clue of who this man was. They love the image on the T-shirt or that he rode a motorcycle up and down the countryside. Che was about tyranny and repression. There is nothing romantic about Che, unless you believe in political prisons or you don't know anything about this man's life. It is not fun to start an argument with a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. However, watching people who live in freedom sharing the stage with Che is hard on the eye. P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment With mandatory isolation and record number unemployment, most people are making life changing decisions they never had to consider before. How might people's worldview change now that their work identity is taken away and they have general uncertainty in their life? God wants to use the loss of peoples work identities, self worth and finance as opportunities to find Him. Secular society conditions people into falsely believing that their work identity is who they are. People are also falsely conditioned to believe that their worth is derived from their performance and status. Christians should know that their true identity is who they are in God. With the layoffs by companies as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, many people will be asking themselves, "now that I've lost my job and can't work who am I"? Part of the answer can be found in the gospel of Mark 10:17-31, where Jesus responds to a rich man, who is symbolic of the secular world, who asked him what he has to do to receive eternal life and enter the spiritual kingdom that Jesus is teaching about. Jesus tells the man, "go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me". Jesus knew that everything that the rich man built his identity, self worth and life on was temporary and not of God. Jesus knew that unless the rich man got rid of everything that was blinding him from knowing God, he would be kept in bondage forever and never be able to see God and know his true identity. The treasure in heaven that Jesus talks about is having salvation and a relationship with God while alive on Earth and eternally in heaven. With this treasure we experience His presence, love, peace, salvation, supernatural power and many other things. Unlike physical treasures that depend on external factors that can be lost or taken away due to circumstances beyond people's control, Jesus promises that everything that he gives spiritually can't be taken away from people. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal - Matthew 6: 19-20 Unlike the rich man who Jesus gave a choice to exchange everything worldly to gain everything spiritually in his kingdom, people who have lost everything worldly due to coronavirus were forced into this situation. Jesus, however, is giving them the choice to make the most of the situation by giving them an opportunity to gain everything spiritually through him by seeking God. People who have lost everything financially are actually in the best position to find and know God. Jesus said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" - Luke 6:21. Jesus promises them: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened - Matthew 7:7 There are numerous promises that Jesus makes to his people who are worried about not having their physical needs supplied that are best reflected in Matthew chapter 6, verses 25-34. So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own - Matthew 6: 31-34 The decisions that people make during forced isolation will either lead to life or destruction. Everything that God wants people to learn in relationship with him through Jesus is about giving them abundant life (John 10:10) and freedom (2 Corinthians 3: 17). On the other hand, Satan, who Jesus says has come "only to steal, kill and destroy" (John 10:10) is busy tempting people into starting new addictions. Media reports indicate that alcohol and porn access have risen dramatically during forced isolation. Satan knows that he can control people with addictions and that it is much harder for them to obey and follow Jesus in bondage. This can ultimately lead to a persons destruction in their life now and the one to come. But God always provides a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13). Temptation is part of the free will that God gives us so we can decide if we belong to Him or belong to the world. God needed to give us free will so He can know that our relationship with Him would be genuine and not forced. Free time is not just free time. Small decisions that people make now can have eternal consequences. Will those choices bring life or destruction? God wants everyone to choose wisely by receiving Jesus and building a relationship with him that leads to eternal life. Many people will acknowledge that if the coronavirus pandemic did not happen, they would not have found God. It is unfortunate that many people will only seek Jesus when they have lost everything and are broken because they have been deceived by the illusion that they dont need Him. Once the pride of life is taken away, people are in more of a position to see that they are in fact completely dependent on God and that He has always been there waiting patiently like a loving father for them to come home. [April 21, 2020] In Time of Need, IMA to Provide Free Access to Many Resources to Nonmembers for 90 Days DUBAI, UAE, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IMA (Institute of Management Accountants), the association of accountants and financial professionals in business, wants to help those in the accounting and finance profession cope with the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, IMA is making many valuable education and networking resources available free of charge to nonmembers for 90 days. As all organizations and professions continue to work through the COVID-19 pandemic together, IMA is focused on the safety of its global community of members, volunteers, and staff. IMA is providing a variety of resources, most of which are available at no cost, including select learning products, publications, and career and networking resources to nonmembers. "During this pandemic, which is tragically impacting lives and livelihoods, it is important that IMA does its part by offering free access for 90-days to its educational and networking resources," said Jeff Thomson, CMA, CSCA, CAE, IMA President and CEO. "We need to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and we can come out stronger if we commit to being learning individuals and organizations, and education is part of our social responsibility." IMA resources available include a variety of live webinars and online corses, most of which offer NASBA Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits. Some of the most valuable resources include the new IMA Data Analytics & Visualization Fundamentals Certificate and the IMA Strategy and Competitive Analysis Learning Series, which will be available for free until April 30. IMA is also offering its CareerDriver Assessment Tool that helps individuals assess their skills and create development plans to close skill gaps using IMA's more than 1,000 resources. Professionals will also have access to myIMA Network, a global network of accounting and finance professionals, along with 300+ chapters and councils that provide IMA services at the local level. IMA's thought leadership, including its publications, podcasts, and articles, in addition to with preparation materials for CMA (Certified Management Accountant) candidates, are accessible as well. Academics will have classroom/teaching resources available for their use. Academics enrolled as professional members will receive IMA Educational Case Journal (IECJ) cases with teaching notes upon request. For more information about IMA and resources available for the next 90 days, please visit https://www.imanet.org/career-resources/free-access-to-ima-resources-for-90-days?ssopc=1. For more information about IMA's measures amid COVID-19, click here. About IMA (Institute of Management Accountants) IMA, named the 2017 and 2018 Professional Body of the Year by The Accountant/International Accounting Bulletin, is one of the largest and most respected associations focused exclusively on advancing the management accounting profession. Globally, IMA supports the profession through research, the CMA (Certified Management Accountant) and CSCA (Certified in Strategy and Competitive Analysis) programs, continuing education, networking, and advocacy of the highest ethical business practices. IMA has a global network of more than 125,000 members in 150 countries and 300 professional and student chapters. Headquartered in Montvale, N.J., USA, IMA provides localized services through its four global regions: The Americas, Asia/Pacific, Europe, and Middle East/India. For more information about IMA, please visit www.imanet.org. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/in-time-of-need-ima-to-provide-free-access-to-many-resources-to-nonmembers-for-90-days-301044298.html SOURCE IMA [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Lunch from the future? Some may say that. Instead it was lunch from the sky. While local restaurants across the state and down the street are navigating the Stay Safe, Stay Home order due to the coronavirus pandemic, Kiki Air a drone delivery service started by a Yale student has partnered with four local establishments to deliver sandwiches, coffee, pastries and snacks as the crow flies. On Wednesday afternoon I borrowed my girlfriend's iPhone (the Kiki Air app is only available for iOS, not Android), ordered a Reuben from one of my favorite sandwich places in New Haven, Meat & Co. and waited not long. CT Insider: In aerial photos: What Connecticut looks like when nearly everyone stays home About 10 minutes later I got a call: Hi, did you order a Reuben from Meat & Co.? Were about to take off. Well be there in about 30 seconds. Just like that I was looking at the bright blue sky, with a few fair weather clouds hanging around, as I heard the buzzing of a drone overhead. Still on the phone, I became an air-traffic controller. I was standing in my driveway, but the camera on the drone cant see people. The pilot told me it is a privacy feature. So, over the phone I directed the drone as close to overhead as possible before I was told, OK, were going to release the package. From about 50 feet, my sandwich wrapped in two layers of paper and stuffed in a teal padded envelope wrapped in string came tumbling out of the sky, crashing onto my driveway. I thanked the pilot, picked up my lunch and went inside. My unwrapped sandwich had one glaring issue: It was cold. I guess thats what you get when you order a traditionally hot sandwich to be delivered through the sky on a 50-degree day. DATABASE: Here's where you can order a meal to go in Connecticut - - - In February, Kiki Air suspended operations to work with Yale University and the federal government to improve its protocols. Yale, and most of New Haven, sits within Class D airspace, which requires FAA authorization to fly a drone. As of publication, Kiki Air was delivering to two neighborhoods East Rock in New Haven and Spring Glen in Hamden and had partnered with Olmo, The Jitter Bus and The Mystic Cheese Company in addition to Meat & Co. The app uses location data from your phone, so if you're not in the authorized location, you will not be able to place an order. And it's strict. I originally tried to order from my front yard and it didn't work. But it's pretty cool that I can get a sandwich delivered by drone to my backyard (where my driveway is). Kiki Air did not return a call for comment. Representative image The tally of coronavirus cases crossed the 3,000-mark in Mumbai on Monday after 155 more people tested positive, while the death toll rose to 138 with the virus killing seven more patients here, the city civic body said. According to a BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) release, the number of COVID-19 cases now stood at 3,090. The spurt in cases has raised concerns among authorities about the pace of the coronavirus spread as 1,000 new cases were added in just four days. The BMC said 84 more patients have recovered from the disease and discharged from hospitals, taking the number of cured cases to 394. "Out of the seven persons who died, six had comorbidities (pre-existing illnesses) and one had age-related factors," the civic body said. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Highlighting the reason for the spike in cases, the BMC said samples of 137 patients tested positive in various labs between April 14 and 17, and they were added to the tally as per reports received on Monday. "These patients are already admitted in isolation wards and undergoing treatment," said the release. The BMC informed that civic-run Kasturba Hospital is in the process of getting approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for starting plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients and a list of eligible donors is being prepared for this. Convalescent plasma therapy uses antibodies from the blood of cured patients to treat severely-ill COVID-19 patients. BMC-run Nair Hospital will be the centre for extracting plasma from donors (people who have recovered from coronavirus), the release said. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here Boston: Massachusetts has become a hotspot of coronavirus infections, drawing the concern of federal officials and promises of aid from hard-hit New York. The state's death toll is expected to surpass 2,000 this week, doubling in less than a week. Officials are scrambling to boost hospital capacity and trace new infections to curb the spread of the disease. Vice President Mike Pence has said the White House is closely watching the Boston area. The coordinator of the federal coronavirus task force, Dr. Deborah Birx, said officials are very much focused on Massachusetts. There were 146 new deaths reported in Massachusetts on Sunday, bringing the state's death toll to more than 1,700. [April 20, 2020] Italian Chamber of Commerce Rolls out New Initiatives to Battle COVID-19 SINGAPORE, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In light of the COVID-19 pandemic bringing about an unprecedented impact on businesses and workers around the world, companies need to adapt faster than ever before by showing how business can be done differently. With a mission to foster and strengthen bilateral business, economic, commercial and industrial relations between Italy and Singapore, the Italian Chamber of Commerce (ICCS), a non-profit association, has unveiled the necessary measures implemented in accordance with guidance on social distancing during these trying times. The series of initiatives for its Italian members kicks off with an e-commerce strategy, with ICCS engaging the help of online stores such as Shopee, Lazada and RedMart. Through these partnerships, Italian companies protected under the ICCS umbrella are able to sustain brand presence in the respective markets, with the ability to reach out to consumers through virtual experiences. Amplifying on the efforts to transform to a digital workspace, ICCS has increased it digitised offerings, with Webinars in place of events. The Webinars is scheduled to take place in the Asian afternoon time, in order to allow participation from a European audience. "As a result of the lockdown measures, we have seen a clear increase in interest and demand for information and training from Italy," comments Alberto Maria Martinelli, President of ICCS. With determination to make a difference on ground, ICCS takes a step further to support the Italian Civil Protection Agency by granting further economic assistance to battle the crisis in Italy. Through this meaningful initiative, the ICCS Management and their Board Members have collectively contributed on behalf of the Chambers. Building on these humanitarian efforts, ICCS announced that they have engaged a reliable and efficient channel to purchase sanitary products, to be sent to Italy to provide urgent help for emergency services and caregivers, to strengthen healthcare systems. "We will continue to show ongoing support of the Italian business community in Singapore and in Italy with the launch of our e-commerce and business-to-consumer projects, focused on expansion in the Asian region," Mr. Martinelli signs off with these words to reassure the community. To find out more about Italian Chamber of Commerce, please visit: http://www.italchamber.org.sg About Italian Chamber of Commerce (ICCS) The Italian Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit association recognized by the Italian Government and member of Assocamerestero, apex body of over 70 Italian Chambers abroad. The Chamber aims to strengthen bilateral relations between Italy and Singapore in collaboration with strategic partners from the two Countries. The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore is geared to provide a wide range of business services tailored to the requirements of its members, as well as Italian and Singaporean companies. Thanks to strategic partnerships with Institutions, Chambers of Commerce and Agencies in the ASEAN region, the Chamber is a springboard for business in South-East Asia beyond Singapore. Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200420/2781046-1logo SOURCE Italian Chamber of Commerce [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] T he front-month May West Texas Intermediate (WTI) the United States (US) oil price benchmark futures contract crashed into negative territory for the first time on April 20. Though this was a temporary phenomenon, and one that is specific to the way WTI contracts work in the context of the US oil industry, it is a clear indication that the coronavirus disease (Covid-19)-induced demand rout has triggered a glut with consequences that are ricocheting across oil markets, including affecting Brent the leading international standard for crude prices. This is despite US President Donald Trumps mediating efforts to stabilise the global oil industry through an Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec)++ pact even though he is a self-confessed Opec hater. On April 12, the Opec+ cartel a group of 23 oil-producing nations after much dramatic posturing cobbled together a historic agreement to slash oil production by 9.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) through May and June, after which the cuts taper off till 2022. Notwithstanding its enviable credentials, the agreement will fall short of propping up prices enough to ward off shut-ins. It will only function to arrest Brent touching single digits and provide some relief before the storage tanks spillover. This becomes evident on unpacking the numbers. The 10 members of the Opec and another 10 of the extended Opec+ group will reduce oil production by 6.085 mb/d and 3.615 mb/d respectively to balance supply against plunging demand. US-sanctioned Iran and Venezuela and war-torn Libya are exempt from the cuts. Saudi Arabia and Russia, the second- and third-largest oil producers globally, have agreed to each cut 2.5 mb/d of their production from a baseline of 11 mb/d. Meanwhile, some other numbers are being thrown around. Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman said that the Opec++ (Opec+ and other oil producers) group will take 19.5 mb/d supply off the pipelines, voluntarily or otherwise, from May. Russian energy minister Alexander Novak pegs the effective cuts at 15-20 mb/d while Trump, through his diplomatic tool of choice, Twitter, has written that cuts will total 20mb/d. This, ostensibly, is by factoring in expected curtailed production of 3.7 mb/d of G20 countries, such as the US, Brazil and Canada; supply cuts through national purchases for strategic petroleum reserves; and possible cuts by Norway. There are many moving parts here. It is difficult to predict how much American production will fall given the divergence within the industry to accept quota cuts. The Railroad Commission of Texas the Texas regulatory agency had the last statewide cut in 1973. Although, Mexico has agreed to a 100,000 barrel cut, the US has said it will help Mexico by picking up some of the slack the specifics of this are still unclear. Irrespective, even if one considers the 20 mb/d supply-reduction scenario as realistic, the demand destruction is staggering enough to overwhelm the proposed cuts. According to the International Energy Agency, the fall in global demand for crude will be 29 mb/d for April and 26 mb/d for May. Some other oil traders are estimating it to be 35mb/d. A 3% decline in growth in 2020, as predicted by the International Monetary Fund, erases almost a year of oil demand growth. Assuming there is compliance by the members, the Opec++ reductions, therefore, will only partially offset supply overhang till the next quarter. But compliance to quota cuts for Opec+ members has been faulty on prior occasions--some, such as Saudi Arabia, make deeper cuts while others cheat on their pledges. The question remains: Who will monitor compliance? The G20 energy ministers meet on April 10 signed an agreement to set up a voluntary focus group which will monitor oil markets. But the locus standi of a G20 platform to monitor an Opec country is questionable. The only real physical barrier to shutting the oil spigots is when storage spaces run out. Moreover, a deal does not signal that Riyadh and Moscow have buried the hatchet after their recent market-share scuffle. The kingdom has slashed its official selling price, ostensibly eyeing the Mediterranean and Asian markets, and swelling global crude inventories till the new deal kicks in. Reportedly, it is also selling about 600,000 barrels of crude per day to the US this month the highest volume in a year. Moscow and others will react to push their own volumes. Meanwhile, Washington has not yet dismissed the possibility of oil import tariffs to protect its domestic oil industry. The dynamics between the three alpha males of the oil industry the US, Russia and Saudi Arabia played out in this vulnerable landscape will further determine how low Brent settles. The markets have figured this out, notwithstanding the padded reduction figures. Predictably, Brent whimpered up a few dollars after the Opec+ pact before falling below $30 again. Market reports suggest that Brent needs to skip over $40 and remain pinned there to prevent oil producers revenues from shrinking further. With pipelines and storages clogging up and the virus continuing to gobble oil demand at unprecedented levels, pressure is building on de facto leaders of the Opec+ group, Saudi Arabia and Russia, to seam a broader alliance or deepen cuts. However, countering the impacts of this pandemic on oil markets will be a daunting task for a wobbly cartel of oil producers with divergent interests. Shreerupa Mitra is an expert on international politics with HPCL, and the executive director of The Energy Forum The views expressed are personal Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-20 19:45:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A staff member works at the UNESCO Palace, where the Lebanese Parliament will hold a session because it allows MPs more room for social distancing amid COVID-19 pandemic, in Beirut, Lebanon, on April 20, 2020. Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Monday by four to 677 with death toll remaining unchanged at 21, the National News Agency reported. (Photo by Bilal Jawich/Xinhua) BEIRUT, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Monday by four to 677 with death toll remaining unchanged at 21, the National News Agency reported. The Lebanese Health Ministry started on Monday doing random tests for people all over the country to assess the extent of the spread of the virus in Lebanon. The ministry has distributed test kits to around seven centers in the country while it plans to conduct around 1,500 tests daily for the time being in an attempt to fight against COVID-19 in a more effective way. Lebanon will start using rapid tests in May. NEW YORK, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The innovative Dutch brand, Ekster , which debuted the world's first solar-powered, trackable smart wallet last year, is now kicking things up a notch with their latest launch, the Key Holder and Key Tracker. Launched on Kickstarter, this highly anticipated project was fully funded within fifteen minutes, making it the scale-up's most successful crowdfunding campaign to date. The Key Holder The Ekster Key Holder is a modern answer to help keep all keys organized, compact and easy to access. With room for three to eight keys, this Key Holder allows access to the right key with a one-handed motion. Keys no longer jab in the leg, or jingle in pockets. The magnetic add-on makes it easy to attach and remove larger keys to the Key Holder without a hassle. The Key Tracker The Key Tracker is a useful piece of tech that fits the Key Holder discreetly, letting users pinpoint the whereabouts of their keys via their phone or Google Home, Alexa or Siri. A built-in LED light helps to stop key damage to cars and doors, and the replaceable battery lasts an impressive six months. About Ekster Ekster creates time-saving designs for smarter living. Since their first crowdfunding campaign three years ago, Ekster has doubled in size every year: they raised 7,000% of their initial goal and hit the $1M first-year revenue mark to become the world's most popular smart wallet. Their products are available in more than 50 stores worldwide, including Macy's, Hudson Yards, and Selfridges. SOURCE Ekster Wallets A federal judge in California on Monday ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to actively and rapidly review the cases of all detained immigrants at increased risk of severe illness or death if they contract the coronavirus and determine whether they should be released. Judge Jesus Bernal of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles said ICE needs to identify all immigrants in its custody who are either over the age of 55, pregnant or suffer from chronic medical conditions like cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer and HIV in the next 10 days or within the first five days of detention for future detainees. He required the agency to make "timely custody determinations" for all detainees who fall into any of the high-risk categories he outlined. Bernal underscored a sense of urgency in his order, admonishing ICE several times for what he described as inadequate and slow efforts to protect detainees. "At this stage of the pandemic, the threat is even clearer. The number of immigration detainees testing positive for COVID-19 continues to increase at an alarming rate," he wrote. Coronavirus cases among the more than 31,000 immigrants held by ICE surged to 220 on Monday, with the agency reporting 96 new cases across the country, according to a notification to Congress obtained by CBS News. Citing declarations by advocates who described conditions at different detention centers, Bernal concluded that ICE "likely exhibited callous indifference to the safety and well-being" of the immigrants he granted relief to. "It is undisputed that COVID-19 finds its way into almost every workplace and communal setting, and the Defendants provide little explanation why immigration detention facilities will be different," Bernal continued, rebuking the government. "Defendants also do not dispute that 15% of individuals in the Subclasses who ultimately contract COVID-19 will die, or that those who survive are likely to suffer life-altering complications." Story continues Virus Outbreak Colorado A protester wields a placard while riding in a convertible as activists take part in a car protest to call for the release of detained immigrants at the GEO Detention Center, because of the coronavirus, Friday, April 3, 2020, in Aurora, Colo. David Zalubowski / AP The order also requires ICE to define and implement "minimum acceptable detention conditions" for all detainees with the risk factors defined by Bernal, including those whom the agency says it has to detain because of criminal convictions. Because immigration detention is a civil matter and designed to ensure immigrants show up for court hearings, ICE has broad authority to release its detainees, including by placing them in programs in which officials monitor them through ankle bracelets or check-ins. ICE did not respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department, which represents the government in federal litigation, also did immediately comment. Earlier this month, ICE announced it would consider releasing detainees who were over the age of 60 or pregnant. The agency later instructed officials to also identify detainees with certain underlying medical conditions, like lung disease and severe asthma, for potential release, according to a directive to detention centers. The agency released nearly 700 detainees under these guidelines, according to ICE and congressional officials. Monday's order appears to expand the categories for release by lowering the age of vulnerable detainees to 55 and defining all the medical conditions that could amount to risk factors. Bernal also noted his order will mandate that ICE field offices make individualized custody determinations for all at risk detainees, not just request that they do which he said is the agency's current policy. Advocates praised Bernal's order, which stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, Disability Rights Advocates and the law firms Orrick LLP and Willkie Farr and Gallagher LLP. "ICE had time to act, and it failed. Fortunately, the court has ordered ICE to do what it should have done long ago: take appropriate measures to reduce risk to medically vulnerable individuals, or free them," Lisa Graybil, a legal director with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement. AJ Sanchez-Martinez, a recently released immigrant named in the lawsuit, said he felt "happy" for others currently in ICE custody who could be freed under Monday's order. "I used to tell people, 'what you see in here from ICE is the worst of America,'" Sanchez-Martinez said in a statement. Broadway performer on a quest to spread joy in his neighborhood Health care workers face benefit and pay cuts amid coronavirus outbreak Coronavirus infections spike at nursing homes across the U.S. Iranian officials have denounced US President Donald Trumps comments that the United States is ready to help the country fight the coronavirus. Ali Rabiei, spokesman for the Hassan Rouhani administration, speaking about Trumps recent statements that if Iran wanted aid to fight the coronavirus outbreak they can ask for it, said, This comment by the president is a personal opinion and we have said multiple times that for us it does not make a difference who lives in the White House. Rabiei said that the difference with Trump is that he makes accusations due to his inability to cooperate with the world and his incorrect understanding of regional issues and domestic [US] issues. Rabiei said that even if a Democrat becomes president, we will not have talks if they do not stop the bullying, sanctions and assassinations. He added, Our recommendation to America is rather than finding the same culprits correct your path. He also reiterated Irans position that the United States return to the talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany under the nuclear deal that the United States exited in May 2018. Irans Foreign Ministry also rejected any talks with the United States, calling it an illusion to think Iran would enter negotiations with the United States. The ministry's spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said at a press conference that the United States cannot be trusted to stick to its commitments and think it can take advantage of Irans positions fighting a pandemic to negotiate. He added that while the United States is currently short of medical supplies Washington claims it wants to help Iran with ventilators. Rather than receive help from the United States, Mousavi said, If there are items for which we do not have a domestic need, we are ready to help the American people. After the US exit from the nuclear deal, they reapplied sanctions. Iran has asked for sanctions relief in order to purchase supplies and goods from foreign markets, a request that the United States has rejected. Medical supplies are not subject to US sanctions under a general humanitarian exemption. As Iran begins the second step of reopening its economy on April 20, after the widespread nationwide shutdowns due to the coronavirus, officials are warning citizens that they are not in the clear. Rabiei told reporters, Essentially we do not have a normalized situation and we have to continue to be cautious. We have no choice but to live with social distancing and observe health protocols. Rabiei said that the country is battling on two fronts right now: sanctions and keeping its citizens healthy. He said that Iran is now producing 4,000,000 masks a day, up from 400,000, and that ventilators and test kits are also produced at home, and soon available for export if needed. As the economy opens up, the administration has been under pressure by some to open up religious places. Mahmoud Vaezi, Rouhanis chief of staff, said that the closure of mosques and other religious sites would remain in place until May 4. He said that the decision was made by the National Headquarters for Combatting the Coronavirus, which the president chairs. Irans confirmed coronavirus case numbers have continued to decrease in the last week. According to Kianoush Jahanpour, Irans Health Ministry spokesman, in the last 24 hours 1,294 new infections have been confirmed and 91 individuals have died. According to official figures, 5,209 people have died and the total number of infections has reached 83,505. UP's Green Gang - which had taken cudgels against alcoholism in some districts - is now helping in the fight against coronavirus by cooking food for the needy, stitching masks and identifying those coming from other states. Clad in green sarees, the women are working as eyes and ears of the UP police and administration. "Active in 55 villages of Varanasi, Jaunpur, Ayodhya, Sonebhadra and Mirzapur, the women of 'Green Gang', as they are known, are doing their bit to help the administration in every way they can," said Divyanshu Upadhyay, founder and secretary of Hope Welfare Trust set up by studentsof the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) with the support of some professors. These women have been running anti-liquor campaigns and fight for social causes in their villages. Each village has a group of 25 such women, who actively champion social causes. "With the spread of COVID-19 virus, we are providing food to migrant labourers. We are also keeping an eye on those coming from other states to their home and inform administration about them. We create awareness regarding coronavirus," saidRoshan Khatoon of Rajgarh Village in Mirzapur. Champa Devi of Naxal-hit Bhawanipur village in Mirzapur, who is group leader of the 'Green Gang', is busy stitching face masks. "We have stitched 500 masks and distributed them among people, telling them about its importance," Champa Devi said. About the funding, President of Hope, Ravi Mishra said, "We and members of our group are contributing for the case. Those members, who have got jobs, are also helping as also professors of BHU." He said that till now ration and food packets have been distributed among 5,000 persons, including migrant labourers, in five districts of the state, where the Green Gang has presence. "Women of our group are themselves cooking and making packets and also going to distribute them," Ankita Singh, a core member of the group, said. She said that they were targeting those who did not have bank accounts or ration cards to get relief from the government and were providing them with necessary ration to survive. Group leaders of different villages like Asha Devi of Khusiari village in Varanasi, Tabassun of Deva, Varanasi, or Manju Devi of Ratia in Ayodhya are collecting rations from villages for the needy. Acknowledging their contribution, then UP DGP OP Singh had given 'police mitra' (friend of police) tag to these women, who at times are very helpful in tackling or giving tips on local issues. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two Rivers Health Director Jeremy Eschliman said the extra testing was requested for Lexington after a small cluster of cases were noted in the community. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Eschliman said it was expected with more testing, would come more cases and said this allows Two Rivers to identify who is sick, and who they have had contact with so quarantine and self-isolation measures can be employed. Bringing in the National Guard to test in Lexington was done because they are a turnkey, operation, Eschliman said who have the proper personal protective equipment, are capable of testing and can offer quick results from their tests. Eschliman said it is known the population of the area moves around frequently for work and other necessities, necessitating more tests are employed here in Lexington for identification of positive cases. In the surrounding area, Gosper County has recorded five positive cases, Phelps County still has only one confirmed cased. In areas which havent seen many confirmed cases, Eschliman cautions against people developing a false sense of security. You shouldnt relax, he said, people need to be cognitive, (the virus) is everywhere. Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday criticised the state government and dismissed its claim that data it shared with the US company Sprinklr is not sensitive. While hearing a petition, the division bench headed by Justice Devan Ramachandran observed that the information regarding the treatment and medical details of individuals are crucial. The court also asked the government whether it is incapable of handling the data of more than two lakh people, including Covid 19 patients and people under home quarantine. The HC also asked whether the government had its own IT wing. The Bench directed the government to ensure that the medical data of people collected for the Sprinklr deal is secure. The government should take necessary measures to ensure that there is no data leakage, the court instructed. The division bench instructed the government not to upload data to Sprinklr until its safety and confidentiality are ensured. Meanwhile, the government submitted before the court that no sensitive data affecting the personal security of individuals has not been transferred to the US company. The HC has directed the governments counsel to give a clarification regarding the privacy of data before April 24 when the case will be considered. Spox: Alien forces should not make Iran to warn IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, April 20, IRNA -- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi described US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's claim that the Iranian troops were deployed in the region, stressing the presence of foreign forces as a source of tension, instability, and insecurity. Asked about the US Secretary of State's claims about the deployment of Iranian armed forces in the region, Mousavi said in a video conference on Monday: "We see the presence of foreign forces, especially the United States, as a source of tension, instability, and insecurity." He noted that their presence is illegitimate and illegal, adding that this is "our region, and if our armed forces are to retreat, it must be unhindered". Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the presence of the US forces prevented the normal deployment of Iran's armed forces. "This has provoked a backlash from our forces," he added. Iran has been in this region for thousands of years, and the security of the region is provided by Iran and the countries of the region, especially Oman, which is located in the Strait of Hormuz. Mousavi continued: "As proposed by the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), we ask foreign forces that are illegally in the region, first, not to be in the region, and secondly, to observe the traffic rules and not to force our forces to warn and warn. With any intention in the region, we want them to leave the region as soon as possible." Regarding the US claim that naval tensions in the Persian Gulf have been created by Iranian forces and the seizure, he said: the US military said in a statement that the United States had denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating "Similar, baseless allegations concerning US intelligence have been made more than once. *** INSTEX; not all the commitment of Europe Regarding the latest developments in the field of INSTEX and the news of the withdrawal of the European countries from continuing to implement this mechanism and whether the expansion of this mechanism will lead to the return of Iran's five nuclear steps, Mousavi said: "And Europe must fulfill all its obligations in the areas of Tehran. I haven't heard anything about Europe's retreat, but I repeat, we will not wait for them. There must be a balance between our rights and our responsibilities in the JCPOA area so that Iran can begin its reversible actions." *** Statement by the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran The official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs commented on the report and remarks made by the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran on Discrimination in Prisoners' Freedom: Those entitled to leave were recognized, and many of their leave was extended, and there was no discrimination between Iranian and domestic prisoners, and even some prisoners who were not ill were given leave to avoid being infected. He added: "Investigations are still ongoing so that people can exercise this right if they are on leave or can be released, otherwise we will not accept the talk of discrimination." **** Iran opposes politicizing Coronavirus / US accuses spreading of coronavirus The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Iran's response to the US attempt to spread the rumor that the Coronavirus had been spread from a laboratory in Wuhan, China: "The Islamic Republic of Iran opposes any attempt to politicize the coronavirus epidemic." The US government has taken this step while being the first defendant in the spread of the virus. Mousavi added: "Today, when the whole world is infected with this virus, we condemn any political action that is carried out with goals such as internal election campaigns, covering up inefficiency and diverting public opinion. We entrust the review of the virus's location to international organizations." *** The US stone-throwing prevented the International Monetary Fund from granting loans to Iran Regarding the latest status of receiving financial facilities from the International Monetary Fund, Mousavi said: "Iran is an ancient member of the International Monetary Fund and it is natural for it to apply for a loan from this fund." On the other hand, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has provided a loan to fight the corona, which we have learned has been stopped by the stoning of the United States and some other countries under false pretenses and baseless allegations. He continued: "Consultations are underway in this regard. We call on international organizations and institutions, as well as the International Monetary Fund, to refrain from politicizing, and we hope that by doing so we will be able to take advantage of the necessary facilities." 6125**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) Experts from the University of the Philippines told President Rodrigo Duterte that canceling classes until December would be an effective way to limit further COVID-19 infections. Dr. Mahar Lagmay represented a group of scientists and academic researchers from the UP System during the President's consultation meeting with experts on Monday, as he decides on the fate of the Luzon-wide lockdown. Lagmay presented some of the group's recommendations in a Tuesday press briefing in Malacanang, which included the suspension of classroom-based lectures until the year ends. "Base doon sa mga model, kapag tayo ay walang klase hanggang December at ito po ay nirerekomenda ay malaki ang maibabawas natin sa transmission ng COVID-19 [Based on our models, if we don't hold classes until December and we are recommending this it will be a big help in reducing COVID-19 transmissions," Lagmay said. The executive director of the UP Resilience Institute added that 56 percent of interactions among age groups happen among those aged 19 and younger meaning they are most likely to come in contact with the elderly and infect them, thus the recommendation. The virus, which mostly targets the lungs, has proven to be more damaging to senior citizens as well as those with preexisting medical conditions. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque later said that the UP team suggested class suspensions until the college level, although another expert from the group pointed out that this would also mean that no new doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals will be able to join the workforce this year. He clarified that the President has not decided on the matter, as well as if he will ease or extend strict lockdown protocols implemented in Luzon. Education Secretary Leonor Briones told CNN Philippines early Tuesday that her agency is now considering to reset the opening of classes to August as a safety measure. The school year under the K+12 basic education program usually opens early June. However, Briones said the law allows a longer window to start classes "up to the last day of August." However, the Department of Education may require "stay-at-home" classes every Saturday so that the next school year can still end by March as scheduled. The Cabinet official earlier tested positive for COVID-19. READ: DepEd looks into online-based education for next school year DepEd earlier announced that graduation rites in the country will be postponed indefinitely due to government restrictions against the infectious disease, while final examinations for the current school year have been canceled. Teachers have been told to use the students' current class standings as basis for their final grades this year. Classes have been suspended in Metro Manila since March 10, or more than month now, following the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine that has been extended until April 30. The quarantine has forced most of the over 57 million people living in the island group to stay home except for those rendering vital services. Some universities opted to continue classes through online lectures and video conferencing, while others have resorted to giving pass or fail marks so students can proceed to the next academic year and level. Majority of DepEd's scheduled programs, including preparations for the openings, have also been put on hold due to the quarantine protocols. RELATED: DepEd official who attended national event tests positive for COVID-19 Click here to read the full article. Editors note: Like much of the world, Madrid is currently engaged in social distancing practices and self-isolation. That includes the citys most celebrated filmmaker, Pedro Almodovar, who been writing essays documenting his experiences and the memories that have come up as a result. This is the latest installment, provided to IndieWire by the filmmaker and translated into English by Mar Diestro-Dopido. VIVA LA TRISTEZA! More from IndieWire Another sad day; Im not able to pick myself up till six in the evening. Why today and not yesterday? Is it the atmospheric pressure thats building because, once again, its obvious that the EU doesnt work when its most needed? Is it because its Maundy Thursday and the streets are deserted of believers and saints? Or is it because of yesterdays 683 deaths, even if this is an optimistic figure compared to those who died the day before, over 700? Faced with the lack of social life, one starts missing events and festivities that I didnt pay attention to before the confinement, such as (apologies to believers) the mass-attended Holy Week religious processions. Even though Im neither a believer nor idolatrous, I think Ill be joining some of the processions next year in my hometown, where tradition is strong, or in Malaga, where Antonio has invited me so many times. Depending on where you look, theres a myriad of reactions, and for some isolation is even a solution. We have benefited from the quarantine: For as long as it lasts, we have a guaranteed roof over our heads. We dont know what will happen afterwards, we dont even want to think about it. We live one day at a time. The person who said this is a Cuban who arrived in Valencia a year and a half ago; he lives in the city center with other families from Colombia, Nicaragua and Romania, in a flat provided by the private foundation Per amor a lart [For The Love of Art]. Although he has occasional work (pizza delivery, night-shift security guard), he doesnt have any papers yet. The current situation guarantees a roof for him, but when everything returns to normal, thats when the big adventure will start for him and his family. Story continues An actor friend of mine tells me hes in a similar situation. Aside from asking after his health, and that of his partner and his cats, Ive called him to find out how his libido has been since hes been isolating, and he tells me it is normal, even kind of better. The lack of stress is benefitting his relationship with his partner. He tells me, no comparisons, that his psychologist friend is still working online, and that the majority of his patients feel much better than usual. General chaos and anxiety (together with lack of stress) produce positive symptoms; theres no need to respond to everyday needs, and that makes them feel liberated. I understand that such a troubled, painful world can make their problems seem small in comparison. I dont know how to explain it, but I do understand that the psychologists patients feel better when everything falls apart. The ones who are not doing so well are those who are sexually isolated (especially the most promiscuous, who live without a partner). Thats why Id phoned my friend and asked him about his libido, after reading an article in this same newspaper about strategies to calm the hunger for human contact. According to this article, people are using their sex toys more than ever; theres genuine desperation in some cases on the part of people who are on their own and free, whose usual routines for satisfying their desires are now limited by the confinement. There seems to be more sexting than ever, messages and phone exchanges are overflowing with porn material and literature. The article says that the bestsellers right now are the clitoris sucker, male masturbators, and a great variety of toys for couples. After reading this article I called a number of friends, male and female, in order to check on the state of their sexual appetites. Apart from one who was desperate and told me hed arranged online to meet with different people in supermarkets for a fuck in the toilets, in general the pandemic and its resulting isolation has reduced the erotic needs of the majority of people I phoned. In my case, for instance, my libido has abandoned me since the isolation started. I suppose that sadness and worry have displaced erotic fantasies. But I understand that sex is a necessity, and a business. I read in a newspaper article about the desperate situation under which sexual professionals live. We are desperate, says a female prostitute from Alicante. Nobody has ever thought about us, but we have never been as invisible as we are now. Some of her workmates are spending the quarantine with a client for a reduced price. When I read this, by occupational habit, I think of this subject as a great idea for a script. Based on a pragmatic decision, the client and the prostitute decide to spend the quarantine together, including a discount on the usual price for her services. This does not mean that the client will have his carnal desires satisfied during the hard quarantine, but rather that he will be living with a professional in a situation very similar to that of a marriage; with 24 hours a day to be together, to speak, to share, to talk about their childhoods, their families, to get physically and psychologically naked, to discover each other. Its a really rich situation to conjure with. If they survive the quarantine, I predict a very solid future relationship for these couples. Let me quote a tweet that my brother posted two days ago comparing the Spanish, French and German reactions to the economic disaster that the coronavirus spells for the culture industry. The Spanish Minister of Culture confirmed on Monday that there wont be any specific measures for the sector. In other words, zero help, and he did not turn a hair when interested parties expressed their astonishment. On the other hand, the French government mobilizes to defend the nations culture in the face of coronavirus. The Ministry of Culture will allocate 22 million Euros to support the cultural sector. Germany includes culture in its basic needs. The culture industry will be able to access the unlimited financial assistance planned by Angela Merkels government. Three very different, very eloquent reactions. In a letter to the Ministry of Culture, the prestigious theatre director Lluis Pasqual starts by asserting that this country does not love its artists. You can admire them, envy them and even in some cases adore them; but loving them is another thing. And he is completely right. The letter is a long, detailed reproach of the historical defencelessness of culture workers and the Ministry of the same name, which only on rare occasions has represented us. When one of the changes made by Pedro Sanchezs new government ousted Jose Guirao (the previous minister of culture and one of the best cultural managers weve had in the last 40 years politically independent, but with enormous experience in culture), I felt his exclusion as a great loss that reality has only served to confirm. The appointment of Mr. Rodriguez Uribes is political. He is a party man, as the expression goes, and he could have been given any other department. In our 40 years of democracy, we have not been lucky with the Ministry of Culture. I remember only minister Carmen Alborch (1993-96) and Jose Guirao, the latter minister who had to deal with those interim months when he did what he could. Regardless of ideological stance, our country has never had the political will to help the cultural sector. After Mondays disdain on the part of minister Uribes, and the subsequent protests on behalf of the sector, today (Friday) the Minister for Finance and Government Spokesperson, Ms. Montero, has promised therell be a joint meeting of the two ministries with the cultural sector, where I suppose the situation will be reassessed. But lets get back to the lockdown and the immediate measures to combat it. I have a lot of faith in cinema, in watching films that entertain and enrich us, and since I have started this chronicle talking about sadness, I am going to opt for titles that tell stories of love cut short. Strangers When We Meet (Richard Quine, with his muse Kim Novak; the type of story like those written by Richard Yates in his novels). The End of the Affair (Neil Jordan, based on a wonderful Graham Greene novel, where the desperate lover played by Ralph Fiennes struggles with the memory of the woman who abandoned him years earlier, something he never understood. He always assumed that someone stood in the way of their relationship, and he wasnt wrong; what he could not have imagined was that this someone was God.) Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls. A masterpiece of impressive finesse based on a novel by the great Stephen Zweig. The epitome of romantic cinema.) Lift to the Scaffold (Louis Malle. It is worth seeing the film if only to watch Jeanne Moreau walking the streets of Paris. Not to mention the soundtrack improvised live during a screening by Miles Davis in his Parisian years. And Maurice Ronet, forever mysterious and warm. And sad. But in this list, sadness has value.) Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger, starring a barely adolescent Jean Seberg before her explosion with Godards Breathless, but already sporting a garcon hairstyle. I have a soft spot for this film, and for Francoise Sagan, Deborah Kerr and David Niven. I adore films that speak about the boredom of the haute bourgeoisie. Even if Tristesse is something more than that.) La Notte (Antonioni; more existential tedium, this time in Milans high society, with a glorious trio, Jeanne Moreau, Monica Vitti and Marcello Mastroianni. Jeanne Moreaus final monologue is amongst the most beautiful and saddest endings I can recall.) I Vitelloni (Fellini. I also adore films that look at rural life. In Spain we have two masterpieces on this subject: Miguel Picazos Aunt Tula and J.A. Bardems Main Street, both highly recommended and essential (well, we have many more besides). In Spain, when we speak about rural life, we tend to pay more attention to female loneliness; the two films I recommend look at the lives of two spinsters respectively. However, I Vitelloni explores the loneliness and tedium of bachelors, male characters aged 30 or more, big boys with no future, who distract from their solitude in the citys cafes or going around causing trouble, as in Main Street. Another of Fellinis main works, with an unforgettable Alberto Sordi.) The Soft Skin (Truffaut, with Francoise Dorleac in all her splendour. One of my favourite Truffauts.) In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray. An extraordinary noir about a truly violent character (Bogart). The films MacGuffin is the search for a killer (they all suspect Bogart) but whats really important, and interesting, is Bogart-Gloria Grahames life as a couple, and his bad temper. The film tells the story of a violent but innocent man from a very original perspective. The tenderness of those who are violent. Everything in Nic Rays film is very original.) We say goodbye to an Easter Week of empty streets, and await a huge number of festivities, probably with deserted streets too. I cant get used to it. Best of IndieWire Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Protesters across the US took to the streets at the weekend to demand an end to lockdown measures to combat the coronavirus. Inspired by president Donald Trump, who controversially urged supporters to liberate their own states, hundreds carried placards and flags through cities. Some protesters were armed with rifles. State governors eager to rescue their economies and feeling the pressure from Trump are moving to ease restrictions, even as experts warn that doing so too quickly could prove disastrous. Trump, whose administration waited months to bolster stockpiles of key medical supplies and equipment, appears to be on the side of the protesters. He tweeted, LIBERATE MINNESOTA!, "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" and LIBERATE VIRGINIA," in a thread in which he also lashed out at New York governor Andrew Cuomo for criticising the federal response. 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 During his Saturday briefing at the White House, Trump said Montana will begin lifting restrictions on Friday, with Ohio, North Dakota and Idaho advising non-essential businesses to prepare for reopening from May 1. In Texas, several hundred people rallied in the capital, Austin, chanting "Let us work". Many demanded an immediate lifting of restrictions in a state where more than one million people have filed for unemployment since the crisis began. In Indianapolis, more than 200 people stood close together outside the governor's mansion, carrying American flags and signs demanding restrictions are lifted. Elsewhere, a few hundred demonstrators waved signs outside the Statehouse in Concord, New Hampshire, which has had nearly 1,300 cases of the virus and more than three dozen deaths. One of the protesters, talkshow host Ian Freeman, said: "Even if the virus were 10 times as dangerous as it is, I still wouldn't stay inside my home. I'd rather take the risk and be a free person." Coronavirus: what happened today By PTI GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad and Noida borders with Delhi have been closed as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19, the DM of Gautam Budh Nagar announced. The district administration on Tuesday banned the movement of people between the borders of Delhi and Ghaziabad as well as per lockdown orders, an official said. As a preventive measure to fight #COVID19, we are closing Delhi-Gautam Budh Nagar/Noida border completely with following specified exceptions: District Magistrate Gautam Budh Nagar pic.twitter.com/uhOpB5pDPb ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 21, 2020 However, people with valid passes and engaged in essential and emergency services will be allowed to move between the two cities, District Magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said. There is no relaxation in lockdown orders, and industries and offices in the district will not be open. "Previous orders and conditions would remain in the same condition when the lock down was declared," he added. Two societies KDP and Girnar, which were COVID-19 containment zones, have now been opened, while Islam nagar colony and ATS society of Indira puram have been sealed, the officer said. "In total, 15 societies are sealed and declared hot spot," the DM said. Pandey said till Monday evening, 311 samples were received by the health department, including from ATS society, and 307 tested COVID-19 negative and four positive. (With inputs from ANI) By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 20, 2020 | 06:16 PM | FORT CAMPBELL In a Monday press release, officials announced a town hall that will cover topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Major General, Brian Winski,and Fort Campbell, will be leading the discussion with other division and garrison leaders as well as medical experts contributing to the conversation. According to the press release, "Fort Campbells goal is to preserve readiness, and to protect the health and welfare of Soldiers, Families and the Fort Campbell community. Leaders are continually and proactively working the challenges associated with preventing the spread of the virus, in close coordination with civilian partners and authorities." The meeting will be live-streamed on their facebook page at the link below. The 101st Airborne Division and Fort Campbell will be hosting a virtual town hall on Tuesday. HOUSTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A COVID-19-related delay in the U.S. Supreme Court's spring docket includes an important automotive defect case in which Ford Motor Co. is attempting to limit the ability of injured individuals to hold manufacturers accountable for defective products. Trial lawyers from Kaster, Lynch, Farrar & Ball were preparing for scheduled April 27 oral arguments in Bandemer v. Ford when the Supreme Court's spring docket was postponed. The case has generated high-profile support, including an amicus brief filed by prominent law professors from New York University Law School and George Washington University Law School. "This is a critically important issue for the future safety of consumers," said trial lawyer Kyle Farrar. "By restricting the ability for individuals to file lawsuits in their home states and the states of their injuries, automakers and other manufacturers will be less accountable for injuries caused by their defective products." In Bandemer v Ford, Minnesota resident Adam Bandemer alleges that a defective passenger-side airbag in a Ford Crown Victoria that he was riding in was responsible for a severe brain injury he suffered in a 2015 crash. The issue before the Supreme Court hinges on Ford's claims that since the Crown Victoria in the Bandemer lawsuit and a Ford Explorer in a companion lawsuit were originally purchased outside the states where the accidents occurred, the plaintiffs cannot file their cases in their home states because those states lack jurisdiction over Ford. Under such circumstances, the Michigan-based automaker claims the plaintiffs should be required to file the lawsuits in the state where the vehicles were designed or manufactured. Ford appealed to the Supreme Court after state supreme courts in Minnesota and Montana rejected the automaker's arguments. Bandemer is represented by Kyle W. Farrar, Wesley Todd Ball and Mark Bankston of Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball LLP. "This is another attempt by powerful corporate interests to strip citizens of their constitutional right to access the civil justice system," Mr. Farrar said. "Government oversight and regulations are toothless in holding manufacturers accountable. It's vital that consumers have access to courts when dangerous products cause injuries." About Kaster, Lynch, Farrar & Ball Based in Ocala, Florida, and Houston, the trial lawyers at Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball LLP have hard-earned expertise in cases against global vehicle and tire manufacturers over various defects that can cause significant injuries or deaths. The firm is a nationwide leader in securing verdicts and settlements against the world's largest tire and vehicle manufacturers. For more information, visit TheTireLawyers.com . Media Contact: Robert Tharp 800-559-4534 [email protected] SOURCE Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball, LLP Related Links http://www.thetirelawyers.com Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (27) Armed garda detectives and the air support unit were involved in an arrest operation yesterday evening which led to the detention of a 40-year-old man who is wanted in the UK. Essex police want to charge Ronan Hughes with multiple counts of manslaughter after 39 Vietnamese nationals were found dead in a lorry in Essex last October. The haulier was arrested shortly after 5pm at his Co Monaghan home on foot of the European Arrest Warrant. Mr Hughes was brought to Monaghan Garda Station "for processing" by members of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI). He is due to appear before the High Court at an extradition hearing this morning. In November, Essex police Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Stoten travelled to Belfast to make an appeal to Ronan and his brother Christopher Hughes to hand themselves in. Expand Close Christopher Hughes / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christopher Hughes He revealed he had spoken to Ronan Hughes by phone. Essex police have also been looking to question Christopher (33) but he was not the subject of yesterday's arrest operation. Both Ronan and Christopher Hughes are subject to a major Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) probe into the finances of haulage companies along the Border. Harrowing Thirty-nine Vietnamese people, including eight women and 31 males - including two boys aged 15 - were found in a refrigerated trailer in an industrial estate in Essex on October 23. Some sent harrowing text messages to loved ones telling of their fears they may die. Last month it emerged that a Northern Irish man alleged to have delivered the trailer in which the 39 migrants died will launch a legal challenge to his pending extradition in May. Eamon Harrison (22), from Mayobridge, Co Down, is wanted to face 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, and conspiracy to commit human trafficking under the UK's Modern Slavery Act. It is alleged that Mr Harrison delivered the trailer in which the bodies were found in an industrial park in Grays, Essex, on October 23 last, to a Belgian port before its onward journey to Britain. The High Court has heard that the sealed refrigeration unit was not turned on and the people inside died from oxygen starvation. Temperatures inside the unit rose to 38.5 degrees before it "steadily reduced", and police discovered "bloody hand prints" inside. Maurice Robinson (25), from Craigavon, Co Armagh, was arrested by police at the scene and has admitted conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property and the 39 manslaughter charges. This summer, NASA plans to launch its next Mars rover, Perseverance, which will carry with it the first aircraft to ever fly on another planet, the Mars Helicopter. As the first of its kind, the Mars Helicopter will carry no instruments and collect no data -- NASA describes merely flying it all as "high-risk, high-reward" research. With the risks of extraterrestrial flight in mind, Penn Engineers are suggesting a different approach to exploring the skies of other worlds: a fleet of tiny aircraft that each weigh about as much as a fruit fly and have no moving parts. These flyers are plates of "nanocardboard," which levitate when bright light is shone on them. As one side of the plate heats up, the temperature differential gets air circulating through its hollow structure and shooting out of the corrugated channels that give it its name, thrusting it off the ground. A recently published study demonstrates nanocardboard's flying and payload-carrying abilities in an environment similar to that of Mars. The thinner atmosphere there would give the flyers a boost, enabling them to carry payloads ten times as massive as they are. The weaker Martian gravity would further enhance their capabilities. The study, published in the journal Advanced Materials, was led by Igor Bargatin, Class of 1965 Term Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM), and John Cortes, then a graduate student in his lab. Fellow lab members, Christopher Stanczak, Mohsen Azadi, Maanav Narula, Samuel M. Nicaise and MEAM Professor and master's program chair Howard Hu also contributed to the study. "The Mars Helicopter is very exciting, but it's still a single, complicated machine," Bargatin says. "If anything goes wrong, your experiment is over, since there's no way of fixing it. We're proposing an entirely different approach that doesn't put all of your eggs in one basket." Bargatin's group has been experimenting and improving on their nanocardboard design since 2017. Inspired by the common paper packaging material, they collaborated with researchers at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology to achieve a record-setting ratio of weight and stiffness, as reported in a recent Nature Communications paper. Like paper cardboard and other "sandwich structured composites" used in architecture and aviation, nanocardboard's material properties stem from corrugation. Consisting of a hollow plate of aluminum oxide walls that are only a few nanometers thick, that corrugation is a regular pattern of channels spanning the plate, which enhance its bending stiffness and prevent cracks from propagating. These channels are also responsible for the plates' ability to levitate, as creating a temperature differential generates an air current that flows through their hollow structure. "The air current through these micro-channels is caused by a classical phenomenon called 'thermal creep,'" says Hu, "which is a rarefied gas flow due to the temperature gradient along the channel wall." Their recent study allowed the researchers to measure the flyers' ability to lift mock payloads -- silicone rings, attached to the top of the plates -- thanks to a new low-pressure test chamber with integrated cameras and light sources. Studying these dynamics are important for vetting nanocardboard's potential as a material for atmospheric probes, especially on other worlds, including Mars, Pluto and Neptune's moon Triton. Because Bargatin's nanocardboard flyers weigh about a third of a milligram, it would take more than a million of them to equal the mass of the Mars Helicopter, and more than six billion to equal the ground-based rover that will deploy it. But even in the ideal environment of the Martian atmosphere, the tiny flyers would still be limited to sensors and payloads that are at most a few milligrams. As such, Bargatin is now collaborating with other researchers on how to miniaturize chemical sensors that could detect water or methane -- key signatures of life on Mars. "In addition to carrying sensors," Bargatin says, "our flyers could simply land and have grains of dust or sand passively stick to them, then transport them back to the rover so it doesn't need to travel as far." The rover could also provide a means of piloting the nanocardboard flyers. Despite having no moving parts, they can be steered by way of a pinpoint laser, since the direction of the air flowing out of their channels depends on which parts of the plate are heated. Terrestrial applications are also possible. "The Earth's mesosphere is pretty similar to the Martian atmosphere in terms of density, and we currently don't have anything that flies there, since it is too low for space satellites but too high for airplanes and balloons," Bargatin says. "Ideally, you'd like to have some sensors up there as well. The more knowledge you have about the movement of the atmosphere at that level, the better predictions you can make about Earth's climate and even weather." ### This research was enabled by the Singh Center for Nanotechnology, which is partly funded by the NSF National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure Program, under grant NNCI-1542153. It was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant CBET?1845933 and the United States Department of Education through a Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need Fellowship. Trivitron Healthcare has said it will be soon rolling out a mechanical ventilator that is built using up to 90 percent of locally made components. Around 300 engineers are working 24x7 at Trivitron's factories in Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone (AMTZ) - Vizag, Chennai and Mumbai, as it plans to roll out first batch of ventilators by May first week. The company said it is working with auto companies and tapping the expertise in local eco-system to build components for its ventilators. "We are building a mechanical ventilator from scratch, a good mechanical ventilator has 250 parts. Except maybe 10 that we import. the rest 200 plus components has to be produced or sourced locally," GSK Velu, Chairman and Managing Director, told Moneycontrol. Velu said getting components from China and other countries has become difficult, as they started imposing restrictions on exports to shore up their own requirements. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show "We are really compelled to do our own component manufacturing," Velu said. Velu said the ventilators will undergo rigourous testing and validation. Track this blog for latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak Velu declined to disclose details such as whether he has any firm orders with state governments, the price of the ventilator or the volume he is planning to produce. Velu said the first priority is to make ventilators for India. "In future, we may possibly look at opportunities for exports, especially Africa," Velu said. Velu added that he has been in ventilator business for 32 years, more as a trader than producer. "We could not produce them because the India consumes 500 ventilators every year. There is not much scale to produce. We are now compelled to produce ventilators given the situation we are in," Velu said. A ventilator is a mechanical breathing device that can blow air and oxygen into the lungs. Ventilators are critical for the care of people with lung failure, which can be one of the complications suffered by patients with severe COVID-19. About 3 percent of all COVID-19 patients would require ventilator support. India has reported about close to 19000 cases and 603 deaths. As per a Brookings report, India might need anywhere between 110,000 - 220,000 ventilators by May 15 in the worst-case scenario. The number of ventilators today available in the country is a maximum of 57,000. Most of those available ventilators cannot be put to use. But, experts say we may struggle if COVID-19 cases surge in days ahead as nearly 3 percent of COVID-19 patients would require ventilators. Trivitron along with ventilators is also producing COVID-19 testing kits, personal protection equipment (PPEs) and hand sanitisers. The company imports COVID-19 confirmation assay real time RT PCR kit, Singleplex and Multiplex real time RT PCR Kit, RNA extraction kit and rapid test kits from its Chinese partner. Trivitron has 10 manufacturing facilities in Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Helsinki and Ankara producing multiple medical equipment like ultrasound machines, analog and digital X-Ray, ECG Machines, patient monitors, reagents, and diagnostic products. "Since there isn't much demand for medical devices we produce at the moment, we are converting are factories to produce COVID-19 related devices and consummable," Velu said. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 19:24:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close File aerial photo shows the scenery on the both sides of the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, south China. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai) The spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council called it a normal law enforcement action to maintain the rule of law, order and social justice in Hong Kong. BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A central government spokesperson on Tuesday expressed firm support for the arrest of 15 criminal suspects including Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and Martin Lee Chu-ming by Hong Kong police. The spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council called it a normal law enforcement action to maintain the rule of law, order and social justice in Hong Kong. The U.S. and British governments and certain politicians have shown unusual concern about the arrest and hurried to make irresponsible remarks, the spokesperson noted. They tried to embellish the suspects' organization and planning of and participation in illegal assemblies in total disregard of the fact that illegal assemblies and processions had turned into extreme violence last year. They overtly exculpated the suspects for law-breaking acts, slandered the legitimate law enforcement actions of the police as "politicized law enforcement," and even openly asked the police to drop relevant charges and put political pressure on Hong Kong police and judiciary authorities under the pretext of the so-called "Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act," the spokesperson said. "This is a wanton trampling of human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong, a blatant interference in the judicial independence and the high degree of autonomy of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and a gross interference in China's internal affairs and sovereignty," the spokesperson said. "It once again exposed the political plot of some U.S. and British forces to back anti-China plotters in Hong Kong." "We strongly condemn and firmly oppose it," the spokesperson said. Everyone is equal before the law and lawbreakers must be held accountable according to the law, the spokesperson said, vowing to unswervingly support strict law enforcement by Hong Kong police, support the judicial organs in Hong Kong in administering justice impartially, resolutely oppose any external interference in Hong Kong affairs in any form, and unswervingly safeguard national sovereignty, security, development interests and Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability. China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page An extraordinary ruling by Australias High Court has highlighted the ongoing threat to free speech posed by last Junes police raids on journalists accused of revealing government documents about the military and intelligence agencies. On April 15, the seven judges on the countrys supreme court unanimously declared invalid the search warrant used in an Australian Federal Police (AFP) operation that ransacked the Canberra home of a News Corp journalist. But by a four-to-three majority, they permitted the AFP to retain the material seized in that illegal eight-hour search, so that it could still be used to lay criminal charges. Annika Smethurst (photo: Twitter) This perverse outcome points to the continuing drive by the Australian government and its US and UK partners to pursue and potentially jail journalists and publishers who expose war crimes and mass surveillance, just as they have done with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. With the full backing of the Australian government, the British government is keeping Assange, an Australian citizen, incarcerated in one of the UKs worst prisons, despite his acute vulnerability to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic through the prison system. As a result of the High Court ruling, other journalists could still face similar persecution. In effect, the judges struck down as unlawful the warrant obtained by the AFP to raid the home of Annika Smethurst, a senior political reporter, yet rewarded the unlawful conduct by allowing the police to keep the material seized from her. By a majority, the court did not even force the AFP to hand back data it obtained from Smethursts phone, which she had been forced to unlock and hand over during the raid. The courts entire ruling was a narrow technical one. It found that the search warrant failed to specify with sufficient precision the crime under investigation and misstated the related provisions of the Crimes Act. But it gave the AFP a green light to use the material to possibly charge her with other official secrecy offences. Brushing aside some previous court decisions to the contrary, Chief Justice Susan Kiefel and Justices Virginia Bell and Patrick Keane declared: [N]either the common law nor statute law presumes that information unlawfully obtained may not be used in the investigation or prosecution of an offence. Smethurst and News Corp had sought injunctions requiring the destruction or return of the information taken from her phone, or preventing the AFP from giving the material to the prosecuting authority. But the three judges, who were supported by a fourth, Justice Geoffrey Nettle, insisted it would be contrary to the public interest to prevent the disclosure of criminality. All the judges also declined to consider whether the warrant, and the Crimes Act secrecy provisions themselves, infringed on the implied freedom of political communication in the 1901 Australian Constitution. Smethurst and News Corp Australia had argued that the section of the Crimes Act that underpinned the raid transfers to the largely unconstrained discretion of the executive the ability to decide what is classified as a government secret. By refusing to rule on this constitutional argument, the judges left unchallenged a Federal Court ruling in February that the supposed freedom of communication did not protect two Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) journalists whose data was seized in an AFP raid on the ABCs Sydney headquarters a day after the raid on Smethursts home. The Liberal-National Coalition government has refused to rule out prosecuting Smethurst for laying bare its plans, later confirmed, to remove formal legal restriction on using the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), the electronic surveillance agency, to spy on people inside Australia. In an attempt to defuse the widespread hostility toward the governments police raids, Attorney-General Christian Porter later ordered the Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute journalists for specified secrecy offences without his approval. But that only concentrates these police-state powers in the hands of the government itself. Hours after last Wednesdays High Court ruling, AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said his force was still investigating laying charges against Smethurst, as well as the ABC journalists. Like Smethursts story, the ABCs publication The Afghan Files, written by Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, exposed aspects of Australian military-intelligence operations closely connected to those of the US. The reports revealed a protracted official cover-up of war crimes committed by the Special Forces in the US-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. Another chilling aspect of the High Courts judgment is that the judges had no objection to the way the six-page warrant had been issued by a magistrate at a secret and uncontested hearing, nor to the vast scope of the warrant. Like the one used against the ABC, the warrant was sweeping. It included any notes, diaries, correspondence, emails and other forms of electronic messaging, minutes, reports, briefing documents, assessments, graphics, sketches or photographs, story pitch, planning logs, broadcast and online schedules, story boards, website content and USBs. The warrant extended to both originals and copies of these things and to anything stored on a computer storage device or other storage device, together with any manual, instruction or password that assists to gain access to, interpret or decode any of those things. Ruling in February in the case involving the ABC, the Federal Court flatly rejected the constitutional argument. In essence, it ruled that national security overrode media freedom and the right of the public to know the truth about the secret crimes being committed by the government and the military-intelligence apparatus. By authorising the police raids against journalists, the Australian government followed the lead of the Trump administration in charging Assange with 17 counts under the US Espionage Act, for which he faces up to 175 years imprisonment. Assange, an investigative journalist and publisher published thousands of documents that exposed war crimes, assassinations, coup plots and mass surveillance committed by the US and its allies, including Australia, around the globe. The ongoing threats to journalists, like the vendetta against Assange, are part of an attempt to cover up, not just the past crimes of the US and its allies, but the even greater ones being prepared as Washington bullies US geo-strategic rivals and escalates its economic and military confrontation with China. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 16:24:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Amid further containment of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic, China is powering ahead in returning to work and resuming business and production. The following are the latest facts and figures: -- China's agriculture-related firms have basically resumed normal operation, with over 98 percent of key agricultural material producers recovering production, according to the country's agriculture ministry. -- To offset the impact of COVID-19 on the job market, China has taken measures to ensure employment and promote work resumption, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. In the first quarter of 2020, the ministry has helped over 10,000 central and local key enterprises recruit nearly 500,000 people to ensure the orderly production of medical supplies and daily necessities, said spokesperson Lu Aihong at a press conference Tuesday. Meanwhile, the country offered "point-to-point" non-stop transportation for nearly 5.9 million migrant workers to help them return to work, Lu said. -- China's investment in infrastructure projects will increase in the second quarter of this year as government incentives to boost such spending gradually get implemented, analysts said. The country will soon unveil guidelines to foster the development of "new infrastructure" projects, according to Wu Hao, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner. A number of local governments have already unveiled guidelines to boost spending in new infrastructures. Planned investments in the country's 31 provincial-level regions totaled 6.7 trillion yuan (about 947 billion U.S. dollars) this year, with 23 percent in new infrastructures, data compiled by Huatai Securities showed. In addition to new infrastructure spending, investments in traditional infrastructures such as roads and railways also gathered pace, with excavator sales jumping last month. Enditem GREENWICH Domestic abuse agencies and law enforcement officials are reporting an increase in the number of people reaching out for help as they remain at home, holed up with abusers, during the coronavirus pandemic. That was the report Monday afternoon, as domestic abuse survivors joined a virtual conference led by U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4th District) and leaders of agencies that support domestic violence victims. We have found two different dynamics that have been going on right now, as everyone has been asked to stay in place, said Suzanne Adam, executive director of the Domestic Violence Crisis Center, serving Stamford, Norwalk, Darien, Weston, Wilton and Westport. A number of people have noticed that the tension in their homes is going down because domestic violence is about control and very often abusers use tactics, such as isolation, to maintain control over their partners, she said. But others are noticing the opposite. By being home, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, other victims are reporting that domestic violence is escalating, as they remain home with abusers, she said. Some abusers are also cutting off victims from hand sanitizer and medical services while threatening survivors if they mention reaching out for help, said Adam. In Connecticut, 18 agencies are working under the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence to combat the problem. On average, the agencies serve nearly 40,000 victims of domestic violence each year, said Karen Jarmoc, president and CEO of the umbrella organization. Her agency runs the CTSafeConnect.org platform, a statewide hub providing resources and information to victims across the state. The online resource has tracked an 8 percent uptick in the number of victims reaching out for help since the start of the pandemic, she said. When this started, in early March, domestic violence shelters were at 130 percent capacity statewide, Jarmoc said. Thats a huge number, and what that means is, families and individuals are paired up in shelters to accommodate the safety and the need, she said. Similarly, the Greenwich YWCA reported about a 10 percent increase in new clients seeking services each week amid the pandemic. The amount of services per client are up three to four times in comparison to the same time period last year, with most needing additional counseling, said Mary Lee Kiernan, president and CEO of the YWCA. We are busy, she said. Arrests on domestic violence charges have also increased, particularly in urban areas, said Jarmoc. In rural areas, those statistics have remained steady or dropped. There are increased concerns for victims, as law enforcement moves away from a model of keeping an arrested offender overnight in jail for arraignment. These individuals are being released on a promise to appear, as courts reduce their hours or close temporarily, said Jarmoc. Victims who need a restraining order can apply online by visiting, https://jud.ct.gov/remote_restrain.htm. Those who need assistance with the application can visit, CTSafeConnect.org, and an advocate will help. Restraining order applications are way down, said Jarmoc. Its very, very concerning. Is it because people are not able to know theres this online option? Are they afraid about implications? Members of Connecticut Protective Moms, a new group supporting mothers and children during and after divorce, posed a series of family court and custody questions. They asked whether there are significant issues in family court that lead to increased instances of domestic violence and if theres a particular issue with contentious cases stalled and custody remaining uncertain. Jarmoc said, yes to both, that there have been ongoing concerns about how domestic violence is managed in the family court setting. And this was a hope to be able to address some of these concerns in this upcoming legislative session, which has now understandably been put off temporarily, and maybe permanently, she said. Kiernan pointed to one study that suggests abusers are granted custody three times more often than victims in custody cases. And we do hope that the future legislation around this is going to include that very, very important point, Kiernan said. Agency leaders said all of their services remain up and running during the pandemic and they encouraged victims to reach out for help, if it is safe to do so. All information is kept confidential. Victims can visit CTSafeConnect.org to be connected with their local domestic abuse services provider. Victims who suspect their computer is being monitored should call or text 1888-774-2900 instead. The conversation can be viewed on Jim Himes Facebook page at www.facebook.com/RepJimHimes/. tatiana.flowers@thehour.com Art DEgypte #Culture is not cancelled# Heritage is not cancelled#Art is not cancelled Art DEgypte Foundation releases a series of exclusive never-before-seen online content aimed to educate, inspire, and inform the youth of today on the importance of art history and cultural preservation in the sustainable development of our nation. Art DEgyptes initiative aims to make art more accessible to all by presenting a number of different activities via its social media platforms with the aim of spreading awareness and artistic culture among the public, especially in light of the global calls for social distanceand the importance of utilizing this time for activities that enrich culture and awareness. Below is a list of the initiatives that will go on for the month of April, all of which will be online, and accessible to all. Stay tuned. The Nagy Testimonial Episodes in honor of Onsi Nagy - this is a series that was filmed back in 2017 in honor of Effat and Mohamed Nagy, pioneer Modern Egyptian artists, who helped shape the Egyptian art landscape. Art DEgyptechose to release this series now on Instagram featuring renowned art critic Dr. Hossam Rashwan, co-author with Valerie Didier Hess of the Catalogue Raisonne of Mahmoud Said, Sultan Al Qassemi Art Collector and Founder of Barjeel Art Foundation, Founder of Art DEgypte Nadine Abdel-Ghaffar, former Minister of Culture and artist Farouk Hosny, and Egyptian artist Essmat Dawestashy. A series of Instagram LIVE conversations every Monday and Wednesday at 7pm Cairo time featuring movers and shakers in the local, regional and global art landscape including curators, historians, artists, patrons, gallerists and art writers. Collaborating and consulting on the release of yet another powerful art scholarship and fund; helping students go after their dreams during these difficult times by launching the Mahy Khalifa Art Fund Scholarship through Art DEgyptes platform. For any further information, visual content, or video content please contact [email protected] Art DEgypte Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stories/artdegypte/ Website: https://www.artdegypte.org/ The French Cultural Institute # the French Institute, in Egypt, withyou, at home You always dreamed of seeing the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci, now you can see it throughthe study of the Louvre Museum at www.louvre.fr/etudes-d-oeuvre which enables an online study of artworks. During the quarantine period, you can benefit from what the Higher Education Center of Arts offers in public spaces from a free coursethrough its website. The free course content is provided in French and English. # the French Institute, in Egypt, withyou, at homeoffersMicrovole, a window through which you can see the artworks of digital museums. Until the opening of the library of the French Institute in Egypt, you can enjoy the digital experience offered by the city of La Villette andits partners from your home.Through this unique experience, you can see the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, listen to Beethoven, and look at the Water Lilies painting for Monet. The Italian Cultural Institute The Italian Cultural Institute in Cairooffers daily multimedia content to stay updated on the Italian language and culture even during the present situation of sanitary isolation. To follow these digital contents, connect to the institutes official Facebook page: Italian Cultural Institute and Archaeological Center. To celebrate the birthday of legendary director Federico Fellini, the first online event from the series "CreativItaly" was dedicated to young Egyptian graphic designers and illustrators. Where graphic designers and artists will be able through a campaign launched via online, which they can follow through the social networking sites of the Institute, to honor Maestro or the pioneer of Italian cinema, through a work that explains how Fellini affected and still affectsthe images that fill the world of dreams of many artists today. Not only contemporary art. Through the Today Drawing initiative, the Institute commemoratedRaphael,one of the greatest Renaissance painters known for his portraits and the famous frescosmurals of the Vatican chambers. Magdoub Design Studio 21 Ismail Mohamed St, Zamalek, Tel 02 2737 0778 Spirits group exhibition of sculpture which is an initiative by Magdoub Design Studio, is focusing on the interesting presence of young Egyptian Sculptresses, after many decades of absence from this unique art genre, although excelling in oil painting and other kinds of visual art. Its the third edition of Spirits Exhibition, this year the artists are presenting art pieces using different materials. Such as Bronze, Marble and Wood depends on the artistic impression of each one of them. Participating artists: Samar Magdy, Maysoon Alzerba, Heba Abu Alaala, Esraa Hatem, Reham Abu Alazm, Ingy Barakat, Lina Al-Magdoub and many more. (the sculptures are on show at the gallerys Facebook page @magdoub.design.studio). TAM.Gallery th consecutive edition of the group exhibition Artists of Tomorrow online on In an effort to keep the arts alive, TAM gallery launched its 6consecutive edition of the group exhibition Artists of Tomorrow online on www.tam.gallery until 4 May 2020. Each year, it showcases a selection of upcoming and rising artists to highlight as the most promising in the Egyptian art scene, and the ones to support and invest in today. It introduces the 2020 artists of tomorrow:Asmaa Bekheet, Fatma Abo Doma, Khadiga Abou Hussein, Khoshoua El Gohary, Mariam ElMofty, Mohamed Bassiouni, Mona Heikel, Shady Habiba, Wael Karem, Yasser Gaessa, and Youssef Sabry. ZAGpick F8, Strip Mall-Sodic, Waslet Dahshour Road, Beverly Hills, Sheikh Zayed, 6thof October, Tel 02 38863961/0111 2304440 Daughter of the Sun (the third Cache), sculptures by Hassan Kamel (watch his works online @ZAGPICKGALLERY). Zamalek Art gallery 11 Brazil St, Zamalek, Tel 02 2735 1240 Venue I Sketches by Farghali Abdel-Hafiz (watch his works online @Zamalekartgallery). Venue II Birds Dreams,paintings by Khaled Sorour (watch his works online @Zamalekartgallery). *A version of this article appears in print in the 23 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to be handling state affairs as usual, South Koreas government said after unconfirmed rumours described him as in fragile condition after surgery. The presidential Blue House said no unusual activity has been detected in North Korea and it had no information about the rumours on Mr Kims health. Speculation often surfaces about North Koreas leadership based on attendance at important state events. Mr Kim, who is in his mid-30s, missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15, the countrys most important holiday. But he had presided over a meeting April 11, discussing coronavirus prevention and electing his sister as an alternate member of the political bureau of the ruling Workers Party, according to the Norths official Korean Central News Agency. And state media have since reported Mr Kim sent greetings to Syrian president Bashar Assad and Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel as well as birthday spreads to two North Korean officials and a new centenarian. We have no information to confirm regarding rumours about Chairman Kim Jong Uns health issue that have been reported by some media outlets. Also, no unusual developments have been detected inside North Korea, Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said in the statement. Expand Close People watch a TV screen showing a news programme reporting about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Lee Jin-man/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People watch a TV screen showing a news programme reporting about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Lee Jin-man/AP) The Blue House later said Mr Kim was believed to be staying at an unspecified location outside of Pyongyang with some of his close confidants. The office said Mr Kim appeared to be normally engaged with state affairs and there were not any unusual movement or emergency reaction from the Norths ruling party, military or cabinet. A US official said the White House was aware before the reports appeared late on Monday that Mr Kims health might be precarious. The official said the US had information that Mr Kim may have undergone surgery and that complications may have rendered him incapacitated or worse. But, the official stressed that the US had nothing to confirm the surgery had taken place or that any complications had occurred. The US official would not elaborate on where the information came from or when it had been received. The White House and State Department had no comment. Expand Close A display of photos of North Korean leaders outside the North Korean embassy in Beijing. Kim Jong Un is the third generation of his family to rule the country (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A display of photos of North Korean leaders outside the North Korean embassy in Beijing. Kim Jong Un is the third generation of his family to rule the country (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) Yoon Sang-hyun, chairman of South Koreas National Assemblys foreign affairs and unification committee, said he was told by unspecified non-government sources that Mr Kim had surgery over cardiovascular problems. But an official from Seouls National Intelligence Service, who did not want to be named, citing office rules, said the spy agency could not confirm whether Mr Kim had surgery. Kim In-chul, spokesman of South Koreas Foreign Ministry, said Seoul and Washington are maintaining close communication but did not provide a direct answer when asked whether the allies exchanged any meaningful intelligence about Mr Kims health. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said his government was monitoring the situation. A political upheaval in North Korea would be unlikely even if Mr Kim became sidelined by health problems, according to analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea. Mr Cheong said Mr Kims sister, Kim Yo Jong, is already exercising significant influence within the government and that most members of Pyongyangs leadership share an interest with the Kim family in maintaining the Norths system. Outside governments and media have a mixed record on tracking developments among North Koreas ruling elite, made difficult by Pyongyangs stringent control of information about them. Mr Kims absence from state media often triggers speculation. In 2014, Mr Kim vanished from the public eye for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. South Koreas spy agency said days later that he had a cyst removed from his ankle. Mr Kim, believed to be 36, took power upon his fathers death in December 2011 and is the third generation of his family to rule the nuclear-armed country. [April 21, 2020] Financial Technology Law Firm Ketsal Adds Two Veteran Lawyers Ketsal, a boutique law and consulting firm that provides transactional, corporate, regulatory, and strategic advisement to emerging technology companies, has announced two major strategic hires. With the COVID-19 crisis posing unprecedented challenges to companies of every size and in every sector, Ketsal is deepening its fintech and litigation expertise to offer more comprehensive, cost-effective, and high-quality service offerings to its clients. Founding Partner Josh Garcia said: "Since the creation of our firm, our clients have relied on us to solve their most sensitive issues and to identify challenges on the horizon. Companies may seek to pull back on their legal spend during the current crisis. Lara and Peter will greatly increase the domain expertise and capacity of the Ketsal team while allowing us to continue to provide Big Law-quality service - but with the urgency and financial discipline of a startup." Peter Luce brings a decad of expertise in financial technology, payment systems, and banking partnerships to Ketsal. Peter's clients include multiple fintech "unicorns" as well as pre-seed entrepreneurs. Peter joins Ketsal from Ouroboros, a law and consulting firm based in Washington, DC that he founded in 2015, after representing many of the nation's largest financial institutions at a Top 100 law firm and a leading financial services boutique. At Ouroboros, he provided strategic, transactional and regulatory compliance advisement to financial technology service providers and blockchain innovators. Luce received his J.D. from Tulane University Law School. Lara Romansic joins the firm with 20 years of litigation experience, most recently serving as an Of Counsel to Steptoe & Johnson. Romansic is a seasoned trial attorney with extensive experience in high-stakes complex litigation. She has represented a wide variety of foreign and domestic financial institutions including hedge funds, investors, tech companies, insurance companies, and many more in state and federal courts at both the trial and appellate levels, as well as in domestic and international arbitration and before federal investigative agencies. Romansic received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. Ketsal, which provides legal services under the name Blakemore Fallon in certain jurisdictions, represents a number of industry leaders, including SoFi, Apex (News - Alert) Crypto, BlockFi, Republic, bitFlyer, RIF Labs, Radar Relay, and YouNow. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005667/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to keep seniors active, provide spiritual relief and educate them on Medicare options during COVID-19 quarantine, Central Ohio Primary Care Physicians (COPC) is offering a myriad of free online classes for homebound seniors. Anyone is welcome to attend a virtual "Medicare 101" workshop and learn how Medicare works, what it covers, when to enroll, and how to avoid late enrollment penalties. Those who are approaching mid-60s, eligible for Medicare coverage, or over 65 and about to retire can take advantage of these workshopsall while practicing social distancing in the comfort of their own home. Workshops are offered by Central Ohio Primary Care Physicians as part of COPC Senior Care Advantage initiative, an innovative health model that improves quality, efficiency and patient experience for Medicare patients. Medicare 101 seminars scheduleonline only: Tuesday, April 28 5:30 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 29 5:30 6:30 p.m. Reservations encouraged. RSVP: www.copcseniorcareadvantage.com and click "Medicare events" tab. Information on how to participate will be emailed. One of the challenges brought on by COVID-19 stay at home orders is many seniors face social isolation. In addition to Medicare 101 workshops, COPC Physicians is offering seminars to boost morale and help seniors stay mentally active. Seniors can sign up for "Returning to Joy," spiritual seminar led by Kent and Cathy Larson, or "Iron Butterflies: Flying Forward Together," storytelling seminar led by Shelley Friend and guest authors, to find relief during this uncertain time. "Returning to Joy" and "Iron Butterflies: Flying Forward Together" seminars scheduleonline only: Returning to Joy Tuesday, April 21 7 7:30 p.m. Returning to Joy Thursday, April 23 12 12:30 p.m. Iron Butterflies Wednesday, April 29 2 2:45 p.m. Iron Butterflies Thursday, May 14 10 10:45 a.m. Iron Butterflies Tuesday, May 26 2 2:45 p.m. Reservations encouraged. RSVP: www.COPCSeniorCareAdvantage.com and click "Medicare events" tab. Information on how to participate will be emailed. About COPC Central Ohio Primary Care Physicians was founded in 1996 when 33 physicians joined together to give greater focus to patient care than the administrative duties weighing them down. COPC physicians have always been dedicated to finding new ways to offer best patient care. COPC has over 75 offices and serves over 450,000 patients. SOURCE Central Ohio Primary Care Related Links https://www.copcp.com A High Court judge has rejected a challenge by a man who alleges he was unfairly dismissed from his job. The case is a test case relating to the constitutionality of new procedures for determining workplace disputes. The case of Tomasz Zalewski is probably as good a "test case" as any concerning the constitutional validity of procedures under Part V of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, Mr Justice Garrett Simons observed. While dismissing the claims of unconstitutionality, the judge directed, arising from the State's acceptance an adjudication officer's dismissal in 2016 of Mr Zalewski's complaints of unfair dismissal was invalid, his complaint should be decided by a different adjudication officer. Mr Zalewski, North Strand Road, Dublin 3, claims he was unfairly dismissed from his job as assistant manager at Buywise Discount Store in 2016, where he had worked since March 2012. He denied claims of alleged gross misconduct, including failing to follow policy for robbery prevention and having no interest in the success of the workplace. In May 2016, he complained to the Workplace Relations Ccommission (WRC) alleging unfair dismissal and non-payment of wages in lieu of notice and maintained it would be necessary for him to give evidence in support of his claim and to cross-examine Buywise witnesses. A hearing at the WRC before an adjudication officer on October 26, 2016, lasted about 10 minutes, involved no oral evidence or opportunity to cross-examine, and the officer accepted written submissions and documents from the sides, it was claimed. The officer stated in December 2016 she had decided against him and in a written decision dismissed his complaint. He got leave for High Court judicial review in February 2017, including to challenge the constitutionality of provisions of the 2015 Act, introduced after abolition of the previous Employment Appeals Tribunal system for adjudicating claims under the Unfair Dismissal and Payment of Wages Acts. During those proceedings, the WRC conceded the adjudication officer's decision should be quashed because of "administrative error". After the Supreme Court in 2018 overturned a High Court finding that Mr Zalewski lacked, arising from the WRC concession, legal standing to continue with the constitutional challenge, the matter returned to the High Court. The principal issue was whether the procedural mechanism established under the 2015 Act for resolving employment disputes involved the "administration of justice" within the meaning of Article 15 of the Constitution, with the effect they could not be decided by the WRC and were reserved for judges. In his judgment today, Mr Justice Simons said the powers exercised by adjudication officers and by the Labour Court under the 2015 Act exhibit many characteristics of the administration of justice. Those powers involved determination of employment law disputes by way of an inter partes hearing between a claimant/employee and their employer. In an unfair dismissal claim, there was also power to award large sums or direct an employee be reinstated. "Crucially", however, the decision-making under the 2015 Act lacks one essential characteristic of the administration of justice, the ability of a decision-maker to enforce its decisions, he said. An application must rather be made to a District Court to enforce the decisions. The adjudication officers and Labour Court were thus not engaged in the administration of justice, he ruled. He rejected an alternative argument the procedures prescribed under the 2015 Act are "deficient" for reasons including that adjudication officers/Labour Court members are not required to have legal qualifications and there is no "express" provision for cross-examining witnesses. There is no logical basis for saying the holder of a non-judicial office should be subject to eligibility criteria equivalent to those for judicial office, he said. There was no evidence to show absence of legal qualifications had lead to difficulties in practice, he said. The 2015 Act allows for cross-examination where required and the court cannot assume cross-examination will not be allowed when required, he said. On foot of those and other findings, he dismissed the challenge to the constitutional validity of the 2015 Act and directed Mr Zalewski's unfair dismissal claims be decided by another adjudication officer. A stay applies on the relevant orders in the event of an appeal. Costs issues will be addressed later. The UN Security Council on Monday imposed sanctions on Central African Republic rebel leader Abdoulaye Miskine, who last year signed a peace agreement between the government and armed groups. Miskine, founder and head of the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), was offered a government position under the terms of the February 2019 accord. However, in the last report by UN experts monitoring sanctions and an arms embargo imposed in 2013, the self-proclaimed general was mentioned as looking for fighters. Despite the signing of the agreement, Miskine "remains a threat to the peace, stability and security of the CAR," a diplomat said. Miskine had signed the peace agreement in Khartoum between CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera and the heads of 14 armed groups. Under the deal, militia chiefs were given senior government positions in the purported aim of helping to cement peace. Miskine was named as an adviser to the new government but never took up his post, according to Bangui. In November 2019, the Central African government said Miskine had been arrested in neighboring Chad and demanded his extradition. He has now been put under UN sanctions, which include an asset freeze and travel ban. One of the world's poorest countries, the landlocked CAR has been mired in conflict for years. Most of the country is in the hands of armed groups that claim to represent religious or ethnic communities, and often fight over the country's rich mineral resources. Miskine set up the FDPC in 2004, when the country first plunged into civil war, and gave himself the rank of general. He joined the coalition of mainly Muslim militias that in 2013 overthrew then-president Francois Bozize -- a revolt that sparked French military intervention and the holding of elections for a successor. Since then the CAR has been devastated by fighting between numerous rebel militias and government forces and also between the armed groups themselves. The violence has abated in CAR since the Khartoum accord, but fighting between rebel groups continues and the toll among civilians is still rising. More than a quarter of the 4.7 million population have fled their homes. Air pollution has plummeted over northern India during the country-wide lockdown, implemented to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. On March 24 , India put its 1.3 billion citizens into a strict lockdown. Non-essential businesses were temporarily closed, factories have decreased activity, domestic and international flights have been suspended, ground travel has decreased and people across the country are working to try and perform social distancing as much as possible. With such a quick and drastic decrease in human activities, NASA satellites have detected the lowest aerosol levels in 20 years over northern India. Related: India's space agency pauses rocket launches to make coronavirus supplies Aerosols from human sources like motor vehicles and factory production hugely contribute to air pollution. High levels of aerosols have been a major factor in unhealthy, high levels of air pollution throughout India, especially in urban areas. The smaller particles that make up human-made aerosols, as compared to the typically larger particles in natural aerosols from sources like dust storms or forest fires, can be even more damaging to human health. So this drastic decrease in aerosols could be a small silver lining amidst this global pandemic, even if the effect is only temporary. "We knew we would see changes in atmospheric composition in many places during the lockdown," Pawan Gupta, a Universities Space Research Association (USRA) scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in a NASA statement. "But I have never seen aerosol values so low in the Indo-Gangetic Plain at this time of year." In the map above, you can see the drastic difference, as observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the Terra satellite, one of NASA's earth-observing missions. These images show aerosol optical depth measurements over India between March 31 and April 5 every year from 2016 to 2020. And, in the most recent image, it is easy to see how significantly aerosols have diminished in the atmosphere. Aerosol levels have drastically decreased over northern India amidst a strict nationwide lockdown. (Image credit: Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory/Terra/MODIS/Pawan Gupta/USRA) Weather, wind and natural sources of aerosols all impact the levels of aerosols in the atmosphere. So it can be difficult to say exactly how much of what is observed comes from humans and, therefore, exactly how much the lockdown is affecting air pollution. "The hard part with understanding aerosols is that particles can move based on wind patterns and other meteorology," Robert Levy, program leader for NASA's MODIS aerosol products, said in the same statement. "You have to disentangle what is caused by the human fingerprint versus a meteorological factor." But there has been a significant enough change to show that aerosols aren't dipping low because of any routine reason. For example, in the first week of the shutdown there was a decrease in aerosols, but there was also heavy rainfall, which can clear aerosols out of the air. But typically, after heavy rains like this, aerosol levels increase as things "return to normal." "After the rainfall, I was really impressed that aerosol levels didn't go up and return to normal," Gupta said. "We saw a gradual decrease, and things have been staying at the level we might expect without anthropogenic emissions." "This [is] a model scientific experiment," Levy added about the decrease in pollution caused by the strict lockdown. "We have a unique opportunity to learn how the atmosphere reacts to sharp and sudden reductions in emissions from certain sectors. This can help us separate how natural and human sources of aerosols affect the atmosphere." India will remain in this strict lockdown until May 3 , though some aspects of the lockdown have been altered to better support essential employees in the country. Currently , the country has seen 18,985 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 603 residents have so far lost their lives. Follow Chelsea Gohd on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. The Queen's go-to bag brand launch special edition as a tribute to the royal on her birthday. (Getty Images) Yahoo Lifestyle is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. Queen Elizabeth II often wears her go-to designer accessories brand Launer for royal engagements, and has been spotted with various handbags from the British label over the years. The British monarch first showcased her arm candy in 1968, and, according to The Telegraph, has an impressive collection spanning over 200 bags from Launer alone. The Queens enviable collection includes the black leather Royale bag, as well as a patent Traviata design. To mark her majestys 94th birthday today, Launer has released three brand new designs, The Encore, The Judi and The Lucia, as a tribute to her on her special day. Queen Elizabeth II accessorises with a Launer bag as she meets the American President at Buckingham Palace in 2003 Buy it: Encore - Ultra Marine | 1540 from Launer Encore - Ultra Marine The site reads: In celebration of Her Majesty The Queens birthday on April 21st, we have created three special handbags in shades of blue, a colour closely associated with Royalty. The Lucia, The Judi and The Encore are a fitting tribute to honour the occasion and will have Royal Edition in gold blocking added to the leather plaque on the inside of each of these styles in these colours. The new designs in The Royal Edition capsule all follow the same colour scheme, as each design is a different shade of blue. Plus each bag has Royal Edition emblazoned on them in gold font, as well as a leather plaque inside, and Launers signature motif on them, whether that is as a lock fastening or 3D emblem. The Encore handbag, which retails for 1,530, is the largest of the trio. It is made from a marine blue shade of calfs leather, features suede lining inside, as well as numerous compartments inside, a fitted mirror and a large detachable strap. The Judi handbag is a more colourful design as it is made up of three different shades of blue across the handle, the lid as well as the main body of the bag, and costs 1,550. Story continues The Lucia is the smallest of all three designs, as it measures 19.75cm in length and 14 cm in height. This handbag boats a light blue body and contrast marine blue leather shoulder handle, as well as gold motif, and will set you back 1,140. For those who are looking to buy other designs from Launer, we have found other alternatives to shop online. Shop three alternative Launer bags Launer Judi leather tote | 1,550 from Selfridges Launer Judi leather tote Launer Traviata leather tote | 1,900 from Selfridges Launer Traviata leather tote Launer Picollo mini leather bag | 960 from Selfridges GENESIS A group made up of those against a new register and those for a new register met to brainstorm and debate to find solutions and make recommendations on the 2020 election. The Caucus for Democratic Governance, Ghana ( CDG-Gh) which is also looking for solutions, decided to collate the solutions and recommendations. COMMON GROUND Both sides agreed that the EC`s appointment, to replace her predecessor led to polarization on party lines. Many thought Madam Jean Mensah`s strong NPP background, will obliterate fairness and neutrality.. There were others who suggested she is too focused on new voter`s register. There were others who said the register has names of dead people. A few others suggested the register is not credible; yet others suggested the register is credible but has been stretched. CHANGING EVENTS Be it as it may, these are individual or group opinions of Ghanaians and must be respected. Between time and space, a few things have happened. There has been demonstrations, there has been procurement processes which was boycotted by IPAC; there has been a meeting of EC, IPAC and the Advisory Council of EC. There has been attempts by EC to train its registration agents; there has been attempts by NIA in spite of partial lockdown to continue registration in the Eastern Region; the EC has also laid a Constitutional instrument (CI ) before Parliament. The CI is expected to give legal backing to the EC to compile a new register. It was later withdrawn and is expected to be laid anew; and lastly the deadly COVID-19. COVID-19 Invariably COVID-19 took all the attention of the President, the Nation Ghana and the whole world. World Health Organization as a result of deadly corona virus became the centre of medical directions. Soon election 2020 and the new biometric register became secondary; subject to directions on COVID-19. On the basis of this new variable, leadership of Electoral Commission led by Madam Jean Mensah suspended the training of registration officers till further notice. Meanwhile, those who initially supported ECs decision to compile a new voters register are gradually getting worried. SET DOWN DATE Sometime in March, the EC set April 18th as the date for the begin of the registration of the new register. However, 1. due to the corona virus and its corresponding partial lockdown in Greater Accra, Kumasi and its environs, 2. due to the President`s order banning social gathering and enforcing corresponding social distancing. 3. due to the total closure of our borders (land, sea and air ways); this set down date of 18th April cannot work. ANALYSIS IN LEADERSHIP Since the national election day, for all times, is constant (does not change), the variables, within time are also limited; that is, you cannot freely change the set down dates. With eight months to election, the time factor is obviously not on the side of the Electoral Commission. Registration of voters, no matter how fast, will have to take into consideration social distancing and the partial lockdown. The procurement of equipment and its delivery and simulation (according to manufacturing Companies) can take several months. The exhibition of register for verification by the public, can also take time. The withdrawal of the Constitutional Instrument (CI) before Parliament might plunge the EC into irreversible Constitutional crises. Leadership is always guided by a sense of stewardship to the people and not guided on the basis of winners or losers. EC leadership decision is required. DECISION IN LEADERSHIP The decision by Madam Jean Mensah and his team to suspend registration, until further notice is a move in the right direction. If COVID-19 and its corresponding obligatory partial lockdown and social distancing will not allow training of registration staff; if the few months left will not allow fair and impartial conduct of registration, then there is the need for concrete decision. Besides the country as a result of COVID-19, has increased expenditure. The GRA is losing about 20% of its revenue as a result of shut down at ports. National Finance is struggling. Astute legal experts, advise the EC to drop the idea of a new voters register and concentrate on the current register for the December elections. PROJECTIONS Projections of leadership qualities of past and present ECs are all guided by a sense of stewardship to the people and the understanding of the objectives of leadership appointment, which in this case includes preventing the country from plunging into Constitutional crisis. It is therefore in the right direction to pull out of the trajectory and find the best possible alternative solution. Dr. E.K.Hayford Managing Director, CDG-Gh Photo credit: Courtesy of Amuse Museum, Chuzaburo Tanaka Collection From ELLE Decor In 2020, you can hardly buy clothing or even coffee without grappling with the implicit sustainability of your purchase. But the question of longevity when it comes to our belongings is not a new, contemporary issue. Far from itconsider the historical artifacts at the heart of the exhibition Boro Textiles: Sustainable Aesthetics, which opened briefly at the Japan Society in New York City last month before closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Boro, a Japanese term for rags or tatters, were traditional garments crafted by 19th- and early-20th-century inhabitants of northern Japan as a means of survival. The climates colder temperatures prevented the growth of cotton, so people were forced to rely on reworking patched hemp textiles for warmth and daily usage, sometimes passing the creations on across generations. Yukie Kamiya, the director of the Japan Society Gallery, gathered more than 50 examples of these garments for the show, which was designed by the New Yorkbased architecture firm SO-IL. They were juxtaposed with a gallery of contemporary looks by designers such as Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake who have employed an imperfect, assemblage approach that is on a continuum with a boro aesthetic. Also on display were portraits of modern wearers of boro pieces by photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki. Although the exhibition is temporarily closed, there are many present-day lessons we can glean from their beauty and creation, as Kamiya discusses here. Photo credit: Courtesy of the Japan Society ELLE Decor: This is the first time anyone has been able to see this many boro garments in one place in the United States. What was the impetus for this exhibition? Yukie Kamiya: Boro garments and textiles have been on exhibit in America in the past, but this exhibition marks the first time more than 50 archival pieces from the personal collection of the late folklorist and cultural anthropologist Chuzaburo Tanaka have been assembled here. This exhibition focuses on boro made from hemp in the Tohoku region of northern Japan. It illustrates how people can be creative, even with limited resources. Those creative endeavors are an inspiration for our lives today as we face the urgent issue of the environment and the critical subject of sustainability. Story continues ED: Boro textiles came about as a matter of survival and necessity. At what point did the larger culture begin to appreciate them from an aesthetic standpoint? YK: Yes, boro was a creation for survival by anonymous farmers and fishermen, and they had not been particularly proud of those garments that developed from a state of poverty. It took a long time until boro was associated with a historical genre of Japanese handiwork and until its context and aesthetics were recognized with respect and admiration. This shift happened after people today examined it through the lens of overwhelming consumerism and waste. There were also key people who changed the association of boro from negative to positive in Japan. Chuzaburo Tanaka amassed a collection of boro garments in Aomori, a number of which the Japan Society has on view. Kyoichi Tsuzuki, an editor and photographer, paid artistic attention to boro through his photographs, thereby introducing these textiles to a general audience. ED: Did the people making the garments originally have a preference for certain colors or patterns? Or were they purely constrained by necessity? YK: Especially in Tohoku, cotton could not be cultivated because of the cold, severe weather, so hemp was the only material they could use. People in that region kept tiny pieces of cloth and used them again and again to create and repair garments. They did not have much choice over the color or pattern of those scraps, but given the limited resources, people could still showcase their creativity. Photo credit: Courtesy of Overduin & Co. ED: Can you talk about the more contemporary pieces in the exhibition? Were they specifically inspired by boro? How do they interact with this tradition and synthesize it for a contemporary audience? YK: It is our interpretation and curatorial focus to introduce boros continued legacy within creative practice today, in Japan as well as in the United States. Three pioneers of Japanese avant-garde fashion design who started in the 1970s and 80s are Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake, and Yohji Yamamoto. These designers appreciated imperfections, which was a sensational counter to Western conventional beauty. Patching and wrinkles became features of uniqueness of the garments in their hands, and that aesthetic resonance is what the boro garments have. Photo credit: Hearst Owned American artists in the next generation already hold an appreciation for Japanese textile culture. They accept the patching and mending methodologies and ad-hoc assemblages. Expanding upon the aesthetics and ethics of boro, they offer new approaches to repair and reuse. ED: What important takeaways about sustainability can we glean from this show for our current culture? YK: By reinterpreting a traditional craft anew, we can learn various tips to improve our quality of life and lessen our environmental impact. We can reconsider that repair and reuse are creative methods to remake textiles and garments in our own way. You Might Also Like Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 00:06:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close YAOUNDE, April 21 (Xinhua) -- At least two civilians were killed in incursions by the terror group Boko Haram that took place Monday night in Cameroon's Far North region, according to local sources. Boko Haram militants stormed Talla locality of Mora sub-division, torched houses and killed two men who attempted to escape, according to local villagers who asked not to be named. "They then went ahead to steal the belongings of the villagers and threatened to come back and kill all of them if they reported the incident to security forces," local journalist, Dairou Mohammed told Xinhua. Boko Haram has been active recently in the Far North region of Cameroon bordering Nigeria and Chad, "particularly attacking civilians", according to security reports. More than 2,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram launched attacks in the Far North since 2014, according to security reports. Enditem Howard Rubin, a former Philadelphia school police officer and security guard for rappers, was arrested on 12 counts Jan. 31 and is being held on $3 million bail. Read more A former Philadelphia school police officer has been charged with child sex abuse for incidents in 2013, around the time he faced public scrutiny for misconduct involving juveniles. Howard Rubin, 51, was arrested Jan. 31 on 12 counts and is being held on $3 million bail, court records show. The most serious charge, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse an adult engaging in sodomy with a person 15 or younger is a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The charges also include witness/victim intimidation, statutory sexual assault of a person 11 years or older, indecent assault of a person under 13 years old, and displaying obscene sexual materials. The online dockets do not include details of the charges, and the coronavirus pandemic has closed city courts and limited access to records. A Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson referred questions about the case to the District Attorneys Office. Jane Roh, spokesperson for the District Attorneys Office, declined to comment, saying it is an open case. The online records show that Rubins alleged crimes took place on or before July 2013, when Rubin worked as a police officer at Multicultural Academy Charter School in Hunting Park. About a year later, the school fired Rubin, citing a police investigation into claims of inappropriate behavior with students. In the termination letter, dated Sept. 13, 2014, a copy of which was obtained by The Inquirer, principal James Higgins wrote that some serious allegations have been made against you, which are now being investigated by police. While we have yet to complete our investigation, we have determined that your behavior, at the very least, and even by your own admission, was unbecoming of a school police officer and a public employee. Two weeks later, CBS3 reported Rubins firing and said he was under investigation in the sexual assault of a male student. The schools principal denied the story in a letter to parents the following day. No charges were filed. And that November, Rubin, a Northeast Philadelphia native who had spent more than 20 years working in security at Philadelphia schools, sued the TV station for defamation and invasion of privacy. During the litigation, CBS3 obtained his Multicultural Academy personnel file, which said that two days before his termination the school had received three complaints of sexually inappropriate behavior by Rubin with boys, court filings show. In dismissing Rubins lawsuit in October 2015, Common Pleas Court Judge Karen Shreeves-Johns cited his school personnel file, which contained graphic details about his alleged sexual advances and grooming of boys. Rubin appealed to Superior Court to have his lawsuit against CBS3 reinstated, and the lower court ruling was reversed in July 2017. But three months later, Rubin withdrew the case, court records show. Rubin has moonlighted as a security guard for rappers and other recording artists, including Biggie Smalls, who he claimed gave him the nickname the Philly Hip Hop Cop. His court-appointed lawyer on the current charges, William Christopher Montoya, said he couldnt speak to the allegations and has not yet spoken to Rubin because the city courts and jails have been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump announced Tuesday that he is issuing an executive order that will temporarily suspend some kinds of immigration to the U.S. for 60 days. Details: The order will only apply to individuals seeking permanent residency. "In other words, those receiving green cards, Trump said. It will not apply to those entering the U.S. on a temporary basis. After the 60-day period, the administration will reevaluate whether to extend or modify the order. Trump did not provide any further details on whether there would be other exemptions and noted that the order was still being written. What he's saying: "By pausing immigration, we will help unemployed Americans be first in line for jobs as America reopens. So important," Trump said Tuesday. "It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labor flown in from abroad. We must first take care of the American worker, take care of the American worker." What they're saying: Trump's announcement, first previewed in a vague tweet on Monday night, caught many administration officials, members of Congress and immigration restrictionists by surprise. Top House and Senate leaders, both Democrat and Republican, told Axios the first they heard of the planned order was from Trumps tweet. Their offices scrambled Tuesday to get more information. "We should've been made aware of this, but we weren't," a senior GOP congressional aide told Axios. "None of us got a heads up." Between the lines: Immigration hardliners told Axios they had expected the order to be more wide-ranging impacting people coming into the U.S. on some short-term work visas like H-1B and H-2B visas. "Temporary workers are the ones who displace Americans. If you dont do that youre not doing anything," said Ryan Girdusky, a conservative writer who has pushed for more restricting immigration to the U.S. Thomas Homan, former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told Axios that it makes sense to protect opportunities for our workforce while this pandemic plays out. He said he wanted to wait and see the final details in the order itself to determine whether it does enough for American workers. Don't forget: Much of the immigration system has already halted because of the coronavirus outbreak. In its mission against fake news, PIB Fact Check on Tuesday called out multiple fake news items circulating in media. It stated that a news spread on social media with a screengrab of a news channel claimed that the Centre has directed all ministries to shut down. The PIB clarified that no such directive has been issued by the government. A prominent web news portal uploaded a news piece reporting that Centre has launched a beta version of a video conferencing app by the name of Say Namaste and would soon launch the app. PIB Fact Check has clarified that neither the government has launched any such app nor has it endorsed it. The objective is to inform people to not download any such app under the impression that it has the approval of the Centre. In a reiteration of a previous post, the fact check account re-posted content busting the fake news doing rounds of social media, which claimed that Ministry of Railways was planning to cut salaries and pension of employees due to the ongoing lockdown. PIB Fact Check has re-iterated that the news was fake and no such deduction was being considered by the Ministry. Regional units of PIB have been playing a critical role in countering fake news at State level. PIB unit in Shimla issued a tweet with letter of the District Magistrate of Una in Himachal Pradesh against a news item published on a prominent news portal which claimed milkmen from a community in Punjab were not allowed entry in Himachal Pradesh. PIB Fact Check had also issued a counter to a malicious video being widely circulated on social media which claimed children in Jehanabad in Bihar were having to eat frogs due to shortage of food because of the lockdown. An investigation by the district administration discovered that families of the children had sufficient food at their home. A similar claim emanated from Arunachal Pradesh which claimed people were eating snakes due to shortage of food. The PIB regional branch in Guwahati clarified citing the state government that the state had sufficient food stocks to last three months and that the news item was fake. It also added that regular food supplies were being made to the state. In order to check the spread of fake news on social media and following observations of the Supreme Court, PIB set up a dedicated unit to bust rumours getting viral on social media. PIBFactCheck is a verified handle on Twitter that continuously monitors trending messages on social media platforms and conducts a comprehensive review of its contents to bust fake news. Besides, PIB_India handle and various PIB regional unit handles on Twitter are posting the official and authentic version of any item on Twitter using the hashtag #PIBFactCheck for the benefit of the Twitter community at large. Any person can submit to PIBFactCheck any social media message, including text, audio and video, to verification of its authenticity. These can be submitted online on the portal factcheck.pib.gov.in or on Whatsapp No. +918799711259 or email: pibfactcheck@gmail.com. The details are also available on PIB website: pib.gov.in. Ricky Rogers, 57, was shot and killed on Monday in Cleveland, while trying to break up an assault incident. Cleveland Police Department officers responded to a 911 call at 1407 Jones Ave. regarding a man who had been shot. Officers located Mr. Rogers, and detained the shooter, Earl Maney, 81. Through the investigation, detectives learned that an argument occurred between Maney (the landlord) and the owners of a business at 1407 Jones Ave. The argument escalated into a physical assault between Maney and those parties. Mr. Rogers tried to intervene to stop the incident and was shot by Maney. Maney was transported to the Bradley County Judicial Complex and was charged with first-degree murder. 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 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. Throughout the coronavirus crisis, Los Angeles Unified School District leaders' approach has been to respond to the emergency now -- with meals, internet connections, laptops and more -- and figure out how to pay for it all later. All this unforeseen spending means that, by the end of this school year, LAUSD's pandemic response will blow a $200 million hole in the district's $9.2 billion budget, Superintendent Austin Beutner announced Monday. In a video update, Beutner pleaded with state and federal lawmakers for help picking up the unpaid bills. He even argued that, in some cases, LAUSD was spending to make up for problems that should've been addressed by other government agencies. "It may sound counter-intuitive," Beutner said, "to be talking about increased spending on education in the midst of looming state budget issues, but it's necessary -- unless we're prepared to sacrifice a generation of boys and girls who are counting on a great education as a path out of poverty." A DRY WELL IN SACRAMENTO? Both L.A.'s city government and school system have been ramping up the pressure on state and federal officials for another round of financial help. While Beutner said he didn't anticipate the need for staffing cuts in the near term at LAUSD, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti also unveiled his own, grim budget on Monday -- which included furloughs and pay cuts for workers in city government. But officials in Sacramento are grappling with a budget crisis of their own. icon DON'T MISS ANY L.A. CORONAVIRUS NEWS Get our daily newsletters for the latest on COVID-19 and other top local headlines. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Last week, the California Legislative Analyst's Office announced a projected shortfall of perhaps $35 billion this year -- enough to wipe out in short order the hard-won $17.5 billion in the state's rainy day fund. "Even with this budgetary cushion, which is significantly larger than what we went into the last recession, difficult decisions do lie ahead," said Vivek Viswanathan, the chief deputy budget director at the state's Department of Finance. At a State Senate hearing last week, Viswanathan said Gov. Gavin Newsom has appealed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for more than $1 trillion in relief for state and local governments -- including funding for education. "Even $1 trillion," Viswanathan said, "won't be enough to avoid the hole that we're in, but it will help us minimize the most devastating cuts." LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner discusses a big shortfall in funding due to COVID-19 spending. (Screenshot from video) LAUSD'S UNCOVERED COSTS In the meantime, Beutner said LAUSD fears being left holding the bill for nearly $200 million in expenses -- about half of the money they've spent on coronavirus-related emergency measures, including: $78 million for meals. The federal government reimburses districts for school meals to students. But they don't reimburse for distributing meals to their parents, and without action from the state or federal level, LAUSD will be left with a $40 million tab for the meals it's given to adults. "In the absence of broader food relief efforts by the city or county, we have stepped up to help," Beutner said. Perhaps $50 million for expanded summer school , twice the amount the district had originally budgeted for the program. Beutner promised a "major effort" to scale up LAUSD's summer offerings this year to prevent summer learning loss. He also said that the district's estimate for this program's price tag may change as the district finalizes details for the summer program. twice the amount the district had originally budgeted for the program. Beutner promised a "major effort" to scale up LAUSD's summer offerings this year to prevent summer learning loss. He also said that the district's estimate for this program's price tag may change as the district finalizes details for the summer program. $31 million to train teachers for distance learning. Beutner noted the district saved some money on this item by conducting this training while teachers were still being paid to lead classes online. "It's worth noting other school districts chose to stop instruction for a period of weeks to train educators," he said. Beutner noted the district saved some money on this item by conducting this training while teachers were still being paid to lead classes online. "It's worth noting other school districts chose to stop instruction for a period of weeks to train educators," he said. $23 million to close the digital divide. LAUSD got the sign-off to use roughly $72 million in bond dollars to purchase thousands of laptops for needy students. However, the district still must find the money to cover the costs for securing internet connections for these children. Beutner argued this shouldn't be LAUSD's job: "It should be the responsibility of other government agencies -- the [Federal Communications Commission] at the federal level or the Public Utility Commission at a state level." (Later on Monday, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of Governor Gavin Newsom, announced that the state has partnered with several technology companies and entrepreneurs to help increase internet access.) LAUSD got the sign-off to use roughly $72 million in bond dollars to purchase thousands of laptops for needy students. However, the district still must find the money to cover the costs for securing internet connections for these children. Beutner argued this shouldn't be LAUSD's job: "It should be the responsibility of other government agencies -- the [Federal Communications Commission] at the federal level or the Public Utility Commission at a state level." (Later on Monday, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of Governor Gavin Newsom, announced that the state has partnered with several technology companies and entrepreneurs to help increase internet access.) $9 million for safety equipment. The state recently issued emergency funding to schools for personal protective gear and other supplies needed to deep-clean campuses. LAUSD's already spent more than twice what the state sent. Signs at an L.A. Unified School District 'Grab and Go' meal distribution center. (Chava Sanchez/Laist) 'THERE'S NO ECONOMY WITHOUT EDUCATION' For now, LAUSD isn't in danger of running out of cash. Nearly two weeks before the district closed its campuses, LAUSD officials estimated the district would carry forward nearly $811 million in reserves into the next school year. However, state law requires districts to submit balanced budgets for not only the coming school year, but the two years after that as well -- and in order to meet that requirement, LAUSD officials had said they'd need to spend every cent of that reserve. And that was before the pandemic. But an additional $200 million in emergency expenditures would upset that delicate balance and likely make it difficult for LAUSD to submit a budget that was balanced for the next three years. Beutner said LAUSD's board will meet "in the coming weeks to review these issues." He also said that, despite speculation, it's still not clear when LAUSD could re-open campuses or resume normal operations. "In the long run," he said, "there's no economy without education and in the short run there's a much smaller economy without the childcare and safety net public schools provide to working families." Last month, Thomas Chatterton Williams, a contributing writer for TheNew York TimesMagazine and Harpers Magazine, tweeted an image of Vice President Mike Pence and the members of the Coronavirus Task Force praying in the White House. The simple photograph, originally uploaded to the White House Flickr account on Feb. 26, shows Pence sitting in a chair and bowing in prayer as at least 15 others in the room also pray. Williams seemed to be deeply troubled by the scene. Mike Pence and his coronavirus emergency team praying for a solution, he wrote. We are so screwed. The tweet quickly garnered thousands of retweets. Initial criticism was mostly regarding the alleged lack of physicians or medical doctors in the photo. Others noted the few if any public health or policy experts. But ultimately the tweet devolved into a heated debate on social media about science, religion, and the efficacy of prayer. Astrophysicist and science educator Neil deGrasse Tyson, for instance, tweeted that the coronavirus crisis requires science, not magical thinking. Angela Rassmussen, a virologist at Columbia University, also criticized the prayer. I have yet to attend a scientific meeting that begins in prayer, she wrote. These are just some examples of recent prayer shaming, a term describing the ridicule toward people who offer their thoughts and prayers for victims of tragedies. But they are also part of an old debate about the conflict between religion and science. A similar controversy raged on both sides of the Atlantic during the second half of the 19th century. In the fall of 1871, the prince of Wales, Albert Edward, fell gravely ill from typhoid fever. The crown pleaded with British clergy to pray for the prince. They did, and amazingly the prince survived. Queen Victoria called for a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey, inviting all clergymen but none of the leading figures of Victorian science. This enraged the prominent Victorian physicist John Tyndall. Earlier, Tyndall had entered into debate with Oxford theologian James B. Mozley, who defended the evidential value of miracles in his 1865 Bampton Lectures, which were published in 1867. According to Mozley, the laws of nature should not undermine belief in miracles, for science rested on the accumulation of empirical evidence and was thus descriptive rather than prescriptive. The principle of induction was useful in gathering information but could not give us a definitive understanding of the natural world. Tyndall responded to Mozleys sermons by defending the principle of induction, arguing that it was the backbone of modern science. He maintained that nature had no gaps and that all apparent holes in our knowledge would eventually be filled. Looking at the history of science, he argued that before the scientific method was adopted, unbridled imagination caused keen jurists and cultivated men to commit atrocious deeds. Science had advanced because its theories and claims could be empirically tested. After Queen Victorias slight, Tyndall published an article in 1872 titled The Prayer for the Sick: Hints towards a Serious Attempt to Estimate Its Value. He proposed an experiment suggested by Henry Thompson, a prominent British surgeon. I propose to examine, he wrote, a means of demonstrating, in some tangible form, the efficacy of prayer. One hospital ward should be set aside for patients suffering from diseases with known mortality rates, and should for three to five years be made the object of special prayers but not medical treatment. Supervised by first rate physicians and surgeons, the progress of these patients would be compared to the progress of patients who had not been prayed for but had been treated medically. Tyndall believed the experiment would demonstrate the superiority of the scientific method over spiritual healing. Article continues below Tyndalls prayer-gauge debate, as it was called, incensed the religious community. Many theologians argued that Tyndall misunderstood not only the nature of God but also the true nature of prayer. Some Christians were all too willing to accept the challenge, thoughto downplay prayer. For them, the controversy served as a call to reinterpret prayer for a scientific age. These more theologically liberal thinkers strove to bring Christianity into alignment with modern thought. Liberal-leaning clergy supported Tyndalls exclusion of the divine from the physical world and called on believers to rethink prayer as merely therapeutic in nature. But the debate is actually much older than the 19th century. The prayer-gauge controversy reframed an older debate over miracles between Protestant and Catholics. The Protestant Reformation powerfully upended traditional understandings of miracles and prayer. According to Martin Luther, for instance, ecclesiastical miracles were lying wonders and tom foolery. John Calvin explained that one should not expect to see miracles in his day, for we are not forging some new gospel, but are retaining that very gospel whose truth all the miracles that Jesus Christ and his disciples ever wrought serve to confirm. In other words, the age of miracles was over. With the Incarnation, God no longer needed to intervene in nature. All alleged miracles were superstitions or diabolical perversions. But if God no longer intervenes in the physical world, what becomes of prayer? Here, Protestant writers made a distinction between miracles as such and acts of providence. Miracles were dramatic and immediate. But in his providence, God acted through the natural order. The beauty, harmony, and order of nature testified to the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. Law governed the natural world, and God neither broke nor altered these laws. But this focus on what came to be called natural revelation came with a cost. It ultimately helped transform godly natural philosophy (i.e., science) to naturalistic modern science and thus brought about the perception that science and religion are at war. Indeed, Tyndall and others had appropriated the Protestant critique against Roman Catholics and used it against all claims of the miraculous. Perceptions of conflict between science and religion are one of the unintended consequences of the Protestant Reformation. While we cannot possibly settle the debate here, the history of theology offers us a more nuanced view of both how God works in creation and the nature of prayer, which I think are especially relevant in such a time as this. Drawing on development over several centuries by theologians as they grappled with the Bible and their experience of the created world, some Christian thinkers have concluded that Gods usual way of acting in creation is concursusthat is, acting through and alongside the processes of creation that were all made through the Son. As the Heidelberg Catechism puts it: Gods providence is His almighty and ever present power, whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand. Article continues below This view is at once more biblical and Christological than the sort of semi-deism that many 19th-century liberal theologians proposed. The Christian faith is not simply a set of personal values or spiritual preferences, but a claim about reality. As Paul put it in his letter to the church in Colossae, Christ is the one in, and through, and for whom all things were created (Col. 1:1517). We live in a cosmos ordered and sustained by God and destined to be perfected according to his good purpose. All things, whether quarks, cells, organisms, stars, or galaxies, were made and are continuously sustained by God. When it comes to explaining miracles (and divine answers to prayer), this view calls for multiple layers of explanationscientific but also theological, among othersto fully capture the richness of Gods activity in creation. Scientific investigation helps us understand some of the how of Gods ways of working in and through creation, and the Bible and theology help us understand some of the why of Gods intentionality in creation. In 1919, German theologian Friedrich Heiler defined prayer in six categoriesasking for deliverance from misfortune and danger, liturgical or ritualistic prayers, and contemplative prayers, among others. But Heiler felt the highest form of prayer is speaking directly to God without formula or meditation. This is what he called prophetic prayer, following after the biblical prophets, in which no limitations are placed on method, location, or liturgical ranking. Prophetic prayer involves importunity, passionate pleading, lament, and even wrestling with God. As biblical scholar N. T. Wright recently observed in a Time magazine op-ed on the pandemic, lament does not always bring answers. But that is not the point. We lament because God also laments with us. Prophetic prayer is both a gift and a task. Indeed, the whole ministry of Jesus exemplified the prayers of a prophet (Matt. 21:11, 46; Luke 7:16). In fact, a view of creation that affirms Christs role in creating and sustaining all things compels us to think about the worlds current meaning and structure, with clear ethical implications. What is creation telling us? While creation is no doubt good, it is also currently an embattled place. All creation is groaning (Rom. 8:22). It has been subjected to disorder. Knowing that Christ responded by intervening in creation to heal the sick, befriend those on the margins, and more, Christians are called to follow his example. Thus, prophetic prayer should be a call to action. Prayer empowers us to work in the world for Gods glory. We pray not only for personal blessing but for the extension of Gods kingdom. The work of Christ through us does not extricate us from a damned worldit seeks to redeem it. We come before God as finite creatures who do not fully understand, who need the mind of Christ, the wisdom of God, and who rely on the Holy Spirits power. We are not in control. Weve made remarkable scientific and technological advances, but a microscopic organism has unleashed a torrent of disruptions, closing cities and even entire countries. To pray in this time is what people of faith have always done when they face trials and tribulationspray for wisdom and courage, acknowledging that God is ultimately in control, and that his grace is sufficient, made perfect in our weakness. James C. Ungureanu is an intellectual historian with a particular interest in the history of Christian thought. He is currently historian in residence at the George L. Mosse Program in History at the University of WisconsinMadison. He is author of Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the History of Conflict (University of Pittsburgh Press). Mental health conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder could be treated in a new way using drugs that target the immune system, research suggests. Scientists at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Roehampton, London, have discovered that patients suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have increased levels of a protein called Immuno-moodulin (Imood) in their lymphocytes, a type of immune cell. Mice with high levels of this protein were also found to exhibit behaviours that are characteristic of anxiety and stress, such as digging and excessive grooming. When the researchers treated the mice with an antibody that neutralised Imood, the animals' anxiety levels reduced. The findings have led the researchers to file a patent application for the antibody and they are now working with a drug company to develop a potential treatment for human patients. "There is mounting evidence that the immune system plays an important role in mental disorders," said Professor Fulvio D'Acquisto, a professor of immunology at the University of Roehampton and honorary professor of Immunopharmacology at Queen Mary University of London, who led the research. "And in fact people with auto-immune diseases are known to have higher than average rates of mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression and OCD. Our findings overturn a lot of the conventional thinking about mental health disorders being solely caused by the central nervous system." Professor D'Acquisto, whose findings are published in the journal Brain Behavior and Immunity, first identified Imood by chance while studying a different protein called Annexin-A1 and the role it plays in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and lupus. He had created transgenic mice to over-express this protein in their T-cells, one of the main cells responsible for the development of autoimmune diseases, but found the mice showed more anxiety than normal. When he and his team analysed the genes expressed in the animals' T-cells, they discovered one gene in particular was especially active. The protein produced from this gene was what they eventually named Immuno-moodulin, or Imood. When the anxious mice were given an antibody that blocked Imood, their behaviour returned to normal in a couple of days. The researchers tested the immune cells from 23 patients with OCD and 20 healthy volunteers. They found Imood expression was around six times higher in the OCD patients. Other recent research by scientists elsewhere have also found the same protein may also play a role in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Professor D'Acquisto believes Imood does not directly regulate brain functions in a classical way, for example by changing the levels of chemical signals in neurons. Instead, it may influence genes in brain cells that have been linked to mental disorders like OCD. "This is work we still have to do to understand the role of Imood," he said. "We also want to do more work with larger samples of patients to see if we can replicate what we saw in the small number we looked at in our study." In the meantime, Professor D'Acquisto and Dr Dianne Cooper, a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, are working with the biopharmaceutical company UCB to develop antibodies against Imood that can be used in humans and to understand how this could be used to treat patients with mental disorders. "It is early still, but the discovery of antibodies - instead of the classical chemical drugs - for the treatment of mental disorders could radically change the life of these patients as we foresee a reduced chance of side effects," he said. Professor D'Acquisto estimates it could take up to five years before a treatment can be taken to clinical trials. ### For more information, contact: Jo Kelly, Campus PR, T: 0113 258 9880 M: 07980 267756 E: jo@campuspr.co.uk Notes to editors: The paper, Immuno-moodulin: a new anxiogenic factor produced by Annexin-A1 transgenic autoimmune-prone T cells is published in Brain Behavior and Immunity https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.02.015 The study was supported by an MRC New Investigator award to Professor D'Acquisto and a PhD studentship from Versus Arthritis (grant ID: 16525) About Queen Mary University of London At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable. In 1785, Sir William Blizard established England's first medical school, The London Hospital Medical College, to improve the health of east London's inhabitants. Together with St Bartholomew's Medical College, founded by John Abernethy in 1843 to help those living in the City of London, these two historic institutions are the bedrock of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Today, Barts and The London continues to uphold this commitment to pioneering medical education and research. Being firmly embedded within our east London community, and with an approach that is driven by the specific health needs of our diverse population, is what makes Barts and The London truly distinctive. Our local community offer to us a window to the world, ensuring that our ground-breaking research in cancer, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and population health not only dramatically improves the outcomes for patients in London, but also has a far-reaching global impact. This is just one of the many ways in which Queen Mary is continuing to push the boundaries of teaching, research and clinical practice, and helping us to achieve the previously unthinkable. About University of Roehampton The University of Roehampton, London, is an established international higher-education institution providing a high-quality learning and research experience with the aim of developing personal growth and driving social change. The University has a proud and distinguished history dating back to the 1840s and it was one of the first institutions in the UK to admit women to its colleges of higher education. This tradition of commitment to equality continues to be part of the ethos of the University, which has one of the most diverse and thriving communities of students in the UK; its 9,000 student body includes international students from over 146 countries. Today the University is renowned for its broad range of expertise across teacher training, business, social sciences, the arts and humanities, as well as human and life sciences, with world leading and internationally recognised research in these fields. [April 21, 2020] Grounded in Data: Hyper-Growth DTC Subscription Coffee Brand Black Rifle Coffee Company Adopts SoundCommerce for Insights and Decisioning SEATTLE, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Data platform provider SoundCommerce announced today that Black Rifle Coffee Company ("BRCC"), a hyper-growth subscription coffee brand, has adopted SoundCommerce to elevate its omnichannel commerce marketing and operations. "SoundCommerce has wired BRCC for scale and success," said Black Rifle Coffee Company CEO and founder Evan Hafer. "The platform allows us to see across channels, departments, and a growing operational footprint to take actions that drive our customer experience, business model and growth strategy." Veteran owned and operated, BRCC is a premium small-batch, direct-to-consumer (DTC) coffee company. The company imports high-quality coffee beans directly from Colombia and Brazil, among other locations, blending and roasting coffee in US production facilities for direct shipment to the consumer doorstep. Founded in 2014 by Hafer, a former Green Beret, BRCC has grown as a pure-play ecommerce company to exceed $80M in 2019 revenues. The consumer brand is now expanding omnichannel operations to include ready-to-drink canned espresso, retail stores and wholesale distribution through retailers like Bass Pro Shops as it pursues its corporate mission to employ 10,000 military service veterans. "Black Rifle Coffee Company is committed to delivering amazing experiences for our valued customers as we expand our brand offering, product mix, sales channels, and operational footprint," said BRCC co-CEO Tom Davin. "SoundCommerce acts as our operations and marketing nerve center to automate critical decisions and profitably improve BRCC customer experiences on a continuous basis." SoundCommerce connects BRCC data between systems and partners, monitors operations, enables business intelligence, and drives predictive decisioning. The SoundCommerce platform is deeply integrated into BRCC's primary technology and vendor ecosystem which includes Shopify Plus ecommerce, NetSuite ERP, select 3PL providers and parcel post carriers among other core business applications. "SoundCommerce has become a mission critical partner to BRCC as we align our processes and culture around empirical data," stated BRCC VP IT Chris mer. "SoundCommerce helps us drive a cohesive and agile data strategy, innovating much faster than we otherwise could." For BRCC, SoundCommerce tracks real-time operations and marketing events, profitability and customer lifetime value (CLV) to answer questions fundamental to cross-channel and direct-to-consumer success, including: "Considering variable costs, where should we focus our continued investment in the customer experience?" "How do we use those insights to better serve our current customers or to identify and convert prospective customers -- across channels by source, medium, and campaign?" "How do marketing and operations partner and align to drive customer engagement and satisfaction?" "What is the impact of business operations on customer satisfaction and how can we use those insights to improve the value of our coffee club programs -- simultaneously increasing satisfaction while decreasing active and passive member churn?" With SoundCommerce, BRCC optimizes marketing and media spend to profit and customer lifetime value goals rather than just revenue and ROAS. This is a critical capability for consumer brand and retail marketers concerned with unit profitability and cash flow. Beyond marketing use cases, SoundCommerce enables real-time decisioning post-conversion across ecommerce, stores, mobile apps, and the wholesale channel to drive profits, CLV and customer experience. "SoundCommerce powers real time and predictive decisions to help consumer brands operate more efficiently, invest resources in the right places, and better understand customer needs and behaviors all to consistently and profitably delight end customers," said SoundCommerce CEO Eric Best. "We're excited to partner with BRCC, powering the good work they are doing to support our first responder, active military and veteran communities." SoundCommerce is led by CEO Eric Best, CTO Jared Stiff, COO Meredith Han, and CCO Laurent Burman industry veterans with consumer brand experience and previous exits to Amazon, Liberty Interactive, and the public equity markets. SoundCommerce investors include Defy Partners and Voyager Capital. Stage Venture Partners, Kick-Start Partners, and the Seattle Alliance of Angels led the company's pre-seed financing. About BRCC Black Rifle Coffee Company is a premium, small-batch, roast-to-order, veteran-owned coffee company. At BRCC, we import our high-quality coffee beans from Colombia and Brazil, then we personally blend and roast every one of our coffees and ship them directly to you. We develop our explosive roast profiles with the same mission focus we learned as military members serving this great country. All BRCC blends are available in whole-bean and ground varieties. We also have many roasts for purchase in single-serve "coffee rounds." The best way to enjoy our freedom-filled coffee is with the Black Rifle Coffee Club . You choose the amount and blends you crave. We offer it to you at a special discounted price, shipped directly to your home every month. This added convenience allows you to keep working hard, making America the land of the free and the home of the brave. About SoundCommerce The SoundCommerce data platform drives profitable growth, customer experience and lifetime value across retail systems and channels from first click to doorstep delivery. SoundCommerce works with retailers' existing technology stack to transform customer experience across marketing, merchandising, supply, fulfillment, delivery, and customer service. The data platform tracks real-time operational events, profitability and customer lifetime value to drive decisions and actions fundamental to cross-channel and direct-to-consumer success. Founded by Amazon veterans and backed by leading venture capital investors, SoundCommerce is headquartered in Seattle. Let's grow! Visit us at www.soundcommerce.com . Contact Communications Director Kristine Szarkowitz, available Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT at 206 310 5323 and [email protected]. Visit us at www.soundcommerce.com . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/grounded-in-data-hyper-growth-dtc-subscription-coffee-brand-black-rifle-coffee-company-adopts-soundcommerce-for-insights-and-decisioning-301044222.html SOURCE SoundCommerce [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] 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 Bindi Irwin's wedding to Chandler Powell was supposed to be the happiest day of her life. But in the weeks since the wildlife warriors said 'I do', many Australians have turned their backs on the Irwin family. A growing number of people believe the ceremony was too commercial, after it was featured in a U.S. television special that has yet to even air Down Under. The fact the wedding photos also appeared in an American magazine, People, before being published in Australia also didn't go down well. The day Australia turned its back on the Irwins: How Bindi and Chandler's televised wedding left a bad taste in the mouths of those who had supported them from the start Bindi and Chandler raced down the aisle at Australia Zoo in Queensland on March 25, after the coronavirus pandemic sabotaged their plans for a big wedding. Fans first saw a glimpse of the nuptials via aerial footage that aired on local news showing planners setting up the intimate ceremony. The video raised eyebrows because at least five people could be seen gathering around Bindi holding umbrellas in spite of social distancing guidelines. The purpose of this was to protect the couple's TV and magazine deals, which would have been spoiled if Bindi had been shown on camera wearing her dress. TV ready: Bindi and Chandler raced down the aisle at Australia Zoo on March 25, after the coronavirus pandemic sabotaged their plans for a big wedding. Had they waited until their scheduled date of April 4, they wouldn't have been able to have a camera crew present Controversial: Fans first saw a glimpse of the nuptials via aerial footage that aired on local news. Despite social distancing guidelines, at least five people could be seen gathering around Bindi to conceal her wedding dress, thereby protecting her TV and magazine deals The lovebirds said 'I do' just hours before Prime Minister Scott Morrison's restrictions on weddings were enforced at 11.59pm that day. If they had waited until their scheduled wedding date of April 4, they would only have been allowed the celebrant and two witnesses to join them for the ceremony. This would have meant the crew for Crikey! It's the Irwins would not have been able to film the wedding for U.S. cable channel Animal Planet. 'So weird': Despite the ceremony taking place at Australia Zoo, Bindi and Chandler's wedding special premiered exclusively in the U.S. and will not air Down Under until July 18 When their wedding special was broadcast on Saturday night, the newlyweds faced a backlash from fans in Australia. Despite the ceremony taking place at Australia Zoo, the show premiered exclusively in the U.S. and will not air Down Under until July 18. To make matters worse, Australians will actually be the last people in the world to watch it, weeks after other territories including the UK, New Zealand and Taiwan. The Irwin family has said that 'programming is out of our control'. Bottom of the list: To make matters worse, Australians will actually be the last people in the world to watch it, weeks after other territories including the UK, New Zealand and Taiwan Statement: The Irwin family has said that 'programming is out of our control' Bindi and Chandler have released limited edition merchandise since getting married. 'Chandler and I are thrilled to be sharing our wedding candles with you,' Bindi wrote on Instagram on March 28 while promoting the $49.95 merchandise. Terri Irwin is also selling signed copies of the family's quarterly magazine, Crikey, which includes exclusive wedding photos. 'Do they actually think they're the Royal family?' one Australian wrote on Facebook, dismissing the merchandise as 'crass'. 'Do they actually think they're the Royal family?' Bindi and Chandler have released limited edition merchandise since getting married, prompting a backlash from some fans 'Special edition': Terri Irwin is also selling signed copies of the family's quarterly magazine, Crikey, which includes exclusive wedding photos Many others questioned the price of the candles and the timing of their release as thousands of people struggle with unemployment due to COVID-19. 'Who would pay $50 for a candle when people are losing their jobs? Disappointing,' one person wrote. Despite the backlash, the family has said all proceeds will go 'directly to funding conservation initiatives' at Australia Zoo and caring for their 1,200 animals. Good cause: Despite the backlash, the family has said all proceeds will go 'directly to funding conservation initiatives' at Australia Zoo. Pictured: Terri Irwin The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will soon start sending questionnaires to nursing homes and long-term care facilities in order to track confirmed and suspected COVID-19 coronavirus cases among patients and workers. "It's fair to say nursing homes have been ground zero" for COVID-19, Seema Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told reporters on Monday. The first COVID-19 hot spot in the United States was the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, where 43 people associated with the facility have died from the virus. In Massachusetts, 48 residents of a veteran's home died of the virus, while at least two dozen have died at a New Jersey nursing home and rehabilitation center. Health experts say COVID-19 has been able to spread quickly through nursing homes, due to staff shortages, asymptomatic carriers, and elderly residents with multiple underlying health conditions. Federal officials hope the questionnaires will help them see trends and early signs of a COVID-19 outbreak, allowing communities to take action. Verma said the information will be made public, although the details of how and when are still being worked out. Using media reports and information from state health departments, The Associated Press has found at least 8,496 deaths linked to COVID-19 outbreaks at U.S. nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Experts say the actual toll is likely much higher, with many patients never being tested for the virus. More stories from theweek.com Excess mortality data suggests as many as 25,000 uncounted coronavirus deaths The Navajo Nation outbreak reveals an ugly truth behind America's coronavirus experience CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus could be 'even more difficult' Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 21:48:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close On its third day in Malaysia, Chinese medical expert team met with health officials, experts and medical personnel to share China's experience in fighting COVID-19 pandemic. The Chinese experts met with Malaysia's Health Minister Adham Baba and other senior health officials, and also held a video conference session with health experts and doctors from more than two dozen public hospitals. The eight-member Chinese Anti-COVID-19 Medical team was organized by China's National Health Commission and selected by the health commission of Guangdong Province. They arrived in Malaysia on Saturday for a two-week program. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- President Donald Trumps encouragement of protests against states stay-in-place orders is un-presidential in the colloquial sense: its unbecoming of a president. But Trumps latest gambit is un-presidential in a much deeper sense, too. It contradicts the very constitutional justification for why we have a president in the first place. The whole point of the presidency is to have an elected official who represents the interests of the entire country, not of a specific state or electoral district. That is, the purpose of the presidency is unification. Trumps goal, to the contrary, is to drive state-by-state division. Hes undermining the very ideal of a unified United States in pursuit of electoral advantage. To understand why we have a president, its useful to consider why we dont have a prime minister. After all, the founding fathers were creating a republic, in which all officials would be elected and nobody would be above the law. If the United States of America was not to have a king, it would have made logical sense for its executive to be a member of the legislature, first among equals. But the framers of the Constitution wanted to create a different version of the separation of powers than Britains. The president would not be a king, but he and his executive branch would play some of the role that the king played in the British constitution. And the chief advantage of a king, according to a theory that had gained prominence in 18th century Britain, was that he would promote the interests of not merely one faction of the people, but of the whole country. A king who stood for everybody was a patriot king, ruling for the greater good of the patria, or nation. To espouse no party, but to govern like the common father of his people, is so essential to the character of a Patriot King, that he who does otherwise forfeits the title, wrote Henry St. John, First Viscount Bolingbroke, in his aptly named book, The Idea of a Patriot King. Story continues The framers of the U.S. Constitution designed a system in which members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate were chosen from the states. Although the framers expressed the hope that these legislators would think of the whole nation, not just the districts they represented, they were also realists. They understood that members of Congress would want to be re-elected, and would therefore favor the interests of their home states and districts. The president, in contrast, was elected nationally. He (along with the vice-president) was the only elected official who could claim to have been chosen by the whole people. The president was therefore supposed to be a patriot president, above party or regional faction. It turned out to be too much to ask for presidents to eschew political parties. Even George Washington, whom the framers expected to pull off that lofty goal, came to be seen as a partisan Federalist by his second term in office. Yet presidents have, for the most part, managed to govern with an eye to national interests, rather than regional ones. That may be attributed mostly to their desire to be re-elected, which ordinarily takes a national coalition. But it also stems from the nature of the office itself: The president is the chief executive of the whole country, and usually understands himself as such. The classic example is Andrew Jackson, whom Trump claims to consider a hero. Jackson was partisan and ideological, not to mention an advocate of killing Native Americans and driving them from their ancestral lands. But when South Carolina tried to nullify federal law, threatening the union, Jackson firmly rejected the very idea, going so far as to intimate that any serious attempt at disunion would be met with vigorous force. Jackson put union first. Trump, however, is now doing the very opposite. Instead of embracing the idea of a unified national policy on stay-in-place orders, he is fomenting protests that are meant to force certain states to break the mold by opening sooner than others. The aim of the protests is precisely to create a national patchwork, with different states adopting different policies. And Trumps motives seem straightforwardly partisan: he wants to motivate his base, and he wants to take credit for any opening that eventually occurs. The problem isnt that Trump wants to get re-elected. Its that to get there, he is actively seeking to break any semblance of coordinated, unified national policy. He is, it seems, prepared to break the traditional presidency in order to hold onto the office. If the presidency becomes a bully pulpit not to hold the country together but to break it apart, wed be better off having no president at all. Somewhere, the shade of Andrew Jackson is roiling with disapproval. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and host of the podcast Deep Background. He is a professor of law at Harvard University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. His books include The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President. 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. Irish police said Ronan Hughes, who had been arrested in the country for his accused connection with the death of 39 Vietnamese nationals in a refrigerated lorry in Essex last October, appeared at Dublin's High Court today. The 40-year-old man is also facing extradition proceedings over the alleged manslaughter. He was detained by Irish police on April 20 following the execution of a European arrest warrant, and charged with 39 counts of manslaughter as well as immigration offences. Previously, driver Maurice Robinson, from Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter at Central London Criminal Court on April 8. On November 25, 2019, Robinson pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property. Another driver from North Ireland, Eamonn Harrison, 23, drove the container, which carried the victims, to the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, where it was put on a ferry to England and picked up at the other end by Maurice Robinson on early morning of October 23. He was accused of manslaughter./. Another arrested, charged with manslaughter in Ireland in connection with Essex lorry incident A man wanted in connection with the death of 39 people from Vietnam found in the back of a refrigerated lorry in Essex, near London last October, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter in Ireland, according to Essex police. The most ambitious bid to rescue the global oil industry ever seen has been swept aside by a brutal wave of demand destruction. Less than two weeks ago, the worlds biggest oil producers in a deal facilitated by U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to slash output in the hope of defending energy markets against the ravages of the coronavirus outbreak. Yet Mondays historic slump, in which crude prices fell below zero in the U.S., made the OPEC cartel and its partners painfully aware of the limits of their powers. Some nations in the group are desperately searching for any additional steps they might take to stem the rout, but they have few options. The OPEC+ leadership is currently engaged in serious crisis management conversations, said Helima Croft, head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets LLC. Yet there is little that OPEC+ can do to arrest the demand collapse. Early start Algeria, which holds the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rotating presidency, has proposed bringing forward the supply cuts due to begin on May 1 to take effect immediately, according to three people familiar with the matter. But there was no sign that the move was backed by OPECs key members, or would even make much difference at this point. Though the production cutbacks pledged by OPEC+ are historically large, at just under 10 million barrels a day or about 10 per cent of world supply, theyre completely dwarfed by the immensity of the demand loss. Consumption will be down by 29 million barrels a day this month, according to the International Energy Agency more than all the crude pumped by OPECs 13 members. It was too late, and too little very much too little, Paolo Scaroni, former chief executive officer of Italian oil company Eni SpA, said of the OPEC+ accord in a Bloomberg television interview. The severity of the price collapse is prompting some OPEC ministers to get on a conference call on Tuesday for informal discussions about the market. Saudi Arabias cabinet said it is ready for more measures to ensure market stability in cooperation with other OPEC+ nations, echoing a joint Riyadh-Moscow statement last week. But its unclear whether the kingdom really has the appetite, or the ability, to cut production deeper. The latest production agreement requires considerable sacrifice from the Saudis, squeezing output to the lowest since 2011 and potentially offering its U.S. shale rivals the lifeline of a price bump. For others in the accord, such as Russia and Iraq, its highly uncertain whether theyll even deliver the ambitious supply curbs already agreed on, let alone commit to further reductions. Both exporters had a poor track record in implementing OPEC+ agreements over the past three years. The Kremlin on Tuesday was dismissive about the implications of the price collapse on Russias economy, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters theres no need to give this an apocalyptic tinge. Rather than step up its efforts, OPEC and its partners may simply need to stick to the agreed plan and weather the storm. That will push the burden of adjustment onto other producers, such as the U.S., Brazil and Canada, which have so far offered OPEC+ little more than moral support. Weve reached the stage where this is pretty much outside the control of anybody, Martijn Rats, oil analyst at Morgan Stanley, said in a Bloomberg television interview. There is no group of suppliers that can offset this through production cuts. Read more about: As daily death toll drops, some shops and schools reopen. But some German states want tightened curbs. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged people to stay disciplined as some shops reopen for the first time since coronavirus curbs were imposed in late March. The leader of Europes largest economy says a full shutdown will be inevitable if the number of infections rises again. Al Jazeeras Dominic Kane reports from Berlin. Following criticism that it wasn't doing enough to protect its workers from the pandemic, Amazon is hoping to make up for it with the use of thermal cameras at some of its facilities, opening up another potential avenue to criticism, this time with a privacy element. In late March, Amazon started using thermal cameras to do temperature checks at some of its facilities, noting in a blog post that workers with a temperature above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit would be sent home and only allowed back after three days without a fever. The cameras do not detect viral infection; rather, they detect body temperatures above a normal baseline. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, Amazon has fired several employees who had publicly criticized the company over conditions at its facilities. And later this week, Amazon employees are preparing a virtual walkout to protest those actions. Meanwhile, Amazon-owned Whole Foods is keeping an eye on stores at risk of unionizing through an interactive heat map, according to Business Insider. The map is powered by a scoring system, which assigns a rating to each of Whole Foods 510 stores based on the likelihood that their employees might form or join a union. The company uses more than two dozen different metrics to measure stores, including employee loyalty, racial diversity, calls to a tip line, and others. While thermal camera screening can certainly play an important role in slowing down the spread of the virus, its one of those technologies that can get out of hand. Amazon employees may not feel safer. Instead, they may feel the heavy burden of big brother. And that same technology is being used by intelligence, military, police and other security agencies for catching criminals, smugglers and illegal border crossers. Thermal cameras are still surveillance cameras. Elsewhere, thermal screening already went beyond the use in factories, warehouses, hospitals. In the UK, police are using thermal imaging technology to enforce social-distancing guidelines during the coronavirus crisis. Some countries that have imposed curfews during the pandemic are using this technology to monitor streets and parks. Nor are thermal cameras the only thing we should be concerned about. The global pandemic has unleashed a new era of digital surveillance, and the threat of mission creep is real and present. Once the pandemic is over, we will be left with this uncaged technology that will be nearly impossible to lure back under lock and key. If were already measuring grocery store employee loyalty, weve crossed the line under the guise of pandemic protection. China is a case in point, and the United States is not far behind no matter what costumes of liberty, privacy and democracy it dons. Related: Struggling U.S. Airlines Get $17.5 Billion Bailout In China, the authorities have used phone numbers and location data to trace residents who had left the initial center of the outbreak, Wuhan. They traced them, tracked them and then placed them under forced isolation. Some countries have also employed drones to monitor excessive social interaction. These drones are fitted with specialized sensors and computer vision systems that can monitor temperature, heart and respiratory rates to detect people sneezing and coughing in crowds. Authorities in some Asian countries are using geofencing, a technological process that draws virtual fences around quarantine zones. In Western Australia, lawmakers approved a bill last month to install surveillance gadgets to monitor the homes of those placed under quarantine. In Hong Kong, the authorities are using connected wristbands to ensure patient compliance. In some European Union countries, they are monitoring movements by tapping citizens telecommunications data, though they insist identities are concealed. In the US, the White House has considered using mobile location data analytics for tracing contact among residents. The Trump administration has been working with major tech firms to devise ways to use mobile location data to understand the path of the pandemic. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that federal and state governments are using location data gleaned from the online advertising industry. The report said that the data is anonymized, so authorities are studying general population movement rather than tracking individuals. Still, reports of those efforts have already sparked concern from privacy and civil liberties advocates--even more so because there are no federal laws regulating the use of these data collection practices. Its a slippery slope, and were already halfway down it. By Michael Kern for Safehaven.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: A South Korean firm has started production of the COVID-19 rapid antibody testing kits in its Indian subsidiary plant to meet the growing demand of the medical equipment in India and other parts of the world, a press release issued by the Indian embassy here said on Tuesday. SD Biosensor Healthcare Pvt Ltd is producing the test kits with a capacity of 500,000 tests per week and the first batch was rolled out on April 19, it said. Its Indian subsidiary is located in Manesar, Gurgaon. "This is an excellent example of India's 'Make in India for the World' as the company plans to ramp up production to meet growing demand in India as well as other parts of the world," the press release said. The strategy and corporate structure of this company exemplifies the strong partnership between the two countries specially in the field of medical technology. Indian Ambassador to South Korea Sripriya Ranganathan on Tuesday also visited the company's manufacturing facility accompanied by its CEO Lee Hyo-Keun. "SD Biosensor has just started production from its Manesar facility with a capacity of 500,000 rapid test kits per week. This will be further enhanced in coming weeks to meet growing demand," the embassy tweeted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Xinhua file photo of Russian Su-35 aircraft After the U.S. aircraft changed its course and flew away, the Russian jet returned to the base. A Russian fighter jet drove a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft away from Russian military facilities in Syria on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday. Russian radars detected a flying object over the neutral waters of the Mediterranean Sea, which was heading toward Russian military facilities, the ministry's Zvezda broadcasting service said. A Russian fighter jet took off from the Hmeimim airbase and identified the target as a U.S. spy plane and started to follow it, the ministry said. After the U.S. aircraft changed its course and flew away, the Russian jet returned to the base. On Sunday, the U.S. Navy issued a statement complaining that a Russian Su-35 fighter had intercepted a U.S. P-8A surveillance plane over the Mediterranean Sea in an "unsafe and unprofessional" manner, though the Russian Defense Ministry said its Aerospace Forces always carry out flights in compliance with international rules. HONG KONG, April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OP Investment Management Limited ("OPIM"), Asia's leading fund platform, is partnering with Shanghai Mingshi Investment Management ("Mingshi") to launch Mingshi China Optima Master Fund and two feeder funds which invest all of assets into the Master Fund (together, the "Fund") and operates for the benefits of U.S. tax-exempt investors and other non-U.S. eligible investors. The Fund's strategy is to actively manage long and short equities listed in mainland China but accessed through market access products issued by QFIIs/RQFIIs. The team incorporates proprietary factor models and quantitative research techniques targeting absolute returns based on years of track record of a similar profile onshore. Founded in 2010, Mingshi is one of the most experienced quantitative firms with a strong research and development team in Shanghai, China combining China A-share expertise with global best practices in asset management. Leveraging its deep bench with modern quantitative technology, Mingshi's approach to market-neutral strategies will be applied to its first offshore strategy managed under OPIM in Hong Kong. "The China-A share opportunity set is as volatile as it is tremendous, so it's only natural we're seeing a spiked demand for effective long-short strategies; that not only generate significant alpha, but more importantly, protect it. A lot of players talk about the idiosyncratic China factors, but only a handful of managers have successfully brought this concept offshore." Alvin Fan, Chief Executive Officer of OPIM commented, "Mingshi's team is rare, because they've an outstanding multi-year track record built by a robust R&D team that you'd find in only a handful of shops globally. Given the limited number of successful offshore peers, Mingshi's Optima is arguably China's most important launch of 2020." Profession Yuan Yu, Co-Founder and Head of Strategy of Mingshi, commented: "We've been working closely with OPIM over the last year in preparation of this launch, and we're intensely focused on ensuring the same institutional grade product offshore as we have onshore. We couldn't be more thrilled to help allocators globally finally build actively-managed exposure to systematic alpha in China's A-share market." About OP Investment Management Limited OPIM is a leading Hong Kong based asset management company established and licensed since 2004 with Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (the "SFC") to carry out Type 4 (advising on securities) and 9 (asset management) regulated activities under the provisions of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap.571) (the "HK SFO"). The company is also a member of the Oriental Patron Financial Group and associate of OP Financial Investments Ltd. (Hong Kong publicly listed 1140.HK). OPIM partners with emerging managers to develop innovative strategies for institutional and professional investors. OPIM's institutional fund platform attracts both managers and investors from around the world working with the industry's best business partners in alternative asset management. About the Oriental Patron Financial Group Founded in 1993, Oriental Patron Financial Group is an independent financial services group based and fully licensed in Hong with the Hong Kong Securities and futures Commission (the "SFC"). Oriental Patron provides a diverse range of financial securities from Advisory to Investing, Financing to Securities and Research. About Shanghai Mingshi Investment Management Established in 2010, Mingshi Investment is a leading quantitative hedge fund manager in China and a member of Asset Management Association of China. Focusing on quantitative investment strategies, Mingshi Investment combines cutting-edge financial research with quantitative models to establish and optimize long-term sustainable investment strategies. Disclaimer This document is issued by OP Investment Management Limited ("OPIM"). This document, and the website of OPIM (www.opim.com.hk) has not been reviewed by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong. This document is solely for information purposes and is not intended as an offer, a solicitation of offer or a recommendation, to deal in shares of securities or any financial instruments. Past performance and the predictions, projections, or forecasts on the economy, securities markets or the economic trends of the markets are not necessarily indicative of the future or likely performance of OPIM, any funds managed by OPIM, or any future funds to be launched under the Sunrise SPC Platform. Information herein is believed to be reliable at time of publication but OPIM does not warrant its completeness or accuracy and is not responsible for error of facts or opinion nor shall be liable for damages arising out of any person's reliance upon this information. Any opinion or estimate contained in this document may subject to change without notice. This document may not be published, circulated, reproduced or distributed without the prior written consent of OPIM. SOURCE OP Investment Management Ltd Related Links http://www.opim.com.hk A police personnel was killed on a highway here after his motorcycle was allegedly hit by a truck, police said on Tuesday. The driver of the truck is absconding, they said. The incident took place on Monday night on the Noida-Greater Noida expressway near Amity University, the police said. "The deceased has been identified as 27-year-old Rishabh Kumar. He was designated as a constable in the Uttar Pradesh police and was currently attached with the 112 emergency service in Noida," a police spokesperson said. Kumar belonged to Modinagar in Ghaziabad, the spokesperson said, adding that an FIR has been registered in the case at Sector 39 police station. The accused driver had fled the spot after the incident leaving the truck behind. Further proceedings in the case are underway, the police said. Gautam Buddh Nagar district in western UP recorded 4,933roadcrashes between January 2015 and October 2019 in which 2,026 people lost their lives and another 3,811 suffered injuries, several of them life altering, according to a Noida Traffic police data. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five out of the 17 people, who were arrested for allegedly attacking a medical team in Uttar Pradeshs Moradabad last week, have tested positive for coronavirus, a state official said on Tuesday. Besides, 10 more people were found infected with the virus in the district. Police had arrested 17 people after they allegedly attacked health workers, when they visited Moradabads Nawabpura area on April 15 to take family members of a coronavirus victim into an isolation facility. These people hurled stones at an ambulance, injuring four people. Chief Medical Officer Dr Milind Garg said samples of all the 17 accused in the Nawabpura incident were sent for testing to Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences and five of them tested positive for the virus. One doctor was among the people injured in the incident. Police dispersed the violent mob using mild force. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had asked for invoking the National Security Act (NSA) against the culprits. Several incidents of attacks on health workers have been reported from across the country. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 New Delhi:The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday asked states to put on hold for two days antibody testing for Covid-19 using rapid testing kits or RTKs supplied to them late last week, citing huge variations in the results -- a move that compromises efforts by many states to test aggressively in so-called containment zones using these kits, which were procured with some difficulty. Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, head of epidemiology and communicable diseases, ICMR, said that after receiving a complaint from one state on Monday, the body at the forefront of the countrys fight against Covid-19 spoke to three states on Tuesday. We are learning that samples which are positive in RT -PCR are showing too much variation (when tested by RTKs) in the range of 6% to 71%, he added. This means that only 6% of the samples that test positive in the accurate but time-consuming Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), test positive in the antibody test. ICMRs guidelines for such rapid tests mandate that they be carried out only for people who show symptoms of the disease for at least seven days, or those who have been directly or indirectly exposed to the infection, and that a negative test be followed by a RT-PCR one. Ahead of Gangakhedkars comments at the daily press briefing on Indias fight against Covid-19, Rajasthan stopped using the antibody test kits after they were accurate in only 5.4% of the cases, according to state health minister Raghu Sharma. It wasnt immediately clear which other states ICMR spoke to. West Bengal on Monday complained about the quality of RT-PCR tests supplied to it. The 550,000 RTKs ordered from China arrived late last week after missing two deadlines and were distributed to states. While ICMR initially wanted them used to assess the extent of the diseases spread in so-called green zones (according to the health ministry, districts with very few or no cases), it subsequently allowed states to test them in containment zones in hot spots -- where lots of cases, including clusters were found. Many states hoped to use the blood test (RT-PCR uses a nasal swab) to ramp up testing. Those plans have now been put on hold by ICMR, which has created eight field teams to validate the results. It was anticipated that Chinese kits wont be of good quality as many of their exported products havent worked of late, said Dr T Jacob John, former head of virology department, CMC Vellore. On Feb 2 we knew it was a pandemic. We were the last to be hit but we didnt make use of the time... This is the time to consolidate our resources and work like a single unit. It should be a consortium approach and not a competitive approach, he added. To be sure, unlike the RT-PCR kits that show up only active infections, at any stage, however early (and even in asymptomatic individuals), antibody tests do not detect infections till antibodies have been generated, which could take up to a week after the infection, and usually happen around the same time or even after the symptoms show up. While some countries have said they will use these tests to see who can return to work (they are a good measure of immunity), most experts say they are best used to assess population exposure. The RT-PCR is the gold standard in terms of identification of patients is concerned. The rapid test has limited utility, and is good for surveillance and conducting epidemiological investigations, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary at the Union health ministry, said. Gangakhedkar said the kits were tested in Delhi and had shown a 71% accuracy and also mentioned that Covid-19 antibodies emerge after seven days. It wasnt immediately clear how many of the samples tested involved patients who tested positive in a RT-PCR test within the past week. In the lab testing for quality check, we found the efficacy to be around 71%, which was decent considering rapid tests are usually about 80-84% accurate, and we sent it across to our regional centres for distribution in states, Gangakhedkar said. The ICMR said as the tests are halted, it will send experts from eight of its institutes to different locations to conduct field testing of samples using RTKs. After two days we will be in a better position to issue a revised advisory in this regard, Gangakhedkar added. If its validation exercise continues to throw up variations, ICMR plans to take up the matter with the manufacturer. Gangakhedkar said the findings (variations) could not be ignored despite the antibody test being a first generation ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay). Such tests are used to find antibodies against specific diseases, and usually get better with time. For instance, it took several generations before the ELISA test for HIV-AIDS was perfected. The kits were ordered from Chinese manufacturers Guangzhou Wondfo and Zhuhai Livzon. Hindustan Times couldnt ascertain the sensitivity (ability of the test to come up with a positive result when presented with an infected sample, also known as true positive) and specificity (ability of the test to correctly identify a non-infected sample) rating of the test. ICMR had ordered 3.5 million more RTKs. Experts have previously raised concerns about the accuracy of the tests received from China. There were ample examples from the US and Europe on how these Chinese kits were of dubious quality. The Chinese government has become strict and not allowed many of its manufacturers to export because of quality issues, so we had to be careful while ordering these, said a senior virologist, who wished to remain anonymous. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON North Korean President, Kim Jong Un has missed one of the countrys most important events, as he receives treatment after cardiovascul... North Korean President, Kim Jong Un has missed one of the countrys most important events, as he receives treatment after cardiovascular surgery earlier this month, Al Jazeera reports. Speculation mounts over the state of Kims health following his absence as North Korea marked the anniversary of the birthday of its founding father and Kims grandfather, Kim Il Sung, as a national holiday on April 15. There was no sign of Kim in the pictures shared by the State news agency. Al Jazeera quoted Daily NK, a speciality website run mostly by North Korean defectors, as citing unidentified sources inside the isolated state saying Kim was recovering at a villa in the Mount Kumgang resort after undergoing the procedure on April 12 at a hospital there. Reporting from inside North Korea is notoriously difficult, especially on matters concerning the countrys leadership. South Koreas Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, declined to comment on the report, according to Al Jazeera. The President is heavily overweight and his health has deteriorated in recent months due to heavy smoking and overwork, according to the report. My understanding is that he had been struggling (with cardiovascular problems) since last August but it worsened after repeated visits to Mount Paektu, a source was quoted as saying, referring to the countrys sacred mountain. Kim went into hospital after presiding over a meeting of the ruling Workers Partys Politburo on April 11, his last major public event, the report said. Pyongyang fired multiple short-range missiles last week which Seoul officials said were also part of the Kim Il Sung birthday celebration. Such military events would usually be observed by Kim, but there was no KCNA report on the test at all. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Shares of cement maker ACC fell 3 percent intraday on April 21 after global investment firm Morgan Stanley remained bearish on the stock. While having underweight call on the stock with a target price of Rs 930, the brokerage house said it believes share price will fall over the next 60 days as the realisations will see weaker trends than peers. "Pricing trends in eastern and southern regions are expected to be muted and we assumed a sharp volume decline in CY20 and a gradual recovery from 2021," it added. Morgan Stanley expects operating profit to decline by 40 percent in CY20 and sees a potential de-rating in the near term. Meanwhile, ACC is expected to report a double-digit fall its March quarter earnings, revenue and sales volumes today due to lockdown in the peak period, though its margin may see some expansion due to price hike taken during the quarter. The stock was trading at Rs 1,150.50, down Rs 25.20 or 2.14 percent on the BSE at 1141 hours IST. : The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. NEW HAVEN The city is kicking off a look at a second $100 million biotech tower and public improvement along the disappearing Route 34 corridor as part of the Downtown Crossing with proposed community benefits that will connect residents to construction, as well as permanent workforce jobs and local supply chain development. The developer, Carter Winstanley, is proposing to build a medical lab building of between 350,000 to 500,000 square feet over tunnels and driveways that now connect to the Air Rights Garage, the Connecticut Mental Health Center and the loading docks for the Yale New Haven Health System. The documentation for the large project has been submitted to the Board of Alders, who are being asked to approve an agreement that involves the city, state and Winstanley building on state land that will be turned over to the city. It necessitates an amendment to B-3 zoning that will tie construction of such a large structure to the provision of outdoor space, something that did not materialize when the $100 million Alexion building was constructed in phase one. This project is being coordinated with one that reconnects Orange Street to the Hill and later extends Temple Street to Congress Avenue, eventually reclaiming some 12 acres of prime land downtown. Mayor Justin Elicker, in his daily press conference on the impact of COVID-19, said he was grateful to the developer and the state for its continuing support of the project despite the economic fallout from the pandemic that has killed 42,474 across the country and seen millions lose their jobs. Ultimately, the impact of the pandemic is unknown, but the plans allows for construction to start this summer if all the permits, easements and land transfers take place in a timely manner. Winstanley wants to begin in August and complete it in two years. If the preconditions were not met or waived by the proposed closing date, Winstanley could extend the closing date or terminate the agreement. There are three major public investments associated with the deal: a $20 million federal TIGER grant; Temple Street Garage improvements of up to $1.5 million; onsite improvements of $16.5 million with $8 million from the state Department of Economic and Community Development. The land disposition agreement will be the subject of discussions with the two Hill management teams as well Downtown/Wooster Square. That is in addition to two community-wide forums: one at the City Plan Commission and the other before the alders. The project includes a 30-year taxable period even if 101 College Street is sold at some point to a nonprofit. The tenants are described as: one of more mature life and bioscience companies; Yale School of Medicine and an incubator supporting the transfer of technology and innovative new businesses in need of early support services. New Haven is a growing center for biotech and life sciences companies spinning out of research at Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital, but incubator space for new start ups and medium size firms is being filled at a rapid pace. Part of the goal is to make space available to small business programs operated by the Elm City Innovation Collaborative, New Haven Small Business Academy, iHaven and Gateway Community College. With advance scheduling, the deal promises a classroom will be made available within the incubator at no charge for STEM-related academic classes and programs for the New Haven Public Schools. The site is bound by Martin Luther King Boulevard to the north, College Street to the west, South Frontage Road to the south and the future segment of Temple Street to the east. The development agreement covers the private construction and the public infrastructure required to sustain the Downtown Crossing. In addition to constructing the biotech building, Winstanley will provide onsite parking for 175 vehicles and outdoor space in the form of a public plaza. The number of construction jobs is estimated at between 700 and 1,000; 3,000 job for the region at all skill levels and $250 million in wages. The Connecticut Economic Resource Center estimates each job in the bioscience sector supports an additional 2.9 jobs. To make sure it connects with all demographics, Winstanley will contribute a one-time payment of between $400,000 and $500,000 to a fund Together We Grow, which underwrites business fairs and career paths in the sciences for school children. mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577. Last time the all-Ukrainian census took place was in 2001; the date of the next one has been delayed ever since. This time, government will not be able to prepare everything necessary until 2021, Minister of Cabinet says Open source There will be no population census in Ukraine in 2021. The government will not be able to prepare in time, says Oleg Nemchynov, the Minister of the Cabinet. Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted him as saying. "It is necessary to perform the census, but it's a luxury. The budget request filed by the State Statistics Agency equals 5.8 billion hryvnas (USD 210 mln, - 112 International), I guess. Our entire stabilization budget is amined at combating coronavirus, that's 65 billion hryvnas (USD 2.4 bn, - 112 International). It's very serious political decision, and it's a process one has to launch well ahead. For example, if we wanted to hold a census in 2021, we were supposed to start preparing in March 2020", Nemchynov said. The Minister noted that, most likely, the population census in Ukraine will not be conducted in 2021. "I don't think so. We could try doing so in the end of the year, but in this case, we've got to be spending funds on it since September or October. The way the head of the State Statistics Agency explained it to me, one needs at least one year and three months to pass the entire cycle that we need to perform", the official said. "But [performing] even a digital census takes a lot of funds". Last time the all-Ukrainian census took place was in 2001; the date of the next one has been delayed ever since. My sewing machine is in the back of a storage unit because it was not working correctly. Do you know of any local stores or locations selling homemade masks? -- In Need of a Mask Where can a retired person who has no relatives, doesn't sew and doesn't do internet orders find a cloth re-usable mask? I can't find one anywhere! Any ideas? -- The Unmasked Bandit Getting ones hands on a cloth face mask isnt just all the rage, its whats being recommended as COVID-19 has struck the world. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control recently asked that everyone wear a cloth face mask or covering when in public. But for those unwilling or unable to make a mask for themselves, the CDCs advice is tougher to heed. Purchasing a cloth mask in and around Rochester is proving as elusive as finding a store stocked with toilet paper. As soon as a shipment arrives, its gone. A call was made to the Walmart Supercenter store on South Broadway on Sunday, inquiring about cloth face masks. ADVERTISEMENT "We do carry them, but we dont have any now," the receptionist said. "They are a hard thing to keep on the shelf." Agencies providing essential services have the best chance of landing a mask. Theyre asked to call the City of Rochester COVID-19 Information Hotline at 507-328-2822 to get in line for masks. But thats not an option for In Need or Unmasked. So, what to do? Well, the best course of action might be to cozy up (but not too close stay 6 feet apart) to a neighbor who is handy with a sewing machine. They might be able to knock out a mask for you. Use your social network -- ask neighbors, your church office, your friends, your former coworkers, your bridge club. I suspect sooner or later you'll find one or more on your doorstep. There are also instructions available on the internet for making cloth masks, both the sewn and unsewn varieties. The claim is that its not nearly as difficult as you might think. But know this: finding fabric and elastic bands at stores is almost as tough finding masks themselves. That mask-making material has also flown off the shelves. But masks and their ties can be made from cotton T-shirts. ADVERTISEMENT There are also internet sites selling the masks. But those options can be spendy and the wait time can be into late May. The "Father of India's green revolution", M S Swaminathan, lauded the efforts of the people of the country in combatting the spread of COVID-19 and coping with the ongoing lockdown on Tuesday. Talking to PTI over the phone from Chennai, the 94-year-old agricultural scientist said, "My view is that the lockdown has been handled as well as one could have." The consequences of the nationwide lockdown, in particular on migrant and landless labourers, however, should have received anticipatory action, he said. "The coming together of the people of India in managing the COVID-19 spread is commendable," Swaminathan said. According to the former Rajya Sabha member, the farming sector is doing well "largely because of our farmers". "What it requires is greater attention at the level of post-harvest technology. Pricing and purchase policy should also be pro-small farmers," he said. "I would only like to remind ourselves that if agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right," the geneticist added. The agricultural scientist, who heads the renowned M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, pointed out that agriculture is a source of livelihood for over 40 per cent of India's population and over 50 per cent of its rural women. An integrated assistance in the field of technology and public policy should be provided to agriculture, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Welcome back for Week 2 of The Will Bunch Newsletter. Is this your first time here, or did someone forward you this email? Sign up to receive this newsletter weekly at inquirer.com/bunch. 50 years ago, they invented Earth Week in Philly. We desperately need their spirit today. Then-23-year-old University of Pennsylvania grad student Austan Librach really had no idea what he was getting into at the dawn of the 1970s when he signed up as local chair for this vague idea to raise environmental conscious by organizing something that a U.S. senator, Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, was calling Earth Day. But when the third week of April 1970 rolled around, the ecological celebration in Philadelphia was arguably the most robust in the nation so much so that Librach and his main co-organizer, Edward Furia, had to expand Phillys event into Earth Week to accommodate a guest list that included then-presidential front-runner Sen. Edmund Muskie, Ralph Nader, the poet Allen Ginsberg, and the Broadway cast of Hair, which sang, of course, Air! READ MORE: How to celebrate Earth Days 50th anniversary while following stay-at-home orders On the eve of the 50th anniversary, the other thing Librach told me he couldnt realize back then was how much Earth Week would change the rest of his life. A regional planner who eventually settled in Austin, Texas, Librach set up environmental departments everywhere he worked. Looked back on Earth Week, he told me by telephone: I think it was the best thing I accomplished in my whole career. Its hard to disagree. The original Earth Day April 22, 1970, marked by large events in cities from coast-to-coast was arguably the most successful event of its kind ever held. With months, President Richard Nixon, a pro-business Republican, had helped launch the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and over the next few years Congress had passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. But simply celebrating that remarkable achievement isnt the only reason I wanted to talk to Librach and recapture a little of the spirit of 1970. That first Earth Day happened only after decades of ignorance of what the Industrial Revolution and its greedy shortcuts had done to the planet, capped by cities darkened by smog at high noon, polluted urban rivers catching fire, and oil-soaked seagulls on California beaches. A lesson had been learned, but little more than two generations later that lesson has been forgotten. Librach, now 73, is a man of very few words, but he does not mince those words when I asked him what President Trump has done to the legacy of Earth Day. I think its very negative, he said. The Trump administration is anti-science. Theyre not doing anything about global warming and other key environmental issues. I think its terrible. Its beyond ironic that Trump, when asked about the environment, brags about Americas clean air and water the legacy of pioneers like Librach, Furia and Nelson but denies the reality of wildfire, droughts and floods already being caused by climate change that are continuing to get worse while Trumps government rolls back regulations and hands departments like the EPA over to former fossil-fuel lobbyists. While America in 1970 was hardly a nirvana (read more lower down), todays climate denial and Republican-led war on science would have been unthinkable. Fifty years ago, Big Business knew it had to clean up its act Earth Week got money from the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, including members whod been accused of pollution and even the GOP understood clean air was good politics. Nixons first EPA chief William Ruckelshaus (later made famous in Nixons Saturday Night Massacre) reached out to Earth Weeks Furia and convinced him to work for the government as the agencys mid-Atlantic director. Indeed, the can-do brio of that first Earth Week seems remarkable in hindsight. The activists didnt just give speeches but forced City Hall to make public water pollution data it had long kept secret. Its no wonder that both Librach and Furia, the project director, never stopped working to clean up the environment. After his EPA stint, Furia moved to Washington State and worked on non-polluting electric cars but unfortunately he wont be around to see the 50th anniversary. Librach told me Furia died a couple of months ago. We need his spirit today, but we also need something else weve lost since 1970. The quaint idea that saving Planet Earth isnt just a Democratic problem or a Republican problem. Its a human problem and wed better get moving. Again. The Spanish government is trying to get back the money it paid for 640,000 antigen coronavirus tests that it purchased via a Spanish distributor from a Chinese company called Bioeasy. The move comes after the health authorities found that the kits which were meant to replace another lot that was found to be faulty dont work either. As happened the first time around, these tests do not have the sensitivity required to detect the virus, meaning that there is a high chance that they wont detect the coronavirus in a person who has been infected. Bioeasy sent a sample of these kits, which use a fluorescence method, and they were analyzed by the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid. On seeing that they werent sufficiently sensitive, the government decided to cancel the entire order. The Health Ministry has confirmed to EL PAIS that the process has begun to recover the money that was paid for the kits. The Spanish government has now rejected the use of antigen tests, in which great hopes had been placed just a few weeks ago The ministry has still not made public how much the order from Bioeasy cost, nor has it identified the mysterious Spanish intermediary who carried out the operation. The Health Ministry is not publishing the purchasing contracts for health material during the coronavirus crisis, despite the fact that the Public Procurement Advisory Board, which reports to the Finance Ministry, has issued a report stating that it should. At the end of March, the Health Ministry was forced to return 58,000 of the so-called rapid coronavirus tests from a total of 640,000 that it had purchased from the same company. The kits were due to be used for health professionals as well as workers and residents in senior homes. Antigen test from the Chinese company Bioeasy. They had received two batches, a first with 8,000 units and a second with 50,000. When a number of laboratories in Madrid hospitals determined that they had a 30% sensitivity, rather than the 80% specified, the Health Ministry opted to return the tests and cancel the next deliveries. The company suggested replacing the order with antigen kits, which were also rapid but that required a machine to read the result. The Chinese company was going to include these machines free of charge to compensate for the problems. After EL PAIS revealed that the tests did not work properly, the Chinese embassy in Spain sent out a tweet warning that Bioeasy did not have a license in China. The government responded saying that the company did have permission to export to the European Union and that it had purchased the rapid tests via a Spanish distributor, and not directly from the manufacturer. The Spanish trade association for medical and health material, Fenin, has stated that it is not one of its members. The ministry has still not made public how much the order from Bioeasy cost Shortly after this fiasco, and concerned about the international image of its products, China decided to take control of its health material exports. Since the beginning of the month, firms that manufacture these products will have to be officially registered in China, as well as counting on the corresponding foreign approval. In the case of Bioeasy, the tests had been approved by two European certifying companies that do not analyze the quality of the product, but rather are limited to reviewing the documentation supplied. The purchase of these tests came before Spain closed a deal with China to buy health equipment worth 532 million. China provided a list of trusted suppliers of the products. According to Health Minister Salvador Ila, the deal included the supply of masks for patients and professionals during an eight week period, as well as 5.5 million serological tests. The latter kits detect antibodies, and as such do not detect the disease in the early stages of infection. These are the ones that are being used in order to increase the number of diagnostic tests being carried out, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Spanish government has now rejected the use of antigen tests, in which great hopes had been placed just a few weeks ago. This kind of test is now not even being used in the latest diagnostic protocols for the Covid-19 disease. Spain is entering the next phase of the epidemic, which is deconfinement and deescalation, using antibody tests and PCR tests, the latter being the most trustworthy and the most expensive. These two methods will be used to detect those who have the virus even before they have symptoms, and to place them in isolation as soon as possible. English version by Simon Hunter. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Miami, April 21, 2020 Cuban authorities must drop the fine imposed on reporter Monica Baro and refrain from using Decree 370 to harass independent journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On April 17, the National Revolutionary Police of the Ministry of the Interior summoned Baro, a reporter for the independent digital news magazine El Estornudo, to their offices in Havana, where agents interrogated her for over two hours and accused her of working for outlets that accept funding from foreign organizations seeking to overthrow the Cuban revolution, according to Baro, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and press reports. At the end of the interrogation, Ministry of Communications inspectors showed Baro a file containing numerous posts from her personal Facebook account, including some posted months ago, and fined her 3,000 Cuban pesos ($120), Baro told CPJ. Authorities alleged that she violated Article 68(i) of Decree 370, a rule banning the dissemination of information contrary to the social interest, morals, good manners and integrity of people on public networks. When Decree 370 was issued in 2019, CPJ warned that it provided a legal tool for Cuban authorities to persecute the independent press. Cuban authorities should stop harassing Monica Baro and other independent journalists on the island who report on social and political issues, said CPJ Central and South America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick, in New York. Cuba should urgently review Decree 370 which, as CPJ warned when it was enacted, has become an additional device in the regimes ever-expanding toolkit to target critical voices and silence the press. Baro told CPJ that she was shown the file of Facebook posts quickly, and was only able to identify one post, from the previous day, when she had commented that she received the Ministry of Interior summons and questioned its legality. She said that the interrogators had not discussed her Facebook posts, and had repeatedly talked about the alleged sources of funding for news organizations she has written for. Baros posts on Facebook include personal posts and links to her reporting for El Estornudo. Baro is at least the fifth independent journalist fined under Decree 370 since it was passed, according to the Association for Press Freedom, a group that advocates for press freedom in Cuba. Baro said she has refused to sign the official receipt of her fine and has not paid it. She told CPJ she plans to file an appeal. Cuba is one of the most hostile environments for the press in the world, and ranks among CPJs 10 Most Censored Countries. CPJ called the Cuban Ministry of Communications for comment, but no one answered. Funeral director Lucy Coulbert arrives at the office by 6.30 each morning and, if shes lucky, manages to leave by 10.30 at night. With the coronavirus death toll rising exponentially, her Oxford-based firm, The Individual Funeral Company, is twice as busy as usual and theres no end in sight. In the last three weeks my shortest working day is 16 hours, she says. Ill be honest, I am absolutely exhausted. Over those 16 hours, Coulbert breaks the news to bereaved relatives that they cannot attend the funerals of loved ones, many of whom have died from coronavirus. She organises and attends the services herself; one of the few people there to see the recently departed to their final resting place. And she worries about the safety of her and her employees as they move bodies from homes and hospitals, coming into contact with victims of the pandemic that has swept the globe. In a career of working with death, she is now considering her own mortality more than ever before. Ive made a will at 38 years old, she says. Thats not normal. As with many frontline workers, a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and confusion over what is required is one of the most familiar complaints. The governments advice says there is a small but continuing risk of infection to those handling the bodies of the deceased who were infected by Covid-19. Until the end of March, it was recommended that funeral directors wear full PPE while working with the dead. Public Health England then released updated, industry-specific guidelines that said gowns and respirators were not necessary. Im on a lot of different forums with funeral directors, says Jo Williamson, owner of Albany Funerals in Maidstone, Kent. We were puzzled, thinking what has happened here? Naturally, many of them drew a link between this change in advice and the highly publicised shortages in the NHS and elsewhere. In a statement to The Independent, Public Health England said their initial advice was based on previous coronavirus outbreaks of Sars and Mers. The change of guidance was based on an improved global understanding of Covid-19 and the safe systems of working in mortuary practice, and their current advice is aligned with that of the World Health Organisation. Nevertheless, many funeral directors would rather be safe than sorry. We decided as a company that we would treat the initial advice we were given as what we would use, Williamson says. Were in full PPE handling bodies. Coulbert is doing the same. Thankfully, both were well prepared and ordered stocks of PPE months ago. But new supplies are scarce. What is available to buy is highly expensive, and that means others are struggling to protect themselves and their employees. There are funeral directors whove got nothing, says Coulbert. Ive seen funeral director staff arrive at hospital mortuaries without a mask and without a gown, and those are the two most basic things we need. It is frightening. Its whatever you can get. Were in and out of peoples homes, in and out of care homes, in and out of hospitals. We cant avoid that contact. If we dont have the right PPE, we are probably one of the very few professions actually spreading it around our local area. One of the biggest concerns that I have is what if I have it? What if Im a carrier and I go to a funeral service and theres 10 people there and Im not wearing a mask and I give it to those 10 people. What if I kill somebody at a funeral service? That is a genuine concern that I have. Some standard, everyday equipment is also in short supply. Body bags are not deemed necessary to prevent infection from the deceased but are nevertheless absolutely impossible to find, says Coulbert, who was passed a document issued by local police that advised on how to wrap a deceaseds body in plastic. A florist in London makes a funeral tribute (Reuters) David Holmes, of Holmes Funerals based in southeast England, is among those struggling for equipment. We feel we are at great risk, yet have a duty to do the best we can, he says. Our usual suppliers have no PPE. We do have gloves and paper masks, and as of last week, the police supplied a roll of thin plastic aprons. Thats it. Like health professionals, we feel let down. A pandemic was predicted, so where are the stocks of vital equipment? What happened to the emergency planning that we know goes on year after year? Who is responsible for the failures? There is also more general frustration with the governments failure to set out clear rules on funeral services themselves. The number of mourners at any given ceremony should be as low as possible, according to official advice, while only members of the deceaseds household, close family and close friends are permitted to attend. The latest guidance says all mourners who are not displaying symptoms of Covid-19 should be facilitated to attend services if they wish to do so, even if they are part of an at-risk group, despite the clear risk of infection. It means that its all a little bit up to us, says Williamson, who is holding burial services where a limited number of guests can respect social distancing guidelines but is only offering cremation services first thing in the morning. Some of the crematoriums we use are still saying up to 25 people are allowed in. Theres 11 slots a day, she says. You cant possibly clean that chapel between each time. Informing the bereaved that they will not be able to attend their loved ones ceremony is difficult but Williamson is finding alternatives, whether it be live-streaming or driving the hearse past the family home so they can come outside and say goodbye from a distance. Im trying to give people a bit of hope and say yes its terrible it really is, we are stripped of all our tools that we use to help people, but there are other ways to help, she says. Its not as good as maybe it could be but its something. With every single family weve had weve managed to find one thing that makes a difference to them. Coulbert has gone further and stopped offering attended burials as well as cremations. Have we lost clients? Absolutely we have. Have we lost money? Absolutely. Am I doing the right thing? Without a shadow of a doubt. The decision that Ive made ... even thinking about it makes me want to cry but that decision is absolutely the right one I could make. She describes the governments failure to unequivocally ban attended funerals as one of their biggest mistakes in their handling of this crisis. I know it sounds awful but weve prepared for the worst, hoped for the best and its been even more catastrophic than Ive ever imagined, she adds. Were tired. Were so tired. Its overwhelming ... But more importantly, above and beyond all of that, weve got to make sure our clients dont ever understand any of it. A funeral directors job what were here for is to take all of that pressure away from our client: to be really gentle with them, to really walk them through everything. But its really difficult in the current circumstances to take all of that pressure away, because we dont know whats going to happen. Before the nurse at the polyclinic in the city of Vardenis of Gegharkunik Province of Armenia tested positive for COVID-19, there were people infected with COVID-19 who infected the nurse. This is what the infected nurse told Armenian News-NEWS.am. She is currently at Nork Infection Clinic Hospital. The presses had spread news that she was infected while attending a religious meeting in Etchmiadzin, but the woman denied the news and said she hasnt even had time to visit her relatives in Vardenis due to the state of emergency declared in Armenia. The woman added that if people continue to spread false news, she will file lawsuits against them. The 47-year-old woman said she had felt bad on Friday, told the head of the polyclinic and was tested on Tuesday. The result of the first test was negative. I went home, but then I received a phone call telling me the result was positive. Im feeling well now, but sometimes I have a fever. In response to the information that she has also infected her son-in-law, the nurse said her son-in-law has tested negative. The nurse also stressed that she wasnt the source of the contagion in Vardenis. As of April 19, there are 10 coronavirus cases in Gegharkunik Province. Oxford professor arrested for selling stolen Bible fragments to Museum of the Bible Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An academic from the U.K.s Oxford University has been arrested as part of an investigation into the theft and unauthorized sale of ancient Bible fragments to Hobby Lobby Stores in the U.S. The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., displayed the fragments temporarily. The accused, identified as Dr. Dirk Obbink, a 63-year-old professor of papyrology at Oxford who allegedly stole the fragments belonging to the Oxyrhynchus collection in the Sackler Library, was arrested Thursday by Thames Valley Police, according to The Telegraph. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri is a group of manuscripts that were discovered during the late 19th and early 20th centuries at a spot where ancient inhabitants of the city of Oxyrhynchus dumped their garbage of over 1,000 years. Obbink has been released under investigation, a police spokesman was quoted as saying. The Egypt Exploration Society, a British nonprofit excavation organization that works in Egypt and Sudan which owns the collection, issued a statement last October accusing Obbink of selling fragments of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, after which the university suspended the professor. The EES said 11 of the 13 missing fragments were sold without authorization to Hobby Lobby Stores, a U.S. arts and crafts chain, and they ended up in a collection belonging to the Museum of the Bible, which was founded by the evangelical Green family. The family also owns Hobby Lobby. The MOTB has informed the EES that 11 of these pieces came into its care after being sold to Hobby Lobby Stores by Professor Obbink, most of them in two batches in 2010, the EES said. Dr. Carl Graves, the EES director, confirmed the Museum of the Bible had since returned 13 missing fragments. The Board of Trustees of the MOTB has accepted the EES claim to ownership of the thirteen pieces identified to date, and is arranging to return them to the EES. The EES is grateful to the MOTB for its co-operation, and has agreed that the research on these texts by scholars under the auspices of the MOTB will receive appropriate recognition when the texts are published in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri series, EES said in its statement. Obbink had denied the accusations. The allegations made against me that I have stolen, removed or sold items owned by the Egypt Exploration Society collection at the University of Oxford are entirely false, he earlier told The Guardian. I would never betray the trust of my colleagues and the values which I have sought to protect and uphold throughout my academic career in the way that has been alleged. I am aware that there are documents being used against me which I believe have been fabricated in a malicious attempt to harm my reputation and career. The Oxyrhynchus collection includes more than 500,000 fragments of literary and documentary texts written in Greek, ancient Egyptian, Coptic, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew and other languages dating from the 3rd century BC to the 7th century. The stolen fragments included extracts from Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Romans and I Corinthians, according to The Times. These are early fragments of the gospels or biblical fragments, Graves told The Guardian. They are testament to Egypts early Christian heritage and are early evidence of biblical scripture. We dont value them monetarily but they are priceless and irreplaceable. In 2018, experts announced that a fragment from the New Testament Gospel of Mark found in the Oxyrhynchus garbage dump likely dates back to either the late second or early third centuries, and not the first century as was speculated by some scholars. For months, sparsely populated South Dakota watched as the coronavirus ravaged far-off US coastal cities. The state now has one of the largest outbreaks in the country, but its governor refuses to impose a lockdown. An AFP team is crisscrossing the rural countryside this week to take the pulse (and temperature) of the few American communities still living normally. In Sioux Falls, South Dakota's largest city with slightly fewer than 200,000 residents, shops and businesses opened Monday morning as if the pandemic stopped short at the borders of the Midwestern state. Most of the bars are closed, and restaurants are only offering takeout, but hairstylists are styling, florists are making bouquets, tattoo artists are tattooing and fitness buffs are sweating away in gyms -- albeit in much smaller groups. "South Dakota is not New York," said Governor Kristi Noem. The state, best known for its massive presidential busts carved directly into the granite of Mount Rushmore, has little more than four residents per square half mile (one square kilometer). Many South Dakotans believe they are safe from the virus, surrounded by sweeping wheat and corn fields, cattle ranches and vast Native American reservations. "You have to be careful about where you go and of your hygiene, but it's not too big of a deal here 'cause we're spread out, much more than in big cities," said Lane Stone, a 17-year-old high school student. He and two friends -- who were shirtless to take advantage of the sunshine -- were working out in a park. Farther along the waterfalls of the Big Sioux River, for which the town is named, Pastor Spencer Aalsburg sits on a bench immersed in a collection of poems. He says he trusts the authorities to make "wise decisions." "If we act wisely, I think we can hold on. I don't know if we need a lockdown," the 42-year-old said, acknowledging that he is in a privileged position. "The fact that we can come out... is a blessing." - Responsibility and common sense - Until the beginning of April, South Dakota had recorded only about 100 cases of COVID-19. It currently has nearly 1,700 cases and seven deaths, mainly due to a pork processing plant that became the biggest infection outbreak in the country, with nearly 900 people directly exposed among the factory employees and their families. Despite an open letter from health professionals, petitions from citizens worried about living far from medical resources and pressure from elected officials within her own Republican Party, Governor Noem is unflinching in her stance: Locking down is out of the question. The 48-year-old conservative leader prefers to appeal to the "personal responsibility" and "common sense" of her fellow South Dakotans, so that they don't have to "give up their liberties for just a little bit of security." The four other US states -- Arkansas, North Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska -- that have also refused to issue lockdown orders all have Republican governors. And that's not a coincidence. The US response to the coronavirus has grown increasingly political, as President Donald Trump champs at the bit to quickly reopen the country and restart the economy ahead of his reelection battle in November. Anti-lockdown protests have popped up over the last few days throughout a country in love with personal freedom, something its citizens hold almost sacred. "We'll never be truly free as long as there's some type of government rule that tells you what to do and how to do it," said Zachary Rinder, a 32-year-old maintenance worker who came to fish for pike with his family in the Sioux Falls River. "God gives us free will. People will take the precautions and everything, but they're still going to be the rebels that say, 'Hey, I'm actually gonna go out fishing. I'm going to quarantine,'" he said. "But I'm going to do it on my terms." "It's inevitable, we are all gonna get sick one way or another," Rinder added. South Dakota, which Trump carried in 2016 with 60 percent of the vote, stands out in another way in its fight against the pandemic: It is the first US state to set up a large-scale clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine, a treatment hailed as a "gift from God" by the president but with disputed effectiveness against the virus. Lane Stone (L) and his friends work out along the waterfalls in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where no lockdown has been imposed despite the coronavirus pandemic Pastor Spencer Aalsburg says it's a "blessing" to be able to continue going outside A sign calls for people to respect social distancing in a park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota Zachary Rinder, who went fishing with his family, said he will quarantine "on (his) terms" CABI has led a team of scientists on new research which reveals that a humble bug can help relieve more than 2 million sufferers of allergies in Europe while also saving more than Euro 1 billion in health costs. Dr Urs Schaffner, lead author of the study published in Nature Communications, says the leaf beetle Ophraella communa can significantly reduce pollen which causes a range of symptoms from sneezing to itchy eyes and aggravates conditions such as asthma and eczema from common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia). The interdisciplinary study the first to quantify the economic benefits of biological control in Europe also argues that the costs inflicted by invasive species in Europe are most probably seriously underestimated. The team of scientists from institutions including the University of Fribourg and ETH Zurich, Switzerland, the University of Worcester, UK, and Leiden University, NL, , suggest countries in the Balkan Peninsula such as Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia will benefit most from the leaf beetle as a biological control. Prior to the accidental arrival of the leaf beetle in 2013, some 13.5 million people suffered from ragweed-induced allergies in Europe, causing economic costs of approximately Euro 7.4 billion annually. In Europe, common ragweed is considered invasive in more than 30 countries and its spread and impact, the scientists say, is likely to increase with rising temperatures caused by climate change. Field studies in Italy have proved that the leaf beetle can reduce ragweed pollen by 82 percent. In the Milan area, where the beetle was first detected, up to 100 percent of ragweed plants were attacked and the damage caused was enough to prevent flowering that causes pollen to be released. Dr Schaffner said, Our study provides evidence that the impacts of common ragweed on human health and the economy are so far highly underestimated, but that biological control by Ophraella communa might mitigate these impacts in parts of Europe. We propose that future assessments of the economic impacts of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) should more thoroughly consider costs related to human health. The scientists drew upon information from the European Pollen Monitoring Programme before mapping seasonal total ragweed pollen integrals in Europe during 2004 and 2012 prior to the introduction of the leaf beetle. They then interpolated data from 296 pollen monitoring sites across Europe. To validate the estimated number of patients suffering from ragweed pollen allergy, the researchers compared their European-wide assessment with detailed healthcare data from the Rhone-Alpes region in southeastern France. They then weighted the treatment and lost work time cost at the country level using purchasing power parity adjusted health expenditures per capita for 2015 to determine the overall economic costs of healthcare to treat the symptoms and other effects of ragweed pollen. Professor Heinz Muller-Scharer, of the University of Fribourg, said, We were not sure as first whether the leaf beetle was useful or harmful. Laboratory tests had shown that it was possible that it was harmful to sunflowers. However, field tests in China and Europe could not confirm this finding. Dr Schaffner, Professor Muller-Scharer and the other authors conclude that accurate information of policy and management about the impact of IAS on human health and the potential savings due to the implementation of mitigation measures is essential to ensure that reasonable resources are invested and actions coordinated in IAS management. ### Notes to editors Full paper reference Schaffner, U., Steinbach, S., Sun, Y., Skjth, C., de Weger, L.A., Lommen, S.T., Augustinus, B.A., Bonini, M., Karrer, G., Sikoparija, B., Thibaudon, M and Muller-Scharer, H., Biological weed control to relieve millions of allergy sufferers in Europe Nature Communications, 2020, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15586-1 The paper is available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15586-1 Photos of common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), the leaf beetle Ophraella communa, Dr Urs Schaffner and Professor Heinz Muller-Scharer are available to download on Dropbox . https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pjeamr6mbstlrxf/AACF6_-LNjZFiNvOTT01o068a?dl=0 See also video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4RBUi8f-8w4 Media enquiries Wayne Coles, Communications Manager, CABI, email: w.coles@cabi.org Tel: +44 (0)1491 829395 Dr Urs Schaffner, Head of Ecosystems Management, CABI, email: u.schaffner@cabi.org Tel: +41 (0)79286 4537 Professor Heinz Muller-Scharer, University of Fribourg, email: heinz.mueller@unifr.ch Tel: +41 (0)79 7873571 About CABI CABI is an international not-for-profit organization that improves peoples lives by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment. Through knowledge sharing and science, CABI helps address issues of global concern such as improving global food security and safeguarding the environment. We do this by helping farmers grow more and lose less of what they produce, combating threats to agriculture and the environment from pests and diseases, protecting biodiversity from invasive species, and improving access to agricultural and environmental scientific knowledge. Our 49 member countries guide and influence our core areas of work, which include development and research projects, scientific publishing and microbial services. About University of Fribourg The University of Fribourg encompasses five faculties where people study, teach and research. These are Arts and Humanities, Science and Medicine, Management, Economics and Social Sciences, Law and Theology. The approximately 10,000 students in the Bachelor, Masters and PhD programs receive first-class personal support from over 800 professors, lecturers and research assistants. As the only bilingual university in Switzerland, the University of Fribourg offers a wide range of courses of study in French, German or both. The members of the University community come from 110 countries and make Fribourg with its 40,000 inhabitants a university town par excellence. https://www3.unifr.ch/home/en/ - Health CS Mutahi Kagwe had said the Homa Bay driver was positive for the virus in his Saturday, April 18, briefing - However, the driver refuted those claims and said he was not positive for the virus since he was not exhibiting any symptoms - Homabay health officials insisted his sample came out positive and it was wrong for him to argue with the government - Health ministry director-general Patrick Amoth said the man was asymptomatic, meaning he had coronavirus but was not exhibiting symptoms yet he could easily pass the disease to others The Homa Bay driver who reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 has denied the report and insisted he was free of the virus. The 26-year-old man identified only as Kelvin was on the morning of Saturday, April 18, taken to Malela COVID-19 isolation centre in Ndhiwa constituency after his results tested positive for the virus. READ ALSO: Lawyer Ahmednasir terms daily COVID-19 updates nonsense, asks govt to conduct mass tests Homa Bay health officials had said the driver tested positive for the virus. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Zari Hassan Utawezana? Ugandan beauty jams to Mejja's Utawezana However, speaking to journalists from his isolation room, the driver said he was feeling normal and had not exhibited any symptoms for the killer virus. I am not positive for the killer virus as it was announced by the CS for Heath. "I have been staying here since they said that I am positive but I have not exhibited any signs of the virus. My body is okay even my temperature is normal, he said READ ALSO: Magazeti ya Jumanne, Aprili 21: Marehemu Ken Walibora alitabiri kifo chake kupitia vitabu vyake CS Kagwe had said the driver ferried fake mourners to Homa Bay. Photo: Ministry of Health. Source: Facebook He further appealed to the government and Homa Bay health officers to release him. On Saturday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti told him that the driver had tested positive for the virus He was among nine mourners who travelled from Nairobi with an empty coffin to Homa Bay for a funeral in Karachuonyo. Kelvin said they arrived at the funeral on Tuesday, April 14, and took the coffin to Kendu Adventist Hospital morgue where the body of the deceased was. They returned home where they interacted with the residents in the home compound until they went to bed. The driver said they were arrested by police at 1pm and taken to Miriu Health Centre in Nyakwere, Karachuonyo constituency. We were taken from Miriu Health Centre to Homa Bay KMTC for quarantine where our samples were taken for COVID-19 testing, he said. On the flip side, Homa Bay health officials said the drivers samples that were taken and tested at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in Kisumu came out positive for the virus. "His samples that we took for test in Kisumu showed that he was positive and that's what we believe in, in fact, his results turned positive before we isolated him to Malela, a health official said. They challenged the driver to produce his results that showed that he was not positive. "If he is to argue with the government, then let him produce his results that shows that he is negative and also tell us where he did the test, he added. The Health Ministry Acting Director-General Patrick Amoth responded to the driver's claims and said he was indeed positive but asymptomatic. He said this meant though Kelvin had the virus, he was not exhibiting symptoms but was capable of spreading it to other people. Story by Naomi Akoth, TUKO correspondent 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 Ruth Matete is not telling the truth about her husband's death - Pastor John's manager | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday (April 21, 2020) said that he has spoken to the chief ministers of other states during which he had assured early return of students and migrants stuck in Rajasthan due to coronavirus COVID-19 lockdown. The Rajasthan Chief Minister had also spoken to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and requested him to facilitate the return of migrants from Rajasthan stuck in other states due to the lockdown. Zee Media quoted Gehlot as saying, People are stuck all over the country due to COVID-19 lockdown. Their demand to send them home should be taken seriously. The chief ministers of MP, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Assam and Gujarat have agreed on this. Soon, students from these states will for their home. The Union Home Minister has also assured of early resolution of this crisis. Gehlot further stated that the Centre should consider the plight of the labourers and allow them to return to their homes. "I spoke to the Union Home Minister and said the Government of India should treat Rajasthan in a different manner. Larger number of migrants from Rajasthan live in other states be it Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and they are traders, employees, workers, shop keepers etc and want to come back," Gehlot said. He said the Union Home Minister has asked him to discuss with the officials and respond on Tuesday. "They (migrant labourers) want to go back home and once the situation improves, they would return with new confidence. The Government of India should take up the matter," he said. "I have asked the Prime Minister, have written a letter too to explain the situation of migrant labourers. They are mentally broken and are depressed now," he said. After Uttar Pradesh, he said, Assam, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have also agreed to take their students back from Kota. The UP government had earlier sent 250 buses for the return of the students. The Rajasthan CM said there are 4,000 students in Kota who are from various parts of Rajasthan and arrangements to send home are being made. Gehlot said the state government was strengthening its health infrastructure. We are managing challenges at the health and economy front in a balanced manner, he said. Rajasthan Chief Minister also appealed to people to remain in their homes to prevent the spread of coronavirus. "As we enter Modified Lockdown in Rajasthan from today, my appeal to all kindly continues to remain inside your homes and avoid going out. Lockdown rules remain in place for citizens. The decision to ease restrictions is for starting economic activities in a limited and phased manner," Gehlot tweeted. In another tweet, he said, "Corona remains a threat and the fight is on. Wearing a mask is mandatory for everybody when you are outside. Strictly maintain Social Distancing. Keep washing your hands frequently. Please do not spit on roads. We need to take all precautions." Rajasthan on Tuesday reported 98 coronavirus positive cases, taking the state tally to 1576. Out of 98 coronavirus cases, 50 cases were reported from Jaipur, 32 from Jodhpur and 7 from Kota. Meanwhile, with one person each succumbing to the infection in Nagaur and Kota, the total death count due to the virus stood at 25, as per the State Health Department. Head of European Integration NGO Karen Bekaryan wrote the following on his Facebook page: The foreign minister of Armenia needs to resign. The foreign minister of the Russian Federation (strategic partner and ally of Armenia and OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair) has declared that a phased approach to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is being considered and an agreement on the phased approach will be a step on the path to implementation of the Resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. If the statement by the Russian foreign minister doesnt correspond to reality, this is simply an indicator of complete failure of the relations between Armenia and the Russian Federation. If the statement by the Russian foreign minister corresponds to reality, we are dealing with overturn of the national and state interests of Armenia and Artsakh. In both cases, the Armenian foreign minister must resign or be dismissed from office. If the foreign minister doesnt resign or isnt dismissed, this will mean that the Prime Minister is directly responsible for all this, along with all the consequences arising from this P.S.: Lavrov was also asked about the price of natural gas, and the answer says a lot. Lending Club banners hang on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange for it's IPO on December 11, 2014 in New York. LendingClub is cutting roughly a third of its staff as the Covid-19 slowdown dampens demand for consumer loans. The company, which pioneered online personal loans, said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it would lay off 460 people -- or about 30% of its workforce. LendingClub CEO Scott Sanborn said the virus outbreak was having an "unprecedented effect" on consumers and small businesses, resulting in a drop in demand for personal loans. The move was necessary to "realign" staffing with the current business environment, he said. "With these actions, we believe we are well positioned to achieve our long-term strategic goals and better serve our members, who will need us more than ever, once the economy stabilizes," Sanborn said in a statement. The company also said it was reducing executives' salaries by 25%. Sanborn, meanwhile, will take a 30% pay cut. LendingClub calls itself the biggest U.S. provider of personal loans, and had been part of the wave of tech-focused firms getting in on marketplace lending. The company had the biggest domestic tech IPO of 2014. But two years, the company was dealt a blow when LendingClub's founder was ousted amid irregularities with loan practices. It's now one of many fintech loan providers feeling the effects of the recent small business slowdown. Fellow online lender Kabbage furloughed workers in late March, according to TechCrunch. Unlike some of its peers, Lending Club did not apply to be a lender for the U.S. governments Paycheck Protection Program. It is however, facilitating loans to Opportunity Fund and Funding Circle, who are funding the government-backed loans. In February, LendingClub became the first U.S. fintech company to acquire a bank. The company said it was buying Boston-based, Radius Bancorp for $185 million to give it access a stable and cheaper source of funding. Shares of the Lending Club were down 4% in regular trading Tuesday, and have fallen more than 40% this year. Khaana Chahiye is a citizens initiative to ensure much of Mumbais workforce does not go hungry during lockdown. Mumbai, India The streets of Mumbai, Indias financial capital, are forlorn and neighbourhoods eerily quiet, with the rustle of leaves caused by the warm breeze being the only audible sound in the vicinity. But a suburban restaurant is bustling with activity as 8 to 10 men briskly portion out khichdi (boiled rice with lentils) from large pots into smaller containers. Intent on their work, they keep their eyes on the vessels as their hands move the hot meals along. Their mandate is to pack 5,000 meals to be distributed to the homeless, slum dwellers and migrant workers across the city. The restaurant is one of the six centres set up by KhaanaChahiye.com, an initiative now clocking 70,000 meals a day, ensuring that most of Mumbais workforce does not go to bed hungry. The organisers behind Khaana Chahiye (Hindi for need food) say this is an attempt to prepare a hunger map of the sprawling metropolis. Their website serves as a platform to collect donations and receive alerts on people facing hunger. India was put under a nationwide lockdown on March 25 to check the spread of coronavirus pandemic. The initial three-week lockdown has been extended to May 3. With more than a quarter of Indias 1.3 billion people living below the poverty line, the worlds largest lockdown has unleashed unprecedented misery upon the countrys migrant workers and the poor. While both the federal and state governments have scrambled to provide relief, it has fallen upon the good samaritans in Indias cities and villages to fill the vacuum. How Khaana Chahiye began Shishir Joshi, founder of a non-profit organisation called Project Mumbai, is the driving force behind KhaanaChahiye.com. The reports of people sleeping hungry had been coming out, he told Al Jazeera. The idea emerged out of a conversation with a friend. I then roped in two more people. One of them was Ruben Mascarenhas, a local politician. I had been getting several calls from different parts of city regarding the workforce basically starving due to the shutdown, Mascarenhas told Al Jazeera. We got together, and on March 29, started with 1,200 meals. The 1,200 meals were distributed in no time at all along a highway, he said. The volunteers said fights broke out between people hoping for food on the first day of distribution. The organisers realised they needed to scale up. We started crowdfunding and appealed for more volunteers, said Joshi. A few restauranteurs opened up their kitchens and offered to make meals for us at a cost. Founder Shishir Joshi said the idea is an attempt to prepare a hunger map of the sprawling metropolis [Parth MN/Al Jazeera] Neeti Goel has five of her restaurants preparing meals for the KhaanaChahiye.com initiative. I read an article in one of the papers that said the children of workers are eating mud, she told Al Jazeera. It horrified me. This is a genuine initiative where people from different backgrounds have come together out of empathy. Things continued to fall in place as more volunteers signed up. Three weeks later, the group said it is now delivering 70,000 meals across Mumbai. I have been getting calls from officials in different states to look after their workers stuck in Mumbai, said Joshi. I drank water in initial lockdown days Every day at 11:30am (06:00 GMT), six trucks and a few private vehicles leave from six different locations and crisscross the deserted highways of the city. On Saturday, when one of their vehicles pulled over at a slum in eastern Mumbai, about 1,000 people had already queued up near a stand of dust-covered autorickshaws. Inderjeet said all he had to stave off hunger in the initial days of the lockdown was water [Parth MN/Al Jazeera] We coordinate with local NGOs who help us locate people in utmost need, said Mascarenhas. Those standing in the queue which stretched nearly a mile were predominantly shoemakers who had worked at shoe factories, now shut due to the lockdown, for $2 a day. I would drink water in the initial days of the lockdown when I felt hungry, said Indrajeet, whose family lives in a north Indian village. For the past few days, I have at least managed to get one meal a day. He said the shoe factory owners switched off their phones once the lockdown began, leaving the workers to fend for themselves. Once the trains restart, I will leave and not come back to Mumbai again, said Indrajeet, 30, as he walked back to his room in the blistering heat. A matter of shame More cheerful than Indrajeet was eight-year-old Sama. A blue handkerchief wrapped around her face, she collected her meal and jumped in the air. I got rice, she said, holding up the packet, and ran away. The stark reality of the workers dawned upon some volunteers. You realise how lucky you are, Pathik Muni, a computer professional, told Al Jazeera. Pathik Muni, a computer professional in Mumbai, volunteers with KhaanaChahiye.com [Parth MN/Al Jazeera] The volunteers next stop is at a village in Goregaon, another suburb of Mumbai. Children, women and men of all ages are waiting there for food as local coordinators shout at them for forgetting the concept of physical distancing. The men are mostly daily wage labourers. The women work as domestic help in nearby highrises and said their employers had sent most of them on unpaid leave. Muni wondered whether the crisis would have been less challenging if every privileged household had taken responsibility for their domestic workers. It would have allowed us to focus on migrant workers and the homeless, he said. If you have abandoned your domestic help that has been taking care of your home for years, that is a matter of shame. By three in the afternoon, the day concludes. Drenched in sweat, the volunteers buy bottles of chilled water from a nearby grocery store. It would be evening before they get back to their homes. Tomorrow is another long day in the field. They say they have been asked if Khaana Chahiye can add another 5,000 meals a day. Florida Governor Says State Beat Back Virus Without Draconian Measures Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that his state has beat back the COVID-19 epidemic without using draconian orders. I got to give credit to the people of Florida, DeSantis said on Fox & Friends, adding that there were predictions that Florida would be worse than New York state, which is the U.S. epicenter. DeSantis came under fire from critics who said that he was too slow to implement a statewide stay-at-home order like other states. Some said that because of the states significant amount of elderly and retired residents, Florida would suffer greatly during the pandemic. If you look at whats happened, thats not true, he added. New York, for example, has about 25 times the number of fatalities of Florida. People are seen at the beach in Jacksonville Beach, Florida on April 17, 2020. Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry announced Thursday that Duval Countys beaches would open at 5 p.m. but only for restricted hours and can only be used for swimming, running, surfing, walking, biking, fishing, and taking care of pets. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) Right now, as of last night, we had 730 people statewide in the ICU, the governor remarked. People said our hospitals are going to be overrun. Weve actually increased hospital bed space and ICU bed space during the pandemic so there were fewer beds available in Florida in February than there are now. So far, according to recent data released by the state, Florida has about 27,000 cases of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus and about 823 deaths. Thats about 10 times fewer than New Yorks CCP virus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. Florida has flattened the curve, DeSantis said. People have done a great job and I think we understand that you can do both, you can continue to fight COVID-19, but also get people back to work and have society function again. Furthermore, Florida never implemented draconian orders like you see in some of these other states where dad would get arrested or get cited for taking his daughter to the park, DeSantis said. That doesnt work. Weve never done that. Weve been very, I think, reasonable with the people of Florida and theyve responded, he added. Over the weekend, the mayor of Jacksonville allowed the citys beaches to reopen, drawing a number of visitors. Photos and videos showed people walking, running, and swimming at the beaches. The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China before it was transmitted worldwide. As of Monday morning, April 20, Ukraine recorded 5,710 cases of coronavirus Covid-19. The Ministry of Health reports this data in Telegram channel. According to the Public Health Center of Ukraine center, 261 cases were detected in the country per day. The number of deaths is 151, another 359 people recovered. While coronavirus disease is detected: Vinnytsia region - 330 cases; Volyn region - 158 cases; Dnipropetrovsk region - 118 cases; Donetsk region - 16 cases; Zhytomyr region - 226 cases; Zakarpattia region - 196 cases; Zaporizhya region - 134 cases; Ivano-Frankivsk region - 512 cases; Kirovohrad region - 246 cases; Kyiv - 850 cases; Kyiv region - 333 cases; Lviv region - 253 cases; Luhansk region - 24 cases; Mykolaiv region - 37 cases; Odesa region - 137 cases; Poltava region - 63 cases; Rivne region - 312 cases; Sumy region - 83 cases; Ternopil region - 414 cases; Kharkiv region - 73 cases; Kherson region - 63 cases; Khmelnytsky region - 49 cases; Chernivtsi region - 906 cases; Cherkasy region - 165 cases; Chernihiv region - 12 cases. Data from the temporarily occupied territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk regions, and the city of Sevastopol are not available. As we reported before, 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. The US is facing a barrage of international criticism after President Donald Trump announced the suspension of US funding of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 14 April. Trump accused the WHO of mismanaging and covering up the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus after it was first detected in Wuhan, China, in early January. The WHO failed in this basic duty and must be held accountable, Trump said. The American people deserve better from the WHO, and no more funding will be provided until its mismanagement, cover-ups and failures can be investigated, the White House stated the following day. In response, Microsoft founder Bill Gates tweeted that the US suspension of WHO funding was a dangerous move. Gatess charity the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the biggest WHO funders and second only to the US. The US contributes some 15 per cent of the UN organisations funding, and last year it gave the WHO $450 million. The UK criticised Trumps decision, announcing it would continue to fund the WHO. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that continued funding of an organisation suffering from a shortage in supplies was a good investment at this time. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this is not the right time to cut WHO funding, and Josep Borrell, high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs, said Trumps move was unjustified because the WHO was now needed more than ever. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the WHO had provided credible advice, while Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed his understanding of the US decision, but said that the WHO is also doing an important job. The US move would restrict international cooperation in combating the coronavirus, said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian. The American Medical Association said the decision was dangerous and a step in the wrong direction. Ethiopian Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted that there is no time to waste. The WHOs singular focus is on working to serve all people to save lives and stop the Covid-19 pandemic. In explaining his decision, Trump said the WHO was very China-centric. Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out Chinas lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death, Trump said. Instead, the WHO willingly took Chinas assurances at face value. But it was not only the WHO that defended Chinas practices. Trump did too when Beijing enforced a lockdown on Wuhan following what he called the cover-up of the spread of the pandemic in Wuhan by Chinese officials who also punished those who tried to warn against it. China did not allow WHO experts to visit Wuhan before 10 February, when more than 40,000 infections had already been recorded. The WHO, according to Trump, had not revealed solid evidence that the virus could spread between humans. However, towards the end of January the WHO released an official statement declaring the virus had been transmitted between humans in Wuhan. The UN body was also accused of siding with China when a senior WHO official refused to discuss Taiwans measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. China does not recognise Taiwan, and it has exerted pressure to prevent the island being recognised by other countries. It appears that the WHO could be the victim of a conflict between Washington and Beijing, much in the way in which the UN cultural organisation UNESCO was earlier the victim of Cold War conflicts between the US and former Soviet Union. In 1983, former US president Ronald Regan announced the US withdrawal from UNESCO during the tenure of Senegalese director-general Amadou Mahtar MBow over UNESCOs alleged siding with the Soviet Union. In both of these incidents, the heads of the UN organisations concerned have been Africans and the US has been under Republican Party administrations accusing the UN bodies of taking sides with ideological or economic competitors of the US. The Trump administration has been particularly hostile towards the UN. The recent decision to suspend US funding for the WHO is the third directed at the UN after Washington suspended funding for the UN Palestinian refugee relief organisation UNRWA and then withdrew from UNESCO in 2017 after it accused it of being biased against Israel. Some observers believe that UNESCO member states were in favour of French candidate Audrey Azoulay of Moroccan Jewish descent in order to lure back Washington and its financial contributions during the appointment of a new director-general in 2017. Regarding UNRWA, there seems to be little hope of retrieving US funding for this UN agency before Trump ends his term in office. The current US investigation into the Chinese response to the coronavirus could be followed by condemnation of the WHO, putting the UN body in a difficult position for years to come despite an annual budget of over $5 billion. Much of the US contribution to United Nations agencies has been directed towards the UNRWA, the childrens agency UNICEF, the WHO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and to a lesser degree the United Nations Population Fund and the World Food Programme. *A version of this article appears in print in the 23 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Fort Myers Police Department By TOMMY BROOKSBANK, ABC News (FORT MYERS, Fla.) -- The Fort Myers Police Department arranged their police cruisers in the shape of a heart outside a local hospital to thank health care workers for all they do as the battle against COVID-19 rages on. Officers organized 15 patrol vehicles outside Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, Florida, hoping to show their appreciation for heroes in their community that are saving lives. Several law enforcement officials can be seen holding large signs in the middle of the heart that read FMPD THANKS YOU as red and blue lights flash around them. It's kind of like our hometown hospital, Officer Kristen Capuzzi said. We wanted a nice way to say thank you to our health care professionals. Capuzzi came up with the idea after brainstorming with her fleet lieutenant. The pair came up with the heart shape and got together with a few officers who volunteered to be a part of their tribute. The group made sure to stop by during the hospitals shift change, hoping to surprise as many doctors and nurses as possible. You could just tell we were grabbing their attention, Capuzzi said. Some of the nurses were getting in their cars teary-eyed and would come over to take pictures. It was really neat. The police department did not invite any media to the event, but shared their message of thanks in a Facebook post that has since garnered hundreds of likes and comments. This was a personal experience that was a simple way to show our appreciation, Capuzzi said. It's tough times and we all have to stick together. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Ministers have been warned by hospital bosses that the NHS supplies of face masks could be put at risk if they make it compulsory for the public to wear them as part of measures to exit the lockdown. The governments scientific advisers are carrying out a review of the usage of face masks today to determine whether the public should be urged to wear them. The warning from NHS bosses comes after London mayor Sadiq Khan said masks should be made compulsory on public transport. He told Radio 4s Today programme last week that the measure would be an additional protection on top of other social distancing measures during lockdown. But Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said that clear evidence must be provided to justify the recommendation of masks to the public as it may risk taking precious supplies away from the health service. He said in a statement on Monday: Fluid repellent masks for health and care staff are key to safety and to avoid the spread of coronavirus. Securing the supply of masks, when there is a huge global demand, is crucial. This must be a key consideration for government. There needs to be clear evidence that wearing masks, along with other measures, will deliver significant enough benefits to take us out of lockdown to potentially jeopardise NHS mask supply. The health secretary also previously warned of the risk posed to NHS supplies if the public wears face masks and urged the public to refrain from wearing them. Matt Hancock reiterated the World Health Organisations advice that face masks should be saved for those in health and care who really need them during a press conference on 10 April. It is not a risk-free option for everybody to wear face masks because that means its harder to get hold of face masks for people where the science says theyre needed, he said. Simon Clarke, the Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday that there was no consensus that advising the public to wear face masks was the right thing to do. He said: We are focused on making sure that we get proper supplies of PPE, both to the NHS and to all parts of the front line in the fight against coronavirus. At this point we do not have a clear scientific steer that it would be right to broaden this to the general population and we would obviously bear in mind the representations from NHS providers about the need to prioritise supply to where it can do the most good. Guidance issued by the WHO earlier this month said there is no evidence that a healthy person wearing a mask would be protected from infection and warned that the use of masks by the public can create a false sense of security. Masks can even be a source of infection when not used correctly, added the organisation. The current advice maintains that outside of the healthcare profession, people who are healthy should only wear face masks if they are caring for someone with coronavirus symptoms. But a campaign group started in the Czech Republic, Masks4All, has called on people to make their own cloth face masks to combat coronavirus, and has garnered the support of over 100 UK medics. In an open letter signed by UK doctors, the campaigns UK arm wrote: There is a great deal of confusion about face masks Official UK policy is illogical. It says wear a mask to reduce the spread of infection if you become symptomatic, but what about asymptomatic spread? The latest guidance on PPE says that people should wear masks in hospital waiting rooms to reduce both direct transmission and environmental contamination. Why not elsewhere? A government health education campaign is urgently needed to make it clear that masks are not a substitute for staying at home or social distancing, and that N95/FFP2/3 masks must be left for front line NHS staff. Professor Babak Javid, a consultant in infectious diseases at Cambridge University Hospitals, told the PA news agency that population mask wearing should be an important part of the response to Covid. Once Covid cases are largely suppressed, we can stop wearing masks, their incremental gain will be low, he added. But now, to really benefit from masks, the majority of us need to wear masks. Additional reporting by agencies Indias handset manufacturers are facing an even more uncertain time since the Ministry of Home Affairs decision last weekend that non-essentials cannot be sold online during the nationwide lockdown. Non-essentials in this case includes smartphones. Its a reversal of an earlier decision that had appeared to clear the way for handsets to be sold via platforms such as Flipkart, Amazon and Mi.com, and follows objections from the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT). CAIT wrote to the prime minister saying that permission to e-commerce firms to trade non-essential goods was discriminatory and did not allow a level playing field. A number of smartphone manufacturers had previously asked the government to classify handsets as an essential commodity which could be delivered to customers through ecommerce platforms amid the national lockdown in India. An apparently positive response had encouraged some manufacturers to start taking orders for sales starting 20 April. Handset manufacturers are also reportedly engaging with regional local authorities on the possibility of restarting production. With or without a manufacturing restart, some Indian media outlets estimate that the market has as much as five weeks of smartphone inventory piling up. And online retail is not the only outlet hoping to resume the sale of smartphones soon. Offline phone retailers have asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to allow the reopening of stores between specified times on specific days of the week and with limited staff. They also hope to recommence home delivery of orders within specified areas from 20 April, along with repair and service activity. Some cities have reportedly allowed such services to recommence, albeit with restrictions. By AFP SINGAPORE: US oil prices rebounded above zero Tuesday, a day after futures ended in negative territory for the first time as a coronavirus-triggered collapse in demand leaves the world awash in crude. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for May delivery was changing hands at $1.10 a barrel after closing at -$37.63 in New York. The May futures contract expires Tuesday, meaning traders who buy and sell the commodity for profit needed to find someone to take physical possession of the oil. But with the glut in markets and storage facilities full, buyers have been scarce. Traders are now more focused on the contract for June delivery, which had trading volumes more than 30 times higher. That also rebounded Tuesday, rising to above $21 a barrel following a close of $20.43 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was changing hands at $25.61 a barrel for June delivery, up 0.15 percent. Oil markets have plunged in recent weeks as lockdowns and travel restrictions to fight the coronavirus around the world batter demand. The crisis was worsened by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Riyadh and Moscow drew a line under the dispute and, along with other top producers, struck a deal to cut output by almost 10 million barrels a day earlier this month. But prices have continued to fall as analysts say the cuts are not enough, and as storage facilities reach capacity. US crude's collapse Monday was triggered in part by the closely monitored WTI storage facility at Cushing, Oklahoma filling up, as well as traders closing out their positions before the expiry of the May contract. "The WTI May futures contract is due to expire on Tuesday, forcing any holders of that contract to accept physical delivery," ANZ Bank said in a note. "With storage facilities filling up fast, particularly at the WTI pricing point, Cushing, there are fears that there will be nowhere to store it." Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, added that "the prospect of having to pay to sell crude oil provided a brutal reminder of the current unusual economic conditions". On the sixth floor of St Vincents Hospital in Darlinghurst, thick red tape marks the threshold of Greg Grangers office a visual cue to anyone who might forget the strict spatial-distancing protocols. The director of operations for St Vincent's Hospital pathology unit SydPath works 12- to 16-hour days. He stays at a hotel during the week and at weekends he works from his home in the Sutherland Shire so he can spend time with his three-year-old daughter, Peyton. Nurse Jarrod Tunks prepares ahead of testing at the new Covid-19 clinic in Darlinghurst. Credit:Louise Kennerley "Our time together is pretty limited and we keep it outside and no sloppy kisses," he said. "Its just too risky If Im the one who brings [COVID-19] into [the lab] there would be hell to pay." COVELO, Calif. (AP) A man arrested in Northern California for allegedly burglarizing at least two businesses faces the unusual charge of looting during a state of emergency a charge that carries an enhanced sentence of at least six months in jail. Criminal penalties for common shoplifting and theft are greatly enhanced under Californias looting law, officials said, with violations punishable by incarceration for up to three years and a fines up to $10,000. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of six months in county jail. Neil Bruce Waldron, 51, of Covelo, was arrested Friday by deputies who responded to a reported burglary at a clothing store in Covelo, Mendocino County Sheriff Sgt. Joseph DeMarco said Monday. It wasnt immediately known if Waldron has an attorney who can speak on his behalf. Deputies found a shop window broken and a black pellet rifle apparently abandoned by the burglar on the floor of the store, which was in disarray. The stores owner told them an iPad was missing, DeMarco said. While investigating the burglary, the deputies learned a nearby grocery store had also been broken into. Surveillance video from the store showed Waldron breaking a doors glass with a pellet rifle, then taking alcoholic beverages and cigarettes before leaving, DeMarco said. Waldron was also charged with two counts of burglary and violation of probation. He was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail. Deputies are investigating a third robbery Friday, DeMarco said. As a child I witnessed my grandmother as a victim of violence. As an adult, I became a victim myself. I know the struggles, hurts and hardships that victims deal with on a daily basis which led me to create a safe place where women of violence and abuse can heal and grow. With support from the community, Argrows House has been serving women in Iowa for the past two years. Each and every day I work with the women that we serve who are fighting to be survivors, rather than victims. I see the struggles these women deal with and how a court system that should be giving them a voice is actually retraumatizing them, over and over again. Across the country, April 19 through 25 has been designated National Crime Victims Rights Week. This is a week where we can turn our attention to the fact that we can do more for crime victims. Lloyd Rayney can no longer practise law after he was struck off the West Australian roll on Tuesday morning, marking the end of a five-year battle between the former murder-accused and the Legal Profession Complaints Committee. The decision comes after the State Administrative Tribunal in 2018 found Mr Rayney guilty of professional misconduct for secretly recording his wife's conversations before her death, and then lying to a Magistrate about it. Lloyd Rayney. Credit:John Mokrzycki The disciplinary action was brought against Mr Rayney by the Legal Profession Complaints Committee after he indicated he intended to start practising law again, following his murder charge acquittal. At the time, the SAT said the father-of-two lacked honesty and candour, finding he deliberately disposed of a dictaphone with audio recordings between he and his wife on it after police had issued a search warrant at his Como home. Like most Australians, The Block's Jess Eva and Norm Hogan are feeling the devastating effects of the global coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, Jess said the couple were concerned about how they were going to pay their rent and bills after Norm's employment was recently terminated. Despite being awarded $209,000 in 2018 for their time on the Channel Nine renovation show, the former TV star admitted on her Triple M Moonman in the Morning radio show: 'We're not the greatest with money.' Scroll down for video 'We live week to week': Former Block star Jess Eva (left) expresses concern about paying rent after partner Norm Hogan (right) loses his job amid COVID-19 Jess said her builder partner lost his job earlier this month, and was terrified to break the news to his wife. 'He had this look on his face, his eyes were wide and he looked at me and said "Ive been let go. I've got no work, the jobs have dried up",' she explained to her co-hosts and their devoted listeners. 'At the start he was really scared. We live week to week, so we need that money to pay our rent,' she added. 'Theres this scary feeling of you no longer have a reason to get up in the morning and you have to apply for the job keeper subsidy, which take weeks to come in,' she said of her partner applying for government benefits. 'We need that money to pay our rent': Jess said her builder partner lost his job earlier this month, and was terrified to break the news to his wife 'Youve got to rely on the kindness of you landlord or maybe get a friend to spot you a couple bucks for the week.' In the meantime, Norm has launched is own handyman and renovation business in the hopes of generating a bit of income for the family. Named 'Mr Build Constructions', Norm has already had jobs offered to him by Instagram fans in recent days. Ready to work: In the meantime, Norm has launched is own handyman and renovation business in the hopes of generating a bit of income for the family In 2019, Jess and her partner Norm relocated from Queensland to Sydney after she landed a co-hosting role on Triple M's breakfast radio show. The pair, who were newly-engaged on the popular renovation program, share two children: Fred, six, and two year-old Matilda. The couple have previously spoken about wanting more children, but have said financial pressure has made them reconsider. - President Yoweri Museveni cautioned Ugandans against misbehaving during coronavirus pandemic while thinking God would save them - According to him, the Almighty was busy rescuing the world and did not have time to save Ugandans who did not follow instructions - The head of state compared the fight against coronavirus to a military war whose only agenda was to harvest deaths - He also warned his countrymen against asking for the freedom to be outside and run their business while the fight against coronavirus continued President Yoweri Museveni has cautioned Uganda's against flouting safety precautions issued by the government to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic The head of state issued a statement metaphorically comparing the global fight against the pandemic to a military war where the only agenda was a harvest of death. READ ALSO: Desperate Kisii woman appeals for help to get cancer treatment The head of state issued a statement metaphorically comparing the global fight against the pandemic to a military war. Photo: Yoweri Museveni. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: DCI detectives declare Ruth Matete's house a crime scene after 6 hour grilling over husband's death He also cautioned Ugandan's against misbehaving in the hope that God would save them against the coronavirus noting their Heavenly Father was preoccupied with other important things. "God has a lot of work, He has the whole world to look after. He cannot just be here in Uganda looking after idiots," he said. "In a war situation, nobody asks anyone to stay indoors. You stay indoors by choice. In fact, if you have a basement, you hide there for as long as hostilities persist," he added. READ ALSO: KDF choppers fly across Nairobi skies with special message for health workers The president further asked those asking for the freedom to desist from doing so noting during a war, one should not insist on their freedom. According to him, they should willingly give up their freedom in exchange for survival since the war they were fighting would only satiate after turning the world into one big death field. 'During a war, you do not complain of hunger. You bear hunger and pray that you live to eat again," he said. READ ALSO: Meru couple ignores family's advice to postpone wedding, share eggs instead of cake during ceremony According to him, the world was in a state of war that does not involve guns, bullets, human soldiers, without cease-fire agreements or sacred zones. The head of state said the army in the fight against COVId-19 was without mercy, without any milk of human kindness and that it was indiscriminate. It has no respect for children, women, or places of worship. READ ALSO: Ken Walibora: Autopsy report shows late author had stab wound on right hand "This army is not interested in the spoils of war. It has no intention of regime change. It is not concerned about the rich mineral resources underneath the earth", he said "It is not even interested in religious, ethnic or ideological hegemony. Its ambition has nothing to do with racial superiority. It is an invisible, fleet footed, and ruthlessly effective army," he added Museveni also noted the pandemic's capacity to achieve its aim was not in doubt and that even without a ground, amphibious and aerial machines, it had bases in almost every country. READ ALSO: Man working from home files HR complaint against his cat for violating workplace policies But he was also quick to point out that the enemy had a weakness and that it could be defeated and that it only required collective action, discipline and forbearance. According to him, COVID-19 could not survive social and physical distancing and that it only thrives when one confronts it. "Its movement is not governed by any war convention or protocol. In short, it is a law unto itself. It is coronavirus," he said. READ ALSO: Generosity during pandemic: 11 most generous donations from Kenyans to the vulnerable "Also known as COVID-19 (because it announced its destructive presence and intention in the year of our Lord 2019)," added Museveni. He then called on Ugandans to continue observing social distance and good personal hygiene in order to defeat the virus which he said loved being confronted. READ ALSO: Young dad who lost his job due to COVID-19 wins KSh 320 million lottery "It is helpless when you take your destiny in your own hands by keeping them sanitised as often as possible," said Museveni "This is not a time to cry about bread and butter like spoilt children. After all, the Holy book tells us that man shall not live by bread alone," he added. 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 Insurers including Lloyds of London member Hiscox have come under fire from businesses for not paying out following lockdowns around the world (PA) Lloyd's of London, which operates Europe's most important insurance market, is collating details of insurers' business interruption coverage for the UK's Prudential Regulation Authority and is in discussions about a government backstop to cover future pandemics, it said in a letter seen by Reuters. The organisation asked its members to provide data for the regulator by April 24, it said in a 'Dear CEO' letter sent to members on Friday. Lloyd's also said it was talking to the UK finance ministry, regulators and business partners about a 'Pandemic Re' government backstop and would publish preliminary estimates of the impact of Covid-19 on its members in early May. Insurers including Lloyd's of London member Hiscox have come under fire from businesses for not paying out following lockdowns around the world. In Ireland, the refusal of insurers including FBD to pay out on business interruption policies to companies hit by Covid-19 has angered small company owners, notably including publicans and retailers forced to shut by Government. Business owners say they had cover in place to insure against losses stemming from an outbreak of infectious disease, and are eyeing legal action. In a note on how the issue affects insurers, especially stock market listed FBD, analysts at Davy Stockbrokers said scrutiny is set to remain elevated over the industry's exposure to business interruption claims. According to Davy, the Central Bank has acknowledged that there is only ambiguity in a minority of such policies regarding whether or not a shutdown caused by Covid-19 is covered, while a worst-case analysis by the insurance industry underpins its resistance. The Central Bank has said that where there is ambiguity, an insurer is obliged to find for the customer. FBD remains of the view that its policies do not cover for pandemics, Davy noted. On Friday last week, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said he was concerned some insurance firms had adopted a "blanket" rejection of business interruption claims. He said some insurers were not treating customers fairly, without saying which firms he believed to be at fault. The minister said the wider insurance sector risked significant reputational damage as a result of its handling of Covid-19 claims and cases. He made the comments in a statement issued after the Finance Minister held a teleconference call with industry group Insurance Ireland on Friday. Some insurers were "not treating customers fairly", the minister said. Insurers and other regulated entities are obliged to act fairly to customers as a condition of being allowed to operate. On Friday's call with Insurance Ireland, the minister emphasised his concerns regarding the response of insurers to the Covid-19 crisis, and what he said was the need for them to play their part in the recovery phase, while ensuring a sufficient focus on the cost and supply of insurance, the Department of Finance said. After the same call, Insurance Ireland CEO Moyagh Murdock said for business interruption cover, most policy wording is clear, but where there is a doubt about the meaning of a term, "insurers are committed, where appropriate, to giving the benefit of the doubt to the customer". "It is important to note, however, that each policy is different and there may well be other factors which lead to the adjudication of whether a claim is valid or not," she said. [April 21, 2020] Draganfly's 'Pandemic Drone' technology Conducts Initial Flights Near New York City to Detect COVID-19 Symptoms and Identify Social Distancing Connecticut hotspot becomes first U.S. municipality to test drone technology to assist first responders in reducing coronavirus spread and mitigate future health emergencies Los Angeles, CA and Westport, CT, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Draganfly Inc. (CSE: DFLY) (OTCQB: DFLYF) (FSE: 3U8) (Draganfly or the Company), an award-winning, industry-leading manufacturer within the commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), and unmanned vehicle sector, today announced the first ever series of U.S. pandemic drone test flights in Westport, Connecticut, considered a COVID-19 hotspot, to identify social distancing and detect symptoms presented by the virus, in an effort to keep the community safe. Fairfield County, Connecticut is considered the epicenter in the State for the spread of the Coronavirus and Westport was the first town to report the most cases of infections. To date, there are more than 17,550 confirmed cases in Connecticut. Fairfield County is adjacent to New York City, which has the most confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. more than 138,500 surpassing the number of confirmed cases reported in China's Hubei province, where the outbreak originated. Draganflys new pandemic drone technology is being tested by the Westport Police Department as a new Flatten the Curve Pilot Program and is made possible by the collaboration and integration of technologies developed by Draganfly, Vital Intelligence Inc., a healthcare data services and deep learning company, and the University of South Australia (UniSA). Westport is deploying the technology and data tools to enhance town services, advance public safety, promote the efficient use of taxpayer dollars, engage residents, and encourage growth in the local economy. The pandemic drone will be equipped with a specialized sensor and computer vision systems that can display fever/temperature, heart and respiratory rates, as well as detect people sneezing and coughing in crowds, and wherever groups of people may work or congregate. The technology can accurately detect infectious conditions from a distance of 190 feet as well as measure social distancing for proactive public safety practices. The Westport Police Department is one of the most progressive public safety agencies in the nation and real pioneers when it comes to adopting and integrating new technology to enhance the safety of their citizens and first responders, said Cameron Chell, CEO of Draganfly. This coronavirus pandemic has opened up a new frontier for advanced drones. In conjunction with our partners, including the town of Westport, together we are the first in the U.S. to implement this state-of-the-art technology to analyze data in a way that has been peer reviewed and clinically researched to save lives. Westport intends to use the drone technology to help protect potential at-risk groups, such as seniors, crowds gathering at the town and state-owned beaches, train stations, parks and recreation areas, shopping centers and other areas where people tend to gather. One of the major problems for cities and towns like Westport in managing and responding to a pandemic like the COVID-19 virus, is finding out who could be infected and how widespread the disease has spread, said Westport First Selectman, Jim Marpe. One way to do this is to look for underlying symptoms. By teaming up with Draganfly and the UniSA team led by Defence Chair of Sensor Systems Professor Javaan Chahl, we are able to remotely look at valuable lifesaving data and better manage current and future health emergencies. The Westport Police Department launched its drone program in early 2016 under the guidance of the Departments Federal Aviation Administration-certified drone pilot, Captain Ryan Paulsson. Originally used to support its dive team operations to better assist in locating submerged objects or victims, Westport Police Department quicky realized the programs potential for other missions and soon expanded its use for accident investigation, documentation of scenes, search and rescue, public works projects, and pre-event planning. The Westport Police Department along with first responders around the world are looking for effective ways to ease the spread of COVID-19 and keep their communities safe, said Westport Chief of Police, Foti Koskinas. This technology not only enhances the safety of our officers and the public, but the concept of using drones remains a go-to technology for reaching the most remote areas with little to no manpower needed. It also helps our officers acquire decision quality data they need to make the best choices in any given situation. Captain Paulsson said, We are modeling the future of drone integration in public safety by utilizing Draganflys technology as first responders. We are honored to be the first law enforcement deployments in the country of this technology that will shape the future of public safety drone integration in the U.S. Draganflys pandemic drone software uses biometric readings in its analysis process and does not employ facial recognition technology. Rather, the software is used to understand patterns within a population to allow users to react quicker to ongoing events or new potential health threats. Its deep learning algorithms can quickly detect symptoms such as sneezing and coughing, high blood pressure and rapid heartbeats in order to make a diagnosis of disease. The COVID-19 global pandemic is unparalleled and has caused many countries to impose travel bans, self-imposed quarantine periods and social distancing, causing disruption to business globally and resulting in economic slowdowns. Early detection is the best protection. Advanced technology and tools like the Draganfly pandemic drone which was deployed with speed in the interest of public safety without the acceptance of compensation for the initial test exists to remotely detect illness and help government and healthcare professionals better protect human life before, during and after a crisis. About University of South Australia The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities and is the largest university in South Australia with approximately 32,000 students. UniSA is among the world's top universities, ranked in the World's Top 50 Under 50 by both the Quacarelli Symonds (QS) World University Ranking (#25) and Times Higher Education (THE) (#26). Under the University's Act, its original mission was "to preserve, extend and disseminate knowledge through teaching, research, scholarship and consultancy, and to provide educational programs that will enhance the diverse cultural life of the wider community". About Draganfly Draganfly Inc. (CSE: DFLY; OTCQB: DFLYF; FSE: 3U8) is the creator of quality, cutting-edge, UVS and software that revolutionizes the way people do business. Recognized as being at the forefront of technology for over 22 years, Draganfly is an award-winning, industry-leading manufacturer within the commercial UAV and UVS space, serving the public safety, agriculture, industrial inspections and mapping and surveying markets. Draganfly is a company driven by passion, ingenuity and the need to provide efficient solutions and first-class services to its customers around the world with the goal of saving time, money and lives. For more information on Draganfly, please visit us at draganfly.com. For additional investor information, visit https://www.thecse.com/en/listings/technology/draganfly-inc , https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DFLYF/overview or https://www.boerse-frankfurt.de/aktie/draganfly-inc . Media Contact Arian Hopkins E: [email protected] Company Contact Phone: 1-306-955-9907 Email: [email protected] Forward-Looking Statements This release contains certain forward looking statements and certain forward-looking information as defined under applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, intend, estimate, anticipate, believe, continue, plans or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements and information are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions that, while believed by management to be reasonable, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the viability and continued use of the Companys pandemic drone and the successful utilization and integration of technology into the pandemic drone. Forward-looking statements and information are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to control or predict, that may cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied thereby, and are developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out here in, including but not limited to: the potential impact of epidemics, pandemics or other public health crises, including the current outbreak of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 on the Companys business, operations and financial condition, the successful integration of technology, the inherent risks involved in the general securities markets; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; the inherent uncertainty of cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, currency fluctuations; regulatory restrictions, liability, competition, loss of key employees and other related risks and uncertainties disclosed under the heading Risk Factors in the Companys most recent filings filed with securities regulators in Canada on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents managements best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] WASHINGTON - The White House and Congress on Monday tried to design another giant bailout package aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic's economic and health fallout, scrambling to resolve last-minute snags over loan access and testing. "We have I believe come to terms on the principles of the legislation, which is a good thing, but it's always in the fine print," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on CNN Monday evening. "And so now we're down to fine print, but I feel very optimistic and hopeful that we'll come to a conclusion." Pelosi said she hoped for action Tuesday in the Senate and Wednesday in the House. If a deal is reached, the nearly $500 billion measure would become the fourth virus-related bill rushed through Congress in two months at a total price tag of almost $3 trillion. The negotiators' urgency shows how worried Republicans and Democrats are about the deteriorating economy, which has seen massive job losses and led to the closure of many American companies. But they are also dealing with growing political pressures amid bipartisan outrage about how some of the bailout programs have been handled so far, particularly the uneven distribution of loans to small businesses. The new package would amount to roughly $470 billion in new spending, with $370 billion directed to small businesses, $75 billion going to hospitals, and $25 billion set aside for testing. President Donald Trump hailed the emerging deal at his daily coronavirus briefing Monday evening, calling it "a great plan" and saying he hoped for a Senate vote on Tuesday. "We're talking about $75 billion for hospitals and other health-care providers," Trump said. "Many providers and their employees have taken a huge financial hit in recent weeks. . . . Hospitals have really been fantastic." Funds for testing emerged Monday as one of the last things to resolve. Democrats were pushing for a "comprehensive national testing strategy," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a tweet. The Democrats were seeking "free testing for all, and expanding reporting and contact tracing," Schumer said. Pelosi said on CNN that "we need a national strategy for testing." But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other Trump administration officials were seeking a "state-driven approach and flexibility," according to a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private talks. The official said "states must outline their plans for testing and share those" with the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services so they can "inform their public about what they intend and help us allocate resources appropriately." The differing approaches echoed the dispute growing nationally as governors blame the federal government for the shortage of tests while Trump and other administration officials insist that there have been record numbers of tests performed and that governors need to try harder. It was not immediately clear what a solution to the testing dispute might look like, though officials involved said they were making progress on the issue. The package comes several weeks after Congress devoted a record $2 trillion to arresting the economic fallout from the coronavirus, underscoring the depth of the crisis and the growing demand for a robust federal response. More than 22 million people have lost their jobs in the past month amid a dive into recession. The new measure would seek to devote another $310 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, an initiative created by last month's Cares Act that was initially funded $349 billion but has since run dry. The Small Business Administration stopped accepting loan applications for the program last week after 1.6 million firms obtained taxpayer-backed, forgivable loans. The White House and Republicans demanded more money for the program, but Democrats said they would only support the measure if they received more money for hospitals, cities and states. The White House and Democrats appeared to resolve most of their differences Sunday, but sticking points remained Monday. In addition to the dispute over testing, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus released a letter calling for $65 billion in the small business loan program to be channeled through Community Development Financial Institutions, which are a type of lender that tends to cater to smaller firms and non-profits. "These institutions play a leading role in serving farmers, as well as veteran, family, women, and minority-owned small businesses in rural, urban and suburban communities," caucus Chairman Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said in a statement. Democrats led by House Small Business Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., were also pushing for inclusion of other small lending institutions that operate in underserved areas, including the Minority Depository Institutions and SBA Microloan Intermediaries. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat whose New York City district has been hard-hit by the virus, also announced her opposition, saying Congress must do more faster to help impacted communities. "I'm not here with the luxury of time," Ocasio-Cortez said in a video. "I need legislation that is going to save people's lives." As negotiators from the Trump administration and congressional leadership worked behind the scenes to resolve the outstanding issues, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced on the floor that the Senate would convene Tuesday at 4 p.m. with the goal of passing a deal at that time. There had been hopes of approving an agreement in the Senate on Monday, but the deal was not finalized in time. "At this hour, our Democratic colleagues are still prolonging their discussions with the administration, so the Senate regretfully will not be able to pass more funding for Americans' paychecks today," McConnell said. "However, since this is so urgent, I have asked that the Senate meet again tomorrow in a new session that was not previously scheduled, and the Democratic leader has agreed to my request. It is past time to get this done for the country." After speaking on the floor, McConnell donned a face mask to talk briefly to reporters at the Capitol, telling them, without offering details, that negotiations are continuing. As they finalized the package, lawmakers were circling around an increase of $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, of which $60 billion would be reserved for smaller financial institutions to distribute. Half of that would be provisioned for lenders with less than $10 billion in assets and the other half for institutions with between $10 billion and $50 billion in assets. An additional $60 billion in loans and grants would go to a separate small business emergency lending program that is out of money. Congressional aides, however, cautioned that talks were ongoing and details remained in flux. Lawmakers and the administration worked late into the night Sunday trying to hammer out the agreement, but Democrats said Monday that issues remained unresolved on the hospital spending and some elements of the small business programs, in addition to testing. They also insisted that they had not abandoned their push for some relief for state and local governments whose budgets have been hollowed out by the pandemic, but Republicans and administration officials continued to reject those demands. If the Senate succeeds in passing the legislation Tuesday, the House could attempt to vote on it as early as Wednesday. Both chambers are out of session, but Republicans have made it clear that they will insist on a roll-call vote in the House, which will require a majority of lawmakers to be present. In videos on Twitter and in an interview with CNBC, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the principal author of the Paycheck Protection Program, defended it amid reports of large companies getting loans, in some cases with more than one affiliate receiving the maximum $10 million. The loans are supposed to go to companies with fewer than 500 employees and are forgivable if the businesses keep workers on their payrolls. Rubio said some companies had been approved for loans that he didn't think should have, but he hoped regulations would be tightened to prevent that from happening. "Look, there were glitches made, no doubt about it, but in the end take comfort in the fact that the money has to go to the workers ultimately, it doesn't really matter who the worker's working for we want to keep them employed. This is not a bailout of any company," Rubio said. "But I think certainly the goal here is to get money into the hands of businesses who don't have anywhere else to go for money, including the stock market, shareholders, other sort of credit lines." House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., spoke in favor of the emerging agreement in an interview on Fox Business, accusing Democrats of holding it up to make a variety of demands. "What it would do is something that we've been requesting for the last two weeks, more funding for the small business program," McCarthy said. "This business program has worked very well more than 1.6 million businesses requested the money to pay their employees, to pay their rent." - - - The Washington Post's Seung Min Kim, Mike DeBonis and Paul Kane contributed to this report. David Kernberger, a retired teacher who documented local history and helped establish Rianda Houses wine project, died of kidney failure on Thursday. He was 79. Vineyard manager Linda Neal, who worked with Kernberger on the wine project, remembered the retired Napa High School math teacher as a renaissance man with broad knowledge of math, science, photography, farming, history and winemaking. Julie Spencer, executive director of Rianda House, said shell always remember Kernbergers curiosity, tenacity, intelligence and big smile. You could see the light go on in his mind when he was thinking about something and getting excited about a new concept, Spencer said. He opened up new avenues for Rianda House because of his involvement and his interests. Dave is part of the fabric at Rianda House. He always will be. Riandas vineyard group formed in late spring 2009 with the goal of reviving the St. Helena Beautification Foundations old vineyard at Meily Park and expanded into the production of wine to be served at Rianda House events. Neal launched the volunteer effort at the request of the late Joice Beatty. Early volunteers like Neal, Kernberger, Mike Hardy and Kathy Carrick formed a committee that worked with the city and planted 175 Primitivo vines. Dave was there from day one. He was a friend and a teacher to all of us, said Neal. I was the vineyard mentor, but Dave and Mike taught us the science of winemaking and made it really fun for us. Kernberger offered to let the group make wine at his small home winery north of St. Helena. It was so ideal to work out of this little stone winery in the middle of a Cabernet vineyard, Carrick said. When the winemaking apparatus needed to be reconfigured for technical reasons, Kernberger remodeled the facility at his own expense. Almost everything we used to make our wine belonged to Dave, Carrick said. He would find some old parts or get ahold of something another winemaker was throwing away and repair it. He was very generous. In 2014, Kernberger told the Star hed been making wine at home since 1972 and had no formal training, just seat of the pants knowledge. He and his first wife, local historian Kathy Kernberger, collected a vast array of historical photos and negatives that once belonged to local photo studios, said Mariam Hansen of the St. Helena Historical Society. Historic Photo Publishers, owned by David, donated some of the most notable photos contained in the St. Helena Historical Societys Images of America: St. Helena. The couple also published Mark Strongs Napa Valley, 1886-1924, a collection of photos by local photographer Mark Hopkins Strong. Both of them were very passionate about local history, Hansen said. They had one whole room in their house that was all archives. Spencer remembers the first time Dave Kernberger visited the center, a few months after Kathy died in 2008. He was kind of a lost soul because hed lost such a key person in his life, Spencer remembered. Someone suggested he visit Rianda House, and it changed his world around. In addition to the winemaking project, Kernberger became a greeter at Rianda House and a member of the weekly lunch bunch. On Feb. 20, 2017, he and his second wife, Rose, were the first couple to be married at Rianda House. Dave Kernberger is survived by Rose and his daughter, Heather MacKenzie. A celebration of Kernbergers life will be held at Rianda House on Dec. 11, which would have been his 80th birthday. You can reach Jesse Duarte at 967-6803 or jduarte@sthelenastar.com. Pop the cork on Napa Valley wine! Discover the hidden stories of Napa Valley wine and the people behind it -- plus expert analysis from our columnists and more with our weekly email newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. EDWARDSVILLE When Reagan Guerra was in second grade, she asked her grandmother if she would help with her very first science fair project. Now 10 years and just as many science-fair projects later Guerra is earning national accolades for her scientific research. Guerra, the daughter of Christopher and Laura Guerra in Collinsville, is now a senior at Metro-East Lutheran High School (MELHS) where she has developed a product that can be used as a substitute for blood in training for crime scene investigations. On April 17, Guerra learned her work and the extensive research behind it had earned her second place in the chemistry division at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. The award comes with an $8,000 scholarship. Only the top three students in eight divisions 24 nationwide are honored each year through this program. Guerras research took second place at the Illinois Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, winning her a $1,500 scholarship and the opportunity to present at the national event originally scheduled at the end of this month in Norfolk, Virginia. Due to shelter-in-place restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic, Guerra presented her research via a video presentation and question an answer session with judges. Guerra took home first place awards in both the project and the research paper divisions at Southern Illinois University Edwardsvilles recent Science and Engineering Research Challenge, which also was held virtually. She would have gone on to compete in the national research challenge schedued in Anaheim, California, but the event was cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic. Like many other high school seniors, Guerra is dealing with missing what would have been milestone opportunities and events due to the impact of the coronavirus. This year I would have gone to Virginia and California, so its kind of sad to have to miss out on two trips like that, Guerra said. But Im glad I still got to compete virtually for the Virginia event. Her product, which she has named Isoheme, can be used to recreate a crime scene where the patterns of the blood spatters are used to determine things such as how tall a suspect might be or where they might have been standing when blood was shed. Reagans product has the feel of blood and drops like blood and spatters like blood, said Deb Wudtke, biology teacher at MELHS. It was easy to use, dried quickly, and was not sticky like a commercial product used previously. Historically, actual human blood, and later animal blood, was used in crime scene recreations. There are a lot of issues with that, said Bev Friend, Guerras grandmother and a food scientist. Blood is expensive, poses a safety hazard, and storage is an issue. It doesnt last very long. Other blood substitute products exist, but researchers have shown that they cant be used for forensic training because their physical properties are not similar enough to those of blood. The idea behind Guerras research was to address those issues by coming up with an affordable, stable, safe substitute made with food grade ingredients that acts just like blood. She said she started working on the product during her sophomore year, trying different formulas and measuring their performance against actual blood. Using Wudtkes biology lab at MELHS, Guerra suited up in a HAZMAT suit and tested her product against pigs blood. She also traveled to both Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the University of Illinois to use their advanced lab equipment to test properties such as the surface tension and viscosity of her product as compared to real blood. Wudtke has used Guerras product in crime scene investigation projects in her forensic science class at MELHS for the past two years. In the forensic science class, which Guerra took her junior year, students discover how to apply the science that theyve learned previously in their chemistry and biology classes. They look at glass fracture patterns to determine a bullets direction and speed when traveling through the glass, they study blood typing and DNA evidence. And, of course, they learn how to calculate valuable crime scene information using blood spatter patterns. Its an application class, Wudtke said. Its learning to be observant enough to take the evidence and use it to draw conclusions. Wudtke previously spent 11 years at the St. Louis Science Center, where she was the Life Science Gallery Leader. While at the Science Center, she developed a two-hour crime scene program for visiting students. Thats where I learned to love the subject, Wudtke said, adding that the subject also has been well received among her students at MELHS. Humans generally are curious and want to figure things out, Wudtke said. I think thats why Reagan has enjoyed the projects shes done. Shes enjoyed getting some of the recognition shes received, but thats not why she does it. Shes just curious. Guerra, who plans to study chemistry at Concordia University Chicago next year, said she has learned much through the years by participating in science and research competitions and would encourage other students to give it a try. Ive had to do a lot of presentations. Ive written a lot of papers. So Ive had to learn a lot of different skills, Guerra said. Its a lot of work, but its good to learn to have motivation. DENVER, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- HeroX , the crowdsourcing and collaboration platform developed by the founders of XPRIZE, and BurstIQ , the leading provider of blockchain-based secure data solutions for the healthcare industry, today announced their partnership to combine data-driven collective intelligence and crowdsourced innovation, enabling the open-and-secure platform for collaborative research and innovation. HeroX & BurstIQ, Inc. HeroX's crowdsourcing tools will be available to users of BurstIQ's collaborative research platform, Research Foundry , where researchers and innovators can securely access 100+ health-related datasets, application development tools, and COVID-19-related innovation challenges. Innovators participating in challenges on HeroX's platform including COVID-19 Central , will be able to leverage data and application development resources through Research Foundry to expedite discovery and development. An expanded set of services will be rolled out to all users in the next phase. "In order to exponentially accelerate the pace of research and innovation, collaborators have to be able to do two things," said Frank Ricotta, CEO of BurstIQ. "First, they need to have a way to securely share ideas and data without risking their ownership of those ideas. Second, they need a structured process for managing those collaborations to capture and codify the value created." "This partnership addresses both and allows HeroX and BurstIQ to expand our collective market reach," said Ricotta. "The result is a collaborative research and innovation network that engages millions of minds." Both companies are known for supporting highly engaged communities of researchers and innovators across the globe. "HeroX believes in the power of human ingenuity, and by working together, there is literally no problem we cannot overcome," said Christian Cotichini, CEO of HeroX. "Integrating with BurstIQ brings safe and secure access to key health data to the near-limitless problem-solving power of the global crowd." "The COVID-19 Central resource hub, an ever-growing ecosystem of more than 50 organizations, is just one example of an initiative that will benefit from this partnership," said Cotichini. "This powerful combination will speed up the global response to the pandemic." This partnership will foster collaboration between the HeroX and BurstIQ global communities, providing the tools and cross-promotional activities to foster connections, knowledge sharing, and discovery. About HeroX HeroX is a social network for crowdsourcing innovation and human ingenuity, co-founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneur, Christian Cotichini and XPRIZE Founder and Futurist, Peter Diamandis. HeroX offers a turnkey, easy-to-use platform that supports anyone, anywhere, to solve everyday business and world challenges using the power of the crowd. Explore the latest challenges at www.herox.com About BurstIQ BurstIQ is the leading provider of blockchain-enabled data solutions for the healthcare industry. The company's private, permissioned data network combines blockchain, Big Data, machine intelligence, and granular data ownership and consent to build multi-dimensional profiles of people, places, and things and empower the connections between them. The result is a global, secure data network that allows enterprises, entrepreneurs and governments to collaborate, share, discover, and build the impossible. For more information visit: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn Contacts: HeroX: Alexandra Pony E: [email protected] P: 250.858.0656 BurstIQ: E: [email protected] W: www.burstIQ.com SOURCE HeroX; BurstIQ, Inc. New Delhi, April 21 : A senior housekeeper working with the Lok Sabha Secretariat has tested Covid-19 positive and been admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital, here on Tuesday. A resident of Kalibari area in central Delhi, the 58-year-old employee was admitted to a special ward in the hospital at 10.30 a.m. after his report was found positive on Monday, K.P. Balyan, Deputy Director (Welfare), Lok Sabha Secretariat, told IANS. Balyan said the infected employee had not attended the office for the last 35 days. "He had stopped coming four-five days before the lockdown was imposed," Balyan said. "He had visited the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital some 12 days ago following chest pain. Last Friday, he complained of fever, cough and breathing problems. He was tested for the Covid-19," Balyan said. Eleven members of his family, including three sons, have also been tested for coronavirus. The results are awaited. "All his family members has been home quarantined," Balyan said. Coronavirus has claimed 590 lives and infected over 14,500 across the country. Editor's Note: Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news stories and expert opinions that moved the precious metals and financial markets. Sign up here! (Kitco News) The global marketplace was shaken once again Tuesday following unconfirmed reports that North Koreas Kim Jong Un is seriously ill. The news comes just a day after significant market uncertainty was triggered by a major collapse in oil prices. U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the issue were cited by CNN as saying that U.S. was monitoring intelligence that Kim is in grave danger after a surgery. The reports began circulating after the north Korean leader missed a celebration of his grandfathers birthday on April 15. Unnamed American officials confirmed to NBC News Tuesday that Kim recently had cardiovascular surgery, with some others adding that the North Korean leader could be incapacitated. However, there is still a lot of confusion regarding the state of Kims health. A Chinese Communist Party International Liaison Department official told Reuters Tuesday that Kim is not believed to be critically ill. More reports added only more questions. NBC News cited South Koreas presidential office as saying: We confirm that Chairman Kim Jong Un is currently touring provincial areas with his close aides and we do not detect evidences to support speculation about his ill health. President Donald Trumps national security adviser Robert OBrien told Fox News on Tuesday that the White House is monitoring these reports very closely. The political succession is too early to talk about, added OBrien. The basic assumption would be maybe it would be someone in the family. But, again, its too early to talk about that because we just dont know what condition Chairman Kim is in and well have to see how it plays out, he said. Kim is believed to be in his thirties and have an older brother and a younger sister, BBH Global Currency Strategy said Tuesday. He is also thought to have a young daughter. The dynastic process has always been opaque in Pyongyang, but with no clear successor groomed, a power struggle is quite possible, noted BBH. The ripple effects in the marketplace were already being felt when trading began Tuesday morning. The Korean won plunged Tuesday against the U.S. dollar, last down 0.87% on the day. U.S. equity markets opened lower, still shaken by the oil price collapse witnessed on Monday. The Dow was last down more than 500 points on the day. Gold prices first declined but then started to climb back up with the June Comex gold futures last at $1,702.20, down 0.53% on the day. More market uncertainty could definitely be in the cards if the reports are confirmed, which is beneficial for gold, Blue Line Futures chief market strategist Phillip Streible told Kitco News Friday. There has been turbulent times with Kim, but it seems like the market got accustomed to his temperament and it seems the market has stabilized when it comes to North Korea. But if something unfortunate did happen to him, there could be a quick transitioning regime change. And something like that occurring provides a lot of uncertainty in the market and that could be part of the reason why we saw gold futures come back off from their lows on the safety bid, Streible said. The major concern is around a possible power vacuum developing, said chief market strategist Marc Chandler of Bannockburn Global Forex. The concern is about a potential power vacuum and the command and control of North Korea's weapons, Chandler noted. A coronavirus patient in Karnataka who has successfully recovered from Covid-19 has thanked health workers and said that he is completely healthy now, news agency ANI reported. The man, who hails from Bengaluru, thanked health workers who took care of him while he was getting treated for coronavirus at the hospital. The man said that the health workers gave strength to his family and maximum help. He urged people to cooperate with health workers. Karnataka:A man from Bengaluru who recovered from #COVID19, says,"I am completely healthy now. I thank health workers who followed up when I was in hospital.They gave strength to my family.I received maximum help from them.I'm requesting everyone to cooperate with health workers" pic.twitter.com/H6zFUnaJmV ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 I am completely healthy now. I thank health workers who followed up when I was in hospital. They gave strength to my family. I received maximum help from them. Im requesting everyone to cooperate with health workers, he said. As per the Ministry of Health, Karnataka has reported 408 cases of coronavirus so far. 112 Covid-19 patients have recovered in the state while 16 have died. The Karnataka health department on Tuesday said an 80-year-old man became the 17th Covid-19 fatality in the state while seven new cases of coronavirus were confirmed, news agency PTI reported. The elderly man died at a hospital in Kalaburagi in northern Karnataka. The patient also suffered from Parkinsons disease. Karnataka Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said the man died at 9 am on Monday, PTI reported. ...last night at 9 pm the death report came, which confirmed that he was COVID-19 positive, he tweeted. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country breached the 18,000-mark on Tuesday. According to the Ministry of Health, Indias total number of coronavirus cases jumped to 18,601 on Tuesday. The figure includes 14759 active cases, 3252 cured or discharged patients and 590 fatalities. India entered the seventh day of the extended nationwide lockdown on Tuesday which will come to an on May 3. Nebraska will ramp up testing for the coronavirus to about 3,000 a day within five weeks, Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Tuesday. Ricketts said the state has an agreement with three companies in Utah to dramatically increase testing statewide with results verified through a lab located in the state. Testing will be free. All Nebraskans will be asked to support the testing initiative designed to help stem the spread of the virus in the state by their participation in an online assessment, the governor said. The first step is to access testnebraska.com online and answer a few questions that will help determine each Nebraskan's current risk. Those who identify symptoms will be prioritized for early testing along with those who have interacted with someone who already has tested positive. Nebraskans who have recently visited places where the coronavirus is more widespread will also be placed on the priority list. The assessment will also seek answers from Nebraskans who may result in a positive test to identify who they may have been in contact with and where they may have traveled recently. 21.04.2020 LISTEN Lome, Togo April 20th, 2020 - Ecobank Group, the Pan African Bank, has contributed about US$3 million to the fight against COVID-19 across its footprint in Africa. In line with its commitment to the continent, various contributions were made to support the efforts of governments, the World Health Organization as well as the private sector in alleviating the effect of the pandemic on the most vulnerable on the continent. With our knowledge of Africa, and to compliment various government efforts, we provided support in form of cash, healthcare equipment and supplies, strong and sustained awareness campaigns while also using our digital platform to provide cash to some vulnerable members of our societies, amongst others. Ade Ayeyemi, Group CEO, Ecobank Group said: COVID-19 is a major global threat adversely affecting all countries and our home, Africa, is particularly vulnerable. We believe in the importance of creating awareness in our communities, while also empowering them to protect themselves and their families as we battle the pandemic. We are particularly mindful of the needs of our communities and therefore focused on these to ensure positive impact both in our urban and rural areas. We are also paying attention to the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on our various customers and have taken the decision to alleviate some of the adverse impact by making some bank charges free on our digital channels. We will continue to anticipate situations that may require our support as developments evolve. Ade Ayeyemi added. At Ecobank, the health and well-being of our staff and customers are our priority and we are closely following guidance from the World Health Organisation, governments and health agencies. We are encouraging virtual/remote working, wherever possible and have since suspended physical gatherings, observing the required social and physical distancing in offices and branches which are open while also ensuring branches and ATMs are regularly disinfected across our network. We continue to promote good hygiene and health measures within our offices and externally using our social media platforms to sensitize the public on preventive measures needed at this critical period. Ecobanks ATMs and call centres remain open 24/7 and full range of banking services are available via our digital platforms for all category of customers. Ecobank Mobile and Ecobank Online for the Consumer Bank customers, Ecobank Omni Lite for our Commercial Bank customers and Ecobank Omni for our Corporate and Investment Bank customers. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: 57-year-old Roberto Tomasso visits Kerala often to enjoy his vacations. This time though, the Italian tourist spent most of his time in hospital after testing positive for the novel coronavirus on March 13, a few days after his arrival. On Monday, Tomasso, now completely cured, left Thiruvananthapuram for Bengaluru from where he will fly to Italy on Tuesday. I have come to India many times and I love Kerala a lot, Tomasso told reporters. It is heartening that I got the best possible treatment. Doctors and nurses took excellent care of me and gave me good food. I can never forget the love Kerala has given me. If the current situation passes, I will be back to Kerala next year. I must take this opportunity to personally thank everyone. He also left a handwritten note of gratitude for the state and its team of health workers. Tomasso testing positive had caused a huge scare in Varkala as he was busy visiting places before diagnosis. During treatment, the language barrier made it difficult for officials to make a route map and identify people he came in contact with. The route map was later made with the help of an Italian translator, revealing a primary contact of 126 people. Beset with other serious health issues too, Tomasso was treated at the Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram as per the plans of a medical board. He was discharged after testing negative for Covid-19 on March 25, and kept under observation for weeks at the Nedumangad Taluk Hospital. Later, he was shifted to the General Hospital. Health Minister KK Shailaja spoke to him through a video call when Tomasso thanked the minister for the care and help given by the health department in Kerala. It is pleasing to see everyone leave cured, Minister Shailaja said. The health sector is doing an excellent job. All eight foreigners who tested positive have been cured. Some of them were critical cases but we were able to help them.Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran saw him off at the General Hospital alongside Thiruvananthapuram Collector P Gopalakrishnan, district programme manager Dr P V Arun, Medical College Hospital superintendent Dr M S Sharmad, General Hospital superintendent Dr Padmalatha, Mayor K Sreekumar and V K Prasanth MLA. Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha leader and national spokesperson Derek OBrien alleged on Tuesday that while the states in India were fighting a battle against novel coronavirus, the Narendra Modi-led Central government was fighting some states instead of fighting the virus. About 70%-80% of the districts chosen for the Central teams visits are from states ruled by opposition parties. Why no district from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat is part of the list? OBrien asked. All states are fighting corona but we are sad to note that the Centre is fighting a battle against some states, OBrien said. The MP termed the sending of central teams to the state without consulting the state government in advance as an anti-federal campaign. Two inter-ministerial teams from the union government landed in Kolkata on Monday to visit seven districts to inquire into issues regarding proper implementation of the lockdown and moves taken by the health administration. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday had strongly objected to this visit, terming the Centres decision as unilateral and undesirable. On Tuesday, while addressing the media, OBrien and the partys Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay accused the Centre of playing politics during a national crisis. The centre needs to explain on what basis the seven districts were chosen, Bandyopadhyay said, adding that the number of testing in the state had increased to 400 tests per day on an average and that it would increase to 600 per day Tuesday onwards. Taking digs at the Centre, OBrien said, We, despite our political differences with those governing Kerala, have no hesitation in acknowledging that Kerala has done a lot of good things just like Bengal has done too. Of course, there is scope for improvement in Bengal. But we restrained ourselves from criticising the Centre. We raised the issue on March 5 and 6 in Parliament. When we washed our hands or wore marks in the Parliament, it was called a gimmick. We did not ask why the Centre woke up late because our chairperson asked us to refrain from indulging in politics at this hour. Of the two central teams, the one for four south Bengal districts is supposed to visit North 24-Parganas on Tuesday. Mumbai: Condemning the lynching of two sadhus in neighbouring Palghar district, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday said the incident was an attempt to malign Maharashtra's image and it was "inhuman" to give it a communal colour. An editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana' stated that residents of Gadchincle village in Palghar had killed the two sadhus over rumours that thieves dressed as holy men had entered the village taking advantage of the lockdown. The victims wanted to cross the state borders and travel to Gujarat amid the COVID-19 lockdown, the article stated. "The local administration sent them back, despite their saffron robes. If they had been held back there itself and the state government had been informed, the matter could have been resolved," the paper observed. Coming out in support of Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, the article stated that the police had taken prompt action and said both the victims and accused belonged to the same religion so there was no communal aspect to the case. Seeds of communal discord were sown through the social media, but Maharashtra has remained peaceful, it said. "Some expressed concern about how Hindu sadhus could be killed in the state of Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray. But reasons for such concerns are different," the paper said. Criticising the leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis, the paper said, the former Chief Minister had shed tears over the incident on social media. When similar mishaps had taken place in Dhule and Chandrapur during Fadnavis' tenure, wasn't Maharashtra the land of Balasaheb Thackeray then? the paper asked. Irrespective of whether victims were Hindus or Muslims, lynching was a perversion and can never be supported, the editorial said. The paper further pointed out that Gadchincle has been a BJP bastion for the last 10 years and even the village sarpanch belongs to the saffron party. The opposition was not angry over the killing of sadhus, but was upset as it had failed to create a communal discord following the incident, it stated. "It is true that Maharashtra's tradition and culture have been hurt by the incident. Was the incident a deliberate attempt to tarnish the state's image?" the editorial questioned. COVID-19 has marred the global economy and capital markets alike. And just when you begin to think that nothing would surprise you anymore, you wake up to another rude shock. Today was the turn of a crude shock, quite literally. What does this historic crude price crash mean for the world economy and how do consumer nations stand to gain? Will the crude crash repeat itself when the June contracts get due for realisation? Is there a need for greater convergence of upstream and downstream operations than ever before to mitigate the risks arising out of oversupply? Catch Network 18's Kartik Malhotra in conversation with the Energy Industry Head of World Economic Forum - Roberto Bocca joining in from Geneva, Switzerland for this exclusive podcast. A businessman was killed in Nagpur on Tuesday evening over a property dispute, police said. Haribhau Savarkar had sold a parking plot to one Bunty Sheikh who constructed an illegal structure there, said an official of Sakkardara police station. "The structure was demolished recently by the civic corporation and Bunty accused Savarkar of playing a role in it. At around 3:30pm. Bunty stabbed Savarkar to death and fled. A murder case has been registered and efforts are on to nab the accused," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PHILIPSBURG:--- USP MP Claudius Buncamper requested an urgent meeting of Parliament where he is calling the Minister of VSA Richard Panneflek. MP Buncamper expressed his concerns via letter to the Minister regarding the requests for mass layoffs. The request submitted by the USP faction is supported by the PFP faction MPs Mellissa Gumbs, and Raehyon Peterson along with National Alliance MP Christopher Emmanuel. The letter sent to the chair of parliament below. Dear Chairman of Parliament, I am hereby requesting an urgent meeting of parliament with the following agenda points: State of affairs from the Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour (VSA) with regards to the mass illegal labor dismissals in connection with COVID-19. Elucidation on food packages distributed thus far to persons by the Government. Many employees have received termination letters from their employers since the beginning of this pandemic. These companies have not followed the legal route regarding dismissals, which is to file for permission to terminate the labor agreement at the Labour Department and to follow all procedures stipulated by law. As the government is putting together a stimulus package in efforts to help with the negative impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, such action by these employers is deemed premature. The Minister of VSA is hereby requested to provide members of parliament with a complete state of affairs regarding these illegal labor dismissals. Furthermore, many persons are now no longer gainfully employed and as such, together with persons who already were in need, no longer have had the means to purchase groceries before the mandatory lockdown, resulting in an outcry to the government for aid. The government responded by making food packages available to persons who applied for aid. More than 9000 persons have reportedly applied for the packages. The Minister of VSA is hereby requested to provide elucidation on the distribution of before mentioned food packages. Respectfully Yours, MP Claudius Buncamper MP Akeem Arrindell __________________________________ MP Melissa Gumbs __________________________________ MP Raeyhon Peterson __________________________________ MP Christophe Emmanuel __________________________________ India reported 1336 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 47 related deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday morning, to breach the 18,500-mark. With 14,759 active cases, 3252 people who have been cured, discharged or have migrated and 590 deaths, Indias coronavirus tally stood at 18,601, according to the health ministrys dashboard. The country crossed the 18,000 mark in just a day after 17,265 cases were reported on Monday morning. India had also seen the highest single-day spike on Monday with 1553 fresh cases till the evening. Also read: 16 contenders shortlisted for Indias corona vaccine effort The breach comes a day after the government said that the rate of doubling of Covid-19 cases in India has now improved to 7.5 days. Indias Covid-19 doubling rate has improved to 7.5 days from 3.4 days before the lockdown, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry said at the daily briefing. Eight states and a Union TerritoryDelhi, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Chattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Biharhave shown a doubling rate in less than 20 days. Also read| Covid-19: What you need to know today In Andaman and Nicobar Island, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Assam, Uttarakhand and Ladakh the rate of doubling is between 20 and 30 days, Agarwal said. In Odisha, the rate of doubling is 39.8 days and Kerala is best at 72.2 days. Agarwal also said that 59 districts have not reported any new cases in the last 14 days. Mahe in Puducherry, Kodagu in Karnataka and Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand have not reported any Covid-19 case in the last 28 days. The number of districts where no case has been reported in the last 14 days has increased to 59. Goa is now Covid-free, Agarwal said. According to the Covid-19 dashboard by Johns Hopkins Universitys Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE), the number of confirmed cases stood at 2,476,916and there were 170,297 fatalities across the world at around 8am India time. Private sector lender City Union Bank on Tuesday said it has got RBI nod for reappointment of MD and CEO N Kamakodi New Delhi: Private sector lender City Union Bank on Tuesday said it has got RBI nod for reappointment of MD and CEO N Kamakodi. The Reserve Bank of India has given its approval vide e-mail dated 20 April, 2020, for the reappointment of N Kamakodi as the MD&CEO of the bank, City Union Bank said in a regulatory filing. It said Kamakodi's reappointment is for a further period of three years with effect from 1 May, 2020. City Union Bank stock was trading 2.18 percent down at Rs 128 on the BSE. A group of people saw a man being fatally stabbed once in the chest and left for dead on the footpath outside a Gold Coast apartment highrise on Tuesday. Police set up roadblocks in surrounding streets and they tried to round up everyone who had fled the scene, but there had been no arrests or charges laid as of Wednesday morning. The scene on Hanlan Street in Surfers Paradise where paramedics tried to save the man's life. Credit:Nick Kelly - Nine News Gold Coast Emergency services were called to the footpath outside Beachcomber Apartments on Hanlan Street in Surfers Paradise about 7.15pm. Specialist critical care paramedics performed CPR on the victim, a 35-year-old local man, before he was rushed in a critical condition to Gold Coast University hospital, where he was declared dead. Haiti - News : Zapping... Pope Francis postpones WYD Pope Francis announced the postponement of the next World Youth Days (WYD) in Lisbon which will finally take place in August 2023 "because of the current health situation", the Vatican announced on Monday. Curfew, vast police operation Large night operation, among others, at Route de freres, Carrefour Fleuriot, Delmas 33 and Petion-ville. Audain Fils Bernadel, the Minister of the Interior, supported by the prosecution, public security and the police, fined and punished dozens of reluctant motorists and citizens driving at curfew hours. FAO alongside Haiti Patrix Severe, the new Minister of Agriculture (MARNDR), recently received the visit of Jose Luis Fernandez the Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Haiti, who reiterated him its desire to support the Government and the Haitian population in improving food security, developing agricultural sectors, managing natural resources and strengthening resilience to food crises. Released prisoners do not meet the criteria Judicial authorities are taking advantage of measures to relieve congestion in prisons when faced with the threat of Covid-19 to release individuals involved in illicit activities. This is the case in particular of the former Deputy, Jean Fenel Tanis, close to the PHTK, arrested in March 2019, in Ganthier, for illicit drug trafficking. The former Deputy and two other individuals accompanying him had in their possession 400 kg of marijuana. The National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) denounces this release stressing that Jean Fenel Tanis does not meet the criteria established by the Ministry of Justice. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30559-haiti-justice-release-of-322-detainees.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30441-haiti-justice-more-than-50-prisoners-released-the-opc-concerned.html Minister Bernadel reminds the Departmental Delegates... Audain Fils Bernadel, the Minister of the Interior and of Local Authorities calls on the Departmental Delegates to fully play their role of public security officials at the level of their department and to guarantee the safety of life and property for the population. Chancellor Joseph satisfied with his first videoconference Chancellor Claude Joseph said he was satisfied with his first videoconference with the heads of Haitis diplomatic missions abroad. "Diplomatic practices are evolving, we have an obligation to adapt to better continue to defend the interests of the country." HL/ HaitiLibre Two labourers, who had sat down to have breakfast on a railway track, were run over by an incoming freight train at around 8am on Tuesday in Chhattisgarhs Koriya district. The victims were walking back to their native villages in Surajpur district amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown enforced to contain the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak. Police said the incident took place between Udalkachhar and Darritola railway stations under Koriya district. City superintendent of police (CSP), Manendragarh, Karn Kumar Uike, said that the victims, Kaleshwar Rajwade (21) and Gulab Rajwade (20) along with two other workers started walking from Pendra-Marwahi-Gaurela district on Monday for their native villages in Surajpur district, located around 130km from Pendra, along the railway tracks. The workers decided to walk along the railway track, as no transport service was available due to the ongoing lockdown. They walked through Monday night and reached a spot between Udalkachhar and Darritola stations on the Anuppur-Ambikapur rail route, located around 80km from Pendra. The victims were eating their breakfast on the railway track, while the other two workers had gone to fetch water. The victims didnt see the incoming freight train because of a curve on the track. They were run over at around 8am on Tuesday, said CSP Uike. The other two workers informed the police and later the victims bodies were sent for post-mortem examination. Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel expressed grief over the workers death and instructed the district authorities to provide necessary assistance to the family members of the deceased. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Saluting all Witsies combating the COVID-19 pandemic These Wits heroes represent just a fraction of the clinical, academic, professional and administrative staff, alumni and students responding to this disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life as we know it. But it has also galvanised our rapid adaptation to change and the adoption of new technologies. This newsletter acknowledges all those Witsies on the frontline in testing stations, hospitals, laboratories, computer centres, innovation labs and those who from their homes confront this pandemic and its effects on South Africa and the world. The Wits heroes mentioned here represent just a fraction of the clinical, academic, professional and administrative staff, alumni and students who are contributing in multiple ways to respond to this disaster. We salute them all. Practical protection for people With personal protective equipment (PPE) in short supply globally, Wits engineers and students last week custom designed, manufactured and delivered their first batch of laser-cut face shields to protect healthcare workers. As COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations increase, respiration and ventilation become literally a matter of life or death. These same Witsies have now turned their engineering prowess to devising assistive breathing devices for patients. We invite you to contribute to this life-saving innovation. Students and staff in the School of Molecular and Cell Biology further advanced the PPE cause by sourcing and donating medical gloves for healthcare workers. This School also formulated a virus-killing disinfectant for Witsies on campus to prevent COVID-19 contamination. Combatting contamination through biomedical engineering, PhD candidate Michael Lucas pioneered a revolutionary self-sanitising surface coating. This infection control solution helps mitigate hospital-acquired infections and Lucas biomedical alchemy can prevent COVID-19 contamination. Diary of a disease Understanding the coronavirus pathogen is critical to protection and prevention. In concert with the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the National Department of Health (NDOH), Wits epidemiologists, virologists, biologists, and others at the vanguard of science are working to decode, predict, tame, and suppress COVID-19, and manage the public health and socio-economic impact. Wits Professor of Epidemiology Cheryl Cohen analyses the distribution, patterns and determinants of disease. Now a household name, Cohen is at the forefront of COVID-19 case-finding, diagnosis and public health response, management and coordination. She recently delivered an on-air COVID-19 masterclass. Cohen works closely with Dr Kerrigan McCarthy, a clinical microbiologist explaining here how the coronavirus is transmitted: Amongst the virus sleuths is microbiologist Lynn Morris, a Research Professor in the School of Pathology and the Interim Executive Director of the NICD. Morris explains in this in-depth interview why COVID-19 is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Fellow microbiologist, Professor Adriano Duse, Head of the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, gives insight into superbugs in this Masterclass. Drawing Big Data battle lines Predicting and anticipating the trajectory of the virus to mitigate casualties and inform policy requires number crunching, modelling, and analysis of Big Data. Physics Professor Bruce Mellado leads a multidisciplinary team that developed the comprehensive COVID-19 South Africa Dashboard a data dashboard to help track and visualise local COVID-19 infections, as well as in Africa, and the monitoring tool can be used to provide predictions for the virus spread and impact. Similarly, the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), of which Wits is partner, developed an interactive map showing the provinces vulnerability to COVID-19. In the Wits Biomedical Engineering Research Unit, Professor David Rubin and Adam Pantanowitz are developing a model to demonstrate the effect of intermittent quarantines, which may help maintain essential services and sustain economic activity. Advocating mass testing Test! Test! Test! is the message from Professor of Vaccinology Shabir Madhi, who advocates physical distancing, mass testing for COVID-19, and quarantining the infected as the optimal public health strategy. In this interview Madhi explains how the virus infects bodies and describes how big and bad the coronavirus is. In partnership with Gift of the Givers, Wits now hosts a COVID-19 testing station. Helping the healthcare workers on the frontlines Expert analysis informs us of the impact COVID-19 will have on our world but how will our healthcare workers in hospitals cope? Professor Feroza Motara is the Academic Head of Emergency Medicine in the School of Clinical Medicine at Wits and the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. She has prepared her team and the hospital to care for those infected with COVID-19. Feroza explains how healthcare workers on the frontline cope. Towards treatment Professor Helen Rees, the Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) and Professor Jeremy Nel lead the South African research team in the Solidarity clinical trials. Rapidly constituted by the World Health Organization (WHO), these 10-nation clinical trials aim to identify the most effective treatment against COVID-19. (Note: not a vaccine this could take 12-18 months but see why Professor Chris William Callaghan proposes scientific crowdsourcing as a promising approach to biomedical research and development). Rees discusses South Africa's role in the global Solidarity study. On our best behaviour Physical distancing, hand-washing, and cough etiquette govern our mobility and behaviour like never before. Listen to renowned HIV scientist and activist Professor Francois Venter, Director of Ezintsha and Deputy Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI), discussing the fundamental role that behaviour change plays in reducing COVID-19 infection. Distinguished Professor of Medical Anthropology and Public Health Lenore Manderson delivered a COVID-19 webinar applicable to public behaviour. Behaviour extends to social relations and solidarity. Professor Jo Vearey from the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) cautions against hypocrisy in a time of COVID-19 and advocates for foreign migrants to be included in the COVID-19 response. She explores what South Africas impending winter, a historical HIV/AIDS pandemic and xenophobic attitudes mean for the spread of the pandemic, while Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon and Siyabonga Mahlangu advocate for the protection of inner-city communities during the lockdown. Influencing policy President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Professor Martin Veller, the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences to a Ministerial Committee to provide clinical management advice on COVID-19. He, together with five leading Wits professors proposed a blueprint to replace the current lockdown. Several other Witsies including Professor Glenda Gray have also been appointed to government committees or sub-committees. Professors Karen Hofman and Susan Goldstein from the SAMRC/Wits Centre for Health Economics & Decision Science, PRICELESS SA, in the School of Public Health have advocated for proper hand-washing hygiene, which has since become standard COVID-19 protocol. However, environmental lawyer Dina Lupin Townsend cautions that there is nothing simple about washing your hands when you have extremely limited access to clean water. Economy on the edge Economist Professor Imraan Valodia, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management says: The COVID-19 crisis is first and foremost a health and humanitarian crisis that we are all living through, which is likely to have lasting impacts on how we live. He explains how we can manage the economic impacts in a way that does the least long-term harm and writes with David Francis, that South Africa wont flatten the curve unless all citizens have the means to stay home. Seventy-eight economists and activists, including several from Wits, wrote an open letter to the President encouraging government to do more to stabilise the economy and to protect the most vulnerable in society, a view echoed by Professor William Gumede in the Sunday Times. He recently compared the COVID-19 emergency stimuluses of selected countries and analysed what South Africa could learn from these countries. Wits economist Lumkile Mondi asks how we can save SA whilst Adjunct Professor Alex van den Heever analyses the health and economic ramifications of COVID-19. Kamal Ramburuth-Hurt wrote on the deepening economic crisis, while Wits Journalism lecturer Kevin Davie commented on the fragile economy as did Professor Keith Breckenridge, Deputy Director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER). Wits voices on COVID-19 Wits researchers and academics across faculties have articulated the impact of COVID-19 in their disciplines and displayed social leadership to educate, advocate, influence, and inspire: Brave new world? Professor Achille Mbembe, renowned philosopher at WiSER, has commented as has Professor John Stremlau from the Wits Department of International Relations, has shared their views on the global impact of the virus. So has Associate Professor Ivor Sarakinsky, political philosopher in the Wits School of Governance, in this interview: Dr Bob Wekesa from the African Centre for the Study of the United States (ACSUS) wrote about what will happen to Africa after COVID-19. Winter weather or not While COVID-19 aggravates an existing climate emergency, social and climate activist Professor Vishwas Satgar suggests that the coronavirus pandemic provides an opportunity to end the war with nature whilst Professor Matthew Chersich from the Wits RHI says that South Africas warmer weather could slow the spread of the virus. Books not braais Professor Chris Thurman has explained the impact of COVID-19 on the arts, while biomedical ethicist Harriet Etheredge tackles issues related to personal versus public freedoms during lockdown. Family matters Dr Ajwang' Warria explains how parents and caregivers can support children during the COVID-19 lockdown whilst the Centre for Deaf Studies is breaking the silence on COVID-19 for the Deaf community. Lockdown language Wits students also helped Jive Media to translate the Haykhona Corona! Spreading the word, not the virus poster series into multiple languages and made freely available to all. Please share widely. There are numerous other experts from Wits who comment regularly in the media. Keep informed, safe and healthy Visit wits.ac.za/covid19 regularly for the latest updates, news, analysis and expert opinions in our fight against the coronavirus. Witsies are tackling the COVID-19 pandemic on all fronts and we laud each and every person who is playing a role in combating this pandemic. We are in a crucial moment in the life of this pandemic and it is important that we work as a collective for the benefit of our society. We urge all members of the Wits community to heed the words of President Cyril Ramaphosa: This epidemic will pass. But it is up to us to determine how long it will last, how damaging it will be, and how long it will take for our economy and our country to recover. It is true that we are facing a grave emergency. But if we act together, if we act now, and if we act decisively, we will overcome it. Crude oil futures contract price may have plunged into negative territory in the international market, but India's leading commodity exchange MCX has fixed an interim settlement price of Re 1 per barrel New Delhi/Mumbai: Crude oil futures contract price may have plunged into negative territory in the international market, but India's leading commodity exchange MCX has fixed an interim settlement price of Re 1 per barrel -- a move some traders said would help big brokers avert losses amounting to hundreds of crores of rupees at the cost of others having taken a short position. Officials said capital market regulator SEBI is aware of the situation and is actively looking into the issue, while the matter has reached the government authorities as well, and they want an immediate action if the exchange has acted against regulations or was trying to benefit any particular trader at the cost of others. Last night, the NYMEX WTI Crude futures May 2020 contract settled at an unprecedented $ (-)37.63 a barrel, after slipping into the negative zone on fears of fast-filling storage facilities globally and an unprecedented plunge in demand due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Click here to follow LIVE news and updates on stock markets Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX) of India, which uses the NYMEX price for determining its own settlement price and the available RBI's reference rate for USD-INR for conversion, however, said in a circular that due to the unprecedented price fluctuation in the international markets in crude oil, the due date rate for Crude Oil futures contract expiring on 20 April, 2020, is under finalisation. "In the interim, the provisional settlement price for 20 April, 2020, is considered as Re 1 per barrel for the computation of members' obligation for trade date 20 April, 2020. Differential settlement, if any, on fixation of the final settlement price shall be done subsequently," it told its members. Traders said MCX crude has open positions of 11,522 contracts, meaning 11,522 open positions on expiry were outstanding. Also, since the number of futures buy positions should equal the number of futures sell positions, there would be 11,522 sell or short positions at the time of the expiry of the contract. Several traders said MCX's decision to fix a settlement price of Re 1, even on an interim basis, would lead to people holding these 11,522 short positions losing their legitimate gains. Officials, however, said it would need to be probed whether the decision to fix an interim price is aimed at giving some undue respite to those having suffered huge losses. As per the prevailing practice, the Monday night's NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) closing price of (-)$37.63 a barrel would have given a settlement price differential of about Rs (-)2,860 a barrel for India. As the last trade price at 5 pm on Monday here was Rs 965, the total difference from MCX's last trade price till the actual/ideal settlement price should therefore be around Rs 3,825 (965+2,860) per barrel. However, with MCX deciding on Re 1 interim settlement, the positions outstanding at the close of trade at Rs 965 will only get benefit up to Re 1, thus losing nearly Rs 2,860 a barrel. As one contract at MCX is equivalent to 100 barrels, the total open positions amount to 11,55,200 barrels, thus resulting in a huge loss of over Rs 440 crore (based on Rs 3,825 a barrel). However, a settlement at Re 1 would limit the loss to just about Rs 110 crore, thus helping some big brokers avert losses amounting to Rs 330 crore at the cost of others having held short or sell positions, traders said. Amman, April 21 : Jordan has refused to allow medical aid to pass through the country on its way to an isolated Syrian refugee camp amid the coronavirus pandemic, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said here. None of nearly 45,000 refugees living in the Rukban camp, located on Syrian territory near the border with the Kingdom, are permitted onto Jordanian soil, the Minister informed the UN envoy to Syria, Geir Pederson on Monday. "Jordan will not permit sending any assistance to the Rukban camp from its territory or allow any person from the camp to enter Jordanian territory for any reason," Efe news quoted Safadi as saying to Pederson in a telephone conversation, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. "Jordan's top priority at this juncture is to protect its citizens against the coronavirus," he added. The situation in the US-held camp, located in the Syrian desert, is "critical", according Najat Rochdi, Senior Humanitarian Adviser to the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria. It has barely received humanitarian aid over the past few years due to the broken relationship between the Syrian and US governments. Although UN organizations used to send relief aid to the camp from Jordan until two years ago, the Jordanian government insisted that they should go through Syrian regime to deliver the goods to the camps. "Taking care of the Rukban gathering is a Syrian-UN responsibility because it includes Syrian citizens and hence any medical or humanitarian assistance required by the camp should come from inside Syria," Safadi said. "Jordan supports UN efforts to work out a political solution, particularly in these unprecedented circumstances which require that all efforts focus on fighting the pandemic and its spillovers," he added. The conversation between Safadi and Pederson came amid UN warnings that refugee camps in the Middle East were among the places where COVID-19 could wreak havoc, given the weak medical care available. Jordan has reported 417 coronavirus cases and seven deaths according to the most recent figures by the Health Ministry. The Kingdom has adopted some of the strictest restrictions against the novel virus in the region, including a total 24-hour curfew that lasted for a few days although it eased it later to allow people to buy essential supplies. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) on Tuesday staged a silent protest in the state and demanded financial assistance worth 7500, shelter and ration for labourers. They also demanded that the government stop retrenchment of media, information iechnology (IT) and industrial workers. CITU state president Vijendra Mehra said the state and central government had failed to protect the daily wage workers and labourers during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Mehra alleged that most of the industries in the state had not paid wages to contract labourers since March 22. He said that the workers who used to receive 10,500 as salary were only paid 2,000 at the Shimla Municipal Corporations Solid Waste Management Plant in Tutu. There are many industrial workers who have not received salary since the announcement of lockdown. This is in violation of Central governments directions of March 20 and 29, according to which workers should get their wages and salaries without any deductions, Mehra said. CITU has warned the Union and state government that they will intensify the protest if their demands are not fulfilled. Apart from this, Communist Party of India ( Marxist) leader and Theogs Legislator Rakesh Singha, Himachal Pradesh Kisan Sabha President Kuldeep Tanwar and Former Mayor Sanjay Chauhan staged a sit in protest outside SDM office demanding food and shelter for labourers. SINGHA THREATENING OFFICIALS Meanwhile, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers have condemned CPI(M) protest and have accused Rakesh Singha of threatening government officials. State BJP spokesperson Shashi Dutt said that at a time when government officials are serving the people by putting their lives on the line, CPI(M) leaders are trying to gain political leverage by misbehaving and threatening government officials instead of helping people. Sanwo-Olu Food Kitchen Chased Away By Angry Youths In Oworo The Food Kitchen Programme initiated by the governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu was rejected by the youth in the Oworo area of the state. In a video that surfaced on social media, the agents deployed to the area were asked by the residents to leave the area. They argued that the planned food distribution is a slap on their faces and the government is expected to do more than that. Sanwo-Olu had last week announced the daily food kitchen programme to feed at least 100,000 youths in the state. In the next couple of days we will commence what we call a daily food kitchen programme, which will be an attempt to feed 100,000 youths, Sanwo-Olu said in a press briefing. This we believe will meet some of the immediate challenges that we have seen in the street, he had said The governor also said there will also be unconditional cash transfer to 250,000 vulnerable residents and economically challenged persons who have identification numbers with Lagos State Residents Registration Agency. Watch Video: A team of officials taking two truckloads of essential commodities was denied permission by a checkpost officer to cross over to Kerala to reach Western Ghat hamlets on the Tamil Nadu side, officials here said on Tuesday. Following the denial of nod, the essential commodities were loaded on horsebacks and delivered to the residents of Central and Top Station hamlets after an arduous trek through the jungles, they said. The Tamil Nadu hamlets of Central and Top Station are about six and 12 km respectively from Kurangani on the Western Ghats, located at an altitude of nearly 8,000 feet. However, these hamlets can be reached via road only through Kerala side via Bodimettu, the border point between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Trekking is the only option to Central and Top Station from Kurangani which too falls under Tamil Nadu. The distance between district headquarters here and Kurangani via Bodi is about 30 km. Bodi Tahsildar Manimaran said when he and other officials including block development officer Nagaraj headed to the twin hamlets in a government jeep and two mini-trucks carrying essential commodities including rice, they were stopped at Bodimettu checkpost by a Kerala officer. "Though I told the Kerala officer that I am the Tahsildar for Bodi (the two Western Ghat hamlets fall under the jurisdiction of Bodi) and that the consignment of essential commodities belonged to the Tamil Nadu government for supply to residents of the hilly hamlets that fall within Tamil Nadu, our team and trucks were denied nod to cross over," Manimaran told PTI. The entire Kurangani region is a storehouse of rich biodiversity and Kolukkumalai, the highest tea estate in the world is situated atop Kurangani. As permission was denied, the team returned and sent the essential commodites through horses to the hamlets, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The last great epidemic to hit the country left a lasting effect on our landscape and how we design our living spaces. The TB epidemic saw the building of sanatoriums, large-scale hospitals on open grounds for the treatment of recovering patients. Exposure to sunlight and access to fresh air was viewed as vital to recovery. "The sanatorium was radical in Irish design in having so much light and glass in walls. It was the stimulus for people to realise viruses spread in stale conditions and you needed fresh air. TB did improve homes because it resulted in better bathrooms and sanitation," architectural historian Emma Gilleece says. Families also got government loans to build temporary chalets to isolate tuberculosis sufferers at home. The TB-era has even had an impact on the building of much of the existing housing stock. The demand for air and light melded with design trends of the period. "TB was still an issue until the '70s. That was a time of modernism, it was about combining outdoor and indoor living. It fit right into the fashion of the time. It did influence the middle-class wealthier homes: flat roofs, white houses, glazing and wrap-arounds. It was seen as being very modern." Ms Gilleece said people were consciously affected by the TB outbreak, triggering a flight to the suburbs as families wanted to move out of the cities. Although she feels there are echoes of the tuberculosis epidemic now, she doesn't want to see the pattern repeated. "I am an advocate for people living in cities. It's good design that will benefit people. They think good design means lots of space. You can have a smaller space in square metres designed really well, if you have your access to balconies and sunlight and air. "I still think cities are seen by some people as dirty. It's not about the density, it's about good design. I hope they don't equate a lack of space with getting the virus. The apartment blocks don't work without the green spaces," she says. "I wonder will this have a psychological effect on people and will people want closed and gated communities. I'd like to think it will actually improve our apartment blocks. I hope people see the correlation between a well-designed building with ventilation. We need to be near people and it has an effect on our well-being. We need to see like we are socially in a community. That's the great thing about apartment blocks." The current trend for the Dermot Bannon-style trademark 'Room To Improve' open-plan living spaces with kitchen, dining and living room all in one space might not fit the current need to work from home with children running around. Ms Gilleece doesn't feel we will be moving back to traditional separate rooms, but the crisis will make people think more about the layout of their home. "I'd like to think people won't just accept the standard house. How are people going to convert spaces in their homes for offices? Will it be people buying screens for homes? Maybe we'll have houses that have movable walls for particular periods of your life," she says. After a general election dominated by housing, building is on lockdown at the moment. Construction workers are the second-hardest hit by the shut-down with half of those previously at work now on the pandemic benefit. Orla Hegarty, architect and assistant professor at the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, UCD, says the freeze will provide an opportunity to rethink what we need from housing. "We have been going backwards for the last few years. There has been a steady erosion of standards. Most people are finding the new apartment sizes are too small to be working from home. I would hope we would see a bit of fresh thinking. There is a huge opportunity for that now. "It will bring prices down and give some breathing space on what housing policy should be. We now have six months to see what we are trying to achieve," she says. Ms Hegarty supports well-planned, urban living with housing dense enough to support shops and public transport, but spacious enough for families to live comfortably. The return of a requirement for apartments to have balconies is high on her list. But she also wants to see apartments being more family-friendly. She feels working from home and commuting will now change, with a resulting drop in demand for office blocks. "More people now will find they don't need to be in the office so much. I think people will be looking for home offices. The new performance index for housing has a scoring on work from home. It is a measurable benefit for you. Once you provide space you give them more options. We need all our new housing to be decent sized. What we need to be building is family sized housing in the city," she says. The disruption to the property market will alter demand for commercial offices, student accommodation and hotels. Some of what is currently being built might even be re-purposed to meet the new demands, such as student housing, which is already laid out in apartment style. When the lockdown ends, there will be construction workers available and land prices will reduce, which won't suit developers. She feels there will be a stall in the private sector, which was never going to solve the public housing problem. Ms Hegarty says the solution now lies in State-driven housing projects, backed by a smart funding and procurement model. "It needs seed capital and its needs a model of opening up the market and construction employment. If they're not going to be building hotels or office buildings, then we need to be building decent family housing to sufficient density." She questions the commitment from Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to hand over responsibility for the building of houses to the Land Development Agency. "The local authorities have all the capacity and all the tools to get themselves planning, rezoning, licence land - and they have CPO powers. "What is the actual need? It was an affordability crisis most of all," she says. Access to green spaces, both within housing developments and nearby in the neighbourhood is key for Dominic Stevens of JFOC Architects, who also lectures in the Technological University Dublin. He points to a four-minute walk to a small park and a 10-minute walk to a large park being vital to urban living. "Despite it seeming counter-intuitive, this is a wake-up call for support for high-density living. I would disagree strongly with the more space and more suburbia theory. "I am just as safe in a city as I am living on my own in the middle of nowhere. I am close to services and shops and people. If I was buying a house or an apartment in the next year or two, I'd be looking at flood plains and energy and the effects of climate change." He feels it is quite possible something like the current crisis will occur again. "Fundamentally, good community is at the core of dealing with all these problems. Good communities happen through good architecture and urban design of our communities." The 2km radius within which people can currently move will also get people thinking about what is within walking distance of their house. A consequence of the crisis will be wider pavements and narrower roads. "It's something that is very doable and is within a trend in Europe," he says. Mr Stevens says history shapes our living spaces with a report into construction of houses for the British Army in 1828 still guiding the gap between houses in estates. And he doesn't rule out co-living continuing to grow, despite people being worried about who they live with. "The whole co-living thing came out of Berlin and New York. It was a political alternative to the family. If you get to choose who you are living with, then I can see people living that way." [April 21, 2020] Pre & Post COVID-19 Market Estimates-Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023 | Integration of More Sensors in Premium Range Smartphones to Boost Growth | Technavio Technavio has been monitoring the sensors market for smartphones and it is poised to grow by USD 369.66 mn during 2019-2023. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005668/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is concentrated, and the degree of concentration will decelerate during the forecast period. ALPS ALPINE CO. LTD., ams AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. LTD., and STMicroelectronics (News - Alert) NV are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Integration of more sensors in premium range smartphones has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023 : Segmentation Sensors market for smartphones is segmented as below: Price Premium Range Medium Range Low Range Geographic Landscape The Americas APAC EMEA To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR31485 Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023 : cope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our sensors market for smartphones report covers the following areas: Sensors Market for Smartphones Size Sensors Market for Smartphones Trends Sensors Market for Smartphones Industry Analysis This study identifies emergence of sensor fusion technology as one of the prime reasons driving the sensors market for smartphones growth during the next few years. Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023 : Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the sensors market for smartphones, including some of the vendors such as ALPS ALPINE CO. LTD., ams AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. LTD., and STMicroelectronics NV. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the sensors market for smartphones are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023 : Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023 Detailed information on factors that will assist sensors market for smartphones growth during the next five years Estimation of the sensors market for smartphones size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the sensors market for smartphones Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of sensors market for smartphones vendors Table Of Contents : PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2018 Market size and forecast 2018-2023 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY PRICE Market segmentation by price Comparison by price Premium range - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Medium range - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Low range - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Market opportunity by price PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison APAC - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Americas - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 EMEA - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Emergence of sensor fusion technology Growing popularity of multiple-lens camera modules Rise in M&A activity PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors ALPS ALPINE CO. LTD. ams AG Robert Bosch GmbH SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. LTD. STMicroelectronics NV PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005668/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Tedros called the illness Public Enemy No. 1, and said: We have been warning from Day One: This is a devil that everybody should fight. The World Health Organization chief warned Monday that the worst is yet ahead of us in the coronavirus outbreak, reviving the alarm just as many countries ease restrictive measures aimed at reducing its spread. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didnt specify why he believes the outbreak that has infected some 2.5 million people and killed over 166,000 could get worse. He and others, however, have previously pointed to the likely future spread of the illness through Africa, where health systems are far less developed. Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us, Tedros told reporters from WHO headquarters in Geneva. Lets prevent this tragedy. Its a virus that many people still dont understand. Some Asian and European governments have gradually eased or started relaxing lockdown measures like quarantines, school and business closures and restrictions on public gatherings, citing a decline in the growth of COVID-19 case counts and deaths. Tedros and his agency have been on the defensive after President Donald Trump of the United States the WHOs biggest single donor last week ordered a halt to U.S. funding for the agency, alleging that it botched the early response to the outbreak. Among other things, Trump insisted WHO had failed to adequately share in a timely and transparent way information about the outbreak after it erupted in China late last year. Tedros said: There is no secret in WHO because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous. Its a health issue. This virus is dangerous. It exploits cracks between us when we have differences, he said. Tedros said U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers have been seconded to work with his agency, suggesting that was a sign of WHOs transparency. Having CDC staff (at WHO) means there is nothing hidden from the U.S. from Day One Tedros said. Our CDC colleagues also know that we give information immediately to anyone. In one of his starkest comparisons yet, the U.N. health agency chief also alluded to the so-called Spanish flu more than a century ago, saying the coronavirus has a very dangerous combination ... like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people. Tedros called the illness Public Enemy No. 1, and said: We have been warning from Day One: This is a devil that everybody should fight. Despite no cases of COVID-19 reported in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak, the area is still on high alert. Volunteers work at the checkpoint on HCM National Highway in Hoa Phu Commune, Buon Ma Thuot City. Local soldiers, police, volunteers and healthcare staff have been working around the clock, focusing on preventive measures to keep people safe from coronavirus. Since late last month, eight quarantine checkpoints were opened at key gates to the province together with six other checkpoints set up over the 73km-long borderline which it shares with Cambodias Mondulkiri province. All the checkpoints are staffed all the time, anyone arriving or leaving the province must undertake a brief health check and report their conditions to make sure those suspected to carry the virus are quarantined as soon as possible. Major Do The Cuong, head of the border station at ak Rue Bordergate said in recent days, border guards were patrolling, quickly detecting and dealing with illegal border crossing. Under the heat of the border area of Ea Sup, the guards have extra tasks to fulfil during the pandemic rather than their conventional work. Besides regular patrols, they also arrive in local households to tell people about disease prevention and control measures. Cuong said his team worked and stayed almost all the time in forest areas where the border runs through. Their living conditions were harsh because of the strong heat, Cuong said, adding that such difficulties did not stop them carrying out their duties. We are determined to fight the disease. We see the disease as the enemy we need to beat at this time, Cuong said. Colonel Dao Viet Hung, deputy commander of Dak Lak Province Border Guard Command said local border guards tightened control at fixed checkpoints and minor border crossings. Hung said they make use of on-spot available resources leadership, staff, equipment and logistics to fulfil their tasks. We are all on red alert for the disease, Hung said. Meanwhile, along roads across the province, police, medical workers and young volunteers help inspect all travellers and vehicles. The checkpoint on HCM National Highway in Hoa Phu Commune, Buon Ma Thuot City becomes busier during the evening, meaning those on duty have little time to rest. Nguyen Ich Nam, a fifth-year medical student of Tay Nguyen (Central Highland) University has been volunteering at the checkpoint for a month. Like other volunteers, Nam helps measure the body temperature of travellers, asking for their travel history and health status. We are divided into groups and work in turn to make sure there is staff available to work all the time, Nam said. Some of my peers are not used to staying up late and working at night, Nam said, adding that at the checkpoint, almost all people had just a few hours to rest per day and they usually spent the rest time right at the checkpoint. As the people working at checkpoints do a good job, the threat of disease spreading would be minimised, Nam said, adding that they believed Vietnam would beat the COVID-19 pandemic soon, which add strength for them to overcome any difficulty. We are aware of the risk to be exposed to the fatal virus but now is the time that my country and my hometown need help. Many young people like me want to contribute and join the fight against the disease, Nam said. Police work at the checkpoint in Hoa Phu Commune. Busy traffic, hot sunny weather plus long working hours are just among the many problems faced by Dak Lak authorities. VNA/VNS Photo Tuan Anh Lieutenant Colonel Luong Xuan Ngoc, head of Traffic Police Team 1 said working at the checkpoint on HCM National Highway in Hoa Phu Commune was tough because it is at a key location. Busy traffic, hot sunny weather plus long working hours are among the many inconveniences we face at this time, Ngoc said, adding that effective co-operation of other forces including border guards, medical workers, volunteers and especially community made their work run smoother. Chairman of Dak Lak Province Peoples Committee Pham Ngoc Nghi sad that given no COVID-19 cases had been reported in the province so far, they were still implementing drastic prevention and control measures. Those working at the frontline in the battle against this disease border guards, police, medical workers and young volunteers have contributed very much to the successful disease control, Nghi said. Before entering the province, all people underwent health check, reported travel history, health status and contact phone numbers at the checkpoints so that authorities could be more proactive in disease prevention and control, Nghi said. VNS Remote health check-up platform, COVID-19 prevention app launched Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended a ceremony on April 18 to launch a remote medical examination and treatment platform and Bluezone application to help the community in COVID-19 prevention and control. Silent soldiers in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic Today is another busy day for healthcare workers at the HCM City Centre for Disease Control (HCDC). TAMPA, Fla., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickelytics, a Tampa-based mobility advertising startup, is wrapping up their Techstars Smart Mobility Accelerator program with their focus a virtual Demo Day pitch and the momentum of pilot programs with a few of Italy's top players in the mobility and micro-mobility industry. On Thursday, April 23, the Nickelytics team will join the other ten companies in the Techstars Smart Mobility Accelerator Program for a Demo Day. Pivoting from the traditional Demo Day model due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Techstars will be hosting Demo Day virtually. Nickelytics Co-founders The Techstars accelerator program began in January and was held in Turin, Italy, at the Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR) and supported by Compagnia Di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT, and the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. Nickelytics found great support from the Techstars network and is welcoming a few of their associates to the team for support beyond the 90-day program. "The program has been an amazing experience. From the support from the Techstars staff, managing directors, and their entire partner network, the contributions that they all have made will be felt in our business for many years to come," said Judah Longgrear, Co-Founder and CEO of Nickelytics. As the EU begins to rebound from the COVID-19 crisis, Nickelytics has set its sights on business opportunities in Italy. With the support of the Techstars team, Nickelytics has initiated several pilot programs set to launch this summer. Nickelytics signed a partnership with WeTaxi, one of Italy's fastest-growing taxi aggregator services. This program will bring additional revenue streams to WeTaxi's 4,500 drivers and provide advertising opportunities with the ability to gain stronger measurement of their out of home advertising campaigns. Nickelytics is also now working to bring smart advertising to the micromobility sector and just signed an LOI with Dott. Dott offers shared e-scooters and e-bikes for short-distance travel and has raised $56M since being founded in 2018. This pilot will allow Nickelytics to provide out of home advertising measurement and give brands a chance to sponsor a city and provide co-branded advertising opportunities to the company's fleet of over 500 e-scooters in the heart of Milan, Italy. Additionally, Winelivery, a rapidly growing Italian e-commerce platform that provides on-demand wine and beverage services throughout Italy, will be the Nickelytics, first Italian advertising client. They're actively planning their first campaign once people begin to re-emerge from lockdown. Longgrear noted, "We weren't looking for an EU expansion given the stage of our company, but with the 100 + mentors that we had the chance to work with, it has given us some great insight and understanding of how we can capitalize on the fragmentation of the mobility market in Italy and EU. We have also added three key hires to our team, that served as Techstars associates during the program. These hires will support the business in operations, business development, and financials and are absolute rockstars." Media Contact: Nissa Weisser 256-567-5026 [email protected] SOURCE Nickelytics Expanded management team with the appointment of David E. Moller, MD, as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) in January 2020 Presented new preclinical results for PXL770 at the 3 rd Annual Global NASH Congress in February 2020 demonstrating PXL770 was observed to reduce liver inflammatory cells Metavant met with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Q1 2020; discussions continue about Phase 3 clinical development plan in type 2 diabetes patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 3b/4 Strengthened cash position in March 2020; drew down EUR 10 million from IPF Partners bond loan Imeglimin manuscript recently published in scientific journal Clinical Pharmacokinetics ; results demonstrate repeated co-administration with two commonly prescribed anti-diabetic drugs, metformin and sitagliptin (Januvia ; Merck Co.) did not result in clinically relevant changes in drug exposure and Imeglimin was observed to be safe and well tolerated Proactively monitoring and managing potential impacts caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic POXEL SA (Euronext POXEL FR0012432516), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative treatments for metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), today provided a corporate update and announced its cash position and revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020. "During the first quarter, we completed a number of important accomplishments within the Company and for our clinical programs. We strengthened our executive management team with the appointment of David E. Moller, MD, as CSO. As an industry leader in drug development with expertise in type 2 diabetes and metabolic diseases, David is leading activities related to scientific innovation, specifically with adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC). In addition, he is expanding our scientific communications activities through the publication of new data," said Thomas Kuhn, CEO of Poxel. "We recently showcased new results demonstrating that PXL770 was observed to reduce liver inflammation, a hallmark of NASH, and published a manuscript demonstrating Imeglimin's safety and tolerability profile as well as the absence of clinically relevant pharmacokinetic interactions after being co-administered with two widely prescribed medications for type 2 diabetes. We look forward to publishing and presenting additional results from our pipeline programs throughout the year." "Also, during the first quarter, we continued to work closely with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma on activities related to the Imeglimin Japanese New Drug Application (JNDA) submission for type 2 diabetes targeted in Q3 2020. In parallel, we worked with Metavant, who is in discussions with the FDA for the Imeglimin Phase 3 program in type 2 diabetes patients with CKD stages 3b/4, an underserved patient population," added Thomas Kuhn. "For our two clinical stage NASH programs, we look forward to several upcoming milestones. For PXL770, during the first quarter of 2020, we fully enrolled the pharmacokinetic (PK)/pharmacodynamic (PD) and Phase 2a trials with results currently expected in Q2 and Q3 2020, respectively. For PXL065, we are preparing for the 36-week Phase 2 study in at least 120 biopsy-proven NASH patients with the goal of identifying the optimal dose or doses for the Phase 3 registration trial." Clinical Development Updates Imeglimin (Type 2 Diabetes) Recently, Imeglimin results were published in Clinical Pharmacokinetics showing that repeated co-administration of Imeglimin with metformin or sitagliptin did not result in clinically relevant changes in drug exposure and Imeglimin was observed to be safe and well tolerated. These results are consistent with prior preclinical and longer-term clinical studies. showing that repeated co-administration of Imeglimin with metformin or sitagliptin did not result in clinically relevant changes in drug exposure and Imeglimin was observed to be safe and well tolerated. These results are consistent with prior preclinical and longer-term clinical studies. Poxel continues to work closely with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma on activities related to the JNDA submission for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, which is anticipated in the third quarter of 2020, with a target launch in 2021. The Company is working with Metavant, who is in discussions with the FDA for the Imeglimin Phase 3 program in the US in type 2 diabetes patients with CKD stages 3b/4. PXL770 (NASH) During Q1 2020, patient enrollment was completed for the Phase 2a and PK/PD trials. In February 2020, important new preclinical results for PXL770 were presented at the 3 rd Annual Global NASH Congress. PXL770 was observed to reduce liver inflammatory cells, which may contribute to an improvement of fibrogenesis, in a preclinical NASH model. Annual Global NASH Congress. PXL770 was observed to reduce liver inflammatory cells, which may contribute to an improvement of fibrogenesis, in a preclinical NASH model. Results from the PK/ PD trial are currently expected late second quarter of 2020. Results from the Phase 2a trial are currently expected late third quarter of 2020. PXL065 (NASH) Poxel is preparing for the Phase 2 study in at least 120 biopsy-proven NASH patients with the aim to identify the optimal dose or doses to be evaluated in a Phase 3 registration trial. The Company planned to initiate study enrollment during the second quarter of 2020 and is now anticipating a delay due to the current COVID-19 situation. The Company is working with the lead clinical investigator and clinical trial sites and is currently reviewing the timing and plans to initiate this study, contingent on a safe and stable environment for patient recruitment and the availability of clinical trial sites during the COVID-19 outbreak. Additional Development Opportunities In addition to the clinical studies for PXL770 and PXL065, the Company is also conducting preclinical combination studies with its NASH drug candidates to explore the potential to show additive or synergistic benefits to treat the root causes of NASH with other agents in development. Also, the Company is planning for future pipeline growth and evaluating additional research and development opportunities from its internal pipeline as well as external opportunities with a focus on metabolic disorders, including rare diseases. Corporate Update In November 2019, Poxel obtained additional funding to advance its pipeline programs through a bond loan agreement of up to EUR 30 million with IPF Partners. Poxel drew down the first tranche of EUR 6.5 million in November 2019. In March 2020, the Company drew down the second tranche of EUR 10 million, which was contingent on the successful completion of the Imeglimin Phase 3 TIMES program. The third tranche of EUR 13.5 million can be drawn down by December 31, 2021, contingent on obtaining marketing authorization of Imeglimin in Japan. Specific debt covenants are attached to the bond loan agreement. In January 2020, Poxel appointed David E. Moller, MD, as CSO. Dr. Moller is responsible for leading scientific-related activities to support the advancement of the Company, including scientific innovation and scientific communications at Poxel. He is based in Boston and has joined the executive management team. During the quarter, Thibaut Roulon and Olivier Martinez resigned from their positions as Board Observers. First Quarter 2020 Financial Update As of March 31, 2020, cash and cash equivalents were EUR 36.9 million (USD 40.4 million), as compared to EUR 37.2 million (USD 41.8 million) as of December 31, 2019. Cash and cash equivalents net of financial liabilities were EUR 20.0 million as of March 31, 2020, as compared to EUR 27.4 million as of December 31, 2019. EUR (in millions) Q1 2020 Q4 2019 Cash 5.6 18.2 Cash equivalents 31.3 19.0 Total cash and cash equivalents* 36.9 37.2 Unaudited data *Cash and cash equivalents net of financial liabilities were EUR 20.0 million at the end of Q1 2020 and EUR 27.4 million at the end of Q4 2019. Q1 2020 revenue Poxel reported revenues of EUR 1.5 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2020, as compared with revenues of EUR 14.9 million during the same period in 2019 (historical). Revenue reflects an allocated portion of the EUR 36.0 million upfront payment received from Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma relating to the strategic corporate partnership announced on October 30, 2017, as well as the residual Imeglimin Phase 3 program costs in Japan incurred during the first quarter of 2020 that were re-invoiced to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma. Both the allocated portion of the upfront payment and the re-invoiced costs of the Phase 3 Trials of IMeglimin for Efficacy and Safety (TIMES) program are recognized based on the accounting percentage of completion of this program, which has now been completed. EUR (in millions) Q1 2020 3 months Q1 2019 3 months (adjusted)* Q1 2019 3 months (historical) Roivant Agreement Sumitomo Agreement 1.5 12.3 14.9 Other Total revenues 1.5 12.3 14.9 Unaudited data *Proforma, as if the Company applied the residual method in FY19. Note: A change in accounting policy was reported on February 12, 2020. This resulted in an adjustment to the Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma partnership revenue recognition for the previous years. For more information, please visit: https://www.poxelpharma.com/en_us/investors/news-events/press-releases/detail/144/poxel-reports-financial-update-for-cash-and-revenue-for-the This change in accounting policy had no impact on Poxel's cash flows. Planned Presentations and Participation at the Following Upcoming Events Jefferies Virtual Healthcare Conference, June 2-4, 2020 BIO Digital (BIO International Convention), June 8-12, 2020 Next Financial Press Release: Second Quarter 2020 Financial Statement expected on July 21, 2020 About Poxel SA Poxel is a dynamic biopharmaceutical company that uses its extensive expertise in developing innovative drugs for metabolic diseases, with a focus on type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). In its mid-to-late stage pipeline, the Company is currently advancing three drug candidates as well as earlier-stage opportunities. Imeglimin, Poxel's first-in-class lead product, targets mitochondrial dysfunction. Together, with its partner Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Poxel successfully completed the Phase 3 Trials of IMeglimin for Efficacy and Safety (TIMES) program for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in Japan. Poxel also established a partnership with Roivant Sciences for Imeglimin's development and commercialization in countries outside of the partnership with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, including the U.S. and Europe. PXL770, a first-in-class direct adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activator, is in a Phase 2a proof-of-concept program for the treatment of NASH. PXL770 could also have the potential to treat additional metabolic diseases. PXL065 (deuterium-stabilized R-pioglitazone), a mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) inhibitor, is advancing into a Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of NASH. Poxel also has additional earlier-stage programs targeting metabolic, specialty and rare diseases. The Company intends to generate further growth through strategic partnerships and pipeline development. Listed on Euronext Paris, Poxel is headquartered in Lyon, France, and has subsidiaries in Boston, MA, and Tokyo, Japan. For more information, please visit: www.poxelpharma.com. In the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 12, 2020, the Company has undertaken a full review of the impact of the outbreak on its business. Considering the rapidly evolving situation, the Company is updating this assessment on a regular basis. The Company anticipates that the COVID-19 pandemic could have a material negative impact on our business operations. The worldwide impact of COVID-19 may notably affect the Company's internal organization and efficiency, particularly in countries where it operates and where confinement measures have been implemented by the authorities. In addition, the deteriorating market conditions may impact the Company's ability to raise additional funding and/or to enter into partnerships. Particularly, delays in the supply of drug substance or drug products, in pre-clinical and/or clinical trials, as well as delays linked to the responsiveness of regulatory authorities could occur, which could potentially have an impact on the Company's development programs. The Company will continue to proactively monitor the situation. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release about future events are subject to (i) change without notice and (ii) factors beyond the Company's control. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as "target," "believe," "expect," "aim," "intend," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "project," "will," "can have," "likely," "should," "would," "could" and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control that could cause the Company's actual results or performance to be materially different from the expected results or performance expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005646/en/ Contacts: Poxel SA Jonae R. Barnes Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Public Relations jonae.barnes@poxelpharma.com +1 617 818 2985 Aurelie Bozza Investor Relations and Communication Director aurelie.bozza@poxelpharma.com +33 6 99 81 08 36 Investor relations Media EU/US Trophic Communications Joanne Tudorica or Valeria Fisher tudorica@trophic.eu or fisher@trophic.eu +49 171 351 2733 or +49 175 804 1816 Investor relations Media France NewCap Emmanuel Huynh Arthur Rouille poxel@newcap.eu +33 1 44 71 94 94 With the Tourism industry virtually dead as in the case of many other Services of the Global Economy, I explore the prospects of Africa as a region post the pandemic. My Focus was on the Regions Image and its growing appeal to the Global Tourism Market. One that could possibly surge post the pandemic should the current trends in the spread of the virus in the region remains low relative to other Regions. The appeal of a destination to tourists is mainly premised on Safety. Be it freedom from attacks, theft, violence or the reduce tendency of the risk to contract a disease, the tourist considers his safety paramount. After all, what does it benefit a man to seek pleasure or leisure and be exposed to potential risk detrimental to his life? Most critical in tourism marketing as in the case of other services, is the defining factor Perception. These perceptions could be formed out of incidents, events or mere emotions or feelings. Events of smaller magnitude have the tendency to pose a considerable threat to the image of a destination. This explains why countries across the world prioritize their security as a state by trying as much as possible to manage possible threats that will lead to the outbreak of diseases, conflicts and political instability. Developing countries in general are seen to have commonly accepted risks, such as being poor, insecure, and underdeveloped, which creates a negative image of them (Martinez and Alvarez, 2010). This has disadvantaged the Africa continent in its appeal to the global tourism market. The increase in international tourism in recent decades and growing competition between destinations has sparked interest in improving, managing, and presenting a positive destination image. With rigorous marketing strategies and policy changes coupled with massive investment, Africa as a continent has managed to demystify the perception in the minds of many tourists across the globe thereby increasing tourist inflows to some 67 million tourist visits in 2018 representing 7% increment. This meant that, Africa was the second-fastest growing region in Tourism after Asia Pacific. Ghana in 2019 through its Year of Return program attracted over 1 million tourists. With other countries in the region such as Nigeria emulating such worthy course, there is an indication of further increasing the regions appeal to possibly make it the fastest growing region in terms of tourism. A major setback however is the outbreak of the major global pandemic, the n19 COVID. With the global economy on a recess, one could conveniently predict a suffering of both short term and long term tourism investments. Tourism is most likely to thrive when there is a robust economy to provide discretionary income to people. In March, almost 10 million people applied for unemployment benefits in just two weeks in the USA, one of Africas leading markets in tourism. It will be a miracle to see the Tourism industry bounce back in a short term post this pandemic. In Africa, the pandemic is yet to cause great havoc as it has done in Asia, Europe and America. Should the trend remain same, it will be interesting to see Africa capitalize on it to further enhance its ever growing appeal to the global Tourism market. Of course, there are going to be those tourists who will opt not to visit Asia, China to be precise where the Wuhan Virus first broke. Perhaps, a reason the Chinese government has been trying everything possible to reject the name Wuhan Virus. Perhaps a perfect approach of avoiding the ramifications of it as was seen in the case of West Africa post the outbreak of Ebola. There are also those tourists who will be deterred by the lack of capacity to prevent the entry of the Virus and its subsequent havoc as was the case of most countries in Europe and America. For these tourists, Africa could be the next destination in mind. This remains a mere speculation with great prospects that could be harnessed. With PR professionalism, Strategic Marketing and Consistency underlying the response of Africa to this global pandemic, Africa stands the chance of boosting tremendously its destination image for its good. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 00:50:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TIRANA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The number of road accidents in Albania in the first quarter of 2020 dropped by 25.8 percent year-on-year, the National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) reported on Tuesday. According to INSTAT, a total of 264 road accidents were registered in Albania in the first quarter compared with 356 reported in the same period in 2019. In this period, the number of casualties from road accidents is 360, decreasing by 25.5 percents compared to the same period in 2019. In March, the number of road accidents dropped by 48.8 percent year-on-year. Since mid-March the Albanian government has imposed nationwide strict regulations in road traffic, including banning all public inter-city transportation, in an effort to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. Currently citizens and foreign residents living in Albania are asked to apply for an authorization in the government online platform e-albania in order to travel in their vehicles. Enditem Kenyans and Ugandans went for a trolling spree on Twitter with hilarious roasts Tuesday, April 21 - This was after a Ugandan claimed the Kenyan national anthem was as long as the county's poverty line - They compared several things in Kenya to Uganda including personalities such as presidents and celebrities Kenyan's and Ugandan's on social media site Twitter are at it again with trolling and creating memes that would definitely leave anyone in stitches. There's is always an igniter to these types of battles and this time round, it was a Ugandan guy claiming Kenyans were very poor. READ ALSO: Gengetone group Ethic stare at 5-year jail term for obnoxious Soko song READ ALSO: Comedian Jalang'o showers online funnyman Flaqo with praises: "Mad respect and talent son" Not only that, but he also said the Kenyan national anthem was so long because it explained the problems faced by Kenyans. Well, if you know KOT, then you know that nothing gets past them as long as it tries to demean their lifestyle or culture. READ ALSO: Comedian Eric Omondi imitates famous Ghanaian pallbearers in coronavirus gear READ ALSO: Mtangazaji tajika wa CNN Richard Quest, apatwa na coronavirus Kenyans came armed with its Twitter detectives in a hilarious roast as the two counties went at each other in a crazy battle Tuesday, April 21. They compared several things in Kenya to Uganda including personalities such as presidents and celebrities. Here are some of the hilarious memes and roasts shared on twitter: Kenyans in this type of cases always come out on top, and recent 'battles' against South Africa, Nigeria and Tanzania have proved so. A recent survey reported to be from the United Nations ranked Kenyans as the worst bullies on Twitter. It noted Kenyans to be very good at trolling a person or a people that it viewed as enemies. The report mentioned things like attacking the president into quitting social media, bashing politicians, international media such as CNN and New York Times. They praised Kenyan as an army that will stand in what it believes and not only bully but fight for justice. 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from COVID-19 in Kenya | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke SOUTHFIELD, Mich., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lear Corporation (NYSE: LEA), a global automotive technology leader in Seating and E-Systems, today provided an update on its liquidity position, as well as details on the Company's first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. As of the quarter ended April 4, 2020, Lear had approximately $2.45 billion in cash on hand, which includes $1 billion of cash proceeds from the Company's revolver drawdown, which was announced on March 26, 2020. Lear also has $750 million of remaining availability on its revolving credit facility, which matures in August 2024. In addition, Lear announced that the Company will hold a conference call to review first quarter 2020 financial results and related matters on May 8, 2020, at 8:30 a.m. EDT. To participate in the conference call: Domestic calls: (800) 789-4751 International calls: (973) 200-3975 The conference code is 4796123. You also may listen to the live audio webcast of the call, in listen-only mode, on Lear's Investor Relations website at ir.lear.com. The webcast replay will be available two hours following the call. Note: The first quarter 2020 slide presentation will be available on Lear's website before the earnings call begins on May 8, 2020. SOURCE Lear Corporation Related Links http://www.lear.com The IT department has made it clear that there is no question of data theft or leakage Kochi: Keralas successful fight against global pandemic of Covid 19 has attained worldwide attention and the Left ruled government was basking in the glory of its success in handling the virus outbreak. Keralas success story with interviews and profiles of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and health minister K. K Shailaja has been featured in many leading national and international media. However, the compliments turned into brickbats when the opposition in Kerala raised allegations against the government over its deal with a US company for collating and analysing the data of Covid 19 patients and persons under quarantine. It was the Congress led UDF, the opposition, which raised allegation of violation of data privacy protocol. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and senior Congress leaders like Oomen Chandy lashed at the LDF government citing the alleged irregularities in the agreement and for compromising the privacy of several thousands of people. Sprinklr deal Sprinklr, launched in January 2010 in New York is an IT company which develops a SaaS customer experience management (CXM) platform. It was founded and owned by a Keralite Ragy Thomas. The data collected by healthcare workers including details of Covid patients, suspects and home quarantined persons are compiled and analysed by Sprinklr. Details of the isolated persons like their age, health conditions and chronic illnesses if any have been collected using an application developed by Sprinklr. The data compiled by the company will be useful for the state government to identify Covid hotspots, vulnerable areas and in taking preventive measures like reverse quarantine, in which the aged and people with other co morbidities are isolated. The big data analysis system will also help in categorising zones based on various indices like areas with high number of aged population in a panchayat or municipal area or area with high number of people with other risk factors. It was on April 2 that the state government signed the purchase order with the US company while the deal has retrospective effect from March 25. The projects validity is till September 24 or till the end of the pandemic, whichever is earlier. The governments use of Sprinklr software is free of charge till September 24. Allegations against the deal The data deal has been signed without the clearance from other government departments or the state cabinet. The government compromised the crucial health data of several thousands of people by signing an agreement with the US company flouting the procedures, alleged the Opposition. The reports that Sprinklr has links with the international pharmaceutical company Pfizer which has been engaged in developing vaccine against for novel coronavirus and other anti-viral drugs has intensified the allegations against state government. Senior Congress leader and MLA V.D Satheesan said that with the reports on Sprinklrs ties with Pfizer, it has become crystal clear that the drug company might access details of Covid patients and quarantined persons for their research. A senior Congress leader M.M Hassan has sought a CBI probe in to the data deal. Meanwhile, a petition has been filed before the Kerala High Court over the agreement with Sprinklr for data transfer. Governments stand Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is also the minister of IT, has strongly defended the data deal saying that there are no irregularities involved in the pact. While talking to media persons on Monday, Pinarayi said that he doesnt want to comment further on the deal as the Opposition and people with vested interests are trying to stir up a controversy. The governments focus is now on combating the pandemic and to get rid of it. And the states efforts are getting support from across the world, he added. Meanwhile, state IT secretary M Sivasankar has earlier clarified the governments stand on the deal. Sprinklr is a SaaS (Software as a Service) firm which offer its service to agencies like the World Health Organization. The company offered its service free of charge till September and considering the emergency requirement of the state, it has been decided to avail its service. The decision has been taken on war-footing using my discretionary power and not consulted law or other government departments, he said. The IT department has made it clear that there is no question of data theft or leakage. Following the controversy, the government has released documents of the agreement which state that the data belong to the state government and is stored in servers within the country. The continuing and unacceptable mistreatment of so many Africans residing in China, in the midst of the strict measures in force across that great nation, in the COVID-19 era, is most unfortunate - for, it has racist undertones, which don't speak well of a nation that has been a long-standing ally of Africa, for decades: from the era of the Communist Party Chairman, Mao Zedong, till date. As it happens, yesterday, I was privileged to watch a viral video clip of a Nigerian diplomat, accredited to China, who was berating an arrogant young Chinese state official, who had been called to the scene, by police officers, who had ordered the Nigerians out of their homes, and had had the temerity to confiscate their passports. The incensed Nigerian diplomat, snatched all the siezed passports out of the hands of the stunned police officers (all in personal protection kits), who were lined up, facing the evicted Nigerians they were victimising, so egregiously, and made it plain to the young state official (who had obviously been called to the scene by the police officers), that the passports were the properties of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and that under the Vienna Convention, siezing them was akin to siezing Nigerian property. I kept on muttering to myself, as I watched the scandalous scene unfolding, that no Ghanaian diplomat stationed abroad, would ever go to such lengths to assist such resident Ghanaians involved in a confrontation with local police officers, who were being unprofessional and behaving unjustly. Kudos to that brave and erudite Nigerian diplomat in China. It is yet another example of the supreme self-belief, which one finds amongst those who constitute Nigeria's political class, which drives Africa's many enemies, to constantly forment secessionist tendencies, across Nigeria - in order to weaken her permanently, so that her natural place in the comity of nations, as a global power, is never secured. Incidentally, one wonders whether any of the brilliant young people, in the online environmental-activist-family, Eco-Conscious Citizens, can ever imagine our cowardly fence-sitting diplomats abroad, defending victimised Ghanaian citizens, in China, like that? No. Never. Our vampire-elites exist only to feather their own nests - and that of their extended-family-favourites and cronies. Otherwise, why do the morons who govern our country, still refuse to see sense, and abondon the stupidity that allowing a vital watershed and ecosystem services provider (supporting three river systems), to be destroyed, represents? Is it not just to enable China gain access to the rather poor-quality bauxite, which the Atewa Forest Reserve contains - even though it will destroy three very important rivers that are sourced by the Ghana Water Company Limites (GWCL), to enable it treat and distribute potable water, to over 5 million Ghanaians? Massa, is that not the height of foolishness? So why are they do determined to go ahead and do it, I ask? Hon. Yaw Osafo Marfo, and Vice President Bawumia will be cursed by future generations, for sure, if that lunacy goes ahead. They had no right to go to China to sell the birthright of Akyems without our say so. The sods. So outraged is one about this issue, that were one younger, by now, one would definitely have overthrown the fools proposing this crime against humanity, long, long ago. Be that as it may, suffice it to say that the time has now come for China to act swiftly,and decisively, to stop the racist attacks on Africans resident in China. Its officials need to remember that Africa is indeed a true and longstanding friend, of Beijing's. Hmmmm, Oman Ghana, eyeasem ooooo - enti yewieye paaa enei? Asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa. Yooooo... CapitaLands wholly owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited, is leveraging its lodging expertise and resources to provide a safe haven for its guests worldwide, while extending its support to local government agencies and philanthropic organisations in the fight against Covid-19. Ascott has stepped up to provide a home away from home for healthcare workers, returning nationals, guests who are affected by border closures or city lockdowns, migrant workers and others who have been stranded. Kevin Goh, chief executive officer, Lodging, CapitaLand Group and chief executive officer, The Ascott Limited, said: In these unprecedented times, Covid-19 has changed the way the world lives tremendously. As a responsible lodging company, Ascott has stepped up to support various countries national efforts to combat Covid-19. We are lending our lodging expertise to provide safe abodes to our guests as well as affected communities who need alternative accommodation. For over 30 years, our guests around the world have made Ascott their home away from home, and we want to continue to make sure that home is the safest destination when they travel. Our doors and hearts remain open, and we look forward to welcoming our guests home. In an endeavour to offer moral support to the community in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Ascott rolled out its Message of Hope campaign through its social media channels. The campaign, which runs in both English and Arabic, and in three phases during the global pandemic, holistically reinforces the global message to stay safe at home during these uncertain times, while looking forward to better times. Extending its community support online, Ascott also launched the #StayHomeWithAscott campaign to rally the global community to curb the spread of Covid-19 by staying home. With the support of CHF, the philanthropic arm of Ascotts parent company CapitaLand, Ascott has pledged a total of $200,000 through the campaign. The donation will go towards Save the Childrens food security and assistance programmes, to support about 12,000 underprivileged children affected by Covid-19. Vincent Miccolis, Ascotts regional general manager for Middle East, Africa, Turkey and India, said: We are taking the necessary measures to ensure the safety and well-being of all our short and long stay guests across our properties. We also want to go the extra mile and uplift their spirits during these challenging times, through small gestures such as fruit baskets, treats and thank you notes to guests, as well as added positivity through the Message of Hope campaign, reminding them that there is light at the end of this tunnel. We urge the community to do their part and stay at home until the situation is under control. We look forward to welcoming current and new guests again at our properties, providing them with the best possible stay experience. As part of the Message of Hope campaign in the UAE, where Ascott has two operational properties - Ascott Park Place Dubai and Citadines Metro Central Dubai - Ascott organised a blood donation in March and rallied their partners to donate 67 packets of blood to Dubai Blood Donation Centre, helping to ensure sufficient supply in the citys blood bank. Ascotts properties in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, and Turkey have placed increased efforts on ensuring guests experience all the home comforts they need in a safe environment, and that staff are working in a safe and sanitised setting. The properties - Ascott Corniche Al Khobar, Ascott Sari Jeddah, Ascott Tahlia Jeddah, Citadines Al Salamah Jeddah, Spectrums Residence Jeddah, Ascott Rafal Olaya Riyadh, Somerset Panorama Muscat, Somerset Al Fateh Bahrain and Somerset Maslak Istanbul - alongside the Dubai properties, are continuously adhering to heath protocols provided by the local government and health authorities, to ensure the safety and well-being of all. Lene Chalhoub, a guest currently staying at Ascott Corniche Al Khobar, became stranded due to the sudden travel restrictions imposed globally. She said: I was on a business trip to Al Khobar and got stuck when the airport was shut down. My stay since then has been so safe and the way everything has been handled at the property has been outstanding. I remember asking for extra space to keep the food refrigerated and the general manager immediately offered to send me an extra fridge. Ascott Corniche Al Khobar will definitely remain my home away from home whenever Im back here. Ascotts other global initiatives include: In Singapore, Ascott, with support from CapitaLand Hope Foundation (CHF), responded swiftly to provide complimentary accommodation for an old age homes care staff who were displaced from their homes by their landlords. In Philippines, to support healthcare workers, Ascott donated over S$7000 worth of medical supplies comprising 3,950 surgical masks, 4,000 pairs of gloves, 211 sets of personal protective suits and 1,500 shower caps to six medical facilities. In Indonesia, Ascott will donate S$1,500 worth of groceries and daily essentials to about 50 underprivileged Muslim families and about 40 children from an orphanage in Jakarta, to ensure they are prepared for the upcoming fasting period as Covid-19 continues to impact the city. Over 80 complimentary meals were provided to taxi drivers in the city, alongside the distribution of over 550 complimentary lunch boxes to healthcare workers across nine cities in Indonesia. In France, Ascott is supporting healthcare workers and has provided over 1,500 complimentary room nights in key cities like Paris and Marseille. In addition, Citadines Austerlitz Paris will provide 50 rooms exclusively for healthcare workers from a public hospital within walking distance from the property. In China, Ascott continues to care for healthcare workers, offering 630 complimentary nights in appreciation of their hard work. The initiative is available in 31 lodging properties across 19 cities from May 1 to December 31. - TradeArabia News Service Tukasila apetu ki le oyate sitomiya wowasake a wicozai wicaku yo a wowacin tanka hecel oyate ki wasaka pi kte hecel usiya ulapi yelo, Grandfather on this day all over the Universe give the people strength and good health and give us perseverance. We ask these things in a humble way -- Richard Two Dogs (Oglala Lakota South Dakota) -- Richard Two Dogs (Oglala Lakota South Dakota) "We call upon our defenders, our monster slayers [naayee neezghani] from the east [haaaahdee] with the energy of lightning [atsiniltish], from the south [shadiaahdee] with the energy of the stone weapon [hatsool gha], from the west [eeaahdee] with the energy of the sunbeam [sha bitool] and from the north [nahookos] with the energy of the rainbow [naatsiilid],to shield the earth surface people [nihookaa dinee] and all living beings. We will have evaded the enemy, and into the future we shall persist [naayee shi siih, naayee shi siih, shanihaha, shanihaha, taa aniiltso yiidziih]. The enemy ceases to exist [paah paah, paah, paah]." -- Michelle Kahn-John (Dine) and Anson Etsitty, Sr. (Dine) Navajo Nation, Arizona, USA -- Michelle Kahn-John (Dine) and Anson Etsitty, Sr. (Dine) Navajo Nation, Arizona, USA The spring season is a time of rejuvenation and new beginnings. We celebrate this season by participating in traditional and spiritual celebrations and gatherings. Many of our tribal communities are typically gathering with family, friends, and relatives by sharing stories, food, medicinal plants, and making spiritual offerings. While the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the ability to gather within our tribal communities, it is also changing global rituals. We are challenged with finding alternative ways to celebrate these observances. We have traditional stories that have been handed down, about previous epidemics that we have faced. These stories include examples of our people social distancing ourselves from others, and this helped to save our people. These traditional beliefs define who we are as a community and how we identify as Indigenous peoples. "Zoongide'iwin": This is the time for courage. This is the time to stay strong. The #Coronavirus is depending on you to bring it to others and we cannot let that happen if we can help it. @ArneVainioMD #COVID19 https://t.co/Dj5nURgN1i indianz.com (@indianz) April 14, 2020 Based on what we are hearing from Tribal and state officials, traditional healers are concerned about upcoming large native social gatherings. Even though our traditional and spiritual ceremonies provide comfort, healing, and hope during this uncertain time, this virus poses a special challenge for us. Practicing our traditions in ways that conform to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention social distancing guidelines will help us carry through these difficult times while collectively contributing to a healthier society for our future. The public health threat posed by COVID-19 continues to be very high, and there is no vaccine to prevent the disease. Our Tribal communities are vulnerable. People with other health conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, are at a higher risk. Ultimately, the most effective way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to the virus by not being around people who are sick. It is vitally important that traditional and religious leaders work closely with elected tribal officials to limit the exposure of community members to the coronavirus. It is also critical time to work with our federal partners to help slow the spread. Last fall, many traditional healers from all four directions traveled to Aurora, Colorado to participate in a Traditional Medicine Summit to express the importance of traditional healing to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Indian Health Service (IHS). This summit helped identify ways our traditional healers can respectfully collaborate on ways to integrate traditional medicine with our health care services. Today, we are being faced with new opportunities to collaborate with our federal partners in unique ways by stressing the importance of social distancing as the one proven method to slow the spread of the virus. If you must go out, remember that you can help reduce the spread of the virus if you are careful and practice social distancing strategies : Wear a cloth face cover that covers your nose and mouth Continue to stay 6 feet away from others Continue to stay 6 feet away from others Do not shake hands, hug, or touch others Do not shake hands, hug, or touch others Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer Together we must be vigilant in our efforts to slow the spread of infections within our tribal communities, including hand washing, staying at home, avoiding large social gatherings, and practicing social distancing. We know that these are unprecedented times, but we are all in this together. Our collective work in Indian Country has never been more important than it is today. We look forward to sustaining our healthy communities today and for future generations to come. Indian people are resilient, and together we will get beyond this. The Association of American Indian Physicians and traditional healers collaborated on this article. Join the Conversation All 193 member states of the UN General Assembly have reached consensus on a resolution calling for fair, effective, and timely access to any vaccines that will be developed in the future to fight against coronavirus, France24 reported. The resolution also noted the crucial, decisive role of the WHO, which has been criticized by the US and several other countries in response to the pandemic. The resolution highlighted the need for international scientific cooperation to overcome COVID-19 and support coordination, including the private sector. The resolution asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to "to identify and recommend options, including approaches to rapidly scaling manufacturing and strengthening supply chains that promote and ensure fair, transparent, equitable, efficient and timely access to and distribution of preventive tools, laboratory testing, reagents and supporting materials, essential medical supplies, new diagnostics, drugs and future COVID-19 vaccines." Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 00:29:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday decided to give greater weight to inclusive financing in evaluating the performance of financial institutions, and lower the provision coverage ratio of small and medium-sized banks so as to boost financial services for micro and small firms. The Chinese government puts great emphasis on the economic development amid the global spread of COVID-19. Li has repeatedly urged upgrading financial services in support of the real economy. Since the start of the COVID-19 situation, the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, has cut the required reserve ratio three times this year, releasing 1.75 trillion yuan (about 246.7 billion U.S. dollars) in liquidity to better support smaller businesses. "We must scale up financial support for the real economy, especially the micro, small and medium-sized companies, to help them overcome the difficulties," Li said. It was decided on Tuesday that the regulatory requirement for the provision coverage ratio of small and medium-sized banks will be lowered by 20 percentage points, to free up more credit resources and boost the capacity for serving micro and small companies. To encourage financial institutions to better serve micro and small businesses, the meeting decided to raise the weight of inclusive finance to no less than 10 percent in the integrated performance evaluation of the branches and subsidiaries of financial institutions in the banking sector, to incentivize more lending to micro and small firms. "Financial departments must adjust and adapt the support polices in light of the changing COVID-19 situation and economic conditions. The policies introduced need to be targeted and robust," Li said. To ease the rent burden on micro, small and self-employed businesses, the meeting called for a three-month rent exemption in the first half of this year for such firms in the services sector renting state-owned properties. The meeting urged state-owned enterprises, especially those directly under central management, and public institutions such as colleges, universities and research institutes, to take the lead in offering such rent relief. State-owned banks will be encouraged to extend pledge loan at concessional rates to such lessors according to their needs. Enditem Jing Wang and his team at Empa and ETH Zurich usually work on measuring, analyzing and reducing airborne pollutants such as aerosols and artificially produced nanoparticles. However, the challenge the whole world is currently facing is also changing the goals and strategies in the research laboratories. The new focus: a sensor that can quickly and reliably detect SARS-CoV-2 - the new coronavirus. But the idea is not quite so far removed from the group's previous research work: even before the COVID-19 began to spread, first in China and then around the world, Wang and his colleagues were researching sensors that could detect bacteria and viruses in the air. As early as January, the idea of using this basis to further develop the sensor in such a way that it could reliably identify a specific virus was born. The sensor will not necessarily replace the established laboratory tests, but could be used as an alternative method for clinical diagnosis, and more prominently to measure the virus concentration in the air in real time: For example, in busy places like train stations or hospitals. Fast and reliable tests for the new coronavirus are urgently needed to bring the pandemic under control as soon as possible. Most laboratories use a molecular method called reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR for short, to detect viruses in respiratory infections. This is well established and can detect even tiny amount of viruses - but at the same time it can be time-consuming and prone to error. An optical sensor for RNA samples Jing Wang and his team have developed an alternative test method in the form of an optical biosensor. The sensor combines two different effects to detect the virus safely and reliably: an optical and a thermal one. The sensor is based on tiny structures of gold, so-called gold nanoislands, on a glass substrate. Artificially produced DNA receptors that match specific RNA sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 are grafted onto the nanoislands. The coronavirus is a so-called RNA virus: Its genome does not consist of a DNA double strand as in living organisms, but of a single RNA strand. The receptors on the sensor are therefore the complementary sequences to the virus' unique RNA sequences, which can reliably identify the virus. The technology the researchers use for detection is called LSPR, short for localized surface plasmon resonance. This is an optical phenomenon that occurs in metallic nanostructures: When excited, they modulate the incident light in a specific wavelength range and create a plasmonic near-field around the nanostructure. When molecules bind to the surface, the local refractive index within the excited plasmonic near-field changes. An optical sensor located on the back of the sensor can be used to measure this change and thus determine whether the sample contains the RNA strands in question. Heat increases reliability However, it is important that only those RNA strands that match exactly the DNA receptor on the sensor are captured. This is where a second effect comes into play on the sensor: the plasmonic photothermal (PPT) effect. If the same nanostructure on the sensor is excited with a laser of a certain wavelength, it produces localized heat. And how does that help reliability? As already mentioned, the genome of the virus consists of only a single strand of RNA. If this strand finds its complementary counterpart, the two combine to form a double strand - a process called hybridization. The counterpart - when a double strand splits into single strands - is called melting or denaturation. This happens at a certain temperature, the melting temperature. However, if the ambient temperature is much lower than the melting temperature, strands that are not complementary to each other can also connect. This could lead to false test results. If the ambient temperature is only slightly lower than the melting temperature, only complementary strands can join. And this is exactly the result of the increased ambient temperature, which is caused by the PPT effect. To demonstrate how reliably the new sensor detects the current COVID-19 virus, the researchers tested it with a very closely related virus: SARS-CoV. This is the virus that broke out in 2003 and triggered the SARS pandemic. The two viruses - SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV2 - differ only slightly in their RNA. And validation was successful: Tests showed that the sensor can clearly distinguish between the very similar RNA sequences of the two viruses." Jing Wang, ETH Zurich And the results are ready in a matter of minutes. At the moment, however, the sensor is not yet ready to measure the corona virus concentration in the air, for example in Zurich's main railway station. A number of developmental steps are still needed to do this - for example, a system that draws in the air, concentrates the aerosols in it and releases the RNA from the viruses. "This still needs development work," says Wang. But once the sensor is ready, the principle could be applied to other viruses and help to detect and stop epidemics at an early stage. Carolyn Anne Maserick Hammett passed away peacefully in her sleep on April 18th, 2020 at the age of 88. Born in Washington D.C. and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland. Carolyn was the older of the two children of the late Albert Maserick and Frances Harrington Maserick. She was pre-deceased by her brother Peter Maserick of State College, PA. Carolyn was an avid artist focusing mostly on oil painting, however later she would move on to acrylics and mixed media. She submitted many of her pieces to competitions where her materials would be judged favorably and even deemed trendsetting. After graduating from high School, she attended Trinity University in Washington D.C. Carolyn was very active with her circle of friends whom she referred to as the "group." Through the "group" she met her soon to be husband Francis Xavier Hammett. Carolyn was a valued employee and cook/ server with the original Hot Shoppes of Washington D.C. It is there that she learned and fostered her incredible talent for serving many people delightful food on a budget. It was a skill she would continue to utilize with her large family and even to the hot food kitchens for the homeless in Washington D.C. and later during her retirement, the homeless in Florida. Carolyn was an analytical chemist for the U.S. Department of the interior and years later for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Carolyn resided in the shadow of the newly established Holy Family Parish in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland. After a break from the federal government, She resided in Hillcrest Heights to raise her growing family. She returned to her government work in 1979. Carolyn was a founding member of the Forestville pregnancy aid center, a group that would later become the Maryland Crisis pregnancy centers and eventually the Gabriel Project. Carolyn entered into semi retirement in 1986. After about 10 years of snow birding, in 1996, Carolyn fully retired to St. Petersburg, Florida where she and her good groom Francis Xavier would entertain family and friends from the Washington D.C. Area as well as care for her aging mother who also resided in Florida. In St. Petersburg, both Carolyn and her good groom "Frank," as daily communicants, were very active members of Holy Cross Parish including extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, Healing ministries, and homeless outreach. Carolyn acted as President of her Homeowner's association for several years and worked tirelessly to meet the needs of her residents and neighbors. Her work would earn her the title of "Madam President." Carolyn and Frank were also involved in the youth ministry at the Cathedral of St. Jude in St. Petersburg. Later, they would become regular members of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Seminole, Florida Carolyn was also predeceased by her son Albert Frances Hammett (Sandy) and her daughter Martha Madeline Hammett Welsh. She is survived by her husband Francis Xavier Hammett and her children Thomas, (Laurie, deceased) Carolyn Hammett (Rasha,) David (Rosa,) Janet Kleponis (Joseph,) Mark (Christy,) and Joan Giavasis (Nicholas.) Carolyn is also survived by her grandchildren Casey, Danny, Jason, Denise, Jennifer, Francesca, Megan, Joseph, Nicholas, Veronica, Benjamin, Beatrice, Julia, and Francis Xavier. Carolyn was also absolutely delighted by her 4 great grandchildren. Carolyn had an incredible sense of humor that some might have characterized as dark and dry, but still she could get a laugh. She had an incredible smile to match. She was a feeder of many including the neighborhood friends who would show up to the Hammett house for dinner or even a late night after-dinner snack or meal. She had the famous greeting of "You look hungry!" Carolyn was an avid decorator and flower arranger for Holy Family Church in Hillcrest Heights. She was a fervent member of the Catholic Charismatic renewal meeting weekly at Catholic University in Washington D.C. and seasonally throughout the U.S. Carolyn was known for her deep effervescent faith. She was one to know any intercessor or prayer for whatever need might occur. She shared her faith with her children and all of those around her. Carolyn's faith was contagious! Carolyn will be deeply missed and her legacy will live on through so many as well as her many efforts and endeavors. Condolences to the family may be made at www.rauschfuneralhomes.com. Sweden reported a record 185 new coronavirus deaths today, as a top health official defended the country's refusal to go into lockdown. Epidemiologist Anders Wallensten said 'voluntary restrictions' could be 'maintained for a longer period' than the compulsory lockdowns which most of Europe has imposed. People in Sweden accepted the 'reasonable' rules without being forced to obey them, he said, adding that a total lockdown would cause more economic damage. The surge in deaths is likely to be caused by delays in collecting figures from the weekend, a problem which many countries have experienced. Sweden's figures have fluctuated wildly over the last two weeks, with implausibly low figures released on Sundays and Mondays followed by a surge on Tuesdays. This graph shows the daily number of deaths announced by Sweden's public health agency. The figure has fluctuated wildly because of delays in reporting weekend figures This chart shows the daily number of cases in Sweden. Today's figure of 545 is a significant increase from yesterday's 392, possibly also caused by a weekend backlog The country's public health agency had reported only 29 new deaths last Sunday and 40 yesterday, suggesting a large backlog. The agency now says there were at least 94 deaths over the weekend, but not all the deaths have been attributed to a particular day. Still, today's increase of 185 is the largest yet, even compared to previous post-weekend backlogs, and brings the total from 1,580 to 1,765. The number of cases increased by 545, also a significant jump from yesterday's 392, taking the total number of infections from 14,777 to 15,322. The same delays in reporting were seen over the Easter weekend, when daily updates showed only 49 new deaths from Saturday to Monday. In fact, the agency now attributes at least 242 deaths to those three days, many of which were not revealed until later. Wallensten, the deputy state epidemiologist, today launched the latest defence of a 'voluntary' policy which Sweden says is better in the long term. Sweden has emphasised taking personal responsibility for social distancing measures rather than enforcing a lockdown which cannot last forever. Wallensten also suggested that the peak may already have been reached, despite the impression created by the surge in figures. Health experts believe that by May 1, as many as one-third of people in the Stockholm area may already have had the virus, possibly limiting its spread. People sit outdoors at a restaurant in central Stockholm yesterday, in scenes which have not been replicated in most of Europe for several weeks People enjoy warm weather in Stockholm today in a country which says that 'voluntary' restrictions are better in the long term than compulsory ones Sweden's light touch to the crisis has sparked criticism from some scientists and academics and also caused alarm from some of its European neighbours. Bars, restaurants and schools remain open while public gatherings of up to 50 people are still permissible in Sweden. Sweden has far more deaths than Denmark, Norway and Finland, a difference that is not adequately explained by the size of their populations. Finland has imposed checks on usually free-flowing border traffic at its frontier with Sweden, fearing the spread of the disease. Sweden insists that its strategy is right because people need to 'understand and accept' measures over the long term rather than be forced into obeying them. 'If everyone takes their responsibility, together we will overcome it,' says Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. Officials say that 'people in Sweden have a high level of trust in government agencies', meaning that advisory measures are widely followed. 'In the current situation, people in Sweden are on the whole acting responsibly to reduce the spread of infection by, for example, restricting their social contacts,' the government says. Still, ministers have promised a huge increase in testing so that people in key roles such as police and healthcare personnel can be screened for the virus. 'We are talking about testing and analysis capacity of 50,000, perhaps as many as 100,000, a week,' health minister Lena Hallengren said. So far almost 75,000 people have been tested in Sweden, Hallengren said last week. People walk on a pedestrian street in Stockholm on Sunday, in one of the few developed countries which has not closed bars and restaurants or eliminated public gatherings Nurses wearing masks and protective gear work in a ward at the Karolinska hospital in Solna on Sunday, with Sweden planning to ramp up testing for the coronavirus The public health agency says minority groups including people born in Somalia, Iran, Iraq and the former Yugoslavia are over-represented among hospital patients. State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell admitted that authorities were not sure why these groups were over-represented. 'For us the main signal is really that we need to reach those groups better with different kinds of messages to help protect them,' he said. Stockholm accounts for more than 40 per cent of Sweden's total cases and some poorer neighbourhoods have far more cases per capita than wealthier ones. Those municipalities are home to several of Sweden's 'vulnerable areas,' a term originally assigned by Swedish police to disadvantaged areas with high crime levels. More than 550,000 people live in these 61 areas, according to a 2019 report commissioned by the local rights group the Global Village. On average 74 per cent of people in these areas had immigrant backgrounds, meaning they or both their parents were born abroad. The national average was 24.9 percent. Local authorities have therefore been stepping up information efforts in these areas, distributing material in 26 languages other than Swedish. These include Russian, Finnish, Arabic, Somali and Persian. His name was Jack Giggins and he died while fighting for Australia during World War II. He was among 15 men killed in an air strike while serving with the 2/5th Australian Infantry Battalion in northern Greece in 1941. Corporal Giggins left behind a wife and a five-year-old daughter in the Melbourne suburb of Carnegie. His remains were never recovered. Benjamin Ball will join musicians across Australia playing the Last Post on Anzac Day. Credit:Eddie Jim But he hasnt been forgotten. A year ago great-grandson Benjamin Ball wore Corporal Giggins' medals in the Melbourne Anzac Day march. In response to the backlash being faced by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who had deleted a five-year-old tweet after social media users in the Gulf countries criticised him for his remarks on Arab women, Sharjah royal family member Princess Hend Al Qassimi said that the scorn and ridicule will not go unnoticed In response to the backlash being faced by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who had deleted a five-year-old tweet after social media users in the Gulf countries criticised him for his remarks on Arab women, Sharjah royal family member Princess Hend Al Qassimi said that the scorn and ridicule will not go unnoticed. "I knew India, the country of Gandhi, a country which suffered enough. The whole world is on its nerves with COVID-19, but the hate should stop," she further wrote. The ruling family is friends with Indians, but as a royal your rudeness is not welcome. All employees are paid to work, no one comes for free. You make your bread and butter from this land which you scorn and your ridicule will not go unnoticed. Princess Hend Al Qassimi (@LadyVelvet_HFQ) April 15, 2020 The tweet, dated 23 March, 2015, quoted an interview by Pakistani-Canadian journalist and author Tarek Fatah and criticised the lack of freedom in the Gulf when it comes to sex and motherhood. The tweet by the Bangalore South Lok Sabha MP read, "95% of Arab women have never had an orgasm in the last few hundred years! Every mother has produced kids as an act of sex and not love. @Tarek Fatah." According to author and economist Rupa Subramanya, Fatah's full quote had mentioned human rights violations, citing Arab Spring and the fact that "women were being sexually assaulted by men" in Cairo. However, journalist Mohammed Zubair pointed out that Surya, while quoting Fatah, had agreed with him and added that "Islamofascism is a great threat to civilisation". He later tweeted "Having said that, I agree with him that islamofascism is grave threat to civilization" pic.twitter.com/b2ZxLEAxwb Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) April 19, 2020 Screenshots of Suryas tweet were widely circulated hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, Covid-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking. Among the first to slam Surya for his tweet was Dubai-based businesswoman Noora AlGhurair, who said she pitied his upbringing that has taught him to disrespect women. She also warned him against travelling to Arab lands if he is ever bestowed a foreign ministry. Pity Ur upbringing @Tejasvi_Surya that respect for women couldnt be instilled in U despite India having some great female leaders .Please note if someday the govt bestows a foreign ministry to you, avoid travelling to Arab lands. You are not welcome here. This will be remembered pic.twitter.com/KJJlqJL5tR Noora AlGhurair (@AlGhurair98) April 19, 2020 Mejbel Al Sharika, a Kuwait-based lawyer and Director of International Human Rights, shared the screenshot of the tweet and urged Twitter to suspend Suryas account for his racial slur, which badly wounded the Arab sentiment. @PMOIndia Respected Prime minister @narendramodi India's relation with the Arab world has been that of mutual respect. Do you allow your parliamentarian to publicly humiliate our women? We expect your urgent punitive action against @Tejasvi_Surya for his disgraceful comment. pic.twitter.com/emymJrc5aU (@MJALSHRIKA) April 19, 2020 Similar sentiments were shared by Abdur Rahman Nassar, an intellectual from Kuwait, who tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi while criticising the tweet, requested for Suryas Parliament membership to be cancelled. Prime Minister .. An Indian Member of Parliament accuses Arab women, and we Arabs are asking for his membership to be dropped !!@narendramodi@PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/aQl4XayWZU (@alnassar_kw) April 19, 2020 The Congress national spokesperson Sanjay Jha said that India stands embarrassed and humiliated due to Suryas tweet. The BJP gives tickets to Praggya Singh Thakur and #TejasviSurya etc because it helps popularise their hardline bigoted political profile. But the chickens usually come home to roost. Today, India stands embarrassed, humiliated. Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) April 20, 2020 As the Twitter war ensued, Indian ambassador to the UAE, Pavan Kapoor, tweeted on Monday, India and UAE share the value of non-discrimination on any grounds. Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the Rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this. Last year, the BJP MP was forced to delete another tweet from 2014, where he had opposed women reservation in Parliament. His 2014 tweet read, "With the exception of Womens' Reservation in Parliament, Modi govt agenda is inspiring. Dread d day when women's reservation becomes reality," was widely shared. This is part of an ongoing collaborative series between Chalkbeat and WNYC/Gothamist reporting the effect of the coronavirus outbreak on how New York students learn and on how educators teach. Like many New York City students, Brooklyn teen Kelitha is wading through a new online world of learning as the coronavirus keeps schools shuttered. Shes sharing three laptops among five siblings, and is trying to complete assignments with slow internet. But Kelitha, a sophomore at a bilingual high school who emigrated from Haiti four years ago, faces another challenge: Shes learning English as a new language, and sorely misses the in-person help she got in class. When you are learning in school, you get the opportunity to find teachers and staff to give you support. Now that school is online, you cannot have the help you need, said Kelitha, who declined to share her last name or the name of her school to maintain privacy. You try to email teachers they dont answer you back, they dont email you back on time. About 135,000 multilingual learners like Kelitha are adapting to a new system of learning in New York City. Students learning a new language need a host of supports, and losing that in-person help can be disorienting, teachers say. Students often cant rely on help from parents, who have their own language barriers or may be working in essential jobs outside home. Teachers are trying to adapt by offering tech support and reconfiguring lessons, but many cant keep up with the need for individual attention. My biggest problem is that Im not there, said Aixa Rodriguez, an English as a New Language teacher at Maxine Green High School for Imaginative Inquiry on the Upper West Side. I cant do small groups the same way, I cant be over the shoulder the same way, I cant do one-to-ones the same way. Advocates and families are worried that the shift to online learning is going to leave many of these students behind next school year students who typically are more likely to drop out than their native English-speaking peers in normal circumstances. A coalition of immigrant rights groups have called on the education department to improve its remote learning approach for multilingual learners, including strengthening communication between schools and families. Digital Divide The citys education department currently translates announcements and learning materials in 10 languages, and has shared with schools best practices for remotely instructing multilingual learners, such as providing teacher-recorded read-alouds. It also has a translation phone line with over 350 languages available to help families understand school communications. But some teachers told Chalkbeat/WNYC that they have some students from Central and South America or Africa who only speak oral languages and whose families havent been informed about what resources are available during remote learning. Darnell Benoit is the director of the Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project, which provides support to Haitian youth who are new to the country and to the New York public school system. She herself spoke little English when she first moved to New York almost 40 years ago. Benoit said when it comes to recently-immigrated students and their families, its not just about English literacy, its also about digital literacy, which is generally low in households that dont have internet access. The DOE thinks that everybodys online, and we keep telling them, no, many immigrant communities, low-income communities, are not online like you think, said Benoit. The people that are working 16-hour days is [sic] not online. Her main worry is that students who are learning English and dont understand the materials, cant log on, or cant keep up from home will become disengaged and fall even further behind. Even under usual circumstances, English language learners graduate at a much lower rate than the rest of the student population. Last school year, 41% of English language learners graduated from high school on time in New York City, compared to 77.3% of students citywide. Motivated to Step Up For Brooklyn high school teacher Jennifer Queenan, the biggest challenge has been helping students recently arrived from countries where they did not have much access to technology. A couple of her students havent had any internet access. Another student, who came to the U.S. just a few months ago, found it too challenging to set up an internet plan. He found a public Wi-Fi hotspot to use, but it doesnt always work, she said. Queenan made sure students using their phones had the Google Chrome app to use Google Translate and knew how to turn on subtitles for YouTube videos so it translates better. Providing this kind of help is not an easy feat, and a recent poll by Education-Trust New York, fewer than half of surveyed multilingual parents 48% said their school was providing technical assistance. At The Woodside Community School, an elementary school in Queens, many parents are also essential workers, so they may not be home to help their children, said Israt Nali, a third-grade teacher who also teaches English language learners. One parent, she said, cleans a hotel and has to work late at night, but was worried about her child missing online lessons. I have so much respect for them, and I dont think there is enough justice for what theyre going through right now, Nali said, through tears. It makes you want to step up. She and her colleagues have held virtual workshops in the mornings and evenings to help answer questions from families, especially those with tough schedules. Nali is assigning shortened versions of in-depth texts and is asking her students to answer simpler questions. Shes sending them instructional videos and is encouraging students to post comments on each others online posts, saying that a key part of learning a new language is using it with someone else. It was confusing, but we all made sure we communicated every single step we needed in order to make sure everyone felt comfortable, Nali said. I Have to Cook Some English language learners who were highly motivated in school are having a hard time transitioning to remote learning because of the demands of their home environment. An eleventh grader in Upper Manhattan were calling her Somia, because she didnt want her name or school shared publicly is feeling discouraged. Shes the oldest of eight kids, seven of whom are doing remote learning in their two-room apartment. I have to cook, I have to clean, I have to help my mom, said Somia. And then I have to do my work. In the first two weeks of remote learning, Somia, like Kelitha, would email her teachers with questions and get no response. When they give me work, I read. I try first, said Somia, who moved from Yemen three years ago and speaks Arabic at home. My grades going downI never give up in my life. But now I start to give up. A teacher at Somias school, who also did not want to be named publicly, said shes aware that some students have not heard back from their teachers. Imagine if you had 80 emails a night with student questions? You may not be able to answer all 80 every night, said the teacher, who described these past few weeks as the most stressful in her 30-year teaching career. She says every week has gotten slightly better, as they get more students on board. Her school also started offering virtual office hours in the third week of remote learning, so that teachers could answer students questions more immediately. Theyre Resilient Some teachers told Chalkbeat/WNYC that since remote learning started in mid-March, there are still a number of students who they havent managed to contact at all. Were getting really frustrated because our [English language learners] are the ones who are not responding, said Moni Woweries, who teaches at ReStart Academy, a District 79 school in Manhattan. We have so much difficulty communicating and getting them set up with the internet, and we keep running against a wall. The education department issued guidance for educators who are unable to contact their English language learners students during remote learning. It recommends teachers try contacting family and relatives at different times of the day, and track all outreach efforts. Schools were also directed to use last weeks non-spring break to make contact with every student or family individually. Every day, my singular focus is serving the multilingual students, staff and families in our school system, and since we made the difficult decision to transition to remote learning Ive committed to increasing and maintaining access to instruction and support, said Mirza Sanchez Medina, deputy chief academic officer for multilingual learners, in a prepared statement. Teachers told WNYC/Chalkbeat that all the challenges have pulled their teams together closely to figure out solutions. Myrna De La Rosa, an elementary school teacher in Bay Ridge, co-teaches lessons through video conferencing similar to what she does in the classroom then jots down the names of students who have virtually raised their hands. She sets up meetings with them afterward to give them individual attention. De La Rosa will help colleagues reach Spanish-speaking parents, while she will rely on someone else to help her with an Arabic-speaking parent. Im very proud of my kids because theyre resilient, De La Rosa said. They dont give up. Resources: NYC DOE Translation and Interpretation Unit: (718) 935-2013 The DOEs Learn at Home resources for Multilingual Learners and English Language Learners For families who have requested an internet-enabled device, check the iPad distribution page for more information. If you need to request a device, fill out the request form here (available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Urdu). The education department has shared some instructional tips with schools. Some examples: To keep students speaking, give them discussion prompts Provide read-alouds of texts that teachers have recorded, or links to such resources online Post sentence stems or word banks that students can refer to when participating in a group discussion (Need to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for THE CITYs daily morning newsletter.) SUPPORT THE CITY You just finished reading another story from THE CITY. We need your help to make THE CITY all it can be. Please consider joining us as a member today. DONATE TODAY! It is no doubt we are in critical moments, considering how the global community has been struck by the novel coronavirus. There have been debates of what ought to be done and what ought not to be done. These divergent views cut across the health sector, socio-economic arena, political world and chiefly, the religious landscape. In a typical religious country like Ghana, the religious sector, especially Christianity, has been the major victim with regards to the effect of this COVID-19 pandemic considering how the media and some individuals seem not to empathize with how the pandemic is affecting the churches. For instance, the President Nana Akufo-Addo announced an imposed ban on all public gatherings like conferences, funerals, festivals, political rallies, church services and Islamic worship for four weeks starting Monday, 16th March 2020. However, in the same directive, businesses, supermarkets, night clubs, shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, etc, were tasked to practise social distancing and observe enhanced hygiene procedures by providing hand sanitisers, running water and soap for washing of hands. Though some of these business entities were later affected, at least there was enough time for them to make some preparations ahead. This is not to assert that the directive was ill-conceived towards religious organisations. Unfortunately, what some people in the country fail to appreciate is that there was no time given for the church to prepare towards the pandemic since all was caught in the web of the pandemic. Again, despite the fact that the church is a religious organisation, many people fail to appreciate the fact that it provides socio-economic life for some citizens in the country. The church employs large sections of people and has and continue to contribute largely to the socio-economic development of Ghana (check for instance the contribution of churches in the educational and health sector in Ghana). Moreover, it must be admitted that the directives that were given to other organisations during the first four weeks initial ban could have equally been given to the religious organisations to prepare towards the pandemic. Notwithstanding all these anomalies, the various leaderships of the religious organisations in Ghana, i.e. Islamic and Christianity, called for the full adherence to the directives for the betterment of all in the country. This, I must admit, is highly commendable and portrays the level of selflessness and maturity in Ghanaian Christianity and Islamic communities. God bless leadership for this move. To add to the plight of churches, there was a clarion call on churches, especially, to contribute and support not just with prayers but also with material and financial support to aid in the fight of the pandemic despite the fact that the sources of income of the church have been affected if not completely blocked. Nevertheless, most of the churches made behemothic contributions to the government, individuals and organisations to help fight the disease. Read the publication of modernghana.com online publication of 24th March, 2020, for The Church of Pentecosts support in the fight against the pandemic. Does this suggest that the churches have so much to spend? Simply no! The church is motivated by the scripture that states, the just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4; Hebrew 10:38) and hence, will not hesitate to help with the little they have. Should All Church Activities Cease in Times of Pandemic? Paul states, Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2a). Church ministry has been redefined and probably in more costly manner. Shepherds must reach out to their flock in all means possible, not counting the cost. Ministers of the gospel must reach their members with the word of God even in their homes through various means including the use of social media. Church and its activities are not on vacation. The love bond between a Christian and Christ is so agglutinant that nothing can separate us from the love of God. The Apostle Paul rightly said, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ro 8:35-39). Prayer cannot be ceased; fellowship is not stopped but modality changed; studying and applying the word of God is not affected as well as all other cardinal Christian activities. Should tithing and offering cease? Surprisingly, the nation and individual were calling on Christians to pray from their homes yet some crucified the church for calling on her members to give offering after church service in the home. The Ethical and Biblical Reflection of Tithe and Offering in this Pandemic Era. Considering the aforementioned factors, is it morally or biblically wrong for a church to devise means of receiving tithes and offering from her members in the era of pandemic? An attempt made by the Church to devise means to sustain her financial life was crucified by some self-acclaimed mouth-pieces of God and religious babes. Part of this could be attributed to the fact that some charlatans twisted the need to offer. Others also seem to have unsubstantiated and controvertible issues with the Church. For instance, a pastor in Kenya in his bid to lure members to give, claimed that if people give tithes and offering, the coronavirus pandemic will stop. However, the Bible is clear, pandemics that are caused by the sin of the people cease only if the people repent and change their hearts (Exodus 12 &13; Numbers 25). One cannot say emphatically that the pandemic is caused by not giving tithes and offering. This assertion is clearly, misinterpretation of scripture on the part of the pastor. Should misinterpretation of scripture cause us to reflect on issues in more positive manner or condemn it completely? Did the early church stop giving during crises period such as this? The early church faced persecutions; some were killed, others were tortured and some were rejected by their own families, yet those who believed were of one heart, Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common (Acts 4:32). How could they have all things in common if not through offering? In crises, some believers sold their properties to give offering to the church to sustain the running of the church and the welfare of all in equal proportions. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need (Acts 4:34-35). Church offerings were laid at the apostles feet where they were directed to be brought. In short, the needy could not have been catered for by the church during the crises period and people would have been in need while some had in excess. Society is crying for the church to support the needy, but preventing the church from taking offering. The question that has been ignored is, How much had the church saved in anticipation of this pandemic? Another question that is posed to the church is how can the church ask for tithes and offering at this time, when everyone is facing financial difficulties? This is morally fallacious. In this same difficult moments, buying and selling are being carried out, salaries are being paid, allowances are being given, the government deducts taxes and so on. Should the church fail to receive offering and tithes and fail to pay her workers and other needy dependants of the church? Will the government and other organisations be able to absorb these people? One must understand that what Christian giving or tithing entails is completely different from the concepts and ideologies of the world. In the Bible, during a severe drought, God directed Elijah to the widow of Zarepahth. Elijah made the request and even persuaded her to give when the woman lamented she had nothing left except the small food left (1Kings 17). Amazing miracles followed afterwards. Also, God demanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, to Him (Genesis 22). The examples are countless in the Bible. Now where in Scripture does God recommends tithing and giving as a result of the riches of the faith community. It is not based on whether the person is rich or not but, it is part of Christian worship and a matter of faith. Another fascinating concern is that, people should not be forced to give in times like this. It is morally wrong to force someone to give in order to lure to your benefit. Biblical giving does not support it either, whether in good season or bad season. God sanctions that biblical offerings are received from willing and cheerful hearts (Exodus 35:5; 2Corinthians 8:12, 9:7). In difficult times, God is delighted in people who give cheerfully as much as they can. And remember, Christian cheerfulness is not dependent on circumstances or happenings. In the midst of storms for we are commanded to rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4). It is so intriguing for people to argue that it is heartless to receive offering and tithes from people who are suffering and sleeping on empty stomach. Meanwhile, the call by the president, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa, for donations to support the fight is being promoted. The appeal is still made to these suffering Ghanaians. When any appeal to give is made, obviously people respond according to their ability and willingness. The Bible is not silent on issues like this: Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God. (2 Corinthians 8:1-5). The Macedonian churches (Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea,) were facing great trial of afflictions and temptation, yet they did charitable acts or offered beyond their ability. In the Markans gospel, Jesus commended a poor widow who gave all her livelihood into the treasury. Jesus did not stop her from giving her widows mite which was obviously all she had: Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood" (Mark 12:41-44). It must be emphasized that tithing and giving in difficult times are as equal as prayer and other aspects of things related to Christian worship. It is indeed Christian virtue that the vulnerable in the church are supported. They are not excluded from giving. We should always bear in mind Pauls farewell message to the Ephesians, I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35). It is morally and biblically accurate to remind ourselves of tithes and offering in moments like this just we are doing to other aspects of Christian worship. The CEO of the Rwanda Governance Board which regulates faith-based organisations said, the government does not regulate tithing and it was normal for churches that already had digital offering options to remind congregants about them. Michael Adofo posted an article on modernghana.com on 23rd March, 2020 and sarcastically opined that, pastors, prophets and churches that requested that offering and tithes be paid via online or momo is a display of heartlessness and love for money. I think this assertion completely divergent from biblical reflection; is a worldly logical reasoning devoid of contextual analysis. Logically, the argument commits both argumentum adignorantiam (fallacy of appeal to ignorance) and argumentum ad personam (fallacy of appeal to emotion). The writer displays lack of biblical interpretation but rather appealed to the emotions of the people. Christian giving and tithes is different from logic espoused by the world. Included in his assertion was that pastors were asking for the offering to enrich themselves. This is not tenable, considering the prompt support the churches jumped in to offer towards the fight against the pandemic. Hasty generalization of issues does not contribute to inform decision making. Conclusion The church militant shall know no defeat. The church was started as a small family religion in Mesopatamia when God called Abraham (approximately 1800BC). Prior to his calling, the children of Adam, Cain and Abel (Genesis 4) knew how to offer to the Lord. When Abraham heeded to Gods call and left with his family (Genesis 12), he built an altar for the LORD, Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD (Genesis 13:18). He tithed and gave offering to God when he was worshipping God in his home. No proper doctrinal church will force members to give tithes and offering since it contradicts the principle of giving in the scripture. However, Christians should understand that it is not a mistake for any church to direct how offering should be paid in a pandemic era. We should simultaneously bear in mind that ministers and churches will give account to God on how they use Gods money and any money they receive, whether in the era of pandemic or not. The church should not be silenced in any way to talk about giving offering in a godly manner, no matter the dispensation. The likes of widow of Zarephath and the widow during Jesus day are still around to surprise Gods church. Christians, beware and do not yield to the seemingly voice of God that is crying to save us from the curse of giving tithes and offering. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). We will continue to preach the gospel, teach to open eyes and encourage people to obey all the ordinances of God to possess the nations. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preaches any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed (Galatians 1:8). Pandemics or no pandemics, our commitment to serve the Lord will continue even in abundant measure. Long live Christianity. NOTE: All bible verses quoted are taken from the New King James Version on Power Bible CD version 5. Page 6 of 6 REFERENCES: https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-51904164 https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/april/kenya-rwanda-churches-tithes-coronavirus-covid-19-offerings.html https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/covid-19-churches-bear-brunt-of-offering-holidays.html https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/abraham https://www.pulse.com.gh/entertainment/celebrities/ghanas-national-day-of-fasting-and-prayer-will-shift-things-nathaniel-bassey/dhbqd2b https://www.modernghana.com/news/991207/ghanaian-pastors-prophets-and-churches-display.html https://www.modernghana.com/news/992506/covid-19-churches-pocket-dry-over-offering-holi.html Source: Rev. Emmanuel Teye Sackitey, Pokrom District, Koforidua Area, COP, E/R (M.A Religion & Human Value, UCC. MPhil Student Religion & Human Value, UCC) Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The death of 500,000 Iraqi children was worth it, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright infamously said in 1996. She was talking about the possible costs of a punishing sanctions regime against Saddam Husseins Iraq. Two dozen years later, the Trump administrations fixation on so-called maximum-pressure policies against Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela particularly in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic follows in Albrights bloody footsteps. The COVID-19 outbreak has made inescapable what should have been obvious already: These campaigns are failures of diplomacy. They are not necessary for U.S. security, which is already guaranteed by deterrence, and they are needlessly cruel to ordinary people who cannot control their governments misdeeds. The Trump administration should drop these distractions and focus limited resources on handling the pandemic. Such a shift could start a new era of American diplomacy. Washington could relearn how to operate effectively in a world where bluntly announcing our demands and flexing our muscles demonstrably does not work. To hear Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tell it, the administration is already taking a more flexible approach to Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela in light of the coronavirus. Weve worked to try and get assistance into North Korea. Weve made offers of assistance to Iran. You'll recall when we first began, we worked diligently in Venezuela to get humanitarian assistance to the Venezuelan people as well, Pompeo said at the end of March. But this narrative of a benevolent Washington seeking to help the beleaguered populations of these three nations is false. In each case, Pompeos offers have been paired with wildly unrealistic ultimatums. Iran has suffered one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks, and the effects of U.S. sanctions have compounded bad decisions by Tehran, raising the Iranian death toll. Though Pompeo has hinted at willingness to ease U.S. sanctions during the medical crisis, that has not happened. Pompeo claims otherwise, but these sanctions in practice keep Iran from importing critical medical supplies. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has escalated its rhetoric against Iran, refusing to budge on a naive and counterproductive pressure campaign in which Washington demands everything and offers nothing in return. Predictably, Tehran has not backed down, and we are stuck at an impasse. The United States gains nothing; Tehran makes trouble for U.S. forces (especially in Iraq); and innocent Iranian people bear the brunt of this mutual inanity. North Korea claims to have no COVID-19 cases, an assertion outside experts suspect is a lie. Though its difficult to say what the coronavirus situation may be inside the hermit kingdom, its trade with China makes some level of infection likely. Also suggestive of an unacknowledged outbreak are the unexplained postponement of the annual meeting of the countrys puppet parliament and Pyongyangs admission that it has 500 people in quarantine. As with Iran, a COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea will be worse than otherwise thanks to the regimes tortuous economic policies and pre-existing sanction constraints on delivery of humanitarian aid. Like Iran, the Trump administrations hardline approach to North Korea has diplomatic progress at a standstill while rhetoric escalates. The details vary; the fundamental problem does not. The story is basically the same in Venezuela, too. At the end of March, Pompeo offered to ease U.S. sanctions at the price of U.S.-directed regime change. It was not surprising when Venezuelas government said no. Venezuela has reported fewer than 200 cases of COVID-19 to date, but it has suffered severe shortages of food, medicine, and other necessities for years due, once again, to a combination of awful domestic governance and U.S.-led sanctions. Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela are very different countries, but the flaw in U.S. relations with each is the same. In every case, Washington does not know how to negotiate, refuses to offer meaningful concessions or make plausible demands, and is irrationally committed to a failed maximum-pressure campaign. The result is useless for American security interests, which with all three nations are indefinitely protected by the United States conventional and nuclear deterrence. Its also destructive to the United States reputation abroad and harmful to the millions of Iranians, North Koreans, and Venezuelans who already bear more than their share of misery from their respective regimes. We can do better for all involved. Washington can reject the inhumane and strategically illiterate calculus that Albright exemplified, and that too many of our officials before and after her have more politely shared. U.S. foreign policy can reorient itself to rely on productive negotiations patient, mutually beneficial, built on actual give-and-take instead of pointless sprees of threats, sanctions, and war. We can have a foreign policy of diplomacy, not coercion. Bonnie Kristian is a fellow at Defense Priorities, contributing editor at The Week, and columnist at Christianity Today. Her writing has also appeared at CNN, Politico, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Defense One, and The American Conservative, among other outlets. The views expressed are the author's own. A Congress MLA on Tuesday accused the Himachal Pradesh government of adopting double standards by allowing influential people to move to their native places whereas ordinary Himachalis have been left stranded in and outside the state amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Kinnaur MLA Jagat Singh Negi claimed around 300 residents of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur's home district Mandi were sent to their native places from Kinnaur in special Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) buses about a week ago. On the contrary, hundreds of Kinnaur residents are stuck in various districts of the state and outside in Chandigarh, Delhi and Varanasi but curfew passes are only provided to those who are close to the ruling BJP government, he alleged. "I had provided a list to the chief minister on March 23 about several stranded people of Kinnaur district, including 67 people who are stuck in Varanasi but no arrangement has been made to bring them back," he told PTI. Negi also said stranded children of Kinnaur Superintendent of Police Saju Ram Rana had been brought from Delhi about a week ago. Refuting the charges that the government is adopting double standards, Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner Gopal Chand told PTI that about 300 horticulture labourers stranded in Kinnaur for about two months had been sent to their native places in not only Mandi but other districts too, including Shimla and Kullu. He said those stranded should contact the DCs of those districts. Regarding SP's children, Chand said they were issued interstate curfew pass on April 13 so that they could come back from Delhi. Meanwhile state police spokesperson Khushal Sharma said,"As per SP Kinnaur, his cousin was murdered in Parwanoo. Therefore the children were brought from Delhi on emergency pass. They were residing at Delhi's Karol Bagh area which is not a red zone. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Why Is It So Hard for Straight Males to Show Affection Towards Each Other? I Started Telling My Guy Friends That I Love Them and This Is What Happened I love you. Ive already said it to a handful of my closest guy friends, and recently, I decided to say it to more of them. Im not sure why, exactly. Id actually made this resolution a while ago, before the coronavirus turned our world upside down. Sure, it shouldnt take a pandemic to tell people how I really feel, but it shouldnt take events like weddings or funerals either. RELATED: How to Be a Man in a Culture That Hates Masculinity In this COVID-19 reality, the stakes seem higher. With our mortality and fragility feeling more present than ever, theres a sense of urgency to say and do the hardest, most important things in life. Plus, with my other love languages temporarily obsolete under the circumstances, my words often feel like all Ive got. This time of social distancing can change the type of intimacy in relationships, says Dr. Paulette Sherman, a New York City-based psychologist and host of The Love Psychologist podcast. If you cant [do] activities together, youd be more likely to rely upon words to connect. In romance, if someone responds to your ultimate love-filled confession with anything less than an equally emotional response, its a killer. When I told Rick, my former college roommate, that I loved him, he didnt say it back. Instead, he responded with, Ben, thats awesome. Youre the best. Thank you. In this case, I didnt need him to. He wasnt dismissive or avoidant, nor did he try to dilute the intensity with humor. He had taken a pause. He was surprised, clearly touched; I could tell it meant something to him. It was less about what he said (or didnt say), and more about how he said it. That was everything I needed to hear. Its exhilarating to imagine being so open without hesitation, allowing myself to feel, give and love more deeply. Theres so much more within me ready to be shared. Not to be dramatic, but during a conversation with my former coworker and longtime friend Mike, I felt like I was transcending myself. I catapulted subtly into a higher plane of existence, where everything was a little bit richer, fuller, more colorful. On the phone, I quickly realized I didnt urgently need to express my affection to Mike as much as I did my admiration for his kindness, his perspective, his indefatigable dedication to doing the right thing. Ive always looked up to you, I told him after plenty of rambling reverence, my eyes welling. And I just want you to know I love you. I love you, too, he responded and, unprompted, launched into a soliloquy on what he appreciates about me. I wasnt fishing for or expecting a compliment, but his reciprocation felt natural, not forced. It all felt right. Despite our cultural progress around gender and sexuality, guys relationships especially those among cisgender heterosexual men are still at the mercy of homophobia, traditional gender roles and the pressure to exercise true manliness. Men face barriers of stigma still about expressing feelings to other men, looking mushy and even appearing gay in some groups, says Sherman. They also may not have had male role models who said, I love you to them, so there could be a covert message that this isnt done amongst men. One of my friends says those three words with such comfort that I assumed hed always readily expressed affection. No, he told me, its actually pretty new; it wasnt until college when his step team, dance crew, and fraternity modeled and cultivated brotherly love. As a Dance major, he expanded his definition of masculinity by learning to embrace his own version of how a heterosexual man acts. And as the nephew of two gay uncles, he confronted his preconceived notions of sexuality, and grew more accepting of others and of himself. A few years back he said I love you to me, so I started saying I love you to him. Another friend mentioned that his best friend started saying it in middle school, so he started saying it to me. Weve said it ever since. It only seems to take one friend to start being more verbally affectionate, to challenge and change the existing interpersonal norms of an entire group, says Joel Ketner, a marriage and family therapist based in Columbus, Ohio. Its like a group of kids on a pool deck in the summertime, where nobody wants to be the first one to jump in. The fear is being the only one who jumps in, and having your friends remain dry and on the deck, laughing at you. But, when the kids all jump in together, they have a great time playing in the water. Theres value and intimacy in love you or I love you, dude, but when I say it, Im going to say it. I want to own my words. Who loves you? I do. Who do I love? I love you. I want to let the last word linger, waving like a flag in the fresh morning air, proud and powerful and true. There are plenty of other guys I love and who love me, but I didnt resolve to say it to all of them. I didnt want it to feel contrived, or for them to feel put upon. Words are a way I prefer to give and receive love, but theyre not everyones way (and certainly not the only way). A lot of men may say [I love you] differently or just show it behaviorally instead, notes Sherman. They may also show their love through loyalty and being present by spending time together, and doing things they like together or by acts of service. One of my friends kisses my cheek, hugging me with intention and heat. His mother died a handful of years ago, and perhaps he holds on so tight because he knows what it feels like to lose something so close to the heart. Another friend invited me to stay on his couch every Sunday for months after a breakup, when I didnt want to be alone. I know he wouldve let me crash every night if I wanted to. Then there are the guys who have helped me move after every sudden apartment nightmare, possibly the most selfless and thankless thing you can do. Love is about being down. Checking in. Showing up. We find all kinds of ways to say I love you without saying it. After saying I love you three separate times, I found myself calling up other friends and having entirely different conversations. I checked in on a friend who had been struggling with his mental health. Another call was to unload some of the anxiety Ive been feeling myself. Another was to apologize for something Id done to a friend years before, which wed never fully discussed. It seems this outpouring of love can inspire us to have hard discussions, express more fully and share other difficult emotions: vulnerability, fear, remorse, sadness and gratitude. I think we can break down barriers to achieve realer relationships, to become more present and more empathetic. I think we can broaden our definition of what love and friendship and love in friendship look like. Familial love, while consistent and unconditional, can sometimes feel automatic, thoughtless, pedestrian. Meanwhile, romantic love, our monogamous standards tell us, is exclusive: You can only give it one person at a time, and its subject to being revoked at any moment. Platonic love, though, is generous. Its inclusive. Its cultivated, earned, solidified, and we can bestow it with a freewheeling fearlessness, like Oprah gifting cars. We can take comfort in its certainty and purity and foreverness, then watch it ripple in ways we dont realize or intend. Ok, Ill talk to you soon, I told Mike before we hung up. I love you, Ben! I heard Mikes partner call from the other room. You Might Also Dig: Leo Varadkar said smaller parties will have a role in deciding the rotation of the Taoiseach (PA) Leo Varadkar has said any junior partner in a Fianna Fail/Fine Gael coalition will have a role in deciding how the position of Taoiseach is allocated. Mr Varadkar said he and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin believed it was important that they did not agree a plan for rotating the office ahead of talks with the parties they hope will join them in government. The leaders are courting the Social Democrats, Labour, Greens and various independent TDs to try to secure the numbers to form a stable administration in the wake of Februarys inconclusive election. What we have agreed between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael is that it is going to be an equal partnership between the two parties in every sense of that meaning, Mr Varadkar told RTEs Prime Time. However, when it comes to deciding how the Taoiseach will be rotated and who gets what cabinet folios and all those other things we decided between the two of us that was something that we should have as part of the talks with the leaders of the other parties. We didnt want to present a fait accompli and say here it is, will you sign up to our deal?. We want that to be part of a discussion that were having with the parties. If I have the privilege of serving another government, I'd accept that privilege, but I know going into government now is not for the faint-hearted Leo Varadkar When asked whether he had a preference for taking the role of Taoiseach first or second, Mr Varadkar replied: I know if it sounds like a line but it really is true it so isnt about me. Ill do this job to the best of my ability for as long as I hold it. If I have the privilege of serving another government, Id accept that privilege, but I know going into government now is not for the faint-hearted. Things look very different now than they did at the time of the general election. Its going to be endless effort. Theres going to be constant criticism, theres going to be a lot of disappointment. Whoever goes into government is going to be unpopular. So thats the time when you need the kind of people that are willing to do that. And I hope that the Greens, Social Democrats, Labour and some of these independent groups are up for this because the country, more so than ever, needs a stable government that can bring us through this. Mr Varadkar was challenged on the content of the Fianna Fail/Fine Gael joint framework document for government amid criticism that it contains very ambitious goals with little detail on how to achieve them. The Taoiseach moved to give detail on one of the commitments, around housing, saying he believed building between 10-12,000 social homes a year was realistic over five years. He added: The document is aspirational, and its not a bad thing I dont think to be aspirational by the way. Earlier, the Finance Minister said the next government will be pre-occupied with getting the countrys economy back on track as it deals with the fallout of Covid-19. Paschal Donohoe said Ireland is entering a severe recession and facing increased unemployment. Expand Close Paschal Donohoe speaking to the press (Photocall Ireland/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Paschal Donohoe speaking to the press (Photocall Ireland/PA) He said Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin would hold individual meetings with other party leaders this week in an effort to convince a third party into a coalition with them. Mr Donohoe said no matter who becomes the third party to prop up the coalition, tackling the Covid-19 pandemic will take precedence. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a severe recession both domestically and globally, he said. In the space of 12 weeks our jobs market has gone from almost full employment to a scale of unprecedented unemployment that has risen with a speed and scale that is unprecedented. Mr Donohoe said the Department of Finance fiscal projections suggest Ireland will run a deficit of 23 billion euros this year and GDP will fall by 10.5%. The early phase of any new government will be concerned with the economy and getting people back to work, he said. We will not be able to do everything, choices will have to be made regarding economic recovery, reducing deficit and meeting expenditure needs. Changes we have made in our health service will be retained, we need to maintain public confidence in health services. He said Ireland is in a position of strength as it seeks to rebuild the economy after the coronavirus emergency. We will rebuild our economy again. As with the recovery of our public health, it will require focus. New Jersey teachers have been appearing on television screens across the state every weekday since April 6, and one Warren County educator will be taking a crack at it at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. Darlene Noel, director of K-5 English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Specials Subjects in the Phillipsburg School District, will be taking part in NJTV Learning Live, a program that features teachers from across the state giving hour-long lessons in a variety of subjects but teaching the lessons from the comfort of their own homes. The program, a collaboration between NJTV, the New Jersey Department of Education and the New Jersey Education Association, began in the first week of April and has since been running every weekday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. With schools in New Jersey shut down due to coronavirus until at least May 15 and possibly longer, the states education landscape has shifted, prompting schools to find a way to educate students remotely. This initiative is just one of those methods. While having only worked in school administration for three years, Noel has 25 total years in education under her belt, previously having taught third grade in Phillipsburg for 22 years. For the program, which Noel said shes proud to be a part of, the 2016 Warren County Teacher of the Year is teaching an English Language Arts lesson about reading with expression, which she chose herself. Noel filmed her episode last week, and it certainly felt a little odd. Its kind of funny because you are sort of talking to yourself but trying to imagine what its like for the kids, she said. So even with no audience but the camera, she had to make sure to take some time for students to gather materials or think about an answer. She did have some examples to learn from. Ive got a lot of friends who have who have been delivering lessons," she said, "so its been fun to see them on TV. And even watching lessons from teachers that she doesnt know has been helpful, as its shown her the different types of lessons theyre teaching and what technology is being used. Past lessons can be watched on NJTVs website. Filming a lesson for the initiative has only been one aspect of how Noel is navigating the current situation. Much of her work during the shutdown has been assessing the districts goals and how that progress is going, as well as coming up with a sort of menu for parents full of things to do with their kids. Not specific assignments, she said, but more based on whatever materials they had at home because not all of our families have access to the internet. And for as challenging a time as this is, Noel thinks her district is doing as well as it can be. Im super proud of how Phillipsburg kind of got out ahead of it right from the beginning, she said. I feel like we have a really strong district administration. But it hasnt been easy for Noel and other faculty members. And thats partially why being able to teach through NJTV Learning Live is such a positive initiative to her: students can see a teacher. For me, relationships were always my highest priority in the classroom, she said, and shes encouraged her teachers during this bizarre period to think about that from a students perspective. "You are their touchstone at school. To hear the voice is way more important than planning a fancy lesson. While its unclear when there will be a physical return to the classroom, NJ Learning Live is at least giving students a chance to hear those voices. 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. Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @ConnorLagore. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. By Laman Ismayilova Gobustan State Historical-Artistic Reserve has organized a video seminar dedicated to International Day of Monuments and Sites (World Heritage Day), celebrated annually on April 18. The video seminar brought together the director of Gobustan State Historical-Artistic Reserve Vugar Isayev, coordinator of the Council of Europe's "Traces of Ancient Rock Art" Cultural Route, Ramon Montes Barquin (Spain),Technical and Scientific Coordinator of the Foz Coa Museum and Coa Valley Archaeological Park Thierry Aubry, professor at the University of Madrid Marcos Garcia Diez (Spain), Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Ferrara Dario Sigari (Italy). Topics such as the latest archaeological research in the field of rock art, the management of rock art monuments were discussed at the seminar. Notably, International Day of Monuments and Sites (World Heritage Day) was established by UNESCO in 1983 on the proposal of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). The main goal of the day is to draw people's attention to the protection of monuments and historical sites. Various events and exhibitions are annually organized across the world as part of the celebration. Every year, on the occasion of the International Day for Monuments and Sites, ICOMOS proposes a theme for the celebrations and activities to be organised by our Committees, members and partners. The 2020 International Day for Monuments and Sites invites participants to explore the idea of sharing - and its counterpoints, contestation and resistance - in relation to cultures, heritage and responsibility. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Media and social networks have been arguing about the safety of paper money since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Opinions vary, but in fact, it does not matter how to pay: good personal hygiene is most important! In early March, The Telegraph published an article. It stated with reference to a representative of the WHO that the World Health Organization was calling for cash withdrawals because banknotes transmit the coronavirus. The article received wide publicity amid the global panic over the infection's spread. However, in just a few days WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib clarified that the message was misinterpreted: "We were asked if we thought banknotes could transmit COVID-19 and we said you should wash your hands after handling money, especially if handling or eating food." The first message obviously falls into the category of sensationalism. As a matter of fact, banknotes are the same familiar object of the everyday world, and the best possible way to keep yourself safe is to observe the basic rules of hygiene. "Medical evidence confirms that human-to-human transmission of the virus is correlated through close contact via respiratory droplets trigged from unguarded coughing and sneezing... Heightened hand washing campaigns stress that it is a critical component in infection control", says Dr Derek Watson of the University of Sunderland. It turns out that the most dangerous thing is not cash as such, but those who handle it - after all, people are the primarily carriers of the virus. As for inanimate objects, the most dangerous ones are those that surround us in everyday life - door handles, sinks in public places, handrails in the subway, railings and so on, that is, everything that an infected person could touch. The virus can live up to three days on such surfaces, unless they are disinfected. As for handling banknotes received from someone, it is enough to ensure a sufficient distance - because the virus is mainly transmitted by airborne droplets - and follow the usual hygiene rules, as if you touched a handrail in a bus: "It's not impossible that there might be traces of virus on dollar bill, but if you wash your hands it should provide adequate protections - you shouldn't need anything else," notes Julie Fischer, a professor at the Center for Global Health Science and Society at Georgetown University. Getting back to the surfaces on which the virus lives, let's not forget the materials of which payment cards and terminals are made. Plastic and metal hold the virus much longer than paper does, and smartphones also used for payments are capable of hosting the infection for up to four days. "Cash is not a good vehicle to transport respiratory viruses, however, cards have a little bit more potential," says Dr. Susan Whittier, a clinical microbiologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia University Medical Center. "If someone is coughing, and then they hand their credit card to someone across the counter, I wouldn't rule out the potential of transmission." Specifically, the case can be confirmed with the coronavirus statistics compared to cashless payments numbers by country. The UK, USA, China, Germany and France are in the top 10 cashless countries and also in the top ten countries most affected by the coronavirus. Sadly, leaning towards cashless payments did not save them from the infection outbreak - the fact remains that inanimate surfaces are not the main way of catching the virus, says the US Centers for Disease Control: "It may be possible that a person can get Covid-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads." The infection appeared recently and is still not understood well. There are many questions regarding it, and the main issue relates to the vaccine against the coronavirus. At the same time, we already know that the main way of transmission is close contact with an infected person, and the main "bridge" through which the virus enters the body is our hands. That is why governments around the world impose quarantines and WHO primarily recommends handwashing and social distancing: after all, it is not what you touch, but how thoroughly you wash your hands and how close you are to an opposite person. A man wanted in connection with the death of 39 people from Vietnam found in the back of a refrigerated lorry in Essex, near London last October, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter in Ireland, according to Essex police. Ronan Hughes is charged with manslaughter in Ireland in connection with Essex lorry incident (Photo: Metro) Ronan Hughes, from County Armagh in Northern Ireland, was detained on April 20, following the execution of a European arrest warrant in Ireland. The 40-year-old man has been charged with 39 offences of manslaughter, as well as immigration offences. He will appear at Dublin's High Court on April 21. Previously, driver Maurice Robinson, from Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter at Central London Criminal Court on April 8. On November 25, 2019, Robinson pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property. Another driver from North Ireland, Eamonn Harrison, 23, drove the container, which carried the victims, to the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, where it was put on a ferry to England and picked up at the other end by Maurice Robinson on early morning of October 23. He was accused of manslaughter./. Essex lorry incident: Driver Maurice Robinson pleads guilty Driver Maurice Robinson, accused in the deaths of 39 people from Vietnam found in the back of a refrigerated lorry in Essex, near London last October, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter on April 8. Ukraine's Consulate General in Hamburg set contact with the German company that owns the vessel to find out the details; the authority was informed of the incident on April 20 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. Serhiy Pohoreltsev, the director of the Department of Consulate Service of Ukraine's Foreign Ministry reported that as quoted by Ukrinform news agency. The diplomat said that on April 20, the Embassy of Ukraine in Germany was informed of the incident, in which the vessel was raided by pirates. Tommy Ritscher, under the Portuguese flag, was operated by German company Transeste Schiffahrt Gmbh. "According to the preliminary information, one citizen of Ukraine, the vessel crew member, a Ukrainian citizen was captured and taken in the unknown direction", he said. The official added that Ukraine's Consulate General in Hamburg set contact with the German company that owns the vessel to find out the details. Besides, the Embassy in Nigeria turned to the authorities in Benin, trying to get the confirmation of the captivity of Ukrainian citizen. "The case is unber control of the involved Ukrainian diplomatic offices and the Department of Consulate Service of the Foreign Ministry", Pohoreltsev said. Would-be travellers who were grounded when the coronavirus crisis locked down international borders are livid with travel agency Flight Centre for refusing to budge on 'ridiculous' cancellation policies. While airlines were quick to refund the full cost of flights, holidaymakers who booked trips through Flight Centre have found themselves an additional $300 out of pocket. According to the terms and conditions of the booking agency, a $300 per person cancellation fee is taken to cover the cost of staff and making the booking. But thousands of frustrated customers have told Daily Mail Australia they don't believe the terms have been met, considering it was Flight Centre's own suppliers - the airlines - who cancelled the trips. Meshelle Capulong, a 26-year-old graphic designer from Green Vale in western Sydney booked a trip of a lifetime through Europe, the UK and Dubai for April this year. She, her sister and a friend had been saving for the holiday and booked last October, well before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. Meshelle Capulong (right), a 26-year-old graphic designer, and her sister (left) booked a trip of a lifetime through Europe, the UK and Dubai for April this year before the coronavirus crisis The Garnero family (pictured) also told Daily Mail Australia they were left out of pocket $1,500 after Flight Centre refused to refund the full cost of their flights They were well aware of the $300 cancellation fee, but believe it shouldn't apply given the circumstances. Ms Capulong told Daily Mail Australia she made weekly inquiries with Flight Centre and Topdeck for five weeks prior to the cancellation. She was told time and time again that there was no chance her trip would be suspended. 'By March 9, I asked again because it was getting pretty serious - particularly in Italy. This time, I was told ''if we cancel the trip for any reason, you will get a full refund for the cost of the trip'',' she said. Two days after that message, which was sent by the official Topdeck Instagram page, they announced all tours were cancelled. Ms Capulong, who lost her job as a graphic designer, was counting on a quick and easy refund process to keep her on her feet without any source of income. When Flight Centre did contact her days later, she was told she must accept either a voucher - which had an expiration date - or pay a $500 fee to Emirates, followed by a $300 fee to Flight Centre, to get her refund. 'We booked this trip in the first place only because we got a limited deal that made it affordable for us at the time... That is our own money we should be entitled to get back considering we now have no income to live off,' she said. The pair have travelled in the past but were particularly looking forward to this holiday Ms Capulong told Daily Mail Australia she made weekly inquiries with Flight Centre and Topdeck for five weeks prior to the cancellation. She was told time and time again that there was no chance her trip would be suspended 'This is a shock to everyone, we are completely understanding of that, but we are losing a total of $2,400 in cancellation fees for a trip that has already cost us more than $24,000. 'Flight Centre has done nothing but add to the exhaustion and stress this situation has put us through... It is ridiculous to me that they can basically rob us of our money.' Ms Capulong said she couldn't accept a travel voucher from any of the companies involved due to the volatility in the industry at the moment and the very real possibility that more companies - like Virgin Airlines - would collapse in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. But Flight Centre's Global Media & Investor Relations Manager Haydn Long told nine.com.au the policy was in line with other travel agencies, and exceptions were being considered in some circumstances. 'Customers can leave their money on file to be put towards future bookings, without being charged any fees by Flight Centre,' Mr Long said. 'If customers request a refund, charges do normally apply, although they are being waived or reduced in some cases. 'These charges, which are outlined in our standard terms and conditions, reflect the fact that our people have performed the service requested of them in booking products for customers and the significant time involved in processing and securing refunds from airlines and other suppliers.' Another angry customer claimed the business changed their terms and conditions in the wake of the crisis to ensure they could pocket extra cash. A man whose parents are struggling to get their refund said after examining the hard copy booking sheet, he believes what the company is doing is not justified. Topdeck travel told Ms Capulong she would be entitled to a full refund should her trip be cancelled According to the terms and conditions of Flight Centre, a $300 per person cancellation fee is taken to cover the cost of staff and making the booking 'Cancelled bookings may incur supplier fees... which [the customer] agrees to indemnify us for the amount of that fee,' the terms read. But he said in these circumstances, airlines had made it clear there were no supplier fees and full refunds had been issued to Flight Centre. He said it now appeared the business was trying to combine that clause with the customer cancellation clause - in which the customer is subject to a fee if they choose to cancel their trip. 'People are not 'cancelling' their own trip. Flight Centre's supplier has cancelled the trip... They are now trying to link the two clauses together and inform everyone a fee applies for a cancelled trip even by their supplier,' he said. 'This is totally dishonest and unacceptable.' Primary school teacher Michelle Garnero told Daily Mail Australia Flight Centre in Dapto was withholding more than $1,500 from her family after her booking to the United States was cancelled. She said she was verbally told they would be receiving a full refund from her booking agent, before that woman was subsequently let go and she began dealing with management. The Bonham (pictured) family had booked to travel with the Garnero family before the coronavirus crisis grounded flights An initial email told them they would lose a fee of $100 per person for the refund, but that number was later changed to $300 per person. Ms Garnero doesn't believe they should be able to take a cent from her, because while the terms and conditions stipulate potential 'cancellation fees' - she didn't cancel anything. 'We have not cancelled anything at all... The airlines stopped flying and the government put a travel ban in place,' she clarified. The airlines and accommodation have all refunded the full amount to Flight Centre, but the company is fighting to keep a portion to cover the costs of the work that was put in to making the booking. The family were offered a credit, which must be used in full by July 2021, or a refund less the $300 per person. For a family of five, that equates to about $1,500. 'We tried to offer what we thought were reasonable solutions. First we said we'd sacrifice the $100 fee per person, which is what was initially offered to us,' Ms Garnero said. When that was rejected, they offered to pay $600, to cover the cost of both the adults. They thought it was fair they received the full money back for their children, who are all aged under 10. 'They had no interest in supporting my family in any way,' she said, Ms Garnero said she would have considered taking a credit had the company not been 'continually sacking staff and closing doors across Australia.' 'How do I know they won't go bust in that time? Then I'd lose nearly $8,000,' she said. Now that Ms Capulong is out of a job and would prefer the money in her account rather than a credit note for a future holiday The primary school teacher has requested a refund out of the two options given to her, but will be pursuing the additional $1,500 charge, which she believes is rightfully hers. David Swiggs also told Daily Mail Australia he feels ripped off by Flight Centre. The father-of-three saved up for two years to take his family on a holiday to Europe, but has been left bitterly disappointed by the treatment he's received. Mr Swiggs told Daily Mail Australia despite the airline offering a full refund for cancelled flights, they're facing excessive fees from the travel agent and a lengthy wait time to get their money back. 'Flight Centre is wanting to charge us $1,500 for flights that have been cancelled,' he said. He said the entire process is causing unnecessary stress on his family during an already difficult time. 'My wife is in an essential industry, providing out of home care for children removed from their families by child protection. I'm trying to work from home while home schooling the 3 kids under 14,' he said. 'It is just adding to the stress. Working from home. Having to home school the kids. Then to think that some company thinks it can basically take our money.' A spokesman for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) confirmed they were aware of the situation. 'We have been engaging closely with Flight Centre and have spoken and written to them requesting information to understand whether they consider they have a right to charge these fees,' the spokesperson said. Of the $16 billion of direct support to farmers and ranchers from USDA, the nations dairy farmers will receive $2.9 billion in direct payments. Those disbursements will help replace some, but not all, of the actual market losses for agricultural producers caused by COVID-19. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue shared details of those payments via a media press conference. That press conference was held at an unprecedented time 8 p.m. CDT on Friday, April 17. Questions flowed from agricultural media outlets along with the likes of The Wall Street Journal and ABC News during the nearly one-hour long question-and-answer session. Unprecedented times Farmers are seeing prices and a market supply chain affected by the virus like they never could have expected, said USDA Secretary Perdue. We know the disruption to markets and demand is significant, and these payments will only cover a portion of the impacts on farmers and ranchers. Producers will receive a single payment determined using two calculations: Price losses that occurred January 1 to April 15, 2020. Producers will be compensated 85% of price loss during that period. The second part of the payment will be expected losses from April 15 through the next two quarters and will cover 30% of expected losses. The payment limit is $125,000 per commodity with an overall limit of $250,000 per individual or entity, reported Senator John Hoeven, (R-ND), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee. Qualified commodities must have experienced a 5% price decrease between January and April, reported the senator in a separate press release. Having to dump milk or plow under vegetables ready to market is not only financially distressing, but its heartbreaking as well to those who produce them, stated Secretary Perdue. Dairy details What does the $2.9 billion figure look like for dairy farmers? Estimates have ranged from $1.50 to $1.74 per hundredweight (cwt.). From a California perspective, there is some concern about watered-down payments due to the states larger herd size. For an average California dairy of 1,200 cows, producing an average of 2,000 pounds per month (per cow), the maximum payment for a three-month period would be $1.74 per cwt., stated leaders for Western United Dairyman. Heres another take. At the time of publishing, we think farms with more than 500 cows will receive the maximum payout, wrote Matt Gould in the April 17, 2020, The Dairy Market Analyst. That means the remaining 90% of producers will receive less than the $125,000 limit, he continued. If we are right, the portion of the program going to producers with more than 500 cows will only cost $417 million. The other $2.5 million would be spread across farms with less than 500 cows an average of about $80,500 per farm, continued Gould, writing in The Dairy Market Analyst. So, this leads to two possible conclusions: either USDA is going to use this money to support small farms or it is not going to pay out anywhere close to $2.9 billion. That being the case, the direct payments will not even come close to making up for all of dairy farmers losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, its a starting point to help bridge the market chaos where milk supply exceeds demand by at least 10%. That gap could widen as milk production begins to peak during the spring flush and if safer at home orders are extended by U.S. governors. The sign-up process USDA will do everything in our power to implement this program as quickly and as efficiently as possible, said Perdue during the Friday night White House news conference. The Secretary went on to explain that the sign-up process should begin in May, and payments should be headed to farmers by early June. We are going to do this as quickly as possible, stated Perdue. Two no goes for dairy The USDA Secretary, and his advisers, rejected two requests from the greater dairy industry: The Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) insurance program will not be reopened for retroactive 2020 coverage. There will not be a USDA-implemented supply reduction program to cut milk production by 10%. We literally begged people to sign up last year . . . it doesnt make any sense to have an insurance program and allow people to retroactively decide to elect coverage after they need it, he said in answering media questions. As for the short-term supply control program, Secretary Perdue rejected that idea, indicating it would have been costly and needed far more examination over the long term. He went on to say this would be better handled by the industry. How dairy fared The $16 billion in payments are part of the CARES Act known by its longer name of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), and other USDA existing authorities. Of the $16 billion in direct farm payments: $9.6 billion is for the livestock industry $5.1 billion for cattle $2.9 billion for dairy $1.6 billion for hogs $3.9 billion for row crop producers $2.1 billion for specialty crops producers $500 million for other crops Secretary Perdue acknowledged that allocating money was an arduous process as all the agricultural commodity groups submitted their own estimates. Ultimately, the Secretary relied on the Office of the Chief Economist and Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri to quantify the demand destruction by commodity groups. An additional $3 billion for food purchases On top of the $16 billion in direct payments, USDA will allocate another $3 billion in mass purchases of dairy, meat, and produce that will be distributed through food banks. USDA plans to roll the $3 billion plan out as $100 million monthly food purchases via a preapproved box of food for distribution at food banks and other outlets. It is new and different; weve never done this before, Secretary Perdue stated. It will be a logistical Rubiks Cube. To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com. (c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2020 April 20, 2020 New Delhi: The Civil Services Day is being celebrated on Tuesday (April 21). The day commemorates all the civil servants who dedicate their lives to the cause of citizens. The day also aims at renewing their commitments to public service and excellence in work. On this day in 1947, Independent India's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had addressed to the probationers of Administrative Services Officers at Metcalf House, Delhi, and since then, the day became a special occasion. The first celebration of Civil Services Day was held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on April 21, 2006. On this day, the Prime Ministers Awards for Excellence in Public Administration to various officers is given to celebrate their work. These awards inspire civil servants to contribute better to the government of India while ensuring the welfare of the citizens. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social media to congratulate civil servants, saying "Today, on Civil Services Day I convey greetings to all Civil Servants and their families. I appreciate their efforts in ensuring India successfully defeats COVID-19. They are working round the clock, assisting those in need and ensuring everyone is healthy." PM Modi further tweeted, "On Civil Services Day, tributes to the great Sardar Patel, who envisioned our administrative framework and emphasised on building a system that is progress-oriented and compassionate." On Civil Services Day, tributes to the great Sardar Patel, who envisioned our administrative framework and emphasised on building a system that is progress-oriented and compassionate. Sharing my speech from Civil Services Day in 2018. https://t.co/KANhpFsTkd Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2020 Union Home Minister Amit Shah also congratulated civil servants as "I extend my warm greetings to all Civil Servants and their families on Civil Servant Day. They have played a pioneering role in Indias progress. Today at these challenging times their dedication, commitment and efforts to defeat COVID-19 are truly appreciable. I extend my warm greetings to all Civil Servants and their families on Civil Servant Day. They have played a pioneering role in Indias progress. Today at these challenging times their dedication, commitment and efforts to defeat COVID-19 are truly appreciable. Amit Shah (@AmitShah) April 21, 2020 Meanwhile, IAS Association thanked Union Home Minister and tweeted, "We are grateful to Hon'ble Home Minister for appreciating the role played by Civil Servants in India's progress and in #fightagainstcorona. We shall strive hard to win war against #COVID19" Banks approved only one-third of retail loans applications in March Ella King Russell Torrey speaking to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in August 2015. The photo was taken after she was given the U.N. Human Rights Hero Award for 50 years of service in human rights. Read more People Weve Lost Ella Torrey 94 years old Lived in Chestnut Hill She once was public information officer for Eleanor Roosevelt More Memorials Ella King Russell Torrey, 94, a longtime Chestnut Hill resident who dedicated her life to peace, diplomacy, and human rights after losing her 20-year-old brother during World War II, died Tuesday, April 14. Her death at Chestnut Hill Hospital was due to complications from COVID-19. She had lived at Cathedral Village in Roxborough for 15 years. In March 1944, Mrs. Torrey was preparing to enter Bennington College when word came that her brother, pilot Louis Russell, had been shot down and was missing in action over the Pacific. His remains were never found. This was when Ella decided that war was not the answer, her family said in a statement. Over a half-century, Mrs. Torrey advocated for cross-cultural understanding and human rights. Her most high-profile job came in the early 1950s as public information officer for Eleanor Roosevelt, who had been appointed by President Harry S. Truman as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations. She was also Roosevelts stand-in on the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Mrs. Torrey told the Chestnut Hill Local in 2011 that she handled Roosevelts speeches and correspondence. She found her boss to be good-humored and a hard worker. I wasnt afraid of her at all, Mrs. Torrey told the Local. Working days began with staff meetings and then scheduled U.N. meetings around 10 a.m. Lunch was either an official meeting in the delegates dining room or, as Mrs. Roosevelt preferred, in the cafeteria, where she carried her own tray and we sat with secretaries, guards, and U.N. staffers. It became very personal, and I was often invited to eat dinner with her and visit occasionally at Val-Kill Cottage," her home in Hyde Park, N.Y. Born in Philadelphia to Norman F.S. and Ella D. Russell, she was raised in Edgewater Park, on the Delaware River in Burlington County. An aspiring dancer, she graduated from the Agnes Irwin School in Bryn Mawr. She had commuted from New Jersey. On a lark after graduating, she and a friend auditioned for the high-kicking Rockettes in New York City. She failed the test. Once her father heard of the audition, he urged her to enroll in college. She graduated from Bennington in 1947 with a bachelors degree in English. After college, Mrs. Torrey joined the Chicago Tribunes bureau in Paris, soon becoming an editor in the Paris bureau of Al-Misri, then Egypts largest daily newspaper. She was one step closer to her interest in the United Nations, which, in Paris at the time, was dealing with the Arab-Israeli issue, her family said. In late 1949, she joined the U.N. as an information officer, writing reports on all meetings of the Security Council, General Assembly, and U.N. committees. The reports helped government agencies and U.S. embassies overseas formulate U.S. foreign policy. As a reward for her performance, she was made an aide to Roosevelt. In 1954, she married Carl Buzz Torrey. That year, the family moved to Cambridge, Mass. Later, the Torreys lived in Bethlehem, Pa., where she became director of the local World Affairs Council. Their final move, in 1969, was to Chestnut Hill. She became community affairs director of the World Affairs Council. An engaging guide, she led cultural-exchange tours to the Soviet Union, China, and Nepal. From 1977 to 1987, Mrs. Torrey was executive director of the International Visitors Council. Under her tenure, the Philadelphia branch grew to serve more than 4,000 foreign visitors a year. Mrs. Torrey retired at age 62. She volunteered for the Friends of the Wissahickon and the Philadelphia Committee on Foreign Relations. In 2015, Mrs. Torrey received the U.N. Human Rights Hero Award from the U.S. Mission to the U.N., for her 50 years of service. She addressed the delegates during ceremonies in New York. She is survived by a son, L. Russell; a daughter, Elizabeth P.; and six grandsons. In addition to her brother and husband, she was preceded in death by daughter Ella King Torrey and son Carl G. Jr. A memorial service will be held later at Cathedral Village. Contributions may be made to the Ella Russell Torrey 47 Scholarship Fund, Bennington College, 1 College Dr., Bennington, Vt. 95201. Laredo City Council and Health Authority Victor Trevino made several changes to the citys emergency order on Monday evening, namely opening city trails not city parks and loosening restrictions on covering ones nose and mouth while on city streets and sidewalks. Now, whether if exercising or walking alone outside, Laredoans only need to have a mask or covering with them; they do not need to be wearing it unless they come in close contact with another person. This does not go into effect until the amended order is signed by the mayor. Council also voted to extend their emergency order another 30 days through May 30. Trevino recommended that the city begin conducting random testing on locals to get an idea of how many are infected but asymptomatic. Currently, the city is only facilitating testing for people who display symptoms or came in contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient, which paints an incomplete picture of the citys infection rate. Councilman George Altgelt argued that they wont be able to make good policy decisions if they are only examining this one subset of data. The health authority noted that if they want this to be a valid epidemiological test, they will need to consult an epidemiologist on the parameters of the study. Otherwise this will just serve as a tool for local officials. Councilman Marte Martinez, who is also a medical doctor, said testing health care personnel and first responders in particular will give a good approximation of the overall incidence of the virus in Laredos population. Health Director Dr. Hector Gonzalez said the city has between 2,000 and 2,500 tests available. Council voted to prioritize random testing first for medical personnel, then first responders such as firefighters, then for El Metro and rideshare drivers. They also voted to give Trevino the authority to conduct random sampling and screening at the citys points of entry, focusing on the pedestrian traffic at bridge 1. Council considered these measures partially in response to Gov. Greg Abbotts initiative to reopen Texas and its economy. Although they ended up extending the citys stay at home order until the end of May, Councilman Martinez noted that when Laredoans eventually go back to work, the city should focus on protecting people age 65 and older and those with comorbidity two or more serious health conditions potentially enforcing that these groups in particular should remain at home. This was not voted on. Because so many people are staying at home, accidents have decreased, resulting in a seven-year low of Laredos hospital bed availability, according to Fire Chief Steve Landin. Martinez said this indicates that local resources can hold up if the city sees an increase in cases when personal interaction ramps up. Altgelt noted that the data they collect on asymptomatic patients may not support Abbotts and President Trumps priorities to get people back to work. Councilman Alberto Torres pointed out that Laredo hasnt even reached its peak in cases yet, and said it was nonsense that the City Council was considering relaxing the restrictions for which theyve been championed across the nation. Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com Inconsistency in applying social-distancing rules is weakening the barriers set to protect us from Covid-19. Tran Anh Tu My motorbike broke right in front of a repair shop on a street in Hanoi, but unfortunately, that shop was closed. Motorbike repair is not on the list of "essential services," meaning those allowed to remain operative during the social distancing campaign, which lasted from April 1 to 15 nationwide and was later extended to April 22 across the capital Hanoi, HCMC and 10 other localities deemed at high risk of Covid-19 infection. I walked my motorbike home, calling my office to say I would not make it. Im a reporter and I cant even tell if my job is "essential" or not. Many state agencies have suspended operations in the name of "unessential services." Last week, my friend asked me to help him get a Red Book, a certificate pertaining to land use rights in Vietnam, to prove his familys ownership of an apartment in My Dinh District. In the process, my friend had already paid over VND30 million (over $1,200). In contrast to our first visit, the district office was quiet and deserted, the security guard paying us little heed. The only staff member on duty confirmed her colleagues were on break. "It depends on the PMs decision," she said, in answer to our question as to when they would return. At another office, we were informed to return once the PM had allowed it to reopen. The social distancing rule has been applied in varying degree. Stories tell of villages constructing barriers of soil and stone to restrict access, and communes assigning task forces to help regulate traffic. Hai Phong, a major port city in the north, requested anyone who wanted to exit the city to present a document signed by the chairman of the district where they reside. Ha Long Town, home to famous Ha Long Bay, said it would make public the IDs of those visiting markets more than twice per day and those who fail to wear masks in public. Central Da Nang City now plans to quarantine those arriving from Hanoi and HCMC, the two localities with the highest number of infections, and collect a fee for daily necessities. Thai Binh Province, also in the north, meanwhile, does not allow anyone from a stricken locality to enter. The definition of "essential services" has many scratching their heads. A noodle vendor would not consider a stall selling sticky rice "essential," and vice versa. A shop repairing computers may not seem "essential" but, with many now working from home, whos to argue? Many men are also hard-pressed to find a barber, not fully trusting the skills of their partners. While the above remains open for debate, the Red Book could serve as collateral allowing access to a significant bank loan. Another friend sold a house before the social distancing campaign kicked off, and can only receive full payment once he officially transferred ownership via the Red Book. However, officials in charge of issuing the document had all taken leave, in accordance with the city order. The Red Book is an asset many have to save all their life to get. But for state agencies, it simply represents a piece of paper with a red cover and national emblem. Shops along a Hanoi street are temporarily shut down, April 14, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh. Now is the time the entire nation gets on the same page. But unconditionally accepting all interpretations of social distancing rules and following every administrative order in the name of Covid-19 should not be considered consensus. The population of 90 million are still largely driven by urgent needs, with social distancing weakened by a willing tongue but unwilling heart. Some would accept a fine when caught without a mask, bow their head when caught escaping quarantine and bear all the rocks thrown at them when failing to provide sufficient health declarations. But if they can secretly break the rules to get what they need, they will. If I was not a reporter, but some poor manual laborer whose income depends on daily employ, I would do anything to fix my bike and get to work instead of simply making a call and going home. A leading city in socio-economic development had withdrawn a directive controlling vehicle entry after three days. Another city, praised widely for urban management, failed to collect the planned quarantine fee. Such inconsistency can in no way aid the fight against the epidemic nor stabilize the social psychology. Besides, it remains unclear if, aside from the Red Book, construction permits, marriage registration, and correction of identity documents fall under "non-essential" services. My point here is that the diversity of our lives and inconsistency in interpreting social distancing regulations have fueled public concern of the implied benefits. Lee Chang-Hee, country director of ILO Vietnam, said earlier: "It is no longer just a public health challenge. We need to protect public health, and peoples livelihoods. It is not a choice. If we fail to save peoples livelihoods, we will ultimately fail to protect their life and health against the virus, and vice versa." What matters most is how state agencies treat the people. Authorities could treat all privately-owned businesses as "non-essential" and temporarily suspended their operations. But they need to consider the reasonable needs of ordinary citizens as "essential." While the entire nation tries to stand together in this fight, my friend has no choice but to wait for his Red Book while the poor dare not lament the lack of food on their tables. In the end, the question remains "Why each state agency is allowed to interpret social-distancing rules in its own way?" *Tran Anh Tu is a journalist. The opinions expressed here are his own. PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-21 09:05:03 Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust implements video consultation software in response to COVID-19 crisis LONDON, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global cloud communications software and solutions provider IMImobile PLC , today announces that its healthcare division, Healthcare Communications , has launched its eClinic software to NHS trusts for free for a year. The video consultation software allows for patients to see their clinicians via online consultations, from the comfort and safety of their own homes. This means that regular health checks and medical reporting can continue even if patients or healthcare professionals are self-isolating. Kenny Bloxham, Managing Director at Healthcare Communications, says: We all need to support the NHS through this crisis; by switching as many appointments to virtual as possible, we can ensure services are not overwhelmed in the future. The eClinic solution is clinician led, so patients dont spend lengthy periods in virtual waiting rooms instead, clinicians can immediately connect with their patient. It can be rolled out at scale across hospitals and GPs within days, and looking to the longer term, represents a sustainable way to redesign the patient pathway for the future. eClinic also allows clinicians to collaborate and exchange medical opinion, through clinician-to-clinician support and consultation features, meaning communications between colleagues can be maintained and kept private, despite the professional distances created by the coronavirus pandemic. The eClinic video consultation platform enables clinicians to convert entire clinic lists to virtual appointments. Healthcare workers can also use the platform to immediately assess urgent patients who cannot attend in person. Not only is this kind of IT implementation crucial during the coronavirus outbreak, but digitally transforming patient care will improve overall efficiency for NHS trusts. Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust have implemented the software in response to COVID-19 and now have 40 clinicians set up to use the system. Dr Muhammad Javed, Consultant Paediatrician and CCIO at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, said: We have always felt that a significant number of our patients do not actually need to come to the clinic. During the current pandemic, having a service like eClinic has become a necessity. The clinicians are able to tailor the consultation to patient's needs, which has resulted in improved clinician satisfaction and hopefully will result in improved patient satisfaction as well. The clinicians feel that the ability to provide clear instructions to the patient by in-consultation text chat and transferring information leaflets using the file transfer facility makes this consultation mode safer. The ability to share the screen to show the patients their x-rays, etc., has also proved to be invaluable." Dr James Halpern, Consultant Dermatologist at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, added: As a Dermatology service, we need to urgently see patients with suspected skin cancers, yet, at the same time, many of these patients are elderly and need to self-isolate in order to protect themselves from infection. On the first day of using this software, we were able to triage 23 urgent cancer patients in their own homes and identify nine cases, including two nursing home residents who we were able to reassure. Those nine elderly, high risk patients are now able to avoid the risks of catching coronavirus by visiting the hospital. The COVID-19 crisis had put considerable stain on the worlds healthcare systems when it comes to dealing with a pandemic situation and emergencies that result from non-pandemic circumstances. By implementing video consultation software such as eClinic, hospitals can forge a more efficient and effective healthcare system, which is digitally viable and ultimately safer for its patients. About IMImobile PLC IMImobile is a communications software provider whose solutions enable enterprises to automate digital customer communications and interactions to improve customer experience and reduce operating costs. IMImobile's enterprise cloud communications software platform orchestrates customer interactions, connecting existing business systems with digital communications channels. Organisations that trust us to deliver smarter digital customer engagement include Hermes, Centrica, AA, O2, EE, BT, Vauxhall, Vodafone, MTN, three of the major retail banks in the UK and public-sector organisations globally. IMImobile is headquartered in London with offices across the UK, Hyderabad, Toronto, Florida, Dubai and Johannesburg and has over 1,100 employees worldwide. IMImobile is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market with the TIDM code IMO. About Healthcare Communications (An IMImobile Company) Healthcare Communications is the leading provider of patient communication services in the UK healthcare market working with more than 350 hospitals and delivering 100 million secure patient communications a year. It supports digitally-driven, patient-led NHS communications that improve engagement, boost appointment attendances and increase patient satisfaction levels. The e-clinic software is integrated with their partner Intouch with Health, who provide patient flow solutions to over 50 NHS trusts. Nigerian Christian student killed, 2 villagers abducted by suspected Fulani radicals Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Christian college student was reportedly shot and killed by radical Fulani herdsmen during a raid on a village in the Nigerian state of Kaduna last Thursday, about a week after a pastor was stabbed to death in his church in southern Nigeria. Residents of the Gbagyi Villa of the north-central state of Kaduna told the nonprofit persecution media outlet Morning Star News that Federal Polytechnic student Sebastine Stephen was shot and killed around 11:30 p.m. last Thursday. According to residents, Stephen was visiting his home village in the Chikun local government area because classes at his college in Zamfara state have been suspended due to the global coronavirus outbreak. Stephen was reportedly outside at around when suspected Fulani herdsmen raided the village. Stephen raised alarm, warning residents about the invasion of our community as he was still outside at the time the herdsmen came to attack the community, resident Hosea Yusuf told Morning Star News.The herdsmen instantly shot him and then proceeded to enter one of the houses close to them, where they kidnapped a couple. The gunfire that killed Stephen further alerted other residents to flee. They were shooting randomly at residents while retreating because the alarm raised by Sebastine had attracted the attention of the other residents, who in turn alerted security agencies, area resident Sunday Musa told the news outlet. Another resident, Chris Obodumu, said that the attackers were armed with sophisticated weapons. After killing Stephen, the attackers were said to have broken into the house of Jack Nweke. Nweke and his wife, who have three children, were abducted. Community leader Martins Emmanuel said that night, Fulani militants also attacked the nearby area of Mararaban Rido. Stephens killing comes as thousands of people from predominantly Christian farming villages throughout Nigeria have been killed in recent years by attacks carried out by groups of nomadic Fulani radicals. On April 10, two suspected Fulani radicals reportedly killed Pastor Stephen Akpor of the Celestial Church of Christ in the Aniocha North local government area of the southern Delta state. According to the Nigerian daily newspaper Vanguard, the attack occurred around 8:30 p.m. while the pastor was counseling five members of his congregation. Sources told the newspaper that Akpor leaves behind a wife and five children. He [was] gunned him down through the window, one witness told Vanguard. Before the police got here and took him to the General Hospital, Ibusa, he gave up the ghost. A doctor who spoke with Vanguard confirmed to the news outlet that the deceased pastor was also stabbed after he was shot and that he died as a result of the stab wounds. Onome Onovwakpoyeya, a local police spokesperson, told Vanguard that an investigation has begun into Akpors death. Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List. The International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law estimates that at least 400 Christians have been killed in 2020 alone by Fulani herdsmen. So far in April, several Christians have reportedly been killed by suspected Fulani radicals. Intersociety estimates that at least 11,500 Christians have been killed since 2015 by Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram militants, and highway bandits. The nongovernmental organization reported in March that at least 20 clergymen have been killed and no less than 50 religious leaders have been kidnapped during that time. Last Friday, an Anglican pastor along with his wife and kids in the Delta state was reportedly kidnapped by suspected Fulani herdsmen. A local source that spoke to Vanguard explained that the wife and children were released with the order to get money to pay ransom for Rev. Anthony Oyi. Nigeria is also listed on the U.S. State Departments special watch list for countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom. The U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told reporters last December that Nigeria was placed on the list for the first time because of the increasing violence and communal activity and the lack of effective government response and the lack of judicial cases being brought forward in that country. Because of attacks on predominantly Christian farming communities by predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen throughout Nigeria, thousands have been displaced from their homes and farms in the last five-plus years in Middle Belt states like Plateau, Benue, Taraba, and Kaduna. While the violence in the middle belt between predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen and predominantly Christian farming communities has largely been described as farmer-herder clashes, advocates for displaced Christian communities argue that such terminology is not quite accurate. Initially, it was termed communal [farmer-herder] clash, and little or nothing was known about it. People [of the village] would always come out, form a vigilante group and help defend themselves, Elizabeth Duile of Agatu Resource and Innovation Center in the Benue state told CP recently. So it would just end up [seeming] like there was an ethnic clash and all of that. And for a long time, it was termed as so until 2016, when 10 of Agatus 17 villages were overrun at the same time. That was when hundreds of people were killed. And there was a need to let the world hear what was happening. If we keep calling them herdsmen, that [just feeds the narrative] of a communal clash, she continued. It's more wanting to take over the community, not just herders coming to feed their cattle. So It became more of a full-blown war and not just coming to feed, or graze. International human rights groups Jubilee Campaign and Christian Solidarity International have both indicated that the level of violence against Christians in Nigeria has risen to the level of genocide. A 10-year-old girl who sewed coronavirus masks for local nurses has been killed in an accident involving an all terrain vehicle (ATV). Lexi Collins of Munday, Texas, made approximately 100 masks earlier this month and donated them to nurses at Anson General Hospital. With schools closed due to the pandemic, Lexi spent countless hours sewing to help local first responders her mother, grandmother, aunt and uncle are all nurses. Thankful for a beautiful donation of masks by a special 5th grader from Munday, Texas. Thank you Lexi Collins, the hospital wrote on its Facebook page. In her honour, people are tying turquoise ribbons around trees. Turquoise was her favourite colour. There are also plans for a statue in the future. A candlelight vigil for Lexi was held on Sunday night with people asked to remain six feet apart to adhere to social distancing requirements. Her funeral, on Monday, was similarly structured with anyone attending wearing face masks, remaining in household groups, six feet apart, and asked to quarantine at home for 14 days afterwards. T he first official signs of the jobs fallout from the coronavirus lockdown emerged today as figures showed the number of people in paid employment falling and job vacancies starting to dry up. Government statisticians said early estimates suggest that the number of employees fell slightly in March compared with February. It represents a dip of only 0.06 per cent, but comes after years of steadily rising numbers of people in paid work as the economy recovered from the recession that followed the financial crisis. The number of job vacancies was down by 52,000 to 795,000 in the three months to March compared with a year ago. Most economists expect a massive surge in unemployment later in the year despite the Governments furlough scheme designed to soften the worst of the impact of the pandemic. In a research note released this morning forecasters Capital Economics said: Despite the unparalleled speed and size of the monetary and fiscal stimulus, the unemployment rate will probably still leap from four per cent to nine per cent and many businesses will go bust. John Lewis said sales had fallen 17 per cent year-on-year since mid-March despite an 84 per cent spike in trade from its website. However, Waitrose, the department stores sister company, has performed strongly, with sales up eight per cent since January 26. A Waitrose employee cleans a check out / Getty Images The partnerships chairwoman Dame Sharon White said that in a worst-case scenario sales were expected to be down 35 per cent at John Lewis and five per cent at the supermarket. She also revealed that 14,000 staff have been furloughed, and senior bosses including the board have taken a 20 per cent pay cut from April to June. Loading.... In an upbeat message she added: The partnership has been trading for nearly a century. It has survived a world war, bombings, economic crashes and crises. "Thanks to you we shall also come through Covid-19 too and emerge stronger. John Lewis shop in Birmingham's Grand Central Station / PA Fuel campaigners said that drivers are being ripped off at the forecourt following the unprecedented falls in the oil price. Howard Cox, founder of lobby group FairFuelUK, said the petrol and diesel prices are averaging about 10p a litre more than they should be. He added: An independent pricing watchdog is vital to protect our economy and allow essential workers to fill up their vehicles with the fairest and most honest prices at the pumps. Loading.... Yesterday traders were being paid more than $40 a barrel of West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for US oil, as falling global demand pushed the price into negative territory for the first time in history. Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Soltan Achilova is a freelance photojournalist based in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, who covers social issues for independent foreign-based media outlets including Khronika Turkmenistana. As a journalist in one of the worlds most closed-off societies, where reporters are constantly at risk, Achilova has been attacked, harassed, and put under travel ban in recent years, as CPJ has documented. Turkmenistan is one of a handful of countries that have not officially reported any cases of COVID-19 as of April 20, according to the World Health Organization. Achilova corresponded with CPJ via email last week. Her answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity. What kinds of challenges do journalists face in Turkmenistan? My work has always been difficult. The situation changed for the worse in 2017-2018, when the MNB [Ministry of National Security] was headed by Dovrangeldy Bayramov. There were many attacks against me, one after another. They [MNB agents] took away my camera, I was under surveillance 24/7. It felt like a whole army was following me everywhere, and they attacked me whenever they wanted. They would approach me when I took pictures, take my camera, delete all the photos, and return it to me with a warning, threats, and sometimes detentions. Once, someone broke the windows in the car of my son, who has a disability. The police never investigated the incident. The security service has put pressure on my family, relatives, and friends who kept contacts with me. My family members and I were under a travel ban. After Bayramov was sacked [in June 2018], the round-the-clock physical surveillance and attacks stopped. But the difficulties remain. A journalist who works for foreign media is still considered an enemy in Turkmenistan. All my family members know about the risks of my work and oppose me. They constantly ask me to stop working as a journalist. But they also see how faithful I am to my profession, and sometimes show some understanding. How do you communicate with your colleagues and sources? I stay in touch with other journalists who work with international media. But the communication is limited to the exchange of opinions only. Everybody has their own problems. I believe they [the MNB] read our emails, because everything in Turkmenistan is under the control of the security services. We cannot use phone apps, the security service conducts constant surveillance of everything on the internet. My phones are tapped. I know that because if I arrange a meeting with someone or discuss an important issue, they [the MNB] prevent me from meeting those people. Daily life is seen in Ashgabat. (Soltan Achilova) How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your work? My work hasnt changed since the pandemic started in the world. In Turkmenistan, there have not been any confirmed cases of the coronavirus. I have talked to a lot of people, nobody knows anybody who got sick. The Turkmen authorities started taking measures when other countries also started taking measures. First, the borders were closed; flights and other transportation with other countries were halted. The disinfection is conducted throughout the entire country. On TV, they explain what to do in terms of hygiene in order to stay safe from infectious diseases. Has there been misinformation spread about the virus in Turkmenistan? The reports [in international media] that the word coronavirus was banned and security services were detaining people who use the word were not true. I am constantly among the people, and I havent seen or heard about it happening. It was one of many inaccurate reports on Turkmenistan. For example, there were reports that weddings and other large gatherings were banned because of the coronavirus. The news had appeared even before I went to a wedding in mid-March. There were reports that grocery stores ran out of food because of coronavirus. I [have] photos that there are enough food products in grocery stores in Ashgabat. Also, there were reports about travelers being banned from traveling within the country unless they had a doctors note confirming their health. My relatives visit me from the Mary region without any doctors note. People get their temperature checked before boarding the train and other public transport, thats true. The authorities have been taking measures in order to stop the virus from spreading in Turkmenistan. Its difficult for me to speak about the scale and whether the measures have been adequate because I am not an expert. I know that ordinary people are very worried about the virus. But everybody hopes that the authorities have been taking necessary measures to keep us all safe. How about the news that there are shortages of groceries? The situation with the deficit of some food products has been going on for three years. Its only true with products produced locally and sold at a low government-set price. If you can afford to buy flour or vegetable oil at a higher price in other stores, you are welcome. But the problem is that the prices are constantly growing while the salaries stay low. The unemployment is high, there are many people who dont have permanent jobs and have random income. Those people form lines to buy inexpensive products in stores. I think some international media outlets are too quick to report without checking the facts with several sources. Where do you get your information about events in Turkmenistan? The Turkmen TV stations and newspapers constantly repeat the same news and praise the countrys leadership. You cannot rely on them for truthfulness. As a journalist, I can tell the truth from the lies. I am constantly among people in Ashgabat, I travel to other regions, go to cities and small villages of the country. This gives me an opportunity to collect factual information. Thats how I prepare my reports based on the words of real people, and what I see with my own eyes. There are some Russian and international media outlets available in Turkmenistan. I get my news on world affairs from them. Have police continued harassing journalists amid the pandemic? Yes, if they see me taking photos, they will take my camera and delete all the photos. They can arrest me. I try to make sure they dont notice when I photograph. For example, I dont take pictures in grocery stores where police officers control and regulate the lines of customers. But its a constant risk nevertheless. I go on assignments to report on social issues and anything related to the coronavirus. And I make sure I follow the rules of hygiene and disinfection. I cannot just stay in I am a journalist. Bangkok, April 21 : Rare sea turtles and reef sharks are some of the endangered species that have been sighted in recent weeks off the coast of Thailand, where beaches have been emptied of tourists due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although experts warn that the pandemic may also have a negative impact on marine life. In early April, Thailand, which had close to 40 million tourists last year, closed its borders to the arrival of foreign visitors. "With the pandemic, human activities have reduced. Businesses have closed and motor boat operations for tourists have stopped. This translates to fewer factors disrupting the life of animals. Now, they can go out to look for food more peacefully," Teeranai Phetsom, a marine biologist operating in several natural parks along the west coast, told Efe news. According to the expert, there are at least 130 dugongs in the area - an endangered marine animal that closely resembles manatees - and around 100 turtles, in addition to a good number of dolphins which, until recently, avoided transit routes of boats carrying tourists. The COVID-19 crisis has dealt a hard blow to the country's tourism sector, which accounts for between 12 per cent and 20 per cent of the national GDP, and there are forecasts that the number of tourists could decline by up to 50 per cent. The government recently set up a committee for the recovery of the sector although a date has not been set to resume activity. Thailand's health authorities have detected 2,811 COVID-19 infections in the country so far, including 48 deaths. Teeranai said that the decline in tourism in the medium term, despite having a negative effect on the economy, will prove beneficial for animals. "Every year many animals die due to human activities. Without that factor many marine lives can be saved," the expert added. Last week, marine guards spotted about 20 black-tipped shark pups, a species decimated off the coast of Thailand, near a popular beach in the Similan Natural Park, one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources is working on several projects to recover several overexploited coastal areas and fishing grounds. Jakpan Muangyim, one of the Department's regional officials, told Efe news that while "the decline in the number of tourists helps wildlife", the main factor in the resurgence of some species is more linked "to the protection of natural resources and fishing restrictions". Since last November, 11 nests of leatherback turtles and one of sea green turtles, both of which are on the list of threatened species, have been found on the west coast of the country, according to Jakpan. New Delhi: Kia Motors on Tuesday said it has come up with various initiatives to financially support its dealer partners amid difficult business environment due to COVID-19 pandemic. The company said it has formulated a programme to help its dealers steer through the challenging phase, which includes multiple initiatives to sustain and improve cash flow to the dealer partners. The automaker said it would provide support in terms of interest cost of dealer stock, including vehicles in physical and transit stock. Besides, unutilised dealer funds lying with the company have already been remitted back to their current accounts, it added. Further, all the accepted service claims for warranty have been credited to the dealers' accounts, Kia Motors said. The company said that warranty payments have been credited to dealers and the company would provide clarity on priority within 15 days post lockdown for all dealer invoices. "Our dealer partners are one of the key pillars of growth for us and form a foundation for Kia to connect with the consumers in the country," Kia Motors India MD and CEO Kook-Hyun Shim said. The company is committed to offering its continued support in these testing times and will undertake all necessary steps to help them navigate through the situation, he added. "Dealer viability and stability are at the core of this program and we hope to spread positivity through it," Shim said.? The company said it will also be taking multiple steps to promote online sales. . Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE New Mexico National Guard members are being called upon to help with food, water and crowd control as part of the states coronavirus response effort. Most recently, about 50 National Guard members were deployed to Gallup last week to help with coronavirus testing and with community social distancing efforts, National Guard spokesman Joseph Vigil said. Specifically, Gallup City Manager Maryann Ustick said in a news release the National Guard members would be helping grocery stores to enforce the social distancing measures, which include only allowing 20% of a stores maximum capacity to be inside at any time. Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, said there have been long lines at local grocery stores in recent days, and some individuals have flouted instructions to keep distance between themselves and others. We asked them to come in and start putting some control in lines, Munoz said regarding the National Guard. He also said the deployed National Guard members could assist with protocols at a local detox center, after several individuals who had spent a night there tested positive for COVID-19. We need to be locked down people are not listening, Munoz said, referring to a statewide stay-at-home order issued last month by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams administration. Gallup is the county seat of McKinley County, which has a high Native American population and has seen a spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks. Many members of the Navajo Nation drive long distances to buy essential supplies in Gallup and other nearby towns. Meanwhile, National Guard members have also been helping with food distribution and other humanitarian tasks on the Navajo Nation, which also stretches into Arizona and Utah. In all, the National Guard has about 450 soldiers and airmen on duty, Vigil said. Their duties have included delivering nearly 50,000 meals to children at schools around the state and transporting medical supplies including masks, gloves and other protective equipment to health care facilities, according to the state National Guards spokesman. He also said the National Guard has delivered over 5,000 coronavirus test kits and transported thousands of test samples to laboratories in Albuquerque. In Farmington, which has also been hit hard by the outbreak, the National Guard set up a 50-bed medical shelter and has been helping at the San Juan Regional Medical Center, Vigil said. Lujan Grisham last month issued an executive order authorizing up to $750,000 in emergency funding for National Guard operations. That was in addition to previous orders that had authorized $1 million in National Guard spending for the budget year that ends in June. Donald Trump has announced he is suspending immigration to the US amid the coronavirus crisis a move critics denounced as both an act of partisan politics and an attempt to distract attention from the pandemic. On a day when he also mocked both Republican and Democratic governors who had rejected his claims the nation had access to sufficient virus testing and ventilators, the president tweeted that he was temporarily suspending immigration. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States, he wrote. It was not immediately clear whether he was talking about specific immigration programmes, such as the H-2A visa that allows farmworkers to enter the country for a specific period of time. Such workers are essential for the agriculture industry in places such as California and Washington state, where farm owners and growers often complain local people have no interest working in the fields. The president made no mention of his plan at his daily briefing on Monday, when he spent time criticising both Republican and Democratic governors who had been critical of the administrations response to the pandemic. The president was elected having promised to crackdown hard on immigration, vowing to build a wall on the USs southern border with Mexico, and stepping up deportations of people without documents. Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported on how the president had used the crisis to shelve regulations put in place to protect victims of trafficking, and others. He claimed mass, uncontrolled cross-border movement at the border had pushed him to act, and that he was protecting US immigration officials and agents. Officials claimed it would also help stop the spread of the virus in detention centres operated by US immigration authorities. On Monday night, critics said the president was looking for people to blame for the pandemic, and avoid taking responsibility. We need testing, not scapegoats, tweeted economist David Rothschild. Groups President Trump have blamed while avoiding any responsibly for his willful negligence & corruption that have killed 43,000 (and counting): Chinese, Democratic governors, Media, doctors & nurses, WHO, immigrants. Texas congressman Joaquin Castro, chair of the congressional Hispanic caucus, said: This action is not only an attempt to divert attention away from Trumps failure to stop the spread of the coronavirus and save lives, but an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis and advance his anti-immigrant agenda. We must come together to reject his division. Others suggested it was a move intended to please his supporters. Immigration was already functionally shut down. The WH had closed the US-Canada border and started deporting asylum-seekers without due process, tweeted NBC News White House correspondent Geoff Bennett. International air travel has largely been suspended. Formalising it serves as a simple way for Trump to rile up his base. The presidents tweet came as the the total number of infections in the country reached 750,000 and the number of deaths passed 42,000. With the country facing potential economic catastrophe as the impact of the lockdown, the president has been seeking to reopen businesses as quickly as possible, encouraging individual governors to take the lead. At the same time, top health officials have warned the dangers of ending the lockdown too soon could result in more infections and more deaths. More than 22m Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the last four weeks. The state of Georgia has said it plans to lift its lockdown later this week. Transaction supports accelerated distribution of innovative risk-managed investment strategies TORONTO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - CI Financial Corp. ("CI") (TSX: CIX) and The Cabana Group, LLC, the parent company of Cabana Asset Management (together "Cabana") of Fayetteville, Arkansas, today announced an agreement under which CI will acquire a strategic interest in Cabana, becoming the largest shareholder in the registered investment advisor firm with US$1.1 billion in assets under management (as of April 17, 2020). Cabana has an exceptional track record of growth, being ranked by Financial Advisor magazine as the fastest-growing registered investment advisor ("RIA") in the U.S. in 2018 and the second fastest-growing RIA in 2019. In addition to providing a comprehensive suite of investment management and wealth planning services, Cabana offers a highly successful lineup of risk-managed portfolios to its retail clients and on a sub-advisory basis to RIAs and advisors across the U.S. Cabana's Target Drawdown Portfolios, which are only offered in the U.S., have achieved strong results, with all four portfolios eligible for a rating from Morningstar Inc. receiving the top five-star overall rating (as of December 31, 2019). The portfolios are designed with the goal of minimizing losses within a predetermined drawdown parameter, while actively participating in favorable market conditions. "The Target Drawdown Series both recently and over the longer term has generated strong demand and helped to fuel Cabana's rapid growth," said Kurt MacAlpine, CI Chief Executive Officer. "Given current market conditions and the ongoing need for effective retirement solutions, there is a tremendous and timely opportunity to offer the Target Drawdown Series to a wider audience in both the U.S. and Canada." "Identifying a strategic partner to more widely distribute our products and services in the U.S. has always been our goal," said Chadd Mason, Cabana's Chief Executive Officer and co-founder. "CI's financial strength, vision, expertise in asset and wealth management, and commitment to building a client-focused RIA business provide excellent support for Cabana's next wave of growth." Mr. Mason noted that the Target Drawdown strategies have posted positive net flows every month this year, including every week since the start of the recent downturn. In addition to the firm's signature Target Drawdown Separately Managed Account (SMA) Portfolios, Cabana offers its unique investment strategy in the form of Collective Investment Trusts (CITs) for use within 401k plans, as well as a hedge fund. All Target Drawdown products numerically quantify acceptable levels of risk at the onset of the investment process and are actively managed using Cabana's proprietary Cyclical Asset Reallocation Algorithm ("CARA"). Cabana Asset Management claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards ("GIPS") and all of its portfolio composites are third-party examined consistent with GIPS. The Cabana transaction is part of CI's initiative to build a U.S. wealth management business within the RIA sector, the fastest-growing segment in North American wealth management. The initiative supports CI's three strategic priorities of modernizing its asset management business, expanding wealth management and globalizing the company. CI has also acquired a majority interest in Surevest Wealth Management of Phoenix, reached an agreement to purchase a majority stake in One Capital Management, LLC of Westlake Village, California, and signed a letter of intent to purchase another RIA. "This initiative is based on our belief that the role of the financial advisor is more important than ever, and unprecedented recent events bear that out," Mr. MacAlpine said. "This presents opportunities for firms like CI that can meet investors' increasingly complex needs with a holistic approach to investing and wealth planning. "With a leading wealth management business in Canada, we are well placed to attract new clients and new advisors," he said. "We continue to execute our U.S. strategy and with our investment in Cabana we will have over US$3.4 billion in total assets in our U.S. RIA business." CI's Canadian wealth management businesses are Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Limited and CI Private Counsel LP, which together accounted for approximately C$43.7 billion in assets under advisement as of March 31, 2020. CI previously disclosed on February 14, 2020 that it had signed letters of intent to acquire two additional RIA firms, of which Cabana is one. The Cabana transaction is currently expected to close later this quarter. Terms were not disclosed. About The Cabana Group The Cabana Group, LLC provides a comprehensive suite of services to clients and advisor partners from offices in Arkansas, Texas and Colorado. Its services include wealth management, portfolio construction, retirement plan solutions, tax and estate planning, business development, insurance, annuities and sub-advisory money management. The company was ranked the No. 1 fastest-growing company in Arkansas by Inc. Magazine in 2019, while Financial Advisor magazine ranked subsidiary Cabana Asset Management in the top two fastest-growing registered investment advisers in 2018 and 2019. The Target Drawdown Series is available in the United States to individual investors and advisors through the industry's leading custodians. For more information, visit www.thecabanagroup.com. About CI Financial CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX) is an independent Canadian company offering global asset management and wealth management advisory services. CI held approximately C$156 billion in fee-earning assets as of March 31, 2020. Its primary operating businesses are CI Investments Inc., Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Ltd., CI Private Counsel LP, GSFM Pty Ltd., WealthBar Financial Services Inc., and BBS Securities Inc. Further information is available at www.cifinancial.com. This material is for informational purposes only. It is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All investment strategies have different degrees of risk and the corresponding potential for profit or loss. Asset allocation and diversification will not necessarily improve returns and cannot eliminate the risk of investment losses. "Target Drawdown" is merely a descriptive term used to describe the general strategy and objective of the portfolio, it is not a guarantee, nor should it be construed to suggest safety or protection from loss. There is no guarantee that portfolio performance will remain consistent with the targeted drawdown parameter. While risk tolerance and targeted "drawdown" are identified on the front end for each portfolio, Cabana's algorithm does not take any one client's situation into account and there is no guarantee that Cabana's strategies will be suitable for any investor. Investors and advisors should not simply rely on the name of any portfolio to determine what is suitable. Investment advisory services provided by Cabana LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser. The firm only transacts business in states where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration as an investment adviser is not an endorsement of the firm by securities regulators and does not mean the adviser has achieved a specific level of skill or ability. Cabana claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS). To receive a GIPS Report and/or a list of composite descriptions please email your request to [email protected]. GIPS is a registered trademark of CFA Institute. CFA Institute does not endorse or promote this organization, nor does it warrant the accuracy or quality of the content contained herein. For additional disclaimers about Cabana, including awards and rankings, please visit https://thecabanagroup.com/disclaimers/. 2020 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Target Drawdown Portfolios are part of Morningstar's Tactical Allocation category, which is made up of 326 total funds. This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances, performance or expectations with respect to CI Financial Corp. ("CI") and its products and services, including its business operations, strategy and financial performance and condition. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "foresee", "forecast", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "goal", "plan" and "project" and similar references to future periods, or conditional verbs such as "will", "may", "should", "could" or "would". These statements are not historical facts but instead represent management beliefs regarding future events, many of which by their nature are inherently uncertain and beyond management's control. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements involve risks and uncertainties. The material factors and assumptions applied in reaching the conclusions contained in these forward-looking statements include that the investment fund industry will remain stable and that interest rates will remain relatively stable. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include, among other things, general economic and market conditions, including interest and foreign exchange rates, global financial markets, changes in government regulations or in tax laws, industry competition, technological developments and other factors described or discussed in CI's disclosure materials filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. The foregoing list is not exhaustive and the reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully and not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Other than as specifically required by applicable law, CI undertakes no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statement after the date on which it is made, whether to reflect new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE CI Financial Corp. Related Links http://www.ci.com/ KYODO NEWS - Apr 21, 2020 - 17:43 | All, World Reports spread globally on Tuesday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un being in fragile condition after surgery, prompting the United States and Japan to collect relevant information, while South Korea claimed there is no sign that his health has deteriorated. Questions have emerged about Kim's well-being after he was absent from public view on last Wednesday's anniversary of the birth of his grandfather and the nation's founder, Kim Il Sung. In Washington, CNN reported Monday that the United States is monitoring intelligence that Kim Jong Un is in grave danger after surgery, citing a U.S. official with direct knowledge. [KCNA/Kyodo] South Korea's government, however, dismissed CNN's report on Kim's health as "groundless" and said nothing special has been detected over his condition, according to SBS, South Korea's major broadcaster. A South Korean government official noted CNN's information seems to be based on North Korea-focused news site Daily NK's report on Monday about Kim getting treatment after surgery, SBS said. The South Korean news site has reported that it has learned Kim recently underwent heart surgery and continues to recuperate from the procedure at a villa outside of Pyongyang. A senior official of South Korea's presidential office was also quoted by the country's media as saying Kim is now staying in a local district with his aides and there is no abnormality in his movements. Citing a government source, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency similarly reported the South has seen "no unusual signs" regarding his health. A South Korean government source stressed that Kim continued to be shown in public until recently, according to the agency. In Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference on Tuesday morning, "We are usually trying to collect information and analyze developments surrounding North Korea with grave concern." "We will work closely with the United States," the top government spokesman added. South Korea's Unification Ministry says Kim was born on Jan. 8, 1984, making him 36 years old this year, although some observers say he was born on the same day in 1983. Since 2012 when he became supreme leader, North Korea had reported every year on Kim's visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun mausoleum complex in Pyongyang on the key anniversary. But the state-run media did not mention the leader's visit this year. Some pundits had earlier speculated that his absence may be linked to fears about the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 170,000 people worldwide, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. North Korea has argued the virus has not made inroads into the nation. The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on April 12 that Kim presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea that took place the day before. Since then, Kim's movements have not been reported by state-run media. CNN said it reached out to the U.S. National Security Council and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for further confirmation, but they declined to comment. The Kumsusan Palace of the Sun is where the embalmed bodies of North Korea's two former leaders -- Kim's grandfather and father Kim Jong Il -- lie in state. The Day of the Sun is one of the most important holidays in the country. Kim Jong Un became North Korea's leader following the death of his father in December 2011. There is no formally anointed successor to him. Related coverage: Trump received "nice note" from N. Korean leader Kim North Korea holds parliament amid virus, no foreign policy announcement N. Korea says virus may create obstacles, vows thorough response ERIE, Pa., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Erie Insurance today announced it will provide $200 million in dividends directly to personal and commercial auto insurance customers in the 12 states and the District of Columbia where the company does business. This immediate relief represents about 30% of related auto insurance premiums over a two-month period or 5% of their annual premium. Today's announcement is in addition to the $200 million in rate reductions announced earlier this month. Together these efforts provide a combined $400 million in immediate relief and longer-term rate reductions for ERIE auto insurance customers. This is in response to the significant decline in miles driven due to the stay-at-home directives for COVID-19. ERIE plans to distribute checks to customers in mid-May 2020. There is no need for customers to call ERIE or their agent to request the payment. Checks will be mailed directly to customers with policies in force as of April 1, 2020. "We are fortunate to have built up the financial strength we have over our 95 years that allows us to further support our customers during this challenging time," said Erie Insurance President and CEO Tim NeCastro. "We stand by our customers during times of hardship and catastrophe and our response reflects who we've been for 95 years: a company that's always there for our customers and a company that is truly Above All in Service." To further support local communities throughout its footprint, ERIE is also granting nearly $2.5 million to agents and branch offices to boost their charitable work in local communities. "Our agents and employees have also stepped up to provide much-needed support to their local communities," added NeCastro. "They're feeding first responders and healthcare workers, purchasing gift cards from restaurants and retailers to thank those on the front lines and so much more. This infusion of funding will give them even more opportunities to continue these good works." In addition to these measures, the company also continues to help hundreds of individual customers each day with flexible payment and billing options, coverage adjustments and other steps aimed at addressing specific customer and community needs: Flexible Payment and Billing Options ERIE understands that each customer's situation is unique and we continue to offer flexibility to customers facing hardship. ERIE agents can help customers with updating coverages. Customers can contact ERIE's Customer Care team at (800) 458-0811 with assistance on delaying payment dates, adjusting installments, changing pay plans and waiving penalties and fees. In addition, some billing requests including deferring payments and nonpay cancellations can also be requested through erieinsurance.com/help or through their ERIE Online Account. Customers can also access their personal lines and life policies, view current and previous invoices, pay their bill and monitor a claim through Online Account. Making Life Insurance Attainable For a limited time, Erie Family Life is offering applicants a path to life insurance coverage without the requirement of a paramedical exam. The option to waive the exam is aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance to maintain social distancing and prevent the spread of COVID-19. The waiver provides Erie Insurance customers the ability to obtain life insurance without in-person interaction. The offer is available for customers up to age 55 and policy face amounts up to $500,000. Gift Card and Gift Certificate Reimbursement Coverage Pending regulatory approval in several states, Erie Insurance is adding gift card and gift certificate reimbursement coverage to the company's ErieSecure Home policies. The additional feature, included at no additional cost, would reimburse customers for remaining balances on gift cards that can no longer be used at independently owned and operated local businesses due to business closures. There is no requirement that the business be insured by ERIE. While the additional protection was introduced to help promote buying new gift cards to help small businesses with their cash flows during this challenging time, it is not a temporary addition and will become part of ERIE's base ErieSecure Home policies. Support for Community COVID-19 Relief Efforts Erie Insurance provided a lead gift to support a new COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund recently established in Erie, Pennsylvania. The COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund will directly support 501(c)(3) organizations in Erie County, Pennsylvania the location of our headquarters that are providing support to those in need, administering care for children, serving elderly populations who are most vulnerable and helping those suffering hardships and job loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Erie Insurance Group According to A.M. Best Company, Erie Insurance Group, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, is the 9th largest homeowners insurer and 12th largest automobile insurer in the United States based on direct premiums written and" the 16th largest property/casualty insurer in the United States based on total lines net premium written. The Group, rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best Company, has nearly 6 million policies in force and operates in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Erie Insurance Group is a FORTUNE 500 company. News releases and more information about Erie Insurance Group are available at www.erieinsurance.com. SOURCE Erie Insurance Group Related Links http://www.erieinsurance.com Southeast Texas is in for some difficult times as it begins to recover from coronavirus during a historic collapse in oil prices, Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said in a somber message to Commissioners Court on Tuesday. Branick discussed evolving plans to move the county forward, and how the regions reliance on the oil and gas industry will make the challenge ever more difficult. He told commissioners he spoke Tuesday morning with some local refinery managers, who shed more light on the situation. People expecting refineries to be particularly profitable at this time should note that in March they were only just being delivered crude they bought in January for $60 a barrel, he said. The price of a barrel of oil for delivery in June and beyond closed Tuesday at $11.57, down another 43% for the day. So theyre taking a bath right now, and of course the people that are upstream in the exploration and production are just going to have to stop they just cant do it, Branick told commissioners. So theres going to be a lot of losses of jobs in east and west Texas. With that in mind, Branick said the $16.8 million the county is slated to get for the Jack Brooks Regional Airport down from $17.9 million after an adjustment can be used to cover payroll at the airport for the next couple of years, which should help the countys overall budget. RELATED: SE Texas relaxes coronavirus testing criteria Helpful numbers (409) 550-2536: Hotline for residents of Jasper, Jefferson, Hardin, Newton, Orange and Tyler counties who want to be tested for coronavirus. 211, option 6: For general coronavirus inquiries See More Collapse The money also can be used for construction projects and planned maintenance, among other uses. County Auditor Patrick Swain said he expects to soon begin seeing the stay-at-home orders impact on the countys revenues, as the sales tax payment scheduled for May will include revenues through March. He said hes not yet sure of the overall economic impact. The countys two largest revenue sources are sales and property taxes, which this year are budgeted to make up $25.7 million and $82.5 million, respectively, of the countys $123 million total budget. Swain said he doesnt yet expect to see a huge drop in revenue, although people could also contest their property values moving forward, which could decrease future money coming in. The primary fiscal fallout for county services due to the most recent recession was the loss of the county library, which eliminated four jobs, and eight deputy constable positions. Both took effect in the fiscal year 2011 budget. Generally, the countys first step to avoid eliminating positions, Swain said, would be freezing pay. That has happened about six times in the past 25 years. Related: Parkdale Mall owner, CBL Properties, furloughs 60% of staff Thats where theyve looked first if it got to the point where we had to look at some sort of freezing positions or hiring, he said, noting that there are currently no plans to make any such changes to the budget. Then you work your way back to the essential functions of government. Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames said the city also has started having conversations about the economy and how the changes could impact the citys budget moving forward. She said the citys rainy day fund is larger than required, in part for disasters when it takes time to catch up but government operations must continue. The expectation of its use may have been for the aftermath of a hurricane, but it should bridge any gaps in available funds that coronavirus could create. I think as far as the citys concerned, were going to be fine, she said. Were not going to be able to do some of the things we might have wanted to, but well just have to watch our spending and build the fund balance back up. In another example of the coronavirus impact on the retail economy, the owner of Beaumonts Parkdale Mall on Tuesday announced it had furloughed 60% of its staff. The company, CBL Properties, did not provide specific information about employment at the mall, but the furlough affects about 300 employees across the entire company. RELATED: SE Texas records 16 coronavirus-related deaths Stories like these are just one of the factors local government officials have to consider when deciding how to move forward and reopen businesses. While economic fears are relatively similar across the region, data and advice from public health officials seems to be varying across even small areas. Giving more information about how hes looking at reopening the county, Branick said Texas is supposed to be on the backside of the curve of confirmed cases and deaths. However, he said, he wants to see several days of drops in the numbers, as well as analyze Gov. Greg Abbotts new orders expected at the end of the week and recommendations from his task force. We are in the back side, but tomorrow through mid-May is supposed to be a real rapid drop in the number of cases and deaths, Branick said. Ames, on the other hand, said Beaumont has not seen that downward trend. On Tuesday, the region confirmed 20 new positive cases of coronavirus and saw three more deaths Nederlands first and one additional death in both Port Arthur and Beaumont. Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox This brings Southeast Texas to 388 positive cases and 16 coronavirus-related deaths. The confirmed cases include a student at the Lamar Institute of Technology, who traveled out of the state over spring break. The student had not been on campus since March 10 and was enrolled online, according to the school. Tuesday also was the first full day that the six-county call center created to streamline coronavirus screening and testing was officially scheduling appointments for anyone who called and wanted one. The hotline logged its highest number of calls 213 since March 30. The testing sites in Jefferson and Hardin counties tested a total of 181 people Monday. While she couldnt give many details as theyre still being worked out, after the meeting Ames confirmed that the city is working on getting a coronavirus testing site within the city limits to help continue to expand the testing capacity. Related: LIT sees first coronavirus case City Councilman Audwin Samuel said he hopes that will give a better picture of the communitys infection rates and particularly individuals at higher risk to contract the virus that, as a result, also face more barriers to travel to the Mid-County testing site. If we have 119,000 residents in Beaumont and theres only been 800 tested from Beaumont, that brings about some question and concern, he said. If theres something the mayors can do, of if theres something we can do to facilitate the ability for there to be testing for those who cant afford to get to the airport we need to try to facilitate that sector of the community Commissioner Michael Shane Sinegal, in the Jefferson County Commissioners Court meeting, echoed similar concerns that not enough residents of Port Arthur are being tested. Branick reiterated that county Public Health Authority Dr. Cecil Walkes has been given the leeway to use the countys mobile medical unit for testing, and more kits are available. Related: Data shortcomings cloud coronavirus impact Commissioner Everette Bo Alfred again asked for more information about the racial breakdown of confirmed cases a request that was repeated by members of the Beaumont City Council during their meeting later in the day. Branick said hes had trouble getting the racial breakdown information that Alfred has been asking for, but that it started coming in about a week ago. Ames said she would work to start including information about the races of individuals within the Beaumont Public Health Departments jurisdiction in her daily report released through Facebook. We need to know whats the breakdown of those that have been tested, because in the minority community theres not been a lot of open testing, Samuel said. Isaac Windes and Jacob Dick contributed. kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/KaitlinBain Rapidly cooling magnon particles proves a surprisingly effective way to create an elusive quantum state of matter, caThe discovery can help advance quantum physics research and is a step towards the long-term goal of quantum computing at room temperature The team, led by physicists at the Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern (TUK) in Germany and University of Vienna in Austria, generated the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) through a sudden change in temperature: first heating up quasi-particles slowly, then rapidly cooling them down back to room temperature. They demonstrated the method using quasi-particles called magnons, which represent the quanta of magnetic excitations of a solid body. "Many researchers study different types of Bose-Einstein condensates," said Professor Burkard Hillebrands from TUK, one of the leading researchers in the field of BEC. "The new approach we developed should work for all systems." Puzzling and spontaneous Bose-Einstein condensates, named after Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose who first proposed they exist, are a puzzling type of matter. They are particles that spontaneously all behave the same way on the quantum level, essentially becoming one entity. Originally used to describe ideal gas particles, Bose-Einstein condensates have been established with atoms, as well as with quasi-particles such as bosons, phonons and magnons. Creating Bose-Einstein condensates is tricky business because, by definition, they have to occur spontaneously. Setting up the right conditions to generate the condensates means not trying to introduce any kind of order or coherence to encourage the particles to behave the same way; the particles have to do that themselves. Currently, Bose-Einstein condensates are formed by decreasing the temperature to near absolute zero, or by injecting a large number of particles at room temperature into a small space. However, the room temperature method, which was first reported by Hillebrands and collaborators in 2005, is technically complex and only a few research teams around the world have the equipment and know-how required. The new method is much simpler. It requires a heating source, and a tiny magnetic nanostructure, measuring a hundred times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. "Our recent progress in the miniaturization of magnonic structures to nanoscopic scale allowed us to address BEC from completely different perspective," said Professor Andrii Chumak from the University of Vienna. The nanostructure is heated up slowly to 200C to generate phonons, which in turn generate magnons of the same temperature. The heating source is turned off, and the nanostructure rapidly cools down to room temperature in about a nanosecond. When this happens, the phonons escape to the substrate, but the magnons are too slow to react, and remain inside the magnetic nanostructure. Michael Schneider, lead paper author and a PhD student in TUK'S Magnetism Research Group, explained why this happens: "When the phonons escape, the magnons want to reduce energy to stay in equilibrium. Since they cannot decrease the number of particles, they have to decrease energy in some other way. So, they all jump down to the same low energy level." By spontaneously all occupying the same energy level, the magnons form a Bose-Einstein condensate. "We never introduced coherence in the system," Chumak said, "so this is a very pure and clear way to create Bose-Einstein condensates." Unexpected result As is often the case in science, the team made the discovery quite by accident. They had set out to study a different aspect of nanocircuits when strange things began to happen. "At first we thought something was really wrong with our experiment or data analysis," Schneider said. After discussing the project with collaborators at TUK and in the U.S., they tweaked some experimental parameters to see if the strange thing was in fact a Bose-Einstein condensate. They verified its presence with spectroscopy techniques. The finding will primarily interest other physicists studying this state of matter. "But revealing information about magnons and their behavior in a form of macroscopic quantum state at room temperature could have bearing on the quest to develop computers using magnons as data carriers," Hillebrands said. Chumak stressed the importance of the collaboration within TUK'S OPTIMAS Research Group towards solving the mystery. Combining his team's expertise in magnonic nanostructures with Hillebrand's expertise in magnon Bose-Einstein condensates was essential. Their research has received significant support from two European Research Council (ERC) grants. ### Publication in Nature Nanotechnology: M. Schneider, et al., Bose-Einstein Condensation of Quasi-Particles by Rapid Cooling, Nature Nanotechnology DOI: 10.1038/s41565-020-0671-z, (2020). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-020-0671-z Funding information: The research was performed in the frames of ERC Starting Grant MagnonCircuits (A. Chumak), ERC Advanced Grant Super-Magnonics (B. Hillebrands) and Collaborative Research Center SFB 173 Spin+X. Officials have identified seven people who appear to have contracted the coronavirus through activities related to the April 7 election in Wisconsin, Milwaukee's health commissioner said. Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said six of the cases involve Milwaukee voters and one is a Milwaukee poll worker. Officials hope to have additional information on the cases by the end of the week, including whether any of them were concentrated in any of the city's five polling places or if any resulted in death, Kowalik said Monday. 'There needs to be a little bit more analysis so we can connect the dots, that's why case investigation and contact tracing is so important,' she said, according to the Journal Sentinel. Voters who went to the polls in Milwaukee on April 7 stood in long lines, many for several hours, in order to cast their ballots. At least seven people were infected during voting Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm said Monday there were no signs yet of a surge in cases from the election as some feared. Palm noted, however, that if cases do exist symptoms may not have appeared yet. Tuesday marks the 14th day since the election, which is a time frame during which health officials say symptoms typically appear. Voters who went to the polls in Milwaukee stood in long lines, many for several hours, in order to cast their ballots. Many had no protective gear. And thousands of Wisconsin voters stayed home, unwilling to risk their health and unable to be counted because requested absentee ballots never arrived. Voters wait in line outside Riverside University High School to cast a ballot during the presidential primary election in Milwaukee on April 7 Voting booths were well spaced during Wisconsin's presidential primary, but many were forced to wait in long lines for hours to vote Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, had ordered the primary to be conducted entirely though the mail, but his order was rejected by the state's Republican-controlled legislature. US District Judge William M. Conley, an Obama appointee, refused to postpone the election when the case was reviewed in court. The morning after the election, before any of Wisconsin's results were released, Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race, leaving Joe Biden as the party's presumed presidential nominee. Full results were not released until April 13, showing Biden the decisive winner with 63 percent of the vote. The coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. To date, 230 people have died in Wisconsin and nearly 4,500 have tested positive. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- The U.S. governments inability no, make that its refusal to take charge of Covid-19 testing is a national disgrace, with profound consequences that will arrive soon. With pressure building to reopen the economy, the lack of meaningful testing means that states and their citizens are going to have to assume risks they cant see. The problem is not that there arent enough labs able to test for the coronavirus. Private labs, university labs, commercial labs by now they all have workable protocols for diagnostic tests. Rather, the bottleneck is a severe shortage of materiel, starting with the simplest of tools: the nasopharyngeal swabs that are used to gather genetic material. Reagents chemicals needed for Covid-19 testing have also been in short supply. As part of his effort to place the burden of this crisis on the states (and, of course, the blame if things go wrong), President Donald Trump keeps claiming that testing is a state responsibility. Were the federal government, he has said. Were not supposed to stand on a street corner doing testing. What a grotesque remark. Nobody is suggesting the Food and Drug Administration do the actual testing. But states cant force companies to manufacture swabs, or mass-produce reagents, or loosen regulations to make testing quicker and easier. Only the federal government can do that. The shortage issue has been obvious since February. Yet it was only on Thursday that the FDA gave companies approval to make cheaper, easier-to-use swabs. Meanwhile, after more than a month in lockdown, Americans are becoming impatient to end shelter-in-place rules eager to get their kids back in school, worried about running out of money, terrified of the immense economic damage the virus is causing. Yet the country isnt close to having enough testing for a relatively risk-free easing of restrictions. It is a tragedy that the most powerful nation on earth finds itself in this position. Story continues On the Sunday morning talk shows, several governors expressed anguish over the situation. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan said that her state, which has been averaging about 4,000 tests a day since late March, could double or triple the number if we had the swabs or reagents. Ralph Northam of Virginia said that the country was fighting a biological war without the supplies we need. During his daily press briefings, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York practically begs the Trump administration to lend a hand. States have the ability to test, he said during the weekend, but I cant do an international supply chain, and thats where the federal government has to help out because no state can do that. The U.S. is testing about 150,000 people a day for Covid-19. (On Sunday, 167,330 tests were administered, the highest one-day total so far.) Scientists say the country needs to be able to conduct 500,000 to 700,000 a day to reopen the country with any assurance of safety. After someone receives a positive diagnosis whether showing symptoms or not researchers are supposed to track down everyone that person has been in contact with over a predetermined number of days and quarantine them as well. Thats called contact tracing; it is critical to slowing the spread of an epidemic. Just a few states have ramped up these efforts so far. How about antibody testing, which would identify people who have built up immunity to the virus and give some indication of just how widespread it is in the population? Germany is preparing to allow shops to reopen in no small part because it has embarked on a broad antibody-testing program. Among other benefits, Germany expects these tests to identify, as the New York Times put it, which of the far-reaching social and economic restrictions that have slowed the virus are most effective and which can be safely lifted. That is exactly the kind of critical information government officials in the U.S. desperately need as political pressure increases (including from the president) to start lifting stay-at-home restrictions and allow businesses to reopen. Consider Massachusetts. Not surprisingly, Boston is the hardest hit city, with 5,516 of the states 38,000 cases. But the death toll is comparatively low: 176 people, compared with 590 in Detroit and 329 in New Orleans. Yet Michigan and Louisiana imposed shelter-in-place restrictions a week before Massachusetts. Why are the Boston numbers so low? Is it because Detroit and New Orleans are denser than Boston? Because the disease hits people of color harder than whites and Detroit and New Orleans have a higher percentage of African Americans? Or could it be that Bostonians have developed some unnoticed degree of herd immunity? On Friday, the Boston Globe reported that 200 residents of Chelsea, a small working-class city that abuts Boston, were given antibody tests. Nearly a third of them tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies. Those results raise the possibility that the virus has infected thousands if not tens of thousands of Bostonians without anyone realizing it. Or consider Florida. The state should have been ravaged: It declined to shut down spring break; it has a large elderly population; and its governor, Ron DeSantis, didnt order a statewide lockdown until April 1. Yet is has suffered fewer than 4,000 hospitalizations and 774 deaths as a result of the coronavirus. That is 25% fewer deaths than Pennsylvania, which shut down in mid-March and has generally taken the virus more seriously. During the weekend, DeSantis said that beaches could be reopened; by Saturday morning, people were swarming beaches in Jacksonville, gleefully ignoring the social-distancing guidelines. Social media was full of pictures of the crowded beaches with the hashtag #FloridaMorons. But are their actions really all that moronic? Without sufficient testing, all people have to go on is what theyre seeing and experiencing. And what Floridians are seeing is a situation that doesnt truly seem all that dire no matter what the scientists say. With the death toll so low, theyre willing to assume the risk of walking on the beach shoulder to shoulder with their friends and neighbors. Maybe their decision will lead to a spike in hospitalizations and deaths. But maybe it wont. We just dont know. The protests during the weekend in Maryland, Texas and elsewhere suggest that plenty of other Americans are willing to assume the risk that theyll either not get sick or theyll survive the coronavirus. As we get into May, those numbers will increase, and they wont all be Trump supporters. You may disagree with those who argue that the cure is worse than the disease that scientists have overestimated the coronaviruss lethality while ignoring the deaths that will result from a decimated economy but it is bound to gain adherents in the weeks ahead. Without adequate testing, however, states and their residents will only be left guessing. Including, I should note, New York. No governor has been more passionate than Cuomo about wanting to be guided by science. On Sunday, he announced that the state would begin limited antibody testing, which is an important step. But New York still doesnt have anywhere near enough diagnostic testing. The current shelter-in-place order is in force until May 15. It will be incredibly difficult for Cuomo to extend it, given New York Citys position as the nations financial capital and the citizenrys need to get back to something approaching normalcy. A federal government that was truly playing its part would make it possible for him to make a science-based decision. Instead, hes going to have to make the decision based on a risk-reward equation that he cant realistically calculate. At the White House press briefing on Friday, Vice President Mike Pence announced that 3.7 million diagnostic tests had been conducted since the crisis began. (The number is now 3.9 million.) Pence made it sound as if that number was something to be proud of. Its not. It is the countrys shame. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Joe Nocera is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business. He has written business columns for Esquire, GQ and the New York Times, and is the former editorial director of Fortune. His latest project is the Bloomberg-Wondery podcast "The Shrink Next Door." 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. - Phenny Awiti said she once had a huge backside but as soon as she started taking ARVs, it disappeared - According to her, she was self-conscious and always felt embarrassed to step out knowing her backside had grown flat - Her legs too reduced in size and that affected the activist's self-esteem but she learnt to love herself Activist living with HIV/AIDS Phenny Awiti has left people in stitches after disclosing the reason behind her reduced "Adhiambo C." The mother of three said she used to have a huge behind but with time, it reduced and nearly disappeared into thin air. READ ALSO: Chinese doctors who slipped into coma due to COVID-19 wake up with dark skin READ ALSO: Mtangazaji tajika wa CNN Richard Quest, apatwa na coronavirus In a long Instagram post, the HIV activist said she lost her apple bottom due to constant doses of ARVs which affected how fat was distributed in her body, medically referred to as lipodystrophy. The upside was her chesticles grew tremendously and gave her a rounder shape at the front that looks good whenever she slaps on a top with lovely cleavage. READ ALSO: Cheer as Drake recognises orphaned Ugandan dancers who gracefully danced to Toosie slide Phenny said her legs too transformed from luscious and thick to a smaller size and for long, that affected her self esteem. The beauty who is happily married to a German man said she used to hide her physique in the past due to fear of being judged or ridiculed but gained some confidence soon after. "When I took this photo, I still was not sure if I wanted to post it on social media. And of course, my instincts were so right, when I posted, I received both positive and negative reactions," she said. The beauty described the condition as lipodystrophy and explained that her behind was not always small and at some point in life she was well endowed. To counter the transformation, she resorted to clever measures like wearing high heels so she could push her booty higher. "I had to hide my legs for so long, and even in this photo, I have pushed my bum bum up. I do not have them in real life," she joked. It took Phenny 12 years to come to terms with her new normal and now she is okay with it. The activist discovered she was HIV positive while in high school and struggled with her status for long. She finally came to terms with it and championed for putting a stop to stigmatisation of victims. Phenny has given birth to and raised kids who are negative and enjoys educating her followers on living positively. 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from Covid-19 in Kenya | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke This update comes on the back of reports that Kim had undergone a cardiovascular procedure, resulting in a situation of "grave danger". The North Korean leader was also absent from a key anniversary event this month resulting in further speculation over his health. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is not battling any grave illness, as confirmed by sources in the South Korean government. The event marked the anniversary of the birthday of its founding father and Kim's grandfather Kim II Sung, on April 15. Daily NK, a Seoul-based specialty website cited unidentified sources who said that the North Korean leader was recovering at a villa in the Mount Kumgang resort county of Hyangsan, after undergoing the cardiovascular procedure at a hospital. CNN stated that Kim was in "grave danger", which was questioned by a US source familiar with the internal US government reporting on North Korea. This was shortly followed by the launching of multiple short-range anti-ship cruise missiles into the sea as well as the firing of air-to-surface missiles as a part of military exercises, as confirmed by the South Korean military. The tests were later deemed to have been conducted on the eve of a national holiday in North Korea, in order to celebrate Kim Il Sung's birthday. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) A man has been shot and injured in a police-involved shooting near downtown Lafayette, according to Lt. Matt Gard. According to police, about 12:44 a.m. Tuesday police were called to a domestic disturbance in the 800 block of North 7th Street. When officers arrived, a woman said her boyfriend, 29-year-old Trevor Bowie, had left and allegedly stolen a gun. Police found Bowie nearby and began to chase him. During the chase, police said Bowie pointed a gun at officers in the parking lot of the building containing the Tippecanoe County Health Department, Tippecanoe Emergency Management Agency and the Tippecanoe County Coroner's Office. The complex is located in the 600 block of North 6th Street. According to Lt. Matt Gard, two Lafayette officers fired their weapons, hitting Bowie. Polcie said officers treated Bowie on the scene before he was taken to a hospital. Police said Bowie is currently in critical, but stable condition at the hospital. Gard said no officers were injured. He could not release how many shots were fired or where the man was struck. Gard said it is still early on to say if an officer has been put on leave. 125 families residing the Rashtrapati Bhawan complex in the national capital have been put under self-isolation after one person tested positive for COVID-19. Rashtrapati Bhavan According to reports, the COVID-19 positive patient is not a staffer at the Rashtrapati Bhawan but is a resident of the complex as her father-in-law is a sanitation worker there. Read more WHO Warns Against Rushing To Relax Restrictions As It Could Cause Resurgence Of Coronavirus WHO declared that rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions can result in a resurgence of the illness. This warning comes at a time when countries are taking baby steps into getting the economy up and running again. BCCL "This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future," said Dr. Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific. Read more Amid Backlash Over Sexist, Islamophobic Posts, Union Minister Says India Heaven For Muslims Tejasvi Surya, BJP MP from Bengaluru South has been in the eye of the storm for the past few days for a now-deleted tweet that has alleged Islamophobic and sexist overtones. BCCL In the 2015 tweet, Surya had quoted Pakistani Canadian writer Tarek Fatah and said that: "95% Arab women have never had an orgasm in the last few hundred years! Every mother has produced kids as act of sex and not love:@TarekFatah." Read more Pakistan Removes 26/11 Mumbai Attacks Mastermind Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi From Terror Watch List Ahead of a new round of assessments by the global anti-money-laundering watchdog FATF, Islamabad had reportedly removed around 1,800 terrorists from its watch list, including that of the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. afp PTI, quoting a US-based start-up that automates watchlist compliance reported that about 1,800 of the names on the so-called proscribed persons' list were removed since the beginning of March. Read more At 47, India Sees Biggest 24-Hour Jump In Covid-19 Deaths But 3,252 Have Been Cured, Discharged With 47 deaths in the last 24 hours, India witnessed the biggest spike in coronavirus fatalities. With 1,336 new cases in the last 24 hours, the total tally of COVID-19 cases stood at 18,601 on Tuesday morning, the Ministry of Health and Family welfare said. BCCL The health ministry in the morning update said that of the total cases, 14,759 are active cases, with 590 casualties. Read more Tamil Nadu To Be In Complete Lockdown Till May 3 To Check Virus Spread Amid Coronavirus Pandemic The Tamil Nadu government decided on Monday to continue complete lockdown with prohibitory orders and all other curbs in place till May 3 in view of the coronavirus pandemic. BCCL In a press release, the chief minister said there is a need to intensify containment measures to check the spread of coronavirus. Read more CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Community fans got their six seasons. Theyre still waiting for the movie. But thanks to the meta comedys release on Netflix earlier this month, there could be some momentum gaining to make it happen. In fact, count Clevelands Russo Brothers, who served as executive producers and directors during the shows first three seasons, among those interested. Wed certainly be willing to do it, Joe Russo told Collider. We love our Community family. That cast, were all still very close to all of them. Itd certainly be schedule-depending for us. But I believe there will be a Community movie, especially now that its doing so well on streaming. Someone like Netflix could step up and make that movie. Created by Dan Harmon of Rick and Morty fame, Community aired on NBC and Yahoo! Screen from 2009-2015. Set on the campus of the fictional Greendale Community College, the show stars Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Gillian Jacobs, Chevy Chase, Danny Pudi, Ken Jeong and East Cleveland native Yvette Nicole Brown. Talk of a Community movie began during the shows original run when six seasons and a movie became an annual rallying cry among fans and producers to save the show from the chopping block, which it seemed to be on constantly. As recently as February, Brie teased the possibility of a film during an AMA session on Reddit, saying she got an interesting call about it... stay tuned. I hope it happens, McHale told Entertainment Tonight last week. I would do it in a New York minute." Since their stint on Community ended, Russo, who along with his brother, Anthony, has gone on to make several Marvel movies, including Avengers: Endgame, the highest-grossing movie of all-time. In the interview with Collider, he credited their work on the show as a formative period in their career. We were just constantly exploring and subverting genre [on Community]. It seemed every week we were chasing up our style and our tone, the look and feel of it, the score, the way the characters behaved, he said. We were able to explore genre on a very deep level. When youre subverting genre, youre studying it to such an extent that youre really understanding the nuances of it. That was critical and certainly the paint ball episodes were a huge part of our Marvel career. The Russo Brothers latest project, Extraction, an action-thriller starring Chris Hemsworth, premieres on Netflix Friday. Subscribe to Netflix Community also available on Hulu NASA is continuously monitoring cosmic bodies on the move that are set to approach Earth's orbit. The organization has recently observed one asteroid, which is expected to make its appearance close-by soon. The asteroid dubbed as '2020 GA3', is set to fly past us on Monday night at around 10:57 p.m. NASA's Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies (NCEOS) tracks several different asteroids, all of which are expected to fly closely to Earth upon their arrival. Closest visitor The soon to arrive one, however, 2020 GA3, is the closest and most likely the first to be seen. With a size between 26 and 59 meters in diameter, it is larger than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It will have a speed of 17.42 km a second as it hurdles through space beside our planet. Another giant space rock, 1998 OR2, will come close to Earth sometime next week and is the largest of the asteroids that will be coming near us this year. Astronomers expect it to be more than a mile wide and twice as long. The estimates of the asteroid were made using radar imaging. NASA estimates 1998 OR2 to be around 4 million miles away from Earth, which is pretty safe and avoids any complications for us. The distance may be astronomical, but in the relative scale of the universe, that is relatively close, which is why the space organization is monitoring its movements. Read Also: NASA's Kepler Discovered Potential Second Earth; How Is It Different From Our Planet? The moment it is at its closest distance to Earth will be on April 29 at around 5:56 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Several professional observatories have already set their telescopes at the massive chunk of rock to observe its trajectory. If you're an amateur, however, you'd still get to see it, but only as a slow-moving star. If you are unfortunately not an owner of a telescope whatsoever, then the Virtual Telescope Project is hosting a free public viewing of the space rock beginning on April 28. Who tracks these celestial bodies? NASA monitors these cosmic bodies through their Near-Earth Object Observations Program, which aims to find, track, and characterize at least 90% of all predicted number of NEOs that are at least 140 meters in size. The size is the minimum required that can be considered as posing a significant threat to Earth with the level of destruction it could potentially cause if it were to make an impact. While the program closely monitors all possible asteroids, there have been less than half of the estimated 25,000 NEOs fitting the criteria that have been found. The NEOWISE project utilized the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescope and repurposed it to continue surveying for NEOs and other small bodies with its technology. Its main advantage is it can accurately estimate the sizes of these NEOs that no other optical measuring device is capable of. The Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF), however, is located at the 13,800-foot summit of Maunakea in Hawaii and is used to study physical characteristics of NEOs with quick and immediate response to newly discovered ones. NASA is always on the look-out for these extraterrestrial bodies to monitor and ensure that any threat that could come to affect us is adequately dealt with or responded to. Read Also: Mysterious Constellation: Elon Musk's Starlink Satellites Paint A Dazzling Show In Space HSBC's investment banking head in Asia-Pacific took a six-month sabbatical beginning this month as part of chief executive Noel Quinn's efforts to reshape the 155-year-old bank. Gordon French, the Asia-Pacific head of its global banking and markets business and one of its highest-paid bankers in the region, began a sabbatical on April 15 and is expected to explore "other opportunities" within the group when he returns, according to an internal memorandum seen by the South China Morning Post. The move is part of a realignment of the investment bank that would see regional head roles split between its global banking operations and its markets and securities services business. Thierry Roland, the regional head for the business in Europe, will head the bank's newly created RWA Optimisation Unit, which will dispose of assets that do not meet the bank's return expectations, according to the memo. Andre Brandao will serve as the regional head for the Americas until the end of the year, with a further announcement expected later. "The changes will enable pace of execution on the business plan to reshape, simplify and grow the business," Greg Guyett and Georges Elhedery, the co-CEOs of the global banking and markets business, said in the internal memo on April 10. An HSBC spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the memo on Tuesday. David Liao, who formerly oversaw its mainland operations as China CEO, will serve as regional head of global banking and report to Peter Wong, HSBC's China chairman, and Guyett, according to a separate memo from April 10. Shares of HSBC declined 2 per cent to HK$39.25 in the morning trading session in Hong Kong on Tuesday. The changes are part of a broad reorganisation and rethinking of the bank by Quinn, who replaced John Flint as CEO on an interim basis in August and won the job permanently last month. It is HSBC's third major restructuring in a decade and comes as Quinn has reorganised the leadership team throughout much of the bank. Story continues HSBC, one of three lenders authorised to issue currency in the city, had planned to eliminate as many as 35,000 jobs as part of an overhaul designed to cut annual costs by US$4.5 billion but was forced to delay those job cuts last month because of the "extraordinary impact" of the coronavirus pandemic. The coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, has infected more than 2.4 million people worldwide and forced major cities around the globe to shut down all but essential businesses to stem the spread. HSBC said it decided to pause the "vast majority of redundancies" to reduce uncertainty for its employees in such a time of disruption. The bank also said in March that it would freeze hiring except for a "small number of frontline and business-critical roles and those already with written offers." The latest leadership changes come at a challenging time for the lender, which generated 84 per cent of adjusted pre-tax profit in Asia last year. An 18-month trade war between the United States and China, months of street protests and the coronavirus pandemic have all severely damaged the economy of Hong Kong, its biggest market. Fitch Ratings cut the city's debt rating on Monday as it expects the economy to contract by 5 per cent this year. Noel Quinn pushes ahead with reshaping the 155-year-old lender. Photo: Bloomberg alt=Noel Quinn pushes ahead with reshaping the 155-year-old lender. Photo: Bloomberg HSBC also has the biggest exposure among more than 20 banks who are owed about US$4 billion by Singapore oil trader Hin Leong Trading, which sought bankruptcy protection last week, according to a person familiar with the matter. HSBC has declined to comment on Hin Leong. The bank also has faced a backlash from rebel investors in Hong Kong after it cancelled its final dividend for 2019 and suspended dividend payments this year at the request of its chief regulator, an arm of the Bank of England. Quinn wrote to shareholders this month to explain the decision and reassure investors about its capital position. Senior managers, including Quinn, also waived their cash bonuses this year. Additional reporting by Alison Tudor-Ackroyd Sign up now and get a 10% discount (original price US$400) off the China AI Report 2020 by SCMP Research. Learn about the AI ambitions of Alibaba, Baidu & JD.com through our in-depth case studies, and explore new applications of AI across industries. The report also includes exclusive access to webinars to interact with C-level executives from leading China AI companies (via live Q&A sessions). Offer valid until 31 May 2020. This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden attend a St. Patrick's Day reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington on March 17, 2011. (Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images) Biden Would Pick Michelle Obama to Be His Vice President In a Heartbeat Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden praised former First Lady Michelle Obama, saying hed pick her as his vice president in a heartbeat. Shes brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a really fine woman, Biden said during an interview with KDKA. The Obama family are friends with his family, the former vice president said. But he added that he believes Michelle Obama doesnt want the position. I dont think she has any desire to live near the White House again, Biden said. Michelle Obama wrote in her 2018 memoir Becoming: Ill say it here directly: I have no intention of running for office, ever. Her husband, Barack Obama, was president of the United States from 2008 to 2016. First lady Michelle Obama (L) greets Vice President Joe Biden on the reviewing stand as the presidential inaugural parade winds through the nations capital in Washington on Jan. 21, 2013. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Finding a Running Mate Biden recently started the process of picking a running mate. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the only challenger left in the field, ended his campaign in early April. Biden has repeatedly said hell choose a female running mate. He told KDKA that he would not commit to choosing a minority woman. Ill commit to that be[ing] a woman because it is very important that my administration look like the public, look like the nation, he said. And there will be, committed that there will be a woman of color on the Supreme Court, that doesnt mean there wont be a vice president, as well. A number of female members of Congress have been mentioned as potential vice presidential candidates, including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). All three were once running for the presidential nomination but endorsed Biden after dropping out. Other possibilities include failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Biden told a virtual fundraiser earlier this month that hed put together a committee looking at candidates to be his running mates. The committee would be looking at someone to be a partner in the progress and who is simpatico, who is someone who in the case of the vice president ready to be president at a moments notice, he said. Infectious diseases consultant Eoghan De Barra has called on the public to stick with the plan and abide by restrictions to ensure a reduction in transmission of Covid-19. Dr De Barra told Newstalk Breakfast that while the underlying figures are positive, we need to stick with the plan. When things start looking better there can be a rush to get things back to normal, he said. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but it is too soon to be complacent, he warned. Dr De Barra explained that the restrictions have had an impact and that they have saved lives. The high figure of 77 deaths on Monday was for over the previous 10 days, he said. The day by day numbers continue to fall. Dr De Barra said Beaumont hospital where he works experienced the so-called surge over a week ago. Covid-19 patients are still presenting at the hospital, which continues to provide services for non-Covid patients. He urged any patients experiencing normal health conditions to still come to the hospital where there are two distinct pathways for patients Covid and non-Covid. Meanwhile, Simon Harris will meet Nursing Homes Ireland and the health watchdog today about the coronavirus crisis. Almost half of the 687 deaths from Covid-19 in the Republic relate to nursing home residents. Hiqa will today publish new guidelines for the sector ahead of urgent inspections next week. MICHIGAN -- The Agricultural Leaders of Michigan have sent a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture and Michigan's Congressional delegation asking for aid for the country's dairy and pork industries. The letter reads that due to the spread of coronavirus across the country and the world, the combined losses of both industries will be upwards of $9 billion. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, from when the COVID-19 outbreak began in China in mid-January to the end of March, commodity future prices for two kinds of milk have fallen 26% and 36%, while commodity future prices for hogs had fallen 31%. The challenges that these industries face right as restaurants and schools remain closed include: Drops in commodity prices. Labor shortages. Financial stresses as processors, marketers and merchants adapt to plunging institutional and restaurants sales and surging grocery store demand. Food service businesses and processing plants curtailing or ceasing operations Current supply far exceeding demand with the gap widening further due to closures. Like other aspects of agriculture, dairy and pork farms cannot shut down as they are responsible for the care of thousands of animals and are part of the nation's food supply. "We are deeply concerned about the livelihood of our dairy farmers," said Joe Diglio, the president and CEO of the Michigan Milk Producers Association in a statement. "They simply cannot withstand the prices future markets are predicting, following five years of depressed markets. Without assistance, there is a significant chance remaining dairy farms will not be able to produce enough milk to meet demand when the current crisis has passed." "Many pork producers, the vast majority of which are family-run farming operations, will go out of business, causing economic dislocation throughout rural America without this much needed aid," said Mary Kelpinski, the CEO of the Michigan Pork Producers Association, in a statement. "The financial situation of U.S. hog farmers is perilous, and their livelihoods are at stake. Without intervention, we are looking at a significant increase in hog farms going out of business, creating a dangerous risk to the food supply chain." The ALM is asking for immediate aid for producers, processors, and consumers and for the USDA to implement a comprehensive approach for market intervention to ensure that farmers survive, and Americans can continue to purchase affordable products from them. New Delhi, April 21 : Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday directed the officials to use technology to monitor the containment zones in the city. Baijal held a video conference with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendra Jain and senior officials of the Delhi government. "Reviewed enforcement of lockdown, Testing, home quarantine, management of containment zones, night shelters and food centres," the LG said in a tweet. Baijal advised the field officials to jointly ensure the effective management of containment zones, food centres, and night shelters strictly as per protocols of the Ministry of Health and Family welfare and Ministry of Home Affairs. "Closely monitor containment zones, use technology, engage local leaders and volunteers and to ensure adherence to testing/surveillance protocols especially in hotspots." He also asked officials to facilitate the supply chain of essential services and goods. Baijal also asked the Health department to plan rapid testing for frontline workers and vulnerable population. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) on Tuesday said its factories, though operational, are unable to operate at full capacity as its employees continue to face restriction in movement from local authorities in various states amid coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown. The company is working with local authorities and state governments to ease out movement restrictions. Most of our factories, many of our distribution centres and majority of our suppliers are operating, but not at their full capacity," a spokesperson of HUL told PTI. Elaborating further the spokesperson said, we continue to face local or state restrictions in the movement of our people who are working in essential goods supply chain." The spokesperson further said, "we continue to work with local and state government authorities to get our operations towards the required capacity that the people in our country expect from us. To optimise its available manpower resources, HUL has shifted to larger order sizes and direct shipping from factories but that is not sufficient to meet the demand. We have moved to larger order sizes and direct shipping from factories to compensate, but this is far from efficient, said the HUL spokesperson. HUL,a subsidiary of UK-based Unilever,owns popular household FMCG brands including Lux, Lifebuoy, Surf Excel, Rin, Pond's, Vaseline, Lakm, Dove, Pepsodent,Brooke Bond and Kissan. The company owns 28 factories that produce goods from categories including - beauty and personal care, home care and food and refreshment. HUL has about 18,000 employees and had sales of Rs 37,660 crores in FY 2018-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 16:46:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, April 21 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian commerce official said that a German company plans to invest 400 million euros (433 million U.S. dollars) in Iran's major petrochemical project in the southeastern port of Chabahar, Press TV reported on Tuesday. The German firm will invest in machinery and equipment needed for a methanol production project in Chabahar, said Ahmad Jamali, a deputy for Iran's high council on free trade zones. Jamali did not disclose the name of the German company but said that it had previously worked in Iran. Required permits have been obtained from the relevant Iranian institutions for the activity of German investor and a land has been allocated for the beginning of project, Jamali said. Chabahar, a main Iranian ocean port on the Sea of Oman, has seen a boom in foreign investment over the past years. Enditem Klitschko dismisses Povoroznyk from duties for time of investigation, appoints Mondriyevsky as Acting First Deputy Head Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has temporarily dismissed Mykola Povoroznyk for the period of investigation and appointed Valentyn Mondriyevsky as Acting First Deputy Head of Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA). Klitschko announced this during an online press conference on Tuesday. "In order to hold an unbiased investigation and to avoid reproaches about some kind of influence of a high-ranking official, such as Povoroznyk, he submitted a letter of resignation for the time of investigation," Klitschko said during an online press conference. As reported on April 14, searches were conducted at the premises of the KCSA (after employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) documented the extortion by First Deputy Chairman of the KCSA Mykola Povoroznyk of undue benefits from a representative of a real estate developer. The World Health Organisation has insisted that all available evidence suggests coronavirus was not manufactured in a lab. Takeshi Kasai, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, said that while it has not been possible to identify the exact source, the disease likely came from animals. The WHO has previously said that the genetic makeup of the virus is closely related to coronaviruses identified in bats - suggesting the disease originated in that animal before making the leap into humans. Mr Kasai spoke out after President Trump said the US is looking into whether the virus leaked from a lab near Wuhan which was doing research on coronaviruses including the SARS virus, a close genetic relative of the current coronavirus. The WHO has insisted that coronavirus likely originated in animals and was not man-made, amid persistent conspiracy theories that it leaked from a lab in Wuhan (pictured) The WHO has previously said the new coronavirus is similar to viruses already identified in a common species of bat (pictured), making them a likely source German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also called for 'more transparency' from China over the origin of the virus. Meanwhile Veronika Skvortsova, Russia's former health minister, refused to rule out the possibility that the virus came from a lab and called for a 'very through study'. WHO West Asia director Takeshi Kasai spoke out as world leaders called for an investigation into the virus's origins It is thought that the new coronavirus first made the jump from animals to humans at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, which is where the earliest cluster of cases was detected. However, China has so far failed to identify 'patient zero' - the first person to catch the infection. Without knowing who patient zero is or how they were infected, it will be impossible to know the true source of the virus. The WHO itself admits that the virus could have been carried to the Huanan Market by an already-infected human, who then spread it to others. Investigations are currently ongoing into possible cases of coronavirus dating back to mid-November 2019, a month earlier than previously thought. It came as rare footage emerged showing carrying out research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology - which has found itself at the centre of conspiracy theories around the virus's origin. Scroll down for video A video released by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV in February shows virologists donning spacesuit-like protective gears as they work in the P4 lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology The lab is said to have three testing rooms, two animal storage rooms, one virus bank and one animal-dissection room. Twenty-four scientists can work there at the same time, CCTV said A video released by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV in February provides a glimpse into the institute. The 34million lab is affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was completed in 2015 and officially opened in 2018. In the clip, one researcher, named Zhang Huajun, demonstrates how he and one colleague put on two layers of protective suits and pass five air-tight chambers before entering the core part of the lab. The lab is said to have three testing rooms, two animal storage rooms, one virus bank and one animal-dissection room. Twenty-four scientists can work there at the same time. Researcher Zhang said the building was designed in such a way that air can only flow into the lab from the outside, not the other way around, to prevent leaks. Dr Yuan Zhiming, the deputy head of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, hit back at accusations that the virus leaked from his lab in an interview with state media over the weekend. 'There's no way this virus came from us,' Dr Yuan told CGTN, the English-language arm of CCTV. 'I know it's impossible.' Dr Yuan Zhiming (pictured), the deputy head of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, told CGTN 'there's no way this virus came from us'. He also refuted claims that the virus was man-made Dr Yuan said that a man-made coronavirus would be beyond human intelligence as he rejected claims that the virus was artificially engineered. Wuhan virus lab researchers warned of SARS-like coronavirus outbreaks A lead virologist and her team at a Wuhan lab warned of the possibility of SARS-like coronavirus outbreaks in China 11 months before the novel coronavirus epidemic ravaged the city. The ominous prediction came from a study carried out by Shi Zhengli and her colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology when they stressed the importance of conducting investigations of viruses from bats. Shi, nicknamed the 'Bat Woman', allegedly sequenced the genes of the new coronavirus in three days after the epidemic emerged, but was silenced by her boss. In the article from in January, 2019, Shi and her the team highlighted the likelihood of another coronavirus epidemic in China by analysing three large-scale outbreaks caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Swine Acute Diarrhea Syndrome (SADS) respectively. The article said that all three pathogens were coronaviruses and could be traced back to bats, and two of them had originated in China. The researchers urged: 'Thus, it is highly likely that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China. 'Therefore, the investigation of bat coronaviruses becomes an urgent issue for the detection of early warning signs, which in turn minimizes the impact of such future outbreaks in China.' Advertisement 'Some scientists believe that to synthesise a virus requires extraordinary intelligence or workload, so I have never believed that we humans have the capabilities at this time to create such a virus,' he explained. Dr Yuan attributed the theories to the fact that the institute and the P4 lab are in Wuhan, so 'people can't help but make associations which I think is understandable'. But he criticised people who 'are deliberately trying to mislead people'. He blamed US senator Tom Cotton and the Washington Post for promoting such claims. 'They have no evidence or knowledge. This is entirely based on speculation,' he denounced. 'Part of the purpose is to confuse people, to interfere with our entire epidemic activities or our scientific activities.' Although scientists believe that the virus jumped to humans from wild animals sold as food in a market about 10 miles from the lab, conspiracy theorists promote different assumptions. Some people claim that the virus, formally known as SARS-CoV-2, could be a biological warfare weapon engineered there. Others suspect that it escaped from the lab. Shi Zhengli, a deputy director at the institute, told the press in February that she 'guaranteed with her own life' that the outbreak was not related to the lab. The institute also refuted reports which named Huang Yanling, a researcher at the Institute of Virology, as 'patient zero' the first person to be infected. 'I can tell you for sure that none of our students, retirees or any of our staff has been infected,' Dr Yuan said. American intelligence services have reportedly launched a full-scale investigation into the lab over claims that scientists there allowed the novel coronavirus to escape as part of a botched experiment, leading to a global pandemic. Sources said American analysts will present their findings 'in the near term' to Trump, who will then huddle with aides to determine how to hold China accountable for the pandemic China has denied speculation that the pathogen originated inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab, though US government agencies are now said to be piecing together a timeline of what authorities in Beijing knew to 'create an accurate picture of what happened'. Sources told Fox News on Friday that American analysts will present their findings 'in the near term' to President Trump, who will then huddle with aides to determine how to hold China accountable for the pandemic. The American intelligence sources told Fox News that analysts in Washington have ruled out the theory that the coronavirus was engineered by Chinese scientists as a bioweapon. Experts note that the genome mapping of the virus indicates that there were no genetic alterations made to it. Scientists believe that the virus jumped to humans from wild animals sold as food in a market about 10 miles from the lab, but conspiracy theorists are promoting different assumptions US sources told Fox News they believe that 'patient zero' became infected with coronavirus as it was being studied inside the lab. The infected person then is believed to have spread the virus throughout the city and onwards. While the exact origin of the virus remains unknown, the broad scientific consensus holds that SARS-CoV-2 came from bats. COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has killed more than 165,000 people and infected over 2.4 million worldwide since the pandemic began in Wuhan last December. Why did China build a virus lab in Wuhan? A worker is seen inside the P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan on February 23, 2017 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 How the man running World Health Organisation trashed by Trump as China-centric is a career politician who worked for a Communist junta and became WHO's first NON-doctor Director-General 'following intense lobbying from Beijing' Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a little-known figure before the coronavirus pandemic, has risen to prominence as Director-General of the World Health Organisation which is spearheading global responses to the virus. Dr Tedros - who has never practised as a medical doctor - is a career politician who was born in what is now Eritrea, began work under the Communist Derg junta, came to study in the UK, then rose to the top of Ethiopia's government first as Health Minister and then Foreign Minister before being elected to lead the WHO in 2017. He is now facing heavy criticism over his handling of the pandemic, especially for praise he heaped on China's communist party for its response - hailing the regime's 'commitment to transparency' and saying the speed with which it detected the virus was 'beyond words'. That has led to allegations - including by Donald Trump - that the WHO is 'China-centric', a position that the US President has promised to 'look into'. Trump has said the US will suspend funding to the WHO until an investigation has been carried out, while suggesting that they withheld information on the virus. Indeed, it is not the first time that Dr Tedros has been accused of cosying up to China. Shortly after his election victory in 2017, it was alleged that Chinese diplomats had been heavily involved in lobbying for him. UN records also show that Chinese contributions to both Ethiopia's aid budget and the WHO have substantially increased during times when he was in top leadership positions. The WHO and its Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus (left, pictured meeting with Xi Jinping in January) has faced accusations that the organisation is 'China-centric' and has been too quick to praise the regime's coronavirus response Shortly after his election to the WHO, a report in The Times said: 'Chinese diplomats had campaigned hard for the Ethiopian, using Beijings financial clout and opaque aid budget to build support for him among developing countries.' Dr Tedros - who is married and has five children - was born in 1965 in Asmara, which was part of Ethiopia at the time but is now in Eritrea. As a child he saw his younger brother die to an infection, which he believes was measles, which he later said spurred his determination to work on health and health policy. He graduated from university in Ethiopia in 1986 with a degree in biology and went to work as a health official in the regime of Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, while the country was ruled by the Derg military junta. According to the BBC, Dr Tedros then joined the hard-left TPLF - which started life as a Communist party and played a major role in overthrowing Mariam in 1991. It later became part of the EPRDF, a coalition of left-wing parties that ruled Ethiopia until last year. Around the same time as Mariam's ouster, Dr Tedros left Ethiopia and came to the UK where he studied at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, graduating with Masters of Science in Immunology of Infectious Diseases in 1992. He then went on to study at the University of Nottingham, where he received a PhD in community health in 2000. After this, he returned to Ethiopia where he joined the health ministry and rose through the ranks from regional health minister all the way to national Minister for Heath - a position he took up in 2005. Before ascending to the top ranks of the WHO, Dr Tedros studied in the UK and served Ethiopia's ruling left-wing coalition as health minister and then as foreign minister (pictured in the role in 2015) During his tenure, which lasted until 2012, he was widely praised for opening thousands of health centres, employing tens of thousands of medics, bringing down rates of HIV/AIDS, measles and malaria, as well as bringing information technology and the internet into the heath system. In November 2012 he was promoted to Foreign Minister, and was widely hailed for helping to negotiate a boost in UN funding for Ethiopia, including as part of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Indeed, UN funding records show that around this time the country received millions in additional funding - including from China, which had previously given little or nothing to support the country. In 2015 and 2016 China gave some $16million to Ethiopia in spending commitments and cash contributions, largely in support of food or refugee programmes. In 2011, just before Dr Tedros took up the role, and in 2017, just after he left, China handed over another $44million in commitments and contributions. Its total contributions outside of this period, dating back to the year 2000, were just $345,000. In 2017, Dr Tedros left the Ethiopian government and entered the running for Director-General of the WHO as the tenure of Dr Margaret Chan, a Canadian-Chinese physician, was coming to an end. The election was the first to take place under a system of polling all UN member states as part of a secret ballot. Previously, leaders were chosen by a closed-door vote of an executive committee. Eventually the field was boiled down to two candidates - Dr Tedros and Briton Dr David Nabarro, a life-long physician who had helped lead UN responses to previous outbreaks including bird flu, the cholera outbreak in Haiti, and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Dr Tedros (pictured with his family) was widely praised during his tenure as Ethiopia's health minister for helping to lower rates of measles, malaria, and HIV/AIDS as well as building thousands of health centres and hiring thousands of medics Dr Tedros won the ballot by a reported 133 votes to 50, becoming the first African leader of the WHO and the first non-medic to hold the role. His victory came in part thanks to 50 out of 54 African states voting for him. However, he quickly mired himself in controversy by recommending African dictator Robert Mugabe as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador, amid allegations he trying to repay favours granted during the election. There were reports that the move was also intended to reward China, a long-time supporter of Mugabe, for using its influence to have him elected. The Times added: 'China has praised the authoritarian development model of Ethiopias regime, which rules under emergency powers and has put down pro-democracy protests.' During the 2017 election itself, several groups within Ethiopia opposed Dr Tedros's appointment due to his links with the TPLF and allegations that they stifled journalists and repressed minorities. Dr Tedros was also accused of covering up three separate cholera outbreaks in 2006, 2008 and 2011 by mis-reporting it as 'watery diarrhea', allegations he dismissed as a 'smear campaign' by his British rival. Following his election to the WHO, Dr Tedros vowed to reform the organisation by placing an emphasis on universal healthcare at its centre while also increasing funding. Further UN funding records show that, during his tenure, assessed contributions to the WHO by China have also risen significantly - from roughly $23million in 2016 to $38million in 2019. China has also committed to a further $57million in funding in 2020, though has yet to pay the balance. A former freeholder and Democratic party leader in Cumberland County has pleaded guilty to evading more than $250,000 in federal taxes over several years. Douglas M. Long, 54, of Upper Deerfield, admitted the tax evasion via video conference before U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman, on the bench in Camden, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito. Long was a managing partner of Long & Marmero LLP in Woodbury during the period in question, from 2012 through 2015, according to Carpenito. In 2017 he became of counsel to the firm, which was renamed Grace, Marmero & Associates. Longs attorney, William J. Hughes Jr., said his client has been working with federal authorities for a number of years to resolve the case against him and is preparing to make full restitution. Hes very remorseful and sorry for his actions and hes accepted responsibility, said Hughes, of the firm Porzio, Bromberg & Newman P.C. Hughes said his client hopes to regain the trust of his community, "continue making his community better, and meet whatever punishment the court metes out. Long served as a freeholder for one term starting in 2013 and is also a former co-chairman of the Cumberland County Democratic Party. A man who answered a number for Cumberland County Democratic Party Tuesday, when asked if Long was still involved in the county party, said no and declined further comment. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, Long purposely instructed the firms bookkeeper to pay his personal expenses out of the firm accounts but list them as business expenses to hide his true income between 2012 to 2015. Many of Longs personal expenses, including school tuition for his children, utilities and service fees for his personal residences, student loan payments for Long and his spouse, and other expenses, repeatedly were paid out of the law firms bank accounts, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. Long also lied when he declared his federal income tax returns from 2012 to 2015 were accurate, when they were not, the office said. His efforts allowed him to conceal over $800,000 in income and thus evade over $250,000 in taxes, the office said. The office did not disclose whether it agreed to make any sentencing recommendation as part of the plea deal. The maximum penalty is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or two times the gross gain from the offense, the office said. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11. This was not Longs first time in trouble over firm finances. In 2016, the states Office of Attorney Ethics reprimanded him for not better supervising a bookkeeper who used nearly $200,000 in client deposits that should have been held in trust for firm expenses including overdraft fees and paying back personal loans. No clients actually lost money, the office noted in its reprimand. According to Longs bio on the Grace, Marmero & Associates website, he specializes in governmental, land use and contract law. Over the years he has represented numerous South Jersey municipalities and municipal entities, including the county, the Cumberland County Improvement Authority, Cumberland County Utilities Authority and Cumberland County Technical Education Center, the site said. Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Indonesian authorities has taken the punishment for quarantine violators to a whole new level. The head of Sragen regency in Central Java is the latest Indonesian official to enforce a policy that involves the supernatural. According to reports, a lot of locals from Sragen have returned to villages in the regency from cities in the past few weeks out of fear of lockdowns. There are also a number of people in the regency under health authorities' watchlist for possible coronavirus infections, who are officially referred to as people under surveillance or ODP. A "scary" punishment Sragen Regent Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati did not hold back when she warmed the two groups to self-isolate at home for 14 days. She said that if the groups continue to disobey the self-isolation orders, several villages have asked for her permission to quarantine them in an abandoned elementary school or abandoned houses. Kusdinar also stated in her interview with Tribun that she gave her permission that if need be, they should be locked inside in a haunted house if necessary. But the government will still feed them and monitor them. Also Read: New York Asymptomatic Mother Infects 17 of Her 18 Children with Coronavirus Two residents of Plupuh village found out the hard way that Kusdinar was not joking around. Kusdinar told Suara that the two Plupuh residents agreed to self-isolate but they violated the order. So the two residents were locked inside an abandoned haunted house. Kusdinar added that if the two residents just obeyed the government's order, they would not have been locked in the haunted house. Kusdinar added that the haunted house, located in the middle of a rice paddy, in known by locals to be haunted. She did not say how long the self-isolation violators would have to serve their sentence in the haunted house. Officials say that using abandoned buildings is a very practical necessity in the regency, as there is no dedicated quarantine facility in the region. As of April 19, five people have tested positive of the virus in Sragen and there was one confirmed death. Current state in Indonesia When the coronavirus reached ASEAN countries, Indonesia is one of the countries that was hit hard by the virus. The Indonesia government did not take the virus seriously in early 2020 until it was too late. The first 2,000 cases of the virus started in Jakarta and has slowly spread all across the 34 provinces. The pandemic is far from over, and Indonesia, who has weak health care system, is considered the most at risk. The Indonesian Doctors Association has asked the government to protect medical personnel and to avoid workers from treating COVID-19 patients without proper safeguards. More than 100 health works have been infected in Jakarta and more than 18 association members have died. The Indonesian government said it has distributed hundreds of thousands of pieces of protective equipment nationwide, but the gear remains scarce, forcing many hospitals to ask for donations for simple supplies like hand sanitizer and gloves. As of April 20, Indonesia has a total of 7,135 confirmed coronavirus cases with 26 deaths and 842 recovered. Related Article:Anti-Lockdown Riot Break Out in Paris After Evidence of Police Racism @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. New Delhi, April 21 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced that the city government will be giving 2,000 food coupons to all MPs and MLAs in Delhi to ensure food to the poor without any documents. This will be in addition to the foodgrains being provided to the PDS card holders and the non-PDS cardholders with Aadhaar cards, Kejriwal said. "A number of migrants come to Delhi for some time and now with the lockdown, they are stuck here. They do not have any documentation. So, to provide ration to them, we will be giving each MLA and MP in Delhi 2,000 food coupons. "They can give it to any poor. The coupon can give five kg ration," the Chief Minister said. Kejriwal also said that the government will be giving ration to about 30 lakh non-PDS card holders. "We were giving extra rations to 71 lakh families with PDS cards and we also announced giving food grains to the poor without ration cards but with Aadhar cards. So far, while 10 lakh such coupons were issued, we will be scaling it up." The Chief Minister said an additional 30 lakh people will be given ration through e-coupons. "We have planned to ensure food security to all poor until the coronavirus crisis is there. We got about 38 lakh applications online for e-coupons." Counting the numbers, Kejriwal said his government is giving free ration to half of Delhi's population. "Delhi's population is about 2 crore. We are giving ration to 71 lakh PDS card holders and 30 lakh no-PDS card holders. So, we are providing free ration to one crore people -- half of Delhi's total population." With the next month's ration, Kejriwal said a kit -- having other daily use items like soap and salt -- will also be given along with the ration. The conspiracy theory connecting the coronavirus outbreak to the roll-out of the 5G network is the most common piece of fake news about the virus seen by people in the UK, new research shows. The proportion of British adults who have viewed misinformation about the pandemic has increased from 46 per cent to 50 per cent, according to Ofcoms latest findings. And 50 per cent of the population said they had come across theories linking the origins or causes of Covid-19 to 5G technology. The watchdogs latest report on information consumption during the crisis covering week three of the lockdown paints a worrying picture of how widespread the utterly discredited conspiracy has become. False narratives around 5G and the virus have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media, with photos and videos documenting attacks on mobile phone masts often overlaid with spurious information about Covid-19. Some 50 fires targeting masts and other equipment have been reported in Britain in recent weeks, leading to three arrests. Telecom engineers have been abused on the job 80 times over the past month, according to trade group Mobile UK. The UK is not the only country in which the wild and baseless conspiracy theory has taken off. Some 16 masts have been torched in the Netherlands, with attacks also reported in Ireland, Cyprus, and Belgium. Ofcom said it has issued guidance to ITV over ill-judged comments made by Eamonn Holmes about the discredited theory. The media watchdog also imposed a sanction on ESTV over a London Live interview with conspiracy theorist David Icke a believer in reptilian humanoids about the virus. Broadcasters have editorial freedom to discuss and challenge the approach taken by public authorities to a serious public health crisis such as the coronavirus, said an Ofcom spokeswoman. Recommended How telecoms engineers are facing abuse due to 5G conspiracy theories However, discussions of unproven claims must be put fully into context especially at a time when mobile phone masts in the UK are being attacked, risking significant harm to the public. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden met with Facebook, Twitter and Google officials earlier this month to discuss how they could clamp down on disinformation. The latest Ofcom report shows people said they were most likely to seek information on the pandemic from the BBC, other broadcasters or official sources like the NHS, government or World Health Organisation (WHO). Social media and closed groups continue to be the least trusted media, with just under a quarter of respondents saying they trusted the information viewed on WhatsApp. In an encouraging development, the proportion of respondents who say they are finding it hard to know whats true and whats false about the coronavirus has dropped from 40 per cent in week one of the lockdown to 32 per cent in week three. Meanwhile the proportion of respondents using a fact-checking site has increased since the lockdown began, from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. Almost all respondents 98 per cent said they are continuing to follow official advice about social distancing. A woman wearing a Trump flag shouts during a protest Monday outside the Capitol in Sacramento. (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images) Protesters wanting California to ease or lift coronavirus stay-at-home rules held rallies Monday in Sacramento and Newport Beach. They were the latest in a series of protests around the country pushing for an ease to social distancing. Health experts have said early social distancing in California helped the state avoid the the high death counts of New York and that lifting them too early could cause coronavirus to spread. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that he understood the frustrations and anxieties being expressed by the protesters. But he cautioned that parts of the world that have relaxed coronavirus restrictions prematurely, including Singapore, have been quickly hit with a second wave of the virus. If were ultimately going to come back economically, the worst mistake we can make is making a precipitous decision based on politics and frustration that puts peoples lives at risk and ultimately sets back the cause of economic growth and economic recovery, Newsom said. The Newsom administration last week announced the six key indicators for altering the governors stay-home mandate, including the ability to closely monitor and track potential cases, prevent infection of high-risk people, increase surge capacity at hospitals, develop therapeutics and ensure physical distance at schools, businesses and child care facilities. Newsom said he will provide an update on Wednesday as to where the state stands in each of those key areas, including the progress California is making in widespread testing. A bipartisan group of elected officials from San Luis Obispo County on Monday asked Newsom to grant them the authority to implement a phased reopening of our local economy, a request that comes just days after Ventura County officials modified a stay-at-home order to permit some businesses to reopen and some gatherings to take place. Over the last few days, there have been protests in San Diego, Huntington Beach and San Clemente. Story continues On Monday in Newport Beach, a small band of demonstrators gathered outside City Hall to protest coronavirus-driven stay-at-home orders. About 30 people took to the sidewalk for the protest, which lasted less than two hours. Police reported no issues. Newport's significant hospitality industry is largely closed, and several coastal amenities are also off-limits or heavily restricted, including boardwalks, piers, beach parking and the famed Wedge surfing area. As of Monday, Orange County had 1,676 known cases of the coronavirus and 33 related deaths. Statewide, there have been more than 33,000 confirmed cases and at least 1,200 deaths. Accelerating Business Processes in a COVID-19 World Anyone navigating business process decisions as their organization adapts to challenges resulting from COVID-19 is encouraged to attend. Ephesoft, Inc., a leader in content acquisition and data enrichment solutions, today announced that it will host a webinar titled Key Elements for Accelerating Business Processes in a COVID-19 World on Tuesday, April 28 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. Stephen Boals, senior vice president of business development and alliances at Ephesoft, will host the educational webinar, which will touch on the challenges, necessities and options businesses will need to address to survive and flourish in a post-COVID-19 business world. The webinar will address key lessons learned from this pandemic crisis, common challenges and why organizations are struggling with remote work, unpredictable volumes, worker isolation and overall business flow. Boals will look at several technology solutions, including intelligent screening, capture and robotic process automation (RPA) tools that can accelerate processes and protect companies in our current and future business climates. He will also debut a new intelligent screening application, Transact QuickScreen, which was fast-tracked in development as a response to the pandemic to help accelerate identification forms collection and processing. Examples will include use cases from healthcare, government and mortgage companies, addressing topics such as HR onboarding for new and furloughed employees, and mobile screening solutions. Webinar attendees will learn how to: Adapt to high volume intake and document surges Deploy innovative technology for remote workers to be fully productive Leverage key point solutions, like rapid screening technology, to free up employees for higher-value tasks Anyone navigating business process decisions as their organization adapts to challenges resulting from COVID-19 is encouraged to attend. The webinar may be of particular interest to human resource managers, finance and accounts payable managers, hospital administrators and IT professionals, as well as directors of innovation and digital transformation. Here is the link to register: https://ephesoft.zoom.us/webinar/register/2015869685361/WN_WJpBEFKgTHyqQ1Fdkb22bg. Those unable to attend the live webinar are encouraged to register to receive a recorded version. Webinar host Stephen Boals has more than 15 years of experience in digital transformation and content management where he has managed projects for Microsoft, Freeport McMoran and other Fortune 1000 companies, as well as the states of California and Louisiana. His broad background includes Big 4 consulting with Ernst & Young, IT and security management. He is a military veteran who served for over eight years as a Naval Flight Officer. About Ephesoft Ephesoft is the leader in Context Driven Productivity solutions, helping organizations maximize productivity and fuel their journey towards the autonomous enterprise through contextual content acquisition, process enrichment and amplifying the value of enterprise data. The Ephesoft Semantik Platform turns flat data into context-rich information to fuel data scientists, business users and customers with meaningful data to automate and amplify their business processes. Thousands of customers worldwide employ Ephesofts platform to accelerate nearly any process and drive high value from their content. Ephesoft is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., with regional offices throughout the US, EMEA and Asia Pacific. To learn more, visit ephesoft.com. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Social distancing: a viral term that has spread as quickly as the coronavirus itself during the COVID-19 pandemic. As Christians, we are commanded to practice social distancing of a different kind: we are warned to keep a safe distance from another type of virus, one that is also global, contagious, and one that does not originate from flesh and blood: the virus of lawlessness, darkness, Belial (wickedness or worthlessness), or unbelief. 2 Corinthians 6: 14 16 says: Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God Do not be unequally yoked is often associated as a warning for Christians not to marry a non-Christian, a non-believer. While true, it has a broader and more significant application: it warns Christians as a whole not to be married or joined together with the world and its values. Keep a safe distance. Just as unequally yoked oxen would go in circles, not able to perform the task before them on a field, Christians who are yoked with unbelievers cannot perform the mission of Christ before them, for they are at odds with each other. The Virus of Self-Identity But the word unbeliever can also mean a Christian who is not faithful to Christ, whose identity is not in Christ but in their ethnic, gender, or sexual identity, or in their job, family, talents and gifts. The Greek word for unbeliever is apistos, which literally means not faithful and describes anyone who is faithless, one who rejects God's truth and sound doctrine. This is the narrative of Gods people in the Bible: from Adam and Eve, the nation of Israel, Simon Peter denying Christ, the early Church in Pauls letters, or most of the seven churches in the book of Revelation, the people of God have yoked themselves with unbelievers or had experiences of unbelief, unfaithfulness. Given that this is the trope of our existence as Gods people through the ages, are we any different? Ethnic, gender, sexual, political, vocational, relational and social IDs: identity and idols permeate the Church today. When we do not emphasize or elevate our identity in Christ, we are apistos: not faithful to Christ, unbelievers, through yoking ourselves to the world and ultimately to ourselves, where secularism, self-interest, and self-identity have infected our bodies, the temple of God, like a virus. For our battle is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12), which is why the pandemic of the virus of self-identity and unbelief has always been global, invisible, and contagious. We continue to live in a data-driven, brand-obsessed, platform-minded, demographic-influenced world that has infiltrated the lives and values of the Church. We have more Christian books, conferences, podcasts and content than ever before. Yet how much of this content has been yoked with the world? Much of the content is more humanitarian than Trinitarian; more social than spiritual, or what Martyn Lloyd-Jones calls moralism without the Gospel. We hear more about elevating voices, platforms of individuals or groups than hear about elevating and giving platform to the name of the Living God. We talk about shared spaces and equality, without hardly a mention about creating space in our minds and bodies for the Holy Spirits rightful place, where there is no equality: Hear O Israel (or Church), the LORD your God is ONE (DEUT 6:4; MARK 12:29). There is no equal. We are all guilty of this in our daily lives in one way or another, and praise God for His mercy, patience, forgiveness, steadfast love. But we are to respond by living lives of self-denial, self-distancing, and live lives of repentance, with clean hands (be sure you sanitize) and a pure heart before Him and one another. Sanitizing the Temple of the Living God Therefore go out from their midst,and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6: 16 18) God commands us, the temple of the Living God, to keep a safe distance from unbelievers: go out from their midst and be separate from them. Social and spiritual (logikos) distancing. And in our current climate of COVID-19, touch no unclean thing reminds us not to allow the virus to touch our eyes and ears lest we become infected. Gods promise is that he will then welcome us, be a father to us. I can hear the criticism and accusations now of being a fundamentalist, a word that has been hijacked, abused, misused for decades, much like the term evangelical is today. But let us remember the numerous examples in the Bible where Gods people are to be set-apart from the world. In 2 Chronicles 29, King Hezekiah, one of the few good kings, was 25 years old when his first act as King was to call all the priests and Levites to consecrate themselves and the house of the LORD and carry out the filth (the virus) from the Holy Place. They brought out all the uncleanness that they found, and what followed next was sacrifice, repentance, and the people of God making music and worshipping with clean hands and a pure heart. Then there is Jesus. In Mark 11, upon entering into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out. It was as if he was observing the filth, the virus that had infected the temple. We know what happened the very next day, as upon entering, He began to drive out those who sold and bought in the temple, and overturned the tables. He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple, saying Is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. But you have made it a den of robbers. What are we robbing Jesus of that needs to be overturned, removed, keep distance from? Let us remember that as Christians, we are not to be distant from one another, especially to those who are lost, perishing, weeping, broken, in this world. We are to minister to a lost world, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And while we are in the world, we are called not to be of the world. We are to go out from the midst and be separate from them. We are to do everything we can to practice a social and spiritual distancing from unbelief: from the voices, messages that bombard us at a pace that is more contagious and deadly than COVID-19. For we are the Temple of God, and since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of GOD. (2 Corinthians 7:1) - Nairobi Women's Hospital was expunged from list of service providers by the Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) after the health facility was rocked by patient extortion claims - The AKI said it had extensive engagements with the facility's leadership which resulted in the reinstatement - Felix Wanjala, who was the hospital's CEO, stepped aside to pave way for investigation into extortion allegations The Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) has reinstated the Nairobi Women's Hospital to its list of service providers. The move came two months after AKI expunged the hospital from the list following claims the management was extorting patients by intentionally delaying their discharge. READ ALSO: University student swept by floods in Chesogon found alive 48 hours later Nairobi Women's Hospital was expunged from the list of service providers by the Association of Kenya Insurers. Photo: Nairobi Women's Hospital. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Gov't allocates Raila KSh 72M days after freezing former PM, VPs' pension budget In a statement, the association said it had engaged the hospital's leadership on sustainable working formulas that will prevent future wrangles with patients. "The suspension has been lifted following extensive manage engagement between the management of Nairobi women's hospital and individual medical insurance companies. A working formula on handling of patients, administrative procedures and processes have been agreed upon by all parties," AKI said in a statement dated Monday, April 20. READ ALSO: Kenyan newspapers review for April 21: Siku Njema author Ken Walibora predicted his death Founder of the Nairobi Womens Hospital Sam Thenya welcomed the decision stating the facility would foster maintaining high levels of quality and affordability. "We welcome the decision to reinstate NWH back on the panel of accredited healthcare services providers especially at this crucial time when patients need as many options as possible, which we at NWH can offer while maintaining the highest levels of quality and affordability, said Thenya. CEO Felix Wanjala stepped aside to allow investigators to probe into allegations of overpricing of services at the hospital. He severed links with the company. Photo: Felix Wanjala. Source: Facebook The hospital, however, revealed that Felix Wanjala who was the CEO before it was delisted from AKI, had disengaged from the company by mutual agreement with the Board of Directors. Wanjala stepped aside to allow investigators to probe allegations of overpricing of services at the hospital. Since February 9, 2020, the hospital was being run by an Interim Operating Committee, consisting of seasoned professionals. 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from Covid-19 in Kenya | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke DANBURY - American Family Care is offering COVID-19 testing and AFC TeleCare, its telemedicine platform, in several Connecticut locations. Theres a massive need in the community that cannot be met, and we knew we were a perfect candidate for doing this type of testing and providing some relief for hospitals, said AFC owner Tom Kelly. Weve remained open throughout the pandemic. The initial challenge for AFC, Kelly said, was finding the tests. There wasnt enough testing material to go around, he said. The test requires a nasal swab, and it looks for the presence of the virus. It detects it with very good accuracy and there are no false positives, for example. I didnt want to provide it until we found the most accurate one available, which is called a PCR test. AFC began COVID-19 testing April 13, and it is continuing daily. The process begins by registering for an AFC TeleCare virtual appointment at: https://bit.ly/2wfRpDv. A staff member assesses patients and, if the appropriate criteria are met, the provider will schedule an appointment for a curbside visit and testing. The test takes a few minutes with results provided within 24-48 hours, AFC said. Some patients may need additional testing for flu, strep throat or a chest X-ray. COVID-19 testing is covered by most insurances including Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare & Husky. AFC offers self-pay rates, as well, for those without insurance. The first week, we set up a tent outside at couple of sites, because we wanted to be sure everything was structured in such a way that patients and staff were safe, Kelly said. We still have other patients coming through with other illnesses and injuries. Although we are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, some injuries still need to be seen in person in a timely fashion, such as lacerations, burns, broken bones and other non-coronavirus-related conditions, said Dr. Ifthikar Ali, director for AFCs Connecticut locations. When they arrive, people are greeted at that tent, and if anyone is showing symptoms of COVID-19, theyre treated outside in the tent. Otherwise, if theyre coming in for a regular visit for something else, they have their temperature taken, and if theyre OK, they come inside. Kelly said the AFC centers have done hundreds of COVID-19 tests so far. We probably have the capacity to do 250 to 300 a day, and that could grow as we move forward, he said. He had nothing but praise for his staff members. These incredible people who go into this field to help people wake up every morning, put on their suit of armor and charge into battle, he said. They have the most wonderful attitude. AFC is preparing to offer a second test in the coming weeks, called a serology test, that determines whether a patient has the antibodies of the virus in their system, Kelly said. It shows youve developed a defense to the virus, he said. Then you do the swab test, and if both are negative, youre low risk and youre OK. Its an important component of testing, he said. Curbside testing is consistent with CDC guidelines and allows for asymptomatic patients to be seen safely in a normal in-clinic visit. AFC Urgent Care is open 7 days a week for walk-in visits treating patients with non-COVID-19 symptoms and injuries. Patients also can schedule a HIPAA compliant AFC TeleCare virtual telemedicine visit. AFC TeleCare is available to anyone in Connecticut and neighboring New York counties, and will allow AFC providers to virtually screen patients for possible coronavirus infection and treat other acute and chronic illnesses for patients of all ages. Patients needing further care will be directed to a local AFC clinic or other appropriate health care resources. The company has 7 clinics throughout Connecticut: three in Danbury, West Hartford, New Britain, Torrington and Vernon. American Family Care, headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., is one of the largest networks of urgent and accessible primary care clinics in the U.S. AFC was founded by Dr. Bruce Irwin and opened its doors on June 14, 1982. Call 860-264-4176 or visit www.afcurgentcare.com/torrington . A lecturer at the University of Cape Coast Department of Sociology and Anthropology Dr. Razak Jaha Imoro has said the youth of Ghana must lead the fight against Coronavirus. He said coronavirus has affected every aspect of our social lives and social structure. Covid-19 has come and has "affected every aspect of our lives including how we interact, social relationships and even how we pray to God. Our politics, economy, marriage, family and even how we burry the dead have all seen changes". When asked how do we normalise our lives after Covid-19, he said society is dynamic and our lives can never be the same after codvid-19. "Coronavirus is reordering our lives and if one wants to live then s/he must comply with all accepted protocols" he said. He added that there are both positives and negatives as a results of coronavirus and obviously there are some positives which must be there going forward. He further added that "no one should entertain the fears that the world is coming to an end because the human being is dynamic and we should be thinking about how we can adjust in order to survive". Dr. Razak further said similar pandemics have happened including AIDS, Bird Flu, SARS etc have come and gone and as such all other protocols being prescribed now are part of measures to help us live and reorder our lives. Dr. Larbi Simpong who is an Experimental Pathologist and Lecturer at the Department of Medical Laboratory Science of the same University also part of the panel, responding to how dangerous is Covid-19 said, the disease is real but no one can claim s/he understands everything about it and as such he cannot answer either yes or no. A disease like H1N1 came and had similar problems as coronavirus. He said as to who the Covid-19 would kill still remains debatable because the disease affects everyone and with the limited knowledge makes it a little complex but not dangerous as to let people flee just with the sight of a coronavirus victims. When asked about how to deal with fear and panic amongst our midst because in just a spate of one month close to 900 persons have been infected, Dr. Larbi Simpong said road accidents killed over 200 persons in January 2020 alone but with Coronavirus only 9 persons have died so far. Even though Covid-19 spreads faster amongst people it is not too dangerous in terms of mortality to arouse fear and panic. We cannot remain the same as we have been again otherwise then we are not being human Dr Razak said responding to whether our lives would change post Covid19. He continued that "some amount of changes are expected to occur to our family, religion, wife and husband and even between a father and his children". Politically he doesn't expect that everything the government does in the time like these would be applauded by the opposition, he said. All decisions taken by our leadership in his view is reflected on what would be in the best interest of our nation state and how most of citizenry would benefit from such decisions. When asked about whether the lifting of the Lockdown was right, he said sociologically Lockdown is partial imprisonment and it's lifting is too problematic for him but if it is said that, the data, then what data are they talking about in terms of how many people get infected and how they are being treated. He added "life is all about survival and he expects people to go about their normal activities but should be careful and take their lives into their own hands. For how many months can we Lockdown should coronavirus travel beyond the expected he quizzed"? They were both speaking to Ben Nartey on GBC Radio Central's Central Morning Show today 21st April 2020. Dr. Larbi Simpong said initial Lockdown was good because the disease was new and we didn't understand how the virus behaves, locking down was very paramount and now that we have some amount of knowledge on the behaviour of the virus it was necessary for the Lockdown to be lifted. He further added that when people are allowed to go out, that is when they can build some immunity to the disease but not those with underlying ill conditions and the aged individuals. Above all this, we should continue to adhere to government directives. The Experimental pathologists said "stigmatisation became the major problem that I have identified, hence it important to embark on public education". We need to show love to Covid-19 victims because the recovered in advance countries are helping in research and treatment hence we should not stigmatise anyone because of coronavirus. On the other hand Dr. Razak said stigma has been with us and TB, AIDS, Bruluili Ulcer are all attached with stigma. "Stigma comes about because people fear about the disease" he said. Dr. Razak added that "all of us are humans and there is no need to stigmatise anyone. What is necessary is to offer any assistance where necessary". Assuming the one who is stigmatising the other also gets infected, then what happens? Dr. Razak continued that stigma should be out of the equation, because all of us are humans whether sick or not. In addressing the generational issues regarding coronavirus, Dr. Razak said "the older generation must be protected as much as possible and not stigmatise them and the youth must channel all their energies into how to combat Covid-19 and get it out of our system and not waste time stigmatising others". Dr. Larbi Simpong said even those who have died from coronavirus, their bodies are treated differently from normal dead bodies and as such all should bear with authorities should the bodies of their departed loved ones be treated in similar fashion. He further quizzed that hospitals are the places where coronavirus patient are identified and should one fall sick, would that particular individual refuse that same hospital's assistance? If no, then there was no need to stigmatise anyone suffering from Covid-19. A few states that are facing major outbreaks have issued executive orders that allow some foreign health care workers who are already in the state to see patients. New Jersey, for example, is granting temporary licenses to doctors residing there who are licensed and in good standing in foreign countries. In New York, graduates of foreign medical schools are being permitted to treat patients after completing one year of residency, instead of the usual three. 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 measures were introduced late in December 2018. Ukrainian Member of Parliament and oligarch Vadym Novynsky and Andriy Kiseliov whose interests include metallurgy were excluded from Russia's sanctions list on April 20. As Russia's news agency Interfax reported, Novynsky and Kiseliov were removed from the list of individuals subject to special economic measures of Russia under a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, signed on April 20 and published on the official portal of legislative acts. Read alsoOpposition Platform MP Novynsky says he tests positive for coronavirus Novynsky is a co-owner of Metinvest Holding, Kiseliov is reportedly affiliated with the UkrMet Group. The two businessmen were sanctioned during the second wave of restrictive measures introduced by Russia late in December 2018, which followed almost immediately after the first wave in November 2018. Such measures as the freezing of non-cash funds, securities and property in Russian territory and a ban on the withdrawal of capital outside Russia are used in respect of legal entities and individuals included in the list, as well as organizations controlled by them. A Lakewood, N.J.,event space is being used to hold socially distant wedding ceremonies amid the coronavirus outbreak, the mayor and religious officials said Monday, though state and county officials say the venue was not approved to re-open. Lakewood Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg said the arrangement to have small ceremonies at Ateres Reva, a catering hall attached to a school on Summer Avenue, was made in consultation with municipal officials and police. The Lakewood police department conferred with the Ocean County prosecutors office to make sure there were no problems with this, Lakewood Mayor Ramond Coles said. He said he was not involved in the discussions, but spoke with police officials Monday. The purpose is to make sure any events that happen are done in accordance with all of the governors guidelines. However, Lakewood police did not respond to requests for comment. The county prosecutor said his office didnt sanction any specific venue to re-open against Gov. Phil Murphys executive orders, but said socially distant wedding ceremonies are acceptable. Wedding venues are non-essential. So to be clear, no wedding venues have been authorized by my office, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said in an email. A marriage ceremony itself is not an issue, as long as it comports with the requirements of all of the (executive orders) and (administrative orders). Less than 10 people total, social distancing and wearing masks. Coles said thats how the ceremonies will be held. Only the officiant, bride and groom, parents and a photographer will be allowed inside, and police will supervise the event to enforce those rules, he said. Each person must wear gloves and a mask, except for the bride and groom. Afterward, the room will be disinfected for the next ceremony, Coles said. Allowing some immediate family to come together to celebrate could be a good thing providing its well-maintained, its overseen and we make sure all of the guidelines to keep people safe are kept in place, Coles said. He said the precautions are similar to funeral attendance limits meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19. During the Orthodox period of Omer, a 50-day period of mourning that begins on the second day of Passover, there are only a handful of days in which weddings are allowed. So religious leaders in Lakewood began discussing with local law enforcement ways to allow ceremonies on select days to deal with a backlog of postponed weddings, Weisberg said. The ceremonies will be two hours long, Weisberg said, shorter than the usual six-hour weddings. Afterward, people can drive in through the parking lot and give congratulations to the bride and groom as they stand feet away stand in the doorway of the building. The dangers (of COVID-19) are very, very real and they loom very, very heavily, so we were struggling with our own leadership groups and the authorities ... to try to do what we can to try to balance these. Wed like to err on the side of caution, said Weisbeg. Everything that came out of this was very measured and thought through. At least five rabbis have died after contracting the coronavirus. The pandemic has disrupted the daily life of Lakewoods Orthodox community, where ceremonies and rituals play a big part in religion. Two-thirds of the townships 100,000 residents are Orthodox. And while all yeshivas and synagogues, at which people gather to pray three times a day, are closed, halting weddings has been more challenging. In the Orthodox religion, delaying marriages is frowned upon, community leaders have said. Police have broken up multiple events in Lakewood and charged more than two dozen people for defying Murphys ban on large gatherings over the past month. Lakewood Committeeman Meir Lichtenstein said the new plan is a good compromise, allowing residents to celebrate while also practicing social distancing and abiding by the governors executive orders. "If the religious ceremony can take place and follow all the proper guidelines I think it is a good thing as it allows people to safely (and) legally practice their beliefs, Lichtenstein said. New Jersey Attorney Generals spokesman Leland Moore said the state has not reviewed or approved "any plans with respect to weddings at catering halls or elsewhere in New Jersey. The governors executive orders and related administrative orders concerning gatherings and social distancing remain in full effect and are the most effective tools we have to protect the health of New Jerseyans during this pandemic. As Attorney General Grewal and Colonel Callahan make clear every day in their daily enforcement updates, New Jersey law enforcement will hold those who flout these orders accountable, Moore said. A secretary for Ateres Reva who answered the phone Monday said the catering hall is being used as a space for small ceremonies, but the company is not involved in the organizing of ceremonies and is not charging couples. As of Monday, there were 4,648 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Ocean County and 217 deaths, according to state officials. Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo. Find NJ.com on Facebook. More: British star Pierce Brosnan has revealed that filmmaker Quentin Tarantino once discussed a James Bond movie plot with him. The 66-year-old actor, who played the suave 007 spy in four films from 1995 to 2002, shared the story during a live watch-along of"Goldeneye" with Esquire. "It was after'Kill Bill Vol. 2', and he wanted to meet me, so I went up to Hollywood one day from the beach, and I met him at the Four Seasons," Brosnan recalled. "I got there at 7pm, I like to be punctual. 7:15 came around, no Quentin, he was upstairs doing press. Someone sent over a martini, so I had a martini, and I waited till 7:30, and I thought, where the heck is he? Word came down, apologies, so I thought, okay, I'll have another martini," he added. After Tarantino finally arrived, the two got drunk soon and their discussion inevitably went on to the long-running spy franchise. "He was pounding the table, saying, 'You're the best James Bond, I wanna do James Bond,' and it was very close quarters in the restaurant and I thought, please calm down, but we don't tell Quentin Tarantino to calm down," said Brosnan. Though the actor did not reveal the details of the Tarantino's Bond pitch, he did take it up to the producers. "He wanted to do James Bond, and I went back to the shop and told them but it wasn't mean to be. No Quentin Tarantino for James Bond," Brosnan added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) [April 21, 2020] Federal Aid May Trigger Wave of Cyberattacks on Distressed Businesses CHICAGO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the federal and state agencies begin disbursing financial aid, experts at Keeper Security advise small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to adopt a heightened cybersecurity posture in the coming days and weeks. The warning comes amid the rollout of the $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill intended to aid businesses distressed due to the outbreak of COVID-19. A 2019 study from Keeper and the Ponemon Institute revealed that 80 percent of U.S.-based SMBs have already experienced a cyberattack. "Coronavirus has rapidly brought on unprecedented levels of chaos, confusion and emotional distress within our nation, which creates prime conditions for cybercriminals to exploit," said Darren Guccione, CEO and Co-founder of Keeper Security. "Add in the fact that millions of Americans are working from home, using personal devices, home networks and you have a recipe for disaster." The early stages of the pandemic revealed a number of attacks targeting the frontlines, with attacks reported against the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as growing concern of ransomware attacks that could cripple hospitals. But experts say the next wave of attacks may be inspired by financial opportunity associated with the stimulus measure. Guccione believes that federal aid, grants and small business loans could be a near-perfect catalyst to incentivize online scammers to strike. Attacks of this nature will not require sophisticated tactics to be effective and may largely rely on user error or deception, such as email phishing campaigns. Guccione also predicts that stolen credentials on the dark web will be more frequently utilied by cybercriminals to execute credential stuffing and account takeover attacks. Keeper's 2019 Global State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses found that two of the most common attacks used against SMBs were phishing (57%) and credential theft (30%). Cybercriminals can easily mask an email to appear as if it's coming from a friend, colleague or government agency, offering a compelling reason for a user to click on a link. Once a link is engaged, there is little to no recourse a user can take to avert the hack. Beyond financial consequences, the study also found that 69 percent of global respondents lost sensitive information due to an attack, which can cause irreparable harm to an organization's reputation. The virus outbreak is also stretching the utilization of government-backed resources, offering fewer government safety nets to fall back on in the face of online fraud or cyberattack. Many SMBs struggle to rebound from cyberattacks under normal economic circumstances, making the coming months extra perilous for this segment of the business. Keeper advises businesses to be extra vigilant when handling online communications and inform employees of the heightened risk, noting that the best defense is a proactive approach to security. The pain felt from economic turmoil isn't limited to American SMBs and neither is the elevated cybersecurity threat. Similar to the U.S., the U.K. and countries in Europe have also rolled out coronavirus financial aid packages for businesses. Globally, two-thirds of SMBs experienced an attack within the 12 months prior to responding to Keeper's survey. Further, respondents said those attacks are becoming more frequent, targeted and sophisticated. "Tools like password managers and VPNs provide businesses with an extra layer of protection against user error but there's no better solution than a proactive approach to digital security," said Guccione. The 2019 Global State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses report, which surveyed 2,391 IT and IT security practitioners in the U.S., U.K., DACH, Benelux and Scandinavia, underscores growing cybersecurity concerns best illustrated through the year-over-year trends dating back to 2016. About Keeper Security, Inc. Keeper Security, Inc. (Keeper) is the market-leading, top-rated cybersecurity platform for preventing password-related data breaches and cyberthreats. Keeper's zero-knowledge security and encryption software is trusted by millions of people and thousands of businesses across the globe to mitigate the risk of cybertheft, boost employee productivity and meet compliance standards. Keeper has been named PC Magazine's Best Password Manager of the Year & Editors' Choice, PCWorld's Editors' Choice and is the winner of four G2 Best Software Awards and the InfoSec Award for Best Product in Password Management for SMB Cybersecurity. Keeper is SOC-2 and ISO 27001 Certified and is also listed for use by the U.S. federal government through the System for Award Management (SAM). Learn more at https://keepersecurity.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/federal-aid-may-trigger-wave-of-cyberattacks-on-distressed-businesses-301044023.html SOURCE Keeper Security, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] While many Democrats have fantasised about the prospect, the former first lady has said she has no interest in the role. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for United States president, said in a new interview that he would pick former First Lady Michelle Obama as his vice presidential candidate in a heartbeat if he thought she would take the job. In an interview with KDKA television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, however, Biden said he doubted she would accept the offer. Id take her in a heartbeat, Biden said. Shes brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a really fine woman. The Obamas are great friends. But I dont think she has any desire to live near the White House again, Biden added. It is not the first time the former vice president, who served two terms under President Barack Obama and is on reportedly good terms with his former boss, has said he would love to have Michelle Obama alongside him in the White House. At a campaign stop in Iowa in January, he said as much and added that he also would like to put Barack Obama on the US Supreme Court. In Mondays interview, Biden said his search for a running mate was continuing and reiterated his pledge to select a woman, but declined to commit to selecting a woman of colour in the role. In terms of who to pick, were just beginning the process, he said. Well shortly name the committee to review this and begin to look through the backgrounds of the various potential nominees. And thats just getting underway. The Democrats vetting process for a running mate has been playing out in an unusually public manner in recent days, with potential contenders for the job making appearances on a podcast Biden launched earlier this month that is recorded in his Delaware home. While many Democrats have openly fantasised about the prospect of Michelle Obama being Bidens running mate, the former first lady has made it abundantly clear that she has no interest in the role and said she would stick to her get-out-the-vote efforts instead. Ill say it here directly: I have no intention of running for office, ever, she wrote in her best-selling memoir, Becoming, released in 2018. We can still make a difference even as we #StayHome. Excited to join @whenweallvote's #CouchParty tonight with my friends @tomhanks and @RitaWilson! And of course @djdnice will be playing a live set while we spread the word! Join us at 7:15pm ET: https://t.co/JNUGoT7xUw pic.twitter.com/KEfwA3aRd8 Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) April 20, 2020 Among those in contention are former campaign trail rivals Amy Klobuchar, a Senator from Minnesota, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, and California Senator Kamala Harris. Also said to be in contention are Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Stacey Abrams from Georgia. Neither Biden nor incumbent President Donald Trump have been able to campaign in public since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing stay-at-home orders across the country. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 10:04:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits Niubeiliang National Nature Reserve to learn about ecological conservation in the Qinling Mountains, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, April 20, 2020. Xi Jinping on Monday urged local officials to be guardians of the ecological environment of the Qinling Mountains during his inspection tour in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. "The illegal construction in the Qinling Mountains is a big lesson," he said. "From now on, any official working in Shaanxi should above all learn this lesson, avoid repeating the same mistake and work as a guardian of the ecological environment of the Qinling Mountains." (Xinhua/Ju Peng) XI'AN, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Monday urged local officials to be guardians of the ecological environment of the Qinling Mountains during his inspection tour in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Xi made the remarks while visiting Niubeiliang National Nature Reserve to learn about ecological conservation in the Qinling Mountains. "The illegal construction in the Qinling Mountains is a big lesson," he said. "From now on, any official working in Shaanxi should above all learn this lesson, avoid repeating the same mistake and work as a guardian of the ecological environment of the Qinling Mountains." As a natural boundary between the country's north and south, the Qinling Mountains are home to a huge variety of plants and rare wildlife such as giant pandas, golden monkeys and crested ibis. Enditem MADISON, Wis. Health officials in Wisconsin said they have identified at least seven people who appear to have contracted the coronavirus from participating in the April 7 election, the first such cases following in-person voting that was held despite widespread concern about the public health risks. The cases involve six voters and one poll worker in Milwaukee, where difficulty finding poll workers forced the city to pare nearly 200 voting locations back to just five, and where voters some in masks, some with no protection were forced to wait in long lines for hours. The conditions of the seven werent immediately available. City health commissioner Jeanette Kowalik told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she hopes to have more information later in the week. Kowaliks office didnt immediately respond to a question from The Associated Press asking how city health officials were able to trace the infections to the election. The April 7 election, which included a presidential primary as well as a state Supreme Court race and local offices, took place after a legal struggle between Democrats and Republicans. A day before the election, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers ordered that it be delayed and shifted to all-mail voting, only to be overturned when Republican legislative leaders won an appeal in the states conservative-controlled Supreme Court. Thousands of Wisconsin voters stayed home, unwilling to risk their health and unable to be counted because requested absentee ballots never arrived. State health officials had warned of an expected increase in infections from the election. State health secretary Andrea Palm said Monday that they had not shown up, but noted that symptoms may not have surfaced yet. Health officials say symptoms of COVID-19 typically appear within two weeks of exposure to the virus, and Tuesday is the 14th day since the election. That means more voters and poll workers could come forward with infections in the coming days. Representatives for Evers and for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald both Republicans havent responded to emails seeking comment. The coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. To date, 242 people have died in Wisconsin and more than 4,600 have tested positive. Wisconsins election has been a flashpoint of contention as Democrats and Republicans grapple with how to conduct elections in the coronavirus era as the November presidential race approaches. Democrats and voting rights groups have filed lawsuits to expand mail and absentee voting options, and pushed for an extra $2 billion to help states adjust their election systems. National Republicans are fighting those efforts, while President Donald Trump claims without evidence that mail-in voting is vulnerable to fraud. Wisconsin is a key state in the 2020 presidential election. Democrats and liberal groups are intent on reminding voters that Republicans insisted on holding the April election despite the public health crisis. American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super PAC, jumped on the report of election-related cases, accusing Trump of not taking responsibility for the victims. ___ Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1 BopDaddy Challenge: Nigerians Drag Immigration Over Female Officers The Nigeria Immigration Service is set to discipline three female officers who took part in a social media challenge known as bopdaddy/dont rush challenge. In the challenge, female participants from across the world wear their usual clothing at the beginning of the video and later changed into more elegant attires after the camera of their phones were covered for a while. Some female officers of the government agency then decided to hop on the challenge, which didnt seem to go well with the authorities of the NIS. In a query by the immigration authorities, the officers were accused of indecently flaunting your bodies and desecrating the service uniform/beret and the use of inappropriate language thereby, sabotaging the values upheld by the service. To state the obvious, your act has caused a lot of embarrassment to the NIS and in line with our standard as a paramilitary organization is considered scandalous and an act unbecoming of an officer and therefore a violation of PSR 030401 and 030402, Iam Haliru, deputy comptroller-general, said in the query dated April 15. This is a serious misconduct liable to dismissal from service. In view of the foregoing, therefore, you are requested to make a representation, if any, within 72 hours on receipt of this letter, why disciplinary action should not be taken against you for violation of the following; PSR 030301 (a)(i) immoral behaviour, PSR 030402(t), PSR 030402(w) any other act unbecoming of a public officer. Another memo by deputy comptroller-general, asked the comptrollers of the federal capital territory (FCT), Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and Lagos state command to release the affected officers so that they would be able to report to the services human resource management at the headquarters in Abuja, The Cable reports They are to report to the office of the assistant comptroller-general in charge of human resource management at the service headquarters, Haliru said in another memo dated April 14. Nigerians have however reacted to the move to discipline the female officers, with many calling out the agency for being too rigid. See Reactions Below; Dear @nigimmigration, there is nothing immoral about this video. Infact, if anything it humanizes and creates a positive image of those in your uniforms. Please withdraw the query you have issued and join Nigerians to celebrate these your good officers. Thanks. https://t.co/FGmO5Zts9L Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) April 20, 2020 If this is how he acted swiftly on the corruption in getting your passport or renewal. You see, it seems this people deliberately dont want Nigeria a better place. How will you leave your main job to act on what is posted on Social Media. https://t.co/426NaPSIIo Layi Ajao (@arroshyd) April 20, 2020 Note: The following open letter has the support of more than 700 physicians and advanced practice providers affiliated with St. Lukes; it does not represent the position of all providers. Ive been a practicing pulmonary and critical care physician here in Idaho for 21 years. Every year, I see dozens of very ill people. My clinical colleagues have seen any number of tragic cases and seasonal flu epidemics and provided bedside care during the last pandemic with the H1N1 flu. We have never seen anything like what we saw play out several weeks ago in the Twin Falls ICUs, as the COVID-19 pandemic came to Idaho, beginning in the Wood River Valley. Over a period of days, we saw critically ill patients transported to Twin Falls. We saw our ICU capacity in that facility steadily erode. We saw patients diverted to other parts of the health system, we saw care teams struggle to support the number of critically ill patients requiring ventilator support and we saw one intensive care unit become a respiratory unit over a period of about five days. We saw critically ill people who had to be separated from their families. We saw patients who had to say their final goodbyes via FaceTime. And we saw our frontline clinicians carry this burden and move on to the next patient and family who needed them. Were all caregivers; we dont give up easily. But were not alone, and we understand the pressure that others also are facing. Our elected leaders, for example, have chosen to protect the publics health under extreme pressure to ease up on safe and practical guidance meant to keep all of our friends and family members alive and healthy. Here are the incontrovertible facts, so far as we know, at this time regarding COVID-19: It is far more lethal than the flu. It is 50 times more lethal than the flu. This is not the flu. COVID-19 is no respecter of gender, ethnicity, age, city, county or state of residence or political party. It lies in wait. It likes crowds. It picks on the vulnerable. It waits for us to lose our focus. And then it moves in. Until we have a vaccine, and more immunity to the coronavirus, our best defense will continue to be a set of simple, basic precautions: Hand washing. Keeping a safe social distance. Covering mouths and noses. Lifting these efforts too soon will bring us back to where we were a few weeks ago in a very short period of time. We saw what it can be like. Our story does not need to look like New Yorks. But it requires that we respond together, based on evidence. Your neighbors, who are physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, therapists and other clinicians, are doing their best to fight a threat we all have in common. We stand in support of the governor, of county commissioners, of the mayors of our cities, of university, college and school administrators, of all first responders, of business owners, of every leader, at every level, who is doing the right thing on behalf of all of us. One of the very best things about living in our part of the country is the scrappy, rugged individualism that has characterized us as a people. It has helped to shape world-class companies. It has powered best-in-class education and health care. It has given rise to a warm and welcoming community. Were calling on that spirit of community now. As your doctors, nurses and neighbors, we invite you to join us in supporting our governor, policymakers, business leaders, mayors, heads of our school districts and institutions of higher learning in making extremely difficult choices on behalf of all us. It is hard enough in the best of times to be a true leader; it has never been more difficult than it is right now. Jim Souza, M.D., is St. Lukes Health System Chief Medical Officer. He earned his undergraduate degree in cell biology from the University of Montana and medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine. He served his residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington and the Boise VA Medical Center and did a pulmonary and critical care fellowship through the University of Washington and the Boise VA Medical Center. He is board-certified in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine. In addition to his administrative duties, he continues to practice pulmonary and critical care medicine. Love 5 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Sun Woo was at home alone, eating her dinner. Suddenly, she heard a smash outside her door. Afterward, all her windows broke into pieces as the culprit got inside her house. Sun Woo shouted and ran to hide at her kitchen table. The culprit pulled her up, strangled her, and threw her on the floor. She fell on the broken glasses, which injured her arms and face. Luckily, Kim Yoon Gi called and Sun Woo was quick to reach for her phone to press the answer key. She shouted for help while the culprit pulled her back again and strangled her, making it along with the kitchen table. While gasping for breath, she reached for the bottle wine and hit the man's head. He released Sun Woo as he fell down the floor. Kim Yoon Gi heard Sun Woo on the other line, asking for help. He hurriedly drove his car to Sun Woo's house. Ye Rim heard the loud smash of the window and looked at Sun Woo's place. A commotion continued that lead her to call and report to the police. Soon enough, the unidentified man heard the police patrol siren. He stood up while he was bleeding and hurriedly ran outside through the front door. A few minutes later, the cops arrived and checked Sun Woo's place. Kim Yoon Gi also came and assisted the shaken Sun Woo. The detective asked Kim Yoon Gi to be interviewed since Sun Woo couldn't talk well, as she sat on one of the couches. Sun Woo called Joon Young as soon as she saw his missed call. Joon Young informed her if he can sleepover his father's place. Sun Woo agreed and talked with him as calm as she could. The police finished their checking the area and left. Kim Yoon Gi treated Sun Woo's wound and comforted her. Joon Young arrived and saw his mother covered in bruises. He decided to return home and stay with her. Tae Oh tried to approach Sun Woo but Kim Yoon Gi blocked the way and told him to let Sun Woo take a rest. Sun Woo went upstairs to check on Joon Young. Seeing that Sun Woo didn't want to talk to him, he left the house right away. She went to her computer and tried to review the recording but the man smashed the camera to pieces. Hyun Seo sent a message to Sun Woo with greetings. The next day, Sun Woo visited Hyun Seo at her place. She told Sun Woo what she heard women at the spa planning for her dismissal from the hospital. Sun Woo tried to investigate further, so she knocked on her neighbor's door. Ye Rim opened the door and tried to stay calm as well. Sun woo asked her if she noticed anyone coming to her house. Ye Rim informed her that she saw Tae Oh come inside the house the other day when no one was around. Sun Woo got furious about what she knew or the day. She barged into Tae Oh's office and told him to stay away from her, but Tae Oh feigned ignorance and said to her that she needs to leave Gosan and let Joon Young stay with him. One of Tae Oh's employees secretly called Da Kyung and reported what happened. The next day, Da Kyung visited Sun Woo at the hospital. She didn't say anything as Da Kyung asked her what her business was that she went to Tae Oh's office. Sun Woo answered that she needs to ask her husband instead of coming to her for answers. The women's association members meet again at the firing range. They enjoyed watching Hyo Jung hit the target ring. Sun Woo arrived and surprised all the girls as she asked to join the club. Hyo Jung asked her to leave while Da Kyung advised her that she will be declined. Sun Woo then asked everyone to vote to know the answer. Ms. Choi raised her hands in favor of Sun Woo, together with the two other women. Da Kyung raised her hand and favored Sun Woo joining the team. Hyo Jung and the other ladies were stunned by the turnaround of the event. Sun Woo looked at Da Kyung and thanked her for the support. HOUSTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ammons Law Firm has filed one of the country's first class action lawsuits against an insurance company for failure to pay coronavirus-related claims. The lawsuit, brought by a restaurant and bakery in Las Cruces, New Mexico, alleges that Continental Casualty Company, a subsidiary of CNA Financial Corporation that handles their property insurance operations, failed to honor its insurance contract and pay on the restaurant's business interruption, civil authority, extra expense, and "sue and labor" coverages. "We are seeing an unprecedented number of businesses reaching out to us that are immediately being denied coverage for their business interruption insurance they have paid, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for," says Rob Ammons, lead attorney for the class action. "We are filing this to let business owners know that they deserve to get what they paid for. These insurance companies cannot be allowed to bankrupt businesses trying to re-enter the economy after the quarantine is over just to protect their bottom line." In a class action lawsuit, one or a small group of plaintiffs brings the lawsuit on behalf of all people or businesses who are in the same position as the plaintiffs. This lawsuit asks the court to determine whether Continental wrongfully denied all claims based on COVID-19; whether the insurance contract applies to a business suspension caused by COVID-19; and whether Continental breached the insurance contract by denying all claims based on business interruption, income loss, or closures related to COVID-19 and the related closures. The Ammons Law Firm is a Houston-based firm with a nationwide practice handling COVID Insurance cases. The lawsuit is Cafe Plaza de Mesilla Inc. v. Continental Casualty Co., in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico. Ammons Law Firm www.ammonslaw.com Case number: 2:20-cv-00354, U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico SOURCE Ammons Law Firm Related Links http://www.ammonslaw.com [April 21, 2020] Soldo Care Cards Help Governments, Local Authorities and NGOs Distribute Emergency Funds Amid COVID-19 Outbreak - Prepaid emergency aid cards available immediately across Europe - Soldo Care to help facilitate distribution of 400m from the Italian government's Solidarity Fund LONDON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid growing global poverty concerns in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, leading spend management platform Soldo has launched a new solution Soldo Care to enable governments, local authorities, and NGOs to distribute emergency aid to vulnerable citizens via Mastercard prepaid cards. The Municipality of Milan, which governs an estimated 1.3 million citizens, is the first authority to adopt the cards. Soldo Care is a smart payment card that can be used immediately at any merchant which accepts MasterCard payments. The cards provide a faster, safer, and more secure way of distributing emergency aid compared to paper-based food stamps and can be reloaded as required. Distributing organisations can set predefined rules to maintain control of how and where the cards can be used, and all funds remain under the organisation's ownership until they are transferred to a merchant in exchange for goods or services. The Municipality of Milan will use Soldo Care cards to help distribute its portion of the Italian government's 400m solidarity fund that has been allocated to support people affected by the crisis. A further 21 Italian authorities have signed up to use the cards already to help distribute emergency aid in their regions, with over 20,000 families to receive assistance from Soldo Care so far. Soldo's fintech infrastructure has been adapted for the creation of Soldo Care. By configuring the platform to the special needs of the municipalities, Soldo has been able to bring Soldo Care to market within a few weeks. Michele Petrelli, Director of Social Policy, at the Municipality of Milan: "We chose to partner with Soldo as it provides a simple solution for us to distribute funds to those in eed. The cards can be used in a wide range of shops, large and small retailers, and we are able to reload the cards with funds, as needed, at no cost which is imperative during this time of crisis." Carlo Gualandri, CEO at Soldo: "Italy was the first European country to enter a state of emergency, and with offices in Milan, we at Soldo experienced the societal impact first-hand. Traditional food stamps and regular prepaid cards are often too slow and cumbersome to be effective during a crisis such as this. Soldo's infrastructure is agile enough to be rapidly adapted to the needs of local authorities. As the pandemic continues to unfold, and hits other nations hard, we want to use our technology in every way possible to support authorities to assist those most in need." Since its launch in 2015, Soldo has established partnerships with and rolled out its spend management platform to many leading organisations in the charity, health, and government sectors, including Age UK and the NHS. Soldo currently works with 450 charities in Italy, and 350 in the UK, offering these partners discounted access to prepaid cards to help them manage operational spend with complete transparency, to ensure funds are used correctly. Thomas Duggan, Director at Millstreet Accommodation Centre, Ireland: "The current pandemic means distributing food and services to our residents (International Protection Applicants) is more challenging than ever. Fortunately, Soldo can provide immediate access to funds, to purchase essentials quickly and safely." Matt Ward, Management Accountant, Soul Foundation, a Norwich based food bank: "We provide free meals for the vulnerable in our community. Since the outbreak started demand has increased hugely, and we're aiming to provide up to 130,000 meals per month. With Soldo, we can make sure they get access to critical goods and services faster and more efficiently." For more information about Soldo Care, please visit: www.soldo.com About Soldo Founded in 2015 by tech veteran Carlo Gualandri, Soldo is one of Europe's fastest growing fintech companies. In 2019, the company raised a $61 million series B round led by Battery Ventures and Dawn Capital with the participation of Accel and other existing investors - the largest round of funding ever secured by a spend management company. Soldo is a unified solution to manage and control spending, used by over 60,000 businesses, of all sizes. Soldo empowers employees to buy what they need to do their jobs using Soldo Mastercard cards, with the ability to set custom budgets and spending rules for each user. The app captures detailed spending data to simplify reporting and integrate seamlessly with your accounts. About Millstreet The Company is involved in the provision of accommodation and related services to Applicants for International Protection in the Irish Republic for over 20 years. Currently it cares for over 900 people in six individual locations throughout the South of Ireland. About Soul Foundation SOUL Foundation is a non-profit organisation, which began with a group of volunteers eager to help make a difference in their local and global community through feeding programmes, women's shelters, job skills training, community assistance and prison initiatives. Media contact: Ben Beckles +44-(0)7808-131-960 TopLine Comms [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] To the Editor, So the Alton police threw me out of Rock Spring Park the other day. What was I doing? Walking alone in an empty park with my two dogs. What was my crime? I called the police chief and he confirmed all Alton parks are completely closed. To paraphrase the chief, I was recklessly endangering the public health. When I voiced my strong objection to his claim and said I planned to continue walking my dogs in Alton parks, he said if I did, he would personally write my citation. I asked him why the city couldnt open the parks and close the pavilions and play areas. His response was to invite me to run for mayor or police chief, that he was done talking to me and hung up. I also left a message with the mayor, but he never returned my call. After my chat with the chief, I did some research and found almost all municipal parks in the St. Louis metro area remain completely open, including St. Louis City. Closer to home Godfrey, Wood River and Bethalto parks are all open. St Louis County is the only major municipality Im aware of where the parks are closed (and citizens there are not happy about it). The Alton city administration has a fiduciary duty to maintain our city parks for the benefit of its citizens. The city of Alton has failed miserably in this regard. During these difficult times where most public recreation is shut down, its important to give people an outlet. Why cant a young couple cooped up with small children for the past month be allowed to take their children to a city park for a picnic on a beautiful spring day? The response I get is that if we open the parks, masses of people will flock in and violate social distancing requirements. Really??? I have a lot more faith in our citizens than that! And, since the chief already has police stationed in these parks to keep people out, he could just as easily have them patrol the parks to enforce social distancing requirements. I believe the city acted in a wrong-headed and heavy-handed manner with little regard for its citizens. I also believe they are violating our constitutional rights and are derelict in their duties. This is the USA, not Communist China! They serve us; we dont serve them! I urge the citizens of Alton to call the mayor at 463-3500 and police chief at 463-3505 to demand they reopen our parks immediately. Thank You. Bill Galbraith Alton Six State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) jawans have tested positive in Maharashtra's Hingoli district, a health official said on Tuesday. They were recently deployed in Mumbai and were quarantined four days ago after return, the official said. "Two units of SRPF jawans returned from Mumbai after being posted there for 45 days, so it was decided to quarantine them as a precaution," said Civil Surgeon Dr Kishor Prasad Shrivas. "194 jawans were quarantined at SRPF hospital of Hingoli. Reports of 101 jawans are now available. Out of them 95 are negative and six are positive," he said. "As per the information I have received, the condition of all six is stable. They will be shifted to Hingoli civil hospital," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Italian government has re-nominated Claudio Descalzi as Chief Ececutive Officer of Eni, Italys largest multinational company and the countrys largest foreign oil producer in Africa. Mr Descalzi is set to maintain the leadership role despite an ongoing criminal trial over corruption allegations surrounding the billion dollar 2011 acquisition by Shell and Eni of Nigerias OPL 245 oil license. Italian prosecutors allege that the $1.1bn paid by Eni and their partner Shell for the OPL 245 licence was used to pay former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete and was intended for payment to a former Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, members of the government, and other Nigerian public officials. Eni and Shell, and several of their senior managers including Mr Descalzi are currently standing trial, charged with aggravated international corruption. If convicted, the offences carry seven-year jail terms. Claudio Descalzi Mr Descalzi, both companies and all other individuals in the case have pleaded not guilty and the trial is currently delayed by the Covid-19 crisis. Scandal The controversial Malabu deal was struck in 2011 under former President Goodluck Jonathan. The arrangement saw the Nigerian government stand as a negotiator in the controversial sale of the oil block in offshore Nigerian waters. Two international oil firms, Shell and Eni, paid out about $1.1 billion to Nigerian government accounts in the UK, which then transferred most of the money to Malabu, a company then controlled by Nigerias former petroleum minister, Dan Etete. It was Mr Etetes Malabu that transferred the over $500 million to accounts controlled by Mr Abubakar, who is also being prosecuted in Nigeria for his role in the scandal. The payout immediately became a subject of cross-border investigation spanning over six countries. Several Nigerian government officials were believed to have received several millions of dollars in bribes for the enabling roles they played. A larger trial including Shell, Eni and 13 other defendants is ongoing in Italy. Those on trial include Enis current CEO, Claudio Descalzi; former CEO Paolo Scaroni, and Chief Operations and Technology Officer Roberto Casula alongside four former Royal Dutch Shell staff members including Malcolm Brinded, former Executive Director for Shells Upstream International operations, and two former MI6 agents employed by Shell. Eni now has the dubious distinction of being repeat offender with an alleged repeat offender back at its helm, said Nicholas Hildyard of Corner House. Other companies in Italy have adopted Government-promoted honourability rules governing the appointment of directors but Eni refused to do so. Had they been in place, Descalzi would likely have been precluded from consideration as CEO. If the Milan court finds the company and Descalzi guilty, shareholders may well choose to punish Enis dinosaur approach to corporate governance. Activists Kick Meanwhile, anti-corruption groups, activists and other concerned stakeholders have kicked against the appointment of Mr Descalzi. The decision by the Italian government to confirm Descalzi as the CEO of Eni despite the proceedings and investigations underway against him, is very disappointing and risks having serious consequences for Italys credibility, said Antonio Tricarico of Re:Common in Rome. Especially now that our country is seeking money on international markets and from European partners to deal with the economic emergency arising from the Covid-19 crisis. The plea bargain enforced by the SEC in the U.S. is a clear signal that international institutions demand credibility from those who run the largest Italian multinational. And it is clear that Descalzi is unfit to lead Eni. The time has come for Enis international investors to act responsibly and challenge this appointment by the Italian government instead of washing their hands. Olanrewaju Suraju of HEDA Resource Centre maintained that with such charges against him, someone in the position of Mr Descalzi would not be confirmed as CEO to guide a strategic national company in Nigeria. It is disappointing that so far international investors have raised few objections publicly. They face being complicit in this appointment, he said. Simon Taylor, a Director of Global Witness said: It is appalling that Mr Descalzi can be considered the best candidate to lead one of Italys flagship companies with such serious allegations hanging over his head. The Italian Government should explain their decision to ignore the allegations made by Milans Prosecutors. KYODO NEWS - Apr 21, 2020 - 12:59 | All, Coronavirus, Japan Many members of sexual minorities in Japan worry that catching the novel coronavirus could mean their sexual orientation is revealed against their will as authorities probe infection routes, a supporters' group has found. A survey by Marriage for All Japan also showed they worry about whether they or their partner will be able to receive important medical information that hospitals provide to family members if one of them becomes infected with the pneumonia-causing virus. (People march in Tokyo's Shibuya district during the Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2019 parade) About 180 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people among others had responded to the survey by Friday. Related coverage: Court rules toilet use limit for transgender gov't official illegal Most people in Japan know LGBT but understanding limited Yokohama recognizes partnerships for LGBT couples A 34-year-old man who lives with his same-sex partner in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, has chosen not to be open about his sexual orientation at his office. But he worries it may be revealed if he becomes infected with the virus as he would have to tell a public health center about his partner when asked about people he has had close contact with. Even those who are open about their sexual orientation are worried about being excluded from important decision-making processes on treatment if their partner is hospitalized with COVID-19. Kohei Inagaki, 28, and his partner have been recognized by the city of Saitama as partners equivalent to a legally married couple. But he said, "I may not be notified of my partner's health condition and may not be able to be involved in making decisions on treatment." The same survey revealed that there is also a misperception among some LGBT couples that they are not eligible for government compensation for parents who take leave from work to look after children due to the school closures prompted by the virus outbreak. Haru Ono, who is raising three children together with her partner, said the government has not clarified that the program targets all people with kids. "There are many (LGBT) people who have given up on applying for it without knowing" it applies to them, too, said Ono, adding, "I want them to state that same-sex couples are also covered." Gon Matsunaka, who heads a nonprofit organization for supporting LGBT people, warned that minorities who are often left out in normal circumstances tend to suffer even more during crises, and urged the government to help them. "We understand that the government's top priority is protecting the lives of the people, but we want it to take a look at LGBT and other people who have serious problems regarding privacy and take measures so that they don't fall through the safety net," Matsunaka said. Hirai Shinji, chief representative of the Japan Trade Promotion Organization (JETRO) in Ho Chi Minh City What are the prospects for Vietnam to woo Japanese investors moving out of China? A lesson learnt from the pandemic is how fragile our economy is to an unexpected disaster if we depend heavily on supply of parts and materials from a particular country. Japans Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), on April 6 disclosed a plan to realise a more resilient economy through a double-track supply chain approach. In addition to supporting relocation to Japan, the METI will support Japanese companies when they introduce equipment and facilities for manufacturing of goods into other alternative countries such as ASEAN member states. Among the ASEAN countries, Vietnam will be a strong candidate because its economy is expected to grow fast once it recovers from the shock of the coronavirus. Risk management capacity demonstrated by the government to keep the pandemic under control will also be positively evaluated by Japanese companies. What are the advantages of Vietnam in luring investment flow from Japanese companies? Compared with regional peers, Vietnam is more attractive to Japanese investors due to its favourable indicators such as market scale, growth potential, political stability, and ideal living environment for foreigners. The improved investment climate is attributable to the governments concerted efforts to reform legislation, the taxation system, and administrative procedures over the past few years. The increasing labour costs in Vietnam affect Japanese manufacturers serving the export markets. However, this is not a major problem for Japanese companies targeting the domestic market. Indeed, a growing number of Japanese investors are now turning their focus to the lucrative local market. Could you shed some light on the trend of Japanese investors betting on the local market? Thailand used to be a favoured investment destination for Japanese companies. If it was three years ago, Japanese investors would opt for doing businesses in Thailand rather than Vietnam. However, the trend has now changed when Japanese investors started to see the attractiveness of the Vietnamese market. Specifically, Vietnam has great potential for growth with a population of nearly 100 million people, most of whom are young. This, coupled with increasing disposable income of the middle-class, makes Vietnam a new darling for Japanese companies. Over past years, Vietnam has witnessed a sharp increase in Japanese inflows into the retail and services sectors. Japanese retail giant AEON is increasingly amplifying its business activities in Vietnam. Meanwhile, convenience store chains including the likes of Family Mart, MiniStop, and 7-Eleven have already set up franchises in Vietnam in recent years. The recent emergence of top fashion brand UNIQLO in the country reflects the growing interest of Japanese businesses to the potential domestic market. The arrival of UNIQLO is expected to draw more Japanese companies to Vietnam in the coming time. What are the chances of Japanese companies setting up factories here to serve the local market? Before making any investment decision, Japanese businesses will carefully conduct market research. Each Japanese business deploys its own strategy to gain insight into the tastes of Vietnamese consumers, like displaying their products via Japanese retail chains or their own distribution channels. They will first import the products from Japan to Vietnam to sell at the local market. As their businesses grow, they will consider a plan to build factories here. Over time, Japanese businesses will adjust their products and services to suit the majority of Vietnamese customers.In particular, they are targeting the rapidly-expanding middle class in the country. Many Japanese investors are looking at the successful story of instant noodle maker Acecook, which has developed a manufacturing base in Vietnam to meet the local demand. Acecook has been a popular brand in Vietnam with a variety of products targeting different customer segments. Viewers of The One Show have criticised the show after guest host Patrick Kielty made a joke about domestic violence during lockdown. Teaming up with regular presenter Alex Jones, Kielty opened the early evening BBC One show on Monday saying his wife, US television star Cat Deeley, has gone from googling divorce lawyers to looking for 'hitmen'. The comedian and radio star, 49, added that his wife pretended his face was the saucepan when she was hitting it during the weekly clap for NHS staff on a Thursday evening. Domestic violence cases has risen since the government's lockdown on March 24th, with calls to helplines significantly higher than normal and deaths due to suspected domestic violence more than doubling. On Twitter, viewers slammed the BBC as 'insensitive' and 'disgusting'. Scroll down for video Comedian Patrick Kielty joined regular presenter Alex Jones on BBC One's The One Show last night, but his opening gag about domestic violence upset some viewers watching Many branded the exchange awkward as Jones listened to Kielty say his US TV star wife Cat Deeley imagined his face was the saucepan when she was banging it during the weekly clap for NHS staff The show's co-host Alex Jones looked uncomfortable at Kielty's remarks but admitted she had her own 'face' to imagine when hitting the pan. The comic, who has two children with Deeley, had told viewers: 'It has been a short period of time which feels like a long period of time. 'I shouldnt really say this, but the wife stopped googling divorce lawyer over the weekend and started googling hitmen! 'So thats kind of the stage we are at, she now says the only way she can get through this is if on a Thursday when she gets the saucepan and bangs it, that she imagines its my face.' The show trended following the joke, with many criticising the BBC for allowing such jokes to air. @BizSocNetwork wrote: 'I am so angry at how Patrick was joking about his wife and him during COVID-19...being violent etc...especially with the huge rise in DOMESTIC ABUSE during this time. DISGUSTED.' @Lizzie1000 added: 'All for having a laugh but does someone want to point out to Patrick Kielty that increasing domestic violence is a reality in lockdown.' Kielty, 49, said 'I probably shouldn't say this' before launching into the joke about life in lockdown with his wife. Calls to domestic violence helplines have risen since the UK shut down nearly a month ago Jones humoured Kielty, saying she had her own face to imagine as she bashed a saucepan, suggesting she was fed up with husband Charlie Thomson The hosts, sat on separate sofas to allow for social distancing, opened the show with comedy but it fell flat for many watching at home Kielty pictured with his television presenter wife Cat Deeley in 2019 in LA; the couple have two children together @davyjon57909913 wrote: 'It wasnt even funny - just no need for it - the programs pathetic I switched it off after 10 minutes.' @NicAld81 penned: 'Starting the show with domestic violence jokes - really? (when reports say domestic violence has gone up in the COVID-19 lockdown). Not cool.' However, others said viewers offended by the gag needed to 'lighten up'. @dibblestar responded: 'I really think that some people need to lighten up! With all that's going on the world, bitching and moaning about something like this is pretty petty. You need to rethink your priorities.' MailOnline has contacted the BBC and Patrick Kielty's representative for comment. According to Karen Ingala Smith, the founder of Counting Dead Women, a domestic violence charity, the UK saw a suspected 16 domestic violence-related deaths during the first three weeks of lockdown, compared with just five for the same period in 2019. Sandra Horley, chief executive of domestic abuse charity Refuge, said earlier this month that spending 'concentrated periods of time with perpetrators' could potentially escalate the threat of violence. Chinese FM urges US to stop conspiracy theories on COVID-19, as 'make China pay' campaign makes no sense Global Times Source:Global Times Published: 2020/4/20 17:58:21 US officials like Peter Navarro should stop confusing right and wrong while Washington should realize that the novel coronavirus is the enemy, not China, Chinese foreign ministry said in response to the US considering sending investigators to China to look into the outbreaks and some even insisted on making China pay for the losses caused by the pandemic. Given US President Donald Trump and Secretary State Mike Pompeo have been claiming that the coronavirus escaped from a Wuhan virology lab, China has mentioned many times that the origin of the virus is a scientific question, which should be evaluated by scientists and medical experts, and should not to be politicized, Geng Shuang, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a routine press briefing on Monday. Yuan Zhiming, vice director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN that claiming the virus coming out of the lab was a "conspiracy theory" designed to "confuse" people and he also denied the virus was man-made, according to a video uploaded on Friday. However, Trump warned China on Saturday that Beijing should face consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the coronavirus pandemic, which is considered as an apparent signal of accelerating the war of words between the two nations. Geng emphasized that currently, the World Health Organization and public health scientists and professionals in most countries, including the US, agree that there is no evidence that the new coronavirus originated in a laboratory. The irresponsible spreading of conspiracy theories by the US alone will only cause interference in scientific research and cause damage to the cooperation between Chinese and American scientists. We demand that some Americans respect the facts, Geng noted. The spokesperson noted that the US should respect science and international opinion, and some people should realize that their enemy is the virus, not China, so their priority should focus on fighting the epidemic in their countries and enhancing the international cooperation instead of attacking China and shifting the blame to China. Concerning White House trade advisor Peter Navarro claimed that China 'cornered' the personal protective equipment market and 'is profiteering' during the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) outbreak, Geng said such claim is confusing the right and wrong. From March 1 to April 17, China has provided in total 1.86 billion masks, 258 million pairs of medical and other gloves, 29.19 million sets of medical protective cloth, 3.13 million pairs goggles, 156 invasive ventilators, 4,254 non-invasive ventilators, facilitating the US purchase, which has been highly praised by the US society, Geng said. "We hope politicians like Navarro to stop spreading rumors and shifting blame to others, and focus on fighting the pandemic in the US," he noted. Some US officials also came up with ideas of making China pay for the losses caused by the pandemic, Geng said. China, like other countries in the world that are attacked by the virus, is a victim itself, not inflictor nor accomplice. Faced with a major public health crisis, the global community should become united and work with each other. "I don't even remember when there was such thing of holding accountable or asking to pay," Geng said. In 2009, when H1N1 started from the US and has spread to 214 countries and regions, causing nearly 200,000 deaths, who asked the US for paying their losses? He further questions. In the 1980s, AIDS was first discovered in the US and spread to the world, causing many people in the world suffering, who held the US accountable? And did anyone ask the US to bear the consequences of the financial turmoil in the US in 2008 and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which eventually turned into a global financial crisis? NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Casper College dance students appear in squares on instructor Jodi Youmans-Jones computer screen in her living room. Thats where she teaches since Wyoming schools closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The squares show her students in apartments, their families living rooms, dormitory kitchens and even garages during technique classes she conducts through Zoom video conferencing, she said. The instructor angles the screen of her laptop on a box atop her high dining room table for students to see her entire body as she demonstrates. Dark blankets over windows behind her block the backlight and a white blanket over a chair contrasts against her clothing so she shows up better on their screens. This is how she leads them through warmups or demonstrates combinations. She walks back to her screen when she needs to watch them run through steps. Theyll hear her directions or corrections a moment after theyve continued to the next movement because of a slight delay in the sound. Students return to their screens and unmute their mics to discuss what theyre learning. Then they mute their mics to run through the combination again. The students and instructors have learned to use the technology, work through technical issues and adapt to makeshift dance spaces at their homes. The biggest obstacle, though, is that dance is not a subject that adapts well to remote instruction, Youmans-Jones said. Its not something that can be done well, because you cant teach, Youmans-Jones said. You can demonstrate, you can video, you can upload, they can watch, whatever, or they can do it with you. But you cant actively teach, because you cant touch them, you cant help them understand where their body is supposed to be. Theres not that fourth wall of integration between you and the students at all. Its not there. Its just not there. Many dance programs across the country have moved to lectures and research, and assignments might be to write about how an online yoga class applies to their training. But freshmen and sophomores who are learning fundamentals dont gain as much from that kind of instruction, and the classes also already include research projects, Youmans-Jones said. Theyre forming so much, and they really need this information to move forward, she said. So Youmans-Jones, whos also the coordinator of dance and National Association of Schools of Dance accreditation coordinator at Casper College, and dance instructor Aaron Wood decided to teach dance technique courses through video conference despite the struggles and limits. But you know, we are being able to teach, Youmans-Jones said. And as we explained to the ensemble class yesterday that though this format is difficult, and though it has its issues and were all struggling with it in general be thankful that you that you guys are actually getting dance class. Many of her students initially worried about finishing the semester online, because theyre not online learners, she said. And I said, Thats why were going to dance, she said. Thats why were going to Zoom; thats why were going to dance. Because 25 minutes of something is better than nothing, and all computer the whole day. Working through problems Youmans-Jones describes teaching dance remotely as frighteningly difficult. Its three times the work; its incredibly frustrating; its even more exhausting, she said. Ive never wanted to just say, Im so tired so much. But to at least do something just doing something is better than nothing right now. The first week of classes after spring break was largely spent working out the logistics for every students floor and space at home, Youmans-Jones said. Instead of the suspended floor, most homes with concrete floor mean jumps must be limited to prevent injury. Tap dance is impossible on carpet, and concrete garage floors are hard on tap shoes and make it difficult to hear the right sounds. Youmans-Jones and about half her beginning tap class dance bought 8x4-foot plywood pieces to set on the floor. Its not ideal, but it works, she said. Those problems just touch the surface for any dance genre, Youmans-Jones said. Some dancers cant safely work in ballet pointe shoes on some kinds carpet or slick floors. One uses a hard plastic desk chair mat. A chair can become a makeshift ballet bar with a heavy object on the seat to keep it from falling. Students turn the chair one way and then another so the instructors to see what theyre doing. Some use a couch back or a counter, although they cant maneuver in the space beneath like they often would at a ballet bar. The very first week was just problem to problem, trying to figure that out, Youmans-Jones said. Classes had to adjust to small spaces as well. They cant travel across a room as theyd normally do often in modern and jazz classes. Those in garages have more space, although for some there are drawbacks of colder temperatures and having to bundle up. Some students use dorm kitchens, where theres room to maneuver more and students can socially distance as they take class, she said. Others only have space between their apartment kitchens and dining rooms. With the floor and space limits, the dance instructors must be creative with combinations, she said. The faculty spent two days familiarizing students with the colleges online platform and Zoom. There have been bandwidth problems, internet outages that prevented class, interruptions from freeze-ups, glitches with the college online platform and several technical issues with sound and integrating music. Large class sizes 20 squares show up on Youmans-Jones screen for her ballet class create more difficulties than they would in the studio. The online platform allows students to upload video of themselves performing combinations, which the instructors watch, comment and grade, she said. The remote process for dance classes takes three times as long. Ill be honest, at best were giving probably a third of the content, Youmans-Jones said. Were probably getting through a third of the content that we really need to be doing on like on a daily or every other day basis in these technique classes, because that repetition, that feeling through it, that, you know, really, the stamina build. Allowing us to be who we are The Casper College dance instructors spent many hours preparing to teach remotely, and its been a steep learning curve for them as well as students, Youmans-Jones said. The dance instructors joined a National Dance Education Organization Zoom meeting, where one colleague gave hard but realistic advice. But one of the things she said was, Just accept it right now: You are going to lose control. You have no control anymore, Youmans-Jones said. Instructors normally have parameters and controls ranging from the floor surface and room temperature to students conduct to the push of content through a class. With limited space and the online format, she can no longer focus a class period on building aerobic strength by moving through combinations more quickly, for instance. One reason classes normally meet for certain amounts of time and frequency is for strength and conditioning as well as for students to learn to build the physical and mental stamina dance requires. There can be no big jumps or turn combinations across the floor now with limited spaces. One of the things that the students are losing right now is their stamina, because theres no way for us to really keep it going because theyre not taking continual class for two hours, she said. You know, in a two-hour class, they might be getting a third of the material that they normally would get in that class. Some students are working diligently despite the struggle, while some are taking advantage of the situation by texting one another, showing up in inappropriate attire and other etiquette issues that wouldnt happen in a regular class, Youmans-Jones said. Theres just all these little things that are just changing the dynamics of the class, she said. There has been one silver lining, Youmans-Jones said. The instructors started optional feel-good Friday classes open to anyone, which current students and alumni back to 1998 across 11 states have joined. Some of the alumni study in dance programs no longer teaching technique class this semester. Past students have shared how theyre using their degrees and what theyre doing now. The instructors hope to continue the sessions in the fall, regardless of what school looks like then. Because to be in contact with our alums like that has been really inspiring and uplifting and heartwarming, she said. And many of them shed a few tears while we were doing it. It remains worth it to the instructors continue dance technique classes remotely. Todays lessons were all about this 90-minute class or this 120-minute class, Youmans-Jones said. If we can get 25 minutes of something, thats better than 90 or 120 minutes of nothing, because its allowing us to be who we are as dancers and as artists. Follow arts & culture reporter Elysia Conner on twitter @erconner 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. Thiruvananthapuram, April 21 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said that there were 19 new coronavirus positive cases, taking the total number presently under treatment to 117. The state's cumulative total, including those cured, stands at 426. "It is after a long while we have had this many new cases. Today there are 36,335 people under observation at homes and 332 at various hospitals in the state," said Vijayan. Vijayan said a feature today has been is that a good number of cases have come from Tamil Nadu and hence, the borders will have to be manned strictly. "Kannur today registered 10 new cases taking the total positive cases Ato 53. In all 104 of them had turned positive in this district, which is the highest among all 14 districts. So, the lockdown measures will be further strengthened and very strict enforcements will be in place. All people in Kannur have to be very careful and cautious," he said. "We have another case where a 63-year-old woman in Pathanamthitta where she turned positive on March 13, and while 21 samples have been tested, then the only negative sample of hers came on April 2. Even now, she continues to be in isolation at the hospital. So these are the patterns and hence we have to be very careful and alert and none should take relaxation as some sort of freedom," said Vijayan. He pointed out the homeopathy system of medicine has also been asked to join the fight in Covid-19 and their medicines also can be used. The police have arrested nine persons for alleged involvement in a crisis which claimed four lives, including a pregnant woman in Ungwan Tiv village, Lugbe, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory. An unidentified policeman was said to have also lost his car in the violence. It was gathered that many structures were razed during the incident which occurred after three scavengers allegedly attacked and killed a pregnant woman for accusing them of stealing her missing cooking pot last Thursday. A resident, Joshua Michael, narrated to punch correspondent on Monday that the violence erupted after the scavengers allegedly stabbed the unidentified woman to death following arguments over the missing pot. He stated, Some scavengers were said to have stolen a cooking pot belonging to a pregnant woman. When she discovered that her pot was missing, she challenged the scavengers and angered by her boldness, the boys stabbed her to death. The community people then went after the scavengers; they lynched three of them and also set the shanties where they lived on fire. A woman, who was simply identified herself as Mama Jumoke, said residents of the community had been living in fear since the incident occurred. She stated, The victim was an Igbo woman, so the people there retaliated and killed three scavengers; they also burnt down the shanties where the scavengers were living. A car belonging to a policeman was also destroyed during the crisis. Another resident, who identified herself as Joy, explained that the community had been deserted by the residents in the wake of the bloodshed. She added, The few residents remaining in the community could no longer sleep at night for fear of reprisals from the Hausa in the area. They have set up vigilantes to secure themselves. I had to relocate to my grandmas house in Tudunwada. But the FCT police spokesman, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, said normalcy had been restored in the community, adding that the nine suspects arrested in connection with the incident had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for interrogation. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Air Force update for COVID-19 By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs / Published April 20, 2020 WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- In an effort to minimize the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 and to prioritize the health and safety of Department of the Air Force personnel, the following modifications have been made: April 20, 2020 The Department of the Air Force signed an agreement April 17 with Curative, Inc., to deploy and scale an oral fluid coronavirus test, which recently received a Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization, across Air Force installations. The Department of the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office, in coordination with the Defense Health Agency and Joint Acquisition Task Force established by the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment and DHA, is managing the $13 million research and development Blanket Purchase Agreement with the COVID-19 testing startup. Read more about this agreement here: https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2156392/air-force-signs-agreement-for-oral-fluid-coronavirus-testing-at-air-force-insta/ In response to the growing number of COVID-19 cases on Guam, the 36th Wing, with support from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska and Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii is constructing an Expeditionary Medical Support System or EMEDS, on the grounds of U.S. Naval Hospital Guam. The EMEDS facility consists of 11 medical units, and six warehouse units. Read more about the EMEDS facility here: https://www.andersen.af.mil/News/Features/Article/2155701/expeditionary-medical-facility-constructed-at-us-naval-hospital-guam/ Three Ohio Air Force Reservists have deployed to the Lincoln Medical Center Intensive Care Unit in the Bronx, New York to aid in the fight against COVID-19. These medical professionals join the more than 125 Reserve Airmen medical professionals mobilized to New York City over the past month. Read more about their story here: https://www.youngstown.afrc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2154050/910th-medical-squadron-storms-front-line-in-pandemic-fight-in-uniform-and-out/ Members of the Hawaii National guard were transported to neighbor islands on a C-17 Globemaster III to assist with the COVID-19 response. Military transport has been utilized to minimize exposure to disease at airports. See photos of their efforts here: https://www.dvidshub.net/image/6178977/hawaii-guardsmen-airlifted-neighbor-islands-assist-covid-19-response Florida National Guard doctors, nurses and medics joined Florida International University at the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC) to conduct refresher training in preparation of potentially receiving patients at the MBCC alternate care facility. The Guard partnered with the university to provide "just in time training" so that providers from different specialties could refresh their knowledge in several areas, including proper personal protective equipment wear, medical procedures and several other necessary tasks that that are specific to the COVID-19 response. Read more about this Joint Task Force Aide partnership: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/367791/state-university-partners-with-joint-task-force-aide-support-covid-19-mission On an average Air Force day, Airmen with the 509th Maintenance Group research and engineering shop find themselves crafting and creating specific parts for multi-billion dollar aircraft to ensure the B-2 Spirit is mission-ready. In the wake of COVID-19, the 509th MXG RE section has expanded its mission set to include reusable face shields. Read more about Whiteman AFB, Missouri's 3D-printed face shields here: https://www.whiteman.af.mil/News/Article/2154040/509th-maintenance-group-airmen-3d-prints-the-mission-to-success/ Essential missions throughout the Air Force still continue even during this pandemic. Below are some links to stories on how these units have adapted to make sure they can continue to execute these missions despite COVID-19. Class of 2020 takes graduation in stride during COVID-19 crisis - https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2155550/class-of-2020-takes-graduation-in-stride-during-covid-19-crisis/ A day in the life: Nurses - https://www.ellsworth.af.mil/News/Features/Display/Article/2153754/a-day-in-the-life-nurses/ Public Health Emergency Working Group at forefront of Offutt COVID-19 response - https://www.acc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2154974/public-health-emergency-working-group-at-forefront-of-offutt-covid-19-response/ Purple flags honor military children in an uncertain time - https://www.aetc.af.mil/News/Article/2155658/purple-flags-honor-military-children-in-an-uncertain-time/ Airmen adjust schedule, adapt techniques to combat COVID-19 - https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2156304/airmen-adjust-schedule-adapt-techniques-to-combat-covid-19/ Air Force Totals of COVID-19 Positive Cases as of 9 p.m., April 19, 2020* CASES HOSPITALIZED RECOVERED DEATHS Military 330 (+2) 8 78 (+5) 0 Civilian 172 (+4) 12 (+1) 37 (+5) 0 Dependents 199 (+8) 6(+1) 49 (+7) 0 Contractors 70 (+6) 4 13 (+4 1 Total 757 30 177 1 *These numbers include all of the cases that were reported since our last update on April 17th. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stephane Orjollet (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France Tue, April 21, 2020 12:05 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd33ba6a 2 Health coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,zoonosis,health Free Whether it came from a bat or a pangolin is not certain, but one thing is: the coronavirus outbreak that has killed tens of thousands and turned the world upside down comes from the animal world. It is human activity enabled the virus to jump to people, and specialists are warning that if nothing changes many other pandemics of this nature will follow. The name given to diseases transmitted from animals to humans is "zoonosis", based on the Greek words for "animal" and "sickness". They are not new -- tuberculosis, rabies, toxoplasmosis, malaria, to name just a few, are all zoonosis. According to the UN Environment Program (UNEP), 60 percent of human infectious diseases originate from animals. This figure climbs to 75 percent for "emerging" diseases such as Ebola, HIV, avian flu, Zika, or SARS, another type of coronavirus. The list goes on. "The emergence of zoonotic diseases is often associated with environmental changes or ecological disturbances, such as agricultural intensification and human settlement, or encroachments into forests and other habitats," said a 2016 UNEP report. "Changes in the environment are usually the result of human activities, ranging from land use change to climate change." Gwenael Vourc'h of INRAE, a French public research institute, also blames human activity for the crossover between species. "Given the growth of the human population and its ever more intense use of planetary resources, the destruction of more and more ecosystems multiplies contacts," she says. A key area of concern is deforestation to make way for agriculture and intensive livestock farming. Domesticated animals are often a "bridge" between pathogens from the wild and humans. The widespread use of antibiotics in the livestock industry has also led to bacterial pathogens building up immunity to front-line drugs. Urbanization and habitat fragmentation are also highly disruptive of the balance between species, while global warming can push disease-carrying animals into new territory. 'Unprecedented in human history' The novel coronavirus is believed to have emerged in a wet market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. Scientists think it originated in bats and could have been passed on via another mammal like a pangolin, an endangered species whose meat and scales are highly prized in parts of Asia. But researchers have yet to come up with a definitive answer on how it migrated to people. The only sure thing is that human activity facilitated the jump. "The process that leads a microbe, such as a virus, from a population of vertebrates such as bats to humans is complex, but driven by people," says Anne Larigauderie, executive secretary of IPBES, the panel of UN experts on biodiversity. "People, through their actions, create opportunities for the microbes to come closer to human populations. "The rate of global change in nature during the past 50 years is unprecedented in human history, and the most important direct driver of change in nature is land use change." Beyond the current outbreak of coronavirus, IPBES estimates that zoonosis kill some 700,000 people a year. A study by American researchers published last week and completed before the new coronavirus outbreak identifies rodents, primates and bats as hosts of three-quarters of viruses transmitted to humans. But domestic animals also carry about 50 percent of the zoonosis identified. In terms of endangered wildlife, the study shows that those who share the most viruses with humans are precisely "populations declining due to exploitation and loss of habitat". Christine Johnson, of the University of California veterinary school, who led the study, blames the human urge to "alter the landscape". "This also increases the frequency and intensity of contact between humans and wildlife - creating the perfect conditions for virus spillover," she says. 'Global tragedy' According to Larigauderie, this coronavirus outbreak may just be the tip of the iceberg. "Increased trends in land use change, combined with increased trends in trade, and global travels, are expected to increase the frequency of pandemics in future," she says. "Transformative change is needed in order to find a solution to this global tragedy." Vourc'h is also calling for a systemic response. "Beyond the essential response to each epidemic, we must think about our model... rethink our relationship with natural ecosystems and the services they provide," she says. The 2016 UNEP report, which noted that "ecosystem integrity underlines human health and development", said effective strategies already exist to control most neglected zoonosis. The main constraint, however, appeared to be "lack of investment". At 86, Jane Goodall has spent most of her life studying and defending animals, especially chimpanzees in Africa, especially from Tanzania. And she pulls no punches on where she lays the blame. "It was predicted that this was going to happen and it's going to happen again until we learn the lessons," warns the British primatologist. "It is our disregard for nature and our disrespect of the animals we should share the planet with that has caused this pandemic." Armenia will turn off street lights nationwide to mark the WWI-era genocide by Ottoman Turks as traditional ceremonies have been cancelled due to a coronavirus lockdown, officials said Tuesday. In the capital Yerevan, a torch-lit procession traditionally held on April 23 each year will be cancelled in the interests of citizens safety and health, government spokesman Eduard Agajanyan said. Instead, street lights will be switched off and church bells will peal across the country on Thursday evening to mark the 105th anniversary of the tragedy, he said. On Friday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the head of the Armenian Church, Catholicos Garegin II, will lay flowers at a hilltop genocide memorial in Yerevan. Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed during World War I as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, a claim supported by many other countries. Turkey fiercely rejects the genocide label, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops. Last month, Armenia which has reported 1,401 coronavirus cases and 22 deaths declared a state of emergency and imposed a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the infections. WASHINGTON One of Jay Timmonss Facebook friends invited him last week to attend a Reopen Virginia rally in Richmond, a protest against the stay-at-home order issued amid the coronavirus by the states Democratic governor. Mr. Timmons unfriended the sender, then published a searing retort, criticizing the protesters and accusing them of putting manufacturing workers lives at risk by defying rules meant to limit the spread of the virus. Mr. Timmonss post began with a single word in all capital letters: IDIOTS. A chief of staff to a Republican former governor of Virginia, Mr. Timmons now heads the National Association of Manufacturers, one of Americas largest business lobbying groups. His frustrations, which he detailed this week online and in a 30-minute interview, show the stark divide between the small-but-loud groups of protesters who are marching on state capitols to demand an immediate lifting of restrictions on economic activity and business leaders who have called for more gradual and careful steps toward reopening. These people are standing so close together without any protection with children, for Gods sakes, Mr. Timmons said in a video call. And they have no concern, and its all about them, and its all about what they want. And you know what? Every one of us wants it. Every one of us wants some sense of normalcy. But I can tell you this: Well never have it if our manufacturing workers cant do their jobs, if they cant get that personal protective equipment manufactured, so that everybody has access to it to go back out into public. Mr. Timmons said he supported Americans right to protest, but he encouraged people to exercise that right within the confines of social distancing protocol. He suggested posting on social media, calling the offices of political leaders, even writing strongly worded, vitriolic letters to news media outlets or lawmakers. (Newser) The largest union of nurses in the US will gather outside the White House on Tuesday to read aloud the names of colleagues who have died during the COVID-19 outbreak and to demand more money for better protective gear. National Nurses United wants Congress and President Trump to invoke emergency measures to provide money for N95 masks and other types of protection. Coverage, including the first major lawsuits filed collectively by nurses: The anger: "Were tired of being treated as if we are expendable," NNU President Deborah Burger tells the Washington Post. If we are killed in this pandemic, there wont be anybody to take care of the rest of the sick people that are going to come. Later, she added, "Were beyond angered at this. She estimates that more than 100 names will be read aloud at Tuesday's White House protest. story continues below Three lawsuits: The New York State Nurses Association has sued the state health department and two hospital systems there (Montefiore and Westchester), citing inadequate protection. It's one of the first collective legal actions by health care workers amid the outbreak, per CNBC. The New York State Nurses Association has sued the state health department and two hospital systems there (Montefiore and Westchester), citing inadequate protection. It's one of the first collective legal actions by health care workers amid the outbreak, per CNBC. Personal stories: The lawsuits include first-person accounts from the nurses, who describe "war zone" conditions. Read them here. "I began experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19, including cough and fever, says Montefiore nurse Pamela Brown-Richardson in her affidavit. I reported my symptoms to Montefiore and asked for testing. I was informed that Montefiore would not test me... I obtained testing on my own... [and] found out that I tested positive for COVID-19. The lawsuits include first-person accounts from the nurses, who describe "war zone" conditions. Read them here. "I began experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19, including cough and fever, says Montefiore nurse Pamela Brown-Richardson in her affidavit. I reported my symptoms to Montefiore and asked for testing. I was informed that Montefiore would not test me... I obtained testing on my own... [and] found out that I tested positive for COVID-19. Specific demand: Among other things, the New York nurses want enforcement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's directive that each direct-care nurse receive a new N95 mask daily, reports CNN. "New York's hospitals have turned into petri dishes where the virus is allowed to spread, unchecked by basic protective equipment and measures," say attorneys for the union in a memorandum of law. Among other things, the New York nurses want enforcement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's directive that each direct-care nurse receive a new N95 mask daily, reports CNN. "New York's hospitals have turned into petri dishes where the virus is allowed to spread, unchecked by basic protective equipment and measures," say attorneys for the union in a memorandum of law. Taking a stand: During protests against the state lockdown in Colorado, nurses in scrubs stood in counter-protest among the protesters, reports NBC News. One in Denver, who gave her name only as Alexis, said the protests felt like "a slap in the face to medical workers." Nobody wants to be stuck at home, she said, but "that's not the point." (Read more nurses stories.) President Donald Trump said on Monday evening that he intended to close the United States to people trying to immigrate into the country to live and work, a drastic move that he said would protect American workers from foreign competition once the nations economy began to recover from the shutdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak Washington: President Donald Trump said on Monday evening that he intended to close the United States to people trying to immigrate into the country to live and work, a drastic move that he said would protect American workers from foreign competition once the nations economy began to recover from the shutdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, Trump wrote on Twitter, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! In recent weeks, the Trump administration has said health concerns justified moving swiftly to bar asylum-seekers and unauthorised immigrants from entering the country, alarming immigration advocates who have said that Trump and his advisors are using a global pandemic to further hard-line immigration policies. But the presidents late-night announcement Monday signals his most wide-ranging attempt yet to seal the country off from the rest of the world. A formal order temporarily barring the provision of new green cards and work visas could come as early as the next few days, according to several people familiar with the plan. Under such an executive order, the Trump administration would no longer approve any applications from foreigners to live and work in the United States for an undetermined period of time, effectively shutting down the legal immigration system in the same way the president has long advocated closing the borders to illegal immigration. It was not immediately clear what legal basis Trump would claim to justify shutting down most immigration. Workers who have for years received visas to perform specialised jobs in the United States would also be denied permission to arrive, though some workers in some industries deemed critical could be exempted from the ban, the people familiar with the presidents discussion said. The number of visas issued to foreigners abroad looking to immigrate to the United States has declined by about 25 percent, to 462,422 in the 2019 Fiscal Year from 617,752 in 2016. Several people familiar with the presidents plans said the Department of Homeland Security was separately weighing a large expansion of travel restrictions that already prohibited travellers from Europe and China. The restrictions would significantly shrink the number of people able to come to the United States for short-term visits. Trump and his advisors have argued inside the White House that doing more to bar people from other countries from coming into the United States, either for short-term visits or to live and work in the country for longer periods, could help limit the number of infected people who arrive from potential coronavirus hot spots around the world. And they argue that it could relieve pressure on the American health care system. But Trumps primary focus appears to be on protecting American workers as the virus ravages what had been a rapidly growing job market. Even before the pandemic, the president and some of his most hard-line advisors had been eager to reduce legal immigration, arguing that Trumps America First campaign pledge should be seen as protecting native-born Americans from having to compete with foreign workers. Stephen Miller, the architect of the presidents immigration agenda, has pushed repeatedly for regulations and executive actions that would limit the amount of immigration that is allowed each year, arguing that immigrants are a drain on American society, drive down wages and take jobs from native-born Americans. And the presidents restrictionist allies on Capitol Hill quickly praised word of his actions. Senator Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, said on Twitter: 22 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last month because of the China virus. Lets help them get back to work before we import more foreigners to compete for their jobs. Immigrant rights groups angrily dispute the claim that immigration is bad for American workers, pointing to research that shows there is little connection between immigration and wages, and stressing the benefits of Americas immigrant culture. Charanya Krishnaswami, the advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA, responded to the presidents tweet with one of her own. When youre a xenophobe, bans on migration are the only tired, failed, hateful solution you can think of, Krishnaswami wrote. Suspending immigration wont make the US which currently leads among COVID cases worldwide safe. Our policies need to be grounded in public health, not bigotry. Trumps denigration of migrants was the centrepiece of his 2016 presidential campaign, and his assault on the nations immigration system was a defining feature of his first term in office. As he seeks reelection to a second term, Trump has made clear that he intends to energise his supporters by continuing to stoke a fear of immigrants. In the past several months, Trump has justified sealing the United States to migrants by highlighting the risk of spreading the coronavirus, even as his administration has been widely criticised for not taking precautions this year to prevent an outbreak. At the end of January, Trump blocked some travel from China, citing concerns about the spread of the virus. He later extended travel restrictions to most of Europe. Trump used authority granted to his surgeon general to immediately turn back migrants and asylum-seekers to their home countries, even though the Supreme Court refused to allow a similar policy in 2018. His administration has leaned into the policy, even rapidly turning away unaccompanied children that cross the border alone. Weeks later, Trump ordered the State Department to issue visa sanctions against any country that refused to accept an immigrant the administration wanted to deport. Even before the pandemic, Trump carried out some consequential immigration policies. In January, the president expanded his travel restrictions to 13 countries, virtually blocking immigration from Africas most populous nation, Nigeria. That same month, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to move forward with a wealth test that would deny green cards to immigrants who are thought to be likely to make even occasional and minor use of public benefits like Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers. Many advocates have said the so-called public charge rule has discouraged immigrants from seeking medical assistance at a time when the administrations top health officials are encouraging Americans to be vigilant for symptoms of the virus. Katie Rogers and Michael D Shear c.2020 The New York Times Company Much has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, including people's travel plans. We asked our readers to share what happened to their voyages. *** We had planned to continue our tradition of going to the Summer Olympics, this year in Japan. However, due to the big Japanese demand, America's allocation of tickets was greatly reduced, and we were shut out. Alternatively, we planned a cruise out of Tokyo in March. Unfortunately, the cruise on the now-infamous Diamond Princess was quarantined and our cruise was canceled. At that time, my husband was furious with the cancellation, but in hindsight, we are glad it was canceled. We got a full refund plus 50% off a future cruise. We now have no desire to go to Japan. Instead of Japan, we decided on a last-minute two-week trip to Florida in March. Fortunately, we experienced great weather and took the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends. Thankfully, we made it home before the virus became widespread and restrictions were put in place. -Maria and Jerry Cioffi *** Our son Logan, a junior at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., left home on Jan. 3 for London and the experience of a lifetime. He had earned a coveted internship as a U.S. politics student, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He was assigned to a member of Parliament in the House of Commons, the Honorable Gillian Keegan MP, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Education. He spent three days a week in Westminster Palace and two days in field study classes in and around London and surrounding areas. Though very busy with classwork and his duties in Parliament, his weekends were spent seeing the Cliffs of Dover, Canterbury, Bedfordshire and other areas of the surrounding countryside. He spent time in other parts, such as the Isle of Man and Copenhagen, Denmark and planned future trips to see Ireland, Scotland, Portugal, and Italy during his semester. Sadly, most were just a plan that he never got to experience. He lost hundreds of dollars in airline fees and Airbnb reservations in Europe, when he was ordered home to the United States by his university on March 3. In the final week before he was notified he would have to leave the United Kingdom, he attended Prime Minister Questions (PMQ's), in the House of Commons gallery, listening to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and others discuss their approach, as the first signs that the coronavirus was rearing its ugly head towards Britain. We now know that Johnson ... tested positive for the virus. We watched the situation abroad nervously, as our son communicated with friends, also abroad, through social media. Classmates questioned the viability of their programs allowing them to stay until they were actually scheduled to end in mid-late April. First, classmates were pulled from northern Italy internships, then Rome, and finally, all CUA students abroad were ordered home. It was immediately upon the Rome students being pulled, that Logan said he knew they would be next and he was correct. The response in his Parliament office from his associates was surprise and sadness that he was so quickly being sent home from the program. Some questioned that it was unnecessary or overly cautious at the time. As parents, we rationalized the responsibility and liability that Catholic University had consider in order to protect their students. They could not chance a travel ban and trapped students, possibly ill in a foreign country. It still did not make the disappointment any easier. In the days and weeks that followed, since he arrived back home in Loudonville, more friends were called home much later, from places like India and Indonesia. The most recent blow for Logan, was the cancellation of his upcoming and much anticipated summer term at Oxford University. a few days ago. As a rising senior, this program with Oxford will no longer be an option for him. I'm hearing phone conversations he is having with all of his friends who were forced to cut their experiences short. They are a group linked by a shared loss of opportunities and expectations for their futures. So much loss for all students at this time who have sacrificed to get where they are. Lost graduation ceremonies, lost internships, lost employment, lost money, lost opportunities to complete the experiences they worked so very hard for and deserved. On a side note, we were scheduled to visit Logan in London for five days at the end of his program in April, take the Chunnel to Paris for five days together then help him move everything back home. Since I made all the reservations myself online, every hotel and tour was refunded. Delta gave me a credit and no rebooking fee and the Chunnel (Eurostar Train) gave me full credit, that I must use before Dec 31, 2020. Our hope is that later this summer, we can make it over there to see Parliament and Paris with our son. One can dream, right? -Denise Finning *** On May 19, five senior couples were scheduled to fly to Portland, Ore., for a motorcycle trip of a lifetime. The itinerary had been planned and tweaked several times, including details like when the motorcycles had to be shipped, hotel bookings and sites we wanted to see. In short, we would fly into Portland, pick up our motorcycles and head off to visit Mount St. Helens in Washington, Oregons Columbia River Gorge and coast, the Redwood National Forest in California, central Oregon, Boise, Idaho, and Salt Lake City Utah. From there, the ladies would fly home and the guys would continue the adventure by traveling back cross-country on the bikes to home. COVID -19 put a dent in the plans and all reservations have been canceled. The bright side is the trip is all planned and we just need to plug in new travel dates! - Lynda Schoonbeek *** A friend and I were planning a tulip peeping river cruise to Holland and Belgium in early April. In early March she became concerned about the virus and suggested we cancel immediately. I suggested that rather than cancel, we ask the tour company if we could just book another trip in the early fall. It turned out that both of our suggestions were good ones: with the help of our travel agent, we were able to transfer our reservation to a river cruise through Germany in September with no additional fees. We even got the last available cabin! I guess by acting early we beat the crowd of travelers now trying to make new plans. But I wish them all the same good luck we had. - Stephanie Weiss *** In early March, my husband and I were days away from booking our flights to Northern Italy to visit our son who was expected to graduate from the University of Bolzano. It never happened due to COVID-19. Bolzano (Bozen) is one of many breathtaking places to visit in Italy. Off the main tourist route, the city lies at the foothills of the Dolomites. Culture there is different than southern Italy in food, language, and lifestyle. This city in South Tyrol was originally part of Austria, which explains the German-Austrian culture still strongly in place after 100 years. The area is beautiful in any season with the mountains as backdrop to the rolling hills of villages and valleys and all it has to offer including Otzi the iceman, the well-preserved natural mummy of a man dating back to 3300 B.C., nature parks, delectable recipes, and Christmas markets. - Catherine Zampier Click here to read the full article. GENEVA The coronavirus is having a devastating effect on workers and employers in all sectors and triggering massive losses in output and jobs, with textiles and apparel particularly hard-hit, the International Labor Organization said Tuesday. In the textiles and apparel industries, the ILO said in an impact assessment that quarantine measures have suppressed consumer demand. In Bangladesh, order cancellations have led to lost revenue of about $3 billion, affecting some 2.17 million workers. The agency said in Bangladesh it is estimated that less than 20 percent of firms are able to continue paying staff wages for more than 30 days under these circumstances Similarly, in Vietnam, another major apparel exporting nation, the ILO estimated 440,000 to 880,000 workers could face reduced hours or unemployment. Alette van Leur, ILO director for sectoral policies, said ILO member states are taking unprecedented measures to protect frontline workers and to lessen the impact on businesses, livelihoods and the most vulnerable In particular, ILO economists note factory and retail store closures around the planet have threatened the viability of enterprises Indeed, Casper Edmonds, ILO director for manufacturing, told WWD that in a recent virtual meeting with Guy Ryder, ILO director-general, representatives from the International Apparel Federation, an employers umbrella grouping, called for solidarity across the global supply chain. IAF, which represents apparel industries in about 60 countries, in a statement to Ryder said apparel manufacturers immediately feel the economic pain of canceled orders and no new orders coming in. The ILO analysis notes that some major buyers have committed to paying for all orders already in production or completed. In Bangladesh, for example, H&M, Inditex, Kiabi, (with deferred payments) and Target and VF have committed to payment. But it added, many other major buyers have still not done so. Story continues The ILO said it has urged governments to extend social protection to all and is advising on measures to promote employment retention, short-time work, paid leave and other subsidies. Some apparel-producing nations, however, have implemented a series of measures to support the apparel industry, it said. The government in Myanmar has unveiled an initial $70 million stimulus package targeting the garment and tourism sectors, while in Sri Lanka in areas where factories have temporarily shut down under government orders, workers are entitled to paid leave. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, the ILO said the government has issued instructions that suspended workers can receive 40 percent of their salary from their employer and an additional 20 percent from the government. Moreover, Cambodia, it said, has also suspended National Social Security Fund contributions for garment and textile factories affected by a shortage of raw materials due to COVID-19. Finally, the ILO said as part of the ILO-International Finance Corporation Better Work Program, a task force was created in Bangladesh with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, interested buyers and U.N. entities to support the production of level one personal protective equipment in order to address the urgent needs and build capacity for future investments in higher-level PPE production. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 02:24:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close AMMAN, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Jordan said Tuesday it will continue to impose the curfew during the holy month of Ramadan to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh said people will be allowed to buy their basic needs from 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m local time during Ramadan that starts this week. The minister added that the curfew is meant to protect the health of citizens and to keep people away from gatherings. Travels will be banned after 6:00 p.m. except for permits holders, he said. Jordan's Health Minister Saad Jaber said no cases were reported inside Jordan on Tuesday for the second day in a row. Enditem External Article 21 April 2020 Hong Kong's legacy hotel companies are ditching competition for collaboration with one another, as daily arrivals to the city sank to below 100 visitors per day at the start of April. Wharf Hotels, Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels, Langham Hospitality Group, Rosewood Hotel Group, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, Harilela Hotels and Swire Hotels have formed an alliance. Cathay Pacific, part of Swire, is also in the group, called Heritage Tourism Brands. Aside from lineage their founders are real estate taipans who have invested billions of dollars in Hong Kong over the past century the companies are all in the luxury hotel space, which usually isn't prone to rival chumminess. Joining forces is itself an achievement, said Peter Borer, chief operating officer of Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels that owns and operates Peninsula Hotels. Find another city in the world where local luxury brands are aligning in such a way, said Borer, who came up with the idea. Donald Trump insulted the governor of Maryland for purchasing coronavirus testing kits from South Korea, claiming he "didn't understand too much about what was going on" while defending the administration's slow response to the pandemic. The president insisted during a White House press briefing on Monday that Governor Larry Hogan (RMd) didnt actually need to purchase the reported 500,000 testing kits from South Korea. The country confirmed its first case of the novel virus on 20 January the same day as the US and quickly managed to ramp up its testing capabilities, in turn reducing the spread of transmissions. Some of the governors like, as an example, the governor from Maryland, didn't really understand the list, he didn't understand too much about what was going on, Mr Trump said, citing a list of nearly 5,000 federally-operated labs accepting coronavirus tests nationwide. The White House reportedly distributed the list to state governments in recent days. I dont think he needed to go to South Korea, the president continued. I think he needed to get a little knowledge would have been helpful. The comments came after Mr Hogan revealed he had been quietly working for weeks on a confidential project with South Korea surrounding the testing kits. He welcomed the shipment of kits during the weekend as a very important payload that will help increase the states testing capabilities. The governor told CNN on Monday night that he was not sure what the president is referring to, while directly responding to Mr Trumps statement about the labs accepting testing kits: hey were either federal health facilities that we have been desperately trying to get help from or military operations none of which were state-owned labs or facilities where we could actually do any testing. I have a pretty good understanding of whats going on, he continued, and I appreciated the information that was provided by [the presidents] team, but he wasn't there for it. I'm not sure what he was trying to say." Mr Hogan also tweeted on Monday night that he was grateful to President Trump for sending us a list of federal labs, as well as for generously offering Maryland use of them for Covid-19 testing. He added: Accessing these federal labs will be critical for utilising the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea. The White House coronavirus task force spearheaded by Vice President Mike Pence has sought to speed up testing capabilities across the country ahead of the presidents plans to begin reopening the US economy on 15 May. On Monday, the vice president said about Mr Hogans purchasing of testing kits from South Korea: I wouldn't begrudge him or his health officials for ordering tests." manda Holden proved once again that lockdown neednt mean dressing down as she showed off another dramatic outfit. Her striking ensemble came as she encouraged Heart listeners to show off what they are wearing below desk while working from home. She finished off the look with a pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses. Sharing a snap of her bold outfit on Instagram, she wrote: #Showusyourbottoms @thisisheart what are you wearing below desk during #lockdown? Holden also posted a sweet photo of her youngest daughter Hollie joining in with the hashtag, wearing a blue checked shirt with a white skirt and a pair of wellies. The Britains Got Talent star has managed to find plenty of opportunities to stay glamorous during the lockdown despite the cancellation of showbiz events including the ITV talent shows live finals, which have been postponed until later in the year. The NHRC sent a notice to the Maharashtra police chief on Tuesday in connection with the lynching of three persons in Palghar district of the state, officials said. In a statement, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said it has called for a detailed report in four weeks, including inputs on the action taken against the culprits and relief, if any, granted to the next of kin of the deceased. Based on a complaint in connection with the incident, a notice was issued to the Maharashtra director general of police (DGP) over the mob lynching of three persons in the presence of police personnel in Palghar district on April 16, the NHRC statement said. The commission has observed that the incident is apparently indicative of "negligence by the public servants". The death of the three persons in such a cruel manner by an unruly mob, that too during the ongoing countrywide lockdown under extra vigil by the administration and police, amounts to "gross violation of the right to life of the victims", it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) XI'AN, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Monday inspected the work of ecological conservation in the Qinling Mountains in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. As a natural boundary between the country's north and south, the Qinling Mountains are home to a huge variety of plants and rare wildlife such as giant pandas, golden monkeys and crested ibis. Great efforts have been made in recent years to protect the Qinling Mountains, considered by many as a window into China's progress in ecological conservation. For more than two decades, Xiao Jianjun, head of the Dongtai New Village in Chang'an District of Xi'an, capital of the province, has stuck to planting trees in the Qinling Mountains. Xiao decided to plant trees in the mountains in 1999 when the Chinese government launched a campaign of returning unproductive farmland to forest and grassland. Last weekend, Xiao and his villagers planted seven osmanthus trees, two honey locust trees and four red maples to help restore the local environment. Chang'an District is in the core area of the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains. About 876 square km out of the over 1,000 square km of the district are in the Qinling Nature Reserve. The area had suffered from multiple environmental problems such as illegal construction of villas, quarrying and pollution of water sources in the past. Dongtai New Village was no exception. According to Xiao, the village faced financial difficulties in 2003. It rented out part of its barren slope to villa builders to help villagers have access to tap water with the rent. As China has vowed to push for coordination between economic and social development and ecological civilization, the central authorities attached great importance to the illegal construction of villas in the Qinling Mountains and ordered local government to tackle the problem in 2014. A total of 1,185 illegal villas at the northern foot of Qinling range were demolished in 2018. "After these illegal buildings had been demolished, we planted more than 1,200 pines on the land," said Xiao. "From then on, planting trees and protecting trees have become our resolute belief." Thanks to the government's policies on protecting the environment of the Qinling Mountains and local villagers' persistence on planting trees, the Dongtai New Village is now home to more than 10,000 trees. In the wake of the campaign against illegal construction in the Qinling Mountains, about 178 hectares of green space has been restored in the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains, with 22 quarries closed and 57 sewage treatment plants built. Wang Qingfeng, Party chief of Chang'an District, said 151 villages in the district have been renovated to meet the standard of having a greening rate of over 40 percent. The other 52 villages under renovation are expected to meet the standard at the end of July. The district also plans to build nearly 100 parks in its urban area and outskirts. To better protect the environment of the Qinling Mountains, especially to deal with the problems of tourists management and wildfire prevention, Chang'an District has set up an intelligent management and control system over the eight main valley mouths leading to the mountains to monitor persons and vehicles entering the mountains. "Through the system, we can scientifically define the ecological carrying capacity so as to manage the number of tourists and the vehicles entering the mountains," said Xue Yazhou, director of Qinling environment protection and comprehensive law enforcement bureau in Chang'an District. The local government has mobilized more than 26,000 volunteers to help clean the environment, plant trees and promote environmental protection awareness. "By guarding the valley mouths, the environment of the Qinling Mountains will be well conserved. Our goal is to turn its eight valley mouths into nature parks, " Wang said. An appeals court in Vietnam on Monday upheld a lower courts verdict in sentencing a Catholic music teacher to 11 years in jail for posting online criticisms of the one-party communist state and the government, the convicted mans lawyer told RFAs Vietnamese Service. Nguyen Nang Tinh, 45, who teaches at a provincial arts and cultural college, was arrested in May 2019 after he was found writing and sharing what authorities deemed anti-state posts and videos on his Facebook account for seven years. The posts included protests against Vietnams law on special economic zones that many citizens fear will favor Chinese investment in the country, and demonstrations against a Taiwanese company that dumped toxic waste into the ocean that caused an environmental disaster off the nations central coast in April 2016. The Council of Judges of the Peoples Court in north-central Vietnams Nghe An province upheld the 11-year sentence, plus five years of probation with restricted movement, that teacher Nguyen Nang Tinh was handed for the series of Facebook posts published between 2011 and 2018. The presiding judge said the sentence served as a warning to those who wanted to capitalize on the rights to democracy and freedom by opposing the state, contradicting achievements in Vietnams progress with reform. At the appeals trial, Nguyen admitted to using Facebook accounts to share stories but affirmed that those stories were not aimed at opposing Vietnams government, said defense attorney Dang Dinh Manh. I think this is an unfair sentence to give Nguyen, based on the defendants right to freedom of expression and on guarantees provided in the U.N.s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that say everyone is entitled to express their own points of view, he said. Vietnam is a signatory to the multilateral treaty that commits its parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights, and rights to due process and a fair trial. Dang noted that in writing the online posts, Nguyen had exercised his right to free speech guaranteed under Vietnams constitution and had contributed to improving state policies. Hunger strike to resume The teacher had been on a hunger strike while in prison between March 13 and April 17, during which time he was not allowed to pray, read religious books, or meeting with Catholic priests, Dang said. Thought the music teacher ended the hunger strike when he was informed about his appeals trial, he now will resume it because that process is over, the attorney said. Dang said that he and another attorney, Nguyen Van Mieng, spent two days traveling by private car from Ho Chi Minh City to Nghe An to take part in the trial. Nguyens wife, Nguyen Thi Tinh, could not attend her husbands trial on account of lockdowns in Vietnam to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which on Monday registered 268 confirmed cases but no fatalities. On April 18, Vietnamese police arrested another social media user, Dinh Thi Thu Thuy, on charges of smearing leaders, state media reported. The resident of Nga Bay in the southern province of Hau Giang has been charged under Section 117 of Vietnams Penal Code for making and spreading anti-state information and materials. Dinh had created many Facebook accounts since 2018 to edit and share hundreds of posts and other materials opposing the state and smearing the Communist Partys leaders, state media said. Vietnam police reported in June 2018 that Dinh was also present at a demonstration outside Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica in Ho Chi Minh City to protest against proposed laws on the creation of special economic zones and on cybersecurity, the latter of which called for restrictions on the internet that would give the state greater surveillance and censorship powers. Another Dong Tam arrest Police also have arrested another resident of Hoanh village in the rural commune Dong Tam, where about 3,000 security forces conducted a violent early morning assault on residents during a land protest in early 2019 outside Vietnams capital Hanoi, an activist said. On April 19, authorities picked up Nguyen Van Chung, son of Bui Thi Duc, a woman who is among 28 other villagers arrested during the bloody clash on Jan. 9, activist Trinh Ba Phuong told RFA on Monday. The villagers apprehended following the incident have been charged with committing murder, illegally possessing weapons, and opposing officers on duty. Nguyen was not arrested at his home in Dong Tam, but in Ho Chi Minh City, also called Saigon, where he was working as an assistant truck driver, Trinh said. Last night, he was arrested and cruelly beaten in Saigon, Trinh said. Those who witnessed the arrest questioned police about it, but they said that Nguyen was a dangerous person and had to be arrested. During a meeting with Hanoi authorities on the same day as the arrest, Vietnams Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told officials to resolve the Dong Tam issue, consolidate the political system and develop new rural policies. The Dong Tam clash was the latest flare-up in a long-running dispute over a military airport construction site about 25 miles south of Vietnams capital Hanoi. A report drawn from witness accounts and released seven days after the Jan. 9 clash with security forces said that police had attacked first during the deadly incident that claimed the lives of the Dong Tam village chief and three police officers. Though all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint with residents accusing the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects and of paying too little in compensation. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Equipment manufacturers, cannabis processors and drug developers can license CUREs patented methods for optimal extraction of cannabinoids LOS ANGELES, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CURE Pharmaceutical (CURR), an innovative drug delivery and development company, today announced the issuance of two U.S. Patents: No. 10,639,339 and 10,624,940. These patents represent an expansion of CUREs existing product by process patents for obtaining multiple unique cannabis concentrates using super critical fluid extraction (SCFE). These include cannabinoid concentrates enriched in cannabidiol (CBD), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabigerol (CBG), a non-psychoactive cannabinoid which has shown promising therapeutic activity in animal studies in areas such as inflammatory bowel disease, cancer and infectious diseases. Adding CBG to our SCFE patent portfolio aligns with the latest research and early clinical evidence supporting its therapeutic benefit, said Rob Davidson, CEO of CURE Pharmaceutical. We continue to expand this portfolio to the latest commercial applications for SCFE, providing our patent licensees and their customers expanded IP rights. CURE is granting equipment manufacturers , cannabis processing companies and cannabinoid drug developers licenses to its portfolio of issued and pending process and composition patents for isolating cannabinoids using an advanced SCFE technology utilizing carbon dioxide as the solvent. While the patents cover the incorporation of cannabis extracts into multiple dosage forms, CURE has retained all rights to applying these methods in oral thin films. The two patents cover the extraction and purification of cannabis plant material, as well as subsequent processing of cannabis extracts for drug formulation. This extraction and fractioning of bioactive cannabinoid molecules allows for the integration of these molecules into dosage forms. About CURE Pharmaceutical CURE Pharmaceutical is a vertically integrated drug delivery and development company committed to improving drug efficacy, safety, and patient experience through its proprietary drug dosage forms and delivery systems. CURE has an FDA- and DEA-registered, cGMP manufacturing facility and is a pioneering developer of CUREform, a patented drug delivery platform. CUREform includes CUREfilm, one of the most advanced oral thin films on the market today; microCURE, an innovative emulsion technology utilizing proprietary encapsulation techniques; and CUREpods a novel chewable delivery system. CUREforms combined technologies provide opportunities for both immediate and controlled-release drug delivery of a wide range of active ingredients. CURE partners with biotech, pharmaceutical, and wellness companies worldwide and has positioned itself to advance numerous therapeutic categories, including the pharmaceutical cannabis sector, with partnerships in the U.S, Canada, Israel, and other markets. The companys mission is to improve peoples lives by redefining how medicines are delivered and experienced. Story continues For more information about CURE Pharmaceutical, please visit its website at www.curepharma.com. This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, without limitation, the ability to successfully market the partnered products, the difficulty in predicting the timing or outcome of related research and development efforts, partnered product characteristics and indications, marketing approvals and launches of other products, the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the acceptance and demand of new pharmaceutical products, the impact of patents and other proprietary rights held by competitors and other third parties and the ability to obtain financing on favorable terms. The forward-looking statements in this press release reflect the Companys judgment as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of our securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Media Contact: Paulo Acuna pacuna@olmsteadwilliams.com 310-824-9000 A new state-sponsored study argues that a car-carrying ferry service would not by itself alleviate traffic on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It would also cost billions of dollars to build and operate. The 43-page report by the Maryland Transportation Authority and state Department of Transportation concludes that a ferry service wouldn't resolve traffic woes "as a standalone option." At least one conservation group is skeptical of the state's findings, saying it's too early in the process to discount a ferry or any other option. For their part, state transportation officials say that they'll keep the idea simmering, though on the back burner. Ferries could be considered "in combination with other alternatives" if the process to construct a third span across the Bay moves forward, the agencies said in the report. Gov. Larry Hogan announced in 2016 that the state would conduct a $5 million National Environmental Policy Act study to decide where a new Bay Bridge should be built. Backers say a new bridge is needed to ease gridlock during weekday rush hours and summer weekends. The backups are expected to worsen as the region's population grows. The Bay Bridge is part of U.S. Routes 50/301. It is the only Bay vehicular crossing in Maryland. Last August, the MdTA, which owns and operates the Bay Bridge, proposed three possible routes for a new crossing as well as a "no-build" option. The agency plans to release a draft of the study and recommend a single preferred alternative by the end of this year. The ferry study was quietly released in January in response to a Maryland General Assembly order. The state House and Senate budget committees jointly asked the administration last year to study the possibility of launching a ferry service. The legislative committees acknowledged in their written instructions to the administration that several previous studies cast doubt on its feasibility. But those reports, they added, didn't consider new technological developments, noting that all-electric ferries "have become more realistic alternatives." By substituting electricity for diesel fuel, such operations are greener and can sidestep seesawing fuel prices, advocates say. The last ferry operation in Maryland that transported vehicles across the Bay closed in 1952 with the opening of the first bridge between Annapolis and Kent Island. The bridge and ferry followed similar routes. A second, parallel span opened in 1973. The MDOT and MdTA report lays out the pros and cons of restarting a ferry service. Improvements in battery capacity and life have made electricity a more viable option than ever for ferries, according to the report. Around the globe, a handful of systems have begun adopting the technology in recent years. Those include the EF Ellen, a Danish ferry with a 26-mile range that began operating in early 2019; the Amherst Island ferry in Canada, which is expected to launch an electric watercraft this year; and the Washington State Ferries system, which has begun converting its fleet from diesels to hybrids. The state staff who authored the new report sought to find out whether adding a ferry service could be the sole solution for maintaining the Bay Bridge's current level of service despite heavier travel between the shores. Looking forward to the year 2040, that translates into removing nearly 900 vehicles from the span when traffic is expected to be at its worst, the agencies wrote. The only way a ferry system could come within striking distance of that figure would be to have it run near the existing bridge, according to the report. To operate efficiently, the system would require three large vessels as well as a fourth for backup. Each would have to be roomy enough to carry 400 vehicles. No electric ferries of that size exist. A hybrid ferry operating in Scandinavia, though, currently carries up to 460 vehicles. Depending on the type of battery selected, it would take at least 10 minutes to charge the ferry either once every trip or every round trip. That could be done while vehicles are rolling on and off. Overall, including sailing time and boarding, the 4-mile trip is estimated to take 50 minutes. The fare amount would depend on the service's popularity. If it runs at full capacity, travelers could expect to pay $37; if it runs at 25% capacity, the price tag soars to $150. The service also would require more infrastructure on both sides of the shore, including new approach roads, docking facilities, fare collection stations and administration buildings. The channel would likely need to be dredged to accommodate the ferries. And there probably would be service disruptions because Port of Baltimore vessels would be given priority over passage, the report states. The Bay Bridge itself could serve as a barrier to the service's success, the transportation officials argue. As long as the structure stands, it will compete with the ferry for vehicles. Typically, ferries operate where no other options exist. When considering all the costs, ranging from the $780 million for the ferries to compensation for the 45-person crew, the endeavor would cost about $3.4 billion over 40 years. In contrast, earlier reports have pegged the cost of a new Bay Bridge at up to $10 billion. The transportation agencies ultimately rebuffed the ferry proposal, writing: "A MdTA-operated ferry service utilizing all-electric ferries is not a feasible alternative to a third crossing of the Chesapeake Bay. There are currently no existing all-electric vessels in operation that would provide the capacity needs identified above and the service would be cost prohibitive from the user and operator standpoints." The MDOT and MdTA declined to elaborate on the contents of the report for this article. "We have been swamped with coronavirus prep and response," MDOT spokeswoman Erin Henson said. Jim Campbell, vice president of the Queen Anne's Conservation Association, said he hopes the state keeps a ferry service on the table as part of an array of possible strategies to combat bridge traffic. His group worries that the construction of a third Bay Bridge will lead to more urban development on the Eastern Shore. "That's just one arrow in the quiver at most," Campbell said of the ferry. The group has hired its own consulting firm to analyze the traffic problem, and it plans to publicly release the report later this year, he added. Bay Journal staff writer Jeremy Cox (jcox@bayjournal.com) is based in Salisbury, Md. BERKELEY, Calif, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The CARESTAR Foundation has released $1.5 million in support for a critical health information technology project to California's Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA). The funds were an accelerated grant for Phase Two of EMSA's critical project in Health Information Technology for EMS, or HITEMS. The technology gives first responders, as well as trauma centers and emergency departments, shared ability to access vital patient information right at their fingertips. It is a massive health information connection effort, engaging a broad range of EMS agencies, hospitals, local EMSAs and technology vendors across California. With the support, EMSA moved ahead immediately to expand their HITEMS program, deploying electronic multi-directional health information exchange programs throughout the state. "In a doubling-down of our organizational mission, we were happy to deliver support that is critical during this pandemic for our partners on the front lines of EMS care," says Tanir Ami, CEO of the CARESTAR Foundation. According to the Office of Health Information Exchange of California's EMSA, the grant supports three components that focus on integration, connectivity and data sharing: +EMS, (which allows rapid search, alert, file and reconcile data functions); PULSE (Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies collecting vital continuity- of-care documents) and POLST, (Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment including Do Not Resuscitate directives.) EMSA activated the PULSE system on March 26, preparing deployment teams to provide just-in-time training and equipment at alternate care facilities throughout California. Part of the additional funding allows EMSA to implement and expand connections to cover more regions of the state, with additional partners in 11 counties. Paramedics and hospital emergency room staffs will use these connections daily. EMSA is also conducting emergency hires for several thousand new medical providers to add to teams while procuring resources and wrap-around services to support new alternative care sites developing training materials and hosting remote live training. According to the California EMSA, the CARESTAR grant supports improved health outcomes and reduces disparities for the population by: Increasing the quality of initial emergency care in the field Providing vital health information, i.e., medications or allergies, to providers during a disaster Facilitating an accurate, comprehensive handoff of patients from ambulance to hospital Decreasing time to diagnosis and treatment, i.e., by transmitting ECG data to the hospital before the patient arrives Better respecting patient end-of-life wishes by making POLST forms available to EMS providers Reducing cost for duplication of tests or unwanted treatment in emergency rooms CARESTAR aims to work closely with its grantee partners to meet emerging needs during the novel coronavirus pandemic, and is committed to work particularly in support of first responders and care delivery personnel and systems. Tanir Ami adds, "It is increasingly clear to us that the directive of our mission is more needed than ever, as we support our partners doing their best for California's vulnerable populations as we weather the extreme health care challenges of this season." About the CARESTAR Foundation The CARESTAR Foundation was founded as a result of the sale of CALSTAR (California Shock Trauma Air Rescue), and honors CALSTAR'S legacy and lifesaving work in the field of emergency and trauma care. Our mission is to strengthen connections and foster partnerships in California's injury prevention, emergency response and trauma care landscape to improve health outcomes for all Californians. www.carestarfoundation.org . SOURCE CARESTAR Foundation Related Links carestarfoundation.org New Delhi/Islamabad, April 21 : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan may go into self-quarantine after it emerged that he came in contact with an individual who tested positive for the novel coronavirus last week. Sources said that Khan met Faisal Edhi, the chairman of Edhi Foundation, the world's largest volunteer ambulance network, on April 15. After meeting the Prime Minister, Faisal developed flu like symptoms and tested positive for the virus the following day, sources said. Faisal is the son of Abdul Sattar Edhi, the noted Pakistani philanthropist. Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on Tuesday quoting Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital CEO Faisal Sultan, who is also Khan's personal physician, as saying that that the premier was "currently occupied with a cabinet meeting" but "as soon as he is finished, he will recommend that he gets tested and follow all the protocols in place." Faisal however, according to his son who spoke to the Dawn newspaper, is in self-isolation and his health remains fine. He has donated Rs 1 crore to the Prime Minister Imran Khan fund for Pakistan's fight against the pandemic. The Edhi foundation is also helping the coronavirus victims in their burial services. So far 197 people have died and over 9,500 tested positive for the disease in Pakistan. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Heres a recap of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic for Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Over 2.5 million people worldwide have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 178,000 people have died. The United States has more than 820,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 45,000 deaths attributed to the virus. Yet as some areas of the U.S. begin relaxing social distancing restrictions, a new poll showed a majority of Americans fear easing those guidelines could result in more deaths. Meanwhile, President Trump announced on Twitter that "in light of the Invisible Enemy" he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States. For the latest live updates, click here. [April 21, 2020] Pragmatic Institute Brings Data Science Training to Japan Pragmatic Institute-the global authority on data science, product management and product marketing training-is bringing one of their most popular data science courses to data enthusiasts in Japan thanks to their partnership with DataMix Japan. DataMix Japan, a data educator that operates 6-month bootcamps for professionals and corporations, now offers the expert instruction of Pragmatic Institute's data instructors to their students and customers, filling a much-needed aspect of their curriculum. Pragmatic Institute's Essential Data Tools and Practical Machine Learning courses are offered online in English through DataMix Japan. Students receive hands-on training with real-world data sets and live code. And the best part? Pragmatic Institute's data courses are always taught live by expert data science instructors, s students can get the guidance and assistance they need in real time. "We are excited to work with Pragmatic Institute and The Data Incubator because of their excellent reputation outside of Japan," says Yosuke Katada, CEO of DataMix Japan. "As the field of data science has evolved, they have been able to stay on top of the latest changes. They are data experts with real-world experience that have developed an unparalleled curriculum. We are proud to partner with them to deliver training in Japan." Phil Alexander, CEO of Pragmatic Institute, added his enthusiasm, stating, "We are honored to work with DataMix Japan. For more than three years, they've been providing high-level data science training programs to business professionals. They are data science experts with consulting experience that has provided training to countless companies in Japan, and they've created a great community of data scientists there. We are proud to partner with them to provide training in Japan." About Pragmatic Institute Pragmatic Institute provides comprehensive training, education and certification to product managers, product marketers and data scientists globally. With a commitment to excellence and a dedication to continued education, Pragmatic Institute's full-service offerings enable organizations to grow revenue, go to market faster, improve customer satisfaction ratings and harness the power of their own data. For more information on training for your organization, please visit www.PragmaticInstitute.com or call 480-515-1411. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005292/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Russia Melita Vujnovic believes that the relatively low novel coronavirus mortality in Russia may be a result of careful control over cases of community-acquired pneumonia since the very outset of the outbreak. "Since the very start of the outbreak, the Russian healthcare system started monitoring mortality from community-acquired pneumonia very attentively," she said in an interview with the Echo of Moscow radio station. "All people with pneumonia seek assistance almost immediately, and, possibly, this reduces mortality from community-acquired pneumonia, including the one caused by the coronavirus," TASS cited her as saying. In her words, both ordinary Russians and the Russian healthcare system remain on high alert regarding cases of community-acquired pneumonia. Vujnovic said that this year, Russia saw less community-acquired pneumonia deaths than in 2019 and 2018. Cody Vasquez had no idea how to prepare for higher education. Neither of his parents nor his three older sisters had gone to college. However, in the spring of 2013, when he was in the eighth grade, his counselor at San Jacinto Junior High told him about Early College High School at Midland College. I knew that I really wanted the college experience, Vasquez said. When I discovered that I could take college classes at the same time that I was in high school with the possibility of earning an associate degree by the time I was 18, I thought why not; I can do this. Vasquez completed the rigorous ECHS@MC application process and was told that he had been accepted into the program. ECHS wasnt easy, said Vasquez, the son of Lori Acuna and Ruben Vasquez. The high school courses are accelerated to give students the opportunity to take 60 hours of college credit in order to earn an associate degree by the time they graduate from high school. I was determined to get those 60 hours of college credit. I had a lot of support from my high school teachers and counselors, and the Midland College professors were awesome. They treated us just like other college students. We were in the same classes as traditional college students. I was in the honors program and really enjoyed completing the extra projects that were required for honors students. Vasquez was so motivated to complete an associate degree that he not only took college courses as part of the early college high school program, but also completed some of his college credits during the summers. Because of this, he was able to graduate from high school and Midland College in December 2016 a semester earlier than his classmates. In January 2017, Vasquez entered Angelo State University as a junior and majored in business. I chose ASU because it is close to home and financially affordable, the Midland native said. Thankfully, because I graduated from Midland College, I was able to take advantage of some special scholarships. I received the Carr Transfer Scholarship from Angelo State, as well as the Fasken and Carrasco scholarships that are specifically for Midland College graduates who transfer to four-year universities. Vasquez graduated in December 2018 with a Bachelors of Business Administration degree in Business Management and then entered graduate school at ASU. He will receive a Masters of Business Administration degree next month. I have really enjoyed my time at Angelo State, said Vasquez. Just like at Midland College, there is a lot of opportunity to interact with professors, and ASU has provided endless opportunities for career exploration and preparation. I also took part in a month-long study abroad program and was able to visit Spain, Portugal, France, Greece and the United Kingdom. During his time at ASU, Vasquez also participated in the Association of Mexican-American Students and Delta Sigma Pi, a national organization for business majors. Through Delta Sigma Pi, Vasquez enhanced his leadership skills and served as VP Pledge Education, Senior Vice President and Chapter President of the organization. At the organizations annual conference in Dallas in March, Delta Sigma Pi named Vasquez the 2020 National Collegian of the Year. This award is presented annually to the one outstanding collegiate member of Delta Sigma Pi who has exemplified the values and ideals of the organization. He will serve on the National Delta Sigma Pi board of directors for the next two years and received a $5,000 scholarship. He has also served AMAS as the Alumni/Recruitment chair, a college transition leader and a mentor to first-generation students. The university also awarded him the 2019 Promising Male Leader of the Year and has been nominated for 2020. Vasquez works as a graduate assistant at ASU. In this capacity, he serves as the Student Activities and Multicultural Center manager, where he helps guide diversity inclusion in student organizations and facilitates the colleges food pantry. When I obtain my masters degree in May, Ill have to resign my graduate assistant position, Vasquez said. Im hoping to get a full-time staff position at ASU or at another college or university. My future goals are to perhaps teach business and leadership courses; however, Im open to exploring other options in the business field. Rebecca C. Bell is executive director of Institutional Advancement at Midland College and the Midland College Foundation. Guangnan county in the Wenshan Zhuang-Miao Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan province, has implemented a raft of measures to fight poverty, as the province seeks to eliminate poverty by the end of June through a 100-day campaign. At one point, the county's poverty rate stood at 20.14 percent. By the end of 2019, Guangnan, one of the provinces seven poor counties, still had 40,542 registered people living in poverty from 9,641 households. Many people from Guangnan choose to work outside their hometowns to earn money. About 255,400 people, including 60,500 impoverished ones, regularly seek employment elsewhere each year. The county is working to eliminate the number of zero-employment families amid the epidemic, by sending workers back to their jobs through point-to-point transportation, and encouraging people to find work at local industrial parks and workshops that employ local workers and play a major role in poverty alleviation. As an example, Guangnan will grant 1,500 yuan each month to registered people living in poverty who worked at a local shoe and clothes mall before March 31, and 1,000 yuan for those who got jobs there after April 1, in each case for three months, according to Wei Hong, deputy head of the county's human resources and security bureau. By April 7, 230,200 rural workers in the county, including 67,400 impoverished ones, had found jobs in non-agricultural sectors. The county has also developed various industries to alleviate poverty. On March 1, Guangnan launched an online supermarket to help sell specialty agricultural products such as honey and tea, which have attracted large numbers of buyers. Cui Liping, manager of the public service center for e-commerce in Guangnan, said the center had received 6,500 orders worth 680,000 yuan, 90 percent of which was sold online. "Half of these orders are related to impoverished people," Cui added. So far, the center has established 118 village-level stations across the county to help poor people sell agricultural products. Meanwhile, Guangnan has also taken measures to guarantee that impoverished people have access to safe housing. The county has sent 18 teams to check on the housing situation there to ensure that no impoverished people are living in dangerous buildings. "We found that 18 houses should be renovated, and we are organizing construction units for this purpose," said Zhou Jian, an official with the county's housing and construction bureau. So far, 13,386 impoverished people from 2,903 households in Guangnan have been relocated to new sites, and the main part of the project to renovate dangerous buildings has been completed. The death toll from the coronavirus in Iran has officially been announced as around 4,700, with fewer than 100 people adding to that number for the third day in a row. However, these statistics have been highly questioned by nurses and physicians in hospitals and observation of burial sites. In addition, a research center in the Iranian parliament estimates that the actual statistics could be up to 80% higher than the official figures. The report says the number of infected patients is likely to be eight to ten times more than announced. Meanwhile, the Iranian opposition, the NCRI, has announced the death toll to be over 32,500. On April 17, 2020, the Rouhani government, afraid of revealing the actual death toll, in contravention of a decree made by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in 24 articles effective immediately, issued a classified directive from the Communications and Law Enforcement Command restricting internet communications for all its units in order to prevent the leak of information. This decree clearly shows that the flow of information from medical staff, oppressed people and the Iranian resistance about the magnitude of the coronavirus tragedy has angered and confounded Khamenei. In parallel with this decree, the arrest of innocent people under the pretext of spreading rumors about the coronavirus continues. On April 16, Brigadier General Bakhshali Kamrani, Hamadan city's police chief, said: "48 people who spread rumors about the Coronavirus were identified and arrested by FATA cyber police agents in this province." Alongside this cover-up, Tehran, as in the past 41 years, continues its policy of repression inside Iran (inward policy) and export of crises (outward policy) in order to survive. In line with its outward policy, the regime has initiated a new venture in the Persian Gulf, trying to break its deadly deadlock and international isolation. The U.S. Navy announced that on Wednesday, April 15, 11 IRGC boats had provoked U.S. ships in the northern Persian Gulf by dangerous maneuvers. According to a statement on the incident from the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, the USS Lewis B. Puller was among six U.S. ships sailing in the international waters of the Persian Gulf when the armed IRGC speedboats approached them. The IRGC boats repeatedly crossed the bows and sterns of the U.S. vessels at close range and at high speed and carried out "unprofessional" and "unsafe" actions against them, as reported by Reuters. Hot on the heels of generating this crisis in the Persian Gulf, IRGC forces took to the streets of cities in Iran on April 17, under the pretext of fighting the coronavirus, and launched a ridiculous maneuver called "biological war games to support the needy." This vulgar spectacle followed Ali Khamenei's letter to Ali Bagheri, the commander-in-chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, commissioning him to set up a health camp to fight the coronavirus. In fact, the Iranian official's primary objective in running these shows in the streets of cities, especially Tehran, is not to lose control of the situation due to the explosive hatred of the people. Earlier, interior minister Rahmani Fazli said, "The psychological and deterrent value of this issue is high." He continued, "We have divided Tehran into 300 neighborhoods and, in each neighborhood, a combination of Basij forces, municipal and provincial police forces will be deployed." What is clear from the interior minister's remarks are that Iranian officials, in fear of popular uprisings and protests, are conducting maneuvers like this to control the angry people by sending troops to the streets and neighborhoods of Tehran and other cities. Iranian officials clearly feel the danger of protests and social uprisings in the future. The fact is that Tehran is suffering from a crisis of legitimacy. The November 2019 uprising, the missile strike on a Ukrainian plane, the complete boycott of the parliamentary elections by the people, and the riots of prisoners in twelve prisons have sounded alarm bells for the officials. It seems that Tehran is trying to prevent another uprising by hiding behind actions like the intrusion on U.S. ships by high-speed IRGC boats in the Persian Gulf and IRGC maneuvers inside Iran under the pretext of biological war games. Tehran is simultaneously increasing pressure on international organizations to lift the sanctions that have dried its sources of funds to provide for its proxy forces and armed militias. But, as all the experts say, returning to normal does not mean returning to the pre-pandemic conditions. In the case of Iran, these ridiculous maneuvers and international crises no longer work. The governing apparatus is on the verge of collapse. Hassan Mahmoudi, social analyst, researcher, is an independent observer and commentator of Middle Eastern and Iranian affairs. IN a spontaneous tribute to the healthcare workers, O'Molloy Street in Tullamore has become a blaze of colour in recent weeks. Tricolours and bunting fly from nearly every house on the street as residents signal their praise and thanks to all the essential staff on the frontline in the battle against the coronavirus. Longtime O'Molloy Street resident Marty Tilley is proud of how a tradition established on the street many years ago has been revived so spectacularly for this special occasion. He was born in number 117 O'Molloy Street 64 years ago and still lives there. I'm one of only six families in the street that has been in the same house from the very first day, he said. It was the mid 1930s when the street was built and Marty's grandfather and grandmother, Martin and Honor Garrett, moved into the house. Ray Murray is living across the street from Marty having moved from an area of even older vintage, Davitt Street. But Ray is a son of O'Molloy Street too, having been born there 69 years ago. His house is one of many which is proudly displaying the green, white and gold of several Irish flags and he was delighted with how the tribute grew and grew. Nobody organised this, he said. It was up at the house at the top (Hensey's) that the first flag went up. Somebody said, 'What are they putting up that flag for?' and they said it was for the workers. Then another flag went up down there and another flag went up and next minute all of a sudden everybody had flags up. Word just got around the street. Marty Tilley said William Costelloe's house on his side of the street had a flag up around the same time and the residents said the display is a great example of the great community spirit which has always existed on O'Molloy Street. They still recall fondly the great celebration held to mark the 80th anniversary of the street's foundation. The music went on until four o'clock in the morning, said Ray. And Marty remembered in particular the special birthday cake which was baked and designed for the occasion. An edible O'Molloy Street, it was 14-feet long, was made by a Feery woman from Killeigh and had a representation of every house on the street on it. Many years before that the tradition of erecting bunting was instigated by Mick Dunne and O'Molloy Street became known far and wide for its display, especially at the time of religious festivals like Corpus Christi. The layout of the houses in neat blocks and the narrow street lends itself such decoration. Ray said other council estates around the town also had similar community traditions, Davitt Street being one of them. He said the Murray family are the longest continuing residents on Davitt Street, a scheme which was completed in 1907. His son Alan lives there now. A Murray moved into number 9 and a Murray has been in number 9 ever since. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP) Canadians may see the price of beef increase, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned on Tuesday, after an Alberta meat-packing plant was forced to shutdown due to COVID-19. However, Trudeau said the move will not result in a shortage as suppliers shift to focus on domestic demand. Weve heard from Canadian beef producers and associations that the priority will be ensuring Canadian supply before they move to exporting, Trudeau said at his daily press conference on Tuesday. The priority will be on domestic supply, so we are not at this point anticipating shortages of beef, but prices might go up. We will of course be monitoring that very, very carefully. Cargill announced Monday that it would temporarily shut down its meat-packing facility near High River, Alta. due to an outbreak of the coronavirus. The plant processes about 4,500 head of cattle day, which amounts to more than one-third of Canadas beef-packing capacity. There were 360 cases of coronavirus among workers in the plant, Albertas chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw confirmed Monday. The virus has spread beyond those workers, bringing the total cases linked to the plants outbreak to 484. One worker from the plant has died. Considering the community-wide impacts of the virus, we encourage all employees to get tested for the COVID-19 virus as now advised by Alberta Health Services as soon as possible, Jon Nash, head of Cargills North American Protein division, said in a statement. Kevin Grier, a livestock and meat market analyst, said there is no need for people to panic about a shortage of beef, as Canada produces more meat than consumers eat. But selection may suffer in the interim. It is not a time for consumers to worry, but they are going to see some blank spots on some shelves, Grier said. There will be probably be a continuation of price increases, but not anything like 20 or 30 per cent jump. It will just be fewer products and you might not have the selection you want for a while. With files from the Canadian Press Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android and sign up for the Yahoo Finance Canada Weekly Brief. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Nation/Asia News Network) Tue, April 21, 2020 13:47 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd347330 2 News AirAsia,Airlines,travel,Thailand,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free AirAsia is set to resume domestic flights in various Asian countries, commencing with Malaysia on April 29, followed by Thailand (May 1), the Philippines (May 1), India (May 4) and Indonesia (May 7), subject to government approval. The resumption of services will initially start with key selected domestic routes, which will increase gradually to include international destinations once the situation improves and governments lift border and travel restrictions. The flights are already open for booking via the Airasia.com website and mobile application. Passengers can use their credit accounts to redeem points for these flights. Further details on more routes and flight schedules will be announced in the coming weeks, subject to approval from the authorities. Read also: AirAsia Indonesia suspends all flights starting April 1 We are very pleased to be able to fly again and to serve our guests starting with domestic routes, and hope to resume full operations as soon as possible, president of Airlines Business at AirAsia Group Bo Lingam said. We have undertaken a thorough review of our guest-handling procedures both on the ground and onboard in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. We have been working closely with airport authorities to ensure that all the relevant precautionary measures are in place to ensure a safe, pleasant and comfortable journey for everyone. Passengers are advised to adhere to universally recommended protective precautionary measures, including wearing a face mask, social distancing and observing strict personal hygiene. The aircraft, which are fitted with hospital-standard High Efficiency Particulate Air filters, will also be thoroughly disinfected after each flight. Topics : This article appeared on The Nation newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post 135 million people globally were affected by acute malnutrition in 2019, the United Nations' food agency said in a report released Monday the most since the agency was formed four years ago. Driving the news: The planet is on the brink of a hunger pandemic" as it grapples with the coronavirus outbreak, David Beasley, chief of the UN's World Food Program told the UN Security Council Tuesday, AP reports. Beasley said that he warned the council about a potential food insecurity crisis before COVID-19 emerged, due to conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, Africa's locust swarms, natural disasters and economic crises, AP writes. the council about a potential food insecurity crisis before COVID-19 emerged, due to conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, Africa's locust swarms, natural disasters and economic crises, AP writes. Some of the countries that faced the most food insecurity in 2019 include: Nigeria, Venezuela, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN's Global Food Network against Food Crises noted in its report. What he's saying: The truth is, we do not have time on our side, so lets act wisely and lets act fast. I do believe that with our expertise and partnerships, we can bring together the teams and the programs necessary to make certain the COVID-19 pandemic does not become a humanitarian and food crisis catastrophe." David Beasley said Tueday, per AP The bottom line: The UN report predates the coronavirus crisis, but those struggling with food insecurity often have higher rates of underlying health conditions that weaken immune systems and can "increase the risk of people developing severe COVID-19 symptoms," the agency notes. Go deeper... UN: Millions of children at risk of poverty and malnutrition due to coronavirus BATON ROUGE, La.Louisiana authorities arrested a pastor on an assault charge on Tuesday after he admitted that he drove his church bus toward a man who has been protesting his decision to hold mass gatherings in defiance of public health orders during the CCP virus pandemic. The police department in Central, a suburb of the capital of Baton Rouge, said in a Facebook post that Tony Spell, pastor of the Life Tabernacle Church, turned himself into the department and was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and improper backing. Officials said Spell also had outstanding traffic tickets. Spell was taken to the East Baton Rouge Parish prison, where about 70 of his parishioners, dressed in their Sunday best, arrived in church buses to show support. Men in jackets and ties, women in dresses, and children, some in matching outfits, gathered in a parking lot across the street. They stood close to each other, praying and singing hymns while guards, some wearing protective masks watched. Spell eventually walked out of the jail to applause from his supporters, after his wife entered the jail with a handful of cash that had been delivered by someone in a car. Online booking records indicate bail was set at $175. My rights to have church and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ are endowed to me by my creator, not my district attorney, not my chief of police and not my governor, John Bel Edwards, Spell said. Not my president and not my Department of Justice. The arrest happened on the same day the East Baton Rouge Parish coroner reported that deaths in the parish, which encompasses the state capital of Baton Rouge and Central, had surpassed 100. Before Spell was released, one Spell supporter shouted defiantly at Trey Bennett, the protester Spell is accused of assaulting. Bennett also showed up at the jail, carrying his protest sign. It says Close this church on one side and Danger: coronavirus incubator on the other. Our church will never close, you get that? the man yelled. Bennett has kept up a one-man demonstration in front of the church since Easter Sunday, when he noticed hundreds of parishioners still attending services in defiance of the states stay-at-home mandate, which bans gatherings of more than ten people. Many houses of worship across Louisiana have turned to online services instead. This Sunday, Spell drove a church bus in reverse in the direction of the sign-holding protester. Spell acknowledged as much in a telephone interview with WAFB-TV on Monday. He said he just wanted to get out and confront the protester, but his wife talked him out of it. Spell already faces misdemeanor charges for holding in-person church services despite the ban on gatherings. Authorities have said they did not book him into jail previously because they did not want to add to the jail population at a time when the highly infectious disease is running rampant. They have not taken any action to close his church. Parishioner Nathan Boyce Thomas also faces charges of aggravated assault and reckless operation of a vehicle after being seen on video driving his white pickup truck to within about a foot of where Bennett was standing at the road side. Police said Thomas drove at a high rate of speed, then braked just before turning into the church parking lot. Dougherty said Thomas also planned to turn himself in later Tuesday. Bennett said he was used to getting scowls and verbal jabs from parishioners, but was shocked to see vehicles being driven at him. Videos of the two incidents on April 19 were obtained and reviewed by The Associated Press. One shows the church bus making a sharp turn and then backing in the opposite direction of traffic on the shoulder to within a few feet of Bennett before coming to a stop. Another shows a white pickup truck swerving out of its lane and onto the shoulder within about a foot of Bennetts body. By Gerald Herbert and Stacey Plaisance Epoch Times staff contributed to this report A new report shows South Carolina has the nation's second-highest arrest rate for marijuana possession as well as a growing racial disparity in these arrests. The numbers paint a stark picture, with seven South Carolina counties included in the top 20 nationwide for cannabis arrests, according to the report released Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union, which was based on FBI data. Black Charleston County residents were 4.2 times more likely to be arrested for the charge compared with whites, according to the report. Berkeley and Dorchester counties had racial disparity rates of 3.7 times more likely and 3.6 times, respectively. "South Carolina's marijuana laws needlessly ensnare thousands of people into the criminal justice system," said Frank Knaack, executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina. "This doesn't make people safe." Across the state, marijuana possession arrests grew by 52.8 percent from 2010 to 2018, the latest year for which FBI data is available, the report said. Black South Carolinians were charged with the crime 3.5 times more than white residents. Despite the picture painted by the report, officials in Charleston County said they've been working hard to implement reforms, at least locally. Law enforcement and criminal justice officials have worked through the county's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to reduce the inmate population at the Al Cannon Detention Center in North Charleston for several years. Part of that strategy is to issue citations for low-level offenses like simple possession of marijuana, rather than arrest those people and book them into jail. "Charleston County experienced substantial reductions in jail use for lower-level municipal and magistrate charges," said Kristy Danford, the council's project director. "For instance, in 2014 there were 1,576 single-charge bookings for simple possession of marijuana. By 2019, it reduced by 93 percent to 109." As a result of the council's reforms, simple possession of marijuana is no longer the most frequent charge in bookings at Charleston County's jail, Danford said. Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds said his focus, and that of his department, is on lowering violent crime. "I could make 100 arrests for kids hanging out on the corner for simple possession and it'll have minimal impact. Or I could arrest someone who's shooting our communities and it's going to have a huge positive impact," Reynolds said. "We have to be strategic and we have to be in the areas where we have problems." The chief said officers have been issuing citations for simple possession rather than arresting those individuals when appropriate. "It's a difficult, challenging conversation," Reynolds said. "We should be in those communities where there's drug dealing associated with violent crime. But who should we be arresting?" The chief said he has directed his officers to not arrest people for simple possession, even during drug sweeps like one that occurred in Charleston's East Side neighborhood earlier this year. The priority in such narcotics operations is to arrest dealers and people engaging in violence, not low-level offenders. "We intentionally don't go sweep up (everyone)," Reynolds said. "The whole idea is to build trust. If we go and arrest everybody, we've destroyed trust. You're going to have underreporting of crime and the police cannot make a community safe." According to the ACLU's report, other areas of the state were struggling with racial disparities in marijuana arrests far more than Charleston County. In Pickens County, black residents were 8.4 times more likely than white residents to be arrested on the charge, according to the report. Nearby Oconee County had a disparity rate blacks being arrested 8.3 times more than whites. In Lexington County, that rate was 5.8 times, and in Horry County is was 6.8 times. Of the ACLU's list of 20 U.S. counties with the highest per capita rates of marijuana possession arrests: Chester County took the top spot with just over 2,000 per 100,000 residents. Newberry and Darlington counties were third- and fifth-highest in the nation. Marion, Laurens, Kershaw and Colleton counties were also included in the top 20. Nationally, law enforcement made more than 6 million arrests between 2010 and 2018 and black people are more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people in every state, including those that have legalized marijuana, according to the report. "This report finds that stark racial disparities in marijuana possession arrests have remained unchanged nationwide," the ACLU concluded. "On average, a black person is 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though black and white people use marijuana at similar rates." Regardless of what one thinks about marijuana, all people should be concerned over the racial inequities shown in the report, Knaack said. "Our marijuana laws have been justified using words like 'tough on crime,'" he said. "Its time for us to look at our public safety system and build it around justice, fairness and equity." Despite efforts in some areas to reduce the number of people arrested and jailed for marijuana possession too many people are being swept up into the criminal justice system because of the nation's prohibition on cannabis, Knaack said. MAHESH PATIL, chief investment officer equity at Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC tells Puneet Wadhwa that unless there are signs of the virus being contained and a flattening of the virus curve in India, the possibility of re-testing the recent low always remains. Edited excerpts: Do you think we can retest the recent lows on the Sensex and the Nifty going ahead or is the worst over? Indian equity markets had rebounded in line with the rise in global equity peers on expectation that we should soon ... 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 Police are asking for the public's help in locating two Tomball teenage siblings who have been missing since April 16, according to the Tomball Police Department. Xavier Alfonso Mendez, 15, and Alize Yasmine Mendez, 16, were both last seen April 16 in the 900 block of Baker Drive near the Oak Bend Drive apartments in Tomball. The family is concerned for their safety and is asking anyone who may know of their whereabouts to call the police. Airbnbs and vacation rentals in the Poconos no longer would be advertised as an escape from any pandemic now or in the future if state Rep. Rosemary Brown gets the nod on a proposed crackdown. Brown, a Republican representing Monroe and Pike counties, is hoping to introduce legislation in the near future aimed at banning such short-term rental properties, which had been attracting visitors from New York and New Jersey into Monroe, Carbon and Pike counties. The ads on gooddogvacations.com, Wallenpaupack Vacation Rentals, and Pocono Rentals previously stated such things as social distancing in comfort, ...we can host your family for a little R&R in this stress filled world, and Are you looking to escape from the epicenter? and coronavirus-free, respectively. Some of the ads also stated they are discounting rates amid the coronavirus pandemic. Residents and other politicians slammed the advertisements last month and said they were risking the health and safety of those who live there. The concerns prompted Gov. Tom Wolf in early April to halt all short-term rental properties for the time being. If successful, Browns legislation would take it a step further, eliminating any short-term rentals during the coronavirus pandemic and any pandemic in the future. The legislation specifically calls for a short-term rental shutdown whenever the governor announces a disaster declaration for Pennsylvania. Short-term rentals are defined as anything that is not intended for a primary residence and when the owner is not in the business of owning, operating or managing a hotel, under Browns bill proposal. "The common sense goal of this legislation is to curb early en masse spread of infection in the Commonwealth should we face another health crisis, like COVID-19, and be operating under a disaster declaration, Brown said. Our primary focus should always be keeping our residents safe during times of uncertainty and protecting our resources for any disaster in the future. I believe this legislation is a great start to ensuring that protection and safety. Brown went on to call the ads unethical, socially irresponsible and a disregard to public health. She said Wolfs ban should have been automatic and not several weeks after concerns were brought to the forefront. State Sen. Mario Scavello, a Republican representing parts of Monroe and Northampton counties, also has taken issue with the rental advertisements. Scavello has repeatedly posted about the issue on his Facebook page, asking constituents to report screenshots of the ads to him and he would notify state police. Scavello said in a recent Facebook posting he currently is working with state police to come up with some type of enforcement against visitors entering the Poconos. Our area is under lockdown. There should be no movement of traffic across borders unless its life-sustaining businesses or essential personnel -- job related," Scavello stated in a Facebook video. The purpose of this order is to save lives, not to hurt your businesses or any other circumstance ... We are in the eye of a storm in Monroe and Northampton County. If we do not shelter in place, many more people will get sick and many more people will lose their life. Scavello went on to report in the video hospitals continue to be overburdened by patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Last month, hospital officials were calling Monroe County a coronavirus hot zone with more than half of admissions to the St. Lukes University Health Networks Monroe campus being treated for COVID-19. A similar percentage of admitted patients were being treated for COVID-19 at the Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono location in East Stroudsburg, Monroe County, Lehigh Valley Health Network spokesman Brian Downs stated at the time. Both Sam Kennedy, spokesman for St. Lukes University Health Network, and Downs did not immediately return requests for updated information Monday. The Pennsylvania Department of Healths most recent data has 970 positive coronavirus cases in Monroe County, 144 in Carbon County and another 304 in Pike County. On Monday, the number of new COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania dipped below 1,000 for the first time in 19 days -- a sign the states stay-at-home order is working. The 948 new positive tests bring the states total to 33,232 coronavirus cases and 129,720 patients who have tested negative to date. 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. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Belgrade: Serbia's elderly have ventured outside for the first time in more than a month as authorities eased some of the strict measures that have been in place against the new coronavirus. The government now allows people over 65 years old to go out for a walk three times a week during a daily curfew when the rest of the population must stay indoors. Authorities say they want to keep the vulnerable elderly residents safe. An elderly woman wearing a mask against the spread of the new coronavirus walks during a curfew in downtown Belgrade, Serbia. Credit:AP Serbia has introduced some of the toughest rules in Europe as part of efforts to curb the spread of the virus. People over 65 were only allowed to go shopping for groceries once a week and very early in the morning. Most people who ventured out on Tuesday evening, local time, were wearing face masks and some couples were holding hands. One man said he was out for the first time in 35 days. The country has reported 6890 cases of new coronavirus infection, while 130 people have died. AP I said that an accumulation of incidents since Mr. Ivanovs arrival in Australia in 1981, now confirmed by information which has come to hand since the change of Government, has led the Government to conclude that he is a professional intelligence officer of the Committee for State Security (KGB),Mr. Hayden said in a prepared statement to a Press conference. I pointed out that by his actions Mr. Ivanov had threatened Australias national security in a way which could not be tolerated by the Government. The Opposition Leader, Mr. Peacock, was briefed on the reasons for the expulsion, said the Governments decision was absolutely correct and had the Oppositions full support. The Soviet Embassy claimed to be bewildered by the Australian Governments action. An embassy official issued a two-paragraph statement to reporters which said the embassy categorically rejected the farfetched and groundless accusations against Mr. Ivanov. The embassy states that all its staff strictly abide by the rules and regulations existing in this country. The embassy sees no reasons whatsoever for such a decision by the Australian Government. Loading Mr. Ivanov, aged in his 30s, is married with one child. He lives in the Canberra suburb of Curtin, speaks good English and is described as being in the embassys political section. His name is listed in the Canberra telephone directory. Mr. Hayden refused to give details about the reasons for Mr. Ivanovs expulsion and would not answer any questions. He said he had been given advice, including some from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, that it would be undesirable for him to go beyond the contents of a formal statement. To go beyond the contents of this statement could innocently but quite effectively and easily signal to other sources the range of information available to us, the sources available to us, the methods which are adopted, at least to some extent. That would be detrimental to the security of the State and the operation of our security service, Mr. Hayden said. Loading A Foreign Affairs spokesman said last night that Mr. Hayden told Dr. Soudarikov that the Soviet Union had no grounds for any reciprocal action. In February 1963, Soviet First Secretary Ivan Fredorovich Skripov was given seven days to leave, after being accused by the Australian Government of trying to organise spying. In May that year the Soviet Union expelled then First Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Moscow, Mr. Bill Morrison, now a Federal Labor MP. The Soviet Embassy in Canberra said yesterday afternoon that Mr. Ivanov was not in Canberra, and was believed to be returning from Melbourne. The Azadpur wholesale fruit and vegetable market reported its first Covid-19 related death after a 57-year old jackfruit and pea trader died on Tuesday. The death uncovered two more Covid-19 cases linked to the Azadpur Mandi, creating panic among sellers who demanded the markets closure and initiation of containment activities. A senior district official, however, said these were not the first Covid-19 cases to be reported from the Mandi. The 57-year-old man was confirmed positive on Monday after his sample was collected on April 19. He is a resident of Majlis Park and was admitted to a private hospital two days prior to being tested (April 17), district magistrate (north) Deepak Shinde said. Late on Tuesday, Shinde said the number of people who would need to be put under quarantine was not yet known as surveillance teams were still preparing a list of people from the Mandi and his family who came in contact with the deceased. He had a business partner, who is also being contacted, a senior official said. A second senior official from the district, however, said this was not the first instance that someone from Azadpur Mandi has tested positive for Covid-19. Earlier, a tomato dealer from Shalimar Bagh and a cauliflower seller who had left for his hometown in UPs Ghonda were both found positive. So, rigorous contact tracing is on, said the official who did not wish to be named. Meanwhile, traders demanded a complete lockdown of the market. The authorities are being very negligent about Covid-19 spread in the market. We urge the government to shut the market for the time being. We are ready to do business in the open while adhering to all social distancing norms and regulations at Japanese Park or any other big stadium, said Anil Malhotra, a trader. The DM said the shop of the 57-year old Covid-19 deceased and its surrounding areas have been cordoned off. Other containment measures will be decided and put in place Wednesday, he said. The Covid-19 death comes a day after the Delhi government allowed the Azadpur Mandi--Asias largest fruit and vegetable wholesale marketto operate round-the-clock. CROWD CONTROL Earlier on Tuesday, the first day after the governments announcement of running the Azadpur Mandi 24x7, the police and civil defence volunteers had a tough time controlling crowds as many people jumped the boundary to enter the Mandi. The situation, however, was soon brought under control as 900 civil defence volunteers (CDV) were deployed along the markets boundary. The police have deployed drones for continuous monitoring and have warned people that violators would be booked. The market traders association has also installed loudspeakers to remind people to maintain physical distancing. Gauging the severity of the situation in the market at a time when the city-state of Delhi, which has the second highest number of coronvirus cases in the country at 2,156, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal personally took stock of the situation and directed officials to ensure no crowding, including vehicular traffic occurs in the area. Union minister of state (home) G Kishan Reddy also inspected the mandi on Tuesday and reviewed the arrangements in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus, while ensuring the measure achieves its purposeto help farmers sell their produce and minimise the prices of vegetables which have witnessed a hike due to the ongoing lockdown. Senior Delhi police officers said hundreds of supply trucks and tempos queued up outside the entry gate in the early hours of Tuesday but the situation was like any other day before the lockdown. The long queues did not affect the traffic as Delhi remains under lockdown and the roads were largely empty, police said. Under the new arrangement, which came into effect Monday night, entry of only 1,000 persons is allowed every four hours in the market. While fruits and vegetables will be sold between 6am and 10 pm, trucks have been allowed entry from 10pm to 6am. However, on Tuesday, aside from the traders and farmers, the wholesale market saw a huge rush of people who thronged the place after hearing that it would remain open 24x7. A large number of people living in and around Azadpur came to buy vegetables and fruits for their daily needs. We are allowing entry only through tokens and e-passes, the distribution of which is highly regulated. But a lot of people entered the market by climbing its boundary walls; one side of the grilled fencing was also damaged because of people trying to break in, a senior officer deputed at the market said on the condition of anonymity. The crowd was brought under control by late afternoon. We have deployed 900 police and CDVs all along the boundaries of the Azadpur mandi. The situation is under control, Adil Khan, chairperson of the Azadpur agriculture produce market committee, said, adding that the biggest challenge being faced was that of social distancing. Deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Vijayanta Arya said the police have put adequate arrangements in place. Because its a vast area that will now be active around the clock, we are using drones for monitoring. The APMC has put in place a mechanism to operate while following social distancing. It will be made sure that all vendors and customers who come are properly sanitized even during the late night hours. We have our deployment to ensure that APMCs mechanism isnt violated. Any violation that is reported will be followed by legal action, Arya said. APMC head Khan said at least 50 public announcement systems have been procured for constantly reminding people about the importance of physical distancing and to maintain law and order. Besides, six teams have been deployed to do continuous video recording of all activities inside the market. This is being done so people realise they are being watched and it acts as a deterrent to violate the lockdown rules. The footage also helps us think of new regulatory measures, he said. Khan added that disinfection tunnel that was installed at the entry and exit of the Azadpur mandi has now been discontinued. Measure comes after the Union ministry of health and family welfare in an advisory on Monday urged local administrations to avoid using disinfectant tunnels, which spray sodium hypochlorite over individuals in order to disinfect them. Spraying an individual or group with chemical disinfectants is physically and psychologically harmful, the ministry said. The Delhi government has written to the Centre asking for a better chemical solution that could be used for disinfection of humans, Khan said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON R esidents of a German town have been using a fishing rod to lift French baguettes over the border amid the coronavirus lockdown. Germans in the western town of Lauterbach have been meeting a baker from a neighbouring French town at the border to get bread while there are international travel restrictions due to Covid-19. Myriam Jansem-Boualit, a baker from Carlin in north-eastern France, takes orders by phone and meets Germans at the border crossing near her shop to deliver her baguettes. There used to be a lot of Germans who came here to buy bread, she told Agence France-Presse. They dont dare come anymore because there are checks. So what I can do now is bring the bread to them. One of her German regulars, Hartmut Fey, has been using a fishing rod to reel in the bread. Weve been buying our baguettes and bread here in France for decades, he said. It has to do with tradition. Germany is beginning to loosen its strict lockdown, with a number of non-essential shops reopening yesterday. The country's rate of deaths from the virus as been gradually falling. Can Interferon alfa-2b treat COVID-19 effectively? Sohini Dutt reports. Kindly note the image has been posted only for representational purposes. Photograph: PTI Photo Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical major Cadila Healthcare has emerged at the forefront of India's battle to fight the coronavirus disease. After announcing research on two vaccine candidates, work on developing rapid diagnostic kits and ramping up production of hydroxychloroquine, the company is now exploring the use of a biologic drug Interferon alfa-2b to treat COVID-19. Recent studies have shown evidence of a direct antiviral effect of Interferon alfa-2b against the new coronavirus. Cadila Healthcare (Zydus Cadila) has been commercially making Pegylated Interferon alfa-2b under the brand name Pegihep since 2011 for the treatment of Hepatitis B and C, with 150,000 doses being administered. Pegihep is not yet licensed or approved for the treatment of COVID-19. However, it can be used as a 'compassionate use programme'. Zydus has approached the department of biotechnology to investigate the role of Pegylated Interferon alfa-2b for COVID-19 and is ready to undertake clinical trials. In-vitro studies have demonstrated that Interferon alfa-2b has antiviral effect against the novel coronavirus. One study by the University of Texas Medical, Galveston, demonstrated around 10,000-fold reduction in-virus titre in cells that were pre-treated with Interferon alfa-2b 48 hours earlier. The second by a group of universities in China, Australia, and Canada retrospectively analysed 77 moderate COVID-19 subjects in Wuhan and observed that those who received Interferon alfa-2b showed significant reduction in the duration of virus-shedding period and even in levels of the inflammatory Cytokine IL-6. This suggests that if a long-acting molecule like Pegylated Interferon alfa-2b is given early on in the infection, the patient suffering from COVID-19 will have significant benefit, as the viral load is reduced, lesser inflammatory elements are produced, and the virus-eliminating specific immune response is generated. When the human body contracts an infection due to a viral attack, it produces a group of molecules called Type 1 interferons as a first line of defence. Interferon alfa-2b is one such Type 1 Interferon molecule that not only slows down the viral replication, but also helps activate the two arms of our immune system -- Innate, for immediate killing of the virus, and Adaptive, for long-lasting immunity. To make it more effective, the molecule is coupled with polyethylene glycol to produce a new molecule called Pegylated Interferon alfa-2b that has the same functionality as Interferon alfa-2b, but remains in the body longer and therefore, requires only once-a-week injection, thus, providing a much better efficacy profile. "Pegylated Interferon alfa-2b emerges as one such possibility with its potential to reduce virus titres when given earlier in the disease and offering better clinical outcomes," says Sharvil Patel, managing director, Cadila Healthcare. "We are working with the US Food and Drug Administration and have opened an investigational new drug filing for Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b for the treatment of COVID-19," says Patel. Apart from Interferon, the company has already increased its capacity to make both raw material and formulation of hydroxychloroquine after the drug was touted as useful by several countries as a preventive to be used by health care professionals and patient caregivers. "This month we are making 10 tonnes of the API that can make 100 million tablets and next month we will make 30 tonnes of the API that will make another 150 million tablets," says Pankaj Patel, chairman, Zydus Cadila. As a temporary measure, production of hydroxychloroquine is happening at its Ahmedabad plant. Pankaj Patel says the Centre has procured around 100 million tablets and states together have procured 60 million to 70 million tablets. It is also working on an accelerated vaccine development programme which is currently in the animal testing stage and if the results are successful, it should enter clinical studies in the second quarter of this financial year. Zydus has two vaccine candidates -- a DNA vaccine -- and another, a live weakened recombinant measles vaccine against COVID-19. Zydus recently got approval to import rapid antibody kits for COVID-19 diagnosis from China, and is working to develop an indigenous kit. Worcester County appears to now be a COVID-19 hot spot in Massachusetts, according to the CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care, who said the system has seen a 30% increase in the number of ventilated patients since Friday. UMass Memorial, a system of hospitals in Central Massachusetts, is getting tighter on critical care space, but still has some capacity and plans to open additional surge areas today, CEO Dr. Eric Dickson said during a phone interview Tuesday morning. Worcester County is now seeing the hottest activity in terms of increases in the number of inpatients and ventilated patients, Dickson said, sandwiched between two regions that saw spikes in cases earlier on in the pandemic. Cambridge was clearly the hotbed to start with and then you saw what happened in the Springfield market with the Soldiers Home, Dickson said, referring to the states first big outbreak of cases, connected to people who attended a conference for the Biogen company in February, as well as an outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home, which has led to the death of at least 52 residents. Worcester didnt really have a spark the way Western and Eastern Massachusetts did. But it moved in, theres no keeping it out. It moved into us from those other two areas and now were peaking after them, Dickson said. But, the region has been able to keep up with patient care during this increase because of decisions made early on in the crisis. The DCU Center opened at the beginning of the month as a field hospital and the Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center is being utilized as a center for coronavirus patients following a brief delay in transitioning the site after several patients tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. If we hadnt made those moves wed be in a world of hurt right now, thats the only way I can describe it, Dickson said. The DCU Center, which is now also housing members of Worcesters homeless population who test positive for coronavirus, will likely house 80 people by the end of the day, Dickson said. As of Monday afternoon, there were 46 positive homeless individuals and 13 patients at the field hospital. Without that center, those patients would likely be in the hospital, leaving the hospital running out of coronavirus-only units, Dickson said. Dickson said that the pandemic is disproportionately impacting underserved populations in Massachusetts, which has also been seen on a national scale. I would say that the underserved population is always disproportionally impacted by disasters and this has been no different than any of those, Dickson said. We do feel that there is a disproportionate impact to the Latino population, the Black non-Hispanic [population] and the underserved in general. While urging that data should be interpreted cautiously amid the pandemic, Dickson said that of all the patients positively diagnosed with coronavirus at the health care system, 26% are Hispanic. Dickson said that UMass Memorial, as a safety net provider, sees a larger percentage of Latino patients compared to other health care systems. That statistic could also be impacted by the amount of testing happening in the Latino community. But also, Dickson noted that among the underserved population in general, the respiratory illness can spread because of a lack of space at home to self-isolate away from other family members. Dickson said hes working with the state to address that problem. The secretary of health and human services has recently agreed to help us get people into a hotel that need to be quarantined from the rest of their family, he said. State data suggests that the number of Hispanic residents hospitalized for coronavirus is 9.7% of cases, though the data is incomplete, with ethnic and racial information unknown for 42.9% of patients. Additionally, UMass Memorial plans to have its Ronald McDonald care mobile go into Latino communities and offering educational information in peoples native language regarding how to prevent contracting coronavirus. Across Massachusetts, 1,809 residents have died from illness related to coronavirus and at least 39,643 people have tested positive. Related Content: By Shu Zhang SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Middle East oil producer Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) has informed term buyers it will reduce the supply of crude in May for all four crude grades, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. ADNOC will cut the supply of its Murban and Upper Zakum crude by 15% in May, and reduce the supply of its Umm Lulu and Das crude by 5%, the sources said, citing a letter issued by ADNOC to buyers on Tuesday. ADNOC could not be immediately reached for comment. The move followed agreement of a record cut in output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies led by Russia to prop up oil prices amid the coronavirus pandemic. As billions of people around the globe stay at home to slow the spread of the virus, physical demand for crude is drying up, creating a global supply glut. Refiners are processing much less crude than normal, so hundreds of millions of barrels have gushed into storage facilities worldwide. "As directed by the UAE Government and in line with the recent OPEC+ agreement, ADNOC has committed to reduce its oil production," the producer said in the letter to buyers. In a similar move, top Gulf oil exporter Saudi Aramco has allocated around 4 million barrels per day of crude oil to its Asian customers, which is lower than its full contractual volumes to Asia by about 2 million bpd, a Saudi oil source familiar with the company's plans told Reuters last Friday. Oman has also told its oil producing companies to cut 200,000 barrels per day starting from May 1 until the end of June and will inform its customers of the same plan, its oil ministry said. U.S. crude oil futures collapsed below $0 on Monday for the first time in history, ending the day at a stunning minus $37.63 a barrel as desperate traders paid to get rid of oil. (Reporting by Shu Zhang in SINGAPORE, Additonal Reporting by Rania El Gamal in DUBAI, editing by Louise Heavens, Kirsten Donovan) 2020 Womens Suffrage Centennial Silver Dollar Obverse The United States Mint (Mint) officially announces the design for the 2020 Womens Suffrage Centennial Silver Dollar, celebrating the milestone 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Line art of both designs is available here. This distinctive silver dollar coin marks a signature achievement in our Nations history. This coin pays homage to the 19th Amendments adoption, and also honors the many pioneers, activists, and foot soldiers in the movement who fought bravely and tenaciously for decades to make the amendment a reality, said United States Mint Director David J. Ryder. The 2020 Womens Suffrage Centennial Silver Dollar is authorized by Public Law 116-71 to commemorate the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, giving women the right to vote. Giving millions of female citizens the right to vote profoundly changed our Nation by moving it far closer to its promise of inclusion and equality. Surcharges of $10 per coin sold are authorized to be paid to the Smithsonian Institutions American Womens History Initiative for research and creation of exhibits and programs to highlight the history and impact of women in the United States. The surcharges will also assist in creating exhibitions and programs that recognize diverse perspectives on womens history and contributions. The legislation authorizes the Mint to strike and issue up to 400,000 $1 silver coins. Artistic Infusion Program artist Christina Hess designed both the obverse (heads) and reverse (tails) of the coin, which were both sculpted by United States Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill. The obverse of the coin features overlapping profiles of three distinct women. Each woman is wearing a different type of hat to symbolize the many decades the suffrage movement spanned. The figure in the foreground is wearing a cloche hat with an art deco pattern and a button with the year of the 19th Amendments ratification. The inscriptions LIBERTY, $1, and E PLURIBUS UNUM encircle the design. The reverse design shows 2020 being dropped into a ballot box, styled with art deco elements to indicate the artistic style of the era. VOTES FOR WOMEN is inscribed inside a circle on the front of the box. The inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and IN GOD WE TRUST are on the ballot box. The 2020 centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment is a rare moment to celebrate the milestone in American history that made it possible for women to finally have a voice in government. It is such a pleasure to see this effort remembered through the imagery of this coin, said Senator Marsha Blackburn, sponsor of the Senate version of the legislation. Every woman in Congress today has the women and men of the suffrage movement to thank for our right to represent our constituents. Ninety-nine years after women gained the right to vote, I became the first woman from Tennessee to serve in the United States Senate. It is my hope that this commemorative coin will keep this history alive. I was proud to lead the bicameral Womens Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act through the House and am looking forward to seeing the designs that the U.S. Mint unveils ahead of the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, said Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, sponsor of the House version of the legislation. One of the most vocal advocates for womens suffrage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was born and raised in Johnstown, New York, and I am looking forward to celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment in my district next year. The majority of voters in our country are women, and it is my hope that this legislation will encourage women across the country to continue to be active participants in civic life. The Smithsonian is honored to join the U.S. Mint in recognizing and celebrating American women's history with the unveiling of this commemorative coin," said Julissa Marenco, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian and a Commissioner on the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission. "In one of Americas most defining moments, this historic centennial offers an unparalleled opportunity to empower womenpast, present and future. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Visit https://womenshistory.si.edu/ for information about the Smithsonian Institutions American Womens History Initiative. Visit http://www.usmint.gov/about for information about the United States Mint. Visit catalog.usmint.gov/email-signup to subscribe to United States Mint electronic product notifications, news releases, and public statements. Sign up for RSS Feeds from the United States Mint and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. # # # United States Mint Connecting America through Coins The concept for the latest Fires of Denmark album came to Mike Terrill almost a year ago. The album was recorded in December. The message of its first single couldnt be more timely. " Start Living Outside of Time " will be released Friday, April 24. The song examines how people live by the clock and calendar -- or used to, before a global pandemic has sequestered people in their homes with the days and hours blending together. "This kind of threw the whole philosophy on its head," Terrill said. Terrill said that despite imagining living outside time, the reality of it is different than what he envisioned. ADVERTISEMENT "It changes the way you move through the day when you start living outside time," he said. The song, a bass-heavy, danceable rock song, debuted on Minnesota Public Radios The Current last weekend. Terrill said he envisioned a collaborative album in which a bass riff was the anchor, and musicians played around it as they saw fit. Nick Truxal, of Sterling and the Silver Linings provided the bass with some guidance from Terrill -- but not much. The two were on the same page from the beginning of recording, Terrill said. "Ive been playing with him for 18 years," Terrill said. "Were very symbiotic with our playing." Sean Laurie, who performs as Topo, and Gina Marie from My Grandmas Cardigan also contributed to the album. Terrill said the musicians found their slots effortlessly. He set ground rules early. "We had the rule no hot dogging (showing off) and everything has to serve the groove," he said. "One of the songs was recorded off the first take from the first time we all got together." ADVERTISEMENT "Start Living Outside of Time" is available on most streaming services, including Spotify and iTunes, Friday. The full album, "Relativity," is set for release this summer. Daniel Cadigan didn't know Heidi Stevenson. But when he learned that a fellow police officer was killed in a shooting rampage in Nova Scotia, he picked up his guitar and started writing. "Sometimes people turn to music when it comes to grieving, and how to deal with things, and I guess that's kind of where I went with it." said Cadigan in an interview on CBC News Network. Cadigan is a constable with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. Over the weekend, he watched the news of the killings on television from his home in Logy Bay. "Sitting home and following along as that was unfolding, chatting with all my officers and partners and colleagues, you want to be there and help. It's a helpless feeling." said Cadigan. RCMP/The Canadian Press The feeling got worse as he learned that one of the victims was a police officer, who was killed in the line of duty while responding to the shooting. Const. Heidi Stevenson was a 23-year veteran of the RCMP, and a mother of two. Stevenson is among at least 23 people killed in Canada's worst ever mass shooting by a 51-year-old man dressed as a police officer who went on a 12-hour rampage in rural Nova Scotia. As tributes to her began pouring in from across the country, Cadigan picked up his guitar and began writing a tribute of his own. He said he felt the loss of a fellow officer on a personal level. "Seeing that happen, just thinking about her kids, her family, her colleagues, it's such a horrible thing to think about. She hasn't left my mind the last couple days" said Cadigan. "As a police officer, I think when you get into this line of work, no matter where you go in the world, you can walk into any police station and be looked after by another officer. So you become part of a worldwide family." Cadigan uploaded a video of himself singing and playing the tribute song on an acoustic guitar. Daniel Cadigan He said tragedy is a reminder of the risks that all police officers face when they report for work each morning. Story continues "This job and what you do, there's no guarantees," he said. "It's just a matter of supporting each other, day in day out, and be thankful for what you have in front of you and make sure you're looked after." Read more articles from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador Delhi Police has booked Jamia students Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, said a lawyer. Haider and Zargar, arrested for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to incite the communal riots in February, are in judicial custody. While Zargar is the media coordinator of Jamia Coordination Committee, Haider is a member of the committee. The police has also booked Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid under the UAPA in the case, said advocate Akram Khan who is representing Haider in the case. Haider (35) is a PhD student and the president of RJD youth wing's Delhi unit, while Zargar is an MPhil student of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university. In the FIR, the police has claimed that the communal violence was a "premeditated conspiracy" which was allegedly hatched by Khalid and two others. The students have also been booked for the offences of sedition, murder, attempt to murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and rioting. Khalid had allegedly given provocative speeches at two different places and appealed to the citizens to come out on streets and block the roads during the visit of US President Donald Trump to spread propaganda at international level about how minorities in India are being , the FIR alleged. In this conspiracy, firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles and stones were collected at numerous homes, the FIR claimed. Co-accused Danish was given the responsibility to gather people from two different places to take part in the riots, the police alleged. Women and children were made to block the roads under the Jafrabad metro station on February 23 to create tension amidst the neighbourhood people, it said. Over 20 film personalities, including Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Mahesh Bhatt and Ratna Pathak Shah, on Sunday had released a statement raising their voice against the arrest of the students and activists by Delhi Police for protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and demanded their release. Following this, the police had said investigations into the JMI violence and northeast Delhi riot cases were done impartially, and arrests were made after analysis of forensic evidence. In December last year, the police had allegedly entered the JMI campus after protests over the CAA, being held a few metres away from the varsity, turned violent. Rajya Sabha MP and RJD leader Manoj Jha had tweeted, "Delhi Police called him for investigation and then received orders from above and arrested Meeran Haider, who has been helping people during the time of coronavirus outbreak." The Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), a group comprising students and alumni from the varsity, had condemned the arrest and demanded his immediate release. "The country is facing a massive health crisis, however, the state machinery is busy harassing and framing student activists in false cases to suppress voices of dissent," they said. The JCC said Haider was diligently working to provide ration to the needy during the lockdown. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An international press freedom group has warned of a campaign of coronavirus misinformation by China, which it ranked 177th out of 180 countries in an annual global press freedom index on . Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned that Beijing has been running a "global disinformation campaign" ever since the start of the pandemic that has killed 150,000 people and infected more than two million others worldwide. The campaign is designed to drown out critics who blame Beijing for the spread of the virus on the grounds that its censorship of early warnings delayed adoption of the necessary public health measures, RSF said in a statement on its website. It cited claims by Chinese officials that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was brought to the central Chinese city of Wuhan by the U.S. army, or that it might have been circulating in parts of Italy before doctors were aware of the outbreak in China. "On the pretext of setting the record straight about the coronavirus, Beijing is pumping out lies and imprecisions designed to discredit journalists work and sow doubt about what they are reporting," RSF East Asia bureau chief Cedric Alviani said. "It is important that the public is not taken in by the Chinese propaganda and gives preference to reporting by media outlets that respect journalistic principles." Publishing its annual Press Freedom Index, RSF said the Asia-Pacific region saw the greatest rise in press freedom violations in the past year. "There is a clear correlation between suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and a countrys ranking in the Index," the group said, adding that both China (at 177th place) and Iran (down three places at 173rd) censored their major coronavirus outbreaks "extensively." "China, which is trying to establish a 'new world media order,' maintains its system of information hyper-control, of which the negative effects for the entire world have been seen during the coronavirus public health crisis," RSF said, adding that China was the world's biggest jailer of journalists in 2019. Hong Kong falls in ranking More than 100 journalists and bloggers are currently detained in China, in conditions that pose a threat to their lives, RSF said. Meanwhile, members of the public can now be jailed for the comments they leave on news items posted on social media or messaging services, or even just for sharing content, it said. Hong Kong, which was promised press freedom under the terms of the 1997 handover to Chinese rule but which is seeing the ruling Chinese Communist Party take increasingly direct control of the city, also fell seven places because of its treatment of journalists during pro-democracy demonstrations, the report said. Hong Kong's police force on threatened the city's government broadcaster RTHK, saying it would "follow up" after the station aired comments critical of the police's handling of the protest movement. The city's media regulator, the Communications Authority (CA), said a guest host on the opinion show "Pentaprism" aired on Nov. 20, 2019, had made inaccurate and unfair comments while discussing the police siege of Hong Kong's Polytechnic and Chinese universities, accusing RTHK of "negligence" in allowing them to be aired. A police spokesman welcomed the CAs decision, RTHK reported on . Police are willing to accept criticisms which are constructive and based on goodwill. However, Police absolutely do not accept inaccurate or misleading reports and remarks, and will follow up as appropriate," the spokesman said. The CA said the comments were "irresponsible" and could be regarded as a form of "hate speech" against the police, and issued a "serious warning." Chinese attempts to change the global narrative RSF said several Chinese ambassadors were summoned in recent weeks over attempts to change the global narrative on the origin of the coronavirus. The Arabic-language channel of China's state-run global broadcaster CGTN aired comments on claiming a U.S. origin for the coronavirus. "Chinese vlogger "Ms. V" said in an episode of "China View" that was published by CGTN Arabic TV (China) on , 2020 ... that COVID-19 [likely] originated in the United States, and not in China," according to media translation service MEMRI. "Initially, many thought that the beginning of the virus' emergence was from one of the seafood markets in Wuhan, but Chinese researchers reported in a new research that the transmission of the new coronavirus had started since last December outside this market, and the virus may have transmitted from a source or other sources to the seafood market, where the rapid spread of transmission began due to the presence of a large number of close contacts within this place, and the research also reported that the virus had started spreading after the Wuhan International Military Games ended in ," it quoted "Ms. V" as saying. China has come under increasing pressure from the international community in recent weeks, with the administration of President Donald Trump and other world leaders raising doubts about its transparency. The U.S. State Department summoned the Chinese ambassador in Washington in March to ask why two Chinese foreign ministry officials, Zhao Lijian and Hua Chunying, were suggesting that the coronavirus had originated in the United States. Reported by RFA's Cantonese and Mandarin Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. An undocumented immigrant who was deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unknowing spread the coronavirus to 15 migrants at a shelter in the Mexico's northern border state of Tamaulipas. The Tamaulipas state government said the Mexican man was expelled from Houston, Texas, and arrived at the Nazareth Migrant House without knowing that he was infected with COVID-19. The shelter is located in Nuevo Laredo, a border town across from Laredo, Texas. According to a statement released by the Nazareth Migrant House, the sickened migrants include six Hondurans, four Mexicans, three Cubans and one Guatemalan and a Cameroon national. Government authorities and the shelter did not reveal the date the Mexican migrant arrived at temporary housing center. The group of 15 that tested positive for COVID-19 includes three minors, aged 10, 13 and 16. Two of the children are natives of Honduras and the other is a Mexican national. The Nazareth Migrant House said three of the 15 infected migrants were hospitalized last week. They were released and have been quarantined at the shelter. Officials at the Nazareth Migrant House in Nuevo Laredo confirmed Monday that a Mexican man who was deported from Houston, Texas, infected 15 migrants when he arrived at the shelter File image from July 25, 2019 shows a group of migrants being returned to Mexico in the border town of Nuevo Laredo. Government officials in the northern state of Tamaulipas asked President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador not to accept anymore Central Americans delivered back across the border to Mexico from the United States to contain the spread of COVID-19 The shelter said it has restricted movement at the center since the end of March to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Migrants were allowed to leave the shelter if they planned on traveling and not returning to the site. On April 12, a male migrant had a fever and was quarantined. A day later, a female asylum seeker also developed a fever while her husband reported symptoms related to the epidemic. Both were placed in isolation. The Nazareth Migrant House said one of the migrants tested positive April 13 and the other two's test results confirmed their infections the following day. Health officials have since carried out 57 COVID-19 testings at the Catholic-run shelter. None of the staff tested positive. The shelter is expected to release the results of the migrants who were tested. File image from March 30, 2020 shows Mexicans waiting to board a bus in Matamoros, a border city in the northern state of Tamaulipas where close to 2,000 people live in a squalid tent camp awaiting their asylum court dates in Texas The announcement of the infected asylum seekers came on the same day that the U.S. government said it will continue to quickly expel migrants it encounters along the border for at least another month in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Under the U.S. policy change spurred by the virus, the U.S. government has sent some 10,000 Mexicans and Central Americans back to Mexico, according to data from the U.S. Border Patrol. The situation led Tamaulipas to ask the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador not to accept anymore Central Americans delivered back across the border to Mexico from the United States. Tamaulipas undersecretary for legal and governmental affairs Gloria Elena Garza Jimenez said the agreement between the two countries had no legal foundation. Migrants now make up about 10% of the state's 193 coronavirus cases, causing frustration in Tamaulipas. 'The state government, foreseeing the situation of multiple contagions of COVID-19 among the migrant population, has asked the federal government through official channels to transfer out of Tamaulipas the migrants who are stranded on the border,' the state said in a statement. Hundreds of migrants remain in Nuevo Laredo and in the Tamaulipas border city of Matamoros, an estimated 2,000 people live in a squalid tent camp, waiting for their court hearings a short distance away in Brownsville, Texas. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] says that more than 100 migrants at 25 detention centers have tested positive for COVID-19 pandemic. Guatemala claims that 44 migrants deported from the U.S. tested positive. Dr. Joseph McCormick, a physician and public health expert in Brownsville, Texas, across the border from Tamaulipas, said it's important to track where infected migrants have been. 'We know the virus is out there in all the smallest communities in our area,' said the former CDC epidemiologist and current director of The Hispanic Health Research Center (HHRC) on the Brownsville campus of the UTHealth School of Public Health. 'Sending people off to these vulnerable countries is going to make whatever the situation is there, which we probably don't know much about, much worse,' he said. 'And eventually it will come back to bite us because people who may be headed to the border who are not infected may get infected and may come back and re-infect our country. For every person who is apprehended and sent back there are probably 10 who get across the border and get somewhere. This is not a smart process.' Mexico's federal government has so far officially recognized only one case of coronavirus infection in a migrant, at the church-run shelter in Nuevo Laredo. The federal National Immigration Institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment. IN DEEP The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth About Americas Deep State By David Rohde The specter of a deep state has served as a useful scapegoat in Donald Trumps presidency, the alleged locus of resistance to his reign. Early on in his book In Deep, David Rohde, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, asks whether a deep state exists in America. At the start of his final chapter, he concludes, There is no deep state. But in the intervening pages, he raises more questions than he answers. He begins with a brisk history of the phrase, which is rooted in Egypt and Turkey, where the military ran everything and nipped the slightest buds of democratic reform. The former Berkeley professor Peter Dale Scott first applied it to American military and intelligence elites, in a book entitled The Road to 9/11. The alt-right adopted it in December 2016, after an anonymous author, using the pen name Virgil, wrote The Deep State vs. Donald Trump, a 4,000-word article in Breitbart News. Steve Bannon had been the executive chairman of Breitbart News, and became Trumps chief strategist. Virgil broadened the term to encompass the complex of bureaucrats, technocrats and plutocrats that likes things just the way they are including the highly politicized intelligence agencies and the liberal apparatchiks installed by President Barack Obama who were now all engaged in a great power struggle with the newly elected president. Trump himself first invoked the term, Rohde reports, on June 16, 2017. He was retweeting a post by Sean Hannity, his favorite Fox News host, who had hawked a segment on his show that night on the ties between the deep state and the news media. Did Trump and Bannon does anyone in power believe this conspiracy theory? Rohde goes back and forth on the question. He notes in passing (more detail would have been welcome) that Bannon fed the idea to Trump as a way of getting him to distrust the advice of career government officials who opposed Bannons policy goals. Meanwhile, Trump soon realized its power as a narrative device, invoking it last year at least 23 times. But Rohde also writes that, especially during Robert Muellers probe of his ties with Russia, Trump came to believe that a cabal of Democrats and deep state members were trying to force him from power. At times, Rohde suggests there is a deep state, though he calls it institutional government, a term he chose for its relative neutrality. Its denizens dont form an organized plot, but they do exhibit bias, caution and turf consciousness. And, he writes, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. and senior intelligence officials proved to be the most formidable resistance the administration would encounter from within the federal government, initiating a struggle for power that would define Trumps presidency. Notice: Rohde isnt paraphrasing Trumps point of view here; hes describing what he sees as an objective situation. A refugee who fears he will contract the COVID-19 virus is challenging the Morrison government in court for his release, in a test case with implications for 1400 people in detention. The Human Rights Law Centre lodged the claim in the High Court on Tuesday in a move described as the "first of many" that could be brought during the coronavirus crisis. A refugee in detention is taking the federal government and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to court in a bid to be released during the coronavirus pandemic. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The case is founded on the claim that the federal government owes a duty of care to asylum seekers and refugees in detention because of the risk of the virus in crowded conditions. The lawyers for the man intend to argue immigration authorities are breaching that duty of care because the conditions in detention do not allow him to comply with public health guidelines and adequately protect himself from infection. Instead of imposing a nationwide lockdown, South Korea enabled itself to better manage the Covid-19 pandemic with different, effective and systematic strategies and received applause from the world. Korean authorities eminently launched rapid, aggressive and unprecedented alternative approaches: extensive testing of the contacts of confirmed cases, tracing for those potentially exposed to the virus with the means of credit card activity, surveillance camera footage and mobile phone tracking, packing infected cases and contacts in mandatory quarantine, advising the public to stay home, restricting public events, maintaining social distance and wearing masks when going outside, and following good hygiene practices. With systematic and comprehensive efforts of physical, mental, economical, political and technology components, Korea has been restraining the impacts of this contagion to its grip. Korean authorities and health services properly managed Covid-19-related serious or critical cases in a better fashion, limiting morbidities and mortalities significantly lower compared to the overall impacts of the disease in other developed countries in Europe and America. The enormous efforts shown by Korea to prevent further infections are an example for other nations as the Covid-19 curve has already been plummeting steadily from the first week of March. It is definitely an important lesson how Korea has achieved these statistical parametres so far for this contagious and pernicious pandemic, we need to investigate and apply those strategies and measures if found useful in combating against the outbreak and crisis in Nepal. Epidemiological scenario South Korea, which has an area of 97,230 square km and around 51 million population, significantly restricted the spread of Covid-19 to 10,674 cases and 236 deaths until April 20, far less than expected public health havoc. On January 19, a 35-year-old Chinese woman entered Korea and she diagnosed positive on January 20 at the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) laboratory, which was the first infection case in Korea and one of the early cases outside mainland China. Immediately, Korean authorities raised the alert level of blue (general risk) to yellow (significant risk) and by January 24, Korea rapidly strengthened Covid-19 diagnostic services at 17 regional laboratories. Evaluating the increased public health risks, on January 27, authorities forewarned alertness from yellow to orange (high risk). Critically analysing the trends of spread and impact caused by the novel coronavirus, the WHO on January 31 then declared it a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). Later, on February 4, the Korean authorities enforced entry restriction from Hubei, and capacity building for diagnostic facilities (Nucleic Amplification Test-NAT) was expanded to 46 laboratories incorporating tertiary hospitals. By contact tracing and investigation of the first index case, authorities traced down to the 29th case which was diagnosed positive on February 16. However, there was not any direct epidemiological link found. Therefore, the community transmission was speculated and it raised significant health emergency situations. On February 19, the first pediatric case was reported and the next day the first death was announced. On February 23, the Korean government bolstered the alert level raising to red (highest or severe risk) and delayed the school start for a week. As of February 29, 76 countries banned Koreans from entering their territories. By March 2, there were 22 Covid-19-related casualties reported; the school calendar got delayed repeatedly. They continued online classes bolstering social distancing to minimise the risk of transmission. As of March 2, Daegu had the highest numbers of confirmed cases in Korea, with 1.26 cases per 1,000 persons. The numbers of laboratory tests performed were highest in two major cities; 16,382 tests in Seoul with a positive rate of 0.6% and 10,958 tests in Daegu with a positive rate of 28.1%. The spread of Covid-19 skyrocketed from around 200 cases to 7,000 cases from the third week of February to the first week of March. By the first week of, March the death toll increased to 50. As of March 15, Korea tested 534,552 suspected populations and diagnosed a total of 10,591 positive with 225 deaths, 7,616 recovered and 2,750 active cases. By March 17, around 79 church devotees have been reported to be infected. The belief of spraying salt water into the mouth of the devotees could deactivate the virus was claimed for the rapid outbreak in the respective population. Then, Korean authorities strictly directed all churches to implement preventative measures, like fever screening, two-metre personal distancing, and wearing masks and encouraged them to go online for Bible teaching and other activities. However, there was a four-fold mortality increase from the first week march to the first week of April and new confirmed cases crossed 10,000. By April 17, out of 532,277 tests performed, the reportedly confirmed and deceased cases were 10,635 and 230 respectively. Still, the fatality rate was just 2.1%, significantly lower than the WHOs global case fatality rate of 3.4% as of March 3. It was above 10% in many European countries such as Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom then. Summarising, the epidemic context in Korea can be categorised into four stages: Phase I: Before February 22; Phase II: February 22 to March 1; Phase III: March 2 to March 8; and Phase IV since then. Covid-19 outbreak in religious groups On January 27, the brother of a religious leader got hospitalised at the emergency ward of Daenam Hospital. Later, 170 members of the religious group visited his funeral from January 31 to February 2. On February 7, a 61-year-old woman, who was reluctant to get tested despite having symptoms, had a car accident and got admitted to the Oriental Medicine Hospital in Dague later. Then, she went to church on February 9, and to the wedding ceremony on February 15 and got exposed to hundreds of people. She was finally diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 positive on February 18 as the 31st patient in Korea. Tracing her entire movements, authorities found she attended two worships at the Shincheonji Church in Dague exposing to more than 1,000 members. Consequently, there was a strong voice of the public against the religious group for not implementing preventative actions and measures. The authorities, however, aggressively traced 210,000 attendees. Exposure of coronavirus among the members of the religious group, along with community and hospital transmission, is believed to be vital players of an exponential increase in numbers of Covid-19 cases in Korea. Even in Nepal, large religious groups might be secretly conducting their activities. Local authorities need to watch and completely follow measures and stop their activities. This is critically important as 13 Covid-19 cases were related to a mosque in Udayapur. Preventative measures and lesson learned When Korea learned about the SARS-CoV-2 cases in China, it immediately endorsed preventative actions and measures such as encouraging all public to wear masks, informing about personal distancing, even before confirming any case in the country. Korea rapidly fulfilled the high demand for enough masks, foods, sanitiser, and medications enhancing production facilities. The authorities entirely controlled and placed a systematic policy for appropriate distribution. In Korea, viral disinfectants such as sanitise have been easily available and placed enough in all public areas, public buses and toilets, subways, trains, universities and wherever needed. But, Nepal does not have the capacity to develop special respirators (N-95), personal protective equipment (PPE), viral disinfectants, and temperature scanning guns. The import of these materials has been delayed. Black marketing of these necessities should be monitored and completely discouraged currently. In Korea, for efficient screening, around 638 clinics and screening centres have been in operation by April 8, of which 95 per cent have been equipped to collect samples on site. In Korea, there are 118 locations 23 public facilities, 81 healthcare facilities, and 14 commercial laboratories that provide SARS-CoV-2 testing and diagnosis services where five diagnostic tests have been fast-tracked. Scaling diagnostic facilities and allowing fast-track testing, the daily testing capacity increased from 3,000 in February to approximately 20,000 people in April. Korea expeditiously developed testing kits and heightened capacity building for laboratory testing facilities and made them available in various locations. In Nepal, there was just a single laboratory diagnosis facility, Nepal Public Health Laboratory, until March 29, but the government expeditiously set up and upgraded Covid-19 laboratory testing services in all provinces. So far, 13 NAT-Based testing platforms are functioning. However, their efficiency is not satisfactory to handle a high number of cases if the outbreak reaches the third stage of community transmission. Though the WHO recommended the rapid diagnostic test (RDT) only for research use and not for decision making for patient care, the government also aggressively moved to test the suspected and their contacts in this technology. These easy, safe, cheaper and rapid tests have massively been launched for mass screening and contact tracing and suspected cases of Covid-19 in potential risk areas in Nepal. These tests have been found applicable to dig out the hidden infected cases. These tests rarely detect the early onset of infections up to seven days as it needs to capture the limit of detection of IgM against SARS-CoV-2 after virus infection in the body. The rapid tests for late infection cases (IgG) might give contrary results. Hence, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is considered the gold standard for case confirmation. By April 20, in Nepal, out of total 8,414 samples tested, thirty one positive cases were revealed from NAT-based RT-PCR where four confirmed cases have been recovered. Nearly 20,000 RDTs have also been conducted. Recent 15 new positive cases possessed a high risk though there was one local transmission case revealed so far in Nepal. The government should encourage universities, institutes, academies, research centres, private hospitals and diagnostic centres for laboratory testing, diagnosis and further research activities for a prompt response to the disease in Nepal. Korea made enormous efforts to make enough supply of essentials, which Nepal is still lagging behind. Rather than imposing the nationwide lockdown, Korea practised tracking security camera footage, cell phones, GPS data, credit card records, vehicle navigation, and other possible tracking and controlling measures and systems to track the contacts of the suspected cases or confirmed index cases. In Nepal, the nationwide lockdown has continuously been enforced since March 24, but the government needs to activate and upgrade these technologies also. In Korea, someone diagnosed as the coronavirus positive can choose to stay isolated at home, but if s/he is found to be violating the rule, s/he will be fined up to $2,500. Under the revised anti-infectious disease law, the authorities can keep violators in prison for one year and fine $10,000, or deportation if s/he is a foreigner. Though the number of new cases is rapidly plummeting to very low numbers (20 cases per day), the authorities continued strict monitoring, requesting the public to follow proper safety, social distancing, and self temperature measures. The public gets informed by authentic sources, preventing from rumours and hoaxes. Every public can check recent updates about the outbreak by accessing a website. In Nepal, however, fake news, rumours, and hoaxes are still challenging though the government hosts a media briefing every day and has set up a web platform for the updates. Korea has closed borders with its neighbours. However, we have an open border with India. Therefore, the authorities should make extra efforts to control movements and prevent inter-country transmission. In Korea, the greeting culture is contributing to stopping the spread in this situation as they tilt their heads to greet each other. Similarly, we also have a great greeting culture of Namaste, vegetarian lifestyle, and distancing practices which are helping us to control the viral spreading. Valid information should flow from respective field experts with scientific knowledge, not by politicians having superficial information. The government should encourage and provide physical and mental support and risk benefits to the frontline fighters. In Korea, the authorities always put citizens first and respect their human rights and stand as a guardian whenever they need in their hard times in such a crisis. In Nepal currently, floods of needy workers, desperate to go home, have secretly been walking to reach their destinations evading authorities and securities as they do not have anything to eat and any penny to get food and water in the cities. All three levels of the government need to act immediately to manage those pedestrians to reach their homes safely and quarantine them wherever they reach, providing support packages and basic accommodation. Otherwise, they possess public health threats to themselves and others. The government should act immediately to address the concerns of these citizens, represent and stand as their guardian in their hard times in this ongoing health crisis and not create such a situation that they may lose their hopes and trust in the authorities. Rather than imposing security threats to them, the government should also protect their basic human rights. Otherwise, they can die of hunger and thirst, get hurt from the relentless journey and possess equal risks to all. The government of Nepal has taken essential measures and is wholeheartedly committed to fighting against the disease. Recently, the Ministry of Health and Population endorsed a six T strategy (travel registration, testing, tracing, tracking, treatment, and togetherness) to combat the outbreak in Nepal. All these six components should be implemented rigorously and efficiently. Besides the six Ts, the local authorities should provide support packages (food and essentials) to the needy without any delay as the lockdown has already been around four weeks. They should properly monitor emergency preparedness and response and implement the necessary actions promptly. Finally, the government of Nepal needs to review and judge meticulously all the systems and measures Korea adopted to efficiently manage the crisis. If these systems and measures are found appropriate and applicable in Nepal, the government should implement immediately for a major breakthrough regarding controlling the outbreak. We should make a better history than Korea that the rest of the nations could learn from us that one of the least developed countries could cope with this situation with great action plans, strategies and measures despite limited resources and constrained health facilities. Dulal is a research scientist based in Nepal whereas Joshi is a PhD scholar at Yonsei University, South Korea. Burma Myanmar Workforce Promised Govt Payments During COVID-19 Factory Closures Workers on their way to factories in Yangons Hlaing Tharyar Township. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy Yangon The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement will provide certain social security benefits for workers at factories that will have to close until April 30, according to director-general U Nyunt Win of the ministry. The compensation scheme follows the ministrys announcement on Sunday that factories will have to close for inspection until April 20 to check COVID-19 preparations. The ministry said it would mainly inspect factories making pharmaceuticals, health care goods, processing food and anywhere with more than 1,000 staff. The decision came amid fears over possible coronavirus infections among workers who have returned to work in Yangon from their home towns after the 10-day Thingyan vacation, which ended on Sunday. The government is still determining how to calculate the social security payments, said U Nyunt Win. However, only employees who are registered on the governments social safety net will be entitled to payments. Employees wont suffer. They will get what they are entitled to despite the closures. But we are concerned that industrial disputes might arise and we have urged them to settle disputes through negotiations, said U Nyunt Win. Yangon Regions minister for immigration and human resources, Daw Moe Moe Su Kyi, said the compensation scheme was being planned by the Union government, and that she did not know the details. While some want to take unpaid leave, some suffering from financial hardship want to get paid for that period. The Union government is still looking for the best possible options. We have only been instructed to inspect factories as quickly as possible, said Daw Moe Moe Su Kyi. She said 21 teams were inspecting factories in Hlaing Tharyar Township, which has the biggest industrial zone in Myanmar where hundreds of thousands of migrants work in factories. Gatherings of more than five people have been banned to prevent the spread of coronavirus so employees could be sued under the Natural Disaster Management Law if they strike. Hundreds of employees went to work on Monday in Ywathagyi Industrial Zone in East Dagon and South Dagon townships as they did not know about the ministrys announcement. The industrial zone management committee had to send them home, according to HR manager U Zaw Zaw Aung of Kyauksein Shoe Factory. While the majority of employees agreed to take unpaid leave until April 30, some workers insisted on being paid, he added. Some workers said they are in hardship. But it is difficult for employers to pay hundreds of employees while their factories are not producing anything, he said. Yangon has 680,000 workers at 6,632 factories, according to the regional government. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko You may also like these stories: Almost Half of Myanmars Shoe Factories in Danger of Shutting Down, Manufacturer Warns Outbreak to Hit iPhone Output if China Extends Foxconn Factory Halt By Associated Press JOHANNESBURG: The UN General Assembly demanded global action to quickly scale up the development of and access to medicines, vaccines and equipment to battle the pandemic, while the World Health Organization warned Tuesday that rushing to ease coronavirus lockdowns could lead to a resurgence of the outbreak. The UN resolution asked Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to work with the WHO and make recommendations to ensure that all people have equitable and timely access to testing, medical supplies, drugs and future vaccines, especially in developing countries. African officials have been outspoken about the need for medical supplies across the 54-nation continent, where health systems have historically been underfunded and will be overwhelmed by the virus. Even under a best-case scenario, Africa will need $44 billion for testing, personal protective equipment and treatment of coronavirus, according to a report last week by the UN Economic Commission for Africa. The worst-case scenario estimates $446 billion would be needed. WHO says the number of beds in intensive care units available to treat COVID-19 patients in 43 African countries is less than 5,000. Thats about five beds per 1 million people compared to 4,000 beds per 1 million in Europe. Africa has more than 23,000 infections across the continent, including more than 1,100 deaths. Authorities this week are starting to roll out a dramatic increase in testing, with the goal of testing 1 million people over the next four weeks. Many countries have been grappling with the inequality the virus has often laid bare, and how to ensure everyone has access to necessary hygiene products and protective equipment. In Spain, which is among the worst-hit countries, authorities were deciding later Tuesday on price caps for face masks, gloves, hand sanitizers and other protective equipment that has been in short supply. The government published an order Sunday setting out exceptional measures to ensure everyone has access to resources, saying prices cannot be exploitative. African medical professionals | AFP Across the world, governments are seeking ways to ease restrictions, in an effort to limit the already dramatic impact on economies. But Dr. Takeshi Kasai, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, noted any easing of restrictions must be gradual and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future, he said. Several European countries, including Denmark, Austria, Spain and Germany, have begun gradually easing restrictions, allowing some people back to work, including hairdressers, dentists and construction workers. Scattered protests have erupted across the United States, with people demanding a return to work in a country that has seen 22 million people lose their jobs. But in an indication that it will be a long time before life returns to normal, German officials announced Tuesday they were calling off the world-famous Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, which typically draws about 6 million visitors each year. We agreed that the risk is simply too high, Bavarian governor Markus Soeder said after meeting with Munichs mayor. Spain will begin allowing children out of their homes for brief periods starting Monday. But new coronavirus deaths in the country ticked up again Tuesday, with 430 fatalities bringing the total death toll to 21,282, behind only the United States and Italy. In the US , some states announced aggressive reopening plans Monday, despite the concerns of health officials. Boeing and at least one other American heavy equipment manufacturer resumed production, while Australia said Tuesday that doctors could resume non-urgent surgeries next week. A man wears a mask as he walks past the New York Stock Exchange | AP The moves come amid soaring unemployment that the International Monetary Fund says could lead to the developed world's worst economic depression since the 1930s. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US governments top infectious-disease expert, warned on ABC: Unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen. New York state, the epicenter of the US outbreak, saw some encouraging signs, with hospitalizations leveling off. Mondays death toll, at 478, was the lowest in three weeks, down from a daily peak of nearly 800. Worldwide, the virus has infected nearly 2.5 million people and caused more than 170,000 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University count. The US is the hardest-hit nation, with nearly 788,000 infections and more than 42,000 deaths. The pandemic's true toll is believed much higher, in part because of limited testing, difficulties in counting the dead and attempts by some governments to hide the extent of their outbreaks. The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature. Latin America Mexican hospital workers protest, blockade street to demand protective supplies Nurses, doctors and other workers for the October 1 Hospital in Mexico City, carrying homemade signs and chanting, protested and blocked an avenue on April 13. They held the action to demand the provision of protective equipment and supplies as the number of COVID-19 cases rises. Protesters, under anonymity for fear of reprisals, told reporters of being given one flimsy mask per day and then being expected to work with dozens of infected patients. They have had to pay for masks, antibacterial gel and other supplies out of their own pockets due to shortages of basic materials. One protester noted how patients are being brought from other hospitals; one in particular was left, coughing, in a hallway that had not been cleaned. At least one October 1 nurse has succumbed to the disease, and a doctor is in intensive therapy. In addition to the provision of necessary supplies, the protesters call for the firing of the administrative sub-director of the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers and for responses from health authorities to their demands. They denounced the director of the hospital for ignoring their petitions. As of April 13, more than 5,000 confirmed cases and 332 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in Mexico. Honduran workers idled by pandemic protest to demand food aid People in Honduras who are unable to work due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had to risk contagion to demand promised food aid. Faced with food insecurity and poverty, residents of poor neighborhoods in the capital Tegucigalpa and its twin city Comayaguela have protested and blocked highways. At least 2,000 people complained of not having food. The protesters demanded the delivery of the Saco Solidario, or Solidarity Sack, of food promised by the government at the beginning of the quarantine of their neighborhoods. The resources were supposedly going to be provided through donations from international financial organizations, aid from allies and the creation of laws for relief for businesses. The government is awaiting 15 billion lempiras (US$604 million). Similar protests have also broken out in the north in the department of Cortes. At the same time, doctors, nurses and other workers in the health sector nationwide continue protests to demand protective gear to treat patients. Dominican Republic: Protests against reopening free trade zone Residents of Santiago, the Dominican Republics second largest city, protested April 14 and 15 against the reopening of the zona franca or free trade zone. The protesters gathered in front of the customs office to request the intervention of the government to maintain the quarantine. Thousands of workers in the zona franca are employed in the manufacture of tobacco products. The protesters fear that conditions at the factories will not be safe enough to resume operations. Colombian health workers protest lack of protective equipment and supplies Health workers at the Kennedy Hospital in Bogota, Colombia carried out a day of protest on April 13 over the lack of protection from COVID-19. The hospital workers have sent a plea to the national government of right-wing president Ivan Duque asking him to guarantee safe and dignified working conditions for themselves as well as for ambulance drivers, paramedics and support staff. Protesting workers complained not only of poor working conditions and lack of protection, but since in 80 percent of cases they are subcontracted workers, they are underpaid and often late in receiving their wages. Nonetheless, they said that they would continue to serve the population despite the conditions under which they have been working. Barrio residents in Colombia block roads to demand aid Residents of various working-class neighborhoods in Bogota, including Usme, Suba, Potosi, La Colombianita and others, blocked highways and protested by banging pots and pans several days last week. The protesters are working people who have complied with the governments social distancing and quarantine decrees, but who have not received any aid as their food supplies have run out. Neighbors threw tires, trash cans and boards on the streets, impeding traffic, and carried out rolling blockades of bus stations. At the same time, they set up community kitchens in order to feed children and seniors, though the amount of available food is insufficient. They also placed guards on shifts. Residents denounced the negligence of the government. One protester told alertabogota.com, Were already tired we dont know what else we can do. Weve been four days here and nobody has come. It isnt fair; we cant work and after the fact they neglect us. As of April 17, Colombia had 3,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 100 fatalities. The government set up a program called Ingreso Solidario (Solidarity Income) that was supposed to provide food for over 80,000 of the poorest families in Bogota who do not have access to other programs, but that help has been delayed for many families. United States Hawaii governor declares unilateral cuts for teachers, public workers Hawaiis Democratic governor David Ige announced in a meeting with union officials that the government would have to cut teachers salaries by 20 percent and other public workers by 10 percent to stave off a collapse of the states economy. No written order has been given, but it is expected that the cuts could be imposed as early as May 1 and would affect firefighters, nurses, medical technicians and other public workers. Hawaiis tourism industry has been stopped dead in its tracks by the coronavirus pandemic and the result could be as much as a 25 percent reduction in state collections. State representatives gave lip service in opposition to the cuts, but they have already issued warnings that teachers and public workers will have to surrender pay raises negotiated in contracts that were previously enacted by the legislature. Hawaii State Teachers Association President Corey Rosenlee told Hawaii News Now the cuts were unacceptable and this is something that we believe is going to be imposed on us, rather than a conversation. However, there is no thought by the unions to mobilize rank and file opposition. I think we will have to look at what are our legal means, said Rosenlee. Minnesota Hormel workers demand protective equipment Meatpacking workers at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota are appealing to Democratic Governor Tim Walz to be reclassified as first responders as opposed to essential workers in an effort to obtain personal protective equipment. The 2,500 workers at the plant often work shoulder to shoulder and have been unsuccessful in procuring masks and other equipment to guard against coronavirus infection. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 9 President Richard Morgan, who represents the Hormel workers, made the preposterous statement that Hormel is bending over backwards to keep everyone healthy. Despite the fact that several plants in the surrounding agricultural region of southern Minnesota that process hogs, chicken and cattle have closed, Hormel continues operations and is only staggering shifts to limit the interaction of workers. The Austin Hormel plant was the scene of the 198586 year-long strike that saw Democratic Governor Rudy Perpich dispatch the National Guard to help crush the strike by Local P-9. Canada Nova Scotia dock workers refuse unsafe work At one of North Americas largest vehicle shipping operations in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia workers asserted their right to refuse unsafe work over the companys failure to provide adequate safety measures in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Autoport facility is owned by CN rail, one of the largest transport companies in the country. Waterside workers were being transferred to the ship loading sites in small, cramped shuttle vans. In addition, when entering the shipping areas workers were required to gain access by placing their hands in an access identification device. At least 200 workers, members of Unifor, log in at the site by this method. Workers demanded that such unsafe practices be remediated by Autoport. However, management failed to address their concerns. When 10 workers refused to subject themselves to unsafe work, the company sent them home without pay. Workers then initiated a grievance with the provincial Labour Board. An investigation subsequently showed that Autoport was egregiously violating the most basic of social distancing and other anti-virus transmission standards ordered by the provinces Chief Medical Officer. As a result of the work refusals, Autoport was ordered to provide adequate transportation procedures and regular deep cleaning of workspaces. The US is to create its own fighting force in northeastern Syria, that will fight against the resurgence of the Islamic State reports Zaman Al-Wasl The US-led International Coalition has been recruiting local fighters in northeastern Hassakeh province, activists said Sunday. The move to form its own local force came after five years of joint operations with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that drove the Islamic State (ISIS) out of swathes of northern and eastern Syria. The fighters will get 400 dollars each, according to activist Muhanad al-Yousef. Most of the Coalitions military operations were limited to aerial bombing, until the defeat of ISIS in Raqqa in 2017. But ISIS has revived again in eastern Syria, and is carrying out ambushes, assassinations and bombings, posing a threat to the Coalition along the Syrian border with Iraq. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Tuesday, April 21, 2020 Overall High Military Spending plateau's the growth of an empire society leading to social decay and political rigidity. How did we go from FDR and the Greatest Generation to Trump? How did we get this way? Washington's World George Washington went home to Mount Vernon after winning the War of Independence from Britain and turned down the offer to become king. Some thought he was the greatest man in the world to resist such power and control. His farewell address warned us against foreign entanglements and standing armies in peacetime. He knew that excessive militarism led to the loss of civil liberties. This vision lasted about one hundred fifty years 1787-1945. Turning Point After becoming the largest power in the world at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, America was reluctant to reverse the policies Washington warned about in his farewell address. No one challenged his tradition of limiting the presidency to two terms. The most important office in democracy was considered the status of US citizen, a nation of equals. It took a Civil War to turn former slaves into citizens, and a World War to give the vote to women. Nevertheless, after three years of submarine warfare, America finally joined the Great War in Europe in 1917. Wilson created the League of Nations to prevent another such war, but France had sought an unduly harsh peace treaty against Germany, out of resentment from the Prussian humiliation in 1871 and exhaustion from the carnage of the World War. America's banks helped fund the German reparations to the financial dismay of American farmers. When the top 20% of America owned an automobile and the roaring twenties came to a halt in 1927 and 1928, Hoover sought to resort to Tariffs to protect the farmers. Tariffs had provided 80% of revenues to the young power on the way up, protecting Northern manufacturers from superior British products to the resentment of the South. Now as the new number one power higher Tariffs were so greatly resented by Europeans it led to the trade war known as the Great Depression. Resentments from the Great War led Italy and German to turn to fascism and war again. New Dominance Winning World War Two established America as the new world hegemon, a kinder and gentler hegemon that established the United Nations to share power and stop future wars. In 1947 the National Security Act was adopted changing everything. Washington's fears about foreign entanglements were replaced by the United Nations and NATO, and his fears about a standing army in peacetime were replaced by the National Security Act. Because of these rejections of George Washington's traditions, both the War Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff opposed the 1947 National Security Act. The President and Secretary of State pushed it through. The pentagon wanted to continue the American tradition of a token army between wars and volunteers to flesh out the army during wars. The 1947 National Security Act changed the defensive Department of War into the offensive Department of Defense. Note the beginning of newspeak as warned about by George Orwell's final book 1984 . The 1947 Act also established the Central Intelligence Agency which immediately established Operation Mockingbird to control the domestic press. Eisenhower thought the idea of keeping some of the world wartime machinery around was a good idea, and the standing army became the standard fare of the Cold War between Truman and Stalin. America was becoming the empire society, a slightly kinder and gentler version of the British Empire it had once defeated in 1781. The General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) went into effect January 1, 1948 reversing the trade war of the Great Depression leading to the postwar prosperity of Europe and America. Military Corruption Eisenhower soon became aware of the corruption of the military industrial complex. His speeches of 1953 and 1961 were very similar. The fierce scramble of local support for "defense" money was obvious and shocking to him. What he had done with the 1947 Act became largely irreversible with his doubling of the military budget from pre-Korea to post Korea. Even the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu in the Art of War (5th Century BC) recognized the disastrous economics of war, yet because of the 1936 Keynesian economic theory, the notion that government spending can stimulate the economy was falsely extended to include military spending. This notion continues with all modern US presidents, as evidence to the contrary is dismissed or ignored by the so-called mainstream. The much closer and systematic evaluation of Peace Economics (1986) establishes that the local economics of military spending is offset by the lack of output from the so-called military factory and the international lowering of capital investment by the size of each nation's military budget as shown by Ruth Leger Sivard in 1981 and 1983. Further evidence shows that manufacturing jobs are reduced by military buildups and increased by military builddowns. Politics have focused on the positive local effect and ignored the negative national effect of military spending. Mainstream economists wrongly believe in both in a general and non-specific way, accepting the military Keynesianism locally and immediately, while considering the negative impact as vaguely in the future without a mechanism to connect the two seemingly contradictory beliefs. Peace Economics has clarified every aspect of this relationship with one study after another. These key off the model that uses the federal deficit to represent the Keynesian lift to the economy and military sequestering of capital investment for non-economic growth purposes (the military economic drag). Both use the military spending, one (the deficit) for local stimulus and the other (military spending) for LOST (diverted) capital and economic growth. Manufacturing suffers when the military goes up and prospers when the military goes down. Details here: https://www.academia.edu/37217512/Findings_and_Special_Claims_November_2017_2_pages. Extremism in Politics The Spirit Level (2010) documents many factors that correlate better to national military spending levels than to income inequality levels. Their date confirms my thesis that social factors decay with prolonged high levels of military spending (my definition of empire). Empire leads to economic stagnation leading to high crime, prisoners, overweight, diabetes, mental health, teen births, infant mortality, and low social mobility. The economic stagnation of military spending makes people desperate and susceptible to the divide and conquer tactics of racism, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia. The local stimulus (at the unrecognized expense of manufacturing areas) becomes a powerful tool for legislative power and control over local economic growth and other legislators. Government spending has long been used to reward friends and punish enemies, but military spending is flexibly and uniquely and unequally distributed among the states to a level of power not met by any other government program. Creating enemies is essential to this process. Over time this divide has been exploited by the more military oriented political party. Over time the Republican party has become more authoritative and less inclined to winks nods and dog whistles and more overt as shown by President Trump. Thanks to the Reagan policies of low taxes on the rich and media opinions not required to be balanced ("fairness doctrine") the rich have left the other 99% behind (no wage growth for 40 years) while unlimited propaganda is now possible through Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. Using bullying techniques Trump has moved steadily closer to a complete lack of accountability and closer to dictatorship with over 16,000 lies documented by the New York Times and Washington Post. Increasingly he resembles Caligula, the one truly crazy Roman emperor. Rome went from republic to dictatorship and America is on that same path. Self-Defeating Evolutionary Stages of Military Empire: https://www.academia.edu/5415354/STAGES_of_EMPIRE_Twelve._15_ppt._3_p._2007 Please cite this work as follows: Reuschlein, Robert. (2020, April 21), "How Did USA Get This Way?" Madison, WI, Real Economy Institute. Retrieved from: https://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/How-Did-USA-Get-This-Way,2020230398.aspx Dr. Peace, Professor Robert Reuschlein, Real Economy Institute, Nobel Peace Prize nominee 2016-2020 with accelerating interest from Norway. Intense interest in an unusually consistent pattern shows up on my website as following my work, hard looks per year went from 2 to 3 to 48 to 128 to 249 (projected). Contact: bobreuschlein@gmail.com Info: www.realeconomy.com The Ohio Department of Agriculture eased the financial burden of caring for fairgrounds in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dorothy Pelanda, director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, waived the required $50,000 match required of fairs to receive a $50,000 grant from the states Agricultural Society Facilities Grant Program. Gov. Mike DeWine announced the waiver during his daily press conference April 21. There is $4.7 million available through the program to make necessary facilities and grounds improvements at fairgrounds. While it is uncertain whether fairs will be able to safely operate this year, they still have facilities expenses, Pelanda said in a statement. The Ohio Fair Managers Association put out a statement April 8 saying as of that date, none of Ohios agricultural fairs had been canceled. Fair managers have until May 30 to apply for the grant money. Young Hae Lee and Suk Joong Kim, the owners of Sariwon Korean BBQ in northern Toronto, have been forced to drastically change their business to adapt to COVID-19. Like many restaurants facing a total decline in revenues thanks to COVID-19, Young Hae Lee and Suk Joong Kim have been forced to drastically change their business. Sariwon Korean BBQ, located in north Toronto, relies on in-house dining for 90 per cent of its revenues. The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent shutdowns have brought business to a standstill. When this happened and everything shut down it was a huge problem, Ha Young Kim, the couples daughter, said in an interview. My parents were even thinking about bankruptcy. Expenses are high and there was no revenue coming in. Thats when Kim, a dentist temporarily unable to work, and her fiance Richard Yu, a web consultant, came up with an idea. With slots for online grocery delivery becoming increasingly difficult to find in the city without a two-week wait, they decided to shift the business from restaurant to grocery delivery service. As governments continue to enforce social distancing measures, food service businesses across the country are innovating and adapting their operations to ensure their survival through the coronavirus pandemic. Were managing and hopefully we can continue to manage us through this crisis, Yu said. At this point, the goal is just to avoid bankruptcy. They are not alone in striving for that goal. Many industry groups have been calling on the federal government to provide aid, particularly when it comes to rent and mortgage payments. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week that the government is working on a program to help businesses and commercial landlords cover rents for at least three months, but further details have yet to be disclosed. Kim said its still too early to tell if the governments new policy will help. We'll be reaching out to our landlord once things are more clear, she said. The essential services food pack being offered by Sariwon Korean BBQ. For Dennis Jeffrey, the chef and owner of Calgary-based Fork and Farm Catering, business has disappeared since the COVID-19 outbreak hit. Fork and Farm typically caters corporate events, weddings and galas, all of which have been cancelled in recent weeks. Story continues We went from a completely booked calendar to losing 100 per cent of our bookings about $3 million worth of sales over three days, Jeffrey said. With a large kitchen that is typically used to preparing foods for hundreds, Jeffrey decided to pivot from catering to making meal kits. They are also donating meal kits to healthcare workers. Still, while the shift has provided a slight financial cushion, Jeffrey has had to lay off most of his 16 employees. Calgary has been really receptive, and its nothing compared to what we were doing before, but at least we can keep ourselves busy, Jeffrey said. Its paying the rent for now. Thats our only objective pay the rent so we dont drown. We dont want more debt Trudeau has pointed to other emergency relief measures that he says will help businesses through this crisis, including the governments emergency wage subsidy. There is also the Canada Emergency Business Account, a $40,000 loan that is guaranteed by the government to qualifying business, some of which is forgivable to cover rent and other fixed costs. While Jeffrey said the wage subsidy will help, hes reluctant to apply for the loan. We dont want more loans, we dont want more debt, he said. The idea of us having to take on more loans after weve been told to essentially cease operations is, I dont think, the way to go. Other government policies that have served as a lifeline for some restaurants. For Archive, a small wine bar in Toronto that usually seats 28-people, takeout was not a realistic option, says owner Joshua Corea. Their small kitchen has enough room for one person to cook something that makes large scale takeout difficult. When Premier Doug Fords government began allowing restaurants to sell alcohol with food, the takeout equation changed for Archive. The restaurant is now selling wine alongside a small food menu. We are cautiously optimistic that this will pay our rent and get us through this, Corea said. Still, for the restaurants that do survive, there are still questions about what the new normal looks like once non-essential services are allowed to re-open and government restrictions are loosened. When we come back, are people going to start going out or will they stay home? Will we have to lower our capacity so we can keep more distance between people? Corea said. The uncertainty is the hardest part. You dont know what things are going to look like in a week, a month or a few months from now. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android and sign up for the Yahoo Finance Canada Weekly Brief. By PTI PARIS: The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating threats to press freedom around the world, with authoritarian states including China and Iran suppressing details of the outbreak, activists said on Tuesday. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual press freedom rankings the pandemic was "highlighting and amplifying the many crises" already casting a shadow on press freedom. The outbreak had encouraged some regimes to "take advantage of the fact people are stunned and mobilisation has weakened to impose measures that would be impossible to adopt in normal times", RSF secretary general Christophe Deloire told AFP. The rankings saw few major changes from last year, with Nordic countries regarded as the most free and isolated states Turkmenistan and North Korea footing the list of 180 countries. RSF accused China and Iran -- in 177th and 173rd place respectively -- of censoring major coronavirus outbreaks. Alluding to accusations that Beijing concealed the initial extent of the outbreak, it said China "maintains its system of information hyper-control, whose negative effects for the entire world have been seen during the coronavirus public health crisis". Europe has also not been immune -- Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has passed a special law on false information which was a "completely disproportionate and coercive measure". RSF said there was a "clear correlation" between suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic and a country's ranking in the index. While Norway topped the index for the fourth year in a row, Finland was again the runner-up. North Korea took last position from Turkmenistan, and Eritrea continued to be Africa's lowest-ranked country at number 178. The third biggest leap was by Sudan, which rose 16 places to 159th after the removal of president Omar al-Bashir. France lost two places to rank 32nd, with journalists in the country sometimes the victims of police violence at demonstrations, it said. Published annually by RSF since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index assesses factors such as media independence, self-censorship, the legal framework and transparency based on a questionnaire filled out by experts. Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been repeatedly criticised for cracking down on press freedom, rose three places to 154th but RSF said this was because of "other countries falling" rather than positive change. It said censorship of the media, especially online media, has been stepped up in Turkey and the country was "more authoritarian than ever." Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, in 149th place, is also persevering "efforts to control the Internet, using ever more elaborate methods", it said, citing a law that would allow the country to disconnect the Russian internet from the rest of the world. "The prospect of a Chinese-style scenario (in Russia) is alarming," RSF said. RSF said "the closure of the national internet" is already a reality in the isolated Central Asian state of Turkmenistan where the few internet users can access only a highly censored version of the Internet, often in cafes where they have to show ID before connecting. "Almost everywhere in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, strongmen are consolidating their grip on news and information," RSF said. A Kenyan man has allegedly killed his own brother because he had carnal knowledge of their mother. Naija News Understands that the Kenyan police arrested the 36-year-old man from Bokisero-Nyabwari Village in Nyamira North Sub-County, for killing his younger brother whom he allegedly caught having sex with their biological mother on Thursday night. Evans Mamboleo Nyachuba had visited their mother at about 8:30pm when he reportedly caught his 31-year-old sibling, Fred Onsongo Nyachuba engaging in sexual intercourse with their 55-year-old mother Doria Moraa Nyachuba. He reportedly smashed his brothers face and the back of his head with a plank, killing him at the spot. Bokisaba Location chief, Philip Masenge who confirmed the incident said Mamboleo is being held at Ekerenyo police post. The body of the deceased has already been taken to Nyamira County Referral Hospital morgue. The Police have also commenced an investigation into the matter. Share this post with your Friends on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday spoke to his Armenian and Kenyan counterparts and discussed strengthening India's friendship and cooperation with the two countries. In conversation with Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Jaishankar appreciated Armenia's care of Indian students there. "Warm conversation with the fraternal FM of Armenia @ZMnatsakanyan. Discussed strengthening our friendship and cooperation, even as we address the #CoronaVirus challenge. Appreciate Armenia's care of Indian students there. Expect our medical supply to reach there shortly," Jaishankar said in a tweet. Jaishankar also spoke to Kenya's Foreign Minister Raychelle Omamo and discussed cooperation in various fields. "Spoke with FM Raychelle Omamo of Kenya. Discussed strengthening our long standing cooperation in diverse fields. India, as always, will be a reliable partner in medical supply," Jaishankar said in a tweet. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PHILIPSBURG:--- Gracita Arrindell former President of Parliament states that it is with deep sorrow we mourn the passing of our former colleague, the late Mr. Louis Duzanson, former head of the department of General affairs Island Territory St. Maarten Mr. Duzanson was loved and highly respected by all who had the privilege to work and be trained by him for decades. He was particularly, skilled in document registration and archiving. His work went far beyond the correct and timely processing of documents traversing the corridors of the government apparatus. He was generous in sharing his knowledge of past administration events. He explained how, when and why a particularly important decision was made and by whom. In this position of trust, Mr. Duzanson never compromised his integrity, states Gracita. Arrindell said, he was an unwavering professional in his work with colleagues as well as members of the former Executive and Island Councils. Mr. Louis Duzanson understood and respected the position he was in charge of managing. Leading by example, always courteous, respectful to the public visiting his office, no matter who you were. Gracita continues and said, Preserving our administrative history was clearly his passion. Mr. Duzanson took pride in sharing his knowledge of our political administrative past. Many sought and received his advices for research purposes, especially on matters pertaining to documents regarding prior Island Council and Antillean parliamentary elections. Mr. Louis Duzanson, was a St. Maarten encyclopedia long before Google became a popular search engine. He shared with a keen eye for details, memorable political and administrative events prior to the new constitutional status of St. Maarten achieved on October 10th, 2010. Arrindell continues and states, highly regarded for his knowledge of and experience within our public administration, Mr. Duzanson was appointed in 1990, chairman of the workgroup reorganization of the government administration. Under his leadership, supported by one technical assistant, Mr. Gerrit Kassander, other heads of departments, including my person (as the counterpart to Mr. Kassander) the Government Administration was restructured. This major operation included the introduction of the current Sector Organization structure, that included in-house tailor-made training for front office civil servants. Nineteen- ninety- two (1992) was another important year in our constitutional history. Island territory Sint Maarten was placed under Higher Supervision by the Dutch government and co-administered by the then Antillean government of Maria Liberia Peters. Local decision-making became centralized. The offices of the Lt. Governor, the Island Secretary and the Department of general affairs played an important role in recording, and transfer of all decisions of major financial or administrative consequences via Willemstad to The Hague. Mr. Duzanson and his team, eased the burden of the local administrators by executing this extraordinary task timely and professionally, as deliberations continued between the three layers of government at the time; The Hague, Willemstad, and Philipsburg. Gracita further said that Louis was always concerned about the lack of priority for preserving our administrative/political decision-making history. After our islands devastation by hurricanes Luis and Marilyn in 1995, the need became more urgent to digitally record and preserve what was left of our administrative history, including the Island Council meetings. Encouraged by St. Maarten author and renowned poet Lasana Sekou, Louis finally put pen to paper and wrote An Introduction to Government- Island territory of St. Maarten (House of Nehesi Publishers, 2000,2003), I was honored to be the guest speaker at the book party, held at the Jubilee Library in 2000, said Gracita. Mr. Louis Duzansons contribution to his island and to preserving a full range of our administrative history, is ours to have and to record further and more securely for future generations to come, said Gracita Arrindell concludes and said, We mourn the passing of Mr. Louis Duzanson, a great loss to his son, his wife, family and friends as well as to our nation. We can celebrate his life and honor his legacy by naming the future government archive department or section of the new library in his name. An archive that is modern, and meticulously put together as he would have done. Mr. Louis Duzanson, Thank you for the privilege of your service. Nurse Vivian and Hap used to take us out to Yaphank for summer vacations. At that time, it was truly rural, so the only Sunday service was conducted by a priest at the firehouse. Nurse Vivian called this our temporary tradition. It wasnt bad really and as an added benefit, every once in a while, the sirens would go off in the middle of Father Fuscos sermon. Kindness matters. And repetition. Its the little rituals we practice that keep us going, that remind us of what does not change. Were living in makeshift times. We cant shake hands, so we bump elbows. We cant go to the barber, so we buy a set of clippers. Crazy Mike canceled his trip to Hawaii on day two of the pandemic but has been wearing a face mask with pineapples to remind him that after all this, there will be warm days on the beach. Its a surprise to no one that Im wearing a Batman mask, and for Marvel days I have a Spider-Man one. I gave up coffee for Lent last year and never got back to it. But Ive worked 36 of the past 38 days, 14-hour shifts, and about a week ago, I got to work and thought, I cant do it. I just dont have the stamina to put on these boots, this vest and this belt. It must have shown on my face because Crazy Mike showed up two minutes later with a chai tea latte in his hand, sighing, There are times when its good to have a vice or two. Hes shown up every morning since, with just enough caffeine to get me through Armageddon. These are the little kindnesses. Crazy Mike knows how to read me. He keeps a baggie of crackers in his desk, and on those days, when the sky is falling and weve got to find shelter for 30 unsheltered people and others are looking at me to figure out how to do it Crazy Mike reaches into his desk, and asks, Would a Triscuit help? It always does. Most days I dont talk politics or religion with my fellow deputies. Theres this one guy, lets call him M I like him, but given the Reagan memorabilia in his office, Ive known enough to keep my mouth shut. Even so, we were talking about what we missed in the normal world, and I told him that Brian and I missed Sundays at Most Holy Redeemer. M replied that he was Catholic too. Long Distance Transubstantiation: His family watched the Mass on television together, and to go along with their grape juice, for communion wafers they used Pringles. My sons Zane and Aidan do not miss Father Matts sermons, maybe because they are never saved by the fire alarm. This is not a spirited child kind of thing. This is a teenager thing. Other than Super Mario and Princess Peach, they dont listen to any adult. But we have our own kind of liturgy, and, just like the Roman Catholics, we repeat certain phrases, we tell each other stories and we break bread. 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. At just about dusk, I walk through the door and say, Daddys home. And the boys repeat, Daddys home! and everybody gets hugged until Buddyboy wags his tail fast enough for us to remember that dogs need their ears scratched occasionally too. Bandit never learned how to operate his tail, but hes the only canine in domesticity to have mastered rolling his eyes and sighing. We humans sit down, hold hands and say grace. Zanes hand used to rest in mine, but now, just before the amen, he flips mine over to let me know that my days as the alpha are numbered. I toast the best boys in the world! to which we all say, Wherever they are! We ask each other how our day was and even if its defrosted pizza, were breaking crust together. This column takes a village. Its not just the Fisher-Paulsons who inhabit the Bedlam Blue Bungalow. Its not just Crazy Mike, Brother X and Brother Dos Equis, or even the ghost of Nurse Vivian. Its all of you, reading every week, expecting the stories to be repeated, expecting that if I write one outer, there will undoubtedly be three outers following it before I get to the Excelsior. And on Wednesday mornings, its you and us, fractionis panis in absentia (in the absence of breaking bread), a virtual cup of coffee. Have what you like: chai tea, Triscuits or Pringles. Kevin Fisher-Paulsons column appears Wednesdays in Datebook. Email: datebook@sfchronicle.com Anthony Dalla Bona admits he was a little hesitant to travel to Peru in March, but says when he left Canada to visit the South American country, there were no travel bans or firm reasons not to visit. At the time, the travel consultant said, Peru only had a handful of confirmed cases of COVID-19. So when an opportunity arose to travel for work, Dalla Bona said he had little reason to avoid visiting. On March 15, however, just one day after Dalla Bona landed in Cusco a city in the southeastern part of the nation Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra went on television to declare a national lockdown, closing the country's border to international travellers. "Peru is one of, I think, the quickest and most dramatic responses to how they were treating quarantine," Dalla Bona said. "They immediately closed all airports for commercial traffic. They closed the land borders. They locked down the streets." Submitted by Anthony Dalla Bona Over the next few days, Dalla Bona said Peruvian officials began releasing "rules and protocols and policies" about how to handle the lockdown. For Dalla Bona, that meant spending the next few weeks stuck in Cusco, largely unable to leave his hostel, other than for essentials like groceries and medicine. "That was the first week or so of my quarantine," he said. "[I] really had a lot of fun. I was enjoying South America [and] I got to meet lots of cool people." Countries around the world soon began calling home residents including Canadian citizens abroad. "However, getting home was not quite that simple," Dalla Bona said. "Since there were no commercial planes out of Peru, the only way you could leave and go back to your country is if they organized a repatriation flight for you." And though the Canadian government organized a total of seven flights out of Peru, Dalla Bona said those planes were leaving out of Lima, the capital city, not Cusco. "There were no commercial flights and we weren't allowed to take a bus, we weren't allowed to drive, all the cities were shut down," he said. "It kind of created a little bit of a logistical hurdle for us to get on these flights home." Story continues About one week after the national lockdown, however, things became even more complicated for Dalla Bona and the approximately 160 other people quarantined in his hostel. When the Peruvian health ministry in Cusco found out ... they had a pretty big reaction. - Anthony Dalla Bona That's because two hostel guests had become sick enough to warrant a visit from doctors to conduct a COVID-19 test, eventually testing positive for coronavirus. "These people were not terribly ill, but they definitely had a cough and they reported symptoms, but they were totally OK and healthy the whole time," Dalla Bona said. "But when the Peruvian health ministry in Cusco found out that we had positive cases in the hostel they had a pretty big reaction." Military officers were soon stationed outside of the hostel, and no one was allowed to leave not even for essentials. "Everything had to be brought in," Dalla Bona said. "We pretty much stayed in that hostel without leaving for the next four weeks." Submitted by Anthony Dalla Bona Still, repatriation efforts continued, with more and more hostel guests getting the chance to leave Peru and return home. "But it was difficult for Canada," Dalla Bona said. "There were nine of us Canadians who were in there for quite a while." And when the Canadian government announced on Thursday, April 16 its last repatriation flight out of Lima until Peru lifts its travel ban Dalla Bona said he started to get a little nervous. "We're like, well, maybe there'll be another repatriation flight, or maybe we can just get on the repatriation flight with another country," he said. "The Americans all got out of Peru pretty fast." Dalla Bona said his concern grew further when he learned that the Peruvian government planned on stopping all repatriation flights on April 22. Hope, however, came around 10 p.m. local time on Friday, April 17. "We all got into a pretty good habit of, when our embassies told us something, you immediately share it with everybody else," Dalla Bona said. "So we were hearing from the German embassy that they had managed to get a plane into Cusco and the Germans might be going home, if they can get the right approvals and they can circumvent all the logistics in Cusco." The Dutch embassy soon said citizens would be permitted on that German flight, followed by the Swiss and Polish embassies. Submitted by Anthony Dalla Bona "And then eventually [we heard] from the Canadian embassy that we were able to go," Dalla Bona said. "They told us the next morning pack your stuff, check out of your hostel, because you're going to go on this flight with the Germans." On Saturday, April 18, Dalla Bona boarded a flight from Cusco to Lima. A Lufthansa charter took passengers from Lima to Frankfurt, and Dalla Bona was able to board an Air Canada flight to Toronto, where family were waiting for him in Pearson International Airport on Monday, April 20. "When we landed, I've got pictures of us just applauding and just being so thankful," Dalla Bona said. "It's a real privilege to be home." Now back in Windsor, Dalla Bona will spend the next two weeks isolating with his mother. I'm very thankful ... for the [hostel] staff that were able to stay behind and really take care of us. - Anthony Dalla Bona He said he's immensely thankful for everyone who cared for him while abroad, as well as those who worked to get him home, including his friends and family, as well as the Canadian government and the Canadian embassy in peru. "I'm very thankful and all of the guests are really thankful for the [hostel] staff that were able to stay behind and really take care of us," he said. "Cleaning the hostel keeping our rooms cleans and doing things like laundry, they were a big part of that, but also just feeding us. There was a kitchen staff that stayed and made three meals a day for the whole hostel." "They kept us healthy and alive and we would've had a really bad time without them." In total, Dalla Bona spent 42 days in Peru, and 35 days in the hostel in Cusco. Wisconsin health officials have identified seven people who may have contracted coronavirus after voting in the state's elections earlier this month. The state Department of Health Services added "election activity" to its list of covid-19 virus investigation questions in its disease registry. The database "attempts to capture anyone that may have voted in person or worked at a polling place" on April 7, according to Jeanette Kowalik, Milwaukee's commissioner of health. Officials said they expect the number of those infected to rise after reviewing cases that began after April 7 once the incubation period of two weeks ends on Wednesday. The state has only 30% of data about new cases from Election Day on. "While we continue to monitor cases of COVID-19 linked to election activity, we know that gatherings such as this are detrimental to the efforts to slow the spread of this pandemic," said Ben Watson, the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management medical director. Wisconsin held an in-person election over the opposition of Governor Tony Evers, who tried to both postpone the vote and switch to vote-by-mail. But those efforts were stymied by Republicans in the state legislature and rulings from the conservative majorities on the state and U.S. Supreme Courts. Evers declared a state of emergency in Wisconsin on March 12 as coronavirus hit the state. A day ahead of the vote, Wisconsin had 2,440 cases of COVID-19 and 84 deaths. As of Tuesday, 230 people have died and nearly 4,500 have tested positive. Still, people defied a stay-at-home order to vote in the election, when both state officials and the Democratic nomination candidates were on the ballot. Voters in some areas waited in long lines as concern about the virus caused a shortage of poll workers and the number of polling stations was sharply reduced in some areas. In Milwaukee, only five of more than 180 polling places were open. At least a dozen states have delayed their primaries or switched to all mail-in voting in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Wisconsin election has led to demands from congressional Democrats for national legislation to address the pandemic's effects on voting in the 2020 election year. President Donald Trump has said he opposes mail-in voting, claiming it increases the possibility of fraud. Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who was on the ballot in Wisconsin and dropped out of the race a day after the vote, said that "people should not be forced to put their lives on the line to vote." Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, won the state's primary. He had called for the election to be conducted only with mail-in ballots because of the virus, and said on Twitter that Wisconsinites had shown "courage and commitment" by coming out to vote. "But it should never have come to that," he added. "No one should ever have to choose between their health and our democracy." Hundreds of academics across the world have welcomed efforts to introduce privacy-friendly contact tracing systems to help understand the spread of coronavirus. A letter, signed by nearly 300 academics and published Monday, praised recent announcements from Apple and Google to build an opt-in and decentralized way of allowing individuals to know if they have come into contact with someone confirmed to be infected with COVID-19. The academics said that contact tracing apps that use automated Bluetooth tracing are far more privacy preserving than apps that collect location data in a central store. "Contact tracing is a well-understood tool to tackle epidemics, and has traditionally been done manually. In some situations, so-called 'contact tracing apps' on peoples' smartphones may improve the effectiveness of the manual contact tracing technique," the letter reads. "Though the effectiveness of contact tracing apps is controversial, we need to ensure that those implemented preserve the privacy of their users, thus safeguarding against many other issues, noting that such apps can otherwise be repurposed to enable unwarranted discrimination and surveillance." The academic endorsement couldn't come at a more critical time. There are competing methods to trace individuals' contact with coronavirus. Decentralized systems are far more privacy conscious because no single entity stores the tracing data. But the academics say that centralized stores of data can "allow reconstructing invasive information about the population should be rejected without further discussion," and instead urged all countries to "rely on systems that are subject to public scrutiny and that are privacy preserving by design." "It is vital that, in coming out of the current crisis, we do not create a tool that enables large scale data collection on the population, either now or at a later time," the letter reads. Story continues The letter lands just days after some of the same academics pulled their support for a similar contact tracing project, known as PEPP-PT, which is said to have seven unnamed governments signed up so far. Two of those, Spain and Switzerland, have called for a decentralized contact tracing solution. But after PEPP-PT published details of its centralized proprietary protocol, several academics associated with the project disavowed the project, saying it was neither open or transparent enough, and lent their support instead to the decentralized systems, such as the privacy-friendly DP-3T protocol, or systems like Apple and Google's cross-platform solution. Alan Woodward, a professor at the University of Surrey who also signed onto the letter, told TechCrunch that the letter serves as what the academic community thinks is the "correct approach" to contact tracing. "I've never seen anything like it in this field," Woodward said. "It shows that its not just the few but many who share the concern. I really hope governments listen before they do something that will be very difficult to undo." The number of cases in Dawson County was a part of the reason the state has a Spanish language press conference at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Ricketts also unveiled during the Tuesday briefing a new program with three Utah companies to set up a testing lab in the state which will increase tests by 3,000 a day, up from 600-800 which are being done now. The plan involves setting up testing sites over the state in the next two to five weeks. The testing will have three phases, testing first healthcare workers and first responders, then people who are symptomatic and then asymptomatic people. A new website was set up testnebraska.com, state residents are asked to fill out the questionnaire, which asks brief questions about their medical history, contact with anyone infected by the virus, etc. The information will be used to prioritize people who need to be tested, those most susceptible to the virus will be tested first, Ricketts said. Ricketts said the tests will be covered by the state or insurance, but advised if someone was sick, they should see a doctor now. With more Nebraskans being tested, the state will be able to shift away from quarantining the entire state, to those who are sick or could be the most impacted by the virus, said Ricketts. OTTAWARunways turned into airplane parking lots. Once bustling terminals now like ghost towns. And thousands of flight attendants, pilots, ground personnel and others facing an uncertain future, even once the pandemic threat passes. By early April, Torontos Pearson airport the busiest in the country had become a shell of its former frenetic operation. Passengers had dropped to 5,000 a day from 130,000. Daily flights had dipped to 350, down from 1,300, as the number of airlines serving the airport went from 67 to nine. Its been nothing short of devastating, said Capt. Tim Perry, president of the Air Line Pilots Association Canada, which represents pilots at carriers such as Jazz, Air Transat and WestJet. The federal government has rolled out aid for other hard-hit sectors of the economy. Canadas aviation sector continues to wonder when its turn will come. Airports and airlines have appealed to the government for grants, loans and even pitched infrastructure projects to help sustain the industry while it remains grounded. The government has acknowledged that the aviation sector has been disproportionately impacted, hit by official advisories to avoid non-essential travel, border closings and quarantine rules. Ottawa has offered some help. In late March, it waived rent payments this year for 21 airports, including Pearson, worth about $331.4 million. As well, the industry can tap federal programs aimed at all companies to access credit and the wage subsidy, which pays up to 75 per cent of payroll. Air Canada cited that program in its decision to recall 16,000 workers who had been laid off. As to the suggestion by cabinet ministers that more help was coming for the airline industry, a source told the Star Monday, no news still. But more help is needed, industry officials say. Additional swift action by your government is needed to support the financial viability of Canadas airports and the entire aviation, travel and tourism sectors, Deborah Flint, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, which runs Pearson, wrote in an April 3 letter to stakeholders. She applauded Ottawas decision to provide rent relief for Pearson but said the measure should be extended to 2021 and 2022, too. The industry is grappling with the reality that the recovery of the aviation sector may take two to three years, Flint wrote. Pearson is urging the government to further measures, such as moving on capital projects that could serve as stimulus funding. This includes infrastructure projects to accommodate physical distancing and reduce congestion in airport buildings as well as changes to modernize its border checkpoints to reduce bottlenecks. The airport is also encouraging the government to boost funding for tourism promotion to help the travel industry bounce back. The countrys biggest airlines said Monday that they continue to talk with governments about potential help. We are working with all levels of government and our partners on ways to sustain WestJet amid this unprecedented global disruption to serve communities now and to position us to help drive the Canadian economic recovery, WestJet spokesperson Morgan Bell said in an email. Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick noted the aid offered to travel industries in other countries, adding, along with the rest of the Canadian industry, we have been in discussions with the Canadian government to explore potential support measures. These discussions are ongoing, so it is premature to discuss any possible outcomes, Fitzpatrick said in an email. South of the border, the U.S. government has provided its airline industry with $50 billion (U.S.) in loans and grants to keep companies afloat and employees on staff until flights can resume. Perry said more help is needed in Canada but added that any measure has to strike a balance between ensuring the viability of airlines and assisting the people who work for them. He said the passenger schedule in Canada is running about 15 to 20 per cent of pre-virus schedules and the flights that do operate are running at less than 40 per cent capacity. But there are concerns that even once governments give the all-clear to travel again, traffic will be slow to bounce back, as travellers remain wary of the virus or simply dont have the money to go anywhere after a period of unemployment. It will be the last major industry to recover and even when it begins to recover, it will be slow, Perry said, noting that airline traffic depends not just on domestic market but also what happens abroad. Read more about: Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 02:21:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday discussed over phone with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu bilateral cooperation on fighting COVID-19. Wang said that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a phone conversation not long ago, during which the two leaders reached important consensus on strengthening anti-COVID-19 cooperation and promoting bilateral relations. China and Turkey should step up the implementation of the consensus reached by the two heads of state, continuously boost political mutual trust and, in particular, understand and support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, Wang said. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Turkey, he said, adding that it is hoped that both sides will make joint efforts to take their strategic cooperative relationship featuring mutual trust and support into the next 50 years. Noting the severe challenge Turkey is facing as COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, Wand said that the Chinese side extends heartfelt sympathies to the Turkish people, and expressed the belief that Turkey, under the leadership of President Erdogan, will surely overcome the epidemic. China has always pursued a friendly policy toward Turkey and attached great importance to the friendship between the two peoples, he said. China has provided batches of anti-epidemic supplies to the Turkish side and has given priority to Turkey's urgent procurement needs for medical supplies, he said, adding that China is ready to continue to offer necessary support and assistance to Turkey to fight the outbreak, Wang said. There is great potential for mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Turkey and both sides should strengthen coordination and cooperation to minimize the impact of the outbreak, the Chinese foreign minister said. Wang said that since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, more than 180 countries, including Turkey, have expressed their understanding and support to China, and China has been providing urgently needed medical supplies to more than 100 countries to fight against the epidemic. The most important thing in combating COVID-19 is cooperation and trust instead of blaming and suspicion, Wang said, adding that he believes that China-Turkey friendship will enjoy further development after the test of the global health crisis. For his part, Cavusoglu said that the two heads of state have had fruitful conversations recently and reached broad consensus on anti-epidemic cooperation and deepening bilateral relations. The two sides should earnestly implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, take care of each other's concerns, strengthen practical cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and finance, and make good preparations for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, said Cavusoglu. The Turkish foreign minister said that China has not only overcome the epidemic, but also provided assistance to other countries around the world, including Turkey. China is the country that has provided the largest amount of medical aid to the world, which Turkey highly appreciates, he added. Cavusoglu stressed that at a time when the virus is still spreading in many parts of the world, the international community should strengthen solidarity and cooperation, rather than the other way around. Enditem ZHENGZHOU, China, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hebi National Economic and Technological Development Zone (NETDZ), one of the nine national ones in central China's Henan Province, has recently joined in a campaign of recruiting oveseas investment online to step up its exchange with foreign business. The five-day online investment promotion campaign launched by the Henan Provincial Commerce Department kicked off on April 19. Hebi NETDZ located in Hebi City grappled this opportunity to provide a comprehensive view of its cultural landscapes, characteristic industries and future opportunities for global investors. Through the online platform, the zone mainly introduces its seven major projects, including its automotive electronics industrial incubation park, optoelectronics intelligent industrial park project, and high-performance magnesium alloy material project, with an estimated investment totalling 9.5 billion yuan. For Hebi NETDZ, participating in online investment promotion activities is both an attempt to innovate investment promotion methods, and an effective practice of carrying out all-round international cooperation, said a local official. Founded in November 1992, the zone enjoys a convenient transportation network with roads and railways extending in all directions. It has so far formed three leading industries such as auto parts and electronics, optoelectronics and deep processing of magnesium products. Over 27 years of development, it is now home to more than 500 enterprises, including 103 industrial enterprises each with main business revenue of 20 million yuan and above. In the next step, the zone is planning to further accelerate the construction of characteristic industrial parks, provide resource integration and supporting facilities services for upstream and downstream enterprises in related industrial chains, continuously improve its industrial edges and influence, and step up the pace to build itself into a new highland in the construction of Hebi City. For original report, please visit: https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/312908.html?from=groupmessage&isappinstalled=0 SOURCE Xinhua Silk Road [April 21, 2020] Chapman University Hosts Fourth Ask the COVID-19 Experts with Faculty Researchers Chapman University's Vice President for Research, Thomas Piechota, hosts the next Ask the Experts - COVID-19 Research Town Hall on Monday, April 27, 2020, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., featuring several Chapman faculty who are working on COVID-19-related research and outreach. The public is welcome to join using this link. Following brief presentations, attendees will be able to ask questions of the experts. Featuring Chapman Experts: Jim Doti, Ph.D. is president emeritus and professor of economics. He founded the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research and has presented the Chapman Economic Forecast for 42 consecutive years. Dr. Doti will be providing analyses relating to when and how the California economy should hit the restart button. Jennifer D. Keene, Ph.D. is a professor of history and dean of the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. She is a well-published experton World War I. She has been involved in numerous public history projects that underscore the relevance of the World War I-era to the present day. She has served as an historical advisor to the World War I Centennial Commission, an historical consultant for numerous exhibits and films, and was recently featured in the PBS documentary mini-series, The Great War. She will speak about the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and how learning about this pandemic of a century ago may give us a clearer perspective on today's COVID-19 crisis. Jason Douglas, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences. He has expertise in environmental psychology and public health training, with emphasis on social and environmental determinants of public health disparities. He has recently been funded as part of the COVID-19 Rapid Response Research program to work with a team on his project titled, Examination Social and Environmental Determinants of COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality in New York and Los Angeles. Gregory Goldsmith, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of biology and the director of the Grand Challenges Initiative. Dr. Goldsmith will present preliminary results from a project that is building a comprehensive database of the response of U.S. colleges and universities to the emergence of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2). Working with a team of 10 Chapman University undergraduates, Goldsmith and his collaborators have collected data on when higher education institutions transitioned to online learning, closed residence halls, and instituted remote work for faculty and staff. The results have the potential to improve epidemiological models of disease transmission, inform policy developed by public health officials, and provide insights for decision makers within the higher education community. Erik Linstead, Ph.D. is associate professor and the associate dean of academic programs and faculty development in the Fowler School of Engineering. He is the principal investigator of the Machine Learning and Affiliated Technologies (MLAT) lab. Prior to his current role, he spent 12 years at Boeing (News - Alert) as an embedded software engineer and currently serves as a consulting senior engineering specialist for the Aerospace Corporation in the areas of deep learning and computer vision. He will be sharing how students and faculty at Chapman have leveraged curriculum related to 3D printing and modeling to manufacture face shields as a response to PPE shortages arising from COVID-19. To date, over 2,000 units have been donated. About Chapman University Founded in 1861, Chapman University is a nationally-ranked private university located in Southern California. Chapman is categorized by the Carnegie Classification as an R2 "high research activity" institution and offers personalized education to more than 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The campus has produced a Rhodes Scholar, been named a top producer of Fulbright Scholars and hosts a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest and most prestigious honor society. Based in the City of Orange (News - Alert), Chapman also includes the Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine. In 2019, the university opened its 11th college, Fowler School of Engineering, in its newest facility, Keck Center for Science and Engineering. Learn more about Chapman University: www.chapman.edu. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005752/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] (jckonline.com) - Ernest Ernie Blom (pictured), who has served as president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses for the last eight years, has temporarily resigned from the post. Yoram Dvash, the president of the Israel Diamond Exchange and a member of the groups executive committee, was elected as the global groups acting president during a Zoom meeting with the WFDBs executive committee. A letter from Blom, obtained by JCK, said that due to personal reasons, he was unfortunately temporarily unable to continue in office as President. Therefore, I need to step aside for a period of a time. The news comes as Bloms company, Ernest Blom Diamonds, is engaged in litigation with a WFDB-member bourse, the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE), in a dispute over the jurisdiction of an arbitration. A substantial majority of Americans believes it is too soon to get back to 'normal' pre-coronavirus life as citizens of Georgia and South Carolina prepare to hit the gym or the beach under relaxed social distancing orders. A total of 72 per cent of Americans believe returning back to normal is a moderate or large risk, according to a new Axios-Ipsos poll, the latest to reveal stark partisan divides over how to deal with the coronavirus. Underneath that top-line number are deep differences. A majority of 52 per cent of Democrats think going back to people's normal lives is a 'large' risk, according to the survey. But among Republicans, the number is just 21 per cent. Gov. Brian Kemp says Georgia is on track to meet the criteria to begin easing social distancing and reopening Georgia's economy as health officials continue battling the spread of COVID-19. Seventy-two per cent of Americans said returning to normal is a moderate/large risk The more risk-tolerant view is the one prevailing in the Georgia governor's office, where new Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday ordered a relaxation of state stay-home orders. Georgia gyms, tattoo parlors, and bowling alleys can open as soon as Friday under Kemp's latest orders. Hair salons and massage therapy, as long as social distancing guidelines are practiced. By Monday, movie theaters and restaurants will be allowed to open. South Carolina's Gov. Henry McMaster is allowing local authorities to make decisions on when to open the state's beaches, pulling back overriding state orders. Department stores and some other retail businesses may open as soon as Tuesday. President Trump's guidelines leave it up to governors to reopen although they say a state should have 14 days of declining infections The Clermont Hotel's marquee displays "Be Safe Atlanta" as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the United States on April 18, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division Corporal Barry Britt, right, enforces Gov. Bryan Kemp's order to open the beaches on Tybee Island, Ga., Saturday, April 4, 2020, allowing people to exercise outside, with social distancing of at least six feet because of the coronavirus outbreak A police officer directs cars into a coronavirus testing facility at Georgia Tech Monday, April 6, 2020, in Atlanta. The testing is by appointment only and requires a referral Unused self check in kiosks for Delta Air Lines in very quiet International Terminal of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 17 April 2020 The 265th Infectious Control Georgia Army National Guard enters Canterbury Court, a senior living facility in Atlanta, to disinfect the building during the coronavirus pandemic, Friday, April 10, 2020 Republican governors in Florida and Tennessee are also taking steps to peel back their stay-home orders. Texas became the first state to commit to partially reopening from April 20, starting with public parks and retailers on a 'to-go' basis. The move comes as President Trump urged a national reopening, then came out with new guidelines that acknowledge governors have the power to issue orders. Said Kemp: ''I think this is the right approach at the right time. We're not just throwing the keys back to these business owners. We're talking about people (who had) the government shut down their business.' Georgia was among the last states to impose stay-home orders. Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was among those questioning Kemp's order. 'I've searched my head and my heart on this. I really am at a loss as to what the governor is basing this decision on,' she told CNN Tuesday. Trump has also made comments defending groups of protesters who have blasted stay-home orders imposed by state capitols, and sent out tweets calling to 'LIBERATE' three Democratic-run states where protests were being held. White House guidelines by the coronavirus task force issued last week call for coronavirus and flu-like cases to be on a 'downward trajectory' for a 14-day period before states should move to a 'Phase One' reopening. Public health officials have warned that without adequate testing in place to locate infected people, states that reopen could experience a second wave of infection. Dr Margaret Hamburg said on Tuesday she was worried about some states easing coronavirus lockdown restrictions because they do not yet meet President Trump's minimum criteria I'm worried that we don't know enough about how the virus has penetrated their communities and their states. We don't know about the possibility for explosive spread of the virus as people go back into these social gathering settings,' former FDA commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg told NBC's 'Today' show regarding the push by southern states to reopen. 'I hope they will move forward slowly. Certainly they need to have in place adequate testing,' she said. 'Some of these places are not even meeting the minimum threshold criteria that was put out in the Trump White House coronavirus task force guidance,' Hamburg said. Bill McDermott, former CEO of German software and cloud computing giant SAP, and board members pose during the company's annual general meeting on May 15, 2019 in Mannheim, southwestern Germany. The coronavirus pandemic brought a six-month experiment in dual leadership at SAP to an abrupt end as the German business software group named Christian Klein as its sole CEO to provide clarity to its 400,000 clients. Klein will assume full responsibility while Jennifer Morgan, who was appointed alongside him last autumn to jointly run the world's largest enterprise software company, will leave on April 30. "What we figured out is that we have a responsibility to give our customers clear guidance," Klein, 39, told reporters on Tuesday. American Morgan, 48, became the first woman CEO of a blue-chip German company but her tenure was cut short by the sudden economic slowdown that struck in March as coronavirus spread around the world. In an overnight statement, SAP said the decision to revert to a single CEO had come earlier than planned and was taken "to secure strong and clear leadership responsibility in this unprecedented crisis". The statement also carried a strong personal endorsement of Klein by SAP's co-founder and chairman, Hasso Plattner, who said he had "complete confidence in Christian's business vision and ability." Plattner, 76, exerts influence at SAP that far exceeds his 6% stake, and his backing for Klein represents a return to SAP's German roots after the company took on a more American flavor during New Yorker Bill McDermott's decade in charge. SAP confirmed results pre-released on April 8, when it reported a 1% gain in quarterly operating profits and cut its forecast for earnings to show an expected decline this year of between 1% and 6%. Finance chief Luka Mucic said demand would decline in the second quarter but anticipated an improvement from the third quarter as governments gradually lift lockdowns that have hurt economic activity. SAP remains strongly cash generative and will slow hiring and restrict discretionary spending to ride out the crisis. It will not seek state aid or put any of its 100,000 staff on short-time work, Mucic said. The company will conduct no further share buybacks in 2020 having completed a repurchase program worth 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion), he added. SAP stood by its mid-term goal of expanding its profit margin by one percentage point per year through 2023 as more customers switch to running business processes, such as finance or supply chain management, on cloud-based servers. "We are very confident that we will again emerge as a stronger company and clear leader after the crisis," said Mucic, who recently received a contract extension. [April 21, 2020] Basketful launches the World's Smartest Grocery List allowing shoppers to Save Time, Save Money, and Simplify MINNEAPOLIS, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Basketful, a Minneapolis technology firm simplifying grocery shopping, powers add to cart solutions that connect digital grocery content to carts for brands, publishers, and consumers. Powering this is their network of more than 50 US retailer integrations, visibility to 10,000+ stores, and knowledge of 150 million product and store combinations. Basketful is announcing the expansion of their capabilities to the full basket with the launch of the Basketful Grocery List Mobile App -- the world's smartest grocery list. This consumer facing app allows US shoppers to create, share, and shop their grocery lists from their smartphone. With access to 50+ US retailers covering 95% of US households, consumers can shop their lists in-store or send their lists to their local retailer with pickup and delivery options. 66% of consumers still leverage paper or whiteboards for managing their households' weekly grocery needs. In addition, 87% of consumers shop multiple grocery stors over the course of a month. The Basketful Grocery List allows simpler shopping, the ability to manage lists across multiple stores, seamless list sharing, and the flexibility to shop their lists in-store or on-line with visibility to local inventory and pricing. "Grocery shopping is a routine, yet cumbersome activity" says COO Jim Lesch, "and we believe providing shoppers with more convenience and personalization can dramatically simplify the experience". Basketful's unique understanding of the grocery network and store distribution removes the complexity from the grocery shopping experience, allowing consumers to more quickly turn food inspiration into reality. "Our mission is to simplify grocery shopping" says CEO Eugene Burd, "and allowing consumers to save time and money while making the experience as easy as possible". Upgrade your Grocery List at Basketful.co! View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/basketful-launches-the-worlds-smartest-grocery-list-allowing-shoppers-to-save-time-save-money-and-simplify-301044529.html SOURCE Basketful [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] This article, America is running out of frozen pizza. Here's where you can order some, originally appeared on CNET.com. Although most reported shortages of supplies during the coronavirus pandemic have pointed to empty shelves formerly filled with toilet paper and a lack of hand sanitizer, there's one coveted essential item that's also been flying out of stores at an unprecedented rate: frozen pizza. Panicked shoppers have not only been stocking up on canned tuna, they've also been tossing large piles of boxed pizza into their freezers, operating under the assumption that frozen pizza can hardly go bad. Plus, pizza is undeniably peak comfort food, so while it should come as no surprise that you can still find fresh produce in the grocery store, frozen pizza is a much rarer find. Many frozen pizza factories are trying to keep up with high demand, often equating it to Super Bowl Sunday. According to Ad Week, Newman's Own COO Dave Best reported that his frozen pizza sales are up by 190% since the pandemic began, and many frozen pizza companies are reporting similar numbers. The data analytics firm IRI has determined that from March to April, Americans bought some $275 million worth of frozen pizza, a 92% increase compared to the same time last year. So, what to do if your grocery store is indefinitely out of frozen pizza? You could always make your own pizza, which we promise isn't as hard as it sounds, or you could simply place an order for a few boxes to be shipped from these storied establishments. Read more: The best frozen pizza you can order online Prince Street Pizza spicy spring pie: 2 for $125 Goldbelly Lines spill out of the tiny storefront on Prince Street in downtown New York, peppered with pizza fanatics looking to get their hands on a behemoth of a square slice, crowned with pepperoni cups pooling with oil, spicy tomato sauce and plenty of cheese. Skip the line by ordering two pizzas, each clocking in at 17 by 12 inches, that are guaranteed to feed 16 people. $125.00 AT GOLDBELLY Di Fara Pizza classic Neapolitan pizza: 2 for $89 Goldbelly Dom DeMarco opened Di Fara pizza in Midwood, Brooklyn, in 1965, and the octogenarian is still making the beloved pizza (with help from family members), slipping divine pies into the oven and snipping fresh basil, right in front of you. While a trip to Avenue J isn't recommended right now, you can get two pies delivered to you, frozen, primed to be heated up in the oven. While Dom can't shave fresh parmesan on top in person, you'll have to merely do it in his honor. $89.00 AT GOLDBELLY Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza: $67 Goldbelly Dive into Chicago's best with Lou Malnati's deep dish pizzas, stuffed with the likes of cheese, sausage, pepperoni or spinach. These massive 9-inch pies are equipped to feed two to four people, and can simply be tossed into the oven to be reheated. $67.00 AT GOLDBELLY Imo's Pizza 4-pack: $71 Goldbelly Imo's Pizza has long been the star of St. Louis-style pizzas, a family pizzeria that opened in St. Louis over 50 years ago. The thin, circle pies are chopped into bite-sized squares -- its trademark look -- and always topped with Provel cheese, a mixture of Swiss, provolone and cheddar cheeses. $71.00 AT GOLDBELLY Emmy Squared Detroit-Style Pizza: $89 Goldbelly A Brooklyn favorite, Emmy Squared hawks Detroit-style pizza, that thick dough baked in a pan with cheesy edges, and showered with fun and cheeky toppings, like banana peppers, gooey burrata cheese and vodka sauce. This package comes with the choice of seven pizza flavors. $89.00 AT GOLDBELLY DECATUR The Illinois Department of Public Health has provided 300 tests to Fair Havens Senior Living in Decatur so that all residents and staff can be tested, officials said Monday. Nine residents of the facility at 1790 S. Fairview Ave. have died after testing positive for the virus. Of the 55 Macon County residents with confirmed cases, 36 have been associated with Fair Havens. City and county officials said last week that they had reached out to the state agency, which oversees long-term care facilities, for additional support. The Macon County Health Department confirmed that IDPH provided the tests Monday afternoon. "Fair Havens is in the process of contacting family members and staff to notify them of this next step," said Marisa Hosier, director of health promotion and public relations, in an email Monday evening. "They are also in the process of administering the tests, so we expect to have results on those within the next week." Hosier said that while the facility was given 300 tests, that many would not be submitted, as some people had already been tested. "IDPH has also been very involved with us and Fair Havens in regular communication and support to provide guidance and protocol, conduct follow-up on measures taken, and more," Hosier said. A joint statement was released Monday evening by state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, and Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet; state Reps. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, and Sue Scherer, D-Decatur; Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe; and Macon County Chairman Kevin Greenfield. The officials thanked Gov. J.B. Pritzker and IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike for responding to the request for more tests and "stepping up to address this urgent need for assistance." "The situation at Fair Havens Senior Living is dire, and the decisive action by the Pritzker administration and Illinois Department of Public Health will save lives," the officials said. "These 300 tests will allow county health officials to identify and isolate carriers, which is the first step in halting the spread of COVID-19 throughout the facility and Decatur community." The Herald & Review has contacted IDPH seeking more information. Management at Fair Havens has not responded to daily requests for comment since last week. Speaking earlier Monday, Moore Wolfe said she and Greenfield had spent the weekend talking with state officials, and she was contacted Sunday by Ezike's chief of staff. Mass testing is important so that people who do not have the virus can be isolated from those who do, the mayor said. "If half of (the residents) are OK, we have to do everything possible to isolate them from staff and others that interact with people who are sick," she said on WSOYs Byers & Co. morning show. "Our goal is to keep as many people healthy as possible and save as many lives as possible." The countys Joint Crisis Communication Team said Monday afternoon that 34 of those who had tested positive for the virus were recovering at home; three were hospitalized; and nine people have been released from isolation. For each person who tests positive, the county health department undertakes determining who had direct contact with the patient and notifying those people. In response to a question from the Herald & Review, Hosier said the health department does not report the number of contacts for each confirmed cases, but will monitor and communicate with those people regularly. Not everyone with COVID-19, including those who have symptoms and those who do not, is being tested for the virus, she said. "It gives a false sense of security for people to assume that only those confirmed positive and/or their contacts are exposing others in the community," she said, reiterating that there are cases in the community outside of Fair Havens. People should assume that everyone, including themselves, has COVID-19, regardless of whether they have been contacted by the health department, she said. Operating under that assumption, they should be taking every possible step to limit spreading the disease. Health professionals have advised staying in as often as possible, washing hands frequently, wearing a mask or face covering when going out and staying at least six feet from others. "It is imperative that people behave as if anyone at any location they go (workplace, friend/family members house, grocery store, hardware store, restaurant, etc.) could potentially have COVID-19 and be spreading it (even without symptoms)," Hosier said. "This is why its so important for everyone to take proactive measures constantly and stay home as often as possible." Also on Monday, the Decatur Public Transit System began requiring people to wear a mask or face covering to ride the bus. Homemade masks, scarves and other face coverings will be accepted, the city said. Riders had already been heavily encouraged to wear masks, and signage announced that the shift to a requirement was coming. IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath. If you experience symptoms, do not go to an emergency room or doctor's office unless it is a true emergency. Call your primary doctor first. If you don't have a primary doctor, you can call: DMH Medical Group at (217) 876-2856 HSHS Medical Group Patient Advocate at 844-520-8897 Crossing Healthcare at (217) 877-9117 SIU at (217) 872-3800 For COVID-19 screening, the following resources are available: Memorial Health Systems respiratory screening clinic located at DMH Express Care East (4455 U.S. 36 East); open seven days a week, 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Before coming to the respiratory clinic, individuals should call (217) 876-1200. HSHS St. Marys Hospital 24/7 COVID-19 Hotline at (217) 464-2966. HSHS Medical Group offers free virtual assessments for COVID-19 at www.anytimecare.com Contact Allison Petty at (217) 421-6986. Follow her on Twitter: @AllisonAPetty 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 jaw-dropping collapse in a key segment of U.S. oil trading has certainly made history. What happened was that the price on the futures contract for WTI, that is due to expire Tuesday, fell into negative territory. The pandemic has brought economies to a standstill. American energy companies have run out of storage facilities. And if theres no place to put the oil, no one wants a crude contract that is about to come due. So if nobody who can store it will buy it from you, you have to pay someone to get rid of it. Understanding how it happened The monthly oil contract was about to expire. So firms who trade contracts offload them to physical buyers to take physical delivery. If an energy trader had a May contract at expiration, he has to take physical deliver of a 1,000 barrels of oil. The energy trader wanted someone to pay him to take his oil contract so he does not have to take physical delivery. But there were no takers, and the price kept falling. Storage and refiners were not buying. The physical energy trader countered with, you pay me for every barrel I take off your hands. Consumption of oil has dropped significantly. Production has not. Hence the imbalance. Morningstars senior equity analyst Mark Taylor shares his views The fact that prices have gone negative is more about virtual markets than the physical. If you are a trader and you are locked into a future for physical delivery and have no physical storage capacityand dont want your backyard swimming pool full of oilthen you have to pay someone to take it off your hands. This will exist for a short period but it's not going to go on indefinitely. Energy is at the foundation of all economies. You can't survive without reliable and consistent energy supply. The decision by Saudi Arabia and Russia to finally agree to reduce their oil production is very important because you've got this situation with an excess of supply into a demand scenario that's been completely routed out by coronavirus causing lockdowns, people to stay at home, so they are not driving as much. You're not travelling. So, airlines grounded. That's about a sixth of oils consumption there gone away. On top of that, the Saudis and Russians breakdown in agreement to curtail supply. So, excess of supply into the market. In the short term, it's very important that they've come to this agreement. I don't expect that it will result in some magical rebound in oil price back to where it was because the coronavirus effect is going to persist for some time yet. But eventually, you should see a recovery in oil price to some of semblance of a sensible level which we think is about $60 a barrel Brent. Currently it is at around $30 a barrels. Global production is not even being incentivized to invest to drill and sustain and increase production, particularly U.S. shale producers for whom a $40 a barrel price is where they start to breakeven on average. WTI, Brent, ORB, Oman Crude The two most popular benchmarks for international oil prices are West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, which is a U.S. measure, and Brent crude, which covers oil located outside of the U.S. WTI trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange, or NYMEX, and Brent trades on ICE, the InterContinental Exchange, a leading network of regulated exchanges and clearing houses for financial and commodity markets. Brent crude has overtaken WTI as the global benchmark and is generally seen as a more accurate reflection of the true price. Incidentally, the term 'Brent' comes from the formation layers of the oil field - Broom, Rannoch, Etieve, Ness and Tarbat. Another common benchmark for crude oil prices is the OPEC Reference Basket, or ORB. This price consists of a weighted average of a mix of crude oils found in the OPEC region. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, was founded in Iraq in 1960. The member countries currently are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Venezuela. OPEC produces 30 million barrels per day (bpd). Saudi Arabia is considered to be the swing oil producer. A swing producer is a country that changes its crude oil output to meet fluctuations in market demand. Saudi Arabia is seen as the worlds major swing producer, in that it will cut or expand production based on total global output to maintain a certain oil price. At the height of the Libyan crisis, for example, Saudi Arabia increased production to offset the fall in supply from Libya. Besides Brent, WTI and ORB, another benchmark to note is Oman Crude which trades on Dubai Mercantile Exchange, or DME. NC city sued for arresting David Benham, pro-life demonstrators outside of abortion clinic Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment David Benham and other pro-life demonstrators have filed a lawsuit against a North Carolina city after they were arrested or cited while outside an abortion clinic. Benham, Cities4Life, and Global Impact Ministries, also known as Love Life, filed suit against the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County last Saturday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division. According to the complaint, police punished the pro-life demonstrators outside A Preferred Womens Health of Charlotte, even though they were following social distancing practices. The plaintiffs argued that the police were selective in their enforcement of the stay-at-order, noting that while they were being cited, the abortion clinic began filling up with clients and numerous people roamed the parks and sidewalks for recreation and exercise. Cities4Life and Love Life were praying on the sidewalk, maintaining a safe distance from one-another and others, and helping women interested in the important charitable services they offered, argued the complaint. Despite the health and safety motivations underlying the COVID-19 restrictions, government officials cannot and should not selectively enforce those regulations. Nor should they prohibit constitutionally protected activities that do not endanger public health or safety. The pro-life activists are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm that has argued religious liberty cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot said in a statement Saturday that he believed the arrests and citations were about the government silencing people because it doesnt like their point of view. We support the efforts of public officials to prioritize health and safety, but if other people are free to talk on sidewalks, people of faith should be, too. They cant be singled out for their religious beliefs or because their form of speech is prayer or pro-life counseling, said Theriot. And if abortion businesses can stay open during the coronavirus crisis, non-profit organizations that provide social services to women should be allowed outside particularly when they are abiding by health and safety guidelines, as Mr. Benham and the others were. One of the twin brothers dropped from an HGTV home-flipping show in 2014 after LGBT activists pressured the network over their beliefs on marriage and sexuality, Benham was arrested on April 4 while engaging in pro-life sidewalk counseling. Benham posted a video on social media of police officers arresting him for engaging in sidewalk counseling outside of the abortion clinic, which was labeled a non-essential activity. We support taking every precaution during COVID-19. This is why we maintained our social distance and stayed under 10 in number, he stated at the time. We were not belligerent We simply stood our ground. MLK once said, A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. Last week, a trio of pro-life activists successfully sued to be guaranteed the right to protest outside of abortion clinics in Michigan despite a state stay-at-home order. Andrew Belanger, who was ticketed for demonstrating outside an abortion clinic, and pro-life activists Justin Phillips and Cal Zastrow filed the suit against the City of Detroit and the governor. U.S. District Court Judge Janet Neff issued an order last week, noting that both parties had reached an agreement that allows for pro-life demonstrations during the lockdown period. Defendants agree that Executive Order 2020-21 does not prohibit the conduct of Plaintiffs that is alleged in the Complaint, noted the order. The City of Detroit shall dismiss the criminal citation issued to Plaintiff Andrew Belanger and any related criminal charges or proceedings that might arise from this citation and the incident related to it. This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here. MANILA Heherson Alvarez,who helped lead a campaign against the brutal regime of the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and then went on to serve in the national legislature after returning from exile in the United States, died on Monday in Manila. He was 80. The cause was complications of the coronavirus, said Joey Lina, a former colleague in Congress. Mr. Alvarezs wife, Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, an artist who was also active in the anti-Marcos movement, contracted the virus as well. She was reported to have responded better to treatment after the couple were taken to a Manila hospital last month. You wont be able to book, cancel train tickets for 6 hour-duration for next 7 days: Details inside In pics: Indian Railways gets first pod hotel at Mumbai Central station; Details on Price, facilities here Indian railways revenue in 2019 to 2021: Here's how much it generated from sale of tickets, platform tickets Railways saves child by bringing crucial medicine from Pune to Belagavi India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Apr 21: The Railways has the life of a five-year-old child bringing crucial medicines from Pune to Belagavi, thanks to the intervention of Minister of State for Railways. "A child of 5 years of age in Belagavi was undergoing treatment from a doctor based at Pune. The medicine was said to be critical and it was to be transported to Belagavi from Pune. Their (the child parents) appeals to the Maharashtra state authorities to permit their relatives based at Pune to drive their vehicle to Belagavi to bring the medicine had gone in vain," the SWR statement read. The parents reached out to the Minister's office seeking assistance which led to the Minister's intervention. "The medicine was brought to Pune railway station, and thereby it was transported through a goods train, which was due to pass through Belagavi. The staff of the train ensured that the medicine reached Belagavi safely the very next day," the SWR said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 22:04 [IST] Drug manufacturer Cipla's employees have pledged Rs 3 crore to support the government in combating coronavirus pandemic. The donation by the employees is part of Rs 25 crore donated by Cipla to the government, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. As part of Rs 25 crore, the company has announced a donation of Rs 9 crore to the PM-CARES Fund, it added. In addition, Cipla has announced a donation of Rs 8 crore to various state authorities. "These contributions will help to further several immediate and long-term relief efforts that the country needs to combat the size and scale of the crisis it is confronted with," the drug manufacturer added. The social responsibility arm of Cipla, Cipla Foundation, also pledged Rs 4 crore towards coronavirus response programmes, many of which are already underway, the drugs maker said. The pharma major has allotted Rs 4 crore towards supply of essentials including medicines, personal protective equipment, sanitisers, masks, gloves and food, it also said. The total count of coronavirus positive cases in India crossed the 18,000-mark on Tuesday. The country recorded 1,336 new cases and 47 deaths in 24 hours. According to the latest data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India has so far recorded 18,601 confirmed coronavirus cases including 14,759 active cases, 3,251 cured or discharged, 1 migrated, and 590 deaths. The total number of confirmed cases in Delhi stands at 2,081 with death toll at 47 following Maharashtra which is the worst-hit in India with coronavirus tally at 4,666, while 232 people succumbed to the virus in the state. Maharashtra also has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the country. Gujarat is the third state with the highest number of cases at 1,939 and death toll at 71. Also read: Coronavirus India live updates: Raebareli records 33 new COVID-19 cases in one day; UP tally rises to 1,258 https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/coronavirus-india-lockdown-live-updates-delhi-hotspots-mahrashtra-mumbai-cases-21-apr/story/401546.html Also read: Why petrol prices won't fall even though US crude oil costs $0 Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Tuesday regretted the episodes where locals opposed the burial of doctors who died of Covid-19 in the city and urged all to respect the dedication of the health workers. He also equated doctors, besides other frontline workers in the battle against coronavirus, to God for the "selfless" services rendered by them. Due protocol was being followed in the burial of such victims, he said. "It is sad the burial of doctors was opposed to at a time when (doctors) are fighting to protect us against coronavirus," he wrote on his official twitter handle, @CMOTamilNadu. "We all should respect their dedication and act with humanity," he added. In two separate incidents in the last week, two doctors died of COVID-19 in the city but locals protested against their burial on grounds of fears of spread of the pandemic. On both occasions, the mortal remains were buried elsewhere after officials could not perform the formalities in the originally selected localities. Incidentally, on Sunday night an orthopaedic surgeon had to bury his associate, a neurosurgeon who died of Covid-19, in the middle of the night using his bare hands and a shovel at a crematorium with the help of just two hospital ward boys after the undertakers fled when a mob, protesting the interment, attacked them using bricks, stones, bottles and sticks and chased them away. Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Palaniswami said frontline workers in the battle against Covid-19 such as doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and police personnel were engaged in "selfless" duty. "The whole country is praising them for their work. I consider these, who are working to protect lives, equal to God," he said in the statement. He further said the government has ordered that the burial or cremation of people who had died of coronavirus be done with "due protection" but expressed regret over the incidents where people protested against such formalities for the deceased doctors. Referring to a couplet from Thirukkural, he urged people to show respect to those selfless persons who die while trying to protect the public and sought for due cooperation. Assuring his government's "total support" to such frontline workers, he said it will take due steps to ensure such incidents do not repeat and asked them not to have any fears. Restrictions on migrants in Greece extended to May 10 Move comes as another Covid-19 case is confirmed (ANSAMed) - ATHENS, 21 APR - The Greek government has extended the restrictions on the movement of refugees and migrants living in camps or accommodation centres throughout the country until May 10, in an effort to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). The state's decision was announced on Monday in a joint ministerial decision signed by Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, Health Minister Vasilis Kikilias and Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis. The move comes on the back of confirmed Covid-19 cases at at least two facilities hosting migrants and refugees. The first came earlier this month when health officials placed the Ritsona refugee and migrant camp close to the capital city of Athens in quarantine after 20 of the asylum seekers staying there tested positive for the virus. And now it has been confirmed that a woman from Africa, who is six-months pregnant and who was hosted at the temporary facility for asylum seekers in Porto Heli, Southern Greece, has tested positive, according to the Greek arm of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). IOM says the unnamed woman "required hospitalization in relation to her pregnancy and was transferred with an ambulance to the hospital of Nafplio. According to the measures developed by the Greek Authorities and through relevant health checks and medical examinations, the woman was found positive with Covid-19. Given the fact that she is asymptomatic and upon instructions given by the hospital, she remains isolated in one room." On the basis of the protocols developed by the Greek authorities the hotel, which currently hosts 470 asylum seekers, has been put in quarantine under the supervision of the National Health Organization (EODY) and Ministry of Migration and Asylum, with restricted mobility of its population. "IOM staff - a statement by the UN agency says - remains present at the temporary accommodation facility providing support within the DG Home funded project FILOXENIA; IOM facility coordinator, interpreters, psychologists, social workers and legal counsellors are in constant contact with all stakeholders to support in this challenging situation, raising further awareness about National guidelines on Covid-19 among the asylum seekers." "IOM staff has been provided with all necessary equipment such as masks, gloves and uniforms, while all hotel facilities have been disinfected." Greece's EODY is also present at the hotel, conducting Covid-19 tests to the entire population, including hotel and IOM staff. The IOM said that it remains in constant and close communication with the EODY and Ministry of Migration and Asylum and supports any further initiatives that may be needed. IOM STEPPING UP ACTIONS AGAINST COVID-19 SPREAD In related developments, the IOM is continuing to coordinate the transfer of over 2,000 "Covid-19 vulnerable" refugees and migrants from the overcrowded islands and the hinterland to apartments in cooperation with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The IOM plans to temporarily house those transferred from island camps such as those at Lesvos, Chios and Samos in hotels and apartments on the islands and the mainland "within two months", according the comments made by Greek IOM chief Gianluca Rocco last week. The move comes as a safety measure due to ongoing problems with the novel coronavirus across Europe and the world. Among the 2,000-strong group of people are those over 65 years of age, and others who have other health issues. The measure also comes hot on the heels of a similar call by the UNHCR which issued an invitation for the rentals of hotels and ships. The latter would dock at the ports on the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros, and the contracts would cover 15 days for quarantine, with the option of extension to two months. Greece's Migration and Asylum Ministry has approved the plan and it is being funded by the European Union. Rocco said in an online press conference that "hoteliers are interested in housing migrants at this point for a limited amount of time, while the ongoing UN program to house refugees will continue as well." In addition, Rocco said that the "Greek authorities and the IOM are trying to create facilities to house up to 5,000 asylum seekers within the next two months, including refurbishing older buildings and using prefabricated homes." (ANSAMed). A teenage girl was killed when an accused drunk driver hit her parked car. Nga Roimata Beattie-Rihari died about 7.45pm Sunday in Moerewa on New Zealand's North Island when a 43-year-old man allegedly veered onto the wrong side of the road and hit her vehicle. The 18-year-old's car was forced backwards and smashed into a concrete power pole, killing her instantly. Nga Roimata Beattie-Rihari (pictured) died about 7.45pm Sunday in Moerewa on New Zealand's North Island The driver of the other car only suffered minor injuries and was charged with driving while over the blood alcohol limit, NZ Herald reported. Tributes are flowing online for the teenager but family have said they will wait until lockdown restrictions have eased until they give Ms Beattie-Rihari a funeral. Family are waiting for New Zealand to drop to level three restrictions where a funeral can be held with up to ten people in attendance. 'This is an update for Nga Roimata Beattie Rihari. From tomorrow until next week Tuesday, she will be put on ice. This will be until we go from level 4 down to level 3,' family member Mere Heeni Beattie Rihari wrote on Facebook. 'We will then be able to give her the send off that she deserves and will also give whanau and friends the opportunity to pay their respects. 'Please keep in mind that we will still keep to the required restrictions of 2m distancing, and will be allowing 5 people at a time to pay their respects to our beloved.' The 18-year-old's car was forced backwards and smashed into a concrete power pole, killing her instantly Tributes are flowing online for the teenager but family have said they will wait until lockdown restrictions have eased until they give Ms Beattie-Rihari a funeral Friend Shakeera Te Rangi said Ms Beattie-Rihari had a 'heart of gold'. 'She hated seeing others be sad, she just had this way of making people smile. She didn't deserve this,' Ms Te Rangi said. Northland Police Sergeant Ryan Gray said the 18-year-old was in a parked car when she was hit and do not believe the man driving the other car was out for essential travel. 'It was an unnecessary tragedy at an already difficult time. The driver should not have been out and about during the COVID-19 lockdown,' Sergeant Gray said. An investigation into the crash is underway with the Serious Crash Unit looking into whether speed was a contributing factor. Beijing is facing a diplomatic crisis in Africa after reports of alleged coronavirus-related discrimination against African nationals in China sparked widespread anger across the continent. African students and expatriates in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou were last week subject to forced coronavirus testing and arbitrary 14-day self-quarantine, regardless of recent travel history, amid heightened fears of imported infections. Large numbers of African nationals were also left homeless, after being evicted by landlords and rejected by hotels in the city. Having reportedly contained the virus within China, concerns have grown in recent weeks over a so-called second wave, brought into the country by overseas travelers. In Africa, however, governments, media outlets and citizens reacted angrily to the apparent rise in anti-foreigner sentiment, as videos of Africans being harassed by police, sleeping on the streets or being locked into their homes under quarantine circulated online. On Saturday, the front page of Kenya's biggest newspaper lead with the headline, "Kenyans in China: Rescue us from hell," as a member of the country's parliament called for Chinese nationals to leave Kenya immediately. TV stations in Uganda, South Africa and Nigeria also ran stories on the alleged mistreatment. The fallout threatens to undermine China's diplomatic efforts in Africa. In recent years, African nations have become key diplomatic and trade partners to Beijing, with China's trade with Africa worth $208 billion in 2019, according to official figures from China's General Administration of Customs. In a statement released Sunday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied China had been singling out foreigners. "We are still facing great risks of imported cases and domestic resurgence. Particularly, as the pandemic spreads all over the world, imported cases are causing mounting pressure," said Zhao. "All foreigners are treated equally. We reject differential treatment, and we have zero tolerance for discrimination," he added. A breakdown in relations African countries are often characterized as being the weaker partner in bilateral relations with Beijing, with US officials repeatedly warning nations to be wary of so-called Chinese debt trap diplomacy, in which countries are forced to hand over key assets to service loans they can't make repayments on impairing their sovereignty. But in recent days, African governments have been quick to demand answers from Beijing on the treatment of their citizens. On Saturday, Nigerian lawmaker Oloye Akin Alabi posted a video on Twitter of the Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian, being grilled by a Nigerian politician over the mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou. During the exchange, Zhou is made to watch videos of Africans allegedly being mistreated in China. Oloye accompanied the video with the message that his government would "not tolerate maltreatment of Nigerians in China." The governments of Uganda and Ghana also reportedly summoned their respective Chinese ambassadors over what the Ghanaians called "the inhumane treatment being meted out." Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry of South Africa, which is currently chairing the African Union, said it was "deeply concerned" by the reports. On Saturday, in perhaps the most serious sign of continent-wide discontent, Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, tweeted that he had invited the Chinese ambassador to the AU to personally discuss the allegations of mistreatment. The Chinese reaction On Sunday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded to the crisis, promising that provincial authorities would attach "great importance" to the concerns of some African countries and work to improve quarantine measures, including providing special accommodation for foreigners required to undergo medical observation. However, echoing city officials in Guangzhou, Zhao did not address specific accusations that authorities had enforced a policy of mandatory testing and a 14-day quarantine on all Africans, even when they had not left China in recent months; had not been in contact with a known Covid-19 patient; had just completed a 14-day isolation; or had certificates to show they were virus-free. Chinese state media had previously reported that five Nigerians tested had positive for the virus in Guangzhou. Local police said on Sunday that all foreigners must strictly abide by Chinese laws and those who refuse to show identification when requested by police would face punishment. Suspicions abound that many Africans are overstaying their visas in Guangzhou, where officials said they counted 4,553 Africans legally living in the city as of last week. On Sunday, the state-owned Global Times broke its silence on the continued diplomatic fallout, writing that "viral reports in Western media alleging Africans are being discriminated against and badly treated in the city" were "used by some Western media to provoke the problems between China and African countries." In recent years, legions of Chinese diplomats have joined Twitter, a social media platform that is banned in China. In Africa, CNN counted at least 25 accounts belonging to Chinese diplomats or consulates. But those Twitter accounts, which have repeatedly championed China's aid efforts in Africa in recent weeks, had been notably quiet on the issue of the African diaspora in Guangzhou. After Zhao's statement on Sunday many began to tweet his comments. Lina Benabdallah, assistant professor in politics at Wake Forest University, specializing in China-Africa relations, said that the "delicate" nature of the issue required a "coordinated response," as Chinese diplomats would need to prevent a backlash against the more than 1 million Chinese currently living in Africa. "De-escalation in that sense is probably a priority," she said. "It's a sensitive thing." People to people relations By the end of the weekend, most of the displaced Africans in Guangzhou, mainly traders and students who make up China's largest African population, had found shelter, according to people CNN spoke to in the city. Armies of volunteers who had assembled on WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, had rallied to connect Africans with landlords and hotels who would still accept foreigners. Others had been rounded up by local authorities and taken into quarantine at government-assigned hotels, according to Africans and volunteers who spoke to CNN. "They (the authorities) just don't want them on the street," said one volunteer, who asked not to be named for fear of government reprisals. Shen Shiwei, a non-resident fellow at the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, said people-to-people relations were a linchpin of China's relationship with Africa, and needed to be protected. Shen called on Chinese officials to improve communication with the African diaspora in Guangzhou, suggesting signs in English and local languages to help explain decisions in policing. "I think there are two sides to every story," he said. Hannah Ryder, a British-Kenyan who used to work for the United Nations in China and is now CEO of a Kenyan owned company in Beijing, said these types of incidents can have a massive impact on how people in Africa view China. "If they are not handled properly they can result in far larger consequences than people sleeping on the street. They can have repercussions on international relations, trade and even diplomacy," said Ryder. "As China has been the first to deal with and recover from Covid-19 the world can learn a lot from China's experience," she said. "I hope that when it comes to virus-related xenophobia, China can show leadership on the best way to tackle it and be an example the world can follow." Health workers were potentially exposed to the coronavirus without proper protection and training at two skilled nursing facilities in Santa Clara County, according to a complaint filed with state workplace safety regulators. The complaint filed by the SEIU Local 521 union alleges that county health care workers represented by the union who were assigned to two nursing facilities Canyon Springs Post-Acute Care Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and the Ridge Post-Acute Care Skilled Nursing Facility had direct contact with infected patients without proper masks and isolation practices. None of the workers in the complaint had tested positive for the virus, however, according to the union. In an email, a representative for Santa Clara County said, The county has no knowledge of the complaint and cannot provide comment at this time. The safety of employees is a priority for the County of Santa Clara. In late March the county asked its health care workers to commit to reassignment at skilled nursing facilities to handle virus outbreaks, according to the filing. County employees received 13 hours of mostly video training on the use of intravenous pumps, operating feeding tubes, taking vital signs and the use of personal protective equipment, according to the complaint. The Cal/OSHA filing obtained by The Chronicle said employees assigned to the Canyon Springs location in San Jose in early April were told they would be handling patients who did not have the virus and were in isolation, but that was not the case when they arrived. County employees also observed insufficient isolation practices between the section of the facility treating people who had tested or were suspected to be positive for the coronavirus and the section with unaffected residents, according to the complaint. The zipper entrance in the plastic barrier erected to separate the two sections generally remained open rather than being closed after every use, allowing air to pass freely between the two sections, the complaint states. Staff wore surgical masks instead of more protective N95-grade particle masks and did not consistently change or sufficiently sanitize protective gowns and other equipment when moving between the infected and non-infected areas, according to the complaint. Because of the conditions at the facility, county workers made contact with COVID-19 patients without gloves and assisted in the unsuccessful resuscitation of a patient who died in the facility and may have been exposed to the virus, according to the complaint. According to California Department of Public Health data, 25 staff members and 39 patients tested positive for the coronavirus at the Canyon Springs location. This month Gov. Gavin Newsoms office said California had retrained 600 nurses to assist and advise skilled nursing facilities and residential care homes on COVID-19 response. Other measures taken by the state include prioritizing giving personal protective equipment to facilities with COVID-19-positive staff or residents, daily contact with facilities to assess needs, and providing $500 stipends to up to 50,000 nursing home workers from a $25 million grant from Facebook, among other measures. Of the 1,224 skilled nursing facilities in California, 258 have reported having one or more COVID-19 cases in either a resident or health care worker as of April 17. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes The second facility named in the complaint, the Ridge Post-Acute Care Skilled Nursing Facility in San Jose, has 40 infected residents of a total population of 41 and 14 infected staff, according to the complaint. Infection rates at the facility were not available from the state. According to the complaint, at least one health care employee, a licensed vocational nurse, was assigned by the county on April 7 to work at the Ridge facility and was told she would be working only with patients presumed not to have the virus. The nurse found on arrival however that nearly every resident and staff member had either tested positive for COVID-19 or was presumptively infected and that the outbreak had escalated, in fact, to the point where she was advised on her arrival to assume that anyone she came into contact with within the facility was COVID-19-positive, according to the filing with state regulators. Approximately 20 to 35 county employees were potentially exposed to the virus, according to the complaint, which demands Cal/OSHA investigate and bring enforcement action against the county. Representatives at Canyon Springs and Ridge did not immediately provide comment. Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice The BJP on Tuesday came down heavily on the West Bengal government for obstructing two central teams from assessing the COVID-19 situation in the state, and accused the Mamata Banerjee-led dispensation of orchestrating a "cover-up exercise" of lockdown violations. The arrival of the teams in West Bengal without prior intimation has already set off a tussle between the Centre and the ruling Trinamool Congress government, as the panel members lay confined to guest houses for most part of the day before the state relented following a stern letter from the Union home secretary. "It is anyone's guess why @MamataOfficial delayed the #IMCT from their inspection. Sure it must be for some kind of cover up exercise she has orchestrated. Here is the stringent reminder that Centre had to send Mamata didi about things she has forgotten," Union minister Babul Supriyo said in a tweet. West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said he found it inexplicable as to why only Bengal made a fuss about the teams' visit, whereas other states extended full cooperation in this regard. "It is not that the central teams visited only Bengal. None of the states have uttered a single word about it... The TMC government has made it a habit to oppose the central government on every issue, even during the time of a crisis," Ghosh said. "This is not a political battle; it is a matter of life and death of people. The state government should come clean on the issue and cooperate with the Centre," he added. The Union home ministry said on Monday morning the COVID-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and that the violation of lockdown measures risk the spread of the novel coronavirus. The central government has constituted six Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) to make an on-spot assessment of the COVID-19 situation in these places. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) F undraising hero Captain Tom Moore praised the NHS for doing a "magnificent job" as he opened Yorkshire's new Nightingale hospital via video link today. The 99-year-old veteran was guest of honour at the new facility in Harrogate, one of a number of centres set up to increase capacity for treating coronavirus patients. He appeared on screen by video link in front of a crowd of around 100 people at the Harrogate Convention Centre to open the NHS Nightingale Yorkshire and the Humber site. Im absolutely in awe of what has happened," he said while sitting with his daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, at his home in Bedfordshire. If you think all the kindness of the people in this country and throughout the world, who have given so much money to the fund to help our National Health Service, which you have got to agree is one of the best services that there is in the world. All the doctors and nurses in the NHS, they do a brilliant job in very difficult conditions and every day theyre putting themselves in harms way night and morning. Theyre doing it with a determination that only we can do and they are continuing to do that and I think we must all say thank you very much to the National Health Service, all of you, not just the doctors and nurses, but everyone throughout the whole system who are doing such a magnificent job. Captain Tom Moore appeared via video link to open the facility / Getty Images Captain Tom, who has raised more than 27 million for NHS charities, declared the hospital, which will provide 500 extra beds for Covid-19 patients, open as Paula Lorimer, director of the Harrogate Convention Centre, unveiled a plaque. Health Secretary Matt Hancock also delivered a recorded message in which he offered his heartfelt thanks. He said: This is a hospital that nobody would have ever wanted and it is a hospital we hope never to see full. But the fact you have been able to make this happen in such a short period of time is a testament to your capabilities, determination and your teamwork. Michael Kovac/WireImageFinally, the moment R&B fans have been waiting for finally happened. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Teddy Riley had their epic '90s music faceoff. The original "Verzuz" event, which saw the artists take turns playing the hit records they've contributed to, was supposed to happen on Saturday, April 18 but was postponed until Monday night due to technical difficulties. While both Babyface and Riley both brought the heat with classics like Tevin Campbell's "Can We Talk" and Keith Sweat's "Make It Last Forever," Babyface got things started with a bang sharing a story about the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson. "Speaking of MJ, it reminds me of a story, true story, fun fact. One time, Michael called me and said, 'Babyface, do you know who Halle Berry is?'" he told Riley during the Instagram Livestream. "I said, 'Yeah, I know Halle Berry.' He said, 'Could you do me a favor? I want you to call her because I want to take her out on a date.'" he continued. "I said, 'What?' and he said, 'Call her, I want to take her out on a date.' So I said, 'Let me reach out' and I reached out for him, for the agent because I didnt have Halle Berrys number." "I called and gave the message and the managers like, 'What?' and I said, 'Yeah, he wants to take her out on a date.' And then, I was waiting to hear back from Halle and I cant tell you exactly what Halle said, but I imagine it probably would have been something like this That's when the 62-year-old producer cut to a clip of Berry from the movie Boomerang saying, "You know, what do you know about love? What do you possibly think you know about love?" Babyface and Teddy Riley are live on Instagram rn, and Babyface talked about that one time Michael wanted to take Halle Berry on a date pic.twitter.com/uomIeqGtuw Julie | (@juliejksn) April 21, 2020 Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Some internet users saw this as evidence that tied Ms. Abramovic to a wider conspiracy known as #PizzaGate, in which Mr. Podesta was said to be involved in a child-trafficking ring run out of a pizza parlor. Ms. Abramovic said the Spirit Cooking dinner, which had the same name as a book and a performance in which she painted absurd recipes in blood on the walls of an Italian gallery, actually involved her cooking a few simple dishes for about 20 people who had donated to her art institute. We had lots of fun, she said. There was no human blood, or baby serving, or sex orgies. So when the conspiracy theories started popping up, Ms. Abramovic said, she thought it was just insane. I am an artist, not a Satanist! she said. Ms. Abramovic said she expected the rumors to last a few weeks, at most, then disappear. Four years later, they havent. Since then, Ms. Abramovic has received many emailed death threats sometimes three a day, she said. The organizers of some of her shows had also received threats, she added, including the Royal Academy in London, where she is scheduled to have a retrospective this year, and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where she is hoping to stage a new opera. People who appeared to be healthcare workers stood in the street Sunday in Denver in counterprotest against hundreds of people who gathered at the Colorado State Capitol to demand that the state's stay-at-home order be lifted. Alyson McClaran / Reuters Photos taken Sunday in Denver showed two people dressed in N95 masks and scrubs standing defiant against those protesting Colorado's stay-at-home orders. The Denver protesters were calling for state lockdown orders to be lifted while the apparent healthcare workers were counterprotesting silently in the street. Video of the standoff shows a protester in her car yelling at one healthcare worker to "go to China if you want communism." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Photos captured the moment when two apparent healthcare workers stood defiantly in the way of people in Denver protesting Colorado's lockdown. The photos were taken Sunday by the photojournalist Alyson McClaren during a rally calling for states to lift coronavirus lockdown measures. According to The Denver Post, several hundred protesters descended on the Colorado State Capitol during the rally. In the photos, counterprotesters, wearing N95 masks and scrubs, stood in the middle of the road to stop a convoy of cars protesting near the capitol. The lockdown opponents were driving in a gridlock to demonstrate against the measures, while others carried signs that said "All jobs are essential" and "Dangerous freedom over gov't tyranny," according to ABC News. McClaran told The New York Times that the healthcare workers "were blocking the roads until the police force stepped in" and that "people were putting their cars right up against them." One of the counterprotesters in Denver on Sunday. Alyson McClaran / Reuters Video was also taken of the standoff between the lockdown protesters and the healthcare workers. In footage posted to Twitter by the user Marc Zenn, one woman rolled down her window and yelled at one of the healthcare workers to "go to China if you want communism." "This is a free country," she said. "Land of the free. Go to China if you want communism. You can go to work why can't I go to work?" Story continues The healthcare worker is seen standing silently in the video. As of Sunday evening, the US had reported more than 759,000 coronavirus cases and more than 40,000 deaths. Colorado had recorded 9,730 cases and 420 deaths. Earlier this month, Business Insider reported that about 306 million people were under some form of lockdown. More than 9,000 US healthcare workers have contracted COVID-19 over the past two months, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of last week, at least 27 had died. On Sunday evening, President Donald Trump defended the protesters resisting coronavirus lockdowns as "good people" who were suffering from "cabin fever." Read the original article on Insider Healthcare officials worldwide are fighting to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Scientists are studying the virus in order to find a cure, but researchers in China say that preliminary studies shows that COVID-19 is mutating and there are no more than 30 mutations of the virus. This could also explain why the virus is more deadly in certain countries in the world. Virus mutation The researchers from Zhejiang University stated that they had direct evidence that the virus has acquired mutations that are capable of substantially changing its pathogenicity. The said study was written by Professor Li Lanjuan, one of China's top scientists, and her team. Professor Li was reportedly the first expert to propose a lockdown in Wuhan, where COVID-19 originated. The samples of the virus were taken from 11 patients who were admitted to hospitals in Hangzhou, 470 miles east of Wuhan, between January 22 and February 4 during the early phase of the outbreak. By using ultra-deep sequencing, researchers identified 33 mutations of the new coronavirus, 19 of which were said to be new. According to the study, the deadliest mutations in the patients had also been found in most patients across Europe. The South Morning China Post also reported that the milder strains were the predominant types that are found in some parts of the United States, such as Washington state. Also Read: Anti-Lockdown Riot Break Out in Paris After Evidence of Police Racism One mutation, that was found in five patients involved in the research, was only been seen in one case in Australia, according to the study. The researchers also said that the findings indicate that the true diversity of the viral strains is still largely underappreciated. They also warned vaccine developers that the accumulating mutations of the virus should be considered in order to avoid potential pitfalls. In the study, the researchers also assessed the viral load, meaning the total amount of the virus, in human cells after one, two, four and eight hours, as well as after 24 and 48 hours later. The most aggressive strains created 270 times as much viral load as the least potent type, according to the scientists. Professor Li and her colleagues stated in their findings that a higher viral load leads to a higher cell death ratio. It stated that 10 out of the 11 patients involved in the study had moderate or worse symptoms of COVID-19. The study included 8 male patients and 3 female patients between four months and 71 years old. All the patients have recovered from the virus since the study. The said research has been published by medRxiv. The findings, which have not been peer-reviewed, were approved by Zhejiang University, according to the study. Coronavirus cases around the world As of April 20, 2,512,952 have been infected with COVID-19, there are 173,422 deaths and a total of 660,220 people have recovered. The United States is the country with the most coronavirus cases, with 795,602 confirmed cases, 43,177 total deaths and 72,561 total recovered. The Trump Administration is currently dealing with hundreds of protesters as some states are reopening their businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic. Related Article: Skin of Two Chinese Doctors Turned Dark After Being Critically Ill With COVID-19 @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. LOBAMBA Lock down, test, distribute food and masks. These were the four directives given to Cabinet by Members of Parliament (MPs) during an urgent sitting which was held yesterday in Parliament during the public holiday. During a six-hour debate, which proceeded late into the night, Manzini South MP Thandi Nxumalo was the first to move the motion using Standing Order No.58 where the MPs basically tore into governments implementation of the partial lockdown thus far. MP Nxumalo submitted that as much as they appreciated some of governments efforts in the fight against the coronavirus, there were a lot of conflicting statements made by it. She said government must ensure that it provided the masks for everyone in the country instead of people being made to purchase their own. Condoms In fact, government should prioritise the masks like it did with condoms because at first we were under the impression that the masks were not a necessity, she submitted. She added that even the food parcels should be purchased by government and wondered what had happened to the E100 million which had been allocated by Parliament to government for the COVID-19 fight. She alleged said there was already evidence that the money was now being used through corrupt means. She stated that legislators should also stop being part of those people who tendered for business, under the COVID-19 umbrella. Even if this is not written down, politicians must stop accessing those funds, she said. After 8pm, the MPs passed a motion directing government to procure and supply, food, masks and sanitisers to the public within 14 days. MP Nxumalo said emaSwati would in fact not be killed by COVID-19, but by hunger because a majority of them did not have food yet the virus thrived in people who had a weakened immune system. Money She was supported by Motshane MP Robert Magongo, who wanted to know how the money which was being collected by the Resource Mobilisation Committee was being utilised because such money could also be allocated to the purchasing of masks. Gege MP Musa Kunene said the nation was confused because one minister said no one would be allowed into public transport without wearing a mask while another minister sang a different tune. Is the 22 (now 24) recorded positive cases a true picture or is it just along the Mbabane-Manzini corridor? asked MP Kunene. He asked the Minister of Health, Lizzie Nkosi, how many people had been tested in Gege for the virus in order for the ministry to boldly give out the current statistics. What is happening on the ground because I know that South Africa is on full lockdown, meanwhile we are on partial lockdown and now with the relaxed partial lockdown, I am not even sure what we are doing, said MP Kunene. He said governments behaviour was a sure way to ensure that emaSwati would die because of the way it was going on about it. He said government was treating Parliament like a stokvel. He also wondered when the food parcels would start being distributed by government. He suggested that the statistics should come from each Inkhundla once government had conducted tests there. Mkhiweni MP Michael Masuku also wondered what the funds which had been initially allocated for the Kings Birthday celebrations were being utilised for, because that money could have been used to purchase food parcels for the various communities in the country. He said during the first leg of the partial lockdown, people were used to staying at home, but with the relaxation of the regulations, people were once again up and about. Meanwhile, Mpolonjeni MP Jacob Siwela also supported his colleagues in the distribution of food parcels as soon as possible, stating that it did not make sense for government to ask people to stay at home, while they had nothing to eat. He also supported the notion that the masks and hand sanitisers should all come from government instead of the people. He insisted that the food parcels must be a priority. On a similar note, Shiselweni Region MP Nokuthula Dlamini said government should consider supporting rural communities in the making of the masks because it was a fact that people continued to share them. Masks She also wondered how much the masks were supposed to cost because some of the shops still sold them for E20 including the surgical ones, which could only be utilised once. The MP said the food parcels from government should also include sanitary pads. Lomahasha MP Ndumiso Masimula said he had made several phone calls trying to establish where he could purchase a few masks, but the company he was directed to by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade informed him that they could only accept bulk orders. He questioned how the testing process was going now that Eswatini could conduct its own tests. Meanwhile, Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo said when they passed the E100 million, they did not know what was happening on the ground. He wondered if it was enough, adding that the current government was killing the Tinkhundla System of governance. Transporting MP Khumalo said government could even cut costs if for example they could distribute 2 000 masks per inkhundla and that as legislators they would gladly assist with transporting the masks to their various constituencies. There are 59 MPs whom you could utilise, but nothing has been done in that regard as this could even save transport costs for government, said Khumalo. He said even an amount of E30 million could be set aside to provide the masks for the entire population if that was the case. He said government needed to purchase food and distribute it to the tinkhundla centres, which was something government had previously done in 2013. He said this would come in the form of 1 000 x 50kg maize meal bags and 500 bags of beans for each inkhundla. He said it would be reported that people were killed by the virus, yet it was hunger. Maphalaneni MP Mabulala Maseko said the food which could be distributed for now included the commodities under the school feeding programmes, which were rotting in the schools. Crude oil futures contract price may have plunged into negative territory in the international market, but India's leading commodity exchange MCX has fixed an interim settlement price of Re 1 per barrel -- a move some traders said would help big brokers avert losses amounting to hundreds of crores of rupees at the cost of others having taken a short position. Officials said capital market regulator Sebi is aware of the situation and is actively looking into the issue, while the matter has reached the government authorities as well, and they want an immediate action if the exchange has acted against regulations or was trying to benefit any particular trader at the cost of others. Last night, the NYMEX WTI Crude futures May 2020 contract settled at an unprecedented USD (-)37.63 a barrel, after slipping into the negative zone on fears of fast-filling storage facilities globally and an unprecedented plunge in demand due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX) of India, which uses the NYMEX price for determining its own settlement price and the available RBI's reference rate for USD-INR for conversion, however, said in a circular that due to the unprecedented price fluctuation in the international markets in crude oil, the due date rate for Crude Oil futures contract expiring on April 20, 2020, is under finalisation. "In the interim, the provisional settlement price for April 20, 2020, is considered as Re 1 per barrel for the computation of members' obligation for trade date April 20, 2020. Differential settlement, if any, on fixation of the final settlement price shall be done subsequently," it told its members. Traders said MCX crude has open positions of 11,522 contracts, meaning 11,522 open positions on expiry were outstanding. Also, since the number of futures buy positions should equal the number of futures sell positions, there would be 11,522 sell or short positions at the time of expiry of the contract. Several traders said MCX's decision to fix a settlement price of Re 1, even on an interim basis, would lead to people holding these 11,522 short positions losing their legitimate gains. Officials, however, said it would need to be probed whether the decision to fix an interim price is aimed at giving some undue respite to those having suffered huge losses. As per the prevailing practice, the Monday night's NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) closing price of USD (-)37.63 a barrel would have given a settlement price differential of about Rs (-)2,860 a barrel for India. As the last trade price at 5 pm on Monday here was Rs 965, the total difference from MCX's last trade price till the actual/ideal settlement price should therefore be around Rs 3,825 (965+2,860) per barrel. However, with MCX deciding on Re 1 interim settlement, the positions outstanding at close of trade at Rs 965 will only get benefit up to Re 1, thus losing nearly Rs 2,860 a barrel. As one contract at MCX is equivalent to 100 barrels, the total open positions amount to 11,55,200 barrels, thus resulting in a huge loss of over Rs 440 crore (based on Rs 3,825 a barrel). However, a settlement at Re 1 would limit the loss to just about Rs 110 crore, thus helping some big brokers avert losses amounting to Rs 330 crore at the cost of others having held short or sell positions, traders said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Yes, the pandemic is a calamity that any responsible and respectable politician should try to hold above politics as-usual. But in these times and under this administration, social distancing and flattening the curve have been pulled into the culture wars, pitting the life-preserving policy of social distancing in some cases against the freedom of religion and assembly. Benchmarks traded with massive losses near day's low in morning trade. Trading sentiment was dented after US oil futures for May plunged below zero as storage for crude runs close to full amid a worldwide glut as demand collapses due to the pandemic. A rapidly rising number of Covid-19 infections in India and the resultant deaths also put pressure on bourses. The Nifty regained 9,000 mark after slipping below that level in early trade. Selling was wide spread with metal stocks declining the most. At 10:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 838.77 points or 2.65% at 30,809.23. The Nifty 50 index was down 247.55 points or 2.67% at 9,014.30. Broader market tumbled. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 2.03% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 2.16%. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, 578 shares rose and 1276 shares fell. A total of 107 shares were unchanged. Buzzing Index: The Nifty Metal index slumped 5.32% to 1,662.95, extending its losing streak to second trading session. It was the worst performing sectoral index on the NSE. The index is down 8.45% in two trading sessions from its previous closing high of 1816.50 posted on 17 April 2020. Jindal Steel & Power (down 9.99%), Hindalco Industries (down 8.32%), Tata Steel (down 6.97%), Vedanta (down 6.26%), Steel Authority of India (down 5.9%), National Aluminium Company (down 4.68%), JSW Steel (down 4.35%), Coal India (down 3.12%), Hindustan Zinc (down 2.98%) and NMDC (down 2.72%) were top losers in metal segment. Q4 Results Today: ACC (down 1.63%), CRISIL (down 2.69%), ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (down 3.91%), GTPL Hathway (down 9.24%), Den Network (up 4.56%) and Tejas Networks (up 3.77%) will announce their Q4 March 2020 results today. Earnings Impact: Tata Elxsi rose 1.82% after the company announced decent number for Q4 March 2020 after market hours yesterday. Net profit rose 8.9% to Rs 82.08 crore on 3.65% rise in net sales to Rs 438.89 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q3 December 2019. The company has also declared a final dividend of Rs 16.50 per share. Infosys fell 2.11% to Rs 639.15 after the company announced Q4 March 2020 result after market hours on Monday, 20 April 2020. On a consolidated basis, net profit (after minority interest) fell 3.1% to Rs 4,321 crore on 0.8% rise in revenues to Rs 23,267 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q3 December 2019. Operating profit fell 2.7% to 4,927 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q3 December 2019. Infosys said that considering the business uncertainty emanating from COVID-19 it is unable to provide guidance on revenues and margins for FY 21 at this stage. The company will provide guidance after visibility improves. Linde India fell 3.32% to Rs 520.05. Linde's consolidated net profit rose 9.7% to Rs 39.03 crore in Q1 March 2020 over Q1 March 2019. Net sales, however, declined 14.5% to Rs 377.26 crore during the period under review. The company's profit before tax (PBT) rose 8.7% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 56.59 crore in Q1 March 2020, due to lower total expenditure (down 11.6% YoY) and lower interest payments (down 87.2% YoY). In view of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and economic forecasts, the management has evaluated the impact on its financial results for the current quarter and made appropriate adjustment to revenue, debtors provisioning and actuarial assumptions. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Islamabad, April 21 : The next session of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS), a bilateral forum set up in May 2018, will be held soon. The agreement to arrange the next meeting of APAPPS was reached during a telephonic conversation between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Afghan counterpart, Hanif Atmar, on Monday, reports The Express Tribune. A statement issue by the Foreign Office said Qureshi congratulated Atmar on his recent appointment and expressed hope that during his tenure, there would be enhanced interaction between the foreign ministries of the two countries. Prospect of enhancing bilateral relations in all areas were discussed. Qureshi reiterated the importance of existing bilateral mechanisms and hoped that the next session of APAPPS would be held soon which would help further strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields. The APAPPS was established in May 2018 as part of efforts by two sides to sort out issues though negotiations. The APAPPS framework provides a comprehensive and structured mechanism to enhance engagement between counterpart institutions of the two countries. APAPPS comprises five working groups on politico-diplomatic, military, intelligence, economic and trade and refugees issues. The last meeting of the forum was held in Islamabad in June 2019. The next meeting was supposed to take place in Kabul in December. The delay has apparently been attributed to uneasy relationship between the two countries. When Jane Bayly heard the news that a hospital SWAT team was volunteering in a Toronto long-term care residence this weekend, she called her parents Etobicoke nursing home, where more than 100 residents have tested positive for COVID-19, to get an update on reinforcements. Excited by Premier Doug Fords announcement last Wednesday that homes struggling with sick or missing workers would get help from hospitals, Bayly expected fresh workers to arrive at Eatonville Care Centre, where her parents, Peter and Micky Green, share a room in the dementia unit. Married for 58 years, they have a deep connection, and her frail father watches over his wife, who has cognitive decline. Both have COVID-19, but have mild symptoms. I was so happy the home would finally have the help they needed, Bayly said. Instead, she was told Eatonville was struggling to replace its personal support workers, despite a boost from additional new nurses and public health staff. Shortages of front-line workers have reached crisis levels across Ontario, as infected staff stay home or stay away, afraid to work in an outbreak. The workers in Eatonville are so lovely, and they are always so kind to my parents. But they need help, Bayly said. The personal support workers who are left are worked off their feet. They are exhausted. Could we please just get them some help? They dont have enough time to properly care for my parents and the other residents. Eatonville said Monday it has 138 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 33 confirmed deaths. Nearly 250 residents live at Eatonville, according to government inspection reports. Eatonvilles executive director, Evelyn MacDonald, said in an email, In the last few days we have had some extra help from Trillium Health Partners and the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network, along with help from geriatricians, extra training on the use of personal protection equipment and significant support in the testing of staff. MacDonald said the home has been in touch with provincial officials for help filling staffing gaps. The recent attention on our home has, however, made it a challenge to recruit and retain much needed staff, MacDonald said. The remaining staff have been doing a fantastic job at covering off vacancies, but this will be a challenge to sustain. We also have a number of new staff joining us throughout the week including a Registered Practical Nurse, a housekeeper and additional laundry staff, she added. On Saturday, the University Health Network (UHN) started sending medical staff, including physicians who specialize in psychiatry, kidney transplants and womens cancers, to volunteer as personal support workers at Rekai Centres Sherbourne Place. UHN volunteers will also work as front-line staff in Rekais second downtown location, Wellesley Central Place. Both homes have been struggling to find workers after suffering from COVID outbreaks. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Long-Term Care said five Toronto hospitals, Michael Garron Hospital, Womens College, North York General and Unity Health Toronto, along with Mount Sinai Hospital under the UHN umbrella will begin to support 38 long-term care homes in the city. Some hospitals outside Toronto are either helping or assessing the needs of nursing homes, the spokesperson said. During his daily news conference Monday, Premier Doug Ford was asked whether he is considering calling in the Canadian military to do front-line work in nursing homes. As of today, no, Ford said, saying that decision could change. I wouldnt take it off the table. Angie Hamilton, a retired tax and estate lawyer, wants the military or hospital volunteers to help at her mothers private Toronto retirement home, Bradgate Arms Retirement Residence. Her mother, June Hamilton, has dementia, and until the pandemic hit, she had 24-hour-a day support from four private-caregivers. Her 99th birthday is in June. She spends her days in bed and until now was turned every four hours by her caregivers to make sure she did not develop pressure ulcers. After her workers started testing positive for COVID, June began spending nights alone for the first time in years, Hamilton said. Her family could not find new workers, and then a family friend, a nurse, agreed to help. But she cannot be there 24 hours a day. Bradgate Arms, owned by Revera, is on lockdown with seven residents and four Bradgate staff (not including privately hired workers) testing positive for COVID-19, according to an email sent from Bradgate to families. The home said it is working with Toronto Public Health to test every resident and worker. Revera spokesperson Larry Roberts said Bradgate Arms has had some issues with private caregivers, hired by families. Many of those caregivers left after either becoming ill or are too afraid to come to work. Bradgate has stepped in to ensure the basic care needs of the residents are met, Roberts said in an email. He said the home has contracted with a care company to provide 24-hour PSW supports to backfill expected shortages from third-party care companies and has expedited its recruiting and hiring of new staff. Hamilton devised a way to watch over her mom, keeping the landline in Junes small suite open and on speakerphone, so she can listen. The landline is linked to her husbands cellphone. With dementia, her mother is sometimes confused, and other times lives in the past, like the days when she was marshalling children into class, as a young teacher. She speaks in full sentences and lives in a wonderful world where everyone she loved is still alive and with her, Hamilton said. After her final caregiver was diagnosed and left on the weekend, Hamilton said her mother has been crying overnight, calling for her Mama. Sometimes she cries for her father. Hamilton said she now stays awake all night, to talk to her mother over the speakerphone when she is scared. Hamilton said she tries to calm her by talking about the days when shed come home after high school and they had tea together. Several times now she has told me that I am her favourite child, Hamilton said, laughing. On a recent night, Hamilton heard her mother saying, I cant breathe, I cant breathe. She called Bradgates nurse, who came to help. Hamilton and her family are now trying to find enough workers to help her mother peacefully, and painlessly, work through the virus, even if she is in palliative care. This is the plight that is playing out in so many, many long-term care and retirement homes. It is unconscionable to me that we would not call in the Armed Forces for help. Michael Hurley, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, said he admires the courage and altruism of people going into the homes as volunteers, during an outbreak but questions why so many older people are left in nursing homes instead of getting care in hospitals. Is it not better to remove them and place them in a facility, with all a hospitals resources, that can provide comfort and hopefully in some cases, provide a recovery from COVID? Hurley asked. Do you not think it is odd, that this demographic is not being sent to hospital for treatment? Hurley said. I know of people who are 85 who have told their family doctor, Im not done living, Im enjoying life. Dont write me off. The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Heather Humphreys has said people whose flights are cancelled are entitled to a full refund. The Minister told Newstalks Pat Kenny show that she has been in contact with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) over the issue following concerns that some airlines have offered customers vouchers as compensation for cancelled flights, instead of cash refunds. "We're certainly looking at that matter. I know that some travel agents have found themselves in a very difficult situation. "The CCPC will certainty look at all of those issues and I am in conversation with them. "It's important that people do get refunded for the cost for flights that were cancelled. "They're entitled to their money back obviously under law, so therefore they should get their money back under law. "But there are some issues that need to be teased out yet, and I'm working with the Consumer Protection Commission on that matter. The current restrictions started on Friday, March 27. They mandate that everyone should stay at home, only leaving to: Shop for essential food and household goods; Attend medical appointments, collect medicine or other health products; Care for children, older people or other vulnerable people - this excludes social family visits; Exercise outdoors - within 2kms of your home and only with members of your own household, keeping 2 metres distance between you and other people Travel to work if you provide an essential service - be sure to practice physical distancing Ms Humphreys said that consumers were absolutely entitled to a refund. But she was examining whether that should be in the form of a cash refund or through a voucher. I'm looking at that at the minute. Earlier, speaking to Ireland AM, Heather Humphreys said Read More: The business minister said: What we want businesses to do in the meantime is to think about coming back and to plan for it. The National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) have drawn up a number of guidelines for retailers on how to manage social distancing and what they need to do. There are also guidelines for manufacturing companies. I would suggest that they contact the NSAI, find out the information and start to plan to come back. - additional reporting by Press Association By Lawrence Hurley The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the constitutional guarantee of trial by jury requires a unanimous verdict in serious crimes, siding with a Louisiana man convicted of murder and paving the way for potentially hundreds of defendants found guilty by divided juries to receive new trials. Only two of the 50 states, Louisiana and Oregon, have permitted non-unanimous verdicts By Lawrence Hurley The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the constitutional guarantee of trial by jury requires a unanimous verdict in serious crimes, siding with a Louisiana man convicted of murder and paving the way for potentially hundreds of defendants found guilty by divided juries to receive new trials. Only two of the 50 states, Louisiana and Oregon, have permitted non-unanimous verdicts. Writing for the court in the 6-3 ruling, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that the non-unanimous verdict requirement in both states traced back to past racist policies intended to reduce the power of non-white jurors to influence the outcome of trials. The ruling, overturning a 1972 Supreme Court precedent, means that Evangelisto Ramos, who was convicted by a 12-member jury on a 10-2 vote, is likely to get a new trial. Ramos, found guilty in the 2014 New Orleans murder of a woman named Trinece Fedison whose body was found in a trash can, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The justices concluded that the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment, which guarantees the right to an impartial trial, requires that jurors be unanimous to convict in serious criminal cases. Gorsuch noted that historically some minor crimes do not require a jury trial. Louisiana updated its law to prohibit non-unanimous verdicts starting last year but that change did not apply retroactively. The ruling could benefit hundreds of inmates convicted with non-unanimous verdicts in Louisiana and Oregon by leading to new trials. "We are heartened that the court has held, once and for all, that the promise of the Sixth Amendment fully applies in Louisiana, rejecting any concept of second-class justice," said Ben Cohen, a lawyer for Ramos. Gorsuch said there is evidence that when the Sixth Amendment was enacted, it was assumed there must be a unanimous verdict. "This court has repeatedly and over many years recognized that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimity," Gorsuch wrote. Two other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, joined Gorsuch and three liberal justices - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor - in the majority. A 1972 Supreme Court ruling that state court juries did not have to be unanimous drove the divisions among the justices in the case. The majority voted to overrule that precedent, but the three dissenting justices said there was not a compelling reason to overturn it. Writing in dissent, conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the ruling "imposes a potentially crushing burden on the courts and criminal justice systems" in Louisiana and Oregon. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan and conservative Chief Justice John Roberts also were in dissent. How the court addresses overturning its own precedents is a topic of contention, with high stakes for abortion rights. Abortion rights activists fear that the court's 5-4 conservative majority may seek to undermine or overturn its landmark 1973 ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide. The court is currently weighing a challenge to Louisiana abortion restrictions that could indicate which way it is heading, with a ruling due by the end of June. (Reporting by Will Dunham) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says 38 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the last 24 hours, bringing total number of confirmed cases to 665. The NCDC made this known on Monday night in the latest report posted on its verified twitter handle. According to it, three new states- Gombe, Sokoto and Abia have joined states with reported cases of the virus, as the number of states with confirmed cases now reached 25. The agency stated that of the 38 new cases from eight states, 23 were reported in Kano; five in Gombe; three in Kaduna; two in Borno, two also in Abia, while one each was recorded in FCT, Sokoto and Ekiti. As at 11:10p.m April 20, there are 665 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in the country, while 188 were treated and have been discharged, 22 deaths have been recorded. As of April 20, 11:10p.m, the active cases are 455 and majority of the active cases were in a stable condition, it said. The breakdown of cases by states were Lagos-376, FCT-89, Kano-59, Osun-20, Oyo-16, Edo-15, Ogun-12, Kwara-9, Katsina-12, Bauchi-7, Kaduna-9, AkwaIbom-9, Delta-4, Ekiti-4, Ondo-3, Enugu-2, Rivers-2, Niger-2, Benue-1, Anambra-1, Borno-3, Jigawa-2, Abia-2, Gombe-5 and Sokoto-1. The agency said it would continue to respond to the pandemic across the country, adding it has prioritised the distribution of Viral Transport Medium (VTM) to all the states and FCT for sample collection. NCDC said that it had deployed COVID-19 starter packs to all the tertiary health institutions and Federal Medical Centres. It has also set up expanded laboratory network for COVID-19 across the six geopolitical zones with 13 laboratories activated (NRL, DRL, IDH, LUTH, NIMR, ACEGID, UCH, ISTH, FETHA, AKTH and NVRI, DNA and UMTH. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, NCDC Director-General, had warned Nigerians against the washing of surgical masks for reuse. Ihekweazu noted that such behaviour posed a risk for the spread of virus. He advised Nigerians that the surgical masks should be disposed of in a waste bin after use. He, however, advised Nigerians to use only those from the original packaging after washing their hands. In its COVID-19 situation report dated, April 19, and made available The NCDC on Monday said it had tested 7,153 total samples collected as at April 20 for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the country. It stated that most affected aged groups were 31 40, making up 21 per cent of the total number of confirmed cases. The agency said that the data shows that of the confirmed cases, 70 per cent were males and 30 per cent were females. The NCDC noted that the total number of passengers of interest were 9, 209, where 9,058 (98 per cent) have completed follow up in the country. According to it, in terms of source of cases, 210 have travel history, 129 were contacts of confirmed cases, and 235 infected, but with unknown source. It said 84 cases still have incomplete epidemiological information. Sonos has launched a new radio service, allowing people to stream music for free. It is the first time that Sonos has offered a music service of its own on its smart speakers, which until now have played music from other streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. The new radio service sits alongside those streaming platforms, which will continue to work in the same way as before. It is available now through a software update that can be installed using the Sonos app. It integrates traditional radio programming on news, music and sport from other radio stations, taken from partners such as TuneIn. Sonos says there will be 60,000 of those radio stations available at launch, and more to come in the future. But it also includes Sonos's original programming, which will include guest DJs from around the music industry as well as other music and "behind-the-scenes stories". They will come in the form of the main radio station known as Sonos Sound System as well as ad-free artist stations that will feature picks from musicians. At launch, that includes a station from Thom Yorke. In the future, there will be stations from Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard, David Byrne from Talking Heads, and Third Man Records, with additional stations debuting "regularly", according to the company, and will appear on Wednesdays. The original programming is produced from a new studio in Sonos' store in New York City, the company said, though that facility is understood not to be in use at the moment owing to the coronavirus lockdown. Radio companies such as TuneIn have previously offered radio programming around the world through Sonos, though that has required the use of their separate platform. Sonos said it had worked with those platforms to build its new radio offering, and that they are now bundled together. Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty The internet radio stations will stilll be available for all customers worldwide. But the Sonos original programming is only available in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia for now. The updates comes as Sonos is expected to launch a new operating system that it promises will bring new features but will also be unavailable on older hardware. The new Sonos Radio features will be available on both versions of the software. That update has attracted criticism from users who argue that the new software could leave their older speakers useless. The mother of a three-year-old girl killed in a horrific road crash said she is "very disappointed" at the sentence imposed on the man whose careless driving caused her death. Amy Wall wept in court after the man whose careless driving caused the death of her daughter Estlin received a 1,500 fine and a driving ban. Judge Gerald Keys imposed a fine of 750 on Senan O'Flaherty (63) for careless driving causing the death of Estlin Wall on March 15, 2017, days before her fourth birthday. The judge also imposed a 750 fine for careless driving causing seriously bodily harm to Amy's husband and Estlin's father, Vincent Wall. O'Flaherty had pleaded guilty to both careless driving offences. Careless driving causing death carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail. The judge also imposed a mandatory four-year driving ban on O'Flaherty, a truck driver and small farmer, and said: "I'm conscious that this man cannot earn a living for at least four years." Expand Close Estlin Wall / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Estlin Wall In response, Ms Wall, from her seat in court, said: "That's how old my daughter was - four years." Judge Keys replied: "I have set out in great detail the reasoning behind this judgment and it should be seriously considered in depth." Speaking outside Ennis courthouse, the grieving mother said: "When you think the poor man can't work for four years - that's literally the amount of time Estlin had on Earth, so it's hard to equate the two as being fair. "Even if they think it's a low level of culpability, the consequences are so great. Expand Close Driver Senan OFlaherty / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Driver Senan OFlaherty "It's hard to feel just losing your licence is enough for what we lost and what Estlin lost. We are very disappointed - it doesn't feel right for the consequences. Fatally "It's hard to think of all the energy we have put into this over the last three years that have delayed the healing and grieving process and trying to move forward with our lives, that's what it culminates in - a lost licence, basically." Judge Keys earlier said: "In these type of cases, there are no winners or losers. This is a very tragic case which I have considered for a lengthy period of time and with great difficulty." Estlin was fatally injured in a crash moments after truck driver O'Flaherty went to pull out from behind a bus between Ennistymon and Inagh. At around 9am on March 15, 2017, Mr Wall (41) was driving Estlin to her creche in Inagh from their home in Ennistymon, Co Clare. Once he saw the truck - travelling in the opposite direction - perform the manoeuvre, Mr Wall's car mounted a grass verge. When he tried to move his car back onto the road, he lost control and it spun around causing the car to collide with an oncoming Skoda, two cars behind the truck driven by O'Flaherty in the line of traffic behind the bus. O'Flaherty and the Cliffs of Moher-bound bus driver ahead of him continued on their journey not realising a crash had occurred. Mr Wall suffered a severe and significant brain injury as a result of the crash, has no recollection of the accident and was placed in an induced coma after the crash and missed Estlin's funeral. The judge said records show the bus in front of O'Flaherty's truck was being driven erratically and that O'Flaherty's truck was too close to the bus. However, Judge Keys said O'Flaherty's degree of culpability "is at the bottom end of the spectrum" in those circumstances. He said O'Flaherty's driving on the day could not be described as dangerous, hence the acceptance by the DPP of the charge of careless driving. The judge said the only aggravating factor in the case was O'Flaherty's previous conviction for careless driving in 2002. Heavily pregnant with the couple's third child, Ms Wall added: "It's very disappointing, but we're days away from having another baby - we have a three-year-old - and there was nothing that was ever going to bring Estlin back, so that's how we're going to have to think about it in order to move forward. "To not even get a suspended sentence, it doesn't feel right at all. And there was talk of remorse being shown which we have not seen at all." UK businesses claimed 1.5billion in state aid to pay the wages of 1.3million UK workers in less than a day after the government opened its coffers to prevent mass unemployment during the coronavirus crisis. The job retention scheme opened at 8am yesterday and by midnight had been used by 185,000 firms across the country, the Treasury revealed this afternoon. And it said that the payout would grow exponentially as more companies lodge a claim to cover 80 per cent of salaries under the scheme, which is set to last for four months if the country remains paralysed by the pandemic. A Treasury spokesman said: 'We expect all of these numbers to continue to rise as people complete the online form. 'It will be a much bigger figure by the end of the now four-month period.' Up to half of Britain's companies are expecting to furlough most of their staff at a cost of up to 40billion to the Treasury. However, the new figures came amid rising anger at some of the firms using the scheme, designed to help hard-pressed employers. The billionaire owners of three of London luxury hotels have put 1,200 staff on furlough, asking the taxpayer to pick up their wages under the Government's schemes. Staff at five-star establishments Claridges, The Connaught and The Berkeley Hotel have been told they are on furlough until further notice, with the Government paying 80 per cent of their salaries and owners The Maybourne Group making up the rest. Mr Sunak said the coronavirus job retention scheme should pay out to companies who logged in today within six working days Staff at five-star establishments Claridges (pictured), The Connaught and The Berkeley Hotel have been told they are on furlough until further notice, with the Government paying 80 per cent of their salaries and owners The Maybourne Group making up the rest Jim Harra, chief executive of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), said his organisation is 'very confident' the system running the coronavirus job retention scheme would work after it had been 'tested at volume' The figure will get much higher because firms have only claimed so far for salary they have paid out or are about to pay out. The Treasury spokesman added: 'The time it covers will vary, for some it might just be March, or it might be specific for periods in March. 'For others it will be March and April. But it will not be for the full four months, They will have only claimed for payroll already made or about to be made.' The update came after Rishi Sunak last night revealed that more than 140,000 companies employing more than one million people applied to the scheme in its first eight hours, including 67,000 claims in the first 30 minutes. Fronting the daily coronavirus news conference he said that the payouts should be received within six working days. The Chancellor said that the programme was a sign that the Government had 'delivered our promise' to get help in place before the end of April. But it comes amid confusion over when and how the economy will be restarted once the worst of the outbreak is over. Employers are expected to claim for millions of workers put on temporary leave because of the crisis, and the furlough system has been given a capacity of up to 450,000 employee claims per hour. Under HMRC's job retention scheme, the government will cover 80 per cent of a worker's wages, up to 2,500 a month, if they are not working but are kept on the payroll. Dan Tomlinson, economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said: 'The sheer scale of applications for the Government's Job Retention Scheme on its opening day shows just how badly the scheme is needed. 'Without firms having the option to furlough staff, Britain could be facing the prospect of totally unprecedented numbers of people being unemployed. 'The claims made today alone are set to cost at least 4.2 billion if staff are furloughed for three months. 'The demand today also indicates that the new IT system has managed to cope with significant claims. The next challenge is to make sure the payments to firms get made as swiftly as possible, as the scheme is very much on the frontline of protecting both firms and family incomes amid a huge economic crisis.' The lockdown is pressuring a number of British businesses, with one report warning that as many as 11.7million people could be furloughed or left jobless in the three months to the end of June. But Jim Harra, chief executive of HM Revenue & Customs, said his organisation is 'very confident' the system running the coronavirus job retention scheme would work after it had been 'tested at volume'. What does it mean to be furloughed? If you're being furloughed by your employer, it means you're being sent home, but will still receive 80 per cent of your salary by the Government, up to a maximum of 2,500 a month. This Government job retention scheme is only for employed people, it does not apply if you are self-employed. However, you first need to agree to be put on furlough by your employer, who can then apply for the money to the Government. You cannot apply for it yourself. Your employer can choose to pay the remaining 20 per cent of your wages, although it is not obliged to do so. If you earn more than 2,500 a month, your employer can choose to 'top up' your salary, but again it is not forced to do so. You will still continue to pay income tax and national insurance contributions while on furlough. The Government advice says: 'If you and your employer both agree, your employer might be able to keep you on the payroll if they're unable to operate or have no work for you to do because of coronavirus. This is known as being 'on furlough'.' Advertisement He revealed the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme system had been tested at 'up to 450,000 claims per hour', and insisted that if employers are patient while using the Government website in the next few days, they will be paid by April 30. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: 'Of course, there is a limit to the capacity of the system, so if every employer tries to use it at 8 o'clock this morning some will be asked to queue or come back later, that doesn't mean the system has crashed, it simply means that it's full. 'But employers can claim any time over the few days, between now and Wednesday, and we will have the money in their bank account by April 30.' He added: 'I'm confident that if employers are patient, use the system, it's available 24/7, and as I say, if your payroll date is April 30 you can claim any time today, tomorrow or Wednesday and we will get that money into your account.' Up to half of Britain's companies are expecting to furlough most of their staff at a cost of up to 40billion to the Treasury. The Government initially thought around 10 per cent of companies would take up the job retention scheme, at a cost of around 10billion, but around a fifth of smaller firms plan to furlough all of their staff and 50 per cent are taking up the scheme for some of their employees, the BBC reports. It comes as a report by an independent think tank suggested as many as 11.7 million people could be furloughed or unemployed over the next three months. Employees in the lowest-paying hospitality and retail sectors are most likely, 50% more than average, to be affected, a paper by the Resolution Foundation has found. V oices from across the property industry are calling for a stamp duty holiday to resurrect a market left at deaths door by the coronavirus outbreak. The call for government stimulus to kick-start home buying once lockdown is lifted comes as stay-at-home restrictions have brought the property market to a standstill. Looking beyond lockdown, Rightmoves Miles Shipside flagged up the need for a financial incentive for first-time buyers, home movers and downsizers to unclog the property market in what will be a period of immense financial uncertainty. He said: Owners need to be encouraged to move by reducing the costs of moving, and prospective buyers encouraged to buy by reducing the costs of funding their purchase. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors also reported almost universal pessimism from members looking at the next three months, with a majority gloomy about the outlook for the coming year. As a result, the industry body is one of many calling for government intervention in the form of a stamp duty holiday to get the market moving again. Hew Edgar, RICS head of government relations, said: RICS is not an organisation that would call for a stamp duty holiday on a whim, and indeed our view prior to Covid-19 was that it required a full-scale review. As we start to emerge from this crisis, however, it is likely that the finances of potential home buyers will be under strain, and the burden of stamp duty could put buyers off. For those who can afford to move, they may lack confidence in the market, adding to the slowdown. A stamp duty holiday could be one of the ways to reactivate the housing market quickly as a short-term measure. A 12-month stamp duty holiday was announced as part of a package of measures to boost the housing market after the 2008 financial crash. And a stamp duty holiday doubled the number of home sales during the 1992 downturn. Would a stamp duty holiday really help buyers? As the rules currently stand, a buyer must pay stamp duty on property costing more than 125,000 on a progressive scale, up to 12 per cent of the portion of a property purchase above 1.5 million. There is a three per cent surcharge for anyone buying a second home, while another additional three per cent charge is due to be introduced for overseas buyers next April. The average home in England costs 247,000, meaning it will incur a stamp duty bill of 2,447. First-time buyers pay no stamp duty up to 300,000. Stamp duty has been a lucrative tax for the Government, netting 8.4 billion in revenue for residential sales in 2018/19. However, Knight Frank warned that the Government stands to lose 4.4 billion in stamp duty receipts as a result of Covid-19 putting a stop to home sales. The estate agent is calling for a stamp duty holiday as part of a package of measures, which could include an extension of the Help to Buy scheme and staggering of section 106 requirements to ease cash flow for builders. Liam Bailey, Knight Franks global head of research said: Despite the fact the Government will forgo a significant amount of stamp duty revenue in 2020, it seems clear there will need to be a stamp duty holiday to actually get the market moving once the lockdown is lifted. Sumi Sukanya Dutta and Rajesh Asnani By Express News Service NEW DELHI/ JAIPUR: The Indian government on Tuesday asked states to not use the new rapid antibody or serological test for COVID-19 for two days amidst complaints from states that these kits, procured from China, are faulty and giving largely false-negative results. The Indian Council Of Medical Research, the nodal agency for the fight against the outbreak, said it would investigate the issue of faulty rapid testing kits and would "definitely not ignore this defect". Around 5.5 lakh rapid test kits had been procured by the government recently from two Chinese firms-- Guangzhou Wondfo and Zhuhai Livzonand had distributed across states after the ICMR recommended that extensive sampling would be carried out in coronavirus hot-spots for epidemiological or surveillance purpose. FOLLOW COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES HERE Meanwhile in Rajasthan, of nearly 100 COVID 19 confirmed positive patients tested in Jaipurs SMS medical college, the antibody test could detect just 5 patients after which the state government announced it will not use the kits and flagged the issue to the Centre. "After the test samples failed, there have been questions regarding the reliability of the rapid test kit. We used it in the state as per ICMR guidelines but this experiment failed completely, said Raghu Sharma, states health minister on Tuesday. The state had received 40,000 kits costing Rs 600 each. Officials at the Centre said that it had decided to use fast-track kits as the regular RT-PCR tests are slower, much more expensive, have to be conducted in laboratories and can find the positive case only during the infection period. "Rapid antibody test kits were distributed to all states and one state today said there are inaccuracies in these test kits. We confirmed this with three states and found that the findings were true to an extent. This is not a good sign. We are working on it," said Dr R R Gangakhedkar, chief epidemiologist with the ICMR said at the daily press briefing. He added that the reported accuracy of the tests varied from 6-71 per cent. The ICMR said in the next two days, it will send 8 teams from its various research institutions to states where the rapid test kits are being used and will get the kits validated before issuing further directions on this. Concerns had already been raised regarding these kits in several countries including the US and UK where the kits were rejected after being tried for testing initially. MADISON, Wis., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In just a few years, cannabis has gone from a criminalized drug to a global $150 billion business. Legal marijuana will create a $40 billion boost for the U.S. economy this year alone, with the potential to surpass $100 billion in 2023. With 47 states and the District of Columbia legalizing some form of cannabis, a growing number of financial institutions are choosing to provide banking services to the cannabis industry. Cannabis banking is working. Currently, 715 banks and credit unions serve the U.S. cannabis industry and every state has at least one financial institution that serves cannabis businesses. "All financial institutions are confronted with a myriad of state and federal regulations that can not only intimidate bankers, but also expose the institutions, their Directors, Executives and staff to potential legal issues if not handled correctly," says Dena Somers, Esq, Founder of Finreg Partners, noted legal authority on regulations and compliance in financial services. BankersHub, the leader in financial services education for over 12 years, in conjunction with BankerCollege, its Learning Management System, has launched the industry's first Cannabis Banking Professional (CBP) certification this week. "We've been on the forefront of cannabis banking education and are thrilled to launch the industry's first ever certification for financial services professionals," said Erin O'Donnell, Co-Founder of BankersHub. "In this climate of remote learning, we felt this on-demand self-paced training is the program institutions need to keep their staff up-to-date on compliance while at home." The 8-course certification program focuses on: Understanding opportunities and risks for banking cannabis, Hemp, and CBD businesses Banking strategy and marketing opportunities Marijuana-Related Businesses (MRB), including cultivators, processors, testing facilities, dispensaries and more Regulatory risks every institution must consider for developing a cannabis-related compliance program SAR filings, due diligence, monitory, training considerations, FINCEN guidance "The industry is hungry for this information and expert guidance in compliance, strategy, risk and to help them navigate the challenges of banking cannabis-related businesses," said Michael Beird, Co-Founder of BankersHub. BankersHub, through BankerCollege, delivers over 400 annual webinars, on-demand certification training and live-streaming of events to the financial services industry, as well as other industries wanting to take live events online. Visit www.bankercollege.com for more information. Contact: Erin O'Donnell [email protected] SOURCE BankersHub Related Links http://www.bankercollege.com MOSCOW, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro discussed the recent situation in connection with the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic during a phone conversation on Monday, the Kremlin said in a statement. "The importance was noted of the adoption by the international community of coordinated measures to combat the new global threat, including the initiative put forward by Vladimir Putin to create 'green corridors' free from trade wars and sanctions during the crisis for deliveries of medicines, food, equipment and technologies," it said. "Nicolas Maduro expressed appreciation for the assistance provided by the Russian side, including supplies of testing systems," it added. Putin and Maduro also touched upon other pressing issues on the international agenda and issues of bilateral cooperation, according to the statement. Eclat Commerce promised 5 million masks for a price Karsten described as "more than $16.5 million." The company was unable to deliver the masks on a timely basis, a company representative who declined to let his name be used said Sunday. The state received a refund of its $7.7 million advance on Wednesday, he said. NMS LLC promised to deliver 3.9 million masks, for a price that Karsten also described as more than $16.5 million The first 101,000 masks were being distributed when the state was forced to recall them. The Department of Health and Senior Services found they did not meet the specifications, director Randall Williams said Friday. "The masks have to have the ability to seal and be of a construction that the virus cannot enter through the mask and that was not felt to be the case," Williams said. Parson on Friday made it clear he intended to pressure the vendor to remit the state's cash. "We got cheated here in this state and we are going to go out there and try to get our money back and hold people accountable," Parson said. The situation A daily wager, Kunwar Pal, was assaulted by five individuals when he was spraying disinfectant at Pempur village of Rampur in UP. Sab bik chuke hain (Everyone has sold their integrity), was Harishankars response when this reporter informed him about his brothers postmortem report. Harishankar's brother Kunwar Pal was assaulted by five individuals when he was spraying disinfectant at Pempur village of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. He died three days after this incident. Arun Kumar, Additional Superintendent of Police, Rampur, in whose precinct the FIR is registered told Firstpost that the cause of death of Kunwar Pal couldnt be ascertained. There are no injuries on the body, and the cause of death couldnt be established, said Kumar. Kunwar Pal, 20, was a daily wager from Motiyapur village in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh. He was regularly employed in various forms of work, including regular sanitation work in and around his village. On 14 April, he was allotted work by gram panchayat authorities to spray disinfectant in Pempur village. He started this work at 7 am. After a few hours, as he was spraying disinfectant, he reached the residence of Indrapal. As he was spraying disinfectant outside Indrapals house, Indrapal emerged from his house. Unknowingly, Kunwar sprayed a few drops of disinfectant on Indrapals feet, as he was in the path of the spray. Indrapal immediately physically assaulted Kunwar. Not stopping there, with the help of four friends, Indrapal inserted the pipe of the sanitising machine in Kunwars mouth and forcibly made him ingest the disinfectant. After this, Indrapal and his friends continued to assault Kunwar, who made a run for his life. In a subconscious state, Kunwar made his way back to his village, where he passed out after reaching his home. He was rushed to a local doctor, but due to his deteriorating situation, the doctor advised his family to take him to Bisalpur Hospital. From there, he was shifted to TMU Medical College in Moradabad. He was in the ICU till 17 April, where he breathed his last. An incident of such nature qualifies to be a medico-legal case. This means, as soon as the hospital admitted Kunwar, they shouldve informed the local police station about the admission, as is the procedure. Till Kunwar died, the police had not registered an FIR or taken cognisance of the assault. Kunwars family is unaware if the police had prior information of the assault and the hospital refused to answer if or not they've followed procedure. While Harishankar was in the hospital, he could neither communicate with his family nor could he leave the hospital, as a strict lockdown was in place. My parents are old and were home. None of us could approach the police till I was allowed to leave the hospital, after the death of my brother, says Harishankar. Follow LIVE updates on the coronavirus outbreak here Kunwars family approached the police station after his death only to find the police reluctant to cooperate. After pressure from the family and the local media, the Bota Police Station registered an FIR, invoking Sections 147, 323 and 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Not a single individual has been arrested, nor does the FIR have all the names of the people who attacked Kunwar. As far as the sections in the FIR go, Section 147 is the offense related to rioting, Section 323 for voluntarily causing hurt and Section 304 for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Why didnt the offences committed, leading to the death of Kunwar, attract Section 302? In the context of this case, it is crucial to understand the difference between Section 302 and Section 304 of the IPC. The difference between the two provisions is in the intention. When the offence committed is done with the explicit intention to kill, it qualifies as a murder under Section 300 of the IPC and is punishable under Section 302. In instances where the offence is committed owing to grave or sudden provocation, the offence committed qualifies as an exception to Section 300. These exceptions are punishable under Section 304 of the Code. Section 304 deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. In the instant case, the police have charged the offenders with Section 304 in order to classify Kunwars accidental spraying of disinfectant on Inderpals feet as sudden and grave provocation. This is highly questionable. When the same question was posed to Additional SP Arun Kumar, the response was cynical. He instructed this reporter to raise this in the trial court, when the case comes up for hearing. When further probed if the police will change the charge after the findings of the post mortem report are released, Kumar said that the findings of the post mortem report suggest the opposite of what Kunwars family has said transpired on 14 April. He said that no injuries could be found on Kunwar's body. When asked how then did Kunwar drop dead, Kumar replied, "People die all the time. Won't both of us die someday?" DUBLIN, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Automotive Aftermarkets (GLOBAL) - Industry Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report provides a detailed overview of the Automotive Aftermarkets (GLOBAL) market and delivers a comprehensive individual analysis on the top 550 companies, including ZF Friedrichshafen, Genuine Parts Co, and Advance Auto Parts Inc. The report covers activities such as car, automobile, auto, car manufacturers, motor and includes a wealth of information on the financial trends over the past four years. The analysis is ideal for anyone wanting to: See the market leaders Identify companies heading for failure Seek out the most attractive acquisition Analyse industry trends Benchmark their own financial performance A quick glance of this report will tell you that 58 companies have a declining financial rating, while 133 have shown good sales growth. Each of the largest 550 companies is meticulously scrutinised in an individual assessment and analysed using the most up-to-date and current financial data. Every business is examined on the following features: A graphical assessment of a company's financial performance Four year assessment of the profit/loss and balance sheet A written summary highlighting key performance issues Subsequently, you will receive a thorough 100-page market analysis highlighting the latest changes in the market. This section includes: Best Trading Partners Sales Growth Analysis Profit Analysis Market Size Rankings For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/3i8zlx Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com (CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Girls in ICT Partnership will host an online regional event to celebrate International Girls in ICT Day on 23 April, 2020. International Girls in ICT Day is an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) initiative and is observed every year on the fourth Thursday of April, under the theme: Expand Horizons, Change Attitudes. The main objective is to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in ICTs and STEM-related fields. Given the prevailing global circumstances related to the COVID19 virus, and cognizant of the need to use the Internet in a sustainable manner at this time, the Partners agreed to host one main regional event. The online event on Thursday at 10am will be the first of a series entitled CARICOM Digital Dialogue. It will be held under the theme Regional Resilience of ICT, STEM and Youth. The Digital Dialogue will have two main presentations. The first centres on Girls and ICT: Actualising CARICOMs potential. The second focuses on ICT, Youths and Covid19. CARICOM Youth Ambassadors will also participate and provide reflections and insight on ways to attract more CARICOM youth to ICT/STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers. CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General, Ambassador Manorma Soeknandan, PhD, will deliver opening remarks at the event. The CARICOM Girls in ICT Partnership comprises Ministries of ICT, Youth, Education and Gender in CARICOM Member States and Associate Members, and regional and international organisations. Those organisations are: Guyana Animation Network (GAN) Inc, European Union Guyana, STEM Guyana, Women and Gender Equality Commission (WGEC) Guyana, Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), University of Guyana, University of the West Indies, United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), CARICOM Youth Ambassadors corp. (CYAP), Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Caribbean Association of National Telecommunications Organization (CANTO), and Caribbean Cybersecurity Centre (CCSC). CARICOM Ministers responsible for ICT had endorsed the partnership in November 2019. They recognised that a regional partnership was a good initiative to advance the work to attract more youth of the Region to ICT and STEM careers to support CARICOM resilience. BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A former vice governor of northern China's Hebei Province has been indicted on charges of taking bribes, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Tuesday. Li Qian was accused of taking advantage of his various former positions to seek profits for others and accepting vast sums of money and gifts in return, the SPP said in a statement. Li's case had been investigated by the National Supervisory Commission and handed over to the SPP. Upon the designation of the SPP, the first branch of the Beijing People's Procuratorate reviewed the case and filed it in the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, the SPP said. By Express News Service THIRUVANNTHAPURAM: Amid the lockdown, the Kerala government has given licence to six more new bars in the state two bars each in Wayanad and Malappuram and one each in Kannur and Thrissur. But the Excise department clarified that bar licence were issued in February and March months. The last one was issued on March 10 for a bar in Thrissur. But owing to the lockdown guidelines, the proceedings were not completed. Later, the government has extended the last date for paying the licence fee till April 30. The bar owners had applied for the licence and paid the fee before the deadline. The new bars are expected to start functioning once the lockdown guidelines are revoked. South Africa needs a post-lockdown strategy that emulates South Korea South Africa cannot afford to embark on a strategy of extended periodic lockdowns. It needs to shift to mass testing and contact tracing. What strategy should South Africa follow to contain the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus after the current 35-day lockdown? Any strategy should be informed by the trajectory of the disease, the effectiveness or otherwise of the current lockdown and how the particularities of the country will interact with the virus. These include high levels of HIV infections and the complexities of social distancing in lower-income neighbourhoods. It must also be informed by economic considerations as these have their own, real impact on public health. South Africa has this far relied exclusively on epidemiological criteria for ending the lockdown. What is clear is that the lockdown has an extremely high economic cost. The country should be looking to alternatives that will be less costly and also more effective in the long term at protecting its communities, its health system and its economy. We have developed a model that draws on the experiences of other countries, particularly South Korea. We argue that South Africa needs to urgently prioritise its mass testing and contact tracing capacity, which gives it the best chance of saving the nations health and economy. The cost of this programme, even at its most expensive, would be a tiny fraction of the costs of a prolonged lockdown. The South Korean programme had the benefit of attacking the epidemic when it was still small and containable. South Africa retains this advantage over the worst hit European countries. The question now is how to effectively use the time under lockdown to ensure that it is able to contain the spread of SARS-Cov-2, manage the health risks and minimise the economic costs. Early responses The implementation of the country-wide lockdown on 27 March 2020 was timeous and necessary. It bought the country valuable time to increase its testing and contact tracing capacity, and to prepare its health system. But South Africas initial response to the emergent epidemic in Wuhan, China, in January 2020 was similar to much of the rest of the world watchful waiting but, with hindsight, perhaps insufficient contingency planning. South Korea is a notable exception. Due to its experience of the MERS outbreak in 2015, it was better prepared. Instead of embarking on a total lockdown, the country had a more nuanced approach by enforcing, with citizen buy-in, extensive social distancing coupled with scaling up of other preventative and precautionary measures. Crucially, at the centre of that strategy is aggressive screening for the SARS-CoV-2 infection and isolation of infected individuals, and the tracing and quarantining of their contacts. This enabled South Korea to keep a substantial proportion of its economy open. It did, however, rapidly close its borders, thereby minimising imported infections. Mass testing and contact tracing work best when the epidemic is still at a relatively low level. This is because the reproduction rate of the disease, often referred to as R or Ro, is so high that a country needs only to be off guard for around two weeks before effective public health intervention options seriously narrow. Roughly speaking, the R for SARS-CoV-2 is estimated to be about 2.5 every four days. That is, one person infected by the virus infects approximately another 2.5 people over a period of four days. That may not appear fast but at that rate everyone in this country will get infected within the space of a couple of months, if no prevention to reduce this infection rate is implemented. Where transmission of the virus becomes widespread, at the community level, the scale of the infections severely limits the effectiveness of mass testing and contact tracing. This is because the infected population is so widespread and growing all the time, while many of those infected are asymptomatic by some estimates up to 80%. The only option then is to drag the infection rate down to manageable levels by severely limiting the movements of the population for a period of up to two to three months a generalised and long-term lockdown. Mass testing and contact tracing South Africas saving grace is that it implemented the lockdown at a much earlier stage of the epidemic than many other countries. At that point most new infections were those who had returned from international travel and at the time it seemed that community-based infections were confined to the affluent population. As the country then did not have the capacity to undertake mass testing and contact tracing, precious time was bought with a lockdown that was gradually scaled up. But it came at a very high economic cost. We have developed a COVID-19 intervention model which is able to analyse some possibilities for the course of the epidemic, and to assess possible responses and costs. Models are a useful and effective tool (although of course not infallible), under conditions of uncertainty, for providing us with an informed and systematic way to compare the impact of a range of policy interventions. We estimate that if South Africa were to rely exclusively on lockdowns to keep the epidemic under control during 2020, approximately 192 days of lockdown would be required, divided into three episodes. This is because the epidemic is likely to resurge the moment any lockdown is removed unless there are strong public health interventions in place. These interventions include testing at scale, isolation of infectious cases, and high levels of tracing and quarantine of their close contacts. The cost of lockdown Given that the lockdown effectively closes down both the supply and demand sides of the economy, the loss of gross domestic product (GDP) is nearly complete by our estimates roughly R13 billion per day. Over 192 days, the loss of GDP is of the order of R2.5 trillion almost 50% of GDP. The lockdown strategy will clearly lead to an economic collapse of a magnitude that will impact health, lives and livelihoods. This is why it is so important that the next stage in the countrys COVID-19 strategy is informed by both health and economic considerations because the two are so tightly intertwined. It would be a grave mistake to rely only on epidemiological factors and ignore the looming economic catastrophe and its dire impact on public health. Read more: South Africa needs to end the lockdown: here's a blueprint for its replacement Our projections are based on South Koreas successful prevention strategy of mass testing and contact tracing. Early evidence shows this is also working in Hong Kong. If successful, this strategy reduces the probability of having to resort to repeated and extended generalised lockdowns. Lockdowns would only need to be implemented selectively if localised outbreaks were identified and could be contained. The opening of the economy would, however, still be subject to: continued social distancing; strict implementation of health protocols for employers; ongoing self-isolation of high risk groups; and measures to mitigate the risk of viral spread in the countrys mass transport systems. It would also require very careful systems and support to manage risk and spread within health care facilities. At the South Korean levels of testing of around 17,000 per day, the annual cost of this strategy would be around R5 billion. At 36,000 a day (the Department of Health target for 30 April), this grows to R10.5 billion. At the target set by the UK of 100,000 per day, the cost would be R29.2 billion per year. This is cheap if it is considered that these annual costs represent respectively 0.4, 0.8, and 2.2 times the single-day cost of a lockdown. A programme of mass testing and contact tracing is challenging, particularly in the South African context. The persistence of spatial apartheid, and a large number of multigenerational households, and concerns about our states capacity, mean that South Africa faces a number of challenges not present in South Korea. Despite these risks, South Africa cannot afford to embark on a strategy of extended periodic lockdowns. It is critical that the capacity for mass testing and contact tracing is in place prior to the end of this lockdown. The countrys health system must be given every support to ensure its success. Alex van den Heever, Chair of Social Security Systems Administration and Management Studies, Adjunct Professor in the School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand; David Francis, Deputy Director at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand; Francois Venter, Professor and Deputy Executive Director, Wits RHI, University of the Witwatersrand; Imraan Valodia, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, and Head of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand; Lucy Allais, Professor of Philosophy, University of the Witwatersrand; Martin Veller, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand; Michael Sachs, Adjunct Professor, University of the Witwatersrand, and Shabir Madhi, Professor of Vaccinology and Director of the MRC Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Aihik Sur By Express News Service HYDERABAD: The sudden imposition of lockdown by the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq has put in lurch the lives of thousands from Telangana. With no work, and ergo, no money, many of them are staring at starvation. Since the last 45 days, Erbil, which is the capital and most populated city in Iraqs Kurdistan region has been under lockdown, which has seen the closure of all avenues for employment. The 4,000-5,000- strong migrant community from Telangana, who mostly work as daily wagers or drivers, were facing a lot of problems. Rayalwar Ramchander, the vice president of Telugu Gulf Employees Welfare Association (TGEWA), Erbil, said the lockdown was unprecedented. We were not given any warnings by the Kurdistan government of the same, neither were we intimated by the Indian Consulate here, Ramchander said. According to Ramchander, the restrictions were imposed in a harried manner in March due to the massive number of cases that were reported from neighbouring Iran. As of now, the Kurdistan region has reported 14 Covid-19 cases, and Iraq as a whole, 62. The most affected were those migrants whose iqama, a residence permit for foreigners, had lapsed, or had expired. Many of them do not have places to live as of now, he said. The TGEWA identified such victims of the situation, and it recently started distributing food them. Everyday we are distributing cooked food, including rice, pulses, potato curry and so on, to around 150 migrants who are most affected here, Ramchander told Express from Erbil via phone. The drive also has received praise from the Indian Embassy in Erbil. We plan to continue this everyday till the lockdown is lifted, he added. Adriana Sparkuhl approached the fence circling Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park just before 4:20 p.m. Monday to capture the unusual scene on her phone: an empty meadow. Not a puff of smoke in the air. Park rangers cruising on four-wheelers and helicopters droning overhead. Its official. Shut down, the San Francisco resident said while filming the scene for her social media followers. Were at ground zero we get to see it for ourselves. Like everything else, the unofficial 4/20 gathering of smokers, stoners and marijuana lovers in Golden Gate Park was hindered by the pandemic. City officials built a fence around Hippie Hill and Robin Williams Meadow where for many years thousands have congregated to smoke. Signs read: CLOSED for COVID-19 (coronavirus) health precautions, and police officers and park rangers patrolled the perimeter. People complied. Typical park activity joggers, walkers and bikers wearing masks and breathing fresh air replaced the usual party scene. Officers who had been there since morning, and planned to stay all day, said there were few problems. Recognizing the potential for trouble, Mayor London Breed last week started warning people to stay away from San Francisco and stay home for 4/20. Police Chief William Scott echoed the same message. So far things are going really, really well, Scott said during a news conference early Monday afternoon. Id like to thank everyone for that but remind everyone to please keep this momentum going. This is literally a matter of life or death, and I dont think I'm being melodramatic when I say that. In a video tweeted by Breed, Bay Area rapper E-40 also urged people to stay home. This is the bay, were Bay Area strong, he said. Lets stay in the house, man. We love 4/20 but lets not get out there in crowds and all that, lets not do that. Its gotta be canceled this year. On Monday afternoon, some park-goers forgetting what day it was were confused by the fence, while others showed up just to see it. Jun Kobashigawa hopped off his bike, pushed his sunglasses to his forehead and snapped a few pictures on his iPhone. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. I guess I should get the fence, he said, stepping back and snapping again. Its part of it. The longtime 4/20 participant spread his arms wide as he recalled the blanket of hazy smoke that drifted above a laid-back crowd in years past. Maybe I was stoned at the time, he laughed. But I was very impressed. Kobashigawa pedaled back down the trail with a treat tucked in his pocket to find a more secluded spot. I mean, youre not supposed to smoke outside, he said. But you know, todays 4/20! Anna Bauman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: anna.bauman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @abauman2 Kavita Krishnamurti's song is inspired by the Indian ideal 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' which loosely translates to 'the world is one family' New Delhi: As the world is all set to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Earth Day on 22 April, legendary musicians Dr L Surbramaniam, Abhay K, and Kavita Krishnamurti have come together for a new Earth Anthem. The song is inspired by the Indian ideal 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' which loosely translates to 'the world is one family' which the song composers feel is the most relevant in recent times as the entire world battles a common enemy - coronavirus. (Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak) While Subramaniam has produced both the music and the video of the anthem, the song has been penned by poet-diplomat Abhay K and has been sung by Kavita Krishnamurti, Subramaniam, and Bindu Subramaniam. Abhay K had written the Earth Anthem back in 2008 while he was in St. Petersburg, Russia after being inspired by the concept of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,' which comes from the ancient Indian texts and the blue marble image of the Earth taken from space by the crew of Apollo 17. According to Abhay, the concept of the entire world being a single family has been proved recently in by the COVID-19 pandemic. "The spread of Coronavirus has proved our interdependence once again, whichever country we come from, we cannot remain indifferent. Similarly, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change affect all of us, it does not matter whether we live in north or south or east or west," said Abhay. "All life is interdependent and until we understand this basic fact clearly and wholeheartedly, we will not be able to fight climate change, biodiversity loss or novel Coronavirus pandemic," the poet further added. Abhay then explained through words from the song, how different countries that usually fought against each other are currently fighting the same enemy. "Words of the Earth Anthem such as 'All the peoples and all the nations, one for all and all for one' take all the more important today, when we are all fighting a common enemy, i.e. COVID-19," the 40-year-old poet said. "A common anthem, therefore, can inspire people from all countries, connect us all across the world through a common musical thread and inspire the next generation to put the planet before themselves," he added. The anthem was originally produced in 2017 by the famous violinist Dr L Subramaniam. The anthem has been translated into over 50 different languages spoken in different parts of the world. The maestro has also been recently appointed as the ambassador of the Earth Day Network which is celebrating the golden jubilee of Earth Day this year. "We are dependent on nature and we are part of nature. We are not the masters of nature; it doesn't belong to us. We have to co-exist with mountains, oceans, trees, and all living beings and so we cannot afford to harm the planet in any way," Subramaniam said. The maestro is currently busy composing Cosmic Symphony, the theme of which is inspired by the navagraha concept. It is a composition dedicated to the nine planets, written for a full symphony orchestra and choir. However, the Earth Anthem will be released on 22 April 2020 at 2.30 IST to mark the golden jubilee celebrations of Earth Day. It will be released on the diplomat-poet Abhay's YouTube channel. During a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Representative of the Bureau for the Armenian Cause and Political Affairs of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun political party Kiro Manoyan touched upon the Prime Ministers recent live broadcast during which the Prime Minister said the following: About forty years ago, 90% of Armenians of the Diaspora were members of certain organizations, but now there are only 10%. According to Manoyan, there are also charitable, youth and cultural organizations in the Diaspora, as well as the Church, and it plays its role. Before Armenias declaration of independence, the relations between Armenia and the Diaspora were coordinated through the Committee for Relations with the Diaspora, not Armenian organizations in the Diaspora. The Committee would discriminate between various circles of the Diaspora, but later, the Committee slowly started establishing relations with those circles, Kiro Manoyan said, adding that the Prime Minister is making the same mistake of the former authorities and isnt consulting with the organizations consolidating the 10% of Armenians that he mentioned. Throughout the years of independence, all governments have tried to circumvent the organizations that the Prime Minister hinted because maintaining ties through those organizations means that those organizations are valued, and the authorities didnt want and dont want to have organizations with which they need to reckon, he said. Kiro Manoyan believes that even though it is necessary to make sure more Armenians of the Diaspora are engaged in the Armenian reality, circumventing these organizations is not the way to do it. Could ABR Holdings Limited (SGX:533) 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. Unfortunately, it's common for investors to be enticed in by the seemingly attractive yield, and lose money when the company has to cut its dividend payments. While ABR Holdings's 2.3% dividend yield is not the highest, we think its lengthy payment history is quite interesting. Some simple research can reduce the risk of buying ABR Holdings for its dividend - read on to learn more. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on ABR Holdings! SGX:533 Historical Dividend Yield April 21st 2020 Payout ratios Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. So we need to form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. ABR Holdings paid out 153% of its profit as dividends, over the trailing twelve month period. A payout ratio above 100% is definitely an item of concern, unless there are some other circumstances that would justify it. In addition to comparing dividends against profits, we should inspect whether the company generated enough cash to pay its dividend. ABR Holdings's cash payout ratio last year was 19%. Cash flows are typically lumpy, but this looks like an appropriately conservative payout. It's good to see that while ABR Holdings's dividends were not covered by profits, at least they are affordable from a cash perspective. If executives were to continue paying more in dividends than the company reported in profits, we'd view this as a warning sign. Very few companies are able to sustainably pay dividends larger than their reported earnings. With a strong net cash balance, ABR Holdings investors may not have much to worry about in the near term from a dividend perspective. Consider getting our latest analysis on ABR Holdings's financial position here. Story continues 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. ABR Holdings has been paying dividends for a long time, but for the purpose of this analysis, we only examine the past 10 years of payments. The dividend has been cut on at least one occasion historically. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was S$0.02 in 2010, compared to S$0.015 last year. This works out to be a decline of approximately 2.8% per year over that time. ABR Holdings's dividend hasn't shrunk linearly at 2.8% per annum, but the CAGR is a useful estimate of the historical rate of change. When a company's per-share dividend falls we question if this reflects poorly on either external business conditions, or the company's capital allocation decisions. Either way, we find it hard to get excited about a company with a declining dividend. Dividend Growth Potential With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Why take the risk of a dividend getting cut, unless there's a good chance of bigger dividends in future? ABR Holdings's EPS have fallen by approximately 24% per year during the past five years. With this kind of significant decline, we always wonder what has changed in the business. Dividends are about stability, and ABR Holdings's earnings per share, which support the dividend, have been anything but stable. Conclusion Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. We're a bit uncomfortable with its high payout ratio, although at least the dividend was covered by free cash flow. Earnings per share are down, and ABR Holdings's dividend has been cut at least once in the past, which is disappointing. With this information in mind, we think ABR Holdings may not be an ideal dividend stock. Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. Just as an example, we've come accross 3 warning signs for ABR Holdings you should be aware of, and 1 of them makes us a bit uncomfortable. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of dividend stocks yielding 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. Contributed photo Westport resident Lauren Soloffs manufacturing company, deemed an essential business, has been operating continuously throughout the coronavirus crisis to meet customers needs as they address peak demand for PPE items and lab equipment. Manufacturing ultrasonic equipment in Connecticut for over five decades, Sonics & Materials, Inc. of Newtown delivers systems that are used for textile and plastics assembly as well as specialized lab equipment. As companies rush to adapt to new demands, Soloffs company has been supplying products to customers who produce face masks, surgical gowns, protective face shields and medical devices, as well as to research labs who are involved in the race to find coronavirus rapid tests, treatments and vaccines. FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio A woman died Monday afternoon after she was trapped under a skid-steer loader, according to reports. WBNS Channel 10 reports Franklin County sheriffs deputies were called to the scene at about 5 p.m. The woman was found underneath the Bobcat loader. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities did not release the identification or age of the woman, WCMH Channel 4 reports. Its also unclear if anyone was driving the loader when the incident occurred, WCMH reports. Deputies are continuing to investigate, reports say. More content on cleveland.com: Man found dead of apparent gunshot wound behind Akron home Man arrested, charged in slaying of 94-year-old man in Cleveland 94-year-old beaten to death in Cleveland One man dead, Willoughby Hills police officer burned after fiery crash following pursuit of speeding sports car Two dead, children uninjured in drive-by shooting in Clevelands Clark-Fulton neighborhood RIVERHEAD, NY The Riverhead community was cloaked in mourning Monday as one of its greatest advocates, former Riverhead Business Improvement District president Raymond Pickersgill, died at 71 after battling the new coronavirus. As news spread, family and friends shared memories and heartfelt tributes to a man who was a bright light on the Riverhead canvas, the creative force behind many popular events including Alive on 25, the Cardboard Boat Race, the indoor Farmers Market, fireworks, and the well-loved antique car show that drew crowds to the downtown he worked so hard to revitalize. Pickersgill owned the Robert James Salon on Main Street and was a familiar face and friend to the countless whose lives he touched. "I would like to give those of you who have been lucky enough to have known my father Raymond Pickersgill comfort and thanks and love for all your prayers and wishes," his daughter Lisa wrote on Facebook Monday. "My mother Margaret Pickersgill and my family are in a surreal place. My father was a kind, amazing man that I was lucky enough to say was my father. He was an amazing son, brother, husband, father, uncle, brother-in-law, cousin, godfather, grandfather, grandfather uncle to Derek, and friend. He was smart, with a heart of gold and savvy." Her father, she added, "loved unconditionally. He was so proud to be involved in the county and town he adopted Riverhead. The friends he made and the fun he had were some of his fondest memories. My father would give anyone anything they needed and would do anything he could to help anyone without a second thought. He didnt care if it would be at his expense, of time or money. He truly had a golden heart." Lisa added: "There are many things I remember and respect about my father but most of all I would like him to be remembered as a man who loved deeply his wife and children, grandchildren, his parents, and his siblings." He also loved his cousins in England, she said, and cherished their visits. Story continues Friends remembered the man who touched their lives. "He did such great things for the downtown Riverhead BID and for downtown Riverhead," Diane Tucci said. "He leaves a legacy for sure. I didn't realize until I took the position of executive director for the BID, how much work he put into the events and activities downtown. Those were big shoes for me to fill, and as I tackled more projects downtown, I had even more respect for how hard he worked and how passionate he was." Susan Tocci said she was very sad to hear of Pickersgill's passing. "He truly put in his best, to raise up Riverhead and Main Street. I recall when I was going to his salon, he and his family were so very caring I had severe hair loss due to medical reasons. Mr. Ray would hold my hand as I cried and would make me come in weekly for treatments. He would never let me pay and would say, 'If this makes you feel better, it makes me feel better!'" Pickersgill's longtime friend Anthony Coates spoke of how he wanted to remember him: "We were sitting around gabbing on a beautiful day and 'Mr. Ray' said, 'Lets hose down the docks'. That was Ray Pickersgill: He didnt sit still; he was always looking to help. To do something, not for himself, but, for someone." Courtesy Anthony Coates. He added: "Mr. Ray passed today, from COVID-19. For a bunch of years, Mr. Ray and I were inseparable. We had that rare radar you feel for another friend, when you complete each others sentences and laugh in the same places. Ray was dedicated to fun and friendship but he was all about helping his community. We served together when Ray was the president of the Business Improvement District board. We went to more meetings together than I can begin to think about," Coates said. "But, through it all there was the simply joy of being together. 'The Misfits', 'Bible study', nights at Tweeds, road trips, boat trips, jokes we played on each other, lunches. His family was our family. Times with Ray were simple, easy, you couldnt help feel the bear hug of his friendship. I would say he is gone now. But he isnt. Ray is in the deeds he did for others, in the change he brought to his community, in the thousand small favors and niceties he quietly did for those in need. Some men are their own monument. Godspeed, my friend," he said. Courtesy John Mantzopoulos. For many years on Main Street, when residents saw Pickersgill, they likely saw him with his dear friend John Mantzopoulos, whose Greek restaurant was located next door to Pickersgill's salon. Even after both businesses shuttered, the pair remained friends, launching a new endeavor, a transportation business that centered on driving clients to the airport. "If you ever needed a second father, Ray was like that second father," Mantzopoulos said. Learning his friend had died was devastating. "This was so unexpected," he said. Mantzopoulos said he saw the news on social media Monday morning and couldn't believe what he was reading; he had just spoken to Pickersgill before he was hospitalized. Reflecting on the years they spent together in downtown Riverhead, Mantzopoulos said the bond they forged was lifelong. "He wasn't just my neighbor or the BID president. It was a lot more personal." The pair would do a lot to help one another, and for downtown Riverhead, he said. "Sometimes it would go unnoticed by many but we weren't doing it for us, or to get recognition, but to better the community. On a Saturday or Sunday morning we'd go down to the dock and pull out a hose to wash the walkway. Or we'd grab a paint brush to paint over the graffiti. We did a lot of things together." He and Pickersgill shared years of memories. "You didn't have to ask Raymond to do something for you. If the sump pump went in the basement, he'd say, 'Let's go get the car.' His wife Margaret and daughter Lisa, too. All three of them are beautiful people." Mantzopoulos paused, his voice filled with pain. "I feel so terrible. I'm 51 and I haven't cried for a long time. But I found myself crying this morning. Uncontrollable crying." When he last spoke to his friend on April 7, Mantzopoulos said they were making plans for their new business: "The last time I talked to him, he said, 'When this is over, we'll be so busy with airport runs. Everyone will want to go away.'" From the time he opened Athens Grill, which later became Mazi after a devastating fire in 2013, Pickersgill was a part of Mantzopoulos' memories. "Ray was the first person I actually became friends with in downtown Riverhead," he said. From the first, in December, 2004, Mantzopolous said, "I had just barely turned on the lights. I was sitting at the counter and I had the schematics and I was figuring out what I was going to do, and in walks Ray. He introduced himself and said, 'I might be your neighbor. I'm looking to open a salon.'" That was in 2004, Mantzopoulos said. He was just 36 then; Pickersgill was 56. Over the years, the pair faced economic recession. Together, they weathered Super Storm Sandy, when downtown businesses flooded. At the time, Pickersgill told Patch that the floodwaters brought fish from the Peconic River pouring into his basement. But no matter what, Pickersgill looked at the upside. Even after Sandy, he told Patch that he looked to the positive. He continued to push for Riverhead, for enhancements such as security systems for the downtown parking district. Despite the uphill battle to revitalize Main Street, Pickersgill remained upbeat, Mantzopoulos said. "Ray and I both sacrificed a lot to make it a go," he said. "The ability to buy a new car, to take vacations. Eventually, Ray had to downsize. Riverhead was never a Greenport, a Bay Shore, a Port Jefferson, where people had disposable income. We struggled. A week after Sandy, people didn't have gas. We were sitting there, burning heat, waiting for three or four people to come in and eat or get haircuts. But Ray and I always spoke and we came to the same agreement: 'Money lost is money lost. Health is more important. And he was always more optimistic. He'd say, 'Johnny, it's water under the bridge. Let's move forward.'" Over the years, the pair shared many meals. "His favorite was gyro meat with potatoes," Mantzopoulos said. After the fire at Mantzopoulos' restaurant, Pickersgill remained a steadfast support. At one fundraiser, when asked why he'd attended, Pickersgill told Patch: "To support the Greek guy," he smiled. For Mantzopolous, the loss runs deep. "It's like I lost my father," he said. "Coronavirus took somebody very dear from me." Others mourned the man who leaves a long legacy of giving back. "When I think of Ray, I will always think of a friendly, good-humored man who was as big a supporter of Riverhead and its community as anyone could be," said Cindy Clifford. "He believed in our town and its potential and happily jumped at the opportunity to help and promote Main Street businesses. My heart goes out to his family." Nancy Kouris, owner of the Blue Duck Bakery, remembered Pickersgill. "He was a force for Riverhead as a business owner and president of the BID. He always supported us in Riverhead, and recruited me to be on the BID board. . .We will forever be grateful for all he did for the Riverhead business community and us. May he rest in peace." Her father, Lisa said, had "an incredible golden heart of unconditional love and friendship" and will forever be remembered for "his kindness, positive outlook and hard work ethic. There was never a drop of ulterior motive only what was good for the town or the project or the person or business he was helping. They dont make many like him. He was honorable and had so much integrity." Those who wish to donate in his memory are asked to contribute to the men and women at Stony Brook University Hospital, where Pickersgill died, his daughter said. "Please donate to the staff who are on the front lines. That would be my father's wish," she said. A memorial service will follow after the coronavirus crisis has passed, his family said. This article originally appeared on the Riverhead Patch A nurse who came from South Africa to the UK to bring her passion for care to the NHS has died after contracting coronavirus. Mother-of-two Josephine Manini Peter, 55, who lived in Hayes, west London, was sent to work at Southport Hospital, Merseyside, when she became ill earlier this month. Mrs Peter, who worked as an agency nurse, was admitted to Southport Hospital then discharged on April 14 but an ambulance was called after her condition worsened and she was re-admitted. She died on April 18. She had told friends she longed for her native South Africa and had started to talk about returning home to be with her children and grandchildren after working for 18 years caring for the UKs sick and elderly. Nurse Cynthia Charles, a long-time friend of Mrs Peter, told the PA news agency that her nursing colleague had been raised under the harsh apartheid regime in South Africa in the 80s. She had strived to maintain her schooling and gain her nursing degree. Describing Mrs Peter, she said: Very kind. Very outgoing, bubbly, you would have her on your guest list if you had a party. She was an honest human being. She had a passion for care. Miss Charles, from Barking, east London, added: Her kids had gone back to South Africa. She was planning to go back as well, she just had a granddaughter and wanted to go back to support her family really. Everybody is devastated. Ive not been able to work for two days, I leave the house and turn around at the gate. We are just shocked, we are so worried about ourselves, like, Should I go to work? Im going to go home in a coffin. It makes you numb. Trish Armstrong-Child, chief executive of Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, said: Josephines husband, Thabo, told me she was passionate, hardworking, always putting others before herself. She was my heroine, he said. Our thoughts are with Josephines family at this difficult time and we offer them our sincere condolences. New Delhi: Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday (April 21) exhorted Red Cross warriors to keep sufficient bloodstock for transfusion by promoting voluntary blood donation and providing facilities of pick up and drop to donors. He also asked the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) to send mobile blood collection vans to the premises of regular blood donors to facilitate them to come forward for blood donation at this point of time. Union Minister said that he had also written to state Health Ministers to promote voluntary blood donation. Addressing Red Cross warriors from all over India at the Video conference held at Nirman Bhawanthem, Dr Harsh Vardhan exhorted IRCS to contact recovered COVID-19 patients to come forward for blood donation, from which convalescent plasma could be used for transfusion to the Corona affected patients for their early recovery. "The IRCS may like to take up this at the earliest so that the blood collected from the recovered patients could be used for transfusion for the benefit of Corona patients," he said while giving details of efforts made by the government to deal with COVID-19. He further said, I may like to state that India was the first country in the world to respond to COVID-19 crisis without wasting any time. It was India that responded proactively to Chinas first disclosure about Corona Virus to the world. On the very next day India initiated steps to monitor the situation and the first Joint Monitoring Group meeting was held. A Group of Ministers under my Chairmanship was also constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take important decisions as per the evolving situation. This was enough to set the tone for a highly spirited war against fatal virus across the country. India was the front runner in leading the onslaught against the COVID-19 pandemic and it took all the precautionary measures which could ideally be foreseen - like screening at Airports, Ports, Land borders with neighbouring countries, surveillance and contact tracing. He further stated that all International flights were instructed not to land at all airports in India with effect from early morning 23 March 2020," the minister said. Union Minister further said, earlier the COVID-19 samples were sent to the US for testing which took a lot of time for results, but during the present crisis India has developed around 200 labs for testing samples. Apart from this India imposed Lockdown at the right time to stop the spread of the dreaded virus. He further informed that right now India has an ample number of COVID-19 dedicated hospitals, PPEs, N95 masks, Ventilators, and medicines. He said that we are at better footing as compared to the rest of the world." I really value Indian Red Cross fraternity having given a great contribution in our fight against COVID-19. In fact, the contribution is appreciable for providing equipment, sanitizers, food, PPE kits, and N95 masks etc. for hospitals, said the Union Minister while interacting with the Red Cross members across the country through Video Conferencing (VC) with an aim to involve them to assist in involving more and more concerned people in the fight against COVID-19. Representatives of Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) from Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Telangana, Delhi, and Karnataka apprised the Minister about the activities undertaken by their respective branches. The Secretary-General of IRCS RK Jain was present in person at the VC. Amid the coronavirus crisis, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday expanded his Cabinet for the first time by inducting five ministers, two of them Congress rebels who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, nearly a month after taking charge. IMAGE: Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan with five newly inducted cabinet ministers Meena Singh, Kamal Patel, Govind Rajput, Tulsiram Silawat and Narottam Mishra after the swearing-in ceremony, at Raaj Bhawan in Bhopal. Photograph: ANI Photo The five new ministers, three of them sitting MLAs and two former legislators, were sworn-in by Governor Lalji Tandon in the afternoon at Raj Bhawan. The swearing-in ceremony, attended by Chouhan, was kept low-key in view of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Social distancing norms were followed at the ceremony. Among the new entrants in the Cabinet, two ex-Congress MLAs Tulsi Silawat and Govind Singh Rajput, are supporters of former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who along with 22 MLAs, including six ministers, quit the Congress last month to join the BJP. The other ministers who took oath are Narottam Mishra (Brahmin), Meena Singh (Scheduled Tribe) and Kamal Patel (OBC), all sitting BJP MLAs. The 15-month-old Congress government headed by Kamal Nath collapsed last month after 22 MLAs of the then ruling party -- supporters of Scindia -- revolted and resigned, paving the way for the BJP to assume power in the key central state where the saffron party had narrowly lost polls in 2018. Scindia and other rebel Congress MLAs later joined the BJP. Chouhan, who took charge on March 23 and was functioning as one-man cabinet since then, sought to strike caste and regional balance in his first ministry expansion. His new ministers hail from different social groups and regions. While Mishra is a Brahmin, Meena Singh is a Scheduled Tribe and Patel an OBC. Silawat belongs to a Scheduled Caste, while Rajput is a Thakur. The five ministers hail from Gwalior-Chambal, Bundelkand, Malwa, Vindh and Central MP regions. According to sources, Scindia pushed for induction of most of his loyalists in the Chouhan cabinet, but the BJP central leadership agreed to reward only two -- Silawat and Rajput -- with ministerial berths for the time being. IMAGE: Chief Minister Shivraj Singh, at the oath taking ceremony, in Bhopal. Photograph: ANI Photo Six of Scindia supporters, including Silawat and Rajput, were members of the Nath cabinet also. The three senior BJP leaders inducted as ministers had been members of the previous BJP governments as well. The BJP, according to insiders, might go in for a second expansion of the ministry after May 3 the day when the current phase of lockdown ends. Chouhan's stint as the lone cabinet member for almost a month is a record of sorts in the country, a BJP leader said. Chouhan has room to induct 28 more members in his cabinet as per constitutional norms. Former ministers and senior state BJP leaders like Gopal Bhargava and Bhupendra Singh are likely to be accommodated in the next cabinet formation. BSP MLA Ram Bai, who had backed the BJP during the rebellion against the Nath government, too, wants a Cabinet berth, sources close to her said. Former chief minister Uma Bharti was also present on the occasion. Chouhan had proved his government's majority on the floor of the assembly on March 24. Meanwhile, after the Cabinet expansion, Rajya Sabha member of the Congress from the state and senior Supreme Court lawyer Vivek Tankha raised question over the number of ministers who took oath. He tweeted that according to the Article 164 (A) of the Constitution, the Cabinet expansion should have been with at least 12 members. The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] A television ad campaign calling on President Donald Trump and the federal government to provide more personal protective equipment to medical professionals has begun airing in Michigan. The ad, paid for by the American Federation of Teachers union, which represents 200,000 nurses and health workers, features more than a dozen nurses who reflect on the fear and anxiety of working during the coronavirus pandemic, before asking Trump to do your job, Mr. President, and give us the equipment we need do our job, to safe lives." On Tuesday, April 21, the same day the ad began hitting televisions screens across Michigan, the White House issued a press release listing various actions of the Trump Administration and federal government to assist Michigan residents during the health crisis. The list credits the president for declaring a national emergency and approving Michigans major disaster declaration, as well as his signing of the CARES Act and direction to FEMA to fund emergency assistance provided by the Michigan National Guard. It also lays out totals for personal protective equipment provided to Michigan from the national stockpile as of April 14, including: 700 ventilators 311,000 N-95 masks 740,000 surgical masks 148,000 face shields 121,000 gowns 3,800 coveralls 618,000 gloves State spokesperson Dale George verified those figures. More equipment, provided through Project Airbridge, a partnership with private distributors in which FEMA covers the cost of fly the goods from overseas factories, included the following: 734,600 N-95 masks 1,059,700 surgical masks 29,300 eye and face shields 976,300 isolation and surgical gowns 60,623,200 surgical and exam gloves Other assistance to Michigan has included $120.5 million obligated from FEMA, assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to increase hospital capacity, and federal support of eight mobile testing sites, the White House announced. The Trump Administration continues to provide unprecedented resources, guidance, and regulatory flexibilities for state, local, and tribal governments to develop and deploy innovative solutions for addressing COVID-19, the White House said in the press release. President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have appreciated the strong state-federal partnership with Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Earlier this month, Gov. Whitmer said hospitals around the state were running dangerously low and were days away from running out of face shields and other protective gear for health care workers treating the states COVID-19 patients. During a Monday news briefing, Whitmer said 957,000 units of PPE were distributed across the state this weekend, including 185,000 items to support new rapid COVID-19 testing sites. The state has continued to collect PPE donations from businesses and other entities, and recently awarded grant money to small businesses retooling operations to make additional PPE and other necessary supplies. Last week, healthcare workers stood outside the University of Michigans Rogel Cancer Center as part of a national protest demanding PPE over profit." There are people that are still getting sick, healthcare workers getting sick, said Ann Jackson, local organizer of the April 15 rally in Ann Arbor. Our need for PPE is not going anywhere, and the most limited supply you have, youre lookin at it, its the healthcare workers. Related: Partisan politics infect Michigan coronavirus response The AFT television ad is new to Michigan, but previously aired in other places around the country, including Washington D.C. and New York. It opens with a clip of a press conference last month in which Trump suggests that some masks in New York hospitals are going out the back door. AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement the unions healthcare workers are calling him out for his odious suggestion they are somehow thieves and demanding that he does his job as they do theirs. We now know six to eight weeks of preparation were lost in the presidents dismissal and denial of the pandemic, Weingarten said. "The least he could do right now is use every lever of government to get healthcare professionals the PPE they desperately need, so they can help others. Trump calls himself a wartime president, but our states dont have the funds or testing they need, and our hospitals and healthcare professionals remain dangerously ill-equipped to tackle this pandemic. His refusal to do his job means our heroes will remain exposed and at risk. Thats why theyre fighting back and placing the blame where its deserved. The ad is set to run in media markets across the state including Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Bay City, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Lansing, Marquette, Traverse City and Cadillac. MLive Capitol reporter Lauren Gibbons contributed to this report. CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. Read more on MLive: Adhering to stay-at-home order now will help businesses reopen sooner, Whitmer says Michigan healthcare system lays off 2,475 due to dire financial effects of coronavirus Which surfaces does the coronavirus stay on longest? 18 expert disinfecting tips Tuesday, April 21: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan President Donald Trump has said that he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend all immigration to the US to "protect" the jobs of Americans and to fight the "invisible attack" on the country by the coronavirus, a move that was widely criticised by the Democrats, including Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris. The coronavirus outbreak has killed more than 42,094 people in the US, the country with the most fatalities in the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University, and more than 750,000 cases have been confirmed. "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Trump, a Republican, seeking reelection in the November presidential poll, said in a tweet late on Monday. Details of Trump's executive order were not immediately known. He also did not indicate when he would sign such an order. The president's announcement comes as his administration seeks to reopen parts of the US from the crippling COVID-19 shutdown. However, the NBC reported that the move "had been under consideration for a while," a senior administration official was quoted as saying by the report. The official said that the details about how the plan would be implemented and how many countries would be affected "will be forthcoming," the report added. Immigration has long been an issue of President Trump. He has been calling for a merit-based immigration system. Since the pandemic began, the administration had already restricted foreign visitors from China, Europe, Canada and Mexico. And also suspended all routine visa services, both immigrant and non-immigrant, around the world due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, Trump's announcement drew sharp criticism from Democrats and immigration advocates. California's Indian-origin Democratic Senator Harris said the president was taking advantage of the situation to push his hard-line immigration policies. "Trump failed to take this crisis seriously from day 1. His abandonment of his role as president has cost lives. And now, he's shamelessly politicising this pandemic to double down on his anti-immigrant agenda," Harris tweeted. Democrat Joaquin Castro tweeted that, "This action is not only an attempt to divert attention away from Trump's failure to stop the spread of the coronavirus and save lives, but an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis and advance his anti-immigrant agenda." "This is not about the policy. It is about the message the president wants to send. He wants people to turn against 'the other.' And, regardless of the valuable contributions immigrants are making to the response and recovery, he sees immigrants as the easiest to blame," Ali Noorani, the executive director of the National Immigration Forum, was quoted as saying by CNN. While Trump talked about suspending immigration visa, the H-1B visa, which is more popular among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa. But his reasoning that he needs to protect jobs of American citizens indicates that non-immigrant work visas too might be on his target. The United States, due to coronavirus, has experienced a record layoff. As off last week, a record number of 22 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits. The world's largest economy's growth has come to a standstill due to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has already closed the Northern and Southern border that attracts a large number of illegal immigrants. Travel restrictions and closing of consulate services in many countries including India are already having an impact on issuing of new H-1B visas. Globally, more than 2.4 million people have been infected with the virus and over 165,000 killed, according to the university tracker. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Earlier this month, Bernie Sanders, Joe Bidens opponent to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States (US), announced that he was suspending his campaign. This means that Biden will be the Democratic candidate for President. Biden has since got support from former president Barack Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren, herself a former presidential candidate. All this is good news for Biden. This is also good news for India. That is the case because if Biden was to win the presidency, the future for India-US relations would be on solid ground. If Sanders had stayed in the race, managed to win the nomination, and gone on to win the presidency, those relations would have been on shaky ground. Sanders does not have a strong history of support for India or substantial foreign policy experience as a senator. More important, during his campaigning, he was critical of some key policy measures of the Narendra Modi administration. By contrast, former vice-president (V-P) Biden is a long-time friend of India with a stellar track record in the foreign policy arena. And, to date, he has not made any major negative public pronouncements about Indias government. Biden is best known for the manner in which he served for eight years as the aide-de-camp for President Barack Obama, acting as his lead person and a key consultant on numerous issues, both domestic and foreign. He distinguished himself as someone who could facilitate communications, construct compromises, and build consensus among those with varying interests. As part of his portfolio, Biden worked diligently to promote and advance Obamas vision of a defining partnership between India and the US. He and his wife Jill visited India in 2013 when the V-P, according to the White House, set out an ambitious vision for the US-India relationship, looking not just at the months ahead or the years, but the decades ahead. Biden had India on his radar screen and best interests in mind before joining Barack Obama in 2009. When he was a senator and chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden was an advocate for the successful passage of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. Sanders voted against that bill in 2008. More recently, in 2020, Sanders has spoken out against Indias Kashmir policy, its enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the countrys treatment of its Muslim minority. Congressman Ro Khanna, an Indian-American, was co-chair of Sanders presidential campaign. He has also been critical of Indias human rights policies and has joined the Congressional Pakistan Caucus. This is more evidence that Sanders in the White House would have been problematic for Indias relations with the US. This brings the presidential match-up for the election to be held on November 3 between Biden and Donald Trump who is running for re-election basically unopposed in the Republican Party. That match-up is welcome news for India. In Biden and Trump, whoever occupies the Oval Office on January 20, 2021, India will be dealing with two known leaders. Trump, even with his mercurial and unpredictable behaviour, currently appears to be the preferred candidate of New Delhi, symbolised by the Howdy Modi spectacle in Houston in September and Namaste Trump show in Ahmedabad in February. But there should be caution regarding the future of bilateral relations with the US with Trump as president going forward. While Trump can be counted on to stand silent on internal matters in India such as Kashmir, he cannot be relied upon to speak authentically or to keep his word on important issues such as getting a trade deal done. Biden, on the other hand, might say things about Indias handling of issues central to a vital and vibrant democracy such as immigration, equal opportunity, pluralism, and the free press, but he will do so in a diplomatic manner. One variable that will come into play for India will be the status of the coronavirus pandemic when the election is held. It is far too early to speculate on the nature of that condition now. What can be said at this point in time is that Trump has minimised the role of the federal government in confronting the pandemic in the US, stating that it is up to the state and local governments to take the lead. Biden as president would put much greater emphasis on the federal leadership. Another difference that will impact India is that the Trump administrations approach to managing the pandemic is and will be isolationist, as evidenced by the closing down of Americas borders to other countries early on and not taking outside assistance in areas such as testing when the pandemic first struck the US. Biden, as president, will be an internationalist looking to bring countries together to confront the consequences of the coronavirus and to leverage resources to benefit all nations. Indians will not get to vote for the next president of the US. But Indian-Americans will. They should keep those distinct differences in style and behaviour in mind when they cast their ballots. I know that I will and that is why I am glad that Biden will be the Democratic candidate for president. That is good for both my motherland, India and my homeland, the US. Frank F Islam is an entrepreneur, civic leader, and thought leader based in Washington DC. The views expressed are personal WASHINGTON (AP) Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday agreement has been reached on every major issue of a nearly $500 billion coronavirus aid package for small businesses, as well as additional help for hospitals and COVID-19 virus testing. Schumer said post-midnight talks among Democratic and Republican leaders, along with top Trump administration officials produced a breakthrough agreement on the package. We have a deal and I think we'll pass it today, Schumer said Tuesday morning on CNN. He cautioned that staff are still dotting the I's and crossing the T's. A Tuesday afternoon Senate session could provide an opportunity to quickly pass the legislation if it comes together quickly, though the Democratic-controlled House is planning on calling lawmakers to Washington for a vote later in the week. Most of the funding, more than $300 billion, would go to boost a small-business payroll loan program that ran out of money last week. Additional help would be given to hospitals, and billions more would be spent to boost testing for the virus, a key step in building the confidence required to reopen state economies. CORONAVIRUS UPDATES: Stay informed with accurate reporting you can trust on HoustonChronicle.com The emerging draft measure originally designed by Republicans as a $250 billion stopgap to replenish the payroll subsidies for smaller businesses has grown into the second largest of the four coronavirus response bills so far. Democratic demands have caused the measure to balloon, though they likely will be denied the money they want to help struggling state and local governments. The Senate met for a brief pro forma session Monday afternoon that could have provided a window to act on the upcoming measure under fast-track procedures requiring unanimous consent to advance legislation, but it wasn't ready in time. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., set up another Senate session for Tuesday in the hope that an agreement will be finished by then. McConnell warned, however, that he wouldn't know whether the Senate could pass it by voice vote until the measure is unveiled. Its now been four days since the Paycheck Protection Program ran out of money. Republicans have been trying to secure more funding for this critical program for a week and a half now," McConnell said during Monday's brief session. Our Democratic colleagues are still prolonging their discussions with the administration, so the Senate regretfully will not be able to pass more funding for Americans paychecks today." The House has announced a vote on the pending package could come later in the week, possibly on Thursday, according to a schedule update from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Hoyer also announced that the chamber will vote on a temporary rules change to permit limited proxy voting during the COVID-19 crisis. With small-business owners reeling during a coronavirus outbreak that has shuttered much economic activity, the administration has been pressing for an immediate replenishment of the paycheck protection program. But Democrats sought additional money in a replay of the tactical jockeying that caused the recently-passed rescue measure to spiral to about $2 trillion. CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLE: Subscribe to our new daily podcast for pandemic insights through a Houston lens Talks have dragged as the two sides have quarreled over the design of a nationwide testing regime, among other unsettled pieces I heard today from our legislative affairs team that they are hopeful we can get a deal this week, top White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Monday on Fox News. The emerging accord links the administrations effort to replenish the small-business fund with Democrats demands for more money for hospitals and virus testing. It would provide more than $300 billion for the small-business payroll program, with $60 billion or so set aside for community lenders that seek to focus on underbanked neighborhoods and rural areas. Another $60 billion would be available for a small-business loans and grants program that has previously been aimed at helping businesses harmed by natural disasters like hurricanes. Additionally, it would bring $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing, according to those involved in the talks. Democrats have been pushing to boost funding to cash-strapped states and local governments whose revenues have cratered. They had proposed $150 billion for the effort, but GOP leaders stood hard in opposition, at least regarding the current package of COVID-19 aid. The governments Paycheck Protection Program has been swamped by companies applying for loans and reached its appropriations limit last Thursday after approving nearly 1.7 million loans. That left thousands of small businesses in limbo as they sought help. The National Federation of Independent Business, a GOP-friendly organization that advocates for small businesses in Washington, said it had surveyed their members and reported that only 1 in 5 applicants had received money so far. LIVE UPDATES: Stay on top of the latest coronavirus news, analysis and more with our daily live blog About $75 billion would go to U.S. hospitals those straining under a ballooning coronavirus caseload as well as those struggling to stay financially afloat after suspending elective surgeries during the pandemic. About $25 billion would be added for COVID-19 testing, something states have said was urgently needed. The SBA loans, based on a companys payroll costs, offer owners forgiveness if they retain workers or rehire those who have been laid off. The law provides for forgiveness for companies in any industry even businesses like hedge funds and law firms. Theres a limit of $100,000 on the amount of employees compensation that can be considered when loan forgiveness is calculated. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during question period in the House of Commons on April 20, 2020. A limited number of MPs took part as Parliament resumed. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld) Parliament Resumes In-Person Sittings One Day a Week, With Virtual Sessions on Two Days Canadas Parliament has resumed regular sittings, though not the way the Conservatives would prefer. MPs will gather in person each Wednesday and hold virtual meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Liberal motion to meet in person only on Wednesdays passed by a 22-15 vote on April 20. The contrary Conservative proposal to meet in person all three days was voted down by the same margin. Despite this split along party lines, pandemic responses have been less polarized in Canada than the United States, says Laura Stephenson, political science professor at the University of Western Ontario. All of the parties are on the same page at this point and time in terms of how important it is that we fight this pandemicthat it is real, is it overblown [or] is it not, that kind of thing, Stephenson says. One exception to this consensus came last month when the minority Liberal government drafted a bill to give themselves unilateral authority to raise taxes through the end of 2021. The attempt was quickly dialled backpretty quickly actually, and appropriately, Stephenson says. This is important because in times of crisis you often hear someone has to fix this quick, someone has to do something. And you dont want to have a blind desire for successful recovery to stop democratic processes. You dont want to see a government overreach. In the negotiation over Parliaments return, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said that with social distancing and a reduced number of MPs, there was no reason there couldnt be in-person sittings on all three days. During a press conference on April 20, Scheer said meeting in person would be more responsible. Right here on Parliament Hill, construction workers are continuing to renovate Centre Block, a project that is expected to take at least 10 years, he said. If they can safely renovate the building that houses our Parliament then surely we can do our duty to uphold the bedrock of our democracy. Trudeau said that while he believes its important to uphold the principles of accountability and democracy, it really matters that we do so responsibly and observe public health directives. The Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois argued that any time an in-person sitting takes place it poses a health risk. Parliamentary staff would also have to be in attendance during in-person sittings. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said virtual Parliament meetings make more sense because they allow MPs from all across the country to participate. Melanee Thomas, political science professor at the University of Calgary, believes that a business-as-usual sitting of Parliament would send the wrong message to the public. We could have parliamentarians violating the rules that everyone else has to follow, she says. People will say, Im a sucker for following these rules because they dont have to. So its important to see those rules mirrored by politicians very carefully. Thomas says it was not good for the families of the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition to travel home for Easter, given the example it set. She believes requiring MPs to be in the capital presents similar problems. Its going to be risky, and for many parliamentarians this is going to be commercial air travel with multiple stops in multiple placeseverything that public health officials are telling us not to do. Then again, MPs currently present for Parliament havent gone far. Singh told the National Post, In Parliament, we are limited to a small number and that is often people who are close to Ottawa. The successful motion means that MPs will have two hours and 15 minutes each Wednesday to question cabinet ministers, plus another session to debate legislation. Virtual sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays will allow 90 minutes for questions each day. Scheer said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau keeps arguing that he only needs to show up in the House and answer questions one day a week, yet he has appeared almost daily to speak to the media during the pandemic, as have his ministers. Mr. Trudeau needs to explain why he has replaced Parliament with press conferences, he said. Thomas says that while Trudeau is giving a really good image of calm competent leadership, at least sometimes, she understands why the Conservatives would want their own opportunities for air time. If were not in session with daily question periods, we dont already have those opportunities, which are pretty minimal for the Opposition, she says. Former Tory senator Hugh Segal, now chair of the External Advisory Board of Queens University, believes Conservative MPs can be best served right now by hearing from their ridings [while] working to shape Opposition policy priorities for recovery, and improvement where necessary in public health infrastructure. In some provinces, were MPs to depart for Ottawa they would have to isolate for 14 days before re-entering their province, he said, noting that the U.K. is also considering a digital virtual parliamentary framework. with reporting from Digital Desk Staff The Lord Mayor of Cork John Sheehan has criticised attempts to stop a protest at Debenhams in Dublin today. Workers who were laid off by Debenhams staged socially distant protests on Tuesday afternoon. Speaking to Niall Boylan on Classic Hits about the Debenhams protests around Ireland, Mr Sheehan said that believes the Gardai in Moore street, Dublin got it wrong when they attempted to move some of the Dublin workers on. He said that attempting to stop the protest showed a lack of common sense and discretion as the workers were abiding by social distancing and Government guidelines. Louise Murphy and former staff take part in a social distance protest outside Debenhams on Patrick Street, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan. Last week, the High Court appointed provisional liquidators to the Irish operation after it was told by the company that it is insolvent and could not pay its debts. Mr Sheehan attended the Cork protest in support of the workers. 'We are not going to lie down' says protesting Debenhams worker Hundreds of Debenhams workers are protesting outside six of its Irish stores today in pursuit of improved redundancy following the appointment of provisional liquidators to the retail giant. Protests are taking place at Debenhams' Henry St, Blanchardstown, Tallaght and Blackrock outlets in Dublin and outside its Mahon Point and flagship St Patrick's St stores in Cork. The workers, who are observing social distancing guidelines, say they are ramping up their campaign for improved redundancy payments following the appointment of provisional liquidators to the chain before the Easter weekend. The decision has resulted in the closure of 11 Irish outlets and the loss of up to 2,000 jobs. But shop steward at the St Patrick's St outlet, Valerie Conlon, said staff, including some with up to 30-years service, are in line for statutory redundancy only. She said she and her colleagues don't want to protest but feel they have no option. "We want to show our employer that we are not going to lie down, that we are not just numbers on a sheet, that we are employees and that we count, and that we are going to fight," she said. Many of the staff on the protest line in Cork city this morning worked with Roche's Stores and continued to work with Debenhams when it took over the landmark building on St Patrick's St when it launched here in 1996. Workers who could not join the physical protests staged their own protests outside their own homes and posted images on social media. KALAMAZOO, MI Twenty people have tested positive for coronavirus at the long-term care provider Medilodge of Kalamazoo, and one person tested positive while a resident of Kalamazoo Gospel Ministries, a homeless shelter, according to county health officials. The Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services Department sent a news release to confirm the coronavirus cases on Monday, April 20, and is working closely with the two vulnerable population facilities after cases of COVID-19 coronavirus were confirmed. At Medilodge of Kalamazoo, a long-term care facility 1701 S. Eleventh Street, 17 residents tested positive for COVID-19 and are being isolated in their rooms within a specific unit of the facility, and all group activities have been canceled. Three employees who tested positive for COVID-19 are isolating at home and are no longer in contact with any of the residents. Currently all residents and family members are in the process of being notified of the positive cases and steps are being taken to limit further spread of the virus, the county health department said. Medilodge of Kalamazoo, like many long-term care providers throughout the nation, is battling the COVID-19 pandemic and caring for positively tested residents," Medilodge of Kalamazoo said in a statement. "In serving the needs of our community, we prepared in advance for the outbreak knowing that we would need to assist our local hospitals in accepting COVID-19 patients in the recovery cycle of the disease process. We are following all of the CDC and CMS guidelines, maintaining regular communication with the Health Department and in conjunction with the Governors office, Medilodge of Kalamazoo has been selected, based on having the necessary supplies, personal protective equipment, and amazing staff, to assist with the hospital discharges of COVID- 19 positive residents for their treatment and care. We are extremely proud of our professional and dedicated staff that steps up to meet this challenge head on. Due to the state ordered restrictions on visitors which is so frustrating for our residents and their families, we have employed Facility Support Advocates dedicated to providing support to residents, which includes assisting with video chats with their families, and anything we can to do help them. While we cannot get into specific details due to strict confidentiality laws, we are happy to soon be discharging some of our residents who have fully recovered from COVID-19, Medilodge of Kalamazoo said. One resident at Kalamazoo Gospel Ministries, a homeless shelter at 448 N. Burdick, tested positive for COVID-19 and is being isolated at a separate facility. Four additional residents were exposed to this individual, and they are being quarantined and monitored at this time. The Health & Community Services Department has completed contact tracing and all residents and employees with potential exposure have been notified, according to the news release. Kalamazoo Gospel Ministries, formerly known as the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, has been working closely with the Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services Department in preparation of a potential positive case at their facility. The facility has been been following all recommended strategies to protect their residents and employees from COVID-19 including: Screening all residents and employees for symptoms daily utilizing infrared thermometers provided by the health department Ensuring adequate supply and use of personal protective equipment such as gloves and home-sewn cloth masks Enhancing hand hygiene practices and cleaning and disinfection practices at the facilities Limiting use of communal spaces and cancellation of any group activities Accessing 24/7 medical support from the health departments disease surveillance RN staff Its a blessing that we have gone without any positives for the past almost 40 days into this pandemic," Pastor Michael Brown of Kalamazoo Gospel Ministries said in a prepared statement. "I am encouraged but the quick response of the Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services Department, and the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission staff, to move the affected individual into quarantine. This will help to ensure the health and safety of our staff and guests. A partnership funded by the United Way of Battle Creek & Kalamazoo Region funded an effort to move families out of the homeless shelter and into a hotel through the end of April, to reduce the number of people a the shelter and encourage social distancing. The Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services Department continues to provide personal protective equipment supplementary support, staff education, and infection prevention technical assistance to all community partners and long-term care facilities and nursing homes. To date, there have been 180 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Kalamazoo County and nine deaths due to the virus. Read more: Kalamazoo County reports second-highest daily coronavirus count at 14 new cases Homeless families move to Kalamazoo hotel to encourage safety during coronavirus Kalamazoo-area nursing home reports 10 coronavirus cases including 2 deaths 21.04.2020 LISTEN Africa is a very beautiful continent endowed with rich resources both human and material wise. It is the second-largest continent in the world and the second-most populous continent, after Asia. Almost every natural resource that one can think of is existent on this very continent at the expense of other continents not having up to one-third of the resources that Africa has. The question that rolls in the minds of right-thinking members of society is that why is it that after all these numerous natural resources, Africa is considered as the poorest continent in the world? What could be the prime issue impoverishing the continent and leaving it in a long dark period? The problems could be many but I have chosen to talk about ethnicity, a delicate subject used as a weapon of destruction in Africa and how it has left the continent in its dark shade leading to the loss of millions of African lives and properties worth millions destroyed I know the dire consequences the trans-Atlantic slave trade had on Africa with the western world looting resources both in material and human aspects. Aside from this, there is the issue of colonialism which to a large extent has contributed to the downfall of the continent. But are these justifications enough reasons why Africa is underdeveloped? When did the slave trade end in Africa? When did most of the African countries gain their independence? Can we always trumpet and blame the western world for the havoc and mayhem they have caused to the downfall of Africa? Are there issues that transcend these? Amongst the six paradoxes of Africa which the eminent Professor Ali Mazrui of Kenya illustrated, one was that Africa is the richest continent yet the poorest. Why are we poor? What could probably be the problem? As indicated earlier, Africa is bedevilled with a lot of challenges such as the notorious habit of corruption of our leaders, indiscipline amongst its citizens, incessant unnecessary coup detats, abuse of power, leaders inability to relinquish their positions and political instability. I must admit that the points raised above are legitimate reasons which have contributed to the downfall of the African continent, but for me, the biggest of all which is not included is ethnicity and the ethnic conflicts which have resulted from it and how these conflicts sometimes led to war and have put the continent aback for decades and will continue to put it backwards if we do not eschew the pride attached to our ethnic groups. By 1965, most African countries had gained what I will call some sort of political independence and had their various countries being run by their own black leaders and as such one expected some form of egalitarianism which would bind the people together for better and advanced developmental projects. At this time, the white man had left the shores of Africa and had left the administration of the various countries and so our destiny was in our hands whether to make or unmake our continent. And oh, how dreadful it has been! This very article cannot talk about all the ethnic violence which have led to the downfall of the continent, but it will discuss a few of the incidences in some countries. I begin with the Democratic Republic of Congo, also known as DR Congo or the DRC and formerly known as Zaire which is amongst the richest country in Africa and the world at large in terms of natural resources. Almost all the essential natural resources necessary for a country to develop can be found there but what we see today is not a true reflection and there is no correlation between their resources and development. Why is it so? Does this affirm what Professor Ali Mazrui said that Africa is the richest continent yet the poorest? After gaining independence from Belgium on 30th June 1960, led by their nationalist Patrice Lumumba, things started to fall apart. The ethnic conflict started to draw them back as both Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and their president Joseph Kasa-Vubu had difficulties in working together. Joseph Kasa-Vubu belongs to the largest ethnic group the Kongo, while Patrice Lumumba belongs to the Tetele ethnic group. Things did not work out as the two could not put their ethnicity aside and work together in the best interest of their country. The issue escalated and later led to the overthrow and assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Even after Lumumbas demise, the issues have not died off as these recurrent conflicts have claimed and destroyed thousands of people and millions of wealth of properties. One expected that as a country which had suffered from slave trade and colonialism would have ironed out their differences and put their country first, but this was not so and had made Congo poorer than before independence. In 2016, the United Nations (UN) Human Development Index (HDI) ranked the DRC as the 176th least-developed country out of 188 countries with an HDI of 0.435. Despite being the second-largest country in Africa, with an approximate area of 2.3 million square kilometers, and being endowed with rich natural resources, the DRC is the second-poorest country in the world (Gregson Jonathan, Poorest Countries in the World Global Finance; June 2018). What an irony! You may be aware of the civil war which occurred in Rwanda in 1994, which claimed nearly a million lives. What was the cause of this outbreak of war? Ethnic differences between the Tutsis and the Hutus led to this. But even before what was generally regarded as a genocide in 1994, in 1959, there was some ethnic conflict that claimed the lives of about 20,000 Tutsis and many others fled to Tanzania, Burundi, and Uganda. One would say what happened in 1959 should have been the last ethnic violence to have happened in Rwanda but this was not so. In 1994, within the space of 100 days (April to June), more than 800,000 Rwandans were massacred. Can you see the carnage and havoc this ethnic conflict caused? Not even in the history of World War 1 and World War 2 were these numbers recorded within the space of these few days. But this has happened to a country which at the time could barely provide 3 square meals to its citizens. Rwanda has never been the same after the war. I admit that under Paul Kagame, a lot of things have changed, and some are even surprised at the faster rate of development at which the country is experiencing after the genocide. But this could have been better if the war had not broken out. Loosing over 800,000 people in just a matter of 100 days is appalling, devastating and reprehensible. We have not spoken about the destruction of properties. Nigeria, a very beautiful country with its richness in oil and other natural resources cannot be left off the hook when it comes to the issue of ethnic conflict. After gaining independence in 1960, one would have thought that Nigeria was on the right path to reach its peak in terms of development. Six years after independence, there was a military coup which many thoughts was born out of ethnic differences which led to the death of their first Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and other northerners and six months after 15 January 1966 coup, there was another coup which plunked the country into chaos and never made Nigeria remain the same. Nigeria has over 100 ethnic groups but the major three are the Hausa Fulanis who mainly occupy the Northern territory, the Yorubas who also occupy the Southern and some part of the West, and the Igbos who also occupy the Eastern part. They could not put their differences aside and work together as one people but allowed themselves to be swallowed in their ethnic pride leading them into abject poverty and darkness. What a pity! Anytime I think of the Biafra war in Nigeria, I cringe! I do so because Nigeria would have been better by now had they not engaged in that horrendous war battle. I cannot still fathom why this ethnic conflict broke out into war. I have asked myself, why can a government be so callous and very insensitive to its people and satisfy the demands of his ethnic group? The eminent writer Chinua Achebe has spoken at length about the outbreak of the civil war in his book "There was a country" "A Personal History of Biafra". It has been reported that after General Yakubu Gowon a Northerner successfully overthrew Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi an Easterner and an Igbo man, the northern people thought they had got some form of independence. Reading from some of the literature and from There was a Country which is a personal history of Biafra, the Igbos before and after independence were seen occupying most of the prominent positions in Nigeria. In academia, in politics, in their military, business and many other areas. These the Southerners the Yorubas, and the Northerners mainly the Hausa Fulanis saw as a torn in their flesh. So, this coup to them was a relief. After the coup in June 1966, there was an outbreak of ethnic violence in the northern part of Nigeria where it was reported that more than 3,000 Igbos in the northern territory were massacred and thousands of them fled away. What makes this incident very disturbing is that nobody was arrested and prosecuted for these atrocities committed. This seemingly unconcerned and unperturbed attitude from the federal military government gingered the Easterners who were known as Biafrans to advise themselves to call for a separate country out of Nigeria. To them, they were not secured and protected under the federal government. These happenings led to the deadly Civil War which has ever happened to Nigeria. The war which started in late 1966 and ended in 1970 claimed more than 3 million lives and most of them were civilians. I call what happened in Nigeria during the civil war as a government-organized and sponsored ethnic cleansing. Chinua Achebe calls it a calculated organized and systematic government ethnic cleansing. It was indeed a pogrom. The target was the Igbos and at the end of the day, many lives were exterminated. Imagine over 3 million people vigorously working to boost the productivity and the output of the Nigerian economy! They lost all these abled and innocent men and women within 3 years. It takes decades to raise 3 million people. How do we expect to develop if these barbaric things continue to happen? The trepidation which comes with the emergence of war is even an issue to be looked at separately. A government calculated attempt to wipe off one ethnic group and preserve is something I have thought about and never conclude. The funny thing is that, while the continent was busily fighting for which ethnic group has the superior power by engaging in fruitless and destructive battles; the Western world that we have always blamed for our stagnation to development was working tirelessly to develop their country. For me, I think all the leaders who were at the forefront of the Nigeria-Biafra war were prideful, self-centered, evil, and insensitive people. They have caused immeasurable damage to these innocent people. They did not think about the future generation. Almost all the leaders and soldiers who engaged in this destructive and combatant war have died or are inactive to contribute to the Nigerian economy and those who were born during and after are the ones suffering. It is so pathetic and very shameful that because of ethnicity, a country will gang up against its citizens to the extent that they nearly annihilated them. It will be unfair not to discuss the ethnic violence which has happened in Ghana. Even though the number of people who have lost their lives as a result of this conflict cannot in any way be compared with what happened in Rwanda and Nigeria but at least we have lost over one thousand people because of these barbaric and uncultured battles. In 1994, the conflict that broke out between the Konkombas and the Nanumbas claimed about 2,000 lives and displaced over 100,000 people. What makes Ghana's situation not darker like what happened in Nigeria and Rwanda was that Ghanas issue happened in the northern territory but with the swift response from the Rawlings government made the issue not escalate. There is no call for jubilation since Ghanas case is not like the other countries. Even one persons life is valuable and talking of thousands! We should be ashamed of ourselves as a continent for letting such minute differences destroy our pride and future. DR Congo, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Ghana are not the only countries that have experienced this barbaric form of ethnic cleansing, the likes of Liberia, Sierra Leon, Central Africa Republic, Kenya, and other countries have all tasted this distasteful nature of ethnic conflict and its negative effects are frightening. Even away from the conflict which comes out as a result of our ethnic differences, there have been a lot of prospective marriages that became stillborn and never saw the light of day as a result of these ethnic differences. Many people have lost their jobs or could not get jobs because of their ethnic affiliation. When did competence depend on ethnic line? Many parents do not want their children to cross borders to get married to some ethnic groups in Ghana, even though the situation seems a little better today. And this case is not exclusive to Ghana, its an African issue. Can we enmesh ourselves with such an outdated style of living? Can we engage in ethnic violence that will uproot the deep fibre of peace in our society as a continent? We cannot sit and witness such a form of ethnic cleansing and brutalization of our citizens again. It takes many decades to even achieve one-third of the loss of war. Looking at what ethnic conflict which on several occasions has led to the civil war had done to our dear continent! Are we going to give a second chance for such uncivilized things to happen again? There should be unity in diversity and the fact that you dont agree with someone should not lead to destructions and massacre. It is time for us to wake up from our slumber. We have no one to develop our beautiful continent for us and there is no place like home. Lets not kill ourselves, for if we do, the future generation will not forgive us. I speak as a patriotic citizen of Africa. We have only one Africa. Say no to ethnic cleansing and ethnic pogrom. We have come far. Africa must rise again, Ghana must work again, Ghana will work again, YOUNG POSITIVIST a concerned citizen of Ghana. The right-wing anti-lockdown protests breaking out around the U.S. are presenting the latest no-win quandary for Facebook, as the world's largest social network tries to fulfill its pledge to remain politically impartial amid a pandemic that has killed more than 42,000 Americans. The company has taken tentative steps so far blocking protesters from using Facebook to organize in-person rallies in California, New Jersey and Nebraska but not in other places, such as Michigan, Texas and Virginia, where people have rallied together outside state capitols in defiance of orders to self-isolate at home. But Facebooks partial takedowns were still enough to bring a political brushback from some Republicans in Washington, where GOP lawmakers have repeatedly threatened to enact legal consequences for internet companies over what they consider to be a pattern of anti-conservative bias in Silicon Valley. President Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., accused Facebook of "colluding with state governments to quash peoples free speech," calling its actions "chilling & disturbing." Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked rhetorically of the company's decision: "Because free speech is now illegal America?" "Given Big Techs history of bias and censorship, Im deeply concerned that they and government officials are partnering not to protect public health, but to shut down views with which they disagree," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in a statement Monday evening. "Now, more than ever, companies like Facebook should focus on connecting people, not shutting down communities because they hold different views. But Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal praised the companys move Monday night, tweeting: Powerful special interests are using astroturfing & dangerous tactics to undermine the fight against COVID-19. Facebook is right to take a stand against harmful misinformation. Story continues Demonstrators crowd together at a protest opposing Washington state's stay-home order to slow the coronavirus outbreak Sunday, April 19, 2020, in Olympia, Wash. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has blasted President Donald Trump's calls to Facebook initially indicated that it had removed the protest information at the request of states whose authorities said they violated restrictions on large public gatherings. The company later clarified that it sought guidance from states but ultimately made its own decision to take the posts down. "We reached out to state officials to understand the scope of their orders, not about removing specific protests on Facebook," the spokesperson said. "We remove the posts when gatherings do not follow the health parameters established by the government and are therefore unlawful." CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered a slightly different explanation in an interview with ABC News on Monday morning, suggesting that Facebook removes content that disputes social distancing practices and therefore poses a risk of imminent physical harm. Certainly, someone saying that social distancing is not effective to help limit the spread of coronavirus, we do classify that as harmful misinformation and we take that down, Zuckerberg said after George Stephanopoulos asked him about Facebooks role in facilitating the protests. At the same time, it's important that people can debate policies. This is just the latest free-speech flap to hit Facebook, which has also faced blowback for its policies on removing content ranging from misleading political ads to vaccine misinformation. And once again, the company faced criticism that it offers few clear yardsticks for what speech it allows on a platform that reaches more than 2 billion people worldwide. Facebook, which controls a platform for the speech of billions, should not be censoring political speech online, said Vera Eidelman, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, despite the public-health stakes at play on mass gatherings held during a pandemic. This is especially true now, when questions of when and how to reopen the country are among the central political questions, and online platforms are the main vehicle for expression." David Greene, civil liberties director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argued that Facebook seemingly deciding to remove protests based on whether they violate state law provides an objective yardstick. Still, he said that without further clarity, "it can be very difficult to judge the fairness of something and to make sure that it actually is being implemented in a way that doesnt disadvantage certain groups or certain types of protests. But preventing deaths during a pandemic offers Facebook a defensible rationale, contends Matthew Feeney, the director of the libertarian Cato Institute's project on emerging technologies. Feeney said that while Facebook and other social networks aren't bound by the First Amendment, they face a "legitimacy issue" when they decide to block or moderate certain types of content. That often causes them to "punt" by looking to state laws or non-government groups for rules they can enforce. Content can be removed from these platforms for all sorts of reasons, and here we have a private company making a decision that they don't want information that could potentially lead to the death and illness of more people to spread," Feeney said. "I think that's an understandable position." Facebook, Google, Twitter and other social media companies have long denied that politics is a factor in their complex, and sometimes opaque, decisions about what content they will and will not allow. The companies have sought to make their process more transparent, with Facebook in particular announcing the creation of an independent board to review content moderation judgments. But when it comes to content or advertising that is explicitly political, Facebook has at times concluded that inaction is the best action. When Twitter and Google imposed new restrictions on political advertising last year, for example, Facebook stuck to its policy of not fact-checking political ads or limiting their reach in effect, allowing politicians to lie with impunity. Zuckerberg laid out an aggressive approach to freedom of expression in a speech at Georgetown University last fall, though he acknowledged that "free expression has never been absolute." Zuckerberg cited social and civil rights activists over the centuries, from Frederick Douglass to Martin Luther King Jr. to the Iraq War opponents of the early 2000s, as examples that inspired his stance saying free speech and protests have enabled progress no matter how disquieting they felt at the time. But in recent years, Zuckerberg said, people have expanded what they consider to be dangerous speech. "Some hold the view that since the stakes are so high, they can no longer trust their fellow citizens with the power to communicate and decide what to believe for themselves," Zuckerberg said in October. "I personally believe this is more dangerous for democracy over the long term than almost any speech." Still, he said the company would make exceptions when speech can cause adverse effects such as discrimination, harassment and a standard that is relevant today physical harm. To be fair, the anti-lockdown protests became political before Facebook took action. For days, rallies across state capitals have brought together self-proclaimed dissidents many carrying pro-Trump signs and forgoing protective equipment like masks calling for an end to the health restrictions. Many of the protesters, who have numbered from handfuls to thousands depending on the location, say closing non-essential businesses, and pushing people out of jobs and onto government assistance, harms the economy and undermines their liberties. Those views have been fueled in part by the president, who has at times wavered between urging governors to reopen their economies and deferring to state leaders to make such calls. But in a series of tweets last week, Trump encouraged the protests with calls to liberate Michigan, Virginia and Minnesota, all states with Democratic governors. The anti-quarantine sentiment has also been brewing online. In at least six invite-only Facebook groups dedicated to spreading information about Covid-19, such as CoronaVirus Warning Watch USA and Coronavirus USA, some users have been calling for widespread protests against statewide lockdowns for at least a week, according to a review of these messages by POLITICO. In most of the social media posts, which often garner large amounts of engagement by either supporters or opponents, people claim that their constitutional rights are being threatened and that local authorities are overplaying the concern. Many reference Trumps desire to reopen the economy, saying the lockdowns are creating more harm than if people were able to move around freely. In one group focused on Facebook users in Wisconsin, for instance, several Facebook posts also linked to right-wing talk show hosts who said people should take to the streets to protect their Second Amendment rights. In recent weeks, these private Facebook groups have become filled with conspiracy theories, half-truths and lies as people search for ways to protect themselves against the global pandemic. Some far-right users also have linked the spread of coronavirus to existing anti-elite and anti-migrant themes, such as accusing billionaires like Bill Gates and George Soros of promoting the virus for financial gain. Protests opposing lockdowns and quarantines have also broken out across the globe, including in Brazil, Zimbabwe and France. Mark Scott, Cristiano Lima and Ryan Heath contributed to this report. Sempra Energy and the Sempra Energy Foundation will donate up to $500,000 to help nonprofits in Texas. Over $200,000 in funds will be given to Jefferson County charities, including the Southeast Texas Food Bank, Sabine Pass Education Fund, Southeast Texas Emergency Relief Fund, Port Arthur Higher Education Foundation and others. The grants for Texas nonprofits will be part of a larger $1.75 million Nonprofit Hardship Fund from the Sempra Energy Foundation that will be made available to charities in the areas of the United States where Sempra Energy and its family of companies operate, including California, Texas and Louisiana. "Sempra continues to show its generosity and commitment to standing in solidarity with some of the neediest members of the Southeast Texas community," said Dan Maher, president and CEO of the Southeast Texas Food Bank said in a statement. The $20,000 donation to the Port Arthur Higher Education Foundation helped provide $6,000 to the Lamar State College Port Arthur Food Bank and LSCPA administrators are currently determining the best way to assist students using the additional $14,000 from the Sempra contribution. No one should go hungry, ever, LSCPA President Dr. Betty Reynard said in a statement. We are a close-knit campus and we consider our co-workers and our students to be a family. Sempra has made it possible for us to broaden the impact our food bank has on this family. Sempra Energys subsidiary Sempra LNG is developing the proposed Port Arthur LNG export project in Jefferson County, Texas. Port Arthur LNG is a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure investment that will enable the delivery of natural gas sourced from Texas to world markets. The project will also support manufacturing, small businesses and the community by creating thousands of jobs and contributing to the local economy. The International Monetary Fund may need to step outside its comfort zone and consider "exceptional measures" to help countries deal with the coronavirus pandemic and mitigate its economic impact, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday. Georgieva, in a blog published on the IMF website, said the fund had already taken extraordinary steps to free up resources, especially for emerging markets and developing economies that have seen an outflow of $100 billion in recent months - the highest on record. But more resources may be needed if market pressures continue to mount, and lending - even on easy terms - is not always the best solution, given already high debt burdens faced by many countries, she said. "The IMF, like our member countries, may need to venture even further outside our comfort zone to consider whether exceptional measures might be needed in this exceptional crisis," she said, suggesting increased collaboration with other international institutions and the private sector. Georgieva gave no details, but her remarks came after a joint IMF-World Bank paper published on Friday said a broader group of countries - beyond the 77 poorest countries that have already been promised a suspension in debt payments on official bilateral loans - may need debt relief. 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 Georgieva also revived her call for a possible allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), the IMF's official unit of exchange, that would be akin to a central bank "printing" new money. The United States has opposed such a move. The IMF last forecast the global economy would contract by 3% in 2020 due to the pandemic, marking the steepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. "We stand ready to deploy our full lending capacity and to mobilize all layers of the global financial safety net, including whether the use of SDRs could be more helpful, Georgieva wrote in the blog. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week rejected an SDR allocation, arguing that 70% of the funds created through that would go to G20 countries, most of which did not need it, while only 3% would go to low-income countries. SDRs are based on dollars, euro, yen, sterling and yuan. Member countries hold them at the fund in proportion to their shareholdings. Reuters last week reported that the United States, the IMF's dominant shareholder, is blocking an allocation because it would give new avenues of funding for Iran and China. Mnuchin urged advanced economies to contribute instead to two IMF facilities that provide funds to the poorest countries and said the U.S. government was exploring such a contribution. A Treasury official said a U.S. contribution to one or both of the funds would require congressional approval, and potentially new funds. No further details were immediately available. In her blog, Georgieva lauded the generosity of Britain, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore and China in boosting the resources available in the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, which helps the IMF's poorest members by providing grants to cover their debt service payments to the IMF. She also recognized Japan, France, Britain, Canada and Australia for pledges to expand the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust to $11.7 billion, taking the fund to about 70% of its $17 billion goal. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here I lived much of my life in or around San Francisco. Although I vaguely remember a time when women and men still wore hats and gloves downtown, my strong memories begin with the hippies and their mixture of rainbows and squalor in the Haight. From there, I witnessed San Francisco's self-realized and actualized 1970s, Yuppie 1980s, politically correct 1990s, and the dot-com explosion of the 21st century. Through it all, the left-leaning city maintained a functional infrastructure and, thanks to internet money, eventually prospered. Lately, though, San Francisco's commitment to enabling its homeless population has led to a profound degradation in the city's quality of life. That escalated at the end of last year, when San Francisco elected Chesa Boudin as its district attorney. Boudin, whom Bill Ayers (Obama's mentor) raised, announced that he would no longer prosecute "lifestyle crimes," such as prostitution, public urination and defecation, and public drug use. In a city with 8,000 homeless people, that's turned many streets into the Seventh Circle of Hell. Boudin has also refused to prosecute misdemeanors. When one pairs that policy with 2014's Prop. 47, which downgraded felonies to misdemeanors, the only possible outcome is a breakdown of law and order in San Francisco. California's Wuhan virus shutdown has only exacerbated the breakdown, as journalist Erica Sandberg explains: To clarify, I mean people should see whats happening on the streets of SF now, in real time & in person. It will change you. Even the best reports wont do the situation justice. In 10 seconds youll know the soul crushing truth and will vow to vote differently. Erica Sandberg (@EricaJSandberg) April 13, 2020 It was absolute mayhem. This is all over City Hall and it was the only place I felt somewhat safe taking a pic. cops were behind me making people space their tents. No masks. Everyone either shooting up or have just done so. Guy ODd in front of us. Dealers everywhere. pic.twitter.com/F5TIk1VtSG Erica Sandberg (@EricaJSandberg) April 20, 2020 A wall of tents line up at City Hall in SF! And look at what is at the other end... A wall of dealers. Why is this allowed to happen? Arrest and lock up these dealers now! #DrugFestSF #COVID19 #notsocialdistancing #DRUGS #SanFrancisco #SF #CityHallSF pic.twitter.com/sYQ5EBjxIR CleanUpSoMaWest (@CleanUpWestSoma) April 20, 2020 Where societal breakdown goes, fire invariably follows, along with blood in the streets and a helpless police force: What struck me about events on San Francisco's streets is the fact that the same thing is taking place in Paris, another city affected by the Wuhan virus, one in which the law-abiding are sheltering in place and the disaffected are running riot. In this case, though, the mayhem of flames and blood comes not from the homeless, but from Muslim immigrants: Paris has seen a second night of riots break out over police 'heavy-handed' treatment of ethnic minorities during the coronavirus lockdown. Anger erupted in the French capital last night and during the early hours of Monday morning over alleged 'racist' police attacks. In response, police used tear gas and baton charges in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, northern Paris, on Monday morning as fireworks exploded in the street. Armed police were seen moving through the area as groups of protesters congregated. Fireworks were again seen being launched at police last night as heavily armed riot police took to the streets of Paris. [snip] President Emmanuel Macron has extended France's social distancing measures until May 11. Its daily death toll from the virus fell to the lowest level in three weeks today as 395 deaths were recorded, bringing the total to 19,718, though deaths are typically under-reported over the weekend. Fireworks dyed the sky red above the Parisian suburb early this morning, videos posted on social media show. Bins were also filmed blazing and filling the air with smoke as armed police moved into the area. Rioting has broken out in housing estates around Paris as tensions escalated over the #coronavirus lockdown https://t.co/oMfrlWIb4p SkyNews (@SkyNews) April 20, 2020 En direct depuis le quartier du Luth a #Gennevilliers une voiture de la bac prise pour cible par des tirs de feux dartifices.#VilleuneuveLaGarenne #VilleneuveLaGarenne pic.twitter.com/cqdAwSvYi1 Taha Bouhafs (@T_Bouhafs) April 20, 2020 Unless government authorities act quickly, this will not end well, whether at home or abroad. Trump, again showing his firm resolve as a leader, is closing down all immigration to America to preserve American jobs: In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 Trump's emergency executive order on immigration is a step in the right direction. He understands that joblessness drives civil unrest. By reserving the American job market for those already here, he may help stave off the chaos that follows on the heels of a panic. ABC Commercial has sold documentary Chinas Artful Dissident to public broadcasters SVT Knowledge & SVT Play in Sweden and NHK in Japan. The documentary on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre adds to the list of sales the USA, Canada, Middle East, Africa, Australasia and Pacific Island territories. Chinas Artful Dissident is produced by Identity Films & Productions in association with Film Victoria, Screen Australia, ABC Commercial and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Written, directed and produced by Danny Ben-Moshe, it was officially selected for the 2019 United Nations Film Festival and has won Award of Excellence: Special Mention at the Impact Docs Award 2019 and was the opening night film and winner Best Mid-Length Documentary at the Barcelona Human Rights Film Festival, 2019. Chinas Artful Dissident is an excellent example of the high-quality, original factual production that sits within our portfolio of award-winning television content. said Jessica Ellis, Head of ABC Content Sales and Distribution. Were delighted to be working with SVT and NHK to be bringing this ground-breaking Australian series to Swedish and Japanese audiences. This compelling documentary charts the journey of foremost political cartoonist Badiucao, who clandestinely protests Chinas human rights abuses through his irreverent and satirical art. High on the Chinese governments hit list, they endeavour to prevent his art from breaching their great firewall. After initially attracting considerable international and domestic media attention with both his political cartoon and performance art, the documentary showcases Badiucaos body of work and follows his move to avoid Chinese interference to Berlin where he gets a job with Chinas most famous living artist, Ai Weiwei. This leads him towards his biggest artistic opportunity to date his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. Like Banksy, Badiucao remains incognito but as plans for the Hong Kong exhibition proceed, the personal and professional stakes for the exiled artist become considerably higher. Sean Roses daughter, Teagan, is set to graduate from Doherty High School this year. The Worcester City Councilor representing District 1 knows as much as anyone how much the class of 2020 was hoping to return to school this year. With Gov. Charlie Baker announcing the closure of schools for the rest of the academic year, it also eliminates spring spring sports, puts in question graduation and other planned events. Rose and school committee member Molly McCullough wanted to show their support for Worcesters senior class. They created signs honoring this years seniors but that will also benefit the city. Each sign will be sold for $20 with the proceeds benefiting the Worcester Together fund. I figured it would be a good way to recognize our seniors and acknowledge them while also giving back to the city and having them feel like their accomplishment of graduating is in some way contributing to the success of the city in rebounding from the virus. The signs, Rose said, are in no way meant to replace or take away from any future ceremony or acknowledgement for the senior class. The meaning behind them is a way to support the class through a difficult time. Within two hours of the announcement they received more than 100 requests for signs. They feature the Worcester Public Schools logo along with a graduating cap featuring tassels with the color of each high school in the city. Its really taken off, McCullough said. I think there are a lot of people who are just feeling like they want to show support for the community, but also show support for the high school seniors who are kind of losing out on some of those key moments in their lives. Worcester has embraces signs as a way to unite as a community through the coronavirus pandemic. The Worcester Public Library launched its #HeartWorcester campaign asking residents to place hearts in their windows as a sign of unity. Anyone interested in purchasing a sign can do so at signsforseniors@gmail.com. The first batch of signs are expected to arrive within a week or two. The Worcester Together fund has raised more the $4 million. The partnership between the City of Worcester, Greater Worcester Community Foundation and the United Way of Central Massachusetts provides funding to non-profits who can help the city both in the long term and the short term. When the city has its back up against the wall, people do everything in their power to show their love and their support, Rose said. I think this is just another example of that. Related Content: With the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater wrapped in plastic because of the cold weather near the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, N.Y., its crew used the weather barrier as a canvas to thank all essential workers for the work that theyre doing during the coronavirus pandemic. Japan plans to ban entry of foreign citizens from more than 10 countries to help curb the coronavirus outbreak. This is in addition to the 73 countries and territories already banned. The government has decided to deny entry to foreigners who have been in Russia, Belarus, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and others within 14 days before their arrival in Japan. The Foreign Ministry will raise the infectious disease alert in these regions to Level 3, which means Japanese citizens are advised not to travel there. For other regions, the government has invalidated visas that were already issued. It plans to extend the measures, which are due to expire at the end of April. N azanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's temporary release from prison in Iran has been extended during the coronavirus pandemic, her MP has said. The British-Iranian mother was temporarily freed from Evin prison in Tehran in response to the global spread of Covid-19. On Tuesday, Tulip Siddiq tweeted that her furlough had been extended for one month, in line with other prisoners in Iran. She wrote: Very happy to hear from Richard Ratcliffe that Nazanins furlough has been extended for a month in line with other prisoners in Iran. Now is the time for our government to do all it can to make it permanent. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in Iran since 2016, but has been living in relative isolation at her parents' home in Tehran during the pandemic. She has to wear an ankle tag during the furlough, and can only go within a 300-metre range of her parents home. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehrans Imam Khomeini airport while travelling to show her young daughter, Gabriella, to her parents in April 2016. She was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government. More than 35,000 employers have registered with the Irish Governments wage subsidy scheme for coronavirus, finance minister Paschal Donohoe said (Brian Lawless/PA). The country is set for a deep recession this year that will eclipse the worst seen in the financial crisis causing mass unemployment and deep scarring that will last for years, new Government forecasts show. The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which manages funding for the State, has massively hiked its estimate for how much it will borrow this year to a new range of 20bn to 24bn. The NTMA previously said it expected to borrow between 10bn and 14bn this year and that was mostly to pay off old bonds. The new higher estimate is based on an expected Government spending deficit a shortfall between the cost of running the State and the income raised mostly through tax and spending. Far from plotting a rapid V-shaped recovery, the economy will grow by 5.8pc next year and the average unemployment level in 2021 will be 9.7pc, a figure last seen in October 2014. The Department of Finance forecasts showed that it will be 2022 before the economy recovers to the state it was in prior to the pandemic outbreak that has shuttered businesses across the globe and put more than two billion people under lockdown. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said: "We are clearly now in the midst of a severe recession both domestically and globally." He said the document today sets out a scenario and is not a forecast because of a "lack of visibility about the path ahead" that's "due to factors outside our control". Mr Donohoe said the projections assume that current virus containment measures remain in place for 12 weeks and they are gradually eased there after. The document outlines a possible deficit of more than 23bn. He continued to say: "There is very considerable uncertainty attached to the numbers of today. There are indeed large risks with them, including a prolonged change in our economic circumstances. "Depending not only on containment measures, here at home. But of course, containment measures in our main trading partners. "In the space of a few weeks, our jobs market has transformed from a situation of full employment to warn where unemployment has risen, with a speed and scale that is completely unprecedented." Mr Donohoe insisted that Ireland can respond to the challenges from a position of strength. He said that there was a budget surplus, the State had cash reserves, and Ireland has a restored reputation on the international market. The document outlines a possible recovery in the second half of this year with economic growth of 6pc. It says employment could grow in 2021 with the numbers out of work set to fall below 10pc. On the challenges ahead Mr Donohoe pledged: "We will recover public health and we will renew our economy... "In particular, up to 2bn is to be provided to support our health services to both boost capacity to purchase PPE, and to hire new staff to support our systems during this crisis. "The measures agreed by the government over a 12 week period to provide at least four to four-and-a-half billion euro in income support sick pay and benefits for impacted workers. "The additional funding has been provided based on current projections." Mr Donohoe said that he wants to remain hopeful about our economic outlook, while also continuing to be realistic about the coronavirus fallout. "What this document is doing today is just acknowledging the huge uncertainty that will surround global economy for a period of time. And I'm absolutely confident that the Irish economy can recover. "I'm certain that we can get as many of our citizens back to work once we're clear where we stand with Covid-19, but I also want to equally be clear that one of the consequences of doing this is we're going to have large deficits, and that over time we will need to reduce that deficit again," Mr Donohoe said. Last week, the International Monetary Fund forecast that the world economy would shrink by 3pc this year, its worst performance since the Great Depression. Like the IMF forecasts, there is a risk that the new numbers from Mr Donohoe could underestimate the damage to the economy as they are based on the assumption that the harsh lockdown lasts just 12 weeks and is followed by a gradual reopening of the economy. Todays forecasts are harsher than those issued by the Central Bank of Ireland just two weeks ago that estimated the economy would shrink by 8.3pc. As a result of the economic slump that has put a million workers on state wage support schemes at a cost in the region of 4bn a month, the budget will shift from a small surplus into a deep deficit of 7.4pc of gross domestic product, or 23bn. Debt ratios will rise sharply as a result of the extra spending and the economic contraction. Using a measure of the economy that strips out hefty distortions, the ratio of Government debt to Modified Gross National Income will rise to 125.1pc from 99.2pc after years of sharp declines in the post crisis era. More to follow... Australian funeral homes are refusing to provide their services for people who have died from coronavirus. President of the Australian Funeral Directors Association (AFDA) Andrew Pinder said some funeral homes will not allow families to dress the body or view the deceased out of fear of contracting the disease. Many funeral directors are wearing full protective clothing to handle bodies during the coronavirus pandemic. Funeral directors are wearing protective equipment to handle bodies during the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured are undertakers with a coronavirus victim in Austria on April 2 President of the Australian Funeral Directors Association Andrew Pinder said funeral directors had to be creative to provide a service for grieving families during the coronavirus pandemic The NSW Health Department has warned funeral industry workers to use infection prevention and control measures when handling bodies. Two body bags must be used for anyone suspected to have died from coronavirus, not just one, to prevent any leaks, the Department says on its website. Staff are taking every precaution necessary to prevent the chance of infection, and have been warned that family members of the dead person may also have the virus. 'The greatest risk of transmission to funeral industry workers is likely to be through contact with family and friends of the deceased,' NSW Health says on its website. Nick Maurer from Maurer Family Funerals received the body of a man who died from coronavirus to his shop front in Chatswood last week. The body was wrapped in two leak proof bags which read 'COVID-19 handle with care'. Mr Maurer told The Sydney Morning Herald he wore a surgical gown, respiratory mask, gloves and protective booties to treat him. He said his staff are still aiming to give coronavirus patients the same level of comfort as any other person. A worker shuts the door on a cold room with a coronavirus victim inside in Austria on April 2. Funeral workers are having to take extra precautions while still offering comfort to families A drive-thru funeral held in Madrid on April 16. Spain is struggling to deal with an out-of-control coronavirus outbreak with 198,674 confirmed cases as of Monday night 'This isn't our first pandemic; we try to keep it as normal as possible so the family don't feel the stigma of being involved with a death caused by a pandemic virus,' Mr Maurer said. The AFDA is lodging a complaint to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over the price gouging of protective equipment, with many funeral homes struggling to provide attire for their staff. Despite restrictions, funeral directors are doing their best to give families a proper send off for their loved ones during the coronavirus period. Mr Pinder, who is also the managing director of Ern Jensen Funerals in St Albans and Preston in Victoria, said funeral directors have had to get creative to provide a normal service for grieving families, including using FaceTime for guests. No more than ten people are able to attend a funeral service at the current restriction rate. 'I held the phone up and around their dad while they sang to him, cried and laughed and played music, and read letters,' he said. 'They felt they had a ceremony. They were not physically together but absolutely together in saying goodbye.' Tucked on a short rural street in McClellanville, Greater Howard Chapel is used to seeing about 125 members on a Sunday. But amid the coronavirus pandemic, the AME congregation is reaching hundreds, if not thousands, more through its online services. An Easter drive-in worship experience welcomed members who parked cars on a grassy lot as they listened to songs from musicians and a message from the Rev. Leondra Stoney. About 300 people had tuned in to watch the service live via the church's Facebook page. By mid-week, the video had more than 7,000 views. "I definitely wasnt expecting it," said Stoney, who noted she was more focused during Resurrection Sunday on drive-in logistics, such as maintaining internet access in the rural area. The coronavirus pandemic has forced houses of worship to suspend normal in-person worship experiences, but some good is coming out of the crisis. Some South Carolina religious institutions are reaching more people through online worship experiences than they did when members sat in the pews. For some churches, digital streams are a source of new life. Central Baptist has faced issues shared by other African American congregations on the Charleston peninsula, where changing demographics and limited parking has resulted in membership decline for many historic black churches. The Rev. Gary Brisbane, who's in his sixth year at the church, said Central's growth had stalled, but the church is now reaching more people than it did hosting in-person gatherings. Normal Sunday mornings saw about 125 parishioners, while recent Facebook experiences have averaged about 500 viewers. The church has even invested financially to reach a larger audience. Less than $30 a month can be used to promote Facebook posts and reach a wide range of people, Brisbane said. The pastor hopes his messages are reaching first responders and other people who traditionally work on weekends. "We believe using this tool will help to get the word out for many who are unable to come to church," he said. Experts say houses of worship should consult help guides on digital platforms to properly interpret their reach. While platforms like Facebook and YouTube display total numbers of views beneath videos, streaming mediums also provide "unique views," which are a more accurate way of reading body counts since someone could watch a video multiple times, said Sandee Jackson, who helps manage online communications for Morris Brown AME in downtown Charleston. For churches where members are not as tech-savvy, dial-in conference calls serve as a viable option, Jackson said. But the digital content expert warned that quantitative data doesn't give the full picture. While looking at live online worship experiences, Jackson said she's most concerned with reading members' comments, which suggests whether they are receiving spiritual fulfillment from web offerings. I want to know, are people really watching and getting something out of it," said Jackson, who's also CEO of 29:11 Creative LLC, a communications company. "Are they feeling more connected to God and each other? Janice Pearce, who attends St. Matthew's Lutheran on the Charleston peninsula, said watching online Sunday services from her home makes her feel as if she's in the pew at the historic sanctuary. It makes me feel like I'm there with my church family," she said. Virtual services might be convenient, but they don't replace the joy and fellowship felt when believers gather in holy places. The longing for physical assembly was on display by the Rev. Jay Scott Newman on Easter Sunday as he stood inside an empty St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville. In the Catholic tradition, worship songs during Lent maintain a somber tune before bright hymns are reintroduced on Easter. As the celebratory music played, the reverend became emotional on the biggest Christian holiday, a holy day when there are typically thousands of worshippers in the Upstate church. Im not a very emotional man in public," he said, but, "the juxtaposition of the joyful Easter music in an empty church was a sucker-punch. Churches like St. Mary's, which began streaming services years ago, had an easier time transitioning amid the virus outbreak. The church installed four cameras in 2018 when it began broadcasting Masses mainly for out-of-town members. Throughout 2019, the religious institution would see up to 500 views for services. When the church suspended in-person gatherings mid-March, they had largely worked out camera coordination and other kinks to accommodate the estimated 8,000 people who would be reached by the videos. "It's been a very effective tool of evangelization," Newman said. Some spiritual leaders suggest there will be churches that won't survive the crisis due to financial strains and members who may opt to attend other houses of worship once the virus subsidies. Offering levels at St. Mary's have remained largely consistent since the church already had an online giving system before the virus, Newman said. But he noted all organizations dependent on voluntary donations, including churches that rely heavily on cash tithes, will feel a strain caused by the pandemic. For decades, thousands of teachers from across the country have gathered over the Fourth of July holiday to discuss the business of the nations largest teachers union. But this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the unions delegates will stay home. The National Education Associations board of directors voted Monday evening to cancel in-person attendance at its annual Representative Assembly, and instead will conduct a scaled-down virtual convention that focuses on only three action items: voting on an endorsement of Joe Biden in the general election; electing union officers, including a new president; and approving the unions budget. The NEAs Representative Assembly is the worlds largest democratic deliberative assembly. The bulk of the actions that typically are conducted during the meetingincluding voting on new business items , which are delegate-proposed directives for the union to pursue for one yearwill be postponed until next year. The changes were recommended by the executive committee, led by NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia. The NEA will likely lose millions of dollars in cancellation costs. We cannot take the risk of educators becoming infected and spreading the virus to students, their families and colleagues, or their communities, Eskelsen Garcia said in a statement. About 6,000 delegates were expected to come to Atlanta July 2-6, and meet in the convention center, which is now being used as a makeshift hospital for patients recovering from COVID-19. In a letter to the board, first obtained by union analyst Mike Antonucci , Eskelsen Garcia wrote that the committee considered pushing the convention back until August or moving to a different city. We imagined having to purchase daily protective masks, gowns, and gloves for thousands of delegates and staff on the floor and the problems with close quarters on shuttle buses, elevators, and restaurants, she wrote . We pondered how to adequately protect delegates who are immune compromised or in other high-risk categories for contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. Holding the Representative Assembly, even later in the summer, seemed like a public-health risk, Eskelsen Garcia concluded. And conducting four days of business onlinecomplete with lengthy debates and numerous motions, substitutions, and modifications on measureswasnt possible either, she said. A virtual convention would also limit delegates without access to WiFi or technology from participating fully. Instead, delegates will vote on the three main action items with paper ballots by mail. NEA leaders will hold a virtual open hearing for delegates to review the proposed budget and make recommendations. Later, delegates will be able to participate in limited debate over the final budget proposal before casting their ballots. This year is Eskelsen Garcias last as president, after serving two three-year terms. NEA Vice President Becky Pringle is running to replace her against long-shot candidates Mark Airgood, a special education teacher in Oakland, Calif., and Mark Norberg, an 8th grade teacher in Burbank, Calif. There was also likely to have been plenty of discussion about the NEAs role in the upcoming presidential election. Last month, the NEA endorsed Biden over Sen. Bernie Sanders in the presidential primary, although some members werent happy with the endorsement process . In past presidential election years, including 2008 and 2016, the Democratic nominee has addressed NEA delegates at the Representative Assembly. The other national teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, has its biennial meeting planned for July 27-30 in Houston. More than 3,000 educators attended in 2018. The AFT executive council will decide next month how to proceed. In a statement, AFT President Randi Weingarten said the council is considering whether the timing would allow a hybrid model in which some members can convene online, while others are face-to-face. Image: Educators and union leaders gathered in Minneapolis in 2018 for the National Education Associations representative assembly. Scott Iskowitz/National Education Association The U.S Ambassador to Luxembourg J. Randolph Evans, has been tweeting daily messages of support for citizens of the Grand Duchy. Phased opening is not all or nothing. Phase I is but one small, but significant step that can lead to the next step. Stay measured! -Amb. Evans. More updates: https://t.co/trrI2HxVO0 pic.twitter.com/bl4p3zuRBS U.S. Embassy Luxembourg (@USEmbLuxembourg) April 21, 2020 Evans, since the beginning of Phase One of Luxembourg's Exit Plan, has also provided a list of helpful information that can help people through these harsh times. Read the Ambassador's article here. For further info on what to do and where to go, click on the homepage link, below. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo will reportedly meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday. Trump announced the meeting during the daily White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, adding that good things are happening in New York. I think the governor is going to see us tomorrow,'' Trump said. "Hes coming to the oval office tomorrow afternoon. Andrew will be coming in with some of his people. We look forward to that. Trump utilized the briefing to highlight specific remarks Cuomo made during his press conference which agreed with Trumps belief that states should be in charge of their coronavirus tests. The highlighted clips did not include statements in which Cuomo implored the federal government to provide promised funding to states. I will tell you the state budget when I know the state budget, and the state budget is going to be a function of whatever the federal government gives us, Cuomo said on Monday. The federal government has not funded states to date. Yesterday, Cuomo said the state was past the coronavirus peak, but added that critical antibody testing would be essential to reopening the economy. Antibody testing means you test the person to find out if they have the antibodies, which they would have if they were infected with the coronavirus, and were going to do that in the most aggressive way in the nation," he said. The meeting comes only days after Trump and Cuomo traded barbs. Governor Cuomo should spend more time doing and less time complaining" . . . Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking!,'' Trump wrote on Twitter. That tweet came three days after Trump took to Twitter with concerns about mutiny after Cuomo and six other governors announced regional coordination in reopening their states. Following that statement, Cuomo said he would not be engaging the president, who he said was spoiling for a fight. However, after the president said his authority is total over state re-openings a position he later reversed in public statements Cuomo blasted Trumps comments, saying, The President is not a king. We didnt have King Washington. The talking points of the proposed meeting, which Politico reported Trump said was Cuomos idea, were not elaborated on by the president. Cuomos office confirmed the meeting to multiple outlets. Triumph's Bonneville range, which is also its highest selling, is already available in BS-VI variants New Delhi: British superbike brand Triumph Motorcycles on Tuesday said it is deffering price hike of its BS-VI range in India until July this year. The company said it has taken such a step due to the current COVID-19 pandemic situation which has impacted the overall market sentiment. The company has also extended warranty timelines on its bikes which were due to expire between March 20 May 3, 2020, till June 30, 2020, it added. "The company has decided to defer the upcoming BS-VI price increase amidst the current difficult and unprecedented circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic," Triumph Motorcycles India General Manager Shoeb Farooq said in a statement. At the back end the company is preparing its dealerships to handle any increased service volume post the lockdown and it has put processes in place to ensure a smooth customer experience, he added. "These are trying times and as a brand we want to offer as much support to our customers as possible," Farooq said. Triumph's Bonneville range, which is also its highest selling, is already available in BS-VI variants; this includes the Triumph Bonneville Street Twin, the Bonneville T100, Bonneville T120 and the Bonneville Speedmaster. The company has deferred the price hike of these models A former Food and Drug Administration commissioner says she fears for the US states that have decided to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic because some aren't even meeting President Donald Trump's minimum criteria. Dr Margaret Hamburg told NBC's Today on Tuesday that the extend of COVID-19's spread in some of those states was not yet clear. Texas became the first state to commit to partially reopening from April 20, starting with public parks and retailers on a 'to-go' basis. South Carolina opened some retail stores from yesterday, Georgia has announced plans to reopen gyms, beauty salons and barber shops this Friday, and Tennessee is set to ease stay-at-home orders within days. 'Some of these places are not even meeting the minimum threshold criteria that was put out in the Trump White House coronavirus task force guidance,' Hamburg said. 'I'm worried we don't know enough about how the virus has penetrated their communities.' Dr Margaret Hamburg said on Tuesday she was worried about some states easing coronavirus lockdown restrictions because they do not yet meet President Trump's minimum criteria Georgia has announced plans to reopen gyms, beauty salons and barber shops this Friday, while Tennessee and South Carolina say they will ease stay-at-home orders within days. Texas became the first state to commit to partially reopening from April 20, starting with public parks and retailers on a 'to-go' basis Experts and health officials say a critical part of reopening stated and the US economy is widespread testing for coronavirus. 'The critical issue is that you have to have a complete test kit with the swab and the reagents to be able to do the test We also have to make sure we're using a limited supply of tests wisely,' Hamburg said. 'We have been behind where we should be in terms of testing and that has made it really hard for us to even fully understand nature/scope of this epidemic,' Hamburg said. 'Many people who have looked at this deeply think we need to be doing somewhere between three and 20 times as much daily testing as we're doing.' It comes as Georgia's governor announced plans to restart the state's economy before the end of the week, saying many businesses that closed to mitigate the spread of coronavirus could reopen as early as Friday. The governor in neighboring Tennessee planned to let businesses in most of his state begin reopening as soon as next week with the current stay-at-home orders not extending past April 30. Meanwhile, South Carolina allowed department stores and some other retail businesses to open from 5pm yesterday. Public beaches will reopen today. Georgia's timetable, one of the most aggressive in the nation, allows gyms, hair salons, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors to reopen as long as owners follow strict social-distancing and hygiene requirements. Elective medical procedures will also resume. By next Monday, movie theaters may resume selling tickets and restaurants limited to takeout orders could return to limited dine-in service. Such a swift reopening runs counter to the advice of many experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top authority on infectious diseases, who warned again Monday that resuming business too soon risked a fresh spike in infections. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has released a new map projection that reveals when each US state could potentially start relaxing measures US STATES LIFTING COVID-19 ORDERS: Georgia: Gyms, bowling alleys, salons, barbershops and other indoor facilities to reopen April 24. Restaurants that have been banned from in-person dining will be allowed to reopen April 27. Bars and nightclubs will remain closed. Tennessee: State will not extend its stay-at-home order past April 30 meaning businesses will be allowed to reopen on May 1. Some businesses will be allowed to reopen as early as April 27, but it's unclear exactly which ones will be granted such clearance. Most state parks will reopen on April 24. South Carolina: Department stores and some other retail businesses to open April 20. Public beaches will also reopen on April 21. Texas: State parks reopened on April 20 and hospitals can start resuming surgeries on April 22. From April 24, retailers can reopen but only if they can deliver their goods or services to people at home or in their cars to minimize contact. Advertisement Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said it was important to allow businesses that had been shut down a chance to get some revenue flowing. But he emphasized businesses would still be operating under restrictions including monitoring employee health, enhancing sanitation and separating workers. 'I think this is the right approach at the right time,' Kemp said. 'Were not just throwing the keys back to these business owners. Were talking about people (who had) the government shut down their business.' Bars, live performance venues and amusement parks will remain closed. Kemp's order overrides any attempt to impose stricter local decisions, but some local officials including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said the governor is moving too quickly. 'It appears the governor's order supersedes anything I can do as mayor, but I still have my voice and what I will continue to do is ask Atlantans to please stay at home,' Bottoms told ABC News. 'Reopen? Dangerously incompetent' is how Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who narrowly lost the 2018 governor's race to Kemp, characterized the action on Twitter. The governor's actions line up with the phase one of reopening seen in the guidelines issued last week by President Donald Trumps administration. Those guidelines call for 14 days of declining COVID-19 cases. Georgia on Monday had recorded six days of declining new infections according to a rolling seven-day average of state Department of Public Health figures. If that continued through Friday, it would be 10 days. Kemp said he delayed the reopening of sit-down service in restaurants and theaters until next Monday in part because, 'I also think that gives us more time to continue to flatten the curve.' But new infections and deaths are likely to continue to mount, even if at a reduced rate. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests Georgia shouldn't loosen social distancing until June 15. Kemp argues he's still mandating social distancing even as businesses reopen. Kemp's action comes a month after he closed many businesses and not quite three weeks after he issued a shelter-at-home order that will remain in place until April 30. Kemp said elderly and medically fragile people should continue to stay at home until May 13. Kemp's shelter-at-home order followed days of pressure from local officials, and even after he issued the order, there were clashes over keeping open beaches, lakes and state parks. Kemp says keeping those outdoor spaces open has been a success. The governor Monday said a decline in emergency room visits by people with flu-like symptoms indicates that infections are coming down. 'The bottom line is, social distancing worked,' state Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey told a handful of reporters after Kemp's news conference. Widespread testing is considered one cornerstone of reopening strategies. Kemp acknowledged Georgia has lagged when it comes to COVID-19 testing and announced new initiatives to ramp it up. The state had administered more than 84,000 tests though Monday, but its per-capita testing rate is in the bottom 10 of states and lower than neighbors Alabama, Florida and Tennessee. He said the state medical college in Augusta will begin producing thousands of swabs each day for collecting test samples. The school will also offer an online app statewide that would let people with symptoms consult with a clinician and be referred for testing if warranted. Meanwhile, the Georgia National Guard has been deploying teams capable of administering at least 1,500 tests per day to nursing home residents, emergency personnel and others. Bon Jovi Cancels Tour So Fans Can Pay Their Bills Bon Jovi has canceled its planned North American tour due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement posted to social media Monday, Jon Bon Jovi explained that the band made the decision to pull the plug on the tour to allow fans to get refunds for tickets to help pay for expenses amid the lockdown. This will enable ticketholders to get refunds to help pay their bills or buy groceries. Due to the ongoing global pandemic, it is no longer feasible for Bon Jovi to tour this summer. Given these difficult times, we have made the decision to cancel the tour entirely. This will enable ticketholders to get refunds to help pay their bills or buy groceries, the statement said. These are trying times. Youve always been there for us and well always be there for you. We look forward to seeing everyone again on tour when we can all safely be together. We will continue to send out news and updates on Bon Jovi touring in the weeks and months to come, the statement added. The tour, which was to feature Bryan Adams, was set to kick off in June and would have supported the bands latest album Bon Jovi 2020. The virus also hit close to home for Bon Jovi, after 58-year-old keyboardist David Bryan tested positive for the virus. On Sunday, Bryan revealed that he has beat the disease. Got my test back today. Thankfully Im Covid-19 negative! Bryan wrote on Instagram on Sunday. 5 weeks to the day that I got sick Im a very lucky guy! There are people who have no symptoms, people who got sick (like me), people fighting for their lives and people who sadly have lost their lives. This is a nasty virus BUT science/medicine will conquer all. Thank you to all for your well wishes. Thank you to all the Doctors and Nurses and all on the front lines. You are the true heroes! Share on: Dublin, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Technologies Enabling Smart Ships of the Future" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. In brief, this research service covers the following points: Technologies Enabling Smart Ships Country-Wise Technology Initiatives Drivers and Challenges Growth Opportunities As the pace of digitization accelerates the shipping industry globally is also adopting technologies such as AI to make their processes more efficient and reduce costs. Governments across the world have also made efforts to support the development and deployment of innovative technologies and have launched multiple initiatives to promote cross border collaboration in the industry. In addition to industry incumbents implementing digital technologies in their fleet, startups in the industry have also managed to gather traction owing to the eased entry barriers and the willingness of large private corporations and public sector to collaborate with new and small industry players. Key Topics Covered 1. Executive Summary 1.1 Research Scope 1.2 Research Methodology 2. Overview 2.1 Countries across the World Have Made Efforts to Modernize their Shipping Infrastructure through Public-Private Partnerships 3. Technologies Enabling Smart Ships 3.1 AI Will Enable Ships to Attain a Greater Level of Autonomy and Sailors to Have a Better Understanding of their Vessels 3.2 Besides Enabling Autonomy, AI-based Solutions Will also be able to Assist Sailors in Operating and Navigating their Ships 3.3 Usage of AI Applications in Ships Helps in Eliminating Human Errors and Avoids Accidents 3.4 Blockchain will Enable Companies to Eliminate Paperwork and Reduce Processing Times 3.5 Smart Contracts Enable Transparent Tracking of Shipments throughout the Entire Shipping Value Chain 3.6 Blockchain Adoption Would Enable a More Automated and Efficient Transaction Process with Higher Tractability and Collaboration 3.7 AR Solutions Have Helped Ship Crews in Attaining Better Visibility of their Surroundings in Unfavorable Climatic Conditions 3.8 VR Has Empowered Fleet Owners to Impart Realistic Training to their Crew on-Shore to Train them Better for their Jobs 3.9 Augmented Reality along with Big Data Analytics will Provide an Immersive and Complete User Experience for Ship Navigation 3.10 Sensors and Connected Systems will Result in the Generation of Vast Amounts of Data to Help Optimize Vessel Operation 3.11 Centralized Storage of Data Can Help the Shipping Industry in Maintaining a Globally Coordinated Workflow 3.12 Insights Generated from Big Data Enable Better Decision Making across Functions on Ships as well as Ports 3.13 Adoption of Cloud Makes Operations, Communications, and Collaborations Easier for the Workforce off and on Shore 3.14 Cloud Enables Shipping Companies to Maintain Centralized Data Management Systems and Apply Data Policies between Global Locations 3.15 Cloud Computing is Facilitating Remote Data Access and Operations, Enabling Cost Savings for Shipping Companies Story continues 4. Country-wise Technology Initiatives 4.1 Singapore is Emerging as a Hub of Maritime Technology Innovation Owing to a Strong Tech Ecosystem and the Mature Shipping Industry 4.2 Testing Emerging Technologies in the Form of Pilot Projects Has Given Singapore-based Companies an Edge Over Competitors 4.3 Japan is Favorably Placed Geographically to Facilitate the Growth of Trade Between Asia Pacific and North America 4.4 Japan's Maritime Ecosystem is a Mix of Private and Public Players Who Have Showcased Multiple Concepts and Conducted Pilots 4.5 Norway Has a Full Maritime Cluster Including Ship Building and Has also Established a Number of Test Beds for Autonomous Ships 4.6 Cloud Computing and Big Data are Helping the Norwegian Maritime Industry to Improve Efficiency and Reduce Costs 4.7 Holland Has Been a Pioneer in Marine Sector and With the Impact of Digital Technologies, the Country is Ready to Maintain its Position 4.8 Port of Rotterdam in Holland is the Busiest Port in Europe and Handles About 466.4 Million Tonnes of Cargo Per Year 4.9 Finland, Leveraging its Geographic Location Has Emerged as a Leader in Designing Icebreakers and Polar Ships 4.10 Finland is a Conducive Ecosystem for Digitization Initiatives Due to the Presence of a Wide Range of Players in the Local Ecosystem 4.11 The Maritime Industry in Germany is Highly Competitive due to its Strong Interest in Research and Innovation 4.12 Germany is the Biggest Exporter of Europe and Has Connectivity with Ports Across the World 4.13 The US Navy is Leading the Front for Adoption of Emerging Technologies in Maritime Space 4.14 The US Tech Giants and Shipping Companies Have Contributed to the Development of Emerging Technology Through Global Partnerships 5. Drivers and Challenges 5.1 The Crucial Nature of the Shipping Industry is Driving More Funds From Governments Toward Innovation in the Area 5.2 The Maritime industry Lacks Modern Skills Hampering it from Realizing the Full Potential of Digital Technologies 6. Conclusion and Growth Opportunities 6.1 Smarter and More Environment-friendly Technologies are Enabling New Business Models in the Shipping Industry 7. Industry Contacts For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/1z2e9t Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 Staff at at least seven Debenhams Ireland stores will hold protests outside the buildings today. The company announced earlier this month to liquidate its Irish stores, resulting in around 2,000 people losing their jobs. The workers feel the Covid-19 pandemic was "convenient" for the business to leave Ireland. Shop steward at the Henry Street store in Dublin, Jane Crowe, says all the products were packed away before any restrictions were brought in. Everybodys heartbroken. The stores were pre-packed for them. The shutters are down, she said. Theres no staff in there for them to put out. Our personal belongings are still in there, in all our lockers. We have had no access to any of that. In a statement yesterday, representatives from the Siptu trade union "condemned the manner in which Debenhams Retail Ireland Limited has treated its employees and have committed to challenging the manner in which a collective redundancy notice was served by the company." Debenhams said in a statement: "In relation to protests, Debenhams Retail Ireland Ltd. (DRIL) notes that the business is currently in a consultation process with the employees. DRIL understands that this is a very difficult time for its dedicated employees and greatly regrets having had to seek liquidation. "The business is supporting the joint liquidators, Kieran Wallace and Andrew OLeary of KPMG, in order to get the best outcome for employees and creditors in this situation, and remains committed to the consultation process with the Unions representing employees. "In relation to the return of personal belongings, this will be resolved as soon as the current lockdown restrictions can be lifted. The liquidator will facilitate these requests and will be writing to staff in relation to this over the coming days." All patients visiting hospitals in and around containment zones identified by the local authorities will be considered suspected cases of Covid-19 and those getting admitted will undergo mandatory diagnostic tests for the coronavirus disease irrespective of symptoms, according to a central advisory on Tuesday. In a first, the Union health ministry advisory also advocated a clear demarcation between outpatient departments (OPDs) and wards, and asked doctors to stick to the same federal guidelines they follow in the treatment of Covid-19 patients even while attending to OPD patients. According to a ministry official, the advisory sent to state governments is aimed at preventing the spread of the deadly infection in health facilities, especially in light of the emergence of a few such cases in parts of the country. There is a detailed guideline by the ministry on how to prevent hospital-acquired infection. But there have been cases where hospitals have reported the spread of infection and even shut down in some cases, probably because they got patients who had Covid-19 even though their symptoms werent pronounced enoughThe new advisory is asking them to treat all patients as suspected Covid-19 cases, and take required safety measures, the senior health ministry official who did not want to be named, said. For example, the paediatric intensive care unit of central Delhis Lady Hardinge Medical College emerged as a hotbed of infections last week, with 12 health care workers testing positive for Covid-19. Two babies in the ward -- a 45-day-old and a 10-month-old --- got infected. The 45-day-old baby died on Saturday morning. Since March 2, when the first infection was reported in Delhi, at least 80 health care workers and doctors have been infected in the national capital. Hospitals are likely to become high-risk areas. This is because doctors are not testing everyone; that is not possible, said SK Sarin, director at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) if the population has a large number of those who have no symptoms, and if they get into the hospitals, doctors and nurses will get infected and then pass it on to others colleagues, families and patients, Sarin, who is the chairperson of a five-member committee that advises the Delhi chief minister on Covid-19, said, explaining the challenges health care workers and facilities are facing. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) the countrys apex health research body about 69% of those infected by the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, either have no symptoms or very mild symptoms. The central advisory came on the day all of Delhis 11 district magistrates as well as deputy commissioners of police, among other officials, held talks with lieutenant governor Anil Baijal and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal via video conferencing. Some of them raised issues faced by front-line workers. The increase in the number of health care workers, those posted at hospitals and their contacts testing positive is a cause of concern. It might be that adequate measures for protection from the infection are not being taken by hospital authorities, including those which are not treating Covid-19 cases. There is an urgent need to fix these lapses, said a district magistrate, requesting anonymity. A statement issued by the Delhi LGs office said the city-states health department had been directed to take all precautionary measures. Under the central advisory, those who get admitted in hospitals will have to undergo the RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction test, which is a confirmatory test to detect Covid-19. The results take about five-six hours. RT-PCR is the gold standard as far as case confirmation is concerned, and results from rapid tests (or antibody tests) are still not foolproof, especially for early diagnosisAnd the hospital staff has been directed to particularly keep an eye on patients for any development of unexplained fever, cough or respiratory illness (symptoms of the disease), the official added. If a patient tests positive, all those who have had contact with him/her will be put on anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is considered a prophylaxis a treatment to prevent a disease, according to ICMR guidelines. The government, however, has said the drug has to be taken under strict medical supervision as it could have serious side-effects, especially in those having underlying health conditions such as heart and kidney ailments. Each hospital in the country, be it a dedicated Covid-19 or non-Covid-19 facility, was earlier directed to have a Hospital Infection Control Committee (HICC), which will be responsible for coming up with an effective mechanism for reporting the onset of symptoms suggestive of Covid-19 in health care workers. This includes surveillance for fever, cough and breathing difficulty, among others, either through self-reporting or active and passive screening at the beginning of shifts. Whenever a non-Covid-19 patient or any healthcare workers is suspected to have Covid-19-like symptoms, or tests positive for Covid-19, the HICC will come into action, investigate the matter and suggest further course of action rapid isolation, contact listing and tracking disinfection will follow, with no need to shut down the whole facility, the advisory said. It said if the primary source of an infection could not be established and if a hospital continued reporting a large number of cases among patients and health care workers, the facility should be converted to a dedicated Covid-19 hospital and the local health department must be notified. In terms of precautions, we are treating new patients as if they were Covid-19 positive even while conducting emergency surgeries. We are sanitising our operation theatres post surgeries, and our staff are wearing personal protection equipment (PPE) and taking other necessary precautions. All admitted patients are being tested irrespective of the Covid-19 symptomsSame goes for patients who are frequent visitors such as those undergoing chemo, dialysis and so on; they are also being tested, said a spokesperson for Max Healthcare. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The dichotomy he thus sets up between what he perceives as his true, American self and his Vietnamese face is never quite resolved. A high school teacher takes him to see a production of Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest, a gesture that makes him feel known and seen, not for being Vietnamese but for my passions and ideas. He arrives home from this buoying, thunderous experience only to quietly tuck it away when he sees his parents. What did my family really know about literature or theater? he thinks. Ironically, the arts were connecting me to strangers, and yet they widened the already yawning gulf between me and my family. Image He never manages to close the gap. His description of his parents doesnt leave the realm of teenage caricature his father is violent, abusive and domineering; his mother quiet and submissive. We assume there is inherited trauma, but we dont know its contours. There are flashes of tenderness and heartache, but over all his parents are voids that obliterate all light and perception. The result is a coming-of-age that is solipsistic in its understanding of its own pain. Even now that Tran is a 40-something husband and father of two, a Latin teacher and tattoo-shop owner in Portland, Maine, his memories are not told with the wisdom of age, but with the arrested development of adolescence. His parents still seem impossibly foreign, trapped in the amber of how white people must see them. As a result, a mix of resentment and light condescension toward Vietnameseness hangs over the book. Tran phonetically writes out his fathers mispronunciations in English. When his family members speak in Vietnamese, he calls it Vietnamesing, as in, She Vietnamesed feebly. (Sometimes they English.) He introduces the book by describing his hatred for a fresh-off-the-boat Vietnamese transfer student named Hoang Nguyen, whom he sees as a fun-house mirrors rippling reflection of me. But we never meet Hoang again, or know what happens to him. Its not clear Tran ever inquired. Sigh, Gone does not question its central premise that assimilation should be the desired goal for self-making and self-preservation. Even the white, miscreant members of his skateboarding cohort are drawn with broad strokes; we dont really know what connects them beyond hooliganism and pack loyalty. Part of what made Minding the Gap such an affecting skateboarding documentary was the filmmaker Bing Lius ability to connect his own experience of domestic violence with those of his subjects. Sigh, Gone lacks this curiosity about the world beyond Trans immediate one whether political or familial or communal to give the book enough sinew and connective tissue. (Even the way he writes about punk has a superficial flair. Little about the book itself is actually punk, formally or thematically, besides the anarchist A on the cover.) Sigh, Gone gestures at interesting ideas without fully engaging in them. Tran recalls an exchange in the supermarket when an old man accosts him and his parents to ask if they are Vietnamese, only to tell them that he fought there in the late 60s and that its a beautiful country. Its an odd exchange, underpinned with menace. Tran recognizes in that moment that his family represents a symbol of patriotic duty for the veteran. The thorny sociopolitical burden he bears a specifically Vietnamese-American play on W. E. B. Du Boiss 1897 question, How does it feel to be a problem? is ultimately left unexplored. Additional reporting: Brion Hoban A robber who donned a wig and sunglasses while robbing his local McDonald's has been jailed for five and a half years. After his arrest Anthony Sweeney (37) of St Marks Crescent, Clondalkin, Dublin told gardai he was trying to feed his drug habit. Sweeney pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery of McDonald's, Liffey Valley, Clondalkin on August 5 last (2019). He also admitting robbery at the same restaurant a month later. He has 35 previous convictions, including convictions for robbery and carrying a firearm with criminal intent. The court heard that Sweeney had been attending school while in custody but the school had been closed due to coronavirus. Passing sentence today, Judge Melanie Greally said the offences were aggravated by the use of a knife, the fact that during one of the offences the knife was placed to one of the victim's throats and the last offence being committed while Sweeney was on bail. Judge Greally said she took into consideration his pleas of guilty, his admissions to gardai, his history of drug addiction, his efforts to address his addiction and the role he has played in caring for his father. She sentenced Sweeney to seven and a half years imprisonment, but suspended the final two years of the sentence on strict conditions including that he follow all directions of the Probation Service for six months prior to his release and 12 months post release. Detective Garda Kevin O'Connor told Kieran Kelly BL, prosecuting, that Sweeney, wearing a wig and sunglasses, robbed a staff member after approaching the counter at McDonald's, Liffey Valley. He was chased by gardai as he cycled away and the wig, glasses and 450 cash were recovered. Det Gda O'Connor agreed with Sweeney's lawyer that his disguises were of little assistance to him and he was easily identifiable. The following month Sweeney threatened a staff member at the same branch of McDonald's with an iron bar. The manager attempted to stop Sweeney leaving but Sweeney pushed him out of the way. He was identified on CCTV and arrested. Sweeney also pleaded guilty to robbery of a nail salon on Collinstown Road and of a pedestrian on the Liffey Valley footbridge on May 27, 2019. He was armed with a blade when he demanded money from staff in the salon. Later that day a man crossing the footbridge at Liffey Valley was robbed by a number of persons, one of whom had a knife which was put to the victim's neck. The prosecuting gardai agreed with Nicola Cox BL, defending, that Sweeney was in the throes of a drug addiction and struggling to feed his habit. They agreed Sweeney was highly intoxicated at the time of the robberies and made admissions after arrest. Det Gda O'Connor agreed Sweeney was a carer for his father and was under so much strain that he had asked to go into custody. He accepted Sweeney was genuinely remorseful. Ms Cox said her client had suffered a brain injury. She said she accepted that her client was at a high risk of re-offending and said he needed the tools to assist him to become a productive member of society. She said her client had been attending school while in custody, but that school had closed as a result of coronavirus. She said he could not elevate his status to become an enhanced prisoner as all prisoners were now in 23-hour lock-up. Arizona tribes have the right to sue the federal government for allowing a developer to default on payments to obtain the old Phoenix Indian School, a federal appeals court ruled. The three judge panel said the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona showed there is evidence the federal government failed to maintain sufficient financial security to deal with what would happen if Barron Collier Co. defaulted on its payments. That was important because the states senators, in getting Congress to approve the deal with the developer, said the funds would be used for education of Native American students. As it turned out, the company did default, leaving the trust fund that was set up about $20 million short, according to attorney Melody McCoy, who represents the council. A trial judge in Washington tossed out the tribes claims. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded there was enough basis to support a claim that the federal government failed in its duty to protect the trust. The ruling does not guarantee that the tribes will win. But it does get them their day in trial court. The 2020 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says moving into the next decade will be a crucial period for journalism, exacerbated by coronavirus, which threatens the right to reliable information. The 20th edition of the index shows that the coming decade will be decisive for the future of journalism, with the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting and amplifying the many crises that threaten the right to freely reported, independent, diverse and reliable information. The index, which evaluated the situation for journalists each year in 180 countries and territories, suggested that the next 10 years would be pivotal for press freedom because of converging crises affecting the future of journalism. The RSF in a statement to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday listed those converging crisis as geo-political crisis due to the aggressiveness of authoritarian regimes and a technological crisis due to a lack of democratic guarantees. It also included; a democratic crisis due to polarisation and repressive policies; a crisis of trust due to suspicion and even hatred of the media; and an economic crisis impoverishing quality journalism. The statement said effects of the crises were now compounded by a global public health crisis. We are entering a decisive decade for journalism linked to crises that affect its future, RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire was quoted. The coronavirus pandemic illustrates the negative factors threatening the right to reliable information, with the pandemic itself an exacerbating factor. What will freedom of information, pluralism and reliability look like in 2030? The answer to that question is being determined today. The statement said there was a clear correlation between suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and a countrys ranking in the Index. It noted that both China (177th) and Iran (down 3 at 173rd) censored their major coronavirus outbreaks extensively. In Iraq (down 6 at 162nd), the authorities stripped Reuters of its licence for three months after it published a story questioning official coronavirus figures. Even in Europe, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary (down 2 at 89th), had a coronavirus law passed with penalties of up to five years in prison for false information, a completely disproportionate and coercive measure, it said. Deloire said, The public health crisis provides authoritarian governments with an opportunity to implement the notorious shock doctrine to take advantage of the fact that politics are on hold, the public is stunned and protests are out of the question, in order to impose measures that would be impossible in normal times. For this decisive decade not be a disastrous one, people of goodwill, whoever they are, must campaign for journalists to fulfil their role as societys trusted third parties, which means they must have the capacity to do so. 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 Beirut, April 21 : Thousands of Lebanese protesters took to the streets on Tuesday to demonstrate against the government's policies amid a scheduled Parliament meeting to study and approve draft laws. Protesters waving Lebanese flags moved to the UNESCO Palace where Parliament is holding its meeting, reports Xinhua news agency. Protesters told the local media that they will not accept new taxes to be imposed because people have become increasingly poor due to failing successive governments. One protester said the protests will come back stronger than in the past because the cabinet has been working for 100 days without drafting a serious economic strategy that would save the country. "We want to see concrete measures including the recuperation of squandered public funds," the protester said. Movements took place in other cities where people called for fair policies to allow people to secure their basic needs including food. Last year, Lebanon witnessed nationwide protests, during which protesters accused the government of squandering public funds and failing to implement necessary healthcare, transport, employment and other projects. Although Chinese restaurants around the world have become synonymous with takeout and delivery, many traditional Chinese restaurants offer only dine-in service. Yeung and Chen noted many traditional Chinese restaurants in major cities' Chinatown districts shun delivery services such as GrubHub because those services charge high fees. "These (Chinese restaurants) were on thin operating margins before," Yeung explained. "Transitioning over to (tech) delivery is going to make that even thinner." Chen said he hopes Chinese restaurants will receive targeted relief funding and programs from the local, state and federal government. "If we don't get the breaks, we cannot break even," Chen said. Congress has reached a deal to replenish the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program, which last month quickly depleted its $349 billion economic rescue fund for small businesses. Some of those funds would be set aside for under-served businesses, including those run by minorities. He said though "the mass production of face mask is very much on point" as the pandemic raged, it was however appropriate that in the interest of public health, there should be a minimum acceptable requirement for producing personal protective equipment. In an interaction with the Members of the Council of State at the Jubilee House, Accra on Tuesday, President Akufo-Addo noted that though wearing a face mask was much a safety regime against the spread of the COVID-19, its production should conform to acceptable standards to enhance their effectiveness in the control of the virus. Many Ghanaians, in the outbreak of the COVID-19 in the country, have made their own renditions of personal protective gears, including; nose and face mask, often with fabrics use for general clothing. "I know that lots of people are making face mask, but I think that for public health reasons, we should have minimum standards that go into the making of face mask. The Ministry of Health, I am hoping, any day eminently before the week is out, will come out with guidelines on what should be the minimum requirement and standards for producing them, he said. The President noted that the domestic production of personal protective equipment is being advanced to cater for the needs of health workers, and those at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic. He was hopeful that after the establishment of the requirements and certification by the Ghana Standards Authority, mass production of face mask would commence to enable every Ghanaian have access to them. ---GNA This years Galway Festival will be staged behind closed doors, if it goes ahead as planned in July. The seven-day fixture is due to kick off on July 27, but with the Government announcing on Tuesday that mass gatherings of more than 5,000 people will not be permitted up to the end of August, there will be no crowd at the track. In a statement, general manager Michael Moloney said: In light of the evolving situation regarding Covid-19, for public health and safety reasons Galway Race Committee has reached the difficult but unavoidable decision that the 2020 Galway Races Summer Festival, due to be held from Monday, July 27 to Sunday, August 2 will not be able to take place as an event open to the general public this year. We know this will be a huge disappointment for all our racegoers that attend year on year. It may prove possible to run the Galway Races behind closed doors, dependent on Government policy and the approval of Horse Racing Ireland and Irish Horse Racing Regulatory Board. This would be for the benefit of the racing industry, our valued partners and our television audiences at home and internationally. We are currently planning for this scenario and we will update you on progress as and when we can. Moloney confirmed a full refund policy will be in operation for those who have already bought their tickets, adding: We would like to sincerely thank you for your support and understanding during this unprecedented time. Our thoughts are with all those affected as a result of Covid-19. We offer our deepest gratitude to staff at the HSE, front line workers and members of our community nationwide for their dedication and perseverance. We look forward to being able to welcome you all back to Ballybrit when it is safe to do so. For now, please look after yourselves. Stay safe and healthy. Fixtures are currently suspended and will only recommence behind closed doors when authorities are advised it is safe to do. The last of 10 meetings held under those conditions took place at Clonmel on March 24. All mass gatherings have been restricted since March 24 due to coronavirus restrictions and further health advice will be updated before May 5. Funeral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM News Updates The daily news, sports, and events delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Upcoming Events This email is the events of the area delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens. Bogota (AFP) - Colombia on Wednesday ordered the temporary release of more than 4,000 prisoners, in an effort to reduce overcrowding and prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Two prisoners have already died from COVID-19 in the South American country. The "humanitarian" releases are aimed at ensuring "that the people most vulnerable to the virus can get out of prison confinement and go to house arrest and improve their health protection," President Ivan Duque said on Colombian radio. Among prisoners to benefit are those aged over 60, those with illness or disabilities, those who have served at least 40 percent of their sentence, breastfeeding mothers and others with children under three years old, said Justice Minister Margarita Cabello. "This is one of the measures that we are adopting" to deal with the pandemic, Cabello said, adding that the number could increase. After six months, the prisoners will have to return to prison to serve out their sentences. Breaking the terms of their house arrest would lead to them being re-imprisoned, the minister said. The government decree does not apply to prisoners belonging to armed groups, or those convicted of drug trafficking, sexual crimes or crimes against humanity. The move comes three weeks after rioting at a prison in Bogota left 23 dead and 91 wounded. Colombia has recorded more than 3,000 coronavirus infections, including 127 deaths. When Houston campuses finally re-open in 2020-21, at a date very much to-be-determined, the regions million-plus children will experience a school year unlike any other. Some students may spend more time in the classroom, arriving weeks earlier than usual or staying later in the day. Others may receive added attention from teachers, counselors and social workers. Many will get lessons typically delivered the prior spring. Theyre going to have so much work to make up that I dont know how theyre going to do it, said Angie Tyler, the grandmother of a high school junior in Aldine ISD. Shes so used to having her teacher on hand, teaching her math or physics she doesnt get. Is she going to get to learn what shes missed? Amid enormous uncertainty about the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Houston-area school leaders have started mapping out contingency plans for the upcoming school year, one in which students will arrive with learning gaps and significant health needs. SCHOOL CLOSURES: Texas campuses will not re-open for the 2019-20 academic year The plans remain in the earliest stages, highly dependent on when public health officials voice support for re-opening the regions schools. Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday that all Texas public and private schools must remain closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, declaring the team of doctors advising us has determined it would be unsafe to allow students to gather in schools for the foreseeable future. For now, most administrators remain focused on meeting students immediate needs, such as food and access to technology, as well as improving the quality of online instruction. At the same time, top Houston-area educators said they must be ready to resume in-person instruction as soon as feasible, with extra attention paid to students who likely fell farthest behind. We have to look ahead, Houston ISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said. Were looking at instructional time as it relates to programming in the summer, possibly an extended calendar, maybe an extended school day. None of the regions superintendents have suggested wholesale changes in the way students are taught. Rather, multiple district leaders have discussed increasing the amount of time spent in the classroom and adding more mental health support for vulnerable students. Serious conversations If buildings can re-open in the coming weeks, Lathan said her district may allow more children to enroll in summer school, which normally runs from early June to early July. Typically, HISD only opens summer school to students at risk of failing to advance grade levels or who need to pass state standardized tests to earn promotion. In Fort Bend ISD, the regions fourth-largest district, Superintendent Charles Dupre said district leaders will have serious conversations about beginning the 2020-21 school year before the planned Aug. 12 start date. Under one possible scenario, Fort Bend students would spend August catching up on missed instruction from the prior year, then start their new grade-level classes after Labor Day. Aldine ISD Superintendent LaTonya Goffney, who leads the Houston areas fifth-largest district, also said her districts calendar cannot be August to May. It remains unclear, however, whether districts will be allowed to begin the school year earlier than normal. THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: How access to technology will widen learning gaps during school shutdowns Texas law dictates that districts cannot begin the academic year before late August, though many can start in mid-August through a separate law known as District of Innovation. Neither law, however, appears to allow for changes to school start dates in the event of a statewide emergency. That law currently remains in effect, although theres some discussion as to whether that will change, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said. Beyond the academic calendar, districts should be considering several changes to the 2020-21 school experience, said Mike Magee, CEO of the education administration nonprofit Chiefs for Change. Magee suggested administrators examine any needed changes to the roles and responsibilities of every adult in the school, particularly if students arrive with significant physical, emotional and mental health needs. To that end, Magee also recommended schools identify ways to assess students health status, beyond the typical reviews done at the beginning of the year. We dont know what social, emotional and psychological shape students are going to return to school in and we have to know, Magee said. There are surveys and assessments available that could be helpful in that regard. But its something every district is going to have to figure out and come up with an answer for. Logistical hurdles Magee echoed the Houston-area superintendents call for additional classroom instruction time, though added hours will bring logistical hurdles. Most educators across Texas are employed under contracts that outline the number of days they must work. While teachers cannot collectively bargain in Texas, multiple union groups have said they want educators to receive additional pay if they work more days than normal. Teachers typically sign contracts over the summer, giving administrators time to craft labor proposals. Extending the school day could reduce issues surrounding pay many educators are salaried, leaving more wiggle room for districts to require additional time at work but complicate other aspects of operations. WHY NOT CANCEL CLASSES?: Money, staffing issues hamper efforts to make-up time over summer Now Playing: 'COVID-19 in 60': Houston coronavirus news in a minute Video: Houston Chronicle Nikki Cowart, president of the Cy-Fair AFT employees union, said changes to the bell schedule could require significant restructuring of the districts extensive bus routes. Cy-Fair drivers, some of whom are represented by Cowarts union, transport about 75,000 students per day. If youre ever looking at switching actual hours that kids need to be in the building, it can sometimes be a domino effect, Cowart said. Even if schools re-open in August, the possibility remains for reverting to online learning next school year if a second wave of coronavirus hits the region. Were going to be fully prepared to have online school, Cy-Fair Superintendent Mark Henry said. We dont expect and were praying that does not occur, but we certainly need to be prepared for that. For Veronica Barreto, the mother of a first-grader in Houston ISD and two high school students in YES Prep Public Schools, the return to in-person classes cannot come fast enough. Barreto said video conferencing software repeatedly freezes on her slow internet service, causing her teenagers to miss live instruction with their teachers. Everybody is trying hard, but its just not the same, Barreto said. They need to be back in school. Even my kids think they do. jacob.carpenter@chron.com Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect the time during which Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered Texas schools must remain closed. A teenager who had no idea she was pregnant suddenly went into labour while in the shower and gave birth on the bathroom floor. Amber Smith, 18, from Mareeba in Far North Queensland said she felt 'tensing' in her stomach before 'a huge stream of water and pink liquid' gushed out onto the floor. Ten minutes later her 'miracle child' - Cooper Allen-Robert Woods - was born, changing the lives of her and her fiance Blairdon Nicol, 20, forever. He as born at 1.22am on April 15, weighing 3.06kg. Amber Smith, 18, gave birth to her son Cooper Allen-Robert Woods on April 15. Pictured: Ms Smith, baby Cooper and Blairdon Nicol Ms Smith was in the shower when she felt a sharp pain in her stomach as saw blood and water cover the shower floor Ms Smith told Daily Mail Australia she had finished work with a headache and thought she was coming down with gastro so she spent the afternoon relaxing. 'I had to work in the morning and about 20 minutes into my shower my whole stomach tensed and as I looked down a huge stream of water poured out of me,' she said. 'I thought it must of been urine or something but it was a pink colour so my mind flipped to my water breaking but I thought no way as I wasn't pregnant.' She said she screamed for Blairdon to come and help her. Ms Smith said she thought she was in labour and Mr Nicol saw the head of the baby exposed, so he called an ambulance before helping to deliver the baby. 'We both were completely in shock but Blairdon was instantly in love. I was in so much pain and it hurt to sit, my legs couldn't stop shaking and I couldn't stop crying,' she said. Ms Smith said she had no clue that she was pregnant as her body didn't change much and she was still having periods. Pictured: Cooper Allen-Robert Woods, whose surprise birth changed the lives of his parents forever She said there had been a small weight gain but that was it. Ms Smith said she didn't tell her family until they were all gathered around at the hospital. Initially they were disbelieving until her family saw the photo of her with the baby. 'They instantly were ecstatic and coming up with names for bub to call them. Both our families and friends and co-workers were so supportive and instantly were trying to help us to get ready for life as parents,' she said. Mr Nicol helped deliver his own child in ten minutes and fell 'instantly in love' with Cooper Ms Smith said the couple always wanted children but wanted to wait until they were more financially stable. Now, six days on, they can't imagine their lives without him. Ms Smith and Cooper were allowed to return home from the hospital on Monday morning. 'I was actually happy to stay in hospital as the midwives really helped me start to learn how to take care of Cooper at home, ' she said. 'The only bad thing was no visitors were allowed due to coronavirus. Cooper and I are avoiding the coronavirus by staying home and limiting who can come to the house.' N etflix's Unorthodox tells the harrowing story of a nineteen-year-old woman named Esty Shapiro, who flees her life in Williamsburg, New York - and the Hasidic Jewish community in which she grew up in. Based on Deborah Feldman's 2012 memoir, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection Of My Hasidic Roots, the four-part drama is a moving tale of how Esty (played by Shira Haas) escapes from her husband and family to Berlin, Germany, in the hopes of starting a fresh life. As the narrative progresses, we discover that Esty is not only trying to reject her strict, radicalised upbringing, but is also coming to terms with the fact she is pregnant. Arriving in Berlin, Esty meets a group of talented musicians by chance and listens in on their rehearsals. As a musician, Esty is moved to tears by the performance and becomes determined to pursue her passion, after giving up the piano when she married her husband, Yanky (Amit Rahav). Netflix's Unorthodox - In pictures 1 /13 Netflix's Unorthodox - In pictures Unorthodox-6 In the Hasidic Jewish community, women must cover their hair once they are married Netflix Unorthodox-8 Esty weds Yanky in an arranged marriage Netflix Unorthodox-9 The young woman is unsure about the marriage Anika Molnar/Netflix Unorthodox-1 Esty also feels pressure from her in-laws and the Hasidic Jewish community Anika Molnar/Netflix Unorthodox-3 The young woman faces difficulties in the marriage from the offset Anika Molnar/Netflix Unorthodox-2 She suffers from a condition called vaginismus, which makes it incredibly painful to have sex Anika Molnar/Netflix Unorthodox-4 Esty then flees Brooklyn and escapes to Berlin Anika Molnar/Netflix Unorthodox-3 Her husband Yanky is determined to trace his wife Anika Molnar/Netflix Unorthodox-5 Esty rediscovers her love of music Anika Molnar/Netflix Unorthodox-7 And makes new friends, who introduce her to new experiences Anika Molnar/Netflix She's then exposed to new experiences, including drinking, clubbing and dinner parties, before finally deciding that she will apply for the conservatory her newfound friends attend. Explore the inspirational true story that Unorthodox is based on... Who is Deborah Feldman? Deborah's upbringing Unorthodox is based on the memoirs of Deborah Feldman / Getty Now 33, Deborah Feldman was born on August 17, 1986, and grew up in the Hasidic Satmar sect in Brooklyn, New York. The Yiddish-speaking group was formed by a Rabbi from Satmar, Hungary, after the Second World War and describing her experience, Deborah previously told DW News that "every rule that they designed was an extreme interpretation of a Jewish law." She also spoke of the strict rules around clothing to the New York Post, saying: "When I was 11, they changed the clothing rules. You used to be able to wear a long-sleeve, high-neck T-shirt. "Now you can only wear high-neck blouses, with woven fabrics, because their theory is that woven fabrics dont cling." Her mother left the group and had little contact with her growing up, while Deborah's mentally ill father couldn't raise her alone. Instead, Deborah was raised by her grandmother, or bubbe, before she married her husband, Eli, aged 17. For a time, Deborah was studying literature at Sarah Lawrence, which was highly unusual for women in her community. Deborah's marriage to her husband Eli In real life, Deborah married her husband Eli aged 17 / Netflix As depicted in the Netflix show, Deborah recalled to the New York Post how she had "warned" her husband-to-be: "I have my opinions, you might not be able to handle that." "But he was famous for getting along with everyone," she continued. "So he said, 'No, I can handle you.' "He wasnt ready to handle me at all! After we got married, and I had my books in the house, he didnt mention them. He tolerated them. But he would tell his mother everything." The pair became husband and wife when Deborah was just seventeen years old. Their marriage was arranged after they had met only twice beforehand, for a total of 30 minutes. Deborah then moved out of her grandmother's house, into Eli's home. A troubled marriage In her memoir, Deborah speaks about how she and her husband did not consummate their marriage for a year. She suffered with vaginismus, a condition that makes it incredibly painful to have sex, and said she faced enormous pressure from her husband and her community. In an interview with ABC News, Feldman described the experience as "the most humiliating year of my life." "[The in-laws and family elders] were talking about it day after day. I was too terrified to leave the house. I couldn't keep a bite of food down." "I was whittling down to nothing and there was no end in sight," she said. "I lost my spirit." At the age of 19, Deborah gave birth to a baby boy. From Brooklyn to Berlin In the Netflix show, Esty goes clubbing with her newfound friends and discovers entirely new experiences / Netflix This is where the Netflix series diverges from the real story slightly, as in the show, Esty flees Brooklyn before giving birth to her child, and she also seeks the help of her piano teacher and mother to escape. In real life, Deborah had already given birth to her son, and fled New York with the help of her college tutors. Feldman eventually escaped with her son in 2014, moving to Berlin. She soon picked up the German language and began a new life for herself. HARRISBURG, Pa., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Capital BlueCross is increasing its funding to food banks and other community organizationsas well as providing meals to healthcare workers, first responders, and nursing home staff and residentsas part of its efforts to help communities and front line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Organizations that help feed our communities are experiencing a surge in demand right now, as job losses and social isolation make it harder for many people to put food on the table," said Susan Hubley, Capital BlueCross vice president for Corporate Social Responsibility. "Capital BlueCross has always supported organizations that keep our communities healthy and strong, and we're increasing our support during this crisis." The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, the Second Harvest Food Bank serving Lehigh and Northampton counties, and the Helping Harvest Food Bank serving Berks and Schuylkill counties have all received funds. These food banks collectively provide more than 45 million meals annually. "We are so thankful to Capital Blue Cross for providing much-needed support to our crisis response in the capital region," said Joe Arthur, executive director of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. "Our food bank and our partner network have provided over 50% more food in the last month than in previous months, and we believe that demand will grow further as the economic crisis continues. Support like this also helps us provide the healthiest foods available." Capital BlueCross' food and basic needs relief efforts have reached diverse populations through dozens of organizations in its 21-county service area: Grants to Meals on Wheels organizations in Berks , Dauphin , Lancaster , Lehigh , Northampton , Schuylkill and York counties that serve nearly 4,800 homebound seniors. Grants to three local United Way COVID-19 Relief Funds in Central Pennsylvania , Lehigh Valley and Berks County . On behalf of Capital BlueCross, the Healthy You Cafe located in the Capital Blue health and wellness center in Enola prepared and delivered more than 5,000 meals or snacks and counting. Recipients listed by county, include: Adams and Dauphin counties more than 100 lunches or snacks for county and senior center workers. Cumberland County 570 meals for nursing home residents, firefighters, EMTs, 911 dispatchers, and three township police departments, as well as weekly support for 64 families without transportation in the Cumberland Valley School District. Lancaster County 340 meals for those at the YWCA, assisted living facilities, and senior residential communities. Lehigh County Nearly 2,200 meals or healthy snacks for senior home residents, EMTs, emergency room staff, behavioral health specialists for youth, and community mental health professionals, along with 250 meals for underserved students in the Allentown School District. Northampton County Nearly 750 meals or healthy snacks for senior home residents, police officers, and residents at a women's shelter, as well as 250 meals for staff at the Northampton County Department of Corrections. York County 740 meals or healthy snacks for police, fire and ambulance crews, nursing home staff, and underserved children. "The support from Capital Blue Cross positions us to maintain our commitment to daily fresh meal delivery to the group that is most vulnerable to this virusseniors with chronic health conditions," said Victoria Coyle, CEO of Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley. "Seventy percent of our clients are low-income and isolated. With friends like Capital BlueCross, we can carry on our essential work with confidence in our ability to meet the increase in demand for services." A complete list of local organizations who have received assistance is available upon request. For more information about what Capital BlueCross is doing to help its members, providers and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, visit capbluecross.com. About Capital BlueCross For more than 80 years, Capital BlueCross has served Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley by offering health insurance products, services and technology solutions that provide peace of mind to consumers and promote health and wellness for our members. The company delivers innovative solutions through a family of diversified businesses to create healthier lives and lower healthcare costs. Among these solutions are patient-focused care models, leading-edge data analytics and digital health technologies. Additionally, Capital Blue health and wellness centers provide in-person service and inspiration to help people reach their health goals. Capital BlueCross was named Best in Member Satisfaction among Commercial Health Plans in Pennsylvania by J.D. Power, has scored higher than all health insurance providers publicly measured in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for five consecutive years (2014-2018), and was named Best Places to Work for the last two years. Capital BlueCross is an independent licensee of the BlueCross BlueShield Association. SOURCE Capital BlueCross Related Links http://www.capbluecross.com By ANI NEW DELHI: Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has donated Rs five lakh to the Film Employees Federation of South India's (FEFSI UNION) relief fund and has also contributed Rs five lakh for the daily wage workers of her upcoming film 'Thalaivi'. Before the countrywide lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus, Kangana was on the verge of wrapping up the shoot of the biographical drama 'Thalaivi.' Since the lockdown, all shoots have come to a stop. The forthcoming film is based on the life of actor-turned-politician and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa. It will be released in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. The 'Queen' actor will be essaying the role of Jayalalithaa in the flick which is directed by Vijay. Earlier, Kangana had contributed Rs 25 lakh to PM-CARES Fund and also donated food grains and eatables to daily wage earners amid the coronavirus crisis that has left millions without work and an income. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced yesterday that the government will ease its COVID-19 lockdown measures next Tuesday, April 28, five days later than originally planned, but sooner than some experts had advised. Nearly one month ago the government imposed level 4 restrictions (the top level in its COVID-19 alert system), closing schools and requiring most non-essential workers to stay home. Next week this will be reduced to level 3, meaning manufacturing, construction and forestry businesses, and many smaller enterprises, will be allowed to restart. An estimated 500,000 more people will return to workplaces and schools will partially reopen. The decision is calculated to appease businesses, which had called for the lockdown to be lifted immediately. Right-wing commentators internationally have argued that society must accept a trade-off between workers health and the economy, i.e., profits for big business. Ardern emphasised that the five-day delay to lifting level 4 restrictions will cost only two business days. The announcement that New Zealand will reopen large parts of its economy, despite new COVID-19 cases being announced each day, will be presented in the corporate media as an example for other countries to follow. The Ardern governments pro-business response to the pandemic has been glorified internationally. On April 19 the Atlantic hailed Arderns leadership style, focused on empathy, saying she may be the most effective leader on the planet. The Financial Times went even further, calling Ardern a saint. There have been similar statements from CNN, BBC, the Guardian, the Washington Post and other outlets. The reason for this avalanche of praise is that, far from being based on empathy, the Labour Party-led governments main response to the pandemic has been to spend tens of billions of dollars bailing out businesses and the financial markets. To prop up capitalism, this wealth must ultimately be extracted from working people through intensified exploitation and austerity. Already, tens of thousands of workers have been sacked and others have suffered wage cuts of 20 percent or more under the governments wage subsidy scheme for businesses. Speaking with TVNZ last night, Finance Minister Grant Robertson acknowledged that some experts had called for a longer lockdown, but the government had considered economic matters as well as public health. Ardern told Radio NZ (RNZ) today: The longer you stay in lockdown the more likely you are to give yourself the best chance of success. That has to be traded against the huge economic impact and the toll on livelihoods. New Zealand has reported a total of 1,445 cases of COVID-19, with 14 new cases in the last two days. Thirteen people have died from the virus. Four percent of cases are classed as community transmission, with their source unknown. University of Auckland professor Shaun Hendy, who provided modelling data to the government, told RNZ yesterday the level 4 lockdown should be extended for two more weeks. We cant right at the moment say weve eliminated the disease; were still seeing cases daily and wed really need to see those cases drop down to zero, he said. Hendry added that the reproduction rate for the virus was likely to go up under level 3. Another government advisor, epidemiologist Michael Baker told TVNZ today: The modelling work says it would be good to stay in lockdown a couple more weeks just to improve our chance of wiping out the virusbut we have got to get people back in work. He described the five-day extension as a difficult trade-off, but hoped that keeping level 3 restrictions for two weeks would be enough to extinguish the virus. Speaking to RNZ, Baker posed the question: Why did New Zealand allow its public health infrastructure to get to such a poor point? He pointed to many warnings about the lack of preparation for a pandemic, including the 2016 Havelock North water contamination crisis and last years measles epidemic, which spread from New Zealand to Samoa. New Zealand public hospitals are drastically underfunded, with severe shortages of nurses, doctors and other staff, and rationing of personal protective equipment. Despite the level 4 lockdown, there have been positive cases of COVID-19 reported among healthcare workers, supermarket workers, aged care residents and staff, and at least one meat processing worker. There is considerable anxiety among workers about the ending of restrictions, especially the move to reopen schools. An online petition to Ardern, started by a teacher and signed by nearly 35,000 people, calls for no schools or ECE [early childhood education] centres to open during alert level 3. The petition points out that it is impossible to enforce social distancing among young children, as is required under level 3 for other workplaces. The New Zealand Herald reports that the Early Childhood Council, whose 1300 childcare services have about 65,000 of the 200,000 children enrolled is still recommending that its centres should stay closed because of the risk of spreading the coronavirus. To justify the reopening of schools, the governments director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told the media: Children and teens tend to have low infection rates and they dont become as unwell if they do get infected, and they dont tend to pass the virus on to adults. Such statements distort the scientific evidence. While most children do not develop symptoms, they can easily contract and spread COVID-19. Rod Jackson, an epidemiologist at the University of Auckland, told the New Zealand Herald schools should remain closed because there were likely to be undetected cases in the community which could be spread by children. He pointed out that NZs biggest COVID-19 cluster is centred around Marist College, where adults and children tested positive. International research suggests that children are acting as carriers for the virus without being detected, due to the lack of testing. A study published on April 16 in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice estimated that for every one child hospitalised in the US with a severe case of COVID-19, 2,318 others could be infected. The authors predicted the number of children hospitalised could soar if nothing is done to stop the spread. For the ruling class, however, the reopening of schools is vital in order to send hundreds of thousands of parents back to work, regardless of the risk to health and lives. The union bureaucracy is working closely with the government and big business to suppress opposition to this agenda. The Post-Primary Teachers Association and the New Zealand Educational Institute have not endorsed the petition to keep schools closed. The unions, which opposed calls for schools to be closed prior to the government announcing its level 4 lockdown, issued statements yesterday welcoming the reopening. A technology originally conceived to remotely monitor the heart rates of premature babies has been transformed into a potential way to scan huge groups for illnesses like COVID-19. A Canadian company is adapting the technology for drones and closed-circuit video cameras. The technology connects video cameras, including those equipped with thermal-imaging systems, to a computer program with learning algorithms. The system can monitor temperature, heart and respiratory rate, and tell when someone is sneezing or coughing. The computer can determine if someone has a respiratory illness or infectious disease, according to Javeen Chahl, a professor of engineering at the University of South Australia. Chahl headed up the research developing the system. Draganfly Inc. The more video the program has of people sick with a particular disease, the better it is at detecting signs of that illness. To get more footage of people with COVID-19, a pilot project using the system is expected to be run in the New York City area in the coming weeks. The technology is attracting attention in Canada, where some airports have expressed an interest, according to Canadian drone manufacturer Draganfly Inc. Chahl has partnered with Draganfly to expand the use of his research. The company wants to sell the technology to governments, along with medical and commercial customers. Draganfly has a manufacturing plant in Saskatoon and offices in Vancouver and the U.S. Much of its business has come from selling drones to first responders. Draganfly Inc. Both Chahl and Draganfly hope this technology will provide a quick way to screen for COVID-19 and help detect the spread of other diseases. "This technology can be used even as a global early-warning system," said Cameron Chell, the CEO of Draganfly Inc. "It's really designed to get stats on what's actually happening, so the real decisions can be made and policy can be set." Chell said the cost of the pandemic has already been too high with thousands of deaths worldwide and billions of dollars in economic loss. Story continues He said being able to get timely information on how many people are sick and where they are located are ways to help governments and health authorities stop the spread of infectious diseases. CBC But developing this kind of technology, especially during an emergency, is a concern for David Fraser, a privacy lawyer with McInnes Cooper in Halifax. Fraser said sometimes companies and governments rush to develop technologies or procedures during a crisis without full consideration of public privacy or security. He said proper checks and balances need to be put in place before any kind of new scanning technology is used. "To widely deploy a technology to collect baseline health information about a population, and about its individuals who are part of that population, that needs to be justified. It needs to be justifiable and that needs to be a societal conversation," said Fraser. "It has generally been my experience that the people who make the tools, or deploy the tools, or sell the tools are not the ones in a good position to evaluate the privacy impact of those tools." McInnes Cooper Chell understands those privacy concerns. He said the system is not designed to single out individuals, but to monitor the health of a population. However, that capability might not be far away. Chell likens the rise of this kind of medical scanning technology to the widespread use of metal detectors and body scanners at airports after 9/11. "Health protection is as important as firearms protection," said Chell. "I think this is part of the new reality and we're going to have to learn how to be OK with it." Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press Once the computer scans enough people with COVID-19, it could be used to screen individuals before they come into a hospital or health-care centre, said Chahl. The system is not meant to replace traditional diagnostic tests, but can provide an additional screening method. The computer could identify people with symptoms so they can be isolated as soon as they enter a facility. "If you reduce essential services personnel to half as much risk then they might be able to keep operating for twice as long before they contract the virus, for example. So it's a great benefit to filter and screen," said Chahl. Thomas Trappenberg Equipping a drone with the system would also be helpful, according to Chahl. He said if an organization was involved in a relief effort in an area hard hit by an infectious disease, a drone could get an idea of the health of the population without endangering anyone. But that's not yet possible. No one is sure how much information would have to be fed into the system before it could correctly identify one illness from another. It is possible to use computer programs to tell when a person is sick. However, it's tricky trying to teach a machine how to identify a specific illness, according to Thomas Trappenberg, a professor of computer science at Dalhousie University. Trappenberg studies machine learning, the mechanism Chahl's computer program uses to identify sickness. "They need a lot of data," said Trappenberg. "How many data we have to feed them is also very hard to predict. "I think this is what the company is trying to do right now, trying to get more images, and it is a little bit stabbing in the dark. But it's well worth probably trying it." Draganfly Inc. There are other problems that will have to be solved before the technology can be effective, according to Sageev Oore, a computer science professor and machine learning researcher, also at Dalhousie. "On real streets with real people in real weather conditions, with real movement and real camera lenses that might get a little piece of dirt on them, all of those things add, cumulatively, a lot of challenge," said Oore. Even so, Oore thinks the research is worth doing. Chahl said more needs to be done before the system reaches its full potential. Still the technology has been used to detect whether people were alive under debris, by comparing the way debris shifted in relation to a person's breathing frequency. It also succeeded at measuring the heart rate of premature babies in incubators. Trying to figure out the heart rates of babies without the use of electrodes or other equipment is how the project started back in 2015. Fraser said even with those successes, it's important the determinations the computer makes about someone's health are confirmed by medical testing. He applauds people who want to use their skills to try to help society cope with this pandemic, but he said people still need to be cautious. MORE TOP STORIES This is the moment residents packed an evangelical church in Argentina before they were forced to evacuate the building for ignoring the country's nationwide coronavirus lockdown. The incident took place Sunday night in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Carlos Spegazzini where nearly 200 worshippers gathered after pastor Luis Anderson Chero extended an invite. Two videos that were recorded by attendees and posted later on social media showed most of the visitors while they prayed, sang and danced along with a live band. The majority of the churchgoers that appeared in the video were wearing facemasks and tried to keep a distance by leaving several empty chairs in between. At least 200 worshippers packed a Buenos Aires church for Sunday night's service before the police arrived and forced them to evacuate The majority of the congregants were wearing facemasks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus The loud music caught the attention of neighborhood residents who contacted the police and sent audios as proof of what was taking place. Cops arrived several hours later and many of the church attendees could be seen in another video quietly streaming out of the building where more than 50 cars were stationed. DailyMail.com reached out to Chero for comment. Pastor Luis Anderson Chero invited worshippers to attend a Sunday night service at an evangelical church in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Carlos Spegazzini More than 52,000 people have been arrested for violating the national quarantine in Argentina since it was put in place March 20. None of the people who attended Sunday night's church service in Buenos Aires were detained for disobeying the lockdown order Despite a countrywide order in place since March 20 that bans mass gatherings as a preventive measure to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, some residents in the South American nation have carelessly dismissed it for a variety of reasons. More than 52,000 people have been arrested for violating the national quarantine. At least 41 people, including 23 minors, were arrested the early morning of April 12 after police broke up a house party that was arranged by a woman and her daughter in the Argentine province of San Luis. The ravaging coronavirus has caused the deaths of 147 people and sickened 3,031 others in Argentina. On April 20, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani made a phone call to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. President Ilham Aliyev and President Hassan Rouhani congratulated each other on the occasion of the advent of the month of Ramadan. They asked each other to convey their best wishes to Azerbaijani and Iranian peoples. The heads of state hailed the successful development of bilateral friendly and brotherly relations and expressed their confidence that the ties between the two countries would continue strengthening. During the conversation, the presidents discussed the issues relating to the measures taken in Azerbaijan and Iran to combat the coronavirus pandemic and the work to be done in this regard. They also praised the cooperation between the two countries in transit and transport field, as well as the continuation of cargo transportation, including via the North-South International Transport Corridor during the pandemic, and exchanged views on prospects for cooperation in these areas. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz As an investor its worth striving to ensure your overall portfolio beats the market average. But if you try your hand at stock picking, your risk returning less than the market. We regret to report that long term Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB) shareholders have had that experience, with the share price dropping 51% in three years, versus a market return of about 26%. The more recent news is of little comfort, with the share price down 45% in a year. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 41% in the last three months. Check out our latest analysis for Associated Banc-Corp There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement. During the unfortunate three years of share price decline, Associated Banc-Corp actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) improve by 15% per year. Given the share price reaction, one might suspect that EPS is not a good guide to the business performance during the period (perhaps due to a one-off loss or gain). Or else the company was over-hyped in the past, and so its growth has disappointed. Since the change in EPS doesn't seem to correlate with the change in share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics. Given the healthiness of the dividend payments, we doubt that they've concerned the market. We like that Associated Banc-Corp has actually grown its revenue over the last three years. If the company can keep growing revenue, there may be an opportunity for investors. You might have to dig deeper to understand the recent share price weakness. The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers). NYSE:ASB Income Statement April 21st 2020 It's probably worth noting we've seen significant insider buying in the last quarter, which we consider a positive. That said, we think earnings and revenue growth trends are even more important factors to consider. This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on Associated Banc-Corp Story continues What About Dividends? As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, Associated Banc-Corp's TSR for the last 3 years was -47%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence! A Different Perspective We regret to report that Associated Banc-Corp shareholders are down 43% for the year (even including dividends) . Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 0.8%. 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. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 5.6% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Associated Banc-Corp (including 1 which is is concerning) . Associated Banc-Corp is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US 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. In a repeat of Sundays grim record high, Maharashtra on Tuesday reported 552 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, taking the states tally past 5,000 to 5,218. With the number of cases soaring in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR), the Maharashtra government on Tuesday issued an order reversing the relaxation provided in both areas. Of the new cases, 419 were recorded in Mumbai, taking the citys tally to 3,451. The state also recorded 19 deaths on Tuesday, of which, 12 were in Mumbai, three in Pune, two in Thane and one each in Sangli and Pimpri-Chinchawad. The states death toll is 251. Meanwhile, even after receiving 75,000 rapid diagnostic kits to detect Covid-19 antibodies, Maharashtra may have to wait longer. The India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has instructed states that are conducting the tests to wait for two days until the council issues its revised policy for running the tests. According to senior Mantralaya bureaucrats, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray was upset over the reports of crowding and traffic jams after the lockdown was relaxed on Monday, which prompted the state to reverse its orders. Thackeray, during his address via Facebook Live on Sunday, had indicated that the relaxation could be rolled back if people do not adhere to social distancing norms. The order issued by the state disallows private building construction activities, the opening of farsan, sweet and confectionery shops, and opening up of IT companies with 50% staff. The relaxation provided by the government will be implemented elsewhere in the state. With the new order, private building construction in MMR and PMR will be halted again. Courier services, cold storage and warehousing services at ports and airports have been disallowed, take-away and home delivery of food from restaurants will not be allowed. Besides that, ongoing pre-monsoon work carried out by the civic bodies along with the construction work on infrastructure projects in the regions will also stop till further notice, state officials said. The chief minister was upset after traffic jams were seen on Monday. Therefore, for now, all activities, including pre-monsoon work, construction of infrastructure projects have been stopped. We will take a review on it and decide in a day or two as we cannot delay pre-monsoon work, a senior official said. The two regions MMR and PMR have the maximum number of Covid-19 cases in the state. MMR recording 4,077 cases and 169 deaths, and PMR recording 754 cases and 59 deaths. The order issued by chief secretary Ajoy Mehta stated, In view of large number of people commuting because of relaxation issued vide order dated 17 April, 2020 and also imminent threat of further pandemic it is hereby directed that in MMR and PMR area the previous orders will not apply. It also clarified that e-commerce companies, the vehicles used by e-commerce operators, will be allowed to ply with the necessary permission. E-commerce delivery of essential commodities, food, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment would be permitted. The state government, which had earlier curbed door-to-door delivery of newspapers, allowed it in the same order on Tuesday. However, the door-to-door delivery will not be allowed in MMR and PMR, the order state. Elsewhere, the delivery person will have to adhere to social distancing measures, wear a mask, use sanitiser. In a meeting held via video conferencing, Thackeray told the two inter-ministerial central teams that have been dispatched to Mumbai and Pune that Centre should take a call regarding sending the migrant labourers back to their home states. The chief minister took up the issue of migrant labourers as the situation was getting difficult. There are around 6 lakh migrant labourers in Maharashtra, and on occasions, some have taken an aggressive stance at the relief camps. The CM has said that they should be taken to their home states in an organised manner and a decision should be taken at the earliest, an official who was present in the meeting said. A statement from the CMO said, If the Centre has a projection that there could be a spike in the spread of the coronavirus between April 30 and May 15, then the Centre should take a decision to arrange special trains to take the migrant labourers to their home state in the time available. It added that guidelines should be formulated before the end of April. An official also said that the CM raised the issue regarding the rapid testing kits. Thackeray asked the team that the Centre should take quick decisions on providing testing kits to the state. The two teams met the officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) over their action and preparedness to tackle the rising number of cases in the two cities. The team led by Manoj Joshi, additional secretary ministry of food processing, visited Worli-Koliwada area on Tuesday for an on-spot inspection of the containment area. The BMC ward has the highest number of cases in the city with over 425 Covid-19 cases. Another team led by Sanjay Malhotra, additional secretary, ministry of power, visited PMC and held a meeting with the divisional commissioner and other senior district officials. A senior Mantralaya bureaucrat said that the team that visited Mumbai raised concern over the high mortality rate in the city. Mumbai has recorded 151 deaths. Besides, in the discussion, they raised a point about the high death rate in the city. They have also raised an issue that containment in certain areas such as Dharavi in the city has not been followed strictly, the official said requesting anonymity. The team is expected to remain in the two cities for another day for a round of discussion and on-spot visits. Meanwhile, Maharashtra has conducted 83,111 coronavirus tests so far, of which 77,638 has tested negative, while 5,218 have tested positive. To date 722 people have recovered in the state. In Maharashtra, 99,569 are under home quarantine, while 7,808 are at institutional quarantine facilities. According to experts, cases will further rise in the state as we are in the middle of the epidemic curve and because of better surveillance, more asymptomatic patients are getting diagnosed. The first case in the state was reported in the second week of March. The incubation period of the virus is 14 days. Thus, we are exactly at the blooming time of the virus when gradually the epidemic graph will rise to its highest, said Anup Kumar Yadav, commissioner (family welfare) and director, National Health Mission, Maharashtra. Then will fall flat like a plateau and gradually deprecate. This is the nature of any outbreak, he added. Officials also opined that owing to rising number of tests in the state, more patients are getting diagnosed. We have narrowed down the testing procedures. Now, more number of high-risk people like cancer, tuberculosis or kidney patients, among others, are getting tested from containment zones. People might panick because of the rising number, but it is because of better surveillance, said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC. A similar trend was noticed in China, Italy and Iran, where in the second month of infection, highest number of Covid-19 cases were recorded. On Tuesday, BMC issued a circular where they have decided to do household surveillance to identify people above the age of 60 years with comorbid health issues. We are being criticised for narrowing down the testing procedures, but with the same kits, we are able to run diagnoses on vulnerable group of people, which will add to the data of cases, but it will help curb spread, added Kakani. With the inclusion of rapid and pool testing, the number of cases will rise further, warns an expert. A surge in number of cases means detection rate is high. Almost 70% of these patients are asymptomatic, which means most of these are contact tracing. There is no need for panic, said Dr Om Srivastava, a city epidemiologist and part of the task force of the state government. The state government was supposed to start rapid testing from Wednesday, but as per the new directives, will have to wait for two more days. We will abide by the rules of ICMR, said Yadav. The Indian government recently procured 5.5 lakh rapid diagnostic kits from China. Out of this, Maharashtra, Indias worst-hit state, has got 75,000 kits. Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh are among states that have started using the tests. We had got the green light from experts and we have already procured the kits. We will first test in Covid-19 hotspots to find out asymptomatic patients, said Anup Kumar Yadav, The rapid testing kits, through which blood samples are tested, were aimed at speeding up screening and detection of suspected coronavirus patients as they take less time to show results in comparison to the swab-based tests carried out in pathology labs. When a person contracts Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, the body starts developing antibodies. In the first week, IgM antibodies [first antibodies produced in response to an antigenic challenge] are produced and gradually, IgG antibodies [the most abundant type of antibody] start growing, which remain in the body for almost a month. So, depending on the types of antibodies and their concentration, we can estimate if the person is in the early stage of infection or in the stage of recovery, said Dr Lancelot Pinto, an epidemiologist from Hinduja Hospital. But these rapid tests are not for diagnosis at an individual level and often provide false positive reports. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in some cases, antibodies are not produced in the bodies of patients carrying the Covid-19 pathogens when they get tested within the window period. Thus the world health body issued an advisory stating, WHO doesnt currently recommend the use of antigen-rapid diagnostic tests for patient care. As HT reported on Monday, due to the same discrepancy in experts opinions about the efficiency of the diagnosis, the state health department was confused about its implementation in Maharashtra. As per experts, it helps in the initial level of the outbreak in segregating the infected patients from the non-Covid population. This is mostly useful in containment zones that are more heavily infected. Coronavirus Outbreak Updates: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an order to include additional agricultural and forestry items, shops of educational books for students, shops of electric fans and movement of Indian seafarers in to the list of permitted activities during the lockdown, which will continue till 3 May. Auto refresh feeds In the daily COVID-19 press briefing, health ministry Joint Secretary Law Agarwal said as many as 59 districts across 23 states and Union Territories have not reported a single case in the last 14 days and also asserted that the rate of the number of cases doubling has improved to 7.5 days, from 3.4 days before the lockdown. Last Friday, he had put the rate of doubling of cases at 6.2 days. According to the Union health ministry, the number of coronavirus positive cases saw a sharp increase of 1,553 between Sunday and Monday, while there has been a recovery rate of about 15 percent. Demand for oil has collapsed so much due to the coronavirus pandemic that facilities for storing crude are nearly full. Much of the drop into negative territory was chalked up to technical reasons the May delivery contract is close to expiring so it was seeing less trading volume, which can exacerbate swings. But prices for deliveries even further into the future, which were seeing larger trading volumes, also plunged. Stocks were also slipping on Wall Street in afternoon trading, with the S&P 500 down 0.9 percent but the market's most dramatic action was by far in oil, where benchmark US crude for May delivery plummeted to negative 3.70 per barrel, as of 2:15 pm. Eastern time. Oil prices plunged below zero on Monday as demand for energy collapses amid the coronavirus pandemic and traders don't want to get stuck owning crude with nowhere to store it. The health minister did not provide further details, but his response gave an impression about the possibility of allowing liquor shops to function with social distancing measures in place. Tope was replying to a question on the state government not clarifying, in its April 17 notification, whether liquor shops will be allowed to remain open after it permitted the resumption of industrial and business activities in non-coronavirus hotspots. Liquor shops are closed in the state since late month when the coronavirus-enforced lockdown was implemented. "If social distancing is properly maintained, there should not be any ban on liquor shops," he said. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Monday said there should not be any ban on liquor shops in the state if social distancing measures, in place to curb the COVID-19 spread, are strictly followed. The May contract expires on Tuesday, while the June contract, which is more actively traded, was up 51 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $20.94 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery was up $21.96 at -$15.67 a barrel by 2214 GMT after settling down at a discount of $37.63 a barrel in the previous session. US crude oil jumped more than $20 per barrel on Tuesday but still traded below $0 after plunging into negative territory for the first time in history, dragged down by a supply glut and sagging demand for crude due to the coronavirus pandemic. Three police vehicles were also torched by the mob. The policemen could only leave the area by a road that passes through the Jaldapara forest, officials said. As the clash continued, the policemen opened fire, injuring a youth, while leaving the spot, the locals alleged. Locals alleged that a police team arrived in the area with an earthmover after midnight to secretly dump the body of a person who died of COVID-19. As locals got wind of the alleged plans, the officials met with resistance, they claimed. The incident happened on the banks of the Teesta river in Salkumarhat area in the early hours of Monday, police said. At least 20 police personnel were injured in a clash with a mob which alleged that the authorities were secretly disposing of the body of a person who died due to COVID-19 in West Bengal's Alipurduar district. Around 60 units in West Bengal, most of which are located in North 24 Parganas, Kolkata, Hooghly and Howrah districts, were awaiting the government's nod to resume operations from Monday and of them, only five got the approval, according to industry sources. The industry was disappointed with a handful of mills getting approval to operate despite repeated interventions from the Centre which fears that prolonged closure may lead to a shortage of packaging materials, especially foodgrains. The units have received permission to operate only with 50 workers, according to a mill owner. Five jute mills in West Bengal got the approval of the state government to resume operations amid a huge pending order for packaging materials. By Sunday night, the number of cases of the deadly virus in the city stood at 2,003, including 45 deaths. Of the total fatalities reported to date, 25 victims were aged 60 and above, they said. Twelve of them were in the age group of 50-59 and 10 were aged less than 50 years, officials said. A committee has been constituted for a daily audit of every fatality due to COVID-19, they said. The death toll from COVID-19 in the national capital stands at 47. The total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital rose to 2081 on Monday, with 78 fresh cases and two deaths being reported in a day, according to Delhi government authorities. According to TimesNow News sources, the person, who has been tested positive for coronavirus is a relative of a sanitation worker. Although, an official statement from the Rashtrapati Bhavan is awaited. One coronavirus positive case found in Rashtrapati Bhavan, 125 families sent on home quarantine, reports ANI. 125 families advised to remain in self-isolation as mandated by the Health Ministrys guidelines as a precautionary measure. In a message issued late in the evening, Tope stated that out of the total 76,000 tests for coronavirus conducted in the state so far, Mumbai city alone accounts for more than 50,000. Tope said some health experts are predicting a spurt in coronavirus cases in the state between 30 April and 15 May. "However, this will happen only if people violate lockdown norms," the minister said. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Monday said the rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases in the state has slowed down further to seven days from five days earlier. Later in the evening, Deoghar District Deputy Commissioner Nancy Sahay said a man from Gamahria village in Sarvan block also contracted the deadly virus. "He is asymptomatic and his condition is stable," she said, adding, this is the first case of coronavirus reported from Deoghar district. Principal Secretary (Health) Nitin Madan Kulkarni said one person each from Ranchi, Bokaro and Hazaribag districts tested positive for COVID-19. Four more persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Jharkhand on Monday, taking the number of cases to 45 in the state, a senior health department official said. Migrants now make up about 10 percent of the state's 193 coronavirus cases, causing anger in Tamaulipas. The Tamaulipas state government said a migrant deported from Houston, Texas had entered the same shelter without knowing that he had coronavirus. Fourteen of the infected migrants from Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, and Cameroon were staying at a migrant shelter in the city of Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas. They are in isolation. Sixteen migrants from several countries have tested positive for coronavirus in Mexico's northern border state of Tamaulipas, the state government said on Monday. He said the number of people in intensive care had fallen for the 12th consecutive day, to 5,683 - the lowest since March 31 - suggesting the national lockdown is having positive effects in containing the disease. The epidemic is very deadly and is far from over, Frances public health chief Jerome Salomon told a news briefing, adding that the death toll was now higher than that of the heat wave in the summer of 2003. France on Monday officially registered more than 20,000 deaths from the coronavirus, becoming the fourth country to pass that threshold after Italy, Spain and the United States, and the pace of increase in fatalities and infections sped up again after several days of slowing. "In doing so, the panchayats saved their respective villages from the menace of COVID-19 entering their habitations and also exhibited how the panchayats in Odisha are playing a leading role in combating COVID-19," the release said. "Most people related to these cases having origin from West Bengal were clandestinely trying to sneak into the villages. They are held by and identified by the panchayats in Odisha, who did not allow them to enter into the villages. The panchayats in turn then informed the district administration and ensured that these people were placed in quarantine," it added. "One-third of all positive COVID-19 cases are those that have returned from West Bengal which is worrying for the Odisha government," a press release said. The Odisha government on Monday said that one-third of COVID-19 positive cases in the state is due to those who have returned from West Bengal.To date, there are 74 positive COVID-19 cases in the state, out of which 24 are those who have come from West Bengal. According to Navarro, Europe, India, Brazil and others don't have adequate PPE because China "is hoarding it". "I have evidence directly from the Chinese government customs duty union that shows that, in the months of January and February, they bought 18 times more amount of masks," he said. "It was over two billion masks alone. They increased their expenditures of both goggles and gloves." "China vacuumed up all of the personal protective equipment around the world while it was hiding the virus," Navarro told Fox Business News in an interview. Peter Navarro, White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing, alleged on Monday that several countries, including India and Brazil, were not having enough PPE because Beijing was hoarding them. The United States has "evidence" that in January and February, China bought 18 times more amount of masks and personal protective equipment, which they are now selling at high rates, a top White House official has claimed. Details of the Trump's executive order were not immediately known. He also did not indicate when he will sign such an order. The number of people killed in the US due to COVID-19 has reached 42,094, according to Johns Hopkins University, and more than 750,000 cases have been confirmed. President Donald Trump has said that he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into America, amid the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 40,000 people in the US, the country with the most fatalities in the pandemic. US President Donald Trump said on Monday he will be signing an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States. Police had not expected such a large number of people to gather for the funeral, defying a weeks-long lockdown that forbids going out except for groceries and medicine. Local media said few of the mourners wore masks. Weve strictly ordered all residents of the seven villages to stay at home at all times at least for the next 14 days so we can identify if anyone contracted the virus following Saturdays gathering, a local police officer told Reuters . The massive gathering in Brahmanbaria district, about 60 km east of the capital Dhaka, has raised concerns about the potential for a spike in infections in a country of 160 million people with poor medical infrastructure. Bangladesh has tightened a clampdown on seven villages after tens of thousands attended the funeral of a popular local cleric in spite of a nationwide lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus, officials said on Monday. Speculation about Kim's health was raised after he missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on 15 April. The Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, said it couldn't confirm another report by Daily NK, which cited anonymous sources to report that Kim was recovering from heart surgery in the capital Pyongyang and that his condition was improving. Officials from South Korea's Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they couldn't immediately confirm the report. CNN cited an anonymous US official who said Kim was in grave danger after an unspecified surgery. The South Korean government on Tuesday was looking into US media reports saying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was in fragile condition after surgery. 15 more positive cases reported in Moradabad, out of whom one died at TMU medical college, said Moradabad chief medical officer (CMO) Dr MC Garg on Tuesday. The total number of COVID-19 infections in the state has crossed the 400-mark, according to last evening's bulletin by the Karnataka health department "The person had developed fever on Sunday and was admitted to the hospital. The patient passed away yesterday at 9 am. Last night at 9pm the death report came, which confirmed that the person was COVID-19 positive," Sudhakar tweeted. The elderly person was suffering from Parkinson's disease for the last three years and died at a hospital on Monday, the minister said in a tweet. An 80-year-old COVID-19 patient dies in Karnataka's Kalaburagi district on Tuesday, reported PTI. The toll in the state is now at 17, said Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar. There are now 18,601 total cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in India. Active cases stand at 14,759 and recoveries at 3,251 and deaths at 590, according to the latest data by the health ministry. Five more positive cases have been reported from Rajpura in Patiala on Tuesday. All five positive cases are from the same source and all are asymptotic cases. Line of contact tracing is underway said KBS Sidhu, Special Chief Secretary, Punjab There are now 72 active trials underway across the United States researching dozens of therapies and treatments and another 211 are in the planning stages. They are literally mobilising on therapeutics and also on vaccines, and tremendous progress is being made on vaccines and I must say on therapeutics, Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference on the coronavirus on Monday. According to the President, there are therapies designed to attack the virus as well as others that would hinder its replication, reduce the rate of infection, control the immune response or transfer life savings antibodies from the blood of recovered patients. US President Donald Trump has said there are 72 active trials underway across the country researching dozens of therapies and treatments for the coronavirus and tremendous progress is being made on vaccines. The number of active cases in the state now stands at 53 while 25 persons have been cured of the disease. "Contact-tracing of all the new cases are going on and follow-up action is also being taken," the official said. Two COVID-19 cases including a two-year-old child were also reported from Balasore district on Monday. All the fresh cases have been reported from Balasore district neighbouring West Bengal, he said. The state health and family welfare department have not provided details of the new patients. Five more persons tested positive for novel coronavirus in Odisha on Tuesday, taking the total number of such cases to 79 in the state, a health department official said. Confirmed cases in Tamil Nadu now stand at 1,520, including 457 recoveries. As many as 17 people have died due to COVID-19 in the state. The total number confirmed COVID-19 cases continue to rise steadily in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, according to data from the Union Health Ministry. Rajasthan has so far reported 1,628 cases. Of these, 205 patients have recovered. The toll in the state stands at 25. The CPCB has also written to the state pollution control boards and pollution control committees to consider operation of common bio-medical waste treatment and disposal facility and its associated staff as essential service part of health infrastructure. The apex pollution monitoring body said specific guidelines are required to be followed by all, including isolation wards, quarantine centres, sample collection centres, laboratories, ULBs and common biomedical waste treatment and disposal facilities, in addition to existing practices under BMW Management Rules, 2016. Using double layered bags, mandatory labelling and colour coded bins for the management of waste generated during the diagnostics and treatment of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients are part of the guidelines issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Out of the 754 samples tested on Monday for COVID-19, results of eight are positive, said King George's Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow, reports ANI. So far, Uttar Pradesh has reported 1184 COVID-19 positive cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. According to worldometer , about 1,70,456 people across the globe have died so far from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak as of 21 April. "I am sure our experienced and able civil servants will assist the nation in winning the battle," the vice president said. "Our civil servants along with doctors and medical professionals have been leading India's fight against COVID-19 ... We are grateful to all such warriors who have been risking their lives at the face of the infection to protect all of us," he said.. The duration of the fight against coronavirus is still uncertain, he pointed out. Their high professional standards have stood us well in times of peace as well as times of crisis like the current one, Naidu said. "On Civil Services Day, I compliment all the civil servants of our country for effectively and efficiently translating policies into programmes," the Vice President tweeted. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended greetings on Civil Services Day, saying like health professionals, the civil servants have also been leading the fight against coronavirus. It said that the postponement meant that parliament would not be able to meet on 2 June which is three months from the dismissal of last parliament on 2 March. The EC has written to President Rajapaksa asking him to seek the highest court's opinion on a possible constitutional standoff arising from the postponement of the election. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on 2 March dissolved the Parliament, six months ahead of schedule and called a snap election on 25 April. A gazette notice signed by the three members of the National Election Commission announcing 20 June date of the election was issued on Monday. Sri Lanka's Election Commission has postponed the parliamentary elections for nearly two months in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed seven people and infected 295 others in the country. Arunachal Pradesh continued to maintain its 'coronavirus-free state' status as of 20 April, as the total samples collected in Arunachal Pradesh are 439 of which 405 tested negative, 0 tested positive and results of 34 are awaited, said Chief Minister Pema Khandu Forex traders said the rupee opened on a weak note as the US Dollar edged higher past the 100 level mark. The rupee opened weak at 76.79 at the interbank forex market and then fell further to 76.83, down 30 paise over its last close. The rupee had settled at 76.53 against the US dollar on Monday. The Indian rupee depreciated by 30 paise to 76.83 against the US dollar in opening trade on Tuesday, tracking weak domestic equities and strengthening of the US dollar overseas. They hail from Udaipur town and rushed back home in the midst of the ongoing lockdown as their daughter's marriage is scheduled on 8 May. Chanchal Majumder along with his wife Ashima, who had gone to the southern metropolis for treatment in a private hospital there, reached home on Sunday evening, and they were sent in a quarantine centre, an official said. A family from Gomati district of Tripura, stranded in Chennai due to the ongoing lockdown, has travelled 3,213 km in an ambulance to return home amid the restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus outbreak. The COVID-19 pandemic is a "time for thinking long-term. It will be a pity to let the crisis go to waste. The current crisis will only last till a vaccine becomes available. We must think beyond that," Panagariya told PTI. Panagariya, Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Director, Raj Center at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, emphasised that the one thing the current crisis has revealed is the vulnerability of Indian workers to a shock that forces a near end of economic activity. Eminent economist Arvind Panagariya has said that India must now think long-term to create better paying formal sector jobs by seizing the opportunity presented by multinationals possibly moving out of China to diversify their operations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. No death was reported on Monday. Altogether 4,632 people have died of the disease, it said. The other seven new cases were domestically transmitted, the NHC said in a daily report, noting that six cases were reported in Heilongjiang Province bordering Russia and one in Guangdong Province. The overall confirmed cases in China have reached 82,758 by Monday. China's National Health Commission (NHC) on Tuesday said that 11 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday, of which four were imported. China plans to inject Chinese medics with coronavirus vaccines by year-end to protect them to deal with any emergency situation, while 11 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the country with no deaths due to the virus, health officials said. 472 more COVID-19 cases reported in Maharashtra till 10 am on Tuesday, taking total positive cases in the state to 4676, reports ANI. Nine more deaths have been reported, taking the total toll in the state to 232, said Public Health of Department, Government of Maharashtra. It reaffirms the fundamental role of the United Nations system in coordinating the global response to control and contain the spread of COVID-19 and in supporting the 193 UN member states, "and in this regard acknowledges the crucial leading role played by the World Health Organization." The Mexican-drafted resolution requests UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to work with the World Health Organization and recommend options to ensure timely and equitable access to testing, medical supplies, drugs and future coronavirus vaccines for all in need, especially in developing countries. The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution calling for global action to rapidly scale up development, manufacturing, and access to medicine, vaccines and medical equipment to confront the new coronavirus pandemic. As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India's total number of coronavirus cases has spiked to 18,601, of which 14,759 patients are active cases and 3,252 cases have been recovered/ migrated and 590 deaths have been reported till now. 7 more COVID-19 cases have been reported from Nagpur district, said the district officials on Tuesday. "With 7 more people confirmed of coronavirus in Nagpur district today, the total number of cases here has reached 88," said District officials. Long queues of vehicles were seen at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border on Tuesday morning. The said order is being issued under the National Disaster Act 2005, he added. Traffic movement between Delhi-Ghaziabad is completely prohibited, only those rendering essential services and people holding valid passes are being allowed. The border between Delhi and Ghaziabad has been sealed as a measure to contain the spread of coronavirus. The decision was taken after six people who had come from Delhi tested positive for coronavirus, said Ajay Shankar Pandey, Ghaziabad District Magistrate (DM), in an order issued on 20 April. Delhi has reported a total of 2081 positive cases, out of these 78 cases were found on Monday. These 78 positive cases were found out of the 1397 samples tested yesterday. Out of all the patients admitted at hospitals, 26 are in ICU and 5 on the ventilator, said Satyendar Jain, Delhi Health Minister. He made this announcement during a video conference with the District Collectors and Muslim religious leaders on the measures being taken to contain COVID-19. He thanked the religious leaders for accepting his request to urge the community to offer prayers at homes during the holy month of Ramadan. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday announced that all mosques, temples, and churches in the state would be given Rs 5,000 assistance. Samples of both the victims came out positive for coronavirus after their death, she said. Survivors of the 1984 toxic gas tragedy are more vulnerable to the coronavirus infection and need special care, she said. A 70-year-old gas mishap survivor died on April 17 while another 60-year-old tragedy victim died on 14 April, Rachna Dhingra, of the NGO Bhopal Group for Information and Actionwhich is working for the gas mishap victims, told PTI. Two more Bhopal gas tragedy victims succumbed to coronavirus, taking the total number of such deaths in the Madhya Pradesh capital to seven, an official said on Tuesday. 35 new COVID-19 positive cases were reported in Andhra Pradesh sofar today. Three of these cases were reported in Ananthpur and Krishna each, nine in Guntur, six in Kadapa, 10 in Kurnool and four in West Godavari districts. The total positive cases in the state now is 757, including 22 deaths. He also said that Haryana was fast moving towards normalcy. With 56.7 percent recovery rate against 16.38 percent of all India rate of coronavirus cases Haryana is moving fast towards normalcy, he said. The Union Health Ministry had on Monday said that the rate at which the number of coronavirus cases in the country was doubling in the last one week has slowed to 7.5 days, as against 3.4 days before the nationwide lockdown was imposed. The rate at which the number of coronavirus cases in Haryana was doubling is 13.15 days as against 7.5 days of the national average, Health Minister Anil Vij said on Tuesday. The patient had breathing problems and was on ventilator support for 48 hours before he died, Aurobindo Hospital's Dr Vinod Bhandari said. The victim is survived by wife, who is a tehsildar (revenue officer) in neighbouring Dhar district, and two daughters. "After his health condition turned grim, he was rushed to the Indore-based private Aurobindo hospital 10 days ago. Despite all efforts by doctors, he could not be saved," Ujjain's Additional Superintendent of Police Rupesh Kumar Dwivedi said. In the latest case, the inspector, who was posted at a police station in Ujjain and also suffered from high blood pressure, was initially treated at a hospital there for four days after he contracted the disease. A police inspector died due to coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district on Tuesday, an official said. Last week also, a police officer died in Indore after suffering from the disease. However, after the death of the sanitation worker's mother, initially, around 25 families were under self-isolation. Now there are around 100 odd families who are observing self-isolation as a preventive measure, the official said. "The mother used to live outside the President's Estate. After she was tested positive, all her relatives were quarantined and their test was done. The test report came negative," an official said. The relative of the sanitation worker, who is a resident of the estate that houses Rashtrapati Bhavan, has been admitted to a hospital here for treatment, they said. The move comes after the sanitation worker's mother died of COVID-19 infection a few days back at the BL Kapoor hospital in Delhi, the officials said. Over 100 families residing at the President's Estate are under self-isolation as a preventive measure after a sanitation worker's relative tested positive for coronavirus, officials said Tuesday. With the fresh case reported from the state capital, the total number of people afflicted with the dreaded virus in the state now stands at 12, he said. A 42-year-old woman, who is a family friend of the first COVID-19 patient in Meghalaya, has tested positive for novel coronavirus, raising the number of active cases to 11 in the state, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said. it is a question of national security as militancy still poses a serious threat in Jammu and Kashmir and cited a recent incident where hundreds of people gathered in the valley for a funeral of a militant killed by security forces. The top court was told that due to non-availability of 4G services, several aspects are affected including medical facilities and education services. The Centre opposed the plea by telling the apex court that The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Centre and Jammu and Kashmir administration to file their responses by 27 April on a plea seeking restoration of 4G internet services in the Union territory in view of prevailing COVID-19 pandemic. Rajasthan on Tuesday stopped using rapid test kits for coronavirus after receiving invalid and incorrect results for a large number of samples. Health Minister Raghu Sharma said the kits were giving mere five percent correct or valid results and a report has been forwarded to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in this regard. According to Chief Development Officer Abhishek Goyal, the district reported 33 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. All the patients are admitted to Kripalu Institute in Munshiganj, he added. Till Monday, the district had only two coronavirus patients, both had attended the religious congregation in Delhi last month. The area where they lived was turned into a containment zone and people in their neighbourhood were quarantined, the officials said. The number of coronavirus cases in this district jumped from two to 35 with several people testing positive after coming in contact with participants at a Tablighi Jamaat congregation, officials said on Tuesday. While Bhadrak and Balasore have reported eight cases each, seven COVID-19 cases were detected in Jajpur. The total number of novel coronavirus cases from the three districts was just five two days ago, an official pointed out. The move comes after Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur districts reported a spurt in COVID-19 cases. Of the 79 COVID-19 cases detected in the state so far, these three districts have together reported 23 cases. As many as 17 new cases were reported in the last 48 hours, a senior official said. With three densely populated northern districts fast emerging as novel coronavirus hotspots, the Odisha government on Tuesday rushed Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) and experts to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease, officials said. The minister emphasized that "secularism and harmony" is not "political fashion" but it is "perfect passion". He cautioned the people about "bogus bashing brigades" involved in peddling fake news. The minister's remark came after Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) urged India to take "urgent steps" to protect the rights of its minority Muslim community and stop the incidents of "Islamophobia" in the country. "We are doing our work. Modi ji talks about the interest and well being of 130 crore people of India. Those who can't see this, it is their problem. All sections of the country including minorities are happy. Those who are trying to vitiate the atmosphere cannot be friends of Indian Muslims," he said. "India is heaven for minorities and Muslims. Their social, religious and economic rights are secured in India than any other country. If someone is saying this out of a prejudiced mindset then they must look at the ground reality of this country and accept it... Secularism and harmony is not political fashion but a passion," Naqvi said at a press conference here. Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Tuesday said that India is heaven for minorities and Muslims and asserted that their social, religious and economic rights are secured in the country. Areas under the gram panchayats of Rashidpur, Rajbhalhat I, Rabhalhat II of Jangipara block have been also been declared containment zones, the order stated. The gram panchayats of Raghunathpur in Srerampore Uttarpara block, Kumirmora, Bhagwatipur, Haripur of Chanditala I block and Garalgacha, Barijhati of Chanditala II, Mundalika, Kotalpur and Dilakhas under the Hooghly (Rural) Police District have also been identified as containment areas, an order issued by the office of the district magistrate said. All wards of the municipalities of Uttarpara Kotrang, Dankuni, Srerampore, Rishra, Konnagar, Baidyabati, Champadani, Chandannagar, Bhadreshwar have been identified as COVID-19 containment zones, he said. Most parts of the Hooghly district in West Bengal were declared as COVID-19 containment zones by the state government, a senior official said on Tuesday. "This is the character of the Congress... What a strategy Rahul Ji," Patra tweeted, taking a dig at the former Congress president. The BJP has claimed that they are associated with the youth Congress. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said while lakhs of his party workers are busy bringing food to the needy during the nationwide lockdown, the "national office-bearers of the Congress are smuggling expensive liquor" in the national capital. According to the Delhi Police, Shravan Rao (34) and Manish (24) were arrested on Sunday night from near the Delhi-Gurgaon border with illicit liquor. The Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas BV dubbed the arrest a "conspiracy" which, he claimed, was aimed at defaming his organisation's relief work to help the poor during the ongoing lockdown. The BJP on Tuesday took a dig at the Congress after its youth wing functionaries were caught allegedly smuggling liquor, saying this has exposed the opposition party's "character". Asked in which hospital, they were being admitted, he said "a direction has been given to admit them at Omadurar (Government Medical College, Multi Super Specialty Hospital at Government Estate). To a question, the official said the test results of those associated with the television channel were being collated and indicated that the tally of total positives could be '27.' "Not less than 25 people have tested positive...(of the)...90 plus samples (for confirmatory RT-PCR test) taken," the official told PTI. The development comes days after two journalists, including one who worked with the TV channel, tested positive for the contagion in the city. At least 25 people, including journalists, working for a Tamil news television channel tested positive for coronavirus here on Tuesday, a health department official said. The bench, which heard the matter through video-conferencing, observed that government hospitals across the country are giving free treatment to coronavirus infected patients. "We think this case should close," it said. "Do not create public interest litigation," the bench, also comprising Justices SK Kaul and BR Gavai, said. "Government has to decide on who to give free treatment. We do not have any funds with us," a bench headed by Justice NV Ramana said. The Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking direction to the Centre, all states and Union territories to provide free of cost treatment for coronavirus infection till COVID-19 pandemic is contained, saying it is for the government to take a call on it. "He soon developed pneumonia with Type I respiratory failure and had to be put on ventilator support on 8 April," the hospital said in a statement on Monday. His condition deteriorated during the next few days and he soon required external oxygen to maintain saturation, hospital authorities said. The 49-year-old had tested positive for coronavirus on 4 April and the same day he was admitted to the dedicated COVID-19 facility in East Block of Max Hospital, Saket, with moderate symptoms and a history of fever and respiratory issues. A critical COVID-19 patient admitted to a private hospital here has shown signs of improvement and taken off ventilator support after he was administered plasma therapy, officials said on Tuesday. He said cities like Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, and Pune were mainly hit by the COVID-19 disease and called for observing "stricter" discipline amidst the lockdown. Maharashtra has reported 4666 COVID-19 cases, the highest in the country, till 20 April. Noting that Maharashtra has reported 223 deaths (out of 590 in the country) till Monday, the former Union minister said the number (relating to the state) is "shocking" and that people must think about containing the spread. Pawar also said though the coronavirus situation in Maharashtra is better when compared with Western countries, it is "worrying" vis-a-vis the rest of India. Coronavirus infection spreads when social distancing is not observed properly, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Tuesday following reports that relative of a sanitation worker, who is a resident of the President's Estate that houses Rashtrapati Bhavan, tested positive for the infection. Total COVID-19 cases (including those of 14 Italian nationals) stand at 252. Of these, 142 have been discharged in Haryana. The state has reported two deaths so far, reports ANI. Some of those measures, which the Singapore leader calls a circuit breaker, involve shutting schools and most workplaces temporarily. Those measures, which were implemented two weeks ago, were initially supposed to end on 4 May. Singapores Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday that partial lockdown measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the country will be extended by four weeks to 1 June, reports CNBC. "With Chief Minister Pema Khandu approving sorties by helicopters of Skyone and IAF to airlift rice given by the Centre under National Food Security Act, five kg free rice have been provided to each ration card holder besides other essential commodities, including medical equipment from Miao to Vijoynagar," Mossang told PTI over the telephone from Miao. IAF choppers are airlifting essential commodities and medical equipment to Vijoynagar circle, Arunachal Pradesh Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs minister Kamlung Mossang said on Monday. Vijoynagar, a remote circle in Changlang district without road connectivity is strategically located along the India-China-Myanmar tri-junction. It comprises of 16 villages and has a population of 4,438. The nearest town is Miao which is 157 km away and takes about six-days to reach by foot. The total number of people discharged from administrative quarantine so far is now 1,906. The Jammu and Kashmir government said that 40 more people have been discharged after completing their two-week quarantine in Srinagar. Karnataka minister Dr K Sudhakar said, "Plasma therapy holds great promise in treating COVID-19 patients and I am happy to inform that ICMR agreed to our request and has given permission for plasma treatment to Dr Vishal Rao, HCG Bangalore Institute of Oncology." An oncologist in Bengaluru has been given permission by the ICMR to use plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the state, the government said. The Rajasthan health department on Tuesday said that 83 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in the state, taking total number of positive cases in the state to 1,659 now. 25 deaths have been reported till date. "Till now, there are 1,294 positive cases of COVID-19 in the state including 1,134 active cases and 140 discharged," said Uttar Pradesh principal secretary (Medical and Health) Amit Mohan Prasad. The Maharashtra Police said that a total of 60,005 cases have been registered under Section 188 of IPC, since 22 March till 4 am on Tuesday, for violations of coronavirus lockdown norms. 411 accused have been arrested in cases of assault on policemen, the statement said. "A lot of variations, kits will be tested and validated by on-ground teams and we will give advisory in the next two days," he added. ICMR's R Gangakhedkhar on Tuesday said that states are advised not to use rapid testing kits for two days. Health ministry joint secretary Lav Aggarwal said, "We have issued detailed guidelines to all states that while we focus on COVID-19, all other services need to be provided, be it for dialysis, HIV/cancer treatments etc. At the same time required infection management prevention should be in place." Reports on Tuesday said that the West Bengal government is likely to allow central government teams to visit Kolkata to conduct review on alleged lockdown violations in the city, adding that the MHA wrote to the state government saying that the local administration is "not allowing the inter ministerial COVID-19 team to work". The Union health ministry said that the total number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 18,985 in India. This includes 15,122 active cases, 3,260 cured/discharged/migrated people and 603 deaths. ICMR's R Gangakhedkhar on Tuesday said that 4,49,810 samples have been tested so far. 35,852 samples were tested on Monday, of which 29,776 samples were tested in 201 Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) network labs and remaining 6,076 samples were tested in 86 private labs, he said. The Karnataka health department said that 10 new coronavirus cases were reported in the state in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases are at 418, including 17 deaths and 129 recoveries "Rapid testing has begun in the state. Today 220 rapid tests conducted in Howrah and Kolkata. The results have been sent to the health department," said West Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha The West Begal chief secretary said that 29 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the state in the last 24 hours. The total toll in the state is at 15. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that 19 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the state on Tuesday. Of these, 10 were reported in Kannur, four in Palakkad, three in Kasargod, one each in Malappuram and Kollam. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that 2,081 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the National Capital till Monday night. Of these, 431 have recovered and 47 have lost their lives due to the virus. Currently, there are 1,603 active cases. The Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday said that 92 areas have been identified and designated as red zones in the union territory, of which 14 are in Jammu and 78 are in Kashmir. These red zones will be under stricter restrictions on movement, surveillance and will have enhanced testing, the statement said. One death was also reported on Tuesday, taking the total toll in the state to 18. The Tamil Nadu government said that 76 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the state on Tuesday, taking total number of positive cases in the state to 1,596. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said, "In Pathanamthitta, a woman belonging to the first cluster of COVID-19 cases is still positive after 36 days. How the coronavirus behaves cannot be predicted. Even after repeat tests every alternative day, the patient is positive. Her condition is stable." The Mumbai fire brigade said that a level-II fire broken out at the Rippon Hotel in Mumbai's Nagpada area on Tuesday. The fire fighting operation on. The fire has been confined in the hotel's lodging room, which was being used as a quarantine centre for COVID-19 patients. Most of the patients rescued, search operation is on, the statement said. The West Bengal government said that as of Tuesday, there are 274 active COVID-19 cases and 15 deaths due to coronavirus in the state. With 150 patients discharged from hospitals on Tuesday, the number of cured patients stands at 722. The Maharashtra government said that 552 new COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were reported in the state on Tuesday, taking total number of cases to 5,218 and toll to 251 in the state. The number of COVID-19 'containment zones' in Delhi were raised to 87 by the Delhi government on Tuesday. The Delhi health department said that 75 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the National Capital on Tuesday, taking the total number of positive cases to 2,156. No new COVID-19 case were reported in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, the state government said, adding that the total number of positive cases in the state stands at 46. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was quoted by ANI as saying, "It is clarified that specific services/activities-caregivers of senior citizens residing with them, prepaid mobile recharge utilities, food processing units in urban areas have already been exempted from lockdown measures to fight COVID-19." The Embassy of India in Sourth Korea on Tuesday said that SD Biosensor (a South Korea-based company) started production from its Manesar, Haryana facility with a capacity of 5,00,000 rapid test kits per week. This will be further enhanced in the coming weeks to meet growing demand, the statement said. The Uttar Pradesh government said that with 137 new cases reported on Tuesday, the tally of COVID-19 cases in the state rose to 1,337. The toll stands at 21 in the state. India Today reported that no new case of COVID-19 was reported in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad on Tuesday. The Varsha bungalow in south Mumbai is currently unoccupied as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray lives in his family residence in suburban Bandra. A woman police constable posted at `Varsha', the official residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister, tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, PTI quotes a senior official as saying. Also, a male constable at the official residence of Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis has tested positive, according to a civic official. The second COVID-19 patient in Manipur was discharged from the Regional Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) on Tuesday as he tested negative in consecutive tests, PTI quotes RIMS director Prof Ahanthem Santa Singh as saying. The patient was advised home quarantine, according to protocol, the RIMS director said . The secretary also announced that the government had pledged more than 40m to two British projects searching for a vaccine - the one by Oxford and the other led by the Imperial College. UK health secretary Matt Hancock announced that Oxford University researchers will begin human trials of a potential vaccine against the coronavirus on Thursday, reported BBC . According to the report, the vaccine uses a small section of the genetic code packaged into a harmless virus. Scientists hope that delivering this into the body will teach the immune system how to fight off the real disease, without ever needing to become infected with coronavirus.The plan is to test it on around 500 volunteers by mid-May and if that work proves successful, give it to thousands more volunteers, said the report. A total of 17,337 people in hospital with coronavirus have died in Britain, show new health ministry figures, an increase of 828 from the previous day, reports News18. The case count in Maharashtra's Nashik district rose to 108 on Tuesday. 10 cases were reported in Nashik city, four in Nashik rural and 94 in Malegaon. Indian Medical Association (IMA) & 7 other medical organizations have collectively written to West Bengal CM. Letter states, "Real-time, transparent data of #COVID19 in our state, including daily medical bulletins of all healthcare workers under treatment is highly solicited". pic.twitter.com/hTeRNmFz2U The Indian Medical Association (IMA) and seven other medical organisations have collectively written to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, stating that the state's real-time and transparent data of Covid-19, including daily medical bulletins of all healthcare workers under treatment is highly solicited. The Varsha bungalow in south Mumbai is currently unoccupied as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray lives in his family residence in suburban Bandra. A woman police constable posted at `Varsha', the official residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister, tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, PTI quotes a senior official as saying. Also, a male constable at the official residence of Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis has tested positive, according to a civic official. A dozen more coronavirus cases surfaced in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, taking the total in the Union territory to 380, PTI quotes an official bulletin as saying.. Eleven of the fresh cases were reported in Kashmir and one in Jammu's Kathua, it said. The UT has recorded five fatalities due to the disease so far, four in Kashmir and one in Udhampur district of Jammu, while 81 patients have recovered, the bulletin stated. It added that 10 COVID-19 patients were discharged during the day. Tablighi Jamaat Chief Mohammad Saad appeals to Jamaat's workers and all Muslims who have been cured of COVID19 to donate blood plasma for those still infected and under treatment. pic.twitter.com/ztuvcNGbOY Tablighi Jamaat chief Mohammad Saad has written a letter to Jamaat workers and all Muslims who have been cured of COVID19, appealing to them to donate blood plasma for those still infected and under treatment. According to the 9pm update issued by ICMR, a total of 4,62,621 samples from 4,47,812 have been tested till date, while 26, 943 samples were reported on Tuesday. However, the number of individuals who have tested posted was not mentioned in the update. Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan will take the coronavirus test as a philanthropist he met last week tested positive for the disease, reported the Times of India. Faisal Edih, chairman of the Karachi-based Edhi Foundation and son of the the late Abdul Sattar Edhi, met the prime minister last week to donate to the PM's Relief Fund. He tested positive on Tuesday. Faisal Sultan, the prime minister's personal physician and COVID-19 advisor, told media that would the leader to be tested. "We will follow all protocols in place and make recommendations accordingly," reports quote him as saying. Coronavirus Outbreak Updates: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an order to include additional agricultural and forestry items, shops of educational books for students, shops of electric fans and movement of Indian seafarers in to the list of permitted activities during the lockdown, which will continue till 3 May. UK health secretary Matt Hancock announced that Oxford University researchers will begin human trials of a potential vaccine against the coronavirus on Thursday, reported BBC. 56 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Telangana on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 928. This includes 711 active cases, 194 who were cured/discharged and 23 deaths, according to the latest update provided by the state health department. The Maharashtra government on Tuesday revoked lockdown relaxations and exemptions in Mumbai and Pune regions because '"people are not behaving responsibly", the CMO was quoted as saying. "Rest of the parts of the state to continue to have partial exemptions," the statement added. The Maharashtra government said that 552 new COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were reported in the state on Tuesday, taking total number of cases to 5,218 and toll to 251 in the state. With 150 patients discharged from hospitals on Tuesday, the number of cured patients stands at 722. The Mumbai fire brigade said that a level-II fire broken out at the Rippon Hotel in Mumbai's Nagpada area on Tuesday. The fire fighting operation on. The fire has been confined in the hotel's lodging room, which was being used as a quarantine centre for COVID-19 patients. Most of the patients rescued, search operation is on, the statement said. The Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday said that 92 areas have been identified and designated as red zones in the union territory, of which 14 are in Jammu and 78 are in Kashmir. These red zones will be under stricter restrictions on movement, surveillance and will have enhanced testing, the statement said. The Union health ministry said that the total number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 18,985 in India. This includes 15,122 active cases, 3,260 cured/discharged/migrated people and 603 deaths. The Maharashtra Police said that a total of 60,005 cases have been registered under Section 188 of IPC, since 22 March till 4 am on Tuesday, for violations of coronavirus lockdown norms. 411 accused have been arrested in cases of assault on policemen, the statement said. An oncologist in Bengaluru has been given permission by the ICMR to use plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the state, the government said. Karnataka minister Dr K Sudhakar said, "Plasma therapy holds great promise in treating COVID-19 patients and I am happy to inform that ICMR agreed to our request and has given permission for plasma treatment to Dr Vishal Rao, HCG Bangalore Institute of Oncology." At least 25 people, including journalists, working for a Tamil news television channel tested positive for coronavirus here on Tuesday, a health department official said. To a question, the official said the test results of those associated with the television channel were being collated and indicated that the tally of total positives could be '27.' The number of coronavirus cases in Rae Bareli district jumped from two to 35 with several people testing positive after coming in contact with participants at a Tablighi Jamaat congregation, officials said on Tuesday. Rajasthan on Tuesday stopped using rapid test kits for coronavirus after receiving invalid and incorrect results for a large number of samples. Health Minister Raghu Sharma said the kits were giving mere five percent correct or valid results and a report has been forwarded to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in this regard. Over 100 families residing at the President's Estate are under self-isolation as a preventive measure after a sanitation worker's relative tested positive for coronavirus, officials said Tuesday. The relative of the sanitation worker, who is a resident of the estate that houses Rashtrapati Bhavan, has been admitted to a hospital here for treatment, they said. Trinamool Congress MP Derek OBrien asked why the Centre did not send IMCT teams to states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh despite the high number of cases and hotspots there. The toll due to coronavirus rose to 77 in Gujarat as six more people succumbed to the disease, a health official said on Tuesday. About 127 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in the state, taking the tally to 2,066. This figure includes 131 recoveries and deaths so far. Delhi has reported a total of 2081 positive cases, out of these 78 cases were found on Monday. The border between Delhi and Ghaziabad has been sealed as a measure to contain the spread of coronavirus. 472 more COVID-19 cases reported in Maharashtra till 10 am on Tuesday, taking total positive cases in the state to 4,676, reports ANI. Nine more deaths have been reported, taking the total toll in the state to 232, said Public Health of Department, Government of Maharashtra. Three cops test positive for COVID-19 at Nabi Karim area in Paharganj, New Delhi. A total of 11 cops are COVID positive now in the central district. Nabi Karim area is one of the 84 containment zones in the National Capital. 25 hospital staff including 19 nurses tested positive for COVID-19 in Ruby Hall Clinic in Pune, said Bomi Bhote, Chief Executive Officer of Ruby Hall Clinic, reports ANI. Meanwhile, according to worldometer, about 1,70,456 people across the globe have died so far from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak as of 21 April. The total number confirmed COVID-19 cases continue to rise steadily in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, according to data from the Union Health Ministry. Rajasthan has so far reported 1,628 cases. Of these, 205 patients have recovered. The toll in the state stands at 25. Five more persons tested positive for novel coronavirus in Odisha on Tuesday, taking the total number of such cases to 79 in the state, a health department official said. There are now 18,601 total cases of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India. Active cases stand at 14,759 and recoveries at 3,251 and deaths at 590. US President Donald Trump said on Monday he will be signing an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Monday said the rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases in the state has slowed down further to seven days from five days earlier. One coronavirus positive case found in Rashtrapati Bhavan, 125 families sent on home quarantine, reports ANI. 125 families advised to remain in self-isolation as mandated by the Health Ministrys guidelines as a precautionary measure. US crude oil jumped more than $20 per barrel on Tuesday but still traded below $0 after plunging into negative territory for the first time in history, dragged down by a supply glut and sagging demand for crude due to the coronavirus pandemic. The confirmed cases in India rose to 17,656 and the toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose to 559, while several states sought to contain the ballooning economic cost of the pandemic by easing some lockdown curbs. However, some states preferred to maintain strict restrictions, with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka joining Delhi in deciding against any relaxation till 3 May. Punjab, which had earlier ruled out any relaxation till 3 May, said some industrial activity may resume in areas other than those identified as high-risk 'containment zones'. No new cases in 59 districts in fortnight, says health ministry According to the Union health ministry, the number of coronavirus positive cases saw a sharp increase of 1,553 between Sunday and Monday, while there has been a recovery rate of about 15 percent. In the daily COVID-19 press briefing, health ministry Joint Secretary Law Agarwal said as many as 59 districts across 23 states and Union Territories have not reported a single case in the last 14 days and also asserted that the rate of the number of cases doubling has improved to 7.5 days, from 3.4 days before the lockdown. Last Friday, he had put the rate of doubling of cases at 6.2 days. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Health Ministry officials said 80 percent patients were either asymptomatic or had only mild symptoms but were found to be positive after testing. They also said around 15 percent patients turn into severe cases, while 5 percent turn critical. Later, in its 5 pm update, the ministry said the COVID-19 death toll has risen to 559 and the number of cases has risen to 17,656 across the country. Across the country, 2,851 people have been discharged, it said. According to data published on its website, the highest number of cases have been reported in Maharashtra (4,203), followed by Delhi (2,003), Gujarat (1,851), Uttar Pradesh (1,176) and Madhya Pradesh (1,485). However, a PTI tally of figures reported by various states and Union Territories, as on 9.15 pm, showed 18,322 confirmed cases, 2,969 recoveries and 590 deaths. Maharashtra total reaches 4,666, 53 journalists test positive in Mumbai Based on reports coming from state governments, Maharashtra alone has reported 4,666 cases, while Delhi has also crossed 2,000. Gujarat has 1,939 cases, while Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are above 1,500 each, closely followed by Madhya Pradesh with 1,414 cases. Fresh cases reported from various parts of the country included those of police personnel in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, of health workers at various places, journalists in Mumbai and even of prisoners in Madhya Pradesh's Indore. In Mumbai, where 3,032 cases have been recorded so far, 53 journalists have contracted the disease, reported Huffpost. Shiv Sena leader and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations health committee member Amey Ghole told the publication that samples of 167 Mumbai journalists had been collected for the test and 53 of these had tested positive. Significantly, most journalists who tested positive did not display any symptoms, according to ANI. Gujarat reported 201 new coronavirus positive cases, taking the number of the affected people in the state to 1939, a health official told PTI, adding that most cases were being reported from virus hotspots. The Tamil Nadu government said that 43 new coronavirus cases were reported in the state on Monday, taking the total number of cases to 1,520 in the state. Meanwhile, 46 COVID-19 patients were discharged on Monday. Some states ease restrictions, Centre rebukes Kerala, West Bengal Even as several states reported a rising number of cases, the first set of relaxations from the nationwide lockdown, which came into effect on 25 March, kicked in at select places across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Goa among other states. But despite the relaxations announced by state authorities, which are mostly limited to non-urban areas, industry executives said most companies have decided to wait for a complete exit from the lockdown as continuing restrictions on goods and people's movement make it difficult to resume stalled economic activities, which are estimated to have suffered a loss of Rs 7-8 lakh crores already. While attendance at government establishments also increased marginally, there have been no relaxations as such for the public road transport, railway passenger services and flights. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said restrictions on domestic and international flights will be lifted when the government is confident that spread of coronavirus has been controlled, and poses no danger to Indians. Goa eased some lockdown restrictions, in line with the central government's guidelines, as there are currently no active cases i the state after the recovery of its last patient on Sunday. However, leaders there warned against any hurry in declaring the state a 'green zone' one or free of the virus. Manipur chief minister Biren Singh said that the state has become COVID-19-free. "We have decided to relax coronavirus lockdown in rural areas but the lockdown will continue in Imphal till further orders. Shops of essential goods will open between 8 am and 2 pm in urban areas," he said. Manipur chief minister Biren Singh said the state has become COVID-19-free and announced that restrictions will be relaxed in rural areas of the state. "We have decided to relax coronavirus lockdown in rural areas but it will continue in Imphal till further orders. Shops of essential goods will open between 8 am and 2 pm in urban areas," he said. Kerala, where the doubling rate of cases is among the best in the country at 72.2 days, also announced a number of relaxations, but had to rescind some after facing the flak from the Centre. In a letter to the state government, the Union Home Ministry said Kerala's decision to open restaurants, allow bus travel in cities and open MSME industries in urban areas amounted to dilution of the lockdown guidelines and also a Supreme Court observation. Later in the day, the state government decided not to allow plying of buses in cities, opening of restaurants and pillion riding on two-wheelers. At the daily press briefing, Home Ministry Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said states have been told that some of them were issuing certain guidelines that amounted to "diluting" the lockdown leading to "severe repercussions to health" of the citizens. She said states and UTs can take stricter action than what is mentioned in the guidelines issued by the central government to enforce the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 but cannot dilute or weaken them. Separately, the home ministry also said the COVID-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and warned that violation of lockdown measures risks the spread of the novel coronavirus further. The ministry said six inter-ministerial central teams will visit these identified areas in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan within the next three days to make on-the-spot assessment and recommend remedial measures in a report to the Centre. In identical orders issued to the four states on Sunday, the home ministry said there have been several incidents of violence against COVID-19 front-line healthcare professionals, complete violation of social distancing norms and movement of vehicles in urban areas. The Centre also dispatched a team to asses the seriousness of the COVID-19 situation in West Bengal, which saw its highest ever spike of 54 cases. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Mod where she voiced her displeasure at the state government having been kept in dark about the visit , which she said violated established protocol. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka extend lockdown till 3 May Amid rising number of cases, Tamil Nadu government said prohibitory orders and other COVID-19 lockdown curbs will continue till May 3 without any relaxation, while the Karnataka Cabinet decided to promulgate an ordinance, giving it special powers to control the spread of COVID-19. These include provision for protection to front line health workers and making non-cooperation with the government a punishable offence. Karnataka has also decided to continue the COVID-19 lockdown measures till 3 May without any relaxation, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhuswamy said. However, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and the COVID-19 Task Force have been authorised to meet in three or four days to review and take further decisions about any relaxation. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said some relaxation for economic activities has been given from Monday but it is limited, as he asked people not to violate lockdown norms and avoid going out of their homes. In Uttar Pradesh, no relaxation would be given in Lucknow, Agra and Firozabad. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said limited industrial activities have been allowed in certain areas of the state to restart the wheels of the economy, but this should not be seen as indication that the threat of coronavirus has receded in any way. There has been a rise of 835 cases of COVID-19 in Maharashtra in the last 36 hours, but we are relaxing the stringent norms of lockdown to restart the wheels of economy, he said. Assam's Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state "will not be able" to pay salaries of its employees for May if it does not get financial support from outside. Global toll crosses 1.66 lakh According to the the John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource centre, 1,66,794 people have died due to the viral disease across the world. Italy has reported the highest number of deaths (23,660) while Spain recorded 20,852. However, the USA now has the most number of infections (7,61,991) while the global count has reached 2,432,092. However, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the worst is yet ahead of us, while alluding to the Spanish flu of 1918. Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us, he said. Lets prevent this tragedy. Its a virus that many people still dont understand, news agency AP quoted him as saying. With inputs from agencies Colombo, April 21 : Sri Lanka has announced June 20 as the new date for its parliamentary elections, after the initial plans to hold them on April 25 had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "It is hereby notified that the election for electing the members of Parliament for the aforesaid Electoral Districts will be held on 20th June 2020," announced the official gazette of Sri Lanka late Monday. The elections were initially scheduled for April 25, after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered the dissolution of Parliament in the beginning of March, six months before its term was scheduled to end, reports Efe news. These were set to be the country's first parliamentary elections after Rajapaksa - considered a hero of the civil war against Tamil rebels - registered a landslide victory in presidential elections held in November. However, the rapid spread of the highly contagious coronavirus infections forced the Sri Lankan authorities on March 19 to postpone the elections in a country that had 59 positive cases at the time. Around the middle of last month, Sri Lanka also imposed a curfew, which was relaxed Monday in 19 of the country's 25 districts, but restrictions on movement have been maintained in areas considered high-risk, such as Colombo. Due to the economic impact of the lockdown, the government has encouraged the people to return to work but after taking adequate precautions, such as wearing a mask and maintaining social distance. The curfew will be lifted in all areas between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m., although schools and cinemas will remain closed until further notice. As of now, the curfew in high-risk areas is expected to continue until April 27. On Monday, the country recorded 33 fresh cases of COVID-19, marking the highest infections in a single day. The total coronavirus cases now stand at 304, with seven deaths. The pandemic has dealt a severe blow to the tourism sector of this South Asian country, which was only just beginning to recover from the Easter Sunday terror attacks on April 21 last year that left over 250 dead. My guess is that he wins Lalos trust again. Why? Mostly because his conversation, earlier in the episode, with Don Eladio (Steven Bauer) went on for so long. That talk established that Nacho is, in fact, considered the cartels new man in Albuquerque. A man with ambitions, a detailed expansion plan and preferences when it comes to how to be treated by upper management. (The fewer questions the better, he boldly tells the Don.) Thats a lot of exposition for a guy who isnt going to live another week. I was hoping that visiting Lalos casa would shed a lot more light on the background of this apparently rootless rogue. It didnt. We now know that he has a big house, a handy tunnel, a chef he adores and a handful of guards. We learn hes a bit of an insomniac. But we discover little about his personal life. Were talking about a man in his mid 40s. No sign of a wife. No kids. No partner. Not even a pet. Hes a curious confection, this villain. On the one hand, he has little by way of loving connections, and the writers clearly intend to keep his biography a source of speculation. Some strands of his DNA seem lifted from Anton Chigurh, the hit man of No Country for Old Men, a malignant cipher. At the same time, Lalo seems pleased to have company at 3 a.m. Hes the chummiest sociopath youll ever meet. Hes also a showboat. In the unofficial contest titled Who can hand over more tribute to Don Eladio, Lalo easily bests Juan Bolsa. As minions and women in bikinis party by the swimming pool Eladios eventual grave, as Breaking Bad fans know Lalo wins the day by handing over the keys to a Ferrari, which also has a box of cash in the trunk. We dont get a great look at the loot, but eyeballing the haul, Id guess that Bolsa brought in a lot more. He just didnt put it in a flashy, pricey car. See Bolsa, Eladio says. This is showmanship. Lalo knows how to play Eladio. Which means he is far better at sucking up than he is at the sort of mano a mano contest that he has fought with Gus Fring throughout this season. Lalo scored a few victories in this battle. Fring has been forced to burn down one of his own restaurants, construction on his superlab has been paused, and his drug smuggling operation has been interrupted. But thats about all that can be scribbled in Lalos win column. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Sragen, Indonesia Tue, April 21, 2020 17:17 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd3570d9 2 National Sragen,Indonesia,haunted-houses,coronavirus,coronavirus-prevention,COVID-19,COVID-19-quarantine,COVID-19-lockdown Free Fed up with people breaking virus quarantine rules, one Indonesian politician has decided to scare rulebreakers straight by locking them in a "haunted house". Sragen regency head Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati says she issued the unusual edict this week to deal with an influx of people to the area after lockdowns in the capital Jakarta and other major cities. Some newcomers, however, weren't respecting orders that they isolate themselves for 14 days to prevent the spread of coronavirus across the region on Indonesia's densely populated Java island. So Sukowati instructed communities to repurpose abandoned houses that were feared to be haunted -- tapping widespread beliefs in the supernatural, which play a key role in Indonesian folklore. Five people have been tossed into Sragen's spooky jails so far. "If there's an empty and haunted house in the village, put people in there and lock them up," Sukowati told AFP Tuesday when asked about the rule. Officials in Sepat village chose a long-abandoned house and outfitted it with beds placed at a distance and separated by curtains. So far, the village has locked up three recently-arrived residents who are being forced to spend the remainder of their two-week quarantine in the spooky abode. Among them was Heri Susanto, who said his punishment hadn't brought him face to face with any ghosts -- so far. "But whatever happens, happens," said Susanto, who came from neighboring Sumatra island. "I know this is for everyone's safety. Lesson learned." Gautam Buddh Nagar district authorities have sealed the border between Delhi and Noida with certain exemptions to check the spread of coronavirus in the district. The directive has been put into effect immediately. Violators will face punitive action under sections 51 and 60 of National Disaster Management Act and Section 188 of Indian Penal Code, an order undersigned by Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Suhas LY stated. "In the last few days, many people in Gautam Buddha Nagar have tested positive for coronavirus who have been related to Delhi for some reason. The report from medical department makes it clear that there is a possibility of infection from people travelling between Delhi and Gautam Buddha Nagar. Therefore, the movement between these two cities is completely banned in wider public interest until further orders," the order stated. ALSO READ: 1,000 foreign firms mull production in India, 300 actively pursue plan as 'Exit China' mantra grows Some exemptions to this travel ban, along with required authorisations, have also been listed in the order. Officials and personnel directly involved in the COVID-19 related services will be allowed to move after showing passes issued by authorised officials of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi governments. Central government officials of Deputy Secretary-rank or above will also be allowed to traverse between Delhi and Noida. Specialist doctors have also been exempted from the movement ban across the Delhi-Noida border. The names of such doctors who provide essential or emergency services in Noida hospitals will be provided by the Chief Medical Officer to the Police Commissioner, the order stated. Media personnel who have been issued passes by Additional Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) and District Information Officer will also be allowed to travel between Delhi and Noida. ALSO READ: Two coronavirus vaccine candidates enter human trials, 60 in pre-clinical stage: WHO Australian department store Myer has launched a 50 per cent off sale, heavily discounting cutlery, pans, wine and beer glasses. The cookware and dinnerware offering is an online-only exclusive as the conglomerate has temporarily closed its stores across the country due to the threat of coronavirus. However there is free delivery on purchases made over $49, which is encouragement to stock up during the sale, which runs out at 11.59pm on Tuesday April 21. The cookware and dinnerware offering is an online-only exclusive as the conglomerate has temporarily closed its stores across the country due to the threat of coronavirus In the pots and pans department, Tefal's Prograde Non-Stick Induction Cookware Set is $199.97, down from $399.95, the Raco Buono 24cm Open French Skillet is $39.97, down from $79.95, and Essteele's Per Salute 20cm Open French Skillet is $59.97, down from $119.95. Miranda Kerr's Royal Albert tea sets in yellow, blue and pink floral shades are $149.50, down from their usual price of $299, and would make the perfect Mother's Day gift as we approach May. Knives like the Stanley Rogers Pistol Grip Woodland Steak Knives are $39.97, with other cutlery sets like the Maxwell & Williams Westbury Cutlery 16 piece set just $49.97. In the pots and pans department, Tefal's Prograde Non-Stick Induction Cookware Set is $199.97, down from $399.95 Knives like the Stanley Rogers Pistol Grip Woodland Steak Knives are $39.97 (left), with other cutlery sets like the Maxwell & Williams Westbury Cutlery 16 piece set just $49.97 (right) For those enjoying their vino during isolation Krosno are keeping things classy with the Splendour Wine Carafe in 1.5 litre size, allowing you to aerate your red wine for a better flavour. Then you can pour the plonk into Krosno's Harmony Wine Glasses, which come in a pack of six today for $29.97, half the price they would usually be. If you're looking for a cold beer as 5pm edges closer why not purchase Salt&Pepper's 'Salut' Beer Pilsner set of six for $19.97, which is down from $39.95. Then you can pour the plonk into Krosno's Harmony Wine Glasses, which come in a pack of six today for $29.97, half the price they would usually be There are whisky sets as low as $47.47, a fondue set for $17.47 and cheese paddles to host at-home picnics for $9.97 (right) There are whisky sets as low as $47.47, a fondue set for $17.47 and cheese paddles to host at-home picnics for $9.97. Customers can save hundreds of dollars by scooping up necessary kitchen items now, rather than waiting for other sales, like the end of financial year one, to begin. But there are already sold out signs appearing on popular items, proving that shoppers will need to be fast to make the most of the markdowns. Israels death toll climbs to 181 According to the latest data from the country's ministry, 170 new cases bring the tally to 13,883. The death toll in Israel from coronavirus has risen to 181 as four more people died, the countrys Health Ministry said Tuesday. The ministry said 170 new cases were reported in the country, bringing the tally to 13,883. 4,353 PEOPLE HAVE RECOVERED SO FAR At least 142 of them are in critical condition, while 4,353 people have recovered. The government has taken some measures to stem the spread of the virus, including closure of all educational institutes and banning gatherings of more than two people. All businesses with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations and banks have been closed since March 15. Tel Aviv banned the entry of foreign citizens except those with Israeli residency. The flag I have decided to fly the flag daily until the future looks brighter. To see it proudly flying makes me happy and hopeful for a better future. If my idea is agreeable to you, could you introduce it to your readers? Imagine the flag in massive display all across the nation. Jose Gonzalez Jauregui, Houston Crenshaws response Regarding Its time to mobilize against the pandemic, (A14, April 17): Rep. Dan Crenshaws ideas for mobilizing against the COVID-19 pandemic are spot on. He wisely suggests expanding diagnostic testing, adding the administration expects millions more to come online shortly, but not yet readily available in such numbers. Crenshaw recommends antibody serology tests by the millions, a focus on PPE and ventilator production, efforts currently underway. Quoting a former FDA Commissioner, he tells us that promising antibody and antiviral tests are in development, encouraging news for the future, but they are not yet here and there is no way of knowing when any of these protections will be available. Still, the president and our governor push for opening the country, ignoring all the obvious health risks to such hasty action. Today, we cannot with any confidence send our children back to school, dine in restaurants, shop in malls, or go to church without risk of contamination. Lets remember, this global pandemic started with just one infected person in China. Mary Jane Taegel, Houston Opening the economy Regarding Back to business, (A14, April 17): You asserted that the textbook answer to the question of who has the authority to reopen the U.S. economy was the governors, with a supporting reference to the 10th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. While your answer may be technically correct, that does not mean that President Donald Trump was wrong. The 10th amendment has been weakened beyond belief over the past decades by the almighty federal bureaucracy to where it is almost unrecognizable. For example, when the federal government decided 20-plus years ago that the minimum drinking age should be raised from 18 to 21. Most states agreed that societal changes dictated that the law should be changed and they readily complied. But a few, like Louisiana, decided that it was a states prerogative to make that decision and they were perfectly happy, despite the advocacy of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and other groups, that their tourist-based economy would be better off if the drinking age remained in sync at 18. Louisianans may be stubborn, but theyre not stupid, and it didnt take long for them to get on board with the Feds when they realized that the price of obstinacy would be the loss of federal highway, education and other funding. So, was President Trump wrong in claiming that his authority in this matter is total? I think not, it just depends on whether you want the theoretical or the practical answer. Dennis D. Ritter, Jr., The Woodlands Paintings still hang on the walls at the Portland Art Museum, though few people are around to see them. Hallways are haunted by security guards and the humming of the temperature-controlled galleries, necessary expenses to maintain one of Portlands great institutions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Its expensive to take care of a museum, Brian Ferriso, director of the art museum, said. But at the end of the day, its cheap because what youre taking care of is our shared humanity and history. Across Portland, museums are cutting costs while trying to stay active amid the coronavirus pandemic that has shut them down for five weeks and counting. Most closed just before Oregon schools scheduled spring break, and many just after debuting new exhibits and exhibitions. Both present and future economic struggles threaten the existence of some of Oregons most treasured cultural institutions, big and small. Were trying to navigate this as best we can, Ferriso said. History will look at the decisions we make today and will decide if we made the right ones or not. The Portland Art Museum, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and Oregon Historical Society are all in the midst of those difficult decisions. And while each has struggled, all have continued to find ways to stay connected with the community. The Body Worlds exhibit "The Cycle of Life" has arrived at OMSI. The exhibit opened to the public Saturday, March 7, 2020. Mark Graves OMSI Normally bustling with field trips in spring, OMSI has been eerily quiet, the lights turned off, sun streaming in through its walls of glass. The tall, echoey corridors that house science-related exhibits like the recently-opened Body Worlds are accustomed to the shouts and laughter of children. Now theyve now fallen silent as the museum enters its sixth week closed to the public. We are really bummed to miss all of these kids, museum spokesman John Farmer said. I know a lot of kids look forward to their OMSI field trip every year. OMSI declined to disclose their losses in revenue, though on March 24 the museum announced an unspecified number of layoffs, as well as pay cuts and significant cuts to its operating expenses. The museums leadership isnt too concerned about the future, Farmer said, but the closure has certainly hurt, cutting off OMSIs primary revenue streams, including admissions, memberships, rentals, and education and program fees, all at its busiest time of year. However, those struggles havent diminished the museums mission to offer engaging education to the community, Farmer said. In-person educational opportunities may be gone, but thats given museum educators the chance to create virtual lessons that are helpful right now, as Oregon schools remain closed, and which could also be used in classrooms once kids return. Just because the hands-on experience isnt at OMSI doesnt mean OMSI cant inspire you to have a hands-on experience at home, Farmer said. And not just baking soda vinegar volcanoes. The museum has already released several videos and activities for kids, from explaining social distancing through dominoes, to digging into the science of a string telephone. A sign posted on the front door of the Oregon Historical Society announces its closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.Jamie Hale/The Oregonian OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY On March 14, the Oregon Historical Society was scheduled to debut its latest exhibition, Nevertheless, They Persisted, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment that granted most U.S. women the right to vote. Instead, March 14 marked the day the downtown Portland museum closed to the public, joining museums and other attractions around the state as the coronavirus pandemic began to spread. The new exhibition was scheduled to run for about nine months, said Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the Oregon Historical Society, and it still will starting whenever the museum can reopen to the public. Financially, the Oregon Historical Society has so far struggled less than most arts and cultural organizations. The downtown Portland museum offers free admission to all Multnomah County residents, so it doesnt rely heavily on admissions as a source of revenue. The museum also receives more than $4 million in public funding, according to the most recent financial statements, most of it from a Multnomah County levy renewed by voters in 2016. After closing to the public, the Oregon Historical Society has cut some expenses, including pay cuts for senior management, but so far, the organization has not had to lay off or furlough employees, Tymchuk said. With staff still working, Tymchuk said the organization has been doing its best to continue connecting a community that has largely remained isolated at home. You adjust to the times, you adjust to the circumstances, Tymchuk said. Were looking ahead to the future and trying to determine what a museum, the new museum, a post COVID-19 museum will look like and be prepared for that. During the stay-home order, those adjustments manifested in local history lessons and at-home activities offered through e-blast newsletters. The museum has long maintained an online presence, but now its ramping that up to hyper speed, Tymchuk said. The organization has also asked the public to submit their personal stories of life during the coronavirus pandemic. A previous decision may also pay off if crowds continue to stay home after the pandemic winds down: Last year, the historical society raised $2 million in private donations to create a digital vault that will put collections online. Tymchuk said the Oregon Historical Society is in good shape, for now. Hes far more concerned for the smaller history and county heritage museums across the state. You worry that this is going to irreparably harm these smaller museums around the state who survive on one and a half or two employees, he said. We need to be there perhaps to pick up the slack if they cant. The Portland Art Museum is closed to the public amid the coronavirus pandemic.Jamie Hale/The Oregonian PORTLAND ART MUSEUM The closure of the Portland Art Museum came five weeks after it opened a big new exhibition, Volcano!, featuring paintings and photographs of Mt. St. Helens, set to run through May 17, one day before the 40th anniversary of the volcanic eruption. A towering photograph of the 1980 eruption greeted visitors to the museum, marking an anniversary that is now being overshadowed by the pandemic. Without admissions, rentals and other sources of revenue, the museum expects to lose $1 million each month it remains closed, resulting in a $4 million deficit by the end of the year, museum leadership said. On April 10, nearly four weeks after closing to the public, the museum placed about 80 percent of its staff on unpaid leave, allowing them to use sick leave and vacation days to retain pay and health benefits during the pandemic. Members of the museums senior leadership team, including Ferriso, will take a pay cut during the closure. Meanwhile, the museum has to continue paying for utilities and security to ensure the safety of the museums collection. Ferriso said the art museums regular security measures are still in place, and that theres no heightened concern following the recent theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting from a Dutch museum. I feel a great sense of responsibility to make sure our staff and institution are cared for as best we are able, Ferriso said. I remain hopeful that we will emerge soon to offer the connection and inspiration that our institution has provided for more than a century. The Portland Art Museum has offered virtual walk-throughs to see Volcano! and some of its other exhibitions from home, one of the few ways the museum has been able to stay connected amid the pandemic. Ferriso said he hoped the museum could reopen by mid-summer, though with so much uncertainty still surrounding the current pandemic, its impossible to plan anything concrete. The 127-year-old institution has weathered the Great Depression and both world wars, but now faces one of its biggest challenges to date. I know the museum will come through this, theres no doubt about it, though there may be some long-term change, Ferriso said. Itll look different, itll be different, because it is a defining moment in history, I believe that. --Jamie Hale; jhale@oregonian.com; 503-294-4077; @HaleJamesB Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. LONDON - The CCTV footage from a Dutch business park shows a man in a black cap pouring the contents of a white container at the base of a cellular radio tower. Flames burst out as the man jogs back to his Toyota to flee into the evening. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. LONDON - The CCTV footage from a Dutch business park shows a man in a black cap pouring the contents of a white container at the base of a cellular radio tower. Flames burst out as the man jogs back to his Toyota to flee into the evening. Its a scene thats been repeated dozens of times in recent weeks in Europe, where conspiracy theories linking new 5G mobile networks and the coronavirus pandemic are fueling arson attacks on cell towers. In this Tuesday, April 14, 2020 photo, a view of a cell tower after a fire, in Dagenham, England. Dozens of European cell towers have been destroyed in recent arson attacks that officials and wireless companies say are fueled by groundless conspiracy theories linking new 5G mobile networks and the coronavirus pandemic. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP) Popular beliefs and conspiracy theories that wireless communications pose a threat have long been around, but the global spread of the virus at the same time that countries were rolling out fifth generation wireless technology has seen some of those false narratives amplified. Officials in Europe and the U.S. are watching the situation closely and pushing back, concerned that attacks will undermine vital telecommunications links at a time theyre most needed to deal with the pandemic. Im absolutely outraged, absolutely disgusted, that people would be taking action against the very infrastructure that we need to respond to this health emergency, Stephen Powis, medical director of the National Health Service in England, said in early April. Some 50 fires targeting cell towers and other equipment have been reported in Britain this month, leading to three arrests. Telecom engineers have been abused on the job 80 times, according to trade group Mobile UK, making the U.K. the nucleus of the attacks. Photos and videos documenting the attacks are often overlaid with false commentary about COVID-19. Some 16 have been torched in the Netherlands, with attacks also reported in Ireland, Cyprus, and Belgium. Posts threatening to attack phone masts were receiving likes on Facebook. One post in an anti-vaccine group on April 12 shared a photo of a burned phone mast with the quote, Nobody wants cancer & covid19. Stop trying to make it happen or every pole and mobile store will end up like this one. FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan 28, 2020 file photo, mobile network phone masts are visible in front of St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. Dozens of European cell towers have been destroyed in recent arson attacks that officials and wireless companies say are fueled by groundless conspiracy theories linking new 5G mobile networks and the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File) The trend received extra attention in Britain when a tower supplying voice and data traffic to a Birmingham field hospital treating coronavirus patients was among those targeted. Its heart-rending enough that families cannot be there at the bedside of loved ones who are critically ill, Nick Jeffery, CEO of wireless carrier Vodafone UK, said on LinkedIn. Its even more upsetting that even the small solace of a phone or video call may now be denied them because of the selfish actions of a few deluded conspiracy theorists. False narratives around 5G and the coronavirus have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media. They vary widely from claims that the coronavirus is a coverup for 5G deployment to those that say new 5G installations have created the virus. To be concerned that 5G is somehow driving the COVID-19 epidemic is just wrong, Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health who chaired a World Health Organization committee that researched cellphone radiation and cancer. I just dont find any plausible way to link them. Anti-5G activists are undeterred. Susan Brinchman, director of the Center for Electrosmog Prevention, a non-profit campaigning against environmental electromagnetic pollution, says that people have a right to be concerned about 5G and links to COVID-19. The entire 5G infrastructure should be dismantled and turned off, she said by email. But theres no evidence that wireless communications - whether 5G or earlier versions - harm the immune system, said Myrtill Simko, scientific director of SciProof International in Sweden, who has spent decades researching the matter. The current wave of 5G theories dates back to January, when a Belgian doctor suggested a link to COVID-19. Older variations were circulating before that, mostly revolving around cellphone radiation causing cancer, spreading on Reddit forums, Facebook pages and YouTube channels. Even with daily wireless use among vast majority of adults, the National Cancer Institute has not seen an increase in brain tumors. The theories gained momentum in 2019 from Russian state media outlets, which helped push them into U.S. domestic conversation, disinformation experts say. Ryan Fox, who tracks disinformation as chief innovation officer at AI company Yonder, said he noticed an abnormal spike last year in mentions around 5G across Russian state media, with most of the narratives playing off peoples fears around 5G and whether it could cause cancer. Were they the loudest voice at that time and did they amplify this conspiracy enough that it helped fuel its long-term success? Yes, he said. 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. The conspiracy theories have also been elevated by celebrities including actor Woody Harrelson who shared a video claiming people in China were taking down a 5G tower. It was actually a Hong Kong smart lamppost cut down by pro-democracy protesters in August over China surveillance fears. British TV host Eamonn Holmes gave credence to the theories on a talk show, drawing a rebuke from regulators. I want to be very clear here," European Commission spokesman Johannes Bahrke said Friday, as the arson toll rose daily. There is no geographic or any other correlation between the deployment of 5G and the outbreak of the virus. ___ Dupuy and Lajka reported from New York. Menelaos Hadjicostis contributed to this report from Nicosia, Cyprus. ___ Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak Abdulrahman El Bahnasawys parents were just leaving the American maximum security prison where he is serving a 40 year sentence when they were told not to come back because the jail was being shut down due to COVID-19. That was in mid-March. A few days later, the Canada-U.S. border was also closed to non-essential travel. The pandemic has become the couples latest barrier to providing their mentally ill son the support they say he desperately needs and which they believe the Canadian government has a duty to provide him. Its so painful, said Khdiga Metwally from her home in Mississauga, from where she and her husband would often set out on a 13-hour drive to see their son at the USP Big Sandy penitentiary in Inez, Kentucky. He is a very sick boy who has been treated so inhumanely, almost always in solitary confinement and denied basic privileges, including commissary access and phone calls. We want him back in Canada. El Bahnasawy, 22, is serving time after being convicted by a U.S. court of terrorism-related charges in 2016. Suffering from bipolar illness and grappling with substance abuse since early childhood, El Bahnasawy was drawn to online chat rooms where he began communicating with extremists and undercover law enforcement when he was seventeen, a minor. He was arrested soon after his 18th birthday during a family road trip to New Jersey, just three days away from a promising new medical intervention. Up until then, no officials had ever contacted the family about his online activities, even though authorities knew full well that El Bahnasawy had a severe history of mental illness. In fact, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police allegedly obtained the youths medical records unlawfully from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and handed them over to the FBI. The familys lawyer, Dennis Edney, argues the RCMPs co-operation made it easier for American agents to manipulate him deeper into a plot to commit terrorist acts in New York Citys Times Square. That isnt far fetched. A 2014 report by Human Rights Watch documented a pattern at the FBI of discriminatory investigations, often targeting particularly vulnerable individuals (including people with intellectual and mental disabilities and the indigent), in which the government often acting through informants is actively involved in developing the plot, persuading and sometimes pressuring the target to participate, and providing the resources to carry it out. This is not a complicated case, said Edney in an interview from Osoyoos, B.C. The RCMP became agents of the FBI by the very fact of illegally obtaining Abdulrahmans medical records; records that show this was someone who had been severely damaged for years. The RCMPs role is now the subject of a complaint filed with the recently formed National Security and Intelligence Review Agency. The family is also appealing the case in U.S. courts, arguing the sentence is unreasonably harsh and that the trial itself violated his rights to a lawyer of his choice. Whether or not they succeed, the family wants their son to be transferred to Canada to serve out his sentence as the chances of adequate mental health treatment are far better here than for non-citizen inmates in the United States. Canadian prisons have extremely high rates of care accessibility and promptness that have no counterpart in U.S. federal prisons, wrote University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran in a 2018 brief for the familys legal team. This difference makes sustained, long-term mental health care easily possible in Canadian incarceration, while it is nearly unattainable in the U.S. system. With the right help, El Bahnasawys road to recovery is wide open, according to various psychological assessments. The challenge, admitted Edney, will be to convince the Canadian government to negotiate a transfer with hardline American counterparts; the family says officials must try. Besides, a public health crisis is no excuse for Canada to ignore possible human rights violations committed against a Canadian citizen, allegedly facilitated by one of its own agencies. There can never be an excuse for that. Amira Elghawaby is an Ottawa-based human rights advocate and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. is an Ottawa-based human rights advocate and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Read more about: A Texas councilman and his businessman husband have died within days of each other after battling coronavirus. Anthony Brooks, 52 an Air Force veteran who was also on the council for the Live Oaks community fell ill after returning to San Antonio from an out-of-town conference mid-March. His husband Phillip Tsai-Brooks, 42, - who was on the board of the Live Oak Economic Development Corporation - got sick too. Phillip's doctor thought he'd had a bad reaction to a whooping cough vaccination he'd had recently and he was sent home with medication on March 20. But on his second visit to the hospital on March 26 things took a turn for the worse. 'Back in the ER.. oxygen super low. Heart rate low. Shortness breath vomiting blood pressure high fever 102.9,' Phillip posted on Facebook. Phillip Tsai-Brooks (left), 42, died from coronavirus Easter Sunday and his husband Anthony Brooks died last Tuesday Anthony (left) who worked as a resource analyst at the Army Medical Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston- felt ill after returning from an out-of-town trip in mid-March but he didn't want to go to hospital He later added: 'Update: I tested positive for corona. Be here for a couple of days.. then quarantine 14 day.' Anthony who worked as a resource analyst at the Army Medical Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston was diagnosed with pneumonia but refused to go to the hospital. Brooks' mother had died in January and his ailing father died in March. 'Despite multiple attempts to get Tony to go to the ER, he refused to go,' Robert Tsai, who lives in San Jose, California, told Express News. 'I don't know if he thought he could fight through his symptoms.' Anthony was later found unresponsive at home when he colleagues asked police to do a welfare check on March 31. He joined his husband at Northeast Baptist Hospital and then both were transferred to the Methodist Hospital Metropolitan and put on ventilators. Both 'were on ventilators and were given the hydroxychloroquine cocktail' Robert Tsai said. Phillip was confident he would get batter and posted on Facebook about his expecting to be released soon Both 'were on ventilators and were given the hydroxychloroquine cocktail' Robert Tsai (Phillip's brother) said. Brooks underwent extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, which is used for life-threatening heart and/or lung problems After some recovery Phillip (left) was sitting up and chatting in his hospital bed on a video call with his family Easter Sunday when he suddenly had problems breathing. Anthony passed away two days later Brooks underwent extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, which is used for life-threatening heart and/or lung problems. After some recovery Phillip was sitting up and chatting in his hospital bed on a video call with his family Easter Sunday when he suddenly had problems breathing. The doctor told the devastated family that when he'd checked on Phillip earlier he gave the thumbs up gesture to indicate all was okay. 'A bit later, Phil's heart stopped. They tried for 38 minutes to resuscitate him, but weren't able to do so,' Robert said. Anthony initially was also doing after having a plasma transfusion passed away two days later. His brother-in-laws were unsure whether he was aware his husband - who owned a hair salon - had died. 'To see them, to see one or the other leave, it would've been devastating for them,' he told News 4 San Antonio. Now Phillip's brothers are having to arrange the funeral proceedings from across the country. Their mother, who lived with the couple, is currently isolating in the home after she too contracted the disease. Phillip's mother Pacita (left) has now fallen ill as his brothers handle funeral arrangements for the couple 'To see them, to see one or the other leave, it would've been devastating for them,' Phillip's brother said 'It's very hard,' Alfred said to WOAI. 'We had to arrange for my other brothers that live in San Antonio to stand outside the house while we tell her the news. That's the heartbreaking side. We can't go in. My brothers can't go in and comfort her. She's standing in the doorway crying.' 'It's just so sad that Phil and Tony died without loved ones there with them. It's sad that even though my mom feels better, my brothers who live in San Antonio can't go to her and give her a hug,' Robert Tsai said. 'It's sad that my family and Alfred's family can't just jump on a plane and be with them. It's just the reality we live in today.' The mourning sibling said the pair had traveled the world and took his mother Pacita everywhere with them. The couple got married in San Francisco six years ago. In Texas there were over 20,000 coronavirus cases and 520 deaths as of Tuesday. Alfred added a warning for others to take the necessary precautions. He emphasized that anyone can be badly affected by COVID-19 not matter the demographic. 'You can look at the end of the day, there are two family members we will miss and will never get back. It's not worth going out socializing and having that chance risking the chance of getting it,' he told WOAI-TV. Among the many heroes of this COVID pandemic, we owe our regions public health officers a debt of gratitude. Their prescient decision to issue a stay-home order in March has saved thousands of lives particularly in contrast to the daily toll in other COVID hot spots and much human misery. As the mayor of the Bay Areas largest city, but with neither expertise nor authority over the counties public health decisions, I say thank you. As the weeks wear on, however, our early success in mitigating COVIDs spread will seem increasingly pyrrhic, as lines at food distribution centers grow longer and the struggles of our unemployed neighbors grow more intense. If applied too long or too indiscriminately, the cure can kill the patient. Our focus must expand from saving lives to saving livelihoods. Time is of the essence; the health and safety of our families is threatened by rapid impoverishment. Inevitable fatigue with health mandates, experts tell us, will diminish public compliance and, with it, public safety. How do we find a way to return people to work safely? Any hope for herd immunity appears remote, and a vaccine remains many months away. Less effective tools exist, of course. Fortunately, some consensus has emerged among public health authorities drawing from leading universities, think tanks and international experience about the necessity of dramatic scaling of testing, contact tracing, case identification, and isolation for a safe, staged reopening of the economy. What we lack, however, are clear goals for any of those objectives. Our county public health authorities must publicly articulate clear thresholds for our region. How much testing, contact tracing, intensive-care unit capacity and other factors should suffice to enable gradual opening of our economy? When armed with those quantitative targets and data, we can build strategies for reaching those thresholds. Our community has repeatedly shown that when given a challenge and a deadline, we can collectively rise to the moment. Here in Silicon Valley, within days of the launch of SiliconValleyStrong.org, we enlisted 2,700 volunteers to deliver food to shut-in neighbors, and through many partners were collectively delivering 340,000 meals per day. Within a week, Bloom Energy rapidly re-deployed its manufacturing team to rehabilitate hundreds of broken ventilators. In two weeks, Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino convened tech firms to donate nearly $5 million in protective equipment to area hospitals. History shows that we best rise to the moment of a crisis when we mobilize an entire community whether by rolling up our sleeves with Rosie the Riveter, or by buying war bonds. My message to our counties public health officers: Help us help you. You can unleash our regions considerable collective brainpower, and willpower, by setting clear goals. Take contact tracing, for example. A Johns Hopkins study estimates that the nation needs a workforce of 100,000 contact investigators, at a cost of $3.6 billion, to sufficiently mitigate COVID spread. Bay Area health officials can use these or other estimates to set our own target, and then we can mobilize nonprofits and regional workforce boards to hire and train thousands of out-of-work residents, as were seeing in Massachusetts, or idled public workers, as here in San Francisco. Technology can help: Apple, Google and other local companies work to develop a Bluetooth-enabled app to identify those in recent proximity with COVID-positive individuals, similar to Singapores TraceTogether or Icelands C-19. Deployment is a bigger challenge, given Americans robust privacy concerns, so local nonprofits and cities could encourage thousands of residents to opt in to the app, and build out a sufficient voluntary network for effective monitoring. If the bar is set, we can find a way to reach it across sectors, together. That goes doubly for whatever rules that public health authorities might establish to reopen shuttered businesses. Simply issuing orders that dictate which businesses can open or stay shut will miss an opportunity. Instead, set a high bar for what a safe business operation resembles with appropriately different standards for different business types and allow creative entrepreneurs to find a way to reach it. They know more about how they can change their operations than any county can. By co-creating this path with our employers, we can enable more of our residents can return to work safely. I will continue to urge my residents to comply with the orders of county public health authorities, because our common survival and health depend upon it. But to overcome COVID together, well need to elicit the resources and resourcefulness of our communities not merely their compliance. Sam Liccardo is the mayor of San Jose. A former justice minister, Richard Akinjide, is dead. His death was confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES early on Tuesday. The spokesperson of the Universiry College Hospital, Ibadan, Tonye Akinrinola, confirmed that Mr Akinjide was brought dead to the hospital . Born in 1930 in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Mr Akinjide attended St. Peters Primary School, Aremo in Ibadan, before proceeding to Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife from where he passed out in Grade One (Distinction, Aggregate 6). Mr Akinjide in 1951 travelled to the United Kingdom for his higher education, where he studied for his LLB degree in Law at the University of London and also obtained a certificate in Journalism. He was called to the English Bar in 1955. The deceased was subsequently called to the Nigerian and the Gambian Bar and became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 1978. When he returned to Nigeria after his studies, he practiced briefly under S.L Durosaro before setting up his practice of Akinjide & Co. READ ALSO: Mr Akinjide was a contributor to West African Pilot and Daily Times. He also taught International Commercial Arbitration at post-graduate level at the University of Ibadan. He was a member of the Judicial Systems Sub-Committee of the Constitutional Drafting Committee of 1975-1977 and later joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1978. He became the Legal Adviser for the party before hwas later appointed the justice minister when President Shehu Shagari assumed office. [April 20, 2020] Global fintech platform NIUM partners with Geoswift to enable overseas customers to remit funds into China SINGAPORE, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global fintech platform NIUM has partnered with Geoswift, an innovative payment technology company connecting China and the rest of the world, to enable overseas customers to remit money into China. The tie up allows NIUM's customers worldwide to send funds directly to a receiver's UnionPay card account with 14 banks in China in real-time, and another 50+ within 48 hours[2]. Traditionally, consumers or businesses who want to send cross-border remittances into China for personal or business purposes had to rely on banking infrastructure or money remittance centers. Recipients in China would need to make trips to bank branches or remittance centers and wait in line. The partnership with Geoswift eliminates the hassle and provides convenience and cost-savings to consumers and businesses looking to remit money into China, especially when social distancing measures are being implemented all over the world: For overseas consumers looking to send money to their loved ones in China For businesses looking to make payments to workers or freelancers in China For banks and financial institutions looking to offer their clients remittance service to China [3] Consumers and businesses can conduct the fund transfers easily through InstaReM, NIUM's consumer and SME brand, on its website or app. Banks and financial institutions looking to integrate the service can soon do so via an integration of NIUM's enterprise API tools into their existing systems. All funds transfers into China can be initiated in any of the 40+ source currencies currently offered through NIUM's Send service, and recipients will receive the payout in Chinese Yuan. "I am extremely thrilled about our partnership with Geoswift, and it could not have been come at a better time. NIUM started off as a remittance service that aims to make money transfers more seamless and convenient for consumers, and I am glad to see this being extended to business and financial institutions as well. This partnership is a testament to our increasing focus to provide an easier and also more convenient wayfor people and businesses to conduct funds transfer," said Prajit Nanu, CEO and Co-Founder of NIUM. "The partnership with NIUM is a natural extension of our strategy to become one of the leading providers of instant P2P payments solution. In order to fulfill the ever-growing business and customer demands for instant money movement into China, we will continue to offer our clients fast, safe and more convenient payment options with their business partners, friends and family," said Raymond Qu, CEO & Founder of Geoswift The move consolidates NIUM's increasing focus on providing an end-to-end solution for consumers, businesses, banks and financial institution. NIUM has evolved rapidly since its inception in 2014. The company started as a consumer remittance provider InstaReM and has since grown to offer financial technology solutions for large enterprises, banks and financial institutions. For the list of banks with real-time funds transfer, please refer to below: Bank of China Bank of Communications Bank of Shanghai China Construction Bank China Everbright Bank Fujian Rural Credit Cooperative Guangdong Rural Credit Cooperative Harbin Bank Henan Rural Credit Cooperative Hua Xia Bank Hunan Rural Credit Cooperative Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Linshang Bank Qinghai Rural Credit Cooperative [1] Real-time services applicable for 14 banks in China. [2] Time taken for funds transfer to other banks is dependent on the response time of the beneficiary, who is required to register for an account (one time task) and accept the transfer. [3] Service available soon. About Geoswift Geoswift is an innovative payment technology company connecting China and the rest of the world. The company comprises the world's leading payment technology experts who have a deep understanding of the finance industry, technology, and global and China monetary policies. Geoswift customises one-stop, cross-border payment solutions to and from China to achieve growth for its clients, which include the world's leading e-commerce companies, prestigious universities, and some of the largest brands in the travel industry. Geoswift is an acquirer of UnionPay International in North America, and a long-term partner of many other leading financial institutions. It also runs a number of currency exchange stores throughout China. Geoswift is headquartered in Hong Kong with teams spread across Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, London, Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco for strategic and regulatory functions. Geoswift Cards Services secured the Stored Value Facilities License (SVF00015) from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in May 2019. For more information, please visit www.geoswift.com or send your queries to [email protected] About NIUM Singapore-headquartered NIUM (formerly known as InstaReM) is a global financial technology platform. The NIUM platform empowers businesses to send, spend & receive funds across borders, with a mission to democratize money movement across the globe. NIUM is regulated in countries and regions including Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States of America, and processes billions of dollars a year for banks and payments institutions, next generation of e-commerce players, OTAs and retail users across the world. NIUM's investors include Vertex Ventures, Vertex Growth, Fullerton Financial Holdings, GSR Ventures, Rocket Internet, Global Founders Capital, SBI Japan, FMO (Netherlands Development Finance Company), MDI Ventures, Beacon Venture Capital and Atinum Investment. For more information, visit https://www.nium.com/. Media Contacts: Geoswift: Luke Chen [email protected] +852-2312-2168 NIUM: Gillian Loo [email protected] +65-9863-8120 SOURCE NIUM [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] After a veteran bus driver with 28-years behind the wheel became the second to die from the coronavirus, bus union officials said they need hazardous duty pay and on-site testing for the coronavirus. The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) New Jersey State Council is also demanding more frequent bus sanitizing and masks, protections they said are needed for workers and riders. The request came as NJ Transit officials announced the death of bus driver Kendall Nelson, a 28-year veteran who worked in the Oradell Garage. He was the second bus driver to die of coronavirus after bus driver Philip Dover was NJ Transits second employee death from COVID-19 on April 13. Nelson was a member of ATU local 825 and had been awarded bus operator of the month honors, union officials said. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage We are mourning the loss of NJ TRANSIT Bus Operator Kendall Nelson. He was based at Oradell Garage and served our customers with pride and honor for more than 28 years. We are incredibly thankful for his service, and his family remains in our thoughts and prayers. pic.twitter.com/LnwBf3Sgkp NJ TRANSIT (@NJTRANSIT) April 20, 2020 Nelson was married, had five children and four grandchildren. His wife paid tribute to him on Facebook, writing how he wore many hats and wore them very well. He knew how to balance it all, he made life look so easy (and) always cared about his family. "There is not enough words to describe how great this awesome man was to myself, our family, his friends and anyone that ever crossed his path, she wrote. As of Monday, the agency has had 256 employees whove tested positive for COVID-19, including CEO Kevin Corbett. There are 1,064 employees who are quarantined and 562 who have returned to work, said Jim Smith, an NJ Transit spokesman. NJ Transit has 12,000 employees. ATU officials wants bus workers classified as essential workers during a public health crisis, making them eligible for hazardous duty pay at least 1.5 times their normal wage. They asked for N-95 masks for all workers, enhanced cleaning and sanitizing of buses, stations, garages and other workplaces. The union also wants on-site testing of transit workers for COVID-19 symptoms at NJ Transits expense. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, NJ Transit workers have put themselves in harms way in service to their communities. We are proud to carry essential workers, said Orlando Riley, ATU NJ State Council President. More must be done to protect workers including hazard pay, on-site COVID-19 testing of NJ Transit workers and other safety measures. The ATU played a key role in getting more than $1.7 billion in emergency transit funding for NJ Transit through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress, he said. The $1.7 billion can be used to pay workers and to keep service running for frontline workers, offsetting lost revenue from ridership declines. That funding also can be to purchase N-95 masks, gloves, other personal protective equipment (PPE) for transit workers and cleaning and sanitizing supplies, Riley said. NJ Transit has and will continue to work collaboratively with our workforce to provide the safest possible work environment for our employees as we have done since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as enhanced cleaning and disinfecting of vehicles and facilities, including contracting with an external environmental response contractor to augment our own cleaning forces, Smith said in a statement. There has been a push and pull between NJ Transit and workers about how much PPE has been available and how readily it has been distributed in the field. The rail conductors union chairman resigned from NJ Transits COVID-19 task force on April 6, charging the agency wasnt following its own protocols and was slow to get protective equipment to workers. NJ Transit officials said since March 1, it has distributed 604,000 gloves and 162,000 masks to our employees, and distribution is ongoing. But some workers said it took a long time to reach some of them. Others who contacted NJ Advance Media said theyve been given one mask and told to reuse it multiple times. And other said theyve had to fix or use dirty vehicles. Sakyibera Ekufia of Newark, was fired from her job bus instructor on April 13. She contend she was wrongfully fired over a memo she sent in early April about the lack of PPE, being told to take masks and gloves intended for front line workers for trainees and for questioning being assigned a classroom too small for social distancing. They told us to get it from garage and the garage doesnt have enough, she said. We interact with public, but I feel reluctant taking PPE from a driver. She arrived at work on April 13 and was given a memo saying she was fired, Ekufia said. She plans to appeal the firing. NJ Transit denied her allegations through a spokeswoman. But the ATU isnt the only union seeking to be designated essential workers. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen national union has asked Congress for that designation, said James P. Brown, BLET New Jersey General Chairman. The BLE&T has been asking for N95 masks and that the sanitization of locomotive control stands, Brown said. We have sent numerous emails only to be ignored. ATU officials said they want to work with NJ Transit on the issue, and plan to contact the Murphy administration and legislators, Riley said While the ATU has worked with the agency and elected officials to secure many important protections including rear door boarding, passenger limits on buses, and PPE, the ATU State Council is calling for additional measures to ensure worker and rider safety, he said. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Chinese military rebuffs US accusation and urges it to stop meddling in South China Sea PLA Daily Source: China Military Online Editor: Li Wei 2020-04-20 19:43:39 BEIJING, April 20 -- The Chinese military is strongly opposed to the US recent unjustified accusation against China and urges the US to stop meddling in the South China Sea, said Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesman for China's Ministry of National Defense, in a written statement on the afternoon of April 20. Wu said that recently a Vietnamese fishing boat illegally entered the waters off China's Xisha Islands and hit a vessel of the China Coast Guard (CCG). Both spokespersons for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the China Coast Guard have briefed on the incident and made clear China's position. "The facts and responsibilities for this incident are clear and unquestionable. China was carrying out law enforcement activities within its sovereignty and in accordance with the law and regulations," Wu stressed. The United States' Department of Defense ignored the facts, confused the public and made groundless accusations against China, trying to sow discord on the South China Sea issue and create excuse for its military presence over there. The Chinese military is firmly opposed to this. We urge the US side to stop making groundless charges and meddling in the South China Sea, so as to avoid further damage to regional situation, Wu added. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Police operatives and some medical personnel at Osun/Oyo border on Sunday evening reportedly intercepted a car, said to have conveyed a sick man, who eventually died while being checked. The vehicle, it was learnt, was stopped at Odo Oba, Iwo, an entry point to Osun from Oyo State while attempting to enter Osun State. The car was said to have left Ibadan for an undisclosed destination, when it ran into a police checkpoint which stopped the vehicle and demanded explanation. While being interrogated, one of the occupants, believed to be sick, suddenly started coughing and died on the spot. The chairman, Iwo Local Government, Raji Kamoru, who spoke to our correspondent, said policemen and health personnel stationed at the checkpoint were not convinced with the explanation of the occupants of the vehicle, when they stopped them. He said when the team at the checkpoint told the occupants of the vehicle that they could not proceed, one of the occupants said to be sick suddenly started coughing and he died. They stopped the vehicle coming from Ibadan. One of the passengers started coughing and he died. The security men asked them some questions and they could not give a satisfactory explanation about where they were going. Immediately we were informed, myself and the DPO had to turn them back. In the first instance, when we told them to return to where they were coming from, they hid in the bush. But we found them and escorted them to the boundary and handed them over to policemen at Iyana Offa, Oyo State. They did not tell us where they were coming from and their destination, Kamoru said. The Police Public Relations Officer for Osun Command, Yemisi Opalola, confirmed that police personnel intercepted a vehicle carrying a corpse around Odo Oba area, Iwo. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Gov. Tom Wolf spoke with the news media this morning about the states response to the coronavirus. The governor addressed a variety of topics. Reopening Pennsylvania Wolf said the state government is looking to the flattening of the curve and the number of deaths in evaluating when restrictions can be eased. He said specific metrics are still being developed. The governor said if there are regions with lower case loads and the rate of increase has been declining, those factors will be considered. Before the states stay-home order is lifted, Wolf said, We will have specific guidelines in place." Wolf said the key question: Are we making progress in new cases? Another question: "Are we making progress in the ability to test? Wolf said Monday the states stay-at-home order will be extended until May 8. The governor also said he will allow the resumption of some business activity next month, including construction and online auto sales. Wolf noted the state shutdown took place on a county-by-county basis. He said a similar approach will be employed in reopening the state and lifting restrictions. Some areas, Wolf said, could be reopened in a fairly robust way. Others, less so. We need to be driven by what the virus is doing, Wolf said. More than 34,000 people in Pennsylvania have contracted the virus and more than 1,500 have died, according to the health department. Working with lawmakers Wolf said he is talking with lawmakers about ways to reopen the state. Lawmakers have criticized Wolf for taking actions on his own initiative and not in a collaborative fashion with the General Assembly. The governor vetoed a bill Monday that would have allowed some businesses to open their doors again. Republican lawmakers who pushed the measure said it would help Pennsylvanias ailing economy while still offering sufficient public health protections. The governor has said a wide reopening of businesses could cost lives and would do more damage to the states economy in the long run. But Wolf said the state needs to reflect the reality of the virus and cant simply target an arbitrary date. Wolf said he is starting with May 8 as a date to start reopening in a measured, safe way. He didnt see that approach in the Senate bill he vetoed. But Wolf said he still says he has more areas of agreement than disagreement with state lawmakers. We continue to talk, Wolf said. We continue to work together. Testing The governor said the state needs much more robust testing to move forward with a wide reopening of the state. The question is: how can we give individual workers the confidence to go back to work? Wolf said opening will depend on the ubiquity of testing capacity. He said the state is working to ramp up testing. Wolf said the state needs more re-agents to do more testing and is trying to get more from the federal government and the private sector. The governor also said the capacity of hospitals is important to maintain in order to allow for the easing of restrictions. He said the states supply of ventilators and N-95 masks remains strong. The health department has said hospitals have beds available to treat patients. Unemployment The state has invested in new technology to improve the system for filing unemployment claims. More than 1.5 million people have filed for unemployment since mid-March. We had a huge surge in initial claims and that overwhelmed the system, Wolf said. The wait time for those calling to file a claim was 24 minutes Monday which is unacceptable, Wolf said. He said the goal is to get the wait time down to 9 minutes. The state has hired more people in the Labor Department to help process claims. State finances The state government has employed measured to cut costs, including putting 9,000 workers on indefinite leave. With so many businesses shut down, the state is taking in much less revenue to support government operations. We are doing everything we can think of to reduce our expenses, Wolf said. We are still going to have a deficit. Wolf said the aid coming from the federal stimulus package can offset some of the states losses of revenue. The governor was asked about the possibility of a continuing resolution in lieu of a normal budget, given the uncertainty of the revenue picture. Wolf said officials are working to examine the states finances but said the administration is still working to plot the best course forward. Wolf said the state is continuing to project the current 2019-20 budget projections will be viable. The 2019-20 budget year ends June 30. The assumption at this point is we can make ends meet, Wolf said of the current budge. He said the picture on the 2020-21 spending plan remains unclear. Im sure well come up with unorthodox ways to deal with the budget issue, Wolf said. We are going to have a budget. It will balance. Enforcement Wolf said state police wont be aggressively enforcing the states social distancing measures. State police have written warnings and citations to individuals for violating the stay-at-home order. If we have to enforce it, its not going to work, Wolf said. Wolf said the state is flattening the curve not because of enforcement but because people are exercising good judgment. More from PennLive Pa. distillers selling unreal amounts of booze during coronavirus pandemic Making a go of it: A look at restaurant owners staying open (carefully) during coronavirus Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The states upcoming June 23 primary could be moved to a mail-in system as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has plans to sign an executive order in the coming days that would send absentee ballots to all registered voters in New York to mail in for the June 23 primary, the Advance confirmed through a source. The presidential primary race, state Senate and Assembly primary races and congressional primaries, including the Islands closely watched primary race between Republicans Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis and former Brooklyn prosecutor Joe Caldarera, who are vying to challenge freshman Democrat Rep. Max Rose -- all fall on June 23. The governors office would not confirm the executive order, first reported by NY1. When asked to confirm the order or whether the state was considering moving the June primary to a later date, Caitlin Girouard, a spokeswoman from the governors office, would only say the state was looking at all options. It remains unclear whether polling sites would still be opened if the state proceeds with a mail-in system. The state Board of Elections said it has never moved a primary race entirely to a mail-in system for registered voters. Instead of switching to a mail-in system, Staten Island GOP Chairman Brendan Lantry thinks the state should revert to holding a primary in September during the coronavirus pandemic. Lantry cautioned that moving the June primary to a mail-in system could cause a slew of problems including fraud. I think moving the primary to September makes a lot more sense than an en masse mailing of absentee ballots to Republican Party or Democratic Party voters, Lantry said. Its never been done before so when somethings never been done before, I think it has the potential to be problematic, weve never just mailed out absentee ballots to everybody, thats never been done, and it hasnt been planned for, Lantry continued. This is not something that the Board of Elections is necessarily prepared to execute. Lantry said moving the June primary to a later date like September would also give candidates the opportunity to go back out and do door to door campaigning if conditions improve around the coronavirus. The last time state and local primaries were held in September were in 2018 and federal primaries were previously held with state and local primaries together in September up until 2010 before they were split by court order in 2012 to comply with the federal MOVE Act, which gave members of the military overseas more time to vote absentee. State, local and congressional primaries were combined again and set to be held together in June this year. The states presidential primary had always been held separately from any other primary and scheduled in the spring so the state can send delegates to the national conventions in the summer. However, Cuomo moved the states presidential primary from April to the June 23 primary this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Islands Democratic Party boss, Assemblyman Micheal Cusick, said he believes the responsible thing to do during the coronavirus pandemic is to switch to vote by mail system. "These are unprecedented times and ensuring the health and safety of all voters comes first, Cusick said. No one should have to risk their health to gain access to vote. The responsible thing to do is to make vote by mail accessible to as many registered voters as possible. Vote by mail has been successful before. Whether it be for college students studying out of state or for those serving in the military overseas, he continued. With that said, this will be a dramatic change not only for voters across New York State but for our local Boards of Elections. State and City government need to be ready and able to assist immediately in order to provide the necessary resources and to ensure this is as smooth a process as possible." Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was confident the city could reopen its public schools by September. However, he said large public gatherings might not be able to happen all summer. In recent days, City Hall has canceled all city-permitted events set for May and June but has not made a decision about events scheduled for July. The mayor has previously said that any primaries or local elections during the coronavirus pandemic should be moved to a mail-in system or online so that voters are not congregated at polling sites until the crisis subsides. FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** She's starring in the new Quibi series Swimming With Sharks. And on Monday, Diane Kruger whiled away some time in coronavirus lockdown joking around with one with partner Norman Reedus. The actress posted a funny snap to her Instagram in which she's seen with her head in the jaws of a fake shark as Reedus, mouth open in imitation of the shark, is poised to take a chunk out of the side of her head. 'Getting nibbled': Diane Kruger joked around with partner Norman Reedus and a giant fake shark on Monday and posted the result to her Instagram 'That shark is NOT social distancing but I DO like getting nibbled at from my @bigbaldhead,' Kruger wrote in the caption. The couple have been making the most of their enforced downtime after Hollywood shuttered production due to the pandemic. A few days ago, the German-born actress shared a photo of her and Reedus sitting in their car eating ice cream cones. And a couple of weeks ago, she shared a snap of herself with her daughter looking at some pretty roadside flowers. Whiling away the time: The couple has been making the most of enforced downtime after Hollywood shuttered production due to coronavirus including safely grabbing ice cream Kruger, 43, and Reedus, 51, met while making the film Sky in 2015 and in November 2018, they welcomed their daughter. They have not publicly revealed the little girl's name. The Walking Dead actor also has a son Mingus, 20, from his relationship with supermodel Helena Christensen. In March 2019, Kruger told French magazine Madame Figaro that she had always thought she would not be a mother. But that changed when she hit her mid-30s and met Reedus. 'For a long time, the desire for a child didnt preoccupy me,' she said. 'I had my ways. I was fine without one. In short, I didnt feel absolutely ready.' 'Life ensured my daughter arrived at the right time. It was a surprise, and she is beautiful.' The UK government has botched an attempt to import crucial surgical masks and other medical protective equipment from Turkey in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a report. The UK has repeatedly insisted a plane carrying 84 tonnes of personal protective equipment needed by frontline medical staff treating victims of Covid-19 was on its way from Turkey. But Turkish authorities said London only asked the government to help get the gear on Sunday, according to a report by Sky News. Turkish companies are a leading global provider of such disposable medical equipment. But the country has imposed restrictions on their export as it faces a mushrooming Covid-19 crisis that has taken at least 2,140 lives. Nevertheless, Turkey has donated medical equipment to the UK, Spain and Italy all Nato allies hard hit by Covid-19. The Johnsons government has been criticised for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak; a report in The Sunday Times suggested Downing Street was complacent in the first weeks of the pandemic, which eventually infected Mr Johnson himself. No 10 has since been scrambling to keep up with increasing demands for protective equipment by frontline medical staff, some of whom have been infected or killed by Covid-19. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick said on Saturday that a fresh shipment of gear would arrive from Turkey on Sunday, while education secretary Gavin Williamson said Sunday he hoped the delivery would arrive the following day. Sky News cited two sources as saying London only asked on Sunday for Turkish authorities to help overcome export restrictions and get the equipment to the UK, and that the manufacturer only applied for a license to move the equipment on Monday. Turkey donated 250,000 pieces of personal protective equipment to the UK earlier this month. The NHS currently has an insufficient amount of PPE to tackle coronavirus (Getty) A shipment of Turkish-assembled medical gear bound for Spain was held up earlier this month but eventually was granted an export permit. Within the small cluster of Turkish firms which make medical equipment, the UK has a reputation for laziness, said one insider. What I have heard is that British side is so slow [in making] decisions, a Turkish medical equipment industry source told The Independent. Search for gunman under way in Lebanon after attack in the quiet town of Baakline south of Lebanons capital, Beirut. Beirut, Lebanon At least nine people, including two children, have been shot dead by a lone gunman south of Beirut, according to a security source, in what is believed to be Lebanons deadliest mass shooting in recent history. There was no immediate indication of the motive of Tuesdays attack in the quiet town of Baakline in the Chouf mountains, the source told Al Jazeera. A police hunt for the attacker was under way. Among the dead were six men, two children and a woman. Six were Syrian and three Lebanese, the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter. Baakline Mayor Abdullah al-Ghussaini said in a statement that the gunman had fired indiscriminately from a hunting weapon. The attack occurred near a wooded area of Baakline where Syrian workers live. Seasonal workers Hundreds of thousands of Syrian labourers have long come to Lebanon for seasonal work, with many living in the country since the outbreak of the Syrian war nine years ago. About 900,000 Syrian refugees are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon, though officials estimate that closer to 1.5 million actually reside in the country. Weapon ownership is widespread in Lebanon, with many guns left over from the countrys 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. However, non-conflict mass shootings are not common in Lebanon. In March 2019, an off-duty soldier shot four migrant workers in the Bekaa Valley town of Zahle, killing one. In 2017, a 14-year-old boy killed four people with a pump-action shotgun during a rampage in the capital, Beirut. In 2002, an employee at Lebanons education ministry opened fire on his colleagues, killing eight people. COVID-19 Lockdown Ignites 'Spiritual Explosion' as Middle East Clamors for 'Real Hope' Christian broadcaster SAT-7 reports surge in viewer numbers, social media interest, as coronavirus shutdown 'opens hearts' of millions 'stuck at home' CORONAVIRUS IGNITES 'SPIRITUAL EXPLOSION' IN MIDDLE EAST: Christian satellite television broadcaster SAT-7 (www.sat7usa.org) reports a dramatic surge in viewer numbers and social media interest, as the coronavirus lockdown 'opens the hearts' of millions of people stuck at home in the Middle East and North Africa. The ministry continues to broadcast across the region 24/7 in local languages. NEWS PROVIDED BY SAT-7 April 21, 2020 EASTON, Md., April 21, 2020 /Christian Newswire/ -- Amid strict coronavirus lockdowns, millions of people across the Middle East and North Africa -- "clamoring" for a spiritual and practical lifeline -- are finding help right in their own homes through "living television." In the region where Christianity began but is now a minority faith, Christian satellite television broadcaster SAT-7 (www.sat7usa.org) has seen viewer numbers surge and social media interest skyrocket since the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. "There's an explosion of spiritual hunger across the Middle East and North Africa right now as people stuck at home seek real hope and real answers," said Dr. Rex Rogers, president of SAT-7 USA. SAT-7 continues to broadcast shows 24/7 that present Christians as 'living epistles' who speak to people where they are in life. "Millions of people in countries like Iran, Iraq and Turkey are clamoring to see and hear in their own language what it's like to be a follower of Jesus in a time of crisis," Rogers said. In coronavirus hotspot Turkey, where 99 percent of the population is non-Christian, more viewers have contacted the SAT-7 TURK channel daily in the past few weeks than any day in the previous five years since broadcasts began. In Iran, another virus hotspot, viewers' calls and messages to the live, Farsi-language Signal show -- beamed into millions of homes across the nation -- jumped to seven times the usual number last month, as Iranians rattled by the pandemic turned to the show's hosts for reassurance and practical advice. One viewer shared how God was looking after her family, even though "we don't even have any loose change." She told other Signal viewers: "We're living in faith, and we're praying for everyone else." Across the Middle East and North Africa, SAT-7 KIDS Facebook audience has soared more than 500 percent as children stream videos offering encouragement and hope based on Bible passages. Total Lockdown, Open Hearts "Coronavirus has locked people inside their homes, but it's opening hearts to God," said Rogers. "Lockdown and social isolation do not stop our unique satellite and online Christian programs from reaching millions of adults and children where they live." A total of 30 million viewers are tuning into SAT-7's uplifting Christian live shows and recorded broadcasts that take a holistic view of life, addressing spiritual, emotional, physical, and social concerns. Hosted by Christian presenters, shows tackle the topics that most deeply affect everyday life in the volatile region, and invite viewers to join in the discussion. "When people have hope, they find the strength to carry on," said Lebanon-born SAT-7 CEO Rita El-Mounayer, based at the ministry headquarters in Cyprus. "Our broadcasts and social media channels are needed more now than ever." The ministry reports 160,000 people watched "God, Fear, and the Coronavirus," one of SAT-7's mental health programs, featuring church leader and psychiatrist Dr. Maher Samuel. An online video -- featuring the popular presenter of the ministry's Family of Jesus children's show -- reached more than 425,000 people and was shared 2,700 times. Meanwhile, the ministry's SAT-7 Academy -- a social development and education channel -- doubled its audience on social media. About SAT-7 Launched in 1996, SAT-7 (www.sat7usa.org) -- with its international headquarters in Cyprus -- broadcasts Christian and educational satellite television programs to more than 30 million people in the Middle East and North Africa. Its mission is to make the gospel available to everyone, and support the church in its life, work and witness for Jesus Christ. SAT-7 broadcasts 24/7 in Arabic, Farsi (Persian) and Turkish, using multiple satellite channels and online services. SOURCE SAT-7 CONTACT: Matti Stevenson, 719-360-0586, mstevenson@inchristcommunications.com Related Links www.sat7usa.org Share Tweet The political spotlight is shining on Joe Biden. With that attention, expect Biden and his family to appear in ads, attend big-ticket events, and stump for the Democratic party. While many people familiar with the Biden family may know about his wife, Jill, daughter Ashley, and his sons, Beau and Hunter, thanks to the family's time in the White House during the Obama administration, there's plenty more to learn about the family as they become more and more prominent as the election draws closer. Joe had three children with his first wife, Neila Hunter. His daughter, Naomi, passed away at one year old when she and Neila were involved in a car accident in 1972. The couple's other two children are sons Hunter and Beau. Hunter Biden Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images Biden's youngest son, Hunter, 49, is an attorney for a firm based in New York City. He's made headlines before due to personal struggles with drugs and alcohol, as well as his involvement in a hedge fund and lobbying firm. In 2009, he co-founded the consulting firm Rosemont Seneca Partners. Hunter was also involved in President Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry. When Trump allegedly pressured the Ukrainian government for information about Hunter and Joe, it was because the former reportedly had business dealings in Ukraine. Hunter has three children, Naomi, Finnegan, and Maisy, with his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle. He has another child, whose name has not been released, with Lunden Alexis Roberts. The paternity of the child was the subject of court case that was resolved in 2018. He married Melissa Cohen, a South African filmmaker, in 2019. Beau Biden Mark Wilson/Getty Images Hunter's older brother, Beau, passed away in 2015, at the age of 46, after being diagnosed with brain cancer. In 2003, he enlisted in the Army National Guard as a major in the Judge Advocate General's Corps and later served as the 44th attorney general of Delaware from 2007 until 2015. The Hill reports that Joe believed Beau was fit to be president of the United States one day, saying, "I was pretty sure Beau could run for president someday, and, with his brother's help, he could win." Story continues Beau married his wife, Hallie Olivere, in 2002. Together, they had a daughter, Natalie, and a son, Robert Hunter Biden II. In 2008, Beau introduced his father at the Democratic National Convention and before his death, he announced that he intended to run for governor of Delaware in the 2016 election. Ashley Biden Ethan Miller/Getty Images Joe's only child with his second wife, Ashley was born in 1981. She worked at the Delaware Center for Justice for seven years as a social worker and activist before shifting focus to her charitable fashion line, Livelihood. "Working with DCJ has been one of the great honors of my life," she wrote on Facebook. "Together we have changed the landscape of justice reform, violence intervention, and victim services for the State of Delaware. I leave DCJ in capable hands, with a passionate and committed staff, a talented board and the infrastructure to continue to support DCJs vision. I am confident that the organization will continue to thrive and provide essential services to our community." She married her husband, Howard Krein, in 2012. Ashley told Elle that Livelihood is an "ethically produced, American-made clothing company" that works to "alleviate poverty through education, training, and job placement." Beer lovers may soon find themselves crying in their beer or at least what's left of it. And you can blame it on the coronavirus. After a decade of ever-expanding beer choices hazy, citrusy IPAs, crisp lower-alcohol lagers, mouth-puckering sour beers the beer list could rapidly become shorter. The lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has shuttered brewpubs and closed taprooms across the country. As local and state officials began instituting stay-at-home orders for much of the nation over the last month, the typical brewery experienced on-site beer sale declines of 65% with draft sales falling about 95%, according to a survey by the Brewers Association. Should official edicts preventing customers from consuming beer in a taproom or brewpub continue for a total of three months, many breweries may be forced to close. About six in 10 breweries said that could drive them out of business, according to the survey of 525 brewers earlier this month by the association, a trade group representing thousands of independent and small brewers. "We are struggling very hard right now," said Greg Engert, beer director for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, an Alexandria, Virginia, company that owns Bluejacket brewery in Washington, D.C. "A lot of breweries are probably going to be making very difficult decisions over the next few weeks." Will your favorite restaurant reopen?: More coronavirus relief sought for survival Shake Shack: Food chain plans to send back $10 million coronavirus stimulus loan Beer lovers have been treated to an abundance of choice as the U.S. added more than 5,000 new breweries over the last five years, bringing the nation's total breweries to an all-time high of nearly 8,150. But as many as 4,800 could go out of business if the shutdown continues through mid-June, the survey results suggest. Even with just one month of consumers staying at home, about 14%, or 1,120 breweries could face closure, survey respondents said. Story continues Many breweries have adapted by taking beer and food orders online or by phone and hand-delivering to customers at the curbside. Some are delivering to customers. At many locations, customers can still walk up and purchase beer to go, as long as businesses practice physical distancing on site. These strategic shifts have, so far, helped breweries keep some employees working and have prevented beer from being thrown away but likely won't help all survive. "I think a lot of breweries are at a crossroads right now," Bluejacket's Engert said. That's because, about one month into the lockdowns, breweries may need to decide whether to invest in their next batches of beer, he says. "Most breweries have gone through the stock that they had, and they have to make a decision: Do we spend money on malt and hops and packaging materials and brew some new batches, or can we not afford to do that?" Engert said. Taprooms and brewpubs typically make most of their money through beer that's purchased and consumed on-site. At Bluejacket, that accounted for 95% of beer sales. The brewpub now sells carry-out food and beer in cans, bringing orders to curbside, as well as delivering orders. Sales of canned beer have grown, but overall revenue has still fallen 50%, Engert says. Conor Provost of Bluejacket brewery in Washington, D.C., puts beer in a car. The brewpub now takes beer and food orders online or by phone and will deliver to customers at the curbside, as well as delivering to homes in the area. From beer boom to bust? In 2019, sales of craft beer produced by small, independent breweries (not massive brewers such as Anheuser-Busch or MolsonCoors) rose 6% to $29.3 billion. That accounts for more than 25% of the total U.S. beer market, which overall saw a 2% decline in volume, the association says. Despite the continued beer boom, competition would likely have resulted in 400 to 500 breweries closing in 2020, even without the challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic, says Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association. "We are seeing lost revenue and cost structures are pretty similar for breweries," Watson said during an online presentation last week. "I do think were going to see an elevated closing rate perhaps as long as 12 to 18 months or as long as we are seeing societal effects from this pandemic." In South Carolina, eight in 10 breweries have had sales declines of 60% or more, according to a South Carolina Brewers Guild survey released last week. COVID-19 is a gut punch to the industry, said J. Wilson, the minister of Iowa beer for the Iowa Brewers Guild. The Brewers Association survey translates pretty well to what were seeing in Iowa. The longer this goes on, the more danger there is for everybody, Wilson said. Tapped out: COVID-19 puts Iowa's breweries in vise, could force closures Pandemic pivot: Restaurants transition to take-out only service during coronavirus Breweries that responded to the association's survey had already laid off or furloughed two-thirds of their employees. Many locations including Bluejacket, have applied for Small Business Administration loans as part of the SBA's Payroll Protection Program (PPP). The program, part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act signed by President Trump in late March, offers small businesses loans that can be forgiven if the funds were used to meet payrolls and employees were kept or rehired. At The Blind Tiger Brewery and Restaurant in Topeka, Kansas, majority owner and president Jay Ives expects to get funds this week from an SBA loan. The restaurant currently has a skeleton crew of employees working in the kitchen and bar, and handling call-in orders for carryout or curbside food and beer in growlers. When the loan arrives, "we'll be calling back more of our employees," Ives said. The Blind Tiger has seen its business fall 60% or more, he said. But Ives is optimistic and took the shutdown as an opportunity to replace the carpeting in the restaurant and remodel its restrooms. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has extended the state's stay-at-home order until May 3. The 'new normal' for beer Before the governor's order, the restaurant had already removed half of the restaurant's tables and two-thirds of seats at the bar to meet the county's "Safer at Home" order, issued a week ahead of the governor's action. So when the state's restrictions lift, Ives expects the restaurant to be ready. "I suspect even when were allowed to open there might be a little bit of a surge, because of cabin fever," Ives said. "But I suspect that it will come back gradually over a period of time." But beer lovers may find a less stimulating beer landscape in the wake of the pandemic's effects, Engert says. "We have just gotten so used to having breweries on every corner and great bottles in every bottle shop and every grocery store," he said. "Devastating doesnt even begin to explain what this had done to us. Everybodys revenue stream just dried up overnight," he said. "Its going to be hard for even the most followed and lauded breweries in the world to survive if things dont get better or assistance doesnt come through. "The industry will bounce back. But no doubt there's going to be a massive sea change to brewing, and also to restaurants and everything that has to do with hospitality." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus pandemic creates brewing crisis for craft beer industry Tommy Robinson accused a teenage Syrian refugee of a gang attack on a young girl and also said the youngster threatened to stab another child, a judge has ruled. The High Court ruled on the meaning of the English Defence League founder's comments about the boy who was filmed being attacked in a school playground. A video showing Jamal Hijazi, then 16, being pushed to the ground and threatened with drowning at Almondbury School in Huddersfield provoked outrage and a flood of public sympathy after it went viral in November 2018. English Defence League founder Robinson, 37, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, later commented about the incident in two Facebook videos, claiming Jamal was 'not innocent and he violently attacks young English girls in his school'. He also claimed Jamal 'beat a girl black and blue' and 'threatened to stab' another boy at his school, allegations the teenager 'emphatically denies'. Pictured, left: Jamal Hijazi outside Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield after he was attacked in a video that went viral. Pictured, right: Tommy Robinson outside the High Court in January Ahead of a full libel trial, Jamal's lawyers claim Mr Robinson's 'racist invective' on Facebook led to the teenager and his family being targeted by 'far-right activists' which forced him and his family to leave the area. At a preliminary hearing in March, Mr Justice Nicklin was asked to determine the 'natural and ordinary' meaning of Robinson's statements. In a judgment delivered remotely on Tuesday, the judge found that Mr Robinson's statements meant that Jamal had 'as part of a gang, participated in a violent assault on a young girl which had caused her significant injuries' and also 'threatened to stab another child'. Mr Justice Nicklin rejected Jamal's contention that Mr Robinson's statements would be understood to suggest that there were other 'incidents of violence beyond the particular acts that were identified' in the two videos. He said: 'In my judgment, the viewer would recognise that the defendant was making a specific allegation of violent conduct against the claimant.' The judge added that the ordinary and reasonable viewer of the videos would understand Mr Robinson to have been speaking 'figuratively' when he said of Jamal that 'he's not innocent, he attacks young girls'. But Mr Justice Nicklin also rejected Mr Robinson's suggested meaning of the statements, that 'as part of a gang, the claimant has committed serious acts of violence against a schoolgirl'. The judge ruled that Mr Robinson's suggested meaning 'fails to capture the gravity of the allegation being made against the claimant, specifically that (the girl) had been beaten 'black and blue' ... and ignores, completely, the allegation of a threat to stab the boy that is made clearly in the first video'. r Justice Nicklin also rejected Mr Robinson's suggested meaning of the statements, that 'as part of a gang, the claimant has committed serious acts of violence against a schoolgirl' (pictured, Tommy Robinson outside the High Court) In his ruling, Mr Justice Nicklin stated: 'It is important to note that the court is only dealing with the issue of meaning. 'The defendant has advanced a defence of truth. Unless the parties resolve the litigation, that issue (and others) will be determined at a later trial.' At the hearing in March, Jamal's barrister Ian Helme told the court that 'the notorious far-right provocateur' Mr Robinson has accepted that the statements were 'very seriously defamatory' of Jamal. He said the two videos, the first of which he said had been viewed more than 850,000 times within 24 hours, were 'short, sharp videos designed for the social media age - they are viewable instantaneously and repeatedly'. William Bennett QC, for Mr Robinson, said his client did not deny that he had made serious allegations, adding: 'He wanted to make serious allegations and bring them to the attention of the world.' He argued that the viral video 'was interpreted on social media as an example of racist bullying', which 'led to a massive social media witch hunt of the alleged assailant which ultimately caused him and his family to have to flee Huddersfield'. He added: '(Robinson's) case is that when he posted the videos in issue, he was trying to present the other side of the story - that, in fact, the claimant had been violent towards other children and that there was a background to the incident which was not being talked about.' At a previous hearing last November, Mr Bennett said Robinson's defence would focus on 'those people who say they were assaulted by the claimant and the claimant's denials that he assaulted them'. There are fears that a backlog of cattle is building up on farms. Stock image Tightening supplies and a rise in live export shipments to North Africa have combined to halt the slide in factory prices for cattle. A shipment of 1,200 cattle left Waterford Port for Algeria last week and, in a separate deal, Purcell Brothers have secured 2,000 cattle for another shipment to North Africa. But while factory quotes yesterday were steady after steep falls earlier this month, there are fears that a backlog of cattle is building up on farms. Beef prices have stabilised at 3.40-3.45/kg, but the weekly kill has fallen to around 26,000hd - 5,000hd back on this time last year. Des Morrison of ICMSA said factories were already reluctant to take cows and bulls, and this was causing difficulties for both farmers and finishers. In another blow to the sector, Irish beef exports to China have collapsed by 71pc due to the Covid-19 crisis. Meanwhile, there is growing pressure on the Government's Beef Taskforce to commission a new review of the beef grid pricing system. A Farming Independent analysis has raised questions about the merit of the latest review submitted by Teagasc to the Beef Taskforce last January. The novel coronavirus pandemic has led the Armand Bayou Nature Center in Pasadena to cancel its biggest fundraiser of the year, and it hurts. We are really in a bind right now, said Tim Pylate, executive director of the center, which is the largest urban wilderness area in the region. The Party for the Planet gala was scheduled for May 2. The big-ticket event cost $175 for individual seats, while tables started at $2,500. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Coronavirus live updates: H-E-B adds Houston restaurant star to list of to-go options We are like a lot of other nonprofits in town that have had to cancel spring fundraisers, Pylate said. This is our largest fundraiser of the year. We have another smaller event in the fall, but it doesnt make near the money that our spring fundraiser does. The spring season in general provides the lions share of the 2,500-acre nature centers revenue. The money we bring in during March, April, May and June is a little over $400,000, Pylate said. We have a $750,000 annual budget. So, those four months cover more than half of our budget, and they carry us through the hot months like July and August when not many people come out for activities. So those four months are really crucial for the survival of the nature center. MORE FROM JOHN DELAPP: Expired disaster declaration could cost Houston suburb The center closed to the public in mid-March after concerns about visitors not practicing social distancing. The center hopes to open May 1 but will adhere to state and local guidelines, Pylate said. We are eager to ensure that everyone stays healthy, he said, and directed people to check the centers Facebook page for updates. Request for emergency funds Despite a gloomy financial picture, Pylate said the nature center, which has existed since 1974, is working on a plan to soften the financial hit. We are not panicking, he said. We are applying for the Paycheck Protection Program (for our 25 employees.) We have also applied for the Harris County forgivable loan program. MORNING REPORT: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox Weve also reached out to several of our donors that normally fund us to ask them if they could help us with some emergency funds or to see if they could give us some funds a little early this year. Weve also reached out to those companies that would normally attend Party for the Planet and weve said, We understand that we are not going to have Party for the Planet, but if your company is in a position to do so, would you mind contributing to us, anyway? The cancellation of Party for the Planet came on the heels of the decision to shutter the nature center in mid-March. We finally decided (to close the nature center) after watching our public coming in and being in very close proximity to each other, even though there is lots of space (at the nature center) to practice social distancing, Pylate said. We saw people lining up to pay for admissions, to use our restrooms. They were going into our interpretive building, where we have display animals, and they were gathering there. On its site, the center is asking for donations through PayPal on its site, www.abnc.org. John DeLapp is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at texdelapp@gmail.com. Countrys premier medical research body at the forefront of efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19 on Tuesday asked states to suspend rapid testing for the disease for the next two days, following complaints from at least two states- West Bengal and Rajasthan-- that the exported antibody testing kits were returning erroneous results. ICMRs top scientist Dr Gangakhedkar said that in the next two days, eight ICMR institutes will carry out field tests using the rapid testing kits in different states for validation purposes and to find out if certain batches of the kits are faulty, following which feedback will be provided to states and the general public. We received a complaint from one state yesterday that rapid kits were leading to lesser detections, so we took feedback from three states today, said Dr Gangakhedkar. We are learning that the positive samples of RT-PCR are showing too much variation (when tested by rapid kits) in the range of 6 to 71%, he added, referring to the percentage of successful detection made by the rapid testing kits in positive cases. ICMR expert said this amount of variation was not good and it needed to be investigated. However, he added that some discrepancies were expected since the virus was new. New tests show variation as the 1st generation ELISA is in the crude form, which needs to be refined, but these findings will not be overlooked, he said. West Bengal was among the first states to complain about poor accuracy of the rapid testing kits distributed to states through ICMR network. Rajasthan, too, on Tuesday decided to suspend testing after complaining of a high rate of inaccuracy. For Coronavirus Live Updates The ICMR expert said the rapid test kits were tested in Delhi before they were sent out to states and had shown 71% accuracy. He added that its accuracy percentage was growing with the passage of time as Covid-19 antibodies taken seven days to build. Gangakhedkar said that the issue could be raised with firms supplying the antibody testing kits if they were found to be malfunctioning. The rapid testing kits return results within minutes and are considered crucial for expanding testing capacity and for the containment strategy. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Today we'll look at Shanghai Prime Machinery Company Limited (HKG:2345) and reflect on its potential as an investment. Specifically, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), since that will give us an insight into how efficiently the business can generate profits from the capital it requires. Firstly, we'll go over how we calculate ROCE. Second, we'll look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. Last but not least, we'll look at what impact its current liabilities have on its ROCE. Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) ROCE measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. All else being equal, a better business will have a higher ROCE. Overall, it is a valuable metric that has its flaws. 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'. How Do You Calculate Return On Capital Employed? 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 Shanghai Prime Machinery: 0.023 = CN145m (CN9.6b - CN3.4b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019.) So, Shanghai Prime Machinery has an ROCE of 2.3%. View our latest analysis for Shanghai Prime Machinery Does Shanghai Prime Machinery Have A Good ROCE? One way to assess ROCE is to compare similar companies. In this analysis, Shanghai Prime Machinery's ROCE appears meaningfully below the 8.2% average reported by the Machinery industry. This performance is not ideal, as it suggests the company may not be deploying its capital as effectively as some competitors. Regardless of how Shanghai Prime Machinery stacks up against its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms is quite low (especially compared to a bank account). It is likely that there are more attractive prospects out there. Story continues Shanghai Prime Machinery's current ROCE of 2.3% is lower than 3 years ago, when the company reported a 4.9% ROCE. This makes us wonder if the business is facing new challenges. You can click on the image below to see (in greater detail) how Shanghai Prime Machinery's past growth compares to other companies. SEHK:2345 Past Revenue and Net Income April 20th 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. ROCE is, after all, simply a snap shot of a single year. You can check if Shanghai Prime Machinery has cyclical profits by looking at this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow. What Are Current Liabilities, And How Do They Affect Shanghai Prime Machinery's ROCE? Liabilities, such as supplier bills and bank overdrafts, are referred to as current liabilities if they need to be paid within 12 months. The ROCE equation subtracts current liabilities from capital employed, so a company with a lot of current liabilities appears to have less capital employed, and a higher ROCE than otherwise. To counteract this, we check if a company has high current liabilities, relative to its total assets. Shanghai Prime Machinery has current liabilities of CN3.4b and total assets of CN9.6b. As a result, its current liabilities are equal to approximately 36% of its total assets. With a medium level of current liabilities boosting the ROCE a little, Shanghai Prime Machinery's low ROCE is unappealing. What We Can Learn From Shanghai Prime Machinery's ROCE So researching other companies may be a better use of your time. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20. If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies 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. New Delhi, April 21 : Thousands of volunteers of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan are helping authorities in the fight against coronavirus across the country. Sangathan Vice Chairman Dinesh Pratap Singh said that as many as 18,000 volunteers were working in 623 districts across the country, coordinating with officials at the state and district levels and with other social and non-governmental bodies. These volunteers are helping with downloading of Aarogya Setu App, manufacture of face masks and sanitisers, traffic regulation, and health-related activities. Union Minister Kiran Rijjiju is keeping an eye on the activities of the volunteers of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, an autonomous organization functioning under his Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. These volunteers were also involved in spreading public awareness on coronavirus. The Sangathan has a vast network of volunteers across the country and is busy registering them online to impart to them training through iGOT-Diksha. The central government has launched a special digital platform iGOT for training and capacity building of healthcare staff like doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, hygiene workers and technicians in its fight against coronavirus. It is not for the first time that the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan has been involved in public welfare projects. It was earlier involved in relief work during tsunami and earthquakes in various states like Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Kashmir, Tamil Nadu etc in the past. Ireland, Europe and the world are living through an unprecedented crisis. We are facing an invisible enemy and a daunting common challenge. If there is one clear lesson from the past weeks, it is that the more closely and effectively we work together in Europe, the quicker we will defeat coronavirus. Joint action saves lives, limits the economic damage and prepares us for as rapid a recovery as possible. The European Commission is pulling out all the stops to achieve this. While national governments are in the driving seat in taking immediate action within their own countries to address the pandemic, the EU has a big role to play in helping governments to coordinate their policies. For example, when some Member States closed their borders in mid-March in their initial response to the crisis, the European Commission stepped in to establish green lanes to keep goods flowing, supermarket shelves stocked and vital components reaching factories. The EU has done a lot more to address the wide-ranging challenges posed by COVID-19. Just before Easter, EU finance ministers agreed a 540 billion package to support member states, companies and workers hit by the crisis. The Commission made the state aid rules more flexible than ever before so that businesses big and small can get the support they need. The budgetary rules were relaxed to allow national and EU spending to go quickly to those that need it. This has enabled EU institutions and Member States put up 2.8 trillion to fight the crisis the strongest response anywhere in the world. Through an initiative called SURE, the EU is working to ensure that people can keep their jobs and their incomes and businesses stay afloat while we are in lockdown. The scheme will provide 100 billion to help governments make up the difference if a company, especially SMEs, has had to reduce hours for its employees. Since the early days of the crisis, the Commission is deeply concerned with ensuring food security and an effective food supply chain across the continent. The Commission adopted quick measures in support of the agri-food sector increasing the level of advance payments under the CAP and the admissible support for individual farms and providing new lines for financing of food producing and food processing companies. Ultimately, the development, production and deployment of a vaccine is vital in the COVID-19 battle. The Commission has therefore reoriented existing research priorities and is making new funding available to this end. It has mobilised 140 million to finance vaccine research, making 80 million available to Cure Vac, a global leader in this field. Seventeen other vaccine-related projects are being supporting, including Dublin-based Hibergene Diagnostics. The Commission prepared a common tender for EU Member States to help secure equipment to protect frontline health care workers and provide their patients with the best possible care under the circumstances. As we all know, frontline workers sacrifice the most in our fight against the coronavirus, including healthcare workers caring for patients, and all workers who contribute to combating the spread of the virus and keeping essential services running. We owe them all our most sincere thanks. Sponsored content Mizoram government would provide financial assistance amounting to over Rs 2.5 crore to local volunteers, rehabilitation centres and state residents, who are stranded in different parts of the country due to the nationwide lock, an official said on Tuesday. The meeting of Utilization of Chief Ministers Relief Fund for COVID-19 headed by its chairman and chief secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo on Monday decided to dole out over Rs 1.56 crore to 34 Mizo Welfare associations in various cities and towns across the country for the stranded Mizos, the official of the Health department said. He said that a total of Rs 2 lakh would also be given to stranded Mizos, who reside in the area where no Mizo Welfare Association exist. The Mizoram government also decided to assist Chin refugees from Myanmar, who are stuck in Delhi, with Rs 5 lakh and another Rs 57 lakh has been earmarked for assistance to 15 Young Mizo Association (YMA) Groups and other associations, which volunteered for vigilance to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus in the state, the official said. Relief amounting to over Rs 2.9 lakh would be given to 24 rehabilitation centres and orphanage homes, which did not receive relief earlier. According to officials of the task group on migrant workers and stranded travellers, more than 2,500 people from Mizoram are currently stranded in different parts of the counntry due to the ongoing lockdown imposed to contain the spread of novel coronavirus. Earlier, the state government had launched a web portal for the stranded people. Meanwhile, an official statement said that at least 96 stranded migrant workers and visitors from various states were provided shelter and food. Another 1,478 outsiders, who have shelters of their own, were also given food and essential items from State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), the statement said. TATA trusts on Tuesday provided 10,000 masks and 10,000 pairs of hand gloves to the Mizoram government. Chief Minister Zoramthanga took to twitter to thank the company. "Sincere gratitude to tata trusts for 10,000 3layers masks and 10,000 pairs of gloves delivered at Mizoram house Delhi today," he said. More equipment like PPEs, ventilators and others essential equipment are expected in the coming month to aid the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bookstores were the first wave of institutions to turn to crowdfunding to weather the financial fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, publishers, distributors, and literary organizations are doing the same. Cinco Puntos Press in El Paso, Tex., is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, but the coronavirus pandemic has put a damper on the celebrations. While the company, which has six employees, managed to get a Small Business Administration loan to cover near term salaries and expenses, the pandemic has imperiled the mid-term viability of the company. On Friday, the publishing house launched a GoFundMe campaign asking for $250,000. Over the weekend, former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke posted about the campaign on social media, and as of Tuesday morning, it had raised $20,300. "Last year was a great year for us and this year started well," said Lee Byrd, who codirects the publishing house with her husband Bobby. "But we realized we were not going to get through this yearwe would not be able to pay our authors and illustratorswithout raising money. We are to El Paso what City Lights is to San Francisco. But in the border region, finding support for the arts can be challenging." The Byrds, along with their son John, are fixtures in the small press publishing scene, and their list has long embodied the very ideas of diversity and inclusion that are at the forefront of much publishing today. Recent titles include Bloody Seoul by Sonia Patel, a YA novel about a teenager in a Korean gang, and All Around Us by Xelena Gonzalez and illustrated by Adriana M Garcia, a children's book by an author from the indigenous Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation. "We have great books ready for the spring and fall this year, but we're not sure that we will be able to get them into the hands of readers," said Byrd. "We always have people stop and say I love your books,' but then I always want to say 'but do you buy them?' So, we felt it was important to go to our community at this time and say 'we know you love what we do, so now it is time to support us.'" As for the present, Cinco Puntos is offering all its books for sale online a 40% discount and 50% off should you want to donate books to schools under the company's "Shelter in Books" program, which allows people to sponsor books for local classrooms and teacher in need. "So far, book orders and support for the Shelter in Books program have been really strong," said Byrd. "Fortunately, just before this all happened, we had just re-launched our website. So we got that much right!" Small Press Distribution, which distributes some 300,000 titles from 400 publishers, has seen a 60% drop off in business. The distributor, which dates back to 1969 and continues to ship books from its warehouse, is seeking $100,000 on GoFundMe to cover a month of salary and benefits for its staff of ten and to pay 20% of the royalties it owes to publishers. "Although its true that books cant help materially, we believe that reading can expand the horizons of our imagination; help us consider the world we want to live in after the pandemic is over, and how we are going to work for it," wrote SPD publicity manager Tricia Low in SPD's online pitch. "We want to get our community the books from which we can learn the mostthose from underrepresented writers, queer and of color, activists and artistsand we want to do so as ethically as possible." As of Tuesday morning, SPD had raised $8,600 of it it goal. Lambda Literary, the organization that supports LGBTQ authors and the publishing community, has already suspended its annual awards and much of its operations and said on its website that the organization's "very survival is at risk" unless it is able to raise $175,000 quickly. "Like many arts organizations that serve historically marginalized communities, we do not have deep cash reserves from which to draw. We have reached a critical juncture," said the organization on its website. "Without immediate and substantial financial assistance, Lambda Literary will be forced to cease operations. Our biggest source of support has always been you, our community. We know that there will be no going back to normal after this crisis has passed, but we also dont want to see a world without Lambda Literary." The group pulled in more than $100,000 in donations in less than a day. Viewers were today moved to tears after watching the emotional moment a D-Day veteran was given a cushion with his late wife's face on. Ken Benbow, 94, and carer Kia Tobin were on Good Morning Britain after a video emerged on Saturday of the veteran crying when he got the pillow of Ada. The former Royal Navy serviceman, who lives at Thistleton Lodge nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, has kept a picture of her with him since she died nine months ago. Mr Benbow and Ms Tobin were on GMB via videolink this morning where viewers were shown the footage of him receiving the gift. Ken Benbow, 94, burst into tears when Kia Tobin (left, together) handed him the pillow of Ada (right) at Thistleton Lodge nursing home in Preston, Lancashire Mr Benbow, who is originally from Oswestry in Shropshire, was married to Ada for 71 years and fought in the Second World War in the Pacific and the Mediterranean The video shows the heartwarming moment Ms Tobin handed it over, with the veteran hugging it and starting to cry. The NHS carer wraps her arms around him as he sits in his armchair and says: 'Aw that's so special.' Mr Benbow shows other care home residents the cushion and they tell him it is 'beautiful, how beautiful'. Ms Tobin says 'I thought that might be a bit better than your photograph', but Mr Benbow struggles to speak and just hugs her. Viewers were left in bits after watching the emotional scenes, with one writing on Twitter: 'Ken Benbow is one of the most remarkable interviewees I've ever seen. 'There are rare moments when you watch TV that you realise you're witnessing something completely out of the ordinary, this was one of those moments.' Another put: 'Love you Ken and what an incredible example Kia is! Obviously loves her job and is so pretty and kind.' And one woman added: 'Listening to the lovely Ken and Kia on GMB and having a sob.' Mr Benbow shows other care home residents (left) the cushion and they tell him it is 'beautiful, how beautiful', before he hugs Ms Tobin (right) Thistleton Lodge shared the video on Saturday with the caption: 'We know our residents are missing their loved ones at this time but let's not forget those who sadly aren't here with us any more. 'Today, one of our lovely staff Kia Mariah Tobin gave Ken a pillow with his beloved wife on who we also cared for. Safe to say we all shed a tear with Ken today.' Mr Benbow, who is originally from Oswestry in Shropshire, was married to Ada for 71 years. The couple moved to Garstang, Lancashire, after Mr Benbow returned from the Second World War. On Good Morning Britain today the emotional Mr Benbow again thanked the care home staff. He said: 'I'm going to cry if I keep on, because it was just so touching. It was lovely, the most precious thing anyone could ever wish for. Ms Tobin put her arm around him and asked if he was all right, to which Mr Benbow said: 'And I must say the staff here are excellent.' He added of his wife: 'She was the best little woman in the world, most loving caring wife. I smother myself with the pillow it's so beautiful and soft and lovely.' Ms Tobin said: 'It was an amazing moment, so rewarding, it doesn't cost a lot and it made him so happy and it was just amazing. All the girls were crying, everyone was so emotional about it.' As a Royal Navy serviceman, Mr Benbow took part in the D-Day operations as well as facing action in the Pacific during the preparations to invade Japan. He was inspired to join the armed forces when he saw wounded troops being brought through Oswestry station when he was a 14-year-old milk delivery boy in 1940. But he had to wait three years until he was 17 before being accepted for training at HMS Raleigh and was later assigned to the anti-aircraft and anti-submarine ship HMS Crane to help in the ship's magazine. His first task during the war was to help defend the American ships bringing supplies to Britain across the Atlantic. The pair appeared on Good Morning Britain today (pictured with host Piers Morgan) where an emotional Mr Benbow again thanked the care home staff But he was moved across to Gibraltar before covering the invasion of Sicily in the summer of 1943. In the September he helped hunt U-boats in the Bay of Biscay off the coast of France before being redeployed back to the Atlantic for another push against the Japanese. In 1944 Mr Benbow was one of the heroes taking part in the D-Day landings, where the HMS Crane helped escort vessels and troops to the shore. Mr Benbow spent the last year of the war in the Pacific battling alongside Australians and Americans against the Japanese. He left the navy in 1946. As a Grammy-nominated songstress she usually has a dedicated hair and make-up team. But in isolation, Camila Cabello just has her mom, Sinuhe Estrabao. The 23-year-old asked her mother to help out and trim her bangs on Monday, but wasn't pleased with the results. Camila, 23, warned her fans 'don't do this at home' as she filmed the video with her mom in Coral Gables, Florida. At-home makeover: Camila Cabello took to her Instagram Stories on Monday to document her efforts to get her bangs cut, thanks to the help of her mother Sinuhe Estrabao The Havana hitmaker appeared fresh from the shower in her Stories, her hair wet, as she sat topless wrapped in a white bath towel. Cabello used a delightful wintry-themed filter for the video testimonial, which featured frost, snowflakes and mistletoe leaves. 'Alright guys, so this is what it's come to,' Camila told the camera. 'The bangs are too long, can't go outside... I'm going to have to trust this woman' 'That's me!' Sinuhe, 50, interjected, as she brushed her daughter's hair. No going back now: The Havana hitmaker appeared fresh from the shower in her Stories, her hair wet, as she sat topless wrapped in a white bath towel 'That's her, with my bangs, because I can't trust myself,' Cabello continued. The girlfriend of Shawn Mendes went on to explain that she had previously attempted to trim her own bangs, around the time she was in 7th grade, but wasn't happy with the results because they looked like 'mountains' to her. 'I've been seeing a lot of posts warning people not to do this,' Camila qualified right before the scissors did their work, as her mother combed her bangs down in front of her eyes. 'Lets see how it turns out.' Before and after: 'Alright guys, so this is what it's come to. The bangs are too long, can't go outside... I'm going to have to trust this woman,' Camila said about her beloved mother Camila's Story then cuts ahead, to show half her bangs cut just above her eyes, and already she's not happy. 'Not great,' Camila said, while her mother is heard saying 'You didn't tell me!' 'She already f***ed it up,' Cabello continued, explaining that she would have preferred bangs that were tapered and a little longer on the sides. 'Not great': Camila's Story cut ahead to show half her bangs cut just above her eyes, and already she was not happy The barber herself: Camila has a very close relationship with her mother Sinuhe 'She just horizontal-lined that sh**,' the Senorita songbird bemoaned. But then, after her mother cut the rest of Camila's bangs, she observed that 'it actually ended up looking not that bad. I'll show you guys when it dries up!' Before signing off, Camila said to the camera in a conspiratorial tone, 'Don't do this at home. She gave me a pedi this morning made my foot bleed.' Then, she quickly panned the camera over to her beloved mother, who giggled, confirming that her daughter's beauty 'complaints' were all in good fun. Over the weekend, Cabello appeared (bangs and all) alongside her main man Mendes, 21, to sing What A Wonderful World as part of Lady Gaga's Global Citizen One World: Together At Home Concert. MANZINI Workers are calling upon politicians to donate a third of their salaries to the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA). This money would then be channelled towards the fight against the coronavirus. The workers, who have been affected by means employed by government to fight the coronavirus such as imposing a partial lockdown, said the politicians should take a leaf from their South African counterparts. They said the Republics President, Cyril Ramaphosa, when announcing the extension of the lockdown, said Cabinet ministers and premiers, would contribute a third of their salary to the consolidation fund. Their consolidation fund is aimed at assisting those who would be affected by the virus. In retrospect, local industrial groups said they were expecting politicians to lead by example and offer a portion of their salaries as they were also idle at home like their constituents. The country has about 627 politicians. These are Members of Parliament (69), regional administrators (4), senators (30), emabandla (94) tindvuna tetinkhundla (59) and bucopho (380). Emabandla refer to Liqoqo, Ludzidzini Council, Border Determination Special Committee (BDSC), Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), Land Management Board (LMB), Civil Service Commission (CSC), Teaching Service Commission (TSC); and Chairman of the Minerals Management Board (MMB). Contribute Advocating for the politicians to contribute a third of their salary was the Secretary General of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Sikelela Dlamini. He said politicians should lead by example and be patriotic like they usually said in political gatherings. He said if they cared about the destitute and impoverished masses in the country, their contributions would assist immensely in the uplifting of those who were affected by the pandemic. If they care about the people, this is the time for them to show that they do. On the other hand, the President of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), Bheki Mamba, said a contribution of their salary by the politicians would assist in procuring a number of essential things needed in delivering adequate health services. In so doing, with the contributions, that is, Mamba said what was essential even if the politicians were to contribute was accountability and transparency. He said this was important in order for the politicians themselves to know what they were donating for and how much was necessary for it. Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), Mduduzi Gina, said they ought to lead by example more so because their remuneration was not affected by the lockdown. They are not going to experience layoffs or short time; so, they can contribute what they earn towards making the lives of the people they lead better. He said they should contribute as they benefitted when employees sought better remuneration and were lucky enough not to be affected by the technicalities that saw workers having their salaries deducted. While promoting the need for politicians to contribute 33.33 per cent of their remuneration, he said the politicians should be engaged before their salaries were tampered with. Worth noting is that politicians are not social welfare officers but in their various constituencies, they lead in a number of initiatives that seek to upgrade the livelihood of the electorate. These initiatives vary between paying school fees for the destitute to buying coffins for impoverished families in a time of need so they could bury their loved ones. Urging Californians to answer the immediate needs of the coronavirus pandemic and create a lasting commitment to community volunteerism, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday unveiled a new statewide program designed to enlist more of the state's residents to offer both in-person and remote help for those in need. "We've launched this initiative in order to launch an army of volunteers to express themselves, day in and day out, as only Californians can," Newsom said. "Not only to meet this moment, but to prepare to meet subsequent moments." The "Californians for All" effort focuses on a new web-based application for those willing to volunteer in a variety of ways. Josh Fryday, the state's chief service officer, said the program is designed to provide a variety of options for those who want to get involved. Not all volunteerism has to be done in person, he said. Those concerned about their health and safety can offer to help from home. "We want you to sign up and tell us, when you sign up: What interests you? What issues do you want to work on in your community? Where would you like to make a difference?" Fryday said. In the weeks since the public health crisis began, state officials have highlighted the particular challenges for at-risk Californians. Some seniors, especially those with underlying health problems, have suffered as long-standing services such as meal deliveries have been curtailed. Others, confined to their homes for the first time, have few or no family members to check on their well-being. "We need you. And we need each other," Fryday said. The effort, unveiled during the governor's daily briefing on coronavirus efforts across the state, includes a variety of nonprofit organizations that will partner with state officials to organize the new volunteers and coordinate their activities. California has had a government-led effort on volunteerism since 1994, now known as California Volunteers, that oversees the state's administration of the AmeriCorps program. The new effort uses the existing state operation led by Fryday and will be overseen by a bipartisan commission led by First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The governor said on Tuesday that his initiative seeks to not only enlist new volunteers, but to have their efforts more closely tailored to the needs of their own communities. "It's a bottom-up framework, not top-down," Newsom said. "So we want to meet you where you are and help you meet others so, ultimately, we can create the kind of dynamic a sense of commonality that ultimately will get us through this moment." Newsfrom Japan Tokyo, April 21 (Jiji Press)--Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali vowed on Tuesday to have state-run Ethiopian Airlines continue flights to help Japanese expatriates return home amid the global coronavirus pandemic. The pledge came during his telephone talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry. Abe told the Ethiopian leader that Ethiopian Airlines flights are indispensable for Japanese nationals in Africa to return home in the current circumstances. According to the ministry, about 300 Japanese people left Ethiopia for home on Saturday, after arriving from other countries in Africa. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 16:11:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Yemeni war-affected children are seen at a slum in Sanaa, Yemen, April 20, 2020. UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock warned on Thursday that the world body will have to close 31 of its 41 aid programs in Yemen in a few weeks as a result of lack of funds. "This means we will have to start eliminating many of the activities that may offer Yemenis' best chance to avoid COVID-19," Lowcock told the Security Council in a virtual briefing. The UN Children's Fund will have to stop immediate assistance for families displaced by conflict or natural disasters. That means up to 1 million displaced people would not receive critical supplies, including hygiene items that help protect against diseases like cholera and COVID-19, he said. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua) [April 21, 2020] KP Performance Antennas Introduces New Line of Cables with Rubber Boots IRVINE, Calif., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KP Performance Antennas, an Infinite Electronics brand and a manufacturer of wireless network antennas, has just released a new series of cables with rubber boots that are ideal for installations in tight areas where it is difficult to tape individual connectors. KP's new line of N-type male and RP-SMA male cables includes seven models with rubber boots to fully cover the connectors and provide an additional level of weatherproofing protection. This feature reduces time to tower by minimizing the taping of connectors. These white rubber boots are UV-resistant, rated from -40C to +65C and are designed to last in the toughest environments. "The rubber boots on these cables provide further protection against rain and dust ingress, reducing the time needed to tape connectors, which can also be a life saver in tight spaces where it's difficult to tape individual connectors," said Ken Izatt, Antenna Product Line Manager. In this line, the RP-SMA to N-male and N-male to N-mle LMR 195 cables with boots are available in 8-, 18- and 24-inch lengths. Also available as two pack options are N-male to RP-SMA LMR 195, 8-inch cables with boots, and N-male to N-male LL142, 12-inch cables with boots for high frequency operation up to 12 GHz. KP's new cables with rubber boots are in stock and can be ordered directly from any of KP's authorized distributors or from the KP Performance Antennas website at https://www.kpperformance.com/pages/new-wisp-antennas-and-accessories/cables-assemblies-with-rubber-boots.html For inquiries, please call 1-855-276-5772. About KP Performance Antennas: With decades of in-the-field expertise as former WISP operators and Ph.D. antenna engineers, KP Performance Antennas helps wireless internet service providers maximize ROI with products engineered to exceed industry expectations by delivering superior throughput, greater service coverage, dependable performance and reduced maintenance costs, while also providing responsive service, expert technical support and same-day shipping. KP Performance Antennas is an Infinite Electronics brand. About Infinite Electronics: Based in Irvine, Calif., Infinite Electronics offers a broad range of components, assemblies and wired/wireless connectivity solutions, serving the aerospace/defense, industrial, government, consumer electronics, instrumentation, medical and telecommunications markets. Infinite's brands include Pasternack, Fairview Microwave, L-com, MilesTek, Aiconics, KP Performance Antennas, PolyPhaser, Transtector, RadioWaves, ShowMe Cables and Integra Optics. Infinite Electronics serves a global engineering customer base with deep technical expertise and support, with one of the broadest inventories of products available for immediate shipment. For more information about this release, please contact: Peter McNeil KP Performance Antennas 17792 Fitch Irvine, CA 978-682-6936 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kp-performance-antennas-introduces-new-line-of-cables-with-rubber-boots-301041257.html SOURCE KP Performance Antennas [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Tuesday regretted the episodes where locals opposed the burial of doctors who died of COVID-19 in the city and urged all to respect the dedication of the health workers. He also equated doctors, besides other frontline workers in the battle against coronavirus, to God for the "selfless" services rendered by them. Due protocol was being followed in the burial of such victims, he said. Track live updates on coronavirus here The city police chief warned of "severe action" against those preventing burial or victims of COVID-19. "It is sad that the burial of doctors was opposed to at a time when (doctors) are fighting to protect us against coronavirus," he wrote on his official twitter handle, @CMOTamilNadu. "We all should respect their dedication and act with humanity," he added. Read: A burial that was not: Chennai doctor's last rites see attacks, protest amidst coronavirus fears In two separate incidents last week, two doctors died of COVID-19 in the city, but locals protested against their burial on grounds of fears of spread of the pandemic. On both occasions, the mortal remains were buried elsewhere after officials could not perform the formalities in the originally selected localities. Incidentally, on Sunday night an orthopaedic surgeon had to bury his associate, a neurosurgeon who died of COVID-19, in the middle of the night using his bare hands and a shovel at a crematorium with the help of two hospital ward boys after the undertakers fled when a mob, protesting the interment, attacked them with bricks, stones, bottles and sticks and chased them away. Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Palaniswami said frontline workers in the battle against COVID-19 such as doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and police personnel were engaged in "selfless" duty. "The whole country is praising them for their work. I consider these, who are working to protect lives, equal to God," he said in the statement. He further said the government has ordered that the burial or cremation of people who had died of coronavirus be done with "due protection" but expressed regret over the incidents where people protested against such formalities for the deceased doctors. Referring to a couplet from Thirukkural, he urged people to show respect to those selfless persons who die while trying to protect the public and sought for due cooperation. Also Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases Assuring his government's "total support" to such frontline workers, he said it will take due steps to ensure such incidents do not repeat and asked them not to have any fears. Meanwhile, City Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan described yesterday's incident as "inhuman violence" and condemned it. As many as 21 people have been arrested in connection with the incident and action will be taken against them under the stringent Goondas Act, he said. "Corporation and Health department are doing the burial as per World Health Organisation (WHO) guidlines. Doctors and experts have said there is no possibilty of spread (from a dead body)," he told reporters. He warned that police would take "severe action" against those preventing the burial, saying even Goondas Act could be slapped against them. The Greater Chennai Corporation appealed for public cooperation to ensure that those who died of COVID-19 are given a dignified burial or cremation. The civic body, in a release, said it was fighting the pandemic on a 'war-footing' and all it's staff were working round the clock to contain it. Despite all the efforts, it was unfortunate to lose a few lives due to the virus, it said, adding that "as fellow humans it is our duty to show compassion and empathy in sending off the deceased." "They deserve to have a respectful farewell from this world", it said and rued the the "obstruction" to burial or cremation of the deceased in some places, which it said, was unfortunate. "GCC hereby clarifies that the bodies of the deceased are handled safely as per set protocols," it said. Both burial and cremation were approved by the WHO, Government of India and the state government", it said. The Corporation said there was absolutely no spread of the infection in the neighbourhood and said the public need not fear or panic over such burial or cremation. "We request all to cooperate with us to ensure dignified burial or cremation of the deceased", it said. Fears have been growing for the health of more than eight million children in Spain who had not been allowed outside. Grenada, Spain Since March 14, when Spain decreed its lockdown, nearly all of its 8.3 million children have stayed indoors, unable to leave home as adults could, for shopping or to take the family dog for a walk. Even when the strictest restrictions on non-essential workers were lifted 10 days ago, there was no change. But last weekend, amid rising concern about the potential damage to health on the nations young, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that while extending Spains lockdown into May, children would be allowed out for limited periods. It cant come a moment too soon, Raul Esgueva Sanz, a Spanish father of two, told Al Jazeera. And were the lucky ones. Our kids have been handling this fairly well. Quite apart from the effect on the children, if youve got rebellious ones, it must make you want to jump out of the window. Sanchez hinted at a maximum age level of 12 for outings, which media reports say would be limited to 90 minutes and need to be accompanied by an adult. Parks, currently closed, will remain out of bounds. The governments cautious approach comes as the effect of the coronavirus pandemic appears to be lessening in Spain, with fewer daily deaths reported. But it still has the highest level of coronavirus-linked cases in Europe, now totalling over 200,000. We have to be very clear, children will be able to go out from Monday onwards, but it wont be to play, Spains health emergency chief, Fernando Simon, said on Monday. To date, direct consequences for Spains youngest generations are relatively minimal. As of April 20, only 1 percent of all confirmed male cases and 0.9 percent of all female cases were under 19, and there were no recorded fatalities. Last week Maria Ordabas, head of Epidemiology in the Community of Madrids health services, urged greater reflection on the role children have in transmitting the illness. A recent update from the Spanish Ministry of Health suggested that confinement could have contributed to the lower rates of infection among minors. However, since March 24, hundreds of Spanish medical professionals have signed an open letter to PM Sanchez requesting that childrens rights should not be ignored in the coronavirus debate. The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, herself a mother, posted a heartfelt Facebook message to free the children. Weve been handling it pretty well, were trying to keep organised and so on. But theres still a lot of anxiety and distress and each time a couple of weeks is added to the lockdown, the sense of being overwhelmed is greater, said Esgueva Sanz, the father of two. Francesca Martin Garcia, a child psychologist and director of one of southern Spains foremost mental health centres, told Al Jazeera: Children with stable families wont notice the effects long term. But for those in conflictive situations, it can cause more severe damage, cases of anxiety, depression and so on. Ive also had a lot of calls from parents with custody issues. Then there are possible cases of aggression and abuse, and right now theres almost no way out of that. As for fears that children could raise levels of contagion, Martin Garcia argued that they could be addressed by giving children information they need about the situation, safety protocols about minimising risks, and so on. Children can adapt a lot more quickly than adults and in many ways they are more responsible. The government is expected to announce the specific details this week, against a backdrop of a rising political storm over police handling of fake news. On Sunday, a top director of the Guardia Civil police force said when monitoring hoax stories, the aim should be to minimise negativity towards the governments handling of the crisis. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska subsequently said the police chief had misspoken. The fallout, including the emergence of a police email seemingly confirming the order, has led to concerns about press freedom. By Joe Guzzardi Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, I spent the better part of three months in Hawaii, where I was heartened to find a state doing what it could to encourage environmentally sound practices. There are numerous organizations working to protect native plants, animals, ecosystems and cultural sites. Back in July 2018, the Department of Environmental Services imposed a 15-cent per recyclable bag fee that retailers provide to shoppers. Bike lanes are everywhere, a good thing since traffic is brutal and parking is nearly-impossible to find and more expensive than midtown Manhattan. Driving in Hawaii is anything but aloha. But Hawaii is caught in the quintessential Catch-22. Tourism is the state's lifeblood. About 10 million tourists come to Hawaii each year. To accommodate them, environmentally unfriendly high-rise condominiums and luxury resort hotels have sprung up along the coastline and destroyed the islands' delicate ecosystems and landscapes. Nonstop urban development has displaced poor and lower middle-class neighborhoods, which in turn spawned a serious and growing problem homelessness. Last year, O'ahu's homeless spiked to 6,924. During the last five years, 373 O'ahu homeless have died on the street. This year, Earth Day will mark the 50th anniversary that citizens worldwide gather in their respective cities to identify solutions to make the planet more habitable. Perhaps no state faces a greater challenge than Hawaii. Compare the era of Hawaii's Duke Kahanamoku a half century ago to island life today, and the changes are dramatic. Hawaii's skyline, once a breathtaking vision of beach and mountain majesty, is today marred by ugly sprawl. Immigration is a key variable in Hawaii's growth, and a reason that the need to build new homes and apartments is constant. A recent analysis found that Hawaii has a large immigrant community, nearly half from the Philippines. About 18 percent of the state's 1.4 million are foreign nationals, and 16 percent are native-born Americans who have at least one immigrant parent. On the economic front, however, Hawaii had been coming up roses. In 2018, the 10 million tourists set a record. Tourists stayed longer, and spent more than in previous years, a total of $17.8 billion, a 6.8 percent increase over the previous year. Visitor spending generated $2.08 billion in state tax revenue in 2018, an increase of $133.1 million from 2017. Hawaii didn't exceed 1 million tourists until 1967. In the last decade, tourism has doubled, an unsustainable trend. Yet, the Hawaii Tourism Authority's data showed that, in a year-over-year comparison, January's 2020 tourism increased 5 percent. Those visitors spent $1.7 billion on lodging, airfare, car rentals, meals and other sundry expenses. However, the strong January tourism report, broken down by visitor categories, showed what looked like a potentially foreboding trend as I began writing this piece in February. Visitor arrivals from the coronavirus epicenter, China, declined 20 percent. Arrivals from Korea, Japan, Australia, Latin America and Europe all dropped. Since then, of course, everything changed in Hawaii as elsewhere due to the coronavirus pandemic. On March 23, Hawaii Gov. David Ige announced statewide restrictions on the activities and movements of residents to slow the spread of coronavirus. Although Hawaii's economy is being adversely affected, the slowdown might have benefits. Hawaii's ever-increasing development has left natives struggling to preserve their culture and the environment. To meet tourism's demand, new hotels are continuously being built and expanded, some on sacred ground. But in the end, natives are, after all, the principal stakeholders in Hawaii's future, and growth should accommodate their desires to preserve their sacred history. Joe Guzzardi ( jguzzardi@pfirdc.org ) is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. His commentary was distributed by Cagle Cartoons Inc. Even as Odisha experienced the highest single-day spike in Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced ex-gratia assistance of Rs 50 lakh and state funeral for government personnel who die during Covid-19 duty. The CM said that the State should be grateful for the bold and selfless service rendered by its doctors, health professionals and other support staff like ASHA workers during the pandemic. In a video message this afternoon, Patnaik said the war against Covid-19 is being fought by doctors and healthcare professionals on the frontlines, assisted by a huge army of support services. In the absence of any cure or vaccine, those fighting the Covid war for us are taking a huge risk by putting themselves in the front. We propose to recognize and honour the valiant work being done by our Covid warriors. The state would treat them as martyrs, said Patnaik, adding that a detailed scheme of awards will be instituted and given on national days. The CM said families of all government personnel (medical and others) who die during Covid-19 will continue to receive full salary till the date of retirement. Warning against any discrimination and harassment of the doctors and other health workers employed in the containment effort, Patnaik said any act against the doctors and the health workers is an act against the State. If any act that will disturb or dishonour their work, very strict criminal action will be taken including invoking the provisions of NSA, he said, referring to the attack on an ASHA worker in Nayagarh district, who was left scalded after a man poured hot gruel on her face during an awareness session on the spread of the virus. Last month, Odisha government had floated an advertisement to recruit around 8000 doctors, nurses, paramedics and multipurpose health workers, pharmacists, laboratory technicians and radiographers offering them lucrative amount to join the battle against the pandemic. To boost the morale of the health care staff, chief minister Naveen Patnaik also announced advance payment of 4-months salary to doctors, paramedics and workers engaged in health services in the State. The announcement came on the day when three doctors and 19 nurses working in a hospital in Jajpur district were sent into institutional quarantine after coming in contact with Covid-19 positive persons while treating them in the OPD. On Monday, 5 labourers of Jajpur district aged between 28 years and 64 years, working in Howrah and Burrabazar area of Kolkata had tested positive, 2-3 weeks after returning from there. The recent confirmed cases had come in direct contact with some doctors & paramedical staff at the medical outdoor ward. So we have put all of them in quarantine. All their family members have also been advised to remain in home quarantine, said Jajpur district collector Ranjan Kumar Das. Though Odisha did not have any positive cases for consecutive 3 days till April 19, on April 20 there were 18 new cases taking the total number of positive cases in the State to 79. Of the 18 new cases on Monday, 10 were due to the influx of people from Bengal defying lockdown. Revenue divisional commissioner (eastern) Anil Samal, who is camping in Balasore district that shares a large part of its border with Bengal, said around 2,800 people have trespassed into the Balasore from neighbouring States in the past two months. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Weve received information that people have trespassed into Balasore from WB through unauthorised ambulance rides and by crossing adjoining farmlands with WB border. Appropriate action will be taken against them for violating lockdown guidelines, said Samal, who had a meeting with State DGP Abhay at Balasore today. The RDC said around 700 people who have returned from West Bengal and other neighbouring States have registered themselves. Those who have returned in the last 14 days are being identified and placed under quarantine. Sample testing of these persons will be done on a priority basis. There are many other WB returnees who did not register, may be out of fear. So we have directed the local authorities and police to trace all these people and compulsorily put them in the government quarantine facility. Those violating private quarantine guidelines would be shifted to government centres, he added. For Coronavirus Live Updates Aurobindo Pharma spurted 15.07% to Rs 622 after US drug regulator classified the company's Unit IV of Hyderabad plant as VAI (voluntary action indicated). "Further to our intimations dated 13th November 2019, 19th February and 21st February 2020 with regard to the inspection of Unit IV, an injectable manufacturing formulation facility of the company, conducted between Nov 4th-13th, 2019, we would like to inform that USFDA has determined that the inspection classification of this facility is Voluntary Action Indicated (VAI)," Aurobindo Pharma announced after market hours on Monday (20 April). In November 2019, Aurobindo Pharma announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) inspected the company's unit IV, a general injectable formulation manufacturing facility situated at Pashamylaram, Hyderabad, from 4th to 13th November 2019. At the end of the inspection, it issued a 'Form 483' with 14 observations. Later on 19 February 2020, the drug maker informed that the Hyderabad facility received an Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) with Voluntary Action Initiated (VAI) status from USFDA. However on 21 February 2020, Aurobindo Pharma clarified that the inspection conducted by the USFDA at the company's Unit IV of Hyderabad facility, from 4th to 13th November 2019 was still open and under review, by way of rescindment of 90-day VAI letter that was issued by them on 18 February 2020. On a consolidated basis, the drug maker's net profit declined 0.95% to Rs 705.45 crore despite 12.06% rise in net sales to Rs 5,799.44 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018. Aurobindo Pharma is engaged in producing oral and injectable generic formulations and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Its product portfolio is spread over seven therapeutic/product areas, including antibiotics, anti-retrovirals, cardiovascular, central nervous system, gastroenterologicals, anti-allergies and anti-diabetics. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The global coronavirus outbreak has sparked a rise in anti-Semitic expression blaming Jews for the spread of the disease and the economic recession it has caused, Israeli researchers say. The findings, which came in an annual report by Tel Aviv University, show an 18% spike in attacks against Jews last year. The report warns that the pandemic has threatened to amp up incitement even more. Although they did not include 2020 statistics, the researchers said the hatred has come from sources as varied as right-wing European politicians, ultra-conservative American pastors, anti-Zionist intellectuals and Iranian state authorities. The coronavirus sparked a rise in anti-Semitic expression blaming Jews for the spread of the disease and economic recession, researchers say. Pictured: Six torches in memory of Jewish Holocaust victims during a ceremony in Jerusalem, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day The findings by Tel Aviv University researchers on anti-Semitism show an 18% spike in attacks against Jews in 2019 'Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a significant rise in accusations that Jews, as individuals and as a collective, are behind the spread of the virus or are directly profiting from it,' said Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across the continent. 'The language and imagery used clearly identifies a revival of the medieval `blood libels' when Jews were accused of spreading disease, poisoning wells or controlling economies.' Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry releases its report every year on the eve of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins Monday at sundown. Researchers said the 18% increase in anti-Semitic violence in 2019 continued a steady rise of recent years. Seven Jews were killed in 2019 in more than 450 attacks across the globe against synagogues, community centers and other Jewish targets. A close up of one of six torches lit in memory of the millions murdered in the Jewish Holocaust The researchers said the hateful response to the novel coronavirus - and the Covid-19 illness it causes - was the continuation of an ancient form of anti-Semitism that involves blaming Jews when 'things go wrong.' They recorded expressions such as pinning the source of the virus on Jews rejecting Christ, to accusing Jews of perpetrating the virus's spread in order to profit from vaccines they would ultimately create to combat it. The FBI also warned against calls coming from neo-Nazis and white supremacists to spread contagion among Jews. Kantor warned that the virus had the potential to spark populist extremism, similar to what erupted after the Great Depression and contributed to the rise of Nazism. The dire warning comes on the heels of another difficult year for Jews, capped by the October shooting attack on Yom Kippur against a synagogue in the German city of Halle. Germany averaged five anti-Semitic incidents a day in 2019. Overall, at least 169 Jews were physically attacked in the world in 2019, some close to or even in their homes. A recent survey, led by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, found that four out of 10 European Jews under the age of 60 have considered emigrating because of the rise in anti-Semitism. It doesn't say where they want to emigrate. Also, the survey said eight out of 10 feel anti-Semitism is a problem in their countries. Several governments have taken additional measures to protect Jews, with more than 20 countries adopting the working definition of anti-Semitism as outlined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. A Code of Conduct against illegal hate speech on the web was also signed in 2019 with internet platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube vowing to scan material identified as such and remove it within 24 hours. In January, Israel hosted dozens of world leaders for the largest-ever gathering focused on combating anti-Semitism. The Australian government announced on Sunday that it will force Facebook and Google to pay the countrys media companies in order to use their news content, a move that comes as thousands of news outlets worldwide are compelled to downsize and shut down because of plummeting ad revenue from the coronavirus pandemic. According to ABC News (AU), the decision was made by the countrys treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, who had initially asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to form a voluntary code that would require Facebook and Google to negotiate with media companies on fair payment and sharing of advertising revenue. But after the ACCC advised the government that it was unlikely that the Silicon Valley companies would agree, Frydenberg asked the ACCC to make a mandatory code that will define what news content the companies must pay for and what penalties will be levied if the code is not followed. Its only fair that those that generate content get paid for it, Mr. Frydenberg said. Also Read: Zoom Accused of Illegally Sharing Personal Data With Facebook in New Lawsuit The mandatory code was also ordered because of the escalating damage that the pandemic-induced global economic downturn has inflicted on the news media. Dozens of local newspapers in Australia have shuttered since the pandemic began, and in Southern California, publications like The Los Angeles Times and The Hollywood Reporter have furloughed and laid off dozens of staff. Media companies are facing significant financial pressure and COVID-19 has led to a sharp downturn in advertising revenue across the whole sector, Australian Communications Minister Paul Fletcher wrote. Digital platforms need to do more to improve the transparency of their operations for news media providers as they have a significant impact on the capacity of news media organisations [sic] to build and maintain an audience and derive resources from the media content they produce. Australia isnt the first country to attempt to regulate Google and Facebooks growing control of digital news consumption. A similar order to Google to pay for local news content was issued by France earlier this month, invoking new rules made by the European Union as part of sweeping copyright reform. France has given Google three months to negotiate in good faith with French news companies, including Agence France-Presse, the global news agency that provides news to all of the countrys government offices. Read original story Australia Forces Facebook and Google to Pay Countrys Media Outlets for Their News Content At TheWrap US President Donald Trump has said there are 72 active trials underway across the country researching dozens of therapies and treatments for the coronavirus and tremendous progress is being made on vaccines. According to the President, there are therapies designed to attack the virus as well as others that would hinder its replication, reduce the rate of infection, control the immune response or transfer life savings antibodies from the blood of recovered patients. There are now 72 active trials underway across the United States researching dozens of therapies and treatments and another 211 are in the planning stages. They are literally mobilising on therapeutics and also on vaccines, and tremendous progress is being made on vaccines and I must say on therapeutics, Trump told reporters at his daily White House conference on the coronavirus on Monday. From the day this crisis began, America launched a scientific mobilisation of colossal size and scale, he said. Someday they will be able to write the true story because nobody has seen anything like it, the President said, accusing the mainstream media for refusing to cover it correctly. If I had my choice give me the therapeutics right now because that would help people right now and we have some things that I think are working not only working but we have some incredible things that look like they could be an answer but we will know soon. Being tested, working out right now, he said. Trump has been pushing for the use of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of coronavirus patients. On Monday he did not mention this drug, a large consignment of which has come from India. tremendous things are happening, you will be seeing that over the weeks. We will be talking about it in the not-too-distant future, he said. Johnson & Johnson, he said, is very well along on vaccines. Vaccines have to be tested yet, therapeutics are for now, he noted. A lot of good things are happening on both but ultimately we also hope to prevent infection through a safe, a very safe vaccine and that will be a great thing when we have that and we will have that, Trump added. The number of people killed in the US due to COVID-19 has reached 42,094, according to Johns Hopkins University, and more than 750,000 cases have been confirmed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine could protect people from severe COVID-19, according to scientists. Researchers at the University of Cambridge said the jab could protect people because the rubella virus has a similar structure to SARS-CoV-2. They pointed out that middle-aged and older people are less likely to have had the jabs, which came out in the 1960s, and are also most at risk from the coronavirus. And blood testing done in an NHS hospital found that patients who had severe COVID-19 appeared to have developed 'non-specific' immune responses which could also have protected them from rubella. The team have no proof that the MMR vaccine has any impact on COVID-19 patients but said 'a study is warranted'. Their research comes as the Government today announced the UK will start trials of its first coronavirus vaccine candidate later this week. The UK is trying to develop a coronavirus vaccine but researchers say trying to muster up some level of protection using one that might already work could save time (stock image) Writing in a paper published online without being checked by other scientists or journal editors, the Cambridge researchers said: 'We suggest that MMR will not prevent COVID-19 infection but could potentially reduce poor outcome.' The researchers, led by Professor Robin Franklin and Dr Yorgo Modis, suggest that structural similarities between the coronavirus and rubella could be one way in which the vaccine is protective. When they analysed the two viruses they found that they were 29 per cent identical and there are 'known similarities' between coronaviruses and paramyxoviruses, of which rubella is a type. UK TO START HUMAN VACCINE TRIALS THIS WEEK A COVID-19 vaccine developed at the University of Oxford will be trialled on humans in the UK from Thursday this week. Health Secretary Matt Hancock today said he was 'throwing everything at' Britain's attempt to develop the first vaccine in the world. The Government will give the scientists an extra 20million to help with their trials, Mr Hancock said, and a further 22.5m to a project at Imperial College London. The Oxford vaccine, known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 will be trialled on up to 510 people out of a group of 1,112 aged 18 to 55. It is recruiting volunteers in London, Bristol, Oxford and Southampton. It is the first British-made vaccine to go into real-world trials and carries with it huge hopes that it will provide a key to getting out of lockdown and banishing COVID-19. The virus has now infected more than 125,000 people and killed 17,339 in the UK and the UK is on course to end up one of the worst-hit nations in the world. Mr Hancock said developing vaccines is an 'uncertain science' which usually takes years but that manufacturing capacity will be ramped up in case the jab is a success and is suitable to roll out to the public. The trial will take six months and is limited to a small number of people so scientists can assess whether it is safe and effective without using huge amounts of resources - each patient must return for between four and 11 visits after the jab - and without the risk of large numbers of people being affected if something goes wrong. Advertisement Because of this, if someone has developed immune system antibodies able to fight off rubella, they may also be able to partly fight off COVID-19, the scientists said. This could happen if the body was forced to develop antibodies targeted at one virus but also able to latch onto another. The team said molecules found on the COVID coronavirus had been found to bind to rubella antibodies in past studies. In a bid to further back up their claim, the scientists turned to links between vaccination rates and deaths from COVID-19. MMR is now given routinely to children in the UK and around 92 per cent of children now get their first dose by their second birthday. Rates vary around the world, however, and MMR is one of the most controversial jabs among anti-vaxxers after a now-disgraced scientist falsely claimed it was linked to autism. MMR was introduced in 1963 in the UK, and people born before that may have had individual vaccines for the three diseases or no vaccination at all. People born before this time - over the age of 55 - are in the highest risk age group for dying of coronavirus, and can also be reasonably assumed to have the lowest vaccination rates, the researchers point out. In England and Wales, for example, data published today revealed that 87 per cent of all people who have died of the coronavirus have been over the age of 65. A total 10,808 people out of 12,380 victims recorded by April 10 were older than that, and 60 per cent of victims were male. They pointed out that the trend - that older men are at most risk of dying if they catch the coronavirus - could be seen in Germany, Spain and Italy. The researchers also found that older men were less likely to be immune to rubella than other groups. In the study they wrote: 'We recognise that these data are, at this stage, preliminary and that there are a number of limitations... 'Nevertheless, older populations and males are both more likely to die from COVID-19, and less likely to [test positive] for rubella specific immunity, based on historical vaccination programmes of all three countries considered in this study. 'In order to conclude whether MMR vaccination can improve the outcomes from COVID-19 infection, a study using individual based data to compare MMR immunity status in the affected population is warranted.' COULD THE BCG JAB PROTECT AGAINST COVID-19? Countries that have a widespread BCG vaccination programme have a COVID-19 death rate much lower than nations that do not use it, a study has claimed. The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine was invented a century ago and gives immunity to tuberculosis (TB) a bacterial infection but it is known to have other benefits. Previous trials discovered people that receive the jab, which costs as little as 30, have improved immune systems and are able to protect themselves from infection. For example, in a trial among Native Americans, BCG vaccination in childhood was able to offer protection against TB up to 60 years after vaccination. The precise way this durable vaccine helps fend off other infections is relatively unknown but it may be by boosting the immune system's innate mechanisms. These so-called off-target effects include enhanced protection against respiratory diseases, and have been recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the UK, all schoolchildren between ten and 14 were injected with the vaccine between 1953 and 2005. As TB infection rates dropped, doctors abandoned mass vaccination and, in 2005, switched to targeting only the most at risk such as babies with infected relatives. Advertisement In a third bid to justify their theory, Professor Franklin and Dr Modis and colleagues studied blood samples from coronavirus patients in England. Using samples from patients at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, they looked for signs of rubella immunity in severely and moderately ill patients. If their theory was correct, they said, they would expect to see higher levels of immunity among the more badly-affected patients after they had recovered - and they did. They suggest that the antibodies patients developed during their battle against COVID-19 match up with rubella antibodies, potentially proving their theory in reverse - that coronavirus infection could protect people from rubella and vice versa. 'Whilst we accept that it is possible that this trend could be representative of pre-infection protection to rubella infection, it is not possible to determine this,' the team wrote. In conclusion, Professor Franklin, Dr Modis and colleagues wrote: 'Taken together, our preliminary data would support the hypothesis that rubella vaccination could provide protection against poor outcome in COVID-19 infection. 'To determine if there is a potential effect of MMR vaccinations, it would be necessary to know the vaccination status of younger patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the severity of the disease. 'If there is a link, we propose that vaccination of "at risk" age groups with an MMR vaccination should be considered as a time-appropriate and safe intervention. 'To create a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine will be arduous and may require time which we simply cannot afford. 'Meanwhile, some help could be immediately available to those in the greatest need.' British parents are among the most vehement anti-vaxxers in Europe with one in 30 claiming they are 'opposed to all vaccines' British parents are among the most vehement anti-vaxxers in Europe with one in 30 claiming they are 'opposed to absolutely all vaccines', a study has found. A survey of five European countries revealed that parents in Spain have the most positive feelings towards vaccination, while their French counterparts have the least. However, Germany and the UK and had the greatest proportion of stringent anti-vaxxer parents with over three times more than found in France, Italy or Spain. A growing 'anti-vaxx' sentiment has led to poor vaccination coverage rate across much of Europe leading to the resurgence of preventable diseases like measles. The findings come a week after the WHO warned that measles vaccination rates will plummet as millions of children are kept away from GPs during the COVID-19 crisis. The survey found that Germany and the UK had significantly high proportions of parents who were opposed to all forms of compulsory vaccines at 7.8 and 7.4 per cent, respectively. Levels were at only 4 per cent in France, 1 per cent in Italy and 0.8 per cent in Spain MMR VACCINE IS 'SAFE AND DOES NOT CAUSE AUTISM', STUDY FINDS A vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella is safe and effective, according to a review looking at dozens of earlier studies involving millions of children. The review, completed by British policy institute Cochrane, involved examining 138 different studies into the vaccine and its side effects including whether there was any evidence it caused autism. The review was prompted by a rise in cases of measles and mumps in England and Wales, as the rate of immunisation for the diseases continues to fall. This has in part been blamed on a discredited study that falsely claimed a link between the MMR and autism - the review says there is no evidence of a link. They found that the recommended two doses of the MMR jab are 96 per cent effective at stopping infection from mumps, measles and rubella. It comes after the World Health Organization last week raised concerns that measles vaccination rates will plummet as millions of children are kept away from GPs during the coronavirus crisis. The authors found very little difference in the rate of autism between those who have and haven't been vaccinated. In fact, they found for every 100,000 unvaccinated children 451 had autism compared to 419 vaccinated children with autism. A Cochrane review is considered a gold-standard in research as it systematically looks at multiple studies on a subject over a long period of time. The authors said: 'The risks posed by these diseases far outweigh those of the vaccines administered to prevent them'. Advertisement The online survey of European parents' opinions was conducted by infectious disease specialist Jean Paul Stahl, of the University Hospital Grenoble, France, and his colleagues in 2019. In total, 750 pairs of parents with children aged between 035 months participated in the study with 150 from each of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The team found considerable variation in feeling towards vaccines, with Spanish caregivers the most likely to have favourable opinions (at 94 per cent of parents) and French parents the least likely (at only 73 per cent.) In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, 86 per cent of parents hold positive opinions of vaccines, compared with 88 per cent in Germany and 87 per cent in Italy. In all five countries, more than 90 per cent of parents reported as being favourable towards mandatory vaccinations for at least one of a certain set of vaccines. These included chicken pox, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella, pneumococcal meningitis, meningococcal meningitis B and C, poliomyelitis, rotavirus gastroenteritis, tetanus and whooping cough. However, Germany and the UK had significantly high proportions of parents who were completely opposed to all forms of compulsory vaccines at 7.8 and 7.4 per cent, respectively. In comparison, total anti-vaxxer levels were at only 4 per cent in France, 1 per cent in Italy and 0.8 per cent in Spain. As with positive opinions towards vaccines, levels of trust in health authorities was found to be the highest in Spain where 88 per cent of parents rated their level of trust as 7 or above on a ten point scale and lowest in France at only 68 per cent. For contrast, the same figure was found to be 79 per cent in both the UK and Germany, while it was 74 per cent among Italian citizens. The team found considerable variation in feeling towards vaccines, with Spanish caregivers the most likely to have favourable opinions (at 94 per cent of parents) and French parents the least likely (at only 73 per cent.) In the United Kingdom, 86 per cent of parents hold positive opinions of vaccines, compared with 88 per cent in Germany and 87 per cent in Italy A growing 'anti-vaxx' sentiment has led to poor vaccination coverage rate across much of Europe and elsewhere in the world, like in the US, pictured, where anti-vaxxers hold protests. In places, this has lead to the resurgence of preventable diseases like measles When considering vaccine knowledge, French parents reported feeling significantly less well-informed overall, with only 77 per cent of those surveyed feeling well informed, as compared to the 9094 per cent values seen in the other countries, The researchers also found that the primary source of information parents use to decide whether to vaccinate their children was their local health care provider. However, they also found that that the internet particularly health authority websites plays a key role, as do friends and family, who guide between 1440 and 930 per cent, respectively, of parent's decisions based on their home country. In fact, 81 per cent of UK parents reported having read up on vaccines online, as compared with 71% for Italy, 70% for Germany and Spain and just 58 per cent of parents surveyed from France. As with positive opinions towards vaccines, levels of trust in health authorities was found to be the highest in Spain where 88 per cent of parents rated their level of trust as 7 or above on a ten point scale and lowest in France at only 68 per cent 81 per cent of UK parents reported having read up on vaccines online, as compared with 71% for Italy, 70% for Germany and Spain and just 58 per cent of parents surveyed from France 'Parents having a favourable opinion on vaccination seemed to be linked with a better perceived vaccination knowledge,' the researchers added. 'The health care provider doing the vaccination was the first source of information, while the internet was also a valuable resource while friends and families can also be influential. 'Local characteristics should be taken into account to increase confidence into vaccination.' 'Evaluation should be harmonised at a European level, allowing countries to share best practice strategies for public health.' The full findings of the study will be presented at the 2020 European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, which is being held virtually this year as a result of the present COVID-19 pandemic. (Newser) Congress and the White House reached a deal on a new $484 billion coronavirus relief package in late-night talks and it sailed through the Senate on Tuesday. The package includes around $310 billion for the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program, which ran out of money last week after approving at least 1.7 million loans. It also includes $25 billion for coronavirus testing and $75 billion for hospitals, along with $60 billion for emergency disaster loans, the Hill reports. Leaders from both parties hammered out the deal with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other administration officials. "The Senate is continuing to stand by the American people," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after the measure passed unanimously. story continues below This is the fourth coronavirus relief bill, and the second-largest. Around $60 billion of the money for small businesses will be earmarked for "under-banked" neighborhoods and rural areas. President Trump said he would sign the measure. "I urge the Senate and House to pass the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act with additional funding for PPP, Hospitals, and Testing," he tweeted, adding that after he signed the bill, discussions would begin on fiscal relief for state and local governments. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, said the House would vote on the measure Thursday, the AP reports. He said the House would also vote on a measure to allow proxy voting while the COVID-19 pandemic continues, a measure that some GOP lawmakers oppose. (Read more small business stories.) A Brevard County attorney got busted on his way to paid sex with an Orange County teenager 55 years younger, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moodys office says. But 71-year-old John Gillespie didnt want the business relationship to remain customer-client, Moodys office said. Gillespie wanted to transform the relationship to pimp-entrapped girl by taking her back to his home and making her a sex trafficking victim. Gillespie sits in Orange County jail on charges of human trafficking of a minor, racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and unlawful use of a two-way communication device. Also arrested and charged with the latter three crimes was Mark Featherman. The AGs office says an Orlando Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation look at Gillespie found that he kept girls at his Melbourne home and pimped them out via an escort website. He retained control over them by claiming they owed him money for drugs, legal fees or rent. John Gillespies Florida Bar photo These alleged actions insult all attorneys who have a passion to protect the defenseless or oppressed, Moody said in a statement. His website states Never been a prosecutor, always on the right side of the innocent. Yet, he has been abusing innocent girls and I look forward to him meeting a real and ethical prosecutor from my Office of Statewide Prosecution in court very soon. Gillespie was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1985 and to the Florida Bar in 1998. Jeffrey Epstein deal was shameful, judges say but not shameful enough to overturn Coronavirus justice: Fewer arrests in Miami, inmates spared bonds and postponed hearings African men walk near Little North Road, part of an ethnically diverse quarter of Guangzhou known as Little Africa in Guangzhou, China, on Feb. 3, 2019. (Betsy Joles/Getty Images) Racism Against Black People in China Amid Pandemic Sparks Diplomatic Crisis Abuse and racism against Africans in southern China amid pandemic fears have spurred backlash in their home countries, leading to diplomatic tensions. Having claimed success in suppressing the pathogen, China over the past month has announced few local infections, instead highlighting imported cases, although research studies, accounts from locals, and internal documents have challenged the authenticity of the official data. Guangzhou, an industrial hub in southern Guangdong Province and home to one of Asias largest African populations, has been on edge after several infections were reported among African migrants. Africans soon found themselves to be the targets of virus-related discrimination. Videos posted on social media showed Africans being forced out of their hotels after proprietors feared that they could potentially carry the virus, refused service at restaurants and shops, and were subject to passport seizures and mandatory quarantines. Some had to sleep on the streets. In one video, a group of African nationals was seen pulling their luggage on the streets after having been chased out of their residences. Another, captioned, this is the treatment black people in China get now, captured two men in suits stopping a young black woman from entering a shopping center. Only us? The woman asked, before asking a Caucasian customer to try. Gesturing with his hands, one of the men signaled that the latter could go in while the black woman was not welcome. Again, for those who still doubt that Black people and particularly #AfricansinChina are being targeted we feel it is our duty to share this. A sign at a @McDonalds restaurant seems to make this perfectly clear pic.twitter.com/FaveKrdQHi Black Livity China (@BlackLivityCN) April 11, 2020 A McDonalds chain in Guangzhou recently displayed a notice stating that black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant. The fast-food giants China branch later apologized on its official Weibo social media account and said it suspended the outlet on April 12 for a half-day training. In a residential community in Guangdong Province, a sign dated April 5 instructed landlords to contact black tenants and ask them to leave, saying that the community will no longer allow entry of foreigners, especially blacks. While virus-fueled xenophobia has been on the rise around the globe, the cases are generally isolated, while in China, the same kind of racism is playing out at the governmental level, according to Anders Corr, a policy analyst and the publisher of the Journal of Political Risk. This is the Chinese version of reality: theyve claimed that they didnt have any more cases, that they had defeated the disease, the pandemic, in their own country. And so, logically any new cases in China must be coming from outside, Corr said. In this photo taken on March 1, 2018, people gather on a street in the Little Africa district in Guangzhou, the capital of southern Chinas Guangdong province. (Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images) Stigmatized Around 86,475 foreign nationals lived in Guangzhou in the past year, 13,652 of whom were of African descent, the citys mayor said on April 12. The regime has barred entry to most foreign nationals since late March. Tensions escalated in Guangzhou after a cluster of 16 cases broke out among African residents, in the district known as Little Africa, on April 7. Officials then mandated Africans to undergo testing followed by quarantine at their own expense, whether or not they have the virus. More than 4,550 Africans in Guangzhou have been subject to mass testing since early April, and at least 111 have tested positive, according to the mayor. Corr said Chinese authorities racism demonstrates that China is not a safe place to do business. What China is doing is really shooting itself in its own foot because people are looking at this and realizing that Chinas not really a safe place to go, its not a safe place to do business if you look like anything other than a Han Chinese [the ethnic majority], Corr said. Zhou, a Guangzhou local, told The Epoch Times that an African couple running a restaurant within a mile from his village were both infected with the virus. Now Africans can get arrested by the police whenever they appear on the street, he said in an interview. Asita Awovie, a Nigerian currently studying civil engineering at the Changan University in Chinas Shaanxi Province, is planning to return home after less than a year in the country. My parents are worried because they think it is not safe living here anymore, he told The Epoch Times. The situation in my region is fair and the university tried to keep us safe but as for me, I dont actually trust China again. A Chinese security man at the entrance to the Little Africa district in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China, on March 1, 2018. (FRED DUFOUR/AFP via Getty Images) Hollow Bilateral Ties The Chinese regime is one of Africas biggest creditors, having loaned African nations around $143 billion between 2000 to 2017, according to research by Johns Hopkins University. By 2018, around a fifth of the continents external debt was owed to China, according to the U.K.-based advocacy group Jubilee Debt Campaign (pdf). Yet the decades-long relationship with African countries now faces challenges in the aftermath of the racist incidents in Guangzhou. Anozie Maduabuchi Cyril, consul-general of the Nigerian consulate in Guangzhou, lashed out at Chinese officials for the unfair treatment, noting that the Nigerian government did not single out Chinese while handling the outbreak in Nigeria. If you seize a Nigerian passport, its like youre seizing Nigeria as a whole, he said in a video that has since gone viral. African ambassadors in Beijing last week wrote a letter to Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi, demanding an immediate end to forceful testing, quarantine, and other inhuman treatments meted out to Africans. Nigerian House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila also summoned the Chinese ambassador on April 10 for a meeting. He showed a video clip of alleged abuse in China and pressed the Chinese official for an explanation. Its almost undiplomatic the way Im talking, but its because Im upset about whats going on, he said. The Sierra Leone Embassy in China, in an April 10 notice, said representatives of African ambassadors have met with Chinese foreign ministry officials to protest the citizens disturbing and humiliating experiences, and reminded the Chinese side of African support. Faced with international pressure, the Chinese government maintained that it has zero tolerance for discrimination. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, during an April 12 press briefing, said China and Africa are good friends, partners, and brothers. The U.S. consulate issued an alert on April 13 advising African-Americans to avoid the Guangzhou metropolitan area until further notice, due to authorities suspicion that they may have contact with African nationals. The abuse and mistreatment of Africans living and working in China is a sad reminder of how hollow the PRC [Peoples Republic of China]-Africa partnership really is, a State Department spokesperson said on April 11. At a time when we should be supporting one another to recover from a pandemic, PRC officials recklessly hid from the world, Chinese officials are busy evicting African students into the streets without food or shelter, it added. Toluwani Eniola contributed to this report. Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler thanked Taiwan for its donation of 100,000 masks to the Georgia Emergency Management Administration (GEMA) to distribute to hospitals across the state. The masks will be delivered to GEMA on Tuesday. Senator Loeffler said, I want to thank President Tsai Ing-wen and the people of Taiwan for their incredibly generous donation of masks for hospitals across the Peach State. Ensuring those on the front lines of this crisis have personal protective equipment is crucial for keeping our doctors and nurses safe and healthy. For over 40 years, the people of Georgia and Taiwan have enjoyed a special relationship and I appreciate Taiwan offering a helping hand at such a difficult time. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta expressed that Taiwan recognizes the drastic impact of COVID-19 in Georgia, which led to this donation to assist health care workers. Taiwan has donated over three million surgical masks to the United States to help combat COVID-19, including the 100,000 for Georgia. Senator Loeffler has been in constant communication with Georgia hospitals, helping them receive more masks, gowns, and other personal protective equipment. While Indonesia's neighbors scrambled early this year to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the government of the world's fourth most populous nation insisted that everything was fine. In speeches, Indonesia's health minister, Terawan Agus Putranto, told his country's people that they shouldn't fear the virus, even as tens of thousands around the world were being infected. Rather than focus on creating social distancing guidelines or ramping up testing, Putranto credited Indonesian immunity and the strength of prayer for the country's lack of any infections. He dismissed as insulting" a report by Harvard University researchers that said Indonesia must have elected not to report its cases. Meanwhile, Indonesia's southern neighbor Australia and some fellow Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore were quick out of the gate to address the crisis, taking actions as early as the end of January that included containment and tracing measures. Indonesia, on the other hand, did not even confirm its first case of the virus until early March. As of Monday, the nation had reported at least 6,760 infections including 590 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, more fatalities than any Asian country other than China. Indonesian President Joko Widodo acknowledged last month that the government had chosen to keep the public misinformed about the state of the coronavirus in the country. Indeed, we did not deliver certain information to the public because we did not want to stir panic, he said. Suspicion over the lack of cases in Indonesia began to grow when a Chinese tourist who had traveled from Wuhan the central Chinese city where the pandemic started late last year to the Indonesian resort island of Bali tested positive for the coronavirus when he returned to China in early February. Indonesian authorities, however, immediately played down the incident, with Defense Minister Muhammad Mahfud declaring, The coronavirus does not exist in Indonesia. Widodo, perhaps spurred by a desire for economic growth, promoted Putranto's theories, ignoring the likelihood that the vast archipelago nation had virus cases. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bank ABC, Menas leading international bank, has announced the establishment of $10 million fund to support the fight against the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Responding to its social responsibilities call, the Group including its Bahrain based operations ila Bank, Arab Financial Services and ABC Islamic Bank, launched the fund to collectively contribute $10 million to national initiatives across its Mena network to ease the impact of Covid-19. This takes into account significant allocations towards national initiatives in the Kingdom of Bahrain, home to its Head Office for 40 years. The Fund will be allowed to meet substantial donations towards national and charitable initiatives designated to contain the spread of the virus, lessen the financial burden on those most impacted and support frontline medical workers and volunteers risking their lives to safeguard their communities. Commenting on the funds establishment Bank ABC Group CEO, Dr Khaled Kawan said: These challenging times require all of us to join forces to support healthcare institutions and communities in our core markets of presence. It is our duty and a privilege as a responsible corporate citizen to pledge our unwavering commitment towards our communities, government bodies, healthcare professionals and volunteers who are doing a phenomenal job. Bank ABC Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer, Sael Al Waary said: Whilst we commend the remarkable measures taken so far by the authorities and the frontline workforce and pray for the recovery of all those who are impacted by the virus. Bank ABC is contributing $2 million towards the Feena Khair campaign launched by Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Hamad Al Khalifa, Representative of HM the King for Humanitarian and Youth Affairs, National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Humanitarian Foundation to aid the efforts of the National Taskforce for Combating COVID-19 in Bahrain. We are committed to continue to work hand-in-hand with the relevant authorities and local charities to strengthen our support to the community across the kingdom. The Delhi government will start COVID-19 testing for mediapersons from Wednesday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday, after 53 scribes tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Mumbai. Addressing the media online, the chief minister said his government has set up a centre where free COVID-19 tests will be conducted on mediapersons. Journalists are also at the frontline in the battle against COVID-19, he added. "We have set up a centre. All media houses and journalists will be informed about it. Interested mediapersons can undergo tests at the centre from Wednesday morning," Kejriwal said. Earlier in the day, responding to a tweet in which a person requested the chief minister to make arrangements for mass COVID-19 testing for mediapersons in Delhi on the lines of Mumbai, Kejriwal said, "Sure. We will do that." Alarmed over 53 journalists testing positive for COVID-19 in neighbouring Maharashtra, the Karnataka government on Tuesday also decided to conduct a health checkup camp for journalists in Bengaluru. During a special camp organised at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai on April 16 and 17 for COVID-19 testing of scribes, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had collected the swab samples of 171 mediapersons, including electronic and print media journalists, photographers and cameramen. "Of the 171 mediapersons, 53 tested positive for coronavirus," BMC spokesperson Vijay Khabale said on Monday, adding that most of those who tested positive are asymptomatic at present. On Monday, the total number of coronavirus cases rose to 2,081 in Delhi, with 78 fresh cases and two deaths reported in a day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 5-year-old girl has become the youngest person in Michigan to die from Coronavirus. Her mother, LaVondria Herbert confirmed her ... A 5-year-old girl has become the youngest person in Michigan to die from Coronavirus. Her mother, LaVondria Herbert confirmed her death to the Detroit News, stating that the 5-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 in March and later developed a rare form of meningitis and brain swelling. She said Skylar received care at Beaumont Health in Royal Oak, Michigan and was at first showing signs of improvement, but her condition later got serious. We decided to take her off the ventilator because her improvement had stopped. The doctors told us that it was possible she was brain dead, and we basically just knew she wasnt coming back to us. Beaumont Health said in a statement while mourning the loss of the little girl that the loss of a child, at any time, under any circumstances, is a tragedy. We are heartbroken that COVID-19 has taken the life of a child. We extend our deepest sympathy to Skylars family and all others who have lost a loved one to this virus, the statement read. Also, Metropolitan Church of God took to their Facebook account to mourn Skylar, stating that there are no words to express how deeply saddened they were by the passing of their beloved member, Skylar Herbert. Skylar touched our hearts with her cheerful spirit and brightened our Sundays with her smile. We thank God for gracing our congregation with her life and find solace in knowing that she now rests in the Lords presence. Please keep Sis. Faustina Green (grandmother) and Skylars parents lifted in prayer, the post read. According to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services before Skylars death on Sunday, the youngest person to die from COVID-19 in Michigan was 20 years old. Outlander star blasts bullying Outlander star Sam Heughan spoke out on social media about what he calls six years of constant bullying, harassment, stalking and false narratives about him. The 39-year-old Scottish actor said in a lengthy post on his Instagram and Twitter accounts that hes been subjected to a range of claims that he has misled and tried to extort fans for money. Heughan said the criticism has come to a head over his isolating in Hawaii during the coronavirus outbreak. He said he traveled to Hawaii before situation grew serious. Im nervous to take 3-5 flights back to the UK, around 20 hours on several planes, exposing myself to more danger, to be stuck in a city, he said. Upon the advice of everyone I trust, I decided to remain in a safe environment. It was a good decision. The posts inspired the devoted fans of Outlander to start the hashtag #IStandWithSam, and hes received hundreds of tweets of support. Heughan said he can not elaborate on most of the abuse he has received for legal reasons, but said people in his position should not have to tolerate the hate they get on social media. Broadway star loses leg to virus Tony Award-nominated actor Nick Cordero has had his his right leg amputated after suffering complications from the coronavirus, his wife says. Amanda Kloots on Instagram wrote late Saturday that Cordero made it out of surgery alive and is headed to his room to rest and recover. Cordero had been treated with blood thinners to help with clotting in his leg, but his doctors had to stop the treatment because it was causing internal bleeding. We took him off blood thinners but that again was going to cause some clotting in the right leg, so the right leg will be amputated today, she said earlier Saturday. Cordero entered the intensive care unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on March 31 and has been on a ventilator and unconscious after contracting COVID-19. His wife has been sending him daily videos of her and their 10-month-old son, Elvis, so he could see them when he woke up, and urging friends and fans to join a daily sing-a-long. A GoFundMe fundraiser has raised over $200,000. Cordero played a mob soldier with a flair for the dramatic in 2014 in Broadways Woody Allen 1994 film adaptation of Bullets Over Broadway, for which he received a Tony nomination for best featured actor in a musical. He moved to Los Angeles to star in Rock of Ages. Associated Press Last week, Prime Minister Hun Sen was one of the eleven talking heads on a regional teleconferencing call to discuss the novel coronavirus pandemic. This call included ten heads of government in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region and the regional blocs general secretary. The leaders were attending a virtual ASEAN summit on the morning of April 14, highlighting their views on the pandemic and measures that needed to be taken to protect the region. As of Tuesday, there were 30,116 reported cases in the region and 1,171 deaths from the respiratory disease. When it was the turn of Prime Minister Hun Sen, he surprisingly called on leaders of the bloc to refrain from taking unilateral decisions that would have a socio-economic impact on the people of another country. He did not elaborate on which nations he was referring to. Member states should avoid heavy socio-economic damage within the region through unilateral measures such as the closure of cross-border checkpoints without prior notice, he said. The message was clear. The prime minister was unhappy with the March 20 decision by Vietnam to close all land borders with Cambodia to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, seemingly without consulting Cambodian authorities. If there was any doubt of who Hun Sen was referencing, state-owned publication Agence Kampuchea Presse was more explicit. In the Khmer-language version of the ASEAN summit story, AKP mentioned Vietnams unilateral decision to close the border without prior consultation, impacting commerce and movement of people. With this, Hun Sen again laid bare growing strain with long-time ally Vietnam, even as he visibly displayed his growing proximity to the chief patron, China. At the height of the coronavirus then-epidemic in February, Hun Sen was the first international leader to visit Chinese President Xi Jinping and State Premier Li Keqiang to express solidarity with his closest ally, making no such trip to any other country affected by the viral disease thereafter. Sok Touch, head of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, has often been employed by the government to put an academic spin to explain the administrations actions, most notably pushing the color revolution narrative as a justification for dissolving the Cambodia National Rescue Party. The academic told VOA Khmer, again using a vague reference, that the premier was upset at not being consulted on issues affecting the region. You can put it this way, you tell your wife clearly that you are going out and then you return home to see your wife has locked the door without informing you, how would you feel? Sok Touch said. Speaking to VOA Khmer on the phone, Sok Touch got a lot more precise in his analogies as the conversation continued. He surmised that all ASEAN member states had their own big brother, pointing to the recent thaw in Vietnams relationship with the U.S. Vietnam itself as a communist state is siding with the democratic United States, why has [Vietnam] enjoyed so much happiness [in that relationship]? he queried. And Cambodia siding with [China], how could Vietnam be upset with Cambodia? The novel coronavirus pandemic has been a lot more illustrative of Cambodias geopolitical sway towards China, especially in the amount of aid and assistance it has received from the Xi Jinping-led administration. In the last few weeks, tons of medical equipment and material have been seemingly donated by China to Cambodia. This includes around 30,000 test kits for the virus, face masks, protective equipment and even 11 medical professionals four military personnel and seven civilians to aid in the coronavirus response. A chunk of these donations came by way of the Jack Ma and Alibaba Foundations. The Chinese e-commerce billionaire revealed in 2018 that he was a member of the ruling Communist Party of China. Beijing viewed its exit as the sole epicenter of the pandemic as a chance to extend its global role by assisting in the fight to stem the spread of the virus, said Stella Hong Zhang, a doctoral candidate at George Mason University. [It] is all very natural that this now occupies the center of China's foreign policy. After all, China has always had the ambition to be seen as a provider of global public goods, Stella Hong Zhang said in an email. Moreover, it is also China's moral obligation to provide assistance to its neighboring countries such as Cambodia where many Chinese people live and where domestic capacity is lacking. Recent Chinese aid diplomacy has been used with dozens of other countries, especially the least developed and developing economies. But it still stands in contrast to Vietnams engagement with Cambodia during the pandemic. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc talked with Hun Sen in a phone call on March 27, shortly after receiving Cambodian Ambassador Chay Navuth in Hanoi, announcing additional aid Cambodia. Both, the Chinese and Vietnamese embassies in Phnom Penh, did not respond to requests for comment nor did they provide additional information about aid supplied to Cambodia. Koy Kuong, spokesperson for Cambodias Foreign Ministry, ruled out the speculation of any discord between Phnom Penh and Hanoi, adding there was no problem at all. Samdech [Hun Sen] just want to make a reminder to all ASEAN member states to inform each other better about appropriate measures, making sure people are not facing difficulties, he added, referring to the virtual ASEAN Summit speech. Carlyle A. Thayer, professor emeritus at the University of New South Wales, said Vietnams decisions to shut the border with Cambodia was consistent with its overall strategy to contain the coronavirus outbreak and its mistrust in Cambodias medical response. The Canberra-based academic added that Vietnam was concerned about Cambodia cozying up to China amid the outbreak, as well as keeping its borders open to flights to and from the mainland. In sum, Hun Sen wanted to demonstrate that Cambodia was a reliable partner to China, Thayer added. Meas Nee, a social commentator, also agreed that Vietnam would take notice of the camaraderie between China and Cambodia, especially in the last few months. In this kind of situation, if Cambodia appears to ignore Vietnam...Vietnam would be more or less concerned, dissatisfied, or, at least, cautious about the development, Meas Nee said. Vietnams pandemic aid is lower, in dollar terms, when compared to the $2.1 million given by the United States to Cambodia, as well as other critical technical assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Ambassador W. Patrick Murphy visited the Health Ministrys Department of Communicable Disease Control and several U.S.-aided medical facilities earlier this month to showcase American support for local specialists involved in case surveillance, contact tracing, and virus testing. The series of visits took place after Cambodian and Chinese governments had for weeks touted their relationship, using the metric of medical aid shared, as well as Chinas success in fighting off the virus, not forgetting to point to the newest epicenter of the pandemic, the United States. U.S. CDC staff working in Cambodia, both American and Cambodian nationals, work side-by-side with the Cambodian Ministry of Health and other stakeholders on a daily basis to plan and carry out critical work, said Emily V. Zeeberg, spokesperson of the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. Experts have pointed to Ambassador Murphys attempts at resetting the United States relationship with Cambodia, again keeping in mind Cambodias closeness with China. He has employed a much softer tone than the State Department, which recently sanctioned two close Hun Sen allies, or even some members of Congress, who are still trying to penalize the Cambodian administration for its crackdown on the opposition, civil society, and the independent media. Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Koy Kuong did not want to delve into a discussion about Cambodian geopolitical preferences, instead only saying that Cambodia shall be fair and friendly with any country. Mr. Trump and his advisers have argued inside the White House that doing more to bar people from other countries from coming into the United States, either for short-term visits or to live and work in the country for longer periods, could help limit the number of infected people who arrive from potential coronavirus hot spots around the world. And they argue that it could relieve pressure on the American health care system. But Mr. Trumps primary focus appears to be on protecting American workers as the virus ravages what had been a rapidly growing job market. Even before the pandemic, the president and some of his most hard-line advisers had been eager to reduce legal immigration, arguing that Mr. Trumps America First campaign pledge should be seen as protecting native-born Americans from having to compete with foreign workers. Stephen Miller, the architect of the presidents immigration agenda, has pushed repeatedly for regulations and executive actions that would limit the immigration allowed each year, arguing that immigrants are a drain on American society, drive down wages and take jobs from native-born Americans. And the presidents restrictionist allies on Capitol Hill quickly praised word of his actions. Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, said on Twitter: 22 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last month because of the China virus. Lets help them get back to work before we import more foreigners to compete for their jobs. Immigrant rights groups angrily dispute the claim that immigration is bad for American workers, pointing to research that shows there is little connection between immigration and wages, and stressing the benefits of Americas immigrant culture. Charanya Krishnaswami, the advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA, responded to the presidents tweet with one of her own. When youre a xenophobe, bans on migration are the only tired, failed, hateful solution you can think of, Ms. Krishnaswami wrote. Suspending immigration wont make the US which currently leads among COVID cases worldwide safe. Our policies need to be grounded in public health, not bigotry. U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed his administration to look into ways to make funds available to the American oil and gas produces who are struggling amid the lowest oil prices in two decades. We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future! President Trump tweeted on Tuesday, a day after the front-month U.S. benchmark oil futures contract crashed by more than 300% into negative territory to settle at -$37.63 per barrel. The U.S. Department of Energy is already trying to help U.S. oil producers with finding storage for their unwanted oil. The DOE said last week that it was negotiating contracts with nine U.S. oil producers to store a total of 23 million barrels of their produced oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to help U.S. oil producers with storage availability amid the colossal demand loss from the pandemic. U.S. oil producers are struggling to turn a profit at prices below $40 a barrel, but the massive demand loss in the pandemic and the lockdowns that followed have been pressuring prices for weeks. The May WTI Crude futures contract expires today, but the June contract is also plummeting on Tuesday, by more than 50 percent to around $10 as of 2:27pm EDT. Brent Crude prices were also plunging on Tuesday, by 27% to $19 a barrel. Analysts are warning of mass bankruptcies in the U.S. shale patch, while the Texas Railroad Commission is meeting on Tuesday to hear testimony about potentially curtailing statewide oil production in light of the oil price collapse. Smaller independent producers tend to support some kind of coordinated action to restrict supply, arguing that the free market will wipe out the smaller players in the industry. But the bigger players, including ExxonMobil and pipeline operators, believed, at least as of last week, that the regulators should let the free market dictate the production in the state. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Authorities are unable to move on a large encampment of 28 caravans and 23 vehicles on the Curragh Plains due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. It is believed that the group, who are mostly from the UK, arrived in Ireland during the Easter weekend by which stage the Covid-19 'Stay At Home' lockdown in Ireland had been extended for another three weeks until at least May 5. A section of the encampment. Photo: Brian McCulloch Several families are living in the encampment which is located off the R445 between the Curragh Racecourse and Kildare town. Small fires have been seen burning in the area in recent days. A smaller encampment of around six caravans accompanied by some vehicles is also located about 2km away past the railway line (above). Locals are concerned that the Travellers are not complying with Covid-19 rules of making only essential journeys and that household groups are not practicing social distancing by staying up to two metres apart. Pavee Point, which is a national non-governmental organisation, yesterday called on Kildare County Council to provide a water supply and toilet facilities for the group. It's believed that gardai are unable to seek the Travellers to move on now due to current Covid-19 travel restrictions as their location is deemed as their current address. The Department of Defence has jurisdiction over the Curragh Plains and Military Police are carrying out routine patrols in recent days. A Department of Defence spokesperson said: "The Department of Defence is aware of the present encampment and has been in ongoing liaison with An Garda Siochana. In the light of the current Covid-19 pandemic and the Government response as set out in the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act; it is not viable to have the occupants moved at this point in time. "The Department and its Lands Management team are in going communications with An Garda Siochana on the matter." Pavee Point spokesman Martin Collins said: Travellers should not be taking to the road during the public health emergency. Public health comes before anything else at this time of restrictions to beat this deadly virus. The nomadic lifestyle of Travellers is a very strong tradition at this time of year both in Ireland and the UK. Im a Traveller man myself, but Im asking Travellers not to take to the roads at this time because they are putting themselves and others at risk. I would ask these Travellers to stay where they are during the current time period of restrictions. I would also call on other Travellers not to take to the road at this time. Pavee Point also called on Kildare County Council to provide basic facilities such as a water supply and portable toilets to the Travellers for the duration of the Covid-19 restrictions. Police cited dozens of independent big-rig drivers Monday and arrested one after they blocked traffic on the East Loop to protest wages, according to Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. Around 75 drivers stopped on the East Loop near Gelhorn around 2 p.m. Signs were attached to their trucks, protesting a lack of payment from companies who hired them to move, Acevedo said. Besides, the zero reports were tied with the fact that on Easter, people did not appeal to the medical facilities Open source On April 20, seven regions of Ukraine filed zero reports on polymerase chain reaction tests for April 19. Chief Sanitary Inspector of Ukraine Viktor Lyashko and leadership of the Healthcare Ministry dealt with this situation as Healthcare Minister Maksym Stepanov reported. Each and every laboratory in all regions worked; they worked as usual and did not have the break. These zeroes are tied with the fact that on Easter, many people did not appeal to doctors for holding of polymerase chain reaction tests. This situated is proved by the fact that we had no appeals on the hotline on refusal to hold polymerase chain reaction test, the minister said. Maksym Stepanov also stated that there were technical mistakes during the provision of the reports. In the Chernivtsi region, 48 polymerase chain reaction tests were held; 17 confirmed cases spotted and they were included in the reports but the mistake was technical: a woman who filled our form put a zero. In the Vinnytsia region, where no cases are reported, the samples were taken but the thermocycler had to rest (lab equipment, which has a particular resource and works 24 hours) they did it in such a way. The HQ decided to provide a proper break, the minister explained. As we reported, 6,125 cases of coronavirus infection have already been reported in Ukraine. Over the last 24 hours, 415 new cases have been diagnosed. 161 people died from coronavirus, 367 patients were cured. An Andalusia woman is behind bars after police say she violated the stay-at-home order and then coughed in an officers face while mentioning COVID-19. Police were called to Brewton Street Monday night on a report of loud music, said Andalusia Police Chief Paul Hudson. When they arrived, they found about 40 to 50 people at a party, as well as the odor of marijuana. Officers made contact with 39-year-old Melanie Nicole Chambers who currently rents the Brewton Street house. She was hosting the birthday party for one of her children and got hot when officers arrived to break it up, Hudson said. She got a little upset with the officers because they were there, Hudson said. She got irate and told them they needed to worry about other things. She asked the crowd gathered at her home if anyone had coronavirus, and then deliberately coughed on an officer. Officers obtained a search warrant and found marijuana and drug paraphernalia at the home. The Covington County Sheriffs Office and the areas drug task force assisted. As a result, Chambers was arrested on charges of possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and violation of the state health officers current suspension of gatherings due to COVID-19. Chambers total bond is set at $23,500. Hudson said the arrest marked the first time the department has charged someone with violation of the states stay-at-home order. We are handling this on a case-by-case basis, he said. If participants refuse to comply with the order, we have to take steps to enforce it. Though there is a criminal charge of assault with a bodily fluid, Hudson said Chambers actions didnt meet the criteria. Still, he said, its just one of many concerns officers face while doing their job during the pandemic. Covington County has roughly two dozen reported COVID-19 cases including one death. Because of healthcare privacy laws, Hudson said they have no way of knowing who has tested positive for the virus. We may deal with them and never know, he said. I really commend the way the officers handled this. They could have lost their cool which would have made it a loss worse than it was. Veterans in Garland, Texas, will soon have another option for receiving health services from the Department of Veterans Affairs: a VA outpatient clinic and specialty care facility at the former Baylor, Scott & White Medical Center, which closed in March 2018 following a drop in patient enrollment. The 470,000-square-foot facility, donated by Baylor, Scott & White Health, will become part of the VA North Texas Health Care System. Transaction negotiations had been in the works for nearly a year, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transition, said Rep. Colin Allred, a Texas Democrat whose congressional district includes Garland. "This is a huge victory for our veterans and the city of Garland. I am so proud of our North Texas community as everyone involved has rolled up their sleeves to get this much-needed agreement across the finish line," Allred said in a release. Related: Wilkie Rejects Claim that VA Staff Lack Protective Equipment Amid Virus Outbreak According to a release from the VA, the facility initially will be outfitted to provide 100 beds for veteran COVID-19 patients, as needed. As of Monday, Dallas County, which encompasses much of Garland, had 2,428 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 60 deaths, according to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services. "This acquisition demonstrates VA's innovative approach to providing care for veterans, both in this time of crisis and in the future," VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said in a release. The acquisition comes as the VA is reviewing its real estate portfolio, part of an ongoing effort to shed outdated or underutilized facilities. Market assessments are underway in 96 regions across the country, reviewing available medical services in each community, the veteran patient populations and the presence of existing VA facilities. The information is being gathered for a commission that will determine where shortages and surpluses exist and then make recommendations for construction and closures. VA officials say many facilities are underused or obsolete, while others are overcrowded, especially in southern and western states where veterans have gravitated after military service or as they age. According to the VA, roughly 63 percent of its hospital beds were filled on any given day before the pandemic. "We have too many old buildings and too many buildings I can't dispose of. Our veterans deserve new modern facilities," Wilkie said during an interview last October. The new outpatient clinic in Garland will help serve the rising veteran population in Texas, which VA officials believe will have the highest number of veterans by 2025, followed by Florida, California and North Carolina. Allred estimated the donation of the Garland Baylor, Scott & White Medical Center will save the VA up to $800 million, the estimated cost of building a new hospital. The facility opened in 1964 as Memorial Hospital and was bought in 1991 by the Baylor medical system. It was extensively renovated and enlarged in the past 20 years, including an updated and expanded emergency department and renovations that connected the existing hospital with adjacent medical offices. As of Monday, 5,505 veterans under VA care have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 339 have died in VA medical facilities. -- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime. Read More: In Locked-Down New York City, VA Workers Seek Out Isolated Veterans in Crisis Fed up with people breaking virus quarantine rules, one Indonesian politician has decided to scare rulebreakers straight by locking them in a 'haunted house'. Sragen regency head Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati says she issued the unusual edict this week to deal with an influx of people to the area after lock downs in the capital Jakarta and other major cities. Some newcomers, however, weren't respecting orders that they isolate themselves for 14 days to prevent the spread of the coronavirus across the region on Indonesia's densely populated Java island. So Sukowati instructed communities to repurpose abandoned houses that were feared to be haunted - tapping widespread beliefs in the supernatural, which play a key role in Indonesian folklore. Five people have been tossed into Sragen's spooky jails so far. The re-purposed abandoned house, now being used as a coronavirus quarantine facility, is believed by some of the locals in the area to be haunted 'If there's an empty and haunted house in the village, put people in there and lock them up,' Sukowati told AFP on Tuesday when she was asked about the rule. Officials in Sepat village chose a long-abandoned house and outfitted it with beds placed at a distance and separated by curtains. The house has been fitted with beds, spaced apart, and separated with curtains, and is holding residents who have broken quarantine lockdown rules to scare them into observing the rules So far, the village has locked up three recently-arrived residents who are being forced to spend the remainder of their two-week quarantine in the spooky abode. Among them was Heri Susanto, who said his punishment hadn't brought him face to face with any ghosts - so far. 'But whatever happens, happens,' said Susanto, who came from neighbouring Sumatra island. 'I know this is for everyone's safety. Lesson learned.' According to the Johns Hopkins University, Indonesia has had a total of 7,135 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 616 deaths as a result of the disease. BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - CropEnergies reported that its preliminary operating profit for the 2019/20 financial year rose to 104 million euros from 33 million euros last year. EBITDA grew to 146 million euros from last year's 72 million euros, due to significantly higher revenues for renewable ethanol, and an increase in demand for low-carbon fuels. Revenues for the year grew to 899 million euros from 779 million euros in the prior year. The executive board of the company has decided to propose a dividend of 0.30 euros per share for the 2019/20 financial year to the annual general meeting. While, it paid dividend of 0.15 euros per share last year. The annual general meeting is scheduled to take place in virtual form on 14 July 2020. The business development in the current 2020/21 financial year will be largely determined by the price trend in the European ethanol markets. The operating and mobility restrictions imposed throughout Europe since mid-March as a result of the corona pandemic are weighing on sales volumes and prices, at least in the short term. For the first quarter, only an approximately balanced operating result is currently expected. However, CropEnergies expects an improvement in the course of the financial year. Compared to the previous record year a significant decline in revenues and operating profit is expected for the current financial year. The company will publish the full report for the 2019/20 financial year on 13 May 2020. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 14:18:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LOS ANGELES, April 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Air Force announced Monday it joined efforts to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 among sailors from aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, which docked in Guam last month. According to a press release from the Air Force, the 36th Wing constructed an Expeditionary Medical Support System or EMEDS, on the grounds of U.S. Naval Hospital Guam, where hundred of sailors infected with COVID-19 are being treated. On Monday, the Navy reported that 94 percent of the crew from the Roosevelt had been tested for COVID-19. Of those, it said 678 sailors had tested positive while 3,904 others negative. The EMEDS facility, estimated to be completed within a coup of days, consists of 11 medical units, and six warehouse units, the USAF said. "It really is a culminated effort of many different units from multiple bases to pull off the logistics of getting all the supplies here for this operation," noted Lt. Col. David Johnson, Troop Commander for the operation. Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska provided assistance by flying over medical supplies, the press release added. Enditem Commercial real estate company Cushman & Wakefield recently introduced the Six Feet Office concept to showcase some of the ideas it envisions companies will be adopting soon. These include desks spaced 6 ft. apart, along with bold color and visuals such as circles embedded in the carpet to remind people to distance themselves. Cushman & Wakefield The battle between the states and the federal government is heating up about when to open the economy and start letting people go back to work due to the coronavirus. On Monday, Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that employers need to have specific plans in place for how to safely return workers to the office or shopfloor. "In an office, you could split your employees have half of them work at home, half of them come into the office on alternating days," Gottlieb said on "Squawk Box." He added: "You should continue to encourage telework where you can." Exactly when employees will be heading back to work is still an unknown, but what is certain is that when it does happen, things at the office will almost certainly be very different. Just as the pandemic is likely to have a lasting impact on our personal habits, it will also change the way we work. Among the key changes companies are already considering: more space, sanitation and flexibility, with more employees working from home on a semi-regular basis. So how will all this be achieved? According to a number of office designers, companies will be installing more sensors to reduce touch points, such as on light and power switches and door handles, antimicrobial materials, more and better air filtration, temperature monitoring at entry points, desks that are spaced farther apart, plus subtle design features that remind people to keep their distance. Transforming behavior through office design Over the past month, commercial real estate company Cushman & Wakefield has helped 10,000 organizations in China move nearly 1 million people back to work after the country reopened its economy after the pandemic. Cushman & Wakefield, which manages 800 million sq. ft. of office buildings in China, learned much from that experience. According to Despina Katsikakis, who heads Cushman's occupier business performance, the company used its learnings along with World Health Organization data and the advice of medical specialists to develop a concept dubbed the Six Feet Office, which it has already applied inside its Amsterdam headquarters. Through properly spaced desks and visual cues, such as bold colors and large circle designs in the carpet, the Six Feet Office concept will remind employees that 6 ft. must stay between people at all times. Katsikakis says the Six Feet Office concept is a prototype to showcase some of the ideas Cushman envisions companies around the globe will be adopting soon. The bold circles in the carpet in Cushman & Wakefield's Six Feet Office concept is designed to remind people to social distance. Cushman & Wakefield Katsikakis believes many employees will welcome these new changes. In recent years the amount of square footage allotted per employee has gone down from 211.4 sq. ft. in 2009 to 17.6 square feet in 2017, according to Cushman & Wakefield. This has led to widespread complaints about loud office mates and lack of elbow space. COVID-19 is likely to halt this trend. Other changes she sees happening in China: staggered schedules to lessen occupancy in buildings, desks being moved farther apart and more barriers between desks. Cushman & Wakefield also sees more emphasis on sequencing people into elevators so they aren't packed in like sardines. Another feature the commercial real estate company says to expect is an increase in signs instructing employees to walk in one direction in hallways, or clockwise in a meeting room, to ensure an orderly flow to foot traffic. Some companies gearing up Making changes to accommodate social distancing at the office is already top of mind for many companies as talk of reopening the economy has started to reverberate here in the U.S. Among those that have already announced major changes are Marriott and financial services firm Discover. On Tuesday, Marriott announced the hotel chain will be using signage in its lobbies to remind guests to maintain social distancing protocols and will be removing or rearranging furniture to allow more space for distancing. The company is also considering adding partitions at front desks to provide an extra level of precaution for guests and associates and is installing more hand-sanitizing stations at the entrances to its hotels, near the front desk, elevator banks and fitness and meeting spaces. In addition, guests will be able to use their phones to check in, access their rooms, make special requests and order room service that will be specially packaged and delivered right to the door without contact. According to Andy Eichfeld, chief human resources and administrative officer at Discover, the financial services firm is considering a number of new policies to keep their employees safe once the company reopens. Currently, 95% of their workforce is working remotely. Procedures under consideration are a gradual return to the office, temperature checks for all employees at the door and having every other workspace be closed off. In addition, traffic throughout hallways and stairwells may be one way only, along with limited occupancy in the elevators. More emphasis on sanitation Shared workstations have long been a hotbed of disease transmission, and the current pandemic is likely to change this trend. Designers say they expect the disappearance of shared keyboards and for companies to introduce clean desk policies with nonessential items stored in cabinets and drawers rather than on the desk to ensure proper cleaning and sanitation. Designers say they are hearing more inquiries about disinfecting UV lights, which can clean not only equipment like keyboards but entire rooms overnight. Nicole Keeler, director of sustainability at interior design and space-planning firm Nelson Worldwide, said she's also fielding questions from companies and building owners about easy-to-clean materials. "There's surfaces that are antimicrobial, just like you would see in a health-care system or in a laboratory," which could become a new norm for workstation surfaces, she said. Nelson Worldwide's Philadelphia office. The interior design and space-planning foresees antimicrobial surfaces, like in a health-care system or laboratory," could become a new norm for workstation surfaces. Farm Kid Studios Another feature that could come into more common use: negative pressure rooms. Now used mostly in medical facilities or airport smoking rooms, negative pressure rooms could help contain germs in, say, a conference room, which can then be cleaned using UV light. Enabling collaboration through design Working from home has many perks, but one downside is that collaboration is difficult with limited face-to-face communication. A recent study from PwC showed that half of the businesses expect a dip in productivity during the pandemic because of a lack of remote-work capabilities. In recent years, some companies have focused on making their spaces more comfortable in hopes of drawing people back. Companies "are literally trying to make their spaces more desirable to draw people back to the office because they do feel like there was a lot of that personal connection and collaboration," said Nelson Worldwide's Keeler. Assuming more people will be working from home regularly in the future, "we will have more specialized spaces in the office," said Jeremy Reding, principal and global workplace leader at DLR Group, a firm devoted to sustainable design in areas including health care, hospitality, museums, schools and the workplace. Reding envisions rooms geared toward specific tasks such as small group conversations, as well as larger spaces for events and maybe even some rooms dedicated to virtual reality. DLR Group's Hines T3 West Midtown building in Atlanta Creative Sources Photography/Rion Rizzo, courtesy of DLR Group "It's really tuning the room to the desired behavior," Reding said. For training, if there is one speaker, the room should ideally have acoustics to amplify that speaker's voice so everyone can hear well. If it's meant to be more social, "you want to set up the sound in there such that maybe you're not getting a ton of reverberation because that creates headaches," he said. To control these factors, designers use various materials such as carpet, acoustic tiles or curtains. Many of these factors are common considerations in the hospitality industry but new to corporate office environments. Conserving energy After the crisis, some workers will likely continue working from home on a regular basis. To accommodate a more flexible workforce, companies have more reason to demand adaptive energy systems. Right now offices are designed to accommodate a certain number of employees on any given day. That means if only half of the employees show up on any given day, the energy usage is unlikely to change much, and the room may end up being colder than usual. Reding, who has been going into the DLR office in Seattle alone, said the office has been freezing. "Right now we're overcooling, and all downtown [Seattle] is probably overcooling because there's nobody in the buildings," he said. Current systems are not adaptive, but Reding sees the introduction of adaptive systems that can respond more effectively to changes in occupancy levels. More room for tech collaboration By Valerie Volcovici TAHOLAH, Washington (Reuters) - Long before Europeans set foot on this rugged stretch of Pacific coastline, Francis McCrory's ancestors rowed wooden canoes to catch a bounty of salmon, enough to feed the entire Quinault tribe. As the generations passed, the fish would be so plentiful, the tribe even had a surplus to barter with early Dutch traders. These days, McCrory pilots a motorboat instead of the canoes of his forefathers. And he sees no future for his family on the water. "It's a sad situation," said the 68-year-old, who goes by the nickname JR. "I worry about my grandkids and what it's going to be like for them. We are stressing to them to get real jobs." McCrory is one of millions of people around the globe on the front lines of a losing battle with climate change, their lives changed utterly by its impact on politics, economies and culture. Climate change is even threatening McCrory's home village: Rising seas have forced the Quinault tribe to begin moving hundreds of residents of Taholah to higher ground. McCrory started fishing salmon when he was 12, using a skiff to haul nets filled with salmon with his father. "There was a lot of salmon in those days all species coho, steelhead and our sockeye, the blueback," he said, referring to a species unique to the region and prized by the tribe. "You could make a good living in those days." McCrory still fishes for a living, but he says it takes hours of work to land a few salmon, and he hopes his 33 grandchildren will avoid the hard lifestyle. The tribe has also banned fishing for the blueback species for the past three years because of low numbers, keeping him off the water during their spring run. He and other fishermen now supplement their income by taking tribal government jobs, clearing riverbanks of debris in what is called "village beautification." "They try to hire as many fishermen as they can so they can get some income," he said. "You don't get rich, but you can make money and pay your bills." Story continues The salmon still features heavily in tribal iconography. One is painted on the entrance to the tribal council office, another carved into a totem pole on the main street. It is also a traditional meal at family gatherings and tribal rituals, cold smoked on cedar planks. Last year McCrory and his siblings traveled up north along the coast to buy a sockeye from the Lummi tribe for their family reunion because none were available closer by. But he said, "It just didn't taste the same." (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Kari Howard. Additional reporting by Stephanie Keith.) A Sharadhaa By Express News Service Vikram Ravichandran is making his acting debut with Trivikrama. If all had gone according to the plan, the film, directed by Sahana Murthy, was scheduled to hit theatres on May 30, on the occasion of the birthday of the actors father (Ravichandran). However, the coronavirus outbreak has put everything in a state of uncertainty. The team, which has filmed the scenes and songs in various locations in Bengaluru, Dandeli, Rajasthan and Bangkok, is now left with the shooting of two songs, which needs to be done in Australia. Director Narasimha, who is ready with the film, is waiting for the lockdown period to get over, and hoping he is able to shoot the two tracks soon. "April 14 is when we had scheduled to be in Australia for the last leg of the shooting, which couldnt take place. We are now in a position that we cant even change the location from Australia, as the production house has already paid an advance amount to the concerned authorities. So cannot think of an alternative," says the director, sharing the latest still of the film with CE. "Post the coronavirus outbreak, even after getting permission to shoot there, there will be a lot of procedures that we have to go through. Unlike earlier, everything is expected to get tough now. The production house, actors as well as the rest of the team are waiting for the lockdown to be lifted to that we can discuss the next course of action," he adds. Trivikrama, which comes with the tag line, High Voltage Love Story, marks the debut of Akanksha Sharma. The model-turned-actor who shot to fame with Do Din, an Indian pop romantic single, is now making her tinsel town debut in a Kannada film. The film, produced by Sommanna and Suresh, under the banner of Gowri Entertainers marks actor Rohit Roys debut in Kannada. He will be seen in the role of an antagonist. The romantic drama also has Akshara Gowda, Chikkanna Sadhu Kokila, Suchendra Prasad, Shivamani, Adi Lokesh and Telugu actor Jayaprakash playing prominent roles. The film has Arjun Janya composing the music while lyrics have been written by Nagendra Prasad. Trivikrama has two cinematographers Santhosh Rai Pathaje and Guru Prashant Rai handling the camera. Thae Yong Ho, center, former North Korean diplomat, who defected to South Korea in 2016 and a candidate of the main opposition United Future Party, reacts after he was certain to secure victory in the parliamentary election in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, April 16, 2020. President Moon Jae-ins ruling party swept South Koreas April 15 National Assembly elections, but it is the two newly elected lawmakers from the opposition who were once North Korean citizens that are creating a hopeful buzz among fellow exiles from the reclusive country. Thae Yong-ho, North Koreas former deputy ambassador to the U.K., who defected to the South with his family in 2016, won his election as a member of the opposition United Future Party, and will be the first such defector to represent a constituency in the assembly. He will be joined by Ji Seong-ho, who fled North Korea in 2006 and after arriving in South Korea, formed an advocacy group called Now Action & Unity for Human Rights (NAUH). Ji also won an assembly seat in a satellite party aligned with the opposition. As the two former North Koreans make plans to leave their marks on South Koreas political landscape, their accomplishments may have greater effect on those still connected to Pyongyang, as news of Thaes election is spreading rapidly among North Korean expats and exiles, sources say. I saw on the internet that [Thae] was elected to the National Assembly, a North Korean trade official, stationed in Dalian, China, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told RFAs Korean Service on Sunday. This news is a hot topic for trade officials, the source added. Most striking to the trade officials is that someone who was once so loyal to North Korea could simply move to the South and become successful in such a short time. Other trade officials have been saying that they are surprised to see Thae [win his election] only a few years after defecting to South Korea, said the source. They quip that he is doing much better now than when he was a diplomat for North Korea, the source added. Thaes success is causing some of the trade officials to consider defecting themselves, according to the source. Trade officials [like me], who have been stationed in China for many years, earn our salaries in foreign currency, and make loyalty offerings to the country. But we are always anxious to know when we will be summoned home and purged, the source said. Although many of us want to defect, we are hesitant because of the safety of our family members who remain inside North Korea, the source added. But honestly, the fact that Thae Yong-ho has become successful in settling down in South Korea, its opening our eyes. Another source, a trade worker stationed in Donggang, China, who requested anonymity, contrasted Thaes new position in the South Korean government with that of the equivalent position in North Koreas. A member of South Koreas National Assembly can make their voices heard to the president, and make laws according to the peoples demands. This is very much unlike a deputy of the Supreme Peoples Assembly in North Korea, the second source told RFA on the same day. They are like scarecrows who act like yes men. Senior officials in Pyongyang will be so shocked when they hear that Thae Yong-ho has become a lawmaker in the South, the second source said. But for now, Thae is making waves among Pyongyangs officials stationed abroad. Trade officials in China are paying keen attention to the fact that Thae was elected, and representing Gangnam to boot. Gangnam in Seoul is like the Central district of Pyongyang, said the second source, alluding to the area of the North Korean capital where the wealthy and elites live. [The trade officials] have high expectations and are watching him curiously, because [Gangnam] is a rich, high-status area, the second source said. But the second source predicted that North Koreas government will move quickly to discourage the spread of the news of Thaes success in the South. The authorities will tighten their ideological control efforts while thoroughly monitoring the movements of senior officials in fear that [those] who hear the [news] will envy Thae Yong-ho or show signs of admiring South Korean society. Hope for the People Several members of the North Korean escapee community in South Korea told RFA that the successes of Thae and Ji would give hope people in the North, possibly encouraging them to consider leaving the authoritarian country themselves. [In South Korea] freedom is guaranteed, Seo Jae Pyoung, the secretary general of the Association of North Korean Defectors, told RFA. North Koreans [who hear about Thae and Ji] must now be fully recognizing that South Korea is a society where one can even become a member of the National Assembly if he or she works hard, said Seo. Middle class officials must be in shock, he added. Paek Yosep, the secretary general of the Coalition for Change in North Korea, told RFA, Former minister Thae settled in South Korea not so long ago. It would be a great message to North Korea that ordinary [South Koreans] gave votes to such a person, especially among the North Korean elites, Paek said. They will have hope that they too can be recognized [as fellow citizens] by South Koreans if they go to the South, he added. Lee Woong-gil, who heads the Saeteomin Lounge, an organization that assists recent arrivals in the South who escaped from the North, told RFA that it is likely that news of Jis win will likely resonate in Jis hometown of Hoeryong, North Hamgyong province. If North Koreans learn that everyone in South Korea is given an equal opportunity, many people will be shaken, and this will lead to a change in North Korea, said Lee. In colloquial speech, both Thae and Ji are referred to by a catch-all term that can be translated into English as defector, but human rights groups outside Korea would call Thae a defector and Ji a refugee due to the circumstances of their respective escapes. Reported by Hyemin Son and Yong Jae Mok for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong. As a nation, we're getting older -- and for many of us, weight gain comes with age. These trends can help explain the impressive growth of ResMed (NYSE:RMD), a manufacturer of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) equipment used to treat sleep apnea. Research by the National Center on Sleep Disorders shows that sleep-disordered breathing affects nearly 15% of the population, and more than two decades of research by the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study produced the conclusion that incidences of sleep apnea will likely rise as our population ages and because of the obesity epidemic. ResMed has seen a 60% jump in its stock price over the past 52 weeks and has enjoyed adjusted EPS growth of 9% over the past five fiscal years. While other medical supply companies are seeing strong headwinds because of the COVID-19 pandemic, ResMed's shares have continued to climb after a momentary dip in late March. Here are a few reasons why. ResMed also manufactures respirators and oxygen masks Respirators and hospital non-vented full face masks (used with ventilators) have been in great demand to treat COVID-19 patients. Before the pandemic, ResMed was already producing respirators to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other breathing disorders, and those respirators are now being used to help patients recovering from COVID-19. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it was awarding contracts to produce 130,000 ventilators under the Defense Production Act. ResMed's contract with HHS, worth $32 million, has the company producing 2,550 ventilators by July 13, including 400 by May 4 and 1,150 by June 1. "We are supplying Astral ventilators, which can do invasive and noninvasive ventilation in the hospital or in the home," ResMed spokesman Jayme Rubinstein told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "We are continuing to talk with state governments in the U.S., and with other countries, about what their needs are and how we can fulfill them." The only thing slowing ResMed from producing more respirators is complexity: Its machines are made up of roughly 500 components, and their manufacturers haven't been able to keep up with supply. However, ResMed and Tesla are now working together -- with the latter supplying lithium-ion batteries -- and ResMed has said it is seeking help from various defense industry companies to get the parts it needs. ResMed CEO Mick Farrell said he's looking to triple production of his company's higher-level ventilators. ResMed has been expanding its software-as-a-service business The rise of hospital costs has led to an increased reliance on out-of-hospital healthcare. Toward that end, ResMed has aggressively grown its software-as-a-service (SaaS) business through the acquisitions of the software systems of post-acute care providers Brightree and MatrixCare. "We believe that the future of healthcare is outside the hospital," Farrell said on the company's second-quarter earnings call Jan. 30. "That's where ResMed competes today and that's where we are winning today. We have the right elements in place to achieve our strategy and to drive financial success as we provide market-leading value to customers." ResMed's second-quarter SaaS revenue was up 37% over the same quarter a year ago and was responsible for 12% of the company's total, according to its quarterly numbers. And ResMed's connection to its customers doesn't end when it sells a COPD device. The company resupplies the masks, filters, and air hoses that attach to the device, and it uses software to keep patents connected. One app, MyAir, allows sleep apnea patients to keep track of their sleep data on their phones. Another app, AirView, is a cloud-based patient management system that allows doctors to access patient data. ResMed is positioned to respond well to a downturn ResMed plans to announce third-quarter earnings April 30. It will be interesting to see how much the company has been affected in the short term by the coronavirus pandemic and accompanying shutdown. Given that people are not currently going to the doctor -- or anywhere else, for that matter -- it's likely that fewer new sleep apnea patients will be diagnosed. However, that's only temporary, and ResMed's recent contracts for respirators should help it smooth out the rough patch. Up 34% from its March 23 low near $109, the stock remains an intriguing buy in the healthcare space. It will look especially appealing if it slips following third-quarter earnings reports. Unidentified assailants attack US military vehicle in Syria's Hasakah: Report Iran Press TV Monday, 20 April 2020 4:45 PM Unidentified armed men have attacked a military vehicle of the US forces in Syria's easternmost province of Hasakah, a report by Syria's official news agency says. SANA, citing civil sources, reported on Monday that the vehicle, transporting American troops and members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), came under attack outside Roueished village, south of the province. The report added that the assault on the Kharafi road destroyed the vehicle and inflicted wounds on a number of the American troops. Just recently, SANA, citing local sources, reported that a US convoy, consisting of 35 vehicles carrying cement blocks and logistic supplies, entered Syria via the Walid border crossing. It added at the time that the convoy was heading from the Yaroubiya countryside northeast of Hasakah toward American bases near Qamishli. Earlier this month, another convoy of military reinforcement consisting of 25 military vehicles and trucks with ammunition had reportedly entered the US base in the city of Shaddadi, south of Hasakah. The United States has long been supplying the SDF militant group with arms and training, calling the group a key partner in Washington's purported fight against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which has already been defeated and almost eliminated in the Arab country. Many observers, however, see the support in the context of Washington's scheme to carve out a foothold in Syria. Such support has also infuriated Washington's NATO ally, Turkey, which views militants from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) the backbone of the SDF as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has been engaged in a destructive war inside Turkey for decades. The presence of US-supported YPG militants in northern and northeastern parts of Syria has prompted Turkey, for its part, to conduct a cross-border offensive into the Arab country to purportedly eliminate the Kurdish militants and occupy a long narrow border area in Syria's north. Washington and a number of its allies began conducting airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria in September 2014 without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. US-made missiles, weapons seized in Syria's southwest In a separate report on Monday, SANA said authorities had managed to discover and seize Western and US-made missile and weapons from the remnants of terrorists in the southwestern provinces of Damascus and Quneitra. It added that the discovery and the subsequent seizure of these missiles, weapons and ammunition were made while authorities were conducting a clean-up operation in the areas purged of terrorists by the Syrian army troops. The report added that among the seized weapons were the Malutka anti-tank missile, RPGs, rifles, Western and American-made submachine guns, hand grenades, satellite broadcasting, telecommunications devices, medicines and medical equipment as well as a number of stolen cars. It was not the first time Syrian forces discovered ammunition of the sort. Turmoil, taken advantage of by Washington and many of its Western and regional allies, erupted in Syria in 2011. Militants and Takfiri terrorists overran parts of Syria's territory before government forces retook almost all of them with help from Damascus' allies, including Russia. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A 19-year-old New Jersey man, who told federal agents last year he had thought about attacking African-Americans with a machete and who is accused of telling people to vandalize Midwest synagogues, has been released from custody amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to court documents. U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Williams ordered Richard Tobin, of Brooklawn, to be released on a $100,000 unsecured bond last week. Under the conditions of his bail, Tobin was placed on home confinement. He is also prohibited from using the Internet and cannot have contact with anyone associated with the alleged crime he committed, including current or former members of two neo-Nazi groups called The Base and Atomwaffen Division, according to court documents. The Associated Press first reported his release. It is unclear if the coronavirus outbreak played a role in Tobins release, though some incarcerated individuals from across the country are being released by judges on strict bail conditions to limit the number of people behind bars during the pandemic. In December, a federal judge ordered Tobin to be detained pending the outcome of his case because of his risk to the community. The judge found there was no condition or combination of conditions of release that would "assure the safety or any other person and the community, according to court documents. Tobin, who was a volunteer firefighter in his hometown at the time of his arrest, allegedly coordinated a plot from his Brooklawn home to have other members from The Base, a white racially motivated violent extremist group," according to federal authorities, vandalize multiple synagogues in the Midwest. He was charged with with conspiring with a hate group against the rights of minorities. When federal authorities interviewed Tobin shortly before his arrest, he described himself as being in a more violent phase of his life. Tobin recalled a time when he was outside the Menlo Park Mall in Edison enraged by the number of African Americans around, according to the criminal complaint, adding he had a machete in his car and wanted to let loose with it, according to the criminal complaint. Tobin repeatedly told federal authorities that he wanted to do something drastically violent and to go out in a blaze of glory, according to the criminal complaint. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow on Twitter @monavage. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. The powers of Wisconsin governors could be significantly pared back if the state Supreme Court rules in favor of plaintiffs in two major cases challenging the extent of the governor's powerful veto authority. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments by video teleconference in both cases Monday, with attorneys and justices appearing remotely. The first case, brought by taxpayers represented by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, challenges four of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' vetoes to the 2019 budget. Those include one that transformed a grant program to replace school buses into funding for electric vehicle charging stations and another that altered funding to improve local roads so the money may be used for other transportation-related purposes, such as public transit. The second case objects to two vetoes former Republican Gov. Scott Walker issued that extended the effective date of one legislative program from 2018 to 2078, and another from 2018 to 3018 by deleting two digits and a comma. All mail-in voting happens in other states, but Wisconsin Republicans aren't interested amid COVID-19 pandemic If the court sides with the plaintiffs in each case, it would revoke Evers' spending diversions and Walker's effective suspension of two budget provisions and would likely prevent similar moves by future governors, clipping the wings of one of the most powerful gubernatorial offices in the nation. A favorable ruling for both plaintiffs would also curtail some of the political gamesmanship that occurs every two years between the governor and Legislature, when the Legislature passes a budget, attempts to protect its language against changes in the gubernatorial veto process and the governor, through the partial veto authority, uses creative means to amend the document. Wisconsin governors still have among the strongest powers over appropriation bills in the country, with the ability to strike words, numbers and punctuation in both appropriation and non-appropriation text in bills that determine how money is spent. Governors may also strike appropriation amounts and write down an entirely new, lower amount. Most other states allow governors only to strike or reduce appropriations in bills spending money. It's unclear how the 5-2 conservative majority court will rule in their final decisions expected before the term ends in midsummer. Still, some justices in Monday's arguments underscored the big impact a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the first case would have. "So you're asking us basically to either distinguish or overrule a considerable number of cases," said Chief Justice Patience Roggensack, who is supported by conservatives. Jill Karofsky benefited from a Democratic primary, but her double-digit win signals trouble for Trump Justice Rebecca Dallet, backed by liberals, questioned whether WILL is asking for the court to overreach, noting that the Legislature hasn't passed any bill over the past 85 years prohibiting the types of vetoes Evers used. "Isn't it true that you're really asking this court to make a new policy decision?" Dallet said. Wisconsin has passed constitutional amendments limiting gubernatorial power: one in 1990 banning the so-called Vanna White veto to delete phrases, digits, letters and word fragments to create new words and phrases; and another in 2008 prohibiting using the veto to create new sentences by combining parts of two or more sentences in an appropriation bill, known as the "Frankenstein veto." The first case argues Evers violated the state constitution by fundamentally altering the Legislatures policies in the state budget, usurping a power not given to the governor in the state constitution. WILL contends Evers, in approving the state budget passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature with several partial vetoes, stripped the appropriation bill of integral language and therefore violated the principle in the state constitution that "legislative power shall be vested in the Senate and Assembly." WILL is targeting four of the 78 partial vetoes Evers made to the state budget when he signed it in early July. The vetoes: 3 candidates line up for Assembly seat being vacated by Chris Taylor Star Refrigeration's low charge ammonia Azanechiller lifted into place at a customers site last week. All manufacturing and installation work is being carried out in line with government guidelines surrounding COVID-19. The health and safety of our staff, site personnel and the wider community is our top priority. " In line with government guidance, Star is continuing to operate its UK manufacturing facilities in Glasgow, providing critical support to the cold chain and other key industries. Star is continuing to manufacture and install new refrigeration equipment to meet the demand for increased capacity and help feed the nation. In early March, Star instigated a strict COVID-19 health and safety plan to protect manufacturing personnel and minimise risk on installation projects at customer sites nationwide. Production has continued throughout the UK lockdown at Stars manufacturing facilities in Thornliebank and Westway, where shifts are currently operating around the clock, five days a week. Star Refrigeration Contracts Director Lewis Brown says: We are supporting essential industries by continuing to manufacture and install new refrigeration plant, to bring much needed additional capacity. We are also continuing installation work to improve the reliability of existing refrigeration equipment at customer facilities. This will help to ensure temperature compliance as we approach the summer months, providing the cold chain and other key industries with greater resilience. The government recently highlighted the importance of keeping supply chains moving to protect the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an open letter to manufacturers, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy emphasised that manufacturing is critical to the UK economy, with no restriction to its continuation under current rules. Star Refrigeration Contracts Director Lewis Brown adds: All manufacturing and installation work is being carried out in line with government guidelines surrounding COVID-19. The health and safety of our staff, site personnel and the wider community is our top priority. We are working in conjunction with each customer to ensure installation projects are completed safely and with minimal risk to those on site. Star is the UKs largest refrigeration engineering company, working with market leaders in a variety of industries including temperature controlled storage, food and drink processing, pharmaceutical, HVAC and leisure. The company specialises in the design, manufacture and installation of chiller packages, which can be fully commissioned and tested in-house, before direct delivery to site. Key to this integration, is the inclusion of crop boundaries from Gatekeeper into the KisanHub platform, a prerequisite of accessing other platform tools. These tools include a crop monitoring app, quality tracking with market suitability, pest and disease predictions and yield models. Another key aspect is the importing of planting/sowing and harvest dates for these crops, which when combined with other platform data, provide the basis for crop management and procurement planning, improving operational efficiency and allowing more informed decisions. Jonny Kerley, Head of Product at KisanHub explains: "Software systems in the form of point solutions have been used by the agricultural industry since the early 2000s and this process has accelerated in recent years with a number of agri-tech companies providing different solutions. These point solutions, for example a soil moisture sensor, rarely integrate or talk to each other, reducing accessibility. "KisanHub's horizontally scaled platform brings these data sets together in one place, allowing more accurate and informed decisions across the supply chain. Similar to the computing industry in the early 1980s, agri-tech solutions will transition from vertically integrated to horizontally scaled systems. "This will revolutionise the agricultural industry, allowing easier exchange of information and standardisation across multiple systems. We are extremely excited at KisanHub to be an integral part of this journey, alongside precision farming and crop management systems such as Farmplan's Gatekeeper. With the ease of use provided by Proagrica to connect and move this data between Gatekeeper and KisanHub it becomes easier to create connections saving both time and money." Growing up in the industry gave Jonny an early appreciation and affinity with agriculture, attributes that were deepened by 6 years as a research manager in agricultural and horticultural crop trials and a further role as an agri-food consultant. Now, Jonny's role at KisanHub is to steer and design the development of the software, particularly in the crop intelligence and data insights departments, to ensure it meets the 21st century requirements of the agricultural industry and provides solutions to on-the-ground customer problems. Jonny further describes: "Data requires organisation and interpretation to provide information. This information becomes knowledge when the context is sufficient. Robust data, that is not contained in segregated silos is essential to the supply chain, something that KisanHub strives to provide, and is part of the reason for this integration with Gatekeeper through Proagrica. "Our cloud-based platform and mobile app can capture and analyse data in context, providing actionable knowledge in real-time to our users. It also allows the platform to consolidate information across a wide geographical area, helping to anticipate and analyse crop parameters such as quality and yield across different fields, growers or regions. Data sets are connected yet secure; spread across remote sites, accessible anywhere and shareable when desired." KisanHub has developed the platform by working closely with our customers, including some of the largest growers and producer groups in the UK and global fresh produce sector: Ian Anderson the Divisional Managing Director at Burgess Farms Produce described: "Our focus is on delivering consistent premium quality at the lowest unit cost possible whilst delivering sustainable returns to our growers. To achieve this goal we need accurate data and advance knowledge of both crop and seasonal developments so that we can ensure optimum crop usage. "The partnership between ourselves, our growers and the KisanHub team will allow us to use live data to help anticipate crop size splits and yields, to generate the maximum possible saleable fractions and the best financial outcome for our growers and customers. "KisanHub's platform enables us to capture data across a wide portfolio of growers and consolidate that information into one central resource. It provides an opportunity for us to access and analyse our data quickly, transforming the way we make these essential management decisions moving forward." Proagrica's Precision Agriculture Development Director, Alistair Knott said: "This type of collaboration is exactly what is needed to ensure the value from systems data is scalably realised. Growers, agronomists and other service provider systems will, through choice or functionality, be different. Each has its place in the helping growers to be more productive and so more profitable, and so it is our responsibility to make our growers experience as easy and simple as possible. Gatekeeper, as the backbone IT system to so many growers, is ensuring that crop optimisation solutions such as KisanHub can seamlessly fit into that IT infrastructure." For further information on KisanHub, please visit the website at www.kisanhub.com This collaboration with KisanHub is one of the latest steps in Proagrica's ongoing commitment to improve data connectivity in the agri-food supply chain. About Proagrica Proagrica, part of RELX Group, is a global provider of independent connectivity and data-driven support solutions for the agriculture and animal health industries. We deliver actionable intelligence to drive business growth across the value chain. Our superior products and services connect and empower industry participants to address their key needs around trading, productivity and compliance. Our solutions are built around the key competencies of data connectivity and data analytics delivering seamless supply chain management, supply chain standards compliance, and customer insight and engagement, essential for businesses looking to improve their value offering and expand in the modern marketplace. Further information at www.proagrica.com, www.relx.com About Farmplan Farmplan (http://www.farmplan.co.uk) is the leading industry software specialist in the agricultural sector. With a proud heritage of over 50 years its unique blend of people, knowledge and technology have supported the needs of every farm, no matter the size or complexity. Farmplan is part of IAgrM and works closely with the AICC, accountants, advisors and agronomists across the industry, championing farmers while helping to shape the future success of agribusinesses. About the KisanHub platform In 2013 KisanHub software revolutionised how agriculture connects information in the food supply chain, from seed to sale. Today, KisanHub is a leading digital solution thanks to the online platform and mobile-App accessible anywhere, anytime. With a growing customer base in both the UK and globally, KisanHub supports the management of over 60 million worth of food, for people to enjoy around the world. Unique data-driven insights from KisanHub allow enterprises to discover ways to increase predictability and become more environmentally sustainable. The features range from satellite imagery to show crop health, harvest predictions using machine learning and paperless passports to show full traceability of the journey of our food. KisanHub's talented team of 38 employees, between the two offices in Cambridge UK and Pune, India are dedicated to making the best software solution for inefficiencies in the food supply chain. Kisan means 'Grower' in Hindi and we aim to cultivate a Hub for everyone involved in food production to connect, collect and discover together. For more information visit kisanhub.com or follow us @kisanhub on Twitter and LinkedIn Media Contact: Proagrica, RBI, Quadrant House, Sutton SM2 5AS. [email protected] SOURCE Proagrica and KisanHub Veteran broadcaster Mike Murphy has launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump, calling him a narcissist and appalling creature for withholding funds from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Former labour leader Brendan Howlin added his criticisms, branding the US president an ignoramus and declaring his presidency in the current crisis a tragedy for the world. The two made their comments during a web conference organised by the African-European Parliamentarians Initiative on responding to Covid-19 in Africa. Mike Murphy asked a panel of experts why there had not been more uproar over Trumps announcement that he would withhold the USs annual $400 million contribution to the WHO. Trump has claimed the WHO mismanaged the spread of Covid-19 claims the organisation has strongly refuted. Why did world leaders not scream in protest? Mr Murphy asked, saying he did not understand why they had not tackled the narcissist or called up to tell the appalling creature to change his pathetic behaviour. He is using his nightly briefings as an electioneering ploy. Its all elect me Im doing a great job, he said. Deputy Howlin agreed that Trumps response was divisive. It is a tragedy for the world that the US is led by an ignoramus at this time of real need. Everything he does is damaging to the solidarity that is needed. He added: We can only hope he will be removed in November. In the meantime, he said: We look with dismay at an America that becomes more and more isolated. UK politician, Lord David Chidgey, who chaired the UK parliaments report on lessons learned from the Ebola crisis, said of Trumps behaviour: This is all about distraction politics. Marth Karua, a human rights advocate and former justice minister in Kenya, said the withholding of funds was not the right thing to do. This is a time for solidarity, not individuality. So long as this pandemic is not handled in one corner of the world, there is danger for the whole world, she said. She said she believed other world leaders were too busy dealing with the crisis in their own countries to get involved in a dispute with Trump. The event was addressed and watched by parliamentarians, public health experts and community leaders in Ireland, the UK and Africa. President Michael D Higgins addressed the meeting by video link, making a strong call for debt cancellation for African countries struggling to keep Covid-19 at bay. He said it was almost impossible to ask African countries to adopt the widespread hygiene and social distancing measures relied upon in Ireland when so many places lacked clean water and suffered extreme overcrowding and where there were no social supports for those who did not go out to work. It would be an invitation to starve, he said of trying to impose a stay indoors policy. Europe has had a legacy in Africa that it would like to forget but which Africans have not forgotten and now is an opportunity to make a new beginning and not only respond to Covid 19 but to respond to those structural imbalances that are there unfair trade and the burden of debt. How can we say that it is right when some Africa countries are spending more than 12 times on servicing their debt, as is the case of Angola, than on providing public health? Debt cancellation is what we need. It is so totally insufficient to speak of six months relief in relation to debt payments. He said there was also a need to keep cash flowing through NGOs on the ground in Africa to provide the most flexible response to local needs. President Higgins said the response to Africas needs now would help shape the future for the world. Africa is not a problem nor were ever its people. It is the continent of the young and when we look into the future, it is to Africa we look for new forms of economy and a better relationship between economy and society and ecology and culture. We can all benefit from a proper and adequate response to the present situation in Africa, he said. Coronavirus stimulus checks began going out last week, and included as part of the direct payment to families is an additional $500 for every eligible child. But many parents will need to take action by Wednesday, or theyll have to wait until next year to receive the money. The plan provides $1,200 for each eligible adult and $500 for each child under the age of 17. So a married couple with two children that meet the income threshold are owed $3,400. The full eligibility requirements for the coronavirus stimulus payments can be found on the IRS website. The majority of Americans who had dependents on either their 2018 or 2019 tax return wont have to take any further action to receive the $500-per-child stimulus payments. But a number of taxpayers need to take action by Wednesday to avoid a lengthy delay. READ MORE: We are forgotten: Despite mounting costs, college students are excluded from $1,200 stimulus checks Heres what you need to do to claim the $500 payment for eligible children: Social Security, disability, or veterans benefits recipients Individuals receiving Social Security, disability, veterans benefits, or Railroad Retirement benefits will automatically receive their $1,200 stimulus check without taking any action. However, if you fall under one of these categories and have eligible children under the age of 17, the IRS says you need to use the Non-Filers tool on their website to claim the $500 payment youre owed. The IRS says the tool will request basic information to confirm eligibility, calculate your payment, and send it to you: Full names and Social Security numbers, including for spouse and dependents Current mailing address Bank account type, account and routing numbers (leave blank if you receive your benefits through Direct Express) The deadline to enter the information is noon Eastern time on Wednesday, April 22. Otherwise, the additional $500-per-child amount will be paid when you file your 2020 tax return next year. The IRS said Supplemental Security Income recipients will have longer than Wednesday to provide their information, but didnt specify a deadline. I didnt receive $500 stimulus payment for all my children Some parents have reported not receiving $500 checks for every child, even though they appear to be eligible. If the information for your children was included on either your 2018 or 2019 tax return, the IRS says you shouldnt have to take any extra steps. The IRS suggests checking the Get My Payment page to make sure the agency has the correct data. In circumstances where an error occurred or the IRS needs to investigate further, a Treasury spokesperson said, the payment would come separately at a later date. Are children born or adopted in 2020 eligible for $500 stimulus payment? If your child was born in 2020, or you adopted a child this year, you are still eligible for the $500 payment. You just wont receive it this year. Instead, the IRS says you will receive the extra $500 as part of your tax refund (or subtracted from your tax bill) when you file your 2020 tax returns next year. Why arent kids and other dependents older than 16 eligible for $500 stimulus payment? When Congress wrote the rules for the economic stimulus checks, they based it on what lawmakers did in 2008, which excluded dependents over the age of 16 mainly high school students and young college students, but also some disabled and elderly people who are claimed by the people they live with and provide most of their support. Dependents, by definition, arent responsible for a majority of their financial support, Michael Zona, a spokesperson for the Senate Finance Committee, told the Wall Street Journal. The goal of the recovery rebates is to provide support for Americans who are responsible for their own financial well-being or that of another during this pandemic. The battle for one of Houstons competitive congressional seats is already one of the most expensive in the nation. Almost $9 million has been spent by candidates for the 22nd Congressional District based in Fort Bend County, which includes parts of Brazoria and Harris counties. Its the fifth-most spent in any of the 435 congressional races in the U.S. nearly twice as much as in any other congressional contest in Texas. And the money is still flowing as the top two GOP challengers in the race head for a runoff in July. Republican Kathaleen Wall has staked more than $4.4 million of her own money on her campaign, fueling big TV ad buys that helped her take second place in the March 3 Republican primary. She finished second to Fort Bend Sheriff Troy Nehls, who spent over $350,000 so far. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Wall began airing a new television commercial earlier this month blaming China for having poisoned our people with the coronavirus. More Information Five most expensive congressional races in the United States $16.2 million - Louisiana's 1st District WHY: A safe Republican district held by U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise who is the top fundraiser in the GOP. He's told GOP leaders he's prepared to share most of that money with the National Republican Congressional Committee to help the GOP try to regain the majority. $12.9 million - California's 50th District WHY: Former U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, with a net worth over $250 million, has self-financed more than $5.7 million of his comeback bid and defeated fellow Republican Carl DeMaio in a GOP primary in which DeMaio spent over $3 million. $11.7 million - North Carolina's 9th District WHY: Democrat Dan McCready spent over $8 million in a 2019 special election for this seat. $9.5 million - California's 22nd District WHY: Democrats have made Republican U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes a big target in 2020 for his role in defending President Donald Trump during the House impeachment proceedings. Nunes has already spent over $7 million as he braces for a challenge from Democrat Phil Arballo. $8.7 million - Texas's 22nd District WHY: This rare open seat for Congress drew 15 Republicans and four Democrats in the primaries and is considered one of the Democrats' top targets in the nation. Source: Federal Election Commission data See More Collapse In all, 15 Republicans were in the primary election hoping to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land. The second-biggest spender in the race didnt survive the primary. Pierce Bush, the grandson of former President George H.W. Bush, spent $1.3 million. The Republican nominee will face Democrat Sri Preston Kulkarni in a race that both major political parties have declared a major priority. Kulkarni spent about $1.2 million in the primary and won his partys nomination over three other Democrats. The 22nd district is considered one of the most competitive in the nation after Kulkarni came within 5 percentage points of defeating Olson, who had won his previous re-elections by much wider margins. The Cook Political Report, based in Washington, D.C., listed it as one of six Republican-held seats rated as a toss-up or favoring Democrats in 2020. The National Republican Congressional Committee remains optimistic it can hold the seat whether Nehls or Wall wins the July 14 runoff election. NRCC officials point out that the last time President Donald Trump was on the ballot, he won the 22nd District by 8 percentage points. But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is vowing to help Kulkarni capture the district. After scaring Rep. Pete Olson into an early retirement with his strong grassroots campaign, Sri Preston Kulkarni is the leader who will flip this diverse and quickly-changing district from red to blue in November, DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos said. The candidates are battling for a two-year term in Congress that pays $174,000 a year. Additional reporting: Vivienne Clarke The impact of donations of tablets and smart devices to nursing homes and hospitals was demonstrated last night on RTE One's 'Claire Byrne Live' programme, as a nursing home resident was seen warmly greeting his daughter for the first time since Covid-19 restrictions were put in place. "It is great to see you too, love, and you're all well, I hope?", he inquired. Vinnie Caprani described the impact of a gift of a tablet from charity 'Comfort 4 Covid' on the programme. "It was wonderful to have this opportunity to speak, and see my family, because I miss them, visiting. "But this is a wonderful substitute, to make this kind of contact, and see them, and talk to them, laugh with them and joke." "It is great to see you love" - nursing home resident Vinnie Vinnie got a new tablet from @comfort4covid so he can chat to his family from his nursing home. #CBLive pic.twitter.com/iqy8WpGgHp Claire Byrne Live (@ClaireByrneLive) April 20, 2020 Consultant geriatrician Professor Sean Kennelly has warned that nursing home residents could have to wait months before they receive visitors. There is a potential that residents could not see their families for months, he told RTE radios Morning Ireland. "Most residents have already not received visitors for some time since restrictions were introduced in nursing homes in early March," said Prof. Kennelly. "There is a need to find a way that residents can continue to live in their (nursing) home, but do so in a safe fashion. "At present most patients are receiving care in their rooms so they are not congregating and this is having a severe psychological impact, he added. Meanwhile, the owner of a nursing home in the midlands dealing with a Covid-19 cluster has spoken about the heartbreak of losing seven residents to the virus. Lucy Flynn, the owner of Millbury Nursing Home in Navan, discussed the ramifications of the virus last night on Claire Byrne Live. "It was heartbreaking telling the families that they could not come into the nursing home and be with their loved ones." "It is heart breaking" - Lucy Flynn, owner of nursing home Lucy Flynn is the owner of Millbury Nursing Home in Navan, she spoke to #CBLive about the cluster of #Covid19 in the home and the heart break of losing 7 residents to the virus. pic.twitter.com/SPzRiNpnbw Claire Byrne Live (@ClaireByrneLive) April 20, 2020 The nursing home sector has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks as the spread of the Covid-19 virus in nursing homes around the country has been a significant contributor to deaths and new cases. China has reached an agreement with South Korea to set up a "fast track" for businesspeople to travel between the countries as Beijing looks to ease an entry ban on foreigners imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. With the deadly disease spreading globally, China last month blocked almost all foreigners from entering as authorities fretted over cases being imported from abroad. Beijing is also in talks with other countries including Singapore to set up a similar channel to stabilise economic cooperation and ensure supply chains run smoothly, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a press briefing Tuesday. The virus, first discovered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December, has since spread like wildfire and killed more than 167,000 people worldwide with cases reported in over 190 countries. But there are signs that China is looking to relax some of its controls as the measures used to curb the pandemic place a huge economic strain on nations worldwide. "China is in talks with relevant countries to set up fast-track channels allowing... business and technical personnel to travel," Geng told reporters on Tuesday. "The purpose is to stabilise important economic and trade cooperation... and to ensure the safe and smooth operation of international industrial and supply chains," he added. Beijing has reached a consensus with Seoul on the fast-track channel and both sides are working to implement the plan, Geng said. China and Singapore have also discussed personnel exchanges via video conference, he said, but Geng declined to elaborate on which other countries authorities were negotiating with. The Asian giant has tightened controls on returning travellers and drastically cut international flight routes after largely bringing its virus outbreak under control in recent weeks. There are signs that the dramatic steps are working, with only four new imported cases of coronavirus reported Tuesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The chief of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has sought a meeting of the panel through video conferencing on April 28 to discuss issues relating to lockdown and COVID-19 but no permission has been granted by the Rajya Sabha chairman yet, multiple sources said on Tuesday. Panel chief and Congress MP Anand Sharma has written to the Rajya Sabha chairman seeking permission for the meeting to be held digitally. The panel would like to discuss issues that have arisen in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, a member of the committee said on condition of anonymity. The issues that might come up for discussion, if the meeting takes place, include easing of curbs and roadmap for lifting of the ongoing lockdown, the member said. It may also discuss the demand made by several states for an economic package to tide over the crisis. The member said matters related to coordination between the Centre and states during the crisis may also come for discussion at the meeting. Sources in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha secretariats said no permission has yet been granted to any parliamentary panel to hold a meeting. They said the issue is still under consideration of the Rajya Sabha chairperson and the Lok Sabha Speaker. "No permission to hold any meeting of the Parliamentary panel has yet been granted by the presiding officers," an official said. Sources said the issue involves confidentiality of Parliament and officials are still examining whether a meeting through video-conferencing can take place. Some members have also sought permission for convening a meeting of a Lok Sabha panel. No Parliamentary Standing Committee has met after Parliament was adjourned sine die on March 23, ahead of the scheduled end of the Budget Session on April 3. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) While a third of the world is believed to be on lockdown, it's only natural that tempers start to fray after weeks cooped up at home. And when venting over the phone or on a video call just isn't enough, people from around the world have chosen to express their frustration by posting signs outside their homes, which have been collated by BoredPanda in a hilarious gallery. One of the signs, pasted on a family's window in Columbus, Ohio, read 'uninstall 2020, it's got a virus,' Meanwhile, a spouse whose patience had reached its limits in Lisbon put a 'husband for sale' sign hanging on their balcony. Although borne out of frustration, at least they offer some laughs at a time of uncertainty. Computer says no? In Columbus, Ohio, a resident suggested that this year is rather like a pesky computer virus Letting loose! One Chicago resident admitted they've been taking advantage of the pandemic to go commando Any takers? One exasperated resident of Lisbon doesn't want to wait to sees a divorce lawyer when restrictions end In Traverse City, in Michigan, a movie theatre found a great modern-day-twist on a film classic (pictured) In Watertown Massachusetts, a person with a lot of time on their hands claimed they finished 'Netflix' during the quarantine In Los Angeles, a neighbour updates this sign everyday with jokes to bring a smile to people in his neighbourhood (pictured) The Rutherford Congregational Church, in New Jersey, had some words of wisdom for its followers (pictured) In Bristol, a neighbour had a very radical solution for people who struggle to remain at home during the lockdown In McAllen, Texas, a gentlemen's club found a great pun to announce they were closing for April (pictured) A mother from Galesburg, Illinois, shared this sign, in reference to the Christmas movie classic Home Alone (pictured) The man behind the Instagram account Dude With A Sign, from Manhattan, did not stop producing hilarious 'protest' art because of the pandemic (pictured) Some pupils are luckier than others! The Grace Christian School, in West Columbia, shared this hilarious snap on Facebook In New York, one neighbours found the perfect way to make the pandemic about the Bee Gees biggest hit Several officials are accused of conspiring to defraud state funds during the coronavirus pandemic. Two deputy health ministers in Guatemala were fired this week amid revelations of an alleged corruption ring inside the ministry. Rodolfo Galdamez, the technical deputy minister of health, and Hector Marroquin, the administrative deputy minister of health, were fired Monday, according to officials. Eight health officials conspired to defraud state funds during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the presidential commission against corruption. The commission filed its findings Monday with the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutors Bureau. It was unclear whether Galdamez and Marroquin were among the eight investigated by the commission. No officials were named. Neither Marroquin nor Galdamez immediately commented on their removal. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health told Al Jazeera that because the issue is under criminal investigation, no further details can be confirmed. The names of the alleged perpetrators were not released, but presidential anti-corruption commissioner Oscar Davila noted the group of eight included officials removed from office. A structure was identified inside the Ministry of Public Health that tried to join forces to commit fraud against the interests of the state in these times when funds must be strictly monitored, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said Monday. We are not going to tolerate corruption. We are not going to permit anyone to steal one cent, and less so in the middle of a crisis, he said. Guatemala has confirmed 294 cases of the novel coronavirus, including 50 cases of Guatemalans deported by the United States. Seven people have died. The country confirmed its first coronavirus case on March 13. Less than a week later, the ring of top-level health officials allegedly engaged in criminal activity related to the adjudication of two public contracts for medication purchases. A health worker sits inside an area of the closed La Aurora airport, where the government is holding Guatemalan citizens deported from the United States in a temporary shelter as they wait for their coronavirus test results [Moises Castillo/AP Photo] These events began on March 18 of this year, Davila told reporters Monday at the prosecutors office, adding that the commission began investigating the following day. The presidential commission against corruption was established by Giammattei shortly after he took office in January, four months after his predecessor shut down a prominent United Nations-backed international anti-impunity commission. For us, it is very important to have a presidential commission that focuses on these issues, presidential spokesman Carlos Sandoval told Al Jazeera. It permits us to maintain a transparent and especially honest endeavour in these times, when the population needs officials who properly utilise the resources of Guatemalans, he said. Deposed deputy health minister Galdamez is the subject of a separate criminal investigation into alleged corruption, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutors Bureau announced Monday, acknowledging a media report that prompted the investigation. The report, published on Saturday by Plaza Publica, an online Guatemalan publication, revealed that Galdamez benefitted from public contracts while in office, which is prohibited by law. Calls for health ministers dismissal Guatemalas Human Rights Ombudsman, Jordan Rodas, formally requested the removal of Health Minister Hugo Monroy from office. By law, the ombudsman may request the suspension or removal of officials in some circumstances. Over the course of the COVID-19 crisis, the poor management of the portfolio has become evident, Rodas told Al Jazeera. The new allegations of corruption are just one factor, he said. There has been a slow pace in the decentralisation of coronavirus testing, and a lack of agility in the administrative processes to provide medical and paramedic personnel with optimum equipment, said Rodas. We need new professionals at the helm of the ministry in the midst of a crisis, he said. Edie Cux, a lawyer and president of Accion Ciudadana, an anti-corruption citizen action group, said what is truly concerning is how the Ministry of Health is managing the crisis. Cux told Al Jazeera that more than whether or not an official is ousted, what is worrisome is the top-down way things are being managed. Information and crisis management is top-down and centralised in the president and health minister, and there is little evidence of teamwork or collaboration across government agencies, said Cux. The president might be very capable and all, but he is not Superman, he said. There need to be teams of experts and officials who can adequately address the crisis, said Cuz. And in that vein arises the issue of what kinds of appointments the health minister has been making. Several Massachusetts lawmakers say President Donald Trumps plan to halt immigration amid the COVID-19 pandemic smacks of racism and scapegoating designed to divide the nation at a time when tens of thousands of Americans have died in less than two months. The lawmakers, all Democrats, pledged Tuesday to fight an upcoming executive order announced in Trumps tweet after 10 p.m. on Monday night. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Trump wrote. Rep. Richard Neal said that other than a late-night tweet, the president had shared no information with the American public about how this hasty change in immigration policy would work. His announcement has even caught members of his administration by surprise," Neal added. "The reality is that while we respond to the global pandemic, few people are traveling in or out of the United States. During these uncertain times, I would urge the President to stay focused on COVID relief and not recommend a policy change that would be unprecedented in the history of the United States. The invisible enemy a novel coronavirus that Trump said was totally under control in January has infected more than 800,000 Americans and killed 44,000. Public health experts in the Trump administration say millions more would have been infected without stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines in place across the country for several weeks. The economy has nosedived in the meantime, prompting more than 20 million Americans to file for unemployment. While the Trump administration argues the order is focused on protecting American workers, many lawmakers say its the most extreme of several measures already taken by the administration to block entry from immigrants and asylum seekers. Our immigrant neighbors are essential to our nations wellbeing protecting and supporting our communities, Rep. Ayanna Pressley said on Twitter. The occupants shameful attempt to use this public health emergency to advance his xenophobic agenda is disturbing, but not surprising. The cruelty is the point. Our immigrant neighbors are essential to our nation's wellbeingprotecting and supporting our communities. The occupants shameful attempt to use this public health emergency to advance his xenophobic agenda is disturbing, but not surprising. The cruelty is the point. https://t.co/EUDbw192KO Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) April 21, 2020 Trumps executive order would force the country to deny entry for immigrants seeking most work visas for at least 90 days, Bloomberg reported. The ban does not include health care or medical research professionals, or workers in food production and others directly helping to protect the supply chain, including farm workers, according to a draft of the order. Immigrants working in the U.S. technology industry on H-1B visas will need to provide updated certifications showing they arent displacing American workers. I have determined that we cannot jump start the domestic economy if Americans are forced to compete against an artificially enlarged labor pool caused by the introduction of foreign workers, Trump said in the draft order. I have determined that the entry of most aliens as permanent or temporary workers in the immediate term would have adverse impacts on the national interest. Were not falling for it, Rep. Katherine Clark tweeted. More than 40,000 Americans have lost their lives to #Covid_19. Trump is once again relying on division to distract us from his failure to provide the testing, PPE and tracing that is necessary to save lives and reopen our economy. More than 40,000 Americans have lost their lives to #Covid_19. Trump is once again relying on division to distract us from his failure to provide the testing, PPE and tracing that is necessary to save lives and reopen our economy. Were not falling for it. Katherine Clark (@RepKClark) April 21, 2020 In a Facebook post, Sen. Ed Markey called the proposed immigration ban the latest piece of the same racist and xenophobic agenda he and his administration have been driving for years. Its despicable and unacceptable. We will fight back. Trumps immigration ban is the latest piece of the same racist and xenophobic agenda he and his administration have been driving for years. Its despicable and unacceptable. We will fight back. Posted by Ed Markey on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 In a video, Rep. Joe Kennedy III, whos running against Markey in a Democratic primary, said, Think of how small our current president seems at that podium. Everyone elses fault but mine. I bear no responsibility for this. In fact, it is the cause of the immigrant that we are where we are today. Weve got a tough task in front of us, but this country is capable of so much better, and so much more. Think about how small this current president seems at that podium. Our country deserves so much better. Think about how small this current president seems at that podium. Everyone else's fault but mine I bear no responsibility And now Its the immigrant's fault Our country deserves so much better. Posted by Joe Kennedy III on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 Sen. Elizabeth Warren argued the president had nobody to blame but himself for a completely bungled response to a deadly crisis. Not immigrants. Not governors or mayors. Just you, she said in a Facebook post. Stop scapegoating immigrants with more racism and xenophobia and do your job. You have nobody to blame but yourself for this completely bungled response to a deadly crisis, Mr. President. Not... Posted by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 Related Content: the district administration today has totally banned the movement of public in between Ghaziabad- Delhi. Only the media persons who are working in Delhi would be permitted by showing their passes, issued by the Ghaziabad district information office. It has also been declared that there would be no relaxation during lock down. The action has been initiated to check the spreading CORONA virus infection. Ajay Shankar Pandey told PTI. The chief minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed the district magistrates of 19 districts where from the cases of CORONA virus have been reported till now. CM further instructed through video conferencing on Sunday night to the DMs to take decision regarding relaxation during lock down at their own. He said. Following the instructions of CM, decision has been taken not to open industries and offices in the district. Previous orders and conditions would remain in the same condition when the lock down was declared. DM said. Besides this two societies KDP and Girnar were opened yesterday for the residents for their outside movement. On the other hand Islam nagar colony and ATS society of Indira puram have been sealed. All the roads leading towards these areas have been barricaded. Total 15 societies are sealed and declared hot spot. DM Pandey said adding that till yester evening 311 reports were received by health department (including the report of ATS society) 307 reports were diagnosed negative and four positive. 3 out of 4 positive cases till now have been tested negative and these patients have been discharged. 33 cases are positive in the district, two persons are undergoing treatment in Delhi and one in Meerut. Only 30 cases are under treatment in Ghaziabad. Till now no person has died due to virus all the patients are recuperating. Pandey added. Hemant Tyagi (Journalist) District correspondent PTI, Ghaziabad 21 April 2020Mobile no. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government is determined to press ahead with a project to reconnect railways in and out of North Korea even though international sanctions make that impossible. A Unification Ministry panel meets Thursday to discuss plans to reconnect the Gangneung-Jejin railway line in Gangwon Province, a spokesman said Monday. Cross-border projects are exempt from feasibility studies, but that is the least of the hurdles the pie-in-the-sky project will have to clear at a time when North Korea has broken off all contact with the South. The Unification Ministry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport have already decided to hold a ceremony to start construction in Goseong, Gangwon Province on April 27, the second anniversary of an inter-Korean summit. At the summit the leaders of the two Koreas agreed to replace the 110.9 km section with high-speed railroads. A ground-breaking ceremony was held in December 2018, but all activity juddered to a halt after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's summit with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in February the following year. That leaves South Korea with the lonely task of upgrading the railroad at its end, in the forlorn hope that North Korea will one day be interested again and international sanctions can be lifted as it abandons its nuclear program. "We'd better start to do what we can do first," a ministry official said. There are also proposals like helping the North in the fight against coronavirus to rekindle cross-border contacts. Former Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said, "We should make a generous offer to provide all medical equipment and supplies" for a new hospital being built in Pyongyang. "If the North accepts it, then we can use it as the groundwork for a cross-border summit." Across Canada, and around the world, people are learning how to do things remotely. Things they never would have dreamed they would need to learn. Some very unlikely things including publishing newspapers and websites. Churches are meeting remotely. Executives at all levels are doing it. Students of all ages. Doctors, counsellors, financial advisers, planners, scientists and civil servants. Musicians are performing from their basements and home recording studios. It can be frustrating, and there are a range of indirect problems that can result from working in isolation. But we do it, because its what is best from a public health perspective. And that is what the vast majority of us agree is most important right now. But Canadian Parliamentarians cannot meet remotely, apparently. At least, Andrew Scheer and his Conservatives arent supporting virtual parliamentary sessions. Instead, they want a reduced number of MPs to meet in Parliament face to face. The governing Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois all agree that virtual parliament is doable. The lone holdouts are the Conservatives. A vote was scheduled for late yesterday afternoon that will see an unhappy compromise MPs will meet together once a week, on Wednesdays, for in-person sittings. There will also be two virtual sessions per week that will include two-hour-and-15-minutes for questioning cabinet ministers, and another session for debating new legislation. The Conservatives are expected to vote against even this compromise. Instead, they want three in-person sittings per week. Scheers defence is that since construction work on the Centre Block can continue, so can face-to-face parliament sittings. If they can safely renovate the building that houses our parliament then surely we can do our duty to uphold the bedrock of our democracy. But why cant virtual sittings work? Scheer doesnt have a good answer for that. His best attempt seems to be that virtual sittings arent possible immediately and MPs cannot wait for the weeks and weeks that it may take the House of Commons administration to provide necessary technology. But that excuse doesnt wash either, since House Speaker Anthony Rota has written in a public letter that virtual sittings should be available by May 6. Given Scheer doesnt have a sensible answer, the real reason for his resistance to something all other parties can agree on is undoubtedly partisan. Scheer doesnt want to give up the partisan bear pit that is traditional Parliament, especially Question Period. Doing so takes away his partisan soapbox, and means less face-time on TV. It would be bad enough if this was just about MPs risking their health and spreading COVID-19. But its not just about them. Some support staff pages, laundry and cafeteria staff for example wont need to be recalled. But others, such as broadcast technicians, clerks and interpreters will have to come to work in the West Block. When the House met on Saturday, April 11, 40 additional employees were required so that 32 MPs could do their work at the emergency sitting. So lets be entirely clear. Scheer is putting his own partisan interests ahead of public health. Even though the vast majority of Canadians are working hard to live by the distancing recommendations from public health leadership, Scheer is insisting on up to 100 people meeting, and at least in some cases, not being able to practice physical distancing. There is still a chance that Scheer might relent on this terrible position, perhaps recognizing how the optics make him and his Conservative party look awful. That would be a wise reversal. Read more about: Scientists have discovered an earlier origin to the human language pathway in the brain, pushing back its evolutionary origin by at least 20 million years. Previously, a precursor of the language pathway was thought by many scientists to have emerged more recently, about 5 million years ago, with a common ancestor of both apes and humans. For neuroscientists, this is comparable to finding a fossil that illuminates evolutionary history. However, unlike bones, brains did not fossilize. Instead neuroscientists need to infer what the brains of common ancestors may have been like by studying brain scans of living primates and comparing them to humans. Professor Chris Petkov from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, UK the study lead said: "It is like finding a new fossil of a long lost ancestor. It is also exciting that there may be an older origin yet to be discovered still." The international teams of European and US scientists carried out the brain imaging study and analysis of auditory regions and brain pathways in humans, apes and monkeys which is published in Nature Neuroscience. They discovered a segment of this language pathway in the human brain that interconnects the auditory cortex with frontal lobe regions, important for processing speech and language. Although speech and language are unique to humans, the link via the auditory pathway in other primates suggests an evolutionary basis in auditory cognition and vocal communication. Professor Petkov added: "We predicted but could not know for sure whether the human language pathway may have had an evolutionary basis in the auditory system of nonhuman primates. I admit we were astounded to see a similar pathway hiding in plain sight within the auditory system of nonhuman primates." Remarkable transformation The study also illuminates the remarkable transformation of the human language pathway. A key human unique difference was found: the human left side of this brain pathway was stronger and the right side appears to have diverged from the auditory evolutionary prototype to involve non-auditory parts of the brain. The study relied on brain scans from openly shared resources by the global scientific community. It also generated original new brain scans that are globally shared to inspire further discovery. Also since the authors predict that the auditory precursor to the human language pathway may be even older, the work inspires the neurobiological search for its earliest evolutionary origin -- the next brain 'fossil' -- to be found in animals more distantly related to humans. Professor Timothy Griffiths, consultant neurologist at Newcastle University, UK and joint senior author on the study notes: "This discovery has tremendous potential for understanding which aspects of human auditory cognition and language can be studied with animal models in ways not possible with humans and apes. The study has already inspired new research underway including with neurology patients." The study involved Newcastle University, Faculty of Medical Sciences, UK; Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany; Birkbeck UCL Centre for NeuroImaging, UK; University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA; University of Iowa, USA. 3 1 of 3 Roy Kent / Staff photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Roy Kent / Staff photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Cars were lined up for more than a mile Tuesday afternoon waiting for the Houston ISD food distribution center at Revere Middle School. The cars snaked their way from the school at 10502 Briar Forest Dr. and up Beltway 8 to Hershey Park. Officers with Precinct 5 Harris County Constable Ted Heaps office were on hand to help control traffic, particularly as cars got off the Sam Houston Tollway near Deerwood Drive. The former Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle sent Thomas Markle, Meghan's father, text messages pleading him to contact them and warning him that speaking publicly about their relationship would backfire. The said text messages were exchanged months leading up to their wedding. Meghan Markle sued the publishers of The Mail On Sunday and MailOnline over the publication of a private letter sent to the 75-year-old Thomas Markle in August of 2018. The court documents showed that the first hearing of the case will take place on April 24. The text messages The documents were disclosed ahead of the first hearing, the couple sent Mr. Markle messages before they got married at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018. The texts were sent on May 14, 2018, after calls to Mr. Markle went unanswered. Prince Harry's text messages are as follows: "Tom, Harry again! I really need to speak to u. U do not need to apologize (sic), we understand the circumstances but 'going public' will only make the situation worse." "If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me as there are two other options which don't involve u having to speak to the media, who incidentally created this whole situation. So please call me so I can explain. Meg and I are not angry, we just need to speak to u. Thanks." "Oh, and speaking to the press WILL backfire, trust me, Tom. Only we can help u, as we have been trying from day 1." Also Read: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle in Hopes of Another Baby According to the documents, Mr. Markle did not respond to the message or phone calls from both Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Days later, Mr. Markle issued a public statement through TMZ that he had gone to the hospital because he had suffered a heart attack. The document also stated that Meghan only found out about her father's condition after reading the story online. On May 15, Meghan texted her father. Her text messages are as follows: "I've been reaching out to you all weekend but you're not taking any of our calls or replying to any texts. Very concerned about your health and safety and have taken every measure to protect you but not sure what more we can do if you don't respond." The Duchess sent another text about 10 minutes later, offering to send a security team to him, adding: "Please, please call as soon as you can... all of this is incredibly concerning but your health is most important." After his daughter texted him, Mr. Markle responded by saying that he would be in a hospital for a few days but he was okay and he refused the security that Meghan offered. Prince Harry sent more messages from his wife's phone to provide Mr. Markle with details of the security team, and he asked his father-in-law to speak to him about letting a security guard return to Mr. Markle's house. The lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Meghan is suing the Associated Newspapers over an article that reproduced parts of the letter that she wrote for her father. The sections of the letter were published in the newspaper and online in February 2019 and it was announced that the actress would be bringing legal action in October 2019. Meghan's lawyers stated that the letter was private and that the newspaper chose to deliberately omit or suppress parts of the letter. The former Duchess is seeking damages for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act. Meanwhile, Associated Newspapers denies the allegations. Related Article: Meghan Markle 'Heartbroken' Over Not Seeing Mother, Fears of Her Health as COVID-19 Cases Rise @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A policeman was forced to do 50 sit-ups in Araria by a senior agriculture officer after he stopped the bureaucrat's vehicle and asked him to show the mandatory pass for moving during the coronavirus lockdown, in yet another instance of front-line workers facing harassment. IMAGE: Police officers punish a man for breaking nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of COVID-19 disease, in Motihari. Photograph: ANI Photo Bihar Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey on Tuesday took strong note of the incident and asserted that action will be taken after a probe report is submitted. The incident, whose video has gone viral on the social media, occurred near Surajpur pul (bridge) under Jokihat police station area on Monday when chowkidar Ganesh Lal Tatma halted the vehicle of District Agriculture Officer Manoj Kumar and asked for the pass needed to move around during the lockdown imposed in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. This riled the officer who, after severely scolding the chowkidar, forced him to do 50 sit-ups while holding his ears. The agriculture officer did not stop at this and threatened that he could have sent Tatma to jail had he not been in a hurry to attend a video conference. A police officer, who was heard in the video posing as incharge, also upbraided Tatma for "letting him down" in front of the senior officer. "You have made me feel insulted in front of the senior officer," the police officer was heard yelling at the chowkidar. Pandey said he talked to Inspector General of Police and Superintendent of Police of Araria over the unpleasant incident. He disapproved of the conduct of the officials, saying they insulted the chowkidar who as part of the administration was playing an important role in enforcing the lockdown. It is very shameful and against human dignity, Pandey said. Superintendent of Police Dhurat Sayali has ordered a probe into the incident. The DGP said strong action will be taken against the erring officials on the basis of the inquiry report. Leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav came down heavily on the state government for letting bureaucracy "run the show" in the state, where a "dutiful" policeman as made to do sit-ups by an officer. "Bureaucracy is unbridled in Bihar. How a District Agriculture Officer is making an elderly chowkidar do sit-ups as the dutiful chowkidar just asked (officer) to show a valid pass ," Yadav said in a tweet message. Bihar has reported over 100 case of COVID-19. There have been several instances of policemen being attacked or harassed while enforcing the lockdown. A policeman's hand was chopped off and two other police officials were injured when a group of people allegedly attacked them in Punjab's Patiala district when the cops stopped their vehicle and asked them to show the pass needed to move during the lockdown restrictions. A Virgin Australia plane is seen at a gate at Gold Coast Airport on the Gold Coast, Australia, on July 9, 2015.(Cameron Spencer/Getty Images) Virgin Australia Enters Voluntary Administration The airline's founder blames the Australian government for not bailing it out Virgin Australia announced Tuesday that it has gone into voluntary administration amid the CCP virus pandemic. This comes after its international shareholders voted against rescuing the struggling airline on Monday after failing to get the Australian government to bail it out. The airline has appointed Deloitte as voluntary administrators of the company and a number of its subsidiaries, Virgin announced in a media release. We have commenced a process of seeking interest from parties for participation in the recapitalisation of the business and its future, and there have been several expressions of interest so far, said Vaughan Strawbridge, a Deloitte administrator. The Australian government believes voluntary administration will provide an opportunity to find a private-sector solution, restructure the companys debt, and emerge with a new owner. Related Coverage State Labor Government Bails Out Virgin Australia, Calls for Federal Help Doubling down on comments made by the treasurer yesterday, the finance minister today told ABC News Breakfast that the government is not in the business of owning an airline. But we do want to see two airlines continue, said Senator Mathias Cormann. Theres a lot of opportunity from here on in to ensure that there is a viable second airline in Australia moving forward, he said. Opposition Labor Perspective Opposition Labor Leader Anthony Albanese said he doesnt agree with the federal governments decision to not intervene for Virgins employees. This isnt a market failure, he told ABC radio this morning. This is as a result of a government decision, the right decision, to shut down sections of the economy to deal with the health crisis. Albanese wants the government to step in and save the airline, cutting through the complexities of a private-sector solution to protect Virgins 15,000 direct and indirect employees. He said the governments lack of intervention could pose a long term threat to the national economy as more people would become unemployed. However, Virgin will continue to be eligible for the federal governments Jobkeeper payments during the period of administration. The Jobkeeper package provides $750 (US$360) per week to companies per employee to help with retaining staff until the pandemic is over. Albanese posted a joint statement on Twitter with MP Catherine King calling on the federal government to buy a stake in the failing airline. My statement with @AlboMP on #VirginAustralia entering voluntary administration.@ScottMorrisonMP must outline a plan to take an equity stake in Virgin and ensure we continue to have two major airlines in this country.https://t.co/UN31nOsSzW pic.twitter.com/uQfxZN3aJb Catherine King MP (@CatherineKingMP) April 21, 2020 Founder Richard Branson Weighs In Virgin founder Richard Branson wrote an open letter that he published on Twitter to console the airlines employees while taking a swipe at the Australian federal government for not bailing the company out. He wrote: I know how devastating the news today will be to you all, in most countries federal governments have stepped in, in this unprecedented crisis for aviation, to help their airlines. Sadly, that has not happened in Australia. As the pandemic hit, Virgin already carried about $5 billion (US$3.16 billion) in debt. It employs about 10,000 people and supported another 5,000 indirect jobs. Dear @VirginAustralia team. I am so proud of you and everything we have achieved together. This is not the end of Virgin Australia, but I believe a new beginning. I promise that we will work day and night to turn this into reality https://t.co/GJH1zhEqEd pic.twitter.com/GelLiA6DKG Richard Branson (@richardbranson) April 20, 2020 In fact, the Australia government has offered support to the aviation industry as a whole amid the CCP virus crisis. It has provided over $700 million (US$442 million) in rebates, over a billion dollars worth of relief packages, and underwrote a limited schedule of flights serviced by Virgin, Qantas, and Qantas subsidiary Jetstar. It has always been the governments position that Virgin should turn to its shareholders for a bailout. Virgin has very substantial shareholders. Singapore Airlines and Etihad Airlines own 20 percent each. There is 40 percent or thereabouts that is owned by substantial Chinese investors, said the finance minister. In the media release and in a post on Twitter, Virgin confirmed that it will continue to operate its scheduled international and domestic flights that are helping to transport essential workers, maintain important freight corridors, and bring Australians home. Virgins decision to enter voluntary administration comes a week after it suspended trading its shares. It also follows weeks of turmoil in Australias aviation sector, which has been devastated by lack of demand due to the domestic and international travel restrictions put in place by the federal government to slow the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Follow Caden on Twitter: @CadenPearson China reopening is abruptly halted as another coronavirus lockdown is imposed, and the incoming second wave of cases is expected to break. The optimism of Beijing as they proclaimed that the virus defeated is rendered impotent as the soft opening of Henan is further delayed. One look in the province of Henan, it is silent with no activity except for supermarkets and farmers markets. About 600,000 people are under curfew and until further notice it will be a ghost town. As reported by China's government account on Weibo as the only source of information. One local said that all is locked down and it is just the beginning: "All households are locked down. Nobody can go into town, or if you do, you won't be able to leave again." More rumors circulated as one member in a hospital division for testing added there are more strict rules, who'll get tested. Testing is case to case and subject to restrictions. One commented that all who visit the hospital must be on a special list before gaining entry. All approval is needed from higher officials and most under them need to get the appropriate notifications as strict policy. No more democratized testing anymore, as a control on these getting a test is at the behest of officials. The source added that, the hospital is doing several hundred tests a day, a staff member who wanted to be anonymous added it was just an estimate and not the real number. Most of the hospital staff are on overtime, especially in the testing division. One resident said, "Many people believe that the epidemic has been brought under control due to government propaganda, which is false." Saying such statement will meet repercussion as civil liberties are limited. Also read: 10 Most Common Mistakes When Using Face Masks Another source said, "Basically life has gone back to the way it used to be, just with some people still choosing to wear face masks on the streets." Several people are not wearing masks as well, this is good news, it does keep people alert all the time. Government figures are distrusted and not considered accurate, about 1,000 asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 have been recorded by epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan, coronavirus epidemic adviser to the government. The numbers do not seem right and asymptomatics are too low in the government tally. Great doubt is expressed by Chen Bingzhong, the former director of the China Institute of Health Education under the ministry of health said, "Zhong Nanshan believes that the proportion of asymptomatic people is very low. This is wrong, but how do we prove it?" Chen Bingzhong mention that the best way is with a 'nucleic acid test', then thinks if all those tests are 100% flawless with no errors. Adding that, "No, they're not, but they're the most reliable method we have right now." Mr Bingzhong mentioned that the more people who were confirmed were infected, better that than let Beijing be accountable for starting the contagion. He said without fear, ""It'll get to the point where they lose legitimacy, because they just try to cover everything up and pass the buck." Beijing will relinquish power all costs, he said further. He added: "It'll get to the point where they lose legitimacy, because they just try to cover everything up and pass the buck," he said. "They are doing this to cling onto power." Whatever mainland government says, there will be doubt in the truth. Another coronavirus lockdown is set in Henan, but doubt is eroding whatever the rulers in Beijing say. Relate article: Three Whistleblowers Still Missing in China: The World Wants the Truth, Where Are They Now? @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NEW YORK, N.Y. -- A flood of spam text messages to the citys new 311 social distancing tip line caused a glitch in the agencys system, a spokesperson for 311 said. On Saturday, Mayor Bill de Blasio called on New Yorkers to report people not following social distancing guidelines by texting photos of the violations to the citys new 311 tip line or the 311 app. If a violator is caught, fines of as high as $1,000 will be issued. But on Sunday evening, 311 said it had to temporarily disable the text line for a short period of time to allow 311 to go through the que of photos after being flooded with spam texts. 311 is augmenting staff this week and plans to assign additional headcount to the text queue to better address these conditions in the future, 311 spokesman William Reda said. 311 said any legitimate social distancing photos the agency receives, which include location information, is sent to the NYPD to follow up on. Shortly before 5 p.m. on Sunday evening the Advance sent a photo of people not socially distancing in Times Square to the tip line and received an error message saying text service is unavailable. City Hall later told the Advance it had fixed the problem and the Advance sent the message again to the tip line. The 311 tip line appeared to be working and 311 texted back that a representative will be with you soon, but no representative ever called or texted back. I tried texting @NYCMayors social distancing enforcement number and got this error message https://t.co/tE1YFcZFfa pic.twitter.com/usKC2TSICM Sydney Kashiwagi (@SydneyKashiwagi) April 19, 2020 The mayor said Monday he was not sure whether representatives call back tipsters. The photos are being monitored constantly by the NYPD for action. In terms of whether there's a response back to the person who sends the photo, I don't know that, the mayor told reporters Monday. The mayor could not say how many photos the tip line had received over the weekend or how many the NYPD had followed up on. He said he would provide that data going forward. Were going to get out more and more of both the overall numbers, but also I want you to see the pictures. I want you to hear the stories. I want you to see how much enforcement has been done," de Blasio said. I dont think its been portrayed effectively. I think a lot more is happening than has been talked about. And Im going to ask NYPD, in particular, to put all of that out more so you see it. FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The New Jersey European Heritage Association (NJEHA), a group with ties to Staten Island and labeled as a white supremacist organization by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), has begun using the coronavirus (COVID-19) as an avenue to progress its rhetoric. The group, which the Advance/SILive.com exclusively reported made more than 50 postings within a seven-month span during 2019 a year when white supremacist propaganda distribution more than doubled compared to 2018 is also on the radar of the NYPD and District Attorney Michael E. McMahon. NJEHAs main form of exposure is through the distribution of flyers and stickers, which the group encourages followers to print out and place in their neighborhoods. The flyers, which commonly refer to an unsubstantiated conspiracy that white people are facing extinction, normally urge viewers to Reclaim your nation and Reclaim your heritage;" however, since the emergence of the coronavirus, the group has touted altered messaging related to the pandemic. Flyers and stickers that read, Globalism is the virus, multi culture is the virus, and stop coronavirus/deport all illegal aliens/close the borders/stop immigration," among others, have been posted at various locations throughout the country, including on Staten Island, according to the groups postings on Gab an uncensored social media site the organization utilizes. Its common for extremists to exploit a crisis to further their hateful agenda, said Carla Hill, a research fellow with the ADL, and we saw in late March that the New Jersey European Heritage Association updated their racist anti-immigration, anti-Semitic propaganda to include references to coronavirus." NJEHA, like other groups reportedly using the virus in an effort to further their agenda, appears to be essentially using the virus as a platform," Hill said, which is a very common thing for extremists to do. Groups like NJEHA often take whatever mainstream issues are out there and try to glom onto them to further their own purposes, according to Hill. About one dozen flyers or stickers from NJEHA have been placed on Staten Island since the beginning of April, according to the groups Gab page, which represents a stark increase compared to the rate of postings last year. NATIONWIDE CASES Early estimates indicate that there will be close to 500 propaganda incidents a month in the United States this year, according to Hill, which would trounce last years numbers considerably, when there were 2,713 cases of literature distribution nationwide. There were only 1,214 reported cases of literature distribution in 2018. The increased projections correlate with the aforementioned increase in NJEHAs postings. The group was responsible for approximately 9% of all white supremacist propaganda incidents in the United States in 2019, according to the ADL, though data mapped by the Advance/SILive.com indicates its influence is more pronounced locally. While NJEHA began as a small group of just a handful of people in New Jersey, Hill said the ADL is now aware of members in New York, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana and Pennsylvania, among other states. Part of the growth of NJEHA could be attributed to its social media presence. While Hill noted that the group has been deleted from Facebook and Twitter quite a few times, its presence on Gab and Telegram which the ADL considers a safe haven for white supremacists has enabled its content to be widely spread. Hill said members of groups like NJEHA have taken to videoing or photographing that propaganda so they can reuse it online, which she said re-ups the use of that propaganda. And so its spread more widely than just a passerby seeing it on the back of a stop sign or a telephone pole, Hill said. PRIOR INCIDENTS AT COLLEGES On Staten Island, NJEHA touted placing its material at heavily-trafficked areas, including Wagner College and the College of Staten Island (CSI). Stickers were removed from the campuses, and statements were delivered to students and faculty in both instances. The groups website reads: The non-Whites who will come to replace us will recreate the failed societies they have fled. Our nations will be plagued with high levels of violence, poverty, corruption and instability. When an Advance/SILive.com reporter identified himself after calling a number listed on one of the NJEHA posters on Monday, the person who answered the phone hung up. When previously contacted for a story, a man who picked up the phone declined to speak to an Advance reporter, saying they "dont want to talk, adding, you guys are liars and fake news. The latest postings by NJEHA come at a time when the ADL says there have been a multitude of reports of members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the United States being told to Go back to China, and being blamed for bringing the virus to the country. The coronavirus, which has affected over 2.3 million people globally and over 750,000 people in the United States, is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China. However, the New York Times reported that research indicated that the virus began to circulate in New York earlier than expected and was brought by travelers mainly from Europe not Asia. DEPARTMENT OF STATE While the pandemic exacerbates biased messaging against marginalized communities, the United States Department of State on April 6 designated a foreign white supremacist group as a global terrorist (SDGT) group enabling federal authorities to prosecute Americans who support it with terror-related offenses. The group, the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), is the first foreign white supremacist organization to ever be labeled as terrorists, officials said, and was given the designation following the push of Rep. Max Rose to develop a terrorist threat assessment of foreign violent white supremacist extremist groups. The surge in white supremacist extremist violence in the United States puts all of us at risk,'' Rose said at the time. "There is mounting evidence that the threat to the homeland posed by violent white supremacist extremism has transnational links. It is not clear if NJEHA has ties to larger international groups. However, Rose previously said the group is absolutely a threat" that spreads "vitriolic, hateful, disgusting material. The groups goal in its own words of securing the existence of our people and a future for white children, is accomplished, according to the site, by promoting its ideas partially through the mediums of simple flyers which do not promote any type of violence or illegal activity. If a poster is seen, despite the NJEHAs self-proclaimed adherence to legality, Rose previously said to pull it down, dump it in the garbage, and report it as well. It has no place in our neighborhood, Rose said. Agartala, April 21 : Following a domestic quarrel a man in Tripura's Khowai district murdered his wife with a sharp knife on Tuesday and then fled his home, police said. During the ongoing lockdown, although overall crime has reduced but there has been no respite to domestic violence against women, according to the police. Police official Udham Debbarma said that 40-years-old Swapan Debbarma following some bickerings with his wife Kabita, 32, murdered her at their Jamadar Bari home in western Tripura). The couple has an 18-years-old daughter. "Swapan fled when police went to arrest him. We are on the look out," the police official told IANS over phone from Champahour. Two similar murders took place in southern part of the state in the past two weeks. A senior police official said that during the month-long ongoing lockdown, "as the police and other security forces are very strictly controlling people's movement due to the lockdown guidelines, the overall crimes have been drastically reduced in Tripura". Acting Director General of Tripura Police Rajiv Singh told IANS that in a week's time they may study the crime scenario in Tripura during lockdown. Actor John Abrahams heart beats for India, which is evident not only from the kind of films he does, say Satyameva Jayate and Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran, but also his words and actions. And while the current Covid-19 situation certainly is stressful, he feels that it has brought everyone together. The police, Army, medical professionals and all of them, these are your Covid warriors, like they call them, who are actually risking their lives, specially the medics, wardboys. They all are the real-life superheroes. Situations bring out unlikely heroes, and this pandemic has brought up probably the likeliest ones, thats the people in the medical profession, tells us the 47-year-old. A poem that Abraham has recited about them and the situation, Mera Bharat Mahaan, has gone viral, and garnered more than a million views on his social media handles within two days. The credit goes to Milap (Milan Zaveri, director), he penned and WhatsApped it to me, I said this is beautiful, he just wanted me to recite it. It took me a couple of minutes, as it spreads the message of positivity in todays world, which is full of negativity and hatred. I think its good to have something thats positive and not controversial, still Indian at heart, which people will relate to. It will probably foster unity somewhere, he says. Abraham is known to always be a very private person, who is only vocal on things he feels passionately about. With a lot of people divided over whether one should announce their donation amounts or not in this crisis, we pop the question to him too. He says he doesnt prefer to announce them. I think people who have announced, have done fantastic jobs. People like me would not make it public, not even through a subversive way. Not even through a PR person, where you find out Hey, John has been doing this, he has not told anybody, but hes actually told people to tell. So I am probably right at the other end, he confesses. And then, he goes on to reveal something which sent shivers down his spine. He shares, This was scary. Someone in the business told me This is your time to buy goodwill. We are faced with a real-life situation, and its not time to, quote unquote, buy goodwill. It is something I choose not to say, even if I am doing. Like I said, nothing wrong with people who have said it. Hats off to our industry, we have come together as a unit. Life in this lockdown, as Abraham describes, has not been a drastic change for him. He anyway prefers home food, comfortable in his house. And requesting people to self-isolate themselves, he adds, If people are expecting things to get back to the way they were, on May 4, lets wake up and smell the coffee, nothing is going to be normal till the end of this year. Its going to be a new normal. The number of people in Bay Area hospitals with COVID-19 or suspected of having the illness has declined over the past few weeks, a sign that early and aggressive social restrictions in the region may have calmed the spread of the virus, public health experts said. Throughout California, however, the number of people who have tested positive and are in hospitals has continued to climb. State data reviewed by The Chronicle for the month of April show that the number of people in hospitals for COVID-19 in the nine-county Bay Area fell from a high of 471 on April 7 to 403 on April 19. The number of people in the hospital with symptoms consistent with the respiratory disease, but who had not been tested or had pending results, dropped from 360 to 203 during the two-week period. Hospital counts provide a better view into the scope of the outbreak than case counts since they are not as dependent on the availability of tests. Epidemiologists call the trend encouraging, but caution that things could still quickly change. We may be very lucky in the Bay Area in dodging that surge, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at UCSF. No one can say were completely out of the woods yet, but we have been very fortunate in terms of our hospitalization rates. We have been in control so far. The data, released by the California Department of Public Health, show only the total number of people who are in the hospital for the disease each day, not new admissions a metric public health experts say would be a better indicator of how many people are getting seriously sick over time. Todd Trumbull The figures in the Bay Area differ across the region. In Alameda and Contra Costa counties, for example, the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 and were in the hospital increased during the first week and a half of April, but recently leveled off and started to drop slightly. In San Francisco, the number of positive patients this month peaked on April 12 at 92, then began to steadily decline until reaching 73 cases by April 19. Gandhi warned things could worsen, particularly in light of the nearly 100 people who recently tested positive for COVID-19 at the citys largest homeless shelter. We dont yet know if the shelter situation will cause more hospitalizations, she said. The data show that in almost every Bay Area county, the number of suspected cases is falling faster than the number of confirmed cases. The trends for the Bay Area are somewhat different from California as a whole. In April, both experienced a large drop in the number of suspected COVID-19 cases in the hospital, which might be due to the waning flu season and a recent increase in testing. Obviously, whether someone is a confirmed or suspected case depends in part on whether testing for the virus is available, said Dr. Arthur Reingold, division head of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC Berkeleys School of Public Health. If there arent enough tests, a higher proportion of the cases will be suspected. Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle Meanwhile, the number of people who tested positive for the virus and had to be hospitalized has slowly increased in California while it has stayed relatively flat in the Bay Area. We are not seeing that downward trend we need to see to provide more clarity on that road map to recovery, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday about the California numbers. 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 difference is driven partially by Los Angeles County, which experienced a sharp increase in hospital counts in April. The county of 10 million, which has become an epicenter of Californias outbreak, makes up a quarter of the states population, but it accounted for more than half of all confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospitals on April 19, according to state data. Health officials have told The Chronicle that the timing of social restrictions may have played a role in slowing the rate of infection in the Bay Area, which announced its shelter-in-place order three days before Los Angeles. Many Bay Area tech companies also asked employees to work from home, and some schools closed shortly after the first cases were confirmed in San Francisco on March 5, Gandhi said. California is a very diverse and large state: Los Angeles, San Diego, the rural north, they may not all be in exactly the same place as the Bay Area, Reingold said, adding that he hoped there would be a continued drop in hospitalizations in the coming weeks. Obviously, one unknown is the extent in which people who have been avoiding crowds, washing their hands, sheltering in place will continue to do that, Reingold added. Or will they feel emboldened and go back to behaviors that increase their risk. Joaquin Palomino is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jpalomino@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoaquinPalomino Ex-Sakhalin governor Khoroshavin to stand trial on bribery charges TASS, Yury Smityuk 15:34 21/04/2020 MOSCOW, April 21 (RAPSI) The Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City Court will consider a new bribery case against ex-governor of the Sakhalin Region Alexander Khoroshavin, who had been earlier convicted of corruption, according to the website of the Prosecutor Generals Office. He stands charged with receiving bribes amounting to more than 100 million rubles. Investigators believe that from May to November 2014 Khoroshavin took from 2 to 10 million rubles. Investigators revealed 20 bribery counts. Several other ex-officials also became defendants in the case along with Khoroshavin. Ex-deputy mayor of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Alexey Leskin will stand trial along with Khoroshavin. In March, the court gave a suspended term of 7 years and 10 months to the former head of the Sakhalin Region governors secretariat Vyacheslav Gorbachecv as part of the case. Two more alleged accomplices are on the international wanted list. In February 2018, the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City Court sentenced Khoroshavin, to 13 years in a high-security penal colony and fined him 500 million rubles (about $8.6 million). The court found that in 2009 Khoroshavin established an organized criminal group with Karepkin and Ikramov. In 2009-2015, the criminals received over 522 million rubles (nearly $9 million) from regional entrepreneurs. President Vladimir Putin dismissed Khoroshavin from his post due to loss of trust in March 2015. UTICA, N.Y. Mohawk Valley Health System is furloughing 20% of its workforce, or around 800 people, as of Wednesday, according to MVHS officials. The employees are expected to be furloughed for the next four months to give MVHS a chance to strengthen its financial outlook after facing significant revenue losses during the coronavirus pandemic. "We chose to furlough employees because we wanted to support our employees and maintain a relationship with them. One of my primary goals has been to make sure that our employees do not end up in a position where they cannot meet their mortgage or rent or cannot afford to feed their families. A great deal of thought and consideration was put into how we fashioned this furlough. Furloughed employees remain our employees with their health benefits in place. And while out on furlough, theyll draw from both state and federal unemployment," said MVHS CEO Darlen Stromstad This comes one day after MVHS announced 5%-15% pay cuts to vice presidents, directors, managers, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and the CEO. Stromstad says the New York State Nurses Association has rejected the MVHS furlough proposal, but they are still working with other unions on an agreement, including the Communications Workers of America and the United Food and Commercial Workers. "We are negotiating with CWA and UFCW and hopefully we will reach an agreement to adopt a furlough proposal. Unfortunately, NYSNA has rejected our furlough proposal, so we are forced to implement the layoff provisions in the collective bargaining agreement," said Stromstad. MVHS employees roughly 4,000 people. According to Stromstad, other measures of the COVID-19 Recovery Plan include a four-month suspension of Urgent Care services and implementing telehealth. In an effort to save funds, MVHS is also renegotiating service contracts, negotiating cost savings opportunities with medical staff, and eliminating all discretionary spending and deferring capital investments. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that hospitals in New York could start performing elective surgeries again if they are in an area that has low-risk of a coronavirus surge MVHS had set a tentative date of May 7th to resume elective outpatient procedures, but say they will try to do it sooner, now that the governor has given them the go-ahead to do so on April 28th. Stromstad says the furloughs were a difficult, but necessary, decision. "We had no choice. We have to make sure that we attain financial viability for the organization or it puts everybody at risk. So, we have no choice." Tobacco multinationals are using the COVID-19 crisis to engage in activities that either help clean their image or challenge governments for restricting or banning the sale of tobacco products, the African Tobacco Control Alliance has said. In a statement Monday, the group said the practice further complicates things for Africa, which in addition to the Coronavirus pandemic, is dealing with malaria, HIV, non-communicable diseases, and poverty. The group said it is heartbreaking to know that despite several studies and experts warnings that smoking could render individuals more vulnerable to coronavirus, the tobacco industry still sets out to push for the availability of its products during imposed lockdowns. To date, tobacco use is known to have a considerable impact on lung health being associated with several respiratory diseases, the group said. Smoking is also detrimental to the immune system and its responsiveness to infections, making smokers more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Previous studies have even shown that smokers are twice more likely than non-smokers to contract influenza and had more severe symptoms, while smokers were also noted to have higher mortality in the previous coronavirus (MERS-CoV) outbreak. Earlier this month, the British American Tobacco announced it was working on plant-based coronavirus vaccine, with a potential to manufacture 1-3 million doses per week. In March, Papastratos, an affiliate of Philip Morris International, the worlds largest multinational tobacco company, donated 50 ventilators for use in Greek Hospitals. Back in Africa, Rwandan businessman, Tribert Ayabatwa, the owner of Meridian Tobacco Company and Leaf Tobacco and Commodities, contributed Shs250million (about $70,000) to support the fight against COVID-19 in Uganda. Such contributions from the tobacco industry undermine governments credibility as there is an irreconcilable conflict between the industrys interests and public policy interests, the WHO had warned. It is important that African countries heed this call and do not let the tobacco industry gain the ability to influence tobacco control policies in the future through their assistance to deal with COVID -19 today, ATCA said. According to ATCA, several African civil society organisations have taken the initiative of calling on governments to use this COVID-19 outbreak as an opportunity to step up measures to protect citizens from smoking and its related consequences. The Ghana NCD Alliance, for example, has called on the government to ban alcohol and cigarette sales, and give special care to NCD patients. In Botswana, the government banned the sale and importation of tobacco and related products as the country forges its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, just after civil society urged it to do so. The African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) congratulates African governments for taking bold initiatives to contain the spread of the virus, and encourages them to remain steadfast even as the tobacco industry attempts to derail such actions, the group said. Public health must always be top priority for any government, and ATCA condemns the shameful and unorthodox strategies being implemented by tobacco industry to thrive its business, even in the midst of a deadly pandemic; which has been particularly proven to be aggravated by smoking. ATCA calls on the African tobacco control community to be vigilant during this period and take actions to isolate all efforts of the tobacco industry to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic be they to continue to market tobacco products, or to clean itsimage through donations, or corporate social responsibility initiatives. The class of 2020 has been unable to mark many milestones, but The Showboat Drive-In is about to change that by offering socially distanced graduation ceremonies. Andrew Thomas, owner of the Showboat Drive-In, said the idea stemmed from a brainstorming session he had with a fellow business owner. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: State parks reopen, giving Texans a much-needed break from cabin fever "I was talking to a friend of mine who owns a skating rink in Alvin about how we can make it through these difficult times," said Thomas. "It got me thinking about graduations." The ball got rolling after receiving a call from Rosehill Christian School asking about hosting their graduation at the Drive-in. To date, they have been contacted by two dozen schools and have six events booked," said Thomas. "Some are planning this as a surprise for students." "First and foremost, we will have everybody remain in their vehicles during the program. We will also be limiting the capacity so that each vehicle can be 12+ feet apart," said Thomas. QUARANTINE PROMS: Houston Humane Society hosts 'quarantine prom' for high school seniors "The ceremonies themselves will be projected onto our movie screens with the audio delivered via FM broadcast." Restrooms will also be available for emergency use, said Thomas. "If giving these students and families a little reprieve from the discomfort and disorientation of our current state of things is possible, we want to help make that happen," said Thomas. STAY INFORMED: Sign up to receive breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. Danasari Anasuya (49), a Congress lawmaker, who represents Telanganas Mulug assembly constituency, a Scheduled Tribe (ST) reserved seat, tweeted on Tuesday: When I was crossing this area (Tupakulagudem village, north of Warangal in undivided Andhra Pradesh, near the Godavari river that separates neighbouring Chhattisgarh), it took me back to my old days. That time gun in my hand, now rice and vegetables that I distributed among 12 remote tribal villages. Anasuya was a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Jana Sakthi, a splinter group of the present-day outlawed CPI (M-L), in the 1990s. Her name --- she was known as Seethakaka in her dreaded Maoist gun-wielding avatar ---spelled terror for the local feudal lords, but she was popular among the poor tribals in Etur Nagaram forests abutting Chhattisgarh. She laid down her arms to join the mainstream in 1994 and became a politician a decade later. Now, Anasuya, who is still fondly called Seethakka by her fellow tribals, is travelling from one adivasi village to another extending a helping hand amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown, which was initially enforced on March 25 and then further extended for another 19 days till May 3, to contain the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak. She is organising the basic daily necessities for the tribals, who are used to subsistence existence, such as food grains, vegetables, fruits, etc. Most of the tribals are oblivious to the goings-on in the outside world. They have no concept about Covid-19. All that they know is that weekly markets and shops are close and they are not allowed to travel to adjoining villages to buy the essential commodities, Seethakka told Hindustan Times. She went to Mulug on March 23 before the lockdown was enforced, where she came to know about the deplorable plight of the tribals after some local youth drew her attention to them. Some of my party colleagues and I quickly pooled in money and bought rice, dal and other commodities and distributed them among 100 tribals. The following day another 100 adivasis sought my help. This made me realise the intensity of the problem. Ive decided to stay put in my constituency to help these hapless people till the crisis blows over, she said. She is travelling to every nook and cranny of the forests for over three weeks on whatever mode of transport is available. Some villages are accessible, where I could travel by jeeps, cars and even auto-rickshaws. But some are only accessible by tractors and bullock carts, she added. The feisty rebel-turned-politician did not hesitate to trek for several kilometres, crossing streams, and rivulets, to reach some of the inaccessible villages while carrying food grains and vegetables for the tribals. I made a long trek to Tupakulagudem village, located on the banks of Godavari river, last week, she said. Anasuya is adept at negotiating the inhospitable terrain, as her Koya tribal roots stand her in good stead in this moment of reckoning. I have no problem in locating these tribal hamlets and assessing the villagers needs. I dont take my security personnel along with me on my journey to these villages because I know that the tribals are scared of them, she said. Anasuya has also been creating awareness about Covid-19 among the illiterate tribals such as the need for social distancing and wearing masks. Initially, they fobbed me off and wanted to shake my hands as a mark of gratitude and respect. But I explained to them the need for social distancing. They have understood its importance and are cooperating with us, she said. There is a pattern in her daily life since March 23. She travels from one village to another and usually clocks around 60 odd kilometres. I have lunch with the villagers and return to Mulug by evening. Ive been to each and every village more than once. Ive told the villagers to get in touch with me, should they fall short of essential commodities. Ive promised them that Id be there the next day with the supplies, she added. Anasuya joined the armed rebellion at a tender age of 14 when she a Class IX student in Mulug, which those days used to be part of undivided Andhra Pradeshs Warangal district. In retrospect, she joined the call of arms because Jana Sakthi was one of the major left-wing extremist groups in the region. She proved her mettle and in two years was elevated as a dalam (squad) leader in the partys ranks and had few narrow brushes with death during close encounters with security forces in the dense forests. However, she got disillusioned with the extremist movement because of a leadership crisis in Jana Sakthi and surrendered in 1994 while responding to the governments amnesty plea. Later, she graduated in law from Warangal and became a lawyer. She became active in womens issues and in 2004 joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in the presence of the party president, N Chandrababu Naidu. She became a member of the Andhra Pradesh assembly in 2009 from Mulug constituency but lost from the same seat in 2014 after the formation of the separate state of Telangana. In 2017, she quit the TDP and joined the Congress. She wrested Mulug in 2018 December. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 15:52:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close XI'AN, April 21 (Xinhua) -- About 85 crested ibises, a bird once thought to be extinct, have been bred north of the Qinling Mountains, a natural boundary between the country's north and south, since crested ibises were first released into the wild in the region in 2013, local authorities said Monday. Local authorities released a total of 62 crested ibises in two batches in 2013 and 2015 in Tongchuan city, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the rare bird's main habitat located north of the Qinling Mountains, while their habitat has been expanding year by year. Crested ibises have built 13 nests in the region and a total of 85 crested ibises have been successfully born since 2013 in Tongchuan, according to Wang Huaqiang, head of the wildlife protection and management station in Tongchuan's Yaozhou District. "Their population is still steadily increasing," Wang added. In order to ensure a stable breeding environment for crested ibises, staff at the station closely monitor the birds' activities and discourage visitors and photographers from taking photos. "We have rescued more than 20 crested ibises suffering from injuries, shortage of food, or were lost," said Wang. "About 34 crested ibises have entered the breeding period and built nests this year. The population of crested ibises north of the Qinling Mountains is expected to exceed 100 soon," said Wang. Crested ibises, with their iconic red crests and long black beaks, were thought to be extinct in China until seven wild birds were observed in Shaanxi Province in 1981, a discovery that prompted captive breeding and enhanced protection of the species. About 2,500 crested ibises live in Shaanxi with their habitat covering around 14,000 square km. Enditem DAYTON, Ohio Police have arrested a 55-year-old man after he called 911 and said he had shot his teenage daughter, reports say. The Dayton Daily News reports Steven Brandy is being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a felonious assault charge, a second-degree felony. He has not made an appearance in court. The shooting reportedly occurred Sunday night, WHIO Channel 7 reports. Police say the 15-year-old victim first called 911, accusing her father of physically assaulting her, WHIO reports. She also told the dispatcher her father had a knife and razor, but said she did not need medical attention. The call ended, but the Daily News reports a male police say was Brandy called 911 moments later. I just shot my daughter, the man says. Please send somebody quick. A third call soon was made to 911, with the teen victim telling the dispatcher she had been shot, the Daily News reports. Please come get me, I need help, she tells the dispatcher. I got shot, please help me. Please Lord, I need you. The condition of the victim was not available Monday night, reports say. The shooting remains under investigation. More crime-related content on cleveland.com: Man found dead of apparent gunshot wound behind Akron home Man arrested, charged in slaying of 94-year-old man in Cleveland 94-year-old beaten to death in Cleveland One man dead, Willoughby Hills police officer burned after fiery crash following pursuit of speeding sports car Two dead, children uninjured in drive-by shooting in Clevelands Clark-Fulton neighborhood Bhopal, April 21 : The Madhya Pradesh Police Headquarters (PHQ) here was shut down till April 26 as a precaution against exposure of officers and staff to the coronavirus, an order said on Tuesday. The staff has also been advised to await fresh orders till April 27 for the reopening of the PHQ. The panic button was pressed after the driver of a top-ranking IPS officer tested positive for Covid-19. The driver's son, a clerk in the PHQ, has also tested positive. Through an order from ADG, Administration, Ajay Kumar Sharma, all ADGs, IGs, AIGs, and DIGs have been advised to work from home. The order has also directed all heads of departments in the PHQ to direct their subordinate staff also to work from home. DGP V. K. Johri has approved the order. It has also asked all officers and staff to remain available over phone and email from their homes during office hours. Sources said the order to temporarily close offices in the PHQ was issued after the driver's positive status was confirmed through test reports. Sources said the Covid-19 positive policeman is the driver of an ADG of the 1988 batch of MP cadre. According to the Health Department's report, the driver's son, who has also tested positive, is a clerk in the Special Branch at the PHQ. The father-son duo are employed in the 25th Battalion of Special Armed Force (SAF) of MP Police at Bhopal. In unprecedented times like these, amidst the coronavirus lockdown when business isn't as usual, people are finding creative yet effective ways to get business as close to 'usual' as possible. For instance, Subrata Pati is conducting his daily classes from the top of a neem tree in his village The history teacher is giving lessons to his students from his native Ahanda village in West Bengals Bankura district, which is about 200 km away from Kolkata, on seminal importance that shaped civilizations and conquests by kings and generals BCCL Subrata Pati teaches at two educational institutes in Kolkata. However, taking online classes has been a struggle from his native village. In fact, his phone screen has been frozen in the past while taking these classes, exasperated, as he was about to give up, he was struck by the innovative idea of climbing a tree to see if a change of altitude made a difference in catching network on his phone, and it, in fact, did make a difference. For Subrata Pati, this was the beginning of a new routine. Every morning, the 35-year-old man climbs up the neem tree next to his house and settles in on a makeshift wooden platform tied to its branches that makes hours of teaching more comfortable whilst sitting on the tree. Then, he receives an uninterrupted signal on his phone which he uses to teach his students with. BCCL I have temporarily shifted from my Kolkata residence to Ahanda, which is a part of the states Jangalmalal area, to be with my family in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. That done, I couldnt have shrugged off my responsibility as a teacher. The Internet network here is mostly patchy, so I had to look for a solution, said the history teacher at Adamas University and RICE Education. He also makes it a point to take food and water with him to the tree-top, made of bamboo, gunny sacks, and hay. Sometimes the heat and the urge to pee bother me, but I am trying to adjust... sometimes storms and thundershower damage the platform, but I try and fix it the next day. Under no circumstances I would want my students to be inconvenienced, he told PTI. The students keep boosting my confidence. They have always been very supportive. They assured me that they would put in their best efforts to score well in my paper, he told Hindustan Times. People are applauding him for 'taking education to new heights', quite literally. Good to see that somebody is taking education to new heights in India :p Gallimimus (@Gallim1mus) April 21, 2020 At least, we have internet in the age of lockdown. Digital India MeEr (@MeEr93736930) April 21, 2020 People also think that he should be awarded for his efforts. He should be encouraged and awarded for his efforts. rao_sh AISSMSCOP (@aissmscop) April 21, 2020 And some people saw the opportunity to make fun of the situation as well. #CoronavirusLockdown | Teacher climbs tree for internet connectivity to teach students during lockdownhttps://t.co/5pH1rfu0DW pic.twitter.com/GhsxXuyjrA Hindustan Times (@htTweets) April 21, 2020 Regardless, we're glad his students aren't missing out on history lessons. [April 21, 2020] Popeyes Restaurants Launch NOLA STRONG MEAL With All Proceeds Going to Families in Need in New Orleans Popeyes, the chicken brand born in Louisiana, considers the city of New Orleans home. During these times of uncertainty and crisis, the Popeyes brand is on a mission to help support families in its hometown community. Beginning today, the brand is launching a "NOLA STRONG MEAL," an offer with all proceeds going to one of the most affected areas in the United States from COVID-19 where they will provide over 1,000,000 meals to families in need. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005201/en/ Popeyes restaurants launch NOLA STRONG MEAL with all proceeds going to families in need in New Orleans (Photo: Business Wire) The "NOLA STRONG MEAL" comes with 12 pieces of Popeyes fried chicken, two classic sides, 6 biscuits, a Popeyes brand "NOLA STRONG" t-shirt and hat as part of the purchase. The new offering is available through the Popeyes app nationwide for a limited time while supplies last at a starting price of $28. Fans can also purchase the "NOLA STRONG" swag items, such as t-shirts and hats, at (www.nola-strong.com). For every "NOLA STRONG MEAL" and any apparel purchased, 100% ofthe proceeds will go to Second Harvest Food Bank, the largest anti-hunger network in Louisiana, to feed over 1,000,000 meals to families in need. Further, in support of its hometown, the Popeyes brand will make a donation to Feed the Front Line NOLA to support their mission to feed the New Orleans community and New Orleans Popeyes restaurants will also make weekly Sunday meal donations to the organization. In order to launch this program, the Popeyes brand is releasing a film highlighting the resilient spirit and solidarity that makes the "Big Easy" so unique. Narrated by New Orleans native actor Wendell Pierce, the film is an anthem to the values of the city and its people. "Our greatest role to play in difficult times like these is to support those in need in our communities, which is why I am excited to be a part of this NOLA STRONG movement" said Pierce about supporting his home city. "At Popeyes we are proud of our New Orleans heritage, and we are dedicated to supporting those in our community who need help during these difficult times. We heard from guests that they are eager to help, so we are excited to create a program that makes it easy for them to do so alongside us," said Bruno Cardinali, Head of Marketing North America at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. "We are so appreciative of the amazing work that these local organizations have already done, and we will continue to support the NOLA Strong movement. Although we can't physically be together, the spirit of New Orleans unites us all." From contactless pick-up, drive thru & delivery experiences to increased cleaning procedures, the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen brand is working hard to provide guests with food safely and quickly. The brand has also partnered with No Kid Hungry to help feed the children of America during these trying times and beyond. Guests can simply add a $1 donation to their contactless delivery order when checking out on the Popeyes app, and the brand will match the donation 100%. For more information about the Popeyes brand please visit www.popeyes.com About Popeyes Founded in New Orleans in 1972, Popeyes has more than 45 years of history and culinary tradition. The Popeyes brand distinguishes itself with a unique New Orleans style menu featuring spicy chicken, chicken tenders, fried shrimp, and other regional items. The chain's passion for its Louisiana heritage and flavorful authentic food has allowed Popeyes to become one of the world's largest chicken quick service restaurants with over 3,300 restaurants in the U.S. and around the world. To learn more about the Popeyes brand, please visit www.popeyes.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter (News - Alert) and Instagram. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005201/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] 21.04.2020 LISTEN Since 1998, some thirty satellites have been launched into space by a number of African nations . Ghana joined the club in June 2017 when its first satellite was launched into orbit from the International Space Station. Students from All Nations University College, three of whom had worked on the satellite, were among the 400 people who gathered in the southern city of Koforidua to watch a live broadcast of the launch, a historic moment for the country. Named GhanaSat-1, the Earth observation satellite was designed and built in Ghana in conjunction with the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan, with support from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It was completed in two years at a cost of US$500,000. In the nearly two years the satellite was operational, Ghanaian scientists took images of the country's 539-kilometre coastline for cartography. GhanaSat-1 was invaluable in training a new generation of scientists how to apply satellite technology in areas such as environmental monitoring to prevent activities like illegal mining and water pollution, climate monitoring for agriculture purposes, risk management, security, and intelligence. Where Did It All Begin? The Ghana Intelsat Satellite Earth Station in Kuntunse, near Accra, was commissioned in 1981. The Ghana Telecommunications Corporation operated it until 2008, when Ghana Vodafone took over as the major shareholder. It was also in 2008 that Sherry Ayittey, minister of environment, science, technology, and innovation, first mooted the idea for Ghana to have a national space program. In the first phase of the plan, the Ghana Space Science and Technology Center was established on January 1, 2011, and placed under the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission's Graduate School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences in Accra. In phase two, on May 2, 2012, the center became the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI). The network will provide scientists with the world's most advanced radio astronomy array. Also in 2012, work began at the Satellite Earth Station in Kuntunse to convert it into a radio astronomy observatory. The Earth Station had three telecommunications antennas32 meters, 16 meters, and 9 meters in diameterbut only the 16-meter antenna was still operational for satellite communication, so the larger antenna could be converted into a radio telescope. The GSSTI did the conversion in partnership with Vodafone and in collaboration with a team of South African scientists and engineers who had worked on the first phase of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in South Africa. Ghana has signed up to the SKA Africa partnership agreement, which is spearheaded by South Africa and also involves Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, and Zambia. These countries' radio telescopes will contribute to the network that will provide scientists with the world's most advanced radio astronomy array. In 2018, Ghana and South Africa jointly announced that first light science observations had taken place at the site in Kuntunse, signaling the successful conversion of a telecommunications antenna into a functioning radio telescope. This is the first government-run radio astronomy facility in West Africa. It is operated by GSSTI in partnership with Vodafone, and is one of the four centers that resort under the GSSTI, namely the Satellite Communications and Development Center; the Instrumentation and Engineering Services Center; the Remote Sensing, GIS and Climate Center; and the Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics Center. The Evolution of Satellite Technology in Ghana Students at All Nations University College have done a pilot demonstration of GhanaSat-2, a meteorological satellite, but the country is yet to deploy its first terrestrially launched satellite. In 2018, the Grameen Foundation announced a satellite-supported farming initiative known as SAT4Farming . It uses digital technology and satellite imagery to provide small-scale cocoa producers in Ghana with individual farm development plans (FDPs) that would help them to make the right long-term decisions to improve their productivity and the sustainability of their crops. The initiative also enables cocoa traceability . Given the current economic climate, however, the fate of the project in the near term is uncertain. A woman holds a drone in Anyako, Ghana Photo By Seth Ebenezer Tetteh via UnSplash Other Space Programs on the Continent In the past decade, a number of Sub-Saharan African countries have entered the space economy to develop satellites and other technologies that can provide material benefits to their citizens. South Africa and Nigeria have the most advanced space programs on the continent, but as the technologies are getting more affordable, other countries are catching up. Nigeria's National Space Research and Development Agency was founded in 1998, and in the next twenty years it launched five satellites. The South African National Space Agency was established in December 2010, but the country has been involved in space research and activities since helping early international space efforts in the second half of the 20th century. In 2002, South African Mark Shuttleworth was the second space tourist to join a Russian Soyuz mission to the International Space Station, making him the first African in space. In 2013, a candidate officer in the South African Air Force, Mandla Maseko, was one of twenty-three winners of a competition to attend a US space academy. He would have been the first black African to go into space. He spent a week at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for tests and training, but the suborbital flight planned for 2015 never happened, as the private company that manufactured the aerospace vehicle went bankrupt. Maseko died in a motorcycle accident in 2019. In 2017, the African Union announced plans to develop an African Space Agency. Ghana was a late entry to host the facility after bids from Egypt and Namibia. When Namibia withdrew its bid, the African Union announced in February 2019 that the headquarters of the new agency would be in Egypt. A recent African Union report has suggested, however, that the project was behind schedule. The 2019 African Space Industry Report, published by Space in Africa, estimated that the African space industry was worth US$7.37 billion, and was projected to grow to more than US$10 billion in the next five years. Story by Joseph Hammond @thejosephh Originating at newafricadaily.com An unidentified 91-year-old woman with coronavirus fled from her nursing home so she could spend her remaining hours visiting her old haunts before she died. The woman was reported missing by concerned Dellebron care home staff in rural Kortenaken, in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, shortly after 9am, on Monday. She left a note with a neighbour saying how 'dissatisfied' she was about being cooped up in her room because of the pandemic, according to local police. She was discovered by sniffer dog nine hours later, five kilometres away, hiding under a bush in a cemetery, in the town of Waanrode, where she originally came from. The woman was rescued and brought back to the care home in 'good health', but died with the virus a short while later. A day before, local police had gathered to applaud the care home staff taking care of residents Dellebron care staff (pictured) outside the residential home where the 91-year-old woman went missing, wearing protective masks Local police were summoned to search for the 91-year-old woman after she disappeared from Dellebron residential care home in Kortenaken, around 9am, Monday. She was said to have been in good mental health and did not suffer with dementia. However, she had tested positive for coronavirus and although asymptomatic, had become frustrated by being confined to her room, according to a Central European News report. The unnamed woman was one of 46 residents who had been found to have the virus, resulting in quarantine. Police chief Luc Liboton told local news the woman slipped off in the morning while care home staff were busy with other residents, leaving a note behind saying how unhappy she was being told to remain indoors. 'The missing lady had left a note with her neighbour,' said Liboton. 'It immediately became clear that she was dissatisfied about the fact that she was locked in her room. 'As a precaution, she was also not allowed to go anywhere else in the building, not even the common areas. Apparently that was too much for her, and the lady urgently needed some freedom and the chance to move around.' Local police in rural Kortenaken (pictured) found the 91-year-old woman under a bush in a cemetery, five km from her home Liboton added police were trying to guess from her note where she was heading, but sniffer dogs were brought in when this failed. The woman was eventually discovered nine hours later in a cemetery in Waanrode, in the municipality of Kortenaken, five kilometres from her care home. 'She was originally from Waanrode and that was probably why she decided to go back there for her walk,' a police spokesman said. 'At first, there appeared to be nobody there, but then suddenly the dog went under the bush and there the woman was laying,' they added. 'She had chosen to lie down under the bush so they would not find her. She said she was tired of being locked up in her room.' She was brought back to her care home and found to be in 'good health,' according to the Central European News report. However, after returning to her room she died with coronavirus a short while later, police said. A t some point in the last few weeks you probably scoured the supermarket shelves for hand sanitiser; a product that, in these strange and scary times, has for many become as essential as toothpaste and shampoo. But what if you couldnt afford hand sanitiser or even shampoo? What if, in fact, you couldnt afford a bar of cheap soap? Some of the families we help are washing not only their dishes but also their clothes, their hair, their bodies and their faces in the same cheap, unbranded supermarket washing-up liquid, Lizzy Hall, founder of registered charity Hygiene Banks tells the Standard. The charity, founded by Hall in 2018, collects donations of beauty and hygiene products (as well as financial donations) and distributes them, via food banks and other charity partners, to those in need. They have 500 collection boxes around the country and are due to roll out another 250 in Boots stores as soon as the shops reopen. We often hear of entire families forced to share one toothbrush, and other scenarios where mothers have to ration nappies because they cant afford to change them as often as needed. They are forced to scrape out the contents of a soiled nappy and reapply it. This is hygiene poverty, and depressingly, even before the outbreak of coronavirus, it was a problem far more widespread in the UK than it should have been. In fact, the pre-coronavirus figures stated 14 million people in the UK lived in poverty thats one fifth of our population. And, perhaps most shockingly, of those 14 million, two thirds were in employment. What we have found is that people who are struggling on low income are the people that use food banks, and they constantly have to make really tough choices about whether they spend their money on food, the bills or hygiene products; and we know from research that hygiene products are the first to go, says Hall. Shaving toiletries donated to the Trussel Trust food bank network Food banks dont yet have figures reflecting the impact of COVID-19, but worryingly in the year prior to the outbreak, the numbers using their services had already risen sharply. Between April 1, 2018 and March 31 a year later in 2019, the Trussell Trusts food bank network distributed 1.6 million three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis, a 19 per cent increase on the previous year. April- September 2019 was already the busiest on record for food banks with demand for emergency parcels soaring 23 per cent. Given that the Department for Work and Pensions announced on April 3 that there had been nearly 1 million new claims for universal credit in the fortnight since lockdown began (a huge surge from the 100,000 they would normally expect in a two-week period), we can expect the number of those living without access to the rudimentary personal care products most of us take for granted deodorant, tampons, a razor will soon be higher than its ever been. When we come out of this immediate period of illness, the reality is that there will be an awful lot more people forced into poverty who will need our help, says Hall. The number of people that will have lost their primary breadwinner, and the people that will have lost their jobs will have risen sharply. For all of those reasons the need for what we do is only going to escalate. Journalist Sali Hughes, co-founder of a similar charity called Beauty Banks (both launched within months of one another, both claim they were first), is similarly concerned about the impact of coronavirus on the working poor. Sali Hughes, co-founder of Beauty Banks I think people are always surprised to hear that a huge problem in this country is working people in poverty, says Hughes, who launched Beauty Banks with colleague and friend Jo Jones. So many people living in poverty are working, theyre not on benefits, and so the coronavirus crisis has really compounded that issue because people who were just about keeping it together while working are now losing their jobs, or their hours have been reduced to nothing. We are hearing from our partner charities that there has been a surge in people accessing their services. And what we hear time and time again is that those people are working people. Lots of people in this country are only two paychecks away from homelessness. Beauty Banks normally operates a nationwide donation system via boxes in Superdrug stores. It also works with hair salons and nail bars across the UK who can set themselves up as a Beauty Spot in order to accept donations. Beauty Banks then partner these Beauty Spots with local charities in need of the products. Beauty Banks serves over 180 registered charities such as food banks, womens shelters, homeless refuges, schools and NHS Trusts with essential toiletries. Toiletries donated to the Trussel Trust food bank network The outbreak of COVID-19 has necessitated a change in approach. In normal life, product donations from individuals are a really big part of what we do, says Hughes. But now shops are closed and you cant accept product thats been touched by lots of human hands, so that will not resume until this is over and shops reopen. When the virus first broke out, Hughes was focused on ensuring that people who werent in a position to go stockpiling in the supermarket and couldnt get the essentials, didnt see a disruption to their service, so launched a GoFundMe campaign (donate here) in order to get money to buy essential toiletries to donate. Food banks were suddenly really depleted of stock, partly because people going to the supermarket were not putting stuff in food bank bins, because they were desperate to get their own supplies, and also because in a crisis people prioritise their own families and give less to charity, she explains. But also because people were losing their jobs really quickly. Even before furlough, people were being laid off and therefore relying on food banks. The charity has since also broadened its remit to get supplies to NHS key workers. Its now working with NHS London in an official capacity to provide beauty products (things like hand cream, hand wash, hand sanitiser and also treat-y things like skincare and so on plus sanitary products and masks) to NHS staff in hospitals around the country, including the NHS and ambulance service in London. In addition to using monetary donations to buy toiletries, both charities rely on product donations from brands. Hughes explains that much her time is spent calling beauty brands to blag product. In the week we speak on the phone she has persuaded Sisley to part with 40,000 face masks, Molton Brown to give 25,000 soaps, Khiel's to donate thousands of hand creams and Estee Lauder companies to part with thousands of pounds and an awful lot of product. Hygiene Banks has similarly received a donation of 200,000 products from Boots, and many, many thousands of others from brands such as Biore and Pai. The brands only donate product that is unused and within its sell-by date. Sometimes they will donate limited edition products that are no longer required (Elemis had, for example, just donated them thousands of hand creams in a limited edition Christmas packaging), other times itll be old packaging when branding is redesigned, and other times travel sizes they have in bulk for sampling they are really good for our homeless clients, says Hughes For now, as an individual, the only way to help is to donate money. But if you do happen to be sorting through your beauty cabinet in quarantine, its worth remembering to save a little bag of products to donate once life gets back to normal. That eye shadow palette you were given for Christmas and never used might seem like nothing to you, but for women living in a shelter it might just give a much-needed boost of self-worth. A deodorant can give a teenager the confidence to go to school. Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast Fundamentally, while not a matter of life and death, hygiene is about dignity, self-confidence and mental wellbeing. People say you cant change the world, says Hall, but actually with one product you can change the world, at least temporarily, for one person. A man wearing a police uniform went on a shooting rampage in Canada's Nova Scotia province, killing 17 people, in the deadliest such attack in the country's history, officials said, adding that the suspected gunman was also dead. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said on Sunday night the suspected shooter, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, was killed after being intercepted by officers, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) said in a news report. Of the 17 victims, RCMP Constable Heidi Stevenson was killed in the rampage, while a male officer suffered non-life threatening injuries. RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told CBC News on Sunday evening said the fatalities surpassed the 14 victims killed in the 1989 Polytechnique massacre in Montreal. Lucki said she believed the shooter had an initial "motivation" at the beginning that "turned to randomness". RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather said the first reports of an active shooter came earlier on Sunday from Portapique, a community about 40 km west of Truro, which residents described as a quiet place to live that attracts people from the provincial capital of Halifax in summer. Upon arrival, police found "several casualties" inside and outside a Portapique residence, he said, but they could not locate the suspect. He added there were "multiple sites in the area including structures that were on fire", CBC News reported Later in the day, the suspect was stopped about 90 km away in Enfield, a scene that was surrounded by a half dozen police vehicles. Yellow police tape surrounded the gas pumps, and a large silver-coloured SUV was being investigated by police. A body was seen lying at the gas station but the police did not comment on whether it was Wortman. Through the morning Sunday, police updates about the active shooter investigation included warnings that Wortman was considered dangerous and may have been dressed as an RCMP officer in a lookalike RCMP vehicle. "The fact that this individual had a uniform and a police car at his disposal certainly speaks to it not being a random act," Leather was quoted in the CBC News report as saying. "This is one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province's history," the CBC report quoted Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil as saying. In a statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "As a country, in moments like these, we come together to support one another. Together we will mourn with the families of the victims, and help them get through this difficult time." In the latest escalation between Israel and Syria, the Israeli airstrikes have killed at least nine fighters from the forces supporting Bashar Asad regime, the war monitor said on April 21. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said that the multiple air raids killed three Syrians, six foreign nationals from unidentified countries. Since the beginning of the civil war in 2011, Israel has successfully operated multiple strikes targetting the troops loyal to the government as well as its ally, the Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanons Hezbollah group. Read - Israeli Survivors Remember Holocaust Amid Virus Quarantine Read - Syria: Israel Fired Missile On Areas Near Historic Palmyra Syria downed Israeli warplanes Meanwhile, Syrian state media had reported on April 20 that countrys air defences had downed missiles from Israel near the central historic town of Palmyra. In the past, Israel has used the Lebanese airspace to launch airstrikes on Syria and according to reports, Israeli drones and warplanes were spotted over the same area on April 20. Just last month, according to the international news agency, Israeli warplanes had attacked the Shayrat airbase in the central province of Homs. Moreover, last week, Israeli drone had launched two missiles targetting an SUV that carried members of the Hezbollah group in Syria close to the border of Lebanon. On April 18, Israel had accused the extremist group from Lebanon of proactive activity along with Lebanese-Israeli frontier and cautioned that it would raise complain to the U.N. Security Council. Read - Benjamin Netanyahu Forms Emergency Govt In Israel, Signs Coalition Deal With Rival Gantz Read - Israel: Over 2,000 People Practice Social Distancing During Pro-democracy Protest Image Source: Representative A 61-year-old man charged with rape and sexual assault of a female at his south Dublin home last year has been spared having to sign on at his garda station due the Covid-19 health crisis. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Dublin District Court today charged with rape and five counts of sexual assault which allegedly occurred at his home on a date in March last year. Garda Michael Cunningham told Judge Colin Daly that the accused had no reply when the charges were put to him this morning. There was no objection to bail with conditions. The Director of Public Prosecutions has directed that the mans case should be dealt with on indictment. Due to the rape charge, this means his trial will go before a jury in the Central Criminal Court. Judge Daly remanded him on bail to appear again at the district court in July to be served with a book of evidence and returned for trial. Bail conditions were set. The accused, who has not yet indicated how he will plead, was ordered to reside at his current address or inform gardai of any change, be contactable on a mobile phone number he has provided, and have no contact with the complainant or members of her family. He has to surrender his passport to a Dublin 6 garda station. The gardai asked for another condition requiring the man to sign on once a week at a garda station. However, noting the accused did not have a history of bench warrants and due to the current health crisis, the judge did not impose that condition. The accused, who was granted legal aid, was ordered to appear again in 12 weeks to be served with a book of evidence. Dressed in jeans and a black jacket, he did not address the court. His solicitor said the man had been unable to locate his passport this morning, but will hand it over to gardai within 24 hours. Lifting lockdown restrictions is not end of epidemic: WHO chief People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:44, April 20, 2020 GENEVA, April 19 (Xinhua) -- World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday that lifting lockdown restrictions for COVID-19 is not the end of the epidemic, it's just the beginning of the next phase. Speaking at the Group of 20 (G20) Health Ministers virtual meeting from Geneva, the WHO chief said it's vital in this next phase that countries educate, engage and empower their people to prevent and respond rapidly to any resurgence. "We are encouraged that several G20 countries are now starting to plan how to ease social restrictions. It is critical that these measures are a phased process," he said. Tedros told the health ministers that the WHO is deeply concerned that the virus now appears to be gathering pace in countries that lack the capacity of many G20 countries to respond to it. "Urgent support is needed, not only to support countries to respond to COVID-19, but to ensure other essential health services continue," he said. Tedros also took the opportunity to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its support to the global fight against the virus. Saudi Arabia announced Thursday a 500-million-U.S. dollar donation to relevant international organizations to support global efforts in combating the COVID-19. "The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of a simple truth: we are one humanity. We share the same planet. We share the same hopes and dreams. We share the same destiny," the WHO chief said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address MOSCOW -- When the 100th anniversary of Vladimir Lenins birth rolled around in 1970, the Soviet Union pulled out all the stops to mark the occasion. Commemorative stamps were printed; coins were minted; medals were struck. A vast new wing was opened at the Lenin museum in Ulyanovsk, the Volga River city where he was born and raised. In Kurgan Oblast, a vast grove of trees was planted to spell out Lenin 100, a living monument that can be seen from space 50 years later. The country, and the entire Soviet bloc for that matter, capped off two years of preparations with a Communist Party meeting in the Kremlin addressed by General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Nikolai Podgorny opened the event by saying: What Lenin did during his spectacular life is not something for 100 years, but for the ages, for millennia. Yet on Lenins sesquicentennial, April 22, the country he created no longer exists and its successor state -- Russia -- seems decidedly uninterested in marking 150 years since his birth. Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, only the most diehard Communists remaining in Russia seemed even to have noticed the anniversary. By contrast with the past, the silence seems deafening. In Russia today, under President Vladimir Putin, Lenins memory is caught between what analysts say are two primary ideological currents of the ruling elite: the lionization of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin -- whom Lenin described as too coarse in his final political testament, urging Stalins removal as general secretary -- and nostalgia for Russias pre-Soviet tsarist past, which Lenin despised and sought to destroy. Those who are more sympathetic to the Soviet past continue to worship, or at least repeat the algorithms of, Stalin, said historian and professor Konstantin Morozov of Moscows Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences. This part of the elite supports everything that is Soviet including, of course, Lenin, who peeks out from behind Stalins back. The other part of the elite tries to connect itself with tsarist, imperial Russia, Morozov told RFE/RL. When Russian state television conducted its 2008 Name Of Russia competition to determine who Russians viewed as the most notable personality in Russian history, Lenin finished sixth, lagging behind Stalin and late tsarist Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, among others. Putin has at times reflected both of these modern-day trends, famously praising Stalin as an effective manager and, in 2016, saying that Lenin planted an atomic bomb underneath the building called Russia, and later it blew up. Lenin is being snubbed now, Morozov said, for the same reason that the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik coup that Lenin led passed three years ago without fanfare or pomp. For Putin, who has suppressed dissent over 20 years in power as president or prime minister and has repeatedly said that stability is crucial, a problem with Lenin is that he was a revolutionary. In a reference to the Bolshevik Revolution during his annual state-of-the-nation address later in 2016, Putin said that coups invariably lead to "the loss of human life, casualties, economic decline, and misery." 'Rivers Of Blood' Lenins image also suffered as a result of the archive revolution that occurred in the years before and after the Soviet Unions 1991 collapse, said historian Nikita Sokolov, chairman of the independent Free Historical Society. Beginning with perestroika, everything about Lenin was published, Sokolov said, referring to the reforms ushered in by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. He was indubitably a criminal. It was documented and proven that he had rivers of blood on his conscience. But the archives of the KGB and the special files of the Central Committee, where everything about Stalin was kept, remain secret to the present day, Sokolov added. Historians are still arguing about whether he signed the protocols for Katyn [the World War II-era executions of thousands of Polish officers by Stalins secret police] or not. That is one reason why attitudes toward these figures are so divergent. The effect of opening the archives was bolstered by the fact that for decades Lenin, who died in 1924, had been reduced to a Soviet pop-culture icon, said German writer Tomas Martin. Even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was a sort of friendly zombie, the late grandfather of the Union, pottering around the mausoleum a fate that Stalin never endured after his death, Martin told RFE/RL. Lenins Western-oriented, internationalist world view also clashes with the prevailing currents in Russia today. It would be incongruous for a government set on tramping down color revolutions wherever they occur to set too high a store on the reputation of a man who generally supported national self-determination and anticipated world revolution. 'Absolutely Unprincipled' But historian Morozov sees a deeper significance in the Putin governments aversion to Lenin. He argues that Lenin was an opportunist who never maintained a consistent political vision, but instead maneuvered constantly to increase his own power. From this perspective, the main thing about Leninism that remains to this dayis a lack of respect for his own people and a tendency to view oneself as the subject of history. Not the people or society but oneself. This is nothing new -- it is seen throughout the history of authoritarianism -- an alienation from the people and a tendency to view the people as clay or material for ones own creations. In this regard, we still need to shed Leninism. WATCH: Russia 1917 -- The Revolution That Shook The World Putin, while he calls himself your humble servant and professes to have the interests of Russian citizens foremost in his mind, has made remarks about demographics and other issues that have led critics to say he sees the people as a means to an end. Lenin was an absolutely unprincipled person, said Sokolov. Cynical, absolutely political, an opportunist for whom no principles existed. He was ready to justify any action if it could be useful to him at a particular moment. For Lenin, the historian argued, there was only one consistent position. He was a fundamental believer in violence as the solution to any problem, Sokolov said. We see this at every stage of his development beginning at the very start, which I studied when I wrote my dissertation about the famine of 1891. Lenin, who was 20, argued against giving charitable aid to the peasants and destroyed the work of the Samara charity committee, arguing that one shouldnt improve their lives but instead let them become bestial and unleash monstrous violence. We see exactly the same thing later from the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and the introduction of the Red Terror, he said, referring to two key events of the early postrevolutionary period when the Bolsheviks violently dispersed a body set up to create a new constitution for Russia and adopted a policy of political violence, repression, and terror during the 1918-22 Civil War. Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting from Moscow by RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Sergei Medvedev The face-off between the Centre and West Bengal over the visit of two central teams for an on-the-spot assessment of the COVID-19 situation escalated on Tuesday as the panel members lay confined to guest houses for most part of the day before the state relented following a stern letter from the Union home secretary. IMAGE: Inter-Ministerial Central Team being escorted by state police and BSF during area visit, in Kolkata. Photograph: ANI Photo The arrival of the teams in Kolkata without prior intimation to the state government has set off a tussle between the ruling dispensations at the Centre and in the state, with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress calling the visit adventure tourism and violation of the tenets of federal structure, and the Bharatiya Janata Party accusing her government of hiding data about the pandemic. The two teams that were to tour the affected areas and interact with health workers kept cooling their heels in guest houses in Kolkata and Jalpaiguri, before the Centre intervened, with Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla shooting off a stern letter to the states chief secretary Rajiva Sinha reminding him of provisions of law and a Supreme Court order. Apurva Chandra, the leader of one of the two teams sent to the state, claimed its members were told they "will not be going out" on Tuesday. Chandra, an additional secretary in the defence ministry, said, "We have been deployed by the central government and our order of deployment says that the state government is to provide logistic(al) support to us... I have been in touch with the chief secretary and seeking his support since the time I landed here. "I had also met him yesterday. But today we have been informed that there are some issues so we are not going out. The chief secretary is likely to visit us and we will again hold a meeting with him," he told a TV news channel in Kolkata. As tensions flared, the Union home ministry intervened, with its secretary Bhalla writing to the states chief secretary that the two inter-ministerial central teams, visiting Kolkata and Jalpaiguri, have not been extended desired cooperation by the state and local authorities. "In fact, they have been specifically restrained from making any visits, interacting with health professionals, and assessing the ground level situation. "This amounts to obstructing the implementation of the orders issued by the central government under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and equally binding directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," Bhalla said. The union home secretary said, therefore, the state government is directed to make all necessary arrangements for the central teams to carry out such responsibilities as have been entrusted to them. After the strongly worded letter from Bhalla, the team in Kolkata was allowed to visit parts of the city escorted by Border Security Force and state police contingents. "The central team told us that it wants to visit parts of the city. We agreed and state government officials are accompanying the team," Rajiva Sinha later told reporters. IMAGE: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee interacts with sweepers during her visit to various areas of the city to review the situation of coronavirus prevention, during the ongoing nationwide lockdown, in Kolkata. Photograph: PTI Photo When pressed further whether the team would be allowed to visit other districts and how long it plans to stay in Bengal, the top bureaucrat of the state, said, "Nothing has been decided about their visit to other districts. When they come up with it (the proposal), we would take a call. About the duration of their stay, we would like to say it clearly that we have not invited them, they have come on their own. At a time when we are fighting the disease, making arrangements for their visit is tough, he said. Political temperature, meanwhile, soared as the TMC dubbed as "adventure tourism" the visit of the central teams and asked why such delegations were not sent to states with much higher number of infections and hotspots. Addressing a digital press conference, TMC MPs Derek O'Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was informed about the inter-ministerial central teams' visit three hours after their arrival in the state, which they said was unacceptable. "The IMCT is on adventure tourism. The CM was told about the team's visit three hours after the team landed," said O'Brien. He also questioned why central teams did not visit states such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh that have higher numbers of coronavirus cases and many more hotspots. "Why central teams are being sent to West Bengal which does not appear in the list of the top 10 states in terms of infection," the TMC leader in Rajya Sabha asked. "The Centre has to clarify. Why the chief minister wasn't informed after the team had arrived? In a federal structure, you have to first inform the state government. The motive behind sending such teams is not yet clear. It needs to be clarified first," he said. The Union home ministry had said on Monday the COVID-19 situation was "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and formed six IMCTs for an on-the-spot assessment and issuing necessary directions to the four states -- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal. Bandyopadhyay, the leader of the Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha, hoped that good sense would prevail and the Centre would henceforth consult the respective state before taking such a decision. "We have kept politics behind and want a joint fight against the pandemic. Do not take our graciousness for granted, we too can talk in the political language. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah should also leave politics behind and should not take Bengal's pledge for a united fight in tackling the pandemic for granted," O'Brien said. "What the central government has done by sending central teams is nothing but an insult to the people of the state, he added. Responding to a question on "low rate of testing" in the state, Bandyopadhyay said that 425 tests are conducted every day in West Bengal and the number from Tuesday would go up to 600. He said sending central teams is not only against the basic tenets of federalism but also amounted to diluting the joint fight against the COVID crisis. Taking umbrage at the Centre for sending teams to assess the "serious" COVID-19 situation in the state, the West Bengal chief minister had shot off a letter to the prime minister on Monday, calling it a "unilateral" and "undesirable" action. The BJP, however, defended the Centre's move. "The central government has done the right thing. They (the teams) will surely find out how the lockdown norms are being violated and how the state government is trying to hide the real picture. In order to hide the facts and figures, it is pushing the people towards a much more dangerous situation," the state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) talks to reporters after attending a session on the Senate floor in the Capitol on Monday. (Caroline Brehman / CQ-Roll Call Inc.) Congressional leaders and the White House were close to a deal Monday over an emergency coronavirus package to replenish a small-business assistance program that ran out of funds last week, even as critics said misuse of the popular loan program by large companies had squeezed out smaller businesses. The now-depleted Paycheck Protection Program was designed to provide forgivable loans to small businesses if they kept workers on the payroll during the economic shutdown caused by the pandemic. It would receive an additional $310 billion under the spending deal being negotiated, with a portion set aside to be lent by smaller banks in an effort to help smaller businesses that may have been shut out of the initial $349-billion disbursement. The package would add $60 billion to a separate emergency loan program for small businesses that also is out of money, $75 billion for hospitals, and $25 billion to increase COVID-19 testing. Senate and House leaders and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin were optimistic a deal was close Sunday, and it appears that the basic outline has been agreed to by all sides. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) told CNN Monday night the final language was being negotiated and a deal was expected so the Senate could vote Tuesday and the House on Wednesday. Among the final points of contention is a proposal to also provide $150 billion in aid to states and municipalities struggling with a sharp drop in tax revenue. Democrats say Congress needs to act quickly to shore up those entities' budgets, but Republicans and the White House want to wait. "We're going to be saving that for ... a later date," Trump said Sunday, adding that he supports the idea. "That will probably be in our next negotiation." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that the Senate would convene for a previously unscheduled session Tuesday afternoon in hopes that a deal will have been reached by then. Story continues "Republicans have been trying to secure more funding for this critical program for a week and a half," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "At this hour, our Democratic colleagues are still prolonging their discussions with the administration, so the Senate wont be able to pass more funding for Americans paychecks today." Democrats blamed Republicans for resisting their efforts to provide additional money to hospitals and local governments, and to ensure that smaller businesses that don't have strong banking relationships will be included in the next phase of forgivable loans. With most lawmakers out of Washington due to the coronavirus, any deal would need unanimous bipartisan support to pass by voice vote. A single senator or representative in Washington could object, which would delay passage and require hundreds of members of Congress to return to the Capitol to vote. The Paycheck Protection Program burned through its original $349 billion just three weeks after Congress passed a nearly $2-trillion economic relief package. Some lawmakers and small businesses are complaining that too much of that money went to large, nationwide restaurant chains, like Potbelly Sandwich Shop and Ruths Chris Steak House, both of which reportedly received multimillion-dollar loans. Though the program was targeted at businesses with fewer than 500 workers, a provision allowed subsidiaries and individual locations to apply separately for money, even if they were part of a larger company or chain that would have been too large to qualify. After social media backlash, New York-based hamburger chain Shake Shack said on Monday it would return the $10-million loan it had received. Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti and founder Danny Meyer said in a statement that the program rules were unclear and that they didn't realize how quickly it would run out of money. "The 'PPP' came with no user manual and it was extremely confusing," the executives said in the statement. After arranging for additional capital, Shake Shack decided "to immediately return the entire $10 million PPP loan we received last week to the SBA so that those restaurants who need it most can get it now." Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), one of the first lawmakers to express frustration with the Paycheck Protection Program, says businesses should have to prove they have taken a financial hit from the coronavirus to get the money. You ought to have a big downturn in your business before you get this money any of this money. Not just PPP, he said in an interview. We shouldnt be just going out there and wasting money. Scott said hed spoken to McConnell about adding new requirements to the fund but that it was unclear whether he could get it added to an interim package or later legislation. Hes also spoken to the Small Business Administration about revising its rules but believes Congress would have to enact new language. I think we have a shot at getting this fixed. Im optimistic. This is pretty basic, he said. The law should help the people who should be helped. Our job is not to bail out the rich and people who are doing well. John Bamberger, 69, of Westlake Village, said he finished his application for $285,000 five minutes after the application process opened in March and he still didn't have a response. His company imports specialty foods from Britain and Australia, and with grocery stores focusing on staples and some specialty stores that he supplies shut down entirely, he'll have to furlough workers and cut costs because he hasn't gotten the loan, he said. He said Congress should have paid more attention to where the money was going and how it was going to be distributed. It pisses me off," Bamberger said. You read that Ruth's Chris got whatever they got. Shake Shack wants all of a sudden to give their loan back. I dont know why they applied in the first place. But certainly the money is not going to the people who need it. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who chairs the Senate small business committee, said his panel would "conduct aggressive oversight into the use of PPP" this fall, and into what he described as "multiple reports of companies abusing the program." Any business, regardless of size, must certify it has been harmed by the coronavirus crisis and that PPP is necessary to maintain operations, Rubio said in a statement. California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris also demanded Monday that Mnuchin explain why California received the fewest number of loans in relation to the total number of small businesses of any state. Citing a Wall Street Journal comparison, the senators argued that Californias businesses have been closed longer than those in other states and it is difficult to understand why Californias small businesses would qualify for so much less aid than others. Michigan residents working the front lines during the coronavirus pandemic are now eligible for COVID-19 testing, whether theyre experiencing symptoms or not. The Department of Health and Human Services expanded its testing criteria again Monday, April 20 to include all essential workers still reporting to work in-person. That includes anyone working face-to-face with members of the public, from health care workers to grocery store workers. Expanded testing will help identify asymptomatic cases who may still be spreading the virus as they report to work. Health officials believe as many as 25 to 50 percent of people with COVID-19 might not show symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This means that anyone with symptoms can get a test as well as any individual regularly interacting with others outside their household, as long as the testing location has the supplies, said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the states chief medical executive. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to more than double the rate of COVID-19 testing in the state, which public health experts say is key to getting control of the outbreak and getting the economy back on track. However, getting more test kits and testing supplies remains a challenge due to skyrocketing demand and disrupted supply chains. Michigan is working with local health departments to expand testing in group living facilities with potential exposure. New drive-thru testing sites are opening up each week. Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid are all opening or have opened rapid testing sites across the state to increase testing capacity. New drive-through coronavirus testing location with on-site results opens in Dearborn To locate testing sites near you, visit Michigan.gov/CoronavirusTest. Most sites ask that individuals contact them first to schedule an appointment. In addition to expanded testing, the state has trained 2,000 volunteers in contact tracing, the public health strategy of identifying those affected by the virus and interviewing friends, family members and others near that person about their contacts and symptoms. The volunteers will soon join 130 MDHHS staff members in aiding local health departments with contact tracing. They will increase the speed and thoroughness of the statewide tracing system, which reached more than 12,000 COVID-positive individuals over the last few weeks, according to health officials. Contact tracing is an essential public health tool and will help determine and limit the spread of COVID19 in our state, Khaldun said. This effort is also giving Michiganders an important way to contribute to crisis response and we appreciate their willingness to step up for their communities, pitching in selflessly for work that will help us all. To sign up to volunteer for public health efforts, visit Michigan.gov/fightcovid19. As of Monday, Michigan reported 32,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,468 deaths associated with the virus. CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. Read more on MLive: Michigan healthcare system lays off 2,475 due to dire financial effects of coronavirus Adhering to stay-at-home order now will help businesses reopen sooner, Whitmer says New drive-through coronavirus testing location with on-site results opens in Dearborn Medical experts say Michigans coronavirus death count isnt accurate. But is it too high or too low? Putting together research for publication can be a challenging and time-consuming process, heightened even further because of the current COVID-19 situation, during which non-essential labs have been hibernated and many researchers are now working separately and remotely, instead of collaborating within the same space. Despite those obstacles, Indiana University School of Medicine faculty and Regenstrief Institute research scientists had their research published in Nature Communications on April 14, which is an even more significant feat considering one of the leading authors has been quarantined in Wuhan, China for the last two months of their work. The team consists of Affiliated Scientist Jie Zhang, Ph.D., Regenstrief Institute Research Scientist Kun Huang, Ph.D., both Indiana University School of Medicine faculty members, Jun Cheng, Ph.D., of Shenzhen University and colleagues including Liang Cheng, M.D. of IU School of Medicine. The study was led by Dr. Zhang, an assistant professor of medical and molecular genetics at IU School of Medicine. The work focuses on the application of machine learning and image analysis to help researchers distinguish a rare subtype of kidney cancer (translocational renal cell carcinoma, or tRCC) from other subtypes by examining the features of cells and tissues on a microscopic level. Dr. Zhang said the structural similarities have caused a high rate of misdiagnosis. Within this publication, the researchers studied 74 tRCC samples, which constitutes the largest tRCC collection in the world. The phenotype of this tRCC looks very much like clear cell renal cell carcinoma, or ccRCC, the most common type of renal cell carcinoma, so it's kind of difficult for pathologists to distinguish between the two. To improve that, we tried to use the machine-learning technique, feeding in the digitized pathological image data to the analysis pipeline to train the computer to extract the features related to tRCC. This will help pathologists confirm the case, instead of just relying on their eyes." Dr. Jie Zhang, Ph.D., assistant professor of medical and molecular genetics at IU School of Medicine The first author of this paper, Dr. Jun Cheng started working with Drs. Zhang and Huang in 2016, while Dr. Jun Cheng was a visiting PhD student from China. He visited for the first time when Drs. Zhang and Huang were researchers at Ohio State University, before they joined IU School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute, and has also visited them since they transitioned to their current roles. Dr. Jun Cheng is currently an assistant professor at Shenzhen University and had traveled to his hometown of Wuhan for winter vacation. "I was planning to stay at home for 10 days," said Dr. Jun Cheng. "Three days later, the whole city of Wuhan was in lockdown (due to concerns of COVID-19) and the lockdown lasted for over two months." The city of Wuhan became the epicenter of the pandemic, with more than 50,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among the population of 11 million people. As he was working to revise their publication, Dr. Cheng could not return to his lab at Shenzhen University, since teachers and students who left for vacation weren't allowed to go back due to the pandemic. He only had a laptop at his home, but needed a high-performance computer to conduct data analyses. "Fortunately, one student in my lab didn't go home and stayed in school during winter vacation," said Dr. Jun Cheng. "She helped boot the computer in my lab and then I did all the experiments on it remotely." Dr. Jun Cheng also needed to repeat some of the analysis for the revised manuscript, which required a transfer of previously downloaded public data to China from Dr. Huang's lab in Indiana, and it took a week to complete the data transfer. "It was quite stressful to revise the publication during the quarantine, but finally we made it," said Dr. Jun Cheng. Dr. Huang described this publication as a true team science effort, involving both internal and international collaborations, both of which he said are essential. Liang Cheng, MD, Virgil Moon Professor of Pathology from IU School of Medicine and one of the corresponding authors in the paper, was able to collect additional tRCC and ccRCC samples within two weeks from a collaborator in Michigan for the additional analysis, which he described as an amazing accomplishment. "In many cases, we collaborate internationally because there is a huge innovation base that can help with our research," said Dr. Huang, who is also the Director of Data Sciences and Informatics for the IU Precision Health Initiative. "Even in difficult times, as long as we have enough resources and means of communication, we can still carry out collaborative research." This research focuses on renal cancer based on genetic markers rather than location of the disease. This study was supported in part by the IU Precision Health Initiative. The city of Wuhan was reopened earlier this month. A Spanish town that cut itself off from the outside world more than a month ago in an ambitious attempt to stop coronavirus reaching its residents still has zero infections. Zahara de la Sierra, which sits high above the Andalusian countryside in southern Spain, has so far managed to keep the global pandemic at bay from its elderly population. The hillside fortress town has used a strict regiment of disinfecting the streets and vehicles as well as closely monitoring who comes and goes to keep its inhabitants safe. Santiago Galvan, the of mayor of Zahara de la Sierra, blocked all but one of the town's five entrances on March 14. Volunteers disinfecting the streets of the town of Zahara de la Sierra with the tractor during the coronavirus pandemic on Monday A volunteer disinfect the streets of Zahara de la Sierra, southern Spain, on Monday as part of the town's regiment of cleaning to keep out coronavirus Residents of Zahara de la Sierra preparing to disinfect the town. Every Monday and Thursday at 5.30pm around 10 people disinfect the town, streets, plazas and outside homes A checkpoint on the one road into the town that remains open is manned by a single police officer. Two men wearing protective clothing normally used for spraying the olive groves wash every vehicle that enters with bleach and water. Each vehicle must also drive through a make-shift ditch to disinfect its tyres when entering and exiting the town. Nearly a quarter of Zahara's inhabitants are older than 65 and more than 30 residents live in a care home. The mayor's no-nonsense approach to the virus has been praised by locals, especially the elderly. Zahara has mostly cut itself off to the outside world since March 14, a decision broadly supported by its residents The volunteers pose before going to work to disinfect the town. Nearly a quarter of Zahara's inhabitants are older than 65, a demographic group at greater risk of infection A car crossing the arch while going to disinfect the town during the pandemic on Monday Towns and villages nearby Zahara have seen infections and several coronavirus fatalities. Around 22 miles away in the town of Ubrique, 16 people living in a nursing home died of coronavirus and six miles north of Zahara, a woman also died f the disease. Shortly after Spain announced it was extending its state of alarm, authorities in the town had to turn away French and German tourists who were unaware of the local government's measures. Zahara is used to hunkering down during a time of crisis, as both Moor and Christian invaders have fought over the town during the Middle Ages and it was sacked by the French in 1812. Despite Spain's more than 200,000 confirmed virus cases and over 20,000 deaths, Zahara has not seen a single case of COVID-19 recorded among its 1,400 inhabitants. Volunteers preparing to disinfect the town of Zahara de la Sierra, which has mostly cut itself off to the outside world Zahara de la Sierra, high in the Andusian mountains, was once fought over by the Moors and Christians in the Medieval times because of its perfect position overlooking a valley The town's mayor has introduced intense measures to keep Covid-19 out. Every day 10 people walk the streets with disinfection machines. Another business pays two women to deliver medical supplies and groceries to residents to reduce footfall in the town Galvan said that every Monday and Thursday at 5.30pm around 10 people disinfect the town, streets, plazas and outside homes of Zahara de la Sierra. Sanitation measures introduced in the town include disinfection procedures. The 40-year-old mayor said: 'There is no car that comes through the checkpoint that's not disinfected. 'We have managed to give tranquillity to our neighbours. They know no one unknown can come in.' One local farmer, Antonio Atienza, drives his tractor through the town and sprays the streets. Disinfectant is used by to spray across the streets and plazas of the town of Zahara de la Sierra Zahara de la Sierra is in the province of Cadiz and around an hour's drive away from Seville Spain is the country most affected by the coronavirus in Europe after Italy and a state of emergency has been in place since March 14. In a bid to keep spirits high two cars in Zahara de la Sierra have been fitted with music and lights (pictured) to entertain children who watch from their balconies. Another local business pays two women to deliver groceries and medical supplies to residents for around 11 hours a day. One of the women, Auxi Rascon, 48, told CNN: 'They [the residents] are very happy, because they don't need to go out, they feel protected and feel confident. 'They took the right measures at the right moment, and now we are seeing the results.' The mayor's drastic action has had the full support of the townspeople, of which nearly a quarter are older than 65. The Zaharilla women's association also arranges basic repairs for elderly residents who need help. A Facebook page created for older residents has started a drive to get old photos online. To keep spirits high, Galvan said that two cars have been fitted with music and lights that children can look at from their balconies. Each vehicle that enters the town's one remaining access point must drive through a make-shift ditch to ensure their tyres are disinfected. Two men wearing protective clothing wash every vehicle with bleach and water Much of Zahara's economy is provided by family-run businesses and the self-employed. Galvan that the town council has dipped into its contingency fund to cover electricity, water and taxes costs for local businesses during the national state of emergency. He said that ultimately, though, Zahara will need financial support from Madrid or the regional government. Known for its traditional white-walled houses and cobbled streets The fortress town is just an hour from Seville and a popular destination for tourists who flock to see its white houses and narrow streets that cling to the steep hillside, complete with medieval fortifications and rolling olive groves. P rimark owner Associated British Foods today called for advance notice from Government on when stores can reopen to make them safe. The fashion chain shut all of its shops in March when the Government ordered all non-essential stores to open and it does not have a website, making the coronavirus shutdown even tougher than for rivals. Finance chief John Bason told the Standard that the company would like three to four weeks notice. It would be great to know when we may reopen, he said. The chain, which has 370 stores, will reopen five shops in Austria where the government allowed some stores to begin trading again last week in the first week or May and has begun studying how to ensure social distancing and hygiene measures, including in its fitting rooms. Some governments have limited the number of customers per square feet allowed in stores, while retailers are rushing to get screens to protect staff. Were learning a lot from how the food retailers are keeping people safe in their stores, Bason added. ABF chief executive George Weston paid tribute to two employees who had died from Covid-19, and added: Much as I would love to be allowed to reopen Primark stores across the UK, Continental Europe and the USA soon, because lockdown has so harmed our business and our supply chains, I know that we must not do so until we have suppressed this disease. And when we are allowed to reopen we must make our Primark stores safe for our staff and our customers, even if that means ensuring there are fewer people shopping at any one time and so accepting lower sales at least until the remaining risk is minimal. In time we can rebuild the profits. We cant replace the people we lose. ABF today reported a 35% drop in first-half profits to 349 million, with revenues up 2% to 7.6 billion. Profits were hit by a 309 million charge including 25 million from a bakery warehouse fire in Bradford last month and 284 million lost on the devaluing of stock sitting unsold in its stores and depots. ABF will not pay a dividend, saving around 100 million, and the shares fell 4% or 83p to 1904p. The company has estimated the lockdown is costing around 650 million a month in lost sales. Primark had faced supplier anger in Bangladesh over its decision to cancel orders for clothing from suppliers. Yesterday it agreed to pay 370 million for clothes already in production or completed. Bason said: We had to cancel orders. That was only ever the first step. Then there were intensive conversations with hundreds of suppliers on to one to find out what the problems were. That takes time. The retailer has around 2 billion worth of stock and hopes it can sell some of its spring/summer ranges next year, but some of the clothes will be date coded and of lower value or unsellable, Bason said. We have taken a really sensible look. We have taken control of this. This is about selling the clothing but at a lower net realisable value. Sophie Lund-Yates, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: The problems wont all be solved when shops can reopen. The group outlined safety would continue to be a consideration, and is prepared to accept lower sales until the risk has been minimised. We may not see revenues go from zero to hero overnight. With 1,336 fresh coronavirus cases in past 24 hours, the total number of cases in India has gone up to 18601, according to the latest data from Ministry of Health. The death toll from Covid-19 has risen to 590 after 47 casualties were reported in 24 hours. Currently, there are 14759 active coronavirus patients in the country. Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with 4666 cases and 232 casualties. The other states that have seen the most number of cases include Delhi (2081), Tamil Nadu (1520), Rajasthan (1576), Madhya Pradesh (1485), Gujarat (1939), The U.S. is seeking details about Kim Jong Un's health after receiving information that the North Korean leader was in critical condition after undergoing cardiovascular surgery last week, a U.S. official said. The Trump administration wasn't sure whether Kim was dead or alive, said the official, who asked not to be identified. CNN had earlier reported, citing a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter, that Kim may be in "grave danger" after the surgery. The White House declined to comment on the CNN report. South Korea's benchmark Kospi gauge extended losses to as much as 3% on the news. Local defense stocks rose. The Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that gathers information from informants in North Korea, separately reported that Kim, 36, underwent a "cardiovascular surgical procedure" and had mostly recovered. It was impossible to immediately verify the report, which the Daily NK said was based on one person in North Korea. The health of North Korea's leader is one of the state's most closely guarded secrets, typically only known by a few people in the inner circle of leadership. Speculation about Kim had been growing since his unprecedented absence from April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung, one of the biggest days on the North Korean calender. Kim, a heavy smoker, has been shown in state media in recent months appearing at military drills and riding a white horse on the country's revered Mt. Paektu, which state propaganda says his grandfather used as a guerrilla base to fight Japanese colonial occupiers. The Unification Ministry said Friday that it was "inappropriate" to speculate about the reasons for Kim's absence. Kim has made 17 public appearances this year that were mentioned in state media - at a pace of a little more than one a week - the ministry said. That pace is slightly down from 84 public appearances last year. North Korea has been trying to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, which has led to cutting back on celebrations and some other major events and for cadres to appear in protective masks in public events with Kim. The Daily NK is part of a group of non-for-profit agencies affiliated with the Unification Ministry, and has occasionally been contacted by Seoul officials for information. The outlet's backers include the U.S.'s National Endowment for Democracy, which awarded it $400,000 last year to "raise awareness and understanding of the conditions in North Korea by disseminating accurate, timely and relevant news and information about the country." "Given the difficulty of verifying intelligence about North Korea and our mixed track record of predicting exactly what North Korea's actions signify, we need to avoid jumping to any hasty conclusions just yet," said Mintaro Oba, a former U.S. diplomat who worked on Korean Peninsula issues. A policeman on COVID-19 lockdown duty was injured after a stone was thrown at him from a house's roof in Rajasthan's Jodhpur district on Tuesday, an official said. The two suspects in the case have been arrested, he said. SDRF jawan Ramlekh was on duty in Jawaharkhana locality in Sadar Bazar area when a stone thrown at him hit his head. He was rushed to hospital after the incident, the official said. Ramlekh is undergoing treatment at a hospital and has stitches in his head, said Sadar Bazar SHO Lekhraj Sihag. Two brothers, identified as Mohammad Saddam and Mohammad Shahzad, have been arrested and Saddam had allegedly thrown the stone, the station house officer said. Earlier, one person was arrested from Maderna colony here for attacking a medical team. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) Several individuals sued by Tunisian courts and wanted by the security forces were arrested Tuesday and are being interrogated, Tunisian media sources said here Tuesday It's the will-he, won't he that's dogged the federal electorate of Warringah since Mike Baird quit his executive position at the National Australia Bank earlier this year. The former NSW premier has been coy about whether he'd run for the one-time Liberal Party heartland seat lost by ex-PM Tony Abbott to independent MP Zali Steggall at the next election. Mike Baird has found a new job. Credit:James Alcock Hold that thought (for now). Baird has just joined hospital and aged care charity HammondCare as its chief executive. He starts in his new job this September. Baird, on Facebook this morning, said "as a son, and as a grandson, I've had to experience firsthand the deep challenge, and even heartache, that comes as the people we hold most dearly grow old and need care". A 15-hour standoff that began after San Francisco police opened fire at a man with a knife on Tuesday morning ended with the man in custody and no serious injuries, police said. The man had barricaded himself inside a building in the citys Tenderloin neighborhood after evading officers. Late Tuesday night, San Francisco police said the man was safely in custody. Officers responded to the 500 block of Jones Street around 6:30 a.m. after a report of a person with a knife, according to San Francisco police. They made contact with the man before an officer-involved shooting occurred, officials said. The suspect ran into a building on the 300 block of Ellis Street and set up a barricade, police said. Officials from the departments hostage negotiation and tactical units communicated with the man to reach a peaceful resolution. More than a dozen officers some in uniform and others in suits cordoned off both scenes while they searched for evidence. A medical examination indicated the suspect had not been shot but he remains hospitalized with other non-life-threatening injuries, said Officer Robert Rueca, a police spokesman. The suspects name is being withheld while the incident remains under investigation. More for you SWAT team raid in San Pablo leads to multiple gun charges against man Police said they will hold a town hall meeting to discuss the officer-involved shooting within 10 days. The incident marked the first on-duty San Francisco police shooting since December, when authorities shot and critically wounded a man in the Mission District. The suspect in that incident was accused of attacking an officer. A Department of Justice report released earlier this year found that the San Francisco Police Departments use-of-force incidents in 2019 decreased by 24% from the prior year. 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 report analyzed the second phase of the departments reform initiative, which began in April 2016 following a series of controversial police killings, including the 2015 shooting of Mario Woods. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Michael Cabanatuan contributed to this story. Alejandro Serrano is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alejandro.serrano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @serrano_alej Energy secretary also is moving forward with a plan to rent 23 million barrels of storage space to oil companies. The United States energy secretary said on Tuesday he would talk with leaders in the US House of Representatives later in the day and urge them to fund the purchase of crude to fill the emergency oil reserve. In March, President Donald Trump ordered Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, to the top as the price of oil plunged while the coronavirus crushed global demand. So far, Congress has declined to fund the purchase, with some Democrats opposed to bailing out the oil industry. Im going to meet with leaders later today in the US House to discuss exactly this, Brouillette told Fox Business Network in an interview cut short due to problems with the audio feed. The House is controlled by Democrats. The reserve, held in salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana, currently holds about 635 million barrels and can take another 77 million barrels of oil, or less than what the US consumed on average in four days in 2019. As the Energy Department works with Congress on a purchase it also is moving forward with a plan to rent an initial 23 million barrels of storage space in the reserve to oil companies. Brouillette said the SPR is legally mandated to expand to 1 billion barrels. But expanding the reserve to that level would likely require even more cooperation on funding from Congress. The June contract for US crude was down nearly 30 percent, below $15 a barrel, on Tuesday after hitting $11.79, its lowest since 1999. The expiring May contract fell to below minus $40 per barrel on Monday as the industry scrambled for places to store oil. While RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) shareholders are probably generally happy, the stock hasn't had particularly good run recently, with the share price falling 20% in the last quarter. While that's not great, the returns over five years have been decent. The share price is up 48%, which is better than the market return of 46%. See our latest analysis for RenaissanceRe Holdings There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement. During five years of share price growth, RenaissanceRe Holdings achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 5.0% per year. This EPS growth is lower than the 8.2% average annual increase in the share price. This suggests that market participants hold the company in higher regard, these days. That's not necessarily surprising considering the five-year track record of earnings growth. The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image). NYSE:RNR Past and Future Earnings April 21st 2020 We know that RenaissanceRe Holdings has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? Check if analysts think RenaissanceRe Holdings will grow revenue in the future. What About Dividends? When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, RenaissanceRe Holdings's TSR for the last 5 years was 56%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments! Story continues A Different Perspective It's good to see that RenaissanceRe Holdings has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 2.0% in the last twelve months. And that does include the dividend. However, the TSR over five years, coming in at 9.3% per year, is even more impressive. The pessimistic view would be that be that the stock has its best days behind it, but on the other hand the price might simply be moderating while the business itself continues to execute. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with RenaissanceRe Holdings . Of course RenaissanceRe Holdings 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 US 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. Starbucks is introducing plant-based food and drinks in China as part of a decade-long effort to reduce the environmental impact of its offerings. The Seattle-based coffee chain on Tuesday began selling lasagna, pasta and a wrap filled with Beyond Meat grounds, which are made from pea protein. It's the first time Beyond Meat products are being sold in China. Kansas City, Kan., April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has placed elderly people in the developing world in a precarious situation. They are uniquely at risk, while at the same time the solution carries danger of its own. Major world health institutions have documented that loneliness and isolation among elders can become a massive threat to their health. So how, at time when its vital to protect seniors through social distancing, are organizations that address the challenges of elders able to safely continue their work? Unbound recently announced that it will continue to deliver sponsorship benefits to the elders in its programs through conditional cash transfers and direct services such as medicine, food and clothing organized by local Unbound staff. The nonprofit believes that now more than ever its important to continue to facilitate and maintain the relationships it has with the more than 30,000 elders in its programs around the world. "Thoughtful community building and a consistent flow of resources allows our teams on the ground to ensure that everyone is as prepared as they can be and no one gets left behind," said Dan Pearson, director of international programs at Unbound. Since Unbound staff around the world are from the communities and regions they serve, Unbound finds them well-equipped to adapt to challenging local dynamics in order to make sure resources are still able to reach their destination. Many local staff are former sponsored children themselves. Young people who have received scholarships from Unbound, and mothers of sponsored children in Unbounds programs, both play important roles ensuring elders have what they need to survive the pandemic. In Guatemala, scholarship students made facemasks for elders in the area, and in Honduras, mothers rallied to get food to elders who are confined to their homes. Unbound is the only major organization in the United States that also includes elders in its sponsorship program. The nonprofit connects adults 60 and older living in extreme poverty and isolation across 19 countries with sponsors in the United States. Story continues Learn more information on Unbounds elder program. Attachment Diamond Dixon Unbound 8168126141 diamondmariedixon@gmail.com As of April 21, another 1,283 Armenian citizens contacted diplomatic missions and announced their desire to return to their homeland, Deputy FM Avet Adonts told reporters on Tuesday. According to him, nearly 22 thousand citizens returned to Armenia during the state of emergency. The geography of flights is very wide, from the US and Russia, to the CIS countries, the Middle East and Africa. As for the situation with compatriots stuck in Turkey who cannot leave due to expired documents, the deputy minister asked to transfer all available information to the MFA consular for a speedy solution to the problem. Asked to comment on what to do to Armenian citizens abroad, whose visas are expired or are nearing completion, Avet Adonts noted that each country regulates the issue in its own way. But the philosophy is the same - visas are extended in almost all countries. If the visa has expired, you must contact your local authorities for an extension. But before that, contact the diplomatic mission of the country, he noted. Just hours before Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz reached an agreement to form a unity government. The deal, agreed on Monday, broke a political impasse that saw three elections taking place in less than a year, all of them rendering inconclusive results. Despite the bribery and corruption charges he has been indicted for, head of the right-wing Likud party Netanyahu, Israels longest-serving prime minister, managed to extend his reign for another 18 months under the agreement. Gantz, head of the centre-right Blue and White alliance, whose election campaign ruled out the possibility of a coalition government with Netanyahu, will become defence minister and deputy prime minister before taking over from Netanyahu for the second half of the governments rule. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin had given Gantz the mandate to form a government. But when he failed before the deadline, Rivlin authorised the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, with the task. The pair now has 21 days to form the government with a majority of 61 votes. Failure to do so will mean that the Knesset will dissolve on May 7 and an unprecedented election will take place by August 4. Netanyahu vs the legal system The unity government agreement includes the ability of Netanyahu, with the support of the United States, to advance legislation to annex parts of the occupied West Bank starting from July 1. Gantz had expressed similar views on the annexation, which, under international law, is considered illegal. On Monday, the more contentious issues finally ironed out revolved around the legal system within Israel and the committee to appoint judges. Netanyahu now has to power to veto the appointments of the next attorney general and state prosecutor. His trial, in three corruption cases, will start on May 24 at the High Court of Justice. Israels Supreme Court will now have to deal with a tough question of whether Netanyahu will be eligible to lead the country as prime minister, according to Akiva Eldar, a political analyst and Haaretz contributor. There is no precedent to this in the entire democratic world, Eldar told Al Jazeera. The unity agreement, which Netanyahu formed to immunise himself from the high courts ruling, states that if he is ruled ineligible to be prime minister, neither anyone from his Likud party or Gantz can become leader. Its either Netanyahu or a fourth election. The unity government, Eldar added, is set for a head-on collision between the government and the high court. Gantz lacks political skill-set Gantz, a former Israeli military chief of staff, has little political experience and has disappointed some of his followers by agreeing to a coalition government with Netanyahu, who has been in power for the last five years and 14 years in total. Gantz was presented as the anti-Netanyahu, a man who was supposed to replace a corrupt prime minister, said Amjad Iraqi, a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network think tank. Because Gantz has flip-flopped on what was effectively his core platform, he has shown his supporters that hes not a real politician by not keeping to his campaign pledges and effectively being played by Netanyahu to agree to a unity government. The decision to enter a coalition government with Netanyahu has been in the works since last month, causing Gantzs alliance of three parties to splinter only 13 months after it was formed to bring Netanyahus reign to an end. Gantz has shown he doesnt really have the experience or the skillset to play the political game, as shown by his own political party breaking up into three, added Iraqi. So his reputation as a political leader no longer has that kind of credibility. Netanyahu had previously led the most far-right government in Israels history, relying on the support of ultra-nationalist and extremist parties. But, according to Haggai Matar, the executive director for +972 Magazine, the majority of the government parties within the Knesset are still far right. Gantz and Netanyau basically approve the annexation [of occupied Palestinian territories] and the continued assault on the Supreme Court, said Matar. The one thing we might see, with Gantz as defence minister and Gabi Ashkenazi as foreign minister, is an attempt to create an outward-facing nicer facade to these policies, which wont change. The public sees Gantz as the more moderate right-wing person who might be able to shift the right-wing camp away from the more extremist nationalistic groupings like the ones headed by Naftali Bennett, said Iraqi. But in the end, all of this is operating exclusively within the right-wing camp. So its more about the presentation of right-wing policies and the language used. Aida Touma, member of the opposition Palestinian-Israeli Joint List party in the Knesset, described the new coalition as the dangerous and right-wing government. Gantz has entered [the political process] to replace Netanyahu, and now he is backing him and his racist and anti-democratic approach, she said in a tweet. Stability in time of crisis While Gantzs supporters operated under the banner of Anyone but Bibi referring to Netanyahus nickname the betrayal felt by Gantzs decision to enter in a coalition has been superimposed by the coronavirus pandemic, said Yizhar Beer, an Israeli journalist and social activist. Many Israelis are tired of Netanyahu, but in the coronavirus era, they want stability, said Beer. The bad news is that the democratic face of this government will not recover, particularly if Netanyahu uses his power to stop any changes in the legal system. In light of the current domestic and international state of affairs, Matar said that the general public is happy with the government outcome. In terms of the economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, and the political deadlock for the past three elections, what was needed was unity and most of the people are happy with that, he said. And while those who felt betrayed by Gantzs reneging on his campaign promises, others in the same camp who still do not want Netanyahu as prime minister have relented due to being in a time of crisis. They say theyll be able to affect and minimise the damage Netanyahu does from within, Matar said. Many Israelis view Netanyahu as a brilliant politician and consider that he has contributed many positive things in the past 10 years, Iraqi said. Netanyahu has enjoyed a lot of support and popularity for his handling of the situation during the coronavirus pandemic. For other Israelis, they are indifferent to who is in the driving seat as long as the government is functioning and things are carried out as they should. Last December, the Labour Party suffered its worst defeat since 1935. In the run-up to the election, the partys manifesto received heavy criticism for being unrealistic, overreaching, and unpersuasive. Former Labour Party leader Tony Blair described it as promising the earth but from a planet other than Earth. But what really doomed the party was its leader Jeremy Corbyn. Sir Keir Starmer who succeeded Corbyn on April 4 certainly seems to be an improvement. Starmers skepticism of Corbyn was evident early on. He did not initially back the former leader and was later part of the effort to oust him in 2016. When this failed, Starmer served as shadow Brexit secretary and helped guide the party toward a more coherent stance on Brexit. The son of a nurse and a tool maker, Starmer attended a grammar school and then Oxford University. A human-rights lawyer, he was the director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. As National Reviews Kyle Smith wryly observed, Starmer is younger and handsomer than Corbyn and is even rumored to have been the inspiration for the fictional romantic lead, Mr. Darcy, in Bridget Jones Diary. Still, he faces an uphill struggle. To win in the next election, Labour will need to swing 10 percent of the electorate. So far, Starmer has managed to sidestep the toxicity of the Labour Partys ongoing civil war. His parliamentary career began in 2015, after the Blair-Brown era had imploded in the controversy of the Iraq War. Distancing himself from this contentious era, Starmer has made an end to illegal wars one of his top priorities. At the same time, he has managed to distance himself from the more radical, progressive Corbynista wing within the Labour Party. He has apologized unreservedly for the anti-Semitism and vowed to root it out. His new shadow housing secretary has said that Communists are not welcome in the party. And Matt Pound, head of a Corbyn-skeptic group Labour First, was another Starmer appointment. Pound is a self-described full-time organizer against the hard left. Story continues Never again can Labour be a party that millions of people feel they cannot trust to govern, to manage our economy, or to keep our country safe, Starmer said earlier this month, positioning himself as a more moderate, unifying figure. But can he achieve this while still maintaining Corbyn-era leftist policies? Starmer intends to re-nationalize the railways and utilities, increase taxes on top earners and companies, abolish university tuition fees, and put the green new deal at the heart of everything we do all reminiscent of Corbyns 2017 election manifesto. Starmer has called his party to never lose sight of the voters lent to the Tories in 2019. He has argued that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the desperate fragility of the states safety net and the unfairness of a broken system: from our chronically underfunded NHS and care service to our woefully inadequate social security system and the lack of protection for our self-employed and small businesses. The trouble is that the Tories had already thought of this before the crisis struck. Even in the last election, Johnson worked hard to distance himself from the controversial years of Tory austerity. Starmer has said that he intends to stand up for universal services and defend our NHS. But Johnsons government has done the same. The Tories most recent budget offered the biggest spending splurge in decades. And the pandemic has only made the conservatives swing even further to the left. The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, recently indicated that the government would establish a coronavirus jobs-retention scheme for all employers, covering up to 80 percent of wages, as well as injecting 7 billion ($8.7 billion) into the welfare system. During the Blair years, the Labour Party combined social liberalism with more centrist economic policies. Now, Johnsons conservative government occupies that popular spot. Given that socialism has not been politically viable in Britain for nearly 50 years, and given that the Tories have swung hard to the left, Starmers biggest challenge may be that his brand is irrelevant. More from National Review A driver fleeing from Houston police remains in the hospital Tuesday after he crashed into an innocent driver in Pasadena, police say. Officers tried to pull over the driver, who was operating a blue car, near Airport and Monroe boulevards Monday afternoon when he allegedly sped off, according to Houston Police Sgt. Corey Harrington. The driver sped east along Airport Boulevard, a road that changes names to College Avenue in South Houston and then Spencer Highway in Pasadena. US President Donald Trump has decided to suspended immigration to the country in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, to protect the jobs of American Citizens. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! he tweeted on Tuesday morning. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020 A record 22 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits in the four weeks of lockdown, almost wiping out all the job gains since the Great Recession and underscoring the toll on the economy from extraordinary measures to control the novel coronavirus outbreak. Also Watch | US to add 75 million barrels of oil to strategic reserve: Donald Trump There is a record drop in retail sales in March int he US and the biggest decline in factory output since 1946. Economists are predicting the economy, which they believe is already in recession, contracted in the first quarter at its sharpest pace since World War II. The deepening economic slump was also amplified by other data showing manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region plunged to levels last seen in 1980 and homebuilding tumbling by the most in 36 years in March. The United States has by far the worlds largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 7,50,000 infections and over 40,500 deaths, according to news agency Reuters. States and local governments have issued stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders affecting more than 90 per cent of Americans to control the spread of Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, and abruptly halting economic activity. In Washington, lawmakers were squabbling over a possible $450 billion-plus deal to provide more aid to small businesses and hospitals hurt by the crisis. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said a vote could take place on Tuesday. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott painted a positive picture of the states battle against COVID-19 on Tuesday, but said its not yet time to fully reopen the economy. Abbott said Tuesday the number of people testing positive for the coronavirus is leveling off and has remained mostly under 1,000 new cases a day even as testing has accelerated. He said that on April 9, Texas had more than 1,000 people test positive for COVID-19, but hasnt hit that number in 12 straight days. Its not because COVID-19 is suddenly dispersed from the geography of the state of Texas, Abbott said. The reason why it is leveling off is because our fellow Texans have done such a great job of reducing their interactions with others. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox The state continues to see about a 10 percent infection rate for those tested, and the death toll has now surpassed 500 people. The time for total cases to double has grown to 15 days, another good sign. Those hospitalized for the infection remain level at around 1,400 per day. The governor said he is in touch with private sector employers and health professionals and is hoping to have an announcement soon on reopening more parts of the economy that have been closed since he issued his initial stay-at-home order on March 31. Last week, he announced a team of more than four dozen advisers many of them wealthy campaign donors to help guide a phased reopening. The governor plans to unveil their first round of recommendations on Monday, including a decision on whether to roll back the stay-at-home order. Abbott continued to highlight the states improved testing capabilities, though Texas has been among the lowest in testing per capita.. Texas has now tested over 205,000 people about 15,000 more than were reported on Monday. The testing rate fluctuates by day, and in the past has typically been higher earlier in the week. We continue this ongoing increase in the number of people who are tested, Abbott said. But he noted that some of the drive-thru testing sites have been empty at times, according to satellite images. "I don't know if it's because people aren't feeling like they have any symptoms, or if inadequate information is being given," Abbott said. Companies including Walgreens have recently opened new sites in Harris and Dallas counties, but are taking patients by appointment only. Forty-six people have died in heavy flooding that struck the town of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said on Tuesday, giving early figures. "The updated toll is 30 dead, but it's still very provisional," deputy mayor Kapenda Kyky Kifara told AFP, while the territory's administrator, Alexis Rashidi Kasangala, said there were 16 recorded dead and 3,600 homes that been destroyed on the outskirts of the town. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior cops are growing increasingly concerned that the teenage New IRA killers of journalist Lyra McKee will never face justice. It was this that prompted the PSNI to send letters to residents of the Creggan estate in Londonderry, where the 29-year-old was shot dead a year ago yesterday, asking for their help. In a BBC radio interview, the officer leading the murder investigation, Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, admitted it was an extraordinary move but said he was hopeful it may yield results. But behind the scenes, senior PSNI sources told Sunday Life the investigation was being hampered because witnesses are frightened of coming forward, even anonymously. This fear was heightened when, in the aftermath of Lyra's killing, the New IRA put up signs around the Creggan warning "informers will be shot". "There has been strong community support for the investigation, but no one is willing to be seen to be talking to police for obvious reasons," explained a security source. "This has severely hampered progress. We know the name of the gunman who killed Lyra, who handed him the weapon, and who sent them onto the streets with the order to shoot at police. But proving it in court without witness statements is an entirely different matter." A PSNI spokeswoman said that to date police have arrested nine people in connection with the murder of the journalist, who was struck by a single bullet on April 18 last year while watching rioting on Fanad Drive in the Creggan estate. Paul McIntyre (51) has been charged with her murder on the basis of joint enterprise, with police alleging he is the masked figure seen picking up bullet casings after the fatal shot was fired. Christopher Gillen (39) has also been charged with rioting on the night of the killing. The spokeswoman added: "Twenty-five searches have been conducted and officers are currently working through the significant amount of CCTV and other video evidence that has been recovered and conducting a thorough examination." The gunman who shot Lyra was aged 18 at the time and has recently become a father. Despite being masked, he was recognised by locals because of the distinctive tracksuit bottoms he was wearing on the night. He was handed the gun by another young man who is on remand in prison facing public order offences. Both were arrested by cops in the aftermath of the killing, but were freed without charge. New IRA rioting that led to the murder was organised to impress an MTV camera crew which was in Derry filming a documentary about dissident republicans. Footage they recorded was obtained by the PSNI and forms a key part of the prosecution against Paul McIntyre and Christopher Gillen. According to police, clothing the men were filmed wearing earlier that day is identical to that worn by two of the rioters. The New IRA leader in Derry is Thomas Mellon. He was placed on a 10-year MI5 watch-list after being convicted of smuggling a terror note into Maghaberry Prison. Mellon's second-in-command is veteran republican Fergal Melaugh. Both men are former Provisional IRA members. Ultimately these are the men detectives want to charge with directing terrorism in Derry. Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy hinted at this in his BBC Radio Ulster interview last week when he compared the murder probe to a "1,000 piece jigsaw". There was also a nod to it in his letter delivered to Creggan residents, which read: "Lyra's murder was not committed in isolation, nor did it involve only one person. The events that led up to Lyra being shot, and the events afterwards, are equally important." DS Murphy also confirmed 17 individuals are listed as 'suspects', and played a part in facilitating, carrying out and covering up the killing. Lyra, from Belfast, had been living in the Creggan with her partner Sara Canning for the year previous to her murder. Ms Canning described the past 12 months as a "most horrific and surreal year" in a BBC interview to coincide with the first anniversary of her loved one's death. She said: "I miss my life with her. If I could go back to this time last year I'd do things differently." While I would love to say spending hours of my life binge-watching Netflix was a pastime I adopted during social distancing, that would be a baldfaced lie. The truth is that I've been loyal to the TV binge since it's conception, sneaking in hours of shows like "Gossip Girl" and "One Tree Hill" between homework assignments as a high school student. Netflix has never failed to provide me with a good excuse to get comfy on my couch and this period of social distancing has been no exception. When things feel hopeless and there seems to be little to look forward to, the streaming giant has continued to brighten my day with their newly released hits. The most recent sensation, a reality show titled, "Too Hot To Handle," is as steamy, shocking and over-the-top as it sounds. Before you dive in, here's everything you need to know about the reality series everyone is buzzing about. Too Hot to Handle on Netflix (Netflix) What is Too Hot to Handle on Netflix? The series follows a cast of core characters who believe they are about to have a dream vacation filled with scantily-clad singles, provocative parties and sunbathing. While they're not necessarily wrong, the show's producers drop a huge twist on the group just hours after they meet. What's the twist? The cast must refrain from all sexual activity, including kissing, for the duration of the show's filming. If they are successfully able to keep their hands off of each other, they could walk away with $100,000 worth of prize money to split. Every time a couple breaks the rules, money is deducted from the pot. Sounds easy enough, right? Not for this group. By removing sex from the equation, the show's virtual host, Lana, hopes to help the cast develop deep, personal connections despite their tendency for flings and one-night stands in the real world. Lana gives Chris Harrison a run for his money, chiming in when the cast members least expect it, laying down the law and providing a healthy dose of realism. Story continues Whos in the Too Hot to Handle cast? The cast is full of hotties, self-proclaimed players and big personalities from around the world. They are all single and very ready to mingle. Sparks begin to fly right off the bat and the sexual tension is so thick it could be cut with a knife. Similar to "Bachelor in Paradise," contestants are voted out or choose to leave as the show progresses, while new people are added to the mix. Let's get to know the main players! Francesca Farago Francesca Too Hot to Handle Netflix (Courtesy of Netflix) From British Colombia, Canada, Francesca Farago has been a favorite among early fans of the show. In her introduction, she boasts about her large social media following, hot body, pretty face and sparkling personality. One thing is for certain, she isn't lacking an ego. Her early flirtation with Australia native Harry Jowsey leads to the first of many monetary deductions from the $100,000 pot. But as a self-described "rule-breaker," Farago proves more than once that she isn't afraid to spice things up. Caught between flings, she often finds herself at the center of the drama, but it's her natural flair for stirring the pot that kept me on the edge of my seat episode after episode. Harry Jowsey Harry Jowsey Too Hot to Handle Netflix (Courtesy of Netflix) At first, it's hard to think of him as anything by Farago's love interest. Hailing from Queensland, Australia, Jowsey makes a name for himself early on when he blames Farago for kissing him after he was clearly the one to initiate the illicit act. Despite his initial selfishness, he and Farago can't seem to stay away from each other. From the beginning, the 23-year-old described himself as cheeky and I couldn't agree more. While he left much to be desired in the maturity category, in between wincing at his more cringe-worthy moments, I couldn't help but root for him. Sharron Townsend Sharron Townsend Too Hot to Handle Netflix (Courtesy of Netflix) A walking dichotomy, Sharron Townsend opened the show by describing himself as both a feminist and a player. The 25-year-old from New Jersey also shared that the feature he is, well, you will have to watch to find out. While his first impression isn't stellar, you could argue that Townsend experiences the most emotional growth of any castmate on the show. As things heat up between him and his love interest Rhonda Paul, a soft side of Townsend pokes through his tough, tattooed exterior. Rhonda Paul Rhonda Paul Too Hot to Handle Netflix (Courtesy of Netflix) When asked to rate herself, Rhonda Paul gave herself a 10 out of 10. She says she's the type of girl who likes to look her best no matter where she headed, even if it's the grocery store. The 27-year-old from Georgia is an early favorite among a few of the gentleman, but it's her relationship with Townsend where the sparks seem to shine the brightest. She's a steady sailor in stormy seas and easily one of the most likable characters on the show. Kelechi "Kelz" Dyke Kelz Dyke Too Hot to Handle Netflix (Aline Arruda/Netflix) Kelz Dyke is clear from the start that he doesn't chase girls and he doesn't do relationships. Despite the goal of the show being to build deeper emotional connections, Dyke is all about the money. Someone had to be the accountant and Dyke is more than happy to be that guy. Did he miss an opportunity at love? I'll let you be the judge of that. Chloe Veitch Chloe Veitch Too Hot to Handle Netflix (Courtesy of Netflix) From Essex, U.K., Veitch is the self-described ditz of the show. Some might argue she's just one of the many ditsy characters, but I'll keep those opinions to myself. Veitch is one of the first characters to be set up on a date with fellow Brit David Birtwistle. They push the no-kissing rule to the very edge in what can only be described as a crime against chocolate-covered strawberries. You'll have to watch to see if their connection is as sweet as their close encounter. David Birtwistle David Birtwistle Too Hot to Handle Netflix (Courtesy of Netflix) David Birtwistle is from London. The 28-year-old says his favorite move for picking up girls is walking into a bar and taking his shirt off. As the show goes on, Birtwistle realizes he has to shed more than his shirt to create an emotional connection. He is another character who transforms for the better. I shed a single tear for Birtwistle as he navigated romance and revealed that he is more than just a shirtless guy in a bar. Matthew Smith Matthew Smith Too Hot to Handle Netflix (Courtesy of Netflix) Matthew Smith stands out like a sore thumb from the minute he walks in the door. While most cast members are dressed in pool party attire including swim trunks and bikinis, Smith comes in wearing a pink beanie, white T-shirt and black pants. When he removes the beanie, he reveals a thick head of hair pulled into a slick man bun. His look wins him the nickname Jesus almost immediately. The Colorado native calls himself a "deep thinker." He says he has a lot of questions about monogamy and would prefer to sow his seeds with women all over the world. He takes on the role of "sex police" sniffing out crimes. Was he too focused on everyone else to find love? Only time will tell. Netflix Is this new Netflix dating show worth the watch? "Too Hot to Handle" gives a new meaning to the term guilty pleasure. The show is a perfect combination of dramatic, sexy and cringe-worthy. Between the sassy narrator who says exactly what we're all thinking, the virtual host who's not afraid to lay down the law and the ensemble of attractive cast members, this show leaves little to be desired. Anyone who thought "Love Is Blind" missed the physical mark or that "The Bachelor in Paradise" could be enhanced with a looming cash prize will devour this series. Did I watch every episode in one sitting? Yes. Would I recommend it to my grandmother? No. Do with that information what you will. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have told four tabloids in the UK they will no longer work with them, as Meghan prepares for her court battle with the Mail On Sunday. The couple sent a letter to the editors of the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, The Sun and the Daily Express to cease co-operation with them over distorted, false or invasive stories. Harry and Meghan worked with the papers as senior royals through a system called the royal rota. In a letter to the four tabloids, they said: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have watched people they know as well as complete strangers have their lives completely pulled apart for no good reason, other than the fact that salacious gossip boosts advertising revenue. The letter also states the couple believe in the free press, and do not intend to avoid criticism. Read more: Meghan Markle gives support to food delivery service run by Grenfell survivors Harry and Meghan have said they won't work with the tabloids any more. (Getty Images) It adds: Media have every right to report on and indeed have an opinion on The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, good or bad. But it cant be based on a lie. It comes as Meghan prepares for the first day of her hearing in the High Court in a case again the Mail On Sunday, who she is suing after it printed excerpts of a personal letter to her father. According to The Guardian, the treatment applies to the four newspapers, their online editions, and the Sunday papers. However its not clear if other papers owned by the same groups are included. For example, the Daily Star has not been named, but is owned by Reach Plc, who also owns the Daily Mirror. The BBC said the shift means the couples PR team will not take calls from the four papers. Harry, 35, and Meghan, 37, are starting a new chapter of their life in Los Angeles, having previously been linked with Canada. They have been seen helping to deliver food parcels for Project Angel Food in LA, a charity which supports those with serious illness. Read more: Princess Anne cautions younger royals against 'new ways' as Harry and Meghan begin new life Story continues Final engagements for the couple included the Commonwealth Day service. (Getty Images) The decision by the duke and duchess to put out the letter has been met with criticism from some. Mail On Sunday showbiz editor Katie Hind shared an article she wrote in November 2019 which recalled a 2013 meeting, with Meghan determined to raise her profile. Piers Morgan tweeted: Imagine announcing this in the middle of a global pandemic? Imagine thinking anyone cares about their hurt little me-me-me egos as health workers around the world are dying at work? What a pair of repulsive, deluded narcissistic tools. However some have praised their decision. Producer Lex Croucher wrote love your work on Twitter next to the couples statement. When the Sussexes returned to the UK for their final engagements in March there was a shift in the way their events were covered, with some select media invited to the Duchess of Sussexs last meetings with Commonwealth leaders in Buckingham Palace. Read more: Prince Harry video calls families of sick children from LA home The duke called families of sick children who are supported by WellChild. (WellChild) They also used a specific photographer for several events, which they put out on their Instagram account after they happened. Many engagements were never listed in the Court Circular despite the couple still being senior royals when they were carried out. When Harry and Meghan were dating, the prince released a powerful statement about the treatment of his then-girlfriend, speaking about abuse and harassment and racial undertones particularly by trolls online. He was 12 when his mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a car crash in Paris when she was being pursued by paparazzi. They both spoke about media intrusion in a documentary filmed during what turned out to be their final royal tour abroad in South Africa in October 2019. Watch the latest episode from Yahoo UK's The Royal Story A man who threatened to run over patients seeking coronavirus tests at a pharmacy and an unregistered motorist who told police she was out playing Pokemon Go where among New Jerseys latest installment of people accused of offenses tied to the pandemic, officials said. Gov. Phil Murphy has dubbed the growing list of alleged violators as knuckleheads for breaching a variety of his orders put in place to curb the virus outbreak. He did it again Monday. To the knuckleheads that need to be called out, they need to be called out. Running people over in a parking lot, youve got to be kidding me, the governor said during his daily press briefing in Trenton. Murphy was discussing the Camden County case of Jacob M. Carr, 30, who allegedly posted angry messages on the Barrington Parents Page on Facebook, where he targeted people going for coronavirus tests at a Rite Aid in the borough, authorities said. Im gonna run you all over with my SUV if I see anyone getting tested," the Barrington resident posted, according to the state Attorney Generals Office. Panicked residents alerted local police, who arrested him Sunday on charges of terroristic threats during an emergency, obstruction and violating the emergency orders by impeding the performance of an emergency function, the attorney general's office said Monday. Though Carr used a bogus Facebook profile, police tracked the postings to him, authorities said. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage In an unrelated case included in a now-daily list of alleged violators 49-year-old Renee F. Perrine was pulled over Saturday by Bay Head police for driving an unregistered vehicle, authorities said. She told officers she was driving around playing the mobile phone game Pokemon Go. Police charged the Toms River resident with violating the emergency orders and operating an unregistered vehicle. One month after Governor Murphy issued his emergency orders, we are flattening the curve and saving lives, because the vast majority of our residents are conscientiously obeying the social distancing rules and doing their share to fight COVID-19, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said in a statement. Unfortunately, there are still those who violate the orders, risking the further spread of this deadly virus, Grewal said. New Jersey officials on Monday reported at least 88,806 positive cases with 4,377 deaths from the outbreak. Murphy said he planned to announce a broad blueprint for lifting the statewide near-lockdown and continued to remind residents to keep following the strict health restrictions. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Iran's Interior Minister Highlights Khamenei's Role In November Protests Radio Farda April 20, 2020 Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has reiterated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's responsibility in increasing the price of gasoline in mid-November 2019 when Iranian security forces are said to have killed around 1,500 protesters during unrest in reaction to a gasoline price hike. According to official news agency IRNA, Rahmani Fazli who was speaking via video teleconference in a virtual meeting with police chiefs and commanders all over Iran on Monday April 20, called 2019 "an eventful year" particularly for Iran's police force. Referring to the protests to the gas price hike, he said: "The historic message sent by the Supreme Leader, led to a major development in which the people had a significant presence." According to a Reuters report, Khamenei's message to the security forces at the time "set in motion the bloodiest crackdown on protesters since the Islamic Revolution." Utterly angered by the nationwide protests, Khamenei told the security forces: "Do whatever it takes to stop them." Rahmani Fazli said the police's behaviour was "brilliant and successful" without mentioning the crackdown. In this and another meeting with the members of the Iranian Social Affairs Council at the Interior Ministry on Monday, Rahmani Fazli showed his paranoid preoccupation with the idea of enemies plotting against the Iranian government. IRNA quoted him as saying that the enemies were planning to create a security situation during the parliamentary elections in February but thanks to measures taken by the police, we had an uneventful election. The election was in fact a lackluster event as the turnout was unusually low because politically biased vetting by the Guardian Council had left very few popular and prominent candidates to vote for. Meanwhile, IRGC-linked news agency Tasnim reported that at a meeting with the members of the Social Affairs Council Rahmani Fazli mainly spoke about the government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak that has so far killed thousands of people in Iran including council member Fatemeh Rahbar. Speaking on the controversy over reopening businesses, Rahmani Fazli said that "the enemies wanted to sow discord in the country by creating a dichotomy between bread and lives, but we should pay attention to both of these, saving lives and helping the people to win bread." Rahmani Fazli complained that the state TV refused to report the administration's contribution to the fight against COVID-19 and asked the Culture Minister Abbas Salehi to make sure that all government organizations can report on TV about what they have done. This comes while the state TV is under the supervision of Khamenei and the Culture Minister cannot intervene in the broadcaster's affairs. Salehi complained that foreign based Persian media present a disparaging image of the situation of the outbreak in Iran. He was referring to the fact that foreign based media which are not controlled by the Iranian government present a more balanced account of events in Iran particularly by trying to present more objective and accurate reports on the outbreak and the death toll that is systematically played down by the government and the media inside Iran. They also mismanagement, corruption and inefficiency in the government. The interior minister said at this meeting that today is exactly two months after Iranian officials announced the first cases of death in Qom as a result of COVID-19. He added that since then, the government has "managed the situation" very well and has done a lot to control the disease. He said Iran is now in a good position in producing masks and manufacturing ventilators. Earlier, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's offer of sending ventilators to Iran, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif rejected the offer and claimed Iran will be exporting ventilators to other countries soon. Rahmani Fazli, however, reiterated that all what he termed successes do not mean the country's situation is normal. Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-s-interior- minister-highlights-khamenei-s-role-in-november -protests/30566217.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 By Park Si-soo A coronavirus patient in her 20s will stand trial for spitting at an ambulance driver who took her to a hospital. Daejeon Prosecutors' Office said on Tuesday the woman had been charged with obstructing the driver's official duty and attempted assault. The incident happened on Feb. 28 in Daegu. The woman who had tested positive for coronavirus shouted swear words and spat at the ambulance driver while getting out of the vehicle. According to police, she did so in a fit of anger, which she claimed was caused by the driver's "wild driving." The driver received a virus test after the incident and was confirmed to be negative. Models, society beauties and an actress with free rein of a stunning coastal retreat might sound like the perfect recipe for hedonistic lockdown house parties. But Lady Lola Crichton-Stuart, 20, and her gaggle of glamorous pals are having a decidedly more wholesome time whiling away the hours on Bute - the Scottish island from which her father, former F1 racing driver John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, takes his title. Lady Lola has shared snaps of herself taking dips in the sea, strolling through the countryside and baking up a storm with friends including Vogue cover girl Adwoa Aboah, 27, and Ruby Boglione, the youngest daughter of Petersham Nurseries founders Gael and Francesco, who works as a buyer for the family business. It is thought the group is staying at a holiday cottage, rather than the family's ancestral seat, Mount Stuart Manor House, which is home to Lola's father and fashion designer mother, Serena, 57. Lady Lola Crichton-Stuart, 20, and her gaggle of glamorous pals are having a wholesome time whiling away the hours on Bute - the Scottish island from which her father, John, 7th Marquess of Bute, takes his title. Pictured, Lady Lola stops for a photo while out on a lockdown stroll Lady Lola soaking up the sun with a book, left, and with her half-sister Jazzy de Lisser (right), 28, of her mother's previous marriage to Jamaica-born grandee Robert de Lisser Lady Lola has shared snaps of herself taking dips in the sea with friends including Vogue cover girl Adwoa Aboah, 27. Aboah shared this stylish snap on Instagram during lockdown It is thought the group is staying at a holiday cottage, rather than the family's ancestral seat, Mount Stuart Manor House, pictured in a stock photo, which is home to Lola's parents Society beauty Lady Lola, who regularly graces the pages of Tatler, is also joined by Aboah's sister, artist and model Kesewa, 25, and her two half-siblings: actress Jazzy de Lisser, 28, and rapper Joshua de Lisser, 31, of Serena's first marriage to Jamaica-born grandee Robert de Lisser. Both Lady Lola and Adwoa Aboah are proudly sober - Lola celebrated six months of being 'clean and serene' in January on Instagram - and so it is unlikely booze-fuelled nights by the fire have been on the cards. Lola shared this snap of the group running into the sea with their dogs during an outing Lady Lola, centre, with (left-right) Kesewa Aboah, the 25-year-old artist sister of Adwoa, Ruby Boglione, the youngest daughter of Petersham Nurseries founders Gael and Francesco, half-sister Jazzy de Lisser and Adwoa. The group recreated a photo taken together 12 years ago Despite the lockdown, Lola made sure Easter weekend was full of festivities by throwing a gorgeous lunch complete with bunny ears and Easter eggs, pictured with a friend Instead the group have been keeping their Instagram followers updated with their low-key lockdown antics, including baking sessions and dog walks in the sunshine. Despite the lockdown, Lola made sure Easter weekend was full of festivities by throwing a gorgeous lunch complete with bunny ears, Easter eggs and homemade chocolate nests. The blonde beauty, who is represented by modelling agency Elite, has also shared photos of the savoury food she has been cooking. Last year Lady Lola made headlines when her on-off boyfriend Kai Schachter-Rich, son of art dealer Kenny Schachter and artist Ilona Rich Schachter and grandson of Denise and Marc Rich, took his own life. Lady Lola strikes a pose with lookalike friend Izzy McCabe, pictured right in a black silk shirt Lola and Kesewa lead the group on a country walk in a photo shared on Instagram last week She was a close friend of IIa Scheckter, daughter of former F1 champion Jody Scheckter, who died of a 'suspected accidental overdose' last year after losing her battle with addiction. Mount Stuart Manor House has been home to the Marquess of Bute since the 1870s, replacing an earlier house by Alexander McGill, which was built in 1719. The property, which is partly open to the public, boasts a famous colonnaded Marble Hall and crystal-studded vaulted ceilings. In 2007 the Marquess of Bute sold his other family home, Dumfries House, to Prince Charles for 45million. The cover for issue 16 of Oncotarget features Figure 6, 'Radiation-induced DNA damage measured by -H2AX foci formation at a specified time point after 10 Gy irradiation,' by Zhang, et al. The cover for issue 16 of Oncotarget features Figure 6, "Radiation-induced DNA damage measured by -H2AX foci formation at a specified time point after 10 Gy irradiation," by Zhang, et al. HPV-negative UM-SCC4 with and without transfection of HPV E6 oncoprotein, HPV-negative UPCI-SCC-089, and HPV-positive UPCI-SCC-099 cell lines were used in this study. The survival fraction after 10 Gy was significantly lower for the HPV-positive SCC-099 cells than for the HPV-negative cells. In contrast, the HPV-positive UPCI-SCC-099 cells displayed persistent -H2AX activity; the expression of -H2AX remained high at 48 hours post-radiation. HPV-positive SCC-099 cells were more likely to show the classical apoptotic changes of increased cell thickness and increased motility after radiation. Dr. Angela Hong from The Faculty of Medicine and Health, Central Clinical School at The University of Sydney as well as The Department of Radiation Oncology, Chris O'Brien Lifehouse said, "Human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is clinically and biologically distinct from smoking-related (HPV-negative) OPSCC." "Human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is clinically and biologically distinct from smoking-related (HPV-negative) OPSCC." - Dr. Angela Hong, The Faculty of Medicine and Health, Central Clinical School at The University of Sydney and The Department of Radiation Oncology, Chris O'Brien Lifehouse The overall better prognosis seen in HPV-positive OPSCC may be related to the disease's response to radiation therapy. Radiation therapy plays an important role in the management of OPSCC, either as definitive therapy or as adjuvant therapy after surgery. Cellular response to radiation treatment can be observed with a label-free dynamic Holo Monitor, which allows non-invasive visualization and live-cell analysis of radiation responses and the migration potential of cancer cells. The Hong Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Research Paper that the enhanced cell motility is due to disruption of the actin-membrane interactions by radiation, initiating the membrane blubbing and generating force to enhance cell motility. In contrast, the HPV-negative UPCI-SCC-089 cells exhibited cell flattening and enlargement, which are the common cytological features of cell cycle blockage. ### Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27535 Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/27535/text/ Correspondence to - Matthew H. Taylor - taylmatt@ohsu.edu Keywords - radiosensitivity, oropharyngeal cancer, human papillomavirus, double-strand break, radiobiology About Oncotarget Oncotarget is a weekly, peer-reviewed, open access biomedical journal covering research on all aspects of oncology. To learn more about Oncotarget, please visit https://www.oncotarget.com or connect with: SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/oncotarget Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Oncotarget/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/oncotarget LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncotarget Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/oncotarget/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/Oncotarget/ Oncotarget is published by Impact Journals, LLC please visit http://www.ImpactJournals.com or connect with @ImpactJrnls Media Contact MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM 18009220957x105 By Yarrow Willman-Cole As the global pandemic unfolds many New Jerseyans have begun receiving their COVID-19 federal stimulus payments. But the most vulnerable among us wont receive stimulus checks and wont be eligible for unemployment, paid leave or the job protections needed to get through this crisis. New Jerseys elected leaders must work quickly to address the plight of those left behind by the federal governments COVID-19 response, or we risk worsening the health and economic catastrophe overwhelming our state. Those workers cut out of the federal response are immigrants and employees at larger retail box stores, warehouses, grocery store chains, health, home care and janitorial services, and more. They include those who have been laid off and essential workers who ensure that those sheltering at home have access to food, supplies, home deliveries, healthcare, and other basic necessities. Many of these essential workers risk their lives daily to perform their jobs and keep our economy running. Gov. Phil Murphy and our Legislature have acted swiftly to put off evictions and large bills for New Jerseyans temporarily. But without adequate support, laid-off workers will struggle with basic necessities like food and face financial disaster when the state of emergency ends and the bills come due. Essential workers without paid sick leave protections will also face financial hardship if they have to miss work to self-isolate, to care for themselves or loved ones. Or they may be forced to report to work sick, putting themselves, their co-workers, families and communities at risk of infection, sickness and death. We must act immediately. First, lets create a disaster relief fund for 500,000 undocumented immigrants who work and pay $604 million in taxes annually. Their dependents include 128,000 children who are American citizens. We must also grant hazard pay and emergency paid sick days to current workers. The pandemic prompted Congress to take action for the first time on paid leave, passing the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act requiring employers to provide their employees with 10 emergency paid sick days and 10 weeks of emergency family and medical leave. But the law excludes businesses with more than 500 employees or nearly 50% of our national workforce. This means many currently employed in warehouses, big box stores and more dont have those critical protections. Lets provide that protection by strengthening our states Earned Sick Leave law to respond to the pandemic. The federal Centers for Disease Control recommends a 14-day self-quarantine for public health outbreaks like COVID-19, and these should be added to our state law as emergency sick days. This change will ensure workers excluded from federal protections have the paid sick leave they need during this pandemic. The state law provides a floor of five paid sick days. Thats not adequate even for a serious bout of the flu and should be increased to seven days permanently. We also need to remove other barriers, including the 120-day waiting period, employers ability to require a doctors note after three consecutive days absent, and finally removing the current worker exclusions -- particularly per-diem health care workers. Finally, we need to provide job protection for those temporarily laid off or furloughed. Our elected leaders provided job protection for those ill with COVID-19, but most laid-off workers arent guaranteed their job back when our economy begins to re-open. We need our elected leaders to adopt a policy known as right of first refusal that gives workers the right to return to their jobs when their workplaces re-open. Without this, unscrupulous employers would be free to hire workers at lower pay to replace more experienced workers. Immigrants and todays essential workers were among our most vulnerable before the crisis. With the onset of COVID-19 they face financial ruin, fear of long-term job loss, and the heightened danger of sickness and death. Were all in this together and we cant leave them behind. To get through this crisis with the least number of lives lost, or devastated by economic loss, we must provide all New Jerseys workers with the protections they need. Yarrow Willman-Cole is the Workplace Justice Program Director for New Jersey Citizen Action and the co-convener of the New Jersey Time to Care Coalition. 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. Hundreds of crew from the besieged Ruby Princess are set to leave the ship over the coming days, after an initial 57 were taken off the cruise liner on Tuesday to begin the repatriation process. Crew who remain aboard say they were told owners Carnival plans to sail from Australian waters for the Philippines, with possible stops in Indonesia and India to repatriate more crew. Ruby Princess crew members wave from a bus as it leaves Port Kembla on Tuesday. Credit:Kate Geraghty Beyond that they say they have been given little information, although it is expected about 500 will remain on board when it leaves Australian waters this week. "We are still on schedule for the ship to sail on Thursday," Deputy Police Commissioner Gary Worboys said on Tuesday, almost a week after the ship was initially planned to depart. Potential The City Pub Group plc (LON:CPC) shareholders may wish to note that the Executive Chairman, Clive Watson, recently bought UK274k worth of stock, paying UK0.50 for each share. That's a very decent purchase to our minds and it grew their holding by a solid 22%. See our latest analysis for City Pub Group City Pub Group Insider Transactions Over The Last Year Notably, that recent purchase by Clive Watson is the biggest insider purchase of City Pub Group shares that we've seen in the last year. Although we like to see insider buying, we note that this large purchase was at significantly below the recent price of UK0.79. Because the shares were purchased at a lower price, this particular buy doesn't tell us much about how insiders feel about the current share price. Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid UK418k for 751.09k shares. But they sold 30000 shares for UK57k. In total, City Pub Group insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. They paid about UK0.56 on average. It is certainly positive to see that insiders have invested their own money in the company. However, we do note that they were buying at significantly lower prices than today's share price. 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! AIM:CPC Recent Insider Trading April 21st 2020 City Pub Group is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying. Insider Ownership For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Based on our data, City Pub Group insiders have about 4.8% of the stock, worth approximately UK3.9m. We consider this fairly low insider ownership. Story continues So What Does This Data Suggest About City Pub Group Insiders? The recent insider purchases are heartening. And an analysis of the transactions over the last year also gives us confidence. On this analysis the only slight negative we see is the fairly low (overall) insider ownership; their transactions suggest that they are quite positive on City Pub Group stock. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing City Pub Group. While conducting our analysis, we found that City Pub Group has 5 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore these. 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. Technology stocks are anticipated to see a sluggish first-quarter 2020 earnings season, primarily due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in China that disrupted supply-chain significantly. Moreover, the coronavirus-induced global lockdowns have been taxing the global economy for a while now, resulting in job losses and declining demand for tech devices and services. Tech giants including Apple and Microsoft warned investors that the novel coronavirus will mar their business prospects. Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook are some of the notable tech companies, which either dissolved their issued projections or cautioned against earnings misses due to a weakening advertising market. Nevertheless, the work-from-home as well as online-learning trend is expected to have benefited Zoom Video, Microsoft, Google and Cisco. Increased usage of cloud computing have been beneficial for Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure in the to-be-reported quarter. Sneak Peek Into Upcoming Tech Stock Earnings Releases Investors interested in the technology sector are eagerly awaiting the upcoming earnings releases from players like Amphenol APH, Lam Research LRCX, NETGEAR NTGR, Seagate STX, Plexus PLXS, Xilinx XLNX and STMicroelectronics N.V. STM on Apr 22. Amphenols first-quarter results are expected to be negatively impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Nevertheless, diversified end market and the companys strong portfolio, driven by a plethora of buyouts are expected to have aided the to-be-reported quarters results. (Read More: Amphenol to Report Q1 Earnings: What's in the Cards?) Amphenol Corporation Price and EPS Surprise Amphenol Corporation Price and EPS Surprise Amphenol Corporation price-eps-surprise | Amphenol Corporation Quote Moreover, this electrical connector provider has the favorable combination of a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and an Earnings ESP of +1.09%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. Notably, per the Zacks model, the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 increases the odds of an earnings beat. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Meanwhile, Lam Researchs third-quarter fiscal 2020 results are also expected to be affected by the global coronavirus-led economic crisis. However, Lam Research has been witnessing improvement in the memory market, led by NAND. Increased adoption rates for 3D NAND technology, FinFETs and multi-patterning are expected to have aided its top-line growth. (Read More: Lam Research to Report Q3 Earnings: What's in Store?) Moreover, this wafer fabrication equipment and services provider has a favorable combination of a Zacks Rank #3 and an Earnings ESP of +0.68%. Story continues Lam Research Corporation Price and EPS Surprise Lam Research Corporation Price and EPS Surprise Lam Research Corporation price-eps-surprise | Lam Research Corporation Quote NETGEAR has a Zacks Rank of 3 and an Earnings ESP of +35.85%, which increases the chances of a beat. The LTE and WiFi Internet networking solutions providers first-quarter 2020 results are expected to reflect benefits from new product introductions, based on the Wi-Fi 6 standards. Additionally, the coronavirus-induced work-from-home wave necessitates upgrade of existing routers to make home networks suitable for remote working. This heightened demand might have boosted NETGEARs top line in the to-be-reported quarter. NETGEAR, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise NETGEAR, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise NETGEAR, Inc. price-eps-surprise | NETGEAR, Inc. Quote Similarly, stay-at-home trend is likely to have spiked sales of Seagates gaming SSDs, thereby driving its third-quarter fiscal 2020 top line. Moreover, the company is expected to have gained from an increasing traction for mass storage solutions, primarily boosted by data growth at the edge and in the cloud, across its edge and enterprise end markets. However, uncertainty over the impact of coronavirus-led supply chain constraints on NAND flash pricing is bothersome. (Read More: Seagate to Report Q3 Earnings: What is in the Cards?) Moreover, this data storage provider has an unfavorable combination of a Zacks Rank #3 and an Earnings ESP of -1.64%. Seagate Technology PLC Price and EPS Surprise Seagate Technology PLC Price and EPS Surprise Seagate Technology PLC price-eps-surprise | Seagate Technology PLC Quote Contract manufacturer Plexus second-quarter fiscal 2020 results are expected to reflect downsides from workforce disruptions within its supply chain due to the coronavirus woes. Its operations in Malaysia, Scotland, Romania and Illinois took a hit from government restrictions on citizens movement and a ramp-down of business activities. However, global expansion, new program wins and ample manufacturing opportunities hold promise. Plexus has an apt combination of a Zacks Rank #3 and an Earnings ESP of +14.60%. Plexus Corp. Price and EPS Surprise Plexus Corp. Price and EPS Surprise Plexus Corp. price-eps-surprise | Plexus Corp. Quote Xilinxs combination of a Zacks Rank #3 and an Earnings ESP of -0.16% dims possibilities of a beat. The companys fourth-quarter fiscal 2020 results are expected to reflect slowdown in 5G rollouts. However, growing demand for 16-nanometer UltraScale+ family and Zynq platform is expected to have aided top-line growth. Growth in datacenter revenues owing to expanding footprint at multiple hyperscalers is also expected to have been a key contributor in the to-be-reported quarter. Xilinx, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise Xilinx, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise Xilinx, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Xilinx, Inc. Quote STMicroelectronics first-quarter 2020 results are also expected to reflect a setback from the global coronavirus-induced economic crisis that has been aggravating volatility in the semiconductor market. This, in turn, is expected to have offset solid demand for this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) companys microcontrollers, sensors, power, analog and other connectivity products. (Read More: What's in Store for STMicroelectronics' Q1 Earnings?) STMicroelectronics N.V. Price and EPS Surprise STMicroelectronics N.V. Price and EPS Surprise STMicroelectronics N.V. price-eps-surprise | STMicroelectronics N.V. Quote Today's Best Stocks from Zacks Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%. This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year. See their latest picks free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Seagate Technology PLC (STX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Plexus Corp. (PLXS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Lam Research Corporation (LRCX) : Free Stock Analysis Report STMicroelectronics N.V. (STM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Xilinx, Inc. (XLNX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Amphenol Corporation (APH) : Free Stock Analysis Report NETGEAR, Inc. (NTGR) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Coronavirus FAQ What is the coronavirus? The coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and has spread worldwide. The new virus causes a disease known as COVID-19. The virus is part of a larger family of coronaviruses, which can lead to illnesses ranging from a mild common cold to more severe respiratory diseases such as SARS and MERS. Who is at risk and what are the symptoms? Public health experts say the new coronavirus is more contagious than the seasonal flu. The majority of people who become sick experience mild symptoms, but some become more seriously ill. People who contract the virus can develop pneumonia, and some have died. People who are elderly or have underlying medical issues are at greater risk of becoming more severely sick. Symptoms of the virus include a cough, fever and shortness of breath. What should I do if I develop symptoms? The North Dakota Department of Health advises that people call their health care provider to tell them about recent travel or exposure, and to follow their guidance. Try to avoid contact with other people in the meantime. What can I do to prevent the virus from spreading? The health department advises that people wash their hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer for at least 20 seconds. People who are sick should stay home from work or school, both to protect themselves and others with whom they would come in contact. Avoid touching your face, cover a cough or sneeze with a tissue or an elbow, clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces, and avoid contact with people who are sick. Where can I find more information? People with coronavirus-related questions can call the state health department hotline at 866-207-2880. Those who need medical advice should contact their health care provider. The health department's online coronavirus page: www.health.nd.gov/coronavirus The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's online coronavirus page: www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov Haiti - Politic : Message from the Minister of MHAVE to the diaspora Monday, April 20, as part of the national diaspora day, Louis Gonzague Edner Day the Minister of Haitians Living Abroad (MHAVE) delivered a message to some 4 million Haitians in the diapsora living around the world, message that we invite you to share : Message OF Minister Day (MHAVE) : "To our brothers and sisters in the diaspora, It is an honor for me to be the holder of a Ministry whose mission is the integration of Haitians living in foreign land. In this April 20, 2020 marking the commemoration of the day dedicated to the diaspora, I take this opportunity to salute your courage and the efforts that you impose on yourself in order to project a positive image of our dear Haiti. First, I would like to offer my sincere condolences to the grieving families struck by the Covid-19; to the members of the medical world who have been affected by the loss of colleagues, we offer our deep sympathies; to the various Haitian associations, in host countries, hard hit, we send our patriotic sympathies. Having lived in foreign lands for a long time, I particularly feel and share your distress. To the leaders and Ambassadors of Haiti that you represent around the world through your socio-cultural initiatives and implications, proof of your attachment to our dear Haiti, I take this opportunity to express my patriotic wishes to you. I would particularly like to reassure you on one point, the Ministry of Haitians living abroad is and will remain attentive to all our compatriots who live in the host country and will always be available for those who cannot travel in order to help them in their steps in Haiti https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30367-haiti-diaspora-important-telephone-numbers.html I take this opportunity to remind you to warn the members of your family living both in Haiti and in your country of residence, to respect the hygiene instructions advocated by the competent authorities and to continue to take the required preventive precautions. The President of the Republic, His Excellency, Jovenel Moise as well as the Prime Minister, Mr. Joseph Jouthe join me in presenting to you our wishes of good courage, love, friendship and solidarity in these painful moments that we all experiencing." Important phone numbers : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30367-haiti-diaspora-important-telephone-numbers.html HL/ HaitiLibre FP Trending Samsungs Health Monitor app that measures and tracks the blood pressure of Galaxy Watch Active2 users has received clearance from South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. The app will be available on the Galaxy Watch Active2 by the third quarter and will gradually be expanded to the upcoming Galaxy Watch devices, Samsung said in its blog. Once the Galaxy Watch Active2 device has been calibrated with a traditional cuff, users can tap the smartwatch to measure their blood pressure. Samsung said that the device measures blood pressure through pulse wave analysis, which is tracked with the heart rate monitoring sensors. To determine blood pressure, the program then analyses the relationship between change in blood pressure and the calibration value. Galaxy Watch Active2 users will be required to calibrate their device with the cuff at least every four weeks to ensure accuracy. High blood pressure is known to increase the risk of brain, kidney, heart diseases including stroke and coronary heart ailments.The Samsung Health Monitor app has the potential to help millions of people around the world who are affected by high blood pressure, says Taejong Jay Yang, Corporate SVP and Head of Health Team, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. The Galaxy Watch Active2 comes with more sensitive and accurate heart rate monitoring sensors to help users track their exercise, sleep, stress. The lefties are melting down over the decision by some governors to begin re-opening their states to the business that is their lifeblood. They are enraged by the people around the country who are protesting this ongoing shutdown of the economy. As usual, they are calling them racists, Nazis, etc., the same-old, same-old epithets they hurl at everyone who supports the president and the Constitution. They have no sympathy for the horrific damage this lockdown is doing to millions of Americans: small businesses, the restaurants we love, the shops we patronize in our neighborhoods, or the countless other industries it has hobbled. They feel nothing for the millions of families who work hard and live paycheck to paycheck. Our media scolds and the Democrats in Congress who are all living large despite the shutdown are so quick to condemn those people who want their lives back that it boggles the mind. It is as though the left has been stripped of the ability to feel empathy, let alone sympathy. They are proving themselves to be as hardhearted as the thugs who ran the former Soviet Union. A few of these state and local dictators are even promising rewards to snitches who report any neighbors not properly social distancing. What has become of this country? Clearly, we are divided between an authoritarian left lusting for the power to control a compliant population and a freedom-loving, Constitution-revering right who sees this shutdown as a leftist power-grab, the virus an opportunity to exploit. How do we explain this bitter divide? Since President Trump was elected, the left and the media have not stopped trying to destroy the man and his presidency. They are relentless, and they are vicious. They lie, cheat, and malign every moment of every day. As Trump re-energized our economy, they attacked him. As unemployment fell to the lowest numbers in decades, especially for blacks and Hispanics, they refused to acknowledge he had accomplished a thing. For years before he ran for the office, Trump had been raging against the unfairness of our economic submission to China. He was right, and once elected, he set out to even the playing field. He negotiated the new USMCA, the trade agreement among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico that put an end to NAFTA, that Clinton deal that devastated American workers. But the left has bitterly opposed everything this president has accomplished, no matter how beneficial it has been to our citizens. He's drastically reduced the illegal immigration that the left loves and encourages. The left opposes voter ID; of course it does. With voter ID, leftists can't cheat nearly as easily as they so regularly do. The left opposes any and all limitations on abortion, even post-birth. Gov. Whitmer of Michigan even said that "abortion is life-sustaining." The chasm between the left and right in America today is deep and clearly defined. The left loathes America as founded. The right loves America as founded. The left divides people by race, class, and sex; it gives no thought to character. Leftists favor criminals and illegal aliens over native citizens. The right cares nothing about race, class, or sex and values character above all and honors the law. How can anyone watch or hear Nancy Pelosi or Adam Schiff and not know that both of these people profoundly lack any character or moral sense at all? A majority of the American people can clearly see that Donald Trump is an infinitely more caring and compassionate person than any Democrat now serving in Congress, all of whom have dedicated themselves to one thing, one thing only: defeating and destroying this president. From the moment he was elected, they set aside any concern or duty to their constituents unless it is to render them dependent on the government. So it is no wonder that Americans all over the country are fighting back against this obvious attempt to crush the economy, to keep crushing it so the left can regain power and install its version of communism. Make no mistake: that is what leftists have in mind, though they will call it by some euphemism like "democratic socialism." They plan to implement controls over us all, to regulate us to death, to redistribute wealth, to use the hoax of climate change to monitor how we all live, and to take our guns. They are following in the footsteps of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao. They hate all of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. More Americans than ever are beginning to realize what the left means to impose on this nation and they are beginning to rise up and fight peacefully, as is their right. There is a line in the last episode of the newest Bosch series, season six, available online on Amazon Prime. The context would be a spoiler but the quote is profound: "When the system fails, righteous men will rise up." The system is failing us right now, despite Trump's prodigious efforts to correct our course. Anyone can see that he supports those Americans protesting their governors' most extreme orders that so ridiculously impede normal life. He is encouraging all governors to liberate their people. The left has made it clear that any form of liberation is not on their agenda. They love this state of affairs. AOC celebrated the crash of the oil market. (She may be the dumbest person on the planet, and after others pointed out the catastrophe she endorsed, she deleted the tweet.) But the people are rising up because the idea of suddenly being governed by seriously flawed computer models and deep state operatives is infuriating. It is the left that wants to prolong it, perhaps for the eighteen months that Zeke Emmanuel recommended! The country would be like Venezuela, with no economic activity for that long. The people want to be free to get back to work. They want their kids to go back to school. What they do not want is an imperious class of rich Democrats like Nancy Pelosi telling them they must shelter-in-place for another day, let alone another week. The American left has become not just an opposition party but an enemy of America. Righteous people must rise up to defeat them. The Bombay High Court has asked the Nagpur jail authorities in Maharashtra to make an effort to obtain a police report and process the parole application of former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba, who is serving life sentence for alleged Maoist links. Justice Vinay Joshi of the Nagpur bench of the high court was on Monday hearing a petition filed by Saibaba, seeking to be released on parole considering his ill-health and also to visit his mother, who is suffering from cancer, in Hyderabad. Additional public prosecutor S Jawade told the court that a report was sought from Hyderabad police authorities. He further submitted that due to the coronavirus- enforced lockdown across the country, the authorities were facing difficulties in getting the police report. The prosecutor submitted that the report would be obtained as soon as the lockdown period is over. Saibabas counsel Mihir Desai, however, argued that the application seeking parole was filed on April 2 and as per the guidelines, it has to be decided within a period of 38 days, which ends on May 10. "There is no dispute that in the current scenario the respondents (police and jail authorities) are facing difficulty in obtaining the report and having regard to the said fact, the matter is adjourned to May 5 for further consideration, the court said. In the meantime, the authorities shall make an endeavour to obtain the report and to process the application expeditiously, it added. In March 2017, a sessions court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district convicted and sentenced Saibaba and four others, including a journalist and a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, for alleged Maoist links and indulging in activities amounting to waging war against the country. The court held Saibaba and others guilty under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Following the conviction, Saibaba was lodged at the Nagpur prison. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sentence in case over deadly robbery against prosecutor assistant upheld RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 19:04 21/04/2020 MOSCOW, April 21 (RAPSI) The Moscow City Court has upheld sentence in a case over home-invasion robbery against a prosecutor assistant Dmitry Nekrasov that had resulted in his death, RAPSI has learnt from the courts press service. An appeal filed by defendant Andrey Glukhikh has been therefore dismissed. In late December, Glukhikh was sentenced to 7.5 years behind bars for home-invasion robbery. According to the case papers, Glukhikh along with his accomplices searched on the Internet for a nonstandard sexual orientation person to enter the victims home and steal his or her property using violence. As a result, the criminals stole 100 rubles, IQOS, a bottle of Hennesy cogniac, a bottle of vodka, a cup, a laptop and several jackets. Glukhikh partially pleaded guilty claiming that they had intentionally searched a gay victim as they believed that nobody would apply to law enforcement because of the sexual orientation. The death of the prosecutor assistant was caused by tie used as a gag. The court held that Glukhikh was not involved in the murder as his accomplice was the last to leave the victims flat. During a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Director of the Armenian National Committee of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun political party in Moscow Nerses Nersesyan said the administration of Moscow Domodedovo Airport yesterday expelled the Armenians who were staying at the airport, but this was predictable because they had been warned several times, and the Armenian embassy had warned them that the situation at the airport couldnt go on much longer. The citizens have been accommodated in hostels and their acquaintances apartments, he said, adding that there is still no information about the next flight to Armenia since the information is only posted on the official website of the Embassy of Armenia in Russia. Nersesyan also called on the Armenian government to not overlook the request of the Armenian citizens wishing to return to Armenia. Yes, the embassy is doing everything it can, but the Armenian government has to evacuate those citizens. Hundreds of Armenians wait for their return to Armenia every day, he said, adding that there are elderly people and children among the citizens and that this will most likely be taken into consideration and the priority will be given to them. New Delhi, April 21 : Maulana Saad Kandhalvi heads the Sunni missionary religious sect Tablighi Jamaat which is caught in a maelstrom of epic proportions for holding a massive congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz, the global headquarters of the Jamaat, despite prohibitory orders, even as the police have registered cases against the Maulana Sahab and his close associates for violating the law. The case is being investigated by the Crime Branch of Delhi police. The role of the massive congregation at the Markaz in spreading the deadly coronavirus is now under the scanner. Tablighi Jamaat, which started in 1926-27, has never interacted with the media and this is arguably the first ever interview of a TJ Chief to any media house in 92 years of its work as a religious movement which is spread over 150 countries. The interview has been done with Maulana Saad Kandhalvi through his lawyer Fuzail Ahmed Ayyubi, Advocate on Record, Supreme Court. Excerpts from an IANS Global Exclusive: Q. Since news of the Markaz issue came into public domain, it is being alleged that you have hidden yourself from the law enforcement agencies and have been avoiding them from March 28 and that is why the crime branch has added a new section 304 to the charges against you. A: It is wrong to say that I am hiding from anyone. As per advice of my doctors, I was in quarantine, here in Delhi. Law enforcement agencies are fully aware of this. That's why even during this period two notices from IO were served, and they have been responded to already. IO also asked me to get tested for Covid- 19, which is in process and the results will be available soon. Finally, my house was also searched in the presence of my son who was not in quarantine. How would this have happened if I was in hiding? Q: Is this correct that Markaz has told the local Police Stations and the SDM concerned that since March 23, people were stuck in the compound due to Janata Curfew and then the lockdown? A: Yes, on March 24, a team of six people from the Markaz went to see the SHO, Hazrat Nizamuddin Police Station, to brief him about the situation at Markaz and to seek further guidance on how the remaining participants stranded at Markaz who were from outside Delhi could be moved back to their native states. Later, a letter giving details of the situation was submitted to the authorities with acknowledgement. As a practice, local authorities are kept informed of the programs that take place in Markaz. Everything in Markaz is open and accessible, for anyone to come and see. People are welcome to visit and participate in our discourses. Q: Is this a laxity from the administration that they did not evacuate the Markaz people and then the blame is put on the Markaz? A: We don't want to blame anyone, since it's an unprecedented situation, neither us nor the authorities had complete knowledge regarding the steps to be taken in a situation like this. Of course, we made repeated requests to the administration for permission to ferry the participants back home or to other locations so that Markaz could be vacated, but didn't receive their consent, this is on record. We even arranged our own transport and shared the details with SDM but the permission was not granted. Health officials visited the Markaz only on March 25 to ascertain the situation and then came on a daily basis. If this step was taken earlier, the situation could have been handled much better. Q: There have been doubts on the activities and exact role of the Markaz in public. Could you explain the work activities of the organization? A: Markaz is the world headquarters of Tabligh, which is a purely socio-religious movement. We are not aligned with any political group across the world and also do not associate with any government or private enterprise. This work has been going on since 1926 and is focused entirely on the Muslim community. It started as a response to the moral degeneration of Muslims and seeks spiritual learning and reforms so that Muslims can live a life of honesty and high moral character. Participants from across the world visit Markaz to learn about the basics of religion and bring them into practice. They learn to do prayers regularly, seek knowledge, and bring honesty and truthfulness in their affairs. Tabligh has innumerable followers and this is perhaps the largest social reform movement in the world. Markaz does not seek any publicity or recognition, our work is dedicated to purifying human soul and we seek our reward from Allah alone. Q: An audio is doing the rounds where you allegedly say that if you have to die then the best place is a mosque. Due to this many Tablighis hid in mosques... A: Yes, that audio clip has been extracted from a longer bayan (sermon) that I delivered a few weeks ago. As any religious leader, it is my duty to educate our masses in the light of religious text. Now when the pandemic and its devastating impact is visible on mankind, Islam provides for safeguard and measures to deal with the same. Assuming if I were to die, I would choose a mosque, the house of Almighty as the place of my last breath, but that does not mean that I am inviting people to congregate and die in Masjid. Presence of merely 3-4 people is good enough for a Masjid without any congregation. This was said not as a rule, but to avoid panic and instill confidence during these hard times. People who attended this congregation know this very well. While at the same time I have also said in my messages that we should follow the advice from healthcare workers and governments who are working hard to eliminate the pandemic. I have heard that media outlets have ignored the context and derived their own meaning from it. Q: Despite a virtual declaration of a health emergency and prohibitory orders, why did the Markaz controversially choose to hold the congregation from March 13 to 15? A: On any given day, you can have more than 2,000 people in Markaz who come from far-off places in India and abroad. They come with their pre-determined travel plans and tickets. If we had received any orders from the authorities to evacuate the Markaz or to culminate the programme, we would have done so immediately. We discontinued all proceedings of Markaz on March 23, a day before the nationwide lockdown was announced. Q: There are papers in public domain implicating TJ in terror activities globally. What do you have to you say on this? A: Firstly, this question is misplaced, and second you are doubting the capability of our security agencies. We have a history of around hundred years behind us and agencies across the world know the work we are doing. A movement that has millions of followers cannot organize itself without scrutiny from agencies, if we had anything to do with terrorism, authorities would have acted swiftly and ensured timely investigation. Tabligh and violence are antitheses to each other. Our volunteers don't even participate in any political or civil movement. We strive to follow the example of Prophets and our message is of compassion for all humanity. Security agencies are fully aware of this reality and respect the Markaz for its untainted reputation. Papers and media can report whatever they want. Q: Why did the Jamaat not contradict these papers and articles which knowingly or unknowingly targeted the Jamaat? A: Throughout our history, we have never engaged with the media, and we do not seek any publicity, that's why most people outside the Muslim community are not familiar with our work. We do not endorse what gets published or communicated, and neither have we ever responded to criticism. We have always cooperated with agencies whenever they have asked for any assistance, that's been our approach to dealing with issues. Writers and commentators are free to hold their views, but I believe history will generously acknowledge our contribution to the moral upliftment of the society. Q: When will you present yourself to the police for investigations? A: I have already sent a letter to the Crime Branch reiterating my full assistance and cooperation to them as they investigate the matter. We will proceed as we hear from them. Q: Do you think media hasn't reported all the facts properly or has been biased against the Markaz? A: As already mentioned, Markaz doesn't engage with the media and we don't even have any social media presence. Though I have heard that a lot of fake and unverified reports have been published lately. We aren't perturbed by what is published. If some sections of the media misinform, it will hurt their own credibility. It is the responsibility of state administrators to ensure media reports fairly and in the light of facts. Tabligh lays a strong emphasis on abiding by the law and authorities are aware of this reality. The accusations that have been leveled by the media, be it on social media platforms, or through newsrooms, do not have any authority of law and they may pass judgments, in their own courtrooms. This is not in our control, neither am I affected by it, for we abide by the law of the land. Q: Your people are saying that the Markaz believes in a free and fierce media, did TJ authorise Prime Law agency Bengaluru, and a person called Mubin Farooqui in Malerkotla, Sangrur, to sue media houses for writing stories on based on facts? A: No, we have nominated only a team of four lawyers who will represent our case. Q: Do you believe there is some conspiracy against TJ or you? A: I am not sure whether this can be called a conspiracy. There has been more than one instance in the past where a person has been put to trial and proclaimed guilty by the media only later to be exonerated by the courts after appreciating the correct and relevant facts. Q: Do you have any message for your followers? A: We believe in the judicial system of our country and I am sure truth shall prevail. The only message which is ever propounded by Markaz Nizamuddin is of love, peace and brotherhood. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to convey to the masses (although health experts would be best suited to assess the viability of this) that I am informed that in some cases, where patients who had tested positive for COVID-19, and have recovered, if they donate their plasma for treatment to other patients the same shall be very helpful in early recovery of such patients. Therefore, I urge my friends from TJ who have been successfully treated by doctors and have now tested negative to come-forward and donate their plasma so that other patients, of any caste or religion, who are still fighting this disease may benefit from us. We are all the children of Adam. Traders wait to have their samples taken for Covid-19 testing at a wholesale market in Hanoi, April 18, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Vo Hai. Bluezone, a Bluetooth-based app that helps determine if a person has come into contact with a Covid-19 patient, has got the Vietnamese governments approval. The contract tracing app was developed by technology firm Bkav and the Ministry of Information and Communications was briefed about it in mid-April. The app uses Bluetooth Low Energy, a wireless personal area network technology, to link with smartphones within a two-meter distance. It will notify its users if they came within two meters of a Covid-19 patient in the past 14 days. When there is a new case of Covid-19, health authorities will enter the patient's information into a system that will send that data to smartphones installed with Bluezone to track the patients history in the previous 14 days. The app alerts users if they are at risk of infection and instructs them to contact health authorities. "Bluezone is a new breakthrough step in using technology to prevent diseases," Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said. "The breakthrough is that the government does not have to collect people's information, and that information is stored on individuals phones. The application helps identify potential patients, avoid community transmission and prevent unnecessary mass quarantine. "We are not the first country to use this solution, but our application is able to solve the basic errors in software in other countries." The ministry and the Ministry of Health have backed the development of Bluezone and encourage people to use it to protect themselves. Both believe the app will be effective in controlling an outbreak, especially as people gradually return to normal life soon. The application will be available on the App Store and Google Play in the next few days. Now users can download the app at bluezone.vn. With Vietnam reporting no new Covid-19 cases for five days as of Tuesday, its infection tally has remained at 268. Of this, 215 have been discharged from hospital. There have been no deaths in the country. A firefighter sprays disinfectant from the fire engine in hopes of curbing the spread of the new coronavirus in Burma (AP) The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of the illness. The warning comes as governments across the world start rolling out plans to get their economies up and running again. Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said: This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future. He said governments must remain vigilant to stop the spread of the virus and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. Despite concerns from health officials, some US states have announced aggressive reopening plans, while Boeing and at least one other American heavy-equipment manufacturer resumed production. Elsewhere around the world, step-by-step reopenings are under way in Europe, where the crisis has begun to ebb in places such as Italy, Spain and Germany. Australia said it will allow the resumption of non-urgent surgeries from next week as health authorities grow more confident that hospitals there will not be overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients. Expand Close Protesters calling for the end of California governor Gavin Newsoms stay-at-home orders, rally at the Capitol in Sacramento (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Protesters calling for the end of California governor Gavin Newsoms stay-at-home orders, rally at the Capitol in Sacramento (AP) The reopenings come as politicians grow weary of soaring unemployment and the prospect of economic depression. Asian shares followed Wall Street lower on Tuesday after US oil futures plunged below zero because of a worldwide glut as factories, with cars and aeroplanes not being used. The cost to have a barrel of US crude delivered in May plummeted to negative 37.63 dollars as traders run out of places to store it. It was at roughly 60 dollars at the start of the year. Businesses which start operating again in the US are likely to engender goodwill with President Donald Trump at a time when his administration is doling out billions of dollars in relief to companies. Mr Trump has been agitating to restart the economy, singling out Democratic-led states and egging on protesters complaining that the shutdowns are destroying their livelihoods and trampling their rights. In several states most of them Republican-led governors said they had seen signs that the coronavirus curve is flattening, making it possible to start reopening businesses and public spaces. Georgia governor Brian Kemp announced plans to restart his states economy before the end of the week. Mr Kemp said gyms, hair salons, bowling alleys and tattoo parlours could reopen on Friday, as long as owners followed strict social distancing and hygiene requirements. Expand Close President Donald Trump flips through a stack of papers as he speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp President Donald Trump flips through a stack of papers as he speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House (AP) Texas began a week of slow reopenings, starting off with state parks, while officials said that later in the week, stores would be allowed to offer curbside service. Tennessee governor Bill Lee announced that businesses across most of the state would begin reopening as early as next week, although the order did not cover counties with the largest cities, including Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga. Both states are led by Republicans. Republican West Virginia governor Jim Justice said he would allow hospitals to begin performing elective procedures if the facilities met an unspecified set of criteria, while Democratic Colorado governor Jared Polis said he would let his statewide stay-at-home order expire next week as long as strict social distancing and other individual protective measures continued. But governors from many other states said they lacked the testing supplies they need and warned they could be hit by a second wave of infections, given how people with no symptoms can still spread the disease. Boeing said it is putting about 27,000 people back to work this week building passenger jets at its Seattle-area plants, with virus-slowing precautions in place, including face masks and staggered shifts. Worldwide, the virus has infected nearly 2.5 million people and caused more than 170,000 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University count. The US has been the hardest-hit country with more than 787,000 infections and more than 42,000 deaths. The true figures are believed to be much higher, in part because of limited testing and difficulties in counting the dead. There have been encouraging signs in places like New York state, where hospital admissions have levelled off. Mondays death toll, at 478, was the lowest in three weeks, down from a peak of nearly 800. Dr Anthony Fauci, the American governments top infectious-disease expert, warned on ABC: Unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen. It is way better than before, said Abdel Hameed Harb, a tannery worker, referring to the relocation of all tannery workshops and factories to an eastern Cairo neighborhood. Harb is among hundreds of tannery workers who have been relocated as part of a government plan to turn its decadeslong tannery complex into a tourist and cultural hub. The old tannery complex is located inside Magra El-Oyoun Fence, a historical site dating back to the Mamluk era. It was built during the era of Sultan Al-Ghuri in the early 16th century. Harb is now located in Robbiki, a neighborhood in eastern Cairo where workshops and factories are well equipped, which he said are "very different from the old dilapidated workshops." On Feb. 19, the Egyptian government announced the completion of removing all tanneries in the area. The construction of the cultural hub in the area will be carried out in two phases. The first stage will take two years and the second stage will be completed within 5 years. The project includes the construction of two theaters, one of which will be open air, cinemas, restaurants, markets, a handicraft center, plastics art galleries, multipurpose halls and studios with accommodations where actors could stay. The buildings will be taking the form of old traditional architecture and the cost of the projects first phase stands at 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($63.4 million), while the cost of the entire project exceeds 4 billion Egyptian pounds ($254 million). Basem al-Ashqar, director general of antiquities affairs in ancient Egypt and al-Fustat area at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told Al-Monitor that the steps to develop Magra El-Oyoun Fence include a modern planning vision aimed at maximizing the benefit of this region on the social and economic levels. Ashqar said that the development work aims to revamp the dilapidated lands spanning an area of 90 acres inside historic Cairo, mainly to create alternative activities and uses that highlight Cairo's role as a cultural tourism center. The fence is considered a miracle of Islamic water architecture in Egypt, and in the sector of Islamic and Coptic monuments it is called the fourth Islamic pyramid of architecture, Ashqar added. The project is set to develop the region and conduct cultural activities such as handicrafts and give a space to showrooms and industries related to the archaeological area and museums open to the area behind the fence. It will be divided into various areas for leisure activities, including areas for culture and arts, international cuisine, cafes, hotels, handicrafts, markets, multipurpose empty spaces, landscapes and green spaces. Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly also suggested installing a cable car between Al-Fustat Park and Al-Azhar Park to highlight the civilization and greatness of Egypt and its ancient history. Tourism experts say that the project will give a major push to the countrys tourism industry and revive an ancient archaeological site that would attract many tourists. Hossam Akawy, a tourism expert and a member of the Red Sea Tourism Investors Association, said that the idea of renovating Magra El-Oyoun Fence was put forth several years ago, but it was never implemented because of the massive relocation of residents and tannery workers. However, the current government has succeeded in providing compensation for them by providing decent workshops and houses for those who were relocated, Akawy told Al-Monitor. Economists also said that the new project would boost the leather industry in Egypt as the workers will have better equipment and workshops. Most of the old tanneries were dependent on a technology that went back a hundred years or more, despite the great development in this industry worldwide, Ahmed El-Shami, an economist and a professor of feasibility studies at Ain Shams University, told Al-Monitor. He noted that relocating the workers to Robbiki is a great move from an environmental, economic and civilizational point of view. It relieves the capital of overcrowding and population density in that slum area and it helps to develop an industry that is one of the most important industries that serve the Egyptian consumer at home and the national economy with its hard currency, he said. France on Tuesday reported 531 deaths from COVID-19 in 24 hours as the number of people in hospital and intensive care continued to decline. The daily tally -- 387 deaths in hospital and 144 in nursing homes -- brought France's total epidemic death toll to 20,796, top health official Jerome Salomon told reporters. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today: Scientists are racing to make a vaccine against the coronavirus. Katrin Bennhold on how that race is not just about creating the vaccine, but about which country will own it. Its Wednesday, April 1. katrin bennhold So at the end of December, these scientists around the world were basically looking at this outbreak of the strange, mysterious illness in Wuhan, China. And at this time, the media, especially the Western media, isnt really paying attention to this thing yet. archived recording 1 wildfire emergency in southeast Australia. archived recording 2 was killed in U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. archived recording 3 sending the articles of impeachment over to the Senate. katrin bennhold But scientists are already beginning to puzzle through what this could be. It seemed like a respiratory thing. It reminded some of them of diseases like MERS or SARS and some of these other things that have come along in recent years. But at this stage, theyre just corresponding with each other on their social media, saying hey, what is this thing? And thats how this story begins for one doctor based in Germany. [video call ringing] katrin bennhold Lidia Oostvogels. katrin bennhold Hi, Lidia. Bonjour cest I dont know what language to speak to you, Lidia. This is Katrin. michael barbaro And Katrin, who is Lidia Oostvogels? katrin bennhold Das ist gut? English is good? Wonderful. katrin bennhold So Lidia works for this German company called CureVac. They work on vaccines as well as cancer treatments, and they do molecular therapies. michael barbaro Mhm. katrin bennhold And katrin bennhold So lets start at the beginning. Take me back to the moment when you first heard about this new virus. Do you remember that moment? lidia oostvogels Yeah, I mean, because of course all my social media, Im connected katrin bennhold At the end of her Christmas holiday, Lidia was seeing these posts, and she was wondering if this was maybe something she and her team could work on. lidia oostvogels And you think like, oh, what is this? What is happening there? Is that something that we could work on, could make a vaccine on and do katrin bennhold But at that stage, she couldnt because she didnt have the genetic sequencing of this virus. And actually the same was true for scientists around the world, who were wondering the same thing. And so they were all kind of just wondering and waiting. And then on January 10, the sequencing was actually published by these Chinese scientists, who put it on a public page for basically all the worlds scientists to see. lidia oostvogels So I got the message like, OK, we have the sequence so we can go ahead. katrin bennhold This is kind of when the clock starts ticking. But its not a race yet. lidia oostvogels I mean, at that moment, it was not a pandemic. It was an outbreak in China. katrin bennhold At this point, they didnt actually exactly know what they were racing against, so it was still kind of just a regular process. They draw up a presentation lidia oostvogels So we were preparing these slides to present to say, OK, this is something we maybe could do, and we think its useful that we would do it. katrin bennhold She was creating the slides for this presentation, and as she started, there was literally one death. One known death in China. lidia oostvogels And by the time that we went to the meeting with the management, each day almost we had to update the number of case fatalities. And this was I mean, this whole thing really I remember very well, that, OK, additional people died. What is this virus? katrin bennhold And thats only two and a half months ago. lidia oostvogels Yeah. Yeah, that was January, yeah. katrin bennhold Eventually, management greenlighted the project. This is in late January. The funding came through. lidia oostvogels So lets get going. katrin bennhold And thats when they really got to work. michael barbaro And what did that work look like in the beginning? What does it mean to create, from scratch, a vaccine? katrin bennhold So remember, basically what youre trying to achieve with a vaccine is you want to create something that mimics the pathogen, the virus. And you want to inject that into a healthy body, so that that healthy body can read that information, understand what the pathogen looks like and form antibodies to fight it and neutralize it. lidia oostvogels And, I mean, you have surely seen these pictures of the virus that everybody in the news and so on is always showing with this. I mean, its like this ball with these things that stick out of it. michael barbaro Mhm. katrin bennhold Basically, this cute little ball with spikes, right? lidia oostvogels And thats actually the proteins that you have to neutralize with antibodies to fight the virus. And thats what you actually ask the cells of the human body to make. katrin bennhold Its the spikes, not actually the ball, that are bad. michael barbaro So this whole project is about coming up with a vaccine that will enter the body, prompt an immune response, and that response will somehow despike the spikes of the coronavirus. katrin bennhold Thats the idea. Were now in February. And as theyre working on this archived recording 1 Well, over in the Philippines, the first coronavirus death outside of China on Sunday. archived recording 2 The second death from coronavirus outside of mainland China. Hong Kong health officials saying a 39-year-old man archived recording 3 The potentially deadly coronavirus has turned up in a new country this morning. Belgium reported its first case. katrin bennhold Coronavirus is beginning to spread across the world, and CureVac puts this vaccine development ahead of any other projects. michael barbaro So this is now becoming a major priority within this company. This is an urgent project. katrin bennhold Yeah. And theyre not the only ones. Youve got companies all over the world in China, in the U.S., across Europe. Everybody is now looking at this as a high priority. So Lidia and her team basically are working on a number of prospective vaccines. They have these different combinations that theyre trying out. lidia oostvogels This one, this one, this one, this one. katrin bennhold And in early March, theyre beginning to actually inject them into mice to see what the effect is. lidia oostvogels As we always say, mice are of men. If something doesnt work in mice, then you dont even have to test it in men, because katrin bennhold And they narrow it down. lidia oostvogels In the beginning, we had seven. And then we downselected to four. And then we further downselected to two. katrin bennhold Two sort of most promising prospective vaccines. And this is a time when the cases are spiking in Italy. The number of deaths are rising, including in Germany, where the lab is based. And theyre going up in the U.S. as well. michael barbaro So this is basically now in Lidias backyard. katrin bennhold Its now in her own backyard. lidia oostvogels Everybody is working from morning to evening, and then having I mean, still trying to get some sleep, because its not a sprint. Its a marathon. We are not yet there, so we should not be exhausted now. katrin bennhold Shes being told by the government to work remotely. She has to sort of direct this team of lab scientists, who are still going into the lab, working carefully and trying to practice social distancing. lidia oostvogels It is nonstop phone calls from morning to evening, so you have to struggle to find the time to run to the kitchen to get something to eat. katrin bennhold Its logistically incredibly difficult, but its also emotionally incredibly straining. She said every time she watches the news, it fills her with dread. lidia oostvogels And I see, ah, compared to yesterday, now X people have died, and X people are infected. I mean, just to tell you, I never have nightmares, but now recently, I was dreaming that I was sitting with my preclinical colleague, and then there was a flock of bats that flew over our heads. And then I woke up, and I was thinking, no, am I really dreaming about this now? katrin bennhold Wow. lidia oostvogels That Im going to vaccinate bats, too? katrin bennhold So the sheer strain and the stress of this work, in the circumstances of an actual outbreak in her own country, is intense. katrin bennhold I mean, it must be tough. I mean, youre living and, as you just revealed, dreaming this. I mean, I have to imagine that that comes with this sort of feeling of enormous responsibility. I mean, weve talked to a lot of doctors recently, who have had very vulnerable moments, broken down, crying in hospitals with a flood of patients coming in, some of whom they cant help. I mean, is there anything like that happening with your colleagues? lidia oostvogels As far as I know, not. And I think the difference is that if you see a patient coming in that you know you will not be able to save because he is already so sick, and you cannot save him and you see him dying under your hands, thats an enormous frustration. But our part of the work is to bring something to prevent that anybody ever has to live this. So thats not the same kind of emotional pressure, I would say. I mean, we have the pressure that we have to go quick, because we have potentially something that can save this from happening. But we are building something that will give hope to the people. michael barbaro Katrin, you mentioned that Lidia and her team are testing potential vaccines in mice. But how soon do they expect that they would have a final vaccine ready for humans? katrin bennhold So the next very important step will be to actually test this thing in clinical trials, meaning injecting it into actual humans. michael barbaro Mhm. katrin bennhold And at the moment, theyre sort of hopeful that the human trials can begin in June or July. And that, Lidia says, would put them on track for developing an actual vaccine that can be used for mass consumption early next year. Which kind of sounds far away, but its incredibly fast. Normally, vaccines can take a decade, even 15 years to develop. So theyre really speeding up this process. michael barbaro And how does that timeline stack up against other companies around the world, potential rivals to Lidia? katrin bennhold Youve got a lot of companies speeding things up around the world. I mean, youve got governments trying to remove bureaucratic hurdles and speed up approvement procedures. Theres a Chinese company that is already moving into the clinical trial phase and recruiting for human trials. Theyre all moving at an incredible, unbelievable clip. Because now they are in a race against time. And CureVac, theyre considered to be among the leading eight companies to be working on this. michael barbaro Mhm. katrin bennhold Do you think its possible that your team could be the first to develop an actual vaccine on the market? lidia oostvogels That could be. That could be. I mean, that you cannot know at this moment, because I think there are other when I see the data from other companies, I think theres a lot of very promising approaches. But ours is also, so, yeah. katrin bennhold And do you think that thats why President Trump tried to buy your company? [music] lidia oostvogels Yeah, it was like, oh, where is this coming from? Yeah, this was really a surprise. katrin bennhold And thats probably why President Trump approached that company and made a really unusual offer. [music] michael barbaro Well be right back. So, Katrin, what was this unusual offer from the Trump administration? katrin bennhold Yeah, it was a very unusual offer. So it started a couple weeks ago when I was home on a Sunday with my family. And I checked my social media, just sort of checking whats going on. And this story was making the rounds about the American president having approached this German vaccine maker. So I called my editors, and we decided to look into it. michael barbaro And what did you find? katrin bennhold So we learned that one day in early March, theres this meeting at the White House. archived recording (donald trump) Well, thank you very much. Today, were meeting with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies the biggest in the world, most prestigious, the ones that get down to the bottom line very quickly to discuss how the federal government can accelerate the development of vaccines and therapeutic treatments for the coronavirus. katrin bennhold The White House basically invites two dozen companies to a roundtable discussion about the prospects of developing a vaccine against Covid-19, the coronavirus. archived recording (john shiver) Im John Shiver, I head vaccine research and development for Sanofi vaccines. archived recording (dr. leonard schleifer) Im Len Schleifer, the founder and C.E.O. of Regeneron. archived recording (stephane bancel) Stephane Bancel. Im the C.E.O. of Moderna. katrin bennhold And these companies were all American, all except one. archived recording (dan menichella) Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President. Thanks for having me here. Good afternoon. Im Dan Menichella, C.E.O. of CureVac. Were a clinical stage biotech company. katrin bennhold CureVac. michael barbaro So Lidias company. katrin bennhold Right. archived recording (dan menichella) The key point here being that we believe we can develop the vaccine for Covid-19 very, very quickly, and we have the wherewithal to manufacture it. Although we would like some additional help on our largest GMP IV facility. Again, we appreciate the opportunity to be here today, and thank you very much. archived recording (donald trump) Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. [music] katrin bennhold And we dont know the exact sequence of events, but two weeks after this meeting archived recording President Trump has been accused of trying to lure a German pharmaceutical company working on a coronavirus vaccine to the U.S. katrin bennhold this German newspaper reports that Trump offered the company $1 billion to relocate to the United States. michael barbaro Wow. katrin bennhold It quotes an unnamed German government official, who said he worries that Trump wants exclusive access to a future vaccine. That he basically wants to secure access to this vaccine for Americans first. So in Germany, you can imagine this obviously sets up a stir. And you basically have people scrambling to get the narrative right. You have American officials saying that the reports were, quote, overblown. archived recording Responding to the report, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, wrote on Twitter, The Welt story was wrong. katrin bennhold Then the company rejects the claim outright, although its majority shareholder pretty much confirms that an approach had been made. So no one really knows what exactly happened, except that the C.E.O. of the company, an American, who had run it for two years, leaves the company. michael barbaro Hm. katrin bennhold And hes replaced by a German just a few days after that meeting. And then, two days later, this Chinese company offers $133 million to another leading German company also working on a vaccine. michael barbaro And, Katrin, what is your understanding of the logic from both China and the United States? What are they trying to accomplish? katrin bennhold So behind this race is a pretty harsh but pretty simple reality. And its one that Lidia herself talked about. Any new vaccine that is effective against the coronavirus is certain to be in short supply initially. michael barbaro Hm. katrin bennhold So those who develop it first will try to ensure that their own people are first in line for it. michael barbaro So whoever controls the company nationally controls that early distribution of the vaccine, whether thats Germany or China or the United States. katrin bennhold Exactly. And people actually remember archived recording (dr. margaret chan) The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic. katrin bennhold the swine flu. archived recording The government said today that H1N1 flu has caused more than 1,000 deaths. And has spread katrin bennhold When the swine flu came along in 2009 and an Australian company was the first to bring a single-dose vaccine to market, it was obliged at the time by its own government to service the Australian market first before honoring export orders to the United States and other countries. archived recording Well, the World Health Organization says there is not enough swine flu vaccine for everyone. katrin bennhold That really rattled the United States. It kind of spurred this outrage. archived recording (greg walden) Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for convening this important hearing. H1N1 has been dominating the news. katrin bennhold You had congressional hearings. Everyone wanted to know why there was this shortfall. archived recording (greg walden) From the folks I hear from in my district, they cant find the vaccines. When I called the 18 hospitals in my district, each one of them asked, wheres the vaccine that we were told was coming? katrin bennhold And, you know, swine flu is not on the same scale as this coronavirus. So this could potentially be a lot more serious. And all of a sudden, thats the urgency that we see unfolding. And thats the urgency that has now led to this kind of nationalist, patriotic instinct to come out in several countries. michael barbaro Mhm. katrin bennhold Youd think, Michael, that everybody would benefit if we would just work together and made sure that this vaccine was produced and then dispersed kind of to the people who need it most first, and so on. The problem is that there is going to be a shortage. And so there is a certain amount of rationality in trying to get your hands on it first by governments who represent their own people. Even more so as we find ourselves in this historic moment where nationalism, populism have been on the rise, and where the trust level between governments are pretty low. michael barbaro So in that sense, the fight over this vaccine is a bit of a proxy for a larger question, right? Which is, will this become a nationalist moment this pandemic despite the fact that its also an incredibly global moment and a reminder of our connectedness? katrin bennhold Exactly. And its actually good to come back to the scientists for a moment, because the scientists have a very clear answer to all of this. They think this is about global cooperation. They think this is a global problem that needs a global solution. And even though they all work for companies that, you know, in normal times are in competition with one another, they are adamant that they want to work together. It all started, in fact, if you go back to January 10, with the publication of the genetic sequencing of this virus. That was a Chinese scientist that posted this genetic code online for every scientist in the world to see. And thats when scientists across the world started working toward a common goal, in their view. [music] lidia oostvogels I can, again, I can understand that individual governments are thinking first about their population, because that is their job. But, I mean, my job is to make a vaccine that can protect people worldwide. I mean, Im not making a vaccine that can only protect Europeans or Americans. So my job is to get a good vaccine out. So why would I first want to vaccinate somebody in my country, who anyway is a very low risk, versus somebody in another country who is perhaps protecting and trying to cure other people with a risk of his life? So make the decisions based on medical need and common sense and not on political agenda. katrin bennhold Lidia, thank you so very much. Youve already done so much important work, and I wish you guys the best of luck. And stay healthy! lidia oostvogels Yeah, you, too. Stay at home, and dont meet too many people, and stay in good shape. So that we are all ready to be vaccinated when the vaccine is ready and can go back to normal life and the normal world. [music] michael barbaro On Wednesday, The Times reported that the global scientific community has overwhelmingly rejected the U.S. and Chinese government characterization of coronavirus research as a biotech arms race. Never before, those researchers say, have so many experts in so many countries focused simultaneously on a single scientific quest with so much urgency, exchanging information as it becomes available and launching clinical trials that rely on laboratories and hospitals from around the world. [music] Well be right back. michael barbaro Heres what else you need to know today. archived recording (donald trump) Thank you very much, everyone. Our country is in the midst of a great national trial, unlike any we have ever faced before. michael barbaro During a briefing on Tuesday from the White House, President Trump issued his most dire warning yet about the pandemic, telling Americans that it would ravage the country for the next few weeks. archived recording (donald trump) I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. Were going to go through a very tough two weeks. michael barbaro The president then turned over the podium to public health officials, who revealed estimates of the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus with and without attempts to keep Americans at home based on multiple academic studies. archived recording (dr. deborah birx) In their estimates, they had between 1.5 million and 2.2 million people in the United States succumbing to this virus without mitigation. Yet, through their detailed studies and showing us what social distancing would do, what people what would happen if people stayed home, what would happen if people were careful every day to wash their hands and worry about touching their faces. And that takes us down to 100,000 to 200,000 deaths, which is still way too much. Theres no magic bullet. Theres no magic vaccine or therapy. Its just behaviors. Each of our behaviors translating into something that changes the course of this viral pandemic over the next 30 days. Thank you. michael barbaro On Tuesday, several more states and cities ordered residents to remain in their homes, including Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland. archived recording (larry hogan) This is a deadly public health crisis. We are no longer asking or suggesting that Marylanders stay home. We are directing them to do so. michael barbaro STAFF at Debenhams in Limerick who have lost their jobs have joined colleagues from across the country in protest outside the store this Tuesday. Workers say they feel they have been shoved aside and taken for granted by Debenhams, which collapsed into liquidation with the loss of more than 100 jobs at its premises in OConnell Street/Sarsfield Street. The demonstration, backed by both Mandate and Siptu, was held to highlight the staffs concerns over potentially not getting their statutory redundancy. Aisling OGorman, who has worked in Debenhams for a decade said: We want to make sure we are still being heard. We are falling under the radar at the minute. We just want people to understand if this happens, other companies will follow suit. They will do it to everybody. Aisling, who lives in William Street, says the demonstration was deliberately kept low-key and small in number to respect the social distancing measures in place due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Only workers based within a two-kilometre radius of the store attended, she said. Despite this, a number of passers-by voiced their support to the staff, as did many of the few motorists on Limericks main thoroughfare. If we could protest properly, wed be banging the drums in every street in Limerick, she admitted, Its just an insult to all of us who have worked really hard. We did everything we could for them. Mike McNamara, who worked for Debenhams and its predecessor Roches Stores for more than 40 years as a stockroom assistant said: Its very upsetting. This was our livelihood. I had to remortgage my house. Everybody is in the same position, theres people with families, theres people with mortgages, theres people with bills. He added: Its a very worrying time for all the workers and their families. Some of the workers are younger and they have young families. They have other commitments. They have a longer working career. Theyll find it hard to get jobs. Debenhams used this crisis. Its blatant and anyone who says its any different is codding you. The High Court last week appointed Kieran Wallace and Andrew OLeary of KPMG as joint provisional liquidators to Debenhams Ireland. The Limerick Leader has contacted Mr Wallace for comment. Protective N-95 face masks lie on a table at an office in Washington, on Feb. 26, 2020. (Eva Hambach/AFP/Getty Images) 141 Million N95 Masks to Be Made Over 6 Months Under Defense Production Act The Pentagon has released details of its $133 million plan to produce 39 million N95 masks in the next three months under the Defense Production Act. Three companies were awarded contracts: 3M ($76 million), O&M Halyard ($29 million) and Honeywell ($27.4 million), said Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, Department of Defense spokesman. The increased production will ensure the U.S. Government gets dedicated long-term industrial capacity to meet the needs of the nation. In addition to the previous announcement of 39 million masks to be produced in 90 days, the Pentagon said April 21 that the three companies would produce a total of 141 million N95 masks in the next six months, with the capacity for 37.5 million masks a month after that. The N95 masks, which provide a level of protection to the wearer from COVID-19 thats needed by health care workers, are in short supply across the globe. Last week, the Pentagon announced it had contracted out another solution to the mask shortage: machines that can disinfect N95 masks, allowing them to be reused up to 20 times. The mask manufacturing project is the first under Title 3 of the Defense Production Act (DPA) which allows the president to invest in specific industries to expand domestic capacity and supply for defense-related materials. 3M will accelerate production by converting a current equipment supplier into an N95 producer, and will also expand meltblown material production in the Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, and Aberdeen, Nebraska, plants, Andrews said. O&M Halyard will also increase mask material production and expand its production line at its Del Rio, Texas, facility. Honeywell will accelerate production scale-up, including capital equipment, at its Smithfield, Rhode Island, plant and accelerate a second production line for long-term needs. The Pentagon has also ordered 60 machines that will be able to disinfect more than 4.8 million N95 protective masks a day. The Department of Defense announced on April 13 that new decontamination units produced by Battelleat a total cost of $415 millionwill be able to clean each mask up to 20 times. Masks at 3M, contracted by the U.S. government to produce extra masks, in Maplewood, Minn., on March 4, 2020. (Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters) All 60 systems will be available by early May for prioritization and distribution by FEMA and HHS, Andrews said in a statement. Once all are delivered, these 60 units will allow 4.8 million masks to be sterilized per day, almost 34 million per week. The masks are cleaned using concentrated vapor phase hydrogen peroxide, according to a description on the Battelle website. The respirators are exposed at the validated concentration level to decontaminate biological contaminants, including the SARS-CoV-2. Beyond arranging contracts for medical equipment, the military has been assisting directly in other ways as the United States wrestles with the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. Currently, more than 36,000 members of the National Guard have been deployed (pdf) by their local governors, with 38 states receiving federal top-up funding to ensure they can use their Guardsmen at will, without worrying about the cost. The Army Corps of Engineers is constructing makeshift hospitals from convention centers, arenas, hotels, and dormitories, with 32 of the alternative care sites now being built, or already finished. The total bed capacity of those hospitals stands at 15,800. That number is more than doubled, however, when counting the additional 40 plus facilities designed by the Army engineers but being built directly by local governors. The corps finished seven sites over the weekend, bringing the total completed alternative care sites to 10. The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday expressed concern over the "high-handed manner" in which the law enforcement agencies in Jammu and Kashmir used prevailing laws to deal with two Srinagar-based journalists and demanded that the charges against them be withdrawn. In a statement, the Guild also said it believes that this is an indirect way of intimidating journalists in the rest of the country as well. It noted that while only an FIR has been filed in connection with a report filed by Peerzada Ashiq, a reporter working for The Hindu, the authorities in the Union Territory have used the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against Masrat Zahra, a young freelance photographer. "Any recourse to such laws for merely publishing something in the mainstream or social media is a gross misuse of power. Its only purpose can be to strike terror into journalists," the Guild said. The editors body said it has noted with shock and concern, the "high-handed manner" in which the law enforcement agencies in Jammu and Kashmir have used the prevailing laws to deal with the two Srinagar-based journalists. "The journalists should be put to no harm or further harassment. If the government has any grievance against their reporting, there are other ways of dealing with such issues in the normal course," the Guild said. Mere social media posts of factual pictures can't attract the toughest anti-terror laws passed for hardened terrorists, it said. In the case of The Hindu reporter, the correct course was to escalate the complaint to the newspaper's editor, the Guild said. It demanded that the Union Territory administration of Jammu and Kashmir withdraw the charges forthwith. Zahra, who was booked for uploading "anti-national" posts, was questioned by police on Tuesday in connection with the case filed against her under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. While she was booked for a Facebook post about slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, Ashiq was booked for a story about the recent Shopian encounter in which two militants were killed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) English French 2019 Universal Registration Document filed Charenton-le-Pont, France (April 21, 2020 6:00pm) The 2019 EssilorLuxottica Universal Registration Document was filed today in French version with the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF). The Universal Registration Document includes: a) the Annual Financial Report, with: the parent Company Financial Statements, the Group Consolidated Financial Statements, the Management Report and the Non-financial Statement, in compliance with article L.225-100 and L.225-102-1 respectively, of the French Commercial Code, a statement by the persons responsible for the Universal Registration Document, the Statutory Auditors Report on the parent Company and the Group Consolidated Financial Statements, and information concerning Auditors fees; b) the Report on Corporate Governance as per the article L.225-37 of the French Commercial Code. From now on, the French version is available to the public free of charge, as provided for in applicable legislation, and may be downloaded from EssilorLuxotticas corporate website: www.essilorluxottica.com . An English version of the 2019 Universal Registration Document is also available on the EssilorLuxottica website. EssilorLuxottica is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of ophthalmic lenses, frames and sunglasses. Formed in 2018, its mission is to help people around the world to see more, be more and live life to its fullest by addressing their evolving vision needs and personal style aspirations. The Company brings together the complementary expertise of two industry pioneers, one in advanced lens technology and the other in the craftsmanship of iconic eyewear, to set new industry standards for vision care and the consumer experience around it. Influential eyewear brands including Ray-Ban and Oakley, lens technology brands including Varilux and Transitions, and world-class retail brands including Sunglass Hut and LensCrafters are part of the EssilorLuxottica family. In 2019, EssilorLuxottica had over 150,000 employees and consolidated revenues of Euro 17.4 billion. The EssilorLuxottica share trades on the Euronext Paris market and is included in the Euro Stoxx 50 and CAC 40 indices. Codes and symbols: ISIN: FR0000121667; Reuters: ESLX.PA; Bloomberg: EL:FP. CONTACTS EssilorLuxottica Investor Relations (Charenton-le-Pont) Tel: + 33 1 49 77 42 16 (Milan) Tel: + 39 (02) 8633 4870 E-mail: ir@essilorluxottica.com EssilorLuxottica Corporate Communications (Charenton-le-Pont) Tel: + 33 1 49 77 45 02 (Milan) Tel: + 39 (02) 8633 4470 E-mail: media@essilorluxottica.com Attachment Prince Frederik has gone viral after he shared a before-and-after photograph of his haircut after visiting the barber shop in Copenhagen following the end of Denmark's strict lockdown. The 51-year-old prince showed off his relatable side with two selfies posted on the Danish Palace's Facebook account of his unkempt hair before the haircut and afterwards. 'I am probably not the only one who has been to a hairdresser today,' Prince Frederik captioned the images in Danish. BEFORE: Prince Frederik has gone viral after he shared a before-and-after photo of his haircut from visiting the barber shop in Copenhagen following the end of Denmark's strict lockdown AFTER: The 51-year-old prince showed off his relatable side with two selfies posted on the Danish Palace's Facebook account of his unkempt hair before the haircut and afterwards 'Fortunately, it is now possible for hairdressers and other smaller companies and stores to stay open on top of a long shutdown.' Prince Frederik added: 'I want to thank everyone for being so readily prepared and for helping keep the wheels going for a period that requires a lot of us all'. It wasn't long before the royal's post was met with a wave of support online, with more than 51,000 people sharing and commenting on the photos and telling the Prince how 'relatable' he is. 'Looking good, although rugged works too,' one person posted. 'But what about the beard?' another joked. Denmark has been among the first European countries to put strict lockdown into gradual reverse, after officials re-opened schools and some other businesses last week. 'It's important we don't keep Denmark closed for longer than we need to,' Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said earlier in April. '[But] if we open Denmark too quickly again, we risk infections rising too sharply and then we'll have to close down again.' Prince Frederik left his home briefly to welcome a delivery of masks and person protective gear for the country's frontline medics fighting the COVID-19 pandemic (pictured) Otherwise, the 51-year-old has been isolating in the Palace with his wife Princess Mary and four children, conducting meetings on Zoom (pictured) Prince Frederik has been spending the Danish lockdown isolating with his wife Princess Mary and their four children at Fredensborg Palace. While isolating, the Prince conducted countless meetings over Zoom with charities, as well as leaving his home briefly to welcome a delivery of masks and person protective gear for the country's frontline medics fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, Prince Frederik shared a selfie of himself in front of an aeroplane. He captioned the image: 'A big help to all of us landed early this morning from a cloudless sky at Copenhagen Airport. 'I was invited to attend the landing of the world's largest cargo aircraft, where the cargo of 1,000,000 face masks and 170,000 protective suits and other protective equipment will be a major help to the home care system in the coming years in the fight against COVID-19. 'I would like to extend a huge thank you to all involved who have made flights with protective equipment from China possible.' The rest of Prince Frederik's family have also been sharing regular updates from isolation, as they encouraged people to stay at home (the Danish royal family pictured) The rest of Prince Frederik's family have also been sharing regular updates from isolation, as they encouraged people to stay at home. Princess Mary, who is the patron of the World Health Organisation's Office for the European region, reminded people that we 'all have a role to play' in helping others who might be struggling with isolation at this time. 'By being more open and tolerant we can each make a difference for the many who stand alone,' the Princess said in a statement via The Mary Foundation. '... Severe loneliness can have serious consequences both mentally and physically. Therefore, as long as it stands, we must make a special effort to help each other out of solitude - even if it is at a distance.' Last month, the parents pulled her four children out of boarding school in Switzerland to return home to Denmark, after it went into coronavirus lockdown (Prince Frederik pictured) Last month, the mother-of-four pulled her four children out of boarding school in Switzerland to return home to Denmark, after their home country went into coronavirus lockdown. The 48-year-old mother and her family released a statement in March, sharing their decision to 'return home and stand with the Danes at a time that requires a lot of everyone'. 'In the light of the increased situation in Denmark in connection with the handling of the spread of COVID-19, the Crown Prince family has decided that the family should return home from Switzerland,' the statement said. 'The Crown Prince family finds it most natural to return home and stand with the Danes at a time that requires a lot of everyone and where there is a common responsibility to look after each other.' Meeting for their first regular session in almost a month today, Bexar County Commissioners will be focused on the local response to COVID-19, from efforts to contain an outbreak of the deadly disease at the jail to action to secure federal funds for mitigating expenses related to fighting the virus. As of Monday, 28 Bexar County jail inmates and 30 employees have tested positive for novel coronavirus, officials said. Commissioners are expected to consider actions positioning the county to receive federal support through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES. On ExpressNews.com: Bexar County Judge Wolff rethinks goals for final term Matthew Chase, CEO and executive director of the National Association of Counties, told reporters in a conference call last week that counties are playing a key role in local responses to the pandemic and will be crucial in the long-term economic recovery. While the Federal Reserve has taken steps to help counties reduce borrowing costs, concerns linger about aid at the local level for hospitals, food safety, elections and other basic services affected by the pandemic, Chase said. We do have really increasing costs, both on the immediate public health response, but also those counties that provide human services and assistance to the 16 million Americans who are now unemployed and their families, he said. Counties are essential in the front line. Commissioners have set aside at least one hour today to discuss the COVID-19 public health response; efforts to contain the disease at the jail; plans for the July 14 primary runoffs and Nov. 3 combined local and general elections; agreements with the city of San Antonio on emergency housing assistance; and the formation of local COVID-19 community action groups. Also on the agenda for discussion and action are certifications affirming the countys intent to receive two forms of CARES funding: fiscal 2020 supplemental appropriations from a $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund, to cover costs incurred from March 1 and through Dec. 30; and aid administered through the Texas Division of Emergency Management from a $45 billion disaster relief fund. On ExpressNews.com: Face coverings required in public places in Bexar County Todays meeting, set for 10 a.m. in the Double-Height Courtroom of the Bexar County Courthouse, will be live streamed on the countys website, bexar.org. Citizens can address commissioners in person so long as they follow the emergency order restrictions, including maintaining a physical distance of 6 feet from others and wearing a mask or some type of cloth such as a bandanna or handkerchief covering nose and mouth. The last time commissioners met was March 24. That day, only 69 people had tested positive for COVID-19 and two deaths had been reported in the entire county. Less than four weeks later, the total number of confirmed cases stood at 1,015, and 39 people had died as a result of the disease. Scott Huddleston covers Bexar County government and the Alamo for the San Antonio Express-News. To read more from Scott, become a subscriber. shuddleston@express-news.net | Twitter: @shuddlestonSA Residents of Amanokrom and Akropong in the Akuapen North Municipality of the Eastern Region are currently living in fear after one case each of COVID-19 was reported in the two towns. At Amanokrom, a 59-year-old woman who returned to the country on March 20, 2020, tested positive to COVID-19. A 45-year-Old woman who also stays at Akropong and returned to the country on March 19, 2020, has also tested positive to the disease. Yaw Anim, a resident of Amanokrom tells First1News that since the news broke about a positive case of COVID-19 in the community he is afraid to go out. We have a place we meet as a youth but since the news broke we cannot meet again, we are extremely careful so that we do no contract the disease. I have seen many people obeying the protocol from the Ministry of Health, washing of hands under running water with soap and the application of hand sanitizer. However, the Municipal Chief Executive for Akuapem North, Dennis Miracle Aboagye who confirmed the incident said, It is true but these two cases were both imported. They are not community spread. They are part of the enhanced contact tracing that Ghana Health Service has done. Those who came into the country before the mandatory quarantine at the Airport were also being contacted for testing so this is positive results from that exercise. Mr. Aboagye allays fears in the two communities and in the Municipality and indicated that the health Officials have begun contact tracing into the incident. The Eastern Region has so far recorded 51 COVID-19 cases at the time of filing this report. ---First1News.com Co-chief executive of German software giant SAP, Jennifer Morgan, is stepping down after just six months in the job as the company switches back to a solo boss to steer it through the upheaval. Morgan, 48, became the first woman to head a company listed on Frankfurt's blue-chip DAX 30 index when she was appointed co-CEO alongside Christian Klein last October. "More than ever, the current environment requires to take swift, determined action which is best supported by a very clear leadership structure," said in a surprise statement late Monday. In a decision it said was "mutually agreed" with the supervisory board, Morgan will leave the business software maker on April 30 while Klein will stay on as sole CEO. Morgan joined in 2004 and ran the company's cloud computing activities -- which became a vital growth driver for the firm under the leadership of former CEO Bill McDermott. "With unprecedented change within the world, it has become clear that now is the right time for the company to transition to a single CEO leading the business," Morgan said in the same statement. released its first quarter results on Tuesday, which showed that customers began to postpone "a significant amount of new business" last month as the economic fallout from the pandemic intensified. Revenues over the first three months of 2020 were up seven percent year-on-year at 6.5 billion euros (USD 7 billion). Net profit reached 811 million euros, up from a 108 million euro loss over the same period last year. The company earlier this month already cut its outlook for 2020 as a result of the impact of the pandemic on the global economy. SAP said it expects the current "challenging demand environment" to worsen in the second quarter before improving later in the year as countries loosen lockdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak last night dismissed calls for the Government to ramp up the level of support it is providing for small businesses to survive the coronavirus shutdown, insisting it was already providing enough help. At the televised news conference he said that increasing the Government guarantee on loans to help small businesses withstand the economic impact of coronavirus was not the right measure. Labour had called for the Government to guarantee 100 per cent of the loans taken under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), up from 80 per under current arrangements. 'I'm not persuaded that moving to a 100 per cent guarantee is the right thing to do,' Mr Sunak said during the Government's daily coronavirus briefing last night. 'If you take a step back and look at the sum total we've done to support business... some people have made some comparisons with what's going on in other countries, I think when you look at the totality of what we're doing it's more significant in scope and scale than most of those other countries.' At the televised news conference he said that increasing the Government guarantee on loans to help small businesses withstand the economic impact of coronavirus was not the right measure Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds wrote to Mr Sunak saying: 'The Government must be prepared to go further and urgently consider direct changes to the scheme, such as guaranteeing 100 per cent of loans to small firms' The scheme's critics say it does not go far enough, and point out that only a small part of the 330 billion Mr Sunak has set aside to guarantee loans has been tapped into so far. Labour last week called on the Government to guarantee the entire amount that small businesses are able to borrow from banks. Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds wrote to Mr Sunak: 'We face a looming insolvency crisis if uptake is not improved dramatically. The Government must be prepared to go further and urgently consider direct changes to the scheme, such as guaranteeing 100 per cent of loans to small firms'. The Chancellor is expected to hold one-on-one talks with the bosses of major banks this week, to hear how they are responding to the crisis. Ms Dodds said: 'It is encouraging to know the Government is in dialogue with lenders to make the CBILS and new CLBILS (Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme) work more effectively. However, the UK still lags far behind other European countries in getting loans to struggling firms.' On Monday, the Conservative chairman of the Treasury Committee wrote to the British Business Bank and UK Finance to request daily updates on the loan schemes. Mel Stride said: 'Many businesses up and down the country are facing a daily struggle for survival. They need these emergency loans urgently, but data published so far shows that it has been taking too long to reach them.' On Monday, the Conservative chairman of the Treasury Committee, Mel Stride, said: 'Many businesses up and down the country are facing a daily struggle for survival. They need these emergency loans urgently, but data published so far shows that it has been taking too long to reach them' The MP said he wants to be able to publish daily how many applications have been accepted and rejected, and how much has been lent to businesses, among other things. Several smaller companies have struggled to get through to their banks, complaining of long phone queues. Birmingham-based restaurant owner George Kafetzis said he continued to pay his staff even after he was forced to close his sites. His loan application has been turned down by Barclays, and he has had no response from Lloyds. In an email sent to Barclays boss Jes Staley and other top bosses at the bank on Friday, Mr Kafetzis said: 'Today is the last day I can pay my staff. I worry about about them; some suffer (from) anxiety and mental health issues.' 'They (the banks) just can't process the applications quick enough,' he told the PA news agency. 'I feel the banks are blaming the Government, but the Government are blaming the banks for not giving the money out quick enough,' he said. Last week, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey called on the banks to speed up lending to small businesses under the CBIL scheme. 'They're under no illusions that they've got to get on with this,' Mr Bailey said. However, Rob Tickell, the owner of accountancy firm LCA Services which was granted a 50,000 package from Lloyds, said he found the process simple. 'I found the whole process straightforward and quick - my application was approved within just three days of being submitted, and the team really understood my business needs,' he said. The lockdowns imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic were offering automotive manufacturers a rare opportunity to take a step back and to re-evaluate their long-term strategies , the chief executive officer of Eurasian Resources Group has said.Italian long steel producer Alfa Acciai Group has resumed production this week following a month of downtime, sources told Fastmarkets on April 17.United States-based Ball Corp has announced that the Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi) has approved the companys targets for the reduction of absolute carbon emissions in its own operations by 55%, and within its value chain by 16%, by 2030 against a 2017 baseline. Tantalum prices have found support due to tightness of supply and concerns about obtaining material during the continued lockdowns in central African countries imposed to control the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.A one-month construction suspension at Teck Resources' Quebrada Blanca 2 copper mine in Chile is expected to cost the company at least $75 million , a figure set to rise if further delays are incurred. The banking and insurance industries do not like these figures Im about to quote. Research by the Reserve Bank of Australia and Allan Fels, a former chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, shows banks charge new customers about $1000 less each year for a $250,000 home loan on average, and insurers 27 per cent less for a home insurance policy, compared to longer-serving customers. Use comparison websites to check the latest mortgage and insurance deals and compare them with what you are paying now. Then demand a better deal. Credit:Dreamstime/TNS It is an open secret in the financial services industries that the squeaky wheel gets the good oil. New customers and those who demand a better deal usually get treated much better than those who are loyal and never complain. We have given this phenomenon a range of names over the years, including the "loyalty tax" or "the lazy tax". The wife of a Dutch businessman held hostage by the IRA in Monasterevin nearly 45 years ago has died. Elisabeth Herrema, the wife of Dutch industrialist Dr Tiede Herrema, passed away in the Netherlands at the age of 94. The kidnapping in October 1975 of Dr Herrema, who was managing director of the Limerick factory Ferenka, made international news and the St Evin's housing estate in Monasterevin became the centre of a massive Garda and Army operation which lasted for 18 days. Mrs Herrema featured on RTE at the time when she bravely called on the Irish government not to pay the IR2 million ransom demanded by the kidnappers Eddie Gallagher and Marion Coyle. Mr and Mrs Herrema at a press conference after the release The kidnappers had demanded the release of three high-profile republican prisoners in exchange for Dr Herrema. Dr Herrema was later released unharmed over a month after he was kidnapped. Mrs Herrema with her husband meeting President Michael D Higgins in 2013 Both he and his wife left Ireland shortly after his release, but they were both made honorary Irish citizens in recognition of their ordeal. Mrs Herrema is survived by her husband who is still living and is now aged 99. The funeral takes place in the Netherlands on Thursday. WATCH:See a report from the RTE Archives of the siege. Man arrested in Ireland in connection with deaths of 39 Vietnamese: UK police Police are seen at the scene where bodies were discovered in a truck container, in Grays, Essex, Britain, October 23, 2019. Photo by Reuters/Hannah McKay. Ronan Hughes was arrested in Ireland on Monday in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals found in a truck trailer in Essex, southeast England, last October. The 40-year-old from County Armagh in Northern Ireland has been charged with 39 offenses of manslaughter as well as immigration offenses, Essex Police said in a statement. He will appear at Dublins High Court on Tuesday. Earlier this month, Northern Irish truck driver Maurice Robinson pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter related to the deaths. In a lawsuit filed recently in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, a pair of fans allege that MLB, its teams, and a host of ticket re-sellers have wrongly refused to refund ticket costs and associated fees relating to the postponed 2020 season. Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times are among those to cover the filing. The would-be class representatives cover the two groups seeking relief: one is a partial season ticketholder and the other bought single-game tickets. In both cases, it seems, full or partial refunds have not been available because MLB continues to treat games as being postponed rather than cancelled. Reflecting its attempt to achieve class certification, the suit doesnt just go after the specific teams and ticket agencies involved in those cases. The complaint lists all thirty teams and four ticket companies: official MLB partner StubHub along with Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and Last Minute Transactions. We are now several weeks into the scheduled 2020 MLB season with no end in sight to the shutdown. Most of the current chatter has surrounded the possibility of returning to play without fans in attendance an outcome that would obviously warrant a refund. But the league has yet to formally abandon hope of a full 2020 season, providing at least partial or temporary public relations and legal cover for the fact that individual fans funds are still sitting in the bank accounts of these large companies. Per Rogers, the eventual plan is likely to offer credit toward tickets for 2021 if no games are played this summer. While these businesses are trying to work through surprising, difficult, and wholly unprecedented issues, many individuals are dealing with yet tougher times. And theres little doubt that the money will ultimately have to be returned if the tickets cant be honored for the 2020 season. The ESPN report does seem to indicate that the 2021 credit scenario would be presented as an alternative to a refund in the (exceedingly likely) event that games are indeed cancelled. The named defendants have yet to respond in court to the initial filing. The lawsuit, then, is likely to spur battles over timing and other specifics if, at least, its plaintiffs are successful at achieving class certification. Therell surely also be a big fight over where the suit should be heard and what law will apply. As Shaikin notes, the initial pleading asserts claims arising under several uniquely consumer-protective California statutes. The Republican-controlled Senate, a smaller, clubbier body whose members are even more reluctant to dispatch with tradition, is unlikely to follow suit. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has firmly rejected the idea. On Tuesday afternoon, after the Senate passed a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill by voice vote the only way to do business since most senators are absent from the capital Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, tried unsuccessfully to force a change in the rules to allow emergency remote voting. Mr. McConnell blocked the move. The coming changes in the House have been weeks in the making. Many of the chambers younger members have been arguing aggressively that remote voting would model good behavior for the country, keep their older colleagues one-third of the House members are at least 65 safe and allow for greater continuity in a time of national crisis. But the leaders had been hesitant to discard precedent, particularly when Congress is being called upon to enact sweeping policies to respond to the virus. Under its current rules, the House can pass measures only if no lawmaker objects or if members travel to vote in person, as they are expected to do on Thursday when, in addition to the rules change, the House will consider the $484 billion relief package for small businesses straining under the effects of the pandemic. The proxy voting arrangement is something of a low-tech compromise between competing proposals for how to proceed. Under the current plan, devised by Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of the Rules Committee, any member of Congress could submit his or her vote to the House in writing. It would then be entered into the record by another lawmaker present in the Capitol, who would not be allowed to change his or her colleagues vote. Still, many Republicans have chafed at the plan and could oppose Thursdays vote en masse. Republican leaders indicated they were irked that the Democrats did not bring them further into the planning process, but many of their members said they simply saw no reason for Congress not to show up in person when other essential workers all over the country, including President Trump, are doing so. Dubai-based global trade enabler DP World has launched a new online marketplace titled Manasah for Ramadan bazaars to support local artisans and small businesses in selling their products during Ramadan. Launched in close partnership with the Department of Economic Development, and Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment (DFRE), an agency of Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, the platform aims to keep trade flowing during Ramadan amid the social distancing in place to protect people from Covid-19. Built in just three weeks, Manasah.com will help small businesses, currently unable to trade in physical environments, sell their goods online during Ramadan. Sellers can now register on manasah.com for free. The site features a contactless delivery option to minimise the need for human interaction, DP World said. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group chairman and CEO of DP World said: Ramadan Bazaars are an important part of what makes the Holy Month special in the United Arab Emirates. Many artisans and small traders have spent months making their products and we want to ensure they still have a marketplace. The purpose of manasah.com is to bring people together this Ramadan, even when they have to physically stay apart. Sami Al Qamzi, director general of Dubai Economy said: Our partnership with DP World underlines our commitment to support young start-ups such as DED Trader licence holders to conduct business activities electronically. The launch of manasah.com will further add to the convenience of the community as they can stay home and shop during the Holy Month of Ramadan. The DED Trader licence provides an added marketing channel and e-commerce platform to the business community in Dubai and reflects our focus on enhancing ease of doing business as well as driving the overall competitiveness and sustainable growth of Dubai. Ahmed Al Khaja, CEO of Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment (DFRE) said: This Ramadan will truly be unlike any we have experienced before and we know there is even more importance and emphasis on the spirit of our community, supporting our neighbours and coming together, while maintaining social distancing. The Manasah platform is a vital tool in supporting our small business sector, one that has been greatly impacted in recent weeks and one which needs a good deal of protection from the industry. Initiatives of this kind, which bring our community closer together while also keeping them safe, are to be applauded and recognised; we look forward to seeing its impact throughout the Holy Month. Ramadan bazaars are a popular attraction in the UAE during Ramadan. Thousands of people flock to buy clothes, crafts and hand-made jewellery and to sample delicious food. Apart from providing an opportunity for local artisans and small businesses to sell their products, it is also an expression of the countrys culture, building community spirit among citizens and residents. TradeArabia News Service NEW YORK - Mary Parker is a nurse from St. Louis so caught up in the beach novels of Elin Hilderbrand that she makes an annual trip to Nantucket, the Massachusetts island community where Hilderbrand sets her stories. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. This combination photo of cover images shows, from left, "Hello Summer" by Mary Kay Andrews, "Girls of Summer" by Nancy Thayer, "A Week at the Shore" by Barbara Delinsky, "28 Summers" by Elin Hilderbrand and "Summer Darlings" by Brooke Lea Foster. (St. Martin's Press/Ballantine Books/St. Martin's Press/Little, Brown and Company/Gallery Books via AP) NEW YORK - Mary Parker is a nurse from St. Louis so caught up in the beach novels of Elin Hilderbrand that she makes an annual trip to Nantucket, the Massachusetts island community where Hilderbrand sets her stories. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Parker isn't sure she'll make it to Nantucket this year or even find herself close to a beach. But she will continue to make the journey in her mind, through books by Hilderbrand and others. We don't have anything that compares to a place like Nantucket where I'm from," Parker says. So writers like Elin Hilderbrand are all we have now if those are the kinds of places you dream of being. You just need that escape." The coronavirus has already shut down most of the country's bookstores, led to the cancellation of the industry's annual national convention, BookExpo, and driven publishers to postpone many releases to the fall or next year. It now challenges another publishing and cultural tradition beach reads. While beach reads can include any kind of light fiction, many of these romances, thrillers and family dramas are actually set on beaches and summer resorts from Nantucket to the South Carolina coast to Florida. This combination of photos shows the cover image for "Girls of Summer" and a portrait of author Nancy Thayer. The book will be available on May 26. (Ballantine, left, and Katie Kaizer via AP) Government officials in New York and California already have warned that beaches are likely to be closed this summer and travel restricted. Such summer literary institutions as the book festival in Nantucket will be held online instead. And promotional tours for books will likely remain limited to virtual discussions. Authors and booksellers contend, and hope, that you don't need a beach to read a beach book. Hilderbrand remembers a painful summer growing up when her father had died and the family's traditional summer outing was called off. Instead, she worked at a factory making Halloween costumes. What I could have used that summer was a book to replace my summer beach vacation, something that would have let me escape," says Hildebrand, whose bestsellers include The Summer of '69 and The Perfect Couple. Fellow author Mary Alice Monroe says readers tell her something similar about this summer. They're hoping I can take them to a place they can't get to themselves, says Monroe, whose books include The Summer Guests and Beach House for Rent. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Beach reads are as carefully timed as Christmas books, so new novels by Hilderbrand, Monroe, Nancy Thayer and others remain scheduled for May and June. Hildebrand's 28 Summers, inspired in part by the film Same Time, Next Year, traces a long-term affair that began in Nantucket in 1993. Monroe's On Ocean Boulevard continues her Beach House series set in South Carolina. In Barbara Delinsky's A Week at the Shore, a New Yorker confronts family issues during a visit to the Rhode Island beach house where she spent summers as a child. Nancy Thayer's Girls of Summer, like Hilderbrand's new book, is set in Nantucket, while Mary Kay Andrews' Hello, Summer finds a journalist returning to her home in Silver Bay, Florida, where her family runs local newspapers. This year, maybe the beach read will be on somebody's back porch or hammock or in the corner of an apartment of wherever they're sheltering at home, Andrews says. What I hope to do is take them to the beach in their imagination. Authors already are looking to the summer of 2021 and considering whether their next books will mention the pandemic. Monroe says she is working on a story that will have her characters living through this virus saga, and will brink back the Rutledge family of her Beach House series in the hope that readers will connect with them. Hilderbrand worked in a reference to the virus shortly before completing 28 Summers, and says that while it won't be a major plot point in her upcoming work, she might find it unavoidable to mention. Other writers expect to avoid it, at least in the short term. Delinsky says she might refer to it in a book in a few years, when there's a better sense of perspective. Brooke Lea Foster has no need to include it. Her upcoming novel, Summer Darlings, takes place on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, in the 1960s. She's currently writing a story set in the Hamptons in the 1950s. I'm sure the books that come out of this moment will be incredible, but I like to go back and escape in time," Foster said. Guwahati, April 21 : Amid the nationwide lockdown, a 45-years-old migrant worker from Gujarat reached his home in Assam in 24-days after a 2,890-km trip, of which he had to walk about 1,500 km. Jadav Gogoi, who was working as a security guard in Gujarat's Rajkot city, was admitted at the civil hospital at the Nagaon district headquarters for mandatory quarantine for nCoV. He was rescued by the locals and police at Ahotguri, 35-km from the district headquarters, on Sunday evening. Doctors attending to Gogoi said that besides obligatory quarantine formalities, he needed other medical treatments as he was physically exhausted apart from other ailments for walking thousand of kolometres without sufficient food and other precautions. According to the man's family and villagers, when the lockdown started on March 25, Gogoi left Gujarat with his three colleagues from Bihar in an Uttar Pradesh-bound goods-ladden truck. From Uttar Pradesh, Gogoi and his three companions started walking for Bihar on March 27. "The exact distance and names of places he walked could not be ascertained because Jadav, who is not comfortable in reading and speaking Hindi, also could not distinguish where he had alighted in Uttar Pradesh. "Guided by his three colleagues, Gogoi walked till Bihar where the others stayed back," Asom Jatiatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) leader Dibyajit Hazarika told IANS on phone. The distance by road from Lucknow to Nagaon in central Assam is around 1,500 km. For Gogoi, the last leg of his journey on foot across Bihar was the most strenuous one. From Bihar, he alone had to walk the remaining stretch of around 1,000 km. Hazarika said that Gogoi was in a hurry to reach home and did not even take a day's rest when his colleagues stayed back in Bihar. According to the AJYCP leader, right from the begining, he survived on biscuits and unhygienic water as roadside hotels, food stalls and other eateries had been shut because of the lockdown. Besides, he did not have money as he was robbed of the Rs 4,000 he carried and other valuables including mobile phone on the way. Gogoi's wife Puspalata told the local media: "He (Gogoi) was working in Gujarat for the past nine months. He had told me that he would come back home permanently on Bohag Bihu and start farming in the village. When the lockdown was announced, he feared we would suffer in his absence and that forced him to come back home on foot." Ranjit Phukan, a neighbour of Gogoi, told the media, "From March 27 till Sunday, Jadav called me several times from his own mobile and subsequently from others' moble (after he was robbed), but I was not able to lend any real help to him except to give some suggestions during his walkathon." The Assam government on Monday launched the "Assam Cares" app to provide financial aid to thousands of Assamese stranded in various states due to the lockdown. Assam's Finance and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said through phones and online platforms, over 4.25 lakh Assamese stranded in other states had been contacted. "We have provided a one-time ex gratia of Rs 2,000 to 86,000 of the 4.25 lakh people. Another instalment would also be considered during the lockdown," he said. He said over 68,000 Assamese were stuck in Karnataka, 36,000 in Tamil Nadu, 34,000 in Kerala, 21,000 in Maharashtra and the rest in other states. "Through the process of providing financial aid, the government will be able to create database of the stranded people. It will help the state locate them on return to the state after the end of lockdown," the Assam Minister said. According to officials of six other northeastern states (excluding Assam), over 15,000 people including migrant workers of the northeastern region are stranded in different states of the country due to the lockdown. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) When Canadians see their fellow countrymen killed, their resiliency against hate and evil is shown through numbers numbers of hugs, numbers of vigils, and large numbers at funerals. This past weekends shootings in Portapique, N.S. where at least 23 are confirmed dead, will be an especially lonely time considering the restrictions of gatherings in the province due to the pandemic. Its going to be hard on their loved ones, because everything that they do is going to remind them that they're not doing exactly what they want they cant touch, they cant give someone a hug, said Karen Blair, Associate Professor of Psychology at St. Francis University in Nova Scotia. It is an unprecedented time in Canadian history where many people are advised not to leave their homes and mass gatherings are banned. However it will make the healing process for a community, a province, and a country in the wake of the biggest mass shooting in its history feel incomplete. This is unique given the unexpected violence of these peoples deaths, but not being able to say goodbye or see their loved ones one last time is a shared experience across the globe right now, she said. DEBERT, NS - APRIL 20: A woman and her daughter place a heart on a fence at a growing memorial in front of the Debert School April 20, 2020 in Debert, Nova Scotia, Canada. Lisa McCully, a teacher at the school, was one of 19 people killed during Sunday's shooting rampage, including the gunman. The rampage, which was Canada's worst mass killing, began Saturday night in Portapique, and continued through other rural communities in the Maritime Provinces. (Photo by Tim Krochak/Getty Images) Portapique is based in rural Nova Scotia, approx. 120 kilometres north of Halifax with a population of around 250 people, but for those who live in small provinces, Blair notes that every person is just six degrees of separation away. Nearly everyone in Nova Scotia will have some sort of connection, big or small to someone who was killed which is unfathomable, to have that deep connection, she said. RCMP confirmed shootings took place at sixteen different locations across the town, and at least five structure fires were set, which have not yet been investigated. The killer is described as a 51-year-old man, who was a denturist and wore an RCMP-lookalike uniform and refitted his vehicle to look like a police car. In some cases, loved ones may not necessarily be able to even hold funeral processions for the victims. For example, in response to Nova Scotia RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson being killed in action, police forces would normally have sent officers to join a regiment procession, but a handful across the country have said they will not be sending anyone given the ongoing pandemic. Story continues Funerals, death rituals are important to all people...its going to have an impact on the sense of having closure, said Blair. ENFIELD, NS - APRIL 20: Children sign a Canadian flag at an impromptu memorial in front of the RCMP detachment April 20, 2020 in Enfield, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was the home detachment of slain RCMP Constable Heidi Stevenson, who was one of 19 people killed during Sunday's shooting rampage, including the gunman. The rampage, which was Canada's worst mass killing, began Saturday night in Portapique, and continued through other rural communities in the Maritime Provinces. (Photo by Tim Krochak/Getty Images) However, social and physical distancing did not stop Nova Scotians from showing their support. Whether they lined up six feet apart all the way to their local detachments, or dropped off flowers or shared a photo, theyre still showing their love despite the extenuating circumstances. The flip side is well get to see the beauty and creativity in humans and the lengths they will go to create that sense of a community, they will do this in a unique way, she said. Usually in times of grief, Canadians rally together. Following the Quebec Mosque shooting in 2017, dozens of vigils were held across Canada, including one in Quebec which the Prime Minister attended. During the gathering, speeches were given, and following the procession people walked to the site of the shootings. But, none of that is possible now, as COVID-19 recommendations limit touch, mass gatherings and being within six feet of someone. Blair has studied the aftermath of mass shootings, and specifically the collective grief process felt by community members, loved ones and people online. The natural reaction in times like this is to come together in large groups, the exact things we cannot do, this is going to exacerbate the struggles for those in the community with not being able to see the people they care about, she said. In some circumstances, people are living alone or just with their small families, and while theyve lost loved ones, they cannot reach out for the in-person help they need. I cant imagine for people who are truly living alone right now, this is going to be incredibly challenging, this will exacerbate all the mental health challenges which are already being pushed to the limit by COVID, said Blair. With over a month of stay-at-home orders for Nova Scotians in place, Blair notes that many people are already likely feeling affected by being constrained and these events will compound depreciating mental health symptoms. People are already at risk with heightened levels of mental health issues such as loneliness, depression and anxiety simply because of the pandemic, she said. Importance of vigils, gatherings following mass shooting Through Blairs career she has studied the effects of mass gatherings and vigils following; the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla. which left 50 dead; the Pittsburgh, Penn. synagogue shooting where 11 were killed; and Christchurch, New Zealand shooting in 2019 where a gunman killed 51 people at two different mosques. All three of the shootings had different targets, but all three had a common thread in terms of healing, according to Blair. The common thread across all of those in terms of how people were responding and how they worked through their grief was the ability to come together and hold vigils and be reminded of connections in the community, said Blair. Some Haligonians describe the tiny northern community as being religious and church-going people, and Blair said her research shows gatherings to show solidarity would have helped in the healing process. After Pittsburgh it was important for Jewish people to gather with Jewish people and with broader community members, we saw the same in Christchurch for Muslim people, said Blair. Following the Pulse shootings, the LGBTQ communities in different cities across the world used their annual Pride festival to showcase and pay homage to the victims. Pulse was important because all the Pride festivals took on a new meaning, they became places for people to grieve openly, said Blair. Karen Blair, Associate Professor of Psychology at St. Francis University in Nova Scotia said her research of the aftermath of mass shootings indicates the lack of gatherings and vigils will affect the victim's loved ones during the healing process. (Supplied) Importance of touch Most of the initial mourning done by families will take place in their homes or private settings, with no one able to share or celebrate the lives of those taken from them. This is human evil that is taking peoples lives, it makes people want to come together and tell their stories of their loved ones, to celebrate them, said Blair. Blair notes that the touch of a hand on the shoulder, burrowing your face into someone's chest to cry, or a hug can be a massive comfort for those who feel lonely during death. Physical touch is so important for our mental wellbeing and health, and especially in a time of grief, people want to hold each other. she said. The togetherness of a vigil and a time of solitude against hate and in support of a sense of community, Blair said it begins the process of healing. At vigils you see people standing so close together, strangers hugging and crying, theyre such intimate settings, she said. The loneliness and isolation created by the COVID-19 pandemic has decreased the sense of community, the ability to share stories and cry together and Blair fears those in the community will hold this pain longer than most. Their grief will be with them forever, this lack of closure will make it harder for them to move forward, said Blair. As the weeks go by, Blair encourages her fellow Nova Scotians and Canadians to continue checking in on the community members. WASHINGTON Ashee Groce doesnt know if shell be able to vote in Georgias primary. Groce, 21, attends Spelman College in Atlanta but is from California and staying in South Carolina with a friend after her school closed for the the semester during the coronavirus pandemic. California voted when Groce was in Atlanta. Georgia was supposed to vote March 24 but pushed back its primary until June 9, and Groce doesn't know if she will be able to get an absentee ballot sent to South Carolina. She didn't return to California amid the pandemic, because she has family there who are immunocompromised. Me and a lot of my peers are afraid," Groce said. "I just feel like a lot of people who look like me and who are in similar situations that I'm in aren't going to be counted, and that's just a very big disappointment." Many young voters' lives have been upended after universities and colleges closed campuses and moved to online classes. As a result, millions of students have left their college housing and headed home to different cities and, in some cases, different states. More than 4,000 colleges and universities have closed or been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, affecting more than 25 million students, according to Entangled Solutions, an education consultant group. The University of Georgia in Athens moved all classes online for the remainder of spring and summer semesters and canceled spring commencement to prevent the spread of COVID-19. As colleges and universities try to figure out when to allow students to return to campus, students face questions of how or whether they will be able to vote in primaries or even the general election. The obstacles for young voters could dampen participation that is already lower for the group. Young voters skew more diverse and liberal than older voters and are a key demographic for Democrats looking to take back the White House. If college students facing voting barriers decide to sit out in November, advocates say it could have a serious effect on the election. "Theres no question that over the past 10 years, diverse young people have affected the outcome of elections across the country, especially young people of color," said Abby Kiesa, director of impact at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University. Story continues More: Coronavirus could change where students go to college, if they go at all What changed this year? More than a dozen states have delayed primary elections or extended deadlines to access an absentee ballot this year during the pandemic. Each state has its own rules and deadlines for voting absentee. At least 35 states have no excuse absentee voting meaning there is no excuse needed to request an absentee ballot. The rest of the states have a list of excuses that voters must qualify for to receive an absentee ballot. Voting rights advocates and some lawmakers, including former first lady Michelle Obama and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., are pushing to expand vote-by-mail in an effort to deepen the voter pool. Some experts who study young voters said that still might leave college students on the sidelines. A campus center that would normally be alive with activity is almost empty because of the coronavirus at Stockton University in Galloway Township, N.J., on April 1. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director for CIRCLE, said expanded vote-by-mail could create barriers for young voters, who would probably be building a brand new habit and behavior by having to receive and mail something, just to vote. She noted that filling out paperwork, such as an absentee ballot request, could be daunting for young voters, who often have questions about official forms and paperwork. Young voters are used to doing everything paperless, Kawashima-Ginsberg said, whether out of convenience or because theyre more environmentally conscious. Kawashima-Ginsberg said it "would be naive" to think "young people already know how to receive mail, fill out a large volume form in person by paper and then send it back." In some states, it is difficult for all voters, not just young ones, to vote absentee. One example is Texas, which has long leaned Republican but where Democrats hope they can compete in the general election. Texas allows only four "excuses" for requesting an absentee ballot. Katya Ehresman, 21, a student at the University of Texas-Austin, said "it's terrifying" to think of the hurdles students could face in the fall if another coronavirus outbreak occurs. Ehresman is a member of the student advisory board for Campus Vote Project, an organization that works to reduce barriers to student voting. "I know a lot of people, myself included, are just scared to go outside, let alone wait in a long line to potentially vote," says Katya Ehresman, 21, a junior from the University of Texas-Austin. "In addition to trying to register voters, I try to knock on doors for candidates as much as I can, and that's been completely removed as a possibility," she said. "I know a lot of people, myself included, are just scared to go outside, let alone wait in a long line to potentially vote. "Students had a hard time turning out anyway, just because of accessibility issues, and so I think if you make it that much harder, it's scarier," she said. "It's really worrying." Wednesday, Travis County, Texas, District Judge Tim Sulak issued an order to ease restrictions on mail-in-voting for the primary elections in July and for the general election in November. The order, included in a ruling on a lawsuit from voting rights groups and students from the University of Texas, will probably be challenged by Republicans in the state before the general election. Survey: More people change their behavior during coronavirus as concern ticks up What is being done to help college students ? As states alter their primary dates and vote-by-mail rules, organizations such as Rock the Vote try to make that information easy for young voters to access. In late March, the organization said it fast-tracked its website to include information on election changes during the coronavirus pandemic. For young people who have been trying to participate in the last few weeks in the upcoming primaries, participating in these elections is more akin to being displaced after a natural disaster than it is for most older voters who haven't been displaced, said Carolyn DeWitt, president of Rock the Vote. Coronavirus 'confusion': Teachers had little training for how to do online classes Kawashima-Ginsberg said elections are often run by an older generation, who might not be aware of these hurdles for young voters, and assume that voting absentee is as simple as writing a check. If you tell somebody to do something that they've never done in their life, you have to prepare for that, DeWitt said. You have to actually help them understand how to do that well. Kawashima-Ginsberg noted that research shows the best way to reach out to young voters and keep them engaged is by "leveraging relationships that are already in place," such as a friend or family member. "One of the very concrete things that's been happening is sort of the inability for young people to actually gather and go to rallies and protests, which was becoming huge," she said, questioning whether young voters can continue to create a bond that allows them to feel like they are civic leaders in their communities. A class war? A global power shift? A world isolated? How experts see the future after coronavirus. "Different organizations are really trying to regroup and figure out how do we maintain this kind of identity that's collective impact," Kawashima-Ginsberg said. If social distancing guidelines are still in place in the fall, that work becomes increasingly difficult. Ehresman, the student at UT, said the Campus Voting Project is trying to create a virtual community to fill that void. Students share posts that point their peers toward voting resources and host Netflix watch parties to try to stay connected. Many students feel overwhelmed with regular life during the pandemic and issues such as school and finances are more at the forefront of their lives than voting. "Voting is definitely not the priority right now," said Groce, the Spelman student. "You know, in the case of this pandemic, you have to do what you have to do to save lives." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: College students worry about how voting will be affected Indore, April 21 : Yashwant Pal became the second police inspector in Madhya Pradesh in three days to die due to complications arising out of coronavirus infection. Pal, a Town Inspector of the Neelganga police station in Ujjain, was undergoing treatment at Aurobindo Hospital, here, for 10 days, the police said. Pal's colleague from Indore, Devendra Kumar Chandravanshi died on Saturday night due to the complications from Covid-19. "My humble tribute to Neelganga police station in-charge who laid down his life on the altar of duty fighting Covid-19", Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted. The MP Police also paid tribute to 'martyr' cop who died in the line of duty to coronavirus. Ujjain Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rupesh Kumar Dwivedi said the inspector was also treated for four days at a hospital in Ujjain after he contracted the disease. After his condition deteriorated, he was shifted to Indore's hospital. He is survived by wife and two daughters. His wife is a tehsildar (revenue officer) in neighbouring Dhar district. Dr Vinod Bhandari of Aurobindo Hospital said the inspector had a severe breathing problem and was put on a ventilator for 48 hours before he died. He also suffered from high blood pressure. The police suspect the inspector contracted the infection while manning Ambar Colony, a containment area in Ujjain. According to officials, the inspector was cured of coronavirus and doctors suspected that he died due to "pulmonary embolism" caused by blood clots. Pulmonary embolism could have resulted from coronavirus infection, they said. Mayor John Tory will ask Toronto city council to extend the state of emergency over COVID-19 when it holds its first-ever online meeting April 30. Asked Tuesday to confirm Star sources about the request, Torys office issued a statement from the mayor: My view today is that we are still in an emergency. Based on the advice of our Medical Officer of Health, this is still an emergency and we need to make sure the City government is nimble and flexible to respond quickly, protect peoples health and save lives. I will therefore put the matter of an extension of the emergency in front of the City Council when it meets on April 30. In the coming days ahead of this meeting, I will be speaking with councillors about that and why it is important to continue following the Medical Officer of Healths advice. Asked how long an extension of emergency powers the mayor wants, Peat said Tory would discuss that with his council colleagues and Dr. Eileen de Villa, the medical officer of health. An extension would allow Tory to continue to issue emergency orders related to the COVID-19 crisis. Peat said the mayor fully expects to continue consulting councillors as he and the mayors office has done throughout this emergency. Tory declared the state of emergency March 23, allowing him to pass bylaws related to the crisis without seeking council approval. The mayors emergency orders have included a bylaw making it illegal for people to get within two metres of non-household members in parks and public squares. During the crisis, the city based on the medical officer of healths advice has also banned the use of park amenities including playgrounds and recommended closures to some non-essential businesses. By provincial law, under the emergency declaration, Tory must convene city council within 30 days of issuing an order under his powers, in this case by May 2. Given public health direction to avoid public gatherings, council will gather from home, and vote, via the Cisco WebEx video meeting software used for the citys weekday COVID-19 news conferences. A notice to councillors Tuesday said they will get a presentation and reports from Tory and city officials on the emergency including any actions requiring council decision to aid in the ongoing management of the emergency. Theyll also consider changes to permit electronic participation in meetings during periods of provincial or municipal emergency and be asked to authorize, without council approval, local city boards permitting electronic participation. Members of the public will be able to watch council, as usual, via Toronto councils YouTube channel. A source told the Star that council is likely to be asked to schedule another meeting to follow. Other GTA cities, including Mississauga, have already met online during the crisis. Councillors are also expected to talk about the massive hit the pandemic is taking on the city of Torontos finances. The loss of revenue for services, including the TTC, and extra expenses for public health and more, is forecast to cost Toronto at least $1.5 billion this year and, under an extended lockdown, $2.7 billion. Coun. Gary Crawford, Torys budget chief, told the Star on Tuesday he would vote to extend the mayors emergency powers. We clearly are not through the emergency, said Crawford (Ward 20 Scarborough Southwest). If the mayor in consultation with the city manager and chief medical officer of health recommend continuing or extending the emergency, I will support it. Crawford said that, after an unprecedented spring break, council needs to address emergency response matters, the citys financial state and how to continue with regular city business. Coun. Gord Perks, a frequent critic of Tory on council, said he would not decide whether to vote to extend the mayors emergency powers until he heard the rationale for doing so. Perks called council meeting online necessary but the second best option. There are a lot of advantages to meeting in public, said Perks (Ward 4 Parkdale-High Park). You can physically watch what were doing. In this (online) scenario that goes out the window you dont know whos back-channelling by text or anything like that. He said council needs to decide on Torys physical distancing bylaw and talk about city finances and negotiations with the federal government for financial relief. David Rider is the Stars City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering city hall and municipal politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider Read more about: FILE PHOTO: Actor Idris Elba arrives for the world premiere of the movie "Cats" in Manhattan, New York By Megan Rowling BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - British actor and filmmaker Idris Elba launched a new United Nations fund on Monday to help farmers in poorer nations, calling on richer economies to provide aid to prevent "needless hunger and suffering" stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. Elba and his wife, model and activist Sabrina Dhowre Elba, gave their support to a fund set up by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), to help stop economic shocks caused by COVID-19 triggering a global food crisis. The couple, who were also designated on Monday as goodwill ambassadors for IFAD, contracted the virus themselves in March although reportedly only suffered mild symptoms. "The world's advanced economies are in the midst of this pandemic right now and, of course, they must do everything they can to help their own people," said Elba, 47, in a statement. "But the fact is, global action is also a matter of self-interest. As long as the pandemic is still raging anywhere, it will pose a threat everywhere," he added, urging donors to ramp up financial support to keep rural food systems operating. IFAD, a U.N. agency that promotes rural development, said it would put $40 million into the new fund to counter the effects of the pandemic on food production, market access and employment in developing countries. It also aims to raise at least $200 million more from governments, foundations and the private sector. In December Elba and his wife visited rural Sierra Leone, where IFAD provided financial services to communities hit by Ebola. Since the coronavirus began to spread in developing nations, IFAD has been finding ways to help rural families - many of them poor farmers - deal with the deadly disease's ripple effects. In eastern Senegal, where a curfew and market closures make it hard to sell produce or livestock, the agency is supporting cash transfers and subsidies via smartphones, and distributing seeds and fertilisers ahead of the planting season. Story continues In India's Odisha state, it has worked with local authorities to get watermelons transported to markets, avoiding the loss of 600 tonnes of fruit due to COVID-19 restrictions. IFAD President Gilbert F. Houngbo, who was raised in rural Togo, West Africa, said farmers were worried about losing their income during the pandemic as lockdown measures in many places could stop them selling crops and buying seeds and fertilisers. He warned if this happened, progress in the fight against poverty could be upended for the first time in three decades. "What we are talking about is the risk of a health crisis creating a food crisis," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "(But) I think we have to go even beyond the risk of food insecurity and look at it as we, as a global community, going backwards in the fight against poverty." (Reporting by Megan Rowling @meganrowling; editing by Belinda Goldsmith. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate) Google said on Tuesday it would stop charging merchants to place products on its Google Shopping search page as it looks to win e-commerce advertising business from Amazon and other online retailers, just as they are struggling to supply customers with some items due to the coronavirus pandemic. The move is the latest effort by Google to reinvigorate its Shopping service, which has been largely eclipsed by Amazon, where most online shoppers now start searches for products and merchants pay to feature prominently. Google, part of Alphabet, has up to now charged merchants whose products appear when users click on the Shopping tab on Google's search engine. Amazon, which charges merchants only to promote items high on searches but takes a cut of their sales, is increasingly eating into that business. By adopting a system akin to Amazon's, Google is hoping more merchants will put their products on its service, which will attract more shoppers and ultimately increase ad revenue as merchants vie to be featured. "If you work with the ecosystem, there will be monetization opportunities that come on top of that," Google's president of commerce Bill Ready told Reuters in an interview. The new policy had been in the works for some time, Ready said, but was brought forward as some stores struggle to find buyers because of the virus. Some merchants said they lost sales during the outbreak when Amazon.com stopped offering fast shipping on some products so it could prioritize what it called essential items. Google's plan will take effect next week in the United States and by the end of the year globally. The move is a gamble for Google, as it may lead to a short-term loss of advertising revenue and does not guarantee an influx of new customers. WASHINGTON While late-stage negotiations in Washington on a new $450 billion coronavirus aid package dragged past Mondays hoped-for deadline, New Mexico businesses were being urged to continue their application process and not wait for final approval of the deal that would replenish the Paycheck Protection Program. Trump administration and key lawmakers on Monday insisted a final pact is within reach, and President Donald Trump said he expects a Senate vote hopefully on Tuesday. As talks continued, the contours of the deal appear largely set. Most of the funding, some $300 billion, would go to boost the small-business payroll loan program that ran out of money last week, leaving thousands of New Mexico businesses and others across the country out of luck. The package provides additional help to hospitals, and billions more would be spent to boost testing for the virus, a key step in building the confidence required to reopen state economies. The emerging draft measure originally designed by Republicans as a $250 billion stopgap to replenish the payroll subsidies for smaller businesses has grown into the second-largest of the four coronavirus response bills so far. Democratic demands have caused the measure to balloon, though they likely will be denied the money they want to help struggling state and local governments. The Senate met for a brief pro forma session Monday afternoon that could have provided a window to act on the upcoming measure under fast-track procedures requiring unanimous consent to advance legislation, but it wasnt ready in time. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., set up another Senate session for Tuesday in the hope that an agreement will be finished by then. Its now been four days since the Paycheck Protection Program ran out of money. Republicans have been trying to secure more funding for this critical program for a week and a half now, McConnell said. Our Democratic colleagues are still prolonging their discussions with the administration, so the Senate regretfully will not be able to pass more funding for Americans paychecks today. The House has announced it could meet as soon as Wednesday for a vote on the pending package, according to a schedule update from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. The chamber is likely to have to call lawmakers back to Washington for a vote, which will present logistical challenges. NM businesses in limbo The governments Paycheck Protection Program has been swamped by companies applying for loans and reached its appropriations limit last Thursday after approving nearly 1.7 million loans. That left thousands of small businesses including many in New Mexico in limbo as they sought help. According to the Small Business Administration, 5,365 loans were granted to New Mexico businesses for a total of $1.1 billion through the Paycheck Protection Program compared to $3.5 billion funded in Arizona, $5.8 billion in Colorado and $21.8 billion in Texas. When the spigot ran dry, some untold number of businesses were still stuck in the starting gate, working on the sometimes lengthy application process, but not far enough along to receive an SBA loan number or an e-tran number that their loan would come through. If you got an e-tran number, that means the SBA set the money aside, in theory, to pay the loan, said Michelle Coons, regional president-New Mexico for WaFd bank (formerly Washington Federal Bank). If you got that number, that means that your bank or credit union or whoever can prepare docs to give you the money. Those who have applied, but had not yet received a number are still in the pipeline and do not need to start from scratch, she said. While Congress and the White House wrangle over deals, many lenders are encouraging businesses to keep working on their applications so theyll be in line if and when the new deal comes through. Theyre sitting on our desks, waiting for money to be reallocated, said Sheila Mathews, president and CEO of Four Corners Community Bank in Farmington. Front-loading work on the application is particularly crucial for organizations such as some nonprofits or microbusinesses that dont have an existing relationship with the lender theyre applying through, Coons said. Not all lenders are accepting applications from non-clients, but lenders that are, like WaFd and, in some cases, Four Corners Community Bank, need several extra days to make compliance checks, she said. Its been crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy, said Mathews, who added her staff was ready to start processing PPP applications at 5 a.m. local time on April 3, when the SBAs portal first opened. Weve never done this many loans in this short a time ever. Large chains funded The emerging accord links the administrations effort to replenish the small-business fund with Democrats demands for more money for hospitals and virus testing. It would set aside $60 billion or so for community lenders that seek to focus on underbanked neighborhoods and rural areas. Another $60 billion would be available for a small-business loans and grants program that has previously been aimed at helping businesses harmed by such natural disasters as hurricanes. Additionally, it would bring $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing, according to those involved in the talks. The SBA loans, based on a companys payroll costs, offer owners forgiveness if they retain workers or rehire those who have been laid off. The law provides for forgiveness for companies in any industry even businesses such as hedge funds and law firms. Theres a limit of $100,000 on the amount of employees compensation that can be considered when loan forgiveness is calculated. Criticism of the PPPs first round design has mounted amid news that some major chains were able to qualify for the aid, despite it being intended to help smaller businesses. Restaurant chains Shake Shack, Ruths Hospitality Group and Potbellys each announced last week theyd obtained loans worth a combined $40 million under the program. Although the loans are within the guidelines of the PPP, Shake Shack said Monday it will return its loan to give smaller restaurants a chance to get government money. The New York burger chain, which employs nearly 8,000 workers across 189 outlets, said it secured alternate funding. The Associated Press Andrew Taylor and Lisa Mascaro contributed to the story. Ramu Patil By Express News Service BENGALURU: Karnataka hopes to make the most of the changed world order in which big firms and countries may look for cost-effective alternatives to China.As states that make the first move stand to gain, Karnataka Industries Department has already started reaching out to investors. We already have a number of investors from Japan, South Korea and other countries. We are reaching out to them actively to see that whatever opportunities are here are made known to them. We have started holding interactions over phone, email and also video-conference, state Industries Department Principal Secretary Gaurav Gupta told The New Indian Express. Availability of skilled manpower and the industrial ecosystem is likely to give the state a head-start in the post-COVID competition to woo the investors. However, land acquisition and speed at which necessary approvals are given still remain a challenge. But Gupta said land acquisition is not an issue. For Japanese firms, we have the 500-acre Japan Industrial Township ready and we have been trying to market it for the last six months. Land is also available near Bengaluru and we will also activate work on clusters, including the Compete With China clusters which have been created anticipating large-scale manufacturing, he said. Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar is also optimistic. We may face difficulties over the next two-three months, but after that, the situation will help us. We will be in an advantageous position, said Shettar, who plans to meet with experts to work out strategies to speed up the process soon.Experts, however, are wary. India will be competing with Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries. It is difficult, but possible (to attract investment), provided the central/state government and the local administration work together with a clear focus, says D Muralidhar, former chairman and head of research wing at Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI). A Gururaj, former head, Karnatakas Mobile Phones Cluster Vision Group, said: Many are already contacting me about investment opportunities in India. States that will move quickly will be the beneficiaries, but the state government should move quickly. In Malawi, nurses stage a walkout in hospitals across the country over working conditions amid fears they won't be able to handle a spike in coronavirus cases. The strike comes amid divisions in the country over whether or not to implement a lockdown. Meanwhile in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has lashed out at bandits, who he says are taking advantage of the lockdown. Gunmen are responsible for at least 47 deaths in the north-eastern state of Katsina in recent days. Congratulations, tigo.cd got a very good Social Media Impact Score! Show it by adding this HTML code on your site: Tigo.cd scored 71 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 3.5/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 27 Jul 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. tigo.cd is very popular in Facebook. Furthermore its facebook page has 209130 likes. The total number of people who shared the tigo homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the tigo homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the tigo homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the tigo homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if tigo has a Facebook fan page). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the tigo homepage on Twitter + the total number of tigo followers (if tigo has a Twitter account). Basic Information PAGE TITLE Tigo Accueil | Tigo RDC DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS services, internet, service, service client, produits, client, tigo cash CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. Domain and Server DOCTYPE CHARSET AND LANGUAGE French UTF-8French DETECTED LANGUAGE French French SERVER nginx (PHP/5.3.19-1~dotdeb.0) OPERATIVE SYSTEM The language of tigo.cd as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Type of server and offered services. Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Operative System running on the server. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for tigo.cd by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK FOUND FACEBOOK PAGE www.facebook.com/tigordc DESCRIPTION http://www.tigo.cd LIKES 209130 PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT 18784 PAGE TYPE Telecommunication TIMELINE PAGE TIMELINE The type of Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. 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. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The URL of the found Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Opel workers in Ruesselsheim, Germany, April 6, 2017. Workers at all Opel sites are holding staff meetings in order to determine their future in the wake the acquisition of the car company by PSA Peugeot Citroen. French automaker PSA on Tuesday warned of sharp falls in demand for the sector this year after posting a 15.6% drop in first-quarter sales but maintained its mid-term operating margin goal. The maker of Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Vauxhall is working through a merger with Italy's Fiat Chrysler but like its peers has been forced to shutter plants due to the coronavirus outbreak. The group said revenue for the January-March quarter stood at 15.2 billion euros ($16.47 billion). It maintained its target for an average adjusted operating target of over 4.5% for its automotive division over the 2019 to 2021 period. "Having secured liquidity and drastically cut costs, the group is now fully focused on preparing for the rebound in a chaotic economic environment," Financial Chief Philippe de Rovira said in a statement. PSA said it now expects the auto sector to fall by 25% in Europe and Latin America this year, by 20% in Russia, and by 10% in China. Like French rival Renault, PSA has been in talks with unions to try and work out a schedule to reopen its factories in France with new sanitary protocols. Its British brand Vauxhall is looking at temperature checks and shift rescheduling to plan the reopening of its two U.K. factories. France and many other European countries are still under strict lockdowns, though China is now emerging from confinement. Iran Unveils New Class of Radars That Can See Into US Bases Near Its Borders Sputnik News 11:31 GMT 20.04.2020 The radar systems are expected to radically improve Iran's air defence capability, and to make the country less vulnerable to surprise attack. Iran's defence industry unveiled a pair of advanced 3D phased array radar systems at a ceremony attended by senior military leaders on Sunday, Tasnim News Agency has reported. The radars, named the Khalij-e Fars ('Persian Gulf') and the Moraqeb ('Watchful') were demonstrated to Army Commander Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi and Army Air Defence Forces Commander Brig. Gen. Alireza Sabahifard. The Khalij-e Fars is described as a 3D phased array radar with an operational range of over 800 km and the capability to detect conventional air targets, as well as stealthy radar-evading aircraft and ballistic missiles. The Moraqeb, meanwhile, is a mobile, towable 3D phased radar system with a 400 km range, capable of high-accuracy target detection, and the identification of flying objects with a small radar cross section, including low-altitude UAVs. The radars are said to have been developed in cooperation between Iranian knowledge-based companies and the Army's air defence forces. The new systems' unveiling comes on the heels of the delivery of three new types of domestically-developed drone systems for use by the Air Force and Air Defence units on Saturday. Despite the fact that it spends several orders of magnitude less on defence than its regional and global adversaries, such as the United States, Saudi Arabia or Israel, Iran's defence sector has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to hold its own against even the most advanced foreign designs. Last month, Iran reported detecting and warning off an unidentified "intruding" F-18 Super Hornet fighter jet as it approached Iranian airspace near the port city of Bandar Abbas. Media speculated that the jet was detected using the domestically-created Fat'h 14 radar. In June, 2019, Iran's Khordad-3 air defence system shot down a stealthy $220 million RQ-4 Global Hawk spy drone as it crossed into Iranian airspace over the Strait of Hormuz. The development of the new long-range radar systems is significant, owing to the US deployment of dozens of military bases along Iran's frontiers, from Turkey and Iraq to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Theoretically, for example, the deployment of either the Khalij-e Fars or the Moraqeb along Iran's southern coast would allow either system to easily monitor US military activities at the Ul Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which hosts the largest contingent of US military personnel anywhere in the Middle East, as well as United States Central Command (USCENTCOM). A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Washington, D.C., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in rankings and consumer advice, today revealed the 2020 Best High Schools. This expansive edition ranks more schools across America than ever before, evaluating more than 17,700 public high schools on how well they serve all of their students, regardless of economic or ethnic background. "The Best High Schools rankings provide the most comprehensive, data-based information on nearly every public high school in the country," said Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News. "Families can use this information to see how their local schools compare on graduation rates and state assessments, as well as academic performance by students who are traditionally underserved those who are black, Hispanic or from low-income households." Key findings: The highest-ranked schools are scattered throughout the country, showing that the best schools are not concentrated in any one geographic area. Nine different states are represented among the top 10 schools. More broadly, the top 100 schools span 29 states. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia moves up to No. 1 this year, due to its best-in-state performance in English and math assessments, top ranking in college readiness and 100% graduation rate. for Science and Technology in moves up to No. 1 this year, due to its best-in-state performance in English and math assessments, top ranking in college readiness and 100% graduation rate. Half of Massachusetts' high schools are in the top quarter of the national rankings the highest proportion of any state. However, the major metropolitan area with this distinction is found in California . The San Jose metro area, which includes Sunnyvale and Santa Clara , has 63% of its schools in the top quarter of the national rankings. The methodology takes a holistic approach to evaluating schools, focusing on six factors: college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates. College readiness measures participation and performance on AP and IB exams. In addition to the national rankings, U.S. News has also published rankings by state, metro area and school district. Only metro areas and school districts with three or more high schools were included in these subrankings. The Best High Schools rankings are available exclusively on USNews.com and include data on a variety of factors, such as enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price lunch programs, graduation rates and the results of state assessments. U.S. News worked with RTI International, a global research firm, to implement the comprehensive ranking methodology. For more information, visit Facebook and Twitter using #BestHighSchools. 2020 Best High Schools National Rankings Top 10 *See the full rankings here. 1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA) 2. Academic Magnet High School (SC) 3. Merrol Hyde Magnet School (TN) 4. School for Advanced Studies (FL) 5. Townsend Harris High School (NY) 6. The School for the Talented and Gifted (TX) 7. BASIS Chandler (AZ) 8. Haas Hall Academy Bentonville (AR) 9. Payton College Preparatory High School (IL) 10. Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School (TX) 2020 Best STEM High Schools Top 5 1. High Technology High School (NJ) 2. Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies (NJ) 3. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA) 4. The Early College at Guilford (NC) 5. BASIS Oro Valley (AZ) 2020 Best Charter High Schools Top 5 1. BASIS Chandler (AZ) 2. Haas Hall Academy Bentonville (AR) 3. Signature School (IN) 4. BASIS Oro Valley (AZ) 5. BASIS Peoria (AZ) 2020 Best Magnet High Schools Top 5 1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA) 2. Academic Magnet High School (SC) 3. Merrol Hyde Magnet School (TN) 4. The School for the Talented and Gifted (TX) 5. Payton College Preparatory High School (IL) About U.S. News & World Report U.S. News & World Report is the global leader in quality rankings that empower people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives. A digital news and information company focused on Education, Health, Money, Travel, Cars and News, USNews.com provides consumer advice, rankings and analysis to serve people making complex decisions throughout all stages of life. More than 40 million people visit USNews.com each month for research and guidance. Founded in 1933, U.S. News is headquartered in Washington, D.C. SOURCE U.S. News & World Report Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has given insight into the emergence of the late Abba Kyari as President Muhammadu Buha... Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has given insight into the emergence of the late Abba Kyari as President Muhammadu Buharis Chief of Staff in 2015. The recount was contained in an article FFK, as hes fondly called, wrote on Monday titled How are the mighty fallen. The expository essay listed the names of Buharis alleged cabal members, whom he described as seasoned and skillful old war horses, ancient northern political veterans and warriors. Fani-Kayode, who served as Senior Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo, revealed what Kyari told him about why he accepted to be Buharis most senior aide. The outspoken social critic recalled how the deceased stressed on the importance of loyalty to true friends. Fani-Kayode said he found it difficult to accept that a man as sophisticated, cosmopolitan, enlightened and intelligent as Abba could work for a Government and be Chief of Staff in a Presidency that was the most sectional and religiously biased in the history of Nigeria. We had many heated discussions and lively debates on this and other issues. His defense was that he believed in Buhari and that he chose to be loyal to him and I respected that. He often reminded me of the days in which I was at the Presidential Villa when I stood by President Olusegun Obasanjo no matter what. He said that even though he was with Buhari throughout that time and was opposed to Obasanjo, we still remained friends. He said we ought to remain friends now that the tables had turned and he and his principal were in power. This was sound logic and it made sense. Only a fool does not appreciate the fact that true friendship transcends politics and that you take your friends warts and all even when, in your view, they may have made the wrong political choices. The ex-minister added that Abba Kyari felt that he (Fani-Kayode) made the wrong choice and chose the wrong path (opposition to the Buhari administration) just as I felt that he did too. But we never for one moment felt that our friendship should or would end because of that. After all we were not just friends but we were brothers, Fani-Kayode asserted. Its time to figure out what constitutes an act of God. Lawyers phones have been ringing off the hook in recent weeks, as tenants and landlords grapple over rent payments with much of the U.S. economy shut down. More than $20 billion in retail rent comes due each month in the U.S., and both sides are hoping force majeure offers protection. Force majeure, a French term that means superior force, is an obscure clause in contracts, including leases, thats supposed to set ground rules for when a business is hit by things like a hurricane or fire. But is a virus covered? Its complicated. Is it doing what its intended to do? That is anybodys guess at this point, said Michael Ostermeyer, partner at the law firm Ballard Spahr. While force majeure often lets parties out of contractual obligations because of an unforeseen disruption, legal language varies from lease to lease. Unless pandemics are explicitly named, its unclear whether the coronavirus qualifies. In addition, rent is often not covered by the force majeure clauses, meaning the payments are still due, according to Dena Cohen, partner in the real estate practice at Herrick Feinstein. Some attorneys are advising landlords to avoid legal action if rent checks dont materialize. Still, some of these lease disagreements will likely end up in court. There are no easy answers here, said Cohen, who is already seeing contracts evolve to include language that mentions illness and pandemics. BarkPark, a pet-care chain in Philadelphia, has closed its three locations and laid off most of its 30-person staff. James Gitto, the companys owner, recently checked his leases and learned that force majeure didnt cover his rent. After consulting his attorney, Gitto paid about $5,600 in April rent on one location using a security deposit. Another landlord allowed a delay on half the payment, and the third gave no assistance, he said. The clause itself states we should be free from the lease requirements, Gitto said. And then the last line says: Except for rent. About the photo: A pedestrian wearing a protective mask walks past a closed carousel on the Coney Island Boardwalk in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Monday, April 20, 2020. Mayor Bill De Blasio has ordered all city pools and beaches shut down for the summer. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. After watching only a few minutes of Mesduah Productions series Ahintasm yesterday, I mean before Adom TV went for their first of a few set of commercial breaks, I exclaimed to myself; everything is set now. I have been a keen audience of Mesduah Productions since last year, specifically since the broadcast of one of their series, Abuburo Kosua. I was compelled to watch a little bit of Sankfa when my mother (a woman strongly against the influx of telenovela on Ghanas screens) exhibited unprecedented interest in watching Adom TV. She wouldnt stop explaining how important the film will be to Ghanaians, our culture, the Film industry and its perfect time of arrival. The films are awesome. The production has an intriguing story, interesting setting, breathtaking visuals (oh how I love those drone shots) with great casting and characters. The plot, conflict, resolution, structure, scenes, sound, lightening among others are just great. This is not like some of the Kumawood Films where the volume of the dialogue is lower and the soundtrack is always higher. The lighting for the night scenes are made to look natural and the dialogues are punctuated with lots of our Ghanaian proverbs. I am in love with Ghanaian proverbs now and have learnt a few thanks to Mesduah Productions. The dialogues have been consumed by proverbs. S adwen no any adwuma a, nipadua no ber If the brain does not work, the human body suffers. This week UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson cited the English version of popular Akan proverb nsateaa nyinaa ny p in his speech at the 2020 UK-Africa investment Summit and clearly stated that, there is wisdom in these Akan Proverbs. I was very happy that the series made use of pure Akan dialects, Asante Twi and in the cases of some of the families represented in the film, some Fante. There was also a scene (the scene where people were sent out to look for missing Bediako who has unknowingly to them been killed by Serwaa) where a war song was chanted in the Ga dialect which is not Akan by the way but still Ghanaian. Not once did any of the characters mistake to use a foreign language or perhaps if they did on set editors made sure it was not in the final edited film. This has actually helped to reveal the Akan names of certain words overpowered by the Strong English Influence. In the Hollywood horror film, Sleepy Harlow and an Arabian Night movie, Twi was used to break a spell and ridiculously insult another character respectively. So far, I loved everything about Mesduah Productions but was troubled with one inadequacy. I was personally troubled because immediately I started giving attention to the series and understood its worth I wanted the globe to be able to see it, understand and appreciate Ghanaian culture in a way that they have never experienced and it did so in a subtle but in an unprecedented way. I am certain a lot of time, money and other resources must have been invested into to this for it to come out that good! It looks as if the villages and communities were intentionally built just for the purpose of filming. It is just incredible. I was always wondering why Sankfa and Abubro Kosua had no subtitles. Being a beginner at video editing and knowing how subtitling can be slightly hectic I still wanted to see some English interpretations on the screen. Despite how frantic subtitling can be, its relevance and benefits make the process worth it. I believe the series are so good, other cultures will be willing to watch if only there was a way they could understand the film: subtitling. English is the most widely spoken with 1.5 billion speakers according to findings from Statistica. Subtitling helps the deaf to also understand film. Subtitles improves comprehension because the whole world doesnt speak Twi, in fact not even all Ghanaians speak Twi. It also helps audience to unconsciously learn how to speak the local dialect. I have a Gambian friend who learned to speak and understand Hindu just by watching Bollywood with English subtitles. If local dialect movies are scripted in English as I have heard some Kumahood actors reveal during interviews, then I guess it should be slightly easier; copy-paste-adjust text to dialogue. Unfortunately just before and after the third commercial break for Ahintasm, there were no more subtitles. While there were still subtitles, there were a few typos and a few under-interpretations of dialogues. I was extremely happy when I saw the subtitles in about fifty percent of the first episode. It is never too late to add subtitles to Sankfa and Abuburo Kosua. I really hope that from henceforth subtitles will be considered and will even more importantly be used accurately. I also humbly suggest that the font is made bolder and the font size slightly increased. However I happen to know just the one to give you a flawless subtitling finish to the films at an affordable cost: Dittotype. I am also very happy that Mesduah Productions makes appropriate use of the Akan vowels and . Many written Akan words recently lack the appropriate alphabets especially in text messages and on social media. They are mostly omitted and replaced by a similar sounding vowel like in the case of Adom TV where Ahintasm was spelt as Ahintasem during the premiering of the series. Even YouTube videos of Ahintasm are wrongly spelt including Mercy Asiedu official TV. I was however pleased that citinewsroom.com accorded the dialect the needed respect in their reportage about the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson citing the popular Akan proverb by using the accurate Akan alphabets. Even the short discussion of the series held just after the show is another masterpiece on its own. It is an in depth analysis and review of the film. The host evaluates and discuss with her invited guest, the days episode form really amazing angles giving off great advice and moral lessons from the film. Generally I am relieved that while the western telenovela preaches revenge Mesduah Productionss Twinovela as they are sometimes affectionately called, also teaches redemption and a-vengeance-is-of-the-Lord kind of moral apart from their main themes. I also hope that the adverts are reduced. Aba Radical The Photographer of Thoughts State and federal investigators began searching Thursday for the cause of a paper mill explosion that shook the ground and sent debris and a slurry of chemicals raining down on nearby cars and buildings. Elation over the stunning news that no one was hurt began to shift toward concern about how long the Androscoggin Mill would be idled. A long-term closure could send ripples through the rural economy. We are not in a position to estimate the exact timing of restarting any part of the mill, Roxie Lassetter, human resources manager, said Thursday. The investigation into the cause of the Wednesday blast was led by a team of investigators from the Maine Fire Marshals Office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. The investigators began interviewing workers and got their first look at the damage on Thursday, McCausland said. The blast happened in a massive, kettle-like digester where a slurry of wood chips, water and chemicals is transformed into pulp. Nearby vehicles were covered with a thick, brown substance that fell from the sky after the blast. But the massive paper machines that churn out different types of specialty paper escaped damage, and the company is exploring options to get them running as soon as possible, Lassetter said. In Jay, the Androscoggin Mill has been a survivor as other paper mills closed with the loss of thousands of jobs in Maine. Its economic impact stretches far beyond the 500 workers there, to a supply chain that includes loggers, truckers and foresters. The Androscoggin Mill and all paper mills have economic tentacles that reach deep in the rural communities of new England, said Eric Kingsley, a forest economist and partner at Innovative Natural Resource Solutions. Each day, 150 trucks dropped off about 30 tons apiece of trees, wood chips and sawdust to be transformed into a food-grade paper thats used in fast food packaging and in other products, he said. The mill, which was built in the mid-1960s, changed ownership in February when it was sold by Ohio-based Verso to a Pennsylvania company, Pixelle Specialty Solutions. Around Jay, the 5,000 residents whove become accustomed to ups and downs in the paper industry understand that viability of the mill depends on the extent of the damage. All of the options have entered everyones minds. Right now were trying to focus on the positive, said Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere. The positive includes the fact that none of the 200 workers at the mill at the time of the blast were hurt, LaFreniere said. Also, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection classified the slurry that rained down as a minor irritant that wasnt considered to be toxic, she said. Public works crews were sweeping the streets and picking up fallen debris on Thursday. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Maine R.B. Watts is a retired captain in the U.S. Coast Guard. This article by R.B. Watts originally appeared in Proceedings. During the 2019 government shutdown, the Coast Guard stayed the course, its members serving without pay in both day-to-day and hazardous operations. Despite hardships, leaders held firm, maintaining core values without complaint. Perhaps one of the clearest descriptions of the Coast Guard's role came not from public affairs, but from a dependent who, when questioned during the shutdown, stated, "We are the wall." For decades, the Coast Guard has been a critical "wall" against illegal immigration, drug smuggling and seaborne threats to national security. These missions changed in the aftermath of 9/11 as the service refocused on counterterrorism and potential attack on the homeland. Now, the wall may be moving again. The National Security Strategy (NSS), released in 2017, placed an emphasis on a changing world and the return of great power competition between nation-states and the United States' role -- a significant strategic shift. The NSS recognizes that the security and counterterrorism strategies that underpinned operations following the attacks of 9/11 were driven by a different world order; the United States will operate differently internationally going forward. To meet this challenge, the Coast Guard once again must adopt a new mission focus. Old Missions, New Priorities As a multimission service, the Coast Guard has always prioritized its core missions, adapting and taking on new ones as geopolitical situations dictate. In the early 1970s, search and rescue held sway; then, the rise of maritime drug smuggling shifted to a broader law enforcement focus as the Coast Guard became "the Smokies of the Sea." In the late 1980s, the service focused on defense operations as part of the Navy's maritime strategy, creating coastal defense organizations (the maritime defense zones) to counter potential Soviet offensive actions in a global conflict. The fall of the Soviet Union and the wreck of the Exxon Valdez shifted the Coast Guard's focus to environmental and oil spill response. In the mid-1990s, the service sought balance to maintain core mission expertise. The 9/11 attacks caused another shift toward defense operations and a specialized focus on maritime counterterrorism. Today, reaction to globalization has created populist trends that thrive on ancient rivalries, while the rise of China and reemergence of Russia as peer rivals have changed the world dramatically. The Coast Guard must consider its traditional mission sets and how these will change strategically. Mission Review: Strategic Challenges In reviewing its traditional missions, the Coast Guard must consider how the new world order will affect the service and its strategy in the following areas: Illegal Immigration The current administration has made illegal immigration a primary focus for the Department of Homeland Security, emphasizing activity on the southwest border. The core reason for increased migration -- unlike previous migrations, which were primarily economic -- is that asylum seekers are fleeing Central American countries whose conditions approach that of failed states. Migrant caravans are the current method of asylum seekers, but they are having mixed results at the border. It is very likely that migrants will turn to other methods to reach the United States. The sea can be an attractive option; it should not be. Seaborne migration can be far more dangerous to migrants than travel on land. Stopping yolas and small craft from Haiti and Cuba has been a part of the Coast Guard's Caribbean migrant interdiction mission for decades; these craft usually are massively overloaded and piloted by migrants with limited or no seagoing experience. Also from the U.S. Naval Institute: The worst such cases are mass migrations, four of which the Coast Guard has faced in the past two decades, in which it intercepted more than 100,000 migrants at sea. If the border is made more secure -- in rhetoric or practice -- seaborne migration may be seen by migrants from troubled Central and South American countries as a viable option, either individually or through another mass migration. The Coast Guard must update its migrant planning efforts to consider this possibility, including a review of training and capability to surge for a new and more diverse seaborne migration. Full consideration must be given not only to operational requirements, but also to the challenge of immediate media coverage. As the Deepwater Horizon oil spill taught the Coast Guard, information demands from the media and Congress, and the challenge of responding to social media, can quickly overwhelm operational focus. Maritime Drug Interdiction The Coast Guard has conducted a consistent counterdrug mission for years and is the most successful U.S. law enforcement organization in terms of seizure rates. The great challenge of the counterdrug mission -- apart from the vast quantity of drugs being smuggled into the United States -- is the diversity of smuggling methods used by narcotraffickers. Early smuggling onboard pleasure craft and small merchant vessels gave way to go-fast speed boats and eventually semi-submersibles, with routes varying from the Caribbean to the Pacific and back again to avoid law enforcement. The primary offload point for cocaine for the past two decades has been Mexico, where it is broken down and smuggled by "coyotes" and other means across the border. This has had the significant second-order effect of creating the Mexican cartels, whose violent battles over profitable smuggling routes have turned the border area into something akin to a war zone. Actions by the Mexican military and increased surveillance on the border may change this. Given the strategic flexibility of the narcotraffickers, there may be a shift in smuggling methods. Recent interdictions of large cargoes of cocaine have been made near or in ports of entry in the United States, avoiding the border. Countering this may require shifting assets, a more forward presence of the Coast Guard fleet into new operating areas, an increased deployment of law enforcement detachments, and the negotiation of new bilateral agreements. Crisis Contingency Operations The past decade has seen a number of catastrophes that have required massive Coast Guard response. These crisis contingencies include oil spills, hurricanes and other extreme weather events. It may begin as a localized event (such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill) but can quickly overwhelm local response. What these crisis contingency operations share is that they occur on a large scale, happen quickly, have national impact, and demand a rapid and flexible response, usually involving multiple agencies. The Coast Guard has a long history of interdicting migrants at sea, including people fleeing Cuba using small boats and rafts. If South and Central American asylum seekers continue to be turned back at the U.S. border, they likely will take to the sea to gain access to the country, and the service must prepare for increased migrant interdiction. (U.S. Coast Guard photo) In such operations, sea power is a critical component. Hurricane Katrina indicates the level of response required. The Coast Guard ultimately deployed 42 cutters and 76 aircraft prior to and immediately after the storm. The service was credited with saving more than 31,000 lives during the evacuation. The widespread damage required a diverse response; offshore operations primarily focused on support to units ashore and on command and control -- a key element illustrating the flexibility of sea power. Crisis contingency operations are increasing in frequency. Category 4 hurricanes or higher no longer are a rarity. With extreme weather comes destruction -- New Orleans, New Jersey and Puerto Rico were devastated by killer storms. Increased offshore drilling brings a higher risk of another massive spill and would demand expert response. As with a mass migration, the Coast Guard must plan and train for the surge operations demanded by such crises. However, these types of missions require a more diverse skill set, including enhanced afloat command and control, familiarity with operations not normally conducted, and an effective public relations campaign to halt the spread of misinformation. Global Engagement For many years, the Coast Guard has engaged in overseas defense missions as a force multiplier. These operations have touched multiple theaters, including the deployment of patrol boats to the Persian Gulf in support of combat operations and the use of high-endurance cutters with Navy battle groups. These deployments have served not only to demonstrate the unique capabilities the Coast Guard brings to naval operations, but also to keep the service trained in wartime skills. However, in an age where there are increasing requirements in the U.S. hemisphere, should global operations continue? As difficult as it may be, new mission requirements will require more assets in this hemisphere. While sending Coast Guard cutters to conduct freedom-of-the-seas operations in the Pacific may meet a Defense Department requirement (given the number of Navy ships that can do this, it is a small requirement), there are other areas closer to home that require extended cutter presence. For example, turmoil in Central and South America will lead to second-order effects in migration and narcotrafficking, or even potential military operations if Venezuela continues its path toward a failed state. The turmoil in Central America is only increasing. If a show of force, diplomatic or humanitarian assistance/disaster relief operation is required in this region, cutters are made for the task. The Coast Guard needs to plan to allocate forces now and begin training for this mission. Counterterrorism Operations In the aftermath of 9/11, the Coast Guard responded to a largely unknown threat. The attacks illustrated the United States' vulnerability to irregular operations; how and when the next attack would occur was unclear. What was clear, however, was that maritime facilities and the coastline were vulnerable. Increased security has made it more difficult for Mexican drug cartels to send product over the U.S. southwest border, resulting in an increase in their use of semi-submersibles. The Coast Guard may need to shift more assets to contain the smuggling. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Paul King) Accordingly, the Coast Guard spent a great deal of time and effort developing robust port security units, maritime safety and security teams, and a special maritime response team for counterterrorism operations. This effort was quite successful in meeting the challenges that arose from 9/11. After almost 20 years of global conflict, the United States has learned that involvement in irregular warfare is long, costly and a dubious use of national resources. This is reflected in the NSS and the call to return the focus on nation-state conflicts. This new direction will force the Coast Guard to ask hard questions -- and make hard choices -- about its counterterrorism capability. While no one is questioning the capabilities the Coast Guard has developed in this area, they are expensive. Can the Coast Guard continue to fully fund its counterterrorism efforts? Given that the world still faces irregular threats, would it be foolhardy to give up these capabilities? What are the advantages of keeping them - -and paying for them? Given the impact these decisions will have on personnel, mission and budget, the degrees to which the service should focus on counterterrorism is one of the most difficult questions facing it. Shifting the Wall Throughout its existence, the Coast Guard has demonstrated its importance to U.S. national security strategy while constantly adapting its missions. The NSS' focus on nation-state conflict, the speed of decisions made in the political realm, and operations in this hemisphere (including on the southwestern border) demand the service adjust its focus again. The Coast Guard is a wall against many things. Now, it must choose, prioritize and plan how it will face the challenges of the new world order. Since 1873, the U.S. Naval Institute has championed intellectual debate on key issues for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. For more go to usni.org. -- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration. Kravis, a former attorney in the Justice Departments public integrity section and lead federal prosecutor in the Stone case, stepped down as deputy chief of the fraud and public corruption section of the U.S. attorneys office in Washington in February. His resignation came after President Trump criticized Stone prosecutors, and Attorney General William P. Barr and his deputy moved to reduce the governments sentencing recommendation. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-20 14:47:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on April 20, 2020 shows the 40-meter four-pipe communication tower of the China-Laos railway Vientiane station in Vientiane, Laos. The construction of a 40-meter four-pipe communication tower of the China-Laos railway Vientiane station was completed on the outskirts of the Lao capital on Monday, marking major progress in the railway communication signal project. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua) VIENTIANE, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The construction of a 40-meter four-pipe communication tower of the China-Laos railway Vientiane station was completed on the outskirts of the Lao capital on Monday, marking major progress in the railway communication signal project. Amid the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, the China Railway Construction Electrification Bureau Group Co., Ltd. (CRCC-EBG, simplified as EBG), which is undertaking the communication signal project of the China-Laos railway, made a comprehensive plan, organized construction carefully, and closely monitored every step. Li Chunsheng, who is in-charge of the EBG management, told Xinhua on Monday that his team, on the one hand, prepared for the possible long-term pandemic by implementing a daily notification system with the application of online management platform of every staff's health condition. On the other hand, they mapped the overseas transportation and procurement route, detailed the procedure and coordinated the materials and equipment to overcome the difficulties in transportation brought by the pandemic, so as to effectively ensure the installation of the first communication tower of the China-Laos railway. Li Chunsheng said his project department strictly carried out the goals proposed by the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd (LCRC), a joint venture based in Vientiane in charge of the railway's construction and future operation, namely "absolute isolation (from pandemic risks), zero infection, and catching up the construction timetable", simultaneously managing the epidemic prevention and project progressing. "So far, many signal houses and communication towers' construction along the China-Laos railway are being carried out steadily. Cable installment in the tunnels is also in progress," said Li. The communication signal project of a railway is the core and key of the entire railway's train operation, command and control system, and is known as the "brain and nerve center" of the railway. The China-Laos Railway is a project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Laos' strategy to convert from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub. The 414-km railway, with 198-km tunnels and 62-km bridges, will run from Boten border gate in northern Laos bordering China, to Vientiane with an operating speed of 160 km per hour. The electrified passenger and cargo railway is built with the full application of the Chinese management and technical standards. The construction of the project started in December 2016 and is scheduled to be completed and open to traffic in December 2021. COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Lithium ion batteries have already become an integral part of our everyday life. However, our energy-hungry society demands longer life, faster charging, and lighter batteries for a variety of applications from electric vehicles to portable electronics, including lightening the load a soldier carries as numerous electronics become adopted by the Army. Can we get closer to such lighter and faster-charging batteries? The current generation of lithium ion batteries uses graphite as an anode, which has a relatively low capacity, and could be replaced with a silicon anode with high capacity and low environmental impact. This is a highly promising direction for research - yet elusive, as batteries with silicon anodes with a large particle size tend to have shorter lives, generally less than 50 cycles. When researchers tried using nanoparticles of silicon, aluminum, and bismuth, they found that these nano-sized alloy anodes still suffer short cycle life and high cost. Chunsheng Wang and his colleagues may have found a new direction for fixing this degradation problem: the electrolyte. The team from the University of Maryland and the Army Research Laboratory have made an electrolyte that forms a protective layer on silicon, which is stable and resists the swelling that occurs in silicon anode particles. The new electrolyte - rationally designed with underlying principles in place - gives the anode particles room for Si to swell insight the protected layer. The results were published in the journal Nature Energy on April 20, 2020. Dr. Ji Chen, a lead author of the paper from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland, said, "Our research proves that it is practical and possible to stably cycle silicon, aluminum, and bismuth particles as lithium ion battery anodes, simply with a rationally designed electrolyte, which has been regarded as unachievable before." "The energy density of the battery is determined by the electrodes, while the performance of the battery is critically controlled by the electrolytes. The designed electrolytes enable the use of micro-sized alloy anodes, which will significantly enhance the energy density of the battery, " said Dr. Xiulin Fan, a co-first author from the University of Maryland, and now a professor in Zhejiang University, China. "Current efforts by combination of molecular modeling and experimental provided a clear path to a new direction to rationally design the electrolytes that enable long cycle life for high capacity silicon anodes opening a path to developing high energy batteries for a warfighter, " said Dr. Oleg Borodin, a collaborator from the Army Research Laboratory. Current electrolyte design for siliconi anodes aims to form a uniform polymer layer called the solid electrolyte interface or SEI that is flexible and strongly bonds with silicon. However, the strong bonding between polymer SEI and silicon forces the SEI to have the same volume change as the anode particles, so both the particles and the SEI crack during battery operation. "After extensive research on silicon electrodes, the battery community has reached a consensus that the micro-sized silicon anodes cannot be used in commercial lithium-ion batteries," said Chunsheng Wang, a professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland. "We successfully avoided the SEI damage by forming a ceramic SEI that has a low affinity to the lithiated silicon particles, so that the lithiated silicon can relocate at the interface during volume change without damaging the SEI. The electrolyte design principle is universal for all alloy anodes, and opens a new opportunity to develop high energy batteries." Challenges still remain for the commercialization of the electrolyte, the voltage window of 4.2V still needs to be expanded, Wang said. ### Wang also heads the Center for Extreme Batteries (CREB) which is a partnership between UMD and the Army Research Laboratory. The center's mission is to solve practical battery problems faced by U.S. ground forces. The research was funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) through the Battery500 Consortium. Dr Foster prescribes sleeping separately... Doctor Foster star Suranne Jones reveals she and her husband, screenwriter Laurence Akers, sleep apart. 'A separate bed - there's stigma against that but if we are just tired and I need a good night's sleep, and I want to get to bed at nine o'clock and I don't want to put my ear plugs in or I don't need to be disturbed by snores, then that's OK, to say "I just need my space,"' says the actress. The 41-year-old, who has been married to Laurence for six years, adds a healthy family life requires effort. 'Our weekends are just for us. We have to be together and anchored.' Just not always in the same bed. Doctor Foster star Suranne Jones (pictured) reveals she and her husband, screenwriter Laurence Akers, sleep apart The 41-year-old, who has been married to Laurence (pictured) for six years, adds a healthy family life requires effort Lockdown Jamie styles locks up! Lockdown is giving rise to some hair-raising activities at Jamie Olivers house. The TV chef, who has been filming himself cooking for Channel 4s Keep Cooking And Carry On using his own phone, enjoyed a break from the kitchen at the weekend to style his mane and that of his three-year-old son River into punky spikes. Today is a good hair day, said father-of- five Jamie. Goodness knows what a bad hair day would look like. Lockdown is giving rise to some hair-raising activities at Jamie Olivers house. Today is a good hair day, said father-of- five Jamie Rocker Steve Harley has donated a treasured Takamine acoustic guitar to this months Blue auction in aid of the NHS. Its one of my favourites and Ive played it in around 700 gigs but this is an incredibly worthy cause, the Cockney Rebel star tells me. I spent three years in and out of hospital [being treated for polio] as a kid, so have always had a huge regard for the NHS they did a great job, leaving a dying child with nothing more than a limp. Screen legend Albert Finney left more than 400,000 in his will. The actor, who died last year aged 82, bequeathed 402,743 to his widow, Pene Delmage. She was his third wife. Finney, who starred in films ranging from the Oscar-winning Tom Jones to Erin Brockovich, signed his will in front of his friend and fellow actor Sir Tom Courtenay, according to documents released by the probate office in Newcastle. Screen legend Albert Finney, who died last year aged 82, left more than 400,000 in his will Tributes as hotel legend George Goring, 81, checks out London society is in mourning. The Queens favourite hotelier, George Goring, owner of the Goring Hotel where Kate Middleton spent the night before her wedding, has died aged 81, after a bravely borne battle against Parkinsons disease. Mr George, as he was known to staff, was the third generation of the family to run the hotel, founded by his grandfather in 1910. It was said to be the first in the world to have central heating and a bathroom in every bedroom. After succeeding his father in 1961, he ensured that the Goring became the home from home for everyone from the Queen Mother, who made her last public appearance at the hotel, to Lady Thatcher, Jools Holland and Delia Smith, who, on one memorable night, all dined there, albeit at different tables. George was a great hotelier in the old-school style: a true host who exuded joie de vivre, says his son, Jeremy, who took over from him in 2005. Anybody who worked for him, or was his guest or friend, would know about his extraordinary generosity. Princess Annes favourite table in the hotels dining room was also Lady Thatchers a detail which George was occasionally required to negotiate with habitual tact. His friends, concedes Jeremy, were not always entirely safe in his company. He shot neighbours dogs and burglar alarms, injured playmates, told his horse trainer hed send the horse to the sausage factory. But the gain [in laughter] usually outweighed the pain . . . just. Jennifer Saunders hopes people will continue to avoid being tactile even when social distancing rules slacken Why social distancing is Ab Fab for Saunders Dont get too close to Ab Fab star Jennifer Saunders when lockdown is over. She hopes people will continue to avoid being tactile even when social distancing rules slacken. The one good thing that will come out of this, I hope, is that we can get away with not having to hug and kiss every single person you meet whether you half know them or know them. That we can just wave, says the 61-year-old. Normally I tell people my doctors advised me I cant hug people. I say: Thank you so much for coming, yes Ill do your autograph but no pictures and dont come anywhere near me. My doctor says I cant, Im so sorry! A shake of hands and a good morning is all we need. Doff your cap, if youve got a cap. Andys pal reveals a pillow peccadillo Prince Andrews friend Caroline Stanbury, whom he dated after his divorce from Fergie, knows how to dress for comfort. The 43-year-old star of reality TV series Ladies Of London became the latest celebrity to take part in the pillow challenge, which encourages people to dress up using said bedding item and post a picture of it online. I woke up like this, she joked from her home in Dubai, where she lives with her three children by her soon-to-be ex-husband, financier Cem Habib. Brings a whole new meaning to pillow talk. With summer officially over and cooler weather in sight, the Houston area is entering prime hiking, biking and exploring season. So pick a dry weekend (or not just watch for flooding alerts) and get out of the city for a day of outdoor activity, whether that means a strenuous uphill run or a picnic on the beach. The six parks below offer a range of activities and are all located within 100 miles of downtown Houston, perfect for a quick day trip. Don't forget to reserve a day pass if the park you pick requires one. CFN Enterprises welcomes technology leader Tim Vasko to CFN Enterprises Advisory Board to bring his vision and expertise to support CFN's scaling and expansion into new markets utilizing patented blockchain technologies. Santa Monica, California and Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - CFN Enterprises Inc. (OTCQB: CNFN), owner and operator of CFN Media, the global CBD and legal Cannabis industry's leading digital agency and media network, today announced the appointment of Tim Vasko to the newly formed CFN Advisory Board. Tim Vasko To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6612/54640_ea39ee4db4657a00_001full.jpg "We are pleased to welcome Tim Vasko, the Founder and CEO of BlockCerts Blockchain, to the Board of Advisors of CFN Enterprises. Tim is a cloud and blockchain pioneer, creating companies that have processed billions of transactions, proprietary tracking applications and a patent providing secure virtual spaces," said Brian Ross, Chairman and CEO of CFN Enterprises Inc. "As we expand our company into new digital markets, Tim will provide valuable vision and leadership on our future platform and go-to-market strategies." Tim Vasko is the Founder & CEO of BlockCerts Blockchain, a leading blockchain technology and application platform based in Vancouver, B.C. BlockCerts Blockchain provides businesses secure virtual space digital technology to virtualize -decentralize - mobilize business securely. Through over 1.8M development hours, BlockCerts created a leading blockchain solutions platform, providing an on-ramp for businesses to access the blockchain creating Trust, Truth and Transparency through patented secure virtual space technology. Vasko is a thought-leader in the blockchain market, which Gartner predicts will reach $3.1 trillion by 2030. Grand View Research expects the market to grow at a CAGR of 69.4% from 2019 to 2025, saying that, "blockchain technology is one of the most promising upcoming technological trends in the information technology domain". "I look forward to spearheading the Advisory Board and collaborating with the team at CFN Enterprises to advance our combined vision for the industry, at scale. Blockchain technology will provide new opportunities to CFN's immediate horizon for future revenue streams and market leadership. Our companies share synergistic paths, which make this a beneficial relationship for each of us for growth," said Tim Vasko. BlockCert's SeedCERTin platform provides the legal Cannabis and CBD industry's first fully integrated smart seed-to-sale, compliance, transaction processing solution, solving many industry challenges. Mr. Vasko was selected to the Forbes Technology Council in 2019 and provides thought leadership through expert panels and published articles. In a recent Forbes article, he provides a view into his thought leadership and vision: "Our Data DNA: Inside the Black Box of Big Profits, Privacy, Fines and Freedom". Mr. Vasko founded Finaeos, the Fintech Platform of Platforms along-side prior companies that have processed billions of transactions in the Fintech, eHealth and Real Estate Markets. Tim is an entrepreneur, speaker, author and was a Professor of business technology, finance and entrepreneurship leading his early research Open Structure Organization and Venture Analysis Standards for combining global entrepreneurship, finance & information technology. Vasko is the inventor of the patented secure virtual space technology. Tim holds multiple certifications from MIT and is Oxford University blockchain certified. He is also a Member of the Canadian Technology Accelerators Government of Canada and National Research Council Canada. His BlockCerts Blockchain company was selected as 1 of 4 companies sponsored for 2019-2020 by the Canadian Trade Ministry across the globe and leading to numerous opportunities. CFN Enterprises Inc. (OTCQB: CNFN) owns and operates CFN Media, the premier agency and digital media network reaching and educating investors, executives, entrepreneurs and consumers active and interested in the global cannabis and CBD industries. Through its proprietary content and video platform with distribution via the CannabisFN media network, CFN Media enables many of the world's leading cannabis companies and CBD brands to develop specific audiences to thrive. Contact: Shareholder Services investors@cfnenterprisesinc.com 833-420-CNFN Tim Vasko: Tim Vasko is a public speaker, professor, inventor, writer, technology leader, member of the Forbes Technology Council, holding certificates from MIT and is Oxford University Blockchain Certified. Tim is the Founder & CEO of Finaeos, the Fintech Platform and BlockCerts Blockchain, a leader in the Blockchain marketplace. Through over 1.8M development hours, BlockCerts created a leading blockchain solutions platform, providing an on-ramp for businesses to access the blockchain creating Trust, Truth and transparency through Vasko's patented secure virtual space technology. Contact: Tim Vasko https://timvasko.com/contact 877.621.4CMN FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT Use of Forward-looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements from CFN Enterprises Inc. within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and federal securities laws. For example, when CFN Enterprises Inc. describes the benefits of the appointment of Tim Vasko to its Advisory Board, describes its plan to expand into new digital markets, describes the projected size and growth of the blockchain marketplace, and uses other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will" and similar expressions, CFN Enterprises Inc. is using forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations of the management of CFN Enterprises Inc. only, and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: regulatory and licensing risks; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; the regulatory landscape and enforcement related to cannabis, including political risks and risks relating to regulatory change; changes in applicable laws; compliance with extensive government regulation; public opinion and perception of the cannabis industry; we may be unable to retain or attract key employees whose knowledge is essential to the development of our products and services; or, loss of market share and pressure on pricing resulting from competition, which could cause the actual results or performance of CFN Enterprises Inc. to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise required by law, CFN Enterprises Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. For a more detailed description of the risk and uncertainties affecting CFN Enterprises Inc., reference is made to CFN Enterprises Inc.'s reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54640 DUBLIN, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market Global Report 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global multiple sclerosis drugs market was worth $20.83 billion in 2019. North America is expected to be the largest region in the forecast period. Major players in the market are Biogen, Novartis, Roche, Bayer HealthCare, Pfizer, Merck & Co, Sanofi, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, GlaxoSmithKline and Acorda Therapeutics. The growth of multiple sclerosis drugs market is aided by the support from government as well as non-government organization. The government and non-government organizations fund several schemes and programs to offer their support to enhance the quality of life of people affected with multiple sclerosis (MS). For instance, in 2019, the government of Alberta in partnership with the department of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism in Canada invested $1 million towards the Canadian Prospective Cohort Study to Understand Progression in Multiple Sclerosis (CanProCo) to support the research and innovations to enhance understanding and treatment for MS disease. CanProCo is an initiative to consolidate the efforts of nearly 50 MS researchers from various disciplines across Canada. The initiative was further funded by the Canada Brain Research, Biogen Canada and the MS Society of Canada, as well as Hoffmann-La Roche Limited (Roche Canada) to raise a total of $10 million. Appropriate financial support from the government and non-government organizations boosts the growth of multiple sclerosis drugs market. The high cost of drugs to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) restricts the growth of multiple sclerosis drugs market. The MS is a cureless disease with high chances of disability and requires lifelong treatment. Despite the heavy competition among the drug companies, the cost of MS drugs is high, increasing the overall cost of treatment. The companies operating in the multiple sclerosis drugs market often have to work towards reducing the cost of these drugs to justify its cost-effectiveness to its consumers. As reported by Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) in 2017, the MS drugs costs roughly between $63,000 and $104,000 annually. For instance, in 2019, after receiving criticism by National Multiple Sclerosis Society on the high price of Vumerity, a drug to treat relapse MS, Biogen and Alkermes had to reduce the prices of the drug to $88,000 per year in order to make it affordable to the patients. The high cost of drugs, which are required lifelong negatively affects the growth of the multiple sclerosis drugs market. The companies are rapidly intensifying their efforts to focus on new product launches to cater to the rising demands for MS drugs. The multiple sclerosis requires a lifelong treatment, which increases the overall cost of treating a patient. In order to provide better and effective treatment companies in the multiple sclerosis market are developing drugs specific to the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Following the trend, in 2019, FDA approved Novartis' Mayzent (siponimod) and EMD Serono's Mavenclad (cladribrine) for the treatment of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), and active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). Both the drugs were launched as an easy-to-consume oral drug. In 2019, Bristol-Myers Squibb, a USA based pharmaceutical company, acquired Celgene for $74billion. Through the acquisition Bristol-Myers Squibb aims to increase its product portfolio by utilizing the existing products of Celgene along with its technical and pipeline support. Ozanimod is one of the Celgene's pipelined drugs for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis. The drug is currently in phase III clinical trials to be approved by FDA. Celgene is a USA based producer and marketer of medicines for cancer and inflammatory disorders such as multiple sclerosis. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market Characteristics 3. Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market Size and Growth 3.1. Global Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Historic Market, 2015-2019, $ Billion 3.1.1. Drivers of the Market 3.1.2. Restraints on the Market 3.2. Global Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Forecast Market, 2019-2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 3.2.1. Drivers of the Market 3.2.2. Restraints on the Market 4. Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market Segmentation 4.1. Global Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market, Segmentation by Drug Class, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Immunomodulators Immunosuppressants Interferons Others 4.2. Global Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market, Segmentation by Distribution Channels, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Hospital Pharmacy Retail Pharmacy Online Stores 4.3. Global Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market, Segmentation by Route of Administration, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Oral drugs Parenteral drugs 5. Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market Regional and Country Analysis Companies Mentioned AbbVie Inc. Acorda Therapeutics Inc. Actelion Pharmaceuticals (Johnson & Johnson) Bayer HealthCare Betaseron Biogen CinnoVex EMD Serono (Merck KGaA) Extavia GlaxoSmithKline Merck & Co. Inc. Novartis Pfizer Inc. Rebif Roche Sanofi Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Tysabr For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/f4n86j Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Severine Rouby and Stuart Williams (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France Tue, April 21, 2020 11:30 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd336274 2 World coronavirus,pandemic,COVID-19,press-freedom,reporters-without-borders,health,global-crisis Free The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating threats to press freedom around the world, with authoritarian states including China and Iran suppressing details of the outbreak, activists said on Tuesday. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual press freedom rankings the pandemic was "highlighting and amplifying the many crises" already casting a shadow on press freedom. The outbreak had encouraged some regimes to "take advantage of the fact people are stunned and mobilization has weakened to impose measures that would be impossible to adopt in normal times", RSF secretary general Christophe Deloire told AFP. The rankings saw few major changes from last year, with Nordic countries regarded as the most free and isolated states Turkmenistan and North Korea footing the list of 180 countries. RSF accused China and Iran -- in 177th and 173rd place respectively -- of censoring major coronavirus outbreaks. 'Information hyper-control' Alluding to accusations that Beijing concealed the initial extent of the outbreak, it said China "maintains its system of information hyper-control, whose negative effects for the entire world have been seen during the coronavirus public health crisis". Europe has also not been immune -- Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has passed a special law on false information which was a "completely disproportionate and coercive measure". RSF said there was a "clear correlation" between suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic and a country's ranking in the index. While Norway topped the index for the fourth year in a row, Finland was again the runner-up. North Korea took last position from Turkmenistan, and Eritrea continued to be Africa's lowest-ranked country at number 178. The third biggest leap was by Sudan, which rose 16 places to 159th after the removal of president Omar al-Bashir. France lost two places to rank 32nd, with journalists in the country sometimes the victims of police violence at demonstrations, it said. Published annually by RSF since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index assesses factors such as media independence, self-censorship, the legal framework and transparency based on a questionnaire filled out by experts. 'Chinese-style scenario' Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been repeatedly criticized for cracking down on press freedom, rose three places to 154th but RSF said this was because of "other countries falling" rather than positive change. It said censorship of the media, especially online media, has been stepped up in Turkey and the country was "more authoritarian than ever." Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, in 149th place, is also persevering "efforts to control the Internet, using ever more elaborate methods", it said, citing a law that would allow the country to disconnect the Russian internet from the rest of the world. "The prospect of a Chinese-style scenario [in Russia] is alarming," RSF said. RSF said "the closure of the national internet" is already a reality in the isolated Central Asian state of Turkmenistan where the few internet users can access only a highly censored version of the Internet, often in cafes where they have to show ID before connecting. "Almost everywhere in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, strongmen are consolidating their grip on news and information," RSF said. (Photo : Jessica Lewis) Two kids are doing their learning activity at home. A Harvard law professor said that homeschooling is a risk for schoolchildren and suggested to ban the practice. Now, Elizabeth Bartholet, a law professor and faculty director of the school's Child Advocacy Program, faces criticisms for her strong statements on homeschooling in Harvard Magazine's May-June issue. A large number of American kids are now taking their school lessons at home after public schools were closed due to COVID-19. Bartholet opined that homeschooling violates the children's right to a "meaningful education" and protection from potential child abuse. She worried that this practice could hinder children from contributing positively to a democratic society. Bartholet argued that homeschooling would give parents 24/7 and authoritarian control over their children who are from zero to 18 years old. "I think that's dangerous. I think it's always dangerous to put powerful people in charge of the powerless and to give the powerful one's total authority," the law professor told Fox News. From Bartholet's perspective, the lack of any regulations that will ensure that homeschooled children will receive a meaningful education comparable to that in public schools is a threat to democracy. She emphasized that if they looked at the situation, an overwhelming majority of lawmakers and American people would conclude that something must be done about it. READ ALSO: TOTAL BAN: China Wants to Ban ALL Online Gaming and Chats After Animal Crossing Mishap? Bartholet's Views are Extreme Michael Donnelly told Fox News that the views of the law professor are "extreme." Donnelly is the director of global outreach and senior counsel at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), which is the target of the article. In the magazine article, Bartholet criticized the hesitation of lawmakers to restrict homeschooling practice because of HSLDA. She claimed that the conservative Christian homeschool advocacy group is a small, well-organized, and "overwhelmingly powerful politically." "Bartholet's dystopian recommendations are tone-deaf and have provoked a firestorm of response from political and religious perspectives - as well they should have. Her obvious distrust of average Americans is loud and clear," Donnelly explained in the report. Donnelly continued that the law professor's appeal to ban homeschooling because Bartholet considers American homeschooling parents too ignorant or too religious. However, he added that her view disagrees with the decades of scholarly research on homeschooling that proves that the practice has a positive academic, civic, and social outcome. An Attack on the Fundamental Rights and Freedom Meanwhile, Melba Pearson, a former Harvard University student, opposed Bartholet's views on homeschooling. Pearson was homeschooled before she studied at Harvard University. Pearson described the article as "an attack on the fundamental rights and freedoms that make our country (and until recently, institutions such as Harvard) what they are." She disputed the claim of the article that the government has more of a right than parents do to educate their children. "The idea that a government, already so inefficient and inadequate in so many areas, can care for and educate every child better than its parent is wrong," Pearson told Fox News. She stressed that homeschooling prepared her for Harvard. The Harvard alumni expressed her disappointment with the university for promoting a totalitarian intellectual path that bans liberties that helped her and countless others succeed. "For it is those liberties and ideals that have made America the great nation it is today," she said. The education system in the United States took a hit due to the rising numbers of people getting infected by COVID-19. As a result, homeschooling has become the option of many students as social distancing and quarantine measures are being imposed in the country to fight the spread of COVID-19. Also Read: Harvard Researchers: Social Distancing Measures Will Most Likely Be Extended Til 2022 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. W ere a good few weeks in now, and the UK like the rest of the world is still in the grips of the coronavirus lockdown. Things are tough out there, but with millions of us have been tuning in for these online events, as well as theatre shows, live comedy and art exhibitions from our sofas, there are plenty of ways to feel connected even in isolation. Nightlife, too, has been making its way into peoples homes through virtual club nights, and people are finding ways of enjoying live music during these testing times. These are our top picks of the things to get up to today make sure to check out our main guide for things to keep yourself occupied with at home, too. Join Sink The Pink for a Drag Quiz Show One of Londons best-loved drag troupes has teamed up with gin brand Wildcat Gin to launch its very own online pub quiz show. At The Queens Head, drag queen Ginger Johnson will be hosting a pub quiz show tonight (and every Thursday) at 7pm, which will be live streamed on Sink The Pinks Instagram account. The quiz is posted afterwards to their Facebook page, but join in live for the chance to win prizes, including bottles of Wildcat gin and loo roll. Take a brain power masterclass A new series of brain power masterclasses is launching today, designed to stimulate the nation during these difficult times. Register and tune in from 6.30pm for the first of the new weekly sessions from Heights, which consist of a 45-minute talk on how to achieve peak mental fitness. Neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart is the first guest to take part this evening, with Stephen Fry, Jay Shetty and Dr Sophie Scott among the names set to appear over the course of the series, which runs until late summer. Learn to sing with Piano Works Dublin, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global GIS Software in Agriculture Market: Focus on Solution (On-Cloud, On-Premise), Application (Crop Monitoring, Soil Analysis, Irrigation Monitoring), and Region - Analysis and Forecast, 2019-2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. According to this report the GIS software in agriculture market is expected to reach $2.57 billion by 2024, increasing at a CAGR of 10.41% from 2019 to 2024. Market growth is largely attributed to the adoption of GIS software that is offered under on-cloud software solutions. The global GIS software in agriculture market research provides a detailed perspective regarding the adoption of the GIS software in agriculture, its value, and estimation, among others. The purpose of this market analysis is to examine the GIS software in the agriculture industry outlook in terms of factors driving the market trends, developments, and emerging trends, among others. The report further takes into consideration the market dynamics and the competitive landscape along with the detailed financial and product contributions of the key players operating in the market. The GIS software in agriculture report is a compilation of different segments including market breakdown by solution type, application, and region. Key Questions Answered in this Report: What is the expected global GIS software in the agriculture market size in terms of value during the period 2018-2024? What is the expected future scenario and revenue generated by the different types of solutions such as on-premise and on-cloud software, for GIS software in agriculture? What is the expected future scenario and revenue generated by the GIS software in agriculture for different applications in farming including crop monitoring, soil analysis, and irrigation monitoring, among others? Which geographical region is the largest market for global GIS software in the agriculture market? What is the expected future scenario and the revenue generated by different geographical regions and countries such as North America, South America, the U.K., Europe, Middle East Africa, China, and Asia-Pacific Japan in the global GIS software in agriculture market? What is the expected future scenario and revenue generated by different applications of GIS software in agriculture in different regions such as North America, South America, the U.K., Europe, Middle East Africa, China, and Asia-Pacific Japan? What is the competitive strength of the key players in the GIS software in agriculture on the basis of the analysis of their recent developments, product offerings, and regional presence? What are the emerging trends in global GIS software in the agriculture market? How is the adoption scenario, related opportunities, and challenges associated with GIS software in agriculture? What are the market dynamics of the global GIS software in the agriculture market including market drivers, restraints, and opportunities? What will be the major market driving trends for GIS software in agriculture in terms of business model, market consolidation, and new product offerings? Story continues The GIS software in agriculture industry analysis projects the market to grow at a significant CAGR of 10.41% during the forecast period from 2019 to 2024. Numerous governments are being increasingly concerned about the growing food insecurity for the global population. The increasing degree of urbanization also raises concerns about the availability of agricultural labor and agricultural land. Therefore, to meet this growing demand for food, technologies such as GIS software can be used to optimize the use of farm resources. The GIS software in agriculture market growth is majorly driven by factors such as a rise in the adoption rate of technologies used on the farm and increasing government initiatives globally. The GIS software in the agriculture market segmentation (on the basis of solution type) is further segmented into on-cloud and on-premise software solutions. On-cloud segment dominated the global GIS software in the agriculture market in 2018 and is anticipated to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period (2019-2024). The GIS software in the agriculture market segmentation, on the basis of application, is segmented into crop monitoring, soil analysis, irrigation monitoring, and others. The crop monitoring application dominated the global GIS software in the agriculture market in 2018 and is anticipated to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The GIS software in the agriculture market segmentation by region is segregated under seven major regions, such as North America, South America, the U.K., Europe, Middle East Africa, China, and Asia-Pacific Japan. Data for each of these regions is provided by application type and by country. The key market players in the global GIS software in the agriculture market include ESRI, Trimble Inc., Topcon Corporation, Hexagon AB, Pix4D, Autodesk, Inc., and Oracle Corporation, among others. Key Topics Covered: 1 Market Drivers 1.1 Market Drivers 1.1.1 Tackling Global Food Insecurity 1.1.2 Favourable Government Initiatives and Investments 1.1.3 Growing Need for Precision Farming 1.2 Market Restraints 1.2.1 High Initial Investment Costs 1.2.2 Availability of Open Source GIS Software and Applications 1.3 Market Opportunities 1.3.1 Rising Opportunities in Developing Countries 1.3.2 Adoption of Drones in Agriculture 2 Competitive Landscape 2.1 Key Market Developments and Strategies 2.1.1 New Product Launches and Developments 2.1.2 Partnerships, Collaborations & Joint Ventures 2.1.3 Merger and Acquisition 2.1.4 Others (Business Expansions, Contract, Rewards, and Recognitions) 2.2 Market Share Analysis 3 Industry Analysis 3.1 Product Differentiation in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 3.2 Emerging Trends in the GIS Software in Agriculture Market 3.2.1 Use of 5D Mapping for GIS Software in Agriculture 3.2.2 Applications of IoT in GIS Software in Agriculture 3.3 Pricing Analysis 3.4 Industry Attractiveness 3.4.1 Threat of New Entrants 3.4.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 3.4.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 3.4.4 Threat from Substitutes 3.4.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry 4 Global GIS Software in Agriculture Market (by Solution Type) 4.1 On-Cloud 4.2 On-Premise 5 Global GIS Software in Agriculture Market (by Application) 5.1 Crop Monitoring 5.2 Soil Analysis 5.3 Irrigation Monitoring 5.4 Others 6 Global GIS Software in Agriculture Market (By Region) 6.1 North America 6.1.1 North America (by Application) 6.1.2 North America (by Country) 6.1.2.1 U.S. 6.1.2.2 Canada 6.1.2.3 Mexico 6.2 Europe 6.2.1 Europe (by Application) 6.2.2 Europe (by Country) 6.2.2.1 Germany 6.2.2.2 France 6.2.2.3 Italy 6.2.2.4 Spain 6.2.2.5 Rest-of-Europe 6.3 Asia-Pacific Japan 6.3.1 Asia-Pacific Japan (by Application) 6.3.2 Asia-Pacific Japan (by Country) 6.3.2.1 Australia & New Zealand 6.3.2.2 Japan 6.3.2.3 India 6.3.2.4 Vietnam 6.3.2.5 Rest-of-Asia-Pacific Japan 6.4 Middle East Africa 6.4.1 Middle East Africa (by Application) 6.4.2 Middle East Africa (by Country) 6.4.2.1 Israel 6.4.2.2 South Africa 6.4.2.3 Kenya 6.4.2.4 Rest-of-Middle East Africa 6.5 China 6.5.1 China (by Application) 6.6 South America 6.6.1 South America (by Application) 6.6.2 South America (by Country) 6.6.2.1 Brazil 6.6.2.2 Argentina 6.6.2.3 Rest-of-South America 6.7 U.K. 6.7.1 U.K. (by Application) 7 Company Profiles 7.1 Overview 7.2 Autodesk, Inc. 7.2.1 Company Overview 7.2.2 Role of Autodesk, Inc. in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.2.3 Product Portfolio 7.2.4 Financials 7.2.5 SWOT Analysis 7.3 Computer-Aided Development Corporation Ltd. (Cadcorp) 7.3.1 Company Overview 7.3.2 Role of Cadcorp in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.3.3 Product Portfolio 7.3.4 SWOT Analysis 7.4 Earth Observing System 7.4.1 Company Overview 7.4.2 Role of Earth Observing System in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.4.3 SWOT Analysis 7.5 Environmental System Research Institute (ESRI) 7.5.1 Company Overview 7.5.2 Role of ESRI in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.5.3 Product Portfolio 7.5.4 SWOT Analysis 7.6 Geosoft Inc. 7.6.1 Company Overview 7.6.2 Role of Geosoft Inc. in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.6.3 Product Portfolio 7.6.4 SWOT Analysis 7.7 Hexagon AB 7.7.1 Company Overview 7.7.2 Role of Hexagon AB in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.7.3 Product Portfolio 7.7.4 Financials 7.7.5 SWOT Analysis 7.8 Hi-Target Surveying Instrument Co., Ltd 7.8.1 Company Overview 7.8.2 Role of Hi-Target Surveying Instrument Co., Ltd in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.8.3 Product Portfolio 7.8.4 SWOT Analysis 7.9 L3 Harris Technologies 7.9.1 Company Overview 7.9.2 Role of L3 Harris Technologies, Inc. in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.9.3 Product Portfolio 7.9.4 Financials 7.9.5 SWOT Analysis 7.10 Oracle Corporation 7.10.1 Company Overview 7.10.2 Role of Oracle Corporation Inc in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.10.3 Product Portfolio 7.10.4 Financials 7.10.5 SWOT Analysis 7.11 Parrot SA 7.11.1 Company Overview 7.11.2 Role of Parrot SA in GIS Software in Agriculture 7.11.3 Product Portfolio 7.11.4 Financials 7.11.5 SWOT Analysis 7.12 Pitney Bowes Inc. 7.12.1 Company Overview 7.12.2 Role of Pitney Bowes Inc. in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.12.3 Product Portfolio 7.12.4 Financials 7.12.5 SWOT Analysis 7.13 SuperMap Software Co., Ltd. 7.13.1 Company Overview 7.13.2 Role of SuperMap Software Co., Ltd. in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.13.3 Product Portfolio 7.13.4 Financials 7.13.5 SWOT Analysis 7.14 Takor Group Ltd 7.14.1 Company Overview 7.14.2 Role of Takor Group Ltd in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.14.3 Product Portfolio 7.14.4 SWOT Analysis 7.15 Topcon Corporation 7.15.1 Company Overview 7.15.2 Role of Topcon Corporation in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.15.3 Product Portfolio 7.15.4 Financials 7.15.5 SWOT Analysis 7.16 Trimble Inc. 7.16.1 Company Overview 7.16.2 Role of Trimble Inc. in GIS Software in Agriculture Market 7.16.3 Product Portfolio 7.16.4 Financials 7.16.5 SWOT Analysis 8 Report Scope and Methodology 8.1 Scope of the Report 8.2 Global GIS Software in Agriculture Market Segmentation 8.3 Global GIS Software in Agriculture Market Research Methodology 8.3.1 Assumptions 8.3.2 Limitations 8.3.3 Primary Data Sources 8.3.4 Secondary Data Sources 8.3.5 Data Triangulation 8.3.6 Market Estimation and Forecast For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/mbruzg Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 Chattanooga Gas and the Chattanooga Gas Foundation are donating $50,000 to support local nonprofit organizations providing essential services and financial assistance to residents. We recognize now more than ever the need to support our community partners as they focus on providing valuable resources to our neighbors who are not only recovering from a natural disaster, but also are struggling to feed their families during this unprecedented time, said Bryan Batson, president of Chattanooga Gas. The donation is part of an effort led by Chattanooga Gas parent company, Southern Company Gas, which announced in March that it will contribute $2.5 million across its operations footprint. To assist victims of the April 12 tornado, Chattanooga Gas is designating a portion of this funding to the Tornado Relief Fund, operated by the United Way of Chattanooga and the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga. Grants from the fund will be given to nonprofits providing immediate vital services as the region works to rebuild. The United Way of Greater Chattanooga is grateful to work with partners like Chattanooga Gas who prioritize the health and safety of our community. The support that were seeing from the community for this joint Tornado Relief Fund with the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga will not only help front-line nonprofits in their effort to support those affected by this devastating event, but will ultimately help our neighbors as they regain stability through this time of recovery, said Stephen Van Gorp, vice president for communications for United Way of Greater Chattanooga. A portion of the donations will also be given to the United Way of Ocoees Connect program that helps families identity community resources available to assist their specific needs. This donation gives us so much tangible hope, said Candice Natola, chief resource officer of United Way Ocoee. The needs are great right now, but the spirit of companies like Chattanooga Gas and our community is even greater. Additional funding will be given to the Caring Place and the Chattanooga Area Food Bank to help continue services to feed the hungry. One in eight people overall including one in five children face hunger every day in southeast Tennessee, a number that is anticipated to grow as a result of recent challenges, officials said. During this COVID-19 pandemic, we cant forget stocking up isnt possible for some families when putting food on the table is a daily struggle, said Mark Hilling, president and CEO of Chattanooga Area Food Bank. This generous financial assistance helps our most vulnerable neighbors. We are grateful for business partners such as Chattanooga Gas. The money will allow us to meet the need for the most basic resource of food during this time when so many are faced with financial constraints, said Corinne Freeman, executive director of Caring Place. For additional information about assistance resources, visit www.chattanoogagas.com/residential/energy-assistance. Police in Westport, Connecticut, are working with Canadian drone company Draganfly on test flights for a 'pandemic drone' Police in Westport, Connecticut, are testing a 'pandemic drone' which can monitor and detect people with infectious respiratory conditions in public areas amid the coronavirus pandemic. The drone is said to monitor people's temperatures from 190 feet away and has the ability to detect sneezing, coughing and heart and breathing rates using sensors and computer vision. Police are working with Canadian drone company Draganfly, who first revealed in late March that they were working with the University of South Australia (UniSA) to develop the pandemic drone. They are using the technology as part of a 'Flatten the Curve Pilot Program', which hopes to provide better health monitoring support for potential at-risk groups. It marks the first in a series of test flights near New York City area COVID-19 hotspots to identify social distancing and detect symptoms presented by the virus. Scroll down for video The 'pandemic drone' it said to have the ability to monitor and detect people with infectious respiratory conditions in public areas from 190 feet away amid the coronavirus pandemic Draganfly says the drone and its monitors and sensors will not identify individuals It will not be used in individual private yards and does not use facial recognition, individualized data or identify people, Draganfly insists. The company initially expected the equipment to be ready in six months time but Westport police are already testing it out, a news release said Tuesday. The system could be used to identify people sneezing and coughing in crowds, offices, airports, cruise ships, aged care homes and other places where groups of people may work or congregate. Researchers involved say the drone demonstrated that heart rate and breathing rate can be measured with high accuracy within 16 to 32 feet of people, using drones and at distances of up to 190 feet with fixed cameras. And it uses special algorithms to spot someone sneezing and coughing. The UniSA team led by Defence Chair of Sensor Systems Professor Javaan Chahl believes the UAV could be a viable screening tool for the COVID-19 pandemic. 'It might not detect all cases, but it could be a reliable tool to detect the presence of the disease in a place or in a group of people.' Officials in Westport believe the new technology could be the answer to combating the spread of coronavirus and tracking those with symptoms. Researchers involved say the drone demonstrated that heart rate and breathing rate can be measured with high accuracy within 16 to 32 feet of people using drones with fixed cameras The company says it will not be used to monitor private yards, only public areas 'One of the major problems for cities and towns like Westport in managing and responding to a pandemic like the COVID-19 virus, is finding out who could be infected and how widespread the disease has spread,' Westport First Selectman, Jim Marpe said in a statement, according to NBC Connecticut. 'One way to do this is to look for underlying symptoms. By teaming up with Draganfly and the UniSA team led by Defense Chair of Sensor Systems Professor Javaan Chahl, we are able to remotely look at valuable lifesaving data and better manage current and future health emergencies.' Fairfield County, Connecticut is considered the epicenter in the state for the spread of the Coronavirus and Westport was the first town to report the most cases of infections. To date, there are more than 19,815 confirmed cases in Connecticut. Fairfield County is adjacent to New York City, which has the most confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. It can detect sneezing, coughing and heart/breathing rates using sensors and computer vision The program is hoped to help officials in monitoring and detecting people with infectious respiratory conditions in public areas in Westport, where it is being tested 'The Westport Police Department is one of the most progressive public safety agencies in the nation and real pioneers when it comes to adopting and integrating new technology to enhance the safety of their citizens and first responders,' said Cameron Chell, CEO of Draganfly. 'This coronavirus pandemic has opened up a new frontier for advanced drones. In conjunction with our partners, including the town of Westport, together we are the first in the U.S. to implement this state-of-the-art technology to analyze data in a way that has been peer reviewed and clinically researched to save lives.' Police claim it will also allow for quicker reaction time to potential health threats as it will give a greater understanding of population patterns. 'Using drones remains a go-to technology for reaching remote areas with little to no manpower required. Because of this technology, our officers will have the information and quality data they need to make the best decision in any given situation,' Westport Police Chief Foti Koskinas said in the news release. Chell says his company will use its sensor, software and engineering expertise to work with UniSA to integrate and deploy for government, medical and commercial customers. 'We are honored to work on such an important project given the current pandemic facing the world with Covid-19. Health and respiratory monitoring will be vital not only for detection but also to understand health trends,' Chell said. Drones have become very helpful during the pandemic, as many countries are using the technology to monitor people who defy lockdown or quarantine advice. The Chula Vista Police Department in San Diego, California has invested in two drones that cost $11,000 each and plan to fit the devices with speakers and night vision cameras after last week Governor Gavin Newsom ordered residents to stay at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19. KAMPALA The Ministry of Health has confirmed one new case of COVID-19 in Uganda out of the 1177 samples tested on Monday April 20 at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI). The new case is a 46-year-old Burundian refugee who arrived from neighboring Tanzania via Mutukula. The patient is isolated in Rakai District, about 222KM south of the country. 1 new case confirmed today, out of 1,117 samples tested at UVRI. The new case, a 46 year old Burundian refugee, arrived from Tanzania and was under quarantine at the time of test. Total confirmed cases is now 56, health minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said. The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country now stands at 56, the ministry said. The health ministry is currently testing all truck drivers (cargo transporters) for COVID-19 who came into the country via the various points of entry. Uganda on Monday April 20, reported ten more COVID-19 recovered patients, raising the tally of recoveries to 38, against 18 active cases. State Minister for Primary Health Care, Joyce Moriku presided over the discharge of the patients, that included five children from the Watoto Choir, three of their attendants, one boda boda rider from Kasubi and one from Kalangala at Entebbe Grade B hospital. With no reported deaths so far, the Ministry of Health said in a statement that all active cases are in stable condition at designated COVID-19 treatment centres. Since the outbreak of this pandemic in the country, the Government has employed several directives to contain it, the recent one being the mandatory use of face masks in public and in multi-family compounds. In addition to self-distancing and frequent washing of hands, general citizens are continuously urged to report COVID-19 symptoms such as dry cough, high fever and shortness of breath as early as possible. Related Lawmakers and the White House finally reached an agreement Tuesday afternoon to replenish the payment protection program fund after Democrats blocked the measure because it didn't include enough relief for other programs. The legislation's main purpose is to refill the fund after it ran out of money less than two weeks after it launched but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted from the floor Tuesday that it ended up being 'a significant package.' Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a victory lap after the legislation passed through the Senate. 'The bill we passed was greatly improved,' Schumer said in remarks Tuesday evening. 'It's much better to talk with us then steamroll us and because we had input into the bill, it's a much better bill.' Schumer and Pelosi said they were against the bill only including funding for the payment protection program (PPP). President Donald Trump urged Republicans to back the interim relief package, which other than PPP funding includes money for hospitals and testing. 'I urge the Senate and House to pass the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act with additional funding for PPP, Hospitals, and Testing,' the president wrote on Twitter. Democrats say Republicans would not let up on adding in more money for state and local government, but Trump insisted that would be included in the next far-reaching CARES package. 'After I sign this Bill, we will begin discussions on the next Legislative Initiative with fiscal relief to State/Local Governments for lost revenues from COVID 19, much needed Infrastructure Investments for Bridges, Tunnels, Broadband, Tax Incentives for Restaurants, Entertainment, Sports, and Payroll Tax Cuts to increase Economic Growth,' the president tweeted. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday from the Senate floor that it is 'unfortunate' that it took lawmakers 12 days to reach an agreement on expanding the payment protection program Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (left) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (right) took a victory lap after the legislation made it through the Republican-majority Senate, claiming it was only acceptable after the GOP gave into some of their demanded measures Donald Trump pushed for Republicans to support the interim relief bill, even though additions were made that were not part of the original proposal, including money for testing and hospitals The president said he would begin discussions to send more relief and funding to state and local governments after this bill passes Schumer said he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were able to reach an agreement with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (pictured), who is spearheading the negotiations between the White House and Capitol Hill WHAT'S IN THE $484 BILLION CORONAVIRUS RELIEF BILL? The House passed the emergency interim relief package Thursday night after the Senate finally came to an agreement on the legislation and moved it through the upper chamber Tuesday afternoon. Heres where the $484 billion is going: $320 billion for Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program - $125 billion of that will go to the minority and women-owned businesses and 'little mom-and-pop stores' that don't have a good banking connections $30 billion to increase production and distribution of coronavirus tests - $11 billion of that will go to the states to boost testing at a local-level $75 billion for hospitals $60 billion for the Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loan program Any remaining funds will go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies supporting coronavirus mitigation Advertisement The Senate vowed to pass legislation to expand the payment protection program early this week and initially said a deal would be on the table by Monday morning. 'It's unfortunate that it took our Democratic colleagues 12 days to agree to a deal that contains essentially nothing that Republicans ever opposed,' McConnell said during remarks from the Senate floor. 'In my view it's indefensible that Main Street small businesses and their workers had their assistance cut off for partisan leverage.' 'The American people cannot be political leverage,' he asserted, hitting at Democrats. 'So I'm glad that we're now poised to move ahead.' Pelosi was all smiles during the post-vote press conference. 'Congratulations on the unanimous vote in the Senate today on a package that we recommended two weeks ago,' the House Speaker, who will take up the bill in the lower chamber later this week, said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told CNN Tuesday morning that he was on the phone with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin past midnight to reach a deal. 'We came to an agreement on just about every issue,' Schumer said of the phone call. 'Staff was up all night writing,' he continued of the bipartisan efforts to pass more relief in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. 'There's still a few more i's to dot and t's to cross, but we have a deal and I believe we'll pass it today.' Schumer and Mnuchin claimed in interviews with Sunday shows that they would likely reach an agreement on the interim relief package by Sunday evening or Monday morning but no such deal was reached. The Senate came to order for a pro forma session at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, where several senators took the floor to make remarks on the legislation before McConnell called for unanimous consent in the upper chamber to then pass it through to the House. Despite claims of bipartisan negotiations and support for the measure, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul spoke out in opposition of the bill during remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday evening. Despite claims of bipartisan efforts and negotiations, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul expressed his opposition to the bill, claiming: 'Our only hope of rescuing this great country is to reopen the economy' 'I rise in opposition to spending $500 billion more,' the libertarian Republican said, asserting: 'If you print off billions of dollars and give it to people, they are unlikely to spend it until you end the quarantine' The libertarian Republican lawmaker said printing and pumping money into Americans' hands wasn't going to fix the economy, and that the only way for economic recovery is to end lockdowns and allow businesses to reopen. 'No amount of money, not all the money in China, will save us from ourselves. Our only hope of rescuing this great country is to reopen the economy,' Paul said. 'If you print off billions of dollars and give it to people, they are unlikely to spend it until you end the quarantine.' 'The debate should now include the one choice that will get our economy going again: Reopening American commerce. So today I rise in opposition to spending $500 billion more. The virus bailouts have already cost over $2 trillion,' the senator said. 'We can manage this disease without continuing the Draconian lockdown of the economy. The question before us isn't: do nothing or print endless amounts of bailout cash,' he asserted. Instead, the Senate insists they will vote on the legislation during a pro forma session scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. Further indications that the $450 billion package was ready for passage in the Senate Tuesday came from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who called members to return to Washington D.C. by Thursday. 'If the Senate passes this legislation on Tuesday, the House could meet as early as Thursday, April 23rd at 10:00 a.m. to consider it,' Hoyer said in a statement calling congressmen and women to use Wednesday to travel back to the District. He also said that the lower chamber would not only consider, but likely pass the bill before the end of the week through a recorded vote. 'Members are further advised that at this time we do not expect House Republicans to allow passage of this legislation to occur by a voice vote, therefore a recorded vote on the interim legislation is likely in the House this week,' the Maryland Democrat said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday the Senate will act on an interim relief legislation to expand small business relief this afternoon House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer also said Tuesday that he was calling members back to Washington D.C. by Thursday as he expects the lower chamber to vote on the legislation by the end of the week The deal comes as thousands of small businesses across the country have had to close their doors when all non-essential businesses were ordered to close in the midst of lockdown orders and social distancing guidelines During a call with reporters Tuesday morning, Hoyer said the House expects well over half of House members to return to Washington, D.C. for the discussions and vote later this week. 'We are asking every member to return that can return,' Hoyer said. 'And we are hoping that is a large number.' Another version of the bill was brought to the Senate floor by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but was blocked by Democrats who claimed the legislation did not include enough of their demands. The interim bill originally only included $250 billion to expand the PPP for small business grants, which ran dry of its original $350 billion less than two weeks after the program launched and applications were opened. PPP was passed as part of the CARES Act at the end of March and grants $10 million loans to businesses with 500 employees or less that are struggling in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The funds are meant to help businesses avoid shuttering by paying their rent and other essential bills and keeping employees on the payroll. Democrats, however, wanted the interim relief package to include more money for other programs. The final agreement, Schumer revealed Tuesday, allocates $125 billion of the money for small businesses for those that do not already have good banking connections or are mom and pop, minority or women-owned businesses. Schumer also reiterated that they were able to reach a deal to include $75 billion extra for hospitals, while he admitted Democrats had to concede on getting money passed for state and local government. Automated risk assessment enables insurers to detect and investigate suspicious claims and fight fraud FRISS, a global provider of AI-powered fraud and risk solutions for Property and Casualty insurance carriers and Guidewire PartnerConnect Solution partner, and Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE: GWRE), provider of the industry platform P&C insurers rely upon, today announced the FRISS add-on for Fraud Detection, created using the Guidewire DevConnect developer environment, has successfully completed the Ready for Guidewire validation process and is available for download by Guidewire customers in the Guidewire Marketplace. Insurance fraud is a global issue. In the US alone, the cost of insurance fraud exceeds $40 billion per year, costing the average family hundreds in increased premiums (FBI). According to the ABI, 1,300 insurance scams were uncovered every day in the UK in 2018 with the average fraudulent act costing 12,000. "Fraud detection tools are becoming increasingly important to insurers. With the strain on the global economy, experts are predicting a rise in fraud rates," says Karlyn Carnahan, Head of Celent's North American Property Casualty business. "Pre-integration of fraud tools into a claims or policy admin system allows insurers to rapidly deploy these capabilities and stay ahead of the projected rise in fraudulent claims." FRISS' add-on tackles insurance fraud by helping insurers automatically check claims for potential fraud and risks at multiple stages of the claim workflow in Guidewire ClaimCenter. Claim scoring results, including actionable insights, are available to claims adjustors directly within ClaimCenter. As an integrated part of an established workflow this add-on ensures claims are screened consistently and processed automatically and quickly. In addition, claims adjustors or investigators can provide feedback on the scoring that supports ongoing training and improvement of the fraud models employed. Insurers using FRISS's Guidewire integration can: Provide straight-through claims processing for meritorious claims by automating fraud scoring capabilities in real-time within the claim's workflow; Trigger automated actions (workflows) within ClaimCenter based on a FRISS fraud score; and Help claims adjusters and investigators focus on suspicious claims and provide support to detect and investigate fraudulent claims. "As an established Guidewire PartnerConnect Solution partner, we are pleased to offer a new automated fraud detection solution. Co-developed and validated with a joint customer, our add-on combines AI and machine-learning with out-of-the-box expert knowledge rules," said Bas de Graaf, Global Partner Manager, FRISS. "This add-on supports both operational excellence and digitalization within the claims process, making processes more efficient without losing the necessary controls. Like Guidewire, FRISS has a singular focus on P&C insurance. The combination of a proven core platform provider like Guidewire and an insurtech like FRISS offers insurers the best of both worlds." "We congratulate FRISS on the publication of their add-on for Fraud Detection, another important tool in an insurer's armory," said Becky Mattick, Vice President, Solution Alliances, Guidewire. "Demand for anti-fraud insurance solutions is high, and process automation for fraud identification and management is an important element for insurers in their work to ensure honest insurance." About FRISS FRISS is 100% focused on automated fraud and risk detection for P&C insurance companies worldwide. Their AI-powered detection solutions for underwriting, claims and SIU help 175+ insurers grow their business. FRISS detects fraud, mitigates risks and supports digital transformation. Insurers go live within 4 months, realize 10 times ROI and 80% increase in straight through processing of policy application and claims. FRISS solutions help lower loss ratios, enable profitable portfolio growth, and improve the customer experience. For more information, please visit www.friss.com. About Guidewire PartnerConnect and Ready for Guidewire Guidewire PartnerConnect is a global network of select companies that provide consulting services and solutions to enhance, extend, and complement the capabilities of Guidewire products. Our worldwide community helps contribute to the success of our mutual customers in the general insurance industry by delivering Guidewire software implementations, value-add solution and technology offerings, and guidance on insurance industry best practices. Guidewire DevConnect is a developer platform that enables Guidewire PartnerConnect Solution partners to create innovative add-ons that integrate with Guidewire InsurancePlatform products. DevConnect add-ons feature straight forward installation, full-fidelity upgrades, and enhanced support enabling insurers to focus on innovation and growth. With a complete set of APIs, software development kits, and associated tools, DevConnect provides everything that the independent general insurance developer community needs to rapidly design and build feature-rich add-ons for Guidewire products and publish them in the Guidewire Marketplace. For more information about Guidewire PartnerConnect please visit http://www.guidewire.com/partners/. About Guidewire Software Guidewire delivers the industry platform that Property and Casualty (P&C) insurers rely upon to adapt and succeed in a time of accelerating change. We provide the software, services, and ecosystem to enable our customers to run, differentiate, and grow their business. As of the end of our fiscal year 2019, we are privileged to serve more than 380 companies in 34 countries. For more information, please visit www.guidewire.com and follow us on twitter: @Guidewire_PandC. NOTE: For information about Guidewire's trademarks, visit https://www.guidewire.com/legal-notices. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005321/en/ Contacts: Ruud van Gerwen Product Partner Marketer +31 611516349 ruud.van.gerwen@friss.com Andrew Vogeney Marketing Manager, North America +1 (631) 764-6277 andrew.vogeney@friss.com Daniel Couzens Allison Partners +44(0)20 3971 4308 guidewire@allisonpr.com Louise Bradley PR Communications EMEA Guidewire Software (UK) Ltd +44(0)7474 837 860 lbradley@guidewire.com From fundamental physics related to Einstein's special theory of relativity to fundamentals of metrological applications in the range of thousandths of micrometers (i.e. nanometers) - the bandwidth of this year's Helmholtz Prize is considerable. The Helmholtz Prize, which recognizes outstanding scientific and technological research in the field of precision measurement in physics, chemistry and medicine, is awarded every second year. Three scientists at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) have been awarded the prize in fundamental research for their work. By means of a long-term comparison between two highly accurate clocks (optical ytterbium clocks) of PTB, Christian Sanner, Nils Huntemann and Richard Lange have succeeded in considerably improving the procedure to test the fundamental symmetry of space (Lorentz symmetry) for electrons. The Helmholtz Prize in applied metrology has been awarded to a team consisting of nine researchers from the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin and from the University of Freiburg working with the physicist Saskia F. Fischer from Berlin and the microsystems expert Peter Woias from Freiburg. This group has also broken new ground by laying down the scientific and technical prerequisites to standardize the measurement of individual nanostructures. In metrology, the science of precise measurement, the Helmholtz Prize is considered one of the world's most prominent distinctions. The prize is awarded in two categories - fundamental research and applied metrology - and endowed with 20,000 in prize money. Testing the symmetry of space-time by means of atomic clocks: The team from PTB dealt with a fundamental question of physics. One of the basic assumptions of Einstein's special theory of relativity is that the speed of light is always the same, independent of the direction in which the light spreads. Now one can ask: How universal is this symmetry of space (which was named after Hendrik Antoon Lorentz)? Does it also apply to the motion of material particles in the same way,? or are there any directions along which these particles move faster or more slowly although the energy remains the same? Especially for high energies of the particles, theoretical models of quantum gravitation predict a violation of the Lorentz symmetry. These models are designed to describe the universe of the infinitesimal, quanta, gravitation and the force of gravitation Optical spectroscopy of atomic transitions, which consists in investigating the interaction of light with atoms, offers a unique level of accuracy. This accuracy means that such spectroscopy allows assumptions and predictions of the theory of relativity to be experimentally tested. In 2016, the physicists from PTB presented a clock based on this interaction of high-precision lasers with a defined atom (the ytterbium ion 171Yb+) and achieved a relative accuracy of 3 10E-18. If this clock had started ticking at the time of the Big Bang (13.7 billion years ago), its error would now amount to no more than one second. Two versions of this optical Yb+ clock in different spatial orientations are being used to measure the Lorentz symmetry and specifically the isotropy of space-time with unprecedented accuracy. To put it simply, the laws of physics have no directional dependence. In a universe that obeys the laws of the Lorentz symmetry (as assumed in the theory of relativity), a physical experiment must always yield the same result, independent of its orientation in space or its uniform motion. But can we be sure that this symmetry is maintained up to the limits of what Yb+ clocks can measure? Building on the tradition of the Michelson-Morley experiment, which began more than 100 years ago, Christian Sanner, Nils Huntemann and Richard Lange succeeded in improving the best anisotropy limits up to that point by another two orders of magnitude. As a "side-effect" - but an important one - their long-term comparison has confirmed the extremely small systematic measurement uncertainty of the two optical ytterbium clocks, which amounts to less than 4 10E-18. The results were published in Nature. A new path to standardized nanometrology: The 2020 Helmholtz Prize in applied metrology was awarded to a team consisting of researchers from the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin and from the University of Freiburg. Maximilian Kockert, Danny Kojda, Rudiger Mitdank, Anna Mogilatenko and Saskia F. Fischer (Humboldt-Universitat Berlin), and Zhi Wang, Johannes Ruhhammer, Michael Kroner and Peter Woias (University of Freiburg) have succeeded in developing the first standardizable procedure to measure structures in the nanometer range (thousandths of micrometers). The problem with nanostructured materials is that they often have properties that are completely different from those of macroscopic materials. In the nanometer range, besides the type of material, the form of surfaces - i.e. the dimensions and the surface texture - plays a key role. The motto for industrial design and architecture coined a hundred years ago in connection with the Bauhaus school - "form follows function" - no longer applies in the nanometer range. Often, this motto must even be turned on its head for parameters of nanostructured materials - "form defines structure." This allows these parameters to be customized by the shape given to the material. It is therefore even more important to be able to measure these materials parameters accurately and reliably, which presents metrology with a challenge. In their work, the team of researchers has presented standardizable precision measurements of the Seebeck coefficient whose scope can be extended from their model system (namely silver wires with a diameter in the nanometer range and a crystalline structure (single crystals)) to cover other nanostructures and additional parameters. The researchers have thus demonstrated that standardized high-precision measurements over a wide temperature range are possible for the entire thermoelectric characterization (i.e. when measuring electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient), even for metallic nanomaterials. Their results have now been published in Scientific Reports. The prize: The Helmholtz Prize is awarded by the Helmholtz Fund for outstanding scientific and technological research in the field of precision measurement in physics, chemistry and medicine in the categories of fundamental research and applied metrology. Due to the current situation surrounding the coronavirus, it has not yet been decided when and where the award will be presented to this year's prizewinners. The Heraeus Seminar ("Hybrid Solid State Quantum Circuits, Sensors, and Metrology"), which was planned to take place from 11 to 14 May in Bad Honnef and which was to have included the award ceremony, has been cancelled. The prizewinners: 2020 Helmholtz Prize for precision measurement in fundamental research: Dr. Christian Sanner (PTB, currently working at JILA in Boulder, CO, USA), Dr. Nils Huntemann and Richard Lange (both from PTB) for their work titled "Single-atom spectroscopy with eighteen-digit accuracy to measure the symmetry of space-time" rdesenberg Scientific publication: Christian Sanner, Nils Huntemann, Richard Lange, Christian Tamm, Ekkehard Peik, Marianna S. Safronova, Sergey G. Porsev: Optical clock comparison for Lorentz symmetry testing. Nature 567, 204 (2019) Contact: Dr. Nils Huntemann, Working Group 4.43 "Optical Clocks with Trapped Ions", Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany, phone: +49 531 592-4430, e-mail: nils.huntemann@ptb.de 2020 Helmholtz Prize for precision measurement in applied metrology: Maximilian Kockert, Dr. Danny Kojda, Dr. Rudiger Mitdank, Dr. Anna Mogilatenko and Prof. Dr. Saskia F. Fischer (contributed research from the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin), and Dr. Zhi Wang, Dr. Johannes Ruhhammer, Dr. Michael Kroner and Prof. Dr. Peter Woias (contributed research from the University of Freiburg) for their work titled "Nanometrology: Absolute Seebeck coefficient of individual silver nanowires." Scientific publication: M. Kockert, D. Kojda, R. Mitdank, A. Mogilatenko, Z. Wang, J. Ruhhammer, M. Kroener, P. Woias, S. F. Fischer: Nanometrology: Absolute Seebeck coefficient of individual silver nanowires. Scientific Reports 9, 20265 (2019) Contact: Prof. Dr. Saskia F. Fischer, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Department of Physics, WG Novel Materials, Newtonstrae 15, 12489 Berlin phone: +49 30 2093-8044, e-mail: saskia.fischer@physik.hu-berlin.de Prof. Dr. Peter Woias, University of Freiburg, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), Laboratory for the Design of Microsystems, Georges-Kohler-Allee 102, 79110 Freiburg, phone: +49 761 203-7490, e-mail: woias@imtek.uni-freiburg.de Gov. Andrew Cuomo said President Donald Trump committed at a meeting in Washington Tuesday to "work together" to double New York's rate of testing for the coronavirus. New York, the epicenter of the Covid-19 crisis in the U.S., is currently testing about 20,000 people a day, Cuomo said in an MSNBC interview after leaving a White House meeting with Trump. Cuomo said he and Trump want to work toward doubling that number to 40,000 tests per day. "It's a very aggressive goal and we said that we would work together to meet that goal, so it was a very good conversation," Cuomo said. Trump agreed to ensure U.S. manufacturers could make enough testing kits, Cuomo said at a press conference after his meeting. The federal government would work on international supply chain issues, ensuring manufacturers have enough materials vials, swabs and the chemical reagents needed to process the tests to make the tests, Cuomo said. The states would run the labs and determine where to send the tests and who gets tested, he said. "That is the biggest single task that we have to do that is identifiable from today, and it ends the whole back and forth and finger pointing in a very fair and smart way. It's a very smart resolution, " Cuomo said. The governor also said that Trump "seemed very open and understanding" about the need for states to receive federal funding as they struggle to work toward reopening their economies. "The states are in desperate shape and everything's being left to the states to do the reopening ... They don't provide any funding to the state government," Cuomo said. The president "said the next piece of legislation that passes, he's going to be open to that," Cuomo said. Earlier in the day, Cuomo told reporters he wanted to wanted the meeting to focus on "testing, and what does testing mean, and how do we do it, and how can the federal government work in partnership with states?" He said New York has struggled to find international suppliers for test kits since Trump has left it up to individual states to procure their own tests and supplies most of which is sold in China. "You shouldn't expect all these governors to run around and do an international supply chain while they're trying to put together their testing protocol in their state, coordinating their labs," Cuomo said at a press conference at the the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo. "Then I have to put together an army of tracers that's thousands of people. That's never been done before." Cuomo and the president have kept closely in touch throughout the coronavirus crisis, and each has frequently commented on how the other is handling his responsibilities. Their remarks have vacillated from full-throated praise to searing criticism, much of it in recent days focused on testing. Asked how he's going to handle the meeting, Cuomo said, "Life is a fine line. Being in government is a fine line. I tell you how you negotiate the fine line: Tell the truth." As the crisis in New York shows signs of slowing, testing has become a central issue for government leaders and business owners eager to reopen the country. Health officials warn that testing needs to expand dramatically before the country can start to relax the strict social distancing measures put in place by state leaders. Trump has pressured some states to move more quickly, even as his own administration's federal guidelines recommend states or regions have a "robust testing program in place for at-risk health-care workers, including emerging antibody testing," prior to starting the first phase of the plan. Cuomo said he understands why the federal government has placed the responsibility of testing on the states and acknowledged that it should primarily be their responsibility. However, he noted that Federal Emergency Management Agency officials have been giving presentations about testing at the White House press briefings, and it hasn't been clear what governors' direct responsibilities are. On testing, Cuomo said that New York is "doing more faster than anyone else," but "we have to do better. We have to do more. And that's what we're talking about here." The federal government should help the states procure the necessary equipment that has been in low supply so the states can conduct more tests, Cuomo said. Some governors have cited a lack of testing supplies, including cotton swabs and reagents, as hampering their ability to conduct more tests. On Sunday, Trump said he would invoke the Defense Production Act to increase swab production by at least 20 million additional swabs per month for test kits. "I'm going to ask them to take this piece of this national manufacturers getting the test kits, and the vials, and the cotton swabs and the chemicals," Cuomo said. "Then the national manufacturers can feed my 211 labs and then the states can take it from there." Cuomo also said New York's unemployment website "collapsed" following a surge in claims. He said the state now has 1,000 people working online and through its phone system to process the high volume. Spanish police have arrested at least three people in a southern city for suspected links to religious extremist groups that have allegedly conducted violent actions, The Associated Press has learned. Three members of Spain's National Police confirmed Tuesday that the operation was aimed at arresting suspected jihadists but declined to share more details because there could be more arrests. The three spoke on condition of anonymity. The arrests took place in a central neighborhood of Almera known as Cerro de San Cristbal. The historic neighborhood in the southeastern Spanish provincial capital has narrow streets dotted by nightclubs and a mix of old and new buildings leading to the city's Alcazaba, a 10th-century fortress of Arabic origin. Antonio Garca, who owns several apartments in the vicinity, told AP that several police vans and heavily armed agents had cordoned off streets in the area for most of Monday. Taxi driver Angel Vlchez and Miriam Cortez, who lives nearby, separately confirmed that six police vehicles and about 30 officers, including many in plainclothes, have blocked access to several streets since early Monday. Everything was blocked off, Vlchez said. The place is inundated with marijuana plantations inside houses, so I wouldn't be surprised if they found something else. A Another neighbor, who asked not to be named in media reports, said police had showed up at 3 a.m. Monday and took away at least one person handcuffed from an apartment used for short stays by tourists. Spain's Interior Ministry says police have arrested nearly 400 people connected to extremist religious groups since 2012. Many of the arrests have not led to judicial convictions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Timmie A Nigerian Lady with the Twitter handle, @timmie__ has thrown caution to the winds to boldly admit on her social media page that Wizkid is the only man she can spread her legs for. This many have come to understood that she means she can only sleep with Wizkid. The woman is currently being dragged on Twitter over her bold statement. Wizkid to me is the greatest personality on earth right now! Hes the only man I can willingly spread those legs for, she said. Walking the dog has become a popular pastime in these days of staying home and staying safe. With people looking for an excuse to go outside and get some exercise, It seems that dogs are going for more walks than ever before. But theres one dog walker in Allen Park who stands out, who always manages to cause people to do a double take. Jeremy Caselli dons more than a light jacket and his walking shoes when he and his dog, Bella, go for a walk. We wears a dinosaur outfit a tyrannosaurus costume, to be exact. He came up with the idea around the time the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, in early to mid-March. Casellis employer directed him to work from home, and all he could think about was how so many people were negatively affected by the virus. Ive always been a clown and tried to cheer people up one way or another, he said. So I started thinking, what could I do, out of the ordinary, to help people smile in this time of solitude. He realized that he needed to get out and walk, so he started thinking about a costume that would hide his identity and get people to smile. After surfing the internet, he found the T-Rex costume. He was looking out his dining room window at the time and saw families walking by with their dogs, thinking to himself that its not every day that you see a T-Rex walking down the street with a dog. So, I ordered the T-Rex costume thinking it would be a cute one- or two-day adventure to put smiles on peoples faces, Caselli said. I really never expected it to go much further than that. The costume arrived on March 24 so Caselli put it on and took Bella for a walk. A neighbor and close friend took photos and posted them on The Allen Parker Facebook page, where they became an immediate hit. On that first day two things happened that convinced Caselli to keep his walks going. Although its hard to hear clearly while in the T-Rex outfit, he recalls someone calling out Dinosaur! and then hearing someone asking him to stop. It was a mother and her son, who ran for two blocks to catch up with him. They saw him walk by so they wanted to say hi and snap a photo. Maintaining social distancing, the mother took his photo and they were able to pet Bella. When he got home, he posted photos his friend took while they were on the walk. One of the responses he got was from a person who said a friend saw a T-Rex walking down her street, walking a dog. They both said it made their day. It was then that I realized people really enjoyed T-Rex, Caselli said. And in this time I could continue to lift the spirits of the citizens of Allen Park simply by walking my dog in this costume, why not just keep doing it. In those first few days of walking around neighborhoods in costume, Caselli said posts about T-Rex were taking over The Allen Parker, so he decided to create his own AP T-Rex Facebook page. As T-Rexs popularity grew, Caselli decided to get Bella a costume. It was difficult finding something that fit the dog well, but he eventually settled on a triceratops costume. His Facebook posts have been shared in various parts of the country. In fact, he received a friend request from a person in Connecticut with the same costume. They refer to themselves as cousins. Neighborhood kids love when T-Rex pops his head over the fence to check in on them, Caselli said. Adults have come out of their home screaming asking me to stop so they can get a picture. I have had nothing but positive feedback and requests. Kids of all ages 2 up to 102 years of age enjoy T-Rex and his now triceratops. T-Rex has been on hiatus for a couple of weeks. An April 8 Facebook post announced to his fans that he had a number of boo boos and he needed to see a doctor, adding that there was a need for surgery. The injury to T-Rex was actually a tear in the costume, which is being repaired with tape. But with T-Rex on the mend, he is again taking requests to visit various neighborhoods in Allen Park, bringing back smiles throughout these most unusual times. The Delhi University has created a portal so that regular and ex-students can fill their tentative forms through it from the confines of their homes for UG and PG courses. Delhi University on Tuesday released the online exam form for the May-June exams. The last date for submission of online forms is 15 May. The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in students being unable to fill up forms for the semester-end exams. DU has created a portal so that regular and ex-students can fill their tentative forms through it from the confines of their homes for UG and PG courses. The login details students need to access to the portal include university roll number, name and date of birth. The university has revealed that all information filled by the student and the filled examination form has to be checked and verified by the college. The verified examination forms are to be forwarded to the examination branch for issuing admit cards. Delhi University subsequently released a clarification where they said all student need to fill up the online examination form even if they have submitted the forms physically in the colleges. Students who have paid the examination fees need not pay again. Those who are yet to pay the exam fee can pay on the college portal online or physically at the college after the coronavirus lockdown is lifted. A few days back the Delhi University vice-chancellor YogeshTyagi had asked the vast alumni network to contribute to COVID-19 relief work. The VC had added that faculty members have successfully explored virtual classrooms and other digital aids to ensure continuity on the leaching-learning process. He mentioned that they are reviewing preparations for the admissions to the next session as well. Hours after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray briefed Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday, the state government suspended two policemen and directed the Crime Invesigation Department to probe the sensational mob lynching of two Sadhus (mendicants) and their driver last week. In an address to the state this afternoon, Thackeray said that so far five of the masterminds and another more than 100 persons, including 9 minors have been arrested so far in the crime that took place during the lockdown. "We also need to find out the people who are creating communal tensions on social media, I requested Amit Shah. We will also find them and take action against them... No one will be spared," the CM warned. The two Sadhus and their driver, proceeding from Nashik to Surat, were lynched by a 200-strong mob outside the Gadchinchle village on April 16 in a police vehicle amid rumours that they were robbers or kidnappers. The mob also attacked the policemen and damaged two police vans, including one in which the Sadhus were shifted by the police. The victims were identified next morning as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavriksha Giri, 70, Sushilgiri Maharaj, 30, from the Shree Panch Dashnam Juna-Akhada order, and their driver Nilesh Telwade, 30. "The incident took place around 110 kms from Palghar town on the night of April 16, at Gadchinchle village, on the border with Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar-Haveli. While all of them are in police custody, the minors have been sent to a juvenile remand home," Thackeray said. "The investigation is handed over to CID, IGP Konkan Range is directed to enquire into police action. Two police officers are suspended," said Director-General of Police Subodh Jaiswal, on the probe to be conducted by CID Additional Director-General of Police, Atul Kulkarni. The incident occurred around 10 p.m on April 16 and a team led by the top district police officials reached there around midnight. They launched a hunt in the forests and managed to nab many of the accused hiding in the nearby forests, and some are still absconding. It is learnt that the Sadhus were turned back at the border from going to Gujarat and were reportedly returning back to Nashik when they met their tragic end in a desolate corner of the state that night. Revealing that the Centre has sought a report on the incident, Thackeray ruled out the involvement of any communal groups in the incident which happened in a remote state border area accessible only via the Dadra and Nagar Haveli in view of bad roads. "There is no involvement of any religious or communal groups, it's a mob-lynching case. Any persons attempting to give it a communal colour will be dealt with strictly," Thackeray added. A sleepy country town shaken by the coronavirus pandemic has turned against backpackers by pelting them with rocks and screaming at them to go home. The stunning riverside town of Loxton, three hours east of Adelaide, has built a strong relationship with backpackers that provide a critical workforce for farmers during harvesting season. But the recent pandemic has left some locals convinced backpackers could be bringing in the virus from overseas and spreading it among the community. Backpackers in Loxton in South Australia have been attacked and verbally abused by locals fearing the foreigners could carry coronavirus. Pictured are local backpackers before the pandemic began Bronnie Allen is the manager of Harvest Trail Lodge and said she had never seen people in the town act so savagely towards backpackers. 'They were just going to the shops and people would tell them to "go home" or they would overly distance themselves,' she said. She said the situation became so bad that her guests were pelted with rocks by locals while the hotel bins were gratified with 'go home' messages. 'They (the backpackers) are in a situation where they can't go home and they are worried about their families at home and there is a lot of emotions there,' Ms Allen said. Bronnie Allen is the manager of Harvest Trail Lodge (pictured) and said she had never seen people in Loxton act so savagely towards backpackers Kristina Welters (left), from Germany, said the behaviour from locals had tainted her memory of Australia British backpacker Roan Hodgson told ABC News he was one of those attacked with rocks and said the behaviour was uncalled for. 'We have been working here for months, it's [the behaviour] just stupid in my opinion,' he said. Kristina Welters, from Germany, echoed Mr Hodgson's thoughts and said it had tainted her experience in Australia. 'We worked at home to come here, and I think we all want to keep it a good memory and not live with racism every day,' she said Ms Allen said she believes it was the 'fear of the unknown' that had motivated locals to behave so badly. 'I don't think it is malicious as such I think it is more ignorance and fear,' she said. 'It's a really busy time now with the citrus picking and the farmers need these guys, they're spending all their money in the community, they are part of the community,' she said. British backpacker Roan Hodgson (left) said he had been working in Loxton for months and was shocked by the behaviour Ms Allen has instated a log book to monitor the movements of backpackers and introduced strong social distancing rules to keep backpackers and the town safe. She said while some locals were behaving badly many others had fought against the negativity and had embraced the backpackers. 'Churches have brought in baskets of food and gifts, locals have baked cakes and have come in with eggs and all sorts of things just to make them feel like it is not the majority, it's not the whole town,' she said. Ms Allen said some locals had come together to fight back against the abuse with kindness and offered backpackers food and gifts. Pictures is the Murray River that runs next to the town Derry Geber owns several hostels in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale and said he had seen similar behaviour. He said fears heightened after a cases of coronavirus at the Barossa were linked to travellers from the U.S. and Switzerland. 'There's been an incident where they [the backpackers] went into order a coffee the lady [worker] made a note in her logbook that some backpackers came in at that time,' he said. A company that produces raw supplies for medical manufacturers has risen to the unprecedented challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. Not only did Braskem USA ramp up production of their much-needed materials, but the company also designated "live-in" teams who stayed and worked at their facilities for nearly a month. The Braskem employees who volunteered to live at work did so to protect others and hopefully prevent the spread of the virus to their families. After 28 days on the job, these employees finally clocked out and the joyous moment was caught on video. Local affiliate WPVI was there when workers at Braskem's Pennsylvania facility clocked out and waved goodbye until they return to work next week. Many flashed smiles and peace signs as they departed work for the first time in nearly a month. "There's been a glow in everyone's eyes," shift supervisor Joe Boyce said in an interview with WPVI. "We've almost been the lucky ones, I'll say for the last 28 days, because I haven't had to stand six feet from somebody. I haven't had to put a mask on." screen-shot-2020-04-21-at-1-02-26-pm.png About 40 employees at Braskem USA volunteered to work and live at their Pennsylvania facility for 28 days straight in an effort to meet the demands of the coronavirus pandemic. WPVI The team of about 40 workers worked in 12-hour shifts. During work hours, they make polypropylene, the raw materials used to produce a non-woven fiber found in N95 masks, hospital gowns, and sanitary wipes. Occasionally during their off hours, they could watch TV or get drive-by visits from family, WPVI reports. Knowing they were making a difference in the battle against COVID-19 made the long stay at work worth it. "All the first responders, all the people on the frontlines, we thank you. That's what makes our job easy to do," Boyce said. In a press release on its website, Braskem called their live-in workers "resiliency teams." Story continues The company implemented several new measures at its plants in Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia to ensure they met the needs of their medical manufacturing partners. Facilities in two states utilized resiliency workers, who were provided with onsite kitchens and other supplies. These volunteers are being rewarded with extra compensation, according to Braskem. screen-shot-2020-04-21-at-1-03-21-pm.png WPVI was there when employees clocked out of work for the first time in 28 days. WPVI Employees volunteer to live at work for 28 days to help make protective equipment GOP lawmakers push to fully reopen Congress amid coronavirus Lives to Remember: Dr. Jack Zoller [April 21, 2020] UST Global Named Winner at the Microsoft AI Awards 2.0 for the Best Innovation in Artificial Intelligence ~Company wins an award for 2020 most innovative AI application for societal impact~ BENGALURU, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- UST Global, a leading digital transformation solutions company, announced that it has won the 2020 most innovative AI application award for societal impact from Microsoft. UST Global has been a picture of consistency as the company has unlocked several technical accolades in its successive years. The AI Awards 2.0 is an initiative open to all Microsoft customers and partners who foster AI-led innovations to deliver meaningful impact. In 2019, UST Global had won an award for 'Empowering Employees with AI' from Microsoft for delivering an AI-powered personal assistant to each employee. The award marks industry appreciation of UST Global's AI capabilities to build products that scale new heights in innovations in Artificial Intelligence. UST Global partnered with EmancipAction, to build a human-centric platform to collate information and provide meaningful insights from a clinical research study conducted among highly traumatized children residing in Childcare Institutions in India. UST Global developed the 'Caregiver Mobile application which provided the technological support to do victim identification, exclusion, pre-screening, baseline assessment, IPT Sessions, end of therapy assessments and follow up assessments until they are ready to start a new life without fear and full of hope. The questionnaires, assessments and follow up questions based on primary responses were supported by AI/ML technology. Speaking on the achievement, Krishna Sudheendra, Chief Executive Officer, UST Global, said, "UST Global has made numerous accomplishments over several years towards making technology more meaningful and useful for consumers and their end customers globally, and we're so pleased to see our achievements recognized by Microsoft. At UST Global, we have remained steadfast in our commitment to Transforming Lives by empowering companies and society and producing outstanding products and solutions that address the real market needs. We remain singularly focused on delivering fundamentally better AI experience built on the power and promise of all-flash that can be utilized by enterprises of any size and budget. This award is further validation that we are succeeding in our mission." Congratulating UST Global, Dr. Rohini Srivathsa, National Technology Officer, Microsoft India, said, "AI can help us solve some of the world's toughest challenges and work for the public good. We believe in UST Global' s approach to using technology against social evils such as human trafficking. The company's goal to raise awareness and produce actionable insights with an AI developed an application that can help children impacted by human trafficking is truly laudable. It resonates with our commitment to providing technology and expertise to empower those working to solve humanitarian issues." UST Global has made significant AI, ML and Virtual Reality (VR) solutions in retail, financial services, healthcare, and many other sectors. Retail Business Services, partnered with UST Global, to develop frictionless store technology, AI/ML and purpose-built smartphone applications, that enable customers to shop from a small-format store in a matter of seconds. The company has created LookyLoopz, an immersive learning platform that enables teachers to teach subjects in-depth to the next generation of students by engaging them within the subject topics through VR learning modules. Technological developments through AI in healthcare made by UST Global have saved countless patients and are continuously improving the quality of life. About UST Global UST Global is a technology partner dedicated to transforming businesses, communities, and the people who live within them. Operating in 25 countries, we deliver future-ready digital transformation strategy services, products, and platforms that create new possibilities and help you imagine what's next in banking and finance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, semiconductor, technology, and media. But what matters most is the deep partnership we forge with you to solve the unique challenges you face today, while preparing you for tomorrow. That's us together. That's UST Global. Visit us at www.UST-Global.com Media Contacts, UST Global: Tinu Cherian Abraham +1 (949) 415-9857 +91-7899045194 Neha Misri +91-9284726602 [email protected] Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/540539/UST_Global_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 00:40:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BANGKOK, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) said on Tuesday that it will meet with domestic airlines to check health and safety measures before granting the carriers the permission to resume local flights from May 1. Many Thai airlines had already suspended flight services since March 25 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. "All airlines will be required to only allow every other seat to be occupied and passengers will have to wear masks at all times while on board," said CAAT director-general Chula Sukmanop. "All airlines will also be prohibited from serving food and drink on board." Chula also said the CAAT is looking into whether a ban on foreign flights should be extended. The foreign flight ban is scheduled to be lifted after April 30. Chula said that despite the COVID-19 curve hitting the downward trend, ensuring that imported COVID-19 infections do not emerge in Thailand is the country's main priority in containing the pandemic. Thailand reported a new low of 19 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with one fatality. The total number of COVID-19 cases stood at 2,811, with total deaths at 48. Enditem (Photo : Image by Lars_Nissen from Pixabay ) Advertisement Image by Lars_Nissen from Pixabay Like Us on Facebook Advertisement On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department said it had allocated $2.9 billion in preliminary compensation aid to 54 minor passenger carriers and two large commercial airlines, while finalizing grant deals with six other major carriers. The Treasury is initially allotting 50 percent of the funds for major airlines and transfers the remaining amount in a sequence of payments. The Treasury is disbursing to US passenger airlines a total of $25 billion in assistance intended for salary costs. Airline companies must pay back 30 percent of the aid in low interest loans and Treasury warrants equivalent to 10 percent of the actual amount of loan. The Trump administration sent out the first payments late Monday, which were intended to help rescue airline jobs as the global health crisis ravages the airline sector. The US Treasury sent the plan's first amount, negotiated last week after hard-fought talks, to the affected airlines. Companies involved in the assistance program accounted for approximately 95 percent of US airline volume, the Treasury department disclosed. Over 750,000 people in the US are directly employed in the industry. Southwest stated that it would immediately get 50 percent of the $3.2 billion salary assistance, and the remainder in installments from May to July. Separately, the Treasury announced that Frontier Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue Airways Corp, Hawaiian Airlines and SkyWest Airlines have all stated they are considering to participate. Airlines who will receive the financial grants can not terminate workers before September 30 or revise collective bargaining contracts and must consent to limitations on buybacks, executive payments and dividends. The Treasury also said that it has finalized funding assistance with American Airlines, Allegiant Air, Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Spirit Air Lines. The federal government has not released the specific terms of the deal, but US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has stated the arrangement provides for sufficient taxpayers' compensation. All funds disbursed under the financial package can only be used to continue paying employee salaries and benefits, the Treasury department disclosed. The US Treasury is still evaluating how to grant $4 billion in salary aid to cargo companies and $3 billion to airport contractors like aircraft caterers and service units. The estimated losses that global airline companies have suffered so far from the pandemic have skyrocketed to $314 billion, a quarter more compared to recent projections, the International Air Transport Association divulged last week. In the U.S. alone, the commercial airline sector is seen to lose around $10 billion to $12 billion every month, trade group Airlines for America reported, and carriers have reduced their overall operational capacity by approximately 80 percent while parking thousands of their once busy fleet of aircraft. Advertisement TagsUS Treasury, $2.9 Billion, airline industry A woman has been caught attempting to send alcohol to a relative in a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) quarantine camp in the central Vietnamese province of Thua Thien-Hue by storing the drink in milk cartons. Police in An Cuu Ward, Hue City in Thua Thien-Hue confirmed on Monday they had imposed a fine worth VND200,000 (US$8.5) upon H.T.P.N. for the wrongful action. N. previously asked police officers in charge of guarding the quarantine camp at Truong Bia Dormitory in An Cuu to deliver ten cartons of milk to her relative inside the facility. Checking the delivery, the officers discovered that the bottom of the milk boxes had been covered with tape. They opened the boxes and found alcohol inside. Police in An Cuu Ward said they had dealt with a similar violation prior to N.s case. Earlier this month, four men were fined VND200,000 each for organizing a drinking party inside a quarantine camp in Minh Hoa District, located in the north-central province of Quang Binh. They had chipped in money to buy rice wine, food, and fruits online, and had the seller deliver the order to the quarantine facility, placing the items near the fence. The men then fetched the foodstuffs to their room. The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 2.48 million people and killed more than 170,400 globally as of Tuesday morning, according to Ministry of Health statistics. Vietnams tally has remained unchanged at 268 since Thursday, while 215 patients have recovered from the disease. The country has yet to record a death from the disease. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Iran says it has released temporarily more than 1,000 foreign prisoners due to the coronavirus outbreak, following criticism by UN human rights experts. "What Iran has done in guaranteeing prisoners' health and granting furlough to them is a significant move" compared with what other countries have done, said Gholamhossein Esmaili, a spokesman for the country's judiciary. British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was among 100,000 prisoners temporarily released last month, had her leave extended until May 20, her lawyer, Tulip Siddiq, said on April 21. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was serving a five-year jail term for sedition after being arrested in 2016 during a holiday on the accusation that she was plotting to overthrow the government. Her family says she was in Iran to visit relatives and denied that she was plotting against Iran. Zaghari-Ratcliffe worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency. Tehran's announcement on April 21 came after a panel of UN human rights experts last week urged the expansion of the list of prisoners temporarily released over the COVID-19 outbreak to include "prisoners of conscience and dual and foreign nationals." The 100,000 -- mainly Iranian -- prisoners released temporarily last month were freed initially until April 19. Authorities then extended their furlough until May 20. Foreign prisoners including French-Iranian Fariba Adelkhah and Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his father, Mohammad Bagher Namazi, are believed to still be in detention. Iran has been struggling to contain one of the world's worst outbreaks of the coronavirus since reporting its first cases on February 19. On April 21, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur announced 88 more deaths over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to almost 5,300 out of a total of more than 83,500 people confirmed as infected. Many analysts, however, say the true number may be higher due to poor reporting methods, the government's lack of transparency, and a lack of testing. With reporting by AFP and Reuters Business partners of a Norwalk mobile gym franchise owner who died at the age of 30 after contracting COVID-19 have raised more than $36,000 for the familys medical and funeral costs through a GoFundMe. Dan Spano, a 2008 Ridgefield High School graduate, died April 11 at Norwalk hospital from complications associated with the disease, his family said. Since then, the family has received an outpouring and love and support from the community, Spanos older sister Melissa Castiglia said Tuesday. She said her family has received around 10 to 12 cards from well wishers, including from a nursing school in Darien where Spano once worked. Josh York, founder of the GymGuyz mobile personal training service where Spano owned a franchise, set up the GoFundMe page along with Samuel Langer, who also owns a franchise in the company. The page has raised $36,724 out of a $100,000 goal as of Tuesday afternoon. Spanos passion for life, family, friends, fitness and the health and well-being of his clients was contagious, York and Langer wrote on the page. He had a smile that simply lit up the room, and a drive that rallied everyone around him to perform at their best. The page said the money will go towards paying for any medical bills for Spanos treatment, the cost of his funeral arangements, and settling his affairs. This is the last thing that the Spanos should have to worry about at this time, York and Langer wrote on the page. Neither could immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. Castiglia said the family has not received any bills yet, but will use the money to help pay for Spanos cremation once they have access to the funds. She also asked for those who have recovered from COVID-19 to consider giving a donation of plasma through Nuvance Health. The family said Spano was set to receive a plasma from a donor they found through Facebook days before his death, but his condition rapidly declined after doctors found a blood clot which traveled to his heart. Despite the fact her brother never received the treatment, Castiglia expressed frustration that extracting the plasma from her brothers donor would have to be done in New York, rather than Connecticut. It just seems that Connecticut is much further behind than New York, I know Mount Sinai has been doing it for a while, she said. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to be made in her brothers name to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. A celebration of Spanos life will be held at a later date, his sister said. Were hanging in there, Castiglia said. She said recent protests across the country demanding businesses be reopened has been infuriating. We want people to understand that they could be my brother or they could be my family they could be on either end of that spectrum, unfortunately. Patients arrive and are screened for COVID-19 symptoms at the medic staging area before entering the Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego in April. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times) California has made progress in protecting the healthcare system from a dramatic spike of sick patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. But state public health officials are still planning for a "worst-case scenario," quietly publishing a sobering set of detailed guidelines to answer the troubling ethical question of who lives and who dies should California face a new surge in the coronavirus outbreak, resulting in a shortage of ventilators and medical supplies. A 38-page document by the California Department of Public Health, published last weekend, prescribes a method to prioritize patients in the event that an outbreak overwhelms hospitals, preserving intensive care beds and ventilators for people with the greatest likelihood of surviving with treatment over those with serious chronic conditions that limit their life expectancy. If necessary, younger people and workers who are "vital to the acute care response" would receive care before others. "As your state public health officer, the gravity of what is contained within this document is felt deeply," wrote Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health, in a letter that accompanies the guidelines. "The conversations that will be prompted by its release will be difficult." Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken unprecedented executive action in an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and officials say limited hospitalizations compared to other states offer positive signs that the most populous state in the nation may avoid a situation in which the plan would be implemented. But some countries have experienced second waves of infections, demonstrating that California could be vulnerable if restrictions are eased prematurely or people begin to ignore social distancing orders. "If we pull back too quickly, those numbers will go through the roof, Newsom said. Angell said officials are "cautiously optimistic" that adherence to the stay-at-home order and efforts to increase hospital beds will prevent the California healthcare system from being overrun with sick patients. Story continues We have seen the devastating impact that COVID-19 has had on healthcare delivery systems and communities in other countries and states," she said. "As such, it is critically important that our states healthcare system is prepared in case of the worst-case scenario." The state developed the guidelines over the last several weeks in consultation with hospitals, physicians and other healthcare groups, relying on scientific studies, best practices and other models to address one of the most difficult medical dilemmas of modern times. In Italy, scarce resources forced doctors to make life-and-death healthcare rationing decisions. Other states have adopted their own crisis care guidelines in anticipation of medical needs exceeding hospital resources. State health officials in Minnesota, for example, advised hospitals to ration supplies based on the risk of mortality, the likelihood of a positive response to treatment and the possibility of transmitting infection, among other factors. Colorado adopted a tiered scoring system, with decisions based initially on the severity of acute illness, morbidity and measures of chronic illness, before prioritizing pediatric patients, healthcare workers and first responders. Planning for the worst raises uncomfortable ethical questions, but it's also important to create a thoughtful, uniform policy so doctors don't end up making decisions in the moment, said Democratic state Sen. Richard Pan, a medical doctor who represents Sacramento. Thats where the rubber meets the road," Pan said. "You can put [guidelines] out and have people discuss them, or if you dont have them when the crisis comes, each person at the bedside is figuring it out for themselves. At least we have standards and an opportunity to discuss it. If everyone stays home and we continue to flatten the curve, then hopefully we wont get to the point where we have to make these decisions. Under the "California State SARS-CoV-2 Crisis Care Guidelines," hospitals are ultimately responsible for making their own emergency plans with the discretion to rely on the judgment of hospital leaders. Before launching plans around allocating ventilators and other treatments, hospitals must first make every effort to increase their supply, the guidelines say. The California Department of Public Health said the guidelines are meant to serve as a framework for healthcare facilities as they shift from regularly providing optimum care for the individual patient to doing the greatest good for the greatest number" of patients as staff, beds, medication, equipment and other resources become scarce across the state during a crisis, according to the document. The guidelines recommend that hospitals identify indicators and triggers to help them recognize warning signs and the need to shift the type of healthcare provided from conventional to contingency and ultimately crisis care. Hospitals are advised to develop a team to make determinations on who receives care. In one example, dying patients or patients with a poor prognosis in need of resources that are in limited supply should receive palliative care, largely limited to treating symptoms, and healthcare providers are advised to "minimize interventions that prolong death." The care team would reassess the prognosis of all patients at regular intervals to determine the best way to direct care. An appendix to the guidelines on "ventilator management" calls for hospitals to give patients a priority score and determine who will receive intensive care with a focus on "saving the most lives and saving the most life-years." "Patients who are more likely to survive with intensive care are prioritized over patients who are less likely to survive with intensive care," the guidelines state. "Patients who do not have serious comorbid illness are given priority over those who have illnesses that limit their life expectancy." The scoring system would assess potential organ failure risk and the presence of life-limiting conditions to determine prognoses for hospital survival and longer-term survival. For example, major life-limiting chronic diseases, such as moderate Alzheimer's disease or moderately severe chronic lung disease, would add two points to someone's score. Chronic diseases likely to cause death within a year's time, such as severe Alzheimer's disease or severe chronic lung disease, could add four points. Total scores would range from one to eight, with priority for ventilators given to those with lower scores. If there are not enough resources to treat all patients with the same score, the guidelines suggest hospitals group patients by age ages 12-40, 41-60, 61-75 and older than 75 and treat younger people first. "The ethical justification for incorporating the life-cycle principle is that it is a valuable goal to give individuals equal opportunity to pass through the stages of life childhood, young adulthood, middle age, and old age," the document states. "The justification for this principle does not rely on considerations of ones intrinsic worth or social utility. Rather, younger individuals receive priority because they have had the least opportunity to live through lifes stages." In addition, the document states that people whose work is "vital to the public health response, including all those whose work directly supports the provision of acute care to others, should be given heightened priority" to settle a "tie" between patients who can't all be treated. Hospitals could eventually turn to a random lottery should such a tie still exist. The guidelines provide recommendations for how hospitals should inform patients and their families about decisions to limit care and allow for a swift appeals process based largely on whether any errors were made in determining a score. Anticipating a peak in infections to begin in May, California officials have sought 50,000 more beds and 10,000 more ventilators beyond the state's regular supply. Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 remain below state predictions in California, with fewer than 1,500 patients who contracted the virus or are suspected of being infected receiving intensive care treatment. If all goes according to plan, the peak may end up similar to current infection rates, according to Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's secretary of health and human services. To prevent a situation in which Californians begin to ignore his stay-at-home order, causing cases to surge, Newsom has warned that residents should continue to stay home and pushed back on pressures to ease restrictions from some local governments and frustrated protesters. During a legislative hearing on Monday, the administration presented a chart showing a sharp spike in hospitalizations if the stay-at-home order is lifted. "The worst mistake we can make is making a precipitous decision based on politics and frustration that puts people's lives at risk, and ultimately sets back the cause of economic growth and economic recovery," Newsom said. While the state is flattening the curve, its still possible that hospitals may not have the necessary resources to provide maximum care for every patient, said Carmela Coyle, president of the California Hospital Assn. The hospital association and the California Medical Assn. were among the healthcare groups that helped inform the new state guidelines. We are living through a time that no one called to work in healthcare ever wants to endure, Coyle said in a statement. These guidelines are a good start to help plan for difficult decisions that may have to be made... HAMDEN Zoom bombers invaded Mondays Legislative Council meeting, forcing the body to cancel it. As council members were logging into the meeting, troubleshooting technical difficulties, anonymous users began flooding the chat with racist, misogynistic, homophobic and anti-Semitic comments. Zoom-bombing refers to someone disrupting a meeting or online class using the Zoom webinar platform and sharing lanuage or images that are vulgar, violent, pornographic, racist or otherwise offensive. Some of the comments were generally racist and homophobic, but some of the comments were pointed at council members. Council President Michael McGarry canceled the meeting before it officially convened. Council members Brad Macdowall, D-At Large, and Justin Farmer, D-5, posted a joint statement on their Facebook pages after the meeting, addressing the Zoom-bombing. In addition to denouncing such hateful rhetoric, the Council must take responsibility and be more prepared, they said. This was avoidable, as the vulnerability was caused by a last-minute change to the meeting. After the attacks on Hamdens IT systems over the last year and a half and suffering the consequences of being unprepared, we ought to do better. The Town Hall was hit by a malware attack in October, making the computer system inaccessible for at least a week. A cyberattack then hit Hamden Public Schools, forcing the district to cut off email and internet access for weeks. We have urged leadership to consult IT professionals including our internal IT Department and our Technology Commission on these matters in the future, Macdowall and Farmer said in their statement. It is imperative that we are protecting our infrastructure from these kinds of malicious attacks. We have to realize thes are unprecendented tiems and were dealing with things we havent before, McGarry said. Were dealing with things as they come the best we can. The council business that was on the agenda Monday was going to be taken up during the first public hearing on the mayors proposed budget initially set for Tuesday evening. Late Tuesday evening both meetings were rescheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. Public input on the budget will be taken by email only sent to lcpublicinput@hamden.com. Residents must submit comments via email a half hour prior to the meeting and read into the record, according to an announcement Tuesday. All public comments will be posted on the town website. According to our IT department, who consulted Zoom, this is the best option to avoid the sort of abhorrent hate speech we were subjected to last night, McGarry said in an email to the Legislative Council and towns legal counsel Tuesday shortly after 6 p.m. I am truly sorry that this occurred, and am saddened that, with all the challenges we are faced with at this time, some people sought to use our meeting as a platform for obscene and hateful speech. Wednesdays public hearing on the Board of Education budget is scheduled to go forward, with public comment admissible only through the special email, the announcement said. This is far from a perfect solution, but seems to be the best way to still get public input, without subjecting the meeting to hate speech, McGarry said in the email. McGarry said they dont know whether the commenters were bots or live users. In planning for the meeting, which was set up as a webinar to give more control to the meeting host, McGarry said they thought that format would give them enough control to keep such attacks from happening, but it didnt so now theyre only accepting comments through email. That was the only way to be certain, he said. Also Monday, a planned public information caucus before the New Haven Board of Alders was hit when a person on the virtual meeting played material depicting child sexual abuse for several seconds before being removed. Earlier this month, a Madison juvenile was arrested and charged with creating a disruption during a New York virtual classroom with obscene gestures and language. In early April, the Cromwell Board of Finances budget public hearing/workshop was derailed when a user on the Zoom meeting drowned-out the board members by shouting an obscenity, and the Middletown Board of Education meeting was similarly hacked the day prior. mdignan@hearstmediact.com Six new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday, bringing the state's total to 2968. One more case has been recorded at the Anglicare Newmarch House aged care facility in the western Sydney suburb of Caddens, where a cluster of cases has emerged. It brings the total number of cases at the facility to 42 14 staff and 28 residents. Two residents have died after contracting coronavirus at the aged care home. NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said there were 249 COVID-19 cases being treated by NSW Health including 21 people being treated in intensive care units, 17 of whom required ventilators. As lawmakers hammer out a fourth COVID-19 relief package, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown on Tuesday proposed a host of measures, including pausing all debt payments, to provide quick relief to American consumers grappling with a pandemic thats cost millions their jobs and made it tougher to pay bills. While the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided stimulus checks of at least $1,200 to most American adults, Warren of Massachusetts and Brown of Ohio, both Democrats, said the payments wont mean much if Congress doesnt stop predatory debt collectors and banks from ripping these funds out of the hands of consumers. In a Medium post Tuesday, the senators said the simplest way to provide relief to Americans struggling to make ends meet during the crisis was to start allowing consumers to put a pause on all payments. Americans should have the option to keep paying their debts if they have the means, but they shouldnt be punished if they cant do so, they wrote. That means no accrued interest, late fees, or other penalties for nonpayment of a debt. And when this crisis does pass, consumers should have additional time to catch up on their payments. Additionally, the lawmakers want to temporarily prohibit debt collectors from using garnishments, evictions, repossessions and utility disconnection as a way to collect on debts. Nobody should lose their home, their car, or their internet during a global pandemic its not just a moral imperative, its a public health necessity, they said. The senators urged lawmakers to ensure that consumers dont take an unfair hit to their credit score based on financial hardships that might turn up on credit reports during the pandemic. They also called for much broader cancelation of student loan debt to help stimulate the economy; the CARES Act has already suspended student loan interest and allowed students to hold off on making payments over the next several months. The proposals also include greater protections during bankruptcy proceedings, pushing for a transition away from all in-person bankruptcy requirements while stay-at-home and social distancing guidelines are in place to prevent the spread of the virus, and calling on Congress to block homes, tax refunds and any present and future stimulus benefits from being seized by creditors. The COVID-19 outbreak has crippled the economy as businesses have been forced to close and Americans stay home and avoid gatherings. More than 20 million Americans have filed for unemployment over the last several weeks. Since mid-March, the state of Massachusetts alone has received more than half a million unemployment benefits applications. Related Content: Alphabet GOOGL is leaving no stone unturned to help in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The companys COVID-19 screener is a testament to the same. We note that the screener, which was launched last month by its healthcare division Verily under Project Baseline, has been expanded to the states of Michigan and Ohio. This reflects the companys commitment to help combat COVID-19 across the United States. Currently, the screener is available in Eaton Rapids, Macomb, Swartz Creek, Holland and Parma across both the states. Further, it is already available in the states of California, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Alphabet to Gain Verily strives to help the government and healthcare organizations in managing and controlling the current pandemic situation by expanding the availability of the screener facility. Notably, more than 60,000 people have completed the health screener as of Apr 6. Further, the company has been able to conduct 6,000 tests so far. Apart from this, Alphabets search division Google intends to provide coronavirus related information hub, which will comprise symptoms, risk factors and testing among others, via another website that is currently at development stage. Further, Google recently collaborated with researchers from the University of Southampton in the U.K. to help people track the spread of coronavirus using anonymized and aggregated location data. Googles location-enabled apps such as Google Maps are collecting location data, which will help researchers to better analyze the effectiveness of social distancing and evaluate the pandemics spread. All the abovementioned endeavors remain major positives during the coronavirus-induced crisis scenario. We believe all these are expected to instill investor optimism in the stock. Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus Alphabet Inc. price-consensus-chart | Alphabet Inc. Quote Tech Giants Fighting Against COVID-19 Along with Alphabet, tech behemoths like Facebook FB, Apple AAPL and Microsoft MSFT among others are also taking strong measures to help government and people efficiently manage this pandemic situation worldwide. Facebook is expanding its Data for Good program that grants researchers access to data about user movement patterns in an effort to understand the spread of coronavirus. The program now provides access to three new maps for forecasting the COVID-19 spread and revealing whether residents of a given region are practicing quarantine. Microsoft Bing recently launched an interactive map that provides information on the spread of coronavirus. It offers up-to-date infection statistics. Further, users can check the number of cases of each affected country on the tracker. Moreover, the tool provides access to various coronavirus related articles and other information. Meanwhile, Apple has teamed up with Google to fight the coronavirus. The company announced a new set of tools that will allow mobile devices to trade information via Bluetooth connections to alert people when they are in close proximity with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. This partnership, which is targeted toward iPhone and Android devices, could inject valuable new technological support into contact tracing. We believe Alphabet and other tech giants are well poised to capitalize on the emerging demand for technically advanced ways to efficiently manage the deadly virus. This, in turn, has put the spotlight on the technology sector. Currently, Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Today's Best Stocks from Zacks Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%. This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year. See their latest picks free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Facebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Twenty-five quarantined persons and two others were rescued from a hotel in Mumbai Central after a fire broke out in the ground-plus-three building on Tuesday evening, a senior official said. The building was being used as an isolation centre for suspected coronavirus patients. No one was injured in the fire which started on the first floor of Hotel Ripon Palace on Bellasis Road around 6.20 pm, the senior fire brigade official added. At least eight fire engines were pressed into service and the flames were brought under control after 45 minutes, he said. The fire was confined to electrical wiring, installations, beds, wooden furniture and air-conditioners on the first floor. "25 persons quarantined there were safely evacuated. Two employees were rescued from a room on the third floor," the official said, adding that cooling operations were on. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 30-year-old daughter of former Golden Temple Hazuri Raagi Nirmal Singh Khalsa, who had died of coronavirus, was discharged from a Jalandhar hospital after recovery from the infection. Khalsa, a Padma Shri recipient and a 'Gurbani' exponent, had succumbed to the infection in Amritsar earlier this month. His daughter was brought to the Jalandhar Civil Hospital on April 1 after she tested positive for coronavirus. A team of doctors, led by Senior Medical Officer Kashmiri Lal, treated her. Her samples were sent to the Amritsar's Government Medical College for testing on April 17 and 19. In both reports, she was declared coronavirus negative. She was finally discharged from the hospital on Tuesday, an official release said. She thanked the doctors for her treatment at the hospital, said the official release. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The chartered accountants body has also decided to start live revision classes for intermediate and final level students from 22 April. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has decided to waive off the condonation fee charged on delay in filing application forms related to practical training. The decision has been taken in view of coronavirus lockdown. Considering hardship faced by the students, it has been decided to waive off condonation fee on delay filing of all articled/industrial training related application forms till 30 June if transaction date in such application forms falls between 1 March 2020 to 30 May. This period includes one-month prescribed time limit given in general, ICAI said in a statement. The chartered accountants body has also decided to start live revision classes for intermediate and final level students from 22 April. This move will help students revise the syllabus for the forthcoming examination in June. The classes are free and students can avail of it on their mobile or laptop, sitting in the comfort of their homes. The live revision classes will be conducted from 7 am to 10 am and 7 pm to 9 pm. The ICAI will be providing notes for the classes and practice questions. Students will get special and motivational sessions from eminent speakers, apart from subject-related sessions. There will also be a question-answer session for each subject after the classes are over. The ICAI last month postponed Chartered Accountant examinations scheduled to be held from 2 to 18 May due to growing coronavirus cases and the nationwide lockdown. The exam will now be conducted from 19 June to 4 July. AME Church had a pandemic plan ready years before new coronavirus hit Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment For more than a decade, the Rev. Dr. Miriam J. Burnett, a practicing physician and public health expert who serves as the medical director of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Health Commission, has been preparing her church and the wider denomination for a pandemic. Earlier this year, as soon as she realized the new coronavirus was a global threat and long before it was confirmed as spreading across the United States, Burnett quickly made her plan available to the approximately 7,000 congregations consisting of nearly 4,000 pastors and 2.5 million members around the globe. As the AME Church International Health Commissions medical director, I jumped on this very early, Burnett told The Christian Post in an interview Monday. Since 2008, said Burnett, the AME Church through its Health Commission has had the Church Preparation and Response to Potential Pandemicsplan and it has been revised three times since then. The latest revision came in mid-February when Burnett, who leads Historic Jones Tabernacle AME Church, held her last in-person service with her congregants. As members of the AME Church we must work together, follow basic infection control and behavior modification to decrease the spread of illness and disease. Faith is the key that will empower us to become educated and collaborate during these times of concern, the pandemic plan states. It then goes on for four pages sharing guidance on social distancing and other possible interventions to manage a crisis and limit the spread of disease. When asked how she first discussed the threat with her local church, which has about 95 members on record, Burnett said it wasnt an abrupt shutdown. She first discussed the situation with her leadership team, then the general church body after learning how churches in Europe were being impacted by the coronavirus. Because I am a connectional officer, they are very in tune to whats going on in the church worldwide, Burnett said of her home church. And so when I said were going to take this pre-emptive strike, we had a phased approach: There would only be 10 of us in the sanctuary. Well video conference it (the service). The rest need to stay home and then I laid out that plan. I reviewed the four-page document with them on pandemics, she said. While the AME church in general has lost a few pastors and members to the virus, Burnett believes the impact of the virus on the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by black people, and one of the largest Methodist denominations in the world, has been significantly mitigated because the church had a strong connectional response to the pandemic. Meanwhile, the Church of God in Christ, Americas biggest African-American Pentecostal denomination, has reportedly lost at least a dozen to up to 30 bishops and prominent clergy to the coronavirus. Leadership meetings were still being held in mid-March, The Washington Post reported. Burnett admitted that the AME Church benefited from the infrastructure they already had in place. I have an MD, an MPH and an M.Div. so I bring all three of those to bear when I make statements and we have the blessing of having a health commission that has microbiologists, virologists, as well as healthcare professionals and mental health professionals of the entire spectrum and we come together and we make decisions collectively, she told CP. The pastor also noted that she previously worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in educating churches in various denominations across the country about preparing for pandemics and disasters. In CDC Engagement With Community and Faith-Based Organizations in Public Health Emergencies, author and infectious disease physician Scott Santibanez said the federal government noticed the ability of community and faith-based organizations to respond to the needs of vulnerable, particularly minority, communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Since then, substantial effort has been made by the government agencies to include CFBOs in public health preparedness, response, and recovery but it remains a work in progress. InFaith-Based Organizations and Pandemic Preparedness, another report written by Santibanez and published in the Journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States in 2007, he highlighted how church-related groups would be vital partners in getting ready for an influenza pandemic. During a severe influenza pandemic, people from communities around the world will be asked to voluntarily avoid gathering together, to limit the virus' spread. People will be asked to stay at home if they are sick and to minimize contact with others. The U.S. government cannot prepare for or respond to a severe pandemic alone, he wrote. During such a crisis, there may be an insufficient number of doctors, nurses, hospital beds, or other countermeasures to go around. Many if not most communities will be affected, and as many as 40 percent of workers may be unable to work because of illness or a need to care for ill family members, he explained. While a majority of churches have sought to work with public health and government officials to appropriately respond to the coronavirus crisis, a vocal minority of pastors have continued to flout social distancing guidelines, citing First Amendment rights. Burnett commented: As a physician and public health provider, I cannot condone that. I will not. When churches work in partnership with public health officials she said, outcomes can be much more positive for the community. Im blessed to be able to live out the mission that God gave me. I saw this coming. Weve been talking about it for years. Id like to be able to say that because of the Health Commission under my leadership we have made a difference. People had their pantries already stocked. They didnt have to go run to the store for toilet paper like everybody else did, she said. Im in the First District and when we have our First District meetings, there is a disaster preparedness presentation that closes us out every time we gather. So we talk about what do you need in your pantries? What kind of things you should have in your house? Keep these things going in your house. Rotate them. Weve been talking about that for years, she said. She explained that as a result of the coronavirus, various health ministries in churches and other faith-based organizations have been reconnecting. Weve had a resurgence of some of us that used to work together in the National Council of Churches healthy ministry group and have started reconnecting again, she said. Were talking, were exchanging ideas, were sharing resources. She also urged Christians not to rush into gathering inside buildings again but focus on helping the most vulnerable among them and try fellowshipping in different ways such as using online platforms. I would say to folk, stay at home except for the essentials. The church system has got to be the best system in knowing who the sick and shut-in are, she said. You know who the people are, those who are able to go out to go to the grocery store, dont just shop for your house. You got Mother Jones, 85 years old, we dont want her out. So when you go to the store pick up an extra thing of milk or bread, drop it on her doorstep. Call her and say 'reach outside the door. There is food outside the door.' We have to do those kinds of things and we have to stay home. God has given us technology and we need to use it. There are many different ways for us to communicate and hold worship. Worship is not in a building. The church is not the building. The church is a community of faith, regardless of how we decide to express it. She further noted that as a result of the pandemic, members of her congregation have gotten closer despite not being able to meet in person. Being able to come together via telephone, being able to gather via electronic means for worship. Corporate worship can still occur even without being in the same physical space. And it has been. Many churches are seeing a rise in participation and what I can say for my church, Jones Tabernacle AME in Philadelphia, we are closer now than we have ever been, she said. In terms of relationships. Ive had class leaders say, people call me and say, Ive talked to people I havent talked to other than to say hello in worship in years. And Im now holding real conversations with them. Were praying together. Were talking about the Bible together. Were doing individual Bible studies, she said. Last Wednesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency highlighted a number of religious organizations for their efforts in responding to the coronavirus, including the AME church under the leadership of Burnett and her team. Dr. Burnett from the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia took matters into her own hands before the virus even started to take over the country. Having an existing disaster plan in place, and four hours of editing, Dr. Burnett had a pandemic plan ready to use. With many of her churchgoers being subject matter experts in medicine and mental health, the church made multiple webinars for the public focusing on ensuring physical and mental health during this time, a FEMA bulletin said. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Latter-day Saints Charities were also praised for their efforts. The BGEA, said FEMA, recruited 1,000 volunteers who are answering over 35,000 calls for prayer all over the country. In coordinating with Samaritans Purse, their Rapid Response Team Chaplains are also deploying to New York City and Cremona, Italy, to minister to those in need. In coordination with Convoy of Hope, the Latter-day Saints Charities are donating food supplies and goods to food banks around the nation. They are also donating PPE nationally and internationally. In the United States, for example, some species of mice harbor hantavirus, which periodically infects people, most often when they inhale aerosolized mouse droppings say, when sweeping out a dusty cabin or garage. Because the infection, which starts like a flu but is fatal in 38 percent of cases, doesnt spread from person to person (yet), the pandemic risk is currently low, Racaniello says. A good question is, what would have to happen for that virus to become human-to-human transmissible? And also, what else do mice have that might be a threat to people? But the mice of the United States have barely been sampled, in terms of the viruses they carry. During the Obama administration, a U.S.A.I.D. program called PREDICT was created to fill that gap, by using biological surveillance and predictive modeling to identify the most likely sources of zoonotic disease. During the 10 years the program existed, researchers found more than a thousand new potential zoonotic viruses, including an unknown Ebola strain. (Daszak, whose group received financial support from PREDICT, called the project visionary.) After the programs funding ended in September, shortly before the coronavirus outbreak began, the Trump administration authorized two successive six-month extensions. A U.S.A.I.D. spokesperson said that in September, there will be a planned transition to a new prevention program, Stop Spillover, with a proposed budget of between $50 million and $100 million over five years. For these sorts of programs to work, you have to be patient, Racaniello told me. But these projects also cost money, and they dont necessarily seem like theyre producing much in the short term, so theyre the easiest things to cut when you want to cut a budget. One challenge for pandemic hunters is understanding which animals are most likely to be the source of viruses. Bats, the original carriers for many zoonotic viruses, rarely pass those diseases to humans directly. (One study found that bats in China harbor more than 500 different coronaviruses, but they also carry paramyxoviruses, influenza and hemorrhagic viruses like Ebola.) More often, Daszak explained, bats infect another animal, which then infects us. About a fifth of all mammals are bats, Daszak points out. And theyre all over the globe. We just dont realize that, because they fly at night. But theyre out there, pooping all over the place just like deer and birds, except we dont see it. (Its worth noting that, of the thousands of bat species, only a few such as the fruit bat and horseshoe bat are currently thought to be the major reservoirs of zoonotic disease.) Bats also fly, can live for a long time and thrive across a huge range of habitats, which means that we, and other animals, are more likely to come in contact with them than with other species. Racaniello pointed to an outbreak in Australia in the 1990s that was caused when bats began frequenting a racehorse stable, infecting the horses, which then passed the disease on to their human trainers. In Malaysia, Nipah virus emerged from pigs, on farms in an area that harbored fruit bats. In the Middle East, the MERS coronavirus which most likely originated in a bat became endemic in camels, who at some point started passing it on to people. Before that outbreak, it wouldnt have occurred to anyone to look in camels for a pandemic virus, Racaniello said. The same is true for a lot of things. For instance, we knew that bats carried SARS-like coronaviruses, but it was only when they started looking for the cause of the first SARS outbreak that they found it had jumped from bats to civet cats, which is how we got it. But as to all the other animals in the world, we pretty much have no idea! So, I think you just need to cast a very wide net. To do that, Daszak helped found an ambitious project called the Global Virome Project, which seeks to identify 70 percent of the estimated 1.6 million potentially zoonotic viruses over 10 years, at a cost of $1.2 billion. We found the closest relative to the current SARS-CoV-2 in a bat in China in 2013, Daszak told me. We sequenced a bit of the genome, and then it went in the freezer; because it didnt look like SARS, we thought it was at a lower risk of emerging. With the Virome project, we could have sequenced the whole genome, discovered that it binds to human cells and upgraded the risk. And maybe then when we were designing vaccines for SARS, those could have targeted this one too, and we would have had something in the freezer ready to go if it emerged. Overall grain exports, which include wheat, corn and barley, also rose, reaching 47.436 million tonnes. Ukrainian wheat exports jumped nearly 50 percent in the week of April 11-17 despite a government warning that it could ban shipments if export rates are too high. Preliminary data from the APK-Inform consultancy on Sunday showed that Ukraine exported 319,000 tonnes of wheat last week, up from 217,000 tonnes a week earlier, Reuters said. Read alsoUkraine's economy ministry updates on course of spring sowing campaign Taras Vysotskiy, deputy economy minister in charge of agriculture, told Reuters last week that Ukraine, one of world's top grain exporters, was ready to ban wheat exports if sales exceed limits agreed with traders. APK-Inform said that the 2019/20 season's wheat exports had reached 18.56 million tonnes as of April 17, compared with 12 million tonnes at the same date in 2019. Overall grain exports, which include wheat, corn and barley, also rose, reaching 47.436 million tonnes, up from 35.922 million tonnes in the same period the previous season. Most of Ukraine's grain exports have headed for Egypt, Turkey, and Spain this season. Ukrainian bakers and millers last month asked the government to limit exports of grain and related products to maintain bread prices in the event of the coronavirus crisi deepening. Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Getty Donald Trump is calling for his followers to LIBERATE the states from the social-distancing measures that are staving off an even greater coronavirus death toll. Trumps enforcer, Attorney General Bill Barr, is now poised to support Trumps call for insurrection by turning to the federal courtsseeded with a legion of newly installed right-wing juriststo undermine critical public-health protections on his boss behalf. If Barr and Trump get their way, the states will soon be opened up to the virus, and thus to a massive number of needless deaths. While Trump began openly attacking his own social-distancing guidelines over the past week, Barr has been doing so for some time. During an April 8 interview on Fox News, the AG described the steps belatedly taken to limit spread of the virus as draconian. He also said that after April 30, the Department of Justice would begin to scrutinize such restrictions on our liberty more closely. Republicans Cheer as Trumpist Judge Launches Holy War Against Government Days later, some of the same big-money donors that had funded the Tea Party began fabricating a movement that responded to Trumps recent tweets by sending small numbers of protesters to mass at various statehouses to decry the public-health regulations that Trump claims are intended to undermine Americans constitutional rights. Last Friday, members of a group founded by former Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese wrote to Barr, asserting that states are engaged in rampant abuses of civil liberties that raise serious concerns about violating the basic protections and rights guaranteed under the United States Constitution and asking the DOJ to undertake immediate review of all the orders that have been issued by the states and local governments to protect against the spread of the coronavirus. The federal government virtually never engages in such an intrusive, nationwide review of state and local health regulations, let alone emergency regulations that were imposed at the express request of the president for the purpose of saving lives in the midst of a raging pandemic. Story continues Furthermore, Barr is a charter member of the Federalist Society, which supplied the president with the names of many of the young extremist lawyers who Trump and Mitch McConnell have been packing onto the federal judiciary. These conservatives have long claimed to be champions of states rights and opponents of earlier activist judges who, they claimed, were far too willing to interfere with state governance in the name of constitutional and civil rights. Yet there is every reason to believe that Barr, as well as many of the judges Trump has placed on the bench, will enthusiastically comply with the new call to undertake an offensive against states emergency health measures. In fact, as the activists noted in their April letter, Barr has already taken to the courts to oppose a local coronavirus health regulation. On April 14, well before the expiration of Trumps own call for strict social-distancing measures during the 30 days to stop the spread, the DOJ intervened in a Mississippi case to support a challenge to a municipal regulation barring drive-in church services. In the face of the DOJs action, along with pressure from the states GOP governor, the defendant city relented and allowed the services to proceed. While the danger posed to public health in that case may well in fact have been limited, the message was clear: Instead of supporting state and local efforts to protect citizens from the virus, the federal government is now arrayed to oppose them. The DOJs intervention in Mississippi immediately followed a Kentucky case in which a newly installed judge, who Trump has already nominated for a seat on the elite D.C .Court of Appeals, grandstanded by issuing an emergency ruling against a Louisville prohibition on a churchs worship practices. The judge took the time to write a lengthy opinion containing an impassioned screed against the citys purported intrusions upon religious freedom, but not to hear evidence from the city before issuing his emergency order. As the city later demonstrated, the church actually had a recent history of flaunting social-distancing practices and endangering its parishioners. Then on Saturday, yet another recent Trump appointee to the federal bench took a further whack at a critical public-health regulation, issuing an emergency order nullifying the application of Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kellys ban on gatherings of more than 10 people at church services. The order came after Kansas own Supreme Court had declined to grant similar relief at the request of representatives of the states GOP-controlled legislature. The federal judges order recited a set of safety precautions that the church claimed it would follow, but offered no explanation for the judges choice to override the existing rules whichas explainedwere grounded in guidance offered by Trumps own public-health professionals. Both rulings came after religious gatherings across the country have already served as deadly vectors for the spread of the coronavirusand as Trumpist lawmakers are planning further judicial interventions of their own. The speaker of Wisconsins state assemblylast seen dressed in full hospital garb telling voters they were perfectly safe standing to cast ballots in an election the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and then the U.S. Supreme Court, outrageously refused to delayis now threatening to bring a lawsuit to nullify that states stay-at-home rules. And GOP legislators in other states are following Trumps and Barrs calls by threatening similar litigation and other challenges, in some cases only days after authorizing their governors to take emergency measures to protect the public from the pandemic. The spectacle of having judges second-guessing the determinations of state health professionals serves Barr and Trumps broader goal: to undermine the legitimacy and authority of governors, some of them Democrats in swing states, who have received far more robust public support for their effective responses to the pandemic than Trump has for his catastrophically late efforts. Barrs efforts now to undermine the authority of governors is of a piece with his past work undermining the legitimacy of his own Justice Department, as well as the nations intelligence community and diplomatic corps, to help Trump escape the consequences of his criminal conduct during Robert Muellers investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and then his scheme to pressure Ukraine to announce an investigation of his 2020 rival, Joe Biden. Yet while Barrs past efforts to shred public confidence in governmental institutions have done a great deal of damage to the nation, the attorney generals latest effort to misuse the authority of the law, and of the federal courts, to help Trump out of a political jam is likely to have more immediate, and fatal, consequences. 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. The Green Party has called on the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to step in and offset the losses Gaeltacht communities will face as summer courses are cancelled. The influx of visitors to colleges in Gaeltacht regions over the summer months, as well as student teachers who also spend several weeks of the year in these communities, is worth around 50 million to the Gaeltacht economy. While no decision has been taken by Government to shut down summer courses, over 20 colaisti samhradh have already cancelled their programmes for the school holidays and reports of an imminent cancellation have circulated on broadcast media. Cllr Peter Kavanagh, Green Party Spokesperson for the Irish Language, said: Gaeltacht areas are among the most deprived in the country, and many rely on the income from this annual influx of students and teachers. Many households count on this money to make ends meet, and without it these already marginalised areas run the risk of falling further behind. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht did not respond to queries asking whether supports will be allocated to colleges affected by the current Covid-19 public health emergency. Colaiste Lurgan last week announced that all three-week summer courses were to be cancelled, and that students could seek a refund or transfer their deposits to 2021 courses or online activities. Cllr Kavanagh said that while the summer colleges must be supported to offer alternative arrangements for students, the communities dependent on these courses will require more direct support. Gaeltacht areas are underfunded compared even to the most deprived areas of rural Ireland. Without the annual income from summer colleges, the mna ti and their families, the local shops and businesses, and the wider Gaeltacht communities will suffer. Its up to Government to step up and show that the Gaeltacht, the heart of the Irish language, will be protected. Amid a report that U.S. officials were monitoring intelligence that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may have fallen seriously ill after a surgical procedure, South Korea says it could not corroborate the information. CNN, citing unnamed U.S. officials, reported Monday that Kim had undergone a cardiovascular surgery earlier this month and intelligence suggested that the leader may be in "grave danger." The North Korean leader, believed to be 36-years-old, is a heavy smoker and obese. On April 15, Kim was not present at a state celebration to mark the birthday of his late grandfather, Kim Il Sung, according to CNN. Kang Min-seok, a spokesman for the Blue House, the office and residence of South Korea President Moon Jae-in, however, said officials there have not detected unusual activity or signs coming from Pyongyang about Kim's health. South Korea: No reason to think Kim Jong Un gravely ill despite U.S. media report Undated photos from the North Korean government provided as late as April 12 appear to show Kim inspecting an air defense unit. Other photos provided April 11 appear to show Kim at a politburo meeting. The CNN report cited Daily NK, a Seoul-based website run by North Korean defectors, which reported that Kim's surgery took place April 12. Daily NK's story is based on a single source inside North Korea. Here's a look at the most recent known photos of Kim and the April 15 events in North Korea. In this undated file photo provided by the North Korean government on Saturday, April 11, 2020, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a politburo meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang. Another photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center top, as he appears to attend a politburo meeting. In this undated file photo provided by the North Korean government on April 12, 2020, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects an air defense unit in western area, North Korea. Another photo released April 12 that appears to show Kim inspecting the air defense unit. People wearing face masks lay flowers before the statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on April 15, 2020. April 15 marked the 108th birthday of late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, known as the "Day of the Sun." Another view from the "Day of the Sun" events in North Korea on April 15. People bow in front of the bronze statues of late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on April 15. Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard in London Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kim Jong Un health: Photos of North Korea leader's last known sighting TORONTO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Achievers, the progressive choice for employee voice and recognition solutions that accelerate a culture of performance, announced today that it has been named on three lists of distinction: Top Best Workplaces in Canada, Best Workplaces for Women, and Best Workplaces for Inclusion. Achievers received these honours after a thorough and independent analysis conducted by Great Place to Work (GPTW). The list of recognized organizations is curated based on direct feedback from employees of the hundreds of organizations surveyed. The data has a 90% confidence with a plus or minus five percent margin of error. Achievers' team is on a mission to change the way the world works, and through recognition and rewards, Create a Culture That Means Businessstarting with their own. "Our goal is to help make environments where employees can do the best work of their lives," said Jeff Cates, Chief Executive Officer at Achievers. "That has to start with how we operate, by providing a workplace where employees can learn, contribute, feel valued, and pursue their professional goalsand have fun along the way." The organization is focused on creating an equal opportunity engaged workforce that is both inspired and inspiring. Committees such as The Achievers Women's Network and Achievers Cares offer employees the opportunity to engage with their colleagues and communities in meaningful ways. "Achievers offers our employees fun and immersive opportunities to contribute to our culture," said Vanessa Brangwyn, Chief Customer Officer. "Whether it's addressing interests specific to women in the workplace, supporting all employees in the advancement of their careers, or volunteering time towards a local social responsibility initiativeAchievers supports its people and their passions." Achiever's commitment to equality and inclusivity is also evident through the company's leadership diversity, with several senior roles held by womenCharlene DiGiuseppe, Chief Financial Officer; Victoria Coombs, Principal Legal Counsel; Dr. Natalie Baumgartner, Chief Workforce Scientist, Vanessa Brangwyn, Chief Customer Officer, and more. To further support all employees, Achievers offers perks that go above and beyond basic benefits. Among these are a holistic wellness program which combines physical, financial, social and mental effortswith many services, activities, and practitioners available in-office for accessibility and convenience. Employees also enjoy a collaborative workspace, career development opportunities, subsidized activities, healthy snacks and beverages, and more. Moreover, Achievers is flexible in adapting its benefits to align with the personal and professional goals of its employees. For instance, through its "Personal Top 1s" program, employees receive $250 annually to use towards a personal goal, whether that be for a gym membership to get fit, or to overcome a fear of heights by skydiving. At Achievers, there is opportunity for everyone. Continued understanding of employee happiness is paramount for Achievers. Engagement is nurtured through the company's recognition and rewards software, which has a high rate of participation among employees. Additionally, management conducts regular pulse surveys to listen to their employee voice. Results are anonymous, confidential and help the organization address employee feedback in real time. GPTW rankings are developed using The Great Place to Work Trust Model and are largely dependent on results from the Trust Index Employee Survey. About Achievers Achievers' Employee Recognition and Rewards solution provides companies with a robust foundation for their employee engagement initiatives that enables both social and rewards-based recognition. Designed for today's workplace, Achievers' innovative SaaS platform can increase employee engagement and drive business success. It empowers employees to recognize and reward each other in real time and aligns employees with company values and goals. Delivering millions of recognitions annually, the Achievers platform inspires employee loyalty, engagement and performance in 150 countries. Visit us at www.achievers.com. Achievers is a Blackhawk Network company and is headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco. About Blackhawk Network Blackhawk Network delivers branded payment solutions through the prepaid products, technologies and network that connect brands and people. We collaborate with our partners to innovate, translating market trends in branded payments to increase reach, loyalty and revenue. Serving 28 countries, we reliably execute security-minded solutions worldwide. Join us as we shape the future of global branded payments. About Great Place to Work Great Place to Work is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, GPTW recognizes the world's Best Workplaces in a series of national lists including those published by The Globe & Mail (Canada) and Fortune magazine (USA). Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. Visit us at www.greatplacetowork.ca or find us on Twitter at @GPTW_Canada. Media contacts Achievers PR Team [email protected] SOURCE Achievers Related Links http://www.achievers.com Private nursing home operators are struggling to get on-site visits from GPs due concerns over infection spread. Many general practitioners are now opting to treat residents remotely in a bid to limit the risk to themselves and the other patients on their GP register. Speaking to the Irish Independent, a senior source in the GP sector said that while a large number of GPs were attending virus-hit nursing homes, there are others who "definitely aren't". Read More It comes as Dr Jack Lambert, a consultant in infectious diseases at the Mater Hospital, said he had Covid-19 positive nursing home patients in his care that hadn't seen a GP in weeks. "In many cases the GP care is being done over the phone," he said. A senior medical source said that in cases where GPs were deciding not to enter nursing homes, decisions were being made after balancing the needs of all patients. All GPs have an ethical duty of care, but GPs had to make sure they don't become "spreaders". Expand Close Dr Jack Lambert, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Mater, Rotunda and UCD. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dr Jack Lambert, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Mater, Rotunda and UCD. Photo: Steve Humphreys "Many GPs are still going in but there are others who definitely aren't," they said. "If you are a GP and you have your own patients, you have to take care of yourself and make sure you are not a spreader. If you pick up the virus, you have a huge responsibility to everyone else. You have to be as careful as you can and balance that with protecting your own patients and your own staff." According to Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI), members have been reporting problems securing physical GP visits in recent weeks. "There are two issues here, one is the scarcity of GPs and the second is that many of the GPs aren't physically coming in to their facilities," he said. Expand Close Ready: Mick OSullivan and Max from the K9 unit prepare for the visit of Leo Varadkar to the Civil Defence at their Dublin HQ. Photo: Gerry Mooney / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ready: Mick OSullivan and Max from the K9 unit prepare for the visit of Leo Varadkar to the Civil Defence at their Dublin HQ. Photo: Gerry Mooney "I presume its because they are stretched in the community and there may be a concern around Covid as well. I can confirm there are difficulties and we are working with the HSE on that. It has to be addressed." NHI is in the process of conducting a survey with members in relation to GP access during the coronavirus pandemic. "It's not a new issue, but obviously the situation has been exacerbated in the current crisis," he said. While Mr Daly welcomed the rollout of testing in all nursing homes, he stressed that staffing levels were still a major pressure point. "We need a national contingency plan for the situation where a large number of staff have a positive test result. To quote Dr Lambert, who said the same last week, 'we need boots on the ground asap'." Dr Lambert said he knew that many GPs were not going into nursing homes and assessments were being done virtually. But he said healthcare staff in hospitals did not have that sort of choice. "I don't know why some GPs aren't going in and doing it face-to-face," he said. "If we have a patient that's brought to the hospital and they are nursing home patients, either Covid or suspected Covid, we actually go in to the room, we examine them, we assess them, we do bloods. "Some GPs have given up on the private nursing homes and aren't even answering phone calls. If they have the correct PPE, why can't they go in?" Dr Lambert, who has called on the Government to send nurses and doctors into nursing homes to avert a deepening tragedy, said the current crisis in nursing homes required all nursing home GPs to go on-site to treat patients. "There are many GPs who are standing up and doing the right thing, but this can't be on an optional basis during a crisis," he said. "The point is that there are some nursing homes that risk being abandoned. I have patients from private nursing homes with Covid-19 who haven't seen a GP in weeks. We have to stop this." One nurse in a private nursing home in Co Dublin told the Irish Independent how she took instructions on the phone from a GP as two patients became fatally unwell in a home with a Covid-19 outbreak. "I was in touch with the GP regularly on the phone," said the nurse, who asked to remain anonymous. "I said, I will keep you updated but two of these patients aren't looking good. She said she would call back the next day to see how I was doing. She called me back the next morning. We had a chat and I said, look they are still the same, no change, not getting better or worse. I called her back two hours later and told her that two patients had passed away." Read More Yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar admitted testing of nursing home staff and residents should have started sooner. "Would it have been a good thing if we had done it sooner? Yeah, I think it would have. "But last week and the week before we had a massive backlog of tests, and they were tests done on people who actually had symptoms, so even if we had done them sooner we wouldn't have got the test results and that's just the reality of the situation," he said. He said the Government had been examining six separate issues at once since the start of the pandemic. They included testing, hospital capacity, social distancing measures, addressing the economic impact of the virus and assessing congregated settings such as nursing homes, prisons and direct provision centres. "It's never been a case of prioritising one or the other. We have been trying to do all six of these things all at the same time and we have run into problems with all of them at one point or another and we will continue to do," he said. (Natural News) The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) filed a lawsuit against the New York State Department of Health, Montefiore Medical Center and Westchester Medical Center, Monday for failing to protect the health and safety of nurses during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These lawsuits were filed to protect our nurses, our patients and our communities from grossly inadequate and negligent protections, said Pat Kane, the associations executive director, in a statement. As part of the lawsuit against the state and two hospitals, the association has asked judges to issue injections to force the defendants to provide masks and other protective gear to the states nurses. Nurses not given enough protection The NYSNA alleged that some nurses were not given impermeable gowns and personal protective equipment and that nurses were redeployed to hospitals other than those they normally worked at were not given sufficient training. Additionally, the lawsuits also stated that high-risk employees, such as pregnant nurses, were not provided safe working conditions. All three suits expose, among other failures: not providing impermeable gowns and other PPE to cover RNs bodies; not properly training RNs redeployed from hospital units; inadequate provision of safe working conditions for high-risk employees, including pregnant RNs, the NYSNA added in its statement. Overall, the nurses have not received appropriate masks and carry out assignments in unsafe working conditions. The lawsuit against the New York State Health Department was filed in the Manhattan state Supreme Court. The lawsuit against Montefiore Medical Center was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York court while the suit against the Westchester Medical Center was filed in the Supreme Court in White Plains. Related: (A warning to the world? New York now scrambling to address Coronavirus outbreak.) Each lawsuit asks something slightly different from the defendants. The suit against the Health Department asks the court to enforce New York Gov. Andrew Cuomos April 13 directive that required each nurse to be given at least one N95 mask daily. The suit against Montefiore, on the other hand, cited alleged labor law violations and has asked the federal judge to force the institution to honor its contractual obligations and restore safe working conditions for nurses and their patients. Finally, the suit against Westchester Medical, which was filed on behalf of 1,600 nurses, sought an injunction against hazards that cause or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to nurses. It also alleged that nurses who spoke out about conditions at the hospital suffered intimidation. The trio of torts included affidavits from numerous nurses. I began experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19, including cough and fever, stated nurse Pamela Brown-Richardson. I reported my symptoms to Montefiore and asked for testing. I was informed that Montefiore would not test me. Brown-Richardson also wrote that she was forced to obtain her own test, which came back positive. Meanwhile, Crystal Torres, a nurse at Northwell Healths Staten Island University Hospital, filed an affidavit against the Health Department in the suit where she charged that she was only given one mask to last an entire week on top of being instructed to use the same gown for multiple patients. Health officials claim allegations are wrong In response to the lawsuits, both hospital systems fired back at the NYSNA. NYSNA leadership has chosen to attack a system, and the commitment of thousands of their colleagues, who have followed the Governors emergency orders and are selflessly doing all they can to fight COVID-19 and save lives, stated Montefiore spokeswoman Tracy Gurrisi. Meanwhile, representatives for Westchester Medical Center have said that while we cannot comment on pending litigation, we know, and our care providers know, that the allegations in NYSNAs lawsuit are wrong. New York State Health Department officials have also declined to comment on the pending litigation. The State of New York continues to take every step necessary to ensure that health care workers, particularly those who are sampling and providing direct care, have the support and supplies needed to address this unprecedented public health emergency, stated Jonah Bruno, spokesmen for the health department. Bruno also stated that the department could not comment on pending litigation. Sources include: News.Trust.org TheHill.com NYPost.com The sale of used clothing is a billion-dollar global industry. According to some estimates, almost 70% of garments that are donated globally end up on the African continent. This happens through a complex global supply chain, where donated items that cannot be sold in thrift shops in high-income countries are resold in bulk to commercial textile recyclers. The garments are then sent to sorting centres, often located in the Middle East or Eastern Europe. These are then graded and sorted into bales. The bales are in turn resold to wholesalers on the African continent. East Africa alone imports over $150 million worth of used clothes and shoes, largely from the US and Europe. In 2017, USAID estimated that the industry employed 355,000 people and generated $230 million in government revenue. It also supported the livelihoods of an additional 1.4 million in the East Africa Community bloc. But scholars have also highlighted the complexities of this billion-dollar industry and how these commodity chains perpetuate poverty . This has led to a pushback. In 2016, the leaders of Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi issued a communique outlining a major tariff increase on imported used clothing. The plan was to ban all imports of used clothing by 2019. But the international trade disputes that followed led most countries to back out from implementing the ban. The pushback rested on two broad sets of arguments. First, there is a widespread belief that the popularity of used clothing contributed to the collapse of the domestic textile industry in many parts of Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Second, the continued use of used clothing is portrayed as undignified and eroding African pride . Nevertheless, used clothing continues to enjoy unrivalled popularity in many countries. We sought to establish why by studying the phenomenon in Malawi, where used clothes are known as kaunjika (meaning clothes sold in a heap). It is a popular and resilient business. We found that there were important economic and social pull factors behind the popularity of used clothing. We also found little support for the viewpoint that wearing used clothing is an attack on the dignity of African citizens. The pull factors Between March 2018 and February 2020, we visited local markets and shopping malls and interacted extensively with street vendors, shop keepers, wholesalers and consumers in Blantyre, Limbe, Zomba and Lilongwe. Our goal was to better understand the widespread popularity of used clothing in Malawi. We were able to identify a number of common factors. Quality: Used clothes and shoes sourced from high-income countries were considered to be of far better quality than brand new items available in local markets. Customers were often willing to pay a higher price for used merchandise than comparable new items. Clothing labels indicating where items were produced were viewed as less important than the source of the donation. For example, kaunjika sourced from China was popular with vendors and customers because of sizes and styles that were more compatible with local preferences. Many vendors also claimed that when compared to clothing produced in China for African markets, clothing that had been produced for the Chinese themselves or for Western markets was of better quality. Affordability: Many Malawians cannot afford even the cheapest new garments sold in local stores. Used clothing can be sold at higher prices than new items, mostly to middle income consumers in urban areas. But items that are not considered to be of good quality or style continue to trickle down the supply chain. These items are then sold by vendors operating in more rural areas where consumers with lower purchasing power have even fewer alternatives. Fashion trends: Malawian consumers cited fashion trends and the uniqueness of imported used clothing as important factors for buying kaunjika. This was particularly the case for the younger generation who had been exposed to international trends and popular culture through social media. People crave the latest fashion often not available in the local retail stores. Low start-up costs: The buy-in costs for local vendors of used clothing were very low. This created economic opportunities in the informal economy for groups with limited resources to access start-up capital. Several vendors told us that despite starting their businesses with limited funds, they had gradually been able to expand their operations and create employment opportunities. And although the informal sector is characterised by numerous challenges poor working conditions, lack of social protection, child labour and loss of tax revenue, to name a few kaunjika appeared to offer a much needed way for many to earn a living. Used clothing and sustainability A recent report predicts that the global second-hand clothing market is set to double to $51 billion in the next five years, exceeding fast fashion within a decade. It is still too early to tell how changing consumption patterns in high-income countries will affect used clothing markets around the world. But what appears certain is that the Malawian consumer, like many on the African continent, will continue to demand access to the same quality, styles and brands as the rest of the world, even if it means buying used clothes sold in a heap. Dan Banik receives funding from the Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). Kaja Elise Gresko receives funding from the Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). By Dan Banik, Professor of political science and Director of the Oslo SDG Initiative, University of Oslo 21 Shares Share It was the middle of March when I came back to my work shift. I got the news my floor would be COVID-19 floor that meant all patients coming to the ER with COVID-19 symptoms would be placed solely under my supervision. I was all ready for it at least I knew the challenges I was going to face. The number of patients getting admitted to rule out COVID-19 kept on increasing. Within days my whole floor was full of just COVID patients. I expected older patients as everyone was saying in the beginning that it affects the older population, but I was surprised the majority of my patients were 35 to 50-year-olds. And very few were above 70. My first patient was a 40-year-old guy with no medical history. He was just scared with the thought of having COVID-19 and if he was going to make it or not. I remember on the second day his condition slightly worsened, and he started crying, he couldnt breathe because of a panic attack. I had to sit with him and talk to him about his family to distract him like a small kid to calm him down and give him reassurance that we will fight it together. For the next couple of days, whenever I went to check on him in the morning, I called his wife and his son from his phone with him. And that gave him the strength to fight it. He recovered completely and went home. Another big challenge that I faced was elderly patients who lived alone. They were scared to go back home alone, and none of the family members wanted to take them back. It was more mental stress to take care of COVID patients than physical stress. In the morning, they were doing fine, but by afternoon their oxygen level dropped, and they were intubated. Some made it to the ICU, and some couldnt. Families couldnt come to see them even at their last moments. The end of the shift was full of emotions; even I couldnt sleep properly at night thinking about patients who couldnt make it or praying about those who were admitted. It was one shift day on the COVID floor when I got a call from employee health informing me of my own COVID test result it was positive. I sat there speechless and confused, thinking what now? I got up after a few seconds, took a depth breath, and called my supervisor to tell her the news. She asked me how I was feeling? I told her I am okay. My initial reaction was to continue business as usual wear my N95 mask and finish my shift and to return to complete my two other shifts left until my week off. When I sat down again, my mind was racing with thought. My supervisor called me back, You should go home and take off as your test is positive; you need to quarantine yourself. While walking home, I was thinking: thank god I was wearing my mask at all times when at work and especially during all my patient interactions. Then dread struck my son. He was with me a night ago. He slept in my room; I hope I didnt pass on the infection to him. He has been staying at his dads place for the past 15 days since I started working with COVID patients, but he came to stay with me for a night because I hadnt seen him for so long. I realized I had to call my ex-husband and inform him of my results. Luckily, no one had symptoms. But I still asked his dad to make sure he is doing daily temp checks on my son. Once in quarantine, I continued to have myalgias for another four days, along with headaches and some shortness of breath when doing minimal activity. I slept most of the time, especially in the first two days. Gradually, my immune system responded very well, and I had only a mild case of COVID infection. My whole family is in India, and I live in the U.S. with my 9-year-old son. I didnt inform my parents, but after three days, once I felt a little better, I called my family back home and told them that I was infected with COVID, but I was doing good, and it was just a mild infection. We were FaceTiming so they could see how I am doing. But that didnt help, my sister in law who answered my call first started crying. My 13-year-old niece, who was sitting next to her, ran to inform my mother who came crying and worried. It took my couple of minutes to calm them down and make them understand I am fine. That time I realized how scared regular people are from this infection. They think no one can survive once they have an infection. I got calls from family day and night for another two days until they made sure I was going to live. Being a physician, I know what a mild case is, but for a layman, once you have the test positive, it means you have the infection, and its serious. I have seen young patients crying once I have told them that their COVID result is positive. I quarantined myself for 14 days; my son stayed with his dad. Its not easy to be in quarantine, but you can easily do it to save your family, friends, and your community. I was overwhelmed by texts and phone calls from my friends and relatives. I felt lucky to be surrounded by so much love. The world is still beautiful and full of beautiful people. I asked my son what did he learned from this pandemic, and his answer was, Always wash my hands. That just made my day. Now I am all recovered and back to taking care of my patients. Prabhjot Manes is a family medicine physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Lists of candidates for the board of directors at the AGM 2020 Lainate - April 21, 2020 - Cassiopea SpA (SIX: SKIN), a clinical stage specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative and differentiated medical dermatology products, today announced the lists of candidates proposed for the board of directors at the Annual General Meeting of 29 April 2020, in Lainate, Milan (Italy). The list proposed by Cassiopea's shareholder Cosmo Pharmaceuticals NV consists of the following candidates: Jan de Vries (incumbent, non-executive, independent), Pierpaolo Guzzo (incumbent, non-executive, independent), Oyvind Bjordal (incumbent, non-executive, independent), and Diana Harbort (incumbent, executive). The proposed list is available here on the Company's website. The list proposed by Cassiopea's shareholder Heinrich Herz AG/Logistable SA Group consists of the following candidate: Maurizio Baldassarini (incumbent, non-executive, independent). The proposed list is available here on the Company's website. Owing to the COVID-19 health emergency and in compliance with art. 106 of Law-Decree n. 18 dated March 17, 2020 aimed at minimizing travel and gatherings, attending and voting at the Shareholders' Meeting can only occur through the granting of a specific proxy to the designated representative (Dario Trevisan, lawyer). In particular pursuant to art. 106, paragraph 4, of Law-Decree n. 18 dated March 17, 2020, participation in the meeting can occur exclusively through the designated representative (Dario Trevisan, lawyer). Pursuant to article 135-undecies of Legislative Decree No. 58 dated February 24, 1998; the designated representative (Dario Trevisan, lawyer) may also be granted proxies and/or sub-proxies pursuant to article 135-novies of Legislative Decree No. 58 dated February 24, 1998, in deviation from art. 135-undecies, paragraph 4, of the same Decree. All operative details are available at Company's website www.cassiopea.com in the section "Investor/Corporate Governance". About Cassiopea Cassiopea is a specialty pharmaceutical company developing and preparing to commercialize prescription drugswith novel mechanisms of action to address long-standing and essential dermatological conditions, particularly acne, androgenetic alopecia and genital warts. Cassiopea is investing in innovation that is driving scientific advancement in areas that have been largely ignored for decades. The portfolio comprises four unencumbered clinical candidates, for which Cassiopea owns the worldwide rights. If approved, Cassiopea plans to commercialize the products directly in the USA and partner the products for countries outside of the USA. For further information on Cassiopea, please visit www.cassiopea.com. Next events Annual General Shareholders Meeting - 29 April 2020, Lainate Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting - 28 May 2020, Lainate Jefferies Global Health Care Conference - 2-4 June 2020, New York Half Year Report 2020 - July 2020 Investora - 23-24 September 2020, Zurich Credit Suisse Small & Mid Cap Conference - 18-20 November 2020, Zurich Contact: Dr. Chris Tanner, CFO and Head of Investor Relations Tel: +39 02 868 91 124 Some of the information contained in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Cassiopea has no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. The order by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to manufacturers of popular food supplement, COA FS, COA Herbal Centre to withdraw the product from the market over claims of unsafe consumption, has raised concerns over how the regulatory body relates to local entrepreneurs or companies who produce ground-breaking products. Many Ghanaians have expressed surprise over the FDAs action considering the fact that COA FS was on high demand following the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. Before the FDAs ban on the wonder drug, there were hints that some respected officials were denigrating the efficacy of the drug, which have been acclaimed by many Ghanaians and some foreigners, who have tried and tested it. There have been so many positive stories about the drug as many people who are battling life-threatening diseases like liver problems, cancer, diabetes, covid-19 stroke, etc.have all given heartwarming testimonies about the drug. Some Ghanaians, including some top officials at the FDA, believe that there could be other reasons for the recall other than the so-called contamination. A highly placed source at the FDA has conceded that the regulatory body misfired when it announced the recall of the product without referring to the batch numbers. How can you recall a drug without making reference to the batch numbers? Are we recalling all the drugs? This is tantamount to collapsing the business of a hardworking local entrepreneur, whose product is world acclaimed! The FDA goofed and it must come again because this blanket statement is quite embarrassing for the regulator, the source fumed. COA FS Herbal Center has been cooperating with the FDA with regards to testing of its products over the years but the regulatory body appears not to be giving a reciprocal gesture. According to our source, the FDA official who did the last testing necessitating the recall of the product acted unprofessionally when he visited the factory in the Central Region, giving credence to the fact that the FDA may have a sinister motive. Furthermore, there is currently a backlog of new COA FAS products awaiting testing and certification by the FDA but no move has been made by the regulatory body. The herbal company has been compelled by the FDA to issue a statement, accepting blame, according to our sources. The FDA under normal circumstances is required to give some time to companies to recall products from the market by themselves before going public. But this was not the case with COA FS as the FDA immediately made the announcement after its so-called testing. So, the million-dollar question is, Is the FDA really punishing COA FS Herbal Center or it is just flexing its muscles to a genuine company? The United States has named its first ambassador to Belarus in more than a decade in the latest sign of warming relations between the two countries. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on April 20 that he intended to nominate career diplomat Julie Fisher, a top State Department official for Europe, to the embassy in Minsk. Fisher previously held assignments at NATO and served in Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine. The Senate must first approve her appointment, but its unclear when hearings will be held as lawmakers are grappling with the coronavirus pandemic and will later hit the election trail. The United States recalled its ambassador to Minsk in 2008 when authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka ordered a reduction of U.S. diplomatic staff in the country. The deterioration in relations came after Washington imposed sanctions in response to human rights abuses and a political crackdown around the 2006 Belarusian presidential election. Since then, both countries' embassies have been represented at the charges d'affaires level. In the first visit to Belarus by a top U.S. diplomat since 1994, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February met with Lukashenka in Minsk and said the United States sought closer ties with the country. The rapprochement between the United States and Belarus comes as Minsk balances political and economic reliance on neighboring Russia with a desire to foster closer ties with the West. While the United States says Belarus doesnt need to choose between Moscow and Washington, Pompeo said in February that the United States "wants to help Belarus build its own sovereign country." Pompeo also said the United States would continue to push for human rights reforms while developing economic ties, including U.S. oil exports at a time Belarus has been in a long-running pricing dispute with Russia. The row over oil comes amid a broader dispute between Moscow and Minsk in which Lukashenka has accused the Kremlin of trying to pressure Belarus into a deeper union with Russia. The United States and Belarus first announced plans to exchange ambassadors in September 2019 when top State Department official David Hale met with Lukashenka in Minsk. Washington, in another boost to its ties with Belarus, on January 31 omitted it from a list of countries under a travel ban after earlier signaling its possible inclusion. The United States and the European Union also eased sanctions on Belarus in 2016. With reporting by AFP On a day when Bengal recorded a sharp rise in the number of coronavirus cases with 54 people testing positive, the Mamata Banerjee government locked horns with the Centre. Banerjee-led Bengal administration got upset with Centres move of sending two inter-ministerial teams to inspect various aspects of the states battle against the virus, including the measures of the health administration and the implementation of the lockdown. While chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said that the state would not allow the central team to move freely until their intention became clear to the state administration, chief minister Mamata Banerjee shot a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that Centres unilateral decision was undesirable, alleging breach of established protocol. In her letter, Banerjee stated that Bengal enforced lockdown even before the Centre had announced it. I urge both Honble Prime Minister @NarendraModi Ji & Home Minister @AmitShah Ji to share the criterion used for this. Until then I am afraid, we would not be able to move ahead on this as without valid reasons this might not be consistent with the spirit of federalism. (2/2) Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) April 20, 2020 I would like to bring to your kind notice that today the Union Home Minister spoke to me over the telephone at about 1 pm regarding the visit of the inter-ministerial central teams to my state. Unfortunately, the teams had already landed in Kolkata airport by AI special cargo flight 1701 at 10.10 am, i.e. much before our telephonic conversation. The order dated April 19, 2020, from the home ministry addressed to the chief secretary also reached just 30 minutes before the teams arrived. While I appreciate the pro-activeness shown by the central government in sending their teams to West Bengal, the same was done without prior intimation and hence is a breach of established protocol, Banerjee wrote in her letter. She alleged that while as per the home ministrys order the state government was supposed to provide the logistical arrangements, the central teams kept the state in the dark and approached central forces such as the Border Security Force (BSF) and Seema Suraksha Bal and had started making their movements without consulting the state. As an established procedure, it is expected that the central team should have first taken a briefing from the state government officials prior to going for the field visits, the letter read. Banerjee alleged that the order from the home ministry mentioned number of violations of lockdown measures and said that these observations are devoid of any facts and do not lend any credibility to the claim. According to her, selection of districts (for the central teams visit) and observations made unilaterally are nothing but a figment of imagination and unfortunate. The chief minister reminded the prime minister that West Bengal had pro-actively announced the lockdown before it was announced by the central government, and that the state extended the lockdown up to April 30 even before the Centre announced an extension of the lockdown on April 14. I am sure you will kindly agree that such unilateral action on the part of the central government is not desirable at all, she wrote in her letter. Banerjee also took to social media and posted on Twitter, We welcome all constructive support & suggestions, especially from the Central Govt in negating the #Covid19 crisis. However, the basis on which Centre is proposing to deploy IMCTs in select districts across India including few in WB under Disaster Mgmt Act 2005 is unclear. I urge both Honble Prime Minister @NarendraModi Ji & Home Minister @AmitShah Ji to share the criterion used for this. Until then I am afraid, we would not be able to move ahead on this as without valid reasons this might not be consistent with the spirit of federalism. Incidentally, the Centre had earlier written twice to the state, alleging a lax implementation of the lockdown, a charge that was echoed by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in the state as also by the Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar. The chief secretary, however, said on Monday, We are going for a strict lockdown in containment areas of Kolkata and Howrah. At some places in Kolkata and Howrah, the administration has deployed combat forces to ensure the lockdown is enforced strictly. Two inter-ministerial teams, one led by Apurva Chanda, additional secretary, department of defence and the other led by Vineet Joshi, additional secretary, ministry of human resource development, reached the state on Monday. They are to inquire about 7 of the states 23 districts. One team is to visit the districts in north Bengal and the other in south Bengal. Ossify industries, which has brand rights of Compaq's television business here, on Tuesday said it has invested Rs 225 crore to acquire a manufacturing facility at Kundli in Haryana and expects to start production by the end of 2022. The company plans to make investments of around Rs 210 crore on infrastructure development of the facility over the next four years. "Acquired in February 2020, the plant is currently under development and will be commissioned by Diwali of 2022," said Ossify industries in a statement. This new manufacturing facility will cater to the domestic and international business for Compaq televisions, for which it holds licence for multiple countries and regions. Besides, a small percentage of the production may also serve the domestic and South Asia OEM/ODM business for some prominent TV brands, the Delhi-based company added. Ossify Industries CEO Anand Dubey said, "The acquisition of the manufacturing facility is a crucial step for us, as the company is embarking on its next phase of growth. This will help us fulfil the projected domestic demand for Compaq." Ossify Industries has brand rights for Compaq smart television business in India and some other territories under a licence from Hewlett Packard, the parent company of Compaq. It expect to roll out the first batch of Compaq brand TV sets in the first half of this year. The Indian TV market is expected to be around 15 million units per annual and majority of the market is controlled by top three leading brands -- Samsung, LG and Sony. According to a report by Counterpoint Research, shipments of TVs in the Indian market grew by 15 per cent to 15 million units in 2019. Korean electronics major Samsung continues to lead the overall TV market, while Xiaomi is now the leader in the smart TV segment with 40 per cent growth in 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) - Coronavirus has continued to bring sorrow to families of those hit by the deadly disease - Dr Yi Fan and Dr Hu Weifeng are among the Chinese doctors that treated coronavirus patients at Wuhan Hospital in January - They contracted the disease in the line of duty, and their skins are turning darker as they recover from the virus Two Chinese doctors who contracted coronavirus are currently recovering but their skins are turning darker due to liver damage caused by the deadly disease. Dr Yi Fan and Dr Hu Weifeng got infected while treating coronavirus patients at Wuhan Hospital in January. Dr Hu. Photo credit: Mirror Source: UGC The doctor who helped save their lives told Chinese state media that the virus has caused hormonal imbalances and the resultant skin change. Dr Yi. Photo credit: Mirror Source: UGC Doctors Yi and Hu, both aged 42, tested positive on January 18 and were initially admitted to Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital before being transferred twice. In other news, cheeky travellers have ferried an empty coffin from Nairobi to Homa Bay county with the pretence that they were going for a funeral, to evade arrest by security officials manning roadblocks. Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said he was informed about the incident by Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti who quarantined them and found the car driver to be COVID-19 positive. In his daily coronavirus briefing on Saturday, April 18, the CS said the travellers did not comply with the restricted movement requirement and would face the full force of the law. "We have noted there are people not complying with the restricted movement requirement in and out of counties. I want to caution truck and other drivers smuggling people from one restricted area to another. Enforcement agencies will deal with such issues. "The governor of Homa Bay informed me this morning of a group of people who travelled from Nairobi to Homa Bay in a private vehicle pretending they were attending a funeral. They were fully equipped with an empty coffin, but thanks to the administration there who took action after getting suspicious," the CS said. Kagwe confirmed 16 new cases of the pandemic bringing the national tally to 262. Out of the total cases, 60 had recovered while 12 others had succumbed to the deadly virus. The government had earlier announced cessation of movement in and out of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi counties as they were classified as COVID-19 hotspots. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better Covid19: Nigerians beg Buhari not to extend lockdown | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng Kerala: Coconut tree climber supplies water, fruits to cops on lockdown duty India oi-Briti Roy Barman Kerala, Apr 21: The battle against the fatal coronavirus makes us believe again on humanity which is said to be on its way to the end. The country is witnessing many such examples since the virus outbreak and Gireesh, a coconut tree climber from Alappuzha, Kerala is just a new addition in the list Ever since the lockdown has started, this Kalavoor native has been fetching free food and water for police personnel as his token of appreciation for the work they render for the society during the pandemic. Health Ministry issues new guidelines for non-coronavirus health facilities Even if the police refuse, Gireesh leaves behind the water and snacks for them. "I see this man wearing shabby clothes, travelling on his two-wheeler on a daily basis and exchanging pleasantries with cops on duty. When I enquired about him, the policemen told me that the man supplies them with water and snacks daily," said Tolson Joseph, Kalavoor, Sub Inspector. I see this man travelling in his two-wheeler daily & exchanging pleasantries with cops on duty. When I inquired about him, the police personnel told me that the man is supplying them water & snacks daily: Tolson Joseph, Kalavoor, Sub Inspector #Kerala pic.twitter.com/H9FzsDtwmK ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 Kunjumol, a policewoman said that Gireesh brings water and bananas for them who are on duty for the whole day to ensure about the lockdown measures. "His action is a welcome gesture as he is appreciating our work. We are carrying out our duty in this hot weather and during this lockdown no shops are open. Though our department supplies food and water, by his work he is helping us," she said. Reshmi, another constable also has all praise for Gireesh. " From his limited income, he is doing this for us. He goes to all the points where police are on duty and supplies water and snacks. Also, under this scorching heat when we are doing our duty his act is of great help, " she said. Gireesh earns less than Rs 100 for climbing a coconut tree. Gireesh told ANI,"From my earnings, I am spending a part on these police personnel, who are performing their duty for all of us during the coronavirus outbreak. I don't have money to buy them big meals. But I do what I can- be it a banana or a bottle of soda,". For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 11:58 [IST] Frontline HSE workers in the mid-west now have access to an express lane at a garda Covid-19 checkpoint to ensure they can get to or from work without delay. Gardai have erected new signs directing HSE staff and heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers into a lane where they can move through the checkpoint without delay. The initiative follows recent discussions with Gardai from the Clare division and HSE management in the mid-west. The checkpoint, which is in place between 7.00am and 9.00pm daily, is located close to junction 5 on the N18 near Cratloe Co Clare, one of the main access routes into the county. There are several other similar checkpoints in the county as well as dozens of others mounted for shorter periods at different locations during the day and night. When a motorist is stopped they are asked to confirm the purpose of their travel. If Gardai are not satisfied that their journey is essential, they are asked to exit the dual-carriageway at junction 5 and return home. As the checkpoint is on a main route and can result in tailbacks at peak times, Gardai are now providing an express lane to facilitate a faster journey for HSE staff in particular. HSE workers can access the lane where they are asked to produce their HSE identification. Picture: Patrick Flynn. HSE workers can access the lane where they are asked to produce their HSE identification. Staff can they can proceed through the checkpoint without delay. The route is used by staff returning home to Clare from University Hospital Limerick and other HSE facilities in Limerick as well as those travelling to work in Clare. Inspector Paul Slattery, head of the Roads Policing Unit in Clare, said: We have discussions with the HSE and other agencies on a daily basis. "One of the issues that arose in our discussions with the HSE was the importance of HSE doctors, nurses and other frontline HSE staff being able to get to work on time. We also want to ensure they get home without delay after working on the frontline all day. The checkpoint on the N18 can be particularly busy at times and we dont want to see HSE workers sitting in traffic when they could be on their way to or from work. We now have signs directing HSE staff and HGV drivers into a dedicated lane where Gardai can facilitate their journey promptly, Inspector Slattery said. April 21 : Self Love is a must and PeeCee knows this the best! The multi-talented Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra has come up with a DIY hair treatment mask that can be tried by anyone at home. Amid lockdown and with no beauty salons to run for an uncertain period of time, it is a good idea to try out her hair care routine this time. She mentioned that this mask contains very basic ingredients and can be used by people who have issues of dandruff, dry scalp, and such similar issues. In the post, she mentioned that this was an excellent hair beauty hack that she had a long time shared with Vogue Magazine. As we all sit at home and practice self-isolation, she suggests that this would be an ideal time to try such simple hair masks. This was a traditional recipe passed on from her mother, and it seemed to work well for the Barfi actress. As per her hair recipe, you would need a large scoop of yogurt, 1 teaspoon of honey and 1 small egg. Beat them all well into a smooth paste. Then apply it carefully onto the scalp and leave it for a whole 30 minutes. After this, gently wash it away with lukewarm water. She does add a small disclaimer that this mix may smell a bit, so wash at least 2 times with shampoo and then follow it with conditioner, to get that final stink-free hair. She totally recommends this hair mask for all who have scalp problems that are connected to dryness. On the work front, apart from movies, she is constantly busy with a lot of social causes. Peeking into Priyanka Chopras upcoming movie list, she will be working along with Hrithik Roshan in Krissh 4, then in the Hollywood movie The Matrix 4 along with Keanu Reeves, then Hira Mandi will be a Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie. Rowland O'Connor, CEO Email Hippo I am absolutely delighted and humbled for Email Hippo to receive The Queens Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2020. This prestigious award recognises our contribution in helping the worlds email system work a little better." Tech company, Email Hippo, wins a Queens Award for Enterprise Email Hippo, based in Cornwall, UK has been honoured with a Queens Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category for 2020. Announced today (Tuesday 21 April), Email Hippo has been recognised for its excellence in Innovation for its email verification software as a service product, MORE. Employing eight people, Email Hippo was set up in 2015 and helps companies fight fraudulent transactions. Rowland OConnor, Founder and CEO of Email Hippo, said: I am absolutely delighted and humbled for Email Hippo to receive The Queens Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2020. This prestigious award recognises our contribution in helping the worlds email system work a little better. Email Hippo is less than five years old. In that time weve managed to create an internationally recognised brand that is synonymous with quality of both product and excellence of customer service to back it up. Our customers tell us what is important to them in their digital channels. Unanimously they say that good email addresses are the key to good email marketing, lead generation, client onboarding and retention. We listen, which is why we continue to thrive in an increasingly competitive online landscape in our market niche. I would like to offer a heartfelt thank you to all of our staff members, suppliers and our customers for their support and commitment over the years to deliver this fantastic result. Now in its 54th year, the Queens Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the country, with winning businesses able to use the esteemed Queens Awards emblem for the next five years. Email Hippo is one of 220 organisations nationally to be recognised with a prestigious Queens Award for Enterprise. Applications for Queens Awards for Enterprise 2021 open on the 1st May 2020. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/queens-awards-for-enterprise. Ends Press enquiries to Lisa OConnor, email lisa.oconnor@emailhippo.com, telephone 07802 344820. https://content.emailhippo.com/email-hippo-press-information/ For more information about MORE visit https://www.emailhippo.com Notes for editors: About Queens Awards for Enterprise The Queens Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the UK. The awards were first established in 1965 and since then over 7,000 companies have achieved a Queens Award. The awards celebrate the success of exciting and innovative businesses which are leading the way with pioneering products or services, delivering impressive social mobility programmes or showing their commitment to excellent sustainable development practices. This year 220 UK businesses have been recognised for their contribution to International Trade, Innovation, Sustainable Development and Promoting Opportunity (through Social Mobility). The Queens Awards for Enterprise 2020 include: 128 awards for International Trade 66 awards for Innovation 19 awards for Sustainable Development 7 awards for Promoting Opportunity (through Social Mobility) The Queens Awards for Enterprise 2021 will be open to applications from 1st May to 9th September 2020. Almost all UK businesses (including non profit) can apply, and the application process is free. About Email Hippo Limited http://www.emailhippo.com Email Hippo makes data better. It is a Software as a Service (SaaS) company based in the UK, providing cloud-based data services to organisations worldwide. The majority of customers are in the USA and Europe. Email Hippo processes data from all over the world, focusing on data that is contained within email addresses and website domains. Email Hippo data services help businesses reduce fraud, maintain their databases and carry out effective communications. The company is owned by Rowland OConnor, an advanced programmer, who pioneered the ability to validate bulk email addresses. Email Hippo is based in the south west of England and uses cloud-based infrastructure to ensure scalable levels of speed and uptime. How Email Hippo services work Email Hippo delivers software as a service via an API that is accessed by licence key. It also provides bulk email verification services where customers upload data to Email Hippos servers for checking. Users can then consume the data into their systems, whether it is for augmenting entities on databases (filling in the gaps) or taking specific pieces of information to compile data for specific purposes. Use cases include: building profiles of companies removing disposable email addresses from systems identifying attempted sign-ups from individuals who appear to be acting suspiciously A note about Email Hippo and data security Email Hippo is trusted by companies to process data securely. Its systems are accredited to the international quality standard ISO 27001. The company is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office. Full information about the company security and compliance can be found here: http://www.emailhippo.com/compliance PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-21 15:00:57 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 930 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 CORONA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / ADOMANI, Inc. (OTCQB:ADOM), a provider of new zero-emission purpose-built electric vehicles and drivetrain solutions, announced today that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to purchase 120 FireFly ESV vehicles from Massachusetts-based ev Transportation Services, Inc ("evTS"), beginning late summer 2020. According to the LOI, ADOMANI would serve as a distributor in California for current and future evTS all-electric vehicle offerings, including the FireFly ESV and other vehicles as they are developed. In addition, it is contemplated by the LOI that evTS will discuss entering into a contract with ADOMANI to perform final assembly, testing and warranty servicing of its vehicles.To meet the growing three-wheel vehicle demands in the U.S. market, evTS and ADOMANI are working together to market and sell evTS' FireFly ESV. As urban centers in the US grow, the need for more compact, agile, and non-polluting transportation increases. According to Marketwatch.com , the electric three-wheel market is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of over 17% through 2021.The FireFly ESV is an all-electric, zero-emission vehicle designed for a variety of essential services applications that include last-mile delivery, parking enforcement, security, shipping and delivery, and grounds maintenance. The three-wheel styled Firefly ESV provides a quiet operation, while eliminating harmful pollutants expelled by internal combustion engines. With the ability for the street legal FireFly ESV to reach speeds in excess of 50 mph and a range of 90+ miles on a single charge, with a load capacity of 1,100 lbs, the vehicle is ideal to meet the demand of a variety of essential services applications. "We are in a perfect spot for the FireFly ESV," stated Rick Eckert, COO for ADOMANI. "Our California facility is located close to urban centers and a variety of terrains where the vehicle can easily be put into play and utilized." ADOMANI opened their Corona, California assembly facility in February of this year for the specific purpose of assembling their current line of EV trucks and vans, as well as providing warranty and repair services for commercial EVs. "Our Corona assembly facility is already set-up to handle light production work. evTS' FireFly ESV is a perfect fit for our operations," said Jim Reynolds, President and CEO for ADOMANI. "Our goal is to become a commercial EV hub for assembly and service in Southern California," Reynolds continued. ADOMANI's Corona facility is approximately 10,600 square feet and with the adjacent lot, the total combined facility size is approximately 42,000 square feet."The agreement with ADOMANI represents a major milestone for evTS, and we are excited to explore a partnership with them. Our FireFly ESV all-electric lightweight commercial utility vehicle is a perfect complement to their existing lineup of EVs, and we expect to significantly expand our sales in California and surrounding states based on the quality and reach of ADOMANI's sales, service and support organization. Our vehicle is filling the critical and exploding need for essential service vehicles, particularly for last mile on-demand urban delivery vehicles," stated David Solomont, CEO for evTS.About ADOMANIADOMANI, Inc. is a provider of new zero-emission electric vehicles and is a provider of zero-emission electric drivetrain systems for integration in new medium to heavy-duty commercial fleet vehicles, as well as re-power conversion kits for the replacement of drivetrain systems in combustion-powered vehicles. ADOMANI's zero-emission electric vehicles are focused on reducing the total cost of vehicle ownership and help fleet operators unlock the benefits of green technology and address the challenges of traditional fuel price instability and local, state and federal environmental regulatory compliance. For more information, visit www.ADOMANIelectric.com About evTSev Transportation Services, Inc ("evTS") designs, develops and manufactures all-electric light weight commercial utility vehicles and fleet management solutions. Based in Boston, the company is currently focused on the essential services transportation market, which represents approximately 100,000 vehicles or roughly $2.5 billion annually. End user applications for the company's vehicles include, among others, parking enforcement, security, utility meter reading, parks & recreation, sanitation, airports, seaports, universities, warehouses, and local small package delivery. More information can be found at: http://evTaaS.com Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsStatements made in this press release that relate to future plans, events, financial results, prospects or performance are forward-looking statements. While they are based on the current expectations and beliefs of management, such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in this press release, including the risks and uncertainties disclosed in ADOMANI's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available online at www.sec.gov . All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements containing the words "planned," "expects," "believes," "strategy," "opportunity," "anticipates," "outlook," "designed" and similar words. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, ADOMANI undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, changed circumstances or unanticipated events.Investor Relations Contacts:ADOMANI, Inc.Kevin Kanning, VP Investor RelationsTelephone: (650) 533-7629Email: kevin.k@ADOMANIelectric.com Michael K. Menerey, Chief Financial OfficerTelephone: (951) 407-9860 ext. 205Email: mike.m@ADOMANIelectric.com ev Transportation Services, Inc.David Solomont, CEOTelephone: (617)800-0212Email: david@ evTaaS.com Renmark Financial Communications, Inc.John Boidman, CPIREmail : jboidman@ renmarkfinancial.com Telephone: The Union Home Ministry on Tuesday said the West Bengal government is not cooperating with the central teams visiting the state to assess the COVID-19 situation and are specifically restraining them from interacting with health workers and touring the affected areas. In a letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said it has been brought to the notice of the ministry that both the inter- ministerial central teams, visiting Kolkata and Jalpaiguri, have not been provided with the requisite cooperation by the state and local authorities. "In fact, they have been specifically restrained from making any visits, interacting with health professionals, and assessing the ground level situation. "This amounts to obstructing the implementation of the orders issued by the central government under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and equally binding directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," Bhalla said. The union home secretary said, therefore, the state government is directed to comply to make all necessary arrangements for the central teams to carry out such responsibilities as have been entrusted to them. Home Ministry Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava also raised the issue at the daily media briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country. She said the Centre has sent teams under Disaster Management Act to four states -- Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. While Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are extending full support, the government in West Bengal is not doing so, she added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The city of South Padre Island will continue to close the beach for recreational activity until May 4 after Cameron County officials extended its stay-in-place order on Monday. The beach can only be used for exercising purposes and all must be wearing some type of face covering while out in public, according to a news release from South Padre Island. READ MORE: The latest news and features about coronavirus in San Antonio While the shelter-in-place order is in effect, new reservations or check-ins to non-essential travelers will not be permitted. Any hotel or short term rental business that violates this order will be subject to a fine up to $1,000. Earlier this month on April 3, South Padre Island officials enforced a checkpoint for vehicles entering the island due to an increase in traffic and concerned citizens. In addition, extra cameras were added to monitor traffic safety and beach activity, according to a news release from the city. Unfortunately, there are hotels, vacation rental companies and individuals that have encouraged travelers to come to the Island and this is putting our community at risk, South Padre Island Mayor Patrick McNulty said in the release. People spread the virus and everyone should stay home unless absolutely necessary." RELATED: Couple vacationing in South Padre Island tested positive for COVID-19 Any visitor that chooses to return to their permanent residence will not be penalized for traveling home. The South Padre Island Police Department is working with the Texas Department of Transportation, the Cameron County District Attorneys office and other law enforcement agencies to establish the checkpoint. "This is not a time to be looking for loopholes in the orders," McNulty said in the release. "The faster we can work together, the faster this horrible time will be over. Anyone found to violate the shelter in place order will be subject to a fine up to $1,000 and/or up to 180 days in jail. Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: - The over 700 bags of dried fish were nabbed by a multi-agency security team at Mokowe Jetty - The consignment had just arrived from Mogadishu and Kismayu via Lamu's Kiunga border point en route to Mombasa - The destruction was presided over by Lamu County Commissioner Irungu Macharia and other top county security officials - Macharia gave a stern warning to businesspeople who have been sneaking into Somalia to conduct illegal trade - He also said they reached the decision to completely destroy the smuggled fish in order to serve as a lesson to other traders The government has destroyed a KSh 5 million consignment of dried fish which had been smuggled from Somalia. A multi-agency security team at Mokowe seized the consignment being ferried from Mogadishu and Kismayu via Lamu's Kiunga border point. READ ALSO: Queen Elizabeth cancels her 94th birthday celebrations over pandemic A multi-agency security team at Mokowe seized the consignment being ferried from Mogadishu and Kismayu via Lamu's Kiunga border point. Photo: Daily Nation Source: UGC READ ALSO: Majengo slums brothers modify motorcycle to supply free water, facemasks to street families Daily Nation reported the contraband weighed around 12-tonnes and was packed in sacks that totalled to 761. The public burning of the contraband fish took place at Hindi Grounds and was presided over by Lamu County Commissioner Irungu Macharia and other top security officials. "We decided to burn the fish because it was contraband. You know contraband is goods whose duty has not been paid," said Macharia. READ ALSO: God has a lot of work to do, he isn't here to look after idiots - President Museveni He further gave a stern warning to businesspeople who have been sneaking into Somalia to conduct illegal trade. According to him, they reached the decision to completely destroy the smuggled fish in order to serve as a lesson to other traders with similar intentions. Macharia stated the border between Kenya and Somalia was currently closed to cross-border trade. READ ALSO: DCI detectives declare Ruth Matete's house a crime scene after 6 hour grilling over husband's death Today were here destroying 761 bags of dried fish which translates to 12 tonnes...Weve seven suspects in custody. We will ensure they are prosecuted," he said. "Its an offence to conduct business in Somalia. The border is closed at the moment and those secretly engaging in cross-border trade are contravening the law," added Macharia. A number of Kenyans, however, did not welcome the decision by the government to burn the dried fish as they expressed their anger on various social media platforms. READ ALSO: Meru couple ignores family's advice to postpone wedding, share eggs instead of cake during ceremony "Why not distribute it to the needy...burning of food is an abomination in the African culture," on netizen stated. "Instead of destroying all those bags, they should have been tested and checked if they are fit for human consumption, during this COVID-19, they could have saved one or two families," another added. 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 Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Monday that the coronavirus crisis will impact every facet of city governance and require furloughs of city workers, though he declined to say how many employees would be forced to take unpaid leave. Even before U.S. oil reached a lowpoint of minus-$40 a barrel Monday, city officials were preparing for Houstons tightest budget ever, thanks to a precipitous drop in sales tax revenue and an already sharp plummet in oil prices. The fresh collapse of the oil market prompted Turner for the first time to acknowledge that city employees would be furloughed, and the city would defer a number of payments, for the fiscal year that begins in July. Its not any more unique than what other cities are facing across the country. But its real in the city of Houston, Turner said. Im not trying to hide it. These are the realities. This will be the worst budget that the city will deal with in its history. Turner declined to provide further details about the scale of the furloughs or what level of budget cuts he expects city departments to undergo. He did say cadet classes would be deferred due to the economic crisis but did not specify whether he was referring to fire cadets, police cadets or both. Now Playing: 'COVID-19 in 60': Houston coronavirus news in a minute Video: Houston Chronicle Houston Controller Chris Brown said the citys budget situation likely will prove equal to or worse than the Great Recession in the late 2000s. In the fiscal year that began in July 2011, then-mayor Annise Parker laid off 764 city employees to close a $100 million budget gap. The citys sales tax revenue from March the first month in which businesses were hampered by coronavirus-related closures will become available in early May. Without those numbers, the extent of the citys financial plight remains largely unclear, Brown said. In the fiscal year that ended in June 2019, the city collected $692 million in sales tax revenue, by far the largest source of revenue for the general fund aside from property taxes. City officials budgeted for the current fiscal year assuming the city would take in a similar amount of sales tax this year, making up about a quarter of the revenue for the general fund, which covers most city services such as trash collection and public safety. We could see a substantial downturn not only from the coronavirus and the lack of people retail shopping and going to restaurants, but also on the business-to-business side from the downturn in oil, Brown said. So, it is a double whammy situation. They talk about the perfect storm, and this is whats happening in Houston. Turner said he has pushed Houstons congressional delegation on the need for federal aid to rescue local governments facing dire financial situations. He said he participated in a recent conference call with Houston-area congressional leaders, including Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, during which Turner stressed that the city will see significant impacts without federal funding. The Trump administration and congressional leaders on Monday still were negotiating details of another aid package to put more money into a loan program for small businesses. Democrats have sought to include funding for cities and states in the bill, though the Washington Post reported Sunday that the local government money may get left out of the final deal. jasper.scherer@chron.com The machine tools market is poised to grow by USD 19.02 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 4% during the forecast period. Request free sample pages This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005669/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Machine Tools Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Read the 155-page report with TOC on "Machine Tools Market Analysis Report by End-user (automotive, industrial machinery, precision engineering, transportation, and others) and Geographic Landscape (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America), and the Segment Forecasts, 2020-2024". https://www.technavio.com/report/global-machine-tools-market-industry-analysis The market is driven by the demand for CNC machines. In addition, the rising adoption of integrated digital solutions in machine tools is anticipated to boost the growth of the machine tools market. CNC machines are preferred over conventional machine tools because they boost the efficiency of production and minimize the cost of manufacturing by performing multiple operations within a short time. For instance, a 6-axis CNC milling machine which is used for machining cast iron, steel, aluminum, and other materials minimizes production time of products in the automotive and aerospace sectors by 75%. In addition, modern manufacturers are moving toward additive manufacturing, connected factories, and smart machining, which is driving the demand for CNC-based lathes, grinding machines, laser machines, and milling machines in their metalworking facilities. Hi-tech industries such as aerospace and automotive, rely on CNC machines as they require products with high precision. Thus, the growing demand for CNC machines is expected to drive market growth during the forecast period. Buy 1 Technavio report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 Technavio reports and get the third for free. View market snapshot before purchasing Major Five Machine Tools Companies: 600 Group Plc 600 Group Plc is headquartered in the UK and operates the business under various segments such as Machine Tools and Precision Engineered Components and Industrial Laser Systems. The company offers Master VS 3250 and Typhoon L Series CNC Turning Centres. AMADA HOLDINGS Co. Ltd. AMADA HOLDINGS Co. Ltd. is headquartered in Japan and offers products through the following business units: Metalworking Machinery and Metal Machine Tools. The company offers an advanced integrated sheet metal fabrication machine, LASBEND-AJ. DMG MORI Co. Ltd. DMG MORI Co. Ltd. is headquartered in Japan and operates under various business segments, namely Machine Tools and Industrial Services. The company offers a large high-precision lathe, NLX 6000 1000 for large-diameter shafts. Doosan Corp. Doosan Corp. is headquartered in South Korea (Republic of Korea) and offers products through the following business segments: Electro-Materials BG, Mottrol BG, Industrial Vehicle BG, Information and Communication BU, DHC, DI, DEC, DE, and Others. The company offers DNM Series and LYNX 2100 Series. Falcon Machine Tools Co. Ltd. Falcon Machine Tools Co. Ltd. is headquartered in Taiwan and offers products through the following business segments: Grinding Machine, Milling Machine, Turning Machine, and Other. The company offers CNC Surface Grinder (SMART-III series) and 5-axis Vertical Machining Center. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Machine Tools Market End-user Outlook (Revenue, USD bn, 2020-2024) Automotive Industrial machinery Precision engineering Transportation Others Machine Tools Market Geographic Landscape Outlook (Revenue, USD bn, 2020-2024) APAC Europe MEA North America South America Key leading countries Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Request a free sample report About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005669/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ In order to understand the heart, lets first look at it physiologically. This central muscle forms in humans around the third week of pregnancynearly the beginning of our lives. With each thrust or thump of the heart, blood courses throughout the body. The heart is a human engine of sorts, dispersing life flow from that first month after conception until the moment we breathe our last breath. It sends blood throughout the body in an amazingly organized mannerimpacting even the tips of our toes and fingers. But theres more to the heart. A spiritual side awaits too. Its just as important, maybe more so. Take a look at Romans 10:9. The World English Bible version, says this: [T]hat if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. The heart sits central to our salvation. Belief resides there. A heart hardened toward Jesus refuses Him as Savior of the world, disbelieving God raised Him from the dead as a sacrifice for our sins. This calloused condition can keep a person from believing in Christ. Thats huge because eternity in heaven rests on that belief. But there are other concerns as well. Keep reading. What Does the Bible Say about Hardened Hearts? In the heart, we grasp the spiritual truths our loving Father desires to share with us. And when we dwell with true understanding, its goodvery good! Hardened hearts, however, equate to walking around with both our eyes and ears closed. Imagine strolling in this manner near a construction site, a cliff, or in a yard where a dog has dug holes. Theres a good chance wed land with a twisted ankle or even life-threatening injuries. Talk about peril! Matthew 13:14-15, the World English Bible version, helps us understand. It says, In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, 'By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive: For this people's heart has grown callous, Their ears are dull of hearing, Their eyes they have closed; Or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their heart, And should turn again; And I would heal them. Unbelievers, however, arent the only ones who carry hardened hearts. Believers remain at risk as well. The disciples, men who touched, saw, and spoke with Jesus daily, provide an example. Check out Mark 8:17 to read more about their situation. Honestly, their story brings relief. If the disciples walked this dusty earth alongside Jesusin person!yet struggled with heart issues, we shouldnt feel shame for falling prey, too. Instead, we can keep our eyes on the Lord, as they did, and find our way past this obstacle of darkness. Photo credit: GettyImages/Antonistock 7 Signs of a Hardened Heart: For many Americans in the agricultural sector, like Monte Peterson, a corn and soybean farmer in North Dakota, the last few years have been tough. A trade war with China isolated farmers from one of their biggest markets, a growing debt crunch strained many of their budgets, and extreme weather that often seemed to alternate between flooding and drought destroyed harvests, one after the other. A few months ago, Petersons prospects seemed finally to be looking up. With planting season approaching and a trade deal between the U.S. and China newly signed, he and other farmers were preparing for significant new demand. It looked like somehow the corner had turned, says Peterson. But the coronavirus pandemic decimated those hopes almost overnight. With stay-at-home orders in place, demand for nearly every agricultural product has collapsed. Restaurants have stopped buying food, purchases of cotton for consumer goods has slowed, and low oil prices have reduced demand for ethanol, hurting corn planters. Some farmers have dumped their product, and others have held off on harvesting it in the first place. Farmer advocacy groups, meanwhile, are warning that American family farms maybe teetering on the brink of collapse. Youre dealing with, you know, three, four or five years of terrible prices, then we get a huge pandemic like this, says Patty Edelburg, vice president of the National Farmers Union. Were going to see a lot more family-size farms go out of business. Farmers, who are often held up as the iconic American figure, have been on the frontlines of a host of broader policy trends in recent years. While many city-dwelling Americans have been largely unaffected by Trumps trade war, removed from a volatile energy market, and isolated from the extreme weather driven by climate change, farmers have born the brunt of all three, watching as their finances were repeatedly battered. The coronavirus pandemic is just the latest problem to disproportionately affect this population. Depending on the length and depth of the crisis, this pandemicand the concurrent recessionmay fundamentally reshape the landscape for independent agricultural producers. Story continues State and federal leaders decision to shut down much of the U.S. economy in mid-March to prevent the spread of coronavirus has represented a key challenge for American farmers. USDA predicted earlier this month that demand for red meat, poultry, soybeans, corn, wheat and cotton would all sink, while some fruit and vegetable farmers have already halted crop harvests because the product has nowhere to go. Dairy farmers have begun dumping milk. Restaurants are buying only a fraction of the food products they purchased just a few months ago, and discretionary consumer spending has dried up, reducing demand for cotton clothes. Oil usage has also plummeted, killing the market corn-based ethanol. Petersons hopes for selling all those soybeans to China the first country to be hit hard by the virus all the sudden faced a major roadblock as the countrys economy slowed. Prices for crops this year are expected to drop by as much as 10% and prices of livestock by as much as 12% as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri. The net income for farmers is expected to decline $20 billion. In the past month, its become probably one of the worst years in history for agriculture, says Edelburg. The Trump administration has stepped in to help with $19 billion in funding, relying on a combination of Congressional stimulus and other pre-existing programs and funds. The move includes payments to affected farmers as well as the direct purchase of food products to distribute to food banks to help the millions of unemployed Americans. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters at the White House Friday that the program would help farmers make it through a period of unprecedented losses, but also acknowledged that the funding would not be enough to offset the scale of the damage. Farmers are seeing prices in their market supply chain affected by the virus like they never could have expected, Perdue said on a call for journalists after his White House appearance. Farmers have faced financial hardship before. For decades, they have dealt with volatile prices, fluctuating weather and swings in government policy that left them vulnerable. As a result, many face a debt crunch that experts say threatens the viability of American family farms. President Trumps tenure has offered little reprieve from the challenges. Most significantly, his trade war with China eroded business with the U.S.s largest goods trading partner. China agreed to ramp up its purchase of billions of dollars of U.S. agricultural products in January as part of a trade deal with the Trump administration, but the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has raised questions about whether it will follow through on the commitment. Unlike previous financial crunches for farmers, this time those economic concerns are coupled with health worries. The coronavirus pandemic struck American coastal cities first, but the virus is increasingly spreading in the heartland, including in big agricultural states like Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. Farmers have an advantage in avoiding the virus given that rural population density is low, making for easy social distancing, but some fear the virus will hit agricultural communities hard when it comes. The average farmer is older than the average American 57.5 compared to 38 and rural communities have less access than their urban counterparts to health care facilities and personnel. Nearly 20% of Americans live in rural communities, but less than 10% of American doctors work there, according to a report from the American Hospital Association. Research from the University of Minnesotas Rural Health Research Center has also shown that while rural residents are more likely than their urban counterparts to suffer from certain respiratory problems, they are less likely to have quick access to a hospital with potentially life-saving ventilators. The economic times are what they are, and we cant deny those, says Matt Carstens, CEO of Landus, a farmer cooperative in Iowa. But we have to protect our farmer-owners. Illness for farmers is an issue not just for the individuals and families impacted. There are more than 2 million family farms in the U.S. that depend on family members to keep the business running, and illness in the family can wipe out a planting season. Its important for us to stay healthy, to remain healthy, says Stephanie Ballantine, a row-crop farmer in Odebolt, Iowa. We rely on such a small number of people. Peterson says he and his wife have largely locked down on the farm in recent weeks, with his wife only leaving to buy groceries and the pair leaving for church on Easter Sunday. Instead of packing the pews, they stayed in their car in the church parking lot and watched the pastor deliver his sermon on a podium in the distance. The audio streamed from his car radio. Whats top of mind for me is the same with everyone, Peterson says. You cant help but think about your personal safety and the safety of your family. An employee of the clothing brand "El Chapo 701," owned by Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman, daughter of the convicted drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, hands out a box with food, face masks and hand sanitizers to an elderly woman as part of a campaign to help cash-strapped elderly people during the COVID-19 disease outbreak, in Guadalajara, Mexico, April 16, 2020. (Fernando Carranza/Reuters File) Mexican President Tells Gangs to Stop Donating Food, End Crime Instead MEXICO CITYMexicos president chastised drug gangs on Monday, telling them to end violence instead of distributing food, after several reports across the country in recent days showed armed narcos handing out care packages stamped with cartel logos. Imploring criminals to behave better, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared that the care packages filled with basic foodstuffs and cleaning supplies are not helpful. Mexicos President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, March 17, 2020. (Henry Romero/Reuters-File) These criminal organizations that have been distributing the packages, this isnt helpful. What helps is them stopping their bad deeds, he told reporters at a news conference. The leftist president, who has advocated a less confrontational approach than his predecessors to taming raging cartel violence, said gang members should refrain from harming others and instead think of the suffering they cause to their own families and the mothers of their victims. Mexico notched a homicide record of 34,582 dead during Lopez Obradors first full year in office in 2019, as the president advocated for more social spending to address the root causes of crime. Last week, reports first circulated of several Mexican cartels deploying members to dole out aid packages to help cash-strapped residents ride out the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus pandemic. A daughter of jailed drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman was among those spotted handing out the packages stamped with her own companys El Chapo 701 logo, which includes the image of her infamous father. The boxes including cooking oil, rice, sugar, and other items were distributed in Guadalajara, Mexicos second-biggest city. Beyond the Guzman-linked Sinaloa Cartel, other gangs have similarly courted publicity with care packages for mostly poor residents, including the Jalisco New Generation and Los Durango cartels. Photos posted on social media on Monday showed heavily armed members from both handing out packages including toilet paper and shampoo. Lopez Obrador, meanwhile, has come under sharp criticism for not advocating more financial support for companies or jobless workers. Over the past month, the countrys economy has dramatically slowed due to CCP virus containment measures. To date, there are more than 8,000 confirmed coronavirus cases as well as nearly 700 deaths attributed to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. By Epoch Times Web staff with contribution from Reuters staff, Raul Cortes Fernandez and Daina Beth Soloman People watch a television news broadcast showing file footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, on April 14, 2020. (Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images) US Officials Keeping Close Watch on North Korea Amid Reports on Kim U.S. officials are tracking whats happening in North Korea but dont know the current situation with Chairman Kim Jong Un, a top official said Tuesday. American officials are watching the reports closely about Kim, who is rumored to be struggling after undergoing surgery, national security adviser Robert OBrien told reporters outside the White House. Its too early to talk about because we just dont know what condition chairman Kim is in and well have to see how it plays out, he said, responding to a question about who would succeed North Koreas leader. The basic assumption is it would go to the next of kin, given Kim is the third member of his family to control North Korea. Kims sister, Kim Yo Jong, is considered the most likely successor. OBrien suggested little is known about Kims situation because of the lack of reporters there but said officials are keeping a close eye on it. National security adviser Robert OBrien, right, speaks while Attorney General William Barr listens during the daily briefing on the CCP virus in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington on April 1, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) The adviser likened top officials like Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Vice President Mike Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as watchmen on a tower who constantly keep watch on Americas adversaries to make sure the American people stay safe as we battle this coronavirus here at home. Thats true whether its North Korea or Iran or Venezuela or any other country, he added. President Donald Trump was in touch with Kim in the somewhat recent past, OBrien disclosed. Reports sourced to anonymous sources and blared on some American news media claimed Kim is close to death following surgery but the outlets later walked back the claims. In one case, MSNBC anchor Katy Tur said that Kim is brain dead, citing two unnamed U.S. officials. She later deleted her Twitter post, writing, Ive deleted that last tweet out of an abundance of caution. Waiting on more info. Apologies. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the North Korean side of the border at the village of Panmunjom in Demilitarized Zone, on June 30, 2019. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo) South Korea said Tuesday no unusual activity was detected in its reclusive neighbor. We have no information to confirm regarding rumors about Chairman Kim Jong Uns health issue that have been reported by some media outlets. Also, no unusual developments have been detected inside North Korea, Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said in a statement. Japanese officials said theyre monitoring the situation. Scientists from a lab at the Hanoi University of Sciences and Technology are working to ensure fruit that can't be exported amid the COVID-19 pandemic doesn't go to waste. The boffins have used equipment they call Juice EVAporation Technology (JEVA) to process fruits like watermelon and dragon fruit that cannot be preserved for a long time. Using JEVA is one of the various ways to find new markets for Vietnamese fruit which can't be sold quickly due to the impacts of the pandemic, according to Assoc. Prof Nguyen Minh Tan, Director of the Institute for Research and Development of Natural Compounds Applications, of the university. The research group working on processing watermelon juice. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Tung Tan said in 2016, scientists at the institute succeeded in condensing fruit juice combining JEVA membrane processing. Fruit processing technology helps solve problems for farmers caused by abundant crops while prices drop, she told Viet Nam News. JEVA technology helps enterprises gather fruits of varying quality levels to process into concentrate for export. "The technology helps concentrate fresh fruit juice that normally cannot be preserved for a long time into concentrates with a longer expiry date, she said. The institute recently processed 750kg of watermelon into watermelon concentrate as an experiment in the past few weeks when watermelon set for export to China was stuck in the country as the northern border was de facto shut. Tan explained that the membrane integrated JEVA technology evaporates at a moderate temperature and ambient pressure, making it highly suitable for the processing of heat-sensitive items like fruit juices. The technology brings a high-quality product that retains the natural flavour of the fresh juice and achieving very high dry matter (above 70 Brix), she said. Yet the most remarkable thing is that JEVA technology uses no chemicals and has a lower energy demand than the conventional thermal evaporation, she noted. In addition to the main product, the concentrate, JEVA technology allows us to obtain a side product: the condensate with natural juice flavour, from which a kind of bottled water can be produced. Thus, JEVA can be considered a kind of zero-waste-technology. Hence, the operation of the equipment system does not cause harm to the environment. The system is light, making it easy to carry from one place to others. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Tung One of the highlights of JEVA technology is that the processing line is quite small so can be easily moved and does not require comprehensive technical infrastructure to operate. The final concentrate can be preserved at room temperature for a long time without any preservatives, according to the scientist. Final condense fruit juice product. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Tung With 3-4 kg of fresh watermelon, a JEVA production line can produce 100ml of condensed juice that can be preserved for a year. Effective technology Senior student Dang Thi Hoa, part of Tans research team, shares the same desire to support farmers. I was born into a farmer family so I know how hard a farmer's life is, Hoa said. I want to learn as much as I can from Prof Tan and other scientists here to create technology that can remove farmers burdens. Hoa said she was impressed with Prof Tans professional and effective working style. She is a famed scientist in the institute, who has inspired a lot of people including me, Hoa said. She is busy all the time, she moves all day round like a bee full of energy. Tan controls the JEVA system at her lab. VNS Photo Le Huong Tan has trained her students to process fruit juice. Im freer now, my students are fluent in the process, Tan said. I can supervise them from afar through the internet by following the statistics they record. Tan said her first research focus was on lychee processing for her post-doctoral research in Austria when her supervisor suggested she research in three fields, namely medicine, informatics and agricultural products. I thought of doing research on membrane technology, she said. I thought first of lychee, which is available on a mass scale in its season and the price drops at that peak time. There had hardly been any lychee juice produced, only lychee canned with sugar solution for export. So why not lychee juice for the off-season period? she said. In 2013, her team began researching lychee. She also extended the application of JEVA technology with honey, dragon fruits, watermelon, grapefruit, pomelo, orange, mandarin, peach, sugarcane, guava, and Nipa palm. I really find there is a close relationship between scientists and society, she said. I do research and develop technologies for dealing with hot issues and demands in real life, not to gain medals for souvenirs, she said. Tan said her JEVA production line was made with the help of many people, not by herself. The final result is high-quality products meeting social demands, she said. Besides doing research at the lab and teaching classes, Tan said she likes being active in German alumni networks (she studied for her PhD in Germany), cooking and being a friend to her children. She's also a passionate advocate for women in science. I dont think we should distinguish mens and womens strength in doing scientific research, she said. Im proud to be a woman and do not want to be prioritised because I'm a woman, she said. Then people would look down on women, who do not like that, for sure." Tan sets a good example for her students to follow. VNS Photo Le Huong Tan said women have their own strengths in any profession. Women have flexibility in dealing with problems, she said. Above all though, Tan said she wanted to be a helpful person for society and always wants to have people calling her to ask: Can you help us to deal with this problem? VNS by Le Huong Quality management and traceability to increase fruit exports Vietnams fruit export value in 2018 reached nearly US$4 billion, with fruits sent to big markets like the US, Europe and Japan. Small Business Administration J. Scott Applewhite/AP The Small Business Administration has told nearly 8,000 businesses that their personal information was exposed on its website, a representative confirmed to Business Insider. The leak affected businesses that submitted economic injury disaster loan applications through the SBA's site. A bug was mistakenly showing applicants' personal information, including Social Security numbers and addresses, to other applicants who used the portal. The SBA said that it addressed the issue and relaunched the portal, adding that affected businesses were offered a year of free credit monitoring. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A bug in a federal government website exposed the personal information of thousands of small-business owners applying for economic injury disaster loans in March. A representative for the Small Business Administration confirmed the leak to Business Insider, saying that a total of 7,913 applicants' information could have been exposed. Businesses have applied for disaster loans in large numbers as they feel the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Small-business owners in all 50 states are eligible for $10,000 advances on the loans as part of the COVID-19 relief package enacted last month. "Personal identifiable information of a limited number of Economic Injury Disaster Loan applicants was potentially exposed to other applicants on SBA's loan application site. We immediately disabled the impacted portion of the website, addressed the issue, and relaunched the application portal," the SBA representative told Business Insider. The SBA has notified applicants of the exposure, CNBC first reported on Tuesday. The data exposure affects only applicants for economic injury disaster loans, not Paycheck Protection Program loans, the representative said. In early April, business owners told CBS News that when they tried to apply for the loans, they noticed other businesses' information including Social Security numbers, emails, phone numbers, and addresses already filled in on the registration page. The SBA confirmed the leaks at the time. The SBA has addressed the issue, relaunched the portal, and offered people who might have been affected one year of free credit monitoring, the representative said. Read the original article on Business Insider Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday extended the "circuit breaker" period until June 1 to control the spread of the deadly coronavirus and assured that his government will take full care of foreign workers, including Indian nationals. IMAGE: Reflection of a delivery man can be seen on the window of a fast food restaurant with its dining area cordoned off on the day a 'circuit breaker' takes effect in Singapore. The Singapore government will close all schools and most workplaces and limit social interactions and movement outside homes to stem the spike in local coronavirus cases. Photograph: Ore Huiying/Getty Images In a televised address to the nation, Singapore Prime Minister Lee said the government was committed to do its "utmost" to keep the deadly virus at bay. "We will extend the circuit breaker for four more weeks, i.e. until June 1," said Lee while giving an update on the COVID-19 and the rising number of cases among foreign workers living in dormitories. Singapore reported 1,111 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, a majority of them foreign workers living in dormitories. A total of 9,125 people have been infected in the country. Noting that the businesses and workers would be hurt by the extension, the prime minister said, "But I hope you understand that this short-term pain is to stamp out the virus, protect the health and safety of our loved ones, and allow us to revive our economy." "The government will continue to help our businesses and workers cope during the extended circuit breaker period. We will provide the same level of support to our workers and businesses as we are doing now," he said. Lee last addressed the nation on April 3 to announce the "circuit breaker" measures that kicked in four days later, forcing people to keep their distance from one another in an effort to limit the virus' spread. Since then, the number of new cases reported in the wider community has gone down, but in foreign worker dormitories, cases have shot up over the past week as a result of crowded living conditions and active testing for the virus. Highlighting the government's aggressive testing of foreign workers in dormitories, Lee said that almost all the migrant workers infected had only mild symptoms. "This is not surprising as they are generally young, and thus much less likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19," he said. Medical resources are being stepped up to protect the health of migrant workers, Lee said. "We will also pay special attention to the older workers, who are more vulnerable. We are pre-emptively moving them to a separate dorm, where they can be monitored more closely," he said. Lee also emphasised that his government will take care of the foreign workers just as it cared for Singaporeans. "We will care for you, just like we care for Singaporeans. We will look after your health, your welfare and your livelihood. We will work with your employers to make sure that you get paid, and you can send money home, and we will help you stay in touch with friends and family," he said. The holy month of Ramzan begins in a few days' time and arrangements will be made for Muslim migrant workers, he said. "When Eid comes next month, we will celebrate with our Muslim friends, just as we celebrated the New Year with our Indian friends last week. This is our duty and responsibility to you, and your families," Lee said. Apart from the workers living in dorms, two other groups of migrant workers are being monitored closely. Workers who live in shophouses, private housing, or HDB flats and workers in essential services, this group is still working during the circuit breaker, helping to keep Singapore going, Lee noted. Some are cleaning housing estates and or hawker centres while others are maintaining key infrastructure like our broadband networks. These essential workers are being housed separately. They are being being tested to make sure that they are healthy, and to pick up any infections early, he said, adding that the clusters in the dorms have remained largely contained, and have not spread to the wider community. Singapore is now the worst-hit country in Southeast Asia, surpassing coronavirus cases in Indonesia and the Philippines. The country has introduced measures such as closing of schools and non-essential businesses to control the spread of COVID-19. UWs Ben Markley and His Big Band Raise Money During Pandemic for Struggling Artists UW jazz studies instructor Ben Markley, second row left, on piano, assembled the 16-piece Ben Markley Big Band to produce the music video Mon Back. The video is helping Markley raise money for Wyoming musicians and others across the nation who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Ben Markley Photo) This is the time of year when University of Wyoming jazz studies instructor Ben Markley begins to think about upcoming sessions with his group or solo events around the region -- a chance to play in front of intimate, live audiences. But, as with everything else, the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has put a screeching halt to all social gatherings. And, it really has hit Markley, as an artist, hard. For the first two weeks of the pandemic, I was depressed. I felt like I didn't have a lot of options to express myself artistically, he says. And, even more so, I was so sad for all of my artist friends all over the country who were out of work with no relief in sight. Markley has decided to do something to not only help his own mental health, but also to give back to the artistic community. Recently, Markley, a jazz pianist, took one of his original tunes, Mon Back, from a previous recording from his latest album, Slow Play, that was intended for his quartet. He adapted Mon Back -- abbreviated for Come on Back -- and arranged the tune for a big-band instrumentation featuring 16 different musicians from across the nation. That inspiration led the Ben Markley Big Band to play different instruments on Markleys original tune -- all recorded from the band members home bases. The compilation was then turned into a YouTube video, showcasing all 16 musicians in unison playing the catchy piece. Their performance can be found on YouTube here. I saw a couple of groups do something similar to this, and I started the process to put this all together, says Markley, UW Department of Music jazz studies director. His efforts helped bring back much-needed camaraderie with his fellow musicians but, more important for Markley, provided a way to help artists in need during the pandemic. He has selected two organizations to help artists at www.artistrelief.org, for national musicians, and for the Wyoming Arts Alliance at www.wyomingarts.org/donate-to-the-individual-artist-covid-19-support-grant/. Participants can apply for grants with money raised through individual pledges. Markley is donating 100 percent of the proceeds from his digital album sales from his personal website at www.benmarkleymusic.com. Ben Markley The seven-minute Mon Back resonates what is happening in todays world, a song of hope as the United States and the world try to overcome the pandemic in an attempt for ordinary everyday life. The tune asks for music, reason, trust, health, safety, love, jobs, sports, summer and relief to come back -- and offers hope for leadership, money for those in need and belief that people will be joined together once again. I just wanted to create something that puts some good in the world and raises awareness and funds for artists who need it, Markley says. Markley has branched out to the big-band sound and formed his own group five years ago, noting legendary musicians such as Count Basie and Thad Jones as two of his biggest influences. At UW, he teaches jazz improvisation, jazz combo, jazz ensemble, applied lessons and jazz history. He plays regularly along the Front Range and weekly at Ace Gillett's in Fort Collins, Colo. I am a big believer in a team, and a big band is a great representation of everyone working together, doing their job to create something, he says. The artists he reached out to for the recording of Mon Back are all his friends -- musicians whom he has met at various stages in his career. I've played music with all of them. Some I've worked with at other institutions, and there also are a couple I went to school with several years ago, he says. During this time of uncertainty around the world, Markley is joining others who want to help. We all know it's true that music and all art sustain, fulfill and inspire us during good times and bad, he says. It is important that we remember to support artists who are alive and creating this work -- especially in times of need. Since I have lived in a lot of places, I wanted to help the place I call home now as well as the entire nation. Members of the Ben Markley Big Band are Clint Ashlock, Kansas City, Kan., artistic director of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra; Adam Bartzcak and Shane Endsley, both from Denver, Colo., and Sam Williams, Boulder, Colo., all independent artists and adjunct instructors at Metro State; Rob Borger, Fort Collins, Colo., high school band teacher; Melissa Gardiner, Syracuse, N.Y., independent artist; and Jon Gauer, Denver, Colo., independent artist. Other members are Evan Gregor, John Lake and Chris Smith, New York City independent artists; Dan Jonas, Ogden, Utah, director of jazz studies at Weber State University; Serafin Sanchez, Denver, Colo., independent artist; Scott Turpen, UW Department of Music chair; and Peter Sommer, professor of saxophone, and Wil Swindler, Thornton, Colo., director of jazz studies, both at Colorado State University. In reaction to Joan Walshs article in the Nation, The Troublesome Tara Reade Story[1], a Naked Capitalism Reader, who was once a prosecutor, wrote this: I have cancelled my recent subscription to The Nation. Joan Walshs misogynist attack on Tara Reade has no place in a left publication in the 21st Century. To assert that there is no evidence of Ms. Reades allegation against Mr. Biden denies Ms. Reades agency as a human being and revives Victorian tropes that a man must deposit his evidence inside a womans body the property of another man before a sexual assault can have taken place. Even that monster Donald Trumps assertion that theyll let you grab them by the pussy presumes female agency and consent. I have been a lawyer for over 35 years. A womans words alone constitute evidence. Walsh then drags out the trope that a woman sharing more detail over time is changing her story. Ms. Reades reluctance to share details is understandable in light of how people like Mr. Biden himself publicly treated Anita Hill, and the recent public abuse of Christine Blasley Ford. Until Super Tuesday many, myself included, believed that Mr. Bidens candidacy was going down in flames. Why drag oneself and ones family through the mud? Walsh then resorts to the tired Putin! meme. Russiagate was an abject failure politically. Mccarthyism also failed 65 years before Russiagate and has no place in contemporary political discourse. I refuse to support a publication that publishes this sort of scurrilous nonsense. [A Naked Capitalism Reader] The Naked Capitalism reader amplifies in correspondence: One other point: Walshs central construction no evidence that he did; no evidence that he did not, is false. Tara Reades statement is direct evidence that he did. A hearsay denial by factotum and proxy who claim no personal knowledge of the incident is not evidence. Thus, there is no evidence that he did not. Let Biden come forward and personally articulate his denial. Until he does this, Walsh is engaging in a complete fallacy. And further amplifies: Katie Halper did a really good job interviewing Tara Reade. Tara comes off as rather guileless, which causes the arc of her choices about to whom and when to make her disclosures ring absolutely true to me as a former prosecutor who has reviewed literally dozens, if not scores, of allegations of sexual assault. Its interesting to me how the social standing of the perpetrator and politics warp peoples woke-ness. One of my more controversial trials was of a Palo Alto gang rape of an intoxicated teen that became the cover story of the San Jose Mercury News Sunday magazine back in 2000. I also had quite a bit of insider knowledge of the notorious Stanford swimmer case which was prosecuted by my office not long before I retired at the end of 2016. There was quite an interesting spectrum of opinion in liberal Palo Alto/Stanford about both of those cases which became far more controversial than they should have been in a woke culture. Yep. Thanks to our Naked Capitalism Reader for this commentary. NOTES [1] See Ryan Grim, The Intercept, Times Up Said It Could Not Fund A #Metoo Allegation Against Joe Biden, Citing Its Nonprofit Status and His Presidential Run, The Katie Halper Show, I wanted to be a senator; I didnt want to sleep with one, Current Affairs, Tara Reade Tells Her Story, and Current Affairs, Evaluating Tara Reades Allegation Against Joe Biden. The deaths of multiple leaders from COVID-19 have taken a massive toll on the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the largest black Pentecostal denomination in America. In an article by The Washington Post, various reports of at least a dozen to up to 30 bishops and prominent clergy have died from COVID-19 in COGIC prominent states including Michigan, New York, and Mississippi. Prominent COGIC leaders who died include First Assistant Presiding Bishop Phillip A. Brooks of Detroit, who was No. 2 in the COGIC; Mississippi Bishop Timothy Scott, who served the denomination for almost 50 years; and two Michigan bishops, Robert E. Smith Sr. and Robert L. Harris. Health officials report that possible causes of the outbreak in the COGIC were from conferences and funerals in the denomination. For instance, large annual gatherings in February and March are held with COGIC representatives from more than 200 jurisdictions or regions, while Workers Meetings consist of clergy, lay leaders and church staff. Some of the meetings include the Historical Louisiana First Jurisdiction meeting in Shreveport, La., and the Kansas East Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Ministers and Workers Conference in Kansas City, both held in mid-March. The outbreaks have scarred the black community and the COGIC as they are more susceptible to the virus. This is a moment of real crisis for them, said Anthea Butler, a University of Pennsylvania religious studies scholar who wrote a book on the COGIC. It will upend the axis of leadership in a way they may need to think about, including how do we put in younger people. This will change the ecosystem of black church life, she noted. Its showing the inequities of health disparities and economic disparities in the black community. Pentecostal historian and COGIC member David Daniels shared his personal pain over the loss of the COGIC leaders, noting that he knew at least 12 bishops who died from the virus. Its more on the personal part, thats where the pain is, said Daniels. He said the denomination has some 300 bishops and is used to funerals for major leaders that bring thousands of attendees. The impact of not being able to meet is extraordinary. On Thursday, presiding COGIC Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr. stressed church closures and restrictions as he wanted to convey the grave seriousness of COVID-19. Id like to take this opportunity to unequivocally state that all Church of God in Christ local, district, state and international gatherings should absolutely cease, he said in a three-minute video. In a March 25 statement, Blake acknowledged COVID-19s impact on the denomination. It is our unhappy duty to report that we have now experienced losses of both leaders and laity within our denominational body due to the coronavirus or other illnesses, he wrote. Numerous saints are critically ill and in dire need of spiritual and medical interventions. Fervent prayer is our biblical response to any and all societal challenges. He called for a day of fasting and prayer on March 27 to intercede on behalf of all nations and people for Heavens help in mitigating this dreaded disease. The COGIC is a Pentecostal denomination founded in the late 1800s, with more than 6 million members. Pentecostalism is usually associated with speaking in tongues and healing. In the COGIC, purity and holiness are stressed which begets modesty and clean living. Despite vast membership, COGIC churches are smaller in size than the average U.S. church, experts say. Pew Research reports that 9 percent of Americans identify with the COGIC and adhere to historically black Protestantism. Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Dragana991 Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer. He is also the co-hosts of the For Your Soul podcast, which seeks to equip the church with biblical truth and sound doctrine. Visit his blog Blessed Are The Forgiven. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) - Muntinlupa City denounced the transfer of 18 coronavirus disease-positive inmates from the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong to the New Bilibid Prison (NBP). City Public Information Officer Tez Navarro said the local government was not given a heads up on the transfer. The mayor was also surprised, buong maghapon may plano pala ilipat (there was already plan to transfer them), nobody called us of what theyre doing. The point of the mayor is yung (the) inmates will be added to our data na 126. NBP is under the jurisdiction of Muntinlupa, and the mayor is Mayor Fresnedi, said Navarro. Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Spokesperson Col. Gabriel Chaclag confirmed that the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) were transferred to NBP Tuesday afternoon a few hours following the release of results. He pointed out the decision was made to contain the spread of the virus within the facility. There are more than 3,100 inmates in CIW with a staff of around 200 personnel. Chaclad assured that the isolation facility for the transferred inmates, which they refer to as Site Harry, is far from where the other NBP inmates are staying and from the residential area. Ito po ay industrial area ito na may walls na 12 meters high na perimeter wall (This is an industrial area with 12 meter high perimeter walls). The nearest dwelling is 400 meters away so hindi po maco-compromise yung safety ng anyone sa NBP whether PDL, resident or staff (So the safety of anyone from the NBP, whether the PDL, resident, or safety, will not be compromised) , Chaclag says. He noted that "Site Harry" can house up to 300 COVID-19 positive patients. The patients are being looked after by the NBPs medical health directorate along with personnel from the Philippine Red Cross. The city government of Muntinlupa and BuCor will be meeting this week to iron out the matter. CNN Philippines correspondent Crissy Dimatulac contributed to this report. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday and thanked him for his good wishes while he was recovering from the coronavirus as the two leaders agreed on the importance of a coordinated international response to the pandemic that has infected over 2.5 million people worldwide. Johnson, 55, is gradually engaging with government officials and his Cabinet as he prepares for a full-time return from his convalescence following his COVID-19 hospitalisation, Downing Street said on Tuesday. He will not be resuming formal government duties yet but spoke to Trump on the phone to thank him for his get-well wishes during his illness. The Prime Minister spoke to President Trump this afternoon, and thanked him for his good wishes while he was unwell, said a Downing Street spokesperson. The leaders agreed on the importance of a coordinated international response to coronavirus, including through the G7 which the US currently chairs. They also discussed continued UK-US cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, the spokesperson said. The two leaders also committed to continue working together to strengthen the US-UK bilateral relationship, including by signing a free trade agreement as soon as possible. This was the first conversation between the two leaders after Johnson's recovery from the coronavirus. During the call, the two leaders reaffirmed their close cooperation through the G7 and G20 to reopen global economies and ensure that medical care and supplies reach all those in need, the White House said. President Trump and Prime Minister Johnson also discussed bilateral and global issues, including our shared commitment to reaching a United States-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement, it said. Johnson is also scheduled to hold his weekly audience with Queen Elizabeth II over the phone later this week. "He has been receiving updates from Number 10 on the coronavirus response and has spoken with the First Secretary of State (Dominic Raab) and senior members of his team," Johnson's official Downing Street spokesperson said. On Monday, Johnson sent a message of condolence to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the very sad loss of life in the shooting in Canada. However, it was stressed that the UK prime minister would be "continuing his recovery at Chequers and isn't formally doing government work", with Raab continuing to be in charge as his deputy. Johnson has been recuperating at his prime ministerial country residence in Buckinghamshire since his discharge from St. Thomas' Hospital in London last week, after he tested positive for coronavirus and had to be shifted into intensive care for a few days as his condition worsened. It is customary for the UK prime minister to hold a weekly audience with the monarch, which had been transformed into telephone engagements as the coronavirus lockdown came into force last month. Johnson will now be resuming the phone audience with the Queen, who turned 94 on Tuesday, after a three-week hiatus due to his illness. Globally, the virus has infected over 2.5 million people and the disease has claimed over 170,000 lives. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) EZVIZ, makes use of technologies such as smart hardware and Internet cloud services to create an intelligent work and life for users. The secured environment enables people to enjoy the relaxed, comfortable and pleasurable life of technology in a safe, convenient and green living environment created by smart technology. EZVIZ provides intelligent products and services for residences, offices, shops, schools, hotels and other places of residence. The next-generation of indoor and outdoor smart surveillance cameras and intruder alarm systems, the EZVIZ range will transform households with Smart Life experience by making it easier for individuals to connect to everything happening in their life all while ensuring their home is safe. The smart products have all been created to provide peace of mind for users, while making them as easy as possible to use. The entire range is ideal for use in a number of settings, such as in childrens rooms, to keep an eye on pets and by families with elderly relatives. However the solutions also provide the perfect security for business premises. The company boasts a wide range of both indoor and outdoor WIFI cameras available for personal and commercial purchase. Each high-quality camera comes with a huge list of features that really make them stand out above competitors. From crystal clear 720P-1080P imagery, IFTTT-compatible, Cloud Services and SD card storage options, all the features enhance the excellence of the tech inside and create a truly unique set of security cameras. The Smart Home Alarm Kit is the first smart home alarm system. Adding another level of security and connectivity for users, it links flawlessly between existing indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi cameras, smart locks, garage doors, and light bulbs. Once a sensor or detector is triggered, a linked EZVIZ camera will commence recording and send users a notification that they can click to see what triggered the alarm.The wireless range (866Mhz) is up to 100m from detectors to main Alarm Hub. EZVIZ Alarm Kit consists of Alarm Hub, a Remote Control, PIR Motion Detector (pet immune detector) and open-close Detector (for windows or doors). All products are IFTTT compatible, and can work seamlessly with Amazons Alexa and Google Assistant. Working with just one app, the hi-tech products offer the ideal solution for numerous applications around the home. All EZVIZ customers need to do is simply say, "Alexa, show me the camera in the living room," and the feed from an Internet-connected camera will send the video to the Amazon Echo. EZVIZ cameras deliver the best value and user experience to customers by merging video and voice control in the smart home. The Alexa integration offers yet another level of value to EZVIZ customers. EZVIZ Smart Home Security Cameras are available online and through the distribution channels. Its latest models include, C6CN, Alarm Starter Kit, C1C, C3A, C3W Colour Night Vision Cameras. EZVIZ Smart Home Cameras come with smart features like Wi-Fi connectivity, Two Way Communications, Motion detection Alerts on mobile, Motion tracking and Easy Installation. The latest EZVIZ Cameras can be operated in 100% wireless mode and they come with an inbuilt battery. The C3W Cameras are weatherproof cameras, it can be used for outdoor installations. C3W Colour Night Vision camera enables users to see the vibrant colour images even in darkness. The secured environment enables people to enjoy the relaxed, comfortable and pleasurable life of technology in a safe, convenient and green living environment created by smart technology. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 20:51:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A man wearing protective face masks walk past the logo of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games displayed on a wall of The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Tokyo, Japan, March 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi) Controversial comments declaring that Japan will pay the additional cost for the postponed Tokyo Games have been removed from the International Olympic Committee's website, after Tokyo 2020 voiced dissatisfaction. TOKYO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has on Tuesday removed controversial comments declaring that Japan will pay the additional cost for the postponed Tokyo Games. The IOC prompted fury from Tokyo 2020 with a Q&A post released on Monday its website, saying "Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo agreed that Japan will continue to cover the costs it would have done under the terms of the existing agreement for 2020, and the IOC will continue to be responsible for its share of the costs. "For the IOC, it is already clear that this amounts to several hundred millions of dollars of additional costs." Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya told reporters at an online briefing on Tuesday, "We think it is not appropriate for the PM's name to be quoted in this manner." He said that Tokyo 2020 had sent an email to the IOC to request the IOC to remove the comment from their website. A bird's view image of the main stadium for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games taken on January 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Kyodo) The statement was soon revised and the Japanese Prime Minister's name has been removed as requested. The new post reads, "The Japanese government has reiterated that it stands ready to fulfill its responsibility for hosting successful Games. At the same time, the IOC has stressed its full commitment to successful Olympic Games Tokyo 2020." "The IOC and the Japanese side, including the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, will continue to assess and discuss jointly the respective impacts caused by the postponement," it added. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters earlier Tuesday that Japan and the IOC had not agreed on the extra costs. Suga said that he believes that both sides have agreed to jointly continue assessing and discussing the matter. EL PASO, Texas, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DATAMARK, a leading BPO company, recently released a comprehensive guide for corporate leaders who are strategizing their next steps in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Titled "How to Prepare Your Business for Economic Instability," the piece is part of the DATAMARK Insights series, a library of resources that draw upon expertise the veteran firm amassed in more than 30 years serving Fortune 500 companies, large corporations, and government agencies. These complimentary resources can be found exclusively at DATAMARK.net. DATAMARK Inc. According to Harvard research, just 17 percent of companies survived the Great Recession and 80 percent of the survivors failed to thrive after. The experts believe the difference between those that failed or flailed and those that thrived lies in the leadership approach to managing the crisis. They noted that companies that focused on making cuts, as well as those that honed in on seizing resources at reduced rates, were among the most likely to face specific types of business failures. Insights like these and case studies are provided in the DATAMARK guide, giving corporate leaders a window into effective crisis management strategies as well as a clear picture of what helps companies survive economic instability and come out on top: organizational efficiency. "Having worked with a myriad of large corporations over the years, particularly those that came out of the recession stronger than ever, we're in a unique position to ensure companies have the information they need to achieve the same results amid the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic downturn," explains DATAMARK President Bill Randag. He says that the Harvard research echoes many of the whitepapers and case studies available through DATAMARK Insights that discuss the firm's own clients, but notes that companies who are unaware of these resources often have difficulty bridging the gap between what they believe to be best practices and actionable steps. "Although the circumstances could certainly be better, it's good that companies are eager to improve their efficiency and address vital issues like business continuity. We, and our clients, see the benefits of addressing these concerns every day, and we're glad to get the message out at this crucial time when companies are making critical decisions that will impact the health of their organizations for years to come," explains Randag. The published guide centers on enhancing efficiency in business processes in areas like data management, customer contact centers, and accounts payable and receivable. By leveraging BPO, companies can free up resources for other needs such as marketing and R&D while giving the business the freedom to focus on their core offerings. By building upon the research with these actionable steps, organizations can prepare for economic instability with greater clarity and confidence. Those interested in learning more may do so at DATAMARK.net. CONTACT: Chelsea Hill 915-242-6117 [email protected] www.DATAMARK.net Related Images image1.jpg SOURCE DATAMARK Inc. Related Links http://www.DATAMARK.net Vu Binh may return to Vietnam before getting his master's degree certificate from Australias Queensland University of Technology (QTU) as commencement has been indefinitely delayed. Photo taken on April 10 shows city view in Sydney, Australia. Australian authorities have reiterated the importance of social distancing rules as the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country continues to slow. XINHUA/VNA Photo The COVID-19 pandemic has also forced the 25-year-old student from Hanoi to reconsider his post-graduation plans. The post-study work visas allow international students like me to temporarily live, work and study in Australia for two to four years after graduating from local higher education institutes, Binh told Viet Nam News. However, observing the current situation, even Australian nationals are at risk of job loss. The labour market is off-kilter and I cannot be certain about my plans anymore, he added. Some 236,000 domestic students will get an AU$550 (US$350) allowance per fortnight as part of a stimulus package in response to the coronavirus introduced by the Australian government in March. Whether international students will get similar support remains to be seen. We do not care much about the allowance, he said. What international students really want is a tuition fee reduction. It is a significant gap between studying online and off. Staying at home means we cannot enjoy on-campus facilities we have already paid for, especially those who major in graphic design who need iMacs at school to do their blueprints. Among some 31,000 Vietnamese students in Australia, many have their tuition fees paid by their families and cover their own living expenses by working part-time at shopping centres, restaurants or hotels. Since the services sector, which contributes more than 60 per cent to Australias GDP, is being hit hard by the pandemic, Vietnamese students have lost their earning power. I work for a company focusing on event evaluation. Since all mass gatherings are banned, the company has halted all its activities, said Binh. As far as I know, grocery stores and supermarkets are recruiting some more 7,000 employees due to higher shopping demand. However, the opportunity to be hired is extremely slim as many people are applying, he added. The situation is critical for those in Australia with their families. Vuong Anh, a PhD candidate at the University of Canberra, said his wife, who works in the hospitality industry, had to take unpaid leave. She may retain her job when everything is back to normal. My company, however, has had its contracts withdrawn so basically I lost my [part-time] job, said Anh. Some 100 responders to a survey of QTUs Student Union on COVID-19's impacts said they were carrying onerous financial burdens. A tuition fee reduction proposal has been filed to the schools directing board. However, it is not practical, said Dieu Linh, an undergraduate student at QTU. Lecturers are doing their best to deliver knowledge through online platforms. Instead of a tuition fee reduction, I think the university will offer financial assistance packages for students in need, Linh added. There are also changes in grading. If you fail a subject, the result will not be recorded in your transcript. You can retake the course and sit another exam later, she said. Privilege of stillness Phuong Luong, who received an Australia Awards Scholarship to take a master's degree at Flinders University, said the school developed a student support package of AU$12.5 million ($7.9 million) to reduce the financial burden and help students focus on their studies. In addition to financial problems, I think many Vietnamese students in Australia are suffering poor mental wellbeing in a time of uncertainty with their future plans turning upside down, Luong said. This reality was hard to accept even for a scholarship recipient like me. During the first week of online studying, I had a bizarre feeling that it was like staying home in Vietnam and taking courses on Coursera. I have learnt to accept the status quo and regained motivation by thinking of the privilege of stillness: staying safe in Australia, getting a monthly stipend from the award's fund and paying due attention to my studies, she added. For Binh, his graduation project on sugar market research is not going as he wanted. His group of seven members are scattered around Brisbane because of the school closure while not everybody can switch to online platforms quickly. It takes a whole day for a message to be replied to, said Binh. Our motivation is being chipped away, day after day. Job loss, social distancing boredom, unfinished plans and unstable futures put international students under enormous pressure, he added. The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison added fuel to the fire by stating international students who could not support themselves should go home in early April. "People should know though, particularly for students, all students who come to Australia in their first year have to give a warranty that they are able to support themselves for the first 12 months of their study," he said. "If they're not in a position to be able to support themselves, then there is the alternative for them to return to their home countries." The statement caused dismay and triggered an uproar among the Vietnamese student community. It was rational for the PM to state so, said Vuong Anh. However, the timing was bad since the announcement was made right after universities census dates. Many international students, who had just paid tuition fees, might feel like they are being betrayed, he added. Both Vietnam and Australia have tightened their borders to contain the disease, making it extremely difficult for international students to leave, Vuong Anh said. It hurt to hear, said Dieu Linh. I know that Australia does not have any responsibility to financially assist international students and we do not ask them to have any support in terms of money. We need encouragement to overcome these troubling times, she said. In the discussion with his Australian counterpart on April 9, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the Australian government to support Vietnamese students, helping them feel safe to continue their studies. Responding the request, PM Morrison said the Australian government would create favourable conditions for Vietnamese students to continue studying in Australia. Amid the pandemic, local Vietnamese communities in Australia have lent a helping hand. Any Vietnamese student applying for the fund will receive 20kg of rice and two cartons of instant noodles, Linh said. Ive got grocery store vouchers and rice, said Vuong Anh. The Vietnamese community calls for people to donate food and sew facemasks for vulnerable groups as a way to express solidarity. As of Sunday, Australia confirmed more than 6,600 COVID-19 infections including 4,230 recoveries. More than 1 per cent of Australias population has been tested for SARS-CoV-2. I feel relieved that either in Australia or in Vietnam, the situation seems to be under control, said Luong. I encourage myself to stay safe, stay calm, stay healthy, and focus solely on my work. Whenever calling home, I wish my parents the same. During this time, in case of any incident, I may not be by their side as quick as I want to be, she said. VNS Khoa Thu Overseas Vietnamese students who choose to stay in pandemic-hit areas Over the past few weeks, while a large number of overseas Vietnamese students have returned home amid COVID-19 concerns, others have decided to stay on in their host countries. EUR/USD Current Price: 1.0862 Crude oil prices collapsed, exacerbating the dismal market mood. The EU Commission spurred rage after assigning Hungary almost double the relief than to Italy. EUR/USD short-term neutral, but the risk is skewed to the downside. It was a slow start to the week in terms of activity in the FX board, as most major pairs remained confined to familiar levels. Collapsing oil prices, however, were in the eye of the storm. The barrel of WTI plunged to a multi-decade low of $1.00 a barrel, as the coronavirus pandemic erased demand for the commodity, dragging equities lower across the world. As for currencies, major pairs remained within familiar levels, without relevant directional movements across the FX board. The EUR/USD pair is ending the day little changed at around 1.0870, after a failed attempt to recover the 1.0900 threshold. The European Commission has announced that, within its Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative, Hungary, which has 172 coronavirus fatalities, will get 5.6bn double the amount Italy will receive. With the death toll above 23.6K, Italy will get 2.3bn. The news has spurred rage, and for sure, wont help the shared currency strengthen. The macroeconomic calendar was light as if offered minor figures from both shores of the Atlantic, which the market ignored. Nevertheless, the figures continued to reflect the effects of the lockdown in economies. This Tuesday, Germany will publish its April ZEW Survey on Economic Sentiment, expected to have improved, but also to remain near record lows. The US will publish March Existing Home Sales, foreseen down by 8.1%. EUR/USD Short-Term Technical Outlook The EUR/USD pair has held within a range defined by Fibonacci level, as support is being provided by the 61.8% retracement of the latest daily advance around 1.0830, while sellers surge in the 1.0890 price zone, the 50% retracement of the same rally. The short-term picture is neutral-to-bearish, as, in the 4-hour chart, technical indicators are turning marginally lower but remain around their midlines, as the price struggles with a mild-bearish 20 SMA and below the larger ones. Story continues Support levels: 1.0830 1.0790 1.0750 Resistance levels: 1.0925 1.0960 1.1000 Image sourced from Pixabay See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Today is the 94th birthday of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. In the past couple of years, during her reign, there has always been a big celebration, but now, she's forced to social distance with her husband Prince Phillip in Windsor Castle because of the coronavirus pandemic. A source from Buckingham Palace said that the Queen Elizabeth II's birthday would not be marked in any unique way. The traditional 21-gun salute on her birthday will not happen, as well as the 62-gun salute that usually takes place at the Tower of London. As per the source, "Her Majesty was keen that no special measures be put in place to allow gun salutes as she did not feel it appropriate in the current circumstances." For the first time in more than ten years, the bells of Westminster Abbey will also not ring on her birthday, according to a spokeswoman. "We are unable to ring our bells as the church is currently closed. So it will be a virtual birthday this year via the abbey's social media channels." How Queen Elizabeth II Will Celebrate Her Birthday This Year Though the past few birthdays have been celebrated in style, with parades, colors, and a lot of people gather outside Buckingham Palace this year, her party will be done virtually. The Daily Mail reports that the royal family plans to gather on the video conferencing app Zoom for a video party with Queen Elizabeth II. Their report said that aides have been planning to set-up video calls to mark the celebration that would allow all the members of the royal family to wish the Queen a happy birthday. However, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson didn't confirm whether a Zoom video call would push through, but the spokesperson said that any calls made by the members of the royal family would be private. Queen Elizabeth II's Second Birthday Every Year Queen Elizabeth II celebrates two birthdays each year. Aside from her actual birthday on April 21, she also has another official birthday that takes place every second Saturday in June. The tradition started during King George II's reign in 1748. It was the year the annual Trooping the Color celebration was first associated with the head of the monarch's birthday. His real birthday was in November, but with the British weather not being great during those months, it is far from ideal. Monarchs have enjoyed a second birthday in the summer. Trooping the Colour is a military parade in London and has previously existed as a standalone event. It was officially and was permanently repurposed as a birthday celebration after George III became king in 1760. On the sovereign's birthday in June, streets of Buckingham Palace are filled with tourists as more than one thousand soldiers, two hundred horses, and four hundred musicians take part in the lavish celebration. Queen Elizabeth II is greeted by a royal salute and would carry out an inspection of the troops in the bearskin hats. Once the military band and the foot guards do their march, the Queen returns to the palace and shall be joined by the other royals on the balcony so they could watch a flypast of the Royal Air Force and the 41-gun salute in a nearby park. However, this year, Trooping the Colour has also been canceled this year because Queen Elizabeth II didn't want to celebrate anything this year because of the COVID-19, which has taken the lives of more than 16,000 British people in the UK. READ MORE: Queen Elizabeth II Depends On ONE Unexpected Thing To Stay Well During Covid-19 Lockdown Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Menna Zaki (Agence France-Presse) Cairo, Egypt Tue, April 21, 2020 10:03 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd331406 2 World health-worker,medical-practitioners,coronavirus,COVID-19,Egypt,stigma,Wuhan-coronavirus-stigma Free After showing symptoms similar to those of the coronavirus, Egyptian doctor Ahmed Negm went into self-isolation in an old apartment, but before long he was hounded out by fearful neighbors. While health workers in many countries are getting cheers and applause for risking their lives in the grueling battle against the disease, in some parts of the world they face suspicion and hostility. Though they are regularly hailed by the North African nation's government and media as Egypt's "white [coated] army", many health personnel have complained of being shunned and mistreated by others in society. Negm had already tested negative for the virus but, mindful of the fact that he had frequently dealt with suspected cases, decided to go into confinement as a precaution. As the 31-year-old sealed himself off from the outside world, rumors swirled around his neighborhood in the northeastern province of Ismailia that he was infected and avoiding treatment. He was even reported to the police. Despite explaining his situation to them, the doctor faced continued harassment, snide remarks and pleas from some of his neighbors to leave the area because "there were many children and elderly." Eventually, Negm moved out. "People are gripped by panic but they're taking it too far to a point where it feels like a stigma," he told AFP. "It's as if we have become outcasts." Egypt's health workers, like those elsewhere, have been stretched thin by the virus, grappling with long hours, soaring caseloads and a high risk of catching the disease themselves. Medical staff in several hospitals in Cairo and other provinces have been infected. Four doctors have died out of 43 who fell ill, according to the country's doctors union. Health workers account for some 13 percent of Egypt's total confirmed COVID-19 cases, which have risen above 3,000 including more than 200 fatalities, according to the World Health Organization. 'Worthless apology' Even after death, one doctor who had caught the virus was targeted by fearful villagers who protested against her burial in Daqahliya province in the Nile Delta. Authorities dispersed the hours-long demonstration and arrested 23 people as part of an investigation into what the public prosecutor described as "an act of terror". Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli deplored the "disgraceful" act and urged healthcare workers to "pay no heed". A nurse in the same province who had tested positive for the virus said she and other infected healthcare workers were contacted by strangers after their names and contact details were widely shared on social media. "Many called to support and pray for us but others accused us of spreading the virus and of being the source of infection," she said, wearing a mask, her voice quivering in a video posted online. "We're exhausted. Have mercy on us. Our spirits have been destroyed." Dina Abdelsalam, a doctor in Ismailia province, said her neighbors publicly smeared her because she works at a hospital which receives suspected coronavirus cases. After recently moving to a new apartment to keep away from her family as a precaution, she said she was startled by her neighbors shouting in the street, accusing her of "bringing the disease" to the area. The police intervened and her neighbors eventually apologized. But for Abdelsalam their apology was "worthless" after they treated her like a "suspected [criminal]". "We [medics] are suffering," she said in an online video, "and you are making it worse." 'Grievously detrimental' Other doctors from Cairo, the northern city of Alexandria and elsewhere have complained on Facebook of being refused taxi rides or food delivery due to fears of contagion. Such treatment of healthcare workers "can make an already challenging situation far more difficult," the WHO representative in Egypt, Jean Jabbour, told AFP. "Targeting essential providers ... will weaken our fight against COVID-19 and can prove grievously detrimental for the entire nation." And as complaints surged, local media reported that lawmakers are mulling criminalizing the "bullying" of medical workers. At the same time many Egyptians appeared in recent online videos to be ignoring rules on social distancing aimed at reducing the risk of contagion in the country of 100 million people. "They are taking it out on us instead of abandoning habits that will more likely expose them to the disease," said pharmacist Heba al-Feky, who was recently forced out of a taxi for being a health worker. Val Kilmer has opened up about his battle with throat cancer in a new interview where he admitted that he's shy - despite his fame and celebrity girlfriends of the past. In an Tuesday morning interview with Good Morning America, the Top Gun star said: 'I feel a lot better than I sound. I feel wonderful.' Kilmer, who was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015, said it has 'healed very quickly'. 'This is a tracheotomy,' he said while holding his hand to his throat, 'to help me breathe because the glands in my throat swelled up as well'. When asked what he misses the most about his voice, Kilmer told GMA: 'That I had one! And that I didn't laugh like a pirate.' Scroll down for video Val Kilmer has opened up about his battle with throat cancer and even admitted that he's shy despite all of his famous girlfriends of the past The Iceman icon (left in Top Gun) then opened up about his relationships and the fact that he's actually shy despite playing Jim Morrison in the 1991 film, The Doors, which was ultimately about 'sex, drugs and rock n' roll' The Iceman icon then opened up about his relationships and the fact that he's actually shy despite playing Jim Morrison in the 1991 film, The Doors, which was ultimately about 'sex, drugs and rock n' roll'. 'I'm very shy. I've tried to live a quiet life out in New Mexico despite all my famous girlfriends of the past,' Kilmer said, referring to Cher, Cindy Crawford and Angelina Jolie. 'You have to be committed with a woman that's as dynamic and as committed to their work as someone like Cindy Crawford who was the number one model on the planet at the time,' he told GMA. Kilmer, who makes an appearance in this year's release of Top Gun: Maverick, which stars Tom Cruise, also spoke briefly about the upcoming movie. Kilmer's memoir chronicles his lost loves and lifelong spiritual journey 'It was absolutely moving,' the actor said, referring to the trailer. 'I really was surprised and Tom was wearing his jacket from the first movie and it was just very moving.' While Kilmer is known for his blockbuster movies of the 80s and 90s like Tombstone and Batman Forever, he has also shown off his artistic talents in the form of a new book. In his new memoir, he recalled flings with some of the world's most famous women including Jolie, Cher, Carly Simon and Crawford. The 60-year-old even admitted that he still pines for actress Daryl Hannah, writing in his memoir I'm Your Huckleberry: 'Lord knows I've suffered heartache. But Daryl was by far the most painful of all.' He added: 'I knew I would love her with my whole heart forever and that love has lost none of its strength. I am still in love with Daryl. When we finally broke up, I cried every single day for half a year.' The 1980s heartthrob's love life eventually ran dry, following a whirlwind of love affairs that started when he became Cher's lover aged 21 and she was in her mid-thirties. The Batman actor found himself single and out of money from losing land investments in 2015, living in a cottage in Malibu with the postman and local burrito man as his best friends. 'I was a weirdo beach bum and it was bliss then bliss turned to mayhem. I coughed up coagulated blood. I presumed this was the day of my death', Kilmer confesses in his memoir that chronicles his lost loves and lifelong spiritual journey. While Kilmer is known for his blockbuster movies of the 80s and 90s like Tombstone and Batman Forever, he has also shown off his artistic talents in the form of a new book Kilmer admits in his new memoir that he still pines for actress Daryl Hannah (pictured together in 2003), writing in his new book I'm Your Huckleberry: 'Lord knows I've suffered heartache. But Daryl was by far the most painful of all' Kilmer recalled flings with the world's most famous women including Angelina Jolie (together right in 2004), Carly Simon and Cindy Crawford (together left in Moscow in 1996) Kilmer describes how he called for an ambulance and crawled up the wooden stairs from his guesthouse to the Pacific Coast Highway so the ambulance could find him. He woke up in a Santa Monica hospital after an emergency tracheotomy for throat cancer. His old lover Cher had him transferred to David Geffen's School of Medicine at UCLA where he underwent chemo and radiation over a two-month stay. A lifelong Christian Scientist following the beliefs of both of his parents, Kilmer wrote: 'I do not deny miraculous healing', Kilmer writes. Reflecting on the cancer that had caused his tongue to swell and block his lymph passages, requiring two tracheotomies, Kilmer said: 'The cancer miraculously healed much faster than any of the doctors predicted'. Now when he talks, he has to put a finger to the aperture in his throat to be understood. Kilmer was born in Playa del Rey, California but his parents moved to Chatsworth on the sprawling northern border of the San Fernando Valley when his block was mowed down to make an LAX runway. His father was an aerospace equipment distributor, stingy but generous with himself, buying a Cadillac but not letting his mother purchase curtains for the living room. At age eight, Kilmer started secretly smoking his uncle's Pall Mall cigarettes in his tree house a habit he deeply regrets. Kilmer escaped the dreaded San Fernando Valley for New York City where Marlon Brando, 'the north star of my theatrical fantasies', had studied 33 years earlier. He enrolled at the Julliard School, the youngest ever to get accepted at the highly rated private performing arts conservatory. Kilmer graduated and then fell under the spell of Cher when she picked him up in the city. Kilmer graduated and then fell under the spell of Cher when she picked him up in the city. They rode off into the New York City sunset and headed west when he chose to live with her atop Caesars Palace in Vegas instead of furthering his acting studies. 'We both loved laughing and went on doing so for well over a year' Kilmer segued to Michelle Pfeiffer (pictured together in 1985) after playing in an ABC Afterschool Special, One Too Many and they became confidantes. He adored her, he confesses but had an unrequited crush on her younger sister They rode off into the New York City sunset and headed west when he chose to live with her atop Caesars Palace in Vegas, instead of furthering his acting studies. 'We both loved laughing and went on doing so for well over a year. Cher trafficked in intoxicating glamour and I, a Valley boy, fell under her spell.' After all that fun, he writes they were now less lovers and really best friends. Kilmer segued to Michelle Pfeiffer after playing in an ABC Afterschool Special, One Too Many and they became confidantes. He adored her, he confesses but had an unrequited crush on her younger sister. Ellen Barkin followed, a romance that was 'as whimsical as it was whirlwind'. 'I was crazy for her, and we had some fabulous days', he recalled remembering her laugh and the softness of her hair. But she became another who got away, 'no doubt due to my unmanageable preoccupations, my neglect,' Kilmer adds. Kilmer fled to Santa Fe and finally hooked up with Joanne Whalley (pictured together), an actress he had met years earlier and watched her from afar while she had no interest in him Following in their parents' footsteps: The Jay and Silent Bob Reboot actor has two children - Jack, 24; and Mercedes, 28 - with Joanne Whalley, whom he divorced in 1996 after eight years of marriage (pictured in 2018) Simon soon stepped in after the two met at a party in New York. Kilmer had arrived with Cher, but she had wandered off. Kilmer quickly fell in love, writing: 'I wanted to be with Carly every day of the rest of my life.' But that faded he surmised when Carly realized he was hopelessly in love with her. Kilmer fled to Santa Fe and finally hooked up with Joanne Whalley, an actress he had met years earlier and watched from afar while she had no interest in him. Now they fell in love and married in New Mexico and honeymooned on Marlon Brando's island in Tahiti. They promised they would always be together but that promise began to fade when each wanted to film in a different city at the same time. They eventually split up, but not before having two children. Their relationship had unraveled when she shut him out of the parental role, leaving Kilmer rarely seeing his kids. Next up in love land for Kilmer was Crawford in 1996 while getting his divorce from the mother of his children. 'Oh God, I loved Cindy and just kept loving her, I thought I could have died from her love because its delight was simply too much to bear. I would die of happiness,' he gushed. They began traveling the world together but as the most in-demand supermodel, she was always one step away, heading for another city. Jolie rescued Kilmer from his solitude and she was 'perhaps the most soulful and serious of them all,' Kilmer mused. He moved on to Jaycee Gossettt in 1999 for three years but then let her slip away. Then came Daryl Hannah, 'the 6' tall Amazonian tower of delicate power'. Now without the company of a sweetheart and having loved so deeply, Kilmer feels he has nothing left to give in a romantic relationship and feels lonely part of every day. Kilmer started creating art when he was in the hospital and it morphed into something people wanted to collect. He set up an art factory in Brentwood and with a new lease on life, he feels he is no longer a slave to love and a hopeless romantic. He is focused on friends, his art, his foundation and his spiritual growth. WASHINGTON Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be visiting the White House on Tuesday to talk about the states response to the coronavirus pandemic. President Donald Trump mentioned the visit during his daily coronavirus task force briefing on Monday, and Cuomo's office confirmed the meet-up. "I think the governor's going to come in to see us tomorrow," Trump said. The two men have both praised and criticized each others responses to the COVID-19 illness, where New York has the most deaths in the U.S. from the disease. Trump, who responded in real-time on Twitter last week to a criticism Cuomo raised during a televised news briefing, praised the states response to the pandemic on Monday. They're really getting it together in New York, he said. Cuomo has visited the White House before, but it would be the first time since the pandemic has hit the U.S. Cuomo's office has not provided details yet concerning the time of the meeting and what will be discussed. Key soft magnetic composites manufacturers are focusing on consolidation strategies including joint ventures and acquisitions to leverage demand from automotive and power generation industries. DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / The global soft magnetic composites market will cross a value pool of US$ 80 Bn by the end of the forecast period 2019 - 2029. As per the latest study by Future Market Insights (FMI), the market for soft magnetic composites is largely influenced by increasing demand for alloys with superior ferromagnetic characteristics and energy efficiency. The market growth will also be supported by the increasing numbers of electric and hybrid automobiles, and consumer electronics products. "Soft magnetic composites offer the potential of developing 3D products with complex geometry in varying situations, in addition to cost and energy efficiency. Moreover, innovations in automotive and electronics sectors will generate new growth avenues," reveals the FMI report. Request report sample with 250+ pages to gain in-depth insights https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-869 Key Research Findings The electrical steel segment will grow at a higher rate through the forecast period, driven by greater scope of end use applications. The 5P type of soft magnetic composites will gain substantial traction in the power generation industry, making price reductions likely. The 3D printing applications of soft magnetic composites will bolster sales figures through the forecast period. Gains of the global soft magnetic composites market will remain largely concentrated in Asia Pacific. The East Asia market will display a higher CAGR with greater opportunities of growth from the electronics sector. Key Growth Drivers Rising production in consumer electronics and automobile sectors plays a major role in the growth of soft magnetic composites market. Efforts by manufacturers to downsize to increase profitability contributes to the global presence of producers. Extensive expansion of applications in 3D printing platforms, with increased scope in wireless applications will contribute to market growth. The continued growth of power generation and automotive industries, and remand for relevant components will drive adoption. Key Impediments Volatility in the prices of machines, is a key challenge for manufacturers, which is likely to hamper market growth. The Coronavirus Impact The global soft magnetic composites market is very dependent on the seamless operations of their supply chains. A lot of the materials required for production comes from China. Consequently, production of automotive, consumer electronics, and power components, has been significantly disrupted. This trend is likely to hamper the market growth for the near future. The covid-19 outbreak is being viewed as a major stress test for the global soft magnetic composite industry. The outbreak is expected to result in a major drop of revenues, as companies struggle to survive this phase, even as end use industries prepare for delays in their delivery schedules. Explore the complete soft magnetic composites market report with 212 illustrative figures, 52 data tables, and the table of contents. Also find a detailed market segmentation on https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/covid19/rep-gb-869 Competition Structure Analysis - Soft Magnetic Composites Market The competition landscape of soft magnetic composites market remains highly consolidated. Key producers are also pushing to bolster their research and development compatibility. Manufacturers are also seeking strategic collaborations, mergers and acquisitions to further consolidate their market presence. Some of the key players in the soft magnetic composites market include, but are not limited to Toshiba Materials Co. Ltd., GKN PM, and Hitachi Metals Ltd. Explore Future Market Insights' detailed coverage on, Rust Remover Market- This research report provides a wide range of insights which identify revenue sectors, key strategies, and potential growth opportunities, associated with rust remover products. Polyurea Coatings Market- This report includes a detailed analysis on competitive scenarios, and essential information on major players in the polyurea coatings market. UV Coatings Market- This write up encompasses exhaustive secondary research, which is used to estimate key industry players, overall size of the UV coatings market, and relevant industry associations. Gain access to Market Ngage, an AI-powered, real-time business intelligence platform that goes beyond the conventional research solutions to solve the complex strategy challenges that organizations face today. About the Report This report offers global, regional, and national level analysis on the latest trends in the industry influencing the soft magnetic composites market. The study provides actionable insights on the soft magnetic composites market on the basis of material (electrical steel, soft ferrite, and iron powder), type (1P, 3P, and 5P), application (electrical coils, motors, generators, transformers, inductors, sensors, and others), and end use (automotive, industrial machinery & equipment, consumer goods, power generation, and others) across 30 countries spanning seven key regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, East Asia, South Asia, Oceania, and MEA). About Future Market Insights (FMI) Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and take critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition. Contact: Mr. Abhishek Budholiya Unit No: AU-01-H Gold Tower (AU), Plot No: JLT-PH1-I3A, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates MARKET ACCESS DMCC Initiative For Sales Enquiries: sales@futuremarketinsights.com For Media Enquiries: press@futuremarketinsights.com Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/soft-magnetic-composites-market Press Release Source: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/press-release/soft-magnetic-composites-market SOURCE: Future Market Insights View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/586113/Sales-of-Soft-Magnetic-Composites-to-Reach-US-80-Bn-by-2029-Supply-Chain-Disruptions-Amid-COVID-19-Threatens-Market-Performance--Future-Market-Insights A man wearing a face mask to protect himself from the coronavirus walks past a closed theater in Arlington, Virginia on April 18, 2020. ( Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images) US Lawmakers to Introduce Bill Allowing Americans to Sue China Over Pandemic Two Republican senators announced their intention to introduce a bill that would allow Americans to bring lawsuits in U.S. courts against the regime in China for its role in causing the global pandemic. Chinas Communist Party must face consequences for its role in the origin and spread of the coronavirus, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said in an April 20 statement. Congress is currently in recess until at least May, as part of social distancing measures to prevent the CCP virus from spreading. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, originated from the central China city of Wuhan. The Chinese regime initially concealed the outbreak through measures that included silencing eight doctors who took to Chinese social media to warn people about a new form of pneumonia in late December. The virus has since spread to over 200 countries and territories, causing more than 43,500 deaths in the United States alone. The costs are devastating: trillions of dollars in economic damage, more than 22 million American jobs lost, and over 150,000 deaths worldwide and counting. Business owners and families who have lost loved ones deserve justice, Blackburn said. Currently, Americans face barriers in lawsuits against the Chinese regime in U.S. courts because foreign governments enjoy protection guaranteed under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), a U.S. law that insulates countries from being sued in the United States. The new legislation, named the Stop COVID Act of 2020, would eliminate sovereign immunity for states under FSIA, if any state is found to have intentionally or unintentionally, to have discharged a biological agent results in the bodily injury, death, or damage to property of a national of the United States. Our legislation to allow Americans to file lawsuits against the Chinese Communist Party for its role in perpetuating the global spread of the coronavirus will give the U.S. a piece of justice, the measures co-sponsor, Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), said, according to the release. A companion bill (H.R. 6444) was introduced in the House of Representatives on April 3 by Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas). Right now, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act is a shield for the Chinese Communist Party to hide behind. We need to change that, said Gooden in the press release. The legislation comes amid growing calls by U.S. officials to hold Beijing accountable for the pandemic. Florida law firm The Berman Law Group, in partnership with Washington-based lobbying firm Lucas Compton, filed a class-action lawsuit against the Chinese regime on March 12, alleging that Beijings initial coverup resulted in the worldwide pandemic. The lawsuit seeks billions of dollars in compensatory damages for those who have suffered personal injuries, wrongful deaths, property damage and other damages due to Chinas failure to contain the COVID-19 virus, despite their ability to have stopped the spread of the virus in its early stage, according to a statement from the law firm. Tel Aviv-based NGO Shurat HaDin has also announced that it plans to file a class-action lawsuit against the Chinese regime in the United States, over Beijings alleged negligence in containing the virus, according to an April 19 article by The Jerusalem Post. Other U.S. lawmakers have introduced similar legislation to allow Americans to sue China over damages from the CCP virus pandemic. Last week, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) introduced a bill in both chambers of Congress and modeled after the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) to amend the FSIA. The bill would create a narrow exception for damages caused by Chinas dangerous handling of the virus, according to a statement. On April 17, Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Ron Wright (R-Texas) introduced H.R. 6524, a bill that would, similar to JASTA, allow victims to sue a foreign country. My bill strips China, and any other country which intentionally misleads the WHO, of its sovereign immunity, and allows Americans to sue the Chinese government in court for the damages they have suffered as a consequence of Chinas misrepresentations to the world about the seriousness and nature of the novel coronavirus, said Smith, according to a statement from his office. R estaurant bosses have thrown their support behind a proposal for a nine-month rent free period to help hospitality businesses ride out the coronavirus crisis. Jonathan Downey, the founder of Hospitality Union and co-founder of London Union, which runs street food venues in the capital, has written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak with a suggestion on how to help companies that have had to close sites due to the Covid-19 lockdown. A number of bosses signed the letter, including chief executives at Burger King UK, D&D, Dishoom and Wahaca. Downey, who warned many hospitality firms may not survive the next few months, has proposed a nine month #NationalTimeOut a rent-free period for hospitality businesses. It would be a period of payment postponement, where commercial property rents are pushed to the back end of leases. Leases could be extended by nine months, if the landlord agrees, so that payments aren't lost, just postponed. Under the plan there is also support for landlords: We need to grant the same push back on the next 9 months of their loan and interest payments (where the debt is secured on premises benefiting from the rent-free period). A Treasury spokesman said: Weve taken action at unprecedented speed to support businesses, jobs and our economy through these challenging times. This includes targeted support for the hospitality sector with business rates holidays and cash grants of up to 25,000 for eligible firms." The spokesman added: Pubs and restaurants can also benefit from our other business support measures, including the Coronavirus job retention scheme, VAT deferrals and protection from eviction for commercial tenants affected by coronavirus. Landlords and tenants have been trying to come up with new arrangements during the virus crisis. Yesterday the British Retail Consortium, British Property Federation and shopping centres organisation Revo said they have proposed the Government introduces a scheme of rental support for the space that has in effect been furloughed, just as staff have been, following government-enforced closures. Retail landlords Westfield and NewRiver said they backed the industry pleas for government support to help underwrite rents for businesses hurt by Covid-19. Scott Parsons, regional managing director UK and Italy at Westfields owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield said: Whilst we commend the Government for announcing business rate relief for retailers, we are also looking for the Government to support retailers and landlords with rental assistance to ensure continuity for all businesses, and to provide consumer spending stimulus packages, so that the industry can quickly get back on its feet. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday said that 80 percent of all coronavirus patients in the country showed only mild symptoms of the disease or were completely asymptomatic. The Ministry emphasised on the need to follow lockdown rules and maintain social distancing even within a household to curb the spread of coronavirus. The Health Ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) were responding to the concern that asymptomatic coronavirus cases were silent carriers of the virus. The ICMR and the ministry said that while it was not possible to test everyone, enough arrangements and protocols have been established to test highly suspected asymptomatic people who have a travel history or had come in close contact with confirmed patients. The testing protocol also covers patients with severe acute respiratory illness. "On the basis of worldwide analysis, 80% of coronavirus patients are asymptomatic or show mild symptoms. Around 15% turn into severe cases and 5% turn into critical cases," health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said. Pointing to a varied testing protocol that includes scrutinising low prevalence areas, the government said that the chances of there being a large group of undetected asymptomatic people who do not need medical attention are extremely slim. However, Dr RR Gangakhedkhar, head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at ICMR, expressed the limitations of the varied testing protocols. He pointed out that the chances of RT-PCR tests coming positive are higher when the patients already have symptoms of the coronavirus. He said in a TV interview earlier, "We are equally worried about asymptomatic persons who are around and maybe spreading the infection but we must understand that science has not progressed that far where you can detect such asymptomatic cases cost-effectively through simpler tests." Gangakhedkar said that asymptomatic patients as coronavirus carriers is a point of worry for the government, it should try and limit the speed at which the virus spreads through such individuals. Also Read: Coronavirus lockdown India live updates: Country's COVID-19 tally past 18,000, death toll nears 600-mark Also Read: Coronavirus in Delhi: Deadly virus reaches Rashtrapati Bhavan; 125 families quarantined The controversial pastor Tony Spell has a warrant out for his arrest after a video appears to show him trying to reverse a bus over a coronavirus protester. Central Police in Baton Rouge issued the warrant on Monday based on video evidence from an incident on Sunday, TMZ reported. Spell allegedly reversed the bus on the shoulder of the road outside his Life Tabernacle Church in Louisiana and nearly ran over a man who was protesting his church gatherings. A seven second clip posted on social media shows the large white bus reversing at some speed towards a seemingly oblivious member of the public. The bus appears to stop mere feet away from the person. #BREAKING Central Pastor Tony Spell has a warrant out for his arrest for an incident with a protestor that happened on Sunday. Watch below. @BRProudNews pic.twitter.com/mEaSJkPpt5 Abbi Rocha (@AbbiRochaTV) April 20, 2020 WAFB.com named the individual as Trey Bennett, who has previously protested the church's ongoing services during the coronavirus pandemic. He claimed: 'At first I thought he [Spell] was just turning around his bus and was going to pull away, but he just kept coming in reverse. I could see him [Spell] driving the bus. 'He was honking his horn loudly at me and making gestures suggesting he was yelling while he was driving. It didnt seem real until it was physically in my face with a bus.' The white bus is pictured in front of the Tabernacle Life Church in Louisiana. Right, an individual stands outside the church It grinds to a halt mere feet away from the person On Monday Spell told WAFB in a phone interview: '[Bennett] has been in front of my church driveway for three weeks now. He shoots people obscene finger gestures and shouts vulgarities,' though Bennett denies the allegations. In April Bennett told local news outlet BR Proud: 'I think gathering in this large of a group it's just incubating the coronavirus. These people are coming from five different parishes people that live near me go to this church and I don't want to get coronavirus. 'I know people have the right to assemble and normally the freedom of religion but right now it's imperative we don't. Police are expecting the pastor to turn himself in today when he will be charged with aggravated assault and improper reversing, TMZ reported. Bus loads of congregants arrived at Spell's Life Tabernacle Church before an Easter church service on Sunday The controversial leader of the Life Tabernacle Church in Louisiana has faced intense criticism after repeatedly breaking lockdown rules and holding church services, going against stay-at-home orders issued by Governor John Bel Edwards. And although one member of his congregation died from COVID-19 a diagnosis Spell has denied - the religious leader went ahead with his service as usual on Sunday and announced day one of the #PastorSpellStimulusChallenge. More than 300,000 have watched him online urging them to claim their $1,200 payouts and give it to a missionary. A video clip shows him saying: 'Rule no.2, donate your stimulus money. Rule no.3 donate it to evangelists, north American evangelists who haven't had an offering in a month. Missionaries who haven't had an offering in a month. Music ministers who haven't had an offering in a month.' He added: 'We are challenging you, if you can, (to) give your stimulus package to evangelists and missionaries who do not get the stimulus package. They don't file taxes the way you and I do.' He has defended his decision to ask parishioners to give up their unemployment checks. Spell has come under fire for repeatedly holding services at his Life Tabernacle Church near Baton Rouge despite Louisiana's stay-at-home order to stop the spread of coronavirus. Churchgoers are pictured above after a sermon on March 29 A video posted on YouTube clocked up thousands of comments, with some asking whether Spell's church should be using regular donations to help missionaries. He defended his reactions in an interview with CNN saying the church is giving to those who are most needy. The Sunday service went ahead despite the recent death of one of the Chuch's parishioners from Covid-19. Harold Orillion, 78, died last Wednesday, according to The East Baton Rouge Parish coroner. The man's cause of death was listed as 'acute respiratory distress syndrome' due to the coronavirus. Pastor Spell disputed the cause of death, saying he died of a broken heart after recently losing his son. The pastor has previously said his parishioners are true Christians who wouldn't mind dying from the virus because they'd be doing so in the name of God and freedom. It's unclear when the man last attended a service at Spell's church. Baby From Italy Becomes the Face of Hope After Surviving 50-Day Battle With CCP Virus Robert Morris, the pastor of Gateway Church shared on his Facebook last week how God has been faithful to His Church despite the vicious coronavirus pandemic. Recently the church offered its virtual service via livestream because of stay-at-home orders and drew over 300,000 attendants online. "In 2000, when God spoke to me about founding Gateway Church, He said that we would build a church of 30,000, which reaches 300,000 in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, 3 million people in Texas, 30 million people in America, and 300 million people around the world, Pastor Morris shared on his post. "It's so fitting that right before our 20th anniversary, we were able to reach that 300,000 number through our online church services," He added. "We do not believe God sent this plague to our land, but we DO believe that He has absolutely used what the devil meant for evil and has turned it for good," He emphasized. Pastor Morris also posted a photo of a handwritten note by Wayne Drain who has served Gateway Church with his musical talents. "Pastor Robert Morris, I had a picture of Pastor Robert preaching behind his own pulpit. It was on an Easter morning. I heard that his church would be about three things: messages, music and miracles. Wayne Drain, 1999" Gateway Church is a multicampus church in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas with more than 30,000 people attending each weekend according to its website. A new study conducted by a team of Chinese researchers from Zhejiang University has claimed that the novel coronavirus COVID-19 has mutated into at least 30 different strains. The researchers said that the ability of the coronavirus to mutate has been greatly underestimated and different strains of this virus may account for different impacts of the disease. Professor Li Lanjuan and her colleagues conducted the study on a small pool of patients and found many mutations not previously reported. Li said that some of these mutations included rare changes which were never observed by the scientists. Sars-CoV-2 has acquired mutations capable of substantially changing its pathogenicity, Li and her colleagues wrote in a non-peer reviewed paper released on preprint service medRxiv.org on Sunday. Li adopted a novel method to probe the virus mutation by analysing the viral strains isolated from 11 randomly chosen Covid-19 patients from Hangzhou in the eastern province of Zhejiang. These isolated strains were then tested how efficiently they could infect and kill cells. The researchers found that the deadliest mutations in the Zhejiang patients were also found in most patients across Europe, while the milder strains were the predominant varieties found in Washington state and some other areas of the US. It is to be noted that Li was the first scientist to propose the lockdown of Wuhan in China to curb the spread of coronavirus. Her advice was followed by the Chinese government and the city was ultimately placed under lockdown in late January. Professor Zhang Xuegong, head of the bioinformatics division at the National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology at Tsinghua University, told South China Morning Post that ultra-deep sequencing could prove to be an effective strategy to track the mutation of coronavirus. It can produce some useful information, he said. But he added that this method could be much more time consuming and costly. The government has denied it is responsible for a host of Twitter accounts allegedly posing as NHS workers. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) had been accused on social media of operating a co-ordinated network of fake accounts under the name of healthworkers and supportive of Boris Johnson, but it has denied having any role in their creation and no firm evidence has emerged of any link. Instead, they appear to have been intended to troll other internet users, with a series of tweets that suggest they were in fact meant as something like satire. Twitter user John OConnell, who first made the claims on Monday and which were then widely shared, said that he had found 128 fake NHS staff accounts that were tweeting posts supportive of government policy, though he only pointed to one account. He said he had found evidence that the accounts were set up by the Department for Health and Social Care or its marketing agency, he claimed, though he did not share that evidence or any information about how he had discovered that evidence. But the department involved has denied any involvement in the posts or setting up the accounts. These claims are categorically false, the DHSC posted from its official Twitter account. To share disinformation of this kind undermines the national effort against coronavirus. It linked out to the governments Share Checklist, which is intended as a way of dispelling false stories about coronavirus and other news events. Mr OConnell, an anti-far right activist, repeatedly claimed that the DHSC had refused to look at information he had on where the tweets were coming from. But the department said that it had asked him to see further details several times and that such evidence had not been provided. In his tweets, Mr OConnell pointed to only one specific account, using the name NHS Susan, which claimed to be owned by a junior doctor involved in the fight against coronavirus. That account had posted supportive messages of Boris Johnson and the governments response to the pandemic in the UK, before it was removed. But it also posted a variety of messages that appeared to be intended primarily to troll critics, and which suggested that the account was not intended to be taken seriously. The account had posted messages suggesting that it wanted to have the weekly Clap For Our Carers celebration banned, for instance, which is not government policy as well as being an unlikely position for an account trying to pose as a real NHS worker to take. Mr OConnells tweets did not give any information on the 127 other false accounts he claimed to have found on Twitter. He also gave no evidence for his claim that the accounts were being run on behalf of the DHSC, or that he had discovered the specific person who was co-ordinating them. West Herts Hospitals, where the picture used on the NHS Susan account had been taken, said that it was aware of the fake account and had it taken offline. We reported this fake account to twitter as soon as we were made aware of it, it wrote on its official Twitter page. It has now been shut down. Twitter said that it had not seen evidence of any large-scale manipulation of its platform, from the UK government or anyone else. Our specialist teams currently do not see evidence of large-scale coordinated platform manipulation surrounding the Covid-19 conversation, including suggested coordination associated with the UK Government, a spokesperson said. As is standard, we will remove any pockets of smaller coordinated attempts to distort or inorganically influence the conversation. We are continuing to review and require the removal of Tweets that do not follow the Twitter Rules half of which we catch before theyre ever reported to us. If people see anything suspicious on our service, please report it to us. This is an evolving global conversation and we will remain vigilant. Advertisement Police in Louisiana this morning arrested controversial pastor Tony Spell on an assault charge after he admitted that he drove his church bus toward a man who has been protesting his decision to continue holding mass gatherings at church in defiance of a coronavirus lockdown. A defiant Spell walked out of jail several hours later after posting bail and was greeted by thunderous applause from dozens of his supporters. The police department in Central, a suburb of the capital of Baton Rouge, said on a posting on their Facebook page that Spell, the leader of Life Tabernacle Church, turned himself into the department and was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and improper backing. Officials said Spell also had outstanding traffic tickets. Scroll down for video A defiant Spell exited the jail flashing the 'V' sign for victory after posting bail. He was arrested Tuesday morning on an aggravated assault charge Shaye Spell, the pastor's wife, flashes bail money towards waiting congregants outside the East Baton Rouge Parish jail in Baton Rouge Tuesday Video shot by the station WAFB at around 10am shows Spell, dressed in a suit and tie, with his hair slicked back, being surrounded by officers wearing face masks and placed in handcuffs. Spell is heard on the recording complaining after his Bible was taken away from him during the arrest. 'My rights to have church and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ are endowed to me by my creator, not my district attorney, not my chief of police and not my governor, John Bel Edwards,' Spell said after exiting the jail on Tuesday afternoon. 'Not my president and not my Department of Justice.' He went on: 'my inalienable rights are given to me by God and those rights are my rights to assemble and have church. I cannot give up those rights.' Spell claimed that he preached to his fellow inmates inside the jail and warned guards that if they used profanities, he would quote scriptures. The pastor denied any wrongdoing, saying, 'the only thing I'm guilty of is practicing my faith.' Members of the Life Tabernacle Church sing spiritual songs and hold their hands in the air as they wait for pastor Tony Spell to leave the East Baton Rouge Parish jail About 70 parishioners, dressed in their Sunday best, arrived in church buses to show support Families, including children in matching outfits, huddled in the parking lot, praying and singing hymns, without a face covering in sight Protestor Trey Bennett holds a sign towards members of the Life Tabernacle Church waiting outside the East Baton Rouge Parish jail for Pastor Tony Spell to post bond Spell wrapped up his impromptu speech by announcing his plan to resume preaching at his church tonight at 7.30pm. 'Thank God for my church who stands with me today,' he said. This booking photo provided by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office shows pastor Tony Spell, who was taken to jail Tuesday after being arrested on charges including aggravated assault Before Spell was released, one Spell supporter shouted defiantly at Trey Bennett, the protester Spell is accused of assaulting. Bennett also showed up at the jail, carrying his protest sign. It says 'Close this church' on one side and 'Danger: coronavirus incubator' on the other. The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office later released Spell's booking photo, which shows the cleric with a slight smile on his face. Spell was taken to the East Baton Rouge Parish prison, where about 70 of his parishioners, dressed in their Sunday best, arrived in church buses to show support. Men in jackets and ties, women in dresses and children, some in matching outfits, gathered in a parking lot across the street. They stood close to each other, praying and singing hymns while guards, some wearing protective masks watched. Spell eventually walked out of the jail flashing the 'V' for victory sign to applause from his supporters, after his wife entered the jail flashing a cash fan that had been delivered by someone in a car. Online booking records indicate bail was set at $5,000. Spell clutched what appears to be a copy of the Bible as he walked with confidence past news reporters toward his church bus after leaving jail Spell railed against the authorities, the governor of Louisiana, the Justice Department and President Donald Trump 'Our church will never close, you get that?' the man yelled. Earlier Tuesday, Debbie Dougherty, administrative assistant to the chief at the Central Police Department said Spell had driven a church bus in reverse in the direction of the sign-holding protester. Spell already faces misdemeanor charges for holding in-person church services despite the ban on gatherings. Authorities have said they did not book him into jail previously because they did not want to add to the jail population at a time when the highly infectious disease is running rampant. They have not taken any action to close his church. Parishioner Nathan Boyce Thomas also faces charges of aggravated assault and reckless operation of a vehicle after being seen on video driving his white pickup truck to within about a foot of where protester Trey Bennett was standing at the road side. Police said Thomas drove at a high rate of speed, then braked just before turning into the church parking lot. Dougherty said Thomas also planned to turn himself in later Tuesday. Tony Spell taken into police custody VIDEO: Tony Spell arrested outside of Life Tabernacle Church in Central. STORY: https://bit.ly/3axDXJu Posted by WAFB Channel 9 on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 This video shot by WAFB shows the moment Spell turned himself in Tuesday morning and was handcuffed by officers He expressed displeasure that his Bible was taken away in the course of the arrest The pastor showed up at the police headquarters wearing a suit and tie, with his hair slicked back, but without a face covering Bennett has kept up a one-man demonstration in front of the church near the capital of Baton Rouge since Easter Sunday, when he noticed hundreds of parishioners still attending services after the state's stay-at-home mandate went into effect. The mandate bans gatherings of more than ten people. Houses of worship across the state have turned to online services instead. Bennett, whose signs say 'Close this Church' and 'Danger - Coronavirus Incubator,' said he was used to getting scowls and verbal jabs from parishioners, but was 'shocked' to see vehicles being driven at him. Videos of the two incidents on April 19 were obtained and reviewed by The Associated Press. One shows the church bus making a sharp turn and then backing in the opposite direction of traffic on the shoulder to within a few feet of Bennett before coming to a stop. The white bus is pictured in front of the Tabernacle Life Church in Louisiana. Right, an individual stands outside the church It grinds to a halt mere feet away from coronavirus protester Trey Bennett Another shows a white pickup truck swerving out of its lane and onto the shoulder within about a foot of Bennett's body. Spell acknowledged in a telephone interview with WAFB-TV on Monday that he was driving the bus. He said he just wanted to get out and confront the protester, but his wife talked him out of it. A seven-second clip posted on social media shows the large white bus reversing at some speed towards a seemingly oblivious member of the public. The bus appears to stop mere feet away from Bennett. The lone picketer told WAFB: 'At first I thought he [Spell] was just turning around his bus and was going to pull away, but he just kept coming in reverse. I could see him [Spell] driving the bus. 'He was honking his horn loudly at me and making gestures suggesting he was yelling while he was driving. It didnt seem real until it was physically in my face with a bus.' On Monday, Spell told WAFB in a phone interview: '[Bennett] has been in front of my church driveway for three weeks now. He shoots people obscene finger gestures and shouts vulgarities,' though Bennett denies the allegations. Earlier this month, Bennett told local news outlet BR Proud: 'I think gathering in this large of a group it's just incubating the coronavirus. These people are coming from five different parishes people that live near me go to this church and I don't want to get coronavirus. 'I know people have the right to assemble and normally the freedom of religion but right now it's imperative we don't.' Bus loads of congregants arrived at Spell's Life Tabernacle Church before an Easter church service on Sunday Spell talks to the media as he drives a bus of congregants from Life Tabernacle Church after Easter church services on April 12 in Central, Louisiana The controversial leader of the Life Tabernacle Church in Louisiana has faced intense criticism after repeatedly breaking lockdown rules and holding church services, going against stay-at-home orders issued by Governor John Bel Edwards. And although one member of his congregation died from COVID-19 a diagnosis Spell has denied - the religious leader went ahead with his service as usual on Sunday and announced day one of the #PastorSpellStimulusChallenge. More than 300,000 have watched him online urging them to claim their $1,200 payouts and give it to a missionary. A video clip shows him saying: 'Rule no.2, donate your stimulus money. Rule no.3 donate it to evangelists, north American evangelists who haven't had an offering in a month. Missionaries who haven't had an offering in a month. Music ministers who haven't had an offering in a month.' He added: 'We are challenging you, if you can, (to) give your stimulus package to evangelists and missionaries who do not get the stimulus package. They don't file taxes the way you and I do.' He has defended his decision to ask parishioners to give up their unemployment checks. Spell has come under fire for repeatedly holding services at his Life Tabernacle Church near Baton Rouge despite Louisiana's stay-at-home order to stop the spread of coronavirus. Churchgoers are pictured above after a sermon on March 29 A video posted on YouTube clocked up thousands of comments, with some asking whether Spell's church should be using regular donations to help missionaries. He defended his reactions in an interview with CNN saying the church is giving to those who are most needy. The Sunday service went ahead despite the recent death of one of the Chuch's parishioners from Covid-19. Harold Orillion, 78, died last Wednesday, according to The East Baton Rouge Parish coroner. The man's cause of death was listed as 'acute respiratory distress syndrome' due to the coronavirus. Pastor Spell disputed the cause of death, saying he died of a broken heart after recently losing his son. The pastor has previously said his parishioners are true Christians who wouldn't mind dying from the virus because they'd be doing so in the name of God and freedom. It's unclear when the man last attended a service at Spell's church. On March 24th, the central government ordered a national lockdown for 1.3 billion people. The announcement sent shockwaves across the nation, factories were closed, transportations were stopped, and millions of migrant workers tried to return home. India was not the first to lock down an entire country, China, South Korea, Singapore, France, Germany, UK, among many others have also implemented total confinement to stop COVID-19 from spreading. Although their extreme measures were effective, a recent resurge of new cases could send nations into a second wave of lockdown. As lockdowns continue, a question arises: How can governments, businesses and communities support everyday life during this time? Each country has developed innovative responses, based on their unique context. Also Read: Coronavirus lockdown: 39% jump in grocery sales in kirana stores, says McKinsey China, the first country to lock down Wuhan, a city of 11 million, then its entire nation, relied heavily on its digital maturity to deliver grocery, fresh food and household staples. During the lockdown, Alibaba, JD.com, PDD, and MTDP and other e-commerce companies stepped up their logistics and delivery capacities to meet the surging demand. This digital transformation was not an overnight phenomenon, it has taken China many years. Take grocery and household staples for example. Alibaba and JD.com modernised many mom-and-pop corner stores with integrated digital supply chain, digital inventory system, and mobile payment system. They expanded their digitalisation efforts to other parts of the retail ecosystem, such as farmer's markets and C2C digital marketplaces, and created an integrated customer experience. Consumers use a single "super app" for different shopping experiences across multiple categories, both online and offline. Alibaba and JD.com also introduced new ways of shopping for fresh food and semi-prepared food; Freshippo and 7Fresh are their local supermarket-kitchen-delivery hubs integrated with their e-commerce app. Also Read: Coronavirus: Order online from local kirana stores! Govt helps digitise small shops During the lockdown, online orders and delivery with these stores increased from households that had to cook three meals a day. To meet these demand spikes, Freshippo and 7Fresh called on idling workers from other sectors to join their logistic networks. MTDP, DiDi and others also joined efforts with supermarkets to offer last-mile delivery services. In the US, while Amazon remains the pure-play e-commerce platform, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers have looked to increase their online presence as well. For example, Walmart has grown Walmart.com. However, in grocery and fresh food categories, US e-commerce still struggles. In Europe, low consumer demand, lack of a digitally integrated supply chain, old city infrastructure, strict labour regulations are among many factors that contribute to the slow growth of e-commerce penetration. Encouragingly, there are increasing collaborations between established retailers and e-commerce and delivery start-ups in response to the crisis. For example, the UK government relaxed labour regulation and extended working hours for grocery stores to restock at night. Also Read: Coronavirus crisis: How to grocery shop safely during COVID-19 outbreak In France, Franprix partnered with Deliveroo and Carrefour with Uber Eats to meet the increasing demands of customers. Carrefour has innovated by dedicating specific hours for medical workers, elderly, immune-compromised, and other vulnerable populations. Large retailers have also increased their in-store pickup services to make up for the lack of delivery capacity. India is unique in the grocery and retail space. Over 12 million independent Kirana (mom-and-pop) stores form a large portion of India's retail network and over 90% of the supply chain is unorganised. Over the last decade, efforts by Walmart and other major consumer brands such as Unilever have focused on improving the consumer goods supply chain in India. Of late, the Kirana stores have increasingly been engaging through e-commerce and digital solution providers. For example, fintech companies have been competing on digital payment options; large retailers offer digital POS systems that can be integrated into their own e-commerce systems and tech start-ups offer digital solutions from supply chain to inventory to catalogue management. These efforts have helped transition the Kirana stores to become more modern. The COVID-19 lockdown puts huge pressure on the groceries, fresh foods and staples supply chain. These everyday items, required daily by 1.3 billion house-bound citizens, need to be delivered with minimal human-to-human contact. As India continues to fight this crisis, experiences from other countries may offer a few lessons:- Pay attention to your unique retail context. What do Indian consumers need and how can you adapt to the current system to meet these needs? Secure supply chain and last-mile delivery capacity. Plan ahead and secure goods from local, national, and international supply networks. Call on workers from other sectors, collaborate with start-ups and reach out to companies from other sectors to build capacity. Work with the government on policies and regulations. During the crisis, the government could help retailers in securing labour, finance, and even products. Create novel solutions through grass-roots innovation. Engage with consumers and Kirana store owners to co-innovate. India has seen the birth of innovations that are both effective and cost-efficient. Collaboration may generate new ideas that fit India's unique context. - Ma Xiaowei, minister in charge of China's National Health Commission, calls on all parties to continue supporting the WHO's leading role in coordinating international cooperation against COVID-19. - "Today, the exchange of national practices to overcome all the negative consequences of COVID-19 is very important. And in this situation, the leading role of the WHO is important," Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said. - Canadian Health Minister Patty Hajdu expressed her hope that under the leadership of the WHO, countries can form joint efforts to unleash power that no single country can achieve alone. BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Health Ministers of Group of 20 (G20) have highlighted the need to further coordinate efforts and to support the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in combatting COVID-19. A virtual meeting on Sunday, hosted by Saudi Arabia, convened health leaders of G20 members and other invited countries, as well as officials from international and regional organizations including the WHO and the World Bank Group. Photo taken on Apirl 19, 2020 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia shows Group of 20 (G20) health ministers attending a virtual meeting. (G20 Saudi Arabia/Handout via Xinhua) SUPPORT FOR WHO During the meeting, G20 health ministers voiced their support for the WHO in playing a leading role in coordinating global efforts against the novel coronavirus. Ma Xiaowei, minister in charge of China's National Health Commission, said China is willing to implement the consensus reached at the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit in late March, and calls on all parties to continue supporting the WHO's leading role in coordinating international cooperation against COVID-19. He also called for international cooperation in carrying out joint prevention and control in the fight against the pandemic. "Today, the exchange of national practices to overcome all the negative consequences of COVID-19 is very important. And in this situation, the leading role of the WHO is important," Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said. Canadian Health Minister Patty Hajdu also expressed her hope that under the leadership of the WHO, countries can form joint efforts to unleash power that no single country can achieve alone, adding that they need to make sure that no nation falls behind. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks at the Group of 20 (G20) health ministers virtual meeting, April 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo) Speaking at the virtual meeting from Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the health ministers that the WHO "has sounded the alarm bell loud and clear" since the beginning. His remarks came after the United States announced Tuesday a decision to halt the nation's funding to the WHO, which President Donald Trump accused of "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus." On the pandemic battle, Tedros said, "We are encouraged that several G20 countries are now starting to plan how to ease social restrictions. It is critical that these measures are a phased process." Currently, the pandemic is showing more encouraging signs of abating on the European continent, with a continuous drop in the daily numbers of new deaths and new infections. In the United States, a debate is ongoing about whether it is time for governors to lift stay-at-home orders, as Trump has unveiled guidelines for a phased reopening of the U.S. economy. Lifting lockdown restrictions is not the end of the pandemic, but just the beginning of its next phase, Tedros told the health ministers, adding it is vital in this next phase that countries educate, engage and empower their people to prevent and respond rapidly to any resurgence. The WHO is committed to leading the work requested by the G20 leaders, in cooperation with its partners, to assess gaps in global preparedness, and lay the foundations for a healthier, safer, fairer world, Tedros said. "The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of a simple truth: We are one humanity. We share the same planet. We share the same hopes and dreams. We share the same destiny," the WHO chief said. Head of China's National Health Commission Ma Xiaowei attends the Group of 20 (G20) health ministers' virtual meeting in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, April 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo) IMPROVE HEALTH SYSTEMS The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed systemic weaknesses in health systems, and has shown vulnerabilities in the global community's ability to prevent and respond to pandemic threats, the health ministers noted during the virtual meeting. They addressed the need to improve the effectiveness of global health systems by sharing knowledge and closing the gap in response capabilities and readiness, according to the meeting's news release. The G20 health ministers also shared their respective countries' experiences and preventative measures in containing the pandemic. China's medical supplies for 18 African countries arrive at the Kotota International Airport in Accra, capital of Ghana, April 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Xu Zheng) Ma, briefing his colleagues, said that after three months of hard work, the domestic transmission in China has basically been curbed, with more people resuming normal life and returning to work. "We have been continually improving our prevention, control and treatment work and sharing our experience with the world," he said. His view was shared by Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza, who stressed the need to establish a joint prevention and control method, to make the world prepared for any possible future incidents. Speranza also suggested promoting cooperation in clinical trials, research, medical treatment and other areas. Murashko singled out the global issue of access to and provision of medical products, including regulatory mechanisms and quality control procedures, stressing the need to improve global response mechanisms. Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato, meanwhile, highlighted the importance of making coordination a priority. The meeting also addressed the importance of utilizing digital solutions in pandemics, and the emphasis on patient safety, among other issues. Workers transfer medical supplies from China in Cairo International Airport, Egypt, April 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Wu Huiwo) NO ONE LEFT BEHIND The ministers echoed G20 leaders' concerns over the risks posed by the pandemic to developing and less-developed countries, where health systems and economies may be less able to cope with such challenges. The WHO is deeply concerned that the virus now appears to be gathering pace in countries that lack the capacity of many G20 countries to respond to it, Tedros told the health ministers. "Urgent support is needed, not only to support countries to respond to COVID-19, but to ensure other essential health services continue," he said. In his address to the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit in late March, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed that a G20 health ministers' meeting be convened as soon as possible to improve information sharing, strengthen cooperation on drugs, vaccines and epidemic control, and cut off cross-border infections. Xi also proposed a G20 COVID-19 assistance initiative for better information sharing and policy and action coordination with the support of the WHO. Guided by the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, China has been more than ready to share its good practices and provide assistance in its capacity to countries hit by the pandemic, Xi said. So far, the Chinese government has provided or is providing supplies to 127 countries and four international organizations and has sent expert teams to 15 countries, according to Ma, who also urged the health ministers to boost joint efforts to provide help to countries with vulnerable health systems. Wang Anming, a member of Chinese medical experts team, installs CT equipment in Baghdad, Iraq, April 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Miao) Saudi Arabia, which holds the presidency of the G20 this year, announced Thursday a 500-million-U.S. dollar donation to relevant international organizations to support global efforts in combating COVID-19. On Wednesday, G20 finance ministers and central bank governors agreed to suspend debt service payments for the world's poorest countries from May 1 until the end of the year. With international coordination and mutual assistance gathering momentum, the international community is fostering greater synergy so that humanity as one, as Xi said, may win the battle against COVID-19. Enditem Benglauru, April 21 : The Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Department has abandoned using Zoom app for its daily video press conference amid the Covid-19 lockdown since Monday, and has transitioned to Cisco Webex, an official said on Tuesday. "Dear all, we will not use Zoom app for media briefing from Monday. We will be using Cisco Webex meeting," messaged a health official who shares Covid data with journalists everyday. The development comes in the light of recent central government caution on using the Zoom app which is purported to be unsafe. Incidentally, global software major Infosys also deployed Webex to conduct its virtual Q4 financial results press conference on Monday. Meanwhile, Google Meet, part of G-Suite is witnessing more than 2 million new users everyday amid Covid lockdown, following millions working remotely from home. G-Suite, a host of Google productivity apps comprising Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Calendar, Meet and others enables teams to connect and collaborate remotely. "Google Meet is built on Google Cloud's secure-by-design infrastructure to help protect user data and safeguard privacy," said Mark Johnston, Google Cloud, Asia Pacific, Head of Security, Networking and Collaboration Specialists. Posted on: April 20, 2020 9:36 AM [ACNS, by Staff Writer] The Anglican Church of Burundi, in collaboration with the United Nations childrens organisation UNICEF, have conducted an intensive training course for youth in peace building and social cohesion. Thousands of young people in Kibago, Mabanda, Nyanza Lac and Rumonge are running social activities to deepen social cohesion between members of their communities. The training was intended to help young people address issues related to social instability, such as poverty and unemployment. During the training sessions, held once a week, young people engaged in discussions about how they could tackle the issues in their communities. The young people also initiated income-generating activities in order to help them address issues of poverty and have been given loans to help get them started. For example, one group of young girls in Nyana-lac have invested in growing rice. The Anglican Church of Burundi ha said that the training has been especially important at this time in Burundi as they are heading into elections. It is among several initiatives being undertaken by the Church to encourage people to approach the election process responsibly and engage in peace building with their communities before, during and after the elections. The Bishop of Matanya, Seth Ndayirukiye, leads the initiatives. He said: the elections should be considered as a normal process that has the potential to help the country progress towards further development, rather than as a source of conflict and crisis. Youth are being urged to be examples to their peers of those who promote and keep peace. The initiatives they are undertaking are assisting adults, and entire communities, to find solutions to the challenges they are facing. Last month, the UN Human Rights Council warned of a deteriorating situation in Burundi as the country heads towards its general election on 20 May. The UNHRC singled out a youth league linked to President Pierre Nkurunzizas ruling National Council for the Defense of DemocracyForces for the Defense of Democracy party for carrying out multiple attacks against opposition politicians and their families. They Commission said that the group have continued to carry out killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions, acts of torture and ill-treatment and rape against actual or alleged political opposition members. Burundi has suffered from conflict and instability since it gained independence in 1962; including assassinations, coups, episodes of ethnic cleansing, civil wars and genocides. The last general election, in 2015, was accompanied by a failed coup attempt. DES MOINES -- Gov. Kim Reynolds announced a high of 482 new positive cases of coronavirus and four new deaths on Tuesday, noting a third of the new cases were the result of more testing at the state's meatpacking plants. She also revealed Iowa is the second state to begin assessing all its residents online and allowing for the testing of 3,000 more residents per day for the next 180 days, thanks to a new partnership the state has with a private company from Utah. All Iowans were asked to take an online assessment at TestIowa.com, which mandates users provide their full name and address, date of birth, height in inches, weight, an email address and a cell phone number. The questionnaire then asks people if they have symptoms of coronavirus, if they've been around someone who tested positive or have had respiratory symptoms in the last two weeks, if they have any underlying medical conditions, how many people of what ages live in their home, if they've been practicing social distancing and in what industry they work. Those who qualify to be tested will then be emailed a QR code they can take to a mobile testing site, which Reynolds said will be set up around the state as needed in the coming weeks. "The information collected is critical to better understand the virus activity across the state," Reynolds said, noting it was also important to know where coronavirus activity was not occurring so that she could "responsibly" begin to reopen parts of Iowa. Of the 3,641 cases in 84 of Iowa's 99 counties, 1,293 people have recovered, for a 35% recovery rate, Reynolds said. Another 214 were hospitalized across the state, 89 of those in intensive care units and 60 on ventilators. Another four had died, bringing the state's total to 83. More than half -- 51% -- of all deaths were residents of long-term care facilities, she said. Cerro Gordo County has remained steady with the same 14 cases since April 14. No one in the county has died, 654 people have been tested, and 12 have recovered. Worth County has had one case, 87 people tested and no deaths. No data was listed on number who have recovered. Mitchell County has had two cases, 93 people tested, no deaths and both those diagnosed have since recovered. Floyd County remains on of the few in Iowa with no cases of COVID-19. Franklin County has had a single case, with that person now recovered, no deaths and 90 people tested. Hancock County has three confirmed cases, no deaths, two people recovered and 100 people tested. Winnebago County has had two cases, with both recovered, no deaths and 98 people tested. In North Central Iowa's state-designated Regional Medical Coordination Center, one person has been hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Revenue has seized 66,000 worth of drugs in two locations in Munster. The discoveries of the controlled substance kratom were made in Cork and Shannon. Officers found the drugs in packages that were addressed to locations in Cork, Clare and Galway. The controlled drugs were in powder and capsule form in seven separate packages. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-20 22:21:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on April 20, 2020 shows the Basaksehir City Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey. The first phase of a new mega-hospital, which will be used for treating COVID-19 patients, was inaugurated on Monday in Istanbul. The death toll of the virus in Turkey climbed to 2,017 and the confirmed cases totaled 86,306 on Sunday, according to the latest figures of the Health Ministry. (Xinhua) ISTANBUL, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The first phase of a new mega-hospital, which will be used for treating COVID-19 patients, was inaugurated on Monday in Turkey's biggest city Istanbul. The inpatient services of the gynecology and pediatric clinics of the Basaksehir City Hospital were put into service, which are used as pandemic hospitals for the time being. Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, "Thus, today, we have added 1,035 qualified beds, including 155 intensive care beds, to our health system," he noted. The health care complex will have a total of 2,682 beds, with 458 intensive care beds, when all phases will be completed next month. "All the beds of our Basaksehir City Hospital have an intensive care infrastructure and all of them can be converted into intensive care standards when necessary," Koca also pointed out. Meanwhile, the minister noted that Turkish engineers manufactured 100 domestic intensive care ventilators which are ready to be used for the first time in the hospital. Speaking at the ceremony, Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank said, "dozens of engineers came together ... and they obtained the first batch of indigenous intensive care ventilators from the mass production line in just 14 days." According to Varank, Turkey will be able to produce 5,000 ventilators in total by the end of May. Attending the ceremony via video conference, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "we are appreciating the importance of being self-sufficient and even beyond that, being able to help our friends." For Ceyhun Dundar, a physician and head of the Fit Medical Center, the Basaksehir City Hospital would provide lifeline support in the fight against the outbreak of COVID-19 in Istanbul, the epicenter of the virus in the country. In Dundar's view, COVID-19 patients have been putting an extra load on the health system due to long intensive care and treatment periods. "Therefore, every new hospital will present significant relief," he told Xinhua. Turkey has been building two other hospitals for COVID-19 patients in Istanbul in the Ataturk airport area on the European side of the city and the Sancaktepe district on the Asian side. The death toll of the virus in Turkey climbed to 2,017 and the confirmed cases totaled 86,306 on Sunday, according to the latest figures of the Health Ministry. A FURTHER eight cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Limerick bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 409. Figures released by the Department of Health this Tuesday evening, show 388 new cases have now been confirmed across the country bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases in Ireland to 16,040. An additional 44 Covid-related deaths have been reported across the country, meaning there have now been 730 deaths in this country which were related to the disease. Of the total number of deaths, 394 are associated with nursing homes. New figures show a total of 9,233 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have now recovered. Department of Health COVID-19 Press Briefing https://t.co/HvINtkIOiZ Department of Health (@roinnslainte) April 21, 2020 At a media briefing, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said the decision of government to ban large events until the end of August was appropriate and consistent with the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team. He also appealed to members of the public not to get complacent ahead of the May 5 when its hoped some of the current public health restrictions may be eased. Separately, Dr Cilliian De Gascun. director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory has confirmed that 111,584 tests have now been completed. Of those, 20,822 tests were completed over the past week. WEST HAVEN The citys July 3 fireworks show has been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic and its significant impact on the community, the city announced Tuesday. The Savin Rock Fireworks Committee determined that it is appropriate to cancel the 2020 fireworks event and Mayor Nany Rossi concurred, according to a release. A large part of the problem is in raising enough money during this crisis, the release said. After fireworks committee member and City Council Chairman Ronald M. Quagliani, D-At Large, informed Rossi about the difficulties of having a large public event in these challenging times, the committee decided to cancel the traditional July 3 fireworks, to ensure the health and safety of the public, the release said. Rossi thanked members of the committee for their hard work and tireless dedication to putting on the best fireworks show possible. The committee also had to cancel many scheduled fundraisers due to the pandemic and social distancing restrictions. Due to circumstances beyond our control, I feel we have no choice but to cancel this years show, Sandy McCauley, co-chairwoman with Marianne Drapeau, said in the release. Many traditional sponsors are unable to give this year due to the financial uncertainty this pandemic has caused. There is no way of knowing when (social distancing) will end. Drapeau said they are making the right call to cancel the fireworks this year. Committee member Sherri Lepper, the citys Democratic registrar of voters, also was in favor of the move. I believe canceling would be the best thing right now. We are not going to raise $15,000 to pay for the show by July, Lepper said. We should get a jump on having fundraisers to raise money for 2021 once this pandemic is over. Committee member Susan K. Walker echoed Leppers sentiments. We cannot raise the money and cannot ask businesses that usually support us to donate this year, she said. We should use the money we have to give us a good start for next year. The committees fundraisers this year collected less than $5,000, McCauley said, adding the committee is offering to return several checks it received from city businesses to aid their recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The committee wishes all the residents of West Haven good health and will get to work on the 2021 show as soon as we are able to, Quagliani said in the release. The fireworks display, traditionally launched off Bradley Point, is billed as the regions largest Independence Day fireworks show, drawing an estimated 100,000 people of all ages to the West Haven shoreline each year. National Volunteer Week is April 19 to 25, and the American Red Cross of Western New York honors our volunteers who are helping people in need, even during the uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergencies dont stop, and neither do local Red Cross volunteers, who are still providing care and comfort after disasters of all sizes, including home fires and other local disasters. During the month of March alone, local volunteers helped more than 200 people impacted by these incidents. Due to this coronavirus outbreak, volunteers are often providing relief services after home fires virtually, in coordination with local fire departments. Connecting with families by phone or video calls, were helping to provide support like lodging, health and mental health services, and emergency financial assistance, as well as link people to available recovery resources. Hundreds of our neighbors volunteer with the Red Cross by helping to support blood collections, providing emergency assistance to military families, training people in lifesaving skills, responding to home fires in the middle of the night and so much more. These individuals are among the more than 300,000 volunteers who comprise more than 90% of the national Red Cross workforce. Red Cross volunteers keep our communities strong. We honor these true heroes who give their time to help people in need. Our need for volunteers is constant and continues to evolve as we navigate this coronavirus health crisis. Volunteer opportunities include supporting blood donations and delivering much-needed disaster services to your community. We even have a wide variety of volunteer-from-home opportunities available. Find out more by visiting redcross.org/volunteer. Dan Hartman is regional communications program manager for the American Red Cross Western and Central New York Region. For more information, call (315) 234-2200 or email info.cny@redcross.org. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Amid the current market turmoil, this is our regular report on hedge fund and alternative asset managers who are bucking the trend. Defensive positions and meaningful hedges Solstein Capital Partners, a multi-strategy hedge fund, returned +2.7% in March (+0.6% YTD, compared to the S&P500's -20%). Launched in August 2011, it has annualised +4.5% (net), compared to the HFRI Composite Index's +2.4%. Solstein invests predominantly in developed and select emerging markets, across sectors and market capitalizations. A portfolio includes up to fifteen investment themes, comprised of around 20-30 core securities and incorporating predominantly idiosyncratic (versus market) risk. "When the 'chickens came home to roost' in late February, Solstein employed its risk management toolkit across client portfolios and implemented: (a) high levels of cash and defensive long positions (e.g., Treasuries, gold, low beta positions) for long-only strategies, and (b) meaningful hedges, which included short positions and options for hedged strategies," says a manager quarterly report seen by Opalesque. Going forward, Solstein will manage its portfolios with the following game plan: mid-level gross exposure with flexible net exposure; managed fixed income, with active management of equities and a continued underweight in credit in the US; overweight Health Care, tech-related REITS, low-leverage and non-add spend Info Tech, and Staples versus an underweight/short in select Consumer Discretionary and Financials sectors; overweight short duration treasuries in the US, versus an underweight/short in high yield credit and leveraged loans; underweight emerging markets; consistently overweight to high-quality businesses; and short opportunities in companies with an accelerating degradation in business fundamentals with higher relative valuations and leverage. Headquartered in San Francisco, Solstein Capital is an independent investment firm that concentrates capital in portfolios of high conviction, global securities. CEO/CIO Nadine Terman has more than twenty years of experience. Nadine Terman participated in Opalesque's West Coast Roundtable in 2015 (related article here). Stock picking in Japan The Pelargos Japan Alpha Fund is a long/short equity fund that uses fundamental value stock picking and proprietary systematic tools. The EUR class, launched in July 2008, returned 2.6% in March, after losing 6% in February and gaining 1.7% in January (+57% ITD as at end-2019). The USD class, launched in July 2017, returned almost 3% in March, after losing almost 6% in February and gaining 1.6% in January (+7.3% ITD as at end-2019). "Pelargos Capital specializes in Japanese equities," managing director Pieter van Putten told Opalesque. "We have been managing a long/short fund since mid-2008, and recently added a long-only fund on the back of strong performance of our long book in the hedge fund. We focus on mostly mid-cap stocks which are less researched, and apply a strong governance/engagement angle where we enter into dialogue with company management to unlock value for investors. We have had some interesting successes in this field over the past 12 months." Pelargos Capital is based in The Netherlands. Pelargos participated in Opalesque's 2012 Netherlands Roundtable (here). The manager will participate in the second episode of the Corona Fighters webinar series, taking place on May 19th. Details below. Systematic evolution ETC's Evolution strategy is up +9.5% YTD after returning +1.2% in March. It has annualised +9.5% since its August 1991 inception. The Evolution (1.2x) strategy is up +7.5% YTD after returning +0.05% in March. It has annualised +7.5% since its October 1991 inception. The programs are managed by Chicago-based Eckhardt Trading Company (ETC), a research driven manager with a systematic, technically-based, evolutionary approach to global markets, employing trend and non-trend strategies with an average trade length of nine days. Founder William Eckhardt has developed a "Science of Trading" which has been at the root of his research for over 40 years. "He has always been focussed on volatility because understanding volatility helps significantly with risk management," a spokesperson told Opalesque. "ETC's approach from the beginning, therefore, has always been volatility first, then capture of Alpha second. Evolution was launched in 1991, so it has a long track record - importantly as an early shorter-term systematic manager not the more traditional trend manager of the period. "The Science of Trading is an expression Bill Eckhardt coined to express the pioneering concepts he utilised to develop robust systematic investment processes. Rigorous analysis of large quantities of market data can reveal changes in market behaviour over time, thus for a systematic process to remain relevant and robust it must update, or in the case of ETC, "evolve" scientifically. The Evolution program does just that, "evolution" is an in-built systematic process stemming from Bill Eckhardt's mathematical and evolutionary biology experience." Prior issues of The Corona Fighters Report: Report 1; Report 2; Report 3; Report 4; Report 5; Report 6; Report 7; Report 8; Report 9; Report 10; and Report 11. *** Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Opalesque has not verified this information and gives no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Past performance is not indicative of future results. See our Terms & Conditions for more information. *** WEBINAR: Corona Fighters - Episode 2 Time: Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 at 10am EST Register now to secure your spot here: www.opalesque.com/webinar/ Antibodies developed by the body in response to a viral infection may provide potential immunity against future infection. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration , COVID-19 antibody testing may indicate that "the person has been exposed to the virus and developed antibodies against it, which may mean that person has at least some immunity to the coronavirus." Antibody testing uses blood serum specimens and is sometimes referred to as serology testing. The new Quest Diagnostics antibody service uses tests developed for high-throughput lab environments. Initially, Quest is providing the service based on tests from Abbott and EUROIMMUN, a PerkinElmer company. Quest Diagnostics has completed independent validation studies on both tests. Both tests aid in detecting the presence of immunoglobulin class G (IgG). IgG antibody response typically develops by 14 days after symptom onset. In addition, Quest also continues to pursue other platforms that could enable it to increase testing capacity further. The Abbott and EUROIMMUN tests are marketed under FDA's Policy for Diagnostic Tests for Coronavirus Disease-2019. Abbott plans to submit for FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) and EUROIMMUN is currently seeking EUA. Test results should be interpreted in connection with other factors, such as symptoms and history. Results signify that antibodies are present, but protective immunity based on these results has yet to be established in clinical trials. Antibody tests by themselves are of limited value in the immediate diagnosis of a patient where COVID-19 infection is suspected. "As the FDA has indicated, antibody testing has the potential to help healthcare professionals identify people who have been exposed to COVID-19 and who have developed an immune response," said Jay G. Wohlgemuth, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Quest Diagnostics. "In addition, FDA has indicated that antibody testing can help identify those who could contribute a part of their blood, called convalescent plasma, which may provide an avenue for possible treatment for those who are seriously ill from the coronavirus." Quest expects to scale up testing over the coming weeks. Laboratory capacity is expected to expand from approximately 70,000 tests per day by the end of this week to approximately 150,000 tests a day by early-May. Quest expects to report antibody test results within 1-2 days from specimen collection, depending on demand. Quest will perform the testing in more than 20 Quest Diagnostics laboratories across the United States. Specimen collection for antibody testing (but not molecular diagnostic testing) at Quest Patient Service Centers Quest Diagnostics operates approximately 2,200 patient service centers across the United States. These centers are now performing blood draws for COVID-19 antibody testing consistent with health and safety guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Test collection is available only to patients who: have a test requisition from a healthcare provider; are asymptomatic; have been asymptomatic for at least 10 days; lack a fever (as assessed by non-contact thermometer checks at time of visit); and are wearing a face mask. Appointments for antibody testing should be scheduled ahead of time through the Quest Diagnostics MyQuest patient portal or at www.QuestDiagnostics.com. Healthcare providers can also collect blood specimens in their offices for patients for testing by Quest Diagnostics. Patients suspected of having or confirmed to have active COVID-19 infection or disease may not visit Quest patient service centers, which are not equipped to collect the necessary respiratory specimens for molecular COVID-19 diagnostic testing. Patients who believe they may have COVID-19 are strongly encouraged to contact their healthcare provider. About COVID-19 testing at Quest Diagnostics Quest Diagnostics is the leader in infectious disease testing services, with a broad menu of molecular, antibody, and other test services to aid diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. On March 9, 2020, the company introduced an RT-PCR test service to aid the presumptive detection of nucleic acid in respiratory specimens of patients meeting CDC's clinical criteria for COVID-19 testing. RT-PCR tests for COVID-19 are generally used to aid diagnosis during active disease. Quest has performed and reported results of more than 940,000 diagnostic COVID-19 tests. Check our Media Statement for more information and ongoing updates: newsroom.questdiagnostics.com/COVIDTestingUpdates About Quest Diagnostics Quest Diagnostics empowers people to take action to improve health outcomes. Derived from the world's largest database of clinical lab results, our diagnostic insights reveal new avenues to identify and treat disease, inspire healthy behaviors and improve health care management. Quest annually serves one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States, and our 47,000 employees understand that, in the right hands and with the right context, our diagnostic insights can inspire actions that transform lives. www.QuestDiagnostics.com SOURCE Quest Diagnostics Related Links www.questdiagnostics.com In this Jan. 28 photo, mobile network phone masts are visible in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London. Dozens of European cell towers have been destroyed in recent arson attacks that officials and wireless companies say are fueled by groundless conspiracy theories linking new 5G mobile networks and the coronavirus pandemic. Read more The CCTV footage from a Dutch business park shows a man in a black cap pouring the contents of a white container at the base of a cellular radio tower. Flames burst out as the man jogs back to his Toyota to flee into the evening. Its a scene thats been repeated dozens of times in recent weeks in Europe, where conspiracy theories linking new 5G mobile networks and the coronavirus pandemic are fueling arson attacks on cell towers. Popular beliefs and conspiracy theories that wireless communications pose a threat have long been around, but the global spread of the virus at the same time that countries were rolling out fifth generation wireless technology has seen some of those false narratives amplified. Officials in Europe and the U.S. are watching the situation closely and pushing back, concerned that attacks will undermine vital telecommunications links at a time theyre most needed to deal with the pandemic. Im absolutely outraged, absolutely disgusted, that people would be taking action against the very infrastructure that we need to respond to this health emergency, Stephen Powis, medical director of the National Health Service in England, said in early April. Some 50 fires targeting cell towers and other equipment have been reported in Britain this month, leading to three arrests. Telecom engineers have been abused on the job 80 times, according to trade group Mobile UK, making the U.K. the nucleus of the attacks. Photos and videos documenting the attacks are often overlaid with false commentary about COVID-19. Some 16 have been torched in the Netherlands, with attacks also reported in Ireland, Cyprus, and Belgium. Posts threatening to attack phone masts were receiving likes on Facebook. One post in an anti-vaccine group on April 12 shared a photo of a burned phone mast with the quote, Nobody wants cancer & covid19. Stop trying to make it happen or every pole and mobile store will end up like this one. The trend received extra attention in Britain when a tower supplying voice and data traffic to a Birmingham field hospital treating coronavirus patients was among those targeted. Its heart-rending enough that families cannot be there at the bedside of loved ones who are critically ill, Nick Jeffery, CEO of wireless carrier Vodafone UK, said on LinkedIn. Its even more upsetting that even the small solace of a phone or video call may now be denied them because of the selfish actions of a few deluded conspiracy theorists. False narratives around 5G and the coronavirus have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media. They vary widely from claims that the coronavirus is a coverup for 5G deployment to those that say new 5G installations have created the virus. To be concerned that 5G is somehow driving the COVID-19 epidemic is just wrong, Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health who chaired a World Health Organization committee that researched cell phone radiation and cancer. I just dont find any plausible way to link them. Anti-5G activists are undeterred. Susan Brinchman, director of the Center for Electrosmog Prevention, a nonprofit campaigning against environmental electromagnetic pollution, says that people have a right to be concerned about 5G and links to COVID-19. The entire 5G infrastructure should be dismantled and turned off, she said by email. But theres no evidence that wireless communications - whether 5G or earlier versions - harm the immune system, said Myrtill Simko, scientific director of SciProof International in Sweden, who has spent decades researching the matter. The current wave of 5G theories dates back to January, when a Belgian doctor suggested a link to COVID-19. Older variations were circulating before that, mostly revolving around cellphone radiation causing cancer, spreading on Reddit forums, Facebook pages and YouTube channels. Even with daily wireless use among vast majority of adults, the National Cancer Institute has not seen an increase in brain tumors. The theories gained momentum in 2019 from Russian state media outlets, which helped push them into U.S. domestic conversation, disinformation experts say. Ryan Fox, who tracks disinformation as chief innovation officer at AI company Yonder, said he noticed an abnormal spike last year in mentions around 5G across Russian state media, with most of the narratives playing off peoples fears around 5G and whether it could cause cancer. Were they the loudest voice at that time and did they amplify this conspiracy enough that it helped fuel its long-term success? Yes, he said. The conspiracy theories have also been elevated by celebrities including actor Woody Harrelson who shared a video claiming people in China were taking down a 5G tower. It was actually a Hong Kong smart lamppost cut down by pro-democracy protesters in August over China surveillance fears. British TV host Eamonn Holmes gave credence to the theories on a talk show, drawing a rebuke from regulators. I want to be very clear here," European Commission spokesman Johannes Bahrke said Friday, as the arson toll rose daily. There is no geographic or any other correlation between the deployment of 5G and the outbreak of the virus. ___ The Associated Presss Menelaos Hadjicostis contributed to this report. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte prepared Italians for a longer lockdown Tuesday despite a second successive drop in the number of registered coronavirus cases. Italy is approaching a fateful decision on whether to lift stay-at-home orders and reopen businesses for the first time in nearly two months on May 4. Its virus death total of 24,648 is still Europe's highest and second globally after the United States. Conte is being pushed into erring on the side of caution by leading doctors -- and to think more about the economic toll by big business leaders and some regional chiefs. Governments across the world fear that premature lockdown exits could set off a second pandemic wave that requires another economically devastating closure. Waiting for another few weeks or even months could potentially avert that cost. But many businesses warn that they will not be able stand idle much longer and Italy's push for a comprehensive economic rescue from the European Union is running into resistance in Brussels. Conte has convened a taskforce comprised of leading economists and health experts to weigh all the pros and cons. But he indicated Tuesday that Italians will probably have to put up with various forms of restrictions for some time to come. "I would like to be able to say, let's open everything. Right away," Conte wrote on Facebook. "But such a decision would be irresponsible." Conte said he will spell out the details of the next stage of Italy's battle against outbreak as more data come in over the coming days. But the latest figures showed that the existing measures were producing the desired results. The number of people who are officially being treated for COVID-19 -- either at home or in hospital -- is falling in every region. The number dropped by 528 nationally on Tuesday to a total of 107,709. The new daily infections rate is down to a low of just 1.5 percent. Conte's advisers appear to sense Italians' eagerness to get going -- especially as other European nations are starting to gradually open up. "We must not make any hasty decisions," Conte's coronavirus commissioner Domenico Arcuri said Tuesday. "The virus is still among us -- a little less strongly, but it is still there." Conte's decision could also be influenced by the outcome of an economic response teleconference that EU leaders have scheduled for Thursday. Italy is pushing the bloc to put aside its misgivings and start issuing a form of joint debt dubbed "coronabonds". Conte hopes that the pooled instruments could lead to either low-interest loans or outright grants from Brussels that his government can use to rebuild the economy once the pandemic subsides. He told lawmakers on Tuesday that he would accept "no compromises" at the conference. "The EU and the eurozone cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes they made in the 2008 financial crisis, when it not possible to offer a joint response," he said. "Either we all win, or we all lose." Conte's push for the issuance of mutualised EU debt has run into opposition from countries such as Germany and the Netherlands. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By IANS BENGALURU: The Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Department has abandoned using Zoom app for its daily video press conference amid the COVID-19 lockdown since Monday, and has transitioned to Cisco Webex, an official said on Tuesday. "Dear all, we will not use Zoom app for media briefing from Monday. We will be using Cisco Webex meeting," messaged a health official who shares COVID data with journalists every day. The development comes in the light of recent central government caution on using the Zoom app which is purported to be unsafe. READ| Videoconferencing platform Zoom rolls out new measures as security fears mount Incidentally, global software major Infosys also deployed Webex to conduct its virtual Q4 financial results press conference on Monday. Meanwhile, Google Meet, part of G-Suite is witnessing more than 2 million new users everyday amid Covid lockdown, following millions working remotely from home. G-Suite, a host of Google productivity apps comprising Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Calendar, Meet and others enables teams to connect and collaborate remotely. "Google Meet is built on Google Cloud's secure-by-design infrastructure to help protect user data and safeguard privacy," said Mark Johnston, Google Cloud, Asia Pacific, Head of Security, Networking and Collaboration Specialists. The coronavirus pandemic is upending everyone's daily routine, including an 89-year-old man who donates his time to help sick children in hospitals. For many years, Bill Brennan, who will celebrate his 90th birthday in two weeks, has cheered up patients at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston with stickers. While volunteering at Brigham and Women's, Brennan met Nancy Kleiman, the hospital's harpist, and encountered her almost daily. "Everybody loves her," Brennan said. "It's just pure love. We're like buddies," Kleiman said. When they were each forced to stay home due to the COVID-19 crisis, they yearned for a sense of normalcy. One day, Kleiman received an email from Brennan's son, who requested that she FaceTime one of her biggest fans. One call turned into two, and has now become a daily occurrence. "Theres this feeling of somebodys going to call you at 5 (o'clock), and somebody cares about you, (that) somebody loves you," Kleiman said. "She brings me back," Brennan said. "As soon as she starts to talk, I come right back. That whole day of sitting around doing nothing, its all gone." Brennan and Kleiman will keep calling each other until the COVID-19 state of emergency is over in Massachusetts. DETROIT -- Mayor Mike Duggan says the number of COVID-19 cases in the city has plateaued in recent days, despite new numbers released Tuesday that reflect 87 new coronavirus-related deaths in the city. During a Tuesday press briefing, Duggan said that while that number is hard to digest, the deaths didnt all occur in the last 24 hours. Eighty-seven people didnt die yesterday. There are dozens of cases that are weeks old. Some of them back to March, Duggan said. The mayor said weekend data reporting is not reliable, and he feels the city has leveled out on cases and jumps in the numbers are going to result from delays in reporting. We didnt dip over the weekend and we didnt increase yesterday, Duggan said. But what has happened is that weve hit a plateau. Duggan said the city averages around 36 deaths per day from the virus, but those numbers change if there are delays in the reporting. Having looked at data over the last few days, Duggan said indicators like the number of occupied beds and those on ventilators have been nearly the same each day, a sign that case numbers have plateaued. He credits social distancing efforts and actions taken at the state level. We went up very fast, we started to come down and now were at a flat level, Duggan said. And if you look at those numbers, its very clear that Gov. Whitmers decision to extend the stay-at-home order was clearly the correct decision. We have not rid our communities of this virus and its going to be harder now to knock it down below that plateau level. Duggan went on to say the only way to bring the number down is to increase testing of those who do not display symptoms of the virus. I dont think theres any question right now that the coronavirus thats still being spread in the city is being spread in significant part by people who dont think theyre sick, Duggan said. The mayor encouraged everyone in the city to continue to wear masks while out in public and to get tested if they are eligible. Duggan encouraged workers in the city to have their bosses reach out to the city to schedule tests to ensure those on job sites arent positive for the virus. Employers can call 313-230-0505 to arrange an appointment. Since announcing expanded testing in the city, Duggan said nearly 5,000 people have been scheduled for tests. That includes approximately 1,000 postal workers in the city who spend their days going door-to-door in the city, but have been unable to get tested. When you think of the folks who dont have access to testing, its a little concerning, Duggan said. It really shows you how hard it has been to beat this virus when you dont know who has it. The increase in city numbers also contributed to an increase in statewide confirmed cases and deaths reported Tuesday. State officials reported nearly 400 more new cases in the state, compared to Monday, with 967 new positive tests in Michigan. The number of deaths statewide in the last 24 hours also jumped from 77 deaths Monday to 232 Tuesday. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. READ MORE Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus Monday, April 20: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Out of work because of the coronavirus shutdown? We want to hear from you Fauci: If states reopen too fast, its going to backfire Michigan 5-year-old dies of coronavirus after complications These are not normal times: Judge moves filing deadline, cuts signature requirements for primary candidates President Donald Trump's on-again, off-again relationship with one of the most powerful figures in conservative media appears to be off again. For reasons not entirely clear, Trump washed his hands of Matt Drudge, the digital news kingmaker, in a weekend tweet, saying he "gave up" on Drudge "long ago." The proximate cause of Trump's disappointment with Drudge - or more directly, his influential Drudge Report news site - was his promotion of a report stating that the number of deaths in the U.S. had set a single-day record. It carried an all-caps headline: "NO PEAK YET." Trump framed his exasperation by retweeting a conservative writer who had called out Drudge's headline as "sensationalistic & misleading." The president, who regards any hint of negative news as a personal betrayal, was clearly upset that Drudge had featured a story that undermines Trump's repeated claims that the crisis is subsiding. If Trump's ardor for Drudge has truly waned, and the feeling is mutual, it would suggest a potentially consequential split. Without Drudge's support, Trump would lose a powerful potential ally when he most needs him - during his campaign for reelection this year. Drudge, the reclusive, hat-fancying pioneer of Internet aggregation, has been courted by Republican candidates, and the occasional Democratic one, since his Internet creation first became a traffic-grabbing monster in the late 1990s. He has since become one of the most important figures in the conservative media establishment. Drudge was helpful to Trump during his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton, especially during the final weeks when the Drudge Report published screaming headlines falsely claiming that former president Bill Clinton had secretly fathered a child with another woman. When Trump was inaugurated, Drudge proclaimed it as nothing less than the restoration of the nation. Its oversize headline was: "AMERICA AGAIN!" The favorable coverage prompted Trump to invite Drudge to the White House. But Drudge went conspicuously rogue during Trump's impeachment trial and subsequent acquittal. While most of the Trump-friendly media were all-in on Trump's defense, Drudge took the case against the president seriously. His website ran all-caps headlines such as "REPUBLICAN CRACKS EMERGE" and "AMERICA BRACES FOR IMPEACHMENT" that weren't Trump's preferred narrative. Trump's blast at Drudge may be both payback for that presumed betrayal and for questioning his handling of the coronavirus crisis, said Tom Rosenstiel, the executive director of the American Press Institute. "Trump seems to be a bit frantic about the way the pandemic is being perceived," Rosenstiel said. "He wants to separate his supporters from what Drudge readers are seeing and reading. . . . Clearly, Trump has to know that Drudge is important for him. But what's bothering him more now is a situation that he doesn't really control. Even some Republicans aren't comfortable with some of his decisions." Drudge was an early Internet pioneer, starting his site out of his West Hollywood apartment. His pivotal moment came on Jan. 17, 1998, when Drudge broke the news that Newsweek was sitting on a story about President Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The formula that Drudge established early on has remained much the same throughout the ensuing decades: The site doesn't report or originate many stories itself; it simply links to the work of other news sources. Visitors to his site effectively come for Drudge's judgments on what's worth knowing in the news. His understanding of the mass market's tastes and interests is his singular contribution. (A Drudge acolyte, Andrew Breitbart, went on to start his own aggregation site, which later morphed into a far-right site with staff-written contributions.) Drudge's site has remained remarkably consistent over the years, both in its political shadings and in its graphical approach, which tends to resemble a typewritten term paper. On a typical day, the report will have a few small photos, but the dominant motif is its dozens of brief headlines. Drudge also plays an important role in the larger digital-news ecosystem. A link on his site is a highly prized commodity among publishers, and typically sends waves of traffic barreling to the linked article. At the same time, Drudge remains one of the more reclusive and mysterious figures in the news business. Details about his operation, such as revenue and staff figures, are closely held. Drudge himself rarely makes public statements or gives interviews. He did not respond to a request for comment for this report. He did, however, provide a brief statement to CNN in the wake of Trump's tweet, which asserted that "People are dropping off like flies" from the site. In fact, he said, "The past 30 days has been the most eyeballs in Drudge Report's 26 year-history. Heartbreaking that it has been under such tragic circumstances." According to Drudge's internal figures, the site had 10.8 billion visits over the past year as of Monday, slightly more than 10.77 billion visits in the year before Trump's inauguration in January 2017. That kind of towering popularity probably helps Drudge forge his own path, said Rosenstiel. "[Drudge is] not anyone who seems to care to pander to Republicans," Rosenstiel said. "I can't see him being intimidated. He follows his own star, and it has served him well." COVID-19 will have the biggest impact on cannabis and insurance the rest of this year and into the foreseeable future, according to the majority of participants in Insurance Journals April 15 webinar Insuring Cannabis: From the Mechanics to Seeing Through The Weeds. The hour-long session featured three experts taking on a variety of topics in the growing world of cannabis and insurance, as well as several participant polls and a question and answer session. View the full webinar on Insurance Journals Research and Trends webpage. More than one-third of poll respondents said they believe COVID-19 will have the greatest impact on the space going forward. About one-fourth expect the biggest impact from legislation like the SAFE Banking and the CLAIM Act both would ease financial or insurance transactions in the cannabis industry. One-in-five said legalization would have the biggest impact, followed by 13% answering vaporizer bans and related illnesses and 9% who said the big impact would be from CBD products and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The biggest fallout of the COVID-19 crisis will be unanticipated and uncovered business interruption losses, according to 82% of poll respondents. A few chose other fallouts: 13% said new and stricter policy exclusions, and nearly 4% answered an influx of claims. Business interruption was also a top concern of all three panelists. With regard to COVID-19 and business interruption insurance, one thing to be aware of is right now a number of the property carriers, the carriers out that are offering business interruption insurance in the cannabis space, have ceased making those placements for the time being, said pantelist Norman Ives, broker and cannabis practice leader for Worldwide Facilities LLC. Theyve just frozen those markets waiting for things to settle out before they move forward trying to see if there was going to some legislation come in trying to force the insurers hand in having to pay on some business interruption as theres been some talk in some of the states. While some companies may have had business interruption options in the past, in the current market many carriers are declining to offer that coverage and waiting for the pandemic and its impacts to play out, Ives added. Fellow panelist Jodi Green, a partner in Nicolaides Fink Thorpe Michaelides Sullivan LLP, is paying close attention to coverage lawsuits that dont necessarily involve the cannabis industry but that include policy terms that might be applicable to COVID-19 losses. And so until those things shake out and we really understand how the courts are going to construe the provisions that might be applicable to this virus, Im sure carriers are going to be hesitant to be issuing any new policies that might involve virus, pandemic type losses, Green said. Despite the economic downturn from the COVID-19 crisis, all three panelists gave largely thumbs up answers to a question of whether insurance professional looking to specialize in this business should still do so. Yeah, Id give it a thumbs up definitely, said Phil Skaggs, assistant counsel for the American Association of Insurance Services. I think theres still a huge opportunity here to do it and to do it smartly. To step into markets that are more stable and to evaluate companies that are able to weather this COVID-19 crisis and really provide quality insurance. And insurance that is in high demand right now. He believes special attention will be paid to business interruption coverage in addition to the already close eyes being cast upon insurance offerings like product liability, and directors and officers meaning businesses are becoming more aware of the value of insurance policies because of the pandemic, and they may be more interested in engaging with brokers on what insurance products can do for them going forward. And so, I think theres many opportunities here still, Skaggs added. Ives fielded a question about what some brokers who specialize in cannabis may be doing wrong. He noted that brokers may sometimes get in over their heads before they realize that this is not the standard policy form thats being employed here. Most of these forms are heavily scripted, Ives said. Theyre not ISO forms. Most of these operations dont follow a typical playbook of traditional businesses. A lot of them may have evolved from an illicit market or a highly unregulated market and so their business practices are not as practical or as streamlined as others. The webinar also included a poll asking participants what they specialize in within the cannabis and insurance space. Nearly half (46%) said they specialize in ancillary businesses or services. The rest were: dispensaries (21%); cultivation (17%); distribution (10%); labs and testing facilities (5%). Editors note: This is a summary of Insurance Journals latest webinar on insurance and cannabis. The May 18 issue of Insurance Journal will have a larger, more detailed story on the webinar and some takeaways for the business segment. Topics COVID-19 Cannabis The average rent in Ireland rose to over 1,200 per month last year, with renters in seven counties spending more than 1,000 monthly. The average rent rose by 6.4% in 2019, according to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) rent index the lowest annual increase since 2014. Five new areas have been designated as rent pressure zones, bringing the total to 47, with rent rises capped at 4% per annum. These include Mallow, Co Cork, and Killarney, Co Kerry, as well as Athy, Co Kildare, Tullamore, Co Offaly, and Mullingar in Westmeath. The latter two saw average rents increase by more than 19% in the last year. In Dublin, rent is now 1,716 per month, up 5% year on year, the lowest rent increase in the city since 2013. Outside the capital, standardised rents are 922 on average a 7.6% increase but seven counties have average rents of over 1,000 per month: Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow. Three others Kilkenny, Laois, and Limerick are between 900 and 999. The rental market varies broadly. In Dublin, rents are now 32% higher than the Celtic Tiger peak and less than 10% of new tenancies were for under 1,000 per month. In comparison, two-thirds of rental agreements in the rest of the country are under 1,000 per month. Some 59% of renters in Dublin pay above 1,500 per month, with just 6% of renters elsewhere doing so. In Cork City, rents rose 6.8% to 1,207 per month. In the cities, Waterford saw the biggest rise in 2019 at 7.9%, though it was starting from the lowest base. Rent in Galway city was up 5.7%, with Limerick up 2.7%, the lowest of the cities. Padraig McGoldrick, interim director of the RTB, said they are encouraged by the slowing of increases, showing signals of stabilisation in urban areas. He added that the report reflects a very different world to the one we are living in today and that Covid-19 represents new challengers for renters and landlords. (CNN) President Donald Trump said late Monday night he will sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration to the United States as the nation battles the health and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" he tweeted. It's unclear what mechanism he will use to suspend immigration, how long such a suspension could last or what effect this will have on the operation of US border crossings and on those who already hold green cards. The White House declined to provide further information on the executive order Monday evening. The Department of Homeland Security didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. As a result of coronavirus and attempts to curtail its spread, immigration to the United States has been largely cut off: Refugee resettlement has been put on hold, visa offices are largely closed and citizenship ceremonies aren't happening. Trump didn't offer details Monday on what he intends to do to further restrict immigration in the face of coronavirus. Immigrant advocates immediately pushed back against the tweet. "This is not about the policy. It is about the message the president wants to send. He wants people to turn against 'the other.' And, regardless of the valuable contributions immigrants are making to the response and recovery, he sees immigrants as the easiest to blame," Ali Noorani, the executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said on Twitter. Trump's tweet comes as the administration seeks to reopen parts of the country from the coronavirus shutdown through a phased approach, but it's also a continuation of the President's 2016 campaign promise to slow immigration. Trump has repeatedly touted his decision to halt travel from China and Europe as a means of blunting the spread of coronavirus in the United States. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the Trump administration has tried to move forward with some of its most restrictionist policies that have struggled to be put into practice, including blocking entry to asylum seekers. Citing the "unscreened" and "unvetted" people who come into the US across the southern border, Trump said late last month that the border would be sealed off "mostly, and even beyond, but mostly during this global pandemic." Restrictions on nonessential travel remain in effect and on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security announced they'd be extended with Mexico and Canada. The administration has also put in place an order allowing the US to swiftly remove migrants arrested at the border, including children. This story was first published on CNN.com 'Trump claims he will temporarily suspend immigration into US due to coronavirus fears'. More than one million Americans have joined Christian groups in which they agree to share their medical expenses with other members. People are attracted by prices that are far lower than the cost of traditional insurance policies, which must meet strict requirements set by the Affordable Care Act, like guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions. The Christian groups can offer low rates because they are not classified as insurance, and are under no legal obligation to pay medical claims. Some people have paid hundreds of dollars a month, and then have been left with hundreds of thousands in unpaid medical bills in several states where the ministries, which are not subject to regulation as insurers, failed to follow through on pooling members expenses. With millions of Americans now without health insurance because they lost their jobs, critics of these plans worry they will turn to these alternatives without realizing they do not provide adequate protection. In the current environment, people will be desperate for health coverage, and they might sign up for things that look at first blush like a cheap deal, said Eleanor Hamburger whose firm, Sirianni Youtz Spoonemore Hamburger, brought the three lawsuits and is seeking class-action status for them. Weve fielded calls about Aliera from all over the country, she said. In an interview, George T. Kelly III, the Missouri man bringing the suit against Trinity and Aliera, said he and his wife were looking for plans when an insurance agent told them he had a good deal for us. In 2018, he signed up for the plan and paid contributions of $344 a month. But he discovered that the plan would not pay for any of his medical claims, including hernia surgery. They were just denying it, he said. Mr. Kelly eventually went to an out-of-state surgery center where he could pay cash. Jay Angoff, a former federal health official and state insurance regulator who is one of the lawyers representing Mr. Kelly, said people are being misled by Aliera and Trinity. On the one hand, they state, sometimes in small print, that theyre not insurance, he said. On the other hand, they convey the impression they are insurance. CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico Sixteen migrants from several countries have tested positive for coronavirus in Mexicos northern border state of Tamaulipas, the state government said Monday. The states announcement came the same day that the U.S. government said it will continue to quickly expel migrants it encounters along the border for at least another month in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Under the U.S. policy change spurred by the virus, the U.S. government has sent some 10,000 Mexicans and Central Americans back to Mexico, according to data from the U.S.Border Patrol. The situation led Tamaulipas to ask the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to not accept anymore Central Americans delivered back across the border to Mexico from the United States. Tamaulipas undersecretary for legal and governmental affairs Gloria Elena Garza Jimenez said the agreement between the two countries had no legal foundation. Fifteen of the infected migrants from Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba and Cameroon were staying at a migrant shelter in the city of Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas. They are in isolation. The Nazareth migrants shelter in Nuevo Laredo said three of the infected migrants were minors. Of the 15, three were hospitalized but were released back to the shelter. More tests have been done at the shelter but no other cases have been confirmed. The Tamaulipas state government said a migrant deported from Houston, Texas had entered the same shelter without knowing that he had coronavirus. Migrants now make up about 10% of the states 193 coronavirus cases, causing frustration in Tamaulipas. The state government, foreseeing the situation of multiple contagions of COVID-19 among the migrant population, has asked the federal government through official channels to transfer out of Tamaulipas the migrants who are stranded on the border, the state said in a statement. Hundreds of migrants remain in Nuevo Laredo and in the Tamaulipas border city of Matamoros, an estimated 2,000 people live in a squalid tent camp, waiting for their court hearings a short distance away in Brownsville, Texas. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says that more than 100 migrants at 25 detention centers have tested positive for COVID-19. Guatemala claims that 44 migrants deported from the U.S. tested positive. Dr. Joseph McCormick, a physician and public health expert in Brownsville, Texas, across the border from Tamaulipas, said its important to track where infected migrants have been. We know the virus is out there in all the smallest communities in our area, said the former CDC epidemiologist and current director of The Hispanic Health Research Center (HHRC) on the Brownsville campus of the UTHealth School of Public Health. Sending people off to these vulnerable countries is going to make whatever the situation is there, which we probably dont know much about, much worse, he said. And eventually it will come back to bite us because people who may be headed to the border who are not infected may get infected and may come back and re-infect our country. For every person who is apprehended and sent back there are probably 10 who get across the border and get somewhere. This is not a smart process. Mexicos federal government has so far officially recognized only one case of coronavirus infection in a migrant, at the church-run shelter in Nuevo Laredo. The federal National Immigration Institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Catholic-run shelter is expected to release the results of further tests on the migrants. __ AP writers Maria Verza in Mexico City and Ben Fox in Washington contributed to this report. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As most of the people stay indoors to prevent the risk of contracting COVID-19, there is a group of unsung heroes who are working on the frontlines of the crisis. Hundreds of sanitation workers are putting their lives at risk everyday to do their part in curbing the spread of the pandemic. Despite all odds, including lack of transportation, they turn up for work without fail to ensure the city is spick and span Sheela leaves the streets clean Sheela Rani, 47 Neyyattinkara For Sheela Rani, a sanitation worker in Neyyattinkara municipality, lockdown days are like any other work day. Except that she has to rely on kind neighbours to help her reach her workplace almost 10km away from her house at Ashramam near Plamuttukada. Her primary job over the past few days has been cleaning roads and other public spaces. Interestingly, Sheela and her co-workers find numerous masks laying about on streets while on duty. We see a lot of masks on road and dispose them of. They make a major chunk of the waste we collect. Post clean-up, the waste is loaded into the corporation vehicles. All of us wear gloves and masks while at work and use handwash and sanitiser. We have been given strict instructions about hygiene practices. We have also been provided all necessary protective equipment by the municipality, said Sheela who supports a family of three. Manju sweeps a mile Manju M sweeps the streets everyday to keep the city clean in the midst of the pandemic. Despite the lack of transportation, Manju, a sanitation worker, walks nearly four kilometres everyday to report at the health circle office of the city corporation at Jagathy.I start from my home in Mudavanmugal at 6.15am so that I can reach the office on time. It is a 45-minute walk. We are not allowed to take a leave because of the Covid-19 situation, said Manju. Two of us are assigned at each stretch for cleaning. We finish our job by 1pm. The task gets tiring during the summer and because most shops are shut due to the lockdown, it is impossible to get drinking water or tea while we work. Sometimes we knock at houses for water but many are reluctant because we pick garbage. However, there are a few considerate ones, said Manju, who laments that the work rendered by sanitation workers is not acknowledged like that of police or hospital staff. We also work on the frontline braving the scary situation, she added. This 50-year-old is the waste warrior of Poojapura Mangali P, 50 Poojapura Mangali P, a 50-year-old sanitation worker with the corporation, has been busy ever since the lockdown. She is one of the two sanitation workers who are stationed at corporations waste collection point at Poojapura. She has been working tirelessly at the collection point, without taking a day off during the lockdown period. The male workers who are usually stationed at the waste collection points are working for the community kitchens. Hence, we have been given duty in the collection zones, says Mangali. She undertakes a half an hour walk daily from her residence at Mudavanmugal to reach the collection point at 12pm. She then works for around six hours, segregating and storing the waste. People come here frequently to dispose of waste. A truck owned by the corporation comes to carry away the waste, she says. The fear of the pandemic has not stopped corporation workers from doing their job, she opines. Im not tense about the situation as everyone wears proper masks while doing their work. So far, none of the sanitation workers have had any trouble due to the Covid-19 spread. I will be resuming cleaning work once the lockdown is lifted, she adds. A Valiyasala native, she stays with her family at a rented house in Mudavanmugal. Jayakumarans undying resolve The anxiety of working on the frontlines amid the pandemic did not deter this 58-year-old from doing his job. Jayakumaran Nair, a sanitation worker for nearly two decades with the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, is primarily involved in waste collection and disinfecting the Covid-19 care centre at Mar Ivanios College, one of the quarantine facilities opened by the district authorities. Jayakumaran has been working day and night for the past 30 days to ensure safety standards are kept at the quarantine facility, where hundreds of Covid-19 suspected patients spend their days in isolation. Being one among the eight sanitation workers deployed at the camp, Jayakumaran doesnt mind working those extra hours to do his bit to curb the spread of the deadly virus. We experienced similar situations in the past during the Nipah scare and the flood of 2018. I get anxious when I listen to the news. Being a sanitation worker, I am bound to do my duty around the yearwhether its dengue, chikungunya, leptospirosis or Covid-19, said Jayakumaran. I wake up at 5am and report for work at 5.30am everyday. We remove the garbage and disinfect the place every time a person leaves from quarantine. Unlike my normal routine, which ends around noon, I now work till 9pm or stay back as long as my services are required, adds Jayakumaran. Lockdown or not, Krishnakumari gives it her all Krishnakumari is a familiar face for Karamana residents as she has been collecting wastes from houses around the Sathyavageeswara Temple for years. Employed at a private firm which collects waste materials near the Karamana area, the 60-year-old begins her work at 7am.I started working from April 5 after the lockdown was declared, says Krishnakumari, the sole earning member in her family. Earlier, waste was also collected from the garbage bins placed in designated places. However, after the lockdown outsiders too began dumping the waste in these bins. As a result, residents have stopped us from placing the bins in these designated areas. So, currently, the bins are kept in places that are far, she says. Being a native of Thaliyal, she doesnt need to commute much for daily work. On average, she earns `10,000-12,000 per month. Earnings will be less this month. I hope everything will be back to normal after the lockdown period, she adds. Ready to take on any challenge Sajimon S, 40Thamalam Sajimons daily work involves segregating the plastic bottles and covers from the city waste, filling them in sacks and loading them into corporation trucks. Sajimon S is a sanitation worker who is posted at the waste collection point in Thamalam. I also worked at the community kitchen in Mudavanmugal during initial days of the lockdown. Buying groceries from shops and transporting the food parcels were my main tasks then, he says. Around 25 people including some officials and sanitation workers like Sajimon had worked in tandem at the community kitchen to ensure timely delivery of food parcels. Sajimon was a daily wage labourer before becoming a corporation employee. Three years into his job as a sanitation worker, the 40-year-old has worked at multiple locations in the city due to the nature of his job. We work on a contract basis and are posted to different locations as per the requirement by our superiors, he said. Wary of the Covid-19 threat, Sajimon is cautious and uses sanitisers and masks for protection while doing his job. Although the lockdown has not brought any changes to his duty timings, Sajimon adds that he might be called upon to do extra work, when required. Emergency work such as cleaning the main roads are mainly done by us during the lockdown, he said. His chance to serve society Mukkola native Jayachandran T can be seen actively involved in cleaning work around Vizhinjam ward with other corporation workers. He has been working without leave after the lockdown was announced, yet says hes enjoying work. His work routine starts at 7am from the community kitchen where hes in charge of cleaning plates and packing food for people. He then heads to different wards in Vizhinjam and starts collecting waste. Normally, poultry and other wastes are dumped along the roads in the morning. Now with the shops closed and people in their homes, the area is comparatively clean, says Jayachandran. However, they have longer duty hours ever since the lockdown was declared. Im enjoying it. Its a chance to serve the society. Its our responsibility to keep our place clean and safe, which is essential now, he says. Jayachandran is the sole breadwinner of a family of six. Gas and oil giant Sonatrach has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with US Exxon to identify exploration opportunity in the North African country and to boost partnership between the two companies. Sonatrach made the announcement Monday on its website arguing that the agreement confirms the renewed dynamism of the Algerian mining sector, as part of the new attractive provisions introduced by the law on hydrocarbon activities. Algeria has been combing around for investor in its oil and gas industry and country last year adopted a new hydrocarbon law in view of making operations more attractive and appealing to foreign investment. The MoU came few days after two similar agreement with Russian company Zarubezhneft and Turkish company Turkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklioi (TPAO). Also in mid-March the national company signed a MoU with Chevron. Plus talks with two other US companies that kicked off in March last year, were suspended due to democratic demonstrations that swept away former country President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Named Hirak, the protest suspended last month by incumbent leader Abdelmadjid Tebboune over the coronavirus pandemic has been asking for the overhaul of the countrys executive. Posted by North Africa Post North Africa Post's news desk is composed of journalists and editors, who are constantly working to provide new and accurate stories to NAP readers. President Donald Trump speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, on April 6, 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo) Trump Suspending Immigration Into US to Protect Public Health, Economy President Donald Trump said hell soon sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States, a move made, according to a top adviser, to protect the American people. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Trump wrote in a Twitter post late Monday. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany added in a statement: President Trump is committed to protecting the health and economic well-being of American citizens as we face unprecedented times. At a time when Americans are looking to get back to work, action is necessary. Trump has repeatedly used the term invisible enemy to describe the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus. The virus causes COVID-19, a disease linked to tens of thousands of deaths in the United States, which has already suspended most travel from China, South Korea, Iran, and most of Europe. National security adviser Robert OBrien on Tuesday said Trumps immigration order is similar to limits on travel from China to the United States the president put into place on Jan. 31. Were trying to do everything, the presidents trying to do everything he can to put the health of the American people first during this crisis, OBrien said in an appearance on Fox News. So this is one step. Its not dissimilar to the restrictions on travel from China that he implemented back on Jan. 29 at the very outset of this public health crisis. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about the CCP virus, as President Donald Trump listens, in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, in Washington, April 17, 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo) Top health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said restricting travel from China helped slow the introduction of the CCP virus into the United States. Asked about Trumps reference to jobs, OBrien added: Theres been an economic cost here, too, and the presidents looking out for Americans on both fronts at every turn. Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs due to the strict lockdown measures announced by most governors last month. Thomas Homan, Trumps former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sounded a similar theme, telling Reuters: It makes sense to protect opportunities for our workforce while this pandemic plays out. Its really not about immigration. Its about the pandemic and keeping our country safer while protecting opportunities for unemployed Americans, he added. Volunteers in masks and gloves await for the arrival of a woman and child to pick up a bag of groceries at a food bank opened in response to the coronavirus pandemic in El Monte, California on April 20, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) In mid-March, the country suspended all routine visa services, for both incoming and outgoing travel, for most countries due to the CCP virus pandemic. It was not immediately clear what immigration programs will be affected by Trumps eventual order. The presidents announcement comes as the United States, Canada, and Mexico moved to extend their own CCP virus-related travel restrictions for another month. The announcement also comes as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services amended certain requirements for the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers visa to help American agricultural employers maintain enough migrant labor to keep the countrys food supply chains moving. Under this temporary final rule, all H-2A petitioners with a valid temporary labor certification can now start employing certain foreign workers who are currently in the United States and in valid H-2A status immediately after USCIS receives the H-2A petition, but no earlier than the start date of employment listed on the petition, the USCIS announced. Additionally, USCIS is temporarily amending its regulations to allow H-2A workers to stay beyond the three-year maximum allowable period of stay in the United States. These temporary changes will encourage and facilitate the lawful employment of foreign temporary and seasonal agriculture workers during the COVID-19 national emergency, the agency said. More than 786,000 people have contracted the CCP virus in the United States, resulting in more than 42,000 COVID-19 deaths. Most states are under stay-at-home orders as officials try to slow the spread of the CCP virus. Some are beginning to reopen, including Georgia, Texas, and South Carolina. Trump on Thursday announced federal guidance to states for reopening. Dominic Raab will square off against new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs tomorrow as MPs get back to work using a 'virtual' House of Commons. Senior MPs have agreed to plans to set up a digital debating chamber with 120 able to take part remotely using Zoom video conferencing software and a maximum of 50 allowed to be physically present. The measures will be used for the first time tomorrow with Downing Street confirming that Mr Raab will stand in for Boris Johnson at PMQs as the latter continues his recovery from the deadly disease. Mr Raab is expected to be in the chamber to answer questions and he will be joined by Sir Keir who has decided to grill the First Secretary of State in person. There had been speculation that Sir Keir could choose to wait for his PMQs debut after winning the Labour leadership race so that it would be against Mr Johnson. But Labour sources said the coronavirus crisis and the unspecified length of the PM's expected absence meant Sir Keir will take part immediately against Mr Raab. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle this morning urged as many MPs as possible to take advantage of the digital 'hybrid' being offered and to 'stay at home' in order to protect against the spread of coronavirus. Any MPs who do insist on physically attending will be required to adhere to strict social distancing rules and to sit at least two metres away from colleagues. Meanwhile, the passing of notes will be banned and the Commons doors will be kept open to reduce the risk of infection. Dominic Raab and Sir Keir Starmer will face off at PMQs tomorrow as a 'virtual' House of Commons gets back up and running MPs, led by Sir Lindsay Hoyle yesterday, rehearse how the new 'virtual' House of Commons will work A series of television screens have been installed in the Commons chamber so that MPs who are physically present can see their 'virtual' colleagues Liberal Democrat MP Wendy Chamberlain is pictured working from home and taking part in today's brief Commons session Other MPs like Lib Dem Wera Hobhouse are are also preparing to join debates remotely when things get up and running tomorrow How will the 'virtual' House of Commons actually work? What is happening today? Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Commons Leader, will set out the plan for 'virtual' proceedings at 2.30pm. He will be joined in the chamber by Sir Lindsay Hoyle and shadow Commons Leader Valerie Vaz. The plans are expected to be swiftly 'nodded through' and agreed to without a formal vote. How many MPs will be allowed to take part? When the plans are implemented tomorrow, a maximum of 50 will be allowed in the chamber while 120 will be able to take part remotely. Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is expected to chair proceedings from his usual chair in the chamber. How will MPs be selected to attend and chosen to ask questions? All MPs who want to participate will be asked to tell the Speaker beforehand so that a list of participants - both digital and physically present - can be drawn up. MPs will then be called in a random order, alternating between government benches and the opposition, as normal. Parliament's decision-makers do not expect the 50 cap will have to be enforced because of Sir Lindsay's plea for MPs to stay away. What about voting? Initially, the digital proceedings will only apply to departmental question sessions, urgent questions and government statements. So there will not be any need for voting. However, if the measures work they will be rolled out to apply to legislation and motions as quickly as possible. The Speaker has has asked Parliament staff to come up with a system for remote voting but any changes will have to be agreed by MPs. Will MPs in the chamber be social distancing? Yes. They will be under strict instructions to remain at least two metres away from colleagues. The passing of notes will also be banned and the doors to the chamber will be permanently kept open. Will digital and physically present MPs be treated the same? Sir Lindsay is adamant that they will be. Numerous television screens have been put up in the chamber so that virtual MPs will be 'seen' during proceedings. Meanwhile, the Speaker has also told virtual MPs they are not allowed to take advantage of technology to draw on material which would not be available to MPs in the chamber. What about the House of Lords? The upper chamber has come up with its own 'virtual' plan but it has sparked controversy. Under the peers' plan the first two weeks of sittings will not be broadcast live with summary reports published afterwards. Democracy campaigners have blasted the Lords for failing to come up with a way forward which would allow for the public to watch from the outset. Advertisement Sir Lindsay said he hopes the number of MPs actually sat on the famous green benches will be far below the maximum of 50. He has insisted that all MPs - whether virtual or physically present - will be treated exactly the same. The House of Lords also today approved its own plan for virtual proceedings. But the upper chamber has sparked outrage from democracy campaigners after it said a live video feed will not be available for the first two weeks it will be sitting which means peers will effectively be sitting in private with a summary report published later. Parliament has been in recess since March 25 and many MPs had called for an early return so they could demand answers from ministers on the government's approach to the current outbreak. Those calls went unanswered but the Commons will initially get back underway briefly today and then fully tomorrow. Today saw a skeleton crew of MPs asked to agree to the 'hybrid' measures and they are expected to do so without holding a formal vote. The video process will then be used as of tomorrow morning. Under the plans a maximum of 50 MPs will be allowed in the chamber at any one time while up to 120 MPs will be able to participate remotely. Parliament's decision-makers believe the 50 MP cap will not need to be enforced because many are not expected to make the journey back to Westminster. Sir Lindsay is expected to chair proceedings from Westminster as normal. Initially the digital way of working will only apply to departmental question sessions, urgent questions and government statements. But if it works smoothly it will be rolled out to also apply to debating new legislation and motions as quickly as possible. MPs who want to take part will be required to notify Common staff in advance and a list of participants will then be drawn up. In terms of which backbench MPs are called to ask questions and in what order, this will be done as normal via random selection with questions alternating between the government benches and the opposition. The crunch issue of voting is yet to be tackled and any shift to digital voting would have to be formally agreed to by MPs in the coming weeks. Sir Lindsay has begun to pave the way for that change by asking Parliament staff to come up with a secure system to allow remote divisions to take place. Any votes which take place in the meantime - if there are any - will be done in such a way as to adhere to social distancing measures. A number of television screens have been put up in the Commons chamber to allow the Speaker and other present MPs to see their 'virtual' colleagues. MPs who do attend - a maximum of 50 will be allowed - will be told to sit at least two metres from their colleagues Corridors near to the House of Commons chamber have been marked up with tape so MPs can adhere to social distancing rules Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said MPs were meeting in 'exceptional and unprecedented' circumstances, adding he expects today's proceedings to be short as they seek to approve measures to allow participation via Zoom in the coming days. He said: 'I ask all honourable members who are present in the chamber to observe the guidance that has been issued about social distancing, not only in relation to each other but also in relation to staff of the House who are in the chamber and indeed myself.' Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said he would bring forward further motions to allow MPs to scrutinise legislation. Mr Rees-Mogg said: 'While the new digital Parliament may not be perfect, members may launch forth into fine perorations only to be muted or snatched away altogether by an itinerant internet connection, we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.' He stressed there would be 'no advantage' for an MP in the chamber over one working remotely. Those MPs who do attend in person will be asked to follow a number of social distancing rules. They will have to sit at least two metres apart on the benches, the doors to the chamber will be kept open permanently and all MPs will be asked not to pass any notes. The House of Lords is also due to get fully back up and running tomorrow but its plans have sparked outcry. Lord Speaker Lord Fowler will chair proceedings from home but the initial proceedings will not be broadcast. Reports will be published, summarising what happened, but live broadcasting of proceedings is not expected to start until May 5. It comes after a row over whether peers should be able to claim their full expenses given many will be working from home. Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: 'It is jarring to see lords lobbying to receive their full 323-a-day expenses - without voters being able to see what they're doing with it. 'This will strike most people as tone-deaf when millions of workers have had to make sacrifices during this crisis. 'Voters across the world expect to see the legislators they are paying: it's a core part of democratic transparency. This seems to be another sign of the Lords failing to meet the democratic standards voters expect.' If you have recently queued at the post office you may have noticed the new issue stamps commemorating Anzac Day. The one with an image entitled Bomber Crew is worth a closer look. None of the airmen are looking at each other and they have a haunted look about them. There's a reason for that. It is from a painting by Australian artist Stella Bowen. She left Adelaide for England in 1914, never to return, at the age of 20. It seems her mother had difficulties with her studying the naked human form. She was one of only three women to be commissioned by the Australian War Memorial as official war artists of the Second World War. For her best known painting Bomber Crew she was stationed with the Royal Air Force at Binbrook, Lincolnshire, where No. 460 Squadron was based. Stella Bowen's Bomber crew 1944: Back row, from left: Sergeant D G Champkin of the RAF, flight engineer; Pilot Officer Thomas Lynch, rear gunner; Flying Officer Hector Harrison, wireless operator; Flying Officer Ronald Neal, mid upper gunner. Front row, from left: Flying Officer Marmion Carroll, navigator; Squadron Leader Eric Jarman, pilot; Flying Officer Francis Jackson, bomb aimer. Credit:Australian War Memorial She started drawing the crew of a Lancaster bomber before they went off on a mission on April 27, 1944. Preoccupied with their preparations, the men expressed no particular interest in Bowen's attempt to draw them, but their bravery and youth captivated the artist, according to the Australian War Memorial which has the painting in its collection. 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 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. The first inmate at a state prison has died of COVID-19 complications. He was incarcerated at the California Institution for Men in Chino. The state prison system says the unidentified inmate died at an outside hospital on Sunday. So far, 122 state prison inmates and 89 employees have tested positive, according to a live tracker maintained by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). To slow the spread of the virus, California has granted early release to 3,500 prisoners in the state system. It's also stopped the intake of new prisoners from county jails. icon DON'T MISS ANY L.A. CORONAVIRUS NEWS Get our daily newsletters for the latest on COVID-19 and other top local headlines. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy A mandatory 14-day modified program schedule was also implemented by CDCR in early April that shut down family visiting, limited legal visits, and called for a reduction of prisoner populations in day rooms, among other orders. But inmates tell us they're still in crowded dorms with no way of social distancing. Some say they've been asked to disable important medical equipment like CPAP machines used for sleep apnea, flagged as a risk for spreading COVID-19. "A lot of inmates are concerned for their health," said Joe Anderson, who was recently released from Chino on parole. More inmates must be released to stop additional deaths, argued Kate Chatfield with the reform group The Justice Collaborative. "We're asking for people who have 18 months or less on their sentence to be released," she said. "It's beyond reasonable; it's necessary, it's required." Chatfield also says prisoners who are vulnerable to illness, elderly or deemed low risk should be released. "People inside will need to be cared for out in the hospitals outside of the prison," she said. "And that will create a strain on the hospital system and the ICU beds." A statewide survey conducted by The Justice Collaborative and the think tank Data for Progress found a majority of voters want to reduce the incarcerated population to slow the spread of the virus. Advocates are also calling for more widespread COVID-19 testing. The CDCR says it's monitoring inmates and taking their temperature several times a day. Two inmates at federal prisons in California have also died, according to L.A. County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer. BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- China will step up epidemic prevention and control measures in major cities and at key ports, resolutely guarding against the cross-border spread of coronavirus, a health official said Monday. Noting that the number of imported COVID-19 cases has continued to decline in the past week, Mi Feng, spokesman for the National Health Commission, said the risk of virus transmission through land borders is still on the rise. He pointed out that there had been clustered infections caused by local infections resulting from imported cases. Mi said testing capabilities will be enhanced and medical treatment will be strengthened at major cities and key ports, with loopholes in epidemic control fixed. He also called on the public to strengthen personal protection to prevent the spread of the virus. The Indian Army is readying separate teams to be deployed in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan to help those countries boost capabilities to deal with rising cases of coronavirus, official sources said on Tuesday. A 14-member Indian Army team was sent to Maldives last month to help the island nation set up coronavirus testing laboratories and train local medical professionals to fight the pandemic. Earlier this month, India dispatched a 15-member team of Army to Kuwait as part of bilateral cooperation between the two countries. The sources said the teams for Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan are being readied as part of India's policy of extending helping hand to all friendly countries in the region to fight the pandemic. India has also been playing a key role in pushing for a common framework in fighting the pandemic in the SAARC region. At a video conference on March 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for formulating a joint strategy to fight COVID-19 in the SAARC region and proposed an emergency fund with an initial offer of USD 10 million from India. It is understood that India has already made the contribution. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a grouping comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. All the SAARC member nations are reeling under adverse social and economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. As part of its policy to help friendly countries to deal with the pandemic, India is also supplying anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to 55 countries. A number of countries including the US, Mauritius and Seychelles have already received the drug. Hydroxychloroquine has been identified by the US Food and Drug Administration as a possible treatment for COVID-19 and it is being tested on more than 1,500 coronavirus patients in New York. The demand for the drug has swelled rapidly after India decided to lift a ban on its export. In the neighbourhood, India is sending the drug to Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh Nepal, Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, sources said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Vice President Joe Biden and first lady Michelle Obama attend a ceremony on Veteran's Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday his 2020 campaign was "just beginning the process" of selecting his running mate. Biden, the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee, said he would consider choosing former First Lady Michelle Obama, but admitted she was probably not interested in the role. Obama has said she's not interested in running for office. Biden has previously pledged to pick a woman to serve as his potential vice president, but would not commit to picking a woman of color on Monday. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday he would consider former first lady Michelle Obama as his running mate but he declined to commit to choosing a woman of color as his pick. "I'd take her in a heartbeat," Biden told Pittsburgh the CBS affiliate TV station KDKA on Monday. "She's brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a really fine woman. The Obamas are great friends." "I don't think she has any desire to live near the White House again," he added. Video: Inside Secret Service Boot Camp Where Recruits Get Top Secret Training Biden said he was in the preliminary stages of choosing a running mate. He told KDKA his campaign would "shortly name the committee to review" potential candidates for the position. Biden would not commit to selecting a woman of color running mate, though he said he would commit to putting a woman of color on the Supreme Court. "I'll commit to that be a woman because it is very important that my administration look like the public, look like the nation," he said. "And there will be, [I'm] committed that there will be a woman of color on the Supreme Court. That doesn't mean there won't be a vice president as well." Michelle Obama has said she doesn't want to run for office In 2018, when calls and speculation mounted over whether the former first lady might consider a 2020 run for the White House, Obama said she was not interested in running for the office. Story continues "As an older leader, I think an important part of leadership is stepping out of the way and making room," she said. In both 2018 and 2019, Michelle Obama was named the most admired woman in the US according to Gallup's annual poll. Also on Monday, the former first lady on April 20 began "Mondays With Michelle Obama," a live-streaming of her reading a children's book each week. "At this time when so many families are under so much stress, I'm excited to give kids a chance to practice their reading and hear some wonderful stories (and to give parents and caretakers a much-needed break)," Obama said about her project, a collaboration with PBS, Penguin Young Readers, and Random House Children's Books, which occurs amid nationwide school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden's comments come as calls mount for the former vice president to choose a woman of color to serve as his running mate. Biden has already pledged that he would choose a woman to complete his ticket. Former Georgia House Democratic Leader Stacey Abrams. AP Photo/Michael A. McCoy Stacey Abrams, the African-American former Georgia House of Representatives minority leader who in 2018 lost in a close race for the state's governorship, also recently threw her name into the mix. She said this month that she would make an "excellent running mate" to the former vice president. Biden became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for president April 8 when his last-remaining opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ended his bid for the oval office. Names like Abrams; Sens. Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, and Catherine Cortez Masto; Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; and Florida Rep. Val Demings have been circulated as potential vice presidential picks. Read more: Trump's abrupt decision to suspend immigration to the US was being pushed by Tucker Carlson on Fox News for weeks A 36-year-old man in Nevada lost his job and his family's health insurance as the pandemic shuttered restaurants. Now, his wife's expecting a baby. Their story is becoming increasingly common in America. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez deleted a tweet about the negative oil price which said: 'You absolutely love to see it' As lawmakers battle over who is responsible for testing, Harvard researchers say the US needs to test 20 million people a day to 'fully remobilize the economy' Business Insider New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss the coronavirus pandemic after weeks of clashing over state and federal government responses. Theyre getting it together in New York. A lot of good things are happening in New York, Trump said Monday during his COVID-19 press briefing. [Cuomo] is coming to the Oval Office tomorrow afternoon. ... Andrew will be coming in with some of his people. We look forward to that. Trump, a Republican, has frequently criticized Cuomo as the Democratic governor has urged the federal government to provide more medical equipment and funding. When Trump said last week that reopening the economy would be up to him because a presidents authority is total, Cuomo said the 10th Amendment gives power to the states: The constitution says we dont have a king. CBS reports Trump pointed to Cuomo as an example of a governor who has said, 'I think the presidents right when he says that the states should lead.' Believe it or not, we get along, Trump said. New York residents are urged to avoid non-essential travel, but Trump said the two will meet in person instead of a phone or a video conference because Cuomo wanted to. A Cuomo aide confirmed to the New York Daily News that the governor will meet Trump the White House, but did not provide further details. New York state has been the U.S. epicenter of coronavirus, with 247,512 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 14,000 deaths. Cuomo says the Empire State may be past the peak, as new deaths Sunday were below 500 for the first time in nearly three weeks. MORE: Broadway star Nick Cordero has leg amputated due to coronavirus Under siege: Overwhelmed Brooklyn care home tolls 55 dead Some blame Latinos for Hazletons COVID-19 outbreak, echoing divisions that once roiled city Mr Suelto's niece Emylene Suelto-Robertson has opened up on his tragic death Chemotherapy nurse had been in isolation with suspected Covid-19 symptoms A nurse died alone in his flat while in quarantine after his calls to NHS 111 went unanswered and he feared he contracted coronavirus from treating a patient while not wearing PPE, his family have said. The body of chemotherapy nurse Donald Suelto, 51, was found by police at his home in London on April 7 following concerns for his welfare. The tragic details of his death emerged after the number of health and social care staff who have died of coronavirus passed 100. Mr Suelto, from the Philippines, who worked at Hammersmith hospital in west London, had been in isolation with suspected Covid-19 symptoms. Donald Suelto, 51, died in his flat while in quarantine after his calls to NHS 111 went unanswered Mr Suelto's niece Emylene Suelto-Robertson (right) has opened up on his tragic death His niece Emylene Suelto-Robertson, 38, has opened up on her uncle's tragic death earlier this month. 'It's so tragic. He was told to dial 111 but the lines were so busy. He just couldn't get through,' she said. 'He messaged a colleague at work on April 5 saying he was struggling to get through. It was the last contact anyone had. 'I was trying to contact him but he didn't answer so I expected he was already in the hospital. But he died before he could ring 999.' Mr Suelto suffered from asthma, had complained about the shortage of PPE and was instructed to contact the NHS 111 line when his condition deteriorated, but he was unsuccessful. He revealed to Emylene, who lives in Dunbar, Scotland, he feared he contracted coronavirus from treating a patient suffering from a cough and a high temperature without PPE. 'He said that he hadn't been given any PPE and that his manager kept telling him they were short,' she said. 'My uncle spent 18 years serving the NHS and has paid the ultimate price. 'At first we didn't even know where his body was taken and we still don't have a death certificate. 'We are waiting patiently but it is not right.' Mr Suelto feared he contracted coronavirus from treating a patient while not wearing PPE Ministers face fresh fury today as a vital shipment of coronavirus protective kit from Turkey looks set to be delayed again - with medics warning they might be forced to stop treating patients. A spokesperson for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said: 'We are very saddened by Donald's death and our thoughts and condolences are with his family, friends and colleagues at this especially difficult time. 'We strictly follow national guidance on the use of personal protective equipment. Donald was not working in an area for Covid-19 patients.' The UK had 124,743 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 16,509 deaths from the illness had been recorded at the time of publication. The death toll of frontline NHS and care home staff, from heart surgeons and nurses to porters and volunteers, has now reached above 100. Pictured (left to right): Habib Zaidi, 76, GP from Essex; Adil El Tayar, 63, Hereford doctor; Pooja Sharma, 33, Sussex pharmacist; Amged El-Hawrani ENT expert, Burton Pictured (left to right): Thomas Harvey, 57, London nurse; Alfa Saadu, 68, Essex doctor; Mohamed Shousha 79, London medic; Lynsay Coventry, 54, Essex midwife Pictured (left to right): Aimee ORourke, 39, Kent nurse; Liz Glanister, 68, Liverpool nurse; Areema Nasreen, 36, Walsall nurse; Consultant Anton Sebastianpillai Pictured (left to right): John Alagos, 23, Watford nurse; Glen Corbin, 59, from London; Rebecca Mack, 29, nurse, Morpeth; Janice Graham, 58, nurse, Scotland Pictured (left to right): Rahima Sidhanee, 68, London nurse; Josiane Ekoli, 55, Harrogate nurse; Cheryl Williams, ward housekeeper; Ade Raymond, London nurse Pictured (left to right): Dr Peter Tun, 62, specialist, Reading; Mary Agyapong, pregnant nurse; Dean McKee, 28, carer, London; Amanda Scott, 54, carer, Birmingham Pictured (left to right): Maureen Ellington, Bristol nurse; Gladys Nyemba, Nottingham nurse; Andy Treble, 57, Wrexham hospital; Lourdes Campbell, 54, Bolton NHS Pictured (left to right): Amrik Bamotra, 63, Ilford hospital; Brian Darlington, 63, Crewe porter; Julianne Cadby, 49, NHS manager; Linnette Cruz, 51, dental nurse Pictured (left to right): London GP Syed Zishan Haider, 79; Jitendra Rathod, 58, surgeon, Cardiff; Alice Kit Tak Ong, 70, London nurse; Leilani Dayrit, 47, Rugby nurse Pictured (left to right): Barbara Moore, 54, Liverpool; Edmond Adedeji, 62, locum, Wiltshire; Fayez Ayache, 76, GP in Ipswich; Carol Jamabo, 56, carer in Bury Pictured (left to right): Carer Catherine Sweeney, 64; Donald Suelto, London nurse; Urologist Abdul Chowdhury, 53; Julie Omar, 52, nurse in Redditch Pictured (left to right): Elsie Sazuze, 44, carer, Cannock; Gareth Roberts, 63, Cardiff nurse; Sara Trollope, 51, London matron; Amor Gatinao, 50, London nurse Pictured (left to right): Donna Campbell, 54, from Cardiff; Elbert Rico, 52, porter in Oxford; Oscar King Jr, 45, porter in Oxford; Elvira Bucu, 50, care worker Pictured (left to right): Nurse Melujean Ballesteros, 60; Technician Kevin Smith, Doncaster; Leilani Medel, 41, nurse in Cardiff; Amarante Dias, 54, nurse in Somerset Pictured (left to right): Gladys Mujajati, 46, Derby nurse; Care assistant Stephen Agyapong; Patricia Crowhurst, 54, Teesside care; Jane Murphy, 73, Edinburgh A&E Pictured (left to right): Barbara Sage, 68, Bromley, London; Dr Krishan Arora, 57, London; Sonya Kaygan, 26, care worker; Jenelyn Carter, 41, Swansea nurse Pictured (left to right): Michael Allieu, London nurse; Radiographer Simon Guest; Wilma Banaag, 63, Watford hospital; Gilbert Barnedo, 48, London nurse Pictured (left to right): Rajesh Kalraiya, 69, consultant, Romford; Steven Pearson, 51, nurse, Cumbria; Linda Clarke, 66, Wigan midwife; Emily Perugia, 29, carer, London Pictured (left to right): Barry England, 999 paramedic; Gordon Ballard, manager, London; Mandy Siddorn, 61, technician, Chester; Unnamed at familys request Which one, Mr. Walsh asked on Monday, The tank driver, or the one with the Mossad? There was also the Puerto Rican Jewish karaoke jockey who strode along the bar, promising that she, like Gloria Gaynor, would survive, and getting you to buy in and pump your fist. The surgeon pulling in millions a year at the hospital down the block, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, sat one stool over from a school custodian making a fraction of that. Thursday nights, hospital paydays, were a whirl. Besides medical workers, Coogans served world-renowned runners from the Armory Track and Field arena, off-duty cops and teachers blowing off steam. A couple of years ago, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, joined Mr. Walsh to serenade a woman celebrating her birthday; as a boy growing up, Mr. Miranda had his own birthdays there. So did my kids. We had baptism parties at Coogans and an 85th birthday, held a Ph.D. bash in the back room and wolfed down a meal between the afternoon and evening sessions at a funeral parlor. The owners could spot people who had just come from a rough visit to a sick relative in the hospital and knew to give them the right dose of warmth or quiet. Or they shouted a merry greeting to the older woman who arrived every evening for her one highball and a dinner that was technically solitary, but not really, with Mr. Hunt or Mr. Walsh or Ms. McDade invariably pulling over a chair for a chat. Herman D. Farrell, when he was chairman of the Manhattan Democratic Party, would interview people for judgeships at a table in the front room, where everyone could, and did, see what he was up to, and with whom. During the crack wars, Coogans was a sanctuary. A peace treaty was negotiated at one of its tables during the Washington Heights riots of 1992. In defiance of crime, Mr. Walsh organized a Salsa, Shamrocks and Blues five-kilometer run through the streets on the first Sunday in March. Thanks to efforts to alleviate poverty by ways including developing featured industries and improving transportation infrastructure, north Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has managed to help its entire county-level regions shake-off poverty, Xinhuanet.com reported on April 19. Last month, another 20 county-level regions in Inner Mongolia were removed from Chinas list of impoverished counties. So far, the poverty headcount ratio of Inner Mongolia has dropped to 0.11 percent from 11.7 percent in 2013. Meanwhile, all of the 31 impoverished county-level regions and 3,694 impoverished villages in the region have been lifted out of poverty. In recent years, governments at various levels of the region have suited their poverty alleviation measures to local conditions, revitalizing rural areas and helping free the poor population from poverty by developing crop farming and breeding industry with local features. Many local areas have developed a wide-range of agricultural and livestock product brands, selling relevant products to clients across the country via various promotion and marketing channels, including online platforms. With online promotion and marketing becoming an increasingly important means of reducing poverty through consumption, more and more government officials have started to promote featured local products in front of cameras. Last year, Secretary of Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee of Inner Mongolias Hinggan League and party chiefs of various banners and counties of the League, promoted local rice on multiple platforms, such as television stations and online platforms, helping the rice become a popular special local product. According to a credible source, Hinggan League has by far sold over 2,000 tons of the famous local rice via online platforms, with the value of sales exceeding 10 million yuan (about $1.4 million). This year, some of the famous local agricultural products were overstocked because of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In an effort to help farmers sell these products, many local government officials have promoted relevant products via live streaming. Yu Baojun, head of Aohan Banner, Chifeng city of Inner Mongolia, has promoted local millet in person via live streaming on an e-commerce platform. The online show, which lasted for half an hour, was watched by more than 700,000 Internet users, selling out of the 6 tons of millet prepared for the show. Our potatoes are super crispy, super delicious, and super sweet, Wang Xinyu, vice mayor of Inner Mongolia's city of Ulanqab, praised local potatoes as he promoted the products via live streaming as a host. Wang described the potatoes as he tasted them on the show, during which all the nearly 120,000 kilograms of potatoes were sold out. Efforts of Inner Mongolia to boost poverty reduction via development of featured industries since 2016 have lifted 402,600 local people out of poverty, accounting for 48.9 percent of the total number of local people who have been freed from poverty. Among all the featured industries, industries featuring local cultures of ethnic minorities in Inner Mongolia have played an important role in helping poor people overcome poverty. Ewenki Autonomous Banner in Inner Mongolias city of Hulun Buir has witnessed growing dynamism of traditional handicrafts of the Ewenki ethnic group in the local peoples efforts to get rid of poverty. The ethnic culture industry innovation park of Ewenki Autonomous Banner has housed 192 enterprises engaging in businesses with characteristics of ethnic groups, such as woodcarving of the Daur ethnic group, food of the Buryats ethnic group, and traditional local costumes. These enterprises have covered 23 items of intangible cultural heritage and held training for nearly 300 registered poor local households last year. Many more poor banners and counties of the region have developed special industries based on cultures of minority ethnic groups, creating a variety of poverty-relief industries involving products such as Mongolian robes, Mongolian medicine, broom seedlings and Mongolian embroidery A total of over 170 administrative villages in the region have tapped into the potential of the embroidery industry. More than 20,000 local people have engaged in relevant jobs of the industry, among which about 3,000 are poor people, whose annual income has been increased by about 2,000 yuan because of the industry. Thanks to the countrys efforts to enhance transportation infrastructure across the country, high-speed trains from Beijing have been able to connect the remote Zhuozi county in Ulanqab and Beijing since 2019. We can get to Beijing within two hours today. Our lives are just getting different with each passing year. Our family will definitely go to visit the Palace Museum and the Summer Palace when the epidemic ends, Liu Taiping, a local villager who lives near the train station of Zhuozi county said happily. Lius family is a poor household. His wife has infantile paralysis and his daughter is still a little girl. The family of three had lived in a very poor village with harsh environment and transportation conditions. All the farming and breeding work was on me. I could only get 2,000 to 3,000 yuan a year, even though I worked hard all year round. Our lives were tough and hopeless, Liu disclosed. In 2018, Lius family was relocated to a community of Zhuozishan town of Zhuozi county, and the community arranged a public welfare job for Liu. He is now a sanitation worker of the community. At the same time, Liu and his wife have been learning skills and working at a local poverty-relief workshop that produces auto cushions. Liu and his wife can now earn more than 2,000 yuan per month in the workshop, and his daughter is now studying at a school in the county, according to Liu, who said he had never imagined that his family could one day enjoy such good life. In fact, Zhuozi county has built a poverty-relief workshop in every community which is a relocation site of the county, and introduced companies engaging in labor-intensive businesses to the communities, thus enabling local poor households to secure jobs and incomes. With the high-speed railway better connecting the county to the outside world, more enterprises have inspected and invested in the county, and more young people have returned to their hometown frequently. Sydney, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, this edition of Paul Budde Communications focus report on Chile outlines the major developments and key aspects in the telecoms markets. Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Chile-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses Chiles telecom sector benefits from effective competition, particularly in the broadband and mobile sectors. In recent years there has been an emphasis on developing fibre infrastructure to improve the reach and capacity of fixed-line services. Fixed-line teledensity continues to fall as consumers switch to mobile networks for voice calls. The leading operators are Telefonica Chile, trading as Movistar, VTR Globalcom (VTR), the GTD Group, Entel, and Claro. Telefonica Group in February 2020 selected banks to advise it on its plan to spin-off its Latin American units to allow it to focus on Germany, Spain, the UK and Brazil. Fixed broadband penetration is relatively high for the region, with services among the fastest and least expensive in Latin America. The mobile penetration rate is among the highest in South America. Movistar and Entel remain the market leaders, with a similar market share, while Claro accounts for about a quarter of the market and WOM has rapidly increased its subscriber base. LTE infrastructure is extensive and while there is a National Plan for 5G, services await spectrum auctions scheduled for mid-2020 though these may be delayed given the current coronavirus pandemic. This report provides an overview of Chiles telecom sector and regulatory environment, including a range of statistical data and market analyses. It covers the mobile voice and data segments, profiling operators and the key MVNOs and assessing the development of LTE and 5G infrastructure, and also reviews the fixed-line and fixed-wireless broadband segments, including the status of DSL, cable and fibre broadband. BuddeComm notes that the outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2020 is having a significant impact on production and supply chains all around the world. During this time, the telecoms sector may experience a downturn in mobile device and ICT equipment production and a decline in consumer spending on telecoms services. Overall progress towards 5G may also be postponed or slowed down in some countries. Please also note: Industry forecasts contained in this report have not taken Coronavirus into consideration as it is yet largely unknown what the long-term impact will be. In response to the coronavirus crisis the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunication together with Movistar, Claro, Entel, VTR and Grupo GTD launched the Solidarity Plan in April 2020, by which low-income fixed broadband subscribers under financial stress are guaranteed a minimum 2Mb/s service for three months, while mobile subscribers are able to access 300 minutes of calls, 50 SMS and basis data. The offer could potentially benefit up to three million households. In addition, the Ministry of Education since March 2020 has promoted tele-education with free access to educational content for about three million school pupils. Key developments New telecom tax on OTT players introduced; Telefonica Group making progress on selling its Latin American units; Google completes laying the Curie submarine cable linking Chile with the US west coast; GTD to lay a 3,500km submarine cable from Africa to Puerto Montt; Regulator preps for 5G multi-spectrum auction by mid-2020; Industry lobby group Atelmo proposes $26 billion investment program to 2024 to increase reach of LTE and fibre-based broadband networks; Report update includes the regulator's market data update to September 2019, telcos financial and operating data to Q4 2019, Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, recent market developments. Companies mentioned in this report VTR, Claro Chile, GTD Group (including Telsur, GTD Manquehue, Telesat, Telcoy), DirecTV, CTR, CMET/Cable Central, Mundo Pacifico, TuVes HD, Nextel, VTR, Virgin Mobile, Falabella, Globalcom, Entel Chile Table of Contents Key Statistics Regional Market Comparison Telecom Maturity Index by tier Market Leaders Market Challengers Market Emergents South America Telecom Maturity Index Central America Telecom Maturity Index TMI versus GDP Mobile and mobile broadband penetration Fixed and mobile broadband penetration Country overview Telecommunications market Market analysis Regulatory environment Historical overview Regulatory authorities Subtel Superintendency of Telecommunications CNTV Fixed-line developments Telecommunications Development Fund Number Portability (NP) Interconnect Access Network neutrality Digital agenda 2013-2020 Mobile network developments 3G spectrum auctions LTE spectrum auctions 5G spectrum plan 3.5GH Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs) Mobile towers Roaming SIM card registration Mobile market Mobile statistics Mobile infrastructure 5G 4G (LTE) 3G 2G (GSM) Other infrastructure developments Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Mobile voice Mobile data Mobile broadband Mobile network operators Entel Chile Movistar (Telefonica Moviles Chile) Claro Chile (America Movil) WOM (Nextel Chile) VTR Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) Mobile content and applications M-payments Fixed-line broadband market Market analysis Broadband statistics Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks VTR Claro Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks Entel Movistar Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks Other fixed broadband services WiMAX Satellite broadband Competition issues Network Neutrality Law Minimum access speeds Fixed network operators Introduction Local operators Long-distance operators Movistar (Telefonica Chile) VTR GTD Group Telefonica del Sur (Telsur) Entel Chile Claro Chile (formerly Telmex) Telecommunications infrastructure Overview of the national telecom network VoIP Digital economy E-government E-commerce Tele-education International infrastructure Submarine cable networks Satellite networks Wholesale Appendix Historic data Related reports List of Tables Table 1 Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - Chile 2020 (e) Table 2 Change in the number of mobile and fixed-line subscribers 2010 2019 Table 3 Change in the fixed and mobile market share of subscribers 2010 2019 Table 4 Telecom market investment 2009 2017 Table 5 Annual fixed number portings 2012 2020 Table 6 Spectrum auction 700MHz band February 2014 Table 7 Annual mobile number portings 2012 2020 Table 8 MTRs 2014 2018 Table 9 Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration 2010 2025 Table 10 Development of mobile network traffic 2010 2019 Table 11 Change in the number of mobile prepaid/postpaid subscribers 2010 2019 Table 12 Change in the proportion of mobile prepaid/postpaid subscribers 2010 2019 Table 13 Change in the share of mobile subscribers by major operator 2010 2019 Table 14 Growth in the number of Movistars LTE subscribers and penetration 2016 2019 Table 15 Growth in the number of Entel Chiles LTE subscribers 2017 2019 Table 16 Change in operators 3G market share 2009 2019 Table 17 M2M connections via mobile broadband 2013 2019 Table 18 Movistar Chile M2M connections 2014 2019 Table 19 Decline in the number of SMS messages sent, annual change 2010 2019 Table 20 Decline in the number of MMS messages sent, annual change 2010 2019 Table 21 Change in the number of mobile internet connections by platform 2009 2019 Table 22 Change in the proportion of mobile broadband connections by technology 2009 2019 Table 23 Mobile broadband penetration by technology 2009 2019 Table 24 Change in mobile broadband market share by major players 2013 2019 Table 25 Mobile broadband market share by minor players 2013 2019 Table 26 Smartphones using mobile internet 2013 2019 Table 27 Growth in mobile data traffic 2017 2019 Table 28 Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration 2010 2025 Table 29 Growth in the number of Entel Chiles mobile subscribers 2010 2019 Table 30 Change in the number of Entel Chiles mobile broadband subscribers 2012 2019 Table 31 Decline in Entel Chiles mobile revenue 2017 2019 Table 32 Change in the number of Movistars mobile subscribers 2010 2019 Table 33 Development of Movistar Chiles mobile revenue 2012 2019 Table 34 Growth in Movistar Chiles traffic by type 2013 2019 Table 35 Change in Movistar Chiles mobile ARPU 2013 2019 Table 36 Change in the number of Claros mobile subscribers 2010 2019 Table 37 Development of Claros mobile revenue 2012 2019 Table 38 Growth in the number of WOMs mobile subscribers 2008 2019 Table 39 Growth in the number of VTRs mobile subscribers 2012 2019 Table 40 MVNO subscribers by operator 2011 2019 Table 41 Virgin Mobiles mobile subscribers 2012 2019 Table 42 Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration 2010 2025 Table 43 Change in the number of fixed broadband subscribers by platform 2010 2019 Table 44 Change in the market share of fixed broadband technologies by subscribers 2010 2019 Table 45 Change in the number of fixed broadband connections by speed 2010 2019 Table 46 Change in operator market share of fixed broadband subscribers 2010 2019 Table 47 Mobile and fixed-line internet subscribers 2009 2019 Table 48 Decline in dial-up traffic (minutes and sessions) 2010 2019 Table 49 Growth in the number of cable modem subscribers and penetration 2010 2019 Table 50 Growth in the number of VTRs fixed broadband subscribers 2010 2019 Table 51 Growth in VTRs revenue 2011 2019 Table 52 Growth in the number of Claros broadband subscribers 2007 2019 Table 53 Decline in the number of DSL subscribers and penetration 2010 2019 Table 54 Growth in the number of Entels broadband subscribers 2007 2019 Table 55 Change in the number of Movistars fixed broadband subscribers 2010 2019 Table 56 Growth in the number of GTD Groups broadband subscribers 2010 2019 Table 57 Growth in the number of fibre broadband subscribers 2011 2019 Table 58 Growth in the number of Movistars fibre broadband subscribers 2014 2019 Table 59 Decline in the number of WiMAX broadband subscribers 2009 2019 Table 60 Change in operator market share of fixed lines in service 2010 2019 Table 61 Decline in fixed-line local traffic (minutes and calls) 2010 2019 Table 62 Decline in the number of Movistars fixed lines in service 2010 2019 Table 63 Development of Movistars financial data 2014 2019 Table 64 Decline in the number of VTRs fixed-line subscribers 2010 2019 Table 65 Decline in the number of GTD Groups fixed-line subscribers 2010 2019 Table 66 Decline in the number of Entels fixed-line subscribers 2010 2019 Table 67 Development of Entel Chiles financial data 2014 2019 Table 68 Change in the number of Claros fixed lines in service 2006 2019 Table 69 Development of Claros revenue by platform 2012 2019 Table 70 Decline in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity 2010 2025 Table 71 Growth in international internet bandwidth 2010 2018 Table 72 Historic - Mobile and fixed-line subscribers 2005 2009 Table 73 Historic - Mobile prepaid/postpaid ratio 1999 2009 Table 74 Historic - Mobile network traffic 2000 2009 Table 75 Historic - Mobile market share of subscribers by major operators 2000 2009 Table 76 Historic - Fixed and mobile market share of subscribers 1997 2009 Table 77 Historic - Mobile subscribers and penetration rate 1995 2009 Table 78 Historic - SMS messages sent, annual change 2002 2009 Table 79 Historic - Entel PCS mobile subscribers 2000 2009 Table 80 Historic - Movistar mobile subscribers 2000 2009 Table 81 Historic - Claro mobile subscribers 2000 2009 Table 82 Historic - Internet users and user penetration 1998 2015 Table 83 Historic - Fixed broadband subscribers and penetration rates 2001 2009 Table 84 Historic - Fixed broadband technologies by market share of subscribers 2001 2009 Table 85 Historic - Fixed broadband connections by data speed 2007 2009 Table 86 Historic - Dial-up traffic (minutes and sessions) 2000 2009 Table 87 Historic - Cable modem subscribers and penetration rates 2001 2009 Table 88 Historic - VTR broadband subscribers 2001 2009 Table 89 Historic - Fixed broadband technologies by market share of subscribers 2001 2009 Table 90 Historic - DSL subscribers and penetration rate 2001 2009 Table 91 Historic - Fixed broadband operators market share of subscribers 2007 2009 Table 92 Historic - Movistar fixed broadband subscribers 2001 2009 Table 93 Historic - GTD Group fixed broadband subscribers 2001 2009 Table 94 Historic - Fixed lines in service operators market share 2000 2009 Table 95 Historic - Fixed-line local traffic (minutes and calls) 2000 2009 Table 96 Historic - Movistar fixed lines in service 2000 2009 Table 97 Historic - VTR fixed-lines subscribers 2000 2009 Table 98 Historic GTD Group fixed lines in service 2000 2009 Table 99 Historic Entel fixed lines in service 2000 2009 Table 100 Historic - Fixed lines in service and teledensity 1995 2009 Table 101 Historic - International internet bandwidth 2000 2009 Table 102 Historic - Falabella Movil mobile subscribers 2013 2018 List of Charts Chart 1 Latin America Overall Telecoms Maturity Index Chart 2 Latin America Telecoms Maturity Index Market Leaders Chart 3 Latin America Telecoms Maturity Index Market Challengers Chart 4 Latin America Telecoms Maturity Index Market Emergents Chart 5 South America Telecoms Maturity Index by country Chart 6 Central America Telecoms Maturity Index by country Chart 7 Latin America Telecoms Maturity Index vs GDP per Capita Chart 8 South America mobile subscriber penetration versus mobile broadband penetration Chart 9 Latin America fixed broadband penetration versus mobile broadband penetration Chart 10 Change in the number of mobile and fixed-line subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 11 Change in the fixed and mobile market share of subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 12 Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration 2010 2025 Chart 13 Development of mobile network traffic 2010 2019 Chart 14 Change in the number of mobile prepaid/postpaid subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 15 Change in the proportion of mobile prepaid/postpaid subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 16 Change in the share of mobile subscribers by major operator 2010 2019 Chart 17 Growth in the number of Movistars LTE subscribers and penetration 2016 2019 Chart 18 Change in operators 3G market share 2009 2019 Chart 19 Decline in the number of SMS messages sent, annual change 2010 2019 Chart 20 Decline in the number of MMS messages sent, annual change 2010 2019 Chart 21 Change in the number of mobile internet connections by platform 2009 2019 Chart 22 Change in the proportion of mobile broadband connections by technology 2009 2019 Chart 23 Mobile broadband penetration by technology 2009 2019 Chart 24 Change in mobile broadband market share by major players 2013 2019 Chart 25 Smartphones using mobile internet 2013 2019 Chart 26 Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration 2010 2025 Chart 27 Growth in the number of Entel Chiles mobile subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 28 Change in the number of Entel Chiles mobile subscribers 2012 2019 Chart 29 Change in the number of Movistars mobile subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 30 Development of Movistar Chiles mobile revenue 2012 2019 Chart 31 Change in Movistar Chiles mobile ARPU 2013 2019 Chart 32 Change in the number of Claros mobile subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 33 Growth in the number of WOMs mobile subscribers 2008 2019 Chart 34 Growth in the number of VTRs mobile subscribers 2012 2019 Chart 35 Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration 2010 2025 Chart 36 Change in the number of fixed broadband subscribers by platform 2010 2019 Chart 37 Change in the market share of fixed broadband technologies by subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 38 Change in the number of fixed broadband connections by speed 2010 2019 Chart 39 Change in operator market share of fixed broadband subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 40 Mobile and fixed-line internet subscribers 2009 2019 Chart 41 Growth in the number of cable modem subscribers and penetration 2010 2019 Chart 42 Growth in the number of VTRs fixed broadband subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 43 Growth in VTRs revenue 2011 2019 Chart 44 Decline in the number of DSL subscribers and penetration 2010 2019 Chart 45 Change in operator market share of fixed lines in service 2010 2019 Chart 46 Decline in fixed-line local traffic (minutes and calls) 2010 2019 Chart 47 Decline in the number of Movistars fixed lines in service 2010 2019 Chart 48 Development of Movistars financial data 2014 2019 Chart 49 Decline in the number of VTRs fixed-line subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 50 Decline in the number of GTD Groups fixed-line subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 51 Decline in the number of Entels fixed-line subscribers 2010 2019 Chart 52 Development of Entel Chiles financial data 2014 2019 Chart 53 Development of Claros revenue by platform 2012 2019 Chart 54 Decline in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity 2010 2025 List of Exhibits Exhibit 1 Generalised Market Characteristics by Market Segment Exhibit 2 South America - Key Characteristics of Telecoms Markets by Country Exhibit 3 Central America - Key Characteristics of Telecoms Markets by Country Exhibit 4 Regions and primary zones in Chile Exhibit 5 Local telephony operators number of zones of operation Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Chile-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses The British Department of Health and Social Care has granted the CE marking and Certificate of Free Sale (CFS) to Vietnams test kits used in novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) diagnosis, according to the Vietnamese government. The test kits were produced by the Vietnam Military Medical University and Viet A Corporation, as an assignment given by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the government said in a post on its verified Facebook account, where official information and documents are frequently published. The EUs medical laws stipulate that once a product has obtained the CE marking and CFS from any member state of the union, it can be sold freely in the entirety of the European Economic Area, including the UK. "CE marking indicates that a product has been assessed by the manufacturer and deemed to meet EU safety, health and environmental protection requirements," the EU said on its official website. The UK officially left the EU on January 31 but the medical laws are still applicable to the kingdom until the end of December 31, the Vietnamese government said. A partner has bought the test kits and secured the exclusive right to distribute them in the UK, India, Mexico, the U.S., and some European countries, following the granting of the CE marking and CFS. In March, 20 countries negotiated with Vietnam about the purchase of the test kits. Initially, Viet A will ship its test kits to Iran, Finland, Malaysia, and Ukraine. Iran has ordered 4,000 kits while Ukraine has placed an order for 300 kits. In Vietnam, the Peoples Committee of Hanoi has ordered 200,000 tests for use in the capital and for donation to Italy. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes only one golden standard to confirm a COVID-19 case, which is the real-time RT-PCR method. Vietnams test kits employ the same method and return a conclusive result in over two hours. It costs VND400,000-600,000 (US$17-25.5) to produce a test, given a subsidy from the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology. One kit includes 50 tests, to be used 50 times. In theory, it can be utilized for testing 50 patients. Vietnams test kits match the quality of those following the guidelines of the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the government said. Viet A is capable of producing 10,000 kits a day. The corporation can triple its production for international aid or to meet domestic and export demands. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Imran Khan may be tested for the coronavirus or asked to go into isolation after a well-known philanthropist was tested positive for the COVID-19, days after meeting the Pakistan prime minister, his doctor said on Tuesday. Faisal Edhi, the son of late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi and chairman of the Edhi Foundation, met Khan last week. Khan's personal physician and CEO of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, Faisal Sultan, told media that would meet Khan on Tuesday. I will meet him and recommend that he gets testedWe will follow all protocols in place and make recommendations accordingly, he said. The protocols recommend self-isolation for people who meet those tested positive for the coronavirus. Pakistan on Tuesday reported 16 more deaths from the coronavirus, taking the country's toll to 192, while the number of confirmed spiked to over 9,000. It is not clear how Khan will run the government if he was asked to go into quarantine. Khan is currently working as per routine and also chaired a meeting of Cabinet. Earlier, Saad, the son of Faisal Edhi told the Dawn newspaper that his father started showing symptoms last week, soon after meeting Khan in Islamabad on April 15. "The symptoms lasted for four days before subsiding," Saad said. He added that his father was currently in Islamabad and was doing better. "He has not been admitted to any hospital and is self-isolating," he said. Faisal Edhi had met Prime Minister Khan to hand over a Rs 10 million cheque for the premier's coronavirus relief fund. The Edhi Foundation was founded by the late Abdul Sattar Edhi and is the leading charity organisation in Pakistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) Health experts have recommended to President Rodrigo Duterte a modified enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), which will allow the easing of the Luzon lockdown in areas with few or no COVID-19 infections. Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Tuesday said that despite the well researched recommendations presented by medical experts, Duterte has yet to make a decision on the fate of the lockdown enforced over Luzon. "Wala pong nagrecommenda ng total lockdown (No one recommended total lockdown)," Roque said of Duterte's five-hour meeting on Monday with several health policy experts. Roque said experts tapped to give advice on how to address the health crisis recommended the modification of the lockdown rules in Luzon. He added majority of the group who presented their ideas to Duterte suggested that lockdown rules be focused on areas with a high number of COVID-19 cases. Ang malinaw ay walang nag-recommend na ang ECQ ay ipatupad sa buong LuzonParang nagkaroon nga po ng concensus na ang approach kung ire-relax, imemaintain, o ili-lift ay depende sa lugar at kung gaanong laganap ang sakit na COVID-19, he said in a media briefing. [Translation: No one recommended that enhanced community quarantine shall cover the entire Luzon. There was a consensus that relaxing, maintaining, or lifting will be based on the area and how widespread the cases are.] The Philippines has a total of 6,459 COVID-19 cases, with the majority recorded in Metro Manila. 428 have died, while 613 have recovered. Meanwhile, COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force spokesperson Karlo Nograles said Duterte asked them to present more options as to what happens after April 30. Tuloy-tuloy pa po ang ating meetings because kahapon, noong nagpresent ang members ng IATF to the President, hindi pa po nakapag-decide si President anong gagawin after April 30. Binalik niya muna sa IATF ang pagtuloy ng aming discussions para mas mabigyan namin si Pangulong Duterte ng more options that he can take a look at it, he said in a separate media briefing. [Translation: Our meetings will continue because when IATF members presented to the President yesterday, he still hasnt decided what will happen after April 30. He told us to continue our discussions so we can give him more options to look at.] He added that during the meeting, the task force members discussed which industries can go back to work with some modifications. The considerations include which nonessential businesses can operate again while observing physical distancing rules. Nograles believes the President needed more options and more time to decide on the fate of over 57 million Filipinos living in Luzon who are affected by strict rules and limited social movement. (He) Needs more time basically, so binalik sa IATF for more extensive discussions then we'll come back to him with ano ang output ng discussions, he added. Nograles, who also serves as Cabinet Secretary, reiterated the decision of Duterte will be based on the following parameters: COVID-19 epidemiological curve, the capacity of the health care system, and the social, economic, and security factors. He said Philippines is moving towards controlling the rise in the number of cases. He said before the expanded testing, around 17 percent of those being tested were resulting in positive cases. However, he said there is now a downward trend, with only 13 percent of the persons tested being confirmed to have the disease. Nograles said Philippine officials will be more confident to revise the current lockdown guidelines if testing capabilities continue to go up. We will be more confident of going into modified quarantine if our testing capacity is expanded even more, he said. Nograles and Roque are confident there is enough time for Duterte to decide on the Luzon lockdown, just nine days before the quarantine is slated to end. It's an open-ended deadline. He can decide today or by April 30, the presidents spokesperson said. Non-essential travel between the U.S. and Mexico will be restricted for another 30 days, Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf announced Monday. This affects tourism more than anything. People can continue to cross the border if they are a U.S. citizen returning to the U.S., traveling for medical purposes, traveling to go to school or work, or traveling for an emergency. Cross-border trade may also continue. Two Pennsylvania face numerous charges after a traffic stop on Thursday evening in Plainfield Township yielded heroin hidden in a cheeseburger and more than an ounce of cocaine packaged for sale, Slate Belt Regional police report in court papers. A Slate Belt officer was conducting an aggressive driving effort around 7:30 p.m. in the 500 block of Moorestown Road near the exit ramp from Route 33 North, police said. While he was making random license plate checks, the registration on a silver Acura sedan came back expired, police said. The officer followed the car into a McDonalds parking lot, and when the Acura came out of the drive-thru, it was pulled over, police said. Passenger Anthony Garcia Fernandez, 34, of the 100 block of North 16th Street in Wilson, tried to get out carrying a brown paper bag, but he was told to stay put, police said. The car smelled like marijuana, police said. While speaking to driver Miguel Angel Cruz, 36, of the 400 block of North 22nd Street in Allentown, the officer saw a joint in the area of the center console, police said. Cruzs license was suspended, and he had warrants involving driving under the influence and drug possession, police said. One man in the vehicle ate the joint, police said. The officer also found four glassine wax bags containing heroin that one of the men had put inside the cheeseburger that he was eating before being detained, police said. The way the drug was packaged indicated it was also prepared for sale, police said. While further searching the car, officers found just over an ounce of cocaine separated into three bags and as well as more heroin, for a total of 12 grams, police said. They also recovered a half-ounce of marijuana, police said. After being read his rights, Cruz told police that Fernandez and he were planning to sell the drugs, police said. The men were arraigned early Friday morning before District Judge Robert Hawke on charges that included possession with intent to deliver drugs (two counts), conspiracy to do the same (two counts), possession of a controlled substance (two counts) and related offenses. Fernandez also faces two counts of tampering with evidence while Cruz received six vehicular violations, records show. They were both housed in Northampton County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail, records show. Both remained behind bars on Tuesday morning, records show. Their preliminary hearings are tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. April 30 in District Judge Douglas Schlegels court in Wind Gap. Court papers did not list an attorney for either man. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Got a question or tip? Contact us at bizmojoidaho@gmail.com. The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday affirmed Musa Wada as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the November 16, 2019 gubernatorial election in Kogi State. The appeal was filed by Abubakar Mohammed, Ibrahim Idris and others against Mr Wada over the primary election held in the state. Mr Idris, also of the PDP, had on September 27, 2019, approached Kogi State High Court to challenge the outcome of the primary election conducted on September 3 and 4, 2019 in the state in which Mr Wada won. Mr Idris in his suit argued that he won the primary and not Mr Wada. But the trial court Judge, Roland Olorunfemi, dismissed the claim and held that Mr Idris did not substantiate his claim. In his judgement, Justice Olorunfemi proceeded to hold that PDP did not have a candidate in the last election in Kogi State. Dissatisfied with the lower court decision, Mr Wada filed an appeal through his lawyer, Jibrin Okutepa, challenging the judgement on the ground amongst others, that the trial judge did not have jurisprudence to grant reliefs not sought before him. Ruling Delivering judgement in the appeal marked CA/A/193/2020 on Tuesday, a three-member panel led by Ibrahim Muhammad held that, It is a crooked colt of discretion for a court to raise an issue suo motu (raising issues that were not raised by any of the parties in the litigation) and determine same without hearing parties. The appellate court also set aside every order made by the trial court to the effect that there was no primary election by PDP in the state and that the appellant was not a candidate in the election. Every order made by the trial high court that there was no primary election and that the appellant was not a candidate in the election is hereby set aside, the court held. The appellate court allowed the appeal filed by Mr Wada and restored his nomination by PDP as valid, lawful and in compliance with relevant laws. by Melani Manel Perera The bombings left some 280 people dead and nearly 600 wounded. Card Ranjith thanks all those helping victims families, urges the government to find the culprits. The commemoration took place amid the pandemic crisis. Colombo (AsiaNews) One year after the tragedy, Sri Lanka came to stop today to remember the victims of the bomb attacks against three churches two Catholic and one Protestant and three hotels on Easter Sunday 2019. The explosions left some 280 people dead, including 45 foreigners, and nearly 600 wounded. In a video message carried on Verbum Catholic TV, Archbishop Card Malcom Ranjith of Colombo thanked all those who showed respect to the victims and expressed solidarity with them and their families. The cardinal also called for those in office a year ago to pay for their mistakes. Bishop Asiri Perera, head of the countrys Methodist Church, told AsiaNews that members and prelates of his Church marked the anniversary by observing two minutes of silence. The country's Muslim and Buddhist leaders did the same. Everyone is demanding justice for the victims and the conviction of the guilty. No political leader can be allowed to play with people's lives, said Card Ranjith. For this reason, he is urging President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step up the investigation, which has so far not achieved any results. It is still unclear who was behind the attacks. The then president initially Maithripala Sirisena blamed Islamic extremists, then international drug traffickers claiming that the attacks were retaliation against his work fighting the drug trade. The only thing that is certain is that the authorities had intelligence about the planned attacks before they occurred, and ignored it. The anniversary comes as the country tackles the coronavirus pandemic, which has prevented all public celebration. So far, the authorities have reported 310 cases and seven deaths. A medical student has claimed her shifts were suspended after she refused to work with coronavirus patients without adequate PPE. The healthcare assistant (HCA), who will remain anonymous, said seven workers refused to go into Covid-19 rooms at Eastbourne Hospital on Tuesday April 14 because they felt unsafe wearing aprons and surgical masks, as reported by Metro. The agency worker said a disagreement took place with the on-duty sister, who said there was not a problem and that people had been wearing aprons and surgical masks all day. But the 29-year-old said that 'patients are confirmed [to have coronavirus], the [Public Health England] guidelines are to wear an FFP3 mask and full gown, goggles and visor upon entrance into a red zone.' The healthcare assistant (HCA), who will remain anonymous, said seven workers refused to go into Covid-19 rooms at Eastbourne Hospital (pictured) She claims the sister then said 'why are you fighting', which left her feeling 'flabbergasted and appalled.' It comes after ongoing concerns from medical professionals that they might be forced to stop treating patients if adequate PPE is not provided. The 29-year-old told Metro she feels particularly vulnerable to the disease because she is a black woman, and evidence has emerged that shows the virus disproportionately affecting the BAME community. Figures published by NHS England show that of 13,918 patients in England who tested positive for Covid-19 at time of death up to April 17, 16.2 per cent were BAME and 0.7 per cent had mixed ethnicity. The statistics emerged days after a review was announced to examine what appears to be a disproportionate number of BAME people who have been affected by Covid-19. The HCA later went to see the site matron to get them the equipment they needed. She told Metro.co.uk: I just thought it was very irresponsible working as someone in a managerial position to put me in that position where I might have contracted it and it could be detrimental to my health and I could pass it onto someone else. I would rather contract it by accident or by not knowing as opposed to pushing myself right into the thick of it. The following day she received an email saying her shifts at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust had been cancelled. The reasons given were that 'this HCA refused to wear PPE in line with National Guidance' and was 'reported to have shouted at the nurse in charge and refused to work.' In response to the email she said: I refused to work had I not been provided with adequate PPE and all seven of us that were there refused to work, so Im sure she has singled me out because I stood my ground.' A spokesman for East Healthcare NHS Trust told MailOnline the HCA was provided with equipment in line with national Public Health England Guidance. The HCA later uploaded a video to Twitter showing her unwrapping PPE she had purchased for herself from eBay. On Twitter she said: 'We shouldnt have to order our own PPE it should be provided. So much for keep me safe to keep you safe @MattHancock should retire. The HCA later uploaded a video to Twitter showing her unwrapping PPE she had purchased for herself from eBay 'This is clinical negligence at its highest and members of staff will continue to die.' A spokesman for East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust told MailOnline: 'Members of agency staff are not directly employed by the Trust. 'However they are required to follow exactly the same Public Health England guidance as other members of staff when it comes to wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). 'This means wearing specific equipment in specific situations or specific areas of our hospitals. 'Members of staff in areas treating Covid-19 suspected or positive patients are provided with fluid resistant surgical masks, gloves and aprons in line with national Public Health England guidance. 'The agency Health Care Assistant was provided with this. She requested additional PPE and this was also provided. 'We recognise that this is a really worrying time for many members of staff and it's important that we keep them and our patients safe by following our Trust values as well as the correct national guidance when it comes to wearing PPE and caring for patients with Covid-19. February may feel like a decade ago, but it wasnt too far in the past that the now-empty streets of San Francisco were crawling with film crews shooting the highly anticipated sequels to Venom and The Matrix. RELATED: SF gets first glimpse at Woody Harrelson's 'Venom 2' villain Carnage while film shoots downtown Theres no concrete update on The Matrix 4 yet, but some bad news arrived today for fans of Venom. The October 2, 2020 release date has been pushed back to June 25, 2021. Originally filming under the codename Filmore, the Marvel superhero film now has its official name and will bring a glimmer of joy to those who love a good, terrible movie title. Should the name survive a year of being pummeled by fans on the internet, the new movie will be called Venom: Let There Be Carnage. RELATED: Map of 'Matrix 4' SF filming locations, including helicopters and Keanu's coffee breaks For those uninitiated into the broader Spider-Man universe, Carnage is a red, even more villainous version of the supervillain Venom. In the film, he will be played by Woody Harrelson, who was seen pummeled with bullets during a shoot on OFarrell Street. Dan Gentile is a digital editor at SFGate. Email: Dan.Gentile@sfgate.com | Twitter: @Dannosphere [April 20, 2020] Unilever Food Solutions connects food and beverage businesses with diners across Southeast Asia SINGAPORE, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) is partnering with Carousell , the Southeast Asian marketplace platform, on #SupportLocal, an initiative that enables 180,000 food & beverage (F&B) businesses in Southeast Asia to connect with local diners. This initiative helps F&B businesses in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines to reach customers directly by being listed on Carousell's newly created local F&B category for free. UFS supports the hospitality community by offering professional resources such as recipes, tips and video training on food delivery and social media photography. Diners, instead, find restaurants or street vendors near them offering pick-up or self-arranged delivery. "Many food-stall owners like us are not equipped for delivery services. #SupportLocal provides us with a platform to gain visibility amongst consumers during this unprecedented time." said Wei Cheng, a second-generation business owner who runs Liang Guang Seafood Soup in Singapore. "We hope that this joint initiative will support local businesses to navigate through this unprecedented time as well as act as a catalyst for many to embrace digitization. Local food businesses are at the heart of every community in Southeast Asia and we are proud to be doing our art to keep this unifying force alive" said Star Chen, EVP Customer Development & Operations, Unilever Food Solutions. "Nothing binds our community together more than their shared passion for food, and we have partnered with Unilever Food Solutions, experts in the culinary industry, to help our local F&B owners. As Southeast Asia's largest online classifieds, Carousell has the ability to reach local communities at a regional scale and provide them with the means to support local businesses," said Lewis Ng, Chief Commercial Officer, Carousell. UFS is the foodservice arm of Unilever and has a strong footprint in the F&B industry with brands like Knorr, Best Foods and Lipton. Carousell is the number one online marketplace platform in Southeast Asia and has tens of millions of users shopping across various categories including fashion, electronics, and health & beauty, giving vendors access to a wide range of consumers via cross-selling. Interested F&B outlets may list on Carousell following these simple guidelines: Singapore: https://tinyurl.com/supportlocalsingapore Malaysia: https://tinyurl.com/supportlocalMY Philippines: https://tinyurl.com/supportlocalPH Vietnam: https://tinyurl.com/supportlocalVN # # # About Unilever Food Solutions We are proud to be part of Unilever, one of the world's leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods, with sales in 180 different countries. As the dedicated foodservice business of Unilever, we lead the industry in providing innovative and high quality professional food ingredients and value adding services created by 230 professional chefs. Covering 50 cuisines, in 200 million dishes a day. We outgrow our competition thanks to strong brands such as KNORR, LIPTON and HELLMANN'S, and talented entrepreneurial people working closely with chefs and distributive partners on a daily basis. Unilever Food Solutions is an inspiring global company made up of talented professionals who are always willing to go the extra mile to deliver results for customers. In this positive and open culture, we find inspiration every day, empowering our people to make a 'bigger difference' at every level in the organisation. We provide products and services created by chefs for chefs and aim to do this in a sustainable way. For more information, please visit http://www.ufs.com/ About Carousell Carousell is a classifieds marketplace that makes selling as easy as taking a photo, buying as simple as chatting. Launched in August 2012, Carousell began in Singapore and now has a presence in eight markets across Asia. With over 250 million listings, we are one of the world's largest and fastest growing marketplaces in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and are backed by Telenor Group, Rakuten Ventures, Sequoia India and Naspers. The Carousell marketplace has a diverse range of products across a variety of categories, including cars, lifestyle, gadgets and fashion accessories. Download the app for iOS or Android, and visit www.carousell.com for more information. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200421/2781226-1 SOURCE Unilever Food Solutions [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] This is the shocking moment a woman repeatedly beat her daughter while the father of her two children recorded it all before they were both arrested in Brazil Footage of the disturbing incident, which allegedly took place April 13, went viral after Ana Maria Teixeira's ex-husband, Ricardo Caique de Araujo, uploaded it on social media. In the video, an irate Teixeira appears to wrap a cord and attack her daughter. Officials later claimed that she said she beat her daughter because she had been caught playing with a condom outside their house. Teixeira's attorney Edna Maria Oliveira told Brazilian media outlet G1 that de Araujo used the two-minute video footage to coerce here into resuming their relationship two years after they had divorced. WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT Ana Maria Teixeira (left) and Ricardo Caique de Araujo (right) were arrested last Tuesday, a day after de Araujo recorded a video of his ex-wife beating their seven-year-old daughter Ana Maria Teixeira used a long cord to beat one of her two daughters at their home April 13. Her ex-husband Ricardo Caique de Araujo recorded the incident and then threatened to upload it on social media if she did not resume their relationship In the footage, the defenseless girl appears to be slapped while she is sat on a bed at the family home in Monte Claros, a city in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. The child, whose name was omitted from Brazilian media reports, is subsequently pulled by her head and tossed on top of the bed. Police said the beaten girl admitted she had been previously beaten by her Teixeira but when she was taken to the police station said it was the first time she had been abused Ana Maria Teixeira used a cord to hit her daughter after she reportedly found the seven-year-old playing with a condom she had brought home from the street Police said Ricardo Caique de Araujo has a court order that does not allow him to contact the mother of his two children Ana Maria Teixeira was charged with torture after she appeared in a video beating her daughter Oliveira said Teixeira was disciplining her daughter after she came home with a condom she had found on the street. The Military Police said de Araujo has a court order that forbid him from contacting Teixeira. He told the police that he recorded the video after he arrived at the house to drop off milk for his two children. 'Upon arriving at the property, he caught the ex assaulting his daughter and made the images to extort her in order to resume the marriage,' police said. Teixeira, who was charged with torture, and de Araujo, who is facing attempted extortion charges, were arrested last Tuesday. SUNRISE, Fla., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Interim HealthCare Inc., the nation's leading franchise network of home care, senior care, home health and hospice and healthcare staffing services, and its parent company, Caring Brands International (CBI), today launched a website to help the home care industry access critical personal protective equipment (PPE) inventory in the fight against COVID-19: https://www.ppeforhomecare.org/home/. Since this public health crisis reached the United States, CBI and Interim HealthCare President and CEO, Jennifer Sheets, and her team have been integral in driving U.S.-based and international advocacy and task force gathering discussions to spotlight a huge gap in the industry's ability to obtain and fulfill orders for PPE. Subsequently, the leadership at Interim HealthCare Inc., has been sourcing, vetting and negotiating critically needed PPE for the Interim HealthCare network of owners and operators. This fast action has allowed the home care master franchisor to keep pace with demand and manage its inventory over the last five weeks. It is these efforts that led to the concept behind PPEforHomeCare.org. Among the core essentials of PPE being sourced are gloves, N95 masks, gowns, digital thermometers, infrared thermometers, and more. "Our priority is always the health and safety of our clinicians, caregivers and the patients and families they serve. From the moment we understood the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential to prevent our collective ability to source supplies of PPE, we quickly mobilized," said president and CEO, Jennifer Sheets. "Never wanting to increase burden on the healthcare ecosystem or hope for handouts or donations from the CDC and state governments or private fundraising, we assessed inventory and vetted reputable suppliers ourselves to find a solution. Now we are opening it up to others. For us this is mission-critical: without PPE we can't ask our employees to be on the front line of this epidemic, just as we would never ask our armed forces to enter battle unprepared." As a commitment to banding together in this pandemic, the new PPE sourcing channel, now open to all those in home care, is a bold step in helping the world-wide home healthcare industry meet healthcare needs, wherever and however possible. By opening purchasing to other verified home care agencies that are struggling to find PPE, CBI can leverage bulk purchasing and greater buying power (and therefore optimal pricing) through higher volume orders. Specific inventory includes disposable gowns, surgical masks, digital thermometers, hand sanitizer, latex cloves, nitrile gloves, vinyl gloves, KN95 respirator masks, and infrared thermometers. Inventory is available to representatives of verified home care agencies in the United States or abroad. Caring Brands International is an organization comprised of three leading home healthcare brands across the globe including, Interim HealthCare in the United States, Bluebird Care in the United Kingdom and Ireland and Just Better Care in Australia. Caring Brands International global home care companies will have first right to order. Owners, executives or operators of established home healthcare agencies must provide proof of establishment and agree that, should items be secured, they won't resell or remarket supplies. Reputable suppliers whose standards and inventory can be verified and that offer competitive pricing with reliable delivery, are invited to email [email protected] to share currently available PPE and related items. Interest in helping with this important effort is greatly appreciated. For more information on Interim HealthCare, please visit www.interimhealthcare.com. About Interim HealthCare Inc. Interim HealthCare Inc., founded in 1966, is a leading national franchisor of home care, hospice and healthcare staffing. It is part of Caring Brands International, which also includes UK-based Bluebird Care and Australia-based Just Better Care, both well-known franchise brands in their countries. With more than 530 franchise locations in seven countries, Caring Brands International is a global healthcare leader. Interim HealthCare in the United States is unique in combining the commitment of local ownership with the support of a national organization that develops innovative programs and quality standards that improve the delivery of service. Franchisees employ nurses, therapists, aides, companions and other healthcare professionals who provide 25 million hours of home care service to 190,000 people each year, meeting a variety of home health, senior care, hospice, palliative care, pediatric care and healthcare staffing needs. For more information or to locate an Interim HealthCare office, visit www.interimhealthcare.com . SOURCE Interim HealthCare Inc. Related Links http://www.interimhealthcare.com WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY Unable to gather one last time for a true Coogan's-style farewell, owners of the iconic Uptown bar ended an announcement that they would close for good by asking the neighborhood to help them say goodbye. "Now it is your turn to complete our story...," owners Dave Hunt, Tess O'Connor McDade and Peter Walsh wrote. And, boy, did they. "It's like watching a movie," Walsh said of the hundreds of staff, customers and vendors who took to social media to tell their Coogan's stories. "We're alive as the wake is taking place and it's an amazing thing to see." Longtime customers took to Facebook to reminisce on holidays, birthdays and anniversaries spent at the popular Irish bar. Vendors who helped Coogan's stock its kitchen for decades called up to give their well wishes. And staff, even amidst facing their own uncertain future, checked in to see how the owners were doing, Walsh said. (To keep up with coronavirus news in Washington Heights and Inwood, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.) "Thank you for making me who I am today," wrote one waitress, who credited Coogan's for launching her career. "My husband and I met @ Coogans 26 years ago...and Coogans was our place to go to," wrote a customer. "Thank you for so many memories." (Contributed by Peter Walsh) And, like a true Irish wake, Walsh says the fond memories are helping the owners get through the tough call to close after 35 years. "It's those warm hugs, those moments that will keep you going, thats whats happening with us," Walsh said. Coogan's, like all New York City restaurants, was forced to close its doors March 17 as officials began closing down the city to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The restaurant continued take-out and delivery orders for a few days, but eventually realized breaking-even on food order costs wasn't sustainable for a restaurant built on profits from hanging out and buying drinks. Story continues Takeout also didn't feel right for a bar known as a meeting spot for everyone from congressman, to hospital staff down the street and families from the high school running track next door, Walsh said. "We wanted to see you, we wanted eyeball contact with you thats the kind of place it was," he said. Walsh with Washington Heights native Lin-Manuel Miranda. (Contributed by Peter Walsh.) But, when all revenue stopped coming in March 20, it wasn't long before the restaurant realized it likely wouldn't be able to pay its bills. Even with three months of free rent thanks to the bar's landlord, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital, keeping Coogan's open would cost $25,000 a month. "Our accountant said, you guys are not only broke, but going into debt now," Walsh said. "Youre bleeding and you dont have blood." Walsh, who is 73 years old, said he, Hunt and McDade began to think about their responsibility to their own families, making the final decision on Monday. They called the hospital, U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat and eventually their 40-plus staff members to let them know the news. "We wanted to talk to everybody and let them know personally," Walsh said. "We were just worn out after that, but I just found out how resilient people are." As for their customers, the owners made the announcement with a heartfelt letter on their Facebook page. "Coogan's was a public house, a meeting place, a table to break bread and solve problems," they wrote. "...We were people of different races, creeds and ideas, all with the same dream to be secure and love." (Contributed by Dave Hunt.) Coronavirus In NYC: What's Happened And What You Need To Know This article originally appeared on the Washington Heights-Inwood Patch Chennai, April 21 : In a humane decision, Greater Chennai Police on Tuesday have decided to ask policemen aged 55 and above to be at home as a precaution against corornavirus infection. According to Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan the decision is applicable to all vulnerable officials. The decision comes after a 55-year old Sub-Inspector got infected with coronavirus. As per the new instructions, policemen aged above 55 need not come to work and they need not be called for duty. Policemen aged between 50 and 55 will look after work at police station and will not be deployed outside as a precautionary measure. Viswanathan has also asked policemen to wear gloves and masks and strictly maintain social distance while interacting with public and others. And inside the police stations, social distancing should be maintained. PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. Disclaimer: In the U.S.A., all persons accused of a crime by the State are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. See: so.md/presumed-innocence. Additionally, all of the information provided above is solely from the perspective of the respective law enforcement agency and does not provide any direct input from the accused or persons otherwise mentioned. You can find additional information about the case by searching the Maryland Judiciary Case Search Database using the accused's name and date of birth. The database is online at so.md/mdcasesearch . Persons named who have been found innocent or not guilty of all charges in the respective case, and/or have had the case ordered expunged by the court can have their name, age, and city redacted by following the process defined at so.md/expungeme. (April 21, 2020, 2020)The Prince Frederick Barrack of the Maryland State Police (MSP) today released the following arrest reports.WARRANT SERVICE: On 4/18/2020, Senior Trooper McCombs responded to the Calvert County Detention Center to make contact with Paul Leroy Chew who had an active warrant (FTA - Driving While Suspended) through the Maryland State Police, Prince Frederick Barrack. Chew was located and served the warrant without incident.DUI/CDS ARREST/FIREARM VIOLATION/DISABLED VEHICLE: On 04/18/2020, Trooper Moorman and Trooper First Class Rucker responded to the area of Route 4 and Cove Point Road, Lusby, for a disbabled vehicle. Once on scene probable cause search was conducted due to the smell of burnt marijuana and alcohol emitting from the vehicle. CDS-Marijuana was located in the vehicle as well as a loaded Glock 23 handgun. The driver was identified as William Albert Hariston Jr. Hariston was subsequently placed under arrest for DUI, CDS marijuana, and weapon violation. Hariston was transported to the Maryland State Police, Prince Fredercik Barrack for processing prior to being incarcerated at the Calvert County Detention Center. All CDS were packaged and processed at the Maryland State Police, Prince Frederick Barrack.MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT / POSSESSION OF HEROIN: On 04/20/2020, Trooper First Class Palumbo responded to the area of Route 4 and Patuxent Point Parkway, Solomons, for the report of a single motor vehicle accident. Upon arriving onscene, Trooper First Class Palumbo made contact with the passenger, Antione Dominique Brooks, 31, who sustained no apparent injuries due to the collision. Trooper First Class Palumbo observed CDS paraphernalia in plain sight and a probable cause search of the vehicle resulted in two syringes of suspected heroin as well as other paraphernalia. Brooks was issued Criminal Citations and released from the scene. Due to the injuries sustained by the driver, charges are pending at this time.DUI ARREST: William Albert Hariston, Jr., age 52, of Lusby, arrested on 04/18/2020 by Tpr. Moorman. Sri Lanka has ordered all liquor stores to close indefinitely, as a part of its stringent measures aimed at containing the spread of the new coronavirus. The government's decision came amid warnings by the doctors' union and association, which cautioned that consumption of alcohol can exacerbate health vulnerability, risk-taking behavior, mental health issues and violence. They also warned that it could disrupt social distancing guidelines. Doctors' warnings came as the number of confirmed cases rose to 310. Seven people have died while 102 have recovered. Liquor stores and bars were opened on Monday in some parts of the country, after the government partially lifted a monthlong curfew during which all liquor shops remained close. Sri Lanka had been under a 24-hour curfew since March 20. It was lifted during daytime hours in more than two-thirds of the country on Monday and will continue in the remaining districts including the capital, Colombo, until next week. The curfew will remain in effect from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. until further notice. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Big number: $1.5 billion the expected hit to Torontos finances as a result of COVID-19, according to numbers released at city hall, assuming a three-month lockdown and six-month recovery period. As the chair of Torontos Board of Health, Coun. Joe Cressy isnt getting a lot of sleep these days. Working long days on the citys COVID-19 response, hes been living separately from his wife and infant son for more than a month as a precautionary measure, since he needs to spend his days working outside his home. But the councillor is also looking ahead to the other side of this crisis, and a strategy to reopen the city and kickstart the economy. He calls it the Urban Marshall Plan. Evoking the post-Second World War strategy hatched by U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall to have the United States government give Western Europe the equivalent of $128 billion in aid to rebuild their war-ravaged countries, Cressy is calling for a big injection of cash into Toronto and other Canadian cities. Its not radical. Its basic Keynesian economics, he tells me. And it looks like an urban agenda for the 21st century. Cressy is looking to see significant federal and provincial spending on major urban priorities, including housing, transportation, the cultural sector and programs that mitigate the impacts of climate change. Its about creating jobs post-pandemic and leveraging an opportunity to address long-standing city issues. If we use [federal and provincial] funds to simply do what we did before, we miss an opportunity to end chronic homelessness and build housing for middle class Canadians. We miss an opportunity to transform our economy into a green economy, he says. This isnt about lavish spending on a bunch of Toronto pet projects. The Marshall Plan of 1948 did more than rebuild Europes cathedrals and public squares. It provided enough money to kickstart the European economy, which fed into a larger revival of the western economy. An Urban Marshall Plan could do much the same thing for the Canadian economy. The Toronto region alone represents nearly 20 per cent of national GDP, and had been growing faster than the country as a whole up 2.4 per cent a year since 2009, compared to 1.8 per cent nationally. Given the size of the citys economic contributions, its hard to imagine a successful recovery that doesnt include a revitalized Toronto. But there is no getting around the fact that this city will need significant cash from the provincial and federal governments to recover from the pandemic. New financial projections released at city hall on Friday show an estimated $1.5-billion impact to Torontos operating budget. And thats the optimistic scenario, built on an assumption that the current lockdown ends after three months. If the city is forced to extend regulations through the end of the year, the impact is estimated at $2.7 billion, in 2020 alone. To put that in perspective, raising that with property taxes would require a one-time residential levy of between 45 per cent and 84 per cent, working out to between $1,384 to $2,549 added to the average households tax bill. Unlike other governments, Toronto is not legally permitted to run operating budget deficits, so unless the rules are changed, any shortfall will need to be addressed. Even if the rules are changed, Toronto has limited powers to raise revenue. Theres no easy way out. When going over the numbers Friday, Mayor John Tory made a pitch to Ottawa and Queens Park for funds. Our city led Canadas economy before this crisis and we will have to lead it again, he said. It was a strong message. But the amount of money coming to Toronto, how long it lasts, and where its directed will matter a lot. The city could, for instance, accept an emergency transfer in the ballpark of $1 billion and find a way to scrimp its way through the budget process. But why not look for more? Pairing emergency financial supports with new investments would stabilize Torontos finances and provide a larger economic boost and long-lasting benefits to people in and around the city. On the other side of COVID-19, there are two basic paths for Toronto and other big cities. One path has been taken twice before in recent memory. It didnt go well. After a recession in the early 1990s, the provincial and federal governments basically abandoned Toronto. The result was a lost decade. Transit funding was slashed, subway projects were stopped mid-construction and new units of affordable housing were rarer than unicorns. The story was similar after the great recession in 2008. For all the talk of stimulus projects and rebuilding the economy, within two years Premier Dalton McGuinty had drastically cut planned spending on light rail transit projects, and Mayor Rob Ford was looking seriously at closing some libraries to save money. This economic punch will hit harder than either of those, which is why its important government take a different route this time. There are two choices. One leads to a status quo salvage mission. The other an Urban Marshall Plan could use this hole were in as a foundation to build something great. Economists believe that real estate will remain a safe shelter for investors, and will still bring attractive profits in the post-Covid-19 period. Many real estate firms said they have had to cancel the events to advertise their new projects and delay launching new products. Some realtors hope they can market new products in the second quarter. However, reports say there will be no improvement in housing supply for people in HCM City. The supply is even insignificant in suburban areas. Nhip Cau Dau Tu newspaper reported that only 16 commercial housing projects had investment licenses in 2019, a decrease of 64 projects, or 80 percent, compared with the year before. Some realtors hope they can market new products in the second quarter. However, reports say there will be no improvement in housing supply for people in HCM City. The supply is even insignificant in suburban areas. According to Nguyen The Diep, deputy chair of the Hanoi Real Estate Club, the urbanization process in Vietnam has been going rapidly, leading to high demand for housing products. But the implementation of real estate projects in Hanoi and HCM City has been going slowly over the last two years because of many inspection campaigns by state management agencies. As a result, the market supply has declined. In fact, the demand is quite low at this moment. Dang Hung Vo, a respected real estate expert, and former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, said because of the epidemic and the social distancing policy, many people cannot make transactions even if they want to buy houses. Meanwhile, the realtors who planned to introduce new products in the first quarter of the year had to postpone their plans. Some real estate firms have begun resuming their operation by opening online trading floors. The number of transactions is expected to soar once the epidemic ends as more realtors will launch new products. Vo said real estate firms can receive support from the government during the epidemic. Under the newly approved Decree No 41, real estate firms can also enjoy the policy on extending tax and land use right fee payments. Deputy chair of the Vietnam Real Estate Association Nguyen Van Dinh is optimistic about the real estate market performance, saying that there is high demand, high capital inflow to Vietnam, and increased income per capita. Sharing the same view that the real estate market will recover after the epidemic, Pham Duc Toan from EZ Vietnam said some market segments will see good transactions such as land or commercial properties for lease. Chi Mai Real estate: oversupply or undersupply? The HCM City Real Estate Association (HOREA) says there has been a sharp increase in inventory and has urged loosening of legal procedures to hasten completion of projects. At the Cabinet meeting (Photo: VNA) The leader made the remarks after hearing a report at a Cabinet meeting in Hanoi by the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control, on the developments of the pandemic and countermeasures. He said the social distancing policy must be observed seriously, adding that new measures and relevant decisions will be announced on April 22. PM Phuc pointed out that the risk of transmission still remains high, and asked localities to continue with the countermeasures and the sense of vigilance. People arriving in Vietnam must be quarantined, he said, emphasising that the early detection of infections would facilitate the efforts against the pandemic and improve treatment quality. The PM said the risk levels in localities would be downgraded at a meeting on April 22, expressing his belief that there will be more cities and provinces that can resume their normal activities. However, at this time, it is still necessary to continue with countermeasures in line with the spirit of the PMs conclusions made in the meeting on April 15, he said. The leader reiterated such measures as wearing face masks in public places, avoiding mass gatherings and reducing unnecessary trips and activities. He assigned the Ministry of Education and Training to consider teaching and learning plans in the time ahead, especially the organisation of graduation and university entrance exams. According to the committee, Vietnam had only 8 COVID-19 cases to report last week, while 64 patients made complete recovery. From April 17-20, no new cases were recorded in the country. As many as 208 patients or 78 percent of the total have recovered so far. Three patients who had been in critical conditions have made positive improvement over the past days. R umours that Kim Jong-Un is in a "fragile condition" after apparent heart surgery have been denied by South Korean officials. Claims about the North Korean leader's ill health surfaced after CNN cited an anonymous US official who said Kim was in grave danger after an unspecified surgery. Daily NK, citing anonymous sources, also reported that Kim was recovering from heart surgery in the capital Pyongyang and that his condition was improving. But the South Korean government said no unusual activity has been detected in North Korea on Tuesday and had no information about the rumours on Kim's health. The leader did not turn up for the celebration of his late grandfather / Getty Images Kim missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15, the countrys most important holiday. At his last public appearance on April 11, he presided over a political bureau meeting of the ruling Workers Party, discussing preventive measures against the coronavirus and electing his sister as an alternate member of the bureau. North Korea's first missile test of 2020 1 /10 North Korea's first missile test of 2020 Reuters AP Reuters Reuters Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP AP Reuters Reuters However, state media reported Kim sent greetings to Syrian President Bashar Assad last week and a birthday spread to a North Korean woman who turned 100 on Monday. We have no information to confirm regarding rumours about Chairman Kim Jong Uns health issue that have been reported by some media outlets," Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said in the statement after the reports surfaced. "Also, no unusual developments have been detected inside North Korea." A US official said the White House was aware before the reports appeared late on Monday that Kim's health might be precarious. The official said the US had information that he may have undergone surgery and that complications may have rendered him incapacitated or worse. But, the official stressed that the US had nothing to confirm the surgery had taken place or that any complications had occurred. 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(Xinhua/Chen Junxia) The Group of 77 and China have called on the international community to maintain and, where possible, increase their support for the World Health Organization. UNITED NATIONS, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The Group of 77 (G77) and China on Sunday issued a statement expressing their support for the World Health Organization (WHO) in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Group of 77 and China is deeply concerned at the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most serious public health crises in modern history," the statement said, adding that "the first priority is to save lives." "The group, therefore, acknowledges the leading role of the World Health Organization led by its Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and extends its full support and appreciation for its work in providing information, technical guidance, training and other assistance to developing countries to help them prepare for and efficiently respond to the pandemic," the statement said. The group and China share United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' view that solidarity counts in the international efforts to curb the virus and its shattering consequences, they said. They emphasized that "the international community must unite in its efforts to ensure access to scientific guidance, training, equipment, essential medical supplies, and concrete life-saving services to countries in greatest need and in regions where the full impact is yet to be felt." The statement includes a call on the international community "to maintain and, where possible, increase their support for the WHO, which, by the mandate given to it by member states, has a critical and central role to play in supporting developing countries to confront a crisis of epic scale that threatens to erase the gains made over the past decades." "We reiterate the need to strengthen international solidarity and multilateral cooperation and partnership in the fight against a disease that is our common enemy," according to the statement. It may be that you have come to the country at such a time like this. We are lucky, as a country, to have you as President at such a time as this. Your quote has been the quote of the year 2020, that you can bring the economy back to life but you cannot bring human beings back to life. Very prophetic and very insightful. Mr. President, we congratulate you on these. These were the words of the Chairperson of the Council of State, Nana Otuo Sriboe II, on Tuesday, 21st April, 2020, when the Council of State, at the invitation of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, held discussions with the President on the measures being taken by Government to combat the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. Congratulating the President on the very able manner in which you have handled the crisis that has beset this country with the advent of COVID-19, the Council of State Chairperson added that your regular broadcasts have really brought a lot of encouragement to the country, and, as if by design or accident, the cloth that you have been wearing has been depicting the mood of the country at that time. Expressing the delight of the Council of State at the establishment of the COVID-19 National Trust Fund, Nana Otuo Sriboe II suggested the decentralization of the collection of funds, so that somebody in an outlandish part of the country can also contribute perhaps through the DCE or the MCE so that his name too will be in the annals of those who came up to support the nation in times of crisis. With the Council of State having made a donation of 300,000 examination gloves, a sizeable quantity of surgical masks, and other equipment, the Council of State Chair commended the efforts being made by the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, and all other frontline actors in the struggle. I think the fact of the members of the Council of State adorning face masks is an indication that face masks have become a part of the regime of the combat against the virus. We have to accept that this will also mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 and as much as we appreciate the integrity and the good intentions of the trustees of the COVID trust fund, we may make a small suggestion in effect if we could go out there to have the facemask sewn in millions so that every Ghanaian will have the privilege of donning a face mask, he said. Nana Otuo Sriboe II continued, They will be for free, but others may take it and put in a token gesture of some amount as their part of the effort to prevent COVID. I think this will be a better substitute than giving food which may not be going to the intended destination and even negates the principles of social distancing, because if you have face masks and you get closer, distributing the face masks will go a long way to fight the spread. 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 Assisting 16,000 Participating Restaurants Nationwide ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / uBid Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB:UBIDD) (the "Company" or "uBid"), a diversified e-commerce holding company, is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary Restaurant.com has enjoyed a very successful first twenty days of its Feed It Forward program to help support local communities and their small business restaurants, which is extremely important during these critical and uncertain times. For more information, please visit: www.restaurant.com/feeditforward uBid Holdings' Restaurant.com Chief Executive Officer, Ketan Thakker, commented, "Wow! Our Feed It Forward program blew away our expectations in distributing over $1.5 million of value in eGift Cards over just the first twenty days. This demonstrates the true heart and compassion of the American people and particularly, our customers. Our team is so proud of this accomplishment and the fact that we can do our small part to help support our local communities and their small business restaurants." As communities navigate this unprecedented time, Restaurant.com is grateful to be able to provide some relief to the community that has supported it for the last two decades. Restaurant.com is giving customers the opportunity to "Feed It Forward" and send their friends and family a free $25 Restaurant.com eGift Card to help spread kindness when everyone needs it most. These eGift Cards never expire and can be redeemed for more than 16,000 participating restaurants nationwide, and are a great way to celebrate and aid local communities during this difficult period. As always, it's free for restaurants to partner with Restaurant.com and at a time when they need business more than ever, money spent with the restaurants will continue to stay exactly where it should - with the restaurants.As always, it's free for restaurants to partner with Restaurant.com and at a time when they need business more than ever, money spent with the restaurants will continue to stay exactly where it Feed It Forward will continue through April 30th, 2020, and the company hopes to send out many more eGift Cards along with some full plates and a little happiness! Anyone who wants to spread the joy of Feed It Forward is encouraged to participate before the end of April. How to Feed It Forward Those looking for the opportunity to give a little happiness right now and support local businesses can visit www.Restaurant.com/feeditforward and log in with their Restaurant.com account. To give, participants enter recipients' email addresses to spread the deliciousness with a free $25 Restaurant.com eGift Card. Recipients can redeem their Restaurant.com eGift Cards for a $25 deal at the restaurant of their choice at Restaurant.com - the nation's largest deal site. Deals can be used for takeout or delivery and will help support local businesses that need a boost right now. Even better, Restaurant.com eGift Cards never expire. Free to give. Free to receive. Feed it Forward! About Restaurant.com Restaurant.com is the trusted and valued source connecting restaurants and diners nationwide, bringing people together to relax, converse and enjoy well-prepared meals at up to 50% off the final bill. To date, Restaurant.com customers have saved more than $1 billion through their program. Restaurant.com has operated since 1999 and is based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. About uBid Holdings, Inc. uBid Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB:UBID) is a diversified e-commerce holding company whose strategic plan is to acquire interests in additive emerging digital assets and businesses. We provide advice and guidance to assist our new partners in realizing their potential. It continues to identify and evaluate potential acquisitions that its Management believes it will create shareholder value and a return on investment. For more information, visit: ubidholdings.com, www.ubid.com, www.skyauction.com and www.restaurant.com. Forward-Looking Statements Press Releases may include forward-looking statements. In particular, the words "believe," "may," "could," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "project," "propose," "plan," "intend," and similar conditional words and expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any statements made in this news release about an action, event or development, are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based upon assumptions that in the future may prove not to have been accurate and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the company. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Investors are cautioned that any forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date hereof. The company takes no obligation to update or correct its own forward-looking statements, except as required by law or those prepared by third parties that are not paid by the company. Statements in this press release that are not historical fact may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Although uBid Holdings, Inc. believes the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, uBid Holdings, Inc. is unable to give any assurance that its expectations will be attained. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include the company's ability identify a suitable business model for the corporation. PR Contact Information Email: pr@restaurant.com Media and Investors Contacts: IR@ubid.com SOURCE: uBid Holdings, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/586010/uBid-Holdings-Restaurantcom-Distributed-15-Million-Value-in-eGift-Cards-in-Successful-First-Twenty-Days-of-its-Feed-It-Forward-Program-to-Support-Local-Communities President Donald Trump speaks during a daily briefing of the coronavirus task force at the White House April 20, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump would require technology workers in the United States on H-1B visas to provide updated certifications that they are not displacing American workers, according to a draft executive order, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. The executive order would deny entry for people seeking most types of work visas for at least 90 days, Bloomberg reported. It excludes people seeking jobs related to the food supply chain and would not apply to health care or medical research professionals, according to the draft. A wheelchair with an American flag pillow on it near a doorway at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans home in Reserve, Louisiana on Thursday, April 9, 2020. Thirty-three people have died at the home in less than two months but only 12 of the deaths have been tied to the coronavirus. Many institutions will be changed, maybe even for the better, when the pandemic is over. The Canadian House of Commons, it seems, wont be one of them. If the Commons was the place where we do democracy in this country, its endurance would be a bright light in what are dark days this month for so many Canadians. But the House of Commons is proving itself yet again as the place where hard-core politics gets done, even when the rest of the country is functioning as a shadow of its normal self. Democracy is definitely an essential service. So is democratic accountability. Politics, sorry to say it, is not especially with the country reeling on Monday from Canadas largest mass shooting, tragically, simultaneously with a public-health crisis. Questions are necessary. Question Period is not. It would take too long to explain how democracy, accountability and politics became unravelled in our political culture, long before Canada went into national lockdown. But the latest proof of that unravelling has been the past few days of protracted argument over how the Commons should convene in the midst of a pandemic. To be clear: no one was arguing against the idea that government should be accountable to the opposition, most especially when the state is intervening in the lives of Canadian citizens to an unprecedented and expensive degree. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government should not be granted extraordinary powers simply because were living in extraordinary times. But how that accountability should take place managed to turn into yet another polarized debate between the party members that Canada put in those Commons seats only six months ago. Should they meet virtually or in person? How many times a week? What form should Question Period take? Does it matter? Coincidentally or maybe not the parties split along the same lines that they did in normal times about climate change: Liberals, New Democrats, the Bloc Quebecois and the Greens on one side, the Conservatives on the other. Four parties agreed on more virtual get-togethers, while the Conservatives were hanging tough for more in-person sessions, with a skeleton crew of MPs physically present in Ottawa. Conservatives continue to believe that frequent accountability sessions in Parliament get better results for Canadians, Leader Andrew Scheer said on Monday. We have repeatedly demonstrated how debate, discussion and opportunities to question the prime minister and his other ministers improve government programs and policies. Scheer has a point. It is true that opposition parties have done some worthy work on improving pandemic-relief legislation in the past month, including putting a reasonable time limit on the governments authority to spend money. What Scheer didnt say, however, was that none of that happened because of an accountability session in the chamber and accompanying political theatrics. The back-and-forth between political parties on pandemic relief has been happening over the phone, or in small private meetings on Parliament Hill, far away from the cameras. The Greens leader in the Commons, Elizabeth May, described how it worked when the House met briefly in a rare Saturday session a couple of weeks ago. She noted that she and Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre had become particularly adept at using the dial-in technology to press the government and public servants on details of planned legislation. We have those daily question and answer sessions, May said. I know that not all of us get our questions in every single day. Some of us do well. This sounds an awful lot like democracy and accountability all managed without theatrics and tiresome political potshots. Its become common to describe partisans yelling past each other as lively debate the noise and the nastiness shrugged off as the price of democracy. Theres a problem, though, of confusing the theatre of politics with the harder work of democracy, which is finding a middle ground amid disparate, polarized positions. The mere expression of differences isnt debate; its just plain old shouting if it leads nowhere. The optimists in this country are looking for ways in which this pandemic and national lockdown will teach us how to live better when we return to our previous lives: from improvements in how we treat our elderly or value our neighbourhood businesses, to the benefits of doing work online or cooking at home. No such discussion of better ways appears to be going on in the House of Commons. As long as anyone is talking about Question Period as an essential service, with the parties locked in their same old ways, we can assume that were going to be stuck with polarized politics long after the pandemic is over. Susan Delacourt is a columnist covering national politics based in Ottawa. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt Read more about: Multinational firms across the globe had since long been pondering upon the prospect of shifting their manufacturing bases from China to other countries. The outbreak of the novel Coronavirus now comes as a stark reminder of the necessity of the move. If so, India might stand to gain from this by being the next manufacturing destination. India manufacturing hub To be clear, the vision of India being one of the prime manufacturing hubs is not new. Back in April last year, around 200 US-based companies were seeking to move their manufacturing base from China to India. The interest was highlighted by a top US-based advocacy group, anticipating continues efforts towards the same post the general elections in India. The enthusiasm did not really yield a significant investment in manufacturing hubs in the country at the time. The interest, however, has rekindled in recent times due to the massive impact on supply chains. The Coronavirus induced lockdown in China was enough to set several industries come to a standstill and this dependency on the nation is now under scrutiny. What's Indias response India is familiar with the situation and is actively making efforts towards it. Back in March, the Indian government came up with three schemes for a total of Rs 48,000 crore worth of incentives to boost mobile phone manufacturing within the country. The incentives were aimed to attract top smartphone players including Apple, Samsung, Oppo and Vivo to set up their entire value chain in India. The idea was to then make India as their export hub. (Representative Image: Reuters) An ET report quotes a situational analysis by a top government official looking into the matter, the government is working to address disabilities across sectors, including for pharmaceuticals and automobiles, to try and establish India as an alternate to China for manufacturing for local and global markets across sectors, Building on the efforts, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has now set up Renewable Industry Facilitation & Promotion Board to facilitate investment in the sector. The ministry has also got in touch with trade representatives of various countries inviting them to "invest in this promising opportunity in India", a recent release by the ministry mentions. In addition, the centre had slashed corporate tax to 25.17 percent back in September last year. Applicable tax for new manufacturers was also cut to lowest in South East Asia at 17 percent. The centre is now focussing on reducing the production cost in various sectors. India as a preferred manufacturing destination While India prepares for the opportunity at hand, companies are actively seeking the transition as well. A report by Business Today mentions around 1000 companies to have shared their proposals with the Indian government, for setting up their alternate manufacturing hubs in the country. "About 1,000-odd companies are currently engaged in discussion at various levels such as investment promotion cell, central government departments and state governments. Out of these companies, we are targeting 300-odd companies," the report quotes a top official. The interest pans across the industries of electronics, medical devices, textiles and synthetic fabric. (Representative Image: Reuters) The interest is mutual among major trading nations including the US, Japan, South Korea and others, majorly propelled by the recent and prolonged break in supply chain from the far east nation. Last week, the Japanese government earmarked a record economic stimulus package worth $2.2 billion to help its manufacturers shift production out of China. Several firms from other parts of the globe are following suit. Apples manufacturing partner Wistron Corp, for instance, was considering to assemble printed circuit boards (PCBs) for iPhones at its new plant in southern India. The new assembly line, if and when it comes, will be in addition to the a few models of iPhone assembled within the country already. Whether Coronavirus-related impact across global product manufacturing and supply chain ends up benefiting India's manufacturing ambitions remains to be seen, but so far all the noise and signalling seems to be going in India's favour. At least 139 violations, including two cases of assault and 41 of intimidation, reported by midday on Saturday. DALLAS, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greater Dallas Restaurant Association (GDRA) announced today a new campaign called #GIVE10. The campaign is supported by local restaurants who will offer guests the opportunity to add a $10 gift card to their order from April 22th through May 6th. GDRA will distribute the gift cards from the participating restaurants to healthcare workers from Medical City Healthcare, Methodist Health System, Baylor Scott & White Health and Texas Health System. Click here "We are very excited to have our restaurant members help us show the frontline healthcare workers our gratitude for their selfless service during this devastating pandemic," stated Jerry Walker, Executive Director for GDRA. The gift cards will be distributed to the hospitals in conjunction with National Hospital Week May 10- May 16. Restaurant guests will be able to add the gift cards to their online and curbside orders. Everyone in the DFW area is encouraged to participate, enjoy great food from the participating members and share the love with our frontline healthcare providers. Participating restaurants as of today include: Off the Bone Barbeque Dallas, Meso Maya, El Fenix, Taqueria La Ventana, Snuffer's Restaurant & Bar, Jalisco, Village Burger Bar, Asian Mint, Little Greek Fresh Restaurant, The Original Pancake House DFW, Dream Cafe, and Maguires For more information, visit The Greater Dallas Restaurant Association Facebook page and see additional restaurants added daily. Media Contact: Margaret McKoin [email protected] telephone: 817-403-0866 SOURCE Greater Dallas Restaurant Association The unprecedented coronavirus crisis has united the SAARC countries as they adopted international travel bans, enforced strict lockdowns, announced special economic packages, set up a joint fund and banned all religious gatherings to battle the pandemic, earning them a praise from the World Bank for their quick response. Throughout South Asia, the countries have responded proactively to the daunting challenge with India taking the lead by pledging USD 10 million toward a COVID-19 emergency fund, an initiative led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in bringing the SAARC leaders together through a video-conference last month amid rising coronavirus cases in the populous region. Subsequently, Nepal and Afghanistan pledged USD 1 million each, Maldives committed USD 200,000, Bhutan USD 100,000, Bangladesh USD 1.5 million, Sri Lanka USD 5 million and Pakistan pledged USD 3 million to the fund. Founded in 1985, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation and geopolitical union of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Modi's move revived the grouping as India had been distancing itself from the SAARC in the last three years, citing the security challenge facing the region from terror networks based in Pakistan. Among the SAARC countries, India has the largest number of the COVID-19 cases (18,601), followed by Pakistan with 9,216 infections, while Bhutan has the lowest number of infections with just six patients. "All governments in South Asia have responded rapidly to the crisis, but their task is daunting. Governments have imposed social-distancing measures, introduced relief packages to secure access to food, and provided for delays in payments on taxes, rent, utilities and debt service," said a study published by the World Bank this week. The SAARC countries have recorded much lower infection rates in the region compared to the worst affected countries including the US, Italy, Spain, the UK, Iran and China. According to the figures till Sunday, the eight SAARC nations account 1.1 per cent, approximately of the world total of 22,65,727 coronavirus cases. In terms of fatalities, the SAARC total is half a percentage point or (0.49 per cent) or 768 of the total of 155,145 people who have died of the infection which originated in China's Wuhan city. Keeping the fight on against the pandemic, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly urged his people to show "self-discipline" and refrain from going outside to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has killed 192 people in the country. Khan, whose government earlier banned prayers in mosques, allowed conditional congregational prayers during the month of Ramzan but urged clerics to avoid big gatherings. Ramzan will start later this week. Pakistan has been under a lockdown for over a month now to check the spread of coronavirus. Khan has also unveiled a number of schemes for daily wage earners who are the worst hit economically due to the lockdown. However, there have been reports of discrimination in the distribution of ration among minorities. Sri Lanka, which planned to partially lift the lockdown from Monday to boost economic activity, dropped its decision and extended the restrictions till April 27 following a sudden spike of 41 coronavirus cases in a single day. The island nation has been under a 24-hour curfew since March 20 to combat the deadly viral infection. The Lankan parliamentary elections, which was originally scheduled for April 25, was postponed for nearly two months in the wake of the coronavirus crisis that has so far infected 295 and killed seven people in the country. Bangladesh, which has been declared as a risky area for COVID-19, has suspended congregational prayers at mosques across the country in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus that has infected 2,948 people and killed 101 others. The country is under lockdown since last month and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has warned that the country may face a massive hike in COVID-19 cases in April. Nepal, which is under lockdown till April 27, has reported 31 COVID-19 cases. So far, there were no fatalities in the Himalayan nation. Twelve Indians were among the 14 new coronavirus cases reported in Nepal on Friday. Nepalese authorities on Saturday sealed 14 mosques in Sunsari district and quarantined 33 Indians and seven Pakistanis taking refuge there. As part of its efforts to combat the coronavirus, the government has released 421 inmates from various prisons across the country following a recent Supreme Court order. Afghanistan has 1,026 confirmed COVID-19 cases. A majority of the infected people are from Herat province, bordering Iran - a country severely hit by the pandemic. The Afghan government imposed a lockdown on April 12 to curb the spread of the virus. Doctors and clerics are joining forces and travelling the country to urge people to stay indoors. Even the Taliban has joined the efforts to contain the coronavirus. Bhutan, which reported just six coronavirus cases, has imposed several measures aimed at preventing an outbreak, including guidelines for businesses to close at 7:00 pm every day. The Maldives put its capital Male under a 14-day lockdown on Friday after eight people tested positive over the last three days, taking the total COVID-19 cases to 69. The government had earlier stopped all travel to and from the tropical islands and shut down businesses. YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is investing 18.5 million in the European Fund for Southeast Europe SA, SICAV-SIF (EFSE). The facility will be used for on-lending to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through banks and microfinance institutions in fourteen European and Central Asian (ECA) countries. EFSE is the largest regional debt facility financing MSMEs in the region, ARMENPRESS was informed from the IF IFCs investment will increase access to finance for underserved people in the ECA region. The end-beneficiaries of this will be MSMEs and people that currently have limited, unreliable, or no access to finance. MSMEs are engines of economic growth and important drivers of jobs in the ECA region. Access to finance remains a key barrier to their growth. Research shows that 27 percent of formal MSMEs in ECA have unmet financing needs, with the finance gap in the region estimated at around $740 billion. IFCs investment will foster greater market competitiveness, demonstrate the viability of local-currency financing, and enable product innovation among lenders. The investment gains special significance due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its disastrous impact on MSMEs in the region. These businesses now need urgent support to survive the downturn and preserve jobs. IFC has been a long-standing partner to EFSE since its inception in 2005 and has supported the Fund over several projects. EFSEs Chairperson Christoph Tiskens said, We have been promoting financial inclusion and local currency financing in the region for 15 years. EFSE is pleased to continue working with valuable partners like IFC to generate positive impact by investing in the success of the regions economic backbone: micro and small enterprises. Commenting on the investment, Vittorio Di Bello, IFCs Regional Industry Head, said, The project will support sustainable financial service providers that address the needs of the underserved MSME segment, including through local currency funding, while enhancing operational capacity and sustainable performances of EFSEs investee companies. This investment will contribute to IFCs continuing implementation of the World Bank Groups financial inclusion strategy. IFCa sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Groupis the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities where they are needed most. In fiscal year 2019, we delivered more than $19 billion in long-term financing for developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. A Zimbabwean woman who has been living in the UK since 2004 was diagnosed Covid-19 positive 13 days ago. She talks to H Metro Deputy Editor Charles Mushinga on the harrowing experience of trying to fight the deadly virus that has grounded the world, killing tens of thousands worldwide. She opens up on how she has survived despite having an underlying condition (asthma), how her husband also contracted the virus and the vast differences in their symptoms. The 37-year-old mother of two requested anonymity but her story is pregnant with life lessons on how to handle Covid-19. Read on . . . CHARLES MUSHINGA: How long have you been living in the UK? Whereabouts in UK do you live and what line of work are you in? COVID-19 SURVIVOR: I have been here since 2004 in East Midlands, Derby. I work at NHS, in the mental health sector. CM: How did you learn that you have Covid-19? CS: I started by having flu like symptoms. My manager referred me for Covid-19 tests and results came back positive. CM: When were you diagnosed? Do you remember the dates? CS: Yes, I was tested on the 4th of April and got my results back on the 7th of April. CM: Were these symptoms bad? Did you suspect that you had Covid-19 or it was just normal work protocol for people with flu symptoms to get tested? CS: No. The symptoms got really bad. I suspected Covid-19 even before I got my results back. It a different feeling, you will definitely know it yourself that something is terribly wrong. It wasnt normal work protocol as they were not testing everyone at that time except special requests from managers for NHS front workers. So I was fortunate to get tested. My manager referred me right away because I have an underlying health problem (Asthma) CM: Take us through the test, is it a blood test or something else? CS: They take swabs from nose and right at the very back of your throat. CM: Very deep into your nose? Is it an uncomfortable experience? CS: The nose swab is quite ok they dont go that far but the throat one is extremely uncomfortable as they have to reach right at the back of your throat. CM: How do you think you were exposed to the virus, through work? Where you practicing precautionary measures to the best of your abilities? CS: I dont know where I got it to be frank. At work I deal directly with patients. We did not have PPE when the whole saga started because we did not have any supplies. Im saying maybe I got it through work but it could be anywhere i.e supermarket, gym etc CM: Did this change after you tested positive? Did they start giving PPE to your workmates? Was everyone at work and at home tracked and tested? Any positive cases that came through from supposed contact with you? CS: When i tested positive i was so scared it made me feel more sick. They dont chase you up but they advise to follow government guidelines to self-isolate until symptoms are completely gone. If symptoms get worse they advise you to call ambulance that is only if you are not breathing hahaha other than that ambulance wont attend you. They advised me to self-isolate from my kids and use different bathrooms, cutlery, plates etc. As for PPE l, i have not been back to work for over three weeks now so Im not sure whats happening. They tested my husband as well since he was exposed to me. They are not testing kids at the moment as they believe that they have stronger immune system and therefore can easily shake off the virus. CM: Any medication? CS: No. They advised me to take paracetamol for pain. But i took a lot of home remedies to minimise the risk of hospitalization CM: Take us through those please? CS: I mixed a concoction of boiled water, lemon, garlic, ginger, tumeric powder, muringa power and took it after every 4 hours. I also took immune system boosters. I used to steam myself under a blanket with boiled water with a few drops of vapour rub in it CM: Interesting. So is this according to guidelines in UK or that was the Zimbabwean in you awakened? Who advised you on this course? CS: This is not according the government guidelines. The government only recommends to stay hydrated. This idea a lot of us got it from Chinese nationals via social media. Thats what they were using or taking when the virus hit china really bad so everyone else is doing it. I dont know whether it works or not. But the whole idea behind this is to boost immune system. CM: When you tested positive knowing you had an underlying condition you said you felt sicker. How important is a positive attitude when dealing with this and how did you achieve that from a position of fearing for your life? CS: I became more aware that i needed to do more than what i was doing before. Before i got my results back i was already taking the home remedies but not religiously. However when i got results back I started to take them more frequently and doing breathing exercises three times a day to save my lungs. CM: How does one do breathing exercises and how long is a session? Were these painful or difficult? CS: Breathing exercises are not are painful or difficult. All you do is breathe in and hold breath for 10 seconds and breathe out. Repeat this five times after doing that then take another deep breath instead of breathing out, take a good cough straight away. You can do five repeats of this or more. Its entirely up to the individual. CM: I understand your husband also tested positive? How has he dealt with the virus? CS: His life is just continuing like he has nothing. CM: What do you think has been his secret, fitness? CS: He did not take any action as he wasnt ill hahaha. He continued as normal. I think hes just one of them lucky people with stronger immune system. Maybe its fitness but we go to the gym together. This disease is just not loyal hahaha. CM: You say you did all this to avoid hospitalisation? Why is this, shouldnt sick people rather be in hospital? CS: I believe in hospital thats where the virus is spreading on a faster pace. The other reason being that i wanted to be around my family. In hospital you are not allowed any visitors at all. If you are to die you will die with no family around but only healthcare staff. CM: After testing positive and increasing consistency on the home remedies, did you start feeling better or it got worse? What was the peak of the pain and what were the symptoms like? CS: I got worse. When i reached peak, I experienced heaviness of chest, breathlessness, chest pain, back pain, burning sensation in my chest and upper back and headaches. CM: Were you in contact with any survivors or people suffering from Covid-19? How do you know you have recovered? Do they do another test? CS: This side they dent test you after recovery but they are planning to do antibodies testing to see if you are now immune to the virus after recovery. CM: And lastly, what is your advice to people in Zimbabwe, the UK and world over 1. Those without the virus and 2. those infected? With 75 new cases, the total number of COVID-19 infections reached 2,156 in the national capital on Tuesday, though no fresh death was reported after a gap of nearly a fortnight, according to the the Delhi Health department. Addressing an online briefing, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said there are 1,603 active cases of COVID-19 in Delhi and 47 people have died of coronavirus. It was the first time since April 8 that no fresh death due to coronavirus was reported. After 53 journalists tested positive for COVID-19 in Mumbai, Kejriwal said his government would also arrange for testing of media personnel in the national capital. Journalists are also at the front-line in the battle against COVID-19, he added. "We have set up a centre. All media houses and journalists will be informed about it. Interested media persons can undergo tests at the centre from Wednesday morning," Kejriwal said. At the Rashtrapati Bhavan, a kin of an employee, working in the housekeeping department, was detected with the COVID-19 disease prompting authorities to keep 115 families under "self-isolation" as a "preventive measure". A housekeeper working with the Lok Sabha Secretariat also tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to hospital, sources said here. The infected man had not attended office for the last few days. He had symptoms of fever, cough and breathing problems and was found to be COVID-19 positive, they added. Eleven members of his family have been tested for the virus and the results are awaited. The sources said that his son, who was also tested, is a contractual employee of the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and is engaged in the annual maintenance of security gadgets at the Lok Sabha. "The Lok Sabha Secretariat is expected to do contact tracing and route mapping of his son also," he said. Talking to reporters, Heath Minister Satyendra Jain said authorities are keeping a watch on the doubling rate of the cases. "Cases are increasing, but lockdown has helped in slowing down the rate. The number of cases doubled from 1,000 to 2,000 in eight days. So, we are keeping an eye on its next doubling now. But keeping all measures in place," Jain told reporters. On Monday, nearly 70 COVID-19 tests using newly-acquired rapid antibodies diagnostic kits were conducted in Delhi in a containment zone in Nabi Karim area, and all samples came out negative, officials said. Also, a death audit committee has been constituted for daily audit of every fatality from COVID-19, they said. To ensure that the poor do not go without food during the lockdown, Kejriwal said the Delhi government will give 2,000 food coupons to every MLA and MP in the city for distribution among the needy in their constituencies. The chief minister said his government has also decided to provide free-ration to around 30 lakh people who do not have ration cards, emphasising that there are currently 71 lakh beneficiaries of public distribution system and they are being provided free-ration by the government. The government will also distribute kits of daily-use items such as soap, oil, sugar, turmeric and salt along with ration for the month of May, he said, adding that it will start the exercise from April 27 or April 28 onwards. "The Delhi government has prepared a plan of food security for the needy. We will provide free-ration to around one crore people and it means we will be providing ration to half the population of Delhi," Kejriwal said. Earlier in the day, Lieutenant General Anil Baijal held a high-level meeting, which was attended by Kejriwal. An official statement said Baijal directed district magistrates (DMs) and deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) to ensure effective compliance of social distancing and strict vigil at vulnerable places like agricultural markets, night shelters, food distribution centres, all shops of essentials items, mother dairy and medical shops. "The lieutenant governor also directed for regular disinfection and cleanliness of the containment zones on war footing. DMs and DCPs were directed to ensure that supply of essentials is maintained in the containment zones," an official statement stated. Later, he also took stock of the lockdown implementation in the national capital and visited temporary shelters for migrant workers and the homeless to review arrangements. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two Indians, who were on their way back home on a bicycle due to the lockdown in view of the coronavirus pandemic, died after their vehicle fell in a gorge while negotiating a sharp turn in Nepal, a police official said on Tuesday. Mukesh Gupta and Santosh Mahato, who worked in Lalitpur as labourers collecting old newspapers and reusable items, were heading home in Bihars Motihari when their bicycle fell some 150 metres from a steep hilly road at Jhakridada, some 30 kms from here, on Sunday, Kantipur daily newspaper reported quoting a police official. As the lockdown continued even after more than three weeks, they decided to go home along with two others as they ran out of money. The four persons were riding two bicycles. It was not immediately known if they got separated on their way back home as Dinanath Mahato, father of Santosh, and Munna Gupta, reached home in Motihari while two died. By William Schwartz | Published on 2020/04/20 In the seventh episode of "The World of the Married" a timeskip takes place of two years, during which time the characters played by Park Hae-joon and Han So-hee go to the city of Gosan and return from it, bringing their daughter with them. As expected, the daughter, which was just a baby at the time, has grown up some. But many viewers believe that Jenny has grown far too much, to the point of damaging the willing suspension of disbelief. Advertisement The criticism is not surprising. Jenny appears nearly half as tall as her father in the accompanying shot, though she is allegedly only two years old. Some have said that the actress appears four years old. Others suspect she may be as old as six, contrasting Seo Joo-win-I of "Hi Bye, Mama!", a child of comparable size to the one who plays Jenny, but one who is textually far older than Jenny is. It is not known how old the actress playing Jenny is, or her real name, or even if she can really be considered an actress. Jenny is ultimately important not as a character, but rather as a symbol of the illicit love affair between her parents. "The World of the Married" airs on Friday and Saturday nights on jTBC and recently cleared 20% in terrestrial ratings for the first time. Written by William Schwartz ___________ "The World of the Married" is directed by Mo Wan-il, written by Joo Hyeon-I, and features Kim Hee-ae, Park Hae-joon, Han So-hee, Park Sun-young, Kim Young-min, Chae Gook-hee. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2020/03/27~Now airing, Fri, Sat 23:00 on jTBC. Lewis Hamilton is reportedly sitting out the coronavirus pandemic in Bali. The six-time world champion has kept a conspicuously low profile during F1's shutdown, but it now emerges that he is not at one of his homes in either Monaco or New York. According to Bild newspaper, Hamilton talks to Toto Wolff every other day as he relaxes and trains in the Balinese surf location of Canggu. Hamilton "pays attention to his nutrition and helps his Mercedes team with video messages for partners and sponsors. In his spare time, Hamilton has started learning French", the newspaper said. The 35-year-old also broke his social media silence this week to deny reports that he was ever in the running to replace Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari. "First off, there is no dash to another team," he said in the Instagram post that he later deleted. "I am with my dream team. "I'm with the people who have cared from day one." (GMM) BARKHAMSTED Business owners from around Barkhamsted, joined by state officials and local leaders, gathered on Zoom Monday afternoon to discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The meeting was organized by First Selectman Don Stein and members of the towns Economic Development Commission, to provide a sounding board for business owners and a chance to learn about assistance at the state and federal levels. About 22 people attended the virtual forum. EDC member Brian Johnson said his company is able to work virtually and remotely, but he knows not every business is able to. Im a special case, he said. Were in the IT industry and so far its healthy. But there are companies we depend on; if we cant pay our bills, customers feel (it) and then I feel it. Itll be couple of months before we know whats going on. Well work together to find ways to deal with it and evolve our business, and adapt. The EDC wants to work with people and have a resource, locally, so businesses in town can compare notes and help each other, Johnson said. We want to hear from local business owners, Stein added. How can the town help? Rick Goulet of Goulet Printery is running his shop with just family members, and said business is about half of what it was before the pandemic. Employees have been laid off, he said. But my wife has started a bakery in Riverton, Orchard Hill Bakery, and its doing great. Kim Hamel, owner of the Brass Horse Cafe, said shes operating at about 11 percent of what she normally makes. Its not easy, she said. If its going to be like this for a while, itll be hard to recoup this (loss). Hamel said her takeout business has dropped off, as well. This ... has made people afraid to order out, she said. So for us, we saw a good response for the first couple of weeks (of the pandemic), but customers are worried. Right now people are afraid to go out. We need to get past that kind of fear. Were hoping itll pick up in the next two weeks. Help is available JoAnn Ryan, executive director of the Northwest CT Chamber of Commerce, said her phones are ringing constantly at the chamber office. Were taking many calls, especially from small businesses, who are concerned about their economic future, she said. They feel the (virus) situation is under control, but theyre very worried about how theyre going to stay open, and how to find resources to help them do that. Ryan considers the chamber a valuable resource for those callers, and said she had a list of state and federal stimulus programs that she would send to anyone who requests it. She can be reached by phone at 860-309-3310 or by visiting nwctchamberofcommerce.org. Cathy Awaad, representing the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board, echoed Ryans comments, saying her callers and visitors to nrwib.org are looking for jobs and employee services. We have a number of employers looking for help right now, and we hope people will begin to venture out soon, to find work, she said. Awaad said the COVID-19 unemployment bonus of $600 was a good incentive to get people to apply for benefits, but that since it ends in July, people should start thinking of finding a job now if theyre not rehired by their former employer. The disconnect of that (extra) $600 is good incentive, she said. People who are thinking they might sit this out might want to start looking for work in earnest. There are jobs. Unemployment for business owners Awaad also said employers should know how to handle rehiring people once the pandemic ends and the state allows businesses to reopen. She addressed her comments to Steve Romano from the state Department of Labor, who also attended the forum. If you call people back to work, and they dont come back, whats their position on unemployment whats required when a workforce is recalled? she asked. Obviously its a concern of the labor department, Romano said Weve gotten lots of calls from employers and weve told every employer in that scenario, where the employee refuses a job, to send a letter to us with the (employees) name and Social Security number, date of offer to rehire and their return to work date, with your contact information and fax it to our Merit Rating Department at 860-263-6723, and it will be handled. For job seekers, we want you to know that we are processing unemployment claims as quickly as we can and our unemployment division is working around the clock to accomplish this, Romano said. Weve reduced wait times from six weeks to a week, and weve knocked off 300,000 claims, out of more than 400,000. Were working hard to get those claims paid. Romano also said there are stimulus packages for self-employed business owners. Those are for people who are not eligible for standard unemployment benefits, he said. People can also apply for extended unemployment compensation, after theyve exhausted their 26 weeks of regular payments, they could be eligible for an additional 13 weeks. That information can also be found on the labor departments website, www.ctdol.state.ct.us. The human side Owen Quinn, executive director of the United Way of Northwest Connecticut, said his organization is more on the human side of the pandemic. We are fielding calls in our office most of the day, he said. People are calling for all sorts of reasons were a clearinghouse for the 26 towns of northwest Connecticut. Quinn is directing many callers to call 2-1-1 for assistance with things such as rent and utility payments, as well as day care and unemployment. That number is a good resource, he said. Quinns office is also working with the United Way of Connecticut, using funding raised during annual appeals, to help newly unemployed or reduced income residents. There are people who are staying at home or caregiving theyre also looking for help, he said. These are the Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed (ALICE) people, who are working, but have trouble making ends meet for a variety of reasons. Quinn can be reached at www.northwestunitedway.org or by calling 860-489-4131. San Francisco officials and activists are frantically searching for spaces to safely house the citys homeless who are in tents crowding sidewalks. Supervisor Rafael Mandelman introduced a resolution Tuesday urging the city to turn empty parking lots into sanctioned encampments where the homeless could set up tents 6 feet apart and also access bathrooms, handwashing stations, meals, drinking water and garbage disposal during the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the city on Monday began repopulating the citys biggest homeless shelter, Multi-Service Center South, which was emptied two weeks ago after health teams determined 68 people staying there tested positive for the coronavirus. That number later grew to 96 infected residents and 10 infected staff members. The shelter will be taking in people who are no longer symptomatic and have recovered from COVID-19, Max Barnes, a spokesman for the citys Emergency Operations Center, said in an email. Those people will be coming from city-leased hotels, where theyve been living while they recover from the illness. Barnes added that some also will be going to Moscone West, which has been set aside since the MSC South outbreak to shelter homeless people who recovered. The movement from hotels back to the shelter, and the resolution on tent camping, reflect an urgency by city leaders and advocates to arrange safe places for homeless people during the crisis. Because many, especially those whove long been living outside, have extra vulnerabilties from age and complications including diabetes, the feeling is they must be housed or given adequate physical distancing to keep not just themselves safe, but everyone around them. This is an extraordinary moment where we are able to try things that we havent been able to try before, said Mandelman, who added that he was working on similar legislation before the pandemic. Hopefully, we can add safe sleeping sites to the set of things we are offering people. The idea of a safe camping site has been floating around City Hall for years, long before the pandemic hit. Now, the calls have grown more urgent as tents cluster in neighborhoods like the Tenderloin, Castro and Haight-Ashbury an especially troubling sight in a time when social distancing can mean the difference between life and death. City homeless managers have resisted sanctioning encampents, noting that they often have failed in other cities, but the coronavirus crisis now has them reconsidering. Several sites are being studied, and recently issued federal guidelines say it can be safer to let homeless people live outdoors than putting them into congregate settings. The city has eased enforcement on tents on sidewalks, so long as they are 6 feet apart from each other and not blocking access to a home or business but many campers around the city have been ignoring that advice and setting up close to one another. None of those who tested positive at MSC South showed any serious symptoms, which suggests many more of the citys 8,000-plus homeless population could be infected. And some homeless people moved from the shelter to hotels said they are leery of going back, noting that it hasnt been proven yet by scientists that having the disease makes a person immune. Where is the science behind that idea that we cant get it again? said Richard Steenson, who tested positive at the shelter and has been in a hotel since then. There is nothing definitive out there. Theyre playing Russian Roulette with my life. I dont want to go back. Resolutions often have no legislative teeth, but Mandelman hopes his will encourage the opening of a safe camping site. Mandelman said he has been talking to the San Francisco Unified School District about using the parking lot at Everett Middle School. Meanwhile, Supervisor Dean Preston a co-sponsor of the resolution also has pursued the idea of using Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park and the DMV parking lot on Fell Street in the Panhandle, although those sites have been considered unlikely by crisis managers. A final policy decision has not been made regarding whether well go forward or what sites will be selected, but we should have an update by the end of the week, Barnes said. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing did not respond to a request for comment on the status of securing any sites around the city. 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 resolution also comes as city officials scramble to move hundreds of homeless people into hotel rooms leased by the city where they can safely quarantine. Nearly 1,000 people have been moved into hotel rooms, but that still leaves thousands of others without shelter. The supervisors passed an emergency ordinance last week that forces the city to lease a total of 8,250 rooms by the end of this week about 1,000 more than currently planned by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. But the department says that securing such hotel rooms is much more difficult than just leasing a room and moving someone in there it is a logistical puzzle, they say, that involves securing food, security, staff and transportation. Hopefully, Mandelman said, the safe tent encampments could fill the gap while the city works to move more people inside. According to the resolution, the encampments would be staffed 24/7 and include janitorial and other services. This experiment with hotels is very interesting, Mandelman said. And I think an experiment with safe sleeping sites is worth undertaking right now. Trisha Thadani and Kevin Fagan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com, kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani, @KevinChron The spread of the coronavirus has drastically ended 29 months of passenger growth at Lehigh Valley International Airport. Data for March shows 44,478 passengers went through LVIA in Hanover Township, Lehigh County. It marks an almost 42 percent decrease compared to a year ago, when the airport saw 76,512 passengers, and a 27 percent difference from January, when 61,309 people traveled through LVIA. This is certainly unprecedented, said Tom Stoudt, executive director of the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority, which runs the airport. The changes follow a series of restrictions put in place by Gov. Tom Wolf to stem the spread of the virus, including closing schools on March 13 and stay-at-home orders beginning March 25 for the Lehigh Valley, followed by a statewide shutdown on April 1. Wolf went on to order that schools stay closed for the rest of the school year. While the airport saw traffic numbers effected in the beginning of the month, Stoudt said the last two weeks of March saw the decreases growing at a higher rate. Its certainly not a surprise to see the numbers here, he said, noting the empty terminals and parking lots. Thats encouraging that people are doing the hard thing right now, which is staying home and staying safe." While people stayed away from air travel, cargo planes kept coming. The airport saw almost 21 million pounds of air cargo processed last month, an increase of 47.8% compared to March 2019. Stoudt expects cargo to increase throughout this year. Now more than ever, its evident the airport continues to serve as a very important conduit in the supply chain needed to fight this pandemic by ensuring essential products can move quickly to and from our region, Stoudt said. Lehigh Valley International is getting $6.2 million in emergency federal funding as part of $239 million in Federal Aviation Administration grants earmarked for Pennsylvania airports under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Stoudt called the funding an essential lifeline for the airport in the wake of a significant loss of revenue. The drastic drop in traffic comes after the airport started the year with the hope of hitting the 1 million passenger mark in 2020. The goal was bolstered after Allegiant added a flight base at LVIA and more leisure destinations. The airlines have each been hit with double-digit passenger decreases led by Delta, which saw a 60% drop in passenger traffic, followed by United with a 51% decrease, American with 36%, and Allegiant with 31% less passenger traffic. On Tuesday, Stoudt said they anticipate passenger reductions in April and May, and United has announced its schedules for June are 90 percent reduced. To cut costs, the airport has offered voluntary furloughs, and 60 employees out of 280 have used it. There is a hiring freeze in place, a 10% voluntary pay cut by executive staff and senior managers, and the authority has cut about $4 million from its capital project budget, Stoudt said. In terms of predicting future traffic, particularly through the year, the crystal ball is a little cloudy," Stoudt said. Were going to weather through it and do some really hard things right now by encouraging people to only fly if its essential, he said. LVIAs troubles are a snapshot of what the airline industry is facing across the world, with nearly empty planes on domestic and international flights. Last week, the average number of U.S. daily passengers declined 96%, from 2.39 million in 2019 to 95,531 now, according to Transportation Security Administration data compiled by Bloomberg. Domestic flights are averaging 10 passengers, while international flights average 24 passengers, Airlines for America told Bloomberg. 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. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 08:00 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd320002 1 Editorial #Editorial,omnibus-bill-on-job-creation,omnibus-bill,COVID-19,pandemic,unemployment,economy,economic-slowdown Free No one knows when this pandemic will end. Informed estimates point to a range spanning from several months to a year, even two. This projection includes the period when vaccines become available. When this storm passes, we will need to be ready to pick up the pieces of an economy despite the painful experiences of watching it grind to a virtual halt and a buckling health system. We must also be ready amid the grief, anger and frustration of people who have lost loved ones, their livelihoods and their sense of security, and the millions who are looking at being furloughed indefinitely if they havent been laid off already despite promises of government aid. Enter the proponents of the government-backed job creation omnibus bill, which has been controversial from the outset. The broad bill primarily aims to remove the barriers to the investment Indonesia sorely needs, such as the bureaucratic licensing procedures. It also eases requirements for layoffs and severance and relaxes environmental requirements for projects that are deemed low-risk. The bill looks to revise 79 laws and do away with the thousands of contradicting regulations that have been blamed for Indonesias low ranking in the Ease of Doing Business index. The omnibus bill would provide the legal grounds for the country to be better prepared to jump-start the economy when the pandemic subsides. One of its objectives is to reverse the composition of Indonesias labor force and shift millions of poorly paid workers from the dominant informal sector to the more protected formal sector. Nonetheless, the news that the House of Representatives would soon restart deliberations over the bill was shocking a shock that has prompted the more vocal, unionized workers to threaten a rally on April 30, despite the large-scale social restrictions in Greater Jakarta. True, the bill may benefit the majority of those in the more vulnerable informal economy, who include the poorest. Yet the Houses promise of dialogue and negotiations has turned out to be a mere hearing mechanism, union representatives say. The workers fears surrounding job security are greater and perhaps more real than the threats the virus poses. Any gathering at this time, let alone rallies, risks too many lives to create a chain reaction that could doom the fight against the virus to failure. But perhaps taking to the streets is the only way for desperate workers to have their voices heard. While the lawmakers are far from gaining public trust to deliberate a supposedly groundbreaking bill, now is certainly the worst time to restart the deliberations instead of focusing their energies on how to alleviate the suffering of millions affected by the outbreak. And as if everything was business as usual, news has leaked of lawmakers plan to continue receiving their vehicle allowances. A regime that is insensitive to real-world conditions and real-life needs getting ready to discuss the so-called job creation bill and likely behind closed doors as jobs are being axed left and right, only to force the labor unions hands to violate the COVID-19 mitigation policies with rallies: This is the last thing Indonesia and its people need right now. [April 21, 2020] MG Capital Encourages HC2 Stockholders to Focus on Electing a Truly Independent Slate of Director Nominees with a Value-Enhancing Strategy MG Capital Management, Ltd. (together with Percy Rockdale LLC, the nominating stockholder, and its affiliates, "MG Capital" or "we"), a significant stockholder of HC2 Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HCHC) ("HC2" or the "Company"), which collectively with the other participants in its solicitation beneficially owns more than 6% of the Company's outstanding shares, today issued a response to HC2's April 21, 2020 announcement regarding the intended addition of Avram Glazer to its slate of nominees for election to the Board of Directors (the "Board") at the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "Annual Meeting"). Michael Gorzynski, MG Capital's founder and managing partner, commented: "Today's announcement, which conspicuously omits an Annual Meeting date since HC2 has not yet set one, only reinforces that the incumbent directors have no interest in listening to the voices of stockholders outside of their own insider clique. We are concerned that this prospective addition to the Board will not help change the existing culture of mismanagement and self-dealing that has destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in stockholder value over the past six years. While we recognize the benefit of bringing in new directors, we firmly believe that HC2 needs a reconstituted and truly independent Board right away in order to address the Company's mounting challenges in an objective manner. Mr. Glazer, who previously ran Zapata Corporation for years prior to that business becoming Harbinger Group, has documented ties to at least three directors that date back more than a decade.1 2 In our view, the Board has once again demonstrated that it has no interest in changing the prior practices that brought HC2 to the brink of bankruptcy. Today's announcement comes on the heels of two investors suing HC2 over the Company's alleged effort to mislead stockholders by including coercive language in its Consent Revocation Statement related to the financial implications of a change in control. HC2 suggested to stockholders that if our nominees took control of the Board, HC2 might not have the capital available to pay holders of preferred securities - resulting in material financial duress. While HC2 ultimately resonded to the lawsuit by granting a waiver to our nominees, the legal proceeding remains active before the Delaware Court. This latest announcement also comes following an extended period during which the Texas Department of Insurance has been examining Continental General Insurance Company's corporate governance and related party transactions.3 We encourage all stockholders to view our consent solicitation as a real opportunity to right the many wrongs at HC2. Our slate of nominees - which possess strong public board experience and robust expertise across the sectors HC2 invests in - are firmly committed to unlocking value for long-suffering stockholders. That is why we spent months developing a strategy to deliver an estimated $9 per share in value through the elimination of corporate waste, a systematic reduction of debt, and an optimization of HC2's portfolio around 'crown jewel' assets." Stockholders can learn about how to consent on the GREEN card by visiting www.ABetterHC2.com. The website includes additional information regarding our six director nominees and their plan for delivering an estimated $9 per share in value. As a reminder, to demonstrate alignment with stockholders, our nominees have committed to slashing director fees by 50% and compensating Michael Gorzynski $1 for his potential service as interim Chief Executive Officer. *** We urge HC2 stockholders to consent to all three proposals on the GREEN consent card and return it in your postage-paid envelope provided. The consent deadline is May 7, 2020. Should you have any questions or need assistance with voting, please contact Saratoga Proxy Consulting LLC at (888) 368-0379 or (212) 257-1311 or by email at [email protected]. PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT. SIGN, DATE AND RETURN YOUR FILLED OUT GREEN CONSENT CARD TODAY. *** 1 Zapata Corporation 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated July 9, 2009 (link). 2 Bloomberg (News - Alert) Businessweek, Is Zapata The Glazers' Toy?, dated July 7, 1996 (link) and HC2 Holdings, Inc. website (link). 3 Institutional Investor, No One: Absolutely No One: I Wonder What Phil Falcone Is Up To?, April 20, 2020 (link). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005870/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] End-to-end Visibility for VDI environments Uila is revolutionizing the way Virtual Desktop monitoring is performed in the modern Data Center. Legacy solutions that desktop teams have used and struggled with, are now a thing of the past Uila Inc., the Application-centric Performance & Cyber Threat Analytics company for the Hybrid Enterprise, today announced that it has further extended its unique Application Dependency Mapping capabilities to automatically map out the entire Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) from end-to-end for Citrix XenDesktop deployments. With this new v3.4 release, Desktop teams now have end-to-end visibility into the different tiers of the entire VDI environment, across the two-industry leading Virtual Desktop Platforms, VMware Horizon and Citrix XenDesktop. Last month, Uila announced similar automated support for the VMware Horizon platform. Uila is revolutionizing the way Virtual Desktop monitoring is performed in the modern Data Center. Legacy solutions that desktop teams have used and struggled with, are now a thing of the past, says Chia-Chee Kuan, CEO and Founder for Uila. Starting from our Agentless approach and the ability of classifying more than 3,500 applications running in the desktop environment, Uila continues to lead the VDI monitoring space with this desktop to application server end-to-end visibility to allow desktop administrators pin-point the true reason for an outage or slowdown directly on the VDI environment and beyond. Other highlights of the 3.4 release include: Automated end-to-end visibility Dependency Mapping for leading Database applications such as Oracle and MSSQL. Support for over 35 new application and protocol classifications including Google Messages, Google Pay, Wireguard VPN, Ethereum, etc. IT staff members are also able to reduce their alert fatigue with smart notifications that are correlated together within a certain time window and also configured only for server groups that the recipient is responsible for. Up/Down status for all virtual and physical servers. Identify latency and IOPS which shows the bottlenecks within the VMware vVol storage environment. Many more... The new capabilities are available as part of Uilas solution today and IT teams can put this capability to the test by signing up for a complimentary trial from https://www.uila.com/uila-free-trial. About Uila Uila provides Performance and Cyber Threat Analytics in a single pane of glass for the Hybrid Enterprise. With Uila, IT Operations teams can visualize application workload dependencies across cloud platforms, rightsize resources and investments for their workloads and plan workload migration strategies for Hybrid and Multi-Cloud deployments. Uila allows security teams to combat advanced cyber threats by providing immediate and comprehensive application-centric insight into lateral movement-based threats for the Hybrid Enterprise. Businesses use Uila to align themselves with their IT teams and cut time to resolution from days to minutes, keep their application at peak performance and secure at all times and ensure end-user satisfaction to the fullest across cloud boundaries. County, towns brace for sales tax blood bath Although local government budget-writers have no solid figures yet on sales tax revenue since the coronavirus shutdown, they know the drop will be steep. Right now the estimate for April, May, June is down from 10 to 50 percent, we dont know, County Manager Steve Wyatt said in a County Commission meeting last week when Commissioner Bill Lapsley brought up the subject. Thats a big range but we know it will not be what we thought it was and unfortunately the numbers come to us a couple of months late. Were talking about millions of dollars in lost sales tax revenue, Lapsley said. Its a big deal. That big deal is one reason that managers and their financial forecasters will likely be dramatically scaling back new projects and expensive items that have been in the works but may no longer be affordable. I spent three hours looking at that this morning, Wyatt said Friday, two days after the commissioners met, when asked about the countys revenue forecast. Youre looking at millions. Im looking at percentages between 20 and 50 percent. The effect will be felt in the Legislature in Raleigh and in every county and town in the state. April is the month budget drafters begin the first steps in finalizing a budget. Staffers forecast the fiscal years take from property tax, sales tax, utility tax, ABC tax and other taxes and fees to come up with an overall revenue projection. Elected officials know theyre looking at an entirely new landscape but theyre not sure how bad it will be. At the end of a work session on Thursday, Laurel Park Town Council member Paul Hansen brought up the elephant in the room budget. Town Manager Christopher Todd, like Wyatt said, forecasts range so widely now theyre useless in terms of budgeting. I am working every day to see what we can do, Todd said. The best numbers are guesses. He mentioned the same 10-50 percent drop in sales tax revenue that Wyatt had heard. Thats a huge range and frankly its an uninformed range, Todd said. Hes already decided to recommend a dip in the property tax collection forecast of at least 1 percent. Another wild card is whether Congress might enact a long-range mortgage holiday. Local governments usually get a big percentage of property tax revenue when mortgage holders release taxes from escrow accounts in the fall. My fear is if we get a 6-month deferment, we may not get a huge chunk of our property tax revenue until the end of our fiscal year, he said. Less driving means less gas tax revenue, which means less money from the state for city streets through the Powell Bill. Todd thinks that will decline, too. My recommendation is going to be try to limit some of these large projects in street and storm drain repair, Todd said. To tell you were going to get what weve been getting last few years or close to it is another shot in the dark. Budget deadline extension? In a weekly Covid-19 update last week organized by the Land of Sky regional council, executives with associations representing North Carolina cities and counties all urged local officials to plan for a plunge in tax revenue. Were very concerned about sales tax, everybody is, Kevin Leonard, executive director of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, said. The state association is also talking about: Extending the deadline for adoption of 2020-21 budgets or permitting some kind of interim budgets that can be amended when revenue projections become more clear. How counties can help small businesses. School construction as an economic development package through a bond or some other financing. The need for virtual connectivity and broadband connecting kids to the internet so they can learn from home. Although the CARES Act allocated $4 billion for North Carolina for Covid-related expenses, it has to be tracked and reimbursed, Leonard said. None of that money is for the replacement of lost revenue. The association wants Congress to amend the rules and to appropriate more money to replace lost revenue. Paige Worsham, associate general counsel for the county association, said sales tax and hotel taxes will be most impacted. You may have a lot of hospitality industry, she said. Your occupancy taxes and your sales taxes are going to take a very significant impact. Tourism-rich Henderson County will almost certainly see a sharp drop in the hotel tax, which funds the Tourism Development Authority. TDA money is going to get hammered, he said. Rainy day fund is 'out the door' Worsham recommends counties budget conservatively, expect steep declines in sales tax and more modest declines in property tax revenue through the last quarter of their budget year and into the first part of the fiscal year that starts July 1. In past years you saw sales tax go up several percentage points each year, she said. The picture for 2020-21 is going to be much different. She suggested county budget-makers draft a quarter by quarter or even monthly projection reflecting a significant drop at the end of 2020. It slowly starts to rebound so the decline in the budget (revenue) would be less and less every month. Property tax is likely to be less impacted, she said, depending on homeowners and business owners ability to pay and whether they appeal the values. She said its possible the deadline under state law to adopt budgets by July 1 could be amended or pushed back. I think that is often brought up because there is uncertainty, she said. The guidance that I have been seeing from the School of Government and LGC (Local Government Commission) has local government looking at interim budget authority and the ability to amend budgets after July 1. Addison McDowell, a lobbyist for the League of Municipalities, said the league projects a decline of $250 million in sales tax revenue March through June and a decline in occupancy taxes paid by hotel of at least 50 percent, representing a $25 million drop. An emerging concern is that fewer people will renew tags, meaning they wont pay for a new registration and motor vehicle property taxes, hurting both state and county revenue collections. Even the utility tax, which generates $3 billion a year, could suffer. People may be unable to pay their light bill and, under the governors order, power companies have lost the threat of a cutoff to force payment. The CARES Act seem to allocate a lot of money to local government but its to cover Covid related expense and not to replace lost revenue, McDowell said. We need future legislation to actually replace lost revenue for cities and towns. Legislators said the state is forecasting a steep drop in revenue. We were in a really good position to deal with a crisis because of the surplus we had on hand, state Rep. Jake Johnson said. The states general fund had a surplus of $1.1 billion, the unemployment insurance fund had $3.5 billion in reserves and a Medicaid contingency fund stood at $186 million. But with demands for relief those will be depleted relatively quickly, he said. State Rep. Chuck McGrady, a lead budget writer in the House, was more blunt. The rainy day fund is out the door, he said, and at this point the expectation is were looking at upwards of a $2 billion shortfall. Delhi to ease restrictions, if Covid cases come down in next 2-3 days: Health Minister Lata Mangeshkar health update: Doctor says,'She in ICU with Covid-19 and pneumonia, will be under observation' COVID-19: Pune, Mumbai, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata are concern areas says MHA India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 21: The COVID-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and violation of lockdown measures risk the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Centre said on Monday. In a communication to state governments, the home ministry said there have been several incidents of violence against COVID-19 frontline healthcare professionals, complete violation of social distancing norms and movement of vehicles in urban areas. These should be stopped, it said. No relaxations, lockdown to continue as it is in Karnataka The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 543 and the number of cases climbed to 17,265 in the country on Monday, according to the Union health ministry. The situation is "especially serious" in Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, Jaipur in Rajasthan, and Kolkata, Howrah, East Medinipur, North 24 Parganas, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, the ministry said. There are 4,203 confirmed coronavirus cases in Maharashtra of which 223 people lost their lives, according to Union health ministry data. In Madhya Pradesh, out of the 1,407 cases, 70 people have succumbed to the disease. Rajasthan has reported 1,478 cases of which 14 people lost their lives. In West Bengal, there are 339 confirmed cases of which 12 people died due to the infection, according to health ministry data. "Violation of lockdown measures reported, posing a serious health hazard to public and risk for spread of COVID-19," it said. The central government has constituted six Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) to make on-spot assessment of the COVID-19 situation in these places and issue necessary directions to the four states -- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal -- for redressal. The teams will submit their report to the central government in the larger interest of the general public, the ministry said. "The IMCTs will focus on compliance and implementation of the lockdown measures as per guidelines, supply of essential commodities, social distancing, preparedness of health infrastructure, safety of health professionals and conditions of relief camps for labourers and poor people," a home ministry spokesperson said. There have been several incidents of attacks on healthcare workers and police by some people in different parts of the country, including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, leading to injuries to doctors, paramedics and police personnel. The lockdown was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 in a bid to combat the coronavirus pandemic. It was further extended till May 3. The Bombay high court on Monday refused permission for medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) of a 24-year-old woman from Aurangabad district after noticing that the foetus suffered from congenital defect of the lung, but it was surgically treatable. The 24-year-old labourer from Domegaon had moved the high court after a local doctor found defects in the foetus and sought permission of medically terminating the pregnancy, which had crossed the 20-week limit set by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971. Acting on her petition, the court, on April 15, had ordered the woman to be examined by a panel of experts at the local government hospital. The panel, in its report to the high court, indicated that the foetus suffered from the congenital defect of the lung, but did not recommend termination of the pregnancy, as the defect was treatable surgically after birth. In view of the clear and unequivocal finding, the prayer made in the petition cannot be considered, said justice Prasanna Varale, while rejecting the petition. In another case, the judge allowed a 29-year-old teacher from Aurangabad to medically terminate her 24-week long pregnancy in view of the expert medical panels opinion that termination was necessary, as there was a substantial risk to the foetus if born. In this case, the panel said the foetus suffered from a defect of serious magnitude and the child if born, will survive with multiple major surgeries and it will not be able to lead a normal life even with medical assistance. MEDFORD, Ore. A Douglas County man is behind bars on Monday after an investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff's Office found that he'd allegedly exchanged sexually explicit photos with an underage girl. The investigation began in March after detectives received a report of an online sexual exploitation case. According to the Sheriff's Office, an adult man was exchanging explicit photos with an underage teenage girl. With the help of the Southern Oregon High Tech Crimes Task Force and the United States Marshals Service, detectives arrested 25-year-old Christopher James McGuirk of Glendale last Thursday. McGuirk has been charged with six counts of Using a Child in Display of Sexually Explicit Conduct and six counts of Encouraging Child Sex Abuse First Degree. He is being held in the Jackson County Jail on $500,000 bail. Drones are being used for carrying out a host of tasks like surveillance to ensure that people are maintaining social distancing, spreading awareness about COVID-19 in densely populated areas, spraying disinfectants and checking people's temperature. IMAGE: Children watch a police drone as it monitors Mumbaikars's movements during the lockdown. Photograph: PTI Photo With India under lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus, drones are proving to be a crucial tool in the functioning of law enforcement authorities and other government agencies which are deploying these unmanned aerial vehicles for carrying out surveillance, sanitisation and to reach out to people, minimising the risk of infection for their personnel. While the Gujarat Police is using 200 drones across the state to monitor people's movements, the Delhi Police has deployed them to ensure people follow social distancing in Asia's largest fruit and vegetable wholesale market Azadpur Mandi. Municipal authorities in Madurai are utilising them to disinfect areas near the coronavirus wing of a city hospital. These are only a few examples of UAVs being used in the fight against coronavirus. However, government agencies aren't the only ones to tap into technology in these tough times, media organisations are also using drones to show people confined indoors the impact of the world's biggest lockdown. "It is fair to assume that out of 20,000 drones registered with the government, about 450-500 drones are already being used all across India to assist different states and law enforcement agencies," Smit Shah, director - partnerships, Drone Federation of India said. IMAGE: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation workers use a drone to spray disinfectant from Raj Bhavan square to Sishubhawan square during smart sanitisation drive to curb the spread of coronavirus. Photograph: PTI Photo The DFI is an industry body that has companies like Asteria Aerospace, Quidich Innovation Labs, AutoMicroUAS, Aarav Unmanned Systems and Indrones as its members. "Drone startups have come out and extended their support to the government on a no-cost basis. Most of the drone service providers are not charging for the services they are providing," Shah noted. India has remained under lockdown since March 25 to contain the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, which has so far infected 10,815 people and claimed 353 lives in the country. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the lockdown, which was originally for 21 days, will be extended by 19 days to May 3 as the measure has produced a significant outcome in containing the infection. Shah said drones are being used for carrying out a host of tasks like surveillance to ensure that people are maintaining social distancing, spreading awareness about COVID-19 in densely populated areas, spraying disinfectants and checking people's temperature. During the initial days of the lockdown, drones were used by the Jammu and Kashmir administration to announce restrictions on movement of people in Srinagar's busy Lal Chowk. IMAGE: Delhi assembly staff uses drone to spray disinfectant in Vivek Vihar area in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo The Delhi Police is also using drones to monitor people's movements in Ghazipur Mandi, which witnesses a steady stream of buyers throughout the day. The municipal corporation of Warangal in Telangana has collaborated with a private company, Binford Robotics, to deploy its UAVs for surveillance and spraying disinfectants in the city. According to experts, as the number of coronavirus cases in the country mounts, the use of the UAVs is also expected to rise. Ankit Mehta, co-chair of a FICCI committee on drones, told PTI, "Right now, the need of the hour is that the ministry of home or state police departments should take a call on whether they need drones with megaphones as a reinforcement tool, otherwise their containment strategies won't work." "This is the time to go for mass procurement and leverage the entire drone production capability of the country. It will take us two-three weeks to start delivering," said Mehta, who is also the CEO of ideaForge, a drone manufacturing company. He called for stepping-up the use of drones. "Containment zones are going to be around for a while, and they are going to extend because it is a contagious virus. What is required is 24x7 deployment of drones for surveillance to enforce containment and not sporadic usage. IMAGE: Medics use a drone to spray disinfectant at a slum area in Noida 16. Photograph: PTI Photo "My estimate is that we have 640 districts. If about 2,000 drones are inducted, assuming that each district needs around 3 drones, we can enable a broad level of persistent surveillance in the major containment zones," he said. Mehta said several state police departments are already customers of ideaForge and they had procured surveillance drones well before the lockdown. "Some of these departments, which were planning to place orders with us, have asked us to deliver drones quickly since the beginning of lockdown," he said. DFI's Shah, however, recommended incentivising the approximately 20,000 drone operators who are registered with the Ministry of Civil Aviation. "This would be much more cost-effective for the governments as against procuring new drones at this time as that would involve management of equipment, training programmes and capacity building, which might not be feasible as of now," he said. For media organisations too drones are proving to be a boon at a time when many parts of the country have been sealed and are out of bounds for outsiders. Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo IMAGE: Mumbai Police use a drone to check people's movement around Bandra railway station, after Monday's incident of migrant labourers defying the lockdown Remote-controlled UAVs allow media organisations to shoot videos or click photographs and cover various aspects of the lockdown. For instance, The Times of India's Chennai supplement on Sunday posted online a 5-minute video, which was shot using drones, showing how the once-bustling city has come to a standstill during the lockdown. A senior executive of a news organisation said the media companies in India generally use "micro drones", which weigh between one to two kgs. "The drones are registered with the central government. Before deploying them, a news organisation generally takes permission from the local police department," the executive said. News organisations also make sure that while recording a video, the drone does not enter any restricted areas like an airport's airspace, etc, the executive noted. Two men were shot to death and two others wounded following a dispute that started in a Calumet City nightclub early Saturday and ended with gunfire outside, police said. Family members said they believe one man shot to death is Archie Lee Chambers Jr., 20, of the 3100 block of West 84th Street in Chicago, who a witness told WGN-TV had been shooting in the air before being shot by police. Advertisement The Cook County medical examiner's office confirmed the family's suspicion early Sunday morning. The other man shot outside What's Up Bar & Grill, 735 S. Torrence Ave., about 1:45 a.m. Saturday, was identified as Willie Randall White Jr., 24. Family members said Chambers, a student at Kennedy-King College and graduate of Chicago Vocational High School, was the youngest of six children. Advertisement Friends told Chambers' sister, Arshanette Chambers, 21, that Chambers and other friends had been at a car club party at What's Up about 1:30 a.m., when a fight started inside the club and someone began shooting outside the club, killing Chambers' friend and bringing Chambers outside. Police arrived on the scene about 1:45 a.m. and when officers arrived, "there were two people already down," Calumet City Police Chief Edward Gilmore told WGN-TV. Police "did engage the shooter," Gilmore said, but the chief did not say that Chambers was the one who had shot the others. White and Chambers were not shot by the police, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Witnesses said there were many shots fired in the parking lot of the club, and there were dozens of evidence tags in the parking lot Saturday, marking where shell casings from the gunfire had fallen. A woman was taken to Franciscan St. Margaret Health in Hammond with a gunshot wound to her leg, and her condition had been stabilized, Gilmore said. Another man was shot multiple times and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was in serious condition, Gilmore told WGN-TV. It was unclear whether the wounded man might be a suspect in the shootings, or just a victim of the shootings. Calumet City Police did not return phone calls for clarification Saturday afternoon. Friends told Arshanette Chambers that her brother did wield a gun after his friend had been shot dead, but that he had thrown the gun down and was hopping over a gate when he was shot, she said in a telephone interview. Advertisement A witness told WGN-TV that Chambers had been shooting in the air before he was shot. State Police are investigating the shooting because of police involvement, a spokeswoman said. Gilmore said the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force also is investigating Arshanette and Archie Chambers' mother, Anthanette Marshbanks, 49, with whom Archie Chambers lived, said they found out through friends of Chambers' that something might have happened at the club. Anthanette Marshbanks first realized something might have happened when she woke up this morning and her son's bedroom door was open. She couldn't reach him, and his car wasn't home. When she reached a friend of his, she was told to call Calumet City police. Advertisement "Nobody had any information," Marshbanks said. Finally, after going to the police station, Marshbanks went to the club, and saw, from a distance, a body that looked like her son, lying in a parking lot of a nearby apartment complex, uncovered. "I got there at 3 p.m., and he was lying on the ground, with no body bag, nothing covering" his body, Arshanette Chambers said. "No authority has stepped up to tell me that my child is dead," Marshbanks said. Arshanette Chambers said her brother, who was trained as a diesel mechanic at Chicago Vocational Career Academy and graduated from the high school in 2010, was always someone who would befriend those at school who had difficulty fitting in. "I've seen people at their lowest, and he'd talk to them, and make them laugh," trying to cheer them up, his sister said. WGN-TV reporter Jae Miller and Tribune reporter Peter Nickeas contributed lford@tribune.com, Twitter: @ltaford by Mathias Hariyadi As family members prayed, two people burst into their home saying that such a gathering had been banned. Yesterdays incident and related videos posted on social media sparked interest among ordinary Indonesians. Jakarta (AsiaNews) A family whose members belong to the Christian Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) were praying yesterday at home, when two men burst into their house accusing them of holding a banned gathering. Currently, all public activities are banned Indonesia and people are told to stay at and work from home. During the incident, which occurred in Rawa Sentul, a hamlet in Jayamukti, a village in Cikarang sub-district, Bekasi Regency (West Java), the two men, the hamlet chief and a neighbour of the family in question, tried to enforce the ban with force and rudeness, telling family members to stop praying. A tape of the event was posted on social media, sparking controversy among Indonesians, showing the family standing their ground against the hostile intruders. Once he realised that he was being filmed, the village chief got angrier and tried to snatch the mobile device from the woman taping what was going. Failing this, he left, aware that the scene would be soon posted on social media. "We are used to praying together, said Arion Sihombing on his social media platform, but those two arrived suddenly at our home and ordered us to stop praying. We fear that these people will bring their followers for more hostile acts. He added that yesterdays act was not the first time that his family was the object of hostilities. This happened to us 12 years ago, when we faced a mob protesting against us because we met to pray as a family. We were under pressure for a month and every night they threw stones at our home. After that, the family stopped worshipping together, then yesterdays incident occurred. After the video appeared on social media, it went viral, with many people slamming the village chief and the neighbour for their hostile act. Hours later, the issue was resolved peacefully at the local police station. But this kind of issue remains delicate as it involves family religious activities. For the past few weeks, the local Christian community has been unable to meet and services are only available online. Catholic parishes too hold their daily and weekly services online. During Holy Week, Card Ignatius Suharyo led the Mass in Jakartas basilica, with at least 30,000 people following it live on their mobile phones. Thousands more did the same watching on television. When Pope Francis gave his Urbi et Orbi blessing and the plenary indulgence, tens of thousands of Indonesian Catholic groups followed them. Live streaming and broadcasting by the Indonesian Church and the Vatican are something relatively new in Indonesia. However, thousands of Catholic congregations now use social media to find information about TV channels and online media platforms to follow such services. Kenyan newspapers on Tuesday, April 21, lead with Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe's warning that coronavirus disease has started spreading to villages, a development he blamed on the middle class. Wrangles that have rocked the ruling Jubilee Party have also continued to grab the headlines with the faction led by Deputy President William Ruto seeking to oust secretary-general, Raphael Tuju, from his position. READ ALSO: Two of Jonathan Moi's widows send beautiful tributes to mark first anniversary of his departure Newspapers on Tuesday, April 21, report that coronavirus cases in the country have hit 281. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: COVID-19: Govt threatens to extend curfew if Kenyans continue to violate safety guidelines 1. Taifa Leo The daily reports that fallen journalist and celebrated novelist Ken Walibora had a vision of how he was going to meet his death in two of his books, Kidagaa Kimemwozea and Siku Njema. In both books, there are characters who disappear for several days and their families launch a search for them but unfortunately, they were found dead. Walibora was knocked down by a matatu in Nairobi and was rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) where he succumbed to his injuries. His family looked for him for about five days before they found the body at the KNH morgue. Kidagaa Kimemwozea has a very identical scene where a character (Nasaba Bora) leaves his place of residence aboard a car but is found dead far from where the car was parked. Walibora paints another instance in Siku Njema where a character named Rashid is rushed to the hospital after being knocked by a vehicle but dies after medics failed to attend to him. It is claimed Walibora stayed at KNH's emergency area for about 18 hours without any medical attention. In Siku Njema, Juma Mkosi shares similar circumstances of death. Nasaba Bora in Kidaga Kimemwozea was buried in a ceremony attended by not more than 15 people despite him being a prominent person. Walibora will be interred on Wednesday, April 22. His burial will be attended by the same number of people as a result of the government's directives that aim to curb spread of coronavirus. READ ALSO: Kenyans ranked second best in English proficiency in Africa 2. The Standard A freshly released study has revealed that overweight people are at a greater risk of being admitted to hospital with severe coronavirus symptoms in case they contract the disease. The study called "Obesity in patients younger than 60 years is a risk factor for COVID-19 hospital admission" examined data from over 4,000 patients who sought treatment at a health facility in New York between March 1 and April 2. Out of 3,615 who tested positive for coronavirus, 775 (21%) were obese with a BMI of between 30 to 34. Some 595 (15%) had a BMI of over 35. According to the study, patients with a BMI higher than 35 were 3.6 times more likely to end up in ICU if diagnosed with COVID-19. "Obesity appears to be a previously unrecognised risk for hospital admission and need for critical care," the study reads. READ ALSO: Richard Quest: Revered CNN journalist tests positive for COVID-19 3. People Daily The ministries of health and trade have been challenged to explain why they have listed alcohol and tobacco as essential services as the country wages war against coronavirus. Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance said that it should concern citizens why authorities had listed the two products as essential services yet the health ministry was discouraging their consumption. The move has been challenged by at least 11 civil societies who said that they had written to the ministry of health on the subject but the Mutahi Kagwe led docket had not responded to their questions. "We want the Ministry of Health as a matter of urgency to explain why it seems comfortable and whether it agrees with its industrialisation counterpart on the listing of the two products as essential," said Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance Chairman Joel Gitali. READ ALSO: Kifo cha Ken Walibora ni asante ya punda! Ameacha pengo 4. The Star Section of scientists and researchers have predicted that Africa may not suffer horrifying consequences of coronavirus pandemic to the same scale as America and Europe. Two key studies in Spain and the US have stated that the virus thrives more in cold environments (dry and wintry) and not warmer climates experienced in Africa. Experts, however, warn that minimal transmission in a warmer climate does not mean that there is no infection. Other scientists argue that Africa may suffer more from economic impacts caused by the global spread of the virus than the direct pain of people in the continent contracting the infection. As of Monday, April 20, Africa had recorded some 23, 195 cases and 1,131 deaths from the disease. READ ALSO: Jacque Maribe fondly remembers working in newsroom, 'fighting' for loaf of bread 5. Daily Nation Section of Kenyans who are suffering in China after being ejected from their houses has accused Kenya's embassy in Beijing of sharing their personal information with Chinese authorities. The stranded Kenyans say police are using the information to eject them from their houses. According to Daily Nation, the list police are using to hunt down Kenyans in china was the same one the Nairobi embassy in Beijing had received after affected citizens requested for repatriation. Some of those who are on the streets are now convening fundraisers for them to be able to raise money to travel home after the government said it will only evacuate them at their own cost. 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from Covid-19 in Kenya | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke NEW YORKThe New York City Pride March, which would be celebrating its 50th anniversary in June, has been canceled, along with all in-person events leading up to the march, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement came this morning from event organizer Heritage of Pride after a briefing by New York Mayor Bill De Blasio where he announced the cancellation of permits for all large events during June. The event draws millions of participants each year from throughout the country. The first pride march took place in June 1970, honoring the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising the year before, which helped spark the modern LGBTQ rights movement. An estimated five million people attended last year's NYC Pride March on the 50th anniversary of the rebellion. The Stonewall Uprising played out over six days of clashes between young gay, lesbian and transgender individuals and the New York Police Department after a police raid of the Christopher Street bar in Manhattan's West Village. The raid was part a broader police crackdown on gay bars for operating without New York State Liquor Authority licenses. Heritage of Pride announced it would support an effort by InterPride, an international organization comprised of many pride planning organizations, to hold a 24-hour virtual "Global Pride" event on June 27, that would be broadcast around the world. The New York announcement comes after a number of other major cities around the country had already announced they were canceling or postponing their Pride events. Los Angeles postponed its event, while San Francisco canceled and Seattle said it would do an online celebration. After his retirement in 2017, the Duke of Edinburgh has been out of the limelight and has spent most of his time in Wood Farm Sandringham in Norfolk before moving to Windsor Castle together with Queen Elizabeth II due to the pandemic. As the U.K. struggles to combat the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, Prince Philip has issued his first public statement to thank key workers for their "vital and urgent" role to fight against the health crisis. Prince Philip's Post-Retirement Message Amid COVID-19 The 98-year-old royal has come out of his retirement to acknowledge the collective efforts of people in the medical and scientific fields. "As we approach World Immunisation Week, I wanted to recognize the vital and urgent work being done by so many to tackle the pandemic; by those in the medical and scientific professions, at universities and research institutions, all united in working to protect us from COVID-19," the official statement released by the Buckingham Palace read. Prince Philip also applauded essential workers under food production and distribution, postal and delivery services, and sanitation personnel. "On behalf of those of us who remain safe and at home, I also wanted to thank all key workers who ensure the infrastructure of our life continues; the staff and volunteers working in food production and distribution, those keeping postal and delivery services going, and those ensuring the rubbish continues to be collected." Queen Elizabeth II's Heartfelt Nation Address The Duke of Edinburgh was the latest royal to issue a nation's address as Britain grappled to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Last month, Her Majesty the Queen delivered a rare televised speech addressing the nation and assuring that they "will succeed" in this devastating time. In her historic nation address, the longest-reigning monarch appeased the anxiety of her countrymen as she reassured them the nation will "overcome" the ongoing crisis if Britain will "remain united and resolute." More than 23.3 million people witnessed Queen Elizabeth II's inspirational and calm speech, and she was praised not just by her fellow Britons but from people around the world. Apart from her annual Christmas Day message, this is said to be her fifth televised nation address in her 68-year reign. Prince Charles Thanked Health Workers for their "Selfless Devotion" Aside from the two royals, the 71-year-old heir Prince Charles also acknowledged the health workers and recognized their efforts and sacrifices amid the distressing time. After spending weeks in isolation due to coronavirus, the heir to the throne released a video message as he paid tribute to doctors, nurses and other frontline staff for their "utter, selfless devotion to duty" which made the nation proud. Despite Britain's strict protocol on stay-at-home order, the government failed to contain the spread of the dreaded virus as the confirmed cases peaked to more than 124,000 while fatalities have soared to 16,500. Following this, the U.K might extend the lockdown to three more weeks in hopes to slow down the number of cases and deaths due to the dreaded virus. LANE COUNTY, Ore. The Lane County Sheriffs Office is seeking the publics help finding a missing Oakland man. The Lane County Sheriffs Office said Jonathan Moore, 35, was involved in a car crash on Row River Road April 7 in which at least one shot was fired at his vehicle, a 2001 Dodge Dakota. Authorities found the vehicle empty upon arriving to the scene, and Moores phone was found nearby they said. The second vehicle involved in the crash has also been located, and the investigation is continuing. Deputies said they believe Moore walked away from the crash but may have been injured, based on the damage to the vehicle. Moores family reported him missing to Sutherlin police on April 10, after not hearing from him since he left to visit a friend in Cottage Grove. Deputies said he is described as white, 5 feet 8 inches tall and about 165 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes. He is known to have a short beard and mustache and sometimes wears an earring in his left ear. No evidence has been found as to his location. If you have any information, contact deputies at 541-682-4150, press 1 and refer to Case # 20-2318, or contact the Sutherlin Police Department at 541-459-2211 and refer to Case #20-360. It has been a difficult 10 months for AGB, which once provided security for the CTA. The husband of a woman, Felon Smith, who was killed by a Red Line train in June after she dropped her phone on the tracks sued the CTA and the company, alleging negligence. In an emailed statement, the Griffins said they extend their heartfelt condolences to Smiths family, but declined to comment further, citing the lawsuit. The company also was named in two other personal injury lawsuits filed this year, and the CTA canceled its contract. For Immediate Release Chicago, IL April 21, 2020 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Southwest Airlines Co. LUV, Magellan Petroleum Corp. TELL, Murphy USA Inc. MUSA, Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. PARR and Azure Power Global Ltd. AZRE. Here are highlights from Mondays Analyst Blog: 5 Biggest Winners from Oil's Deepest Descent in History Global storage deficiency and declining demand for crude since the coronavirus outburst have pushed oil prices down to levels not seen in more than two decades. Nevertheless, the drop is a blessing for certain companies as well. Thus, focusing on such stocks at the moment isnt a bad proposition. Oil Slips to 21-Year Low The U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, plummeted as much as 21% to $14.47 per barrel on Apr 19. It later traded around the $15 range, for the first time in 21 years. Comparatively, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark slipped 4.2% to $26.91 per barrel. Key Factor Behind the Drop Oil prices have been under tremendous pressure as initiatives like lockdowns to counter the spread of the deadly coronavirus worldwide hit fuel demand, leaving ample of supplies that countries are finding hard to store. In fact, the Department of Energy is now considering paying domestic oil producers for storing crude in the ground. Meanwhile, the OPEC and its allies have agreed upon a historic deal to cut output, but that has failed to check the drop in oil prices. Group of 20 nations along with OPEC and its allies held several conferences to finally reach an agreement to tackle the damaging impact of the pandemic on oil. OPEC+ has unanimously decided to cut production by 9.7 million barrels a day, slightly below the initial proposal of 10 million. In fact, like central banks taper off bond buying, OPEC will trim the size of the cuts over time. After June till the end of the year, OPEC will be trimming production to 7.6 million barrels a day and then to 5.6 million next year until April of 2022 (read more: Winners & Losers From the Historic OPEC+ Deal to Cut Output). Story continues Meanwhile, Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights, summed up by saying that the current prices show that the OPEC+ cuts proved to be a blip, with oil prices at the mercy of the virus once again, and that until we approach a lifting of the lockdowns in the U.S., oil may drift lower or remain range bound around current levels. Aviation, Refiners Poised to Gain Aviation stocks traditionally have an inverse relationship with the movement of oil prices. So, it isnt surprising that shares of aviation firms will rise after the sharp drop in crude oil prices. After all, fuel costs are major part of the operating costs for aviation firms, thus, rise in oil prices will eat into profit margins. By the way, some may say that the airline stocks have been pretty battered so far this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Demand for air travel has waned substantially, impacting airlines bottom lines to a massive extent. But in a positive move, the U.S. Treasury Department and major U.S. airlines have reached an agreement on principle aimed at curtailing layoffs, with major airlines agreeing to a $25-billion federal aid. Given this bullishness, an aviation stock to win big is passenger airline Southwest Airlines Co. Notably, it is now the largest domestic air carrier (measured in terms of the number of domestic originating passengers boarded) in the United States. The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) companys expected earnings growth rate for the next year is a startling 22,000%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Refineries also stand to gain from the decline in crude oil prices. As refineries buy crude oil as their raw material, their net cash flow increases when crude oil prices fall. Thus, some of the prominent refiners to keep an eye on are Magellan Petroleum Corp., Murphy USA Inc. and Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. Magellan Petroleum currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The companys expected earnings growth rate for the current quarter is 31.6%. Its projected earnings growth rate for the next five years is 31.1%. Similarly, Murphy USA has a Zacks Rank #2, and its expected earnings growth rate for the current year as well as next five years is 22.6% and 7%, respectively. Separately, Par Pacific has a Zacks Rank #3, and its projected earnings growth rate for the current quarter and year is 35.6% and 5%, respectively. Oil Price Drop a Boon for Emerging Markets Steady drop in oil prices benefits importers like Turkey, South Africa and India. Cheaper black gold will boost their balance of payments and support GDP growth. Capital Economics, a leading independent macroeconomic research firm added that with every $10-per-barrel drop in oil, oil importing emerging economies income rise by 0.5-0.7% of GDP. This certainly calls for investing in fundamentally-sound companies from the aforesaid emerging economies. One of the best ranked companies you may consider is Azure Power Global Ltd., based in New Delhi, India. This Zacks Rank #2 company produces and develops solar energy. Its expected earnings growth rate for the next quarter is a whopping 200% compared with the Solar industrys estimated decline of 44.4%. Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. Theyre also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases. Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +50%, +83% and +164% in as little as 2 months. The stocks in this report could perform even better. See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>> Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) : Free Stock Analysis Report Murphy USA Inc. (MUSA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (PARR) : Free Stock Analysis Report Azure Power Global Ltd. (AZRE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Magellan Petroleum Corporation (TELL) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is docked at Naval Base Guam in Apra Harbor on April 10, 2020. At least 416 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier, or 8.6 percent of the ships crew of 4,800, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, with the numbers increasing daily. WASHINGTON The U.S. Navy said Tuesday that nearly all crewmembers assigned to the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier have been tested for the disease. "As of today, 94% of USS Theodore Roosevelt crewmembers were tested for Covid-19, with 710 total positive and 3,872 negative results," the service wrote in a release. Of the total cases, nine are currently being treated at the U.S. Naval Hospital Guam, 42 sailors have recovered and one sailor died. A significant number of the Roosevelt crew tested positive but displayed no symptoms. Read more: US Navy sailor from coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier dies in Guam The growing outbreak threatening the crew aboard the Roosevelt was foreshadowed in a leaked letter penned last month by the ship's captain. Capt. Brett Crozier urged senior military leaders in a four-page letter to take dramatic steps to safeguard the sailors aboard the Roosevelt. "We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset our Sailors," Crozier wrote in the letter dated March 30. "The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating." The death toll from a massacre that stretched across rural Nova Scotia last weekend rose to 23 Tuesday as families grappled with the heart-wrenching question of how to mourn during a pandemic that is forcing people to stay apart. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. This is an undated handout phooto of RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson. There is an outpouring of grief across Nova Scotia today as the names of victims of a weekend mass killing begin to emerge, ranging from a nurse to a teacher to RCMP officer Heidi Stevenson.THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RCMP Mandatory Credit The death toll from a massacre that stretched across rural Nova Scotia last weekend rose to 23 Tuesday as families grappled with the heart-wrenching question of how to mourn during a pandemic that is forcing people to stay apart. Tammy Oliver-McCurdie, whose sister Jolene Oliver, brother-in-law Aaron Tuck and niece Emily Tuck were among the dead, was struggling with how to plan funerals. The victims have loved ones in both Nova Scotia and Alberta, where the sisters grew up, and the pandemic makes travel difficult. "I don't know what I'm going to do with this whole COVID thing. It's just so, so much," an emotional Oliver-McCurdie said from Red Deer Monday. "I know she's got people who love her here and people who love her there." Justin Zahl in Halifax was still searching for answers about his parents' fate days after seeing images of their Portapique, N.S., home's burnt remains, all while separated from his younger brother who's in Albuquerque, N.M. He has no relatives in the province, and the Canada-U.S. border closure is keeping the brothers apart. "I don't know how I'm going to get my sibling up here," Zahl said in an interview. Premier Stephen McNeil called the rampage that began Saturday night in the quiet community of Portapique and ended at a gas station in Enfield on Sunday "one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province's history." But officials reminded Nova Scotians that the community would have to mourn together from a distance to stop the coronavirus from spreading, as cases and deaths from the illness also climbed. Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief medical officer of health, acknowledged at his daily news COVID-19 news conference Monday that it would be "hard for people to hear" reminders about the need for physical distancing in the aftermath of the killings. Workers at an extended care facility show their community support in Debert, N.S. on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan "COVID-19 is not going to pause because of our pain we cannot let our guard down," Strang said. Simon Sherry, a professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said while social and ritualized aspects of grief are important, they represent only one part of coping with death and dying. "At an individual level, people can still make meaning and reach acceptance, even amid a pandemic and the heavy weight of a mass shooting," he said in an interview Tuesday. On Monday night, people across Nova Scotia were asked to express their grief by stepping outside at 8:30 p.m. to light a candle or shine some kind of light. Others have displayed solidarity by posting photos of sunsets across the province. Toronto-based singing group Choir! Choir! Choir! announced a Facebook live performance of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' scheduled for Thursday. A virtual vigil is planned for Friday evening, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would attend. Sherry said that kind of new ritual can be an important gesture of solidarity. "When your community, when your province is suffering through grief like this, it's important to emphasize a connection to community .... It's important to refocus on community." A memorial with flowers and tributes sprung up outside the RCMP headquarters in Dartmouth this week to honour Const. Heidi Stevenson, who was killed in the line of duty. But Stevenson's funeral will look different from those held for slain officers at other points in Canadian history like the regimental funeral for Fredericton police constables Robb Costello and Sara Burns in August 2018 that was attended by hundreds of police officers and first responders from across the continent. "It's going to require some out-of-the-box thinking. I really don't know where they're even going to begin," said Brian Sauve, president of the union representing RCMP officers. He said such events are always uniquely tragic and challenging, but there are possibilities available during the pandemic, such as livestreaming and inviting guests to park along roadways. "There are ways in today's day and age to honour the fallen," he said. "It's just in a different format." Quentrel Provo, an anti-violence and gun control activist who founded Stop the Violence, Spread the Love in Halifax, led a virtual candlelight vigil Monday night, opening with a prayer, a moment of silence and a reading of victims' names during a livestream on Facebook. Provo said it was emotionally tough to lead the event, which he set up to offer some hope as Nova Scotians feel overwhelmed by the pandemic and the violence of the weekend. "A lot of tears have been shed. I know myself, I've cried a lot in the last few days," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. 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. "If we're hurting, it's unimaginable the pain the families are going through right now, but we're trying to come together and be strong and show them support during this time." Provo said he plans to pay tribute to the victims by lighting a candle each night for the next 20 days, and he said people should continue to support each other and the families into the future. Sherry said people should be careful not to suppress their grief during the pandemic and it's important to recognize that people will deal with grief in their own way. "There is no one, particular timeline or course that someone needs to follow as they move through grief, loss and trauma," he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2020. With files from Michael MacDonald in Halifax. The participants in the second field season of the Russian Geographical Society expedition Transpolar Mainline installed geothermal monitoring posts in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area and the Krasnoyarsk Territory, which will help determine the feasibility of building the Korotchayevo-Igarka-Norilsk railway. "The expedition members traveled 3,800 km, covering about 3,000 km on snowmobiles. Their route seldom ran along rare winter roads, but mainly traversed virgin snow, the ice of the Turukhan and Yenisei rivers, and the mountains located between Snezhnogorsk and Norilsk. The temperature along the route ranged from minus 30 to plus 5 Celsius, and the group encountered a serious snowstorm several times. But, despite all the difficulties of the route, the researchers met the challenge," the press service of the Russian Geographical Society reported. As part of their study, the specialists checked readings of geothermal monitoring posts at 19 control points of the prospective line, which were installed last autumn during the first field season of the expedition. In addition, the project participants installed two new geothermal monitoring posts at the southernmost point of the study area near the village of Krasnoselkup and at its northernmost point near the town of Dudinka. The scientists will now have more data about the study area. Also, the expedition participants took soil samples for laboratory study. "The expedition area can be imagined as a huge triangle with peaks in Urengoi, Turukhansk and Norilsk. The length of the shortest, southern side of this triangle is at least 500 kilometers. The Arctic Circle runs just about through the middle of this triangle, but there are practically no roads inside it, only winter roads, which connect oil and gas fields to each other in the cold season. To fully explore the possibilities and specific aspects of building a railway on this territory, the RGO specialists installed geothermal monitoring posts in its most diverse areas, which are sometimes extremely difficult to access," said Sergei Chechulin, head of the expedition department of RGO's executive directorate. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 21 By Matanat Nasibova - Trend: Goycay-Sud, a big producer of dairy products located in Azerbaijans Goychay district, increased production cheese products by 40-45 percent in 1Q2020, a source in the enterprise told Trend. According to the source, the opening of two new plants in December 2019, led to a significant increase in the production of cheese products. Presently, our factorys cheese products are in great demand in the domestic market and account for almost 70 percent of sales. The company also plans to increase production of dairy products. The plant produces 750-800 tons of dairy products annually. Of this, 400-450 tons account for cheese. In terms of money, the enterprise produced dairy products worth 250,000-260,000 manat in 2019, and it is planned to increase this indicator to at least 400,000-420,000 manat in 2020, said the source. The plant operates at full capacity and has been provided with modern Swedish and Italian equipment. The plants products have a certificate of conformity issued by the Azerbaijani State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MatanatNasibova NEW ORLEANS Ten years after a well blew wild under a BP platform in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 men and touching off the nations worst offshore oil spill, gulf waters sparkle in the sunlight, its fish are safe to eat, and thick, black oil no longer visibly stains the beaches and estuaries. Brown pelicans, a symbol of the spills ecological damage because so many dived after fish and came up coated with oil, are doing well. But scientists who spent the decade studying the Deepwater Horizon spill still worry about its effects on dolphins, whales, sea turtles, small fish vital to the food chain, and ancient corals in the cold, dark depths. The gulf's ecosystem is so complex and interconnected that it's impossible to take any single part as a measure of its overall health, said Rita Colwell, who has led the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. BP put up $500 million for the independent GoMRI program soon after the spill, part of more than $69 billion it says it has spent overall, including spill response, cleanup, settlements, restoration and other costs. Some scientists say the recovery has been remarkable since those dark spring days in 2010, when oil billowing from the sea floor began killing wildlife and blackening marshes and beaches from Texas to Florida. Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University chemist who has studied oil dispersal since the 1970s, said today's visitors to Louisiana's marshes would have to know just where to look to find damage: "So there's still oil there 10 years later. Is it significant compared to what we saw in 2010? And the answer is not only no, but hell no." But major concerns remain. Steven A. Murawski, chief scientist of the National Marine Fisheries Service when the well blew, said, "We will see environmental impacts from this for the rest of our lifetimes." Here's a look at how some key aspects of the ecosystem are doing. Dolphins and whales "Initially, industry experts were saying, 'The dolphins and the whales, they're smart. They're not going to swim into oiled areas,'" recalled Nancy Kinner, co-director of the Coastal Response Research Center and Center for Spills and Environmental Hazards at the University of New Hampshire. But cetaceans must surface to breathe, rising through oil that spread across more than 15,300 square miles (40,000 square kilometers) - nearly as big as Switzerland. Each exhalation vaporized oil and gas into minuscule droplets, which they then inhaled, Kinner said. FILE - In this June 3, 2010 file photo, a brown pelican covered in oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill sits on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)AP Lung disease and other ailments caused by the spill killed more than 1,000 bottlenose dolphins over several years, many of them in Louisiana's hard-hit Barataria Bay, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported. More than one-fifth were aborted, stillborn or died soon after birth. Pregnant Barataria and Mississippi Sound dolphins still give birth far more rarely than in healthy populations. Health checks of Barataria Bay dolphins in 2018 found that lung problems "in some cases ... may be even getting worse," said Lori Schwacke of the National Marine Mammal Foundation. Whales almost certainly suffered similar oil-caused ailments but can't be safely examined, Schwacke said. NOAA estimated the spill killed 17 percent of the gulf's Bryde's whales, declared endangered in 2019 after their population dwindled to fewer than 100. Other whales are suffering, too. "The toothed whales, sperm whales, Bryde's whales, right whales ... these populations which were somewhat in jeopardy prior to the oil spill have been declining 5 or 10% a year ever since the oil spill," said Ian MacDonald of Florida State University. Going forward, some BP money will go toward improving conditions for dolphins and whales. These include studies on reducing effects of human-produced noise, such as seismic airguns and ship propellers, on whales and dolphins, which communicate and navigate by sound. Fish How fisheries would survive was hard to fathom while slicks fouled estuaries where many fish spawn, but scientists haven't found any widespread species die-offs, said Chuck Wilson, chief science officer for GoMRI. "Fisheries in the marshes where the oil came on shore have continued to flourish. Recreational fishing continues to be productive and a very popular activity even in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, where the highest oil impact was," he said. It's a different story farther out and deeper down, where small fish feed top food and sport fish such as tuna or grouper, as well as whales. Murawski, now a professor at the University of South Florida and director of a GoMRI consortium, said small fish that live about 660 to 3,300 feet (200 to 1,000 meters) deep seemed to be doing well a year after the spill, but then their numbers plummeted by 60 to 80 percent, and haven't returned. Because they hadn't been surveyed before the spill, there's no way to say whether the drop was caused by the spill or 2011 was an exceptional year and numbers are back to normal, he said. FILE - In this June 26, 2010 file photo, Plaquemines Parish Coastal Zone Director P.J. Hahn rescues a heavily oiled bird from the waters of Barataria Bay, La., which are laden with oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)AP Laboratory research has found that oil damaged fish larvae's developing hearts and bones, MacDonald said. Future restoration projects include plans to get anglers to use equipment that would slowly lower reef fish they don't keep, rather than simply tossing them back. Another project aims to find the best escape hatches for "bycatch" hauled up in shrimp nets, and persuade shrimpers to use them. Marches The oil turned tall marsh grass as black as cinders and sank into the muck across Louisiana's coastal marshes, a nursery for an array of birds and fish. "Once all the roots and so on disintegrate, the whole marsh surface, all the soil, is lost. Given the fact that there is rapid sea-level rise and the land is sinking, it's almost impossible to recover," said University of Maryland marine scientist Donald Boesch. Oiled marsh shorelines that weren't lost immediately were more likely to wash away later. GoMRI surveys found birds, snails and crabs back at pre-spill densities, Wilson said. But the insects worry Louisiana State University researcher Linda Hooper-Bui. She found that most insect and spider species were back to 68% to 72% of pre-spill populations by 2016, and she was expecting to tell a story of insect recovery on the 10th anniversary. Then her funding dried up, but in August 2019, she collected one last round of samples and found surprisingly few insects. "Something is going on right now, and it's deeply affected," she said, but she can't tell what caused it. The vast majority of oiled wetlands were in Louisiana, where officials expect to use more than $7 billion in oil spill money to restore the coast, including marshes and barrier islands. FILE - In this May 23, 2010 file photo, a young heron sits dying amidst oil splattering underneath mangrove on an island impacted by oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Barataria Bay, just inside the coast of Lousiana. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)AP Deep coral and sea bottom Far below the surface, deep-sea corals can live hundreds of years, creating habitats for multitudes of creatures near the bottom of the food web. Because of the BP spill, we also know how they can die. Swaths of such coral were killed, and they grow so slowly only a few millimeters a year that it's hard to imagine how they could be replaced, Boesch said. Researchers found that seven years later, affected but surviving coral were less healthy than unoiled reefs. Before the spill, scientists didn't know that deep-sea corals were severely hurt by oil dispersing in a plume far below the surface. They discovered that rising oil interacts with plankton and then "snows down from the surface and eventually lands," changing the chemical biology of the sea bed, MacDonald said. "So these are things we've learned. And none of these are good things," MacDonald said. Scientists plan to study these deep habitats more extensively, including mapping the gulfs seafloor. To protect the fragile corals, money is being spent to develop techniques for growing and transplanting corals and installing buoys in some places to alert trawlers to the corals underwater presence. Janet McConaughey and Rebecca Santana of The Associated Press wrote this story. EUGENE, Ore. -- COVID-19 has caused marijuana dispensaries to scale back their celebration of 420, the unofficial marijuana holiday. Mike Green, co-owner of Spacebuds The Dispensary, said during a normal 420 celebration -- on April 20 -- many dispensaries will have blow-out sales, food carts and live music. This year, however, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission sent dispensaries guidelines on limiting their 420 activities because of the virus. Green said he agreed with the guidelines and canceled their plans. He said business has been busy during 420 but hopes they don't get a rush of customers that would make it difficult for them to operate safely. "It's not the kind of lines you see out the door and around the block so far, which is strange to say, but it is a good thing this year," Green said. Spacebuds is allowing customers to buy cannabis in a number of different ways -- curbside pickup, delivery, and allowing customers to come in the store while following strict social distancing guidelines. Customer Jordan Guffy said he has anxiety and marijuana is helping him deal with the added stress from COVID-19. "I haven't been using more, I haven't been using less, I'm kind of sticking to my routine," Guffy said. Spacebuds employees are wearing masks and gloves. Green said all cash they collect is being quarantined for four days before they deposit to limit the spread of COVID-19. In Oregon, cannabis retailers saw a huge spike last month -- a 30% increase in average sales per retailer compared with March 2019, the Associated Press said. Sales increases mid-April were even larger. The South Korean government cast doubt Tuesday on rumors that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was gravely ill, but U.S. officials said he may be incapacitated after heart surgery. Speculation about Kim's health has mounted after he failed to attend his late grandfather's birthday celebrations on April 15, the most important date in North Korea's calendar, known as "Day of the Sun." The rumors accelerated Tuesday when the South Korean website Daily NK cited one unnamed source as saying Kim, who is believed to be 36, had undergone heart surgery and was recuperating in a villa outside the capital Pyongyang. Several U.S. officials told NBC News that U.S. intelligence reporting indicates that Kim recently had cardiovascular surgery and has been out of public view for days. Some officials said the intelligence suggests Kim may be incapacitated. U.S. intelligence and agencies and the military are working to figure out his health status, officials said. As a result of the rumors, South Korean financial markets took a dip and its currency weakened against the dollar. Image: People watch a television news broadcast showing file footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at a railway station in Seoul (Jung Yeon-je / AFP - Getty Images) But later on Tuesday the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in denied that Kim was ill, saying that it could confirm he was at work and "currently touring provincial areas with his close aides." The office said it had no "evidence to support speculation about his ill health." North Korea is one of the most secretive nations on earth and events inside the country are often difficult or impossible to verify. But South Korea and its intelligence agencies often have solid information about what goes on inside its authoritarian neighbor. In China, which is North Korea's biggest but uneasy ally, the foreign ministry said it is aware of the reports but did not know their source, according to spokesman Geng Shuang. Kim is the latest in his family's dynasty to rule North Korea's repressive regime, which is responsible for some of the world's worst human-rights atrocities, according to defectors and international watchdogs. Story continues But because Kim has no clear successor, if he died it might risk instability at the top of this nuclear-capable country, with ramifications far beyond its own population of 25 million. North Korea has built an increasingly sophisticated nuclear and ballistic missile program under Kim, according to monitoring groups. And although a 2018 summit between Kim and President Donald Trump produced an agreement that Trump claimed would lead to denuclearization, negotiations have since stalled. Though relatively young, Kim appears obese in photographs. He has been pictured smoking and his former sushi chef has said he is a heavy drinker. Speculation about his health began after he missed celebrations for his grandfather's birthday on April 15, one of the most important events in the North Korean calendar. It's not the first time such an absence has fueled rumors about Kim. In 2014 he was absent from public view for a month and was pictured walking with a cane when he finally re-emerged. South Korea's spy agency later said that Kim had a cyst removed from his ankle. Kim's grandfather was Kim Il Sung, who founded the North Korea state in 1948, and his father was Kim Jong Il, the country's previous leader, who died in 2011. "When Kim Jong Il died, U.S. intel didn't know for two days," said Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst covering North Korea, now a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. "North Korea is the hardest of hard targets," he added, referring to the difficulty getting reliable information on events inside the country. Some Korea-watchers have speculated that his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, might be in the running to be a future leader. She has enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent years, representing her brother at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, and issuing statements praising the United States and denouncing South Korea respectively. Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - Altiplano Metals Inc. (TSXV: APN) (WKN: A2JNFG) ("Altiplano" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on progress and report the Q1 January to March 2020 results at the historic Farellon Copper-Gold Mine near La Serena, Chile. Since Q1 2018, Altiplano has extracted, processed and sold between 2,499 and 7,988 tonnes of copper material averaging 5,300 tonnes per quarter at Farellon Mine. This material has averaged between 1.25% and 1.97% copper per quarter with and overall average during this period of 1.58%. In addition, the Company has sold over 1.6 million pounds of copper with revenues of over US$3.65 million. During Q1, 2020, the Company extracted 5,250 tonnes of mineralized Cu/Au material at Farellon and processed 4,489 tonnes at an average grade of 1.97% Cu receiving 320,960 USD from the sale. The grade at Farellon continues to improve demonstrating a 6% increase in from the previous quarter. Total tonnes extracted represent a 12% decrease as the operations concentrated on higher grade as the price of copper dropped. In addition, the Company embarked on a mine expansion program and reduced extraction to facilitate development of the Hugo decline to access lower levels. In March 2020, the Company completed 68 m of the scheduled 100 m of advance and removed 3,400 tonnes of waste rock. As of March 31, the Company has 650 tonnes in stockpiles at the Farellon site and 1,045 tonnes in processing. John Williamson, Chairman comments "I am pleased to see expanded productivity at Farellon as our underground mine teams work together to focus on accessing higher grade copper material while expanding the decline for future extraction. All this work has progressed while our site has been adhering to Covid19 protocols. Lastly, we are fortunate to report that we have now been cash flow positive for 6 consecutive quarters at the Farellon operations. In addition, our team is working to procure the necessary equipment for our planned fit for purpose mill construction." Table 1. Tonnes Processed and Grade Cannot view Table 1? Visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4303/54657_e4c02b7c948cda9b_001full.jpg Figure 1. Farellon Copper Grade by Quarter To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4303/54657_figure1.jpg Photo 1. Underground advance Hugo Decline To view an enhanced version of Photo 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4303/54657_photo1.jpg John Williamson, P.Geol., President and CEO of Altiplano, is the Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this press release. About Altiplano Altiplano Metals Inc. (TSXV: APN) is a mineral exploration company focused on evaluating and acquiring projects with significant potential for advancement from discovery through to production, in Canada and abroad. Management has a substantial record of success in capitalizing on opportunity, overcoming challenges and building shareholder value. Additional information concerning Altiplano can be found on its website at www.apnmetals.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD /s/ "John Williamson" Chairman For further information, please contact: Jeremy Yaseniuk, Director jeremyy@apnmetals.com Tel: (604) 773-1467 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the (TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the Company expects are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to third party opposition, changes in government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54657 In addition to her regally rainbow array of stylish ensembles , a handful of accessories are also synonymous with Her Majesty, who's celebrating her 94th birthday today. Her love of a headscarf knows no bounds , as does her loyalty to the British bag brand Launer , which is the company responsible for the Queen's myriad of patent purses which she wears in the crook of her elbow. In fact, the royal has proven to be so loyal to the brand that today, in honour of her birthday, it has re-designed three of its bestselling styles in three new shades of blue, none of which would look out of place in our stylish monarch's wardrobe. (Newser) Ikea's main franchisee has reopened all but one of its stores in China, and next month it plans to welcome crowds back to its European stores, too. Ingka Groupthe world's largest furniture retailer, operating 420 Ikea stores around the worldaims to reopen stores in Europe in May, after a closure period of no more than two months, CEO Jesper Brodin tells Reuters. "The sales drop in the period we're in is about 60%," says Brodin. "This is the period we need to persevere and, so to speak, survive." But he says there's still plenty of interest in shopping. Online sales have doubled from this time in 2019 and "some countries are close to 10 times the e-commerce they had before the outbreak." story continues below Sales in China, where Ingka has reopened all of its stores excluding one in Wuhan, have already returned to year-ago levels. Brodin adds there's particular interest in office furniture, laundry baskets, cooking equipment, and low-cost items. "Tendencies are similar to what we saw after 2008that people have less money," he says. Ingka therefore intends to increase its range of low-cost items. It also plans to boost stock of baby items in seven to eight months as "crises back in time have resulted in baby booms." It's not clear when North American stores might reopen. But if it's the Swedish meatballs you crave, Ikea has shared a recipe for "an at-home alternative using easily accessible ingredients," per CNN. (Read more IKEA stories.) Seoul reportedly offered to pay about a $1bn to host American troops but US president previously demanded $5bn. US President Donald Trump has rejected a sum offered by South Korea in response to his demand that the countrys government contribute more to the cost of US military forces deployed there. Now theyve offered us a certain amount of money and Ive rejected it, Trump said at a White House news conference on Monday, adding that Seoul was paying about a billion dollars a year towards the cost of stationing between 28,000 and 32,000 US troops there. Were defending a wonderful nation. Were asking them to pay for a big percentage of what were doing. Its not fair. Its a question of will they contribute toward the defence of their own nation, Trump added. US officials told Reuters news agency earlier this month that Trump had rejected a South Korean offer made in the run-up to last weeks parliamentary election of an increase of at least 13 percent from the previous cost-sharing accord. Were doing a tremendous service. We have a wonderful feeling and a wonderful relationship with each other, but we have to be treated equitably and fairly, Trump said. When asked about reports that he was negotiating a reduction of US troop numbers with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Trump appeared to reject this, replying: Its not a question of reduction, its a question of, will they contribute toward the defence of their own nation? Were defending nations that are very wealthy. South Koreas a very wealthy nation they make our television sets, they make ships, they make everything. Trump said: Well find out fairly soon about how the negotiation was going. The White House said at the weekend that Trump spoke to Moon on Saturday and expressed appreciation for South Koreas help in procuring COVID-19 tests for the United States. It said they also discussed ways to strengthen the security relationship. Late last year, talks between the US and South Korea over the cost of hosting American troops collapsed after the two parties failed to agree on the amount that Seoul should pay. South Korean legislators said US officials had demanded up to $5bn a year, about five times the 1.04 trillion won ($896m) Seoul agreed to pay in 2019 for hosting the 28,500 American troops. US officials have not publicly confirmed the number, but Trump has previously said the US military presence in and around South Korea was $5bn worth of protection. Under South Korean law, the military cost-sharing deal must be approved by parliament. Governing party legislators have said this week they will refuse to ratify any excessive outcome of the current negotiations that deviate from the established principle and structure of the agreements for about 30 years. [The stream is slated to start at 5:30 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] Members of the coronavirus task force are expected to hold a press briefing Tuesday as officials across the federal, state and local levels rally to provide economic relief to Americans while also curbing the spread of the virus. A fund to help struggling small businesses ran out of money last week, but the Senate on Tuesday struck a bipartisan deal to replenish the funds, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The $484 billion coronavirus relief package also includes money for hospitals and testing. The Senate voted to pass the bill Tuesday. It now moves to the House for a vote. There's also talk of an international response. U.S President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed on the need for a coordinated international response to the pandemic, Downing Street said in a statement. "The leaders committed to continue working together to strengthen our bilateral relationship, including by signing a free trade agreement as soon as possible," a Downing Street spokeswoman said. Still, some hard-hit areas in the U.S. are facing insufficient resources to deal with the outbreak. New York's unemployment website "collapsed" following a record surge in claims after the state shuttered nonessential businesses to curb the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. The state now has 1,000 people working online and through its phone system to process the high volume of unemployment claims, he said. "It's unbelievable," Cuomo said. "One thousand people just to take the incoming unemployment calls. That's how high the volume is and they still can't keep up with the volume." Meanwhile, the toll of the pandemic continues to mount. The actual number of coronavirus cases in the United States is likely significantly higher as much 10 or even 20 times higher than the tally of Covid-19 infections currently being reported, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former top federal health official said Tuesday during an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box." "There's certainly under-diagnosis going on." Task force members include Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar; Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus response coordinator; and Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among others. The outbreak has spread to dozens of countries globally, with more than 2.5 million confirmed cases worldwide and over 171,810 deaths so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There are at least 788,900 cases in the United States and at least 42,485 deaths, according to the latest tallies. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. New Delhi, April 21 : Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, the chief of Nizamuddin Markaz, has asked his followers to donate their plasma for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. In an exclusive interview with IANS, Saad said, "I am informed that in some cases, if cured Covid-19 patients donate their plasma for the treatment of other patients, the same shall be very helpful in the latter's early recovery." He appealed to his followers, saying, "My friends from Tablighi Jamaat, who have been successfully treated by doctors and have now tested negative, come forward and donate your plasma so that other patients, of any caste or religion, who are still fighting this disease, may benefit from us." However, he said that health experts would be best suited to assess the viability of this procedure. Maulana Saad said the only message which is ever propounded by the Markaz Nizamuddin is of love, peace and brotherhood, as "we are all the children of Adam". When asked about talks doing the rounds that Tablighi Jamaatis were responsible for the spread of the virus following the religious congregation of the sect held at Delhi's Nizamuddin area last month, Maulana Saad said: "I am not sure whether this can be called a conspiracy. There has been more than one instance in the past where a person has been put to trial and proclaimed guilty by the media, only to be exonerated later by the courts after appreciating the correct and relevant facts." The Markaz chief said that they believed in the judicial system of the country and the truth shall prevail. Bahrain Fleet Mail Center Steps Up to Support 6th Fleet With Mail Operations Navy News Service Story Number: NNS200420-03 Release Date: 4/20/2020 9:46:00 AM By Kambra Blackmon, NAVSUP FLC Bahrain Public Affairs MANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting missions worldwide, the Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Fleet Logistics Center (FLC) Bahrain Fleet Mail Center (FMC) supported mail operations throughout the U.S. 6th Fleet, while supporting normal operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility, April 6. On that date, several commercial airlines suspended flights to Europe. So the NAVSUP FLC Bahrain FMC received about 52,000 pounds of mail from the United States, with little advanced notice, to reroute to forces in Italy, Greece and Spain. This influx came on top of the usual mail support to 50 homeported and deployed ships and Fleet Post Offices in Bahrain, Djibouti, and the United Arab Emirates. The FMC personnel persevered to overcome flight delays and storage challenges and coordinated the delivery of 250 pallets of mail with NAVSUP FLC Sigonella. "Our biggest challenge was finding space for the additional mail," said Thomas Lewis, FMC manager of NAVSUP FLC Bahrain. "We understand the importance of moving the mail and supporting our fellow Department of Defense (DoD) personnel assigned to the various bases in Spain, Italy and Souda Bay. "These countries have approximately 25 FPO zip codes that provide mail delivery services to numerous commands, ships and DoD sponsored personnel. We take tremendous pride in that," Lewis said. Mitigating risk associated with the COVID-19 virus was another change the FMC had to endure to protect themselves and others from contracting and spreading the virus. "Some precautions we've taken are the use of gloves and face masks," said Sgt. Joshua Jackson of NAVSUP FLC Bahrain FMC. "We frequently remind people not to touch their face with their hands. We have hand sanitizer stationed in various locations and do daily checks to see if they need refilling. "Additionally, we wipe down workspaces daily," Jackson continued. "The entire warehouse and office spaces were recently sprayed with disinfectant so we are taking all necessary precautions by doing everything we can to eliminate being affected by it." "It's such an unpredictable world we live in," noted Tim Lynch, regional postal manager of NAVSUP FLC Bahrain. "I have been doing this for over 30 years. I'm really proud of how the entire NAVSUP team pulled together and got the job done. "This COVID-19 pandemic is going to make people think outside the box and look at alternative solutions for many of the things we have done on a routine basis for years. It keeps the job interesting, that's for sure," Lynch said. U.S. 6th Fleet mail has resumed direct flights from the U.S. to Europe FPOs and mail continues to flow daily through NAVSUP FLC Bahrain FMC for deployed units in the U.S. 5th Fleet theatre of operations. NAVSUP FLC Bahrain is one of eight FLCs under Commander, NAVSUP. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and employing a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel, NAVSUP's mission is to provide supplies, services, and quality-of-life support to the Navy and joint warfighter. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address KHOST, Afghanistan -- Thousands of refugee families from Pakistans western Waziristan region sheltering in neighboring southeastern Afghanistan have been hit hard by the crisis spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. While there is still no visible sign of an outbreak among the ethnic Pashtuns displaced by Pakistani military operations years ago, they have lost most aid and prospects of employment amid the coronavirus lockdown in the remote province of Paktika. We used to get some assistance [from international organizations and the Afghan government], but it has ceased with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic [this month], Eida Khan, one of the displaced in Paktika, told Radio Mashaal. In addition, all the markets in the regions have closed while we have been quarantined. Khan says the closure of all businesses has effectively shut their only employment opportunity as day laborers. We have been badly affected and need urgent aid, he said. Zahidullah, another Waziristan refugee, says they have not received the meager food aid they used to get before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Recent rains have ruined our tents, and yet we are unable to leave this place because of quarantine, he noted. Zmaryalai Fazalyar, an Afghan official in charge of refugee affairs in Paktika, says they are trying to renew contracts and projects that previously delivered aid to displaced Waziristanis. They have many needs and require urgent assistance, he told Radio Mashaal. The Afghan authorities say they had registered some 3,000 refugee families from Waziristan in Paktikas Urugun, Birmal, and Laman areas. At least 2,800 of these were verified with biomatrices for easy aid distribution. They are among more than 7,000 refugee families who sought shelter in Paktika and neighboring Khost provinces after fleeing a large-scale military operation in Pakistans North Waziristan district in June 2014. Pakistani officials declared the operation Zarb-e Azb, as the offensive was officially called, a resounding success in routing Taliban and other militant groups from the mountainous region. But they have yet to facilitate the return of displaced Waziristanis from Afghanistan. Abubakar Siddique wrote this story based on Najibullah Alokhels reporting from Khost, Afghanistan. 08:41 Facebook on Wednesday announced an investment of $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore) to buy a 9.99 per cent stake in the firm that houses billionaire Mukesh Ambani's telecom arm Jio as the social media giant looks to expand presence in its largest market in terms of subscriber base. "Today we are announcing a $5.7 billion, or Rs 43,574 crore, investment in Jio Platforms Ltd, part of Reliance Industries Ltd, making Facebook its largest minority shareholder," the company said in a statement. Reliance in a separate statement said the investment by Facebook values Jio Platforms at Rs 4.62 lakh crore pre-money enterprise value ($65.95 billion, assuming a conversion rate of Rs 70 to a US dollar). "Facebook's investment will translate into a 9.99 per cent equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis," it said. Jio Platforms, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, houses digital services of the group. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, with 388 million subscribers, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms. The Facebook deal is part of value unlocking by RIL to cut debt. RIL has been seeking strategic partnerships across its businesses while targeting to deleverage its balance sheet. It has been talking to Saudi Aramco for sale of a 20 per cent stake in its oil-to-chemical business for an asking of $15 billion. RIL has already tied up with BP Plc for fuel business as it targets to have a debt-free status by next year. Jio had also been reportedly talking separately to Google but the fate of those discussions is not known. The latest deal is a win-win for both Facebook and Jio. It would give Facebook deeper access to India, the second largest internet market after China. Facebook already has 400-plus million Whatsapp users in India and is looking to launch a payment offering. Having a local partner could help it in navigating various regulatory issues, including those related to privacy and local storage. Also, having a good telecom partner could help Facebook improve its reach to masses. From an RIL perspective, it could leverage on Facebook's technology expertise and talent pool as well as help in its ambitions to make Jio a digital company. This apart, the deal would aid the company achieving zero debt status by March 2021. Since launching Jio in 2016, RIL has emerged as the only Indian company capable of competing with United States tech groups in the fast-growing Indian market, expanding from mobile telecom into everything from home broadband to e-commerce. Jio has emerged as the number one telecom operator in India, both in terms of traffic as well as revenue in a virtual two-player market since the third player, Vodafone-Idea is struggling under regulatory burden. Jio's main competitor is Bharti Airtel. Facebook said the investment "underscores our commitment to India, and our excitement for the dramatic transformation that Jio has spurred in the country". "In less than four years, Jio has brought more than 388 million people online, fueling the creation of innovative new enterprises and connecting people in new ways. We are committed to connecting more people in India together with Jio," it added. Together with WhatsApp and Instagram, Facebook overall is estimated to have more users in India than any other single country. The number of internet users in India is projected to rise to about 850 million in 2022, according to consultancy PwC, up from 450 million in 2017. "The partnership between Facebook and Jio is unprecedented in many ways. This is the largest investment for a minority stake by a technology company anywhere in the world and the largest FDI in the technology sector in India," RIL said. -- PTI Whether you agree with the people protesting the stay at home orders across the country or not, you should be very concerned about the fact that Facebook is now removing posts promoting those protests in at least three states. This isn't political, by the way. We're all on the same side of the fight against Covid-19. I'm also not suggesting that it's wise to defy state guidelines and gather in groups to make a point. That, by the way, is exactly what happened here where I live in Lansing, Michigan last week. While no one in my family has left our home in weeks--other than my wife who is a nurse--thousands of Michiganders traveled from throughout the state to protest here in the state capital. It was pretty obnoxious, to be honest, and I suppose you could argue it was foolish. A little embarrassing, really. That said, it was a protest, which is constitutionally protected. Yes, there were people who weren't following social distancing guidelines. Yes, it would be far better for all of us if they were. But that's not the point. This isn't about their behavior. The point, it turns out, is far more complicated. Let's start with exactly what Facebook says it has done. According to a company spokesperson, Facebook "reached out to state officials to understand the scope of their orders, not about removing specific protests on Facebook." That same spokesperson said the company's policy is to "remove the posts when gatherings do not follow the health parameters established by the government and are therefore unlawful." Governors of the states of Nebraska and New Jersey, two states for which Facebook has removed posts, have said that they did not ask the company to do so. Facebook has also removed posts for events in California. So, to be clear, Facebook is removing posts about events it says violate social distancing guidelines, though the states themselves say they haven't asked it to do so. The states haven't explicitly called the gatherings "unlawful," but Facebook apparently considered them to be. Let's start out by acknowledging that Facebook is generally free to enforce whatever restrictions it wants on sharing content on its platform as long as those restrictions themselves don't violate the law. I don't think the argument is whether or not Facebook "can" remove the events or posts, but whether or not it "should." The company's very reasoning shows how problematic it can be to remove controversial content. Either you believe in free expression--even when you disagree with it--or you don't. It's hard to argue that the exercise of a constitutionally protected right is "therefore unlawful." Again, that doesn't mean it's wise, but that isn't the rationale being used. That distinction is more important than it may seem at first. Once a platform like Facebook starts picking winners, it's only a matter of time before things start to get very ugly. This is, after all, the same company that refuses to remove demonstrably false political ads. Last year, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave a speech about how the company is committed to allowing free expression on the platform. That's a great goal, but along with free expression comes lots of things we'd rather people not, well, express. If you start removing that expression because the government disapproves, we're in dangerous territory. Yes, it would be better if people all stayed home. Yes, it would be less obnoxious if people didn't go out and protest. Yes, it would be nice if the whole thing wasn't so politically charged, and yes, it would be nice to get things back to normal as quickly as possible. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: Bored during the COVID-19 lockdown? An NGO in Mizoram has a simple suggestion - read books. The NGO, Young Mizo Association (YMA), is reaching out to people at their doorsteps with books so they can utilise their time in a more meaningful way. For the record, Mizoram has the second-highest literacy rate in the country. The YMA's Ramhlun South unit launched the book distribution drive last Saturday. Over 60 households in the Ramhlun locality of state capital Aizawl have been covered so far. The YMA, which is an influential youth's association of Mizoram, gives out a theme to all localities every year. The theme this year is on promoting reading and learning. The YMA has its units across localities of Aizawl and each of them has a library. YMA president Vanlalruata said as people were getting bored in the lockdown, they could utilise their time by reading books. "I feel more people should come forward to read books. It will help them to escape boredom and learn something," he told The New Indian Express. ALSO READ | Relaxed cops as self-disciplined Mizos stay home, stay safe Hannah Lalhlanpuii, who is a member of Ramhlun South YMA Library and Documentation Committee, said the unit thought reading books would be the easiest activity that people could get themselves engaged in now. "We are distributing three categories of books English fiction, biography and autobiography. The books are written in English and Mizo languages. Prior to distribution, we reach out to people through WhatsApp and ask them on the kind of books they would like to read. These are our library books," Hannah said. She said people would return the books when they finish reading them. People will call up YMA volunteers and they would visit the houses to collect the books, she explained. "It is helping them a lot as they cannot visit the library now. Then, there are a lot of people who don't have books at home. As the response from people has been very positive, we are planning to continue the drive even after the lockdown is lifted," Hannah said. Lalbiakhlimi, an engineer with Mizoram's Irrigation and Water Resources Department, said she had received two books "When Black Birds Fly" and "Faith and Fate". Hannah is the author of When Black Birds Fly. Faith and Fate is the creation of Laltlankimi, a local. "I think it's a brilliant initiative by the YMA Ramhlun South. That people spend their time in a good way is the motto of the YMA. I see the initiative as the implementation of that motto," she said. No Time To Die (Credit: MGM) Danny Boyle exited the Bond movie that eventually became No Time To Die back in August of 2018, after running into creative differences with producers over the film's plot. Boyle was replaced with Beasts of No Nation and True Detective director Cary Fukunaga, but by the sounds of it, Fukunaga's original idea was also pretty out there. And it involved the final act of Spectre, the preceding Bond movie, having all taken place inside James Bond's head. Read more: No Time To Die wont be re-edited before release Speaking to Interview, Fukunaga has shared his early concept, which it appears didn't really stick. I swear to god, I had an idea that this movie could all be taking place inside the villain's lair from the last film, the director said. There's this scene where a needle goes into James Bond's head, which is supposed to make him forget everything, and then he miraculously escapes by a watch bomb. Cary Fukunaga, Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas (Credit: AP Photo/Leo Hudson) And then he and Lea blow up the place, and go on to save the day. I was like, 'What if everything up until the end of act two is all inside his head?' The aforementioned villain, Christoph Waltz's Ernst Stavo Blofeld, does indeed appear in No Time To Die, but it would seem that Bond and Lea Seydoux did end up escaping after all, and it wasn't all a figment of Bond's imagination. Read more: Bond star Honor Blackman dies at 94 The movie instead finds Bond out of active service and retired in Jamaica, but hauled back into espionage thanks to Jeffrey Wright's Felix Leiter, who asks him to help find a missing scientist. The 25th movie in the series, it was among the first high profile Hollywood films to postpone its scheduled April release due to the coronavirus pandemic. Starring Seydoux, Waltz and Daniel Craig alongside Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear, Ralph Fiennes, Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas and Rami Malek is the villain Safin, it lands on 12 November. Azerbaijan cooperates with Japan within the synergy of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway with the potential of the Trans-Siberian railway, Spokesman for Azerbaijans ADY Express LLC Ilham Abdulov told local media. During the bilateral meeting of the Azerbaijani and Russian presidents within the One Belt - One Road second conference, held in Beijing on April 26, 2019, the synergy of the potential of the BTK railway and the Trans-Siberian railway was discussed, Abdulov added. This proposal was supported by the presidents. Afterwards, a meeting was held among the management of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, Russian Railways OJSC and the Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation, the spokesman said. On September 19, 2019, Azerbaijan Railways company was elected a full member of the council at the plenary meeting of the Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation in Kazakhstans Nur-Sultan city, Abdulov said. After Azerbaijan joined the Council, the name of the organization was changed to "International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation" due to the expansion of the scope of cargo transportation along the corridor, the spokesman said. "On November 25, 2019, as part of the tenth meeting of the State Commission on Economic Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Japan, the management of Azerbaijan Railways company, ADY Express and ADY Container visited more than 10 major logistics companies and cargo holdings in Japan, Abdulov added. At the same time, the Azerbaijani railway delegation held useful meetings with the representatives of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Japan International Freight Forwarders Association, the spokesman said. The talks were dedicated to the commissioning of the BTK railway and Azerbaijans membership in the Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation, as well as the transportation of goods along the Japan-Russia-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey-Europe route," Abdulov said. Moreover, a meeting was held in Moscow on December 10-11, 2019 with the participation of the heads of the Azerbaijan Railways and Russian Railways companies, where an action plan was discussed to attract cargo from the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, through the routes of Azerbaijan, the spokesman added. The cooperation with Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic is carried out mainly within the East-West transport corridor, Abdulov said. The International Association Trans-Caspian International Transport Route was created in 2017, Abdulov added. Azerbaijan Railways company is represented as part of the Associations management. Special technologies and a single price are used for the transportation of containers and railcars along the route. As a result of the conducted work, the Association offers customers transit services at a single price to Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, crossing the Black Sea from the border of China with Kazakhstan and Central Asia through Ukraine," Abdulov added. At the same time, the commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is of particular importance for our country, has expanded our capabilities even more, the spokesman said. The BTK railway, initiated by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, made Azerbaijan a leader in the global transport system, Abdulov said. This railway is of great importance not only for the region, but also for Asia and Europe as a whole. Currently, Azerbaijan Railways company is working to fully use the potential of the BTK railway, the spokesman said. The undertaken efforts are giving results. The cargo of the two biggest Russian companies upon the world standards - the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works and Evraz company are already being transported through BTK. At the same time, grain was transported from Russia to Turkey through BTK, Abdulov said. A container train operated by ADY Container company is running from China to Europe (Czech Republic) and many other projects were implemented. To attract cargo and increase cargo turnover through this route, we regularly hold meetings at various events, in bilateral and multilateral formats, including those with representatives of leading European transport, logistics and forwarding companies, as well as shipping companies from Italy, Hungary, Austria and other countries, the spokesman said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 20:32:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- All available evidence suggests that the new coronavirus has an animal origin, and is not a "manipulated or constructed" virus in a lab or somewhere else, World Health Organization spokesperson Fadela Chaib said here on Tuesday. Enditem Seventeen COVID-19 patients were discharged from designated hospitals after recovery on Tuesday in Karnataka, where 10 new coronavirus cases were reported, including one death, the health department said. A 80-year-old man from Kalaburagi became the 17th COVID- 19 fatality in the state. The deceased was suffering from Parkinson s disease since the last four years and had been bed ridden for the last three years, the department said in its bulletin. He got admitted on April 19 at a designated hospital in Kalaburagi with complaint of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), and died at the hospital, it said. Ten COVID-19 cases were reported in the state on Tuesday. Cumulatively 418 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, including 17 deaths and 129 discharges, the bulletin said. Out of the 272 active cases, 267 patients (including a pregnant woman) are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 5 are in Intensive Care Units. "Seventeen discharges have taken place today after recovery. It is a good number," Minister S Suresh Kumar, who is the spokesperson for COVID-19 in Karnataka, told reporters. Of the nine cases, other than the deceased, three are from Vijayapura, two each from Kalaburagi and Nanjanagudu in Mysuru, and one each from Bantwala in Dakshina Kannada and Belagavi. Seven out of 10 cases are contacts of patients already tested positive, two have a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) and one with Influenza-like illness (ILI). Contact tracing has been initiated and was in progress for all the cases, the department said. Nine out of total 418 cases detected and confirmed in Karnataka so far are transit passengers of Kerala. The most number of infections have been reported in Bengaluru urban with 89 cases, followed by Mysuru 86 and Belagavi 43. Out of total of 129 patients discharged, the maximum of 48 are from Bengaluru, 31 from Mysuru and 11 from Dakshina Kannada. Among the dead, four each are from Bengaluru urban and Kalaburagi, two each from Chikkaballapura and Vijayapura, and one each from Belagavi, Bagalkote, Gadag, Dakshina Kannada and Tumakuru. A total of 26,233 samples were tested so far, out of which 2,773 were tested on Tuesday alone. So far 22,222 samples have reported as negative, of which 2,725 tested negative on Tuesday. The Minister said the centre's Director General Health Services, Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (Biological Division), has sent a letter to Dr. Vishal Rao of Health Care Global Enterprises limited and his team in Karnataka, granting permission to conduct clinical study (trial) in plasma therapy for treating COVID-19 patients. "We were waiting for this for a long time. Definitely this is good I wish success to the team in their clinical trial," he said. Meanwhile, the Karnataka Chief Secretary issued a circular instructing 18 essential departments, including the Secretariat, to function with full staff and other Departments to function with 33 per cent workforce The departments are- Health & Family Welfare, Medical Education, Home, Revenue, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Urban Development, Food, Civil Supply, Information and Public Relations, Transport, Energy, DPAR (E-Governance). Also, Finance, Including all Treasuries in the state, Animal Husbandry and Fishery, Forest, Environment and Ecology, Agricultural Marketing, Agriculture, Labour, and Horticulture. In another circular, the Department of Health & Family Welfare sought the support of Medical Colleges in starting Fever Clinic and said colleges need to give their consent for establishing the clinics at their respective Hospitals. The District Administration would monitor and supervise the activities of the Fever Clinics, it said, adding that the required logistics and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) would be provided by the department free of cost. Alarmed by reports that 53 media persons have tested positive for coronavirus in neighboring Maharashtra, the Karnataka government on Tuesday decided to conduct tests for the journalists in Bengaluru. "The Information department is preparing modalities for it....it is good if journalists who are working in the forefront also undergo tests," the minister added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Human Rights Watch said Monday April 20 that Burkina Fasos security forces executed 31 unarmed detainees in the northern town of Djibo, and called for an immediate investigation. The men, all from the Fulani ethnic group, were killed just hours after being arrested on April 9 during a government counterterrorism operation. The incident took place in Djibo, about 200 kilometres north of the capital Ouagadougou. Seventeen people were interviewed over the killings, including 12 witnesses to the arrests and later burial of the victims. They have confirmed the facts. For Corinne Dufka, HRWs director for the Sahel region, it made a brutal mockery of a counterterrorism operation that may amount to a war crime and could fuel further atrocities. Burkina Faso, one of the worlds poorest countries, has battled a jihadist insurgency since 2015. The conflict has provoked attacks on Fulani herders whom other communities accuse of supporting militants. HRW said it had sent its findings to the Burkinabe government but their statement did not include any response from the authorities. The worlds biggest independent oil storage company has all but run out of space for crude and refined products as a result of the fast-expanding glut that Covid-19 has created. The available capacity on the oil side is almost completely sold out for our terminals, Gerard Paulides, chief financial officer of Rotterdam-based Royal Vopak NV, said in an interview. For Vopak, worldwide available capacity that is not in maintenance is almost all gone and from what I hear elsewhere in the world were not the only ones. Vopak is racing to complete maintenance to free up whatever space it can. Worldwide oil demand has collapsed at an unprecedented speed as the coronavirus has caused a mass halt to global transportation systems and hurt economies. With producers failing to reduce output at the same pace, an oversupply of crude and fuels has quickly emerged. AT THE PUMP: Gasoline prices just keep falling as crude begins free-fall Its extremely tough to find something in this market, said Krien van Beek, a storage broker at ODIN-RVB Tank Storage Solutions, discussing the global situation for fuels. Companies that have their own tanks may not have filled them, but there are now barely any left for third-party hire, she said. U.S. crude oil futures for May moved into negative territory on Monday -- meaning traders were effectively willing to pay people to take barrels. A large part of that was because of concerns about space to store. From Indonesia to Mexico, companies are scouring the market for places to store crude oil and refined fuels, often parking unwanted supplies on tankers because shore-based facilities are full. In the North Sea, a handful of vessels have been idling with gasoline and jet fuel on board for days now. Main Hubs Vopak operates three main hubs in Singapore, Rotterdam and Fujairah. The company traditionally benefits from contango in oil markets where the spot price is depressed, meaning fuels can be stored for sale later at a higher price. The company said in its earnings release that the impact of contango will certainly be seen in the second quarter. Vopak is working to return four Rotterdam tanks to operations that are currently undergoing maintenance. All the available capacity that is in demand will be used and is used, Paulides said. FUEL FIX: Our energy news. Your inbox. A perfect combination. The diesel, jet fuel and gasoline markets are all in sharp contango in Europe, the U.S. and Asia Pacific. Jet and gasoline have both suffered massive demand losses, and diesel buying has also been hit, despite its uses beyond consumer transport. The strain on storage is also starting to create some weird shipping movements as traders send tankers on odysseys to find the best places to stash supplies. The amount of oil stored at sea has also increased to almost 250 million barrels and global floating storage is now accelerating at an unprecedented pace, Clarksons Platou analyst Frode Morkedal said in a research note Tuesday. You can see that the margins are phenomenal and that the spot market is going to stratospheric levels, said Hugo de Stoop, Chief Executive Officer at Euronav, which owns crude tankers. There are more and more ships which are being taken out of the fleet for storage purposes, he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Two tankers that were hauling cargoes of diesel-type fuel to Europe from India have now changed course and are sailing for New York, where theres more storage available, according to two people involved in the market. At least one jet fuel tanker that had earlier signaled Europe has also diverted to the U.S. Under pressure is probably putting it mildly, said Steve Sawyer, director of refining at Facts Global Energy, referring to global oil products storage. Were probably close to filling up. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. In little more than 10 days, and disregarding the recommendations for isolation issued to the population to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further in Cuba, State Security has summoned and threatened several independent journalists: Yoe Suarez and Waldo Fernandez Cuenca, with the DIARIO DE CUBA; and Camila Acosta and Julio Antonio Aleaga, of Cubanet. As is often the case, family members were also the targets of threats. In the case of Yoe Suarez, an officer identifying himself as "Captain Jorge", the purported second-in-command of Counterintelligence for the Press, warned him that "the State Prosecutor and Minors may intervene against him", insinuating the that he may be deprived of custody of his two-year-old son. The journalist's mother was also summoned, interrogated and threatened with the consequences that her son could suffer. Leidys Despaigne Barrero, Julio Antonio Aleaga's wife and a mother nursing an 11-month-old baby, was threatened with deportation to Santiago de Cuba, despite being legally domiciled in the capital, as she is married there. The aim of the intimidation, which Despaigne Barrero has suffered since 2017, is for her to pressure her husband to desist from his journalistic work. All this is common territory for journalists, opponents and activists. One cannot really say it is any worse right now. Actually, this is a time that State Security could take advantage of to ease up; live and let live, or at least refrain from harassment. Why does it not do so? The coronavirus is the perfect pretext to restrict peoples' liberties. Now it is not necessary to inform anyone when they cross the border at the airport and enter the country, that they cannot leave it; nor is it necessary to detain anyone on the way to the airport and hold them until they miss their flight. Now it is not just the opposition, activists and independent journalists who cannot travel, but the entire Cuban populace, and there is a good reason for this restriction: the pandemic. Now, if any journalist, activist, or dissident decides to brave the virus and go out to perpetrate the dangerous "counter-revolutionary activity" of apprising themselves of what is happening, or even just trying to get food, police officers may, conveniently, order them to remain at home, on grounds that are a veritable godsend: the coronavirus. They no longer need to threaten to accuse them of spreading fake news. Now there is a new and almost irrefutable charge: spreading the epidemic. But, by forcing them to emerge from isolation to obey a summons issued by State Security, the officers are not only endangering those summoned, but all those they come across on the way to the police station, and those who live with them. In other words, it is the State Security agents themselves who are perpetrating the crime of spreading the epidemic, when it would be able to keep their targets uncomfortable right inside their homes. There could be a kind of truce, thanks to the pandemic. Why doesn't State Security take advantage of this? Why the aggressive stance? Though the Cuban Government scorns even the UN, why continue to spark criticism that continues to, slowly and relentlessly, undermine its credibility around the world, even with people on the left? In May 2018 DIARIO DE CUBA had access to documents used by the Armed Forces during the 2016 Bastion military exercises, according to which independent journalists were to be the first target to neutralize in the event of massive protests against the government. Is this what State Security has slated for the current circumstances? The many police officers on the streets, who, judging by the photos of lines to buy food and hygiene products, do not seem charged with ensuring that people keep their distance from each other, is reminiscent of the deployment that followed Hurricane Irma in 2017. At that time, there were protests across Cuba in Diez de Octubre, Havana, Carlos Rojas, Matanzas, Moron, and Ciego de Avila over the state's slow restoration of basic services. A lack of water is one of the problems that people in many areas of the country must grapple with. In February 2020, before the coronavirus reached Cuba, residents of Zulueta and Corrales in Old Havana blocked off the streets to demand that the government provide them with drinking water. What could happen now that having water could be a life-or-death matter? There was already a serious shortage of hygiene products before the coronavirus hit Cuba. If getting soap and detergent before was a question of smelling good, or at least civilized; or being able to maintain a food service business, where hygiene is crucial, now it is a matter of not smelling like a corpse. If the choice used to be between standing in line for hours to buy food, or starving, now it is a matter of choosing between being killed by the coronavirus, or hunger. You cannot quarantine yourself with an empty refrigerator. You can catch it in a line; sitting at home, you can starve. If in the months prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus around the world Cuba was going through a crisis very similar to the "Special Period" of the 90s, the end of which has never been officially decreed, what could happen in the country now, with an epidemic; a scarcity of food, water and hygiene products, no tourism, remittances, and with many people not able to work? What could happen? Nothing, perhaps. Over the course of six decades the Cuban people have shown more apathy, indolence and capitulation than the courage to fight for their freedom and rights. The Cuban government has counted on this thus far, but everything could change. The authorities know this, and fear it. If they cannot avert a major revolt, they will at least try to do damage control which, in this case, means preventing independent journalists from publishing an article like this one. COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Core Molding Technologies, Inc. (NYSE American: CMT) (the "Company"), today announced that its Board of Directors (the "Board") has adopted a limited duration stockholder rights plan. The plan, which has a term of 364 days, is designed to protect against any potential future use of coercive or abusive takeover techniques and to help ensure that the Company's stockholders are not deprived of the opportunity to realize the full and fair value of their investment. In adopting the plan, the Board has taken note of the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company, including in the Company's stock price, the substantial increase in trading volume and market volatility, and the significant impact the pandemic has had across the manufacturing industry. The plan, which was adopted following evaluation and consultation with the Company's outside legal advisors, is similar to plans adopted by numerous publicly traded companies. The plan will expire on April 20, 2021, unless the rights are redeemed or exchanged for shares of common stock by the Company on an earlier date. The Board has resolved that the expiration date of the plan may not be extended without stockholder approval. In connection with the adoption of the stockholder rights plan, the Board declared a dividend of one right for each share of the Company's common stock held by stockholders of record as of the close of business on April 23, 2020. Initially, these rights will not be exercisable and will trade with the shares of the Company's common stock. Under the plan, these rights generally will be exercisable only if a person or group (i) becomes an "acquiring person" by acquiring beneficial ownership of 15% or more of the Company's common stock (subject to certain exceptions), or (ii) commences a tender offer or exchange offer which, if consummated, could result in a person owning 15% or more of the Company's common stock. Persons who currently beneficially own, together with their affiliates and associates and anyone with whom they are acting in concert, 15% or more of the Company's outstanding common stock will not be considered "acquiring persons" under the plan, unless they acquire an additional 0.5% of the outstanding shares of the Company's common stock or reduce their ownership below and then later exceed the 15% threshold. If a person or group becomes an acquiring person, each right generally will entitle the holder, other than the acquiring person, to acquire, for the exercise price of $15.00 dollars per right, shares of common stock (or, in certain circumstances, other consideration) at a 50% discount or the Company may exchange each right held by such holders for one share of common stock. In addition, if the Company is involved in a merger or other business combination transaction with another person after which its common stock does not remain outstanding, each right will entitle its holder to purchase, at the then-current exercise price of the right, shares of common stock of the ultimate parent of such other person having a market value of twice the exercise price of the right. The Board may redeem the rights at a price of $0.001 per right at any time up to ten days after a person becomes an acquiring person and may exchange the rights in certain circumstances under the plan. Stockholders are not required to take any action to receive the rights distribution. Until the rights become exercisable, outstanding stock certificates (or, in the case of shares reflected on the direct registration system, by the notations in the book-entry account system of the transfer agent for the shares) will represent both shares of the Company's common stock and the rights. The issuance of the rights will have no dilutive effect and will not impact reported earnings per share for the Company. The full text of the rights plan will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About Core Molding Technologies, Inc. Core Molding Technologies is a manufacturer of sheet molding compound ("SMC") and molder of thermoset and thermoplastic products. The Company operates in one operating segment as a molder of thermoplastic and thermoset (plastic) structural products. The Company's operating segment consists of two component reporting units, Core Traditional and Horizon Plastics. The Company produces and sells molded products for varied markets, including medium and heavy-duty trucks, automobiles, marine, construction and other commercial markets. The Company offers customers a wide range of manufacturing processes to fit various program volume and investment requirements. These processes include compression molding of SMC, bulk molding compounds ("BMC"), resin transfer molding ("RTM"), liquid molding of dicyclopentadiene ("DCPD"), spray-up and hand-lay-up, glass mat thermoplastics ("GMT"), direct long-fiber thermoplastics ("D-LFT") and structural foam and structural web injection molding ("SIM"). Core Molding Technologies has its headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, and operates production facilities in Columbus and Batavia, Ohio; Gaffney, South Carolina; Winona, Minnesota; Matamoros and Escobedo, Mexico; and Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. For further information, visit the company's website at www.coremt.com. Contact John Zimmer Vice President & Chief Financial Officer 614-870-5604 [email protected] SOURCE Core Molding Technologies, Inc. Related Links http://www.coremt.com ALBANY In the wake of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo declaring a state of emergency on March 7, the Department of Heath spent $686 million for medical supplies amid a fierce global competition to obtain them, according to a Times Union review of available state records. The extraordinary expenditures, which have greatly exceeded the state's needs, were made as Cuomo warned that the state's medical supply could reach a breaking point due to the rapid spread of COVID-19. That prompted public agencies to suspend normal protocols and take understandable if unpleasant risks in an effort to save lives spending huge sums at a time the state is facing dire fiscal problems. "We have a terrible economic deficit," Cuomo told reporters in Albany on Friday. "We're spending money every day we never dreamed of spending." In an extreme sellers market for masks, gowns and ventilators, far-flung companies demanded payment upfront. But with hospitalization figures much lower than Cuomo had first predicted, many of the supplies purchased may never be needed. The Cuomo administration is now considering its options, including seeking to recoup hundreds-of-millions of dollars already paid. As hospitals, states and other nations simultaneously competed for masks and ventilators, the companies had promised they could deliver quickly, ranging from a handful of Chinese importing and exporting firms, to several New York fashion companies that re-purposed their production lines. Some have delivered, but several of the highest-paid have not. The Cuomo administration took steps to vet the sellers, including requiring evidence of government certifications for products and detailed delivery information. But competitive bidding was suspended for the emergency contracts, which was not ideal: Most of the $686 million went to a diverse array of little-known companies which had never done business with the state, according to spending records maintained by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office. Highest NYS coronavirus response payees Company paid Amount paid DOME INTERNATIONAL INC $115,877,063 YARON OREN PINES $69,102,000 TRINITY PARTNERS LLC $56,148,750 SUNRISE GROUP CANADA INC $40,875,000 DTM HEALTHCARE INC $36,062,500 PREMIER ORTHOPEDIC SOLUTIONS INC $32,304,800 JCD DISTRIBUTION INC $21,600,000 JINAN DONGYUE INTERNATIONAL TRAD CO LTD $20,800,000 ZINNTEX LLC $19,750,000 SUUCHI INC $17,400,000 BESPOKE FASHION LLC $16,718,750 NEW YORK MICROSCOPE COMPANY INC $13,845,000 ETL RESPONSE LLC $13,680,000 SISLOY LLC $13,250,952 PLEASE ME LLC $12,500,000 HANGZHOU SUOYIN IMPORT & EXPORT CO LTD $11,810,000 NEW YORK IMAGING SERVICE INC $9,935,250 ZHEJIANG XINHONGZHOU TRADING CO LTD $9,500,000 MIDWEST BIOMEDICAL RESOURCES INC $9,387,900 STACI SNIDER DESIGNER $9,337,500 DESIGNERKORNER INC $9,000,000 THREAD COUNSEL INC $7,700,000 HILL-ROM COMPANY INC $7,580,904 HIGH HOPE GROUP JIANGSU TONGTAI CO LTD $7,475,000 NEW FORTUNE INC $7,172,000 Source: OpenBookNewYork.com Online records dating to 2012 indicate 22 of the 25 largest payees the past five weeks had not been paid before by New Yorks government. The crisis also prompted Cuomo to issue an executive order last month suspending the normal independent review of state contracts by DiNapoli's office in order to hasten purchases. Before issuing a payment to a contractor, DiNapoli's office would normally demand at least some information that services were being delivered as promised, according to spokeswoman Jennifer Freeman, but that step has also been suspended. The shifting situation makes exact state spending totals difficult to pinpoint. As of last Tuesday, state agencies collectively reported paying companies nearly $800 million for medical supplies, with the vast majority appearing related to the state's coronavirus response. By Friday, the amount was $718 million, largely because two firms originally listed as being paid $88 million had disappeared from state records. The Cuomo administration confirmed the two contracts worth $88 million had been canceled. And $56 million more, which still appeared in the comptroller's records as of Sunday, has also been returned to the state, the administration said. It's not yet clear how much of the spending will result in equipment and materials in the hands of healthcare workers. Cuomo senior adviser Richard Azzopardi said states were forced to "fend for themselves" to purchase the life-saving supplies. He also pointed to Centers for Disease Control and White House task force modeling, which predicted a more severe spread of the virus and far more hospitalizations and fatalities than ended up occurring. "We had no choice but to overturn every rock to find ventilators and other needed equipment," Azzopardi said. "We were able to bend the curve and purchase adequate supplies to meet current needs and amid these extraordinary circumstances, contracts have been continuously re-evaluated. Some shipments we'll be accepting to handle the ongoing public health crisis and prepare for future emergencies and other agreements will be modified or canceled with money refunded to the state." Some of the largest contracts have run into difficulties. The biggest beneficiary of the supplies boom was Dome International, a small company based in Brooklyn that sells ventilators and was paid $116 million. The state ordered 5,700 ventilators from the company, but the contract now is being "reevaluated," according to the Cuomo administration. The administration declined to say whether the $116 million would now be returned by the company to the state, since negotiations with the Dome International were ongoing. The company's vice-president, David Chait, declined to comment. The second-biggest payee is not a business, but a California businessman: "Yaron Oren Pines," who was issued a single payment of $69 million by the Department of Health. The Cuomo administration expects "partial delivery" of 1,450 ventilators next week. Oren-Pines declined to comment. The third largest payee, Trinity Partners LLC, was paid $56 million for 750 ventilators, but that contract has now been "canceled," according to the Cuomo administration. The $56 million has been returned to the state, the administration said. The governor's office said there has been a "high level of cooperation with the companies thus far." "We have legal recourses if it comes to that," Azzopardi said. The fifth largest payee at $36 million, DTM Healthcare, delivered 5.7 million masks to New York, Azzopardi said. On April 2, as the crisis neared its apex and Cuomo said help from the federal government was not enough, he encouraged businesses to pitch the state with products. If you have the capacity to make these products, we will purchase them, and we will pay a premium, and we will pay to convert or transition your manufacturing facility to a facility that can do this, Cuomo said. But, we need it, like, now, you know. We're not talking about two months, three months, four months. We need these materials now. Please contact us, Cuomo said. We'll work with you, we'll work with you quickly, there'll be no bureaucracy, no red tape. Cuomo also told reporters that day that the state projected exhausting its supply of ventilators in six days. Cuomo said he did not want to buy more ventilators than necessary, which was a possibility. But he believed he had no choice. They are very expensive and the state is broke, so I have no desire to buy more ventilators than we need, the governor said. If a person comes in and needs a ventilator, and you don't have a ventilator, the person dies. That's the blunt equation here. The ventilator purchases were made after President Donald J. Trump's administration declined to provide the tens-of-thousands Cuomo was requesting from a national stockpile, which prompted New York to look to the private marketplace. Trump had said New York would not need as many as Cuomo predicted, and the president has since noted "we were right." The health department purchases include about $9.4 million paid to a small Illinois ventilator broker, Midwest Biomedical Resources Inc. When company President Bill Rosas was approached by New Yorks government in mid-March, they quickly struck a deal for his company to supply 200 ventilators via a manufacturing company in Sweden that Rosas brokerage had long used. The price was about $6,900 each, he said. Rosas declined to front the money for buying the 200 medical devices, insisting that New York pay the up-front price tag. It proved a savvy business decision and one Rosas described as a no-brainer in the uncertain fiscal environment. Indeed, as of mid-April, the Swedish supplier was inundated by requests and still had not delivered the 200 ventilators to the United States. By that time, New York no longer seemed to them. On the week of April 6, in a phone call with the Midwest Biomedical sales team, Cuomo administration officials floated other options for the $9.4 million purchase, including sending the ventilators to another state in greater need, Rosas said. Rosas company also has tried to donate 40 of its own ventilators to relief efforts, although those also may be unnecessary in New York. Ive been in this business 30 years, and this is the craziest thing that Ive ever seen in my life, Rosas said. In other states that acted similarly in response to the crisis, stories of alleged graft have emerged. The Los Angeles Times reported that a powerful California union, which claimed to have discovered 39 million masks for healthcare workers, was duped in an elaborate scam uncovered by FBI investigators involving a broker in Australia and a supplier in Kuwait, who are now both targets of an investigation. No money was exchanged before the deal unraveled. On the federal level, a Georgia man faces wire fraud charges for trying to sell the government 125 million non-existent respirator masks that would have been worth more than $750 million. For companies using New York's online portal, they were required to provide certifications from entities like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Brokers serving as middlemen were required to provide an official pricing quote and an estimated production schedule. Manufacturers looking to retool had to be willing to seek required approvals. New York would only provide assistance in retooling facilities with New York-based production, the site noted. Azzopardi said 25 state officials vetted the contractors and over 60 more worked on vendor outreach, negotiation and management, the emergency team often working 18-hour days, including weekends. The vetting included employees of the state inspector general's office, as well as outside law firms. At least one member of the team worked while recovering from COVID-19. Most winning contractors went through the state's official portal, Azzorpardi said, and were picked for their ability to deliver needed products in a timely manner and at "best value" amid ever-changing market conditions. The state also got referrals from the federal government, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, and regional Chinese Departments of Commence with which the state had long-term relationships. Only about 10 percent of offers were pursued. Online information maintained by DiNapoli's office lists vendors' names, payment amounts, and the fact that they are providing medical supplies or medical and dental acquisition. But it's difficult for the general public to identify who is behind many of the companies or the specific work they're doing, as there's nothing online about where they're located, the items they're meant to deliver, or the status of the orders. The Cuomo administration's retraction of $88 million in state spending originally reported to DiNapoli's office included striking out a $46 million payment to The Blue Marble Group Inc. The Cuomo administration on Saturday said the state and company mutually agreed to cancel the contract after supply chain issues emerged, with the state recouping the $46 million. Before that occurred, DiNapoli's office had already taken some preliminary steps to pay $46 million to Blue Marble Group, although there was some confusion about the identity of the low-profile firm. Teddy George, a businessman in Massachusetts, recently got a phone call from an employee of DiNapolis office, who requested Georges employer identification number. But Georges firm, Blue Marble Group, is a real estate company that sells homes and had nothing to do with the relief efforts. When the DiNapoli official read off part of the correct company's employer ID number, George relayed that his was not the correct firm. "Wed love to be $46 million richer, George told the Times Union, laughing. But were just your honest, local real estate company. As part of a routine independent verification process, Freeman said, the comptroller's office conducts Google searches of firms receiving state payments and calls the companies when multiple have similar names. She believed the correct Blue Marble Group is located in California and said there were multiple safeguards to ensure the wrong company isn't paid. A company based in China, Bleam Group Limited, was also until recently listed as being paid $42 million by the Department of Health, but has also disappeared from state records. The Cuomo administration said the contract was canceled and money returned. The company did not have a comment last week. A company that did speak to the Times Union, Snider Fashion, was among the manufacturers that heeded Cuomos call to repurpose. Staci Snider, a native of Saratoga Springs who has a store on Congress St., typically produces high-end fashion products that are sold in stores across the country. Her company quickly revamped to produce medical gowns, winning the business by applying through the state portal. The process of revamping simply required a different cut but was mostly seamless, Snider said. Her company was paid $9.3 million, which included the cost of materials. Many items bought by the state, such as masks, infusion pumps, and X-ray machines, cost a premium as states and counties competed for them. Cuomo has said for weeks that the state was paying in certain instances $7.50 for a mask, about 15 times the usual price. "The biggest challenge is that we are in this position at all," Azzopardi told the Times Union. "Either the federal government needs to reassert itself, or there needs to be a consortium of states to avoid every state government from competing for the same scarce resources and artificially increasing the price." Coronavirus infection spreads when social distancing is not observed properly, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Tuesday following reports that relative of a sanitation worker, who is a resident of the President's Estate that houses Rashtrapati Bhavan, tested positive for the infection. Pawar also said though the coronavirus situation in Maharashtra is better when compared with Western countries, but it is "worrying" vis--vis the rest of India. Maharashtra has reported 4666 COVID-19 cases, the highest in the country, till April 20. Noting that Maharashtra has reported 223 deaths (out of 590 in the country) till Monday, the former Union minister said the number (relating to the state) is "shocking" and that people must think about containing the spread. He said cities like Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli and Pune were mainly hit by the COVID-19 disease, and called for observing "stricter" discipline amidst the lockdown. He asked people to be determined to bring the death rate down to zero in these areas. "The situation in Maharashtra is worrying when compared with the rest of India. But we also got to read about (the COVID-19) reaching Rashtrapati Bhavan too. The main reason is sansarg (transmission). The instructions about maintaining distance between two individuals are not observed and areas, which did not report such a crisis earlier, too are seeing cases. Hence, we must take precautions," Pawar said in his Facebook address. Over 100 families residing at the President's Estate are under self-isolation as a preventive measure after a sanitation worker's relative tested positive for coronavirus, officials said Tuesday. The relative of the sanitation worker, who is a resident of the estate that houses Rashtrapati Bhavan, has been admitted to a hospital here for treatment, they said. Pawar reiterated that people should take care during the lockdown period and not step outside their homes. He said restrictions on the movement could be relaxed if the situation improves after May 3, till when the nationwide lockdown will be in force. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cameroon admitted on Tuesday that militants acting with three soldiers killed 13 civilians including 10 children in an anglophone region in the west of the country in February. The government had previously denied any role in the massacre in the region, where English-speaking separatists have been fighting government forces for the past two years. According to the United Nations, the death toll in the massacre on the night of February 13 left 23 civilians dead including 15 children in the village of Ntumbo. It said nine of the children were under age five and that two of the victims were pregnant women. In a statement read over state radio on Tuesday, the president's office said three soldiers and a vigilante group stormed a separatist base, killing five, before "discovering that three women and 10 children were killed" in the firefight. "Overcome with panic, the three soldiers helped by some members of the self-defence group tried to hide the incident by setting fires," the statement said. The army initially claimed that the deaths were an accident after fuel supplies exploded into flames during a gun battle with separatists. Rights groups have accused both sides of atrocities in the conflict, which has left more than 3,000 dead, closed schools and clinics and forced 700,000 people to flee their homes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In all of the what-to-expect guides for being a new mother, navigating a pandemic while taking care of a newborn was not on the list. For Lindsay Germano, a resident of The Woodlands, her last few doctor appointments before giving birth to her first child on March 22 had increasing limitations. By the time Germano went into labor, she was only allowed one support person and one visitor. Things probably changed dramatically after we left, she said. Since then, the Germanos have, for the most part, self-quarantined, trying to limit trips to the store. She planned to nurse her baby in advance of the quarantine, and now she is especially glad that her son is getting the nutrients he needs to stay healthy. To the extent we can take advantage of it, we want to get our baby as many antibodies as possible, she said. Nutritionist Lindsey Cosyns, who focuses on the health of mothers and babies in her practice Mama Thrived Nutrition, agreed. Never in a million years did I think this would be going on right now, she said. Cosyns baby Leo was born in November, and she has a 2-year-old toddler as well. I already knew from a nutritional standpoint that breastfeeding can be so beneficial for a baby, she said. Recently, recommendations from the CDC have urged new mothers to continue breastfeeding, even if they are diagnosed with COVID-19. Even when mothers are separated from their babies due to health concerns, the CDC recommends using a breast pump and practicing hand hygiene. It reaffirms what we know, that breast milk is magical, Cosyns said. Its the best you can do for your newborn. Dr. Kjersti Aagaard, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor and Texas Childrens Hospital, also recommends that moms breastfeed. This is in line with the CDC recommendations we have been following since mid-February and consistent with more recent evidence, which fails to detect the virus in breast milk, she said. Still, Suzanne Juel, president of Houston Area Lactation Consultants and Educators Association and founder of Bayou City Breastfeeding, worries that conflicting recommendations could become a source of confusion and anxiety for new moms. The World Health Organization, Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine and Italian Society of Neonatology all recommend that moms with COVID-19 are kept with their babies so they can continue directly breastfeeding as long as the mothers are healthy enough to care for their babies. But when the American Academy of Pediatrics issued recommendations on April 2, calling for the separation of mothers who are positive for COVID-19 and their babies, Juel grew concerned that the guidelines would increase the rates of separation of mother and babies across the board not just those with COVID-19. While taking all measures to reduce exposure of new babies to COVID-19 is key, Juel said that continuing to breastfeed is equally important. To date, no one has found the actual COVID-19 virus to be present in breast milk, she said. Breastfeeding is really one of, if not the most important things to protect the baby against any kind of infection. Juel also pointed to research showing that helpful antibodies to pathogens that the mother has been exposed to show up in the breast milk; SARS is one example, she explained. Based on this research, it is reasonable to expect that we will find antibodies to COVID-19 in the breast milk as well, she said. Currently, the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the Family Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation are launching studies into breastfeeding and the coronavirus. Juel explained that if a mother has been exposed to the coronavirus, it is likely that the baby also has been exposed. But by reducing the likelihood of breastfeeding, we are actually denying that infant the only medicine that we have to combat this disease antibodies specific to the disease, she said. Another cause of concern for Juel is that mothers may be leaving hospitals too early and coming out without the typical breastfeeding support and education. In effect, we will likely have fewer mothers able to breastfeed their babies, when what we really need is to have as many mothers breastfeed as possible, she said. At Bayou City Breastfeeding, Juels staff used to be booked for weeks in advance. Now no one is calling for help because they are afraid to see anyone, she said. Theyre petrified of getting the baby sick. Theyre in a state of fear. She worries that being afraid of medical facilities and clinics in general can prevent women from getting the help they need. Her staff is now offering virtual visits in addition to in-person consults for individuals who are not at high risk. Timing is everything for new mothers who want to breastfeed, Juel added. The first couple of weeks are critical for establishing milk supply, she said. Theres a hormonal shift that happens that sets up milk to develop. One of Juels clients, Santa Fe resident Aireal Mauriello, who combines breastfeeding with formula for her fourth child, is dealing with additional resource problems: She uses a specific formula that she usually sources from an Ohio boutique. Her baby cannot stomach the other options on the market. Normally, I have no issues, but now its so hard to find, Mauriello said. Im spending hours and hours scouring the internet. Now Playing: 'COVID-19 in 60': Houston coronavirus news in a minute Video: Houston Chronicle Her usual resource is out of the formula, and delivery options are slow, she explained. Mauriello said she is not the only one struggling to find formula. Formula is scarce, and babies depend on it, she said. People panic and hoard it. Its awful. Mauriello urges other moms to be considerate of each other. People need to calm down and think about other people, she said. There are other moms out there with babies who need to be fed. Lindsay Peyton is a Houston-based freelance writer. A decision on how much peers will be paid for working remotely during the coronavirus is expected early next week and could see them receiving 150 a day. Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme this morning Lord Speaker Norman Fowler, a former member of Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet, said payment options will be considered and announced next week. He defended the idea of continuing to pay lords as they worked from home but acknowledged 'a strong argument' for peers not claiming their normal payment for 'sitting at home and simply watching proceedings'. Over the weekend it emerged that some peers were demanding their daily 323 'attendance' stipend while attending their virtual Lords proceedings on grounds of age discrimination. Lord Speaker Norman Fowler (pictured) said payment options will be discussed on Monday Insiders said that some peers were becoming irate about whether they will receive the fee as non-legislative debates are conducted remotely. As the country expects to have at least another three weeks of lockdown to battle the coronavirus pandemic, some members are kicking up a fuss. Peers - many of whom are elderly - cannot attend due to the rules around self-isolating. However, they are 'agitating' to be paid all the same. To refuse to pay would be 'age discrimination', The Daily Telegraph reported. Lord Fowler told the Today programme a decision hadn't yet been made and he was keeping an open mind until discussions early next week: 'We'll be considering that next Monday, it'll be a meeting of the House of Lords Commission which I chair, and we'll look at the arguments. 'If you're on a select committee you spend some time, several hours, studying the papers, you then spend several hours at the meeting itself. At the moment if you do that on an outside visit you're paid I think 150.' A member attending the 150 days the Lords usually gathers each year can expect an annual a tax-free income of more than 48,000 'I'm not thinking in terms that we should make a payment to people taking my advice and sitting at home and simply watching proceedings. It's another case if you happen to be a member of a select committee taking evidence, preparing for that evidence,' he added. Peers are not salaried, but they receive a tax-free income of 323 per day for attendance in the chamber - up from 313 at the start of April. A member attending the 150 days the Lords usually gathers each year can expect an annual a tax-free income of more than 48,000. Today a handful of peers gathered in the Lords chamber for the first time since the Easter recess today to agree to new virtual sittings. Social distancing spaces were marked out on the red benches and the floor to keep members of the House appropriate distances apart. Chief whip Lord Ashton of Hyde said a huge amount of work had taken place over the recess to enable some proceedings to take place virtually from today onwards. Instead of being present in the chamber, peers will be able to take part in a range of questions and debates by internet link. Some legislation will still need to be debated in the chamber because the virtual Lords is not empowered to take decisions. Lord Ashton pledged to keep chamber sittings to a minimum and conceded the new system would not 'exactly mirror our normal proceedings'. Handout photo issued by UK Parliament showing tape to help with social distancing during chamber rehearsals ahead of the reconvening the House of Commons and House of Lords following the Easter recess, in London Monday April 20 But he said it provided a 'credible way for the House to continue holding the Government to account'. For the Opposition, Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town backed the change, hailing it as a 'wholly new and innovative way of working' to continue the Lords' 'democratic role'. But Labour former Cabinet minister Lord Adonis said some elements of the changes were a cause of concern. 'The one that causes most concern is the fact that the virtual proceedings will not be broadcast and that until at least two weeks' time, it will not be possible for the public to observe what's going on, which is a breach of all precedent in terms of parliamentary proceedings.' Lord Adonis said it was 'absolutely unacceptable' that proceedings of the Lords were not initially being broadcast at the time they took place. Lord Ashton said he hoped to be able to broadcast virtual proceedings of the House soon but in the meantime Hansard would continue to report them in the normal way. Just 14 peers were present in the chamber for the brief debate. Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday to give a comprehensive customs and GST tax exemption on all diagnostic and protective equipment currently being employed by healthcare professionals in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter to Sitharaman, Tharoor said at present a number of tax rates are being charged, including on critical equipment such as Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), infrared thermometers, thermal cameras or scanners, rapid testing devices, protective masks and even sanitisers. "For instance, during my recent procurement of 250 infrared thermometers for my constituency of Thiruvananthapuram, using the MPLAD funds that were previously under my disposal, a considerable sum of Rs 5. 08 lakhs was levied in taxes (comprising of Customs Duty of Rs 1.64 lakhs, IGST of 3.27 lakhs and a social welfare cess of Rs 16, 415)," Tharoor said. He also pointed out that for procuring 3,000 RT-PCR test kits for his constituency, the consignment was charged with a 12 per cent GST rate. "It is also my understanding that the procurement of PPE kits, which are essential in offering a layer of protection to healthcare professionals and allied medical supports staff, will attract a GST of either 5 per cent or 12 per cent depending on the cost of individual components within these kits," he said. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show At a time when the nation is united in a common endeavour to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, and many stakeholders are scrambling to procure these essential items from all quarters including overseas manufacturers, the current tax slabs that have been fixed offer a financial obstacle that could be done away with, Tharoor said. Though Parliamentarians can unfortunately no longer procure critical equipment since the funds at their disposal have been appropriated by the central government, other civil society organisations and philanthropic bodies have been generously doing their bit to augment the availability of these items, he said. The current tax rates that they will have to cover appears to be an unwise financial burden that could disincentivise additional procurements, he said. . In order for such an exemption to be beneficial for the customer, it is also essential that the government looks into the loss of input tax credits that would hit manufacturers and explore options through which manufacturers can be reimbursed on the same basis as if GST had been paid, he suggested in his letter. The lost GST revenue would serve as a form of government contribution or subsidy for the fight against COVID-19, he said. "I believe that the current taxation rates that are being levied on life-saving equipment must strongly be reconsidered and a well-thought exemption must be announced at the earliest," Tharoor said. "While the government has rightly exempted some of the aforementioned equipment from basic customs duty, a comprehensive customs and GST related exemption on all such equipment would certainly be beneficial and worth considering," he said. If implemented retrospectively, it would also help Parliamentarians to obtain additional equipment for their respective constituencies by redirecting the sum allocated for taxes that they would have previously spent from the erstwhile MPLAD funds at their disposal, Tharoor added. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here These are extraordinary times and we all are in uncharted territory. There is a lot of fear and negativity in all spheres due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. While the Corona Warriors are doing a tremendous job fighting from the frontlines, we at Adgully are embarking on an endeavour to highlight the positive developments during these challenging times. Adgully is featuring a series of brief interactions with industry leaders in India and find out how they are keeping their spirits up as well as keeping their employees motivated, also how they are joining in the fight against the adverse impact of the global pandemic. Tarun Jha, Head of Marketing and Product, Skoda Auto, talks about the several measures that his organisation has taken to help out the society at large on the one hand, as well as keeping the operations going on in full swing even as the staff is working from remote locations. What steps are you and your organisation taking to help out the society at large or those engaged in the war against COVID-19? Our organisation in India and also in Europe moved very quickly to help out the society at large in the war against COVID-19. We are supporting hospitals in Pune, supplying face-shields, sanitizers and also distributing food packets in Aurangabad to the local community. We are also supporting our dealer partners so that they can tide through the lockdown and also help their staff in these tough times and ensure that they retain their jobs and livelihoods. Our dealers are working with local administrations and running emergency services for doctors and health workers, as they need to be mobile. We have contacted all the doctors in our customer database and provided them with emergency contact numbers, which they can call if they face any issues with their cars. We are also disseminating information related to personal care, car care and car disinfection tips for our customers. Another step that we took to help our customers is to extend the missed deadlines for Warranty, Free Service and Maintenance Service Packages, till the lockdown is lifted. How are you keeping your employees motivated and are encouraging them to give their best, even as they are working from home? Since we all are working from home, we have daily virtual meetings with almost all our team members. People are happily busy with the ongoing projects as we have ensured to let everyone know that the COVID-19 crisis will cause a little delay in the projects, but we have to bring everything back on track. The morale is pretty high and teams are now thinking up innovative solutions to solve problems. The crisis has catalysed creative thinking and this is helping all of us. The Management is holding informal sessions with teams on Skype, with a clear intent to discuss personal topics and hold lighthearted conversations. We have also created chat groups, where we encourage sharing of knowledge as well as fun and trivia to keep everyone engaged. We can see that the crisis has actually brought a lot of people together and they have formed deeper and more personal bonds with colleagues. In a nutshell, the teams are looking at this crisis as a positive challenge and a breather to recharge, rethink and resurge when it is over. What is most needed in challenging times such as these: (a) From the general public: Discipline and strict adherence to the rules and regulations stipulated by the authorities. There is no other way we can win over this crisis. (b) From the authorities: The authorities in our country are doing a wonderful job in managing the current situation. We will need a lot of support from the Government to rebuild the countrys economy once this crisis blows over. (c) From business leaders: Reassurance on protection of jobs and earnings would be the need of the hour. : Not just in China, but in Keralaalso robot is now playing a key role in the health workers' fight against COVID-19, thanks to the innovative spirit of a group of young minds and the support of the state Health Department. Named "Nightingale-19", the robot is deployed to provide food and medicines among patients at the district coronavirus centre in Ancharakandi in Kannur district where a large number of cases have been reported. The special display facility, attached to it, also allows patients to communicate with health workers and their relatives if necessary, the health minister's office here said. Designed by the students of Chemberi Vimal Jyothi Engineering College with the support of the Health Department, the remote control-operated robot can carry food and water for at least six persons at a stretch. The machine, which can travel up to one kilometre, distributes food, water and medicine in each room, a department statement said. The robot would be disinfected after each use, it said. Health Minister K K Shailaja inaugurated the new venture from here recently through the robot's video facility, the statement added. Robots have been put to use in other parts of the country to help in the health workers' fight against COVID- 19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The number of statewide deaths from the coronavirus rose to 1,961 on Tuesday after health officials confirmed another 152 residents have succumbed to the virus. Cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts also climbed to 41,199 following news of 1,556 new cases, health officials announced. Nine percent of people with the virus are hospitalized, Tuesdays data shows. Monday evening, DPH released a trove of statewide COVID-19 statistics that included information previously unavailable, like cumulative data and trends over time. The data showed the numbers of cases per hospital; rates of infection, hospitalization and death by county and age group; and nursing home information, among other things. The information provides the clearest picture yet of the spread of the virus throughout Massachusetts. The Baker administration has felt pushback from local leaders, accountability advocates and residents about their reluctance to share too much information during the health crisis. Officials say they will be tweaking their reporting as Massachusetts continues to experience a surge in cases. The Bay State now has the third highest cases in the United States, behind New Jersey and New York. We are continuing to evaluate the data and responses to the new data package and will be making tweaks as our data collection and reporting continues, a department spokesperson wrote, in an email. Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday ordered that all public and private schools remain closed for the rest of the academic year. Remote learning will continue, however, in all districts. Baker said the order does not apply to residential special education schools. This is a big decision, Baker said. Its the right thing to do considering the facts on the ground associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Baker said there is no authoritative guidance or advisories with respect to how to operate schools safety, and how to get kids to and from schools safely. We believe students, therefore, cannot safely return to school and avoid the risk of transmitting this virus to others, he said. Map by Greg Saulmon / The Republican Source: Mass. Department of Public Health The map above is shaded to show the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, making it easier to compare the prevalence of the disease in communities of different population sizes. Tap or hover on a city or town to see the local per capita rate and the community's total number of confirmed cases and population. (Per capita rates are not available in communities under 50,000 in population with fewer than five confirmed cases.) Here are the cases listed by county: Barnstable County: 672 Berkshire County: 404 Bristol County: 1,852 Dukes County: 14 Essex County: 5,521 Franklin County: 192 Hampden County: 2,533 Hampshire County: 337 Middlesex County: 9,621 Nantucket County: 9 Norfolk County: 4,062 Plymouth County: 3,043 Suffolk County: 8,669 Worcester County: 3,341 Unknown location: 929 Related Content: A driver to the World Health Organization (WHO) identified as Pyae Sone Win Maung, has been killed in Myanmar. Pyae Sone died whil... A driver to the World Health Organization (WHO) identified as Pyae Sone Win Maung, has been killed in Myanmar. Pyae Sone died while collecting COVID-19 monitoring samples. According to BBC, he was driving a well-marked United Nations vehicle when he was hit by gunfire in Rakhine State. Reacting, the UN office in Myanmar expressed sadness over the death of the 28-year-old. It revealed that many civilians have been killed as conflict between the military and the armed ethnic Arakan Army group escalated in recent weeks. Speaking on the development, the drivers father, Htay Win Maung, said his heart was broken. He said, I am trying to calm myself, thinking he died in serving his duty at the frontline. He went there in the midst of fighting when many people didnt dare to go. The UK, which is currently under lockdown, could see a second wave of coronavirus if restrictions are lifted. (PA Images) Britain is facing a second wave of coronavirus if lockdown restrictions are lifted, a leading scientist has warned. Professor Robin Shattock of Imperial College London, which has helped the government track the viruss spread, said that the UK could expect a resurgence of cases in the summer if measures are eased before then. Traditionally people have thought about second waves in terms of seasonal influenza, where it comes back in the winter, he told The Times. We dont know that theres any seasonality about this virus, but you can imagine that when we start to get back to normal life, possibly over the summer, that cases will ramp up again. 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 Professor Shattock said that a second wave would not necessarily be more severe than the current crisis. I dont think theres any evidence that a second wave of coronavirus would be any worse than this current wave, thats certainly not something that people are concerned about, he said. It comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that easing social distancing measures could lead to another spike in cases. Germany has begun to ease restrictions on citizens this week, allowing some shops to repoen. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader) Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said: This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future. Several countries around the world, including Germany, Italy and Spain, have been slowly lifting their lockdown measures in recent days. Dr Kasai said governments should lift lockdowns and other social distancing measures gradually. He implored them to strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. Worldwide, the virus has infected nearly 2.5 million people and caused more than 170,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Story continues The US has been the hardest-hit country with more than 787,000 infections and more than 42,000 deaths recorded. Despite concerns from health officials, some US states have announced aggressive reopening plans, while Boeing and at least one other American heavy-equipment manufacturer resumed production. Step-by-step reopenings are under way in Europe, where the crisis has begun to show signs of ebbing in places such as Italy, Spain and Germany. Australia said it will allow the resumption of non-urgent surgeries from next week as health authorities grow more confident that hospitals there will not be overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients. Coronavirus: what happened today A public health information advert is seen on a lampost in Dublin as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue.April 21, 2020 REUTERS/Jason Cairnduff TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has suggested restrictions designed to stop the spread of Covid-19 will begin to ease on May 5. Thats what Im, hoping, he said tonight, adding that a plan would be shared with the public before that date. Mr Varadkar urged businesses and schools to begin to consider how they will operate with social distancing measures in place when they are allowed to reopen. Speaking on RTEs Prime Time, he said there were three criteria to be met to so as to begin to relax the lockdown. Read More These were that the rate of the slowdown in the increase of the virus is improving, that hospital capacity can deal with another surge and that test and tracing measures are adequate. While he was happy with the fist two conditions, testing and tracing was not quite there yet, Mr Varadkar said. Well have that plan, we intend to have it to go to Cabinet before the end of April and announce it before May 5, he said. The plan was not yet agreed or finalised, he said and urged caution on expecting the lift of measures. I think everyone understands that it wont be done in one fell swoop. It wont be back to normal on day one, he said. The steps will be reviewed every two to three weeks, before a decision is made on moving to the next stage of more reopening. We also need to bear in mind, and I hate to have to say this, but I do have to say this, there are some countries that have had to re-impose restrictions, countries that thought they were doing really well, like Japan and Singapore, he said. Expand Close Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks to the media during a visit to the Civil Defence Dublin Branch on Wolfe Tone Quay to receive a briefing on the contribution by Volunteers to the Covid-19 response. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks to the media during a visit to the Civil Defence Dublin Branch on Wolfe Tone Quay to receive a briefing on the contribution by Volunteers to the Covid-19 response. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Mr Varadkar told presenter Miriam OCallaghan he certainly regrets that they couldnt have done more sooner to prevent the spread in nursing homes. There are no plans to close Ireland's borders, Mr Varadkar has said. Mr Varadkar said it is vital the border remains open in order to allow essential supplies in and for Irish citizens to return home. "Even though we're an island, we have a land border with the United Kingdom, ie Northern Ireland, we're not going to close that. We have a common travel area with the United Kingdom. "We're also part of the European Union, and we need to keep our borders open in order to allow supplies to get in, that's absolutely essential medical supplies, food, lots of other things, and with them of course comes pilots and hauliers, and we also need to keep our borders open so our citizens can come home and the essential workers can get in and out." When asked if a number seasonal workers for Keelings, who arrived from Bulgaria last week, are considered essential workers, Mr Varadkar said agricultural workers are essential, but it is not essential for them to "have to come in from another country." "Agricultural workers are defined, not just in Ireland but across Europe, as essential workers, because the harvest has to come in. It's not essential though that they have to come in from another country," he said. "So ideally, and this is what we're working on, if possible, is to have Irish people, if they're willing to take up those jobs. If they're not, then it'll be possible to bring people in from other parts of the European Union, but it'll have to be done with self isolation for 14 days with precautions and we'll have to make sure that's properly monitored." Dileepv Kumar By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The governments decision to kickstart the economy by easing restrictions saw many people crowding at markets and public places on Monday. Alarmed at the publics response, health experts said easing the restrictions will create more obstacles in the states efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus. Public health experts have also asked the government to conduct rapid antibody screening and heat map analysis before opening businesses. They said that taking the foot off the brake at a crucial juncture will do more harm than good. Singapore and Japan, which lifted the restrictions after witnessing a slump in cases, are now dealing with a new wave of COVID-19 infections, they pointed out. Its reliably learnt that the public health experts of the health department were not taken into confidence before deciding to ease the restrictions. The publics response was not at all encouraging. The containment measures like social distancing and wearing of facemasks were flouted at many places. Hence, the government should reconsider the decision, said a health department officer. People thronging roads, markets and other public spaces without following the safety norms could jeopardise state governments achievement and will put the efforts to flatten the curve in a precarious position, health experts warn. It is a fact that the number positive cases are plummeting and more patients are getting discharged from the hospital. But that doesnt mean that the state is free from the COVID-19 threat. It remains unknown whether the state has any asymptomatic case or silent spreader. The chances of re-infection are also there, added the officer. At the same time, sources say that the decision to bring in some relaxations was not of a collective one as public health experts and epidemiologists were kept in the dark. Neither the country nor the state could remain in a lockdown forever. But a misstep at this time has the potentiality to become deadly. A spike in cases, especially in a society with a good number of aged population and with comorbidities like cancer, respiratory illness, diabetes and others, will overwhelm the health system. The result will be a catastrophe beyond imagination, said a representative of the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association. The public health experts are of the opinion that the state government should make informed decisions and not out of the current trend of viral transmission. According to them, it will be too early to loosen the lockdown. WHAT THEY SAY... Year of upheaval: Protesters continued to take to the streets of Hong Kong in January Fitch Ratings has downgraded Hong Kong as an issuer of long-term foreign currency debt, saying it is facing a "second major shock" from the coronavirus after prolonged social unrest last year. Hong Kong's rating was lowered to AA- from AA with a stable outlook, with real gross domestic product expected to fall by 5pc this year after a 1.2pc decline in 2019, Fitch said. "Efforts to contain the spread of the virus locally appear to be gaining traction, but risks to our forecast remain to the downside and dependent on the evolution of the pandemic globally, given Hong Kong's status as a small, open economy," analysts at the ratings firm wrote. Fitch downgraded Hong Kong's rating to its lowest level since 2007, putting it below that of markets such as Macau and on par with the likes of the UK. The ratings agency also said the downgrade reflected its view that Hong Kong's gradual integration into China's national governance system and increased economic, financial and socio-political links to the mainland justified a closer alignment of their respective sovereign ratings. "These established trends are exemplified by the central authorities taking a more vocal role in Hong Kong affairs than at any time since the 1997 handover," it said. The Hong Kong government said it was "disappointed" with Fitch's assessment. "The view that Hong Kong's rising economic and financial ties with the mainland is credit negative is also ungrounded," a government spokesman said in a statement yesterday. The pandemic is the latest blow to Hong Kong's economy, threatening to further extend a recession that began in 2019 after months of anti-China political unrest. The city's shops and businesses buckled under the full force of the coronavirus outbreak in February as retail sales plummeted by the most on record amid growing travel restrictions and social distancing measures. Consumption in the city has been severely curtailed as mainland Chinese tourists stopped visiting last year, while residents have been staying at home to avoid infection during the coronavirus outbreak. The jobless rate rose for a sixth straight month in March to the highest level since October 2010. Bloomberg Here is a prognosis of the coronavirus crisis, summed up by Uddalok Bhattacharya Even as the government has extended the nationwide lockdown to control the check spread of the virus, the unemployment rate in the country has touched 26 per cent. Mahesh Vyas gives details Read here How should the economy be propped up after the storm is behind us? Soumya Kanti Ghosh and Pulak Ghosh explain how fiscal support will be a must to speed up recovery after the pandemic. Read here Read what Sunil Sethi is reading. More here The scrutiny on investment from China should be extended to ... Douglas Council issues rent advice for those struggling to pay The chair of Douglas Councils housing committee has outlined the steps the authority is taking to support tenants throughout the public health crisis. Councillor Claire Wells says officers have called hundreds of people in council homes to explain how rent payments can be managed whilst household finances are under stress. Assurances have been given that no one will be evicted throughout the pandemic, and the council is encouraging anyone struggling to get in touch as soon as possible. Mrs Wells explained more to Local Democracy Reporter Ewan Gawne: Media Clare Wells Tax Payments COVID YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. All Armenian nationals in Russia who requested to be airlifted back to Armenia amid the coronavirus pandemic have repatriated, Deputy FM Avet Adonts said at a news conference. He said several Armenian diplomats at the embassy in Moscow are quarantined after it was revealed that they had come into contact with someone infected with the coronavirus. They had contact with the infected citizens whose tests results came back positive after they returned to Armenia, he said. Reporting and writing by Norayr Shoghikyan Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan HOD HASHARON, Israel, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wize Pharma, Inc. (OTCQB: WIZP), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of ophthalmic disorders, today announced that Bonus BioGroup (TASE: BONS.TA), a company in which Wize owns 8.9% of its equity securities, has initiated a preclinical study of its drug product candidate MesenCure, specifically developed to potentially treat acute and life-threatening respiratory distress and pneumonia whether as a result of infection with coronavirus (COVID-19), or any other type of virus, bacterial infection, or exposure to other contaminants. MesenCure consists of activated mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) that are isolated from the adipose tissue of healthy donors. Following intravenous transfusion, the activated cells are expected to reach the lungs and act to reduce inflammation, and alleviate respiratory and other symptoms. Bonus BioGroup has more than a decade of MSC-related experience, patented technologies, and in-house MSC manufacturing capacity based on the development of its lead clinical stage BonoFill, a tissue-engineered bone graft product. Bonus BioGroup has reported that preliminary efficacy data from the MesenCure study are expected in May 2020, with study completion anticipated in the third quarter of 2020. MesenCure may be useful for treating a variety of indications, such as lower respiratory tract infections, acute respiratory distress syndrome, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. According to the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, more than 1 billion people are suffering from inflammatory diseases of the lower respiratory tract worldwide, which cause an estimated 7.5 million deaths each year, and are the third leading cause of death in Europe, not including COVID-19 mortality data. "Bonus BioGroup's MesenCure, specifically developed to potentially treat the respiratory complications of COVID-19. Moreover, MesenCure addresses the broader need for an effective treatment for millions of patients each year suffering from inflammatory diseases of the lower respiratory tract,," stated Noam Danenberg, CEO of Wize. About Bonus BioGroup Bonus BioGroup is an Israeli biotechnology company whose highly innovative, proprietary therapeutic platform for healing severe bone defects is strongly positioned to break into the $8 billion global bone rehabilitation market. The company's BonoFill solution which employs novel tissue engineering technology for growing live human bone grafts has been selected by the Israeli Ministry of Science as a technology that will change the world forever, and it is already achieving outstanding success rates in Phase I/II clinical trials. The BonoFill solution is a revolutionary approach for personalized treatment of bone defects using live bone grafts created from the patient's own cells. Patients undergo a simple liposuction procedure to harvest fat tissue, which is then engineered into bone using Bonus BioGroup's proprietary technology. Upon injection into the bone defect, the bone graft grows, connects and matures to become healthy new autologous bone, while reducing the risk of rejection. About Wize Pharma Wize Pharma, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company currently focused on the treatment of ophthalmic disorders, including DES. Wize has in-licensed certain rights to purchase, market, sell and distribute a formula known as LO2A, a drug developed for the treatment of DES, and other ophthalmological illnesses, including CCh and Sjogren's syndrome (Sjogren's). LO2A is currently registered and marketed by its inventor in Germany and Switzerland for the treatment of DES, in Hungary for the treatment of DES, CCH and Sjogren's and in the Netherlands for the treatment of DES and Sjogren's. Wize's strategy involves engaging local or multinational distributors to handle the distribution of LO2A. Wize has finished a Phase II trial of LO2A for patients with CCH, demonstrating a statistically significance result using a mixed model with repeated measures (MMRM). A Phase IV study for LO2A for DES in patients with Sjogren's completed patient enrollment in Q1 2020 and top line data are expected in Q2 2020. Forward Looking Statements Wize cautions you that statements in this press release and letter to shareholders that are not a description of historical fact are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words referencing future events or circumstances such as "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," and "will," among others. For example, when we discuss the initiation of the preclinical study of Bonus BioGroup's drug product candidate MesenCure for the potential treatment of acute and life-threatening respiratory distress and pneumonia, whether as a result of COVID-19 or any other virus, bacterial infection, or exposure to other contaminants, the expected timing of the preliminary efficacy data from the study as well as the completion date of the study and that MesenCure may be useful for treating a variety of indications, such as lower respiratory tract infections, acute respiratory distress syndrome, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, we are using a forward-looking statement. Because such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon Wize's current expectations and involve assumptions that may never materialize or may prove to be incorrect. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of various risks and uncertainties, which include, without limitation, the possibility that we will not consummate the transactions with Bonus and the investors or, if we do consummate such transactions, that we will not receive the benefits we planned to achieve from such transactions; the possibility that we will not be able to successfully operate our joint venture with Cannabics Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; our needs for additional financing; our dependence on a single compound, LO2A and on the continuation of our license to commercialize LO2A; our inability to expand our rights under our license of LO2A; the initiation, timing, progress and results of our trials and product candidate development efforts; our ability to advance LO2A into clinical trials or to successfully complete our preclinical studies or clinical trials; our receipt of regulatory approvals for LO2A, and the timing of other regulatory filings and approvals; the clinical development, commercialization and market acceptance of LO2A; our ability to establish and maintain corporate collaborations; the implementation of our business model and strategic plans for our business and product candidates; the scope of protection we are able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering LO2A and our ability to operate our business without infringing the intellectual property rights of others; estimates of our expenses, future revenues, and capital requirements; competitive companies, technologies and our industry; and statements as to the impact of the political and security situation in Israel on our business. More detailed information about the risks and uncertainties affecting Wize is contained under the heading "Risk Factors" included in Wize's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on April 1, 2019, and in other filings that Wize has made and may make with the SEC in the future. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they were made. Wize does not undertake any obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made, except as may be required by law. The contents of any website or hyperlinks mentioned in this press release are for informational purposes and the contents thereof are not part of this press release. For all investor enquiries, please contact: Or Eisenberg Chief Financial Officer +972-72-260-0536 [email protected] SOURCE Wize Pharma, Inc. Related Links https://www.wizepharma.com/ President Donald Trump on Monday said he is temporarily suspending immigration to protect American jobs threatened by the dire economic consequences of the coronavirus outbreak. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! the American president said in a post on twitter Monday evening. More than 22 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in last four weeks of stay-at-home lockdowns in force in most parts of the United States. It was not immediately clear from President Trumps tweet what kind of immigrants would be impacted new immigrants are mostly those applying for Green Cards on professional and family visas, refugees and asylum seekers. But temporary foreign workers hired on H-1B, tourists and business visitors the most popular visas for Indians are unlikely to be impacted because they are on non-immigrant visas. The order is likely to be challenged in court, said industry sources. Advertisement They said it was 'the superyacht that couldn't be built'. When American entrepreneur John Staluppi decided in the early 1980s that he wanted the fastest superyacht in the world - one that could break the 50knot (57.5mph) barrier - every boatyard told him it couldn't be done. Every boatyard except Heesen Yachts in the Netherlands. It rose to the challenge in spectacular style, delivering Octopussy in 1988 - a boat the size of a small house that was actually capable of a world-record-beating 53.17 knots (61mph). And now a new documentary has revealed the fascinating story behind this remarkable feat of engineering. Octopussy, pictured shortly after it was delivered. It had a top speed of 53 knots (61mph) and at the time was 38m (124ft) long Octopussy, pictured left in the 1980s, was designed by Frank Mulder and built at the Heesen shipyard. Pictured right is John Staluppi using a radar gun to measure precisely how fast the yacht can go Called Octopussy: The Yacht That Could Not Be Built, it tells how Staluppi, after investigating the highest horsepower engines available, took the unprecedented step of buying three immensely powerful MTU power units and went looking for a naval architect to design a boat around them. But it was an order too tall for everyone he approached. He says in the documentary: 'I could never have the biggest yacht in the world, but I knew that I could have the fastest yacht in the world. [But] some people [I approached] would look at it and go back to engineering departments then come back and say "it's impossible".' The original Octopussy interior. A new documentary has revealed the fascinating story of how engineers turned businessman John Staluppi's dream of owning the world's fastest luxury superyacht into reality Heesen agreed to a legally binding penalty clause in the contract stipulating that if Octopussy did not reach 48 knots (55mph) at launch, Staluppi would not have to take the boat or pay for the cost However, Frank Mulder of Mulder Design, a skilled naval architect from the Netherlands, after six weeks of calculations, said the project was possible. Staluppi continues: 'Mulder said that he only knew one shipyard that might take the challenge. And thats how we got started with Frans Heesen, who was supposed to be the best.' Shortly after, in a meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Heesen accepted Staluppis challenge to build the fastest superyacht in the world. In an age before computers, he was the first to say that 'if he [Mulder] comes up with the right drawings and calculations then I will build you this boat'. John Staluppi, pictured, said: 'I could never have the biggest yacht in the world, but I knew that I could have the fastest yacht in the world' Naval architect Frank Mulder, left, and Frans Heesen, right, the founder of Heesen Yachts. They both feature in the new documentary about the construction of Octopussy Heesen Yachts said: 'Octopussy's speed and design became the benchmark for other shipyards and Heesens reputation for boldly delivering world firsts based on a DNA of innovation, technology and top craftsmanship, was born' OCTOPUSSY: FACTS AND FIGURES Length: 38m (124ft) in 1988, now 44m (144ft) Top Speed: 53.17 knots (61 mph) Shipyard: Heesen Yachts Naval Architect: Mulder Design Exterior Designer: Gerhard Gilgenast Interior Designer: Joachim Kinder and Art Line Material: Aluminium Guests: 10 Advertisement The documentary reveals that Heesen was so supremely confident in his team's engineering and craftsmanship, he even agreed to a legally binding penalty clause in the contract that if Octopussy did not reach 48 knots (55mph) at launch, Staluppi would not have to take the boat or pay for the cost. In addition, for every knot under 50 that the top speed equalled, the shipyard would have to pay Staluppi $100,000 (80,000). That's the equivalent of $200,000 (160,000) in today's money. However, for every knot over 50, Heesen Yachts would receive a $200,000 bonus ($430k/345k in today's money). Staluppi said: 'It was a risky challenge for a shipyard if it went under 48 knots, I didnt have to take the boat and theyd give me all my money back. 'So I bought a radar gun. And he [Frans Heesen] said "OK, we can do it".' In 2015, Octopussy underwent a complete refit and is now 44m (144ft) in length. Pictured is the updated version of the yacht Octopussy's interior was also updated during its refit. Its new look is thanks to New York designer Jeff Lincoln The superyacht is currently for sale with Moran Yacht & Ship and has an asking price of $3,995,000 (3,211,580) When it was being built, all parties worked around the clock to ensure that Octopussy, pictured recently, would hit the goal of being able to reach 50 knots (57mph) The hot tub on board the re-fitted Octopussy. The superyacht is now 20ft longer than it was at launch According to Moran Yacht and Ship, Octopussy is 'perfect for island hopping and allows access to anchorages normally reserved for much smaller vessels' Financially the yard could not survive such a loss, but the documentary shows that with the international press following Staluppis every move, an ambitious Heesen decided to risk the entire future of the company for the opportunity to put the shipyards name on the global stage. From then, each decision, from the water jets specified to the appliances that Staluppis wife, Jeanette, chose were defined by weight. All parties worked around the clock to ensure the boat was as light as possible to facilitate hitting the 50-knot goal. When it was launched in April 1988, Octopussy not only looked sleeker than any other yacht at the time with its futuristic design, but exceeded all expectations with its astounding top speed of 53.17 knots (61mph). That's very fast indeed for a boat 38m (124ft) long, packed with luxurious features. The re-fitted Octopussy has this spot for al-fresco dining on the top deck of the ship Octopussy now has five spacious staterooms, a vast main salon and a formal dining area with floor-to-ceiling glass doors, which open out on to the main deck One of the five spacious staterooms on board Octopussy. It has space for 10 guests as well as seven crew members The listing for Octopussy describes the superyacht as 'iconic in every sense of the word' Heesen Yachts said: 'Her speed and design became the benchmark for other shipyards and Heesens reputation for boldly delivering world firsts based on a DNA of innovation, technology and top craftsmanship, was born. 'The gamble had paid off. Staluppi realized his dream and Heesen Yachts became an international sensation, forever marking its brand on the world map as a major player in the superyacht arena.' In 2015, Octopussy underwent a refit with the length of the superyacht extended to 44m (144ft), while New York designer Jeff Lincoln updated its interior. Octopussy pictured moored in the Bahamas. The current fastest superyacht in the world is the 140ft 'World Is Not Enough', which has a top speed of 70 knots (80mph) It has five spacious staterooms, a huge main salon and a formal dining area with floor-to-ceiling glass doors, which open out on to the main deck. The superyacht is currently for sale with Moran Yacht & Ship and has an asking price of $3,995,000 (3,211,580). The current fastest superyacht in the world is the 140ft 'World Is Not Enough', which has a top speed of 70 knots (80mph). Built in 2004, the vessel was also designed by Mulder Design and is the brainchild of Staluppi and his close friend, businessman John Rosatti. While Octopussy can now 'only' reach 32 knots (36mph) - she's a lot heavier post-refit - the speed achieved in 1988 is a record that still puts her in the top 20 fastest superyachts ever. HALIFAX - Premier Stephen McNeil said Monday the province's emergency alert system wasn't used to warn people an active shooter was on the loose in northern Nova Scotia on the weekend because no request was received. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather, left, and Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman field questions a news conference at RCMP headquarters in Dartmouth, N.S. on Sunday, April 19, 2020. More than ten people have been killed, including RCMP Cst. Heidi Stevenson, after several incidents in Portapique, and other Nova Scotia communities. Alleged killer Gabriel Wortman, 51, was shot and killed by police. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan HALIFAX - Premier Stephen McNeil said Monday the province's emergency alert system wasn't used to warn people an active shooter was on the loose in northern Nova Scotia on the weekend because no request was received. McNeil said the province's Emergency Measures Organization has to be asked to issue an alert and that didn't happen, but the premier wasn't about to place blame on the RCMP. "This is a province in mourning. There will be lots of questions, but I can tell you I'm not going to second guess what someone with the organization did or didn't do at this moment in time," he said. "This was an active environment deaths, gunfire let's give them an opportunity as an organization to explain that." Cpl. Lisa Croteau, an RCMP information officer, said the police force opted to use its Twitter account to warn people because the incident was unfolding. The first tweet was sent at 11:32 p.m. local time Saturday and said police were "responding to a firearms complaint" in Portapique, N.S. "The public is asked to avoid the area and stay in their homes with doors locked at this time." The next message on the Nova Scotia RCMP Twitter account came at 6:02 a.m. Sunday, advising that police were still on the scene in Portapique and it was "an active shooter situation." At 6:54 a.m. the suspect was identified in a tweet and a photo was published. Chief Supt. Chris Leather said the RCMP relied on Twitter because its account has thousands of followers and it was judged "a superior way to communicate this ongoing threat." But he said the question of why the provincial alert system wasn't used is a good one. "We'll be looking at that ... and I hope to have a more fulsome response tomorrow (Tuesday) or in the coming hours." Before being killed by police, the shooter claimed at least 19 lives, including that of RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson, at 16 locations across northern and central Nova Scotia, RCMP say. In Ottawa, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki said the question of how the threat was communicated will be looked at. "In any incident such as this, we always have to look back at what we did," she said. "Nobody can lose their life in vain, and Heidi will not lose her life in vain, nor will the (many) other victims." Lucki did not say whether the suspect had a firearms licence. "We have to determine at each location what weapon was used," she said. "Until we know exactly the cause of each death, we're not in a position to say what types of weapons that the suspect was in possession of." This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2020. The verdict handed down to Jose Daniel Ferrer and his fellow defendants with the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU) has revealed the judicial system's lack of independence. Justice and the law are different things, but in this case neither were delivered or respected. On October 1, 2019, after the alleged commission of two crimes, Ferrer and his colleagues were arrested by a squad of more than 60 police officers trained in assault tactics. The reason for this operation was a simple altercation that took place at UNPACU headquarters involving an individual who showed up there inebriated. Thereafter, a series of irregularities and arbitrary actions ensued. The First Chamber of the Provincial Court of Santiago and the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court bungled his habeas corpus protection, as the judges did not instruct police authorities to physically summon Jose Daniel Ferrer, to question him, as is clearly indicated by the law. Before the trial, on National Television the government proceeded to paint a picture of a dangerous, inhuman Ferrer, who was even guilty of a felony, thereby biasing the judges and violating the Constitution. The Justice Ministry, on its official Twitter account, even went so far as to assert Ferrer's criminal co-authorship the day before the hearing. When the indictment was formally filed, the judges should have returned it to the investigative stage so that each defendant's statement could be thoroughly investigated, an opportunity that the judiciary should have, at the same time, taken advantage of to redress the inequality generated before the case reached trial. Instead, it was decided to detain the accused, even after the oral proceedings. At the trial, a contingent of uniformed and civilian paramilitary forces, along with members of the "Rapid Response Brigades", filled the courtroom, "protecting" the lawyers and judges, in violation of the transparency principle stipulated in Article 305 of the Criminal Procedure Law: Ferrer, who was being tried for a simple crime of assault, should have been public. The trial, dragging on much longer than is normal, rather than proving the commission of the crimes in question, ended up revealing its irregularities. Two witnesses were turned away by State Security at the entrance to the courthouse. A third, called to testify on Ferrer's behalf, was also never allowed to testify, as "he had left for the capital". The alleged victim's wife, who posted a video on social media stating that her husband had been drunk and fell off a motorcycle, thereby belying the accusations of assault leveled at Ferrer and other defendants, was intentionally seated in the gallery, in order to invalidate her before the court. Her deposition was never taken, and the video was ruled out, as "inappropriate." Meanwhile, it came to light that the co-defendants had been forced to confirm the government's version of the events in their testimony. By law, within 24 hours of the conclusion of initial proceedings judges must discuss their verdict, behind closed doors, and their conclusions are to be recorded in an internal document called the Judgment Discussion and Voting Minutes, drawn up to safeguard the case from third-party influences and prevent subsequent discrepancies in the ruling. In Ferrer's case all the indications and results show that the Minutes were never drafted. If the sentence ultimately imposed was four years of house arrest, the court should have announced Ferrer's immediate release, as the sentence was incompatible with the precautionary provisional detention measure. That is, all the days that Ferrer spent in prison, except for the 24 hours after the oral trial proceedings, were arbitrary and illegal. There was no legal justification for this. The only possible explanation is that judges had to consult another, higher body, resulting in the delay in the announcement of their final judgment. The spirit behind the language of Article 34, which governs the limitation of liberty, precludes the application of this sentence when the accused is already being deprived of his liberty. In such a case, in a standard criminal trial, without the influence of third parties, the offender should have been sentenced to incarceration. In light of all this, it is clear that this was a trial in which political interests prevailed. Cuba's judicial system should learn lessons from what happened to Ferrer and his fellow UNPACU members, and rethink where the roots of the problems lay, and solutions to the breaches of both justice and the law that occurred. Columbia: The US state of Missouri filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Chinese government over the coronavirus, alleging that nation's officials are to blame for the global pandemic. The lawsuit, filed in federal court by the state's top prosecutor, alleges Chinese officials are "responsible for the enormous death, suffering, and economic losses they inflicted on the world, including Missourians." A stunt: Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt speaks in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington. Credit:AP "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," Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a written statement. "They must be held accountable for their actions." Lawsuits against other countries are typically fruitless because US law generally prohibits them with rare exceptions, said Ashley Deeks, an international law expert at the University of Virginia School of Law. ALBANY The Common Council unanimously voted Monday evening to place greater zoning restrictions on blood plasma centers in the city, overriding Mayor Kathy Sheehans veto. The council was forced to vote on the ordinance for a second time after Sheehan pointed out a number of procedural flaws in the first vote, including failure to hold a public hearing before a Feb. 20 vote. The hearing, which contained comments submitted to the City Clerks office and was broadcast live through Zoom, was overwhelmingly in favor of the ordinance as residents expressed concerns about plasma clinic practices in general "There are a number of problems with plasma clinics in the United States," said resident Catina Mavadones. "What private clinics like CSL give to those who sell their plasma is small change compared to what private clinics actually receive for the plasma." But John Wright, an attorney for the project developers, said in a letter that the council failed to do its research and violated its own rules under the citys Unified Sustainable Development Ordinance. He also compared comments on blood plasma centers that opponents had made to those made by anti-vaccine protesters. The law, if passed, would be void from its inception and unenforceable, he wrote. The council's ordinance would prevent any blood plasma centers from opening within 1,000 feet of a church, school or park, among other restrictions. Previously the city's Zoning Board of Appeals had set those limits at 500 feet. The ordinances passage is not the end of the project or likely the issue of whether the council correctly followed the rules in restricting the centers. On Tuesday, the citys Planning Board considered a site plan review from the project developer. The council sent the board a letter, stating it intends to change the citys zoning code to prevent the project in its currently proposed location. However, it is unclear if the planning board will take that into consideration. In her veto message, Sheehan warned the council that the city could face legal action from the company behind the project or the developers. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "I urge you to seek guidance from your attorney regarding enforceable actions the Common Council could adopt to address the social justice issues raised during the debate of this ordinance," she wrote. There is also an Article 78 lawsuit pending. OBrien and several residents filed the action against the citys Zoning Board of Appeals and the project developer after the board ruled during an appeal that the project fit the light manufacturing zoning designation. The next court date on that action has been pushed into May. CSL Plasma, a Florida-based company that operates over 230 plasma collection centers around the world, proposed opening a center at 900 Central Ave., near the Hannaford supermarket, soon after the city approved a new zoning map in 2017. Residents near the proposed project have also complained, arguing the center could lead to loitering and parking issues. By now, you will have almost certainly heard the health guidance to stay at least two metres away from people outside your household to help slow the spread of coronavirus. However, while this advice is simple enough in theory, many people around the world have struggled to get to grips with what that distance actually looks like, inspiring authorities and news organisations to come up with some creative explanations. The BBC has offered a range of examples for the two metre distance, from the length of a mattress to the length of two shopping trolleys. Hugh Pym, the broadcasters health editor, is also conveniently two metres in height and has been brought out multiple times to demonstrate what a safe distance looks like. Another popular example came from Siberia, where an information sign asked residents to please keep the length of one small bear from each other. The animal theme was expanded upon elsewhere in Russia, as the countrys Arctic National Park recommended visitors keep a distance of either one bear, one seal or one reindeer apart. Meanwhile in Canada, the government of Yukon has told residents to stay one caribou apart, while a sign in Vancouver explained two metres as the distance from a cougars nose to the tip of its tail. In the US, Montanas state fish, wildlife and parks department has offered a range of fish-based measurements, such as four trout, one paddlefish and one fishing rod. Finally, the recommended distance in Australia was predictably the size of an adult kangaroo. Keeping physical distance from other people is important because it reduces the chances of catching or spreading Covid-19. When someone coughs or sneezes they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the Covid-19 virus if the person coughing has the disease. Efforts to slow the spread of the virus are necessary to prevent health services from becoming overwhelmed by a surge in cases during an outbreak. Continental Honda is offering several options to those in need of a vehicle to help lessen the financial impact of obtaining one. Citizens across the U.S. are experiencing unforeseen financial pressures due to the onslaught of COVID-19. As a result, some essential services are offering special offers to help customers get by in this difficult time. One of these services is the auto industry, many elements of which are changing their payment demands. Continental Honda, a dealership serving Chicago and the surrounding area, is offering several options to those in need of a vehicle to help lessen the financial impact of obtaining one. One of these is the 90 Days to First Payment program, which provides buyers with the option to defer making a payment on the purchase of a new 2019 or 2020 Honda model for (as the name suggests) 90 days. Qualification for the 90 Days to First Payment program at Continental Honda can be obtained by having ones credit approved through Honda Financial Services. Approval can be applied for with ease through the finance approval page of the Continental Honda website. Buyers should note that, while their payment is deferred, finance charges will accrue on the full amount financed throughout the 90-day deferment period. For those who already hold accounts with and make payments through Honda Financial Services, Honda is offering a service called Hardship Help. This program includes optional payment extensions and deferrals, along with late fee waivers. Those interested in getting Hardship Help on their current Honda payments are encouraged to head to the Honda Financial Services website. Patience when doing so is appreciated, however, as the call volume of those seeking relief remains high. Those interested in the offers above can learn more by making a digital trip to the Continental Honda website at http://www.continentalhonda.com. Alternatively, a phone call can be made to 708-340-6350. Finally, those who practice responsible social distancing may head to the heavily-sanitized Continental Honda dealership, located at 5901 S. La Grange Road, Countryside. This article is reprinted with permission from Stratfor Worldview. As the COVID-19 pandemic bites harder on Russias economy, Moscows reluctance to avert its vast financial reserves toward more stimulus spending will restrain its ability to fend off a cumulative economic crunch that triggers longer-term setbacks. In a televised address on April 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced additional or advanced support measures to help the countrys private sector weather the COVID-19 crisis. The support measures narrow scope, however, has failed to impress both the business community and economists. Indeed, most of the new measures Putin unveiled only represent the further implementation of prior announcements or the expansion of existing measures. But with more than a third of domestic companies already at risk of bankruptcy, Russias unwillingness to cough up the capital needed to keep its private sector afloat during the pandemic could come at the cost of a much longer and more painful recession. Limited Support Measures Wage support: Putin announced that the government would provide direct financial support to small- and medium-sized businesses in the form of minimum wage salary payments. With Russias minimum wage set at 12,130 rubles ($162) per month, this measure falls significantly short of average wages in the country that are about $623. These funds will also only be available beginning May 18, leaving companies with a relatively long period to bridge before receiving the support. The total size of this package will limit its reach to only a fifth of Russians currently employed by small- and medium-sized enterprises as well. Putin announced that the government would provide direct financial support to small- and medium-sized businesses in the form of minimum wage salary payments. With Russias minimum wage set at 12,130 rubles ($162) per month, this measure falls significantly short of average wages in the country that are about $623. These funds will also only be available beginning May 18, leaving companies with a relatively long period to bridge before receiving the support. The total size of this package will limit its reach to only a fifth of Russians currently employed by small- and medium-sized enterprises as well. Interest-free loans: The government will also guarantee 75 percent of the value of interest-free loans to businesses to pay wages. However, only the first six months of these loans will be interest-free, after which a (still favorable) rate of 4 percent will be applied. The government has also only allocated 150 billion rubles ($2 billion) to this scheme, which will severely limit the scope of its application. In addition, banks have been reluctant to provide these loans without a way to recover the added work and bureaucratic requirements attached to them through interests. The government will also guarantee 75 percent of the value of interest-free loans to businesses to pay wages. However, only the first six months of these loans will be interest-free, after which a (still favorable) rate of 4 percent will be applied. The government has also only allocated 150 billion rubles ($2 billion) to this scheme, which will severely limit the scope of its application. In addition, banks have been reluctant to provide these loans without a way to recover the added work and bureaucratic requirements attached to them through interests. Subsidized loans: For so-called backbone industries, which the government is still trying to define, the government has promised to subsidize loans for working capital at the central banks rate (currently at 6%). The Ministry of Finance will also guarantee half the size of these loans to the commercial banks offering them. In addition to wage, these loans can also be spent on new equipment or the acquisition of stock. But they still only provide limited relief to the sectors Moscow deems crucial to the Russian economy. For so-called backbone industries, which the government is still trying to define, the government has promised to subsidize loans for working capital at the central banks rate (currently at 6%). The Ministry of Finance will also guarantee half the size of these loans to the commercial banks offering them. In addition to wage, these loans can also be spent on new equipment or the acquisition of stock. But they still only provide limited relief to the sectors Moscow deems crucial to the Russian economy. Airline and region-specific bailouts: Moscow will also set 23 billion rubles ($307 million) aside to directly support the countrys airline industry, as well as another 200 billion rubles ($2.7 billion) to support Russias regions. These underwhelming amounts come in far below the estimated $1.4 billion in losses that Russian airlines face, and vast shortages of reserves - which currently total only a mere $10 billion outside of Moscow - across 70 percent of Russias 83 regional governments. Russias Fiscal Frugality Russias reluctance to avert its vast financial reserves toward more stimulus spending is restraining its ability to offer more significant COVID-19 relief measures, which explains why its support efforts have so far been largely based on reducing regulatory requirements for businesses or providing limited direct support. This fiscal restraint is baked into Russias economic legislation, which doesnt allow the federal budget to spend more than 0.5 percent of its GDP (about $8 billion) over the governments actual revenues. Instead, Russias reserves are automatically allocated to replace missed government revenues when oil prices (one of the main sources of government revenue) fall below the level at which the budget was calculated. This allows Russia to extend these reserves, and its budget, over longer periods of crisis. Right now, however, this means that Russia faces the difficult challenge of reallocating funds within its established budget, and inevitably cutting spending in some planned projects, in order to redirect as much of its finances as possible toward the COVID-19 response and support measures. This has so far resulted in limited COVID-19 measures that Russias business community have deemed ineffective. Russia has attempted to convince businesses not to lay off its employees to avoid the burden of unemployment support and reduced economic activity. But its limited COVID-19 measures have yet to decisively convince employers to forgo layoffs. Over 16 percent of Russian private companies have already made staff reductions due to the COVID-19 crisis, and up to 31 percent more are expecting to conduct layoffs in the near future. But even if the government were able to successfully stem additional layoffs, wage cuts and forced unpaid leave will still significantly reduce the income of Russias workforce. By impacting domestic consumption, this will, in turn, cause the crisis to reverberate further throughout the Russian economy. Declining expendable incomes could further restrict retail sales as well, which already dropped by 35 percent in April amid stay-at-home measures to contain the virus. Risks Beyond COVID-19 Some projections have indicated that even with these support measures, up to 30 percent of Russian companies remain at risk of bankruptcy. The government has imposed a moratorium for at least six months on processing bankruptcies, but the financial situation of companies is unlikely to be rectified by the time this moratorium is lifted. Particular sectors at risk of bankruptcy include trade, transportation, real estate, construction, technology and heavy industry. This means that the impact of such bankruptcies could be spread widely across Russias economy, though they will most likely be concentrated among smaller, more vulnerable businesses. Employment and industrial activity will pick up again over time once the COVID-19 pandemic has waned. However, the purchasing power of Russias population will most likely continue to erode, constricting domestic consumption. This ongoing dynamic has failed to rectify itself since the countrys 2015-17 economic crisis, generating a downward pressure throughout most of Russias economy. In addition to this, defaults on existing household debt or even corporate debt in the case of bankruptcies could threaten the stability of Russias banking sector. The full extent of the havoc COVID-19 could wreak on the Russian economy remains to be seen, but the crisis is certain to exacerbate the cracks in Russias economic foundation. Talk show host Tavis Smiley has listed his Spanish-style home in Hancock Park for $6.2 million. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Talk show host Tavis Smiley, who last month was ordered to pay PBS $1.5 million in a dispute over his firing, is looking to sell his home in historic Hancock Park. The Spanish-style charmer is up for grabs at $6.2 million, real estate records show. Smiley bought the property in 2006 for $3.4 million, according to public records. That was two years after he began hosting his eponymous late-night talk show on PBS. Smiley was fired in 2017 amid sexual misconduct allegations, which he has strenuously denied. Built in 1929, the two-story home features arched openings and an ivy-covered facade. The main house has seven bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms in 6,000 square feet, and the guest suite tacks on two bedrooms and a bathroom in 1,000 square feet. Formal common spaces include a living room with a wet bar, a dining room with built-ins and a den with leather floors. Upstairs, the master suite has a fireplace, a spacious walk-in closet and an elevator connecting to the covered patio down below. The space leads to a landscaped backyard complete with a pool, spa and fountain. A second-story balcony takes in neighborhood views. Smiley, 53, hosted BET Talk on BET from 1996 to 2002, and, following a three-year stint on National Public Radio, started hosting The Tavis Smiley Show on PBS from 2004 to 2017. He sued PBS for wrongful termination in 2017, but in March, a Washington, D.C., jury ordered him to pay the broadcaster $1.486 million for breach of contract. The historic Hancock Park neighborhood has seen plenty of action over the last few years. Kunal Nayyar of "The Big Bang Theory" bought Nicolas Cage's former Tudor last year for $7.5 million, and former USC great Lynn Swann sold his contemporary-style home earlier this month for $3.566 million. Leisha Williams of Real Estate Network Financial holds the listing. The National Health Service (NHS), as the Conservative Party MP Nigel Lawson once quipped, is the closest thing the English people have to a religion. For Conservatives, this has long been a source of irritation, standing as an obstacle to privatising the public service. But amid todays coronavirus pandemic, Lawsons famous lament has only become more apt and Boris Johnsons government is taking full advantage. The crisis has not only strengthened Britains spiritual attachment to the NHS with donations flooding in, weekly rounds of applause and more than 600,000 volunteers signing up to help. As the governments response to the crisis is called into question with over 16,000 deaths already, and forecasts suggesting that Britain will become one of the worst-afflicted countries in Europe the NHS is also taking on a new, quasi-religious role: as a set of myths or morals that protect those in power from scrutiny. We are making progress in this national battle because the British public formed a human shield around this countrys greatest national asset: our national health service, Johnson said on Sunday, April 12, in his first address to the nation after being released from hospital earlier that day. We will win because our NHS is the beating heart of this country, it is the best of this country. It is unconquerable. It is powered by love. After spending 48 hours in intensive care recovering from the virus, Johnsons personal sense of gratitude to NHS staff is genuine. They saved my life, no doubt, he said. But when such warm words are accompanied by a refusal to acknowledge why Britain is faring so badly compared to other countries in Europe despite having had more time to prepare than its neighbours then these solemn tributes start to sound more cynical. Indeed, as the fatal consequences of Britains slow response become clear, combining with a decade of Conservative-imposed austerity, it is now the government using Britains attachment to the NHS according to annual polling, it is the institution that makes Brits most proud of their country as a human shield to deflect from its own failings: an initial complacency that the British could, in Johnsons words, take it on the chin; a lockdown that arrived too late; and a chronic lack of NHS equipment, staff and preparation predating the pandemic. All this has left the entire population, including NHS staff, exposed. According to the Doctors Association UK (DAUK), nearly three-quarters of doctors say they cannot access a mask when they need one, and nearly half of clinicians attending to the highest-risk cases say they cannot access the correct gowns. In one hospital, shortages of gowns forced a team of nurses to wear bin bags instead: all of them contracted the virus. At the time of writing 80 NHS workers have died so far, most of them people of colour. We understood and we decided that if together we could keep our NHS safe, if we could stop our NHS from being overwhelmed, then we could not be beaten and we would rise together, Johnson declared in his video-message on Easter Sunday. This is now a recurring theme in the governments narrative: its not about the number of deaths, per se, but the health of the NHS itself. At the start of this crisis, people said that the NHS would be overwhelmed, Matthew Hancock, the Health Secretary, had said on Saturday. Weve seen that elsewhere but not here. The day before, Britain had recorded the highest daily death toll in Europe and the figure did not include deaths in social care. Long before the current crisis, the NHSs place in British politics was shifting. For its first 50 or so years, the institution was Labours legacy to lay claim to. The Conservatives who had voted against its creation 22 times were either dismissive of it or on the defensive. While Margaret Thatcher proudly declared that she used private healthcare I pay my dues [to the NHS], she said in 1987, I do not add to the queue she still campaigned with an assurance that the NHS was safe in our hands. Since then, however, subsequent Conservative leaders wearied by Labours hat-trick of election wins between 1997 and 2005 have declared their unbridled devotion to the NHS, claiming the national religion as their own. Tony Blair explained his priorities in three words: education, education, education, David Cameron said in 2006, during his first Conservative Party conference as leader. I can do it in three letters: NHS. Despite a long-running record of duplicity in the 2010 election, for example, Cameron campaigned to cut the deficit, not the NHS, then oversaw the biggest reduction in its funding in real terms ever the strategy has worked. On most polling, Labour are now no more trusted on health than the Conservatives: the NHS is no longer Labours home turf. Johnson himself has a rich history of this duplicity, not least campaigning for Brexit in 2016 on the false claim that 350 million in EU funding could be redirected to the NHS. Nothing of the sort materialised. And yet, in the public eye, and all the more so after his time in hospital, Johnson has established a greater affinity with the NHS than any of his predecessors. This is now the third campaign in four years that Johnson has led where the NHS is at the heart of it. Even in the 2019 election, Johnson said he wanted to Get Brexit Done so that he could focus above all on the NHS. But whether with Brexit, an election or a pandemic, with Johnson at the pulpit, the NHS becomes something less real: a matter of patriotism more than politics, of love and faith more than resources a national religion writ large. Johnsons NHS is a divine, giving thing that can be overwhelmed but never underprepared. To bring up the 10 years of Conservative austerity leaving a record shortage of nurses, a record shortage of beds and an exhausted, underpaid staff in its wake is deemed unpatriotic, even blasphemous. In fact, at the same time as the Conservative government extols the virtues of the NHS, staff themselves are banned from/threatened against sharing negative stories with the press or on social media. Johnsons skill is in turning partisan politics into tests of national resolve. By stoking national feeling towards the NHS and then binding his governments strategy to its heroic performance, his government is placed beyond reproach as well. Indeed, with Johnsons standing all the stronger after his time in hospital, and fanned by an ever-more exuberant press, Johnson himself is now entering a similarly totemic space as the NHS: a man beyond politics and beyond question, a national treasure, as his supporters like to call him, whose fate is now tied to another. Make no mistake, the health of Boris Johnson is the health of the body politic and, by extension, the health of the nation itself, Allison Pearson, perhaps his most devoted disciple in the media, wrote in The Daily Telegraph on April 7. His health is our health, Pearson went on, if he can defeat coronavirus, then so can we. And yet the question of who this we accounts for the question of whether so many more lives will be absent from this we because of the governments slow and blundering response is judged unimportant, unpatriotic, political point-scoring at a time of crisis. The main thing is that Johnson, like the NHS, carries on the fight: two symbols of a collective survival, regardless of how many lives are lost. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Tony Spell arrested for aggravated assault after backing church bus toward protester Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Controversial Louisiana pastor Tony Spell, who has defied state stay-at-home orders by holding church services, has been arrested for aggravated assault after he allegedly backed up a church bus toward a protester. The police department in the city of Central near Baton Rouge issued a warrant for the Pentecostal pastor on Monday. On Tuesday, Spell was taken into custody outside of Life Tabernacle Church and transported to East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, according to WAFB. The pastor has made national headlines in recent weeks as he already faced several misdemeanor charges for holding in-person worship services attended by hundreds despite bans on mass gatherings to combat the spread of COVID-19. But now, Spell is accused of rapidly backing up a large church bus on the shoulder of a public road outside of the church and nearly hitting a protester. A video of the incident shows the church bus being backed up at a seemingly rapid pace in the direction in which a protester was standing with a picket sign. Not until the bus was a few feet from striking the protester were the brakes rapidly applied and the bus brought to a halt. Trey Bennett, the protester in the video, told WAFB that he first thought Spell was just turning around the bus to pull away. [B]ut he just kept coming in reverse, Bennett said. I could see him (Spell) driving the bus. He was honking his horn loudly at me and making gestures suggesting he was yelling while he was driving. It didnt seem real until it was physically in my face with a bus. Spells attorney, Joseph Long, told NBC News that his client did not try to run over the protester. "A fair viewing of the video will prove that Spell did not attempt to run over the protester, and the protester did not feel threatened, as he never moved when the bus came near," Long was quoted as saying. According to WVLA, investigators say that an unnamed security guard also drove a pick-up truck onto the same shoulder dangerously close to the protester. The security guard also reportedly faces a charge of aggravated assault. Long said that he believes Spell will be vindicated. According to The Washington Post, Spell wrote in a text message to one of its reporters Monday night that he would not surrender and that authorities will have to take him out of his church. Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran told the newspaper that Spell was trying to intimidate the protester. Spell claimed that he just finished dropping off church members before the encounter with the protester. I approached a man who verbally assaulted my wife and little girls, Spell claimed in his correspondence with The Washington Post. Hes a crotch-grabbing, middle-finger using against my church ladies. What would you do to a man like that? Spell said. Bennett denied the accusation that he uses profanity or obscene gestures in his demonstrations. I havent done anything of the sort. I just stand there with a sign, Bennett told WAFB. I dont say anything to anybody. Spell also reportedly claimed that he reported the presence of the protester on the public road outside of the church every day for the last few weeks but police have not responded to the complaints. This is the proudest day of my life to be persecuted for the faith, Spell was quoted as saying, before threatening to block The Washington Post reporter on his phone after he was asked if he thought the bus incident was an act of faith. Spell told WAFB that he drove the bus and wanted to confront the protester. However, he claims that his wife, who was with him on the bus at the time, talked him out of confronting the protester. I was pulling in from my bus route, picking up black children who havent eaten because of this sinister policy that has closed schools, Spell told WAFB. I was going to approach this gentleman and ask him to leave. While many churches nationwide have suspended in-person services and shifted their ministries online to help combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, Spells church is among a small defiant minority that is continuing to hold services. Supporters have argued that it is a First Amendment right to be able to gather for worship. However, some religious freedom advocates and even Vice President Mike Pence have called for religious adherents to avoid large in-person worship services during the pandemic. Among advocates who have advised against in-person services is U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chair Tony Perkins, a prominent Christian conservative activist from Louisiana. Chief Corcoran told The Washington Post that Spell had spoken with Perkins and agreed to abide by Gov. John Bel Edwards stay-at-home order but has not upheld the agreement. Hes trying to hide behind the First Amendment, Corcoran was quoted as saying. No one has asked him not to preach the word or preach a service. We just ask that he adhere to the order that was given by the governor and the president, put it on social media or FaceTime like the other churches, but hes refused to do that. A lawyer who represents Spell, Jeff Wittenbrink, was hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms last week. It was also reported that a member of Life Tabernacle died because of coronavirus. However, Spell has disputed the cause of death. Over 2 mln cases considered by Russian courts during coronavirus lockdown RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 17:15 21/04/2020 MOSCOW, April 21 (RAPSI) Russian court considered over 2 million cases and materials during the coronavirus quarantine, from March 18 to April 20, RAPSI was told in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The highest instance noted that the demand for electronic resources for the judicial system increased due to the pandemic. Between March 18 and April 20, 225,200 e-documents reached courts that is 1.5 times or 77,300 more that in an analogical period of the previous year, a court representative said. Courts held 8,000 hearings through videolink. Starting April 21, the Supreme Court considers certain cases via web conference providing safe date transmission, according to the statement. 189 Shares Share As resident physicians, now is not the time to be quiet. We must stand up for ourselves in the face of this life-threatening virus. Our health is vital to preserving the standards set before us in providing exceptional medical care to future generations. In the wake of the tragic deaths of a few of our colleagues now it is more important than ever to speak your voice and demand change. Who are these young physician heroes that died on the front line? Why havent we heard about them, yet we continue to hear from the media the incidence of this disease, to stay indoors, and we will be okay. As medical professionals, we do not have this option to stay indoors. We have sworn an oath always to serve the sick. However, how do we respond when we are becoming sick? As trainees in graduate medical education (GME), we are subject to the rules and regulations of our residency programs, hospitals, organizations, and government committees. Many of the policies behind GME have been in place since its birth and do not allow much room for adjusting. The interesting point here is that this pandemic is demanding changes to these historic rules and regulations. Residents deserve more including, but not limited to, additional stipends, paid parental leave, life insurance, Advanced practice registered nurses, and physician assistants are being granted autonomous practice in various states for this pandemic and receiving a hefty increase in compensation. We are working without adequate protection; we are living away from our families; we are even working outside of our scope of practice. Overall, we are risking our lives daily to fulfill our education and program requirements to graduate. If we do not do this, we will lose our coveted spot in graduate medical education and, thus, our medical careers. Long story short we either work in these dire conditions, or we risk losing everything we have worked for. We did not go through at least four years of undergraduate school, four years of medical school, and thousands of dollars in debt to be put into this position. Now, an ethical question that presents itself is this: Should we continue to work in these conditions without adequate protective equipment and risk becoming a vector for this deadly virus? Do we continue to work 80 hour weeks at adjusted wages near minimum wage because this is what we signed up for? At what point do we say enough is enough? Of course, many readers will say, If you did not want to be in this situation, then why did you sign up to be a doctor, why are you in this situation? Well, my answer is as follows: I signed up to be a physician first and foremost to save lives, serve the general population, and support people in their darkest hours. I see patients every day that are dying. I have conversations daily with family members to provide an unbiased, professional opinion to encourage a decision to follow their loved ones wishes first and foremost. This is whether it is all out pressor support or hospice. Am I ready for others to have this conversation about me? I view myself as an ambitious, goal-oriented young physician that believes that I can change the world in one or another. Did I sign up to sacrifice my life to a virus that I cannot see? The same question applies more generally Would you walk into a fire, not knowing whether or not it would take your life? Are you okay with playing Russian roulette? We have preached the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. But there is more to this passage that is applicable to the current pandemic: I will not be ashamed to say, I know not, nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patients recovery. I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God. We do not know how to treat this life-threatening illness yet. We do not have the powerful and resourceful treatment like we possess against most bacterial infections. We are following international input that changes daily on how to treat this deadly illness. We do not know what the future will hold. Nevertheless, we will do everything we are mentally and physically able to do, as physicians, to save lives during this pandemic. As the future of medicine, as young physicians, we will not back down from this fight. We have been trained and will do our best to tackle this catastrophe. However, please help us from dying. It is unethical to put us out on the front lines without adequate protection. We will die, and we will not let the fallen perish without their voice. Without protecting us now, you must be okay with leaving millions of lives in the hands of underqualified, non-Medicare-funded practitioners. Not only will this lead to media stories leading to hospital lawsuits, but it will lose the government a ton of money. Please stop referring to us as heroes. This applies to all health care professionals. We are not superhuman, and we have emotions fear, panic, depression, and anxiety. We see the media, we read articles, and appreciate the severity of this pandemic. We furthermore realize this: This is our occupation, our profession, our obligation, and our life. Provide us with adequate protection, and we will do our job. An added benefit is our education to provide life-saving measures to support as many threatened lives as we can. Otherwise, we will utilize those life insurance emails we receive on a daily basis and write our living will. Alexander Lake is an internal medicine resident. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Press Service International are pleased to announce a first of its kind publication, God In Lifean anthology from the columnists of Christian Today Australia and New Zealand. The team behind this remarkable tome are publishersTony and Rebecca Moore (Rebecca is a fellow senior writer, Sunshine Coast), and editorDavid Goodwin (former WarCry editor, Melbourne). Video hosted by Tony and Rebecca Moore This beautifully presented book is a reassuring reminder that God is not distant, that He is our ever-present help in every area of our livesinterested in the smallest things to the largest and never absent in times of need. A refreshing look at Gods unwavering love, these reflections of Gods love in many aspects of life will help draw your attentions away from the complexities of the world and onto His ever-loving face. Addressing topics such as purpose, anxiety, loneliness, relationships, courage, perseverance, social issues, betrayal, promises, and even snake-shooting, this book is unique in all its characteristics. The talented writers of Christian Today Australia gather from a very broad range of backgrounds which include: doctors, filmmakers, university students, school teachers, pastors, those living with physical challenges, mums, dads, musicians, and even a retired journalist and CEO of the (then) Australian Rough Riders Association (Pro-Rodeo). Their diverse backgrounds create an astounding kaleidoscope of colourful perspectives on life which are tied together by a very special threadtheir faith in Jesus Christ. We see the unchanging, unmistakable, character of Jesus, weaving its way throughout all the stories, showing the very nature of God in the lives of very different people, revealing once again that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Established in 2005 by Dr Mark Tronson, Press Service International has a vision and goal to equip and encourage young adult writers to voice their faith in Christ to their generation and beyond. Supported by Mr Basil Sellers AM, Press Service International has done just thatpublish Gods glorious deeds to the nations, telling everyone of the amazing things He does (Psalm 96:3). God In Life has been published to assist with fundraising efforts for the writers of Christian Today Australia who give of their time freely for the edification of others. The profits raised will go towards assisting and upskilling the writers for their annual conferences where they gather together to set goals and vision for the upcoming year. In purchasing this anthology, you directly help financially support these writers to grow their gift and develop their voice. Each writer will have copies to sell from May onwards, and you will be personally helping them by purchasing directly from a writer you know. God In Life will also be available online through any good bookstore as of May, 2020. Enter the title God In Life or the ISBN: 9780648460237. Alternatively, you can contact publishing@starlabel.com.au for more information. MAJOR public buildings in Ireland are to be illuminated in blue as a tribute to the country's healthcare heroes. The tribute was organised as a follow-up to the hugely successful 'Shine A Light' campaign which has seen tens of thousands of Irish homes display lights in windows each evening as a gesture of solidarity during the Covid-19 crisis. Now, major Irish public buildings are to be illuminated in blue as a symbol of support for Irish doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants engaged in the frontline battle against the virus. Three Irish healthcare workers have lost their lives as they helped fight the pandemic. Cork City Council decided on the gesture to publicly thank healthcare workers for the astonishing work they are undertaking. Cork's Lord Mayor Councillor John Sheehan, a city-based GP for over 30 years, said it was a fitting gesture to those who are putting themselves at risk to help others. Cork City Hall will be illuminated in blue in support of healthcare workers and those working in frontline services," he said. "I have been completely humbled by the heroic work of our HSE staff and frontline workers who continue to put themselves at risk to support those most vulnerable in our community and to offer vital services. "Let us continue to support our healthcare workers and frontline heroes and stay at home it is literally in the hands of us all to flatten the curve, he added. The colour blue has been adopted as the symbol of healthcare workers in across Europe - with major UK landmarks including the London Eye and Wembley Stadium's arch being illuminated in blue each evening as a gesture of solidarity with doctors and nurses on the frontline of the fight against Covid-19. PARIS (Reuters) - France on Monday officially registered more than 20,000 deaths from the coronavirus, becoming the fourth country to pass that threshold after Italy, Spain and the United States, and the pace of increase in fatalities and infections sped up again after several days of slowing. "The epidemic is very deadly and is far from over," France's public health chief Jerome Salomon told a news briefing, adding that the death toll was now higher than that of the heat wave in the summer of 2003. He said the number of people in intensive care had fallen for the 12th consecutive day, to 5,683 - the lowest since March 31 - suggesting the national lockdown is having positive effects in containing the disease. Another encouraging signal was a decline for the sixth day in a row in people hospitalized for COVID-19, even though the total, at 30,584 versus 30,610 on Sunday, is going down only slowly. While France is due to start unwinding some confinement measures from May 11, Salomon insisted on the importance of strictly complying with the lockdown. He said coronavirus-linked fatalities were up 2.8%, at 20,265, after an increase of 2.0% on Sunday. The United States has more than 41,000 dead, Italy 24,114 and Spain 20,852. The global death toll stands at more than 165,000. The number of confirmed cases increased by 1.8% in France to 114,657 and possible cases in nursing homes were up 1.1% at 40,726, for a total of 155,383, up 1.6% in 24 hours after a 0.7% increase on Sunday. Salomon also said the virus reproduction rate had gone from three at the beginning of the outbreak, before the lockdown was put in place, to less than one. "The pandemic produces less sick people than before. That is how we will be able to contain it and then reduce it", he said. (Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Chris Reese and Giles Elgood) Part of the investigative process is not only to examine the scene, but also to look beyond the incident for movements in the area that might offer clues that can help solve this heinous crime, Reynolds said. Thats why I am asking residents in the surrounding blocks to help by sharing any security video they may have recorded up to a week prior to the incident. HARDIN Right now, healthcare workers have to wear face masks everywhere. Thanks to Seth Grimes, the Industrial Technology teacher at Calhoun High School in Hardin, those face masks are becoming more comfortable to wear for many. Grimes is using the schools 3-D printer to make face mask holders, an adjustable plastic strip that goes across the back of the head. His wife, Stacey, works at Jerseyville Community Hospital (JHC). She had seen posts on Facebook about other people making face mask holders and she asked her husband if he could make them. Grimes said that nurses, doctors and all first responders have to wear surgical masks all day, with little rest and no time to take them off. I thought it was a great idea to help them be a little more comfortable while they are working so hard, he said. Ive seen pictures online of how they have been rubbed raw behind the ears and on their faces, Grimes said. I thought this would make things a little easier on them. The original design came from a website called Thingiverse. The website includes photos of people who have been making face mask holders in their communities. The home page of the site includes other ideas designers are trying to create to help people during the coronavirus pandemic. I have made a little over a hundred so far, Grimes said. As of right now I plan on making at least 220. Grimes has made holders for the nursing home in Hardin, JCH Medical Group in Hardin, JCH in Jerseyville, a clinic in Chicago where a friend of his works and a hospital in Madison, Wisconsin where his brother works. I plan to continue printing and giving them out to whomever needs or wants them, Grimes said. To see where the original design came from, visit https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4249113. Netflixs breakout documentary Tiger King has been watched by 64 million households, the streaming giant has said (Netflix/PA) Netflixs breakout documentary Tiger King has been watched by 64 million households, the streaming giant has said. The figures were announced in a first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, which also revealed that it picked up almost 16 million global subscribers during the first three months of the year. The numbers, accrued as large parts of the world were placed under stay-at-home orders amid the coronavirus pandemic, added a further boost to Netflixs already thriving stock price. Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem And Madness chronicles the downfall of eccentric zoo owner Joe Exotic, who is serving a 22-year jail sentence for plotting to have an animal rights activist murdered. The series became one of the most talked-about shows of recent times following its arrival on Netflix in March, thanks to a combination of its wild story and captive audience due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Netflix has now revealed how popular it was, with 64 million households viewing it around the world. Love Is Blind, a reality show which featured participants dating people they had never seen before, was viewed by 30 million households, while action film Spenser Confidential drew a huge audience of 85 million. The streaming giant has changed what constitutes a view. Previously it counted a view as a member household watching 70% of one episode of a series or feature film. Now, however, the number is based on a member account which watches at least two minutes of a series or movie, which Netflix says is long enough to indicate the choice was intentional. Netflix also said its Spanish drama Money Heist, also known as La Casa de Papel, is expected to attract more viewers than Tiger King. Massive Layoffs in China Since Late March Many Chinese companies resumed operations in mid-February. According to videos released online, a large number of companies ran into financial troubles and announced layoffs in the past two weeks. This is especially true for those export-oriented manufacturing factories. No more purchase orders from the United States and European countries. Employees resumed work on March 3, but received a notice on March 21 that their final day is March 23. Date: March 21, 2020 Man: Make necessary preparations for yourself. Our boss will transfer part of the business to his Xinghai Corporation. Date: Around March 22, 2020 Man in the background: There is no work as there are no purchase orders. Even the boss is at a loss. In a garment factory, employees were told to stop work half-way through their working day. Date: Around March 23, 2020 Speaker: All, silence please. I have an announcement to make. Date: Around March 24, 2020 Woman in the background: As for how the layoff package and compensation is calculated, it is all specified in the public notice. If you have any complaints, you can check the labor law and consult with legal professionals. Date: Around March 25, 2020 Man in the background: Vacation now! We resumed work less than a month ago, now we are to have a three-month vacation. What will our future be? Date: Around April 2, 2020 Man in the background: We rushed to resume the business, but in less than a month, everyone is told to go home and take a vacation. Date: Around April 2, 2020 Man: I have an announcement to make. Because of the epidemic, our company is facing a lot of difficulties. We are now having financial problems. I hope you will be understanding. I will arrange for the financial manager to have your last payment ready this afternoon. I do hope you will be understanding. A foreign trade factory in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province went bankrupt. Employees line up to get their layoff package. New Delhi : A 12-yr-old girl, who was among 11 people who walked from Telangana to return to their native place in Bijapur, died on April 18. The Chief Medical Health Officer, Bijapur says "I'm yet to see her postmortem report but it seems she died either due to exhaustion, electrolyte imbalance or dehydration." The group had gone to Telangana to work in the chilli fields. Since there's no mode of transportation they walked from Telangana. "Her body was preserved and samples were sent for testing as a precautionary measure. It came negative so further action is being taken after postmortem," the CMHO Bijapur, said. The distance to Bijapur is approximately 460 km. Last month, a migrant worker from Madhya Pradesh, who had left for home from Delhi on foot, died after experiencing chest pain in Agra. His death has turned the spotlight on the plight of distressed migrant labourers, many of whom decided to leg it home after the nationwide lockdown came into effect. Short of food and water, and with public transport off the streets, they were left with no recourse but to head home on foot. Karnataka to undertake Triaging: What does it mean and how do you pronounce it Padarayanapura incident an act of "goondaism": Karnataka CM BSY; directs strict action India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, Apr 21: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday termed the ruckus at Padrayanapure here when officials had gone to shift secondary contacts to quarantine facility as an act of goondaism, and directed police to take stringent action against those taking law into their hands. "Yesterday's incident at Padarayanapura is an act of goondaism against police, health and BBMP (civic body) officials. They have destroyed the barricades erected there and chairs used by government staff there," Yediyurappa said. Extension of lockdown imminent in Karnataka: Final call after report submitted to PM says BSY Speaking to reporters here, he said, he had discussed the incident last night itself, and Home Minister and Police officials are taking all measures to maintain law and order. "Caring for whose health, our officials had gone there, without understanding it indulging in goondaism cannot be tolerated," he added. Tension had prevailed at Padarayanapura late on Sunday as some secondary contacts of COVID-19 patients along with a few locals tried to remove barricades and argued with officials who had come to shift them to a quarantine facility. Officials had gone with a list of 58 people who are secondary contacts to be sent to quarantine facility. There are also reports of alleged attack on health care and police personnel during the incident. Padarayanapura has been sealed to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Stating that about 54 people have been arrested in connection with the incident, the Chief Minister said, according to Home Minister four more people will be arrested. "I have issued directions to take all necessary stringent action within the framework of law. The Home Minister and senior officials are at it," he said, adding that such incidents had not happened in the past, such goonda act of taking law into hand cannot be tolerated, strict measures will be taken so that such incident doesn't repeat. Responding to a question, the Chief Minister said whoever has committed mistake will be punished, there was no question of Hindu, Muslim or Christian in it. "An act of taking law into hands will not be tolerated, this message has to go to people across the state. In this view strict measures will be taken," he said. Hitting out at Congress MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan for his statement as to why the health workers and police officials went to the area late in the night and not in the morning, Yediyurappa termed it as "height of irresponsibility". "Who is he? What does he have do? Does government has to take approval from him for the measures it takes and its functioning...it looks like he is supporting and instigating such activities, what does he mean?" the Chief Minister asked. A person who had to seek strict action, if he is giving such statements, it is height of irresponsibility, he added. Though he condemned the incident, Khan had tried to defend the attackers stating they were uneducated labourers who didn't know what they were doing. United Nations rights experts accused Iran of violating international law on Tuesday for executing a prisoner who was just 17 years old when he committed a crime. Shayan Saeedpour, alleged to have committed murder in August 2015, was hanged on Tuesday, United Nations special rapporteurs Javaid Rehman and Agnes Callamard in a statement. He was convicted and sentenced to death in October 2018, the Supreme Court confirming the sentence in February 2019. "We are shocked that the Iranian authorities have once again defied their international obligations by executing a child offender," the UN experts said. "We have repeatedly reminded the Iranian government and judiciary that international human rights law is clear: the application of the death penalty to child offenders is strictly prohibited and its practice is an egregious violation of the right to life." Rehman is the special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, while Callamard is the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The independent experts do not speak for the UN but report their findings to the world body. They said the state prosecutor reportedly pressured the family of the murder victim to request the application of the death penalty. Under Iranian law, they can either choose capital punishment or accept blood money and pardon the offender, the experts said. "We are appalled that in this case Iranian officials allegedly promoted the application of the death penalty to a child offender," they said. The pair said the move may have been prompted by Saeedpour escaping from prison during protests on March 27 concerning the new coronavirus pandemic. Iran is among the world's hardest-hit countries in the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting 5,297 deaths. It has temporarily released some 100,000 prisoners, or around 40 percent of its entire prison population, in several stages since March to reduce crowding. Human rights group Amnesty International said Saeedpour was convicted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a man during a fight. His execution was "vengeful and cruel", said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty's deputy regional director for the Middle East. "The use of the death penalty against Shayan -- a child with a long history of mental illness -- was strictly prohibited. "This is abhorrent and must stop." Amnesty claimed there were at least 90 juvenile offenders on death row in Iran. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Firefighters continue to battle wildfires in two heathland nature reserves in the Netherlands on Tuesday. Efforts to bring the fires in the Deurnese Peel reserve in Noord-Brabant province and De Meinweg in Limburg province under control continued throughout the night, local media reported. On Monday, helicopters from the Dutch air force joined in the firefighting operation in the Deurnese Peel, located between the cities of Eindhoven and Venlo. Firefighters there are battling the flames on foot as fire engines are unable to reach the area. Local media said the air force would continue to fly support missions over the reserve throughout Tuesday. It is not known how the wildfires started but weather conditions at the time were dry, with strong winds. Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Tuesday hit out at the OIC for its criticism of India over alleged incidents of "Islamophobia", saying the country is "heaven for Muslims" and those trying to vitiate the atmosphere of prosperity cannot be friends of Indian Muslims. Asserting that the social, economic and religious rights of Muslims are secure in India, Naqvi said "secularism and harmony" is not a "political fashion", but a "perfect passion" for India and Indians. Naqvi's sharp retort come two days after the 57-member prominent international Mulim grouping, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), asked India to take "urgent steps" to protect the rights of its minority Muslim community and stop the incidents of "Islamophobia" in the country. "We are doing our job with conviction. The prime minister whenever he speaks, he talks about the rights and welfare of 130 crore Indians. If somebody cannot see this, then it is their problem. India's Muslims, its minorities, all its sections of the society, are prosperous and those people trying to vitiate this atmosphere of prosperity, they cannot be friends of Indian Muslims," the minister told reporters when asked about the OIC's criticism. On some scholars in Gulf nations censuring India for alleged crimes against Muslims, Naqvi asserted, "India is a heaven for Muslims and minorities. If somebody is saying something with a prejudiced mindset, then he should look at the ground reality. Muslims have been empowered in the last five years in various spheres and have an equal share in the progress of the country, he said. In this country, there is such a large population of Muslims. An analysis of their educational, social and economic conditions in the last five years should be looked at, their share in government jobs has increased and they have been educationally and economically empowered," Naqvi said. Asked about Maulana Azad National Urdu University Chancellor Firoz Bakht Ahmed's suggestion that the lockdown be extended till May 24 to cover the period of Ramzan, Naqvi said the government has been taking steps at appropriate times. Muslims have had an equal share in the progress of all sections and if India is progressing, the community is also progressing, he asserted. "We should ensure that our strength of unity in diversity' is not weakened under any circumstances. Professional bogus bashing brigades" are still active and conspiring to spread misinformation, Naqvi said. Cautioning against fake and conspiracies aimed at spreading misinformation, he said the authorities have been working for safety and well-being of all citizens, and rumour-mongering and conspiracies are a "nefarious design" to weaken the fight against coronavirus. "Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the entire country is united in the fight against coronavirus by breaking all barriers of caste, religion and region" and the cooperation has brought great relief to India in the war against COVID-19, but still several challenges are there before the country, he added. Speaking about the holy month of Ramzan, which is to start from April 24 or 25, Naqvi said all Muslim religious leaders, imams as well as religious and social organisations have jointly decided to offer prayers and perform other religious rituals during Ramzan staying inside their home. More than 30 state waqf boards have already started working on a strategy to ensure strict and honest implementation of lockdown, curfew and social distancing during Ramzan with the cooperation of the Muslim community after a decision in this regard was taken during a meeting, chaired by Naqvi through video-conferencing, last week. (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 Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 13:30 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd3454e1 1 National COVID-19-in-Indonesia,telemedicine,HaloDoc,Alodokter,President-Jokowi,Joko-Widodo Free The use of virtual medical services has climbed in recent months as people try to contain the spread of COVID-19 at hospitals and clinics in Indonesia, telemedicine platforms have reported. As the telemedicine trend has already risen in the country, President Joko Jokowi Widodo addressed his appreciation toward the business on Monday, hoping that the platforms would grow even more. "I think that medical consultations through advanced technology, or telemedicine, should be enhanced so that we could limit direct contact between doctors and patients [during the pandemic]," said the President during a Cabinet meeting at the State Palace complex on Monday. Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) spokesperson Halik Malik said the association fully supported the telemedicine platforms, which is endorsed by the government, in providing health services for the public, especially during the pandemic. "Telemedicine was designed for teleconsultations, but a further physical examination is still needed for diagnosis and treatment," Halik told The Jakarta Post on Monday. "But at least, it can reduce unnecessary visits to health facilities." According to Halik, the association encouraged doctors nationwide to provide medical consultations through online platforms so that people can access medical information from home. One of the leading telemedicine platforms in Indonesia, Alodokter, has seen a spike in user traffic in recent months. Read also: Amid pandemic, a turning point for telemedicine According to Alodokter partnership vice president Agustine Gunawan, the platform has recorded 61 million web visits and had more than 33 million active users in March. The app has also been downloaded more than 5.5 million and the number of patient-doctor interactions has increased to more than 750,000 last month. "It recorded approximately 1.5 times higher than the usual platform's traffic before the coronavirus outbreak," Agustine told the Post on Monday. "However, in comparison to last month, people nowadays are relatively asking about non-coronavirus-related health issues, such as what medicine to take if you feel unwell at home and so forth," she added. Meanwhile, another app, Halodoc, launched a service on Monday that enables users to make appointments for COVID-19 rapid tests or real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests at 20 hospitals in Greater Jakarta and Karawang municipality in West Java. The platform has formed partnerships with five private hospital chains, namely Mitra Keluarga hospitals, St. Carolus hospitals, Mayapada hospitals, Primaya hospitals and Bina Husada Cibinong hospital. "Weve seen more people become aware of health and they come to our platforms for health consultations," Halodoc CEO Jonathan Sudharta said in a statement on Monday. The platform allows users to directly communicate with doctors through chats, calls and videos, as well as get prescribed medicine delivered to their homes, arrange appointments for doctor visits and lab services. Having used the Alodokter platform for nearly a year, Renza Elma Pramitha, 25, a resident of Sidoarjo in East Java, was among those who still anxiously checked about COVID-19 through virtual medical consultations. "I was feeling unwell last night and I had a consultation through Alodokter to check whether or not I have COVID-19 symptoms," she told the Post. "I was anxious about the coronavirus transmission, especially since my husband still goes to work and meets a lot of people every day. My husband and I typically get sick easily. Even though Renza didn't receive any prescriptions through her free consultation session, she was relieved to actually talk to a medical expert about her current condition. Read also: Quarantined doctors turn to video chats so they can see patients For a stay-at-home mother like Ayu Farida, 26, who has a 5-month old baby, visiting hospitals during this current situation is terrifying. "My son was having a skin rash this morning and I was scared to meet a lot of people in hospitals. The telemedicine app gave me methods to handle the skin rash on my own at home," she said. "Some suggestions did not work as it was hard to make a diagnosis when there was no direct physical examination. But at least telemedicine is fast and sometimes free. Rahma Amelia, 25, a full-time employee of a government agency in Sidoarjo, had a similar experience. She recently used the HaloDoc app for an ear infection. Working from home did not necessarily give her free time to visit a doctor as she had to be productive at home. "It was relatively cheap and helpful for full-time workers as the medicine was delivered to my home," she said. YEREVAN, 21 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 21 April, USD exchange rate is down by 1.65 drams to 480.87 drams. EUR exchange rate is down by 3.96 drams to 520.93 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate is down by 0.21 drams to 6.28 drams. GBP exchange rate is down by 8.31 drams to 593.49 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price is down by 187.97 drams to 26069.2 drams. Silver price is down by 0.96 drams to 234.22 drams. Platinum price is down by 56.83 drams to 12043.6 drams. Granting relief to audit firms BSR and Associates, and Deloitte Haskins and Sells, both former auditors of IL&FS Financial Services, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday quashed all prosecution against the two firms that had been pending before the National Company Law Tribunal and a special court in the city, over alleged financial irregularities. BSR and Deloitte had moved HC last year challenging the validity of the Union government's plea before the NCLT seeking their removal as auditors of ILFS. Such removal under section 140 (5) of the Companies Act would also bring along a ban on the audit firms for five years. The Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs had sought such removal and also initiated criminal proceedings against the firms for their role in alleged financial irregularities at the now bankrupt IL&FS Group. In August last year, the NCLT had found merit in the Union government's pea, and subsequently approved the proposed removal of both firms. The firms however, approached HC arguing that they had already resigned as auditors of ILFS much before the Ministry sought their removal. They had, therefore, challenged the constitutional validity of section 140 (5) of the Act. The section deals with removal and resignation of auditors and imposes a five year ban on an auditing firm that is proven to have "acted in a fraudulent manner", or to have "abetted or colluded in any fraud". On Tuesday, a bench of Chief Justice BP Dharmadhikari and Justice NR Borkar quashed the prosecution of both firms before the NCLT. While the bench upheld the constitutional validity of section 140 (5), it held that the provisions of the section did not apply to former auditors who had resigned. The bench also quashed a criminal complaint filed against the two firms by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), a Central agency, in the above case of financial irregularities. The bench said the SFIO complaint filed before a special court was "bad in law". In June last year, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had moved the NCLT against BSR and some of the then external auditors of IL&FS alleging professional misconduct. At the time, it had also directed the SFIO to initiate probe and disciplinary action against such audit firms. The SFIO had subsequently claimed BSR and some other audit firms had acted in breach of auditing standards and that they had failed to detect financial inconsistencies at IL&FS. Advocate Sujay Kantawala, who was a part of the legal team for BSR, said on Tuesday, the Union government sought a stay for eight weeks on HC's order quashing such prosecution. While the counsels for BSR and Deloitte opposed the government's request, HC granted such stay on its own order. Kantwala stated that HC granted such stay saying that denying time to the government for an appeal would not be "fair in todays troubled times". He added that Tuesday's order quashing prosecution would have major implications on the corporate world and would act as a precedent in preventing "harassment of innocent firms". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) SEATTLE, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kineta, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of novel immunotherapies in oncology, neuroscience and biodefense, announced today the formation of a new scientific advisory board (SAB). The SAB will collaborate with members of Kineta's management and scientific teams to support the development of the company's novel immuno-oncology programs. "As Kineta advances our mission to develop novel immuno-therapies that transform patients' lives, we are excited to have these world-renowned professionals join our team as advisors," said Shawn Iadonato, Chief Executive Officer of Kineta. "Each individual's expertise in oncology drug development from discovery through late-stage clinical studies will provide support through this next stage of growth for our pipeline and company. We look forward to collaborating with our newly formed SAB." Kineta scientific advisory board is comprised of the following experts: Martin (Mac) Cheever, MD Dr Cheever is a Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington. He currently is Principal Investigator and Director for the NCI-funded Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network (CITN). The CITN has brought together leading immunotherapists from 43 foremost North American universities and cancer centers to spearhead the design and conduct of innovative early phase cancer immunotherapy trial with focus on agents that (1) perturbate immune cells and mechanisms central to effective immune responses, and; (2) are can serve as building blocks to construct optimally effective anti-cancer immune responses. In his own research prior to the CITN, Dr. Cheever identified principles of T-cell therapy and identified and developed oncogenic protein targets for cancer vaccine and T cell therapies. In 2019, Dr Cheever received the first-ever Distinguished Service Award from the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). Dr Cheever received his medical degree from the University of Michigan and was cofounder of Corixa Inc, a Seattle biotech company that was founded to develop cancer and infectious disease vaccines. Lisa Coussens, PhD Dr. Coussens is Chairwoman of the Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology, and Associate Director for Basic Research in the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Sciences University and holds the Hildegard Lamfrom Endowed Chair in Basic Science. Dr. Coussens' research focuses on dissecting the roles of normal immune cells in regulating various facets of solid tumor development, identifying leukocyte activities that are co-opted by early tumors to support ongoing cancer development, and in understanding the role leukocytes play in regulating responses to cytotoxic, targeted and immune-based therapies. Utilizing mouse models of mesothelioma, cutaneous, head and neck, pancreas and mammary carcinoma, her research identified critical immune-regulated pathways for therapeutic targeting that are being clinically translated in combination with chemotherapy in women with metastatic triple negative breast cancer, pancreas cancer, and head & neck squamous cancer. In recognition of her research contributions for revealing underlying mechanisms of cancer development, Dr. Coussens' has been acknowledged with multiple awards including the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Gertrude B. Elion Award (2001), the AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Memorial Lectureship (2012), the 13th Rosalind E. Franklin Award from the National Cancer Institute (2015), a Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (2018), the 12th AACR-Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship (2018), a Career Award from the European Academy of Tumor Immunology (2018), the 2018 Susan G. Komen Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in Basic Science, and recently elected as Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS; 2018) and Fellow of the AACR Academy (2019). Michael A. Curran, PhD Dr. Curran is an Associate Professor of Immunology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. as well as co-Scientific Director of the Oncology Research for Biologics and Immunotherapy Translation (ORBIT) program that coordinates development and production of clinical immunotherapeutic antibodies. The Curran Lab seeks to discover the underlying mechanisms of immune resistance in the "coldest" tumors, pancreatic and prostate adenocarcinoma and glioblastoma, so that rational therapeutic interventions can be developed to restore T cell infiltration and sensitivity to T cell checkpoint blockade (for which TIL are the substrate). While pursuing his postdoctoral studies at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Curran published several influential manuscripts describing how T cell co-stimulatory pathways could be modulated in tandem to mediate immunologic rejection of melanomas in mice. Dr. Curran described how combination blockade of the T cell co-inhibitory receptors CTLA-4 and PD-1 promoted the rejection of a majority of murine melanomas. This work supported the launch of a Phase I clinical trial in which greater than 50% of metastatic melanoma patients experienced objective clinical responses. In addition, his subsequent immunologic studies of 4-1BB agonist antibodies earned him the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer's (SITC) prestigious Presidential Award. Dr. Curran received B.A. degrees in biology and foreign affairs and a minor in computer science at the University of Virginia. He next received a Ph.D. in Immunology from Stanford University where he was awarded the McDevitt prize for the best graduate thesis in his year. Dr. Curran was the first recipient of the prestigious American Cancer Society Levy Fellowship to fund his post-doctoral studies in the lab of Dr. James P. Allison. Mark Frohlich, MD Dr. Frohlich is an experienced medical oncologist and biotechnology executive with expertise in drug development of cell & gene therapies, oncology, and immunology. Dr. Frohlich has been involved in the development of immunotherapies for cancer for 20 years. He was most recently Executive VP of Portfolio Strategy at Juno Therapeutics prior to its acquisition by Celgene. He previously served as Executive VP of R&D and Chief Medical Officer of Dendreon Corporation, where he led the clinical team responsible for the approval of the first cellular immunotherapy in the US and Europe (Provenge). Dr. Frohlich is a graduate of Yale College with a BS in Economics and Electrical Engineering summa cum laude, and Harvard Medical School with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He was Chief Medical Resident and completed an internal medicine residency and subsequently completed the oncology fellowship program, both at UCSF. Patricia LoRusso, DO Dr. LoRusso is a Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Associate Cancer Center Director of Experimental Therapeutics at the Yale Cancer Center. She previously served in numerous leadership roles at Wayne State University's Barbara Karmanos Cancer Institute, most recently as director of the Phase I Clinical Trials Program and of the Eisenberg Center for Experimental Therapeutics. Dr. LoRusso has served as co-chair of the NCI Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program Investigational Drug Steering Committee. She also served on the scientific committee of the AACR, and the education and scientific committees of ASCO. She is a former editor of Investigational New Drugs, is currently on the editorial board for Clinical Cancer Research and is a reviewer for several journals. Dr. LoRusso has garnered numerous awards, including the 1999 Heroes of Breast Cancer Award, 2004 Bennett J. Cohen Educational Leadership Award for Medical Research, 2008 NCI Michaele C. Christian Oncology Development Lectureship and Award, the 2014 Targeted Anticancer Therapies (TAT) Honorary Award and the 2014 Michigan State University Distinguished Alumni Award. Mark Middleton, MD PhD Dr. Middleton is Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine in the Department of Oncology, consultant Medical Oncologist at the Oxford Cancer and Haematology Center and Head of the Department of Oncology at the University of Oxford. Dr. Middleton was the Lead Cancer Clinician for the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (2012 -2017) directed the Early Phase Cancer Trials Unit. He is Director of the Cancer Research UK Oxford Centre and co-leader of the Cancer Theme in the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. Dr. Middleton's research concentrates on the development of new cancer drugs and on the treatment of melanoma and upper gastrointestinal tract cancers. He has overseen the development of internationally leading melanoma and upper GI clinical research groups and establishment of portfolios of early phase radiotherapy and hemato-oncology trials in Oxford. He is involved in the evaluation of novel immunotherapeutics, including pre-clinical development, trial design, proof of mechanism and proof of concept. Dr. Middleton studied medicine at Cambridge and Oxford and trained in medical oncology at the Christie Hospital. Kineta, Inc. is a clinical stage biotechnology company committed to developing disruptive life science technologies that address unmet patient needs. We have leveraged our expertise in immunology and innate immunity to advance a focused pipeline of investigational drugs in oncology, neuroscience and biodefense. We actively collaborate with a broad array of private, government and industry partners to advance our innovative products. For more information on Kineta visit our website, www.kinetabio.com , follow us on Twitter at @kinetabio, LinkedIn and Like us on facebook.com/KinetaBio. NOTICE: This document contains certain forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding Kineta's and its affiliates' plans for pre-clinical and clinical studies, regulatory filings, investor returns and anticipated drug effects in human subjects. You are cautioned that such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties inherent in Kineta's and its subsidiaries' businesses which could significantly affect expected results, including without limitation progress of drug development, ability to raise capital to fund drug development, clinical testing and regulatory approval, developments in raw material and personnel costs, and legislative, fiscal, and other regulatory measures. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and neither Kineta nor its affiliates undertake any obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the issuance of this press release. Contact Jacques Bouchy (206) 378-0400 [email protected] SOURCE Kineta, Inc. Related Links https://kinetabio.com Adults practicing social distancing generate at least 90% fewer contacts per day than those who are making little effort to social distance, according to new Gallup data. Those who completely or mostly isolate themselves generate about five contacts per day, compared with an average of 52 for those not attempting to isolate themselves. According to the March 27-April 9 Gallup Panel survey, work is the largest source of close contact Americans have outside of household members, accounting for roughly half of all contacts. Working in retail, hospitality and manufacturing generates the largest number of contacts. Yet, closing workplaces may not be the only way to mitigate contact and suppress viral transmission. Workers who visit their work site but have made changes in how they do their job reduced contacts by 29% to 69%. Why Measuring Contacts Matters In epidemiological models, social distancing has large effects on expected infection growth. Yet, different modeling teams have used varying assumptions for the efficacy of social distancing when it comes to reducing contacts. Getting these estimates right would thus appear crucial to accurately understanding the risks and rewards of different mitigation policies. For example, in research published by public health scholars at Columbia University, these scholars have assumed that social distancing can reduce at most 40% of daily contacts. An influential model from Imperial College London defined "social distancing of the entire population" as reducing workplace contacts by 25%, household contacts by 25%, and social or nonwork contacts by 75%. These parameters also require a baseline measure of average daily contacts. One widely cited study found an average of 13 contacts per person per day across eight European countries, but defined "contacts" as touching or conversation. Alternatively, in the Gallup Panel survey, we defined "contact" as coming within six feet of another person, which is consistent with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines on social distancing. We also asked a more subjective question about the extent to which people are attempting to isolate themselves. Social Distancing Is Harder for Workers As reported in previous Gallup articles, the majority of Americans (74%) have been mostly or completely isolating themselves from people outside their household since March 27, but isolation falls to 67% for workers, as opposed to 84% of nonworkers. Only 3% of adults and 4% of workers have not made any attempt to isolate themselves. As with subjective reports of isolation, the mean number of total contacts with nonhousehold members is much larger for those who are working. Workers generate roughly 10 additional contacts per day compared with nonworkers (13.9 versus 4). Americans' Degree of Social Distancing, March 27-April 9, 2020, by Employment Status All adults Working adults Adults not working Mean contacts 9.9 13.9 4.0 Completely isolated yourself, having no contact with people outside your household 27% 23% 32% Mostly isolated yourself, having very little contact with people outside your household 47% 44% 52% Partially isolated yourself, having some contact with people outside your household 17% 19% 13% Isolated yourself a little, still having a fair amount of contact with people outside your household 7% 10% 1% Did not make any attempt to isolate yourself from people outside your household 3% 4% 1% Gallup Panel, March 27-April 9, 2020 To estimate the effects of social distancing on the number of contacts, I calculated the median and mean number of contacts according to people's subjective assessments of their social distancing efforts -- that is, the number of people they estimate they came into close contact with (that is within six feet of) in the previous 24 hours. Those who say they have made no attempt to isolate themselves generate a mean of 51.9 contacts and a median of 30. These are dramatically higher numbers than those for people who have either mostly or completely isolated themselves. Mean contacts for those who have mostly isolated themselves are 5.4, with a median of 2. Mean contacts are under 2 for those who report completely isolating themselves. It is possible that at least some respondents interpret this item as indicating their level of effort at avoiding contacts. Eighty percent of people who report completely isolating themselves report zero contacts, but others generate contacts through work or going to the store that they may regard as involuntary. Only 8% of people who say they made no attempt to isolate themselves report zero contacts. In any case, these comparisons suggest that isolation through social distancing could generate reductions in contact on the order of 90% or higher, though there are several reasons to be cautious in drawing this conclusion. Americans' Median and Mean Contact Within the Past 24 Hours, by Degree of Social Distancing Median nonhousehold contacts Mean nonhousehold contacts Completely isolated yourself, having no contact with people outside your household 0 1.5 Mostly isolated yourself, having very little contact with people outside your household 2 5.4 Partially isolated yourself, having some contact with people outside your household 5 10.9 Isolated yourself a little, still having a fair amount of contact with people outside your household 14 52.0 Did not make any attempt to isolate yourself from people outside your household 30 51.9 Gallup Panel, March 27-April 9, 2020 One limitation of these data is that people who might normally have had more contacts may be more likely to reject social distancing or avoid it out of necessity. A better estimate would have been to compare an individual's contacts before the pandemic to contacts afterward, but those data are not available. Given that, we looked at a 2007 study of people living in Portland, Oregon, which estimated daily contacts at roughly 21 for middle-aged adults. If this is used as a baseline, it suggests that current compliance with social distancing (averaging five contacts per day) has induced large reductions in contacts, though not as dramatic as a decrease from 52 to five. Where Contacts Occur Since March 27, the majority of contacts for adults outside the household have occurred at work (52%), whereas a smaller but still large share have occurred at the grocery store (26%). No other category accounts for even 10%, but one's home is the third largest at 8%, or fewer than one contact per day, on average. If respondents work in grocery stores or other locations, they were asked to count those only as part of their workplace. These data suggest that closing workplaces is an important strategy to reduce disease transmission. Americans' Mean Number of Contacts, by Location How many people did you come into close contact with at each of the following places? (Close contact means within 6 feet of each other.) Mean number of contacts Share of contacts Your place of work 5.1 52% Grocery store 2.6 26% Your house 0.8 8% Other store 0.4 4% Someone else's home or apartment 0.3 3% Pharmacy 0.2 2% Travel by airplane 0.2 2% Doctor's office, hospital or treatment center 0.2 2% Restaurant 0.1 1% Public transportation 0 0% Total 9.9 100% Gallup Panel, March 27-April 9, 2020 The level of contact also varies widely across economic sectors. One obvious reason is that industries vary in whether the work can be done remotely. Most workers in retail or hospitality report that they have visited their workplace within the past 24 hours (56%). The same is true for manufacturing (59%) and transportation and warehousing (54%). Meanwhile, no more than about one out of four workers visited their workplace in the professional services, education, communications, and finance and real estate sectors. As expected, these results are affected by the day of the week. Workers responding on a Thursday were the most likely to have visited their workplace within the previous 24 hours (44%), whereas workers responding on a Sunday were the least likely (29%). Those who completed the survey on Saturday expressed a relative likelihood of visiting work (43%), presumably because they included Friday as within the 24-hour period. The estimates, therefore, would be slightly higher if people who completed the survey on Sunday were excluded, though this does not significantly alter the rankings by industry. For workers who do visit their workplace, retail/hospitality and manufacturing generate by far the most contacts, with mean contacts of 89 and 47, respectively. Workers in construction; professional services; communications, arts, design, and media; and education generate six or fewer daily close contacts. Median and Mean Close Contacts for U.S. Employed Workers Who Visited Their Place of Employment Within the Past 24 Hours, by Sector of Work Asked of employed adults Median contacts at work Mean contacts at work Retail and hospitality 15 89.4 Manufacturing 5 46.7 Healthcare 4 18.7 Transportation and warehousing 6 14.9 Other services 7 13.8 Government and social services 4 9.9 Finance, real estate and insurance 3 9.1 Agriculture, forestry, utilities and energy 4 7.4 Communications, arts, design, media 4 6.1 Construction 3 6.1 Professional, technological and legal services 2 4.3 Education* 1 2.6 *Education includes library and training services. Gallup Panel, March 27-April 9, 2020 Mitigation Efforts While at Work Despite going to work, the large majority of workers (84%) who visit their workplace report that they have made changes to their job to avoid catching the virus. These changes appear to have reduced contacts. Those not taking steps have a mean number of 33 contacts, but those who have taken mitigation steps have 25 or 11 contacts on average, depending on the extent to which mitigation has made it harder to do their job. Impact of Efforts to Avoid COVID-19 Exposure on U.S. Working Adults' Contacts With Other People Mean and median contacts at work among working adults who visited their place of work within the past 24 hours, by whether they have made changes at work to avoid catching the coronavirus.* Median contacts Mean contacts Yes, and it has made it harder to do my job 5 25 Yes, and it has NOT made it harder to do my job 4 11 No, have not made changes 5 33 * Item states: "Have you made any changes in how you do your job in order to avoid catching the coronavirus, or not? Gallup Panel, March 27-April 9, 2020 In summary, these data provide evidence that the self-isolating practices of most Americans are dramatically reducing daily contacts when compared with pre-pandemic estimates of daily contacts from people who are making little effort to isolate themselves. Work generates the majority of contact, with contacts particularly high in retail and hospitality, which have been mandated to close down through much of the country. Manufacturing workers, who may be making essential products, also generate a large number of contacts relative to workers in other industries, and their jobs are more likely to require in-person work. Fortunately, workers making an effort to change how they do their job appear to mitigate the number of contacts by significant margins. This suggests that reopening businesses could be consistent with disease suppression. Gallup will continue to monitor and report on the practices workers and businesses have adopted to reduce disease transmission. [April 21, 2020] New Hitachi Vantara Virtual Storage Platform Drastically Lowers Data Storage Costs and Simplifies Data Infrastructure Management for Midsize Enterprises SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), today introduced Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) E990, the company's new storage platform for midsize enterprise customers. The E990's high performance and low latency supercharge business applications, and industry-leading data deduplication guarantees storage cost reductions. Hitachi Ops Center's powerful artificial intelligence (AI)-driven management software can also dramatically simplify storage provisioning for AI, machine learning (ML) and containerized applications. The E990 with Hitachi Ops Center provides an NVMe all-flash option for Hitachi Vantara's family of solutions for midsize enterprises, adding to a broad portfolio of powerful infrastructure solutions that feature best-in-class performance and include Hitachi's signature 100% data availability guarantee for businesses of all sizes. The company also unveiled EverFlex from Hitachi Vantara, a program that provides simple, elastic and comprehensive acquisition choices for the E990 and the entire Hitachi Vantara portfolio. EverFlex adds consumption-based pricing models that range from basic utility pricing, to custom outcome-based services, to Storage as a Service. It will align IT spend with business use for midsize enterprises, enabling effective ways to lower cost, avoid wasting capacity and eliminate disruption. Hitachi Vantara will debut the solution during a virtual launch event today at 7:45 a.m. PDT register here. Industry-Leading Deduplication Reduces Storage Costs With data volumes forecast to rise to 23%1 and data storage budgets growing only 10%2 on average, midsize enterprises urgently need solutions to reduce storage costs. The new Hitachi VSP E990 with Hitachi Ops Center delivers industry-leading 4:1 data deduplication twice that of Hitachi's closest competitor guaranteeing to free up 75% of storage capacity3. AI-Enhanced Management Tools Radically Simplify Storage Provisioning Industry analyst firm 451 Research, now a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, suggests 43%4 of storage buyers feel unprepared to support increased future demands. Hitachi Vantara VSP E990 combined with Ops Center directly addresses this challenge. Ops Center's AI-enhanced management streamlines storage delivery by up to 90%3 for demanding applications. It also reduces manual storage provisioning tasks by up to 70%3 and delivers root cause issue analysis four times faster to accelerate troubleshooting. Trusted Performance That Won't Break the Bank Hitachi Vantara VSP E990 addresses the data infrastructure reliability challenges that many enterprises continue to face: One-third of enterprises still suffer outages5 or significant performance degradation as a result of storage reliability issues. VSP E990 delivers Hitachi Vantara's long-standing leadership in reliability to midsize enterprises at a price point they can afford. It features an all-NVMe architecture with the industry's leading and lowest-cost IOPS (as low as $0.03 per IOPS) and ultra-low latency for the most resource-hungry business applications. Predictable Pricing and Flexible Consumption New EverFlex adds greater choice in consumption-basd pricing models that make pricing predictable for cloud-like storage usage. It starts by enabling customers to pay only for what they use and align technology spending with business use to reduce costs by up to 20%3, eliminating the need to pay for the essential reserve capacity that every installation needs. Added services are available to further reduce costs and avoid disruptions to business by providing outcome-based operational services that help deliver more consistent service levels without placing additional burden on staff. VSP E990 Is Supercharged for Partners, Too The VSP E990 is ideal for partners to deliver innovation and benefits important to midsize enterprise customers. Hitachi Vantara continues to invest in its predictable, profitable and pioneering partner program with enablement tools, marketing resources and incentives designed for distributors and resellers focused on midsize enterprises. Read the blog post by Hitachi Vantara Channel Chief Kimberly King to learn more about the opportunity VSP E990 presents for partners and to read commentary from the company's global partner community. Supporting Quotes "With its Virtual Storage Platform E990 system, Hitachi is upping the ante in midrange storage. The VSP E990 is an all-NVMe system that is both storage-class memory (SCM) and NVMe-over-fabric (NVMEoF) ready, can scale to nearly 6 million IOPS and well over 16 petabytes of effective capacity, provides a 'no questions asked' 4:1 data reduction guarantee based on just compression and deduplication, and is backed by Hitachi's 100-percent data availability guarantee," said Eric Burgener, research vice president, Enterprise Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies, IDC. "Midrange enterprises that need room to grow for their mission-critical workloads should look at the compelling value proposition offered by the Hitachi VSP E990." "The VSP E990 is really compelling, especially the software," said Eros Tibor, Team Coordinator, Central European Data Center Compute & Storage Team, KBC Group. "I would buy it." "Hitachi Vantara has led the industry for decades with proven, reliable data solutions that are time-tested for performance, availability and scalability and backed by our pioneering 100% data availability guarantee," said Brian Householder, president, Digital Infrastructure, Hitachi Vantara. "Our new VSP E990 with Hitachi Ops Center completes our portfolio for midsize enterprises, putting AIOps to work harder for our customers so they can work smarter for theirs." Availability Hitachi VSP E990, Hitachi Ops Center and EverFlex are available globally from Hitachi Vantara and its network of partners. Additional Resources 1 451 Research, S&P Global Market Intelligence: "Voice of The Enterprise: Storage, Organizational Dynamics 2019" 2 451 Research, S&P Global Market Intelligence: "Voice of The Enterprise: Storage, Budgets and Outlook 2020" 3 Based on Hitachi Vantara internal testing and/or industry-standard benchmarks against published claims of competitive products 4 451 Research, S&P Global Market Intelligence: "Voice of The Enterprise: Storage, Workloads and Key Projects 2019" 5 451 Research, S&P Global Market Intelligence: "Voice of The Enterprise: Storage, Vendor Evaluations 2019" Connect With Hitachi Vantara About Hitachi Vantara Hitachi Vantara, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., guides our customers from what's now to what's next by solving their digital challenges. Working alongside each customer, we apply our unmatched industrial and digital capabilities to their data and applications to benefit both business and society. More than 80% of the Fortune 100 trust Hitachi Vantara to help them develop new revenue streams, unlock competitive advantages, lower costs, enhance customer experiences, and deliver social and environmental value. Visit us at www.hitachivantara.com. About Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is focusing on Social Innovation Business combining its operational technology, information technology and products. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2018 (ended March 31, 2019) totaled 9,480.6 billion yen ($85.4 billion), and the company has approximately 296,000 employees worldwide. Hitachi delivers digital solutions utilizing Lumada in five sectors including Mobility, Smart Life, Industry, Energy and IT, to increase our customer's social, environmental and economic value. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at https://www.hitachi.com. HITACHI is a trademark or registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. All other trademarks, service marks, and company names are properties of their respective owners. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-hitachi-vantara-virtual-storage-platform-drastically-lowers-data-storage-costs-and-simplifies-data-infrastructure-management-for-midsize-enterprises-301044066.html SOURCE Hitachi Vantara File image: Vijay Mallya Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who lost his UK High Court appeal against an extradition order to India, has said that he is "disappointed" with the ruling but will continue to seek legal remedies as advised by his legal team. The 64-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss reiterated that he has repeatedly offered to pay the Indian banks the loan amount owed by his now-defunct airline, an offer which the banks have rejected. Coronavirus News India LIVE Updates I am naturally disappointed with the High Court decision. I will continue to pursue further legal remedies as advised by my lawyers, Mallya said in a statement on Monday evening. I have repeatedly offered to repay the banks in full, but sadly to no avail, he said. The dismissal of the appeal this week means Mallya has 14 days to apply for permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court. As he has now indicated his intention to seek further legal measures, the UK Home Office would wait for the outcome of that appeal before it can formally certify the court order for Mallya to be extradited to India. Also read: UK court dismisses Vijay Mallyas appeal against 2018 extradition order The businessman, who has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail after his arrest on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017, also expressed his disappointment with the media narrative which quotes Rs 9,000 crore as the amount owed in the fraud and money laundering case brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him. I am also disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9,000 crore. Please note that the allegations against me and others are specifically and only related to three tranches of borrowing from IDBI Bank for a total of Rs 900 crores in 2009. Also read: Vijay Mallya saga: Endgame for the King of Good Times but what next for his lenders? This loan was subsumed along with loans from other banks within the Master Debt Recast Agreement of 2010. Following the DRT (Debt Recovery Tribunal) order for the payment of approximately Rs 5,000 crore by way of Principal and Rs 1,200 crore by way of unapplied interest making a total of Rs 6,200 crores, the banks have already recovered in cash a sum of Rs 2,500 crores, which is 50 per cent of the Principal amount, he claimed. Mallya refers to paragraphs contained within the High Court judgment handed down by Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing, the two-member bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London presiding over the appeal, which refers to these specific amounts. The judgment notes that between April and November 2009, five banks the State Bank of India (SBI), the Bank of India, the Bank of Baroda, the United Bank of India (UBI) and United Commercial Bank (UCO) extended loans to Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) totaling Rs 1,250 crore, leaving a shortfall of Rs 750 crore from the desired infusion of Rs 2,000 crore. The KFA then approached an additional bank, the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), to make up that shortfall. Also read: Tale of two men: Even as Vijay Mallya is forced back to India, Naresh Goyal looks for a way out The Requesting State, the Government of India (GoI) seeks the extradition of the Appellant (Mallya) in respect of these loans. It is said that the loans were obtained by means of a conspiracy to defraud and by means of fraudulent misrepresentations; it is further said that the Appellant engaged in money-laundering some of the proceeds of the loans, the judgment states. In the judgment handed down on Monday, the High Court judges upheld the December 2018 extradition order of the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London and accepted that there is a prima facie case both of misrepresentation and of conspiracy, and thus there is also a prima facie case of money laundering. Also read: Vijay Mallya extradition case: Here is a timeline of the liquor baron's downfall Mallya's legal team had claimed that the loan defaults by KFA were the result of wider issues faced by the aviation industry at the time. But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, managed to establish a blueprint of dishonesty against the businessman and co-conspiring bankers. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here Click here to read the full article. Switzerlands Rita Productions, producer of Academy Award-nominated My Life as a Courgette, is re-teaming with Frances Silex Films, the company behind France Televisions Slash hit series Stalk, to develop Witch! (Sorciere!). Aiming to rehabilitate the figure of the witch in contemporary society, doc-feature Witch! is based on the bestselling essay by Mona Chollet, Witches, the Undefeated Power of Women. The essay should hit English-language bookstores later this year. More from Variety The doc-feature is being written by TV creator Thalia Rebinsky whose Nina is now in its sixth season on France 2, and documentarian Eve Minault, director for French-German public broadcaster Arte of the prescient Crash: Are You Ready for the Next Crisis? Pauline Gygax, Judith Nora, Max Karli and Priscilla Bertin will produce. Minault, Rebinsky and Gygax will present the project on Saturday April 25 as part of an RTS Prize: Documentary Perspectives showcase, organized by the French-language broadcaster at Swiss film festival Visions du Reel, which runs online from April 17 to May 2. Carrying a cash prize of SF10,000 ($10,300), the RTS Prize forms part of Visions April 25-May 2 industry program. The 90-minute documentary feature sets out to track down modern-day witches worldwide. Having done so, it will analyze their figures in current-day society, enrolling testimonies from thinkers, original archive material and contemporary film footage and creative animation. Witches are no longer burnt at the stake. Their position in contemporary society, however, is hardly ideal, provoking at best censorship or self-censorship, at worst, hostility and violence, says a film synopsis. Story continues Witch! is in early development, with the structure and tone of the documentary established, as well as its main axes of adaptation, and of course the iconographic research, which producer Pauline Gygax at Rita Productions called very dense. The witch hunt has always been a hunt for free, autonomous and courageous women. The rise of todays new feminism inevitably provokes very strong resistance (defense of the gains of masculinity; questioning of acquired rights such as abortion throughout the world,; homophobia; resurgence of religious extremism), said Gygax. She added: As Susan Faludi already observed 30 years ago, this is the backlash concept: Today more than ever, witches are visible, but also strongly rejected. Just look at the fate of a smart 16-year-old teenager who allows herself to say that the planet is in trouble. We were destined to work together with Rita Productions on this new project. Rita is our sister production company in Switzerland, we share the same DNA and had the chance to work with Pauline Gygax and Max Karli in the past on a feature film, said producer Judith Nora at Silex Films. She added: Silex Films aims to produce projects with strong cultural impact using new visual grammar aimed to a large and international audience. Witch! reflects this ambition perfectly. Mona Chollets insightful essay is a huge hit in France and its success is spreading all over the world. We feel very lucky as this widespread popularity is opening many opportunities for the international market. Regarding the animation sequences, the producers are exploring various avenues: Bringing still images-archives to life, re-creating witchcraft trials from the Middle Ages but with modern-day witches as defendants, or, as in Judy Chicagos installation The Dinner Party, inventing a dinner that brings together figures of women witches from all eras: Goddess Kali talking with Louise Bourgeois talking with Beyonce talking with Frida Kahlo and so on. Our motto for the film is: Not one single fixed image, Gygax said. The producers are looking to shoot in the U.S., Europe and, crucially, beyond, an aim which will make Witch! a somewhat more substantial budget than most projects being presented at Visions du Reel. This international ambition is very important to us, to consolidate the resolutely pedagogical aspect of the film and also to get out of a kind of western ethnocentrism that is all too common. This would be particularly unfair here., Gygax said. Founded by Karli and Gyax in 2003, Geneva-based Rita Productions produced My Life as a Courgette and, teaming with Silex Films, Bettina Oberlis With the Wind, which won the Variety Piazza Grande Award at the 2018 Locarno Festival. Also in 2018, Rita Productions co-launched Bandita Films, with Ursula Meier (Sister), Lionel Baier (Vanity, Another Man), Jean-Stephane Bron (The Paris Opera), and Frederic Mermoud (Moka) at Lausanne-based Bande a Part Films. The joint venture to make full-on international movies, both fiction and doc-features has Ursula Meiers La Ligne (The Line) near to going into production and Baiers South scheduled to shoot at the need of summer in Italy before the coronavirus crisis postponed these plans. Based in Paris, and focusing on feature, drama series and 2D animation, Silex Films Jungle, Louise Mootz 52-minute doc-feature Jungle capturing her best friends in northern Paris as they confront their desires, sexuality and condition as women with untamed energy, has been selected for Visions du Reels medium-feature and shorts section. Silex drama-thriller Stalk, which was released in March on France Televisions Slash service has quickly become the most critically acclaimed of recent YA French TV series, showcased by The Wit at Mipcom and winning last September best director for Simon Bouisson and most promising actor for Theo Fernandez at La Rochelles Festival de la Fiction TV. Adapting Penelope Bagieus international bestseller Culottees, Silexs 2D animated series Brazen has just been selected for the 2020 online Annecy Intl. Animated Film Festival. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-21 10:02:06 Blue Earth Diagnostics Continues to Expand Access to Axumin (fluciclovine (18F)) with First Commercial Supply in Slovakia, Europe Blue Earth Diagnostics (Europe) Clare Gidley Acting Communications Manager Tel: +44 (0) 7917 536939 c.gidley@blueearthdx.com Media inquiries: Sam Brown Inc. (for Blue Earth Diagnostics) Mike Beyer Tel: +1 312-961-2502 mikebeyer@sambrown.com Blue Earth Diagnostics Ltd, a Bracco company focused on molecular imaging diagnostics, today announced expanded access to Axumin (fluciclovine (18F)) in Europe. The first commercial delivery of Axumin was made in Slovakia in April 2020. This was possible through the Blue Earth Diagnostics distribution partner in Slovakia, MGP, spol. s r. o. Axumin is a PET imaging agent approved in the European Union for use in men with suspected recurrence of prostate cancer. Axumin is commercially available in Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Norway, the Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Austria and, now, Slovakia, with further European countries set to follow soon. Prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in men. While most primary prostate cancer can be successfully treated, recurrence occurs in up to one-third of patients. Recurrent disease is typically detected by a rise in PSA levels but often the location and extent of the disease cannot be detected by conventional imaging. Of those who suffer biochemical recurrence, approximately one-third develop metastatic prostate cancer. Axumin was developed to target the increased amino acid transport that occurs in many cancers, including prostate cancer. It is labelled with the radioisotope (18F), enabling it to be visualized in the body with PET imaging. Dr. Jonathan Allis, Chief Executive Officer of Blue Earth Diagnostics said, We are very pleased that Axumin is now available in Slovakia. Expansion of supply into this new European country demonstrates the productive relationships that we have with our manufacturing and distribution partners, and supports our mission to make Axumin commercially available to clinicians and their patients across Europe. Karel Zeleny, Chief Executive Officer of MGP commented, We are proud of our continuing partnership with Blue Earth Diagnostics, and are happy to be able to distribute Axumin to another new market, contributing to the management of patients with prostate cancer recurrence. About Blue Earth Diagnostics Blue Earth Diagnostics is a leading molecular imaging diagnostics company focused on the development and commercialization of novel PET imaging agents to inform clinical management and guide care for cancer patients in areas of unmet medical need. Formed in 2014, Blue Earth Diagnostics is led by recognized experts in the clinical development and commercialization of innovative nuclear medicine products. The companys first approved and commercially available product is Axumin (fluciclovine (18F)), a novel molecular imaging agent approved in the United States and European Union for use in PET imaging to detect and localize prostate cancer in men with a diagnosis of biochemical recurrence. Fluciclovine (18F) has a broad range of other potential applications in cancer imaging and Blue Earth Diagnostics is investigating the molecule for other cancers including in neuro-oncology. The company's pipeline includes innovative Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA)-targeted radiohybrid ("rh") agents, which are a clinical-stage, investigational class of theranostic compounds, with potential applications in both the imaging and treatment of prostate cancer. Blue Earth Diagnostics is a subsidiary of Bracco Imaging S.p.A., a global leader in diagnostic imaging. For more information, visit: www.blueearthdiagnostics.com. This press release is intended to provide information about Blue Earth Diagnostics business in Europe. The approval status and product label for Axumin varies by country worldwide. Refer to the individual country product label at www.ema.europa.eu/ema/index.jsp?curl=pages/medicin for complete information or contact Blue Earth Diagnostics. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005 ShareBar Comments must be on-topic and civil in tone (with no name calling or personal attacks). Any promotional language or urls will be removed immediately. Your comment may be edited for clarity and length. GetX for Sage 100 will also save your butt. Software publisher xkzero announced today the general availability of GetX Search for Sage 100cloud and Sage 100. GetX provides global-search capability right within Sage 100. With the newest release, global search is now supported for the Sage 100 Job Cost construction module. The challenge with structured systems like Sage 100 is that the user must navigate a complex menu structure in order to locate the data they want. That means that before you can take action, precious time is taken winding through a series of modules, tasks and options, says Paul Ziliak, xkzero co-founder. With GetX the user enters the information they want is a browser window. Instantly the results are presented in an organized fashion. The user can then launch whatever task they need to perform right from the search browser. Research from IDC showed that full-time users of traditional mid-market ERP systems spend 25% of their time searching for basic data. xkzero internal tests have shown 70% average time saving across various data search types using GetX. GetX for Sage 100 will also save your butt. There is data that is simply not searchable using standard Sage 100 tools memos, long descriptions, dollar amounts, detail lines of transactions. GetX finds that data in the snap of your fingers, Ziliak said. Ziliak went on to add, Were especially excited to now support search in the Job Cost module. xkzero served as a development partner to re-write Job Cost for Sage 100 a couple of years ago, so it was a natural for us. About xkzero xkzero is an award-winning software development and consulting company headquartered in Des Plaines, Illinois. Since 2005, xkzero has been providing leading mid-market ERP and mobile sales and delivery solutions for wholesale distributors and manufacturers across North America. Technavio has been monitoring the sensors market for smartphones and it is poised to grow by USD 369.66 mn during 2019-2023. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005668/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is concentrated, and the degree of concentration will decelerate during the forecast period. ALPS ALPINE CO. LTD., ams AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. LTD., and STMicroelectronics NV are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Integration of more sensors in premium range smartphones has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023: Segmentation Sensors market for smartphones is segmented as below: Price Premium Range Medium Range Low Range Geographic Landscape The Americas APAC EMEA To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR31485 Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our sensors market for smartphones report covers the following areas: Sensors Market for Smartphones Size Sensors Market for Smartphones Trends Sensors Market for Smartphones Industry Analysis This study identifies emergence of sensor fusion technology as one of the prime reasons driving the sensors market for smartphones growth during the next few years. Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the sensors market for smartphones, including some of the vendors such as ALPS ALPINE CO. LTD., ams AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. LTD., and STMicroelectronics NV. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the sensors market for smartphones are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Sensors Market for Smartphones 2019-2023: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023 Detailed information on factors that will assist sensors market for smartphones growth during the next five years Estimation of the sensors market for smartphones size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the sensors market for smartphones Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of sensors market for smartphones vendors Table Of Contents : PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2018 Market size and forecast 2018-2023 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY PRICE Market segmentation by price Comparison by price Premium range Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Medium range Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Low range Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Market opportunity by price PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Americas Market size and forecast 2018-2023 EMEA Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Emergence of sensor fusion technology Growing popularity of multiple-lens camera modules Rise in M&A activity PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors ALPS ALPINE CO. LTD. ams AG Robert Bosch GmbH SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. LTD. STMicroelectronics NV PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005668/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ Mexico is considering reopening some portions of the country by the middle of May, despite the rising number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and fatalities. Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the Deputy Health Minister, announced on Monday that "the country could enter the third phase in a matter of days." This means that the infectious illness will start to spread from one city to another rapidly. Additionally, the official also explained that this is the time when the healthcare system is going to be pushed to its limit, not to mention, even fall as there is no adequate equipment to treat the patients. More so, health professionals are apprehensive about getting infected in the middle of protective equipment shortage. Some nurses and doctors in regions such as Coahuila for one have already contracted the COVID-19. Because of the rise in COVID-19 cases, doctors and nurses in this country are experiencing attacks as people start to panic. Several healthcare professionals have been physically attacked by "conspiracy theorists" who don't believe in the virus and by those who are frustrated with the health system, too. Wearing of Scrubs Outside Discouraged Currently, the Department of Public Safety is discouraging the health workers from wearing their scrubs when going out of the hospital. The department has stationed too, the National Guard outside numerous hospitals across the nation. While the health officials are worried about what this "phase three" could mean for the industry, Mexicans fear the outcome economy wise. Relatively, according to the Department of Labor, at least "350,000 jobs" in this country have been lost already. Presently, Mexico is experiencing "phase two." Meaning, the only open establishments are those that offer essential products and services. Schools, as well as the significant events, have all been canceled, and there is a recommendation from the federal government for everyone to practice social distancing. Nevertheless, despite the impending threat of "phase three," the Mexican government announced on Thursday, it could start to reopen municipalities where no confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported. Meanwhile, some people, according to reports, may go back to school and work as soon as May 17. And, for the pregnant and the elderly, as well as the areas with confirmed COVID-19 cases, they are expected to live a normal life until at least early June. Public Places Closed During 'Phase Two' To reduce until stop the spread of COVID-19 during this second phase, the federal government has shut down some public places, including beaches. More so, it is considering restricting the ability of people to travel through the use of traffic stops. Moreover, in several cities, which include Queretaro, located in central Mexico, the local government there is establishing stricter and more localized recommendations. For instance, people are mandated to wear face masks when they go to certain places like the crockery stores. And finally, across Mexico, there are 8,772 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 712 deaths recorded. "Phase Three" is expected to start while there are thousands of cases registered and reported. However, it remains unclear at what exact figure it will be activated. Check these out! Government Officials' Salaries Reduced, Plus 2 Million New Jobs, Promised President AMLO Shocking Figure: 45% of Rhode Islanders with COVID-19 are Latino Women Are More Likely to Lose Their Jobs During the COVID-19 Pandemic An Allahabad university professor has been arrested along with 29 persons, including 16 foreign participants of Tablighi Jamaat meet at Nizamuddin in New Delhi, an officials said on Tuesday. City Superintendent of Police Brijesh Kumar Shrivastava said Prof Mohammed Shahid was arrested on charges of arranging the shelter for Indonesians among the foreigner Tablighi Jamaat members in a mosque here and not informing the police about them. One of the Indonesians had earlier tested positive for coronavirus infection and had undergone treatment for it at Kotwa Bani in Allahabad district, he said. Shrivastava said other arrested included nine Thailand nationals, one each from Kerala and West Bengal besides eleven others associated with Abdullah mosque and Hera mosques at Kareli in the city. While the professor has been remanded to judicial custody after the arrest, others have been kept in isolation, the SP said, adding those arrested have been booked on charges of violating the Foreigners Act and colluding with each other for providing shelter to foreigners and shielding information about them from the police. The SP said during the investigation, it transpired that Prof Shahid had attended the Tablighi Jamaat met at Nizamuddin in New Delhi last month along with many of these foreigners and had shielded this information from the police, besides arranging for the foreigners' stay in local mosques. Shrivastava said it also transpired that all 16 foreigners had come to India on tourist visa visa but had been indulging here in propagating their religion Islam. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rights Defenders Accuse Kazakh Authorities Of Using Coronavirus Restrictions To Stifle Dissent By RFE/RL's Kazakh Service April 20, 2020 ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Rights defenders in Kazakhstan say the government is using restrictions imposed to slow the coronavirus outbreak to crack down on dissent. Several leading civil and human rights activists in the Central Asian nation were arrested over the weekend on charges of distributing fake news about the pandemic. Almaty-based human rights activist Marzhan Aspandiyarova told RFE/RL on April 20 that the activists were arrested on what she called politically motivated charges. "The authorities are using the state of emergency to arrest, persecute, and muzzle prominent and well-known activists. This is what real repression looks like, nothing else," Aspandiyarova said. Activists known for their criticism of the government, Alnur Ilyashev, Arman Shuraev, and Ulan Shamshet, were arrested over the weekend and charged with violating coronavirus restrictions and spreading fake news about COVID-19. Ilyashev was senetnced to two months in jail on April 18, after a court in Almaty found him guilty of the charges. Shuraev, Shamshet, and several other activists detained days earlier on the same charges are still awaiting trial. The director of Kazakhstan's Bureau for Human Rights, Yevgeny Zhovtis, told RFE/RL on April 20 that all those arrested were very active in social networks and by arresting them, the authorities are trying to remove them from social-media platforms. "The authorities are simply eager to isolate potential leaders. What we have in our country is an authoritarian system and the authoritarian regime by such measures tries to preserve control and minimize any challenges they may face," Zhovtis said. The Adil Soz (A Just Word) group in Almaty that defends the rights of journalists and bloggers has expressed concerns over the arrests. In an open letter addressed to Prosecutor-General Ghizat Nurdauletov, the group demanded the immediate release of all those arrested. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/rights- defenders-accuse-kazakh-authorities- of-using-coronavirus-restrictions-to -stifle-dissent/30565971.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 Delhi LG conducts surprise inspection at migrant shelter home India oi-Briti Roy Barman New Delhi, Apr 21: Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has on Tuesday conducted a surprise inspection at shelter home for stranded migrant labourers to see if social distancing norms are being followed. LG Baijal went to the migrant shelter home at Ludlow Castle School to examine the facilities available there and compliance of social distancing norms. Earlier on Tuesday, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Anil Baijal have held a meeting with District Collector and Deputy Commissioner of Police of all districts of Delhi via video conferencing over COVID-19 situation in the national capital. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal conducts surprise inspection at a shelter home for stranded migrant labourers at Ludlow Castle School to examine the facilities available there and compliance of social distancing norms. pic.twitter.com/iYHciC0CEb ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 Anil Baijal is the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and is a retired Indian Administrative Service officer. Coronavirus outbreak: PIL in SC demands govt to allow COVID-19 negative migrants return home Delhi has been facing the exodus of the hundreds of migrants after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the 21day nationwide lockdown in first phase and extension of the lockdown till May 3. Governments did not allow migrants of any state to travel to their native villages to curb the spread of the virus. Situation became hard as most of the migrants are dependent on daily wages. State governments are promising of giving free ration to the migrants but yet the same has not been fulfiled completely it can be said. Meanwhile, Delhi is one of the hard-hit by coronavirus pandemic as it has touched 2,000-mark of affected cases following 47 deaths. The state govt has divided the state into green, orange and red containment zones and is ensuring accordance restrictions would be followed. 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 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. Over a month into the campus closures and distance learning -- which will last through the summer -- the nation's second largest school district is still working to provide devices, hotspots, and meals to students who need them. This week, L.A. Unified opened up about how much these and other efforts related to the coronavirus crisis are estimated to cost the district: almost $390 million. LAUSD has identified funding sources to cover $191 million, but has yet to figure out how to cover the remainder of almost $200 million in expenses. Three district officials -- Superintendent Austin Beutner, Chief Academic Officer Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, and Chief of Special Education, Equity and Access Anthony Aguilar -- joined our newsroom's public affairs show AirTalk to talk about how the district is serving students remotely, and how the district is planning to pay for those adaptations. "If we think it's appropriate for students to be connected, and have an opportunity to learn in this new normal, or this new abnormal -- which I do believe -- then we have to fund it," Beutner said. "And the state has to fund it adequately and appropriately." Here are some other takeaways from the conversation (you can listen the the full hour, which aired on our radio station KPCC 89.3 FM, above). ON THE BUDGET KPCC AirTalk host Larry Mantle: What happens down the road if you end up with a heavily unbalanced budget - you don't get the reimbursement for the food costs you're looking for from the feds, you don't get the state back-filling for all these additional expenditures in tech and [personal protective equipment] and all these other things you've taken on, teacher retraining, all these new expenses? What do you do? LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner: Well, let's start with the converse: why we have to do it. We're teaching students. We're giving them the path out of poverty with a great education. So anyone who thinks the funding won't be there or can't be there, I say the flip side: so what is it we would tell to young boys and girls today, our elementary school students? 'You don't deserve a chance to learn to read? You don't deserve a chance to become proficient in math skills and build that critical thinking which will give you a path to a better life?' I don't think that's acceptable, so it's not dollars and cents. It's what is right for the students, and we're going to have to have a hard conversation about how we make that a priority. Update on April 20th Actualizacion del 20 de abril pic.twitter.com/LTnH88px3V Austin Beutner (@AustinLASchools) April 20, 2020 Beutner: It's interesting to note: people talk of first responders and I think those on the front lines, serving patients and hospitals now, and police, and firefighters are always on the front lines. So are educators, because they're giving children an opportunity, and we can't short that opportunity, and I don't know what we would say to the boys and girls a year from now or 10 years from now. The cost to them would be incalculable, as what the cost to society if we don't do the right thing for students ... Our teachers are doing extraordinary things. You know, extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary efforts sometimes. Chief Academic Officer Alison Yoshimoto-Towery responded to concerns that some students may ease up on their studies because LAUSD has said grades will not drop below their March grades and no students will fail: A 'D' [grade] is also 'not proficient,' like a fail is, and although we give credit for a D, we know that students who get C's or better are more likely to succeed. So our focus is really going to be on learning, on ensuring that students are ready for the next grade, for the next course that they need to take. And irrespective of their grade, students who get D's, we're going to encourage them to go to summer school. We would enroll them in summer school, follow up with the calls to make sure that they get there. On the "modified A-D" grading policy, #LAUSD's Chief Academic Officer @AlisonLASchools: "Grading can be controversial on a good day I could almost guarantee that if we went with a fail policy, wed have an equal number of people who would be questioning that as well." Kyle Stokes (@kystokes) April 21, 2020 Mantle: We're hearing frustration from parents - why is my child, who requires occupational therapy or speech therapy - why are they not getting that online over video? So what are the reasons for that? Chief of Special Education, Equity and Access Anthony Aguilar: We wanted to make sure that the connectivity issues, the device issues, making sure that that was an option for all of our families, and to be able to do that. To be able to move to and transition to more of that kind of live video is something that, again, we're learning right now. It's an opportunity I think we can build on and start moving towards being able to provide it. But, you know, again, it's important to assess the needs of our families and students at the time. So when do you think that the families are going to be up and running with video? Aguilar: Posted on: April 20, 2020 9:13 AM [Anglican Taonga] Anglican indigenous leaders have reported from around the Communion that already stressed indigenous health systems now face pressure to perform on lower resources than non-indigenous health systems as they work to protect their people from the Covid-19 disease. Each of the Anglican Communions indigenous church leaders that reported to a Zoom meeting of the Anglican Indigenous Network (AIN) in late March, expressed concerns that national responses to the pandemic did not take into account the extra needs of older and at risk people in indigenous communities. In each place where Anglican indigenous churches minister, indigenous communities have to contend with lower baseline health due to racial discrimination-led poverty, including under-resourcing of indigenous health needs by non-indigenous health systems. Dr Bradley Hauff, Missioner for Indigenous Ministries in the US-based Episcopal Church, reported that in Turtle Island (US) the Indian Health System (IHS) is struggling to access sufficient Covid-19 testing kits or medical supplies, and its lower hospital capacity means the IHS has difficulty quarantining patients. Tribal businesses are also suffering loss of income due to the shutdown, which will have a negative flow-on effect on community health more widely. Archbishop Mark MacDonald explained how the shutdown of many services in Canada is disproportionately affecting indigenous people in outlying areas where they depend on the now reduced transport services to bring essential supplies to keep households functioning. While some areas are too remote to have been affected by the virus yet, inadequate health services in those areas pose a greater risk to people in remote communities should the virus arrive. In Hawaii, Kalani Holokai reported that the Maui Island church has had to close its Cup of Cold Water feeding ministry for people living on the streets and the community is coping with widescale job losses of indigenous people employed in the tourism sector, food service and social service industries. Dr Rose Elu reported from Australia that for now the Torres Straits Islands are free of the disease, and have closed their border. In Brisbane, Aboriginal communities are focused on supporting mental health for isolated members of their communities during the lockdown. The Bishop of Tai Tokerau, Bishop Kito Pikaahu, who is Chair of the AIN, explained in a communique how indigenous people are more vulnerable to Covid-19 infection because of already compromised health. This comes from a variety of factors, he said, including intergenerational poverty, the potentially swift spread of infection within multigenerational households, loss of income from job losses and limited and delayed access to social services and benefits for people in remote locations. Another area of concern for poorer indigenous communities are communications and information challenges because of lack of a phone and internet due to job losses particularly during this time where cell phone and internet communication for vital services is the new normal. The AIN has asked the Anglican Communion for both prayers and practical support for Anglican indigenous communities that face added risks from the pandemic especially elderly people and the greater number of indigenous people with underlying health conditions. KYIV, Ukraine, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kernel, the world's largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil, a key supplier of agricultural products from the Black Sea region to the world markets, is rendering assistance to Ukrainian medical workers in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. The company has allocated $5.5 million to combat coronavirus, of which $2 million was allotted to the state national fund to support the needs of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and $3.5 million was used for emergency purchases of medical equipment in the Poltava and Kirovohrad regions. "Being a socially responsible company, Kernel just can't remain silent when the country needs support. We are directly involved in large-scale anti-coronavirus campaigns to be sure that hospitals are ready to provide prompt and professional medical help for residents of the Poltava and Kirovohrad regions. Also, emergency response centers were created to coordinate the situation. Together with the Poltava and Kirovohrad Regional State Administrations, we have developed a comprehensive program to support medical institutions. This agreement, as well as regional distribution of responsibilities, was reached at a meeting held by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi with leading Ukrainian business companies," Ievgen Osypov, Kernel's CEO, said. "We've already allocated $5.5 million to combat the coronavirus epidemic in Ukraine. As long as our country is at risk, our hospitals lack necessary medical supplies and our doctors need personal protective equipment, we will provide both financial and coordination support." As of today, over 200 units of medical devices are purchased. Among them are high quality artificial lung ventilation apparatuses, polymerase chain reaction-based diagnostic apparatuses, oxygen concentrators, patient monitors, defibrillators, electrocardiographs, X-ray apparatuses and other essential life-saving equipment. "Our task is to collect accurate information from hospitals on their precise needs, make prompt purchases, organize proper coordination and delivery, which is a really challenging task in the environment of global shortfalls of medical equipment and protective outerwear. We are not only working to find each and every required unit, but also to withstand stiff competition with other numerous purchasers on the world market. We also need to ensure prompt delivery under current cargo transportation restrictions. Furthermore, safety control of both the counterparty and the equipment itself is crucial," Natalia Kulchytska, Head of Kernel's HR Department, pointed out. Kernel has allocated $1.6 million to purchase personal protective equipment and other vital supplies for medical workers: professional protective outerwear, gloves, surgical masks, protective shields and glasses, different kinds of respirators, etc. Additionally, about $0.5 million is allocated for the purchase of medicines. According to the requests received from hospitals, we've purchased antibiotics, anti-spastic medicines, painkillers and bronchial spasmolytics, antivirals, blood substitutes, antifungals, antimicrobials and other medications. The strategic program against coronavirus realized by Kernel is not limited to only supporting the needs of hospitals in the Poltava and Kirovohrad regions. The company provides financing and puts forth efforts to support medical workers in all regions of its operations. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1081260/Kernel_Logo.jpg Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Masks being sterilized at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute At the DanaFarber Cancer Institute, a non-profit hospital located in Boston, a team of researchers discovered they could use existing sterilization technology to decontaminate disposable personal protective gear (PPE) for reuse. They are the only facility in the world sterilizing their N95 masks, face shields, and PAPR hoods in this way. Using this technology, they can sterilize 2,000 N95 masks in two hours. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. As N95 masks ran out across America, Melissa McCullough began to get concerned. Patients from all over the world come to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston for cancer care, and the non-profit hospital employs over 5,000 people. But without access to the proper personal protective equipment, or PPE, McCullough knew they wouldn't be able to provide that care. "We recognized that we had a supply chain problem," McCullough, the senior director of Environmental Health and Safety at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told Insider. "It was becoming particularly obvious to us that the supply chain was broken and it wasn't coming in." So the research operations team at the hospital decided to test whether disposable N95 masks, used by medical workers to protect themselves from viruses like COVID-19, could be cleaned effectively enough to be reused. Two weeks later, their hunch was confirmed, and Dana-Farber became the only hospital in the world to use ionized hydrogen peroxide technology to sterilize PPE. On April 20, Dana-Farber will begin decontaminating 2,000 masks a day with a two-hour sterilization process, and each formerly-disposable mask will be able to be reused five times. Here's what the process looks like. The decontamination system was built into a room in the hospital. The machine is manufactured by Tomi, an infectious disease control company based in Beverly Hills. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Prior to the pandemic, the Steramist ionized hydrogen peroxide system was used to sterilize anything coming into the hospital from the outside world, from garbage bags to sensitive experimental materials. Story continues The machine sends a stream of hydrogen peroxide through a plasma arc, and delivers a misting solution of ionized hydrogen peroxide to everything in the room. The system was designed to work with the existing HVAC system, which shuts off when the machine is on, and aerates the room when the process is over. McCullough doesn't know exactly how much the system costs, as it was built in with the rest of the building, but she says it's not cheap. She estimates that the misting solution alone costs about $250 per 2,000 masks. The focus is on sterilizing N95 respirators, face shields, and PAPR hoods. The world is facing an N95 mask shortage. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute For the experiment, Dana-Farber researchers had to see if the machine would work on face shields, N95 respirators, and PAPR hoods, which are powered air purifying respirators worn over the head. All of these items, which block coronavirus-laced droplets, are in high demand for healthcare workers at hospitals. "Anyone who's going into a really hot environment with COVID-19 positive patients is wearing either a heavy duty N95 respirator and a face shield or a PAPR," said McCullough. Researchers only tested the procedure on 12 N95 masks, as McCullough and her core team, who called themselves SEAL Team 9, "were very cognizant of the fact that these were precious materials," she said. The materials were set up in the room for five days with biological indicators underneath them. If nothing grew on them, SEAL Team 9 would know that the masks had been sterilized. The respirators had to be sent a testing facility that checked for filtration efficiency, to ensure the mist hadn't affected their ability to filter pathogens. Ultimately, the team found that the PPE could be safely re-sanitized at least five times. The system works because hydrogen peroxide reacts with air and turns to water. There is a small but growing body of N95 decontamination research being conducted. Dana Farber Cancer Institute After the decontaminated N95 masks were rolled out, there was some apprehension from Dana-Farber staffers about whether they would really work. "There was some concern, when you hear something's been treated with a chemical that you're going to put on your face," McCullough said. Staffers were concerned because breathing in hydrogen peroxide in high concentrations can be damaging. "It kills pathogens, and it can also kill healthy cells," said McCullough. "A 3% hydrogen peroxide solution, you can buy at CVS and gargle. We're taking a 7.8% solution, and putting it into a mist in the air." This kills pathogens because hydrogen peroxide reacts with air and turns to water and oxygen. "If you've ever left a bottle of hydrogen peroxide open in your medicine cabinet, when you come back, it will all react with air and turn to water," said McCullough. To protect against residual hydrogen peroxide, McCullough and her team added extra time for the masks to air out. Many researchers are rushing to find alternate ways to decontaminate N95 masks. UV light and dry heat can also be used to decontaminate N95 masks. Dana Farber Cancer Institute McCullough says most other hospitals wouldn't be capable of doing this procedure, because they don't have a room dedicated to the sterilization of materials. "You can do small numbers in a biosafety cabinet that's set up, or you can set up a room with a handheld version of the equipment that we have in the room," she said. "You can do this on individual pieces, but the amount of effort that it takes to do 10 pieces is equivalent to the amount of effort it takes for us to do thousand pieces." Dana-Farber's decontamination system isn't the only one on the market. There's also the Battelle system, which recently received a $415 million contract from the Pentagon, although McCullough noted that their process takes eight hours to Dana-Farber's two. Duke University has also announced plans to use hydrogen peroxide for mask decontamination at three of its hospitals. According to the National Institutes of Health, UV light, dry heat, and ethyl alcohol can also be used to sanitize masks. Read the original article on Insider When I saw the pallets of supplies, and we tested the masks, I was pretty happy that this could work out, said Dr. Artenstein, who drove several hours to execute the deal. He said he would not disclose the name of his vendor or its location because he did not want to jeopardize his ability to work with the vendor again. Just when he thought he had wrapped up his deal, Dr. Artenstein said, the F.B.I. appeared, checking the shipment of one million masks and seeking to verify Dr. Artensteins credentials. In retrospect, he said, he was glad that F.B.I. agents were there, apparently to ensure that the masks were not going to the black market. But then other federal agencies soon got involved, leading to more than 10 hours of delays, he said. The process ended only after the intervention of the Springfield area congressman, Representative Richard E. Neal, a Democrat and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. A FEMA official declined to comment on the specific case that Dr. Artenstein described. The F.B.I., citing a policy of not confirming or denying specific investigations, declined to comment on the incident but said it had been working to ensure that personal protective equipment is not being unlawfully distributed or hoarded during the coronavirus outbreak. An official from FEMA said that there have been cases where the federal government has redirected supplies away from communities even those with growing outbreaks because it must weigh other variables, including how much equipment a state already has in storage. Dr. Artenstein said he came away believing that the nation was in desperate need of a central clearing house for these supplies. He was forced to go his own way, he said, because what exists now is a zero-sum game, and the cavalry does not appear to be coming. Jennifer Steinhauer, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Mitch Smith contributed reporting. A 67-year-old woman, neighbour of the woman who died of COVID-19 at a village in Dakshina Kannada district, has tested positive for coronavirus, officials said. The woman, from Kasba village in Bantwal, was admitted to the Wenlock Hospital on Saturday with respiratory issues and her throat swab was sent for test. Results received on Tuesday turned out positive, Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh said in a communique. The district administration had already sealed off Kasba village after the death of the 50-year-old woman Sunday. With this, the number of persons tested positive in the district has gone up to 16. A total of 12 patients have recovered and been discharged, while three are currently under treatment. Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said 34 people in Bantwal, including a doctor, have been quarantined. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The world's biggest sovereign wealth fund faces serious questions over the conduct of its outgoing chief executive and the selection process of his successor amid a scandal involving a luxury jet and a private performance by Sting. CEO Yngve Slyngstad has had to explain why he accepted a flight paid for by Nicolai Tangen, the hedge-fund manager who was eventually tapped to succeed him. The development has now prompted the central bank's watchdog to look into convening an emergency meeting to examine more closely the circumstances under which Mr Tangen was selected. The revelations have stunned Norwegians and created the appearance of scandal around one of the country's most revered institutions. Mr Tangen's appointment had already raised eyebrows. To some, his jet-set lifestyle seemed at odds with the spirit of a fund created to safeguard the savings of an entire nation. The Supervisory Council of Norway's central bank, which oversees the $1 trillion fund, will try to find out whether the events "represent a breach of regulations applying to Norges Bank's activities," its head Julie Brodtkorb, said yesterday. The central bank published a long overview of the hiring process on its website, including the entire history of email exchanges between Mr Slyngstad and Mr Tangen. It also said it had decided to try to refund Mr Slyngstad's expenses. Mr Tangen is due to take over as CEO in September. Mr Slyngstad announced last October he intended to step down after leading the fund for 12 years, during which time he generated record returns. At the centre of the affair is a closed conference paid for by Mr Tangen that took place in the US in November. The event was attended by several other top-ranking Norwegian public figures. Mr Tangen's subsequent appointment as CEO last month was a surprise - he never appeared on any official list of candidates. He was first contacted by a head-hunting firm in December 2019. Norges Bank says Mr Slyngstad wasn't involved in the recruitment process. Mr Tangen has since told newspaper VG that he planned the seminar back in 2018. Mr Tangen, the founder of a $16bn investment firm called AKO Capital whose funds are registered in the Cayman Islands, reportedly contacted Mr Slyngstad by email in January to ask about the job. In the email, later published by the bank, he referred to their encounter at the seminar in November. Mr Slyngstad never replied. Bloomberg Cass County health officials are reporting the second confirmed COVID-19 infection involving a county resident. A man in his 50s is isolated and hospitalized, Cass County Health Department public health coordinator Andrew C. English said Monday. The countys first confirmed infection was reported Sunday and involves a woman in her 20s. The health department on Friday acknowledged a positive COVID-19 infection was confirmed in an employee at a Beardstown company, but that person lives elsewhere so the infection was not counted in Cass Countys numbers. Morgan County reported no new infections Monday, with total confirmed infections in the county at 13. Ten tests are pending and 156 have been returned as negative, according to a daily joint communication from the Morgan County Department of Public Health, Jacksonville/Morgan County Emergency Management, Memorial Health System, Morgan County commissioners and the city of Jacksonville. Brown and Scott counties are the only in west-central Illinois that have no COVID-19 infection as of Monday. In the region, one infection each has been confirmed in Pike, Greene and Schuyler counties. There are eight confirmed infections in Jersey County, 20 in Macoupin County, and 64 in Sangamon County. The Illinois Department of Public Health on Monday announced 1,151 new confirmed COVID-19 infections in Illinois and 59 additional deaths. There are 31,508 confirmed infections, and there have been 1,349 deaths, in 95 counties in Illinois, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. David C.L. Bauer Popular American cartoonist, illustrator and director of Tom and Jerry, Gene Deitch has passed away at the age of 95. According to Metro UK, the Oscar-winning illustrator died on Thursday night at his apartment in Prague. His Czech publisher, Petr Himmel, confirmed the news to The Associated Press where he explained that star died unexpectedly. READ ALSO Prison Break Actor, Ranjit Chowdhry Dies At 64 While Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani are yet to go public with their relationship, their cute PDA and flirty comments on each other's Instagram posts often sets several tongues wagging. Disha shares a great bond with Tiger's sister, Krishna and the girls have lately been giving us a sneak-peek into their adorable camaraderie with their videos and comments on social media. Recently, rumours flew thick that Disha and Tiger have moved in together amid the COVID-19 lockdown. Reacting to these reports, Krishna turned down these rumours while speaking with Mumbai Mirror. When asked if Tiger and Disha are living together, she told the tabloid, "She isn't, but she lives close by. We go grocery-shopping sometimes." She also opened up about Tiger-Disha's friendship and said, "He and Disha have been friends for ages. We connected over fitness. Since Tiger is a loner, I figured she is a cool girl if my brother is spending so much time with her." Krishna revealed that Tiger has a very good sense of humour though it takes time to understand him. She also said that she is enjoying his company amid the lockdown and told the daily, "I don't see him as much as I used to before he joined films. Now, we're bonding more, having dinner together every day. We hadn't done that in a while. At night, we play board games." Meanwhile, Krishna's boyfriend Eban Hyams has moved in with her amid the lockdown. Recently, in an interview with Spotboye, she opened up about their relationship and was quoted as saying, "He is very attractive, really my type. Over time it became much stronger because I started getting to know him. We shared so much of the same interests. We are so comfortable with each other and have so much in common." While Tiger, Krishna and their mother, Ayesha are homebound in Mumbai, Jackie Shroff is stuck at his farmhouse between Mumbai and Pune due to the nationwide lockdown. Krishna Shroff Talks About How She Fell In Love With Eban Hyams; Reveals Who Proposed First! Disha Patani Is 'Heart Eyes' For Tiger Shroff's Throwback Picture From Baaghi 3 Sets" title=" Disha Patani Is 'Heart Eyes' For Tiger Shroff's Throwback Picture From Baaghi 3 Sets" /> Disha Patani Is 'Heart Eyes' For Tiger Shroff's Throwback Picture From Baaghi 3 Sets RICHMOND, Va., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) today announced it would issue its earnings release containing first quarter results after the market closes on May 5, 2020. A conference call will be held on May 6, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. (ET) to discuss the quarter's results. At this time, the company will report on business results and provide an update on the pending transaction with China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. Genworth's earnings release and first quarter financial supplement will be available through the company's website, http://investor.genworth.com, at the time of their release to the public. Genworth's conference call will be accessible via telephone and the Internet. The dial-in number for Genworth's May 6th conference call is 888 208.1820 or 323 794.2110 (outside the U.S.); conference ID # 7621267. To participate in the call by webcast, register at http://investor.genworth.com at least 15 minutes prior to the webcast to download and install any necessary software. A replay of the call will be available at 888 203.1112 or 719 457.0820 (outside the U.S.); conference ID # 7621267 through May 20, 2020. The webcast will also be archived on the company's website for one year. About Genworth Financial Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) is a Fortune 500 insurance holding company committed to helping families achieve the dream of homeownership and address the financial challenges of aging through its leadership positions in mortgage insurance and long term care insurance. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Genworth traces its roots back to 1871 and became a public company in 2004. For more information, visit genworth.com. From time to time, Genworth releases important information via postings on its corporate website. Accordingly, investors and other interested parties are encouraged to enroll to receive automatic email alerts and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds regarding new postings. Enrollment information is found under the "Investors" section of genworth.com. From time to time, Genworth's publicly traded subsidiary, Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Limited, separately releases financial and other information about their operations. This information can be found at http://www.genworth.com.au. SOURCE Genworth Related Links https://www.genworth.com Members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force are deployed in Manila to help enforce quarantine checks, April 21, 2020. Updated at 12:22 a.m. ET on 2020-04-22 Countries across the region should prepare to keep lockdowns in place for the foreseeable future to contain the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organizations regional chief said Tuesday. COVID-19 is wreaking havoc worldwide, pushing governments to implement measures to restrict the movement of people, said Dr. Takeshi Kasai, WHOs Manila-based head for the Western Pacific region. This is not the time to relax, Kasai told an online news briefing. Instead, we need to ready ourselves to a new way of living for the foreseeable future. In Manila, a lockdown imposed by President Rodrigo Duterte is set to expire at the end of this month, and he has been consulting his officials on whether to extend it or lift the order in phases. On Tuesday, the Philippine health department reported 140 new coronavirus infections, bringing the number of nationwide cases to 6,599. There were also nine new deaths, taking the toll to 437. Kasai noted that the coronavirus had forced countries to impose unwelcome prohibitions on movements and other measures, which he said had proven effective in slowing and reducing transmission and easing the burden on overstretched health systems. While there has been no widespread community transmissions in the Western Pacific region, compared to the United States and Europe, governments must not relax, Kasai said. Theres no one-size-fits-all approach, he said. Every country needs to discuss [this] within their official context. Lifting of quarantines or lockdowns could be done on a stage by stage phasing out, depending on the health capacities of each country, he said. We should be very cautious. We really have to assess the situation and we have to address this as a risk-based approach, Kasai said, emphasizing that the COVID-19 battle was going to be a long one. As health experts around the globe race to develop a vaccine, countries must do their part and learn to adapt to the new normal, while being prepared for large-scale community outbreaks, he said. Globally, more than 2.5 million infections have been recorded while the death toll stood at more than 171,800 as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. No decision yet In the Philippines, Duterte had consulted with various officials to discuss the possibility of extending the lockdown, which is now in place over Luzon, the countrys main island that is home to some 60 million people. As of Tuesday, however, no decision has yet been reached, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said. The president has made no decision yet on what will happened when April 30 comes around, Roque told a news conference. He said that the options of the president were dependent on whether regions in the country had already flattened the curve. He said that during the presidents consultations with experts, none of them had recommended a total lockdown. The question is, can we have our countrymen wait so long. Can the government feed them? We are trying to balance the right to live and the right to have a living, Roque said. WHO chief: Some countries considering lifting restrictions On Monday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said easing restrictions is not the end of the epidemic in any country, as he emphasized that suppressing the disease would require a sustained effort from individuals, communities and governments. So-called lockdowns can help to take the heat out of a countrys epidemic, but they cannot end it alone, he told reporters in Geneva. Tedros also said last week that some countries were considering when they could lift restrictions; while others were considering whether and when to introduce them. He did not identify the countries. In both cases, these decisions must be based first and foremost on protecting human health, and guided by what we know about the virus and how it behaves. WHO had earlier warned that easing of coronavirus lockdowns should be done slowly and only when there was the capacity to isolate cases and trace contacts. Meanwhile in Thailand on Tuesday, Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan o-cha said his government would not rush to lift restrictions on movements that were imposed as safeguards against the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to lift bans and restrictions will not be made under any pressure, Prayuth told reporters. The most important things are evaluating the situation and advice from health experts. If we rush to ease measures, the pandemic will return. Prayuth made his comments after the cabinet approved 98.7 billion baht ($3 billion) in relief measures to help mitigate the coronavirus impact. Officials earlier said that up to 10 million people could lose their jobs due to the pandemic, but the government has also announced a series of packages worth billions of dollars, including subsidies to farmers and to help businesses bounce back from economic shock. Thailand reported 19 new infections on Tuesday, taking its coronavirus tally to 2,811, with one fatality added to its previous death toll of 47. Health authorities reported that the daily increase in new confirmed cases had stayed under 20 during the past two weeks. Prayuth rolled out emergency measures and ordered a partial lockdown in March, when his government recorded a surge in new coronavirus infections. Prayuth said he would consider next Tuesday whether the restrictions on movement would be extended. The situation is getting better, the new cases declined for many days, Prayuth said. But we need to be careful and not to rest assured prematurely. This story has been updated to correct a typo in the first quote by Dr. Takeshi Kasai. President Akufo-Addo has said some circumstances and conditions have to be carefully considered before the ban on public gatherings is lifted. Nana Akufo-Addo at a meeting with members of the Council of State at the Jubilee House said he is aware of the impact of the closure of schools, churches and mosques. The President said he is however still holding consultations with key stakeholders including members of the Council of State to conclude on the next line of action as far as the ban is concerned. There are still very important measures in place that are impacting the daily lives of our people. How long can we keep the churches closed? How long can we keep the mosques closed? What about our schools? When are they going to be able to resume? What are the circumstances and conditions that we have to see being satisfied before those measures can be taken? There are very critical steps that we all have to think about. The present situation, the emergency cannot be a permanent feature of our national life. We have to at some stage confront the future and how we will address that future. I think at all those critical points, you have an important input to make. There are some amongst who have been reaching out to me on an individual basis but I have not had the opportunity for this collective meeting between the President and his Council of State, he said. The ban on social gatherings is still in force, despite the lifting of the partial lockdown on Accra, Kumasi, Tema and Kasoa. For the avoidance of doubt, President cited conferences, workshops, funerals, parties, nightclubs, drinking spots, beaches, festivals, political rallies, religious activities and sporting events as part of activities still banned in Ghana. Though all educational facilities are also to remain closed, the President said: businesses and other workplaces can continue to operate, observing staff management and workplace protocols with the view to achieving social distancing and hygiene protocols. The cumulative effect of the novel coronavirus pandemic has already been estimated at GHS9.505 billion after the halting of activity in most sectors of the economy. The worst-hit businesses are expected to benefit from a stimulus package from the government. Parliament's has given the Minister of Finance the green light to make use of the GHS 1.2 billion Contingency Fund to lessen the toll of the pandemic on the economy. Parliament also approved a $1 billion IMF Rapid Credit Facility in this regard. The strain on businesses has led observers to urge the government to be mindful of the economic casualties as well as the business ones. ---citinewsroom VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / Stillcanna Inc. (SCNNF) (STIL.CN) (FRANKFURT:A2PEWA) ("STIL" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that on Friday April 17, 2020 it signed a comprehensive Letter of Intent (the "LOI") to acquire Sativa Group PLC, one of the United Kingdom's (UK) first medical Cannabis Companies (the "Proposed Transaction"). The Proposed Transaction, which is arm's-length, will constitute a "Fundamental Change" of Stillcanna under the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE"). The Sativa Group is comprised of 5 corporations, including: GoodBody Botanicals (GBB) "CBD you can Trust" offers a wide range of CBD products including gels, balms, capsules, tinctures and more for the wellness market. The Goodbody Botanicals brand is distributed throughout UK, this includes major high street retailers and both national and local pharmacies. This channel is supported by the UK's top distribution partners and is also available online. GBB not only manufactures for themselves utilizing their own production and packaging facility, but also provides white label services to other brands. GoodBody Wellness is focused on the health & beauty markets, the brand is sold to high-end retail health and beauty stores. The brand is also available through Company owned GBB retail outlets, which provide a premium consumer experience, backed via online sales. PhytoVista Laboratories (PVL) is Sativa Group's independent analytical hemp and CBD testing facility. PVL provides support to retailers, distributors and manufacturers by expertly testing the cannabinoid levels of the hemp and CBD products. PVL is one of the UK's most trusted laboratories operating to GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) and ISO 17025 standards, with the aim of being ISO accredited by early 2020. Sativa Cultivation and Extraction Ltd. that holds a Controlled Drug License for the cultivation, production and possession of high THC content cannabis in the UK with an emphasis on medical research. The Company has a partnership agreement with King's College London to research the impact of cannabinoids on inflammation and respiratory conditions. Story continues Tessellate Collective Ltd. is Sativa's direct sales channel, model popularized globally in the cosmetics and wellness sectors. Tessellate has over 500 well established direct sellers acting as advocates for the brand and who have access to an easy-to-use and financially rewarding commission plan. A video overview of Sativa is available at https://youtu.be/8s0w9FUL8rs?t=11 The combined assets and licenses of Stillcanna and Sativa create a Company whose overall cannabis opportunities in Europe should be unrivalled. Stillcanna's commitment to Novel Food licensing, and GMP licensing will assure the entities products will be available in markets beyond the February 2021 Novel Food deadline. With extraction and cultivation of all cannabinoids, from wellness to medical research combined with established brands, existing wholesale and retail sales channels, backed by a state-of-the-art laboratory, the new corporate entity will blanket opportunities within the new wellness space. "We have vetted multiple opportunities in searching for a brand that could complete the seed to consumer model for Stillcanna," stated Jason Dussault CEO of Stillcanna. "We believe that only companies that can control their supply chain, while complying with the upcoming legal framework outlined by the European Union, will succeed in the future Cannabis marketplace. Through this acquisition both Sativa and Stillcanna will benefit through a wider set of market opportunities and compliance. Our extraction capabilities to supply CBD as an active ingredient for Sativa's medical and wellness products, creates a vertically integrated Company unlike any other in Europe. We look forward to monetizing and capitalizing on the resulting market opportunities that this acquisition avails." "Rarely do you find two companies whose industry strengths compliment each other resulting in such a synergistic entity," stated Henry Lee-Buckley CEO of Sativa Group. "The combination of our core competencies will result in a diverse Company that addresses the majority of sectors within the Cannabis space. I feel this transaction secures both Companies involvement and success in the Cannabis space." Stillcanna is pleased that its subsidiary, Borganic Consulting Inc, has secured all licenses and permits required for its ORIGIN extraction facility in Romania to commence the manufacturing of CBD. The facility was constructed through a joint venture partnership with Dragonfly Biosciences Limited of the UK. Even though Borganic Consulting remains dedicated to the ORIGIN extraction facility it has become concerned with the behaviour of its partner Dragonfly Biosciences. In order to secure the future of the ORIGIN extraction facility and its investment to date, Borganic Consulting has initiated legal action in the UK against Dragonfly Biosciences for contractual breaches under the partnership agreement and Stillcanna is confident that Borganic Consulting will be able to resolve these issues in a timely manner. Regardless of this action, Stillcanna and Borganic Consulting will continue towards the commencement of manufacturing CBD at the ORIGIN facility as soon as possible. Under the terms of the LOI, Stillcanna will issue 191,539,968 of its common shares, at a deemed price of CDN$0.095 per share, to the shareholders of Sativa as consideration for all of the issued and outstanding shares of Sativa (the "Consideration Shares"), representing an exchange ratio (the "Exchange Ratio") of 0.33651 Stillcanna shares for each Sativa share. It is expected that the Consideration Shares will constitute 65% of the resulting issuer on a combined and fully diluted basis. In addition, the outstanding warrants and options of Sativa will be exchanged for options and warrants in Stillcanna in accordance with the Exchange Ratio. The Consideration Shares will be subject to escrow restrictions and hold periods pursuant to applicable securities laws and the policies of the CSE. There will not be any finder's fees payable for the Transaction. Other than in a limited number of circumstances, if Stillcanna terminates the LOI, Stillcanna will pay Sativa a material break fee of 1,000,000 or 25% of the value of an alternative transaction, in the event Stillcanna elects to pursue such a transaction during the exclusivity period. The parties have not undertaken an independent valuation of the Transaction. As at their close of trading on Friday, April 17, 2020, the Sativa market cap was 15,700,000 (CDN$27,600,000). The Sativa financial statements for the first two quarters of 2019 (January - June) reported revenues of 588,000 (CDN$1,034,000); gross profit of 273,000 (CDN$480,000); cash on hand of 2,230,000 (CDN$3,924,000); net assets of 4,081,000 (CDN$7,181,000); and no material debt obligations (based upon an exchange rate of 1: CDN$1.75965). The Transaction will be completed by way of a "scheme of arrangement" under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006 of the United Kingdom. The Transaction represents a fundamental change for the Company, pursuant to Policy 8 of the Canadian Securities Exchange. At this time, the Company and Sativa are proceeding with their respective due diligence reviews with a view towards negotiation and execution of a definitive transaction agreement, or implementation deed. Also, the Transaction remains subject to the customary closing conditions including the approval of the shareholders of Stillcanna and Sativa and the Canadian Securities Exchange. Further details will be provided upon successful completion of the due diligence period and the signing of the implementation deed. The Company expects to complete the Transaction immediately upon the receipt of all required approvals. About Sativa Group PLC The Sativa Group PLC joined the UK's NEX market in March 2018 as the UK's first medicinal cannabis investment vehicle. The business evolved to focus on the development of an operational business capitalizing on its first-mover advantage. This change transitioned the Company from an investment Company to an operating Company at the forefront of both the CBD wellness and medicinal cannabis sectors in the UK. About Stillcanna Inc . Stillcanna Inc. (STIL.CN) www.stillcanna.com is a Canadian early-stage life sciences Company focused on the large scale manufacturing of CBD in Europe. The Company believes its proprietary intellectual property allows it to extract CBD at a lower cost. The Company has signed an initial extraction contract in Europe to be the exclusive extractor for Dragonfly Biosciences LLC, a United Kingdom-based supplier of CBD. The Company also recently completed the acquisition of Olimax NT SP. Z .O.O, a multi-generational hemp agricultural firm that is expected to increase the Company's market share in the European CBD industry. On Behalf of the Board Jason Dussault, CEO CONTACT: inquiries@stillcanna.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Stillcanna's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to information concerning the LOI, the Proposed Transaction, and the Definitive Agreement, including but not limited to the negotiation and execution of a Definitive Agreement, the anticipated closing date of the Proposed Transaction, the approval of the Proposed Transaction by the Canadian Securities Exchange and certain shareholder and regulatory requirements. Although Stillcanna believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. In particular, there is no guarantee that that the parties will successfully complete the Proposed Transaction on the terms contemplated herein or at all, that either will be satisfied with the results of their proposed due diligence, or that any required shareholder or regulatory approvals will be obtained. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this press release, and Stillcanna does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. SOURCE: Stillcanna Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/586175/Stillcanna-Signs-Letter-of-Intent-to-Acquire-Sativa-Group-PLC-of-the-United-Kingdom A man in Massachusetts has recovered from the coronavirus despite having severe, pre-existing lung damage. The doctors who treated him are calling him the "miracle man." On 11 January, George Thomann's lung collapsed, and he was rushed to an area hospital for treatment. According to WCVB 5 Boston, while Mr Thomann was recovering from his injuries at Spaulding Nursing and Therapy Center in Brighton, Massachusetts, he suffered another collapsed lung. As he fought to recover from the second collapse, his face and body began to swell as air leaked from his damaged lungs. Once again Mr Thomann found himself at the mercy of his damaged lungs, lying in recovery at the health centre. The whole ordeal had kept him in the hospital for the entirety of February and the beginning of March. As the US began responding to coronavirus cases in Washington, Mr Thomann continued his recovery in Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Care in Cambridge. There were no confirmed cases of the virus in his hospital. Until there was. "How I got it, I don't know," Mr Thomann told WCVB 5 Boston. "No other staff or patient had that virus." Though the majority of individuals who are infected with coronavirus survive, those who are most at risk are the immunocompromised, the elderly and those with comorbidities, especially if they're of a respiratory nature. Having just suffered two collapsed lungs, Mr Thomann was especially susceptible to the virus. He was placed into a 19-day quarantine as he waited out his infection. Despite having two severely damaged lungs and a respiratory illness that has killed nearly 175,000 people since January, Mr Thomann pulled through and was recently released from the hospital. He said his granddaughters helped him on his road to recovery and thanked the healthcare workers at the hospital for saving his life. "I thanked them all. I said, 'You folks deserve all the credit, you're on the front line, you're putting your life in jeopardy, for myself and everyone else there who has this virus, and I give you a lot of credit for that,'" Mr Thomann said. As he was discharged from the hospital, the staff played Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," a show of support that brought Mr Thomann to tears. "I couldn't ask for a better exit," he said. "I was completely at a loss for words. I broke down and cried. Faisal Edhi, head of Pakistan's largest charity group- Edhi foundation tested positive for coronavirus. He had met Prime minister Imran Khan few days ago to donate 10 million for Pakistan PM's corona relief fund. According to local media reports, Edhi who is in Islamabad at the moment insisted on being tested since he had been on the ground working with patients. His family as well as employees of the Edhi Foundation will also be tested for coronavirus. Dr. Faisal Sultan, focal person of COVID-19 in Pakistan reportedly told media that he would be meeting Imran Khan just after the cabinet meeting and suggest Imran Khan to get the test done and should get quarantined. The U.S. is seeking details about Kim Jong Un's health after receiving information that the North Korean leader was in critical condition after undergoing cardiovascular surgery last week, a U.S. official said. The Trump administration wasn't sure whether Kim was dead or alive, said the official, who asked not to be identified. CNN had earlier reported, citing a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter, that Kim may be in "grave danger" after the surgery. The White House declined to comment on the CNN report. ASYMPTOMATIC: Reports suggest many have had coronavirus with no symptoms South Korea's benchmark Kospi gauge extended losses to as much as 3% on the news. Local defense stocks rose. The Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that gathers information from informants in North Korea, separately reported that Kim, 36, underwent a "cardiovascular surgical procedure" and had mostly recovered. It was impossible to immediately verify the report, which the Daily NK said was based on one person in North Korea. The health of North Korea's leader is one of the state's most closely guarded secrets, typically only known by a few people in the inner circle of leadership. Speculation about Kim had been growing since his unprecedented absence from April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung, one of the biggest days on the North Korean calender. Kim, a heavy smoker, has been shown in state media in recent months appearing at military drills and riding a white horse on the country's revered Mt. Paektu, which state propaganda says his grandfather used as a guerrilla base to fight Japanese colonial occupiers. The Unification Ministry said Friday that it was "inappropriate" to speculate about the reasons for Kim's absence. Kim has made 17 public appearances this year that were mentioned in state media - at a pace of a little more than one a week - the ministry said. That pace is slightly down from 84 public appearances last year. CARTELS FIGHT CORONA: Cartels, gangs and the Taliban join the coronavirus fight North Korea has been trying to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, which has led to cutting back on celebrations and some other major events and for cadres to appear in protective masks in public events with Kim. The Daily NK is part of a group of non-for-profit agencies affiliated with the Unification Ministry, and has occasionally been contacted by Seoul officials for information. The outlet's backers include the U.S.'s National Endowment for Democracy, which awarded it $400,000 last year to "raise awareness and understanding of the conditions in North Korea by disseminating accurate, timely and relevant news and information about the country." "Given the difficulty of verifying intelligence about North Korea and our mixed track record of predicting exactly what North Korea's actions signify, we need to avoid jumping to any hasty conclusions just yet," said Mintaro Oba, a former U.S. diplomat who worked on Korean Peninsula issues. J ohn Lewis sales have plunged, despite a surge in online orders, after it was forced to shut stores in face of coronavirus. The John Lewis department store chain saw total sales tumble 17 per cent in the weeks since March 15, after it closed all its stores on March 23. The high street retailer warned that a worst-case scenario would see the chains annual sales plunge 35 per cent. But the retailer said online sales have jumped 84 per cent as shoppers purchase more technology and food preparation products. Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures 1 /81 Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures A deserted Westminster Bridge PA A man wearing a face mask or covering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, walks past customers sat outside a restaurant AFP via Getty Images Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Runners pass cardboard cutouts of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William during the London Marathon in London AP An empty escalator at Charing Coss London Underground tube station Jeremy Selwyn Electronic bilboards displays a message warning people to stay home in Sheffield PA A sign is displayed in the window of a student accommodation building following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mancheste Reuters People take part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions, in Londo AP People sing and dance in Leicester Square on the eve on the 10PM curfew Reuters Hearts painted by a team of artists from Upfest are seen in the grass at Queen Square, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Bristol Reuters Graffiti reads 'good luck and stay safe', as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases grow around the world, under a bridge in London Reuters A sign is pictured in Soho, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London Reuters Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures, during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London AP A person runs past posters with a message of hope, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Manchester REUTERS Riot police face protesters who took part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions in London AP An image of The Queen eith quotes from her broadcast to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the Coronavirus epidemic are displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus PA Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images Durdle Door in Dorset Reuters Captain Tom Moore via Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Coronavirus outbreak PA An NHS worker reacts at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS Reuters Goats which have taken over the deserted streets of Llandudno @AndrewStuart via PA Tobias Weller PA Novikov restaurant in London with its shutters pulled down while the restaurant is closed London Landscapes: Hyde Park and the Serpentine, central London. Matt Writtle A newspaper vendor in Manchester city centre giving away free toilet rolls with every paper bought as shops run low on supplies due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus PA Theo Clay looks out of his window next to his hand-drawn picture of a rainbow in Liverpool, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue Reuters A young man cuts another man's hair on top of a closed hairdresser in Oxford Reuters General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital, built to fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London via Reuters Jason Baird is seen dressed as Spiderman during his daily exercise to cheer up local children in Stockport, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters A woman wearing a face mask walks past Buckingham Palace Getty Images A man holds mobile phone displaying a text message alert sent by the government warning that new rules are in force across the UK and people must stay at home PA Medical staff on the Covid-19 ward at the Neath Port Talbot Hospital, in Wales, as the health services continue their response to the coronavirus outbreak. PA Prime Minister Boris Johnson taking part in a virtual Cabinet meeting with his top team of ministers PA A shopper walks past empty shelves in a Lidl store on in Wallington. After spates of "panic buying" cleared supermarket shelves of items like toilet paper and cleaning products, stores across the UK have introduced limits on purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have also created special time slots for the elderly and other shoppers vulnerable to the new coronavirus. Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour PA Mia, aged 8 and her brother Jack, aged 5 from Essex, continue their school work at home, after being sent home due to the coronavirus PA Children are painting 'Chase the rainbows' artwork and springing up in windows across the country Reuters Social distancing in Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn A general view of a locked gate at Anfield, Liverpool as The Premier League has been suspended PA Homeless people in London AFP via Getty Images A piece of art by the artist, known as the Rebel Bear has appeared on a wall on Bank Street in Glasgow. The new addition to Glasgow's street art is capturing the global Coronavirus crisis. The piece features a woman and a man pulling back to give each other a kiss PA The Queen leaves Buckingham Palace, London, for Windsor Castle to socially distance herself amid the coronavirus pandemic PA A general view on Grey street, Newcastle as coronavirus cases grow around the world Reuters Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA Britain's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty (L) and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance look on as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) news conference inside 10 Downing Street Reuters The ticket-validation terminals at the tram stop on Edinburgh's Princes Street are cleaned following the coronavirus outbreak. PA Locked school gates at Rockcliffe First School in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear PA A sign at a Sainsbury's supermarket informs customers that limits have been set on a small number of products as the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases grow around the world Reuters Jawad Javed delivers coronavirus protection kits that he and his wife have put together to the vulnerable people of their community of Stenhousemuir, between Glasgow and Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" Getty Images A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads "Diseases are in the City" in Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London inform patrons, as it shuts its doors PA A quiet looking George IV Bridge in Edinburgh PA A quieter than usual British Museum Getty Images A racegoer attends Cheltenham in a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com A commuter wears a face mask at London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn A empty restaurant in the Bull Ring Shopping Centre Getty Images A deserted Trafalgar Square in London PA Passengers determined to avoid the coronavirus before leaving the UK arrive at Gatwick Airport Getty Images Demand has spiked in some of its less profitable lines, it said, with people buying more Scrabble but fewer sofas. But the John Lewis Partnership group also said its Waitrose supermarket chain saw sales surge as shoppers stocked up on essentials. Sales increased by 8 per cent in the period since January 26 as shoppers bought more essentials like rice, pasta and long-life milk. Demand for home delivery has been especially strong, the company said, with the company increasing its delivery capacity by 50 per cent, which puts it in good stead ahead of the end of its contract with Ocado in September. The John Lewis Partnership group said it is set to receive 135 million in savings from the business rates holiday and will reduce operating costs, including a cut of almost 100 million to marketing spending. A delivery driver returns empty crates to his Ocado delivery van / AFP via Getty Images In a letter to partners, recently appointed chairwoman Sharon White said: We are confident that the future of the business is strong. Our short-term trading has though been significantly affected, principally because of the closure of all 50 John Lewis branches. The Partnership has been trading for nearly a century. It has survived a World War and bombings, economic crashes and crises. Outspoken Iranian lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeqi (Sadeghi) on Tuesday confirmed that a court has sentenced him for charges brought against him by a high-ranking official appointed by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. On Tuesday a news agency linked with the Revolutionary Guard reported that Sadeqi has been sentenced to 21 months in prison and fifty million rials of cash fine (about $1200) by a court. Speaking to the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) after the report by Fars was published Mr. Sadeqi said the court had passed the sentence in early March and that he has appealed it. But expressing his surprise that a news agency could publicize the sentence, he said he did not wish to discuss the details with the media amid the coronavirus crisis without explaining its significance. In an open letter to the Chief Justice Sadeq Larijani in 2016, Mahmoud Sadeqi who is a reformist member of parliament from Tehran, demanded that Larijani offer a public explanation about his bank accounts. According to some reports at the time, huge sums of money had been deposited in bank accounts in the Chief Justice's name instead of the Judiciary's accounts. Sadeqi had also questioned Larijani's qualification for the high positions that he has always held in view of serious corruption allegations against his deputy Akbar Tabari. Tabari is in prison now on charges of trying to pervert the course of justice in several cases. Sadeqi's criticism could be interpreted as questioning Khamenei's authority who had appointed Larijani as Chief Justice. Khamenei replaced Sadeq Larijani with Ayatollah Ebrahim Raeesi as Chief Justice but appointed him as the chairman of the very influential Expediency Council in January 2018. The council offers advice and counsel in the country's most vital matters to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. It is also the body that mediates between the parliament and the Guardian Council. A live mortar shell fired by Pakistani troops was defused by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, officials said on Tuesday. The mortar shell was found in Ding hamlet, triggering panic among people, they said. On receiving information, the Army rushed to the spot and defused the mortar shell safely, the officials added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) AUSTIN, Texas State parks reopened Monday in Texas as the state began what Republican Gov. Greg Abbott says will be a gradual unraveling of restrictions that were put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus. In Dallas, grocery store employees and retail clerks are now among those who can be tested for COVID-19 even if they dont have symptoms. The latest from Texas: ___ VISITORS LINE UP AT PARKS Eager hikers and fishermen lined up early as Texas parks reopened for the first time since temporarily closing April 7 as part of statewide social distancing restrictions. At Enchanted Rock State Natural Area in the Hill Country, about 120 people made reservations Monday to enter one of Texas most popular park destinations, park ranger Tina Johnson said. Visitors had to remain in their car while grabbing trail maps and signs reminded them to wear masks and keep six feet apart from other hikers. In Houston, dozens of families flocked early to Sheldon Lake State Park, where most though not all visitors wore masks as required. Not all Texas state parks are reopening yet. In El Paso, Mayor Dee Margo has said two popular sites Franklin Mountains and Hueco Tanks state parks will remain closed due to local COVID-19 trends. Texas this week will also allow doctors to resume nonessential surgeries and let retailers sell items for curbside pickup. Abbott said more restrictions would be lifted before the end of the month. ___ RETURN TO RACING Abbott said in a tweet Monday that NASCAR was working with Texas Motor Speedway on a plan to race in Fort Worth without fans. The governor didnt give a timeline but said he hoped to announce details in the near future. Track president Eddie Gossage said after Abbotts post that the track was working on a hard date for the rescheduling of its race, one of eight Cup races that NASCAR has postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The race at the 1 1/2-mile track had been scheduled for March 29. NASCAR has said it plans to run all of its races. Texas Motor Speedway will work aggressively with the sanctioning bodies and TV networks to give American society, as well as people around the world, a positive distraction during this crisis, Gossage said in a statement. A non-spectator event is not perfect because in our sport, the fans come first. But circumstances are such that this is a novel answer for the return of the sport for now. DALLAS EXPANDS TESTING Retail workers in Dallas can now get tested for the coronavirus even if they dont have symptoms, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins tweeted. Testing in Dallas for residents over 65, those with underlying health conditions and first responders is also available for those without symptoms. At least 60 people have died in Dallas County, and while no new deaths were reported Monday, Jenkins said some private labs were closed Sunday and that the county is continue to scrap and claw for more testing. ___ BY THE NUMBERS: Total cases: 19,548 Deaths: 495 Total tests: 190,394 Current hospitalizations: 1,411 (Source: Texas Department of State Health Services) ___ Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak New York City police busted a party of 40 people on Monday celebrating the unofficial holiday for marijuana on 4/20, a senior police official told NBC News. Police on patrol were flagged down by a concerned citizen for what seemed like a lot of people in a building on the third floor of a Manhattan commercial building, the official said. Image: NYPD breaks up pot party (NYPD) Police said they investigated the tip in light of orders requiring social distancing and against large gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic. Inside, police found dozens of people at a marijuana party hosted by a marijuana edibles company called Ganja Pigs. The company could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. Authorities say they found a duffle bag of marijuana at the party as well as edibles, THC and paraphernalia. In total, 38 people were given summonses for unlawful trespassing and to five received summonses tied to marijuana. Image: NYPD breaks up pot party (NYPD) Two people had previous warrants for failing to appear for court appearances for nonviolent offenses and one person was taken to police in Brooklyn tied to a previous investigation for burglary, the police official said. The ban on gun sales in Victoria has left gun store owners fighting for their livelihoods and put some farmers in a position where they're unable to defend their stock. Gun dealers say they will need to close their stores for good and some farmers are unable to perform pest control, leading to an alarming increase in the number of farm animals being killed by foxes. Melbourne gun shop owner Adrian Cauchi said he would need to permanently shut his business within a month if the ban was not overturned. Credit:Justin McManus Firearms dealers are questioning why they were forced to stop trading including a suspension of their online sales with no advance notice, while retailers such as JB Hi-Fi remained open. The decision to ban the sales of firearms and ammunition was announced by the Victorian government and Victoria Police on the final day of March. Authorities cited an increase in gun sales and fears of domestic violence as justification for the measure. Track global cases and trends with the source recognized by TIME as the go-to data source for COVID-19 and one of the Top 100 Inventions of 2020. President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Monday, April 20, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Associated Press The Trump administration is gearing up to slash business regulations in a bid to restart the economy, The Post reported. It's seizing on the coronavirus pandemic to achieve some of its longstanding deregulatory goals in labor and environmental policy, as well as healthcare. The effort could be launched in late April or early May, but it's likely to trigger criticism from Democrats and many economic experts. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The Trump administration is gearing up for a major push to slash business regulations, seizing on the coronavirus pandemic to achieve its deregulatory goals and attempt to jumpstart the coronavirus-stricken economy, The Washington Post reported. According to the newspaper, the White House wants to ramp up administrative efforts to toss out two regulations for every one enacted and also suspend administrative rules governing small businesses. The regulatory rollback could affect labor, healthcare, environmental policy, as well as workplace safety. White House officials are seeking to launch the effort in late April or early May to coincide with the administration's drive to reopen the economy. But details are still in flux, The Post reported. Officials such as National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are involved in the planning. The Trump administration has long touted its efforts to cut red tape as a central piece of his White House achievements, particularly around the environment. Read more: Billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya has reaped a 997% return since 2011. He shares his 3-part strategy for today's coronavirus-hit market and outlines how he's mining real estate for opportunities. "We've cut regulations more than any administration in history, and that's in two and a half years," Trump said late last year. The White House is hoping to spark an economic comeback after almost 22 million Americans filed for unemployment over the last month as scores of businesses closed their doors to curb the spread of the virus. Story continues Still, any push to cut regulations would likely trigger criticism from Democrats as well as economic experts who say the measures mirror Republican political priorities instead of an attempt to helping struggling Americans. "This sounds exactly like the type of opportunistic political move that absolutely should not be attempted right now," Jared Bernstein, a former top adviser to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, told The Post. "Correlations between regulations and economic activity are far shakier than they assume, and I don't believe this idea will help at all." The Post reported that one idea under consideration in the White House is supporting a liability waiver that would absolve employers from any legal responsibility if their workers are infected with coronavirus on the job. Read more: 'I've gone to cash': Mark Cuban outlines his coronavirus investing strategy ahead of another 'leg down' in markets and says now is the time to buy real estate Read the original article on Business Insider FLINT TWP, MI -- Ferrald Fredie Waller Sr. was a witness to many things during his long life. Born in October 1914 in Rockwood, Tenn., Waller lived through the Spanish flu pandemic four years later, served in Europe during World War II and worked the line in Flint during the citys automotive boom. Waller died March 31 in Pontiac of natural cases. He was 105 years old. He was a man of God, said Rachelle Ruffin. Ruffin wore a mask due to coronavirus concerns at the funeral, which per the states current rules was a small, private ceremony, held Monday, April 20 at River Rest Cemetery in Flint Township. He was kind, loving, and very supportive," Ruffin said. Ruffin would talk with her grandfather, a third-generation military member, about his time in the service. He was drafted in September 1942 and shipped off to the 1512th Battalion Detachment, according to MLive-The Flint Journal records. A life lived at war, in General Motors, and with churchgoers: Flint man celebrates 100 years One of his fondest memories was being a part of a chess and checkers team in Bristol, England, where he served as a supply sergeant, she said. Waller worked with trucking companies, beginning with the U.S. Armys 1944th Quartermaster Battalion to bring bombs to the 8th Air Force for attacks on Germany. At one time, he found himself stuck in London during a blitz on the city by German forces. "You could see bombed-out buildings everywhere," Waller told MLive-The Flint Journal in an October 2014 article when he turned 100. Ruffin said her grandfather could charm the skin off a snake. Im not saying he got favoritism, but whatever he wanted done, if Sergeant Waller said it, (the) colonel or lieutenant would sign off on it very easily, she recalled being told. He was a good man. He was a good soldier. Returning to Tennessee after the war, Waller worked in the iron industry as his father had prior to the Great Depression when he lost his job and the family lived off their 150-yard lot, growing vegetables and raising animals to sell. Waller also performed cross-tying work on the railroads until a friend in Flint got a job with General Motors. "He said GM was looking to modify factories for them to build cars again, and he came down to Rockwood to take me up to Flint to see if I could maybe get a job," Waller said. He moved his family including wife Julia and young son up north, hiring in at the Industrial Street Buick plant. Moving into the St. Johns area in Flint near Buick City where many other African Americans and immigrants moved, he also joined Blackwell A.M.E Zion Church in 1950. Several members of the church sat in their vehicles to share their respects while practicing social distancing from the family and cemetery workers. Waller served the church -- where he celebrated his 100th birthday -- in many capacities over the years including as a Sunday School teacher. He also set up a book scholarship to help children with their education. He enjoyed bowling in his spare time, playing until he was 100 years old, Ruffin said. Her grandfather also enjoyed getting dressed to the nines. Granddaddy was a sharp dresser, said Ruffin. We loved to get him suits, hats, the matching shoes. Granddaddywas something else with those suits. Julia Ruffin, Wallers granddaughter, shed tears as the American flag from atop the casket was folded by two soldiers and handed to her. He loved his family and he loved his country, she said. He lived through a lot, a pandemic, racism, but he always said: You know, believe in God, and dont worry about stuff. He believed that you should treat people well and respect people. Waller lived with his granddaughters for a handful of years prior to his death, but he was buried at River Rest Cemetery to be close to his two wives, children, and one of his brothers who are also laid to rest there. Hes going to be missed because he always had a smile on his face, said Rachelle Ruffin. You very rarely saw him get upset or anything like that. He was just a good person ... I really feel honored to be his granddaughter I really do. The family plans on holding a celebration of life ceremony for Waller after the COVID-19 pandemic. Tyre burning project for Caribbean Cement put on hold 21 April 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has halted a key project for Caribbean Cement Co to remove and incinerate between 1.5-2m tyres from the Riverton City landfill. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the country's government and Caribbean Cement was signed last July to see the removal of the environmentally-hazardous tyres from the landfill. During the pilot stage last December 6000 tyres were burnt by the cement company in 11 days, but with the onset of COVID-19, the project has been put on hold. "We signed a MoU with the Government of Jamaica last year and we did the testing. We learnt a lot from that and we realised that we were able to start burning them on a continuous basis," said Yago Castro, general manager of Caribbean Cement Co. "We think that we can eliminate all the tyres that are at Riverton in a respectable amount of time, less than 10 years. They are now stored there, dumped there, and that constitutes different types of hazards. As you know mosquitoes [can breed in them]," said Mr Castro. They are also a fire hazard, he added. He argued that the cement company does not stand to earn any economic benefits from the programme, but it is committed to the project because it is great for the country. In announcing the MoU with Caribbean Cement last year, Prime Minister Andrew Holness noted that the tyres have been accumulating for decades at Riverton as well as other landfill sites across the island. "Carib Cement will be responsible for the payment of costs relating to the offloading of the tyres, and the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation will share equally in the cost of putting the tyres on the trucks and transporting them to the kiln," noted Mr Holness. Published under LOS ANGELESThough some Latin American countries have been notably lax in their response to the global coronavirus pandemic, Argentinas President Alberto Fernandez has won praise for his relatively decisive actions, imposing a nationwide shutdown on March 20 to curb the spread of the virus. The choice is to take care of the economy or take care of lives, Fernandez (pictured above) said at the time. I chose to take care of lives. But the Argentine government is not requiring the countrys population to make another difficult choicebetween coronavirus and sex. In a television broadcast last Friday, a top doctor with the Argentine Health Ministry offered his tips for staying safe while also engaging in sexual activityincluding solo activityduring the shutdown, which Fernandez has now extended until April 26 at least. Its more important than ever to wash your hands after having sexual relations, after masturbation, or virtual sex, health ministry physician Dr. Jose Barletta told the countryadvice that appears much needed as online porn viewing has risen sharply since much of the worlds population went under stay-at-home orders. It is important to disinfect keyboards, telephones, sex toys and whatever else you might be using, whether or not you are sharing these things with others, Barletta advised Argentines. But his advice appeared similar to guidelines issued in March by the New York City health department, which also outlined hygienic measures for sex in the time of coronavirus. Argentina, according to Worldometers stats, has just under 3,000 cases of coronavirus infection as of Monday, with 136 fatalities. In Brazil where President Jair Bolsonaro has scoffed at the pandemic, comparing coronavirus to a little flu, and has been harshly critical of Brazilian states that have implemented their own shutdowns, the virus has inflicted more than 2,500 deaths with about 40,000 cases. In other words, with about five times the population of Argentina, Brazil has suffered more than 18 times as many deaths, and about 13 times as many cases. Despite the advice offered by one of his top health officials, however, the Argentine president refused to offer his own sex advice for his countrys citizens. If its what the health ministry says, you should listen, the 61-year-old Fernandez said in a weekend TV interview. Dont make me offer my own opinion about this. Photo By Esteban Collazo, Casa Rosada (Argentina Presidency of the Nation) / Wikimedia Commons The shooting occurred at 9 p.m. in the 5400 block of South Bishop Street in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, police said. Two men and a woman were hit. The victims later told police they didnt know where the shots came from or who was shooting. Dozens of people who want the state to lift restrictions on businesses brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and put employees back to work waved American and Alabama flags, hoisted signs, and honked horns today at a rally a block from the Alabama state Capitol. The Stand Up Alabama: Operation Back to Work rally was organized through the website Stand Up Alabama.com and supported by the Eagle Forum of Alabama, a conservative organization. Becky Gerritson, executive director of the Eagle Forum and an organizer of todays rally, said she supports the recommendations of a small business task force led by Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth that last Friday recommended reopening restaurants, retail stores, barber shops, hair salons, nail salons and other businesses immediately. Gov. Kay Ivey asked for the task forces recommendations and said she will consider those proposals and others as she and State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris plan how and when to ease restrictions. Ivey said today the order that calls for people to stay at home except for essential activities will remain in place until at least April 30. Gerritson, a former Congressional candidate and a founder of the Wetumpka Tea Party, opened todays rally with remarks to the governor. Gov. Ivey, this rally was organized to display Alabamians urgency to get back to work, Gerritson said. Its hard to understand the plights of the small business owner that has been forced to shut down, or the worker whos been laid off. The voices of many business owners, independent contractors and workers need to be heard. And thats why we are here today. We are here with one purpose. And that is to ask you to immediately approve the reopening of Alabamas economy. Its time that Alabamians were allowed to protect both their lives and their livelihoods. And please know that we are praying for you. Shelton Mangum of Wetumpka held a sign that said open for business now. Mangum said he owns a security business that has continued to operate but that many of his customers have been affected. Weve got to get this country, this state back to work as soon as possible, Mangum said. And it needs to be done now. We have employees that have to feed their families. And they cant do it without a paycheck. And the state doesnt have enough money to give to them to subsidize what they were getting. And so, something needs to happen. Somer Watson, a physical education teacher at Sanford Middle School in Beauregard, said she wants to see businesses and activities resume with caution. Watson said teaching at home is no substitute for seeing her students. Her sons senior year in high school was disrupted. Her husbands business, which sells grills and patio furniture, has been closed. And she wants to coach softball again and is hoping that can happen soon. These kids need that outlet, Watson said. The original plan for the rally was for participants drive around the Capitol or speak at a microphone set up on the Capitol steps. But Bainbridge Street in front of the Capitol was closed, forcing rally participants to move to an intersection a block away. Capt. Regina Duckett, public information officer for the Montgomery Police Department, said the roads were blocked for the safety of the construction workers on Washington and Monroe streets on the north and south sides of the Capitol. Rally participants filled the sidewalks at the corners of an intersection a block from the capitol and cheered others who honked as they drove by in trucks and cars decked out with signs and flags. Police stopped at least two drivers who came through the intersection where the rally participants gathered, but Duckett said there were no citations or arrests. Three women on horseback took part in the event. One carried an American flag, and one carried up a Trump 2020 banner. Rally near the Alabama State Capitol calling for lifting of some restriction on businesses to alllow more people to return to work. Posted by al.com on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 Over the last few days, people in other states, including Michigan, Kentucky and Washington, have held rallies urging state governments to back off some of the restrictions keeping businesses closed and employees at home. A rally organized through the Reopen Alabama page on Facebook drew a small crowd in downtown Huntsville on Monday. Other rallies are scheduled, including one at noon on Saturday across from the Capitol in Montgomery and another one on Saturday May 2 at 1 p.m. in Mobile at Government Plaza. Last Fridays task force recommendations came in a 160-page report that also listed rules those businesses should follow to reduce the risk of COVID-19 to employees, customers, and the public. For example, restaurants would have to seat customers six feet apart, allow no more than six per table, and clean tables and chairs after each set of customers. Retail businesses could allow no more than 50% or normal occupancy, the same rule followed by big-box stores that have stayed open. We believe that the recommendations for Phase 1 are well thought out, and reasonable, Eagle Forum said in a press release announcing todays rally. They allow for businesses to reopen safely with protocols in place to protect the health of their employees and customers. We believe they should be implemented immediately. Many Alabama small businesses and private contractors have not received the promised government financial aid and or have been denied unemployment checks and are now are hanging by a thread. We must not delay reopening Alabama any longer. Those business owners and customers who are fearful of contracting the virus can continue to stay in quarantine as long as they choose, but many businesses cannot survive another 2-week closure. Ivey asked for the small business task forces recommendations, as well as ideas from the states congressional delegation, mayors, and another group she set up that is reviewing suggestions from the public. Ivey has said she and State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris will review all the recommendations no later than April 28. Her health order now in place, which calls for people to stay at home except for essential activities, is set to expire on April 30. Ivey has said her goal is to develop a plan to reopen businesses in phases. Edited at 4:46 p.m. to correct spelling of Somer Watson. To find oneself reading a novel about a child who died of the plague while under lockdown oneself during a pandemic (or plague; you know, a rose by any other name etc) is quite the experience, and obviously not one the author could have foreseen. Hamnet was published in the middle of lockdown and despite O'Farrell being asked, in every single interview, about the ominous parallels between the bubonic plague that raged through Elizabethan England and the current virus that rages through well, Elizabethan England (and everywhere else), she's been infinitely patient and gracious in her responses. She's also been quietly upbeat. "The whole of society will be reconfigured," she told the Irish Times. "We have to adapt and survive. And we will." Her highly praised 2017 memoir I Am, I Am, I Am, which explored her numerous close shaves with death along with those of her daughter, suggests that O'Farrell is more qualified than most to make such a hope-filled evaluation. Hamnet Shakespeare was the only son of William Shakespeare and Anne (or Agnes) Hathaway. He died when he was just 11 years old. The couple's two daughters, Susanna and Judith, survived. Four years after his death, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, about a young prince who would have been roughly Hamnet's age by then. Most of O'Farrell's novel, however, concerns itself much less with Shakespeare himself than with Hamnet's mother, the enigmatic Agnes, who, in O'Farrell's imaginative flights, cured the sick with her herbal potions, who kept honey bees and wandered the forest for hours, who could read people's minds and tell people's futures, a woman who could "tell if a soul is restive or hankeringwhat a person hides." Despite the scant historical facts about Anne Hathaway beyond dates of birth, marriage and death, history seems to have maligned her. Either Shakespeare 'hated' her - although there's nothing to support this allegation anywhere - or she's the hussy who tricked him into a shotgun wedding. The shotgun wedding appears to be true, yet Shakespeare, when he became successful, sent all the money he made in London home to Stratford. Hathaway and her two surviving children lived in the finest house in town, and it appears they founded a successful brewing business there. Shakespeare's assurance of his family's security and comfort is hardly the evidence of a dead marriage, nor of children long forgotten. O'Farrell's reasoning for his move to London and his family's remaining in Stratford is merely a matter of necessity. Would an ambitious playwright living in Tullamore or Clifden not have a better chance of progress in Dublin, even now? Or in London? And would that playwright be willing to have their family move to a city riddled with plague, where playhouses and large social gatherings were regularly shut down? (How eerily topical all this is.) It could be speculated, especially given our current crisis, that this is precisely why the Shakespeare family remained where they were. And that speculation lays a significant part of the groundwork for O'Farrell's novel. The story opens with Hamnet discovering his twin sister Judith is sick, with lumps (the tell-tale sign of bubonic plague) appearing in her neck. Hamnet desperately searches for an adult to help. His mother is tending bees in a field over a mile away, his father is in London, his grandmother next door is not at home. He finds his grandfather in his workshop, drunk as usual, and Hamnet endures a vicious blow for disturbing him. He runs through the town to find the local physician, also not at home. From the outset, the tension is immense. Eventually, though, Judith will recover. We discover later in the book that Hamnet, who also gets sick, is the child who won't. The storyline moves from Judith's emergency to the past, to Agnes's first meeting with the Latin tutor who has been engaged to teach her stepbrothers, and to their subsequent romance, disapproved of in all quarters. Agnes at this stage is 26, the tutor merely 18 and still, therefore, a minor. A passionate encounter in the apple shed is of particular note, and not without its humour. This encounter is, we're told, the one that leads to the couple marrying 'in haste'. Agnes's dowry provides for the building of an apartment beside Shakespeare's father's house, and the intention is for Shakespeare to join his raging, drunken father in the family's glover business. As her husband grows more despondent with his new job, Agnes realises he must go to London to follow his acting and writing dreams. The couple convince William's father that his move is to expand the business. When he arrives in London, however, he proceeds to write prolifically and soon becomes a noted theatre producer. The Bard is born. O'Farrell's story uses Shakespeare's biography almost as a backdrop to the imagined story of Agnes. For all her psychic powers, Agnes has not foreseen the death of her own child and, for all her medicinal knowledge, she can't save him. She will survive this awful tragedy, because people do, but she is altered, embittered, suspicious of her husband, numbed in the paralysis of her grief. Video of the Day This exquisitely beautiful and lyrical novel has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, alongside the likes of Anne Enright, Hilary Mantel and Ann Patchett. It will be a tough call but winning it would put Coleraine-born O'Farrell front and centre in a place where she deserves to be. She is an astounding literary talent. Fiction Hamnet Maggie O'Farrell Tinder Press 16.99 New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) on Tuesday (April 21) sent a notice to the Maharashtra police chief over Palghar lynching incident which has triggered a political slugfest across the country. Based on a complaint in connection with the incident, a notice was issued to the Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP) over the mob lynching of three persons in the presence of police personnel in Palghar district on April 16, the NHRC statement said. The NHRC said it has called for a detailed report of the incident in four weeks, including inputs on the action taken against the culprits and relief, if any, granted to the next of kin of the deceased. "The death of three persons in such a cruel manner by an unruly mob, that too during country-wide lockdown, under extra vigil by the administration and police, amounts to gross violations of the right to life of the victims," the letter read. "The victims, belonging to a sect of Sadhus, were going to attend a funeral, when they along with the driver of their car were, attacked by an unruly mob on suspicion that they were theives. The video of the attack showed that police personnel were also present when the victims were being attacked," it read. The commission has observed that the incident is apparently indicative of "negligence by the public servants". Three men, including two saints Kalpavriksha Giri Maharaj (70 years), Sushil Giri Maharaj (35) and their driver Nilesh Yalgade (30), were lynched by villagers in Palghar on the night of April 16. Zee Media reporter, who presented the ground coverage, revealed several startling facts. The available facts and a few videos in possession of the Zee Media show inept handling of the situation by the police, who could have saved the precious lives of the trio. According to reports, policemen present at the site at the time of the incident, hardly took any action to save the saints from the attackers. One of the two saint, who featured in the video, is seen begging for his life with folded hands as he get brutally thrashed by the crowd. Sympathetic state lawmakers and regulators in states both red and blue promise to make COVID-19 a major cost driver for workers compensation insurers. The governors of Kentucky, Arkansas, North Dakota and Florida and state regulators in Illinois, Washington, Michigan and Missouri have issued executive orders or amended rules to expand eligibility for workers compensation. Most of those decrees ease the path for benefits only for healthcare workers and first responders, but an emergency order by the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission creates a presumption that work is the cause of COVID-19 if contracted by any frontline worker identified in Gov. J.B. Pritzkers March 20 stay-at-home order. That includes workers at grocery stores, laundries, banks and hardware stores, among other businesses. Kentucky Gov. Beshear issued a similarly broad executive order that created a COVID-19 presumption for workers in grocery stores, child-care centers, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers, in addition to first responders and healthcare workers. The California State Fund is now accepting any claim by an essential worker for a diagnosed case of COVID-19 regardless of whether that worker can demonstrate the virus was contracted during the course of employment. In the meantime state legislators are also pushing to expand benefits for COVID-19. Earlier this month, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R), Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed into law bills that create a COVID-19 presumptions for first responders and some healthcare workers. Coronavirus Effects on Workers Comp A new analysis of the economic effects of the coronavirus from NCCI finds that while layoffs of workers will have the most immediate effect on workers compensation, a rise in business failures could pose a major challenge later. Bills to create presumptions for COVID-19 have been introduced in the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Utah state legislatures. Philadelphia defense attorney Cliff Goldstein said he saw the avalanche of presumption bills coming as soon as heard the first reports of the disease spreading into the United States. I dont think theres any way to stop that steamroller, he said. Data from the California Division of Workers Compensation bears him out. As of Thursday, 1,527 claims coded for COVID-19 on claims notices had been filed, according to agency spokeswoman Erika Monterroza. Goldstein is not the only defense attorney predicting a flood of COVID claims. There will likely be many workman compensation claims because of the ease of filing, there is no requirement to prove negligence, and for many people their greatest contact with others, and hence the greatest chance of contracting the virus, is at work, David Boies, managing partner of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in New York, told Bloomberg News. Goldstein said presumption legislation promises to be a boon for claimants attorneys, who will take a percentage of any permanent disability benefits awarded. You are just dangling meat in front of hungry lions, he said. Goldstein said his office Chartwell Law in Valley Forge has already received a handful of claims, some of them death claims. He said employers should resist any kind-hearted urge to quickly approve such claims based on the employees job category. Instead, each claim must be individually investigated, he said. COVID-19 claims that require admission to an intensive care unit will likely run into the six figures for medical costs alone, he said. Whats more, employers will be taking full responsibility for whatever complications arise from a coronavirus infection far into the future. Goldstein said Congress passed a pair of relief bills in March that should make it easier for employers to delay acceptance of a claim. The legislation requires employers with fewer than 500 employees to grant up to 80 hours of sick leave to workers sickened by the new coronavirus, which will be reimbursed with tax credits. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Thursday that requires the same benefit from employers with more than 500 workers. For workers who lose their jobs because of coronavirus, the federal emergency law also allows up to 16 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits at rates ranging from $875 to $1,500 per week, depending on the state, Goldstein said. Vulnerable Occupations Claimants attorney Julius Young in Oakland, Calif. said those benefits wont make workers whole. Usually workers lose their health insurance if they lose their job, which makes workers comp a vital benefit for employees who were made sick because of their exposure to the public while at work. Also, some workers may be permanently disabled by COVID-19. He said presumption bills make sense for workers who cant avoid constant contact with the public. A lot of these people in vulnerable occupations shouldnt have to go through this roulette-like maze wondering whether they are going to be covered, Young said. Young said the federal benefits will help in the short-term. He said state regulators should start thinking about whether and how any federal benefits paid can be offset from workers compensation awards. Permanent Disability Medical research indicates that there is a real possibility of permanent disability from COVID-19. According to Science Magazine, the lack of oxygen and widespread inflammation caused by COVID-19 can damage kidneys, liver, heart, brain and other organs. Studies show that severe pneumonia caused by other diseases sometimes lead to scarring that causes long-term breathing problems. Pneumonia also increases the risk of future illnesses, including heart attack, stroke and kidney disease. In one study of 138 patients hospitalized in Wuhan, China due to pneumonia from COVID-19, 20 percent suffered acute respiratory distress syndrome. A separate study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in 2011 found that of 109 survivors of ARDS, 51% suffered physician-diagnosed depression, anxiety or both. Perhaps more relevant to workers comp, that study found that just 77 percent of the 83 patients who survived throughout the study period had returned to work five years after being treated. The study found that only 39% of patients were able to walk the distance expected for their age group in six minutes five years later, suggesting a high degree of physical impairment. As of yet, none of the major workers compensation rating organizations has released any projections on the potential impact of COVID-19 on workers comp loss costs. The National Council of Compensation hopes to release next week an analysis of potential claim costs under a variety of scenarios, said Executive Director Jeff Eddinger. For example, one scenario project costs if a large percentage of workers who contract COVID-19 file claims and 100 percent are found to be compensable. He said the analysis will make projections for a variety of infection and claim-acceptance rates. Eddinger said NCCI does not yet have any data on how many claims have been filed. He said insurers dont report their losses until six months after the policy period expires. But he said there is some data available. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that between 10 percent to 20 percent of COVID-19 cases were healthcare workers. The California Workers Compensation is working on similar projections, said President Alex Swedlow. Photo: Doctors test people with flu-like symptoms for coronavirus in tents set-up to triage possible COVID-19 patients outside the main Emergency area at St. Barnabas hospital in the Bronx on March 24, 2020. Topics California COVID-19 Legislation Claims Workers' Compensation Talent And we have a winner. After a long and arduous development process, only a few biotech names will emerge having attained the ultimate prize, an FDA approval. To get to this point, a company will need to successfully progress through several clinical phases of testing to ensure the product is both effective and safe. Given that only a few key factors indicate its trajectory during the development stage, shares can be sent soaring rapidly in either direction on account of news regarding study results or regulatory approvals. This is because if a candidate ultimately receives approval, it often signals that sustainable revenues are on the horizon. However, thats not to say healthcare companies tap out on gains once they reach the finish line. Even after the FDA gives the all-clear, theres still plenty of work to be done. Taking all of this into consideration, we used TipRanks database to pinpoint two compelling biotech stocks whose products have just won FDA approval. Here's what the analyst community has to say about these Buy-rated tickers. Urogen Pharma (URGN) Urogen is developing chemoablative agents for urological cancers using its cutting edge RTGel platform, which enables drug delivery to hard-to-reach anatomy as well as increases medication dwell time. With its recently-approved Jelmyto (UGN-101) therapy standing to change the treatment of low-grade upper tract urothelial carcinoma for the better, its no wonder the Street is excited. Oppenheimers Leland Gershell points out that URGN has infrastructure in place for a June 1 launch that will incorporate marketing strategies designed to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions. This includes 48 sales reps which will cover curology practices that see 90% of the LG UTUC patient population. In addition, the company is deploying virtual-based detailing strategies, with a premixing service agreement already in place for point-of-care delivery of ready-to-use product. Even though the company still hasnt published the final durability data as some patients havent hit the twelve-month mark, Gershell sees a large re-treatment opportunity. Given Jelmyto's kidney-sparing profile, we view the prospect of re-treatment following tumor recurrence to be favorable to the alternative option of kidney removal. While retreatment data are currently lacking, URGN intends to begin a post-marketing study in this setting in the coming months, he noted. To this end, the analyst estimates Jelmyto 2024E revenue in low-grade UTUC will hit $400 million. Story continues On top of this, early clinical data for its other candidate, UGN-102, is promising. We remain enthusiastic for UGN-102's opportunity in low-grade non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) following encouraging Phase 2b interim efficacy reveal, with Phase 3 on track to begin around year end, Gershell commented. Bearing this in mind, Gershell decided to stay with the bulls. Along with his Outperform call, the five-star analyst gave the price target a lift, from $45 to $47. This conveys his confidence in URGNs ability to soar 100% in the next year. (To watch Gershells track record, click here) Turning now to the rest of the Street, other analysts are on the same page. With 4 Buys and a single Hold, the word on the Street is that URGN is a Strong Buy. At $47.50, the average price target puts the upside potential at 107%. (See Urogen stock analysis on TipRanks) Seattle Genetics (SGEN) Using advanced antibody-drug conjugate technology, Seattle Genetics was able to develop a better way to deliver cancer-killing therapies to tumor cells. On the heels of its third commercial product approval from the FDA, one analyst tells investors not to miss out on this exciting biotech play. Way before its August 20 PDUFA date, the regulatory agency gave SGENs TUKYSA (tucatinib) drug a thumbs up only four months after filing through the Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) program, which was the companys second approval of this kind. TUKYSA was designed for use in metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer patients, including patients with brain Mets. It will be used along with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and capecitabine in patients who have already gone through at least one HER2 targeting therapy. Writing for Needham, five-star analyst Chad Messer noted, We find the rapid approval impressive, particularly with the challenges of the ongoing COVID pandemic, and is testament to the unmet need in this patient population. Messer goes so far as to say TUKYSA could become the standard of care in metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer as it was given a strong label for metastatic breast cancer (mBC), HER2 positive patients following progression on at least one anti-HER2 therapy. The label specifically states the therapy should be considered for brain Mets treatment, which differentiates it from other treatment options. Expounding on the labels implications, Messer said, The approved label is broader than the patient population evaluated in HER2CLIMB, which included mostly 3rd-line patients. He added, The commercial organization to launch TUKYSA is already in place. Additionally, the candidate could be approved for use in Europe, and is undergoing further testing that could potentially enable it to be used in earlier lines of therapy in mBC. Based on all of the above, Messer left a Buy rating on the stock and bumped up the price target from $144 to $157. Should this new target be met, a twelve-month gain of 10% could be in store. (To watch Messers track record, click here) Looking at the consensus breakdown, 10 Buys and 4 Holds add up to a Moderate Buy consensus rating. However, the $138.33 average price target implies a slight downside potential from current levels. (See Seattle Genetics stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for biotech stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil on Tuesday demanded removal of Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh for his 'failure' to avoid the Palghar lynching incident. In a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday, Patil also referred to alleged assault on a man at the house of Jitendra Awhad, another NCP member in the state cabinet. "The chief minister must have been apprised of the incident (of lynching of three men in Palghar) on the next day after it happened, however, it took Union home minister Amit Shah's phone call and Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis raising his voice to force Thackeray to speak on the issue after four days," Patil said. "The state has witnessed several criminal incidents such as a person was beaten up at a minister's bungalow while a senior IPS official issued a letter to the family of an accused in a financial fraud," Patil said. The BJP leader was apparently referring to an alleged incident of assault on a man, over an obscene social media post, at Awhad's bungalow, and the permission given to scam- accused DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan and his family to travel during lockdown. Patil further said that Deshmukh's department "miserably failed" to prevent a huge mob from gathering at Bandra railway station in Mumbai last week, following rumours that special trains were being run to take migrant workers back to their home states. Both Deshmukh and housing minister Awhad should be removed from their posts, he demanded. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) When neither her relatives nor her husband could reach a government hospital in Noida during her delivery due to the COVID-19 lockdown, an Uttar Pradesh police personnel donated his blood to help the woman during the operation. Neha Thakur, 24, is based in Delhi but has been living with her parents in Noida since last six months. She was admitted to the district hospital on Monday for delivery where doctors told her that two units of blood was required for the operation, her father said. Her 28-year-old husband also could not be there during the critical situation as he was stuck due to the lockdown at his home in Delhi's Najafgarh, her father said. "I called up our relatives in Delhi for blood donation but they were unable to come because of the lockdown restrictions. I also don't have any vehicle and getting a pass or permission would have taken much time. So I called up 112 for emergency service and sought police help. Help arrived soon in the form of two cops one of whom offered to donate his blood to help my daughter," Neha's father Dilip Mishra told PTI. According to a police spokesperson, when they got the distress call, the message was relayed on their group to know if anybody could voluntarily donate blood and they got a positive response from officials deployed on police response vehicle (PRV) 4687. "Constable Harendra Kumar and PRV pilot Pradeep Kumar immediately reached out to the caller and Harendra Kumar donated his blood at Kailash Hospital in Sector 27 that helped the father get equal unit of blood matching her daughter's blood type," the spokesperson said. Mishra said the operation was ultimately carried out around 10.30 am on Tuesday and his daughter gave birth to a baby boy. "Both of them are fine now," he added. Mishra, who lives in Chhijarsi village, said he works for a private company in Surajpur, while his son-in-law Ranjan Thakur works for a car manufacturing company in Haryana's Gurgaon. "My daughter and son-in-law stay in Delhi's Najafgarh. Neha has been staying us for more than six months now. They have one more child, a three-year-old boy, who too was born in Noida," he added. While Mishra is happy now that his daughter and grandson are fine, he is also grateful to the policemen who came to his help. He also shared how he had to walk between the district hospital in Sector 30 and the Kailash hospital in Sector 27 for procuring blood due to the lockdown. "There's no conveyance available due to the lockdown and I don't have any personal vehicle. I had to walk at least four times between the two hospitals as I desperately needed the blood for the operation," he said. "They are all like God to me... the policemen, the doctors, and whoever has come to the help of my family at this important time," he added. Meanwhile, the police spokesperson said constable Harendra Kumar has been awarded Rs 5,000 from Dial 112 headquarters in Lucknow for his humanitarian act. On April 19 also, two policemen deployed on PRV duty of 112 had donated blood needed for the delivery of a woman at the ESI hospital in Sector 24 of Noida. The woman had given birth to a baby boy and both were doing fine after the operation, according to officials, even as the PRV personnel were given an award of Rs 5,000 each from Lucknow headquarters and citations from Noida Police Commissioner Alok Singh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Primark store at Alexander Platz in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn) Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF.L) said on Tuesday 21 April that it had scrapped its dividend, furloughed 68,000 employees across Europe, and suspended its earnings guidance due to the coronavirus crisis. The fast-fashion retailing giant, which does not operate an online store, said that it had gone from making 650m ($806) in sales each month to selling nothing since it closed the last of its stores on 22 March. ABF has been squarely in the path of this pandemic, said chief executive George Weston on Tuesday. One of the world's great clothing retailers is entirely shut. Weston said that 68,000 Primark employees were receiving furlough payments from governments across Europe, most of whom it would otherwise have been forced to make redundant. Read more: European stocks fall as Trump claims he will suspend US immigration He said that Primark had taken delivery of and paid for very large amounts of completed stock which we cant sell for now, and said that the retailer had established a fund to ensure supply chain workers in vulnerable countries would be paid for their work. But not until shops reopen and we can place new orders will the economic hardship that COVID-19 has caused to all those in our supply chain begin to reduce, he warned. The company said that its food businesses have equally been put under intense pressure since this pandemic began. Associated British Foods said that it was too early to provide earnings guidance for the rest of the year. The company said its board had chosen not to declare a shareholder dividend, noting that the group was instead focused on managing cash outflows in the second half of its financial year. Read more: 140,000 firms have applied for UK government furlough scheme Pre-tax profits in the six months to 29 February fell by 42% to 298m, even as revenue climbed 2% to 7.6bn, largely due to a 284m charge related to an expected decline in value of its clothing inventory once stores open. "The group delivered an encouraging trading performance in the first half. The rapid spread of COVID-19 has impacted all of our lives and the human tragedy that continues to unfold has shocked and saddened us all, said Weston. The company confirmed that two of its employees had died from coronavirus in the past three weeks, and said that a third remained in intensive care in the US. The format of the events on April 24 on the 105th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide is known. According to Armenian PMs chief of staff Eduard Aghajanyan from today on, access to the Armenian Genocide memorial complex will be denied for security reasons and to conduct an organizational work. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, guided by considerations of public safety, the traditional procession will not take place this year. However, certain activities are scheduled. Events will kick off at 9 pm on April 23. Under the mournful chime of bells, street lighting will be extinguished. The Armenian authorities are urging citizens to turn off the lights in their homes, to turn their eyes to the Armenian genocide memorial, and to turn on the flashlights of mobile phones as a symbol of candles. On April 24, from 8 am, citizens can send messages to 1915 short numbers from Armenia and 0037433191500 from abroad. The names of those who sent messages will be highlighted on the pylons of the memorial. Armenian president, PM and parliaments speaker will visit the memorial at 10 am. At 10 pm, the performance of classical and folk music is scheduled right until dawn. Millie Mackintosh shared a detailed lookback at her pregnancy on Instagram on Tuesday as her due date edges closer. The former Made In Chelsea star, 30, uploaded a series of images from the moment she discovered she was expecting her first child with her husband Hugo Taylor to her mini pink-themed baby shower last month. While the social media influencer described her journey as a 'hell of a ride' amid the country's coronavirus lockdown, she also expressed her gratitude towards her loved ones for their support as she prepares to welcome her baby girl in just a matter of weeks. 'These memories will stick with me forever': Millie Mackintosh shared a detailed lookback at her pregnancy on Instagram on Tuesday as her due date edges closer The lifestyle blogger kicked off her message by documenting her Indonesian trip with former co-star Hugo, 33, last year, when she was not yet aware of her pregnancy. Media personality Millie explained: 'As my due date gets closer, I've been reflecting on the last nine months and what it's meant to me, and as you've all been an important part of this journey, I thought I'd share the memories with you that'll stick with me forever. 'The first image is Hugo and I in Indonesia last year, I love this photo because we were so relaxed and happy, I was pregnant but didn't know yet. Then came the day we found out we were officially expecting and our lives changed forever', she added, alongside an image of two Clearblue digital pregnancy tests. Tender moments: The former MIC star, 30, uploaded a series of images from the moment she discovered she was expecting her first child with her husband Hugo Taylor to her baby shower Milestones: The lifestyle blogger kicked off her message by documenting her Indonesian trip with former co-star Hugo, 33, last year, when she was not yet aware of her pregnancy The mother-to-be also treated fans to the moment she discovered she and eyewear entrepreneur Hugo were having a daughter. Cradling her baby bump in a halterneck silk dress in another stunning image, the TV star wrote: 'Another highlight was finding out that we were having a little girl, I wore a pink dress to share the news!' Millie said she was overwhelmed with emotion, detailing: 'It really sank in that we were going to have a daughter when my stylist's little girl tried to talk to my baby bump, I couldn't stop crying happy tears!' The London native went on to share her delight at moving into her new abode: 'My maternal instincts to nest were pretty strong from the get go so moving into our first family home and getting the nursery finished was an amazing moment.' Growing her family: 'Then came the day we found out we were officially expecting and our lives changed forever', she added, alongside an image of two Clearblue digital pregnancy tests Bundle of joy: The blonde beauty also posted a photo of her young relative rubbing her baby bump 'Getting the nursery done was an amazing moment': The London native shared her delight at moving into her new abode On her romantic Italian trip in February, she added: 'Next Hugo and I went on a baby moon to Florence, where we made the most of lie ins and romantic dinners.' Millie insisted her journey to parenthood has helped her appreciate her mother Georgina even more, stating: 'After that came my shoot for Hello Magazine with my mum for Mother's Day. 'It was the perfect chance to reflect on our special relationship prior to her becoming a grandma for the first time!' The socialite - who previously sought advice from new mums over her battle with 'severe anxiety' - admitted there have been many 'highs and lows' during her pregnancy. Smitten: On her romantic Italian trip in February, she added: 'Next Hugo and I went on a baby moon to Florence, where we made the most of lie ins and romantic dinners' 'It was the perfect chance to reflect on our special relationship': Millie insisted her journey to parenthood has helped her appreciate her mother Georgina even more 'Some days the hormones really kick in and the tears flow for no reason': The socialite previously sought advice from new mums over her battle with 'severe anxiety' 'It was special for just the 3 of us': The former magazine intern's last images showed Hugo cupping her stomach as well as a radiant image of the pair's intimate baby shower Posting a brave image of herself crying, she told her social media followers: 'Some days the hormones really kick in and the tears flow for no reason but that's all part and parcel of making a life!' The former magazine intern's last images showed Hugo cupping her stomach as well as a radiant image of the pair's intimate baby shower, with the couple postponing a celebration with their friends until later in the summer due to the COVID-19 crisis. Millie penned: 'I love this image of Hugo and I sharing a moment in the sunshine, feeling my bump as she kicked. And finally, my baby shower which still felt like a special day just the 3 of us.' Thanking her nearest and dearest for their help, she ended her post: 'One things for sure, it's been a hell of a ride being heavily pregnant in a time that'll go down in history, but I feel very lucky I've had so much support from Hugo, friends and family and of course all of you #nearlythere #thirdtrimester #wegotthis'. [sic] Bui Thanh Tien, the fresh Vietnam-based partner at Freshfields In his almost 20 years at Freshfields, Tien has acted on some of the most high-profile transactions in Vietnam, often involving billions of dollars as well as complex and innovative deal structures. Aside with advising private equity investors and investment banks on their investments and divestments, Tien has extensive experience serving banking and finance sector clients, representing financial institutions from around the world on a range of matters spanning corporate financing, project and asset financing, and restructuring. Marking this special occasion, Tony Foster, Vietnam managing partner at Freshfields, has congratulated Tien on his well-deserved election to the partnership. With a 2,800-plus lawyer team, Freshfields is widely recognised for its long-standing track record of successfully supporting the world's leading national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments on ground-breaking and business-critical mandates. At a time when clients are facing unprecedented challenges, Tien brings a formidable combination of global expertise and in-depth local experience, Foster said, adding that the fresh move underlines the importance of Vietnam in the world as well as attests to the firms commitment to further development in the country. Tiens move into the top ranks of one of the top law firms in the world demonstrates to younger Vietnamese lawyers that there are no limits on where their skills can take them, Foster noted. With the election of Bui Thanh Tien, Freshfields for the first time has two Vietnam-based partners. Freshfields is a Magic Circle law firm that dates back to 1743, when it started representing the Bank of England (now still a client of the firm). The law firm has been in Vietnam since 1994, when the country opened up to international business. With a 2,800-plus lawyer team, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP is a global law firm widely recognised for its long-standing track record of successfully supporting the world's leading national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments on ground-breaking and business-critical mandates. The routine surveillance testing, which was carried out last month, also detected the disease in the wild in Moreton Bay. White spot disease has been found by Biosecurity Queensland officials on two farms on the Logan River in the state's south-east. Authorities are working to ensure a highly contagious viral infection that could destroy Queensland's seafood industry is contained. The reappearance of the disease, which devastated seven Queensland prawn farms in 2016 and cost farmers and associated industries almost $400 million, has taken the industry by surprise. The state was only months away from obtaining proof of freedom - two years of consecutive negative results for white spot syndrome virus. "This is not the result we wanted to see but we will get through this and now more than ever we should be supporting our local seafood industry," Agriculture Minister Mark Furner said on Tuesday. White spot disease can wipe out crustaceans, prawns and crabs, but it is not harmful to human health. Affected prawns, many of which have already gone to market, are safe to eat. A team of researchers led by scientists at the University of Toronto (U of T) has delayed the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in mice. They are cautiously optimistic that the result, combined with other clinical advances, points to a potential treatment for ALS in humans. Commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS is caused by the degeneration and loss of neurons that control muscles. There is no cure for ALS which currently affects between 2,500 and 3,000 Canadians. Our experiment profoundly delayed the disease by preventing the degeneration of neurons in the cortex of the brain. It delayed typical symptoms of ALS like the deterioration of motor skills and weight loss. It also increased the survival rate." Melanie Woodin, professor in the Department of Cell & Systems Biology (CSB) at U of T and a co-author of a study published recently in Brain. The result was achieved in mice that possessed the same gene mutation (SOD1) found in some human ALS patients. The researchers targeted neurons in the motor cortex -- the region of the brain that controls muscles -- with an engineered protein designed to correct an imbalance in neurons referred to as hyperexcitability. "Neurons communicate with each other through synaptic transmission, which involves both the release of chemical neurotransmitters and electrical activity" explains Woodin. "This communication can be either excitatory or inhibitory. Excitation is like the gas pedal in your car and inhibition is the brake pedal. Too much gas and you'll speed off the road; too much brake and you don't go anywhere. So, to drive properly, you need a balance between the two." In a healthy brain, a balance between excitation and inhibition ensures proper brain function -- enabling us to solve math problems, retrieve memories and feel emotion. But too much excitation in the brain's neurons can lead to neurological disorders like seizures, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and ALS. While human SOD1 gene mutation carriers display pronounced cortical hyperexcitability in the decade prior to the onset of ALS, it wasn't clear it was a cause of neuronal degeneration. "We knew before that there was a very profound imbalance between excitation and inhibition in the region of the brain that controls movement," says Woodin. "But that didn't tell us whether this hyperexcitability caused the onset of symptoms." "Now we know," says Woodin. "That in ALS mice with the SOD1 mutation, hyperexcitability in the motor cortex is causal to the onset of the disease." A path to a potential treatment in humans "The result is important because it points down a path for a potential treatment in humans," says Woodin, who is also the dean of U of T's Faculty of Arts & Science. The optimism that the result could eventually lead to a treatment in humans is bolstered by the fact that it comprises advances which have yet to be used together but that are proven on their own. Woodin and her colleagues are combining advances in viral technology with a revolutionary technique in neuroscience called chemogenetics. Proteins that had their structure altered were introduced into mice via a virus and delivered to neurons in the primary motor cortex. Once there, they were activated with a pharmaceutical drug -- but one which isn't approved for use in humans. However, other scientists demonstrated that a drug called clozapine, which is approved for use in humans for the treatment of certain psychiatric disorders, could also activate the protein. "The clozapine discovery was a game-changer for our work," says Woodin. "It revealed a clear path for clinical translation which just wasn't there when we first developed our hypothesis." And while chemogenetics was employed in the current study, it isn't currently used in human patients in part because of the challenge in delivering the chemogenetic "tool" to the right neurons. But an innovation being pioneered for human use by Dr. Lorne Zinman and Dr. Agessandro Abrahao offers a promising alternative. Zinman and Abrahao are testing a non-invasive procedure to deliver therapeutic agents to the motor cortex of ALS patients. The brain is protected by a natural barrier that keeps out pathogens like bacteria and viruses -- but that also keeps out therapeutics like drugs and proteins. With the new technique, the blood brain barrier can be temporarily and safely opened to deliver a protein to targeted regions of the brain. Zinman, a co-author on the paper, runs the ALS clinic at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and is an associate professor at the University of Toronto. Abrahao is an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at U of T and an associate scientist at Sunnybrook. "This advancement in decreasing cortical hyperexcitability has the potential to have a major impact on treating ALS in humans," says Zinman. "Much more work is needed but this advance shows great promise toward a path to stopping this disease." According to Dr. David Taylor, vice president of research at ALS Canada, "Despite the fact that both upper motor neurons in the cortex and lower motor neurons in the body are degenerating in ALS, much of the research to date has ignored the role of upper motor neurons." "Excessive activity of the upper motor neurons could be an important contributor to the disease and Professor Woodin's work focused on a novel way to stimulate neighbouring neurons that can put the brakes on this abnormal biology," says Taylor. "Her results in ALS model mice are exciting and hopefully this can someday be a treatment strategy tested in human clinical trials." An additional $1.5 million will be allocated to six groups that offer services to victims of trauma, including Breakthrough Urban Ministries in East Garfield Park, New Life Ministries in Little Village and the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago in Austin and West Garfield Park. The groups will be eligible for awards of up to $150,000 for each community area they serve. A pioneering electric car manufactured by Tata subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover has won the prestigious South African Car of the Year Award. The accolade won by the I-PACE EV400 AWD SE was a first for Jaguar in South Africa and an addition to several other international awards including 2019 World Car of the Year, World Car Design of the Year, World Green Car Award and European Car of the Year. It was also the first time that the title was bagged by an electric car in the 34-year history of the awards organised by the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists. Due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown in South Africa to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual award ceremony was organised instead of the usual gala event that is held annually. The South African Car of the Year trophy, which is being awarded since 1986, is the country's most respected and sought-after motoring accolade. Winners in a range of categories were announced at the event. The highly contested Premium Car Category, in which buyers look for prestigious mid to large vehicles with powerful engines, luxury features and high-end trim options, was also won by the I-PACE. The winner in the Urban Category was the Hyundai Atos 1.1 Motion, while the Family Car category award went to the Toyota Corolla Hatch 1.2T XR CVT. The Leisure category winner was the Volkswagen T-Cross 1.0 TSI Comfortline DSG and the Lifestyle Utility Vehicles Category accolade went to the Ford Ranger Raptor. The Sport/Performance category winner was the Toyota GR Supra 3.0T. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Primeste notificari pe email Contractare si Achizitie Bunuri Anunturi de Angajare (Premium) Granturi - Finantari (Premium) Burse de studiu Stagii Profesionale Oportunitati de voluntariat Toate Articolele Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 00:13:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TOKYO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on Tuesday called on the Japanese public to cooperate more in the nation's fight to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. Abe told a press briefing that the public needed to reduce the amount of contact they are having with other people, two weeks after he declared an initial state of emergency for Tokyo and six other prefectures that was extended on April 16 to cover the entire country. While praising those who had been cooperating with central and local governments requests and staying and working from home as much as possible, he said people from Tokyo, the epicenter of the nation's COVID-19 outbreak accounting for more than one-third of the country's COVID-19 cases, had left the capital in large numbers over the weekend to take overnight trips. The Japanese leader said that a large number of people from Tokyo headed to rural areas last weekend despite his repeated calls for people to refrain from leaving home or make unnecessary trips and try to achieve the goal of reducing contact between people by 80 percent. People leaving Tokyo where 123 new daily cases were confirmed as of Tuesday evening, bringing the total number of infections in the capital to 3,307 from a nationwide total of 11,543 recorded COVID-19 cases, could see the virus spread to rural areas in Japan. Such areas, which may have recorded none or very few cases, could quickly see the virus spread, but, unlike large cities like Tokyo, do not have the medical infrastructure to deal with a potential outbreak. The prime minister also said that the upcoming Golden Week national holidays from the end of April to early May posed a very real risk of the virus spreading further. Abe again called on people to refrain from taking trips, underscoring the fact that the nation's healthcare system is become overburdened. In order to ease the strain on the healthcare system and save people's lives, Abe said that he would like more cooperation to achieve the goal of people significantly reducing contact to contain the spread of the virus that has taken the lives of a total of 294 people in Japan. Despite the state of emergency giving prefectural governors the right to request certain businesses to close if they attract large number of people, some establishments have, as is their legal right, been defying the orders and keeping their doors open to attract customers. On Tuesday, Economic Revitalization Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said he may enforce tougher measures against such businesses that refuse the government's request to stay closed, in a bid to prevent them from allowing groups to gather where the pneumonia-causing virus can easily be passed on. Nishimura specifically referred to some pachinko parlors which continued to allow customers to enter their facilities as usual and underscored Abe's point that people had been crossing prefectural borders to take overnight trips in rural areas. With both central and prefectural governments gearing up to face Golden Week and the possibility that groups may leave urban areas en masse and head to rural ones for a vacation, a recent survey has revealed that Japanese people have also been continuing to commute to work. According to a survey conducted by British research firm YouGov, only 18 percent of people in Japan have stopped going to work due to virus, which is the lowest level in 26 countries and territories covered by the survey. "In Japan, where measures to tackle COVID-19 are not legally binding, many people have continued to commute to offices due to the difficulty in working remotely," Nippon Research Center, a Tokyo-based research group that carried out the Japan part of the survey from March 13 to April 13, said. The YouGov survey covered a total of 27,000 people in 26 countries and territories in Europe, the Americas, the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Enditem Same-store sales for the industry dropped by more than 65% during the last 2 weeks of the month. The rapid decline in sales during the second half of March due to COVID-19 was enough to push the industry down to its worst month in decades. Same-store sales for restaurants dropped by 28.3% in March. This update comes from Black Box Intelligence (formerly TDn2K) data from over 50,000 restaurants and $75 billion in annual sales. The 28.3% decline, as disappointing as it is, does not show the full impact the virus outbreak is having on restaurants. Same-store sales for the industry dropped by more than 65% during the last 2 weeks of the month. We have reported on restaurant sales and traffic since the last Great Recession, and this is something far beyond anything the industry has experienced, said Victor Fernandez, vice president of insights and knowledge for Black Box Intelligence. Although it is hard to classify anything as good news right now, there is a positive in the sense that the decline in sales may have reached bottom based on early April data. As more restaurants focus their undivided attention on their off-premise offerings and guests adapt their consumption to this new environment, plus some of the government relief measures take effect, some small improvements may lie ahead. Guest Counts Plummet as their Guests Shelter in Place Same-store traffic fell by 29.2% during March. As with sales, it was not until the last 2 weeks of the month that traffic was severely impacted by the measures imposed to try to slow down the COVID-19 spread. As normal routines for work, school and other activities were disrupted by people sheltering at home, restaurant guest counts fell close to 70% in comparable stores during the end of March. Guest Check Growth Flat, Widening Spread Between Segments Average guest checks grew by about 2.4% year over year in March. But as much of the story written during the month, it is really the last 2 weeks that require special attention. By the end of the month, guest check growth became essentially flat year over year. The real story there was the widening check growth dynamics between segments. Limited-service restaurants (those in quick service and fast casual) had a sharp acceleration in their guest check growth, as consumers likely shifted to larger off-premise orders to feed multiple people at home. Meanwhile, guest checks dropped considerably for full-service restaurants, a drop that was fueled in large part by beverage sales being almost completely eliminated by the shift to off-premise only operations. Alcoholic beverages, in particular, can have an enormous impact on guest checks, especially for bar and grill and more upscale restaurants. Full-Service Restaurants Hit Hardest by the Crisis Fine dining and upscale casual were the worst-performing segments during March based on same-store sales growth. Family dining was another segment that was hit hard, which includes many buffet-based concepts. With restaurant operations shifting to off-premise sales only, concepts that were developed with off-premise as an essential part of their business are naturally faring much better. Quick service and fast casual were the best performing segments based on sales growth during March. While full-service restaurants were experiencing same-store declines of more than 70% year over year by the last week of the month, fast casuals decline was about 50% and quick service lost only about 30% of its sales during the week. All Day Parts Suffering The sharp decline in sales has reached all restaurant dayparts as regular daily routines got upended by the social distancing guidelines. As the pandemic effects started to hit the entire country late in March it seemed, initially, that breakfast and mid-afternoon sales were holding up better than the rest. However, by the last week of the month breakfast sales growth fell in line with the declines being reported for the lunch and dinner day parts. Mid-afternoon sales remain as the best performing day part based on same-store sales growth by the end of the month, while late-night sales have been the most negatively affected since early in the crisis. Regions with Large Outbreaks See Most Negative Impact By the last week of the month, the regions experiencing the worst declines in restaurant sales were those where the biggest COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred, as well as regions with large metropolitan areas of high population density. Same-store sales dropped by more than 70% for New England, the Western region, New York-New Jersey, the Mid-Atlantic and California during the last week of March. However, performance was not much better for the rest of the country during the final week of the month. In fact, the Southeast was the only region that experienced less than 60% decline in restaurant sales year over year. Recovery for The Economy Could Be Slow After Strong Initial Rebound From a macro economic standpoint, there are two major questions facing restaurants: When will the economy start to reopen and what will the recovery look like? The answer to the first question is unknown, commented Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors and Black Box Intelligence economist. As for the second, it is critical to understand that the programs put in place are stabilization plans not stimulus plans. You have to stop falling before you can start rising again. When the opening does occur, the early phase should be very strong. Given the massive number of business closures, their reopening will create a huge rise in activity. Also, households will have to restock, creating a temporary surge in consumer demand. But that could be a head fake. We need to look not at the first few months after reopening but the following six to twelve. That is when economic fundamentals take over. With so much damage to so many companies, it is likely that even with government financial support, many will fail, slowing activity. In addition, it is unclear how consumers will behave. The unemployment rate could hit 20% and it might take years to get back to a more normal level. After the initial surge, it may be months before a sustained consumer spending pattern emerges. A second, short down phase could take hold. At that point, we would likely enter the true recovery. Given all that happened, growth at moderate rates, similar to the recovery period in the 2010s, should be expected. Restaurants Adjust Workforce Practices as Industry Downsizes After years of strong job growth for the restaurant industry, the sharp downturn in sales has meant many companies have unfortunately had to downsize their staff. A survey by Black Box Intelligence conducted in early April revealed that 22% of participating restaurant companies had to lay off employees, while the percentage that said they had to place some employees on furlough was 67% As restaurants try to figure out how to navigate this challenge, keeping employees and guests safe and taken care of has been one of the areas of focus. Many companies already had paid sick leave policies before COVID-19, but many more implemented them quickly in response. Currently, 67% of restaurants said they offer paid sick leave to their hourly employees. The percentage is higher for restaurant managers. Taking care of employees has gone beyond those still working at those restaurants in many cases. Half the companies surveyed said they are extending health benefits for an average of 8 weeks for those employees that have had to be laid off or furloughed. Black Box Intelligence has launched a Sales and Traffic Tracker now collecting sales and traffic trend data, 3 times per week (M, W, F). This is open and complimentary to ALL restaurant operators in the restaurant industry. To participate, please email marketing@blackboxintelligence.com from your restaurant company email address. Black Box Intelligence (formerly TDn2K) is the leading data and insights provider of workforce, guest, consumer and financial performance benchmarks for the hospitality industry. The Black Box Intelligence product suite is the industry standard for operators seeking to achieve best-in-class performance results. With the largest and most reliable set of real restaurant data in the marketplace, Black Box Intelligence currently tracks and analyzes more than 300 companies, over 2.8 million employees, over 50,000 restaurant units and $75 billion in annual sales revenue. Black Box Intelligence is also the producer of the Global Best Practices Conference held annually in Dallas, Texas. Cars drive below a sign on the highway notifying travelers from New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut that they are required to quarantine for 14 days, in Millersville, Maryland on April 17, 2020. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) 3 States Announce Plans to Reopen Businesses, Roll Back Stay-at-Home Measures Governors of Georgia and Tennessee announce dates; South Carolina businesses open Monday at 5 p.m. The governors of Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee announced Monday they would allow for the reopening of some types of closed businesses. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said those businesses will be able to open by next week, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said some businesses can reopen by this Monday at 5 p.m., and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said that his states stay-at-home mandate would end by April 30. Hair salons, barbers, gyms, and other businesses will be allowed to open in Georgia on Friday, Kemp said. On April 27, restaurants and theaters will be able to open under social distancing guidelines, although bars and similar venues will be closed. Due to favorable data & more testing, gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, their respective schools & massage therapists can reopen Friday, April 24 with Minimum Basic Operations, Kemp wrote on Twitter. By taking this measured action, we will get Georgians back to work safely, without undermining the progress we all have made in this battle against COVID-19, Kemp said, adding that it is a small step forward and should be treated as such. Lee confirmed that Tennessee businessesfor the most partcan open May 1. These businesses will open according to specific guidance that we will provide in accordance with state and national experts in both medicine and business, he said in a statement. Social distancing works, and as we open up our economy it will be more important than ever that we keep social distancing as lives and livelihoods depend on it. McMaster went a step further and said a number of retail stores in the state can open at 5 p.m. on Monday, including furniture, jewelry, clothing, shoe, book, flower, and other types of stores. Over the weekend, the mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, ended restrictions on beaches, allowing people to walk, run, and swim under social-distancing guidelines. People run on the beach in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, on April 17, 2020. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) Across the United States, dozens of governors have issued stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19. Their announcements came as local governments were feeling pressure to roll back stay-at-home measures and reopen the economy after more than 20 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance when businesses were forced to shutter. Last week, President Donald Trump expressed a strong willingness to reopen the economy and created a task force to implement it. We can begin the next front in our war, which we are calling Opening Up America Again,' Trump said in a briefing. To preserve the health of Americans, we must preserve the health of our economy. (CNN) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has defended his participation in a public protest against coronavirus lockdown measures, saying that he was not calling for military action against the country's other branches of government. Sunday's protest, which was held in Brasilia outside the Army's Headquarters, gathered dozens of Bolsonaro supporters wearing the country's emblematic yellow and green. Large signs, including one reading "military intervention with Bolsonaro in power," were visible in a livestream of the event posted to the president's personal Facebook page. In the video, Bolsonaro himself can be seen at the rally without a mask waving at the crowd and coughing at times. "I'm here because I believe in you. You are here because you believe in Brazil," Bolsonaro said during the live stream of the protest on Sunday, while standing on top of a white pick-up truck. The rally was a protest against quarantine measures imposed by some state governors, Bolsonaro said at a press conference on Monday outside the Alvorada presidential residence in Brasilia. The state of Sao Paulo, Brazil's financial capital and the state worst-hit by COVID-19, has extended quarantine measures until May 10th for commerce, schools and all non-essential businesses. In Rio de Janeiro state, quarantine measures are set to remain in place through April 30th. He also told reporters that he never encouraged military intervention and that his support of the protest had been misinterpreted. "I respect the Supreme Court, I respect the Congress -- but I am entitled to my opinions and some people can't just interpret anything I say as an act of aggression," Bolsonaro told reporters and supporters. "Usually, when people are conspiring against someone it's to reach a position of power, I'm already in power. I'm already the president." Anyone carrying "anti-democratic signs" was an exception, he suggested. "In any given march there are people who will infiltrate. People have a right to freedom of speech," Bolsonaro said. "I didn't say anything against any other power of government, quite the contrary. We want to return to work. That is what the people want." But critics have called for further investigation into those who appeared to be calling for a return to a military dictatorship, which ruled Brazil from 1964-1985. Supreme Court President Dias Toffoli called any attack against Brazil's democracy and its institutions as "nefarious" during a teleconference event Monday, CNN Brasil reported. Rodrigo Maia, the president of Brazil's Lower House of Congress, wrote on Twitter Sunday that the "whole world is working together in the fight against coronavirus. In Brazil, we have to fight against corona and authoritarianism. It's harder work, but we will prevail. In the name of the Lower House of Congress I condemn any act that defends dictatorship or acts against the Constitution." Brazil has more than 40,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 2,575 deaths, according to a Health Ministry update Monday. Bolsonaro has said that he expects 70% of Brazil's population to become infected with the coronavirus and that the quarantine measures imposed by governors in some of the hardest hit states, like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, are not working. "I hope this is the last week of this quarantine," Bolsonaro said Monday. "The masses can't afford to stay home because the refrigerator is empty." This story was first published on CNN.com "Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro defends joining anti-lockdown protest" DALLAS April 21, 2020 Brain cancer patients in the coming years may not need to go under the knife to help doctors determine the best treatment for their tumors. A new study by UT Southwestern shows artificial intelligence can identify a specific genetic mutation in a glioma tumor simply by examining 3D images of the brain with more than 97 percent accuracy. Such technology could potentially eliminate the common practice of pretreatment surgeries in which glioma samples are taken and analyzed to choose an appropriate therapy. Scientists across the country have been testing other imaging techniques in recent years, but the latest research describes perhaps one of the most accurate and clinically viable methods in the widespread effort to alter the paradigm of assessing brain cancer. "Knowing a particular mutation status in gliomas is important in determining prognosis and treatment strategies," says Joseph Maldjian, M.D., chief of neuroradiology at UT Southwesterns ODonnell Brain Institute. The ability to determine this status using just conventional imaging and AI is a great leap forward. Mutated Enzymes The study used a deep-learning network and standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect the status of a gene called isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), which produces an enzyme that in mutated form may trigger tumor growth in the brain. Doctors preparing to treat gliomas will often have patients undergo surgery to obtain tumor tissue that is then analyzed to determine the IDH mutation status. The prognosis and treatment strategy will vary based on whether a patient has an IDH-mutated glioma. However, because obtaining an adequate sample can sometimes be time consuming and risky particularly if tumors are difficult to access researchers have been studying non-surgical strategies to identify IDH mutation status. The study, published this spring in Neuro-Oncology, differentiates itself from previous research in three ways: The method is highly accurate. Previous techniques have often failed to eclipse 90 percent accuracy. Mutation status was determined by analyzing only a single series of MR images, as opposed to multiple image types. A single algorithm was required to assess the IDH mutation status in the tumors. Other techniques have required either hand-drawn regions of interest or additional deep-learning models to first identify the boundaries of the tumor then detect potential mutations. The beauty of this new deep-learning model is its simplicity and high degree of accuracy, says Maldjian, adding that similar methods may be used to identify other important molecular markers for various cancers. Weve removed additional pre-processing steps and created an ideal scenario for easily transitioning this into clinical care by using images that are routinely acquired. Tumor imaging Gliomas comprise the strong majority of malignant tumors found in the brain and can often spread quickly through surrounding tissue. The five-year survival rate for high-grade gliomas is 15%, though tumors with mutated IDH enzymes generally have a better prognosis. The IDH mutation status also helps doctors decide on a combination of treatments most suitable for the patient, from chemotherapy and radiation therapy to surgery to remove the tumor. To improve the process of detecting enzyme mutations and deciding on appropriate therapy, Maldjians team developed two deep-learning networks that analyzed imaging data from a publicly available database of more than 200 brain cancer patients from across the U.S. One network used only one series from the MRI (T2-weighted images), while the other used multiple image types from the MRI. The two networks achieved nearly the same accuracy, suggesting that the process of detecting IDH mutations could be significantly streamlined by using only the T2-weighted images. Big picture Maldjians team will next test his deep-learning model on larger datasets for additional validation before deciding whether to incorporate the technique into clinical care. Meanwhile, researchers are hoping to develop medications to inhibit IDH through ongoing national clinical trials. If effective, these inhibitors could combine with AI-imaging techniques to overhaul how some brain cancers are assessed and treated. In the big picture, we may be able to treat some gliomas without operating on a patient, Maldjian says. We would use AI to detect an IDH-mutated glioma, then use IDH inhibitors to slow down or reverse the tumor growth. The field of radio-genomics is exploding with possibilities. ### About the study The study was supported with funds from the National Institutes of Health. Maldjian is a professor of radiology at UT Southwesterns Peter ODonnell Jr. Brain Institute and Advanced Imaging Research Center. He is the Lee R. and Charlene B. Raymond Distinguished Chair in Brain Research. About UT Southwestern Medical Center UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institutions faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 22 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 2,500 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 105,000 hospitalized patients, nearly 370,000 emergency room cases, and oversee approximately 3 million outpatient visits a year. Major U.S. business lobbying groups are asking Congress to pass measures that would protect companies large and small from coronavirus-related lawsuits when states start to lift pandemic restrictions and businesses begin to reopen. Their concerns have the ears of congressional Republicans, though it is far from clear if the idea has the Democratic support it would need to pass in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) are seeking temporary, legal and regulatory safe harbor legislation to curb liabilities for employers who follow official health and safety guidelines. Businesses want to make sure that they are not held liable for policy decisions by government officials, should employees or customers contract COVID-19 once operations resume. They also want protection from litigation that could result from coronavirus-related disruptions to issues like wages and hours, leave and travel. Businesses Warn Fear of Lawsuits Could Stall Rebooting of Economy Litigation surrounding coronavirus responses is already underway and businesses are warning that the fear of more lawsuits could hinder the reboot of the U.S. economy. The issues businesses say they are concerned about include employer liability, products liability, medical liability, securities litigation, outdated regulations, health privacy and workplace safety. Learn more. P/C Industry Backs Fund to Help Businesses, Workers Hurt by Shutdowns The new relief vehicle, the COVID-19 Business and Employee Continuity and Recovery Fund, is meant to help businesses retain and rehire employees, maintain worker benefits and help cover operating expenses such as rent. Insurers would help by reviewing and processing the applications from businesses seeking assistance. Learn more. These are practical things to reassure businesses that they can confidently move to implement a reopening, Neil Bradley, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief policy officer, said in an interview. The debate over when to ease restrictions intended to slow the spread of the COVID-19 disease, which has killed more than 40,000 Americans, has recently entered a more politically charged phase with President Donald Trump voicing support for scattered street protests aimed at ending the restrictions. Public health officials warn that doing so prematurely risks sending infection rates soaring and further taxing an overwhelmed healthcare system. The idea of protecting businesses from being sued by workers or customers has already found support in some quarters on Capitol Hill. Theres been a lot of discussion among conservative Republicans, U.S. Representative Mike Johnson, a Republican member of Trumps congressional task force on the economy, told Reuters. On the Republican side, I think there would be broad support, probably near unanimous support. The path to bipartisan legislation remains unclear in the Senate and House, where Democrats have advocated stronger regulatory safeguards for workers. An aide to a senior Senate Democrat confirmed that Democrats were discussing the idea but declined to say whether they would support it. Life and Livelihoods The coronavirus pandemic has upended American life, closing businesses, schools and churches, leading most states to ban social gatherings, and sickening more than 760,000 people. Its economic fallout has included throwing more than 20 million people out of work. Undoing the economic devastation will require a regulatory and legal framework that recognizes the unprecedented risks to businesses, including essential businesses that have remained open throughout the health crisis, lobbyists argue. The nature and the contour of the problem that were facing here is starting to become much more evident to members of both parties. And I think theres a growing understanding that were going to have to find a solution, said Patrick Hedren, NAMs vice president of litigation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled over the weekend that upcoming CARES 2 legislation would prepare the path ahead to support the lives and livelihoods of Americans, without providing details. The Trump administrations Opening Up America Again guidelines put the onus on employers to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks and gloves to staff, test employees for symptoms, and trace infections. At the same time, officials acknowledge the risk that economic activity could spread the virus and create deadly new hot zones of infection. Business groups say there are ample precedents for congressional actions to safeguard businesses from liability, including legislation involving the anthrax attacks of 2001 and widespread Y2K fears in the 1990s that the arrival of the year 2000 would wreak havoc on computer systems. The U.S. Chamber laid out a comprehensive return to work plan in an April 13 memo that advocates safe harbors to allow companies to implement temporary workplace policies and benefits, including the provision of PPE. The protections would exempt PPE supplies and training from federal worker safety requirements and protect against litigation emanating from wage and hour issues, leave policy, travel restrictions, telework protocols and workers compensation. The protections would not be available for companies guilty of gross negligence, recklessness or willful misconduct. The U.S. Chambers recommendations, which run the gamut from medical liability for healthcare providers to securities litigation against publicly-traded companies, are intended to cover the entire national business community. But lobbyists also want to ensure that protections are in place for small businesses, which lack the legal and regulatory resources of major corporations. Congress should enact legislation to provide that no penalty shall apply to a small business for violation of a COVID-19 response statute unless a violation was willful, the NFIB, which represents small business operators, said in a statement. (Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Rosalba OBrien) Topics Lawsuits COVID-19 Legislation USA In an image shared on Twitter recently by the U.S. State Department, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is seen sitting next to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while between them is a small table with a large pile of cash on it. There is also a pile of cash on Assad's lap as well as an Iranian banknote in his pocket. The altered image was tweeted on April 20 by State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus to highlight Tehran's support for its main regional ally, Syria, as Zarif visited Damascus for talks with Assad. "Since 2012, the Iranian regime has provided more than $10 billion of the Iranian people's money to Assad. Wonder how much plundered cash the regimes chief apologist [Zarif] is delivering to Damascus today?" Ortagus wrote in the latest example of the social-media battle raging between Washington and Tehran aimed at swaying public opinion and supporting a narrative. The two sides, which officially don't talk to each other, have in past weeks been trading barbs and memes amid a deadly coronavirus pandemic that has hit both countries severely. Ali Vaez, the director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group (ICG), says the "pointless and utterly juvenile" exchanges are illustrative of "the sad state of relations" between the two countries, which came close to a military conflict earlier this year following the U.S. assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) regional operations. The killing in Baghdad led to a retaliatory missile attack by Tehran on U.S. forces in Iraq. "The ideologues within the U.S. administration believe that the Islamic republic is on the verge [of falling] as a result of the combined effects of the [COVID-19] crisis and sanctions, and thus sees media warfare as a catalyst of regime collapse," he said. "The Iranians, for their part, see the humanitarian crisis in Iran as an opportunity to shift the blame to the U.S. and delegitimize the sanctions in the court of international public opinion," Vaez added. Fighting Sanctions Much of the recent exchanges have focused on crippling U.S. sanctions reimposed on Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump exited the historic 2015 nuclear deal, which he said was not strong enough to contain Tehran's nuclear activities and its regional ambitions. Washington says humanitarian goods, including medicines, are exempt from sanctions. But Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that sanctions have "drastically" constrained Iran's ability to finance humanitarian imports, including medical equipment. The White House has refused to ease the sanctions despite calls by the United Nations, the European Union, more than 30 members of Congress, and others while offering Tehran humanitarian aid that has been dismissed by Iranian officials. Tehran, which has applied for an emergency $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fight the coronavirus outbreak, has intensified its calls for the removal of "illegal" sanctions, while saying they hamper its ability to contain the pandemic that has killed more than 5,200 Iranians and infected some 85,000, according to official figures as of April 21. Actual figures are believed by many international groups and people inside the country to be significantly higher. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused Iran of "incompetent and deadly governance," while saying that the establishment's calls for the lifting of sanctions is "about cash for the regime's leaders." Tweets and images shared by the State Department have suggested that the clerical establishment has enough funds to deal with the crisis, including replacing the letter "o" in "billions" with a photo of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who according to a 2013 Reuters investigation controls an economic empire with an estimated worth of about $95 billion. The image was shared by Ortagus after Zarif accused the U.S. of "economic terrorism" amid the COVID-19 outbreak in his country, by far the worst in the Middle East. Another image, posted by Iran's Foreign Ministry, included a photo of Pompeo photoshopped under the coronavirus symbol that stood as the letter "o" in the word "sanctions." Zarif has directly addressed Trump in some of his tweets, including on April 19, when he reacted to an offer by the U.S. president to send aid to Iran, including ventilators, "if they ask for it." "Iran will be exporting VENTILATORS in a few months @realdonaldtrump," Zarif tweeted on April 19. "All you need to do is stop interfering in the affairs of other nations; mine especially. And believe me, we do not take advice from ANY American politician," Zarif added on Twitter, which is blocked in the Islamic republic and inaccessible to most Iranians. Earlier in the year, Trump and Khamenei traded accusations on Twitter amid heightened tensions between the two countries following the U.S. drone attack that killed Soleimani. "The so-called 'Supreme Leader' of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty things to say about the United States and Europe. Their economy is crashing, and their people are suffering. He should be very careful with his words!" Trump tweeted on January 17, in what appeared to be a reaction to a Khamenei speech where he blasted the United States for killing Soleimani. Shortly after Trump's tweet, Khamenei's official English-language Twitter account accused the U.S. president of lying when he said that his country stood with the Iranian people. Where Will It End? The social-media battle and tensions between the two sides are likely to persist in the coming months, analysts say. Vaez says talks between the two countries are unlikely prior to the November presidential election in the United States. "The irony is that the weaker Iran becomes as a result of the pandemic's devastation, the more loath it would be to negotiate with the U.S. out of fear that its weakness could invite more, not less, pressure from the U.S.," Vaez says. Arianne Tabatabai, an adjunct senior research scholar at Columbia University, recently suggested that Tehran could seek to bolster its positions ahead of potential negotiations by raising the cost for Washington's "maximum pressure" campaign. "Examples of actions Iran could take to strengthen its hand might well include items from the playbook the regime introduced in spring 2019 and carried on until the killing of Soleimani, such as attacks on oil facilities, shipping hubs, and other regional targets," Tabatabai wrote in an April 14 analysis published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Harry Viar has been teaching piano for three decades. Its a job he loves hes taught Grammy winners and many others who have gone on to professional careers. When the coronavirus outbreak hit, though, the 85-year-old Northeast Portland resident could not continue. I cant ask my students to come here and they wouldnt want to, anyway, Viar said. Some music teachers have kept giving lessons over video calls but Viar could not, because he is legally blind. So when Congress authorized unemployment benefits for self-employed people last month, Viar submitted an application. More than three weeks later he has no word on the status of his claim and no benefits check. When Viar tried to call to learn whats gone wrong, he spent more than two hours on hold with the Oregon Unemployment Department but came away with no answers. He paid his April rent its only fair because the owners have a mortgage, he said. But without his piano lessons he said he doesnt know how long he can keep paying his bills. I would say I probably couldnt pay any more than another two to three months, Viar said. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of Oregonians find themselves in the same predicament out of work, without benefits checks and unable to get answers from the state about their claims status. Its become a crisis as the weeks have dragged on. Collectively, the state owes well over $100 million in unpaid benefits to Oregonians who lost their jobs to the coronavirus outbreak. The coronavirus outbreak has thrown 300,000 Oregonians out of work and the Oregon Employment Department has been unable to keep up with the catastrophic job loss. Laid-off workers like Viar spend hours on hold and come away with no answers. I cant say that they were derelict because I dont know whats going on, really, Viar said. But I know they werent ready and they werent prepared. The state has acknowledged its antiquated computer systems have given thousands of workers faulty information about the status of their claims. The departments phone lines are overwhelmed, preventing callers from getting through. And Oregon has been unable to adapt its technology to process claims from Viar and other self-employed workers newly eligible for benefits, meaning they are without funds at a moment when they desperately need them. Asked directly on Monday whether Gov. Kate Brown is satisfied with the states performance, the governors office would not say. Instead, it said Brown appreciates laid-off workers patience. The governor recognizes that these are incredibly difficult times for Oregonians. At the same time, the employment department is working through some challenges with a legacy computer system coupled with a demand we could never have anticipated, interim press secretary Liz Merah said in a written statement. Oregon is far from the only state struggling under the crush of new jobless claims. But Oregon has compounded its problems by giving out faulty or contradictory information, opaque answers and offering silence on many pressing issues. I know that the employment department is facing an overwhelming workload, but they have been slow to understand what was happening, slow to communicate the reality on the ground, and they continue to be slow letting people know when to expect their unemployment money, U.S. Rep Earl Blumenauer, D-Portland, said in an email Tuesday. He has fielded a deluge of complaints from newly laid-off constituents over the past few weeks. Nobody thinks they can change the entire system overnight with an antiquated computer system, Blumenauer said, "but they must do a much better job communicating and setting expectations. Employment Department Director Kay Erickson turned down a request for an interview last week and did not respond to additional requests on Monday. The department did respond to separate, written questions, but would not respond to others. Heres an overview of the claims crisis based on those limited replies, other publicly available information, and reporting on the crisis by The Oregonian/OregonLive: Whats gone wrong with Oregons unemployment claims system? There are two fundamental problems: 1. Nearly 300,000 Oregonians have filed for jobless claims in the last month, far exceeding prior records. Its more new claims than in the prior 66 weeks combined. The extraordinary volume has created an enormous burden on the employment department. That burden has been compounded by changes in the unemployment benefits program Congress authorized last month that made more people eligible for benefits and forced Oregon to rewrite its own rules. 2. Oregon is using an employment claims system built in the 1990s, with some components dating to the Reagan administration. The creaky old system cannot make automated adjustments to process claims for many new workers and cannot be easily adapted to process last months changes in the benefits program. Many other states are struggling with the same technology issues. But thats little consolation for tens of thousands of laid-off Oregonians struggling to get their benefits. The employment department must process many claims manually and has been unable to update its systems to make the important changes Congress authorized last month. Key among those changes: Adding self-employed workers, contractors and gig workers among those eligible for benefits. Eliminating the one-week waiting period before laid-off workers are entitled to receive benefits. Together, the changes account for well over $100 million in benefits for thousands of Oregonians that remain unpaid. Many other jobless Oregonians are enduring separate problems as the state works to correct erroneous denials and address complicated claims. The state says everyone will get their money but has not said when. State auditors have warned for many years that Oregons system was ill-equipped to handle a surge in claims or changes in the benefits program. Those warnings proved prescient in the current crisis. Oregon received $86 million in federal money to modernize its system in 2009 but struggled with management issues and only began the overhaul in the past few years. It will be a slow process the states timetable for the project indicates it wont be complete before 2025. If theres a problem with your claim, and you cant get through, what should you do? People who encounter problems with their benefits claim often receive instructions to call the department and speak to a claims specialist. But getting through can be nearly impossible the phone lines are overwhelmed. The department says its average hold time is more than two hours long and it is answering fewer than half of calls. Those statistics understate the crisis: Many callers receive a busy signal and are never able to connect at all. So what should people do if they cant get their claims processed? The employment departments COVID-19 page has a dedicated section with questions to errors people may have received on their claims, the departments communications manager, Gail Krumenauer, wrote in an email late Monday night. The departments webpage indicates some denials were the result of people indicating they are not looking for work while on temporary layoff. Under our agencys temporary rules, as long as you stay in contact with your current employer and return to work when they resume operations, you do not need to actively seek work at other employers, the website says. We have made an automatic fix for these cases, and you should receive benefits. However, many laid-off workers have told The Oregonian/OregonLive that they have been waiting for weeks, havent received benefits, and cannot reach the department by phone. The employment department didnt respond to a follow-up question on what people should do in such circumstances. The department does have an email address set up to handle questions -- OED_COVID19_Info@oregon.gov but its not clear the department will address problems with individual claims over email. What should self-employed workers do? This answer also isnt clear. The employment department has been unable, so far, to adapt its systems to process claims for self-employed workers who were previously ineligible for benefits. The department says it is working to update its systems to pay claims for the self-employed, contractors and gig workers. The department says it will eventually pay workers all their benefits back to the point where they were first eligible even if they are unable to file right now. On Monday, Krumenauer said only 16 states have implemented the expanded benefits for self-employed workers a reflection of nationwide problems in adapting old employment systems to handle coronavirus layoffs. Oregons employment department has given no guidance on how long it will take the state to adapt its systems or when it will pay those benefits. The departments website says the payments are coming soon. The state didnt respond to questions seeking a timetable for paying benefits for the self-employed, or seeking advice on what those claimants should do in the meantime. With its phone systems overwhelmed, why doesnt the employment department set up a phone appointment system to address individual claims? In the private sector, at times of heavy call volume, companies arrange to call customers at a predetermined time. That keeps call centers from getting overwhelmed and gives customers certainty about when their issue will be addressed even if the callbacks arent immediate. The employment department said it has chosen to bring on additional staff but now has begun callbacks as well. The department is in the process of expanding the number of people fielding benefit claims and questions from 400 to 800 several times the number at the start of the crisis. We actually have a group of new employees starting this week, Krumenauer said Monday. They will be training and taking claims soon! In addition, we have expanded contact center hours, and expanded our claims processing hours. The governors office said the state has implemented an emergency leasing project to open a new claims processing site in Wilsonville. Is anybody getting their benefits? Yes. If youre stuck in a claims morass it might seem unlikely, but the employment department says it paid nearly $100 million in benefits during the week ended April 11. Thats up from $12 million weekly in March. And the state has begun paying a $600 weekly bonus Congress authorized for unemployed workers. Laid-off workers must be able to successfully file a benefits claim to start receiving that additional $600, however, and many people have been unable to do that. Once you file for benefits, how long will it take before checks start arriving? On average, the department says people are receiving benefits within three weeks of filing their claims. Some claims take longer to process, because an individuals claim might be more complicated due to their specific work history, and may require more information or follow up from our claims staff, Krumenauer said. More complex claims require more in-depth knowledge of the unemployment insurance system, and take more time. We have rapidly added staff, and also continued to ramp up staff training with the detailed knowledge to process more complex claims. Will workers who havent received their benefits receive retroactive payments when the state eventually fixes its systems? Yes, according to the employment department and the governors office. They say they will pay benefits retroactively for people whose claims were erroneously denied and to self-employed workers. Additionally, Brown reversed state policy last week and said the state will waive the one-week waiting period before newly laid-off workers are eligible for benefits. She acted under pressure from Oregons congressional delegation, which noted Congress had provided funding to waive the waiting period, and following a report on the issue by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The governors office said those waiting week payments also will be retroactive to when filers first lost their jobs. That means another week of benefits for all, or nearly all, the 300,000 Oregon workers who have filed jobless claims more than $100 million in aggregate, based on the number of claimants and the average size of benefit checks. Again, though, the state has given no timeline for how long it will take to issue those retroactive payments. For two Sundays in a row the states systems have incorrectly told many laid-off workers that they must restart their claims even if they have already been receiving benefits. Last weeks snafu affected at least 20,000 Oregonians. Will it happen again this Sunday? I so truly hope for everyone claiming, and for us that it doesnt happen again next Sunday. I cant guarantee that, Krumenauer wrote in a Sunday email. Now that we know what can happen, we are anticipating potential recurring issues in advance, fixing them right away if they happen, and getting the details and next steps on our site and distributed broadly when we know people claiming benefits encounter these types of errors, she said. -- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-21 14:45:40 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 815 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Industry leaders in propanol market must improve stakeholders' bottom lines by leveraging construction and automotive industries along with variegating their end-use applications.DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / Future Market Insights (FMI), The global propanol market is pegged for steady growth at approximately 3% CAGR over the forecast period (2019-20290. Growing consumption of propanol in industrial & household cleaners is supplementing the market growth. FMI projects the global revenue pool to exceed US$ 3 Bn by 2021 end."Sales of electronic-grade and pharma-grade isopropanol will inflate on the back of growing consumption. Moreover, prolific demand for acetone-based propanol in emerging Asian economies is a major growth driver. Japan and China will remain growth epicenters both in terms of production and consumption," states FMI analyst.Request report sample with 300+ pages to gain in-depth insights https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7742 Key Takeaways of Propanol Market StudyIsopropanol accounts for more than 90% share in terms of product type.Paints & coatings industry remains leading end-use area of propanol.Gains in global propanol market remains concentrated in East Asia on account of burgeoning pharmaceutical and chemical industries.Propanol market in Europe and North America will experience brisk growth during the forecast period.Propanol Market - Key Growth FactorsFootprint and capacity expansion strategies undertaken by market leaders are stimulating the growth of propanol market.Stringent regulations regarding low VOC emissions will boost the demand for n-propanol as opposed to isopropanol.Proliferation of top players in developing Asian countries is fuelling the growth of propanol market in the region.Use of propanol as a direct solvent will remain a significant growth contributor through 2029.Role of propanol as a chemical intermediate will continue to be a major growth lever during the forecast period.Propanol Market - Key RestraintsFluctuation in feedstock prices will impact the sales of propanol over the projection period.Growing emphasis on self-sufficiency will reduce the import volumes in countries such as China.Impact of COVID-19 on Propanol MarketAs of February 2020, the total chemical production across the globe dropped by 2.4% in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak. Different categories of chemicals have been affected variably by the Coronavirus crisis. The prominent application of propanol remains paint & coatings industry. The chemicals included in this category have suffered the maximum 9.4% decline in margin within the same timeframe. Travel restrictions and industrial slow-downs continue to slash the demand for propanol. These factors have led to increase in prices in view of low stock availability as well. However, as the pandemic has subsided in China, where the raw materials are sourced from, the supply will return to normalcy in April, 2020.Explore the full propanol market report with 133 illustrative figures, 28 data tables and table of contents. Request ToC of the study atCompetitive LandscapeSome of the major stakeholders featured in this FMI study include, but are not limited to, Mitsui Chemical Inc., LG Chem Ltd., BASF SE, ExxonMobil Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and Sasol. Key players in the global propanol market are exploring other end-use applications such as household & personal care products and pharmaceuticals. However, they must prioritize construction and automotive end-use areas in view of low toxicity and high miscibility of propanol. Furthermore, enhancing productivity is the key strategic tenet of top players in the propanol market.More about the ReportThis Future Market Insights study of 300 pages provides all-inclusive insights on the global propanol market. The market analysis is based on type (n-Propanol, Isopropanol), application (solvents, chemical intermediates, pharmaceuticals, household and personal care products) across seven regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, South Asia, East Asia, Oceania, Middle East & Africa).Explore Extensive Coverage of FMI's Chemicals & Materials LandscapeOxalic Acid Market - Get detailed analysis on the global oxalic acid market through FMI's latest study covering segmental analysis, competitive landscape, along with key growth parameters for predefined projection period (2019-2029).Refinery Catalyst Market - FMI's deep-dive study on the global refinery catalyst market covers market structure, competitor analysis, value chain, and macroeconomic factors for the duration of forecast period (2019-2027).Biostimulants Market - Gather comprehensive insights on the global biostimulants market through FMI's detailed report covering quantitative and qualitative analysis for the projection period (2019-2029).About Future Market Insights (FMI)Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and take critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition.ContactMr. Abhishek BudholiyaUnit No: AU-01-H Gold Tower (AU), Plot No: JLT-PH1-I3A,Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai,United Arab EmiratesMARKET ACCESS DMCC InitiativeFor Sales Enquiries: sales@ futuremarketinsights.com Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/propanol-market Press Release Source: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/press-release/propanol-market SOURCE: Future Market Insights Make sure that property is locked away after spate of quad bike thefts This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Apr 21st, 2020 Wrexham Rural police have said during these unusual times someone is using it as an opportunity to commit rural crime Police have made further appeals after a spate of thefts in the Glyn Ceiriog / Chirk areas, including quad bike thefts. In an appeal yesterday PC Dave Allen said, Since Thursday weve had three quad bikes stolen from the Chirk and Glyn Ceiriog Valley area. Investigations are ongoing, and we are giving our full attention to apprehend people are doing this. Please can I appeal to any farmers or quad bike owners in the area to be extra vigilant and make sure that property is locked away properly, and do as much crime prevention as you can please. The appeal extended to secure power tools or similar items, adding, And, obviously report any suspicious goings on to us as well. Because you folks, our eyes and ears out there. Be vigilant especially if you live in that area. One public appeal was made the day before on twitter: Armed persons Monday attacked some communities in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State, killing eight persons, including the head of a local vigilante group. The head of Madaka vigilante group, Isiya Madaka, who spoke on behalf of his group and similar ones in neighbouring communities, provided information on the attack to PREMIUM TIMES. He said the armed men bore AK-47, AK-49, rocket propelled grenade (RPG), and another local gun called mai jigida. He said his group and other local vigilante groups from adjoining villages worked together to repel the attackers. Despite their efforts, however, eight people were killed, he said. The victims include Dan Asabe, the head of the vigilante group from Mariga, another community in the local government. We also killed many of the bandits but we cant ascertain their numbers, he said. The best among our young vigilantes were killed yesterday, it will be very hard for us to be able to replace them. Niger State police commissioner, Usman Adamu, also confirmed the attack, saying it was triggered by a clash between cattle rustlers and some local vigilante groups. He, however, said he is not aware of residents fleeing their communities. Asked if security personnel would be deployed to confirm if residents were fleeing, he said its in a forest. Also, the spokesperson of the police in Niger, Wasiu Abiodun, directed all comments on the attack to the military, whom he said were having an operation in the local government. Meanwhile, the Nigerian defence headquarters in a tweet Tuesday on its verified Twitter handle said the military through its air component of operation GAMA AIKI neutralized several armed bandits at Maguga in Rafi LGA. #Pressrelease ARMED FORCES OF NIGERIA NEUTRALIZES ARMED BANDITS THROUGH ITS AIR COMPONENT OF OPERATION GAMA AIKI AT MAGUGA IN NIGER STATE The Armed Forces of Nigeria through its Air Component of Operation GAMA AIKI neutralized several armed bandits at Maguga in Rafi LGA DEFENCE HQ NIGERIA (@DefenceInfoNG) April 21, 2020 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js One too many In response to the tweet, a youth from the community, Abdulateef Lawal, said nothing has been done in Rafi Local Government, our people are (being) killed everyday. PATHETIC LIES: Nothing has been done in Rafi Local Government, our people are been killed everyday, just yesterday, 8 vigilantes were killed including the head of vigilantes of Mariga local government. I am from Kagara, Rafi LG. #EndCovid-19 (@lawal_ajt) April 21, 2020 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js In a separate interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Lawal said the attack is one of many. He said only a week ago, an attack by armed bandits on a nearby community led to the many residents fleeing for neighbouring villages, some of whom are in Bosso primary school right now as IDPs. Outright lies, he said of the tweet by the defence headquarters. I have never been disappointed on Nigerian Army like I am today. Some residents, he added, have fled the community for Kagara, the headquarters of Kafi local government. Residents of Kafi LGA, Niger State, fleeing to Kagara Also, the secretary of the states Northern Youth Ambassadors of Nigeria in Madaka, Yushau Ibrahim, said two months ago, bandits declared a 7:00 p.m. to 4:0 a.m. curfew in their community. He said between mid-March and mid-April, five people were killed in similar attacks with 21 others kidnapped and about the same number injured. As it is now, the people of my community (Madaka) are no more sleeping in their homes. Some have left the community. Our schools have been closed since last year, Mr Ibrahim told PREMIUM TIMES. Our basic need at this present situation is to seek for security that can camp with us in our community as these were the measures put in place to our neighbouring community that armed Bandits were terrorising. A similar account was given by Audu Madaka, 45, who said the district head of Madaka, was recently abducted alongside seven others, two of whom are women. Advertisements Mr Madaka, a tailor and a farmer, said they have since then experienced a barrage of attacks from the unknown criminals, which has led many to desert the community. Last week Friday they entered our neighbouring community, Ribo. They stole about 500 cows and set over 20 bikes ablaze, he recalled in Hausa. They passed through our community (Madaka) and were shooting. They were about 100. They killed six people and injured many others that are now in hospital. BrahMos Aerospace, the Indo- Russian joint venture known the world over for making missiles, has given 500 PPE kits and 2,500 N-95 masks to the Jabalpur district administration in Madhya Pradesh to help in the fight against coronavirus. The missile company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Sudhir Kumar Mishra assured that they will provide more assistance to Jabalpur whenever required, a state public relations official said on Tuesday. "The countrys prestigious BrahMos Aerospace has given 500 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, 2,500 N-95 masks and 30 thermal scanners to the Jabalpur district administration, he said. These vital equipment were handed over to Jabalpur Collector Bharat Yadav by the Red Cross Society secretary Ashish Dixit on behalf of the missile manufacturing company, the official said. The collector also thanked BrahMos Aerospace CEO Sudhir Kumar Mishra, who is an alumnus of Government Jabalpur Engineering College, for the help. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A British energy startup is providing power banks to NHS staff and frontline workers so they can stay connected whilst on shift during the coronavirus pandemic. Lifesaver's campaign, Lifeline To The Frontline, has supplied 400 pre-charged power banks using 100 per cent renewable energy from Octopus Energy to the University Hospital in Lewisham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in London. Co-founder & CEO Archie Wilkinson was inspired after hearing a government briefing with the Chief Nursing Officer for England, Ruth May, who shared how nurses need to ensure their batteries are fully charged. He told the Standard: "She highlighted the case of Doctor Sebastian Yuen, who lost his father Alex to coronavirus. Nurses were able to keep the two of them connected during Alex's final moments because of a phone, and the doctor was able to say his final goodbye over video call. That was the moment I thought - we can help do that." Lifeline To The Frontline aims to help doctors and nurses stay connected with patients, family and loved ones. Power banks for frontline NHS staff The startup had only been operating for twenty months - mainly at live events such as Formula One - and was beginning to branch out into transport hubs such as Waterloo and Liverpool stations when the coronavirus crisis hit. Mr Wilkinson said: "Our premise has always been to change an industry which is traditionally quite bad, and become sustainable. Now we're trying to come up with solutions which will help both people and the planet." A frontline healthcare worker with her power bank (Lifeline to the Frontline ) / Lifeline to the Frontline Originally, Lifesaver powerbanks were designed to stop commuters, office workers and festival goers running out of smartphone power, and have a capacity of 5000mAh, which will charge most phone models to two full charges. A coalition of attorneys filed a class-action lawsuit Monday calling on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release more than 400 immigrants from two California detention facilities amid coronavirus concerns. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in San Francisco, alleges cramped and unsanitary conditions inside the Yuba County Jail in Marysville (Yuba County) and the Mesa Verde Detention Facility in Bakersfield (Kern County), which make it impossible for detainees to practice social distancing and protect themselves from the highly contagious virus. Its the most recent lawsuit to warn of a tinderbox scenario likely to unfold if the populations inside these facilities are not drastically reduced. Fundamentally, the biggest issue is social distancing, said San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Emi MacLean. When theres dozens or more people in individual units in both of these facilities, theyre sleeping right up against other people, theyre going to the bathroom within an arms reach from someone else. Theres no cleaning of those common spaces. The coalition of attorneys are from the San Francisco public defenders office, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, ACLU Foundations of Northern and Southern California, Lakin & Wille LLP, and Cooley LLP. Attorneys and advocates across the U.S. are relying on the federal court system to push for the release of detainees who have pre-existing health conditions that would make them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. But the coalition has also intensified calls to free the majority of the immigrants in these facilities, warning of the dangers of an outbreak, which would spread quickly in such confined spaces. A federal judge in Southern California on Monday ordered ICE to consider releasing every individual whose age or health puts them at high risk of contracting COVID-19, regardless of their immigration case. ICE officials said they do not comment on pending litigation, but the agencys website says officials are working with federal and state agencies to facilitate a speedy, whole-of-government response in confronting (COVID-19), keeping everyone safe, and helping detect and slow the spread of the virus. An estimated 220 detainees had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Tuesday afternoon, ICE said. This virus doesnt know walls, it doesnt know detention centers, said Dr. Sandra Hernandez, president and CEO of the California Health Care Foundation and former director of public health for the city and county of San Francisco. It just really knows how to very effectively transmit itself to people who are not immune. ... These centers are very much on the front line of a potential spread if (ICE) doesnt take these recommendations seriously. Detainees in ICE detention describe extremely close living quarters and a lack of hygienic supplies, such as soap and hand sanitizer. The facility gives us one hotel-size shampoo bottle and one bar (of) soap every other day, said Coraima Sanchez Nunez, a class representative, in court filings. Nunez, 26, is detained at Mesa Verde and suffers from asthma that worsens when she is sick. We are expected to rely on those items for all our multiple hygiene needs, including washing our hands, bathing and cleaning our personal products, she said. I do not believe that one hotel-size shampoo bottle and one bar soap is enough to keep proper hygiene. Lawrence Mwaura, a 27-year-old Kenyan man detained at Yuba County Jail for one year, previously contracted valley fever, causing permanent scarring to his lungs, severe pain and difficulty breathing, according to court documents. 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. He described metal toilets and sinks encrusted with grime and human waste, and air vents clogged with dust that makes it difficult for him to breathe. My worst fear about staying in detention during COVID-19 is dying among strangers, Mwaura said in a written declaration. Being unable to protect myself from infection here, especially because of my medical conditions, makes me feel like nothing like dirt. The coalition of attorneys filed a lawsuit last month demanding the release of 13 medically vulnerable detainees from Mesa Verde and Yuba. Since then, eight detainees have been released, including 34-year-old Charles Joseph of Sacramento. He has asthma and was detained at Mesa Verde for one year before being released on April 13. Social distancing is impossible in Mesa Verde, said Joseph, a native of Fiji, who is at home with his wife and kids. Its a 100-men dorm. Imagine people in one room, 50 people on one side of the room, 50 people on the other side of the room. The bunks are literally 3 feet apart from each other. How can you practice social distancing when youre 3 feet away from the next person? Detainees must walk elbow to elbow down a crowded staircase to get their meals and cram into a cafeteria that doesnt have enough chairs or tables to seat 100 people, he said. The ACLU Foundation of Southern California last week filed a class action lawsuit demanding a significant reduction in the number of detainees at the Adelanto Processing Center, which houses an estimated 1,300 immigrants. Tatiana Sanchez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tatiana.sanchez@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @TatianaYSanchez. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 22:04:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TAIPEI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Three more people tested positive of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the outbreak involving three naval vessels, Taiwan's epidemic monitoring agency said Tuesday. The total number of naval service personnel and cadets contracting COVID-19 in this outbreak increased to 27, the agency said in a press release. The latest patients, a serviceman, a service woman and a male cadet, developed symptoms from March 23 to April 5, the statement said. The fleet of three naval vessels, with more than 700 people on board, returned to Taiwan on April 15 after a short stop at Palau from March 12 to 15 and nearly 30 days of sail. A majority of people on board disembarked before the first three tested positive of the virus on April 18. The authorities identified 349 people having contacts with the patients and put 187 of them under quarantine at their residences, the statement said. The total number of COVID-19 patients in Taiwan has risen to 425, 217 of whom have recovered and six died. Enditem UTICA, N.Y. -- Utica police are searching for a gunman who shot at -- but missed -- a city police officer Monday evening. The officer was patrolling the area of Whitesboro Street and Brayton Park Place at about 5:40 p.m. when someone alerted the officer to a man in the street carrying a handgun, Utica police said. As the officer tried to confront the man with a gun, the man fired several rounds at the officer, police said. The officer, a 15-year police veteran whose name was not released, was not struck. However, several bullets his patrol car, police said. The officer returned fire and the gunman ran. The officer then ran after the man, but the suspect escaped, police said. Utica police posted on Facebook Monday night that the shooting happened in the 900 block of Brayton Park Place. Police shut down Brayton Park Place and surrounding streets while they investigated. A short time later, they posted an update letting the public know they needed help finding the gunman. At this time there is no one in custody and we are seeking any information to assist us in this investigation, Utica police said in the post. Please contact the Utica Police Department with any information. Utica police ask anyone with information about the shooting to call them at (315) 223-3461. Utica Police are searching for a suspect following an officer involved shooting. UPD says an officer was alerted to a potentially armed individual, after attempting to confront the person, the individual fired multiple shots at the officer. The officer wasnt struck @SPECNewsCNY pic.twitter.com/9jHbuyQ3rP Harrison Grubb (@HarrisonGrubbTV) April 21, 2020 Police are actively searching for a suspect who shot at a Utica Police Officer earlier today. pic.twitter.com/nCZnDuHgGA Caitlin Irla (@CaitlinIrla) April 21, 2020 Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call (315) 470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook New Delhi, April 21 : The Tablighi Jamaat had its own travel agent within the Markaz complex who would book tickets from inside the premises, the Delhi Police sleuths found on Tuesday during investigation in a case filed against three members of the religious body. The sleuths are also taking help of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to get the details of Tablighis who travelled across the country. The Crime Branch unit of Delhi Police, which is probing the case registered against Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad and six others, is now looking for the names and details of tickets booked by the Tablighi Jamaat agent. This will also give clues about the Tablighis who went into hiding. The sleuths are also taking IRCTC help after they obtained codes allotted to Tablighi Jamaat for booking of railway tickets. They are taking "details of railway tickets booked by the Jamaat in the month of March onwards". Apart from the travel agent within Markaz complex, the sleuths are also probing the record of another travel agent based in Nizamuddin. A senior IPS officer said that as travel agent within Markaz complex was unable to mange tickets for thousands of people at one go, they engaged another travel agent -- Khan Travels -- to streamline the travel plans of thousands of Tablighi members, including foreigners. "Khan Travels, Nizamuddin and their accounts are being checked to find out whether the Jamaat has made payment for railway tickets for foreign delegates," the senior officer told IANS. The officer also said that Commissioner of Police S.N. Shrivastava is personally monitoring the case. The crime branch is also looking at the payments made by individual foreigners to the travel agents and they are ascertaining the details through the bank accounts of the travel agent. Foreigners from across 41 nations joined the congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin in March. Delhi Police had registered a case against seven people, including Tablighi Jamaat Markaz chief Saad, under stringent sections for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. They have also been booked for violation of Epidemic Act and Disaster Management Act on March 31. The case is registered under various sections of Epidemic Act and Disaster Management Act and Indian Penal Code. Saad, the organiser of the religious event wherein thousands of people from India and 41 countries gathered amid the COIVD-19 outbreak is still to be questioned. Earlier he was in self-quarantine. A total of around 9,000 people, including 1,306 foreign nationals, had participated at the March congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat, a Sunni organisation. The congregation had sparked off a nationwide search for its attendees with reports emerging from various states of new clusters of coronavirus-affected people linked to the event. Vigilant railway authorities first provided an input on March 21 about the movement of Tablighis at the centre of now exploding controversy. The authorities got inputs on congregation of people from various COVID-19 affected-countries at Nizamuddin area of Tablighi Jamaat and it finally culminated in the state machinery and law enforcement agencies' action to trace the coronovirus positive people across the country. More importantly, the Indian Railways took social media to flag the issue. The ministry in its tweet on March 21 said: "Railways has found some cases of coronavirus-infected passengers in trains which makes train travel risky. Avoid train travel as you may also get infected if your co-passenger has coronavirus. Postpone all journeys and keep yourself and your loved ones safe. #NoRailTravel." This was just a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for Janta Curfew on March 22. A day later law enforcement agencies swung into action. (Sumit Kumar Singh can be reached at sumit.k@ians.in) Lockdown maybe here in Andhra Pradesh and Visakhapatnam along with the rest of the country. But good Samaritans in the region have ensured no migrant worker has starved for either food or for protection kits. Lockdown maybe here in Andhra Pradesh and Visakhapatnam along with the rest of the country. But good Samaritans in the region have ensured no migrant worker has starved for either food or for protection kits. The MPs and ministers can be seen distributing daily provisions, groceries and COVID-19 testing kits every day, which could well be the reason North Andhra Pradesh has fewer cases. The PULSUS Group on Monday distributed COVID-19 testing kits, N95 masks, sanitizers to 5,000 people here. YSRCP parliamentary party chief Vijay Sai Reddy, minister Avanthi Srinivas, PULSUS director Gedela Sankar Rao participated. PULSUS founding chairman Dr Srinubabu Gedela monitored the event. Police, municipal corporation employees and sewage workers received the kits. YSRCP leader Vijay Sai Reddy said the state government wanted to ensure the welfare of the people. He said organizations like PULSUS are helping the needy in times of crisis. Many companies like PULSUS have come forward to help and the govt is taking all initiatives to prevent the spread of coronavirus, he added. Reddy said rapid testing kits have reached the city and thanked the companies and NGOs for their commendable help to the government in this situation. Visakhapatnam MP MVV Satyanarayana and Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar also lauded PULSUS. They said PULSUS had done a great job and requested it to continue the good work as part of corporate social responsibility. Meanwhile, Narsapuram MP Raghurama Krishnam Raju has been distributing groceries, vegetables and other needs almost on a regular basis to the needy. He distributes them to thousands of people irrespective of party, caste, creed and religious affiliations. Though people throng his residence, he helps them but requests them to maintain social distancing. When most of the grocery shops closed in Narsapuram, Rajus daily distribution has become the ray of hope for the people of his constituency. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Tony Abbott has responded to claims made by his political rival Malcolm Turnbull that he was 'owned' by his chief-of-staff while he was Prime Minister. Mr Abbott described the comments as 'odious' and used the opportunity to heap praise on Peta Credlin rather than criticise Mr Turnbull. Ms Credlin, who advised the PM during his time in the top job, was an 'extraordinarily capable person,' Mr Abbott told the Today Show. 'She was an important part of the Abbott Government. She was a fine thinker, a great organiser and a trusted colleague. 'She deserves a great deal of credit,' he said. Malcolm Turnbull has claimed his bitter rival Tony Abbott's controversial chief-of-staff Peta Credlin (pictured in November 2019) 'owned' her former boss Abbott has described Ms Credlin as a 'fine thinker' who 'deserves a great deal of credit' for her role in the Abbott Government. Pictured together in 2015 In Mr Turnbull's tell-all memoir A Bigger Picture, the 29th prime minister savaged his Liberal predecessor, suggesting Ms Credlin 'dominated' Mr Abbott during his two years as PM until September 2015, when he himself overthrew him in a leadership coup. 'You were really dealing with Peta and Peta was running the country and that was obvious, and dominating Abbott,' he told the ABC's 7.30 program. 'It was as though she felt, ''I've created you, you're my creation'' and she felt she owned him. It was a truly bizarre relationship. 'Credlin and Abbott destroyed their own government due to their own follies and then set out to destroy mine.' Poll Was Malcolm Turnbull out of line? YES NO Was Malcolm Turnbull out of line? YES 826 votes NO 189 votes Now share your opinion Ms Credlin, who served as an adviser to Mr Turnbull during his brief stint as Liberal Opposition Leader in 2008 and 2009, has described her other former boss as a 'reprehensible human being'. 'He has no moral compass,' she told Sydney radio 2GB broadcaster Ben Fordham last week. 'I've never met a more reprehensible human being.' In his new book, Mr Turnbull said he had 'never known a leader more dominated by another than Abbott by Credlin'. The former prime minister described Turnbull's comments as 'odious', but used the opportunity to heap praise on Peta Credlin rather than criticise Mr Turnbull 'The relationship was completely asymmetric, he worshipped and feared her and she on the other hand treated him with disdain,' he wrote. Ms Credlin went on to land a job with Sky News and News Corp, which Mr Turnbull also targeted in his memoir, accusing the organisation of working to dump him as PM in August 2018. Mr Turnbull pointed the finger at News Corp's 89-year-old executive chairman and founder Rupert Murdoch, whose titles include The Australian, Sydney's The Daily Telegraph and Melbourne's Herald Sun. He also included Sydney 2GB breakfast radio king Alan Jones, whose views on national security, immigration and multiculturalism are influential among the conservative side of the Liberal party. Had he remained as PM in 2018, Mr Turnbull alleged they would have conspired with right-wing Liberals in an attempt to deliberately lose the 2019 election - so Tony Abbott could lead the Coalition to victory in 2022 from Opposition. 'Now, just describing that sounds unhinged, doesn't it?' Mr Turnbull told 7.30. Mr Turnbull has suggested Ms Credlin dominated Mr Abbott during his two years as PM until September 2015 (when they are pictured), until he himself overthrew him in a leadership coup 'But that was Abbott's agenda and as Rupert acknowledged to me, it had the support of one of his most senior and most influential editorial executives and it went a lot further than that. 'So it was crazed and it was part of Alan Jones' agenda. They tried to foment a coup at the end of 2017.' Mr Turnbull overthrew Mr Abbott as a first-term PM in September 2015. He also claimed Murdoch shopped the plan out to Seven Network majority owner Kerry Stokes to have Mr Abbott replace him again as leader. 'Look at what Rupert Murdoch said to Kerry Stokes. ''We've got to get rid of Malcolm ... Three years of Labor wouldn't be so bad'',' Mr Turnbull said. 'The one thing those plutocrats knew, the billionaire proprietors knew, was that I did not belong to them ... They wanted to have, again, a prime minister who they felt they had some control over, they had an ownership of, and they wanted to feel as they had done with Abbott - that they were in charge.' Tony Abbott (left) talking to Malcolm Turnbull in 2009 when they were in opposition together. Mr Abbott was ousted from the Prime Ministership by Mr Turnbull in 2015. Mr Turnbull in turn lost the Prime Ministership in 2018 and immediately resigned his seat In the Coalition, Mr Turnbull blamed right-wing power broker and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who launched two failed leadership bids in August 2018 within the same week. He also blamed Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who he had regarded as a confidante until he backed Mr Dutton's leadership tilt. As prime minister, Mr Turnbull backed same-sex marriage and policies to tackle climate change, to the chagrin of conservatives within his party. He suggested right-wing Liberals and conservative media 'would have preferred (ALP leader) Bill Shorten to be prime minister than me.' 'A Liberal Party that they could not control was not a Liberal Party they wanted to have. It was - it is all about raw power, I'm afraid.' Malcolm Turnbull (left) in August 2018 when he was still prime minister, with then treasurer Scott Morrison (right) He told 7.30 that although he knew the party had become very factionalised and 'tribal', that he had tried to work with everyone despite being warned to trust no-one. With everybody telling him not to trust everybody else, the former prime minister said it would have been easy to become lost in a sea of paranoia. 'I was determined to look past that,' he said. The former investment banker and journalist said when the 'coup' occurred it was not because he was so unpopular as a leader that the Coalition thought they'd lose the election. 'They overthrew my government and overthrew my prime ministership not because they thought I'd lose an election but because they thought I would win it,' he said. Mr Turnbull said his political enemies hatched a plot to remove him from power, let the Coalition lose the 2019 election and suffer in Opposition so Tony Abbott could be returned to power in 2022 as Prime Minister once again 'Murdoch acknowledges that one of his senior executives was part of the Abbott plan to bring down the government with the goal of sending us into opposition so that Abbott could come back as leader after the election and bring the party back to victory in 2022.' Mr Turnbull, a Liberal moderate, resigned in August 2018 and was replaced by his preferred successor Scott Morrison, a socially-conservative Pentecostal Christian who was backed into the leadership by the party's moderate and centre-right factions. Government MPs had hoped Mr Morrison, who was treasurer under Mr Turnbull, would be able to end deep Liberal Party divisions sparked by Mr Abbott's overthrow in 2015 and Mr Turnbull's earlier downfall in 2009 over emissions trading policies. An embittered Mr Turnbull resigned from his Sydney eastern suburbs seat of Wentworth after losing the top job. This destroyed the Coalition's one-seat majority and left his colleagues in minority government until the May 2019 election returned them to power for a third, consecutive term with a narrow, three-seat majority. The Montgomery County Public Health District announced Tuesday that it can now confirm 417 positive cases of coronavirus locally. This is an increase of 24 cases from Monday. Two weeks ago on April 7, the county confirmed 197 positive cases and its third death related to the virus. Last week, on April 14, the county confirmed 308 positive cases. It is still very important for everyone to abide by the statewide stay-at-home order, the release from MCPHD warned residents. The order from Gov. Greg Abbott remains in effect until April 30. Locally, County Judge Mark Keough terminated his county stay-at-home order, effectively canceling the curfew that had been put in place. But residents must still adhere to the restrictions laid out in the state orders. Last week the governor signed several new orders regarding COVID-19 restrictions. Schools have been closed for the rest of the year, but state parks reopened on Monday, and retail stores will be able to re-open Friday but will be restricted to delivering goods to customers cars to limit contact. With todays update, the total number of active cases in the county is up to 287. There are 29 residents hospitalized with the virus, and 258 in self-isolation. There have been seven deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus in Montgomery County. Recently the Montgomery County Hospital District applied for a grant to help make community testing easier. Randy Johnson, CEO of MCHD, announced the grant application at a zoom meeting Tuesday afternoon. The Montgomery County Public Health District received an invitation to apply for grant funds that will provide 6,120 molecular (nasal swab) tests to symptomatic Montgomery County residents (1 per person), Misti Willingham, public information officer for MCHD, said in an email. This grant funding has not been approved but we are moving ahead with contacting sites that can test a minimum of 50 per day to contract to provide testing. After we receive confirmation that our grant has been approved, we will release information on how the public can obtain a voucher for no out of pocket/free testing. Willingham said that the Hospital District plans to ask the MCHD Board to use funding from the federal COVID-19 Cares Act to provide the vouchers for free testing for residents, regardless of symptoms. The vouchers can be used at the sites that partner with MCHD. Johnson said they are looking for more partner sites, especially in the east part of the county and Magnolia. jamie.swinnerton@chron.com (@ChaudhryMAli88) A high level meeting to discuss issues related to the slippages and pilferages of commodities of daily use to neighboring country Afghanistan through untraditional routes was held here with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan in the chair PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Apr, 2020 ) :A high level meeting to discuss issues related to the slippages and pilferages of commodities of daily use to neighboring country Afghanistan through untraditional routes was held here with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan in the chair. Besides, Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Dr. Kazim Niaz, the Inspector General Police Sanaullah Abasi, relevant civil and military high ups and representatives of intelligence agencies attended the meeting. The meeting, after threadbare discussion on various matters, decided to constitute a special task force under the chairmanship of Secretary Home Department and with representation from all the relevant civil and military bodies, intelligence agencies and customs. The task force was directed to device a comprehensive and workable strategy within one week to contain such slippages and pilferages in an effective manner. Addressing the participants of the meeting, the Chief Minister said that in the prevailing situation cent percent containment of such slippages and pilferages was an important need and top priority of his government. He directed the task force to point out the issues are related to the Federal Government they could be taken up at federal level for timely resolution. SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Swann, a global leader in do-it-yourself security, is committing the next focus of its Community Engagement Program to help as many people and businesses as possibly affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic through the launch of its "Home, Safe Home" initiative. Swann is identifying individuals, small businesses and other organizations, such as non-profits, that have been negatively impacted and would benefit from increased security at their premises. Now more than ever, we all need to feel safe and secure. That is why Swann is further emphasizing its commitment to assisting communities in need by donating security equipment to individuals, small businesses and neighborhood watches and continuing its mission of promoting safety and security to: Home users wanting to know their premises are safe, see who's at the door and guard against delivery fraud or porch piracy. Small business owners and managers looking to keep an eye on their premises from the safety of their home. People or neighborhood communities that have been affected by the pandemic and would benefit from having a security camera on-site and/or that can be viewed from home. "This pandemic has affected us all more than we could have ever imagined. We know that many in the community are worried about their personal safety, as well as security at their business premises," said Mike Lucas, CEO of Swann. "Our commitment to the communities we serve has been a cornerstone of our company since the beginning. From working with families affected by congenital heart disease in Australia through our partnership with HeartKids, to helping homeless in Seattle reclaim a sense of safety through our work with the Tiny House Village, to providing cameras for at-risk communities as part of Community Against Crime's SafeStreets program in Melbourne, our goal is to make this world a safer and a more secure place. The threat of coronavirus is no different, and we remain committed to helping as much as we can." When it comes to community engagement, Swann is focused on three pillars of safety: Increase Vigilance and Action - Swann believes in empowering people to protect themselves and their neighborhoods by providing easy to use DIY solutions. - Swann believes in empowering people to protect themselves and their neighborhoods by providing easy to use DIY solutions. Improve Security and Safety Swann is looking to provide those who are most at risk with the tools to help keep themselves safe and deter crime. Swann is looking to provide those who are most at risk with the tools to help keep themselves safe and deter crime. Community Building Swann understands that a safe and secure community is the first step for greater personal and economic growth for all and is a partner for making this happen. Tell us your story: To share how your security has been impacted or to tell us in 50 words or less about someone in need that you know, go to www.swann.com/homesafehome, or visit Swann's Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter feeds with your message or to upload a short video using the hashtag #SwannHomeSafeHome. What's being donated: Donated camera models will include the 1080p Alert Indoor Security Camera or 1080p Spotlight Outdoor Camera but may vary by region and availability. The cameras can connect to the internet via Wi-Fi and feature full HD 1080p video quality, access to the free Swann Security mobile phone app, heat and motion-triggered push notifications, free cloud and local recording, and more. Cameras will be given out each day from now until at least June 30, 2020. About Swann: Swann is a global leader in do-it-yourself security monitoring and has been providing innovative yet cost-effective security and consumer electronics solutions for over 30 years, having started in Melbourne, Australia in 1987. Swann creates and stands behind the world's smartest, most intuitive and best-value security solutions to empower consumers to protect and stay connected to their home or business no matter where life takes them. With offices in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, China, Hong Kong and distribution partners around the globe, Swann is a key player in the global DIY security market. Swann partners with leading retailers and distributors such as Best Buy, Sam's Club, Lowe's Home Improvement, Menards, Costco Wholesale, Amazon, Dixons Carphone, Currys PC World, Screwfix, Exertis, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Bunnings Warehouse, Jaycar Electronics, Officeworks, Ingram Micro and more. Swann's vision is to be the world leader in smart security solutions, taking care of people and making every home and business a safe place. Media Contact: Jennifer Buonantony [email protected] Related Images company-logo.jpg Company Logo SOURCE Swann Trailer: Michael Pillsbury: Dr. Fauci has talked about how he has been on the phone with China over the last two months. A lot of the data we get from the models are based on Chinas official data. Dr. Birx has talked about the data coming from China. Narration: Both America and the world have been reliant on Chinas numbers for establishing models for the pandemic. But just how reliable are these numbers? Caixin wrote on multiple days, trucks delivered 2,500 urns to a government-run funeral home. There are 8 funeral homes in Wuhan. However the total official death toll in Wuhan is only 2500. Simone Gao: So can you tell me what we would have done differently if we knew the true picture of the pandemic? Eric Ding: Knowing what we know now, obviously we should have clampdown earlier Title: The Tragedy of Trusting False Numbers Host: Now that the United States is deep in the throes of grappling with the pandemic, the communist regime has started a political offensive. The Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, is chanting its vile song, laced with propaganda displacing blame and aggrandizing itself. Will it succeed once again? What does the world need to know about the extent to which the CCP has covered up the disaster? And what is the dire result for those who believe in it? Im Simone Gao, and please join us for our in depth analysis about the tragedy of trusting false numbers, on this episode of Zooming In. Part One, The Disaster of Deception Narration: 3 months into the outbreak of the CCP virus, also called the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, explained how the United States coordinated its initial response. Dr. Deborah Birx: When you looked at the China data originally, with 50,000 infected in an area of China with 80 million people, you start thinking of this more like SARS than you do a global pandemic. The medical community interpreted the Chinese data as, this was serious, but smaller than anyone expected, Because, probablywe were missing a significant amount of the data, now that we see what happened to Italy and we see what happened to Spain. Narration: Just how bad might the real numbers be? Zooming In has preliminary calculations based on a phone call made by NTD investigators to one of the Wuhan funeral homes on February 4. On that particular day, the funeral home received 127 bodies, and cremated 116 of them. The funeral worker said the volume is 4 to 5 times bigger than before the epidemic broke out. This rate of high volume started on January 23. He also said 38% of corpses they picked up were from hospitals, and 61% died at home. The funeral worker said his superior ordered that the number of bodies they received recently could not be revealed to the outside world. According to Chinas official records, 131 people are expected to die in Wuhan every day. Wuhan has 7 funeral homes, and they can cremate 135 bodies daily on average. Based on this information, we concluded that since Jan 25, 2020, about when the funeral worker said the number of bodies arriving at the funeral home started to rise, roughly 470 people died of CCP virus every day in Wuhan. From Jan 25 to Feb 12 alone, over 8000 people could have died from the disease in the city of Wuhan. Radio Free Asias estimate is that in Wuhan alone, about 42,000 people died from the CCP virus. Host: Experts have come up with different estimates of the actual numbers in China. However, one piece of solid evidence exists that shows Wuhan, the epicenter in China, has greatly understated the death toll. And the story was ironically broken by a Chinese media outlet, called Caixin. Narration: On March 26, Caixin published a feature story about one of Wuhans funeral homes. It is customary to cremate the dead in Chinese culture. In the Caixin report, it said that family members are finally allowed to pick up the remains of their deceased relatives. Caixin wrote that on multiple days, trucks delivered 2,500 urns to a government-run funeral home every day. Photos on social media, which were quickly censored, showed long lines of family members outside the buildings. Caixin reported that some of the people claimed they waited 5 hours in line to pick up their urn. Other photos showed workers stacking 3,500 urns in one facility. There are 7 funeral homes in Wuhan. This picture alone seriously undermines the Wuhan governments reported total death toll of 2,500. Bumper: Coming up, how could the world react differently if the CCP had told the truth in the early days? Part 2 Where Would We Be if We Knew the Truth? Host: The Chinese authorities have been suppressing the truth of this pandemic, despite the fact that they themselves dont even know the full truth. Just like during the SARS outbreak, each local government was under pressure from the top leadership to maintain an image of social stability. Because of this, they reported understated numbers to the central government, and the central government also altered numbers to suit their taste. These are the numbers that are published to the world. China expert Michael Pillsbury said in an interview on fox that the top medical authorities in America all relied on Chinas numbers. Michael Pillsbury: But when we depend on them so much, Dr. Fauci has talked about how he has been on the phone with China over the last two months. A lot of the data we get from the modelsDr. Birx has talked about the data coming from China. Host: Just how would the world be different if China didnt cover up the outbreak? I spoke with public health scientist Eric Feigl Ding, He is the Chief Health Economist for Microclinic International. Ms. Gao: Dr. Deborah Birx said in the White House press briefing that, When you looked at the China data originally, with 50,000 infected in an area of China with 80 million people, you start thinking of this more like SARS than you do a global pandemic. The medical community interpreted the Chinese data as, this was serious, but smaller than anyone expected, Because, probablywe were missing a significant amount of the data. So could you tell me what we would have done differently if we knew the true picture of the pandemic, if the CCP revealed all the information at the early stage? Eric Ding: Yeah. In terms of the epidemic, I think China obviously made a few missteps and tried to silence Dr. Lee when the slow reaction at the end of December whenever they should have moved quickly at the end of the summer just stopped the epidemic. And by the first half of January, the epidemic was already booming in many parts of Wuhan and other parts of China. So we knew by late December, early January that there was definitely an epidemic, but the world did not know the full scope. So how do we know then? Maybe other countries could take in measures sooner if they knew it was so serious and that the degree of severity was always a mystery. Was this just a bad pneumonia or was this seriously a very dangerous virus that was much more dangerous than a regular pneumonia? That said, South Korea had their first case as the United States on the same day, I think January 15 or 16. But look at South Korea now, they put in very aggressive testing. The U.S. did not. Their aggressive testing has basically finally flattened the curve and actually not just flatten the curve. South Korea has crushed the curve, because in Daegu, the epicenter where the South Korean megachurch was, for the first time in a long time, Daegu had zero cases yesterday. Zero new cases despite very detailed testing. So thats a sign that even in the hottest epicenter, South Korea has fought it off, and South Korea had their first case at the same time as the United States. But look at the United States right now, weve clearly not aggressively acted enough, whether from testing portal perspective or mitigation and contact tracing containment perspective. We did not do all those things well. South Korea did aggressive early testing. Even before the megachurch epidemic, South Korea had very aggressive testing and very aggressive contact tracing. They actually have an app that systematically contacts traces very quickly. We had neither of these here in the United States. Ms. Gao: Yeah I dont know if South Korea and places like Taiwan had a different opinion on whether the Chinese data was trustworthy. After all, before Italys outbreak, even when America and South Korea had their first cases, all the reference we got is China. If we trusted their numbers we would have a false sense of security which we did. So do you think if we didnt trust their numbers or if they didnt cover up in the early stage we would have taken more draconian measures such as shutting down the entire country very early? Mr. Ding: In certain ways. You know, if we know everything, hindsight is always 20/20, right? We would always have the perfect answer for everything. If we knew what would happen under certain scenarios. The part of life and governance is making these predictions and making these calls, as theyd go with incomplete information and lack of clarity of the future. And so, knowing what we know now, obviously we should have clamped down earlier. At the same time, I was one of the whistleblowers early in mid January because I saw that this was a danger. But obviously, you know, governments didnt heed my warnings. But again, look at South Korea. They did blanket testing very early. Look at Iceland, blanket testing very early. And even there was a case in the Faroe islands in North of Norway. Its a part of Denmark. Faroe Islands had some hundreds of cases, and one scientist did aggressive testing of 10% of the entire population. And now the epidemic is nowhere to be seen in the daily batches of tests. And their schools are open. Their children are playing sports. But at that moment, they did not have complete information like we do now, but they moved in favor of crisis management. This is where good governance makes a huge, huge difference. And if we had the governance and scientific leadership like some of these countries did, and listening to science, the scientists that we need to test aggressively, develop laboratory tests very quickly, and aggressively contact trace every single positive test and to quarantine them, we could have defeated it as well. Host: I also asked Dr. Sean Lin these questions. He is a microbiologist trained in both China and America. And he is the former lab director of the viral disease branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Ms. Gao: I spoke with Dr. Eric Feigl Ding about the impact of Chinas early coverup. His opinion is that although China had some earlier missteps, they didnt report the epidemic earlier enough, but the U.S. has also handled the epidemic poorly. An example is South Korea had its first case the same days as the U.S.. but because they did a lot of testing so they ended up in the much better position than the U.S.. What is your opinion? Dr. Sean Lin: So actually I dont think its totally fair to compare the situation in South Korea with that of the United States. South Korea did pretty well in the contact tracing, doing large quantities of tests for infections. But we need to keep in mind that South Korea is a small country with about 50 million people. Basically they only need to deal with the tourists coming from China, the source of the infection. But the United States is different. For example, New York City has such a big airport with so many people from all over the world coming to the United States. Early cases in New York came from a group of tourists who went to Egypt and brought back the virus. So its very challenging for New York City. And people rely on the metro subway system heavily, so the virus can spread out quickly through these commute systems. We also need to keep in mind that the United States was fortunate enough to ban travel from China in late January. But you cannot ban travel from all over the world. So the control over bringing the virus into the country is very challenging. And also, even though the CDC was not fortunate enough to provide testing kits in February, later on commercial companies engaged in the United States were able to crank up the production, and now the U.S. can test millions of cases every week. The quantity of testing is unbelievably big in the United States now. So, I dont think its really fair to say the U.S. did a poor job in disease control. Ms. Gao: So what do you think is the impact of Chinas coverup and false numbers to the world? Dr. Lin: So the CCPs coverup during this pandemic has multiple stages. The first stage is from December to January 23, before the Chinese government shut down the whole Wuhan city. During this stage, the CCP censored the alerts from the medical first responders and closed online forums that talked about the outbreak. They even ordered the commercial companies to stop genome sequencing for those patients samples. At the same time, they provided misleading information to the world. Basically, under this coverup, so many people in Wuhan got infected and they spread the virus nationwide, and so many tourists and Chinese people also toured to other countries. So the virus got spread globally. As a result, the whole world missed a very precious time to have early precautions and measures enacted early enough to prevent an outbreak in their own countries. The second stage is from late January to mid-March. The Chinese government set up very strict reporting criteria for confirmed cases, so there are much lower confirmed cases. At the same time, because of the draconian measures to lock people down at home, they missed so many testing opportunities for those who got infected but could not go to the hospitals, [not to mention that] people who died at home would not be counted as official data for the death toll. So basically the government manipulated or, you may say, fabricated the data for the death toll of the confirmed cases. The whole world got a wrong image about this outbreak. The CCP downplayed a very severe outbreak that could be like the Spanish Flu, and they downgraded it to something like the 2009 H1N1 pandemic outbreak. The severity is totally different. So when you put in this wrong data in the disease model, you get the wrong result of the mortality rate. The attack rate will be wrong, and the transmission rate will be wrong too. In this way, the whole world got the wrong idea that the disease would not be so severe [as] a huge pandemic. So by fabricating this data, the Chinese government made the whole world pay a huge price for this coverup. The third stage is all the way up to the end of March, where the Chinese government presented a false image to the Chinese people and the rest of the world, saying that they now have a triumph against the virus, against the outbreak. But the reality is that they are actually incubating a huge second wave. The Chinese government didnt want to do large scale testing for one reason they know they have very pathetic inaccuracy for the testing kits. At the same time, not testing so many people served their political purpose. The CCP just doesnt want to show people that there are so many infections still ongoing inside China. When the CCP lied, so many people died. Narration: BBC reported on March 29 that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnsons government is furious over Chinas handling of the Coronavirus. Scientists have reportedly told Johnson that China could have up to 40 times the number of cases it says. The report suggested that the UKs anger could lead to them cutting off business deals with Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Other governments have also spoken of repercussions. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in the press briefing that there will be an after-action regarding Chinas early coverup of the disease. Mike Pompeo: It took an awful long time for the world to become aware of this risk that was sitting there, residing inside of China. Well do the after-action when the time is right. Every nation has a responsibility to share all of their data, all of their information in as timely and accurate a fashion as they have the ability to do. Narration: U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a resolution calling for an international investigation into the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) coverup of the early spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Senator Hawleys resolution calls on China to pay back all nations impacted because China lied about the spread of the virus. U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is introducing companion legislation in the House. Bumper: Coming up, a world factory offensive. Part 3 A World Factory Offensive Host: While the world grows more and more angry with Chinas cover up of the pandemic, China has, on the other hand, launched a world factory offensive. It vacuumed up global supplies of medical equipment through donations, and has kept Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, within the Chinese borders since the beginning of its crisis. Now it is making products to sell back to the rest of the world. Narration: Chinas custom agency announced that it had inspected around 2 billion imported masks and 25 million protective suits since the beginning of the outbreak. At the same time, it is shipping domestically produced equipment to Europe. Chinas economy relies heavily on export manufacturing. Without its massive fleet of factories, the CCP has nothing else to keep its economy afloat. Now everything else has shut down, the only flourishing line of shipment is PPE. By shipping PPE to other countries, the CCP is reminding the world: not only have they handled the virus well but they keep producing too. That narrative, however, is being challenged now. On March 21, the Netherlands received 1.3 million masks purchased from China. On March 28, 600,000 of these masks were recalled. Some of those masks had been given to frontline health workers. The reason was that the masks did not fit properly or had defective filters. The Health Ministry later told AFP that none of the shipment was being used. The low quality of Chinese goods is not strange to the world. Recently some videos that went viral on the internet further dampened peoples confidence in Chinese goods. This video showed a Woman showing dirty masks with dead flies on it, bought from Aokang Sanitary Material Co., Ltd. in Henan China on Mar. 17. She says she runs an e-merchandise platform. She bought 350,000 masks, most of them have been sold to overseas countries. She reported this issue to the Hua County Business Supervision Bureau, where Aokang is located. But the government didnt dare to upset the company, which has a capacity of producing 1.3 M masks per day. Local media also dared not report her case. There have also been issues with other medical supplies made in China. In Spain, nearly 60,000 Chinese-made test kits were withdrawn. The reason was that these kits were correct in about 3 out of 10 tests. Local Spanish media reported that test kits are supposed to be correct in over 8 out of 10 tests. Turkey reported a similar issue on March 27, saying that the rapid testing kits purchased from China did not meet local effectiveness standards. In the Czech Republic, police raided a warehouse on March 16, confiscating illegally trafficked face masks. The warehouse was owned by a Chinese businessman with strong ties to the CCP. The warehouse held 680,000 face masks and 28,000 ventilators. 100,000 of the masks were labeled as Chinese Red Cross aid to Italy. According to Czech media, the businessman sold the masks to local resellers, who attempted to sell them to the government at twice the normal price. This behavior by the CCP and those with close ties has aptly been named Mask Diplomacy. Host: We talked a lot about if the CCP hadnt covered up the outbreak in the early days, and if they didnt put out false numbers, what the world would be like. But that premise might be wrong. The Chinese Communist Party and any Communist regime that has ever existed on this planet all have their fixed ways of doing things. The reason for that is because their ultimate goal, their core interest has never changed, that is: to stay in power regardless of the cost to its people, or the rest of the world. Will the world wake up to that after this pandemic? Will a post-coronavirus era also become a post-CCP era? Stay tuned for Zooming Ins continued coverage. I am Simone Gao. Thanks for watching and see you next time. Health Minister Salvador Illa announced on Tuesday evening that children aged 14 and under will, in the end, be allowed to leave their homes for accompanied walks from April 26 onward, after plans announced by the Cabinet earlier in the day to restrict such trips outside for youngsters to just visits to the supermarket, pharmacies or banks were widely criticized. The minister made clear that these latter activities will still be permitted for those aged 14 and under, while those aged 15 to 17 will be able to carry them out alone according to a statement made earlier in the day by the government spokesperson, Maria Jesus Montero. UPDATE: On April 25, the government published an order in the official gazette stating that only children under 14 may benefit from the daily walks. Those between the ages of 14 and 17 may only go out on essential errands. Earlier story Spain to allow children aged 14 and under on accompanied trips to stores from April 27, but not out for walks After its weekly meeting today, the Cabinet announced that children aged 14 and under will be allowed out of the home accompanied by an adult under the same conditions that currently apply according to coronavirus confinement measures introduced on March 14 when a state of alarm was implemented by the Spanish government. Speaking at a press conference earlier today, Montero said: We are proposing that from April 27, minors aged 14 and under can accompany an adult on a trip outside of the house, such as going to the supermarket or the pharmacy. That meant that minors would not have been able to leave the house with adults to go for a walk in the open air. The Socialist Party (PSOE)-Unidas Podemos coalition government has imposed the strictest coronavirus confinement measures in the world, and the countrys 8.3 million minors have been shut away in their homes for more than five weeks now, with very few exceptions to the confinement rules that allow them to get out onto the streets such as if there is no one in the household who could take care of a minor when the parent or guardian has to go to buy essential items. This weekend I will issue an order so that children aged 14 and under can go out for walks Health Minister Salvador Illa The ongoing confinement of children had already prompted criticism among the political opposition and experts alike, who have been warning of the possible adverse effects the situation is having on the health both physical and mental of youngsters. The governments announcement earlier today about the relaxation of confinement measures for children was widely rejected by political parties including those on the left and members of the public alike on social media, many of whom pointed out that there was a much greater chance of infection for children in a closed space such as a supermarket than in the open air. This government listens, said Health Minister Salvador Illa on Tuesday night about the U-turn. This weekend I will issue an order so that children aged 14 and under can go out for walks. He added that the conditions under which minors would be able to leave the house for walks would be announced soon, and went on to call for the public to allow us to finish the details of the plan, including "maximum time, distance and safety. This is going for a walk, and not going out to shop, which they will also be able to do, he clarified. Asked by reporters as to why the Cabinet had changed course on the issue of minors, if, as he had earlier stated, it had taken into account the opinion of experts before reaching its original decision, he said that the government is going to continue acting with maximum caution, and being very conscious of the tough measures that are currently in place. The extension to the current state of alarm will be debated on Wednesday in Congress, and will need the support of other parties if, as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has already announced, it is to be extended from April 27 until May 9. English version by Simon Hunter. Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock arrives for the weekly Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street on 21 May, 2019 in London, England. Human trials of a potential vaccine for the coronavirus are set begin in the U.K. later this week. British Health Minister Matt Hancock said Tuesday that a vaccine developed by researchers at Oxford University will be tested on people on Thursday. "In normal times, reaching this stage would take years, and I'm very proud of the work taken so far," he said in a daily news briefing. Hancock said he would make 20 million ($24.5 million) available to the scientists at Oxford, as well as an additional 22.5 million in funding for researchers at Imperial College London. The ice epidemic in South Australia is so bad there are fears children are being exposed to the deadly drug through their parents. Doctors fear 'significant numbers' of children are being exposed to the illicit drug after seven were found with methamphetamine in their system during autopsies conducted by Forensic Science South Australia. Studies indicate Adelaide has the highest use of methamphetamine out of any other city in the world. The ice epidemic in South Australia is so bad there are fears children are being exposed to the deadly drug through their parents. Pictured: A large haul of methamphetamine seized by AFP Forensic Science SA and Adelaide University studied drug records of 373 children since 2002 who died under the age of 13. Researchers found the evidence of ice in the children's bodies was becoming an 'increasing problem' Adelaide Now reported. The study, which was published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, showed the need to keep illicit drugs away from children. Adelaide University co-author Professor Roger Byard said the alarming results were a warning that drugs could be passed from a mother to her children. 'Methamphetamine was considered potentially contributory to death in two cases, one with birth complications, and the other with a significant methamphetamine concentration following breastfeeding,' he said. 'As this is only a very small and select population, it would suggest that there may be significant numbers of the very young undetected in the Australian population who are being exposed to this drug.' Doctors fear 'significant numbers' of children are being exposed to the illicit drug after seven were found with methamphetamine in their system during autopsies conducted by Forensic Science South Australia (Adelaide pictured) Professor Byard said the results are unsurprising considering the increase in the use of amphetamines in Australia in recent years. 'According to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission's 20152016 Illicit Drug Report, 67 per cent of illicit drug seizures in South Australia were related to amphetamine-type substances, exceeding cannabis seizures,' he said. Both the long-term physical and psychological effects of the exposure to drugs is not clear but researchers and doctors are concerned. All seven children who were found to have ice in their system when they died were under five years years old. In March last year, the Australian Federal Police uncovered 18kg - or $13.5million worth - of methamphetamine (pictured) hidden in modified 4WD recovery winches in Adelaide No cases of children dying with meth in their system were recorded between 2002 to 2006, one case was recorded between 2007 and 2011 with the remaining six cases recorded between 2012 and 2016. Professor Byard said the confirmed cases of children with ice in their system is steadily increasing. This means there is a more generalised increase in childhood exposure of the drug in the community, the professor said. Of the 373 children who had forensic autopsies completed there were 37 drugs detected, including prescription medication such as paracetamol, ibuprofen, codeine as well as hospital-administered lignocaine and morphine. Dalata, Irelands largest hotel group, has agreed the sale and leaseback of its Clayton Hotel Charlemont in Dublin to real estate investment group Deka Immobilien for 65m. The hotel will be let on a 35-year term. The initial rent agreed for the property is just over 3m per year, subject to five yearly rent reviews. The company said it began work on the transaction before the Covid-19 crisis. As part of the agreement, Dalata will complete the final part of the hotel development, which will see the conversion of 38 Charlemont Street into three additional Clayton bedrooms and a cafe. These works are expected to be completed this year. Dalata purchased the site and began construction in 2016. The hotel opened in November 2018 and to date the company has invested 41.6m into the purchase of the site and construction of the hotel. Last year the hotel, which currently has 187 bedrooms, contributed 4.3m to Dalatas earnings. The consideration of 65m is made up of the purchase price of 61.95m and a rent-free period of one year, equating to 3.05m. The proceeds of the transaction will be retained as cash in the company. Dermot Crowley, deputy CEO business development & finance at Dalata, said: Completing a transaction such as this despite the onset of the [coronavirus] crisis demonstrates the commitment of both Deka and Dalata to this partnership and their long-term commitments. The agreed terms for this transaction reflect both the quality of the asset and the strength of Dalata's balance sheet. I look forward to working further with Deka in the future. The funds generated from the sale of the hotel will further strengthen the Dalatas cash resources during the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Crowley added. Julie Leviton said she first tried to get an appointment with her sons primary care doctor about three weeks ago after he threw up and complained of some lightheadedness, felt a little more tired, she said. The receptionist told her that her son could not be seen because it was possible he had COVID-19. Leviton says the receptionist didnt offer any alternatives or suggest what the family should do. The Consulate General of India in Dubai has distributed food and essential supplies to over 4,000 Indian expatriates in the UAE, helping them cope up with the coronavirus restrictions imposed in the Gulf kingdom, according to a media report. The novel coronavirus, which originated in China's Wuhan city last December, has claimed 43 lives and infected 7,265 people in the UAE so far. The Gulf kingdom has imposed strict social distancing measures and a night-time curfew to combat the spread of the virus. "Our Consulate has been providing food to the needy Indians directly and through community organisations and Indian associations for past several days. 1,500 people were given food packets in last two days," the Indian mission tweeted on Monday. Thousands of Indians are stranded in the UAE due to travel restrictions. The outbreak of the pandemic has led to job losses and salary cuts in the UAE and has put pressure on expatriates. "We have helped more than 4000 people with food packets, rations or both through our Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) and with support from various community organisations and Indian associations," Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul was quoted as saying by The Khaleej Times. He said the consulate has arranged accommodation for over 60 people from the ICWF. The consulate is coordinating with the UAE government to repatriate the mortal remains of 17 deceased Indians, the daily reported. "With minimal staff our Consulate and outsourcing centre continues to provide emergency passport and attestation services. People are advised to bear with us and only approach for services which are absolutely essential," the consulate said in another tweet. Vipul thanked the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and other agencies for serving COVID-19 patients, including Indians. "Over the past few weeks, we have forwarded requests from several hundred Indians for medical help related to Covid-19 to the relevant authorities," he added. Two helplines (+971-56 5463 903/ 54 3090 575) and an e-mail (cons1.dubai@mea.gov.in) are presently taking messages regarding the coronavirus at the consulate. Vipul said most of the queries were regarding flights to India, medical help, visa-related issues. "In the past four weeks almost 3,500 calls and 3,000 emails have been answered. We have also been striving to swiftly answer all queries on our social media," Vipul was quoted by The Khaleej Times. Other than the consulate, many Indian community groups -- the Dubai Gurudwara, BAPS Hindu Temple, Rajasthan Business and Professional Group (RBPG), KMCC, ICAI Dubai Chapter, Friends of India Events, Indian People's Forum among others -- are serving expatriates. "Many others who want to help have been approaching us with their wish to do so. We have therefore assigned one dedicated e-mail labour.dubai@mea.gov.in to coordinate these efforts," Vipul said. Due to the social distancing norms and the 'stay home' initiative launched in Dubai, some routine services like passport and attestation services are being provided only on an emergency basis. However, visa application remains suspended. Vipul said applications for renewal of passports which will expire by April 30 are being accepted. Meanwhile, the 19 Indians, who were in transit at the Dubai International Airport when India stopped inbound flights in view of the pandemic, are still in airport premises. All the Indians have been lodged at the airport hotel after they tested negative for the coronavirus. "We thank Emirates Airlines for continuing to look after them. We remain in touch with them and have also given some financial help to them. We hope that they and other people who want to go back to India will be able to travel soon," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A slew of British retailers and hospitality businesses on Tuesday warned the Government not to push too soon to reopen the economy for fear of causing greater long-term damage to their businesses and the economy. As ministers appear to be divided over when and how to get the UK back to work, restaurants, bars and pubs told the Evening Standard they would rather stay closed for longer than to reopen and then be forced to shut again if the virus leaped back. Retail giant Primark, which is cautiously reopening in Austria as a test site, echoed their view today, warning that they needed a lengthy and clear notice period in order to prepare their stores for a safe opening. With the numbers of UK workers being made unemployed or furloughed, the Government is facing a major dilemma over how to balance the health crisis against the economic crisis gripping the country. Reports have suggested that elements in the Treasury have been keen to get businesses reopened while others in the Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, are more reticent. While some construction companies and factories appear keen to get back up and running, those facing consumers remain severely concerned. George Weston, chief executive of Primark owner Associated British Foods today said he would love to reopen but added: I know that we must not do so until we have suppressed this disease. He warned that it was more important to get the start date right and stick with it to enable stores to be geared up with adequate protective equipment to safeguard staff and customers. Hospitality industry chiefs warned that the costs of reopening their businesses too early, then having to close them again would be disastrous. Clive Watson, chairman of the City Pub Group, estimated it will cost his firm up to around 30,000 per site re-opening, covering restocking, staff and cleaning. Watson said it would be massively disruptive to reopen and then close. He added: Best for sector and country would be to reopen gently. He suggests pubs each opening initially at 60% capacity. That could be increased if things feel more upbeat or reduced if there are concerns. Simon Emeny at pub-restaurants giant Fullers said: It is essential that pubs reopen at the right time. There would be nothing worse than opening, seeing the virus spread, and having another enforced closure period. A bustling pub is unlikely to be a natural environment for social distancing, but for pubs to remain closed, the industry and its employees will need further financial assistance from the Government. YO! Sushis chief executive Richard Hodgson said: We certainly do not want any false dawns as re-opening and then having to close again would be a disaster for most, if not all, of our sector. Greene Kings chief executive Nick Mackenzie said: We want to welcome back customers to our pubs as soon as it is safe to do so, but the impact on our 38,000 people is our primary concern and we want to make sure we time it right and avoid a false start by going too early. Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, said: Of course we want our great British pubs to reopen, but we want them to do so when they have the best chance of sustainable trade to recover and that means under the right conditions. Confidence to open for our staff and our consumers is key. Kate Nicholls at trade body UKHospitality said: While closing down our pubs and restaurants happened overnight, standing them back up will be far from as quick and as easy a decision. Some in Government believe building sites, some factories and other outdoor industries should resume first. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Tue, April 21, 2020 18:08 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd35f98d 2 Science & Tech Google,debit-card,technology Free On Friday, TechCrunch published a series of leaked images that suggest Google is working on creating its own Google-branded physical and virtual debit card. In a move similar to its big-tech competitor Apple, Google is purportedly developing its own physical and virtual debit card, according to a collection of leaked images given to TechCrunch late last week. Future customers with the smart Google Card will be able to make payments online, with their phone, or with the actual card which can allegedly be co-branded with different banks like CITI and Stanford Federal Credit Union. Read also: Kids section with 'Teacher Approved' apps coming to Google Play Store Leaked pics reveal Google smart debit card to rival Apples https://t.co/Jd1PmOFajI by @joshconstine pic.twitter.com/3SCAzddTrh TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) April 17, 2020 The associated bank account will be able to be monitored on a complementary mobile application on which owners can track their purchases and balance, and even lock their account. If all goes according to the companys plans, this card would become the foundational payment form on the Google Pay platform. Such a product and service has the potential to swing open the door to the company becoming a major fintech business which, considering Googles current ecosystem of popularly used apps, services, and hardware products that collect data on consumer behavior, could be a smooth transition. On the other hand, if such a card is received by the public in a similar fashion as Facebooks jump into digital currency, Libra cryptocurrency, Google could face economically damaging scrutiny along with severe customer distrust. American Express Launches 'Stand for Small' Coalition to Support U.S. Small Businesses American Express (News - Alert) (NYSE: AXP) today announced it has established 'Stand for Small,' a coalition of more than 40 companies across media, technology, consumer goods, professional services, and many other industries, that have come together to provide meaningful support to small businesses as they navigate the impacts of Covid-19. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005753/en/ The Stand for Small coalition will provide millions of U.S. small businesses access to support through valuable services, offers, tools and expertise, among other benefits. These resources are available to support small businesses as they work to reduce their operating expenses, manage their teams remotely, enhance their digital capabilities, and address other needs during this pandemic. Many companies in the coalition have been supporting small businesses throughout this crisis, and this initiative brings together all these valuable benefits into an easy-to-use centralized digital platform that enables access to relevant products, information, tools and services. "We've always believed in the power of partnership and could not be prouder to stand tall for small with more than 40 partners to offer meaningful support to small businesses during this challenging time," said Stephen Squeri, Chairman and CEO of American Express. "The companies joining Stand for Small all have legacies of supporting the more than 30 million small businesses in the U.S., and collectively, our goal is to provide them with valuable resources so that we can come out stronger together once this crisis ends." The coalition includes some of world's leading brands including Adobe, Amazon, American Express, AT&T (News - Alert) Business, Avis, Bain & Company, BigCommerce, Bill.com, BJ's Wholesale Club, BlueSnap, Budget, Dell Technologies, Deluxe, Dentsu Aegis Network, DocuSign, eBay Inc., Facebook (News - Alert), FedEx, GoDaddy, Google, Grainger, Hertz, IBM, iHeartMedia, Justworks, LinkedIn, Melio, Menlo Security, Microsoft, Next Insurance, Paychex, Inc., Pilot, Salesforce, Sam's Club, SAP, Signifyd, Staples, SurePayroll, Trulioo, Uber, UPS, Verizon (News - Alert) Communications Inc., and Zoro. Together, these companies offer a wide-ranging and diversely resourced platform. Stand for Small is committed to support small businesses during this challenging time to ensure they continue to play a vital role in our communities and the economy. Over the next few weeks, the Stand for Small coalition will continue to onboard partners and will add more experiences and services throughout the year. Companies interested in joining may visit www.standforsmall.com. ABOUT AMERICAN EXPRESS American Express is a globally integrated payments company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, instagram.com/americanexpress, linkedin.com/company/american-express, twitter.com/americanexpress, and youtube.com/americanexpress. Key links to products, services and corporate responsibility information: charge and credit cards, business credit cards, travel services, gift cards, prepaid cards, merchant services, Accertify, InAuth, corporate card, business travel, and corporate responsibility. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005753/en/ Government says three soldiers and a vigilante group were responsible for the killing of civilians in anglophone region. Cameroon has admitted that three members of its armed forces were involved in the February killing of 13 civilians, including 10 children, in the countrys anglophone area. The government had previously denied any role in the killings in the region, where English-speaking separatists have been fighting government forces since 2017. The February 14 massacre in the village of Ntumbo in Cameroons Northwest Region left 23 people dead, including 15 children, according to the United Nations, which called it a shocking episode in the ongoing crisis that has afflicted the countrys North-West and South-West regions for the past three years. It said nine of the children were under age five and that two of the victims were pregnant women. In a statement read over state radio on Tuesday, Cameroonian President Paul Biyas office said three soldiers and a vigilante group stormed a separatist base, killing five people, before discovering that three women and 10 children were killed in the firefight. Overcome with panic, the three soldiers helped by some members of the self-defence group tried to hide the incident by setting fires, the statement said, according to AFP news agency. The army initially claimed that the deaths were an accident after fuel supplies exploded into flames during a gun battle with separatists, while the president established a commission of inquiry to investigate the killings. In February, one of the countrys two main opposition parties, the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC), issued a statement that said: The dictatorial regime [and] the supreme head of the security and defence forces are chiefly responsible for these crimes. Conflict between Cameroons army and English-speaking fighters seeking to form a breakaway state called Ambazonia began after the government cracked down violently on peaceful protesters complaining of being marginalised by the French-speaking majority. Rights groups have accused both sides of atrocities in the conflict, which has left more than 3,000 dead, closed schools and clinics, and forced 700,000 people to flee their homes. WASHINGTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SCORE , the nation's largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors, congratulates its Greater Seattle Chapter on being named SCORE Chapter of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration, in honor of National Small Business Week. SCORE, the nations largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors, congratulates its Greater Seattle chapter on being named SCORE Chapter of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration in honor of National Small Business Week. The Greater Seattle chapter was recognized from among 260 chapters nationwide due to the significant impact that their mentoring and education services have had on small business success in their communities, as evidenced by their strong and consistent growth and performance metrics. SCORE Greater Seattle's 116 dedicated and hardworking volunteers devoted 43,068 volunteer hours to growing SCORE's presence in the community and served a total of 8,178 clients via mentoring sessions and workshops in FY2019. "I am extremely proud of our team of volunteer business mentors and the positive impact their extraordinary contributions have had on our local economy," said Krista Fuller, Chapter Chair, SCORE Greater Seattle. "In the past two years, SCORE volunteers assisted entrepreneurs in the opening of more than 1,000 new businesses in the Seattle area." In efforts to expand their vital mentoring and education services to underserved, highly diversified communities, SCORE Greater Seattle has opened four branches and now supports seven counties in the state of Washington. Additionally, SCORE Greater Seattle has strengthened and promoted diversity and inclusion within its volunteer base, having grown from 18% women and minorities to over 35% in just three years. The chapter also continues to recruit younger, working volunteers to serve as subject matter experts, workshop presenters and mentors. "We are so proud of the success, growth and positive impact that SCORE Greater Seattle has had on the small businesses in their community and beyond," said SCORE CEO Bridget Weston. "They are a model chapter, not only in their region, but for SCORE chapters across the nation." SCORE Greater Seattle knows that actively engaging in the communities they serve is critical to their long-term growth and success, and they look forward to helping even more businesses to start, grow, and provide valuable employment in the greater Seattle area. About SCORE Since 1964, SCORE has helped more than 11 million aspiring entrepreneurs. Each year, SCORE's 10,000 volunteer business experts provide free small business mentoring sessions, workshops and educational services to more than 260 chapters and 1,500 communities nationwide. In 2019, SCORE volunteers helped to create 29,681 new businesses and 67,706 non-owner jobs. For more information about starting or operating a small business, or on volunteering with SCORE, visit SCORE at www.score.org. Follow @SCOREMentors on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest small business news and updates. Funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA. Contact Information Betsy Dougert 800-634-0245 [email protected] SOURCE SCORE Related Links http://www.score.org Jerri-Lynn here. AOC takes no prisoners in outlining what the next stimulus package must include: assistance for the vulnerable rather than massive bailouts for large companies. No wonder, Wall Street is financing a primary challenger, as The Intercept explains, WALL STREET TITANS FINANCE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY CHALLENGER TO REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ. By Jake Johnson, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the only Democrat in Congress to oppose the previous multi-trillion-dollar coronavirus stimulus package, said during a conference call with progressive leaders Monday that communities across the U.S. cannot afford another incremental relief bill that delivers crumbs for the vulnerable and massive bailouts for big businesses. Incrementalism is not helpful in this moment, said Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat. Its not helpful. For people to say: Oh, well, we got something, so we might as well support it. You know, we got a nickel, a dime in a trillion-dollar bill so a nickel is more than nothing, so we should support it is unacceptable Its like putting a Band-Aid on an enormous wound. As the legislation that Congress passed last month fails to deliver adequate relief to workers, the unemployed, and small businesses, progressive lawmakers and outside advocacy groups are pushing for the inclusion of a slate of priorities in the next major stimulus bill, including $2,000 monthly recurring payments and opening Medicare to the unemployed and uninsured. But the Democratic leadership is at the moment focused on negotiating interim legislation that would provide additional funding for a flawed small business loan program and hospitals while leaving out money for states and cities, hazard pay for frontline workers, and other progressive demands. Ocasio-Cortez said during the conference call Monday that based on what she has read of the interim bill in press reports, she is leaning toward opposing the measure. The New York Democrat and other lawmakers on the call stressed that they have yet to see the full text of the bill, and that negotiations on the measure are taking place between Democratic leaders and the Trump administration behind closed doors. It is insulting to think that we can pass such a small amount of money in the context of not knowing when Congress is going to reconvene, said Ocasio-Cortez. And pass such a small amount of money, pat ourselves on the back, and then leave town again. I am not here to support that Im not here for a $5 bill. And I will not insult my community with one. Incrementalism is not helpful in this momentfor people to say Well, we got something, so we might as well support it. We got a nickel, a dime in a trillion-dollar bill so a nickel is more than nothing, so we should support it is unacceptable. @AOC on #PutPeopleFirst pic.twitter.com/KwOOwsaE7u Ideas That Are Lying Around (@_waleedshahid) April 20, 2020 The impetus of Mondays call was to outline progressive priorities for what has been dubbed Phase Four of the federal governments coronavirus relief effort, which has thus far been marred by dysfunction and legislative solutions that do not come close to matching the scale of the public health and economic crisis facing the United States. The vast majority of people have still not received any relief and bills are piling up, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on the call. If were going to climb out of this crisis, we need bold solutions. The conversation was attended by a handful of Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), and Mark Pocan (Wis.), the other CPC co-chair. Leaders from progressive advocacy groups Indivisible, United We Dream, Community Change Action, and MoveOn also took part. Echoing Ocasio-Cortezs condemnation of incrementalism, the lawmakers and activists emphasized the urgency of the moment and called on the Democratic leadership to use the significant power they have to deliver a bill thatunlike the CARES Actputs the needs of frontline workers, the unemployed, the uninsured, and other vulnerable groups ahead of corporate interests. Settling for less means that we lose lives, said Tlaib. Earlier this month, as Common Dreams reported, the Executive Board of the CPC outlined a number of demands for the next stimulus package. The Progressive Caucus is demanding monthly $2,000 stimulus payments to all U.S. households, a nationwide moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, nationwide vote-by-mail, and a suspension of all consumer debt collection. On the conference call Monday, participants stressed that relief must be made available to those who were neglected or entirely left out of previous bills, such as undocumented immigrants. Whether the Democratic leadership is willing accept any of the progressives demands, and how quickly another massive stimulus package could come together, remains to be seen. In a Dear Colleague letter on Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote vaguely that as negotiations with the Trump administration over the interim legislation move forward, we are working on CARES 2 to prepare for the path ahead to support the lives and livelihoods of the American people. It is recognized that the key to opening our economy is testing, treatment, contact tracing, and quarantine, said Pelosi. It is self-evident that Americas heart is full of love. Let us be worthy of the American peoples generosity of spirit. On the conference call, progressive lawmakers voiced frustration about the lack of transparency surrounding the interim bill, lamentinglike Ocasio-Cortezthat most of what they know about the legislation has come from news reports. Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, raised concern Monday that if Democratic leaders give Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration what they want in the interim legislation, progressives will have less leverage for the coming fights. We know that Republicans are taking advantage of this moment to shovel more money to big corporations. They are simply indifferent to the human suffering that is unfolding before our eyes, said Greenberg. Thats why its so critical that Democratic leadership use their leverage and the full power of the House to demand solutions that rise to the needs of the moment. Jayapal echoed Greenberg, saying the Progressive Caucus has real concerns about giving away leverage now without getting some of the priorities that we need. We have to recognize the urgency of the moment, the scale of the crisis, said Jayapal. We cannot just give away the things that Republicans want most when we know that theyre not going to fix the problem that is in front of us. 3 1 of 3 contributed photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Westport News / Chris Marquette Show More Show Less 3 of 3 WESTPORT Planning and Zoning Commission member Chip Stephens has announced his candidacy for the 136th district seat for Westport in the state general assembly. As a 50-year resident of Westport, and elected Planning and Zoning Commissioner for three terms, I have been honored to serve and enjoy our town, he said in a press release on Tuesday. My campaign is to bring to Hartford a positive message of hope, and a strong need for working together to fix the broken financial state. The bitter feud between Married At First Sight exes Michael Goonan, 29, and Stacey Hampton, 26, rages on. On Monday night, Michael launched a scathing attack on his ex-'wife', hours after she allegedly uploaded (and quickly deleted) throwback footage of him meeting her sons, Kosta, four, and Kruz, two. Addressing fans during an Instagram Stories Q&A, Michael said: 'I found the video that was recently deleted last night - of her posting footage of me meeting her son in Melbourne ages ago - I find really disrespectful.' Michael, who was responding to the question: 'Has Stacey been disrespectful towards your new relationship with KC?', completed his rant by adding: 'I don't think that's necessary.' Michael and KC started dating around eight weeks ago after Michael's split from Stacey, which occurred on January 16 in between filming the MAFS reunion dinner party and the finale. KC amicably split from her ex-'husband' Drew Brauer shortly after their final vows in December. Scathing attack: Married At First Sight's Michael Goonan, 29, (pictured) blasted his ex-'wife' Stacey Hampton, 26, during a fiery Instagram rant on Monday, claiming she was being 'disrespectful' towards his new girlfriend KC Osborne 'Not necessary': Michael was left fuming after Stacey allegedly uploaded (and quickly deleted) throwback footage of him meeting her sons, Kosta, four, and Kruz, two (pictured) The Sydney-based professional dancer has since relocated to Micheal's Melbourne home for the foreseeable future so they can be together during the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, Stacey recently took a stab at her former 'close' friend KC, for asking her if she could date Michael after their tumultuous relationship ended. During a Q&A on Instagram Live, Stacey revealed she'd had a call from KC on the night she was settling in to watch her wedding air on TV for the first time. Cosy couple: KC and Michael (pictured) started dating around eight weeks ago, after Michael's split from Stacey Shocking: It comes after Stacey revealed the shocking moment her 'close' friend KC asked if she could date Michael '(KC called and said) 'Hey babe do you mind if Michael and I caught up for drinks, he's coming to Sydney?'' Stacey explained. 'I was like, 'You can do whatever you'd want, but it'd hurt me. I loved the guy',' she told radio personality Bryce Ruthven. 'That hurt me the most, that she was there when I was hurting,' the law graduate said, explaining she'd confided in KC about her relationship. [April 21, 2020] Confluent Announces $250 Million Series E and Project Metamorphosis to Enable Every Organization to Harness the Full Power of Event Streaming Confluent, Inc., the event streaming platform pioneer, today announced the closing of a $250 million Series E round led by Coatue Management. New investors Altimeter Capital and Franklin Templeton joined existing investors Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital (News - Alert) who also participated in the round, bringing Confluent's total funding to $456 million. The adoption of event streaming as the platform for all current and historical data is rapidly accelerating as demand for real-time digital experiences are higher than ever. This groundswell of adoption led Confluent to double its annual recurring revenue year over year in 2019 and increase Confluent Cloud revenue more than 450 percent year over year. The acceleration of event streaming as the data infrastructure for real-time organizations has propelled Confluent's valuation to $4.5 billion. "In every industry, companies are moving to real time as they digitally transform their businesses. This has made event streaming a critical platform for enterprise IT," said Kevin Wang, partner, Altimeter Capital. "Confluent has the unique product-market fit, leadership, and customer focus to help organizations become agile, event-driven winners in the new digital economy." Apache Kafka Ignited a World of Event Streaming Traditional 24-hour updates from batch-processed data cannot keep up with the speed and personalization people demand. Data in motion, otherwise known as event streams, has become the basis of today's digital experiences. Every change in a bank account, update to a rideshare ETA, or adjustment to a store's inventory triggers a stream of events. The ability to quickly access and act on these events influences an organization's ability to be competitive in the modern digital world. That is why Kafka ignited the event streaming trend that quickly gained traction with Fortune 500 companies. But, the full power of Kafka can only be unlocked when it serves as a central nervous system for the entire organization. This stage of event streaming maturity is marked by all the data in an organization becoming instantly available to all applications and people through the event streaming platform. As a result, new business can be uncovered, customer experiences exceeded, and new operational efficiencies realized. However, building and scaling event-driven applications is notoriously challenging as sources for event data often span across on premises, multiple clouds, microservices, and more distributed environments. This resulted in Kafka becoming the highest paid technical skill in the United States, putting pervasive event streaming out of reach for most organizations. "Confluent is re-architecting businesses around event streaming which helps to modernize applications," said Thomas Laffont, co-founder, Coatue Management. "We believe Confluent is a thought leader in event streams and we look forward to seeing how the team advances the space with game-changing products like Confluent Cloud." Project Metamorphosis: Event Streaming's Next Act Confluent was created by the original founders of Apache Kafka, using their exceptional Kafka expertise to ensure that any company can harness the power of eent streaming at scale. Confluent launched the industry's first event streaming platform built for the enterprise. Now, organizations in every major industry, can run real-time, event-driven applications supported by the expertise of the founders of event streaming. As a part of Confluent's relentless pursuit to ensure that any organization can make event streaming the central nervous system for their business, it is initiating the next generation of event streaming through Project Metamorphosis. With Project Metamorphosis, Confluent will solve the most pressing issues that organizations run into when making event streaming a pervasive part of their business, and provide the solution as a fully hosted platform in Confluent Cloud. Over the next eight months beginning in May, Confluent will announce major capabilities or highlight new product announcements on the first Wednesday of each month. Each release in 2020 will address the major technical challenges organizations face when putting event streaming at the heart of their business, and 2021 will kick off the next wave of innovation that will transform how businesses serve their customers. "Today's high expectations for on-demand services has given rise to a new data infrastructure paradigm where data is no longer just a static database of information," said Jay Kreps, CEO and co-founder, Confluent. "Event streaming has set the new standard for how data can be leveraged across an organization as a continuous stream of real-time events. We're looking forward to helping more companies put event streaming at the heart of their businesses to deliver the real-time, contextual experiences customers demand." Additional Resources: Read Jay's perspective on this funding round and Project Metamorphosis in his blog post: https://www.confluent.io/blog/series-e-round-metamorphosis Sign up for updates on Project Metamorphosis: https://www.confluent.io/project-metamorphosis Learn more about Confluent's milestones from 2019: https://www.confluent.io/press-release/confluent-experiences-rapid-growth-as-companies-adopt-event-streaming See how Confluent is helping its customers transform their businesses: https://www.confluent.io/customers/ Learn more about Confluent: https://www.confluent.io/ About Confluent Confluent, founded by the original creators of Apache Kafka, pioneered the enterprise-ready event streaming platform. With Confluent, organizations benefit from the first event streaming platform built for the enterprise with the ease of use, scalability, security and flexibility required by the most discerning global companies to run their business in real time. Companies leading their respective industries have realized success with this new platform paradigm to transform their architectures to streaming from batch processing, spanning on-premises and multi-cloud environments. Confluent is headquartered in Mountain View and London, with offices globally. To learn more, please visit www.confluent.io. Download Confluent Platform and Confluent Cloud at www.confluent.io/download. Confluent and associated marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Confluent, Inc. Apache and Apache Kafka are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation in the United States and/or other countries. No endorsement by the Apache Software Foundation is implied by the use of these marks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005264/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Starting this week, San Francisco is introducing a program that will close some streets to through traffic so pedestrians and cyclists can more safely social distance. The "slow streets" initiative, similar to the one already rolled out in Oakland, will eventually close a dozen streets around the city to through traffic. Although some cars will still be allowed through such as residents or emergency vehicles the goal is to create safer streets for pedestrians to walk in when sidewalks do not allow for six feet of distance between individuals. A charge of interference with the duties of a peace officer is pending against an individual who was involved in an incident Sunday, according to the citys spokeswoman. She told the Reporter-Telegram in an email that the charge is pending because due to COVID-19 protocols he could not be taken to jail. Midland Police Department officers were dispatched Sunday to the area of Florida Avenue between Big Spring Street and Lamesa Avenue in reference to complaints of criminal trespass and street racing. While initiating procedures toward ceasing the unlawful and dangerous behavior, one of the officers was summoned by a passenger of a passing vehicle, according to a statement from MPD. The individual appeared to need assistance, and as the vehicle entered a nearby parking lot and stopped, the officer approached to investigate. It appeared that the individual was attempting to thwart law enforcement efforts, and the officer directed the individual to get out of the vehicle. After initially refusing the officers directive, the passenger was detained for interference with the duties of a peace officer. As the officer continued to address the suspect, the driver and two other passengers got out of the vehicle and began to encroach on the officers position, according to the statement. Two officers were across the roadway engaged in a separate traffic contact and observed the subjects approaching the officer. They immediately made their way to the location. With weapons drawn, the officers positioned themselves between the lone officer and the encroaching subjects while directing them to the ground. Two of the three subjects refused to comply: one crouched while remaining balanced on his feet, and the other reached behind him as if to retrieve a weapon, according to the statement. In response, the two officers engaged the individuals with approved front push kicks, effectively forcing both to the ground to be handcuffed. Because of COVID-19 protocols, the subjects were released. An internal report related to the application of force is in progress, according to the statement. Latest set of virtual events follows the successful rollout of 10 virtual events in the past 30 days, drawing 150-300+ highly engaged technology executives WESTPORT, Conn., April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coming on the heels of its successful launch of HMG Live! , a series of captivating virtual interviews and virtual summits, HMG Strategy is pleased to announce the addition of 15 new Virtual CIO and CISO Summits that are focused on key aspects of courageous leadership during times of global crisis and uncertainty. During these highly interactive sessions, branded as HMG Live! , HMG Strategy President and CEO Hunter Muller discusses the courageous leadership qualities that technology executives must demonstrate during times of crisis with top-tier CIOs, CTOs, CISOs, CDOs and industry experts. The live weekly series, which is also available on demand , explores how CIOs and technology executives are ideally positioned to navigate periods of turbulence and uncertainty to ensure that organizational objectives continue to be executed along with actionable steps for achieving these goals. CIOs, CISOs and other technology executives are looking to engage with each other now more than ever, to share their strategies and lessons learned during these times of uncertainty, says Muller. HMG Strategy has quickly pivoted to a digital platform to connect tech executives on a broad scale. Were drawing 150 to 300+ attendees to our Virtual Summits, focused on the content and topics that CIOs and other technology executives are telling us they want to discuss under our peer-driven research model. The next Virtual Summit hosted by HMG Strategy is the San Francisco Virtual CIO Summit taking place on Thursday, April 23 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET/10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. PT. Speakers for the event include: Sheila Jordan, Chief Digital Officer, Honeywell Tony Leng, Managing Director, Digital Transformation and CIO Practice Lead, Diversified Search Stan Lowe, CISO, Zscaler Larry Quinlan, Global CIO, Deloitte Tim Sadler, CEO & Co-Founder, Tessian John Repko, EVP & CIO, AIG To learn more about the San Francisco Virtual CIO Summit and to register for the event, click here . Other upcoming Virtual CIO and CISO Summits produced by HMG Strategy include: Houston CIO Virtual Summit , May 1, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. CT New York CISO Virtual Summit , May 7, 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET Minneapolis CIO Virtual Summit , May 8, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. CT Washington, D.C. CIO Virtual Summit , May 12, 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET Silicon Valley CISO Virtual Summit , May 21, 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. PT Denver CIO Virtual Summit , May 27, 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. MT Boston CIO Virtual Summit , May 28, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET Chicago CIO Virtual Summit , June 2, 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. CT Toronto CIO Virtual Summit , June 3, 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET Detroit CIO Virtual Summit , June 11, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. ET Charlotte CIO Virtual Summit , June 16, 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET St. Louis CIO Virtual Summit , June 18, 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. CT Seattle CIO Virtual Summit , June 23, 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. PT Southern California CIO Virtual Summit , June 24, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. PT *Note: Each of HMG Strategys regional virtual summits conducted thus far have drawn large numbers of attendees from across the U.S. HMG Strategy has also launched a series of successful Virtual Briefings . These 30-to-40-minute live Zoom interviews between Hunter Muller and top technology executives, have explored how they are leading courageously in times of crisis and the steps they are taking to reassure their teams and help move the business forward. To view our most recent Virtual Briefing with Bhavani Amirthalingam, SVP & Chief Digital Information Officer at Ameren, click here . HMG Strategy has also received enormous interest in producing webinars through the strength of its 400,000+ community of technology executives and the creativity of its content marketing team. HMG Strategy has scheduled 12 30-to-60-minute webinars over the next two months with an array of innovative technology companies such as Citrix, Commvault, Darktrace, Ivanti, Okta, Outsystems, PagerDuty, RangeForce, RingCentral and UiPath. We offer a unique value prop that combines the richness of the HMG technology leadership community with the inventiveness of our award-winning research team in creating topical and compelling webinars that technology executives want to attend, said Muller. HMG Strategy is producing its next webinar with Okta on May 5th at 1 p.m. ET - Not All Rip and Replace: How to Successfully Transition to a Modern Infrastructure. Click here to learn more about the webinar and to secure your spot. Click here to view HMG Strategys upcoming calendar of webinars. Interested in learning more about HMG Live!? Contact us at info@hmgstrategy.com . About HMG Strategy HMG Strategy is the world's largest independent and most trusted provider of executive networking events and thought leadership to support the 360-degree needs of technology leaders. Our regional CIO and CISO Executive Leadership Series, newsletters, authored books, and Digital Resource Center deliver proprietary research on leadership, innovation, transformation and career ascent. The HMG Strategy global network consists of over 400,000 senior IT executives, industry experts and world-class thought leaders. To learn more about the 7 Pillars of Trust to HMG Strategys unique business model, click here . HMG Strategy: Your #1 Trusted Digital Platform Connecting Technology Executives to Reimagine the Enterprise and Reshape the Business World. Tom Hoffman 203-221-2702 TomHoffman@hmgstrategy.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c72256fd-fe79-44bf-aefd-2ac1ea60dad1 A trio of new tenants will move into a three-level home office-style building at 420 Church Street. Fitzroys Lewis Waddell secured bridal studio By Kinsman, Steve Domoney Architecture, and fitness centre The Gym for the buildings landlord. The offices, about 180 sq m, were each leased for $55,000 a year gross on a mix of two- and three-year initial lease terms with options to extend. Mr Waddell said that despite uncertainties created by COVID-19, the last two remaining home offices had been leased at the beginning of the month. A trio of new tenants will move into a three-level home office-style building at 420 Church Street Richmond. Credit: Docklands The Melbourne College of Hair and Beauty will relocate from its Flinders Street head office to The District at 440 Docklands Drive. Were starting to see education-based occupiers look outside of the CBD,'' said Colliers Internationals Chris Meehan, who negotiated the lease with Travis Myerscough and James McMahon. The college leases 860 sq m at rent about $500 per sq m for five years. Ascot Vale Viva Leisure has leased a studio at 3 North Street for $215,000 a year through Gross Waddells Richard Lowe and Andrew Greenway. Between Ascot Vale and Mt Alexander roads, the 811 sq m, two-level building has 26 car parks. Viva signed a five-year lease and will pay all outgoings, including land tax. Hawthorn The team behind Sexpo, Australian Exhibitions Group, will relocate to level six at 523 Burwood Road after signing a five-year lease negotiated by Colliers Internationals Damien Adkins and Tom Rothel. Sexpo took a 410 sq m space at rent around 540 per sq m. The tenancy features 360 degree views and a balcony barbecue area. The team behind Sexpo, Australian Exhibitions Group, will relocate to level six at 523 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Credit: Richmond A specialist dental software company has leased unit 302 at 91-95 Murphy Street. Gorman Kellys Samuel Torrance negotiated a three-year lease for the 95 sq m strata office suite at a commencing rental rate of $475 per sq m gross. The tenant was attracted by the turnkey nature of the suite and its creative and high-end existing fit-out, he said. Bulleen The 149 sq m ground floor office suite at 79 Manningham Road has leased on a four-year term at starting rent of $49,000, a rate of $329 per sq m, leasing agents Gorman Commercials David Minton and Nick Meadows said. The suite is in the Bulleen Corporate Centre. Clyde North Sydney-based Flat Pack Kitchen Distributors has leased a new 650 sq m high-clearance warehouse with an office at the Summit Business Park in Rainier Crescent. Developed by Hawthorn-based Brown Property Group, the warehouse was leased by Gray Johnsons Stephen Buchan and Rory White. The three-year lease will return annual rental of $68,000 net with fixed 4 per cent annual increases. Flat Pack got a two-month rent-free incentive. Glen Iris Open space specialists Landmark Products are relocating their head office to 431 Burke Road after signing a three-year lease over 210 sq m. The deal was negotiated by Colliers Internationals Tom Rothel and Gorman Kellys Samuel Torrance at rental in the low to mid $300 per sq m. South Yarra The Brien Holden Vision Institute has signed a lease over 94 sq m in the South Yarra Corporate Centre at 209 Toorak Road. The two-year lease was negotiated by Colliers Internationals James McMahon and DBR Property Services at gross face rent of $535 per sq m. Suites within this complex are very tightly held, Mr McMahon said. Hawthorn Level 1 at 231 Burwood Road has recently been subleased. A private developer took the 181 sq m first floor office on a two-year sublease to use as a display suite for their development located directly across the road, Gorman Kellys Samuel Torrance said. Hallam Staff Australia has secured a 383 sq m office at 6 Wedgewood Road where it will make use of the existing fitout on a five-year term. The recruitment company paid about $160 per sq m rent and will join Hub24, DNA Recruitment and Reeds Consulting in a deal brokered by Colliers Internationals John Howell, Tom Rothel and Ash Dean. Box Hill Employment provider Max Solutions is taking space in the former Centrelink building at 14-16 Prospect Street. Fitzroys Stephen Land negotiated the lease on behalf of an offshore investor. The 2+2+2-year deal covers 192 sq m on part of level one at $84,500 per annum plus GST. An undated handout image captured and color-enhanced at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland, and made available by the National Institutes of Health shows a colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), isolated from a patient sample (issued 15 April 2020). EPA The pandemic has rocked the airline industry, as stay-at-home orders meant to contain the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, keep home both leisure and business travelers. Airlines are seeking billions of dollars in financial assistance from the federal government. Maryland Gov Larry Hogan announced on Monday that Maryland has purchased 500,000 tests from South Korea, saying the Trump administration made it clear over and over again that states have to go out and do it ourselves. Testing shortages have stymied the pandemic response across the country, sparking friction between the White House and governors. Over the weekend, Hogan, a Republican, disputed President Donald Trumps assertion that states already had enough tests, calling the White House messaging just absolutely false. The president struck back during his televised briefing on Monday, saying Hogan didnt understand his states testing capacity, despite efforts by the federal government to provide lists of labs where additional testing could be done. Hogan, asked about that issue, had told reporters that most of the Maryland labs identified by the White House were at federal installations such as the National Institutes of Health and Fort Detrick, and some had not been helpful in assisting with testing. We already knew where all of the labs were, Hogan said. Weve been pushing to get NIH to help us with testing for more than a month now. He later tweeted: Im grateful to President Trump for sending us a list of federal labs and generously offering Maryland use of them for #COVID19 testing. Accessing these federal labs will be critical for utilising the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea. The $9m shipment is equivalent to one test for about every 12 Marylanders a major step towards meeting the states goal of testing 10,000 a day, Hogan said. As of Monday morning, public and private labs in Maryland had administered 71,397 coronavirus tests. The governor said he wants to double Marylands daily testing goal to 20,000 and cautioned that the state needs other supplies, such as swabs and reagents. District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, both Democrats, have also cited broader testing as an important milestone to reach before they and Hogan can consider a coordinated easing of restrictions in the greater Washington region, where the reported coronavirus caseload climbed past 25,000 on Monday. South Korea has ramped up its production of coronavirus test kits (Getty) Fatalities in D.C., Maryland and Virginia nearly reached the 1,000 mark. Marylands deal with South Korea began nearly a month ago, with a Saturday night phone call by Hogan and his wife, Yumi, in the first ladys native tongue. Hogan asked his wife, who was born in rural South Korea, to join him on the line with Lee Soo Hyuck, the Republic of Koreas ambassador to the United States. The couple had visited the ambassadors home in Washington with other governors a few weeks earlier. President Moon Jae-in phoned in via videoconference to say how proud Korea was of Yumi believed to be the first Korean American first lady in US history. We made a personal plea, in Korean, asking for their assistance, the governor recalled Monday. That call set in motion 22 straight days of vetting, testing, negotiations, and protocols between our scientists and doctors, eight Maryland state government agencies and our counterparts in Korea. South Korea has called for expanded public participation in social distancing, as the country sees a wave of community spread and imported infections leading to a resurgence in new cases of the virus (Getty) He said negotiations took place almost nightly, and sometimes, it seemed like all night. While the chartered Korean Air flight was en route to Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport, the state was busy securing last-minute approvals from federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Hogan said. The governor said he was worried the federal government would seize the tests but declined to say the steps he took to make sure that didnt happen. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden cited Marylands purchase in a statement about the Trump administrations response to the pandemic, which he called so slow, and so ineffective, that the Governor of Maryland- a Republican had to turn to South Korea to get badly-needed tests. A health worker wearing a biosafety suit takes the temperature of a man through the railings during a checkup for the novel coronavirus (Getty) In Virginia on Monday, Northam announced he has formed a task force that will work to increase testing volume and timeliness, to decrease backlogs and keep up with demand. While the state still lacks swabs, chemical reagents and other crucial elements, Northam said state labs, private health systems and colleges and universities have marshalled enough resources to begin creating a systematic approach to testing that will help officials better understand the spread of the disease. Northam said Vice President Mike Pence, in a Monday call with governors, offered federal assistance in testing at nursing homes and other institutions serving the vulnerable. But the governor also complained that the federal government has not followed through on its responsibility to help states get access to supplies. That was the conversation that we had with the vice president today, Northam said. I think they understand that and are working on not only manufacturing more of those swabs but also in dispersing and directing those to states that need it the most. In the District, officials have started deploying rapid coronavirus testing equipment at institutions serving the vulnerable. City officials say their public health lab has the capacity to test up to 500 a day but does not get that many requests. They are encouraging anyone with symptoms to seek tests not just those in high-risk groups. Officials said the city is also watching for declines in reports of flu-like illnesses, in addition to lab-confirmed coronavirus cases, and monitoring the availability of personal protective equipment for health professionals, as it weighs whether and when to lift restrictions. Under current orders, nonessential businesses will remain closed at least until 15 May in the District, 10 May in Maryland and 8 May in Virginia, where a stay-at-home order is in place until 10 June. Maryland late last week extended school closures at least through May 15, while the District and Virginia have closed schools through the end of the academic year. Ab testing kits like the ones being given to the US by South Korea (Getty) Officials also are monitoring the number of people hospitalised to gauge the progress of the pandemic. Virginia reported 600 new hospitalisations over the past week, while Maryland reported about 1,000. Neither state showed significant declines in the number of daily admissions. More than 400 people were hospitalised with Covid-19, the disease the virus causes, in the District as of Monday, with 120 in intensive care units and 59 requiring ventilators. Thats an increase from 295 hospitalised as of last Monday, with 94 in intensive care and 31 requiring hospitalisations. Officials say D.C. hospitals are running at about 70 per cent capacity and have not needed the extra hospital beds originally projected to be needed in mid-April. The city is turning its downtown convention centre into a care facility for patients with mild Covid-19 symptoms. By early May, the centre should be able to treat up to 500, officials said. The District, Maryland and Virginia on Monday reported a total of 66 new Covid-19 fatalities and more than 1,400 positive test results received. Those results generally reflect tests taken a week ago or more, and infections contracted a week or more before that. The three jurisdictions have reported roughly 60 to 70 deaths daily for the past five days. The District added 134 Covid-19 cases and nine new fatalities, pushing the citys death toll to 105. Maryland added 855 new cases, its highest single-day increase in two weeks. More than a quarter of the cases are located in Prince Georges County, which leads the state in both infections and deaths. The county added seven deaths, bringing its total fatalities to 112. Neighbouring Montgomery County reported 140 new cases and 10 new deaths. In Virginia, there were 453 new infections, nearly half located in the DC suburbs. The Fairfax health district, which encompasses Fairfax County, Fairfax City and Falls Church, reported 150 new cases, while Prince William County and Alexandria City added 59 and 38 cases, respectively. There were also 23 new deaths recorded in Virginia, including 11 in Fairfax. While the District has largely avoided protests against social distancing measures, both Annapolis and Richmond have seen small pockets of resistance. A demonstration in Annapolis on Monday attracted fewer people than media enquiries, according to state officials, after a somewhat larger demonstration last week. Maryland legislative leaders announced Monday they would not reconvene in May, weeks after ending their session early for the first time since the Civil War. They cited the danger of Covid-19 but did not rule out returning for a special session later this year if necessary. The Republican Party of Virginia, meanwhile, echoed Trumps recent criticism of Virginias shutdown, in an email that also called for Virginians to liberate themselves. The party urged reporters attending Northams news briefing to consider asking him if shutting down Virginia is actually for our health. The jabs drew criticism from Northam, who said Republicans including at the federal level are sending mixed messages. Recommended More people testing positive twice for coronavirus in South Korea On the one hand, the governor said, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is guiding states to look for 14 days of declining infections before reopening. And two days later we see tweets that say to liberate Virginia, Northam said. What this has done is, I guess, entitled folks to have protests, not only in Virginia but in other states. I am just as anxious as anybody else out there to relieve these restrictions, Northam said. I really dont need people protesting to encourage me to open up our economy any sooner than we can do safely and responsibly. The Washington Post A day before conditional relaxations came into place on Monday, the Centre warned states against diluting guidelines for the national lockdown announced to halt the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Even as India stepped up efforts to fight the pandemic, a stocktaking exercise showed the country has at least 3 million medical professionals and roughly 8 million others who can be drafted for disease containment work such as contact tracing. Dont dilute curbs: Centre to states The Centre has termed the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) situation especially serious in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other areas while forming six ground teams to assess the situation and issue directions, even as it warned all states against diluting national lockdown rules, weakening Indias response to the crisis, and compromising the countrys public health. Read more India has 11 million coronavirus warriors: Govt database India has at least 3 million medical professionals and roughly 8 million others who can be drafted for disease containment work such as contact tracing, according to the Union governments stocktaking of human resources that can be deployed if the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak grows. Read more 16 contenders shortlisted for Indias corona vaccine effort The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (Birac) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) announced on Monday that they have selected 16 projects -- spanning vaccines, drugs and technologies -- for funding under the Covid-19 research consortium. Read more Covid-19: What you need to know today This is the story of seven states: Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. It is a dated story, but not too old dated midnight Sunday, April 19, just before parts of India opened up for some business activities. Read more Few tested positive... does that make us responsible for Covid?: Tablighi Jamaat chief The chief the Tablighi Jamaat, Maulana Saad, tells Hindustan Times in an interview through his lawyer that he is willing to cooperate with the police, and that no illegal activity took place at the Markaz building, which is the biggest Covid-19 hot spot in India. Read more Industries open on tepid note as states continue with curbs On Monday, the first day of the easing of Covid-19 lockdown norms, factories in most states did not resume work, with some deciding to continue with a hard lockdown until its designated deadline of May 3 and companies claiming that the requirements for reopening were far too stringent. Read more Covid-19 cases doubling in 7.5 days now: Govt The number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in India is doubling every 7.5 days (based on analysis till April 19), with that in 18 states doubling even slower, the health ministry said in a briefing on Monday. Read more Aggressive testing must to prevent 2nd wave of Covid A working paper by a team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) suggests that there will be a second wave of ,Covid-19 infection unless new cases are aggressively traced, localised and isolated. Read more China urges India to review FDI move China on Monday asked India to revise what it described as a discriminatory change in foreign direct investment (FDI) regulations aimed at preventing opportunistic takeovers of Indian firms amid the Covid-19 crisis. Read more Covid-19: India inks deal with South Korean firm for 500,000 testing kits The Indian government signed an agreement with a South Korean company on Monday for acquiring 500,000 testing kits to prevent and control the spread of Covid-19, with the first lot expected to be delivered on April 30. Read more Donald Trump eyes probe on Covid-19 outbreak origin in China, wants to send a team President Donald Trump on Sunday said he has wanted to send a team to China to investigate the start of the coronavirus outbreak that had killed more that 40,000 Americans till Monday and shut down the country with increasingly unpopular stay-at-home orders, but without any success yet. Read more AC air flow spread Covid-19 in China restaurant On January 24, nine people from three families contracted Covid-19 while having lunch at a restaurant in Guangzhou, China. Another 81 who were in the eatery did not. Read more Illustrations based on diagrams published in Emerging Infectious Diseases journal along with report by CDC authors. US futures continued to decline, dragging down Brent crude prices and global stocks as US traders face a supply glut. United States crude oil futures plunged back into negative territory and Brent collapsed on Tuesday following a historic plunge in oil prices below zero for the first time ever. The fall in prices was triggered by the expiry of May futures contracts for US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, which would have left traders stuck with barrels of physical oil in a market with few willing buyers as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage energy demand. US WTI crude for May delivery traded at -$2.58 a barrel by 08:07 GMT, up $35.05 from Mondays close when the contract settled at -$37.63 a barrel. Negative oil prices are a sign that producers are willing to pay people to take oil off their hands. Brent crude oil, which is the international standard for crude oil prices, slumped more than 26 percent or $6.76 to $18.81, its lowest since 2002. Global stocks were also dragged into the red on Tuesday with MSCIs index of emerging market stocks down 2 percent, eyeing its worst day in nearly three weeks. The currencies index was down 0.4 percent. In Asia, Japans Nikkei fell 1.97 percent and Chinas blue-chip CSI300 fell 1.18 percent, while the broader Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.9 percent. The slump in the US futures contract for crude was exaggerated by the looming expiry late on Tuesday of the front-month contract for the delivery of oil in May when the lack of storage is set to be particularly acute. The more active June contract, which had earlier been well supported, slipped more than $1 to just above $18 a barrel. June trading volumes were roughly 80 times those of the expiring May contract. The coming weeks are surely going to be interesting for the oil markets, Suvro Sarkar, of DBS Bank, told Al Jazeera. DBS sees the second quarter of 2020 as being the trough for oil prices and Sarkar expects that WTI futures may continue to trend towards zero in the coming month. We do not think Brent will follow it all the way there. But, we would not be shocked if Brent breaches 20 or 10 dollars per barrel in coming days or weeks, he said. Unlike the internationally shipped Brent crude, WTI front-month contracts involve physical deliveries of the oil to a specific location, namely the oil terminal in Cushing, Okhlahoma, which is rapidly filling up, Sarkar explained. Although international storage is more readily available than US storage at this point, Sarkar said, one might wonder if traders cannot access US storage for physical crude deliveries in May, how will they find storage for June? The coronavirus pandemic has pummeled global travel, transportation and economic activity, sending the demand for crude plummeting. As such, many traders holding oil futures were left with an oversupply of physical oil. Unfortunately, the options for the Saudi Arabia-led Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and fellow major oil producers including Russia a group known collectively as OPEC+ options for further supply cuts are limited. Cutting production further on a [government-to-government] level can hardly make too much of a dent in the near term, and is not feasible for smaller countries to agree to cut above 25 percent. So options for US and OPEC+ are limited in the face of this deep hole in demand that we see in 2Q20, Sarkar said. OPEC+ had previously agreed to reduce oil output by a record 10 million barrels per day, although most analysts saw this move as insufficient to support oil prices in a market where demand remains weak due to the pandemic. The American Petroleum Institute is set to release its data at 4:30pm (20:30 GMT) on Tuesday, and the weekly report by the US Energy Information Administration is due at 10:30am (14:30 GMT) on Wednesday. President Donald Trump said his administration would consider blocking oil imports from Saudi Arabia to protect the US shale oil industry. Tmml.org scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 1 Jul 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the tmml homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the tmml homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if tmml has a Facebook fan page). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the tmml homepage on Twitter + the total number of tmml followers (if tmml has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the tmml homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the tmml homepage on Delicious. Basic Information PAGE TITLE | Tamil manila muslim league | DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS | Tamil manila muslim league| OTHER KEYWORDS league, muslim league, tamil, muslim, tamil maanila muslim league, tamil maanila muslim, maanila muslim league CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. Domain and Server DOCTYPE HTML 5.0 CHARSET AND LANGUAGE English (United States) English (United States) DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache/2.2.24 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.24 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_fcgid/2.3.6 (PHP/5.2.17) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux The language of tmml.org as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Operative System running on the server. Character set and language of the site. Type of server and offered services. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for tmml.org 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. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The type of Facebook page. The URL of the found Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND China is planning to introduce a virtual money payment system in the country and to kickstart this, China has already started testing its first official digital currency in four of its cities. The pilot rollout is a part of research and development being carried on the official digital currency of China by the countrys central bank - The Digital Currency Research Institute of the Peoples Bank of China (PBC). Termed as DC/EP (digital currency/electronic payment), the official digital currency will also be used during the 2022 Winter Olympics Games in Beijing. Reuters Though it has not been officially released, a trial run of the currency in four cities is being carried out within a small group of banks and users. Going forward, the digital currency is expected to be be scaled to a wider application with an improved technology and system, as per a report by the Global Times. In order to improve the technology used for the new payment mode and to make it more secure, more banks will continue to participate in this testing. Apart from the banks, telecom majors in the country might also join the testing going forward, confirms Chen Bo, director of the Finance Research Centre at the Institute of Finance and Economics at the Central University of Finance and Economics in a report. Chinese Yuan (Representative Image: Reuters) There will be two types of players in future trials, the banks and telecom companies. At present, the central bank is testing the software of DC/EP, and whether it will be combined with 5G and sim cards in the future needs to be discussed, Chen said. Chinas DC/ EP is expected to reach one trillion yuan (USD140 billion) in the coming years as per a research by brokerage house Citic Securities. In comparison, the total market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is about USD 200 billion. Possible mode of virus transport A big propellant for the move might be the novel Coronavirus that is still on the spread across the globe. Although China claims to have recovered from the pandemic to much extent, a second wave of infections is most likely in the country. To make sure that physical currency is not a source of spread of the virus, such digital currencies will help curb the threat. Back in February, China quarantined large quantities of bank notes in the hotspots and even stored some of it in warehouses temporarily. The move was in line to curb the spread of the disease through such modes. A research by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) suggests that paper money and coins can be potential vectors of transmissible diseases. The report mentions Banknotes recovered from hospitals may be highly contaminated by Staphylococcus aureus [often the cause skin infections, pneumonia, heart valve infections and bone infections]. As for coins, it mentions Laboratory simulations revealed that methicillin-resistant S. aureus can easily survive on coins, whereas E. coli, Salmonella species and viruses, including human influenza virus, Norovirus, Rhinovirus, hepatitis A virus, and Rotavirus, can be transmitted through hand contact. (Representative Image: Reuters) The Coronavirus threat Various studies have been conducted to check the spread of Coronavirus through physical currency. Though no solid connection has been established as yet, it is known that the Coronavirus can last on surfaces for multiple days. More so on hard surfaces like Copper. Thus, more caution is advised when handling coins as the virus can survive on them for longer than on bank notes. Experts recommend the use of gloves and alcohol-based sanitizers (70% alcohol) for those handling such coins frequently. Chinas use of digital currency will eliminate all such possible threats. For a country to have recovered from the deadly Coronavirus, such measures to tackle any future waves of the infection can help multifold in all aspects. (With inputs from PTI) Diplomatic card worthy of considering but cautiously The government plans to provide protective masks for the United States, Japan, and the countries that fought alongside South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun recently told relevant agencies to examine the idea, saying it "will help upgrade the nation's status," according to media reports. Provided some preconditions are met, the proposal is worthy of consideration in a positive manner. Diplomatic calculation seems to be behind this decision. The reason to support the countries that took part in the inter-Korean conflict 70 years ago is relatively apparent an expression of gratitude. However, reasons for the U.S. and Japan require more strategic approaches. The shortage of masks in the two countries is due to a temporary imbalance between demand and supply, having nothing to do with their economic conditions. To maximize diplomatic effects, Korea should send sufficient amounts to the two countries at an appropriate time, whether paid or free. It is not even certain whether or not Japan will accept support. Still, the Moon Jae-in administration appears to think the offer could serve as an occasion to unravel the strained relationship between Seoul and Tokyo since the Korean Supreme Court ordered some Japanese companies to compensate for Korean forced laborers during World War II. The court action prompted Japan to launch economic retaliation against Korea last year. The problem, however, is that a considerable number of Koreans oppose providing masks for Japan. That explains why the government should be cautious about supplying masks there. The government should take into account not just Japan's response but domestic public sentiment as well. One thing to think about in this process is the local supply and demand situation of face masks. The government should not forget the bitter experience of causing a mask shortage after it provided a large number of protective masks for China in the early stage of the new coronavirus pandemic. As an old saying goes, "One has to be full before feeding others." The Moon administration first ought to secure sufficient production capacity. If the idle inventory surpasses essential levels, public opinion on helping Japan also could turn favorable. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday launched the 'COVID India Seva', an interactive platform for establishing a direct channel of communication with millions of Indians during the pandemic. This initiative is aimed at enabling transparent e-governance delivery in real-time and answering citizen queries swiftly, at scale, especially in crisis situations like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, an official statement said. Through this, people can pose queries @CovidIndiaSeva and get them responded to in almost real time. The @CovidIndiaSeva works off a dashboard at the backend that helps process large volumes of tweets, converts them into resolvable tickets, and assigns them to the relevant authority for real-time resolution, the statement said. "Trained experts will share authoritative public health information swiftly at scale, helping to build a direct channel for communication with citizens," the minister said in a tweet. Over time, Twitter has proved to be an essential service for both the government and citizens to interact and exchange information, especially in times of need. We are happy to make a concerted online effort by adopting the Twitter Seva solution. "It is powered by a team of experts at our end who are trained and equipped to treat and respond to each query uniquely, and at scale. This will enable us in establishing a direct channel with Indian citizens, connecting with them in real-time to provide authoritative health and public information," Vardhan said. The dedicated account will be accessible to people be it local or national in their scope. Whether it is for latest updates on measures taken by the government, learning about access to healthcare services or seeking guidance for someone who perhaps has symptoms but is unsure about where to turn to for help, @CovidIndiaSeva will empower public to reach out to the authorities, the statement stated. "It is important to note that the ministry will respond to broader queries and public health information. This does not require the public to share personal contact details or health record details. On the launch of the interactive platform, Mahima Kaul, Director, Public Policy, India and South Asia, Twitter said, "We understand our role as an essential service for both the government to communicate with citizens and for the public to stay connected with each other. As #IndiaFightsCorona with social distancing, we are committed to working with the Government of India as they use the influence of social media to connect with the public at large. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) We're told that social distancing is working because we're flattening the curve. How do we know that those two things are related? There isn't that all-important-for-good-science control group. For all we know, the result would have been similar if we hadn't put such draconian measures in place. In addition, for all our medical experts' talk of their high standards, they ignored those standards when they embraced the Imperial College model that, according to world-renowned epidemiologist Johan Giesecke, was an internal document that was unpublished and had not been peer-reviewed. Giesecke had never seen a document of this type garner so much attention as to shape major public policy decisions. He also described the strict lockdown measures embraced by many countries as non-evidence-based. (What?! You mean our experts who uphold the highest of double-blind standards have been shooting in the dark?!) And speaking of lockdowns, according to some reports, the U.K. hit its peak before it put strict social distancing measures in place (here, here, here at the 6:40 mark). On top of that, Gabi Barbash, a top Israeli scientist, has a statistical analysis that shows that the virus peaks after about 40 days and fizzles to a low level after about 70 days, irrespective of the nature of the public policy to control it. Sweden, meanwhile, continues to recommend moderate social distancing measures, and the country appears none the worse for wear compared to other Western nations. In fact, Sweden is doing better because it's implemented social distancing without law enforcement arresting people, without drones (made in China) hunting people down, without snitch lines set up for people to report on others breaking the rules, and without taking a sledgehammer to its economy. In all, Giesecke, Barbash, and decision-makers in Sweden support social distancing measures, but not to the level imposed here in the United States and elsewhere, and not with enforcement that flies in the face of a free society. So here we are as our experts (with their high standards) attribute current trends with the virus to the shutdown despite no way to prove it, after using a terrible model that informed public policy, and in the face of the very real possibility that no matter what you do with respect to trying to control the virus, the end result may be the same. Let's practice good infection control and get back to work! File photo via YouTube screen grab. Open source A peak of COVID-19 incidence in Kyiv is expected to occur in two weeks. After that Ukraines capital is willing to mitigate the quarantine. The mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko said this during a briefing that was broadcasted by 112 Ukraine TV channel. According to him, a plan of quarantine easing has already been developed. "We understand that business must work, that the city should develop, that we need to revive the economy. We must pass the peak of this disease, we expect it to occur in Ukraine and the city in a week or two, and after that, taking the situation into account, we will introduce gradual easing of restrictive measures," the message reads. Klitschko added that the reduction of quarantine after passing the peak of the disease was a worldwide practice. As we reported earlier, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers would consider the decision to extend the quarantine on May 22. "Wait until Wednesday. The government meeting will decide whether to continue the quarantine or narrow it down. The Cabinet of Ministers will consider it on May 22, Deputy Healthcare Minister Viktor Lyashko stated. Nuclear power plants can now implement longer shifts for workers and delay some inspections, raising concerns that as the coronavirus pandemic upends basic operations the industry may be bending the rules too far. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is already allowing six U.S. power plants to extend workers shifts, to as long as 12 hours a day for two weeks, and more may be coming. Thats up significantly from current standards that require people to get two-to-three days off a week when pulling shifts that long. Employees can also work as many as 86 hours in a week now, up from 72 hours. To curb transmission of the virus, utilities also say they want to delay inspections that require people to work in close proximity. Environmental groups, though, warn the changes could have disastrous results, and worry they could lead to further deviations from safety rules. This is a step backward, said Eric Epstein, chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, a Pennsylvania non-profit group. Its not a good idea to stretch workers and marginalize safety standards. The new rules come as at least 42 construction workers have tested positive for the coronavirus at a nuclear plant in Georgia where Southern Co. is building two new reactors. Last week, the utility and its partners announced they would reduce the 9,000-person workforce by 20% to slow the spread of the virus. The government considers nuclear power plants to be essential, and reactors will supply almost 21% of the countrys electricity this year. Exelon Corp., operator of the biggest U.S. nuclear fleet, says it can no longer meet the work-hour controls at four of its reactors, including the Braidwood plant in Illinois. NextEra Energy Inc. said the same thing about its Seabrook power plant in New Hampshire. The companies say that the extended work hours wont have an adverse impact on safety. The work-hour rule exemption is an important contingency that may be implemented to allow healthy workers to remain on site for more hours, reducing the need to bring in outside travelers and vendors, Exelon spokeswoman Linsey Wisniewski said by email. But watchdog groups are concerned that employees may be overworked, leading to fatigue and potentially errors. You want an alert workforce, said Paul Gunter, a director at Beyond Nuclear. You dont do this with bus drivers, but theyre saying its OK for nuclear power plant workers. The NRC is also granting utilities utilities permission to defer some inspections as dozens of reactors go through the annual spring refueling cycle. These projects can involve more than 1,000 people converging on a power plant for a month or more of maintenance and testing. Postponed Inspection Pinnacle West Capital Corp. also has approval for longer hours and is postponing an inspection of components on the bottom of the reactor vessel at the 3.9-gigawatt Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona, the biggest U.S. nuclear plant. The company had initially planned to conduct the evaluation during its refueling outage this spring, but has now pushed that out until the next one, in late 2021. The utility owner determined that the task posed a potential risk of spreading the deadly virus, and could be safely delayed. Only work that is absolutely required for refueling the unit to safely and reliably operate for the next 18 months is being conducted, Jill Hanks, a spokeswoman, said by email. The plant has not imposed longer shifts, but now has the option to quickly do so if necessary. New Reality The NRC is on board with the new reality of operating nuclear plants during a global pandemic and is developing guidance for deferring maintenance work. There are some ancillary activities during an outage that can be deferred, said Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the agency. Entergy Corp. is planning to defer some leak tests at pipes at its Grand Gulf reactor in Mississippi. The tests typically are due every 11 1/2 years, but will now be rescheduled for the next refueling outage in 18 months. Pushing that period out to 13 years wont affect safety, the company said by email. And at the Indian Point facility north of New York City, Entergy is also seeking permission to postpone annual physical evaluations for firefighters. Nuclear watchdogs are paying close attention to four sites that have requested permission to delay tests on steam generator piping, including Exelons Braidwood. The agency already approved NextEras request for its Turkey Point plant in Florida. The pipes carry water at high pressure, allowing it to stay liquid even as temperatures reach 600 degrees Fahrenheit (316 degrees Celsius). They are supposed to be inspected every three years, with the job requiring people working in close proximity. Because of the virus, the operators are seeking to delay this until the next refueling cycle in 18 months. Fraught History These components have a fraught history. In 1999, Consolidated Edison Inc. sought a similar delay to inspect the generator piping at Indian Point, which it owned at the time. The company was granted a 12-month deferral, but eight months later one of them started to leak. While a small amount of radioactive gas escaped into the air, the incident was quickly contained and the NRC concluded it didnt pose a threat to health. A report by the NRCs Office of the Inspector General later found that the agencys original evaluation, approving the delay, was not adequate. The NRCs Burnell said the agency has learned a lot about those systems in the past two decades and theres little chance that kind of accident would be repeated now. Requests for delays must be accompanied by significant documentation, and the NRC will only consider deferring the required inspections if that information clearly shows its reasonable to expect continued safe operation of the steam generators until the next inspection, Burnell said by email. Speculative to Compare NextEra said it would be speculative to compare conditions at Turkey Point to conditions at other nuclear plants, spokeswoman Lindsay Robertson said by email. Beyond Nuclears Gunter says the Indian Point leak may have been prevented if the inspection had taken place on schedule, and the incident points to the potential risks of extending maintenance reviews. As the coronavirus affects the entire global economy, hes concerned that a wave of extension requests from utilities may lead to other incidents. Its a gamble, Gunter said. Our concern is that theyre creating the conditions for a perfect storm. There could be a catastrophic incident that results from postponing inspections combined with fatigue from people that are overworked. Photo: A worker places a harness and safety equipment on before operating a crane at the reactor building of the Exelon Corp. Peach Bottom Atomatic Power Station in Detla, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. After Fukushima, U.S. regulators told nuclear power plants operators to calculate their exposure to various flood risks and compare that with what the plant was designed for. Ninety percent of plants had at least one risk exceeding their design. Photographer: Melissa Lyttle/Bloomberg Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics USA 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. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at Sunday's White House coronavirus briefing, where Trump showed a video of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York. JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images At the White House coronavirus press briefing on Sunday, President Donald Trump replayed clips of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York praising the federal response to the crisis and read aloud a flattering Wall Street Journal column about him. There was no mention, however, of the scathing criticism Cuomo has also leveled at Trump's coronavirus responses. Trump told reporters he played the clips of Cuomo to celebrate bipartisan unity in the face of the crisis. A CNN reporter at Sunday's briefing asked whether Trump should be basking in praise on a day when the US death toll surpassed 40,000, ultimately prompting the president to tell the reporter "you're fake news" and "you don't have the brains you were born with." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. President Donald Trump used Sunday's White House coronavirus task force briefing to replay clips of Gov. Andrew Cuomo praising the federal government's coronavirus response, but he excluded the scathing criticism the New York Democrat had also leveled against him. During Sunday's briefing, the lights were dimmed, and screens showed a clip of Cuomo saying: "What the federal government did, working with states ... was a phenomenal accomplishment." A second clip showed Cuomo saying: "These were just extraordinary efforts and acts of mobilization, and the federal government stepped up and was a great partner, and I'm the first to say it. We needed help and they were there." Trump told reporters he played the clips to celebrate bipartisan unity in response to the crisis. "This is not about Democrats, Republicans," he added. "This is about a thing that hit our country, the likes of which has never happened to us before." Later in the briefing, Trump also read out praise from a Wall Street Journal column. Story continues The CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond challenged him, however, asking why Trump had decided to highlight such praise on a day when the official US coronavirus death toll had surpassed 40,000. The question prompted an exchange in which Trump ultimately responded with insults, saying, "You're CNN, you're fake news," and, "You don't have the brains you were born with." Cuomo is one of Trump's biggest critics, and the president knows it The bid to portray Cuomo as a fan of Trump's efforts to combat the crisis has baffled many people. New York is the epicenter of the US coronavirus outbreak, and Cuomo is one of Trump's most trenchant critics. Cuomo's press conferences have rivaled Trump's for the news coverage they generate, and in them Cuomo has laid bare the inadequacies he sees in the federal government's response notably in its failure to secure equipment for front-line medics and to roll out a comprehensive testing program. Trump has argued that New York's healthcare system appears to have had enough beds to meet demand and therefore got everything it needed. He's also said Cuomo should take the fall for any problems in New York's response. Cuomo on March 2. Andrew Kelly/Reuters The two exchanged open barbs Friday, with Trump tweeting: "Governor Cuomo should spend more time 'doing' and less time 'complaining'. Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking!" Cuomo hit back hours later at his state briefing, saying of Trump: "If he's sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work." He said that in calculating the amount of hospital space required, New York had relied on federal government figures, and in response to Trump's demand for gratitude, said: "What am I supposed to do, send a bouquet of flowers?" Trump and other members of the White House coronavirus task force on February 26. Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen Coronavirus briefings or campaign rallies? The White House coronavirus task force briefings started as sober assessments of the health crisis facing America delivered by top public-health officials, but in recent weeks Trump has been accused of hijacking the briefings and using them in place of his campaign rallies, which have stopped in times of social distancing. During the briefings, the president has taunted reporters, blamed Democrats for problems tackling the virus, and highlighted praise of his administration's response. The White House has not responded to Business Insider's request for comment on the apparent exclusion of criticism at Sunday's task force briefings. Read the original article on Business Insider Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 04:20:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Tuesday confirmed 4,611 new COVID-19 cases as its tally of infections surpassed 95,000. Meanwhile, Iran's total cases surged to near 85,000. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey, the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, climbed to 95,591, while the death toll surged to 2,259, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted. He added that 14,918 patients have recovered from COVID-19, while 1,865 are being treated at intensive care units and 1,006 intubated. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the curve of COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey has begun flattening thanks to the timely measures his government has taken. Calling the pandemic "the biggest crisis after World War II in terms of its economic impacts," he called for preparations "for the new situations that will emerge in the post-epidemic world in our region and our country." In a phone talk, Erdogan discussed with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin the cooperation in the combating the COVID-19 pandemic. They also pledged to maintain close cooperation on dealing with regional issues. Iran on Tuesday reported 1,297 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to 84,802. The deaths from the virus soared to 5,297, after 88 new fatalities were added. A total of 60,965 coronavirus patients have recovered, with 3,357 still in critical condition. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the European countries to oppose U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, which are more "inhumane" when the entire world is fighting the novel coronavirus. "We expect European countries, especially Italy, to take appropriate stances against such violation of the rules in these difficult circumstances," he said during a phone conversation with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. In Israel, the number of daily recoveries from COVID-19 reached a record of 458, bringing the total recoveries to 4,507, the Ministry of Health said. The total number of coronavirus cases reached 13,942, after 229 cases were confirmed Tuesday. The death toll surged to 184, after seven more patients died from the virus. Most of the memorial ceremonies for marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day were canceled on Tuesday due to the coronavirus pandemic. Israeli Prime Minister's Office announced the tightening of measures to fight the virus ahead of the state's Independence Day on April 29, including a full lockdown that will last from next Tuesday afternoon until Thursday morning. Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics said that Israeli exports to China rose to 1.07 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2020, up 9.85 percent from last year, despite the coronavirus pandemic. In Qatar, the Health Ministry announced 518 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number to 6,533, which included 614 recoveries. Saudi Arabia reported 1,147 new COVID-19 cases and 150 more deaths, raising the tally of coronavirus infections to 11,631, which include 109 fatalities and 1,640 recoveries. Morocco confirmed 163 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number to 3,209, which included 145 deaths and 393 recoveries. In Egypt, the Health Ministry confirmed 157 new coronavirus cases and 14 deaths, bringing the total cases to 3,490, including 264 deaths. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held a phone call with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian to discuss joint efforts to combat COVID-19, and cooperation on regional and international issues. Algeria reported 93 new COVID-19 cases and eight new deaths from the virus, brining the tally of cases to 2,811 and the death toll to 392. In Kuwait, the Health Ministry reported 85 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths, bringing the total infections to 2,080 and death toll to 11. Iraq's Health Ministry reported 28 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number to 1,602. On Monday, the third batch of Chinese medical aid arrived in Baghdad as part of China's assistance to boost Iraq's capability to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. Enditem The Asian Development Bank is moving to provide $600 million in emergency assistance to Bangladesh to help it confront COVID-19, the Manila-based lender said Tuesday, a day after health authorities recorded the countrys biggest daily jump in confirmed coronavirus infections. ABD President Masatsugu Asakawa met with Bangladeshi Finance Minister A.H.M. Mustafa Kamal on Monday to discuss the global economic slowdown caused by the pandemic that has also disrupted export and manufacturing supply chains in the South Asian nation, the bank said. As a trusted and long-standing development partner, ADB is committed to supporting Bangladesh as it addresses the significant challenges presented by COVID-19, Asakawa said in a statement. We are working hard to respond to the governments request of $600 million for emergency assistance to help it effectively implement its response measures. Economic ripple effects from the viral outbreak are straining the large number of ready-made garment industries; micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises; and the livelihood of formal and informal laborers across the country, the ABD said. On Tuesday, Bangladesh reported 434 new coronavirus infections with nine new fatalities, taking its cumulative cases to 3,382, with the death toll at 110. Asakawa applauded Bangladesh for its recent incentive and stimulus packages of $11.3 billion for salary support to workers at export-oriented industries and low-interest loans to industries and farmers affected economically by the pandemic, the statement said. ADBs emergency assistance would be on top of a $350,000 emergency grant that the bank had earlier provided to Bangladesh for procurement of medical supplies and equipment for fighting the coronavirus. The multilateral lender had also provided $1.3 million in one-time cash support for thousands of Bangladeshis involved in an ongoing skills training program, the statement added. Labor ministry threatens suit On Tuesday in Bangladesh, the labor ministry threatened to sue factory owners who did not pay their employees most of them garment workers during a government-ordered lockdown aimed at containing the domestic spread of COVID-19. We will file cases against those factories as per the law. We will also suspend their license renewal efforts, Shivnath Roy, labor ministry director-general, told BenarNews. We have also started issuing show-cause notices to them. As of April 16, Roy said, about 370 factories had not yet paid workers wages for March. It was not immediately clear how many workers were affected, but local reports said over 150,000 were involved, forcing tens of thousands of them to joint protest rallies. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said in a statement that 110 of the 2,274 factories it represents had yet to release the workers salaries for March. Roy warned that factories who refused to pay their employees may not receive money from a $588 million package announced by the government last month to support the garment sector, the biggest driver of the countrys export economy. Garment businesses absorbed billions of dollars in cancelled orders from overseas buyers as a result of the pandemic, trade groups said. Religious group criticizes closure of mosques Meanwhile, an influential conservative Muslim group, Hefazat-e-Islam, urged Bangladeshs government to open mosques during Ramadan, despite stay-at-home orders imposed to curtail the spread of the pandemic. Islam does not support the imposition of any quota on worshipers, Mojibur Rahman Hamidi, a senior member of Hefazat, told reporters. The quota imposed by the government on the number of worshippers is not acceptable, he said. He urged the government to allow millions of people to participate in daily and weekly prayers after health authorities on Monday reported 492 new cases the nations biggest daily jump so far in coronavirus infections. Officials had pointed to people not obeying the governments instructions to remain indoors and avoid large public gatherings as a reason for the soaring number. We have repeatedly been urging the people to understand the gravity of the infection and stay at home, Health Minister Zahid Maleque told BenarNews, after tens of thousands of Muslims defied a national lockdown on Saturday and attended the funeral of senior emir Maulana Jubayer Ahmed Ansari in Brahmanbaria district, about 100 km (62 miles) from Dhaka. Globally, more than 2.5 million infections from the coronavirus have been recorded while the death toll stood at more than 171,800 as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. Just as Jordan was among the first countries to react early to the novel coronavirus pandemic by imposing a nationwide lockdown March 18 and enforcing a strict curfew, it is now the first country in the region to ease restrictions and gradually open up its economy. On April 19, the government ended the lockdown in the southern city of Aqaba but kept strict health precautions in place. The port city of more than 100,000 inhabitants, where no active cases have been recorded for over a month, has been isolated from the rest of the kingdom. The minister of state for media and communications, Amjad Al-Adaileh, also announced that day that the government will ease curfews in Karak, Tafileh and Maan governorates as of April 22, implementing procedures similar to those in Aqaba. Jordans early response to the pandemic set it apart from neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Israel, where the numbers of cases are now in the thousands. King Abdullah told the US news program Face the Nation on April 19, We acted quite early on, and that helped us flatten the curve quite, quite well, according to CBS News. It seems that weve got things under control and within the capabilities of our medical and health establishments, he added. The king has been heading meetings with top officials through the National Center for Security and Crisis Management on an almost daily basis. By April 20, Jordan's total number of confirmed cases had reached 425, with seven fatalities. The kingdom had shut its borders, imposed a lockdown and enforced measures such as social distancing and quarantine for suspected cases. Where there have been coronavirus clusters, such as in the northern governorate of Irbid, the government was quick to isolate the area and impose a full curfew. But even as the number of new cases has generally been decreasing by the day, the government appears to be ready to maintain a partial curfew in major population centers, such as Amman, during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins next week. The government, which enacted a defense law March 19 to enable it to enforce strict measures and override existing laws, said April 15 that it was easing up the lockdown to allow some businesses to reopen under certain conditions while observing health precautions. On April 17, Prime Minister Omar Razzaz issued Defense Order No. 9, which outlines a program for protecting businesses, freelance workers and daily wage workers and aims to benefit more than 400,000 households. The program covers Jordanians, Gazans and children of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians. The government had adopted a number of economic measures to enable public and private sector employees to receive a certain percentage of their monthly wages while working from home or reporting for work. Under the defense order, the government decided to suspend all increases and allowances for public sector employees until next year, while deducting 10% from salaries exceeding 2,000 Jordanian dinars ($2,800) as a contribution to the treasury. Previous defense orders were criticized by the private sector for failing to provide businesses especially hurt by the shutdown with help from the government. Business analyst and commentator Salamah al-Dirawi wrote in Al-Ghad daily April 18 that the government had finally corrected its course by stepping in to help the private sector after making wrong decisions earlier. The role of the Social Security Corporation at this stage is vital in providing social protection to families that have lost all income and that should be the governments top priority now, he said. Failing to protect these families will have dire social and security consequences for the country, he added. But Dirawi concluded that the government is unable to bear the burden on its own. The treasury does not have the resources to keep the government running as it faces a $2 billion deficit as result of the crisis, he said. He cautioned that the government will have a tough time borrowing money externally and will have to rely on local loans. Jordanians believe that while the government's measures have been successful in containing the pandemic, the country will be facing an unprecedented economic backlash in the coming weeks. But on April 19, Adaileh dispelled rumors that the government will not be able to pay this months salaries. He told a local news portal that the government will be able to meet its financial obligations for the coming two years. He added that the Central Banks foreign reserves are estimated at more than $19 billion, which reflects monetary stability. But such assurances still seem unlikely to placate Jordanians. For one, many fear that the governments reliance on the Social Security Corporation (SSC) to compensate non-insured Jordanians threatens millions of retirees. Why should the insured and business owners that have exclusively funded the SSC since its establishment subsidize the non-insured or the business owners that evaded? business analyst Jawad Abbasi told Al-Monitor. The government should bear this cost, not the SSC, and it can do that by reducing unnecessary expenses and reviewing its huge pension cost that has plenty of wasteful spending. If it wants to delve into SSC funds, it should borrow these funds at market rates. he added. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated, in a report published April 15, that Jordans economy will shrink by 3.7% as a result of the COVID-19 crisis; its gross domestic product grew 2% last year. The IMF also estimated that the economy will grow 3.7% in 2021. The Jordan Times quoted the IMF's chief of mission to Jordan, Chris Jarvis, on April 17 as saying the fund was ready to provide Jordan with support through its rapid financing instrument. Jarvis expressed confidence in Jordans ability to recover, as the government has already done a lot in terms of structural reforms, according to the paper. Minister of Finance Mohamad al-Ississ was quoted in the same story as saying the spread of the coronavirus will not stop Jordan's economic reform process but rather will expedite it. He stressed that the kingdom will continue to service its debt and honor its external obligations. The 360 shows you diverse perspectives on the days top stories and debates. Whats happening The coronavirus pandemic has forced large parts of the country to spend substantially more time at home as people practice social distancing to limit the spread of the virus. Unsurprisingly, this has caused a surge in demand for delivery services as people try to acquire the food they need without leaving the house. Across the country, restaurants have become takeout-only businesses to stay afloat with their dining rooms shuttered. Food delivery services like GrubHub and DoorDash are scrambling to hire enough people to keep up with the spike in orders. Grocery orders were up 150 percent in March compared with the same period last year. The system relies on an army of delivery workers to bring food from the store or restaurant to peoples front doors. These couriers face one of the highest risks of exposure to disease of any job, eclipsed mostly by medical professionals. But a large number of them are independent contractors who lack health coverage and other benefits. In March, workers for the grocery delivery service Instacart held a nationwide strike, demanding sick leave and protective gear like masks. Why theres debate The situation poses a challenging ethical question: Is it fair to ask someone else to take on the health risks that come from spending time out in public when youre not willing to do it yourself? The answer, according to industry experts, isnt cut-and-dried. For one, most health experts agree that the nationwide fight to limit the spread of the virus is better served by having a small number of people do food shopping for larger groups, rather than having everyone crowd grocery aisles themselves. The workers also rely on the money they get from deliveries. Choosing not to order could cost them and the struggling restaurants that make the food much-needed income. At the same time, many of the most popular delivery apps have been accused of exploiting the workers and restaurants they contract with by taking the lions share of the income from deliveries. In some cities, delivery slots have become extremely hard to come by. Someone from a low-risk group taking up that slot may mean a person who cant go to the store either because theyre sick, immunocompromised or have a disability misses out on the chance to acquire food theyre unable to get for themselves. Story continues Theres unanimous agreement that anyone ordering delivery should acknowledge the burden the courier is taking on for the public good by tipping well, giving good ratings and making an effort to protect them from infection as much as possible. Whats next Some labor rights activists see the increased importance of delivery workers and others in low-paying essential jobs as an opportunity to push for better conditions and benefits. This could mean more strikes and protests as the pandemic continues in the coming weeks and months. Perspectives Theres so much demand right now, skipping delivery wont cost workers any money If a gig worker relies on orders to make a living, not ordering could affect their ability to pay their bills. But the sheer volume of deliveries now makes that unlikely. Adele Peters, Fast Company Tip more than you would in normal times If you do order via one of the apps, at a minimum, please, please, please tip your driver beyond generously. People are out there risking their health so you get that carton of chow mein! Luke Tsai, Eater Delivery workers need money Right now, I think workers would largely ask you to please keep ordering. Its essential for these workers to be able to survive. Our industry is definitely worried about peoples safety, including their own, but theyre also worried about survival and feeding their kids. Its not that they dont think this is a scary time to be doing delivery, but they also need their jobs. Food labor expert Saru Jayaraman to Atlantic Dont use exploitive delivery apps; call restaurants directly Delivery apps should not be allowed to continue the same vulturous practices they deployed in a pre-coronavirus world. Until these apps actively start agreeing to commission caps, it's time to delete your delivery apps and let them burn. Khushbu Shah, Food & Wine Its unfair to ask low-income people to accept all of the health risk Those of us who are lucky enough to have jobs that enable us to work from home need to be honest with ourselves about whether we are bearing our fair share of the collective risk or whether our comfort is coming at too high a price to others. If were healthy, this may mean going to the grocery store ourselves rather than relying on others to do it for us. Ethicist Karen Stohr to Gen Its OK to be a little bit selfish in such extreme circumstances The buyers safety is earned by transferring the risk to the person making the delivery. I understand the concern, but I also believe that in an emergency its okay to prioritize your safety and your familys. Stephen L. Carter, Bloomberg Protect couriers by allowing them to do a no-contact delivery Social distancing is impossible if youre expecting a delivery person to meet you at the door or to come in. To solve that, several delivery apps have introduced no-contact deliveries meaning orders are left on the customers doorstep. If its not the default but is an option, choose it if youre physically able. Jason Del Rey, Vox Dont take up delivery slots if youre in a low-risk group Personally, Im inclined to save delivery appointments for those who are sick or high risk at least until stores can build more capacity into the system. Joanna Allhands, Arizona Republic Its important to acknowledge the sacrifice delivery workers are making for the greater good Its extremely important to be kind and considerate to your fellow humans right now, particularly workers whose jobs require them to be out in the world among crowds of people. Claire Lower, Lifehacker Is there a topic youd like to see covered in The 360? Send your suggestions to the360@yahoonews.com. Read more 360s Photo illustration: Yahoo News; Photos: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Getty Images The price of fuel has reduced for about 5 kopiyka ($0.018) Open source In Ukraine, the retail value of petrol of various brands, diesel fuel, and autogas has reduced as analytics of the A-95 consulting group reported. According to the experts, on April 21, in comparison to the previous working day (April 17), the prices for petrol reduced in 16 regions, while in other regions the petrol remained at the same level. Besides, diesel fuel fell in price in 17 regions, and autogas in 18 regions. The cheapest petrol of all brands (A-92, A-95, and A-95+) is sold in the Sumy region 21.75 hryvnia ($0.80), 22.81 hryvnias ($0.84) and 24.28 hryvnias ($0.90) consequently. The cheap diesel fuel is sold in the Kharkiv region 22.13 hryvnia ($0.82), while the cheapest autogas is in the Chernihiv region 8.47 hryvnia per liter ($0.31). The mist expensive petrol of all brands and diesel fuel are found in the Luhansk region and the most expensive autogas in the Ternopil region. Earlier, the experts came to the conclusion that the fuel consumption in Ukraine will fall by 20-30% due to the introduction of quarantine measures. As we reported, Ukrainian wheat exports from seaports almost fell by half to 138,000 tonnes in the week of March 28 - April 3 from 277,000 tonnes a week earlier. Hundreds of people, including those involved in essential services, were stuck on the border with Delhi on Tuesday after district magistrate of Uttar Pradeshs Ghaziabad issued an order to seal all borders to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Ajay Shankar Pandey had issued the direction late on Monday under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act prohibiting any travel between Ghaziabad and the national capital. The order came after at least six people contracted the coronavirus disease, which according to health and district administration officials happened after some of them travelled to Delhi. Doctors, transport workers and bankers were among those stuck on both sides of the border after the police refused to allow their entry or exit. I was headed home to Raj Nagar Extension in Ghaziabad after night duty from my hospital. I was stuck up at UP Gate border as the cops did not allow entry. From 8.30am to 11am, I was stuck like hundreds of other people in their vehicles, a doctor from a Delhi government hospital designated as Covid-19 facility, said. The cops did not allow me entry despite I showed them my duty pass and my identification card, the doctor added. Then I had to call up my contacts who contacted the Ghaziabad police and I was allowed to leave. But this all took me about three hours to enter into Ghaziabad. The cops even told me that I should stay in Delhi. I have more duties lined up on Wednesday and dont know whether I will be able to attend these or not, the doctor said. Also read: What led to change in plan for relaxation of lockdown in UP An employee of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) from Sanjay Nagar in Ghaziabad had to report for duty at 12.30pm on Tuesday and was headed to his depot at Sukhdev Vihar. I came to the Kaushambi border but the cops did not allow me to go to Delhi. I showed them my ID card and also my duty pass but they declined. I requested them but they did not allow, Bishambhar Dayal, a conductor with DTC, said. I moved to UP Gate but the cops there too denied me passage to Delhi. So, I have informed my officers and went back home, Dayal said. A number of ambulances carrying patients also got delayed at the border. A woman banker, who had to go to her office in Karol Bagh, said the police did not allow her entry into Delhi and she had to call up her colleague who took bank keys in order to open the branch. This happened despite the district magistrate Monday night order said that only people involved in essential supplies or valid pass holders will be allowed to move. Ghaziabad Police, on their part, said no one involved in essential services was stopped. People who are not attached to any essential services are not allowed to move to Delhi. There may be some minor hiccups but those attached to essential services are not being stopped, Anshu Jain, circle officer of Indirapuram, said. We have also deployed the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) apart from civil police to maintain strict checks, Jain said. Hundreds of commuters travel between Delhi and Ghaziabad from UP-Gate, Anand-Vihar and Kaushambi and Loni border areas every day. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON MICHIGAN -- The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is asking for support from the United States Department of Agriculture as the state's agriculture is suffering due to coronavirus. The department director Gary McDowell sent a letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue asking him to consider Michigan's needs when distributing $14 billion from the Commodity Credit Corporation and $9.5 billion designated for agriculture in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenias minister of emergency situations Felix Tsolakyan addressed a congratulatory message on the day of the establishment of the ministry, the ministry told Armenpress. The message says: Dear compatriots, Dear staffers of the ministry of emergency situations, I congratulate all of us on the day of the establishment of the ministry of emergency situations. The activity of this structure, founded 12 years ago this day, has been based on and is still based on humanism. The ministry has long turned its slogan into an uninterrupted behavior Together with you in any situation. During these years the result of the dedicated work of the ministry staffers are the overcoming of difficult situations and numerous saved lives, and the best appreciation is the peoples trust. The ministry of emergency situations is a firm system which involves all services to predict, prevent, respond to the emergency situations. Today the ministry has a broad cooperation geography which is creating a real platform for achievements and supplements. The ministry is regularly upgrading its equipment, trains its personnel making them more prepared. I have stated repeatedly that each employee of the ministry is a rescuer called to serve our country and our people. Dedicated and skilled approach this is the key to the success of our work. Dear rescuers, I wish you good service. Your dedicated service is appreciated by our people. Wish good luck to you and your families. Peace to all of us. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan Alhaji Ali Suraj, a businessman, politician and an indigene of the Zongo community has encouraged affluent persons with Zongo Roots to send help back home as several poor Zongo residents real under the pangs of the COVID 19 pandemic. Alhaji Ali Suraj demonstrated his leadership when he fully assumed the responsibility of feeding 100 households in the Asokore Mampong Municipality where he hails. Mr. Suraj was visibly seen sharing relief items to ease the sufferings occasioned by the partial lockdown in some Zongo communities in the Greater Accra, Greater Kumasi metropolis and the Asutifi South Constituency during the lockdown period. The relief items distributed included 1,000 bags of rice, 20,000 alcohol-based hand sanitizers, 100 pieces of Veronica buckets, 3,000 pieces of face masks and 2,000 2 liter bottles of cooking oil. In addition, he led a Chinese delegation to make a donation of food items to the office of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr. Osman Nuhu\ Sharubutu. Speaking to this reporter he averred that as a bona fide member of the Zongo community, I deem it appropriate to first off, assist my people in these difficult times before extending help to other sections of the country. Mr. Suraj stated. He also used the opportunity to commend the President for appointing many Zongo people to serve in his government and pleaded with the President to do even more in his next tenure of office which he is optimistic about. Alhaji Ali Suraj also lauded what he called business-friendly policies of the Nana Akufo Addo administration which he insists played a role in placing him in a position to give back to his people. This donation is made possible courtesy the good policies the President has initiated and implemented which has made the country business-friendly and thus rejuvenated the economy. The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating threats to press freedom around the world, with authoritarian states including China and Iran suppressing details of the outbreak, activists said on Tuesday. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual press freedom rankings the pandemic was "highlighting and amplifying the many crises" already casting a shadow on press freedom. The outbreak had encouraged some regimes to "take advantage of the fact people are stunned and mobilisation has weakened to impose measures that would be impossible to adopt in normal times", RSF secretary general Christophe Deloire told AFP. The rankings saw few major changes from last year, with Nordic countries regarded as the most free and isolated states Turkmenistan and North Korea footing the list of 180 countries. RSF accused China and Iran -- in 177th and 173rd place respectively -- of censoring major coronavirus outbreaks. Alluding to accusations that Beijing concealed the initial extent of the outbreak, it said China "maintains its system of information hyper-control, whose negative effects for the entire world have been seen during the coronavirus public health crisis". Europe has also not been immune -- Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has passed a special law on false information which was a "completely disproportionate and coercive measure". RSF said there was a "clear correlation" between suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic and a country's ranking in the index. While Norway topped the index for the fourth year in a row, Finland was again the runner-up. North Korea took last position from Turkmenistan, and Eritrea continued to be Africa's lowest-ranked country at number 178. The third biggest leap was by Sudan, which rose 16 places to 159th after the removal of president Omar al-Bashir. France lost two places to rank 32nd, with journalists in the country sometimes the victims of police violence at demonstrations, it said. Published annually by RSF since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index assesses factors such as media independence, self-censorship, the legal framework and transparency based on a questionnaire filled out by experts. Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been repeatedly criticised for cracking down on press freedom, rose three places to 154th but RSF said this was because of "other countries falling" rather than positive change. It said censorship of the media, especially online media, has been stepped up in Turkey and the country was "more authoritarian than ever." Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, in 149th place, is also persevering "efforts to control the Internet, using ever more elaborate methods", it said, citing a law that would allow the country to disconnect the Russian internet from the rest of the world. "The prospect of a Chinese-style scenario (in Russia) is alarming," RSF said. RSF said "the closure of the national internet" is already a reality in the isolated Central Asian state of Turkmenistan where the few internet users can access only a highly censored version of the Internet, often in cafes where they have to show ID before connecting. "Almost everywhere in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, strongmen are consolidating their grip on and information," RSF said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The site of a Hannibal's first great battle has been discovered by scientists. His army of 25,000 men and 40 war elephants defeated a 100,000-strong horde of Spanish tribesmen in a battle which cemented Hannibal's reputation as a warfare savant. The clash occurred on the banks of the Tagus river between Driebes and Illana in Guadalajara in 220BC, according to new research. Academics say the battle occurred close to a settlement of the Carparthian tribe near Caraca, in central Spain. Hannibal, the Carthaginian commander of folklore, is best known for marching 40 war elephants across the Alps on his blood-thirsty quest to defeat Rome. But two years before he famously traversed the mountain range during the Second Punic War, the military commander, aged just 27, was warring with Spanish tribes. His success in Iberia enhanced his standing in the military and allowed him to take command of the upcoming wars, culminating in the brazen march on the Roman Empire with his 40 elephants via the Alps. Earlier in 220BC he had successfully conquered Helmatica now Salamanca in the northwest of the country after defeating the Vettones tribe. Still bathing in the success of his victory, he was ambushed upon his return to his winter headquarters in Qart Hadasht, now modern-day Cartagena, in southeast Spain. It is the site of this particular skirmish that has been a hot topic among historians and archaeologists alike, with two centuries of bickering failing to discern its location. View of the Tagus River from the Caraca archeological site in Driebes, Guadalajara. This area was where Hannibal fought off 10,000 warring Spanish tribesmen, a study found The site of a famed battle between Hannibal and a 100,000-strong hoard of angry Spanish tribesmen has been discovered by archaeologists. It was discovered on the banks of the Tagus river between Driebes and Illana in Guadalajara province and is believed to be the site Hannibal's legacy would last millennia, and to this day he is regarded as one of the most brilliant strategic wartime commanders of all-time. Scholars say it was his ability to process the rapidly unfolding events and formulate an effective response that led to his crushing victory. The terrain had several key features which Hannibal used to his advantage. His forces were outnumbered approximately four to one and he knew an all-out melee would result in a bloodbath for his troops. Hannibal positioned his troops so the only way for them to be approached by the encroaching tribespeople was after crossing a ford in the river. This created a natural choke point as the 100,000 Spaniards were funnelled into small area in order to cross the Tagus river. This ensured his enemies, from the hostile local Carpetani, Vettone and Olcade tribes, could not attack in a mass wave, which may have overwhelmed the Carthaginians. After slowly making their way across the river via the fords, the natives were met by a waiting battalion of mounted troops, who butchered them in droves. As well as placing the cavalry at the fords, Hannibal also ordered the rapid construction of a palisade running parallel to the river. Here, the prized elephants and the infantry waited. The two defensive features meant the warring Spaniards had just two options to approach Hannibal's men risk crossing the river which could reach almost 6ft deep with strong currents, or cross at the fords and take on the waiting cavalry. Many of the locals, fighting to avenge the destruction of their cities and crops, perished after being swept away by the river. Those that did survive the treacherous crossing were slain almost instantly. Hannibal, the Carthaginian commander of folklore, is best known for marching 40 war elephants across the Alps on his blood-thirsty quest to defeat Rome. Two years before he traversed the Alps, the military commander, aged just 27, was warring with various Spaniards How Hannibal rose to become one of the best military tacticians of all-time and took 40 war elephants across the Alps Hannibal, the Carthaginian commander of folklore, is best known for marching 40 war elephants across the alps on his blood-thirsty quest to defeat Rome Hannibal, the Carthaginian commander of folklore, is best known for marching 40 war elephants across the alps on his blood-thirsty quest to defeat Rome. He was the son of Hamilcar Barca, a Carthaginian commander during the First Punic War (264241 BC). His brothers and brothers-in-law were all also commanders in the army. During his lifetime, there was great tension in Europe as Rome asserted it dominance over Italy and it surrounding nations. Hannibal was central in the war against this expanding empire. In 222BC Hannibal was fighting battles against Spanish tribes and the general, in his mid-20s at his point, was establishing himself as one of the finest strategic minds in the Carthaginian army. In 218BC, the Second Punic War broke out following Hannibal's attack on Saguntum, an ally of Rome. It was then that Hannibal marched his war elephants across the Alps, inscribing himself into legend. He occupied much of southern Italy for more than a decade, but the Romans were wary of his prowess and avoided direct confrontation when possible. A tumultuous post-war life led to his eventual betrayal to the Romans and he committed suicide by poison around the year 180BC. Hannibal's legacy would last millennia, and to this day is regarded as one of the most brilliant strategic wartime commanders of all-time. Advertisement A raised area nearby, called El Jardin hill, may also have been useful for Hannibal. This spot, to the southeast of the main battle, would have provided a vantage point to the commander from which he could orchestrate his manoeuvres It may also have been used to hide his escort and light cavalry, the researchers suggest. When the general saw his rivals floundering and the victory within reach, he counterattacked. Various sites for this battle have been suggested in the past, with most drawing on the accounts of Greek historian, Polybius and Roman author, Titus Livius. To track down the most likely location, the researchers from Caraca-Driebes Archaeological Team, the National Museum of Roman Art and the Spanish Geological Mining Institute (IGME) combined various sources of information. They assessed historical accounts and investigated geological data and archaeological studies to find the most logical route Hannibal would have taken back to Qart Hadasht and which sites best fitted this description. The authors of the study believe Hannibal was using an ancient route which connected Complutum, now Alcala de Henares in Madrid region, to Carthago Nova, now Cartagena in Murcia. The route crossed the Tagus River close to Driebes, not far from Carpentani fortified settlement of Caraca. 'The decision to attack Hannibal there was made by the Carpetani, as they knew the area well and it would also give them a leadership role within the coalition formed with the Vettones and Olcades,' explains Emilio Gamo, of the National Museum of Roman Art. The report, titled Historical, Archaeological and Geological Data for the location of the Battle of Hannibal on the Tagus (220 B.C.), also found that it is likely the fords seen on the bend of the river today are likely in the same location as they were at the time of the battle. Archaeological evidence reported in the study also speaks of silver and ceramics at the site which may belong to Hannibal's warriors. Federal and state governments made no collective decision to ban the sale of firearms and ammunition as part of the coronavirus pandemic response, despite the insistence of Labor-run states that their bans were based on national cabinet deliberations. Multiple Canberra sources with knowledge of national cabinet discussions have told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that no decision was made regarding firearms and the limited discussion that did take place on the topic was not led by the Prime Minister. The ban on sales has sparked a fierce reaction from the firearms industry, who feel they have been targeted. Credit:Jason South The sources said Victoria and Western Australia proactively raised the topic of firearms during a national cabinet discussion in late March, but it was simply to provide the Prime Minister with lists of retail activities they were proposing to shut down. Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville announced "a decision of national cabinet to put a temporary ban" on access to firearms during a press conference on March 31. Queensland officials also referred to national cabinet playing a central role. By Matthew Green LONDON (Reuters) - Indigenous elders from Alaska to Australia have come together to deliver some tough love in a new film for Earth Day: the human race will only survive if we start putting our minds at the service of our hearts. Produced by Academy and Emmy award-winner Jeffrey D. Brown, Wisdom Weavers of the World was shot in Hawaii where Ilarion "Kuuyux" Merculieff, an Alaskan Unangan leader, gathered a dozen other elders to hold councils and ceremonies in November 2017. "Mother Earth is crying for her human children," Merculieff says in the documentary, shot against a backdrop of volcanic slopes and surf on the island of Kaua'i. "She has lived for billions of years. She'll live for more. It's a question of whether or not we human beings are going to live." With Wednesday marking the 50th anniversary of Earth Day https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-50th-anniversary, a milestone in the emergence of the environmental movement, indigenous peoples are increasingly at the forefront of global struggles against habit destruction and climate change. The four-day gathering of elders concluded that such problems will only be solved through a fundamental shift in human consciousness, rather than a constant striving after purely political or technological fixes. "The world is looking in the wrong directions for answers," Merculieff told Reuters television by video call from Anchorage, speaking from a room decorated with traditional drums. "We have thousands more environmental organisations in existence today than we had 30 years ago and yet Mother Earth's life support systems are coming to the edge, and no one is asking why. The elders are saying that we must look inside, rather than outside, for the answers." Leaders who joined the gathering included Zhaparkul Raimbekov, a snow leopard shaman from Kyrgyzstan, Lorenzo Izquierdo, a Mamo spiritual priest from Colombia's Arhuacopeople, and Mona Ann Polacca, a Hopi-Havasupai-Tewa elder and founding member of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Story continues The 14-minute film can be seen for free from 1700 GMT (1 p.m. ET) on Wednesday through the Wisdom Weavers of the World https://www.wisdomweavers.world website and social media channels, with translations in 12 languages. Merculieff and other elders will be hosting a virtual gathering open to the public at 1730 GMT. "HERE FOR A REASON" The team behind the film see it as a starting point for an open-ended series of events and collaborations to inspire people to ask themselves how they could make a deeper contribution to the lives of their communities and the planet. "The film offers a gateway to ongoing connection with elders," said Violet Starkey, of the Wisdom Weavers core team. In the meantime, Merculieff hopes that people will use the pause enforced by the coronavirus pandemic to reflect on how they could help change the "dream" of the modern world. "It's not an easy job going from the mind to the heart and letting our heart be in charge of what we do. Because most people would think that was crazy. But indigenous people worldwide know that that's the way to go," he said. "We're placed on this Earth now for a reason," Merculieff added. "If we have the courage to listen to our hearts, we know that this gift that we carry will be broadcast and help in some way throughout the world." Kumu Sabra Kauka, a Hawaiian studies educator and tradition bearer, who appears in the documentary, told Reuters wildfires in California and Australia had been a wake-up call. "One of the things that we all shared was a deep love and respect for Mother Earth. And this is a story that has to be shared today because not everyone remembers it," Kauka said. Pausing for a moment to reflect, she summed up the message the film aims to convey: "Listen to your heart. Follow your path. May it be clear, and for the good of all." (Reporting by Matthew Green; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21 Trend: On 21 April 2020 the video-conference between the Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia was held with participation of OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs and the personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Trend reports citing the MFA. The consultations between the sides lasted more than one hour and a half. During the meeting, the sides discussed the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the region and recent developments on the ground. The sides considered next steps in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process in line with the joint statement adopted in Geneva on 30 January, 2020. It was noted that, because of the extraordinary situation resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, the implementation of previously agreed humanitarian measures, as well as the Ministerial meetings and the visits of the Co-Chairs to the region have been postponed. Nevertheless, it was underlined that the necessary work to prepare these activities continues. The importance of observing the ceasefire strictly and refraining from provocative actions in the current environment was emphasized. The position of Azerbaijan on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unchanged. It is based on the norms and principles of international law, as enshrined in the UN Charter and OSCE Helsinki Final Act and the implementation of the related UN Security Council resolutions. The sides agreed to remain in contact and continue negotiations as soon as possible. Azerbaijan is insisting that substantive talks must be intensified as there is no way to move out from the situation which region is facing now. The OSCE Co-Chairs are considering the opportunities to move forward the peace process without military consequences. Google was carrying a serious vulnerability for which it has released the much-awaited Chrome update v81.0.4044.113. In a blog post, Google also divulged that there existed an exploit identified as CVE-2020-6457, while adding a vague description: Use after free in speech recognizer. However, the tech giant has not revealed anything else on the aforementioned vulnerability, but after security specialists have dug into the details, they found that the exploit has been marked 'Reserved' by the National Vulnerability Database of the United States. This suggests that the exploit in question may be a zero-day vulnerability. While Chrome 81.0.4044.113 is being rolled out for Windows, Mac and Linux based systems automatically, you can check your version by yourself too. To do so, click on the three dots at the right top corner of the browser window. Then, click on Help -- About Chrome Browser. This reveals the present version, following which users can manually check for updates. As for the flaw itself, cyber security experts suspect that the issue at hand is a zero-day hack because of the way Google is disclosing the issue. For such threats, if a hacker gets to know about the vulnerability code, they can easily tap into the source code, unearth the flaw and use it to breach a wide variety of data through the Chrome browser. Web browsers, as we have come to know, store a vast trove of personal data, which makes the situation more serious. Alongside a new tab organisation feature that the update is bringing, it is imperative that users look out for this update keenly, and push the update to their systems promptly. Going forward, it remains to be seen if a future disclosure would reveal exactly what this threat may have brought with itself, and how this may have affected us had it not been for Google's apparently timely update. The coronavirus death toll in the U.S. passed 40,000 late Sunday, according to NBC News' tally, and there are nearly 760,000 confirmed cases as of Monday evening. While some governors pushed back on the Trump administration's claims that states are conducting a "sufficient" level of coronavirus testing, other governors were eager to reopen businesses in their states regardless of testing levels. Gov. Brian Kemp announced plans to resume many businesses in Georgia this Friday, April 24, and Gov. Bill Lee said a "vast majority" of businesses in Tennessee would reopen by the end of next week. Meanwhile, the federal agency that oversees nursing homes announced new transparency measures requiring the disclosure of coronavirus cases to patients' families and public health officials. Here's what to know about the coronavirus, plus a timeline of the most critical moments: This live coverage has ended. Continue reading April 21 coronavirus news. Download the NBC News app for latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak. Analysts expect no further market crash ahead By Lee Min-hyung The local stock market will remain highly volatile for a while due to virus-induced economic uncertainties despite its solid gains over the past few weeks, experts said Tuesday. They said the benchmark stock index would not suffer from any surprise drops like it did a month ago, but volatility will remain in place due to lingering fears over the global pandemic. The KOSPI closed at 1,879.38, down 1 percent from Tuesday on foreigners' net selling of 529.5 billion won. But they remained optimistic over the KOSPI's near-term outlook, buoyed by foreign investors' recent buying of Korean stocks. On Friday, foreign investors ended their 31-day-long binge selling of Korean shares, helping the benchmark stock index top the 1,900-mark in about a month. This was because a strong set of market stimulus and stabilization packages driven by the U.S. and Korean governments is on track to clear away a sense of virus-driven uncertainties here, they said. Investors are paying attention to whether the recent KOSPI rebound will last in a stable manner for more days to come, as the coronavirus panic still paralyzes economic activities in the West such as the U.S. and Europe where economic turmoil has yet to reach its peak. Market watchers here said foreign investors would not return to the weeks-long mass selling of Korean stocks, as market stabilization measures here and abroad started to take effect thus relieving the sense of crisis among investors. "The foreign selling spree looks to subside, as financial stabilization measures driven particularly by the U.S. has helped enhance investors' confidence that the financial market will never collapse," Meritz Securities economist Kang Bong-joo said. The preemptive pump-priming measures by authorities across the globe are positive in that agile introduction of such packages could shake off investors' uneasy sense that the COVID-19 panic will become a repeat of the 2008 global financial crisis, according to Kang. In March, the main bourse dropped below the 1,500-mark for the first time in a decade amid escalating fears of the global pandemic. But the benchmark stock index has since recovered to around the 1,900-range as of Monday, weeks after financial authorities in the U.S. and Korea started taking unprecedentedly strong market stabilization measures. The economist said chances are getting slimmer that the main bourse will experience such a big drop in the foreseeable future. "Even if we cannot say for sure that the collapse will never recur, such a fear has been abated drastically," Kang said. "It is unlikely that the KOSPI will plummet to as low as the 1,500-range," he said. "But the stock market can drop to around the 1,700-1,800 mark after experiencing adjustments." Korea Capital Market Institute economist Hwang Sei-woon concurred that the foreign-based selling spree is on track to shrink. "It is too early to say that foreign investors returned to the stable buying side, as Western countries are still grappling with the coronavirus shock," he said. "But they will not start up with another wild selling spree like they did for the past month." Hwang attributed the KOSPI's stable recovery to the power of individual investors. "In most cases, when foreign investors engage in binge selling, the benchmark index dropped," he said. "But despite the recent selling spree from foreigners, the KOSPI has gone on a slow yet steady rally in recent weeks. Individual investors, more commonly called 'ant investors' here, have de facto driven the recent upward spiral of the index." According to the Korea Exchange, individual investors' net purchase of Samsung Electronics shares topped 7 trillion won for about two months between Feb. 18 and April 17, which experts said served as one of the key drivers for the KOSPI recovery. "But individual investors cannot help the stock market grow further to over the 1,900-mark," Hwang said. It is crucial that foreign investors back up the buying spree of individual investors for the KOSPI's further rally, he said. Exchange rate Despite the recent stabilization in the stock market, the local currency has yet to recover its value against the U.S. dollar. The won-dollar exchange rate surged to over 1,290 won per dollar last month when the virus shock reached its peak here. But with the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus declining in recent weeks, the won started to recover its value slowly. Starting from April, the local currency was traded at around the 1,210 won to 1,220 won per dollar. "My view is that the current exchange rate is not a worrying level," Kang said. "The slow decline in the won-dollar exchange rate, compared with the recent stock surge, means that people still have a sense of concern over the pandemic fear." As the virus shock has not fully been stabilized, chances appear slim for the exchange rate to reach the 1,100 won range in the near future, the economist said. On Tuesday, the won-dollar exchange rate closed at 1,229.7 won, up 9.2 won from a day earlier. Jaipur, April 21 : A total of 180 persons evacuated from Iran left for Srinagar from Jaisalmer by Indian Air Force aircraft on Tuesday afternoon. In order to protect Indian citizens from the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 1,036 Indian citizens post testing for Covid-19 in Iran, were evacuated in five batches to India. Three batches were brought to Jaisalmer and two to Jodhpur. Upon arrival, they were quarantined for 14 days as per ICMR protocol at the Army Wellness Facilities at Jaisalmer and Jodhpur which were created by vacating living barracks of the troops. Official sources said that around Kashmiri students among others brought from Iran to the army's wellness centre in Jaisalmer were wanting to go home after finishing their 14-day quarantine period. They were repeatedly going on hunger strikes, writing letters and taking to social media to go back home. While the Jaisalmer district administration made preparations to send them by road to Kashmir, but the administration back home refused. Finally, after the intervention of higher authorities, a total of 150 people were flown from Jaisalmer to Srinagar in a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force on Tuesday afternoon, said Col Sombit Ghosh, PRO, Defence, Rajasthan. Mahindra Logistics has launched an initiative that has a provision for providing Rs 3,000 each to drivers impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown New Delhi: Mahindra Logistics has launched an initiative that has a provision for providing Rs 3,000 each to drivers impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown. The initiative named HOPE (Helping Our People during Emergencies), aims to support drivers financially to aid the battle against the COVID-19 lockdown. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak The nationwide lockdown has impacted a large number of drivers, whether they are drivers ferrying goods between states, or those who drive taxis and for ride-sharing companies. These drivers are mostly stranded and are struggling to make ends meet. The company has partnered with Samhita Social Ventures - a social enterprise and SuperMoney - a financial lending tech platform to reach out to the beneficiaries within the ecosystem. Click here to follow LIVE news and updates on stock markets This move will create an ecosystem to channelise CSR funds of other companies to provide economic support and recovery to workers, the company said in a statement. "As a part of the initiative, Mahindra Logistics will be providing immediate relief by transferring Rs 3,000 to each driver's bank account, to buy essential commodities. This will be followed by other support provided to these drivers like health insurance cover, leveraging government schemes and loan guaranteeing model," the statement said. In addition to this, Mahindra Logistics would strengthen healthcare professionals' abilities to respond and provide support to affected families using digital channels, it added. "With over 30 percent of commercial vehicles stranded on roads across the country, drivers need urgent support. Truck drivers and their families are in immediate need of cash for food and other basic facilities," Mahindra Logistics MD & CEO Rampraveen Swaminathan said. Swaminathan further said "we have launched several programs to support the driver community along with our business partners. Through this initiative, of short term financial relief and hope we aim to help these drivers and their families until the situation in the country is restored," Swaminathan said. Samhita Social Ventures Founder and CEO Priya Naik said: "Through our India Workers' Alliance, we are delighted to partner with Mahindra Logistics, to support India's blue-collar and gig economy workers whose lives and livelihoods have been severely impacted. Our single objective is to help them survive this crisis and enable them to get back on their feet." In addition to this, Mahindra Logistics also announced that its enterprise mobility business, Alyte will provide emergency cab services for those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This free service has begun in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai, with more cities being added every day. US Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink Vietnam has stayed in control of the crisis, with no new infection over the last five days. In your opinion, what has helped Vietnam gain such achievements? COVID-19 is having an enormous impact on the health of millions of people, on economies, and on societies everywhere. Vietnam has done an exemplary job of adopting substantial measures to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 within its borders. The first measure I would like to mention is that Vietnam has adopted a whole-of-government approach by mobilising resources from all sectors. Besides, Vietnam has also been drawing the technical input of international partners, like the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Additionally, I am also impressed with your country's developing evidenced-based guidelines and training healthcare and laboratory professionals to implement these guidelines down to the local level. Another measure we must mention is that Vietnam has been proactively identifying cases and their contacts and monitoring them for additional signs of disease, as well as communicating proactively by providing information through a public website and text messages. The United States has actively supported Vietnam in the field of health, especially in the COVID -19 pandemic. Could you tell more about the US government's support to Vietnam? As a leader in the global health and humanitarian response to COVID-19, since the outbreak began, the US government has provided approximately $18.3 million in emergency health and humanitarian assistance to ASEAN member states. Globally, as of March 26, 2020, the United States has provided an initial investment of nearly $274 million in emergency health and humanitarian assistance to help countries in need. This includes nearly $100 million in emergency health assistance from USAIDs Global Health Emergency Reserve Fund and $110 million in humanitarian assistance from USAIDs International Disaster Assistance account. In Vietnam, over the past 20 years, the United States has invested more than $706 million in health assistance and more than $1.8 billion in total assistance for the country. Building on its long history of collaboration in Vietnam to prevent, detect, and respond to emerging infectious disease threats, USAID will provide nearly $4.5 million for COVID-19 response to the Ministry of Health through its partners including the WHO, UNICEF, Health Advancement in Vietnam/IMPACT MED, Save the Children, and a consortium whose local implementers include PATH and FHI360. USAID partners will support the training of healthcare workers to respond to COVID-19, procurement of supplies for COVID-19 surveillance, and case management; public health screening at points of entry; improved laboratory diagnostic capacity; community education and engagement; and infection prevention in healthcare settings. What about technical collaboration? How has the US government been working with the Vietnamese government on COVID-19? Also, what are your plans going forward? US government support focuses not only on financial assistance, but also on technical assistance and collaboration. Reflecting the 20-year collaboration between the US CDC and the Vietnamese Ministry of Health (MoH), the strong technical staffs of both organisations work closely to monitor and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through its staff and public health programmes, US CDC provides direct technical assistance for surveillance, data analysis, laboratory testing, field investigations, and infection prevention and control. US CDC supports the development of national guidelines for surveillance, quarantine, laboratory testing, and infection prevention and control, and has supported training on sample collection and laboratory testing of COVID-19 for 28 provincial CDCs, 30 hospitals, and nine animal health laboratories, in collaboration with the WHO, the Vietnam Administration of Medical Services, the Department of Animal Health, and Vietnams regional public health institutes. As we have seen from COVID-19, new threats to public health quickly cross borders and oceans. Similarly, our public health efforts must be prepared to respond across borders. US CDC is in the process of establishing multiple regional platforms across the globe. And Hanoi, Vietnam, has been selected as the location for US CDCs regional hub for the ASEAN region. The hubs will concentrate on activities that have a regional focus and that build capacities in surveillance and data use, laboratory, workforce development, emergency preparedness, and outbreak response. This approach will strengthen US CDCs ability to meet its mission by responding more rapidly, efficiently, and effectively to health threats wherever they occur. As we look to the future, we hope to continue our partnership with the Government of Vietnam through US CDC, USAID, and other agencies, in collaboration with other partners. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 04:18:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Workers disinfect a bus in Damascus, capital of Syria, on April 21, 2020, as part of a precaution against the spread of COVID-19 epidemic. Three new COVID-19 infections were recorded in Syria on Tuesday, the Syrian health ministry said in a statement. With the new addition, a total of 42 infections have been reported in Syria, with six recoveries and three deaths, according to the statement. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua) DAMASCUS, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Three new COVID-19 infections were recorded in Syria on Tuesday, the Syrian health ministry said in a statement. With the new addition, a total of 42 infections have been reported in Syria, with six recoveries and three deaths, according to the statement. Earlier in the day, health minister Nizar Yazigi said all the coronavirus infections are in the capital Damascus and its countryside. Yazigi said that many cases were reported in Sayyidah Zaynab area and Mneen village in the countryside of Damascus. Both areas are under full lockdown as the entry or exit of the two areas are prohibited. The minister said 3,850 tests had been done in Sayyidah Zaynab as well as 850 in Mneen. The Syrian government has undertaken several measures to counter the spread of the COVID-19 such as imposing a partial curfew, suspending schools and universities and shutting down non-essential businesses. The governments premier medical research organisation on Tuesday advised states not to use rapid test kits for the coronavirus, saying it will issue an advisory after field validations. "We have received complaint from a state yesterday and so far discussed with three states. Too much variations have been reported in results of rapid test kits and RT-PCR kits, said Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) These kits will be tested and validated in the field by our teams. 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 Tennessee Craft, in partnership with the Tennessee Arts Commission, announces the Master Artist/Apprentice Program pairings for 2020. Pamela Bullard, resident of Chattanooga, will be mentored by Carrie Anne Parks in clay. The mission of the MAAP is to encourage and invest in the continuation, advancement, and creation of Tennessee craft by recognizing the value of the master craft artist and apprentice relationship as a way to preserve the states cultural heritage. "The Master Artist/Apprentice Program provides a wonderful professional opportunity on an annual basis for three emerging artists to refine their work under the concentrated guidance of seasoned professional artists," says Tennessee Craft Executive Director Jennifer Justice. It is exciting to see the beautiful growth and relationships that evolve from artists working closely together. Every year new professional artists and apprentices are selected in diverse media. The program culminates in a vibrant exhibition at the Commissions gallery. Meet the Artists: The 2020 apprentices selected are WOOD: William "Bill" Bleau (Arlington), mentored by Master Rick Cannon (Memphis); CLAY: Pamela Bullard (Chattanooga), mentored by Carrie Anne Parks (Chattanooga); and FIBER/TEXTILE: Mirrah Johnson (Silver Point), mentored by Master Rena Wood (Smithville/Cookeville). Bios of all the master artists can be read at https://tennesseecraft.org/programs/maap/ Chattanooga-area clay artist Pamela Bullard has been chosen to work with master clay artist Carrie Anne Parks. Ms. Bullard said she is excited about advancing the narrative elements of her work. I wish to develop sculptural forms to integrate within wheel thrown vessels in hopes of creating a framework to develop more sophisticated oxide and underglaze techniques. By continuing to develop wheel thrown and carving techniques, I hope to create more advanced vessels to explore the nuance that can be achieved with layered underglaze application. The partnership between Tennessee Craft and the Tennessee Arts Commission provides Tennessee artists with relevant and alternative educational experiences, promotes and facilitates fine craft as a viable career path for Tennessee artists, fosters deliberate mentoring, and creates professional development opportunities for emerging Tennessee craft artists, said officials. Donald Trump announced Monday that he plans to ban immigration into the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic. The president tweeted: 'In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!' At least 22 million Americans are now out of work as tough measures to control the coronavirus outbreak wiped out 13.5 percent of the workforce and 10 years of job growth. In an address to the nation last month Trump announced a drastic ban on foreigners traveling to the United States from Europe. He had already banned travel from China as the COVID-19 outbreak was spreading from the city of Wuhan. Exact details of this latest order were not immediately clear but migrant farm workers and medics are thought to be exempt, The Wall Street Journal reports. It was also pointed out on Twitter that the U.S.-Canada border is already closed, most visa applications are on hold and the administration essentially shut down the nation's asylum system last month. The White House has not commented on Trump's latest tweet but the order is likely to face legal challenges. Trump's tweet came as the U.S. death toll from the virus topped 42, 000. The United States has by far the world's largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 779,000 infections, up 20,000 on Monday. Donald Trump announced Monday he will be banning immigration into the United States The president tweeted Monday evening announcing his immigration plans A general view from the looking south to the El Chaparral Port of Entry to Mexico March 21. The president tweeted Monday: 'In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!' NBC News White House Correspondent Geoff Bennett tweeted: 'Immigration was already functionally shut down. The WH had closed the U.S.-Canada border and started deporting asylum-seekers without due process. 'International air travel has largely been suspended. Formalizing it serves as a simple way for Trump to rile up his base.' Buzzfeed reporter Hamed Aleaziz added: 'Note also that the State Department had already suspended routine visa services at all US embassies and consulates.' Texas congressman Joaquin Castro called Trump's announcement 'an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis'. He tweeted: 'This action is not only an attempt to divert attention away from Trump's failure to stop the spread of the coronavirus and save lives, but an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis and advance his anti-immigrant agenda. 'We must come together to reject his division. The president has taken credit for his restrictions on travel to the U.S. from China and hard-hit European countries, arguing it contributed to slowing the spread of the virus in the U.S. During his Monday briefing Trump talked about his supporters and then pointed to his initial action on the coronavirus, a late-January travel ban from China, which excluded American citizens. 'And yet in January, a certain date - you know the date better than I do - we put on a ban of China, where China can't come in and before March we put on a ban of Europe, where Europe can't come in,' Trump said. Sources told The New York Times the formal order banning new green cards and work visas could be implemented in days, shutting down legal immigration. Trump's tweet came hours after the price of U.S. oil traded below $0 for the first time ever. And there were 5.2 million new claims for unemployment benefits filed last week, according to the latest Labor Department figures released on Thursday. The staggering number of first-time claims was on top of the 16.8 million applications filed since the virus took hold in mid-March. Economists say the unemployment rate could reach as high as 20 percent in April, which would be the highest rate since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While accurate records didn't begin until 1948, economists say the unemployment rate rose to 25 percent in 1933. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on the U.S. side tell people on the Mexican side to stand back at the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico on March 31. In an address to the nation last month Trump announced a drastic ban on foreigners traveling to the United States from Europe. He had already banned travel from China John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) stands mostly empty due to the ongoing cutbacks in travel because of the coronavirus on April 16. The White House had already closed the U.S.-Canada border and the administration essentially shut down the nation's asylum system last month Trump's administration is currently relying on a seldom-used public health law to set aside decades-old national and international immigration laws. People seeking refuge in the U.S. are whisked to the nearest border crossing and returned to Mexico without a chance to apply for asylum. It may be the most aggressive clampdown on immigration by a president who's made reducing asylum claims a top priority. The administration tapped a law allowing the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ban foreigners if their entry would create 'a serious danger' to the spread of communicable disease. Due to the pandemic, almost all visa processing by the State Department, including immigrant visas, has been suspended for weeks. Trump has made restricting immigration a central goal of his administration. At least 22 million Americans are now out of work as tough measures to control the coronavirus outbreak wiped out 13.5 percent of the workforce and 10 years of job growth Trump's attempt to stop immigration comes amid anti-lockdown protests across the United States. Armed demonstrators waving Trump 2020 flags and ignoring social distancing rules called for America to reopen immediately on Monday. Crowds gathered close to one another in North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California, calling for their 'liberty'. Armed militia groups protested alongside young families and Americans out of work, all calling for businesses to be reopened. Some states mostly Republican-led ones have relaxed restrictions, and on Monday announced that they would take further steps to reopen their economies. In a dispute that has turned political, the president has been agitating to restart the economy, singling out Democratic-led states and egging on protesters who feel governors are moving too slowly. 'I'm going to win in a LANDSLIDE!' Donald Trump claims his coronavirus response will win him the election saying 'people love Trump' President Trump said Monday he was likely to win re-election by a 'landslide,' while complaining that the poll numbers for his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic should be higher. 'A lot of people love Trump right? A lot of people love me. You see them all the time. I guess I'm here for a reason, you know. To the best of my knowledge I won. And I think we're going to win again, I think we're going to win in a landslide,' Trump said. The president had been asked by PBS Newshour's Yamiche Alcindor if by downplaying the virus - for example, not wearing a mask - he got some people sick. Alcindor spoke of an interview she had conducted with a person who said his family got sick 'because they listened to you' and didn't take enough precautions. Instead of answering the question head-on, Trump talked about his supporters and then pointed to his initial action on the coronavirus, a late-January travel ban from China, which excluded American citizens. 'And yet in January, a certain date - you know the date better than I do - we put on a ban of China, where China can't come in and before March we put on a ban of Europe, where Europe can't come in,' Trump said. Trump continued to hold campaign rallies through February and into early March. The president continued to point to his travel bans with China and Europe as proof that he did enough In February and March the president made a number of questionable statements about the spreading coronavirus and also continued actively campaigning through early March. When Alcindor pointed out that the president was still holding campaign rallies - such as a March 2 rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, he wouldn't admit that was the case. 'I really don't know about rallies. I really don't know about rallies,' he said when she insisted he was still campaigning in March. 'I know one thing I haven't left the White House in months,' he said, adding that the one time he did leave the White House was for a trip to Norfolk, Virginia on March 28 to bid adieu to the USNS Comfort - the hospital ship heading to New York. President Trump said Monday that he believed he would win re-election 'in a landslide' after a reporter asked him if initially downplaying the coronavirus threat got some Americans sick At another point in the briefing, Trump complained that poll numbers for his team's coronavirus response weren't higher. 'Look, I don't understand, when I see, uh, polling and approval ratings for the job,' he said. 'This group should get a 95, it really should. And we're really helping the governors a lot.' The Real Clear Politics polling average says that 47 per cent approve of the president's handling of the coronavirus crisis with a slightly higher amount - 50.7 - disapproving of his actions. The president suggested one problem was that 'the media foments a lot of anger.' 'For instance, I'll be asked a tremendously hostile question from somebody and then I'll answer it in a hostile way, which is appropriate otherwise you look foolish,' the president explained. 'Other it looks like you walk off the stage and bow your head.' 'I can't do that,' he said. Senator Dino Melaye, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the November 16, 2019, Kogi-West senatorial election, has ... Senator Dino Melaye, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the November 16, 2019, Kogi-West senatorial election, has told the Kogi State National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal that he made himself available at all the 564 polling units on the election day. The former lawmaker said this before the Election Tribunal led by Justice Isa Sambo on Monday. Malaye is challenging the result of the election that was won by the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, Smart Adeyemi. Some of Melayes polling agents who were also witnesses at the tribunal had earlier testified against him before the tribunal saying the election was free, fair and violent-free. When Adeyemis lawyer, Dr. Oladapo Otitoju, asked Melaye if he was aware of the testimonies his agents had given before the tribunal, the ex-lawmaker said his agents cannot speak for him just as he cannot also speak for them. Further asked where he got the information about irregularities in the election, he said: I was everywhere on the election day in the 564 units. When the lawyer demanded to know which polling unit Melaye voted and what was the result of the election, he told the tribunal that he could no longer remember, adding that he was not aware that the result was recorded in his polling unit. He was later provided with the form EC8-D1 containing the result of the polling unit and was asked to read it but he claimed he could not see it clearly because his glasses got broken when the tribunal went on a short break. After other arguments the tribunal adjourned further sitting in the petition to April 21, 2019. At the last adjourned date, a witness, Ibrahim Jimoh, Ijumu Ward Collation agent, said he was not at the venue of the declaration of result after votes were counted. He said he relied on the report of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, after the election. But according to electoral laws, party agents must be available when results are counted before it is declared. Jimoh told the tribunal sitting at the Federal High Court in Abuja that he was not available when results were counted but relied on an INEC report. When asked by Adeyemis lawyer, Otitoju, if the ballot papers were counted in his presence, he said no, adding that he relied on INEC report and what other agents told him. According to him, the election went on peacefully without violence. When asked how he got the result, he said: I was not there. I was not on ground. Yes, It was the second agent that came to tell me the figure. Another witness, Ademola Samuel, a farmer, after adopting his statement on oath as evidence before the tribunal also said the election was without violence. According to him, he examined the results after the election, but when asked to shed more light on his analysis of the examination of the results, he said he acted on what he was told. A city staff member had to ask new Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady to leave a closed public park where he was working out in Tampa, Fla., according to the city's mayor. "A lot of our parks staff, they patrol around just to make sure people aren't in there with contact sports and things," mayor Jane Castor said in a virtual news conference on Monday. "(A worker) saw an individual working out in one of our downtown parks. She went over to tell him that it was closed, and it was Tom Brady. "So, there you go. He has been sighted." The city of Tampa later clarified in a tweet that Brady had been "sighted," not "cited." The city's parks remain closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic. "We are excited to welcome Tom & everyone back to all of our parks once we have punted COVID-19 downfield!" the account wrote. Brady joined the Buccaneers as a free agent this offseason after spending the last 20 years with the New England Patriots. He has been living in Derek Jeter's 30,000-square-foot waterfront mansion in Tampa. --Field Level Media FILE PHOTO: A pump jack operates in front of a drilling rig at sunset in an oil field in Texas By Jennifer Hiller HOUSTON (Reuters) - The day after U.S. crude prices crashed into negative territory for the first time, two of three Texas oil and gas regulators on Tuesday delayed a controversial vote to force producers to curtail oil output, predicting the move would land the state in a years-long legal battle. Oil and gas companies have been gushing red ink and cutting tens of thousands of workers as prices tumble, prompting regulators in the largest U.S. oil-producing state to wade into global oil politics and consider some producers' calls for cuts. On Monday, the May futures contract for U.S. crude closed at a negative $37.63 a barrel as traders desperate to avoid owning oil paid others to take it. On Tuesday, the contract rebounded from negative territory and expired with a settlement price of $10.01, up $47.64. Two of the three commissioners of the Texas Railroad Commission, Chairman Wayne Christian and Christi Craddick, said they want the state attorney general to weigh in on the legality of production curbs. The move promises to extend a heated battle in Texas over whether regulators should curb output for the first time in nearly five decades, with commissioners set to discuss the issue again at a May 5 meeting. Commissioner Ryan Sitton said he would cut output by 1 million barrels per day, or 20%. "Taking weeks or even days right now to act is in itself a choice," Sitton said. The delay was disappointing, said Matt Gallagher, chief executive at Parsley Energy Inc , who with Pioneer Natural Resources Co , asked regulators for output curbs. "The situation is urgent and further delays will cripple our state and the industry," Gallagher said. But the state could become tangled in years of legal battles over curtailments, said Craddick, an attorney. I still have some questions I believe need to be answered, she said at a meeting. How can Texas regulate output? For an explainer, click here: https://tinyurl.com/y8o23sdf Story continues No commissioners were willing to have Texas alone curb output. Christian spoke this week with the Canadian oil minister and officials in North Dakota, he said. Oklahoma energy regulators are considering a proposal to curb output and in North Dakota, where about 20% of production has shut in already, regulators on Tuesday agreed to evaluate providing aid to producers that would allow them to restart shut-in wells in the future. "It would be much more powerful to move in conjunction with other states," Christian said. While the federal government has little power to influence oil production, state regulators have powers that can include limiting output in their state. Last week, the Texas commissioners held a 10-hour hearing on the idea, igniting a battle between those favoring free markets and others who worry that without intervention, small producers could get shut out of oil sales as storage fills next month. Some firms have already started closing wells. Commissioners, though, should "focus on recovery not on creating a cartel," said Todd Staples, head of the Texas Oil & Gas Association, an influential industry group. Some of the states largest producers, Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp have opposed production limits. Texas regulators set oil output limits starting with a price crash in the 1930s, but lifted them in the early 1970s when Texas production went into a long decline. (Refiles to fix link to story in paragraph 10) (Reporting by Jennifer Hiller in Houston; editing by Marguerita Choy, Matthew Lewis and Richard Pullin) New Delhi, April 21 : Just hours after the Delhi University came up with an online portal for filing examination forms for the sixth semester, frequent crashing down of the site and heavy traffic on the portal have left the students concerned. The students even appealed to the university administration to withdraw the online submission module. The DU administration, however, has assured the students that it would work on their concerns, but maintained that online submission of forms was the only way out given the present circumstances. According to the order issued on DU's website on Tuesday, all students of the varsity have to fill the examination forms by May 15 in order to appear for the examinations. The university has instructed the students to pay examination fees through their college portals or physically at the college after the lockdown is lifted. However, within hours, the portal crashed multiple times, leaving the students in a fix. "I tried to fill my form multiple times, but on several occasions the site did not load, or the portal crashed after a few steps," said Lakshmi, a student of Rajdhani College. Meanwhile, the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) claimed that the portal was unnecessary and has been designed without taking factors like lack of internet connectivity or hardware specifications for students from areas like Jammu and Kashmir or from economically weaker sections into account. "You have not taken into consideration the lack of internet connectivity of students from Jammu and Kashmir. Do you want them to not register for exams," questioned NSUI national media in-charge Lokesh Chugh. Chugh added that the varsity must chalk out a better plan for holding examinations and give up the idea of online tests. However, the university administration maintained that no students will be left to suffer and those who are unable to submit forms online will be given other alternatives to do the same. "We won't let the students suffer. The last date of submission of forms is May 15, but if needed we will extend it further. Also, students will be allowed to submit forms physically once the lockdown is lifted," Vinay Gupta, Dean of Examination, DU, told IANS. He added that the crashing of the portal was reported to the varsity and the administration has decided to increase the speed of the server to accommodate heavy traffic on the portal. We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us here Here are some of the top headlines today. Singapore had a model coronavirus response, then cases spiked. What happened? Less than a month ago, Singapore was being hailed as one of the countries that had got its coronavirus response right. Japan is offering sex workers financial aid to survive the pandemic Mika is worried. As a sex worker in Japan, she used to see three or four clients a day then the coronavirus pandemic hit. Now, shes out of clients and out of money. Coronavirus pandemic: Updates from around the world CNN By Julia Hollingsworth and Adam Renton, CNN Updated 2:12 a.m. ET, April 20, 2020 A total of 1,553 new Covid-19 cases have been reported in India in the past 24 hours the countrys largest single-day spike during the epidemic, according to a CNN count. Another 36 deaths were also reported. 100,000 gather for funeral in Bangladesh, defying lockdown and sparking outbreak fears More than 100,000 people defied Bangladeshs lockdown order on Saturday to attend the funeral of a senior leader of the Islamist party in the district of Brahmanbaria, authorities said. 60 million Europeans could suffer furloughs, layoffs or wage cuts Nearly 60 million jobs across the European Union and the United Kingdom are at risk from the coronavirus pandemic, according to McKinsey. The world is scrambling to buy ventilators in the Covid-19 pandemic. One country has only four of them for 12 million people Covid-19 cases have topped 2.2 million globally and countries around the world are scrambling to buy life-saving equipment as the pandemic places unprecedented demand on hospitals. Can you get re-infected with coronavirus? In South Korea, health officials are trying to solve a mystery: why 163 people who recovered from coronavirus have retested positive, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). A sports junkie adjusts to life without any sport Unless youre Jared Leto living in isolation in the desert, youve probably been impacted by the spread of coronavirus (only teasing, Jared! Youre good!) Coronavirus updates: Germany eases restrictions on shops BBC News Singapore has confirmed 1,426 new Covid-19 cases its biggest daily jump yet. With just over 8,000 cases, the country has the most number of infections in Southeast Asia, surpassing figures in Indonesia and the Philippines. Officials said that the majority of the new cases were foreign workers while 16 of the new cases are Singaporeans or those with permanent residency. Gunman dressed as policeman arrested in Canada A gunman believed to be dressed as a police officer has been captured after shooting several people in Nova Scotia, Canadian police say. Police have not confirmed the number of injuries or whether anyone has died. Residents in the rural town of Portapique had been advised to lock themselves indoors or shelter in basements while the man was at large. The last cruise ship on Earth finally comes home The three last cruise ships still sailing with passengers will dock today and one has had quite the odyssey. The MSC Magnifica left Europe in January, and was in the other corner of the world when ports began to close. With nowhere to go, the Swiss-owned ship started the long journey home. Coronavirus lockdown: A superb gesture Roma players volunteer to forgo four months salary Roma chief executive Guido Fienga has praised his players superb gesture after they volunteered to forgo four months salary to help the club during the coronavirus pandemic. The players, manager Paulo Fonseca and his staff will also pay the difference to ensure all club staff placed on furlough receive their full salary. The healthiest countries to live in The fight at the frontlines of Covid-19 is being waged in clinics and hospitals around the world. But the success of that fight has, in large part, depended on the effectiveness of the healthcare systems in each country. Facebook to launch gaming app as amateur-friendly Twitch competitor Facebook is getting serious about gaming. On Sunday, The New York Times reported the social networking service would launch Facebook Gaming a new mobile app dedicated to livestreaming video game content via the Google Play store on April 20. (Yes, tomorrow.) Surprise! New, cheaper AirPods could be ready to launch next month AirPod lovers could be in for a nice surprise. On Sunday, tech rumormonger Jon Prosser, known for his impressively accurate Apple forecasts and YouTube channel Front Page Tech, reported that a new generation of AirPods are ready to launch possibly as early as next month. Amazon scans warehouse workers for fevers using thermal cameras Amazon is changing how it identifies sick warehouse workers. The Jeff Bezos-owned e-commerce giant installed thermal cameras in a handful of its shipping facilities, Reuters reported. Half a dozen warehouses around Los Angeles and Seattle have been equipped with the technology, intended to streamline the process of figuring out who has a fever. Teracube review: A sustainable phone youre not supposed to replace in 2 years Your iPhone may be a great piece of tech, but its terrible for the environment. Thats why Teracube made a phone you dont need to get rid of in two years. Teracubes first phone may not wow you with its raw specs, but a $350 price tag and a seriously generous warranty might raise some eyebrows. Most affordable Porsche Taycan hits U.S., is still way more expensive than a Tesla The budget version of Porsches first all-electric vehicle is now available to buy in the U.S. But dont get too giddy about the price. The Taycan 4S still starts at more than $103,000. Porsches Taycan 4S is an alternative to the $185,000 top-of-the-line Turbo S and $150,000 Turbo, both of which became available in the U.S. It has been a tumultuous year in education due to the COVID-19 virus. Colleges have sent students home and switched to online learning while K-12 institutions have done the same. This will likely lead to a shakeup in the world of education and possibly parents questioning what, exactly, they are paying for. Current seniors in high school and their parents should consider the quality of education they desire and require when they pick the institutions they will devote four years, thousands of dollars, and hundreds of hours to. May 1st is traditionally the day when high school seniors decide which college they will attend. There are several factors that should be considered when committing to a college: the purpose of education, the difference between technical and liberal education, knowledge of the western heritage, rigorous standards, debt, and career prospects. Remember the Purpose of Education The purpose of education, in its highest form, is to prepare individuals to live flourishing lives as contributing members of society able to rationally debate and serve the common good. This requires that they be taught to think and reason well. It also necessitates strong content knowledge and familiarity with the western heritage. This strong content knowledge and familiarity with the best of this tradition will enable them to discriminate regarding what is of excellence by providing them with a standard to judge with. Differences Between Technical and Liberal Educations There are two types of education , technical education and liberal education. The two types of education reflect our classical heritage. In the ancient world there was education deemed suitable for a slave and education necessary for a free man. This reflected the types of duties they were expected to perform. A technical education prepares an individual to do a specific task and to do it well. Think of an automobile mechanic, nurse, or plumber. Each one of these individuals can do his job but is probably unable to switch between careers and roles because of the narrow education they received. The other type of education is one that prepares an individual to live the life of a free citizen, independent, full of the manly virtues, and able to deliberate in the public sphere about the common good. This education equipped them to do a wide variety of things rather than a narrow vocation. Knowledge of the Western Heritage The western heritage is part of American history and necessary for educated individuals to know if they are to understand where we have been and where we are going, what have been our greatest successes and our glaring failures. It will provide the context to understand current events (how can one understand the United Nations without knowing about the League of Nations, the world wars, and Churchills hope in collective action?) but also provide a standard of judgment. Discrimination is not a word often used these days, but a knowledge of the classics and the western heritage allows the discriminating mind to discern the best in art, letters, history, and the deeds of men. For instance, the words and actions of the Founders are a high bar against which to judge todays politicians but it serves to remind citizens that more can and should be expected of our elected officials. Hillsdale College expects its student to acquire such a familiarity through its rigorous common core. Rigorous Standards and Content Expectations The quality of a college degree has declined as federal loans incentivized accepting more students, providing additional amenities, raising tuition prices, inflating grades, and creating a bloated administrative bureaucracy. Today, it matters both where you go and what you study. Some institutions still require students to study an extensive common core of rigorous classes in the classical tradition that will provide students with the broad basis they require to be well-educated individuals, not simply cogs prepared to do one task over and over and over ad infinitum. Others, however, have low standards and no common core. Additionally, whether you choose to major in womens studies or chemistry, English or accounting will impact your income. You must decide what you want to do, what is necessary to achieve it, and if your choice of major will prepare you to do so. If you are wondering what institutions still provide this quality of an education I suggest looking at the University of Dallas, Ave Maria, and Thomas Aquinas College. Moral Tone of the Student Body Families, especially religious ones, should be aware of the moral tone of the student body. Many Christian schools, for instance, are little better than public institutions. While we do not expect students to live like Puritans it is necessary to recognize that what is praised and rewarded is behavior that will be imitated. Who do you want to be in four years? What type of son or daughter do parents want to graduate? Debt Lets talk about the big D -- debt. The percentage of college graduates with student loans for the Class of 2019 is 69%, the median amount individuals owe is $17,000, and the 2016 federal student loan cohort default rate is 10.1%. A 2018 Brookings Report tracked data from the 1996 cohort and applied them to the 2004 cohort to suggest the default rate could reach 40% by 2023. This report was issued before COVID-19 impacted the economy and the actual situation may be worse. This money will have to be repaid and it will retard saving for a house, investing for retirement, marriage, and family formation. Job Prospects While the end of a liberal arts education is not mere technical knowledge and a well-paying job, parents and students must be realistic regarding job prospects, debt, likely income, and how these will influence the individuals future prospects. This is only prudent and requires a somewhat complex calculus because it involves the reputation of the institution and whether the content of the degree is rigorous, the familys circumstances, the drive and ability of the individual, the reality of what jobs are in demand, and the vagaries of circumstance. Know What You Want, What You Need, and What You can Pay For Choosing an undergraduate institution is a significant decision for students and parents. From the student, it will require four years of time, effort, commitment, the opportunity cost of going directly into the workforce instead of college, and the assumption of any debts necessary to finance a college education. For the parents, they are entrusting the child they have devoted thousands of hours and hundreds of dollars to other men and women to prepare them for a career while not destroying their morals. Beyond all this, parents and students hope for a fun and exciting time where students will become adults and assume the responsibilities of it. In light of the uncertainty caused by COVID-19 in education and the expected economic impact, students should choose an institution that fits their needs, their budget, and that provides a rigorous education worth paying for. Alan Jones has launched a withering attack against Malcolm Turnbull - calling his book a 'work of fiction' and for Tony Abbott to lead the World Health Organisation. The outspoken radio host also called the former prime minister a 'fake Liberal' - recalling a report Mr Turnbull attempted to join the Labor Party in 1999. Jones claimed the former Liberal Party leader was jealous of Mr Abbott - who he ousted from power in 2015 - because of the latter's superior electoral success. Radio host Alan Jones has called Malcolm Turnbull's new book a 'work of fiction' and claimed the former Liberal Party leader was jealous of Mr Abbot Jones' scathing criticism follows the release of Mr Turnbull's new autobiography 'A Bigger Picture' - in which he savaged his Liberal predecessor and offered a series of character assessments on his allies. 'A few years ago there was a growing trend in universities around the world of students attempting to tear down statues, an attempt to deny the happenings of the past and to rewrite history,' Jones wrote in a column for The Daily Telegraph. 'Malcolm Turnbulls work of fiction does just that - its the stuff that only a fake Liberal could try to articulate.' Jones referred to a report in The Sunday Telegraph from 2009 which said Mr Turnbull approached at least six senior members of the Australian Labor Party at the time of the 1999 republic referendum. The 2GB host claimed Mr Turnbull envied Mr Abbott's ability to deliver a consistent message - a trait Jones said should put him in the running for the WHO leadership. 'We need someone who is strong, intelligent, has integrity and experience in both health administration and politics, at a high level - enter Tony Abbott,' Jones said. Jones claimed the WHO's leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was a stooge to the Chinese Communist Party and did not react quick enough to stem travel to and from the coronavirus' original epicentre of Wuhan. Pictured: Malcolm Turnbull with Tony Abbott in parliament in 2009. Alan Jones said Mr Abbott had the 'integrity and experience in both health administration and politics' to run the World Health Organisation Jones cited a speech of Mr Abbott's in the Canadian capital of Ottawa in 2005 where he called for Australia to prepare ahead of time for potential pandemics. 'Preparing thoroughly for disasters which dont eventuate will help prepare for those which do,' Mr Abbott said at the conference. It comes after Mr Turnbull sensationally claimed he was dumped as PM by a cabal of media moguls who conspired with right-wing Liberals in an attempt to deliberately lose the 2019 election - so Tony Abbott could lead the Coalition to victory in 2022. Mr Turnbull said the goal was for the Coalition to suffer in opposition for three years, paving the way for Mr Abbott to reclaim the leadership in time to win the 2022 election. 'Now, just describing that sounds unhinged, doesn't it?' Mr Turnbull told the ABC's 7.30 on Monday, speaking of his theory. 'But that was Abbott's agenda and as Rupert [Murdoch] acknowledged to me, it had the support of one of his most senior and most influential editorial executives and I think it went a lot further than that. 'So it was crazed and it was part of [radio host] Alan Jones's agenda. I mean, they tried to foment a coup at the end of 2017.' Mr Turnbull himself took the Prime Ministership from Mr Abbott after a successful leadership challenge in September 2015. The former member for Wentworth told 7.30 several right-wing media power brokers had been in on the supposed conspiracy. Jones referred to a report in The Sunday Telegraph from 2009 which said Mr Turnbull (pictured that year) tried to join the Labor Party before being elected to parliament Mr Turnbull claimed Mr Murdoch shopped the plan out to Seven Network majority owner Kerry Stokes. 'Look at what Rupert Murdoch said to Kerry Stokes. ''We've got to get rid of Malcolm ...Three years of Labor wouldn't be so bad'',' Mr Turnbull said. Mr Turnbull said a foreign company, controlled by foreign nationals, conspired to overthrow the Prime Minister of Australia - and were determined to get rid of him because he was a prime minister they 'did not own'. 'The one thing those plutocrats knew, the billionaire proprietors knew, was that I did not belong to them ... They wanted to have, again, a prime minister who they felt they had some control over, they had an ownership of, and they wanted to feel as they had done with Abbott - that they were in charge.' Tony Abbott (left) talking to Malcolm Turnbull in 2009 when they were in opposition together. Mr Abbott was ousted from the Prime Ministership by Mr Turnbull in 2015. Mr Turnbull in turn lost the Prime Ministership in 2018 and immediately resigned his seat In the Coalition, Mr Turnbull blamed right-wing power broker Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton along with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, Brendan Nelson, Mr Abbott and his supporters for his ouster. As Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull backed policies unpopular with the right-faction such as same-sex marriage and climate change, but he said this wasn't the reason the media-party cabal had ousted him from power. 'They would have preferred Bill Shorten to be Prime Minister than me. A Liberal Party that they could not control was not a Liberal Party they wanted to have. It was - it is all about raw power, I'm afraid.' Mr Turnbull has been giving interviews to promote his new tell-all book, A Bigger Picture. Malcolm Turnbull (left) in august 2018 when he was still Prime Minister, with party centrist Scott Morrison (right) who was then the Treasurer He told the 7.30 Report that although he knew the party had become very factionalised and 'tribal', that he had tried to work with everyone despite being warned to trust no-one. With everybody telling him not to trust everybody else, the former prime minister said it would have been easy to become lost in a sea of paranoia. 'I was determined to look past that,' he said. The former investment banker said when the 'coup' occurred it was not because he was so unpopular as a leader that the Coalition thought they'd lose the election. Mr Turnbull said his political enemies hatched a plot to remove him from power, let the Coalition lose the 2019 election and suffer in Opposition so Tony Abbott could be returned to power in 2022 as Prime Minister once again 'They overthrew my Government and overthrew my Prime Ministership not because they thought I'd lose an election but because they thought I would win it,' he said. 'Murdoch acknowledges that one of his senior executives was part of the Abbott plan to bring down the government with the goal of sending us into opposition so that Abbott could come back as leader after the election and bring the party back to victory in 2022.' Mr Turnbull, a Liberal moderate, was ousted from power in August 2018 and replaced by Scott Morrison who was seen as a compromise centrist candidate. The Coalition hoped Mr Morrison would be able to end deep party divisions and bring together the party's right wing, angry at the overthrow of Mr Abbott, with the moderate faction. Instead, an embittered Mr Turnbull resigned from Parliament, destroying the Coalition's narrow one-seat majority and leaving his colleagues to rule a minority government until the 2019 election returned them to power with a clear majority. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 22:08:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia is willing to further strengthen economic cooperation with China amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's deputy prime minister Ulziisaikhan Enkhtuvshin said Tuesday. Enkhtuvshin made the remarks when meeting with Chinese ambassador to Mongolia Chai Wenrui, according to the Mongolian government press office. The deputy PM said the two countries need to further strengthen bilateral economic cooperation while COVID-19 is wreaking economic havoc across the world. Mongolia is willing to increase its exports of mining products to China, said Enkhtuvshin, who also heads the State Emergency Commission. Chai hailed Mongolia's efforts and measures taken to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and promised to consider the above-mentioned matters. As of Tuesday, Mongolia has confirmed 34 COVID-19 infections, including four non-nationals. Among all patients, eight people, including two foreign nationals, have recovered, according to Mongolia's National Center for Communicable Disease. A French national tested positive on March 10, becoming the first confirmed case in the country. Enditem Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) leaves after a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 17, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Schumer Says Senate Will Pass Small Business Relief Bill Soon There is 'agreement on just about every issue' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday morning said he believes the Senate will pass a small business bill today, with both Republicans and Democrats showing agreement on most issues. The bill, if passed, would be the fourth stimulus package intended to offset economic losses during the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus pandemic. Congress and the federal government have been under pressure to pass legislation to infuse the third stimulus packages Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for small business owners that ran out of money last week. Schumer told CNN that he spoke past midnight with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) about the bill, and the four officials came to an agreement on just about every issue. Staff were up all night, writing. Theres still a few more Is to dot and Ts to cross, but we have a deal. And I believe well pass it today, Schumer added. Last week, the Small Business Administration (SBA) said that around $350 billion in relief funds were exhausted, urging Congress to act quickly. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discusses details for economic relief during the daily CCP virus response briefing as Small Business Administrator Jovita Carranza listens at the White House in Washington on April 2, 2020. (Tom Brenner/Reuters) We insisted that a chunk of the money be separate from the competition with the bigger companies, you know the ones that have two, three, 400 people and a relationship with the banks, and we got $125 billion that will go exclusively to the unbanked, Schumer added. To the minorities, to the rural areas, and to all of those little mom and pop stores that dont have a good banking connection and need the help. Democrats have also been calling for more aid to state and local governments to deal with the CCP virus crisis. In the CNN interview, Schumer said a national CCP virus testing plan will be part of the next package. To get the kinds of testing that is done, to get the contact tracing, to make the tests free, you need a significant federal involvement, you need a national strategy, and [President Donald Trump] and Mnuchin and Meadows agreed to that, to their credit, he said. Over the weekend, Pelosi said she had spoken with Mnuchin before the two came to an agreement on replenishing the PPP fund. We want to add more money there, Pelosi told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. She added, It is very urgent, though, that we support our police and fire, our health care workers, our nurses, our teachers. Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza said last Thursday that no new loan approvals can be sent out after funds are exhausted, saying that a significant amount of loans have been doled out in recent days. The SBA has processed more than 14 years worth of loans in less than 14 days, the two officials said in a joint statement, while calling on Congress to infuse the program with more funds because its saving millions of jobs and helping Americas small businesses make it through this challenging time. The Australian airline plans to restructure its huge debts and re-emerge stronger, but faces virus-induced headwinds. Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd says it has entered voluntary administration to recapitalise the business and emerge in a stronger financial position after being battered by the coronavirus crisis and a high debt load. Consultancy firm Deloitte has been appointed as the administrator, Virgin said in a statement on Tuesday, after the airline was unable to secure a 1.4 billion Australian dollar ($887.60m) loan from the federal government. Administration is Australias closest equivalent to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy provisions used to restructure companies in the United States, and provides companies facing insolvency some protection from the claims of their creditors. Virgin said the current management team led by Chief Executive Paul Scurrah would continue to run the business and it would still operate scheduled domestic and international flights to help transport essential workers, maintain freight corridors and return Australians home. This is a tough day for our airline, but it is certainly not the end. We are not collapsing, Scurrah told reporters. Administrator Vaughan Strawbridge told media that more than 10 parties had already expressed interest in a restructuring plan and his team were reaching out to bondholders to discuss options. A deal is most likely to involve a deed of company arrangement, which is a binding agreement with creditors, and the aim is to complete it within a few months, Strawbridge said. Australian private equity group BGH Capital is among the interested parties, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity. BGH declined to comment. Moodys said unsecured creditors were likely to take a significant haircut on the value of their debt as part of any deal, and that it might be preferable to put the company in liquidation with uncertain recovery prospects. The government has appointed Nicholas Moore, who led Macquarie Group Ltd for 10 years, to engage with the administrator in order to find a market-led solution with a view to keeping two airlines on key routes, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told media. Virgin employs 10,000 people directly and 6,000 people indirectly in competition with larger rival Qantas Airways Ltd, which would have a virtual monopoly in Australia if Virgin stopped flying. Qantas shares jumped as much as 7.2 percent on Tuesday to their highest level since March 12, before falling back to 1.4 percent in afternoon trade. Virgin had 5 billion Australian dollars ($3.2bn) of debt as of December 31, and had reported seven consecutive annual losses before the coronavirus outbreak decimated domestic and international demand, forcing Virgin to ground the bulk of its fleet and put most staff on leave. Virgin, which grew rapidly after the collapse of the countrys then second-largest carrier Ansett in 2001, has a share of about one-third of the Australian domestic aviation market but that could decline under a restructuring plan. Rico Merkert, a professor of transport at the University of Sydney Business School, said Virgin should focus on running a core fleet of Boeing Co 737 planes on key domestic capital city routes rather than also flying widebodies and regional turboprops. Strawbridge, the administrator, said the airline was seeking talks with Boeing about the future of its order for 40 737 MAX planes. The model has been grounded globally for more than a year after two fatal crashes. More than 90 percent of Virgins shares are controlled by a group of investors, including Singapore Airlines Ltd, Etihad Airways, Chinese conglomerate HNA Group and Richard Bransons Virgin Group, which have all suffered a sharp deterioration in revenue because of the pandemic. Branson said on Twitter that his company would work with administrators, the management team, investors and government to get Virgin Australia back up and running. Estimated global airline losses from the pandemic have climbed to $314bn and led to industry warnings that carriers will collapse without sufficient government aid. President Donald Trump said late Monday evening he intends to sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States in light of the attack from the coronavirus pandemic. Its unclear how far-reaching the order will be, when it will be signed or which countries it will apply to, but it comes as the president repeatedly defended himself against criticism that he should have reacted earlier to deal with the pandemic. The move is also intended to protect American jobs, the president said in a tweet. We certainly understand as a board and as a leadership team how this impacts students and families and we are sensitive to it, but at the end of the day, we have to do what science is telling us about what can safely be done, Wallace said. We hope things change and treatment becomes available, but until we have more information on that, we have to proceed cautiously. The coronavirus crisis has helped threaten people's right to reliable information in countries where governments have suppressed the media, according to a new report. The World Press Freedom Index 2020 ranks 180 countries and territories in terms of their media independence and transparency and is compiled by international non-profit Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Countries such as China, Iran and Iraq rank low on the list in part due to their handling of the media during the pandemic, according to the report published Tuesday. "There is a clear correlation between suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and a country's ranking in the Index. Both China (177th) and Iran (down 3 at 173rd) censored their major coronavirus outbreaks extensively. In Iraq (down 6 at 162nd), the authorities stripped Reuters of its licence for three months after it published a story questioning official coronavirus figures," the report stated. China's censorship policies have come under scrutiny since the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan in late 2019, with social media platforms blocking certain terms, according to a report last month. The country's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying has rejected accusations of spreading disinformation. Iran was accused of not being transparent about the scale of the outbreak in February, although its health ministry rejected such claims. In Iraq, a Reuters report on April 2 cited three doctors who said the country had many more Covid-19 cases than the government claimed. On April 14, Reuters reported that its license had been suspended as a result. "The coronavirus pandemic illustrates the negative factors threatening the right to reliable information, and is itself an exacerbating factor. What will freedom of information, pluralism and reliability look like in 2030? The answer to that question is being determined today," RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in an online statement. Hungary passed a bill to allow Prime Minister Viktor Orban to prevent public demonstrations and mitigate criticism by political opponents and the media last month and the country has fallen two places to 89 in the World Press Freedom Index. "The public health crisis provides authoritarian governments with an opportunity to implement the notorious 'shock doctrine' to take advantage of the fact that politics are on hold, the public is stunned and protests are out of the question, in order to impose measures that would be impossible in normal times," Deloire added. In 2019's report, the U.S. was classified as a "noticeably problematic" place to be a journalist, with the country falling three places to 48. This year, the U.S. is placed 45th. Norway holds the top spot in this year's ranking, followed by Finland and Denmark. The U.K. is down two places to 35, while India has also fallen two spots to rank 142nd. Cattle in the northwest have the highest incidence of liver fluke in the country, an Animal Health Ireland (AHI) study has found. Leitrim, Donegal, Longford, Sligo and Monaghan are the counties with the highest levels of liver fluke, ranging from 7.4pc to 11.5pc of cattle presented for slaughter. Nationally, on average 1.6pc of animals had live liver fluke at slaughter, and 7.6pc had liver damage due to liver fluke. Over 195,000 animals from 12,400 herds have been checked in 2020 as part of the Beef HealthCheck programme. The programme has developed tools to assist farmers and vets to control losses due to liver fluke and pneumonia through capture, analysis and reporting of abattoir data from post-mortem meat inspections. Of the animals recorded this year, 71pc were beef breeds, with 38pc steers, 35pc heifers, 12pc young bulls and the remainder cows and bulls. Abscesses were seen in 3.8pc of animals, and pneumonia in 1pc of animals. According to the AHI, animals younger than 30 months old tended to have lower levels of live liver fluke (1.3pc) compared to older animals (2.4pc), as well as lower levels of fluke damage - 4.4pc compared to 16pc. So far this year, 1,360 herds (11pc) have had at least one animal with live fluke seen at slaughter. Meanwhile, a pilot study carried out in northwest Donegal has found that samples from eight out of 10 sheep flocks had liver fluke. The study was a collaborative effort between the local INHFA branch, Teagasc and Mulroy Veterinary. Teagasc sheep specialist Shane McHugh said the survey showed that many farmers were not aware that they had problems with liver fluke. "Unless you do faecal sampling, you don't know if you have a liver fluke problem," he said. Kieran Marley of Mulroy Veterinary in Stranorlar and Milford said it was vital for flock owners to target the dosing regime for either mature or immature fluke, and to alternate active ingredients. Seanie Boyle of INHFA in Donegal northwest said the aim of the study was to establish if there was a problem with liver fluke in the area, and to then build a dosing programme around the findings. ALTON Thirteen area businesses have received funding through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunitys Hospitality Emergency Grant Program to help businesses in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In partnership with Accion Serving Illinois and Indiana, the DCEO is awarding $14 million in small grants to more than 700 small bars, restaurants, caterers, and hotels. The grants can be used to support working capital, like payroll and rent, job training, and technology to support shifts in operations including increased use of carry out and delivery. SIOUX CITY -- The first death of a Woodbury County resident from COVID-19 was announced Tuesday. In a statement, Siouxland District Health Department confirmed the death of an unidentified county resident. SDHD officials in a press conference later in the day said the man who died was from age 61-80, but would not pinpoint where he lived in the county. The Journal has learned the man lived in Sioux City and worked at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Dakota City, Nebraska. The death came as Woodbury officials reported 18 new positive tests of the novel coronavirus, raising the total to 93. Across the Missouri River, Dakota County authorities reported 27 new confirmed cases Tuesday, which, following a five-day surge, brings the total to 96 in the northeast Nebraska county. As of April 11, the county of about 20,000 people had no cases. On Monday, a top Tyson Fresh Meats official denied the company's flagship beef plant in Dakota City is the main source for an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The Dakota County Health Department also disclosed Tuesday it has initiated a contact investigation. All close contacts of those testing positive for COVID-19 will be notified by public health and will be placed in quarantine for 14 days since their last exposure. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21 Trend: Turkmenistan and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) discussed ways to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses of the country, Trend reports with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan. The discussions were held online via a videoconference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan on April 20. Parties reviewed the current level of bilateral cooperation including ongoing projects and activities, discussed steps to be taken to improve the economic situation around the world, and exchanged views on the development of economic integration. Head of the Eurasia Section of the OECD Global Relations Secretariat William Thompson attended the videoconference on behalf of OECD. The Turkmen side was represented by Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy Muhammetgeldi Serdarov. The former Minister of Finance and Economics of Turkmenistan Batyr Bazarov held talks in Paris with the OECD leadership in May last year. The parties considered the prospects for cooperation in such areas as training, the digital economy, stimulating the flow of investment and private entrepreneurship, promoting and stimulating exports, as well as developing energy and the environment. The OECD got acquainted with the structural and economic indicators of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan last year. Representatives of OCED were interested in studying the domestic market and commercials in private business. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development was established in 1948. It is an intergovernmental economic organization with 36 member states. A mother is facing six months in jail and a $1,000 fine after she repeatedly ignored stay-at-home orders to host a yard sale amid the coronavirus pandemic. Christina Thompson was caught trying to sell off items that 'filled the entire front yard, spilled into the back yard' and 'could be seen from Highway 41' in the City of Rathdrum, according to police. Thompson tried to flog her belongings on several occasions over the course of a week despite attempts from police to warn her that non-essential sales were flouting Governor Brad Little's order. 'A garage sale/yard sale is not an essential business and should not be open for business,' police said in a release. Christina Thompson was caught trying to sell off items that 'filled the entire front yard, spilled into the back yard' and 'could be seen from Highway 41', cops said. She is pictured with two of her six children Her husband Peter Thompson said: 'I talked to my lawyer. He said we're not doing anything wrong. I don't consider this a business, you know? We're just sorting it and getting rid of it as we go' Officers were initially on scene on April 9 and when Thompson asked whether yard sales were prohibited, gave her a copy of the Governor's order. A second officer reported the following day that she would remove the yard sale signs and that her family were only 'sorting items' not having a yard sale. However three days later on April 13, a posting on Craigslist stated that the homeowners were having a yard sale at their residence. An officer reminded them that they were in violation of the Governor's order and issued them a written warning. But when Rathdrum Police returned to the home on April 17 'a large quantity of items were still out in the front yard and sales transactions were occurring while police were present'. Last Friday, Thompson was handed a citation and is due in court on May 8. Police had received several complaints from the public in regard to the yard sale. Police first warned her on April 9 that she could not host a yard sale as it's a non-essential business. Neighbor complained about the items that were outside for a week The woman's husband said that they were simply trying to free up some space after her father died and left behind many belongings. Peter Thompson said fees for renting storage units were becoming too costly and they needed to 'make ends meet' to support their six children. '[The police] stopped by last weekend,' Peter Thompson told CDA Press. 'They told us we couldn't have a yard sale, that it violated the governor's order. I asked them if we could sort some things out on the lawn, and if it was OK to sell a few things to some people. 'They said, "Sure, as long as there's no signs or advertising or anything like that." So we didn't.' He added: 'I talked to my lawyer. He said we're not doing anything wrong. I don't consider this a business, you know? We're just sorting it and getting rid of it as we go.' A lawyer in Boise has agreed to represent them pro bono. But Mr Thompson said it was time businesses in Idaho open up again. She was issued a citation on Friday after police warned her several times she couldn't have a sale but caught them exchanging money with one customer In Kootenai County where they live, there have been 50 cases of coronavirus. Statewide there were 1,736 cases Tuesday and 48 deaths. Locals have been protesting the stay-at-home orders. On Monday Thompson was a part of a group of 25 people who stood outside the local police station in protest, holding signs that read 'Respect Our Free & Liberty Its Yours Too', 'My Rights are not granted by a Little Governor!', '#Common Sense' and 'Tyranny'. Thompson continued the yard sale on Monday, when many people showed up, according to the Bonner County Daily Bee. 'I complied to everything they asked me to do,' Mrs Thompson told the publication on Monday. 'I never broke any laws. 'Im not worried at all. I have a great team of supporters. Because what they did was against the Constitution.' She added that another truckload of items was due to arrive but they were almost done with getting rid of items from her father's storage unit. Mr Thompson added: 'Im not making the people come out here an buy the stuff. Its all their choice.' NEW YORK, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The New York Workers' Compensation Alliance today called on Albany to guarantee workers' compensation to include COVID-19 workplace exposure for all workers. The New York Workers' Compensation Alliance is calling on Albany to: Amend Section Three of the Workers' Compensation law to include all work that results in exposure to COVID-19. Amend the Workers' Compensation Law to provide for full benefits until the injured may return to their at injury job, create a presumption that those on SSDI have a permanent total disability, amend the administration of the system so as to guarantee that no case is closed without a hearing and a decision in the injured workers language. Amend the Volunteer Ambulance and Firefighter's law to provide coverage to volunteers who are exposed to COVID-19 while in the line of duty. Amend multiple elements of the General Municipal Law, to create a registration system similar to 911 for essential employees, that a COVID claim arising from essential work is presumed to arise from essential work and extends the notice provisions beyond 30 days as well as amending section 207 to enhance benefits for police, peace and correction officers. Amend the Retirement and Social Security Law to create presumptions for those who become disabled or die due to COVID-19 as a result of the performance of their duties, and thereby make them eligible for a 75% pension benefit. "New York needs stronger protections for all workers and especially essential and frontline workers who are being exposed to this deadly virus while on the job," said William Crossett, Co-Chair of the New York Workers' Compensation Alliance. "These necessary amendments will help essential workers from volunteer firefighters to healthcare workers to transit workers get the protections they need and deserve." This push to help COVID-19 victims comes on the heels of a new study by James A. Parrott of The New School's Center for New York City Affairs. The report details how New York State once had a fair workers' compensation system, but changes have reduced payments to workers but super-charged insurance company profits. "This report sounds the alarm that there is a need for a real look at workers' compensation in New York following years of eroding benefits, high rates of workplace injuries and fatalities and skyrocketing workers' comp profits," said report author James A. Parrott, Director of Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Center for New York City Affairs. Profits have soared for New York's workers' compensation insurance companies while payments to help workers and their families lag those in many states. The report found that the actual dollar amount of worker benefits fell 28 percent from 2014-18 while insurance profits tripled. To read the full report, see here. About the New York Workers' Compensation Alliance The Workers' Compensation Alliance is a statewide coalition of injured workers and other stakeholders committed to protecting the rights of injured workers under the New York State Workers' Compensation Law. SOURCE New York Workers' Compensation Alliance KALAMAZOO, MI -- For those who struggle with finances and transportation, doing the laundry can become a complicated task. The Kalamazoo nonprofit Mothers of Hope provided prepaid laundry cards and laundry supplies to more than 300 families this week. The program is, in part, a way to honor the late Shequita Lewis, who served on the Kalamazoo County Equity Task Force. According to Kalamazoo County Commissioner Stephanie Moore, who served alongside Lewis on the task force, the challenges in providing clean clothes for a family was a struggle Lewis could relate to as a single mother. Lewis, who was shot and killed in July, expressed to Moore the hardship in finding the time and transportation to make it to the laundromat to launder clothing for her five children. Related: Woman killed in shooting had hoped to be agent of change in Kalamazoo Mothers of Hope recently started the laundry assistant program, named in Lewis memory, to help stop the spread of COVID-19 within the black community. Moore is the program director of Mothers of Hope, which is led by Moores mother. This was really our response to help to stop the spread of the virus," Moore said. "We know hygiene plays a huge part in it. But it was actually inspired by Shequita Lewis. The Community Action Agency started a laundry program in Kalamazoo when Lewis was still serving on the board, Moore said. As of January 2019, the Community Action Agency and the grant dollars that fund it are now spread across the South Central Michigan region and no longer part of Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services. A laundry service is no longer listed on the agencys website. Mothers of Hope received a $11,900 grant through the Foundation for Excellence and United Way of Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. Of that money, $8,500 was used to buy prepaid laundry cards in varying amounts to be used at the Stadium Discount Coin laundromat. The remaining $3,400 was used to purchase detergent, bleach, ammonia and dryer sheets. Additionally, the nonprofit handed out 125 hand-sewn masks and information about participating in the U.S. Census. Before receiving laundry cards or supplies, residents filled out a COVID-19 survey asking if they felt symptomatic and if they requested or received a test for the virus. Afterwards, they were also surveyed about their access to laundry services. Over the course of three days, Mothers of Hope distributed all of its supplies to more than 300 households. The nonprofit will use survey data to assess how many residents lack in-unit laundry services and find donors to help continue the program, Moore said. The surveys, alongside the nonprofits efforts to get black residents to fill out the census survey, will give Mothers of Hope data on health disparities among communities of color, Moore said. Kalamazoo County data shows the virus continues to disproportionately affect Kalamazoo Countys black community. Of the 180 cases confirmed as of Monday, April 20, 65 were black, making up 36% of the countys total confirmed cases. African Americans make up less than 12% of the countys total population, according to the latest census data. In Michigan, African Americans make up 14% of the population but represent 33% of confirmed cases and 40% of the deaths caused by the COVID-19 virus. In response, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer established a task force that will be responsible for providing recommendations on how to address racial disparities in health care during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. This virus is holding up a mirror to our society and reminding us of the deep inequities in our country. From basic lack of access to care, to access to transportation, to lack of protections in the workplace, these inequities hit people of color and vulnerable communities the hardest, Whitmer said during a press conference. A visual representation of the increasing case counts and death toll in Kalamazoo County is shown below, based on data reported by the state. Apparent conflicts in data reported there result from slight differences in daily case counts provided by state and county health officials. Browser does not support frames. More coronavirus coverage on MLive: 60 coronavirus cases, 1 death at Plainwell meat plant 21 people diagnosed with coronavirus in Kalamazoo County facilities with vulnerable populations Homeless families move to Kalamazoo hotel to encourage safety during coronavirus New day shelter set up in Kalamazoo for people with nowhere else to go Hotel used as quarantine space for homeless population exposed to coronavirus Advertisement Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of North Carolina, missouri, Alabama and Florida to demand governors bring an end to coronavirus lockdown rules and reopen the states for business. Revolts against stay-at-home orders across several US states continued Tuesday, as thousands of Americans disregarded social distancing rules to protest against the shutdowns that have left millions out of work but health experts insist are critical to saving lives amid the deadly outbreak. Protesters marched on downtown Raleigh in North Carolina throughout the day, gathering outside the General Assembly from 11am and filling Lane Street. The ReOpenNC protest began just minutes after the state announced that another 34 people have been killed by coronavirus, marking the deadliest day North Carolina has so far seen during the pandemic. This marked the second week of protests in North Carolina, with Tuesday's event drawing a larger crowd of around 1,000 at its peak and political leaders joining in. Protesters were seen flouting social distancing altogether Tuesday, with people packing much closer together than the six feet guidelines and ignoring health warnings to wear masks. Raleigh, North Carolina: Police bikes are seen at the front of crowds in Raleigh. Hundreds are packed into the roads, with social distancing totally disregarded Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets for a second week in a row to demand Governor Roy Cooper brings an end to the state's coronavirus lockdown rules and reopens the state for business A protester waves a US flag Tuesday, as revolts against stay-at-home orders continue in Raleigh, North Carolina Cars with 'Make America Safe Again! Trump 2020' rode down the streets blasting horns and drivers shouted from their open windows Governor Roy Cooper earlier said residents have a right to protest after State Capitol Police arrested a woman at last week's march. But he said protesters must practice social distancing while doing so in line with his executive order. Instead of protective gear, many carried Trump 2020 paraphernalia including hats, flags, and T-shirts as well as merchandise promoting Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who has been eyeing the state governor's job. Others held signs accusing Dr Anthony Fauci, the government's infectious disease expert, 'corrupt'. Others said: 'No Fauci, No Gates, No Fear'. Some organizers claimed the protest was bipartisan but the sea of Republican and 'MAGA' propaganda - along with shouts against Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi - suggested the crowd was predominantly right-wing. One sign read: 'Investigate COVID and 5G'. Conspiracy theorists have wrongly speculated that the 5G mobile network created the virus. The death toll in the U.S. stood at more than 44,000 Tuesday evening the highest in the world with more than 800,000 confirmed infections. The true figures are believed to be much higher, in part because of limited testing and difficulties in counting the dead. Protesters marched on downtown Raleigh throughout the day, gathering outside the General Assembly from 11a.m. and filling Lane Street The ReOpenNC protest began just minutes after the state announced that another 34 people have been killed by coronavirus, marking the deadliest day North Carolina has so far seen during the pandemic This marked the second week of protests in North Carolina, with Tuesday's event drawing a larger crowd of around 1,000 at its peak and political leaders joining in Republican Representative Dan Bishop of North Carolina's Ninth District was pictured in the crowd wearing a mask, which he sometimes removed, while carrying a bottle of hand sanitizer and copies of the Constitution. 'I'm definitely going to deliver this to Roy Cooper because he's forgotten what it's about,' Bishop told The News & Observer. Protesters are demanding the state lockdown comes to an end, claiming it takes away their liberty and that businesses are being damaged beyond repair. Governor Cooper earlier said residents have a right to protest but they must practice social distancing while doing so in line with his executive order. But protesters were seen flouting social distancing altogether, with people packing much closer together than the six feet guidelines and most ignoring health warnings to wear masks One woman is pictured with her children - who were also without masks placing them at risk of exposure to the virus Protesters hold up banners with slogans including 'No mandatory vaccines', 'Reopen NC!!' and 'Freedoms are essential' They held up banners with slogans including 'Freedoms are essential', 'Rights are not an option' and 'Everyone here knows the truth except the Democrats!' Other signs read: 'Enough is enough' and 'A man chooses, a slave obeys'. Cars with 'Make America Safe Again! Trump 2020' rode down the streets blasting horns and drivers shouted from their open windows. Some passengers seemed to be enjoying themselves with a woman pictured beaming as she stuck her head out of a car sunroof and gave a thumbs up to the crowds. Many marchers brought their children along - also without face masks, placing them at risk of exposure to the virus. Protesters are demanding the state lockdown comes to an end, claiming it takes away their liberty and that businesses are being damaged beyond repair Instead of protective gear, many carried Trump 2020 paraphernalia including hats, flags, and T-shirts as well as merchandise promoting Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who has been eyeing the state governor's job Some organizers claimed the protest was bipartisan but the sea of Republican and 'MAGA' propaganda - along with shouts against Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi - suggested the crowd was predominantly right-wing One woman who said her family's roofing business has been hard-hit due to mass closures had brought her four young children along to the protest. She told The News & Observer that she was leaving it up to God if her family contracted the killer virus. 'Our faith is in God,' said Tabitha Dawes. 'If we get it, we get it.' A group of healthcare workers gathered in their scrubs to counter-protest the calls for re-opening, with one pharmacist telling The News & Observer they were 'very concerned' that the outbreak could worsen if the state reopens too soon. 'I'm very concerned that we're opening North Carolina too early,' said Nicholas Blanchard. 'I'm here to try and get people to understand that this is a problem. I want people to follow the science and not their emotions.' Protesters hold US flags and wear stars and stripes as they take to the streets Tuesday amid the lockdown Young children are pictured at the march while adults wave flags and hold signs saying 'Kill virus, not jobs' Some passengers seemed to be enjoying themselves with a woman pictured beaming as she stuck her head out of a car sunroof and gave a thumbs up to the crowds Confirmed coronavirus cases in North Carolina reached 7,099 after another 187 tested positive for the infection As demonstrators flocked to the streets demanding it is time to reopen the state, official figures suggest North Carolina may not be out of the woods yet. Its death toll rose by another 34 people Tuesday morning taking the total to 235, and marking the deadliest day North Carolina has so far seen during the pandemic. Confirmed cases reached 7,099 after another 187 also tested positive for the infection. Cooper said in a press conference in the afternoon that he understood people were 'frustrated' with the lockdown but that the measures to slow the spread of the virus have been working. 'I know that many people are frustrated, restless, anxious, and eager to get back to work and school. I also know that many people want to make sure that their families are as safe as possible from this virus,' he said. Under mounting pressure from people wanting to get back to work, Cooper also issued a new executive order Tuesday to help people out of jobs due to the pandemic. Under the new order, furloughed workers will now be able to claim unemployment benefits. One man holds up a banner saying 'Let us out' amid swathes of people packed in together in Raleigh A group of healthcare workers gathered in their scrubs to counter-protest the calls for re-opening One pharmacist told The News & Observer they were 'very concerned' that the outbreak could worsen if the state reopens too soon Protests also took place in Missouri and Alabama Tuesday with crowds descending on the governors' official residences to push back against lockdown. Crowds flooded an area in Jefferson City, Missouri, and marched past Governor Mike Parson's mansion to protest against his stay-at-home order. The Reopen Missouri protesters are calling for 'everyone over 70 and anyone with serious underlying health conditions to hunker down more than they have been,' while healthy individuals should return to work, the group's Facebook page states. Over in Alabama, a group called Stand Up Alabama led a car rally called 'Operation Back to Work' demanding businesses are allowed to get back up and running. The uproar comes as Governor Kay Ivey said she intends to keep the stay-at-home order in place through April 30, striking a more measured approach while some Southern states push to quickly reopen. People hold up signs saying 'Fauci is corrupt', 'Enough is enough' and 'A man chooses, a slave obeys' The protest was set up by grassroots organization Reopen NC and aims to put pressure on Governor Cooper Police officers wear masks during Tuesday's protest. As demonstrations ramp up, they signify a growing sentiment among aggrieved workers that the country must resume its economic activity sooner rather than later Protesters planned to drive vehicles along a designated route, but Tuesday morning Montgomery Police Captain Regina Duckett ordered the closure of some streets to prevent the move. Instead, some were pictured riding horseback through Dexter Avenue in downtown Montgomery. Similar protests have taken place across the US over the last week, largely in Republican states and egged on by President Trump. Tennessee, Oregon, Illinois, California, Montana, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado and Washington State have all seen demonstrations from protesters demanding an end to state shutdowns. In Colorado, on Sunday, demonstrators flocked to the state Capitol in their hundreds to urge Governor Jared Polis to lift stay-at-home orders. Titled 'Operation Gridlock', the day's largest demonstration took place in Denver, where protesters waved flags with slogans such as 'Your 'health' does not supersede my right', 'Freedom over fear', and 'I would rather risk coronavirus than socialism' after being summoned on social media. Capitol police wearing protective face masks watch as people with ReOpen NC demonstrate in Raleigh Capitol Chief of Police R.E. Hawley guards the entrance to the governor's mansion during the demonstration A protester is seen arguing with police. At last week's protest a woman was arrested by officers One person's sign says 'I need a haircut' as people - in Trump merchandise and American flags - demand businesses reopen A video captured a woman hurling racists remarks at a nurse counter-protesting the march. 'This is a free country. Land of the free,' she yelled at him, pulling out a homemade poster displaying those very words. 'Go to China if you want communism. Go to China.' By Monday morning, the video had gone viral on social media and 'Go to China' was trending on Twitter in the US as users expressed disgust over the woman's remarks. This followed scenes in Minnesota where around 400 people descended on Governor Tim Walz's St. Paul residence Thursday and Friday. Walz slammed the actions of protesters and urged them to social distance. 'If they're protesting staying at home, they're protesting first responders too,' he said. As the protests expand across the nation, they signify a growing sentiment among aggrieved workers that the country must resume its economic activity sooner rather than later - even in spite of the fact that US coronavirus deaths and infections continue to mount. As the protests expand across the nation, they signify a growing sentiment among aggrieved workers that the country must resume its economic activity sooner rather than later A protester and counter-protester clash in Raleigh on Tuesday, as US coronavirus deaths and infections continue to mount A woman shouts during the protest. Trump has repeatedly waded into the saga, praising the actions of protesters during his Sunday White House briefing A man carries a flag and a shotgun at the rally - the second in two weeks to hit the town Heath experts and governors have continuously warned that reopening states too soon could lead to higher fatalities and renewed outbreaks of the virus. But President Trump has repeatedly encouraged protesters, even praising their actions during his Sunday White House briefing. 'I've seen the people. I've seen interviews of the people. These are great people, Trump said. 'They've got cabin fever. They want their lives back.' The president rejected the assertion that he was inciting violence with his words of encouragement, as one reporter pointed out that governors around the country were seeing an uptick in death threats. 'No, I am not. I've never seen so many American flags,' Trump said. 'These people love our country. They want to get back to work.' North Carolina residents march through the streets as Governor Cooper announced new efforts to support people furloughed during the pandemic 'A little rebellion now and then is a good thing' read one woman's banner while another held a mini book of the Constitution A handful of protesters sported masks but there was very little social distancing during the march Trump sparked anger from Democrat governors Friday when he made a series of Tweets calling for liberation for states - one day after he said he would leave the decision to reopen states in the hands of individual governors. He tweeted 'Liberate Minnesota' Friday before following it up with similar tweets for Michigan and Virginia. All three states that Trump singled out have Democratic governors - and are potentially swing states in the 2020 election. Trump last week gave the nation's governors his roadmap for how the US can reopen businesses and schools shut down by the coronavirus. Jefferson City, Missouri: A person holds a sign while waving a flag out of a bus window outside the Missouri Capitol Tuesday A woman holds up a sign as she gathers with others outside the Missouri Capitol to protest stay-at-home orders and urge the reopening of businesses close People hold signs as they walk past the governor's mansion in Jefferson City, Missouri, Tuesday - with very few wearing face masks Jacksonville, Florida: A group of people gathered at the Duval County Courthouse to rally for re-opening parts of Florida and the country that have been closed because of the coronavirus Tuesday Susan Callahan, a nurse, gathered with a group of people at the Duval County Courthouse to rally for re-opening parts of Florida and the country that have been closed because of the coronavirus A group of people gathered at the Duval County Courthouse to rally for re-opening parts of Florida and the country that have been closed because of the coronavirus Tuesday The new three-phase guidelines are aimed at easing restrictions in areas with low transmission of the coronavirus, while holding the line in harder-hit locations like New York. Some states including Texas, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee have started relaxing lockdown rules. Texas was the first state to begin reopening Monday. Georgia will reopen some businesses as early as Friday and Tennessee businesses can open again next week. Montgomery, Alabama: Protesters ride horseback through Dexter Avenue in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, Tuesday Governor Kay Ivey said she intends to keep the stay home order in place through April 30, striking a measured approach as some Southern states push to quickly reopen Police and protesters talk during the demonstration on Tuesday. About 95 percent of the country currently remains on some form of lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus South Carolina permitted some stores - including sporting goods shops and department stores - to reopen at 5pm Monday with social-distancing measures in place and beaches opening Tuesday. Some states, like hard-hit New York, had already committed this week to extending lockdown measures into at least mid-May prior to Trump's recommendations. About 95 percent of the country currently remains on some form of lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus. Seven states - Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming - still have no stay-at-home orders in place for its residents. The US continues to be the epicenter of the pandemic, with over 812,000 cases and 44,000 deaths. Beijing, April 21 : Huawei has issued an apology after a "Shot on iPhone" contest winner discovered that the company was using photos shot on a DSLR to promote its smartphone photography contest. Chinese smartphone maker recently promoted a photography contest with a video, featuring impressive pictures that the company claimed were "taken with Huawei smartphones." However, Weibo user Jamie-hua, also known as Huapeng Zhao who won second place in the 2018 iPhone Photography Awards discovered that two of the photos were shot by a Nikon D850 DSLR camera, reports GizmoChina. The company said that the photos were meant to encourage consumers to share their shots on its online gallery. This is the fourth time the Chinese company has been caught in this embarrassing situation. In 2016, Huawei used a photo shot on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III to promote its P9 phone. In 2018, Huawei used a photo shot by a DSLR and passed it off as a selfie taken by its Nova 3 phone. Last year again, DSLR photos were used to promote the P30 series. by Paul Wang According to the Hong Kong Constitution, the Liaison Office and the Office for Relations with Hong Kong and Macao cannot interfere in internal affairs. China and the local government had argued otherwise. Beijing pressure on arrests and sentences of anti-extradition demonstrators. Xi Jinping fears that the wave of democracy will also overflow in China. Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - The Hong Kong Bar Association has declared that the Beijing Offices in the territory (the Liaison Office and the Office for Relations with Hong Kong and Macao) have no oversight over the internal affairs of Hong Kong. In a text released yesterday afternoon, the Association said that the two Offices are subject to the Basic Law (the Hong Kong Constitution) and they are prohibited from any interference in the internal affairs of the territory, as stated in article 22. The group of lawyers brought as evidence a document from the Legco (the Hong Kong parliament) which in 2007 affirmed the submission of the Offices to article 22. They also cited a 2018 statement by Patrick Nip, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs and for China, which states that the Liaison Office "will, as always, follow the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, according to the requests stipulated in article 22 of the Basic Law". The declaration is a slap in the face to the local government which released three statements on April 18 in a row: in the first it was declared that the two Beijing offices were under art. 22; in the second, all references to art. 22 were removed; the third defends the power of the two Offices to supervise Hong Kong activities because they are not subject to the regime of art. 22. It is also a slap in the face of Luo Huining, the new director of the Liaison Office, a "Xi Jinping man", nominated in the midst of the crisis linked to the anti-extradition demonstrations that have taken place in the territory since June 2019. According to some analysts, Luo has the mandate to "restore" the former colony that pushes for democracy to Beijing. Last week, his office lashed out against the parliamentary opposition of the Democrats, accusing it of "obstructionism" to China's vision. Proof of his aim to set off this tug of war in the territory came on April 18, when the police arrested 15 personalities of the democratic movement, accused of having "organized and participated in illegal assemblies" in recent months. These leading figures include Martin Lee, a Catholic, one of the fathers of the democratic movement, and the jurist Margaret Ng, a former parliamentarian and advocate in defense of human rights. Their arrest adds up to the thousands of arrests that have taken place in recent months, all linked to participation in anti-extradition demonstrations. Weeks ago, the Justice Department said 7600 people have been arrested since the demonstrations since 9 June. They are between 11 and 84 years old. 17% of those arrested are under the age of 18. Revelations have also surfaced in recent days that Hong Kong judges have received orders from Beijing not to acquit any protesters. Article. 22 of the Basic Law guarantees Beijing's non-interference in Hong Kong affairs, safeguarding its autonomy inscribed in the "one country, two systems" principle. According to several observers, Xi Jinping fears that the growing pro-democracy wave in Hong Kong may also overflow into China, where the criticism of civil society has grown following the Covid-19 epidemic and the silence of the regime. ELLIOT LAKE, ONT.Ontarios police watchdog is investigating the death of a man who was shot in the presence of provincial police in Elliot Lake. The Special Investigations Unit says a 49-year-old man went to a probation and parole office in the community shortly after 11 a.m. Monday. The SIU says he sustained a gunshot wound while officers were present and was pronounced dead at the scene. The agency says it does not appear at this time that any officer discharged a firearm during the incident. It says three investigators and a forensic investigator have been assigned to the case. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to come forward. Read more about: NEW YORK, April 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Tupperware Brands Corporation (Tupperware or the Company) (NYSE: TUP) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, and indexed under 20-cv-00507, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired Tupperware securities between January 30, 2019, and February 24, 2020, inclusive (the Class Period). Plaintiffs pursue claims against the Defendants under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act). If you are a shareholder who purchased Tupperware securities during the class period, you have until April 27, 2020, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com . To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. [Click here for information about joining the class action] Tupperware operates as a direct-to-consumer marketer of various products across a range of brands and categories in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, North America, and South America. The Company engages in the manufacture and sale of an array of products for consumers under the Tupperware brand name. The Company also manufactures and distributes skin and hair care products, cosmetics, bath and body care, toiletries, fragrances, jewelry, and nutritional products under the Avroy, Shlain, Fuller, NaturCare, Nutrimetics, and Nuvo brands. The complaint allegies that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about Tupperwares business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (i) Tupperware lacked effective internal controls; (ii) accounting irregularities existed with respect to the Companys Fuller Mexico business; (iii) the foregoing issues would foreseeably necessitate an investigation that would cause Tupperware to be be unable to timely file its 2019 annual report; (iv) Tupperware would need relief from its $650 million Credit Agreement; (v) Tupperware provided overvalued earnings per share (EPS) guidance; and (vi) as a result of the above, Defendants public statements were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times. On February 24, 2020, the Company issued a press release announcing that the Company will file a Form 12b-25 Notification of Late Filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to provide a 15-calendar day extension within which to file its From 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2019. The February 24, 2020 press release also announced for the first time that the Company is conducting an investigation primarily into the accounting for accounts payable and accrued liabilities at its Fuller Mexico beauty business and that the Company is forecasting a need for relief concerning its existing leverage ratio covenant in its $650 million Credit Agreement dated March, 29, 2019. On this news, the Companys stock price fell $2.61 per share, or 45.63%, to close at $3.11 per share on February 25, 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 CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com Delhi Minister Gopal Rai on Monday said the vegetable market shall remain open for 24 hours till the lockdown lifts following the social distancing norms. The Delhi government has decided to open Asias biggest vegetable and fruit wholesale market, the Azadpur Sabzi Mandi for 24 hours from April 21, Tuesday. Delhi Minister Gopal Rai also said that the Mandi will remain open till the time the lockdown is lifted so that the supply of essential commodities doesnt get disturbed in the capital. Rai added that he has sent a special arrangement plan for the mandi, which will also follow social distancing rules. He added that from 6 am to 10 pm, fruits and vegetables will be sold and from 10 am to 6 am, the supply of these commodities will be ensured via trucks. Further, 1,000 people will be allowed to enter the mandi every four hours. Rai said this decision has been taken to help farmers who are finding it difficult to sell their produce. Further, this decision might also help in reducing prices of fruits and vegetables which is rising since the lockdown began. After news of the mandi opening for 24 hours spread, a huge traffic congestion was seen outside the mandi this morning. Take a look at the visuals of Azadpur Mandi from this morning Also Read: Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy talks to Muslim leaders before Ramzan Delhi: Traffic outside Azadpur Sabzi Mandi today; the vegetable market will now remain open for 24 hours. Movement of trucks allowed from 10 pm till 6 am; vegetables and fruits will be sold from 6 am till 10 pm. #CoronavirusLockdown pic.twitter.com/GFwer3Rlxf ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 #WATCH Delhi: Traffic outside Azadpur Sabzi Mandi today; the vegetable market will now remain open for 24 hours. Movement of trucks allowed from 10 pm till 6 am; vegetables and fruits will be sold from 6 am till 10 pm. #CoronavirusLockdown pic.twitter.com/beQQmwzGbF ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 Considering social distancing norms, Rai added the government has deployed a total of 900 defence volunteers, 6000 cleanliness workers and installation of CCTV cameras in the market. Further, the officials of the government will monitor all these arrangements in the mandi. Rai added that if any shop is seen not following the rules, the license of the shop will be cancelled. Further, loudspeakers will also be set up in the market area to spread awareness and to make announcements. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App DUBLIN, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SoapBox Labs, pioneering developer of safe and accurate voice technology for kids, today announced a Series A investment of $6.5M from Elkstone Capital, Astia, and a number of private investors. Named one of Europe's hottest startups by Wired UK in 2019, SoapBox Labs was founded by Dr. Patricia Scanlon, whose popular TEDx talk explains the ways in which technology can "transform a child's reading journey." In 2018, Scanlon was named to Forbes list of Top 50 Women in Tech globally. "SoapBox is at the nexus of some big trends right now - remote learning, voice, kidtech and data privacy," said Scanlon. "We've invested deeply over the last 7 years in our people and our technology. With this funding we're poised to capitalise on our strengths and the global market opportunities opening up to us in literacy, language learning and toys." SoapBox Labs' proprietary high accuracy speech recognition technology caters to the idiosyncrasies and unique speech patterns of children that traditional speech technology is unable to decode. Built from the ground up by a team of world-renowned speech recognition and AI experts, SoapBox Labs' age-appropriate, privacy-driven voice technology powers third party digital games, literacy, and English language learning offerings for children. Last year, SoapBox Labs technology was chosen for the Reach Every Reader initiative, a partnership between the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative, Florida State University, and expert practitioners, students and families across the US to develop effective solutions for readers. Reach Every Reader was launched in early 2018 with funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Investor Quotes: "Astia has been an investor in SoapBox Labs since 2017. The company, led by globally recognized thought leader in children's speech recognition technology, Dr. Patricia Scanlon, is driving solutions that enrich children's digital experiences through voice technology, while enabling security that protects kids' data privacy rights. We're pleased to participate in this new funding round that positions the company for international growth and we're excited to be part of the SoapBox Labs family and story." Sharon Vosmek, CEO, Astia "Having supported SoapBox Labs from the start, Elkstone are very pleased to be part of this latest funding round. SoapBox Labs are truly at the leading edge globally of voice technology for kids and with voice-enabled tech becoming so pivotal, and huge multi market growth predicted - it's an Irish company we'll be hearing a lot more about. A stellar deep tech team with a real edge and global ambitions, I've no doubt SoapBox Labs has the ability to really scale as evidenced by the number of top tier collaborations they already have with leading global players in numerous verticals." Alan Merriman, Principal, Elkstone Capital About SoapBox Labs "We Are Voice Tech for Kids" We are on a mission to deliver the most accurate, safe, and age appropriate voice-enabled experiences for kids everywhere. SoapBox Labs currently licenses its proprietary online, offline and embedded kids' speech recognition solutions to companies in the areas of literacy and English language learning, smart toys, AR/VR, robotics and gaming. www.SoapBoxLabs.com SOURCE SoapBox Labs Related Links https://www.soapboxlabs.com Days after Harris County prosecutors took the unusual step of asking the states highest criminal court to raise the bail of a man charged with assault with a deadly weapon, local defense attorneys filed paperwork alleging the tactic violated their clients rights. In a motion filed Monday, attorneys Brent Mayr and Stanley Schneider said the move by prosecutors violated client Timothy Singletons constitutional rights and relied on inapplicable statutes to try to circumvent precedent and established state law. Mr. Singleton, like any other person accused of a crime, is presumed innocent, said attorney Brent Mayr. He is entitled to bond. it is not to be used as an instrument of oppression. Singleton, 31, was arrested after he was accused of pulling a gun on a man he said owed him money on March 31, according to court records. A magistrate judge then set his bail at $500, over arguments from prosecutors that Singleton should not be released on a low bond because he was dangerous. Court records show the magistrate noted that police did not find any gun when they investigated the allegation against Singleton. His bond paperwork also shows police did not appear to have spoken to any other witnesses, and that Singleton had not missed any court appearances in the two years prior to the incident. Magistrate Jennifer Gaut also ordered him not to have contact with the man he was accused of threatening. Prosecutors then filed a motion with the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, asking the court -- in an extremely unusual legal move -- to raise Singletons bail to $50,000. We knew Singleton was dangerous and that the magistrates decision defied the spirit of bail and failed to protect our community, District Attorney Kim Ogg said Monday. Prosecutor Joshua Reiss argued in his filing that one justification Gaut had made for setting Singletons bail at $500 -- a need to reduce the jail population in the light of a possible outbreak related to COVID-19 -- was not supported by law. It may not be popular, but the law does not allow a generalized public health concern to factor into this individualized determination, Reiss said. After the prosecutors April 8 motion, the Criminal Court of Appeals kicked the case to a lower appellate court, which denied the motion. Prosecutors went back to the CCA after Singleton was charged with another felony: On April 15, his ex-girlfriend called police and told them Singleton had assaulted her and her grandmother and stolen her phone. The court issued a new arrest warrant for the March 31 case, and set his bail at $100,000 -- twice what prosecutors had sought. The move comes amid a dispute among prosecutors, defense attorneys and civil rights advocates over the use of money bail in Harris County, with prosecutors and police frequently criticizing bond decisions they regard as insufficient. "This is a mechanism to go to higher court and say, whoa this is clearly too low a bail," said Mark Bennett, a local criminal defense attorney. Harris County Chief Public Defender Alex Bunin said the CCAs action was pretty unusual, particularly because Singleton showed up for his court date and paid his bail. Theyre raising bail after he did what he was supposed to do, Bunin said. Mayr said the DAs actions amounted to judge shopping, and said the states criminal code affords defendants a right to appeal their bail, but not prosecutors. In the 25-page motion, he argued that the statute prosecutors relied on did not apply to rules related to bonds and that the states criminal code clearly prohibits defendants from having to give another bond after they have already been granted one. He also argued Harris County judges were explicitly considering public safety in their concern about filling the jail with inmates in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The law absolutely says the court can consider the safety of the community, he said. The judges in this case did consider the future safety of the community. Continuing to incarcerate people at the risk of creating a serious outbreak that spreads to the community would take a huge toll on county resources. The judges absolutely have to do this, Mayr said. Shouldnt a judge in Harris County be in a better position to know what is better for the community than a judge up in Austin? Courthouse veterans said the move was surprising for both the speed with which the CCA ruled on the case, and the judges' decision to set Singletons bail above what prosecutors had initially asked for. Bunin said that when defendants ask the CCA to reduce their bond, the court can take months or longer to act. It seems more like they are trying to send a message than create law, Bunin said, of the appellate judges. But its an unclear message other than dont set low bonds unless you have somebody with no criminal history and a history of appearing in court when asked. A health professional walks out of a drive-thru coronavirus testing site at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, on March 17, 2020. (MEGAN JELINGER/AFP via Getty Images) Confidence Is Key to Reopening the Economy, Says Ohio Congressman WASHINGTONAs local and state officials prepare for a gradual reopening of the economy, boosting employee confidence about returning to work will play a key role in getting the economy back to normal, said Congressman Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Davidson joined the newly formed White House task force to provide counsel on reopening the economy. Hes part of the Opening Up America Again Congressional Group that includes 32 representatives and 65 senators from both sides of the aisle. I think the key is getting the confidence back in the American people to be able to work and to be able to work safely, Davidson told The Epoch Times. The Ohio congressman said companies might face difficulties in getting workers to show up, as most people are taking the risks to their health into account. In addition, he said, The unemployment [package] is so generous that youre going to have a hard time getting people back to work. Roughly 22 million people across the country have filed unemployment claims in the last four weeks due to CCP virus-related shutdowns. The unemployment rate before the pandemic was 3.5 percent, while market estimates show that Aprils jobless rate will surge to 20 percent. Prior to just two months ago, the biggest constraint for most employers was workforce, the ability to hire more people, Davidson said. Were not going to go back to that immediately. But I do think theres a path back to that as soon as we can do it safely. When confidence returns, the economy will start to come back and companies will be hiring again, he said. The most important step, he noted, would be to end the distinction between essential and nonessential businesses so companies can get back to work and provide a uniform framework to safeguard their employees. Phased Opening President Donald Trump unveiled last week guidelines for opening the economy in a three-phased approach. The guidelines are meant to help state and local officials gradually reopen businesses, while ensuring that a second wave of infections doesnt happen. The likely path of the economic recovery will also depend on the virus, Davidson said. In aggregate across the total population, as were doing sampling now, it looks like far more people have been exposed to this virus and the fatality rate looks lower. And if the fatal spread of it stays under control, I think youll start to see a pretty strong recovery, he said. It could obviously be very different if the virus becomes somehow worse and much more aggressive. The presidents guidelines give state governors discretion as to when to relax lockdown measures, allowing some places to reopen even before May 1. The stay-at-home order in Ohio began on March 23, and Gov. Mike DeWine recently announced that he might start reopening the state on May 1. The governor also told reporters that he was awaiting federal approval on a newly developed reagent, which would help significantly increase the states capacity for testing. Davidson believes the challenge essentially is a three-way tug of war between public health, growing the economy, and civil liberties. He said he pointed out this during the task force conference call with Trump last week. Lets not forget about freedom and the principles that built our country that are protecting the Bill of Rights. Because some of the ideas about how to successfully open up the economy, frankly, are gross violations of the right to privacy, he said. Thats a temptation that often happens in an emergency. Decoupling From China Governments and businesses have learned hard lessons from the rapid spread of the CCP virus, often called novel coronavirus. And the pandemic may cause drastic changes to the global supply chain, accelerating the trend of moving production outside of China. During a White House press briefing on April 19, Trump said the supply chains would be coming back to the United States. Weve learned a lot about supply chains. Weve learned that its nice to make things in the United States. Davidson believes many Western countries will reduce their reliance on China after the pandemic. That momentum had already started partially due to the cost of doing businessnot just in terms of rising costs inside China but the cost in terms of intellectual property and lack of ability to control your own company, he said. China has essentially become too difficult to operate in and now maybe too dangerous to operate. [April 21, 2020] Horace Mann to Announce First-Quarter 2020 Financial Results on May 7 Horace Mann Educators Corporation (NYSE:HMN) plans to release its first-quarter 2020 results on Thursday, May 7, after the market closes. At that time, the quarterly news release and investor supplement will be available on the company's website at investors.horacemann.com. Management will host a conference call to discuss the financial results on Friday, May 8 at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. Investors can access the call webcast via the Events page of the company's investor site or by dialing 844-735-3325. For the webcast, please log on to the site several minutes in advance to register and download any required audio software. On-demand replay will be available later that day. About Horace Mann in 1945, the company is headquartered in Springfield, Ill. For more information, visit horacemann.com. Safe Harbor Statement Statements included in this news release that are not historical in nature are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Horace Mann is not under any obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Please refer to the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and the company's past and future filings and reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for information concerning the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005812/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Gov. Kate Browns office privately disclosed new details Monday about how Oregon could begin reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, including potential requirements that county officials submit a formal request to the governor and certify they have enough personal protective equipment for local first responders. The Reopening Oregon framework remains in draft form and is subject to revision. State officials hope to finalize it during the week of May 4, including specific guidelines for various businesses and geographic regions as part of a three-phase plan. Easing restrictions in place since March would be contingent on seeing declines in identified coronavirus cases and increasing the states capacity to test people and trace their contacts, among other things. Modeling suggests Oregon may not be able to reopen parts of its economy until late May at the earliest. Following the example of the federal reopening effort, Oregons first phase would target eight types of businesses or activities: schools and organized youth activities; sit-down restaurants; gyms; bars; personal services; large venues such as churches and theaters; plus visitors to hospitals or senior care centers; and non-emergency medical procedures. Phase One would still call for all vulnerable people to stay home, minimize non-essential travel and encourage working from home. The draft proposal discourages social gatherings of more than 10 people, although that figure hasnt been reviewed by health officials for endorsement. This is not everybody back in the workplace, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, Browns legislative director, told state lawmakers during a conference call Monday afternoon. Browns draft plan would require county officials to request the reopening of their jurisdictions preferably, it appears, in conjunction with other counties as part of broader regions. Brown also wants a written recommendation from the countys public health officer about the reopening, a formal vote by the county board and a written pledge from local hospitals to report numbers daily to the Oregon Health Authority on protective supplies and bed counts, according to the 25-page framework obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. (Read the draft framework here) What you are looking at is a draft document, Pirtle-Guiney said during the conference call. So please dont share it. We dont want to make promises we cant keep to anybody and this certainly isnt a promise of what this will look like yet. The proposal indicates that not all eight types of businesses would open in Phase One. For instance, schools, gyms and large venues are likely to remain closed during the initial phase, and visitors would be prohibited from going to hospitals and care facilities, according to the draft. It does indicate that child care facilities could reopen during Phase One. Work groups are studying what to do with the other industries targeted for the first phase. We know that for other parts of our economy to open back up, were going to need to look at least at child care, Pirtle-Guiney said. If after 14 days of loosened restrictions, health officials dont see signs of trouble, Oregon or a particular region could move to Phase Two. As currently drafted, schools and gyms could reopen with social distancing, travel could resume, and gatherings could increase to 50 people. But those details havent been blessed by health officials, either. If those loosened restrictions dont cause additional problems, Oregon or specific regions could move to Phase Three. The draft would allow larger mass gatherings and unrestricted staffing at worksites. Visitors could return to nursing homes and restaurants and bars could have more seating. Phase Three also has not been vetted by health officials, however. State leaders are planning to brief dozens of business groups and local government officials on the proposal this week, collecting feedback from some of the hardest-hit industries such as restaurants and retail. Pirtle-Guiney emphasized that the framework is changing almost daily. We are working through getting this information to as many people as we can, Pirtle-Guiney said, later adding that lawmakers could share parts of the presentation that arent subject to revision with constituents. Charles Boyle, a spokesman for Brown, said in a statement that the draft presentation was shared widely on Monday with lawmakers, local county officials and reporters who asked for a copy. Boyle said Pirtle-Guineys comments not to share the report was stressing the point with legislators that this is a draft that is subject to change and for which we are still seeking input, and should not be misconstrued as a final document. Oregon officials appear to be taking a cautious approach on reopening, recognizing that easing social distancing will enable the potentially deadly virus to spread much easier. Already, Oregon has identified nearly 2,000 infections with thousands more estimated and 75 residents have died. Pressure is building across the nation to ease some restrictions while maintaining safety. Georgias governor announced Monday that some businesses, such as gyms and barbers, would open Friday, with theaters and restaurants to open next Monday. And Oregon Senate Republicans are pushing for relaxing rules in rural counties. Brown first announced the broadest brush strokes of the reopening effort last week. The rural districts my caucus and I represent should be able to return to a new normal and get back to work, the party leader, Sen. Herman Baertschiger Jr. of Grants Pass, said in a statement Monday. Patrick Allen, director of the Oregon Health Authority, cautioned during the conference call with lawmakers that reopening parts of Oregon will come with risks. He said officials would need to monitor the situation closely and jump on outbreaks as quickly as we can. Its going to be risky for all of us, he said. Pirtle-Guiney reminded lawmakers to temper expectations and recognize that any reopening wouldnt look like a pre-COVID-19 world. Oregon hasnt been hit particularly hard by the virus, compared to other states, since Brown announced the stay-at-home order March 23. As a result, the state runs the risk of more problems going forward if coronavirus surges during reopening efforts. We shut things down quickly, which was good, Pirtle-Guiney said. But it means that Oregon is more vulnerable going forward. There is not yet immunity to this virus. State officials are looking to modify the framework for rural areas with limited cases, which may be able to reopen most quickly. The goal is to lift restrictions across parts of Oregon largely by region, or in some instances county by county, not on a full-state basis. We will need your local elected officials to give their thumbs up of support, Pirtle-Guiney said, that they feel like their community is ready for reopening. -- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. NESS-ZIONA, ISRAEL / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / VAXIL BIO LTD. ("Vaxil" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:VXL), an innovative immunotherapy biotech company specializing in cancer and infectious diseases, today announced that it will be presenting at the Planet MicroCap Showcase 2020 on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 07:40 AM EST. Mr. David Goren (Chairman and CEO of Vaxil) will be hosting the presentation and answering questions from investors. To access the live presentation, please use the following information: Planet MicroCap Showcase Virtual Investor Conference 2020 Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Time: 07:40 AM Eastern Time Webcast: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2059/34345 Mr. Goren will be talking about the latest news coming out of Vaxil If you would like to book 1on1 investor meetings with Vaxil, please make sure you are registered for the virtual event here: https://www.planetmicrocapshowcase.com/signup 1on1 meetings will be scheduled and conducted via private, secure video conference through the conference event platform. If you can't make the live presentation, all company presentations "webcasts" will be available directly on the conference event platform on this link under the tab "Schedule": https://www.planetmicrocapshowcase.com/presenting-companies ABOUT VAXIL Vaxil is an Israeli immunotherapy biotech company focused on its novel approach to targeting prominent cancer markers and infectious diseases. Its lead product ImMucin successfully completed a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in multiple myeloma and received orphan drug status from the FDA and EMA. The company continues to develop ImMucintm and is also developing a tuberculosis vaccine / treatment that has demonstrated promising preliminary results with further preclinical evaluation underway at a top US academic and research institution. Additional indications and mAb candidates are under evaluation as immuno-oncology and infectious disease treatments alone and in combination with other treatments. Vaxil exploits the unique properties of signal peptide domains on crucial proteins to develop targeted therapies against cancer targets and infectious disease pathogens. These signal peptide domains are identified by VaxHit, Vaxil's proprietary bioinformatic approach. These SPs induce a robust T- and B-cell response across wide and varied HLA subtypes, while acting as true, universal neoantigens. The peptide platform targets these cells by "educating" or specifically activating the immune system to recognize and attack the affected cells. In addition, Vaxil's mAb platform directly recognizes the target protein expressed on malignant cells and recruits other elements of the immune system to lyse those cells. About Planet MicroCap Showcase Planet MicroCap Showcase brings together promising companies with well-known and influential microcap, investors, fund managers and newsletter writers for three days of company presentations, one-on-one meetings, and networking. If you would like to attend the Planet MicroCap Showcase, please register here: https://planetmicrocapshowcase.com/signup Disclaimer: The Company cautions that COVID-19 Vaccine Development is still under early stage research and development and is not making any express or implied claims that it has the ability to eliminate the COVID-19 virus at this time. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the Company has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectation. Important factors - including the availability of funds, the results of financing efforts, the results of exploration activities -- that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time on SEDAR (see www.sedar.com). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any of the securities described herein in the United States or elsewhere. These securities have not been, and will not be, registered in the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons unless registered or exempt therefrom. CONTACT INFORMATION: For further information please visit http://vaxil-bio.com/ or contact: David Goren, CEO -- info@vaxil-bio.com, +972 (52) 720-6000 SOURCE: Vaxil via Planet MicroCap Showcase View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/586127/Vaxil-Bio-Ltd-to-Present-at-the-Planet-MicroCap-Showcase-Virtual-Investor-Conference-2020 In less than one year, InsurTech NY has grown from an idea shared by founders David Gritz and Tony Lew into a vibrant hub for East Coast insurance entrepreneurs, insurers and investors. Executive Summary As co-founder of InsurTech NY, David Gritz has a unique vantage point on technology trends reshaping the management of rapidly changing risks, developments in InsurTech-carrier relationships and InsurTech funding trends. He shared his insights with Guest Editor David Bradford 10 days before InsurTech NY hosted its Spring Conference virtuallyconverting the format from on-site to online in less than a week as state and city officials shuttered business in the Metropolitan area in mid-March as reported cases of coronavirus increased. Q: Lets talk about InsurTech NY and what inspired you to launch it. Gritz: I was part of the Silicon Valley Insurance Accelerator, and I saw whats happening in the InsurTech space in Silicon Valley. Also, by observing a lot of other smaller communities, whether in Minneapolis, Des Moines, Iowa, or Hartford, Conn., I saw that something magical happens when there is a community to connect carriers and brokers with InsurTechs. Communities bring people together. They accelerate the process of developing relationships, which for InsurTechs is otherwise an expensive and time-consuming part of their business. Nothing similar was happening in New York. There were events and conferences, but nothing on a timeline that was centered and focused toward InsurTechs. So, thats where the space opened up. After serving more than 40 years at MCI-Norfolk, 61-year-old James Watson has been released from prison. Watson was convicted in 1984 of murdering Jeffrey Boyajian, a 28-year-old cab driver, in Roslindale. He has maintained his innocence since his arrest in 1979, attorneys Barbara Munro and Madeline Blanchette said in a statement. The Suffolk Superior Court issued an order on April 16 allowing Watson to be released from prison while his motion for a new trial is considered, according to the statement. The request was not opposed by Suffolk District Attorney Rollinss office. In his motion, Watson put forward compelling facts about his wrongful conviction," his lawyers claimed. They also noted the urgency needed in his release due to his medical conditions and age. The factors put him at risk of severe illness and death due to the coronavirus pandemic. We are grateful to the court for making it possible for Mr. Watson to be released to seek the urgent medical care he needs, Munro said in the statement. What a gift and a privilege to witness this amazing man walk out of prison after 40 years, with his sense of humor and compassion for others still intact. The case against Frederick Clay, Watsons codefendant, was already vacated three years ago after former Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conleys office conducted another investigation into the killing that raised significant doubt as to the fairness of his trial," the prosecutor said at the time. In Clays 1981 trial, hypnosis had been used to aid witnesses in remembering what they had seen. The practice is an unreliable technique in modern courts, Conley said in 2017. The attorneys representing Watson claimed the use of hypnosis was used to obtain unreliable identification and evidence against him as well. Blanchette and Munro were appointed to Watson by the Committee for Public Counsel Services Innocence Program. His case was also supported by the New England Innocence Project, which funded an investigation into his conviction, the lawyers said. The two programs work to overturn wrongful convictions. The 61-year-old mans legal team will continue to work to exonerate him in the coming months as the state conducts its new investigation into his case. Watson will spend time out of prison regaining his health and rebuilding his life after decades of separation from his beloved family, the attorneys statement said. I have waited 40 years already, so waiting a few more months is easy. The truth will set me free, Watson said in the statement. Related Content: MPs in Uganda have been offered 20 million Ugandan shillings each (nearly 5000 euros) to assist them during the coronavirus pandemic. The move has sparked outrage from the public who say the money should go to help health workers on the frontline of the Covid-19 fight. Ugandans protested from their homes on Monday night with cooking pots and jerry cans against a parliament decision to grant MPs 10 billion Ugandan shillings UGX (2.4 million euros) as the country scrambles to bring the Covid-19 under control. The "Black Monday" protest at 8pm local time (6pm GMT) was scheduled after a dusk-to-dawn curfew to contain the disease. The banging sounds echoed the daily rounds of applause that have been fired from various cities around the world in tribute to frontline health workers. Critics like former presidential candidate Norbert Mao say health workers in the east African nation are being sacrificed for political patronage. Mao told the Daily Monitor it is "repugnant" that "MPs are paying themselves when frontline staff are strapped for cash." Unilateral decision Uganda's speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga has defended the move, saying the money would be used to support MPs in managing the coronavirus response in their constituencies. The country has more than 400 lawmakers. Kadaga has claimed that the MPs' bonus is part of a supplementary budget that was passed last week to fight Covid-19. The money will help them pay drivers and ambulances transporting patients. Jonathan Odur, an opposition MP from the capital Kampala was at the budget vote on 7 April and told RFI the 10 billion UGX payout for lawmakers was decided unilaterally behind the scenes. High Court petition "The report that was submitted to us never mentioned any proposal to give members of parliament 10 billion shillings," he said. "When we reached the floor of parliament, the chairman of the budget committee sought to amend some of the figures that he had presented in his report. And that's where the trouble started from," he told RFI. Story continues Odur claims that he and his colleagues were tricked into agreeing to deduct 10 billion UGX from the health ministry's meager 104 billion Covid-19 budget. On Monday, he and another lawmaker Gerald Karuhanga, petitioned the High Court to overturn parliament's decision and block the money being transferred into their accounts. Covid-fight Uganda has so far recorded 55 cases of Covid-19 but no deaths. Experts fear that the health system could be overwhelmed if the virus hits hard. Health workers are grappling with a scarcity of ventilators and protective personal equipment. The health ministry had requested a budget extension of 400 billion Ugandan shillings to fight against the spread and treatment of the virus, as well as other diseases, but received just a third of that amount. "The 10 billion for us MPs is way short of what the health sector needs, but if anyone should have received the money it should have been the health ministry," reckons Odur. The money is expected to be paid to MPs this week, but Odur says he will give it back if it comes. Public outrage "I don't intend to use it for any purpose on myself. At the moment, we are trying to see if there is a possibility to block the payment." For him, public pressure is key. "I properly understand the outrage. And I think that it is for the good of the country that the population and the public keep a keen eye on what happens in parliament to pressure it to act in a different way," he said. Ugandan officials have often come under scrutiny in the past for misusing state funds. Odur claims he turned down 29 billion Ugandan shillings (around 7 million euros) offered to lawmakers in 2017 to vote in favour of scrapping the 75-year age limit for the country's President Yoweri Museveni, allowing him to run again in 2021. Contacted by RFI for comment, parliament speaker Rebecca Kadaga declined our request for an interview. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament(MP) for Juaboso Constituency, Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has kicked against the decision by President Akufo-Addo to lift the ban on movement in some parts of the country considered to be the epicentres of the COVID-19 outbreak. According to him, inasmuch as he agrees that the lockdown will impose hardships on some Ghanaians due to their socio-economic status, it was not advisable for the President to have lifted the lockdown and allow free movement in areas considered to be epicentres. Speaking on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Hon. Mintah Akandoh asserted that Ghanaians are better off with the hardships opposed by the partial lockdown than to die from the virus. What I agree with everybody is that this lockdown will bring hardship on Ghanaians, but we are better off with hardship than to die from the virus. What it means is that, those who are in hardships and those without food, we must put proper measures in place. Simply because people are complaining they dont have food to eat means they should go out to die, he baffled. To him, it is unfathomable for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to urge Ghanaians to stay at home at a point in his address to the nation on the state of the COVID-19 after lifting the ban on movement. After saying all these things, he turns around to say that people should stay at home. The same person who says he has lifted ban on movement at a point in his speech will urge Ghanaians to stay at home. Why should people stay at home after lifting the ban on movement? he wondered. He, however, advised Ghanaians against going out when the country is recording higher figures of the novel coronavirus, hinting that the current situation of the COVID-19 is more dangerous than it started in the country. My humble advice to every Ghanaian is that, I will plead with them that it is even now dangerous to go out. The situation we find ourselves in now, it is more dangerous than we started with and so everybody should protect themselves especially if it reaches the most populous suburbs like; Mamobi, Nima and other such areas where the most vulnerable people reside," he adviced. Prez Lifts Partial Lockdown President Nana Akufo-Addo has lifted the three-week partial lockdown imposed in the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi districts with effect from 1 am Monday, 20th April 2020. This is in spite of the country's Coronavirus case count having increased to 1,042. Total samples tested so far stands at 68,591 with 1.5 % testing positive. President Akufo-Addo announced this during his seventh address to the nation on the outbreak today, Sunday, April 19, 2020. Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Some 50 fires targeting cell towers and other equipment have been reported in Britain this month, leading to three arrests. Telecom engineers have been abused on the job 80 times, according to trade group Mobile UK, making the U.K. the nucleus of the attacks. Photos and videos documenting the attacks are often overlaid with false commentary about COVID-19. Some 16 have been torched in the Netherlands, with attacks also reported in Ireland, Cyprus, and Belgium. In the murky world of political deals, "an honest politician" is one who "once bought - stays bought". The maxim will be uppermost in the minds of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael kingpins as they try to forge this State's 30th government with the most diverse political line-up. Now, as three smaller parties waver about a new coalition, the "big two" may well have to look to among the 20 Independent TDs to prop up their bockety coalition stool. Let's recall that Ireland's first-ever coalition government relied on the support of six Independent TDs among a plethora of other political groups - and it lasted three-and-a-half years from 1948 until 1951. In June 1997, Bertie Ahern put together what quickly became known as a "three-legged stool coalition", which included support from four Independent TDs. Despite predictions of its collapse within weeks, it went the full five-year term. More recently, Fine Gael relied heavily on Independents to keep its rocky minority coalition in power for a surprising four years. Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Denis Naughten. Photo: Maxwells Michael Lowry. Photo: Colin O'Riordan Peadar Toibin. Photo: Colin O'Riordan Marian Harkin. Photo: Damien Eagers / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Denis Naughten. Photo: Maxwells So, Independent TDs can and do play an important and reliable role in coalition making. This time out, who would these governing Independents be? And would they be reliable during and in the aftermath of this rolling coronavirus crisis? Out of the 160 TDs elected on February 8, 20 were classified as "Independent or other" for our coalition-making purposes. At least eight of these, but more realistically up to 12, are needed to give any Fianna Fail-Fine Gael coalition a comfortable working majority. For their own convenience, this score of TDs is banded into various groups. But this is no guarantee of making, and much less keeping, any deal. As to durability, in the past a first refusal at announcing "constituency goodies" went a long way to sustaining support from various Independents. But at this time of serious national and international uncertainty it may not be enough. The first and biggest group is the so-called 'Regional Technical Group' with nine current members: Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway) A former Fine Gael TD and was communications minister from 2016 to 2018 when forced to resign over the broadband controversy. As group "convenor" - not "leader" - he has struck and maintained a very positive tone on coalition-making while insisting the process must speed up. Prospect: Deal on Reliability: Excellent Sean Canney (Galway East) A junior minister last time who, despite losing a nasty job-share squabble, continued supporting the coalition. Prospect: Deal on Reliability: Excellent Michael Lowry (Tipperary) His past attracts continuing controversy, which is sometimes damaging. But the former Fine Gael minister has supported several coalitions steadfastly. Prospect: Deal on Reliability: Excellent Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth) Parted company with Fine Gael in October 2018 over the abortion issue. He had a mixed Dail voting record over 14 months as an Independent. Prospect: Potentially Reliability: Good Cathal Berry (Kildare South) Elected primarily on Defence Forces' welfare issues. Has since spoken as a medical doctor of the urgency of the coronavirus crisis. Prospect: Deal on Reliability: Very good Noel Grealish (Galway) The former Progressive Democrat TD has a penchant for controversial remarks about migrants. Was close to backing the minority coalition in May 2016 and did regularly vote with it. Prospect: Deal on Reliability: Very good Verona Murphy (Wexford) Proved very accident-prone as a Fine Gael by-election candidate in November 2019. Wrong to see her now as "FG gene-pool" - but is a potential supporter. Prospect: Distinct possibility Reliability: Unproven Matt Shanahan (Waterford) The new TD was elected on campaign of improving facilities at Waterford University Hospital and university status for the region's technology colleges. Prospect: Depends what Waterford gets Reliability: Depends what Waterford gets Peadar Toibin (Meath West) The only TD from Aontu and also the leader of the new party, his group membership here is technical. His party had utterly ruled out Fine Gael coalition but was less hostile about Fianna Fail and is prepared to talk for now at least. Prospect: Unclear Reliability: Good The second group of Independent TDs to hold talks with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael comprises three TDs from disparate backgrounds. They comprise: Marian Harkin (Sligo) As a three-term Euro MEP, she established an impressive record of legislation and effective EU lobbying. Returned to the Dail on February 8. Prospect: Deal on Reliability: Excellent Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway) First elected a TD in a 2014 by-election and came very close to formally backing the 2016 coalition but baulked in a row over turf-cutting. Covid-19 might copperfasten his support this time. Prospect: Deal on Reliability: Very good Michael McNamara (Clare) As a Labour TD, he had an up-and-down relationship with the party before quitting in 2019. Lost his seat in 2016, but returned as an Independent in 2020. Prospect: Could deal Reliability: Fair There are five members of the Rural Independents whose presence in government would assume the Green Party is absent. They are: Mattie McGrath (Tipperary) The combative former Fianna Fail TD engaged in the 2016 coalition talks but opted against joining. His unpredictable approach to politics makes it difficult to see him in coalition. Prospect: Unlikely to deal Reliability: Middling at best Michael and Danny Healy Rae (Kerry) Different people with a different political approach - but unlikely to part company on this issue. It's all about Kerry and then Kerry some more. Prospect: Hard to see them dealing Reliability: If they make a deal, good Michael Collins (Cork South-West) Bantry Hospital's fate tops his list as do a plethora of local issues. Close to his Healy-Rae neighbours. Prospect: Unlikely Reliability: Middling at best Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly) Split from Sinn Fein over the abortion referendum. Threw in her lot with the rural grouping and has so far scotched talk of reconciliation with Mary Lou McDonald's party. Prospects: Unlikely Reliability: Middling at best The remaining three Independents - Catherine Connolly (Galway), Thomas Pringle (Donegal) and Joan Collins (Dublin South-Central) - are all strong local TDs who lend support to various campaigns. While all three have spoken about the prospect of a pan-left government, they are not ever going to be a fit in a Fianna Fail-Fine Gael led government as both parties have too long been identified as "the establishment". While our political culture continues to change at a fast pace, there appear to be too many practical obstacles to a dozen Independents TDs pulling this one off. IOM chief says Tunisians used force to cross border while Tunisian interior ministry says authorities let them in. Hundreds of Tunisians, stranded in war-wracked Libya for weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, have crossed back into their country, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Tunisias interior ministry said. IOMs chief of mission in Libya, Federico Soda, confirmed in a tweet that they forced their way across the border into Tunisia on Monday night. Hundreds more are still waiting to return home in the absence of concrete action, Soda said. Tunisias interior ministry, however, denied those who crossed the Ras Jedir border point on Monday had to use force, saying authorities allowed 652 to enter from Libya. Soda posted a video on his Twitter account showing droves of Tunisians carrying personal belongings walking along a motorway towards the border, some wheeling carry-on luggage and chanting. The Tunisian interior ministry says citizens who crossed the border will be sent to quarantine centres before being allowed home [Fathi Nasri/AFP] Border closed Despite the conflict and years of political instability, oil-exporting Libya is home to thousands of Tunisian migrant workers. However, both countries closed their borders last month in an effort to stop the coronavirus from spreading, leaving many Tunisians unable to return home. According to human rights activist Mostapha Abdelkebir, approximately 1,300 Tunisians had massed close to the Ras Jedir border post since the lockdown was imposed last month, demanding to be allowed back home. Yesterday [Monday], 700 showed up, rather restless and making noise in a bid to force the police to let them through, Abdelkebir told AFP news agency. Local Red Crescent official Abdelkarim Regai said Libyan authorities allowed the Tunisian nationals to cross from their side of the border. They are mostly workers, day labourers who are facing a dire humanitarian situation, Regai said. Update: Everyone safely crossed the border and arrived home in Tunisia last night. Really happy that the situation is much better at the border today. This is such a difficult time for everyone #covid19 https://t.co/48ZT8yRb9v Federico Soda (@fedsoda) April 21, 2020 200411142312791 A Tunisian diplomatic source estimated that approximately 20,000 of his countrys nationals remain in Libya. The source, talking to AFP, expected authorities on both sides to allow more crossings before the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which is expected to begin on Thursday. On Tuesday morning, buses escorted by police left the border area with the Tunisians on board, taking them back to their region of origin, AFP said. The interior ministry said they would be sent to quarantine centres before being allowed home. Also on Tuesday, Tunisian border guards prevented approximately 100 Libyan truck drivers from crossing the border, according to AFP. Since confirming its first case of the respiratory disease in early March, Tunisia has declared 38 deaths among 884 confirmed cases of infection. SEATTLE, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Security Properties was recognized by the National Multifamily Housing Council's (NMHC) 2020 NMHC Top 50, the annual ranking of the nation's largest apartment owners and managers. Security Properties ranked #44 largest apartment owner in the nation, with 25,120 units, marking its entry onto the list. The Crossroads at the Gulch Apartments - Nashville, TN Heartline Apartments - Portland, OR Security Properties attributes success to an outstanding team that leads the industry. "Security Properties has successfully grown as a result of our exceptional team members who acquire and manage our portfolio while maintaining proven underwriting disciplines," said Bob Krokower, Chief Executive Officer. Dan Byrnes, Managing Director, Conventional Investments, went further, "We are currently the sponsor of choice in our target markets for over 30 institutional equity partners, and that would not be possible without years of significant contributions from team members across our entire platform." With an emphasis on the resident experience, Security Properties has sustained profound growth in recent years. "Security Properties focuses on delivering the highest quality housing for our residents," said Bryon Gongaware, Managing Director, Affordable Housing Group at Security Properties. "That leads to creative acquisition strategies to build and effectively manage a diversified national housing portfolio of new development, conventional, and affordable housing." About Security Properties Security Properties is a national real estate investment, development, and operating company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. For more than 50 years, Security Properties has provided quality housing to its residents as well as excellent financial performance for its investors. Since its formation in 1969, Security Properties and its partners have invested over $1.8 billion of equity in multifamily real estate, representing a portfolio value of nearly $7.2 billion. Today, Security Properties' portfolio reflects interests in 123 assets encompassing over 25,000 multifamily housing units. Security Properties maintains a focused multi-family strategy supported by integrated teams of professional acquisition, development, construction, investment, and property management specialists. For more information, visit www.securityproperties.com. For more information, press only: Laurel Zacher Vice President, Marketing 206.926.6204 [email protected] SOURCE Security Properties Television host Anusha Dandekar has shared that she had a fangirl moment with Hollywood star Brad Pitt on board a flight last year. She took to Instagram and posted a selfie taken with him, when they met on a flight around six months ago. Anusha gushed about Brad and said that she died for 10 hours when she saw him seated near her. The time when seat 2A was this... HIM! And seat 3A (me) dies for 10hrs ... side note: He looks good ALL OF THE TIME! Pps... I still get butterflies looking at this picture, she wrote in her caption. Recently, Anusha was in the news after rumours of her break-up with her boyfriend, television actor Karan Kundra spread like wildfire. She shared a long note on her Instagram stories, slamming the baseless speculation, and claiming that she knows the person who leaked this news to the media. Also read | Shekhar Kapur stranded at a remote place during lockdown: What if I fall sick? I am a 12-hour drive from serious medical help I know l am being way more vocal than usual but l am tired of people thinking my silence and kindness is weakness... l know who has gone to the press with this so called information... Its sad that even in this devastating world crisis, you wanted to make a spectacle of someones life I hope you realise how you are choosing to live your life... You are not my friend but the question is, are you a friend of anyones...or just forever self serving... Hope you find your peace, she wrote in the note. Karan clarified in a recent interview that he was not living with Anusha because he did not want to put her at risk of the coronavirus after he returned from an outdoor shoot. He also said that she was very emotional and was affected by the news. Anusha was most recently seen as the host of MTV Supermodel Of The Year, while Karan is seen in the ALTBalaji web series It Happened In Calcutta, which released in February this year. Follow @htshowbiz for more The mayor of Jacksonville is defending the decision to reopen the city's beaches amid the coronavirus pandemic - a move which has sparked national outrage. On Monday, Republican Lenny Curry insisted that criticism was coming from outsiders who 'don't understand our city', and declared locals are following modified guidelines that have been put into place. Jacksonville beaches are open from 6-11 am and 5-8 pm for walking, swimming, surfing and fishing. Groups consisting of more than 10 people are not permitted, and sunbathing and beach parties are prohibited. 'With our curve flattening, this was a very measured opportunity to open more space out there,' Mayor Curry told News4Jax, adding that the beach could close again if residents started to ignore the new protocols. 'The limited beaches reopening can be a first step and pathway back to normal, but we must be mindful of the risks and respect the limitations, not only for our safety but for the safety of our neighbors as well'. Scores of people hit the beaches upon their reopening Friday afternoon, but News4Jax says crowds are now starting to 'thin out'. Scroll down for video Jacksonville is defending the decision to reopen the city's beaches amid the coronavirus pandemic - a move which has sparked national outrage Curry says Jacksonville residents have been following rules put in place following the re-opening of the city's beaches. Busy Jacksonville Beach is pictured Sunday Jacksonville is Florida's most populous city, with around one million residents. However, the city only accounts for around 3% of the state's coronavirus cases Jacksonville is Florida's most populous city, with around one million residents. However, the city only accounts for around 3 per cent of the state's coronavirus cases. As of Monday evening, there were 896 coronavirus cases in Jacksonville, and 15 deaths. The city's beaches were first closed to the public on March 20. Miami has been hit far harder by the coronavirus outbreak, despite having just half of Jacksonville's population. Miami-Dade County and neighboring Broward and Palm Beach counties account for nearly 50 per cent of the state's COVID-19 cases. Beaches there remain closed. Meanwhile, pictures of people flocking to Jacksonville beaches upon their reopening were shared widely on social media Friday, prompting the #FloridaMorons hashtag to trend on Twitter. A majority of beachgoers were not wearing face masks. A majority of beachgoers were not wearing face masks as they took to the sand for a stroll on Sunday evening Pictures of people flocking to Jacksonville beaches upon their reopening were shared widely on social media Friday, prompting the #FloridaMorons hashtag to trend on Twitter. The beach is seen on Sunday Several people taking to Twitter to voice their concerns over the reopening of the beaches prompted the trend of #FloridaMorons. 'Can't we just spatial distance this whole State? #FloridaMoron,' one user tweeted. Another person wrote: 'Life's a beach--then you die. #FloridaMoron.' A third user tweeted: 'I understand the push to get back to work. We all have bills to pay. I don't remotely get the rush to the beaches in some sort of childish own-the-libs hissy fit. Especially since engaging in this behavior endangers being able to get back to work. #FloridaMoron.' The reopening of the beaches in Jackson have been deemed as premature by many. However, cities and states across the country are planning how to reopen after an effective shutdown period that has stretched on for more than five weeks. Some states have formed coalitions to figure out how best to manage the process. The head of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr Robert Redfield, last week stated that an area must show a 'consistently' declining infection rate over a period of at least 14 days. Redfield pointed to the ability to conduct rapid testing and contact-tracing, as well as being able to test individuals who present a 'flu-like' illness. It was not immediately clear which jurisdictions, if any, have that capability now. Meanwhile, Jacksonville isn't the first city to reopen its beaches. Residents in Santa Cruz, California are now also allowed back on the sand last Thursday after their beaches were also re-opened. As of Tuesday, more than 800,000 Americans have tested positive to COVID-19, and over 42,000 have died. Shares of IT major Infosys on Tuesday declined nearly 4 percent after the company refrained from providing a revenue outlook for FY21, citing uncertainty amid Covid-19 outbreak that is expected to impact its business in the near-term New Delhi: Shares of IT major Infosys on Tuesday declined nearly 4 percent after the company refrained from providing a revenue outlook for FY21, citing uncertainty amid Covid-19 outbreak that is expected to impact its business in the near-term. The scrip fell 3.85 percent to Rs 627.70 on the BSE. On the NSE, it dropped 3.90 percent to Rs 627.80. After market hours on Monday, Infosys reported a 6.3 percent rise in consolidated net profit for March quarter, but refrained from providing a revenue outlook for FY21, citing uncertainty amid COVID-19 outbreak. Click here to follow LIVE news and updates on stock markets The country's second-largest IT services company - which saw revenue growing 8 percent to Rs 23,267 crore in the March quarter - anticipates a continued slowdown in the near-term influenced by a broad-based global economic recession. "Our sense is that in the near-term we will see an impact on our business. We do not have a clear view of when the recovery will come back," Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh told reporters. Parekh's views are similar to the sentiments echoed by peers like Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services -- both had cited future business uncertainty while announcing their quarterly earnings last week. Sanjeev Hota, Head of Research at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, said Infosys reported below-than-expected revenue and EBIT margin performance. On the last day of March, Symone Sanders and her boyfriend, Shawn Townsend, are embarking on a third week of self-isolation. For Sanders that means working from her brightly lit condo in Washington, D.C., around the corner from the Wharf, and, most importantly, a seven-minute drive from Ronald Reagan National Airport. Typically, the senior advisor to Joe Bidens 2020 presidential campaign travels more or less nonstop, most recently decamping for a month to South Carolina, before Biden won that states delegate-rich primary, dramatically reshaping the presidential race in the process. But stay-at-home orders mean the 30-year-old strategist is moored in D.C., for by far the longest stretch since she first moved into this apartment in December. Sleek and modern, her condo is accented in greige hues and gleaming sharp-cornered surfaces, the walls and bookshelves notably bare. Sanders says she intends to now finally hang the framed photos of Thurgood Marshall and Shirley Chisholm that are stacked on the floor. I roll over some mornings and Im like, Damn, shes still here, says Townsend, with a laugh. Its a totally different lifestyle. Known as D.C.s night mayor, Townsend is, officially, the citys director of nightlife and culture, a position that has given them both, Sanders says, an up-close-and-personal seat to the pandemics effect on local businesses. She flips her iPhone camera so I can see Townsend at the stove in a yellow zebra-striped Gucci T-shirt and South Carolina flag apron (he grew up in Charleston), ladling chopped garlic onto ground beef for Taco Tuesday, a new quarantine culinary tradition, to be followed by an episode of season three of Ozark or Tiger King. There has not been much time for Netflix and chilling, however, as Sanders is in full-fledged virtual campaign mode, she says, spending so much time on the phone and in Zoom meetings that she has taken to wearing one AirPod at a time in order to charge the other. Tonight she is dressed in a ribbed cashmere T-shirt and a graffiti-patterned Gucci Ghost scarf tied around her close-shorn head. Like many, she has perfected the video-conference ensemble: business on the top, comfort on the bottom. Below frame she wears a pair of black lounge pants and bunny-rabbit slipper socks, a Christmas gift from her mother. Her nails, typically a statement dramatic enough that they once induced a CNN viewer to write in that they werent appropriate for talking about politics, are an understated ballet pink. Story continues Since her turn as press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanderss 2016 presidential campaign (at 25, she was the youngest in history to hold this role), Sanders has emerged as a celebrity of sorts to D.C. intelligentsia, among whom she is known simply as Symone. On CNN, she can be relied upon for informed retorts and sizzling bon mots as well as boldly patterned wrap dresses and violet lips, a refreshing contrast to typical politico gray or navy blazers. Election 2020 Joe Biden, Iowa City, USA - 27 Jan 2020 Photo: Matt Rourke/AP/Shutterstock Shes a star, says Lis Smith, former senior advisor for Mayor Pete Buttigiegs 2020 presidential campaign. Shes ruthlessly confident, wildly charismatic, and an example of the kind of disruptor we need right now in politics. There have always been these characters in American politics and theyve always been men, men who are unapologetically who they are, who arent afraid to brag about their accomplishments. She embodies that spirit. It so happens that Sanderss CNN career took off after a number of TV agents told her she was not palatable for television and recommended she take voice lessons before trying to go on-air. This did not deter the daughter of an event planner (her mother is a certified balloon artist) and Army Corps chemist who, as a little girl growing up in Omaha, performed newscasts with a wooden kitchen spoon. Ive gone on television and I felt like the reporters and folks treat me differently than they would treat another senior advisor, says Sanders. People, they see me and I look different, right? Im bald. I have the nails. I dont sound like what people expect from a political operative on TV. In fact, one such on-air encounter inspired the title of Sanderss empowerment memoir, due in May: No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America. During a tense debate with acting deputy of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli following the 2017 Charlottesville violence, Cuccinelli stammered at her, Will you just shut up for a minute? At which point both Sanders and CNN host Chris Cuomo told him he could not speak to her that way. It surprised no one that Sanders met with presidential candidates Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand in the spring of 2019; what was unexpected was her decision to pledge fealty to the Biden campaign. It felt, to a lot of people, like political opportunism, says Evan Weber, the political director of the Sunrise Movement. But Sanders remains unfazed by such criticism and notably nonideological in her response: My politics are not tied to a person, she says. They are part of my values. And I know some people wont understand the choices that I have made. But I can work for Joe Biden, I can work for Bernie Sanders, and still sleep soundly at night. Her decision came after meeting the former vice president and his wife at their home in early 2019a meeting scheduled for 30 minutes that lasted two hours. One of my mentors, Anita Dunn, told me, Youll know when you sit down with someone, whether you gel or not, if you click, if you think you can be helpful. With the vice president, it was like I had known him for years, Sanders says. I did have that conversation with her before she joined the campaign, confirms Dunn, a Biden senior advisor who bonded with Sanders at the 2016 Democratic National Convention (when both escaped to a Philadelphia Nordstrom Rack for some retail therapy). I said, Insist on a role thats substantive. Make sure youre at the table. And she has been almost from the day she joined. In her hybrid post of senior advisor, communications czar, and cable-TV surrogate, Sanders does, basically, whatever is asked of herwhich, on the evening of Super Tuesday, included tackling a protester who had rushed Biden on stage. People joked that I had become security, she says. The current crisis has forced her to be even more nimble in her role, innovating ways to engage an electorate stuck at home and all-consumed by a global pandemic. I think this has, frankly, thrown every mechanism all of us are used to into question, she says. Events and rallies have been canceled or held virtually, and traditional fundraising has been stymiedand this at the very moment, Biden needs to coalesce support from all Democratic factions. The Democratic National Convention, scheduled for July, has been delayed until August amid calls by many, including Biden, to hold it online. It is a delicate tightrope for the campaign to walk: how to make the goal of electing the former vice president as urgent as fighting the pandemic while not appearing to be politicking when national unity is of paramount concern. For weeks Biden has been at home in Delaware, opting out of daily briefings that might compete with those of governors such as New Yorks Andrew Cuomo or Michigans Gretchen Whitmer (a reported shortlist contender for Bidens vice presidential pick). Hes hosted a roundtable with first responders, participated in town halls with Anderson Cooper, and interviews on every network show from The View to Jimmy Kimmel Live, plus launching a newsletter and weekly podcast. Its a big adjustment for everyone, Sanders says. A lot of interviews, a lot of Zoom virtual town halls from his basement, where we built a studio. What people want to hear right now is a calming voice, telling them that we can get through this, giving them kind of a roadmap. And Joe Biden has the most empathy of any presidential candidate Ive ever met. He, I think, was tailor-made for this moment. Hes also a policy wonk, and that doesnt necessarily come through if all you see are the Biden/Obama memes. But it definitely shows when he gets into these town halls and goes off on a tangent about the numbers. Sanders has had to innovate ways to engage an electorate stuck at home. This has thrown every mechanism all of us are used to into question. But the fact is Biden has had few opportunities to go off on tangentsor to be listened to when he does. When theres a national crisis, the presidents bully pulpit is even more powerful, says Pod Save America host and former speechwriter for President Obama, Jon Favreau. The fact that Joe Biden is stuck in his house for public-health reasons makes it even more challenging. Democratic strategist Leah Daughtry believes that Bidens younger campaign staff, led by Sanders, are the ones who can break through during a media-monopolizing crisis. Having folks like Symone, who have their pulse on whats happening and what people are paying attention to, is essential, she says, citing the vice president slipping into DJ D-Nices social-distancing Instagram dance party, a cameo Sanders helped orchestrate, as a recent example. Sanders also co-organized a virtual happy hour for young Americans with Biden on topics ranging from LGBTQ+ rights to student loan debt. She tweeted a photo of her white Hennessy and apple juice on the rocks with the caption, Lets settle in for some real talk with @JoeBiden. Biden himself, who does not drink, sipped orange Gatorade. When asked about his guilty pleasures, he admitted two: ice cream and his 1967 Corvette. Its not enough to assume that young people who have been galvanized by the Sanders campaign will just support Biden, argues Cristina Jimenez Moreta, executive director of the youth-led immigrant organization United We Dream, who notes that the Biden campaign only recently reached out to her group to discuss immigration policy. Joe Biden Holds Super Tuesday Rally Photo: Getty Images We are being very intentional about our engagement of progressive groups and young Americans, says Sanders. We do not take this work lightly. She leads a four-member internal work group focused on outreach. We have a very targeted progressive engagement strategy that deals with a number of these organizations. Its about, where do we already align, where can we come together? Daughtry argues that its simple why Sanders is valuable to this effort: They see her and they see themselves in her. Theoretically, that is true. Sanderss pivot from progressive to pragmatist could act as a roadmap for younger Democrats. But Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, a racial justice nonprofit, has not been impressed so far. I have not felt the effects of Symones presence. It has not translated for us, he says. The campaign has not been great about engaging with organizations and leaders that theyre going to need to expand and excite a base of people that are going to win a general election. I think theres a lot of work to do, says the Sunrise Movements Evan Weber. Voters under 45 overwhelmingly voted for other candidates in this election, and its very clear that the Biden campaign has not done enough to generate enthusiasm in our generation. Weber does say he has seen a shift in the Biden campaigns approach over the past few weeks, after conspicuously limited contact throughout the primary campaign. The tone has definitely changed, Weber says, since the series of sweeps following South Carolina and particularly after Senator Sanders suspended his campaign and endorsed Biden in April. Theres a lot of desire to have a relationship with groups like ours as they are in this stage of the campaign, but young people can smell bullshit, and I think that these things cant just be done to check boxes. They have to be authentic. The criticism will be there, Sanders responds. Damned if you do, damned if you dont. But I think the approach that we have employed is a good one. Its a holistic approach, and its one that will allow us to meet a number of these groups and individuals at a place of understanding, which will lead us to being successful in November. In the meantime, there are more weeks of staying at home, more weeks of campaigning in this brave, new virtual way. Sanders is resolute and full of fight: What I am focused on right now is doing everything we can do to beat Donald Trump. When you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Originally Appeared on Vogue Jesus is my vaccine protest message declares as Penn. residents demand reopening of economy Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Hundreds of Pennsylvania residents joined by Republican lawmakers protested a stay-at-home order outside the state Capitol in Harrisburg Monday declaring messages like Jesus Is My Vaccine and demanded a reopening of the local economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. The stay-at-home order which has been extended by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf until May 8, was put in place to manage the spread of the more than 33,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the state which had led to 1,200 deaths in the state, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. We need to open up now, Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano told protesters. These leaders must not focus on just the lives at risk from the horrible virus, fellow Republican state Rep. Aaron Bernstine added. Many lives like yours are in danger from a shuttered business, the hunger and homelessness. Similar protests have taken place in state capitals across the country, such as Michigan, Texas, Maryland, and Washington state, CNN reported, and additional protests in other states are expected to follow. It's estimated that between 22 million and 30 million Americans are now out of work due to layoffs sparked by state lockdowns due to the new coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China. Bernstine had been lobbying for Wolf to sign a bill aimed at reopening some businesses closed amid the pandemic but Wolf vetoed the legislation while noting that it was not an easy decision. Reopening tens of thousands of businesses too early will only increase the spread of the virus, place more lives at risk, increase the death tolls, and extend the length of the economic hardships created by the pandemic," Wolf said in his veto message. The protests began ahead of the White House Coronavirus Task Force meeting last Thursday where President Trump release a three-phase plan to start reopening the economy and allow people to go back to work. "I think the president wants this country to get back to work," Chris Dorr, one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania protests told CNN. "I think the president is on the side of the American people and he doesn't want this country to suffer any longer than humanly possible." Kateri Walls told Trib Live that she has run a pet grooming business in Pittsburghs Garfield neighborhood for 24 years. She has been closed for the past five weeks with no income, she said. I know how to operate. Im a responsible person, she said, explaining that she has clients who bring their pets in weekly for baths and grooming to treat various skin conditions. She said she had plans to operate the business as a drive-thru but was required to remain closed after being denied a waiver. Theyre picking winners and losers, she said. Some demonstrators even expressed doubt about how widespread the coronavirus really is. "All the projections were wrong, but we are still telling people to stay home and businesses to close," Mark Cooper, a retired truck driver, told Reuters. "This is not quarantine, this is tyranny." On Monday, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, discussed the health risks associated with people going back to work and the implementation of the administration's three-phased approach. If you jump the gun, and go into a situation where you have a big spike, youre going to set yourself back, Fauci told ABC News. So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening its going to backfire. Thats the problem. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday asked the Chief Secretary, DGP and other senior officials to visit different districts in the State to monitor how the measures initiated to contain the spread of COVID-19 are being implemented. Rao held a meeting with senior state government officials here to discuss the measures taken to contain the virus and the implementation of lockdown. The COVID-19 situation in Hyderabad and other places was reviewed, an official release said. It was decided at the meeting that senior officials should tour the districts and monitor the situation, it said. As per Rao's instructions, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, DGP Mahender Reddy and other officials would visit Suryapet, Gadwal and Vikarabad districts on Wednesday, the release added. The Chief Minister on Sunday last announced extension of ongoing lockdown in the state till May 7 without any relaxations. According to a media bulletin on April 20 night, the total positive cases in the state stood at 872. The number of active cases was 663. Twenty-three people had succumbed to the virus, while 186 had been cured/discharged from hospitals, the bulletin said. A majority of the cases in the state have been reported from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China condemns US, UK criticism of arrests in Hong Kong Iran Press TV Monday, 20 April 2020 10:13 AM China's Foreign Ministry has condemned recent remarks by Western officials who criticized the arrest of several protest organizers in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong. The Ministry's spokesman Geng Shuang said on Monday that China and its territories, including Hong Kong, were ruled by law. Hong Kong is a society governed by the rule of law and relevant parties must respect this, Geng told reporters during a daily briefing in Beijing. Last week, police in Hong Kong arrested more than a dozen organizers of violent anti-government rallies in Hong Kong last year. Police said all of those arrested would appear in court in mid-May. The arrests came after a period of relative calm amid a partial coronavirus lockdown that put a cap on months of anti-government demonstrations and violent rallies in Hong Kong. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "condemned" the arrests on Saturday, calling the individuals detained "pro-democracy advocates." "Beijing and its representatives in Hong Kong continue to take actions inconsistent with commitments made under the Sino-British Joint Declaration that include transparency, the rule of law, and guarantees that Hong Kong will continue to 'enjoy a high degree of autonomy,'" Pompeo said. Hong Kong has been governed under a "one-country, two-system" model since the city, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997. The city had been rocked by turbulent protests since June last year, when the government of the semi-autonomous territory proposed a bill that would have reformed the city's extradition law. The bill was later withdrawn, but protests continued and took on violent forms. The Chinese government says the United States and Britain fanned the flames of the unrest in Hong Kong by supporting the rioters. More than 7,000 people have been taken into custody for their involvement in the protests since June last year, with many having been charged with rioting, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Following the newer arrests, a British Foreign Office representative also said the UK expected any arrests and trials to be "conducted in a fair and transparent manner." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address It's indeed Mahesh Babu's time! With the ace filmmaker SS Rajamouli recently confirming about working with the Superstar on his next, and with the success of his last venture Sarileru Neekevvaru, it proves that the actor is actually getting all the attention he deserves. To add a cherry on the cake, the actor has topped the list of Ormax Stars India Loves for the month of March 2020. Mahesh has surpassed Allu Arjun and Prabhas in the race. The winners have been chosen based on their popularity among fans around the world. Ormax Media is a specialized forecasting-based consulting firm. Coming back to the list, following Mahesh Babu on the second spot is Allu Arjun. Young Rebel Star Prabhas has bagged the third position. Power Star aka Pawan Kalyan has made a tremendous entry to the list with the fourth position. Interestingly the actor is making a comeback with Vakeel Saab after two years but it looks like he already has all the support of the fans. Jr NTR is on the fifth spot whereas Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan bagged the sixth and seventh positions respectively. Jersey actor Nani who is known for his charming smile and romantic roles has safeguarded his position at number eight. Rowdy of Tollywood, Vijay Deverakonda who had his last venture with a flop movie World Famous Lover is on the ninth rank. 59-year-old actor Venkatesh bagged the 10th position on the list. Here is the complete list 1. Mahesh Babu 2. Allu Arjun 3. Prabhas 4. Pawan Kalyan 5. Jr NTR 6. Chiranjeevi 7 Ram Charan 8. Nani 9. Vijay Devarakonda 10. Venkatesh Talking about the top three actor's next projects, Mahesh Babu is gearing up for a movie with Parasuram. As per the recent rumour, he will also be collaborating with Koratala Siva. On the other hand, Allu Arjun is all set to resume the shoot of Pushpa once the lockdown ends and Prabhas is also waiting to shoot for Prabhas 20 along with Pooja Hegde. Not Keerthy Suresh, This Bollywood Diva Will Romance Mahesh Babu In His Next! New Delhi, April 21 : Former wrestler turned politician Babita Phogat on Tuesday visited a police station on the outskirts of the national capital. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist said once she reached the Najafgarh station that she wanted to meet the women officers who were making masks while performing their regular police duties. Babita oversaw the female officers' work silently and when the other officials proceeded to stop the latter to introduce the former wrestler, Babita said that her introduction is not important and that the officers' work should not be interrupted. Babita observed the officers for a long time after which she walked out. She asked the police offcers present if they are not dustributing food as they always do to those in need in the locality. Following this, the officers set about making food to be distributed and Babita herself lent a hand in the process. The food was duly served to the hungry in the area. "Yes, Babita visited the station. She was there for a long time and certainly, her visit went a long way in boosting the morale of those who have been working day and night in the fight against coronavirus," Joint Commissioner of Police (West Zone) Shalini Singh told IANS. Singh said that she didn't go to the station herself when Babita was there as she didn't want the attention to be shifted to her. At no time should the United Kingdom regret Brexit as its two largest trading partners, the European Union and the United States, are courting her and stand ready to take thee for better or for worse. The truth is that the EU will never leave the UK in the wilderness. The former is even willing against all odds and contrary to the conviction of Boris Johnson to extend the 2020 deadline on withdrawal negotiations for an extra two-year period. The Trump administration makes similar courteous attempts to lure the UK in sealing a free trade agreement, as it believes the UK could serve as gateway to Europe. Today, the UK is in a challenging situation having to choose between the two giants. Failure to reach an agreement with the European Union will have far-reaching negative repercussions on the British economy, as nearly 50 per cent of UK exports go to European markets, which makes reaching a preferential agreement with the EU indispensable. On a different note, the UK does not hide its interest to conclude a comprehensive free trade agreement with the US, because this means an open market for its goods and services also to Canada and Mexico, which form with the US a broad free trade agreement (USMCA). Furthermore, in light of the outbreak of the trade war between the US and China in the summer of 2018, Mexico is about to become a potential alternative to China and a likely destination for American companies. The UKs attachment to the US camp means its assimilation into new production chains to compensate potential losses in European value chains. It is not easy for the UK to win over both of these partners, as they are often in stark contrast to one another. The sharp disparities and inconsistencies between the EU and the US will force the UK eventually to choose one over the other. The two differ in laws, standards and rules, which are even in some instances inconsistent with one another. Trade disputes between the two giants are multiple in front of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute mechanism. The latest of these conflicts started recently by France aimed at imposing a tax on the profits of giant technology companies like Google and Amazon. Such an attempt forced the US into threatening to retaliate in turn by imposing high tariffs on French wines. Moreover, the two differ in the levels of protecting the privacy of Internet users and personal data. As it is becoming more conservative, the EU raises the echelon of protection. This will force companies focused on personal data, such as Google and Facebook, to change their business models in the future, a trajectory they dread taking. These problems and others are minor when juxtaposed with the problem of genetically modified food. While the European consumer continues to refuse to import or market such foods, the US does not distinguish between the quality of genetically modified and unmodified food, as the former is widely distributed on the shelves of American supermarkets. The US considers the rejection of the EU based on the precautionary principle as an unjustified barrier without scientific evidence. The precautionary principle is inconsistent with the rules of the WTO, which stipulates the use of technical rules based on valid scientific evidence and not based on the principle of precaution. Given the UKs need for both trading partners, the challenge to the British prime minister in manoeuvering between the EU and the US is formidable. He must prove his ability to obtain the best deal from both partners, which is not easy. If together with the EU he agrees to extend the withdrawal negotiation period to secure a balanced deal, this will hinder the conclusion of an FTA with the US, which means the UK will lose the balancing Trump card to mitigate the repercussions of its exit from the EU and the ensuing possible disadvantages. Furthermore, the EU will stand in the face of any manipulation by the UK prime minister and will not tolerate his endeavours to converge with the US at the expense of the union and its member states. Alternatively, while the UK is attracting the interest of both giants as well as many others, having signed to date over 40 free trade agreements, Egypt seems indifferent to the UKs potentials as a self-determining and autonomous state. While this seems understandable today, as countries turn their full attention to fighting Covid-19, Egypt is not among the first countries to have signed an FTA with the UK when the time was more propitious and the UK approached Egypt to sign an agreement. The agreements between the UK and its partners aim at maintaining preferential treatment and ensure smooth sailing and continuity of trade relations. While grappling with its agreement with the EU, the UK cannot alter, in the transitional phase, the terms of the agreements with its partners from the ones applied within the EU. This will only be possible after the transitional period expires, whether in a year or three, if extended after January 2021. The million-dollar question is why Egypt should be interested in signing swiftly an agreement with the UK. British investments in Egypt total around $5.4 billion, which represents 41 per cent of total foreign direct investment inflows, meaning the UK ranks first globally in terms of FDI in Egypt. Furthermore, trade exchange between Egypt and the UK stands at over $3 billion yearly, facilitated largely by the EU Association Agreement with Egypt. If Egypt does not sign an agreement with the UK, WTO regulations will apply, granting Egypt the treatment of a most favoured nation. Egypt will lose its preferential treatment and will have to pay tariffs on its exports to the UK. Acknowledging mutually beneficial relations between the two countries, Egypt and the UK must expedite the signing and ratification of an FTA, if the former wants to extract the maximum benefit from its relation with the UK and ensure continuity of trade between the two countries on the same preferential grounds prevailing between Egypt and the EU. Todays agreement with the UK will be confined to trade in goods; however, we must anticipate in light of the increasing importance of trade in services that we will eventually negotiate a full-fledged agreement after the transitional period. It is of utmost importance to start promptly closer cooperation with the UK to boost our services sector, thus enabling us to enter African markets from a position of strength within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). Egypt should follow the lead of other African countries, which were unhesitant to sign FTAs with the UK, such as Morocco and South Africa, to lay the groundwork for trilateral cooperation between Egypt, the UK and Africa. This falls jointly within the scope of the two governments policies towards Africa. The UK can be instrumental in supporting and developing the necessary infrastructure for manufacturers and investors. Egypt should lure British manufactures to cooperate with it to penetrate new African markets and compensate for the possible loss of EU markets. Egypt should attract the UK as a leading economy after Brexit, so that the UK continues to invest in Egypt and accedes jointly in African markets, in order to benefit from AfCFTA. The writer is former assistant foreign minister for international economic affairs. *A version of this article appears in print in the 23 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Obviously, this rule has been imposed to prevent Chinese companies, that have deep pocket, from taking over Indian companies, utilizing the steadily decreasing equity share value due to COVID 19 crisis in India. by N.S.Venkataraman Government of India issued order a few days back, stipulating that any foreign direct investment in Indian companies from the countries which share border with India, require permission from Government of India. In other words, it means that there cannot be automatic investment in Indian companies from the countries sharing border with India. Obviously, this rule has been imposed to prevent Chinese companies, that have deep pocket, from taking over Indian companies, utilizing the steadily decreasing equity share value due to COVID 19 crisis in India. Like devil quoting scripture, China has said that this Indian regulation is against WTO norm. Misinterpretation of WTO rules : Obviously, China is deliberately misinterpreting the WTO regulations. Not only India , but a few other countries like Germany, Spain , Taiwan have also imposed severe restrictions on Chinese companies buying equity in the companies based in those countries. WTO stipulations predominantly is related to trade restrictions and customs duties chargeable across countries . Buying the equity share of company in one country by the company in another country strictly does not fall under the scope of World Trade Organisation norm and therefore, Chinas contention that India has violated the WTO regulations is disputable. Several countries across the world scrutinize and restrict take overs / mergers by companies , keeping the overall short term and long term interests of the country in view. For example, there is competition law in use within the European Union. The purpose of the competition law is to ensure the maintenance of healthy competition within the European Single Market by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies , so that they do not create cartels and monopolies that would damage the interests of society. This law is to prevent take over of one company by another or mergers between companies that may result in monopoly in the production of products and services and lead to exploitation. WTO regulations clearly recognize the right of any country to protect its trade interest by imposing safeguard duty or anti dumping duty on any product imported from another country, after conducting detailed enquiry and providing justifications. China itself has imposed anti dumping duty on several products exported to China from countries like USA, India, Japan and others. While WTO is concerned about trade dealings of products between countries, it is not with regard to equity trading. Worldwide fear of Chinas dominance : Now, there is worldwide fear of domination by China in the coming years and China has not concealed its intention to dominate the world, by adopting variety of means including claiming the territory of other countries, taking over several international companies etc. The OBOR scheme launched by China, is another move of Chinese government to extend its influence over other countries by building infrastructure facilities in other countries using Chinese equipment and products and extending huge loan to other countries to increase their dependence on China. Countries like Sri Lanka , Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and a few countries in Africa now owe huge debt to China, which they will not be able to repay in the foreseeable future. The result of this situation is that several assets of the debt ridden countries would go into the hands of Chinese companies and Chinese government. The recent example is the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka ,which has been virtually handed over to Chinese company by Sri Lankan government to reduce its debt burden to China. In the case of Hambantota port, Sri Lankan government has given 99-year lease to China in place of debt payment.. Chinas domination over Pakistan is now almost complete with several mines , infrastructure projects, and port already under Chinese management., Gwadar port in Pakista is now under Chinas control for all practical purposes, with Pakistan government handing over the management of this strategic port to China. So many other examples can be pointed out. Indias act in self interest : Government of India has adopted the right strategy by restricting the investment by Chinese companies in Indian companies to prevent India going under control of China to unacceptable level. What India has done is in its self interest and this step is not really much different in essence from the provisions of anti dumping duty and safeguard duty permitted under WTO regulations. China is crying foul about Indias move to restrict the investments by Chinese companies, as it clearly implies that India is resisting Chinas game plans. China has to pay the price for its game plan : The world is increasingly becoming aware about Chinas long term intentions of dominating the world and before long, several other countries would initiate measures to safeguard their interests and protect themselves from Chinas domination by restricting investments by Chinese companies. China certainly would not be pleased about such happenings ,but it has to pay the price for its aggressive attempts to dominate the rest of the world. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Nearly 50 years has elapsed since Ann Harris Davidson, then a 17-year-old freshman, joined about a dozen fellow students to pick up trash on the grounds of Canadas University of Saskatchewan, Regina campus. Just a group of friends collecting litter. A noble effort any time but a momentous one on that day, April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day. On Wednesday, to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Davidson and some female friends will be doing a trash cleanup in a small park tucked in between Four Hills Road, Central Avenue, Interstate 40 and Tramway. They planned the project before the coronavirus crisis turned the world inside out, but they decided to carry on, using the appropriate precautions, despite the disease. It just seems worth celebrating, said Davidson, 67. Long way to go Earth Day, now observed in 192 countries, was created to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Back in 1970, it was celebrated mostly in the United States, but also in Canada, including the university Davidson attended. She was primed and ready and in the right place for that first Earth Day. In one of my early (university) courses, Paul Ehrlichs The Population Bomb, about population explosion and the environment, was required reading, she said. That book heightened in me an awareness that we have to be careful with our planet. Davidsons life has taken her to seven countries on four continents, but her awareness of the natural world and the need to protect it has never faltered. Today, she and her husband maintain an acre behind their home in Albuquerques Four Hills Village as wildlife habitat. Even so, Davidson realized she had done nothing to mark Earth Day itself since that freshman-year campus cleanup, and the 50th anniversary seemed the right time pandemic or no pandemic to remedy that. In 50 years, we have advanced in all sorts of areas womens rights, racial tolerance and in some environmental issues, she said. But we have a long way to go in all areas. Bobcats and beer cans The area Davidson and her friends have chosen for their Earth Day cleanup is as good an example as any of a threatened environment. This part of Albuquerque, high desert bleeding into mountains, is the home to wildlife such as mule deer, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, rabbits, roadrunners, hawks, quail, kangaroo rats, snakes, foxes, raccoons, weasels and badgers. The park theyll be working in is frequented by the homeless and marred by everything from car bumpers to syringes to fast-food wrappers. And migratory beer cans, said Rusty Goetz, referring to winds rushing out of Tijeras Canyon so strong they blow trash around. Goetz, 66, a geologist by training, is among the Four Hills Village residents joining Davidson for Wednesdays pickup project. Goetz is also open space director for the Four Hills Village Association and, besides the Earth Day pickup, will be coordinating Four Hills participation in Saturdays Great American Cleanup effort. Any day, Goetz said, is a good day for ridding the landscape of mans debris. I cant consider any one day more important than another, she said. What I do consider is cleaning the land, protecting it, understanding what the best uses of the land are and raising awareness of our fragile environment. Goetz knows, however, that the environment can be as unforgiving as it is fragile. Nature doesnt play fair floods, grass fires, windstorms, she said. We have way too many people living too close together in places where people were never intended to live. In Albuquerque, we have people building in the arroyos. We need to raise awareness about the beauty around us and the dangers around us. Silver linings Dorothy Stermer, 57, grew up in Silver City and learned to love nature during lots of time spent in the Gila Wilderness. She is another member of the Four Hills Village community who will take part in the Earth Day pickup project. Stermer said it is difficult to imagine that the coronavirus epidemic, severe as it is, will not overshadow Earth Days golden anniversary. But she said that as awful as it is, the pandemic offers some silver linings for the environment and peoples appreciation of it. People are getting out more, walking 6 feet apart and enjoying our open space, she said. And there has been a reduction in pollution because people are not driving cars as much. Stermer earned a bachelors and a masters in chemical engineering from the University of New Mexico and worked for a time in environmental restoration during her career at Sandia National Laboratories. She knows full well that it will take a very long time of people not driving cars as much to significantly reduce the poisons that threaten our planet. But she hopes the respite caused by the virus gives people something to think about, to hope for. Symbolically important Davidson was born in Swaziland, now the Kingdom of Eswatini, in southern Africa, the daughter of a father who was a British government medical officer and a mother who was a nurse. Davidson herself has a masters degree in public health from the University of Sydney in Australia. She thinks about the possibility that an endangered environment creates a mixing bowl for diseases such as coronavirus. From what I have read, I dont think there is any doubt that global warming is expanding the range for malaria, dengue fever and Zika, she said. Davidson and her team will be wearing masks and keeping distance from one another during their Earth Day work. I am glad that we are able to mark the day productively, Stermer said. Its a small thing we are doing, but it is symbolically important. Not just a group of friends collecting litter. (Newser) Much has been written about the friction between the states and the federal government on the coronavirus. Now comes friction on a different levelbetween governors and the mayors of cities on how fast to reopen. It's now showing up in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp declared that businesses such as gyms, bowling alleys, hair salons, and tattoo parlors can reopen Friday, provided they abide by social distancing requirements. Coverage: Atlanta: The mayor of Georgia's biggest city says Kemp didn't consult with her or other big-city mayors before his announcement. "I've spoken with several leaders across this state," says Keisha Bottoms, per Politico. "So we really are at a loss, and I am concerned as a mother and as the mayor of our capital city." The mayor stressed she has a good working relationship with Kemp, "but as I look at the data and as I talk with our public health officials, I don't see that it's based on anything that's logical." The mayor of Georgia's biggest city says Kemp didn't consult with her or other big-city mayors before his announcement. "I've spoken with several leaders across this state," says Keisha Bottoms, per Politico. "So we really are at a loss, and I am concerned as a mother and as the mayor of our capital city." The mayor stressed she has a good working relationship with Kemp, "but as I look at the data and as I talk with our public health officials, I don't see that it's based on anything that's logical." Savannah: The mayor of Savannah, Van Johnson, has similar worries, telling CNN that Kemp's order is "not based on any type of science or best practices." He said Savannah's coronavirus numbers were still rising, "so this just blows our mind." story continues below The conflict: Kemp's order stipulates that local officials can't issue more restrictive rules than his own. On Monday, he defended his decision as "surgical, targeted, and methodical" and said it was designed to protect both lives and "livelihoods," per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also argued that state cases have "flattened and appear to be declining." The story counters his optimism with the opinion of Dr. Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. "It's a very big risk," he said, because "if you open up enough, it's almost ... certain" the virus will intensify in the state. Kemp's order stipulates that local officials can't issue more restrictive rules than his own. On Monday, he defended his decision as "surgical, targeted, and methodical" and said it was designed to protect both lives and "livelihoods," per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also argued that state cases have "flattened and appear to be declining." The story counters his optimism with the opinion of Dr. Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. "It's a very big risk," he said, because "if you open up enough, it's almost ... certain" the virus will intensify in the state. Atlanta, II: Mayor Bottoms told ABC News Monday night that while she can't overrule the governor and lock down her city, she disagrees with the move and will continue to urge residents to stay home. "We don't know what the governor is looking at, but what I do know is we have nearly 19,000 people who have tested positive as of this evening," she said. And as Kemp, a Republican, was announcing his decision, the Democratic mayor announced the formation of an advisory council on when Atlanta should loosen restrictions, reports the Daily Beast. Its "plan of action" is due May 15. Mayor Bottoms told ABC News Monday night that while she can't overrule the governor and lock down her city, she disagrees with the move and will continue to urge residents to stay home. "We don't know what the governor is looking at, but what I do know is we have nearly 19,000 people who have tested positive as of this evening," she said. And as Kemp, a Republican, was announcing his decision, the Democratic mayor announced the formation of an advisory council on when Atlanta should loosen restrictions, reports the Daily Beast. Its "plan of action" is due May 15. The politics: The "predictable" next phase of the coronavirus crisis is sure to be bitter partisan politics, write Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei at Axios. They note that, generally, "conservatives live in states with fewer cases and consume far more skeptical coverage of the virus threat," while "liberals, especially in big cities, experience more death and consume far more ominous coverage." Consider that the latest states to loosen restrictionsGeorgia, South Carolina, and Tennesseeare Southern states run by GOP governors. The upshot is that upcoming debates about the virus will likely "devolve into Fox vs. MSNBC food fights." (Read more Atlanta stories.) Leah Peters, the one-year-old has recovered from Covid-19 despite being born with a congenital heart defect and a chronic lung disease Photo credit: United Lincolnshire Hospitals/PA Wire A one-year-old girl has recovered from Covid-19 despite being born with a congenital heart defect and a chronic lung disease. Leah Peters has spent much of her life going in and out of hospitals for operations and treatment and her parents admitted they thought it would be a "real struggle" if she contracted coronavirus. Her mother and father, Agata and Michael Peters, from Coningsby, Lincolnshire, said their daughter was a "little fighter" and "surprised us all" after she was sent home the day after receiving her test results. Leah was taken to the emergency department at Boston's Pilgrim Hospital after she developed a cough and had low heart stats at the end of March. She was born prematurely at 32 weeks and five days - which meant she developed a chronic lung disease from birth, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said. The youngster is set to have further surgery in the summer to combat her congenital heart defect. Speaking after her return home, Leah's mother, Mrs Peters, said: "A few weeks ago we noticed that Leah had a bit of a cough, but living in a house with us and her two older sisters, Natalie aged four and Emily aged five, we assumed it was a cold or another bug they had brought home and were not overly worried. "Because of Leah's heart condition we have a nurse come to visit her at home every week. "The nurse took her stats and as they were a bit low and combined with the cough she called an ambulance and we were taken to the emergency department at Pilgrim Hospital where she was given oxygen and she picked up a bit." She continued: "It was only later when we were on the ward that we heard that she had tested positive for coronavirus. "We really were surprised. Because of Leah's existing conditions we had talked about coronavirus and feared if she caught it she would really struggle. "But she is a little fighter and has surprised us all. She was sent home the day after we received the test results and is doing really well at the moment." Speaking about the treatment her daughter had received, Mrs Peters added: "All of the NHS staff have been amazing. "Even through all of the protective personal equipment (PPE) they have to wear, they have been so sweet and caring. "We couldn't have asked for any more from the team at Boston. Thank you just isn't enough, it doesn't describe how grateful we all are." United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust deputy chief executive Mark Brassington said: "Staff across the NHS and social care in Lincolnshire and across the country are going above and beyond, doing everything they can to care for patients like Leah. "It really does lift all of our spirits to hear how well she is now doing. "Leah is among more than 130 patients diagnosed with coronavirus who have already been able to leave our hospitals to continue with their recoveries. "Our message to everyone reading Leah's story is thank you for supporting the NHS and doing your bit by staying home. It really is making a difference so please keep it up." Makumbi, 75, died April 16 at Doctors Community Hospital in Prince Georges County, after going to the hospital a few days before, his family said. A spokesman for D.C. Public Schools said he is the systems first confirmed employee to die of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He is survived by his wife, five daughters, four stepchildren and eight grandchildren. T he Health Secretary has been forced to deny the UK's failure to take part in an EU scheme to get vital ventilators for the coronavirus crisis was politically motivated. The Foreign Offices top civil servant Sir Simon McDonald claimed earlier that officials had briefed ministers on what schemes were still open to the UK after leaving the EU at the end January. Sir Simon told the foreign affairs select committee on Monday that "it was a political decision" not to be involved. However, the official later made a U-turn when he wrote to the committee to say he had been incorrect and reverted to the Governments defence that the scheme was not initially joined because of a communication problem caused by missed emails. Referring to Sir Simon's remarks, Matt Hancock said at today's Downing Street press briefing: I havent seen that exchange but I have spoken to the Foreign Secretary and as far as Im aware there was no political decision not to participate in that scheme. We did receive an invitation in the Department of Health and it was put up to me to be asked and we joined so we are now members of that scheme. However, as far as I know that scheme hasnt a single item of PPE (personal protective equipment). UK coronavirus vaccine to be trialled on people from Thursday Earlier, asked why the UK was not involved in EU procurement, Sir Simon had said: We left the European Union on January 31. Pressed by Labour MP Chris Bryant, who said the UK had every right to participate in such schemes, he added: All I can say is, as a matter of fact, we have not taken part. Sir Simon McDonald speaks to the House of Commons foreign affairs committee / PA British officials at the UK Mission to the EU in Brussels briefed ministers about what was available, what was on offer, and the decision is no, he claimed. On March 26, Downing Street claimed there had been a mix up which meant emails from the EU about four procurement schemes were not received. Coronavirus - In pictures 1 /106 Coronavirus - In pictures A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" is seen on an underground station platform Getty Images Customers wearing face masks shop at the pork counter of a supermarket following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province Reuters Westminster Bridge is deserted in London the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown PA Canadian passengers Chris & Anna Joiner ask for help onboard the MS Zaandam, Holland America Line cruise ship, during the coronavirus outbreak, off the shores of Panama City via Reuters A man crosses a nearly empty 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City Reuters The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Commuters cope with Coronavirus Jeremy Selwyn Milan's Piazza del Duomo empty AFP via Getty Images People in protective clothing walk past rows of beds at a temporary 2,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 coronavirus patients set up by the Iranian army at the international exhibition center in northern Tehran, Iran AP Martina Papponetti, 25, an ICU nurse at the Humanitas Gavazzeni Hospital in Bergamo, Italy poses for a portrait at the end of her shift AP Pope Francis celebrating a daily mass alone in the Santa Marta chapel at the Vatican, as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Imag Vysheyshaya Liga - FC Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino v FC Belshina Bobruisk - Torpedo Stadium, Zhodino, Belarus, March 27, 2020 Players in action during the match despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Hanks and Wilson both have coronavirus Tom Hanks General view of an emergency makeshift field hospital as it is set up at Pacaembu Stadium for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients with a capacity of 200 beds in Sao Paulo, Brazil Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on people to stay away from pubs, clubs and theatres, work from home if possible and avoid all non-essential contacts and travel in order to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic PA Naomi Campbell catches a flight in a hazmat suit with goggles, a surgical mask and rubber gloves @naomi Sophie and Emily Ward pose for a photograph with their hand-drawn picture of rainbows and a message on their window in St Helens, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Corona virus outbreak. PA Shoppers queue outside a branch of Costco, in Croydon, south London, on the weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close PA Charing Cross Tube Bakerloo Line very quiet at 8.15am Jeremy Selwyn A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A Racegoer attend Cheltenham Festival on Ladies Day wearing a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at the Public Health England National Infection Service in Colindale PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A couple kiss in Milano Centrale railway station in Milan on March 8, 2020 AFP via Getty Images A combination picture shows visitors wearing protective face masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) looking at blooming cherry blossom nd a pigeon walking at an closed cherry blossom viewing spot during the first weekend after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (not pictured) urged Tokyo residents to stay indoors, in a bid to keep the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from spreading Reuters This combination photo created on March 5, 2020 shows tourists visiting Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province on March 16, 2019 (top) and on March 5, 2020 AFP via Getty Images Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump looks at the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package bill as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Vice President Mike Pence stand by during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House Reuters A satellite image shows an empty South Beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Miami, via Reuters General view inside the empty stadium as the two teams line up prior to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at Parc des Princes UEFA via Getty Images A Sainsbury's supermarket in Cambridge is among those to sell out of antibacterial hand sanitizer PA Tents and ambulances are set up next to the Princess Cruises Grand Princess cruise as it sits docked in the Port of Oakland on March 09, 2020 in Oakland, California. The Princess Cruises Grand Princess has been held from docking until today as at least 21 people on board have tested positive for COVID-19 also known as the Coronavirus Getty Images Medical staff produce traditional Chinese medicine to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea AP Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing protective gear walks at a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Moscow via Reuters A woman who has recovered from the COVID-19 is disinfected by volunteers as she arrives at a hotel for a 14-day quarantine AFP via Getty Images Passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen as the ship arrives at Daikoku Pier where it is being resupplied and newly diagnosed coronavirus cases taken for treatment as it remains in quarantine after a number of the 3,700 people on board were diagnosed with coronavirus Getty Images Dave Abel pictured in hospital in Japan Manchester United fans in the stands during the Premier League match at Old Trafford PA Police officers wearing masks stand in front of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife AP Carnival revellers wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival Reuters A general view is pictured of Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire after the closure of the school as a pupil's parent has tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Images People wearing face masks walk past the Olympic rings in front of the new National Stadium, the main stadium for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Game Getty Images People leave Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes where Coronavirus evacuees are due to be released from quarantine today and allowed to go home PA Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridg Getty Images A general view of Worthing Hospital in West Sussex PA Passengers relax on board the Holland America-operated Westerdam cruise ship, which has been denied permission to dock in Thailand over coronavirus fears via Reuters A child waves as she sits in a vehicle carrying residents evacuated from a public housing building, following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, outside Hong Mei House, at Cheung Hong Estate in Hong Kong Reuters A woman wearing a Minnie Mouse face mask looks at her mobile phone in Beijing on February 11, 2020 AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, is docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia after a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus on board, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters A patient covered with a bed sheet at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital as it starts to accept patients displaying mild symptoms of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images A medical official takes the body temperature of a man at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China Reuters The view of the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center Getty Images A plane carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, arrives at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire A police vehicle enters the gates of the Royal Air Force station RAF Brize Norton in Carterton AFP via Getty Images Passengers wear face masks as the push their luggage after arriving from a flight at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images French citizens arrive and settle aboard of an evacuation plane with destination southeastern France, before departure from Wuhan Airport (WUH), China AFP via Getty Images Police stand at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge that crosses from Hubei province in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China Reuters A member of staff at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside prepares for a bus carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China PA Doctor Paul McKay, who is working on an vaccine for the 2019-nCoV strain of the novel coronavirus, poses for a photograph with bacteria containing fragments of coronavirus DNA, at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in Londo AFP via Getty Images Workers produce masks at the Thai Hospital Product Company Ltd. factory in Bangkok AFP via Getty Images Passengers wearing face masks are seen on a bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters People hoard bottles of alcohol after the Philippine government confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the country, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines Reuters Taking precautions: with fears growing that the coronavirus will spread from China, a health official checks a womans temperature on the underground in Beijing Getty Images An empty road is seen in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020, amid a deadly virus outbreak which began in the city AFP via Getty Images Students wearing masks meditate prior to a lesson at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia AP Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus AFP via Getty Images Staff move bio-waste containers past the entrance of the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan, China AP Workers driving excavators at the construction site of a field hospital In Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The builders will complete the 1,000-bed hospital by February 3 to cope with the surge of 2019-nCoV patients in the city Getty Images Buddhist monks wear masks as they walk near Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodi AP A woman and a child wearing protective masks walk toward check-in counters at Daxing international airport in Beijing AFP via Getty Images An employee sprays disinfectant on a train as a precaution against a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, South Korea AP A policeman wearing a mask walks past a quarantine notice about the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China at an arrival hall of Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan Reuters Paramilitary police wear face masks as they stand guard at Tiananmen Gate adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing AP The resident wear masks to buy vegetables in the market in Wuhan Getty Images Staff sell masks at a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan AP Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV AP A Government spokesman said that owing to an initial communication problem, the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in four joint procurements in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The lack of British involvement in the scheme led to claims that it was motivated by Brexiteer ideology in Mr Johnsons administration which was denied by Downing Street. Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast Naomi Smith, of pro-EU campaign Best for Britain, said: If it was a political decision not to join Europe-wide schemes to bulk-buy PPE and other essential medical equipment, then the Government prioritised its own image over the countrys health. That decision has been disastrous. Frontline workers deserve much better. China has accused Australia of joining a United States-led 'propaganda war' against the communist country. China's embassy in Canberra slammed Peter Dutton after he called for the nation to be more transparent over COVID-19, which broke out in Wuhan in December. President Donald Trump last week said the U.S. was trying to determine whether coronavirus first crossed to humans during experiments with bats at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Following Trump's comments, the home affairs minister demanded answers from China about the origins of the virus amid unsubstantiated theories it originated in a Wuhan lab. An embassy spokesman on Tuesday accused Mr Dutton of following in Trump's footsteps and 'parroting' the US' 'propaganda war' against the nation. Peter Dutton (right) is seen speaking to members of the Chinese language media during a press conference at the Golden Lane Chinese Restaurant in Brisbane last month 'It makes people really curious that in recent days, Mr. Dutton showed a sudden interest in China's ''transparency'' on COVID-19,' the spokesman said. 'Obviously he must have also received some instructions from Washington requiring him to co-operate with the US in its propaganda war against China. 'It is well known that recently some people in the US, including high-level officials, have been spreading anti-China ''information virus''. 'Their aim is to shift blame and deflect attention by smearing China. What they have done is neither moral nor helpful to solve their own problems.' 'These days, certain Australian politicians are keen to parrot what those Americans have asserted and simply follow them in staging political attacks on China.' The spokesman said Mr Dutton exposed Australia's 'ignorance and bigotry,' which China described as 'pitiful'. The scathing attack Mr Dutton comes after he called on China to be forthcoming about the origins of COVID-19. 'All of those families would demand answers and transparency, and I don't think it's too much to ask,' he told ABC News on Friday. The spokesman said Mr Dutton exposed Australia's 'ignorance and bigotry,' which China described as 'pitiful'. Pictured Chinese President Xi Jinping A spokesman of China's embassy in Canberra (pictured) accused the home affairs minister of following in Donald Trump's footsteps and joining a 'propaganda war' against the nation 'It would certainly be demanded of us if Australia was at the epicentre of this virus making its way into society. 'So I think it is incumbent upon China to answer those questions and to provide the information so that people can have clarity about exactly what happened. Because we don't want it to be repeated.' Last week a Chinese academic accused Australia of joining the US on a 'crusade' against China after foreign minister Marise Payne called for an independent inquiry into how the outbreak started. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that China 'come clean' after unsubstantiated reports that coronavirus may have originated in a lab in Wuhan. Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Centre at the East China Normal University, said Australian politicians were engaged in a 'smear campaign' against China. 'It is deplorable that Australia is joining this anti-China crusade that will further damage the bilateral relations, a consequence that we in both countries don't want to see,' he told the AFR. 'At a time when countries in the world are collaborating in the global combat against the COVID-19 pandemic, when what we need most is unity and solidarity, Australia has teamed up with Washington in the smear campaign against China based on red herrings deviating from truth and facts.' After word of the outbreak finally became public, Chinese leaders were quick to blame Wuhan's 'wet market' where wild animals - though not bats - are sold for consumption, leading one source to tell US media outlet Fox News the debacle is the 'costliest government coverup of all time.' 'Patient zero' worked at the Wuhan lab, and spread the virus into the local population after leaving work, unnamed sources told the outlet. China has refuted claims that the virus may have originated in a laboratory near the city of Wuhan where contagious samples were being stored. Scientists in Australia have said there is 'no evidence' the virus started in the lab. President Donald Trump last week said the U.S. was trying to determine whether coronavirus first crossed to humans accidentally during experiments with bats at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (pictured) The latest death is a 92-year-old woman who died at the cornoavirus-infected Newmarch House nursing home in western Sydney The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that all available evidence suggests the novel coronavirus originated in animals in China late last year and was not manipulated or produced in a laboratory. 'All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else,' WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told a Geneva news briefing. 'It is probable, likely, that the virus is of animal origin.' Ms Chaib said it was not clear how the virus had jumped the species barrier to humans but there had 'certainly' been an intermediate animal host. '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,' she said. She did not respond to a request to elaborate on whether it was possible the virus may have inadvertently escaped from a lab. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has dismissed rumours both that it synthesized the virus or allowed it to escape. Chaib, asked about the impact of Trump's decision last week to suspend funding to the U.N. agency over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, said: 'We are still assessing the situation about the announcement by President Trump ...and we will assess the situation and we will work with our partners to fill any gaps.' Five of Isabella Countys seven COVID-19 deaths are people who caught the disease in elder care facilities. The Central Michigan District Health Department confirmed Tuesday that a resident of MediLodge of Mt. Pleasant, 1524 E. Portabella, was hospitalized on March 31 and died on April 1. Test results that came back on April 2 confirmed that the person had COVID-19. No age or gender of the person was given. The confirmation comes one day after the health department confirmed that four deaths from the disease stemmed from an outbreak at the Isabella County Medical Care Facility. That outbreak involved 16 residents and three staff members who live in the CMDHDs six counties, the care facility announced on social media on Monday. If all three of those people live in Isabella County, that would account for as many as 20 of the countys 53 cases. Another source of confirmed cases is the Mt. Pleasant Target, 4097 E. Bluegrass Road. Rumors that several employees had tested positive for the disease were confirmed Tuesday afternoon. Were working in close partnership with local health departments and can share that weve been notified that our Mt. Pleasant store has multiple team member positive cases of the coronavirus, said a statement provided by Danielle Schumann, Targets corporate public relations lead. Weve communicated directly with these team members, who are in quarantine and following all health department guidelines. These team members will be paid while theyre on leave and our thoughts are with them during this challenging time. The statement also announced additional safety steps taken. After learning about positive cases, we also work quickly to deep clean and sanitize the store, which is the recommendation of public health experts. We have notified the entire store team and provided them with the appropriate CDC guidance, the statement from Target read. Weve also implemented a number of additional measures at this store, including providing masks, gloves and thermometers for team members, increasing cleaning routines, installing partitions at checklanes and employing a variety of social distancing measures. Our top priority is the health and safety of our team members and guests. We will continue to actively monitor this situation and respond accordingly. After a week or so of accelerated growth, cases of COVID-19 in Isabella County are back to increasing by dribs and drabs. Just one additional case was reported by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday afternoon. The last several weeks, Tuesdays have statistically been big days for new cases as labs catch up on reporting new cases after the weekend ends. Statewide, that was the case with 967 new cases and 232 new deaths reported Tuesday, after a Monday that saw 576 new cases and 77 new deaths reported. Cumulatively, the state now has 32,967 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,700 Michiganders have died from the disease. Although the number of cases in metro Detroit has shown a gradual flattening, the majority of Tuesdays new cases and deaths were reported there. Of the 967 new cases, 593 were reported in metro Detroit. So were 199 of the new deaths. But, numbers point to rapidly escalating cases in northern Michigan. A little more than a week ago, there were no confirmed cases in Alpena County. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, there were 35, with one death. Otsego County, an early northern Michigan hotspot, has seen its numbers shoot up to 77 cases and six deaths. There, 3.2 people for every 1,000 residents in the 24,000-person county has tested positive. By comparison, the per capita infection rate in Macomb County is 5.1 per 1,000. Around mid-Michigan, however, there was little drama in Tuesdays update. In addition to the new case in Isabella, Midland County added one new case for 48 cases and three deaths and Mecosta County added one case for 14 cases and one death. Montcalm remained the same with 26 cases and one death. Gratiot held steady at eight cases and one death, while Clare and Gladwin counties held fast at nine cases and one death, each. CMDHD released information on the death in Gladwin County on Tuesday, which occurred sometime between Friday and Monday. It was an elderly woman with underlying health conditions admitted to MidMichigan Health-Gladwin on April 14, the health department announced in a press release. Although public health officials maintain that the disease can kill anyone, the numbers point to a disease that is especially deadly the older you are. While the median age of death the point at which half of deaths occur above and half below remained 75, but the average age of death ticked up to 73.8. People over the age of 70 account for two-thirds of all deaths in Michigan. The state also reports an 8 percent fatality rate among people who test positive for it. That is, however, an imperfect number for two reasons. The first is that there are more people dying than what epidemiologists expect to die. Its believed that one explanation for that is that people dying at home from COVID-related complications are not being listed as COVID deaths. That could increase the number of people whove died from the disease. The second would lower the fatality rate by adding people who were infected but who never got sick enough to warrant a test. Although Michigan is increasing the availability of tests, it lagged badly especially early in testing anyone but sick people in at-risk groups. Adding people who have only very mild illnesses would increase the number of people infected, and since those people dont die, that would reduce the death rate. READ MORE: China extensively censored information on the coronavirus outbreak, a leading media watchdog has said, adding that the negative effects of Beijings information hyper-control system have been experienced globally amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the many crises threatening press freedom across the world, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday, unveiling its annual press rankings. The RSF called out authoritarian governments for taking advantage of the international health crisis to push through repressive media laws, censure journalists and censor news. Both China (177th) and Iran (173rd) censored their major coronavirus outbreaks extensively, the RSF report said, adding: China, which is trying to establish a new world media order maintains its system of information hyper-control, of which the negative effects for the entire world have been seen during the coronavirus public health crisis. China has been accused of downplaying and covering up initial information of the coronavirus which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. The severity of the unknown fever was downplayed and doctors who attempted to raise the alarm were harassed and detained; medics who shared their concerns within the community were rounded up as rumourmongers Until nearly the third week of January, officials did not publicly reveal the full picture of the outbreak, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to travel out of Wuhan. China, since the initial costly missteps, has largely brought the outbreak under control within the country. On Tuesday, the Chinese mainland reported 11 new confirmed Covid-19 cases, with four imported cases, and 37 new asymptomatic. Overall, the China now has over 4,600 deaths and more than 82,700 cases. Separately, RSFs UK bureau director, Rebecca Vincent told CNN Business that if there had been a free press in China and if the whistleblowers hadnt been silenced, then this could have been prevented from turning into a pandemic. Sometimes we can talk about press freedom in a theoretical way, but this shows the impact can at times be physical. It can affect all of our health, she said. Chinas foreign ministry dismissed the RSFs report. Spokesperson Geng Shuang said that this organisation has always held deep-rooted prejudice against China and their so-called report is not worth rebutting. China upholds the basic national policy of opening up to the outside word, and welcomes foreign media and journalists, Geng said. We are opposed to ideological biases against China, publication of fake news in the name of so-called press freedom as well as behaviors that are against journalistic ethics. Norway topped the global index of media freedom for the fourth year in a row, with Scandinavian countries filling the top spots. Finland came in second, Denmark third and Sweden fourth. The democratically elected presidents of two countries, Donald Trump in the United States (up 3 at 45th) and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil (down 2 at 107th), continue to denigrate the media and encourage hatred of journalists in their respective countries. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Nigerias Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, has said journalists reporting events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic are at risk of contracting the virus as much as health workers. Mr Mohammed, while responding to questions at the daily Presidential Task Force briefing on Tuesday, said journalists should be considered frontline soldiers in the fight against the disease. He said enlightenments, sensitisations and other interventions will be impossible without the presence of the media. As of today, there is no known vaccine or medicine for COVID-19. The only strategy we are employing is non pharmaceutical intervention which is advocacy, enlightenment and sensitisation. These cannot be carried out without the support of the media. Therefore, it wont be wrong to qualify a journalist as a frontline soldier in the fight against COVID-19. We pray nobody contracts the virus but you are probably at much risk as the health workers, he said. Mr Mohammed also said discussions will be raised at the Task Force meeting for compensation of journalists by their employers. I think just as our health workers, airport workers etc are frontline soldiers in this war, you also are. So it wont be out of place to take up this matter at the level of the task force and also engage your employers as to what kind of arrangement can be made for journalists, especially those of you who are with us everyday, the minister said. Despite the outbreak of COVID-19, journalists in many parts of the world are still covering press conferences and conducting on-the-ground reporting. This exposes them to the virus as much as health workers who are considered first respondents to patients. Since the outbreak of the disease, some journalists have contracted the virus. The latest case is Richard Quest, a Cable Network News (CNN) reporter. Already, Chris Cuomo and Brooke Baldwin, both of the CNN, had tested positive for COVID-19. READ ALSO: COVID-19 has infected over 2.5 million people and killed at least 176,000 people worldwide according to the worldometer.info It is, however, uncertain if any journalist has contracted the virus in Nigeria where 665 cases have been recorded, of which 188 have been treated and discharged and 22 deaths recorded. Insurance package Meanwhile, the Executive Director of International Press Centre (IPC), Lanre Arogundade, earlier said journalists covering COVID-19 deserves to be placed on a special insurance package. According to a statement published on the centres website, Mr Arogundade said journalists are among professionals who are always on duty during crisis situations and their safety should therefore be accorded very high priority. From provision with protective wears and adequate supply of basics such as hand sanitisers, nothing can be too much to do for journalists on the field at this moment, he said. He advised journalists to avail themselves of all the health tips on avoiding COVID-19 infection especially as outlined by global health bodies and national health institutions. Journalists should apply necessary caution so as not to expose themselves to avoidable health risk in the understandable urge to cover breaking stories on the pandemic, he said. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri has donated his blood plasma on Tuesday to help patients fight against the coronavirus disease. Zubiri, who had recovered from COVID-19, went to the Philippine General Hospital earlier in the day for his plasma donation. "I was very lucky to have recovered with no complications, but that is not the case for many other patients, whose bodies are less prepared to fight this disease," the senator said in a statement. "If plasma donations can help them in any way, then I am more than happy to offer mine," Zubiri added. The senator announced on March 16 that he had contracted the virus after interacting with a COVID-19 patient in the Senate. Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, also a COVID-19 survivor, previously bared that he had donated his blood which immediately went to a plasma therapy for a patient with a severe case. The Philippine General Hospital (PGH), one of the government's referral hospitals for COVID-19, earlier announced that the blood of patients who have recovered from the disease contain antibodies that could help others fight the infection. It shared on April 9 that the first three survivors of the disease have come forward to donate their blood to help the infected patients. COVID-19 survivors who wish to donate their blood may contact 155-200 or visit the Facebook page of the PGH for more details. CLEVELAND, Ohio The Northern District of Ohios chief judge ordered all federal courthouses to remain closed to most of the public until the middle of June, another precaution to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. Chief U.S. District Judge Patricia Gaughan last month ordered the courthouses closed and said no criminal or civil jury trials could go forward until May 1. Her order issued Monday extends the restrictions until after June 12. The order affects the Carl B. Stokes U.S. Court House on the west side of downtown and the Howard M. Metzenbaum U.S. Courthouse on the east side of Public Square, as well as federal courthouses in Akron, Youngstown and Toledo. The order is a sign that not everything will revert to how it once was as states look to ease restrictions. Ohios stay-at-home order expires May 1, though Gov. Mike DeWine has said many places will continue to take precautions. Many of the court employees are working from home for the foreseeable future. The biggest concern, as with many other places, is that allowing operations to fully resume could mean there is not enough space for people to socially distance. That affects trials, as people brought in to a courthouse to potentially serve on a jury are often people who have conditions that place them at increased risk of serious illness associated with the virus, according to Gaughans order. They are also often people who work essential jobs or deal with children who are not at school or daycare for the time being. The order, like the previous one, says initial appearances, arraignments and detention hearings will take place by phone or videoconference when its practical. The court will hold criminal pretrial hearings by phone. Grand jury proceedings are also on hold until June 12, unless absolutely necessary and approved by Gaughan, the order states. Most plea and sentencing hearings have been postponed, but the order gives judges some discretion to hold them if they are necessary. As for civil matters, they will be heard by phone or videoconference, the order states. Read more: Judge orders northern Ohio federal courthouses closed to public due to coronavirus Courts across Ohio take uneven approaches in response to coronavirus pandemic Federal courts in northern Ohio postpone jury trials, limit grand jury meetings in response to coronavirus Northern Ohio federal courts take steps to prevent coronavirus spread, though most operations continue as normal BERLIN Six years ago Wassim Mukdad fled Syria, demoralized and fearing for his life as the country spiraled ever deeper into all-out war. This week, the 34-year-old will come face-to-face with the man accused of running a government detention center where Mukdad and thousands of others were tortured during the early months of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad. Together with more than a dozen other witnesses, Mukdad will testify before a German court in the trial of Anwar R., a former member of Syrias secret police suspected of overseeing the abuse of detainees at a notorious jail near Damascus known as Al Khatib, or Branch 251. German prosecutors last fall charged the 57-year-old R., whose full surname wasnt released for privacy reasons, with crimes against humanity, murder and rape in a case that human rights activists say marks the first time worldwide that a former Syrian officials is being held responsible for such serious crimes during the long-running conflict. As a senior member of Syrias General Intelligence Directorate, R. is accused of overseeing the systematic and brutal torture of more than 4,000 prisoners between April 2011 and September 2012, resulting in the deaths of at least 58 people, federal prosecutors said. A second suspect, identified as Eyad A., will also go on trial accused of contributing to crimes against humanity by enabling the torture and imprisonment of at least 30 protesters in late 2011. The 43-year-old was allegedly part of a unit that arrested people following a demonstration in the city of Douma and took them to Branch 251, where they were severely mistreated. I was taking part in demonstrations, demanding freedom and civil society, liberties and democracy. Exactly the same as the whole demonstration movement in that time, Mukdad recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. The second time I was detained, it was in the same branch where (R.) allegedly used to work, he said. I faced torture there, during the interrogations. For legal reasons, Mukdad cant talk about the details of his case before the trial opens. But he said what happened to him wasnt unique. We were three friends and we all suffered the same procedures from the beginning till the end, he said. And other people in the cells I met also suffered the same. So I knew that it wasnt only me. None of the inmates knew why they were being detained or whether they would make it out alive. We were not allowed to contact any lawyers, family members or friends, Mukdad said. Nobody tells you anything. Its not only a physical torture, its also psychological torture. The defendants lawyers could not be reached for comment. After being released, Mukdad volunteered as a medic in a refugee camp in southern Damascus, only to get detained by al-Nusra, an Islamist armed group linked to al-Qaida, and then again by government forces. Starting from 2013, the situation was going very clearly into a full-scale civil war, Mukdad said. The government had begun to use chemical weapons. You think: What could I do anymore? There is no place for any reasonable voice in in this time of total mania. He decided to flee Syria a year later, first to Turkey and then, in 2016, to Germany. Like hundreds of thousands of Syrians who found refuge in Germany, Mukdad tried to create a new life for himself, learning the language and concentrating on music, unaware that human rights groups in Europe were building a case against Syrian officials. It wasnt until last year that he happened to cross paths with a lawyer in Berlin who asked him to testify against Anwar R. This trial is of considerable importance worldwide. The trial will provide an overall picture of the crimes committed by the Syrian government. This knowledge can then be used by others and in other trials, said Wolfgang Kaleck, head of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights that supports 16 Syrians in the case, eight of whom will be present as co-plaintiffs. The group said the case is the result of a series of criminal complaints submitted over the past four years by almost 50 Syrian torture survivors, relatives, activists, and lawyers in Germany, Austria, Norway and Sweden. With efforts to bring war crimes cases to the International Criminal Court in The Hague blocked by Russia and China, victims have increasingly looked to courts in Europe to apply the principle of universal jurisdiction that allows them to try crimes committed elsewhere. Both France and Germany have issued international arrest warrants for Jamil Hassan, the former head of Syrias Air Force Intelligence Service implicated in widespread torture. To Mukdad, the trial that opens Thursday in Germanys western city of Koblenz is a way to raise the voice of the victims, the living and the dead. If there is any process to restore part of this dignity for the victims, to acknowledge the suffering, to just say clearly and loudly, this is not acceptable, its a gain for the whole of humanity, he said. Mukdad said he hopes the defendants receive the fair trial he was denied in Syria. The men, who themselves left Syria for Germany before their arrest in February 2019, remain in jail. If they are innocent, I want them to be free. If they are guilty, I want them to face just punishment, said Mukdad. All that I can hope is that the system works properly. ___ Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter Syracuse, N.Y. Gi Desia felt so awful during a concert in mid-January she left and went home. For three weeks, she battled a slight fever, chills, body aches and earaches. A week after she felt sick at the Westcott Theater, so did her husband. They thought it was the flu, but after the coronavirus pandemic began to build in New York, they wondered if they might have been among the diseases first victims in Central New York. On Monday afternoon, they stood in line for three hours to find out. For me, knowing that I had it is important because there may be future ramifications of the virus, said Desia, one of 150 people tested by the state health department at Wegmans on James Street. If there are any future secondary complications, at least Ill know if I had the virus. The Wegmans, and the Price Chopper on Erie Boulevard, were among dozens of locations across the state where the health department conducted surprise testing to track the spread of the virus. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday the state would conduct 3,000 antibody tests, but health department officials say they might end up with more. Several hundred of those are likely to come from the two Syracuse testing centers. The department is seeking a broad sample representative of the New Yorks 19 million residents. The results could help decide when to get the economy moving again. By the time of Cuomos announcement, the health department was quietly setting up shop at Central New York supermarkets. At the Price Chopper late Sunday afternoon, the test site was marked only by a hand-written sign on newsprint. There was nobody in line, said Syracuse resident Jeffrey Tamburo, who happened to be shopping there. He decided to take the test: a finger prick that rendered two drops of blood. I didnt even know it was happening in our county, Tamburo said. There was hardly anyone there. After social media posts and media coverage, however, the two sites got crowded Monday. The Wegmans site had to turn away people who had been waiting for hours, Desia said. The state is hoping to map the spread of the disease by finding out who has been infected. The blood tests search for antibodies the body manufacturers to fight the coronavirus, formally known as SARS-CoV-2. If you have those antibodies, known as IgG, it likely means were infected with that virus three or more weeks before. It doesnt tell you if you have an infection right then. For that you need a nasal swab tests to diagnose an active infection. While scientists believe those antibodies will provide some protection against the virus later, its too early to be sure. This wont be known until people who have IgG levels are exposed again to SARS-CoV-2 and we can study whether any of them are infected again, the health department said in a sheet handed to the people who were tested. The antibody tests could help the state figure out how many New Yorkers have had the coronavirus, Cuomo said Sunday. Any plan to start to reopen the economy has to be based on data and testing, and we have to make sure our antibody and diagnostic testing is up to the scale we need so we can safely get people back to work, Cuomo said. This will be the first true snapshot of what were dealing with." Testing sites werent announced in advance, health officials said, to prevent large crowds and give better odds of a random sample. That led to some complaints on social media from people who found out too late to get a test, and from public officials who were surprised when the testing sites sprung up. State officials notified Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon ahead of time of the two locations, said county spokesman Justin Sayles. I think they picked two high-traffic areas where they could get demographic diversity, McMahon said. Onondaga County has had 646 confirmed cases of COVID-19, but experts believe the number of people who have been infected is far higher. Upstate Medical University estimates about 8,600 people, or about 1.3% of the Central New Yorks population, have had the virus. The states testing will get a better handle on those numbers. At the Wegmans on James Street, the department set up a four-station testing center in the food court, near the front doors. Desia said she provided identification and medical information, and then a nurse pricked her finger and squeezed two drops of blood onto a card. Desia was told shed get a call in three to five days with the results. Desia said she and her husband arrived about 1:30 p.m. Monday, and there was already a long line in the parking lot. Everybody wore a mask, she said, and stayed at least six feet apart. Wegmans employees patrolled the parking lot, instructing people to stand on the parking stripes to maintain enough distance. For the next three hours, Desia stood in the slowly moving line, chatting with people in front and behind. Of the dozens of people she talked, to, Desia said, nearly all of them had been sick at some point with symptoms resembling COVID-19. Not one person I spoke with had been tested to see if they were positive or negative, she said. The crowd was smaller Monday afternoon at Price Chopper, said Kay Scott, who went there late Monday afternoon to get tested. A nurse practitioner, she had worked in Upstate Medical Universitys department of infectious disease research and is now a substitute school nurse. She and her husband had traveled to New York City several times for his medical treatment. Scott said she had had mild symptoms similar to COVID-19s and wanted to know if she had had the virus, possibly exposing her three teenagers. Im essentially the canary in the coal mine for my family, she said. If Im positive or if I had been exposed to the virus, it may provide a clue for our own family. Scott said there were about eight people in front of her. She noted that the nurses taking blood samples were using the same 7-by-4-inch cards hospitals use to do heel-prick blood tests for newborns. The cards even had a drawing of a heel. The cards will be shipped to the health departments Wadsworth laboratory in Albany, which developed the test. Tamburo, who was tested Sunday afternoon, got his results back within 24 hours. He was neither positive nor negative, he said, but indeterminate. The health department said that can happen if the test reacted with other antibodies, or if the coronavirus antibody levels are too low to measure. The health department told Tamburo, who never had any COVID-19 symptoms, he could get tested again Monday. I went back to Price Chopper yesterday, he said, but there was a huge line all the way through the produce section. He left. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources McMahon: No more shelter-in-place, but urges people to travel even less; hospitals can reopen Syracuse, Onondaga County miss out on $90 million in coronavirus relief bill New York to consider region by region reopening after coronavirus shutdowns, Cuomo says Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Much has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, including people's travel plans. We asked our readers to share what happened to their voyages. *** We had planned to continue our tradition of going to the Summer Olympics, this year in Japan. However, due to the big Japanese demand, America's allocation of tickets was greatly reduced, and we were shut out. Alternatively, we planned a cruise out of Tokyo in March. Unfortunately, the cruise on the now-infamous Diamond Princess was quarantined and our cruise was canceled. At that time, my husband was furious with the cancellation, but in hindsight, we are glad it was canceled. We got a full refund plus 50% off a future cruise. We now have no desire to go to Japan. Instead of Japan, we decided on a last-minute two-week trip to Florida in March. Fortunately, we experienced great weather and took the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends. Thankfully, we made it home before the virus became widespread and restrictions were put in place. -Maria and Jerry Cioffi *** Our son Logan, a junior at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., left home on Jan. 3 for London and the experience of a lifetime. He had earned a coveted internship as a U.S. politics student, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He was assigned to a member of Parliament in the House of Commons, the Honorable Gillian Keegan MP, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Education. He spent three days a week in Westminster Palace and two days in field study classes in and around London and surrounding areas. Though very busy with classwork and his duties in Parliament, his weekends were spent seeing the Cliffs of Dover, Canterbury, Bedfordshire and other areas of the surrounding countryside. He spent time in other parts, such as the Isle of Man and Copenhagen, Denmark and planned future trips to see Ireland, Scotland, Portugal, and Italy during his semester. Sadly, most were just a plan that he never got to experience. He lost hundreds of dollars in airline fees and Airbnb reservations in Europe, when he was ordered home to the United States by his university on March 3. In the final week before he was notified he would have to leave the United Kingdom, he attended Prime Minister Questions (PMQ's), in the House of Commons gallery, listening to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and others discuss their approach, as the first signs that the coronavirus was rearing its ugly head towards Britain. We now know that Johnson ... tested positive for the virus. We watched the situation abroad nervously, as our son communicated with friends, also abroad, through social media. Classmates questioned the viability of their programs allowing them to stay until they were actually scheduled to end in mid-late April. First, classmates were pulled from northern Italy internships, then Rome, and finally, all CUA students abroad were ordered home. It was immediately upon the Rome students being pulled, that Logan said he knew they would be next and he was correct. The response in his Parliament office from his associates was surprise and sadness that he was so quickly being sent home from the program. Some questioned that it was unnecessary or overly cautious at the time. As parents, we rationalized the responsibility and liability that Catholic University had consider in order to protect their students. They could not chance a travel ban and trapped students, possibly ill in a foreign country. It still did not make the disappointment any easier. In the days and weeks that followed, since he arrived back home in Loudonville, more friends were called home much later, from places like India and Indonesia. The most recent blow for Logan, was the cancellation of his upcoming and much anticipated summer term at Oxford University. a few days ago. As a rising senior, this program with Oxford will no longer be an option for him. I'm hearing phone conversations he is having with all of his friends who were forced to cut their experiences short. They are a group linked by a shared loss of opportunities and expectations for their futures. So much loss for all students at this time who have sacrificed to get where they are. Lost graduation ceremonies, lost internships, lost employment, lost money, lost opportunities to complete the experiences they worked so very hard for and deserved. On a side note, we were scheduled to visit Logan in London for five days at the end of his program in April, take the Chunnel to Paris for five days together then help him move everything back home. Since I made all the reservations myself online, every hotel and tour was refunded. Delta gave me a credit and no rebooking fee and the Chunnel (Eurostar Train) gave me full credit, that I must use before Dec 31, 2020. Our hope is that later this summer, we can make it over there to see Parliament and Paris with our son. One can dream, right? -Denise Finning Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. *** On May 19, five senior couples were scheduled to fly to Portland, Ore., for a motorcycle trip of a lifetime. The itinerary had been planned and tweaked several times, including details like when the motorcycles had to be shipped, hotel bookings and sites we wanted to see. In short, we would fly into Portland, pick up our motorcycles and head off to visit Mount St. Helens in Washington, Oregons Columbia River Gorge and coast, the Redwood National Forest in California, central Oregon, Boise, Idaho, and Salt Lake City Utah. From there, the ladies would fly home and the guys would continue the adventure by traveling back cross-country on the bikes to home. COVID -19 put a dent in the plans and all reservations have been canceled. The bright side is the trip is all planned and we just need to plug in new travel dates! - Lynda Schoonbeek *** A friend and I were planning a tulip peeping river cruise to Holland and Belgium in early April. In early March she became concerned about the virus and suggested we cancel immediately. I suggested that rather than cancel, we ask the tour company if we could just book another trip in the early fall. It turned out that both of our suggestions were good ones: with the help of our travel agent, we were able to transfer our reservation to a river cruise through Germany in September with no additional fees. We even got the last available cabin! I guess by acting early we beat the crowd of travelers now trying to make new plans. But I wish them all the same good luck we had. - Stephanie Weiss *** In early March, my husband and I were days away from booking our flights to Northern Italy to visit our son who was expected to graduate from the University of Bolzano. It never happened due to COVID-19. Bolzano (Bozen) is one of many breathtaking places to visit in Italy. Off the main tourist route, the city lies at the foothills of the Dolomites. Culture there is different than southern Italy in food, language, and lifestyle. This city in South Tyrol was originally part of Austria, which explains the German-Austrian culture still strongly in place after 100 years. The area is beautiful in any season with the mountains as backdrop to the rolling hills of villages and valleys and all it has to offer including Otzi the iceman, the well-preserved natural mummy of a man dating back to 3300 B.C., nature parks, delectable recipes, and Christmas markets. - Catherine Zampier The focus of Manitobas COVID-19 efforts has, quite properly, been on slowing the spread of the virus and providing the necessary resources so we can enable our public-health system to properly treat all those who contract the virus. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The focus of Manitobas COVID-19 efforts has, quite properly, been on slowing the spread of the virus and providing the necessary resources so we can enable our public-health system to properly treat all those who contract the virus. We seem to be doing well in that battle, for which the provincial government, our health-care workers and the entire community can take real pride. But there is another battle to be waged, which is just coming into focus and has the potential, if we dont win it, to be far worse in its impact than the health battle we have been fighting. As part of the fight against COVID-19, governments have essentially placed large sectors of our economy into an induced coma. Many businesses and community organizations, large and small, have been forced to close their doors or restrict their activities to such a degree that they cannot pay their bills or deliver their services. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with these entities; they were successful before the pandemic and, if they can get to the other side of this crisis, they will be successful in the future. However, they were never designed to be shut down completely for such a length of time, and many may not be able to reopen when the all-clear signal is given. The suggestion Ive heard from a few, that this economic crisis is simply a matter of a culling of the weak, is patently absurd. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallisters focus during the pandemic has been on the health-care battle, while leaving the economic fight to the federal government. When companies shut down, people lose their jobs permanently its one thing to provide short-term unemployment insurance to people, but its a completely different thing to find replacement jobs after businesses have closed. As well, when businesses close, they stop using and paying for each others services, which puts huge pressure up and down the value chain. So many co-dependencies between businesses, and between businesses and individuals, are being shattered that we run the risk of emerging from our houses in several weeks or months with our health intact, only to find an economic and community wasteland. We need to find ways to keep the "pilot lights" of these organizations on during this period of isolation and economic shutdown, so that they can help lead us through the return to "normalcy" that we all desire. During my years in business, I have seen many periods of economic stress, but nothing approaching this. Unemployment rates, lack of consumer confidence and diminished financial capacity of businesses are at unimaginable levels, which makes the suggestion that we can expect a quick recovery a "pie in the sky" assertion. Getting through this will be in an enormous undertaking, and will require a complete all-of-country approach. The most important element of this undertaking, at least in the short term, is massive government funding to support our business value chains. This funding will need to be at levels at which no government will be comfortable, but it is obvious that our entire non-governmental economic structure is threatened, and only financial support to keep the system operating until doors are reopened will work. The scope of this support is going to place significant stress on the finances of government at all levels. This is what allowed us to get through the crisis of 2008-09. The difference here is that we are facing a general collapse of our economy, not just of our financial system and a few key industries which is why the level of support needs to be so vast. The scope of this support is going to place significant stress on the finances of government at all levels. When this is over, there will be a major restructuring of these finances, but first we need to get our businesses over the hump so that they and their employees can play a central role in the recovery process. I am concerned that our provincial government does not appreciate the importance of the role it must play in this economic war. It seems, from its actions (or inactions), that it expects the federal government to do all the heavy lifting with respect to the economy, while the province focuses on the health crisis. The province has been sending the message that it is more concerned with protecting its own financial position than in helping many of its citizens who have been hurt through no fault of their own. While I believe the federal government has the best tools to address the economic needs of Canadians, and that Manitobans should take full advantage of programs announced by the federal government, there is a vital role for the province to play in helping Manitobans survive this war. Heres what I think the province should do: 1) Start by acknowledging we are in an economic crisis that is as much of an existential threat to our province as the COVID-19 war, making it clear to Manitobans that we can, and must, fight both wars at the same time, and accepting its leadership role on behalf of Manitobans on both fronts. Recognize that it is more important in these circumstances to try to protect as many organizations as possible, rather than focusing on the protection of its own financial position. 2) Engage with Manitobans in different sectors in order to fully understand the scale of this challenge so it can properly advocate for Manitobans. Federal support programs are being developed on the fly, based on evolving knowledge of the problems. The province can play a role in shaping them and in making sure Manitobans are taking full advantage of the various federal programs. 3) Develop and fund provincial programs which fill gaps that are identified in the federal programs. Dont try to pay for them by taking money from other important areas of responsibility, such as education and social services, because all this does is shift the problem to them. This will be difficult to swallow for a provincial government that prides itself on fiscal responsibility, because I think it could involve hundreds of millions of dollars in short- to medium-term funding to businesses and not-for-profits, and will require innovative loan and equity programs. But if we dont do this, we will find that a number of otherwise-viable Manitoba organizations dont qualify under the federal programs, and will not survive. 4) Build a proper road map for how Manitoba phases back into a "new normal" of economic activity that is co-ordinated with the necessities of our health-care initiatives. Weve all been traumatized by this situation, and we all need permission/encouragement to start back up again. The provinces leadership is required to show us the way forward. This roadmap should include: 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. A plan to open back up, built in phases, tailored with an industry-by-industry perspective, sensitive to the need to protect those who are most vulnerable, and based upon the achievement of appropriate targets. A containment plan which features proper testing not just for those who may have the virus, but also for those who have already had the illness and are now well and robust contact tracing. Rules governing physical distancing and hygiene that can be followed in the workplace. Changes to government regulations and bylaws which will facilitate a post COVID-19 recovery. 5) Finally, prepare a plan for how Manitoba will be restored and reshaped after this period of re-entry is completed. A large piece of this will be restoring the finances of the province and our large municipalities. The federal government will have to be a big contributor to this, as it will in all provinces. In suggesting all of this, I am cognizant that we cant expect government to have all of the answers or all of the resources. As Manitobans, we have prospered most when government and all areas of the community work together, and I believe that these processes should be formalized by the immediate establishment of community task forces to address key issues, with participation from government, business, labour, academia, health care and the not-for-profit sectors. These are extraordinary times which require courageous community leadership and our communitys collective confidence so we can recover from what has been thrown in our way. I am an optimist, and I believe we will get through this. But we need, in the short term, to protect our community and its most important assets, even if that requires our governments taking on financial risk which, in normal times, no one would countenance. If we do this, I am confident that we will win both of these wars and continue to thrive in the years ahead. Sandy Riley is a Winnipeg lawyer and business executive who previously served as chairman of Manitoba Hydro. Cat in the Wall / Bulgaria, UK, France (Directors, screenwriters and producers: Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova) -- This terric comedy-drama is set on a southeast London council estate, which is riven by social and economic divisions and threatened by the all-consuming force of gentrication. Irina, a Bulgarian woman lives there with her small son and her brother. The lift serves as a toilet, the multi-cultural residents exchange shouts rather than pleasantries, and an expensive refurbishment is undesired but must be paid for. And in the midst of this: an apparently ownerless cat which has had enough of the heated atmosphere barricades itself 'in the wall', requiring the residents to collaborate. Cat in the Wall is an arresting critique of society, a whirlpool of emotions from despair to joie de vivre conveyed by strongly delineated characters. This heart-warming tale, shot in a documentary style, is this year's equivalent of director Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake. Cast: Irina Atanosova, Angel Genov, Gilda Waugh This is the right time to shop crude. The question at this point of time is whether India can stock the cheap crude for its future use. The country has limited Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) capacities compared to the US, China, Japan and South Korea and it explains the missed opportunity. The soon-to-expire May contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) trades in negative territory - it went down to minus $37.63 a barrel on Monday as order cancellations led to sellers giving the money to buyers for evacuations. The price of Brent crude and the Indian basket, which are in the same range, dipped to $20 a barrel. Seeing this as an opportunity, the US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the country is looking to add 75 million barrels (MB) of oil to the SPR. But for India, which is the third largest consumer in the world, the whole SPR storage capacity comes to just 39 MB. So the country has the limitations when it comes to stocking up cheap crude for future. The US can stock up to 730 MB of crude as SPR at its four sites with deep underground storage caverns created in salt domes along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coasts. India, meanwhile, has storage capacity nowhere near other Asian countries such as China (550 MB), Japan (528 MB) and South Korea (214 MB). Since India imported an average of 4.5 MB of crude daily in the last year, the SPR of 39 MB (equivalent to 5.33 million tonnes) equates to maximum 9 days of cover in the event of a disruption as against 198 days of cover for Japan at the other extreme. SPR, the world's largest stock of emergency crude oil, was established primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out obligations of the nations. India had begun its SPR projects in 2005 and spent over Rs 4,000 crore for the phase 1. The combined capacity of SPR in three locations in southern Indian -- Vishakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur (Karnataka) -- is just over half full at present. Two years ago, in June 2018, the central government had approved a plan to build two new caverns of SPRs at Chandikhol in Odisha (4.4 MT) and Padur (2.5 MT) for stocking crude for 11.5 days. At present, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is stocking its crude at the SPR locations of the India government. In February 2018, ADNOC had signed agreement with state-owned Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves (ISPRL) to store around 5.86 MB of crude oil at Mangaluru facility. Nine months later, ADNOC signed another deal with ISPRL to store oil in half of the Padur reserve. ADNOC stocked up to sell oil to local refiners but gave the government the first right to deal with emergency. According to analysts, the world currently has around 7.2 billion barrels of crude oil and its products stored onshore, besides 1.3 billion barrels onboard oil tankers at sea. India imports about 82 per cent of its required crude and it alone accounts for over 20 per cent of India's whole merchandise imports. The country has imported Rs 7.8 lakh crore worth crude in 2018/19. In the first 11 months of 2019/20 (without March), the crude import bill stood at Rs 6.7 lakh crore, which is lower. Also Read: Coronavirus impact: Oil industry cuts 51,000 jobs globally in March; more layoffs to follow Also Read: Coronavirus impact: Sanitisers to be made of surplus rice; Rahul Gandhi says it'll clean hands of the rich Also Read: IL&FS case: Bombay HC rejects MCA plea to ban Deloitte, KPMG for 5 years The global death toll from the coronavirus is more than 171,000 with some 2.5 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. Belarus The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging the Belarusian government to introduce measures to ensure physical distancing in order to slow down the spread of the coronavirus in the country. The recommendations were made on April 21 by a team of WHO experts who visited Belarus earlier this month to assess the country's response to the pandemic. The number of reported coronavirus cases in Belarus is "growing rapidly," the statement said, with 6,723 cases and 55 deaths reported by the authorities as of April 21. Despite the growing outbreak, authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has derided global concerns over COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, as "mass psychosis" and said that there was no need for strict measures to slow the spread of the virus. In stark contrast to other European countries that have adopted strict lockdown measures to contain the epidemic, Belarus's borders remained open, factories, shops, and restaurants conduct business as usual in the country, and spectators are permitted to attend sports events, including matches in the national soccer league. Churches remained open for Orthodox Easter on April 19, and schools were allowed to reopen this week after an extended spring break. However, the Health Ministry has encouraged citizens to reduce their social contacts. In their statement, the WHO experts said Minsk needed to postpone "large gatherings," including sporting, religious, and cultural events, and place in quarantine "contacts of confirmed patients and people potentially exposed to the virus," they said in a statement. They said the authorities should also introduce options "for teleworking, and distance learning for schools, universities and other educational institutions," suspend "nonessential business," and reduce "nonessential movements, especially for high-risk groups." Tajikistan As the coronavirus pandemic has already infected more than 2.5 million people across the world and killed over 171,000, civil rights activists in Tajikistan are raising concerns about a possible unreported outbreak of the virus in the country. Tajikistan has not officially declared any cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, but experts are skeptical of the claim, given the lack of transparency within the government and a lack of independent media. Underscoring the level of distrust toward Tajikistan's authorities, 18 local civil-rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and individual activists on April 20 asked the Health Ministry to answer a series of questions to help clarify the epidemiological situation in the country. In an open letter, the NGOs asked the ministry to publish statistics on cases of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other respiratory illnesses for the first quarter of 2019 and 2020 in order to make a comparative analysis. In recent weeks, a number of deaths in Tajikistan that were officially attributed to pneumonia, tuberculosis, and influenza have sparked concerns about a possible coronavirus outbreak in the Central Asian country. The 18 NGOs also raised concerns about the reliability of Chinese and Russian testing kits used in Tajikistan for coronavirus. "Do the [testing kits] have an international certificate of quality and are they certified in Tajikistan? Were they approved by [the World Health Organization]?" their letter asks. Elsewhere in Central Asia, authoritarian Turkmenistan also has not officially declared any coronavirus cases. In neighboring Uzbekistan, officials have reported 1,657 confirmed cases and six deaths. The official number of people infected in Kazakhstan stands at 1,967, with 19 deaths. In Kyrgyzstan, 590 people have officially been infected, seven of whom died. Georgia Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has signed a decree to extend until May 22 a state of emergency that had been declared in a bid to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. The presidential decree, which was signed on April 21, is to come into force after parliament approves it. Zurabishvili explained her decision by saying that the virus was expected to continue spreading in the South Caucasus country for "the next two-three weeks." She also said that Georgia had been able to "control" the extent of the epidemic since a one-month state of emergency was declared on March 21. Georgian health authorities have reported 408 confirmed coronavirus cases, including four deaths. More than 4,700 people are currently in quarantine. Parliament speaker Mamuka Mdinaradze has said that the ruling majority in parliament would support the extension of the state of emergency, which includes a night curfew and the closure of nonessential shops, restaurants, and cafes. A nationwide ban on driving cars and other private vehicles has also been imposed. Serbia The Serbian government will loosen strict lockdown measures implemented last month to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Some small businesses and markets including car mechanics, shoemakers, dry cleaners, bookshops, and other services will be allowed to reopen on April 21. The government said businesses must enforce strict prevention measures such as wearing a face covering, gloves, and disinfecting. Shopping malls, cafes, restaurants, schools, and kindergartens will remain closed. A night curfew will be shortened by one hour and an around-the-clock lockdown for people aged 65 and above will also be eased, allowing them to leave their homes for 30-minute walks on three evenings a week. "The government also calls on employers in the construction industry to resume work... while adhering to protection measures and rules of social distancing," the government said in a statement. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced last month some of the strictest measures in Europe as part of a state of emergency to slow the spread of the virus. Over the weekend, the government imposed an 84-hour curfew to prevent socializing during Orthodox Christian Easter on April 19. Serbia has reported 6,630 coronavirus infections and 125 fatalities. Armenia Authorities have sealed off a small town and an adjacent village in Armenias northwestern Shirak province after 18 employees of a local hospital tested positive for the coronavirus. All roads leading to the town of Maralik were blocked by police checkpoints on April 20. We only let through people with special permission, a policeman manning one of the checkpoints told RFE/RL. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, who is overseeing the enforcement of the coronavirus-related state of emergency in Armenia, announced the decision to lock down Maralik and the adjacent village of Dzorakap on April 18 after 18 coronavirus cases were confirmed among the 61-member staff of a local hospital. The head of the regional administrations health-care department, Leyli Aslanian, told RFE/RL on April 20 that two local residents have died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, one of whom was the father of an infected nurse working at the Maralik hospital. Health authorities in Armenia said on April 21 that the number of registered coronavirus cases in the country totaled 1,401, including 24 deaths. With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian, Belarus, Georgian, and Tajik services, AP, AFP, Interfax, and Reuters The volume of import-export cargo turnover between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan via railway amounted to 26,320 tons over the period from January through February 2020, which is 174,960 tons less compared to the same period of 2019 (201,280 tons), a representative of Kazakhstans Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development told local media. This includes 11,760 tons of export from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan, which is 157,830 tons less than during the same period of last year (169,590 tons), and 11,560 tons of import from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan, which is 17,130 tons less than during the same period of last year (31,690 tons). During the reporting period, a decrease of Kazakh grain export was observed, the export of which to Azerbaijan amounted to 1,800 tons compared to 159,400 tons during the same period of 2019 (decrease by 157,600 tons). In January-February 2020, the decrease of ferrous metals export amounted to 5,500 tons compared to 6,700 tons during the same period of 2019 (decrease by 1,200 tons). In turn, export volume of chemical goods and soda amounted to 500 tons during the reporting period compared to 400 tons during first two months of 2019 having increased by 100 tons. Import supplies of ferrous metals from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan decreased to 2,000 tons, which is 1,000 tons less than during first two months of 2019. The ministry added that volume of export-import cargo transportation by railways between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan amounted to 553,970 tons in 2019, which is 142,180 tons less than in 2018 (696,150 tons). Thus, export from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan amounted to 316,340 tons, which is 93,230 tons less compared to 2018 (409,570 tons), whereas import from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan amounted to 237,630 tons, having decreased by 48,950 tons compared to 2018 (286,500 tons). Seats that could normally hold an audience were all but empty, while public delegates could be heard but not seen. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Seats that could normally hold an audience were all but empty, while public delegates could be heard but not seen. Three councillors sat in attendance and one logged in through a video-conference feed to mark a council first. Mondays property and development committee meeting offered a glimpse of how city hall will allow new virtual participation in its committee and council meetings during April and May, a measure meant to replace large gatherings that could otherwise increase the spread of COVID-19. Councillors can now participate in the meetings through a video feed, and members of the public can phone in. On Monday, three councillors Brian Mayes (St. Vital), Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) and Janice Lukes (Waverley West) attended in person, while Matt Allard (St. Boniface) connected from home. Fewer than a dozen city staff and one reporter were also in the room, which was otherwise empty. Mayes, the committees chairperson, said he felt the proceedings went well overall. "It was better than I expected. The sound quality was good, by and large," he said. "We wouldnt want this as a long-term solution but its moving things forward." As chairperson, he said physically attending the meeting made it easier to communicate with city staff and moderate the discussion. There were some glitches along the way. Allard had to repeat one vote when the city clerk couldnt hear him. A loud buzzing sound interrupted proceedings for a few seconds and some echoes caused a little confusion at times, due to a slight delay between the meeting and its online broadcast. And, in what may be a growing video-conference trend, a muffled childs voice at one point entered the discussion through Allards connection. Rollins said she opted to physically attend the meeting, partly over the risk the technology might fail and interfere with her attendance. "Technology does fail and democracy must continue, so I attended in person," she said. Allard he actually hopes councillors and the public can continue to remotely participate in council and committee meetings after the threat of COVID-19 is reduced. He believes allowing Winnipeggers to phone in from their homes and offices could trigger more feedback to council, since delegates would no longer need to clear hours of their schedules to wait for their turn to speak at city hall. "Necessity is the mother of invention and perhaps we have a new system now that will better service Winnipeggers as a result of having to innovate during the COVID-19 crisis," said Allard. Meanwhile, the committees business included a move to limit newly proposed spending powers for the citys top bureaucrat. A public service report called to give the citys interim chief administrative officer the authority to approve up to $2.2 million in unexpected costs to demolish the former Civic Parkade and Public Safety Building on Princess Street, if any such costs emerge. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The overall price would have to stay within a council-approved budget of $12.1 million. The committee instead voted to let the CAO approve up to $800,000 in new costs and called for monthly updates on the projects progress. "Im concerned about delegating too much authority to unelected officials here," said Mayes. The change would require council approval. Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga TAMPA, Fla., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, AACSB International (AACSB)the world's largest business education networkannounces 25 business schools as highlights of its Innovations That Inspire member challenge. An annual initiative, the challenge recognizes institutions from around the world that serve as champions of change in the business education landscape. This year's challenge emphasizes "Catalysts for Innovation"one of five opportunities identified in AACSB's Collective Vision for Business Education. With programs featuring both interdisciplinary collaborations and community engagement, the highlighted innovations are inspiring examples of business education's efforts to elevate entrepreneurial thinking and new business creation. The following impactful initiatives are included among this year's highlighted innovations: University of Northern Iowa's Succession Iowa serves as a matchmaker between rural Iowa business owners looking to exit and qualified buyers who can successfully manage these businesses into the future. Succession serves as a matchmaker between rural business owners looking to exit and qualified buyers who can successfully manage these businesses into the future. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Biodesign program develops Israel's next generation of cutting-edge leadership in biomedical entrepreneurship and technology through a multidisciplinary, team-based approach in which medical staff, engineering students, and business students jointly develop new medical devices. Biodesign program develops next generation of cutting-edge leadership in biomedical entrepreneurship and technology through a multidisciplinary, team-based approach in which medical staff, engineering students, and business students jointly develop new medical devices. Swinburne University of Technology's Swinburne Social Startup Studio works with early-stage social enterprises to develop and test ideas, building knowledge to strengthen the social enterprise ecosystem. "The demand for innovation that engages experts across disciplines and addresses the needs of both local and global communities has never been more apparent than in these unprecedented times," said Thomas R. Robinson, president and CEO of AACSB. "We are honored to feature these 25 business schools for their valuable role in elevating entrepreneurship through research, teaching, and community engagement. Their efforts are enabling the creation and effective leadership of enterprises worldwide." Now in its fifth year, the Innovations That Inspire challenge has highlighted more than 120 business school efforts that exemplify forward-looking approaches to education, research, community engagement or outreach, and leadership. To date, members of AACSB's Business Education Alliance have shared nearly 1,000 innovations, creating a robust repository in AACSB's DataDirect system to inform and inspire fellow members and the industry. For an overview of all featured innovations, visit aacsb.edu/innovations-that-inspire. About AACSB International Established in 1916, AACSB International (AACSB) is the world's largest business education alliance, connecting educators, learners, and business to create the next generation of great leaders. With a presence in more than 100 countries and territories, AACSB fosters engagement, accelerates innovation, and amplifies impact in business education. Learn how AACSB is transforming business education for a better society at aacsb.edu. SOURCE AACSB International Related Links http://www.aacsb.edu Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Vahe Enfiajyan has issued a statement. A settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cant be acceptable without the principle of expression of free will of the people of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). In terms of institutions, with its status, the Republic of Artsakh acts in accordance with all legal norms in the international arena, and the recent nationwide elections serve as brilliant manifestation of this, Enfiajyan wrote and emphasized that the international community must not acknowledge the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as merely a territorial dispute. He also added the following: If there are problems in foreign policy, there have to be appropriate explanations. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs must have a deeper understanding and acknowledge the fact that the principle of expression of free will of the people of Artsakh needs to lie at the core of the settlement of the conflict. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the North Korean side of the border at the village of Panmunjom in Demilitarized Zone, on June 30, 2019. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo) Trump: We Dont Know Status of Kim Jong Un South Korea denies Kim is in 'grave' condition President Donald Trump responded to reports on North Korean dictator Kim Jong Uns health. On Tuesday, reports citing anonymous sources claimed Kim was gravely ill following surgery. We dont know his status, Trump told reporters during a daily briefing on the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. I wish him well, because if hes in the kind of condition the reports say, thats a very serious condition, Trump said, without confirming recent reports about his health. CNN and other outlets, citing unnamed sources, reported that Kim was in grave danger and near death. But South Korean presidential spokesman Kang Min-Seok told South Koreas Yonhap News Agency there is nothing unusual going on with Kim. President Donald Trump (R) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) during their second summit meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in 2019. (Vietnam News Agency/Handout/Getty Images) We confirm that Chairman Kim Jong Un is currently touring provincial areas with his close aides and we do not detect evidences to support speculation about his ill health, South Koreas presidential office also told news outlets on Tuesday. Even North Koreas Workers Party, military or cabinet arent showing any special movements such as emergency decree. We believe that Chairman Kim is active as normal as he has been, the office added. The reports were, in part, fueled by the fact that Kim hasnt been seen in public in about two weeks. Meanwhile, there have been reports that Kim, 36, underwent heart surgery. My understanding is that he had been struggling [with heart problems] since last August but it worsened after repeated visits to Mount Paektu, an anonymous source told the Daily NK, a news site specializing in North Korean affairs. The source added that Kim is obese, smokes heavily, and is stressed. Robert OBrien, Trumps national security adviser, told Fox News Tuesday that the United States is monitoring reports on Kims health. Were monitoring these reports very closely, he said, adding that North Korea is a very closed society. Officials for the isolated, communist country have commented via official, state-run websites in response to reports about Kims condition. It comes days after an anonymous North Korea resident said that officials for the first time admitted that cases of the CCP virus exist in the country, after denying reports to the contrary for months. [Officials] held a lecture session for all the residents titled Lets all work together on the coronavirus quarantine project to [successfully] implement the Supreme Leaders policies, the resident told RFA last week. The speaker at the lecture publicly stated that there were confirmed coronavirus patients among [the people], the source noted. It didnt take long for partisan politics to infect the national response to COVID-19. While Michigans death toll surpassed 2,400 people Monday and unemployment grows to levels not seen since the Great Depression, each day also brings us closer to November elections. Michigan, one of three states leading the country in COVID-19 deaths, is an important battleground in a race that could transform into a referendum on President Donald Trumps management of the crisis. Trump won Michigan by less than 11,000 votes in 2016 and will likely need the state to secure a second term. The pandemic has put 20 million Americans out of work, devastating a strong economy that was the centerpiece of Trumps reelection campaign. Michigan Democrats heavily criticized Trumps response to the virus, arguing his administration was slow to act and hasnt provided states like Michigan enough supplies to track the virus and treat the infected. Meanwhile, Republicans are taking aim at Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over the financial cost of her orders to close Michigans economy. The president said he has absolute authority to reopen states, but later told governors it will be up to them after sharing guidelines on how to send people back to work. Matt Grossman, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University, said Republicans are skilled at highlighting examples of Democratic policies they find extreme. Conservative media figures are flagging Whitmer as a poster child for restrictions that are harming the economy, he said. Its not unusual for the party of the president to try to blame the other party for an economic downturn, but people overwhelmingly blame the party of presidents, historically," Grossman said. "Obviously this is somewhat different in that it is sort of a caused recession by policy to respond to the public health crisis, so it could be treated differently. Whitmer is not up for reelection in 2020 but her close relationship with presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden made her a favored target of the president early on. The governor, a potential vice-presidential pick, also became Trumps foil in the national debate over when the country should reopen for business. Whitmer has seen her approval rating rise since the outbreak started, but Republicans are organizing intense resistance to stay-at-home orders deemed too restrictive. Thousands of people rushed the Capitol last week to call for Whitmers removal and Trumps reelection at a rally that inspired more demonstrations across the country and in Michigan. Trump encouraged resistance against Whitmer and three other Democratic governors who put their states under tight stay-at-home restrictions. The presidents online roar to LIBERATE MICHIGAN was well-received on the Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine Facebook page, a hub for protesters that quickly gathered 366,000 members. Our president is with us, read one post in response to Trumps tweet. When asked whether demonstrators should listen to local authorities during a White House press briefing, Trump said Michigan protesters are listening to his calls to reopen the economy. "I think they listen to me. They seem to be protesters that like me and respect this opinion, Trump said. They all want to open, nobody wants to stay shut, but they want to open safely. So do I. Whitmer said Monday that she asked the vice president if the White House could instead reiterate the need for social distancing. My request was that at the national level they echo that call to stay home and (Pence) conveyed that that was something that they would do, Whitmer said. Frustration with the expansion of Whitmers stay-at-home order, which included a ban on travel between residences, a prohibition on boating and restricted the sale of some goods, boiled over in a massive protest outside the state Capitol. Vehicles circled around downtown Lansing for several hours, while hundreds of people left their cars in defiance of social distancing requirements. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Laura Cox said the Whitmers expanded order is overly broad and confusing. You can buy a lottery ticket but you cant buy mulch in a big box store, that just makes no sense to me, Cox said. She has these weird rules that nobody can get their arms around. Signs compared Whitmer to Adolf Hitler, a Pharaoh, a tyrannical queen and an overbearing mother. Lets revolt. Take out the trash, read one sign was written in tape on the back of a protester truck, while others called for liberty or death while carrying rifles on the Capitol lawn. The protest highlighted resentment from rural Michiganders who see fewer confirmed cases in their communities. The virus has a disproportionate impact on African Americans and suburban counties in Southeast Michigan, killing and infecting people at a much higher rate compared to the less-populated, traditionally Republican-voting parts of the state. Were not Detroit up in rural Michigan, Evart resident Jill Moyer said at the protest. (Whitmers) focus is mainly on Detroit where it should be the whole state. Moyer is from Osceola County, which reported only six confirmed cases of COVID-19. She carried a sign reading Rural Lives Matter outside the Capitol but did not wear a protective face mask. I want to be clear, living in a rural part of Michigan does not mean that you are safe from the virus," Whitmer said at a Monday press conference. "Just because its not shown up in your community yet doesnt mean its not already there. Operation Gridlock wasnt solely about whether Whitmer went too far. Demonstrators displayed Make America Great Again hats, anti-abortion signs and several Confederate flags. The Trump Unity Bridge," a massive decorated float often featured at the presidents rallies, also made an appearance. Leaders of the protest are linked to the Trump campaign. The Michigan Conservative Coalition, also known as Michigan Trump Republicans, was co-founded by Meshawn Maddock, an advisor to the Women for Trump Coalition, and Marianne Sheridan, grassroots vice-chair for the Michigan Republican Party. Whitmer denounced the protest as essentially a political rally instead of being about her stay-at-home order. Whitmer claimed protesters were under the influence of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, saying it is inappropriate for a sitting member of the United States presidents cabinet to be waging political attacks on any governor. The Michigan Democratic Party used a similar line in a Monday fundraising email, claiming the protests were incited by Donald Trump and organized by Betsy DeVos." The Michigan Freedom Fund, a conservative group with ties to the DeVos family, said it spent $250 to promote the rally on Facebook. The group said DeVos had no involvement in the protest. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, a Michigan native, said the president wants to work with Democratic governors. McDaniel said Americans dont want to play the blame game," but are frustrated with Whitmers orders. This isnt a partisan protest, McDaniel said Monday. These are people who are legitimately afraid. Michigan residents prefer Whitmers handling of the coronavirus outbreak to Trumps response, according to a statewide poll released Monday by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce. The chambers survey found 57% of residents approved of Whitmers handling of the pandemic, while 44% approved of Trumps response. Fewer people disapproved of Whitmers response (37%) compared with the president (50%). Views on the response were predictably split along party lines. Whitmer has support among 89% of Democrats with 22% of Republicans supporting her. Trump had 88% approval among Republicans and 6% approval among Democrats. While majorities in both parties agree that its necessary to close schools, cancel major entertainment events and limit dine-in services at restaurants, Pew Research polling found Republicans and Democrats have differing views on the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak. People who self-identified as Democrats say the outbreak is a major threat to the health of the U.S. population (78%) at a higher rate than Republicans (52%). For her part, Whitmer said shes not focusing on politics." Im trying to save lives here," she said after the protest last week. However, Michigan Republicans scoffed at the notion Whitmer isnt trying to score political points, citing her frequent appearances on cable news networks. Whitmer used interviews on networks ranging from The Daily Show to Fox News to highlight holes in the White Houses COVID-19 response. She suggested the Trump administration didnt take the coronavirus seriously enough, then blocked supplies to Michigan and made states compete for scarce resources. Trump responded with insults directed at that woman from Michigan, calling the governor Half Whitmer. He told reporters he asked Vice President Mike Pence not to call governors that havent been appreciative of his efforts, but since said hes had a good relationship with Whitmer and other Democrats. Whitmers appearance on the The Daily Show while wearing a that woman from Michigan T-shirt intensified the scrutiny from conservatives. The Michigan Republican Party and Trump campaign said Whitmers broadcast circuit built an audition reel for consideration as Bidens running mate. Whitmer needs to put her political ambitions aside and work with President Trump to keep Michiganders safe," read one release from Trumps Michigan campaign arm. Biden came to Whitmers defense in March, saying the governor has been a tenacious fighter for Michigan while facing a dangerous abdication of leadership from Donald Trump." The campaign declined to comment on the protests when asked by MLive. Bidens campaign is already making the coronavirus a part of its election-year messaging. Antony Blinken, a senior advisor with the Biden campaign, said Trump peeled back "Obama/Biden administration programs that would have protected the country from COVID-19. Republicans are putting more attention on blaming China for allowing the coronavirus to spread internationally. Trumps campaign and Republican activists put out ads in Michigan and other states casting Biden as being too soft on the country where COVID-19 originated. On a press call organized by the Biden campaign, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Trumps LIBERATE MICHIGAN tweet is part of the presidents strategy to divert blame during the pandemic. Trumps attacks on Vice President Biden are just another attempt to distract from the presidents failure to stand up to China and more importantly, his failure to prepare our country for the Coronavirus pandemic, Brown said. Michigan Republicans attacked U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, along similar lines. Republican Senate candidate John James penned an op-ed last month criticizing the Chinese government for covering up information about the outbreak. Meanwhile, Democrats have used the coronavirus pandemic to highlight Trumps moves to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Michigan Democratic Party Chairwoman Lavora Barnes slammed the presidents choice to not open an emergency enrollment period for newly laid-off people who lack health insurance. Even as we as a nation are fighting through this coronavirus pandemic, this administration continues to attack the ACA, continues to work in the courts to dismantle the ACA, and I think that that just shows they are missing an excellent opportunity here to help Americans and Michiganders get more access to care, Barnes said. I think were going to continue to have this conversation as long as the administration continues to attack the ACA. As the pandemic continues, Trump and Whitmer have called for bipartisan cooperation. The president opened a Sunday press conference by highlighting negotiations with Democratic governors to send people back to work. Whitmer said shes happy to work with people on both sides of the aisle, but the debate over how to safely open Michigan is just starting. The governor said those decisions will depend on how many cases and deaths are reported in the next 10 days. We need have to remember the enemy is the virus, not one another, Whitmer said. Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, counter tops) and when you go into places like stores. Read more on MLive: Monday, April 20: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Out of work because of the coronavirus shutdown? We want to hear from you Fauci: If states reopen too fast, its going to backfire Michigan 5-year-old dies of coronavirus after complications These are not normal times: Judge moves filing deadline, cuts signature requirements for primary candidates - WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked governments globally to unite in ending what he termed as a tragedy - The virus which originated in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, had infected at least 2.4 million people as at Tuesday, April 21, and killed over 170,000 others - Kenya had recorded 281 cases as of Monday, April 20, even as the government planned to conduct mass testing to determine the real extent of infection The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised alarm bells on the novel coronavirus asking people worldwide to prepare for tough times ahead. The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked governments globally to unite in ending what he termed as a tragedy as he compared COVID-19 to the 1918 Spanish flu which infected at least 500 million people and killed over 50 million. READ ALSO: Moses Kuria says no human being can endure what DP Ruto is going through WHO Director General Tedros Adhonam compared coronavirus to the 1918 Spanish flu. Photo: Tedros Adhonam. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: COVID-19: Govt threatens to extend curfew if Kenyans continue to violate safety guidelines In his daily coronavirus briefing at the health agency's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday, April 21, Tedros said the infection rate of the pandemic could be higher than imagined. It has a very dangerous combination and this is happening in hundred years for the first time again, like the 1918 flu that killed 50 to 100 million people. Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us, let's prevent this tragedy," he said. The virus which originated in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, had infected at least 2.4 million people as at Tuesday, April 21, and killed over 170,000 in at least 210 countries and territories. More than 600,000 people had, however, recovered from the highly contagious disease and gave a glimmer of hope to patients who had been affected. An info-graphic showing the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths globally. Photo: Worldometers. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Kifo cha Ken Walibora ni asante ya punda! Ameacha pengo The US had registered over 790,000 cases followed by Spain (200,000), Italy (181,000), France (155,000) and Germany (147,000). When it came to death figures, the US led with 42,000 followed by Italy (24,000), Spain (20,800), France (20,200) and the UK (16,000). Kenya had recorded 281 cases as of Monday, April 20, even as the government planned to conduct mass testing to determine the real extent of infection. 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from Covid-19 in Kenya | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Beaten Cambridge brainbox Wang has argued that University Challenge should be more inclusive of women as shocked viewers slammed the show over it's all-male final last night. Ian Wang, 21, starred in the final for the quiz show alongside his all-male team from Corpus Christi of Cambridge and rivals Imperial College London. After his team lost the prize, scoring just 105 points while their opponents earned a whopping 275, Wang tweeted: 'All-male finals are just straight up Bad and team selectors have a big say in making sure the show is less male-dominated.' It comes after viewers flooded to social media to criticise the programme, with one commenting: 'University Challenge seems to have gradually regressed into the 19th century with fewer and fewer women participants year on year. Nine men and not one woman on screen tonight.' The final marked the first time in three years that a female competitor has not played on the top two teams in the University Challenge competition. Beaten Cambridge brainbox Ian Wang has spoken out to argue University Challenge should do more to stop all-male finals after appearing in the show last night The teams from both Cambridge and Imperial in the final of last night's University Challenge featured only male participants After the programme aired last night, fan-favourite Wang took to social media to share his message about equality. He retweeted an earlier post shared in February urging those selecting the teams to be inclusive to women. In it, he wrote: 'If you're in charge of picking your uni/college's #UniversityChallenge team, try to find ways of being more inclusive to women. 'When you advertise your tryouts on Facebook, say that you want more women to take part (I think some unis have run all-female tryouts too.' Fan favourite Wang took to social media to say those selecting teams for the programme had a 'big say' in ensuring the show was 'less male-dominated' How many women have competed in recent University Challenge finals? 2020 - 0 female competitors 2019 - 2 female competitors, both on team from St Edmund Hall Oxford 2018 - 2 female competitors, one from St John - Cambridge and one from Merton - Oxford 2017 - 0 female competitors 2016 - 1 female competitor, from Peterhouse - Cambridge 2015 - 0 female competitors 2014 - 0 female competitors 2013 - 1 female competitor, from Manchester 2012 - 0 female competitors 2011 - 0 female competitors 2010 - 2 female competitors, one from St John's College, Oxford and one from Emmanuel College, Cambridge Advertisement In last year's final, two women competed for Oxford's St Edmund Hall with Marceline Bresson and Lizzie Fry competing against the all-male team from Edinburgh. Meanwhile in 2018, there were female contestants on both teams to make the final, with Leonie Woodland captaining Oxford's Merton team and Rosie McKeown joining St John's Cambridge team. There was also a female competitor in the 2016 final, with Hannah Woods competing alongside three men for Peterhouse - Cambridge. Last night's all-male final was hotly anticipated, with both teams coming to the show with no defeats. Many viewers were stunned by the lack of diversity on the University Challenge panels, with one jokingly asking when the women's final would be Fans were eager to see two of the contestants - Brandon Blackwell, of Imperial College, and Wang battle it out after both being hailed by fans as the 'best ever' contestants go head-to-head. Brandon Blackwell, 26, known as the 'The Scowler' was joined by team members Richard Brooks, Conor McMeel, and team captain Caleb Rich in Imperial's all-male team. Meanwhile team captain Wang, known as the 'bouncy' 'Grandmaster Wang' was joined by Alexander Russell, Will Stewart and Alex Gunasekera. Brandon led his team's win, taking control of the answers despite not being the captain and giving an oustanding performance, with many of his correct answers guesses. In previous years there have been multiple female competitors. 2019's final saw Marceline Bresson and Lizzie Fry competing on the team from St Edmund Hall Oxford (pictured, the 2019 final of University Challenge) Meanwhile in 2018, there were female competitors on both teams going head-to-head in the final (pictured, the 2018 final) Meanwhile Wang, an English student from Sale, Greater Manchester, had been responsible for 319 of Corpus Christi's 1,190. On last night's episode he fell notably silent, with his team falling shockingly behind. Despite the impressive performances, viewers said they were stunned by the all-male line-up. One commented: 'Just watched four men compete against four men in a quiz presented by a man with a prize presented by a man...#WhereAreTheWomen?' Another wrote: 'Why is that most participation are men? Quote from tonight #UniversityChallenge is a young man's game. FFS.' Wang captained an all-male team in the programme last night as they battled against Imperial for the title One added: 'Final, Corpus Christi V Imperial. 8 men, no women...' But former team captain Bobby Seagull told Radio 4's Today listeners that women were put off appearing on the programme because of the 'torrent of abuse' female contestants receive. He insisted that teams weren't always all male, saying: 'It does vary sometimes, we have seen some amazing women.' He said: 'As a selector of teams on university challenge, mainly at Emmanuel, we had at stages maybe 100 applicants and less than 20 per cent is women.' Meanwhile a calm and collected Imperial College hardly broke a sweat as they gave a cool nod to celebrate their win Presenter Jeremy Paxman was joined by Sir Andrew John Wiles, right, an English mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford, best known for proving Fermat's Last Theorem, who presented the prize He explained: 'Last night I spoke to a lady called Lucy Clarke who was a top class quizzer this year and reached semi-finals. 'She said women face a torrent of abuse by a minority of people and trolls on social media. 'Actually this experience of abuse and objectification makes women think, "If I go on university challenge, there's a solid chance I may be trolled just for my appearance or just because I'm a woman".' He also insisted that the producers of University Challenge had diversified questions to include a more varied range of topics, adding: 'I think the trolling issue does need to be challenged.' NSALITJE Borderline residents who were thrown out of work by the coronavirus-tied lockdown are struggling to stay alive, with virtually nothing to eat. The unprecedented instruction for people to remain in their homesteads is biting hard on the communities living closer to the borderlines, where most family breadwinners eked a living through informal work on South African farms located closer to the country. One particular family of Mahlabathini, around Lavumisa, disclosed that they survived with the support of a young family member who goes around searching for employment on the farms and sugar cane plantations around Pongola. Crossing The concerned family members explained that the family member resided with them and used a nearby informal crossing to get to his workplace. However, after the South African Government imposed a total lockdown, such an arrangement had to change. Most of the locals employed in that country found themselves being confined there, making it difficult for them to provide food for their families. Lindiwe Mamba, a resident, said before the stay-at-home order by the neighbouring country, their siblings were able to bring food with them every evening but all that could no longer be achieved because they were now confined to the neighbouring country. Apart from the loss of breadwinners who are now stuck in the neighbouring country, the woman said some hardworking residents had also been unable to support their families the way they used to do before the lockdown. Mamba said at her homestead, she was the sole income earner, from selling her wares at the local bus station. However, since the lockdown, nothing in the form of income or food had been flowing into the homestead. I can hear people talking about the coronavirus, but for me my concern now is hunger. I used to sell snacks and vegetables at the local bus station, which mostly serviced commuters who used the informal crossing, but now I am not able to sell because we were ordered to stay at home. It is like these hands of mine have been cut off, and I have become useless to my children who have to eat in order to live, lamented the woman. Combating Although she is aware what government is trying to achieve by the lockdown combating the spread of coronavirus she said for her the curfew had only been able to achieve two things: sickness and starvation. Now we sleep without having eaten anything and wake up with nothing to eat again. When you have been able to borrow money from neighbours you try to cross to Pongola to buy mealie-meal and other essentials, but the local soldiers turn you back. On occasions where you are able to evade the local soldiers, their counterparts in South Africa spill your mealie-meal and further subject you to hard punishment, narrated the woman.At present, the woman said her family had been able to survive on porridge and edible greens like okra. The local army Spokesperson Lieutenant Tengetile Khumalo confirmed that the army was turning away locals they found along the borderlines, who would normally be attempting to cross over into South Africa. We implore the nation to do what is expected of them during the lockdown period, until the situation returns to normality, she said. New Delhi, April 21 : The Congress has demanded that after the crude oil prices hit at the lowest in its history, the government should pass the benefit to consumers and in this difficult times the transporters and farmers could get reprieve as in last 6 years the government has already raised taxes 12 times and has made Rs 20 lakh crore. "Central excise duty on oil has been increased 12 times in last 6 years that has earned Rs 20 lakh crore. Why has the benefit not been passed on to the consumers? Is the government fulfilling its obligation by not passing on this benefit to the consumers," said Pawan Khera while addressing a press conference. The Congress said India is the tenth largest oil importer from the US after it was banned from importing oil from Iran. "Why did we refuse to buy oil when the price has fallen so low internationally, while we also have storage capacity." Crude oil prices went down unexpectedly to a historic low on Monday. Such situation occurred due to non-purchase of crude oil in America, added Khera. In a historic plunge, the May contract of West Texas Intermediate crude on the NYMEX fell below zero to a record low of -$40.32 per barrel on Monday. Due to high supplies and lower offtake amid the coronavirus crisis and the worldwide standstill, the US also ran out of storage for the commodity posing a major challenge for the market. Prices turning negative, is an unprecedented phenomenon in the oil markets as traders paid buyers to lower their stock of oil. Three southeastern New Mexico counties plan to send separate requests to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to reopen non-essential businesses shuttered during the COVID-19 coronavirus public health emergency. Lujan Grisham ordered non-essential businesses closed as of March 23 to stop the spread of coronavirus. She extended the order until May 1 on April 6. County commissioners in Eddy, Lea and Otero Counties are scheduled to vote this week on resolutions asking Lujan Grisham to reopen businesses closed by the executive and public health orders Eddy County Sheriff Mark Cage said he, Ernie Carlson, commission chairperson and County Manager Allen Davis teamed up with the Lea County Board of Commissioners to draw up resolutions supporting responsible reopening of commerce in all New Mexico counties. This is an extremely important issue for our county and many others. So many people have worked on this and I am honored to be able to work them, he said. Eddy County Board of Commissioners are set to vote on the resolution Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Small businesses have long been recognized as the backbone of not only Eddy Countys economy, New Mexicos economy, but also of our nations economy; and unlike in urban areas, rural areas depend on small businesses, including non-profits, to perform essential services, read part of the resolution. Cage said getting the economy active again was very important not only to Eddy County, but all of New Mexico. Getting our economy back on track is vital to our community, he said. Responsible reopening is necessary, and I am betting that there will be a long list of other counties doing the same thing. The resolution said small businesses in rural areas, like Eddy County, have less foot traffic and can implement practices ordered by the New Mexico Department of Health. The blanket closure of small businesses deemed non-essential poses a significant threat to the ultimate survival of those businesses and to Eddy Countys, as well as, the States economy; and data related to COVID-19 shows that the virus has impacted countries, states, political subdivisions, and geographical areas differently; and the modeling of the spread of COVID-19 has changed multiple times with almost all changes being a decrease in the number of expected infections and deaths, the resolution read. Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway supported Eddy Countys efforts to reopen non-essential businesses. Last week, we sent a letter in support of such a proposal to mayors and media outlets across the state. We will continue to fight for our small businesses and will consider all of our options in doing so, Janway said. State Rep. David Gallegos (R-61) said if non-essential businesses arent open within two months rural counties and communities could be in trouble. Lea Countys Board of Commissioners will vote on the same resolution Thursday morning at 9 a.m. in Lovington and the Otero County Board of Commissioners will hold a special meeting Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Alamogordo. Gallegos said its unfair to compare the amount of COVID-19 cases in rural New Mexico counties, like Eddy, Lea and Otero to the more populated counties like Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Sandoval and Dona Ana counties. As of Monday afternoon, New Mexico Department of Health numbers indicated only two positive tests were reported in Lea County. But yet, were being penalized the same as if we were in Albuquerque, Gallegos said. Albuquerque has multiple Sams (Clubs), multiple Costcos, multiple Walmarts, they have more places you can go to shop versus Hobbs, where you have one Walmart, we do have Lowes and Home Depots. It just makes it really harder for this area to retain a regular form of business. Paul Gessing, president of the Albuquerque based Rio Grande Foundation, was pleased the three counties are taking action. Ideally the governor would put together some kind of detailed guidelines outlining how people can interact in public. Instead we get seemingly arbitrary closures of businesses that has little relationship to actual public need. Someone needs to push back against the Governor and get New Mexico moving again, he said. Gessing said reopening all businesses in New Mexico could get the economy going again. But New Mexico is in unprecedented economic freefall. The price of a barrel of oil is basically zero right now and that is 40 percent of the State budget. The governor needs to put forward a plan right away to get the economy moving again. Then she needs to put together a broad budget plan to address the economic situation and the oil price issue, he said. Larry Beherns, western states director for the Power the Future trade group, said state leaders in Santa Fe would be wise listening local government leaders. Despite the fact government bureaucrats call them a death cult, were proud to see local leaders take the lead in helping our economy, Beherns said. Those who are still collecting taxpayer-funded paychecks in Santa Fe would be wise to listen to these local leaders who are pleading for help to responsibly reopen our communities. Mike Curtis, communications director of the Republican Party of New Mexico, said local businesses in New Mexico are collapsing, and people may never recover. This is a matter of survival for peoples livelihoods. We encourage local governments to breathe life back into their communities and support responsible resolutions and calls to state government to reopen businesses, he said. Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 or by email at MSmith@currentargus.com or @ArgusMichae on Twitter. 2020 the Carlsbad Current-Argus (Carlsbad, N.M.) Visit the Carlsbad Current-Argus (Carlsbad, N.M.) at www.currentargus.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US surpassed 800,000 on Monday and recorded deaths reached nearly 43,000, latest statistics show. The last 24 hours has seen an increase of nearly 30,000 new COVID-19 cases across the country, and another 1,080 Americans died from the virus - bringing the US death toll up to 42,940, the highest in the world. But the ominous statistics could get worse before they get better, according to World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who warned Monday the worst is still to come. 'Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us,' Ghebreyesus said during a news briefing. 'Let's prevent this tragedy. It's a virus that many people still don't understand. Confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US surpassed 800,000 on Monday and recorded deaths reached nearly 43,000, latest statistics show The last 24 hours has seen an increase of nearly 30,000 new COVID-19 cases across the country, with another 1,080 American's succumbing to the deadly illness - bringing the US death toll up to 42,940, the highest in the world 'Please let's consider those who are dying as individuals, they are not numbers or figures. Even one life is precious,' Ghebreyesus added. Ghebreyesus didnt specifically say why he believes the outbreak, that has infected some 2.5 million people globally and killed over 166,000, will likely get worse. He and others, however, have previously pointed to the likely future spread of the illness through Africa, where health systems are far less developed. During the news briefing, Ghebreyesus compared the coronavirus pandemic to the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak, one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. 'It has a very dangerous combination and this is happening in a hundred years for the first time again, like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people,' the WHO director-general said. 'But now we have technology, we can prevent that disaster, we can prevent that kind of crisis.' Ghebreyesus's comments come after President Trump halted all US funding of WHO - of which the United States is biggest single donor - citing missteps in how the organization dealt with the early response to the pandemic. Among other things, Trump insisted WHO had failed to adequately share 'in a timely and transparent' way information about the outbreak after it erupted in China late last year. Ghebreyesus urged global solidarity and national unity in order to continue fighting the virus and help limit future deaths. The global community has to take the virus on as a 'common enemy for humanity' in order to defy it, he said. Meanwhile in the US, Donald Trump announced Monday his plans to ban immigration into the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic. The ominous statistics are likely to continue to get much worse before they get better, according to World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who warned Monday the worst is still to come Meanwhile in the US, Donald Trump announced Monday his plans to ban immigration into the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic. The president tweeted Monday evening announcing his immigration plans The president tweeted: 'In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!' At least 22 million Americans are now out of work as tough measures to control the coronavirus outbreak wiped out 13.5 percent of the workforce and 10 years of job growth. In an address to the nation last month Trump announced a drastic ban on foreigners traveling to the United States from Europe. He had already banned travel from China as the COVID-19 outbreak was spreading from the city of Wuhan. Exact details of this latest order were not immediately clear but migrant farm workers and medics are thought to be exempt, The Wall Street Journal reports. The US-Canada border is already closed, most visa applications are on hold and the administration essentially shut down the nation's asylum system last month. The White House has not commented on Trump's latest tweet but the order is likely to face legal challenges. The president tweeted: 'In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!' At least 22 million Americans are now out of work as tough measures to control the coronavirus outbreak wiped out 13.5 percent of the workforce and 10 years of job growth The president also praised his own response to the coronavirus outbreak Monday, saying he's likely to win re-election by a 'landslide,' while complaining that the poll numbers for his administration's response to the pandemic should be higher. 'A lot of people love Trump right? A lot of people love me. You see them all the time. I guess I'm here for a reason, you know. To the best of my knowledge I won. And I think we're going to win again, I think we're going to win in a landslide,' Trump said. The president had been asked by PBS Newshour's Yamiche Alcindor if by downplaying the virus - for example, not wearing a mask - he got some people sick. Alcindor spoke of an interview she had conducted with a person who said his family got sick 'because they listened to you' and didn't take enough precautions. Instead of answering the question head-on, Trump talked about his supporters and then pointed to his initial action on the coronavirus, a late-January travel ban from China, which excluded American citizens. 'And yet in January, a certain date - you know the date better than I do - we put on a ban of China, where China can't come in and before March we put on a ban of Europe, where Europe can't come in,' Trump said. In February and March the president made a number of questionable statements about the spreading coronavirus and also continued actively campaigning through early March. When Alcindor pointed out that the president was still holding campaign rallies - such as a March 2 rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, he wouldn't admit that was the case. 'I really don't know about rallies. I really don't know about rallies,' he said when she insisted he was still campaigning in March. 'I know one thing I haven't left the White House in months,' he said, adding that the one time he did leave the White House was for a trip to Norfolk, Virginia on March 28 to bid adieu to the USNS Comfort - the hospital ship heading to New York. The president also praised his own response to the coronavirus outbreak Monday, saying he's likely to win re-election by a 'landslide,' while complaining that the poll numbers for his administration's response to the pandemic should be higher At another point in the briefing, Trump complained that poll numbers for his team's coronavirus response weren't higher. 'Look, I don't understand, when I see, uh, polling and approval ratings for the job,' he said. 'This group should get a 95, it really should. And we're really helping the governors a lot.' Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who shared a call with president Trump over the weekend, unveiled plans Monday to allow some businesses shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic to reopen their doors by the end of the week, as the state sets its sights on easing lockdown restrictions and re-opening the local economy. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced on Monday that businesses across the majority of the state will begin reopening as early as next week. And South Carolinas governor is rolling out details of a program that his office says will allow the states economy to 'recover more quickly than any other states in the country' from the new coronavirus outbreak. The moves are the latest indications that some states are forging ahead with plans to re-start economic activity despite the ongoing pandemic. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp unveiled plans Monday to allow some businesses shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic to reopen their doors by the end of the week, as the state sets its sights on easing lockdown restrictions and re-opening the local economy Under Kemp's orders, gyms, bowling alleys, salons, barbershops and a number of other indoor facilities that have been closed across the state since April 2 will be permitted to reopen this Friday. Kemp warned, however, it 'would not be business as usual' as companies will only be able operate if they adhere to social distancing requirements, sanitation mandates, and meet other safety standards. Restaurants, which have been banned from in-person dining since the shelter in place order was issued, will be allowed to reopen on April 27 along with movie theaters if they comply with guidelines Kemp's office is set to release later this week. Bars and nightclubs will remain closed, though. 'I dont give a damn about politics now,' Kemp said, announcing the plans outside the State Capitol Monday. Kemp went on to say that his primary concern at the moment is Georgians 'going broke worried about whether they can feed their children and make the mortgage payment.' Lee, the Republican governor of Tennessee, says his mandatory safer-at-home order will expire on April 30, which will pave the way for 89 out of the states 95 counties to begin opening businesses. However, Lee's announcement does not apply to the states counties with the largest cities, including Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Madison, Shelby and Sullivan counties areas that are not overseen by Tennessees Department of Health but have their own public health districts. 'While I am not extending the safer at home order past the end of April, we are working directly with our major metropolitan areas to ensure they are in a position to reopen as soon and safely as possible,' Lee said. Some businesses will be allowed to reopen as early as April 27, but its unclear exactly which ones will be granted such clearance. Lee told reporters that such details would be finalized by his economy recovery team later this week. Georgia currently nearly 19,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 773 recorded deaths Most state parks will reopen on Friday. 'It will be phased, it will be smart and it will be strategic,' Lee said, stressing that the states economy cannot survive being locked down long-term. Tennessee has seen nearly 324,000 claims for unemployment in the past weeks as a result of the virus forcing the closure of hundreds of business across the state. Over the weekend, a handful of protesters gathered in Nashville and Chattanooga to urge officials to reopen the economy. As of Monday, state officials said Tennessee had more than 7,200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 152 deaths. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on Monday announced the details of 'Accelerate South Carolina,' which includes several key leaders in the state including mayors, presidents of institutions of higher learning, business owners and health care professionals. The group is headed up by James Burns, an attorney and former Defense Department deputy legal counsel who also served as chief of staff to former Governor Nikki Haley. Its first meeting is scheduled for Thursday, with plans to hold multiple sessions over the next 30 days. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (left) and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster (right) have also announced steps to gradually reopen their economies McMaster has repeatedly stressed his desire for a swift, yet safe, reopening of the states economy, noting the severe toll the outbreak has had on individual workers and businesses. Establishments including restaurants, bars, manufacturers, dentist offices and a number of others have closed for a variety of reasons, including mandatory orders from McMaster issued in an effort to stem the outbreak. 'To do so too quickly would be reckless,' the governor said last week, of resuming normal activity levels, noting several times he felt sure the economy would be 'humming' by the end of June. During a media briefing, McMaster acknowledged that, even though the virus continues to spread, he saw it as crucial to both manage the outbreak and shore up the economy in hopes of avoiding disastrous, long-lasting effects. 'We are still in a very serious situation,' McMaster said. 'People want to work, they need to work ... and were going to do all that we can do to see that they can do that, and continue with their lives, as much as possible.' Thus far, South Carolina public health officials have reported a total of more than 4,400 COVID-19 cases, which have resulted in 124 deaths statewide. This is the terrifying moment three thugs stormed a pub and threatened punters playing pokies before stealing cash from the till. CCTV footage shows three men entering the Caloundra CBX Hotel in Queensland at 4.50am in November last year. The group were armed with shotguns and a sawn-off rifle and wore covers over their faces with hats, glasses and gloves. They threatened a security guard at the door before storming the boozer, with one man pointing a gun at six people playing poker machines as another jumped the counter to steal money from the till. Three thugs with guns have been captured on CCTV footage threatening punters playing poker machines in the Caloundra CBX Hotel The horrifying ordeal lasted less than a minute before the thieves fled in a black Mitsubishi sedan, that police believe was stolen. 'We believe the offenders have gained the use of this particular vehicle unbeknownst to the registered owner and committed the offence,' Detective Sergeant Chris Eaton told Win News. No arrests have been made following the robbery, with the threatened staff and patrons still shaken almost six months after the incident. 'We can't discount the psychological effect that these sort of offences have on people,' Mr Eaton said. After threatening patrons, the offenders fled with money from the till in what police believe is a stolen car. No arrests have been made Detectives are using the new footage in their investigation and are interested in pursuing the patrons who were in the pub at the time of the offence. 'Often we'll find that it's a bit of a rogues gallery of people in a licensed premises at quarter to five in the morning, so there are some lines of inquiry that we are actively following up,' Mr Eaton said. Sunshine Coast police have appealed for anyone with information on the robbery to come forward. "We are thrilled to have won this chance to continue our support to the Navy and Marine Corps on KRACEn. The Navy and Marine Corps know Erickson for the exceptional depot level work we have done on their H-53 fleet. We hope to build on that reputation and expand our service offerings to other platforms." Kevin Cochie, VP of Defense and National Security Erickson ABOUT ERICKSON Erickson is a leading global provider of aviation services specializing in defense and national security, manufacturing, Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO), and civil services. Erickson Manufacturing and MRO services include manufacturing the S-64 Air Crane helicopter as the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) as well as manufacturing key aerospace parts for aerospace OEMs. Commercial aerial services include the operation of 20 Erickson owned and operated S-64 Air Crane helicopters to perform firefighting, powerline construction, timber harvesting, HVAC, and specialized heavy-lift for oil and gas. Founded in 1971, Erickson is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, USA, and maintains operations in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Australia. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES, VISIT ERICKSONINC.COM SOURCE Erickson Incorporated Related Links ERICKSONINC.COM On April 20, Russia-backed militants violated the ceasefire in Donbas 13 times and applied weapons that are prohibited by the Minsk agreements. This was reported by the press service of Ukraines Defense Ministry. Nine attacks were observed in the Donetsk region, one in the Luhansk region. The occupants attacked Avdiivka defenders with grenade/rocket launchers, large-caliber machine guns, and small arms. Ukrainian positions were also shelled next to the Taramchuk settlement. As a result of enemy shelling, one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and three others were injured. As we reported earlier, according to Ukraine's Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine is ready to hold exchange without any conditions within the framework of all for all exchange. Today is one of the stages of 'all for all' swap. This formula means that we are ready to exchange without any reservations and conditions, he explains, adding that now the most important thing is that all our compatriots are in Ukraine. The Management of Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA) has donated boxes and gallons of liquid and gel sanitizers to the Ridge and Tema general hospitals to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GSA, Ms. Benonita Bismarck, handing over the items, said the donation was part of the authoritys contribution to fight the spread of COVID-19. She appealed to other public-spirited institutions to support health facilities with the requisite medical tools for effective healthcare delivery. She commended staff of the two health facilities and other healthcare providers across the country for their sacrifices. Receiving the items on behalf of the Ridge Hospital, Dr. Ralph Armah, a Clinical Director and Senior Specialist, thanked the GSA for the kind gesture, saying the donation was timely as the hospital was finding it difficult in getting sanitisers for staff, patients and visitors. He appealed to the public, companies and individuals to emulate the shining example of the Shippers' Authority by supporting health facilities with sanitizers and other medical supplies to save lives. He called on traders who were inflating the prices of medical supplies in the wake of Covid-19 to refrain from the practice as it was becoming an obstacle for quality healthcare delivery. At the Tema General Hospital, Mrs Bridget Amy Zaukuu ,the Head of Administration, received the items on behalf of the hospital, and expressed gratitude to the GSA for the support. 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 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines have set up mobile kitchens to provide free hot meals to poor residents and the homeless in Quezon City. The initiative, which started on Monday, is part of the AFP's "Kapwa Ko, Sagot Ko" campaign to help ease the hunger of disadvantaged individuals severely affected by the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine. MGen. Ernesto Torres Jr., Civil Relations Service AFP Commander, on Tuesday said the "dedicated" soldiers prepared and served the food themselves to informal settlers in the depressed communities of Barangay Tatalon, Obrero, Sto. Domingo, and Mindanao Avenue on the first day of their project. "We would like to create a spirit of compassion, an atmosphere of benevolence, cooperation and love among the Filipino people especially during this difficult time," Torres told CNN Philippines' New Day. "The campaign is an umbrella of different lines of efforts that the Armed Forces is doing, and part of this is the feeding program of the AFP mobile kitchen," he said. Torres, who leads the project, said they aim to serve 3,000 hot meals once a day. While Quezon City is the pilot site for the activity, he said the AFP aims to expand the project to other areas in Metro Manila and other communities in different parts of the country. Two military kitchen trucks were deployed, while proper social distancing, wearing of masks, and all other necessary protocols were observed during the distribution of meals, Torres added. The AFP noted that stranded workers or students receiving little or no support may also benefit from the activity. The Philippines has 6,459 COVID-19 cases, with 428 fatalities to date. A total of 613 individuals have already recovered from the infection. Photograph: Alyson Mcclaran/Reuters The weekend has seen a spate of anti-lockdown protests across the US in Ohio, Michigan and Colorado. But a standout image by photographer Alyson McClaran came on Sunday from Denver, Colorado. As protesters gathered outside the capitol steps and others assembled in their automobiles to ask the city to reopen for business, healthcare workers stood in the middle of the road in their scrubs. After having spent the last weeks treating Covid-19 patients, they staged their own demonstration: they wanted to remind the protestors of why the shutdown measures are important. One protestor in particular did not like it. She leaned out of her car window, wearing an American flag T-shirt, holding a placard that read land of the free. Then, she yelled to the protester wearing scrubs: This is a free country. This is the land of the free. Go to China! She appeared to be expressing the view that closing down non-essential services in the US is equivalent to the actions of a communist state, as she continued: If you want communism, go to China. Now open up and go to work. This video of a nurse who is on the frontlines of this pandemic being told to go to China has gotta be the most insane thing Ive seen on Twitter dot com in the 11 years Ive been on this platform. And I used to report ISIS accounts for a living.pic.twitter.com/5E4Hi6P7DR Mari Manoogian (@MariManoogian) April 20, 2020 The anti-lockdown protesters drove to the protest in trucks, vans, motorcycles and buses one man even protested on horseback, wearing a cowboy hat and carrying an American flag. Photographs show protestors in Maga hats and while some are wearing masks, social distancing protocol seems to have been largely ignored. (It is worth noting that the wave of anti-lockdown protests has also been fueled by fringe far-right groups organizing to cynically exploit this time of crisis.) Story continues Other sources report that frontline workers were applauded for taking a stand against the demonstration (a recent Pew Research poll shows that most Americans are worried about lockdown measures being lifted too soon). According to local reports, some protesters said that they believed the government shutdown was part of a wider plan to undermine the economy and hurt Donald Trumps re-election prospects. Others voiced fears about businesses closing and the impact of a recession on the livelihoods of local employees. Colorado, like much of the rest of the country, has seen unprecedented job losses as a result of the pandemic, with more than 232,000 filing for unemployment benefits since mid-March. The pandemic has been responsible for around 400 deaths in the state. Commentators have accused Trump of egging shutdown protesters on, and have called his comments unhelpful. As protests erupted in Michigan on Friday, which has one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the country, Trump tweeted LIBERATE MICHIGAN. Pennsylvania relies on thousands of migrant and seasonal workers to get its food from its fields and orchards to its stores, and those laborers cant be left hanging amid the coronavirus pandemic, state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said Tuesday. So, he said his agency has issued new, stricter guidelines for the employers who hire those workers and house them in 360 camps registered with the state. We need to ensure we keep agriculture moving, Redding said during a teleconference from his Adams County farm. To do that it takes a healthy and productive workforceOur seasonal workers are sometimes forgotten by consumers, but their work is vital. The enhanced state COVID-19 directives require that employers keep beds at least 6 feet apart in the camps. These beds should be positioned (so the workers sleep) head to toe, Redding said. He said face masks must be provided for workers at least while they are in the housing and also on the job if they work in close proximity to one another. Soap and hand sanitizer must be readily available and living and work areas must be disinfected often, Redding said. If a worker tests positive for COVID-19 the local health department and anyone that worker had contact with must be notified. Redding said employers must develop plans for quarantining infected workers and providing them with medical care. When the pandemic is over, he said, Pennsylvanians should be able to look back with the knowledge that we protected our food supply and can be proud of how we protected our workers. Within the framework of the current four-year development plan, Estonian Ministry of Defence is set to acquire two force protection patrol boats built by an Estonian company Baltic Workboats AS, as a result of which up to 50 people will be employed until the end of the year on the island of Saaremaa, which is one of the most suffered regions in Estonia due to COVID-19 pandemic. Within the framework of the current four-year development plan, Estonian Ministry of Defence is set to acquire two force protection patrol boats built by an Estonian company Baltic Workboats AS, as a result of which up to 50 people will be employed until the end of the year on the island of Saaremaa, which is one of the most suffered regions in Estonia due to COVID-19 pandemic. Force protection patrol boats which will be built by Estonian company Baltic Workboats AS (Picture source: Baltic Workboats (BWB) AS) In the broader sense, the acquisition of new equipment sends a strong signal that we will continue the development of our national defence, which simply cannot be paused even in the middle of a crisis. However, it is important that we are also able to provide support in this way to the country's economy and people as they emerge from the crisis,' said Minister of Defence Juri Luik, according to whom the acquisition of the patrol boats will, in particular, enable to fill smaller naval capability gaps, something that has been needed for many years. The main function of the patrol boats is to ensure force protection, at sea and in ports, of NATO and Partner naval vessels visiting Estonia. The boats can also support in other tasks as identifying foreign vessels, commanding units at sea, conducting exercises, securing live-fire exercises, providing navigation practice for the cadets, as well as support other state agencies, especially the Police and Border Guard. This is a very important contract for us at a very complicated time, and we are very grateful that the Estonian state took such a bold step and turned directly to a local builder. Orders of this type create a much-needed reference for us, allowing us to participate in defence industry procurements in other parts of the world and thereby increase Estonian exports, said Margus Vanaselja, Chairman of the Management Board of Baltic Workboats AS. The patrol boats are 18 metres in length, have partial ballistic protection and are equipped with two 12.7 mm heavy machine guns. A remote-controlled weapon position can be added if necessary. The patrol boats have a top speed of over 30 knots. The boats are scheduled to be completed by the end of this year and enter into service with the Navy in 2021. The transaction is valued at EUR 3.9 million. Andrew Dolenga should be sitting in his apartment in East Lansing, Michigan, finishing up his last spring at Michigan State University. Instead, he's spending his day doing online classes from his parents' home in suburban Detroit, forced away from campus by the coronavirus pandemic. But unlike students who lived in university housing, who got refunds on their rent payments when they were forced to leave, Dolenga and thousands of other students are still paying rent on empty apartments and houses in university towns all across the country. Locked into contracts with independent landlords that expire either at the end of the school year or in August, the students find themselves paying for empty spaces. Will students even go back in the fall? Colleges can't say Andrew Dolenga, 22, is a senior at Michigan State University, where he is getting a degree in mechanical engineering. Dolenga holds his dog, Tucker, at his parent's home in Rochester, Michigan, on April 8. He is now taking his classes online, but is still forced to pay his rent for his off-campus apartment even though he longer resides there. The Detroit Free Press talked to 18 college students in towns all across Michigan Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Mount Pleasant, Big Rapids, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids who are renting apartments. None of those students said their landlords were giving breaks on rent or ending leases early. A handful of students said they had been told late fees on payments would be waived. Ten of them said they had received emails or letters from landlords reminding them rent was due. There are practically no remedies for any of the students. They arent renting from their college, so theres nothing the school can do. The state has put in place orders so that private landlords cant evict them for not paying, but most arent there anyway and the landlords can still go after the back rent down the road. In reality, the students are just like any other renter anywhere, except they are paying thousands of dollars for what is, in essence, a fancy storage locker for their stuff. That's the opposite of what's happening for students who lived in campus housing. Universities across the state are issuing refunds some topping $1,000 to students who are no longer living on campus. Story continues Refunds mean an 'emergency' for small colleges: Coronavirus threatens their existence Ready to graduate Dolenga, a senior scheduled to graduate in December, had a lump sum payment of $2,000 four months' rent due just as the COVID-19 virus disruption hit. He moved home to Rochester March 23, five days after Michigan State told students it was going online only. That gave him and his roommates time to ponder just staying in place. But with his job canceled for the school year (Dolenga is a research assistant) and common areas in the complex like the gym shut down, there was no reason to stay. There was one silver lining: Dolenga and his roommates shut off the utilities, saving themselves a little bit of money. Sheltering together Some students are paying rent on empty apartments not because they went home, but because they are sheltering with others. Right after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued her stay-at-home order, Central Michigan University senior Hannah Fox moved in with friends. Hannah Fox, a senior at Central Michigan University "My roommates all went home, and I wanted to stay in Mount Pleasant for several reasons," she said. "One being that I traveled for spring break and my mom works at an assisted living home, so going home wasn't an option for me because I couldn't expose her to anything. Another being that for the first week or so of quarantine, I was able to go to my job on campus. And my mental health is just better here than at home. "But I didn't want to be completely alone, so my friends let me move in with them when Gov. Whitmer called the stay-at-home order." Fact check: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer did not ban sale of U.S. flags, plants, seeds Fox got an email from her landlord reminding her of the $400 she owes for the one month she has left on her lease. She thinks landlords should have been flexible. "I think that landlords should at least be willing to talk with their tenants and work through things on a case-by-case basis. For example, my move-out date is in a month anyway, so it would be nice if I had the option to just move out now and save a month's worth of rent." Moving home seemed like the right thing to do The plan was simple. Zachary Isenberg, a 20-year-old from the Detroit suburbs, would spend this academic year as a student at Lansing Community College and then next year enroll at Michigan State University. With a friend at Michigan State, Isenberg moved into an apartment in Lansing. All seemed to be going swimmingly until COVID-19 hit and everything was canceled. Isenberg returned home to West Bloomfield. His dad, Mike Isenberg, thought that would be the safest course of action. With rent of $1,050 per month, Mike Isenberg called the apartment complex to see whether there were any accommodations being made in regard to rent. Nope, he was told, unless Mike lost his job. He was told Zachary's home was in his apartment, even though it had been marketed as being for students. "I know there is a legal right for them to do this," Mike Isenberg said. "I wonder if there's a moral (responsibility) to do something different?" Universal frustration It's not just in Michigan where students are frustrated. Consider Clemson University in South Carolina. Gina ValeCruz, a senior there, is planning on staying at her off-campus apartment through the semester. She said she hopes to see rent discounts from the complex since nearly all of the extras like the pool and gym are either closed for health purposes or unfinished. Plus, ValeCruz said the apartment markets itself to students, providing services like a shuttle bus and printing services. It's interesting that they've chosen to cater their whole atmosphere towards the student environment, yet for a situation like this ... they aren't making any sort of amends. For some, staying near campus hasn't gone well: Despite coronavirus, college students threw party with 100 people. Police plan crackdown. Zoe Nicholson of The Greenville News in South Carolina contributed to this report. Follow David Jesse on Twitter: @reporterdavidj This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Thanks to coronavirus, college students pay rent on empty apartments The constitutional crisis engulfing Hong Kong expanded dramatically on Tuesday as the Chinese government voiced its support for the seizure of more than a dozen pro-democracy activists and asserted Beijing's "rights and responsibilities to maintain the constitutional order" in the city. With the statements, the Chinese government explicitly doubled down on its position that Beijing has the power to intervene politically in Hong Kong. The move threw further doubt over the credibility of the Hong Kong mini-constitution that ostensibly guaranteed the city a high degree of autonomy from Chinese meddling until 2047, half a century after its handover from British rule. Long-standing questions about the efficacy of the autonomy provision, known as Article 22 of the Basic Law, were sharpened last week after Beijing's liaison office said Friday it was not bound by the noninterference law and was legally permitted as a supervisory body to voice its criticism of legislative affairs in Hong Kong, including a filibuster by opposition lawmakers. A day later, on Saturday, Hong Kong authorities arrested some of the city's most strident anti-China voices in a coordinated and unprecedented operation, taking in figures such as the former legislators Martin Lee and Albert Ho and media tycoon Jimmy Lai on grounds of leading protests last year that did not receive police authorization but dominated world headlines. With Hong Kong's streets in recent months cleared of mass protests due to the coronavirus, legislators and activists in the city's pro-democracy camp say the Communist Party and the Hong Kong authorities have used the opportunity to cripple their movement through a multipronged approach while world attention has been diverted elsewhere by the pandemic. Aside from the mass arrests and increasingly pointed declarations about China's "supervisory" role over the city, Chinese officials in Hong Kong, including the newly installed director of the central government's liaison office, Luo Huining, have called for improved "national security education" in Hong Kong and the passage of a national security law that would toughen up law enforcement and prosecutorial powers to help prevent protests. Chinese officials have consistently framed the massive, sometimes violent protests as an extremist uprising stoked and manipulated by the United States and directed on the ground by some of the activists Hong Kong police arrested over the weekend. Beijing said on Tuesday that it "fully supported" the arrests of figures who had been involved in illegal assembly and "extreme violence." In its statement, the Chinese cabinet's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said it was American support for the protesters that in fact amounted to a "political conspiracy" and a "reckless trampling of human rights and rule of law in Hong Kong." "The law is sacred and everyone is equal before the law," the central government office said. "No one has extrajudicial privileges, and those who violate the law must be prosecuted in accordance with the law." In a separate statement, Beijing leaned into its claim that it holds "supervisory" powers over Hong Kong and said the central government "must intervene" if a situation arose that harmed the country and Hong Kong. "The Central Government grants the Special Administrative Region a high degree of autonomy, which does not mean that the Central Government does not have or surrender its supervisory power," said the statement. "In Hong Kong, whenever the central government exercises power in accordance with the law, there are always people who clamor: 'the central government is intervening in Hong Kong's autonomous affairs.' Let us ask these people: When Jimmy Lai publicly clamored to 'fight on behalf of the United States,' why didn't you come out and express your opposition?" The Hong Kong Bar Association issued a statement Monday saying there was no provision in the Basic Law giving central Chinese authorities "supervision" over affairs the Hong Kong government administers on its own. Statements from Beijing and Hong Kong officials on "such a highly important legal issue have caused deep public unease," the lawyers' group said. Fitch Ratings downgraded Hong Kong's long-term debt on Monday, citing "deep-rooted, sociopolitical cleavages" that threatened to tarnish the city's reputation as a smoothly run international hub. Beijing is "taking a more vocal role in Hong Kong affairs than at any time since the 1997 handover," the ratings firm noted. Coronavirus restrictions may have stopped surfer Thomas Cervetti catching the waves, but hes let his imagination run wild with this amazing stop-motion film, recreating the magic of surfing from the comfort of his own home. Cervetti, who is living in Malaysia, made Homenesia the destination for his contribution to the #homebreakchallenge, using sheets and other household articles to remarkable effect. The initiative has been encourage by the World Surf League in a bid to get people surfing, even if they cant get to a beach. Cervetti is co-founder of Nomads Surfing, a business that builds environmentally friendly surfboards and supports efforts to reduce plastic pollution in the sea. Cervetti carried that green message into his video. Speaking to Storyful, he said, The reason I made that video was first to enter the #homebreakchallenge from the World Surf League but also to have an impact on people [regarding] plastic pollution. Thats why I am picking up trash at the end of the video. Credit: Thomas Cervetti via Storyful Former Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio, U.S., on Tuesday, March 10, 2020. DETROIT The United Auto Workers union said Tuesday that it is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden for president, citing an "assault on worker rights to organize and fair wages" under President Donald Trump. The union said it chose to endorse Biden because of his experience under the Obama administration during the 2009 auto bailout and "anti-worker federal appointees" by the Trump administration. "In these dangerous and difficult times, the country needs a president who will demonstrate clear, stable leadership, less partisan acrimony and more balance to the rights and protections of working Americans," UAW President Rory Gamble said in a statement. The endorsement by the UAW, which represents more than 400,000 workers, is a win for Biden but not unexpected. The union historically endorses Democrats for president, including Hillary Clinton in 2016 and two-term former President Barack Obama. Demonstrators hold banners reading "Camorra worth nothing" as they march in the southern city of Naples March 21, 2009. (Ciro De Luca/Reuters File) Italian Mob Seeks to Profit From COVID-19 Crisis, Prosecutors Say ROMEItalys mafia clans are taking advantage of the CCP virus pandemic to buy favor with low-income families facing financial ruin, say prosecutors and officials. The clans are offering loans and food in what is seen as an age-old recruitment tactic. After decades of campaigning to curb the influence of the mafia in its traditional strongholds of southern Italy, officials and charitable groups say the pandemic has created new opportunities for organized crime to regain peoples loyalties. We know that families of friends, all of them loan sharks, are making themselves available to give money to the people in difficulty, said Amedeo Scaramella, using a euphemism by which clans of the Camorra criminal syndicate are known. Scaramella, a lawyer by training, heads the San Giuseppe Moscato Foundation, a Catholic group in Naples that fights loan sharking, in part by guaranteeing bank loans to people typically considered credit risks. He told Reuters the sharks start by offering loans at rates that compete with banks and later entrap borrowers by driving them up to 300 percent. Federico Cafiero De Raho, Italys national anti-mafia prosecutor, said his agents had noticed suspicious activity in Naples, including Camorra clans distributing free food to families left short on cash by the national lockdown due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. We have evidence, De Raho told Reuters, declining to give details because investigations are ongoing. Experience suggests the mob could seek repayment for such largesse in the future by asking recipients to take on activities such as transporting drugs, he said. The Camorra knows this is the right time to invest. Hard to Resist Temptation Naples charity worker Antonio Lucidi said his charity LAltra Napoli (The Other Naples) had raised more than 150,000 euros ($163,065) to deliver food to needy families so they wont have to accept it from the mob during the lockdown. When hunger becomes a real issue, its hard to resist temptation, he told Reuters. Italys government has promised 400 million euros of welfare for the poor, including issuing food coupons for those who cannot afford to shop. Officials believe the CCP virus has negatively impacted the mob economy, in part because the shutdown has made it hard for criminals to move around. The collapse of drug dealing is causing serious damage, said Michele Emiliano, the governor of the southern Puglia region and a former magistrate. Nicola Gratteri, one of Italys best-known prosecutors, lives with a 24-hour police escort because of his investigations into the Ndrangheta clans in southern Calabria. He said the mob was more than willing to help small businesses stay afloat now or start up again later. Mobsters can buy these properties (if loans are not repaid) and use them for money laundering, he told Reuters. Mobsters want less guarantees on loans because, for them, the main guarantee is the life of the victim. By Angelo Amante The Epoch Times contributed to this report Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo checks equipment used to clear land mines at a site of the removal project in an area south of the Han River, Monday. Courtesy of Ministry of National Defense By Jung Da-min The military has come under fire for lax discipline after a series of incidents in the Army, including one in which a corporal assaulted an officer commanding his company with an entrenching shovel. The male corporal, 22, allegedly hit the female officer in the arm April 1, when the two were discussing the corporal's complaints about "hard work" in a recent operation for fire protection in a shooting range where he was mobilized. The officer reportedly received injuries requiring two weeks of medical treatment. Before that incident, which was belatedly made public Monday, there was another case in which four non-commissioned Army officers allegedly sexually harassed one of their superior officers. According to officials, the male suspects allegedly visited the male senior officer's residence last month and had physical contact with him. On April 14, several Army officers participated in a drinking session when such gatherings had been banned as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19, and one of them was charged with sexually harassing a civilian. An Army general was also accused of mobilizing soldiers to build a chicken coop at his official residence, although he said he did not directly give such an instruction. These incidents showing the military's lax discipline has continued followin a series of intrusions by civilians onto its bases earlier this year, which led to criticism of poor surveillance protocols and lax security. Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo called on military personnel to display a higher sense of ethics and vowed severe punishment for those who lack discipline, in his latest letter to the military, the third letter this year and the 11th since he was appointed as the defense minister in September 2018. "There have been some cases where service members' human rights have been violated under unreasonable commands, where subordinates humiliate superiors, where some were involved in online sex crimes and online gambling," Jeong said in the letter, Sunday. "In all cases, the legitimate exercise of command according to laws and regulations should be guaranteed, while at the same time the basic human rights of service members should be protected." The Army also said in a statement that the military authorities will punish any guilty parties connected to the recent incidents severely according to relevant laws and regulations based on the results of investigations. "We are aware of the graveness of these cases," it said. (Photo : REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson) Phlebotomist Jenee Wilson takes apart an aphaeresis kit after processing a convalescent plasma donation from a recovered coronavirus (COVID-19) patient at the Central Seattle Donor Center of Bloodworks Northwest during the outbreak in Seattle, Washington, U.S. April 17, 2020. The plasma from recovered patients will be used in an experimental treatment study for current coronavirus patients. Over 6,000 coronavirus patients in the United Kingdom have volunteered in a drug trial managed by the University of Oxford, hoping to find the right treatment for coronavirus. Called The Randomised Evaluation of COV-id19 thERapY (RECOVERY) trial, this is currently the world's biggest single trial of drugs to treat COVID-19. With the support of Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty, the university has pleaded doctors nationwide to enroll patients in the voluntary trial. Since then, patients have signed up for the trial in over 160 NHS facilities around the country, but experts still hope for more volunteers. While there is no minimum number of people required for the trial to be successful, health experts said, the more participants the trial has, the greater possibility for the team to find answers. In this trial, each participant will receive one of five drugs currently on the market, including the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine promoted by Donald Trump. The other drugs being looked at as a treatment for COVID-19 include the HIV-treatment Kaletra, which is the combination of Lopinavir and Ritonavir; low-dose steroid Dexamethasone, which reduces inflammation; azithromycin, a commonly used antibiotic with antiviral properties; and recently, the steroid Tocilizumab has been added to the trial. Similar trials are already set up worldwide, but with lesser participants than the U.K. program. READ ALSO: COVID-19 Update: Coronavirus Vaccine Makers Ask Government's Help to Make Millions of Doses by September Newest on the trial menu Aside from the other first four promising coronavirus cures, Tocilizumab is the latest drug added to the Recovery trial. With about 6,000 NHS patients volunteered in five weeks, the Oxford University-run trial is now the largest study on using existing medications to treat the incurable virus. In an interview with The Times, Martin Landray, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health at Oxford, said that from having a nasty viral infection, the situation might worsen to requiring ventilation because of the "hyper-inflammatory response." 'There are good grounds for believing that if we can block that, then this might reduce the risk of going on to ventilation or dying," said Landray. Tocilizumab reduces levels of IL-6 protein in the body, which is excessive in people with rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune conditions. Too much IL-6 can cause inflammation and damage. However, Tocilizumab blocks these effects, so it has become a regular for treating inflammatory disease. It is now believed to prevent an overreaction of the immune system, as seen in some coronavirus patients. Called a 'cytokine storm', the body's immune response can go into overdrive and produce a flood of inflammatory molecules. It releases these molecules into the lungs where the virus has burrowed deep, clogging up the tiny air sacs in the organs and making it hard to breathe. The overreaction of the immune system is considered a major factor behind catastrophic organ failure and death in some coronavirus patients. The Recovery trial will also look at the Donald Trump-touted hydroxychloroquine, the HIV drug lopinavir-ritonavir, the steroid dexamethasone and azithromycin, an antibiotic that may kill off viruses. Medics have not put a number on the number of people the trial needs to be successful but has said the more participants the trial has, the more likely it will be the team will find answers. Meanwhile, the NHS is also asking COVID-19 survivors to donate blood to try-out the convalescent plasma therapy on coronavirus patients. It is deemed helpful as people who survived from COVID-19 have antibodies in their blood, which can fight the virus on another patient who is currently ill with the virus. However, the NHS Blood and Transplant says it is still waiting on approval to try the therapy, which is already being tested worldwide. Thus, British scientists fear the UK has been too slow to adopt it. Read also: COVID-19: Australia Demands Coronavirus Inquiry, China Rejects Australia's Call 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Xerox Holdings Corporation Plans Webcast to Discuss First-Quarter 2020 Results Xerox Holdings Corporation (NYSE: XRX) will host a live audio webcast with online presentation slides at 8 a.m. ET on Tuesday, April 28, to discuss the company's first-quarter results and guidance. A news release containing this information will be issued earlier that day at 6:30 a.m. ET. WHEN: 8 a.m. ET, Tuesday, April 28, 2020 WHAT: Review of Xerox's first-quarter results WHO: John Visentin, vice chairman and chief executive officer, Xerox Bill Osbourn, chief financial officer, Xerox AUDIO WEBCAST: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/anphbtqz or https://www.news.xerox.com/investors Replay available. About Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation makes every day work better. We are a workplace technology company building and integrating software and hardware for enterprises large and small. As customers seek to manage information across digital and physical platforms, Xerox delivers a seamless, secure and sustainable experience. Whether inventing the copier, Ethernet, the laser printer or more, Xerox has long defined the modern work experience. Learn how that innovation continues at xerox.com. Note: To receive RSS news feeds, visit https://www.news.xerox.com. For open commentary, industry perspectives and views, visit http://twitter.com/xerox, http://www.facebook.com/XeroxCorp, https://www.instagram.com/xerox/, http://www.linkedin.com/company/xerox, http://www.youtube.com/XeroxCorp. Xerox is a trademark of Xerox Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005782/en/ The coronavirus quarantine in Ukraine has reduced crime rates overall, but the Internet fraud rate has increased by 15%. The National Police informed the President of Ukraine that quarantine has reduced crime rates overall, but the Internet fraud rate has increased by 15%. In particular, online scammers are trying to arrange fake sales of protection means, the press service of the Presidents Office informs upon the meeting under the chairmanship of President Volodymyr Zelensky on fighting COVID-19 epidemic. "Ukrainians need to be especially cautious and buy products, things and means of protection on proven websites, while all online fraudulent platforms must be closed," the Head of State said. As reported, Ukraine has confirmed 415 new cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) over the past day, bringing the total number to 6,125. ol The reopening of one of Sydney's most famous beaches may be brief with lifeguards already threatening to shut it again, as beachgoers continue to congregate in groups and sunbake. Thousands of people flocked to Coogee Beach on Tuesday, the first sunny day since it was reopened after a three week shutdown because of coronavirus restrictions. Fences now leave beachgoers with just two exits and entrances onto the sand, while dozens of 'exercise only' signs along the promenade leave people in little doubt over what activities are allowed. But despite this lifeguards were repeatedly required to make announcements along the beach, telling those on the sand not to sunbake - and everyone in the water they had to be swimming. 'We do not consider it essential exercise to just congregate in the water,' a Randwick City Council lifeguard announced. 'Please exercise, start swimming, don't just stand around in the water. Scroll down for video The reopening of one of Sydney's most famous beaches may be brief with lifeguards already threatening to shut it again, after still having to tell people to abide by COVID-19 restrictions Lifeguards explicitly told swimmers at Coogee Beach on Tuesday that if they were in the water (pictured) they had to be swimming, and could not just be standing around This couple, who were relaxing together in the shallows, were among those being targeted by the lifeguards message. 'Please exercise, start swimming, don't just stand around in the water,' the announcement read 'We want to keep the beach open, please don't ruin it for everyone else. It's not just about you, it's about the whole community. 'If you don't start doing the right thing we will have to close the beach. Lifeguards do not want to do that, the council does not want to do that, but these are the measures we will take. 'Remember why we are doing this - it is to stop the spread of this virus.' While that message resulted in an exodus from the beach and a flurry of kicking legs in the water, it did not last long. Police, council workers and lifeguards are charged with dispersing those who break the strict coronavirus rules. Those at the reopened beach are required to be exercising either in the water or on the sand, in groups of no more than two and at a distance of at least 1.5 metres. But on the grassed area at the back of the beach, a few pairs of fitness fanatics were outnumber by sunbakers, people relaxing and those out to eat their lunch in the sun. NSW Police have the ability to hand $1000 fine to those breaching social distancing rules. Thousands of people flocked to Coogee Beach on Tuesday, the first sunny day since it was reopened after a three week shutdown because of coronavirus restrictions Despite repeated announcements by lifeguards and dozens of signs, some people still did not abide by the rules that require anyone not exercising or performing an essential service to be at home. This woman thought she would make the most of the sunny day by eating outside Strict social distancing rules mean people can not gather in groups of more than two unless they live in the same house Coogee, Clovelly, Maroubra and Malabar beaches were reopened by Randwick City Council on Monday morning, following their closure on March 28 Lifeguards drove up and down the beach, repeatedly making announcements to ensure that people were doing the right thing Coogee, Clovelly, Maroubra and Malabar beaches were reopened by Randwick City Council on Monday morning, following their closure on March 28. The decision to shut the beaches came after shocking scenes at nearby Bondi Beach where thousands of locals and tourists crammed onto the beach in late March on an unseasonably hot 34C day. BEACH RESTRICTIONS CAN: - Exercise on the sand or in the water at a distance of at least 1.5 metres - Exercise for up to one hour in groups of no more than two people CAN NOT: - Sunbake or sit around on the beach - Gather in groups of more than two, unless they are from same household Advertisement Bondi, and all beaches within the neighbouring Waverley Council, remain shut, but Randwick mayor Danny Said he acted in the public interest. 'Living along the coast, I know how important our beaches are to the mental and physical health of so many in the community,' Mr Said explained. 'The past three weeks have been difficult as we've all had to make changes and sacrifices to our daily routines. 'Our decision to close the beaches three weeks ago was not taken lightly and factored in the risk of coronavirus spread, particularly given the concentration of COVID-19 cases in the eastern suburbs area along with the popularity of our beaches. Mayor Said was confident residents would be enjoy the beaches for exercise while keeping their distance from others and not lounging around on the sand before or after their swims. 'Our beaches are not open to general use and can only be accessed for exercise. Activities such as sitting on the sand, sun-baking or gathering in groups will not be permitted and council staff and police will be enforcing these restrictions,' he said. Police, lifeguards and council workers were patrolling the beach at various times, telling those who were not working out to move on Sings were placed along the sand at Coogee outlining social distancing requirements, such as the need for people to gather in groups of no more than two and stay at least 1.5 metres apart While some threatened to 'ruin it for everyone' others were doing the right thing, by exercising on the foreshore in pairs Hundreds flocked to Coogee Beach on Tuesday to enjoy the 23C heat and make the most of the re-opened beaches 'I urge everybody to do the right thing and practice social distancing while exercising so that we can maintain access for exercise purposes and get through this difficult period together.' The relaxing of restrictions at beaches on Monday was followed on Tuesday by Prime Minister Scott Morrison's announcement that elective surgeries would re-commence from next week. IVF and screening programs, dental procedures, post cancer operations such as breast reconstruction, eye procedures, joint replacements and all surgery for children under 18 will all be allowed to go ahead from Monday. Those procedures represent about a quarter of elective surgery and the National Cabinet will review the rules again on May 11 to see if even more can be allowed. 'This is an important decision because it marks another step on the way back. Several types of elective surgery will resume next week as Australia begins the road out from coronavirus restrictions What surgeries are now allowed? IVF and screening programs Dental procedures Post cancer operations such as breast reconstruction, Eye procedures Joint replacements All surgery for children under 18 Other operations including colonoscopies Advertisement 'There is a road ahead and the decisions that the National Cabinet has taken today is evidence of that.' Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy said elective surgery is 'incredibly important and some of it is life saving.' Mr Morrison also said that the National Cabinet had been advised that smaller class sizes could help keeps schools safe when pupils return. New South Wales officials announced this morning that pupils will go back to school for one day a week from 11 May. Other states are yet to make announcements. Despite the restarting of surgery, Mr Morrison said social distancing measures need to stay in place and used the example of Singapore, which has had a recent spike in cases, to show that further outbreaks are likely. Mr Morrison also repeated calls for in independent inquiry into the origins of coronavirus after China said it was not necessary. 'I think such an inquiry is important and we can respectively have a difference of view from the one that has been put forward by China,' he said. People crowd to buy meat and fish at Khlong Toei wet market in Thailand. The virus is thought to have begun in Wuhan's wet market and there are calls for wet markets to be banned A Chinese academic has accused Australia of joining the US on a 'crusade' against China. Pictured: An employee spraying disinfectant at a factory in Wuhan on 25 March On Thursday US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that China 'come clean' after unsubstantiated reports that coronavirus may have originated in a lab in Wuhan. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on Friday demanded that China 'answer those questions' before foreign affairs minister Marise Payne called for an inquiry. Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Centre at the East China Normal University, said Australian politicians were engaged in a 'smear campaign' against China. 'It is deplorable that Australia is joining this anti-China crusade that will further damage the bilateral relations, a consequence that we in both countries don't want to see,' he was quoted as saying in the Australian Financial Review. Taking umbrage at the Centre for sending teams to assess the "serious" COVID-19 situation in the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, underscoring the "unilateral" and "undesirable" action, keeping her government in the dark. The Union home ministry said on Monday the COVID-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and that violation of lockdown measures may facilitate the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Union government has formed six inter-ministerial central teams (IMCTs) for an on-the-spot assessment of the COVID-19 situation in these places and issue necessary directions to the four states - Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal. While one central team arrived in Kolkata, another reached Jalpaiguri district on Monday. Claiming that she was informed by "Union Home Minister Amit Shah late in the afternoon, whereas the central teams already landed in the state in the morning hours", the feisty Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo said this was a breach of established protocols. "The central teams kept the state in the dark, approached the BSF for logistic support and were moving in the field without informing the West Bengal government," she wrote to Modi. The places mentioned by the Ministry of Home Affairs include Kolkata, Howrah, East Medinipur, North 24 Parganas, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal. "I am sure you will kindly agree that such unilateral action on the part of the central government is not desirable at all, especially when both the central and state governments are working together relentlessly round the clock to contain the COVID-19 crisis," the chief minister said. Earlier in the afternoon, in a series of tweets, Banerjee sought to know the rationale behind the formation of the IMCTs and urged the prime minister and home minister to share the criterion for the assessment, without which her government "would not be able to move ahead". Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, too, criticised the Centre's move to send teams to the state. State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee said the Centre is "pursuing politics" to demean the efforts of the TMC government in containing the infection. His views were echoed by senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty, who said this was not the time for "petty Centre-state politics" as everybody has to work unitedly in the fight against the pandemic. "It is true that the state is faulting on some aspects, but this is not the time for the Centre to play politics in order to score political points," Chakraborty said. West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh voiced support to the Centre's move and said the truth about the "lacklustre attitude" of the state government must be "exposed". "The central government did the right thing by sending teams. They would surely unravel how the lockdown is being violated and the state government is trying to hide the real picture," he said. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here Emily Atack moved into a new home a few months ago - and has since found herself self-isolating in it alone, amid the COVID-19 lockdown. And the actress, 30, has shared snaps to Instagram during her time at home, giving followers a peek inside her cosy house. Emily lamented the current anti-social way of life, sharing a photo of her living room, captioning it: 'Id give anything to have you all over this evening!' Homebody: Emily Atack moved into a new home a few months ago - and has since found herself self-isolating in it alone, amid the COVID-19 lockdown Emily has gone for a white base colour on the walls, adding pops of colour around the space to bring it some vibrancy. The airy front room has a large window allowing plenty of natural light, shelves stacked with books and knickknacks - including a statement 'E' ornament - and a crystal chandelier. Clearly channeling her days in the Australian jungle, Emily has filled the room with plants. There's a comfy pink sofa positioned across from a rustic fireplace - adding a traditional spin on the living space. Emily lamented the current anti-social way of life, sharing a photo of her living room, captioning it: 'Id give anything to have you all over this evening!' Boudoir: She has also provided a glimpse into her bedroom - whitewashed with matching bed linen and carpets Emily has hung mirrors and art on the walls, a statement rug on the floor and a bohemian-style footstool in front of the armchair. She has also provided a glimpse into her bedroom - whitewashed with matching bed linen and carpets. She's added pops of pink to the floor with a furry rug and to the window with a blush-coloured blind. Going green: Clearly channeling her days in the Australian jungle, Emily has filled the room with plants Pop of colour: She's added pops of pink to the floor with a furry rug and to the window with a blush-coloured blind Emily's new pad is a two-storey, with a staircase leading up from the lounge to the upstairs rooms. It's quite the upgrade from her past home, which was featured last year on Through The Keyhole, leaving viewers commenting how 'unglam' it was. Emily has kept her kitchen off Instagram - admitting she doesn't have time to cook. But the comedienne did post one snap of a homemade curry during lockdown, explaining that she has been using the time to get back on the culinary horse. 'Always loved cooking but never get time anymore,' she posted. 'Cooked a curry from scratch tonight and watched Rick Stein being a naughty little holiday bugger. Interior flair: Emily has kept her kitchen off Instagram - admitting she doesn't have time to cook Cooking up a storm: The comedienne did post one snap of a homemade curry during lockdown, explaining that she has been using the time to get back on the culinary horse Levels: Emily's new pad is a two-storey, with a staircase leading up from the lounge to the upstairs rooms Harsh: It's quite the upgrade from her past home [pictured], which was featured last year on Through The Keyhole, leaving viewers commenting how 'unglam' it was 'Times are tough but dont be afraid to be by yourself. It doesnt mean you are alone. I promise you arent.' Emily has shared her thoughts recently about being single in lockdown. In a column for Grazia magazine, she lamented not being able to indulge in her usual wine and cheese-filled Sunday routine with pals and that those conveying 'Instagram-perfect isolation' are not being truthful to their followers. Insisting that she can't complain about having to 'sit around', Emily also added that she is missing human contact and is allowing herself to feel sad when she feels alone. Show us around: Keith Lemon rooted around her old pad on the show - which also featured plenty of plantlife Skit: TV and radio star Pat Sharp joined him - and was 'killed' by Emily's perilously-positioned television, which she used to keep on top of a wardrobe opposite her bed 'Being alone has always been my number one fear!' Emily has shared her thoughts about being single in lockdown 'It has been three weeks since I have physically touched another human being. I am isolating alone in the London flat I recently moved into. Like so many, I have been in shock,' she recounted. 'Ive woken up in the middle of the night with crushing anxiety like Ive never experienced before. My internal monologue is already knackered.' Emily admitted that 'there have been good days and bad days', but that she tries to call them 'moments'. She went on: 'Being alone has always been my number one fear. And yet here I am. In the middle of a pandemic, completely isolated from everyone and everything I know and love.' Emily is very close to her mother - actress Kate Robbins, who is also alone in lockdown - and revealed that she is sure to video chat her to pass the time, as well as 'take little swipes at an online dating app Ive rejoined out of sheer boredom'. Honest: Emily admitted that 'there have been good days and bad days', but that she tries to call them 'moments' She went on: 'Being alone has always been my number one fear. And yet here I am. In the middle of a pandemic, completely isolated from everyone and everything I know and love' The star also admitted she feels guilty at feeling sad and is 'scared to vocalise a bad moment especially on social media with the fear of the reaction Ill receive from those who insist my life is perfect'. She concluded: 'I am learning its OK to feel sad right now, its OK to admit youre a bit alone, and its OK to feel s**t. Especially if you suffer with mental health issues. Give yourself a break. Instagram-perfect isolation is not a reality.' The actress spoke to Lorraine Kelly last week on Good Morning Britain where she also revealed that getting glammed up for the supermarket makes her 'feel better'. Emily said about coping with the lockdown alone: 'I'm a very strong person, there's definitely been some difficult moments being on your own. I'm the least lonely person in the world, surrounded by family and friends in real life. 'It's [the pandemic] so awful, we have to look at the positives in life. If we've got our health it's the most important thing in the world. Everything is so difficult, but if you have your health, friends and family, it's good.' Sun-kissed: Emily was sure to use the sunny weather as a reason to get outside amid lockdown over the weekend, showing off her freckles on Instagram She said: 'Make sure your dressing gown doesn't become your depressing down! There's definitely days that I don't want to put make-up on. It makes me feel better. 'I now get glammed up to go to the local supermarket. I queue outside and stand the 2 metres. It's like queuing up for a bar! I do get glammed up for the supermarket, it makes me feel better.' Sharing the first thing she will do after the pandemic, Emily joked: 'I'm going to the nearest pub! Obviously, I should say I want to hug my friends and family, but we can do that in the pub!' 'Difficult': Emily recently admitted that she's had some 'difficult moments' while self-isolating alone during the coronavirus pandemic 'Strong person': Emily said about coping with the lockdown alone - 'I'm a very strong person, there's definitely been some difficult moments being on your own' Although the star importantly added that the NHS also needs credit, she said: 'I think the first thing we all want to do is give the NHS a big hug, and say we couldn't have got through this without them!' It comes after Emily admitted she feels lonely while self-isolating and would 'give anything to have a row with a husband right now'. The actress told Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 5 Live that the current situation around the coronavirus pandemic is 'bleak and miserable and awful'. She said: 'I'm just trying to use it all as another way of showing myself that I can cope and that I am capable and I am brave and strong. 'I think at times like this you've got to appreciate everything you have, but you know, I'd give anything to have a row with a husband right now.' Handling EXIM cargo with laid down protocols to contain COVID-19 spread, India's ports saw as many as 1,715 ships mostly from China reaching its shores till Sunday with over 55,000 crew and passengers that were not allowed to disembark, a Shipping Ministry official said on Tuesday. Of the 1,715 ships reaching Indian shores with cargo between January 27 and April 19, as many as 1,347 ships reached major ports and allowed anchoring at designated places. "We are strictly adhering to precautions to prevent any further spread of COVID-19 while handling cargo at ports and the government has not issued shore passes or daily passes to 55,238 crew and passengers on board 1,715 vessels," an official told PTI on Tuesday. Of the 55,238 crew and passengers on board these ships, 48,261 reached India's major ports, the official said. All these crew and passengers were thermal scanned as per the WHO guidelines, the official added. India has 12 major ports -- Deendayal (erstwhile Kandla), Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Kamarajar (earlier Ennore), V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) that handled nearly 705 million tonnes (MT) cargo in 2019-20. For maintaining smooth operations across its ports the Shipping Ministry has initiated a number of steps that include waiving of rentals. The government has asked each major port to ensure that no penalties, demurrage, charges, fee, rentals are levied on any port user (traders, shipping lines, concessionaires, licensees etc) for any delay in berthing or loading/unloading operations or evacuation of cargo caused by the reasons attributable to lockdown measures from March 22. The government has said each major port shall exempt or remit demurrage, ground rent over and above the free period, penal anchorage/ berth hire charges and any other performance-related penalties that may be levied on port-related activities including minimum performance guarantee, wherever applicable. Besides for existing and operational PPP projects, major ports can permit waiver of all penal consequences on a case-to-case basis along with deferment of certain performance obligations. The official said that hospitals across the major port trusts have been supplied with personal protective equipment (PPEs) and the arrangement of sufficient staff round the clock has been made. Ports and PSUs under the Ministry of Shipping have contributed more than Rs 52 crore from the CSR funds towards PM CARES Fund. Besides, employees of ports, PSUs and other offices of the Ministry of Shipping have contributed over Rs 7 crore from their salaries towards PM CARES Fund. The number of vessels handled by ports during 2019-20 was around 20,837 against 20,853 vessels in 2018-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UPPER THUMB After more than three years of wrangling, the long-awaited new state psychiatric hospital in Caro is supposed to be a go. Tuscola County District 3 Commissioner Kim Vaughan said a deal is in the works to provide water to the new hospital. Vaughans commission district covers the townships of Dayton, Fremont, Indianfields, Koylton and Wells, and the hospitals location will be on the Caro Centers site in Indianfields Township. A water deal has been squared a way, so its looking good to go ahead, said Vaughan, noting there are currently 90 patients at the hospital and about 430 workers. The dispute between Indianfields Township and the city of Caro over paying for extending municipal water to the center also held up the hospital project. Local officials are cautiously optimistic this time the hospital will be built. A new hospital was in the works in 2017, and there was even a groundbreaking for it. But just as construction was to have started, newly elected Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon halted the project and hired a consulting firm to review it. Had that project moved forward, it would have been completed in 2021. Disagreements over the need, size and other issues of a new facility delayed theproject for another few years. The expectation as of March was that we would have shovels in the ground in the fall, October-ish, said Phil Green, who is the states 84th District representative. The size of the hospital is a 100-bed facility. The original 2017 plan was to build a $115 million, 200-bed, 225,000-square foot hospital. When that plan was halted, the possibilities of other sites were considered. Several Tuscola County officials had to prove for a second time the need to have a local psychiatric hospital. The state agreed in October 2019 to build the hospital in the county and to have the money to do that in in the 2020 budget. I have not heard of an update now that the COVID issues have arisen, Green said. The state is spending millions of dollars because of the COVID-19 pandemic that reached Michigan in March, and shows no signs of slowing down as the number of cases and deaths increases daily. That is a concern. The states next fiscal year starts October 1, and the money allocated for the new hospital has not been spent. This years budget outlined $63 million to replace the current Caro Regional Mental Health Center, and about $5 million in one-time funding for demolition of vacant/uninhabitable properties at the Caro site. In the meantime, hope prevails. I am thoroughly excited about the project being started," Green said. "The patients will receive first class care in a first class facility. Likewise, the front line workers there will now have access to excellent facilities that will require much less maintenance. According to Green, the expectation is to have patients in the new building during the spring of 2023. Companies with thousands of employees, past penalties from government investigations and risks of financial failure even before the coronavirus walloped the economy were among those receiving millions of dollars from a relief fund that Congress created to help small businesses through the crisis, an Associated Press investigation found. The Paycheck Protection Program was supposed to infuse small businesses, which typically have less access to quick cash and credit, with $349 billion in emergency loans that could help keep workers on the job and bills paid on time. RETURNED FUNDING: Shake Shack to return $10 million loan intended for small businesses But at least 75 companies that received the aid were publicly traded, the AP found, and some had market values well over $100 million. And 25% of the companies had warned investors months ago while the economy was humming along that their ability to remain viable was in question. By combing through thousands of regulatory filings, the AP identified the 75 companies as recipients of a combined $300 million in low-interest, taxpayer-backed loans. Eight companies, or their subsidiaries, received the maximum $10 million possible, including a California software company that settled a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation late last year into accounting errors that overstated its revenue. The eight firms getting maximum loans are likely just a tip of the iceberg: Statistics released last week by the U.S. Small Business Administration showed that 4,400 of the approved loans exceeded $5 million. Overall, the size of the typical loan nationally was $206,000, according to the statistics. SBA will forgive the loans if companies meet certain benchmarks, such as keeping employees on payroll for eight weeks. The list of recipients identified by the AP is a fraction of the 1.6 million loans that lenders approved before the program was depleted last week, but it is the most complete public accounting to date. Neither the Trump administration nor the lending industry has disclosed a list of Paycheck Protection Program beneficiaries. Representatives of the SBA, which is overseeing the program, did not respond to a request for comment late Monday. But last Friday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a written statement that most of the loans, 74%, were for less than $150,000 and that demonstrated the accessibility of this program to even the smallest of small businesses. President Donald Trump, asked Monday whether the criteria for who can receive loans should change, said that well look at individual things and some people will have to return it if we think its inappropriate. He added that the loans are supposed to be awarded, in part, by "what we think is right. The AP analysis comes as lawmakers from both political parties negotiate an additional relief package that in large part would replenish the Paycheck Protection Program with more than $300 billion, but there are disagreements about terms for the new funding measure. A final deal could come as early as Tuesday. ASYMPTOMATIC: Reports suggest many have had coronavirus with no symptoms APs review also found examples of companies that had foreign owners and that were delisted from U.S. stock exchanges, or threatened with removal, because of their poor stock performance before the coronavirus caused a downturn. Other companies have had annual losses for years. Wave Life Sciences USA Inc., a Boston-area biotechnology company that develops new pharmaceuticals, received a $7.2 million loan. Weeks earlier, Wave Life Sciences, whose parent company is based in Singapore, disclosed in its annual report net losses of $102 million, $147 million and $194 million during the last three fiscal years. We currently have no products on the market and expect that it may be many years, if ever, before we have a product candidate ready for commercialization, it wrote. In an emailed statement Monday, the company said: The livelihood of our U.S. employees and their families would be severely disrupted if they were to lose their jobs or be furloughed. We are doing everything we can to support them. Michael Minnis, who has studied the SBA program as an accounting professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said he understood the frustrations of smaller businesses that have not received funding when publicly listed companies have. But he said it would be hard to go into the program and change the parameters now. Theres a fundamental trade-off here between speed and targeting this in the absolute best way," he said. Minnis estimates the program might need to dispense $720 billion to meet demand. Since launching April 3, the relief package has faced criticism about slow loan processing, unclear rules and limited funding that left many mom-and-pop businesses without help. News that the $1.6 billion Shake Shack burger empire had received a maximum $10 million loan, disclosed in a filing Friday, ignited public anger. Company executives said late Sunday they would return the money after finding other sources of capital. By design, the Paycheck Protection Program was meant to get money out quickly to as many small businesses as possible, using a formula based in part on workforce and payroll size. Some of the eligibility criteria was expanded making it possible for some businesses with more than 500 employees to qualify if, for example, they met certain size standards for their industries or other conditions. DRUGS, INTERRUPTED: Cartels scramble as virus snarls global drug trade The owners behind large restaurants chains like Potbelly, Ruths Chris Steak House and Taco Cabana were able to qualify and get the maximum $10 million in loans despite employing thousands of workers. Some other big companies that received loans appeared to have enough cash on hand to survive the economic downturn. New York City-based Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, for example, a cruise ship and travel company with 650 workers and a branding deal with National Geographic, got a $6.6 million loan. At the end of March, the business reported having about $137 million in cash on its balance sheet. When this crisis hit, we had two business planning cases: 1) substantial layoffs and furloughs or 2) receiving these funds and not impacting our employees, spokeswoman Audrey Chang wrote in an email. Lindblad is the very rare travel company that has not imposed any layoffs, furloughs or salary reductions to date. Five of the companies that the AP identified were previously under investigation by financial and other regulators, including firms that paid penalties to resolve allegations, records show. Quantum Corp., a data storage company based in San Jose, California, that has a workforce of 800, paid a $1 million penalty last December over allegations that accounting errors resulted in overstated revenues. Quantum received a maximum $10 million loan. Without that loan, we would most certainly be forced to reduce headcount. We owe it to our employees whove stuck with us through a long and difficult turnaround to do everything we can to save their jobs during this crisis, company spokesman Bob Wientzen wrote in an email. Broadwind Energy, a suburban Chicago maker of wind turbines that employs about 520, agreed to pay a $1 million penalty five years ago after the SEC accused it of failing to inform investors that reduced business from two major customers had caused substantial declines in its long-term financial prospects. Broadwind, which could not be immediately reached, received $9.5 million from the loan program. Marrone Bio Innovations, a biopesticide company in Davis, California, that has about 50 workers, similarly agreed to pay $1.8 million in 2016 after the SEC alleged its chief operating officer had inflated financial results to hit projections that it would double revenues during its first year as a public company. Marrone received a loan worth $1.7 million. Pam Marrone, the chief executive, said the company shouldn't be punished for what happened with the SEC because it has had clean audits for years now. She described the investigation as a body blow" that cost it investors and drove its stock price under $1. She said it has had to take on $40 million in debt and is still digging itself out of the financial hole. People don't realize how tough it is to be a small public company like us that's not yet profitable," she said. "We can't just go to investors and say, OK, open up your wallets.' The AP analysis found that about 1 in 4 of the companies, in fact, had warned investors months ago that they or their auditors had significant doubts about their ability to remain viable and meet their financial obligations despite the booming economy at the time. STIMULUS EXPANSION: New proposed $2K per month COVID-19 payment would include more Americans One was Helius Medical Technologies, a company located near Philadelphia that develops technology to help injured brains heal themselves. The company has 19 employees and received a $323,000 loan amid a tough stretch. Its most recent annual report warned, We may be unable to continue to operate without the threat of liquidation for the foreseeable future and did not expect to have enough cash to go beyond May. In an interview, president and chief executive Phil Deschamps said the company was able to raise enough capital earlier this year that, when paired with the loan, it can survive to early summer when it expects to have filed for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its device. Without the federal money, he said, the company would have lost scientists and attorneys who help prepare regulatory submissions. Deschamps said his company followed the same rules and applied like any other, and that its device could help thousands of people in the future. But he also understands why some people might question giving money to publicly traded firms. If we didnt qualify for whatever reason, we would have walked away and figured out another way to do it," he said. Another company that was facing financial doubts before the virus was Enservco Corp., a Denver-based firm that helps oil and gas firms, including in the fracking industry. In its annual report filed last month, the company said: We do not generate adequate revenue to fund our current operations, and we incurred significant net operating losses during the years ended December 31, 2019, and 2018, which raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Chief executive Ian Dickinson said in an interview that his company would not have folded without the $1.9 million loan it received. But, he said, he welcomed the money and wouldve had to let go more employees than he already has without it. Enservcos annual report cited 186 employees; Dickinson said payroll has reduced significantly from that mark, without giving specifics. Dickinson said he did not believe concerns about how long the company could survive were raised in the application process with its bank. At the end of the day, our employees are really no different than the employees of a nonpublic company, Dickinson said. These are funds being used to keep folks on payroll and keep food on their tables. REOPENING TEXAS: Governor Abbott names members of Strike Force to Reopen Texas That big companies and ones with questionable records received such precious financial aid during the chaotic last few weeks frustrates Zachary Davis, a Santa Cruz, California, businessman who runs two artisanal ice cream shops, a beachside cafe and a taco bar with partner Kendra Baker. Before a shelter-in-place order in mid-March, the two were expecting their best year to date and were on track to pay off in May the $250,000 loan from the federal government that they used 10 years ago to open their original shop. We were feeling pretty good about where we were in the world. Now its just all turned upside down, said Davis, who had to lay off 70 workers. Davis says they were recently able to obtain a different $10,000 disaster loan from the federal government to pay off vendors, but he says that it evaporated within seconds. Davis and Baker submitted a Paycheck Protection Program application with supporting documents on April 2 but are still waiting. Competing against businesses with hundreds of millions a year in revenue and teams of accountants and lawyers is tough, Davis said, and if youre a little guy, chances are youre going to the back of the line. ___ Associated Press writers Michael Liedtke in Berkeley, California, and Jeannie Ohm in Washington, D.C., and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report. A man screamed in agony when a doctor sanded down his 'croissant-like toenails' in My Feet Are Killing Me. In tonight's episode of the Quest Rest show, David, from New Jersey, reveals he has been struggling to walk properly ever since developing a foot and nail fungus five years ago. 'My feet are just a train wreck, and I'm embarrassed about it,' he says. Other than their appearance, David's feet cause him constant pain, and he struggles slipping his shoes on and off. 'It hurts like hell,' he admits. 'I've learnt to adapt and adjust. David, from New Jersey, screams in agony when a doctor sands down his 'croissant-like toenails' in tonight's episode of Quest red's My Feet Are Killing Me David's feet cause him constant pain, and he struggles slipping his shoes on and off. Pictured, his flaky feet After developing the problem while dealing with the loss his loving mum, David stopped taking care of himself, and the condition of his feet quickly deteriorated. 'Losing my mother, that just killed me,' an emotional David reveals. 'She was wonderful.' Visiting foot and ankle surgeon Dr Brad Schaeffer, David is finally looking to get some help, but not without a warning first. 'I just hope you didn't have a big breakfast today. Man, you're in a for a shocker!' David says. As Dr Schaeffer slowly removes David's socks, the horrifying extent of David's foot fungus is revealed - his toenails have overgrown and twisted, and the skin all around the foot is dry, dusty and flakes off in sheets. David visits foot and ankle surgeon Dr Brad Schaeffer (pictured) - and warns the expert: 'I just hope you didn't have a big breakfast today. Man, you're in a for a shocker!' David's toenails have overgrown and twisted, and the skin all around the foot is dry, dusty and flakes off in sheets (pictured) Dr Schaeffer is almost lost for words as he examines David's feet. 'When I removed David's socks, there was just flakes and flakes coming off of his feet,' he says, as the patient winces in pain. 'I've seen bad cases, but this is the worst case of toenail fungus that I have seen.' FUNGAL NAIL INFECTIONS Fungal nail infections develop when your feet are constantly warm and damp. You're more likely to get an infection if you wear trainers for a long time and have hot, sweaty feet. To prevent fungal nail infections: DO: - Treat athlete's foot as soon as possible to avoid it spreading to nails - Keep your feet clean and dry - Wear clean socks every day - Wear flip-flops in showers at the gym or pool throw out old shoes DO NOT: - Do not wear shoes that make your feet hot and sweaty - Do not share towels - Do not wear other people's shoes - Do not share nail clippers or scissors Source: NHS Advertisement 'David's nails were so long that they were curling on top of each other, almost bridging together.' 'His skin was flaking off, you could literally take little pieces of it off. It looked like a croissant.' The bottom of David's feet are also covered in rock-hard callouses, which make walking difficult. 'It feels like walking on land mines,' David jokes. To make matters worse, he has a genetic condition which will complicate his treatment. 'The danger for haemophilia is internal bleeding, the stuff that you can't see,' David's brother John says. With David at risk of infection, Dr Schaeffer decides to carefully clip and file down his toenails, remove as much dead skin as possible, and give him a regime to take better care of his feet going forward. 'Well, if you see me skyrocket through the ceiling, then you know that had to hurt,' David chuckles, as he gets prepped for the procedure. With David laid back and relaxed, Dr Schaeffer starts clipping at his nails, chiselling chunks off at a time. 'I'm going to chip away at David's toenails, and once they're removed I'm going to file them down so it looks like a normal foot,' Dr Schaeffer says, laying out his plan of action. During the episode, Dr Schaeffer starts clipping at David's nails (pictured), chiselling chunks off at a time in a bid to get them looking more like a 'normal foot' With David's haemophilia, Dr Schaeffer's biggest concern is not cutting him during the operation. But while separating his toes, Dr Schaeffer accidentally nicks the skin and draws blood. Luckily, and after applying pressure, the bleeding stops. Writhing and moaning in pain, David can only watch as Dr Schaeffer sands down the huge chunks of overgrown nail and skin with an electric file. 'Just don't stop, keep cutting until you get to the other side,' he says defiantly. After cutting the nails, Dr Schaeffer decides gauge out some of David's corns, causing him more excruciating pain. 'David had one of the largest corns I've ever seen, it was huge,' Dr Schaeffer says, holding a hard mass of skin in his hand. After a gruelling procedure, David's feet are almost unrecognizable. 'Mission accomplished!' a delighted David says, hugging Dr Schaeffer. Leaving the clinic, David gets to do something he hasn't done in nearly five years walk away wearing a brand new pair of shoes! My Feet Are Killing Me premieres at 10pm Tuesdays 21st April exclusively on Quest Red and dplay The initial losses caused by flight reductions for Vietnams air carriers and land management agencies may total VND10 trillion. The Covid-19 epidemic has devastated key transportation sectors, of which the aviation industry has suffered the most. The Ministry of Transport (MOT), in its document to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), showed that total losses incurred by three state-invested companies, namely Vietnam Airlines, Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) and the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM), may reach trillions of dong. According to MOT Deputy Minister Le Anh Tuan, Vietnam Airlines suffered the most. Its combined revenue in the first three months of 2020 was VND19.212 trillion, a decrease of VND6.712 trillion compared with the same period last year. The air carrier reported a loss of VND2.383 trillion. f the epidemic ends in Q4, its total revenue would be VND38.14 trillion, or VND72.411 trillion lower than planned, and it would take a loss of VND19.651 trillion this year. If the epidemic ends in Q4, its total revenue would be VND38.14 trillion, or VND72.411 trillion lower than planned, and it would take a loss of VND19.651 trillion this year. The national flag air carrier has stopped flying on international routes and only maintains domestic air routes at a minimum level. Vietnam Airlines was reported as having VND3.5 trillion in reserves earlier this year. However, the money has run out. The corporations short-term balance as of March 20 had reached VND3.568 trillion, while the cash flow is estimated to see an accumulative deficit of approximately VND15 trillion in 2020. Therefore, commercial banks may refuse to continue providing loans to Vietnam Airlines and its subsidiaries. In addition to short-term loan of VND3.517 trillion by the end of 2020, Vietnam Airlines needs financial support of VND12 trillion from the state and the money needs to be disbursed from April 2020. As for ACV, the revenue of Q1 was VND4.064 trillion, down by VND832 billion compared with the same period last year. Because of Covid-19, its Q1 profit was modest, VND1.857 trillion, a decrease of VND586 billion. It is estimated that its revenue for the whole year 2020 would be VND11.339 trillion, or VND10.23 trillion lower than planned, while the profit would see a decrease of VND9.335 trillion to VND1.476 trillion. Meanwhile, VATM saw total flight control output in February alone decrease by 14,599 flights, or 40 percent compared to the same period last year. Tuan said in the current difficult conditions, aviation companies need to encourage service providers to adjust service fees. ACV has exempted and reduced seven kinds of services under its jurisdiction from March 1 to August 31. About 41.7 million foreigners visited Vietnam by air in 2019. Mai Lan Vietnam Airlines wants to buy 50 more airplanes despite difficulties National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines wants to buy 50 additional airplanes despite numerous difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Babygirl Lisa Hamme and her Nigerian love, Usman Umar (Sojaboy), quickly became one of the most talked-about couples on TLCs 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days. From their 20-year age difference to their very different cultural backgrounds, Lisas seething jealousy, and Usmans budding hip hop career, the pair seemed strangely matched from the beginning. In a recent exclusive interview with reality TV YouTuber Katie Joy from Without a Crystal Ball, the 90 Day Fiance star opened up about how her surprising relationship with Usman beganincluding what she initially thought of him, what tests she put him through, and how the couple met. Lisa Hamme | 90 Day Fiance via Instagram Lisa revealed that she met Usman through a mutual friend from the UK Lisa, 52, revealed to Katie Joy that she met Usman, 31, online through a mutual friend in the UK. The hospice care worker from York, Pennsylvania, started texting with Usman, but claims she didnt take him seriously at first. In fact, Lisa says she thought Usman was a yahoo boya Nigerian scammer/playboy who was just looking for a woman to bring him to the U.S.at first. The 90 Day Fiance star said in the interview, We met online. We met through a mutual friend out of the UK. I knew her, she knew him, and he was looking for a female companion. And I just knew her reputation, Im like, uh, I dont know about thisbut send him through my filtered messaging, and Ill see what its about. Lisa also alleged that, contrary to popular belief, Usman was far more aggressive in chasing her than she was towards him. Whats more, she knew the relationship seemed unrealistic due to their massive age difference, but she said she gave him a chance anyway. I was 49 and Usman was 29 when we first met, Lisa told Katie Joy. And when we first met, Ill be honest with youI honestly thought, oh, great, another yahoo boy out of Nigeria thats going to harass me to no end. And I gave him the benefit of the doubt because I dont like that stigma. She claimed their relationship was platonic at first Lisa told Katie Joy that she expressed her doubts to her friend at first about the suitability of the match. Still, Usman charmed her after they spent quite a bit of time as friends. He came through my [Facebook] messenger an hour later, and I accepted it, the 90 Day Fiance star revealed. We started talkingWhen I met him, it started out just as, hey, how are you? I hear youre from the States. I hear youre from Nigeria. You know, just small talk between him and I. Lisa was recently divorced at the time and raising her daughter on her own. She wasnt sure she wanted to get involved with anyone new at all, much less someone much younger from halfway across the world. But Usman eventually worked his way into her heart, and they formed a bond. The TLC star said she put her Nigerian beau through a series of tests to see if he was serious The single mom explained that she made sure Usman was real and genuine before she got in any deeper with him. I never, ever expected to develop a relationship, Lisa insisted. In fact, I put him through every test possible to prove that he was not a yahoo boy. First things first: Lisa had to make sure that she was talking to a real person and not just a scammer. A lot of the yahoo boys in Nigeria will never talk to you on video chat, Lisa explained. But she wasnt having that. The 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days star told Katie Joy, They will text you, they will try to move you to a different application so youre away from your friends, and they can try to seclude you. Im not about that, oh, no, no, as you see on the show. Lisa asked Usman for a picture of himself to prove his identity, but she wasnt pleased with her new beaus looks at first. He sent me a picture, and Im like, oh, Christ Jesus, this guy must be really ugly, because the picture he sent mehe had no shirt because of the temperature, but he had a towel over his face, I swear, Lisa laughed. Im going to release that picture eventually. And Im like, oh, God, what have I gotten into? It turned out that Usmans photo was just a joke. But Lisa told him she had no time to waste, so Usman obliged with another picture. The Nigerian rapper also asked Lisa to go to his Facebook page to check him out and make sure he was being authentic with her (and single!). But Usman was already maxed out on his friends list, so he had to delete 20 or so of his friends in order to give Lisa access to his account. Lisa took that as a sign that Usman really wanted to get to know her, and things evolved from there. So thats where it all began, on Facebook, Lisa shared. And the rest is 90 Day Fiance history. Chandigarh, April 21 : A young Covid-19 'warrior' of Punjab Police, who was diagnosed with the virus last week along with colleagues, has appealed to the frontline staff to stay strong to win the fight against the pandemic. She has advised her colleagues to take precautions while performing duty and also asked the public to stay indoors. The 'warrior' is Sub-Inspector Arshpreet Kaur Grewal, 27, posted as Station House Officer at Jodhewal in Ludhiana city. She is undergoing treatment at Christian Medical College in Ludhiana. Arshpreet was also part of the team tracing Tablighi Jamaat members, who had attended the Markaz event in Delhi's Nizamuddin area. In a video posted by Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta on Twitter, she made an appeal to the public to stay home and stay safe as "your lives are very precious". "The police department and the civil department are out to take care of you and you please stay in," she appealed with folded hands. Her driver Assistant Sub-Inspector Sukhdev Singh and ACP's driver constable Prabhjot Singh have also been tested for coronavirus positive. "I pray for them to get well soon and we will soon join our duties," an upbeat Arshpreet, who has no travel history, said. She was part of the team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Anil Kohli deputed at the vegetable market to manage crowds and also to trace Tablighi Jamaat members in Ludhiana. Kohli succumbed to coronavirus on April 18. "I don't have words for him (Kohli). I have got an opportunity to learn a lot from himaMay his soul rest in peace," she said, adding "his sacrifice will be remembered". DGP Gupta complimented the young 'warrior' by saying: "Am absolutely amazed at how our young Sub-Inspector Arshpreet is coping with the coronavirus. "All of 27 years and yet so brave, mature and inspiring. She's raring to get back to her work," he informed in a tweet. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who is missing no opportunity to interact through video calls with the frontline staff fighting coronavirus almost daily, spoke to the ailing Arshpreet too. "You are looking cheerful and I am happy to hear no temperature at all take care, you are very important to us. If you need any help, let me know," the Chief Minister said in a pep talk. In another video of a police 'warrior' posted by Special Chief Secretary K.B.S. Sidhu, who is in-charge to monitor state-wide coronavirus cases, on Twitter, he wrote: "For those who wanted me to let them know more about the condition of constable Paramjot Singh, in the Isolation Ward at Ferozepur, I will share this video. "Need I say more?" In the video, the constable was doing aggressive pushups in the hospital. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text antibody test A health worker extracts blood to perform an antibody test for COVID-19 at Dworska Hospital, in Krakow, Poland, on April 9, 2020. Omar Marques/Getty Images The WHO director-general on Monday said that data suggests no more than 2 to 3% of the population have the antibodies to show they were infected by the coronavirus. These antibodies are needed to have immunity to the coronavirus before a vaccine is developed. A second WHO expert said the figure is less than expected, and undermines plans to create "immunity passports" as a route back to normal life. The WHO has also warned there's no evidence the coronavirus antibodies offer long-term immunity and that not all people who recover have the antibodies. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Related Video: What Could Be the Fastest Way to End the Coronavirus Crisis? The head of the World Health Organization on Monday said that likely no more than 2 to 3% of the global population have developed antibodies for COVID-19. That is a problem for countries hoping to issue "immunity passports" as a way to get back to normal, even before a coronavirus vaccine has been developed. A second WHO expert said the data does not yet support such a strategy, not least because it is not clear whether those who recover from COVID-19 are in fact immune. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director-general, gave the 2 to 3% ballpark at a press conference on Monday, citing studies from around the world that the WHO has supported. He did not give details. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Fabrice COFFRINI/Getty Images Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said that the figure was lower than expected, according to the Guardian. She also cast doubt on countries where officials are exploring ideas of offering "immunity passports" to those who are carrying antibodies. These countries include the US, UK, Germany, and Italy. Chile has already endorsed the idea and said this week it would issue them to some recovered people. Story continues Of that idea, Van Kerkhove said: "Right now, we have no evidence that the use of a serological test can show that an individual has immunity or is protected from reinfection." Serological tests are those which test the blood for antibodies. The presence of antibodies typically makes a person immune to reinfection for at least a while. But it is not yet clear what kind of protection is afforded by COVID-19 antibodies. Some are optimistic. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious-disease expert, has previously said he was "willing to bet anything that people who recover are really protected against reinfection." France coronavirus LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Image Some experts also hope antibodies from recovered patients could help treat other people with COVID-19. Tedros did not dismiss antibody tests entirely, but said they should be part of a broader response to the pandemic, alongside the more widespread tests to see whether a person was actively infected. He said the WHO still welcomed the rollout of antibody tests, which he said would help scientists "understand the extent of infection in the population." Read the original article on Business Insider US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hold a joint news conference at the State Department in Washington, in this Dec 10, 2019 file photo. [Photo/Agencies] Since it unilaterally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia a year ago, the United States has repeatedly proposed its nuclear arms talks with Russia also involve China, and in a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo once again pushed for trilateral discussions. That, as he knows, is totally unacceptable to China, which has made clear that it will not take part in any trilateral negotiations on nuclear disarmament with the US and Russia, as the size of its nuclear arsenal is extremely limited compared to theirs together the US and Russia account for more than 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons. China has always advocated the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons, and believes that, as the countries with the largest nuclear arsenals, the US and Russia have a special responsibility to lead the way on nuclear disarmament and should reduce their nuclear arsenals in a verifiable and irreversible manner, creating the right conditions for other countries to participate. Being aware of China's opposition to trilateral talks, the US is deliberately hyping up the idea of trilateral nuclear talks knowing they will not happen. It is trying to hoodwink the world into believing that it is genuinely seeking to reduce the risk from nuclear weapons while acting to strengthen its nuclear advantage and deploy previously banned intermediate-range missiles in Asia. As part of its smoke-and-mirror tricks, last week the US State Department released a report in which it suggested that China may have secretly conducted low-level nuclear tests throughout 2019, a claim that was unsubstantiated and which was immediately refuted by China as being an accusation made of thin air. Rather than China, it is the US that is seriously raising the risks of nuclear war by sabotaging the global strategic balance and stability and setting back international arms control and nuclear disarmament efforts. The US should stop its dangerous maneuverings and face up to its obligations for world peace and stability. It should work with Russia on an agreement to reduce the size of their nuclear arsenals and so make its due contribution to international nuclear disarmament. It should start by responding positively to Russia's proposal to extend the 2011 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the last remaining agreement binding the two powers' nuclear arsenals, before it expires in February next year. The US administration should realize that its zero-sum approach to world affairs has become increasingly destabilizing and risk creating. It should accept its Cold War mentality is outdated and do more to contribute to the common good and stability in the world instead of doing the opposite. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 20 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Export of wood and furniture from Turkey to Azerbaijan increased by 26.21 percent from January 2020 through March 2020 and exceeded $29.9 million, Trend reports citing the Turkish Trade Ministry. In March 2020, Turkeys export of wood and furniture to Azerbaijan increased by 15.41 percent compared to March 2019, amounting to $10.1 million. In 1Q2020, export of wood and furniture from Turkey to world markets increased by 3.9 percent compared to the same period of 2019, and amounted to $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, Turkeys wood and furniture export amounted to 3.1 percent of the country's total export. In March 2020, Turkey exported wood and furniture worth $427.8 million to world markets, which is 9.3 percent less compared to the same month of 2019. Turkeys export of wood and furniture amounted to 3.2 percent of the country's total export. From March 2019 through March 2020, Turkey exported wood and furniture in the amount of $5.5 billion. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) Taguig City Mayor Lino Cayetano confirmed Tuesday that it was he who ordered policemen to check the premises of a high-end condominium for allegedly violating quarantine protocols. Speaking to CNN Philippines' Balitaan, Cayetano said authorities have been going around the city's residential condominiums since March to ensure that quarantine guidelines are being followed. "Yes [I ordered the authorities], ang katotohanan for the last two weeks, ang lungsod ng Taguig ay talagang parte ng sistema namin na chinecheck namin lahat ng condominiums. It isn't something new," Cayetano said. [Translation: Yes, I ordered the authorities. As a matter of fact, for the past two weeks, that has been our system in Taguig where we check all condominiums. It isn't something new.] "The first time na umikot kami sa mga condominium ay March 28 (The first time we checked condominiums was on March 28)," he added. On Sunday, some tenants of the Pacific Plaza Towers (PPT) at Bonifacio Global City slammed the police team for allegedly trespassing and harassing some foreign tenants in the condominium premises. Joint Task Force COVID-19 Shield chief Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar quickly defended his men, noting that they received reports that the PPT allowed the gathering of people at its common pool, a violation of physical distancing under the government's quarantine guidelines. Cayetano, on the other hand, said that they are already investigating the matter, checking CCTV footage, and are coordinating with both parties. He noted that they will file charges if policemen were proven to have harassed the involved residents. "We are investigating whether they barged in. We will find out, we will file charges if they did. If they waved a gun, we will file charges," he added. The Taguig mayor also emphasized that the public should not use the issue to justify violators of the protocol. "Ngayon, nama-muddle at jina-justify ng mga matitigas ang ulo yung action ng police para suwayin yung enhanced community quarantine," he said. [Translation: The issue is being muddled, so violators are justifying the actions of the police to go against the enhanced community quarantine.] "At the end of the day, we want to keep people safe. Ang virus po hindi naiintindihan yung legalidad ng public at private space. Hindi nito naiintindihan kung ikaw ay foreigner or Filipino (The virus does not understand the legality of a public and private space. It does not understand whether you are a foreigner or Filipino)," Cayetano said. President Rodrigo Duterte previously warned quarantine violators that he may impose a "martial law-type" of discipline if they continue going against government orders. Eleazar previously noted that there is no guarantee that quarantine violators can immediately post bail once they're sent to jails. It has been over a month since the Luzon-wide quarantine was declared to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country. The national government has yet to decide whether the enhanced community quarantine will go beyond April 30. Philippines has 6,459 COVID-19 cases to date, with 428 deaths and 613 recoveries. Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Sudans press freedom record has improved by 16 points, up from its 175 ranking in 2019, to 156 now, only a few months after the installation of hybrid government Photo by Tiffany Nguyen Scott Joseph of Scott Josephs Orlando Restaurant Guide is partnering with Soco Thornton Park for their very first virtual Supper Club using the teleconferencing software, Zoom on April 30. We spoke briefly with Scott Joseph about this virtual supper club via e-mail: Tasty Chomps: What inspired you to start this event? Scott Joseph: Ive been helping someone learn Zoom for teaching online and got to thinking it would be a creative way to hold a Supper Club, since we cant all gather in one place for the time being. Is this your very first virtual Supper Club? I once held a Supper Club in Dublin but this will be the first one in cyberspace. What is the program going to be like? Greg Richie of Soco has put together a three-course dinner paired with two wines. Guests will pick the food up at the restaurant on the day of the event between 2pm-6pm then, using Richies instructions for reheating the entree, gather the meal in front of their webcams and log in to my Zoom room at 7pm. All the participants will be able to see and hear the others. Richie will come on and talk about the food (Ill probably show a video of it being prepared in the Soco kitchen); and were hoping to get the winemakers, one from California and one from New Zealand, to Zoom in and talk about the wines. Well also have the usual dinner conversations, hearing from everyone about how theyre adapting and what theyre looking forward to once theyre able to get back out. How long do you think we are going to be social distancing? Any words of encouragement for restaurants out there right now? I wish I could be more optimistic, but Im afraid well be in some sort of distancing for several more months, perhaps through the end of the year. I think its great how so many of our local restaurants have adapted to become takeout operations, but I know it isnt enough to keep their full staffs on payroll. Its going to take more creative thinking to adapt further and make the current situation profitable. Better distribution of government funds to small businesses wouldnt hurt, either. Cost for the food is $45 per person; the wines are priced at $20 per bottle. So cost for a couple would be $130. For an individual, its $85 (but you have the wine all to yourself). Tax is extra and so is the gratuity (recommended a minimum of 20 percent to support the staff). Tickets are first come, first serve. There is also an optional welcome cocktail you can order to sip on while we wait for everyone to join the Zoom room. Scott Josephs Virtual Supper Club with Soco Thornton Park Menu Course One Bentons Country Ham Wrapped Cantaloupe, Burrata, Watercress Toasted Sunflower Seeds, Balsamic-Basil Vinaigrette Lexicon Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand, 2018 Course Two Barbecue Rubbed Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder Sweet Potato Gratin, Apple Slaw, Buttermilk-Chive Biscuit Carson Scott Pinot Noir, Sonoma County, California, 2017 Course Three Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Pineapple-Lemon Marmalade Carson Scott Pinot Noir, Sonoma County, California, 2017 Optional Welcome Cocktail ($10): Strawberry Fields, strawberry infused Wheatley vodka with lemon and vanilla. New OBGYN study registry could shed light on COVID-19 effects on pregnant mothers and newborns. Our partnership with Cedar Research & Aspen Insights allows us to utilize a cutting-edge AI-driven data analytics platform operating with industry-leading privacy and ethical standards to answer the unanswered questions regarding the effects of COVID-19 in pregnancy. Leaders at Cedar Health Research have begun working on several projects related to the novel coronavirus, one of which is a revolutionary womens health & pediatric health outcomes registry study to track the impact of COVID-19 on pregnant mothers and newborns. Cedar Health Research, led by CEO Todd Albin & Chief Medical Officer, Ezekiel Fink, MD, in alliance with Aspen Insights, led by CEO Walter Storm are collaborating with community OBGYN private practices in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex on this innovative and urgent project. They are combining the power of physician collaboration and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to provide state-of-the-art applied data science to health and human performance. This technology developed by Aspen Insights will allow researchers to collect, analyze and report on data in real-time and in asynchronistic environments. Co-Principal Investigator Jeff Livingston, MD, OBGYN and CEO of MacArthur Medical Center, is partnering with Cedar Health Research with hopes of gathering meaningful data through this revolutionary approach. Macarthur Medical Center is thrilled to participate in the COVID-19 Pregnancy Registry, states Dr. Livingston. Our partnership with Cedar Research & Aspen Insights allows us to utilize a cutting-edge AI-driven data analytics platform operating with industry-leading privacy and ethical standards to answer the unanswered questions regarding the effects of COVID-19 in pregnancy. " This will be the first time that a community-based registry study of this size will be executed, leveraging machine learning technology that is integrated with practice and hospital EHR systems. "By partnering with Cedar Health Research & Aspen Insights in their COVID Registry, my practice is advancing scientific understanding of this devastating virus without any effort or expense, explains Dr. Hampton Richards, MD, Co-Principal Investigator, and Partner at Walnut Hill OBGYN. We are combining data in an ethical way which honors patient privacy while creating a knowledge base that will help us all. This transformative solution will provide crucial COVID-19-related data to the physicians and scientists working on the front the lines of women's health and neonatology at levels of resolution and speed not previously possible. About Cedar Health Research Cedar Health Research is a multi-specialty clinical research site-network based out of Dallas, Texas. They are powered by state-of-the-art AI technology, a world-class network of researchers, and connectivity to more than 500,000 lives through EHR and LIS database integrations. Cedar Health Research is committed to transforming the clinical research domain through the effective adoption of innovative technologies. http://www.cedarhealthresearch.com About Aspen Insights Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Aspen Insights is a data science and artificial intelligence firm principally engaged in the research, design, development, and integration of healthcare analytics systems, products, and services. https://aspeninsights.com/about-us/ About MacArthur Medical Center Our vision is to be the community leader in womens and pediatric health. Through technology and teamwork, we empower women and educate children. We are a trusted partner who embraces diversity and fosters a culture of respect and loyalty, treating the whole person with innovative excellence. http://macarthurobgyn.com/about-us/ About Walnut Hill OBGYN: Founded 50 years ago, Walnut Hill OBGYN is comprised of 8 physicians and 3 mid-levels, seeing over 200 patients each day. With a focus on high-risk obstetrics, minimally invasive surgery, and cutting-edge diagnostics, the physicians at Walnut Hill also participate in the training of medical students and residents at UT Southwestern. https://walnuthillobgyn.com/ President Trump's authority to limit immigration to the United States was bolstered by a 2018 Supreme Court ruling upholding his ban on U.S. entry from a group of mostly Muslim countries. But its far from certain that the courts would uphold his proposed ban on most migration to the U.S. for at least 60 days because of the coronavirus outbreak, several law professors said Tuesday. Trump is now claiming authority to essentially disregard and rewrite immigration laws, said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, an immigration law professor at Santa Clara University. While the high courts 5-4 ruling upheld his travel ban on national-security grounds, Gulasekaram said, Trump is proposing to go much further now and will need justifications he hasnt yet presented. The administration has already closed the Mexican and Canadian borders and halted most immigration from elsewhere, while officials have also stopped processing everyday visa applications, Gulasekaram said. He also said the spread of the coronavirus has been a domestic problem of contacts between people in the U.S., not an immigration problem. But Bill Hing, a University of San Francisco law professor and director of the schools Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic, said the president would offer reasons for the same degree of judicial deference the court granted him in 2018. Trump will rely on findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to exclude anyone coming from a place where theres illness, Hing predicted. He learned a big lesson, I think, from lower-court opinions that rejected early versions of his travel ban as overly broad. The Supreme Court cited language in the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the president to suspend entry of any "class of aliens" who, in his judgment, would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. Chief Justice John Roberts said the law authorized Trump to exclude foreigners who he determined could not be vetted with adequate information in their home countries. Trump first announced his intentions by Twitter on Monday night, saying, In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! He scaled his plans back somewhat Tuesday, saying he would be issuing a temporary suspension of immigration into the United States on Wednesday, to be reconsidered in 60 days. The suspension will not apply to foreigners admitted as temporary guest workers in farm labor, technology and some other fields. Tourists and foreign students will also be admitted, as they are not classified as immigrants. The ban will apply to noncitizens who had been issued U.S. visas abroad and were planning to immigrate and apply for green cards as legal residents. Also barred are those who applied for visas to join family members in the United States. This could result in family separation and is unlikely to improve employment prospects for nonimmigrants, Hing said. But he said it would be harder to prove discrimination if the exclusions are in effect for only 60 days. Gulasekaram said opponents would argue that immigration officers can protect public health with temperature checks and other examination of arriving migrants while other recent immigrants, he noted, have become health care workers on the front lines. The seriousness of the public health concerns with the coronavirus pandemic would weigh heavily with the courts in deciding the lawfulness of a suspension of immigration, said Kevin Johnson, who teaches immigration law at UC Davis and is the dean of its law school. But he said its not clear that the courts would uphold an across-the-board exclusion. One natural question is whether a suspension of immigration would have a positive impact on health and jobs, as the president claims, Johnson said. Mass removals of persons of Mexican ancestry during the Great Depression did not have much of an impact on the availability of jobs for U.S. citizens. It is unclear to me that a suspension of immigration would benefit U.S. citizens in the job market. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan held talks by videoconference with the delegation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) led by the head of the Eurasian Division in the OECD Global Relations Secretariat, William Thompson. The sides discussed the current state of cooperation between Turkmenistan and the OECD, including the pace of implementation of the ongoing projects. In particular, the sides reviewed opportunities for development of economic integration and improvement of competitiveness of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in the country. The sides also discussed modern challenges in the global economy and joint responses to them. TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2022 The founder of Hong Kong's Causeway Bay Book shop Lam Wing-kee was attacked by an unidentified man who threw paint at him on Tuesday morning in Taipei, police said. According to police, a man in a mask and dark clothes suddenly came and threw red paint at Lam while he was alone at a coffee shop. Taipei police surveillance footage showed the suspect fleeing the scene on foot and Lam, covered in red paint, trying to chase him. The incident occurred one day after Lam purportedly received a letter from another Taiwan bookseller warning him not to use the Causeway Bay Books name. Lam was one of five shareholders and staff at Causeway Bay Book shop in Hong Kong, which sold books critical of Chinese leaders. He was placed into Chinese custody in 2015, released on bail and allowed to return to Hong Kong in June 2016. Lam later fled to Taiwan in 2019 and raised nearly 200,000 US dollars online to fund his new bookstore in Taiwan, which he plans to open on Saturday. The original store was forcibly closed in Hong Kong before the 2019 pro-democracy protests. South Korea now appears to have its COVID-19 situation under control. Yet in February, a sudden rise in cases there centered on a group named the Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony. It was initially mistaken for a Protestant church, but later was revealed to be a kind of cult. According to one account, its founder and guru, Lee Man-hee, considers himself to be an immortal prophet sent to the earth to prepare for the end of the world. Actually, a number of other successful Korean churches probably qualify as cults. Once touted as the largest church in the world, the Yoido Full Gospel Church adhered to the teachings of its guru Yonggi Cho until he stepped down in 2008. Eventually he was convicted for embezzlement. Rather than traditional Christianity, Chos religion was really a type of Mind-Science -- the idea that thoughts can magically alter reality. Since his teachings promised health, wealth, and success, they unsurprisingly drew multitudes of adherents. One could argue that the last century could justly be called The Age of Gurus, and the trend shows no signs of abating. In his book My Fathers Guru , Jeffrey Masson details bizarre anecdotes and observations about his familys guru, a man named Paul Brunton. Among other things, Brunton believed himself to be in contact with beings on other planets and predicted the imminent onset of World War III, which led some of his followers to flee to South America. In line with many Indian holy men, he inculcated asceticism, meditation, and submission to the instructions of gurus such as himself. Actually, Brunton seemed to be a rather mild, benevolent version of the type of authoritarian religious leader we have come to identify with cults. The guru phenomenon is usually associated with mystical New Age and Eastern religious practices, but the Christian world has had plenty of its own, such as the Korean pastors already mentioned. Regrettably, Church Growth movement leaders commended fanatical devotion to a charismatic pastor as an important mark of a healthy church. In Osaka, Japan I once worked with such a man, who was praised as a model of leadership by some prominent Church Growth advocates. At times, this pastor behaved abusively, punching and kicking people to express his displeasure. Not many seemed to object. Richard Foster, a leader of the mystical Spiritual Formation movement, recommended that each believer put himself under the tutelage of a spiritual director, which is simply another word for guru. Jesus cautioned his disciples against such elevation of religious leaders when he insisted that you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers (Matt. 23:8). However, avoiding the religious world will not protect anyone from gurus and their followers. Scientism is a term coined to describe the transformation of science into a religion and scientists into gurus. People who reject religion nevertheless often treat the fanciful speculations of scientists like Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins as oracles. To their adherents, groundless conjectures by prominent scientists about things like the existence of a multiverse are often articles of faith. Based largely on conjecture, psychotherapism has been a conspicuous part of this phenomenon, and at times it has not been benign. In their book The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse, Ketcham and Loftus recount instances of people caught up in the sexual abuse panic of the 80s and 90s, in which many innocent family members and others were wrongfully accused of sexual predation. The accusers became convinced that they were the victims of childhood sexual abuse, the memory of which they had repressed. Their false memories were usually induced by psychotherapists during counseling sessions. One former accuser described the therapist who misled her as "my own personal guru. Nowadays even politicians can be gurus. Barack Obamas cult-like celebrity resulted in some satirically calling him the Obamessiah. More recently, New Age author and guru Marianne Williamson became a Democratic candidate for president. In light of the widespread New Age beliefs among politically active Americans, Daniel Greenfield predicted that one day we will get a guru as President of the United States. The most dangerous variety of guru may be the apocalyptic kind. Convinced that he or she is ushering in a utopia or facing a world conflagration, this type of guru can bring on catastrophe. One such guru, Jim Jones, taught his community that minorities in the U.S. would soon be rounded up and sent to concentration camps. The Jonestown massacre murder-suicide of almost a thousand in 1978 was the result. Similarly, spurred on by the directives and apocalyptic beliefs of their guru Shoko Asahara, in 1995 the Aum Shinrikyo cult murdered thirteen and injured 5,500 on Tokyo subways with sarin gas. A time of anxiety like our own provides a fertile field for the flourishing of such guru-based apocalyptic movements. During a recent meeting at my university, teachers were warned about the likelihood of cults making enhanced efforts to recruit our students. Even if it does not lead to any dramatic disaster, following a guru is an unhealthy substitute for thinking for oneself. At the end of My Fathers Guru, Masson observes, Ultimately, you cannot admire the guru, you must worship him. You must obey him... Like other authoritarian systems, it requires a suspension and suppression of critical questioning; it demands unquestioning submission. Therefore, he urges us to live not in subjugation to the will of any other human being, whether that person be wise, ignorant, fraudulent, or completely benign. Bruce W. Davidson is a professor at Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo, Japan and a contributor to the The Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia. People wait to have blood samples taken at a coronavirus rapid test site in Tangerang, Indonesia, April 21, 2020. Indonesias president on Tuesday announced a travel ban for all citizens who plan to go home for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, as the government widened restrictions on peoples movements during the upcoming Ramadan season because of the coronavirus outbreak. President Joko Jokowi Widodo had previously ordered all civil servants and security-force members not to travel home to celebrate the holiday that marks the Muslim holy month of fasting, citing a need to contain the nationwide spread of COVID-19. Ramadan in Indonesia is expected to begin on Thursday, depending on the sighting of a new moon. I would like to announce that mudik will be banned entirely, Jokowi told a cabinet meeting, using the local term for the mass exodus from Jakarta and other big Indonesian cities, where at least 15 million people traditionally head home for Eid. Im asking that details for the measure be hammered out. Violations of Indonesias law on epidemics can carry a fine of up to 100 million rupiah (U.S. $6,425) and up to a year in jail. The 2018 law has not been enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic so far, according to officials. Eid al-Fitr this year is expected to fall on May 23 or 24. The Indonesian Council of Ulema, the countrys leading authority on Islamic affairs, earlier this month urged Indonesian Muslims not to travel for Eid, saying to do so during a pandemic would be a sin. Jokowis announcement came on the same day that officials reported 375 new COVID-19 cases and 26 deaths, bringing the totals to 7,135 and 616. Indonesia has the highest death toll in East Asia outside of China. Globally, more than 2.5 million infections have been recorded while the death toll stood at more than 171,800 as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. Students infected Meanwhile in Malaysia, Health Director General Noor Hisham Abdullah said his ministry had detected a COVID-19 cluster involving 43 students, who were quarantined after returning from an Islamic boarding school in Indonesias East Java province. Indonesian authorities in East Javas Magetan regency said they were preparing a building to isolate students at the Al-Fatah Islamic boarding school in Temboro who may have had contact with the Malaysian students. A man found guilty of violating Sharia law in Aceh province, Indonesia, is caned, April 21, 2020. [Ahyar/BenarNews] Elsewhere in Indonesia on Tuesday, six people found guilty of violating Sharia law in the staunchly Muslim province of Aceh were caned, an official said. Unlike previous sessions, the event was held in a building at a park in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, to avoid attracting crowds who could spread the coronavirus, said the citys Sharia police chief, Muhammad Hidayat. We applied the prescribed health protocol and did not allow the public to see the punishment, with only family members (of the convicts) attending, he told BenarNews, adding that those present were required to observe social distancing and wear masks. An unmarried couple who were found guilty of being intimate in a hotel each received 27 lashes, Hidayat said, adding that four others had each received 40 lashes after being found guilty of drinking alcohol. Aceh is the only Indonesian province allowed to implement Sharia law as part of an autonomy scheme designed to mollify desires for independence. Sharia law regulates khalwat (a man and a woman who are not related or married being alone together), gambling, drinking and selling liquor, sex outside marriage, rape, sexual harassment and homosexual sex. In April 2018, then-Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf issued a regulation that canings be carried out inside prisons. He said the move would reduce international uproar over the practice. Noah Lee in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report. Utica, N.Y. - About 100 members of the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment out of Utica remain on deployment in the New York City area helping out with the fight against the coronavirus. Lt. Col. Mathew Kilgore is the Commander the unit, and he himself is helping the cause, currently stationed in Westchester County. Kilgore told News Channel 2 via FaceTime on Monday that he has no idea how long this COVID-19 deployment might last, "I dont know how long this is going to be, but were on it for the long-haul, were prepared to be on it as long as necessary." Lt. Col. Kilgore says the soldiers from the Mohawk Valley have been deployed to many locations in and around New York City and they are doing everything from gathering samples for testing, distributing food to local food pantries, cleaning public spaces and supporting the Army Corps of Enginers field hospitals like the one at the Javitz center in Manhattan, to helping the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, "Right now the medical examiner's office is experiencing a larger volume than normal of deaths on any given day. Its very hard for them to be able to process those so were helping out is mainly removing remains from private residences, or otehr places, making sure that they are properly removed, properly stored so the medical examiner can process them, when they can. Its a difficult mission but its one that is definitely necessary." The men and women of the New York Army National Guard on deployment are putting their lives on the line every day and Lt. Kilgore says some have tested positive for corona virus, "Very, very small of an amount. I cant get into specifics. We have a very limited amount that have tested positive and we take the recommended precautions, precautionary quarantines things of that nature. It's very limited, which is a good thing." The Foley Police Department arrested a woman Monday for financially exploiting an elderly man on hospice she was a caregiver for. Trinity Faith McAdams, 18, was charged with one count of first degree financial exploitation of the elderly and five counts of obtaining signature by deception. Investigators revealed that McAdams forged checks in the 81-year-old Foley residents name which resulted in her receiving $4,000 excess of her salary. According to the authorities, the 81 year old Foley resident was also mostly blind and on hospice and that McAdams exploited her clients age and medical limitations by having the client sign incomplete checks as payment for daily work. McAdams would then inflate the amounts on the checks prior to depositing them. This case was investigated in coordination with the Baldwin County District Attorneys Office Elderly Exploitation Team which focuses on financial crimes against our elderly citizens. With testing being ramped up to identify COVID-19 patients, the efficacy of China-made rapid antibody blood test kits has come under scanner with Rajasthan on Tuesday flagging their "inaccurate results", prompting the apex medical research body ICMR to ask states to stop these tests for two days for further validation. While the nationwide tally of confirmed infections neared 19,000 with new cases reported from various states and the death toll crossed 600, the Union Health Ministry officials also said the recovery rate has improved to 17.5 per cent and a record number of 705 patients were cured and discharged on Monday itself. Overall, more than 3,300 persons have been cured and discharged so far, while there are more than 15,000 active cases in the country now, as per figures announced by various state governments. While West Bengal reported three more deaths on Tuesday, a political standoff emerged between the state and the Centre after Union Home Ministry said the state government was not cooperating with the central teams visiting there to assess the COVID-19 situation. The state's ruling party Trinamool Congress said the visit of central teams to West Bengal was like "adventure tourism" and asked why such delegations were not sent to states with much higher numbers of infections and hotspots. Later in the day, one of the two teams sent to the state visited certain areas of Kolkata, escorted by the Border Security Force (BSF) and state police personnel. At a daily press briefing on the COVID-19 situation, Home Ministry Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said the Centre has sent teams under Disaster Management Act to four states -- Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. While Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are extending full support, the government in West Bengal is not doing so, she said, While new cases were also reported from various states including Odisha and Kerala -- where the infection spread has been relatively slower -- as many as 115 families residing at the President's Estate in the national capital have also been put under self-isolation as a preventive measure after a sanitation worker's relative tested positive for the deadly coronavirus. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, however, clarified that till date no employee of the President's secretariat has tested positive and the secretariat along with the local administration is taking all the preventive measures under the government guidelines. A COVID-19 positive patient from central Delhi, who was neither an employee of the President's secretariat nor a resident of the President's Estate, had died on April 13 and after contact tracing it was found that a family member of an employee of the President's secretariat had been in contact with the deceased, the statement said.The employee and his family members are residents of the President's Estate. In the national capital, there are 1,603 active cases of COVID-19, while 47 people have died of coronavirus so far, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. Kejriwal also announced a special testing facility for mediapersons from Wednesday, after Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra reported positive test results for several journalists and other staff members of media organisations. In Rajasthan, the central team discussed the coronavirus situation over a video-conference with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who reiterated the state government's demand from the Centre to deal with the pandemic. The state government, however, stopped use of China-made rapid testing kits for coronavirus after they delivered inaccurate results. The state government had got 30,000 kits through ICMR for free while 10,000 kits were purchased at a cost of Rs 540 plus tax per kit. The rapid testing kits, through which blood samples are tested, are aimed at speeding up screening and detection of suspected coronavirus patients as they take less time to show results in comparison to the swab-based tests carried out in pathology labs. Rajasthan's health minister Raghu Sharma said the kits gave only 5.4 per cent accurate results against the expectation of 90 per cent accuracy and therefore the kits were of no benefit. He said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been informed about the issue. ICMR's Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar told journalists that states have been advised not to use these rapid test kits for two days and a fresh advisory would be issued after field validation by its team.If any problems are detected, the companies will be asked for replacement. The ICMR scientist further said that a total of 4,49,810 samples for COVID-19 infection have been tested till Tuesday of which 35,852 were done on Monday. As many as 29,776 samples have been tested in 201 labs under the ICMR network, and 6,076 at 86 private laboratories. Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said a total of 705 people have been cured so far and the overall recovery rate in the country has risen to 17.48 per cent. In its evening update, the Ministry said the death toll has risen to 603 and the number of positive cases has gone up to 18,985 across the country. This included 15,122 active cases, as on 5 PM Tuesday. Among the states, Maharashtra reported more positive cases from Dharavi slums of the state capital Mumbai, while Uttar Pradesh saw its tally increasing by more than 100. Maharashtra has already reported more than 200 deaths, while Gujarat has lost 90 lives. Madhya Pradesh has also reported at least 74 deaths. Globally, the coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 1.7 lakh people, including over 42,000 in the US. Nearly 25 lakh infections have been reported worldwide so far, even as there are fears that the actual tally could be much more as tests are so far limited to serious or symptomatic cases in most countries. In a press briefing, the World Health Organisation also warned against any rush to ease coronavirus restrictions, saying any such move could result in a resurgence of the disease. The WHO said governments across the world need to remain vigilant to stop the deadly virus spread and lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) KC man charged after shooting, killing woman who drive off in his car KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - A Kansas City man who earlier this month fired multiple shots at a woman who was driving off in his vehicle has been charged. 26-year-old Lawrence Perkins faces second degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon. Postscript on a tragic bit of reported drama and a possibly a manifestation of that "toxic auto culture" that's often noted by bike/walk activists. Read more: OxBlue.com, an Atlanta-based technology company and the leader in professional construction camera services, is using its artificial intelligence (AI) tools to measure the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on construction activity across the United States. The full analysis looked at all 50 states and more than 100 metropolitan areas between March 1st, 2020, and April 17th, 2020. The Two Realities: State vs. National Activity Levels At the state level, construction activity has seen a great deal of change. The number of states with a minimal impact (5% or less) on ongoing construction activity has decreased from 37 to 33 states. The number of states with a general decline in activity (between 5% and 25%) has increased from 7 to 11, and those with the most severe decline in activity (between 25% and 77%) has remained at 6, with Colorado replacing Ohio on the list. Michigan is the state with the largest decline in activity, with an 81% drop after a stay-at-home order deeming construction non-essential went into effect on March 24th. Pennsylvania, which issued its similar stay-at-home order deeming construction non-essential on March 19th, experienced the second most dramatic drop at approximately 69%. Other states with traditionally high construction volumes experiencing significant change include Massachusetts (58% decline), New York (48% decline), Washington (45% decline), and Colorado (27% decline). While California did not make the list of states with greater than a 25% decline, its 14% decline is significant due to the state being the largest economy in the U.S. and the fifth-largest in the world. At a national level, the data is more positive. Construction activity is tracking near the same levels measured for early March 2020. With 60% of the countrys construction concentrated in 10 states and only two of those being hit with more than a 25% decline (NY and PA), the disproportionately high level of construction in those states drives the level of national construction activity. Only six states (Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, Vermont) have deemed construction nonessential. Under normal circumstances, it would be expected to see construction activity increase in spring in some parts of the country, but we see no such increase. It is possible that this has been offset by the pandemic. As the crisis continues, OxBlue will share regular updates on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting the construction industry and on the technology being developed to combat the spread of the virus. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at (888) 849-2583 or online at oxblue.com/contact. Notes: The time period in this analysis includes the 35 workdays (weekdays) from March 2, 2020, to April 17, 2020. The current baseline for the OxBlue Activity Index is the average activity level for the days from March 1st to March 19th, the date Pennsylvania issued its strict shelter-in-place order. The data analyzed is from commercial construction projects and excludes single-family residential construction. States with low levels of construction activity and without statistically significant data have been excluded for accuracy. National construction activity is based on a weighted average of the construction volume for each state. 'Coronavirus has occasioned us to see how copious Modi's mojo bag is,' says Shreekant Sambrani. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi meditates in a cave in Kedarnath, May 18, 2019, a day after the general election ended. Photograph: PTI Photo "Aa Modi aapanne bahar nahi avawa de (Modi will not let us step out)," Haribhai, a tomato vendor, told me when I last visited our semi-wholesale market. That same evening Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi urged us to observe Janata Curfew two days later, which was a prelude to the nation-wide lockdown another couple of days hence. Obviously, Haribhai's insight into his prime minister matches that of Modi's into his otherwise undisciplined and virtually ungovernable country, enabling him to persuade its vast majority to willingly lock itself in for a protracted period. When he pulled off the great Indian currency vanishing trick in November 2016 to the great appreciation of precisely those who suffered most from it, we were stunned. Within months, he and his party won the prize state of Uttar Pradesh with a thumping majority and two years down the line, an unprecedented majority for a second term in the Lok Sabha. Surely that cannot be topped, we thought, but coronavirus has occasioned us to see how copious Modi's mojo bag is. Social scientists and historians will spend many years studying these amazing feats of a leader persuading people to bear severe pain on his sheer say-so. Here is a layman's attempt to fathom this phenomenon based on some purely anecdotal evidence. Just a few days ago, a lawyer-friend told me of his first meeting with Modi. My friend had gone to Delhi in the late 1990s to meet a Gujarati financier in connection with a case, where he was introduced to the future prime minister. Modi was exiled to the capital by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Gujarat leadership. My friend talked of Modi's narration of a childhood incident, which he termed a defining moment in his life. A sadhu used to visit the Modi household for alms of grain or flour. One day he asked for a meal. He then predicted the future of the three boys who shared the meal with him: One would become a government official (he did), another, a trader (he did) and the youngest, Narendra, had chakravarti yoga (an emperor's future). My friend narrated several more details that lend credibility to his account but space constraints prevent their mention here. That singular occurrence could possibly explain many events in Modi's passage through the next half a century or so. His belief in his manifest destiny would steer him away from normal family life, as that would tie him down to the mundane details of everyday survival. He would pore over glories of ancient empires, a first step towards a belief in Hindu renaissance That would lead to his membership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its political organ, the BJP. His decision to reject offers of minor offices such as a municipal corporator in Ahmedabad or as a member of the Gujarat legislative assembly in the 1980s and 1990s fit in with his pursuit of the ultimate goal, lest these wayside stops divert his focus from his true destination. In Delhi, he hitched his wagon first to his contemporary and steadfast defender Arun Jaitley and later to the BJP paterfamilias Lal Kishenchand Advani, all part of his apprenticeship to know the ins and outs of the power Chakravyuh. The rest, as they say, is history. The other major impact this event had on Modi is his lasting fascination with the mendicant's ways. He sojourned in the Himalayas for long. He shunned salaries till he became the Gujarat chief minister in 2001. He managed until then on shared living of the swayamsevaks and token pocket money for bare minimum necessities from patrons such as the Delhi financier and a Vapi-based Muslim industrialist. Even in office, he seems to have espoused a relatively spartan life-style, except for his penchant for designer glasses and pens, and on one short-lived occasion, a monogrammed designer suit. There are no vacations or retreats, and the foreign visits are all business with a generous dose of appeal to non-resident Indians, in stark contrast to the predecessors, especially of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, something we are nudged into noticing. His public appeals are a mix of high moral ground and nationalist fervour, much like that of a sadhu. Whether it is Swachchh Bharat or Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, it is the same mix. Even the purely political rallies resemble evangelical meetings, with dollops of hectoring and sarcasm. Most of this comes wrapped in the flag./p> Even as everything is prime-minister-centric, he mostly mentions himself in the third person. All this is not just familiar, but more importantly, hugely acceptable to the crowds that gather to see and hear him. Like a practiced fakir, he only asks you to give him something -- your stash of currency or, as on March 24, your three weeks. That is your moral duty, he says, and steeped as we are in honouring such requests by sundry godmen, we do as he demands of us. The key is to see Modi as the mendicant-prince, willing us to do his bidding. But in the present case, as my wife recalled the Bard about Henry IV: 'Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.' Shreekant Sambrani is an economist. MEDINA, Ohio -- Medina City Schools Superintendent Aaron Sable kicked off this weeks school board meeting with an update on what the district is doing in light of COVID-19 updates. Gov. Mike DeWine announced this week that schools will be closed for the remainder of the school year. I want the community and the board to know that we are in the process of exploring a return to school procedure, Sable said. Weve got different administrators across the district, as well as some teachers, that are going to be meeting this week to discuss what our return to school looks like. Sable went on to discuss that it is important to note that, even though students will hopefully be returning to school in the fall, it will not be a normal return to school. We want to make sure that we take into account all of our students needs as we come back in late August or early September Sable said. Additionally, Sable mentioned that a committee will soon be meeting to work out a plan for graduation. Tina Cassidy, director of instruction, spoke about how the district will now handle grading schoolwork. The big idea behind grading is its feedback and communication to students and parents, said Cassidy. We are trying to give students every opportunity to continue their learning. Located on the school district website -- in the parent resources link under the grading tab -- is information outlining the new grading guidelines. For elementary students, it has been decided that students will not be graded on achievement, but rather on participation. Report cards will be uploaded onto Google docs. For K-5 language arts and math, as well as 4-5 social studies and science, students will receive a P for participation or an NP, meaning they did not participate. K-3 social studies, science, art, music and physical education will not receive a P or an NP. Instead, teachers will provide a summary of learning experiences provided by students. Grading for middle and high school students also looks a little different. First, students will be able to keep their third-quarter grades as they are or complete an extra-credit assignment that is the equivalent to a test or a project that was due on March 13. Fourth-quarter grades will be assigned as follows: [A] Completion of at least 85 percent of assigned work. [B] Completion of at least 70 percent of assigned work, but less than 85 percent of the work. [C] Completion of at least 55 percent of assigned work, but less than 70 percent of the work. [D] Completion of at least 40 percent of assigned work, but less than 55 percent of the work. [Incomplete] Less than 40 percent of work completed: No credit will be awarded at this time. Visit the online parent resource tab at https://www.medinabees.org for more information on grading for the rest of the school year. Read more from the Medina Sun. An encounter broke out on Tuesday evening between security forces and terrorists in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir. The incident took place in Melhora area of Zainapora village where terrorists fired on Jammu and Kashmir Police, 55 Rashtriya Rifles and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). At least two to three terrorists are believed to be trapped. The security forces have cordoned off the area. There have been no reports of any injuries or casualties. This is a developing story. More details are awaited. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will be foregoing 10 percent of her pay during the COVID-19 pandemic, she announced Monday. Acknowledging tough economic times ahead, Whitmer said shed be docking her pay 10 percent and is also asking senior staff to take a 5 percent pay cut. Im going to lead by example, she said. I know that times are tough and that we as a state are going to be confronting a tough budget as a result of the economic shutdown. Whitmer did not say how long she planned to keep the pay cuts in place. The Michigan governors salary is currently $159,300 per year, a figure set by the State Officers Compensation Commission. Although Whitmer cant change that rate, she can choose to return some of her salary to the state or donate the money. Michigan set to lose billions in tax revenue as coronavirus hits state budgets nationwide Whitmers decision comes as Michigan officials face the prospect of a massive budget shortfall as the states revenues take a hit from lower retail sales and record-high unemployment rates. The latest estimates from the Michigan Department of Treasury show the state stands to lose between $1 and $3 billion in revenue in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and between $1 and $4 billion in fiscal year 2021. With most of the state subject to a stay-at-home order, people are spending less money, and sales tax revenue is way down. And with more than a quarter of the states workforce filing for unemployment, income tax revenue is tanking, too. In March, the Senate Fiscal Agency also noted declines in state revenue from gas tax (down 22.6% from March 2019), diesel tax (down 21.6%) and casino revenue (down 59%). CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. Read more Michigan coronavirus coverage: Adhering to stay-at-home order now will help businesses reopen sooner, Whitmer says Yes, Michigan is in a recession, and a quick recovery is unlikely Republicans, Democrats at odds about who should return to work and when When and how will it end? Considering the end-game for Michigans coronavirus crisis All but one county in Michigans Lower Peninsula have a reported coronavirus case; 153 more deaths 6 reasons Michigan has four times more coronavirus cases than Ohio Michigans deadliest year: Look back at 1918 flu pandemic Peek Through Time: Flu epidemic of 1918-19 ravaged Jackson, Michigan and world Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 17:39 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd35a261 1 Parents Rolls-Royce,Competition,kids,children,lockdown,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free Kids in quarantine might be fidgety at home right now as schools are closed and they cannot see their friends. Fortunately, many initiatives have been launched online to distract the children with fun and valuable activities. British luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce has jumped on the bandwagon by challenging children under 16 around the world to design their own luxury cars. The company's Young Designer Competition encourages kids who are now probably homebound and bored to explore their wildest imagination and design their dream cars. Read also: Help autistic children face disruptive quarantine All of the entries are to be judged by professional car designers, and the winner will receive a rendered illustration of their design. The runner-up will get a certificate signed by Torsten Muller-Otvos, the executive head of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Those interested in signing up their children can do so here. The competition closes on May 18. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a subsidiary of BMW Group. Each Rolls-Royce is manufactured by hand at its workshop in Goodwood, West Sussex, England. (gis/kes) The dairy company at the centre of the milk-tipping scandal has been accused of 'disgusting greed' for hiking the amount it charges nursing homes for vital food supplies. Freshways is blaming coronavirus for a decision to suddenly increase the price of dairy products. Yet behind the scenes, it has been telling farmers that the pandemic is forcing it to slash the amount it will pay for milk. One nursing home chain, ADL, which has a supply contract with Freshways, is threatening to report it to the Government's Competition watchdog saying the firm 'could be prosecuted for trying to exploit customers during the virus outbreak'. 'This is an incredibly difficult time to be running nursing homes. We are on the front line of an emergency and to be treated like this is just awful,' said Pearl Jackson, ADL's Operations Director. Managing director of Freshways Balvinder Nijjar (pictured) blamed coronavirus for a decision to suddenly increase the price of dairy products 'To then discover that, at the same time Freshways has been charging us more, it has also slashed the amount paid to farmers makes your blood boil. It's disgusting greed: They are literally milking a crisis at both ends.' ADL has more than 600 highly vulnerable residents in 21 care facilities in England and pays Freshways between 15,000 and 20,000 a month for daily deliveries. On March 19, the nursing home firm received a letter from Balvinder Nijjar, the managing director of Freshways, saying the imminent lockdown meant all customers would immediately have to pay three pence more per litre of milk due to 'current challenges we are facing'. Mr Nijjar also claimed: 'We need these small increases to continue to keep our workforce employed to collect the milk from farms.' Yet on the same day, Mr Nijjar was writing to the roughly 300 dairy farmers who supply him, claiming the crisis had seen the value of milk collapse. He said he'd therefore be dropping the amount he would pay them by two pence per litre. Over the ensuing days, dozens of the farmers with Freshways contracts were then forced to throw millions of litres of milk away because the firm failed to pick it up at all. Last week, Mr Nijjar introduced further dramatic cuts to the price he would buy milk at, driving the effective rate to below 20 pence a litre. Producing milk costs farmers between 26 and 27 pence a litre. Meanwhile customers, who are understood to include several major care home chains, along with hundreds of London convenience stores, are paying more than ever. ADL, for example, is now paying 55.5 pence per litre of milk, from 46.5 pence a few months ago. Mr Nijjar said the imminent lockdown meant all customers would immediately have to pay three pence more per litre of milk 'Dairy is very important to residents. We spend thousands of pounds a week on cream to fortify their meals, so it's outrageous, at a time when we are all supposed to be pulling together, to be treated like this,' said Jackson. 'It takes real arrogance, actually.' Freshways gave just three days' notice of the latest price hikes. However, ADL says it is effectively being forced to pay the elevated price for the foreseeable future since it will take weeks, if not months, to negotiate a new delivery contract with alternative firm. 'We should be putting our efforts into things like sourcing PPE and keeping staff and clients safe, not trying to avoid being ripped off by our milk supplier,' added Jackson. Freshways describes itself as the 'largest independent family run' milk processor in Britain and supplies a host of firms which have been forced to close during lockdown, including McDonald's, P&O and Costa Coffee. Based in Acton, West London, it is run by Mr Nijjar and several family members and controlled by an opaque web of 11 companies. In the last year for which records are available, it paid around 1.4million in dividends. Pictured: Farmer Katherine Hamilton was forced to pour away 10,000 litres of milk Around 48 per cent of that sum was paid to Balvinder Nijjar, who is nicknamed 'Fat Bob' by farmers on account of his alleged greed. He lives in a 2million, ten-bedroom home in Ealing, and has used social media to post images of his collection of supercars, helicopter journeys and diamond-encrusted Rolex watch. In response to the Mail's coverage last week when we revealed that he'd barely paid farmers for almost two months he agreed to immediately pay around 30 per cent of the money he owes them for milk they produced in March. The remaining 70 per cent will be paid at the end of the month, he has promised. But farming leaders have hit out at the firm. 'Now is not the time to be taking advantage of people like this,' said Abi Reader, who chairs NFU Cymru's dairy board. 'The company's behaviour has been disappointing, to say the least.' Peter Pratt, a Freshways supplier who keeps a herd of 260 dairy cows on his farm near Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, said: 'To hear they have put prices up, when they are paying us less, just beggars belief.' Melissa Underwood, whose dairy farm was forced to throw away 3,000 litres of milk by Freshways, said she was 'angry and flabbergasted' at the news, adding: 'They are looking after themselves once again while farmers go to ruin.' Labour's environment, food and rural affairs spokesman Daniel Zeichner said the affair illustrates the need for wholesale reform of the dairy industry. 'Farmers who work with Freshways will be sickened to hear that while they were not being paid, and were having to dispose of milk, the same company was pushing up prices,' he said. 'We have to find a better and fairer system.' Mr Nijjar did not respond to a request for comment. His mother begged him not to give up. But two months after his wife and 6-year-old son were killed and his older son was charged with murder, Joshua Norwood saw only one way forward, he told his mother, Ginny, on Monday. "He said for me not to be sorry, be happy because he would be with Jen and Wyatt," Ginny Norwood wrote on her Facebook page. Joshua hung up and wrote one last message. "He sent me a text and said, 'I love you' and that he needed to be with them," Ginny wrote. Then Joshua returned to the living room of his northern Virginia ranch home. It was there, on Feb. 14, that he had discovered the bodies of Jennifer Norwood, 34, and Wyatt, 6. And it was there, at 3:30 p.m. Monday, that Fauquier County sheriff's deputies discovered Joshua's body. They were called to the house by his mother, who lives in Maine. "My boy, my only boy, My son Joshua killed himself a couple hours ago," Ginny wrote on Facebook. Her son suffered trauma to his upper body, but no foul play is suspected, the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office said. An official cause of death will not be declared until an autopsy is completed, said James Hartman, a spokesman for the sheriff's office. He declined to provide further details. The death marks the latest tragedy in the Norwood family. Levi, 17, has been charged with first-degree murder in the killings of his mother and brother. Joshua's aunt, Rebecca Norwood, wrote on Facebook that he had taken his life because "his pain was so deep, and he saw no other way out." "He told me he died the night his wife and lil boy were killed and he was just an empty shell of a person." A month after the deaths of his wife and son, Joshua Norwood filed a petition to restore his gun rights. According to his petition, he had been involuntarily admitted to a facility or ordered to mandatory outpatient treatment in the Richmond area from March 11 to March 13. He was scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday in Fauquier County General District Court, but the proceeding was pushed back to May 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to court records and the court clerk. "He was really upset that police had taken his guns," said one acquaintance who had spoken to him in recent weeks. "He wanted to be able to protect himself, now that he was alone." In a previous interview with The Washington Post, Joshua Norwood described coming home with a bouquet of flowers for his wife about 6 p.m. on Valentine's Day. When he opened the door to their brick house on Elk Run Road, a gunshot rang out from the basement, and the bullet grazed his head, he said. Norwood, who often carried a gun, fired back, and his assailant fled the house. The father found his wife and youngest son fatally shot and lying under blankets in the living room. It wasn't until the next day that he learned the alleged culprit was his older son. "Every day for the rest of my life," he said, "I'm going to wake up, look in the mirror, and I'm going to have a scar down my face, my head, as a memory of the worst day of my life, when my family got taken away." Eventually, Levi was tracked down in North Carolina, arrested and returned to Virginia. He is being held at a regional juvenile detention center, awaiting trial. It's unclear how his father's death will affect his case. Scott Hook, Fauquier County's commonwealth's attorney, declined to comment. In the aftermath of the killings, Joshua Norwood had come under scrutiny for his own behavior, facing accusations that he was a racist who objected to his son's having a black girlfriend. His Facebook page featured a well-known saying by white supremacist David Lane: "We must secure the existence of our race, and a future for white children." The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Lane as "one of the most important ideologues of contemporary white supremacy." Norwood appears to have made dozens of posts on the white supremacist website Stormfront. And the acquaintance, who met Norwood on Stormfront and last spoke to him earlier this month, said Norwood was worried the police investigation would reveal his white supremacist ties. "He didn't want any information coming out tainting his reputation or emboldening his son's defense case," according to the acquaintance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid association with Stormfront. But Norwood insisted in February that he was not a white supremacist. He said he could not remember why he promoted Lane's maxim on Facebook. Levi Norwood's girlfriend has not returned messages from The Post, and her parents have declined to be interviewed. Researchers from Michigan State University released a study on "sextortion" - a lesser-known internet crime that poses a threat to adults and minors - that sheds light on the importance of protecting the public from online criminals. "Sextortion is the use of intimate images or videos that have been captured to then extort compliance from a victim," said Roberta Liggett O'Malley, MSU criminal justice doctoral student and co-author of the study. "What makes it different from any other crime is the threat to release. A perpetrator could say, 'I have these images of you and will publish them unless you...' to get more images or even in exchange for money." In many cases of sextortion, perpetrators don't actually possess the images or videos they're using as leverage. Instead, offenders manipulate victim behavior by tapping into the fear of not knowing whether the threat is real. The research -- published in Journal of Interpersonal Violence -- suggests the current focus on dissemination of images online may overshadow the issue of threat-based harassment online, like sextortion. While most U.S. states have laws against revenge porn, the study makes a case for increasing awareness and changing legislation to include other forms of internet-based sexual abuse crimes. "Much of the fear comes from the belief that hackers can do anything involving technology, from the ability to see someone's web browser history to hacking into a webcam or Nest device," said Karen Holt, assistant professor of criminal justice and co-author. "That's why sextortion is so effective -- it creates a huge amount of uncertainty and fear that victims end up complying versus saying, 'I think you're bluffing, and if I ignore you, then I'm fine.'" Liggett O'Malley and Holt said men are less likely to report these crimes to police out of embarrassment or shame, but also don't experience the longevity of harassment experienced by minors. "The victims are overwhelmingly minors and females, but if the objective is to get money, they're almost always targeting men," Liggett O'Malley said. "These two groups of people experience a similar crime in very different ways." Analysis of 152 cyber sextortion offenders uncovered four distinct types: minor-focused, targeting victims under 18 years of age; cybercrime, targeting victims using computer-based tactics like hacking; intimately violent, targeting former or current romantic partners; and transnational, targeting strangers strictly for financial reasons. Holt explained that the four themes reflect different motivations for what offenders want from their victims. A survey of 1,631 cyber sextortion victims found 46% were minors, making crimes against minors a focus for law enforcement and in research literature. "The disproportionate focus on minor victims has led to new laws that protect minors from adult sexual solicitation online, but there are few legal protections for adult male and female victims," Liggett O'Malley said. Researchers are starting to see sextortion being used by a lot of other perpetrators. Within a domestic violence context, partners may share images consensually, only to have those images later used as leverage in the relationship. In other instances, transnational organizations employ scams in which individuals pretend to be a man or women on the internet, engaging in webcam sessions with victims and immediately threatening to release a recording unless money is provided. Awareness and reporting of sextortion crimes, while acting responsibly online, are key in protecting adults and children. "As digital citizens, we have to start advocating for more accountability on behalf of platforms to take these images down, or to report harassment," Holt said. "A lot of offline crimes have an online component, and oftentimes law enforcement and our behavior don't catch up. We need to think about our own personal safety, both offline and online." Researchers like Liggett O'Malley and Holt also advocate for federal laws to address the legal loopholes of sextortion. "We can't only be focused on revenge porn," Liggett O'Malley said. "We need to stop and think about all the ways in which images are used against people and to think about the way we construct these laws to ensure there are pathways for prosecution and arrest." ### Note for reporters: please include link in online coverage: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260520909186?journalCode=jiva San Antonio has landed more than $200 million in federal stimulus funds to pay for COVID-19 response efforts, but the U.S. Treasury Department has yet to tell cities how theyre allowed to spend the money. Confusion over the funds prompted San Antonio along with Houston, Dallas, Austin and El Paso to pen a letter to Treasury on Monday telling the agency how cities should be allowed to spend the money. Treasury officials gave San Antonio $270 million out of the federal CARES Act, the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill intended to stem economic and financial fallout from the coronavirus. San Antonio got more than it expected out of a $150 billion fund within the bill aimed at helping state and local governments cover costs for efforts to fight the pandemic. Initially, the city expected to receive $251 million from the fund. But a lack of direction from Treasury has held up the city from figuring out how it can legally use the funds. On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases The stimulus bill gives only broad guidelines to state and local governments who receive assistance on how they can spent it primarily that the costs have to be associated with COVID-19 and cant be ones that municipalities budgeted for before the crisis. Treasury has to write up its own regulations dictating what costs cities can use federal dollars to cover. Until then, that moneys staying put, City Manager Erik Walsh told Mayor Ron Nirenberg and City Council members in a memo Monday. We need specific guidelines to ensure expenses incurred are consistent with the CARES Act, Walsh said. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio weighs $16 million proposal to help with rent, gas, groceries during COVID-19 pandemic One thing that is clear: the city cant use the money to plug a $180 million shortfall prompted by lost revenue from falling retail sales and hotel room bookings as well as event cancellations at the Convention Center and Alamodome. Our understand is that this funding cannot be used to address the citys projected revenue shortfalls from COVID-19, Walsh said in a statement. Walsh along with city managers in other major Texas cities listed a number of potential costs to be covered under the act in their letter to Treasury. Among them are overtime and hazard pay for employees responding to COVID-19; money to hire additional first responders; housing to quarantine city employees and high-risk residents including the homeless; and legal fees and settlements related to cities COVID-19 orders. 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 From Wednesday through May 5, participating McDonalds locations nationwide will be giving free Thank You Meals to health care workers, police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders. Served in a Happy Meal box with a note of appreciation, the meals, available at breakfast, lunch and dinner, include a main item (breakfast sandwich, burger, fish sandwich, chicken nuggets), side and drink. Valid ID proving qualifying employment required. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 06:11:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HOUSTON, April 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that nearly 500,000 job openings are currently listed online to help those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. During a press conference, Abbott unveiled a new online tool, WorkInTexas.com, an online job matching and workforce solution system developed by the Texas Workforce Commission. On the website, job seekers can browse job postings, find education and training, and complete resumes and state applications. "As we continue to slow the spread of COVID-19, we are also working to alleviate the severe economic devastation that has impacted so many Texans," said Abbott. "People are ready to get to work and earn a paycheck again, and the State of Texas is committed to connecting Texans with the many job opportunities that exist throughout the state." Abbott also updated the coronavirus data in the state, saying the state has been experiencing positive trends in its efforts to combat the disease. According to the governor, more people are getting tested and about 10 percent of them have tested positive. So far, 205,000 people have been tested statewide. Meanwhile, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner emphasized the importance of testing. "If you don't do systematic widespread testing, you're flying blind and you don't know where the virus is," Turner said in a Tuesday briefing. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, as of April 21, there were 20,196 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 517 deaths reported. Turner said there was no new death on Tuesday in Texas' largest city of Houston in back-to-back days for the first time. Enditem A Co Tyrone nurse who could not be with her husband as he passed away last week from Covid-19 in the Enniskillen hospital where she works has revealed how her colleagues placed a mobile phone on his chest, allowing her to be there for his final moments. Poultry farmer Declan Grimes (61) from Carrickmore died last Wednesday in the South West Acute Hospital, where he had spent almost a month on a ventilator in intensive care. His grieving wife Sheila, who works at the hospital, and her family had to listen as Fr Sean O'Neill gave the last rites over the phone to the man she had been with for over 40 years. She was not allowed to see him or hold his hand as he died. Instead, her colleagues placed cherished photographs on his chest, having regularly placed a mobile phone to his ear so he could hear the voice of his beloved wife and children. On Facebook Mrs Grimes paid tribute to her Fermanagh colleagues, writing: "They truly are second to none; they kept us fully informed at all times, they prayed with us, they cried with us, they became Declan's family as we could not be with him and they did everything humanly possible for Declan." Speaking to UTV's Gareth Wilkinson, Mrs Grimes described her husband as a "really, really good person who was funny, witty and kind". "We live away in the country, you'd never think the coronavirus would come here, would you?" she said, with her daughter Eimear, a paramedic, standing by her side. Mr Grimes, who was well-known in the Tyrone area, was admitted to hospital after displaying coronavirus symptoms but his wife could not be at his side. "In his final moments the nurses they put the phone onto Declan's chest they put our photographs all around him, we were able to be on the phone to him as he passed into eternal life," explained Mrs Grimes. Mr Grimes was also a father of Declan Og, Ruari, Connor, Niall, Enda and baby Liam who predeceased him, and a brother of Desmond, Kieran, Geraldine (Kearns) and Aiden. Calaveras County Board of Supervisors 2019 View Photo San Andreas, CA Funding coming down the pipeline for homeless programs, including emergency shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic are front and center for the Calaveras supes this week. Tuesdays special meeting should be a relatively short one with just two consent items relating to the homeless programs and one regular agenda order of business, which is to receive the latest update from Public Health Officer Dr. Dean Kelaita and staff on the COVID-19 state of emergency. With regard to the homeless programs, the board anticipates formalizing the countys acceptance and facilitating the spending of just over $71,000 in Project Roomkey funding that will help deliver and cover COVID-19 related services to eligible community members who lack stable housing. The money is Calaveras Countys part of a larger funding chunk being dispersed through the Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency (ATCAA), the administrator for the Central Sierra Continuum of Care (SCCoC). The Continuum, a four-county partnership involving Amador, Calaveras, Mariposa and Tuolumne, is dedicated to assisting individuals and families experiencing homelessness, helping them access and effectively use mainstream programs and help them optimize their self-sufficiency. The other grant awards the board will be formally approving total over $450,000 in Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program (HHAP) five-year grant cycle monies the county applied for through SCCoC and as a county under a $650 million block grant program that supports regional coordination and expanding local capacity to address immediate homelessness challenges. Allocations are based on the local Point In Time (PIT) count of homeless persons in each county. The HHAP funds, being administrated by ATCAA, will be used to support homeless services provided either directly by the county or subcontracted, and includes housing navigation, housing-focused case management, rental assistance, emergency motel costs, and other housing related costs supporting prevention of homelessness, emergency housing, and rapid rehousing towards permanent housing. HHAP funding require participating counties to manage their homeless data through the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and CSCoC through ATCAA maintains its own Coordinated Entry System (CES). Tuesdays meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the supervisors chambers at the government center. Due to the COVID-19 emergency and Stay at Home order, it is not open to the public. The live video or audio stream can be remotely accessed here. In Quebec, as across Canada, COVID-19 is ravaging long-term care facilities and seniors homes. Hundreds of facilities have reported outbreaks of the highly contagious and potentially lethal virus, leading to a death toll that will soon be numbered in four figures. People across Canada, and indeed the world, have been shocked by the more than 30 deaths recorded at the Montreal-area, for-profit seniors residence and care facility CHSLD Herron. When Quebec authorities took over the facility at the end of March, they found, according to an official report, residents who werent wearing clothes, others who hadnt been fed, were dehydrated, without their medications, and been left lying in urine and excrement. But CHSLD Herron is far from the only horror story. Like Canadas health system as a whole, seniors and other long-term care has been devastated by decades of austerity, implemented by all levels of government and all the establishment parties from the Liberals and Conservatives to the NDP and the Parti Quebecois. This has gone hand-in-hand with the ever-expanding privatization of health care. WSWS reporters recently spoke with two nurses in Quebec who are on the front lines in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in long-term care facilities. In addition to exposing the onerous and unsafe conditions in which they are being forced to work, they explained how budget cuts and privatization had caused a crisis in long-term care long before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Names and workplaces have been changed for reasons of confidentiality. *** Mireille is a clinical nurse in an intermediate residence (IR) in Montreal. Intermediate residences are private residences for people with a partial loss of autonomy (including seniors) that offer nursing services covered by the public health care system. Mireille explains: I am no longer supposed to do my duties as a clinical nurse, but I have no choice but to do both because many nurses are in isolation because of COVID-19. Im getting tired. The days are tough. Sometimes I work 12-hour days. In the evening before I finish my day, I do the work of the orderlies, because there is no orderly available. I go around the residents and give care and medication, otherwise they would be left to their own devices. Theres a lot of talk these days about CHSLDs (long-term care facilities for those with little to no autonomy), but not at all about IRs. Yet the situation is as bad, if not worse, than in the CHSLDs. There are a lot of confirmed cases in some IRs, a lot of nurses are in isolation because they are infected, and there is a great lack of orderlies. She adds: Since the crisis, as an assistant to the immediate superior, Ive been receiving all kinds of directives from different levels, one contradicting the other. ... Theres no clear direction, its really a mess. At the beginning of the crisis the government told us that there would be designated places of confinement to place our residents who were symptomatic or had tested positive, but nothing was done. According to her, the directive for contaminated residents in CHSLDs and IRs is not to transfer them to hospital, but to give them palliative care. We therefore keep symptomatic residents. We have a very vulnerable clientele, often with significant mental health problems. Many residents suffer from dementia and do not follow the isolation guidelines. Of course we ask them to stay in their rooms, but theyll go right out and walk around, touch everything. Mireille then highlighted the flagrant lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). The orderlies and other workers come to me, worried. I dont know what to tell them to reassure them. Many of them dont want to work anymore and I understand them. They have no protective equipment and are paid minimum wage. Most of them are immigrants with families. They dont want to be infected and infect their relatives. Mireille added that we were chronically understaffed long before the pandemic. In a desperate move, the Quebec government of Francois Legault promised meagre wage increases to health care workers only for the time of the pandemic. And this under conditions where some workers, such as orderlies, are earning salaries of barely $20/hour when working in the public sector. In private residences, managed solely for profit, salaries are even lower. Denouncing this situation, Mireille explained that private owners have received money to raise orderlies wages by $4 per hour, but in some residences, caregivers have only received a $2 increase! I guess the owners are keeping some of it. The nurse concludes: The government is deceiving us and those who work are risking their lives! Lisa is a nursing assistant in a private CHSLD in Monteregie. She began by explaining the extent to which health security measures have been neglected by the government and facility managers. They have started to increase our protective measures in the cold zone (judged to be free of coronavirus). We are wearing masks and visors, but this is very recent. It started yesterday in fact (April 10). I have personally been in contact with a resident who is waiting for her test result and I had no protection when I was treating her. Its a stress because I have children at home, I have a spouse. Were at the mercy of the system and our managers. Ive asked several times for new admissions to be sent directly to SAS (neutral zone) for 14 days of isolation, but the managers dont want it because of the cost. Its a lot of staff for a few residents. The other day, a person was admitted to the residence from the hospital, but she wasnt even placed in isolation, just confinement. She couldnt leave her room, but we had to treat her, without protective equipment. We were told that she was coming from a green zone (no risk). But as there is sustained community transmission, I dont know if such a zone really exists. Lisa went on to explain that time-management is totally chaotic and that workers have crazy workloads. I am called in to work every day, even on weekends and even when I am off. Its really understaffed. Sometimes Ive worked 16 hours when I was supposed to be off. Other times we were so understaffed that we had to leave residents lying in their beds for dinner because we just didnt have time to get them up from their naps and back to bed later. In addition to passing my medication and doing my treatments, I help the attendants change panties and put the residents to bed. As Lisa pointed out, the crisis in the health care system predates the pandemic. For the past year at least, our working conditions have been dramatic. Several attendants have resigned because of work overload. I can have 48 residents in my care, so when instead of three attendants theres only one, its hell. Lisa went on to denounce the hypocrisy of Quebec Premier Legault calling health care workers his guardian angels, when for decades PQ, Liberal and now CAQ governments have been bleeding public services and working people dry. I get the feeling that he thinks we should be content to be loved. We need better wages and better conditions. Weve been asking for smaller (patient-staff) ratios for so long, both for our safety and that of the residents, she said. Lisa also spoke out about recent government-dictated ministerial decrees that give it the power to suspend contract stipulations and violate the rights of health and education workers. Specifically, part-time workers could be forced to work full-time. As the hot zone (with sick residents) can hold up to 11 residents, management could force staff to work 12-hour shifts in reverse seniority order and could cancel our holidays. In addition, according to her, some managers may want to abuse the new powers in the future, even if the government eventually rescinds the decrees. Contradicting the propaganda campaign by the ruling elite and the media portraying Quebec Premier Legault as some sort of national hero for his handling of the crisis, Lisa said, I dont think governments were ready. When you look at Europe and then the United States, there are a lot of governments that were not ready or were taking it too lightly. The Legault government should have acted sooner. And I dont think we should start all the work places and schools again until we know what percentage of the population has actually been infected. If, for example, the contamination rate is 20 percent, and everything starts up again when 80 percent is not immune, there will be another spike for sure. As a solution, Lisa said: We need mass screening in order to have at least a significant sample, as many people may be asymptomatic. Protective measures must be in place for all workers. Finally, we need a vaccine and not social (herd) immunity, which would involve thousands and thousands of deaths, especially the elderly and those suffering from chronic diseases. For Lisa, it is clear that workers are the ones who are bearing the brunt of the current crisis. Speaking of the billions offered to the banks by Justin Trudeaus federal government and the various provincial governments, Lisa said, It is still the banks and big business that will come out of this crisis unscathed. But workers with a small government check of $2,000 a month (under Ottawas four-month, makeshift Canada Emergency Response Benefit) are not going to come out unscathed. Its like when we fall into collective bargaining. Were told theres no money, that were in a recession, so we never get good conditions and good wages. But now it is raining money for the banks. NEW DELHI For decades, India embraced many of the ideals that are the hallmarks of a liberal democracy. But since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014, we have experienced a breathtaking erosion in the rule of law and civil and political rights and the unleashing of a wave of intolerance against religious minorities. Sadly, much of the Indian media has been complicit in the B.J.P.s assault on democratic and secular values, either by actively promoting the narrative of Mr. Modi and his party, or by censoring itself to avoid being punished. There are still journalists who maintain their integrity and work to uphold the democratic ideals of the Indian Constitution. For these independent journalists, it has become something of a rite of passage to have the police come after them for speaking out against the ruling establishment. As a founding editor of The Wire, an independent online news portal, I have had my own brushes with the law, chiefly in the form of defamation complaints. At one point, we faced 14 defamation cases, all of them frivolous, seeking damages totaling $1.3 billion. The cases were filed by people who are either a part of the ruling establishment or considered close to it. Seven cases have since been withdrawn. New Delhi, April 21 : As India slowly restarts certain businesses to bring the economic churning back into the system, a 7-point recommendation is being made by industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to the Union Labour Ministry. One of the most prominent suggestions is extending the Provident Fund contribution date. The industry body has been making this suggestion for a while now and the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has extended it till May 15. However, the industry body has now proposed to the Centre to consider the extension of PF contribution from current 30 days to 60 days for each month March, April and May. This, they argued will enable industry to maintain the cash flow. The recent announcement of PF contribution by the government under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana is requested to be extended to more establishments. In the letter written to Santosh Kumar Gangwar, the Labour Minister of State (Independent charge), the CII has said, "Given the current economic and social conditions, I would request you to consider extending the benefit of the scheme to more establishments by removing the eligibility cap of 90 per cent drawing salary below Rs 15,000. It is suggested that the benefit be applicable for establishments with up to 100 employees for employees drawing wages less than Rs 50,000. This will ensure the benefit of the scheme to more beneficiaries particularly the MSMEs." The industry had conveyed its worry about the health of its workers when businesses started resuming on April 20. Now, the MHA guidelines issued for the commencing business operations mandates the Medical Insurance of the workers. The body argues that exploring the provision of extending medical insurance to each worker through ESIC or Ayushman Bharat will help both employees and the employers and will help to locate and create a database of even daily wage earners. Meanwhile, M.S. Unnikrishnan, the Chairman of the CII National committee for Industrial relations in his letter to the minister requested to ask state governments to ensure minimum wages to the daily wage earners through funds under social security and welfare schemes; he also highlighted that state governments are required to put the revision of minimum wages on hold "for at least one year". A primary concern for both the industry and the government was and continues to remain the dearth of workers as most are migrant workers who have either reached their native places or stuck in midway at government provided camps. The CII argued, "Migrant workers residing in shelter homes or available locally near the Industrial belts should be mapped, and after clearing the COVID test, they can be deployed to the nearest factories. This will help them get livelihood and ensure the wages in the coming time." This will also address the concern of inter-state movement of a large number of workers in the present lockdown scenario. However, the government appears to be bringing the jobs to the workers rather than working the CII-recommended way, at least on this. The thrust on rural construction, agriculture, roads by the labour ministry was to bring the jobs to where the workers mostly are, without their large-scale movement towards urban areas, many of which are COVID-19 hotspots. With the shutdown , many companies have been cancelling job offers issued with new economic realities or worse, resorting to layoffs. Highlighting this trend, the industry body proposed, "To encourage organizations to retain the job offers and promote fresh employment, government can consider restarting Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Protsahan Yojana." Last but not the least, the industry body made a request to consider adjustment of leaves. "As the lockdown has been extended beyond 30 days, we request 15 days Paid Leaves be allowed to be adjusted by the employer. The workers will get full salary for the adjusted 15 days but contribute their 15 days leave and this will help the organisation in retaining the workforce. We request you to issue advisory to address this issue specific for this year as it will be a fair and reasonable," it wrote. This, they argued, is necessary to deploy a workforce and maintain productivity in the coming months, as the wheels of economy turn gradually. Starting April 20, industries operating in rural areas, including food processing industries; construction of roads, irrigation projects, buildings and industrial projects in rural areas are being allowed to operate. Manufacturing and other industrial establishments with access control have been permitted in SEZs, industrial estates and industrial townships, but of course after implementation of strict social distancing. Coal, mineral and oil production are also being permitted. (Anindya Banerjee can be contacted at anindya.b@ians.in) El presidente @MartinVizcarraC informa sobre la situacion del Estado de Emergencia en el #Dia36 y las acciones que realiza el Gobierno para contener la propagacion del COVID-19. En vivo: https://t.co/YwHWvUEHrS https://t.co/DCgUQwQHKq - Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) said the suspension was aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 - The directive would take effect immediately and would only be lifted when the situation normalises - Kenya also discouraged importation of mitumba over similar reasons Uganda has temporarily suspended importation of second-hand clothes and shoes, otherwise known as mitumba, in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) said the ban was aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 which has become a global pandemic. READ ALSO: Moses Kuria says no human being can endure what DP Ruto is going through President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Photo: Yoweri Museveni. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Watu wengine 15 wakutwa na maambukizi ya COVID- 19 Kenya In a statement released on Tuesday, April 21, UNBS noted the ban would take effect immediately and would be lifted when authorities would deem it safer and appropriate. "The UNBS wishes to inform all the stakeholders and importers of used footwear and used textiles, that as a precautionary measure, the importation of these products has been suspended with immediate effect until further notice," read the statement in part. Uganda imposed a 14-day total lockdown on March 30 as part of efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The period was extended by President Yoweri Museveni for two more weeks after it elapsed. He, however, allowed boda boda operators to ferry passengers until 5pm. So far, the Museveni-led country has recorded 55 COVID-19 cases. The NRM leader recently announced Uganda had managed to flatten the curve and was optimistic they would beat the virus. Kenya also discouraged importation of mitumba over similar reasons, a move that many local traders decried would adversely affect their financial status. Trade and Industrialisation CS Betty Maina asked traders to avoid importing second-hand products during the pandemic outbreak. Kenya often imports footwear from China, the United States and the United Kingdom. Mitumba imports are required to be accompanied by a health certificate issued by a public health authority in the country of origin. Consignments must also be packaged in transparent materials weighing a maximum of 50kg for clothes and 25kg for shoes. 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from COVID-19 I Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke South Africas government is considering a range of proposals to help the economy recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, including the potential sale of a R100-billion ($5.3-billion) social-impact bond. The suggestions have been submitted to the government by its own departments, a panel of presidential advisers and a group of independent economists, several of whom spent large parts of their careers in senior state positions. The proposal for the bond was submitted by Intellidex, a South African capital markets and financial services consultancy, according to Stuart Theobald, its chairman. While it wasnt solicited by the government, it is being considered, he said. President Cyril Ramaphosas administration is under pressure to come up with a response to the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak. While the government has won praise for its speedy response to curb the spread of the disease, concern is growing that too little has been done to support struggling businesses and the countrys poorest people. The cabinet is considering economic measures at a meeting on Monday. With a budget deficit that could widen to more than 10% of gross domestic product, according to the International Monetary Fund, South Africa has very little financial room to stimulate an economy set to contract this year. A social-impact bond would tap the growing trend for investments that meet the requirements of environment, social and governance strategies. Some financial returns are typically sacrificed for measurable social returns. If those pre-defined targets are not met, there are often financial penalties. Health Expenditure The Treasury didnt immediately respond to queries about the bond. If the proposal gets the go-ahead, it would be sold domestically and internationally and would fund unforeseen health expenditure and could be used to mitigate the economic impact of the crisis, Theobald said. In January, Ecuador sold the first-ever sovereign social bond, raising $400 million to fund affordable housing, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, which partially guaranteed it. The government is also considering other proposals from the group of economists, put together by Miriam Altman, an economist who serves on the governments National Planning Commission. Two former deputy directors general at the Treasury, Michael Sachs and Andrew Donaldson, are also part of the group. The recommendations include 200 billion rand of guarantees for bank lending to struggling businesses, the purchase of between 10 billion rand and 20 billion rand of government bonds by the central bank every week until the crisis subsides, wage support and tax on the wealthy. The Banking Association South Africa, which represents banks, said its developing its own guarantee proposal. Seen above is the exterior of Swiss Re headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. Courtesy of Leonardo Finotti By Lee Min-hyung Kim Young-ran, chief technology officer at Swiss Re Group China hones carrier fighter jet skill amid epidemic Global Times By Liu Xuanzun Source:Global Times Published: 2020/4/20 20:08:40 The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy recently held training sessions for aircraft carrier-based fighter jets and helicopters in the Bohai Bay area, and experts said on Monday the training was crucial in boosting the combat capability of aircraft carriers, including China's second one, the recently commissioned Shandong. As the PLA makes routine and concrete steps in military development as planned, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has broken out in the military of the island of Taiwan in addition to the US military in the Asia-Pacific region. J-15 aircraft carrier-based fighter jets recently conducted a buddy refueling exercise in the Bohai Bay, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Sunday. Buddy refueling means that a J-15 equipped with a refueling pod, instead of a dedicated aerial tanker that cannot operate on an aircraft carrier, feeds other J-15s, enabling them to extend endurance in the air and carry more weapons and less fuel when taking off from the carrier, which is an often-used method also by foreign navies. After finishing buddy refueling, the J-15s were split into two teams and conducted mock battles of dogfights, aerial interceptions, and sea attacks, CCTV reported, noting that the fighter jets then engaged in night sorties. Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie told the Global Times on Monday that fighter jets are the key weapons of an aircraft carrier, and their combat capabilities are crucial to the aircraft carrier task group, so it is important to enhance their training level. With the commissioning of the Shandong, China's second aircraft carrier, in December 2019, more carrier-based fighter jets need to be built and more pilots trained, and these training courses will generate and boost their combat capability, Li said. China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, has been in the South China Sea for exercises after it sailed through the Miyako Strait on April 10. This could suggest that the recent fighter jet training in the Bohai Bay was meant for the Shandong, Li said. Aircraft carriers are not the only Chinese naval units holding exercises. The PLA Eastern Theater Command recently conducted live-fire drills in the East China Sea featuring a group of landing ships, according to a statement the PLA East China Sea Fleet released on Sunday. The exercises came at a time when the COVID-19 reportedly hit four US aircraft carriers including two in the Asia-Pacific region and the military on the island of Taiwan. Media on the Taiwan island claimed the COVID-19 may give the PLA a good chance to reunify Taiwan by force. Chinese mainland analysts said that the PLA exercises are routine and are aimed at honing their own capabilities, and the PLA has no intention of taking advantage of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Taiwan secessionists should always fear the PLA, not just during the pandemic because the PLA is always determined and capable of safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, analysts said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Drilling Extends Known Mineralisation at Yangibana Perth, April 21, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Hastings Technology Metals Limited ( ASX:HAS ) ( FRA:5AM ) is pleased to announce results from the 2019 Environmental drilling program implemented to study Stygofauna populations.- Recent drilling along the Auer and Yangibana mineralised trends confirms that mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth beyond the current resource.- Significant new results from Auer including;- 16 metres @ 1.94% TREO including 0.68% Nd2O3+Pr6O11 and- 15 metres @ 1.35% TREO including 0.53% Nd2O3+Pr6O11- Significant new results from Yangibana including;- 3 metres @ 1.28% TREO including 0.64% Nd2O3+Pr6O11 and- 7 metres @ 0.8% TREO including 0.37% Nd2O3+Pr6O11- Potential to increase Mineral Resources is clearly demonstrated as mineralised extensions outside of the existing (2,000-metre long) Yangibana Pit total more than 1,070 metres in both the easterly and westerly directions.- Encouraging drill results hasten the Company's plan to increase its exploration expenditure for the remaining of the 2020 calendar year.The drilling program was designed to facilitate environmental surveys of subterranean invertebrate fauna. Several of the holes inside and outside of defined resource areas intersected mineralised ironstone intervals which were sampled and assayed for Rare Earths.A program of 80 vertical reverse-circulation (RC) drill holes total was completed at Auer-Auer North (37 holes), and Yangibana (43 holes) Prospects (Figures 1 - 4*).COO, Andrew Reid commented: "Whilst not designed to test mineralisation, this Stygofauna drilling program has produced positive results confirming that further increases in the Mineral Resource is possible by drilling near-surface adjacent to existing open pits. Further drilling is warranted and planned during Q2 and Q3 2020"Several of the holes were drilled within defined mineral resource boundaries and some holes intersected the mineralised structure. Intervals of ironstone up to 16 metres in thickness were intersected in drill holes at Auer, that drilled down-dip on the mineralised sub-vertical ironstone, which is the completely oxidised portion of a carbonatite-phoscorite dyke.Drilling along strike beyond the limits of previous drilling at Yangibana also returned promising intersections of mineralised ironstone. Drilling at the western end of the Yangibana ironstone has demonstrated continuity of the mineralised zone over an additional 470 metres westwards from the limits of existing drilling (see Figure 1.*)New Exploration ProgramIn light of these new results, Hastings is intending to increase its overall Exploration expenditure for the remaining of the 2020 calendar year. The results support and warrant additional drilling, where near-surface extensions to known mineralisation have been traced and identified. Surface mapping undertaken previously also confirms known positions of mineralised extensions.This new phase of drilling is aimed at significantly extending mineralisation strike length at Simon's Find, Bald Hill, Frasers and Yangibana and testing down-dip extensions recorded to date. A new phase of drilling is subject to availability of sufficient working capital.Simon's Find, Bald Hill and Yangibana offer the most advanced and immediate opportunities to grow the resource inventory and extend the mine life of the Yangibana Project.The Company's geological interpretation suggests that there is substantial opportunity to add additional Mineral Resource tonnes in the area called Simon's Find. Simon's Find is located between the Bald Hill and Frasers Open Pits and is proximal to the Processing Plant Layout (Figure 5*).Planning for this program has commenced and it is anticipated that all drilling will be substantially completed by Q4 2020.*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Hastings Technology Metals Ltd Hastings Technology Metals Ltd (ASX:HAS) (FRA:5AM) is advancing its Yangibana Rare Earths Project in the Upper Gascoyne Region of Western Australia towards production. The proposed beneficiation and hydro metallurgy processing plant will treat rare earths deposits, predominantly monazite, hosting high neodymium and praseodymium contents to produce a mixed rare earths carbonate that will be further refined into individual rare earth oxides at processing plants overseas. Neodymium and praseodymium are vital components in the manufacture of permanent magnets which is used in a wide and expanding range of advanced and high-tech products including electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, medical applications and others. Hastings aims to become the next significant producer of neodymium and praseodymium outside of China. Hastings holds 100% interest in the most significant deposits within the overall project, and 70% interest in additional deposits that will be developed at a later date, all held under Mining Leases. Numerous prospects have been identified warranting detailed exploration to further extend the life of the project. Brockman Project The Brockman deposit, near Halls Creek in Western Australia, contains JORC Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources, estimated using the guidelines of JORC Code (2012 Edition). The Company is also progressing a Mining Lease application over the Brockman Rare Earths and Rare Metals Project. Hastings aims to capitalise on the strong demand for critical rare earths created by the expanding demand for new technology products. Scientists have developed a new way to map the molecules on tumour cells that flag their presence to the immune system, according to a study published today in eLife. The findings could make commonly used immunotherapy treatments effective for a much larger population of cancer patients. Some cancer immunotherapy treatments work by targeting short pieces of proteins called peptides that are displayed in the surface of cancer cells. These peptides are presented on the cell surface by human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) of which there are many different types. However, immunotherapy treatment research tends to focus on a small subset of HLAs only. As not all cancer patients produce these HLAs, they are unable to benefit from existing HLA-based immunotherapies. "Most studies have focused on HLA proteins that are commonly found in the general population," explains co-first author Kenji Murata, a postdoctoral fellow at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada. "We have developed a new technique that allows the sampling of underrepresented HLA proteins to find peptides or antigens that can induce an antitumour immune response. We can then stimulate the patient's own immune cells with those peptides and give them back to the patient to help treat their cancer." The team began by isolating white blood cells called T cells from eight patients with melanoma. This patient group spanned 25 different types of HLAs, allowing the team to analyse T cell interactions with more than 800 different antigen peptides. All eight patient samples were positive for at least one of the peptide-HLA combinations. The methods developed here also allowed the team to discover new peptides recognised by the T cells. Next, the team explored whether the T cells that reacted to the peptides could cause an immune response by measuring the production of an immune-activating molecule called interferon. All except two of the antigens stimulated the T cells to produce interferon as well as stimulate the cells to increase in number. These effects were made more robust by adding to the T cells another type of cell - an artificially engineered antigen-presenting cell (APC) bearing the same antigen, which is a common strategy to stimulate T cells. In the next stage, the team used the artificial APCs to find the exact immunogenic signal that stimulated the T cells from melanoma patients. They found novel peptide fragments related to two different antigens, called MART1 and NY-ESO1, which are known to contain immunological hotspots. They looked at whether they could engineer T cells to target these novel antigens by taking cells that react against the novel antigens and cloning their T cell receptor (TCR) genes. TCRs are cell-surface proteins that allow T cells to react to antigens. "When we added these cloned TCR genes back into newly isolated T cells, we found that the cells were able to recognise and react to the tumour cells," says co-first author Munehide Nakatsugawa, a former postdoctoral fellow at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. "By querying human melanoma-derived T cells and using novel HLA proteins bearing common tumour antigens, we have been able to discover both new and existing immunologically active antigens in tumours," concludes senior author Naoto Hirano, Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. "Our strategy allows for a more complete examination of the immune response and development of novel cancer vaccines and immunotherapies for a broader group of patients not limited by HLA prevalence or tumour mutation burden." ### Reference The paper 'Landscape mapping of shared antigen epitopes and their cognate TCRs of tumour-infiltrating T lymphocytes in melanoma' can be freely accessed online at https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.53244. Contents, including text, figures and data, are free to reuse under a CC BY 4.0 license. This study will be included in eLife's upcoming Special Issue: 'Discovery and Translation of Cancer Immunology'. To be alerted as new papers are published, follow #eLifeCancerImmunology on Twitter. Media contact Emily Packer, Senior Press Officer eLife e.packer@elifesciences.org 01223 855373 About eLife eLife is a non-profit organisation created by funders and led by researchers. Our mission is to accelerate discovery by operating a platform for research communication that encourages and recognises the most responsible behaviours. We work across three major areas: publishing, technology and research culture. We aim to publish work of the highest standards and importance in all areas of biology and medicine, including Immunology and Inflammation, while exploring creative new ways to improve how research is assessed and published. We also invest in open-source technology innovation to modernise the infrastructure for science publishing and improve online tools for sharing, using and interacting with new results. eLife receives financial support and strategic guidance from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Max Planck Society and Wellcome. Learn more at https://elifesciences.org/about. To read the latest Immunology and Inflammation research published in eLife, visit https://elifesciences.org/subjects/immunology-inflammation. About the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre has achieved an international reputation as a global leader in cancer care and one of the top five cancer research centres in the world. It's a member of the University Health Network (UHN), which also includes Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospitals, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and The Michener Institute for Education at UHN. Whole Foods is tracking stores at risk of unionization with a heat map. Samantha Lee/Business Insider Amazon-owned Whole Foods is tracking and scoring stores it deems at risk of unionizing, according to five people with knowledge of the effort and internal documents viewed by Business Insider. The scores are based on more than two dozen metrics, including racial diversity, employee loyalty, "tipline" calls, and violations recorded by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In response to this story, Whole Foods said: "Whole Foods Market recognizes the rights of our Team Members to decide whether union representation is right for them. We agree with the overwhelming majority of our Team Members that a direct relationship with Whole Foods Market and its leadership, where Team Members have open lines of communication and every individual is empowered to share feedback directly with their team leaders, is best." Tracking active or potential unionization is a common practice among large companies, according to labor experts. If you are an employee of Whole Foods and have information to share, contact this reporter at hpeterson@businessinsider.com. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Whole Foods is keeping an eye on stores at risk of unionizing through an interactive heat map, according to five people with knowledge of the matter and internal documents viewed by Business Insider. The heat map is powered by an elaborate scoring system, which assigns a rating to each of Whole Foods' 510 stores based on the likelihood that their employees might form or join a union. The stores' individual risk scores are calculated from more than two dozen metrics, including employee "loyalty," turnover, and racial diversity; "tipline" calls to human resources; proximity to a union office; and violations recorded by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The map also tracks local economic and demographic factors such as the unemployment rate in a store's location and the percentage of families in the area living below the poverty line. Story continues The stores' scores on each metric are fed into the heat map, which is a geographic illustration of the United States peppered with red spots to indicate high-risk Whole Foods stores. The heat map reveals how Whole Foods is using technology and data to help manage its vast workforce of more than 95,000 employees. It also provides a rare look into corporate labor-tracking activities, a common practice among large companies but one rarely discussed publicly. A statement on the map describes its purpose as specific to monitoring unionization among its employees, which the company calls team members. "The [Team Member] Relations Heatmap is designed to identify stores at risk of unionization," the statement reads. "This early identification enables resources to be funneled to the highest need locations, with the goal of mitigating risk by addressing challenges early before they become problematic." Whole Foods did not respond to questions about what sort of resources are funneled to the "highest need" stores. In a statement provided to Business Insider, the company said an "overwhelming majority" of its employees prefer a "direct relationship" with the company over union representation. "Whole Foods Market recognizes the rights of our Team Members to decide whether union representation is right for them," the company said. "We agree with the overwhelming majority of our Team Members that a direct relationship with Whole Foods Market and its leadership, where Team Members have open lines of communication and every individual is empowered to share feedback directly with their team leaders, is best. "Our open-door communication policy allows us to understand and quickly respond to the needs of our workforce, while recognizing, rewarding, and supporting the goals of every member of our team," the statement continued. "At Whole Foods Market, we're committed to treating all of our Team Members fairly, creating a safe, inclusive, and empowering working environment, and providing our Team Members with career advancement opportunities, great benefits, and competitive compensation, including an industry-leading starting minimum wage of $15/hour." How Whole Foods calculates a store's risk of unionizing WholeFoods23 Business Insider/Hayley Peterson Whole Foods uses the heat map and related scores to determine where stores must take action to address risks, according to the documents and people familiar with the map. Overall, higher scores indicate lower risks of unionization. The map monitors three main areas: "external risks," "store risks," and "team member sentiment." Some of the factors that contribute to external risk scores include local union membership size; distance in miles between the store and the closest union; number of charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board alleging labor-law violations; and a "labor incident tracker," which logs incidents related to organizing and union activity. Other external factors include the percentage of families within the store's zip code that fall below the poverty line and the local unemployment rate. Whole Foods' heat map says lower rates of racial diversity increase unionization risks The second group of metrics in the scoring system, called store risks, aren't a direct cause of risk "but can predispose a store to risk," according to documents. Store-risk metrics include average store compensation, average total store sales, and a "diversity index" that represents the racial and ethnic diversity of every store. Stores at higher risk of unionizing have lower diversity and lower employee compensation, as well as higher total store sales and higher rates of workers' compensation claims, according to the documents. The third area of metrics is "team member sentiment." These metrics, which include items like employee loyalty and engagement, are "designed to be the most actionable," the documents show. The "sentiment" data is pulled from internal employee surveys and "is likely to be the first score to improve based on your efforts." These measures assess employees' feedback on the quality and safety of their work environment and whether they feel supported and respected, among other things. Tracking potential unionization is common among large companies With the heat map, Whole Foods appears to be trying to identify and address circumstances ripe for employee unrest that could lead to attempts to form a union. This type of workforce analysis is something large companies have done for decades, albeit without some of the technology available today that can automate parts of that process, according to labor experts. Walmart, for example, hired an intelligence-gathering service from Lockheed Martin and ranked stores by labor activity when it faced protests eight years ago organized by the union-backed activist group OUR Walmart, according to a 2015 Bloomberg Businessweek story citing thousands of court documents. "Employers spend millions of dollars a year to hire union avoidance advisers to see how susceptible they are to their workers organizing," Celine McNicholas, the director of government affairs and labor counsel for the Economic Policy Institute, said. Why some companies closely track union activity "A preponderance of the business community [has] a total allergy to unionization," Wilma Liebman, who served on the National Labor Relations Board under Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton, said. Unions give employees more bargaining power over things such as wages and health benefits, she said. They could also increase the chances of employee strikes, which can disrupt business. Companies "don't want anything that's going to interfere with their autonomy and their ability to act unilaterally" and "sometimes they're convinced [unions] are going to cost them more than they can afford," Liebman said. Research shows unionized workers tend to earn higher wages and are more likely to have access to certain benefits like employer-sponsored healthcare. Critics of unions argue, however, that the organizations can harm companies economically, forcing layoffs or job outsourcing, and that they don't have workers' best interests in mind. That's why some companies monitor their workers to try to address any signs that employees might organize head-on. US labor law protects employees' right to unionize. It's legal, however, for a company to monitor and address labor organizing as long as it doesn't threaten, coerce, restrain, or interfere with efforts to unionize. Overall, US companies spent at least $100 million on consulting services for anti-union campaigns between 2014 and 2017, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute based on disclosure forms filed with the US Department of Labor. McNicholas said using a data-powered heat map to monitor for unionization risks "is just the next frontier of employer opposition to unions." If you are an employee of Whole Foods and have information to share, contact this reporter at hpeterson@businessinsider.com. Read the original article on Business Insider House impeachment managers Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Val Demmings (D-Fla.) look on as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) speaks during a press conference after the Senate adjourned for the day during the Senate impeachment trial at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 28, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Vaccine Needed as SchiffNadler Investigation Disease Returns! Commentary Guess what? Those twin Torquemadas of the U.S. CongressReps. Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadlerhave sent a letter to Inspector General Michael Horowitz and acting Director and Chief Counsel of the Office of Professional Responsibility Jeffrey Ragsdale requesting they investigate Attorney General William Barr. I know. Youre almost as shocked to read this as Captain Renault was about gambling at Ricks in Casablanca. Investigating for Messrs. Schiff and Nadler is the equivalent of breathing for the rest of us, with or without ventilators. Its what they do. (Actually, its a disease with them. When will we get the vaccine? Its desperately needed.) Oh the cause of this particular investigation? Barr, in their view, broke Department of Justice rules by stating his agreement with the firing of former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson. But thats what shrinks call the presenting complaint. The real issue is that theyre petrified about what Barr and his investigator John Durham may shortly do. If even a few of those connected to the Mueller/Russia investigation are indicted, their two-to-three-year-long jihad against Trump will look just like thata jihad. The history books will render them both either irrelevant liars or despicable liars, depending on the writer. So Barr must be tarnished in advance, in Marxist parlance, by any means necessary. To show just how desperate S & N may be, the choice of the Atkinson firing holds many potential booby traps for them. It could well expose to the public the true nature of the Ukraine impeachment and Schiffs role in manipulating the quondam whistleblower. It may be that they hope, as with most IG investigations, it will drag on for months, if not years, long enough to besmirch Barr throughout whatever embarrassing revelations are to come. (Its already rumored that Kevin Clinesmith, the FBI attorney who is reported to have changed email language regarding Carter Pages CIA service, is about to be indicted. Will he sing?) Returning to the jihad metaphor, which isnt so stretched because Schiff and Nadler have pursued their attacks on Trump with nothing short of religious fervor, their several-years-long monomania is a coronavirus of its own. It has so distracted the public, the media, and the Congress from their true missions to serve America that the Congressother than Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)entirely missed the coming pandemic and paid little to no attention to what was happening in communist China. Then when Trump closed travel to China, they accused him of xenophobia and racism (dont they get tired of this?) and continued to ignore the whole thing, concentrating on impeachment, with our two Torquemadas at the fore. Public health wasnt even on their radar. During impeachment, Trump may have taken his eye a little off the ball too, but considering the non-stop attack he was under, its hard to blame him. And on the Democrat side, they couldnt have been less interested in the CCP virus or any virus. It was impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, all day and night. Indeed, during the Democrats last presidential debate, neither the virus nor even China itself got so much as a mention by the candidates or their media allies. But then Bernie would never criticize a communist, and Biden wouldnt bite the hand that fed him until it was no longer tenable. (After joining the chorus calling Trump a xenophobe, he finally had to admitespecially with his son profiting from the Bank of Chinathe president did the right thing.) They accuse Trump of having blood on his hands with the virus, but that is yet another case of what has become a symphony of projection on the part of the modern liberal (as far from the JFK kind as Washington is from Wuhan). As for a vaccine, Im optimistic that one will eventually be found for the CCP virus. Some smart people in the United States, the UK, and Israel, among other places, are working on it. But a vaccine against SchiffNadler Investigation Disease (SNID)? I dont know if Jonas Salk or Pasteur himself could figure it out. Roger L Simonthe Epoch Times senior political columnistis the author of 13 books. His latest is The GOAT, available now as an audiobook. He is also an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a coronavirus briefing at the White House, Monday. / AP-Yonhap By Kang Seung-woo U.S. President Donald Trump has made it clear that Korea should pay more of the costs for the upkeep of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), raising speculation that defense cost-sharing talks between the allies may be protracted. "They've offered us a certain amount of money and I've rejected it," Trump said during a coronavirus press briefing at the White House, Monday (local time). "I just said it's just, look, you know, we're doing a tremendous service. We have a wonderful feeling and a wonderful relationship with each other, but we have to be treated equitably and fairly." It was the first official statement from the United States that confirmed media reports that the American president rebuffed what was probably Korea's best offer earlier this month. Late last month, the Korean government hinted that the sides were on the verge of signing the new Special Measure Agreement (SMA). The SMA determines Seoul's financial contribution to stationing 28,500 American troops across the Korean Peninsula. However, the two sides have yet to make announcements about them reaching a conclusion, followed by reports that Trump rejected Korea's offer for a 13 percent increase from the previous cost-sharing accord. Trump wants Korea to pay $4 billion a year, around quadruple the amount paid for last year, while the Korean government proposed an increase of around 10 percent. "We're asking them to pay for a big percentage of what we're doing. It's not fair," Trump said. "We're defending nations that are very wealthy. South Korea is a very wealthy nation. They make our television sets. They make ships. They make everything. And I give them great credit." There is no sign of the Korean government trying to resume talks to strike a deal until the U.S. demands a "reasonable" increase. "Since Korea and the U.S. were closer to inking a new deal, they have yet to agree on resuming negotiations," a foreign ministry official said, adding that they were staying in touch. Due to the stalled talks, about 4,000 Korean staff at U.S. military bases here have been placed on unpaid leave for an indefinite period starting this month. "Increasing Korea's SMA contribution was part of Trump's campaign pledge, so he cannot back off easily," said Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University. Park said the government should act quickly to address the issue. "On his way to the re-election campaign, Trump may ramp up pressure on Korea to spend more," he said. "In addition, if he links the negotiations with other bilateral issues, including the transition of wartime operational control, the government may be placed in trouble as well." Meanwhile, Trump said the issue was not about troop levels, but how much Korea would be able to pay, denying reports that Washington may consider reducing the number of the USFK as a means to pressure Seoul. "It's not a question of reduction," he said. "It's a question of will they contribute toward the defense of their own nation," Trump said. By Trend Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that a four-day lockdown would be imposed in 31 cities from Thursday as part of efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Trend reports citing Reuters. Turkey has imposed such measures over the past two weekends. Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Erdogan said the lockdown would be longer this time due to a national holiday that falls on Thursday, adding that weekend lockdowns could continue for some time. Over the weekend, the number of confirmed cases in Turkey exceeded any country outside Europe and the United States. Total cases rose to 90,980 on Monday. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 123 people had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 2,140. Koca has said the rate of increase of confirmed cases in the country has slowed, despite an increase in testing numbers in recent weeks. He said a peak would be reached in the number of cases in coming days. Erdogan said Turkey aimed to bring the outbreak to a level that would allow for a normalization of life after the Eid al-Fitr religious holiday at the end of May, adding that steps could be taken before that. A total of 13,430 people have recovered from the new coronavirus so far, the minister said, adding that nearly 674,000 tests had been carried since the outbreak began. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz An Australian woman has completely transformed her pantry with the help of IKEA storage containers, decorative boards from Kmart and baskets from Big W. Amber Warke's kitchen pantry looked much like everyone else's before she decided to expertly update it with budget buys, labels and fancy timber canisters: Pots and pans stacked unevenly in the corner, a haphazard arrangement of tin cans and no ability to find what you're looking for. Posting a 'before' and 'after' photo to Facebook, other Australians were enamoured by the presentation and eagerly asked her where she had purchased all of the implements to make it look like it had been curated for a magazine spread. Slide me An Australian woman has completely transformed her pantry with the help of IKEA storage containers, decorative boards from Kmart and baskets from Big W The clear canisters which housed all manner of pasta and dry ingredients were from three separate locations: Square ones were from Aldi, rectangle and large round ones from IKEA and smaller round ones were from Kmart. The white tubs, which replaced her dark and less aesthetically pleasing grey ones, were from IKEA and are filled with with toppings, rice and baking products. The timber lazy susans are from Kmart, bamboo containers were purchased from Big W, marble round boards are Kmart stock and the pink salt and pepper shakers are Menu brand. The timber lazy susans are from Kmart, bamboo containers were purchased from Big W, marble round boards are Kmart stock and the pink salt and pepper shakers are Menu brand The white tubs, which replaced her dark and less aesthetically pleasing grey ones, were from IKEA and are filled with with toppings, rice and baking products The spice rack, labels and associated jars are all from Little Label Co which specialise in high quality storage solutions for around the house 'I used a divider rack organiser from the stationary section in Kmart for my pot and pan lids. I have a pits/pans and plates stand on order from Howard's for my pots and pans as well,' she said. 'I've also added some large cane baskets from Big W to hold my shopping bags.' The spice rack, labels and associated jars are all from Little Label Co which specialise in high quality storage solutions for around the house. Coronavirus has slowed down shipping on items like those manufactured by the Little Label Co so Ms Warke is still waiting for a few more supplies to arrive before it's finished You don't have to step foot outside of your house to purchase the materials she has to innovate her kitchen, and others are willing to try it for themselves while in quarantine Coronavirus has slowed down shipping on items like those manufactured by the Little Label Co so Ms Warke is still waiting for a few more supplies to arrive before it's finished. 'I'm currently now waiting on a couple of bamboo tiered shelves (for cans), 500ml white oil pour bottles, more labels, a new honey wooden jar (as my first one was a few years old and cracked), another wire shelf and a few other bits and bobs (people like all of us have stripped the shops bare lately so I have a few back and pre-orders),' she said. You don't have to step foot outside of your house to purchase the materials she has to innovate her kitchen, and others are willing to try it for themselves while in quarantine. 'Looks amazing! I wish I had that much cupboard storage. We probably have an eighth of that space,' one woman commented on the photos 'Looks amazing! I wish I had that much cupboard storage. We probably have an eighth of that space,' one woman commented on the photos. 'Think this post needs to be reported. Didn't realise we were able to post porn on this page,' another joked. A third added: 'Now I've got all the time in the world to try and replicate this. Let's do it!' The smart ventilator from Indian start-up Inali will be used to treat COVID-19 patients. The jointly developed 3D design is publicly available so that the ventilator can be produced cost-effectively anywhere in the world. In just eight days, Inali developed an intelligent ventilator for Covid 19 patients with the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab from Dassault Systemes. Ventilators play a key role in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. As the number of infected people increases, there is a risk that ventilators and the components needed to produce them will not be available without restrictions. The smart ventilator is designed to be quickly manufactured locally with readily available parts to meet the demand from hospitals and government agencies in a cost-effective manner. Inali will make the complete design and manufacturing details of the smart ventilator publicly available. This will allow people around the world to download the information and manufacture the ventilator locally. Dassault Systemes' 3DEXPERIENCE Lab, an open innovation lab and start-up accelerator program, https://go.3ds.com/opencovid19 has helped Indian start-up Inali develop a safe and affordable smart ventilator that can be manufactured quickly and used for emergency situations. Using cloud-based digital systems, Inali, a non-profit organization, worked with experts and innovators in real time - regardless of their location - and used all their knowledge to quickly design, construct and simulate a 3D model of the smart ventilator, and produce and validate a prototype. The smart ventilator was developed to determine performance metrics for parameters such as air speed and air pressure. This allows the required oxygen level for each patient to be determined individually, as well as safety metrics required for reliable and safe use. Ventilators play a key role in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. As the number of infected people increases, there is a risk that ventilators and the components needed to produce them will not be available without restrictions. The smart ventilator is designed to be quickly manufactured locally with readily available parts to meet the demand from hospitals and government agencies in a cost-effective manner. Inali will make the complete design and manufacturing details of the smart ventilator publicly available. This will allow people around the world to download the information and manufacture the ventilator locally. She's a stunning actress who's been in the business for over 30 years, but still looks as gorgeous as when she first started out. Blonde beauty Heather Graham was spotted out for a walk on Tuesday in Los Angeles, California, taking a break from at-home isolation by meeting up with a mystery male companion while outdoors. The sighting of Graham, 50, comes as Los Angeles County enters its second month of lockdown, with a Safer At Home mandate in place since March 19th. A vision in red and black: Heather Graham was spotted out for a walk on Tuesday in Los Angeles, taking a break from at-home isolation The Boogie Nights star looked every bit the glamorous movie star on her day outing, dressed in a stylish bright red down puffer jacket, a silky white scarf, and a black ensemble including a loose-fitting fedora. Heather's black ensemble consisted of jeans that were ripped at the knees, and she wore a form-fitting top with a scoop neck. Her scarf was bunched at the neck, giving her ample material to use as a face covering should anyone get too close. The Austin Powers actress let her trademark blonde hair flow underneath her hat, and she wore large gold-tipped sunglasses to shield her eyes. Casual meet-up: The Boogie Nights star looked every bit the glamorous movie star, dressed in a stylish red down jacket, scarf, fedora and black ensemble as she strolled with a male pal In step together: The Austin Powers actress let her trademark blonde hair flow underneath her hat, and she wore large gold-tipped sunglasses to shield her eyes Heather's walking companion, which may have been the German actor Daniel Bruhl, wore a long-sleeved grey polo and black pants, along with a face mask and sunshades. Before the pandemic hit, Heather had been on a promotional tour for her dramatic film The Rest Of Us. She represented the movie at a special screening at SAG-AFTRA in Beverly Hills in February. The movie, which also stars Sophie Nelisse from The Book Thief, is a mother-daughter tale exploring the themes of grief, loss and relationships. Mother and daughter: Before the pandemic hit, Heather had been on a promotional tour for her dramatic film The Rest Of Us; seen here in the film with costar Sophie Nelisse The Rest Of Us premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September and opened in theaters on February 14th. Graham first rose to prominence at the age of 17, when she played the role of Mercedes Lane opposite Corey Haim and Corey Feldman in the 1988 teen comedy License to Drive. She garnered critical acclaim a year later for her performance in Gus Van Sant's gritty drama Drugstore Cowboy and went on to star in David Lynch's TV series Twin Peaks and the 1992 movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Statuesque: The Rest Of Us premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September; Graham seen here at the premiere Chennai, April 21 : The number of COVID-19 claims lodged with the non-life insurance companies are increasing only in arithmetical progression, said a senior insurance official. He said as majority of those affected are treated in the government hospitals for free, the insurers are not affected by the claims. "There number of claims lodged are increasing in arithmetic progression and not geometric progression. As on Monday the total claims lodged with the insurers are about 365. The claim value is about Rs 8.75 crore," the official told IANS preferring anonymity. As per the numbers, the average claim per policy is about Rs 2.40 lakh. Going by the trend, the COVID-19 may not be a catastrophic loss for the industry. "The COVID-19 claim amount is nearly 2.5 times that of the average health insurance claim," S. Prakash, Managing Director, Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Ltd told IANS on Monday. The industry official said Maharashtra tops in the claims lodged ranking followed by Delhi and Chennai. Crew members on the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship the Ruby Princess have started disembarking from the boat two days before its scheduled departure. At least 49 crew members from six countries got off the ship on Tuesday and have been transferred to hotels after being docked at Port Kembla for more than two weeks following a deadly COVID-19 outbreak. Around 1,000 more people are still on board the vessel, with the ship's PA announcing to staff that 'this virus can't break us, it actually has one design fault - it makes us stronger.' Staff were told they will receive a letter regarding their compensation and salary this week. A man waves back to crew on board the Ruby Princess after departing the vessel on Tuesday Forty-nine crew members from six countries left the ship on Tuesday and will be transferred to hotels NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the health and safety of crew and the wider community would continue to be the priority. 'The movement of the first crew contingent today is an important milestone, and has us one step closer to the Ruby Princess leaving Australian waters,' Mr Fuller said in a statement on Tuesday. One of the crew members leaving the ship on Tuesday has tested positive for the coronavirus and will be taken to a NSW Health-managed hotel for 14 days of quarantine before returning home, NSW Police says. The remaining 48 crew members have tested negative and arrangements are being made for flights to their home countries. Around 1,000 crew remain on the boat, with more expected to leave the vessel in the coming days Army officials with departing passengers luggage outside the Ruby Princess in Port Kembla Passengers are screened by medical staff after disembarking the ship before their transfer 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 Italian personal trainer Byron Sodani told the ABC he was worried about leaving the ship. 'I am feeling very nervous because until I am on that plane anything can happen,' he said. 'I am really happy that this experience is over.' NSW Police says more crew members will disembark the Ruby Princess in coming days, but a significant number will remain on board and return with the ship to its port of origin. Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said the ship was on track for a Thursday departure. 'I think in rough estimates there will still be hundreds of people left on that boat,' Mr Worboys told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday. Hotel staff wearing protective face masks and gloves handle passengers luggage after disembarking the ship 'There needs to be a crew to sail the boat, but also there will be people that will want to stay on that ship to return as well.' More than 600 infections and 21 deaths are linked to the Ruby Princess after almost 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark in Sydney Harbour on March 19. No health checks were done on any of the passengers and many got on domestic flights or cross-state trains while unknowingly infected. The ship is the biggest single source of COVID-19 infection in Australia. Most of the crew have remained in isolation on the ship and 190 of those on board had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Sunday night. Another 12 crew members infected with coronavirus have previously been evacuated to NSW hospitals. A woman carries her luggage into a hotel in Sydney after departing the Ruby Princess Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 07:07 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd31f166 1 National PSBB,large-scale-social-restrictions,Jakarta-administration,health-ministry,doni-monardo,Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,Greater-Jakarta,coronavirus,lockdown Free The Indonesian government is set to evaluate the implementation of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) as many non-essential workplaces are still ignoring the policies and requiring their workers to come in for work amid physical distancing requirements needed to curb the further transmission of COVID-19. Today, I ask for a total evaluation of what we have done to handle COVID-19, especially regarding the PSBB, with details of the pluses and minuses so we can make improvements, President Joko Jokowi Widodo said in his opening speech during the limited Cabinet meeting on Monday. There are two provinces and 16 municipalities and regencies across the archipelago whose requests to impose a partial lockdown have been approved by Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto as part of efforts to break the chain of transmission of the highly contagious respiratory illness. The provinces are Jakarta and West Sumatra while the regions include Depok, Bogor, Bekasi, South Tangerang and Tangerang of Greater Jakarta, Bandung and Cimahi in West Java, Pekanbaru in Riau, Tegal in Central Java and Makassar in South Sulawesi. Jakarta, the epicenter of the outbreak and hardest-hit province in the country, was the first to impose PSBB for 14 days starting on April 10. Chief of the national COVID-19 task force, Doni Monardo, said that based on his agencys monitoring, the policy had been effective to a degree, but there were still some companies neglecting the distancing rules. Where the policy has not been effective relates to activities in offices and factories that lead to packed public transportation services, he said after a meeting with Jokowi. Doni, who is also the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), urged all stakeholders, especially employers, to comply with the regulations and follow through with the work-from-home policy. The task force in coordination with the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister will install CCTV in several factories as well as conducting checks in office areas to push for more serious implementation of the PSBB among the members of the public. If offices and factories continue to violate the provisions and do not meet the health protocols, we will take steps ranging from warnings and reprimands to sanctions, Doni said, while hoping regional task forces could be more assertive toward companies. The regulations on PSBB require that all workplaces, except those in essential sectors such as the financial, fuel, food, medicine, retail, water, communications and logistics sectors, be closed and implement work-from-home policies. However, some business owners have not complied with the policies, resulting in many people still going to work by public transportation despite the city imposing restrictions on passenger capacity. Some areas in the capital city also reported more traffic on Monday as people commuted to work in the morning. The Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) recently said dozens of companies outside of the aforementioned sectors were still given operational licenses. The industrial sector for health and food products should indeed be open. But we are seeing garment or aluminum companies in Jakarta being given permission, KSPI communication head Kahar S. Cahyono said recently. The Jakarta Manpower, Transmigration and Energy Agency has recorded around 200 large companies, including electronics manufacturers, being given permission by the Industry Ministry to operate in Jakarta while the PSBB policy is in place. Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said he had complied with PSBB guidelines, and that he had been coordinating with regional heads, including Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, in giving operational licenses to companies. The Health Ministerial Regulation on PSBB provides for the arrangement of industrial activity. We have also coordinated with the Governors of Jakarta, Banten and West Java, he told kompas.com recently. Agus said his ministry had distributed Circular No. 4/2020 regarding factory operations during the COVID-19 public health emergency, as guidelines to carry out health protocols in production processes. However, Governor Anies said his administration would revoke the business license of any company that still operated regularly during the PSBB period and was proven to violate the rules and repeat the violation after being issued a warning. The West Java administration said factories would be permitted to continue operating while the province enforced PSBB, as long as they had recorded no positive cases and ensured that health protocols were in place. West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil requested that the regency and municipal administrations conduct large-scale inspections of factories and studies of strategic industries for future policy enforcement. After large-scale testing, regents and mayors may allow them to operate if no positive cases are found, so long as physical distancing and health protocols are in place, Ridwan said in a video conference last week. A London rapper who became one of Europes most wanted terrorists has reportedly been arrested in Spain. Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, who performed as L Jinny or Lyricist Jinn, is believed to be one of three suspects found hiding in a rented apartment in Almeria. Spains Policia Nacional did not name the men but called the main suspect one of Europes most wanted Isis foreign fighters, and said he was an Egyptian national. Two sources close to the investigation told the Associated Press that the man was Abdel Bary. He previously held dual British and Egyptian nationality, but the UK government has been removing citizenship from Isis fighters to prevent their return. Timeline of the Isis caliphate Show all 19 1 /19 Timeline of the Isis caliphate Timeline of the Isis caliphate ISIS began as a group by the merging of extremist organisations ISI and al-Nusra in 2013. Following clashes, Syrian rebels captured the ISIS headquarters in Aleppo in January 2014 (pictured) AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared the creation of a caliphate in Mosul on 27 June 2014 Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis conquered the Kurdish towns of Sinjar and Zumar in August 2014, forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes. Pictured are a group of Yazidi Kurds who have fled Rex Timeline of the Isis caliphate On September 2 2014 Isis released a video depicting the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff. On September 13 they released another video showing the execution of British aid worker David Haines Timeline of the Isis caliphate The US launched its first airstrikes against Isis in Syria on 23 September 2014. Here Lt Gen William C Mayville Jnr speaks about the bombing campaign in the wake of the first strikes Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis militants sit atop a hill planted with their flag in the Syrian town of Kobani on 6 October 2014. They had been advancing on Kobani since mid-September and by now was in control of the citys entrance and exit points AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Residents of the border village of Alizar keep guard day and night as they wait in fear of mortar fire from Isis who have occupied the nearby city of Kobani Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Smoke rises following a US airstrike on Kobani, 28 October 2014 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate YPG fighters raise a flag as they reclaim Kobani on 26 January 2015 VOA Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis seized the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on 20 May 2015. This image show the city from above days after its capture by Isis Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Kurdish forces are stationed on a hill above the town of Sinjar as smoke rises following US airstrikes on 12 November 2015 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Kurdish forces enter Sinjar after seizing it from Isis control on 13 November 2015 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Iraqi government forces make the victory sign as they retake the city of Fallujah from ISIS on 26 June 2016 Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Iraqi forces battle with Isis for the city of Mosul on 30 June 2017 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Members of the Iraqi federal police raise flags in Mosul on 8 July 2017. On the following day, Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi declares victory over Isis in Mosul Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Members of Syrian Democratic Forces celebrate in Al-Naim square after taking back the city of Raqqa from Isis. US-backed Syrian forces declare victory over Isis in Raqqa on 20 October 2017 after a four-month long campaign Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Female fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces celebrate in Al-Naim Square after taking back the city of Raqqa from Isis. US-backed Syrian forces declare victory over Isis in Raqqa on 20 October 2017 after a four-month long campaign AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Trucks full of women and children arrive from the last Isis-held areas in Deir ez-Zor, Syria in January 2019 They were among the last civilians to be living in the ISIS caliphate, by this time reduced to just two small villages in Syrias Deir ez-Zor Richard Hall/The Independent Timeline of the Isis caliphate Zikia Ibrahim, 28, with her two-year-old son and 8-month-old daughter, after fleeing the Isis caliphate, on Saturday 26 January 2019 Richard Hall/The Independent A police spokesperson said he had recently entered Spain irregularly from North Africa. Almeria sits in the southerly region of Andalusia, which has seen a rise in migrant boat crossings from Morocco. The Policia Nacional suggested that officers had received intelligence that Abdel Bary intended to return to mainland Europe via Spain and had traced him from arrival to the apartment. The detainees adapted their behaviour to the circumstances of the state of alarm as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, making few exits, separately, and always with masks to avoid being detected, a spokesperson added. Intensive work is being done to verify the identity of the other two detainees and the ultimate reasons for their presence in Spain. Police are investigating whether the other two suspects are also returned foreign fighters or were offering Bary security and logistical support for entry into Europe. The trio were being interrogated on Tuesday and scheduled to appear before a National Court judge in Madrid on Wednesday. The statement said the man thought to be Abdel Bary had been in the Syrian-Iraqi conflict zone for several years and had an extremely violent profile that drew the attention of intelligence services. It said the mans activities with Isis had been covered by the media, including extremely graphic images of alleged war crimes. The arrest of a Egyptian national, alleged to be a former Isis fighter, in Almeria, southern Spain, on 21 April (Policia Nacional) In 2014, Abdel Bary was reported to have posted a photo on Twitter showing himself holding a Syrian regime soldiers head, with the caption: Chillin with my homie, or whats left of him. He was among the British Isis fighters considered to be potential identities for the executioner Jihadi John, before he was named as Mohammed Emwazi. Abdel Bary is the son of an Egyptian al-Qaeda operative who was convicted in connection with the 1998 US embassy bombings that killed more than 200 people. He grew up in Maida Vale, London, and joined Isis after his father was extradited for trial in the US. Adel Abdul Bary was convicted and sentenced to a 25-year prison term in 2015. Music videos still available online show Abdel Bary performing raps with references to drug use, violence and his familys experience as asylum seekers in Britain. In a 2013 Facebook post, he wrote: I have left everything for the sake of Allah. The following year, Twitter posts suggested he had reached Isis capital Raqqa, but his account was later taken down. Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary was a rap artist from Maida Vale, west London, before he went to fight in Syria By July 2015, he was reported to have fled Isis after becoming disillusioned. Spains interior ministry said police had arrested nearly 400 people connected to extremist religious groups since 2012. More than 400 people of national security concern are believed to have returned to the UK from conflicts in Syria and Iraq, but only one in 10 have been prosecuted. The government brought in a raft of new terror laws that it said would plug loopholes allowing Isis fighters to go free last year. But it has not yet used the new provisions, instead continuing efforts to remove jihadis citizenship that have sparked legal challenges and diplomatic rows. The UK previously refused to prosecute two members of the Beatles Isis cell, which had included Jihadi John, after they were detained in Syria in 2018. The Foreign Office declined to comment on the arrest in Spain. At least six Tyson Foods employees have died after contracting the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), according to multiple reports. Last week, Tyson Foods confirmed to various outlets that four Georgia employees and two Iowa employees died due to the virus. Three of the four employees that died in Georgia worked at the companys chicken processing plant in Camilla, spokesman Gary Mickelson told the Associated Press. The fourth worked in a supporting job outside the plant. Meanwhile, Tyson representative Liz Croston confirmed to Business Insider that two employees at its plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, which has been closed since April 6, have also died. Tyson Foods did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for comment. RELATED: Cities Are Lighting Up Blue for Healthcare Workers amid Coronavirus See the Stunning Photos We realize everyone is anxious during this challenging time and believe information is the best tool for combating the virus, Hector Gonzalez, Tysons senior vice president for human resources, told the AP. Thats why were encouraging our team members to share their concerns with us, so we can help address them. Croston assured that the company has also worked to improve safety measures at the Camilla plant. Rogelio V Solis/AP/Shutterstock We continue working diligently to protect our team members at facilities across the country by taking worker temperatures, requiring protective face coverings and conducting additional cleaning and sanitizing, she said. Were implementing social distancing measures, such as installing workstation dividers, spreading out work stations where possible, and providing more breakroom space. She also said that any workers who are recorded with a temperature of over 100.4 will be sent home, but did not specify whether they will still be paid for their shift. Croston only confirmed to Business Insider that the waiting period for short-term disability will be waived for any employees treated by a doctor for COVID-19 or symptoms of COVID-19. Story continues According to the outlet, Tyson does not offer paid sick leave for its workers and short-term disability only makes up 60 percent of typical pay. RELATED: Couple Married for 57 Years Dies of Coronavirus Less Than 24 Hours Apart: We Are Heartbroken The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which reportedly represents 2,000 workers at Tysons Georgia plant, identified three of the employees who died as women who had worked there for 13 to 35 years. The union told the AP that many plant employees are sick or in quarantine. Its too little too late here, Edgar Fields, president of the unions Southeast Council, said in a statement. American workers handling meat have proven especially susceptible to the coronavirus, as their working conditions force them to work shoulder-to-shoulder on production lines, according to the AP. Because of this, several U.S. plants have had to close amid the outbreak, including a large plant owned by Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that reportedly produced nearly 5 percent of the countrys pork supply before it was closed after over 500 workers became infected with the virus. The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply, Smithfield CEO Kenneth Sullivan told Business Insider in a statement. It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running. As of Tuesday afternoon, there have been at least 780,536 cases and 37,818 deaths attributed to coronavirus in the United States, according to The New York 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. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has assured government of its commitment to helping kick out the novel Coronavirus from the country post lockdown. President Nana Akufo-Addo on Sunday, April 19, 2020, in a national address to the nation, lifted the COVID-19 induced partial lockdown imposed on the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Areas. The decision has been met with mixed reactions. General Secretary of the Association, Dr. Justice Yankson speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, April 20, 2020, after meeting with the President at the Jubilee House said they will do their bit in fighting the virus in the country. The President narrated to us beyond the health bit which the profession was looking at. Our priority is skewed towards health and he (president) has made it clear to us that, at this point, he has prioritized the social economic and other considerations slightly above the health implications for which reason he took that decision. We as an association have taken it into good faith and are committed to working with government to ensure that the people of Ghana are actually saved but not destroyed by this disease especially on the front of health workers, he said. He further disclosed that the association has made some recommendations to government and they are hoping for its implementation to make Ghanaians safe. We believe that we need to take a lot of proactive measures to ensure that even within the potential constraints that this unlocking would have brought to bear, each health personnel will be adequately protected for reason we made some very good suggestions to the President and he has taken them on board and we are expecting that as we move forward, those bids will be implemented for all of us to feel save, he further added. ---citinewsroom Mike Sloat / Mike Sloat On Monday, Texas State Parks reopened for daily use as part of Gov. Gregg Abbott's plan to jump start the state's economy. However, not all were ready for visitors, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Due to a range of operational-related issues, Mustang Island State Park near Corpus Christi will remain closed, TPWD officials said in a news release. The date of when the park will reopen has not been announced as of Tuesday afternoon. CHICAGO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The nation's hospitals are suffering significant financial damage as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Kaufman Hall's data from more than 800 U.S. hospitals show that volume and revenue declines, along with flat to rising expenses, resulted in a dramatic fall in margin within a matter of weeks, plunging not-for-profit hospitals, which historically operate on thin margins, deep into the red. "The data paints a dire picture for U.S. hospitals," said Jim Blake, managing director, Kaufman Hall. "While the nation is relying heavily on our healthcare system, the COVID-19 response actions are having a devastating financial impact on these organizations. These initial numbers only reflect the first two weeks of the COVID-19 response and likely indicate more negative results in the future." Kaufman Hall's latest edition of the National Hospital Flash Report, based on March data from more than 800 U.S. hospitals, shares the dramatic impact. Margins Operating margins dropped 150% year-over-year Operating EBITDA margins fell more than 100% year-over-year Operating margins fell 170% below budget for the month Hospital Volumes Operating Room minutes down 20% year-over-year Emergency Department visits dropped 15% year-over-year Median hospital occupancy rate was 53% for the month Hospital Expenses Labor expenses were up 3% year-over-year Non-labor expenses were up 1% year-over-year Revenue Budgeted inpatient revenue was down 13% in March Budgeted outpatient revenue was down 17% in March Bad debt and charity care rose 13% year-over-year For more statistics and details, please see the National Hospital Flash Report. Kaufman Hall experts are available for comment, please contact Philip Anast at [email protected]. About Kaufman Hall Kaufman Hall provides a unique combination of software, management consulting and data solutions to help society's foundational institutions realize sustained success amid changing market conditions. Since 1985, Kaufman Hall has been a trusted advisor to boards and executive management teams, helping them incorporate proven methods, rigorous analytics and industry-leading solutions into their strategic planning and financial management processes, with a focus on achieving their most challenging goals. Kaufman Hall services use a rigorous, disciplined, and structured approach that is based on the principles of corporate finance. The breadth and integration of Kaufman Hall advisory services are unparalleled, encompassing strategy; financial and capital planning; cost transformation; treasury and capital markets management; and mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and joint ventures. Kaufman Hall software includes the Axiom Software Suite, providing sophisticated, flexible performance management solutions that empower finance professionals to analyze results, model the future, and optimize organizational decision making. Solutions for long-range planning, budgeting and forecasting, performance reporting, capital planning, and cost accounting deliver decision support, reporting, and analytics within an integrated software platform. Kaufman Hall's Clinical Analytics empower healthcare organizations with clinical benchmarks, data, and analytics to provide a higher quality of care for optimized performance and improved patient outcomes. Press Contact: Philip Anast Amendola Communications (for Kaufman Hall) Email: [email protected] Phone: 312-576-6990 SOURCE Kaufman Hall Related Links http://www.kaufmanhall.com Confrontation between the superpowers was already intensifying before the world had heard of COVID-19. By blaming each other for creating the crisis, Beijing and Washington are not addressing the public health problem. Of course, the US has truth on its side in pointing out that the pandemic is a made-in-China phenomenon. The Chinese Foreign Ministry's response to claim that the US Army started the infection in China is just pathetic. But each is using the accusations against the other to deflect blame for their own incompetence and betrayal at home. The virus itself is an exercise in the purest globalisation, recognising no borders. International cooperation against a universal enemy would be the responsible course. But the national responses of the US and China are the the exact opposite. They are intensifying their geopolitical contest and accelerating the trend to so-called "decoupling". With the advent of the corona contest "it is already irreversible that the two are decoupling in terms of economy and technology" says Wang Jisi, a well-regarded scholar at Peking University. He predicts "the most difficult phase since the establishment of US-China diplomatic relations in the 1970s". Illustration: Andrew Dyson Credit: The two superpowers are setting up their handling of the crisis as a contest between two forms of government China's authoritarianism versus American democracy. In truth, these two leaders have demonstrated that both forms can produce disastrous outcomes. Democracy's advantage is that the people, if they so choose, can bloodlessly remove a bad leader. China's people have no such option. And if you thought that Trump was the only one of the pair to dye his hair an implausible colour, do you really think that a 66-year-old Chinese man could have naturally jet-black locks? This isn't an irrelevance. It's a human detail to illustrate the point that they are both vain men, and it is political and personal vanity that is their shared weakness. The reason that Xi and Trump have so fallen so low in high office is that they have treated a public health crisis as a test of their personal and political status. Like most leaders who like to posture as "strong men" types, they are actually very fragile. This is not a crisis of autocracy nor a crisis of democracy. It is a crisis caused by overpoliticisation. Different types of politics, yes. But they have both bungled so badly because they refuse to set aside their political projects and personal vanities to deal with a medical and biological crisis. Australia is so far responding successfully to the problem because its state and federal leaders generally have set politics and personal rivalry aside to deal squarely with a common threat to the national interest. Xi and Trump saw a virus as a threat to their personal and political status. That's why they tried to hide it, diminish it, refuse to take responsibility for mishandling it. The virus is no respecter of vanity. But it's all these insecure little "strongmen" had to offer. Neither emerges with any honour. As the two superpowers intensify their rivalry, where does that leave Australia? It would be a fatal error to treat this is a matter of moral equivalence. So what if Xi and Trump are as bad as each other? Australia can't treat this as an interesting intellectual exercise. This is not about the relativities of morality but the absolute of the national interest. Which choices will best advance our security, sovereignty and wellbeing? For Australia, the defining difference between the conduct of the superpowers is that Beijing wants to control other countries, including ours. Washington wants us as its ally. They are both self-interested great powers. It happens that Australia's interests are better served by an alliance with one rather than yielding to the other. For all the many failings of the current US President, the Australian alliance with the US remains a national asset. We have only one alliance. It would be reckless to discard it. It would also be naive to put full trust in it. In a more intense effort than Australia has ever had to make, we need to build deeper and stronger relations with all the nations that share our interests. Including our interest in preserving our sovereignty from Beijing's relentless control impulses. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Doughnut maker Eddie Scalzo makes the best of the pandemic situation at the boroughs Country Donuts. Thats why he and his crews at the two Eltingville coffee and doughnut shops have come up with the face-masked Covid Donut" in various shades and flavors. Yummy Country Donuts with a light take on the COVID-19 lifeEdwin Scalzo We have been exclusive to these donuts, said Eddie, who claims to be the first baker to produce this lighthearted approach to quarantine life and the current world situation. The business also spawned morale boosters and donut kits" while sending donations around the borough and diving in to community work. - Country Donuts delivered to first responders. Edwin Scalzo Said Country Donut colleague Kelly McKenna, Kids are loving the at-home donut kits, being able to decorate with their favorite toppings. Weve created our Covid Donut in attempts to make light of these times. She said the two shops now sport rainbows on their windows to project an upbeat, positive message to customers. To keep up morale Country Donuts delivered their specialities to first responders in the borough. Edwin Scalzo Weve been giving customers immune booster shots to support their immune system! said McKenna. Country Donuts has remained open during the whole coronavirus crisis. It installed sneeze guards in the store to protect the staff who stays buttoned up with masks and gloves. The new normal during the pandemic at the Country Donuts of Staten IslandEdwin Scalzo Store hours for both locations are 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. (CountryDonuts.com). The doughnut kits can be ordered by calling 718-356-0884. Food and coffee orders for both stores can be placed online at http://countrydonutsandmore.com/menu/. Phone orders can be given directly to store associates at 718-346-0884 for the Amboy road location or 718-967-7111 for the Richmond Ave location. In other eating news, Chinese restaurants Happy Family and Mu Shu are back on the Staten Island scene. Fresh today in the noodle and sushi department is Jac Mao restaurant in Dongan Hills. Hell be open from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily going forward. Tomorrow Bella Famiglias Mike Fiorito of West Brighton will be back in his butcher shop on Tuesday, April 21. Pastosa in Eltingville (Pastosa via Facebook) is also back in action -- with major modifications -- starting today. Alas, the store will be closed for the traditional, walk-in shopping until the distance restrictions are lifted. But good news -- the store starts next-day, curb-side pickup ordering. Shopkeeper Danny DeRosa instructs patrons to text 718-356-4600 and orders will be confirmed and processed for the following day. Portobello Cafe in Great Kills (PortobelloCafeSI.com) carries on with its two-for-one specials in the new pickup-only format. Some items from a list of about two dozen selections in the discount program include Da Best Chicken Parmigiana," Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo and Apple Cider Infused Pork Osso Bucco. Note the cash versus credit card pricing listed on menus. Meals can be delivered or picked up curbside. The crew is happy to present alcoholic beverages -- martini, wine or sangria -- for purchase with any food item. And a little bit of pizza history to introduce: Have you ever noticed the similarities of style on certain pies? For instance the way Jimmy Max of Westerleigh does its pizaa with sauce-on-cheese is like that of Deninos in Port Richmond. Yes, they are two very distinct products but that application of toppings is very North Shore Staten Island. Jimmy Max owner explains a little of the connection in his blog post with a picture of his grandfather, John Denino, on the steps of the former Dongan Diner. The picture evokes nice memories of he and his grandmother, Mary Denino, who helped James open Jimmy Max some 30 years ago. Says James in his post, [Forty-five] years after this picture was taken he and Gram (aka Mary Denino nee Gengo) helped me open Jimmy Max with not only family recipes and labor, but with a $50,000 home equity loan. In 1989 that was probably more than one third of the value of their home, 103 Hooker Place. The Jimmy Max tradition continues today with expanded delivery to about three miles from the restaurant. Since were on the subject of history heres a fun one from the mail bag with which long-time Staten Islanders might be able to help. An aerial view with Al Deppe's restaurant taken in 1965. Do you see where "King of Pizza" might have lived? (Barry G. Schwartz)Staten Island Advance All the way from Wisconsin, Francis J. Francosky wonders about a small pizza place across from Al Deppes called King of Pizza. He writes, When I was a little boy in the 1950s I lived on Waterbury Avenue on Staten Island with my parents, sister and maternal grandmother. He enjoyed going to the pizzeria with his family. He explained, I remember that I really loved the pizza there and even though I am now 67 years old I will never forget how good the pizza was there. If you have any further information about that place, I would love to hear about it. Unfortunately this tidbit is not in our archives. Anyone have any further information? If so, hit me up here at silvestri@siadvance.com. On a personal note, I spoke with my grandmother on Sunday. One of the nice nurses at her assisted living facility allowed us to FaceTime, a surreal way for a 101-year old to communicate. It reminded me of times as a kid at her house on East 4th Street in Brooklyn. She and her sister would talk and giggle together for so long on the phone that my grandfather installed a direct line to my aunts house. Funny thing is they lived only two doors from each other. Keep in touch. On the last visit with Grandma in later February 2020, before a quarantine went into effect: Yours truly with Lillian, 101. Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com. Staten Island Food and Restaurants in the Coronavirus Crisis: Staying strong **** FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE IN NEW YORK ***** Sunday at the bagel store in the pandemic | Pamelas Food Service Diary In midst of pandemic Gerardis reopens, Greenmarkets soon include Snugs produce Celebrating milestones in a pandemic | Pamelas Food Service Diary Adapt and streamline: How S.I. food businesses keep evolving | Pamelas Food Service Diary Carolyn Benfante, salad maker of Dicks Delicatessen fame, dies. She was 80. The future of food and restaurants after the coronavirus mess | Pamelas Food Service Diary Open restaurants on Staten Island as of April 10, 2020 News from Kills Boro Brewing Co. in Tompkinsville How markets and restaurants are punching back against coronavirus | Pamelas food service diary Passover in the COVID-19 crisis: A virtual Seder with a special prayer from a Staten Island rabbi Kings Arms Diner offers pickup and delivery during coronavirus outbreak | Yes, Theyre Open Pamelas Food Service Diary: Wednesday, April 8, 2020. Staten Island, NY. Novellis cancels the mozzarella bunny for Easter 2020 Coronavirus and kids: The ice cream truck still cometh . . . but is it welcome? Toilet paper apocalypse cakes and doughnut kits: Custom bakers stay busy during pandemic Pastosa Ravioli in Eltingville to close April 13 Ordering Chinese food on Staten Island? Little luck in this pandemic Easter 2020: Grocery stores hours on Staten Island Pamelas Food Service Diary: Sunday, April 5, 2020. Staten Island, NY. Pamelas Food Service Diary: Saturday, April 4, 2020. Staten Island, NY. Pamelas Food Service Diary: Friday, April 3, 2020. Staten Island, NY. Florencio Almazo Moran, 65, New Dorp bakery worker claimed by COVID-19, a one-man army Andreas Koutsoudakis, beloved Tribeca restaurateur lost to coronavirus, is family of Andrews Diner owners Anthony Fauci has roots in a Staten Island restaurant ShopRite: New store hours in coronavirus crisis starting April 1 Some good news: Owner of Jimmy Max receives Outstanding Community Service Award Pamelas Food Service Diary: Sunday, March 29, 2020. Staten Island, NY. Pamelas Food Service Diary: Saturday, March 28, 2020. Staten Island, NY. What Stop & Shop looked like in Port Richmond on Saturday, March 28, 2020 Coronavirus crisis on the restaurant business: Where has all the Chinese food and sushi gone? Pamelas Food Service Diary, Friday March 27, 2020 Cake Chef bakes for a world without parties Partys cancelled: Does this mean the deposit is, too? Health Department suspends restaurant inspections, and thats A-OK with a lot of restaurateurs [April 21, 2020] Smart Home Market Poised to Grow Rapidly by 2025, Led by Wi-Fi Connectivity Adoption BOSTON, TORONTO, LONDON, NEW DELHI, BEIJING, TAIPEI and SEOUL, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Counterpoint's latest Smart Home research, the global smart home market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 21% from 2019-2025. The strongest growth areas include white goods, smart lighting, and home automation segments as more household items become connected to a smart home ecosystem. Sharing the research findings, Research Analyst Maurice Klaehne, noted, "The current smart home market is dominated by three categories, smart TV, security cameras, and smart speakers. Each of these markets has different drivers which have made them successful. Smart TVs have seen great adoption in North America and China as streaming media options such as Netflix or iQiyi have grow in popularity over the years. Connected TVs are also challenging conventional cable viewing habits and making people 'cut the cord', and, COVID-19 pandemic will further accelerate this trend. "For security cameras, price reductions in connected cameras have enabled more people to purchase cameras for their home to offer additional layers of security and peace of mind. Lastly, smart speakers have been one of the fastest-growing markets to date due to the low barrier to entry for consumers satisfying multiple use-cases from streaming music to personal voice assistant services such as Alexa, Google Assistant, AliGenie, Siri, and others. Connected white goods and smart lighting systems will be the fastest-growing segments and see strong adoption to drive convenience, help manage energy consumption and assist in product maintenance and care." Commenting on the key drivers, Senior Analyst Hanish Bhatia, added, "Wi-Fi is expected to be the major driver to enable smart capabilities and will contribute to three-fourths of all connectivity types in smart home devices in 2025. More than six billion Wi-Fi capable smart home devices will be shipped globally between 2020-2025. China and North America will contribute close to half of all those shipments. Further, the increased speed and load capacity capabilities of the latest Wi-Fi 6 version will be key to keep dozens of content and performance-centric devices seamlessly connected in a smart home and thus feature in a majority of shipments by 2023." The comprehensive research on Smart Home is available at Counterpoint's Research Portal For any queries reach us at: Email Twitter LinkedIn View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smart-home-market-poised-to-grow-rapidly-by-2025-led-by-wi-fi-connectivity-adoption-301044215.html SOURCE Counterpoint Research [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Hundreds of Amazon employees are expected to strike from Tuesday to protest conditions they say are unsafe and demand better protection in the workplace against the coronavirus pandemic. This is "the biggest mass action by workers yet, as frustrations mount around the company's failure to protect workers and public health in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic," said the Athena coalition, a group of workers' rights organizations, in a statement released Monday. The protest by more than 300 warehouse workers comes three days before an online strike by Amazon coders and engineers. The online retail giant has been accused since the start of the pandemic of failing to sufficiently protect its employees, as well as of firing employees in the US who led protest movements. "For weeks, Amazon workers... have sounded the alarm over unsafe conditions at facilities," Athena's statement said, pointing to 130 warehouses where workers have contracted COVID-19, some "with more than 30 confirmed cases." "We have to make an impossible choice every day: go to a workplace that's not safe or risk losing a paycheck in the middle of a global recession," Jaylen Camp, an Amazon employee at a fulfillment center in Romulus, Michigan, said in the statement. "Rather than take real steps to protect our health, Amazon would rather stall, lie and fire the people who speak up. We will not be intimidated. Our health and everyone's health is too important," he said. Two weeks ago, Amazon announced it was distributing millions of masks to employees and implementing temperature checks at all of its US and European sites. But, according to Athena, the application of these measures has been "questioned repeatedly by workers on the ground." Warehouses and logistics centers are under heavy strain because of restrictions intended to slow the spread of the virus. The Seattle-based retailer has seen unprecedented demand for its deliveries driven by stay-at-home orders. Its share price has skyrocketed since the start of the crisis and analysts expect the firm to report bumper profits at the end of this month. The company has said it will recruit 175,000 new employees in the US to help with runaway demand. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday cautioned opponents that the Palghar incident should not be used to settle old political scores. He said it should not have happened and called it an isolated incident. The responsibility to remain united in the time of crisis is on each and everyone of us, he added. Pawar was referring to the incident on April 16 night when three men from Kandivali in neighbouring Mumbai were travelling to Surat in a car. The vehicle was stopped and the trio was beaten to death with sticks by a mob on suspicion that they were thieves. It later emerged that the sadhus 70-year-old Swami Kalpvriksha Giri and 35-year-old Sushil Giri belonged to Varanasi-based Juna Akhara and were on their way to Gujarat to attend the last rites of their guru Mahant Shri Ram Giri. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has announced a high level probe by the Criminal Investigation Department. The incident has nothing to do with the novel coronavirus. Whatever happened was unfortunate and should not have happened. It is condemnable. It happened due to misunderstanding. The state government and police acted swiftly. Over 100 people found involved in the primary investigation were arrested and put behind bars the very next day, said the NCP chief in a video interaction with people. But a picture is being created that Maharashtras law and order is in a bad shape and resignations are being demanded over an isolated incident. I personally feel political struggle and whatever games have to be settled can be done at a proper time, but this is not the right time for all this, the veteran leader said without naming anyone. He said that all need to be united in the fight against this pandemic. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday asked New Development Bank (NDB) to enhance the emergency facility to USD 10 billion to combat Covid-19 pandemic. Sitharaman participated in the 5th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of NDB through video-conference. On the discussion of Covid-19, FM appreciated NDBs effort on fast-tracking of financial assistance of about USD 5 billion to BRICS countries including Emergency Assistance of USD 1 billion India to combat Covid-19 pandemic. She also suggested that, assistance under this Facility to be enhanced to USD 10 Billion, an official statement quoted Sitharaman. During the discussion, she outlined various measures taken in India to respond to the Covid-19, includes, allocation of USD 2 Billion ( 15,000 crore) by the Indian government. She also strongly encouraged NDB to take appropriate actions to join the G-20 forum along with other Multilateral Development Bank (MDBs)/International Financial Institutions (IFIs). The minister urged NDB to follow innovative practices in supporting the BRICS nations for achieving their Sustainable Development Goals. The NDB was established by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in 2014. The purpose of the Bank is to mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging market economies and developing countries to complement the existing efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and development. NDB has so far approved 14 projects of India for an amount of USD 4,183 million. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) Wall Street and much of the Financial District stands empty as the coronavirus keeps financial markets and businesses mostly closed on April 20, 2020 in New York City. Here's a test: What do workplace safety, labor relations, executive compensation, and community development have in common? They are all measures used in ESG rating systems that guide socially responsible investing with a focus on environmental, social and governance criteria. While the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to control it decimate much of the U.S. and world economies, the varied acts of charity, compassion, and creative generosity may resonate with investors increasingly drawn to socially responsible investing now and for years after this crisis passes. U.S. corporations are raising the bar for "good citizenship" as manufacturers deploy excess capacity for ventilators, masks, and face shields, tech giants offer software for healthcare monitoring and data analysis and CEO's cut their salaries. We learned that Proctor & Gamble has shifted production at Gillette intended for razors, rendered less essential by remote working, to face shields that are being donated to local hospitals. LVMH has traded the assembly lines of expensive perfume for hand sanitizer that it donates to the French government. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square gave $1 billion to the effort, Ford and GM are making ventilators, Hewlett Packard is making 3D hand-free door openers, and hundreds of other tech, industrial, consumer and industrial firms are innovatively contributing to the COVID-19 battle. These efforts should not be overlooked by the many organizations that measure ESG criteria which are used by mutual, index, and exchange-traded funds, as well as institutional and individual investors. The most recent data suggest that over $30 trillion, or more than one third, of global equity assets use some form of ESG screening in their investing practices. This growth has continued despite a lack of standardization in metrics, with wide variations in both the weights assigned to different criteria and the scoring for the same companies. MSCI, one of the largest rating players in the ESG field, uses a system that applies a complex matrix across hundreds of sub-industry groups, based on how each company manages specific weighted risks and opportunities within sleeves of the broad environmental, social, and governance pillars. In considering how a firm's response to the COVID-19 crisis might affect its ESG score, the agencies will hopefully assess the key factors of "labor management" and "health and safety" under the social category, as well as, "business ethics" and "financial system instability" under governance. ESG rankings take into account both negative or harmful actions as well as proactive solutions and positive actions to move scores up and down. For example, Hilton, upon suddenly finding itself with no customers for its rooms, helped place furloughed workers at employers such as Amazon who are hiring during this period. The hotel company should receive positive recognition for its labor practices within the ESG rating system. Retail chains that are labelled "essential" can be graded on choices to keep their workplaces safe. How carefully corporations manage health risks, one of the factors in ESG metrics, is a current focus of attention that will remain in the spotlight post-pandemic. Under the governance umbrella, both business ethics and financial system instability can falter or rise during a crisis. Grocery chain Kroger sent all store employees a bonus check of $300 for full time and $150 for part time and gave them a fourteen-day additional sick leave with pay should they contract COVID-19. While not a huge amount of money nor many more added sick days, it was symbolic as a gesture of good will. Additionally, Rob Katz, the CEO of Vail Resorts, donated $2.5 million to support employees and communities around the company's ski resorts. Financial fragility threatens a firm's ability to withstand a crisis and renders it difficult to maintain sometimes costly programs considered desirable to socially responsible investing. These include day care facilities on premises, energy and environmental sustainability, and solid health care benefits. Corporate responses to the coronavirus pandemic will trigger revisions to ESG ratings which will be meaningful to managements and shareholders, given the impact on trading of assets using ESG among its investment criterion. Sustainalytics, another ESG rating agency, believes that they may soon include more metrics about "preparedness" for unforeseen disruptions. They urge companies to fully describe their crisis management policies and for shareholders to study resilience of their holdings as a regular component of the investing process. Cynicism aside, I have no doubt that P&G's decision to pivot underutilized capacity at a razor blade plant toward face shields arose from an awareness of its potential contribution and desire to give during a crisis. However, in a world increasingly looking at how businesses treat and value their communities, environment, and employees, these good deeds, rather than being overlooked or even backfiring, are likely to be rewarded, at the very least, through a higher ESG score. Karen Firestone is chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Aureus Asset Management, an investment firm dedicated to providing contemporary asset management to families, individuals and institutions. By Dominic Evans and Orhan Coskun ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's plans to switch on its new Russian missile defence systems have been delayed by the coronavirus outbreak but it does not intend to reverse a decision which has raised the threat of U.S. sanctions, a senior Turkish official said By Dominic Evans and Orhan Coskun ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's plans to switch on its new Russian missile defence systems have been delayed by the coronavirus outbreak but it does not intend to reverse a decision which has raised the threat of U.S. sanctions, a senior Turkish official said. Tensions between NATO allies Turkey and the United States over the S-400 air defence systems had looked set to reach a showdown in April, when President Tayyip Erdogan and the government had said they would be activated. But the coronavirus outbreak has focused Turkish efforts on combatting the pandemic and ring-fencing an economy which only just pulled out of recession last year. In recent weeks Erdogan and his government have not raised the S-400 issue publicly. "There is no going back on the decision to activate the S-400s (but) due to COVID-19 ... the plan for them to be ready in April will be delayed," the senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. It could be several months before the Russian system is activated, the official said, adding some technical issues remained to be overcome. The Turkish defence ministry declined to comment. The United States says the S-400s, which Moscow delivered to Turkey last July, are incompatible with NATO defences and would jeopardise U.S. F35 stealth jets which Turkey planned to buy. Their acquisition by Turkey means Ankara could face U.S. sanctions under legislation designed to punish countries which buy defence equipment from Russia. Turkey's presidency made no mention of the S-400s in a statement following a call between Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday, which it said focused on cooperation to protect health and the economy from coronavirus. NEW CRISIS Deploying the S-400s in the same airspace as U.S. planes would be a "massive problem" which would create a new crisis between the two countries, Richard Outzen, a senior adviser at the State Department, told an online discussion last week. Turkey's air force includes U.S. F16 jets and it had been due to take delivery of the new F35s before Washington cut it from the F35 programme in response to the S-400s contract. The issue "is muffled right now because of COVID, but the thinking in Washington prior to COVID dominating the discourse was that the Turks were probably going to activate the system in April and Congress was going to move to impose sanctions," Outzen said. "I don't think any of that has gone away". The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment. The delay in deploying the S-400s gives Ankara more time to consider its next move, analysts say. A recent alignment of U.S.-Turkish interests in Syria and the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis could also have a bearing. "The economic shock is such that Turkey may indeed down the line seek some kind of external financing," said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who heads the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies think tank. "If and when that time comes there will be more pressure on the Turkish government to permanently sideline the S-400s." A Turkish military operation in February against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's Russian-backed forces in the rebel-held Idlib region also put Ankara on the same side as Washington, and against Moscow. That was in marked contrast to Turkey's festering dispute with the United States over U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria, seen as a top security threat by Ankara. "In Washington, people saw that Turkey is not lost entirely, that there is a chance it could distance itself from Russia and get closer to the United States," said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the German Marshall Fund research group in Ankara. (Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Nick Tattersall) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The latest: Top health experts caution against reopening society before testing capacity expands As several states make plans for reopening their communities during the coronavirus pandemic, a group of top public health experts cautioned Tuesday against reopening society before testing capacity expands significantly. Different parts of the country are in different stages of the epidemic, with New York well into the first wave and other places just beginning to see the impact of the disease. This matters, said Dr. Caroline Buckee, Harvard associate professor of epidemiology and the associate director of the universitys Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. Knowing the location of the virus is key to relaxing social distancing and returning to normalcy, Buckee told a symposium sponsored by Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the New England Journal of Medicine. The lack of testing capacity is a big problem because the disease has a very broad clinical spread, Buckee said. So even when people show up at the hospital and get tested there are many more cases in the community, including mild and asymptomatic cases. And those are the people that are spreading the disease, she said. Its important to learn whether people who have recovered can still spread the disease, noted NEJM editor Dr. Eric Rubin. What we really need is some epidemiological data to tell us, 'Are people who have left the hospital going on to transmit the disease?' Rubin said. Thats kind of the shoe leather epidemiology, contact tracing, following what happens to the context of those patients, which takes some manpower. Buckee added that without knowing the answers, the nation could reopen too soon and risk a deadly second pandemic wave. Right now, we dont have good estimates for where we are on the epidemic curve in different places. So, discussions of relaxation of physical distance, which do seem to be having an effect, curbing some of the worst impacts of the outbreak, need to be based on the capacity to test people so we know where we are, she said. The USNS Comfort in New York City is no longer accepting new patients The USNS Comfort is no longer accepting new patients, Northwell Health spokesperson Terry Lynam told CNN, noting the number of patients on the ship have been going down daily. Earlier today, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he told President Trump that he was happy to have the USNS Comfort in his state, but that it was no longer needed. We dont really need the Comfort anymore So if they need to deploy that somewhere else, they should take it, Cuomo said in an interview. The USNS Comfort has treated a total of 178 patients since it arrived in the New York harbor on March 30. Fifty-six patients remain on the ship, according to Lynam. The patients still on the Comfort are a mix of both intensive care and "med-surge" patients, Lynam said, and are both COVID-related and non-COVID related. The intensive care patients are more severely ill, but in terms of the others, "Those who are medically ready to be discharged and can recuperate safely at home, that will be done when appropriate," Lynam said. Trump says he'll help New York's Cuomo boost virus testing Setting aside their differences for at least an afternoon, President Donald Trump and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed in an Oval Office meeting Tuesday to work to double coronavirus testing in the hard-hit state over the next few weeks. We will work together to help them secure additional tests, Trump said. And we hope that this model will work with the other states as well. Flicking at the hot-and-cold relationship between the two politicians, Cuomo said of their meeting: It ends the whole back-and-forth and the finger-pointing in a very fair and smart way. The meeting marked a sharp shift in rhetoric from just days earlier, when Trump had called on Cuomo to work harder to secure testing material for his state and the Democratic governor had pushed back that the president should turn off his television and get back to work. Cuomo, who described the meeting as "effective and functional, said he told Trump a rapid increase in testing was a crucial benchmark that his state and others need before they can safely reopen their economies and help communities return to a semblance of normalcy. Pelosi says latest relief package is "very positive" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Democrats consider the final version of the latest coronavirus relief package, finalized Tuesday after contentious negotiations, very positive and a good use of the time that it took. "What remains though, is for us to go forward with another bill, she said in an interview on PBS NewsHour. She touted the bills funding for testing efforts and the requirement that the administration will have to submit reports to Congress on a national testing strategy and the impact of the coronavirus on different demographics. She also said Republicans have given Democrats assurances all along that they would be willing to pass more funding for state and local governments in a subsequent bill rather than this one, which passed the Senate Tuesday afternoon and will be considered in the House Thursday. We could relent on some of that because we know this next bill is going to happen very soon, Pelosi said of funding for state and local governments. Pelosi also said Congress will need to pass even more money for testing in a future bill. "You cannot solve a problem unless you can define it, and we cannot define it until we test, test, test and then do the contact tracing, and of course the isolation to stop the spread of it, Pelosi said. She added that President Trumps denial and delay has been deadly, saying he has been engaged in a series of misrepresentations to the American people. Hes a total failure when it comes to testing, Pelosi said. A few states are moving toward reopening their economies amid the coronavirus pandemic, but some local leaders don't want their residents to go along even as idled workers weigh the benefits of getting paychecks again. In Georgia and South Carolina, Republican governors announced they'll ease restrictions this week despite neither meeting White House recommendations of a two-week downward trend in cases before lifting measures in phases. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, saying workers and business owners need relief, said businesses including bowling alleys, body art studios and hair and nail salons can reopen this week. Theaters and restaurants can reopen next week with social distancing restrictions. Local governments can't countermand the decision but some mayors are asking their residents to stay home. "I'm exhorting everybody in this community to continue to shelter in place," Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, Mayor Kelly Girtz told CNN Tuesday, pointing toward the federal guidelines. "Do not reopen at this point. It's not the time to do it. "It's like telling your quarterback, 'We don't have a helmet for you, we don't have pads, but get out there on the field and just try not to get sacked,'" said Girtz, who's identified as a Democrat, though Georgia municipal races tend to be nonpartisan. In the Georgia city of Albany, with a relatively high number of cases, Mayor Bo Dorough wants the state to give him an exception so he can keep nonessential businesses closed to inhibit the virus' spread. "(Our hospitals) remain at capacity," Dorough said Tuesday. But millions across the country are newly unemployed and many businesses are hurting even some medical centers. Many rural hospitals, for instance, are facing financial ruin and have furloughed tens of thousands of employees as they've been forced to cancel elective procedures. In South Carolina, GOP Gov. Henry McMaster allowed some businesses such as book stores, flower shops and flea markets to reopen Monday afternoon, even as the state's leading epidemiologist announced the state had not seen a two-week downward trajectory. Josh Outlaw-Hughes, a furniture salesman in West Columbia, South Carolina, told CNN that deciding whether to work will be hard. He doesn't want to infect himself or others, and so he would rather stay home until health professionals assure him it's safe, he said. "But at the same time, I'm running really low on money. So, I'm between a rock and a hard place of: Do I go back to work to try and make money and risk getting sick? Or do I stay home and go broke?" Outlaw-Hughes said Monday. Several cases tied to Wisconsin's in-person election, officials say Wisconsin's Department of Health Services said that they now have at least seven cases of COVID-19 tied to the state's in-person election on April 7, a spokesperson confirmed to CNN. "We are confirming seven cases as of yesterday," the department's spokesperson Shawn Benjamin said in a statement. In an effort to investigate the impact of the election on the state's coronavirus cases, the department added election activity to its list of investigation questions in the disease registry, the statement said. "Please note that we only have 30% of the data back from new cases as of April 7 and on," Benjamin said. "We hope to have these fields complete by Friday and will provide a more complete report then." "While we continue to monitor cases of COVID-19 linked to election activity, we know that gatherings such as are detrimental to the efforts to slow the spread of this pandemic," Dr. Ben Weston, the medical director for the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management, said in the statement. Which states are moving toward reopening Deaths in the U.S. nearly doubled in the past week as more governors rolled out plans to reopen their economies while other state leaders warned their case numbers are still on the rise. Some of the surge in the deaths came as some states began to report probable COVID-19 deaths without supporting lab tests. It's not always clear when those deaths happened, so it is difficult to compare the totals day by day. In South Carolina, stores will open at 20% capacity, or 5 people per 1,000 square feet. The state has reported 4,439 infections and 124 deaths. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, this week announced the vast majority of his state's businesses will be allowed to reopen on May 1. Some businesses may be able to reopen as soon as Monday, the governor said. At least 7,238 residents have contracted the virus and 152 have died. In Alaska with at least 321 cases and 9 deaths GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced he intends to relax some of the state's restrictions this week, allowing some businesses such as restaurants and hair salons to reopen. "We're going to try to do everything we can to move Alaska back and get Alaskans back to work," Dunleavy said. Dunleavy said restaurants would be required to allow only members of an immediate family to sit together and may have to take reservations to ensure that social distancing can be maintained. In Georgia, Kemp said Monday his state was "on track" to meeting the federal government's guidance to have a 14-day continuous decline in coronavirus cases before reopening. Last week, more than 5,700 new coronavirus cases were reported in Georgia, a rate that was down about 6% from the week before, but still higher than the week that ended April 5, when fewer than 3,800 new cases were reported. The numbers are based on data collected by CNN and Johns Hopkins University. Georgia saw day-over-day increases in reported cases Saturday through Monday, but each day's total was below Friday's, according to JHU. New case numbers can be affected by changes in the number of tests conducted and the time it takes for testing data to be reported to authorities. Kemp acknowledged case rates may rise in his state but argued Georgia is prepared. "We're a lot better prepared for that now than we were over a month ago," he said Monday. "We have the hospital bed capacity. ... The ramped up testing we're doing, the contact tracing that we're going to be doing ... I believe we'll be able to stay on top of it. " "Our small business owners are seeing sales plummet, and ... contract workers are struggling to put food on the table," he said. In Florida, where beaches in Jacksonville reopened last week, the mayor in Miami-Dade County said that wasn't happening in his jurisdiction any time soon. Mayor Carlos Gimenez, a Republican, said reopening the county will be determined by medical experts and when that time comes, it will require social distancing, face coverings and groups of no more than 10 people with those regulations enforced by police. Meanwhile, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a Democrat whose stay-at-home order expires May 8, said cases are still on the incline and before lifting restrictions, she said the state would have to hit some milestones, including a continuous decrease in cases and an ability to support vulnerable populations. New York City cancels June events In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has offered glimmers of hope for residents after announcing the state had likely moved past its peak but is still far from out of the woods yet. "The three-day average of hospitalizations is going down, the number of intubations is going down again. That is great news," he said Monday, but added emergency rooms were still at or over capacity in the state. "We have to watch this until we have a medical treatment or we have a vaccine. That's when this is really over." Both Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, and Cuomo have appealed to the federal government for financial support. If the federal government doesn't provide funding, the state's financial plan this week will forecast a 20% cut to schools, local governments and hospitals, Cuomo said. De Blasio said the city will have spent $3.5 billion in response to the crisis by the end of the year. "You Mr. President are not saying 'I see your burden, I see the fight your waging, let me offer a helping hand, let me save the day by taking that burden off of New York City,'" the mayor said. CNN and the Associated Press contributed to this story. Hi there. Merging your two topics as it makes sense to keep things together so some of us who reply here don't go madAs to your question about EMBA programs, Executive programs are not most famous for their placement stats or really get a lot of publicity. Many EMBA students are sponsored and won't be looking for jobs. Historically EMBA programs were designed for seasoned professionals who are established in their industries and not looking to switch from CPG into consulting or vice versa, though there are many instances of change in the recent years (it is just not something EMBA program per se facilitates or promises to deliver). The strongest network EMBA students build is within their cohort/class.At the same time, you can recruit with the FT students but it is usually logistically hard to attend the vents, be on campus, do coffee chats, etc (it has been at least till the current coronavirus environment... things may get simpler)I would say that if you are trying to start your own company, you want to minimize the debt generally. Obviously you can raise $$ and get other folks funds but it is getting tricker with the current economy and I would recommend taking the path that would offer you shelter during the turbulent times of a startup. There are probably many opportunities in the current times in education. Everyone is learning remotely but you obviously may not be ready and may miss out on that wave. Thus the next best option is either EMBA or a scholarship from a program. If you feel you can keep your current job and achieve your goals with an EMBA, sure, why not. it is less transformative and focuses on the current job applications and probably pushes you less but you will get a great network of execs - is that the right network for you? Not sure but if you are able to continue collecting a high salary and do your job, I feel EMBA makes a lot of sense... if you need it really (that's the part i am not very clear on)_________________ Electric Ireland & Pieta are launching an urgent appeal to ensure that Pietas essential frontline services can remain in operation and continue to be delivered free of charge. On May 9th, it was expected that over 250,000 people would have come together on every continent to walk together highlighting the fight against suicide and self-harm. Darkness Into Light is the main annual source of funding for Pieta. As the walks cannot now take place as planned in May, a Darkness Into Light Sunrise appeal is taking place on that day. This special appeal encourages people to donate what they can to this vital charity and to come together while remaining apart by getting up at 5:30am to watch the sunrise and to show community and solidarity with those impacted by suicide. Pieta are also asking people to spread the message and offer hope by sharing their sunrise moment using the #DIL2020. Darkness into Light has been postponed but Pieta needs support more than ever before. 80% of Pieta funds come from the general public and these funds have been greatly impacted due to social distancing restrictions. The need for Pieta's lifesaving services is greater than ever as Covid-19 impacts not only on the nation's physical health but its mental health too. As people find themselves worried, anxious, under strain, financially impacted and in many cases isolated and alone, the effect on mental health is significant. Recent research has also confirmed that 1 in 5 Irish people are experiencing clinically defined levels of depression. Even before Covid-19 the publics need for Pietas services was on the increase, with calls to Pietas helpline up 49% year on year while text messages to Pieta had increased by 46%. Elaine Austin, CEO of Pieta said: As a result of Covid-19, our helpline has seen an increase in calls from people all over the country who are in crisis right now with many others presenting with high anxiety. Our bereavement counsellors are supporting people who have lost loved ones and who are struggling to come to terms with their loss in a world where friends and family cannot grieve together as a result of the lockdown. "Funding from the public has never been more vital to keep Pietas door open. The Darkness Into Light walk will hopefully take place later in the year, but we cant wait - were urgently asking people to donate, whatever they can. This will help fund our services, ensuring we can continue to support those in their darkest hours and to keep delivering our one-to-one counselling. "While we are devastated that we wont come together physically on May 9th, we will share a special moment of togetherness by getting up at 5:30am and watching the sunrise. We would also appreciate if people can wear yellow or a previous years t-shirt that day to show support for those impacted by suicide. Donate at www.darknessintolight.ie Environmentalists want Gov. Phil Murphy to hit the pause button on proposed projects ranging from state toll road widenings to large housing developments until the coronavirus pandemic has passed so residents have an opportunity to voice their opinions. Members of seven state environmental groups, under the banner of Empower NJ, sent Murphy a letter asking him to strengthen executive orders 122 and 127, which they said have loopholes big enough to drive a truck through. While residents are occupied with the effect of coronavirus on their health, economy and jobs, projects are continuing to move ahead, officials said. The effects of allowing projects to continue without full and fair public participation has the effect of silencing people, said Tracy Carluccio, Delaware Riverkeeper Network We want public participation. These plans have big implications on peoples lives. When you read through them, they give state agencies extremely broad powers, Tittel said The concern is it can do some good or a lot of bad. The publics voice gets muted. Some provisions cover certain decision making 90 days after the state of emergency ends without providing extra time for the public to comment, said Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club chapter executive director. New York State has extending public comment periods for 60 days, which he suggested New Jersey should do on the state and local levels. Were referring to 20 projects moving forward on the state and local level, said Doug OMalley, Environment NJ executive director. Most people arent focused on getting on a zoom meeting to see their local planning board and council hearing. The public is distracted (by COVID-19) and some dont have equal access. Examples were given from a Record of Decision announced at 6 p.m., on a Friday night on NJ Transits Transitgrid project to build a natural gas fired power plant in Kearny to power trains in an emergency, without an additional public comment period, said Matt Smith of New Jersey Food & Water Action. While objectors have lobbied NJ Transit to build the plant using renewable energy sources and solar power, those alternatives were not considered in the final environmental impact statement, he said. That statement will guide design of the plant. Environmentalists also questioned why the Southern Reliability Link (SRL) natural gas pipeline in Burlington, Monmouth and Ocean Counties is considered an essential project, when it parallels another pipeline. The government is hiding behind the pandemic, Tittel said, citing the recent New Jersey Turnpike Authority toll hearings held after the governor placed limits on the size of gatherings to reduce exposure to COVID-19. The public has a right to know, even during a pandemic. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage Turnpike Authority officials said more people have commented on past toll increases by email than in person. South Jersey Transportation Authority officials used a toll-free number for the public to comment during recent hearings on a proposed Atlantic City Expressway toll increase. But OMalley said it doesnt have the same impact on the decision makes as a room full of people. c he said. There is something different about being in front of people and speaking. Senior Citizens and low-income residents also may not have access to high speed internet or a fast enough computer to watch hearings and comment using apps such as Zoom. Parents may not be able to watch and comment because computers and internet bandwidth is being used by students for school, Tittel said. A spokeswoman for Murphy said Executive Order No. 122 allows utility projects to continue while maintaining those public health objectives. While Empower NJ raises important concerns regarding the extension of permit deadlines, Executive Order No. 127 narrowly extends various rule making and administrative deadlines required under the Administrative Procedures Act, said Alexandra Altman, a spokeswoman. Governor Murphys Administration is currently working on a number of actions related to the concerns raised by Empower NJ. Echoing Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccettis comments that capital construction plans proposed by the New Jersey Turnpike and South Jersey Transportation Authoritys will act as a post coronavirus stimulus, construction industry officials said progress needs to continue. Mark Longo, Director of Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative 825 issued the following statement in response to groups urging the Governor to reverse his own Executive Orders: Whether individuals are driving gas cars, electric cars, or riding on solar-powered buses, they all require safe roads and reliable bridges, Mark Longo, Director of Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative 825. Understanding that, we shouldnt reverse ourselves now in the middle of the crisis when we can continue to push forward on critical infrastructure projects that will have a real, meaningful effect on New Jerseys post-pandemic daily life. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. India: Fishermen & Migrant Workers Stranded In Gujarat Writes To PM April 21,2020 | Source: India Legal 5000 migrant workers/ fishermen who are stranded in state of Gujarat on the shore of Arabian Sea at Veral, Somnath have written a letter to Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, Home Minister,National Legal Service Authority, CM of Gujarat, CM of AP and Chief Justice of Gujarat. The Letter highlights that due to non- implementation of guidelines of Ministry of Home Affairs, migrant fishermen from State of Andhra Pradesh are facing pathetic conditions and are neglected by Gujarat Government officials. Fishermen have requested for providing quarantine, water facilities and transportation to their native places. The fishermen belonging to Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram and Vishakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh have been stranded for more than 20 days on the shore of Arabian sea as fishing activity has been stopped due to Covid-19. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs had issued following guidelines dated 29.3.2020 for poor and needy people including migrant labourers stranded due to lockdown:- i. State/ Union Territory Governments shall ensure adequate arrangements of temporary shelters and provisions of food etc. for the poor and needy people, including migrant labourers, stranded due to lockdown measures in their respective areas. ii. The Migrant people, who have moved out to reach their home states/home towns, must be kept in the nearest shelter by the respective State/Union Territory Government quarantine facilities after proper screening for a minimum period of 14 days as per standard health protocol. iii. All the employers, be it in the industry or in the shops and commercial establishments, shall make payments of wagers of their workers, at their work places, on the due date, without any deduction, for the period their establishments are under closure during the lockdown. Fishermen from Andhra Pradesh are not provided help by district authorities of Somnath District of Gujarat. Team of officials from Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh had visited the place and provided 5 KGs rice, one soap, one blanket, mask, half KG each of Onions, Dal, Potato. Except help from Andhra Pradesh government, no help came from Gujarat government because of which fishermen are living in pathetic conditions. Local administration is not allowing them to enter into villages due to Covid 19 Lockdown and they are living with minimum provisions given by boat owners. Fishermen are staying in small fishing boats under Hot Sun/Heat wave and no water, electricity is available for drinking, bathing and washing of cloths. They submitted that 3500 Migrant fishermen from Maharashtra were taken back on sea route recently by the Maharashtra State government. They have requested for provision of quarantine, shelter, food, water as interim facilities and 7-8 Getty or 2-3 cargo ships for going back through sea route or buses/train to back through road/rail. There would be a very serious threat to lives of fishermen as per their letter because of lack of food, water and Hot Sun/Heat Wave. A Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting scheduled to take place in the Rwandan capital Kigali in June has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organisation said on Tuesday. A new date for the event, which takes place every two years, would be announced in due course, the body's London-based secretariat said in a statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Health Ministry of Ukraine will propose the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to prolong quarantine until May 12 with mitigation. "At the next meeting of the government, the Health Ministry will put up for consideration a draft order on the prolongation of quarantine until May 12," Health Minister Maksym Stepanov told a press briefing on Tuesday. "We are going to prolong it until May 12. This extension is connected with our level of disease incidence and danger posed by coronavirus," he said. Stepanov also noted that the Health Ministry will also propose certain mitigation in lockdown restrictions. "These might be, for example, strolls in parks, but these strolls must be clearly regulated with regard to number of people and personal protective equipment (PPE). Clear criteria will be stipulated in this order," he said. Stepanov also said that the ministry will propose the government to open museums and libraries for visitors also with clear quarantine restrictions, in particular the distance between the visitors, PPE and temperature screening. This article is part of the Free Speech Project , a collaboration between Future Tense and the Tech, Law, & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law that examines the ways technology is influencing how we think about speech. As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the world, so does disinformation (intentional deceit, at times peddled by governments themselves) and misinformation (the spread of falsehoods that may or may not be intentional) about its origins, reach, and potential cures. Meanwhile, multiple different regimes are citing fears about misinformation and fake news to suppress unflattering information about the handling of the disease. To learn more about how three giantsChina, Russia, and Brazilare both handling and perpetuating misinformation about COVID-19, Jennifer Daskal invited country experts to discuss the current state of affairs: Mia Shuang Li, a former Beijing-based journalist, who is now a research associated at Yale Law Schools Paul Tsai China Center; Justin Sherman, a fellow at the Atlantic Councils Cyber Statecraft Initiative, columnist at Wired, and close follower of developments in Russia; and Roberta Braga, an associate director at the Atlantic Councils Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center and an expert on Brazil. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jennifer Daskal: Welcome, Mia, Justin, and Roberta! An initial question for all of you: What kinds of disinformation is percolating in the countries you cover with respect to the pandemic? And what has been the government response? Mia Shuang Li: In China, the state is pushing a narrative on social mediausing both government accounts and sponsored nongovernment accountsthat authoritarianism is better at mobilizing all-society effort in a public health crisis, including citizens and private sector companies. This creates a rally around the flag effect, making the narrative seem a lot more supported and more like a widely accepted reality. At this point, most of the population is too traumatized by all that has occurred to question the official narrative. Advertisement Justin Sherman: The Russian government itself has been very actively spreading disinformation about the virus, both in Russia and around the world. As early as January, Russian state media were propagating all kinds of lies about the coronavirus, like saying it was made in the United States. Moscow has used these kinds of false statementspushed on television, on social media, and elsewherein an effort to sow divisiveness and confusion abroad and to undermine trust in credible news sources. Advertisement This is being coupled with Russian efforts to demand that social media companies and other media platforms remove information about the coronavirus that Moscow deems false, information that is being viewed by those physically residing within the country. Roberta Braga: In Brazils case, a lot of misleading information is coming from the top. Brazil is the largest, most populous country in Latin America, and the biggest economy in the region. Around 85 percent of Brazils population live in urban areas, with over 16 percent of the national population living in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro alone. Brazil also has over 13.6 million people living in favelas. Informal workers comprise a large part of the Brazilian population. In this context, where for many people staying home can mean they face hunger, the most misleading narrative has been that of health vs. economy. In his live addresses to the country, President Bolsonaro says that the virus should not do more harm to the economy, and by extension peoples livelihoods, than it does to peoples health. So, in an effort to emphasize the importance of keeping Brazilians employed and working, he has built a campaign against social distancing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A judicial order was required to stop a campaign he promoted using the hashtag #Brazilcannotstop. And as recently as April 10, Bolsonaro was taking to the streets in Brasilia in his public effort to push back against social isolation. This has had an effect. Recent statistics say only around 50 percent of people in Brazil are social isolating. While local governments have taken measures to protect health, when the president himself is questioning those measures, that leads to more and more people failing to comply. Recent reporting from Reuters show 49 percent of Sao Paulo residents were considered to be in social isolation as of April 8, compared to a weekday peak of 56 percent on March 30. Advertisement Advertisement Daskal: Mia, many reports suggest that the coronavirus situation in China was worse than is assertedbut that negative information about the persistence and spread of disease was suppressed by the Chinese government. Do you have a sense as to whether that is the case? Shuang Li: Chinas numbers are, the best I can tell, vastly, vastly undercounted inside Wuhan, and slightly undercounted outside. First, many died at home without ever getting a diagnosis. Those cases were not counted. No city in China tested the deceased. Second, asymptomatic cases never went to the hospital and therefore were never tested or counted. Iceland, which has done some of the most widespread testing in the world, found that approximately 50 percent of those infected never showed any symptoms. Third, only those who showed symptoms, went to the hospital, and were able to be admitted were counted. Inside Wuhan that is a very small portion of the patients. Ive read on Weibo that even hospital directors could not get friends and families hospital beds. Advertisement Advertisement Daskal: Roberta, you described Bolsonaros concerning narrative about the disease. How is he responding to those who critique his approach? Advertisement Advertisement Braga: Brazil is a democracy, and freedom of speech is a strong pillar of that democracy. Certainly weve seen dissent. For weeks, Brazilians in social isolation in key capital cities like Fortaleza, Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, and others have banged pots and pans together and called for a removal of Bolsonaro in a reaction to his public addresses. On April 16, Bolsonaro fired Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, and the protests exploded even more. That said, of course, President Bolsonaro doesnt like to be criticized, much in the way that President Donald Trump doesnt take well to criticism. Advertisement Bolsonaro also continues to criticize the Brazilian media, saying they are twisting the facts and exacerbating polarization. This has really contributed to a crisis of trust in media. And at a time when Brazilians access to information is so important, people in Brazil are really struggling to trust in the independent journalists who are providing them with factual information. Fringe media outlets are becoming increasingly popular. Daskal: Justin, you have written about Russias internal efforts to crack down on what it claims to be fake news in response to the pandemic. Can you talk a bit about how this is being done? Advertisement Advertisement Sherman: In mid-March, Roskomnadzor, which is Russias internet and media regulator, threatened stringent action against anyone disseminating false information about the virus. (Again, false information here is defined by the Russian government.) It then began issuing content removal orders to a variety of media outlets, including those incorporated within and outside of Russia. Advertisement These takedown orders mostly draw on existing laws that give Roskomnadzor the authority to order media companies to censor particular types or pieces of content. That said, the upper house of Russias Parliament voted at the end of March to expand criminal punishments for those spreading false information with significant public health effects. Advertisement As for what is actually being censored by the government, there is still relatively little information available, but from what we do know, its clear that the censorship has increasingly targeted anything critical of the Russian governments response to the virus and anything that contradicts the official government narrative. In March, a couple of takedowns focused on claims that Moscow had a curfew in place when it didnt. But other takedowns have focused on everything from social media posts that contradict Russias official figures on infection counts (which many say seem suspiciously low) to claims that Russian hospitals didnt have enough supplies to deal with the pandemic (which is now something that even the Moscow Health Department has started warning about). Advertisement Advertisement Daskal: Roberta, there has been a lot of attention to the fact that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube removed content from Bolsonaro, on the grounds that it violated their terms of service. Can you talk a bit about that? Braga: Twitter recently took down two Twitter posts by Bolsonaro. The posts contained videos of the president walking around Brasilia and talking with small-business owners and vendors on the streets. In the videos, the president also talked about the need to use hydroxychloroquine for treating the virus. This has been a consistent narrativein the videos, the president was shown claiming the anti-malaria drug has worked everywhere it has been used when in reality, the drug is still in the testing phases. Advertisement Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram also took down posts that depicted the presidents claims that hydroxychloroquine was the best treatment for COVID-19. The companies state that the posts were taken down because they violated their platforms terms of service, which prohibit the spread of false information that can cause real harm to users. The removals were apparently done so in close collaboration with the in-country teams for better understanding of the country context. Advertisement Advertisement Daskal: What was the reaction to those take down decisions in Brazil? Advertisement Advertisement Braga: Reactions from Brazilians followed polarized linesthose who support Bolsonaro blasted the companies for blocking and removing the content. Others praised the decisions for preserving safety and for disallowing disinformation about a health crisis that could cost countless lives in Brazil. Advertisement Though perhaps not a direct reaction to the companies actions, the Brazilian Congress has proposed legislation to reduce the spread of disinformation and to penalize those who spread false information about the coronavirus. Some of the laws call for criminalizing the spread of disinformation. One of the proposed laws would also criminalize the sharing of disinformation if you are a government official. Fact-checking organizations in Brazil also jointly authored a statement calling on authorities in Brazil to stop spreading disinformation. Daskal: Justin, do you know how the media outlets have responded to the content removal orders? Are the media outlets criminally responsible for the content that is on their sites? Sherman: Media entities from Russian social media service VK to American internet platforms like Instagram have complied with censorship orders from Roskomnadzor. They can be fined by the Russian government for failing to censor content, although they are more likely to be blocked than fined. Fines for spreading false information are generally directed at specific individuals. In fact, law enforcement in Russia has already opened a number of cases against people alleged to have disseminated false information about the coronavirus online. Advertisement Advertisement Daskal: As companies respond to Russias takedown demands, do you know if they are doing so on a global or local scale? Sherman: Generally, companies complying with Russian government content censorship demands do so via geoblocking. In other words, the information they remove is only removed for those who appear to be viewing it from within Russia. This underscores the fact that Moscow is focusing its censorship efforts within the country. Advertisement Daskal: Mia, you and I have previously written about the ways in which Tencentthe giant China tech company that owns WeChat, the countrys most popular messaging apphas used its market power to effectively disconnect those who spoke out against ways in which the Chinese government was managing the epidemic. Is that something that is continuing? What other tools is (and has) the Chinese government used to stifle dissent and critiques of its handling of the pandemic? Advertisement Shuang Li: Yes, Tencent is still censoring voices that counter the official narrative, not just in public posts but also in closed chat groups. Luckily their method is not as smart as we thought. I used to think Tencent can censor based on the sentiment of content, not just keywords, but now it looks like its just keyword combos, per this very good Citizen Lab report. Advertisement Advertisement Daskal: Roberta, is there any way to assess how much of a chilling effect Bolsonaros efforts have had on the mainstream medias discussion of the pandemic and its seriousness? Are people rushing to use hydroxychlororoquine as a cure? Braga: From what Ive seen, the mainstream media in Brazil continues working to report on the pandemic in a fact-based way, sticking to the guidelines of responsible journalism. Fact-checkers havent faltered, either. Advertisement But Bolsonaros reactions have had a real effect on how the population perceives the pandemic. When the discussions on hydroxychloroquine first started happening, we saw a race on pharmacies for the medication. And some patients who needed the medication for lupus, for example, reported not being able to find the medication. It is worth noting that there is a much higher sense of skepticism and awareness about the dangers of disinformation two years after the 2018 presidential elections. Nevertheless, we are still seeing a lot of disinformation and misinformation circulating online and through messaging platforms in Brazil. Advertisement Daskal: Justin, can you talk a bit more about the ways in which Russia is spreading disinformation about the virus outside its borders? What are the means by which it is doing so? And you mentioned falsehoods with response to the origins of the virusare you seeing other kinds of disinformation emanating from Russia as well? Advertisement Advertisement Sherman: Moscow is employing numerous vectors to project and amplify disinformation about the coronavirus. State-controlled media outlets like RT and Sputnik have been pushing lies about COVID-19. Russia also is likely using groups like the Internet Research Agency to spread these falsehoods on social media as well. Some of these narratives have targeted the viruss origins. True to form, some of these falsehoods are even contradictorylike accusing the U.S. of developing the virus and then a few days later saying it was developed in Latvia. But the disinformation has covered many different angles. Recently, for example, Russian state media organizations have exaggerated British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons hospitalization with oxygen support into claims that the prime minister is on a ventilator. Advertisement Daskal: Mia, a similar question for you as the one I asked Justinare Chinas information and censorship efforts focused mainly internally? Shuang Li: China adopts different strategies inside and outside the Great Fire Wall. Beijing relies on a host of state media accounts and diplomats on Twitter and Facebook to push its narrative. However, due to a general lack of credibility of state media outlets, it doesnt work. Recently Beijing may have begun to use commercial entities and digital marketing firms to amplify its voice on Twitter and Facebook, but still is mostly pushing its narrative in Chinese targeting Chinese speaking populations. ProPublicas Jeff Kao and I did some digging on that issue in this story. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Outside the firewall, Beijings propaganda campaign is defensive and reactionary. It sees a narrative it doesnt like, or sees its enemy having a win and tries very hard to counter it. Often it backfires. So far Beijing is having a hard time selling its narrative outside of China. Braga: A peak of the pandemic is expected to hit Brazil in May/June. This pandemic will have a devastating effect on Brazils society, particularly given the overburdened and underfunded public health system. Brazil needs to prioritize addressing this crisis head oneveryone has a responsibility to stick to the facts and to the science. The cost could be millions of lives. That said, Id like to end on a positive note. Local media outlets in many of Brazils favelas are working hard to create content on how to address the spread of coronavirus in those communities. We are seeing everything from independent articles to videos produced by journalists who understand the realities Brazilians living in the favelas face every day. Daskal: Huge, huge thanks to all three of you for your time and incredible thoughtfulness. Read more from the Free Speech Project. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. (CNBC) The U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday it has disbursed $2.9 billion in initial payroll assistance to 54 smaller passenger carrier and two major passenger airlines, while it finalized grant agreements with six major airlines. To read this article: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan constituted his cabinet with five ministers on Tuesday, nearly a month after he was sworn-in as the central states head for the fourth time. The five, including a woman and two former legislators, were sworn in by Governor Lalji Tandon at a simple function in the Raj Bhawan amid the Covid-19 lockdown. Narottam Mishra, Tulsi Silavat, Kamal Patel, Govind Singh Rajput and Meena Singh took the oath of office as Chouhan kept the size of his cabinet small on expected lines. The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader is expected to expand his cabinet after the Covid-19 lockdown is lifted on May 3. Cabinets composition Chouhan had been holding discussions with senior party leaders in Delhi in the past few days about the size and the possible faces in the cabinet. Silavat and Rajput are loyalists of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. They were ministers in Congress government too which was dislodged by the BJP last month. Also read: Congress targets BJP govt over variation in Covid-19 numbers in Madhya Pradesh Silavat and Rajput, along with four other ministers and 18 Congress MLAs, resigned in March from the state assembly in their rebellion against the then chief minister Kamal Nath. Mishra, Patel and Singh are also old hands and had served as ministers in the then BJP government. Caste and regional combinations were also taken into consideration while constituting the cabinet. Mishra from Gwalior-Chambal region is a Brahmin while Silavat from Malwa region comes from Scheduled castes. Patel from central MP represents the other backward classes while Singh from the Vindhya region is a tribal leader. Rajput, who is from Bundelkhand, is a member of the upper caste. Mishra and Silavat both have been health ministers in the then BJP and then Congress governments. Criticism over Covid-19 Shivraj Singh Chouhan was sworn in as the chief minister on March 23. He faced flak from the opposition and on social media for running his government without a cabinet, particularly without a health minister, as the Covid-19 situation continued to worsen in the state. When Chouhan assumed office the coronavirus pandemic was rearing its head in the state with only seven Covid-19 cases registered in two districts. But in the span of about 29 days, the state has registered as many as 1485 Covid-19 cases with 76 of them dead and as many as 26 of its 52 districts affected. Madhya Pradesh has emerged as one of the worst managed states in the country during the period with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan blaming the then Congress government for the present situation in the state. Also read: What you need to know today At the same time, Indore has become one of the major hotspots in the country, prompting the central government to send a team on Monday to the city to assess and manage the situation. To become a one-man army, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan put in peril the lives of 7.50 crore people of Madhya Pradesh. The CM is busy in his branding and publicity instead of protecting people of the state from Corona. In Madhya Pradesh, the situation is going from bad to worse, Ajay Singh, senior Congress leader and former leader of the opposition, had said on April 10. Later, Congress Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha in a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind urged him to impose a Presidents rule in the state if Chouhan failed to constitute his cabinet. He wrote again to the President jointly with senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Monday to reiterate his demand. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON We are pleased to recognize Dr. P. Sean Van Zijl as a UroLift Center of Excellence for his commitment to providing consistent care to BPH patients using the UroLift System treatment, said Dave Amerson NeoTract, a wholly owned subsidiary of Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) focused on addressing unmet needs in the field of urology, today announced that P. Sean Van Zijl, M.D., Chesapeake Urology in Bel Air, MD, has been designated as a UroLift Center of Excellence. The designation recognizes that Dr. Van Zijl has achieved a high level of training and experience with the UroLift System and demonstrated a commitment to exemplary care for men suffering from symptoms associated with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), also known as enlarged prostate. Recommended for the treatment of BPH in both the American Urological Association and European Association of Urology clinical guidelines, the FDA-cleared Prostatic Urethral Lift procedure using the UroLift System is a proven, minimally invasive technology for treating lower urinary tract symptoms due to BPH. The UroLift permanent implants, delivered during a transurethral outpatient procedure, relieve prostate obstruction and open the urethra directly without cutting, heating, or removing prostate tissue. The UroLift Center of Excellence program is designed to highlight urologists who are committed to educating their patients on BPH and the UroLift System as a treatment option and consistently seek to deliver excellent patient outcomes and experiences. We are pleased to recognize Dr. P. Sean Van Zijl as a UroLift Center of Excellence for his commitment to providing consistent care to BPH patients using the UroLift System treatment, said Dave Amerson, president of the Teleflex Interventional Urology business unit. This achievement has helped many patients experience durable, longterm relief from the burdensome symptoms of BPH while preserving sexual function*1,2. Over 40 million men in the United States are affected by BPH, a condition that occurs when the prostate gland that surrounds the male urethra becomes enlarged with advancing age and begins to obstruct the urinary system. Symptoms of BPH often include interrupted sleep and urinary problems and can cause loss of productivity, depression and decreased quality of life. Medication is often the first-line therapy for enlarged prostate, but relief can be inadequate and temporary. Side effects of medication treatment can include sexual dysfunction, dizziness and headaches, prompting many patients to quit using the drugs. For these patients, the classic alternative is surgery that cuts, heats or removes prostate tissue to open the blocked urethra. While current surgical options can be very effective in relieving symptoms, they can also leave patients with permanent side effects such as urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and retrograde ejaculation. About the UroLift System The FDA-cleared UroLift System is a proven, minimally invasive technology for treating lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The UroLift permanent implants, delivered during a minimally invasive transurethral outpatient procedure, relieve prostate obstruction and open the urethra directly without cutting, heating, or removing prostate tissue. Clinical data from a pivotal 206-patient randomized controlled study showed that patients with enlarged prostate receiving UroLift implants reported rapid and durable symptomatic and urinary flow rate improvement without compromising sexual function*1,2. Patients also experienced a significant improvement in quality of life. Over 100,000 men have been treated with the UroLift System in the U.S. Most common adverse events reported include hematuria, dysuria, micturition urgency, pelvic pain, and urge incontinence. Most symptoms were mild to moderate in severity and resolved within two to four weeks after the procedure. The Prostatic Urethral Lift procedure using the UroLift System is recommended for the treatment of BPH in both the American Urological Association and European Association of Urology clinical guidelines. The UroLift System is available in the U.S., Europe, Australia, Canada, Mexico and South Korea. Learn more at http://www.UroLift.com. About NeoTract | Teleflex Interventional Urology A wholly owned subsidiary of Teleflex Incorporated, the Interventional Urology Business Unit is dedicated to developing innovative, minimally invasive and clinically effective devices that address unmet needs in the field of urology. Our initial focus is on improving the standard of care for patients with BPH using the UroLift System, a minimally invasive permanent implant system that treats symptoms while preserving normal sexual function*1,2. Learn more at http://www.NeoTract.com. About Teleflex Incorporated Teleflex is a global provider of medical technologies designed to improve the health and quality of peoples lives. We apply purpose driven innovation a relentless pursuit of identifying unmet clinical needs to benefit patients and healthcare providers. Our portfolio is diverse, with solutions in the fields of vascular and interventional access, surgical, anesthesia, cardiac care, urology, emergency medicine and respiratory care. Teleflex employees worldwide are united in the understanding that what we do every day makes a difference. For more information, please visit http://www.teleflex.com. Teleflex is the home of Arrow, Deknatel, Hudson RCI, LMA, Pilling, Rusch, UroLift and Weck trusted brands united by a common sense of purpose For Teleflex Incorporated: Jake Elguicze, 610.948.2836 Treasurer and Vice President, Investor Relations Media: Nicole Osmer, 650.454.0504 nicole@healthandcommerce.com *No instances of new, sustained erectile or ejaculatory dysfunction 1. Roehrborn, J Urology 2013 LIFT Study 2.McVary, J Sex Med 2016 MAC00968-01 Rev A Indian Air Force (IAF) choppers are airlifting essential commodities and medical equipment to a remote Arunachal Pradesh area without road connectivity. Vijoynagar, a remote circle in Changlang district without road connectivity is strategically located along the India-China-Myanmar tri-junction. It comprises of 16 villages and has a population of 4,438. The nearest town is Miao which is 157 km away and takes about six-days to reach by foot. IAF choppers are airlifting essential commodities and medical equipment to Vijoynagar circle, Arunachal Pradesh Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs minister Kamlung Mossang said on Monday. "With Chief Minister Pema Khandu approving sorties by helicopters of Skyone and IAF to airlift rice given by the Centre under National Food Security Act, five kg free rice have been provided to each ration card holder besides other essential commodities, including medical equipment from Miao to Vijoynagar," Mossang told PTI over the telephone from Miao. Mossang, who represents the Miao constituency, said he is trying to ensure that none starves in his assembly constituency during the ongoing nationwide lockdown. "As air sorties are subject to weather clearance, five have materialised so far and rest will be undertaken when weather condition improves," the minister said. Of the IAF sorties approved, four have been materialised till date in airlifting essentials under Central Purchase Organisation (CPO) system from March 29 to April 8. "I had facilitated arrival of a fuel tanker at Miao as 15 more sorties are being planned from Monday. Moreover, a few essential commodities are being procured from local markets to be supplied at Vijoynagar," he added. The minister lauded a company and some individuals for donating bags of rice. "The rice bags received have been stocked at Kharasang and SDO Rakesh Rai will distribute among the needy and poor people of Kharsang and Miao areas who have been facing hardship due to lockdown," Mossang said. Village-level lists involving village heads are being prepared for distribution by the local administration in coordination with public leaders. ADC T Rumi is in-charge of supply in Miao area, the minister said, adding he had donated 5000 kg of salt for free distribution. The minister said floating labourers and Chakma refugees who have no ration cards are not getting any rice for which the government had developed an app and getting their names so that they could also be provided rice and other essentials. (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 (Agence France-Presse) Tue, April 21, 2020 15:04 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd34f27a 2 News UNWTO,travel,destination,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free A new report out of the UN World Tourism Organization paints a stark portrait of the status of the global travel economy: 96 percent of the planet's destinations have imposed travel restrictions. According to the global review, 90 destinations (countries, territories or states) have completely or partially closed their borders to tourists, while 44 percent of destinations are closed to certain groups of tourists, depending on the country of origin. The report offers a further breakdown by region: 100 percent of Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East have introduced travel restrictions since January, while that figure dips in Europe (93 percent) and the Americas (92 percent). Read also: Beijing reopens 30 percent of its major tourist sites Travel restrictions include complete or partial closure of borders; destination-specific travel restrictions barring passengers who have visited or transited through heavily-infected areas; total or partial suspension of flights; and other measures such as quarantine, self-isolation, medical certificates or the suspension of visa issuances. Interestingly, while the resumption of travel is largely deemed premature today -- the closure of the Canada-US border is being extended by another month as of April 21, and France announced that it would keep its borders closed to non-European countries until further notice -- in a statement the UNWTO pointed out the need to ease travel restrictions as soon as safely possible. "COVID-19 has impacted travel and tourism like no other event before in history," said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili in a statement. "Governments have put public health first and introduced full or partial restrictions on travel. With tourism suspended, the benefits the sector brings are under threat. Millions of jobs could be lost, and progress made in the fields of equality and sustainable economic growth could be rolled back. UNWTO therefore calls on governments to continuously review travel restrictions and ease or lift them as soon as it is safe to do so." Slate is making its coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism. Start your free trial. Steny Hoyer doesnt see what the holdup is with the House of Representatives adopting remote voting, using everyday videoconferencing platforms, for the duration of the pandemic. There are a number of different technologies available, the House majority leader said in a Tuesday conference call with reporters, citing FaceTime, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. Millions of people are using those regularly. I use FaceTime with my kids and my grandkids. They know its me, I know its them, and if I say something, they know its Steny Hoyer saying that. The House, he said, doesnt need to develop a secret, ultra-secure proprietary technology to ensure the integrity of its remote voting. Frankly, if Im in my den here in St. Marys County, and the clerk is looking at me over FaceTime, and I say Aye, and the clerk recognizes me, they mark me as Aye. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think it gives you a better sense, he said. I see you, you see me. So was there a disagreement between himself and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whos been loath to fully embrace remote voting? Well, there are various views, he said, without going so far as to call it a disagreement. Pelosis opposition to remote voting has begun to thaw since she said, on the issue in a March 30 conference call with reporters, Lets not waste time on something that is not going to happen. With her blessing, the House intends to vote later this week, when it returns to approve the latest coronavirus relief package, on a proposal from the Rules Committee that would allow for what it describes low-tech remote voting. Advertisement Its a proxy voting system, scheduled to last through the pandemic. Under the proposal, members who cant make it to Washington could authorize other members to cast votes on their behalf. No general proxy vote would be allowedi.e., Matt Gaetz cant authorize Doug Collins to get in the Gaetz mindset and give it his best stab at guessing how Gaetz might vote. The proxy must have explicit instruction for each measure. Advertisement The proposal is simultaneously a radical step for the slow-moving institution and a half-measure relative to the moment. Congress still has a long way to go before it gets back to normal, andsince everyone elses getting back to normal depends on what Congress doesthe urgency to return to normal is building by the day. Advertisement Advertisement If approved, it would mark the first time in congressional history that members are able to cast votes from anywhere other than the House floor. That it would be such a foundational change to an institution that only recently got over its misgivings about exposed female arms is the reason why its passage this week isnt guaranteed. Advertisement Advertisement House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy offered a few questions to Pelosi about the proposal in a letter on Tuesday, indicating the Republican conference wasnt entirely sold. What are the details of this proposal, he wrote, how will it avoid potential abuses of power, and when do you expect this proposal to be made public for the necessary scrutiny and member input that changing 200 years of House precedent would merit? Advertisement Advertisement McCarthys letterMadam Speaker, Its Time for Congress to Get Back to Workurged the speaker to establish a clear, safe, and effective plan for reopening Congress. Sure, the impetus behind McCarthys letter may have been a finger in the political winds, tapping the liberation! rhetoric seen recently in state protests, certain GOP governors decision to begin reopening nonessential businesses, and presidential tweets at odds with the administrations official public health guidelines. But a proxy voting proposal, alone, is not nearly enough to bring Congress back to a normal state in which its capable of performing its full complement of responsibilities. As McCarthy writes, the current system of centralized decision-making by a select group of leadership and staff that reduces the role of representative to merely voting yea or nay on pre-drafted proposals isntor, at least, shouldnt betenable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Regular order in Congress requires committees meeting to develop and amend pieces of legislation that can be sent to the full body for votes, and to conduct oversight. Right now, the legislative process is one in which the four leaders on the House and Senate engage in a high-stakes, multitrillion-dollar contest of wearing out Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. A product is reached and immediately rushed through each chamber, and the fewer representatives or senators who show up to get in the way, the better. On the oversight front, theres never been more need for committees to meet and grill administration officials or executives of companies receiving billions in federal cash with few strings attached. Its just not happening. Advertisement Advertisement The Rules Committee doesnt have an answer for running committees at a distance yet. Making changes to the standing rules of the House and putting in place technology to allow for virtual hearings and markups is complicated and cant be done overnight, the committee chairman, Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, wrote in his statement announcing the proxy voting proposal. But in the meantime, committees can hold briefings and roundtables to continue their work as we continue to work with the Committee on House Administration on these issues. Advertisement Until the House can approve a plan that allows committees to conduct business as usual through a remote option, it cant properly discharge its duties. As we move nearer to the summer, some vital pieces of annual legislation, such as spending bills for the next fiscal year and the annual National Defense Authorization Act, are coming up. Those require time-consuming, full-committee markups, not just Mnuchin and an attache shuttling between leadership offices in a vacant building. Advertisement Hoyer, in a letter of his own to the House Rules and Administration committees on Tuesday, emphasized that we must update our rules explicitly to allow remote committee proceedings or change the rules to define present in a way that allows for Members participation through an approved video-conferencing platform. Even if the Capitol complex were reopened and members were able to return, he wrote, there will likely still be a need to make accommodations for the Floor and in committees for some time to maintain the necessary social distancing. And that means retaining an option for virtual participation. In his press call, Hoyer noted that we have an environment that I have never experienced in our lifetime, and that this virus has forced us to do things in different ways, and be radically different in many respects. The body is stubbornly resistant to change. For as long as the pandemic lasts, though, the return to a traditional Congress can only be achieved through radical adaptation. ISTANBUL Turkey has been the subject of looming US sanctions ever since the S-400 missiles landed in Ankara last July. The Russian-made defense systems are said to pose security threats to NATO alliance equipment in the country and Turkey was booted from the F-35 fighter jet program as a result of the acquisition, escalating US-Turkey tensions indefinitely. On Monday, Turkish officials said they would postpone the activation of the S-400 systems, scheduled to take place this month, citing complications stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic, though plans to use the missiles remain unchanged. In response, US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus told Reuters Washington continues to object strenuously to Ankaras purchase of the missiles. We continue to stress at the highest levels that the S-400 transaction is the subject of ongoing CAATSA sanctions deliberations and it remains a major obstacle in the bilateral relationship and at NATO, Ortagus said Monday, referring to the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. Though the S-400s remain a point of contention, with Ankara officials claiming the missiles are a necessary defense measure, some analysts say the delayed activation offers an avenue for renewed negotiations between the United States and Turkey. Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director for the German Marshall Fund in Ankara, said the postponement is likely an attempt by Turkish officials to avoid additional economic strains in the form of sanctions amid a pandemic-induced global financial crisis, but the move could also be seen as an opening for bilateral talks. This creates a window of opportunity for the United States and Turkey to move beyond freezing the problem and towards taking steps to solve it, Unluhisarcikli told Al-Monitor. During a March 31 phone call with US President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inquired whether the US Federal Reserve could expand currency-swap arrangements to include Turkeys monetary authority. The governor of Turkey's central bank, Murat Uysal, confirmed Sunday Turkey is currently seeking a number of swap agreements to help mitigate the economic impacts of the coronavirus. Unluhisarcikli said such requests give Washington leverage in the S-400 issue. He added US officials could pursue confidence-building measures with Ankara by offering to deploy Patriot missiles systems in Turkey, as they have reportedly done in the past. Noting the increasing prospects for escalation between the Turkish military and forces supporting the Syrian regime in the nations Idlib province, Unluhisarcikli said Patriot missiles could replace Russian hardware and serve Turkeys defense needs. The US administration does not need congressional approval for this because its not a sale, Unluhisarcikli told Al-Monitor. In return, the United States could ask Turkey not to activate the S-400 for a year. He added, the current pause in activating the S-400s should not lead to complacency, neither in Washington nor in Ankara. The two countries are gaining time but unless they use this time wisely, they will just be taking a break before the next political crisis. In other coronavirus-related developments, Erdogan announced a four-day lockdown would be imposed from April 23 to 26 on Turkeys largest cities to slow the spread of COVID-19. To date, the Turkish state has imposed similar back-to-back weekend curfews, but medical experts said temporary curfews were not enough to contain the pandemic in Turkey, which as of Tuesday recorded 95,591 confirmed cases and 2,259 virus-linked deaths. The upcoming four-day lockdown will take place during a national holiday on Thursday, and Erdogan said future curfews were possible. Existing measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus in Turkey include a full curfew on senior citizens and most people under 20 years of age, as well as domestic and international travel restrictions and the temporary closure of all restaurants, cafes and bars. The economic impacts of the pandemic are expected to be significant for all emerging markets, including Turkey, which has limited central bank reserves after a 2018 currency crisis. According to a Reuters poll published Tuesday, Turkeys economy is expected to shrink for the first time in more than a decade, as the median forecast of about 40 economists estimated a contraction of 1.4% in 2020. Last week, a report by the International Monetary Fund estimated Turkeys economy would contract by 5% this year and unemployment could reach 17.2%. Though IMF officials said they were speaking with Ankara regarding possible emergency assistance and some analysts have speculated Turkish officials will need to accept international funding to weather the pandemic, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told CNN Turk that no such agreement was on the table. We do not have IMF on our agenda. Turkey does not have an agenda of making a new deal with the IMF, no credit or a new standby agreement, Kalin said in the televised interview on April 12. The year of the Corona Virus is a necessary chronicle in the grander narrative to establish China as the centre of the earth It seems like a familiar story. A bat drops a fruit, which gets picked up by a pig. The pig is slaughtered and cooked as a delicacy in a Hong Kong restaurant. An American tourist who eats it is found dead a few days later at her home in the US. Soon enough, the virus that kills her spreads quickly, wreaking havoc, subduing the might of the United States. This story could have come from the dreadful archives of the coronavirus contagion of 2020. But no, its a story from a Hollywood film made in 2011, which in the wake of recent events, makes Stephen Soderbergh look more like a time traveller than the director of that presciently named movie called Contagion. Interestingly, though Contagion was a creative expression of a medical attack crippling the world, it uncannily had a similar origin: China. It wasnt surprising because SARS another deadly virus had previously originated from China. But there was a difference: when the deadly effect of SARS was building up inside China, the World Health Organisation in 2002 had warned of its consequences. China, under Hu Jintao, had begun to establish itself globally but wasnt powerful enough to withhold information related to a pandemic. Cut to 2017, the WHO now had appointed Tedros Ghebreseyos, a microbiologist controversially backed by China to drive its global agenda of garnering influence in global institutions. On January 20 this year, even after a Chinese official confirmed publicly that the virus could indeed spread among humans, it took a week for the WHO to declare the spread of the virus asa health emergency. In between, Tedros visited China and praised the countrys leadership for setting a new standard for outbreak response. Tedros was merely repaying his backers. While the world has been looking for meanings to understand the nature of lies, deception and wilful default, it may have disregarded a much larger force at play. The civilizational war and Chinas role in it. Tian Xia is a concept that translates into heaven under the sky. That heaven is China the middle kingdom, which stood for the centre of the earth. By inference, the emperor, therefore, was the proud son of God. In medieval times, China had put into practice a tribute system wherein they would demand protection money from states such as Vietnam, Cambodia and others who deferred to its power. China, to its people, was known as the chosen kingdom of the world. This nationalistic pride would suffer a death blow in the nineteenth century, as Japan inflicted a series of defeats on China. A period of humiliation followed; succeeded by civil wars and finally Maos long march to establish communism. The early part of the 20th century saw China struggling to establish itself a nation. By the time China announced itself to the world as a new nation in 1949, a new global order had been formed, decided by the victors of world war II. China was left out of the world order founded in 1945, with the United States at the helm. With the powerful Soviet Union as the other superpower, a communist China could only harbour modest objectives, limited to the regional level. Establishing its superiority over its nearest rival in the region, India, was a priority. A decisive Chinese victory in a bloody war with India in 1962 soon established that. India would end Chinese military ambitions with a payback victory in 1967. Further, losses against Soviets in 1969 and Vietnam in 1978 confirmed a decline in Chinese military performance. But the unflagging ambition to wrest its past glory and a seat at the power table of the world could never be diminished. Deng Xiaoping, who succeeded Mao Zedong, believed that the potential economic size of China could match a superior military power. After Maos death, as Deng recast China as a market friendly power, events would favour him. The Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s under the weight of its own contradictions. The US stepped forward, propelled by liberal economists, who believed that China could be integrated and reformed into the democratic system. They would be proved wrong. With the collapse of Soviet Union and the rise of the US, China saw itself as filling up a gap in a potentially bipolar world. Patience, would, however remain a strong suit as China went about reworking its bridges with the world, buying treasury bonds in the US, establishing sweatshop factories for cheap goods, building the worlds manufacturing nursery, participating in a global economic boom. Aware that its military shortcomings were evident, China embarked on a long-term goal that embraced a multipronged strategy. In 1999, two colonels in the People's Liberation Army, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui wrote a book called Unrestricted Warfare. It was about how China could defeat a superior opponent such as the US using non military means. When Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, it was time to flex muscles and revivethe Chinese dream: of displacing the US as a global influencer and finding its tian xia. The narrative began to acquire heft: the BRI network, muscle flexing in South China sea, acquisition of Hambantota port in Sri Lanka in Indian Ocean and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, financing countries that had no ability to repay loans were all a part of the plan to impose itself in the wake of an increasingly reclusive United States. As it was spreading its tentacles, China deployed its sharp power more decisively to argue its campaign which meant using advocates in other countries to argue its cause. From Mao to Xi, communism had undergone a change, but the goal of establishing Tian Xia had acquired new, refined methods of lies and deception. In 1961, Mao Zedong invited the French leader Francois Mitterrand to China. He returned to hail Mao as "a great scholar and asserted "there is no famine in China." Other politicians cultivated by China argued that the country was making "great progress". At the time these western dignitaries were singing praises, millions were dying in China of historys biggest man-made famine. In 2020, when the pandemic spread, China was quick to use its already strong community of backers in the west. The sinologist David Shambaugh estimates that the country spends roughly $10 billion a year in external propaganda. A section of the media that turned the heat on Donald Trump for calling it a China virus, chose to miss the wood for the trees. Bill Maher counters if Zika is from the Zika Forest, Ebola from Ebola River, MERS stands for Middle East respiratory syndrome, why should China get a pass? The point is: the buck doesnt stop with Trump, it ends up in the court of Xi. Differing claims on the origins of the virus have grown with each day. In January, 2018, scientists inspecting the Wuhan Institute of Virology had warned of the dangers in the Chinese lab. Professor Luc Montagnier, Nobel laureate for medicine, claims the virus is man-made. It now appears that the virus could have come, not from the wet markets, but from the Wuhan laboratory, debunking the entire wet market theory.Which leads us to the theory of benefits from collateral damage: where destruction can lead to the emergence of a victor less scarred than the rest. The theory of Unrestricted Warfare finds meaning as China hopes to be the last man standing in this pyrrhic war: United States. The year of the Corona Virus is a necessary chronicle in the grander narrative: to establish China as the centre of the earth. Many residents driving around Akwa Ibom metropolis during the lockdown are using fake security passes, the police have alleged. The CP observed with dismay that the passes issued to those on essential duties have been largely abused to the extent that the passes are photocopied and issued to all manner of persons thereby making it relatively difficult by the security agencies to identify the original copies of the pass, the police spokesperson in Akwa Ibom, N-Nudam Fredrick, said in a statement Monday evening. PREMIUM TIMES reported how police officers enforcing the lockdown in the state tightened their operation along major roads in Uyo on Monday, preventing authorised persons, including medical doctors, from driving through the roads. New measure Mr Fredrick, a chief superintendent of police, said every person on essential duty should get a new security pass from the office of the Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State Government or the senior special assistant on security to Governor Udom Emmanuel by Tuesday, April 21. The old pass, he said, is no longer valid. All passes issued to Medical Personnel Doctors, Pharmacists, Nurses, etc remain valid. However, such passes must be accompanied with the holders identity cards otherwise they will not be honoured, the police spokesperson said. The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Akwa Ibom State, said in a statement that most of their members could not go to work because of the development. READ ASO: Today at about midday, the State Officers Committee led by the Chairman, Dr Nsikak Nyoyoko while on official duty to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) to distribute PPEs was denied passage along Udo Udoma Avenue by Aka road roundabout by men of the Nigerian Police Force purportedly on orders from above, the NMA said in the statement signed by its state chairman, Mr Nyoyoko. This ugly incident was preceded by numerous calls by our members of having been refused passage at different points in Uyo metropolis. To this end, NMA-AKS advises all her members that in the event of being denied passage while on your way to work, please be civil, do not resist, but return home and notify your superior at work, Mr Nyoyoko had said. A police officer who was enforcing the lockdown was demoted earlier this month from the rank of a sergeant to corporal for assaulting a surgeon in Uyo. The police commissioner later apologised to doctors in Akwa Ibom over the conduct of the erring police officer. Today is the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Colombo in Sri Lanka, that took place on April 21, 2019. The island nation of Sri Lanka woke up to one of the most violent days in its history, as eight serial blasts rocked its cities killing at least 279 people - including 37 foreign nationals - and injuring about 500 people. The horrific terror attack carried out by nine suicide bombers affiliated to a local Islamist extremist group blasted three churches and three luxury hotels. These images are haunting reminders of that fateful day. Photo: AFP By Wu Shicun The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the US hard and seriously disrupted the US militarys combat readiness and deployments. It is reported that the pandemic has spread to at least 150 US military bases and four aircraft carriers, yet this hasnt slowed down the US military in seeking domination on the West Pacific through military means. Rather, it has kept on making waves in the South China Sea. Why has the US military intensified its moves in the South China Sea while its combat force is weakened by the COVID-19 outbreak? The first National Security Strategy report released by the Trump administration in 2017 defined China as a strategic competitor, followed by the Indo-Pacific strategy that highlighted the importance of the South China Sea issue in the China-US security game. From the perspective of the US, the South China Sea is indispensable for maintaining its maritime domination on the West Pacific, because it is a critical waterway to pursue US maritime hegemony, and also an important leverage to curb Chinas rise and suppress the development of Chinese maritime forces. From Chinas perspective, however, the South China Sea is a matter of national sovereignty, security and development interests, a natural shield of national security and a strategic sea route. Therefore, the South China Sea game is endowed with strategic and structural features. Beijing will never believe that Washington would slack its moves in the region because of the outbreak, which explains its readiness to respond to US militarys provocations during the pandemic whether at sea or in air. What new moves will the US military take in the region during and after the pandemic? First of all, they will continue to carry out the so-called freedom of navigation operations about twice every three months because such operations dont require a lot of vessels, with more symbolic meaning than practical significance. Second, the joint military exercises between the US and its regional allies and other military activities will be postponed or canceled. Americas recent cancellation of its "Balikatan" or "shoulder to shoulder" exercise with the Philippines suggested the possible postponement of the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise although no official announcement has been made yet. Third, the US Indo-Pacific Commands surface vessels are able to perform military operations in the South China Sea even without aircraft carriers. Although an intrusion by the American aircraft carrier strike group into the region is unlikely in the next one or two months, the vessels currently stationed in Japan, Singapore and Guam are still able to maintain Americas frontline presence. Fourth, the US military will stage more deterrent operations to guard against Chinas possible moves across the Taiwan Strait or in the South China Sea amid the COVID-19 outbreak. It has recently adopted a high profile on the maneuvers of its military vessels and aircraft in the East China Sea and South China Sea, which was obviously intended to exert deterrence at this critical juncture. The ongoing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe will leave a profound impact on international politics, economic landscape and global governance system. It has so far exerted great negative effects on the China-US relations as there is no sign of mitigation in the contention between the worlds top two economies over trade, technology, and industrial and supply chain, or in their decoupling tendency. As the US presidential election is just around the corner, the so-called China issue will be an unavoidable subject in the campaign of both the Democratic and Republican parties. As far as the South China Sea issue is concerned, the US governments tough stance against China, as showcased by its military operations on the sea, will not only cater to part of the voters at home, but also consolidate its relations with international allies. There is no denying that it is Americas constant trouble making in the South China Sea, its indulgence and encouragement of other claimants to take unilateral actions in disputed waters, and a string of other negative factors that have amounted to result in the current disturbing situation in the region, otherwise it has already turned stable. The South China Sea is the common home for all countries along its coast, including China, and an important platform on which China and ASEAN nations jointly build the maritime community with a shared future. Its lasting peace and stability not only serve the interests of regional countries, but also meet the expectations of the whole international community. In view of Americas escalated military provocations in the South China Sea both during and after the pandemic, China should get prepared in the following aspects - building capabilities of defending the islands and reefs, expanding the civil functions (the recent approval by Chinas State Council to establish the Xisha and Nansha districts in Sansha City marked a major step in this direction), integrating our maritime forces, and adapting to future changes in maritime combat. In the meantime, China should take the initiative to promote maritime cooperation with countries around the South China Sea, expand consensus with them and accelerate the negotiations on the Code of Conduct in defiance of external interference. China should make utmost efforts to establish a regional order featuring justice, transparency, openness and cooperation, and avoid turmoil or subversive changes in the South China Sea. (The author is the president of Chinas National Institute for South China Sea Studies and chairman of board of directors of China-Southeast Asia Research Center on the South China Sea) CRUCIAL FACTORS Spurt in corona cases, lax enforcement of lockdown and attacks on medical teams prompted govt to do a rethink A lot changed between two Sundays and that was enough to throw a spanner in the Uttar Pradesh governments plans to relax the Covid-19 lockdown for a partial resumption of economic activities from Monday. On Sunday, April 12, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath held two meetings and spoke about lockdown relaxations. He said the state would look forward to initiating partial relaxation in the lockdown to support economic activities. These meetings were held with cabinet members and the Covid-19 management Team-11. At that time, the chief minister had been highlighting that Uttar Pradesh was doing far better than other states on Covid-19 containment, despite being the most populous state. Initially, the date for partial relaxation was April 15, the end of the first phase of the lockdown, but then it was extended to April 20. But, things were not looking up by Friday, April 17, when the chief minister held a meeting with district magistrates and district police chiefs. The chief minister expressed displeasure over violation of the lockdown, rising number of Tablighi Jamaat related Covid-19 infections, and an overall rise in positive cases. He got his feedback on the situation from the state intelligence wing, Covid control rooms and CCTV footage. The next day, additional chief secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi sent a letter to all the district magistrates and the district police chiefs, noting that the performance of 40 of the 75 districts was unsatisfactory in adherence to the lockdown. All the high Covid-19 incidence districts fell in this category-- Agra, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Lucknow, Meerut, Ghaziabad and Kanpur. The letter had set the tone for the state to rethink the proposed relaxations in lockdown. The primary criteria on which the districts performance was gauged were: high number of Covid-19 cases, high number of Tablighi Jamaat members, attacks on police and healthcare providers. The number of positive cases rose drastically in several districts between the two Sundays. For instance, Agra had 104 cases on April 12 and the number rose to 240 by April 19. Lucknows case count jumped from 32 to 165, Gautam Buddha Nagars from 64 to 95; Ghaziabads from 27 to 41, Meeruts from 51 to 74 and Saharanpurs from 28 to 72. The number of total positive cases in the state shot up from 483 to 1,100. The death toll went up from five on April 12 to 17 on April 19, according to state health department figures. Additional chief secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said: The idea behind the communication to the districts was to make the underperforming districts get their act together, go intensive in the containment of Covid-19 and wage a war against the virus to eradicate it from Uttar Pradesh. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday (April 19) night made it clear to district magistrates that there would be no easing of the lockdown in hotspots and asked the principal secretary, health, not to open 19 sensitive districts, which have reported 10 or more coronavirus cases each. Issuing these instructions at separate meetings, he empowered district magistrates to take a call on lockdown relaxations. He underscored that DMs of 19 sensitive districts should decide on the basis of awareness and alertness after intimating the government. All the district magistrates announced the status quo on the lockdown and continued the restrictions as they were. On Monday evening, the additional chief secretary announced: The state now has 322 hotspots. HOW CASES JUMPED IN SEVEN DAYS The number of positive cases rose drastically in several districts between the two Sundays. For instance, Agra had 104 cases on April 12 and the number rose to 240 by April 19. Lucknows case count jumped from 32 to 165 during the same period, Gautam Buddha Nagar from 64 to 95; Ghaziabad from 27 to 41; Meerut from 51 to 74 and Saharanpur from 28 to 72. The number of total positive cases in the state rose drastically--from 483 to 1,100. The death toll went up from five on April 12 to 17 on April 19, according to state health department figures. 40 UNSATISFACTORY LOCKDOWN DISTRICTS Meerut, Baghpat, Hapur, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahar, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Agra, Mathura, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Bareilly, Badaun, Moradabad, Bijnor, Rampur, Amroha, Sambhal, Lucknow, Kheri, Rae Bareli, Sitapur, Barabanki, Sultanpur, Kanpur City, Kanpur Dehat, Kannauj, Jalaun, Prayagraj, Pratapgarh, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Kushinagar, Basti, Gonda, Bahraich and Balrampur. JUBA A UN staff member based in South Sudan, who was in isolation after it was believed he may have come into contact with a COVID-19 patient, has fled the country. South Sudan has confirmed four coronavirus cases so far, and has put several measures in place, one of which called for quarantining and testing of all contacts of those who have tested positive. The United Nations traced 99 close contacts, and expected them to be quarantined and tested over the next two weeks. In a statement on Sunday, the United Nations said it would take disciplinary action against the staff member who failed to complete self-isolation and left South Sudan without authorization. The United Nations explained that the staff member was in isolation after it was believed he may have come into contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19. It added, He received one test that confirmed him as negative and then left Juba on a flight without the knowledge of the United Nations. The flight was commercial, not a United Nations flight. The UN mission pointed out that it is continuing to strictly follow the health protocols relating to COVID-19 and is working cooperatively through the World Health Organization with the Ministry of Health. Any United Nations staff who fail to adhere to the requirements for testing and self-isolation will face disciplinary action, according to the statement. For his part, Dr. Makur Koryom, the undersecretary in the South Sudan Ministry of Health, said one of the 99 contacts left South Sudan on a UN flight. Makur, who is also a member of the high level taskforce on COVID-19, said the South Sudanese government was not aware of what had happened. He further said the high level taskforce condemns the act in strongest terms possible, and holds the UN system in the country accountable for any unseemly events that may ensue. This is in clear violation of the International Health Regulations (HR 2005), Koryom said. Related The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is requiring nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other long-term care facilities to submit daily reports starting April 21 as part of the states strategy to limit the spread of COVID-19. Long-term care facilities will now have to submit to the state daily updates on current capacity and bed availability, personal protective equipment inventory and the current number of COVID-19 cases and deaths within their facility. The state will begin reporting that data publicly starting sometime this week as part of the daily updates on COVID-19 cases and deaths, department spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said Tuesday. People over 65 and those who live in long-term care facilities are at a higher risk of severe illness if they contract COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Enhanced and timely reporting of cases in long term care facilities, as well as proactive training and technical assistance will help protect these vulnerable individuals," Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy for health, said in a statement. MDHHS will also begin setting up regional hubs to treat people with COVID-19 from congregate care settings who dont require hospitalization, as well as provide additional training, contact tracing assistance and other resources to facilities. "The spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on residents and employees at Michigans longterm care facilities, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. A strong cross department, state and local partnership will help combat the spread of this virus and protect residents and staff of these facilities. Michigan health officials reported 232 new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, April 21 the highest daily increase in deaths yet. But theres at least one caveat to the Tuesday numbers: Dozens of deaths reported in Detroit in the last 24 hours were reported late, Mayor Mike Duggan said. Detroit reported 87 new deaths Tuesday after reporting 23 and 29 in the two days prior. Even factoring in this anomaly, death numbers were much higher than in previous days. There were 81, 83 and 77 new deaths reported Saturday through Monday, respectively. Now, a total of 2,700 Michiganders have died from coronavirus. New confirmed cases also jumped back up Tuesday. With 967 new cases reported, its the highest single-day jump since Thursday, April 16. Michigan has now had 32,967 people test positive for the virus. Michigan is releasing recovery data once per week. So far, 3,237 people have recovered from COVID-19 in the state meaning they tested positive for COVID-19 at some point, theyre still alive and its been at least 30 days since symptoms began. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores. Read more Michigan coronavirus coverage here Michigan coronavirus daily death numbers spike to new high, but with a caveat Tuesday, April 21: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan How to treat COVID-19? Michigan doctors say protocols change day by day, week by week Partisan politics infect Michigan coronavirus response Which surfaces does the coronavirus stay on longest? 18 expert disinfecting tips Michigan healthcare system lays off 2,475 due to dire financial effects of coronavirus Adhering to stay-at-home order now will help businesses reopen sooner, Whitmer says Jackson County wants to declare some businesses essential, rebuking governors order A health inspector checks the temperature of deportees just returned by U.S. immigration authorities in Matamoros, Mexico. Mexican authorities have been screening returning migrants for potential coronavirus infections. ( Javier Escalante / For The Times ) A Mexican citizen deported from the United States is the suspected source of a coronavirus outbreak at a shelter in the city of Nuevo Laredo, Mexican authorities said Monday. At least 14 other migrants at the shelter were infected in what appears to be the first outbreak in Mexico linked to a deportee from the United States, a scenario long feared by Mexican health authorities and migrant advocates. More tests were being conducted to determine if other migrants or staff at the shelter had been infected, according to the health department in Tamaulipas state, which includes Nuevo Laredo and other communities across the border from Texas. Authorities said the deportee whose name, age and gender were being withheld arrived at the shelter unaware of having been infected. All 15 migrants with the virus have been placed in isolation. The Trump administration has continued its policy of aggressively removing migrants and would-be asylum seekers despite widespread concerns that the practice is spreading the virus from the United States, which has the most cases in the world. Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said Sunday that at least 50 migrants deported by the United States to the Central American nation have tested positive. They account for more than a sixth of the 289 cases confirmed across the country. On Monday, Reuters reported that three migrants recently deported from the United States to Haiti had tested positive for coronavirus while in quarantine in the Caribbean nation. The Trump administration is essentially spreading a global pandemic to countries and communities less capable of managing an outbreak, said Ariana Sawyer, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. The U.S. government, which gives migrants basic health screens before removing them but does not test them for coronavirus, has not confirmed removing any migrant who is infected. Neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement nor Customs and Border Protection returned requests for comment on the reports from officials in Mexico and Haiti. Story continues U.S. authorities have defended the removal policies as both a deterrent to illegal immigration and a way to contain the spread of coronavirus in the United States. But the practice has swelled the ranks of U.S.-bound migrants stranded in Mexican border towns, leaving thousands crammed into shelters, low-rent apartments and rough encampments where social distancing is not possible. On March 20, U.S. authorities enacted a policy of speedy expulsions along the Southwest border in response to the pandemic. In less than a month, more than 11,000 had been sent back across the Mexican border under the new guidelines. They include asylum seekers and hundreds of unaccompanied minors, groups granted special protections under U.S. law. Those returns are in addition to the hundreds of Mexican nationals deported each day on suspicion of violating U.S. immigration laws. U.S. immigration authorities sent back almost 62,000 Mexican citizens between Jan. 1 and April 3, the most recent period for which figures were available, according to Mexicos interior ministry. Many had spent weeks or months in U.S. detention centers where rising numbers of infections have been reported. As of late Monday, ICE had confirmed 220 coronavirus cases among migrants in its custody, more than double the total from Friday, when the agency told lawmakers it had tested between 300 and 400 detainees about 1% of roughly 32,000 migrants in its custody. A total of 116 ICE employees have also tested positive, including 30 working in detention facilities. Mexican officials have instituted health screenings for the steady stream of deportees arriving in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Matamoros and other towns along the border, taking their temperatures and querying them about any symptoms they may have and how long they were in U.S. custody. Most are then provided bus transportation back to their home regions across Mexico. Mexico's immigration agency did not respond to queries Monday asking how many deportees returned by the United States had tested positive for coronavirus. In the case of the outbreak at the Nuevo Laredo shelter, Mexican health authorities said the suspected carrier of the virus had been deported from Houston. Those infected at the shelter included citizens of Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and the central African nation of Cameroon, authorities said. Health officials also said a 21-year-old Mexican man who had been returned by U.S. authorities from Atlanta to the Mexican border city of Reynosa on April 17 had also tested positive for coronavirus. The administration of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been eager to appease the United States, its principal trading partner. Last year, Mexico agreed to tighten controls on its southern border with Guatemala and agreed to host thousands of U.S.-bound Central Americans asylum seekers and other non-Mexican migrants sent back to Mexico by the United States. McDonnell reported from Mexico City and OToole from Washington. Times staff writer Cindy Carcamo in Los Angeles and special correspondent Cecilia Sanchez in Mexico City contributed to this report. With historically low river flows and reservoirs running dry due to drought, people in central Chile have found themselves particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic. Years of resource exploitation and lax legislation have allowed most reservoirs in that part of the country to run dry. "There are now 400,000 families, nearly 1.5 million people approximately, whose supply of 50 liters of water a day depends on tankers," Rodrigo Mundaca, spokesman for the Movement for the Defense of Water, the Earth and the Protection of the Environment, told AFP. One of the main pieces of advice to protect people against coronavirus is to wash your hands regularly. "Living without water is awful," said Dilma Castillo, who lives with her children on one of the hills around El Melon, a town of 22,000 close to the seaside resort of Valparaiso whose river has dried up. "The worst thing is that there's no awareness, even among the people here. I'm very distressed because it's humiliating to live in these conditions." The Melon river in Chile was completely dried out in January 2020 / AFP In the greater Santiago area and in Valparaiso, rainfall last year was almost 80 percent below the previous record low. In the northern region of Coquimbo it was down 90 percent. Water tankers serve many homes, whose inhabitants come out to fill drums. The virus pandemic is highlighting "once more that where there is a model of the private appropriation of water ... this condition does not guarantee people's human right to water and further weakens communities," said Mundaca. Chilean law states that water is a resource for public use, but it turned over almost the entirety of the right to exploit the resource to the private sector. In the Penuelas lake, an hour from Santiago, much of its bed appears cracked by the sun. "I've been coming here to fish for 20 years. At first we used to catch a lot ... now we don't catch anything," Tomas Ruiz told AFP from the banks of what was left of the lake. - Residents angered - Matias Asun, the director of Greenpeace-Chile, said this week that the government of President Sebastian Pinera must "guarantee that there are no second-class citizens without the basics to protect themselves from COVID-19." The cracked bed of the dried out Penuelas lake near Valparaiso, Chile / AFP "Having soap is useless if there's not enough water to wash with it," he said. Chile has reported more than 3,700 coronavirus cases and 22 deaths. Private exploitation of water wasn't a problem in times of abundance, as was the case until recently. But the drought has brought a furious reaction from communities that have run out of water in a country that saw an outbreak of social unrest in October that only subsided when social distancing measures were imposed. Around 100 residents of El Melon occupied a well managed by the Anglo-American mining company, one of many multinationals exploiting Chile's vast copper reserves. The occupiers are demanding that the well be used to provide water to people living in the region rather than for mining activity, said Fabian Villarroel, 26, one of the activists. Anglo-American sent a statement to AFP saying it was committed to the well-being of people living near its sites and was collaborating in the search for "solutions that allow for inhabitants in the area to rely on a permanent supply of potable water." - The water commodity - "The 1981 water code separates the ownership of water from the dominion of the land," said Mundaca. In Chile, "water is bought, sold or leased." The general director of Waters, Oscar Cristi, says the water rights have been delivered to private companies, but the state controls those rights and can limit the amount of water kept in reservoirs. However, the state has never exercised that right and if it did, it would have to compensate the private firms affected. "The problem has to do with how those rights are distributed and what conditions are imposed," said Andrei Jouravlev, a member of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) -Smooth Rock Ventures Corp. (TSXV: SOCK) ("Smooth Rock" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has entered into an Exploration Lease with Option to Purchase Agreement (the "Agreement") on the Giroux Project, located in Mineral County, Nevada, within the Walker Lane shear zone. The Giroux Project consists of 12 patented claims and 36 unpatented mining claims with a combined area of 390 hectares (965 acres), located 60 miles south southeast of Hawthorne, Nevada, less than 1 mile off a main state highway with easily accessible year-round access. The Giroux Project is located within the Walker Lane shear zone and consists of sediments with numerous felsic intrusives. Silicified fault zones and trends have been explored and mined via shafts, pits, and adits. At least one shaft is reported to have a depth of over 700 feet. Of particular interest is the presence of an overthrust nickel bearing serpentinite formation. In addition to nickel mineralization, the property contains gold, copper, silver, as well as lead-zinc and barite mineralization. The Property hosts the past producing Giroux Mine, the mine is reported to have produced high-grade nickel ore in the late 1800s (Mining Districts and Mineral Resources of Nevada, Lincoln, 1923). This places the Giroux Mine as one of two historical high-grade nickel producing mines in Nevada. Historical production of copper, silver, gold, zinc, and barite also exist on the property. The Giroux property contains numerous historical workings consisting of underground workings with multi-level vertical shafts, several adits at different sub-levels, open pits, and existing roads that provide access to the historical workings. Seven miles east from the Giroux Project, along the trend in similar rock types is the past producing Candelaria Mine, one of the largest open pit silver mines in the history of Nevada. During the modern open pit mining, the metals of interest were silver, gold, zinc, copper, lead and antimony. The non-metals were barite. The Giroux Project is located in close proximity to past producing mines such as Marietta, Moho, Camp Douglas and Candelaria. Giroux has been held by private interests throughout its history. There are no work commitments subject to any portion of the properties. A regional geological mapping and sampling program by the property's current owner yielded significant results. Historical grab sampling result highlights include: 1.17% Ni, 1.6% Ni, 1.7 % Ni, 3.9% Ni. taken from outcrops, old workings and mine dumps. A Geophysical program has been completed on the Property by the current owner, indicating several potential drill targets. The Company has begun Phase I of the Giroux exploration program which will consist of reconnaissance prospecting, geological mapping, surface trenching, sampling, and relocating historical workings. This reconnaissance program will provide accurate modern data to assist in the planning of the phase II drill program. Phase I is estimated to last for three to four weeks, with phase II expected to begin following the compilation of the phase I results, later in 2020, pending drilling permits. The exploration programs are contingent on potential impacts from the current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and the safety of Company personal and contractors. The term of the Agreement continues for ten (10) years, subject to the right to extend the Agreement for two (2) additional terms of ten (10) years each, and subject to an option to purchase 100% of the Property. Full consideration of the Agreement consists of the following: (i) the issuance of 3,000,000 common shares of the Company within 5 business days upon receiving TSX Venture Exchange approval. (ii) an initial cash payment of $20,000.00 USD (paid) upon the execution of the agreement. (iii) $20,000.00 on the first anniversary of the effective date and any succeeding anniversary of the effective date. Smooth Rock has the exclusive purchase option and right to acquire 100% ownership of the Property (the "Option"). The purchase price of the Property shall be USD $200,000.00 (the "Purchase Price"). The Giroux Property is subject to an 1.5% Gross Production Royalty payable to the property vendor, of which one-half of a percent (.5%) may be purchased from the Vendor at any time prior to Commencement of Commercial Production for a cash payment of $200,000.00. The transaction is subject to TSX Venture Exchange final approval. The scientific and technical content and interpretations contained in this news release have been reviewed, verified and approved by E. Gauthier, geol., Eng (OIQ), a consultant of the Company, and an independent Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Michel David" Michel David President & CEO FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Smooth Rock Ventures Corp. (TEL)- (888) 909-5548, (FAX)-(888) 909-1033 Email: info@smoothrockventures.com Website: www.smoothrockventures.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54654 Authorities at Saboba, a community in the Northern Region, have extended the Saboba market to help traders adhere to social distancing protocols to stem the spread of the virus. The District Assembly has mounted canopies and moved some of the traders to operate from the extended areas. Speaking to Citi News, the District Chief Executive for the area, George Bingrini said the move was needed to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. We are here today to make sure that people don't get closer to each other whilst they spend the market. We realized that the space in the market was not enough if we want to space them so we have temporarily acquired canopies and have erected them around where we have put some of the traders to sit under to sell. This is the first time we are doing it so definitely there are challenges. The place is temporary. As soon as this issue of coronavirus is over everybody will go back to transacting their business as usual without any problem. Meanwhile, traders have expressed mixed feelings about the development. How things are going we are not even happy at all so they should look at it because yesterday if you had been here you would have seen that the whole place was scattered and people's things were getting missing. We are afraid and we don't even know how things will be going forward. This place is not enough for us but if they could provide shelter to make us more comfortable then we can manage it, a trader lamented. They told us that it is because of the COVID that they have moved us here, at the old place we were very crowded and because we need to observe social distancing when we came this morning they asked us to transfer to this place so that they will see how we can space ourselves. Here everyone is free, nobody is fighting for space so here is ok for us, another trader added. The Northern Region has so far recorded 11 cases of COVID-19. ---citinewsroom United shares fell close to 2% in extended trading after the airline said it's planning a fresh stock offering, the latest measure by a carrier to raise money as the coronavirus devastates travel demand. Shares The Chicago-based carrier said it is planning to sell 39.25 million shares, which would be worth slightly more than $1 billion at Tuesday's closing price of $27.88. United's shares are down nearly 70% this year, and the new offering highlights the lengths airlines are going to to raise money as the pandemic continues to sap revenue. The airline's competitors have also tumbled by a similar amount this year as the disease and measures to stop it from spreading kept passengers home. "Travel demand is essentially zero and shows no sign of improving in the near-term," United's CEO Oscar Munoz and its president, Scott Kirby, who takes the reins next month, told employees last week. The airline on Monday disclosed that a $2.1 billion loss in the first quarter of the year, its largest since 2008. The carrier and its competitors are scheduled to report full quarterly earnings in the coming days. A man tries to cross a flooded street in Uvira, South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. UNHCR/Moses Yope Madjaga UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is working with local authorities and partners to immediately assist some 80,000 people affected by heavy floods in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Significant rainfall in South Kivus Uvira town and its surroundings between last Thursday and Saturday, led to heavy floods hitting densely populated areas of the town and surrounding villages that are hosting displaced people including refugees. Floodwaters have damaged more than 15,000 homes. With a full-scale assessment underway by authorities and humanitarians, reports of more devastation are still coming in from this region, already the hardest hit by years of insecurity and conflict. The developing situation will compound the fears of the residents who are bracing to face another enemy on the horizon: the coronavirus pandemic. Initial reports suggest more than 25 people have died because of the floods and more than 40 injured with fears of many others swept away by the flood waters. A health clinic in one of Uviras poorer neighbourhoods was destroyed and water and sanitation facilities in the overcrowded town were also damaged. UNHCR is rushing initial supplies of relief items from its local warehouse in Uvira, including badly needed tarpaulins to provide immediate shelter, as well as mats, kitchen sets, buckets and mosquito nets. We will be providing more shelter kits in the coming days to help alleviate the suffering of some of the people whose homes have been swept away. Local and provincial authorities are leading the response with help from the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or MONUSCO. UNHCR is concerned over the large number of people left homeless by the flooding and exposed to sickness and disease. While no cases of COVID-19 have reached Uvira so far, the risk of cholera has heightened, as it is endemic to the area. Local authorities are making land available at suitable locations, and our shelter experts are working with partners to build shelters, latrines, water and sanitation facilities to help prevent cholera and seize the opportunity to heighten awareness and preparedness against COVID-19. We are also identifying individuals and communities particularly at risk and initiating a psycho-social response. These floods have further affected a weak road network in and around South Kivu with many bridges being destroyed or damaged. This furthers hampers access to the affected people, who include the displaced and refugees. UNHCR hopes to resume relocating newly arriving Burundian refugees from an already overcrowded transit site as floods hindered the process. South Kivu continues to see large displacement due to insecurity and conflict. The region currently hosts nearly one million internally displaced people out of the DRCs more than five million internally displaced. South Kivu Province also hosts nearly 50,000 Burundian refugees out of the total half a million in the whole the country. For more information on this topic, please contact: Updates related to COVID-19 and its effects on Albuquerque and the rest of NM. PICTURES UPDATES 7:49 p.m. Navajo Nation leaders connect with New York Gov. Cuomo The Navajo Health Command Operations Center reported 63 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and three additional COVID-19 deaths. There are now 1,206 COVID-19 cases on the Navajo Nation and 48 deaths. A news release from the Navajo Nation Office of the President said the total cases include 569 men and 637 women, and the average age of COVID-19 patients on the Navajo Nation is 48 years old. The release said the average age of Navajo who have died from COVID-19 is 65 years old. In a virtual townhall update Tuesday, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer said although the curve seems to be flattening, the reservation would continue to enforce stay-at-home orders, curfews and business restrictions. The Navajo Nation will have another 57-hour weekend curfew starting Friday night. Health care professionals with the Navajo Health Command Operations Center have projected that the peak of COVID-19 cases on the Navajo Nation will be in early May or mid-May. President Nez said he had spoken with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo about sending supplies from New York to the Navajo Nation. They have a lot of supplies and resources there, and they know firsthand what to do, Nez said. Were going to listen to what theyve done there, and were working on trying to get some needed supplies. A high school gymnasium in Gallup has been converted into an alternative care site to treat patients if nearby health care facilities become overwhelmed. The Navajo Nation is evaluating more alternative care sites in Shiprock and Chinle, Arizona. Nez said 15 employees of the Navajo Police Department have tested positive for COVID-19: six officers, four sergeants, three dispatchers and two civilian personnel. Theresa Davis 5:41 p.m. Milne helipad to be used if coronavirus patient numbers surge A spokeswoman for Presbyterian Healthcare Services says that a helipad constructed in the Milne Stadium parking lot in Southeast Albuquerque will be used if there is a surge in COVID-19 patients. Sunland Asphalt, the company whose crews worked on the project over the weekend, said initially that the helipad would be used to transport COVID-19 patients from northern Arizona and the Navajo Nation. Melanie Mozes, a spokeswoman for Presbyterian Healthcare Services told the Arizona Republic that the hospital, the city and other partners were working to prepare an additional helipad should a patient surge occur. She said she does not anticipate local hospitals using the helipad until that surge occurs but wanted to be prepared in advance. It is not intended for a specific population or for Arizona residents, she said and would most likely be used, if needed at all, for New Mexicans. Mozes said Tuesday that it is not Presbyterians helipad, and to her knowledge it is not being used at this time. Katy Barnitz 3:28 p.m. Thousands of parents face deadline for extra stimulus payment Thousands of New Mexicans who receive Social Security benefits and have children but who didnt file a tax return have just hours left to apply for expanded stimulus payments. They must file a federal form by 10 a.m. Wednesday to get the extra $500 this year for each qualified child. The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty is encouraging people who qualify to file immediately. We are horrified by the IRSs sudden announcement late yesterday forcing a large category of people to file a form by (Wednesday) morning to get stimulus payments for their children in a timely way, said Lindsay Cutler, an attorney at the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. The tight deadline applies to recipients of Social Security, veterans and railroad retirement benefits. The IRS will automatically issue $1,200 economic stimulus payments soon. But recipients are also eligible for an extra $500 for each dependent child. Recipient who dont file a tax return must instead complete a federal form available at irs.gov/coronavirus/non-filers-enter-payment-info-here by 10 a.m. Wednesday. This is not enough time for most people to even hear about this new requirement, much less complete the form, Cutler said. Other options should be made available. People who receive Social Security, Veterans, and Railroad Retirement benefits programs should fill out the IRS Portal immediately to ensure they get their payment this year. Dan McKay 10:48 a.m. Torres Smalls bill would hold small businesses place in line New Mexico Congresswoman Xochitl Torres Small is sponsoring legislation that will allow small businesses to keep their place in line when applying for aid through the Paycheck Protection Program. Torres Small said several small businesses and farmers in the state qualified for funding, and small lenders were approved just as the program ran out of the almost $350 billion Congress approved through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act last month. The first term-Democrat told the Journal negotiations were underway to put at least another $300 billion into the program in another COVID-19 relief package. Under the legislation she is sponsoring small businesses will still be able to apply and hold a spot for when the funding becomes available. Small businesses were crowded out by bigger and faster operations and big lenders when funding was made available through the CARES ACT, Torres Small said in a phone interview. She said guidelines were in disarray during the original rollout, and it took small businesses with limited staff a longer time to get things set up. She said it was extremely difficult for the self employed and independent contractors to find out if they qualified. Scott Turner 9:40 a.m. National Guard sent to Gallup to assist locals New Mexico National Guard members are being called upon to help with food, water and crowd control as part of the states coronavirus response effort. Most recently, about 50 National Guard members were deployed to Gallup last week to help with coronavirus testing and with community social distancing efforts, National Guard spokesman Joseph Vigil said. Specifically, Gallup City Manager Maryann Ustick said in a news release the National Guard members would be helping grocery stores to enforce the social distancing measures, which include only allowing 20% of a stores maximum capacity to be inside at any time. Read more >> Dan Boyd 6:05 a.m. Navajo Nation COVID-19 cases reach 1,321 Navajo Nation health officials announced COVID-19 cases on the reservation had reached 1,321 Monday, an increase in 124 cases from Saturdays reports. The Navajo Nation did not report case updates on Sunday, so the latest numbers represent two days of collected data. A Monday evening news release from the Navajo Department of Health said there are now 45 Navajo COVID-19 deaths on the Navajo Nation, including two border town deaths. There have been a total of 4,589 negative test results. The latest data from the New Mexico Department of Health shows Native Americans make up 41.47% of the states COVID-19 cases. Native Americans represent 10.9% of New Mexicos population, according to 2019 U.S. Census Bureau data. The Navajo Nation is currently under a reservation-wide 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily curfew. Visitors and tourists are not permitted on the reservation. Navajo residents are required to wear a mask when in public on the reservation. Navajo COVID-19 cases by county (from the Navajo Epidemiology Center): Navajo County (AZ): 332 Apache County (AZ): 233 Coconino County (AZ): 217 McKinley County (NM): 306 San Juan County (NM): 177 Cibola County (NM): 14 Socorro (NM): 13 Sandoval (NM): 13 San Juan County (UT): 16 Heres how to help. Theresa Davis The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriff's Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Mitchell Kukulka. Saturday, April 18 10:35 p.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to a Greendale Township residence in reference to third party information that a 29-year-old man was being shot at. The 34-year-old complainant said the 29-year-old messaged her on social media saying he was being shot at. Deputies investigated the situation, contacted nearby residents, and deemed the situation to have been a mental health issue. Contact with the 29-year-old was attempted, but unsuccessful. 4:47 p.m. -- A 55-year-old Jerome Township man reported he was pushed by his 27-year-old Lee Township son. The son and his mother denied an assault. The victim did not wish to pursue charges. There are no injuries. 1:55 p.m. -- Officers performed a death investigation in the 3200 block of Fernside Street. 12:28 p.m. -- Officers performed a death investigation in the 3800 block of Greenfield Court. 12:22 p.m. -- A 61-year-old Jerome Township woman called to report a violation of the stay-at-home order. She reported several vehicles were seen with horses and they were at a county park. A deputy checked, and no violation occurred. 11:35 a.m. -- A deputy discovered a male brown pit bull mix running loose in Porter Township. The deputy recognized the dog from previous times it has gotten loose, and took the dog to the owner's property and turned it over to the owner's 55-year-old husband. The owner, a 56-year-old woman, was later cited for dog-at-large. 10:54 a.m. -- A deputy spoke with a female clerk at a Lee Township gas station, who said an man had pumped $15.33 into his pewter pickup truck and had driven away without paying. The clerk was able to get the license plate number of the pickup before he left the parking lot. The deputy later called and spoke with the 53-year-old suspect, who said the incident was accidental. He immediately returned to the gas station and paid the outstanding bill. 8:20 a.m. -- A deputy spoke with a 48-year-old man over telephone regarding a larceny of $450 from his residence. The 48-year-old believes his 50-year-old City of Midland girlfriend has stolen the money. The deputy later spoke with the girlfriend over telephone, who denied taking anything from the man. 7:20 a.m. -- A deputy euthanized an injured deer in a Mills Township roadway. Friday, April 17 10:07 p.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to Edenville Township for an injured deer. The deer was located and euthanized. 9:47 p.m. -- A deputy responded to a car-deer crash in the area of North Waldo Road near East Letts Road. 8:58 p.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to the MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland for a report of a 21-year-old Larkin Township man with a gunshot wound. After investigation, it was determined the man had accidentally shot himself in the leg while attempting to clean his handgun. The man sustained a non-life-threatening injury to his left leg. 5:06 p.m. -- A deputy responded to a Coleman location for a report of a dog bite. The complainant said he was bitten by a dog, however the dog did not damage his clothing or injure him. The dog owner said she witnessed the entire incident and said the dog did not touch the complainant. The dog owner was warned to have proper control of her dog. 3:26 p.m. -- Officers performed to a warrant arrest in the area of Mac Street and North Saginaw Road. 3:22 p.m. -- Officers responded to a report of malicious destruction of property. 2:26 p.m. -- A deputy responded to a Geneva Township residence after a 44-year-old Harrison man found a key broke off into his lock and his barn door was ajar. Nothing was stolen, and there are no suspects. Extra patrol was requested at the residence. 12:54 p.m. -- A deputy and Michigan State Police trooper were dispatched to a Jerome Township senior nursing facility for a 88-year-old resident who was having psychiatric issues. The resident assaulted staff and the staff did not wish to pursue the incident as they wanted to have the resident transported to the ER for a medical and psychiatric evaluation. 12:32 p.m. -- Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the 2000 block of South Saginaw Road. 9:31 a.m. -- Officers responded to a report of damage to property in the 900 block of West Baker Street. 8:33 a.m. -- A deputy responded to an Ingersoll Township roadway for a car-deer traffic crash. Thursday, April 16 11:46 p.m. -- A 44-year-old man reported his 33-year-old fiancee was breaking the windows out of their mobile home and SUV. The woman was upset about the man not giving her the keys to their shared vehicle, after arguing about missing money. The woman agreed to stay at her father's house for the remainder of the night. 7 p.m. -- Officers responded to a report of fraud in the 4900 block of Grandview Circle. 6:55 p.m. -- A 57-year-old Jasper Township woman contacted the sheriff's office in reference to an animal complaint. The woman said two unknown loose dogs entered onto her property and killed one of her free-range chickens. It is currently unknown where the two dogs reside. The woman estimated the value of her chicken to be about $360. 5:42 p.m. -- Officers responded to a report of domestic violence in the 1500 block of Renee Drive. 4 p.m. -- Officers responded to a retail fraud in the 1900 block of South Saginaw Road. 2:10 p.m. -- Officers responded to a domestic assault in the 5000 block of Farnsworth Drive. 7:15 a.m. -- Officers responded to a report of domestic violence in the 2800 block of Bradfield Street. A police constable posted at Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackerays official residence has tested positive for coronavirus, reports PTI quoting a state official. The constable who has been found to be Covid-19 positive was posted at Varsha, the official residence allotted to Maharashtra Chief Minister, however, Uddhav stays at Matoshree, which is his family house in Bandra. A woman constable has tested positive for Covid-19. We have hospitalised her while contact-tracing is going on, said a senior IAS official quoted by PTI. The agency on Tuesday also reported that a male constable posted at the official residence of the leader of the opposition and former state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, too, has tested positive. The male police constable was deployed at `Sagar, which is the designated official residence for the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, said a senior official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or the BMC. He showed some symptoms on April 12 and was admitted to a hospital since April 14. His test report has come out positive. We have removed all other police officials posted there and quarantined them, the BMC official quoted by the agency said. Maharashtra currently has 5218 coronavirus positive patients after 552 new cases emerged on Tuesday. 251 people in the state have died so far to the disease including 19 on Wednesday. 12 of those who succumbed on Wednesday are from Mumbai, three from Pune, two from Thane, and one each in Sangli and Pimpri Chinchwad. By Trend Azerbaijan has all economic resources required in the post-pandemic period, Ruslan Atakishiyev, chairman of the Azerbaijani Center for Economic Reforms Analysis, told Trend. Moreover, Azerbaijan may reduce investment funds for some minor projects and save money, Atakishiyev added. A decision was made to provide lump-sum payments in April and May to 600,000 people after a meeting chaired by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and with the participation of ministers, which took place on April 17 in the form of video conference. At the next stage, it is planned to collect and systematize the necessary information, where all these people will be registered to ensure their further employment, the chairman said. "Moreover, during the quarantine regime, a process was launched to create 50,000 paid public jobs during the period from April through May, Atakishiyev said. For this purpose, 30 million manat ($17 million) was allocated. So far, 5,000 people have been already employed. During the meeting on April 17 President Aliyev stressed that it is necessary to increase this number up to 90,000. The process of attracting 12,000 families to the self-employment program was launched in 2020, the chairman said. Some 70 million manat ($41 million) was allocated from the Unemployment Insurance Fund for this purpose. Regional Development Public Union of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation actively contributes to the development of the program by attracting 250 families a year in it. "The number of recipients of social assistance has reached 330,000, the chairman added. The amount of targeted social assistance for each family is 222 manat ($130). In accordance with the presidents order, the mechanisms for targeted social assistance have been simplified and the conditions have been alleviated. There is a guarantee that more families will receive support from this program, which proves once again that the president is taking the necessary, consistent measures to improve the social well-being of low-income families." --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Shrines and Growths, rivers, hills and forest play a very significant role in the lives of our people, either environmentally, economically or spiritually based on ones beliefs and faith on the later. They are natural sites governed with traditions that our forebears have bequeathed to us with a lot of history behind them, their relevance today cannot be underestimated. One of such is Kukula the river god in Kayoro/Akania in the Kassena Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region. As part of the heritage month, Radio Ghana took a visit to Kukula. Kukula the river god, takes its source from Burkina Faso running through Kayoro/Akania in the Kassena Nankana Muincipality of the Upper East Region and ending up in the White Volta tributary in Pwuluga. Kukula is believed to have come from the sky in the form of light and struck a huge rock in the court yard of the Kayoro/Akania Chiefs Palace and split it, signifying that, the Aduinawos Palace should be the custodians of the god. From there, the power moved and settled in the river and has since become their river god Kukula. The water in the river hardly dries up and it is in this water that, when consulting, after performing the necessary rituals you are directed all alone to go into the water and make all your wishes then bath in it. According to the Chief priest of the river god Emmanuel Ayerah stated that, Kukula is a god that blesses people and have the solutions to all problems of human endeavor such as success in marriage, money, power, education, business, fame, travelling abroad, except to kill someone. He indicated that, people both home and abroad visit the river god including some pastors. The linguist of Chiefs Palace Aduna Adubinwo revealed that, historically, Kukula saved the people of Kania and Kayoro during the slave trade in the 1615s to 1630s, when the Kayoro/AKanias were pursued by the slave raiders, they consulted Kukula that they were being tormented for far too long and that they the natives needed power to overcome the enemy. According to Aduna, the linguiste the next attack by the raiders, it was during March dry season. Akanians run across their river god on dry land when the slave raiders tried to cross, Kukula suddenly filled herself with water, the raiders were rounded up, killed and the river carried their bodies away with the water. This history is similar to that of Moses and the Israelites at the red sea against Pharaoh and his chariots. The shackles taken from the slave raiders are in custody at the Akania chiefs Palace as exhibits. When the slave raiders arrived, they shot a gun and the bullet hit a Tamarine in the 16th century, that tree is still alive today with mark. Inside the Akanias Chief Palace, where the suckles are kept, there is a platform which according to the linguist their ancestors came and met and it has never change. The frequent visits of people to area is a form of tourism and revenue to the natives as visiting there is not totally free. Kukula is located in a forest which as serves as a forest reserve. According to the natives, the forest has wild animals such as elephants, lions, monkeys, Antelopes, among others that servers as wildlife. The tree species found in the forest are the sheanuts, dawadawa, tamarine, black berry and ebony trees among others. In time past, that stretch of forest was very dense and fearful but was less patronized as the Kukula was not popular as of now. As a result of human activities, it lost its vegetative cover drastically as the common phenomenon bush fires bedevil the area. As we celebrate the heritage month, there is the need to conserve whatever that has been bequeathed to us by our forebears for generation yet unborn, to come and experience it, learn and share. Otherwise, planet earth will suffer a disservice injured and destroy and posterity will not forgive for a wicked act. HOUSTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Savage Brands, a purpose-driven agency specializing in branding, marketing, leadership development and culture building with more than 40 years of experience, is expanding its digital marketing capabilities through an alliance with Refinery Lab. Refinery will act as an extension of the Savage team to offer clients proven, specialized expertise in digital strategy, execution and data analysis. Bethany Andell The Refinery Lab team has worked with Savage for the past year to deliver advisory services and digital strategy and execution support on a project basis. The companies are now formalizing a partnership to give clients seamless access to digital strategies and tactics that will drive their businesses. "This collaboration brings together our two like-minded organizations to offer our clients an integrated, one-stop-shop agency," said Bethany Andell, President, Savage Brands. "Savage has decades of success in building purposeful brands, employee and client communications and experiences. With the addition of Refinery Lab's expertise, our clients gain access to valuable insights and actionable data that will enable them to move quickly, optimize their investment and advance their business goals." Ashif Dhanani, Co-founder, Refinery Lab, said Savage uniquely helps organizations discover the reason they exist beyond making a profit and build compelling stories around that purpose. "We complement that by helping clients bring their stories to customers, employees and prospects through highly optimized digital strategies." Dhanani attributes Refinery's success to a combination of business knowledge, an innovative mindset and technical expertise, as well as a "rapid experimentation" approach that enables the team to quickly gather data and insights on what's working and what's not to drive results and eliminate random acts of marketing. Andell cited the success of an energy sector client that saw excellent results working with the combined team including an 83 percent increase in leads year-over-year. Eighty percent of those were qualified, resulting in several million dollars of new business. For information on Savage's strategic branding, marketing and employee communication capabilities contact savagebrands.com/contact-us . ABOUT SAVAGE BRANDS Savage Brands believes in unleashing the good inherent within all organizations. Business results are driven by connecting with people at the belief level. That's why we align everything a company says and does with its Purpose through a proven process that links strategy and execution with "why." We solve the challenges corporate America faces by building tribal loyalty from the inside out, focusing on people first to deliver authentic brand experiences. Savage builds purposeful brands, communications, leaders and cultures. Visit us at SavageBrands.com. ABOUT REFINERY LAB Refinery Lab was founded in 2016 to provide companies with on-demand access to executive leadership and senior marketing talent when and where companies need it. A team of highly influential strategists, with extensive experience in delivering exceptional marketing and product management, work to increase revenue and ROI. This breadth and depth of experience in the technology sector give Refinery Lab the fluency necessary to deliver advisory services for tech companies, and to drive digital transformation for non-technology firms. For more information: Judi Martin 713-299-5619 [email protected] SOURCE Savage Brands Related Links http://www.SavageBrands.com SPRINGFIELD State Sens. James Welch and Eric Lesser told city councilors Tuesday they support efforts to expand and safeguard voting options in the fall 2020 elections in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The comments came during meeting held via an online video conference between the two senators and the 13 councilors to discuss an array of issues related to the pandemic. Ward 1 City Councilor Adam Gomez on Monday proposed exploring options such as citywide mail-in voting for the September state primary and November general election. Welch and Lesser supported a review of all options. South Koreas recent national elections for president and parliament and had record turnout because they kept people safe, Lesser said. They did mail options, they did in-person options, for the in-person options, they gave people gloves, they spaced everybody out, they had resources for people to make it safe, Lesser said. "There are a lot of models for us to look at both around the world and in other states. We need to be proactive on it." The local officials cited the recent presidential primary vote in Wisconsin held despite the virus, leading to a situation described as chaotic. We dont want that in Massachusetts, Lesser said. The Legislature is considering several bills regarding the elections, Lesser said. Welch agreed on the need to explore multiple options. What it will ultimately look like, I think it will probably be a myriad of things, whether it be expanded absentee balloting or voting by mail, or extend early voting time frames, Welch said. All options including voting in person should be looked at, Welch said. I think all of those scenarios should be on the table, but we are quickly running out of time," Welch said. "Im, of course, in favor of all forms of access to voting. Welch and Lesser said the requirements for candidates to gather signatures to be on the state ballot in 2020 were eased in order to reduce potential exposure to the virus. The signature issue was not resolved by the Legislature, but was settled by a recent ruling from the state Supreme Judicial Court, they said. The number of mandated signatures was cut by half. Regarding other coronavirus issues, Welch said that at least 85% of constituent calls regard unemployment issues, such as people having difficulty with applying for unemployment and waiting for approval. He and Lesser agreed with councilors that testing is vitally important in helping to chart and respond to the coronavirus. They said the state is focused on that issue, including the need to bring extra attention to hot spot areas, such as densely populated areas, and nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. We are all in this together, so please dont hesitate to reach out to us, Lesser said during the nearly 90-minute meeting. Related content: The Centre on Tuesday directed the West Bengal government not to obstruct the work of two central teams visiting the state for an on-the-spot assessment of implementation of lockdown measures taken to fight novel coronavirus. The home ministry said the West Bengal government is not cooperating with the central teams visiting the state to assess the ground situation and are specifically restraining them from interacting with health workers and touring the affected areas. The Centre has directed the West Bengal government not to obstruct working of central teams in reviewing and making on the spot assessment of the implementation of lockdown measures, an official statement said. The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, dubbed the visit of the central teams as "adventure tourism" and asked why such delegations were not sent to states with much higher numbers of infections and hotspots. TMC MPs Derek O'Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was informed about the teams' visit three hours after their arrival in the state, which they said was unacceptable. In a letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said it has been brought to the notice of the ministry that the two inter-ministerial central teams, visiting Kolkata and Jalpaiguri, have not been provided with the requisite cooperation by the state and local authorities. "In fact, they have been specifically restrained from making any visits, interacting with health professionals, and assessing the ground level situation. "This amounts to obstructing the implementation of the orders issued by the central government under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and equally binding directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," Bhalla said. The union home secretary said, therefore, the state government is directed to comply to make all necessary arrangements for the central teams to carry out such responsibilities as have been entrusted to them. Home Ministry Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava also raised the issue at the daily media briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country. She said the Centre has sent the teams under the Disaster Management Act to four states -- Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. While Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are extending full support, the government in West Bengal is not doing so, she added. Apurva Chandra, leader of one of the central teams visiting West Bengal, also said in Kolkata that other teams visiting Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are getting full support of the respective state governments. "They were given the same notice as West Bengal but they have faced no problems," Chandra, an additional secretary-rank officer in the central government, said. A total of six inter-ministerial central teams have been deputed to Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal to review the implementation of lockdown measures. Two of these teams have been sent to West Bengal -- one team to Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and East Medinipur and the other team to Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Kalimpong. The teams comprise public health specialists and officers of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), whose expertise can be leveraged by the state government for management of COVID-19 pandemic. The teams were deputed under the authority conferred on the Central Government under Section 35 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 which states that "..the central government shall take all such measures as it deems necessary or expedient for the purpose of Disaster Management". Bhalla, in his letter, also quoted a recent Supreme Court observation that the state governments will faithfully comply with the directives and orders issued by the Union of India in letter and spirit in the interest of public safety. These observations of the apex court, the home secretary said, must be treated as directions and faithfully complied with. The home ministry had said COVID-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and violation of lockdown measures risk the spread of the novel coronavirus. Acting swiftly, the ministry sent the six IMCTs to visit these worst coronavirus-affected areas to make on the spot assessment and recommend remedial measures besides submitting reports to the Centre. In separate but identical orders sent on Sunday to Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan, the home ministry said there have been several incidents of violence against COVID-19 frontline healthcare professionals, complete violation of social distancing norms and movement of vehicles in urban areas. The home ministry said in some of the districts, a number of violations to the lockdown measures have been reported, posing a serious health hazard and risk for spread of COVID-19 which is against general interest of public, these violations include attacks on frontline healthcare professionals, complete violations of social distancing norms outside banks, PDS shops and in market places, movement of private and commercial vehicles with passengers in urban areas and so on. These incidents, if they are allowed to occur without any restraining measures in hotspot districts or emerging hotspots, with large outbreaks or clusters, pose a serious health hazard, both for the population of these districts and for that living in other areas of the country, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's president chastised drug gangs on Monday, telling them to end violence instead of distributing food, after several reports across the country in recent days showed armed narcos handing out care packages stamped with cartel logos. Imploring criminals to behave better, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared that the care packages filled with basic foodstuffs and cleaning supplies are not helpful. "These criminal organizations that have been seen distributing the packages, this isn't helpful. What helps is them stopping their bad deeds," he told reporters at a news conference. The leftist president, who has advocated a less confrontational approach than his predecessors to taming raging cartel violence, said gang members should refrain from harming others and instead think of the suffering they cause to their own families and the mothers of their victims. Mexico notched a homicide record of 34,582 dead during Lopez Obrador's first full year in office in 2019, as the president advocated for more social spending to address the root causes of crime. Last week, reports first circulated of several Mexican cartels deploying members to dole out aid packages to help cash-strapped residents ride out the coronavirus pandemic. A daughter of jailed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was among those spotted handing out the packages stamped with her own company's "El Chapo 701" logo, which includes the image of her infamous father. The boxes included cooking oil, rice, sugar and other items were distributed in Guadalajara, Mexico's second-biggest city. Beyond the Guzman-linked Sinaloa Cartel, other gangs have similarly courted publicity with care packages for mostly poor residents, including the Jalisco New Generation and Los Durango cartels. Photos posted on social media on Monday showed heavily armed members from both handing out packages including toilet paper and shampoo. Story continues Lopez Obrador, meanwhile, has come under sharp criticism for not advocating more financial support for companies or jobless workers. Over the past month, the country's economy has dramatically slowed due to coronavirus containment measures. To date, there are more than 8,000 confirmed coronavirus cases as well as nearly 700 deaths attributed to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. (Reporting by Raul Cortes Fernandez and Daina Beth Soloman in Mexico City; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Matthew Lewis) ANN ARBOR, MI Normally, instructor Fabio Cosmo da Cunha, known as Mestre Lobinho, travels to different schools and programs in Ann Arbor to teach Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art. Now, all classes are available virtually. Capoeira uses your whole body, said Lobinho. It brings you a lot of benefits. We can incorporate so many elements that will make everyone happy when you participate. The Afro-Brazilian martial art is a combination of rituals, dance, fight, music and acrobatics. The art was originated by West Africans slaves that were taken to Brazil during the 16th century. Capoeira can now be found all over the world. Kid programs for learning Capoeira start at the age of 2. Lobinho also holds classes for people with disabilities, adults and families. He works with the Eastern Michigan University Bright Futures program as well. Right now, Lobinhos priority is accessibility and affordability. On Mondays at 11 a.m., Lobinho has a free live stream event for kids and families to get active and learn Capoeira. A lot of people are stuck in the house and they dont know what to do, Lobinho said. Im trying to give the community some free activity in health and try to use the skills I have to help. He explained that you may even learn some Portuguese while participating. Instructions on setting up will be explained at the beginning of the live event. Items such as a chair or tape may be used. If you become a regular adult or child client, a schedule is available for Capoeira classes to be streamed on Zoom. Classes are held every day of the week except Friday. Virtual Capoeira Classes Don't stay without training Join today and have fun with us Follow @lobinhocdo... Posted by Ann Arbor Capoeira on Thursday, April 9, 2020 Lobinho left Brazil in 2015 when he received an Artist Visa to teach the martial art in the United States. He has been teaching in Ann Arbor ever since. I grew up in a really difficult neighborhood in Brazil and Capoeira gave me a second option to leave, Lobinho said. Capoeira gave me everything self-discipline, self-confidence and I believe in myself. Lobinho wants to share his love of Capoeira and hopes the art will help others like it did for him. India's apex medical research body ICMR on Tuesday advised states to stop using the rapid antibody test kits for next two days till it examines their quality in the wake of complaints that they are not fully effective. Last week, India procured five lakh rapid antibody test kits from two Chinese firms and they were distributed to several states reporting rising cases of coronavirus infection. Rajasthan government on Tuesday said that the kits were giving out inaccurate results. At a press briefing, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at Indian the ICMR, Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, said the companies which supplied the kits will be asked to replace them if the kits are found to be faulty. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been the nodal medical body in India's fight against the pandemic. "We have received complaint from one state and so far discussed the issue with three states. High variations ranging from 6 to 71 per cent have been reported between the results of the rapid tests and-PCR tests. We will advise states not to use these testing kits for the next two days," he said. These kits will be tested and validated in the field by teams from our eight institutes after which we will issue a clear-cut advisory for the states. If there is some fault in the batch, we will ask the company to replace the kits," Gangakhedkar said. Officials clearly indicated that the kits over which questions have been raised are from China. Rajasthan health minister Raghu Sharma on Tuesday said the kits gave only 5.4 per cent accurate results against the expectation of 90 per cent accuracy and therefore were of no benefit. In the wake of adverse reports about quality of Chinese medical equipment, spokesperson in the Chinese embassy Ji Rong last week said China attaches great importance to quality of medical products. "We hope that foreign buyers can choose products certified by Chinese regulatory authorities and with production qualifications when importing relevant products," Ji had said. She said the Chinese authorities introduced stricter regulatory measures, requiring exporters to declare that their supplies have obtained the registration certificate for medical device from the State Food and Drug Administration and meet the quality standards of the importing country. About questions over quality of the tests, Gangakhedkar said that these were first general tests and may show variations. It has been just three-and-half months since the disease appeared and so any test will have to be refined further, he added. At present, the government uses the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to detect coronavirus from throat or nasal swab samples of people. These take around five to six hours to show the results. In the rapid antibody tests, the blood samples of suspected patients are taken, and it normally takes around 15-30 minutes to give the result. The government has recommended the use of rapid antibody tests in hotspot areas. "It is to be used for surveillance and for epidemiological purposes in such areas. The-PCR test is the gold standard for frontline test and antibody test cannot replace this test. Utility of rapid antibody test is primarily for assessing prevalence of infection in a particular area," officials earlier had said. India has been facing severe shortage of testing kits amid rising cases of the coronavirus. Asked if the number of cases would stabilise, Gangakhedkar said, "The doubling time of cases is increasing, the current situation indicates that significant increase in number of coronavirus cases is unlikely." A total of 4,49,810 samples for COVID-19 infection have been tested till Tuesday of which 35,852 were tested on Monday, he said. As many as 29,776 samples have been tested in 201 labs under the ICMR network, and 6,076 at 86 private laboratories, he said. Joint Secretary in the ministry of Health Lav Agarwal said that along with Mahe (Puducherry), Kodagu (Karnataka) and Pauri Garhwal (Uttrakhand) , a new district Pratapgarh in Rajasthan has not reported any fresh cases during the last 28 days. There are now 61 additional districts from 23 states and UTs that have not reported any fresh cases in the last 14 days. Four new districts which have been included in the list are Latur, Osmanabad, Hingoli and Washim from Maharashtra, according to the official. Agarwal further said that the Union Health Minister has written to all state and UT health departments asking them to ensure adequate availability of blood in blood banks especially for people requiring regular blood transfusion on account of disorders such as Thalassemia, Sickle Cell Anemia and Hemophilia etc. Also, a 24x7 control room has been started by Indian Red Cross in Delhi. Whoever requires or want to donate blood can contact on 011 233 59379, 9319982104 and 9319982105. Agarwal said that detailed guidelines have been issued to states that they should focus on COVID-19 cases while, at the same time, non-COVID hospitals should provide regular services relating to maternal and child care, dialysis as well as treatment for cancer and HIV patients. While providing all these services, required infection prevention control practices should be ensured in hospital set-ups to prevent spread of hospital related infections, he said. Agarwal said that a total of 1,336 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours since Sunday morning taking the total number of cases in the country to 18, 601. Also 3,252 people have been cured so far with 705 people, the highest so far, having recovered on Monday. So overall 17.48 per cent people have recovered in the country so far, he stated. Responding to a media query about 80 per cent of the COVID-19 patients being either asymptomatic and having mild symptoms and how the government is dealing with it, Gangakhedkar said that it is just one study according to which 80 out of 100 patients are asymptomatic. "Among the total coronavirus tests conducted so far, 69 per cent were asymptomatic cases and 31 per cent were symptomatic cases. Which means for one positive patients when we initiated contact tracing, on an average we found three or four asymptomatic patients," he said. "There are few reports of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases which are truly asymptomatic. There has been no documented asymptomatic transmission. This does not exclude the possibility that it may occur," Agarwal said referring to a WHO report. "Using community surveillance and contact tracing, we are taking pre-emptive action to test asymptomatic persons with high risk contacts so that we are able to identify infected patients in early stage, treat them and reduce mortality," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) (Note: A earlier version of the story said that sale of liquor shops can be opened in Maharashtra. It has been changed to incorporate the minister's actual quote and a tweet later which clarified that "liquor stores are not exempt as of now (as per Centre's guidelines) and a final decision will come only after strict regulations prepared") Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said liquor shops in the state can be opened if social distancing measures are strictly followed. "If social distancing is properly maintained, there should not be any ban on liquor shops," Tope said while responding to a question regarding the subject during his Facebook Live earlier today. Commenting on the number of deaths due to novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, crossing the 3,000 mark, Tope said, "In Maharashtra, we have conducted 76,000 tests. The same for Mumbai stands at over 50,000. We have decided to undertake 75,000 rapid tests. The state has done the most number of tests in the country." He said that there are about 6,000 surveillance teams working in Maharashtra. But raised concerns about those in the state who are 'still hiding symptoms' of the novel coronavirus, despite the recovery rate being high. 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 Tope said that hydroxychloroquine will be administered to patients who do not have any heart problems. Later in a tweet, Tope said that although liquor shops are not in the list of exemptions, a final decision on the same will be announced only after strict regulations are prepared. You can read about it in this story here: But that sense of invulnerability fails to take into account that rural America today is interconnected with the rest of the nation like never before. What farm family doesnt stock up at the local Walmart or eat at the local diner? Those and other factors might explain why, as of the first week of April, more than two-thirds of Americas rural counties had confirmed coronavirus infections, with a per capita rate that had more than doubled from the week before, including the Missouri counties of Pulaski and Moniteau, according to a New York Times analysis. That rate approaches what its been in some urban areas. New Delhi, Apr 21 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it cannot pass orders to direct the Union of India to bring back the stranded students in Moldova and refused to interfere with the petition. The bench, headed by Justice N V Ramana, was hearing a plea, which seeks airlifting of Indian students from Maldova. It was submitted by the petitioner that the students have been in self-isolation for 1.5 months and that as there are no cases in Moldova anymore, Air Moldova is ready to transport them back. The Bench responded and said, 'The government has said that no people will be allowed to come. The same thing happened in case of students from the UK and the US. The government has taken a decision not to allow any more flights or trains. How can we ask them to allow the plane to land? 'Let the government take a decision in this regard,' the court added. UNI XC RJ 1910 Such a reaction was caused by the news about the concealment of COVID-19 patients in Crimea and Donbas" Open source April 21, it became known that Russia's Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Communication, Information Technologies, and Mass Communications blocked the website of Ukraine Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office. The press service of Ukraines Reintegration Ministry reported it. The press service noted that it was not yet known whether the site of the Ministry of Integration had been blocked only in Russia, or in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia. However, it is known that such a reaction was caused by the news about the concealment of COVID-19 patients in Crimea and Donbas". As we reported earlier, in Ukraine, the peak mortality from coronavirus infection is likely to occur in early May. The forecast can be justified provided that quarantine measures will be continued in the same volume as now. In this case, the peak values of new cases of virus infection will be reached on May 2-5, and the peak of deaths on May 3-8. (Bloomberg) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo called for an urgent expansion of testing and aggressive containment measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus thats killed almost 600 people in the worlds fourth-most populous nation. Large scale testing nationwide should be followed by aggressively tracking and isolating those exposed to the deadly disease, Jokowi, as the president is known, told a cabinet meeting in Jakarta Monday. The president also asked officials to widely disseminate data related to the pandemic to dispel any impression of a cover up by the government. Indonesias capital Jakarta and its satellite cities have emerged as the epicenter of the pandemic in the country with infections more than quadrupling to 6,760 since the start of the month. The outbreak has killed 590 people in Indonesia, the most in Asia after China, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Indonesia has tested only about 44,000 people for the virus so far with health experts attributing the high mortality rate of 8.7% to slow pace of diagnosis across the archipelago of more than 17,000 island. The nation also has about 182,000 people under medical observation, according to official data. Authorities have now placed several cities and towns under partial lockdowns to contain the virus with the government warning the worst phase of the pandemic has yet to come. Infections may peak at around 95,000 by the end of next month before starting to ease, according to officials. Jokowi ordered officials to review the tighter social distancing rules, which place no ban on domestic travel but prohibit gatherings of more than five people at social and religious events. Jakarta, the first city to adopt the partial lockdown on April 10, may extend the measures, The Jakarta Post reported, citing Governor Anies Baswedan. Jokowi has rejected calls for the kinds of travel restrictions and regional quarantines imposed in other parts of the world, saying such harsh measures would hurt the poor. As domestic travel is still largely unrestricted, health experts have warned an annual ritual of millions of people going to their hometowns and village to celebrate Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr may spread the virus. Story continues The government will ensure adequate stockpiles of food with the nations majority Muslim population set to begin the fasting month of Ramadan this week, Jokowi said, asking officials to guarantee smooth transport and production of staples. The president also said the government would distribute food kits to 1.2 million families in Jakarta, extending the aid to other cities soon. (Updates cases in third paragraph.) 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. HARTFORD The ACLU of Connecticut, awaiting a ruling in its state lawsuit seeking an emergency order to release state prison inmates because of the pandemic, has filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of all people incarcerated in state prisons and jails. Like its state lawsuit, the federal lawsuit also seeks emergency action to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in state Department of Correction facilities. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two classes: people whom the state of Connecticut is incarcerating pretrial, and those the state is incarcerating post-sentence. The complaint details ongoing alleged COVID-19 mismanagement by the DOC that exacerbates the danger of contraction for people living and working in Connecticut prisons and jails, including: lack of social distancing, inadequate or nonexistent access to hygiene and cleaning supplies, inadequate or nonexistent access to personal protective equipment, lack of access to medical care, and transfers of people who test positive to and from the states supermax, Northern Correctional Institution. The lawsuit names five inmates who it states are specifically endangered by being kept incarcerated: Tre McPherson, who is being held pretrial at the Bridgeport Correctional Center in lieu of $5,100 bond, in an open dormitory with 57 other men, the suit says. McPherson recently lost his sense of smell, and others in his dorm are reporting symptoms of illness,. Pattikate Williams-Void, a pretrial inmate at York Correctional Institution, who is over the age of 60, has hypertension, and has been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, the suit says. A man over the age of 70 who is only identified in the suit as John Doe, who is serving a sentence of incarceration, is HIV positive and hepatitis C positive, and requires regular dialysis for kidney disease. A man over the age of 50 who is only identified as John Roe, who is serving a sentence of incarceration, is HIV positive. In disregard of these risk factors, the state is incarcerating him in an open dormitory with more than 90 other people, sleeping in bunk beds in close proximity to one another, the suit says. Thomas Caves, who is a serving a sentence of incarceration at Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center, where DOC healthcare workers recently strongly criticized the states mismanagement of the COVID-19 outbreak. Caves shares showers, phones, and common space with more than 80 other men housed in his unit. One person who contracted COVID-19 and fell ill in Caves unit was locked in his cell, with his cellmate, for 15 days, the suit says. The DOCs reactive, backward approach to COVID-19 has made Connecticut prisons and jails among the most dangerous, unhealthy places anyone could be during this pandemic. The DOCs response has exacerbated the crisis and threatens public health as a whole, said Dan Barrett, ACLU of Connecticut legal director and an attorney on the case. Incarcerated people are in grave and immediate danger in DOC facilities, and Governor Lamont and Commissioner Cook have a constitutional and moral responsibility to move them out of harms way, including by compassionately releasing people. The lawsuit asks the court to order Gov. Ned Lamont and DOC Commissioner Rollin Cook to safely release medically vulnerable incarcerated people and to create a plan to protect any people who remain incarcerated, including a plan for release if social distancing remains impossible. Joining the ACLU of Connecticut in representing incarcerated people are Brandon Buskey from the national ACLUs Criminal Law Reform Project, and Dechert LLP attorneys Will Sachse, Jonathan Tam, Jenna Newmark, and Gabrielle Piper from the firms Philadelphia, New York, and San Francisco offices. The latest action follows a similar lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Connecticut in the state Superior Court on April 3. Oral arguments in that separate, state court lawsuit were heard on April 15, and that lawsuit is ongoing. The state Attorney Generals Office, which is handling the case, declined to comment. The government plans to extend quarantine measures as it expects a surge in COVID-19 coronavirus cases in early May. The possibility of easing the coronavirus quarantine to cushion Ukrainians from the effect of the lockdown and relaunch the economy has been considered at a meeting chaired by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on addressing the epidemic. Meanwhile, the government plans to extend quarantine measures as it expects a surge in COVID-19 coronavirus cases in early May, according to the President's Office. Read alsoUkraine's Health Ministry to offer to extend quarantine until May 12 "It is necessary to tell people exactly when and what will reopen, [inform about] the government's clear action plan. The surge is expected in early May. People should understand when it is be possible to walk in parks, when hairdressers, notaries, lawyers and other businesses reopen. I know that Olympic athletes want to train to keep fit. All people should have a clear vision of how and when the quarantine could be eased," Zelensky said. In turn, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said it was necessary first to ease quarantine measures in non-critical infrastructure, which could play a role in stabilizing the economy. He added Ukraine had introduced its quarantine measures on time and thanks to this, it was possible to avoid a critical situation with the number of coronavirus patients. As UNIAN reported earlier, 415 new coronavirus cases, including 10 deaths, were confirmed in Ukraine in the past day. Ukraine's Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said the ministry would offer to extend quarantine measures until May 12. Medical staff look at the scan of a patient's lungs at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) hosting the COVID-19 patients at the ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo, Italy, on April 3, 2020. (Piero Cruciatti/AFP via Getty Images) Italy Now Has More Respirators Than ICU Patients: Official Italian hospitals for the first time have more respirators than patients with COVID-19 infections, according to a top official. This gives us the strength to go forward, Domenico Arcuri, Italys extraordinary commissioner for the COVID-19 emergency, told reporters on Tuesday, reported The Associated Press. The country has 2,500 patients receiving intensive care for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19. Arcuri said that healthcare workers suffered anguish, with which, each night, we had to decide where to send these instruments, which, in the end, save lives when there werent enough respirators for patients. Ill keep that with me for all my life, and I wouldnt wish anyone else to experience, he added. The Civil Protection Agency reported Tuesday that in the past 24 hours, 534 people died from the virus, rising about 80 from the previous day, according to the state-backed ANSA. Volunteers looking on during the opening of a newly operative field hospital for coronavirus patients in Cremona, southeast of Milan on March 20, 2020. (Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images) So far, over 24,000 people have died during the pandemic in Italy. In comparison, more than 42,000 people have died in the United States from the virus. Italys population is equal to around 19 percent of the U.S. total, and some 62 million people live there, according to the most recent CIA World Factbook data. In Europe, Italy has recorded the highest number of deaths. Spain, the UK, and France have all recorded more than 10,000 deaths from the CCP virus. Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is expected to unveil a plan to loosen restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. I would like to be able to say, lets open everything. Right away, Conte wrote on Facebook this week. But such a decision would be irresponsible. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives at the Mozarteum University to attend a plenary session part of the EU Informal Summit of Heads of State or Government in Salzburg, Austria, on Sept. 20, 2018. (Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images) He added: It would make the contagion curve rise uncontrollably and would jeopardize all the efforts that weve made until now. Italy has been on lockdown since early March. Contes government has faced mounting pressure from businesses and opposition politicians, who have said that Italians have to get back to work. A reasonable expectation is that we will apply it from May 4, Conte said. We have to reopen on the basis of policy that takes into consideration all the details and cuts across all the data. A serious policy, scientific, Conte wrote. Plastic bag bans were never a good idea. One reason why is that the reusable bags pushed by nanny-state environmental scolds as alternatives endanger peoples lives and health. Research has long indicated that reusable bags are likely vectors for disease. Blood and other fluids from meats, poultry, fish, and condensation, juices, and pesticides from fruits and vegetables can be absorbed by reusable bags. If not cleaned regularly and stored properly, bacteria -- including e-coli and salmonella -- can take up residence and mold can form. Repeated use can contaminate the users food and even the food of others as the contaminated reusable bags come into contact with grocery conveyor belts and the hands of employees. In addition, unlike non-porous, sterile plastic bags, microbes, and viruses like the coronavirus can cling to and linger on porous reusable bags. Despite these facts, environmental lobbyists concerned about plastic pollution to the exclusion of other environmental and public health problems have forced a number of cities and states to ban plastic bags in recent years. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and most recently Washington state banned single-use plastic bags in one form or another. In other states, some cities have enacted local bans. But now many governors and mayors, looking for ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19, are suspending their plastic bag bans. For instance, Oregon has placed a hold on its plastic bag ban. In Maine, a plastic bag ban scheduled to take effect on Earth Day, April 22, was delayed by Gov. Janet Mills until Jan. 15, 2021. And, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu directed all retailers to use single-use bags for the time being and not allow the use reusable bags in their stores. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker ordered the 139 municipalities with restrictions on single-use bags to overturn those laws, telling WBUR, [f]rom now on, reusable bags are prohibited and all regulations on plastic bag bans will be lifted. In New Jersey, a bill to ban plastic bags statewide failed after the legislature shelved it amid concerns about public health. Instead, the legislature is now considering a bill to suspend local ordinances banning plastic bags. Cities ranging from Bellingham, Washington, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, have also imposed a hiatus on their bans. To protect the health of their customers and employees, many grocery stores had begun unilaterally limiting or preventing the use of reusable bags in their stores, even before governments acted. For instance, Albertsons, Target, and Trader Joes, are letting customers use their own bags only if they sack their groceries themselves. Other stores are banning their use entirely. Plastic bag manufacturers and the plastic industry in general, who have long pointed out that plastic bags are the least likely form of packaging to retain or spread disease, are suggesting the federal government overturn plastic bag bans nationwide. We are asking that the Department of Health and Human Services investigate this issue and make a public statement on the health and safety benefits seen in single-use plastics, said Tony Radoszewski, CEO of the Plastics Industry Association CEO in a March 18 letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. We ask that the department speak out against bans on these products as a public safety risk and help stop the rush to ban these products by environmentalists and elected officials that puts consumers and workers at risk. Single-use plastic bags provide a sanitary and convenient way to carry our groceries home while protecting supermarket employees and customers from whatever is lurking on reusable bags, Radoszewski wrote in a post on the trade groups website. As the COVID-19 virus spreads across the country, single-use plastics will only become more vital. We live longer, healthier and better because of single-use plastics. Plastic bag bans rob consumers of choice. Alternative reusable bags are worse for the environment than plastic bags because they use more energy and resources and produce more greenhouse gases, pollution, and waste in their manufacture, transport, and disposal. And, as elected officials are finally taking seriously, plastic bag bans are bad for our health. Thats three strikes. Plastic bag bans should be out! H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. (hburnett@heartland.org) is a senior fellow on energy and the environment at The Heartland Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois. 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. The Travelers Cos. (NYSE:TRV) saw earnings fall in the first quarter due in part to higher catastrophic losses. The Hartford, Conn.-based insurer missed earnings estimates with $600 million in net income, down 25% from the first quarter of 2019. Earnings per diluted share came in at $2.33, down 22% from the previous year's first quarter. Revenue was up 3% year over year to $7.9 billion, but the company paid out $333 million in catastrophic losses -- up from $193 million in the previous year's quarter. The losses were primarily from tornadoes that hit Tennessee, as well as other wind storms and winter storms throughout the country. Underwriting gains were also offset by $86 million in net charges related to hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Travelers reported a consolidated combined ratio of 95.5% -- still profitable, but up from the same period the year before. Also, the company reported a 4% increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.85 per share, marking 16 straight years of dividend increases. Based on this morning's prices, Travelers' dividend yields about 3.2%, with an affordable payout ratio of 35%. "Our balance sheet is extremely strong, our debt-to-capital ratio is comfortably within our target range, our holding company liquidity of $1.6 billion is well above our target level, and we have a very high-quality investment portfolio," Travelers Chairman and CEO Alan Schnitzer said. Travelers stock price was up over 4% in early trading today. The stock price is down about 23% on the year. The likes of Dua Lipa, Rita Ora, Ellie Goulding, Sean Paul and Chris Martin are set to take part in BBC Radio 1's biggest ever Live Lounge as they perform a newly recorded charity single amid the coronavirus crisis. The Stay Home Live Lounge will be released at midday on Thursday and will see some of the music industrys biggest stars collaborate on a cover of Foo Fighters Times Like These to raise money for charities. There will be an accompanying video which will receive its world exclusive premiere during BBC Ones The Big Night In. Biggest names in music: The likes of Dua Lipa [L], Rita Ora [R], Ellie Goulding, Sean Paul and Chris Martin are set to take part in BBC Radio 1's biggest ever Live Lounge as they perform a newly recorded charity single amid the coronavirus crisis Also joining the line up are 5 Seconds Of Summer, AJ Tracey, Anne-Marie, Bastille, Biffy Clyro, Hailee Steinfeld, Jess Glynne, Mabel, Paloma Faith, RagnBone Man, Royal Blood, YUNGBLUD and Zara Larsson. The Stay Home Live Lounge will be recorded and filmed by artists from their own homes, and produced by Grammy and Ivor Novello award-winning producer Fraser T. Smith. He is renowned for his work with Stormzy, Adele and many more, and counts seven UK No.1 singles and 18 No. 1 albums among his achievements. The UK net profits from the charity single will be combined with any funds raised by The Big Night In and split equally between BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief to provide essential support to vulnerable people of all ages and backgrounds across the UK who will be significantly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. This week: The Stay Home Live Lounge will be released at midday on Thursday and will see some of the music industrys biggest stars collaborate on a cover of Foo Fighters Times Like These to raise money for charities [pictured L-R: Chris Martin, Ellie Goulding] Stay home! The Stay Home Live Lounge will be recorded and filmed by artists from their own homes [pictured: Paloma Faith] International net profits will go towards the WHOs COVID-19-Solidarity Response Fund. 'I am so proud that weve been able to come together to record this track and I cant wait for everyone to hear it,' Dua Lipa said. 'Thinking of everyone around the world at this difficult time. Love you all.' 'Im honoured to join such a great line up. More so than ever its important to remember the valuable role we each have to play in bringing hope, courage and strength to one another - I hope that this track brings comfort at such a difficult time,' added Ellie Goulding. This follows the BBC's coverage of the UK edition of One World: Together At Home live on BBC One on Sunday night. Famous faces came together to celebrate front line NHS staff and key workers for all they are doing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazing! On Sunday night, Little Mix kicked off the UK edition of One World: Together At Home live on BBC One, with a stunning rendition of their hit song Touch Little Mix kicked off the broadcast with a stunning rendition of their hit song Touch after Perrie Edwards gave a special message of thanks to critical workers. Claudia Winkleman, 48, Dermot O'Leary, 36, and Clara Amfo, 35, hosted the concert which relived some of the highlights from Saturday's US version of the show and presented a few never-before-seen performances. The trio of hosts stood apart, recognising the UK's social distancing rules as they revealed that Little Mix, Rag'N'Bone Man, 35, and Tom Jones, 79, would be performing new sets. Thankful: Before their socially-distanced performance recorded at their separate homes began, Perrie Edwards gave a heartfelt introduction where she thanked frontline workers The show began with George The Poet performing a spoken word piece, who was followed by an emotional rendition of Touch by the Little Mix ladies. Before their socially-distanced performance recorded at their separate homes began, Perrie Edwards said: 'We really hope you're staying positive during this weird, weird time that we're in. 'And I think we can agree that the love we all feel for the NHS staff at this time, and key workers - you all deserve such a huge thank you. We all appreciate you so so much.' Sensational: She was then joined by bandmates Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and Jesy Nelson who sang together in perfect harmony Hosts: Claudia Winkleman, 48, Dermot O'Leary, 36, and Clara Amfo, 35, hosted the concert which relived some highlights from Saturday's show and presented a few new performances 'Everybody, please take care of yourselves, protect your loves ones, stay home and save lives. Hopefully this rendition of Touch will put a smile on your faces', concluded Perrie. She was then joined by bandmates Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and Jesy Nelson who sang together in perfect harmony. Little Mix were followed by Beatles legend Paul McCartney before Jess Glynn sang her hit track I'll Be There. A total of 4,000 residents and staff in care facilities have been testing for Covid-19 this weekend (PA) Some 4,000 staff and residents in long-term residential care settings in the Republic have been tested for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours amid ongoing concern about infection clusters. Health Service Executive (HSE) chief executive Paul Reid said 2,000 tests were completed on Saturday, with the rest carried out on Sunday. A survey of mortality rates among residents in care facilities, which include nursing homes and mental health and disability services, is also being conducted this weekend to give health authorities a fuller picture of the impact of Covid-19. There are 575 nursing homes, including private and public facilities, across Ireland. COVID19 (coronavirus) weekly update from UCD OBrien Centre for Science https://t.co/YW9Ddsr9go HSE Ireland (@HSELive) April 19, 2020 At the end of April, 248 residential homes had confirmed or suspected outbreaks of Covid-19. Dr Colm Henry, chief clinical officer at the HSE, said: In the first instance, as weve seen in some of the cases during the week, the residents are in a particularly vulnerable setting. This virus is highly transmissible and it carries a particularly high morbidity and mortality among older, frailer people. Secondly, the presentation in such people is sometimes unusual. Some typical in terms of fever or cough or respiratory symptoms, it can also present with somebody not eating properly, or reduced mobility. Those who are already immobile are extremely frail the signs are so subtle its undetectable. On Sunday, the death toll linked to coronavirus increased by 39 in Ireland, bringing the total to 610. The Department of Health also reported 493 newly-confirmed positive cases, bringing the total number since the outbreak began to 15,251. During an HSE briefing, Mr Reid said the backlog of testing in Ireland has been cleared. There are 26 laboratories in Ireland and one in Germany carrying out tests for the HSE. Mr Reid said 60% of the total volume of completed tests are being done in Ireland. He also warned that the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) remains challenging. Expand Close Dr Colm Henry said the signs of Covid-19 in care home residents who are already frail can be impossible to spot (handout/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dr Colm Henry said the signs of Covid-19 in care home residents who are already frail can be impossible to spot (handout/PA) China has placed stronger controls on the export of its PPE, which he said has the potential to threaten some of our supply line. But he added: We are in a much stronger position than many countries, particularly many countries in Europe. It still remains to be a key focus for us so that we keep our staff, and we keep our care workers, and we keep patients and the public safe. Therefore, we continue to urge all healthcare workers to be extremely prudent in the use PPE and ensure it is for the correct purposes. We are now aiming to accelerate further deliveries that would have been planned much further out into May and June. Were working with the Chinese suppliers to see how fast they can accelerate those supplies, and that will be an order of about 130 million euro, over four times the size and scale of the order that we had on the first delivery. In that will be a line of gowns and overalls, about 11 million supplies and seven million gloves, two-and-a-half million face shields, six million respirator masks, 10 million surgical masks. Meanwhile, a respiratory doctor at a Dublin hospital has made a public appeal for donations of protective gowns. Anne Marie McLaughlin, who works at St Jamess Hospital, posted a video online in which she thanked people who have already donated PPE and said health staff are extremely grateful. Hospital request pic.twitter.com/3muJ8IGB24 anne marie mclaughlin (@annemar06878147) April 19, 2020 But she added they have one more request. She said: In particular we are looking for gowns that our healthcare workers can wear when visiting patients. These gowns are long-sleeve gowns, and they are made of material which is impermeable to liquids. You can contact us through our email ppeforfrontline@gmail.com. Elsewhere, Health Minister Simon Harris said he would like to see schools reopen for one day a week before the end of term this summer. Expand Close Health Minister Simon Harris said he will be following advice from experts on when lockdown restrictions can be eased (PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Health Minister Simon Harris said he will be following advice from experts on when lockdown restrictions can be eased (PA) He said the move would provide breathing space for families, and help the mental health of children and parents. Speaking to Sunday Independent, he said: Id like to see a situation where you could expand somewhat the areas in which people can go beyond their home. I am conscience that cocooning may remain a reality for quite a period of time, but is there a safe way that they can get out every now and then and take a walk, but I am not going to be making these decisions. Iran Responds To Trump: No Talks Under Economic Sanctions, Even With Biden Radio Farda April 20, 2020 Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Monday said despite President Donald Trump's claims, Iran will not engage in any negotiations with the United States as long as economic pressures and sanctions continue. "They are probably figuring they can wait and maybe it will be Biden and they will own America if Biden gets in and they know with me it doesn't work that way," President Donald Trump declared on Sunday about making a deal with Iran at a press conference in response to a reporter's question. The reporter asked if he was considering giving aid to Iran when the Democrats are looking for $5 billion in aid to Iran in view of the coronavirus pandemic. "If they needed ventilators, we have thousands of ventilators currently on hand and ventilators under constructionWe would certainly be willing to help and what they should do is be smart and make a deal. When asked to comment on President Trump's remarks the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said: "Trump has previously made similar claims. Recently he said he had received a letter from the North Korean Leader which they denied. He wants attention. Trump speaks in a humiliating manner, the way they deserve themselves. They say they are prepared to donate ventilators to Iran when they need medical equipment themselves". "We will not engage in any talks as long as the United States continues its economic terrorism and other pressures and sanctions against us," he added. Referring to a tweet by Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif on Sunday Mousavi said Zarif has given "a decisive answer" to President Trump's offer of ventilators in return for talks. In his tweet on Sunday Zarif said Iran will be exporting ventilators in a few months. " All you need to do is stop interfering in the affairs of other nations; mine especially. And believe me, we do not take advice from any American politician," he added. Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-responds-to- trump-no-talks-under-economic-continues- even-with-biden/30565771.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 Mahindra Logistics has launched an initiative that has a provision for providing Rs 3,000 each to drivers impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown. The initiative named HOPE (Helping Our People during Emergencies), aims to support drivers financially to aid the battle against the COVID-19 lockdown. The nationwide lockdown has impacted a large number of drivers, whether they are drivers ferrying goods between states, or those who drive taxis and for ride-sharing companies. These drivers are mostly stranded and are struggling to make ends meet. The company has partnered with Samhita Social Ventures - a social enterprise and SuperMoney - a financial lending tech platform to reach out to the beneficiaries within ecosystem. This move will create an ecosystem to channelise CSR funds of other companies to provide economic support and recovery to workers, the company said in a statement. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show "As a part of the initiative, Mahindra Logistics will be providing immediate relief by transferring Rs 3,000 to each driver's bank account, to buy essential commodities. This will be followed by other support provided to these drivers like health insurance cover, leveraging government schemes and loan guaranteeing model," the statement said. In addition to this, Mahindra Logistics would strengthen healthcare professionals' abilities to respond and provide support to affected families using digital channels, it added. "With over 30 per cent of commercial vehicles stranded on roads across the country, drivers need urgent support. Truck drivers and their families are in immediate need of cash for food and other basic facilities," Mahindra Logistics MD & CEO Rampraveen Swaminathan said. Swaminathan further said "we have launched several programs to support the driver community along with our business partners. Through this initiative, of short term financial relief and hope we aim to help these drivers and their families until the situation in the country is restored," Swaminathan said. Samhita Social Ventures Founder and CEO Priya Naik said :"Through our India Workers' Alliance, we are delighted to partner with Mahindra Logistics, to support India's blue collar and gig economy workers whose lives and livelihoods have been severely impacted. Our single objective is to help them survive this crisis and enable them to get back on their feet." In addition to this, Mahindra Logistics also announced that its enterprise mobility business, Alyte will provide emergency cab services for those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This free service has begun in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai, with more cities being added every day. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here Staff who have been living at a Pennsylvania manufacturing plant for the past month to help make personal protective medical equipment amid the coronavirus pandemic have finally been home. More than 40 employees at the Braskem America plant in Marcus Hook, near Philadelphia, shut themselves off from the outside world and spent 28 days making polypropylene a raw material needed to make N95 masks, medical gowns, hoods and sanitary wipes which are vital in ensuring protection from Covid-19. Braskem set up the live-in rotation to 'to help ensure the health and safety of our team members who are working as an essential service throughout this crisis to keep these key supply lines running,' the company reported in a news release. The company provided workers with beds, kitchens, groceries, iPads and internet access and staff were given a salary raise. Staff were finally allowed home Sunday after working 12-hour shifts away from home. Above, staff clock out after 28 days inside the plant. They can be seen grinning as they queue and wait to leave work Living quarters were set up in the manufacturing plant (pictured above) while staff spent the past 28 days At the half-way point of their month-long stay they were treated with a drive-by visit from family and friends waving signs and sounding their horns in support, WPVI reported. Joe Boyce, operations shift supervisor, said: 'We're truly honored to be able to give back and support people we will never meet in some way. 'All the first responders, all the people on the front lines, we thank you. That's what makes our job easy to do.' Above, a worker loads his personal belongings into a vehicle ready to go home for the first time in 28 days. Staff have been given a week off before normal shift patterns resume Polypropylene is a raw material needed to make N95 masks, medical gowns, hoods and sanitary wipes, vital in protection against Covid-19 Staff were split into two groups and worked 12-hour shifts to make polypropylene The workers will be given a week off before returning to a normal shift pattern, WPVI reported. Boyce said the world has changed a lot while they've been at work. 'We've almost been the lucky ones, I'll say for the last 28 days because I haven't had to stand six feet from somebody. I haven't had to put a mask on,' he told WPVI. The plant, which is the largest polyolefins producer in America, makes 771 million pounds of polypropylene each year according to its website. Above, medical personnel learn how to remove PPE prior to the opening of the Baltimore Convention Center as a field hospital to assist with patients suffering from coronavirus Workers in Texas and West Virginia also worked the live-in rotations. In recent days it has emerged that the U.S government encouraged American companies to ship masks and PPE worth millions of dollars overseas to China, according to a report from the Washington Post. The paper said that the U.S. State Department announced it had shipped more than 17 tons of donated medical supplies to China in early February that front-line U.S. medical workers are now requesting as they battle the killer bug. Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, told the Post: 'People right now, as we speak, are dying because there have been inadequate supplies of PPE.' The US has so far seen close to 800,000 Covid-19 cases and nearly 43,000 deaths. Imagine a pristine T&T where there are no more homeless people or animals. One where hunger has been eliminated as the relic of a bygone era. A world where pipe-borne water is delivered to every home every day, not wasted in an archaic system where significant leaks are either ignored or washed out to sea. An employee of the clothing brand "El Chapo 701," owned by Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman, daughter of the convicted drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, hands out a box with food, face masks, and hand sanitizers to an elderly woman as part of a campaign to help cash-strapped elderly people during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Guadalajara, Mexico April 16, 2020. REUTERS/Fernando Carranza Armed narcos have been seen handing out food and coronavirus aid stamped with cartel logos. The packages have included masks, hand sanitizer, and basic cooking supplies. Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said it wasn't helpful and told them to end violence instead. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Mexican narcos have been spotted handing out boxes of supplies to poor communities in some cities. The boxes of cooking supplies, masks, and sanitizer are stamped with the cartel logo, according to Reuters. "These criminal organizations that have been seen distributing the packages, this isn't helpful," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador recently told reporters from Reuters and elsewhere. "What helps is them stopping their bad deeds." Lopez Obrador, who has overall taken a less confrontational approach than his predecessors in dealing with cartel violence, has urged the gang members to refrain from harming others and consider the suffering they are causing their own families. But as Lopez Obrador makes these demands to drug cartels, he has also faced criticism for not doing enough to support residents in need, Reuters reported. Around 42% of the country lives in poverty, according to the World Bank. The country has reported more than 8,000 cases and nearly 700 deaths from the coronavirus a mortality rate of 8.3%. Mexico's drug cartels, according to a January report from Mexico's National Search Commission, are responsible for around 61,000 forced disappearances over the last several years, the New York Times reported. In 2019 alone, searches yielded 1,124 bodies in unmarked graves who were killed in cartel-related violence. Last week reports started circulating that several cartels were deploying members to hand out aid packages. The daughter of jailed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was one of the people spotted handing out the packages marked with her father's image. Story continues Falko Ernst, an analyst with the International Crisis Group in Mexico, told The Washington Post that the cartels want to project an image of being helpful in order to gain loyalty. Mexico has a long history of this type of cronyism the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was able to remain in power for more than 70 years by employing this kind of tactic. Cartels in Mexico aren't the only armed rebels who have been seen coming to the frontlines of the pandemic. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has dispatched health teams. In Brazil and El Salvador, gangs are enforcing curfews to stem the spread of the coronavirus, according to The Washington Post. "These groups are trying to be seen as catering materially and providing a notion of security in places where they are also directly preying on the population through extortion and kidnapping and violence," he told The Post. "But in a lot of places, these groups are the least bad solution for populations that don't have anywhere else to turn." Read the original article on Business Insider Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 21:00:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong police said on Tuesday that three men were arrested for illegally possessing arms and ammunition during a recent operation. Police officers from organized crime and triad bureau seized five replica firearms, 26 empty bullet casings, three gun parts, six pepper sprayers, one silencer and three military night-vision goggles after raiding on 11 apartments on Monday. Such firearms and parts could become highly lethal weapons after modification, the police said, adding that more offenders could be arrested. According to Hong Kong regulations, people convicted of possession of arms and ammunition without a license face up to 14-year imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (12,900 U.S. dollars). Enditem A large number of new combat and reconnaissance drones were delivered to the Iranian army on Sunday April 19 and IRGC-linked news agency Tasnim has presented details about each model on April 21. According to Tasnim, the drones include new generations of Atlas and Ababil drones, adding that the two models Ababil-3 and Karrar had been showcased previously. The UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] are to be used by the Air Force and Air Defense Units of Iran's conventional army, the report said. Iran has introduced these high-cost drones while it has been complaining about the adverse impact of US sanctions on its economy. Last week, General Kiumars Heydari, the Commander of the Ground Force of the Army had said on the occasion of the Army Day (April 17) that the new weapons are going to be issued to army units. As far as his own units at the ground force were concerned, Heydari said that the G-3 rifle was going to be replaced with a type of MP-5 weapon the Ministry of Defense has provided and the T-90 tanks will be introduced to the ground force's armored units. Another commander broke the news about new drones that can reach Israel but did not elaborate on the type of the UAV, its fuel, guiding and navigation system and other specifications. The drones introduced in a ceremony in the presence of the Minister of Defense and Army commanders included Ababil-3, Karrar, Atlas, and Naseh. This is how Tasnim described the aircraft. According to Western observers Islamic Republic sources often exaggerate the capabilities of its armament. Ababil-3 Although Ababil-3 was officially first delivered to the Iranian armed forces in November 2014, it has been part of the Iranian army's arsenal since May 2010 when pictures of it were first published during a military exercise over the Persian Gulf simulating a reconnaissance mission to check out vessels sailing in the Gulf. Ababil-3 was also observed in several other military exercises between 2010 and 2014. It can fly up to 8 hours and can transmit pictures to its base or to any other platform within a range of 250 Km from its base. It is gasoline-fuelled, has a composite body and can fly up to an altitude of 15 thousand feet. According to Tasnim, this drone has been in use "at the resistance front" which could mean, Iraq, Syria, Southern Lebanon, Yemen and possibly elsewhere. Initially a reconnaissance UAV with two revolving cameras, Ababil-3 is now mounted with Ghaem bombs to convert it into a combat flyer. Karrar The is the first Iranian made drone flying with a turbojet engine. Karrar was first showcased in 2010. It carries 500 Kg of fuel, has a range of 1,000 km and can fly with a speed of up to 900 Km/hr. Karrar can reschedule its flight mid-air and also can shut off enemy jamming devices. Karrar has been used in reconnaissance and interception missions and boasts a very efficient navigation system. Depending on the mission it can fly in an altitude between 25,000 to 40,000 feet. It can fire anti-vessel Kowsar cruise missiles to target vessels within 25 kilometres. Atlas Atlas is an upgraded version of Ababil-3, and one of the new models that were displayed on Sunday. Its main structure is similar to Ababil-3 but improvements have been made in some of its functions including its landing mechanism. The front wheel has a hydraulic system and improvements have been made in the rear wheels and axis to make take-off and landing smoother. Atlas can carry Ghaem bombs and its wings and body have been fortified to make it capable of carrying at least two bombs. However, the biggest advantage of Atlas to older models is its auto take-off and landing system and a laser sensor underneath the body which makes it more agile and capable of landing and taking off without help from a pilot. With this system, the UAV can change the landing area if the situation in the pre-planned area is not ideal for landing. Naseh This is yet another jet-engine drone with a turbojet engine made by the Qods Defense Industries. It is mainly used for training or for misleading enemy radars. Its engine is the same model used in Karrar Drone and Noor cruise missiles. Atlas is made based on the US Drone MQM-107. It can fly for less than an hour with a speed of ).7 Mach. It lands with a parachute at the end of its mission. Its low-wings system gives it a high manoeuvrability in high speed. Therefore, air defense personnel use it while being trained to work on the defense system to make the test and training situation similar to real situations. Atlas does not carry bombs. However, it carries payloads that are used for other purposes including the ones that are dropped so that air defense system can deal with them as bombs and missiles. In September 2017, a similar drone was seen during a military exercise while carrying 4 Misagh-1 missiles. Jacinda Ardern has fired back at a radio host who criticised her language when talking about coronavirus restrictions. Newstalk ZB host Mike Hosking challenged the New Zealand Prime Minister for saying the level four lockdown is to be extended by 'two business days' when retailers will be missing out on five days of trade. The retail industry has warned that small businesses will face closure despite the country dropping to level three restrictions from Monday at 11.59pm. Ms Ardern told the radio host that retailers were already doing it tough because no one was out and about shopping but still had wages to pay. Newstalk ZB host Mike Hosking challenged the New Zealand Prime Minister (pictured together) for saying the level four lockdown is to be extended by 'two business days' when retailers will be missing out on five days of trad But Mr Hosking blew up over wording the prime minister used when she said the lockdown was extending by 'two business days'. 'In what world is Thursday to Tuesday two business days and no one seems to open on a Saturday?' he questioned. 'Obviously in alert level 3 they are impacted differently than everyone else who is returning to work. I don't diminish that. In the world where you have public holidays and weekends, that was my reference to two business days,' Ms Ardern replied. The pair continued to debate the wording with Ms Ardern saying she had received acceptance from business leaders and industry groups in regards to the extension. Retailers are now allowed to operate online under level three restrictions, the prime minister said. But that was not enough for Mr Hosking. 'At least you could concede it's five business days not two because no one believes you,' the radio host said. 'If I was a business opening under level three I would have traded on Thursday and Friday and Saturday, and Sunday and Monday.' The prime minister shot back: 'What business are you Mike? For this hypothetical situation that we are talking through, because retail cannot open at level 3.' Ms Ardern told the radio host that retailers were already doing it tough because no one was out and about shopping but still had wages to pay Retailers are now allowed to operate online under level three restrictions, the prime minister said. Pictured: A volunteer being tested for the coronavirus at a car park in Christchurch Mr Hosking said he would be McDonald's, to which the prime minister agreed that she had not properly referenced takeaway and drive-through. 'What we are talking about for many individuals who are thinking about holidays and weekends ... two business days is language we use commonly to refer to Monday to Friday,' Ms Ardern said. Mr Hosking spoke over the prime minister to say: 'Only in Wellington - not in the real world.' The relaxed lockdown laws will allow New Zealanders to get takeaway food from Monday when stage three remains in place for two weeks. Under level three shoppers are not allowed to come in contact with anyone, meaning retail will have to remain contactless. The only shopfronts that are allowed to remain open is supermarkets, dairies and patrol stations. Mr Hosking blew up over wording the prime minister used when she said the lockdown was extending by 'two business days' Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce chief executive Leeann Watson told NZ Herald it was 'almost impossible' for the industry to survive in the conditions. 'This reinforces the need for some intervention for retail and hospitality because it is incredibly difficult for them to have any normal trade under alert level three,' she said. 'Some businesses will be able to operate online but not all of them will be able to and certainly not to full trading capacity.' People are still being asked to stay home as much as possible with police out in force to question why people will be out and about. Ms Ardern said alert level three will still ask people not to socialise but schools will allowed to be open. Under the relaxed restrictions up to 500,000 people will be allowed to return to work. The national cabinet is going to review whether the country will move down to level two restrictions on May 11. The Ruby Princess cruise ship is due to depart Sydney with hundreds of crew, including 40 with coronavirus, still on board. The Border Force Commissioner has told the ship's owner Carnival that it must leave by Thursday. The ship will likely go to one of its home ports of San Francisco and Seattle in the US. Hotel staff wearing protective face masks and gloves handle passengers luggage after disembarking the ship Army officials with departing passengers luggage outside the Ruby Princess in Port Kembla On Tuesday 57 crew members from Canada, Ireland, the UK, Japan and the US were escorted off the ship and placed in 14-day quarantine in hotels before flights home. Pictures showed hotel staff carrying their luggage from their bus into a hotel in Sydney's CBD. Among the crew still on board are 275 people from the Philippines, who will be allowed off if their consulate agrees to provide a charter flight home, Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said on Wednesday. He said anyone who needed urgent medical treatment would be allowed off. More than 600 infections and 21 deaths are linked to the Ruby Princess after almost 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark in Sydney Harbour on March 19. A man waves back to crew on board the Ruby Princess after departing the vessel on Tuesday Fifty-seven crew members from six countries left the ship on Tuesday and will be transferred to hotels No health checks were done on any of the passengers and many got on domestic flights or cross-state trains while unknowingly infected. The ship is the biggest single source of COVID-19 infection in Australia. Most of the crew have remained in isolation on the ship and 190 of those on board had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Sunday night. Another 12 crew members infected with coronavirus have previously been evacuated to NSW hospitals. NSW opposition leader Jodi McKay said the ship should should stay on Australian shores until every crew member was either well or repatriated to their home countries. Passengers are screened by medical staff after disembarking the ship before their transfer Around 1,000 crew remain on the boat, with more expected to leave the vessel in the coming days Expat parents have joined opposition politicians in attacking the Spanish government for its 'joke' solution to the six-week coronavirus confinement of children. Government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero confirmed at lunchtime today that youngsters under 14 will be allowed outdoors from next Monday, April 27 after what will be six weeks of lockdown. But she left parents angry and bewildered after their hopes of a quick stroll near their homes with their cooped up kids were snubbed out by her insistence children would only be allowed to do things permitted under Spain's state of emergency like accompanying parents to the supermarket, chemist's or a bank. Those between the ages of 15 and 17 already were allowed. There will be no time limit, and the children won't be required to wear masks. Children must be accompanied by an adult they live with. Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, a mother of two young children who led the 'Free Our Children' campaign, called on the government to backtrack before next Monday, saying: 'Boys and girls should be able to get out to breathe fresh air, not to consume in closed spaces. Expat education worker Nina Cashin pictured with her two children Nathan, 9, and Sienna, 7. She said 'A supermarket is definitely not the place I'd take my children' 'They have to be let outdoors, with sensible precautions, without going to the park or touching anything. 'That's why a quick walk near home would be better than going to the supermarket or a bank.' Teresa Rodriguez, president of parliamentary group Adelante Andalucia, added: 'A walk round the block. Two streets. We're not asking for more. I say this as a mother. Supermarkets are not the sort of place we should be taking a child. They need light and air.' Expat education worker Nina Cashin, whose two children Nathan and Sienna are aged nine and seven, said: 'A supermarket is definitely not the place I'd take my children. 'They're risk areas for catching coronavirus. And children are always touching everything which could mean that if they were asymptomatic carriers, they could give it to someone else. 'Listening to the news on this today sounds like it's April Fools' Day. Government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero says that beginning Monday, younger children can go along on family errands to the supermarket, pharmacy or bank (File image) The 39-year-old, originally from Newcastle but now living and working in Marbella, added: 'I'd ideally like to get my children out into the countryside so they could get some real fresh air but even a walk near our home would be great. 'They've been indoors for five weeks now and they've both had meltdowns. They miss doing physical activity and seeing their friends. Seeing them through a computer screen is not the same.' Sharon Morris, originally from Birmingham but now living on the Costa del Sol, said: 'It's absolute madness. This is going to put more people at risk, not less.' Cadiz-based ecologist Maria Panow tweeted: 'It's absolutely ridiculous how the Spanish government is handing the situation for families with children. 'After five weeks of confinement kids can go out...to go to the supermarket. More confined space. WTF.' Paediatrician Azucena Criado said of the modification to Spain's state of emergency rules regarding the under-14s: 'It seems to me to be the worst of the options. It doesn't favour the wellbeing of children or their families. 'They're not promoting physical activity which is what they need.' Falling enrollments and a drop-off in funding, made worse by the coronavirus pandemic, led the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to announce Tuesday it would permanently close four Catholic schools throughout the region. Campus leaders at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Queen of Peace and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic schools in Houston and St. Pius V Catholic School in Pasadena were told Monday their schools would not reopen. About 257 students and dozens of teachers and staff members will be affected by the closures. Superintendent Debra Haney on Tuesday said enrollments at some of the campuses have been decreasing for years, but there had been a sudden and steep drop in parishes charitable contributions since many closed their doors to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus. Without collection trays to fill, churches that rely heavily on in-person donations are suffering the most. Some parishes with online giving opportunities are seeing 30 percent of what they normally see, Haney said. The effect on the finances of churches and these campuses is humongous. Haney said each of the four campuses have other Catholic schools nearby that the affected students could attend, and the archdiocese will give a $500 tuition credit to any student who opts to enroll in a new Catholic school. Staff at the four closing schools also will be given priority in applying to any openings within the archdioceses schools, and the church has opened up resources to connect them with public and charter schools, as well. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo in a statement said church officials had hoped they would have more time to bring enrollments up at the four schools, but the cataclysmic effects of this pandemic have left us with no options which breaks our hearts. Even before the pandemic, Catholic schools across the country have struggled to keep their students enrolled. At their peak in the 1960s, enrollments at Catholic schools climbed to about 5.2 million students nationwide. Last school year, fewer than 1.8 million students attended the schools. The archdiocese moved to close Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School in the Third Ward last school year, another casualty of slipping enrollments. That campus saw a 70 percent drop in student enrollment in the last five years it was open. In its final year, just 30 students in prekindergarten through eightth grade attended the school. shelby.webb@chron.com The World Health Organization warned that any lifting of lockdowns to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus must be gradual, and if restrictions were to be relaxed too soon, there would be a resurgence of infections. WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Takeshi Kasai said that lockdown measures have proved effective, and people must be ready for a new way of living to allow society to function while the coronavirus is being kept in check. "We must adapt our lives and health systems along with the epidemic," Kasai told an online press conference. "At least until a vaccine, or a very effective treatment, is found, this process will need to become our new normal." He noted that governments considering lifting lockdown measures should do so carefully and in stages, and continue to monitor the epidemic situation. So long as the coronavirus is circulating, no country is safe from a potentially overwhelming outbreak, Kasai said. "Individuals and society need to be ready for a new way of living," Reuters cited him as saying. Kasai also warned that the epidemic must not disrupt vaccination programmes against other diseases like polio, measles and rubella. Otherwise the Western Pacific could face a new crisis when health systems are already strained, he said. The Uttar Pradesh governments move to evacuate its students from Kota in Rajasthan during the Covid-19 lockdown has brought the other states under pressure to act and ensure early return of their stranded migrant workers. Except Bihar, many states such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand have now approached the Rajasthan government to facilitate the return of their stranded students and are making the necessary arrangements for their travel back home. Apart from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand too has taken back its students. The move has triggered demands for the passage of migrant workers stuck in different states to their respective native places. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said he spoke to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday and told him that his state has a different problem than others. A large number of Rajasthanis, including migrant workers, shopkeepers, private employees, small businessmen are stuck in Assam, North East, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and other states. They are feeling frustrated and desperately want to go back to their homes and meet their family members, he told Hindustan Times. Gehlot said he told Shah that if the Centre allows them to return to their homes, only then they would be eager to go back to their work places in different states once the lockdown is lifted. They will feel satisfied after meeting their family members and happily go back to states where they worked once the lockdown is withdrawn, he added. The Rajasthan chief minister said the Centre should have given at least five days to the migrant workers and others to go back to their homes like it had allowed the flights before enforcing the restrictions. He said Shah has assured him that the Centre will soon take a call on the issue. The home minister told me that he will inform me about the governments decision tomorrow, added Gehlot. The Opposition parties, led by the Congress, had expressed concerns over the plight of migrant workers who were forced to take a long walk back to their villages due to the nationwide lockdown enforced to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The political parties had urged the Centre to allow a one-time state transport services be made available to the migrant workers to enable them to go back to their homes. Gehlot said he would request Prime Minister Narendra Modi that when his government can help in the evacuation of foreigners stranded in India and get back the Indians stuck abroad, he should also facilitate the return of migrant workers and others, including five lakh Rajasthani citizens, to their homes as nearly a month had passed since the restrictions were enforced. Once they are in right frame of mind after meeting their family members, they would be able to resume their activities and play a major role in the revival of economic activities once the lockdown is lifted, he said. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren told Hindustan Times that he would request a special train from the Centre to transport migrant workers and others from different states back to their homes. Officials in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh said they are inundated with calls from residents, mostly students seeking help to return to their states. An official in Himachal Pradesh, speaking on the condition of anonymity said, after the coronavirus outbreak the state had sealed its borders to ensure there is no movement of people or commercial vehicles though arrangements had been made for passage of those in need of critical care or other emergency reasons. There are many students in places such as Rajasthan and Chandigarh and they have been calling to get them back to the state. Since there is a countrywide lockdown and movement is barred, we will have to take a call on the best way to deal with the situation, said the official quoted above. In Madhya Pradesh too, the issue of bringing back students and migrant workers from adjoining states is being discussed. An official privy to the developments said the issue of working out the details of how to arrange for transportation of students and workers was raised at a meeting of the task force set up recently. Amitabh Kundu, distinguished fellow, Research and Information System for Developing Countries, said the government should formulate ways for allowing the workers to commute during the lockdown by issuing electronic passes. He said these passes can be issued for travel in buses that can be easily sanitized and allowed outside the hotspots. Companies can provide small payment to the state for each vehicle to meet the additional cost of the supervision and management. Employees opting for commutation though self-driven cars can also be provided e-permits, he said. Earlier this week, the Centre issued guidelines for movement of workers within a state following the decision to ease restrictions in non Covid-19 hotspots to resume economic activities. While inter-state movement of workers during the lockdown has been prohibited, MSMEs, construction and agriculture activities outside the containment zones, have been permitted from April 20. As per the order, migrant labourers in relief and shelter camps will have to be registered with the concerned local authority and their skill mapping will have to be carried out to find out their suitability for various kinds of work. While many demonstrations claim to be grassroots, common threads link many to nationwide conservative groups. Thousands of people in the United States took to the streets over the past week to demand the countrys swift reopening. While some protested from their vehicles, many others defied coronavirus social distancing guidelines as they rallied on state capitol grounds and in front of governors homes in several states including Michigan, Kentucky, Washington, Minnesota, Virginia and Colorado. The number of people protesting was relatively small compared with those who have abided by stay-at-home orders. Those who protested said they were concerned that their constitutional rights and freedom were being curtailed in the fight to contain the pandemic. Many were also frustrated that they could not work or lost their jobs due to state lockdowns. While organisers claimed the anti-lockdown protests are grassroots movements, some groups have received funding from conservative megadonors in the past. Many of the events were also promoted by far-right groups and known conspiracy theorists. Heres a look at who and what were behind the anti-lockdown protests. Operation Gridlock One of the first protests that took place was in Michigan last week, with a group Facebook page called Operation Gridlock calling for demonstrators to take to their vehicles to stop traffic near the states capitol building in Lansing on April 15. The demonstration was meant to protest Governor Gretchen Whitmers strict coronavirus lockdown measures. Whitmer responded by saying she understood the concerns of citizens enduring measures to control the spread of the coronavirus and welcomed their demonstrations, but criticised those whom she claimed were behind the protests. Operation Gridlock was funded in large part by the DeVos family and I think its really inappropriate to for a sitting member of the United States presidents cabinet to be waging political attacks on any governor, Whitmer said, in reference to Betsy DeVos, secretary of the US Department of Education. Healthcare workers stand in the street in counterprotest to hundreds of people who gathered in Denver, Colorado, to call for an end to the states stay-at-home order [Alyson McClaran/Reuters] Michigans Operation Gridlock was co-hosted by the Michigan Freedom Fund and the Michigan Conservative Coalition. The Michigan Freedom Fund has received over $500,000 from the DeVos family in the past and was founded by Greg McNeilly, a family political adviser. McNeilly denied to Buzzfeed that any member of the DeVos family was involved in the protest. Matt Seely, a spokesman for the Michigan Conservative Union, told Buzzfeed that other groups had asked them to share their template and there will be massive protests in the US in the coming days. It was unclear who those groups were. Meanwhile, ReOpen Maryland, which held its first rally in Annapolis on April 18 and was reportedly attended by hundreds, was organised by Evie Harris, who told The Guardian that the protest in Michigan was an inspiration. Text on that Facebook page was identical to text on the Facebook pages of similar events in Virginia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Far-right groups Websites and Facebook groups, as well as Reddit threads, calling for states to reopen also popped up across the US over the last week. Many featured the same introduction text on their About sections, including Operation Gridlock Tennessee and Operation Gridlock Los Angeles. Though the events appear to be organised in part by mainstream conservative groups, they also have attracted fringe groups. A man wearing a shirt supporting the Proud Boys conservative group makes a hand sign considered linked to the far-right [Ted S. Warren/AP Photo] Michigans protest drew the Proud Boys, a far-right group once considered the vanguard of the alt-right movement that was ascendant following the election of US President Donald Trump. Following the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, its original leader, media personality Gavin McInnes, began separating from the group due to its focus on race instead of Western Values, which McInnes claims he values. The Proud Boys have been accused of a series of violent acts and racist rhetoric, and are present in several countries across the globe. Organisers of the Michigan protest reportedly asked the police to remove the group from the event. Alex Jones, a noted conspiracy theorist, meanwhile was active at a rally in Austin, Texas over the weekend, where he was photographed shaking hands with protesters. Jones has a long history of promoting dubious claims through his talk show, Infowars. He recently settled a defamation lawsuit filed by the father of a child murdered in the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. The shooting, which was in the state of Connecticut and killed 26 people, including 20 children, was a giant hoax, Jones falsely claimed. Others, such as QAnon conspiracy theorists who believe in plots by the Deep State to destroy the US, and anti-vaccination groups have been present at some of these protests. Protests have also drawn militias, armed groups that have gained prominence at protests since Trump was elected. These groups, sometimes called Patriot militias, claim their civil liberties are infringed upon by the lockdown measures. Many militias are accused of far-right, racist ideology, while others maintain they are conservative groups who want to uphold US law. Gun rights groups Gun rights groups also appear to be playing a major role in the protest. Reopen Minnesota and Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine (PAEQ) said on their Facebook event pages that politicians are on a power trip, controlling our lives, destroying our businesses, passing laws behind the cover of darkness and forcing us to hand over our freedoms and our livelihood! PAEQ appears to have been organised by members of the Dorr family, which has lobbied against gun control and for other conservative causes for years. Members of the Dorr family, including brothers, Ben, Chris and Aaron, are on the four-person board of directors for the American Firearms Coalition (AFC), along with Patrick Parsons, according to their website. AFC-linked groups, which are present in several states, are known for antagonising pro-gun groups and Republican lawmakers on the state level for being too willing to compromise. The AFC is affiliated with the Pennsylvania Firearms Association, which has a website to which PAEQs Facebook group links. That group is affiliated with 12 other gun-rights groups across the US, many of which are AFC-linked. The Pennsylvania Firearms Association did not immediately respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment. War of words Many governors say they are eager to reopen their states but cannot do so until widespread testing is implemented with the help of the federal government. Trump, who has long heralded the strength of the US economy under his stewardship, could face political challenges as the global economy falters due to stay-at-home orders and the resulting lack of demand for goods and services. Trump tweeted support to LIBERATE some states from lockdowns on Friday, fuelling the war of words. LIBERATE MICHIGAN! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020 Trump, who previously stated he has total authority over states as president, criticised governors for asking the federal government for assistance with testing. Marylands Republican Governor Larry Hogan said on CBS this week that the president is attempting to push this is off to states by claiming there are tests and states arent doing our testing, is just absolutely false. Regarding the protests, trusted government health expert Dr Anthony Fauci said on Monday the message is that, clearly, this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics, from the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus. While conservative groups may want the country to reopen sooner, it wont be good in the long term, Fauci claimed. So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening, its going to backfire. Thats the problem. Though many governors said they supported the demonstrators right to protest, some were concerned that not following social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders would contribute to the viruss spread. Facebook, the platform most groups used to organise, said on Monday that it would ban any events or pages that defy governments guidance on social distancing. Unless [a] government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organised on Facebook, a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. For this same reason, events that defy governments guidance on social distancing arent allowed on Facebook. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Esther Samboh (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 15:13 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd3501cb 1 Business telemedicine,telehealth,online-consultation,COVID-19,coronavirus,consumer-behaviour,Inventure,report Free Indonesians are shifting online for their medical consultations and purchases as hospitals remain overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. This could result in business opportunities that could boost telemedicine market leader into the next billion-dollar company, a new report shows. Business research and consultancy Inventure Indonesias latest report titled 30 Consumer Behavior Shifts projects that telemedicine start-ups will grow faster after COVID-19 and that the competition to create the best service will be tighter. Once consumers get a satisfactory user experience thats convenient, less costly and time-efficient, the service will enter into a mainstream phase with a bigger market, Inventures report reads. Under such conditions, there is a possibility for the market leader in this type of service to be the next unicorn. Indonesia currently has five unicorns, identified as start-ups valued at over US$1 billion, namely ride-hailing app Gojek, online booking platform Traveloka, e-commerce platforms Tokopedia and Bukalapak, as well as digital payment platform OVO. As with remote working and online learning, consumers have been forced to adapt to a new way of getting medical treatment: virtually. Telemedicine platforms Halodoc and Alodokter, which provide online consultations with doctors, have reported a skyrocketing use of their apps and demand for their services. Read also: The time is right: COVID-19 gives more room for telemedicine to grow in Indonesia Medical treatment is crucial in a crisis such as this. But the advice for patients to avoid hospitals and doctor visits, while people need routine consultation or to ensure they are not infected, has resulted in urgency for telemedicine services, Inventure wrote. Alodokter recorded 61 million web visits with more than 33 million active users in March. It has been downloaded by 5.5 million users. "It was approximately 1.5 times higher than the platforms usual traffic before the coronavirus outbreak," said Alodokter partnership vice president Agustine Gunawan. "In contrast to last month, people are now asking about non-coronavirus-related health issues, such as what medicine to take if you feel unwell at home and so forth, Agustine added. McKinsey & Company Consumer Healthcare Insights reported findings that 44 percent of respondents who canceled routine or mental health appointments tried to convert them into telehealth appointments. About 24 percent were able to receive care. Halodoc has launched a service that enables users to make appointments for COVID-19 rapid tests or real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests at 20 hospitals in Greater Jakarta and Karawang municipality in West Java. As of Monday, Indonesia recorded 6,760 COVID-19 cases with 590 deaths. Read also: With doctors only one chat away, telemedicine on the rise in Indonesia The platform has formed partnerships with five private hospital chains: Mitra Keluarga hospitals, St. Carolus hospitals, Mayapada hospitals, Primaya hospitals and Bina Husada Cibinong hospital. "Weve seen more people become aware of health, and they come to our platforms for health consultations," Halodoc CEO Jonathan Sudharta said in a statement. President Joko Jokowi Widodo conveyed his appreciation for the business on Monday. He said he hoped the platforms would continue to grow. "I think that medical consultations through advanced technology, or telemedicine, should be enhanced so that we can limit direct contact between doctors and patients [during the pandemic]," said the President during a Cabinet meeting at the State Palace. Many citizens have become recent experts in constructing homemade masks to help protect themselves and family members during the coronavirus pandemic. Those masks or face coverings are now required when Pennsylvanians visit essential businesses, like grocery stores or hospitals, or use public transportation. And, were not alone. According to a CNN report Monday, seven states are now requiring residents to strictly adhere to social distancing guidelines and cover their faces when venturing outside their homes. There are exceptions in several states following the stricter orders from governors. In Connecticut, masks are required for all residents in a public place where at least six feet of distance from other people cant be maintained. Additional guidelines have been put in place for essential workers, according to the report, with all employers providing masks and materials for workers to use beginning Monday. New York, Hawaii and Rhode Island have adopted similar guidelines in the past week, while Maryland commuters and employees must cover up while using public transit, according to Gov. Larry Hogan. Maryland is asking that employees inside essential businesses, as well as customers, make every effort to get young children to wear a mask. PennLives complete coronavirus coverage New Jersey was the first state to introduce such a mandate. On April 8, state officials required customers and employees to cover their faces at essential businesses and construction sites. Businesses were instructed to deny entry to any customers who refused to wear a mask. Face coverings are required to use New Jersey public transit, and private carriers, as well. Citizens refusing to wear a mask c. The Pennsylvania Department of Health order can be found here. How to make your own mask to protect against COVID-19? RELATED NEWS Gov. Tom Wolf extends stay-at-home order Pa. restaurant industry faces staggering $1.8 billion in losses Gov. Wolf signs bill to waive late fees on property tax bills Face masks become mandatory in Pennsylvania: What you need to know Capital BlueCross adds coverage enhancements, cost waivers BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Export of chemicals from Turkey to Uzbekistan increased by 3.9 percent from January 2020 through March 2020 and exceeded $56.1 million, Trend reports citing the Turkish Trade Ministry. In March 2020, export of Turkish chemical products to Uzbekistan exceeded $21.9 million, indicating an increase of 4.68 percent compared to March 2019. In 1Q2020, Turkeys export of chemicals to world markets dropped by 5.1 percent compared to the same period of 2019, and amounted to $4.7 billion. Meanwhile, Turkeys export of chemicals amounted to 11.1 percent of the country's total export. In March 2020, Turkey exported chemicals worth $1.5 billion to world markets, which is 15.4 percent less compared to the same month of 2019. Turkeys chemicals export amounted to 11.6 percent of the country's total exports. From March 2019 through March 2020, Turkey exported chemical products in the amount of $20.3 billion. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu The South Korean government said Tuesday no unusual activity has been detected in North Korea after unconfirmed reports described leader Kim Jong Un as in fragile condition after heart surgery. The presidential Blue House says it had no information about the rumors on Kim's health. Speculation often surfaces about North Korea's leadership based on attendance at important state events. Kim, who is in his mid-30s, missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15, the country's most important holiday. At his last public appearance, he presided over a political bureau meeting of the ruling Workers' Party on April 11, discussing preventive measures against the coronavirus and electing his sister as an alternate member of the bureau. However, state media reported Kim sent greetings to Syrian President Bashar Assad last week and a birthday spread" to a North Korean woman who turned 100 on Monday. We have no information to confirm regarding rumors about Chairman Kim Jong Un's health issue that have been reported by some media outlets. Also, no unusual developments have been detected inside North Korea, Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said in the statement. A US official said the White House was aware before the reports appeared late Monday that Kim's health might be precarious. The official said the U.S. had information that Kim may have undergone surgery and that complications may have rendered him incapacitated or worse. But, the official stressed that the US had nothing to confirm the surgery had taken place or that any complications had occurred. We just don't know, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The US official would not elaborate on where the information came from or when it had been received. The White House and State Department had no comment. The original CNN report had cited an anonymous US official who said Kim was in bad shape after an unspecified surgery. Later, another US official told the same network that the concerns about Kim's health are credible but the severity is hard to assess. Daily NK, an online newspaper focused on North Korea that often cites defectors or unspecified sources within North Korea, had cited anonymous sources saying Kim was recovering from heart surgery in the capital Pyongyang and that his condition was improving. An official from Seoul's National Intelligence Service, who didn't want to be named, citing office rules, said the spy agency couldn't confirm whether Kim had had surgery. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said his government was monitoring the situation. A political upheaval in North Korea would be unlikely even if Kim became sidelined by health problems, according to analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea. Cheong said Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, is already exercising significant influence within the government and that most members of Pyongyang's leadership share an interest with the Kim family in maintaining the North's system. Outside governments and media have a mixed record on tracking developments among North Korea's ruling elite, made difficult by Pyongyang's stringent control of information about them. In 2016, South Korea media quoted intelligence officials as saying Kim Jong Un had had a former military chief executed for corruption and other charges. But North Korea's state media months later showed Ri Yong Gil alive and serving in new senior posts. Kim's absence from state media often triggers speculation. In 2014, Kim vanished from the public eye for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. South Korea's spy agency said days later that he had a cyst removed from his ankle. Kim, believed to be 36, took power upon his father's death in December 2011 and is the third generation of his family to rule the nuclear-armed country. Kim met President Donald Trump three times in 2018 and 2019 and had summits with other Asian leaders as he pursued diplomacy in hopes of ending crippling sanctions and getting security guarantees. But he maintained his right to a nuclear arsenal and most diplomacy has stalemated since. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NUA Healthcare Services is seeking 200 staff to care for people with intellectual disability and mental health issues. The firm based in Naas, Co Kildare employs 1,600 at its 53 centres nationwide, supporting 350 clients - about 240 of whom live in the centres. They and 110 non-resident clients receive support and therapy for their conditions. The firm said it has no confirmed cases of Covid-19 among residential clients and is taking new applicants. However, it said "a handful" of staff have Covid-19 "and are all following relevant protocols in terms of self-isolation". One of its non-resident clients also contracted and has recovered from the infection. "Nua is managing to sustain safe service delivery for its current resident population and is also accepting new placements, where appropriate, in an effort to support the overall Government strategy for dealing with Covid-19," said Eric Behan, quality and safety manager at Nua. Unlike nursing homes, residents of Nua facilities are younger on average and often live in their own units, lowering the Covid-19 risk associated with large numbers of people in shared spaces. Mr Behan said Nua is "prepared in the event of a residential service user testing positive", and has put in place "an intensive monitoring and management system to try to avoid such a development". Nua said it wants to hire up to 200 more nurses, social care workers and assistant support workers in coming weeks. It has dozens of current openings listed on online job sites. The company - which began in 2004 as a single Kildare care centre for people with Asperger syndrome - is rapidly expanding. It has hired 300 staff in the past two years. Its organisational map identifies four sites in Cork, Tipperary and Waterford for new mental health homes. Seven new intellectual disability homes are planned in half a dozen counties, including two in Waterford. Most of its facilities provide full-time residences with high staff-to-client ratios. "Our services are very intensive, but our work is hugely rewarding. We offer excellent career development opportunities," said Michelle Kirwan, Nua's recruitment and retention manager. Argentina has more mental health professionals per person than most other countries in the world. Many Argentines depend on therapists in their daily lives. Now, they are finding new ways to bring their therapists into their homes -- through phone calls and meeting apps. The South American nation has been under a government-ordered quarantine since the middle of March. The order is set to last until at least April 26. Claudia Borensztejn is president of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association, or APA. She told Reuters, We are receiving many calls, the situation opens many new doors. Borensztejn said that discussions between therapists and their patients are now almost all about the coronavirus outbreak. She said many patients report having panic attacks, anxiety about being stuck inside, trouble sleeping, and extreme worry about their economic situation. A culture of therapy is well established in Argentina. Many people make weekly trips to their mental health provider, said Borensztejn. Now those meetings are happening in different ways. Were entering patients houses, which would never have happened previously, she said. The coronavirus outbreak has led to more than 2.4 million confirmed cases and more than 160,000 deaths worldwide. The World Health Organization has warned countries that the crisis is generating stress worldwide. Borensztejns organization has opened a free telephone line to serve patients in emergencies. Phone operators can direct callers to professionals who can take new cases and offer any necessary treatment. Borensztejn says many calls for help have come from doctors. Romina is a 47-year-old businesswoman living in the capital, Buenos Aires. She has two young children. She has been going to therapy for many years. She wants to continue therapy at home -- even though finding a quiet place to talk is not always easy. I go to the car so Im not distracted and so I have more privacy, said Romina, who wanted to use only her first name. She and her therapist talk by phone, which she says is easier than by computer. Psychology is an important part of Argentine culture, especially psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a treatment method developed by the famous Austrian brain doctor, Sigmund Freud. Patients under the treatment are to talk freely and at length to their therapists, especially about early life experiences. On the streets and in schools across Argentina, it is common to hear therapy terms used in everyday discussions. The country has around 222 psychologists for every 100,000 people, a 2017 WHO mental health report found. That compares to less than 30 in the United States, 49 in France, 12 in neighboring Brazil and 103 in Australia. Marisa Chamizo is a psychoanalyst based in Buenos Aires. She said the fact that her country has so many mental health professionals shows that, in her words, we are a population that is more in touch with our own difficulties...That is why we look for help. Romina said many of her current therapy meetings center on the pressures of balancing job, childcare and housework, as well as the effects of social separation. To be honest there have been times when I havent been okay, she said. Talking to her therapist, she added, helps get things off my chest. Im Ashley Thompson. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story per - prep. for each therapist - n. a person trained in methods of treating illnesses especially without the use of drugs or surgery anxiety - n. fear or nervousness about what might happen panic - n. a state or feeling of extreme fear that makes someone unable to act or think normally quarantine - n. the period of time during which a person or animal that has a disease or that might have a disease is kept away from others to prevent the disease from spreading distracted - adj. unable to think about or pay attention to something : unable to concentrate stress - n. a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc. psychology - n. the science or study of the mind and behavior get something off your chest - idiomatic expression. to talk to someone about something that has been worrying you, so that you feel better about it. Almost one million Australians have expressed an interest in getting immediate access to their retirement savings through an emergency coronavirus measure. But there are concerns a high proportion of claims could be made by people who aren't eligible, tying up the processes for those genuinely in need. The Morrison government is allowing people affected by the coronavirus crisis to take up to $20,000 out of their superannuation to help cope with economic stress. Applications have officially opened after 975,000 people registered interest in participating in the scheme. The Morrison government is allowing people affected by the coronavirus crisis to take up to $20,000 out of their superannuation to help cope with economic stress with almost a million claims lodged so far. Pictured is a lineup at Centrelink in Adelaide after many lost their jobs Assistant Superannuation Minister Jane Hume says the high numbers reflect the scale of the economic crisis. 'Of course, that's a concern,' she told Sky News on Tuesday. 'That's nearly a million Australians that are concerned about their financial viability, their financial future, that are concerned about their jobs and paying a mortgage.' The government estimates up to 1.7 million Australians will access their super early, with two rounds in which $10,000 will be available. However, polling done for the industry super funds suggests large numbers of people who haven't been hit by the economic slump will seek access to their money. About three in 10 working Australians are considering accessing their super, the UMR polling for Industry Super Australia found. Industry Super Australia boss Bernie Dean (pictured) said it was important people were able to access their super quickly But out of these, about 40 per cent hadn't suffered a financial blow. In fact, some of those who intend to apply said they were now working more hours than before the crisis. The unemployed, welfare recipients, people made redundant since the start of the year, and those who have had a 20 per cent reduction in hours are eligible. Sole traders who have had their business suspended or copped a 20 per cent reduction in turnover can also access super early. 'It is important that those that need to access their super can do so quickly, without being caught behind an administrative logjam of ineligible claimants,' Industry Super Australia boss Bernie Dean said. 'It is tempting to tap into your super early, some may want to do so as a savings buffer, but nothing in life is for free and cracking open your nest egg comes at a steep cost - it should be treated as a last resort.' The unemployed, welfare recipients, people made redundant since the start of the year, and those who have had a 20 per cent reduction in hours are eligible Senator Hume said people should consider their circumstances carefully before making a decision. 'We're certainly not encouraging people to take up the offer, but we are giving them the offer to make an assessment about their own financial situation, their own family budget,' she said. But she disputed some 'pretty wild' numbers being floated about dire repercussions for people's retirement outcomes. Liberal backbencher Andrew Bragg has asked the sector's watchdog to run a ruler over superannuation funds' confirmation of their strong liquidity. 'The confidence of the individual funds contrasts with the subterranean industry campaign for a bailout some weeks ago. This appears to have been an ambit claim,' the senator said. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding an assistance of Rs30,000 crore for the state to deal with the economic fallout of the coronavirus lockdown. He also requested the prime minister to immediately release Rs 10,000 crore of the total amount, so that assistance could be given to industry, business, service and agriculture sectors. He said the assistance would be for the next three months for operation of relief and welfare schemes and relaxation in the economic activities related to revenue generation in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Meanwhile, the Tenement Museum is trying to keep the trains running, including maintenance of its two Orchard Street properties, one of which still has a few tenants. The last thing were going to do is leave those buildings to the elements, Mr. Vogel said. Though Mr. Vogel, 74, is in a high-risk category for the virus, he still goes into the museum once every other week to sign checks. Having served as president from 2008 to 2017, he came out of retirement last fall to serve on an interim basis, while the museum searches for someone permanent. Even as he cuts costs, Mr. Vogel is focused on beefing up the museums online programming, with a digital exhibit on the census, for example. It offered a live craft-making program for children inspired by the resourcefulness of former tenement residents. And on Wednesday it will present A Nickel for a Pickle on YouTube, a journey into the history of pickles on the Lower East Side, including a short demo of how to make your own cucumber pickles at home! With schools closed, the museum has also been pushing out educational materials to thousands of teachers, drawing on the expertise developed for tours like Life and Death at the Tenement, developed in 2018, which explores past epidemics like cholera, yellow fever, tuberculosis and AIDS. Mr. Vogel happens to be familiar with pandemics; he spent most of his career as a historian of medicine and is particularly attuned to how viruses are sometimes attributed to outsiders. The Federalists in 1793 blamed Philadelphias yellow fever on French-speaking refugees fleeing a slave revolt in Santo Domingo, he said. In 1892, Jews were held responsible for bringing typhus and cholera to New York. Immigrants were seen as disease carriers, he said. In this period of adversity, Mr. Vogel said, he is strengthened by a bedrock faith in the institutions mandate. A lot of what makes us strong as a people came from the strength immigrants found in themselves, he said. Its important to focus on that. I have absolute conviction that what were doing is essential, he continued. We may have to do it online, we may have to rely on philanthropy instead of earned revenue, we may have to do it with a smaller staff. But were going to do it. Advertisement America's largest nurses union has staged a protest outside the White House calling on the government to ramp up production of personal protective equipment amid the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly two dozen members from National Nurses United descended upon Washington, D.C. Tuesday, saying the lack of PPE has caused tens of thousands of their colleagues to become infected with COVID-19. The protesters also brandished placards featuring the names and faces of 50 nurses who have died from the virus since the beginning of the outbreak. At one point, the group solemnly stood six feet a part as one member of the NNU read out the names of the deceased. 'We're here because our colleagues are dying,' nurse Erica Jones told NBC News. 'I think that right now, people think of us as heroes. But we're feeling like martyrs, we're feeling like we're being left on the battlefield with nothing,' she stated. Last week, CDC officials revealed that data provided by states tracking the occupations of people with COVID-19 indicated that healthcare workers account for 11% of infections. With 812,000 Americans testing positive to the coronavirus, that would mean more close to 90,000 healthcare workers have come down with the disease. America's largest nurses union has staged a protest outside The White House calling on the government to ramp up production of personal protective equipment amid the coronavirus pandemic Protesters also brandished placards featuring the names and faces of 50 nurses who have died from the virus since the beginning of the outbreak The nurses wore masks as stood six feet apart from one another as they held up signs for photographers The union is outraged that no federal health and safety standards have been established amid the pandemic, despite the shocking toll the virus has taken on healthcare workers The union is outraged that no federal health and safety standards have been established amid the pandemic, despite the shocking toll the virus has taken on healthcare workers. NNU representative Amirah Sequeira told NBC News: 'Right now what's happening, in hospitals across this country, nurses are being told to reuse their N95 masks, not only their whole shift but for days or weeks on end. 'That is not safe. That is not protecting them, and it is not protecting their patients. We need an OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] standard to tell hospitals that the reuse of N95 masks is unacceptable and unsafe.' The union announced plans for the protest on their website Monday, stating: 'With the failure of the Trump administration to protect health care workers, NNU is demanding that Congress include a mandatory OSHA emergency standard in its next COVID-19 legislative package.' The nurses union is also calling on President Trump to ramp up production of personal protective equipment by using the Defense Production Act of 1950 The group paused to remember 50 of their colleagues who have passed away from COVID-19 The NNU is demanding 'the mass production of PPE, including N95 respirators, face shields, gowns, gloves and shoe coverings, as well as ventilators and COVID-19 testing kits' The nurses union is also calling on President Trump to ramp up production of personal protective equipment by using the Defense Production Act of 1950, which authorizes the Commander-in-chief to have business make materials deemed necessary for national defense. The NNU is demanding 'the mass production of PPE, including N95 respirators, face shields, gowns, gloves and shoe coverings, as well as ventilators and COVID-19 testing kits'. The group claims they will need 3.5 billion N95 masks to see them through the pandemic. Trump was initially reluctant to invoke the Defense Production Act, which prompted widespread criticism due to a drastic shortage of ventilators. However, he later invoked the DPA to require 3M and General Electric to produce protective masks. On Sunday, he also authorities prompted criticism has invoked the Defense Production Act for testing swabs - revealing that he has ordered an unnamed company to produce 20 million swabs per month. The NNU claims they will need 3.5 billion N95 masks to see them through the pandemic The group say President Trump has failed to protect them as they serve on the frontline of the crisis Dewitt, N.Y. It wont make up for the anxiety and disruption caused by the coronavirus and the resulting shutdown of most of what we used to know as everyday life. Still, you wouldnt want to underestimate the power of a two-foot-long, sugar-coated piece of fried dough. For the next two weekends, and maybe longer, youll be able to satisfy your cravings for that New York State Fair favorite: The Pizze Fritte. The Zazzara family, whove operated the Villa Pizze Fritte stand at the State Fair for 60 years, will be serving them via a drive-thru stand set up on the northeast corner of Erie Boulevard East and Bridge Street in DeWitt. The stand will be open 4 to 8 p.m. this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and again the following weekend. The family will then decide whether to keep it going. The price will be the same as at the Fair: $4 apiece or a bag of five for $15. It will be cash only. It was a sort of spur-of-the-moment idea, said Grazi Zazzara Jr. Yesterday, my wife (Maura) said, You know I could really go for a Pizze Fritte!'" he said. "I said, Yes, thats exactly what we need now! " ... We know these are challenging times for everyone in the community, and she said maybe this could be something that will put a smile on peoples face while still practicing social distancing, Zazzara said. After clearing the idea with his father and other family members, it took just a few hours to put the plan in place, Zazzara Jr. said. Its a highly unusual non-State Fair appearance for the Pizze Fritte, which is typically limited to sales at its original A-frame building or a second trailer on the Fairgrounds. (Occasionally the stands are open for other events.) The Zazzaras are using the mobile trailer, not the iconic permanent A-frame, for the drive-thru. You can only get Pizze Fritte maybe 25 total days throughout any given year, so this is rare, Zazzara said. "Its not a quick or simple operation to set up, so that is why we have never done one-off openings. And, for the first time in 60 years, its a drive-thru! It should be fun. This trailer will be set up for drive-thru Pizze Fritte sales the next two weekends at the corner of Erie Boulevard East and Bridge Street in DeWitt. Teri Weaver Teri Weaver | tweaver@syracuse.com The Zazzara family had operated the Villa Restaurant on Lodi Street in Syracuse before launching Pizze Fritte at the Fair in 1960. Six decades later, the fried dough, the long (but fast-moving) lines and the music blaring from the stands speakers are an integral part of the State Fair experience. The drive-thru will be a little different. The stand will adhere to all social distancing precautions. There will be drive-through lanes, and you wont leave your car, Zazzara said. Workers at the stand will wear gloves and masks, and the stand will follow all of the CDCs recommended best practices, he said. If its successful, the stand may stay open. Well see how it goes, what the response is, Zazzara said. Its too early to say what will happen regarding the State Fair itself, he said. But if youre craving a Pizze Fritte now and cant wait for the State Fair, weve got you covered," he said. RELATED Donut drops, virtual pizza parties en route to CNY neighborhoods MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Wegmans, Tops, others want shoppers to wear masks, but wont ban people who dont 5 die of coronavirus at CNY nursing homes, adult care facilities Coronavirus: How we might restart the CNY economy while keeping the virus at bay Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) isn't bowing to pressure to ease a statewide stay-at-home order he put in place to slow the spread of coronavirus. Newsom said Monday he won't modify the order until there is adequate COVID-19 testing and the threat to public health abates, the Los Angeles Times reports. A handful of protests have popped up across the state, with demonstrators saying they want businesses to reopen despite the virus still spreading, and officials from San Luis Obispo County have asked to "begin a science-based, thoughtfully phased reopening of our economy." "If we're ultimately going to come back economically, the worst mistake we can make is making a precipitous decision based on politics and frustration that puts people's lives at risk and ultimately sets back the cause of economic growth and economic recovery," Newsom said. Singapore relaxed its restrictions and is now facing a second wave of infections, Newsom cautioned, and that could happen in California. "The virus knows no jurisdiction, knows no boundaries," he said. Last week, Newsom said six things must happen before he will even consider easing his stay-at-home mandate, including the development of therapeutics and an increase in the number of hospital beds. "None of these local health directives can go further, or rather, go farther backward than the state guidance," Newsom said Monday. His administration will work with local officials, he added, to ensure that their decisions are all "health-based. ... Health first, science, and data. Everything else follows from that." More stories from theweek.com The Navajo Nation outbreak reveals an ugly truth behind America's coronavirus experience U.S. coronavirus deaths top 45,000 Georgia's dangerous coronavirus experiment Californias grape growers in coming weeks will be asked to vote whether or not to continue funding research to protect the states vineyards from harmful pests and diseases. The vote, held every five years, will decide the future of industry funding for the Pierces Disease/Glassy Winged SharpShooter Board. The board, named for a harmful grapevine pest and the vine-killing disease it spreads, advises the California Department of Food and Agriculture and works to combat designated grapevine pests and diseases in the state. An outbreak of Pierces Disease, spread by the glassy-winged sharpshooter, destroyed hundreds of acres of vineyards in Southern Californias Temecula Valley in the 1990s. The pest is thought to have first arrived in California in 1994, possibly from the American Southeast. Riverside County in 1999 declared a state of emergency in response to the outbreak which frightened growers in Napa and around the state. The state board was established shortly after the outbreak in 2001. This is overwhelming and it scares the heck of out me, Ed Weber, Napa Countys farm adviser at the time, told Wine Spectator in 1999 after touring the Temecula Valley. Growers in California partially fund the sharpshooter board through an assessment a tax of sorts paid on the value of their grapes per ton. In 2019, the assessment was $1 for every $1,000 of value per ton of grapes crushed; over the boards history, the assessment has averaged $1.39 per $1,000, according to the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, which released a statement early last week encouraging eligible members to vote yes on the assessments continuation. While these are troubling times, it is imperative that we protect our vineyards from these destructive pests and diseases, Grapegrowers said in its release, referencing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The vote will include not just wine grape growers, but table grape, raisin and grape juice producers in the state. Each growing entity is afforded one vote, according to the board, meaning that producers with multiple, distinct growing entities (with different federal tax identification numbers) will be afforded multiple votes. The state board, which is also partially funded by federal, state and local governments, has poured significant money more than $34 million into researching and reducing the diseases impact on Californias grape growers. The board has spent more than $45 million on research since its establishment in 2001. This funding helped researchers at UC, Davis develop Pierces Disease-resistant breeds of wine grapes that were released last year. Both the research and mitigation have taken significant effort from the board and its supporters, Professor of Viticulture and Enology Andy Walker, who successfully bred the disease-resistant vines, told the Register last year. Without (the boards effort), there would be very little viticulture in California, because its native to the state now, Walker said of the glassy-winged sharpshooter in a December interview. It moved into cultivated vineyards and wiped them out very quickly. Pierces Disease, for which there is no known cure, can kill grape vines in as little as two years. Once the disease-causing bacteria is injected into the vine by the glassy winged sharp shooter, it can block flow of water to leaves and otherwise stress the vine to the point of death. The disease costs the state of California more than $100 million annually in vine losses, industry assessments and compliance costs, according to a study done by University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers. The last vote, in 2015, saw more than 80 percent of growers approve continuation of funding. Growers who have received ballots must return them to the board by May 8; at least 40% of eligible growers must cast votes in order for the referendum to be valid, according to Napa Valley Grapegrowers. You can reach Sarah Klearman at (707) 256-2213 or sklearman@napanews.com. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A 'dedicated and always happy to help' orthopaedic surgeon and a 'passionate and hardworking' nurse are among six of the latest healthcare workers to die of coronavirus. Sadeq Elhowsh, 58, described by his colleagues as 'a much-loved member of the team', worked at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in Merseyside as a surgeon for 17 years before he died at Whiston Hospital. In a tribute to the surgeon, who died in the hospital he worked at, the father-of-four's family said: 'Sadeq was a wonderful husband as well as a devoted father and he dearly loved his family. 'We cannot put into words the depth of our loss. He loved his work and was dedicated to supporting his patients and his colleagues.' Sadeq Elhowsh, 58, an orthopaedic surgeon who worked at St Helens and Knowley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, died from coronavirus. Pictured with his sons The father-of-four, who died in the hospital he worked at, was described as a 'wonderful husband as well as a devoted father' Josephine Peter, a nurse at Southport and Formby District General Hospital, leaves behind her husband Thabo, her two children Bongani and Buhle and a granddaughter Ravi Gudena, Mr Elhowsh's colleague and a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, said: 'Nothing was ever too much trouble for Sadeq, he was always there to help anyone and was happy to do whatever was needed to help his colleagues and patients.' Hospital chief executive Ann Marr OBE added: 'Sadeq will be sadly missed by all who knew and worked with him. He was without doubt a much-loved member of the team.' Josephine Peter, a nurse at Southport and Formby District General Hospital, has been described as a 'heroine' by her devastated husband after she died from the virus on Saturday, April 18. According to a GoFundMe page set up to honour Mrs Peter, who worked as a nurse for 20 years, she leaves behind her husband Thabo, her two children Bongani and Buhle who live in South Africa and a granddaughter. She was raised in Johannesburg, South Africa during Apartheid where, according to the fundraising page, she was 'whipped and humiliated by the then white ruling party' but she never let it break her spirit. Juliet Alder, who worked at the Hammersmith and Fulham Mental Health Unit, died from coronavirus aged 58 on Tuesday, April 14 Kirsty Jones, 41, was working at an assessment centre helping in the frontline response. She leaves behind her husband Nigel and two sons, Sam age 14 and Finlay, four The fundraiser, which has raised more than 3,000 so far, said she graduated as a professional nurse at University of Fort Hare and Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, South Africa, in 1998 before moving to the UK in 2002. She had been working at Southport hospital since February on an agency contract until she fell ill in early April. James Lock, chief executive of Altrix, the nursing agency that employed her, said: 'Josephine was a diligent nurse who was highly regarded and liked by the team. 'She would always go that extra mile and was a pleasure to work with. My team and I send our very best wishes and deepest condolences to Josephine's family." Liz Shale, a 61-year-old NHS administration worker from Leeds, died just two days after being rushed to hospital on Tuesday, April 7. Her family, who described her as 'loving and crazy' have pleaded with people to 'take this virus seriously' after they were unable to visit and say goodbye to her before she died at St James's University Hospital and will have to watch her funeral via video link due to new restrictions. Liz Shale, 61, an NHS administration worker from Leeds died two days after she was rushed to hospital The grandmother-of-eight worked for the NHS for more than 20 years and spent the last decade working in palliative care in Bradford. Her son, Danny, said: 'She was funny, loving and crazy, she would do owt for a laugh. She was definitely a character. 'She was always cracking jokes to make them all laugh and keep them motivated. 'She knew she had to keep going to work when this started and started working from home the week before everyone was told to but even though she had been staying at home, she still got it.' He added: 'Our life will never be the same again. My mum wont get to see my children grow up all because of this virus. How people dont realise the impact this has? 'Basically, shes now just seen as another number - a statistic - and it shouldnt be that way. People should know who she was, not see her as another person who died.' Another victim, Kirsty Jones, 41, had been working as a healthcare assistant and recently taken up a position in one of Lanarkshire's Assessment Centres, based in Airdrie Health Centre, to help in the frontline response against the pandemic. Her death sees her leave behind her husband Nigel, and two sons, Sam aged 14 and Finlay, four. Mr Jones said: 'Kirsty devoted her life to caring for others. She was larger than life itself and was a constant source of happiness for all who were around her. 'Kirsty will be greatly missed by all who knew her. A void has opened in our hearts that will never be filled.' Tributes have also been paid to Khulisani Nkala, a mental health nurse who died on Friday. Khulisani Nkala, 46, worked as a mental health nurse for the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and died from the virus on Friday The 46-year-old was the first staff member at Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to died from the virus. Dr Sara Munro, chief executive of the trust, said: 'Khuli was a well-respected and selfless professional nurse who always put the patient first and will be greatly missed by his colleagues.' Juliet Alder, who died from coronavirus aged 58 on Tuesday, April 14, worked at the Hammersmith and Fulham Mental Health Unit supporting older people in the last weeks of their life. She is the first member of the team to die from Covid-19, leaving behind her husband and daughter, and was described by her colleagues as 'kind, caring and thoughtful.' Her coworkers said: 'She was compassionate to patients, colleagues and carers and maternal towards those who came in contact with her. 'Juliet had a beaming smile and an infectious laughter and took great pride in looking after others. Shell be missed by all.' Yesterday it was announced Manjeet Riyat, a 'widely respected' doctor, who became the first Sikh to work as an A&E consultant in Britain, was one of the latest NHS victims of the pandemic. The 52-year-old was described by colleagues at the Royal Derby Hospital as the 'father of the emergency department.' Manjeet Riyat died at the Royal Derby Hospital on Monday (University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust/PA) The married father-of-two, who previously worked at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Lincoln County Hospital, has been described as 'instrumental' in building the emergency medicine service in Derbyshire over the past 20 years. He died on Monday at Royal Derby Hospital, the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust said. Married father-of-two Craig Wakeham, a doctor at the Cerne Abbas surgery in Dorset for three decades, died from coronavirus at the weekend, it emerged yesterday. Married father-of-two Craig Wakeham, a doctor at the Cerne Abbas surgery in Dorset for three decades, died from coronavirus at the weekend, it emerged today His colleagues at the surgery said: 'His industry and innovation led our practice for 30 years. 'He was also a leading light in both the Clinical Commissioning Group and Local Medical Committee, as well as a devoted husband a father to his two boys. 'His legacy lives on in our patients who he cared for diligently, and in the good name he built for our surgery.' Mr Riyat also acted as an emergency medicine tutor at Derby College where he oversaw the education of junior doctors. His death marks the second at the trust, after Dr Amged El-Hawrani, an ear, nose and throat consultant at Queen's Hospital Burton, became the first frontline hospital doctor to die in the pandemic. Dr Amged El-Hawrani became the UK's first front-line hospital doctor to die from coronavirus following warnings that a lack of protective equipment would cost medical staff lives The number of health and social care workers to have died of coronavirus is believed to have surpassed 100 in the UK. Doctors, nurses, care home workers and allied healthcare professionals have all been lost in Britain's fight against COVID-19. The Government has only confirmed the death of 27 NHS workers, but nursing platform NursingNotes says the number now stands at 106 this morning. Its records show Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people accounted for 75 per cent of healthcare workers deaths, despite them only being 20 per cent of the workforce. Speaking to Sky News, the cousin of Mr Riyat said: 'He was a mountain of a man. He was my brother basically, if there's one man I'm going to miss the most it's him. 'He was the most generous man you could meet - the kindest man you could meet, with a great sense of humour.' Also paying tribute to Mr Riyat, trust chief executive Gavin Boyle said: 'Mr Riyat, known to his colleagues as Manjeet, was a widely respected consultant in emergency medicine nationally. 'Manjeet was the first A&E consultant from the Sikh community in the country and was instrumental in building the emergency medicine service in Derbyshire over the past two decades. 'He was an incredibly charming person and well-loved. Manjeet knew so many people here across the hospital; we will all miss him immensely. 'On behalf of everyone here at UHDB, including our patients and the communities we serve, I would like to offer our sincere condolences to his family.' In a tribute on behalf of the hospital's emergency department team, emergency medicine consultant Susie Hewitt said: 'Manjeet was one of the first clinical research fellows in the UK and contributed to the birth of academic emergency medicine. 'Despite his many achievements, Manjeet was most at home as a highly visible 'shop floor' emergency medicine consultant. 'He was consistently generous with his remarkable clinical knowledge to everyone in the team. Gerallt Davies, 51, is the first paramedic in Wales to die after suffering COVID-19 'He had that rare gift of maintaining constant joy in the intellectual challenge of clinical medicine, combined with gentle kindness and compassion for his patients. 'He was a powerful advocate for the sickest patients and was well known for his fair, no-nonsense approach. 'By contrast, Manjeet could be relied upon to lift the mood with his dry humour and sense of fun. 'Manjeet was enormously valued and much loved as a colleague, supervisor and mentor, as well as for his wise council and discreet support in tough times. 'For many, Manjeet was considered the father of the current emergency department in Derby and many more will reflect on how his inspiration has shaped their own careers. 'Finally, Manjeet was fiercely proud of his wife and two sons and often shared the achievements and exploits of the boys with equal good humour. He always kept sight of what is really important in life and set an example by living life in keeping with his high standards and strong values. He will be hugely missed.' Mr Riyat qualified from the University of Leicester in 1992 and went on to train in Emergency Medicine at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Lincoln County Hospital. During this time he acted as team leader for the Accident Flying Squads at both hospitals. Manjeet was also one of the first Clinical Research Fellows in the UK and contributed to the birth of academic Emergency Medicine. In 2003, Manjeet became one of four Consultants in Emergency Medicine at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and was the first person from the Sikh community to be appointed as an Emergency Medicine Consultant in the UK. The first consultants in A&E medicine were introduced in the late 70s, and throughout the 80s and 90s their numbers increased significantly. Mr Riyat became Head of Service for the Emergency Department in 2006 and made particular contributions to clinical governance and patient safety. Trust chairwoman Dr Kathy McLean said: 'Mr Manjeet Riyat made a huge contribution to the NHS in Derbyshire and across the field of emergency medicine nationally. 'I had known Manjeet from when he first joined the trust in the early 2000s and he very quickly made an impact with his focus on patient care and high standards. 'It was clear that he was an outstanding emergency medicine doctor and generations of families in this region have benefited from the care he provided. 'I met him again shortly after returning to the trust as chair and was greeted with a big hug. This is a terribly sad day for all of those who had the pleasure to have known him and to have worked alongside him.' Ms Tapley's heartbroken granddaughter said her grandmother was like 'an additional parent' As of Monday, a total of 16,509 people diagnosed with Covid-19 have died in the UK. Meanwhile, Gerallt Davies, 51, is the first paramedic in Wales to die after suffering COVID-19. He had been awarded an MBE in 2009 for his work as a national operations officer for St John Cymru Wales. He was based at Cwmbwrla Station in Swansea and had worked for the ambulance service for 26 years. Mr Davies' death was described as 'a devastating blow' for his colleagues. Yesterday it emerged two older health workers still caring for patients into their 70s and 80s have both died on the same day of coronavirus. Ms Tapley's granddaughter Hannah Tapley, a champion high jumper who has competed for team GB, said her grandmother would text and call her everyday Great-grandmother Margaret Tapley was working as an auxiliary nurse at the age of 84 and hailed as 'a legend on the ward'. Sophie Fagan, 78, had served the NHS for more than five decades, starting as a nurse before becoming a hospital care co-ordinator. Both were helping patients well past retirement age before passing away on Sunday. Mrs Tapley had continued her night shifts at Witney Community Hospital in Oxfordshire and worked the last one of her 40-year career on April 10. Mrs Fagan began nursing in 1966 and had been working since 2000 as a care co-ordinator at Homerton Hospital in East London Her family said she had been suffering symptoms before being admitted to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon three days before her death. Her grandson Tom Wood, a senior A&E nurse, said she inspired him to go into healthcare. 'She took huge pride in her work but was so humble,' he added. 'She embodied the nursing spirit. I struggle with one or two night shifts but grandma routinely did three a week.' Mrs Tapley's granddaughter Hannah Tapley said: 'She was the most hard-working, caring and perfect woman. Devoting her life to others and working for the NHS doing night shifts at her age.' Sophie Fagan, front row second left, arrived from India in 1961 to begin her nurse training. She has died aged 78 after contracting coronavirus. Picture: Homerton Hospital Stuart Bell, chief executive at Oxford Health trust, said: 'She was a legend on the ward and throughout the whole hospital.' Mrs Fagan began nursing in 1966 and had been working since 2000 as a care co-ordinator at Homerton Hospital in East London, where she died. Tracey Fletcher, trust chief executive, said: 'Sophie wanted to make a difference and caring for the elderly was her passion. Homerton Hospital nurse Michael Allieu, who has died after contracting coronavirus Other healthcare workers to have died from coronavirus include Joanna Klenczon (left) a 34-year-old domestic supervisor who worked at the Northampton General Hospital (NGH) for 10 years and occupational therapist Vivek Sharma who died on Friday 'Her taste for the brightest and most colourful jumpers, her elegance and her ability to talk to anyone made her stand out.' Daughter-in-law Deni Fagan said she was dedicated to her son John and grandson Jack, 16. She described Mrs Fagan as 'a fit and healthy lady who just loved life, nothing would have stopped her from working. 'She just refused to give up her job....despite her age. It goes to show what kind of lady she was. We are really very proud of her.' Acute care nurse Michael Allieu, 53, became the second worker at the Homerton to die from the virus over the weekend. Doug Milks disinfects voting booths at East High School in Madison, Wis. during the Wisconsin primary on April 7. Read more If youre a Pennsylvanian who wants to vote by mail this year, you can but make sure your ballot arrives by 8 p.m. on Election Day. If youre in New Jersey, you have more time. Your ballot will be counted as long as its postmarked by Election Day and arrives within 48 hours of the polls closing. Across Pennsylvanias northern border in Erie County, N.Y. (home to Buffalo), some polling places open more than a week before Election Day and are scheduled to be available over two weekends, for convenience. In Erie County, Pa., a few miles south, voting early is less flexible. You have to do it with an absentee ballot at the county election office. Weekend hours arent certain. (The same goes throughout Pennsylvania.) And if you live in Allegheny County, youll automatically get a vote-by-mail application sent to your home. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, you have to request one. READ MORE: Voting by mail is a safe option during coronavirus. Heres what you need to know about absentee ballots in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. As states scramble to adapt elections for the coronavirus pandemic, the rules vary widely, each set by seemingly small bureaucratic decisions that together determine how easy or hard it is to vote and how many people do or dont. Those rules are now subject to a growing legal and political battle across the country, especially in closely divided states like Pennsylvania, where tiny differences could influence who wins its 20 electoral votes and, ultimately, the White House. Democrats in Congress are pressing for national standards to impose early voting nationwide and ease mail-in voting. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that ballots in Wisconsins April 7 primary had to be counted if they were postmarked not received by that date, some Democrats now argue that standard should apply to all states, including Pennsylvania, and have brought a lawsuit to force the change in Arizona, another battleground. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, has set aside $10 million for legal battles against efforts to make it easier to vote, arguing that looser laws could lead to fraud (though studies show election fraud is rare). The fight in Congress, courthouses, and legislatures is now one of the central battles of the presidential race. Now is the time to be thinking about what voting should look like in November, said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. As each state decides how to do that, key questions include: How easy is it to obtain a mail-in ballot? Are they automatically sent out, or do voters have to request one? Can they be requested online? Is the ballots postage prepaid? Do mail-in ballots require a witness? Or do election officials just check that the signature matches registration records? Can voters give their ballots to someone else to turn in? If so, who? Relatives? Caregivers? Political activists? Much could depend on which counties can afford to pay the postage for mail-in ballots or buy the machines needed to process votes and on localized politics. In states that have long relied on mail voting, every registered voter automatically gets an absentee ballot. In Pennsylvania, state law requires people to apply for them. In Pennsylvania, you can request an absentee ballot online. New Jersey requires a paper form. Pennsylvania has a system to track a mail ballots status online. New Jersey doesnt. New Jersey provides prepaid postage to voters, while Pennsylvania counties mostly dont (though Philadelphia will this primary). Elections are run by counties, but they follow highly specific laws set at the state level. In Pennsylvania, that means changes have to clear both the GOP-led legislature and Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. And given the partisan divide over voting rules, changes for November could be hard to enact. Democrats, and some Republicans, have argued that during a pandemic, states should do all they can to make voting easier, and provide options including early voting (which could thin lines at the polls), voting by mail, and secure drop boxes where people can leave absentee ballots. This is an attempt at making sure that elections that are run at the local level recognize the pandemic that we are in, Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.) said of the national legislation. This really shouldnt be a partisan issue. We shouldnt be forcing people to put their health at risk to vote. Philadelphias top elections official, Lisa Deeley, called Monday for a change in state law to allow ballots to count if postmarked by an election day and received up to seven days later. ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters. While some Republican governors and secretaries of state have supported mail-in voting, the GOP more broadly has long fought efforts to make it easier to vote. Led by President Donald Trump, Republican officials argue that each state should set the rules and that its risky to mail ballots to people who didnt request them. The overhaul would vastly expand opportunities for fraud and weaken confidence in our elections, but all Washington Democrats see is a potential benefit for their party, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel wrote this month in a Fox News column. In Pennsylvania, elections officials were already implementing new voting machines and a vast expansion of absentee voting. As Pennsylvania prepares for its June 2 primary, some counties are hitting bottlenecks: Social distancing measures mean elections staff are working staggered shifts or remotely, and the specialized computers they use dont always fit within existing office space. READ MORE: Pennsylvania House unanimously backs proposal to delay the 2020 primary due to the coronavirus Delaware County has fallen behind in processing absentee ballots. More than one-third of Philadelphias mail ballot requests had not been processed as of April 15, which a city official attributed to COVID-19 precautions. To remove the logistical hurdles around in-person voting, a number of county elections officials in Pennsylvania are calling for the state to conduct its primary entirely by mail, along with allowing earlier counting of absentee ballots. If ballots were automatically mailed statewide, proponents argue, it would eliminate one step for voters and free short-staffed offices from having to process requests. In Wisconsin, officials couldnt keep up and thousands of absentee ballots didnt reach voters in time forcing many to stand for hours in lines at the polls. READ MORE: Despite coronavirus, Wisconsin is holding an election Tuesday. It could hold lessons for Pa. and N.J. Unlike many other states, Pennsylvania officials cant begin reviewing absentee ballots until Election Day, potentially delaying the count. UC Irvines Hasen warned that if counting drags and the lead shifts, it could undermine faith in the results. READ MORE: How does a Republican lead on election night and still lose Pennsylvania? Its called the blue shift. With Pennsylvania elections officials already short of money, changing to all-mail elections would require investments, along with massive public education campaigns. Congress has approved $400 million for pandemic-related election costs this year, but Democrats say at least $2 billion more is needed. Voting rights advocates worry that politics could stymie reforms. It frustrates me that voting rights are a partisan fight, said Suzanne Almeida, acting executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 04:25:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A woman wearing a face mask works at a reopened children's book shop in Rome, Italy, April 20, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 24,114 lives in locked-down Italy as total active infections fell for the first time since the pandemic broke out in the northern regions on Feb. 21, according to the latest data released Monday by the country's Civil Protection Department. (Photo by Alberto Lingria/Xinhua) ROME, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 24,114 lives in locked-down Italy as total active infections fell for the first time since the pandemic broke out in the northern regions on Feb. 21, according to the latest data released Monday by the country's Civil Protection Department. Addressing a televised press conference, Civil Protection Department Chief Angelo Borrelli said 454 new fatalities were registered over the past 24 hours. At the same time, a positive signal came from statistics of active infections, which decreased by 20 cases on Monday compared to the previous day, and totalled 108,237 nationwide. "This is the first time we see this further positive figure, which shows the current positive people decrease," Borrelli stressed. The total number of cases, including active infections, fatalities and recoveries rose by 2,256 to 181,228, Borrelli said. Statistics about the pressure over hospitals in the COVID-19 emergency also remained encouraging, according to the official who is managing the national emergency response. Of those currently infected, 2,573 patients are in intensive care units (ICUs), down by 62 patients compared to the previous day, another 24,906 are hospitalized in normal wards, down by 127 patients, and 80,758 are isolated at home because they are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. Borrelli explained the number of patients in ICUs was the lowest registered since March 20. The number of COVID-19 patients in need for hospitalization has been declining more or less constantly over the last week, easing the pressure over facilities of the national health system. Meanwhile, 1,822 people have recovered on a daily basis, bringing the country's total recoveries to 48,877 since the pandemic broke out. ENCOURAGING SIGNALS "Today, for the first time, we witness a decrease in the number of currently positive people," noted Luca Richeldi, head of Pulmonary Medicine Division at Rome's Gemelli Hospital and member of the technical-scientific committee counseling the government in the emergency. "It is a slight drop only ... but for the first time since the pandemic broke out, we have the minus sign in this figure and I think this is an extremely encouraging signal," he stressed. Addressing reporters at the same press conference with Borrelli, the pulmonologist provided a further analysis of the country's pandemic situation. "Our picture is based on six parameters, and we are satisfied when some of them drop and some others increase," Richeldi said. More specifically, he explained, a drop in the numbers of people hospitalized, of patients in intensive care units, and in the total number of active positive people was of course a good sign. At the same time, an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients put under home isolation (because not in need of hospital care) and in that of recoveries was positive as well. "As of today, we have a situation in which only one out of the six parameters is not going towards the desirable direction, which is that of deaths," Richeldi stressed, recalling the daily tally of fatalities still exceeded 400 units. "Yet, we are aware -- on the base of what epidemiologists tell us -- that this specific parameter will be the last one to take the path we would like to see." Echoing a warning launched by Health Minister Roberto Speranza in an interview to private Radio Capital channel earlier in the day, the member of the technical-scientific committee clearly stated the encouraging signals should not make people think that "the battle was won." "The painful figure regarding fatalities must bring us to think over what has happened and is still happening ... it must bring us to believe the fight is not over," the chief pulmonologist said. "Perhaps, we might be in a sort of 'partial truce', with regard to the coronavirus spreading, but for sure this is not the moment to let our guard down." Italy entered into a national lockdown on March 10 to contain the pandemic. The lockdown, which is expected to last until May 3, will be followed by a so-called "Phase Two," involving "the gradual resumption of social, economic and productive activities," the Italian government has explained. Hyderabad, April 21 : The Telangana government on Tuesday directed all the schools in the state not to increase school fee during academic year 2020-21 and charge only tuition fee and that too on monthly basis, in view of the hardships caused by Covid-19 induced lockdown. The government also warned the schools that non-compliance of the instructions will result in cancellation of school recognition. The School Education Department issued a Government Order (GO) in this regard on Tuesday, two days after the state cabinet took a decision in this regard. According to the order, the instructions apply to all private unaided recognized schools in the state which are affiliated to State Board, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and other international boards. The schools were directed not to increase any kind of fees and charge only tuition fee on monthly basis till further orders. The department said non-compliance of orders will also lead to revoking the no objection certificate already granted for affiliation to other boards and initiation of appropriate action against the school managements under relevant Acts/Rules. Boris Johnsons government is deeply split over how quickly it can shift from a policy of containing the COVID-19 pandemic, which has so far cost over 16,500 lives in Britain, to a full-scale return to work. Big business and the banks, having fleeced the working class of at least 135 billion on a government bailout, is clamouring to restart the extraction of profit from the working class. Currently, a 35 percent drop in gross domestic product is anticipated if the lockdown lasts until June. Clawing this back from the working class is now British capitalisms primary objective. The difficulty the Conservative government faces is the overwhelming opposition to such a move by the working class. Politico reported that a government source stated, There is a Fleet Street desire for us to lay out exit strategies, but it is not where the public are. The public are seeing death numbers and thinking weve got to do everything we can to stop the spread of the virus. Having openly declared a policy of herd immunity and then been belatedly forced to impose a lockdown due to widespread public anger, Johnson and his ministers are weakened and deeply discredited. This has been made worse by their inability to reverse the impact of their earlier policyexemplified by the absence of testing, an inability to provide even medical staff with personal protective equipment (PPE) and leaving the old and infirm to die in care homes along with thousands more who never see a hospital before succumbing to the disease. This has led to the grotesque spectacle of Johnson himself, his special adviser Dominic Cummings and Health Secretary Matt Hancock, all with blood on their hands, urging their fellow criminals, including Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill, to put the brakes on plans to end the lockdown within weeks. Johnson is also concerned that too early a reduction in restrictions would cause a second peak in COVID-19 cases, which, because of the exponential nature of the virus transmission, could do the most damage to health and the most damage to the economy. The dispute is framed for public consumption on the R-numberthe reproduction rate of the viruswith Gove and Sunak wanting to contemplate lifting restrictions as soon as the R number falls below 1, meaning the number of total infections falling. Gove told the cabinet, Ive come to the view that we need to run this hot. These divisions are being played out in the pro-Tory media. Last weekends Sunday Times article, 38 DAYS when Britain sleepwalked into carnage by the Insight team, exposed Johnson and his governments extraordinary complacency and incompetence. On January 24, Hancock at the first emergency Cobra (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A) meeting described the threat from coronavirus to public health as low. This was despite a L ancet editorial that day warning of a pandemic comparable to the 1918 Spanish flu. The meeting lasted only an hour. Boris Johnson was not even present, choosing instead to attend a Chinese New Year event. Over the next five weeks, Johnson missed four further Cobra meetings. His spokesman claimed Britain was well prepared for any new diseases. An unnamed senior adviser told Insight, Boris didnt chair any meetings. He liked his country breaks. He didnt work weekends. Rather than being well prepared, Britain was badly equipped for a pandemic. Stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE) had dwindled and expired. Key worker training had been neglected. Repeated warnings of mass casualties were ignored. The Sunday Timess source reported members of the pandemic advisory group would joke Haha lets hope we dont get a pandemic, because there wasnt a single area of practice that was being nurtured for us to meet basic requirements for [a] pandemic, never mind do it well. Even when the scale of the looming disaster began to dawn on the government, almost nothing was done. The source continued Almost every plan we had was not activated in February. No testing was done in February, no PPE were ordered, indeed some existing stocks were exported. A health department insider concluded, We were doomed by our incompetence, our hubris and our austerity. The result of this policy is now being played out. This weekend saw reports of hospitals on the brink of exhausting their supplies of PPE and of oxygen. Last Friday, Public Health England changed its advice to medical staff, suggesting that full-length gowns offering a high level of safety from infection could be replaced with disposable plastic aprons. Alternatively, hospitals should ration supplies of fluid-repellent gowns to the most aerosol-generating procedures and surgery. Some 84 tonnes of gowns were reported to be either en route, held up, or due to arrive from Turkey. Currently, the government admits to around 50 deaths of National Health Service (NHS) staff. Nursing Notes has logged double that figure when careworkers are included. The Tory-supporting Daily Telegraph highlighted the government and health authorities failure to respond to Exercise Cygnus in 2016, which warned of catastrophic NHS failings in the event of a respiratory flu-type pandemic and 750,000 deaths. With the government in deep crisis, new Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has stepped forwards as a potential saviour. Backed by the public service trade unions, Starmer has already repaid the confidence placed in him by big business as a reliable replacement for Jeremy Corbyn. Writing to then-acting Prime Minister Dominic Raab last week, Starmer confirmed the Labour Partys intention to work constructively with the government on managing this crisis and helping to protect peoples lives and livelihoods. Starmer outlined his central concern. Overcoming this crisis requires taking the British public with you. Millions of people have...exceeded government assumptions about their willingness to make sacrifices and stay at home. Starmer stopped short of openly proposing a government of national unity but has operated as if this was already in place ever since. Starmer has requested the government set out its criteria for ending the lockdown as soon as possible, including outlining which sectors of the economy will be started first. He made a vague reference to the need for increased testing but made no mention of any figure beyond the governments own hopelessly inadequate figure of 25,000 daily by mid-April. Since then, Starmer has formed a political alliance with leading hard-right Tories such as former Brexit Secretary David Davis and former party leader Ian Duncan Smith in championing a back-to-work strategy. Working together in intimate discussions with leading business figures, Duncan Smith told the Times we need to accept and admit we are coming out of lockdown. The British people, he continued, need to know that the sun is rising at some point, in an economic sense. Starmer was backed yesterday by former Labour Prime Minister and unindicted war criminal Tony Blair, whose Institute for Global Change proposed various trial and error models between re-opening as much of the economy as possible and a death rate deemed politically manageable. The document, A sustainable exit strategy: managing uncertainty minimising harm, outlined a contingent exit plan that varied between a hard lockdown if daily deaths were over 500, a soft lockdown if deaths were between 100 and 500, and a soft open if deaths were less than 100. Blair wants top business figures from across industry to be bought directly into government to bring their collective firepower to bear on determining government policy. It is a measure of the desperation within ruling circles and their disconnect from popular sentiment that they would entertain the belief that Starmer, Blair and business leaders acting as coronavirus Tsars could secure popular support for a policy that will cost so many livesnot just in the inevitable second wave spoken of by Johnson, but successive waves of the pandemic. Rather, the conditions are rapidly emerging for an explosion of the class struggle against any government formation that tries to impose the dictates of the corporations and banks. Editors Note: This is part of a continuing series on the practical takeaways from research. With schools around the country closed and reopening dates uncertain, education leaders are being asked to support at-home learning on an unprecedented scale. Rising to this challenge will require tremendous leadership from schools and districts. With an overwhelming number of opinions on what to dofrom encouraging teachers to host live virtual classes to partnering with private companies to distribute technologyhow can schools and districts best serve students who are stuck at home for the indefinite future? Fortunately, rigorous evidence points to a number of effective uses of technology, sometimes combined with low-tech activities, that can help educators and learners adjust to this new normal. Among the higher-tech approaches, some are clearly better than others. Last year, my co-authors and I conducted a systematic review of 126 rigorous studies examining the effectiveness of different kinds of ed tech interventions. Computer-assisted learning (CAL) programssoftware students use to develop and practice reading, math, and other skillsstood out for improving academic achievement across a wide range of programs and settings. Almost all of the 30 studies of CAL programs we examined found positive effects, some of them impressively large. Schools can provide effective computer-assisted learning programs to help fill the gap when parents have limited time or taste for directing their children's learning at home." Based on these findings, school leaders should adopt CAL programs now more than ever because they are a way to foster learning from home. The most effective CAL programs allow students to watch digital instructional videos and proceed through exercises at their own pace, much like students would with a tutor. The programs also provide immediate feedback, letting students know when and why theyve answered a problem incorrectly. Schools can provide effective CAL programs to help fill the gap when parents have limited time or taste for directing their childrens learning at home. Teachers posting school assignments on Google Classroom and hoping they get done is not enough to make learning happen in many households at this moment. CAL is more interactive and more motivating. One promising program we studied is ASSISTments , which resulted in impressive academic gains over different grades, based on multiple studies comparing gains of students randomly assigned to ASSISTments or some other program. Through this free online platform, teachers can assign customized math homework and assess student progress on assignments remotely. Students also receive immediate feedback as they solve problems, which may be particularly useful when teachers cant look over students shoulders or call them to the board in classrooms. One randomized study found that even using the program for less than an average of 10 minutes per night, three to four nights per week, led to substantial learning. Two others also found large effects from using the program regularly in class and at home. Khan Academy is another free CAL program that provides children with personalized feedback. Featuring a library of courses across subjects and levels, Khan Academy enables students to practice and receive feedback on a range of subjects at their own pace before moving through new content. One randomized evaluation found that a summer program for middle schoolers that incorporated one hour of Khan Academy each day alongside traditional instruction boosted math scores. In response to school closures, Khan Academy has released daily schedules for students and resources detailing how to use its platform. School leaders can consult these resources to provide structured guidance to educators and families. About this series This essay is the seventh in a series that aims to put the pieces of research together so that education decisionmakers can evaluate which policies and practices to implement. The conveners of this projectSusanna Loeb, the director of Brown Universitys Annenberg Institute for School Reform, and Harvard education professor Heather Hillhave received grant support from the Annenberg Institute for this series. To suggest other topics for this series or join in the conversation, use #EdResearchtoPractice on Twitter. Read the full series here . CAL programs can help build literacy and language arts skills as well, though the evidence base is less substantial.The ITSS (Intelligent Tutoring System for the Text Structure Strategy) program, which teaches students a technique for breaking down texts, significantly boosted middle school reading comprehension scores. The program features the same key elements as other successful CAL programs: it allows students to move at their own pace and provides feedback and help when prompted. These patterns suggest that if learning can be broken down into manageable parts and incorporate regular feedback, many subjects can be effectively taught through CAL platforms. While CAL programs can be effective, simply requiring students to watch online educational videos is not likely to help. Our research review suggests that students typically do worse in courses that are delivered entirely online. No matter how great the video content, students retain very little from watching instruction without interaction. To the extent possible, teachers (and parents) should instead monitor and reward active progress. Not everyone can access these effective CAL programs at home, unfortunately. In the United States, about 9.4 million children between the ages of 3 and 18 are without internet . Especially likely to lack connectivity are low-income and rural homes. Policymakers, philanthropies, and corporations must quickly mobilize resources to expand access to much-needed technology, and district leaders should be proactive about establishing partnerships with these entities. Googles plan to offer free Wi-Fi to 100,000 households and donate 4,000 Chromebooks to improve access for Californias rural students is an encouraging start. There are other strategies to support home learning that are backed by evidence and do not require expensive technology. For parents of young children, this can be as simple as setting a goal for the number of books to read with their child per week. My co-authors and I ran a randomized study in Chicago and found that goal setting combined with daily text reminders more than doubled the amount of time that low-income parents spent reading to their children. Educators could help parents create weekly goal sheets identifying the number of books they hope to read with their children in a week. For each book read, parents and children can place a sticker on the goal sheet that theyve hung on the refrigerator. School leaders could supplement these efforts by sending parents automated, actionable text reminders related to at-home learning activities. At-home learning is not the first choice for most families, and it cant fully replace a childs classroom experience. In the face of these unprecedented closures, however, innovative home and online tools can help school leaders ensure that students continue to learn. These times call for flexibility, and we must celebrate successes both big and small. With the right evidence-based approaches, a regular routine, and a healthy dose of patience, we have reason to believe that students might still learn a thing or two during these uncertain times. Nagpur Mayor Sandip Joshi on Tuesday accused the civic corporation for the high number of COVID-19 cases in the city, with civic commissioner Tukaram Mundhe refuting the allegations. Joshi, in a letter, claimed those with suspected exposure were kept along with positive cases in quarantine facilities till test reports come in. He also alleged that Mundhe was not talking to elected representatives in the corporation which was causing issues while combating the outbreak. Mundhe, meanwhile, said the outbreak was being tackled as per guidelines issued by the ICMR, Centre and the state government. "Due to institutional quarantine of 200 contacts of a deceased COVID-19 patient, we managed to get all of them tested, and 45 reports returned positive. We are following guidelines strictly," he said. Eight people tested positive for novel coronavirus on Tuesday in Nagpur, taking the district's COVID-19 count to 89. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The unity agreement signed April 20 establishes the largest government in Israels history, with ministerial portfolios equally divided between the Likud and the Blue and White party. Blue and White head Benny Gantz will assume the double role of deputy prime minister and defense minister, while his No. 2, Gabi Ashkenazi, will receive the foreign affairs portfolio. Israeli diplomats received the news about Ashkenazi with some apprehension. Ashkenazi has had a long and impressive career in the army, culminating with his appointment as the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff in 2007. In between, he served one year as director general of the Defense Ministry, under then-Defense Minister Amir Peretz. With the new government soon to be formally established, a position of defense minister, public security minister or intelligence minister might have been more to his liking. Evidently, in Israeli politics, liking is not a consideration. Joining a party with two ex-generals (Gantz and Moshe Yaalon), Ashkenazi must have known from the beginning that the road to the top security positions in Israel could be blocked. Ashkenazi describes himself on Twitter as a "proud Golani-division soldier, chair of the security and foreign affairs committee, Blue and White Knesset member." People who know him describe him as a "grassroots person," whose strengths come from the field, but also as an ambitious politician who knows what he wants. They say that after retiring from the army, Ashkenazi was ready for politics, but only if he could reach the top. Had Blue and White not split, Ashkenazi might have found himself in a different position. Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, the No. 2 at Blue and White until the breakup, had accumulated considerable experience in the field of Israels international relations. As a former journalist, he knows about public diplomacy, and he worked hard to turn himself into a statesman with ties across the globe, including in American politics and among the Jewish diaspora. Ashkenazi is in a different place, though he is well connected to the US defense leadership. On March 30, after the dismantlement of the Blue and White over Gantz making way for a Benjamin Netanyahu-led unity government, Lapid made an indirect jab at Ashkenazi, tweeting, "I wont give up my values only to become a Zoom-like foreign minister." Ashkenazis appointment as Israels top diplomat might be surprising, but there are those in his future ministry who welcome his arrival. "The ministry has reached rock bottom in recent years as far as budget cuts and image are concerned," said a senior diplomat in Jerusalem, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Netanyahu has taken over Israels foreign relations, emptying the ministry of all and every imaginable responsibility. Ashkenazi wants to go places, so maybe hell fight to turn things around." Another senior Israeli diplomat told Al-Monitor that the coronavirus crisis had highlighted the important role of Israeli missions abroad: "The tremendous success of our diplomats bringing Israeli tourists back home despite lockdowns across the globe and despite much of the international flights at a halt, has perhaps reminded the public why Israel still needs its Foreign Ministry. This might be the perfect timing for a new minister who is not under Netanyahus thumb, to make things better." The Queen has two birthdays (Yui Mok/PA) It is the Queens 94th birthday on Tuesday but she actually has two birthdays. When are they? The Queen was born on April 21 1926, but she also has an official birthday in June this year it falls on Saturday June 13. Is this just a ploy to get extra presents? No. Its all down to the British weather. Since 1748, the monarchs official birthday has been marked by the parade known as Trooping the Colour usually held on the king or queens actual birthday. Expand Close The Queen, under her umbrella, has two birthdays because of the British weather (Suzanne Plunkett/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Queen, under her umbrella, has two birthdays because of the British weather (Suzanne Plunkett/PA) Edward VII, who reigned from 1901 to 1910, was born in November. He celebrated officially in May or June because there was less chance of it being cold and drizzly during the outdoor event. What about the next monarch? The monarch after Edward VII George V helpfully had a birthday in June, but the Queens father, George VI, whose birthday was in December, reintroduced the tradition of an official birthday, which Elizabeth II has continued. Is the Queens official birthday always on a Saturday? It is now. George VI had his official birthday on the second Thursday of June. In 1959, after several years on the throne, the Queen decided to change it to, usually, the second Saturday for convenience. Expand Close The Queen, riding her police horse Imperial, on The Mall during Trooping the Colour in June 1960 (PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Queen, riding her police horse Imperial, on The Mall during Trooping the Colour in June 1960 (PA) It is marked by the Trooping the Colour carriage and horse procession in central London and a flypast over Buckingham Palace. What about this year? Trooping, which attracts huge crowds, will not go ahead in its traditional form because of the coronavirus pandemic. Options are being considered but no further details have been released. What does the Queen usually do on her actual birthday? She gets to spend it privately except when duty beckons or it is a milestone celebration. Expand Close The Queen at Buckingham Palace looks at some of her 80th birthday cards in 2006 (Fiona Hanson/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Queen at Buckingham Palace looks at some of her 80th birthday cards in 2006 (Fiona Hanson/PA) Aides do try to give the Queen a break on her birthday from the famous red boxes containing state papers. And this year? With the country in lockdown, the Queens actual birthday is a low-key, no fuss affair. She is staying at Windsor Castle with the Duke of Edinburgh, away from their family, but the royals will be telephoning and video-calling the monarch. Expand Close The Queen speaking to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from Windsor Castle in March (Buckingham Palace/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Queen speaking to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from Windsor Castle in March (Buckingham Palace/PA) Does the Queen actually have more than two birthdays? Technically yes. A number of Commonwealth realms celebrate the occasion at different times of the year. In the majority of Australia, where the Queen is head of state, there is a public holiday on the second Monday in June, but Western Australia celebrates in September or October. In New Zealand, it is the first Monday in June, and in Canada, it is in May. Expand Close The Duke of Cambridge watches as his wife the Duchess of Cambridge dances with a costumed figure of Paddington bear (Jonathan Brady/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke of Cambridge watches as his wife the Duchess of Cambridge dances with a costumed figure of Paddington bear (Jonathan Brady/PA) Who else has two birthdays? Paddington, the marmalade-loving bear from deepest, darkest Peru on June 25 and December 25. His adopted family the Browns agreed that bears, just like the Queen, have two birthdays every year. President Donald Trump interrupted the daily White House briefing on the coronavirus on Monday to brandish what he said were media articles backing his assertion his administration has handled the crisis well (Alex Brandon/AP) A chorus of governors from both parties pushed back hard on Monday after President Donald Trump accused Democrats of playing a very dangerous political game by insisting there was a shortage of tests for coronavirus. It came as Mr Trump also said he would sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States because of the coronavirus, while offering no further details. After the presidents warnings to them, the governors countered that the White House must do more to help states conduct the testing required before they can ease up on stay-at-home orders. Kansas Democratic governor Laura Kelly said the current federal effort really is not good enough if were going to be able to start to open our economy. We cannot do that safely without the tests in place. The needs range from basic supplies like swabs and protective gear to highly specialised laboratory chemicals needed to analyse patient results. Hospitals, laboratories and state health departments report scouring the globe to secure orders, competing against each other and their peers abroad. The governors plea for stepped-up coordination came Monday when the Trump administration again provided discordant messaging: Trump blasted state leaders on Twitter for being too dependent on the federal government and later said some governors simply did not understand what they had, while Vice President Mike Pence assured governors the government was working around-the-clock to help them ramp up testing. Mr Pence sought to soften the administrations message amid growing clamour from both parties for a national testing strategy to help secure testing swabs, chemical reagents and other crucial supplies. When it comes to testing, were here to help, Mr Pence told governors during a video conference from the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Associated Press obtained audio of the call. Expand Close Mr Trump at Mondays briefing (Alex Brandon/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Trump at Mondays briefing (Alex Brandon/AP) Mr Pence said the administration sent each state a detailed list on Monday of testing capacity. But Maryland Republican governor Larry Hogan said much of the unused lab machinery listed for his state was in federal labs to which the state did not have access. Mr Pence said the administration had agreed to open up federal labs to help states. Mr Hogan announced on Monday that the state had received 500,000 tests from South Korea a game-changing deal negotiated by his wife, Yumi Hogan, who grew up outside Seoul. They want the states to take the lead, and we have to go out and do it ourselves, and so thats exactly what we did, Mr Hogan said. Mr Trump did not take that lying down. In his daily briefing, he said some governors have more capacity than they understand. The governor of Maryland could have called Mike Pence, could have saved a lot of money, Mr Trump said. I dont think he needed to go to South Korea. He needed to get a little knowledge. In Ohio, Republican governor Mike DeWine said his state was working with another federal agency, the Food and Drug Administration, to find a source of reagent, the chemical used to analyse test results. Democratic Montana governor Steve Bullock said his state received 5,000 nasal swabs on Monday from FEMA evidence the federal government was listening. But he added, It doesnt get us far enough. In New York, Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo said states should take the lead on testing but it was up to the federal government to help sort out supply chain issues facing testing manufacturers. As Mr Pence spoke with the governors, Mr Trump took to Twitter with a more combative tone than his deputy, complaining that the radical left and Do Nothing Democrats were playing politics with their complaints about a lack of tests. Now they scream Testing, Testing, Testing, again playing a very dangerous political game, Mr Trump tweeted. States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing But we will work with the Governors and get it done. Public health experts say the US needs to dramatically increase its testing infrastructure if it is going to safely roll back restrictions and reopen businesses without risking a major spike in infections. Meanwhile, the White House did not immediately elaborate on Mr Trumps tweet declaring he would suspend immigration. The president tweeted: In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! He offered no details as to what immigration programs might be affected by the order. Mr Trump has taken credit for his restrictions on travel to the US from China and hard-hit European countries, arguing it contributed to slowing the spread of the virus in the US. But he has yet to extend those restrictions to other nations now experiencing virus outbreaks. Due to the pandemic, almost all visa processing by the State Department, including immigrant visas, has been suspended for weeks. A top police officer had an emotional reunion with his wife and children today as he returned home after spending 26 days in hospital with coronavirus. Chief Superintendent Phil Dolby, of West Midlands Police, was placed on a ventilator as he battled the deadly virus for 13 days in intensive care. His family could not see him at Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital due to guidelines which prevent visitors, in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. Chief Superintendent Phil Dolby, of West Midlands Police, tweeted a picture today with his thumbs up as he was taken out on a wheelchair by two nurses wearing face masks Mr Dolby was sent messages of support on Twitter, including from Staffordshire Police chief Gareth Morgan who said: 'Brilliant and very welcome news. Take it steady!' But Mr Dolby was discharged from hospital today, and tweeted a picture with his thumbs up as he was taken out on a wheelchair by two nurses wearing face masks. He wrote: 'After 26 days, I have been discharged from Worcestershire Acute NHS and am at home with my family! A lovely send off from the amazing hospital staff. 'Emotional reunion with my wife, kids and Labrador. Long road to recovery ahead. Slow and steady. Thanks for all your support! #StayHomeSaveLives.' He was sent messages of support on Twitter, including from Staffordshire Police chief Gareth Morgan who said: 'Brilliant and very welcome news. Take it steady!' A week ago he revealed how he broke down in tears when his family were forced to 'visit' him by looking through a hospital window. A week ago, Mr Dolby revealed how he broke down in tears when his family were forced to 'visit' him by looking through a hospital window Posting a photograph which show them holding up a handwritten message to the glass saying 'We all love you' he said seeing his family was the 'boost he needed'. Mr Dolby had been updating his followers about his condition after falling ill He wrote: 'Had visitors. Cannot come to ward due to Covid-19. Staff let them come here via the rear window. 'We hadn't been together for 14 days. A boost I really needed. Cried like a girl. As you would expect.' Mr Dolby had been updating his followers about his condition after falling ill with the virus but went fell silent on March 29 after he was moved to intensive care. His final tweet told how he was left feeling frightened due to episodes of 'breathlessness and dizziness' on his daughter's 15th birthday. Friends and colleagues rallied around the police officer to show their support and family members urged people to say prayers as his condition worsened. He had previously shared stark footage from his hospital bed showing a rare insight into a coronavirus isolation unit as he kept a social media diary of his Covid-19 battle. His video showed a small cubicle clad with bare white walls, covered only in plastic sheeting and flame retardant materials. Earlier, he had told followers how he had never known an illness as bad as the one he was experiencing. The virus has so far killed more than 17,000 people in Britain out of a total of more than 120,000 cases across the country. Energy Minister Angus Taylors long - and sometimes politically painful - involvement with rural industry has come to an end. The Liberal MP has sold his holdings in Growth Farms Australia, the $400 million agricultural fund manager he founded with his brother two decades ago. Growth Farms Australia is in the business of managing some of the countrys largest agricultural concerns and is backed by British hedge fund billionaire Michael Hintze. The outfit is now chaired by former Mercer Investments chief executive Stephen Roberts and manages some $400 million in assets. Taylor's shares were held in his family's Gufee investment vehicle. Angus Taylor Credit:Golding Taylors agricultural interests have, for some years, been under heightened scrutiny after the Commonwealth forked out some $80 million to buy water rights held by Eastern Australia Agriculture, another company associated with Taylor (although that relationship ended long before the deal was struck). In more recent years, Growth Farms Australia has been managing two sprawling Queensland stations - Clyde and Kia Ora - as well as Sir Michaels recently-acquired Cheviot Hills sheep farm in regional Victoria. Last year the fund forked out $25 million to buy Seven billionaire Kerry Stokes Cygnet Park Farms operation on Kangaroo Island. After finishing high school, Mr. Liu enlisted in the Peoples Liberation Army in 1961 and built railways in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang. In 1968, he went to Wuhan to work at a state-owned machinery factory. Mr. Liu joined the civil service in the late 1980s, and was soon promoted to be party secretary of the Wuhan Grain Bureau. The job involved frequent travel abroad, including a visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York to negotiate prices on the import of grains and oil to Wuhan. Mr. Lius life took a turn in 2000, when he was reassigned to work as a manager at a vocational school. To Mr. Liu, it was a demotion the consequence of offending the mayor, he later said in a memoir he was writing for his family. His son said he had been punished for looking into a bribery case involving a man connected to the Wuhan mayor at the time. Mr. Liu persevered in his new position, fighting to secure government funding for the school, and playing a key role in merging the institution with several others to establish what is now Wuhan Business University. He retired in 2006. In recent years, he and his wife began visiting Sanya, a resort town popular among older Chinese for its sunny weather and beaches. On Jan. 6, before his annual trip to Sanya, Mr. Liu went to a hospital in Wuhan for his health checkup. The day before, 59 cases of an unexplained viral pneumonia had been reported in the city, but local officials insisted there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. By late January, he was hooked up to a ventilator and his blood oxygen levels were plummeting. He knew that he would not be able to finish his memoir, which he had hoped to give to his granddaughter as a life guide. Without telling anyone, he ripped up the papers and stuffed them into the pocket of his down jacket. Shady Grove Fertility to host 12 virtual fertility events this week in honor of National Infertility Awareness Week. We know that the world we live in right now is uncertain, and changing rapidly, but were here to offer patients a chance to regain some control over the situation by using this time to stay connected virtually with a specialist. Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) has been a leader in infertility awareness, community outreach, and education since the practice first opened its doors nearly 3 decades ago. In support of NIAW, SGF physicians will be hosting a variety of free community virtual events: Fertility Webinars What Your Menstrual Cycle Says about Your Fertility Date: Tuesday, April 21, 12:00 PM Host: Shruti Malik, M.D., Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist Getting Started with Fertility Treatment Date: Thursday, April 23, 12:00 PM Host: Andrea Reh, M.D., Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist Instagram Live The Trying Game Date: Wednesday, April 22, 12:00 p.m. Host: Anate Brauer, M.D., Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist, and The Trying Game Author, Amy Klein Infertility Q&A: All of Your Fertility Questions Answered Date: Friday, April 24, 11:30 AM Host: Kara Nguyen, M.D., Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist Beat Infertility Virtual Fertility Summit Male Factor Infertility Date: Monday, April 20, 5:00 PM Host: Paul R. Shin, M.D., Board Certified Reproductive Urologist, Director of SGFs Center for Male Fertility LGBTQ Family Building Date: Tuesday, April 21, 4:00 PM Host: J. Ryan Martin, M.D., Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist Premature Ovarian Failure Date: Wednesday, April 22, 1:00 PM Host: Anish A. Shah, M.D., Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist Unexplained Infertility Date: Thursday, April 23, 3:00 PM Host: Naveed Khan, M.D., Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist Virtual Support Groups Miscarriage Support Group Date: Tuesday, April 21, 12:00 PM Host: Sharon Covington, MSC, LCSW-C Donor Recipient Support Group Date: Tuesday, April 21, 6:00 PM Host: Patricia Sachs, LCSW-C Singles Support Group Date: Wednesday, April 22, 12:00 PM Host: Karen Wasserstein, Psy.D Donor Recipient Support Group Date: Thursday, April 23, 6:00 PM Host: Tara Simpson, Psy.D. To register for these events and more, visit ShadyGroveFertility.com/calendar. In addition, SGF provides on-demand webinars and eBooks, available for free download on such topics as Getting Pregnant with Endometriosis, Low-Tech Treatments, PCOS, Weight and Fertility, IVF, Financial Options, and more. We know that the world we live in right now is uncertain, and changing rapidly, but were here to offer patients a chance to regain some control over the situation by using this time to stay connected virtually with a specialist. Patients have many questions about what this crisis means, how might COVID-19 affect a pregnancy, how can they interpret the changes happening in the world around them through a lens of wanting to start a family, and so on and were here to help patients navigate these unchartered waters and be in a better position to move forward when the time is right, said Eric A. Widra, M.D., SGF Chief Medical Officer. SGF can provide physician experts for interviews on all aspects of infertility, as well as personal patient stories from women and men who have overcome or are still living with infertility. To schedule a media interview, contact Jean Dzierzak at Jean.Dzierzak@sgfertility.com. To stay connected with SGF during NIAW and beyond, follow SGF on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. To schedule a virtual physician consultation, please call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com. About Shady Grove Fertility SGF is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence with more than 85,000 babies born and counting. With 38 locations throughout FL, GA, MD, NY, PA, VA, D.C., and Santiago, Chile, we offer patients virtual physician consults, individualized care, accept most insurance plans, and make treatment affordable through innovative financial options, including treatment guarantees. More physicians refer their patients to SGF than any other center. Call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com. A suspected Egyptian-born Islamic State fighter described by police investigators as a "dangerous extremist" and two other people who are being investigated for possible links to religious extremist groups have been arrested in southern Spain, the country's National Police announced Tuesday. Police described the Islamic State fighter as a man who had gone from Europe to fight in Syria and Iraq and said he is "one of the most sought terrorists in Europe, both because of his criminal trajectory in the ranks of Daesh (Islamic State) and because of the high danger that he represented. The three were arrested in the early hours of Monday at a rented apartment in a central area of Almera, a southeastern Spanish port city, The Associated Press has learned from police contacts and interviews with local residents. They were being interrogated on Tuesday and were due be sent before a National Court judge in Madrid on Wednesday, said a spokesman from the court that usually handles terror-related cases and who was not authorized to be named in media reports. In a press release that didn't identify those arrested, police said the operation was the result of international cooperation" between agents specialized in fighting terrorism who suspected that the foreign fighter could be traveling through Spain as he tried to return to Europe. Police said that the main suspect had arrived by sea to Almera from northern Africa. In Spain, the three confined themselves in an apartment amid strict lock-down measures imposed to combat the new coronavirus pandemic. They made few outings, separately and always with masks to avoid being detected, the press release said. The main suspect had allegedly been in conflict-struck areas of Syria and Iraq for years and was described by police as having anextremely violent criminal profile. The arrests took place in Cerro de San Cristbal, a historic neighborhood in Almera, the capital of a province also called Almera, known for its narrow streets dotted with nightclubs and a mix of old and new buildings leading to the city's Alcazaba, a 10th-century fortress of Arabic origin. Antonio Garca, who owns several apartments for tourists in the vicinity, told AP that several police vans and heavily armed agents had cordoned off streets in the area for most of Monday. Taxi driver ngel Vlchez and Miriam Corts, who lives nearby, separately confirmed that six police vehicles and about 30 officers, including many in plainclothes, had blocked access to several streets since early Monday. Everything was blocked off, Vlchez said. The place is inundated with marijuana plantations inside houses, so I wouldn't be surprised if they found something else. Another neighbor, who asked not to be named in media reports, said police had showed up at 3 a.m. Monday and took away at least one person handcuffed from an apartment used for short stays by tourists. Spain's Interior Ministry says police have arrested nearly 400 people connected to extremist religious groups since 2012. Many of the arrests have not led to judicial convictions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Home Office has been accused of causing foreign doctors and nurses in the NHS unnecessary distress as they fight coronavirus in Britain's hospitals after declaring they would have their visas extended free of charge - only to apparently narrow the group that would benefit. Home Secretary Priti Patel announced on 31 March that doctors, nurses and paramedics employed by the NHS whose visa are due to expire before October would automatically have their visas extended, free of charge, for one year, as part of the national effort to combat coronavirus. But more than two weeks later the Home Office's position appears to have changed, with its website now indicating that this only applies to people who hold a Tier 2 working visa. This would mean NHS workers with different forms of immigration status such as those on family reunion visas or those with limited leave to remain who need to apply for extensions before October, would not benefit from the offer. When The Independent requested clarification as to whether the extension applied to NHS staff other than those on Tier 2 visas, the Home Office refused to answer the question and only provided the information from the initial announcement by Ms Patel. Speaking to MPs in the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday, Adrian Berry, chair, Immigration Law Practitioners' Association (ILPA), said there had either been a "shift in policy or a lack of clarity", but that on either basis the policy ought to extend to all NHS workers. He raised concern that immigration lawyers were having to rely on notices posted by the Home Office on the internet "in a fairly ad-hoc way with one notice replacing another without any suggestion there's been a change", adding: "Were all forced to log online and try find out. There isnt a single source of information." Immigration barrister Colin Yeo echoed his concerns, telling the committee the Home Office's communications on immigration issues such as the automatic visa extensions for NHS workers had been pretty terrible so far. If we as lawyers are struggling to understand whats going on and what these announcements cover, then the migrants affected will have no idea, basically, whats going on. People have got clients very worried about their immediate status, and people are getting very nervous about what the implications will be in the future," he added. A briefing note published by ILPA on Monday states that, if the policy has been changed to exclude anyone who is not on a Tier 2 visa, this was "clearly unfair" to anyone covered by the earlier announcement but not under these changes and amounted to an "entirely unsatisfactory" manner in which to make such policy changes, not least because the earlier version was not easily accessible. Sonia Lenegan, legal director and ILPA, said the department must provide clarity on the matter as a matter of urgency. This is frustrating both for those non-Tier 2 NHS workers who do not know whether or not they will need to apply to extend their leave, as well as for immigration lawyers who are having to try advise clients on the basis of information that is constantly shifting, with no explanation being provided from the Home Office, she told The Independent. The lack of clarity will create additional distress for NHS staff which is entirely unnecessary, the Home Office must explain why this change has been made as a matter of urgency." Concern has also been raised about the fact that the visa extension does not apply to healthcare staff working in the private sector who have been drafting in to tackle coronavirus, nor other members of NHS staff such as cleaners and porters. Mr Berry told MPs on Tuesday: "It doesn't extend to agency workers who are employed by private hospitals but who are now providing NHS care because the private sector has been brought into that. They need to be included as well "And extend it also to hospital porters health acre assistant and cleaners working in the NHS, because those are the sorts of people without which of course the hospitals would not be able to function. It shouldn't be a question of certain classes of NHS workers." It comes after MPs called on the department to extend the visa extensions to people working in the social care sector, arguing that they are working to aid the national effort to combat coronavirus. Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said care workers should also be included in the changes so that they do not have to go through a costly and burdensome visa process during this time. At least 15 people in the US airline industry died from COVID-19 in a period of just nine days earlier this month, a new report claims. While millions of Americans shelter in their homes amid widespread coronavirus lockdowns, airline and airport employees are still clocking in to help get planes off the ground - and putting themselves at risk of infection in the process. A grim report published in the Los Angeles Times on Monday found that at least 15 workers across the industry had died from COVID-19 from April 5 to 13, citing airlines, unions and interviews with relatives. The true number of coronavirus deaths within the industry is suspected to be significantly higher, though without a central tracking system it is impossible to tell. Airlines have declined to release case numbers among their employees - and in at least one case appeared to try to hide the figures. Delta emailed flight attendants on April 9 telling those with COVID-19 to 'refrain from notifying other crew members' or posting on social media, according to an email obtained by the LA Times. In a statement to the outlet, a Delta spokesperson said that the email used 'incorrect language' and that the airline's notification process 'protects confidentiality of employees' and 'follows and in some cases exceeds CDC guidance'. On Tuesday, an airline spokesperson told DailyMail.com: 'Our employee communication was designed to inform our employees so that they hear from us first, protect the confidentiality of the potential employees/customers impacted and ensure that crews receive leader support, details on available resources as well as advice on next steps.' At least 15 people in the US airline industry died from COVID-19 in a period of just nine days earlier this month, according to a new report. Among the victims were: Ralph Gismondi, a Long Island-based flight attendant for JetBlue (top left); JetBlue pilot Kevin McAdoo, an Air Force veteran (top right); 27-year-old JetBlue flight attendant Jared Lovos (bottom left); and Leland Jordan, a 73-year-old baggage handler at JFK Airport in Queens (bottom right) Crew members from across the industry say they either haven't been told when they've been exposed to coworkers with coronavirus, or the notification comes too late. The unsettling lack of transparency comes at a high cost as the industry's COVID-19 death toll continues to rise. Ralph Gismondi, a Long Island-based flight attendant, became the first JetBlue employee to die of COVID-19 on April 5. Gismondi joined the airline in 2003 after he retired from the FDNY, where he worked as a fire captain for several decades, including at ground zero on 9/11. He was one of around 30 former firefighters who became flight attendants for JetBlue around that time, drawn to the fact that the company is local and offered travel perks. Gismondi's coworkers described him as an outgoing, playful individual who enjoyed honing his comedy routine over the PA system on flights and rallying coworkers to go out on the town during layovers. While millions of Americans shelter in their homes amid widespread coronavirus lockdowns, airline and airport employees are still clocking in to help get planes off the ground - and putting themselves at risk of infection in the process (file photo) On April 11, the coworkers drove in a long line of cars past his home on Long Island, waving to his wife and family who were standing in the driveway with masks on. 'This is the part that gets me,' a JetBlue flight attendant, who worked with Gismondi and asked to remain anonymous to protect her job, told the La Times. 'He was saving lives, and then he retired and went to passing out potato chips and pretzels. And this is what this man is going to die from?' In the five days after Gismondi's death, JetBlue lost at least two more employees to COVID-19. Pilot Kevin McAdoo, an Air Force veteran, died on April 7. Jared Lovos, a 27-year-old flight attendant who recently transferred to human resources, died on April 10. Ralph Gismondi (left) became the first JetBlue employee to die of COVID-19 on April 5. He joined the airline in 2003 after retiring from the FDNY, where he worked as a fire captain for several decades, including at ground zero on 9/11 Jared Lovos (pictured) became the third known JetBlue worker to die of COVID-19 on April 10 Leland Jordan, a baggage handler at John F Kennedy International Airport in Queens, died from COVID-19 on April 13. Jordan, 73, had moved to New York City in 2009 from Guyana, where he worked as an architectural drafter. Once in the US, working as a baggage handler was the only job he could get as an immigrant, according to his wife Juliet. Juliet said her husband worked tirelessly routing bags from international flights in JFK's Terminal 4, picking up all the overtime he could to help pay for his diabetes medication and other medical expenses in lieu of health insurance. Jordan fell ill at work on March 17 and was transported to the hospital by ambulance. His condition improved to the point that he was sent home, and soon after he felt good enough to go back to work. Once back at the airport, Jordan went to his supervisor to complain that he and his coworkers weren't practicing social distancing and didn't have any protective gear. Days later he and other workers were laid off by their contractor on March 24. About a week after that, Jordan began coughing. 'He said he was just getting a little cold. But we didn't know,' his wife told the LA Times. He then started experiencing strong headaches which grew so bad that Juliet called an ambulance on April 7. 'He walked down the steps very strong and went and sat on the stretcher. I never thought I wouldn't see him back,' she said. Jordan's condition declined quickly from there, and he died on six days later. One of his coworkers, also a baggage handler at JFK, died of COVID-19 around the same time, according to his union, 32BJ SEIU. 'Everybody was worried about the dangers of COVID,' Juliet said. 'But when you've got to work, you've got to work. You need money. When that's the only income you have, you have to work.' Other deaths uncovered in the LA Times report included a food services manager at JFK, a baggage Handler at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, an American Airlines gate agent at Los Angeles International Airport, and an aircraft mechanic at an airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Passenger numbers have plummeted nearly 96 percent since the beginning of March while major airlines dramatically reduced their routes. A woman is seen wearing a mask at an empty Salt Lake City International Airport on April 7 Many pilots and flight attendants who spoke to the outlet said they see the deaths as preventable. Airlines aren't breaking any Federal Aviation Administration rules regarding the coronavirus pandemic because the agency has not implemented any. The FAA recommends that carriers follow CDC guidelines, while pilot and flight attendant unions heightens calls for the agency to mandate those guidelines. Up until mid-April, the FAA told airlines that crew members could continue working 'as long as they remain asymptomatic' - despite CDC warnings that COVID-19 symptoms can take 14 days to appear and that more than half of infected individuals may be asymptomatic. Airlines only recently lifted a ban on flight attendants wearing masks on the job, long after the CDC began urging service industry workers to use them. Approached for comment by the LA Times, a JetBlue spokesperson said the airline adheres to CDC guidelines and provides 14 days of paid leave to any employee who is told to quarantine by a doctor or health official, even if they haven't been able to get tested for COVID-19. 'There is nothing more important to us than the health and safety of our crewmembers and customers,' the spokesperson said. Other airlines have issued similar statements over the course of the pandemic - but many crew members aren't convinced that's the case. 'We are doing nothing but spreading the disease,' said one American Airlines flight attendant, who asked to remain anonymous. The Association of Flight Attendants is now calling for the grounding of all leisure travel, with service limited to essential functions like cargo and medical flights. Passenger numbers have plummeted nearly 96 percent since the beginning of March while major airlines dramatically reduced their routes. Thousands of flights are still taking off at airports around the country each day, many of them filled with only a handful of passengers, sometimes fewer than crew members. The industry is set to receive $25billion in federal coronavirus relief funding to retain their employees through September under a bailout which requires the carriers to maintain baseline service levels. The US treasury sent out the first round of payments - totaling $2.9billion - to two major airlines and 54 smaller passenger carriers on Monday. by Sumon Corraya Bangladesh fears that, with its 165 million inhabitants and a density of 1,265 people per sq. km, the outbreak could spread further. The most serious problems are the lack of protective gear for doctors, or its low quality, as well as too many people staying in close proximity, and sick people hiding their symptoms. In Rajshahi the diocese is helping poor and unemployed tribal people. Dhaka (AsiaNews) The COVID-19 is spreading more and more in the country. Yesterday 492 new cases were reported, the highest number in a single day, whilst the death toll reached 101. Bangladesh has been battling the coronavirus since 8 March, when three people tested positive. Overall, 2,948 people have been infected with 85 currently under treatment in a special hospital. The most worrying fact is that at least 179 doctors are among the infected. What is more, Health Ministry data indicate that only six healthcare workers (doctors, nurses, midwives) are available per 10,000 people; this in a country with a huge population (165 million) and high density (1,265 people per sq. km). The Health Ministry has also reported that at least 130 nurses and service staff have tested positive for the virus, whilst 400 doctors are under observation and quarantined at home. For experts, the main reason for the high rate of infection among the medical staff is the "low quality" of the protective gear given to them, plus people staying in close proximity with each other, and patients hiding COVID-19 symptoms. Many people remain unaware of the danger whilst others hide the disease and are not quarantined. Many people go shopping and come into contact with others, or attend crowded funerals. Two days ago, despite the full lockdown, at least 100,000 people attended the funeral of Zubair Ahmed Ansari, an Islamist preacher in a village in Brahmanbaria district, about 100 km from the capital. The police try to control the crowd to little avail. At the same time, those who fight coronavirus doctors, nurses, volunteers are being socially excluded, driven from the flats or rooms they rent. Yesterday, in Kushtia, a landlord banned a nurse from his building. The lockdown of economic activities has pushed up unemployment and poverty. The government is providing aid but many local officials have been using it for their own benefit. At least 14 corrupt officials have been fired in connection with aid distribution. Fear of contagion has led many private hospitals, diagnostic centres, and dispensaries to shut down. This has deprived many non-COVID-19 patients of needed treatment. As a result, in the past 24 hours, some 200 people have died from cough, fever, breathing difficulties and diarrhoea. For Dr Mustak Hossain, an adviser to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), "the death rate in Bangladesh is very high compared to other countries infected with the coronavirus. All this is very worrying. Many members of Bangladeshs Catholic community are tribal, who are marginalised because of their faith and ethnicity and are now unemployed. We are raising money from wealthy Catholics and cooperative credit organisations to help the neediest tribal Catholics, said Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi. The prelate explained that those in need are receiving money to buy food, since members of tribal groups cannot go out to find day work. So far, we raised 550,000 takas (about US$ 6,500), he noted. Many other dioceses in Bangladesh are doing the same. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- In his absence, Boris Johnsons British government has mainly followed the lockdown strategy that was determined before the prime minister was infected with Covid-19. Many are hoping that he will soon return to work and change course; that hell celebrate signs of a flattening infection curve and reopen Britain for business. Its unlikely to work out that way. Its true that you almost expect Johnson to bound up to the cameras and change the narrative. His modus operandi throughout his career has been Tiggerish enthusiasm. The politician who banished the gloomsters and doomsters on Brexit and championed the three-word campaign slogan (Take Back Control and Get Brexit Done) might well have been expected, before his illness struck, to make Lift the Lockdown his mantra. Even if Johnson looks and sounds much the same when he returns to full-time work, the experience of serious illness and a forced leave of absence as thousands died must have affected his sense of mission. Johnson had often used the countrys National Health Service as a prop when building his case for Brexit and his election campaign (leaving Europe, he argued speciously, would free money to spend on health care). Will he not now do more to support an underfunded, overstretched and ill-equipped service that he credits with saving his life? There will certainly be no immediate rush to relax the lockdown strictures. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who has deputized for Johnson, has already extended the measures by another three weeks. Still, as other nations begin to loosen controls, the clamor will grow louder in Britain too. Last week Raab announced five tests that would determine the timing for a reopening of the U.K. The first three are fairly straightforward: The government must be confident that the NHS can provide sufficient care across the country; there must be a sustained fall in the daily death rate; and there needs to be evidence that the infection rate is decreasing. Story continues The fourth test confidence that the supply of testing and personal protective equipment for medical workers can meet demand is more vague. The U.K. is increasing testing, finally, but its a long way from the kind of regimes put in place in east Asian countries that quickly suppressed the spread of the virus, including contact tracing. Germany is well ahead on this too. PPE shortages, one of the unnecessary tragedies of this outbreak, persist, as the British Medical Association and doctors repeatedly note. And yet Raabs fourth target doesnt specify what levels of testing and PPE need to be delivered. Even if the government fixes these problems, the fifth test is that there can be no risk of a second peak in infections from relaxing the lockdown. While Johnson is a political gambler who favors the bold stroke, he surely wouldnt open the sluice gates and let a new wave of infections wash away the stability built through social distancing and curtailed activity. Indeed, Bloomberg News reported Monday that in Johnsons conversations with cabinet members, he emphasized caution. Updated models based on more recent infection data will offer some basis for judgment, but a guarantee against a serious second wave of Covid-19 will require a vaccine or widespread testing and contact tracing. Neither are certainties, suggesting that social distancing measures of some sort will be around for a while. A report released Monday by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change argues that since a total lockdown isnt sustainable, the government should use hard metrics for its five tests and phase in some liberalization. For example, it could specify that if there were fewer than 500 new daily cases, testing capacity had expanded to more than 100,000 people per day, and contact tracing was widespread, then conditions could be set for a return to the workplace for individuals not in a high-risk category and for schools to reopen. Its not a bad suggestion, but where to put the thresholds and how to manage the complexities of restrictions are ultimately political decisions for Johnson and his cabinet. The pressure is on to find some way to ease up. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates a massive drop in national income during the second quarter if the lockdown persists through June. Unemployment is expected to rise by 2 million to 10% from historic lows. That blow might be temporary, but the longer the economic shutdown lasts, the greater the risk of lasting damage. Theres also the impact on the business sectors that Johnson most wanted to level up to help working-class communities with new investment and infrastructure spending. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that a third of employees in the lowest-earning part of the income distribution chart are in sectors that have been mostly or completely shut down. If, as some have argued, restrictions are lifted by age group, there are questions about how that would be enforced. Johnson has set himself a unifying mission to keep the support of the ex-Labour Party voters who delivered him a handsome election victory. Hell have to find ways to restart the economy that dont ignore or further worsen inequalities. Its hard to imagine Johnson releasing wealthier parts of the country from lockdown while poorer areas languish under restrictions. But some phasing will be necessary. These decisions will have a profound impact, not only on the fight against the coronavirus but on the economic recovery and on how politics is redefined through this crisis. And they come amidst growing scrutiny of Johnsons early handling of the outbreak. The government has spent much of the past two days trying to rebut a Sunday Times investigation of how it did too little too late. Johnsons mistakes will be subject to a proper inquiry in time. His challenge when he returns will be to avoid compounding them. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe. 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. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) today announced it will participate in the BofA Securities Virtual Health Care Conference being held May 1214, 2020. Encompass Health President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Tarr, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Doug Coltharp, and Executive Vice President and President of Inpatient Hospitals Barb Jacobsmeyer will participate in a fireside chat at 10:20 a.m. ET on Tuesday, May 12, 2020. The presentation will be webcast live and will be available at http://investor.encompasshealth.com by clicking on an available link. About Encompass Health As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 134 hospitals, 245 home health locations, and 83 hospice locations in 37 states and Puerto Rico, the Company is committed to delivering high-quality, cost-effective, integrated care across the healthcare continuum. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com , or follow us on our newsroom , Twitter and Facebook . Media Contact Hillary Carnel | 205 970-5912 [email protected] Investor Relations Contact Crissy Carlisle | 205 970-5860 [email protected] SOURCE Encompass Health Corp. Related Links http://www.encompasshealth.com York Region police have charged a Markham man with mischief after he allegedly coughed on money and told a store clerk that he hoped the teenaged employee would contract COVID-19. On April 12, a 17-year-old convenience store clerk at 6605 Highway 7, near Ninth Line, asked a customer to maintain physical distancing at the cash register, police said in a news release Tuesday. Police alleged that the man then purposely coughed on the money, threw it on to the counter, said he hoped the employee would get COVID-19 and laughed while exiting the store. On Monday, police charged 39-year-old Ryan Sanders with mischief. Hes expected to appear in court on Aug. 7. The money was separated for disinfection, police said. KYODO NEWS - Apr 21, 2020 - 14:46 | All, Japan, Coronavirus, World Some 2 million face masks donated by Taiwan arrived in Japan on Tuesday for delivery to public hospitals and special schools across the country in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The move came after the Taiwanese government responded to a request from a cross-party group of lawmakers aimed at fostering friendly relations between Japan and Taiwan. "We'd like to again express our sincere gratitude to the warm cheers and support from Taiwan," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference. "We will continue boosting our cooperation with related countries and regions against the new coronavirus, which is a threat to all humankind," the top government spokesman said. Related coverage: Demand for sewing machines jumps on rise in DIY face masks amid virus Masks with animal mouth designs lighten mood amid coronavirus spread Taiwan donates 2 million face masks to Japan Representatives from both Japan and Taiwan were present on the tarmac at Narita airport near Tokyo as they watched the masks being carried out of an aircraft. Taiwan at one point lacked masks but has since achieved a daily production of 15 million masks and succeeded in meeting domestic demand after its government asked the private sector to increase mask production. Taiwan has also donated 10 million face masks to the United States, European nations and diplomatic allies earlier this month. The pandemic has claimed over 270 lives in Japan so far, with nearly 12,000 infected. Taiwan had six deaths and 420 infected as of Sunday. by Shafique Khokhar The government approves a 20-point strategy to fight COVID-19 during Ramadan. However, some religious leaders have criticised its restrictions. For Pakistani President Arif Alvi, those who do not respect the rules commit sin". Children, people over 50 and sick people must pray at home. Islamabad (AsiaNews) Many Muslims in Pakistan are refusing to stay home to pray and insist on going to mosques, thus going against the indications on how to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The government has adopted a 20-point plan to fight the disease during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting and prayer. The strategy, which imposes restrictions on prayers in public, comes as the COVID-19 virus continues to affect more people with 8,000 reported cases and 159 deaths. The authorities want to avoid the mistakes made at the beginning of the pandemic, when some Shia pilgrims returning from Iran were not effectively isolated, favouring the spread of the virus. The same happened with the members of Tablighi Jamaat, a Sunni group, who were allowed to celebrate mass prayers in Punjab. On 14 April, Prime Minister Imran Khan extended the existing quarantine until the end of the month. For his part, President Arif Alvi said that anyone violating the new anti-COVID 19 restrictions were committing a sin". The measures were taken with the agreement of the countrys main religious leaders. They require, among other things, respect for social distancing and strict standards of hygiene. Going to mosques is possible on condition of avoiding any contact and wearing a mask. But this does not apply to children, people over 50 and sick people, who are required to pray at home. Ablutions must be done at home as well. It is forbidden to pray in the street, a customary practice in Pakistan given overcrowding in mosques. For some Islamic leaders however, daily prayers and Friday sermons in mosques must resume without restrictions. According to them, places of prayer cannot be closed in a Muslim country. In reality, many Muslim countries have done just that, closing mosques and banning mass gatherings. Saudi Arabia has even shut down the Kaaba in Mecca, the most important holy site in Islam. But in many ways, religion is more important than anything else in Pakistan, even more important than the pandemic. "The mosque is a safe place, the owner of an Islamabad kiosk told AsiaNews. I am not afraid of the coronavirus, he added. Many people share his view and are ready to take risks just to pray in one. The golden lion tamarin, one of the worlds most charismatic primates, has a dark face that can look inquisitive, challenging, almost human, framed in an extravagant russet mane. The endangered New World monkey weighs less than two pounds. It lives only in Brazil, and only in the Atlantic coastal forest there. Tamarins spend their time high in the trees, up to 100 feet off the ground, in small groups of up to eight or so animals, with one breeding pair among each group. They sleep at night and are active in the day, eating anything they can get their hands on fruits, insects, small reptiles and amphibians. They have a life span of about eight years. The golden lion tamarin has always had its human admirers, many of them in the Old World. Europeans imported the animals as pets in the 1500s, and they can be seen in portraits of Spanish royalty. Nobody is immune to coronavirus and coronavirus, apparently, is not immune to politics either. We have seen in the past week the pathetic political point-scoring by the gaffe-prone Sinn Fein northern leader Michelle O'Neill over Health Minister Robin Swann's decision to ask the Army to assist in the setting up of an emergency health facility at the site of the former Maze Prison. When she got a bad Press she pulled her horns in and decided that the whole matter was really about a lack of consultation by Mr Swann with his Executive colleagues. At the same time she of course failed to use her purported authority as Sinn Fein northern leader to criticise the failure of mourners to comply with social distancing safeguards when it came to republican funerals in Tyrone and west Belfast. On both occasions scant regard was given to complying with public health safeguards, thereby potentially endangering the mourners themselves and the community at large. Radio silence was duly observed by Mrs O'Neill. But, on a different political note, President Donald Trump decided to halt the USA's payments to the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the grounds that the United Nations organisation had been "... severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus". He also accused it of being too "China-centric". He therefore decided to halt US funding to the WHO while his administration conducted a review. He alleged that in certain countries like Italy, Spain and France it was the WHO's guidance that was responsible for their respective governments failing to control their borders. Whether there is any substance to the President's point about the WHO's inadequate dealing with the crisis is yet to be established, but it seems grossly wrong to pull funding from this pivotal international health body in the middle of a global health crisis. Quite properly, he has been criticised for his decision in America and across the world. The suspicion is that he was trying to deflect criticism of his own questionable comments about the coronavirus at the very beginning and his belated health measures to counteract it. Read More In Ireland Tanaiste Simon Coveney, responding to the US decision, said that he would increase the Republic's contribution to the WHO to 9.5m. He said: "Ireland strongly supports the WHO's efforts to co-ordinate a global response to combat Covid-19." He stated that many countries rely on UN expertise and capacity to save lives. Mr Coveney and the Irish Government were correct in their reaction to President Trump's strange decision in the middle of a pandemic to reduce the WHO's capacity to work internationally to counteract this appalling virus. That is not to say that the WHO is beyond criticism over its dealing with the coronavirus and other issues and its relationship with the Chinese. For example, in 2017 the WHO, in an act of stupendous idiocy, appointed Robert Mugabe its goodwill ambassador. The long-suffering people of Zimbabwe must have been incredulous on hearing news of that outrageous appointment. On a more serious note, the WHO, in the middle of January, was still saying that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of Covid-19. This was, in fact, six weeks after the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan. In February the WHO advised that there should not be restrictions on travel from China, but it is now clear that China did not honestly disclose what was happening in Wuhan to the WHO, or indeed the world. China attempted to suppress the news of the outbreak by intimidating Li Wenliang, a prominent doctor, who had originally identified the coronavirus and then raised the alarm about its deadly capacity. Despite that he persevered and was proven correct in his estimation of the potency and grave danger posed by the virus outbreak. Sadly, he sacrificed his own life in combating the spread of the virus. Ironically, he was posthumously praised for his extraordinary and courageous efforts by the Chinese authorities. That being so, it is wrong for the WHO to be pilloried for the sins of the Chinese Government and their lack of transparency and their capacity to present inaccurate information. The WHO should have more searching in dealing with the Chinese, but it also must be appreciated that UN organisations have to be diplomatic in coping with major world powers like China. Its advice during the course of this pandemic has been sound. It has strongly advocated that governments should carry out testing and contact-tracing, along with our now-familiar social distancing safeguards. It is interesting to note that where testing has been widely applied (namely Taiwan, South Korea and Germany), they have been more successful in coping with this pandemic. Taking all this into consideration, perhaps it is the World Health Organisation that is more sinned against than sinning. Prathamesh Mallya No one has seen it before and it is difficult to believe that oil prices traded in the negative on April 20, 2020. For the first time in history, WTI oil prices (May contract) plunged more than 190 percent and turned in to negative territory as the demand destruction caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic left the world with too much oil and little storage. Physical demand for US crude has dried up, creating a global supply glut as billions of people stay home to slow the spread of coronavirus. However, the WTI June future contract was trading much higher at $22.25 per barrel on April 20 in the US trading session. The spread between the May and June contracts was more than 19 dollars, the widest in the history of two near month contracts. The International Energy Agency expects a 29 mbpd dive in April oil demand to the levels not seen in 25 years. A record 160 million barrels is sitting in tankers around the world. Such drastic price fall has already led to drilling halts and drastic spending cuts by shale drillers. Moreover, Russia has also told its domestic oil producers to reduce output by 20 percent from February levels, which would bring them in line with its commitment under global deal. Crude oil in Negative territory What does it mean? Investors sold the May futures contract that to expire on April 21 in a series of waves creating panic. At one point, the contract hit negative $40 in the US trading session on April 20. When the trading stopped, crude oil had ended the day at a negative $37.63 a barrel, a decline of some 305 percent, or $55.90 a barrel. Why did it happen? The coronavirus pandemic has cut the fuel demand across the globe by 30 percent beginning early March. However, OPEC continued its supply, resulting in excessive inventories. That unwanted oil is instead going into storage, but in the United States, storage is filling much more quickly than anticipated. What happened at Cushing, Oklahoma? The main US storage hub was 70 percent full as of last week, and traders say it will be full within two weeks. That realisation sparked sell-off in US futures markets because of the technicalities of the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures contract. When oil contracts expire, the holder has to take possession of 1,000 barrels of oil for every contract they own, delivered to Cushing. However, with Cushing filling up, traders are left with the unappetising option of taking oil they do not want, or getting out of those positions. The mad rush for the door means there were few buyers, and the contract dropped from a normal price of $18 on Friday into unprecedented negative territory. Once that level was breached, sellers piled in, sending the contract at one point below negative $40 a barrel before a slight rebound ended what will go down as the worst day since the WTI contract was introduced in 1983. What is the solution? Unless production is cut more swiftly, next month could see a repeat of April 20s frenzied activity with the June contract, which settled at $20.43, or $58 more than the impaired May contract. What next? The safest option now is to stay in lockdown, which is what most of the countries and their governments are following to fight and stop the pandemic. It clearly means that the industrial activity and the related pass through and interconnected products are at a stand-still and the global human activity has slowed down relatively fast. The manufacturing activity across the globe has stopped drastically in turn slowing down the global GDP growth. In the words of the International Monetary Fund, As countries implement necessary quarantines and social distancing practices to contain the pandemic, the world has been put in a Great Lockdown. The magnitude and speed of collapse in activity that has followed is unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes. The April World Economic Outlook from the IMF projects global growth in 2020 to fall to -3 percent. The world economy will experience the worst recession since the Great Depression. The IMF also says that the cumulative output loss over 2020 and 2021 from the pandemic crisis could be around 9 trillion dollars. If the number of cases increases, countries and governments have to increase the period of lockdown, which does not hold good for oil prices. For the time, its a clear panic in oil markets and any demand revival will depend on the opening up of the economy, which does not look likely soon. It will take longer time than usual for oil prices to catch up, as the global economy heads in to a recession. Still, the world lives on hope and there will be light soon at the end of the tunnel. Till that time, long live oil prices and happy reading. The author is Chief Analyst, Non Agri Commodities and Currencies at Angel Broking. : The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Birmingham City Schools Superintendent Dr. Lisa Herring is going home. On Tuesday, Herring, a native of Macon, Ga. who took the helm of BCS in 2017, will be named as sole finalist for the position of superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, which has 52,000 students. The designation is little more than a formality. Georgia requires the APS board to wait 14 days between announcing a sole finalist and voting to make the hiring decision official with a vote. Before coming to the 25,0000-student Birmingham system, Herring served as chief academic officer at Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Ky, a school system of more than 100,000 students. Herring, in a conversation with AL.com, called the decision to accept the Atlanta job, pending the APS board vote, as bittersweet. Its always been about the children, she said. "I have grown and established relationships with so many of our children in Birmingham. I see a very bright tremendous future ahead for [the city]. I also see a strong opportunity to lead children in the city of Atlanta. Its no secret I am a Georgia native and previously worked in the Georgia area. So, this is something like a homecoming. If Im being honest, this kind of saddens me, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said Tuesday. I consider her a friend and a peer in leading change in a system that has struggled to live up to its promise. Having had the opportunity to work with Dr. Herring, she is someone who embodies high intellect, empathy and an extreme vision for success. That type of success attracts opportunity. She set a new standard for the type of leader our students deserve. I wish my friend the best. Dr. Herrings departure is a tremendous loss for our community, but more specifically for the students, teachers, and families that make up Birmingham City Schools, says BCS Board of Education Vice Chair Mickey Millsap. Dr. Herring is an outstanding leader that moved mountains during her three years as our Superintendent and I will be forever grateful for her leadership, energy, and friendship. Theres not yet a specific time for Herrings departure, she said. She will lead BCS at least through the end of May. Theres a heaviness inside of me, Herring added. I have a love for children and some of the things weve done for our children, along with our partners, have been incredible." Dr. Herring is replacing former APS Superintendent Meria Carstarphen. In September 2019, the APS board decided not to renew Carstarphens contract, which expires June 30 of this year. She earned $375,000, along with other perks, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In Birmingham, Herring earned $202,000. Her original contract was renewed in 2018. Herring received her doctorate from Georgia Southern University, a masters from the University of South Carolina and a bachelors from Spelman College. In 2017, just as Herring sat down to be interviewed by the BCS School Board, a bomb threat cleared the building. She later resumed the interview and was ultimately hired over four other finalists. In Birmingham, Herring cited among the most significant achievements during her tenure, the elevation of a handful of city schools from the states failing schools list, the creation of programs addressing mental health among students, and other initiatives to address the challenges students face outside the classroom. I believe weve planted the right seeds to help [BCS students] grow," she said. Regarding the hiring of the citys next superintendent, Millsap says: Birmingham City Schools deserves the very best in leadership and I will put forth every effort to work with my fellow Board members to find a leader to continue to execute the vision and positive change that started under Dr. Herrings tenure. Dr. Herring was Birminghams 10th school superintendent in about 21 years. This story will be updated. 21 April 2020 (Port of Spain) A webinar hosted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) Caribbean Office this week, gave senior officials from governments, employers and workers organizations a platform to discuss how COVID-19 is affecting Caribbean labour markets and possible solutions for the region. Under the title, The world of work in a time of COVID-19, the high-level tripartite dialogue drew over 300 participants from governments, employers organizations, workers organizations, UN agencies, the media, academia and the general public. It was framed within the umbrella of International Labour Standards, an essential reference in recovery processes and strategies. During the debate, panellists shared information on adopted policy measures and their effectiveness in mitigating the impact of the crisis on companies, production, and as well as the goal of protecting workers and jobs and preserving income and livelihoods. The Honourable Vance Amory, Minister of Nevis Affairs, Labour, Social Security and Ecclesiastical Affairs for Saint Kitts and Nevis, began the discussion with an overview of social protection measures that were developed in consultation with tripartite partners and implemented by his government to deal with the unprecedented crisis. During the session, Senator the Honourable Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development for Trinidad and Tobago, highlighted the collaborative approach by government, business and labour to implement health and safety protocols and best practices to safeguard the health of the labour force. Other featured speakers included regional representatives of employers and workers organizations who shared their perspectives on how Caribbean countries can effectively cope with the crisis. Mr Wayne Chen, President of the Caribbean Employers Confederation (CEC), advised that the pandemic presents an opportunity to leverage technology to continue to deliver education, and that the situation is also a time for workforces to upskill and grasp opportunities created by the crisis. This is an opportunity for all of us to reset our economies and societies, he said. Mr Andre Lewis, President of the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL), stated while the COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges, it is a chance to remodel economies across the region. The way forward puts people before profit, puts health before wealth, an economic model that is community-based driven in a society that has a basic income guarantee for all. In other words there must be social protection for our societies, he explained. Members of the ILOs senior management team for Latin America and the Caribbean also participated in the discussion by drawing on the ILOs COVID-19 policy response framework for economic and social recovery in the immediate, medium and long term. A healthy worker is the most important thing for the post COVID-19 world, said Mr Vinicius Carvalho Pinheiro, Director of the ILO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, who emphasized the importance of investing in workers health and safety during and after the pandemic. This is a time where more than ever before we need to come together to craft solutions that work. Workers, employers and governments together can make sure we not only address the immediate impact but find opportunity to build a better future of work, explained Ms Claudia Coenjaerts, Director of the ILO Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean. The session was part of an ILO Caribbean Resilient with Decent Work Webinar Series for representatives from governments, employers organizations, workers organizations and other stakeholders to discuss the economic and social impacts of COVID-19, as well as effective policy responses. The next ILO Caribbean webinar will take place on 28 April 2020 (World Day for Safety and Health at Work) and will focus on Safety and Health at Work in the Face of the COVID-19 pandemic. ### WASHINGTON One of Jay Timmons Facebook friends invited him last week to attend a Reopen Virginia rally in Richmond, a protest against the stay-at-home order issued amid the coronavirus by the states Democratic governor. Timmons unfriended the sender, then published a searing retort, criticizing the protesters and accusing them of putting manufacturing workers lives at risk by defying rules meant to limit the spread of the virus. Timmons post began with a single word in all capital letters: IDIOTS. A chief of staff to a Republican former governor of Virginia, Timmons now heads the National Association of Manufacturers, one of Americas largest business lobbying groups. His frustrations, which he detailed this week online and in a 30-minute interview, show the stark divide between the small-but-loud groups of protesters who are marching on state capitols to demand an immediate lifting of restrictions on economic activity and business leaders who have called for more gradual and careful steps toward reopening. These people are standing so close together without any protection with children, for Gods sakes, Timmons said in a video call. And they have no concern, and its all about them, and its all about what they want. And you know what? Every one of us wants it. Every one of us wants some sense of normalcy. But I can tell you this: Well never have it if our manufacturing workers cant do their jobs, if they cant get that personal protective equipment manufactured, so that everybody has access to it to go back out into public. Timmons said he supported Americans right to protest, but he encouraged people to exercise that right within the confines of social distancing protocol. He suggested posting on social media, calling the offices of political leaders, even writing strongly worded, vitriolic letters to news media outlets or lawmakers. But the one thing, he said, the one thing that we know right now that you shouldnt be doing is you shouldnt be coming in contact with other human beings, outside of your immediate family, your nuclear family. Thats it. Thats all the people are asking. As the outbreak spread across America, Timmons said he spent nearly a month pushing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue even basic safety guidelines for factory workers cranking out personal protective equipment while much of the country worked or sheltered at home. The guidelines finally came after he called Vice President Mike Pence to demand action. He and the manufacturers association have also pushed Congress to help manufacturers large and small weather the sudden recession caused by the virus. Last week President Donald Trump named Timmons to one of the many industry groups the White House has assembled to advise on how to restore the economy safely amid the pandemic. Trump has expressed support for protesters, writing LIBERATE VIRGINIA in a recent Twitter post. Timmons and the manufacturers association declined to say whether he had raised his concerns over protesters with Trump. Im not going to get into that, Timmons said. Im just not going to do it. Im going to use my platform to say what I believe is right and what I believe is good for my manufacturing workers. Polls show vast majorities of Americans support the restrictions that governors and local officials have imposed on economic activity. Fewer than 1 in 5 respondents to a poll this month for The New York Times by the online research firm SurveyMonkey said such restrictions went too far. Nearly half of those who said restrictions went too far identified themselves as conservative or very conservative, though Republicans as a whole favor the restrictions handily. The Virginia Republican Party has called for Gov. Ralph Northam to move immediately to reopen the state. Some states, like South Dakota, have imposed few restrictions on activity amid the pandemic but still experienced sharp contractions in their economies. Others, like Georgia and South Carolina, signaled this week that they would begin lifting restrictions. Georgias governor said he planned to allow gyms, nail and hair salons, and bowling alleys to begin operating as soon as Friday, with restaurants and movie theaters potentially opening as early as Monday. Timmons, who lives in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, said small manufacturers in particular were at risk of failing amid the crisis and would need additional help from federal lawmakers to survive it. He stressed the need for Congress to replenish money for a small-business assistance fund that ran out of money last week, and he said he believed the economy could open in a common-sense way. But he also warned against reopening hastily, in a manner that would raise the risk of another wave of infections and deaths and a new round of economic restrictions. We dont want to risk having to shut our economy down again, he said. We cant go through this again. And its unfortunately likely that that will happen if you have people who are irresponsible beating their chests at a demonstration on the steps of the state capitols surrounded by dozens if not hundreds of other irresponsible people. Timmons recently learned a bit of family history that drove home the risks of a rush back to normal life in a pandemic. His great-grandfather, Timmons said, died in the second infection wave of the Spanish flu, in October 1918. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 21, 2020 | 08:50 AM | GRAVES COUNTY The Mayfield-Graves County Chamber of Commerce and Graves County Economic Development are establishing a small business grant fund through the Mayfield Community Foundation to help business owners impacted by COVID-19. The fund will allow citizens and businesses to make financial contributions to help small businesses located in Graves County. Businesses may request up to $2,000 and applications will be evaluated by a committee established by the Foundation. Ryan Drane, President of Graves County Economic Development had this to say about the fund, These are certainly unprecedented times and our business owners need all of us now more than ever. Managing this fund through the Mayfield Community Foundation will allow for transparency and for 100% of the funds to go towards assisting those small businesses that need it the most. "In working closely with the business community during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become apparent that we have businesses that either dont qualify for the federal programs or have not received assistance yet. I am thankful that GCED and the Chamber are able to use their resources to help our local businesses when they need it most, said Denise Thompson, President of Mayfield/Graves County Chamber of Commerce. Graves County Economic Development has designated a portion of their funds to create the grant, but the community is encouraged to donate, as well. The grant will be open Wednesday, April 22nd at 10:00 a.m. If you are interested in making a tax-deductible contribution, you can make it online by visiting www.mayfieldgraveschamber.com or simply stop by any 1st KY Bank location and make your check out to the Mayfield Community Foundation referencing the Small Business Fund in the memo line. Any amount will be accepted. The grant is designed to have participation from local businesses and community members alike. For additional assistance regarding a contribution, please contact Denise Thompson, Mayfield/Graves County Chamber of Commerce President at 270-705-0182 or denise@mayfieldgraveschamber.com. Qualifying small businesses are considered to have 1-25 employees. Preference will be given to brick & mortar businesses that have their main location in Graves County. Franchisee businesses are eligible to apply if the owner is a Mayfield/Graves County resident. Funds can be used to pay rent/mortgage, payroll and utilities. Applicants will be scored based on a number of criteria. The scoring sheet will be provided with the application. Applications will be available on Wednesday at 10 AM via the Chambers website www.mayfieldgraveschamber.com or by following Graves County Economic Development, Mayfied/Graves County Chamber of Commerce or Mayfield Strong Together on Facebook and clicking on the application link. Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said his administration would enforce the compulsory use of face masks by residents in the state from next week. Sanwo-Olu, who stated this on Monday during a media briefing on coronavirus, said the decision was part of measures adopted to protect residents against the deadly disease. He said about a million locally-made face mask, that were contracted to tailors, will be distributed during the week. There have been questions on whether we are planning to introduce a policy on the use of face masks, Sanwo-Olu said. My answer to that is that, from next week, when we think that we have wrapped up production and distribution, we are going to be asking that face masks should compulsorily be worn at public places. This is part of the deliberations that we have had to go through extensively today. We have commissioned more than one million face masks production locally from major tailoring outfits and they will start distributing them in the course of the week. He advised Lagos residents to wear locally made face masks stressing that surgical facemasks or N95 are strictly for health officials only. Also at the briefing, the governor vowed to prosecute victims of COVID-19 who lie to health professionals about their travel history. He said the state executive has resolved to prosecute such people, adding that four of them have been identified and will be used as scapegoats. KanyiDaily recalls that Oyo State Government also said wearing face masks in public places is now compulsory in order to prevent further spread of coronavirus. CHICOPEE Four people were displaced after a fire badly damaged a single-family home in the Aldenville section of the city Monday night. The residents escaped safely and no one was injured in the blaze. Firefighters did rescue several chickens from a coop at the home, Fire Lt. Katie Collins-Kalbaugh said. The fire was reported shortly after 7:30 p.m. at a home at 172 Chapel St. Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames before they spread to the rest of the house, she said. Chapel Street was closed for about 90 minutes while firefighters worked at the house. Fire investigators are currently at the house investigating the cause of the fire, she said. The Western Massachusetts chapter of the American Red Cross is assisting the four residents who were displaced, Collins-Kalbaugh said. The Westover Air Reserve Base Fire Department assisted by covering city fire stations and answering other calls while city firefighters were at the blaze, she said. Deputy Western North Regional Minister Mr Alexander Djornobuah Tetteh has advised Ghanaians to adhere to the coronavirus prevention directives despite the lockdown being lifted by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. He said lifting of the lockdown in Accra, Kumasi, Tema and Kasoa was in the right direction since the government was able to scale-up effectively the tracing of persons who had contacted infected persons and quarantined those who tested positive and isolated them for treatment. The President took that decision through the consultations of Expects, Executive Committee of the Ghana Health Services and other stakeholders on the rationale behind the lifting of the lockdown, he said. The Deputy Minister who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Akontombra Constituency said Ghanaians should pay attention to the directives by the government and the Ghana Health Services despite the lifting of the ban. Lifting the ban does not mean the COVID-19 pandemic is over, we must adhere to the social distancing, uses of hand sanitizers, washing of hands with soap under running water and protocols on loading of passengers especially the local transport system, he added. He noted that despite the lift of the ban, the local weekly markets in the region would still remain closed and drivers and passengers entering the region would pass through the necessary COVID-19 preventive measures put in place by both the Regional Health Directorate and Regional Security Council. He said the various Municipal and District Assemblies in the region have been directed to provide the necessary measures and logistics to fight the virus, though the region had not recorded any case. I assure you that the 20 suspected cases traced in the region tested negative, he added. 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 London Fashion Week is going digital and gender neutral for the first time ever due to lockdown restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Usually the British Fashion Council's quarterly event is divided according to season and gender. But in June, during which the London Fashion Week Men's SS21 show is held, a digital event will be held instead, hosted on londonfashionweek.co.uk, meaning fashion fans won't require a ticket or a coveted invite. It will be open to a global public and trade audience, and will work as a meet-up point, offering interviews, podcasts, designer diaries, webinars and digital showrooms, giving the opportunity to designers to generate sales for both the public through existing collections and the retailers through orders for next season's products. Menswear and womenswear designers will be invited to showcase their work from June 12. London Fashion Week is going digital and gender neutral for the first time ever due to lockdown restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: Kendall Jenner on the catwalk Burberry show at London Fashion Week Fall Winter 2020 in February BFC chief executive Caroline Rush said yesterday that it is 'essential' to look at the future and the opportunity to change, collaborate and innovate. 'Many of our businesses have always embraced London Fashion Week as a platform for not just fashion but for its influence on society, identity and culture. The current pandemic is leading us all to reflect more poignantly on the society we live in and how we want to live our lives and build businesses when we get through this,' she said. 'The other side of this crisis, we hope will be about sustainability, creativity and product that you value, respect, cherish. 'By creating a cultural fashion week platform, we are adapting digital innovation to best fit our needs today and enacting something to build on as a global showcase for the future.' BFC chief executive Caroline Rush said yesterday that it is 'essential' to look at the future and the opportunity to change, collaborate and innovate. Pictured: Bella Hadid during the Burberry show at London Fashion Week February 2020 Ms Rush added that designers will be able to share their stories, and for those that have them, their collections, with a wider global community as a result. 'We hope that as well as personal perspectives on this difficult time, there will be inspiration in bucketloads. It is what British fashion is known for,' she said. A representative for the BFC told British Vogue that LFW's September iteration will also be gender-agnostic. London's upcoming fashion week will not be the first to be held digitally - Shanghai hosted an online show earlier this month, while Tokyo livestreamed its fashion week shows in March. However, London will be the first city on a major fashion circuit to adopt the online-only model. A representative for the BFC told British Vogue that LFW's September iteration will also be gender-agnostic. Pictured: Lena Dunham walks the runway at the 16Arlington show during London Fashion Week February 2020 Whether it will work as well as a physical show is yet to be seen. London-based designer Feng Chen Wang told the Guardian: 'We can use digital to add new layers, but we still need the physical interaction to understand form, technique and fabric. 'I can see digital working for order-taking when a retailer already knows the brand, understands its values and is confident in placing an order remotely. However, unfortunately I don't see it working for prospecting new designers as there is too much risk.' The industry has taken a battering as a result of the pandemic, with fashion weeks in Paris and Milan cancelled or postponed in March. Key events such as the Met Gala, the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards and the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers have also been shelved. Yesterday it emerged fashion designer Stella McCartney has furloughed hundreds of her staff and asked those who remain working to take a pay cut during the coronavirus crisis. McCartney will use taxpayers' money offered as part of the Government's job retention scheme to pay salaries, in a move similar to Victoria Beckham, who has been slammed for furloughing people despite her 335million fortune. A vessel for mining sand in Bu Dang District of Binh Phuoc Province as seen in a screenshot from a video by the Vietnam Television (VTV). While both authorities and the public are preoccupied with the novel coronavirus fight, illegal sand miners are busier than ever. When Vietnam began a 15-day social distancing campaign on April 1, with people asked to remain home and only go out when truly necessary, sand miners seemed to take advantage. On the night of April 12 residents of Phu Chau Commune in Hanois Ba Vi District called newspaper offices to complain that more and more barges had been coming to their section of the Red River to mine sand, and more than a few were there right at the time. It was evident that illegal sand miners had taken advantage of the stay-at-home orders and the fact the public gaze was no more on them. For people living along the Red River, the fight against illegal sand mining has for years been their own since usually the criminals disappear when the police turn up and return after they leave. And even when they are caught, the penalty is trifling. On a good day a miner can earn VND1 billion ($43,000) from selling 2,000 cubic meters of sand whereas those caught are charged with "violating regulations related to research, exploration and exploitation of natural resources" and fined VND100-200 million ($4,200-8,500) if they steal over 50 cubic meters of sand without using explosives. The story is similar in the south too. Ten days into the social distancing campaign, people in Thong Nhat Commune, Bu Dang District, Binh Phuoc Province, complained bitterly they had had more than enough of sand miners. Besides operating every night in the river, causing a threat of erosion, the miners have trucks going in and out of the commune to carry away the sand, causing pollution. A local named Dam Van Lam told VTV that he and his neighbors "cannot live like this any longer." Tran Quoc Tuan, chairman of Thong Nhat, said the commune "does not have enough personnel to fight sand miners in the river." Asked about the trucks, he said, "We cannot track down the actual owners." Amid the social distancing campaign, at least five cases of illegal sand mining were detected by local waterway authorities while patrolling to make sure people were following orders to stay inside. On April 14 a Border Guard Steering Committee task force in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province near Ho Chi Minh City stopped five vessels carrying a total of 2,420 cubic meters of sand. The captains of the barges failed to produce documents showing legal origins for the sand, the Vienam News Agency reported. The authorities seized the sand, the captains licenses and the registration documents of their vessels for "transporting mineral products without legal origin," a charge that merely entails seizure of the illegal consignments. On April 7 and 8 traffic police in Long Thanh District, Dong Nai Province, another neighbor of HCMC, caught two different groups of sand miners in the Dong Nai River. They seized two boats loaded with equipment to suck sand out of the water and another with two cubic meters of sand, said the Voice of Vietnam. Also on April 8 the Hanoi traffic departments waterway traffic task force caught a ship with a capacity of 500 tons mining sand in the Red River section in Phu Thuong Commune, Tay Ho District. The vessel had around 100 cubic meters of sand on board and a mining device still running. Police in Cho Moi District in An Giang Province in the Mekong Delta said they had caught red-handed three people on a boat with a capacity of 35 tons mining sand in the Tien River, a branch of the Mekong. They also found 15 cubic meters of sand in the vessel. Solutions up in the air The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said cases of illegal sand mining have been reported to it during the social distancing period. It has merely told local authorities to keep a closer eye on inland waterways to prevent this. It said a new decree to take effect on May 10 will raise the fines on illegal exploitation of mineral resources, with the highest amount going up to VND1 billion for individuals and VND2 billion for organizations. The fight against illegal sand mining has proven difficult since penalties are not enough of a deterrent and regulations are lax, law enforcement agencies said last year, suggesting that illegal exploitation of natural resources should be treated as theft and subjected to criminal penalties. Senior officials from the Ministry of Public Security had said it was difficult to press criminal charges because authorities had to prove that the miners had stolen more than VND100 million ($4,300) worth of sand in a single case or the value of the sand exploited must exceed VND500 million, and there was no mechanism for authorities to calculate this. Shockingly, many operators have been using the cover of dredging of inland waterways to mine sand from right under the noses of authorities. Others get a license to mine sand and then expand operations without a permit, using local people to extract the sand. A sand seller who asked for anonymity, explained: "If the police find out, it is those miners who get caught, while those companies walk away free. And if the miners do get sand, they have to sell it to those companies at just half the market price." Vietnam is not the only country to suffer from illegal sand mining. Global demand for sand and gravel, used extensively in construction, was around 50 billion tons a year, according to a report published by the U.N. Environment Program in May last year. Extraction from rivers and beaches has increased pollution and flooding, reduced groundwater levels, hurt marine life, and exacerbated the occurrence and severity of landslides and drought, the report said. Existing legal frameworks are not sufficient, and "sand mafias" comprising builders, businessmen and dealers in countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Kenya, and Sierra Leone regularly flout the law, it added. California utility regulators could advance Pacific Gas and Electric Co.s high-stakes emergence from bankruptcy through two major proposals they unveiled this week. A tentative decision from a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge Monday would approve PG&Es plan to resolve its Chapter 11 case and pay victims of recent deadly wildfires that the company caused. Also, one of the commissioners who governs the agency wants to not collect a proposed $200 million cash fine from PG&E over the 2017 and 2018 wildfires. The fine was included in a broader $2.14 billion proposed penalty against the company, most of which would come through making shareholders pay for wildfire expenses they could otherwise recover through rates. Both proposals must still be acted on by the five-member utilities commission. The commission intends to take up the wildfire penalty proposal on May 7 and the bankruptcy plan proposal on May 21. The success of both documents would be a big boost to PG&E, which is trying to resolve its bankruptcy case by June 30 in order to qualify for new state funding to protect itself from future fire costs. PG&E needs to get its exit plan approved in court and by the utilities commission. Administrative Law Judge Peter Allen still had some harsh words about PG&Es poor safety track record in his proposed decision to approve the bankruptcy plan. It is understandable that PG&E may want to shift the focus away from the history of its recent safety performance which has ranged from dismal to abysmal and instead seek to draw attention to its remedial efforts, his proposal says. At the same time, however, this is a cause for concern, as PG&E seems reluctant to take ownership of its own safety history and acknowledge its failings. In a statement, PG&E leaders said they appreciated the commissions review of the companys bankruptcy plan and called the proposed decision approving it another positive step as we continue to work diligently to emerge from Chapter 11 and get wildfire victims paid fairly and quickly. The company said it still needs time to fully review all the modifications and changes proposed by the commission but said it remains on track to meet the June 30 deadline. The proposed bankruptcy plan approval broadly incorporates an outline for stricter oversight of PG&E that commission President Marybel Batjer unveiled in February. Under that outline, the commission would impose a series of increasingly severe punishments on PG&E if it continues to be a threat to public safety after its bankruptcy case ends. The commission could revoke PG&Es operating license under the most extreme circumstances. Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network consumer group, was pleased to see provisions that would prevent customers from paying higher rates over past wildfire costs or funding the professional fees PG&E incurred in bankruptcy. Our big concern is that PG&E has already used up all its chances, and the (commission) should immediately subject PG&E to enhanced oversight, Toney said. We dont see the point in waiting for another disaster before they apply those higher standards. The commission also would have PG&E create new regional operating units, a step the company proposed, and revamp its board of directors. Under the wildfire penalty proposal released by Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen, the commission would technically impose a $200 million cash fine against PG&E but never collect the money. PG&E had strenuously objected to the fine, which an administrative judge moved to add onto a different settlement the company had reached with regulatory staff. And the company said that if the fine were imposed, it would have to come from the same $13.5 billion trust intended to pay individual fire victims. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes PG&E said Monday that it was still reviewing Rechtschaffens proposal and would respond within the 10-day time limit he established. The destruction caused by the wildfires of 2017 and 2018 was absolutely devastating, the company said in its statement. PG&Es most important responsibility remains the safety of our customers and the communities we serve, and we are committed to doing right by the communities impacted by wildfires. April Rose Maurath Sommer, executive and legal director of the Wild Tree Foundation, a group involved in the regulatory proceedings, said she thought the commission didnt go far enough. She had appealed the $2.14 billion penalty decision even before Rechtschaffen sought to change it, and she wanted the commission to preserve its ability to investigate the companys conduct surrounding 2017 and 2018 fires. Allowing PG&E to avoid the $200 million fine altogether is the worst possible message you can send to the utility, she said. It informs them that even when the commission has determined that a utility should be fined, if they are able to use some cunning and clever lawyering, theyre not going to have to pay, she said. Its very disturbing. J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris British Airways on Tuesday said it is operating special flights from 11 Indian airports to bring back thousands of UK nationals stranded in India due to the coronavirus crisis. These special flights to the UK started on April 13 and would end on April 27. "In India, the airline is serving 11 airports across the country with special flight departures over a period of two weeks," the airline said in its press release. These special lights are taking off from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. The airline said special flights are also operating to the UK from Goa, Amritsar, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. India has been under lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of coronavirus, which has infected over 18,600 people and killed approximately 590 people in the country till now. All domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended in India for the lockdown period. However, cargo flights, medical evacuation flights and special flights permitted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) are permitted to operate during the period. "The repatriation effort has been a collaboration between the UK and Indian government authorities, British Airways and the airport teams in both Britain and India," the press release said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BRIDGEPORT Patients recovering from the coronavirus were moved to one of the states newly designated COVID-19 recovery sites here on Tuesday. The transfer of 10 patients recovering from the coronavirus to Northbridge Health Care Center is part of a larger plan announced three weeks ago by Gov. Ned Lamont to segregate COVID-19 patients in designated nursing homes. The goal is to stop the spread of the highly contagious respiratory virus among Connecticuts most vulnerable population the frail and elderly. So far, the coronavirus has defied the states efforts to protect its nursing homes. As of late last week, when the latest site-specific nursing home numbers were released, confirmed cases of the coronavirus had spread to nearly half of Connecticuts 215 nursing homes, killing 375 people and infecting 1,700 others. At the time, nursing home deaths represented 38 percent of Connecticuts coronavirus death toll. The state began segregating COVID-19 nursing home patients last week at Sharon Health Care Center in Sharon. On Tuesday, COVID-19 patients were to transferred to Northbridge, said a spokesman for the parent company of both sites, Athena Health Care Systems. Six other sites in New Canaan, Wallingford, Torrington, Meriden, Portland and Wethersfield are preparing to open for the same purpose. The state plans to release new numbers about COVID-19 infections and deaths in Connecticut on Thursday. Already, infections at some homes are reaching alarming levels. In Shelton, for example, a total of 40 nursing home residents have died and 100 have confirmed cases of the coronavirus in three nursing homes. In East Haven, 16 have died and 32 have been infected at Whispering Pines nursing home. In Milford, nine have died and 67 are infected at Golden Hill nursing home. And in Waterbury, 15 deaths and 69 COVID-19 infections have been linked to the Abbott Terrace nursing home. rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342 Coronavirus update: The total number of COVID-19 cases has reached 18,601 in India with 3,251 people discharged from hospital and the death toll at 590. Coronavirus update: The total number of coronavirus cases in India has now reached 18,601 that includes 14,759 active cases, 3,251 people discharged from hospital and 590 deaths as per the latest data shared by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In the last 24 hours, a total of 1,336 fresh cases have been recorded with 47 deaths. Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with 4, 666 cases with 232 deaths. Followed by Delhi, reporting 2,081 cases with 47 deaths, Tamil Nadu with 1520 cases and 17 deaths. There are reports that 100 people in Rashtrapati Bhavan premises have been sent for self-isolation after a person tested COVID-19 positive. Though 50 people, who came in direct contact with the patient tested negative, the patient has been sent to the quarantine center in Birla Mandir complex. Reports said the patient attended the funeral of a relative who is a resident of Rashtrapati Bhavan Estate Quarters. Further, as per the Union Health Ministry, India has seen a development in the recovery rate of the people who have fought with the virus. The recovery rate stood at 14.75 percent this morning as compared to the previous days. Further, more than 3000 patients have recovered from the infection so far. Also Read: Delhis Azadpur mandi to remain open for 24 hours amid lockdown from today 47 deaths and 1336 new cases reported in last 24 hours. India's total number of #Coronavirus positive cases rises to 18,601 (including 14759 active cases, 3252 cured/discharged/migrated and 590 deaths): Ministry of Health and Family Welfare pic.twitter.com/ZYumpbPvna ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 Reports said the Centre on Monday has ordered that all the departmental canteens in the offices, departments, and Ministries will remain closed as a preventive measure to control the spread of coronavirus. Moreover, the Delhi government has also directed all the hospitals to make a media cell that will be responsible for answering a large number of social media messages about the functioning of the hospitals during the pandemic. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Milla Jovovich and her third husband Paul W. S. Anderson did not wear CDC-recommended COVID-19 face masks to stroll near their $8.5M 8,493-square-foot Mediterranean mansion in Beverly Hills on Monday. The married couple of a decade were walking three of their four dogs - a Giant Schnauzer called Cromwell, a rescue mix called Vinni, and a Maltese Mix called Sweet Potato. The 44-year-old Dazed & Confused alum wore full make-up to ring in the 4/20 holiday as well as the 55-year-old Englishman's grey hoodie over a plaid shirt, blue skinny jeans, and UGG boots. No protection: Milla Jovovich and her third husband Paul W. S. Anderson did not wear CDC-recommended COVID-19 face masks to stroll near their $8.5M 8,493-square-foot Mediterranean mansion in Beverly Hills on Monday Los Angeles County's stay-at-home order was extended through May 15 due to the 13,823 confirmed coronavirus cases in LA, which has led to 619 deaths as of Tuesday - according to Johns Hopkins University. Last Sunday, Milla (born Milica Jovovic) honored her Ukrainian roots by celebrating Orthodox Easter with her daughters Dashiel Edan and Ever Gabo. The 12-year-old ingenue held on to her five-year-old sister's wrist in order to better smash two small decorative eggs together while both said 'Christ is Risen. He Is Risen Indeed' in Russian. Fur babies: The married couple of a decade were walking three of their four dogs - a Giant Schnauzer called Cromwell, a rescue mix called Vinni, and a Maltese Mix called Sweet Potato Bright red pout: The 44-year-old Dazed & Confused alum wore full make-up to ring in the 4/20 holiday as well as the 55-year-old Englishman's grey hoodie over a plaid shirt, blue skinny jeans, and UGG boots 'Happy Orthodox Easter everyone!' Last Sunday, Milla honored her Ukrainian roots by celebrating Orthodox Easter with her daughters Dashiel Edan (L) and Ever Gabo (R) Family tradition: The 12-year-old ingenue held on to her five-year-old sister's wrist in order to better smash two small decorative eggs together while both said 'Christ is Risen. He Is Risen Indeed' in Russian 'Try again!' But when it came time to blow out the tall Easter candle atop a cake baked by Jovovich's pal Inga Kosinova, little Dashiel made eight attempts before the flame was out But when it came time to blow out the tall Easter candle atop a cake baked by Jovovich's pal Inga Kosinova, little Dashiel made eight attempts before the flame was out. The Paradise Hills actress made sure her trilingual (English, French, and Russian) girls - including 11-week-old daughter Osian Lark - also got to celebrate traditional American Easter on April 12. Little Ever has landed two major movie roles after going on '22 auditions' - Marvel spin-off Black Widow and Disney's Peter Pan & Wendy. 'Happy Easter!' The Paradise Hills actress made sure her trilingual (English, French, and Russian) girls - including 11-week-old daughter Osian Lark - also got to celebrate traditional American Easter on April 12 On set as the young Natasha Romanoff! Little Ever has landed two major movie roles after going on '22 auditions' - Marvel spin-off Black Widow and Disney's Peter Pan & Wendy (pictured February 12) The privileged tween made her acting debut at age 9 - the same exact age Milla began her modeling career. Jovovich will next play Captain Natalie Artemis in her husband Paul's big-screen adaptation of the 2004 Capcom video game Monster Hunter, which hits US theaters September 4. Monster Hunter marks the couple's eighth feature film collaboration after six Resident Evil movies (between 2002-2016) as well as The Three Musketeers in 2011. Hitting US theaters September 4! Milla will next play Captain Natalie Artemis in her husband Paul's big-screen adaptation of the 2004 Capcom video game Monster Hunter Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 19:31:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Olatunji Saliu ABUJA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The relations between China and Nigeria should never be undermined by controversies surrounding the novel coronavirus, as every affected country is instituting emergency measures on different scales to contain the mankind's common enemy, a Nigerian expert warns. In an interview with Xinhua in Abuja, Charles Onunaiju, an expert in China-Africa studies, said cooperation between the two countries has become too vital or too important, and too strategic, for them to allow the spur of the moment to distract or vitiate it. "We know this is not a normal time. Travel and movement within and among countries are restricted... We must understand some of these things," said Onunaiju, Director of the Center for China Studies in Abuja. "This is a time of jagged nerves," the expert said, urging people not to mistaking some specific pandemic control measures as institutional misconduct. The expert was making the remarks amid confusion and conflicting information over the conditions of Nigerians living in China as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the globe. The Nigerian government has said it was seeking to evacuate Nigerians living abroad on account of COVID-19, including China. This came even after Nigeria's foreign minister Geoffrey Onyeama and Zhou Pingjian, the Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, jointly held a press conference in Abuja to address issues bordering on the welfare of Nigerians in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. Onunaiju said all these reflect only "the temperament of the moment", adding he believes that things will soon normalize. He has called on both Nigerian and Chinese authorities for a level-headed approach in handling the contemporary issues affecting the two sides, while dismissing fears that bilateral cooperation might be engulfed. The China-Nigeria relation, he said, is built on solid grounds of mutual respect and political understanding. He suggested that the two sides continue to take advantage of the functions and mechanisms of consultation to engage at this time. "We need to be a lot more level-headed not to endanger the gains of Nigeria-China cooperation which has been steady and progressive, mutually useful and beneficial to each other," Onunaiju said. "Mistakes, excesses by officials... may occur here and there. This should be taken for what it is...spur of the moment should never come in between long-established functional dynamic relations like Nigeria-China cooperation," he added. Consul generals of African countries in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, said they support the local measures against COVID-19 and believe the novel coronavirus will eventually be defeated through strengthened communication and joint efforts. Last week, the foreign affairs office of China's Guangdong province issued an open letter, calling for joint efforts in the fight against COVID-19, which was welcomed by the diplomats from Africa. Ethiopian Consul General in Guangzhou Teferi Melesse Desta said they would continue to work together with local governments to promote mutual understanding. He said Guangdong has taken many effective measures and African communities here obey the instructions. Available data showed that a total of 111 African people in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, had tested positive for COVID-19 by April 13, according to Chen Zhiying, executive vice mayor of Guangzhou. Enditem A home care business boss has revealed her pain at the plight of health workers after she was charged 100 for a set of 50 facemasks. Alice Ushamba criticised the Government's response to the coronavirus crisis as she accused Downing Street of overlooking community care. The health chief, who runs Hampshire Healthcare in the New Forest, revealed that she is being forced to pay 3,300 per cent more for masks compared to pricing before the pandemic. Pictured: Hampshire Healthcare workers wear protective masks amid the coronavirus crisis Pictured: Medics wear personal protective equipment as the pandemic continues to bring the nation to a standstill Her company needs more than 200 of the protective items a day, but the Government has issued the firm with just 300 in total. It's now costing the company more than 1,500 a week just to ensure workers have the masks. She told the BBCs World at One: We used to buy a box of hundred masks surgical mask for 6. But now were buying a box of 50 masks for 60 to 100 pounds. She added: Its not sustainable as a business to be spending that on just surgical masks and the quality is questionable because theyre not from my normal supplier. A third of her clients have died in the past month - with only one having been tested for coronavirus because they died in hospital. She said a third of her staff have quit because they feel unsafe due to the lack of PPE. She said: Were going into peoples houses who perhaps might have COVID but we dont have anything to protect ourselves, except a little plastic apron and gloves. Thats all we have. The UK yesterday announced 449 more coronavirus deaths - the fewest for a fortnight - taking Britain's total death toll to 16,509. The figures released yesterday showed England declared 429 deaths and a further 20 were confirmed across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. And 4,676 more people have tested positive for the virus, taking the total number of patients to 124,743. Monday's death toll is a fall on the 596 fatalities announced on Sunday, and half as many as the day before that (888). Hospitals are on the verge of running out of some life-saving supplies after the 84-tonne delivery, including 400,000 protective gowns, failed to arrive last night. Medical bodies say shortages mean doctors could need to make 'difficult decisions' between exposing themselves to the virus or 'letting a patient die on their watch'. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick announced with fanfare on Saturday that the consignment was coming, before Education Secretary Gavin Williams humiliatingly admitted last night that it had been postponed. However, Chris Hopson, chief of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, said this morning there was 'low confidence' the materials will actually arrive. London Mayor Sadiq Khan last week warned that everyone might have to wear masks in public once the lockdown is lifted. He also called for face masks to be worn why the public when using public transport. It comes as a group of medics called on people to make their own face masks to stop the spread of coronavirus. Masks4All suggested homemade masks could slow the spread of Covid-19. The campaign group was started in the Czech Republic, but now has a global following. More than 100 UK medics have lent support to the campaign. On 4 February, the Bukavu military court in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) handed down a controversial judgment. Eight members of the Batwa indigenous community, a Pygmy people from the Great Lakes region, were found guilty of acts damaging to the Kahuzi-Biega National Park (PNKB). This park was established in 1970 as a World Heritage site to protect an endemic species, the lowland gorilla. The park straddles the provinces of South Kivu, North Kivu and Maniema. According to park officials, the eight Batwa destroyed more than 500 hectares of the park by digging for minerals and cutting down trees for timber and coal. The leader of the group, Jean-Marie Kasula, and five men accused with him were each sentenced to 15 years in jail for illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, criminal conspiracy and wicked destruction of the park. In the same judgment, two women were each sentenced to one year in prison and fined 200,000 Congolese francs (107 euros) for participating in this wicked destruction of nature. Up to now the work of the Congolese military justice system has been praised, particularly for its trials of rebel leaders and army officers for crimes against civilians. But this latest judgment has instead drawn anger both inside and outside the country. One-day trial Defenders of indigenous peoples rights denounce irregularities in the procedure as well as hasty and biased conclusions. The presiding judge of the mobile court did not allow the eight co-defendants to present any defence, to bring or challenge the evidence or to present their own arguments, said the UK-based NGO Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) the day after the judgment. FPP has decided to support the Batwa in appeal proceedings. The defence was given only one day to examine the case of the eight defendants, according to the NGO, a reproach confirmed by the defence lawyer, Serge Bufole. There was no equality of arms. We were taken at the crack of dawn one morning and taken to the court, Bufole said, adding that the defendants suffered hunger, complained of poor conditions of detention and were physically and mentally weak to face their trial. Once the proceedings were opened the lawyer says the judges refused to hear defence witnesses. Above all, the Congolese lawyer criticizes the judges for not having allowed discussion of an agreement concluded in September 2019 between the parks administration and the indigenous peoples. According to him, this agreement provides for considerable space to be left for the indigenous people. Unfortunately, this agreement has never been respected by the park management, he says. This is why the Batwa have continued to operate in the park, which they consider to be a legacy of their ancestors. They dont accept that they can be evicted without compensation. If there is expropriation in the public interest, then there should be compensation. According to Hubert Mulongoy, spokesman for the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, efforts have been made to provide education for indigenous children. Claude Sengenya Conservation for whom? Administrators of the Kahuzi-Biega park say they have respected their commitments as much as resources allow. Failure to comply with the clauses is no reason to attack the park. We have respected more than 80% of these clauses, says PNKB spokesman Hubert Mulongoy. He cites support for the schooling of indigenous children and the recruitment of some of them as eco-guards. It is true that sometimes funding is lacking, but we are trying, he says. But advocates for indigenous people find it hard to understand the courts conclusions. If you study the traditional way of life of the pygmies, you will understand that they are the true protectors of nature, explains Blaise Mudodosi, head of the local NGO Action for the Promotion and Protection of Endangered Peoples and Species. They dont eat protected species like gorillas. Pygmies only collect dead wood, caterpillars and edible bark, which does not threaten conservation in the park. We must not deprive them of their means of survival in the name of conservation, otherwise conservation no longer makes sense. According to this lawyer specialized in environmental issues, the Batwa are within their rights. The ancestral lands of the pygmies are in what is now the Kahuzi-Biega park. In the aftermath of the creation [of the park], indigenous people were driven out of their villages, dispossessed of their land without compensation. It was not a problem because they found living spaces outside. But with the decrease in resources, they are now forced to return to their ancestral lands, explains Mudodosi. The Pygmies only collect dead wood, caterpillars and bark useful for nutrition, which in no way threatens conservation in the park, says Blaise Mudodosi of the NGO APEM, which promotes and protects endangered peoples and species. Claude Sengenya Deterring indigenous people Park spokesman Hubert Mulongoy seems to admit this harsh reality, but puts the ball in the governments court. The park and its partners cannot buy land for the Pygmies. It is the responsibility of the Congolese state to decide where they can be settled. The biggest problem is that the land is quite limited. There is no space for agriculture, for cattle breeding. They [pygmies] dont have all that. Mudodosi thinks the PNKB could resolve the issue by rethinking the management of this protected area. The park is very important, but we have to look at how it can live with the communities. The managers have to allow the communities certain entry rights for cultural and survival reasons. PNKB must resolve all these issues to ensure sustainable management of the park. The solution is not a trial, insists the lawyer. Forest Peoples Programme believes that this ruling, hastily handed down, diverts national and international attention from a very different reality: the ongoing quest for survival of the Batwa/Bambuti indigenous communities, who were evicted from Kahuzi-Biega National Park in 1975. According to the NGO, the aim of this trial was to send a message of deterrence to all other members of the Batwa/Bambuti communities who might be tempted to settle in the park as Kasula did. This unfair trial is aimed not only at Kasula but also at all other indigenous peoples in the eastern region of the DRC, the organization said. For Fiore Longo of Survival International, an international NGO defending indigenous people, this trial at least shows that indigenous peoples do not accept losing everything and that they are defending themselves. In many places, local people are making their democratic voices heard and turning against the colonial model of conservation that contains the seeds of its own destruction. If this model doesnt change to prioritize peoples rights, it will not survive, she adds. Saudi Arabia executed a record number of people in 2019, despite an overall decline in executions worldwide, Amnesty International said in its 2019 global review of the death penalty published today. The Saudi authorities put 184 people to death last year, the highest number Amnesty has ever recorded in a single year in the country. Meanwhile the number of executions doubled in Iraq, and Iran retained its place as the worlds second most prolific executioner after China, where the exact number of people put to death remains a state secret. However, these states are bucking a global trend which saw global executions decrease for the fourth consecutive year to at least 657 in 2019 from at least 690 in 2018 the lowest recorded figure of the past decade. The death penalty is an abhorrent and inhuman punishment; and there is no credible evidence that it deters crime more than prisons terms. A large majority of countries recognize this and its encouraging to see that executions continue to fall worldwide, said Clare Algar, Amnesty Internationals Senior Director for Research, Advocacy and Policy. However, a small number of countries defied the global trend away from the death penalty by increasingly resorting to executions. Saudi Arabias growing use of the death penalty, including as a weapon against political dissidents, is an alarming development. Also shocking was the massive jump in executions in Iraq, which nearly doubled in just one year. The top five executing countries in 2019 were: China (1000s); Iran (at least 251); Saudi Arabia (184); Iraq (at least 100) and Egypt (at least 32). Amnestys figures do not include China, where the number of executions, believed to be in the thousands, remains classified. Other major executing countries, including Iran, North Korea and Viet Nam, continued to hide the full extent of their use of the death penalty by restricting access to death penalty information. Spikes in executions in minority of countries Just 20 countries are responsible for all known executions worldwide. Among them, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen executed significantly more people in 2019 than in 2018. Saudi Arabia executed 184 people six women and 178 men in 2019, just over half of whom were foreign nationals. The figure was 149 in 2018. The majority of executions were for drug-related offences and murder. However, Amnesty International also documented the increased use of the death penalty as a political weapon against dissidents from Saudi Arabias Shia Muslim minority. On 23 April 2019, there was a mass execution of 37 people, 32 of them Shia men convicted on terrorism charges after trials that relied on confessions extracted through torture. One of those executed on 23 April was Hussein al-Mossalem. He had sustained multiple injuries including a broken nose, broken collar bone and leg fracture while being held in solitary confinement and subjected to beatings with an electric stick and other forms of torture. Mossalem had been brought before Saudi Arabias Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), which was set up in 2008 to try individuals accused of terror-related crimes but is increasingly used to suppress dissent. In Iraq, the number of people executed almost doubled from at least 52 in 2018 to at least 100 in 2019, largely due to the continued use of the death penalty against individuals accused of being members of the armed group that calls itself Islamic State. In South Sudan, authorities executed at least 11 people in 2019, the highest number recorded since the countrys independence in 2011. Yemen executed at least seven people in 2019, compared with at least four in 2018. Bahrain also resumed executions after a one-year hiatus, putting three people to death over the course of the year. Lack of transparency over use of death penalty Many countries failed to publish or provide official information on their use of the death penalty, highlighting the lack of transparency around the practice from many governments. Iran is second only to China in its use of the death penalty. It put to death at least 251 people in 2019, compared with at least 253 in 2018 four of whom were below 18 at the time of the crime. However, a lack of transparency makes it difficult to confirm the real total number of executions which may be far higher. In one case, Iranian authorities secretly executed two boys, Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat, in Adelabad prison in Shiraz, Fars province on 25 April 2019. They were both arrested aged 15 and convicted on multiple rape charges following an unfair trial. Not only did they not know they had been sentenced to death before their executions, but their bodies bore lash marks, indicating they had been whipped before their deaths. Even countries that are the strongest proponents of the death penalty struggle to justify its use, and opt for secrecy. Many of them take pains to hide how they use the death penalty, knowing it will not stand up to international scrutiny, said Clare Algar. Executions are taking place in secret all over the world. In countries from Belarus to Botswana and Iran to Japan, executions were being carried out without any advance notice to the families, lawyers or in some cases the individuals themselves. Global abolition within reach For the first time since 2011, there was a drop in the number of executing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with seven reporting executions during the year. Japan and Singapore sharply reduced the numbers of people they executed, from 15 to 3, and 13 to 4, respectively. No executions were carried out in Afghanistan for the first time since 2010. Hiatuses were also reported in Taiwan and Thailand which both executed people in 2018; while Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Malaysia and Gambia continued to respect official moratoriums on executions. Advertisements Worldwide, 106 countries have abolished the death penalty in law for all crimes and 142 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Moreover, several countries took positive steps towards ending the use of the death penalty. For example, the President of Equatorial Guinea announced in April that his government would introduce legislation to abolish the death penalty. Positive developments, which may lead to the abolition of the death penalty, also occurred in Central African Republic, Kenya, Gambia and Zimbabwe. Barbados also removed the mandatory death penalty from its Constitution. In the United States, the Governor of California established an official moratorium on executions in the US state which has the biggest death row population, and New Hampshire became the 21st US state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes. However, attempts in the Philippines to reintroduce the death penalty for heinous crimes related to illegal drugs and plunder and efforts in Sri Lanka to resume executions for the first time in more than 40 years marred progress towards the abolition of the death penalty globally. The US federal government also threatened to resume executions after almost two decades without carrying out any. We must keep up the momentum for the global abolition of the death penalty, said Clare Algar. We are calling on all states to abolish the death penalty. There needs to be international pressure on the worlds last remaining executioners to end this inhuman practice for good. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) Scarlet Snow Belo, the daughter of celebrity doctors Vicki Belo and Hayden Kho, is auctioning off her drawings for the benefit of Filipino scientists at the Philippine Genome Center and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. I have drawings from my live art session that my kuya @quarkhenares' team is helping me to auction off. The money that will be raised will go to the Philippine scientists at Philippine Genome Center and Research Institute of Tropical Medicine, Scarlet posted on her Instagram account According to the post, the money will go to the production of test kits for the scientists. If interested in buying Scarlet artworks, you may comment your bid on her Instagram post. She said: They're trying to make test kits and they need our help. Please comment below your bid for each one. My kuya will track it. Thank you!!! Last month, Mexico registered 2,585 homicides, as seen in a report. However, the violence could be attributed to armed clashes between rival crime groups in Mexico. A senior member at the Brookings Institution Vanda Felbab-Brown believed that Mexico's drug cartels might be distributing resources to the poor and elderly as a move to amass recruits. She said, "criminal groups are using the economic downturn and lockdowns to build up political capital." Criminal Groups Distribute Food to the Needy The week prior, Alejandrina Guzman, the daughter of Sinaloa leader Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, filmed herself distributing food and supplies in "Chapo Packages" to the elderly in Guadalajara. This was reminiscent of her father's regime as a drug lord to distribute his fortune to the poor in Mexico. On the Wednesday following the live broadcast from the first food drive, Guzman posted another video asking the public to aid the elderly by sharing contact information to refer them to people who needed support. "We want to ask you to please refer us to people who really need help, who do not have basic government support," Guzman said. Apart from the Sinaloa Cartel, other criminal groups followed suit. Cartels like the Jalisco New Generation and Gulf Cartel posted photos on social media of armed members distributing food and resources to the poor, Daily Mail reports. Most of the packages the groups distributed had logos of their drug cartels. While the Mexican government is focused on mitigating the economic and health crisis brought by the pandemic, there is often a shortage, or in some cases, a failure to provide necessary security to vulnerable populations. Criminal groups might have taken advantage of this opportunity to attract locals and turn them away from the authorities. Check these out! A Tooth for a Tooth Organized crime in Mexico also faces a problem. Most of the groups are focused on shipment and procurement of drugs, a business that is heavily dependent on the stability of the economy. Because of the pandemic, there is an anticipated economic fallout that drug cartels are preparing for. A Mexican lawyer with ties between Jalisco Cartel and other criminal groups explained that the economic shock would only be temporary for drug businesses because they would usually resort to measures that ascertain profit. The pandemic is going to last much longer than expected. The lawyer added, "If they get squeezed for longer, many will turn to alternatives-extortion and kidnapping." In response to the tactics of assumed leadership among the criminal groups, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador explained on a press conference that cartels should focus on disbanding their organizations, and not distributing care packages to the poor. "What helps is them stopping their bad deeds," Lopez Obrador said. Lopez Obrador's earlier prediction of a decline in violence at the end of the month did not turn out as expected. His winning political platform focused on solving poverty and corruption, but amidst the pandemic, he could not implement the same strategies because these were designed for times of stability. Director of National Citizen Observatory Francisco Rivas bases his criticism on Lopez Obrador's failure to control criminality and his inability to contain the coronavirus. To solve these different problems would be expensive, and so Rivas added that the government could only afford enough, and its most urgent concern was the pandemic. He said, "Budget cuts to public security have been brutal. These all have serious effects." ROSEVILLE, Calif. Rescuers in Roseville are caring for a Bald Eagle, after a Canadian goose attacked it. The encounter was caught on video, at the Bullards Bar Reservoir in the Tahoe National Forest. When Veterinarian Victoria Joseph examined the bird, she discovered it had other concerning medical issues. Joseph said the bird is facing lead exposure. Shes also worried it has been electrocuted. But, as the tissues start changing, if the electrocution doesn't kill the animals, then, over time, it takes one to two weeks to see the damage done, Joseph said. Once the eagle is stabilized, hell go to the bird of prey health group in Lincoln, Placer County. Hell spend two to three months there, where his treatment is expected to cost an excess of $5,000. Congress is on the verge of passing a new $470 billion stimulus deal--with another $370 billion earmarked for popular small business funding programs--and it's not a minute too soon. The new package is expected to add about $310 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a loan program run directly through lenders and specifically designed to help small employers fund payroll costs. The program's initial $349 billion allotment was exhausted after just 14 days. The new round of funding would also add $60 billion to a separate emergency loan program for small businesses, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, which is administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Another $100 billion is expected to help fund hospitals and coronavirus testing. While the replenished funds undoubtedly will be helpful for businesses that have been hard hit by the pandemic and unable to secure Covid-19 financial relief, this next tranche is expected to go quickly--perhaps even outpacing the first round. Banks Say They're Ready The exact timing of the deal's approval is unclear--Congress is expected to act early this week. When it does, it shouldn't take long for businesses to kick back into gear, says Paul Merski, group executive vice president of congressional relations and strategy at the Independent Community Bankers of America, a small-bank trade organization. "I know one bank that got roughly 5,000 applications and was able to get 2,000 approved, so it already has 3,000 PPP applications in hand and ready to go when and if there's additional funding," says Merski. Indeed, plenty of banks including Republic Bank, an SBA lender in Philadelphia, are still accepting and processing loans from both existing and new customers, although they can't submit them yet for approval. Republic Bank has secured 2,000 approved PPP loans totaling a combined $400 million. Capital Bank, N.A., based in Rockville, Maryland, helped 597 small-business PPP applicants get SBA-backed federal aid totaling over $173 million. And Edward Barry, its CEO, noted in a statement on Monday that it's girding for more. "We of course hope Congress approves additional PPP funding so we can help even more small businesses secure the aid they desperately need," said Barry, "but we are elated to have been able to help this enormous number of applicants successfully get through the SBA's process and obtain PPP loans." The Race to Get in on Round 2 That's welcome news for business owners, who were unable to land funding the first time around. Self-employed business owners had even less time to vie for funds, as their PPP loan application wasn't even available until April 10. They weren't the only ones left out. The country has some 30 million small businesses. The SBA has approved only 1.6 million PPP loans, and it's still unclear how many have applied thus far. To be sure, not every small business is facing coronavirus-related financial hardships. And not every small business is an employer. But the EIDL program--that is the SBA lending facility designed for companies that don't necessarily have workers--was oversubscribed six-fold by the time the SBA stopped accepting applications, says Ami Kassar, the founder and CEO of MultiFunding, a small-business loan adviser based in Ambler, Pennsylvania. He estimates that $400 billion in loans have already been requested from the EIDL program, which had been funded at $10 billion. When the program was created, small businesses had the opportunity for an immediate advance of $10,000, which, according to the SBA, would be disbursed within three days. As the volume of loans quickly depleted the program, that advance amount dropped to just $1,000 per employee. What's more, if this next batch of funding is anything like the last one, the funds will be exhausted in a matter of days. "In the last couple days of the first tranche, you could have a burn rate of $40 to $50 billion a day," says Merski. Congress is expected to allot $60 billion for smaller banks--those with $50 billion in assets or less--this time around, so that should help companies in rural locations and those located in historically economically distressed communities get funding. Three men were arrested in separate incidents for allegedly supplying illicit liquor in the national capital from Haryana, police said on Tuesday. In the first incident, police were patrolling at Dariyapur village in Dwarka district on Monday around 12.15 pm and received a tip regarding a car carrying illicit liquor. A trap was laid at Dariyapur village and one person was arrested. He was identified as Jitender, a resident of Dariyapur village. He was carrying 20 cartons of illicit liquor, a senior police officer said. During interrogation, it was disclosed that the liquor was brought from Bahadurgarh and the consignment was to be delivered in western Delhi, they said. In the second incident, police arrested a 29-year-old man from near Singhu border. On Monday around 5 pm, police nabbed Amit, a resident of Sonipat District in Haryana, at Singhu Border. He had curfew pass for essential services on the windscreen of the car, police said. A total of 17 cartons were found loaded in the car, officials said. In another incident, police noticed a car approaching Singhu border from Haryana side on Monday around 9.40 pm. The driver was signalled to stop, but he tried to escape. Police pushed the barricade in front of the car and overpowered the driver, officials said. The accused has been identified as Dinesh Pal (38), a resident of Jahangirpuri. Six cartons of illicit liquor were found loaded in his car, police added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. CLF is expected to release first-quarter 2020 results on Apr 23. The company has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 25.1%, on average. Lower iron ore and steel prices are likely to have affected the companys first-quarter performance. The stock has tumbled 62.5% in a years time compared with the industrys 19.3% decline. Lets see how things are shaping up for the upcoming announcement. What to Expect in Q1 Cleveland-Cliffs recently announced preliminary results for first-quarter 2020. The company expects revenues for the first quarter to be between $345 million and $375 million. Adjusted EBITDA is projected in the range $15-$25 million. Further, Mining and Pelletizing sales volume are expected to be around 2.1 million long tons in the first quarter. Flat-rolled steel shipments are expected to be around 200,000 short tons, which only includes sales from Mar 13 to Mar 31. Pre-merger AK Steel flat-rolled steel shipments are projected at roughly 1.1 million short tons (from Jan 1 to Mar 12). Also, the company recently stated that it is temporarily idling production at two of its iron ore mining operations due to weak market conditions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. Cleveland-Cliffs has decided to adjust the production of iron ore during the first half of the year. Lower iron ore prices due to weak demand amid coronavirus-induced lockdowns are expected to have impacted the company first-quarter performance. The lockdowns have affected industrial activities globally, hurting demand for iron ore. Weaker iron ore prices are likely to have affected the companys first-quarter margins. Moreover, the impact of weaker U.S. steel prices is likely to get reflected on the companys results. The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the recovery of the U.S. steel industry and led to a downswing in domestic steel prices due to weak demand across major end-use markets like automotive and construction. As such, lower steel prices are likely to have affected the companys price realization in the first quarter. Q1 Sales Estimates The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter consolidated revenues for Cleveland-Cliffs is currently pegged at $368 million, which calls for a sequential decline of 31.1%. Story continues Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Price and EPS Surprise Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Price and EPS Surprise Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. price-eps-surprise | Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Quote What the Zacks Model Says Our proven model doesnt conclusively predict an earnings beat for Cleveland-Cliffs this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat. But thats not the case here. Earnings ESP: Earnings ESP for Cleveland-Cliffs is 0.00%. The Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are both currently pegged at a loss of 19 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. Zacks Rank: Cleveland-Cliffs currently carries a Zacks Rank #3. Stocks Likely to Beat Estimates Here are some companies that you may want to consider as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter: Franco-Nevada Corporation FNV, scheduled to release first-quarter 2020 earnings on May 6, has an Earnings ESP of +0.32% and carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Yamana Gold Inc. AUY, slated to release first-quarter earnings on Apr 30, has an Earnings ESP of +12.50% and carries a Zacks Rank #3. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. WPM, scheduled to release first-quarter results on May 6, has an Earnings ESP of +5.95% and carries a Zacks Rank #3. Today's Best Stocks from Zacks Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%. This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year. See their latest picks free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV) : Free Stock Analysis Report Yamana Gold Inc. (AUY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Silver Wheaton Corp (WPM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research 3 1 of 3 File photo / Contributed Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Stamford Police Department / Contributed Show More Show Less 3 of 3 STAMFORD City police said they ticketed an alleged shoplifter for reckless endangerment Monday evening after he began coughing and telling employees of a city drug store that he was Covid-19 positive. Sgt. Jose Alvarez said employees from CVS on West Main Street called in a complaint about shoplifters at 7 p.m. on Monday. They said that when they confronted a man for stealing things from the store he began coughing and told them he was positive for the coronavirus, Alvarez said. Subscriber content preview Photo from SDOT [enlarge] The bridge was closed on March 23 after cracking got worse. Seattle Department of Transportation officials on Monday briefed the Seattle City Council on the current state of the West Seattle Bridge and outlined a three-phase plan to stabilize and repair it. . . . [April 21, 2020] Moody's Analytics Provides Tool to Help Hospitals Evaluate PPE Suppliers Moody's Analytics announced today the launch of a "Know Your Supplier" portal to help hospitals and other healthcare providers identify and screen suppliers of medical equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE). The coronavirus has prompted hospitals to expand their supply chains, creating an urgent need to quickly evaluate the credibility of new vendors. The Know Your Supplier portal helps accelerate vendor selection for procurement of vital supplies and is available to hospitals free of charge for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis. "Hospitals are struggling to supply and protect their front-line staff during this crisis, and with so many new vendors in the market, sourcing PPE and other equipment has become a critical challenge. With this in mind, we developed this portal to help healthcare decision-makers more rapidly identify and qualify new suppliers," said Rob Fauber, Chief Operating Officer of Moody's Corporation. "We are honored to contribute our data and analytical capabilities to the medical community as they lead the fight against COVID-19." The portal lets users search extensive databases to ascertain whether potential suppliers and key associated individuals have a history of fraud or other illicit activity. Vendors are checked against a global database of "risk-relevant entities" so healthcare providers can screen out those that have been publicly associated with illegal or disreputable activities. Developed by RDC, which was acquired by Moody's earlier this year, many financial institutions already use this data to help meet their "Know Your Customer" regulatory requirements. Vendors are also checked against a database of more than 20 million small and mid-sized firms across the US and Canada that was created by Cortera, a leading provider of company reference data. This screen helps healthcare providers verify company information from a potential vendor before they enter the procurement process, saving valuable time during the crisis. For more information, hospital and healthcare representatives should visit the Know Your Supplier portal. The Know Your Supplier portal is part of Moody's commitment to help leaders across industries make better decisions in the unprecedented COVID-19 environment. To learn more about Moody's response to the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our Coronavirus blog. Access Moody's insight on the credit and economic impact of coronavirus free of charge at moodys.com/coronavirus. About Moody's Analytics Moody's Analytics provides financial intelligence and analytical tools to help business leaders make better, faster decisions. Our deep risk expertise, expansive information resources, and innovative application of technology help our clients confidently navigate an evolving marketplace. We are known for our industry-leading and award-winning solutions, made up of research, data, software, and professional services, assembled to deliver a seamless customer experience. We create confidence in thousands of organizations worldwide, with our commitment to excellence, open mindset approach, and focus on meeting customer needs. For more information about Moody's Analytics, visit our website or connect with us on Twitter or LinkedIn. Moody's Analytics, Inc. is a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO). Moody's Corporation reported revenue of $4.8 billion in 2019, employs approximately 11,100 people worldwide and maintains a presence in 40 countries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005526/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The country has now been in lockdown for a month and the Government has tabled an unprecedented support package for businesses, worth hundreds of billions of pounds. But some workers are still worried they will lose their jobs and business owners are still fearing collapse. Today, Money Mail shines a spotlight on the cracks where the Government's money isn't going. We can reveal that: Judith Richards, 64, and husband Jason, 57, who offer trike tours around rural beauty spots, cannot get grants worth up to 25,000 because they do not pay business rates Firms are still unable to get vital government loans. One company that vets workers for the NHS now has a backlog of 5,000 staff because it doesn't meet the criteria. Self-employed business owners are not qualifying for help because they do not have the paperwork or pay themselves in dividends. Workers in new jobs have been left with no income because they do not qualify for furlough cash. New businesses have been denied support because they do not have enough money in the bank. It comes as the Treasury opened its Job Retention Scheme fund on Monday morning and more than 144,000 employers submitted claims for more than one million staff in the first day. Last week figures released by UK Finance revealed that less than a quarter of applications for the Government's Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) had been successful. The banking trade body figures showed that just 6,020 loans had been agreed last Tuesday, from 300,000 initial enquiries and 28,460 submitted applications. Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association, says around 30 per cent of his trade body's 4,000 members may not be able to reopen after the outbreak. He adds: 'There is a concern that coronavirus will accelerate the perceived decline of the High Street.' I started my new job too late Natalie Greenway started a new job after the cut-off date for the fund of March 19 Natalie Greenway will be without any income for at least three months because she is not eligible for the Government's furlough scheme. She is among tens of thousands of workers who started a new job after the cut-off date for the fund of March 19. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme allows firms to furlough staff while the Government pays 80 per cent of their salary, up to 2,500 per month. Natalie, 24, from Burbage, Leicestershire, started a new job as a customer services manager on March 16 but her company did not notify HMRC of her first payment until March 31. She had been in her job for two weeks before she was put on unpaid leave. She was saving for a deposit on a house, so is not eligible for Universal Credit. Anyone with savings of more than 16,000 is not eligible. She says: 'The Government has written us off as collateral damage.' But the Government has closed some of the cracks. A total of 1.25billion was put aside at the weekend to support start-up businesses which were not eligible for existing coronavirus support schemes. And 10,000 and 25,000 grants for small retail, leisure and hospital businesses are beginning to land in bank accounts. But some companies and individuals are still set to miss out because they do not quite fit the criteria for financial help. NHS STAFF CONFUSION The NHS is being starved of front-line staff because a firm that checks workers' qualifications is not getting the support it needs from the Government. Medic Check runs background checks on everyone from volunteers to surgeons starting work for the NHS, as well as providing a similar service for nursing homes. John Burke, 63, who helps run the business, says it has a backlog of around 5,000 applications because the company can't get a loan, which in turn is delaying getting front-line staff to vital health services. Medic Check is one of thousands of companies struggling to claim state aid under the government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). The loans are provided by High Street banks and the Government will take on 80 per cent of any losses. But because banks still have to bear 20 per cent of the risk, they have been asking for detailed financial information and forecasts which firms are unable to provide at speed. John says Medic Check first contacted Barclays about getting a loan about a month ago. After a brief phone call, the company received an email on April 11 stating that the bank did not believe it was eligible. The firm has been asked to provide a full year's accounts, which John says he can't do because it was only set up in September last year. It has also been asked to provide a forecast for the next 12 months, which John says is impossible because he cannot know how the business will be affected by the pandemic. Nor does he think the business is eligible for new support measures for start-ups because it has not raised 250,000 privately in the past five years. He says the firm desperately needs the cash to buy high-tech scanners for staff who are working from home. 'If we can't check the staff, then people aren't going to take them on,' he adds. Barclays says it has yet to receive an official loan application from Medic Check but is 'happy to review and assist' their request. A spokesman adds: 'We are processing very significant volumes of CBILS loans and we are doing everything we can to get money to thousands of businesses as quickly as possible under the scheme.' BANKS' BRUSH-OFF New-business owners also believe they may be at a disadvantage when applying for CBILS loans. Amy Bracher, 31, applied for a 50,000 loan with Lloyds Bank to keep her company, Phoenix Raven Recruitment, afloat. But she was rejected because she had gone into her overdraft in the past. Amy, from Shepshed, Leicestershire, set up the firm in May last year and has so far made a profit of 75,000. But her takings began to dwindle in early March as companies started to let her agency workers go and put recruitment on hold. However, when she applied to Lloyds for a loan last month, she was rejected. The reasons given by her bank included the fact that she had gone into her overdraft several times between November and February. Amy says: 'I feel I am being penalised for having a young business and most people would say I am doing well to make a profit in my first year. This loan scheme was my only contingency plan, and without help from Lloyds I doubt I'll have a business by 2021.' A Lloyds Bank spokesman declined to comment on Amy's case but says: 'To qualify for CBILS or our own support, among a number of criteria, businesses needed to be healthy and viable before the outbreak of Covid-19 and be able to afford to repay the additional borrowing based on their financial performance before the outbreak.' TOO SMALL FOR AID A couple who run a small tourism business in the Yorkshire Dales say they have been 'left to fend for themselves'. Judith Richards, 64, and husband Jason, 57, offer trike tours around rural beauty spots and have seen their company grow steadily since it was set up six years ago. The coronavirus outbreak put a halt to business and their whole household income. But because it is a husband-and-wife business run from home, it is not eligible for relief available to larger companies. They cannot get grants worth up to 25,000 because they do not pay business rates and her husband is not eligible for the Job Retention Scheme because he is not on the payroll. Judith says they have applied for Universal Credit but won't know if they are going to get anything until May 2. The firm has been granted a loan through the government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme but the money has yet to arrive in their accounts. Judith adds: 'If you're furloughed, your employees can claim money back which doesn't have to be repaid. 'If you pay business rates, you can get a grant but if you're one of thousands of small businesses like ours, the chances are you're going to get a big loan that you'll have to pay back. That will make life difficult. We've been hung out to dry.' NOT ENOUGH CASH Start-up founder Marie Farmer fears she won't have raised enough money to be eligible for help. This week HM Treasury announced a 1.25 billion package to support new companies that are not eligible for other rescue schemes. A new 500 million investment fund, the Future Fund, is designed to help high-growth companies. Start-up founder Marie Farmer fears she won't have raised enough money to be eligible for help And a further 750 million of grants and loans will be given to small and medium businesses that focus on research and development. Marie, 30, wants to apply for the Future Fund, made up of funding from the public and private sector. But to qualify a company must have raised 250,000 privately in the past five years. Marie is the founder of Mini Mealtimes a family nutrition app. She and her team began building the app in 2018 and it was launched in January this year. She has previously raised 60,000 for the company and is now trying to raise 350,000 before the end of May. But while she has raised just under 200,000 so far, if she does not reach her total she will not receive any of the investment cash. Marie, who lives with her son August, four, and husband James, 35, in North London, says: 'The coronavirus outbreak has scared a lot of potential investors off.' SLIM PICKINGS Hannah Murphy has seen her fitness business grind to a halt but will not know whether she is entitled to support until June. The Government has said it will offer cash grants worth up to 2,500 a month to self-employed workers. But anyone with profits of more than 50,000 a year will not be eligible. Hannah, 35, from Fareham, Hampshire, started Globe Fit with husband Tom, 36, seven years ago and works with 40 freelance instructors. Her overall income is above this threshold but includes dividends from her husband's company. She has been told by her accountant that the dividend income should not be counted and her self-employed income will be below 50,000. Meanwhile, she is not eligible for small business grants of up to 25,000 because she does not pay business tax, nor is she eligible for Universal Credit because her husband is still working as a project manager. 'I'm not able to claim at the moment,' she says. 'If my husband suddenly finds himself out of work, there's nothing we can do, other than apply for Universal Credit.' Other business owners could lose out because their dividend income is not counted. Those who pay themselves in mostly dividends will not receive 80 per cent of their full income. Freelance journalist and RAF veteran Andy Wasley, 37, only registered as a sole trader in April last year, so will not have his average earnings partly met by the government bailout scheme because he does not possess a full year of accounts. He says: 'I won't qualify for any help. I feel completely dispirited.' Andy, from Sutton, South London, spent 17 years in the RAF, including tours of Afghanistan, before leaving in 2018. He was expecting to earn around 27,000 this year but has now seen all his future writing commissions dry up. A Treasury spokesman says: 'We're taking unprecedented action to support public services, businesses and individuals through this economic emergency. 'All our support is targeted to make sure we use public funds responsibly, helping those who need it most, while minimising fraud risk.' moneymail@dailymail.co.uk 'Your whole life is spent caring': Clinicians over 60 stay on the job during pandemic despite the greater risk More than one-third of Canada's COVID-19 cases are people 60 and over. Many doctors and nurses are in that age group, which has experts considering about how best to protect them during the coronavirus outbreak, including the use of virtual care and other innovative tools. In a commentary published last month in JAMA about older clinicians working during the pandemic, U.S. researchers suggested that hospitals and health departments "carefully consider how best to protect and preserve their workforce, with careful consideration involving older physicians and nurses." Older nurses and physicians shouldn't necessarily be precluded from direct care of patients with COVID-19, the researchers say. They said it's worth considering that their direct duties be shifted to roles with less risk of exposure to the virus, such as consulting with younger staff, advising managers and speaking with families of patients and the public. Dr. Fiona Smaill, 65, a professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, has treated patients with infections, including suspected COVID-19. Doctors and nurses have to assume everyone they're seeing could be infected and to wear personal protective equipment, such as surgical masks, gloves and gowns, she said. "I think the most challenging [aspect] is dealing with the uncertainty," Smaill said. "You're worried. Dealing with that in the setting of actually providing the best care that you can is a strain both emotionally and physically." Smaill said she feels well-supported by her employer. But she also sees how colleagues are struggling to respond to rapidly changing policies and procedures. And at the same time, they're concerned about their own health including personal risk of infection as well as the well-being of their families. As for the journal commentary suggesting older clinicians step away from the front line, Smaill said she sees herself as fit and active. Story continues "As a physician and a health-care worker, your whole life is spent caring," she said. "You've got this very deep, strong professional belief that really has impacted your whole life, so that doesn't just get turned off overnight." WATCH | Doctor on 'desperation, sadness and hope' after putting patients on life support: Health-care workers change duties Smaill has been following many of her patients with HIV for up to 30 years. Now, she's making phone and video appointments to check how they're doing and to ensure their prescriptions are up to date. Doctors may not normally give much thought to how disruptive it can be for patients to come to a clinic. COVID-19 gives clinicians and patients alike an opportunity to think about the best way to serve patients' needs and wishes, Smaill said. Douglas Staiger, the JAMA commentary's co-author and an economics professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., said since the publication, he's received messages of thanks. "When our article was published, some hospitals were already shifting older workers from jobs interacting with patients to more administrative and supervisor positions, but others were so overwhelmed and short-staffed that they had not yet had the bandwidth to plan for this issue systematically," Staiger said in an email. McMaster University The latest Canadian Institute for Health Information's 2018 reports on physicians and nurses suggest more than a quarter of doctors are aged 60 and older, as are more than one in 10 nurses. Embracing technology Dr. Louis Francescutti, 66, said the pandemic is a great time to look at how to embrace technology from virtual care and smartphone ultrasound tools to make the health-care system more sustainable. He's a professor at the University of Alberta's School of Public Health and works in an emergency department in Edmonton. Francescutti recalled a recent example of a patient using a device to collaborate. "I said, 'Oh, let me check your sugar [level],'" Francescutti said. "And she said, 'Oh, why bother? Here.' She pulled out her phone, and she's got a device on her that sends her the glucose reading." Emphasize staying healthy, not treating illness Not everyone at the ER needs to be seen face to face, Francescutti said. "If you can figure out ways to keep people from becoming patients, then we're heading in the right direction," he said. To get there will require a greater emphasis on prevention, he said. "There is no such thing as a free lunch, and Canadians unfortunately think that our health system is free," Francescutti said. "It's very costly. Then it comes at the expense of building better parks, having better education, building better housing, building better transportation, cleaning up the environment. Those are the things that make you healthy." To that end, health-care professionals in clinics, hospitals and long-term care are already innovating during the coronavirus crisis. Prof. Ivy Bourgeault heads the Canadian Health Workforce Network, a group of researchers who guide governments about staffing in health care. She studies how doctors, nurses and other health-care workers, including personal support workers, can use their knowledge and skills fully and safely. Personal support workers (also called continuing care assistants and health-care aides) feed, bathe and provide bedside care in long-term care facilities, hospitals and homes. "The invisibility of that workforce and the invisibility of the people that they take care of our older adults, our elders has made them incredibly at risk," Bourgeault said. Personal support workers also tend to be older women, Bourgeault said. But little is known about them since they aren't registered and tracked in most provinces. Elder advocates have long called for access to benefits and sick leave for everyone employed in long-term care so workers aren't moving between multiple locations, potentially spreading infections. Invaluable experience Many dedicated clinicians over 60 are going to work during the pandemic, and their experience is invaluable, Bourgeault said. "The physician who takes care of my mom in her long-term care centre is well into his 80s," Bourgeault said. That's where older doctors often shift to working as their careers wind down, she said. Bourgeault pointed to solutions to the health-care service crunch during the pandemic, such as: Equip retirees with new skills. Tap into and reorient the skills of laid off dental nurses, as the United Kingdom is doing, to assist with anesthesia. In Canada, health-care delivery is more compartmentalized, Francescutti said, which can be a barrier to the re-skilling of workers. But if it was redesigned with the best interests of the patient instead of physicians first, then it could look and function differently than it does now, such as more professionals offering anesthesia. Francescutti gave the example of waiting rooms in clinics that are designed so that the physician doesn't have to wait. But the priority could be flipped, he said, like at Apple's Genius Bar. Its customers don't need to wait long to consult a technology expert in stores. 'This is where we get innovative' Dr. Sandy Buchman, president of the Canadian Medical Association, is 65. The palliative care physician in Toronto signed up to offer virtual care during the pandemic. "This is where we get innovative," Buchman said. "Virtual care has taken off. We've crossed a threshold here, and we'll never go back." Doctors in every province and territory are now offering the service. Buchman said age is just one factor in how severe an outcome someone could have with COVID-19. It's also important to consider older doctors and nurses who have other chronic illnesses, such as asthma, hypertension and asthma, he said, as well as how vulnerable others in their home are. Staiger acknowledged people with underlining medical conditions are also at higher risk of death but said data were preliminary. Libya: humanitarian emergency in Tripoli, Tarhuna - UN Humanitarian truce requested during Ramadan for coronavirus (ANSAmed) - TUNIS, APRIL 21 - "The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) is extremely concerned for the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in and around Tripoli due to intensified fighting over the last few days", the organization said in a statement on its website. UNSMIL asked for a humanitarian truce to enable Libyans to prepare for the holy month of Ramadan in peace and for authorities to provide urgently needed services, treat the wounded and confront the growing threat of Codiv-19. The UN mission added that "at least 28 civilians were killed, including women and children, due to the dramatic increase of indiscriminate bombings on areas populated by civilians. These attacks have also caused new displacements and damages to properties and civilian infrastructures. On April 17, the Royal Hospital in Tripoli was also struck", the organization said, explaining that the attack has seriously damaged its intensive care unit and caused the evacuation of patients and personnel. UNSMIL also expressed concern for the "deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Tarhouna. Finally, the terrible humanitarian situation is further aggravated by constant power cuts in an apparent collective punishment of the city's population. The Mission urges all interested parties to immediately end power cuts and to immediately restore the flow of gas". (ANSAmed). Lee Enterprises, parent company of The Lincoln Journal Star and newspapers and websites in 76 other markets, announced Monday that it has launched a local marketing grant program that offers matching funds to businesses impacted by the COVID-19 virus. For 130 years, our company has partnered with local businesses to deliver their message to the people they serve, both in times of great prosperity and in times of great challenge, said Ray Farris, Lee operating vice president and vice president of advertising. While COVID-19 has created obvious difficulties for all of us, the ability of businesses to market to their customers remains essential to their sustainability and recovery. Our companys greatest assets, by far, are the local communities we serve, and were firmly committed to supporting them through this grant program. Lee Vice President of Local Advertising Joe Battistoni said the program will be available to locally owned and operated businesses impacted by COVID-19 and will provide matching advertising credits for use in Lee print and digital publications. Chandigarh, April 21 : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, here on Tuesday, demanded Rs 3,000 crore as interim compensation for April owing to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as release of the Rs 4,400 crore pending goods and services tax (GST) arrears. In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Chief Minister also urged early release of Punjab's GST arrears for four months to help the state overcome resource constraint. Citing the lockdown that has substantial fiscal consequences for states, Singh said the central government should compensate Punjab for loss of revenue due to coronavirus. Stating that the Rs 3,000 crore for April is an estimate, he said, "Detailed assessment of loss and requirement of funds for relief and rehabilitation will be submitted in due course". However, he said the Centre should provide interim assistance to not let the fight against Covid-19 weaken in any way. The Chief Minister requested the Home Minister for early action, while assuring him of the state's full support in the Centre's efforts to overcome the crisis by effectively managing and containing the virus. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Korea's top health official has warned that it could take a long time to end the coronavirus epidemic. Jeong Eun-kyeong, the chief of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday that the coronavirus epidemic will "ebb and flow repeatedly and possibly surge again when winter comes and conditions become ripe for viruses to thrive." Many experts have warned against a second surge in infections. "Not much is known about immunity following infection, so this could become a drawn-out battle," she warned. "There is a possibility of the epidemic continuing for a year, longer-term or several years." On Monday nine new cases were reported, bringing the total number of infections to 10,683. Seoul saw no new infections on Sunday for the first time in 57 days, but had two new cases the following day. Minister urged Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to screen all the journalists in Karnataka. (PTI Photo) Bengaluru: Alarmed by reports that 53 media persons have contracted coronavirus in Maharashtra, a Minister on Tuesday urged Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to screen all the journalists in Karnataka. During the regular Covid-19 related briefing on Monday, a reporter had raised the issue of 53 journalists in the neighbouring state testing positive for the disease, with Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar. In Maharashtra, out of the 171 scribes examined medically, 53 were found to have the viral infection. In his letter to the CM, Kumar said a similar test should be carried on the journalists in Karnataka. "The journalists wanted a similar kind of screening to be carried out on them. Therefore, please direct the health and the information department immediately to conduct the screening of journalists who are in contact with public," Kumar said. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to bid farewell to a promising young phone whose life was taken from us far too soon. The Pixel 4a was seen as being one of the most promising, exciting new Android phones of the coming year, thanks to the combination of affordable price and exceptional user experience it was believed to possess. But sadly, we may never know for sure, as the Pixel 4a is evidently now dead before it even arrived. Excuse me whilst I blow my snoot. Jeepers creepers, what a senseless waste of digital life. That's the takeaway you might've been left with after reading the internet's interpretation of last week's iPhone SE launch, anyway. But I'm here to tell you that the whole "iPhone SE killed the Pixel 4a" narrative is a bunch of sensational ballyhoo, and you'd be well-advised to disregard that entire argument and put your eulogy on hold. We'll get to why in a moment. First, the iPhone SE, in case you've been hunkering down in a foam-filled bunker with your ears plugged for the past several days, is Apple's magical and revolutionary new $400 phone that looks vaguely like it came out in 2009. Appearances aside, the phone has some impressive internals most notably the same A13 Bionic Super-Duper-Magic-Awesome-Work-of-Art processor that's present in the high-end iPhone 11 and it's selling for a mere 399 clams. Apple The alleged murderer, as seen in an early booking photo. That sort of pricing is practically unheard of for a company that hawks a $700 set of wheels for its $6,000 computer with nary a wink nor nudge involved, and there's certainly something to be said for its sudden presence in the Apple gallery. So, yes: The iPhone SE will undoubtedly be a welcome addition for the iPhone-adoring crowd no question there. But whatever you want to say about the device itself and its appeal for the Apple faithful, it's hard not to cringe from the parade of headlines trying to tie the phone's arrival to the alleged "death" of Google's upcoming midrange device the aforementioned Pixel 4a we were prematurely mourning a moment ago. [Get more level-headed knowledge in your inbox with JR's Android Intelligence newsletter. Tips, insights, and other tasty treats await!] Maybe you've seen some of em headlines like: "The iPhone SE 2020 basically just killed the Pixel 4a and other value flagships" "The new iPhone SE just made the Pixel 4a irrelevant" And "Holy hellfire, I'm ditching Android to make passionate love to the new iPhone forever!" All right, so I made that last one up. But the other two were real, and there are plenty more just like 'em. In their quest to tidily frame everything as a dramatic head-to-head, only-one-can-survive-style battle, these stories gloss over a couple key points first and foremost the fact that Android phones and iPhones really aren't competing directly with each other all that often anymore. Why? It's simple: Despite what the iPhone SE's exterior might suggest, this isn't 2009, when gadget-seekers were still figuring out which platform they preferred and looking across an entire store of possibilities for their next phone purchase. Nope nowadays, the vast majority of phone shoppers are firmly committed to one platform or another. It's in part an effect of human nature and our tendency to instinctively veer toward the familiar, but it's also in part a result of the very real lock-in effect all of these companies create. Apple probably does it the most, with its you-can-only-use-'em-here services like iMessage and Facetime and its endless array of compatible-only-with-iPhone accessories, but the same thing happens wherever you roam: You have all the apps you've downloaded and in some cases paid for on your platform, and you have the setup and the services you know and like to use. Dropping all of that to change over to a whole new environment is a massive undertaking (a pain in the patootie, to use the technical term) and a huge investment, sometimes in dollars but always in time and mental energy. Most of us have no real desire or need to expend that, no matter which side of the virtual fence we reside on. And this isn't just anecdotal, either: There's tons of data out there to support it. Some steamin' fresh research from the statistic-seeking crew at Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, for instance, finds that as of last month, both Android and iOS had operating system loyalty rates the percentage of people who were committed to each platform and expressing no intention of making a switch of roughly 90%. Ninety percent! And it wasn't just in March, either. As the agency explains it: For the past four or so years, around 90% of new mobile phone activations stayed with the buyers previous operating system. Despite Apples efforts to attract Android users to iOS, and Android handset manufacturers similar efforts to attract iPhone customers, operating system usage is among the stickiest of all consumer affinities. Prefer visuals? Here's that same sticky data in shiny chart form: So there we have it, clear as day: Google isn't so much competing with Apple as it is competing with the likes of Samsung and other Android device-makers to win over potential phone buyers. The Apple to Android comparison is, as usual, apples and oranges; the primary competition for buying dollars actually happens within each respective platform (and thus mostly just among Apple itself, with one iPhone model vs. another, on the iOS side). "But wait, Mr. Fancy-Fingers Writer-Man!" you might be thinking. (And I appreciate the nickname, by the way. My fingers are quite fancy, in addition to being slightly sticky from that chart.) "Isn't there a certain percentage of people who are still buying smartphones for the first time?" And you know, Juniper, you make a valid point. I knew I hocus-pocused you to this page for a reason. But, well, two things: First, first-time phone buyers are a relative minority in 2020, especially here in these (allegedly) United States. As the gang from CIRP puts it: "U.S. operating system market shares have varied slightly in the past few years but have remained remarkably stable." Or as this chart from Statista visualizes, the new growth just isn't enough to move the needle by much: Second, the type of person just buying a smartphone for the first time almost certainly isn't focusing on a phone's specs and technical prowess the factors most of the "Pixel 4a murder" articles seem to revolve around. Heck, I think we can safely say the type of person buying a midrange phone in general isn't likely to be the sort of creature who obsesses over such tech-centric minutia; anyone who's super-worried about what generation of processor their phone is packin' or poring over side-by-side spec comparisons whilst munching their morning oats is bound to be buying a top-of-the-line product, anyway. (Side note: There's a certain satisfying irony to the fact that the "But the specs!" argument has now flipped around to a total inverse of its traditional positioning. I think we can all take a moment to sit back and appreciate the amusement in that.) Ultimately, what we can say is this: It's wonderful for iPhone users to have what appears to be a relatively low-compromise, affordable option in their ecosystem after all these years. (Remember, no one's actually used the new iPhone SE yet nor the Pixel 4a, for that matter so everything we're discussing in terms of experience is purely hypothetical and based on expectations.) But huge swaths of Android users suddenly dumping their devices and running into Apple's arms as a result of an iOS phone with a big honkin' Home button popping up at a reasonable price? Yeah probably not gonna happen. The more grounded reality here is that Google and other Android device-makers have likely inspired Apple to step up its efforts in the midrange phone market as a result of their success. And I'm not presenting that in a playground-level, "Look who did it first!" sort of way; at the end of the day, as land-roaming mammals who purchase and use these cellular telephone apparati, such brag-claiming distinctions have no practical meaning. It's like asking which company came up with a specific feature or style of interaction first; in both directions, a certain level of copying is an inevitable part of evolution, and the details are eventually little more than hollow trivia. And guess what? No matter who did what first, the real winners are almost always us the two-footed potatoes who reap the rewards of all these companies constantly trying to one-up each other with their wares. So let's stop the funeral march for the moment and let's stop the sensational silliness. Everything doesn't have to be reduced down to a painfully forced this-gadget-kills-that-gadget race. There's room for more than one stallion in this stable, and we as the spectators only stand to benefit from the competition. That one-or-the-other, gadget-murder-must-occur positioning does make for a punchy headline, though. There's no denying that. Sign up for my weekly newsletter to get more practical tips, personal recommendations, and plain-English perspective on the news that matters. [Android Intelligence videos at Computerworld] Mumbai, April 21 : "Panipat" actor Sahil Salathia got infected with chicken pox earlier this month under self-isolation, but he says he has almost recovered now. "I thank my stars that I didn't pass it to anyone. I have almost recovered from it. There is a little bit of strength recovery left," said Sahil. The actor insists he will not let the illness drive him into depression. "I am reading a lot these days. I am currently reading 'The Magic Of Thinking Big' by David J. Schwartz and 'You Can Win' by Shiv Khera. These are great books. I highly recommend them and they are giving me a lot of perspective," he said. Sahil, who had made his acting debut with the TV series "Everest", is also watching a lot of content online. "I just got done with 'Money Heist' and I think it's an incredible show with brilliant performances. The world is catching up in terms of content," he said and urged everyone to stay indoors and safe and practice social distancing. Massive forest fires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone broke out on April 4 before being put out on April 14 and then re-erupting on April 16. Over 2,300 firemen and 460 vehicles are involved in tackling wildfires in Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions where the situation is gradually normalizing, says Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal. "The situation with the fire liquidation in Ukraine is gradually normalizing. More than 2,300 people and more than 460 vehicles have been involved in extinguishing fires in the Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions. Three fire hotbeds have been restrained in Zhytomyr region over the past two days. Now rescuers are helping forestry workers to extinguish individual hotspots of smoldering grass flooring, hemp, and wood," PM reported via his Telegram channel. "I'd like to emphasize that there is no threat to critical facilities within the Exclusion Zone," Shmyhal said, expressing his gratitude for the emergency response team's coordinated work. In hard-to-reach areas, engineering equipment is being involved to clear the terrain to ensure access of firefighting equipment, says the Emergency Service. The so-called Shelter (the arc covering the reactor affected in the Chornobyl nuclear disaster of 1986), the spent nuclear fuel storage facility, and other facilities within the exclusion zone operate as usual," the report notes, adding that radiation levels in the City of Kyiv, Kyiv region, and the exclusion zone remain within the norm. Read alsoUkraine's wildfires could be planned sabotage Interior Ministry As UNIAN reported earlier, massive forest fires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone broke out on April 4 before being put out on April 14. However, on April 16, forest fires erupted again. Dozens of hectares of forest have burned down. Today, three wildfire hotbeds remain in the Chornobyl zone. More than 1,300 firemen, 296 vehicles, and three firefighting helicopters are battling the fire. Also on April 4, forest fires stroke the neighboring Zhytomyr region, spreading to settlements where dozens of homes were devastated in the blaze. Now more than a thousand people are involved in putting out fires in the territory of two local forestries. Zhytomyr PD launched a number of criminal proceedings into the nature of large-scale fires in local forests. April 20, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said that the National Guard had started an anti-sabotage operation across vast forest areas in the region. PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-21 05:01:02 STRONG SALES GROWTH IN FIRST QUARTER SLOWER IN MARCH DUE TO COVID-19 Sales increase of 15.4% in local currencies to CHF 1,813.6 million (+10.3% in CHF) Negative currency effect of 5.1% Acquisition of Adeplast (Romania) concluded, new production facility in Sarnen (Switzerland) comes on stream Outlook for 2020: forecast for 2020 not yet possible due to ongoing developments related to COVID-19 Confirmation of 2023 strategic targets for sustainable, profitable growth Thanks to a good start to the 2020 business year, Sika has continued its growth trajectory, reporting a new sales record of CHF 1,813.6 million in the first quarter. This equates to an increase of 15.4% in local currencies. A negative currency effect of 5.1% led to sales growth in Swiss francs of 10.3%, with an acquisition effect of 16.7%. Organic growth was thus slightly negative in the first quarter, at 1.3% This reflects the first repercussions on business of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul Schuler, Chief Executive Officer: "Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Sika has been quick to react in all markets affected, implementing the necessary measures swiftly and rigorously. This has been done with a view to safeguarding the health of employees, maintaining business activity, and adapting to the new market conditions through targeted cost management. The crisis will affect Sika, too, but thanks to our proximity to customers in all countries we are able to move fast in order to grasp opportunities and thus capture further market share. I want to thank all of our employees for their great dedication at this difficult time." SLOWER GROWTH IN MARCH IN ALL REGIONS As the coronavirus pandemic gained ground in January 2020, first in China and then in the rest of Asia, followed by the EMEA region and the Americas region, from mid-March around 30 countries where Sika is present through subsidiaries and production sites found themselves in lockdown. The extent of the lockdown varies from country to country. Since the situation is changing constantly, Sika is adapting measures specifically in line with the new circumstances. In the first quarter of 2020, the EMEA region recorded a sales increase in local currency of 13.3% (previous year: 8.2%). Business developed well in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (the "DACH"area), the Nordic countries, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. The impact of the pandemic made itself felt on the entire EMEA region from mid-March, with the first countries entering the lockdown phase. The acquisition of Adeplast (Romania) was concluded at the end of March. In addition, in the first quarter Sika also brought into operation in Sarnen, Switzerland, a new production facility for the manufacture of SikaProof structural waterproofing membrane. The Americas region recorded growth in local currencies of 23.0% (previous year: 4.8%). Business was strong in the region until mid-March. The United States and Canada in particular saw double-digit growth rates, and many countries in Latin America recovered from the political tensions of the previous months. However, with the lockdown, growth momentum came to an abrupt halt in several Latin American markets from March 20. Sales in local currencies in the Asia/Pacific region increased by 29.8% (previous year: 2.8%), a figure which includes a significant acquisition effect from the Parex takeover (39.5%). China, where the COVID-19 outbreak started, was in lockdown from mid-January to March. Sika was able to restart business activities in the country from early March, with all factories recommencing production on a reduced scale. Australia, Japan, and Korea were less affected by the pandemic in economic terms, and construction activity continued in most areas with some restrictions. The automotive industry reported a decline of -25% in production figures in the first quarter. Despite the difficult environment, Sika was able to capture increased market share. The Global Business segment posted negative growth in local currencies of 7.1% (previous year: 13.3%). Most car manufacturers in Europe and North America halted production from mid-March, just as their Chinese counterparts were restarting their production operations. Despite the coronavirus-related forecasted decline in automotive sales, Sika expects the megatrends in modern auto manufacturing to generate growth stimuli in the long term, with electro-mobility and lightweight construction also dominating in future. MEASURES IN THE CURRENT SITUTATION From the outset, the central focus has been the health of employees, customers, and suppliers. Sika was able to react swiftly, with its local management teams developing and implementing targeted operational measures for the national subsidiaries. Cash management is a key issue. Non-business-critical investment has been postponed and cost structures have been adapted, without jeopardizing long-term growth. Close attention is paid to working capital management. Sika has a solid balance sheet and kicked off the 2020 business year with a high cash holding of CHF 995 million. On top of this, the Group has CHF 1.25 billion in credit lines. OUTLOOK Sika confirms its strategic targets 2023. The organization will continue to be aligned for continued long-term success and profitable growth. By targeting six strategic pillars market penetration, innovation, operational efficiency, acquisitions, strong corporate values, and sustainability Sika is seeking to grow by 68% a year in local currencies by 2023. It is aiming for a higher EBIT margin of 1518% from 2021 onward. Projects in the areas of operations, logistics, procurement and product formulation should result in an annual improvement in operating costs equivalent to 0.5% of sales. Given the volatility of the current backdrop, it is not possible to issue any concrete forecast as regards the course of business for full-year 2020. Much will depend on when individual large countries exit lockdown and how the further spread of the virus can be contained over the year. Although Sika will not be able to escape a global recession entirely unscathed, it is convinced that it will be able to continue to further improve its position thanks to the measures taken and its proximity to the market, emerging from the current situation strengthened as a company. NET SALES IN THE FIRST THREE MONTHS OF 2020 In CHF mn 1/1/2019 -3/31/2019 1/1/2020 -3/31/2020 Year-on-year change (+/- in %) In CHF In local currencies1 Currency effect Acquisition effect2 Organic growth3 By region EMEA 723.8 786.4 8.6 13.3 -4.7 13.3 0.0 Americas 412.5 480.8 16.6 23.0 -6.4 17.7 5.3 Asia/Pacific 266.2 332.7 25.0 29.8 -4.8 39.5 -9.7 Global Business 242.3 213.7 -11.8 -7.1 -4.7 0.0 -7.1 Net sales 1,664.8 1,813.6 10.3 15.4 -5.1 16.7 -1.3 Products for the construction industry 1,225.8 1,428.9 16.6 21.7 -5.1 22.4 -0.7 Products for industrial manufacturing 419.0 384.7 -8.2 -3.2 -5.0 0.0 -3.2 (1) Growth in local currencies including acquisitions. (2) Sales contribution by acquired companies without considering the growth after business combination. Sales growth of the acquired businesses since initial consolidation is included in organic growth. (3) Growth adjusted for acquisition and currency impact. Sales growth of the acquired businesses since initial consolidation is included in organic growth. FINANCIAL CALENDAR Half-Year Report 2020 Thursday, July 23, 2020 Results first nine months 2020 Thursday, October 22, 2020 Net sales 2020 Tuesday, January 12, 2021 Media conference/analyst presentation on 2020 full-year results Friday, February 19, 2021 Net sales first quarter 2021 Tuesday, April 20, 2021 53rd Annual General Meeting Tuesday, April 20, 2021 Telephone conference on April 21, 2020, at 9:30 AM (CET) A telephone conference will take place today in connection with publication of the first quarter results. Please dial in 10 to 15 minutes prior to the start of the event +41 58 310 5000 (Europe, Asia) +1 631 570 5613 (North America, Latin America) +44 207 107 0613 (UK) An operator will then connect you with Paul Schuler (CEO), Adrian Widmer (CFO), and Dominik Slappnig (Head of Corporate Communications & IR). You will also be able to find a recording of the telephone conference on the Sika website, in the "Investors" section. CONTACT Dominik Slappnig Corporate Communications & Investor Relations +41 58 436 68 21 slappnig.dominik@ch.sika.com SIKA CORPORATE PROFILE Sika is a specialty chemicals company with a leading position in the development and production of systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing, and protecting in the building sector and motor vehicle industry. Sika has subsidiaries in 100 countries around the world and manufactures in over 300 factories. Its more than 25,000 employees generated annual sales of CHF 8.1 billion in 2019. At the end of 2019, Sika won the Swiss Technology Award for an innovative new adhesive technology. The media release can be downloaded from the following link: Media Release KIGALI The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that was due to take place in Rwanda in June has been postponed, the Commonwealth Secretariat said on Tuesday. The event, which is held in different Commonwealth member countries every two years, would have brought together leaders from the 54 nations including Uganda. The summit would also host the Prime Minister of UK Boris Johnson and the Queens representative, Prince Charles. Both Prince Charles ams PM Johnson are battling coronavirus. But the Commonwealth Secretariat announced that the 26th CHOGM would be delayed because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It will still be held in Kigali, Rwanda, at a time to be announced in due course. Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Scotland said: The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the course of our modern history. Lives have been lost, economies are shrinking, and livelihoods have been shattered. It is difficult to predict what the new normal will look like. We must be mindful of the risks large meetings pose to all. The current circumstances require heroic decisions. She added: I too warmly look forward to reuniting with the Commonwealth family, face to face, in the beautiful country of Rwanda. It is not the first time CHOGM has been rescheduled. The 25th meeting set for the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu in 2017 was postponed after the country was devastated by Cyclone Pam in 2015. CHOGM 2020 was billed to become Rwandas largest summit after the 2018 African Union Heads of State Summita landmark for the government following its heavy investment and focus on conference tourism. The suspension of CHOGM 2020 also means that government will put on hold the launch of Kigali International Finance Centre (K-IFC), which was planned to be unveiled during the summit as a national special purpose vehicle to attract financial resources. Related When Doreen Smith listed her house in Castle Rock, CO, in February, the coronavirus was on her radar, but didn't seem like a serious problem at the time. "COVID-19 was on my mind because I teach high school social studies, and we'd discuss it when talking about current events," says Smith. "But I certainly didn't think that this would be something to have to consider when selling my home." When Smith was about to list her home, she asked her real estate agent if she should be worried about selling because it was an election year. Her agent assured her that January 2020 had been a terrific month for home sales. So Smith decided to move ahead and put her house on the market on Feb. 27. "It was supposed to be a gorgeous, sunny weekend, so we put the 'For Sale' sign in my yard on Wednesday to be ready for my home to hit the MLS on Thursday," Smith recalls. "My agent immediately started getting calls, including one on Wednesday night. I had five showings on Thursday, and I got three offers Friday morning." Smith decided to sell to a couple who lived in California. "When I took their offer, it came with the contingency that they must be able to sell their home in order to buy mine," Smith says. "I accepted the contingency because their house was already under contract, through inspection, and had a closing date of March 23." So Smith planned to move out on that same day, and move in temporarily with her sister in nearby Littleton, CO, while shopping for a condo. (Both of her boys were out of the house, so she was downsizing.) All went according to schedule at first. However, in the ensuing weeks as news (and cases) of COVID-19 swept the nation, Smith saw much of what she knew about her home closing change. Here's how she survived closing a home sale during this pandemicand what she learned in the process. Why the coronavirus can delay closings On March 23the day of her scheduled closing and moveSmith got a call from her agent telling her there was a potential snag. "Around 9:10 a.m. I got a text from my real estate agent: 'Hi! Are you home?' I texted 'Yes! Movers are here, hope this is still a go?' with a nervous emoji. Two seconds later I got a call," says Smith. "My buyer's buyer in California had a tax issue with their property and needed some form from the IRS. The IRS said due to the coronavirus, they were delayed in response times, and were not able to get the letter in time for their scheduled Monday closing." This snafu led to Smith and her buyer amending their contract to extend the closing by two weeks, and making it official with an electronic signature. So now she was set to close on April 7, but still moving on March 23. Although Smith's move went smoothly, more paperwork delays caused her closing to hit another snag, bumping her closing date to April 10. But the paperwork was procured faster than planned, and the closing date moved again, to April 8. "Apparently my buyers were really frustrated, as they were homeless and all of their stuff was on a moving truck with no house," says Smith. "At this point I was just trying not to freak out." Inside a 'drive-through' closing When closing day finally arrived on April 8, Smith braced for more changesand they arrived right on schedule. For instance, while most home closings involve all parties gathering to sign paperwork, the coronavirus had upended this tradition, too. "Because of the crisis, real estate agents were not supposed to attend closings in order to minimize exposure to all parties," says Smith. Furthermore, "the governor of Colorado had also passed a law saying that virtual closings were acceptable at this time. But my lender, like many, said no way. Lenders were trying to be careful about who they loaned money to." So, rather than conduct a virtual closing, Smith ended up doing the next best thing: a "drive-through closing." She was told to drive to the title company's parking lot, then call the title agent inside, who popped out of her office building wearing a mask and walked toward Smith's car. Smith (who was wearing a bandana mask) cracked her car window to hand her ID to the title agent. After verifying Smith's ID, the title agent handed Smith a clipboard with the paperwork and a blue pen in a plastic bag. The title agent told Smith to take her time and sign the highlighted sections of the paperwork. If Smith had any questions, she was urged to call her real estate agent, who was also keeping an eye on her phone in case there were any issues. "It took me about 10 minutes to sign everything," Smith says. "Then the title agent came back and reviewed everything while I remained in my car, and while we chatted about how strange this all was. The agent admitted they'd only been doing 'drive-through' closings for a week. The reason the title company required someone to show up in person was they wanted the seller's account information of where they'd wire the money delivered in personI assume that's to avoid mistakes for the transfer of such a large amount." Despite this strange setting, the money was immediately wired to Smith and her sale was finally finished. Now settled in at her sister's home, Smith is going to hold off on looking for a condo for now. "I asked my real estate agent when we could start hunting; she said maybe June," says Smith. "But I am getting my mortgage pre-approval paperwork completed this week, so I am ready to buy when we are up and running again." The post 'I Closed On My Home Sale During the Coronavirus Crisis' appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy recently held training sessions for aircraft carrier-based fighter jets and helicopters in the Bohai Bay area, and experts said on Monday the training was crucial in boosting the combat capability of aircraft carriers, including China's second one, the recently commissioned Shandong. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy recently held training sessions for aircraft carrier-based fighter jets and helicopters in the Bohai Bay area, and experts said on Monday the training was crucial in boosting the combat capability of aircraft carriers, including China's second one, the recently commissioned Shandong. A J-15 takes off from the Liaoning PhotoA J-15 takes off from the Liaoning Photo (Picture source: PLA) As the PLA makes routine and concrete steps in military development as planned, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has broken out in the military of the island of Taiwan in addition to the US military in the Asia-Pacific region. J-15 aircraft carrier-based fighter jets recently conducted a buddy refuelling exercise in the Bohai Bay, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Sunday. Buddy refuelling means that a J-15 equipped with a refuelling pod, instead of a dedicated aerial tanker that cannot operate on an aircraft carrier, feeds other J-15s, enabling them to extend endurance in the air and carry more weapons and less fuel when taking off from the carrier, which is an often-used method also by foreign navies. After finishing buddy refuelling, the J-15s were split into two teams and conducted mock battles of dogfights, aerial interceptions, and sea attacks, CCTV reported, noting that the fighter jets then engaged in night sorties. Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie told the Global Times on Monday that fighter jets are the key weapons of an aircraft carrier, and their combat capabilities are crucial to the aircraft carrier task group, so it is important to enhance their training level. With the commissioning of the Shandong, China's second aircraft carrier, in December 2019, more carrier-based fighter jets need to be built and more pilots trained, and these training courses will generate and boost their combat capability, Li said. China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, has been in the South China Sea for exercises after it sailed through the Miyako Strait on April 10. This could suggest that the recent fighter jet training in the Bohai Bay was meant for the Shandong, Li said. Aircraft carriers are not the only Chinese naval units holding exercises. The PLA Eastern Theater Command recently conducted live-fire drills in the East China Sea featuring a group of landing ships, according to a statement the PLA East China Sea Fleet released on Sunday. The exercises came at a time when the COVID-19 reportedly hit four US aircraft carriers including two in the Asia-Pacific region and the military on the island of Taiwan. Media on the Taiwan island claimed the COVID-19 may give the PLA a good chance to reunify Taiwan by force. Chinese mainland analysts said that the PLA exercises are routine and are aimed at honing their own capabilities, and the PLA has no intention of taking advantage of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Taiwan secessionists should always fear the PLA, not just during the pandemic because the PLA is always determined and capable of safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, analysts said. Sen. Michael Bennet thinks we should wait around for a future committee to re-open the economy. Thanks, but no thanks. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Mentor bridal shop is among businesses across the country that on Monday filed federal lawsuits seeking class-action status seeking to force insurance companies to cover claims due to coronavirus-related. Lawyers representing the businesses, including Bridal Expressions on Mentor Avenue, filed suit against Owners Insurance in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Five other companies -- four restaurants and a dentist -- also filed lawsuits in New York, Wisconsin, California, Oregon and Texas. Judge Solomon Oliver will preside over the case in Cleveland. Each of the lawsuits claims that the businesses bought special property insurance coverage to cover disruptions that are outside of the owners control, according to a news release announcing the lawsuit. The insurance policy excluded lost business income due to communicable diseases from its liability coverage, but the suit says that the losses should be covered under special property insurance policy because it does not explicitly exclude loss of income caused by viruses. The businesses filed claims seeking relief after governors ordered nonessential businesses to close, elective surgeries to cease, and restaurants to move to carry-out only operations as the virus spread across the country. The insurance companies denied the claims on a broad and uniform basis, the suits claim. Countless businesses across the United States are pinning their hopes of reopening and rehiring laid-off or furloughed employees on proceeds from insurance, Timothy Burns, a partner at the Wisconsin-based Burns Bowen and Bair law firm which is among more than 10 lawyers collectively representing the companies, said in a news release. Burns accused the insurance companies of running a large-scale rigged carnival game where no matter the scenario, the customer always loses. A representative from Owners Insurance could not be immediately reached for comment. A bill pending in the Ohio House of Representatives would force insurance companies to cover losses due to COVID-19-related closings. Rep. Jeffrey Crossman, a Parma Democrat, introduced the bill on March 24. The Republican-dominated legislature has yet to vote on the proposal. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has announced that the state will begin easing stay-at-home restrictions on May 1 and allow some businesses to reopen as long as they follow social distancing and hygiene guidelines. Read more coronavirus stories Lakewood couple sticks to social-distancing rules with memorable front-porch wedding Mapping Ohios 12,919 coronavirus cases, updates and trends Federal judge rules against bridal shops challenge to Ohio health order closing nonessential businesses Ohio Health Department responds to libertarian lawsuit over nonessential business closures Ohio will publicly release hospital-level data on coronavirus infections of health care workers A palliative care nurse has admitted their job is 'really, really hard' as a result of the coronavirus pandemic because they're unable to be tactile with their patients. Jenna Norris, of Stratford-upon-Avon, works in end of life care, offering medical and emotional support, at the Shakespeare Hospice. She makes twice daily visits to her patients in the community, and told how there is currently a higher than normal demand for palliative care. While her team is 'coping well', Jenna said they are struggling with the ban on physical contact and are forced to have difficult conversations through a protective mask and visor. Scroll down for video Jenna Norris, of Stratford-upon-Avon, works in end of life care, offering medical and emotional support, at the Shakespeare Hospice Nurses who are making home visits are required to wear aprons, gloves, a mask and a visor as protection from Covid-19. Jenna told Sky News: 'We're normally very tactile with our patients and their families. We use touch a lot as a method of comfort... giving someone a hug or holding their hand. 'Not being able to do that at the moment is really, really hard. Also our job involves a lot of difficult conversations, and having to have those conversations through a mask or a visor is really tough and just feels really unnatural. 'It feels like it's just a barrier between our communication that we're not used to and it feels really impersonal.' Jenna said she enjoys her job because she is passionate about end of life care and told how everyone has 'really pulled together' at the hospice. While her team is 'coping well', Jenna said they are struggling with the ban on physical contact and are forced to have difficult conversations through a mask and visor She also paid tribute to her NHS colleagues in the community who are helping to ensure that everyone who is requiring end of life care at home gets what they need. 'We're very good at supporting each other and reflecting on things, and that's needed even more at the moment,' Jenna added. Each one of Britain's hospices serves a catchment area; patients will be referred by their oncologist and palliative-care team to their local facility. Currently, only a third of the funding for hospices comes from the NHS. The rest is raised via fundraising, charity shops and donations. Jenna paid tribute to her NHS colleagues in the community who are helping to ensure that everyone who is requiring end of life care at home gets what they need In August last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to invest 25million in palliative care across the UK. Earlier this month the charity Sue Ryder, which runs four neurological rehabilitation centres and seven hospices across the UK as well as a bereavement service for 25,000 people a month, warned it may have to close its 11 hospices and rehabilitation centres after taking a huge hit from the coronavirus crisis. It launched an extraordinary appeal to save its end-of-life services for thousands of families after it was forced to shut its 450 shops and cancel fundraising events. Union bosses have set out a list of five conditions they claim must be observed to protect teachers if schools are to re-open amid the coronavirus pandemic. Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) warned that staff concerns must be 'fully addressed' before teachers would be willing to come back. In a letter to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, Dr Roach demands personal protective equipment (PPE) for all staff, anti-viral cleaning measures and guidelines on how social distancing would be enforced in schools. He also says teachers will not return to their jobs unless the Government affords them the same employment rights as other key workers and acknowledges the workforce is depleted because many are self-isolating, reports the Daily Telegraph. Dr Patrick Roach (pictured), general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) warned that staff concerns must be 'fully addressed' before teachers would be willing to come back Teachers have demanded access to PPE and anti-viral cleaning equipment before they go back to work and schools re-open. File image used Dr Roach told the newspaper: 'The NASUWT would not expect teachers to be asked to undertake cleaning tasks or to be expected to undertake them to the necessary standards to protect the health of pupils and the workforce.' The Department for Education has already said teachers 'do not need PPE' and that their focus should be on 'social distancing, handwashing, hygiene measures and cleaning surfaces' to stop the virus spreading when they return. The Government has been repeatedly slammed for its lack of PPE provision for frontline medical staff, with carers, supermarket cashiers and transport drivers also expressing concerns. Although the Education Secretary has refused to commit to a timeline on schools re-opening, ministers are under pressure to ease parents' concerns. But Dr Roach and and Mr Williamson have both stressed that schools will not re-open until other lockdown measures have been eased. When children are allowed back in the classroom, questions are being raised about how young children, especially those with special educational needs (SEN) will be able to follow social distancing guidelines. Children at a school in Demark are pictured observing social distancing by having their desks two metres apart last week, amid concerns in the UK that pupils would struggle with the rules Last week members of the National Education Union (NEU) wrote to the Prime Minister to outline similar concerns. Maddie Ross, 24, a teacher at a primary school in Wolverhampton, said all teachers would be at risk if schools re-opened too early. Miss Ross, from West Yorkshire, said: 'It should be secondary school children that go back before primary, surely, because primary school children are going to be a lot more difficult to control, in terms of if we still need to keep two metres apart. 'There's no way you can get primary school children to do that, they'd be touching each other within the first few seconds of walking through the gate.' Bryony Baynes, 58, head teacher at Kempsey Primary School in Worcester, agreed that social distancing is 'pretty much impossible' with young children. Mrs Baynes, from Bredon in Worcestershire, said: 'At the moment, staff are very willing to come in and have been brilliant so far. 'But if the Government says that schools are to open while lockdown is still in place, that implies that the virus isn't under control and that means I'm asking my staff to put themselves at even greater risk.' Jackie Schneider, a part-time music teacher at a primary school in the London borough of Merton, said an early return to schools 'could undo all the good work people have done by locking down'. Although the Education Secretary has refused to commit to a timeline on schools re-opening, ministers are under pressure to ease parents' concerns. File image of homeschooling used Ms Schneider, 56, who has taught at her school for 30 years, said: 'I would be happy to go back if that's what the science says, but I would not be happy to be bounced back for the needs of industry. 'When parents wave their kids goodbye every morning and send their kids to me, I want to be able to look the parent in the eye and say, I have done everything I can to keep your child safe.' The Government has this week announced new measures to support children learning from home during lockdown. With fears the most disadvantaged could fall behind, free laptops and tablets are being given to children whose families are on lower incomes. If youngsters' homes are not already kitted out with mobile or broadband internet they are being offered 4G routers free of charge. A spokesperson from the Department for Education said: 'Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has not set a date for schools reopening' 'They will remain closed, except for children of critical workers and the most vulnerable children, until the scientific advice changes and we have met the five tests set out by Government to beat this virus. 'We will work in close consultation with the sector to consider how best to reopen schools, nurseries and colleges when the time is right so that parents, teachers and children have sufficient notice to plan and prepare.' Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - GMV Minerals Inc. (TSXV: GMV) (the "Company" or "GMV") is pleased to report that its non-brokered private placement announced on April 14, 2020 has closed with the issuance of 11,853,750 Units at a price of $0.08 for gross proceeds of $948,300 with all securities issued having a four-month hold period which expires on August 22, 2020. One "related party" to the Company (as defined in Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") participated, subscribing for 187,500 Common Shares for proceeds to the Company of $15,000 and representing approximately 1.5% of the funds raised. Participation by such related party in the Financing constitutes a related party transaction as defined under MI 61-101. Since the Common Shares acquired by the related party is under $2.5M, the issuance of securities is exempt from the formal valuation requirements of Section 5.4 of MI 61-101 pursuant to Subsection 5.5(c) of MI 61-101 and exempt from the minority approval requirements of Section 5.6 of MI 61-101 pursuant to Subsection 5.7(b) of MI 61-101. As previously announced, each Unit in this offering consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (each a "Common Share") and one half of a share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole warrant entitles the Unit holder to purchase one (1) additional GMV common share at a price of $0.16 per share at any time within 18 months of the closing. The Company will pay an aggregate of $3,500 in cash and issue 43,750 Finders Warrants in connection with this offering. Each Finder's Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one common share of the Company at $0.16 per share for 18 months from the date of closing. The Finder's Warrants are issued on the same terms and conditions as the private placement Warrants. The warrants will also include an acceleration clause, whereby if the trading price of the issuer's shares on the TSX Venture Exchange for 10 consecutive trading days (the premium trading days) exceeds $0.25 per share during the exercise period, the expiry time of the warrants shall be accelerated such that the expiry time will be 30 calendar days. This 30-day period will commence seven calendar days after the 10th premium trading day. Story continues The net proceeds of the Offering will be used to advance exploration activities at the Company's 100% controlled Mexican Hat gold property located in S.E. Arizona as well as for general working capital. In addition, the Company wishes to announce that it has retained the services of Peak Investor Marketing Corp. ("Peak") a full-service marketing and consulting services focused on the junior mining sector. Peak is an independent arms-length entity and will assist GMV Minerals Inc. with marketing strategy and planning, corporate communications and public relations, with the goal of increasing market awareness of the company. Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company will compensate Peak $12,000 per month for the 12-month term of the Agreement. Lastly, the Company announces that subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval, it has granted incentive stock options to various directors, officers and consultants to purchase up to 1,350,000 common shares exercisable on or before April 21, 2025 at a price of $0.15 per share. About GMV Minerals Inc. GMV Minerals Inc. is a publicly traded exploration company focused on developing precious metal assets in Arizona. GMV, through its 100% owned subsidiary, has a 100% interest in a Mining Property Lease commonly referred to as the Mexican Hat project, located in Cochise County, Arizona, USA. The project was initially explored by Placer Dome (USA) in the late 1980's to early 1990's. GMV is focused on developing the asset and realizing the full mineral potential of the property through near term gold production. In mid 2018, the Company updated its inferred mineral resource to 32,876,000 tonnes grading 0.616 g/t gold at a 0.2 g/t cut-off, containing 651,000 ounces of gold. In December 2018, the Company filed on SEDAR a National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) preliminary economic assessment (PEA) technical report for the Mexican Hat Gold Project. The PEA is entitled "Mexican Hat Project, NI 43-101 Technical Report, Preliminary Economic Assessment" and is available on the company's website. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS ________________________________________ Ian Klassen, President Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information please contact: GMV Minerals Inc. Ian Klassen Tel: (604) 899-0106 Email: info@gmvminerals.com NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES - This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management of the Company regarding future events or results. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update such statements except as may be required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54683 Local community activists said Tuesday they would begin bailing defendants out of some of Texas largest county jails to protect them from dangerous conditions inside caused by the spread of the new coronavirus. In a news release, the Texas Organizing Project announced it would focus on bailing out people with low bonds in Harris County, Dallas County, Bexar County, and Fort Bend County. Harris Countys jail, with some 7,400 inmates, is the second largest county jail in the United States. People should be home with their families, said Michael Roberts, a TOP leader from Bexar County. None of these people were bailing out are eligible for the death penalty, and they shouldnt get a defacto death sentence just because they dont have the money to bail out. Everyone has a right to life, dignity and justice. On Tuesday, it was unclear how many defendants the organization might actually help get released from jail. A TOP spokeswoman said the organization has raised about $25,000. The effort began last week, in San Antonio. In some cases, they paid off bails of $10 to $25, she said. One person they bailed out died three days after his release. So far, the organization has bailed out two people in Harris County, and plans to begin similar efforts in Dallas next week, she said. RELATED: Harris County prosecutors violated defendants rights with high court request, defense attorneys say The move comes as law enforcement officials and public health experts have repeatedly clashed over how to balance the states public safety and public health. In Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Judge Lina Hidalgo have warned about the need to reduce the jails population to prevent a massive outbreak in the jail that could spread into the community and strain the countys hospitals but met with fierce opposition from Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, District Attorney Kim Ogg, Gov. Greg Abbott and his attorney general and many others. Opponents worry that the release of many inmates will endanger public safety. Now Playing: 'COVID-19 in 60': Houston coronavirus news in a minute Video: Houston Chronicle After a local magistrate cited concerns about the jails population as one reason for granting a defendant a $500 bond, prosecutors asked the states highest criminal court to raise his bond. The Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday issued a new warrant for the arrest of defendant Timothy Singleton, and set a new bond of $100,000. In that case, prosecutors argued that magistrates could not consider general concerns about public health while setting a defendants bail. Singletons attorneys argued prosecutors violated his rights with their action. TOP officials said their move came after elected officials were unable to significantly reduce populations in county jails, where most of the inmates are awaiting trial and thus are presumed innocent. Its always been inhumane that we punish people for being poor by forcing them to stay in jail while they await trial, said Brianna Brown, TOPs deputy director. Its become even more abhorrent now that we are forcing these same people to potentially catch a disease that could kill them. ATTORNEYS SEEK ACTION: Harris County lawyers association calls on judges to halt unnecessary in-person hearings Since the first cases of coronavirus came to light in the jail, more than 150 sheriffs deputies, detention officers and other employees have fallen ill. Hundreds more have had to be quarantined for possible COVID-19 exposure, according to the sheriffs office. About 180 employees have recovered and returned to work. At the same time, nearly 100 Harris County inmates have contracted COVID-19 and an additional 45 inmates are quarantined after displaying symptoms indicating they might also be sick. The situation is similar across the state, with nearly 4,000 inmates quarantined in county jails. All told, more than 200 inmates are sick with COVID-19, with another 154 waiting on test results, according to information from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. At least 158 jailers statewide are sick; another 145 are waiting on test results as well, according to the records. Harris County Chief Public Defender Alex Bunin said TOPs actions underscored the problem facing the states county jails and its bail system. The whole premise is, if you can raise money, you can get people out, he said. It further shows how ridiculous our cash bail system is. That strangers can just find someone and get them released. Acevedo said a defendants potential danger to society should determine whether he or she remains in custody.If somebody has bond pending, and someone pays for them, thats their prerogative to do that, he said. Bond shouldnt be about money, it should be about the threat posed by that person." Houston Police Officers Union Vice President Doug Griffith questioned whether the defendants TOP bails out will return for future court dates. Whats their motivation to show up to court? he asked. I hope they dont lose too much money, he continued, referring to TOP. But if they do, thats what happens when you support crooks. Chronicle reporter Dylan McGuinness contributed to this story. st.john.smith@chron.com The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. The Union health ministry on Monday said 80% of the Covid-19 patients are either asymptomatic or show mild symptoms, indicating that it is a major area of concern. On the basis of worldwide analysis, 80 per cent of the Covid-19 patients are asymptomatic or show mild symptoms. Around 15 per cent patients turn into severe cases and 5 per cent may become critical, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry, said at a daily press briefing. Follow latest updates on coronavirus here The asymptomatic patients may pass on the infection to other people, he earlier had said while stressing on maintaining social distancing in the community and infection prevention and control practices in hospital set ups. Head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar said 80 out of 100 infected people do not show any symptoms. Officials said as of now, there is no plan to further widen the testing criteria. As part its revised strategy to fight the spread of Covid-19, the government has started testing people with fever, cough and sore throat in hotspots or cluster areas and evacuees centres. Also, all hospitalised patients with severe acute respiratory illness, shortness of breath, fever and cough are being tested for Covid-19 infection. Direct and high-risk contacts of confirmed cases are also being tested once between day five and 14 of coming in his/her contact. Besides, all asymptomatic individuals who undertook international travel and developed symptoms, all symptomatic contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases and all symptomatic health care workers were being tested for the infection as per the guidelines. The apex body for biomedical research had recently revised its strategy to contain the spread of the virus more effectively and provide reliable diagnosis to all individuals meeting the inclusion criteria of Covid-19 testing. The death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 559 and the number of cases climbed to 17, 656 in the country on Monday, according to the Union health ministry. Click here for complete coronavirus coverage However, a PTI tally of figures reported by various states and union territories, as on 9.15 PM, showed 18,322 confirmed cases, 2,969 recoveries and 590 deaths. There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states. Amid the coronavirus outbreak, SpiceJet said it operated its maiden freighter flight carrying medical supplies between Delhi and Myanmar on Tuesday. While the aircraft carried "medical supplies" in its first leg, it will carry "medical equipment" on its return journey, the budget carrier said in its press release. The airline said it also conducted its maiden "cargo-on-seat international flight" from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi, carrying 15 tonnes of fresh fruits and vegetables, on Tuesday. As India has been under the coronavirus lockdown, aviation regulator DGCA has permitted airlines to use their commercial passenger aircraft along with their freighter aircraft to transport cargo. When commercial passenger aircraft are being used to transport cargo, airlines can keep items in the belly and on their seats too, following guidelines issued by the regulator regarding its weight, strength, fastening, etc. Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet, said, "We operated our first freighter flight to Myanmar today carrying medical supplies to and from Yangon." "Our cargo-on-seat operations have significantly increased from April 7 when we operated India's first cargo-on-seat flight to operating our first international cargo-on-seat flight to Abu Dhabi today, he added. India has been under lockdown since March 25 to combat the coronavirus pandemic. All domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period. More than 18,600 people have been infected and approximately 590 people have died due to COVID-19 in India till now. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CP Vietnam, the largest animal husbandry company, says that animal feed supply could run out by the end of May. Two weeks have elapsed since the working session between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and large livestock enterprises which discussed solutions to force pork prices down. A lot of measures have been put forward, including increase of imports. However, the pork price continues to increase. Livestock companies committed to lower the live pork price to VND70,000 per kilogram from April 1. However, according to Thanh Nien newspaper, the price is VND89,000 per kilogram in Hanoi and Hoa Binh. In Thai Binh, Thai Nguyen and Hung Yen, the price has hit the VND90,000 per kilogram threshold. In other localities, the prices are between VND83,000 and VND88,000. Enterprises said pork has to go through many intermediaries before reaching consumers. Besides, the input materials for husbandry, including animal feed and medicine, are insufficient because of import/export difficulties. Enterprises said pork has to go through many intermediaries before reaching consumers. Besides, the input materials for husbandry, including animal feed and medicine, are insufficient because of import/export difficulties. Nong Nghiep Vietnam newspaper quoted Vu Anh Tuan, deputy general director of CP Vietnam, as saying that the epidemic has put big difficulties for road and marine transport because of the strict epidemic control measures. Tuan said the stored input materials at CP Vietnam are just enough to maintain production until the end of May. If the epidemic doesnt decline in the time to come, it will be even more difficult to import maize, soybean cake and others. Mavin Group, an animal feed producer, said the company still has materials to maintain production for 3-6 months. However, if the epidemic lasts a long time, Mavin will have to consider alternative material sources. A large livestock and feed manufacturing enterprise has proposed that the Government and MARD apply policies to encourage the use of other animal protein sources instead of pork, such as chicken and fish. According to Grand View Research, Vietnams livestock product market would have value of $10.55 billion by 2020 and will need 25-26 million tons of animal feed. Meanwhile, domestic input materials for animal feed can satisfy only 50-55 percent. Vietnam has been relying on input material and animal feed imports. It was estimated that 70 percent of raw materials for making animal feed in 2018, are from imports. The figure was estimated by USDA to increase to 79 percent in 2019. The General Department of Customs (GDC) reported that Vietnam imported 3.7 billion worth of animal feed and materials to make animal feed in 2019, $2.3 billion worth of maize, and $700 million worth of soybean. Kim Chi African Swine Fever challenges Vietnam's animal feed producers The Vietnamese animal feed market is considered very promising with the value of $6 billion a year. However, feed producers have faced difficulties because of African Swine Fever (ASF). Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here. Austin Goodrich was among the nearly 80 million Americans to receive his coronavirus stimulus check last Wednesday, but just a few hours after the government aid arrived in his bank account, he received an unsettling text from his property manager: Did he plan to use the cash to pay rent? Goodrich, a Forest Grove, Oregon resident, told FOX Business that he had not informed his landlord or property manager about the cash. But on April 15, the property manager who Goodrich has not named sent him a text message saying they were aware Goodrich had received the payment. I was initially questioning how my property manager accessed this information, and after discovering the truth, I was overwhelmingly feeling vulnerable and upset that my private information was utilized in this way in an attempt to ask for rent, Goodrich told FOX Business via email. The property manager explained they had used his Social Security number without permission to check the payment status via the Get My Payment tool set up by the IRS. "You got your stimulus, just asking are you going to pay rent or part of rent with any. I am trying to close out the books for April," the property manager wrote to Goodrich, according to screenshots of the text messages posted online. How do you know I got my check? Goodrich responded. Because I had to check several people today and checked yours also, the property manager wrote back. To access the tracking system, users must enter their Social Security number, date of birth, street address and zip code information that landlords typically have since they run credit checks before a tenant can move in. But before users can input their personal information, a warning appears that reads "unauthorized use of this system is prohibited and subject to criminal and civil penalties." The IRS did not respond to a request for comment about whether landlords could use the tool to track the status of their tenants checks. Story continues Oregon, at the end of March, joined a slew of states and cities placing a temporary moratorium on evictions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has left 22 million Americans unemployed, including Goodrich, who lost his job as a security guard as the virus stunned the U.S. economy. Though he said he had multiple job interviews lined up, he said it was unlikely he would start working for those companies until after strict stay-at-home measures are lifted. STILL NO STIMULUS CHECK IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT? WHY IT MAY BE DELAYED In a statement posted online, Goodrich said he blames the IRS for creating an unsecured system and urged the agency to take action to protect users personal information, either by providing users with a list of confirmed or attempted access to their data, and by making a list of computers that have tried to access multiple accounts. This is a problem that extends beyond myself, he wrote. For every one landlord or debt collector that admits to this illegal intrusion of privacy, there might be 100 out there that dont. Goodrich told FOX Business that hes considering pursuing suing his property manager and landlord if an amicable settlement is not accepted on April 22. To dull the financial pain brought on by the dual health and economic crises, the federal government last month expanded unemployment benefits by $600 per week and sent a one-time cash payment of $1,200 to individuals who earn less than $75,000. In December 2019, the median rent in the country for a two-bedroom apartment was $1,343. HERE'S HOW EXPANDED UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS WORK The government has not stipulated how Americans are to spend the cash, but in some, banks and private debt collectors have seized the payments from people who have overdraft fees, delinquent loans or other debt obligations. Underscoring the problem, about 12 percent of Americans have said they are unable to cover an unexpected $400 expense, while 27 percent said they would need to borrow money or sell something in order to be able to do so, according to a recent Federal Reserve study. In April, nearly a third of apartment tenants did not pay any rent during the first week of the month, according to data from the National Multifamily Housing Council and a group of real-estate data providers. The number reflects data from 13.4 million rental apartments across the country analyzed by several real-estate data firms, including RealPage, Yardi and ResMan. It does not include public housing and other subsidized affordable housing or single-family homes. GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE Related Articles The EU is becoming more open to dialogue with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), TASS reported referring to the Russian FM Sergei Lavrov. The minister highlighted the importance of establishing contacts between the Eurasian Union and the EU. Such proposals were discussed back in 2015, they continue to be considered in Brussels and now. The Eurasian Union, represented by the Eurasian Economic Commission, has several times submitted relevant initiatives to the European Commission, he said. At first, the attitude was negative, the FM said adding that Brussels later realized that EAEU member states delegate many practical functions to the supranational level. Thus Brussels became more open to dialogue with the Eurasian Economic Commission, but on some technical issues such as technical regulations, regulation of various industries, etc. He noted that Moscow is in favor of developing strategic partnerships throughout the Eurasian continent. A Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft stands atop the launchpad at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan to launch three new crewmembers to the International Space Station on April 9, 2020. A Russian official who attended the launch has recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus. A Russian space official has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but it's "impossible" that any contamination has spread to the International Space Station , Russia's space agency told Space.com. On April 15, the Russian news agency TASS confirmed that Evegeny Mikrin, the deputy CEO and chief designer at RSC Energia, tested positive for coronavirus. "Mikrin has passed two tests for the coronavirus and both are positive. He has been included in the list of 30 persons officially declared as infected in Roscosmos (Russia's space agency)," a source told TASS . The source added that Mikrin has, reportedly, not so far shown any clinical symptoms of the disease. Mikrin was present at the most recent crewed launch to the space station, which launched April 9 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He was seen relatively close to Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner prior to the launch, according to the New York Post . Related: Soyuz crew 'socially distances' from Earth with launch to space station However, despite concerns surrounding who Mikrin may have interacted with now that news of his positive diagnosis is public, Roscosmos officials told Space.com that there is no chance that the coronavirus has spread to the space station or among other Roscosmos personnel. "Potential ISS contamination is absolutely impossible as the number of personnel involved in the related operations has been minimized and those remaining follow the strictest rules and precautionary measures to prevent any possible threat to the crews," the Roscosmos press office told Space.com in an email. "The same goes about all the Roscosmos staff and those responsible for continuous operations the number of personnel present at their workplaces has been minimized with most of them working remotely," Roscosmos added. "Others are obliged to follow strictest precautionary measures." NASA has also weighed in, stressing that both NASA and Roscosmos have taken the appropriate precautionary measures to ensure that all staff from both agencies are as safe from infection as possible. "Officials from NASA and Roscosmos, and our other international partners, actively discuss the safety and health of their combined teams supporting the International Space Station," NASA press representative Dan Huot told Space.com in an email. "The astronaut crew was placed in strict quarantine with their medical teams weeks before the launch," Huot said."During this time of social distancing, personal protective equipment and health monitoring procedures were followed to protect the crew from any infectious disease. It is standard NASA practice, as it is with all our international partners, to protect astronauts' health prior to launch and monitor them closely when they first arrive at the International Space Station." Huot added that NASA will not be sending coronavirus tests to the space station. "The Privacy Rule prohibits us from sharing crew medical information, but NASA is not planning to send coronavirus tests to the space station. NASA maintains a robust pharmacy on board to treat a variety of illnesses on board the space station, but we do not currently have the capability to perform tests for infectious viruses," he said. Follow Chelsea Gohd on Twitter @chelsea_gohd . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . (Bloomberg) -- Huawei Technologies Co.s rapid growth slowed to a crawl in the first quarter after Covid-19 depressed demand for smartphones and networking gear around the globe. Huawei reported a mere 1.4% gain in revenue to 182.2 billion yuan ($25.7 billion) in the period, down from 19% over all of 2019. Its net profit margin shrank to 7.3% from 8% a year earlier, the company told reporters. The novel coronavirus has hammered demand for the smartphones Huawei relies on to compete with Apple Inc. and drive growth, especially now the global rollout of 5G networks has decelerated. The pandemic came on top of a difficult 2019, when the Trump administration blacklisted Chinas largest technology company -- cutting off access to crucial American components -- and waged a campaign to get allies to exclude its telecom equipment. Huawei has warned of a challenging year with the U.S. bringing unprecedented scrutiny to bear on a company it considers a threat to national security, a claim the Chinese company has consistently denied. Washington is said to be considering curbs on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.s sales to Huawei, which relies on the contract chipmaker to produce its most advanced silicon. While our growth rate has slowed, this is a resilient performance in the face of both the Entity List and the coronavirus, Huawei Vice President Victor Zhang told reporters on a call. Read more: Huawei Warns of Pandoras Box If U.S. Curbs Taiwan Supply Huawei is now relying on its home market more than ever to drive its business. While China experienced its first economic contraction in a decade in the March quarter, the country is recovering its footing after reining in Covid-19. Chinas phone market shrank in March, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. But Apple saw its iPhone shipments rebound that month, suggesting demand in the premium segment may have been delayed rather than extinguished. Story continues Its under control and most stores are open, Richard Yu, chief executive officer of Huaweis consumer division, said in an interview in March, when the company launched its flagship P40 smartphone series. 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. Washington U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. John Katko plan to put aside their partisan differences Thursday to help New Yorkers learn about the coronavirus pandemic and what can be done to help ease the health and economic crisis. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Katko, R-Camillus, agreed to participate in a virtual town hall meeting hosted by Ohio State Universitys Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability, or IDEA. It will be the second interactive town hall meeting the school has hosted on coronavirus with a bipartisan panel. More than 7,000 people in Oklahoma took part in the first virtual meeting last week, according to officials from the institute, YouGov and the Congressional Management Foundation, the nonpartisan co-sponsors of the events. The meetings are part of a multi-year experiment that seeks to demonstrate that citizens typically notice and cooperate more when members of competing political parties are willing to communicate together. Katko and Gillibrand will be joined in the town hall meeting by Dr. Robert Corona, CEO of Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. The meeting from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday (April 23) is open all New York state residents. To sign up for access online or by telephone, RSVP through YouGov.com. New Yorkers will be able to submit questions to Gillibrand, Katko and Corona through the moderators. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Wegmans, Tops, others want shoppers to wear masks, but wont ban people who dont Syracuse, Onondaga County miss out on $90 million in coronavirus relief bill Coronavirus: How we might restart the CNY economy while keeping the virus at bay Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Mark Weiner anytime by: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 At least 215 detainees in the jail are currently positive for COVID-19, including 17 being treated at hospitals, according to the office. It said at least 183 detainees are no longer positive and are being monitored at a recovery facility at the jail. [ Read an excerpt from The Moment of Tenderness. ] LEngle never hid the autobiographical nature of her fiction. Raised on the Upper East Side in Manhattan and sent to boarding schools in Switzerland and later South Carolina, she was the shy, reflective only child of a writer father and a pianist mother. The first pieces in this collection are quiet stories of girls individuating within the family or at school. In Gilberte Must Play Bach, a young girl listens uneasily to her mother play the E minor Toccata on the piano in a desperate effort to distract herself from the German occupation of Paris, where the family used to live. LEngles signature protagonist soon emerges, a begrudging nonconformist, often an unpopular, lonely girl not afraid to hit others or cry with abandon. Its good to have something to cry about sometimes. Thats how you grow, one girl is told by a camp counselor in Summer Camp. LEngle would come to learn that the sting of loneliness and, yes, anger could be mitigated by self-acceptance and wonder, a retraining of ones gaze outward to nature. Set in the time of the Civil War, White in the Moon the Long Road Lies features a young Southern woman who plans to move north to teach and anticipates missing the dunes and porpoises of the shoreline near her home, if not the narrow-minded people who disapprove of her plan. Her brother tells her, You clung to the ocean and all its moods because its really the only thing you have to cling to, except the family and you dont really fit with us, either. In some stories, the philosophical and uncanny are tethered to the ocean and the cosmos. Some of the earlier stories read more like fragments and incidents than complete narratives. In LEngles parlance, they appear to the reader like stars. They flicker, not fully visible, but stirring nonetheless. As the book progresses and the protagonists move beyond childhood, LEngle explores the interplay between men and women, often humorously. Many stories feature young women trying in some way to recreate themselves in order to escape a sense of oppressive smallness. Themes of ostracism mostly that of intelligent young women emerge anew; some of the characters want to become actresses, but dont fit in with their fellow actors or meet the casting directors needs. LEngle herself spent six years playing small roles on Broadway, and used the time between scenes to write her first novel, The Small Rain. She met her husband, Hugh Franklin, during this time. Portland officials say they received $114 million in federal coronavirus aid Monday but cant spend it yet because they havent been told all the rules on how the money can be used. Its unclear when the U.S. Treasury Department will provide more information about money provided through the CARES Acts Coronavirus Relief Fund other than it cant be used to cover lost revenue or unbudgeted expenses due to COVID-19 that occur between March 1 and Dec. 30, Portland Government Relations Director Elizabeth Edwards said during a city council meeting Tuesday. Oregon received $1.6 billion in local government relief. In addition to the $114 million going to Portland, $105 million will go to Washington County and $28 million to Multnomah County. The state will allocate the remaining $1.39 billion to other jurisdictions, Edwards said. Future stimulus packages are in the works and federal rules could be modified to allow using relief funds for revenue shortfalls, Edwards said. Mayor Ted Wheeler said Tuesdays meeting was initially called to lay out priorities for how to deploy the $114 million. He said he would like to see the money used to help households with rent and other essential expenses as well aid small businesses. He said city officials will discuss priorities with city bureau directors and Multnomah County authorities. The bottom line is until we get the framework from the federal government, its really hard for us to define how we would spend those dollars, Wheeler said. Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said she was hoping the money could be used to help the citys homeless population and that one of her priorities is to get everyone safely sheltered who is currently living on the streets. She and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty expressed interest in doing more to help businesses that werent able to receive loans from the federal $377 billion paycheck protection program, which ran out of money last week. I am gravely concerned for our restaurant and retail businesses as well as our music venues, Eudaly said. We could lose virtually every locally owned music venue in the city if we dont help these businesses access some meaningful relief. Portland estimates as of Tuesday it will see a $75 million decrease in general fund revenue for the next fiscal year, said city economist Josh Harwood. Harwood said according to his forecast for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, the city will see a $20 million decrease in transient lodging taxes and a $45 million decrease in business license taxes. He said the citys general fund revenues for this fiscal year should mostly meet projections because the majority of the taxes collected are based on 2019 activity. Which businesses pay taxes next year will look different than those who pay this year, he said. There are companies that are, frankly, doing well right now and weve gotten huge payments for the clean energy surcharge payments, for instance, based on those large companies, Harwood said. Small businesses are going to really struggle and a lot of them will not pay. He also said the city will likely see more nonpayments in future property and utility license taxes , as well as franchise fees. Generally, the citys revenue streams are way more resilient than most other local governments and certainly the state, Harwood said. Were not going to be great, but were going to be better off than most. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the city has thus far allowed city-owned property tenants to defer rent for three months, temporarily stopped collections of past due taxes and reallocated at least $4 million in reserves to aid small business owners and low-income families and fund the citys COVID-19 response. The city has also cut 950 jobs, most of them seasonal parks positions, ordered all non-union city employees to take 10 days of unpaid leave by October and halted raises. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 |@EvertonBailey Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. By Yi Kun Just as the Trump administration opened fire on all fronts due to its inability to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the arms control in China may become a new target of blame-shifting by the US. The foreign ministers of the US and Russia held a phone call to discuss "what measures will be taken by the bilateral strategic security dialogue in consideration of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic". Although it is called a bilateral dialogue, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned: "Any future arms control talks must focus on an American proposal for a new arms control accord that includes Russia and China." When reporting the news, Reuters said that "China, whose arsenal of an estimated 300 nuclear weapons is far smaller than those of Russia and the US, has rejected such talks."Then, why does the US force China? Reuters quoted the arms control expert as saying that this is the poison pill strategy of the Trump administration, which is intended to abolish the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and end restraints on US nuclear arms deployments. The so-called poison pill is a tactic that public companies use to thwart hostile takeovers. Simply put, it is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode for the so-called acquirer. This strategy, which will only hurt others without necessarily benefiting oneself, has been applied creatively by the Trump administration to international relations. Actually, this is not the first time that the Trump administration throws poison pills at China. Soon after Mr. Trump took office, he started renegotiating a new free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico called USMCA to replace the original North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The USMCA required that as long as either party reaches a free trade agreement with a "non-market economy country", the other two parties can break the contract and withdraw, which is an obvious poison pill clause against China. However, the Forbes website commented that compared with the original agreement, the economic impact of the new USMCA on US companies and laborers "has not progressed but has reversed." poison pill Back in October 2018, after the US, Mexico, and Canada had just completed negotiations on the new USMCA, the US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross (who publicly advocated that "the pandemic helps to accelerate the return of jobs to the US" at the beginning of the outbreak in China) threatened that a similar poison pill clause might be incorporated into the trade negotiations between the US and Japan, as well as the European Union, pressuring China to open the market. He also claimed that the poison pill clause is logical. The US has extended the employment of poison pill strategy from the economic and trade field to the security field. If it is still said to be logical, it is nothing but a gangster logic. On the one hand, the US unreasonably believes that China is ill-intentioned. The poison pill clause is supposed to target malicious acquirers, but China has never inherently harbored malicious intentions against any country, including the US. In terms of economy and trade, China, which has been labeled as a non-market economy country, is by far the largest trading partner of the US. In terms of security, China not only has a much smaller number of nuclear weapons than the US, but also promises not to use nuclear weapons first. China does not have a history of using nuclear weapons against other countries. On the other hand, the US rudely denies the free will of other countries. According to the provisions of international law, contracting capacity is a manifestation of national sovereignty and cannot be arbitrarily deprived. Any country has the right to conclude treaties with other countries as long as they do not violate international law. The US obstructs the intended economic and trade cooperation with China by other countries. The US forcibly ties up the bilateral dialogue that China refuses to participate in. This all constitutes a violation of the sovereignty of other countries. The poison pill seems to be aimed at China, but whether the global free trade system or the international nuclear non-proliferation mechanism, it would be likely to become a victim. What's more, there has never been a poison that is only effective against others. As long as the US has not completely divorced from the world, it will have to swallow the bitter fruit of the poison pill. New deaths attributed to the new coronavirus in Spain are slightly up again on Tuesday, with 430 fatalities that bring the total death toll to 21,282 from a 4-week low of 399 daily deaths on Monday. Spain is reporting nearly 4,000 new infections to a total of 204,178, a 2% day-to-day increase in line with the average for the past four days, health ministry data shows. The government is assessing already how to roll back one of Europe's strictest lockdowns, starting from next Monday by allowing children to go out onto the streets for brief periods. Spain's center-left Cabinet is discussing details on how the measure will be implemented during Tuesday's weekly meeting. An 8-week survey of 30,000 households that will be tested for the new virus is also expected to roll out on April 27, allowing authorities to gauge what's the level of immunization beyond hospitals and nursing homes, where testing has focused during the peak of the pandemic. Authorities are also deciding on Monday on price caps for face masks, gloves, hand sanitizers and other protective equipment that has been in short supply. According to a government special order issued on Sunday, the aim with controlling prices is for citizens to access in non-abusive economic conditions to the material that experts see as key to controlling future contagion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fortis Healthcare Limited (Fortis) announced the appointment of Mr. Anil Vinayak as its new Group Chief Operating Officer (GCOO). Mr. Vinayak will lead operations for Fortis at a group level. He will be based out of the Corporate Office of Fortis in Gurugram, Haryana. Vinayak is a seasoned professional with a career spanning 32 years and a successful leadership record across financial services, consumer products and healthcare. He has held senior roles in global as well as Indian organizations and is a well-respected leader in the industry. He has strong experience in operations management, team building, organizational transformation, product development, business development and partnerships, which will undoubtedly enable him to be effective in this role. Anil Vinayak has previously worked with Asian Paints (India) Limited, American Express Bank Ltd, Mastercard International and Europe Assistance India. His last assignment was with Max Healthcare Institute Limited as Senior Director & Chief Operating Officer Cluster 1. He holds a bachelors degree in Economics from Punjab University and a post graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Speaking on the appointment, Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD & CEO, Fortis, said, We are delighted to welcome Mr. Anil Vinayak, as our new GCOO. With a proven track record as a successful leader in operations, he has consistently delivered results over the years. Mr. Vinayak also has a deep understanding of marketing operations. I have tremendous confidence in Mr. Vinayaks capability to align Fortis's world-class patient care with global best strategies to drive and extend the next phase of Fortis's market leadership. Mr. Anil Vinayak, GCOO, Fortis, said, This is a challenging period for the entire nation, and particularly for the healthcare industry. I am assuming responsibility at a time when we have a significant role to play in supporting the government and our communities in handling the pandemic. I am honored to have this opportunity and look forward to building on the strong foundation of a reputed brand such as Fortis, highly committed clinical and non-clinical talent, strong values and pan-India hospital network to achieve our objectives. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in an undated photo released December 31 by North Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's physical condition is once again being questioned after he missed a holiday event last week. According to a CNN report citing a US source with knowledge of the incident, "the US is monitoring intelligence that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, is in grave danger after a surgery." Business Insider could not independently confirm this. A blog that includes posts from North Korean defectors said Kim underwent a cardiovascular procedure on April 12. A Chinese official dealing with North Korean affairs told Reuters that Kim was not believed to be critically ill. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's physical condition is once again being questioned after he missed a holiday event last week. According to a CNN report citing a US source with knowledge of the incident, "the US is monitoring intelligence that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, is in grave danger after a surgery." The US State Department did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider on Monday evening. Kim, believed to be about 36 years old, was not seen publicly last Wednesday, the birthday of the country's founder, Kim Il Sung, a day normally celebrated in the country with extravagant parades. Rather than showing Kim's attendance as the North Korean government traditionally does, no such announcement was made by the state-run propaganda outlets. DailyNK, a blog that includes posts from North Korean defectors, said Kim underwent a cardiovascular procedure on April 12. DailyNK cited a source as saying the leader was recovering in a villa in the eastern part of the country. US officials did not immediately confirm those details. Kim's most recent public appearance was April 11, through the country's state-run propaganda, CNN said. A Chinese official dealing with North Korean affairs also told Reuters that Kim is not believed to be critically ill. Kim was previously reported missing for roughly six weeks in 2014; he then reemerged with a cane. At the time, South Korean officials said the leader had a cyst removed from an ankle. In a book by journalist Anna Fifield of The Washington Post, Kim's health was also questioned after South Korean doctors assessed he was "severely obese" at 5-foot-7 and roughly 300 pounds. Read the original article on Business Insider Laywers representing a man who was arrested for allegedly circulating a fake message about Zimbabwes intention to extend its 21-day lockdown, are expected to file a High Court bail application Wednesday seeking to overturn a lower court order to detain him. Attorney Thomas Machinga told VOA Zimbabwe Service that he is working with some members of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights in an attempt to seek the release of Lovemore Zvokusekwa from remand prison. Machinga said, Once he was denied bail our only option was then to approach the High Court on appeal. We are working on the bail appeal, now Im working with two more lawyers who are members of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Mr. Jeremiah Bhamu and Mr. Caleb Mutandwa. We are working on the paperwork so that by tomorrow, may be before close of business, we are going to file our bail appeal and may be upon reflection we are also considering taking this matter with the Constitutional Court to challenge the constitutionality of Section 31 of the Code. As you might be aware, in 2013 the Supreme Court which was our Constitutional Court in terms of the old constitution ruled that some part of Section 31 was unconstitutional. We believe it could be a chance again to take this matter before the Constitutional Court so that the constitutionality of the rest of the section can be considered by the Constitutional Court. Thats where we are. We will be filing this bail appeal tomorrow (Wednesday). The 36 year-old Zvokusekwa of Chitungwiza appeared at Harare Magistrates Court on Monday after he was arrested on Saturday by Zimbabwe Republic Police officers, who charged him with publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the state as defined in section 31(a)(i) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. In court, prosecutors alleged that Zvokusekwa peddled falsehoods when he reportedly circulated a false and unsigned press statement purportedly written and issued by President Mnangagwa titled EXTENSION OF LOCKDOWN PERIOD BY 13 DAYS ONLY advising people that he had extended the national lockdown period by 13 days from 20 April, 2020, to 3 May, 2020. Zvokusekwa, prosecutors charged, disseminated the false press statement on different WhatsApp platforms using his Huawei mobile phone handset and yet President Mnangagwa had not written or signed the purported press statement. Prosecutors said some witnesses who received the false press statement will testify against Zvokusekwa during his trial. Zvokusekwa will return to court on 13 April. When the federal government announced it would distribute nearly $6.3 billion to colleges to give to students in need, the aid was met with fanfare. The Education Department said April 9 the coronavirus money was on its way. For nearly every student, the money still hasnt arrived. On Tuesday, the Education Department specified that huge groups of students wouldn't be eligible at all. For instance, students who are ineligible for federal student aid can't get this emergency money. That includes undocumented students, international students and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program from President Barack Obama's administration that offered immunity for two-year periods to immigrants brought to the country as children without documentation. And some eligible students dont even know the money is supposed to be available to them. That was the case for Alyssa Willey, 22. She is in her final year studying photography at the University of South Carolina, and the last few weeks have felt precarious. She normally works two part-time jobs, one at a local vintage thrift store and the other as a manager of a photography lab at the university. She hasnt been able to work at either for roughly two months, and she worries about her ability to buy groceries. She is behind on her April rent, though her landlord is giving her more time to pay. She has applied for unemployment, but hasnt heard anything yet. Her tax refund has yet to arrive, and she wasnt eligible for the stimulus checks made available through the CARES Act. She also said she was looking to receive some aid from the university tied to her job, but she hasnt seen that money either. People keep saying, Here is all this money, she said. But its not being given out. College students + stimulus checks: Heres what you need to know And now she feels the same way about this latest round of federal money. It would help, she said, but she is not sure if she will be eligible for it. Story continues Jeffrey Stensland, a spokesperson for the University of South Carolina, said the university has developed a method to distribute money to students, and officials are eager to start communicating that to students. Still, that means so far students have heard nothing. The university, like many around the country, blamed the Department of Education for a lack of guidance. The Education Department had said colleges were unnecessarily delaying the process, before releasing more instructions on Tuesday. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos listens to President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting in 2019. The Education Department says colleges are unnecessarily delaying payments to students. We were advised not to offer specific details prior to those being issued, Stensland said. Please know that were doing all we can to address the multitude of questions and concerns of students and families. Meanwhile, Willey said she will wait. Well get through it, she said. I have had times before when I havent had any money. Financial crisis: Coronavirus could change where students go to college, if they go at all College students in the CARES Act stimulus Through the CARES Act, colleges will receive about $14 billion, roughly $6.3 billion of which must go to students who are impacted financially by the coronavirus. The amount a college receives is largely based on the number of full-time students who are eligible for Pell Grants, federal scholarships for low-income students. Institutions themselves are supposed to determine who will receive the money, according to the Education Department. The funding was meant to help students pay for course materials, food, housing and health care, among other things. Colleges had been wary of distributing the money for fear of running afoul of future guidance from the federal government, said Justin Draeger, CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. There were questions, he said, of which students were eligible and just how the funds could be used. Colleges needed assurance they wouldnt be penalized for how they give out the money down the line. Colleges are on the edge: For many, coronavirus threatens their very existence Colleges also are figuring out whether to institute an application process or how to find out how students have been affected by the coronavirus, he said. But the biggest problem? Of the institutions Draeger has spoken to, all have yet to receive it. And they cant distribute money they do not have. On Tuesday, after USA TODAY and other media outlets wrote about this issue, the Education Department said it had released some of the federal money meant to shore up institutions' finances. The department said about half of eligible colleges had applied for the emergency money. What colleges say Ahead of Tuesday's comments from the Education Department, the USA TODAY Network reached out to more than a dozen institutions across the country to find out what they had told students about the federal aid. For the most part, their answers were light on details. Few colleges could say when the money might be going out to students. Many said they had developed formulas or rough ideas for how to get the money to students, but they didnt want to implement those without further guidance from the federal government. Arizona State University is supposed to receive roughly $32 million for its students one of the largest amounts of any university in the country. Officials said priority would be given to students with "unforeseen financial changes due to issues such as job loss, income reduction or illness." As of Monday, universities such as Ohio State, Indiana and Louisiana State each of which is receiving millions of dollars from the CARES Act lacked a plan for distributing that money to students. Ohio State released a plan on Tuesday, saying students must apply for the money and it would be distributed based in part on students' circumstances. The University of California at Berkeley also said it was still developing a process to distribute money. "Our main focus in allocating the funds will be to ensure that students can continue to make progress towards graduation," spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said in an email. Clemson University in South Carolina said it hadnt made any decisions yet, but a working group would give recommendations to its board of trustees. Similarly, the University of Texas in El Paso said regents for the University of Texas system had to approve any plan for dispersal. The UTEP campus was almost vacant Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in El Paso. UTEP moved classes to online in response to the coronavirus pandemic. At Bob Jones University, a private university in South Carolina, students will have to fill out an application for the money. Priority will be given to students who were financially affected by the disruption of the spring semester, the college said. McMurry University, a private university in Abilene, Texas, is planning to pass out money based mostly on students' expected financial contribution, a federal number based on a familys wealth that schools often use to award financial aid. Two for-profit universities, the University of Phoenix and Grand Canyon University, said they planned to give students an extra allotment of federal money. Both the student aid money and additional federal money meant to shore up universities during the pandemic would go to their students, the colleges said. The online-heavy University of Phoenix, however, is only giving its money to students who were not "exclusively studying online before the COVID-19 pandemic." Online college classes: How it works during coronavirus Contributing: Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY; Timothy Chipp, Abilene Reporter-News in Texas; Monica Kast, The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee; Olivia Krauth, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; Rachel Leingang, The Arizona Republic; Arika Herron, The Indianapolis Star; Molly Smith, The El Paso Times in Texas; Zoe Nicholson, The Greenville News in South Carolina Correction: The University of South Carolina student is Alyssa Willey. A previous version of this story misspelled her name. Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus stimulus: College students wonder, Where is my money? I am an old woman in a new epidemic vulnerable, sequestered and looking out my window, along with millions of Americans. But I am luckier than most, for what I see are not empty streets or shuttered stores. I see the meadow of my Montana homestead surrounded by pine forests, rolling hills, the canyon of the Blackfoot River and the snow-draped mountains of the Rattlesnake Wilderness. Green grasses on my meadow are rising from April snows and yellow buttercups promise rebirth. The forests around me, the rivers and streams, mountains and grasslands of Montana, are public lands. They nourish not only elk and trout but us humans, offering respite from fear and, of course, fishing, hunting, hiking and plain beauty. Our public lands are free and accessible, but we cannot take them for granted. When the virus abates and we emerge from our dens, what changes will we find in the outside world? What changes of perception and habit will we discover in ourselves? Isolation has given us time to reflect on what we value. Our families and communities. Our natural world. Will we be courageous enough in this crisis to act for positive change, or weak and defeated, returning to the same-old-same-old, or a place even worse? We are cursed with a divisive political era where selfishness and corruption are rampant. Power rewards the powerful and tramples the powerless, and empathy is a dirty word. But thats only part of the story. Hope rises like a trout to a fly. New leaders emerge. New connections and communities form. And we must fight to keep what gives joy as well as life. The Smith River in central Montana, near the historic town of White Sulphur Springs, is perhaps the favorite wild river in our state. It is the only river where permits are needed, since its 59-mile canyon is only run-able for a short season. Limited access protects a pristine trout fishery, towering limestone walls and ancient caves inscribed by indigenous hunters and gatherers. We love the Smith, but it is in danger now from a proposed huge copper mine at its headwaters. Montanas Department of Environmental Quality has issued a permit for an Australian company to begin underground mining that could poison and deplete the Smiths waters. Montana has a disastrous record of mining companies polluting rivers and streams from mines deemed to be safe and well protected. The big shots promise jobs and wealth, then go back to their cities with the loot, and we end up busted and paying for cleanups forever. There is one candidate for governor who believes we can continue to mine our ores so long as such operations do not endanger priceless natural habitats such as the Smith River drainage. That candidate is Whitney Williams, and here is what she said on the day the permit was issued: Todays permit is a slap in the face of any Montanan who cares about our public lands and waters. Let me be 100% clear: this mine should never be built. Wililams is a sixth-generation Montanan, a businesswoman newly come to politics. We face a future where pandemics may return. Where our economy and ways of life are threatened, and where climate change will affect every one of us. Such a future demands strong new leadership a candidate who cares about tradition but is not afraid to look forward. And most of all, a person who shares the values of Montana people and will strive to protect our commons the public lands that sustain us. There is a growing movement in Montana, including the writers and activists who signed this letter. We speak for ourselves, and hopefully for our communities, looking forward to both stability and change and a future that protects what we love. This is why we support Whitney Williams as well as the good women and men running for office or already in office who try to preserve what we value. With such folk leading the pack, we believe Montana can become a new version of the Treasure State, where the treasure is not gold but green. This opinion is signed by: 1. Annick Smith 2. Bill Kittredge 3. Debra Earling 4. Thomas McGuane 5. Mandy Smoker Broadus 6. Rick Bass 7. Caroline Patterson 8. Richard Manning 9. Maile Meloy 10. Peter Stark 11. Maxim Loskutoff 12. David Duncan 13. Michael Punke 14. Christopher Dombrowski 15. Robert Stubblefield 16. Jeremy Smith 17. Jon Jackson 18. John Heminway 19. David Quammen 20. Pete Fromm 21. Gretel Ehrlich 22. Fred Haefele 23. Robert S. Reid 24. Kim Zupan You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 WASHINGTON - The U.S. company at the centre of a short-lived dispute with the White House over medical-gear exports to Canada is going to court with an Ontario reseller it accuses of profiteering during the COVID-19 pandemic by selling coveted N95 face masks at exorbitant prices. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A 3M mask is shown in Mississauga, Ont., on Friday, April 3, 2020. Minnesota-based 3M has filed a lawsuit against an Ontario company that allegedly claimed a phony affiliation with the U.S. medical-gear maker in order to sell hard-to-find N95 face masks at exhorbitant prices. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette WASHINGTON - The U.S. company at the centre of a short-lived dispute with the White House over medical-gear exports to Canada is going to court with an Ontario reseller it accuses of profiteering during the COVID-19 pandemic by selling coveted N95 face masks at exorbitant prices. A notice of application filed Tuesday in Ontario Superior Court in Windsor, Ont., alleges that Caonic Systems Inc. set up a web domain on the e-commerce platform Shopify and used it to sell masks it claimed had been made by Minnesota-based 3M in Singapore and the United Kingdom. It further alleges that Caonic claimed a phoney affiliation with 3M and continued to market the masks on different Shopify-based sites even after receiving a complaint, charging $17 US apiece for the masks more than five times the $3 list price. "At 3M we are working hard to continue to increase production of respirators for the health-care workers who need them the most in the fight against COVID-19," senior vice-president Denise Rutherford said in a news release. "We are dedicated to putting a stop to those who are trying to cash in on this crisis and have taken legal action when we've identified illegal behaviour in New York, California, Florida, Texas, and now Canada." None of these allegations have been proven in court. Inquiries to Caonic's lawyers were not immediately returned Tuesday and it was not clear whether the company intends to oppose the application. President Donald Trump called out 3M earlier this month upon learning that the company had been exporting American-made N95 respirators a vital and hard-to-find piece of personal armour for medical workers treating COVID-19 patients to customers in Canada and Mexico, in spite of overwhelming demand for the masks in the United States. The company pushed back, warning that backing out of existing export agreements at a time of crisis would have serious humanitarian consequences and would ultimately result in fewer masks being available in the U.S. Eventually, the company agreed to bring masks in from its foreign plants and exemptions were carved out to allow exports to Canada to continue. 3M has filed for a court order that would require Caonic to help locate and identify any unsold masks, as well as to provide sales and customer information. If the masks prove to be authentic 3M products, the company "will support returning them for use in efforts to fight COVID-19," although whether they would remain in Canada was not clear. Any damages awarded as a result of the lawsuit will be donated to pandemic-related non-profit organizations, 3M said. "This application is somewhat unconventional, but we are in unprecedented times," says the notice of application, which appears designed to allow the court proceeding to take place on an expedited electronic basis in order to mitigate the potential impact on public health. "3M intends to soon advance comprehensive claims against the infringing parties," it adds, but the company's immediate goal is to prevent the continued sales of the masks, locate the stock, verify its authenticity and redistribute the masks to health-care workers if they prove to be the genuine article. "The infringing parties have retained experienced litigation counsel and advancing a trademark action will take considerable time," the notice reads. "3M is prepared to delay adjudication of its substantive claims in favour of public safety and the application's expedited consideration." The document alleges that Zhiyu Pu, one of Caonic's two directors, placed an order for thousands of 3M respirators from a company based in Nigeria back in early December. It alleges he began selling the masks in late February, "at exorbitant prices and using 3M trademarks without authorization," shipping them to locations across Canada the following month. 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. "Absent judicial intervention, 3M reasonably expects the infringing parties will seek to destroy, donate or otherwise dispose of these much-needed 3M respirators, without appropriate 3M evaluation, to frustrate 3M's civil claims and avoid criminal proceedings associated with their price gouging." 3M has already launched similar legal action in several U.S. states accusing resellers of trying to capitalize on the shortage of equipment, but Tuesday's action marks the first time that effort has crossed into Canada. "Prior to filing this action, 3M reported the information regarding these defendants to the Ontario authorities," the company said. "The goal is to prevent fraud before it starts and stop it where it is happening." The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has been leading the effort to procure personal protective equipment for U.S. clinics and hospitals, recently updated the rules governing exports of personal protective equipment to include explicit carve-outs for existing export markets in Canada and Mexico. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2020. Follow James McCarten on Twitter @CdnPressStyle The Jammu and Kashmir police on Tuesday filed a FIR against journalist Gowhar Geelani accusing him for glorifying terrorism on social media. He is the third journalist to be booked in two days. In a statement issued on Tuesday night, police said that Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone has received information through reliable sources that Gowhar Geelani is indulging in unlawful activities through his posts and writings on social media platforms which are prejudicial to the national integrity, sovereignty and security of India. The unlawful activities include glorifying terrorism in Kashmir Valley, causing disaffection against the country and causing fear or alarm in the minds of public that may lead to commission of offences against public tranquility and the security of State, the police statement said. It added that several complaints had also been received against Gowhar Geelani that accused him of intimidation. A case FIR No. 11/2020 under the relevant sections of law has been registered at Cyber Police Station Kashmir and investigation initiated, the police statement said. The fresh case comes a day after police had registered cases against woman photo journalist Masrat Zahra and Peerzada Ashiq. Police had invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) against Zahra for allegedly uploading anti-national posts on her social media accounts. The Editors Guild of India have expressed shock at the FIR against the two journalists. Former JK chief minister Omar Abdullah called these cases wrong. No ifs, no buts, no whataboutery - this campaign of FIRs against journalists & commentators in Kashmir IS WRONG & must stop. If your version of events is so weak that you have to charge these people, it says more about what is happening in Kashmir than anything they have written, Omar tweeted after the case was registered against Gowhar Geelani. The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has directed banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) to stop declaring and paying dividends and from making other distributions to shareholders for the 2019 financial year. It says such distributions can be made unless the Bank of Ghana was satisfied, that such institutions met the regular prudential requirements and were not relying on the additional liquidity released by the regulatory reliefs provided by the Bank of Ghana. BoG in a statement signed by its Secretary, Sandra Thompson, indicated that it would continue to monitor the evolving impact of the pandemic on banks and SDIs and on their customers, and would issue further directives as required. In furtherance of the above, and to ensure that banks and SDIs are better able to support their customers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, to absorb any potential operational losses for banks and SDIs from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank of Ghana now directs that all banks and SDIs desist from declaring and/or paying any dividends or distributing reserves to shareholders, and from making any irrevocable commitments regarding the declaration or payment of dividends to shareholders, until further notice, it says. For the avoidance of doubt, shareholders in this context means holders of Common Equity Shares (CET1) and Additional Tier I (AT1) capital instruments of banks and SDIs. All Banks and SDIs are to take note of the above directive for immediate compliance, the statement dated April 20, 2020 says. ---Daily Guide New Delhi, April 21 : A day after the UK High Court in London rejected embattled businessman Vijay Mallya's appeal against extradition, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said that it was hopeful of getting the custody of the former Kingfisher Airlines chairman once he is extradited to India. A senior ED official linked to the probe told IANS, "Mallya's appeal was rejected by the UK High court yesterday and now he has the option to appeal to the Supreme Court there." The official said that the system in the UK is a bit different, as Mallya needs to reach the top court there via the High Court again, citing the reason why he needs to move the Supreme Court. The official said that Mallya needs to convince the High Court why there is a need to approach the Supreme Court. "And if the High Court is satisfied then only his matter will be heard in the Supreme Court in UK," he said. The ED official's remarks came a day after Mallya lost his appeal in a UK court against an extradition order to India on charges of fraud and money laundering to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore. When asked if a team of ED officials will be leaving for London soon for the extradition of the businessman, the official said, "We are watching the developments. If the Supreme Court takes up his matter then we will wait for the court orders." The ED has attached several properties of Mallya in the last few years under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The High Court in London upheld a 2018 ruling to send him back to India on the grounds that Mallya made a number of misrepresentations leading to the 2012 collapse of his company, Kingfisher Airlines. The former liquor tycoon and chairman of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines had appealed to the High Court against his extradition to India at a hearing in February this year. Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London dismissed the appeal in a judgment handed down remotely due to the current coronavirus lockdown. "We consider that while the scope of the prima facie case found by the SDJ [Senior District Judge] is in some respects wider than that alleged by the Respondent in India [Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED)], there is a prima facie case which, in seven important respects, coincides with the allegations in India," the judges ruled on Monday. Mallya is wanted in India for allegedly defrauding banks and on money laundering charges amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crore. He is being investigated by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the loan fraud case. The CBI described the UK court rejecting Mallya's appeal as a "significant achievement" in the war against economic fugitives who have been managing to stay away from the judicial process. A CBI Spokesperson said, "It is a significant achievement in continuing a war against economic fugitives, who have been managing to stay away from the judicial process jn the country." He said, "It also validates the painstaking investigation done by the CBI." The CBI said that the judgement of the UK High Court is a significant achievement in the context of the CBI's efforts to curb corruption and is a reminder that fugitives, who have eluded the process of law after large scale frauds, cannot consider themselves above the process merely because they have changed jurisdictions. Mallya was arrested by the UK authorities on April 20, 2017 on the request of the Indian investigative agencies. Thai police said Tuesday they were considering charging a band of soldiers who allegedly beat a man to death and injured his brother while questioning them about their alleged roles in the drug trade. Human Rights Watch (HRW), meanwhile, urged the Thai government to investigate allegations that members of an army anti-narcotics unit tortured the two men in their custody. The global watchdog group also called on Thailand to stop such abuse by revoking the militarys broad authority, which allows it to arrest and interrogate drug suspects. Police said those soldiers who were responsible for beating the suspects could face charges. Initially, we would charge them with two offenses murder and physical attack. We may add other charges, if plausible, depending on the evidence, police Col. Srinakorn Naiyawat, chief of the That Phanom police station in northeastern Nakhon Phanom province, told reporters on Tuesday. Police said as many as seven soldiers could face the two charges while others could face additional charges. A preliminary investigation showed that the man who died in custody, Yutthana Saisa, 33, suffered brain and chest injuries, according to police, who said they were awaiting final autopsy results from the forensic unit of Srinagarind Hospital in nearby Khon Kaen province. Officials did not say when the final results would be available. And then we can conclude the case and we will inform their unit to bring them to acknowledge the charges, Srinakorn said. Yutthana and his brother, Natthapong Saisa, 29, were arrested at their home in Nakhon Phanom on April 17 by the anti-drug task force whose members allegedly used force to interrogate them, according to police. Natthapong, who suffered broken ribs, alleged that the soldiers tortured him and his brother, who died after the interrogation, HRW said. He told local media that at about 8:30 p.m. on April 17, more than 10 uniformed soldiers from the anti-drug unit stormed their house, according to HRW. The soldiers announced they were conducting an anti-drug raid and accused the brothers of selling methamphetamine. About seven soldiers interrogated each of the men, demanding that they confess to having sold drugs in the community, Natthapong said. The soldiers repeatedly punched and kicked him and his brother and stomped on their chests for about an hour, he said. On Tuesday, a military spokesman said the soldiers would be prepared to face justice. The army wont defend wrongdoers this is the policy of Army Chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong, said Maj. Gen. Rachan Prachantasen, spokesman for the second army region. We soldiers admit guilt if we made a mistake and overreacted. On Monday, local media reported that seven soldiers tried to attend a funeral rite but were not able to see Yutthanas parents. His father, Niwat Saisa, told other local media that he had received 10,000 baht (U.S. $307) from the anti-drug unit for compensation. HRW called for an impartial investigation and an end to military abuses. Thailands armed forces have frequently been implicated in arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, and torture in anti-narcotics operations, the rights advocacy group said. The Thai soldiers who tortured these two brothers, killing one of them, will only face justice for this ghastly crime if there is an independent and impartial investigation, Brad Adams, HRWs Asia director, said in a statement released Tuesday. The Thai government should realize that the military shouldnt be carrying out civilian law enforcement and should end their authority to carry out drug raids. A doctor from the Geriatric department at AIIMS has urged the prime minister to frame policies to safeguard elderly officials from coronavirus, noting they are vulnerable to infectious diseases and that there is a direct correlation between mortality and age. While lauding the tireless efforts of the PM to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, Dr Vijay Kumar Gurjar, an assistant professor said some employees in vulnerable group like healthcare workers, police officials, defence personnel, sanitation workers, administrators and politicians who have conditions such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes or kidney ailments do not have a strong immune system and thus are more vulnerable to infectious diseases. "There is a direct correlation between mortality and age. These people are more likely to get acute respiratory distress syndrome, the acute lung injury that is causing many of the deaths. "But it seems the virus is also more likely to affect the heart than any similar viruses, so they are actually seeing people dying from heart attacks who have COVID-19," Dr Gurjar wrote in his letter. "We are aware of the fact that outcomes will depend not only on the robustness of the health system, but also the average age of the country. In many instances a single sick person was exposed to around 100 health workers so they had to self-isolate. Most of them recover but if someone with co-morbidities gets infected it would be fatal for them" he said. Gurjar also cited examples of late Dr John L Sailo Ryntathiang, the 69-year-old founder of Bethany Hospitals, late Anil Kohli ,52-year-old Ludhiana assistant commissioner of police (ACP) who succumbed to this illness and said its evident that age with multiple illness is the most common risk factor. "We as society and government really just need to take care of our seniors as you mentioned in your address to the nation by changing our behaviour and policies for two to three months. They should not be asked to retire or quit from jobs as we know they are competent enough to serve the nation but should be asked to socially isolate themselves," the doctor said. He underlined the need for prioritising human resources by using them judiciously and avoiding unnecessary exposure of senior officials. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hope in a strange world? An enigmatic landscape by one half of Surrealisms It couple Surrealism included many female artists, but few were as singleminded as the American Kay Sage. Other Answers a quintessential Sage painting is offered for private sale In 1939, with clouds of war hovering over Europe, Kay Sage returned to the United States after more than two decades away. Her lover and fellow Surrealist, Yves Tanguy, soon followed her across the Atlantic, despite the fact that both of them were married to other people. In Sages case to an Italian prince her official title was La principessa di San Faustino. The couple settled initially in New York, though also took the time for a visit to Reno, Nevada. Tanguy was inspired by the landscape and geological features of the American West, but Reno was also known as the divorce capital of America and both took the opportunity to terminate their previous marriages, before promptly marrying each other. Find out more about our updated online sales calendar Kay Sage, 1946. Photo: Lee Miller Archives, England 2020. All rights reserved. leemiller.co.uk. Artwork: Estate of Kay Sage / DACS, London and ARS, NY 2020 Sage and Tanguy went on to become the Surrealist It couple and in the words of Desmond Morris in his book, The Lives of the Surrealists enjoy a highly productive period of painting together. They had met in Paris, where Tanguy was something of a golden boy of the avant-garde and Sage largely an outsider. Now, though, it was her time to thrive. In the summer of 1940, Sage had her first solo show, at the influential Pierre Matisse Gallery in Manhattan. Then, in early 1943, she was part of the landmark Exhibition by 31 Women, curated and staged by Peggy Guggenheim in her Art of This Century Gallery. Sage is renowned for her empty, enigmatic, eerily lit landscapes. Human figures are markedly absent their presence felt only by the monolithic, architectural structures and unidentifiable, draped objects they seem to have left behind. In this respect, 1945s Other Answers is a quintessential Sage painting. Kay Sage (1898-1963), Other Answers, 1945. Oil on canvas. 16 x 13 in (40.6 x 33.1 cm). Offered for private sale at Christies. View Impressionist and Modern art currently offered for private sale at Christies Surrealism was a movement that boasted plenty of female artists. Their work varied greatly, of course, but one can spot certain shared motifs. Leonor Fini included depictions of her own body; Dorothea Tanning set her scenes in domestic interiors. The single-minded Sage did neither. From 1941 onwards, she and Tanguy spent less and less time in their apartment in New York and more and more time in a farmhouse they rented and later bought in the village of Woodbury in Connecticut. They formed part of an artistic community that also included Alexander Calder, Andre Masson and Arshile Gorky, who all lived in the vicinity. The couple, who never had children, settled permanently in Woodbury in the mid-1940s (only Tanguys premature death a decade later, aged 55, would separate them). They duly converted two outbuildings into studios and developed a routine of working apart each morning and early-afternoon, followed by a quick review of each others work over a martini. Alas, theres no record of what Tanguy thought of Other Answers. He cant have failed to notice, though, the way a frame structure and its large shadow dominate the foreground. Above them a piece of white fabric flutters on a wire in the breeze. As in many of Sages best works, an unsettling element of movement has been introduced into a scene of otherwise complete motionlessness. Sign up today Christies Online Magazine delivers our best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe Former Bond Girl Famke Janssen paired her CDC-recommended COVID-19 face mask with a $298 Alice + Olivia 'Clyde Grateful Dead' bear-print sleeveless shift dress to stroll in Manhattan on Tuesday. The Dutch 55-year-old has never publicly discussed her love for the psychedelic sixties rock band, but she does have a soft spot for R&B legend Stevie Wonder. 'I learned English in school, probably started at about age 12, 14 or something. But, at the time, this teacher decided that she was going to teach her 12-year-old students a Stevie Wonder song called...Village Ghetto Land,' Famke told KCRW back in 2009. Groovy: Former Bond Girl Famke Janssen paired her CDC-recommended COVID-19 face mask with a $298 Alice + Olivia 'Clyde Grateful Dead' bear-print sleeveless shift dress to stroll in Manhattan on Tuesday 'And it's such a dark song. Especially for a 12-year-old, when English is your second language, you have no idea what you're translating. And that album has always stuck by me, other than I think that Stevie Wonder is a genius and apparently he did everything on that album. 'But it just always struck me, you know, later on in life, what an interesting teacher to pick that song to teach little kids how to speak English!' Janssen also wore protective plastic gloves as she socially-distanced less than six-feet apart with a mystery friend toting a black shiny murse (male purse). Secret hippie? The Dutch 55-year-old has never publicly discussed her love for the psychedelic sixties rock band, but she does have a soft spot for R&B legend Stevie Wonder Who's this? Famke also wore protective plastic gloves as she socially-distanced less than six-feet apart with a mystery friend toting a black shiny murse (male purse) New York City's stay-at-home order was extended through May 15 due to the 144,190 confirmed coronavirus cases, which has led to 14,604 deaths as of Tuesday - according to Johns Hopkins University. The Columbia University grad has been single since divorcing writer and director Kip Williams, the son of architect Tod Williams, in 2000 after five years of marriage. Audiences last saw Famke as New York detective Jacob Kanon's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) grieving wife Valerie in The Postcard Killings, which started streaming via VOD on March 13. Started streaming via VOD on March 13! Audiences last saw Janssen as New York detective Jacob Kanon's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) grieving wife Valerie in The Postcard Killings However, Danis Tanovic's serial killer flick currently holds a dismal 28% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But it's still unclear if Janssen's lesbian defense attorney character Eve Rothlo will return for the 15-episode sixth (and final) season of legal thriller How to Get Away with Murder, which resumes April 30 on ABC. PARIS, April 21 (Reuters) - A verdict in a case involving U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon will be issued by the Court of Appeal in Versailles on April 24, a French judge said on Tuesday. Amazon appealed a lower court ruling limiting deliveries from its warehouses in France to essential goods to allow authorities to conduct a deeper assessment of the risks posed by the new coronavirus to its workers. (Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Writing by Matthieu Protard) GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The Hamas movement and the ministries it runs in the Gaza Strip have intensified their efforts to confront the coronavirus pandemic by taking a series of preventive measures, as well as launching several relief projects including in-kind and cash assistance to farmers and to families affected by the lockdown in Gaza. Hamas is coordinating production of 1 million protective masks to distribute for free to Gazans, while the Ministry of Labor has provided online registration information for workers affected by a lockdown to receive the in-kind and financial assistance. A Hamas official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the movement intends to provide 100 ventilators from a country he did not specify, in addition to 30 of the devices it purchased and delivered to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The official added that the Hamas leadership formed a crisis panel in late February to confront the pandemic by taking strict measures to prevent an outbreak in the Gaza Strip, as well as harnessing all the movement's efforts to help government agencies. One significant action was building 1,000 housing units for isolation and providing emergency financial aid for 10,000 people affected by the lockdown. He noted that Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, who is currently residing in Qatar, has been calling Arab leaders since mid-March to solicit financial support and medical equipment for Gaza Strip residents, as well as for Palestinian refugees in camps in Lebanon and Syria. The source said that the movement was able to provide financial support estimated at half a million dollars for refugee camps in Lebanon and is seeking medical and financial support from Turkey and Qatar. On April 12, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin announced that his country had received an Israeli request for medical equipment, noting that Turkey had decided to send similar equipment to the Palestinian Authority. On April 15, Qatar announced it was allocating another tranche of a $150 million financial grant to Palestinians to confront the pandemic. Al-Monitor learned from sources close to Hamas that the crisis panel issued strict instructions to Hamas and government spokesmen not to make any statements to the media without consulting the panel so as not to confuse the Palestinian public. As a result, Hamas suspended head of its government media office in Gaza Salama Maarouf on March 28 for authorizing a Palestinian media outlet to enter and film inside a quarantine center. A major challenge Hamas faces is the lack of access to equipment necessary for examining the samples collected from those suspected of contracting the virus, as well as the lack of ventilators. An official at the Gaza Ministry of Health told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that hospitals in the Gaza Strip expect to need at least 100 more ventilators and 140 beds for intensive care units, noting that the Gaza Strip currently has only 96 ventilators. The official pointed out that Gaza has been out of antigen detection equipment since April 9, which prompted China to donate a laboratory to Gaza that would allow for 3,000 samples to be tested per day. Israeli newspaper Maariv reported April 14 that an Israeli army laboratory on April 13 had begun examining test samples of Gazans, after Gaza ran out of test kits. In addition, Israel supplied five new test kits, which could be enough to test 500 samples, to the Gaza Strip on April 13. Maher Abu Raya, director general of international cooperation at the Ministry of Labor in Gaza, told Al-Monitor the ministry received requests for financial aid from 130,000 Palestinian workers affected by the lockdown. He said that on April 15, his ministry started disbursing $1 million in financial aid for 10,000 workers, or $100 per worker. Abu Raya explained that his ministry has contacted many potential donor countries, as well as UNESCO, to seek support for those whose work has been disrupted. In the same context, the Ministry of Interior in Gaza allowed hundreds of Palestinians stranded in Egypt to return April 13 after Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing. The returnees are being quarantined for 21 days. Mahmoud al-Hajj, 28, who is suspected of contracting the virus after coming in contact with an infected person, has been quarantined in Marmara School in Rafah. He told Al-Monitor by phone that people in quarantine are receiving proper medical care and protective equipment. Salwa al-Najjar, 47, told Al-Monitor, I have been quarantined in the southern Gaza Strip since I returned from Egypt and I have already tested negative [for COVID-19] twice. I just want the 21-day quarantine to end so I can return to my family in good health. Youness al-Sultan, a 42-year-old who has completed his quarantine, told Al-Monitor, It is very difficult to sit in a small room for 21 days, but my safety and that of my family is more important. We received good care and services during the quarantine. He added, I left quarantine April 10, and now I am back with my family and havent shown any symptoms so far. The first two cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 in the Gaza Strip were detected March 21. As of April 19, 15 people had been treated and nine had recovered. No deaths have been reported. TDT | Manama Bahrain has helped facilitate the return to the UK of nearly a thousand British citizens stranded abroad, it has emerged. Bahrain Ambassador to the UK Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa received a phone call yesterday from James Cleverly, the Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa at the UKs Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Cleverly expressed his sincere thanks and gratitude to Bahrain for its role in aiding the British government in the evacuation of its nationals from Central Asia, especially from India, by opening its airspace and Bahrain International Airport to British Airways flights and its crew for transit. Cleverly noted that this facilitated the process of the return of nearly a thousand British citizens stranded abroad. Cleverly also expressed his appreciation for the work done by more than 20 Bahraini doctors working in various UK hospitals. Shaikh Fawaz conveyed the greetings and wishes of the government of Bahrain and affirmed its readiness to help all friendly countries in these difficult times. Two more patients have died from coronavirus infection on Monday in Lagos State, an official has said. Akin Abayomi, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health said on Tuesday that the patients were a 45-year-old male and a 36-year old female. Although Lagos did not record new confirmed cases on Monday, two fatalities were recorded, bringing the total deaths from COVID-19 to 16 in the state. No new case of #COVID19 was confirmed in Lagos on 20th April, 2020. However, COVID19 related deaths were recorded in Lagos. One of the deceased was a 45 years old Nigerian; male who returned from India in January, 2020. The second death involved a 36-year-old Nigerian; female with severe underlying health condition(s). She had no history of travel or contact with any #COVID19 confirmed case, he wrote. READ ALSO: The Commissioner did not disclose where the 45-year-old patient who returned from India in January imported the infection or locally contracted the virus. It is also unknown if the patients died at private or state facilities. As of Thursday, Lagos has 379 confirmed cases of coronavirus, 260 active cases, 98 discharged, two evacuated cases, three transferred cases and 16 deaths. Mr Abayomi urged Lagosians to remain vigilant and report any concern about COVID-19 infection in local communities to the health ministry by calling 08000CORONA. Burma Myanmar Military Releases 33 Rakhine Civilians Arrested After Deadly Shelling The released villagers from Kyauk Seik, Ponnagyun Township, Rakhine State on April 20. / Mical Scofield / Facebook The Myanmar military has released 33 out of 39 men from a village in Rakhine State who were arrested Sunday afternoon on suspicion of affiliation with the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group which the government designated as a terrorist group last month. Military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that they released 33 of the men from Kyauk Seik Village in Ponnagyun Township on Monday afternoon and that the remaining six who are still suspected of affiliation with the AA are under ongoing investigation. He told The Irrawaddy that the military arrested a total of 39 men but villagers said only 38 were arrested. Kyauk Seik villagers told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the military returned the 33 villagers to the Ponnagyun police station on Monday after 6 p.m. The men had to pledge and sign a document saying that they are not affiliated with the AA and that they would also not communicate with the AA in the future. U Ba Shwe, a Kyauk Seik villager, said his two sons were among those released and that they arrived back home together on Monday evening. U Saw Thein Maung, another local resident, said that five men, including his two nephews, are still in military custody. He said that if the military plans to take action against the men in accordance with the law, then the military should transfer them into police custody instead of holding them. On Sunday, after being tied up, the men were taken to the militarys Light Infantry Battalion 550 but left without food or water until they were released on Monday, U Saw Thein Maung told The Irrawaddy, citing his conversations with the released men. Some were beaten and sustained minor injuriesone man has inflammation on his face and another man was hurt in the chest after being hit with the butt of a gun, he added. A week before the men were arrested, eight local residents were killed and over a dozen were injured by military artillery fire on April 13, though the military denied the allegations. Kyauk Seik Village, a 40-minute drive from the state capital of Sittwe, is home to more than 400 households but currently the villagers have fled to Ponnagyun Town and Mrauk-U as they are afraid of artillery fire and military suspicion, said U Saw Thein Maung. You may also like these stories: Nine Year-Old Killed in Rakhine as Myanmar Military Launches Air Strikes Against AA Rakhine Court Releases Civilians Held for 11 Months for Ties to AA Vote out Rep. Roy As a District 21 resident, I look forward to the opportunity to help vote out U.S. Rep. Chip Roy. His views on a quick reopening of the economy could seriously affect the health of Texans during the present pandemic. Roy also single-handedly delayed the passage of a bipartisan disaster aid bill in May 2019. The bill included more than $4 billion for parts of Texas. Roy narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent in 2018, and hopefully former state Sen. Wendy Davis can represent our district after the November election. Andy Parsons No oil bailout Re: Debate rages on oil cuts, Business, Thursday: Reading this article brings to mind the old saying Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor. None of these folks were calling for price caps when oil topped $100 per barrel. But now, with demand in the tank, they want government help in curtailing the supply and to bail them out many from improvident business decisions and reckless overborrowing. The Texas Railroad Commission should not even consider such a scheme without demanding reforms from the oil and gas industry. For example, the unlimited and climate-wrecking practice of flaring millions of cubic feet of natural gas or, even worse, venting it without burning it, must be dramatically reduced in places like the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. That move alone would reduce oil production. John Watson, Johnson City On ExpressNews.com: Oil companies debate Texas production cut proposal Amazon is investing $10 million to help conserve or restore forests in the northeastern U.S., as part of its pledge to be carbon neutral by 2040, the company announced Tuesday. It marks the first investment from Amazon's $100 million Right Now Climate Fund, which was first unveiled last September in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, and aims to restore and protect forests, wetlands and peatlands around the world, with the goal of removing carbon from the atmosphere. The fund is a part of Amazon's "Climate Pledge," wherein the company also pledged to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris accord's goal. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement in 2017. The grant will be used to expand two programs being stewarded by The Nature Conservancy, the American Forest Foundation and the Vermont Land Trust, which aim to open up carbon credit markets to small family forest owners and owners of mid-sized forests. Carbon credit programs allow companies to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by giving money to other entities or projects that are working to reduce carbon emissions. The grant makes Amazon the largest funder of these programs, the company said. Amazon said the investment will be used to expand the programs beyond Pennsylvania and Vermont in the Appalachians and other areas of the country. The company said this would result in the removal of up to 18.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 2031, or the equivalent of 46 billion miles driven by an average passenger vehicle. Last September, the company revealed its own carbon footprint for the first time, reporting that it emitted 44.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2018. Amazon has faced mounting pressure from employees to address its environmental impact. At Amazon's annual shareholder meeting last May, thousands of employees submitted a proposal asking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to develop a comprehensive climate-change plan and reduce its carbon footprint. The proposal was built on an employee letter published last April that accused Amazon of donating to climate-delaying legislators and urged the company to transition away from fossil fuels. In addition to the Climate Pledge, Amazon has taken other steps to tackle its environmental impact. In February, Bezos pledged $10 billion to launch a new Earth Fund for combating climate change. It will issue grants to climate-oriented scientists and activists and other organizations in their efforts to "preserve and protect the natural world." It's the penultimate episode of Homeland! The penultimate hour I will spend with Carrie Mathison, Saul Berenson, and all these other straight-up crazies that I've known longer than some (most?) of my friends have known their spouses. If this was a Hollywood marriage, we'd be long-divorced by now but instead, here I am, coming back to this show week after week. I regret nothing, if I'm being honest. As the episode opens on the CIA HQ Subbasement a terrifying moniker we learn that Carrie's plane did in fact make it back to the States. She's rescued from a holding cell by someone that Saul sent over and will be staying at Saul's house while she awaits trial, so clearly the FBI didn't relax their stance on her actions during the long flight. As she walks through Langley, a TV plays the news of the bombing that the rest of us knew took place while she was in the air; it seems that while most everyone died, Jenna Bragg is still alive and seemingly available to serve as a witness against Carrie. The White House gang (led by Hot Evil Hugh Dancy) is looking to use the bombing to really go after Pakistan, which Saul is of course against given it was Jalal Haqqani's terrorist network and not the Pakistani government. It feels so satisfying to see Saul dropping F-bombs at Hot Evil Hugh Dancy and his smug beard. Carrie's unpacking at Saul's house have we been inside Saul's house since Mira was gone for good (again)? and she offers to share the intel she heard on the flight recorder with the White House, which is only feasible if they find the actual black/orange box. She uses the opportunity to circuitously ask about that secret Russian asset Yevgeny mentioned, which Saul vehemently denies. I wonder whether to believe him while also simultaneously marveling about how enviable his house is. In Washington, D.C. he's gotta be sitting on millions of dollars worth of property, right? The wall-to-wall bookcase alone...hold up we're getting a flashback to Saul in 1986. Story continues It's 1986 Berlin, of all places, and I'm enraptured immediately. Saul sees a bookstore that was clearly a secret meeting location, and a book that he clearly still owns. If Mandy Patinkin Irishmans himself for this flashback I'll consider this season worth its weight in gold. But before we're treated to digitally-de-aged Saul, the memory is over and we're back in the present, with Carrie trying to get Jenna on her side about this whole flight recorder-slash-secret asset search even though Jenna's still pissed about the safe house and is threatening to out Carrie's plan to everyone (including Saul). I really don't think I believe her, but I also won't pretend like I'm not biased against Jenna. Now, under normal circumstances, I would delete that last sentence the second the next scene begins the scene in which Jenna shows up at Saul's office in the White House and tells him that Carrie ambushed her in the parking lot saying "a lot of crazy stuff." But this is my penultimate recap and I don't want to pretend anymore, damnit! Sometimes my hunches are wrong. In my defense, Jenna is still kind of a...shall we say, dumb dumb...because she totally misread the relationship between Saul and Carrie, and instead of vengeance what she gets is a lecture from Saul. "When you're dealing with Carrie you have to do what she does," he explains. "You have to decide for yourself what matters. You have to decide what kind of person you are." [This is the point at which I wonder to myself whether Jenna is capable of the above her avoidance of giving testimony to the FBI seems to suggest she might be]. Erica Parise/SHOWTIME Back with Carrie, she's in the courtroom to hear her charges and they are really something. The FBI is pinning basically every crime that we've seen during season 8 on our girl murder, assassination, you name it. She's in the bathroom puking out her stress when she gets a visit by a "friend of Yevgeny's" who offers up certain "resources" and "whatever help she needs." That's spy-talk for: Carrie can defect over to Russia if she wants to escape all those charges. ' When Carrie gets back to Saul's house she's greeted by an emboldened Jenna, who grew a spine after she ran out on the FBI and investigated Saul's time in Berlin after all. She runs Carrie through her findings (in Saul's own dining room!): Saul brought an asset back from Berlin in the late 80s and never declared an Eastern asset, yet continued to bring in major intelligence. In fact, during this scene Homeland credited Saul with practically every major Eastern intelligence coup Gorbachev doing a deal with the West, discovering the cover-up in Chernobyl which explains the portions of Saul's rise to power that I always believed wholeheartedly but never had any historical facts to back up. I'm not sure if the CIA doles out bonuses, but if they do then Chernobyl is probably what paid for his wall-to-wall bookcases. If Carrie follows up this lead it would be yet another betrayal of the man who's sacrificed a lot for her, but it might also get the flight recorder back. Naturally, Carrie follows up the lead. She goes to find Saul's asset at his Witness Protection house with a highly effective disguise (glasses and a ponytail!). Saul's asset is surprisingly (shockingly?) open with Carrie, explaining how he managed to escape and how Saul carried him across the border, through sniper fire, after he lost his leg to a landmine. I'm currently imagining a Saul virile enough to carry a man across the border to safety, and I don't hate it. Alex also shows Carrie a class photo from his KBG training program there's a mysterious (and unnamed) woman in the photo. Only the back of her head is visible, and the camera pans from the photo to a translator at the United Nations, on the panel convened to discuss the situation in Pakistan. This seems like Homeland's way of hinting at something especially since the mysterious woman lingers on a conversation among the Russian delegation about Yevgeny's operation. We follow her she looks strikingly similar to Helen Mirren from the front, no? to a bookstore and suddenly there's another flashback. The woman, much younger, pointing a gun at young-Saul's face and demanding to work as a double-agent. He turns her down in the flashback, but back at his house in present-day Carrie is searching through Saul's bookcase, seemingly on to something. She tracks all of his rare books (the dates he inscribed inside the covers) to match major intelligence events the aforementioned Gorbachev talks and Chernobyl, but also the far more recent Crimea annexation. In New York, Saul receives a package from the shop that the mysterious woman visited (I think I'm going to start calling her Fraulein) and extracts a message from within the binding: "The price has already been asked. It's Yevgeny Bromov's play." And now we're back to 1980s Berlin and Saul's newsboy cap. (And, sadly, it's a different actor apparently Showtime doesn't have the same de-aging budget as Netflix). Young Saul is being hunted by the Germans, but is saved by Fraulein it's clearly how she won her way into his good graces, proving her use as a Russian double agent, which proves the validity of Yevgeny's claims to Carrie. Carrie calls the woman from the bathroom puking assistant to help her get in touch with Yevgeny wearing a leather jacket that I'm a big fan of. They video chat (OMG are they Zoom-ing?) and after a predictably tense back-and-forth Yevgeny makes it clear that the only way Carrie's going to get the black box back from Moscow (and stave off this pending mini world war) is to eliminate Saul and become the asset's runner. Yevgeny bet on the fact that Saul's contingency plan would involve passing along his greatest intelligence source to his protege; in fact, it's clear his plan from the literal beginning was to back Carrie into a corner in which her only option was killing Saul. And I don't use literal lightly here. I'm guessing this goes back all the way to Carrie's capture at the end of season 7. What this does is set up a potential tete-a-tete (I'm sorry for all the French here, but I don't know any Russian colloquialisms) to close out the show, and I have to wonder whether Homeland will even let us know the result. The writers have always preferred a cliffhanger ending, and I can't think of anything bigger than a fade-to-black in the middle of a Carrie and Saul standoff. Now, what I hope will happen is that they'll band together to take down the Russians in a final show of unity, but that's a little kumbaya for this group. Also, I hate to nitpick a plot hole during a time like this but now that Carrie's back in D.C., is she going to see her family? Or are we all just pretending that Franny doesn't exist, like when they swapped out the eldest sister on Roseanne halfway through the show? Related content: Lets imagine some scenarios. Your cousin is getting married in another town. You know the date so you book air tickets for you and your family early enough. Then, a week before the wedding is supposed to be held, disaster strikes. Your cousins father-in-law to-be falls ill. The wedding is postponed to some date to be decided later. Or, there are riots in the area where the wedding is scheduled to be held and there is a postponement. You go to the airline you booked your tickets on and say that you want to cancel your trip. If you have bought a relatively expensive ticket, the airline will offer to reschedule your ticket (at an extra charge, of course). You say you dont know when the wedding will finally be held so you cant pick a date for the rescheduled flight at the moment. Ok, the airline will say, you have to cancel the ticket then. It will proceed to deduct a large chunk of the fare as a cancellation charge before giving you back some money. If you are on a cheap ticket, you will not be so lucky. The airline will tell you that your ticket is like a ticket to a movie show. You miss the show, you lose the money. There will be no rescheduling allowed and certainly no refund. Fair enough. These are rules we have got used to. The airline has a seat ready for you. The plane will fly. How is it the airlines problem if you choose not to occupy that seat? As understanding as we are of the airlines policies, many of us have been surprised to find the opposite is not true. Assume you were booked on a flight this weekend. The airline, for obvious reasons, is not operating the flight. You, however, are ready and willing to fly. In most situations, the rule is that if airlines cancel flights, they offer full refunds. They have had to cancel the flights; it is not your fault. The argument is simple: whoever withdraws first is liable. If you back out, you are responsible. If they cancel the flight, you get your money back. It is a principle that works across the economy. If you order something on-line and pay for it, and if the vendor then cant give it to you, he refunds your money. People pay for services in advance because they have a reasonable expectation of that service being delivered. Even at the cinema, if they dont show the movie you bought a ticket for, they refund your money. So it is with hotels. If you had paid for a room in advance and they were unable to provide it (say, because of overbooking) they always refunded your money. It is a rule that the airlines are now breaking by trying to get out of full refunds. Their defences are 1) these are special circumstances. Well yes, of course, they are. But when we had special circumstances and had to cancel our flights, you told us it wasnt your problem. 2) It is not our fault, say the airlines. Yups. But is isnt ours either. So how come you get to sit on our money? And we are the losers? 3) Our staff are suffering, they say. (At least two airlines, owned by millionaires, have stopped paying salaries.) This is as true of passengers who also face pay-cuts in their own jobs and need the money. Passengers are suffering too. 4) Everybody else is doing it during the lockdown, they insist. This is a complete lie. We dont do it at home. Do you tell your grocer that you wont pay his bills because of the coronavirus? It doesnt matter that you face salary cuts or delays in payments. A decent person does his or her best to pay money owed to other people. 5) And the second lie in the everybody is doing it defence is that people are not actually doing it. Cinemas are refunding ticket money. The nearest parallel to the aviation industry is the hotel industry which is capital-intensive and employs lakhs of people. Hotels are closed and, therefore, nearly broke. But I cant think of a single hotel chain that has told somebody who had paid for his or her booking that the money wont be refunded. They have just paid it back. Even though the industry is losing crores every day. This is what you would expect. I cant see the Tatas stiffing people --- either at Taj group or Vistara. Other hotel chains have been as honourable. So, why do airlines, who must know that they are screwing their customers over, do this? Well, because they need the cash. Even if (as I hope will happen) they have to offer full refunds eventually, they will have treated the money paid by passengers as an interest-free loan for several months. That, perhaps, is why they keep opening the ticket windows to sell tickets for later dates; they want to get as much cash as they can without offering a single service. Of course the government steps in and tells them that the end of the aviation lockdown has not been announced. So they have to close reservations again. But by then, they have got more cash. Now there is a new factor at play. Give us money they tell the government. Or the aviation industry will go under. I have some sympathy with this request but it is worth noting that these same guys did very little to support Jet Airways when it was in the crisis that led to its demise. Apparently some of the more influential ones tried to dissuade politicians from rescuing Jet. Once Jet went under and thousands of its staff members were unemployed, the other airlines swooped in on the routes, leased Jets planes and hired the unemployed staff at a third of their old salaries. This is a dog-eat-dog-game. Which is fine in a capitalistic economy. But Rottweilers do not make for convincing cocker spaniels. Nobody is fooled by their cries of helplessness. For all that, I believe that the government should help the industry. But airlines should be asked to first refund the money they owe passengers. The best they are offering at the moment is that you can travel at a new date after paying the fare difference. And of course, the fare difference will be huge. So theyll take even more cash off you. Thats just not acceptable. Do airlines have a greater moral right to demand taxpayer funds than say, the hotel industry, the backbone of our tourism sector? I am not sure they do. If they get government bail-outs, will they return the money once things go well? I am not sure they will. So, heres my suggestion. The government should get an outside auditor to do a fair calculation of the net worth of each airline. The government should then (through banks and financial institutions, perhaps) offer to buy shares or stakes in each airline company. That will give the airlines the cash they need to pay their employees. And low fuel rates will keep them flying once this lockdown is lifted. That way, the taxpayer is secure. We have something of value to hold on to and our money is, if not guaranteed, then at least, much safer than it would be with a bail-out.And the jobs of airline employees are secured. Once things return to normal the government can sell the stakes back to the airlines at fair market value. If the airlines dont want to buy them, then they should be auctioned to the highest bidders. Either way, the tax payer should not have to suffer for keeping a bunch of millionaires in business. Of course, the airlines will ask for the money as a gift. It would be a huge mistake to allow that. In fact, it would be a fraud on the people of India. There is something about the airline business that gives its owners tunnel vision. I have always believed that the reason the Indian public turned against Vijay Mallya was because he refused to pay the salaries of Kingfisher staff. It would have cost him nothing ---- by his standards. Maybe he would have had to sell one of his many vacation homes. But the gesture would have prevented the public from seeing him as a heartless crook. So it is with the airlines today. Dont steal money from your passengers. Pay it back and your demands for a bail-out will have more public support. A personal note: I am not owed any money by any airline as a cancellation charge or a refund. But I have received so many messages and tweets from people who have been badly treated by the airlines that I think it is time somebody took a stand on behalf of passengers. Fortunately, the Civil Aviation Ministry in this government has been unusually receptive to passenger interests so I hope justice will be done in this case too . To read more on The Taste With Vir, click here Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Mr Powell has moved onto the examination of the T-shirt Ciara was wearing at the time of her death. Mr Powell said 11 blue polyester fibres were recovered from a petri dish with scrapings from the garment by ChemCentre scientists in 2012. The petri dish was originally made by the FBI in 1999. Mr Powell is now going through each of the 11 fibres, one-by-one. He said the first fibre was compared to fibres from a pair of Telstra trousers and a fibre found in Mr Edwards' former work car in 2019 and found to match. By PTI AHMEDABAD: The death toll due to coronavirus rose to 77 in Gujarat as six more people succumbed to the disease, a health official said on Tuesday. Five of these deaths were reported from Ahmedabad, and one from Bhavnagar, principal secretary (health) Jayanti Ravi said. All the victims suffered from co-morbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension and kidney disease, she said. The deceased included four women and two men, all in the age group of 50 to 72 years, she said. The number of coronavirus cases in Gujarat crossed the 2,000-mark and rose to 2,066 after 127 more people tested positive for the infection on Tuesday. Of the new cases, 69 were reported from Surat and 50 from Ahmedabad. Besides, Rajkot and Valsad reported two cases each while Aravalli, Gir Somnath, Kheda and Tapi reported one case each, the official said. Out of 1,858 active cases, 19 patients are on ventilator support, while the condition of 1,839 is stable, the official said. So far, 131 patients from the state have been discharged after recovery. She's 'thriving' in quarantine. E! host Morgan Stewart is seeing the bright side of the coronavirus lockdown, which she is spending in Malibu with her new/old beau Jordan McGraw. The 31-year-old blonde beauty exclusively sat down with DailyMailTV to chat about how she is managing being stuck inside and the big at-home return of her hit E! show Nightly Pop. Thriving: E! host Morgan Stewart exclusively sat down with DailyMailTV to chat about quarantine with beau Jordan McGraw and the big at-home return of her hit E! show Nightly Pop Currently, Morgan is in quarantine with Jordan in a stunning space on the beach in Malibu, California where she is taking some time for self-care and catching up on her sleep. 'To be completely honest, between you, me and all of the readers, I was due for a break,' Morgan said. 'Look, I was really running on empty for a while.' She added with a laugh: 'I don't know how [I'm] going to go back and have to do that that schedule again. It's hard core.' While on lockdown, Morgan says she's been doing a lots of facemasks and drinking her usual 'obnoxious amount of water with lemon' but there is one thing she is seriously missing: her manicure. 'To be completely honest, between you, me and all of the readers, I was due for a break,' Morgan said. 'Look, I was really running on empty for a while.' Lockdown: Morgan is in quarantine with boyfriend Jordan McGraw in a stunning space on the beach in Malibu, California where she is taking some time for self-care and catching up on her sleep 'The lack of manicure and the lack of hair color has really tested me,' she quipped. 'Lord Jesus. It's really been quite a struggle.' 'I've never in my entire 31 years on this planet - I've never cut my own nails until this year,' she sheepishly admitted. Morgan joked that she looks like a 'f**king Olsen twin' with her natural nails these days. All and all, quarantine has been a positive adjustment for the star and her musician beau, who just came off tour with the Jonas Brothers. 'We're cooking, we are cleaning, I am washing towels,' Morgan explained. 'I mean, I'm doing things that in my normal life I have somebody come and help do.' 'We are thriving on the quarantine scale,' Morgan revealed. 'To be relatively newly back together and then living together, we've been stripped down to basic living and we've done really well I have to say.' Big change: The couple dated briefly a decade ago and reconnected over the summer but things took an interesting turn when they decided to stay together during an unprecedented global pandemic (Pictured in 2019) Rockstar: Before quarantine, Jordan was rocking out on stage while on a world tour with the Jonas Brothers The couple dated briefly a decade ago and reconnected over the summer but things took an interesting turn when they decided to stay together during an unprecedented global pandemic. 'We are thriving on the quarantine scale,' Morgan revealed. 'To be relatively newly back together and then living together, we've been stripped down to basic living and we've done really well I have to say.' She added: 'But the unexplained irritability [from quarantine] sometimes does creep in.' Morgan returns to her late-night show on E! this week along with her co-stars Nina Parker and Hunter March, after the trio put on micro-versions of the show on social media. Downtime: While on lockdown, Morgan says she's been doing a lots of facemasks and drinking her usual 'obnoxious amount of water with lemon' but there is one thing she is seriously missing: her manicure 'The lack of manicure and the lack of hair color has really tested me,' she quipped. 'Lord Jesus. It's really been quite a struggle. I've never in my entire 31 years on this planet - I've never cut my own nails until this year.' 'It's been so many different formats of trying to get this show off the ground it felt like it was pilot season all over again,' she explained. All three hosts are decked out with mini studio set-ups in their respective homes so they can interact and banter like they usually would on set. 'We are literally your escapism for 30 minutes to just forget about what's going on and nobody needs to be reminded about what's happening. I need everyone to settle in, relax, have a good time.' The big return: Morgan returns to her late-night show on E! this week along with her co-stars Nina Parker and Hunter March, after the trio put on micro-versions of the show on social media 'We are literally your escapism for 30 minutes to just forget about what's going on and nobody needs to be reminded about what's happening. I need everyone to settle in, relax, have a good time.' Morgan, Nina and Hunter have been in constant communication since the pandemic began, so their dynamic chemistry shouldn't miss a beat as they return for full episodes of their show. 'I feel like I have the sort of social responsibility to get there and make people feel better, which is very cool and also a little daunting at the same time,' Stewart said. 'You want to make sure that you're giving them the best of yourselves.' The new at-home episodes will be 'a very loose fun ride' with the hosts and format relaxed and malleable to accommodate the challenges of shooting from lockdown. Morgan, Nina and Hunter return with full episodes of Nightly Pop Monday and Thursday nights on E!. FLINT, MI -- A $100,000 grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation is allowing the University of Michigan-Flint to continue to provide free housing to local healthcare workers. The grant allows the university to continue to waive a fee of $20 per night for maintenance and cleaning of the First Street Residence Hall, where local healthcare workers have been able to stay since April 3, said Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Chris Giordano. Originally, the university was able to eliminate the charge due to a private donation. UM-Flint turns residence halls into resting space for medical professionals The grant supports costs associated with disinfection services and biohazard cleaning of each suite in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The funding also helps pay for linens, towels and building maintenance, according to the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. This housing space is currently called the Healing Heroes Home in honor of these medical professionals treating COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. A bedroom, bathroom and kitchen area are available per unit. There is no charge for parking and workers have access to free wi-fi. More than 30 health care workers are currently using the space, which can house up to 60 people, said Giordano. We have an important role to play within the Flint community in good times or bad, and feel fortunate that we are able to contribute in this way, Giordano said. We are also extremely grateful to the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the private donors who have enabled us to provide this service without charging these health care heroes for utilizing our housing. READ MORE HERE: New Michigan coronavirus cases of 633 is daily low for month of April Michigan lawmakers express concern at lack of federal help for states small businesses Monday, April 20: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Michigan is ramping up coronavirus testing. Thats easier said than done. Michigan company maps data to analyze, predict spread of coronavirus Even in quarantine, my husband has refused to give up his self-imposed ban on eating carbs six days a week. So most of the stuff weve been buying to snack on, like bananas and clementines, are not really snacks. But for his Carb Day (which is usually on Saturday), we always have a fresh stock of Doritos to munch on. We buy Doritos mostly because theyre more readily available than other, fancier chips at stores near us, but also because theyre the chip we both grew up on. A third, genuinely serious reason: Now that loss of taste is a symptom of COVID-19, the deliciously artificially cheesy chips are something we can use to test our palates in a pinch. While theyre still easyish to find at stores, Doritos are harder to come by online at retailers like Amazon but thankfully unexpected sources like Staples and Office Depot seem to still have a good supply. RESPONDING to the call of frontliners for personal protective equipment (PPE), a group of young Cebuanos created Cebu Backliners to support those who are in the frontlines in the fight against Covid-19. A core group composed of Michael Abello, Jolu Escano and Claire Codilla of ARCHcon Cebu (a yearly convention with a cause for the hobbyist community), Barry Blanco of Zaku Cebu (Gunpla enthusiasts focused on Sieg Zeon culture) and their partner abroad Dhani Leadley formed Cebu Backliners. Codilla told SunStar Cebu: The term Backliners came from the need to support our Frontliners. It was our way of saying We have your back. Anyone can be a backlinersomeone who donates and supports the campaign or create any effort to help our frontliners in his own way. The group said they wanted to help frontliners as they are the ones risking their lives every day amid the Covid-19 pandemic to serve and save others. We couldnt just sit down comfortably in our houses under quarantine when we knew there were and still are many dying every day, she said. In the Philippines, more than 6,000 people have been infected with the virus with a death toll of more than 400, making it one of the Asean countries with the highest mortality rate for Covid-19. The idea for the fundraising program is, with Cebus population of 922,611, if 2,642 Cebuanos can chip in P246, the group can provide frontliners with 10,000 surgical masks, 5,000 face shields, 1,500 body suits and 100 authentic test kits. Through the the backliners support and donations, they have given PPEs to 14 beneficiary groups. They have 14 more pending beneficiaries and counting to support. (JOB) SAN ANTONIO -- April 21, 2020 -- NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently awarded Southwest Research Institute a $12,862,664 contract to develop a magnetometer for a satellite mission dedicated to tracking space weather. The magnetometer is part of the satellite's solar wind instrument suite, which measures the characteristics of the solar wind plasma that interact with the Earth's geomagnetic environment. "The satellite will collect solar wind data and coronal imagery to support NOAA's mission to monitor and forecast space weather events," said Dr. Roy Torbert, a program director in SwRI's Earth, Oceans, and Space office at the University of New Hampshire in Durham and principal investigator of the magnetometer. "Space weather refers to the variable conditions on the Sun and in space that can influence the performance of technology we use on Earth, such as electrical power grids, and disrupt satellite-based communication and navigation systems." The Space Weather Follow-On Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) satellite will orbit the Sun at approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth where the Earth's and the Sun's magnetic fields meet, a point known as L1. The satellite will make local measurements of the solar wind thermal plasma and magnetic field. It also carries a Compact Coronagraph instrument to detect coronal mass ejections. "The instrument, known at SWFO-MAG, provides key data about the solar wind as it approaches Earth," Torbert said. "The data will be available to the science community but are targeted to the Space Weather Prediction Center." SwRI will work with UNH to design, develop, fabricate, integrate, calibrate and evaluate the magnetometer instrument. The team will also support launch and on-orbit check-out of the instrument, supply and maintain the instrument's ground support equipment and support NOAA's mission operations center as needed. SWFO-MAG includes two three-axis magnetometers and associated electronics to measure the vector interplanetary magnetic field. "The solar wind magnetic field controls the processes that transfer energy and particles into the Earth's magnetosphere and often initiate geomagnetic storms," Torbert said. "These disturbances can create spectacular auroras but can also shut down electrical power grids and disrupt satellite-based communication and navigation systems." NASA is planning to launch the SWFO-L1 in 2024 as a rideshare with the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe vehicle. SwRI also plays a role in this mission, managing the payload and payload systems engineering for IMAP. In addition, SwRI is providing a scientific instrument and other technology for the IMAP spacecraft, which will sample, analyze and map particles streaming to Earth from the edge of interstellar space. NOAA is responsible for the Space Weather Follow-On program. NASA is the program's flight system procurement agent, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the lead for acquisition. ### For more information, visit: https://www.swri.org/heliophysics. Seven labourers, who were trying to cross Delhi's Jheel Khurd border on bicycles in an attempt to return to their village in Bihar amid the ongoing lockdown, were intercepted by the police on Monday night. The labourers were staying at a rented accommodation in Gadda colony in Sultanpur village in South Delhi's Fatehpur Beri, they said. "When intercepted by police, the labourers said they are residents of Madhubani, Bihar and wanted to go back to their village since they had no work here due to lockdown," said Atul Kumar Thakur, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South). When asked if they were facing any difficulty here, they stated they were getting food. However, as they did not have any work due to lockdown, they wanted to go home, he said. They were counselled by the police and were dropped to their rented accommodation and the beat staff has been briefed to keep a watch on them, he added. Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had extended the lockdown till May 3, saying it is very necessary to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. The country has been under lockdown since March 24. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi, April 21 : With 'work from home' turning into the new trend in corporate sector amid the coronavirus crisis, a survey has found that around 83 per cent companies have said that they are considering revision of their 'work from home' policy. The 'COVID-19 India Readiness Survey' by Willis Towers Watson finds that 83 per cent of organisations plan to review their work-from-home policy, and 46 per cent indicated that they would reimburse employees the expenses incurred for setting up their home internet for work purposes. "Employers are also taking several measures to keep employees engaged in the new scheme of things. These include team-based virtual or social engagement initiatives, regular company-wide or department level communications, and town halls organised to address employee concerns," said the report. Further, amid the growing concern over Covid-19, around 57 per cent of companies in India expect a moderate to large negative impact on their business in the next six months, it said. The report said that 46 per cent expect this to last over a 12-month period. "Signalling the long-term business impact of the coronavirus, 19 per cent expect such an adverse impact to last over a two-year period," said the report by the advisory, broking and solutions company. Only 5 per cent of organisations expect a positive business impact within the next 12 to 24 months. "The tough economic conditions and anticipated business impact could drive organisations to consider workforce optimisation. Employers should take an emphatic and considerate approach and evaluate options such as staff redeployment, reduced working hours/days, long service leave, sabbatical, furlough, hiring freeze and voluntary pay cuts, before any serious consideration of a workforce reduction," said Rohit Jain, Head of India, Willis Towers Watson. He added that in a post-Covid-19 world, some companies may need to re-hire and potential employees will factor in the consideration of organisational culture and how companies have treated their employees during the crisis. Independent Testing Shows Mask Blocks 99.9975% of Particles ATHENS, TX, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Reliable One Resources, Inc. (Company or Reliable One) today announced that it recently developed a novel air filtration system, which the Company has incorporated into a surgical mask. The filter, which is comprised on a patent-pending and proprietary graphene membrane between polypropylene fabric, has an average pore size of 0.0025 microns. Independent testing has shown that the mask blocks 99.9975% of particles sized .07 microns, making the Reliable One filter potentially capable of blocking even the smallest virus and bacteria. By comparison, an N95 mask is rated to block only 95% of particles sized .3 microns. Reliable One recently formed Quantum Filtration, Inc. as a wholly owned subsidiary to bring the masks to market. Quantum Filtration has applied for, and received, an exemption from the FDA under the Emergency Use Act (EUA) to commence selling as a surgical mask in the medical arena. The Company is moving forward aggressively to file a 510(k) submission for full FDA clearance and anticipates doing so following further testing and NIOSH certification. Kenneth Wiedrich, Reliable One president, commented, We originally developed this product for water desalination, so the pore size was of necessity very small. Our scientists soon realized that it also makes an excellent air filter. With the COVID-19 virus having particles sizes of .124-.06 microns, none of the masks on the market can actually block the virus from passing. As our average pore size is .0025 microns, it can trap even the smallest virus particles, theoretically protecting the wearer from contagions. Our independent testing confirmed this using NaCl particles at 0.07 micronsthe smallest the lab had available. Future testing using live virus particles is scheduled in the coming weeks. The Company announced that it is gearing up for commercial production and anticipates the first masks being shipped to customers by mid-May. Reliable One is also seeking federal grant funds in combination with investment capital to accelerate production to meet initial demand. Story continues Graphene is a lattice of carbon a single atom in thickness. Reliable One has developed a proprietary formulation that enables it to create a membrane 1,000 layers thick of spun graphene. This membrane is then placed between layers of polypropylene for user comfort and formed into a surgical mask. With graphene being stronger than steel, the Company expects that its masks will be washable and reusable. About Reliable One Resources, Inc. Headquartered in Athens, Texas, Reliable One Resources, Inc. is a privately held South Dakota company engaged in research in the water filtration, oil-field production industry. Through its various subsidiaries, the Company owns saltwater injection wells in Ohio and Texas and a controlling interest in an oil lease. For more information, visit www.reliableoneresources.com . Media Contact: Advance PR Group 619-202-7456 info@advanceprgroup.com The United Nations Headquarters is pictured as it will be temporarily closed for tours due to the spread of coronavirus in the Manhattan borough of New York City GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of people facing acute food insecurity could nearly double this year to 265 million due to the economic fallout of COVID-19, the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday. The impact of lost tourism revenues, falling remittances and travel and other restrictions linked to the coronavirus pandemic are expected to leave some 130 million people acutely hungry this year, adding to around 135 million already in that category. "COVID-19 is potentially catastrophic for millions who are already hanging by a thread," said Arif Husain, chief economist and director of research, assessment and monitoring at the World Food Programme (WFP). "We all need to come together to deal with this because if we don't the cost will be too high - the global cost will be too high: many lost lives and many, many more lost livelihoods," he told reporters at a virtual briefing in Geneva. Husain said it was critical to act quickly in order to prevent people already living hand-to-mouth, such as food vendors in Kenya, from selling their assets as it could take them years to become self-reliant again. In some cases, such as when farmers sell their ploughs or oxen, it could have knock-on effects for food production for years to come, he added. "These were the people we were concerned about those who were OK before COVID and now they are not," he said, adding he was "really worried" about people living in countries with little or no government safety nets. "Acute food and livelihood crisis" is category three of five U.N. phases meaning a "critical lack of food access and above usual malnutrition". Category 5 means mass starvation. U.N. officials did not give a geographical breakdown of the growing needs, but said that Africa was likely to be hardest hit. WFP expects to need $10-$12 billion to fund its assistance programmes this year compared to a record $8.3 billion raised last year, Husain added. It plans to pre-position food stocks over the coming months in anticipation of growing needs. Story continues Of those already deemed acutely hungry, many are in conflict zones such as Syria or in countries badly hit by the impact of climate change, according to a U.N. report. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, desert locusts in east Africa had destroyed crops and boosted the number of people reliant on food aid. (Reporting by Emma Farge; editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Gareth Jones) By AFP WASHINGTON: The price for May delivery of West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark oil, plunged well into negative territory on Monday, an unprecedented crash prompted by the imminent expiration of this month's futures contract. Yet the price of a barrel of the same grade of oil for June delivery was still positive, albeit at the low value of $20.43 a barrel. The difference demonstrates the nature of futures markets operating under stress. The price of the May contract plunged to -$37.63 a barrel because, once it expires on Tuesday, buyers either need to take possession of the crude, or move the crude into storage to collect later. But the US oil market is glutted due to an economic downturn in the wake of coronavirus shutdowns, meaning there's little storage to be found. The closely-watched supply tanks in Cushing, Oklahoma have just 21 million barrels of storage free, Rystad Energy estimated Monday. That means speculators who held on to their contracts too long face an unprecedented penalty. "The most simple explanation for negative oil prices is that midstream players are now paying 'buyers' to take oil volumes away as the physical storage limit will be reached," said Louise Dickson of Rystad Energy. "And what does that mean? That pricey shut-ins or even bankruptcies could now be cheaper for some operators, instead of paying tens of dollars to get rid of what they produce." The futures market is currently betting that there will be a recovery in the economy in the months ahead that boosts oil demand and alleviates the supply glut. This dynamic, in which front month contracts lag those in subsequent months, is known as "contango" and means that the July WTI contract finished Monday's session at $26.28 a barrel, while August's contract ended at $28.51 a barrel. Johannesburg, April 16 (People's Daily Online)--Adelina Manhique received 150 kg of rice from a truck loaded with fresh rice parked outside the China-Africa agricultural cooperation project in Mozambique, on April 10. "Now everyone is talking about the new coronavirus. We are also worried about the food supply. Unexpectedly, before the company has settled the bill, the rice has already been distributed to us in time, which will help us face the epidemic better," she said. Since March 2020, the novel coronavirus pneumonia spread to Africa, while the cooperation project has 2,480 hectares of rice not yet harvested. The investor and management party of the project, China-Africa Development Fund and China Railway 20th Bureau, were well prepared and made the necessary arrangements to implement the work of epidemic prevention, keeping all employees healthy. They not only finished the production task but gave confidence to local people in fighting the epidemic. Manhique's family has been involved in this project for five years, and this year the family planted 2 hectares of rice. Like Manhique, there are nearly 500 farmers participating in cooperative planting this year, with a total planting area of 733 hectares. Before the outbreak in Mozambique, the project team arranged for the staff to learn the relevant knowledge of epidemic prevention in time, improving the staff's awareness of epidemic prevention and enthusiasm to cooperate with the epidemic prevention work through digital awareness campaigns. After the outbreak, the project team took careful anti-epidemic measures, implementing closed management, distributing face masks to all employees, equipping the base with cleaning and disinfection facilities, as well as strictly implementing the disinfection work and staff temperature testing, to ensure the health of employees. Affected by the epidemic, African countries have taken measures to curb the spread of the virus. The Associated Press (AP) reported on April 15, that at least 33 African countries have closed food transportation to avoid the spread of the epidemic. With disasters such as floods, droughts, armed conflicts and locusts, food supply in Africa is facing great challenges. In addition to these problems, the World Bank said the virus could cause "a serious food crisis in Africa. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said, "Millions of children assisted by the WFP are at risk. A few weeks after the virus spread to Africa, many schools have closed and 65 million children are currently without food." To prevent a food crisis, the project team helped local families fight the epidemic by sharing rice they deserved in time. "If you have food in your hand, you will not panic; if you are down-to-earth, you will be jubilant." By April 10, 1300 hectares of rice had been harvested and more than 8,000 tons of rice dried in the warehouse by the project team, so local people's livelihood could be effectively improved. Mozambique China-Africa agricultural cooperation project is the largest rice planting project between Africa and China at present. The project is invested in by the China-Africa Development Fund, China-Portugal cooperative development fund and managed by China Railway 20th Bureau. In 2019, a total of 13,500 tons of rice were supplied to the local area, with up to 1,000 jobs created. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 14:36 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd34c670 1 Business aircraft,Angkasa-Pura-I,Airport,COVID-19,Garuda-Indonesia,Lion-Air,AirAsia Free A sharp decline in air travel as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced Indonesian airlines to ground more of their fleets. According to state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I (AP I), 95 planes from various airlines are parked at its 11 airports across Indonesia for long-stay periods. National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has the highest number of parked aircraft with 27, followed by Lion Air with 21 planes, AirAsia Indonesia with 19, Wings Air with 11 and Citilink Indonesia with eight aircraft, according to data provided by the operator on Monday. The I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, has the most parked planes with a total of 30 aircraft, while Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, has 19 aircraft parked on its apron. AP I, which manages 15 airports in the central and eastern parts of Indonesia, recorded a total of 17.78 million passengers using its airports in the first quarter of this year, an 8.11 percent drop from 19.3 million in the same period last year. Aircraft traffic also fell by 6 percent to 175,143 flights in the first quarter from 184,085 flights during the same period last year. A combination of flight cancelations, travel restrictions and the sharp drop in air travel demand because of COVID-19 has also forced airports to adjust their operations by reducing their opening hours. AP I has decided to prolong its operational adjustments to deal with the drastic passenger movement at the airport. Angkasa Pura I is prolonging the adjustments in several airports until May or July, but we are not closed to the possibility that operational adjustments will be extended again if the pandemic shows now positive developments, said AP I president director Faik Fahmi on Monday. The pandemic has left more than 16,000 passenger jets parked around the world, according to data from Cirium, which provides travel industry data and analytics. Meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated that 25 million jobs in aviation and all related sectors, representing 11.2 million jobs in the Asia Pacific, are at risk due to COVID-19, SPRINGFIELD - The two people charged in connection with a Friday night shootout that left 1 dead and four injured were arrested at Mercy Medical Center after driving two of the wounded to the hospital, police said. Neither was charged directly with the shooting, but police found a loaded, high-capacity firearm, some liquid codeine, and a large amount of cash in the car, said police spokesman Ryan Walsh. Police are still investigating the shooting on College Street that left a 22-year-old man dead. The name of the deceased has yet to be disclosed to the media. No one has been charged with murder. Police Commissioner Cheryl C. Clapprood said on Monday that the shooting was related to illegal guns, drugs, and gangs. She said unknown shooters opened fire on a crowd at a house party, and members of the party returned fire. People from the party then gave chase to Berkshire Avenue and Page Boulevard in Indian Orchard where more gunfire was exchanged. Two men suffering from gunshot wounds were found a short time later on half-mile away on Beauregard Street. They were taken by ambulance to Baystate Medical Center. Arrested at Mercy Medical Center were Daysia Fowler, 24, of Liberty Street, and Raekwon Jackson of Orange Street. Fowler was charged with possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, possession of a high-capacity magazine, and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Jackson was charged with a single count of possession with intent to distribute a class B substance, liquid codeine. Fowler and Jackson were among the five people in a car that pulled up in front of the Mercy Emergency Department Friday. A Springfield police officer at the hospital saw the car park and noticed that two of the people who got out were bleeding. Walsh said both men had been shot at College Street. Each had wounds that were not life-threatening. Jackson,, a passenger, got out of the car with a bag on her shoulder. When police searched it as a precaution, they found a large amount of cash and some liquid codeine. Police found another bag of cash in the car, and a loaded gun in the trunk. Clapprood said police have received no assistance from people who were at the house party about the shooting. It remains under investigation. Walsh said anyone with information is asked to call the police detective bureau at 413 787-6355. People may also send anonymous tips through Text-a-Tip by sending a text to CRIMES or 274637, and then beginning the text with the word SOLVE. Maharashtra Police have decided to give an advance of Rs 1 lakh to its personnel infected by the coronavirus to help them manage their treatment cost. Additional Director General of Police (Administration) Sanjiv Kumar Singhal issued an order to this effect on Monday. "All unit commanders have been directed that if any policeman is infected by the novel coronavirus, Rs 1 lakh as advance should be immediately approved to him from the police welfare fund, he said in the order. State Director General of Police Subodh Kumar Jaiswal had already issued oral instructions for this to unit commanders during a recent video conference. At least 37 police personnel, including eight officers, have tested positive for coronavirus in the state. Most of these police personnel are from Mumbai and they possibly came in contact with coronavirus-infected persons while on duty during the lockdown. The Maharashtra police force comprises nearly 2.2 lakh personnel, including about 20,000 officers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) MOUNT VERNON At GreenTree at Mt. Vernon, an assisted living and memory care facility, 14 residents and nine employees had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Monday morning, a company official said. Gratefully, the majority of those confirmed positive are not showing signs or symptoms, Amira Fahoum, education and programs leader with Compass Senior Living, which owns the facility, said in an emailed statement to The Southern. One resident is hospitalized, she said. Fahoum said the facility is working closely with state and local health authorities, and following appropriate guidance to control the spread of COVID-19. In an initial round of testing, one resident and 11 employees tested negative, she said. A total of 83 people reside at the facility, and it employs 50. Headquartered in Eugene, Oregon, the company owns 32 long-term care facilities in eight states, including six in Illinois. Fahoum said that all other residents of GreenTree were tested on Monday, and results are pending. The Jefferson County Health Department reported Sunday that its staff has been working with the long-term care facility for several days to test residents after one person was hospitalized last week and tested positive for the virus. Prior to Sunday, the health department had only reported about a dozen cases in Jefferson County. With the positive cases from the long-term care facility combined with two others, the county saw a roughly 145% increase in reported cases in a single day. Mayor John Lewis said the coronavirus has clearly been spreading throughout the community under the radar, and the spike is indicative only of so many people being tested at once. He said that most people with symptoms, unless they meet certain restrictive criteria, are advised to quarantine at home but forgo testing. That has been due to a limited number of testing kits available to people in the county, he said. After results from a first round of testing came in over the weekend, Lewis said that city and county emergency management officials coordinated with the state to travel to Springfield on Sunday and bring back more tests. Lewis said he understands why tests have been targeted to the hardest-hit urban areas, but he said thats likely providing a misleading picture about the spread of the virus in parts of Southern Illinois. He said officials at the city, county and state level are working together to get the situation under control. He noted that the state is making rooms available at the Drury Inn for employees of GreenTree. He said there have been rumors floating around town for several days that the state had contracted with the 180-room hotel in order to place COVID-19 patients there from elsewhere. But Lewis and state officials said thats not the case. The hotel is for use by Southern Illinois residents so that they have a place to stay away from family members who may be at high risk for COVID-19 complications while they report to work at a facility with a known outbreak. So the request to activate the Drury Inn is not because were bringing anybody in from out of the region, he said. Thats been the rumors weve been fighting theyre coming from Chicago or wherever. This was a request to activate the Drury Inn, by our people, in this county, for our people. The GreenTree said it would be nice to have a place for their staff to stay so they are not bringing this home to their families. Thats why it was activated. Rebecca Clark, spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, said her agency has identified thousands of hotel rooms throughout Illinois for this purpose that could be ready to be activated upon request. The state has signed lease agreements with four facilities, including the one in Mount Vernon. Other available facilities have been identified and toured to ensure the space will meet our needs; however, leases are not signed until a need arises by the local jurisdiction, she said, in an emailed response. In a news release, IEMA said it has activated the pre-staged alternate housing facility to meet the identified needs of COVID-19 in Jefferson County. The state did not identify the name of the facility, but the mayor confirmed it is the Drury Inn. IEMA said the purpose of the facility is to provide alternative housing for people to safely isolate or quarantine in order to not expose others in their homes. These facilities will allow individuals to remain close to home, near family and his/her health care provider of record, the release said. Medical care is not provided at the facility. Jefferson County Health Department Administrator Amy Harrison said the county was grateful to have access to the hotel. Occasionally when we, as the county health department, place someone under an isolation or quarantine order, it is difficult for that individual to maintain due to the setup of their home or they may have a family member that is vulnerable due to an underlying health condition, she said in a statement. This would be a perfect option for either of those situations. IEMA Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau said other places like this around the state can be activated once communities have exhausted their local options. This concept is truly a collaborative effort between state and local governments to ensure we have all the tools and resources necessary to help our residents, and effectively slow the spread of this deadly virus, she said. The local health department is responsible for referring individuals to an alternate housing facility. The local health department will screen each individual prior to entry to determine health status and eligibility, monitor the individual throughout the stay, and will determine when an individual can safely return home, IEMA said. The Illinois Department of Public Health has started periodically reporting case numbers at long-term care facilitates by name on its website. Jefferson County's cases do not yet appear because the list is updated weekly. 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. Newspaper front pages of media group Fairfax in Sydney on May 7, 2014. (SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images) Media Chiefs Hail Australias Big Tech Announcement Australian news companies have hailed the federal governments decision to compel the tech giants to pay for content. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, along with Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, issued a joint statement on April 20 instructing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to develop a code of conduct. The code will govern a range of issues, one of the most prominent being how Google and Facebook will pay media publishers for re-using their content. The original timeframe was accelerated when the federal government received advice from the ACCC that progress was slow, and compounded by the onset of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Michael Miller, executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, in a statement said that Google and Facebook had built trillion-dollar businesses by using content from other organisations while not paying for it. The decisive move by the Australian government to go directly to a mandatory code of conduct is a vital step that can help secure the future of Australian journalism, he said. James Warburton, CEO of Seven West Media, which owns Channel Seven, welcomed the move and said it was an internationally leading initiative. In the past month, our news content alone has reached millions of Australians, he said. Its only right when this is accessed via third party platforms its creators are fairly compensated. Hugh Marks, CEO of Nine Television Network, said his network looked forward to working with the Australian government on the code. Disappointment from Tech Giants Google refuted the treasurers claim that progress on a voluntary code has been limited, claiming that since February 2020, the company has been seeking input from 25 Australian publishers on a voluntary code. They conceded they would now continue to work with the ACCC and the government going forward. Will Easton, Facebooks managing director for Australia and New Zealand, expressed disappointment at the announcement, saying they were making progress with the previously set deadline. He highlighted that Facebook has invested millions of dollars locally to support publishers through content arrangements, partnerships, and training for the industry. The ACCC will release a draft of the code at the end of July for consultation. The Congress Tuesday attacked the government for approving the use of surplus rice to produce sanitizer, with Rahul Gandhi alleging that while the poor are dying of hunger their portion of rice is being used to clean the hands of the rich. "After all, when will India's poor wake up? You are dying of hunger and they are busy cleaning the hands of the rich by making sanitizers from your portion of rice," he said in a tweet in Hindi. He attached a report about the government's decision to allow the use of surplus rice for manufacturing sanitizers, which are in huge demand owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera also said the country was going through a very painful time, and while many people face food scarcity, rice is being given out for making sanitizers. He said there were several reports that migrant labourers walking miles and miles for days to reach their homes struggled for food, even though Food Corporation of India godowns are full. He said the surplus food grain reserves should have been used to expand the food safety net. There has been a demand from various quarters to universalise the PDS. let's assume for a minute that even if we have to feed 80 percent of our population for the next 6 months under universalised PDS, giving them 10 kg of food grains per month, do you know we are capable of doing that for the next 6 months," he said. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also requested the government to ensure that people, who do not qualify for the Right to Food Act, are given food grains free of cost, he said. "In a scenario like this, if you come and announce that okay, rice, extra rice, surplus rice will be used to make sanitizers, it is a cruel joke, he said. Khera urged the government to ask the distilleries to use their infrastructure to make sanitizer. Instead of announcing that 10 kg food grains will be given to all families whether or not they are under the PDS, the government announced that surplus rice will be used to make sanitizers, he said. This is shocking beyond belief. The Congress has been highlighting the problem of the poor and vulnerable sections in society since the lockdown was imposed on March 25 to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country. The opposition party has been urging the government to grant free ration to all of them as well as provide Rs 7,500 in the bank accounts of every person to help them tide over the crisis due to the coronavirus-forced lockdown. The government on Monday approved that surplus rice available with Food Corporation of India (FCI) can be converted into ethanol in order to manufacture alcohol-based hand sanitizers and also for blending with petrol. The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC). Meanwhile, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan asserted that there is no shortage of food grains in the country for the poor and asked Rahul Gandhi to shun his "negative mindset. Paswan hit back at Rahul Gadhi and questioned if he does not want the economically weaker sections to use sanitizers and masks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump takes questions at the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House on April 19. Tasos Katopodis/Getty On Sunday, President Donald Trump defended protesters resisting coronavirus lockdowns, some of whom have sent death threats to governors, as "good people" who were suffering from "cabin fever." Trumps comments were made after a week of unrest in the US, with anti-lockdown protests taking place in several states, and death threats being made against Democrat governors. Trump added as an explanation that he had never seen so many American flags, and that these people loved America and wanted to get back to work. Visit Business Insider's home page for more stories. President Donald Trump is calling protesters who are rallying against coronavirus lockdowns and in some cases even threatening the lives of governors "good people." At a coronavirus briefing at the White House on Sunday, Trump was asked by a reporter whether he was inciting violence by calling on people to "liberate" states, including Michigan, Virginia and Kentucky, which are currently on coronavirus lockdown. He said: "They've got cabin fever. They want their lives back." He added: "No I am not [inciting violence]. I've never seen so many American flags. These people love our country. They want to get back to work." He was then asked if he had seen news reports about Nazi flags, and said: "I totally would say, no way. I'm sure the news plays that up. I've seen American flags, all over the place." The reporter's question on Sunday came following reports of death threats against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear all Democrats. One public death threat against Beshear was made on a forum on Facebook started by the Cincinnati Enquirer. The comment said: "Down with Beshear! First he denies us our constitutionally protected right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Then he denies us of our constitutionally protected right to practice our religion. Now he denies us are constitutionally protected right the peaceful protest. By these ... unconstitutional acts on the part of Andy Beshear the Constitution protects us and gives us the authority to eliminate him by any means necessary via the Second Amendment." Story continues The person who made the comment later said it wasn't a threat. It's not the first time Trump has sided with protesters who have been attending rallies and breaching lockdown protocols. According to CNN, last week when he was asked about protests in Michigan, instead of using his platform to tell people to stay home, he said: "Well, they've been going through this a long time, and it's been a tough process for people ... there's death and there's problems staying at home, too." Following that, on Friday the president tweeted: "LIBERATE VIRGINIA," adding that the Second Amendment needed to be saved since it was under siege. He was referring to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's crackdown on gun ownership. Trump also tweeted in support of anti-lockdown protests in Michigan and Minnesota. After Trump's "LIBERATE" tweets, NBC reported that far-right social media users were saying the president was showing his support for a call to arms. Read the original article on Business Insider JERUSALEM - Israels embattled prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has notched two critical victories in this weeks power-sharing agreement with his chief rival: He can stay in office throughout his upcoming corruption trial, and he can press forward with a potentially explosive plan to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu and former military chief Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White Party, announced their national emergency government late Monday, ending 16 months of political paralysis and narrowly averting an unprecedented fourth national election in just over a year. The emergency governments stated mission is to steer the country through the coronavirus crisis, which has killed over 180 Israelis and put a quarter of the country out of work. But after a bruising period of prolonged political stalemate, both men also appear to have been driven toward each other by their deepest survival instincts. Netanyahu and Gantz agreed to rotate 18-month terms as prime minister, and they have evenly divided key government ministries and parliamentary committees. In effect, each side will be able to veto the others actions. Commentator Sima Kadmon said the coronavirus crisis served as the pretext for the unlikely alliance. The real goal was Netanyahus effort to buy time, she wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily. An early test for the alliance will be an issue close to Netanyahus heart: the annexation of large parts of the West Bank. Such a move would destroy any lingering hopes of establishing an independent Palestinian state and draw widespread international condemnation. Netanyahu and his pro-settler base see an opportunity under the friendly administration of President Donald Trump who seeks re-election in November. Although their government is to focus on coronavirus issues for its first six months, Netanyahu persuaded Gantz to allow him to raise annexation plans in the Cabinet from July 1. Netanyahu could still face some obstacles. The deal says any move would require U.S. support and need to take into account the opinions of key allies. Gantz has given annexation only lukewarm support. But the vague language of their deal allows Netanyahu to present the proposal to parliament where he appears to have majority support for the idea even without Gantzs backing. Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called the coalition agreement a threat to regional peace and security. It is an international responsibility to hold the new Israeli government accountable, he said. The coalition deal has also come under heavy criticism in Israel. Through three bitter election campaigns in the past year, Gantz portrayed himself as the antithesis to Netanyahu and repeatedly vowed never to sit in a government with a prime minister suspected of serious crimes. After the most recent election last month, Gantz even began pushing legislation in parliament to ban the indicted Netanyahu from remaining as prime minister. Yet with the clock ticking, and his fragile alliance unraveling, Gantz accepted Netanyahus invitation last month to form a government together. The sudden announcement angered many of his supporters and broke up the Blue and White alliance, leaving him with only a shrunken version of the party. A fourth election would likely have sent Gantz into political irrelevance. Speaking in parliament Tuesday, Gantz vowed to uphold the rule of law. I took upon myself the mission to safeguard the democracy because I believe it is the most significant source of strength as a society, he said. Netanyahu also defended the deal as best for the nation. Yet for all of his talk in recent weeks about the coronavirus and national unity, leaks from the coalition negotiations indicated he was also motivated by his own personal survival as he prepares to go on trial. Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals. He denies the charges and says he is the victim of a hostile media and aggressive prosecution. Yair Lapid, who withdrew his Yesh Atid party from Blue and White last month and will likely be the next opposition leader, said Tuesday that he apologized to those he persuaded to vote for Gantz. There hasnt been a fraud like this since the state was established, said Lapid. You dont fight corruption from within. If youre in, youre part of it. While Israeli law requires public officials to resign if charged with a crime, that does not apply to sitting prime ministers. Although Netanyahu is supposed to step aside next year under the deal, it creates a new position of designated prime minister that would permit him to remain in office while on trial. Netanyahu has been desperate to stay as prime minister. As the case against him has gained steam, the office has provided him a high-profile stage to lash out against his opponents and rally his base. And last month, his hand-picked justice minister managed to delay Netanyahus trial until late May. Although Netanyahu will not be able to prevent the trial, he nonetheless will be able to continue to use his office as a bully pulpit throughout the proceedings. Several non-profit advocacy groups filed challenges to the coalition deal, asking the Supreme Court to ban an indicted politician, such as Netanyahu, from being allowed to form a new government. If the court rules in favour of the challenge, the deal could unravel and the country could still be plunged into new elections. Yohanan Plesner, a former lawmaker who is now president of the Israel Democracy Institute, said the coalition agreement ends a difficult stalemate but offers little hope. He said the government would likely make progress on consensus issues, like rescuing the economy and passing a budget. But in other areas, including annexation, I very much expect it to be very difficult, he said. It will be mainly a government of mutual vetoes and paralysis. Louisiana health officials reported that coronavirus cases rose by 331 to a total of 24,854 on Tuesday. 1,405 people have now died of coronavirus in Louisiana. That's an increase of 77 deaths from Monday's Louisiana Department of Health report. Infectious-disease experts and state health officials have cautioned that the daily figures are often impacted by late reporting that makes it difficult to draw conclusions from only a few days of data. The number of patients in hospitals increased by four on Tuesday. There are now 1,798 hospitalized coronavirus patients in Louisiana. 297 patients require a ventilator. That number is down from a reported 332 on Monday. Louisiana saw peak ventilator usage at 571 patients on April 4. 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 Louisiana Department of Health releases updated coronavirus data every day at noon here. This report will be updated. MORE DATA BELOW Charles Udoh, Commissioner for Information, Akwa Ibom State, in this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, speaks on a recent press statement by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Akwa Ibom State Council, which seemed like an indictment on him and the Akwa Ibom government. PT: You have seen the press statement by the NUJ, Akwa Ibom State? UDOH: I have seen it, its just unfortunate. The last time we had a press conference (to update the people on COVID-19), we carried them along. The reason why we didnt do this one (invite the NUJ leadership and several other journalists) is that the issue of social distancing was flagged by the healthcare professionals, so they advised that we minimise the number. Given, I should have explained this to Amos Etuk (the NUJ chairman), but I was caught up in the frenzy of things. PT: Why not have the briefing in a large place that can accommodate many journalists? UDOH: Large place? Like where? PT: A place that can accommodate at least up to 20 journalists, while you can still adhere to social distancing? UDOH: Nobody was prepared for this scenario, we are making plans to forestall this misunderstanding, going forward. It is a one-off (thing) and, of course, we have learned from that experience. We are going to try other options. PT: Why dont you have an email listing so that even those who dont attend press briefings could be sent? UDOH: (Cuts in) You know, what we do is that the Correspondents Chapel, for instance, has a WhatsApp group, so we go to the WhatsApp group. Having an email listing would be duplicating. Everyone (journalist) belongs to one WhatsApp group or the other. PT: We learnt there is a conflict between your office and that of the chief press secretary to the Governor, regarding who manages information about this (coronavirus)? UDOH: There is no conflict. The office of the chief press secretary is responsible for anything that has to do with the governor of the state, the office of the honourable commissioner has to do with the state, inclusive of what happens around the governor. That is why the office of the commissioner also has an oversight function. For instance, in the (Government House) press corps, every press person is a staff of the ministry of information, the chief information officer (in the Government House press corps) is a staff of the ministry of information. The truth is that because of the nature of the work, there must always be an overlap. PT: There was this press release you issued that the state government is going to take aggressive approach towards (COVID-19) testing and then later in the day what we learnt is that the SSG said something different. UDOH: (Cuts in) There is nothing different, look at the two press statements. PT: What the SSG meant is that people can call in and say they want to be tested for.. UDOH: What did I say in the press statement? PT: Yours, we learnt, gave the impression that government may likely go from house to house to run the test. UDOH: Please, read the two press statements. PT: There are lots of things written about you on Facebook, there seems to be loss of confidence between you and journalists? UDOH: Well, I am not aware of that. PT: There is a guy on Facebook. UDOH: You know a lot of people say all kinds of things and some of them are sponsored. Right now, I have a guy behind bars who slandered me. PT: Some guy wrote this on Facebook, Charles Udoh would hardly address people in two sentences without bragging.. UDOH: (Cuts in) . If somebody sits down in a beer palour and write something, I am not going to be reacting to those. If it is in a major medium then I can react. That means I would be throwing stones on every dog that barks at me.. By virtue of the fact I am a public officer it is expected that people will say those things about you. If anybody slanders me, of course, the law will take its course. Advertisements PT: We have seen a lot of people asking Governor Udom Emmanuel to come out and lead (in the fight against COVID-19), that the people have not been seeing more of him? UDOH: If it is in a credible medium, I will answer. But if it is on Facebook. See, if you have never managed a kiosk, you cannot manage a supermarket. Some guys who have not been able to manage themselves coming to advise the governor! PT: But Facebook gives people a platform to express their feelings? UDOH: Sorry, ask me something that are from credible sources. PT: Is the governor leading the fight (against COVID-19)? UDOH: This government has always said that we dont play to the gallery, the Secretary to the State Government is the chairman of the COVID-19 (Response) Team in Akwa Ibom. President Buhari is not out there in the front leading, (but) he is the president of Nigeria. How come President Buhari is not coming out too? The Secretary to the State Government is senior enough to lead the committee just like (what is happening) in the federal structure. I dont see what is wrong with that. The committee briefs the governor at every instance, the governor is up to speed with what is happening. The governor does not need to be physically there, going to sit at the border, wearing a (face) mask. PT: But his people would like to see him, there is some kind of reassurance the people have when they get to see more of their governor. UDOH: The governor has spoken with the people I think twice or so. What else would the governor do that he hasnt done? PT: And you think that is enough? UDOH: What would you rather have him do? .There is something call delegation. Leaders delegate. The chief of army staff is not in Sambisa (forest) attacking Boko Haram, he has commanders. As a leader, you dont bury your head in the trenches, once you get into the trenches youll lose the strategic focus. As a leader, you sit down and develop a strategy and use your team to implement the strategy. People have different leadership style. Who is the chairman of COVID-19 in Nigeria? Boss Mustapha (the Secretary to the Government of the Federation). Who is the chairman of COVID-19 in Akwa Ibom state? The Secretary to the State Government. PT: People expect that the private hospital in which a doctor died recently on suspicion of COVID-19 should have been shut down by now? UDOH: Have you been to the hospital today? Weve done what we need to do. READ ALSO: Now, no one was prepared for this situation. From China, to Europe, and to the United States, what everyone is doing is that you learn as situation evolves, you adjust as situation evolves. Nobody would have thought that we would need a 300-bed isolation centre, but circumstances have forced us to build it, that is what we just went to inspect today. That is why, for instance, the Akwa Ibom state government sat down and said what do we do, our children are going to sit for NECO and WAEC exams? If we allow them to stay at home for too long they would become rusty. And so we initiated the school on radio programme. We are going to start it this week. It is going to be on AKBC-Radio. PT: How about thousands of people in rural areas who dont have radio? UDOH: So, what do we do? Should we use town criers? What could we have done? If you say we should do it online, how many guys in Eastern Obolo are online? If you say we should use TV, how many people have TV set? But radio, even if you dont have it, many people can cluster around one to listen to it. PT: How about the challenge of electric power supply? UDOH: They will use battery. There are transistor radio that use battery. If one person can afford it (radio set) they can all cluster. Is it not better than doing nothing? PT: Are you satisfied with the way journalists are reporting COVID-19 in Akwa Ibom state? UDOH: I wouldnt want to judge our colleagues. One thing I would want to continuously say is that we need to look at this thing beyond individuals, beyond political lines, beyond religious lines. We need to look at this thing as something that concerns every one of us; it could be anyone the next minute. No one has complete knowledge of this thing, nobody was prepared for this. That is why I am on the street, from morning till night I am on the street because we have a responsibility. Along the line we will make mistakes. Along the line, we will take decisions that people dont quite understand. What we expect is that when people look at all that (we have done), they should say look, this decision, these guys took it in good faith. If you dont understand, ask questions, ask for clarification so that together we can win this fight. Whether I am the commissioner for information today or tomorrow, it doesnt change the fact that there is COVID-19. When we finish the (COVID-19) fight you can call for the commissioner of information to go. PT: People feel the (Akwa Ibom) government has not been sincere with their information dissemination (on COVID-19). UDOH: Can you give me specific examples? .You see, that is a fallacy of hasty generalisation. PT: How many persons have been tested (for COVID-19) so far in Akwa Ibom? UDOH: The NCDC publishes the record, we dont control that process. The tests are not conducted in Akwa Ibom state. .. I cant give you that update now because that happens on a regular basis, unless I check with the situation room. PT: The last time you had information on it, it was like how many? UDOH: Hold on. For instance, the first batch that had five cases, we sent 17 samples and then, of course, five of them came back positive. This last batch that we just did, we sent 16 samples, three of them came back positive. The NCDC supplies us test kits, we dont have the test kits. We are looking to buy but we cant find it. PT: I mean the number of. UDOH: (Cuts in) . Hold on. Hold on. I have just given you some statistics. It is what they (NCDC) give us that we use. PT: What you are saying is that the number of tests you conduct depends on the number of testing equipment they send to you? UDOH: Not really. There are a few factors that determine how people are tested. One, the number of test kits that we have. Two, when people call in the situation room, there are people, professors headed by Professor Etette who look at and profile the patients to see whether they are qualified to be tested or not. Not everyone who complains of headache, catarrh, and cough that must be tested. We dont even have the number of test kits to test everybody. And no one person can decide who gets tested, it is the committee that decides. But one of the challenges we are having is that people would call in and start playing games. For instance, somebody called in and said we should come to Eket. We sent an ambulance from Uyo to Eket, when we got to Eket, to the address the man gave, he gave us another address a different one, and after a while he laughed and cut off the call. Some call (the COVID-19 response line) to beg for money. Its a serious thing. PT: Whats the level of assistance the state government is getting from private sector in the state? UDOH: Well, we still want more. A few of them has. I dont have the details here because we keep updating them. Zenith bank has come, UBA has come, Sterling Oil has given us an ambulance and some PPE. PT: Some people believe that because we are not having many (indigenous) companies come out to support the government at this critical point is an indictment that the private sector does not really exist in Akwa Ibom? UDOH: You know, one of the things we have been saying from day one since we came here is trying to move the economy of Akwa Ibom state from being a public sector-oriented to a private sector-driven economy. Look at Lagos state, for instance. The isolation centre that they have was built for them by a bank. Yes, of course, we have private sector, we are trying to change that orientation gradually. Some of them have supported us, some of those construction companies have given as much as N10 million each. The Maharashtra government on Tuesday opened an account on the lines of PM CARES Fund for companies to provide donations under corporate social responsibility (CSR) and claim tax benefits. The account, known as the Maharashtra State Disaster Management Authority, was set up after the Centre refused to give tax exemptions to donations made to the CM Relief Fund. It has been opened in State Bank of India's Wodehouse Road Branch in Colaba area of south Mumbai, with account number 39265578866, IFSC SBIN0000572 and MICR 400002087. Leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis and Congress state spokesperson Sachin Sawant have maintained that the state government can set up a bank account offering CSR benefits. The Maharashtra BJP unit had come under severe criticism for announcing that its functionaries would donate to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief In Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES) to combat the coronavirus outbreak instead of the CM Relief Fund. Also Read: Raghuram Rajan rubbishes report of chairing IMF webinar on coronavirus Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown Live Updates: Delhi-Noida border completely shut; doctors, goods transport exempted STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- Anthony Recanatini turned a portion of his Tompkinsville home into an artistic studio, where he let out his deepest feelings on the current coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The 39-year-old Brooklyn native made a mural of the New York City skyline, with buildings dipped in multicolor, in the man cave of his Staten Island home. The mural, towering over six-feet tall, reads: I want my magical city back." It took the artist a day and a half to complete. Illustrated on the wall is an animated depiction of the coronavirus holding a spray can, balancing out the smaller sphere that depicts the sun over the NYC skyline. Our city is magical and Im proud to be a New Yorker, Recanatini told SILive. I feel like were robbed of its beauty right now. We cant go out, we cant enjoy our surroundings as much, and do anything we would normally do. A second piece adorns the walls of Recanatinis home art studio, accompanied by animated coronavirus cells and toilet paper rolls over his tag name. When it comes to art, he has a golden rule: If it cant be done in a day, I wont go back to it. If I come back to it with fresh eyes, Ill hate what I did and want to start over. I try to stay in the moment as long as possible. When he is not tagging the walls of his in-home art studio, Recanatini is an art teacher who works with autistic children at Community Resources. He teaches students how to use water color and paint on an array of canvases. I would offer to do virtual art classes, but some of my students are non-verbal, Recanatini said. I think thats the hardest part of this whole quarantine for me -- not being able to be hand-in-hand with my students, teaching them the craft I love so much. This is my way of coping. For more of Recanatinis work, follow the artist on Instagram. Vulnerable families are pleading with supermarkets to do more to ensure they can get regular food deliveries. Many say they are being forced to stay up into the small hours to try to secure a delivery spot as soon as they become available. Even then, they are not always successful, leaving them fearful they could run out of food. Last week, Ian Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh South, said he had been inundated with calls from vulnerable constituents unable to book delivery slots. He said: 'My office has never dealt with so many heart-breaking cases, with scared, isolated and vulnerable residents struggling to receive food deliveries.' In demand: Vulnerable families are pleading with supermarkets to do more to ensure they can get regular food deliveries Supermarkets and consumer experts are now urging people who are able to visit the shops to do so and save online delivery slots for those who need them most. Christine Appleyard's daughter, Evie, six, is on the Government's vulnerable list due to complex health issues. But Christine, Evie's sole carer, is still struggling to place orders despite checking supermarket websites almost hourly. After waiting up until midnight several nights in a row, Christine, 41, finally got a Tesco delivery last week. But she now has to wait two weeks for another. She says: 'I don't have time to wait on hold for hours or stay up past midnight for a slot. I need to take care of my daughter. We are having to plan our meals very carefully to ensure supplies last. 'I know other parents of severely disabled children are in the same situation. Supermarkets are not doing enough to ensure our families are not going without.' Pensioners Patricia and Geoff Cravitz say they are having to rely on neighbours and volunteers to do their shopping because they cannot get a regular delivery slot. How the big stores compare Tesco has contacted 230,000 vulnerable customers to offer priority delivery slots. If you have an NHS letter you can create an account online or call 0800 917 7359. There are a total of 964,000 delivery slots available each week. Tesco will not say how many of these are reserved for vulnerable shoppers. Sainsbury's has contacted around 700,000 customers to offer priority slots. If you are not one of them and have an NHS letter, call 0800 636 262. It's aiming to have 600,000 delivery slots a week, with thousands for those at risk. Customers can also add up to 250 on to an online Volunteer Shopping Card (sainsburysgiftcard.co.uk) which can be emailed to someone shopping on their behalf. Waitrose is delivering up to 100,000 orders a week, with 25 per cent of slots for vulnerable customers. Its new service, Waitrose Rapid, will deliver up to 25 items within two hours. Some 40 per cent of these slots will be for priority customers. Asda has emailed 70,000 vulnerable customers to offer them first access to delivery slots. Shoppers can choose to have a repeat delivery of the same items. Morrisons' telephone service for vulnerable and elderly customers offers next-day delivery of 47 essential items, including milk, butter and eggs. Bills can be paid on the doorstep with a debit or credit card. Call 0345 611 6111 and choose option five. No proof of eligibility is required. Aldi has launched a new service for vulnerable customers. Food parcels of 22 essentials, such as tinned soups and dried pasta, can be ordered online (aldi.co.uk/food-parcels) for 24.99, including delivery. However, this service is limited to one per week. Iceland says it has contacted 79,000 vulnerable customers on the Government's list to offer delivery slots. New customers can register online to access these (iceland.co.uk). The couple have been self-isolating at their home in Bournemouth for more than five weeks and have accounts with all the major supermarkets. However, it was only by waiting up until 2am that they finally managed to book a Sainsbury's delivery. Patricia, 80, says: 'It has been very hard work. Getting a slot becomes your life. Supermarkets should be offering different time slots for different categories of vulnerable people to give us all a chance.' Patricia, a former social worker, is able to order up to ten items over the phone from her local Waitrose to be delivered the next day, as part of a scheme run by Bournemouth council. When she last called she requested a Victoria sponge for her husband's birthday and staff added complimentary flowers, a birthday card, candles and champagne. Patricia says: 'This service has provided such relief and staff really have gone the extra mile. 'But I don't want to bother the volunteers too much if I can just order online.' Each supermarket has its own database of priority customers based on information it holds, such as from online accounts. The Government has also shared a list of extremely vulnerable people with all supermarkets so they can prioritise these customers. In addition, the NHS has written to 1.3million people who are most at risk of the coronavirus this includes those who have had organ transplants or are undergoing chemotherapy, for example and who are therefore eligible to receive more support. If you have received a letter, visit www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable to register for extra help, such as with supermarket deliveries. If you have not received one and consider yourself to be vulnerable, speak to your GP. Vulnerable people in Scotland, including those who are over 70, disabled, or unable to get online, can call 0800 111 4000 to get help accessing food and medicine. Martyn James, from complaints website Resolver, says: 'This should not be happening. The supermarkets and Government need to be prioritising vulnerable families. 'People should not be ordering online if they can go to a supermarket to save the slots for those who need them.' a.murray@dailymail.co.uk A Labor Ministry official said around 30,000 garment workers were being placed in 14-day isolation, with around 15,000 of the workers located in the capital. The Labor and Health Ministries have started conducting health checkups in the capital and provinces to monitor the spread of the novel coronavirus. These workers had either applied for leave or skipped work during the canceled Khmer New Year holidays last week, stoking fears of the disease spreading through the provinces. Heng Sour, a Ministry of Labor spokesperson, spoke to reporters at the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone, where a few hundreds of the workers waited to have health checks. He said that around 30,000 garment workers took leave during Khmer New Year, 15,000 of whom were now in Phnom Penh. He said that the Ministry of Labor in cooperation with City Hall and Ministry of Health had set up 10 temporary locations in Phnom Penh to conduct the health check for five straight days. If workers exhibited no symptoms of the respiratory disease, he said, they would get a doctors letter allowing them to self-isolate at home. Others with symptoms, or with no place to self-isolate, would be monitored at the government facilities and likely tested for the virus. If they're found without any symptoms, the doctor will give a letter showing that they don't have the symptoms, he said. Thus, it means that they should do self-quarantine at home or at the rental place. As of Monday noon, Heng Sour said that two workers were found with symptoms related to COVID-19, not elaborating if they had been tested. Awaiting a check-up at the special economic zone, 28-year-old worker Toung Sovann said she had received an SMS from the factory asking her to come get tested. I think it's good to do a check-up to see if we are infected. If we come to do a check-up, we will know for sure that we're not infected, she said. Ken Loo, secretary-general at the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said the industry body had asked all factories and workers to comply with the governments directive, adding that failure to get a health check could be cause for dismissal. If they don't come for the check-up, it's a big mistake. The company has the rights to lay them off, he said. Not coming to do a check-up means not coming to work. Yang Sophorn, president of Cambodia Alliance of Trade Unions, said the 14-day isolation period would put financial stress on the workers, with only those who asked for leave receiving 7 days of salaries. Others, the ministry has ordered, will get no compensation during the quarantined period. First, they can't generate income. Second, how would they provide for daily expenses? she said. Third, how can they pay rent? Yang Sophorn also voiced concerns on workers who have been fired because they didn't come to work during Khmer New Year. Last week, VOA Khmer reported that workers had been fired even though they had asked for permission to travel to their hometowns but couldnt return on account of a travel ban enforced by the government to prevent workers from flocking to the provinces. As of Tuesday, Cambodia had reported no new cases for nine straight days, with the national tally standing at 122 cases and 110 reported recoveries. Australian online learning startup EdApp has entered into a partnership with the United Nations to provide free online education to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. EdApp and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) on Wednesday launched "Educate All", a global learning initiative designed to democratise and increase access to adult education. Darren Winterford, founder of EdApp. Credit:James Brickwood The partnership will open up parts of EdApp's mobile learning platform for hundreds of thousands of people around the world from war torn Afghanistan to Haiti. EdApp was founded by Darren Winterford in 2015 and the platform secured $4 million in funding two years ago from Australian technology unicorn SafetyCulture. A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB), S.D. to Andersen AFB, Guam, prepares to fly a bilateral mission with Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-15s in the vicinity of the Senkaku Islands, on Aug. 15, 2017. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Airman 1st Class Christopher Quail) House Panel Aims to Confront China With $6 Billion in New Defense Spending News Analysis The U.S. House Armed Services Committee has bipartisan support to accelerate up to $6.1 billion in funding for the Indo-Pacific Deterrence Initiative (IPDI) to challenge Chinas aggression. When U.S. Adm. Philip Davidson warned in December 2019 that Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road) was a shrewd tactic that combined political, economic, or military pressure to undermine Indo-Pacific sovereignty, he indicated that Congress was still tentative about funding a response. But anger over the Chinese regimes dishonesty and attempts to shift blame for the COVID-19 pandemic has generated bipartisan congressional support to put our money where our mouth is, according to Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) has consistently argued for a multi-level plansimilar to the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI) passed in 2014 to deter Russian aggression after its annexing of Crimeato challenge Chinas persistently aggressive actions in the eastern Pacific and Indian oceans. Smith lobbied his committee to include Section 1253 language in the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), to require the Pentagon to report back to Congress by mid-March with an analysis of the need for some form of IDPI. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Commands declassified response stated that U.S. military forces would need $1.6 billion for the 2021 fiscal year budget, and another $18.5 billion over the following five years to regain the advantage over China in the region. The major spending priorities necessary to persuade potential adversaries that any preemptive military action will be extremely costly and likely fail include $5.85 billion for Joint Force Lethality; $5.9 billion for Force Design and Posture; $384 million to Strengthen Allies; $2.87 billion for Exercises and Innovation; and $5.11 billion for logistics. Thornberry on April 16 called for $6.09 billion in IPDI funding for the fiscal year that begins in October 2021, reflecting on Congress growing motivation to confront the Chinese regime. This effort consolidates and funds the policies, infrastructure, and platforms needed to reassure our allies and partners, while we deter China, Thornberry told Defense News. Thornberrys bill would spend $2.1 billion for various military construction projects; $1 billion for training; $819 million to buy and forward preposition munitions; $312.8 million for the Missile Defense Agency; $162 million for improved Hawaiian homeland defense radar; and $77 million to harden frontline air and missile defense system on Guam. Also due to the growing congressional distrust of Chinas intentions, the bill would also fund another $378.5 million for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, while pledging $350 million to assist U.S. allies and partners with new counter-terrorism efforts by modernizing communications architecture and systems. Smith is pleased that Thornberry supports the creation of an Indo-Pacific Reassurance Initiative and will gladly consider bipartisan policy suggestions that avoid gimmicks and effectively support our national security, Smiths spokesperson Monica Matoush said. By PTI MOSCOW: Hundreds of people defied social distancing recommendations in Russia's Northern Caucasus Monday to protest against coronavirus restrictions and economic hardship, in one of the first major lockdown protests in the country. Protesters -- including some who have lost their jobs during the lockdown -- gathered in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus region. Many called for the resignation of local governor Vyacheslav Bitarov. "Resign! Resign!" the crowd chanted, in footage posted on social media. "Companies have been closed, and people have lost their source of income," one protester, Indira Gabolayeva, told AFP. "They don't know how to go on living. They fear hunger more than some infection," she added. Gabolayeva said the lockdown had exacerbated existing social and economic problems, including the weakening of the ruble due to low oil prices. Most of the protesters wore no face masks and ignored social distancing recommendations. Gabolayeva said many protesters doubted the seriousness of the coronavirus and questioned the need for the lockdown. Authorities deployed riot police and several protesters including top activists were detained, said OVD-Info which tracks opposition rallies. There was no immediate comment from the regional administration or police. But Bitarov, the regional head, went to speak to the protesters who were invited to nominate representatives for talks with authorities, local television reported. The protest came amid simmering anger at what many Russians say is a lack of adequate support for ordinary people and for small and medium-sized businesses during the epidemic. President Vladimir Putin urged Russians to stay at home and told their employers to continue paying their salaries but gave the companies little tangible support. Russia has reported 47,121 cases of the coronavirus, more than half of them in Moscow, and 405 fatalities. North Ossetia has registered 145 cases and two deaths. There is no reason to assume that lockdown restrictions will be lifted on May 5, according to the Chief Medical Officer. Ireland recorded a further 44 deaths from Covid-19 in Ireland in the past 24 hours, with a total of 730 across the country. Despite the first publication of the numbers of people who have fully recovered from the virus around 55%, at 9,233, medical experts warned against public complacency, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said: "It should not be a foregone conclusion that restrictions will be lifted in May." 8,377 of those recovered at home in the community, and 856 of those recovered were discharged from hospital. Dr Holohan said although the numbers do give encouragement, it was largely unsurprising, as Ireland's hospitalisation rates among other factors show that the state is having a similar experience as other European countries. "We want to keep going with the measures that we have, to make further progress with this epidemic, we want to drive down the reproductive number as low as possible. "That we get the disease to a point whereby it is behaving in the ways that we want it to, as we approach the 5th of May that gives us an opportunity to consider, possibly lifting restrictions, but we're not at a point yet where that's the case. "There can't be any taking the foot off the gas, as we approach the 5th of May, because that's simply going to contribute to further spread and is likely to impact our ability to be able to consider measures." It was also noted that the demand for referrals for tests had also decreased, now approaching around 1,500 a day on average. Dr Cillian De Gascun noted that, the National Public Health Emeregncy Team (NPHET) will discuss case definition and criteria for testing "soon and maybe make it more sensitive". "We are currently seeing around a 20% positivity rate in tests, and we want to drive that down and want to find every case and test more." He added that as the backlog in testing is now cleared, no Irish tests have been sent to Germany this week, but will retain the relationship on a contingency basis. Attention has now turned to nursing homes and other residential care settings, which has now reached a total of 502 deaths from residential settings, 427 of those in nursing homes. Testing in homes has been ramped up since Friday, after increased pressure from the sector and the public, and the high profile resignation of a member of the Irish Medical Council, who alleged that those in nursing homes had been left behind by the government. Teams are now visiting homes across the country, where 176 clusters have been identified, to test residents and staff, as well as deliveries of over 1 million items of PPE and other medical equipment have begun to roll out. Dr Holohan admitted it had been a "challenge" with nursing homes in the pandemic, but stood by the efforts made by the Department of Health. "The spread of this infection in nursing homes is a different experience from that the whole population has had," he said. "We have to intensify the efforts in relation to nursing homes, arising from recommendations to the NPHET, it is a continued effort in the HSE to implement those measures, and we're intensifying our efforts to understand exactly what's happening, and to also intensify the testing regime, as it applies to both nursing home residents, and staff, starting with those that are challenged by existing infection and moving on to those as new cases might arise. "We're hopeful that we can slow the spread of this and those environments, and we think we have seen some evidence of that in terms of the numbers of clusters that are being reported, but until such time as we've extinguished or limited the transmission, we're going to continue with those efforts." [snippet1]987600[/snippet1] By A. Ananthalakshmi and Rozanna Latiff KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 (Reuters) - A Chinese government survey ship is tagging an exploration vessel operated by Malaysia's state oil company Petronas in disputed waters in the South China Sea, three regional security sources said on Friday. China's Haiyang Dizhi 8 entered waters near Malaysia on Thursday, according to ship tracking website Marine Traffic. On Friday, it was close to the Petronas-operated West Capella, according to the security sources, who did not want to be identified because they were not authorised to talk to the media. One of the sources said a Vietnamese vessel was also tagging the West Capella. The area is close to waters claimed by both Vietnam and Malaysia as well by China, through its sweeping claim to most of the South China Sea within its U-shaped 'nine-dash line' that is not recognised by its neighbours or most of the world. The United States has accused China of taking advantage of the distraction of the coronavirus pandemic to advance its presence in the South China Sea. On Wednesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the Haiyang Dizhi 8 was conducting normal activities and accused U.S. officials of smearing Beijing. A Malaysian security source said the Haiyang Dizhi 8 was flanked at one point on Friday by more than 10 Chinese vessels, including those belonging to maritime militia and the coast guard. That source also mentioned the Vietnamese vessel. The Malaysian prime minister's office, the defense ministry and Petronas did not respond to requests for comment. Zubil Mat Som, the head of Malaysia's maritime enforcement agency, confirmed that the Haiyang Dizhi 8 was in Malaysian waters, Malay-language daily Harian Metro reported. "We do not know its purpose but it is not carrying out any activities against the law," he said, according to the report. The foreign ministries of China and Vietnam did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Haiyang Dizhi 8 was 324 km (200 miles) off the Malaysian coast, within Malaysia's exclusive economic zone, Marine Traffic data showed. Story continues It was flanked by a Chinese coastguard vessel as it moved in a hash-shaped pattern consistent with carrying out a survey, as it did during a tense standoff in Vietnamese waters last year. The West Capella was not visible on the tracking data, but the security sources said the vessel was in the area. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, a Washington DC-based think tank, has signalled its presence there since October. China has sent medical help to Malaysia, which has reported more than 5,000 coronavirus infections. China claims almost all of the energy-rich South China Sea, also a major trade route each year. The Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan have overlapping claims. (Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi and Rozanna Latiff; Additional reporting by Joseph Sipalan in Kuala Lumpur, James Pearson in Hanoi and Judy Hua in Beijing; Editing by Matthew Tostevin and Philippa Fletcher) Days after the US government allowed applicants for H-1B visas to continue in the country, President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a temporary suspension of immigration into the country. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!, the US President wrote in a Twitter post. Details of Trump's executive order were not immediately known. He also did not indicate when he will sign such an ... Mongolian Mining (HKG:975) shareholders are no doubt pleased to see that the share price has bounced 34% in the last month alone, although it is still down 22% over the last quarter. But that will do little to salve the savage burn caused by the 70% share price decline, over the last year. Assuming no other changes, a sharply higher share price makes a stock less attractive to potential buyers. While the market sentiment towards a stock is very changeable, in the long run, the share price will tend to move in the same direction as earnings per share. The implication here is that deep value investors might steer clear when expectations of a company are too high. One way to gauge market expectations of a stock is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). Investors have optimistic expectations of companies with higher P/E ratios, compared to companies with lower P/E ratios. See our latest analysis for Mongolian Mining Does Mongolian Mining Have A Relatively High Or Low P/E For Its Industry? Mongolian Mining's P/E of 0.59 indicates relatively low sentiment towards the stock. We can see in the image below that the average P/E (9.7) for companies in the metals and mining industry is higher than Mongolian Mining's P/E. SEHK:975 Price Estimation Relative to Market April 21st 2020 Its relatively low P/E ratio indicates that Mongolian Mining shareholders think it will struggle to do as well as other companies in its industry classification. While current expectations are low, the stock could be undervalued if the situation is better than the market assumes. You should delve deeper. I like to check if company insiders have been buying or selling. How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios Generally speaking the rate of earnings growth has a profound impact on a company's P/E multiple. When earnings grow, the 'E' increases, over time. And in that case, the P/E ratio itself will drop rather quickly. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others -- and that may attract buyers. Story continues Most would be impressed by Mongolian Mining earnings growth of 17% in the last year. A Limitation: P/E Ratios Ignore Debt and Cash In The Bank One drawback of using a P/E ratio is that it considers market capitalization, but not the balance sheet. Thus, the metric does not reflect cash or debt held by the company. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth. While growth expenditure doesn't always pay off, the point is that it is a good option to have; but one that the P/E ratio ignores. Mongolian Mining's Balance Sheet Mongolian Mining has net debt worth a very significant 713% of its market capitalization. This level of debt justifies a relatively low P/E, so remain cognizant of the debt, if you're comparing it to other stocks. The Verdict On Mongolian Mining's P/E Ratio Mongolian Mining has a P/E of 0.6. That's below the average in the HK market, which is 9.6. While the EPS growth last year was strong, the significant debt levels reduce the number of options available to management. If the company can continue to grow earnings, then the current P/E may be unjustifiably low. What is very clear is that the market has become less pessimistic about Mongolian Mining over the last month, with the P/E ratio rising from 0.4 back then to 0.6 today. For those who like to invest in turnarounds, that might mean it's time to put the stock on a watchlist, or research it. But others might consider the opportunity to have passed. When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine. Although we don't have analyst forecasts you could get a better understanding of its growth by checking out this more detailed historical graph of earnings, revenue and cash flow. But note: Mongolian Mining may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20). 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 actual number of coronavirus cases in the United States is likely significantly higher as much 10 or even 20 times higher than the tally of Covid-19 infections currently being reported, a former top federal health official said Tuesday. "There's certainly under-diagnosis going on," Dr. Scott Gottlieb said during an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box." As of Tuesday, there were more than 787,900 coronavirus cases officially diagnosed in the U.S., with at least 42,364 deaths from the virus. The actual number of cases "probably is 10 times as many," said Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a CNBC contributor. "We're probably diagnosing 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 infections, and that's what some of the reliable analyses are now showing," he said. If Gottlieb is correct, that would mean that there are between almost 8 million and 15.75 million Americans who already have contracted the coronavirus, or between 2.4% to 4.8% of the U.S. population. But it would also mean that the death rate from coronavirus cases could be markedly lower than official reports. Gottlieb spoke a day after the publication of an analysis of the coronavirus outbreak in Los Angeles County, which estimated that the number of actual cases there is between 28 and 55 times greater than the number of confirmed cases, which as of Monday was just under 8,000. The University of Southern California and the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, citing antibody testing of about 863 people, estimated that slightly more than 4% of LA County's adult population has antibodies to the coronavirus. The research estimates that there are actually 221,000 to 442,000 adults in the county who have been infected. Gottlieb cautioned Tuesday that the LA analysis, and another study conducted in California, are claiming an ability to accurately detect antibodies that is "higher than any test on the market." He said that "small differences in the specificity of the test have a big difference on the reliability of the test ... so I think you need to put those particular valuations in perspective." "They might be pretty off, but most of the evaluations we have now, whether it's from Seattle, or from Europe, or the ones out of New York, suggest that anywhere from 1% to 5% of people in hot spots have been exposed to this virus," Gottlieb said. "And so, if you apply that to New York, you know, it might be that upwards of 1 million people have been exposed to this now in New York City and in the metro New York area." "And so that puts us at a case fatality rate of around 1%, perhaps a little less what we've been figuring all along," he said. From the moment he moved into the CHSLD in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre in 2012, Jonathan Marchand has wanted to move out. But never has it seemed more pressing than it does right now. "I don't feel safe at all," said Marchand, 43, who requires round-the-clock help to monitor the ventilator he needs to breathe. The COVID-19 crisis has underscored the limits of the province's long-term care system, he said, and compounded his desire to live in his own home. While there have been no cases reported at the institution where he lives, so far, Marchand said "it's inevitable" it will happen eventually, with more cases, and more deaths, spreading across the province every day. In the meantime, Quebec's ban on visits to long-term care homes has meant he and his partner who, in normal times, visit daily haven't seen each other since mid-March. "Currently, we live in total isolation, extreme isolation," said Marchand. He fears that even as as the government begins lifting restrictions, long-term care homes will be the last ones to go back to the way things were before the pandemic. "There's no end in sight," Marchand told CBC's Quebec AM. The computer network engineer has muscular dystrophy, but into his 30s, he was able to live on his own with limited assistance even spending some time working in Australia. Then a severe case of pneumonia put him in hospital in 2010, and he underwent a tracheotomy. It was two and a half years before he was released from hospital and into the CHSLD, located 35 kilometres east of Quebec City a place he is unable to call home. "Living in a long-term care facility is no life," said Marchand. "I've got no future nothing to look forward to." The benefits of community-based care Marchand has spent years researching other models for community living around the world. He's particularly interested in Sweden's, where health-care workers paid by the state go to people's homes. Story continues Marchand said the cost to Quebec of his full-time care at the CHSLD is $335,000 annually. He estimates it would cost nearly $80,000 a year less, around $256,000 annually, to pay full-time assistants to meet his health-care needs in his own home. More important, he would have control over his own life. "I need to be able to live like any other Canadian citizen in the community to be able to participate and contribute to society," he said. Marchand co-founded a co-operative called COOP-Assist, with the hope that it will become a resource for people with disabilities, allowing them to recruit their own caregivers and manage their own needs. In 2019, he was in discussions with the government about launching a pilot project, he said. Submitted by Jonathan Marchand "They were going to contact us 'in a timely manner,'" said Marchand. His co-operative is on hold, for now. A human rights issue Lawyer Paul-Claude Berube, who chairs the Canadian Accessibility Standards Development Organization, said it's been hard to persuade the present or past governments to overhaul the existing system. He said opening the door to paid home care for younger adults would mean acknowledging there is "a systemic problem." "It's more than just addressing the issue for people with disabilities," said Berube. "If you are 72 years old, and you can stay at home and just need services to get out of bed and wash, I'm sure most elderly people would choose [home]," he said. For Berube, forcing people in circumstances like Marchand's to live in a place where they don't want to be living "is totally unacceptable" and goes against the Quebec Charter of Rights. Since some people are able to afford to pay for their own home care, the government's unwillingness to subsidize that service for others "creates two classes of people with disabilities those who have money, and those who don't." There are other issues, as well. Marchand said Quebec's Professional Code, which enshrines in law which services each professional order is exclusively allowed to provide, is also an obstacle to any changes in long-term care. For instance, not all health-care providers have the right to touch a ventilator, making it harder to find a qualified caregiver to look after him in his home. "The discrimination I face is even coded into the law," said Marchand. Still, Marchand finds the lack of political will the biggest obstacle. A spokesperson for the minister responsible for seniors, Marguerite Blais, referred CBC back to the Health and Social Services Ministry. In an emailed statement, the ministry said it studied Marchand's pilot project in 2019 and found it to be "laudable." Marchand estimated it would cost $4 million to $8 million to serve 30 to 70 clients, but that would not be "financially sustainable" if it were to be applied to thousands of patients, the ministry said. "The pilot project is not coherent with the government's priorities, which are to improve assistance for users who require home care," the statement said. The ministry said it is, however, open to studying other models of care for people with disabilities being developed elsewhere in Ontario, for example. "This work will continue to evolve as quickly as possible, given the current context," it said. The Karnataka Government may spare its employees from salary cuts this month despite severe resources crunch it faces following steep fall in revenue collection due to the ongoing lockdown to fight the coronavirus, official sources said on Tuesday. As of now, there is no problem with April salary and we can manage. But if May also turns out to be a wash-out (in terms of revenue collection), then the situation is going to be very tough, a senior Minister told PTI. Ministers and members of Karnataka Legislature are taking a 30 per cent pay-cut for a year from April 1 this year. Opposition Congress in the state has vehemently opposed any possible move to cut salaries of government employees. You just cant even imagine, the Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had told PTI in an interview earlier this month on the economic impact of the lock-down on the state's finances. Yediyurappa had also said that the government is now not in a position to implement Budget proposals, barring important ones, with all kinds of revenue collections having completely stopped following the lockdown. The government recently said it proposes to regularise unauthorised properties in the state by imposing penalty, and also auction more than 12,000 corner sites belonging to the Bengaluru Development Authority, as part of resource mobilisation drive. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Samsung Electronics Vietnam facility in Thai Nguyen province (Source: VNA) Vietnam barred all travellers arriving from or through China on February 1. On February 29, the country began requiring people arriving from South Korea to undergo a two-week quarantine. Foreigners were banned from entering the country in mid-March, with possible exceptions for certain categories such as highly skilled workers and internal travel restricted as well. According to Nikkei Asian Review, the Vietnamese government ultimately decided to let in about 200 Samsung employees since late last month, waiving the quarantine requirement. They are engineers arriving to expand capacity at facilities producing OLED panels. Samsung is among the top foreign companies in Vietnam, generating a quarter of the country's exports. Its two plants in northern Vietnam handle more than half the company's global smartphone output. Last week, on April 13, a worker at a Samsung plant in Bac Ninh tested positive for coronavirus, and about 40 people were directed to self-isolate. Previously, last month, 700 South Korean engineers of Samsung Display, a supplier of Samsung Electronics and Apple, were exempted from the mandatory quarantine requirement to allow the urgent preparation of the production of screens for new smartphones. The Samsung exemptions illustrate the Vietnamese government's struggles to balance public health with economic health during the pandemic. Over the last five days, no new COVID-19 cases have been recorded. The total number of COVID-19 case in the country is 268, with 203 given the all-clear, and no death. We do know the female immune system is more active than the male immune system. The hypothesis is that its because women give birth and the female immune system has evolved around that. That can be bad for women in that women make up 80 percent of those with autoimmune diseases. Women also tend to have more frequent and more adverse reactions to vaccines. The result is that we are less good at diagnosing diseases in women. If you look at something like heart disease in the U.K., women are 50 percent more likely to be misdiagnosed than men. One outcome is that in the U.S. and the U.K., women are more likely than men to die following a heart attack. And yet you still encounter so much resistance in the research community, who say things like, The female body is too complicated, the menstrual cycle will interfere with the results. Francesca: Alisha, give us a little background on the sex data being collected. Alisha: The U.S. is one of 11 countries that arent systematically tracking infections and deaths by men and women. Since we published the sex-data article, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did release a report that included a race and a sex breakdown. But even that was a snapshot, drawing information from hospital networks in parts of 14 states. Francesca: What implications does this have in our search for a vaccine? Alisha: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is already in phase one human trials for a potential vaccine on 45 healthy adults. It said it would need a larger number of participants to be able to disaggregate data by sex. Thats not to say that its impossible to have disaggregated data right from phase one because Johnson & Johnson said thats what its going to do as it heads into human trials in September. Thats it for this briefing. Try literally becoming a work of art at home. See you next time. Isabella Thank you To Melissa Clark for the recipe, and to Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the rest of the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. P.S. Were listening to The Daily. Our latest episode is about what the U.S. might look like after states lift coronavirus-related lockdowns. Heres todays Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: donkey sounds (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here. Times employees are experimenting with new ways of connecting with and motivating their colleagues while they work from home, including poetry readings and virtual lunches. After showing symptoms similar to those of the coronavirus, Egyptian doctor Ahmed Negm went into self-isolation in an old apartment, but before long he was hounded out by fearful neighbours. While health workers in many countries are getting cheers and applause for risking their lives in the gruelling battle against the disease, in some parts of the world they face suspicion and hostility. Though they are regularly hailed by the North African nation's government and media as Egypt's "white (coated) army", many health personnel have complained of being shunned and mistreated by others in society. Negm had already tested negative for the virus but, mindful of the fact that he had frequently dealt with suspected cases, decided to go into confinement as a precaution. As the 31-year-old sealed himself off from the outside world, rumours swirled around his neighbourhood in the northeastern province of Ismailia that he was infected and avoiding treatment. He was even reported to the police. Despite explaining his situation to them, the doctor faced continued harassment, snide remarks and pleas from some of his neighbours to leave the area because "there were many children and elderly." Eventually, Negm moved out. "People are gripped by panic but they're taking it too far to a point where it feels like a stigma," he told AFP. "It's as if we have become outcasts." Egypt's health workers, like those elsewhere, have been stretched thin by the virus, grappling with long hours, soaring caseloads and a high risk of catching the disease themselves. Medical staff in several hospitals in Cairo and other provinces have been infected. Four doctors have died out of 43 who fell ill, according to the country's doctors union. Health workers account for some 13 percent of Egypt's total confirmed COVID-19 cases, which have risen above 3,000 including more than 200 fatalities, according to the World Health Organization. - 'Worthless apology' - Even after death, one doctor who had caught the virus was targeted by fearful villagers who protested against her burial in Daqahliya province in the Nile Delta. Authorities dispersed the hours-long demonstration and arrested 23 people as part of an investigation into what the public prosecutor described as "an act of terror". Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli deplored the "disgraceful" act and urged healthcare workers to "pay no heed". A nurse in the same province who had tested positive for the virus said she and other infected healthcare workers were contacted by strangers after their names and contact details were widely shared on social media. "Many called to support and pray for us ? but others accused us of spreading the virus and of being the source of infection," she said, wearing a mask, her voice quivering in a video posted online. "We're exhausted. Have mercy on us. Our spirits have been destroyed." Dina Abdelsalam, a doctor in Ismailia province, said her neighbours publicly smeared her because she works at a hospital which receives suspected coronavirus cases. After recently moving to a new apartment to keep away from her family as a precaution, she said she was startled by her neighbours shouting in the street, accusing her of "bringing the disease" to the area. The police intervened and her neighbours eventually apologised. But for Abdelsalam their apology was "worthless" after they treated her like a "suspected (criminal)". "We (medics) are suffering," she said in an online video, "and you are making it worse." - 'Grievously detrimental' - Other doctors from Cairo, the northern city of Alexandria and elsewhere have complained on Facebook of being refused taxi rides or food delivery due to fears of contagion. Such treatment of healthcare workers "can make an already challenging situation far more difficult," the WHO representative in Egypt, Jean Jabbour, told AFP. "Targeting essential providers ... will weaken our fight against COVID-19 and can prove grievously detrimental for the entire nation." And as complaints surged, local media reported that lawmakers are mulling criminalising the "bullying" of medical workers. At the same time many Egyptians appeared in recent online videos to be ignoring rules on social distancing aimed at reducing the risk of contagion in the country of 100 million people. "They are taking it out on us instead of abandoning habits that will more likely expose them to the disease," said pharmacist Heba al-Feky, who was recently forced out of a taxi for being a health worker. Many health workers in Egypt have complained of being shunned and mistreated during the coronavirus outbreak Egyptian workers disinfect the Giza pyramids necropolis on outskirts of Cairo The Uganda Editors Guild has noted with concern reports of the arrest of Samson Kasumba, a news anchor at NBS Television. We are also aware of comments by the police spokesperson that Mr Kasumba is being held in connection with allegations unrelated to his work as a journalist. The Uganda Editors Guild calls on the Uganda Police Force to conduct a quick and transparent investigation into the matter while ensuring that Mr Kasumba has access to legal counsel, and all his other rights are respected. We shall remain appraised of the matter and take this opportunity to remind all Ugandans, including those in positions of authority, that #JournalismIsNotACrime. Alex B. Atuhaire For Interim Chairman Uganda Editors Guild Kampala, 21 April 2020 A Bangladeshi national was on Tuesday arrested in the temple town of Deoghar for entering the country without any valid documents, police said. Superintendent of Police Narendra Kumar Singh said that 28-year-old Mohd Sameem Raza was caught by the police while two of his compatriots escaped after seeing the patrol van in the town. During questioning, Raza revealed that he and the other two are residents of Chidai Nawab Punj area in Bangladesh and had crossed the border and entered West Bengal on March 12 this year, police said. They stayed at Ghoshpara in Murshidabads Bastopur till March 14 before reaching Deoghar the next day and were staying at Tilasahi locality in the town. People of the locality noticed them and informed the police. Raza was caught while the other two managed to escape, the SP added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Regulatory News: GeNeuro (Paris:GNRO) (Euronext Paris: CH0308403085 GNRO), a biopharmaceutical company focused on understanding and stopping the causal factors driving the progression of neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis today announces the appointment of the experienced medical and industry professional Prof. David Leppert, MD and Professor of Neurology, as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Leppert is a recognized expert in the worldwide neurology community, having developed pioneering research and worked for over 20 years in clinical development, successfully leading the development of prominent drugs such as ocrelizumab to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) while at Roche, and then leading the development of all neurology clinical trials at Novartis. Dr. Leppert is currently Associate professor in Neurology at University of Basel, and will retain his academic appointment. He will become GeNeuro's Chief Medical Officer effective May 1, 2020. Dr. Leppert replaces Dr. Francois Curtin, who is leaving GeNeuro on April 30, 2020, after more than 10 years of dedicated service, to pursue an academic appointment at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Dr. Curtin was a key driver of the early development of GeNeuro, taking the company from preclinical development into early clinical trials, and assembling and managing operations as Chief Operating Officer of the company. "I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Leppert to GeNeuro's team. He will bring us his extensive and invaluable experience in the clinical development of innovative treatments for MS and other diseases," said Jesus Martin-Garcia, CEO of GeNeuro "I would also like to extend my gratitude and that of our colleagues to Francois Curtin for his unwavering commitment and invaluable work supporting the development of GeNeuro. We wish Francois all the best in his future endeavours," concluded Jesus Martin-Garcia About Dr. David Leppert Dr. David Leppert founded the Clinical Neuro-immunology Laboratory at the University Hospital Basel in 1995, and served in parallel as head of the epilepsy outpatient clinic from 1999 to 2004. He received the 2nd Hoechst-Marion-Roussel prize for MS research (1999), the Ellermann Prize of the Swiss Neurological Society (2001), and the Baasch-Medicus Award (2002) for his research on the role of matrix metalloproteinases and genomics in MS. He began his industry career in 2004 at GlaxoSmithKline in translational medicine and later at in GE Healthcare for diagnostic drug development. Dr Leppert was then Senior Medical Consultant at Novartis and Global Project Medical Director for the Siponimod MS program, before joining Roche as Global Development Team Leader of ocrelizumab, later becoming Therapeutic Area Head Neuroinflammation. He returned to Novartis in 2015 as Therapeutic Area Head Neuroinflammation, where he was responsible for early and late stage development of MS compounds. Most recently, he was Senior Research Associate at the University of Basel, focusing on research on neurofilaments and other biomarkers of neurological diseases. Dr Leppert has authored over 100 peer reviewed publications and holds an MD from the University of Zurich, where he also completed his specialty training in neurology. He completed research fellowships in neuroimmunology and neurophysiology at the University of California, San Francisco. About GeNeuro GeNeuro's mission is to develop safe and effective treatments against neurological disorders and autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, by neutralizing causal factors encoded by HERVs, which represent 8% of human DNA. GeNeuro is based in Geneva, Switzerland and has R&D facilities in Lyon, France. It has 21 employees and rights to 17 patent families protecting its technology. For more information, visit: www.geneuro.com Disclaimer This press release contains certain forward looking statements and estimates concerning GeNeuro's financial condition, operating results, strategy, projects and future performance and the markets in which it operates. Such forward-looking statements and estimates may be identified by words, such as "anticipate," "believe," "can," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "is designed to," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "objective," "should," or the negative of these and similar expressions. They incorporate all topics that are not historical facts. Forward looking statements, forecasts and estimates are based on management's current assumptions and assessment of risks, uncertainties and other factors, known and unknown, which were deemed to be reasonable at the time they were made but which may turn out to be incorrect. Events and outcomes are difficult to predict and depend on factors beyond the company's control. Consequently, the actual results, financial condition, performances and/or achievements of GeNeuro or of the industry may turn out to differ materially from the future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by these statements, forecasts and estimates. Owing to these uncertainties, no representation is made as to the correctness or fairness of these forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates speak only as of the date on which they are made, and GeNeuro undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of them, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005580/en/ Contacts: GeNeuro Jesus Martin-Garcia Chairman and CEO +41 22 552 48 00 investors@geneuro.com NewCap (France) Mathilde Bohin Louis-Victor Delouvrier (investors) +33 1 44 71 98 52 Arthur Rouille (media) +33 1 44 71 94 98 geneuro@newcap.eu Halsin Partners Mike Sinclair (media) +44 20 7318 2955 msinclair@halsin.com LifeSci Advisors Chris Maggos (investors) +1 646 597 6970 +41 79 367 6254 chris@lifesciadvisors.com First ever virtual meeting of Heads of 5+1 group call for European measures to complement national ones The informal 5+1 group includes the EIB plus the five largest European National Promotional Banks from France (CDC-BPI), Germany (KfW), Italy (CDP), Poland (BGK) and Spain (ICO) European development institutions have a common mission: to support the economy and to contribute to sustainable growth and jobs. This mission is even more urgent in the current crisis. Given the enormous challenge posed by Covid-19, European governments and institutions must mobilise resources at unprecedented levels and deploy them effectively. European solidarity, built over many years of collaboration, is instrumental to executing an effective response. With that aim, the chief executives of national development banks from France (CDC-BPI), Germany (KfW), Italy (CDP), Poland (BGK) and Spain (ICO), together with the president of the European Investment Bank, have discussed responses to the economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis. The following statement was agreed: The discussions focused on the promising results of the first measures taken by Member States and at the EU level, learning from each other and ensuring the complementarity of different programmes. Together with all the other national promotional banks and institutions (NPBIs), we are committed to supporting economies with all the resources at our disposal. We have worked closely together in the past to address crises by supporting the economy and mitigating downturns. We are determined to act together once again. It is vital for our economies that European financing tools complement national ones. It is also crucial that every euro gets to where it is needed as quickly as possible. We should focus small businesses and mid-caps, which urgently need liquidity and working capital to survive the lock-down. Many small businesses are already benefitting from the emergency measures taken by national governments and institutions: a moratorium on existing loan payments or other liabilities, loan guarantees of more than 80% in some cases, and new tools for supporting the sectors most impacted by the shutdown. Our mission is also to provide a long-term vision for European economies. Long-term investments will be at the heart of the economic recovery, strengthening employment, innovation and sustainability. In addition to transport, tourism, and research and development, several other economic areas social infrastructure (health, education, affordable housing), digital infrastructure and energy infrastructure will need substantial investment to remain competitive. These investments will fortify the European economy, increasing its resilience and relevance. The European Commission's InvestEU Programme is a major element in this effort, together with other national and EU policy measures. Following the exchange among our development banks, we have committed to: Further develop our cooperation and focus on synergies; Explore possible common initiatives; Explore the need for new tools along with the existing ones, notably at European level. We believe that Europe is strong enough to overcome this crisis. We have shown our robustness and commitment to the economic recovery. We will continue to coordinate our initiatives going forward. Our goal is to help Europe emerge from this crisis stronger and more united than before. Background: The informal 5+1 group includes the five larger National Promotional Institutions in Europe - from France (CDC-BPI), Germany (KfW), Italy (CDP), Poland (BGK) and Spain (ICO) and the European Investment Bank. The last Heads of 5+1 meeting was hosted by the EIB in Luxembourg in June 2019, and a key element was the launch of the EUR 10bn Joint Initiative on Circular Economy (JICE). See here. Leaders of the group meet regularly to coordinate activities and launch common undertakings. Advertisement Six people were flogged for violating Islamic law in an arch-conservative province of Indonesia today, in a ceremony which was scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic. The public canings in Aceh province sometimes attract large crowds of eager spectators taking pictures on their phones, but today's punishments were carried out indoors with just a handful of people there. One unmarried couple were punished after they were caught together in a hotel room, while another four were flogged 40 times each for drinking alcohol. Many of those watching were wearing masks, while the cane-wielding enforcer wears a hood in any case - but not all of the victims themselves had their faces covered. A woman is caned by a hooded member of the religious police in a public building in Banda Aceh today, as a punishment in Islamic law for being caught in close proximity with a man who is not her husband in a hotel A man receives a whipping on his back by a member of the religious police in Banda Aceh today. Religious officials had the coronavirus pandemic in mind, but the convict in this case is not wearing a mask Flogging is common for a range of offences in the region at the tip of Sumatra island, including gambling, drinking alcohol and having gay sex. Today's six victims were convicted before the coronavirus outbreak and officials decided to continue with the canings on a scaled-back basis, local media says. 'To comply with current conditions, we're trying to cut unnecessary procedures like the usual opening speech,' said Safriadi, the official responsible for Sharia punishments in provincial capital Banda Aceh. 'We just carried out the flogging directly to make it simpler. Whipping will still go on, but we're limiting the number of people involved,' added Safriadi, who goes by one name. Despite the painful punishment, one man whipped for drinking alcohol - who also served a three-month jail term for the offence - said he was relieved to be free to join his family for the fasting month of Ramadan/ 'I got bored in prison and now I'm finally a free man,' he said. 'Ramadan is coming and I couldn't imagine fasting in prison.' A crowd of people watch on as one of the people is caned for violating religious law in Banda Aceh. The spectators are wearing masks and some of them taking pictures A man wearing a mask is checked by a medic during a whipping session by the religious police, which took place indoors with none of the usual large crowds of spectators Aceh is the only region in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country that imposes Islamic law. About 98 per cent of Aceh's five million residents are Muslims and therefore subject to the law, known locally as Qanun. A 100-stroke punishment is reserved for the most severe crimes and offenders may also be sentenced to prison time. Rights groups have slammed public caning as cruel, and Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has called for it to end, but the practice has wide support among Aceh's population. Aceh adopted sharia after it was granted special autonomy in 2001, an attempt by the central government to quell a long-running separatist insurgency. A view from a balcony as the whipping is administered to one of today's six victims in Banda Aceh, while another official keeps score on a clipboard MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian government said on Monday it had set June 1 as the deadline for the treasury to receive most funds from the sale of a stake in top lender Sberbank, RIA news agency reported. The Finance Ministry completed the purchase of a controlling stake in Sberbank from the central bank for 2.14 trillion roubles ($28.31 billion) earlier this month. (Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy, writing by Maria Tsvetkova; editing by Jason Neely) Former Central Bank of Ireland governor Patrick Honohan, who famously took to the airwaves in 2010 to announce the State's bailout programme, has warned that pandemic loans to companies may not be the right way to keep them afloat. Mr Honohan's comments came as the Government considered options to help firms that might go to the wall as a result of the coronavirus lockdown, taking tens of thousands of jobs with them. The best path, Mr Honohan argues, is for the Government to make grants to firms, as the financial instruments being used at present "are likely to leave beneficiary firms over indebted when the pandemic crisis has passed". Mr Honohan's comments come amid a debate inside Government over how to aid companies. Robert Watt, the top civil servant in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, last Friday indicated the intensity of the debate when he told a discussion about the economics of Ireland and that "we don't like the notion of cash transfers to companies". However, the former central banker warned in a research article for the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a top Washington DC think-tank, that "a firm that borrows significant sums to meet revenue shortfalls may well face financial difficulties even if business returns to normal". "Can the firm's directors really say with sufficient confidence that it is a going concern? What will happen when the financial assistance terminates?" Mr Honohan wrote. As part of the US government's $2trn (1.8trn) plan to help the economy overcome the pandemic, the Federal Reserve has pledged a $350bn fund to help small business, one worth $454bn in loans and loan guarantees for bigger companies, as well as other substantial measures. In Europe, hundreds of billions of euro have been mobilised to make loans to private sector companies, and the 'Financial Times' reports that the European Central Bank has asked for a 'bad debt' bank to be set up in the eurozone to deal with outstanding issues from the financial crisis. The problem, Mr Honohan argues, is that these loans may in any case have to be written off, creating bailouts that "would undoubtedly be seen as enriching the owners of beneficiary firms at a time of overall pressure on public finance". That is an accusation that has been levelled here since the financial crisis hit and left the public saddled with debts of 200bn to this day. In the US, some large firms such as fast food chain Shake Shack have benefited from programmes that aimed to help small businesses. There have been daily calls from businesses, industries and lobbying groups here for financial help from the Government. "We are trying to work on various principles; how do we protect the taxpayers' interests while supporting companies and activity?" Mr Watt said last Friday. "For many companies, there will be a growing stock of debt and we need to make sure that companies are in a position to grow and invest and hire people and if their balance sheets are impaired, that will limit future growth." Close on a million workers have now signed up for public sector wage supports, a figure that is equivalent to around 40pc of the number of workers in the private sector, as the economy has been shut down in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus. The concern now is how to go about easing the harsh lockdown restrictions while at the same time preventing a severe health emergency, and to ensure that the temporary impact of job losses does not become permanent. The Government may well end up in the position of choosing winners and losers as it picks through whether to use equity or debt, and what sort of claim it might have on a company, as well as its standing versus private sector creditors. Then there is the question of the bill and who foots it. With lockdowns still in place, it is hard to do a final reckoning, but the Government and the Central Bank of Ireland say the bill could be more than 20bn. "Who will pay for the economic costs of this crisis, and will it result in greater or lesser concentration of wealth and economic power? Loans and loan guarantees are an important part of the policy toolkit here, though they are not the whole story," Mr Honohan wrote. Flores and Carter started arguing, and when Flores and the witness tried to leave, Carter convinced Flores to allow him inside the vehicle, and he promised both women that he would get them some cocaine, records said. The three drove to another residence where Tiny was inside the residence for a long time, and when he returned to the vehicle with the drugs, he had Flores get into the passenger seat so that he could drive, records said. Web Toolbar by Wibiya At least 18 people died in a murderous rampage of a supposedly successful central Nova Scotia dentist. One might ask what would motivate such an intelligent, respected and apparently well-liked member of a rural community to inflict such a premeditated carnage. Furthermore, wouldn't such a well educated professional know that the ending would not turn out very well for him? Didn't he have a reasonably good life and many things to live for compared to so many other people who would not commit such a heinous act? And how could a dentist create such an apparently brilliant counterfeit of an RCMP vehicle that could fool veteran RCMP officers? What kind of clinical mind could mimic the mass production manufacturing processes of the facilities which normally produce RCMP vehicles? Roger Ward and his wife Amy Maloney reported being shaken-up after witnessing what they described to be as "alien UFO activity" in Indian Brook. In the November 19, 2019 edition of The Chronicle Herald and Indian Brook is along Highway 102 and not that far from Enfield where the dentist was basically "executed" in apparent close range by the RCMP. In my view such abnormal activity suggests that the individual's body was taken over by a manipulative alien. I have seen it before and documented the phenomenon in my new book Justin Trudeau, Judicial Corruption and the Supreme Court of Canada: Aliens and Archons in Our Midst. In my book I documented a Kanata, Ontario man who became "irrationally" fearful of an "extraterrestrial threat". An alien consciousness would randomly pop into his body and motivate him to assault his wife and stab his son. During the times of the alien possession his eyes would bulge out of his head. Such reportedly manipulative aliens seek to take over human bodies to feed-off of the negative energy associated with their demonic activities. The Nova Scotia rampage has the appearance of a manipulative alien AI simulation. Slate is making its coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism. Start your free trial. The coronavirus has led the U.S. to a dark place of national reckoning. On Monday evening, President Donald Trump announced his intention to further dim what remains of American life from just two months ago by suspending nearly all legal immigration into the country. In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Trump tweeted. The move is being made under the guise of the pandemic and an effort to protect American workers, many millions of whom now find themselves out of work, but its hard not to see something deeper and darker in the America First presidents motives. Its hard not to read this as an opportunist seizing an opportunity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As with most complex topics Trump dashes off answers to in a single-sentence tweet, its unclear how exactly his late-night pronouncement will manifest itself in the light of day, in the real world. Its unclear how the White House will derive its legal authority to stop immigration but will likely claim authority on public health grounds or on broad national security grounds established in Trumps travel ban on visitors from Muslim countries. The U.S. government granted some 460,000 immigration visas last year and 580,000 green cards, giving foreign citizens the right to live and work in the country. Its unclear how Trumps missive would affect, for instance, the hundreds of thousands of legal guest workers that predominantly fill agricultural jobs that Americans refuse to do. Workers who have for years received visas to perform specialized jobs in the United States would also be denied permission to arrive, though some workers in some industries deemed critical could be exempted from the ban, the New York Times reports. Several people familiar with the presidents plans said the Department of Homeland Security was separately weighing a large expansion of travel restrictions that already prohibited travelers from Europe and China. The restrictions would significantly shrink the number of people able to come to the United States for short-term visits. The Wall Street Journal reports farm and health care workers will likely get exempted from the change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Immigration had already been largely paused due to the outbreak. In a practical sense, its easy to understand why: Americans have been hunkered down at home over the past six weeks, suddenly halting a wide range of daily life. Functionally speaking, its hard to travel at the moment and most offices are closed, including those tasked with handling immigration. It seems understandable then that, as CNN reports, immigration services have been curtailed: Visa offices are generally closed, refugee resettlement has been suspended, and new citizenship ceremonies halted for the time being. Advertisement Advertisement The White House has indicated in background conversations to multiple media outlets that the halt on immigration is a temporary measure borne out of the challenging circumstances of the coronavirus response. But there are likely political considerations at play here, so expect it to lingerbefore blossoming into a full-fledged Trump talking point for the next six months. In 2016, we once again learned how powerful a motivator immigration populism can be, particularly for Trumps base. At some point before November, Trump was going to have to come up with another talking point beyond his Jan. 31 restriction on travel from China to the U.S. Trump has had trouble conjuring a way to frame his inattention to the virus in the early moments of the outbreak and his inability to coordinate the American response. Saying youre leading from the back while demanding to stand out front is as incongruous as Trump himself. Incoherence has never bothered Trump before and it doesnt seem to bother his most ardent supporters now, but the Trump campaign would love to recast the presidents scattershot pandemic performance as an immigration issue in the minds of voters. For more on the impact of COVID-19, listen to Tuesdays What Next. Kate Middleton and Prince William got candid and overly honest during their video call with some children from a school. While they wanted to express their gratitude to key workers running the country amid the coronavirus, Kate had an outburst and it left everyone in awe. Chocolate Monster The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge surprised children at a school with a video call. They wanted to thank the key workers who are keeping the country running amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, while they were speaking to the children, Kate revealed that there was tension between them. While in a Zoom video call with the children and teachers from Casterton Primary Academy in Burnley, Kate revealed that Prince William was overindulging in their Easter supplies. In an episode of the "Royally Obsessed" podcast, Roberta Fiorito, a royal commentator said that she was surprised with what Kate revealed. "Kate called out William for eating all of the Easter candy," Fiorito shared. In the video chat, Prince William admitted that they have a lot in their Easter loot. "There will be a lot of chocolate being eaten here, don't worry!" Prince William exclaimed. To which Kate responded quickly, "You keep eating it!" Fiorito said that it was surprising how Kate shaded William when she said that, but she appreciated the honesty of the Duchess of Cambridge. Co-host Rachel Bowie could not help but laugh about what Kate just said. "She blamed him on eating all the chocolate bunnies. I thought that was hilarious," Bowie said. Fiorito then added: "It's nice to picture their Easter with that happening." She also said that the good mom Kate might be trying to hide the stash from Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis but ended up with Prince William sneaking it all the way through. "I think they really delivered on showing us what their celebrations look like," Fiorito furthered. Kate and William have always had a sweet tooth. In fact, the royal couple requested a rich chocolate biscuit cake for their wedding back in 2011. Perhaps this shared love for chocolates and everything sweet is what keeps their marriage strong. They remain endearing to each other, even after Kate's hilarious outburst. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge showed everyone the other side of their marriage. They have their share of bickering too, and they look just as cute. A Special Message Prince William and Kate Middleton emphasized that they were making the call to thank the teachers, the staff, and every worker who continue to provide their services despite the difficult time. As the world continues to fight with COVID-19, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sent out a message of hope to everyone. William described Britain to be at its strongest during the crisis. He added that he is grateful for people coming together to show their support to each other amid the pandemic. Prince William, as well as the other members of the royal family, have sent a series of inspirational messages to the people of Britain. They emphasized that when they come together as a nation, they could beat anything, even the dreaded coronavirus. One of Australia's leading bat experts says he can see no evidence native flying foxes pose a coronavirus risk, saying calls for Melbourne's largest bat colony to be relocated or culled are "ridiculous". Bats have long had a bad rap in Australia but since researchers genetically linked bat coronaviruses to the COVID-19 outbreak thought to have begun in a Wuhan wet market, some have been increasingly concerned about the animals. Bats at Yarra Bend on Tuesday. Credit:Joe Armao Kew MP Tim Smith raised eyebrows when he told Nine News that some of his constituents wanted to see the back of the Yarra Bend colony and they didn't mind how. Prince William met Kate Middleton, now Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge when they attended St. Andrews University in Scotland. The pair dated for several years and went through two breakups before tying the knot in 2011 with a fairytale wedding. Something Kate did that all royals typically do, is she invited her ex-boyfriends to see her and the future king say, I do. But one of her exes wasnt pleased when he was asked about going to the event. Prince William and Kate Middletons wedding | Chris Jackson/Getty Images Read on to find out how the duchess former beau, Willem Marx, reacted after being questioned about his invite. Plus, the specific reason royals extend invitations to their past loves in the first place. When Kate dated Willem Merx Kate and Marx started their relationship in 2000 during her time at Marlborough College, a boarding school in Wiltshire, England. He and Kate remained friendly over the years and she invited him to her wedding, but when asked about going to the ceremony Marx wasnt happy. Kate Middleton and Prince William | Middleton Family/Clarence House via GettyImages How Merx responded to a reporter who asked him about being invited Back in 2011, The Telegraphs Mandrake diary columnist asked Marx if he would be attending his exs wedding to the prince. Who told you I had been invited? Marx asked. The columnist explained the journalistic policy of not revealing sources to which Marx became agitated. Im shocked that you try to make such high brow assertions about protection sources, he said and claimed, [It is] a false assertion that you are obliged to protect these sources. Marx continued to lash out telling the columnist, People like you should focus on the important events this planet is witnessing at the moment. I suggest you report on something that actually matters. Advocates for indigenous groups in Brazils Amazon states worry illegal miners and loggers may carry #COVID19 into isolated communities there, precipitating an ethnicide. I tell @AliVelshi about the threat the virus poses for those living weeks away from the nearest ICU pic.twitter.com/weOu2YQqYk Willem Marx (@WillemMarx) April 19, 2020 Today, Marx is a reporter himself, working for NBC News. He went on to marry Italian television presenter Johanna Botta. However, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge did not attend his wedding. The reason royals usually invite exes to their wedding Kate Middleton and Prince William on their wedding day | Warren Allott WPA Pool/Getty Images From Kate and William to Prince Harry to Prince Charles, inviting former flames to royal weddings isnt standard protocol but most choose to do so anyway. Thats because their social circles are a tight-knit club. Therefore, its important to remain courteous and invite everyone in that exclusive group whether they are an ex or not. In addition to Marx, Kate asked another previous beau, Rupert Finch, to the affair as well. She and Finch dated for a little less than a year in college. As for William, he had four former girlfriends on hand to watch the lavish ceremony in person. The list included Jecca Craig, who he dated when they were teenagers; Rose Farquhar, who he had a summertime fling with in 2000; Olivia Hunt, whom William dated while at St. Andrews University (before Kate); and Arabella Musgrave, who he was in a relationship with prior to heading off to college. Read more: Kate Middleton Says She Gets Teased By Prince Williams Family For What She Does During Walkabouts Myanmar soldiers detained nearly 40 villagers on Sunday, but later released most of them, about a week after government forces hit their community with artillery shells amid the larger armed conflict with rebel Arakan Army troops in war-torn Rakhine state, a local lawmaker and a resident said. Government forces killed seven young men and one woman and injured more than a dozen others, including two children, during the Apr. 13 assault on Kyauk Seik village in Ponnagyun township. The shelling forced many other residents to flee. Six days later, soldiers detained 39 male residents between the ages of 18 and 55, including a village administrator, to determine if they had ties to the AA, but in the evening released 33 of them, Oo Tun Maung, a lawmaker from Ponnagyun township told RFAs Myanmar Service. I assume they were taken to Battalion No. 55, but I cant say for sure, he said prior to the release of some of the men. I am waiting for details about the situation and will do what I can after I know where they were taken to. Late Sunday, Oo Tun Maung told RFA that 33 of the detainees had been released. A Kyauk Seik resident who declined to be identified out of safety concerns said that he saw Myanmar forces take away fellow villagers. A government army unit came into the village and asked all the men to gather at the village heads house, he said. After that, they took away the village head and 38 men. Myanmar military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said soldiers had detained the men because of suspected ties to the Arakan Army (AA), a mostly ethnic Rakhine force that has been fighting the government army for the past 15 months in a quest for greater autonomy in the western state. We took 38 men because they are suspected of having connections with the AA, Zaw Min Tun said prior to the release of some of the villagers. They are under investigation, and the army will take action accordingly based on the investigation results. AA spokesman Khine Thukha said that it was possible that the men were being detained because they informed the media about the government armys Apr. 13 attack on their village. This kind of action by the government army is a war crime, he added. Following that assault, villagers said they found a shell cover with markings indicating that it came from the Myanmar Army, though the military later denied that it belonged to its forces. In March, the Myanmar government declared the AA an illegal association and a terrorist organization. The AA and two other ethnic armies declared a unilateral truce during the month of April while the country battles the spread of the contagious coronavirus, but the pact has not held up in Rakhine state. Fighting between Myanmar and Arakan forces meanwhile continues in other Rakhine townships with the conflict displacing more than 160,000 civilians since early 2019, according to the Rakhine Ethnics Congress, a local relief group. About 86 civilians died and more than 200 were injured amid fighting between Feb. 26 and April 20, according to a tally by RFA. Paletwa gets rice More than 10,000 residents and internally displaced persons (IDPs) affected by the conflict in remote Paletwa township of neighboring Chin state have received a weeks worth of food aid for the first time in six weeks, local authorities said. About 830 bags of rice and some dried rations were sent by ferry and cargo truck from Samee to Paletwa town, which has been facing a severe food shortage since early March amid ongoing hostilities in the region. Local authorities said there was enough rice to provide two cups to each of about 3,700 IDPs for three weeks or enough for only a week if the supply was distributed to all 7,000 residents of the town. In the meantime, Paletwa authorities said they would continue to ration food supplies for the next three months. The rice was distributed immediately to those living in IDP camps and to working-class residents of Paletwa as part of the governments coronavirus relief efforts, said Soe Htet, Chin states minister of municipal affairs, electricity, and industry. We got a telegram yesterday telling us to distribute the rice to all residents, government employees, and IDPs for a week, he told RFA, adding that another 1,500 bags of rice are waiting to be transported. If the situation is stable and the roads are accessible, we will transport these rice bags, he added. Though Paletwa is accessible by road from Samee after crossing the Kaladan River Bridge, the rice is now being transported by both road and river because of concerns of armed attacks along the way. Not everything we need Myanmars Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement has secured about 6,000 bags of rice, or a three months supply, for Paletwa township residents and stored them at a facility in Rakhines capital Sittwe. Another 3,300 bags from donors are stored in the town of Samee. The conflict between the AA and government military in the region has disrupted road transportation, preventing rice supplies from reaching Paletwa on a regular basis. The first batch of 850 bags transported from Samee by 11 trucks in mid-March reached the town because they were guarded by military troops along the way. Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said soldiers will continue to ensure that the rest of the bags of rice reach Paletwa. We were only guarding the trucks, while local authorities, civil society organizations, and religious leaders received the rice bags, he said. As far as I know, we will continue transporting these rice bags until local authorities have enough rice supplies for at least three months, he added. Chin state parliamentarian Salai Myo Htike, who represents the Paletwa township constituency, said authorities and residents alike were pleased about getting the latest food shipment. We are glad that the rice supplies finally arrived in Paletwa, he said. But this is not everything we need, so we hope the remaining transports go well. Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service, Translated by Khet Mar and Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. President Donald Trump said his administration is working on a plan to make money available to the oil industry to prevent the loss of jobs after futures prices plunged below zero. We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down, Trump said in a tweet on Tuesday. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future! The oil industry has been reeling from the twin shocks of the coronavirus crippling demand coupled with a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia that sent the price of crude sinking to historic lows. An estimated 51,000 drilling and refining jobs were lost in March, a 9 percent reduction that is likely to get worse as prices plunge, according to BW Research Partnership, a research consultancy which analyzed Department of Labor data combined with the firms own survey of about 30,000 energy companies. Some analyst have said the industries job losses could reach as high as 30 percent or more in the first quarter of 2020. West Texas Intermediate plunged below zero on Monday for the first time in history with the contract for May nearing expiration, leaving traders in a panic as they tried to avoid taking delivery of physical barrels. On Tuesday the losses spread to the next month -- highlighting the massive glut in the market causing the rout rather than any technical quirk. The tweet read, We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future! Energy stocks pared their decline following Trumps tweet. The Standard & Poors 500 Energy Index was down 1.6 percent at 11:14 a.m. in New York after tumbling as much as 4.4 percent. The Trump administration has spent weeks looking for ways to help independent oil companies battered by the price rout, including increasing loans available in coronavirus stimulus funding. Oil firms can access funds from the $2.2 trillion pandemic rescue aid that Trump signed into law on March 27. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin could also deem some of those companies as critical to national security, qualifying them for a share of $17 billion authorized by Congress. Or the companies could tap one of the Federal Reserve lending facilities, which are for distressed sectors and companies with high credit ratings. The rescue bill authorized $454 billion to the Treasury Department to use as a backstop for lending through the Fed, which the central bank is leveraging into trillions of dollars. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette is meeting with House of Representatives leaders Tuesday to discuss expanding U.S. emergency oil storage -- specifically a plan to buy more crude and stash as much as 1 billion barrels for the nations emergency stockpile. Brouillette described his plans in an interview on Fox Business. The Energy Department already has drafted a plan to effectively compensate those companies for halting oil production by buying their untapped crude reserves and making them part of the U.S. governments emergency stockpile. Under the plan, the government would essentially buy the oil locked underground but ask producers to hold off on extracting or delivering it. While federal law authorizes Energy to set aside emergency supplies, the agency has only used about two thirds of that capacity with crude stashed in a complex of salt caverns along the Gulf Coast. That creates the opening for the new keep-it-in-the-ground approach to oil reserves. Trump has rebuffed other proposals for industry-targeted aid, including a broad effort to stop charging energy companies royalties for oil and gas produced on federal lands and waters. The Interior Department has said oil companies can seek royalty relief on a case-by-case basis, instead of under a broad Trump administration waiver. Tuesdays collapse of later contracts underscored the severity of the crisis. Storage tanks, pipelines and tankers are rapidly being overwhelmed by a vast oversupply caused by slumping fuel demand as countries are locked down to fight the coronavirus. Traders everywhere are having to reassess their risk after Mondays unprecedented collapse, leading to violent intraday swings. WTIs June contract was halted three times early in New York to manage the volatility, CME Group Inc. said. June West Texas Intermediate futures edged up about $1 after the tweet to $15.57 a barrel, but was still down more than $5 on the day. The thinly traded May contract rose above zero to $1.40 a barrel. Brent crude slumped 20 percent to $20.48, having earlier dropped to as low as $18.10. The collapse is reverberating across the oil industry. On Monday, WTI Midland in Texas -- a flagship marker for the U.S. shale industry -- was at -$13.13 a barrel, while crude in Alaska was at -$46.63. A tidal wave of bankruptcies is about to hit the sector, said Dan Eberhart, the chief executive of oil-field services company Canary Drilling Services, which has furloughed about 200 people and implemented across-the-board salary cut. (Repeats to additional subscribers without change to text) By Yew Lun Tian and Ben Blanchard BEIJING/TAIPEI, April 21 (Reuters) - China is becoming increasingly assertive in the region as the coronavirus crisis eases on the mainland while raging elsewhere in the world, with a crackdown in Hong Kong and sabre-rattling around Taiwan and in the South China Sea. The U.S. State Department said China was taking advantage of the region's focus on the pandemic to "coerce its neighbours". In a significant strike against democracy activists in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, police in the city arrested 15 people on Saturday, just days after a senior Beijing official called for the local government to introduce national security legislation "as soon as possible." The arrests drew a strong rebuke from the United States and Britain. China has also been flying regular fighter patrols near Chinese-claimed Taiwan, to the island's anger, and has sent a survey ship flanked by coast guard and other vessels into the South China Sea, prompting the United States to accuse Beijing of "bullying behaviour." "Now that the domestic coronavirus outbreak has been stabilised, China wants to send an important signal to the world that its military and foreign affairs, previously put on hold, are back on track," said Cheng Xiaohe, associate professor of international politics at Beijing's Renmin University. China describes Taiwan, Hong Kong and the South China Sea as its most sensitive territorial issues. The most dramatic actions have been close to Taiwan, the self-ruled island China claims as its own. Beijing has been angered by moves by President Tsai Ing-wen during the outbreak to assert the island's separate identity from China. In the latest uptick in tensions, China's navy this month sailed a battle group, led by the country's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, around Taiwan's east coast and has mounted regular air force drills near the island. Story continues Lo Chih-cheng, a senior legislator with Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said China was showing that its military power had not been affected by the virus and that things had returned to normal. "The other aspect is of course to test whether the combat strength of the U.S. military has been reduced due to the impact of the epidemic," he said. The pandemic's first cases were reported in late December in China's Wuhan city. China has reported almost 83,000 cases and more than 4,600 deaths, but the situation there is now largely under control. The United States has by far the world's largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 780,000 infections and over 42,300 deaths, according to a Reuters tally. The United States has berthed one of its carriers in the region, the Theodore Roosevelt, in Guam, with nearly 14% of the crew testing positive for the coronavirus. China's Foreign Ministry said in a short statement to Reuters: "No matter when or where, China resolutely safeguards its sovereignty, security and development interests". China's Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus expressed serious concern about recent Chinese moves. "The United States strongly opposes PRC efforts to take advantage of the region's focus on addressing the COVID pandemic in order to coerce its neighbours in the region. We call for the PRC to live up to its international obligations," she said, referring to the People's Republic of China. U.S. MILITARY MOVES The U.S. military has also carried out its own South China Sea drills, and sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, most recently this month on the same day that Chinese fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers drilled in waters close to the island. Rear Admiral Fred Kacher, commander of the USS America Expeditionary Strike Group, told Reuters that his forces had interacted with Chinese naval forces in the South China Sea this week. "All our interactions continue to be safe and professional with them," Kacher said in a telephone interview from the USS America, an amphibious assault ship. China's navy says the Liaoning was heading for the South China Sea as part of routine exercise plans, and that it would continue with such drills to "speed up the increase of the combat capability of the carrier group system". Beijing this month denounced criticism from the United States of its recent South China Sea moves, saying Washington had been using the South China Sea issue to smear China. China claims much of the resource-rich South China Sea, also a major trade route. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei all have competing claims with China. "China's recent activities in the South China Sea and elsewhere in Asia have shown its intention to further militarise the area," said Ha Hoang Hop at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. Former Philippines foreign minister Albert Del Rosario said on Sunday that China "has been relentless in exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic as it continues to pursue its illegal and expansive claims in the South China Sea." A senior Taiwan official told Reuters that its interpretation was that Beijing's aggressiveness was due to President Xi Jinping's need to boost his prestige at home as Beijing tackles mounting international criticism over the handling of the pandemic, a slowing economy and rising tensions with Washington. "If the Communists need a conflict, Taiwan will be their top choice," said the official, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter. "But it is highly risky for Xi's regime and we do not think they will rush into danger." (Reporting by Yew Lun Tian and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Yimou Lee in Taipei, Martin Petty in Manila, James Pearson in Hanoi, and Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) Bengaluru, April 21 : Some Infosys techies, spread across the globe, have tested Covid-19 positive, according to the software major here on Tuesday. "A few Infosys employees across the world have tested positive for Covid-19. The company is in touch with them and their families to help them take rest and recover," the city-based IT behemoth said in a statement. The $12.6 billion company, however, didn't share the number of Covid-19 positive techies and their geographical location. Infosys employs more than 2.43 lakh techies in 46 countries. The company has undertaken contact tracing measures to identify the colleagues of coronavirus positive techies, if any, who could have interacted with them, to be quarantined. It also didn't disclose the number of employees quarantined. https://www.aish.com/ho/p/Jewish-Partisan-Hero-Dies-of-Coronavirus.html Benjamin Levin fought Nazis with Jewish partisans called The Avengers. June 22, 1941 was a terrible day in Jewish history. Nazi forces invaded Lithuanias capital city Vilna, which for centuries had been one of the centers of Jewish life and learning, boasting world-famous Jewish schools and a thriving vibrant community of over 70,000 Jews. As the Nazis rampaged through the city, they grabbed as many Jewish men as they could, pulling them out of their homes. Jewish men were murdered, and their bodies tossed into a massive pit in the nearby village of Ponary. Eventually, the mass grave in Ponary, outside of Vilna, would hold the bodies of 100,000 murdered Jews. All roads lead to Ponary, from Ponary not a one. Fathers disappeared, and with him, all our light is gone, wrote the great Vilna-based Yiddish poet Szmerke Kaczerginski after the Nazis initial rampage murdering Vilnas Jews. One Jewish family escaped the carnage of that day: the Levins. Chaim Levin was a local merchant who owned a gourmet food store. He was also a passionate Jew with a wide network of friends. At first Chaim could scarcely believe that German troops would harm him or other Jews. My father was a big believer in all things German, his son Benjamin later recalled. He thought it would all blow over. Despite his belief that Germans couldnt possibly be as brutal as hed heard, Chaim was tipped off that Nazi forces would attack Vilnas Jews. In the days before the Nazi invasion of Vilna, Shmuel fled Vilna with his family, including his two teenage sons Shmuel, 16, and Benjamin, 14, and found refuge in a nearby village, Mihailishuk. There, the Levin family did what they could to support the resistance. Shmuel even used his familys meager savings to buy guns for local anti-Nazi forces to use. The Avengers partisan group led by Abba Kovner. Kneeling in the front (with hat) aiming his gun is Benjamin Levin. As the months dragged on, Mihailishuk was no longer safe for Jews, and the family moved back into Vilna. By then, the Jews of Vilna were confined to an overcrowded, unsanitary ghetto. The specter of Nazi deportations to death camps hung over the desperate Jews every day. Periodically, Nazi troops would round up Jews to send out of the ghetto. Though the Jews of Vilna didnt know exactly what fate awaited them, it was clear that no Jews ever deported by the Nazis returned. The Levins and other Jews would hide during these round-ups, praying to avoid being caught in the Nazis net that day. On one such occasion, Benjamin later remembered that as he crouched in a hiding spot with other Jews, a babys crying threatened to give them away. As he watched, aghast, the babys father placed his coat over the babys face to muffle its cries. I think they killed the baby, he later described. I saw a lot of things. I saw very noble people become animals. And very plain people become noble. And my mother warned me that there would be worse to come. The Levins realized they wouldnt survive long if the stayed in the ghetto, and in 1943 Chaim once again made plans to leave. With many friends and contacts outside the ghetto, the Levin family was uniquely able to escape, even when most Jews were not able to do so. Chaim encouraged his sons to flee to join secret partisan fighting units who were battling Nazi forces in the woods outside Vilna. Chaim and his wife fled too, seeking shelter with sympathetic Lithuanians in an area of heavily forested countryside. Tragically, within weeks only Benjamin, the youngest member of the family, was alive. His older brother Shmuel was killed by Nazi troops almost immediately after he joined the partisans. Benjamins parents were murdered by a Lithuanian collaborator as they hid in a forest cottage. Benjamin was utterly alone. Benjamin Levin Just sixteen years old in 1943, Benjamin was small for his age, which made him particularly valuable to the partisans who sent him on missions to spy on Nazi troops. Eventually, he fought with a group made up of local Jews whod escaped the Nazis killing machine. This group of incredibly brave Jews called themselves The Avengers, and they fiercely battled Nazi troops. Years later, Benjamin described the difficulties that this group of Jewish city boys had in setting up their fearsome fighting unit in the forest. First thing, so we started to look for a base. Look for a base in the swamps. It was very dangerous. You can step your foot and you never get out. We have to learn about this. Despite the hardships, the group managed to create one of the most feared resistance fighting groups of the entire Second World War. Benjamin helped The Avengers sabotage Nazi equipment and telegraph lines, track soldiers movements, and do what they could to stop or slow the deportations of Jews out of the Vilna ghetto to death camps. They blew up bridges, stole Nazi ammunition and raided Nazi supplies when they could. It was a grueling life and one of constant danger. Benjamin lived on mushrooms and berries he found in the woods, and drank water from dirty ponds. Fear of death was always present. Benjamin later recalled a hurricane of bullets shot by Nazi troops whizzing over his head; he said he survived only because he was so short. When Soviet soldiers liberated Vilnius and the surrounding areas in the summer of 1944, The Avengers aided them. The group was so feared, that seventy years after the end of World War II, there was still an outstanding warrant for Benjamin Levins arrest in Lithuania. After the war, Benjamin was arrested by the Soviet police and sent to a gulag in Siberia for helping Jews whod survived the Holocaust emigrate to Palestine. He was eventually freed and moved to Israel. In Israel, Benjamin married a Hungarian Holocaust survivor named Sara whod risked her life saving Jews in her new home in the Land of Israel. When British troops prevented illegal ships from bringing desperate Jewish refugees to Mandatory Palestine, Sara helped rescue Jews whod jumped into the ocean and brought them to shore. In Israel, Benjamin joined the Irgun, a Jewish fighting force that battled British forces and agitated for Israeli independence. He and Sara had two children, and in the 1960s they left Israel and moved to New York. Benjamin had used so many aliases and false papers during his years of fighting that hed lost track of his real birthdate. Instead, he celebrated his birthday each year at Passover, the Jewish festival of freedom. Benjamin Levin passed away from coronavirus on April 13, 2020, at the age of 93. His bravery and legacy of helping his fellow Jews continues to live on, inspiring future generations. Iran, Syria Criticize U.S. For Keeping Sanctions During Coronavirus Pandemic By RFE/RL April 20, 2020 Iran's foreign minister has held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as both countries grapple with the coronavirus outbreak. Photographs posted to the Iranian government's Twitter account showed Assad and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wearing masks and gloves as they met on April 20 in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The two men used the meeting to criticize the United States for not lifting sanctions imposed on both countries. Syria and Iran, its closest ally in the region, are under U.S. sanctions that they both say are affecting their fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration has criticized Tehran for its alleged support of extremist violence in the Middle East, testing of ballistic and nuclear weapons, and support for Assad. Along with Russia, Tehran has provided crucial military support to Assad during the country's civil war, which entered its 10th year last month. More than 400,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the conflict began. The civil war has devastated Syria's health system, and aid workers and rights activists have warned the government is incapable of preventing the coronavirus from spreading. During his meeting with Assad, Zarif said Washington's "real agenda in not lifting its cruel sanctions on countries fighting this disease has now become clear," according to a statement from Tehran. Syria's presidency quoted the Syrian leader as criticizing the United States for keeping economic sanctions in place on countries like Syria and Iran "despite these exceptional humanitarian conditions." Iran's economy is suffering under intense U.S. sanctions after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Washington has dismissed the idea of lifting sanctions, saying they do not block humanitarian aid and medical equipment from reaching sanctioned countries. Zarif also met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem in Damascus. Iran is one of the Middle Eastern countries worst hit by the coronavirus epidemic. More than 5,200 people have died in Iran with more than 83,500 reported cases, according to official figures. But many Iranians and international experts think the government has intentionally underreported the extent of the pandemic in the country. Syria's official count is 39 infections and two deaths, all in or around Damascus, though most experts believe the number is far higher. For weeks, government officials denied any threat, allowing Shi'ite pilgrims from Iran and Iraq to visit shrines near Damascus. Fighters, allied with the Syrian military, traveled back and forth from those countries. By early March, restrictions began with a partial closure of borders and shrines. With reporting by AFP and AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iranian-foreign -minister-holds-talks-with-syria-s- assad-in-damascus/30565799.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 Lean on Jesus in fight against COVID-19, Gov. Greg Abbott says Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment In an interview with Pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Texas on his faith and response to the COVID-19 disease, Gov. Greg Abbott told the viewers they have support you can lean on that will always be there for you, and thats Jesus Christ. The interview took place during the churchs weekend services. Graham thanked Abbott for leading the fight against an unprecedented crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and asked if he had a personal story of a crisis. Abbott said his experience of the crisis in his own life was helping him lead in the crisis today. When I was just 26 years old, I suffered, literally, a back-breaking injury, Abbott explained to Graham, who is on President Trumps Evangelical Advisory Board. He said the injury left him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. Its a test of your faith, the governor said. Why would God allow something like this to happen? But, he added, very importantly, I found in the aftermath, that I continued to reach out to God. I found God reach back out to me. And my relationship with God and Jesus Christ grew even closer after that accident. Abbott said everybody is going through a testing and challenging time due to the coronavirus pandemic. But there is a solution, he added, and support you can lean on that will always be there for you, and thats Jesus Christ, God Almighty. The growth of the coronavirus in Texas is slowing by people staying at home, by people reducing interaction with others, he continued. Gods hand is working through the scientists across this great nation by coming out with fast, innovative drugs that would lead to therapeutic remedies. Assuring him that the churches in Texas would fully cooperate with his plans, Graham said the church is also praying for the greatest comeback that weve ever known. Its going to be great in Gods time, the pastor said. Earlier during the interview, Abbott said Texas wants to lead the way for Americans to return to their lives and livelihoods, as he begins to open up the state in a phased manner in May. He said the priority is to save lives and protect peoples health. Graham called for prayers "for our leaders" and asked everyone to "work together to bring our nation out of this crisis. As a church, we believe that God is at work in our moments of crisis and He will see us through this pandemic. Prestonwood says it is providing relief to the community by distributing meals, hosting blood drives and providing career and financial advice for people facing unemployment, among other services. It was certainly nice to see a traffic jam in the states capital city at rush hour Monday. Just like it ought to be at 5 p.m. on a seasonably lovely spring day. Oh, wait, that was a protest in Hartford by 1,000 anti-shutdown activists in more than 300 cars, driving around and around Bushnell Park with horns blaring nonstop, calling on Gov. Ned Lamont to open the state back up. Well then, it was certainly nice to see people exercising their civil right to assembly and political speech. Damn the viruses, full speed ahead. This is Donald Trumps America and these people dont believe theres a public health threat and so, poof, there isnt a public health threat. What a country! Never mind the inconvenient fact that just as they gathered around the Eastlake-style Victorian landmark Capitol, Gov. Ned Lamont bunkered inside and announced another 204 deaths from COVID-19. Its tempting to say these protesters are wingnuts on the outer bolts of society, or maybe political extremists who actually believe theres no role for government and no common cause worth sacrificing for; or angry people left out of the economic boom looking for someone to blame; or conspiracy theorists who think coronavirus was caused by 5G technology; or Trump loyalists taking their cues from a president who pretends to listen to science, then shows his true colors in a tweet. Or it was neo-Nazis and Confederate flag-wavers looking to bring in a little hatred, because, you know, why not? Or maybe this crowd was just a bunch of toddlers who cant comprehend why they have to sit at the table and eat instead of throwing their food all over the kitchen. Or, it could be just a bunch of partiers, here for the social scene. I met people at this protest who fit every one of those descriptions on Monday, all of them waving a flag of freedom. And I talked with Lynn Cappa and Toniann Parisi, both from New Britain, hairdressers at Salon 91 in Newington, just trying to make an economic statement: They need to go back to work. I got rejected from unemployment today because they used my 2019 filings, said Parisi, a co-owner of the salon. Her tally so far: No work for more than a month and shes received $2,700 from the federal government, including the same $1,200 check everyone got and $500 for having a teenager at home. I have a daughter and Im a single mom, Parisi said. Its scary. Scary for lots of reasons. But rather than arguing for a limited reopening, Cappa and Parisi simply said they need to reopen, period, with no limitations. Like so many in this crowd, they believe the virus threat can only hurt the old and the immune-compromised, so those people should stay quarantined. The whole thing is just no big deal. So, in short, this event brought out a wide range of protesters with the one common theme that theyre convinced the protection is worse than the threat. Absent were any visible guns unlike in some states, this was no Second Amendment Rally. Also, no visible elected leaders whatsoever. Republicans in Connecticut do understand polls and most but not all of them understand science. Reasonable people can debate when and how best to reopen and reasonable people can say the prevailing doctrine is too strict. But by calling, loudly, for reopening completely now, this parade gave up any credibility it might have had. Still, as it turns out, these protesters dont fit a mold. It takes all types at a rally like this, just like at left-wing protests, where tech millionaires, anarchists and anti-Israel supporters of terrorism mix with the kumbaya crowd. They were willing to come on downtown, where Im guessing not one of them lives. And theyre backed by sitting U.S. president who, less than a month ago, threatened to lock down all of metro New York City. At the time, it suit his whims to look like he was taking the coronavirus threat seriously. Funny thing, on Monday in Hartford, all but a small handful of the Reopen Connecticut rally stayed in their cars. That, too stood in contrast to anti-lockdown gatherings in Michigan and elsewhere. I asked three cops at the state Capitol, then at the governors mansion where the protesters ended up, and they all said no one would have been arrested for congregating as a traditional crowd. The few protesters out on the sidewalks did a fairly good job of staying apart from each other. I even saw a protester wearing a mask. I approached a beer-bellied, middle-aged man with a sign that read, My body, my choice, and had a drawing of a mask crossed out. I tried to ask whether he favored abortion rights but unlike the hairdressers, there was no talking with this protester. The two guys on the corner who both thought 5G causes coronavirus and that vaccines are a hoax were friendly and open with his beliefs. Yes, it takes all types, and we continue on, each of us managing a difficult situation the way we see fit somewhere on the spectrum of community values. dhaar@hearstmediact.com By Peter Hobson LONDON (Reuters) - Swiss exports of gold to the United States surged to 43.2 tonnes in March -- by far the biggest monthly total on record -- as high prices in New York pulled metal to the city, customs data showed on Tuesday. Fears that there was not enough gold in New York vaults to deliver against futures contracts pushed prices on CME Group's Comex exchange as much as 4% above spot prices in late March. The huge price gap created an incentive to ship gold to New York, often via Switzerland - a key trading, vaulting and refining centre for precious metals. Switzerland exported 361 kgs to the United States in February. The March number is the biggest since Swiss data began in 2012 and equivalent to all its gold exports to the United States in the previous 40 months combined. Switzerland also imported 28.2 tonnes of gold from Britain in March, up from 163 kg in February and the most for any month since May 2019. London is another vaulting centre and the biggest trading hub for physical gold. However, it uses 400-ounce gold bars, while the Comex exchange has a unit size of 100 ounces. This difference means bars from London must be recast, usually in Switzerland, before shipping to the United States for Comex. The difficulty of doing this when coronavirus lockdown measures grounded planes and closed several Swiss refineries in March was a key factor pushing Comex futures above spot prices. The surge in deliveries to the United States offset a continuing collapse in Switzerland's gold exports to India and China, usually its largest markets with hundreds of tonnes of imports a year. Swiss exports to mainland China fell to zero in March for the first time since September 2012. It shipped 152 kgs to Hong Kong and 6.6 tonnes to India, which entered coronavirus lockdown later than China. In total, Switzerland exported 96.1 tonnes of gold in March, up from 42.8 tonnes in February. (This story has been refiled to correct month in final paragraph). (Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) PC Keith Palmer's widow has described feeling 'let down' after the Metropolitan Police revealed she was bringing legal action against them over his death in the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack. The unarmed 48-year-old officer had been guarding the Carriage Gates at the Palace of Westminster, London, on March 2017 when he was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood, 52, during a car and knife rampage. However an inquest later heard chief coroner Mark Lucraft QC find shortcomings in security after discovering that two armed officers tasked with patrolling New Palace Yard had been nowhere near Carriage Gates for nearly an hour before the attack. Today Michelle Palmer confirmed that she was bringing the claim against the police and criticised the police force for making it public. PC Keith Palmer's widow Michelle Palmer (pictured together) said she felt 'let down' after the Metropolitan Police revealed she was suing them over the death of her husband in the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack The police officer was guarding the Carriage Gates at the Palace of Westminster in March 2017 when he was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood Massod, 52, who ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before crashing his car and entering the Palace of Westminster, was shot by two close protection officers She said: 'It was always of paramount importance that this matter remained private, out of respect for me, my daughter and Keith. 'I am disappointed that the Met have made it public that a claim is being brought. Once more I feel disappointed and let down. 'This is not the respectful actions I, nor Keith, would have expected from an organisation that he dedicated his life to. It continues to feel as if our wishes are of little importance.' Speaking after the inquest in October 2018, PC Palmer's widow said her husband had been left 'alone, unarmed, guarding an open gate' when he was killed. Scotland Yard said in a statement on Monday that the force had received a letter of claim in relation to PC Palmer's death, but did not comment on who was bringing the action, which was first reported in the Daily Mirror. Patrick Maguire, lawyer at Slater and Gordon who is representing Mrs Palmer, said: 'It has always been our position this matter proceed in confidence. It is with regret that the Metropolitan Police have decided to publicly state that a claim is being intimated.' PC Palmer was one of five people killed when Masood ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before crashing his car and entering the Palace of Westminster armed with 2ft-long knives. After killing four pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, he rammed into the Houses of Parliament and burst out with a carving knife and a hunting knife. Armed only with a baton and CS spray, PC Palmer was held down by Masood and repeatedly stabbed in the face, neck and back after trying to intervene in his deadly assault. His body armour did not protect him and he died from his wounds just minutes later while witnesses tried to save him. Masood was finally shot by two close protection officers who only happened to be at Parliament because they were guarding then-defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon. Mrs Palmer (pictured with Keith Palmer) said it was 'always of paramount importance that this matter remained private' and that she was disappointed that the Met have made it public PC Keith Palmer was among the five people killed when Masood ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge The two armed officers on duty at Parliament on the day of the attack had not gone near the gate for almost an hour beforehand. They were 80 yards away when PC Palmer was stabbed and could not see the attack unfold. Following a four-week inquest at the Old Bailey, Mr Lucraft found that PC Palmer, American tourist Kurt Cochran, 54, retired window cleaner Leslie Rhodes, 75, mother-of-two Aysha Frade, 44, and Romanian designer Andreea Cristea, 31, were unlawfully killed. The police officer died from his wounds just minutes later He said: 'Due to shortcomings in the security system at New Palace Yard, including the supervision of those engaged in such duties, the armed officers were not aware of a requirement to remain in close proximity to the gates. 'Had they been stationed there, it is possible that they may have been able to prevent Pc Palmer suffering fatal injuries.' After the inquest, PC Palmer's family said senior Met officers had 'closed ranks'. His widow said in a statement: 'How could Keith have been left alone, unarmed, guarding an open gate at one of the most iconic buildings in the world and one of the country's top terrorist targets? 'He was left at a vulnerable location with no protection, to die. 'The fact there were no firearms officers there for nearly an hour is hard to believe. 'I truly believe that if they had been there he would still be here today and Amy wouldn't have lost her daddy.' Speaking after the inquest, Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu apologised on behalf of the Met and said the lost chance to save a 'brave and courageous officer' was unacceptable. On Monday the Metropolitan Police Service confirmed that it was facing a lawsuit over the death of PC Keith Palmer. The Met, who is said to have refused to accept responsibility, confirmed to The Mirror it had received a 'letter of claim', which is used by lawyers to outline the legal basis for the action. Since PC Palmer's death, Scotland Yard has been accused of unfairly blaming the junior officers to hide systematic security failings. The marksmen insist they were simply following orders by focusing their attentions on another entrance at Parliament that was commonly used by MPs and ministers. 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 Everyone has a story about where they were on days like 9/11 or the moon landing. This isn't like that. This story is made up of millions of smaller ones, and its impact will be with us for a long time. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down L.A.'s schools, its freeways, its workplaces. It literally hit home, where the majority of us (who are lucky enough to have one) were told to remain isolated and distanced from friends and extended family. Every Angeleno in one way or another has been left to negotiate a new way of living -- and to navigate what has already shaped up to be one of the worst recessions in living memory. KPCC/LAist wants to help document this historic time -- and its aftermath -- as it unfolds across Southern California. Have you lost your job or been furloughed? Are you an essential worker risking exposure to treat patients or keep the economy on life support? What has it been like for you? What have been your ups, your downs? What do you want your future self to remember? We invite you to join us in creating the diary of a city in the time of coronavirus. Pick any day that stands out to you, and share it with us. A KPCC/LAist journalist may be in touch to follow up. We'll read every response, and nothing is shared without your permission. And if you have more to say as time goes on, we'll happily accept multiple entries. 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About the Public Insight Network Founded in 2003, American Public Media's Public Insight Network is a platform for connecting trusted journalists with knowledgeable sources and for fostering journalistic excellence, innovation and collaboration. Through American Public Media, you may have opportunities to also inform reporting for national programs and podcasts. The face-off between the Centre and West Bengal over the visit of two central teams for an on-the-spot assessment of the COVID-19 situation escalated on Tuesday as the panel members lay confined to guest houses for most part of the day before the state relented following a stern letter from the Union home secretary. The arrival of the teams in Kolkata without prior intimation to the state government has set off a tussle between the ruling dispensations at the Centre and in the state, with Mamata Banerjees TMC calling the visit adventure tourism and violation of the tenets of federal structure, and the BJP accusing her government of hiding data about the pandemic. The two teams that were to tour the affected areas and interact with health workers kept cooling their heels in guest houses in Kolkata and Jalpaiguri, before the Centre intervened, with Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla shooting off a stern letter to the states chief secretary Rajiva Sinha reminding him of provisions of law and a Supreme Court order. Apurva Chandra, the leader of one of the two teams sent to the state, claimed its members were told they "will not be going out" on Tuesday. Chandra, an Additional secretary in the Defence Ministry, said,"We have been deployed by the central government and our order of deployment says that the state government is to provide logistic(al) support to us... I have been in touch with the chief secretary and seeking his support since the time I landed here. "I had also met him yesterday. But today we have been informed that there are some issues so we are not going out. The chief secretary is likely to visit us and we will again hold a meeting with him," he told a TV channel in Kolkata. As tensions flared, the Union home ministry intervened, with its secretary Bhalla writing to the states chief secretary that the two inter-ministerial central teams, visiting Kolkata and Jalpaiguri, have not been extended desired cooperation by the state and local authorities. "In fact, they have been specifically restrained from making any visits, interacting with health professionals, and assessing the ground level situation. "This amounts to obstructing the implementation of the orders issued by the central government under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and equally binding directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," Bhalla said. The union home secretary said, therefore, the state government is directed to make all necessary arrangements for the central teams to carry out such responsibilities as have been entrusted to them. After the strongly worded letter from Bhalla, the team in Kolkata was allowed to visit parts of the city escorted by BSF and state police contingents. "The central team told us that it wants to visit parts of the city. We agreed and state government officials are accompanying the team. Rajiva Sinha later told reporters. When pressed further whether the team would be allowed to visit other districts and how long it plans to stay in Bengal, the top bureaucrat of the state, said,Nothing has been decided about their visit to other districts. When they come up with it (the proposal), we would take a call. About the duration of their stay, we would like to say it clearly that we have not invited them, they have come on their own. At a time when we are fighting the disease, making arrangements for their visit is tough, he said. Political temperature, meanwhile, soared as the TMC dubbed as "adventure tourism" the visit of the central teams and asked why such delegations were not sent to states with much higher number of infections and hotspots. Addressing a digital press conference, TMC MPs Derek O'Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was informed about the inter-ministerial central teams' (IMCTs) visit three hours after their arrival in the state, which they said was unacceptable. "The IMCT is on adventure tourism. The CM was told about the team's visit three hours after the team landed," said O'Brien. He also questioned why central teams did not visit states such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh that have higher numbers of coronavirus cases and many more hotspots. Why central teams are being sent to West Bengal which does not appear in the list of the top 10 states in terms of infection, the TMC leader in Rajya Sabha asked. "The Centre has to clarify. Why the chief minister was informed after the team had arrived? In a federal structure, you have to first inform the state government. The motive behind sending such teams is not yet clear. It needs to be clarified first, he said. The Union home ministry had said on Monday the COVID- 19 situation was "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and formed six IMCTs for an on-the-spot assessment and issuing necessary directions to the four states -- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal. Bandyopadhyay, the leader of the Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha, hoped that good sense would prevail and the Centre would henceforth consult the respective state before taking such a decision. "We have kept behind and want a joint fight against the pandemic. Do not take our graciousness for granted, we too can talk in the political language. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah should also leave behind and should not take Bengal's pledge for a united fight in tackling the pandemic for granted," O'Brien said. "What the central government has done by sending central teams is nothing but an insult to the people of the state, he added. Responding to a question on "low rate of testing" in the state, Bandyopadhyay said that 425 tests are conducted every day in West Bengal and the number from Tuesday would go up to 600. He said sending central teams is not only against the basic tenets of federalism but also amounted to diluting the joint fight against the COVID crisis. Taking umbrage at the Centre for sending teams to assess the "serious" COVID-19 situation in the state, the West Bengal chief minister had shot off a letter to the prime minister on Monday, calling it a "unilateral" and "undesirable" action. The BJP, however, defended the Centre's move. "The central government has done the right thing. They (the teams) will surely find out how the lockdown norms are being violated and how the state government is trying to hide the real picture. In order to hide the facts and figures, it is pushing the people towards a much more dangerous situation," stte BJP president Dilip Ghosh said. PTI PNT/ASG/ABS/ACB SMN ZMN PTI ASG PNT SMN SMN 04211515 NNNN ZCZC PRI GEN NAT . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Highlights OnePlus 8 series in the US starts at a price of $699. In India, the prices of the iPhone 8 series phones start from Rs 41,999 In case of top variant OnePlus 8 Pro the difference between the US and the Indian prices is little over $215. --- For years the tech media in India has written pieces on how iPhones are cheaper, significantly cheaper in the US, compared to what they cost in India. Now, the US tech media is writing about how OnePlus phones are so much cheaper in India compared to the US. Call it reversal in fortune! Just a day ago OnePlus announced the India prices for the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro and it has not only pleasantly surprised OnePlus fans in India, but is also making the company's fans in the US, jealous. The OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro are way cheaper than the speculated prices of these two phones in India. Some tipsters had even predicted that the prices would go way past Rs 60,000 for the Pro variant but OnePlus said not so fast. On the launch day, when it revealed that the OnePlus 8 will start from $699 and OnePlus 8 Pro from $899, the company said that for India price people should wait. "We don't speak in dollars," OnePlus India had tweeted. The India prices of the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro were revealed on Sunday night. In a tweet, OnePlus revealed the OnePlus 8 would start at Rs 41,999 for the 6GB variant whereas the base variant in the US costs $699 (although this one comes with 8GB RAM). The 8GB variant with 128GB storage capacity in India is priced at Rs 44,999, still around $100 less than the price in the US. Coming to the OnePlus 8 12GB variant, the top-end model is priced at Rs 49,999 in India, almost $150 cheaper than the US price of the model. Similarly, the OnePlus 8 Pro starts at Rs 54,999 in India but in the US it costs $899. There is a difference of around $180. The OnePlus 8 Pro 12GB and 128GB variant in India costs Rs 59,999 while in the US it costs a whopping $999. The US media is writing about it, anguished that OnePlus 8 phones in their country are more expensive than what they cost in India. One wrote on social media, "I was excited to get the OnePlus on @TMobile but the US pricing compared to India and China is a joke! Why do other countries get a price of 20 percent lower?" Compared to Indian consumers of phones, the US phone users still have it easy. The phones are often cheaper in the US, but companies like Xiaomi and OnePlus have reversed the trend, possibly thanks to local manufacturing in India, lower margins, tighter supply chains, and more frugal distribution network. The US has always been lucky when it comes to iPhone prices. For instance, the Apple iPhone SE 2020 starts at $399 in the US while in India it costs Rs 42,500. There is a difference of Rs 11,000. The World Health Organisation has defended itself against criticism from US President Donald Trump over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nothing was "hidden" from member states and has warned against politicising the health crisis. "Nothing was hidden from the US, from day one," insisted Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday as he sought to defuse criticism from Washington over the World Health Organisation's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Tedros told reporters at a daily press briefing that US health officials had been working in the WHO's Geneva headquarters from the beginning of the outbreak, which was a testament to the body's transparency. "There is no secret in WHO because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous. It's a health issue. The health body claimed there were 15 staff from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought in specifically to work with the organisation on its Covid-19 response. WHO is open. We don't hide anything, Tedros said. US President Donald Trump has criticised the UN agency for downplaying the extent of the Covid-19 outbreak in China and failing to quickly declare a pandemic. Funding gap Critics like Trump have focused on the WHO's initial praise of China for its transparency on the virus, even though reports have since emerged suggesting that more people died of Covid-19, than the country's official tally. Trump last week cut funding to the agency pending a formal investigation. American taxpayers contributed $400m (370 million euros) to WHO's budget in 2019, almost double the second-largest member-state contribution, and ten times more than China. The US withdrawal will leave a 15 percent gap in WHO's $4.5 bn (4.1 bn euros) annual budget. World leaders have been quick to criticize the move, with UN secretary general Antonio Guterres insisting "now is not the time" to cut funding at an acute phase of the pandemic. Playing politics Some experts claim that Trump is lashing out at the WHO to deflect attention away from his own administration's handling of the coronavirus response. The WHO chief has warned against politicising the health crisis, suggesting that divisions between people and political parties were "fueling" the pandemic. Tedros, a microbiologist and once Ethiopia's health minister, has called for unity to fight a "dangerous enemy," which he says is slated to get worse. The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday asserted that coronavirus was not manufactured in a laboratory but it likely came from animals, as per all available evidence, according to a report. Earlier, the WHO had said that the genetic makeup of the virus is closely related to coronaviruses identified in bats, suggesting the disease originated in that animal before making the leap into humans, as reported by the Daily Mail. According to the Daily Mail, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, Takeshi Kasai, said that the exact source has not been identified yet. Kasai spoke after US President Donald Trump said the US is looking into whether the virus leaked from a laboratory near China's Wuhan which was doing research on coronaviruses including the SARS virus, a close genetic relative of the current coronavirus, added the report. Meanwhile, Russia's former health minister, Veronika Skvortsova, denied ruling out the possibility that the virus came from a laboratory and asked to conduct a very thorough study, It is surmised that the coronavirus made the leap from animals to humans at Wuhan' Huanan Seafood Market, which is where the earliest cluster of cases was detected. However, China has so far failed to identify the first person to contract the infection, patient zero, The WHO admitted that the virus could have been carried to the Huanan Market by an already-infected human, who then spread it to others. The virus, which emerged in 2019n in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has so far infected more than 2.4 million people globally and killed more than 165,000 The WHO on April 20 insisted that it sounded the alarm on the coronavirus right from the very start and had hidden nothing from the US about the deadly pandemic. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had said there were no secrets at the UN agency after being blasted by the United States for allegedly downplaying the initial COVID-19 outbreak in China. The United States has by far the highest death toll of any country, at more than 40,000 fatalities, and Trump has faced criticism over his handling of the pandemic. Washington is the biggest contributor to the WHO but Trump is freezing funding, alleging that the organisation mismanaged and covered up the spread the virus. Tedros had said the presence of embedded US government secondees working at the WHO headquarters in Geneva meant there was nothing being concealed from Washington. The US State Department has said the WHO was too late in sounding the alarm over COVID-19 and is overly deferential to China. It questioned why it did not pursue a lead from Taiwan flagged up on December 31, 2019, about reports of atypical pneumonia in Wuhan Debate has raged over the significance of Taiwan's email, which informed the WHO of the reports from Wuhan, and of at least seven patients being isolated -- something that would not be necessary for a non-infectious disease. New Delhi, April 21 : The textile and fashion industry have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Stakeholders in production, retail and procurement are facing the heat with grim exports, paucity of cash flow and zero footfall at mass retail and designer stores alike (keeping in mind these are closed). India exported USD28.36 billion worth of textiles from April 2019 till January 2020. A majority of domestic companies are facing massive order cancellations from the US and Europe, along with factory shutdowns, raw material shortage, delayed delivery of summer apparels. Average exports during the first quarter typically stand at USD8 billion-10 billion, hence the industry is staring at an equivalent quantum of revenue loss from exports across the value chain because of the extended lockdown till May 3 which would take at least an additional month to resume. Furthermore, the full-fledged resumptions of exports would mainly depend on the containment of pandemic in key export geographies, the US and Europe which are India's major markets for textile. Prolonged Suspension and Muted Domestic Demand may further dent sentiments The sector is facing headwinds in the form of a flattening demand from key exporting countries, higher production leading to lower realisations and increasing competition from neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam. The COVID-19 related demand disruptions could substantially impact companies with weaker balance sheets and limited scale, should the recovery stretch beyond one quarter. In such a situation, consolidation is expected within sub-segments such as yarn producers, spinning and dyeing, since the industry is largely fragmented due to limited entry barriers, say reports by India Ratings. Muted Demand in Domestic retail market With production coming to a halt, retail stores being closed, rising inventories, what's in store for designers? "Summer fashion usually starts in late February or early March, a lot of our designers have produced a certain collection and quantity for summer, which were in the process of production and now have now come to a halt. We definitely have to reduce the quantity of merchandise that we are taking in. This is to ensure basically nothing goes into our storeroom, everything is on the rack so that it also helps the designer as in when the lockdown opens; they will not have to go full scale, they can work with smaller unit," said Aparna Badlani, Atosa Mumbai at the #InThisTogether webinar by FDCI. Adding, "One really has to see what happens when the lockdown opens. We don't know whether there will be a panic buying situation like in China or it is going to be the fact that there has been absolutely no income in past one and half months. We don't know if people are actually going to come out and shop or is it beacuse of the scare, people are going to come our at all." Government Support Critical for Recovery post COVID-19 The textiles industry being heavily concentrated in medium and small scale enterprises (MSME), compared to large scale producers across the value chain, MSME players are highly vulnerable to the business risks. Subsequently, the resumption of operations for MSME's heavily hinges on working capital availability and orders from large scale companies as well as exports. On April 17, The Reserve of India announced a targetted long term repo operation {TLTRO) totalling Rs 50,000 crore for small businesses in the domestic market facing liquidity crunch. (Aditi Roy can be contacted at aditi.r@ians.in) DALLAS, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OYO Hotels, one of the world's leading hotel chains, has recorded an uptick in long-term stays in the US during the current COVID-19 pandemic as more and more travelers opt for OYO's services for their accommodation needs. A stay is classified as long term when a guest spends over seven days at a hotel and OYO has witnessed an upwards of 21% increase in this category during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The hotel chain has been constantly monitoring the situation and resorted to adaptive measures for ensuring business continuity for its asset partners while taking the necessary steps to safeguard the health and well-being of its guests with a clear focus on hygiene and cleanliness. Since the beginning of the pandemic, OYO has been focused on offering accommodation to those who are most likely to be at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic and is glad for the opportunity to serve them. These include those offering medical, government and military support, healthcare, transitional housing, mobility and essential transportation. In the transitional housing segment, in particular, OYO has seen an increased demand for stays over 30 days in length for displaced workers and medical staff. The company is constantly working on new protocols while adhering to the current ones on social distancing for guests staying at hotels. OYO is glad for the opportunity to serve and support its asset partners through the means of innovative technology and tools for offering remote assistance. Over the past four weeks, the company's average response time on its OYO OS chat is less than one minute with over 95% requests being answered in less than five minutes. Commenting on the development, Abhinav Sinha, Global COO and Operating Partner, OYO US, said, ''We value this opportunity to serve our guests in these unprecedented times. We are working diligently to offer comfortable and hygienic accommodation to all those in need and our asset partners have a huge role to play in helping us achieve this. While the coronavirus crisis has deeply impacted our industry, it has also created the need for long term stays for the frontline workers. We are hopeful of driving demand for our partners across regions in the long term stays segment at a time when this can help maintain social distancing and break the cycle/chain of infections. Many of our hotels provide amenities in-house and are well-equipped to support the needs of long-term guests at an affordable price. We will continue to work together to serve those who are in need while adhering to stringent levels of hygiene and cleanliness.'' The company continues to work with the Department of Homeland Security, Salvation Army, National Guard, Red Cross, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Health and Human Services and Mayors and Governors from across the country to meet any accommodation need that arises as they fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, OYO has offered free accommodation to doctors, nurses and medical first responders across its 300+ hotels in the US so they can sleep, shower or just get off their feet and recharge. About OYO Hotels and Homes Opening its doors in 2013, OYO Hotels & Homes, a young hotel startup, today is the world's leading chain of hotels and homes. OYO today operates in over 800 cities in 80 countries, including the U.S., Europe, U.K., India, Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Japan. For more information, visit www.oyorooms.com. SOURCE OYO Hotels & Homes Committed to New England communities, Starion Energy is dedicated to selecting renewable energy from local sources like small hydropower from New England, run-of-the-river facilities in Connecticut, and select wind and solar power from Massachusetts. These renewables do not produce air pollution or greenhouse gasses that are traditionally associated with smog, acid rain, and climate change. "While thousands of residential and small business customers across New England have already 'gone green' by using the competitive retail energy market to purchase renewable electricity through their electricity supplier, Starion Energy is now offering the ability for consumers to buy more locally generated renewable energy which makes a more direct impact in their own state and geographic region," said Duane Gereski, Director of Marketing. With the New England Green Power Plan, customers can expect the same exceptional service from Starion Energy with no noticeable updates to their electricity utilities as everything is still connected to the same power grid. However, renewable energy replaces traditional energy sources with ones that are better for the environment and the region's future. "Since the renewable energy we source is 100% locally produced, it is good news to Massachusetts and Connecticut jobs and the New England economy," said Duane. "Choosing our New England Green Power Plan helps support the development of new renewable energy projects, which puts people to work building and maintaining the sites that will power our region's future." When a customer selects the New England Green Power Plan, there is no additional action to take. Starion Energy will purchase New England based Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) on behalf of the customer to offset 100% of the electricity they use. Supporting New England based renewable products supports the increase of cleaner generation sources flowing into the electricity grid. As Earth Day draws closer, Starion Energy is committed to creating a better, cleaner world through renewable energy sources. Renewable energy not only reduces the world's reliance on fossil-fueled power, but it also helps save depleting energy resources for a better tomorrow. Switching to renewable energy is one of the easiest things that consumers can do to show that they care about their environment and want to conserve it for future generations. "To help do our part and to celebrate Earth Day," adds Duane, "Starion Energy will have 10 trees planted in a special location around the United States for every customer that signs up for our New England Green product on Earth Day, April 22nd." To learn more about Starion Energy's New England Green Energy Plan visit starionenergy.com/newenglandgreen . Connecticut and Massachusetts residents can sign up for the plan by going to starionenergy.com or calling 800-600-3040. About Starion Energy: Celebrating our 10-year anniversary, Starion Energy is an independent US retail supplier loyal to everyday hard-working families, local businesses, and the small communities which we strengthen and empower. We secure the path towards smarter, cleaner energy choices. Our agile working style, resources, and seasoned energy leaders is how we can match people's changing lives with easy plans that yield results. It is our honest top performing personal service and the genuine positivity of our people that impact customer's lives and makes us the go-to long-term energy partner. SOURCE Starion Energy, Inc. Related Links http://www.starionenergy.com (CNN) A World Health Organization vehicle carrying coronavirus test samples came under attack in Myanmar, leaving the driver dead and a government official seriously injured. The WHO confirmed that Pyae Sone Win Maung died of his injuries after the Monday attack in the Minbya township in the north-western state of Rakhine. Reuters reported that the vehicle had come under gunfire. "The World Health Organization is deeply saddened at the death of its personnel during a security incident in Rakhine district of Myanmar," the WHO said in a statement Tuesday. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the WHO's Southeast Asia director, condemned "all kinds of physical, verbal or psychological violence against health workforce." "This incident once again puts the spotlight on the extreme hardships being faced by our corona warriors -- our doctors, nurses, other health workforce -- especially while working in security compromised and hard-to-reach areas as they continue to contribute their best to save lives," she said. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "strongly condemns the 20 April attack," his spokesman said in a statement. "The Secretary-General expresses his condolences to the family of the deceased and wishes a swift recovery to the injured. He calls for a full and transparent investigation into the incident and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice." Ideally, it is essential that any news given in whatever form radio, print or electronic is presented with due accuracy and done so impartially. Public interest should be foremost in the minds of the news provider. by Mass L. Usuf Having COVID-19 is not anybodys fault. Every case is a victim. WHO Emergency Programme Director Mike Ryan. One is non-human and has no face. Not vicious nor vengeful. Behaves naturally and without prejudice. Not visible to the naked eye. The other is human and has a face. Vicious and vengeful. Behaves irrationally and with prejudice. Clearly visible. One is the corona virus which is a pandemic globally and, the other is, racism which is endemic locally. With regard to an India specific question on 6th April 2020 regarding racial profiling, little wonder that WHO responded as follows. Having COVID-19 is not anybodys fault. Every case is a victim. It is very important that we do not profile the cases on the basis of racial, religious and ethnic lines. The Sri Lankan media must learn from this. Face Cover Comedy Remember the dramatics about the burqa last year post 21/4 bombings. The former President and the then government were the enactors of that farcical drama. They hastily gazetted the ban on Burqa, an attire which had no connection or relevance to the 21/4 bombings. The opposition parties sheepishly tagged along with the irrational popular sentiment of that time neglecting their responsibility to uphold the civil liberties of the citizens. The mainstream media and the social media were quick to pick on it and like the corona virus made it a contagion which infected the minds of many people. Funnily, today, everyone including the street urchin who acted violently against the Muslim woman for wearing the Burqa/Niqab are themselves wearing the face cover (mask). The idiomatic expression, eating ones word is appropriate here. This comment is obiter. The point to note is not the action of those who were against burqa/niqab wearing the face mask now but, importantly, the fall out of their unjust, hostile and bigoted campaign against it. This had the domino effect inter alia of creating vigilantism within the society which was far from what is called civilised behaviour. The highly biased Goebbels approach of certain infamous media outlets contributed in great measure to make discriminating against and, harassment of, Muslim women the new normal. Before long notices with the picture of burqa/niqab were ubiquitous. Banning the wearer from entering various premises. Taking this hostility to the next level were the spontaneous vigilante groups. They did take the law into their hands and harassed the innocent Muslim women in public. Muslim women who were not wearing these dresses but the normal shalwar were being harassed as well. There were also several reports of physical handling of Muslim women by men at various places. The extent of intimidation, threat and insult thrown at innocent women were absolutely unprecedented in the history of this country. Evidently, this was not by accident but by clear design. Brave and Courageous Today, this country is having its fair share of the challenge of facing the global pandemic. The government, the tri-forces, police, doctors, nurses, essential services and all others are in the frontline. They are aware of the risks to their life but yet opt to be on the line of duty to save and protect the citizens of this country. We need to remember these brave and courageous souls with gratitude. We must salute them for their selfless service. It is common sense that the corona virus does not infect a person based on caste, race, colour or religion. Thousands of people are in their houses under lock down. Many have lost their daily livelihood, those who were employed fear of being laid off, salaries are either not being paid or paid less, the sick are unable to seek treatment, those with terminal diseases are staring at the empty space hopelessly, those who are dependent on drugs are without their medicines and the distress list continues. These are sacrifices made by the many hundreds of thousands of our citizens in the rear-guard of this engagement. We must salute them too. Disgraceful Agenda It is no secret that rabid racism is endemic in certain sections of our society. Very sadly, these elements opportunistically want to use this pandemic to further their disgraceful agenda of dividing the people and humiliating the Muslims. It is very clear that purpose built social media platforms are strategically on hyperactive mode in their hate mongering campaign. In addition, what is inexplicable is the stubbornly active collaboration by some mainstream media outlets in othering the Muslim community. Each function complementing and reinforcing the other. These media houses have consistently been accused by the larger segment of the society for sowing the seed of suspicion and discord among the communities. The public is well aware of the slanted interpretations, biased reportages, deceitful comments, pretentious honesty, innocent ridicule and all other theatrics spewed by these shammers with that mocking smile. It seems that all the available tools for the onslaught targeting the Muslims are presently up and running. Professor Chomsky in relation to media manipulation says that the Media uses the emotional aspect more than the rational aspect. The emotional aspect short circuits rational thinking. It finally opens the door for the implantation of ideas, fears, anxieties and compulsions. Ideally, it is essential that any news given in whatever form radio, print or electronic is presented with due accuracy and done so impartially. Public interest should be foremost in the minds of the news provider. The Sinhala rural population who are innocent and vulnerable would naturally believe in these types of propaganda. It is very unfortunate, that some of our mainstream and social media are saturated with consistent populist hate mongering. Through these exercises, they mould deceptive and treacherous public opinion against the target community. Professor Noam Chomsky once said, The general population does not know what is happening, and it does not even know that it does not know. Imagine how easy it is for these degenerative elements to misguide the innocent and peace-loving people. Corona Vigilantism The burqa/niqab affair is related to a dress and is not life threatening. The negligent mishandling of the burqa/niqab affair by the previous government culminated in spontaneous vigilantism. In contrast, the corona virus is life threatening. It is incumbent on the government to take positive measures to control the racially profiled news reporting and to seriously clamp down on the spread of Covid 19 hate via the social media. The efforts of these evil minds are aimed at misleading the public to think that the Muslims are to be blamed for the corona virus or that they are deliberately spreading it. The potential for the disintegration of the social structure looms large if the movement of Muslim people to areas of the majority communities are restricted by vigilantism. The same form of overt acts of discrimination, harassment and threat as elucidated above would then be seen in public. Legitimate resistance by the Muslims would be misinterpreted by the media as unsolicited violence and/or misinformed as unwanted aggression. All the ingredients for a racial conflagration would have then been set in place only waiting to be triggered. At a time when the country is just coming out of a disease outbreak will it be able to sustain an outbreak of racial violence? Every civilised and democratic government is responsible to uphold and assure the internal security of the country for the welfare of all its citizens. Contextually, unless these unsocial elements in the mainstream and social media are brought under control, the State will only be sending the wrong signals to these perpetrators. They would think that the state machinery is encouraging one section of the people to act with impunity against another? Worst of all, the innocent public will be thinking that all what is being said to them through the media are nothing but the gospel truth. It is fervently hoped that the government would initiate appropriate steps to stem this growing threat to the internal security of the country. Until you realize how easily it is for your mind to be manipulated, you remain the puppet of someone else's game. Evita Ochel The End. By Express News Service BHOPAL: A 59-year-old police inspector died due to Coronavirus led respiratory complications at a private hospital in Indore early on Tuesday. The police officer named Yashwant Pal was posted as station in-charge in Ujjain. This is the second casualty of a cop due to COVID-19 within 48 hours in Madhya Pradesh, which has so far reported 1503 positive cases and 77 deaths. Pal, who was posted as the in-charge of Neelganga police station in Ujjain district, was admitted at the SAIMS Hospital in Indore ten days back and was in serious condition since then. According to doctors at the hospital, Pal's Oxygen saturation rate was 60% and he had developed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) after which he was put on ventilator support. He lost the battle against the deadly virus at 5 am on Tuesday. Earlier on Sunday wee hours, a 43-year-old police inspector Devendra Chandravanshi (who was posted in Indore) had died due to COVID-19 triggered Pulmonary Embolism. "Humble tribute to Yashwant Pal Ji, station in-charge of Ujjain Nilganga, who gave up his life at the altar of duty while fighting COVID19! May God place his virtuous soul at his feet and provide support to the mournful family. We all are with his family," Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted. FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 52 lives in Indore alone. Indore is one of the worst-hit towns in Madhya Pradesh. Indore's tally of COVID-19 positive cases has climbed to 915. A total of 18,601 confirmed cases have been reported in India including 590 deaths. 3,252 people, who were COVID-19 positive, have recovered or migrated, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday. (With ANI inputs) The integration between KisanHub and Gatekeeper is set to improve data connectivity throughout the agri-supply chain, providing a single source of truth to better inform crop management and procurement decisions LONDON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The KisanHub-Gatekeeper integration is available in April 2020. It will enable users to take advantage of the array of functionality found on KisanHub's platform, without manually duplicating any data. In a few clicks, growers can expressly permission selected crops zones and operations from Farmplan's Gatekeeper onto the KisanHub platform. Farmplan is a division of the global Proagrica business, best known for its core integration, workflow and insight solutions and is providing the data exchange capability to securely deliver the grower data. Key to this integration, is the inclusion of crop boundaries from Gatekeeper into the KisanHub platform, a prerequisite of accessing other platform tools. These tools include a crop monitoring app, quality tracking with market suitability, pest and disease predictions and yield models. Another key aspect is the importing of planting/sowing and harvest dates for these crops, which when combined with other platform data, provide the basis for crop management and procurement planning, improving operational efficiency and allowing more informed decisions. Jonny Kerley, Head of Product at KisanHub explains: "Software systems in the form of point solutions have been used by the agricultural industry since the early 2000s and this process has accelerated in recent years with a number of agri-tech companies providing different solutions. These point solutions, for example a soil moisture sensor, rarely integrate or talk to each other, reducing accessibility. "KisanHub's horizontally scaled platform brings these data sets together in one place, allowing more accurate and informed decisions across the supply chain. Similar to the computing industry in the early 1980s, agri-tech solutions will transition from vertically integrated to horizontally scaled systems. "This will revolutionise the agricultural industry, allowing easier exchange of information and standardisation across multiple systems. We are extremely excited at KisanHub to be an integral part of this journey, alongside precision farming and crop management systems such as Farmplan's Gatekeeper. With the ease of use provided by Proagrica to connect and move this data between Gatekeeper and KisanHub it becomes easier to create connections saving both time and money." Growing up in the industry gave Jonny an early appreciation and affinity with agriculture, attributes that were deepened by 6 years as a research manager in agricultural and horticultural crop trials and a further role as an agri-food consultant. Now, Jonny's role at KisanHub is to steer and design the development of the software, particularly in the crop intelligence and data insights departments, to ensure it meets the 21st century requirements of the agricultural industry and provides solutions to on-the-ground customer problems. Jonny further describes: "Data requires organisation and interpretation to provide information. This information becomes knowledge when the context is sufficient. Robust data, that is not contained in segregated silos is essential to the supply chain, something that KisanHub strives to provide, and is part of the reason for this integration with Gatekeeper through Proagrica. "Our cloud-based platform and mobile app can capture and analyse data in context, providing actionable knowledge in real-time to our users. It also allows the platform to consolidate information across a wide geographical area, helping to anticipate and analyse crop parameters such as quality and yield across different fields, growers or regions. Data sets are connected yet secure; spread across remote sites, accessible anywhere and shareable when desired." KisanHub has developed the platform by working closely with our customers, including some of the largest growers and producer groups in the UK and global fresh produce sector: Ian Anderson the Divisional Managing Director at Burgess Farms Produce described: "Our focus is on delivering consistent premium quality at the lowest unit cost possible whilst delivering sustainable returns to our growers. To achieve this goal we need accurate data and advance knowledge of both crop and seasonal developments so that we can ensure optimum crop usage. "The partnership between ourselves, our growers and the KisanHub team will allow us to use live data to help anticipate crop size splits and yields, to generate the maximum possible saleable fractions and the best financial outcome for our growers and customers. "KisanHub's platform enables us to capture data across a wide portfolio of growers and consolidate that information into one central resource. It provides an opportunity for us to access and analyse our data quickly, transforming the way we make these essential management decisions moving forward." Proagrica's Precision Agriculture Development Director, Alistair Knott said: "This type of collaboration is exactly what is needed to ensure the value from systems data is scalably realised. Growers, agronomists and other service provider systems will, through choice or functionality, be different. Each has its place in the helping growers to be more productive and so more profitable, and so it is our responsibility to make our growers experience as easy and simple as possible. Gatekeeper, as the backbone IT system to so many growers, is ensuring that crop optimisation solutions such as KisanHub can seamlessly fit into that IT infrastructure." For further information on KisanHub, please visit the website at www.kisanhub.com This collaboration with KisanHub is one of the latest steps in Proagrica's ongoing commitment to improve data connectivity in the agri-food supply chain. About Proagrica Proagrica, part of RELX Group, is a global provider of independent connectivity and data-driven support solutions for the agriculture and animal health industries. We deliver actionable intelligence to drive business growth across the value chain. Our superior products and services connect and empower industry participants to address their key needs around trading, productivity and compliance. Our solutions are built around the key competencies of data connectivity and data analytics delivering seamless supply chain management, supply chain standards compliance, and customer insight and engagement, essential for businesses looking to improve their value offering and expand in the modern marketplace. Further information at www.proagrica.com, www.relx.com About Farmplan Farmplan (http://www.farmplan.co.uk) is the leading industry software specialist in the agricultural sector. With a proud heritage of over 50 years its unique blend of people, knowledge and technology have supported the needs of every farm, no matter the size or complexity. Farmplan is part of IAgrM and works closely with the AICC, accountants, advisors and agronomists across the industry, championing farmers while helping to shape the future success of agribusinesses. About the KisanHub platform In 2013 KisanHub software revolutionised how agriculture connects information in the food supply chain, from seed to sale. Today, KisanHub is a leading digital solution thanks to the online platform and mobile-App accessible anywhere, anytime. With a growing customer base in both the UK and globally, KisanHub supports the management of over 60 million worth of food, for people to enjoy around the world. Unique data-driven insights from KisanHub allow enterprises to discover ways to increase predictability and become more environmentally sustainable. The features range from satellite imagery to show crop health, harvest predictions using machine learning and paperless passports to show full traceability of the journey of our food. KisanHub's talented team of 38 employees, between the two offices in Cambridge UK and Pune, India are dedicated to making the best software solution for inefficiencies in the food supply chain. Kisan means 'Grower' in Hindi and we aim to cultivate a Hub for everyone involved in food production to connect, collect and discover together. For more information visit kisanhub.com or follow us @kisanhub on Twitter and LinkedIn Media Contact: Proagrica, RBI, Quadrant House, Sutton SM2 5AS. Jessica.seddon@proagrica.com Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1157444/Burgess_Farm_Produce.jpg Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1157443/Proagrica_Alistair_Knott.jpg Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1157445/KisanHub_Jonny_Kerley.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/473567/Proagrica_Logo.jpg Media personalities in radio and TV haven't missed a step as they share their unique work from home setups to keep you up-to-date with the latest news and music. "Who thought broadcasting from inside your home was possible?" said Haley Hernandez, Health Reporter for KPRC. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Coronavirus expert Peter Hotez: Social distancing saved Houston. Dont get complacent. "Working from home has its challenges but I'm most thankful to work in an industry that believes so strongly in its mission to keep the public informed," said Hernandez. Many have a history of camaraderie. "Working from home has brought us closer together as a team, we communicate via text, email, video calls all day everyday," said Eli Escobar from Mix 96.5. There are perks, though, said Chrisdyann Uribe from FOX 26. "Ive been enjoying the breakfast breaks, secretly wearing yoga pants and no shoes while on air. MEDIA UPDATES: Former KHOU news anchor Lisa Hernandez joins KPRC 2 Others have enjoyed the extra time with family. "It's definitely been amazing to have such a short commute up the steps to the closet!" said Roula Christie from 104.1 KRBE. "My kids are at ease knowing mama is in the closet upstairs versus having left in the dark of night." Check out the makeshift work setups radio and TV personalities have at home. STAY INFORMED: Sign up to receive breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. A gang member (pictured) who filmed himself arguing with police after being pulled over 'on the way to the supermarket' is a serial lockdown breacher A gang member who filmed himself arguing with police after being pulled over 'on the way to the supermarket' is a serial lockdown breacher. The gang member was being driven by an associate when they were stopped by police in a suburban street in New Zealand's Northland last week. The pair told police they were going to the supermarket but the police refused to believe them. A heated debate was sparked when police seized the driver's licence and continued to question the pair about where they were going. The officers then insisted they escort the pair to the supermarket and home again to ensure they weren't breaching the restrictions. New Zealand is under strict level four lockdown rules in a bid to slow the spread of the deadly respiratory disease. Residents are banned from leaving their homes for anything but essential reasons, which includes food shopping, medical care and exercise. Inspector Marty Ruth told Daily Mail Australia the patched gang member, who is known to police, has been caught breaking lockdown rules three times in the past four weeks. On one occasion he was caught doing burnouts in public while on a suspended licence. He has been spoken to by police on a number of occasions about breaching lockdown conditions and has been issued a warning. 'In light of his previous behaviour, the officers made the decision to carry his licence on them while they followed him to the supermarket, to ensure he was indeed undertaking essential travel, where they would return his licence to him afterwards,' Insp. Ruth said. 'After waiting in line at the Supermarket for a short time the man and his driver left without purchasing anything. 'Police have yet to locate the mans associate to return his licence.' In the footage, which was shared on Facebook, the pair can be heard accusing the officer's of encouraging them to break the law by driving without a licence. 'Do you want us to drive without a licence?' the gang member can be heard asking. The driver (pictured) and passenger were stopped by police in a suburban street in New Zealand last week. They claimed they were going to the supermarket but the police didn't believe them One of the officers responds, telling him it's not an offence to drive without a licence but it is an offence to not be able to produce it. 'So you're telling us to break the law basically?' the passenger asks. 'Which supermarket are we going to? We'll follow you there and we'll follow you back to your home address,' the other officer says. The pair can then be heard laughing before they tell the officers they are making them not want to go shopping anymore. The officer then questions why they had had a change of heart when the passenger pulls out a shopping list. The motorist is told he can either drive to the supermarket or he will be under arrest for a lockdown breach. 'I'm going to the supermarket, but you won't give us our licence,' the passenger says. A furious motorist has filmed the moment he got into a heated debate with police about where he was driving to during coronavirus lockdown He then tries to reach for the licence but the officer refuses to hand it over. The officer tells the pair they must go to the supermarket and then go home before handing it back. The pair then accuse the officers of trying to make them break the rules before they get back into their car. 'Hey you guys might want to get in your car so you can follow us to the supermarket,' the passenger says. The footage sparked a debate online after it was shared on Facebook. Some social media users thought the police were being unreasonable and did not understand why the police were insisting they follow them to the supermarket. 'What was the point in keeping their license if they were going to follow them. Muppets wasting time and energy,' one person wrote. The passenger pulled out a shopping list, which had butter, milk, flour, sugar, eggs and carrots on the list 'Wow letting people drive without a licence?! Thats the first....' another wrote. However, a number of people thought the police were being fair. 'How many people are driving around with shopping lists as an excuse to be out an about,' one person wrote. 'If you see how many people are breaching the lockdown rule and the bulls**t excuses that are being given to the police I can understand why they have been pulled up and questioned,' another wrote. 'Bro just go shopping, well done to the police for handling it they way they did,' wrote another. Police have been clamping down on people flouting coronavirus lockdown rules in recent weeks to reduce any risk of the virus spreading and help keep the community safe. The tough restrictions will be eased on Monday next week, dropping from level four to level three. The new rules mean people can expand their 'immediate household bubble' to 'reconnect with close family' or support isolated people. Businesses in the construction, manufacturing and forestry industries can return to work, while shops and restaurants will remain shut but takeaways can resume. Gov. Charlie Baker gives his first daily update on the novel coronavirus pandemic after taking two days off. Baker: No One Looking to 'Jump Off the Deep End' on Reopening State BOSTON Gov. Charlie Baker indicated Tuesday that he is not feeling any particular pressure to rush to open non-essential businesses in the commonwealth. But if that pressure does come, he indicated that he will push back strongly on the idea. "I'll be damned if the way this works is we flatten the curve, we do all this stuff we were supposed to do and then we create some run-up again in the fall because we don't handle the re-entry, the reopening in a way that actually works and makes sense and keeps people safe," Baker said at his daily press briefing. "So, yeah, this is difficult. It's also purposeful, and in many cases it has worked, and we should all remember that. The last thing we should do is give this insidious and somewhat invisible virus the opportunity to breathe on a go-forward basis." On a day when Baker announced that he was extending the closure of the commonwealth's schools through the end of the school year, he also said conversations are ongoing about what the reopening of Massachusetts will look like. The current state of emergency and closure of non-essential businesses remains in place through at least May 4. He said Tuesday that he understands the sacrifice that individual Bay Staters are making by staying in their home and only going out to do essential chores or visit essential businesses, like grocery stores or pharmacies. But those sacrifices pale in comparison to the health-care workers, first-responders and food chain employees who are doing the essential work. And he said the people he is talking to understand that. "I take some hope from the fact that when our business leaders talk to the lieutenant governor or me or [Secretary of Housing and Economic Development] Mike Kennealy or to [Secretary of Health and Human Services] Marylou Sudders and the folks in the Command Center about what they think a reopening would look like, they talk about in an incredibly informed and careful and planful way," Baker said. "People around here aren't looking to jump off the deep end of the pier. They're looking to find a way to do something safely. "I don't see amongst the vast majority of folks I talk to a tremendous appetite to get this wrong on a go-forward basis. I see just the opposite, which is a lot of people trying to gather as much data and information as they possibly can and try to come up with a way to move forward that makes sense." Baker counted himself among the Massachusetts residents who want to see a return to "normal." He said he and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito have talked about how much they miss the normal day-to-day of government, which usually includes literally pressing the flesh around the commonwealth. And he once again invoked his 91-year-old father, saying he longs to see him again, but not "unless the circumstances and the situations and the rules of engagement are right." And he referenced an email he received from a resident on Monday's Patriots Day. The woman who wrote him is the wife of a stage 4 cancer patient and mother of an adult child working in the public sector doing an essential job. "She wrote to tell me about the support she's gotten from her neighbors," Baker said. "Small acts of kindness, like dropping off protective gear for her husband, so he can wear that when he goes out to get his cancer treatments. Strangers have given her child their masks, just in case the child didn't have access to those at work. "I know we all miss sports, gatherings, meetings, friends, all the stuff that has always been a presumed part of our daily lives. But we all need to remember why we're doing all this. We're doing it so that women like that woman who emailed me on Patriots Day can still get their husband into the hospital for cancer treatments and do so safely. We're doing it so public servants, like that woman's child, can do their job, serving the community as best they can under the current circumstances as safely as possible." On that note, Baker reminded residents that they can still avail themselves of the commonwealth's health-care system for non-coronavirus issues during the COVID-19 crisis. He said many doctors have reported a reduction in patients seeking care for things like heart problems and kidney dialysis. "It's important to remind the public that our hospitals have made accommodations for COVID-19 to ensure that they can also care for other health-care problems," Baker said. "People should still call their doctor to talk about their own health and their own healthcare and go to the hospital if they have an emergency." The commonwealth's partnership with Boston-based Buoy Health and its artificial intelligence-driven tool has served more than 90,000 people with online diagnostics. There have been a number of people who have gone through buoyhealth.com and ended up with a recommendation to call 911, Baker said. "Please use the system," he said. In other news of the commonwealth's battle against COVID-19 on Tuesday: Baker reported that the commonwealth has about 18,100 hospital beds available. About 3,800 beds are occupied by patients with COVID-19. About 58 percent of the state's hospital beds overall remain unoccupied, including about 6,800 acute care and non-ICU beds, about 2,600 ICU beds and 900 beds in field medical hospitals. "Although we do anticipate that hospitalization rates may increase in the coming days," Baker said. On Monday, the commonwealth conducted 7,157 new tests, bringing the total number of tests to about 169,000. The state reported 1,566 new cases on Monday. "The last few days, we have seen fewer positive cases, day-to-day, but it's too soon to draw a conclusion from that data," Baker said. "A few days does not represent a trend, as we've said many times. And we have seen the data bounce around over the course of more than a few days." Sudders reported that the commonwealth continues to operate its mobile testing program with the National Guard at nursing homes but has temporarily stopped sending COVID-19 test kits directly to nursing homes for use by their personnel. She said the state has sent out 14,000 test kits to nursing homes and received only 4,000 back and wants to know what the breakdown is before resuming distribution. The mobile testing program itself has visited 311 long-term care facilities to conduct more than 8,800 tests, she said. Baker said the commonwealth's unemployment program for self-employed and "gig economy" workers, which rolled out Monday, was able to process an influx of 50,000 applicants on the first day. The new program for workers who don't have traditional employer-employee relationships was authorized by Congress under the CARES act last month, and Baker said Massachusetts is one of the first states in the nation to implement the new benefit. Baker parted ways with President Trump on Trump's Monday pronouncement that he would "temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" "I'm opposed to the decision that the president made," Baker said. "I'm opposed to the order. It doesn't make any sense, and I don't think it makes us any safer." As cases of the coronavirus continue to rise in South Carolina and across the globe, many are wondering why some places are being hit harder than others with deaths during the pandemic. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has reported more than 3,600 cases of the virus in South Carolina. And Charleston County has been listed as one of the top three counties with the most cases, with more than 350 positive tests. But in comparison to other areas, including Horry County with around 150 cases, Charleston has reported fewer than five deaths from the virus. Horry County has seen nearly 10. Though it's seeing one of the highest number of cases, Charleston County has had one of the lowest coronavirus death rates. The same has been seen in Richland County, which has recorded the highest number of incidences with more than 540 cases and at least 12 deaths. Kershaw County has seen over 350 fewer cases than Richland but nearly the same number of deaths. But these discrepancies aren't unique to South Carolina. The United States has seen more then 600,000 cases of coronavirus, more than any other country. Italy has the third-highest number, with a little over 160,000 cases. Both the U.S. and Italy have seen less than 30,000 deaths. This means the United States is seeing a similar count of coronavirus deaths to countries with less than 200,000 cases. South Carolina disease experts believe one big thing has led to this disparity in cases and deaths, and that's testing. "That's truly the key," said Michael Schmidt, an immunology professor with the Medical University of South Carolina. "It's a function of who has access to rapid testing." Since counties like Charleston have greater access to testing, they are not only able to record more cases, but they are also able to catch those cases earlier, Schmidt said. In more rural areas, he said, some residents aren't being tested until symptoms become more severe. When this happens, their chances of surviving the virus are reduced. Residents also may have to travel farther for screenings. With early testing, physicians are able measure things like how a person's lungs are functioning, which is a vital step in recovery. So if anything, Schmidt said this disparity in coronavirus deaths should be a sign for more testing centers in rural communities. But were doing better than a lot of other states," he said. Experts believe that, nationally, a lack of access to testing in the United States early on in the pandemic has led to some coronavirus deaths being missed. So the actual death toll in America is likely higher. Marc-Alain Widdowson, a former epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Washington Post that laboratory-confirmed cases can't solely be relied upon to determine the death toll. Youre never going to apply the test on everybody who is ill and everybody who dies," he said. Dr. Elizabeth Kirkland, one of the physician leaders at MUSC's Center for Health Disparities Research, agrees that access to testing is likely the main reason for the disparities around coronavirus deaths in South Carolina. Since Charleston County has many urban areas with people living closer together, she said that has also likely contributed to the high number of cases. But the preexisting health disparities shouldn't be overlooked either. Many rural areas across the United States have higher rates of chronic diseases such as heart and liver conditions, as well as diabetes. And with the coronavirus, that can increase the chance that the virus will be deadly. "South Carolina is, unfortunately, not immune," she said. "There are health disparities everywhere." Those disparities can range from access to grocery stores and pharmacies to hospitals. Excluding Richland, the counties with the most coronavirus cases Charleston, Greenville, Lexington and Beaufort are among the top five healthiest South Carolina counties when it comes to health factors, according to 2020 County Health Rankings by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program. With hospitals moving more toward telehealth initiatives during the pandemic, Kirkland notes that many residents either lack access to tools to benefit from telehealth or lack familiarity with technology to feel comfortable using telehealth. So when health providers are offering these services, she said it's important that they have alternatives to erase any disparities. She said that one fear some of her medical colleagues have is that there are possibly sick residents who haven't reached out to providers yet and may only reach out when its too late. But she said she is happy that the pandemic has at least brought the conversation of health disparities to the forefront. "Let's use this to better our society," she said. A year after the pandemic comes to an end, Schmidt said, DHEC likely will review the situation and highlight areas that may have been underserved. This way, officials can determine how to help those areas in the future. Solutions might include additional hospitals, he said. In Charleston, there are multiple hospitals and avenues to access hospital beds through systems like Roper St. Francis, Trident and MUSC scattered throughout the area. For many rural parts of the state, Schmidt said, it's not the same. "I think it's something as simple as access to care," he said. CHONGQING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Sitting in front of his computer, Rustam Irgashev puts final touches on his designing plan for an office building to be constructed in Beijing. "I added the element of the Ding to give it a traditional vibe," said Rustam, 33, from Uzbekistan. The Ding he mentioned refers to a traditional Chinese cauldron, an ancient cooking vessel with two loop handles and three or four legs. It was a symbol of honor in traditional Chinese culture. Rustam is one of the foreign designers employed by one of the designing branches of Chongqing Engineering Co., ltd under China Coal Technology Engineering Group. The branch is based in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. After graduating from Chongqing University in 2014, Rustam went to work in the Chinese state-owned company. The Ding design won high appreciation from Ma Fei, head of the branch. "What Rustam did was quite creative," Ma said. "By incorporating classic Chinese culture with modern features, he stood out among his competitors and won recognition from our client." The branch began to recruit foreign designers in 2012 for the first time, a rare move among Chinese state-owned designing companies. China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative the next year, and the branch has since maintained about five foreign designers each year, mostly from along the Belt and Road. "We are lucky to work together, thanks to the initiative," Ma said. Overseas designers are more sensitive to the differences between Chinese culture and foreign cultures, giving them an edge in design. "After coming to China, I got to know the amazing achievements that China has made in the past 40 years," Rustam said, adding that he has been to many places in China, including the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet. "I felt the deep Chinese culture, and it gave me inspirations for my designing work," he said. Rustam said he did not quite fit into the "spicy food culture" in Chongqing at first, but after years of life there, his connection with China is stronger than ever. "My wife is from Chongqing, and our daughter is nine months old," he said. "Now, I am in love with the spicy food here, they spice up my life!" Like Rustam, Caroline Echavoyen, 23, also chose to work in the branch. The French designer has worked in the company for half a year, but she already delivered some delighting designing works. When she was asked to design a factory building in Chongqing's Ba'nan District, she added the element of the horse in it, citing inspiration from the iconic Terracotta Warriors. "I thought the horse is an important part of the Chinese culture," she said. Caroline said she saw the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province and was fascinated by the soldiers and chariots. With the further advancement of the Belt and Road construction, the company has helped design many projects along the route, including those in Rustam's home country Uzbekistan. "As Rustam is from Uzbekistan, he played an important role in the projects," Ma Fei said. The foreign designers said they learned a lot doing the designing jobs in Chongqing. Natalia Pratashchyk, 32, is from Belarus. She said that she learned many things from transforming the old factory buildings in the city. "There are a group of foreign designers here with different academic and cultural backgrounds," she said. "We get to improve ourselves by sharing with each other." Natalia said she wants to bring what she learned in China back to Belarus, and become a college teacher to cultivate more talents for her home country. But Mohammed Rahmoun, 29, plans to work and study in China for another five years. "Many Chinese companies are in contact with my country, and I am willing to be a part of the cooperation," said Mohammed, from Syria. In a nutshell: Facebook is banning event listings that organize protests against the governments social distancing policies. Anti-lockdown rallies have taken place in many states, often attracting thousands of people, and epidemiologists predict the gatherings could cause an increase in Covid-19 cases. On Monday, Facebook deleted listings for anti-quarantine protests in California, New Jersey, and Nebraska. The company said it would only take down events that violate state guideline, reports the BBC. "Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook. For this same reason, events that defy government's guidance on social distancing aren't allowed on Facebook," a spokesperson said. A rally in Olympia, Washington State, on Sunday saw over 2,000 people in attendance, many standing in close proximity. Some held signs berating the government for being too harsh in its lockdown measures, while others blamed 5G for the virusa conspiracy theory thats led to phone masts being set on fire in the UK. Protests against social isolation measures have also taken place in California, Colorado, Tennessee, Illinois, Florida, Montana, Wisconsin, Texas, New Hampshire, Maryland, Nevada, Idaho, Minnesota, Kentucky, Utah, Oregon, North Carolina, Ohio, New York, Virginia, Michigan and Oklahoma. Some have criticized Facebooks policy, calling it a violation of peoples right to free speech. Why is @Facebook colluding with state governments to quash peoples free speech? Regardless of what you think about the lockdowns or the protests against them, this is a chilling & disturbing government directed shutdown of peoples 1st Amendment rights. Very dangerous! https://t.co/rnG09TSVhI Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 20, 2020 Dear Civil Rights Division of @TheJusticeDept:@Facebook is working hand-in-glove with tyrants in state and local governments to retaliate against Americans who are exercising First Amendment rights, by completely censoring (de-platforming) them. Crime?https://t.co/fN7F4tH7eV https://t.co/BoI0VhBN3C Mike Davis (@mrddmia) April 20, 2020 Earlier this month, Facebook said it would start notifying people who liked, reacted, or commented on coronavirus-related fake news posts. The social network has also partnered with Carnegie Mellon University to launch an interactive Covid-19 map that shows how many people are showing symptomsnot confirmed casesof the virus on a county-by-county basis. Image credit: Sky News Biafra Nations Youth League, BNYL, has berated the Federal government for excluding the displaced people of Bakassi peninsula from the Covid19 palliatives whereas IDPS in Borno have benefited from the palliatives, describing the the FG action as an act of wickedness. The Deputy National Leader of BNYL and head of operations of the groups' BBS online TV, Ebuta Takon Akor said the people of Bakassi and Cross River State contributes tremendously to the Nigerian economy wondering why the government would treat them as irrelevant people. Takon Akor who is an Ejagham native of Cross River State hinted that the Borno and other northern States were not part of the Presidential lockdown order but have benefitted from palliatives and cash transfer. "Are the IDPS in Borno more relevant than the Bakassi IDPS, is Borno more economically viable than Cross River? What do they have that we don't have, we farm rice and yam, our tourism and carnivals is a boost to the economy, we still have oil despite ceding our territories to Cameroon. Although we know that in the entire Southeast and South south their palliative is a scam". He warned that should the lockdown continues the youths will revolt against blockade of both local and international borders. Post-secondary institutes are expected to provide plans to reduce staffing expenses as much as 30 per cent Tuesday one week after being handed a mandate to make sacrifices so Manitoba can weather the pandemics financial toll. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Post-secondary institutes are expected to provide plans to reduce staffing expenses as much as 30 per cent Tuesday one week after being handed a mandate to make sacrifices so Manitoba can weather the pandemics financial toll. Last week, Treasury Board officials asked universities, colleges and government-funded agencies to create workforce-reduction proposals for 10, 20 and 30 per cent cuts. The plans are being drawn up for a period between May 1 and August 31. "What were talking about is an emergency. Were in the middle of a pandemic. We need to find resources and I expect everyone to be part of helping find those resources," Premier Brian Pallister said during Mondays virtual COVID-19 briefing. Pallister said public-sector administrators are to provide savings blueprints that reflect the reduced need for services under their authority. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES It will not be possible to take a decrease of a magnitude without seeing impact, University of Manitoba president David Barnard said. Weeks into the e-learning model, schools have already made staffing adjustments to reflect their empty campuses without in-person instruction and activities. Among the early layoffs, educational assistants, lab demonstrators and recreation staff. At the same time, schools are anticipating heightened enrolment, as Manitobans who have been laid off try to retool to find work in the inevitable recession to follow the current shutdown. The University of Winnipegs spring enrolment is already up 100 per cent since this time last year. "We absolutely want to do our part; its going to be a challenge though, because we are very much open for business and operating at full capacity," said Chris Minaker, senior executive officer external at U of W. University of Manitoba president David Barnard echoed those sentiments Monday. "It will not be possible to take a decrease of a magnitude without seeing impact," Barnard said, adding the future impact on U of M is still unclear since the school is finalizing plans. We absolutely want to do our part; its going to be a challenge though, because we are very much open for business and operating at full capacity. Chris Minaker Neither university provided comment on whether tenured staff could be affected. When it comes to staffing, agencies are being asked to minimize outright layoffs as much as possible in favour of reduced workweeks, work-sharing and reductions of executive salaries and management positions. At Brandon University, administrators are also encouraging employees to take unpaid leaves and limit vacations while its cost-saving blueprints are finalized. The province is asking for more to be done with less, said Jacqueline Romanow, president of the U of W Faculty Association. Romanow, who teaches Indigenous studies, said instructors workloads have increased due to e-learning. While noting Ontario is boosting funding for its publicly funded schools during this time, she said Manitobas moves are "disturbing." This is not the time to balance budgets on the backs of institutions which are going to be essential for getting out of this. Scott Forbes Scott Forbes, president of the Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations, said adjustments required will make U of M "a shell of its former self," while U of W and Brandon University will no longer be able to offer university-level programming. "This is not rational, sound planning. It strikes as panic... The notion we could gut our universities at a moments notice," said Forbes, who represents upwards of 2,000 instructors across the province. "This is not the time to balance budgets on the backs of institutions which are going to be essential for getting out of this." Meantime, the student community is feeling "a collective anxiety," said Brenden Gali, chairman of the Canadian Federation of Students Manitoba. "This will just directly affect the quality of education," Gali said. The premier denied a statement that cuts to schools will be permanent, but the opposition questions how realistic that is. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES I dont think anyone expects Mr. Pallister to cut a job and then bring it back in the future, NDP Leader Wab Kinew told the Free Press. "I dont think anyone expects Mr. Pallister to cut a job and then bring it back in the future," NDP Leader Wab Kinew told the Free Press. Kinew said slashing post-secondary institutes staffing levels is a "foolish" move that will slow Manitobas economic recovery; he called on the province to back off from its directives to both universities and other publicly funded entities. Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont called Pallisters COVID-19 response plan, "the worst of any government in Canada." 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. In a statement, Minister of Economic Development and Training Ralph Eichler cited scenario-planning for the workforce as critical while Manitoba deals with declining revenues and rising health-care expenses. "Above all, we are working to ensure there continues to be a strong post-secondary education system that can support student success and meet the needs of employers in the future economic recovery period," Eichler wrote. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie New Delhi, April 21 : In the midst of the gloom caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the countrywide lockdown, there is at least one bright sport, the administrators of Indias top two awards for literature - the DSC prize that has completed a decade and new entrant JCB Prize - say, adding it gives them an opportunity to re-think and re-invent to keep up with the changing times. "COVID-19, along with its negativity has also provided a huge opportunity to rethink everything. It is a pause to think about the direction and speed of one's journey through life, and literary prizes are no exception," Surina Narula, co-founder of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, told IANS in an email interview. Literary prizes were once given as a gesture of appreciation from patrons of the art. They were not considered glamorous even a few years back; it was only after the popularity of the Jaipur Literature Festival that literature became fashionable and came closer to the masses. The mystery of the writer was shattered because one could meet them and becoming like them became a possibility. To this end, the DSC Prize was initiated in 2010 to enhance the telling of South Asian literature to a global English reading audience. The pandemic has severely affected publishing, and literary prizes depend on the publishing industry to enter the best books published by them and the DSC Prize, being open to authors and publishers from across the world as long as the writing is about South Asia, is "better insulated" against a country specific publishing downturn, Narula pointed out. The prize receives more than 30 percent of its entries from publishers beyond the subcontinent from countries like the USA, the UK, Canada, and Australia "and quite a few publishers from these countries have already written to us regarding entries that they wish to submit this year", she added. Elaborating on the aspect of re-invention, Narula said a Trust has been set up to do more than just administer the prize; it aims to take literature through its outreach programmes to a wider audience including the underprivileged and empower young men and women in the region through the reading of South Asian literature. "There are inspiring stories of women overcoming patriarchal challenges as well as society battling poverty, war and displacement, and these stories need to be told and shared. After the tenth year we will see how the DSC Prize can be a beacon of such social initiatives through the activities of the Trust," Narula said. The virus might have halted people in their tracks and given them a lot of time to think but "I see literature becoming more important to remind people of the world before the pandemic, and perhaps show the inequalities that are further going to arise due to self serving governments around the world. Literary prizes will always exist because patrons will find ways of contributing to society and also furthering their marketing and philanthropic needs," Narula noted. Mita Kapur, Literary Director of the JCB Prize, that has entered its third year, said the pandemic and the lockdown, had provided "an opportunity to re-invent several aspects of our year-long calendar". "The lockdown has given us an opportunity to build on the JCB Prize's vision of creating new readership, building on inclusivity within the writers' community and the publishing industry to reach out to the rest of the world. The faith in literature being a bridge, story telling that makes us survive makes the JCB Prize carry on its work in the right spirit, being socially conscious and sensitive towards the times we are all facing," Kapur added. (Vishnu Makhijani can be reached at vishnu.makhijani@ians.in) Nicholas John Crilley, 34, subjected a 21-year-old woman to 'physical, psychological and sadistic violence' over 23 days in June 2017 at his house in Bulimba, Brisbane A sadistic banker burned a woman's genitals, forced her to eat her own vomit and raped her daily for three weeks - leaving the victim on the brink of death and with her face infested with maggots. Nicholas John Crilley, 34, subjected the 21-year-old woman to 'physical, psychological and sadistic violence' over 23 days in June 2017 at his townhouse in Bulimba, Brisbane. Shocking details of the sickening torture can be revealed after the former Commonwealth Bank worker pleaded guilty to 54 offences, including grievous bodily harm, deprivation of liberty and torture. His assaults left the woman so severely injured paramedics initially thought she was dead, the Brisbane District Court heard on Tuesday. Prosecutor Sandra Cupina told the court Crilley raped the woman daily, set her on fire and poured burning water on her genitals. He used a cigarette lighter, acetone and boiling water to burn her body. The victim was also forced to eat her own vomit and faeces, and made to sleep on the floor or outside. Crilley also made the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, choose how she wanted to die - being shot or in a car crash. 'I've pummelled her so hard she cant talk anymore,' Crilley bragged to a friend. The 34-year-old then 'hid' her for five days at the nearby Tower Mill Metro Hotel. The victim was found barely alive in his house (pictured) on July 2, 2017, so badly injured police who found her thought she had been involved in an explosion Crilley repeatedly called her a 's**t' The beatings became so severe the woman's upper lip detached from her face. 'He increased and escalated the methods he was using to harm her, boiling water then acetone then setting her on fire,' Ms Cupina said. She suffered multiple broken bones, deep lacerations to her face, including the 'degloving of the skin', and burns to 46 per cent of her body. 'The tissue on part of her face was so severely infected it was also infested with maggots,' Ms Cupina said. Crilley also made the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, choose how she wanted to die - being shot or in a car crash 'If she had not been treated in hospital she would have died.' Crilley eventually called triple-zero before fleeing the Brisbane home where most of the offending occurred. She was found barely alive in his house on July 2, 2017, so badly injured police who found her thought she had been involved in an explosion. Police thought she was dead until she groaned. He was taken into custody eight days later following a dramatic police chase involving several stolen cars. The woman was placed in an induced coma and spent eight weeks in Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital recovering, which included learning to walk again. Ms Cupina said Crilley's violent attacks were sustained, brutal and vicious, and increased in intensity over time. 'The horror (she) would have been experiencing is almost unimaginable,' she said. Crilley appeared in court via video link from jail, while the brave woman described the torture as feeling like 'hundreds of small ants' were biting her. She said her lifelong facial scars have made her feel 'unworthy of human interactions,' and said strangers look at her like she is a 'monster'. The woman said it took her seven weeks in hospital to work up the courage to look at her deformed face in the mirror, fearing what she would see. 'When I finally did, I was so distraught. I didn't look like myself at all. I was unrecognisable. My whole body throughout hasn't felt like my own,' she told the court, the Courier Mail reported. Her muscles wasted away so much she had to learn to walk again, and her little finger was amputated. The woman, who is now 24, also went through weeks of agonising treatment for burns on nearly half of her body. Her teeth are broken from endless beatings at the hands of Crilley. The victim was also forced to eat her own vomit and faeces, and made to sleep on the floor or outside She now has to wear a wig after losing chunks of her hair due to a badly burned scalp. The bridge of her nose had to be removed because it was shattered into pieces, and her vision has been reduced due to burning liquids being poured in her eyes. Defence lawyer Malcolm Harrison said Crilley was in a methylamphetamine-induced delusional state during the prolonged assault. He said Crilley believed the woman had been part of a drive-by shooting that targeted him, but it was not based on reality. 'This is a dreadful and extremely serious example of violence against a woman,' he said. 'The offences were sadistic in nature.' However, Mr Harrison reminded the court Crilley had called triple-zero. 'That is probably the one factor in his favour,' he said. Crilley will be sentenced on May 1. The Crown has asked that he be jailed for life. Chinese medical experts share their experience in COVID-19 prevention and control with their Pakistan counterparts at Pakistan Emirate Military Hospital in Rawalpindi of eastern Pakistan's Punjab province, April 1, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua] Pakistan managed to contain the spread of COVID-19 due to assistance extended by time-tested friend China. An expert medical team consisting of doctors has left Pakistan after providing necessary training to Pakistani health officials, doctors, and paramedics. They conducted intensive training and crash programs for Pakistani health experts in all major cities, including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Karachi. The Chinese team was on a two-week-long visit to Pakistan and provided timely and valuable assistance during this time to deal, overcome, and mitigate COVID-19 challenges. China-Pakistan relationship has proved a test of time once again.China not only looked after Pakistani nationals during the outbreak of COVID-19 in China but also took good care of Pakistani students in China. China has provided critical medical supplies to Pakistan, including 529,924 N95 Masks, 33,744 protective suits, 10,000 testing kits, 1,558,379 medical masks, 36 ventilators, 180 thermometers, 100 thermal scanners, 24,900 gloves, 59,376 goggles, 10,000 liters of sanitizers, and 1442 kg non-woven fabric for making protective suits. Chinese assistance in the form of expert advice and medical materials was in time and has mitigated the efforts of Pakistan in containing COVID-19. Pakistan is the sixth-largest country in the world, with a population of 220 million. But its passing through the adverse economic crisis. And its not ready to face the challenge of the contagious virus outbreak. The lack of medical facilities, medical materials, and expertise was the major hurdle. With the Chinese assistance, Pakistan was able to contain the virus to a significant extent. The total number of confirmed cases reported in Pakistan is 7,993. The death toll is 159. The number of confirmed cases is 36 per million of the population, whereas the global figure is 300 per million of the population. The number of deaths stands at 0.7 per million of the population, while the world data is 20.6 per million of the population. Statistics show that the local transmission is 59 percent and foreign travel 41 percent. To keep the spread of the virus contained was possible with smart policies formulated with close coordination with Chinese experts and precautions placed in time. Medical materials provided by China were fully utilized to control rapid spread out. Ventilators and hospital donated by China was a significant reason to keep the death rate so low. After achieving victory against the outbreak, the Chinese experience is valuable and guidelines for the rest of the world. It is not the first time the history of China-Pakistan friendship is full of such examples, where we have stood side by side in a challenging moment. Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan is a Sinologist (ex-Diplomat), Editor, Analyst, Non-Resident Fellow of CCG (Center for China and Globalization), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. With schools being mandated to close their campuses for the remainder of the school year following an amended executive order last week by Governor Greg Abbott, districts now are finalizing altered grading systems for the last weeks of distance learning. Nederland Independent School District presented their voting guidelines as a curriculum update Monday evening at their monthly board meeting. The district will give all students no grade for the fifth of the districts six-week grading periods due to the sudden transition to a distance-learning format, which occurred last month in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But when the short-term closures became long-term distance learning, students were expected to complete work. Therefore, the last six weeks of the semester will be graded using a progress/no-progress system that counts students participation, completion of assignments and efforts to communicate with teachers (in the event that they are unable to complete certain assignments) for consideration towards graduation or promotion to the next grade level. Nederland High School announced last week that they plan on holding their graduation at Ford Park on May 28 at 7 p.m. with alternative dates including June 23 and July 21, also at 7 p.m. in the event that closures and social distancing restrictions still are in place. Trustees discussed the consideration of social distancing guidelines extending beyond those dates, with the possibility of a virtual or drive-in graduation, as other districts across the country have discussed. However, no decisions were made. The board voted to modify the grading for this school year only, with the new grading system replacing the letter grade system, and not be used to calculate total grade point average (GPA). As a result, students' GPA for the year, the class of 2020 valedictorian, salutatorian and honor graduates will be decided based on grades received at the end of the first semester. The district recently transitioned all distance learning to an online system, with students having several options to turn in their work, including Google Classroom, Class Dojo or Seesaw. The options allow for taking or scanning a picture and emailing to their teacher, communicating about assignments over the phone, mailing their work to their campus via USPS and dropping off packets at designated times and locations. For students who the district has not been able to make contact with, which is as many as 400, paper packets will be mailed to the last address on file, district officials said at the board meeting. For students that are not seniors, the spring 2020 grades will have no impact on their GPA. Other districts, like Port Neches-Groves ISD, will still give a pass/fail grade for their fifth grading period of instruction, but will not give conduct grades for the last two grading periods. PN-G also will not administer any final exams for the second semester, according to their website. The Texas Education Agency has given districts broad leeway in how they handle grading, graduation and distance-learning. isaac.windes@hearstnp.com twitter.com/isaacdwindes COVID-19 has changed just about every aspect of our life and voting in Novembers election is likely to look different, too. David Campos, chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, on Tuesday will ask Mayor London Breed, the Board of Supervisors and elections chief John Arntz to remake the citys election. He wants no open polling places. No standing in line to vote. No hand-offs of ballots from a poll worker to you and back to another poll worker once youre done deliberating. Instead, every vote would be cast via mail. Currently, anybody can vote by mail, but people have to request a ballot in advance rather than being sent one automatically. In the March election, about two-thirds of votes were cast via mail ballots, and sometimes its even higher than that. The current San Francisco county election system will put voters in the position of choosing between their health or exercising their right to vote, Campos, chair of the elected Democratic County Central Committee, wrote in a letter to be delivered Tuesday. He was motivated by the long, packed lines of voters in the April 7 primary election in Wisconsin after that states Supreme Court ruled at the last minute that in-person voting must proceed. Its hard to imagine that anyone in San Francisco wants a repeat of the Wisconsin fiasco and Arntz and Breed are already working on ways to keep San Francisco voters safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Arntz was at his desk in the basement of City Hall on Monday morning, working on contingency plans for November. His staff is contacting San Franciscans who host polling places such as in their garages as well as those who staff the polling places, asking if theyre willing to participate in November. He said 25% flat-out refused. Those remaining are tentatively open to it, but Arntz said many of them likely would cancel if the pandemic remains as bad as it is now or surges in the fall. Arntz said hed like to send all registered San Francisco voters vote-by-mail ballots, but that Gov. Gavin Newsom first has to issue an executive order giving counties the right to do so. Newsom is expected to issue such an order in early May, Arntz said. We would prefer to run a vote-by-mail election for November, Arntz said. Hes already planning to order more envelopes and has redesigned them to ensure they have peel-off stickers to close them, rather than requiring people to lick them. He said hes also planning to have the ballots counted at a large warehouse on Pier 31 so staffers can spread out and not be crammed together at City Hall as they usually are. The mayor, he said, has directed Public Works to build out the warehouse for that purpose. Arntz said it could take up to two extra weeks to get election results from a vote-by-mail system, because those ballots take longer to count. Campos would prefer that no polling places be open. But Jonathan Stein, voting rights and census program manager at Asian Law Caucus, which advocates for full participation in the democratic process, said its important to maintain some in-person voting locations. He said people with disabilities may need help filling out their ballots, and people who dont speak English may need on-site translators. Others dont trust the mail, and still others whove become homeless in the economic crisis may not receive the vote-by-mail ballot. These issues are being discussed by a daily working group convened by Secretary of State Alex Padilla to keep the November election safe and accessible. The one area of widespread agreement is that every single California registered voter needs to be mailed a vote-by-mail ballot, Stein said. Campos also is calling for a change that will be more controversial. He wants San Francisco to opt into the Voter Choice Act, passed in 2016 to modernize state elections. A handful of counties participated in 2018, and 10 more opted in for this November. Its too late for San Francisco to participate this year, but Campos wants the county to opt in for future elections. The Voter Choice Act trades neighborhood polling places for larger voting centers that are open longer than just on election day, to give people more flexibility in voting. Also, counties that participate must mail every registered voter a ballot at least 28 days before election day and have ballot drop-off locations throughout the county. Campos said the switch would make it easier for people to vote and protect them if the COVID-19 pandemic continues or another pandemic arises. Arntz said its possible San Francisco will adopt the Voter Choice Act, but hes not sure residents really want to give up their neighborhood polling places for good. Adoption would require a vote of the Board of Supervisors, he 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. Voters still like to have that sense of community of going to the location near their home, dropping off their ballot and getting the I Voted sticker, and being part of the process in that way, he said. Arntz added that his department was anticipating voter turnout this November of well over 80%. The expectation before COVID-19 was this would be one of the biggest elections in the citys history, Arntz said. After all, the vast majority of San Franciscans would relish helping to kick President Trump out of the White House. Who knows? Trumps disastrous handling of the pandemic might spur even more San Franciscans to vote. We all can use a smile these days even if your smile is hidden by a face covering, now mandated when you run essential errands in San Francisco. In that vein, State Sen. Scott Wiener has come up with the Masks are Fierce contest. Take a photo of your face mask the more fabulous, the better and email it to sfmaskcompetition@gmail.com by Monday. Some of the citys best-known drag queens Donna Sachet, Sister Roma, Peaches Christ and BeBe Sweetbriar will judge the masks. The prizes have yet to be decided, but who cares? Drag queen approval is the best prize of all. San Francisco is the most creative and innovative city in the world, Wiener said. Lets come up with the best and most fabulous masks around. I got a sneak peek at entrants so far, and the competition, like the masks, is fierce. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf Instagram: @heatherknightsf Virgin cabin crew member Caleb Cougle remembers the first day he served the airline seven years ago. I felt so proud to wear that uniform and to be part of this incredible brand, he said. I was filled with pride but was, of course, very nervous. There are a few little tricks they play on the first day, which is fun but I felt welcome. Virgin cabin crew member Caleb Cougle believes this is not the end for the airline. Feeling a sense of belonging in his first shift, he never looked back. Marie Louise Kopp looks at a newspaper as she waits for a call from her son in her room at a nursing home in Ammerschwir, France on April 16, 2020. (Jean-Francois Badias/AP) Mass Virus Test in Nursing Home Seeks to Combat Loneliness AMMERSCHWIR, FranceSome were born in this warren of small rooms in what used to be a hospital, dating to the 17th century. Many are likely to die here. And all are currently confined to their rooms, denied the simple comfort of human companionship. The residents at the Weiss nursing home in eastern France want to chat face to face, to play board games, to share meals. And so each gave a vial of blood to be tested for the CCP virus (commonly known as the novel coronavirus), as did each staff memberabout 580 people in all. The goal: to identify who must be isolated and who will be allowed the freedom to leave their rooms. We spend all our days between those four wallsthats it, we are not allowed to go out. We dont even have the right to go out in the hallway, said Henry Bohn, a 69-year-old who suffered a stroke that has left him in a wheelchair. They bring us breakfast, lunch, and dinner here in the room. Luckily, we have the sun these days and it helps, but we do miss the essential things. An Associated Press photographer spent two days chronicling the virus testing at 3 of the 10 nursing homes in Frances Haut-Rhin region, where comprehensive testing was ordered by local authorities. The site in Ammerschwir poses particular problems with its small rooms and long corridors, and residents with often-severe cognitive difficulties. It is hard for them to remember the rules that we give them. When we put masks on them, they hardly keep them on, and they need to socialize and leave their rooms, said Sylvie Ghiringhelli, the head nurse. Some patients wander out anyway, clustering in hallways or taking seats in the common room before they can be led gently back. The elderly make up a disproportional share of CCP virus victims globally, and that is especially true in nursing homes, which have seen a horrific number of deaths around the world. In France, nursing home deaths account for more than a third of the countrys total 17,000 CCP virus victimsfigures the government now documents meticulously after weeks of pressure. Infections have swept through the countrys 7,000 residences for the elderly, with more than 15,000 confirmed cases among patients and 8,900 among staff between March 1 and April 14. And nowhere has it been deadlier than in Frances east, near the border with Germany, where the outbreak began at an evangelical gathering in the city of Mulhouse. Overall mortality in the Haut-Rhin was up 143 percent from March 1 to April 6, according to government figures. Restricting residents to their rooms can take a different kind of toll. The confinement stopped all the communal meals in the dining room, stopped every form of social life, Ghiringhelli said. There are no more activities, no more visits. Our residents bear the consequences. Marie Louise Kopps room is filled with souvenirsphotos, china cats, octagonal paintingsto help jog a 79-year-old memory that waxes and wanes. My son was coming to visit me and some family, but now nobody can, she said, an untouched newspaper on her lap. Everyone stays at home with this crisis. Frances health minister, Olivier Veran, said family visits would again be permitted beginning on April 20, at a residents request and as long as the nursing home staff can organize a system of ensuring protection against the virus. There will not be physical contact but there can be visual contact, and that can provide solace, Veran said on April 19. Its not clear how quickly visitors will be allowed again in Ammerschwir, but the nursing home staff hope testing everybody will enable most residents to at least leave their rooms without fear of infection. Results are expected next week, and the local administration and nursing home directors will then meet to discuss the next steps. Elsewhere, France has locked down nursing homes after two positive tests and simply assumed that anyone with symptoms was infected. The testing will perhaps allow us to partially resume life, communal meals, and activities in small groups, Ghiringhelli said. And to mend the social ties. By Lori Hinnant & Jean-Francois Badias A doctor in New York had a special request for her birthday this year, which fell on a date when the world was struggling with Covid-19 pandemic. Ee Tay requested her friends on Facebook to donate used iPad and other tablets for the Covid-19 patients to be used to say final goodbyes to their kin. Tay had heard from her colleagues about how coronavirus patients were dying alone in isolation wards, most of them without biding adieu to their family and friends, the Huffingtonpost reported. The doctor said that her colleagues at times use their own phones to contact the patients family members on their behalf to see each other one final time. But this is not possible always as the hospitals are overwhelmed with patients and hospital staff is busy attending the patients. To bring a ray of hope in times of despair, Tay took to Facebook few days before her birthday and asked people to send over their out-of-use iPads and other tablet devices for the patients. She wanted to collect some 150 such devices. Happy birthday to me? Sure, just send me a tablet, she wrote in the April 2 post. People responded warmly to her wish and with some donation from the Bank of New York Mellon, Tay managed to get some 650 tablets to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. Birthday wish fulfilled! an ecstatic Tay wrote on April 8. You all opened your hearts and poured your generosity into my requests by sending me what you could. I received so many tablets, both new and used, which will help heal and ease the pain when patients are in the hospital. Some people also sent Android phones which will be passed on to financially struggling families who dont have devices to communicate with their sick loved ones. Nintendo is looking to increase output of its Switch console as supply runs out across the world. The company has been hit by a stock shortage just as people across the world turn to consoles to keep themselves entertained during lockdown. Stores around the world have been out of stock and prices for the consoles have continued to climb amid strong demand and limited supply. Now the Japanese developer is looking to produce about 10 per cent more units of the console in 2020, according to a new report from Nikkei, up from around 20 million last year. That is despite the console now being more than three years old. Nintendo does not actually make the Switch itself. But it has put in extra orders for more consoles through the upcoming quarter, according to the report. Recommended Animal Crossing pulled in China after activists stage virtual protests "We hope [suppliers] will be responsive to the production increase, but for procurement of some parts, the outlook remains uncertain, and we can't forecast exactly how many Switches can be supplied," a Nintendo representative told Nikkei. The Switch was first released in March 2017, and has seen strong sales since. Those sales have increased in recent months as gamers have been forced to stay at home, and alongside the release of the hugely popular new Animal Crossing: New Horizons game. Even in February, Nintendo was forced to push back the release of a special edition of the console because of difficulties making enough of the consoles. In a statement on its website, it said that coronavirus was causing delays in the production of both consoles and accessories like the Joy Con controllers in China. Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty In that same statement, it apologised for the delay and committed to do what it can to deliver the product as soon as possible, while focusing on safety amid the ongoing pandemic. Local residents have expressed concern after Greek authorities announced on Tuesday that 150 people tested positive for the new coronavirus in a quarantined mainland facility housing 470 asylum-seekers from African countries, including many children. None of the residents, which include families from Congo and Cameroon, have so far displayed symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus. The rented seaside hotel just outside Kranidi, some 100 miles southwest of Athens, has been quarantined since 16 April after an employee tested positive. On Sunday, a resident also tested positive for the new virus during a hospital visit for pregnancy complications. The news came as authorities begin to impose a night-time curfew in the entire Kranidi area, which has some 4,000 residents, and tightened existing movement restrictions to only allow essential shopping and visits to doctors or chemists. Greece's coronavirus taskforce chief Sotiris Tsiodras said all 497 asylum seekers and staff at the hotel were tested, and out of them 148 migrants and two staff members tested positive. The hotel is fully equipped with protective clothing, masks and gloves, and has been disinfected, according to the International Orgainzation for Migration. IOM staff at the hotel include psychologists, interpreters, a legal adviser and a social worker. Greece imposed an early lockdown to combat the pandemic, and has so far registered a total 121 deaths and 2,401 infections. President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the death of his friend and former Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, who died on Friday April 17 from COVID-19. In a statement released on Saturday April 18th, President Buhari described Kyari as a true patriot and loyal friend, who never sought elective office for himself. The President said he met Kyari when he was in his twenties, adding that they were friends for 42 years. Read the Presidents full statement on Abba Kyari; TO MY FRIEND, MALLAM ABBA KYARI Mallam Abba Kyari, who died on 17th April, 2020, at the age of 67 from complications caused by the Coronavirus, was a true Nigerian patriot. My loyal friend and compatriot for the last 42 years and latterly my Chief-of-Staff he never wavered in his commitment to the betterment of every one of us. He was only in his twenties when we first met. A diligent student, soon after he was blessed with the opportunity to study abroad first at Warwick and then law at the University of Cambridge. But there was never any question Abba would bring his first-rate skills and newly acquired world-class knowledge back to Nigeria which he did immediately upon graduation. Whilst possessing the sharpest legal and organisational mind, Abbas true focus was always the development of infrastructure and the assurance of security for the people of this nation he served so faithfully. For he knew that without both in tandem there can never be the development of the respectful society and vibrant economy that all Nigerian citizens deserve. In political life, Abba never sought elective office for himself. Rather, he set himself against the view and conduct of two generations of Nigerias political establishment who saw corruption as an entitlement and its practice a byproduct of possessing political office. Becoming my Chief of Staff in 2015, he strove quietly and without any interest in publicity or personal gain to implement my agenda. There are those who said of him that he must be secretive because he did not have a high public profile. But Abba was the opposite: he simply had no need, nor did he seek, the cheap gratification of the crowd; for him, there was nothing to be found in popular adulation. He secured instead satisfaction and his reward solely and only from the improvement of the governance of this great country. Working, without fail, seven days each and every week, he acted forcefully as a crucial gatekeeper to the presidency, ensuring no one whether minister or governor had access beyond another and that all those representing and serving our country were treated equally. He made clear in his person and his practice, always, that every Nigerian regardless of faith, family, fortune or frailty was heard and treated respectfully and the same. Mallam Abba Kyari was the very best of us. He was made of the stuff that makes Nigeria great. Rest In Peace, my dearest friend. To his loving wife and doting family who survive him, I extend my heartfelt sorrow at your loss. Muhammadu Buhari President, Federal Republic of Nigeria April 18, 2020. This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon! Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page? Designed to showcase the wine industry, Coravin tapped into master sommeliers, winemakers, influencers and educators from around the world to help host this unique Facebook Live event. Greg Lambrecht, Coravin's founder and inventor, joined seven close friends and wine world colleagues in a panel discussion highlighting different wine regions. Each guest selected a bottle of white and a bottle of red, then shared tasting notes and personal anecdotes of their wines while engaging with viewers in real time discussion and answers to their questions. The tasting hosts used their Coravin Wine Preservation Systems with SmartClamps to pour their glasses of wine without removing the cork, ensuring what remained in the bottle stayed fresh for weeks, months or even years. This technology not only allows users to taste across bottles without opening them, it also enables tasting wines at various stages of aging since the remaining wine is protected from oxidation. To support Coravin's core values and help those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, Coravin united with the James Beard Foundation Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund. The Foundation's Relief Fund aims to provide critical financial assistance to small, independent restaurants who have an immediate need for funds to pay set operating expenses and keep from going out of business. "We've worked closely with the restaurant and winery industry since the company was founded, and have many great friends who are struggling right now," said Greg Lambrecht, founder and inventor of Coravin. "We were anxious to partner with our friends at the James Beard Foundation to help promote the rapid steps they are taking to support the industry through their Relief Fund." For every person that joined the Facebook Live event, Coravin donated $20 to benefit the James Beard Foundation Relief Fund, which resulted in the full $50,000 donation being made! To continue showing its support, the company is working with Brands x Better to donate 10% of all purchases made on its website (Coravin.com) using the code BrandBetter to the Relief Fund. Consumers also receive 10% off their purchase when they use the code. "We are so grateful to Coravin for their support of our Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund efforts," said Kris Moon, Chief Operating Officer of the James Beard Foundation. "We recently conducted a survey of independent food and beverage businesses across America which revealed that only 1 in 5 operators felt confident that their business could remain open until normal operations resume. These businesses are essential to the fabric of their communities and we are committed to ensuring there is a vibrant culinary community on the other side of this. We look forward to putting these incredible funds to work in support of these independent businesses." Tasting hosts included: Greg Lambrecht , Coravin founder, inventor and host , Coravin founder, inventor and host Andrea Robinson , Master Sommelier, James Beard Award Winner, author, TV host , Master Sommelier, Award Winner, author, TV host Representing region: U.S./ Napa Valley, California Wine selection: 2016 Smith-Madrone Chardonnay and 2018 Brown Estate "Chaos Theory" Red Blend Dave McIntyre , The Washington Post Wine Columnist, Certified Sommelier , Wine Columnist, Certified Sommelier Representing region: U.S./ Maryland / Virginia / Wine selection: Early Mountain Vineyards 2018 Petit Manseng and Big Cork Vineyards 2016 Petit Verdot Reserve Federico Ceretto , Winemaker, Ceretto , Winemaker, Ceretto Representing region: Italy /Langhe, Piedmont /Langhe, Wine selection: Ceretto Monsordo Bianco 2019 Langhe DOC and Ceretto Barolo Brunate 2015 DOCG Lucas Paya , WSET, Wine Consultant, House of Lustau US National Brand Educator , WSET, Wine Consultant, House of Lustau US National Brand Educator Representing region: Spain /Jerez and Rivera del Duero /Jerez and Rivera del Duero Wine selection: Lustau Almacenista G. Obregon Fino del Puerto NV Palomino Fino and Vega Sicilia Unico 1994 Tempranillo Blend Peter Granoff , Master of Wine, Founder Virtual Vineyards, Co-owner Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant & Wine Bar, Oxbow Cheese & Wine Merchant, Mission Bay Wine & Cheese , Master of Wine, Founder Virtual Vineyards, Co-owner Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant & Wine Bar, Oxbow Cheese & Wine Merchant, Mission Bay Wine & Cheese Representing region: U.S./ Sonoma and Central Coast, California and Central Coast, Wine selection: 2018 Wonderwall Syrah, Central Coast and 2018 Unti Vineyards Fiano, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma Tim Kirk , Chief Winemaker/CEO, Clonakilla Wines , Chief Winemaker/CEO, Clonakilla Wines Representing region: Australia / Yarra Valley and Canberra District / and District Wine selection: Oakridge 2018 Willowlake Yarra Valley Chardonnay and Clonakilla 2015 Shiraz Viognier Veronique Sanders , President, CEO & Managing Director, Chateau Hait-Bailly , President, CEO & Managing Director, Chateau Hait-Bailly Representing region: France / Bordeaux / Wine selection: L'Extravagant de Doisy-Daene 2010 and Chateau Haut-Brion 2007 About Coravin, Inc. Coravin, Inc. is a privately held company located in Bedford, Massachusetts dedicated to the advancement of wine technology around the world. Coravin designs and markets the Coravin Wine Preservation System for wine enthusiasts, restaurants, wine stores and wineries. Unparalleled in craftsmanship and design, Coravin uses proprietary patented technology to access and pour wine from a bottle without removing the cork. Wine enthusiasts can now enjoy wine sealed with corks without feeling the need to commit to the whole bottle, allowing them to explore wines of any vintage, varietal or region, one glass at a time. With Coravin, wine, after being accessed, remains in the bottle, continuing to evolve naturally, without the damaging effects of oxidation, for weeks, months or even years. For more information, please visit www.coravin.com. About The James Beard Foundation About the James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation's mission is to promote Good Food for Good. For more than 30 years, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization has highlighted the centrality of food culture in our daily lives. Through the James Beard Awards, unique dining experiences at the James Beard House and around the country, scholarships, hands-on learning, and a variety of industry programs that educate and empower leaders in our community, the Foundation has built a platform for chefs and asserted the power of gastronomy to drive behavior, culture, and policy change around food. To that end, the Foundation has also created signature impact-oriented initiatives that include our Women's Leadership Programs, aimed at addressing the gender imbalance in the culinary industry; advocacy training through our Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change; and the James Beard Foundation Leadership Awards, which shine a spotlight on successful change makers. The organization is committed to giving chefs and their colleagues a voice and the tools they need to make the world more sustainable, equitable, and delicious for everyone. For more information, please visit jamesbeard.org and follow @beardfoundation on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. SOURCE Coravin Netanyahu speaks of "step to save Israelis" and will have the first 18 months of government. A privileged position to stem the effects of the corruption trial. Gantz promises to "protect democracy". Criticism from the former allies of the centrist leader. Palestinian Prime Minister: an "annexation" government. Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - After a year of political paralysis and three elections, last night while part of the country had taken to the streets against the current premier and in favor of democracy, the white smoke arrived: the Prime Minister ad interim Benjamin Netanyahu and main rival Benny Gantz reached an agreement for a government of national unity in the context of the ongoing coronavirus emergency. The leader of the right and the centrist leader, rivals at the polls, will take turns leading the executive for a period of 18 months. The outgoing premier will have the first phase, in an attempt to use the office as a shield in the corruption trial which will open in mid-May. The crisis and uncertainty triggered by the global pandemic helped push the two rivals to the deal, when the centrist Benny Gantz ruled out "big coalitions" during the election campaign and vowed to end the ten-year reign of Netanyahu. To date, Covid-19 in Israel has infected over 13700 people and caused just under 180 victims. 70-year-old Netanyahu called the agreement (see signing of deal in photo), a "step to save the lives and well-being of Israeli citizens". Gantz, 60, points out that he "prevented a fourth election" and that "we will protect democracy". The government will last three years and the current President of Parliament will take over from the outgoing premier in October 2021 for the next 18 months. For the next six months, laws that do not concern the fight against the pandemic cannot be brought to the attention of the Knesset; the only exception, the progress of the parliamentary process for the annexation of the Jewish colonies and the lands to occupy in the West Bank, which the Palestinians consider as an integral part of a future state. This would fall within the so-called "Agreement of the Century", the Middle East peace plan sponsored by US President Donald Trump and welcomed by both Netanyahu and former rival Benny Gantz. Immediate reactions to the signing of the pact leading to the birth of the new executive, especially among the (former) supporters of the Blue White coalition. Many accuse Gantz of having betrayed the electoral mandate by joining forces with Netanyahu and, above all, by guaranteeing him votes (and seats in the Knesset) to remain in power. Among the most critical voices are also those of the heads of the Palestinian Authority, who speak of an "Israeli government of annexation". Commenting on the agreement, Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh stressed that this is "the end of the two-state solution and the dismantling of the rights of the Palestinian people, according to the provisions of international law and resolutions". The benefits of modern medicine have led people to demand more from the State, and to value every life. Even a modest death toll caused by an epidemic today is unacceptable, notes Dipankar Gupta. IMAGE: Medics and family members prepare for the cremation of a person who died of COVID-19 at Bansghat in Patna, April 17, 2020. Photograph: AP/PTI Photo Look at the bright side. If isolated attacks in Indore on health workers enforcing quarantine has gained so much publicity it only shows how civilised we have gradually become. In Russia, Britain and Germany, right up to the 1830s, massive cholera riots broke out which would put Indore's prickly little one-day flare up to shame. In those days doctors too were beaten up, governments and kingdoms shook, all kinds of rumours were rife, including the poisoning of wells for devious reasons of power. In the 14th century, Jews were rounded up and killed as suspected agents of epidemics. Compared to such cataclysmic events, the Indore news is a minor, indoor affair. There is no doubt then that we have progressed along the civilisational route. We are now more caring of others, more observant of the public good and, most importantly, more trusting of our governments. The Europe that trembled during the cholera epidemics has gradually accepted quarantining and today there is no sign of violence against pandemic measures anywhere in the West. Britain was a leader in the administration of quarantine from the 1860s onwards, and by 1892, all of Europe formally accepted the British model. Indore is a blip on this historical map; it lasted a few hours, but that too has passed. This clearly demonstrates that we have evolved as citizens and that our States today have much greater popular endorsement than they had in the past. To a large extent, this is because the modern administrative apparatuses are more effective, control systems more centralised and delivery mechanisms more grounded. People expect what is generally promised and often get it; leaders have greater ability to oversee and finer methods of surveillance, but most of all, the ordinary person believes that the State is the helper of last resort. IMAGE: An attendant pumps sanitiser on the hands of consumers at a department store in Guwahati. Photograph: PTI Photo Look at it another way. The Spanish Flu killed 17 million in India alone and over 100 million worldwide. The bubonic plague in past centuries decimated half the population of many countries. So far COVID-19 has killed over 100,000 people. A mere sneeze in comparison to earlier pandemics, but the difference is that governments everywhere don't see it that way. In India too, our sensitivities are on high alert, but the death toll has crossed 600. The nation-wide worry lines today are probably much deeper than when 17 million died a hundred years ago in India from the Spanish Flu. Our expectations from governments today are way higher than ever before in human history. This is because they are acting as if every life counts. This is something very new. IMAGE: An employee at a petrol pump places a notice on a filling machine that reads 'No Mask No Petrol' in Prayagraj. Photograph: PTI Photo None of this could have happened unless State and science worked together. Modern medicine has impacted State performance, leading it to promise more to its people. People might joke in bad taste that more people die of motor accidents everyday in India than of COVID-19 in a month. Cheerful as the slogan may sound, it still won't make it inside a Hallmark 'get well' card. Nevertheless, this statistic is in the air. Therefore, like it or not, our threshold of tolerance for pain and death are much lower today than what it was even a hundred years ago. The human body has not evolved, our nerve ends still hurt when inflamed; so the only thing that has changed mightily is our capacity for governance. This is a result of not just greater power, as some pro-Nietzscheans might say, but because science, at all levels, has grown phenomenally and proved itself via the State. This quantum jump in scientific development has also brought home the fact that inter-laboratory collaboration, oftentimes across national boundaries, has made the old crackpot genius scientist working out of an ivory tower as much a fairy tale as Rapunzel is. Research on COVID-19 has scientists everywhere sharing findings and putting a lid on parochialising information. A laboratory based in Pittsburgh is collaborating with an institute in Paris and an Austrian company. They are probably in talks now, as we read, with the Serum Institute of India, one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world. IMAGE: Microbiologists process COVID-19 tests in a lab at the Government Medical College in Kochi. Photograph: Sivaram V/Reuters Knowledge generation today is a mammoth affair, with conspiracies and rivalries, no doubt, but the end product is more awe inspiring than ever before. Nor does scientific credibility spring from an individual's talents as it does from an institution that sponsors such minds. Harvard University, or the Mayo Clinic, or the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences has greater charisma than any of its alumni and experts. Even at the level of primary health, the home and neighbourhood are no longer relevant, but departments of governments and specialised agencies are. The phenomenal rise in State credibility has also powered us to scrutinise governments and ask for greater accountability. Have you ever heard of a lockdown during the 1890s plague epidemic in India or the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic? Not even a suggestion. But today, we are outraged when a few hundred die because we value lives more than we ever did in human history. All States today are straining themselves to the limit to contain COVID-19 and win hearts, even if that means cutting off their economic legs. Yes, we are becoming increasingly civilised. So now, will you now be my Quarantine? Dipankar Gupta, the distinguished sociologist, was formerly professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University. The director of the lab said since the Institute of Virology and the P4 lab is in Wuhan, 'people can't help but make associations'. A premier Chinese virology laboratory in Wuhan, which is in the eye of the storm for allegedly being the source of the novel coronavirus, has for the first time refuted the charge, including those of US President Donald Trump, that the deadly virus originated from his lab before it spread across the world and wreaked havoc. China has come under increasing global pressure over lack of transparency in its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far infected over 2,333,160 people and claimed more than 160,790 lives across the world. President Trump on Saturday said his administration was looking into reports that the novel coronavirus "escaped" from a Wuhan laboratory before it spread to the world. "We're looking at it, a lot of people are looking at it. It seems to make sense," Trump told the media when asked if there was an investigation into whether the coronavirus disease escaped from a lab in China's COVID-19 ground-zero city of Wuhan. Ever since the virus came to light in Wuhan in December last year, speculation has been rife on whether the viral strain originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) or from its nearby Huanan Seafood Market. The WIV, specifically its P4 laboratory, is equipped to handle dangerous viruses. Though the laboratory denied the rumours in a statement in February, its director Yuan Zhiming, in a first media interview, rejected the rumours that his institute is the original source of COVID-19. "We know what kind of research is going at the institute and how the institute manages viruses and samples. There is no way that virus came from us," he told the state-run CGTN TV channel. "We have a strict regulatory regimen. We have code of conduct for research so we are confident of that," the director said. He said since the Institute of Virology and the P4 lab is in Wuhan, "people can't help but make associations". Referring to US allegations, Yuan said it is unfortunate that some people are "deliberately misleading" people without having any "evidence or knowledge". "This is entirely based on speculation. Part of the purpose is to confuse people and interfere with our anti-epidemic and scientific activities. They may have achieved their goal in some way but as a scientist and science and technology manager, I know it is impossible," he said. The virus "cannot be man made", Yuan said, noting that there is no evidence to prove that COVID-19 is artificial. "Besides some scientists believe that to synthesise a virus requires extraordinary intelligence and workload. So never believed that we humans have the capability at this time to create such a virus," he said. Yuan said after the virus broke out, his institute shared the genome sequence of COVID-19 and the latest research on the animal model Research and Development (R&D) with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN. "As for the institute of virology and the institute of laboratory animal science, we are first in the world to build animal models. After all conspiracy theories are not widespread," he said. REPRODUCTION By Ian Williams In his 2012 poem Rings, the Canadian writer Ian Williams turns a verse from Genesis, Give me children, or else I die, into a wry refrain. As it appears alongside mundane domestic choices like whether to adopt a pet or redecorate, the desperation of the verse gives way to an offbeat calm. Child rearing may be life-affirming, but in the end it staves off death just as well as anything else that is, it doesnt. Reproduction, Williamss debut novel, expands that arch view of breeding into a peculiar odyssey through cycles of life and death. On its face, its a love story: Two immigrants, Edgar Gross (from Germany) and Felicia Shaw (Caribbean, from parts unknown), meet in the palliative unit of a Toronto hospital in the 1970s. Their mothers are dying in adjacent beds, and within those grim, cramped quarters a bizarre courtship erupts like a laugh at a funeral. Initially, Williams sculpts the narrative around Edgar and Felicias stark differences, in the vein of a standard romance. Middle-aged Edgar is an evasive and self-centered burnout; he smokes in the hospital and responds to his unconscious mothers refusal to die with childish impatience. Scolding him from across the room, youthful Felicia, a student, brims with anxieties and worries, fretting over everything from the appearance of her mothers breasts to macabre news from her home country. They are not a natural match. Image Straddling grief and flirtation, their conversations take weird, dizzying shapes. Williams presents their exchanges as compact vignettes built entirely of dialogue and inner thought. Their chats are fluid and offbeat, stripped of quotation marks: He wanted to know why her hair was shorn so aggressively. Are you some kind of feminist? he asked. But he meant lesbian. I not no feminist. Theres nothing wrong with it. He was relieved. Do you want to work? Not right now. She put her toque back on. I go work when I finish school. Then youre a feminist. He could see that she was trying on the word for sophistication, admiring her calf in its hem. But I want to have children. You cant, he said. The books standard mode is comedy of errors: rhythmic, fleet and perforated with omissions and miscommunications that beget more of the same. Washington: China's ambassador to the United States has taken a thinly veiled swipe at US President Donald Trump by criticising politicians bent on making "groundless accusations" that distract from scientific information on the deadly coronavirus. At odds over the outbreak: China and the US. Credit:AP Speaking at a webcast event, Cui Tiankai also defended the handling of the disease by China, which has drawn fire from Trump and others for allegedly failing to alert the world to risks of the coronavirus in a timely and transparent fashion. "What worries me is indeed lack of transparency, not in terms of science, not in terms of medical treatment, but in terms of some of the political developments, especially here in the United States," Cui said. "So little attention is paid to the views of the scientists as some politicians are so preoccupied in their efforts for stigmatisation, for groundless accusations," he added, accusing the media of also spreading speculation and rumour. Jussie Smollett is pictured in Los Angeles this week amid claims he had a sexual relationship with one of the men who 'attacked' him. Amid coronavirus lockdowns the 37-year-old actor broke cover and was spotted out solo on Monday getting into his SUV. The former Empire star looked casual in sweatpants and a hoodie while he appeared to be talking on the phone. Out and about: Jussie Smollett is pictured out in Los Angeles on Monday amid claims he had a sexual relationship with one of his 'attackers'. Smollett is accused of concocting a hoax race attack in 2019 The outing came amid claims Smollett had a sexual relationship with one of the Nigerian brothers who he allegedly orchestrated his 'hoax' attack with. An anonymous insider told Page Six Wednesday that the Empire star, 37, and his purported 'attacker' Abel Osundairo also visited an upscale Chicago bathhouse together on multiple occasions. The insider further claimed that there is likely to be records of the pair's visits to the establishment, and says they could be seized as part of Smollet's upcoming trial on felony disorder conduct charges. Earlier this year Smollett said he's willing to 'fight or die' to be cleared after pleading not guilty to renewed charges of 'lying to police' over his alleged hoax race attack. The actor returned to a Chicago courtroom in February to plead not guilty to felony charges that he lied to police over a 'hoax' attack he was accused of making up in January 2019. Legal woes: The former Empire star looked casual in sweatpants and a hoodie while he appeared to be talking on the phone Asked about the charges he said: 'It is definitely frustrating but you just gotta, it's fight or die at this point, right. I don't claim to be innocent, I am innocent.' Smollett has been charged with six counts of felony disorderly conduct. His attorney, Tina Glandian, also submitted a motion to the circuit court to dismiss the case based on a double-jeopardy challenge, claiming that Smollett had already been punished in the original case by forfeiting his original $10,000 bond. Smollett told police that two masked men attacked him as he was walking home in the early hours of January 29, 2019. He said they made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and looped a noose around his neck before fleeing, and that at least one of his attackers was a white man who told him he was in 'MAGA country,' a reference to President Donald Trump's campaign slogan, 'Make America Great Again.' He also said they called him the N-word. Abel (left) and Ola (right) Osundairo - An anonymous insider told Page Six Wednesday that the Empire star, 37, and his purported 'attacker' Abel Osundairo visited an upscale Chicago bathhouse together on multiple occasions Abel (left) and Ola (right) Osundairo arrive at court in February of this year after Smollet was indicted again following an investigation by a special prosecutor Nigerian brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo were then identified by police as the people he'd said attacked him. The pair knew Smollett and told the authorities he paid them to attack him in a staged incident to allegedly boost his celebrity profile and salary. In an extraordinary press conference, then police chief Eddie Gallagher accused Smollett of inflaming race relations in Chicago and of wasting police time. The case then went to a grand jury which returned a stunning, 16-felony indictment that would have put Smollett behind bars for more than 50 years if he had been convicted. In March 2019 Smollett pleaded not guilty to 16 counts before the Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office abruptly announced it was dismissing the case, angering police and City Hall. Smollett arrives at court in February of this year, after he was indicted on six felony counts of lying to police There was outrage and calls for Foxx to be investigated herself for prosecutorial misconduct. Special Prosecutor Dan Webb was appointed last August to examine what occurred in the case. After the investigation, Smollett was indicted in February on six counts pertaining to making four false police reports. As judges and special prosecutors for that task were tossed around, the city came out swinging in civil court. They sued Smollett, asking him to reimburse them for all the money they said they'd wasted investigating what they believed were bogus claims. Smollett counter-sued, accusing the city and Eddie Gallagher of malicious prosecution. He lost his job on Empire and became a pariah in the showbiz world he was allegedly trying to ascend through. A senior civil servant has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn after claiming ministers took a 'political decision' to deliberately snub an EU scheme to buy PPE. This afternoon Sir Simon McDonald told MPs it had been a 'political decision' by the Government not to take part in Brussels-orchestrated efforts to bulk-buy personal protective equipment (PPE) because 'We left the European Union on January 31'. But this evening he wrote to the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee to admit Boris Johnson's ministers were not briefed on the EU scheme because of a 'communication problem'. Mr Johnson's administration had previously claimed this version events - that missed emails had resulted in the UK not taking part. And humiliatingly, Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed there was 'no political decision not to participate in the scheme' during this evening's Downing Street press conference. It came amid a furore over 84 tons of desperately-needed PPE supplies that have yet to be delivered from Turkey to the UK. An RAF transport remains grounded in Istanbul - empty - days after ministers claimed the cargo was due to arrive. Sir Simon McDonald told MPs it had been a 'political decision' not to take part in Brussels-orchestrated efforts to bulk-buy protective equipment, but had to U-turn this evening This evening Sir Simon McDonald sent a letter to the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee in an embarrassing U-turn In the letter, addressed to chair Tom Tugendhat, Sir Simon admits the 'facts of the situation are as previously set out'. He says: 'Unfortunately due to a misunderstanding, I inadvertently and wrongly told the Committee that Ministers were briefed by UKMIS on the EU's Joint Procurement Agreement scheme and took a political decision not to participate in it. 'This is incorrect. Ministers were not briefed by our mission in Brussels about the scheme and a political decision was not taken on whether or not to participate.' He went on: 'Owing to an initial communication problem, the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in four joint COVID EU procurement schemes. 'As four initial schemes had already gone out to tender we were unable to take part.' Previously, Sir Simon, the permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, told MPs on the committee that officials briefed ministers on what EU schemes were still open to the UK, even though it left the bloc at the end of January. Asked why the UK was not involved in EU procurement, Sir Simon said: 'We left the European Union on January 31.' But pressed by Labour MP Chris Bryant, who said the UK had 'every right' to participate in the schemes, Sir Simon said: 'All I can say is, as a matter of fact, we have not taken part.' Mr Tugendhat asked Sir Simon whether it was a political decision by ministers. 'It was a political decision,' he replied. But Health Secretary Matt Hancock this evening directly contradicted the senior mandarin. Fronting the daily news conference he said: 'I haven't seen that exchange but I have spoken to the Foreign Secretary and as far as I'm aware there was no political decision not to participate in that scheme. Sir Simon gave evidence to the committee remotely because of the coronavirus lockdown Health Secretary Matt Hancock at the daily news conference this evening Missed opportunities to get more PPE January 31: On the day of Brexit, a UK official attends UK meeting on the emerging virus. Four countries raise the potential need for more PPE - UK is not among them. February 4: UK attends meeting of EU and World Health Organisation (WHO) officials in Luxembourg. February 24: European Commission updates officials on PPE procurement and asks countries to outline their 'exact needs'. The UK was invited but did not attend. February 28: The EU makes its first join procurement of 1.2million of gloves and gowns. The UK is not involved. March 12: The procurement fails because of a shortage of suppliers and is relaunched on March 15, still without UK involvement. March 17: Two more rounds of procurement for masks, goggles and ventilators go forward without the UK March 19. The UK joins the procurement steering committee but does not join a tender sent out to firms the same day for lab supplies. March 23: Health Secretary Matt Hancock admits there have been 'challenges' with PPE supply but was taking the issue 'very seriously'. March 24: No 10 confirms it has not joined EU procurement effort in favour of its own plan. It later claims it did not join because it missed an email invitation. March 25: British officials do not attend a meeting at which countries were invited to outline their requirements for future purchases by the next day. March 26: The Government says it has 8,175 ventilators, but asks UK firms to build 30,000 more within weeks. March 29: Two surgeons become the first UK medics to die from coronavirus, putting a spotlight on PPE supplies for the NHS. April 10: Mr Hancock appears to suggest NHS medics are being wasteful of masks and gowns, urging them to 'treat PPE as the precious resource it is'. April 11: Mr Hancock confirms that 19 medics have died from coronavirus, after initially saying it would be 'inappropriate' to reveal the death toll. April 13: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab acknowledged that PPE shortages were and issue and admitted supplies were running low because of 'a competitive market out there'. Advertisement 'We did receive an invitation in the Department of Health and it was put up to me to be asked and we joined so we are now members of that scheme. 'However, as far as I know that scheme hasn't a single item of PPE (personal protective equipment).' Jonathan Ashworth, Labour's shadow health secretary, said: 'First we were told the Government missed an email invitation to join the EU procurement scheme. 'Then we were told the decision not to take part was a political decision. Now we are told that the Government did sign up to the scheme. 'This is not a trivial matter. Ministers needs to explain what has happened and who is speaking for the Government on this matter.' British officials at the UK Mission to the European Union in Brussels 'briefed ministers about what was available, what was on offer, and the decision is no', he added. The EU has ordered 1.5billion (1.3billion) worth of protective masks, gowns and gloves for doctors and nurses. Some 25 European countries and eight companies are involved in the joint PPE procurement scheme but the UK will miss out because it did not take part in any of the three rounds of bulk-buying which were first launched by the EU in February. This was despite being invited to do so. Although Brexit took place on January 31, the UK remains in a transition period aligned with Brussels until the end of the year at least - with calls for it to be extended. Whitehall officials reportedly only realised after all three rounds of procurement had been put out to tender that they had not received invitations to join the Joint Procurement Agreement steering committee where the orders are organised. After telling the EU commission that the invitation emails were being sent to an outdated address the UK finally participated in its first meeting on joint PPE procurement on March 19. However, British officials did not follow up that meeting and did not attend on March 25 when participating countries were invited to outline their requirements for future purchases by the next day. On March 26, Downing Street claimed there had been a 'mix up' which meant emails from the EU about the procurement scheme were not received. Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat (pictured) asked Sir Simon whether it was a political decision by ministers. 'It was a political decision,' he said The lack of British involvement in the schemes has led to claims that it was motivated by Brexiteer ideology in Mr Johnson's administration - a claim denied by Downing Street. Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: 'This Government's evident unwillingness to work with the European Union through the current crisis is unforgivable. 'Time and again, the Government seem to have missed opportunities to join the EU's procurement efforts. 'Continued shortages of PPE over the last few days coupled with the Government's failure to scale up testing for NHS and social care workers demonstrate that the current approach hasn't delivered. Lives are at risk as a result.' Mr Hancock tonight said he was 'determined' to ensure that all staff had the personal protective equipment that they need. He said the Government was working to expand its supply base in the UK and overseas and had entered direct talks with the factories that produce the PPE and the fabric that it is made of. He said 8,331 companies had come forward with offers of PPE - some of which had led to 'very large-scale' purchases. 'I am very grateful to all of those who have come forward and we are now actively engaged with hundreds of these companies,' he said. 'I can announce that we are working with 159 potential UK manufacturers which are starting to come on stream.' Naomi Smith, of pro-EU campaign Best for Britain, said: 'If it was a political decision not to join Europe-wide schemes to bulk-buy PPE and other essential medical equipment, then the Government prioritised its own image over the country's health. 'That decision has been disastrous. Frontline workers deserve much better. 'We urge the Government to seek participation in future schemes as soon as possible, so we can source the medical supplies Britain's hospitals and care homes desperately need.' Pictured empty and stranded on the tarmac, the RAF plane STILL grounded in Turkey awaiting PPE cargo for UK coronavirus battle... amid claim government ignored offer of 10 million masks made on home soil Pictured for the first time empty and stuck on the tarmac in Istanbul airport, this is the RAF transport plane that remains grounded in Turkey while it waits to collect 84 tons of desperately-needed PPE supplies. The Atlas A400 remains unloaded, sources have told MailOnline, with the vital life-saving equipment nowhere to be seen at the airport as Turkey battles its own growing coronavirus crisis. The aircraft, which the Government promised would arrive back in Britain on Sunday, didn't land in Istanbul until Monday, at 21:10 local time. An airport worker said it had technical problems, but RAF sources denied this. The transport flight has been dogged by delays and confusion. Ministers then claimed it would arrive yesterday but it remains unloaded and has not yet taken off, as MailOnline's pictures reveal. The Atlas A400 remains empty, sources have told MailOnline, with the vital life-saving equipment nowhere to be seen at the airport as Turkey battles its own growing coronavirus crisis The transport flight has been dogged by delays and confusion. Ministers then claimed it would arrive yesterday but it remains unloaded and has not yet taken off, as MailOnline's pictures reveal Ministers have blamed 'challenges at the Turkish end' for the issues, but Istanbul has retorted that Britain only requested help with the consignment on Sunday The aircraft remains empty and still has not been loaded with the PPE supplies, which have yet to arrive at the airport PPE supplies have not even arrived at the airport yet, while the RAF plane continues to wait for the badly needed equipment A senior RAF source confirmed: 'The RAF has pre-positioned the Atlas A400M to ensure air transport is available when the PPE is delivered, which we are hopeful for in the near future.' Ministers have blamed 'challenges at the Turkish end' for the issues, but Istanbul has retorted that Britain only requested help with the consignment on Sunday. Fury over coronavirus PPE shortages escalated this week amid claims the government was ignoring offers of help from businesses - and millions of pieces of PPE are still being shipped out of the UK in spite of the shortages. A British supplier said they were forced to sell millions of life-saving items overseas after attempts to equip the NHS were met with an 'impenetrable wall of bureaucracy' - while other firms complained they had 'no choice' about sending masks and respirators abroad because the Government had repeatedly ignored offers of help. Bill Esterson, Labour MP for Sefton Central, today claimed that one of his constituents offered to make 10 million masks on March 27 but never received a reply - and when the MP wrote to the Government himself he also did not get a response. Downing Street rejected claims it ignored offers from firms, while local government minister Simon Clarke said there is a 'standing presumption' that the Government will do its utmost to buy PPE 'wherever it can be sourced' and urged manufacturers to 'reach out' to the Cabinet Office to log their ability to make equipment. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been at pains to present his country's performance in handling the pandemic as among the world's most effective, while keeping close control over the flow of information. But records of deaths in Istanbul suggest that the crisis in Turkey is far bigger than its authorities are admitting, with the New York Times reporting that 2,100 more deaths than expected were recorded between March 9 and April 12. Bill Esterson, Labour MP for Sefton Central, today claimed that one of his constituents offered to make 10 million masks on March 27 but never received a reply - and when the MP wrote to the Government himself he also did not get a response With some hospitals resorting to washing medical gowns for reuse and doctors warning they might have to stop treating patients, ministers have been desperately playing down expectations about the shipment. UK's 'impenetrable wall of bureaucracy' stops firm supplying PPE Amid growing frustration, the Government said it had deployed 'every resource' to get its hands on desperately needed PPE supplies and ventilators in recent months. NHS staff are pictured carrying out coronavirus tests in Lincoln A British supplier of protective health equipment was forced to sell millions of life- saving items overseas after attempts to equip the NHS were met with an 'impenetrable wall of bureaucracy'. The company said UK procurement system was 'unresponsive at best or incompetent at worst' and delays were putting lives at risk. The embarrassing revelations will raise questions about why the Government did not replenish PPE stockpiles and build up more supplies in March as the country entered the crisis. Amid growing frustration, the Government said it had deployed 'every resource' to get its hands on desperately needed PPE supplies and ventilators in recent months. But the supplier trying to sell millions of masks, gowns and aprons yesterday said it had spent 'five weeks hammering at the Government's door' without response. Michelle van Vuuren, who runs a London-based property company, turned her business into a PPE distributor working with Chinese suppliers last month as the virus began to spread around the world. After failed attempts to contact NHS procurement services, Miss van Vuuren contacted Health Secretary Matt Hancock's office on March 20. She was subsequently passed to the Cabinet Office but her inquiries went 'into a vacuum' and were met with only an automated response. Advertisement When asked about the situation, communities minister Simon Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'It will be with us obviously in the UK in the next few days, which is the core priority.' The row widened today amid claims that millions of pieces of PPE are still being shipped out of the UK in spite of the shortages. A British supplier of PPE told the Mail they were forced to sell millions of life- saving items overseas after attempts to equip the NHS were met with an 'impenetrable wall of bureaucracy'. The company said the UK procurement system was 'unresponsive at best or incompetent at worst' and delays were putting lives at risk. Other firms told the Telegraph they had 'no choice' about sending masks, respirators and other pieces of kit abroad because the Government had repeatedly ignored offers of help. Mr Clarke said there is a 'standing presumption' that the Government will do its utmost to buy PPE 'wherever it can be sourced' and urged manufacturers to 'reach out' to the Cabinet Office to log their ability to make equipment. But shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves told Today programme she had been 'inundated' with manufacturers who have contacted the Government offering to make PPE but have heard nothing back. 'There are many, many businesses around the country who have perhaps furloughed workers but have the capability and the capacity and the skills to make this personal protective equipment and clothing - particularly the gowns - but have not heard back from the Government. 'Some of them are doing it on an ad-hoc basis for local hospitals or care homes, but this needs to be systematic - it needs to be a national effort, using all of our manufacturing and textile capacity and capability to ensure that the doctors and nurses and care workers ... have that equipment and clothing that they need.' Chancellor Rishi Sunak told the regular Downing Street briefing last night that government is pursuing 'every possible option' around the world to bolster supplies. Mr Sunak said the UK and other countries are facing an 'international challenge' to source the equipment and that ministers are 'working hard to get the PPE our frontline NHS and social care staff need'. He said Britain is still 'working to resolve the Turkish shipment of PPE as soon as possible' but was unable to say when it will arrive. He did reveal a shipment of 140,000 gowns from Myanmar was unloaded in the UK yesterday. One of three RAF jets that have been on standby left Brize Norton in Oxfordshire yesterday afternoon, but has reportedly yet to start the return journey. Officials in Istanbul told Sky News there was 'never a problem from Turkish authorities' and 'all permissions have been issued very swiftly'. The hold-ups come with hospitals warning they are close to running out of some items, and medical bodies saying doctors could need to make 'difficult decisions' between exposing themselves to the virus or 'letting a patient die on their watch'. Trusts have accused ministers of raising the hopes of health staff saying they had 'bitter experience' of promised PPE either failing to arrive, or turning out to be either faulty or the wrong kit. Michelle van Vuuren, who runs a London-based property company, turned her business into a PPE distributor working with Chinese suppliers last month as the virus began to spread around the world. After failed attempts to contact NHS procurement services, Miss van Vuuren contacted Health Secretary Matt Hancock's office on March 20. She was subsequently passed to the Cabinet Office but her inquiries went 'into a vacuum' and were met with only an automated response. The Deputy Chief Medical Officer faced an angry backlash yesterday after she claimed that people are not being 'adult' about PPE supplies. Dr Jenny Harries slapped down critics of the government's efforts to make sure frontline workers have access to the gowns, gloves and masks they need to protect against coronavirus. She said there needed to be a 'more adult, and more detailed conversation about PPE supplies' as she insisted the UK was an 'international exemplar in preparedness'. But healthcare chiefssaid they had been 'sounding the alarm' on the apparent lack of PPE available in some settings 'for months'. Christians in India see dramatic increase of attacks in 2020 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Attacks on Christians and their places of worship in India continued to escalate in both number and severity in the early months of 2020, with 27 violent incidents reported in March alone. United Christian Forum in India, a Christian organization that advocates on behalf of Christians in India, documented 56 threats against Christians as well as 78 incidents of violence between January and March of 2020. According to UCF, these attacks took place in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Goa. In most cases, the attacks were perpetrated by mobs objecting to Christians holding worship services. On March 12, a mob attacked a pastor and his 6-year-old son because they were running a house church. The mob reportedly forced the pastors 8-year-old daughter to strip and threatened to beat her to death if she did not comply. On March 15, a mob of 300 individuals attacked a church service in Kunda Thana, located in Indias Uttar Pradesh state. There, the pastor of the church was beaten by the police and falsely charged with using the church for criminal offenses. Persecution watchdog International Christian Concern warns that while Indias national lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down the number of attacks on Christians, such attacks will likely return when the lockdown is eventually lifted. More must be done in India to secure the rights of the countrys Christian minority and bring the perpetrators of these attacks to justice, says ICC. India is ranked 10th on Open Doors USAs World Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The organization says that Christians in the country face horrific levels of violence from extremists, with thousands of attacks taking place every year. Incidents targeting Indian Christians have risen steeply since 2014, when Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power, according to Open Doors, which notes that at least one Christian was attacked every day last year. John Prabhudoss, chairman of the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America, told The Christian Post that Modi's reelection has "brought about a sense of confidence among the Hindu radical party cadre that now they can attack the Christians and other religious minorities (Muslims) with impunity and they do not have to worry about the law enforcement." "Most Christian victims in the past could not go to the police but now it is almost certain that only victims will be charged by the police if they go to them. The police are scared of acting against Hindu party members who are attacking the Christians," he said. According to Prabhudoss, President Donald Trump's "ringing endorsement of Modi and the Hindu government's handling of the religious violence in India has further strengthened their resolve." "The entire Indian Christian community is deeply disappointed in the president's continued praise for Modi even after he returned from his recent India trip," he said. The show of approval for Modi has "left the Indian Christians wondering why." Prabhudoss has had discussions with the White House officials after Trump's return from India earlier this year and "offered some recommendations," but has yet to hear a response. He urged Sam Brownback, the U.S. ambassador for International Religious Freedom, to "include India in the agenda this year and bring victims of violence from India to tell their stories in the [Annual Ministerial Conference to Advance Religious Freedom] conference." "I have made it very clear to the White house over several meetings that America's continued support to the Hindu radical party leaders in India is not in the long-term national security interests of the United States," he stressed. "Continued support to the Hindu radical party would only result in internal civil unrest in India that could adversely affect America's security and trade interests in that region. Yet, the U.S. is blindly supporting the Hindu nationalist government." Brownback told CP in March that he would not go as far as to say improvements are being made when it comes to the condition of religious freedom in India. He also noted that Trump "did raise the issues with Modi privately." According to Persecution Relief, which tracks anti-Christian persecution and harassment in India, crimes against Christians in India increased 60 percent between 2016 and 2019. The majority of these incidents have happened in Uttar Pradesh. Several states in India have adopted stringent anti-conversion laws that seek to prevent any person from converting or attempting to convert, either directly or otherwise, another person through forcible or fraudulent means, or by allurement or inducement. However, such laws are often used by extremists as an excuse to disrupt church services and harass Christians. In April, Christians in southern Indias Tamil Nadu state were arrested on false charges of forcible conversion while providing food and other aid to the poor. That same month, a Christian in Indias northeastern state of Odisha was severely beaten by a mob for holding a Christian prayer gathering in his home. In March, Christians in Indias Uttar Pradesh state were falsely accused of forcefully converting Hindus to Christianity. As a result, they were brutally beaten by a drunken police officer who then ordered them to pose like Christ on the cross. In February, nine Christians were beaten by the police after being accused of forceful conversion in the town of Sathankulam, Thoothukudi District, in Indias Tamil Nadu state. Recent policy measures by governments across Asia Pacific may not be enough to offset the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic on their economies, says a recent note by Moodys Investor Service (Moodys). Although Asia's external and fiscal buffers are generally more robust than those in other regions, equipping most Asian governments with more policy space, their policy responses to date will only cushion some of the impact and not fully offset the economic and credit damage. 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. 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Digital Editor Reality TV star Lisa Vanderpump is calling on President Donald Trump to tell Chinese President Xi Jinping to put an end to the wet markets, where the coronavirus first spread. 'We need President Xi to shut the bloody things down,' Vanderpump said in an interview with DailyMail.com. 'Right now, with all the eyes on China, I believe President Trump needs to say this has to stop, it's unacceptable.' Vanderpump has become all too familiar with 'wet markets,' where dogs, cats and exotic animals are slaughtered and sold, as she's led a crusade to end the annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival for the past four years through her organization, the Vanderpump Dog Foundation. Reality television star Lisa Vanderpump wants President Trump to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping to close the wet markets in his country. Vanderpump has led a crusade against the Yulin Dog Meat Festival for the past five years Vanderpump has teamed up with members of Congress to urge President Trump (left) to exert pressure on Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) to close the wet markets for good, after the coronavirus may have started its spread at one in Wuhan, China The wet market in Wuhan, China (pictured) is where the coronavirus is thought to have come from, though there are some questions of whether the virus originated from the market or simply spread through it The scene at a wet market in Hong Kong in 2018 as a vendor sees as increase in pork prices because pig supplies became scarce in mainland China due to a Swine Fever outbreak The launch and expansion of the foundation to a full-blown dog rescue, complete with a Los Angeles storefront, have been captured on two Bravo shows, 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' and 'Vanderpump Rules,' opportunities that Vanderpump said 'really afforded me the time and the vehicle to really shout from the rooftops.' For the new initiative, she's teamed up with Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings and Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan, a member and the co-chair of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, respectively. The two lawmakers sent a letter to Trump over the weekend, while Vanderpump and Hastings co-wrote an op-ed asking that the president and his administration 'begin discussions immediately with President Xi Jinping to put an end to dangerous "wet markets," before the next pandemic.' 'The close proximity of animals to one another and to humans, as well as the on-site butchering, creates a breeding ground for viruses and bacteria to thrive and move from host to host, animal to human,' they wrote. Lisa Vanderpump (center left) has worked alongside Dr. John Sessa (left), daughter Pandora Vanderpump Sabo (center right) and husband Ken Todd (right) to launch and grow the Vanderpump Dog Foundation The foundation has grown into a full-blown rescue operation, complete with a storefront in Los Angeles that has been featured on 'Vanderpump Rules' Vanderpump (right) knows the president (left), as she previously judged the Miss Universe Pageant twice before Trump was elected. She's working with lawmakers, however, to lobby the president on the issue of banning wet markets Vanderpump and Hastings urged action on both animal welfare and public health grounds. 'I do think that China ... I tread lightly with the way I'm composing my sentences because I'm a public figure - but I believe they're indebted to us for the catastrophic events that have transpired after the careless situation these markets have created,' Vanderpump argued to DailyMail.com. A new Change.org petition launched by the Vanderpump Dog Foundation asks the United Nations and the World Health Organization to put pressure on China as well. Vanderpump knows Trump personally - she judged two Miss Universe contests before he was elected to the White House in 2016. But Vanderpump Dog Foundation's Executive Director John Sessa said that they wanted to go through the 'proper channels, the proper avenues' and also get more Congressional support, instead of having Vanderpump make a personal call. 'He's probably got more important things on his mind right now,' Vanderpump added. She said that the petition is an important piece because, 'We need every signature we can get because we need people to understand in Congress that people are very, very concerned about this and passionate about this.' One potential ally they have is Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who's close to the president. In early April, Graham advised Trump to tell Xi to go after the wet markets as part of his response to the coronavirus pandemic, which is believed to have started to spread at a wet market in Wuhan, China. There are still questions about whether the pandemic originated at the market. 'What I would tell President Trump is to call President Xi and say "Listen, you just reopened the wet markets in Wuhan where we believe this all came from. Crack down on exotic animals in these wet markets where they contaminate the food supply and human beings,' Graham said. 'Bats carry [contagions], stop eating bats,' the GOP senator added. Vanderpump teamed up with the bipartisan duo of Rep. Alcee Hastings (left), a Democrat from Florida and also Rep. Vern Buchanan (right), a Republican also from Florida Sen. Lindsey Graham also looked like a potential ally as he advised Trump in early April that he should pressure Xi to crack down on wet markets, especially the sale of exotic animals And while the White House did not respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on whether Trump would put pressure on Xi to close the wet markets, the president has been amenable to animal welfare causes in the past. In November, Trump made animal cruelty a federal crime by signing into law the PACT or Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture act. And in September 2018, House Resolution 401 went through without resistance from Republicans. The resolution urged every nation to ban consumption of dog and cat meat. China has been making progress too. The country has reclassified dogs from livestock to pets. This month the cities of Zhuhai and Shenzhen have banned the consumption of dogs, cats and some exotic animals. But the summertime Yulin Dog Meat Festival could still go on. Sessa (pictured) documented what he saw on the ground in Yulin for the 2017 documentary 'The Road to Yulin.' Here he and other activists have rescued animals that were due to be slaughtered Animal activists, like a group who intercepted these dogs heading to dog meat restaurants in 2013, have found dogs crammed into cages alongside some who are dead The documentary showed similarly graphic material of dog carcasses for sale in Yulin, China. These dogs were slaughtered for the 2016 festival Dog meat is shown being served at a restaurant in Yulin, China at the 2017 festival These dogs were rescued from the Yulin Dog Meat Festival in 2017 and are getting tended to by volunteer veterinarians Sessa documented what he saw behind-the-scenes at the festival for the 2017 documentary ''The Road to Yulin,' which was co-produced by Vanderpump and her husband Ken Todd. Daughter Pandora Vanderpump Sabo also works for the foundation. In the film, Sessa breaks down after seeing a dog killed in front of him at a dirty slaughterhouse. 'And for me, the first time I went to a slaughterhouse and saw the skinning and the blood everywhere and the limbs everywhere - a. it changed my life forever and b. I'm more passionate than ever that we can try and end them,' he told DailyMail.com. Vanderpump, again, encouraged Trump to step in. 'It's also about Yulin coming up,' she noted, as the festival takes place each year on the summer solstice. 'We've seen evolution and progress in five years of China,' she said, but added, 'this needs to change now. And we are begging and pleading for him to be instrumental in this change.' Sharing the research findings, Research Analyst Maurice Klaehne, noted, "The current smart home market is dominated by three categories, smart TV , security cameras, and smart speaker s. Each of these markets has different drivers which have made them successful. Smart TVs have seen great adoption in North America and China as streaming media options such as Netflix or iQiyi have grown in popularity over the years. Connected TVs are also challenging conventional cable viewing habits and making people 'cut the cord', and, COVID-19 pandemic will further accelerate this trend. "For security cameras, price reductions in connected cameras have enabled more people to purchase cameras for their home to offer additional layers of security and peace of mind. Lastly, smart speakers have been one of the fastest-growing markets to date due to the low barrier to entry for consumers satisfying multiple use-cases from streaming music to personal voice assistant services such as Alexa, Google Assistant, AliGenie, Siri, and others. Connected white goods and smart lighting systems will be the fastest-growing segments and see strong adoption to drive convenience, help manage energy consumption and assist in product maintenance and care." Commenting on the key drivers, Senior Analyst Hanish Bhatia, added, "Wi-Fi is expected to be the major driver to enable smart capabilities and will contribute to three-fourths of all connectivity types in smart home devices in 2025. More than six billion Wi-Fi capable smart home devices will be shipped globally between 2020-2025. China and North America will contribute close to half of all those shipments. Further, the increased speed and load capacity capabilities of the latest Wi-Fi 6 version will be key to keep dozens of content and performance-centric devices seamlessly connected in a smart home and thus feature in a majority of shipments by 2023." The comprehensive research on Smart Home is available at Counterpoint's Research Portal For any queries reach us at: SOURCE Counterpoint Research Related Links https://www.counterpointresearch.com/ Before the countrywide lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus, Kangana Ranaut was on the verge of wrapping up the shoot of Thalaivi Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has donated Rs 5 lakh to the Film Employees Federation of South India's (FEFSI UNION) relief fund and has also contributed Rs 5 lakh for the daily wage workers of her upcoming film Thalaivi. (Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak) Before the countrywide lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus, Kangana was on the verge of wrapping up the shoot of the biographical drama Thalaivi. Since the lockdown, all shoots have come to a stop. The forthcoming film is based on the life of actor-turned-politician and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. It will be released in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. The Queen actor will be essaying the role of Jayalalithaa in the flick which is directed by Vijay. Earlier, Kangana had contributed Rs 25 lakh to PM-CARES Fund and also donated food grains and eatables to daily wage earners amid the coronavirus crisis that has left millions without work and an income. Check out the posts (With inputs from Asian News International) The coronavirus case tally crossed the 2,100-mark in Gujarat on Tuesday after 239 new infections were reported, a health department official said. With 239 new cases, a majority of them in Ahmedabad, the count in Gujarat rose to 2,178, the official said. Ahmedabad reported 130 new cases, followed by Surat at 78, Vadodara six, Aravalli and Banaskantha five each, Valsad three, Botad and Rajkot two each, Mehsana, Bharuch, Dahod, Sabarkantha, Navsari, Gir Somnath, Kheda and Tapi one each, the official said. Eight more patients were discharged, taking the number of cured cases to 189, Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi said. Three patients were discharged from Ahmedabad, two from Mehsana, and one each from Kutch, Anand and Gir Somnath districts, she said. Out of 1,949 active cases, 14 patients are on ventilator, Ravi said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) While the lockdown continues in India, people are no doubt missing going out, meeting their friends, having a drink at the pub and wandering freely in their cities. The restrictions in place has also meant that liquor shops are shut and there is no way to buy booze. It has resulted in people taking extreme measures, trying to disguise the police, breaking lockdown orders and trying hard to find booze, by any means possible. Representational Image/PTI It surely hasn't ended well, but here are instances when people have tried being the not so daredevil and done ridiculous things to get their hands on alcohol. 1. Man hurls abuses at cops and spits on them after running from shelter home in search of alcohol In an incident reported from Maharashtras Pune, a homeless man, who was staying in a COVID-19 relief camp, allegedly fled the shelter home as he was not getting alcohol, tobacco and cigarettes there. Representational Image/AFP As reported by ANI, after being caught by the police, the man hurled abuses at the officers and spat on them for stopping him. 2. Kerala man commits suicide after liquor ban A Kerala man said to have suffered severe withdrawal symptoms after the statewide ban on liquor sales committed suicide, late that month. Representational Image After the state imposed ban on liquor after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown which has now been extended till May 3, the man said to be alcoholic committed suicide. 3. Two men strangled another to death, after he forced them to sell alcohol amid COVID-19 lockdown A 30-year-old man was allegedly killed by strangulation by two others in Gurugram's Bilaspur, after forcing them to sell alcohol in the midst of the the coronavirus lockdown. Representational Image/ P.Adhikary According to a various reports, the accused have been identified as Hemant and Sandip and they hail from Nurpur village which is located in Bilaspur. Subhash Singh, the victim was also a local of the same village. The three of them were drinking at a funeral home when Subhash asked them to sell alcohol. Hemant and Sandip said that it led to an argument and that escalated quickly. Tempers flared as Hemant and Sandip attacked Subhash. They allegedly strangled Subhash with a towel leading to his death. 4. Man posing as milkman tried to smuggle whiskey bottles in milk cans, got busted by Delhi cops Two weeks back, Delhi Police caught a man from Uttar Pradesh trying to smuggle liquor under the garb of milk bottles. SIRFNEWS According to an India Today report, the man named Bobby Chaudhry, a resident of UP's Bulandshahr was caught speeding past a police picket in New Delhi's South Avenue. The cops grew suspicious and stopped him. On inspecting him, the police found seven bottles of whiskey. 5. Unable to find liquor, three men in Tamil Nadu died after drinking paint and varnish In Tamil Nadu, three men died after they were unable to find alcohol due to the lockdown which ended up making them drink paint and varnish. Three men who died were identified as Shivasankar, Pradeep and Sivaraman, were rushed to Chengalpattu government hospital, after they were found vomiting around and in critical condition. Representational Image/AFP All three were said to be alcoholic and had resorted to consuming paint mixed with varnish after they coudn't find booze. "This is appalling and unacceptable. Congress has once again denied support for the growing numbers of Americans who face food insecurity in the wake of COVID-19. We are facing an urgent crisis, and our policymakers are continuing to look the other way. Increasing SNAP will not only help millions of Americans who are struggling to put food on the table it will stimulate the economy and contribute to a faster national recovery. SNAP is and always has been our country's frontline defense against hunger. "This moment requires all of us to work together to ensure that food insecure Americans are not just another casualty statistic. Congress must take immediate action to ensure that SNAP is available for all those who need it, now more than ever." Earlier this week, Leibman was featured in The New York Times imploring Congress to prioritize SNAP as quickly as possible. She wrote that "there is no question that food banks and pantries are on the front lines to deliver what they can to those who are facing food insecurity because of the virus. There is also no doubt that they alone cannot meet the ongoing needs of those who are struggling, regardless of how much food is donated and distributed by hardworking staff and volunteers." About MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger: Inspired by Jewish values and ideals, MAZON is a national advocacy organization working to end hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds in the United States and Israel. For more information on MAZON, please visit mazon.org . Contact: Liza Lieberman [email protected] | (202) 821-6936 SOURCE MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger Related Links http://www.mazon.org A Monaghan man alleged to have recruited the lorry driver who killed 39 migrants by trafficking them from Europe to Essex has appeared before the High Court in Dublin this morning. Ronan Hughes (40), of Leitrim Silverstream, Tyholland, Co Monaghan is wanted by authorities in the United Kingdom to face 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. Mr Hughes and his younger brother Christopher (34) have been wanted in connection with the deaths since the beginning of the investigation, with Essex Police making an extraordinary live appeal last November for the siblings to hand themselves in. Their trucking firm is based in Tyholland, about 7km from the Armagh border. Ronan Hughes was arrested yesterday evening in Co Monaghan following the endorsement of a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by the police in Essex and appeared before Mr Justice Paul Burns in the High Court this morning. The eight women and 31 men had arrived in England last October on a ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium. The youngest of the victims were two boys aged 15. On April 8th last, the lorry driver Maurice Robinson (25), from Craigavon, Co Armagh, pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter at the Old Bailey in London. Detective Sergeant Jim Kirwan of the Garda Extradition Unit told Ronan Kennedy SC, for the State, that he arrested Mr Hughes at 5.15pm yesterday evening at Leitrim Silverstream, Tyholland, Co Monaghan on foot of the warrant and cautioned him. Det Sgt Kirwan said that Mr Hughes agreed that his name was Ronan Hughes and his place of birth was Co Monaghan. The detective said he showed Mr Hughes a photograph which he agreed was him. Det Sgt Kirwan said he also showed Mr Hughes a copy of the original EAW and informed him of his rights. Outlining the offences facing Mr Hughes, Det Sgt Kirwan said the man faces 39 counts of manslaughter and one charge of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. The detective said Mr Hughes told him that he did not want to say anything about the summary of the offences contained within the warrant before he was conveyed to Monaghan Garda Station. Det Sgt Kirwan said he was satisfied that the person named on the warrant was the person he arrested. He told Mr Kennedy that there was an objection to bail. Mr Justice Burns said he was satisfied the person before him was the person to whom the warrant related. The judge then informed Mr Hughes of his rights. He fixed May 1 as the date for the full hearing of the extradition case. Mr Justice Burns also fixed April 29 for the hearing of a bail application. Mr Hughes, who wore a face mask as he sat in the dock, was remanded in custody until that date. Frank drove a dark-green Jaguar. It was fancy. You never heard the engine at all, creeping down the street to pick up the school bus drivers wife or to drop her off after work. He took good care of this car. Even in the winter, when there was snow, Franks car was always newly washed and polished. All year round, he kept it like this. [ Return to the review of How to Pronounce Knife. ] When the school bus driver thought about how things used to be, he would remember what his wife used to smell like when she first started working at Coffee Time, a bit like burnt coffee beans. He had to admit to himself that she seemed happier now, not having to rely on public transit. Now she smelled of cigars. Franks cigars. The scent was a bit metallic and dusty. Frank probably smoked in the car. Thats how the smell got all over her like that. The first time it happened was on a Saturday afternoon. Frank came over. He rode up in his dark-green Jaguar and parked it in their driveway as if he lived there now. The school bus driver thought it was odd for Frank to stop by on a weekend, when his wife didnt have to be at work. She greeted him at the door, invited him in. The school bus driver was watching television in the living room, but they did not join him. His wife said they had to talk about work. Very boring, she said. They went into the bedroom. The lock clicked into place. He wondered what they were doing, if they were naked together. If so, how they kept it all so quiet. He didnt want to make a big deal of it. Why dont you want me to have any friends! his wife said when he asked her about what happened in the bedroom with Frank. He hated arguments. He would do anything to avoid them. He had thought of forgetting this whole thing, but he didnt want to be seen as spineless or, worse, not caring. Other times, when he tried to protest, to confront them, Frank would step in, his face red and sweaty, the white patches of his hair damp and rumpled, and say, Be cool about this. Sometimes he was certain Frank was mocking him, but it was just too awful to think about. How could he be sure, and to whom could he bring this up? His wife would just say he was jealous of their friendship, and accuse him again of not letting her have any friends. He didnt want to seem like a possessive, jealous husband, even if thats how he was feeling. You cant go into most Shoe Station stores and browse, just yet, but the Alabama-based chain has launched a new purchase pickup program at almost all its 21 locations. Within the last several days we tested it at a few stores, Shoe Station Marketing Director Rachael Deininger said Tuesday. Reaction was so positive that the company opted to go chain-wide with the process rapidly. She said its a big step for Shoe Station, which has taken its own path through the coronavirus shutdown so far. Deininger said that CEO Brent Barkin decided early on that he did not want to lose anybody through wholesale layoffs during the epidemic, even though the stores couldnt admit customers. While peoples hours were reduced, Deininger said, the chain has kept people on the schedule as much as possible. We have actually been doing whatever we can to keep our employees employed, she said. For one thing, as the company has encouraged patrons to order online, store employees have been the ones filling the orders. In contrast to many retail operations, Shoe Station doesnt have a warehouse, so online orders are filled out of the inventory in its stores. For another, employees have been doing extensive sanitizing and general freshening up. Pretty much when we reopen, its going to look like a grand opening, Deininger said. One store already has reopened in Lafayette, La., with social distancing measures and other adaptations in place. Another may reopen soon in Columbus, Ga. Every store in the chain except the one in Albany, Ga., is offering curbside pickup from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday-Saturday. Shoe Station was founded in Mobile by Terry Barkin in 1984 and has expanded into four other states: Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Georgia. Its Alabama locations include stores in Mobile, Dothan, Montgomery, Opelika, Spanish Fort, Foley, Tuscaloosa and Prattville. For now, patrons interested in the new option should start their shopping at www.shoestation.com. Once theyve decided what shoes they want, they can call their local store to make sure theyre in stock and provide payment information and a pickup time. At the store, an employee will meet them at the door with their order. To prevent fraud, theyll have the show ID and the card they used to place the order. If they decide they dont like the shoes as much in person, they will have the option of cancelling the transaction. Shoe Station says there will be very limited contact and public-facing employees will wear gloves. Once patrons have accepted their purchases, they wont be able to make returns or exchanges until stores are completely re-opened. Were just really trying to meet customer demand, but customer safety is something we take very seriously, said Deininger. "We thank our loyal customers for their flexibility during this unique time, and will continue to keep everyone updated," Brent Barkin said in a company announcement. Deininger said the curbside option takes Shoe Station into new territory because until now, it didnt have an option to buy at home and pick up at the store. After the COVID-19 epidemic has passed, that may become a regular offering, she said. In the latest address by President Akufo-Addo on measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana, he officially lifted the ban on movement in some designated parts of Ghana which now permit people to go about their businesses with no more restrictions. However, it seems some Ghanaians are not excited about the Presidents decision as anticipated. With the astronomic rise in the number of Coronavirus cases in Ghana, they believe it seems rather risky and premature to have been given their freedom back, especially when there is still no cure or vaccine for the virus. The decision which has been interpreted through various opinion lenses for being either politically motivated, economically etc has had some Ghanaians still observing the lockdown in spite of the Presidents directives. Some popular and influential Ghanaians have, through their social media handles, entreated Ghanaians to stay home if they can. Celebes like Manifest, Naa Ashokor, Efya, Efia Odo amongst others tweeting to caution their followers. Watch video below Measuring Wilmar International Limited's (SGX:F34) track record of past performance is an insightful exercise for investors. It enables us to reflect on whether the company has met or exceed expectations, which is a powerful signal for future performance. Below, I will assess F34's recent performance announced on 31 December 2019 and compare these figures to its historical trend and industry movements. Check out our latest analysis for Wilmar International How F34 fared against its long-term earnings performance and its industry F34's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 December 2019) of US$1.3b has jumped 10% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, this one-year growth rate has exceeded its 5-year annual growth average of 2.8%, indicating the rate at which F34 is growing has accelerated. What's enabled this growth? Let's take a look at if it is merely because of industry tailwinds, or if Wilmar International has experienced some company-specific growth. SGX:F34 Income Statement April 21st 2020 In terms of returns from investment, Wilmar International has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 7.4% instead. Furthermore, its return on assets (ROA) of 3.5% is below the SG Food industry of 4.1%, indicating Wilmar International's are utilized less efficiently. And finally, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Wilmar Internationals debt level, has declined over the past 3 years from 7.8% to 7.8%. What does this mean? While past data is useful, it doesnt tell the whole story. Positive growth and profitability are what investors like to see in a companys track record, but how do we properly assess sustainability? You should continue to research Wilmar International to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at: Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for F34s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for F34s outlook. Financial Health: Are F34s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why weve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 December 2019. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. Sun Woo reported to the police about the incident. They arrived and secured the place and ensured to check the patrol for the coming days. Tae Oh arrived and helped to cover the broken window with plastic and tape while they wait to have it fixed. Joon Young called and informed his father about what happened. Sun Woo felt uncomfortable seeing him inside the house. He offered to let Joon Young stay with him since her home is not safe yet. Sun Woo declined and assured Joon Young that things would be fine. Myung Sook called Tae Oh and reconfirmed if he wishes to continue making Sun Woo lose her job from Family Love hospital. Tae Oh told Myung Sook that he's grateful for her support since from the start and that he's only returning the favor to her. The next day, the Women's Club went to the firing range and had lunch together. Da Kyung offered to pay the bill since it was her first day out as a new member of the association. Then, the receptionist advised that Tae Oh paid for their bills and even sent out surprise gifts to the ladies. Ye Rim responded they should stay true to their purpose of going out on their own and not rely on their spouses. Hyo Jung then told Ye Rim to respect other people's good intentions. Ms. Choi, however, supported Ye Rim's opinion and advised everyone they should pay their bill next time. She stood up and left the room. The other ladies thanked Da Kyung and went out as well, leaving their gifts behind. Da Kyung arrived home and thanked Tae Oh for the support for her membership in the association. She feels confident whenever he's around. Da Kyung suggested inviting Joon Young over dinner at their house. Tae Oh felt happy as Da Kyung is trying her best to understand his situation. Tae Oh received a call from Da Kyung's father to meet him at his office later. Byung Gyu heard about Tae Oh's plan to donate a large amount to the foundation. He's using the company's money without his approval, but Tae Oh explained and assured his father-in-law that it would be a kind donation. Byung Gyu thought of it for a moment then gives his permission. Tae Oh was relieved to know his plan is pushing through. Sun Woo passed by the supermarket for groceries and met Ms. Choi at the wine section. Ms. Choi warned her that the family she has clashed with wouldn't back down. When Sun Woo arrived at her house, she saw a card placed at her door with the message, "Leave the place." Sun Woo kept the card and didn't mention it with anyone. Myung Sook and Ms. Gong (the director's wife of Family Love hospital) invited Ms. Choi to a spa day. They tried to persuade her to back them up in taking Sun Woo out of her job as the associate director of the hospital. They planned to recruit Ms. Choi and make her the ally on the board of directors, but she was smart enough to know their intentions. She said that Sun Woo is doing a good job as the associate director, and she doesn't see any problem with her. Ms. Choi stood up and left the spa room. Out of their knowledge, Hyun Seo is one of the spa therapists who heard their conversation. Tae Oh invited Joon Young for dinner at his house. Joon Young accepted his father's invitation and informed his mother he wished to go. The next day, Tae Oh picked up Joon Young and Sun Woo sent him off with approval. Da Kyung prepared good food for Joon Young, who later on played with his step-sister. Da Kyung told Joon Young that they would try to be comfortable with each other for the sake of Tae Oh. Tae Oh was about to send home Joon Young back to his house, but Da Kyung offered to let Joon Young stay for the night. Tae Oh mentioned that there is no room available, but Da Kyung ushered them to one of the rooms already set up nicely. She offered it as Joon Young's new room in their house. Tae Oh felt happy and proud of his wife. Read Part 2 here. The US has warned Russia about the conduct of its planes in international airspace and in proximity of US planes reports Al-Masdar. A Russian Su-35 has conducted a second unsafe intercept of a US surveillance jet in the Mediterranean in four days, flying once again within just 25 feet of a P-8A Poseidon, the US Navy said in a statement. On Apr. 19, 2020, a US Navy P-8A aircraft flying in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea was intercepted twice by a Russian SU-35 over a period of 100 minutes. The first intercept was deemed safe and professional. The second intercept was determined to be unsafe and unprofessional due to the SU-35 conducting a high-speed, high-powered maneuver that decreased aircraft separation to within 25 feet, directly in front of the P-8A, exposing the US aircraft to wake turbulence and jet exhaust, the US Sixth Fleet said late on Sunday, according to Russian Sputnik. A Russian Su-35 fighter jet detected a US military reconnaissance aircraft flying toward Russian military facilities in Syria, the Ministry of Defense has announced. The incident, said to have taken place Sunday, took place after a fighter was scrambled from the Hemeimeem airbase to confront an identified aerial target that was heading towards Russian positions in Syria. The unidentified aircraft turned out to have been a US Navy plane, the MoD said. After approaching the aircraft, the pilot of the Russian fighter identified the planes tail number and its status as an aircraft of the US Navy, and took it under escort, the MoD added. After being tagged, the US reconnaissance aircraft was said to have changed course, allowing the Russian fighter plane to return to base. The Russian military emphasized that all Aerospace Forces flights take place in strict accordance with international rules of airspace use over neutral waters. According to the US Navy, despite the fact that the Su-35 was operating in international airspace, the interaction was irresponsible and endangered the safety of both aircraft. In both cases, the US aircraft were operating consistent with international law and did not provoke this Russian activity, the statement added. The American jet had to descend to create separation and ensure the safety of both aircraft, the Navy added, noting that the incident followed the Apr. 15, 2020, interaction over the same waters, where a Russian SU-35 flew inverted within 25 feet of the US P-8A. The Russian military has yet to comment on the incident. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Emma Roberts cried with relief on Tuesday when she heard the government would lift its ban on IVF and other non-urgent elective surgery. She has always wanted children, but at 39 she feels like she has a timeline. Every month counts: each cycle of IVF is one more opportunity to pregnant. Emma Roberts and her partner Josh Skinner are delighted that they don't have to wait any longer to access IVF. Credit:Eddie Jim The Carnegie resident was just about to begin attempting to have a baby through IVF when restrictions on non-urgent elective surgeries shuttered fertility services in late March in response to the coronavirus pandemic, with no clear end in sight. My partner and I have been trying for a couple of years with no luck and then I had a miscarriage, she said. KABUL, Afghanistan On most mornings, Somaya Farooqi and four other teenage girls pile into her dads car and head to a mechanics workshop. They use back roads to skirt police checkpoints set up to enforce a lockdown in their city of Herat, one of Afghanistans hot spots of the coronavirus pandemic. The members of Afghanistans prize-winning girls' robotics team say theyre on a life-saving mission to build a breathing machine from used car parts and help their war-stricken country battle the virus. If we even save one life with our device, we will be proud, said Farooqi, 17. Their pursuit is particularly remarkable in conservative Afghanistan. Only a generation ago, during the rule of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban in the late 1990s, girls werent allowed to go to school. Farooqis mother was pulled from school in third grade. After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, girls returned to schools, but gaining equal rights remains a struggle. Farooqi is undaunted. We are the new generation, she said in a phone interview. We fight and work for people. Girl and boy, it does not matter anymore. Afghanistan faces the pandemic nearly empty-handed. It has only 400 ventilators for a population of more than 36.6 million. So far, it has reported just over 900 coronavirus cases, including 30 deaths, but the actual number is suspected to be much higher since test kits are in short supply. Herat province in western Afghanistan is one of the nations hot spots because of proximity to Iran, the regions epicenter of the outbreak. This has spurred Farooqi and her team members, ages 14 to 17, to help come up with a solution. On a typical morning, Farooqis father collects the girls from their homes and drives them to the team's office in Herat, zigzagging through side streets to skirt checkpoints. From there, another car takes them to a mechanics workshop on the outskirts of the city. In Herat, residents are only permitted to leave their homes for urgent needs. The robotics team has a limited number of special permits for cars. Story continues So far, Farooqis father hasnt been able to get one, but the girls are in a hurry. We are concerned about security driving out of the city but there is no other option, we have to try to save peoples lives, Farooqi said. At the workshop, the team is experimenting with two different designs, including an open-source blueprint from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The parts being used include the motor of a Toyota windshield wiper, batteries and sets of bag valve masks, or manual oxygen pumps. A group of mechanics helps them build the frame of a ventilator. Daniela Rus, a professor at MIT, welcomed the team's initiative to develop the prototype. It will be excellent to see it tested and locally produced, she said. Tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob, who founded the team and raises funds to empower girls, said she hopes Farooqis group will finish building a prototype by May or June. In all, the team has 15 members who work on various projects. The ventilator model, once completed, would then be sent to the Health Ministry for testing, initially on animals, said spokesman Wahid Mayar. Farooqi, who was just 14 years old when she participated in the first World Robot Olympiad in the U.S., in 2017, said she and her team members hope to make a contribution. Afghans should be helping Afghanistan in this pandemic, she said. We should not wait for others. Related Video: Click here to See Video >> New York Governor Andrew Cuomo demand that all state residents don proper face coverings doesn't appear to have resonated with his daughter Mariah, who is under fire online for failing to cover her nose when stepping out of the house with her father over the weekend. The 25-year-old took to Instagram to share a selfie with her dad, in which they are both seen wearing fabric face coverings - however Mariah's is pushed down beneath her nose, essentially rendering it completely ineffective, according to medical experts, and her own father's office. Commenters were quick to point our her error, with one person simply telling Mariah: 'OMG cover your nose!' as one other chimed in to warn, 'Cover your nose as well, stay safe out there.' Under fire: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's daughter Mariah, 25, is facing criticism on Instagram after posting a selfie that shows her wearing her face mask incorrectly Error: Mariah's face mask was pulled down beneath her nose in the photo with her father, who was seen wearing what looked like a scarf that was tied around his mouth and nose One particularly irate Instagram user wrote: 'THE MASK GOES OVER THE NOSE FOR F**K SAKE!' The image, taken near the governor's home in Albany, was shared less than a week after Cuomo's office issued an order telling all New York residents that they must wear a face mask over their mouth and nose whenever they step out in public, if they cannot maintain a 6ft social distance from other people. Cover up: Experts say that masks, whether or not they are medical or homemade, need to cover the mouth and nose to work properly (stock photo) 'If you're going to be in a situation in public where you may come into contact with other people and a situation, that is not socially distanced, you must have a mask or a cloth covering nose and mouth. That is by executive order,' he said. The order was put in place as of April 17th - the day before Mariah posted the image with her father while out on a dog walk. Cuomo later clarified that a person should go out with their mask and be prepared to pull it up over their nose and mouth if they come within 6ft of someone, but that they can leave it down, around their chin, if they do not. In the image that Mariah posted, she is seen standing much closer to her father than 6ft, but while he is seen wearing a piece of fabric over his mouth and nose for the dog walk, her face mask is only covering her mouth and chin, leaving her nose completely bare. Meanwhile Governor Cuomo appears to be wearing a scarf or bandana around his face, which does not cover his chin but does protect his mouth and his nose. All together: On Sunday, the governor shared an image of himself eating dinner with his three daughters and Mariah's boyfriend Father and daughter: Gov. Cuomo, pictured with Mariah, issued an executive order last week telling all New York residents to wear face masks when they go outside When issuing advice about how to use face masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, the CDC warned that any cloth face coverings should 'fit snugly against the side of the face' and completely 'cover the mouth and nose'. Mariah shared the photo - which she captioned, 'Walking Captain with the love gov', no doubt in reference to her father's newfound sex symbol status - one day before she and her boyfriend joined Cuomo at a press briefing, during which he shared advice to other fathers about meeting their children's partners. The New York Governor shared some fatherly advice during his COVID-19 briefing, where he joked about liking his daughter's boyfriend and warned against 'natural defiance syndrome.' During a press conference Sunday, Cuomo briefly stepped away from addressing the state's coronavirus response to talk about his daughter, Mariah Kennedy Cuomo, and her boyfriend. Cuomo explained to reporters that Mariah was previously in quarantine, but was now back with her family and she brought along her boyfriend. Mariah attended Cuomo's press conference and watched on as he broke down how he navigates his children's relationships. Helping hand: On Sunday, Governor Cuomo gave 'advice to fathers' about their daughters dating during his COVID-19 press conference Family ties: Mariah (far left) attended her father Cuomo's press conference Sunday and watched on as he spoke about his relationship with her boyfriend 'Advice to fathers,' Cuomo started, 'the answer on what you think of the boyfriend is always I like the boyfriend because theres only two options. 'Either you like the boyfriend or you dont like the boyfriend but you can never say you dont like the boyfriend. I learned the lesson the hard way.' Cuomo, who was married to Kerry Kennedy, had three daughters. They include 25-year-old twins Mariah and Cara, and 22-year-old Michaela. He then warned New Yorkers watching the press conference of NDS, or 'natural defiance syndrome.' Cuomo explained that it is an 'undocumented' psychological condition where shrugging off his daughter's boyfriends causes 'natural defiance syndrome [to kick] in and then they like the boyfriend even more.' Luckily, Cuomo seemed pleased with Mariah's boyfriend and added 'in this case, I like the boyfriend.' And he made clear just how well he gets along with Mariah's boyfriend by sharing an image of himself at dinner with his three daughters, and his eldest child's boyfriend. They got engaged last summer after just one month of dating. Yet Georgia Steel and Callum Izzard's whirlwind relationship hasn't gone the distance, with the couple splitting after seven months together. The Love Island star, 22, was living with her fiance, 24, in Essex, but it appears lockdown got the better of the pair. It's over: Georgia Steel and Callum Izzard's whirlwind relationship hasn't gone the distance, with the couple splitting after seven months together A source told The Sun Online: 'Callum has moved out of their Essex apartment during lockdown. 'They were recently flat hunting in Manchester together, but it's been called off. Georgia is now planning to move up to Manchester alone.' Callum's rep declined to comment when approached by MailOnline. The split will come as a shock to fans, as just last month, Georgia was quick to express her love for Callum. Flying solo: Love Island star Georgia, 22, was living with her fiance, 24, in Essex, but it appears lockdown got the better of the pair Comparing her time in quarantine to Love Island, Georgia said: 'You are under watch. Being in lockdown with Callum, is not like that. We eat when we are hungry and we go to bed when we are tired. 'The other show I did, Ex on the Beach, was kind of similar to this. We met on a show where we were living together and Callum's my best friend, so it's been fun.' Georgia and Callum met while filming US show, Ex on the Beach: Peak of Love in August 2019 and quickly became smitten, with Callum proposed just a month later. Doncaster born Callum, previously starred as a rep on ITV2 show Ibiza Weekender, as well as series five of Celebs Go Dating. Happier times: Georgia and Callum met while filming US show, Ex on the Beach: Peak of Love in August 2019 and quickly became smitten, with Callum proposed just a month later The pair appeared every inch the young couple in love, with Georgia having put her tumultuous relationship with ex-boyfriend Medi Abalimba firmly behind her. In April 2019, Georgia claimed her convicted conman ex Medi had stolen tens of thousands of pounds from her bank account. In September 2019, Abalimba was sent sent back to prison for breaching the terms of his licence Georgia soared to fame during her time on the Love Island villa in Mallorca, which saw her partner up with Josh Denzel, before he ditched her for Kaz Crossley in Casa Amor. The former drama student did not let Josh hamper her time in the villa and soon went on to form a relationship with Sam Bird. In a shock twist, the couple were told they could only stay in the villa if they parted ways and tried to find love with someone else. The couple initially stayed in the villa but after just a few days, they decided to leave the show together. It doesnt appear that people have learned their lesson IPOC criticised for further delay in Nicholas Churton murder report This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Apr 21st, 2020 Wrexhams former MP has criticised a police watchdog after it revealed it still wasnt ready to produce full reports into errors that led to a prisoner on licence brutally killing a vulnerable man. Ian Lucas did not stand in the latest General Election, but retains his long interest in the case of 67 year-old former wine bar owner Nicholas Churton, who was murdered by Jordan Davidson in March 2017. Davidson, on prison release licence at the time, conducted robberies and attacked arresting officers with a hammer. It emerged hed come into contact with North Wales Police on eight occasions before he murdered Mr Churton. He was arrested on four of those occasions, one of those for threatening four men with a knife, but was still not sent back to jail. Davidson, originally sentenced in November 2017, is almost two-and-a-half years into serving a 30-year sentence for Mr Churtons murder and 12 other offences of robbery and violence. Police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said in November last year it would release its report into reasons why Davidson was not returned to prison before the killing, after the misconduct hearing of a police sergeant had been heard. That officer was accused of not carrying out an adequate assessment of available information prior to Davidsons release on bail after he had been arrested for possession of a bladed article. That officer was cleared of misconduct six weeks ago but the IOPC still says the report is not ready for publication, almost two years after it was started. The delay in publishing the full findings of that, and another report into police interaction with Mr Churton, has incensed Mr Lucas, who even raised the matter in Parliament during his tenure. He said: I think its a disgrace that more than three years after the death of Mr Churton the report has still not been released and the public still do not know the full story. It simply confirms the concerns I have had of a cover up of the details of this. There were glaring errors made when Davidson was released and while Davidson is obviously responsible for Mr Churtons death that was one of the factors that led to Mr Churtons death. It should never be allowed to happen again but unfortunately it doesnt appear that people have learned their lesson. An IOPC spokeswoman said: Our investigation reports relating to prior North Wales Police contact with Nicholas Churton and Jordan Davidson are not being held back. We have obligations to consider the comprehensive reports under relevant legislation including on data protection grounds. We also need to liaise with interested parties and consider any representations ahead of publication. This is our usual process and is under way. The outcomes of our investigations have already been shared with relevant parties including Mr Churtons family, North Wales Police and the National Probation Service. We have previously issued substantial information including findings and some detail from these investigations on our website, and we are working to publish our full reports as soon as possible. In November last year the IOPC called on North Wales Police, the National Probation Service (NPS) and the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) to improve their information sharing as a matter of priority following the murder of Nicholas Churton. It also said the reports would be published at the conclusion of the outstanding misconduct proceedings. Supt Nick Evans of North Wales Police confirmed the final meeting had taken place. He said: The misconduct meeting took place on March 2nd (this year). The chair of the meeting found that the conduct did not amount to misconduct and therefore no further action will be taken. Two police officers were previously disciplined for unsatisfactory performance over the case. A third investigation by the IOPC, into claims former chief constable Mark Polin had misled Mr Lucas, found Mr Polin had not deliberately misled the former MP. Mr Churtons family have been critical of North Wales Police and the probation services handling of the killer. The victims sister Jo Bowen-Jones and brother James Churton received a written apology from the force in December last year. There has been no such acknowledgement from Her Majestys Prison and Probation Service, formerly the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), regarding the failings surrounding the management of Davidson. A confidential report by NOMS into the privately owned Wales Community Rehabilitation Company, which was supposed to be managing Davidsons release, has never been published. The company went into administration in March 2019. By Jez Hemming BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme) Cops in New York City have broken up a marijuana party as members of the public continue to flout strict coronavirus social distancing measures. Officers were called to the party following a tip-off and found the third-floor gathering in a vacant commercial building on West 23rd Street in Manhattan's Flatiron District. Local media are reporting that the gathering involved marijuana on the unofficially-titled '4/20' holiday of April 20 - a big day for cannabis lovers, when many marijuana users protest by lighting up at 4.20pm The party was allegedly hosted by a marijuana edibles company called 'Ganja Pigs', NBC New York said. Police said they summonsed a total of 38 people, including 31 men and five women, for criminal trespassing after breaking up the illegal gathering. As some red state governors consider relaxing social distancing policies, New York City police arrest two men who had allegedly taken part in an illegal gathering of more than two dozen people The party took place amid the city's current lockdown to help curb the spread of Covid-19. Social distancing has been a requirement for weeks in New York City - which is the epicenter of the county's coronavirus storm Local media are reporting that the gathering involved marijuana on the unofficially-titled '4/20' holiday of April 20. The party was allegedly hosted by a marijuana edibles company called 'Ganja Pigs' They broke up the party because participants were flouting social distancing rules amid the coronavirus pandemic, and not because of the presence of marijuana, ABCNews reported. Party members were caught smoking marijuana and socialising within six feet of each other. Police said they also recovered pills, money and bootlegged alcohol. The party was named 'Animal House Party 5' on Instagram and promoted throughout social media, according to police. Five people at the gathering were also given summonses relating to marijuana. Above, New York City police arrest a man who had allegedly taken part in the illegal gathering The illegal gathering came despite New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently extending New York's coronavirus lockdown by two weeks, until May 15 Social distancing is one of the city's current requirements to help curb the spread of Covid-19 and has been a requirement for weeks in New York City - which is the epicenter of the county's coronavirus storm. In New York City alone, more than 14,600 people have died as a result of the coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently extended New York's coronavirus lockdown by two weeks until May 15. Cuomo said last Thursday that while the rate of hospitalizations in New York is decreasing, it was unclear how many people had actually been infected with COVID-19. He said the unknown tally of infections is stopping him from reopening the economy. People who don't know they are infected return to work, they risk infecting countless others and erasing the progress that has been made so far. Cuomo said: 'The close down has worked. However, we're not there yet. 'We have to continue. I'd like to see that infection rate get down even more. I don't want to project beyond that period - that's one month. What happens after then, I don't know. We will see depending on what the data shows.' The reference to 4/20 for cannabis culture is slang for marijuana consumption and relates to an incident in 1971 when high schoolers in California used the term in connection with a plan to search for an abandoned crop of cannabis at that time of day. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a Rand 500 billion (USD 26 billion) economic and social relief package to counter the devastating effects on the country's economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ramaphosa was addressing the nation in a live TV broadcast on Tuesday evening but there was no indication of whether the lockdown, now in its 26th day after the initial 21 days were extended by a fortnight, would be extended further. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of infections and deaths due to COVID-19 across the country in the last few days. There was much anticipation that there would be an announcement around easing some elements of the lockdown, especially since there have been widespread calls for lifting the prohibition on sale of hot prepared foods by restaurants and supermarkets as well as the sale and transport of liquor. Ramaphosa said he would make another announcement on Thursday evening on measures to boost the country's economy. "We will follow a phased approach. As we do so, we remain firm in our resolve to contain the virus. We will need to act with flexibility in the weeks and months ahead," he said. "We will follow a risk adjusted approach to the return of economic activity, balancing the need to limit the spread of the virus and the need to get people back to work, he added. For now, a special six-month increase in social grants, especially for children, the aged and those with disabilities, would assist in alleviating the hunger being experienced across the country. Unemployed persons will also receive a special grant for six months. Ramaphosa said these funds would come from a reprioritisation of Rand 130 billion in the current government budgets; local sources; and international contributors. He said talks had already been begun with the International Monetary Fund and the New Development Bank, started just two years ago by the partners in the Brics bloc Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Rand 20 billion is to be made available to municipal authorities for emergency water supply, public transport and sanitation, and also to provide food and shelter for the homeless, he said. We will and we must do whatever it takes to recover from this humanitarian crisis, Ramaphosa said. Our country and the world we live in will never be the same again. We are resolved not merely to return our economy to where it was before the virus, but to forge a new economy in a new world environment, said the President as he lauded South Africans for their resilience in supporting the lockdown to avoid tens of thousands of deaths that might otherwise have resulted through the rapid spread of the disease. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 'One hopes that it is for the better that this disaster alters our reality from the morning of May 4,' notes Aakar Patel. IMAGE: Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel being thermally scanned in New Delhi, April 17, 2020. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo The lockdown in India ends on May 3, but things will not be the same on May 4 or in days ahead of course. Schools are scheduled to reopen in June, but parents will not send their children so it is unclear what happens to the school year or schooling in general. We are not a country equipped for virtual classrooms, and there is something about playing together and mingling that is an essential part of the school experience. Denmark opened its schools last week, with children seated on desks six feet apart. This is not possible in most schools in India, which are basic rooms often without even seating arrangements. Danish children were told not to play but without supervision is that going to be possible? Children are children and the presence of others will trigger excitement and desire to engage. How many parents will take a chance with the lives of their children given the absence of any guarantee that the child will not be infected while in school? I do not think that the number will be insubstantial. And what happens when, as is likely and perhaps inevitable, one child is infected? Does the school again shut down permanently or just carry on as usual hoping for the best? There are no real answers to these problems. We can only try and see what to do and how to best bring about normalcy. The Danish government is brave to try and do something pioneering. Workplaces also will be different when people go back. The policies of companies are generally managed by human resources departments. Their usual work is to see to salaries, promotions and increments, disputes at the workplace and sexual harassment cases and recruitment. They have no experience in dealing with the sort of things that will be required to be looked at from May. For example, should employees be made to travel on work? Can company drivers be allowed and who carries the liability if the driver is infected or the employee being driven? Workplaces themselves will need to be reconfigured in ways that most do not have the capacity to do. Shop-floors and assembly lines have evolved over decades to ensure maximum efficiency, not to prevent the transmission of contagion. How will they resume work while ensuring some safety for the workers? These again are difficult questions which have no answers because nobody has had to answer them ever. There is no uniformity in workplaces and offices and so each company and each organisation much frame its own rules and regulations, which many will not have the capacity to do. Real expertise in legal liability, in safety and in disease prevention is needed. HR departments have no experience in this, nor do any other set of people. The writer Salman Rushdie once described India as a mob. Even if this was said in humour it is true to a large extent. Very large gatherings define our lives from religious spaces to political rallies to even the everyday bazaar. What happens to these on May 4 and what happens to us as a society when we suddenly are shut off from the ways in which we have lived our lives? There are so many questions that come to mind. And also many speculations. In the world's most unequal society, will this disease introduce more equality or less? Naturally, it is the case that the rich will have better access to healthcare, but that has always been the case. What may now change is that the poor will demand that they not be sacrificed and that their lives be respected in the same way as of the rich. It should be accepted that the poor were sacrificed by this country when it accepted the lockdown with millions stranded without money or work or even food. It is not going to be easy for the government to continually sacrifice them without resistance and that is what I mean when say that perhaps there is the chance that it will bring some element of equality. The longer the plague continues without a cure, the more pressure will be on individuals, systems and nations to change and adapt. IMAGE: People throng to a market in Patna, April 17, 2020. Photograph: PTI Photo The last thing about change here is the pace at which it is happening. The most evolutionary thing that this generation has witnessed is perhaps the Internet and mobile telephony, but that came over a period of two decades. This change is being enforced on all of in a matter of days. Because of this the changes will be hard, and will be visible. The levels of tolerance that our culture has to indiscipline will probably change. When one individual endangers the lives of others with irresponsibility, people will not hesitate from forcing behavioural change. This is not the same thing has spitting in public or misbehaving in traffic. Each of us is now responsible for the others. That is the biggest change that is being forced on us. One hopes that it is for the better that this disaster alters our reality from the morning of May 4. Aakar Patel is a columnist and writer. You can read Aakar's columns here. EDWARDSVILLE Several Southern Illinois University Edwardsville alumni are serving on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. From fast-paced hospital settings to crowded pharmacy lines and community checks, SIUE alumni are experiencing an array of tense scenarios requiring careful and compassionate service. Adapting to this new challenge has brought our teamwork and communication skills to a whole new level, said Robert Ehrhardt, a registered nurse in the Emergency Department at DePaul Hospital in Bridgeton, Mo., who earned a bachelors in nursing from SIUE in 2018. One of the most notable, and absolutely necessary, changes that occurred was an update to the visitor policy at SSM facilities, he said. Currently, the policy is no visitors unless the patient is a minor or a loved one is in critical condition. Patients reporting COVID-19 symptoms are quickly intubated, meaning a tube is placed in their lungs and a machine takes over breathing for them, to give them the best chance of fighting off the infection. Ehrhardt says its difficult knowing patients cannot have their loved ones with them. Its for the sake of their survival. But once they are intubated, they are under continuous sedation without a chance to talk to their loved ones, he said. Families wont get to see them unless they have already passed or there is no foreseeable chance of recovery. Ehrhardt said all staff are wearing personal protective equipment and safely reusing N-95 masks when possible. Communication has increased, treatment methods have changed (with people being treated and discharged from an outdoor medical tent) and a bio containment unit for highly infectious diseases was created within the emergency department. The unknown has been a huge challenge, noted Ehrhardts nurse coordinator Samantha Jeananne. Preparing for a virus with an unknown etiology, effecting an unknown amount of people, in an unknown way was not an easy task. Ehrhardt has also isolated himself from family and friends since the outbreak began. Other front line workers are taking extreme measures to sanitize themselves and their belongings before returning home to their loved ones. My transition from work to home has changed drastically, explained Ashley Dicks, PharmD, a pharmacist manager at Michelles Pharmacy in Gillespie. Dicks earned a bachelors in biological sciences/medical science and a doctor of pharmacy from SIUE in 2008 and 2012, respectively. I take off my gloves when I walk outside of work. I sanitize my hands and Clorox anything that I brought in the pharmacy with me, said the mother of two. When I get home, I wipe down the inside of the car. I change out of my work clothing in the garage, placing my shoes in a designated bin, and then head straight to the shower. This is my new normal, she said. At Michelles Pharmacy, Dicks said major precautions have been implemented to ensure everyones safety, including a one-person limit in the store to lessen exposure. Our staff are wearing PPE, including gloves at all times and masks when in contact with any patients, Dicks noted. We are wiping down all surfaces and doors hourly with medical grade cleaners. We are also encouraging our patients to call for curbside pick-up or utilize our delivery service. SIUE Alumna Lindsey Douglas is a public health associate with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). She completed a bachelors in public health in 2019 and is on a two-year fellowship assignment for the CDC. Douglas is in Kalispell, Montana at the Flathead City-County Health Department. My community health work has been postponed until further notice, and my focus is now solely on COVID-19 response in the Flathead community, Douglas said. The county has opened its Emergency Operations Center, and cases are coming in rather quickly. So, everything is changing by the hour. That is how fast this virus is spreading. I am currently monitoring people with confirmed cases, as well as those they have been in close contact with, Douglas said. We monitor everyone daily for 14 days. Douglas calls patients and exposed individuals to check-in on them during their self-quarantine. The calls allow her to assess how they are feeling by asking question such as What is your temperature? Do you have a cough? Any shortness of breath, chest pains or other symptoms? According to Douglas, the rapidity of protocol and guidance changes has been the biggest challenge. This work has definitely increased my flexibility and understanding of what it is like to be in the middle of a public health crisis, and how quickly you need to adapt in order to effectively and efficiently help your community, she said. The trio of front line workers underscores the importance of taking this pandemic seriously and staying home. This virus does not discriminate based on age or how healthy you are, Douglas said. Its important not only to care about your health, but the health of others. It requires all hands-on-deck to flatten the curve and combat COVID-19. Stay at home, use social distancing, wash your hands and show your support to the front line staff, Ehrhardt added. Thats not only the nurses and doctors, but food service staff, cleaning teams, therapists, technicians, respiratory therapists, and many others. Thank you to all who are doing your part, whether staying home or serving on the front lines, Dicks concluded. We see you. We appreciate you. We will come out stronger as a nation. This too shall pass. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has called on Russian authorities to secure the safety of journalists and their relatives in the North Caucasus region of Chechnya after the Kremlin-installed leader of the area openly threatened the broadcaster's North Caucasus Service chief, Aslan Doukaev. Ramzan Kadyrov threatened Doukaev while discussing an RFE/RL article challenging the Chechen authorities' policies toward farmers during the coronavirus pandemic. In a video posted on YouTube on April 1, Kadyrov uses vulgar words during a discussion with several members of his government, cursing the author of the article and threatening to punish him "to the full extent." Kadyrov also addresses Doukaev in the video, saying he will make him "crawl on your knees begging our people for forgiveness!" "Direct threats by regional leaders against journalists, most recently RFE/RL's Aslan Doukaev, are a dangerous trend at a moment when our audiences need access to objective news and information more than ever, " RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said in a statement on April 21. "For decades, RFE/RL has provided Chechens and others across the North Caucasus with reliable reporting despite the risks for journalists in the region.... Russian authorities must uphold their obligations to ensure the safety and security of journalists and their families, including those like Aslan providing this important service for the Chechen people," he added. Rights groups say Kadyrov, who has ruled the volatile region since 2007, uses repressive measures and has created a climate of impunity for security forces in the region. They allege Kadyrov is ultimately responsible for the violence and intimidation of political opponents by Chechen authorities, including kidnappings, forced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Kremlin critics say President Vladimir Putin has turned a blind eye to the alleged abuses and violations of the Russian Constitution by Kadyrov because he relies on the former rebel commander to control separatist sentiment and violence in Chechnya, the site of two devastating post-Soviet wars and an Islamist insurgency that spread to other mostly Muslim regions in the North Caucasus. Last week, Russian independent newspaper Novaya gazeta took down an article about measures introduced to tackle the coronavirus in Chechnya following a request by Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor. The move came after Kadyrov had slammed the article as "absurd" and threatened to harm the author, Yelena Milashina, who is widely known for her investigative reports about the dire human rights situation in Chechnya. Human Rights Watch said on April 21 that Russian authorities should take the threat "seriously" and "ensure" Milashina's safety. "The Kremlin's dismissive reaction to this serious threat against Novaya gazeta is simply unacceptable and dangerous," said Tanya Lokshina, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Kadyrov asked for a signal and this is like a stark green light to Chechen officials to act on their threats," she added. Milashina has been a target of threats by Chechen authorities since exposing their anti-gay "purge" in spring 2017. In February 2020, a group of attackers beat Milashina and human rights lawyer Marina Dubrovina in Grozny, the regional capital. RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service is one of the few independent media outlets reporting in Russias predominantly Muslim Chechnya and other regions of the North Caucasus. / -- Bajaj Finance Limited, the lending and investing arm of Bajaj Finserv is offering Digital Health EMI Network Card to make healthcare finance affordable and hassle-free. This fully digital card requires no paperwork, has a 1 click process for instant activation, and offers up to Rs.4 lakhs as financing. Customers can now split medical bills into No Cost EMIs and repay conveniently over the course of up to 24 months. Since the Digital Health EMI Network Card is available on the Bajaj Finserv Wallet app, accessing it is as easy as unlocking a phone. Customers can get it now in just 5 minutes, backed by a paperless, zero documentation process using simply a mobile number and OTP. Using the pre-approved finance, customers can access top-notch medical care from over 5,500 lifecare partners, spread across more than 1,000 cities in India. With over 800 treatments covered by the Digital Health EMI Network Card, accessing medical services has now become easier than ever. Here's how this full digital card has transformed healthcare financing. Pay healthcare fees effortlessly with credit of up to Rs.4 lakhs The Digital Health EMI Network Card offers EMI financing of up to Rs.4 lakhs for all kinds of medical expenses. From surgery and specialised treatments to diagnostic tests and medication, customers can use it as their discretion. Since the card can be availed instantly online, customers can use it to address urgent medical needs and emergencies stress-free. 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The card can be used across cities at partner institutions, no matter where the customer signs up for it. This advantage of a fully digital card makes it easy to get medical aid no matter where. How to get a Digital Health EMI Network Card Existing Bajaj Finserv customers can enjoy instant digital activation of the Digital EMI Network Card. These are the steps to get the card: Apply online and enter the registered mobile number Enter the OTP sent for verification View the pre-approved offer Pay the one-time fee of Rs.707 Access your instantly activated card through the Bajaj Finserv Wallet App In this way, customers benefit from: Zero paperwork Zero documentation Instant approval A digital card that is activated in 5 minutes New customers can also get a Health EMI Network Card through a partner hospital, clinic, or medical centre when availing treatment. With fully digital healthcare financing that customers can get quickly and conveniently, compromise or delay when it comes to healthcare has become a thing of the past. Customers can check their pre-approved offer to expedite the process of converting their medical expenses to affordable EMIs and have one less thing to worry about. About Bajaj Finance Limited: Bajaj Finance Limited, the lending company of Bajaj Finserv group, is one of the most diversified NBFCs in the Indian market catering to more than 36 million customers across the country. Headquartered in Pune, the company's product offering includes Consumer Durable Loans, Lifestyle Finance, Digital Product Finance, Personal Loans, Loan against Property, Small Business Loans, Home loans, Credit Cards, Two-wheeler and Three-wheeler Loans, Commercial lending/SME Loans, Loan against Securities and Rural Finance which includes Gold Loans and Vehicle Refinancing Loans along with Fixed Deposits. Bajaj Finance Limited prides itself on holding the highest credit rating of FAAA/Stable for any NBFC in the country today. It is also the only NBFC in India with the international 'BBB' with stable outlook for long-term, by S&P Global Rating. To know more, please visit: https://www.bajajfinserv. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 01:39:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Delegates attend a ceremony as the Chinese community in Britain donates protective medical gowns in London, Britain, April 20, 2020. Amid growing concern over the personal protective equipment (PPE) shortage for the frontline medical staff, the Chinese community in Britain donated 30,000 protective medical gowns to the National Health Service (NHS) on Monday. The initiative "We Care NHS", spearheaded by the London Chinatown Chinese Association (LCCA) and Zhejiang UK Association, gathers support and donations from more than a hundred Chinese community groups and individuals across the country since late March. The consignment of 30,000 medical gowns were handed over to Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust on Monday and about 70,000 surgical masks and other equipments are on their way, according to a press release of the British Chinese Community Group. (Photo by Zhang Ping/Xinhua) LONDON, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Amid growing concern over the personal protective equipment (PPE) shortage for the frontline medical staff, the Chinese community in Britain donated 30,000 protective medical gowns to the National Health Service (NHS) on Monday. The initiative "We Care NHS", spearheaded by the London Chinatown Chinese Association (LCCA) and Zhejiang UK Association, gathers support and donations from more than a hundred Chinese community groups and individuals across the country since late March. The consignment of 30,000 medical gowns were handed over to Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust on Monday and about 70,000 surgical masks and other equipments are on their way, according to a press release of the British Chinese Community Group. "As a token of thanks, this batch of 30,000 gowns represents the hearts and minds of more than a hundred Chinese community groups and individuals, who would like to show appreciation to the NHS in the pandemic, and to help in any way to protect the NHS staff in their selfless endeavour to save lives and beat the virus," Chu Ting Tang, president of the LCCA, said at the handover ceremony. David Lawson, chief procurement officer for Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are pleased to confirm receipt of 30,000 protective gowns, essential and timely for our work fighting COVID-19, and to thank for Chinese community's this generous donation." The initiative runs concurrently with another donation organized by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the UK for the Lord Mayor's Appeal, the official charity of City of London, which received 1.862 million items of medical supplies including 20 ventilators on April 8. By the last weekend, more than 4 million pieces of PPE and ventilators have been donated by the Chinese businesses, the Chinese community groups and individuals to the NHS and local care homes in London, Birmingham and many other parts of the country, said the British Chinese Community Group, which is comprised of more than 150 members and over 100 donors ranging from community associations to individuals across Britain. At least 215 people were arrested in the city on Tuesday for defying lockdown norms and not wearing masks while stepping outside, police said. Till noon, 131 people were held for deliberate violation of the safety restrictions, and another 84 for not wearing masks, a senior police officer said. The arrests were made by the Kolkata Police during checking at barricades and while patrolling across the metropolis, he said. Four vehicles have also been impounded, police added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At present, 152 citizens of Ukraine are receiving coronavirus treatment in different countries As of the evening of April 20, 152 Ukrainians with COVID-19 were being treated abroad. Overall, 50 Ukrainians have already recovered. It was reported on "Coronavirus in the world - operationally from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine" Facebook page. Thus, at present, 152 citizens of Ukraine are being treated from COVID-19 in different countries, in particular, the highest number is in Italy - 121 and in the Czech Republic - six. It should be noted that 50 Ukrainians have already recovered abroad, but seven have died so far. As we reported earlier, according to Ukraine's Healthcare Minister Maksym Stepanov, the Italian side asked to extend the Ukrainian doctors' business trip to Italy, which was supposed to be two weeks, until April 25. "Indeed, the business trip was supposed to last two weeks, but there was an appeal from the Italian side to extend for another week, that is, until April 25, the stay of our medical workers in Italy," he said. It was stated that the decision had been agreed with the doctors themselves. Instead of saving the seers, the policemen handed them over to the crowd and saved themselves Bhopal: BJP vice president Uma Bharti on Tuesday urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to register a case of murder against the policemen who failed to save three men, including two seers, from being lynched by a mob in Palghar district. In a letter to Thackeray, the former Union minister termed the lynching of seers as a great sin and said she was observing a one-day fast on Tuesday to repent the incident. She said all those found guilty of the crime should be punished. "I request that you (Thackeray) punish the murderers, including all the police personnel, otherwise you will also be a partner to this sin," Bharti said in the letter. She said the "helpless sadhus were holding hands of policemen and pleading for protection". "But instead of saving the seers, the policemen handed them over to the crowd and saved themselves. The policemen are also accused of killing. A case should be registered against them under IPC section 302 (murder). If they wanted, they could have saved the seers by firing in the air, she said. Bharti said she will visit the incident site after the lockdown is lifted. "I am observing fast at my residence in Bhopal today for atonement, and I have appealed to the sadhu samaj to observe a day-long fast while staying at their places," the BJP leader said in the letter. She said the killing of the great sadhus by a mob in Palghar is a heinous crime in terms of law, but a great sin in the eyes of religion. The incident took place on the night of April 16 when three men - two seers and their driver - were going from Mumbai in a car towards Surat in Gujarat to attend a funeral. Their vehicle was stopped near a village in Palghar district where the three were dragged out of the car and beaten to death with sticks by a mob on suspicion that they were child-lifters. The deceased were identified as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushilgiri Maharaj (35), and driver Nilesh Telgade (30). The Maharashtra government earlier ordered a high- level probe into the incident, and two policemen from Palghar were suspended on Monday for alleged dereliction of duty. Palghar Police have arrested over 110 people in connection with the incident. A prominent Dublin doctor has resigned from a medical board over the Government's handling of the coronavirus crisis in nursing homes. Nursing homes are now the frontline of the battle against the virus. Almost two-thirds of the deaths from the virus are residents of long-stay centres. Dr Marcus de Brun has described the management of the crisis as "the biggest political blunder in the history of the Irish State". The GP has run the Rush Family Practice in Co Dublin since 2010. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He also holds a degree in microbiology. The doctor was appointed by Health Minister Simon Harris to the board of the Medical Council two years ago after being nominated by GPs for the role. He has now resigned from the board in protest at the lack of focus on nursing homes. Dr de Brun says the strategy to isolate the entire population means those most at risk have "featured as something of an afterthought". Expand Close Health Minister Simon Harris / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Health Minister Simon Harris "Unquestionably the most vulnerable cohort of patients in Ireland are those residents of nursing homes. This fact should have been entirely obvious to all involved in the management of the crisis. "Most of these individuals are of course elderly and most have significant underlying health conditions. Nursing home residents cannot or could not be expected to avail of the same measures applied to the general public," he wrote in an article criticising the handling of the crisis. Dr de Brun says their needs and care were only considered at a ministerial level in late March, long after the arrival of the virus in late February. Control "It beggars belief, and remains an evolving tragedy, that these vulnerable people were not considered as the first priority for the State, rather than being the last to be considered," he wrote. There are 455 private nursing homes and 120 HSE-run facilities across the country and 248 of these have residents and staff who are infected. In a bid to bring the infection under control, a plan to test all residents and staff in long-term facilities has started and around 4,000 were tested in recent days. Nursing homes, which are suffering staff shortages, are also being supported by workers redeployed from the public system and other HSE-funded agencies while also getting enhanced clinical and infection control expertise, the HSE says. Nursing Homes Ireland has been involved in a spat with Mr Harris over funding. The organisation says it remains shocked an express commitment to oversee further talks about a package of resources for the sector was abandoned. Officials published "a flawed scheme" which excludes supports for approximately 5,000 residents in nursing homes, where residents are not supported by Fair Deal. The scheme excludes all other residents accommodated for respite, transitional care or who self-pay for care in nursing homes, the body says. Mr Harris has defended the scheme and the Government's record on managing the outbreak in nursing homes. He says "lots of efforts" have been undertaken in residential facilities to slow the spread of the virus. Resignation The Department of Health says Mr Harris understands a member of the Medical Council has, in recent days, indicated his intention to tender his resignation. "To date, notice of this resignation has not been received and in these circumstances it would not be appropriate to comment further," the department said. "The council plays an import role in public protection by promoting high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training and competence among doctors. "The minister is grateful to all council members for their efforts and commitment to this role." The Medical Council said Dr de Brun resigned for "personal reasons". Two members of the council resigned. Alison Lindsay resigned on health grounds. Medical Council president Dr Rita Doyle thanked both Ms Lindsay and Dr de Brun for their contributions since their appointments and wished them well in the future. The process for filling the two vacancies will be carried out in conjunction with the Public Appointments Service. The Medical Council is made up of 25 members, 13 lay and 12 medical. It has a statutory role in protecting the public by promoting the highest professional standards among doctors. The coronavirus is touching all levels of society and increasing tensions as governments start to ease restrictions that health experts warn should be done gradually to avoid a resurgence of the illness that has killed more than 165,000 people. The mounting pressure was evident in the United States. The Trump administration says parts of the nation are ready to begin a gradual return to normalcy. Yet some state leaders say woefully inadequate federal action, like a lack of testing supplies, is hindering their response to the illness. After insisting the country's virus testing system was without fault, President Donald Trump said Sunday evening he would be using the Defense Production Act to compel increased manufacturing of testing swabs. He also remained defensive, however, vowing that there were enough swabs to go around. "Swabs are easy," the president said, bringing one to his news briefing and waving it in front of reporters. Trump also defended protests by his supporters, who have been gathered to demand state governors lift controls on public activity that were meant to stop the spread of the virus. The president has invoked their rallying cry and said Sunday night, "these people love our country. They want to go back to work." Australias second-biggest airline, Virgin Australia, collapsed on Tuesday, putting 16,000 jobs under threat as the cash-strapped carrier announced that it entered voluntary administration to recapitalise the business after being battered by the coronavirus pandemic, which has crippled the global airline industry Melbourne: Australias second-biggest airline, Virgin Australia, collapsed on Tuesday, putting 16,000 jobs under threat as the cash-strapped carrier announced that it entered voluntary administration to recapitalise the business after being battered by the coronavirus pandemic, which has crippled the global airline industry. The move came after the airline, which suspended almost all flights last month following wide-spread travel bans, failed to secure A$1.4 billion ($887.60 million) loan from the federal government. In a statement, Virgin Australia said the group has entered into voluntary administration to recapitalise the business and help ensure it emerges in a strong financial position on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis. The groups board of directors has appointed accounting firm Deloitte as voluntary administrators. Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah said COVID-19 had triggered the worst aviation crisis in history. The events of the past 24 hours have been incredibly challenging for the wonderful people of the Virgin Australia Group, he said. It has been a necessary decision made by our board, brought on by an unprecedented global pandemic, COVID-19. This is not just something that is hurting Virgin Australia. We know its hurting the industry globally and is the worst aviation crisis weve ever seen in our history. Were not immune to that. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak Our board made a very courageous decision last night to put the company into voluntary administration and do so quickly, with the intent of working with our administrator, Deloitte, to come through and be as strong as we possibly can on the other side of this crisis. Well come back leaner, stronger and fitter, and play our role in making sure that the economy of Australia - which is currently devastated by the impact of COVID-19 - recovers as quickly as it possibly can for all Australians, he added. Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group, which owns a 10-per cent stake in the airline, issued a statement warning that if the airline in Australia disappears, Qantas would effectively have a monopoly of the Australian skies. He also tweeted a message in support of the Virgin Australia team. "I am so proud of you and everything we have achieved together," he said. "This is not the end of Virgin Australia, but I believe a new beginning. I promise we will work day and night to turn this into reality." Virgin Australia employs about 10,000 people directly and supports about 6,000 other jobs indirectly. Last month, almost 8,000 employees were asked to stand down temporarily until at least the end of May and take leave without pay. The airline suspended its international flights post COVID-19 and currently flies only one domestic service between Sydney and Melbourne. Its subsidiary Tigerair Australia has shut all routes currently. Administrator Vaughan Strawbridge from Deloitte said several parties had expressed interest in the business and they were "progressing well on some immediate steps", the ABC News reported. He said it would take about three weeks to assesses more than 10 expressions of interest that had come through, and the whole process would be over within "two to three months". Strawbridge said he did not plan to make any of the airline's 10,000 employees redundant, but how many aircraft it kept, and how many routes it continued to fly on, would not be clear until the new owners took over, the daily said. The national airlines Qantas has also grounded its international fleets and slashed domestic routes. Qantas has temporarily stood down 20,000 of its workers. First Minister Arlene Foster has said the original worst case scenario of 15,000 deaths in Northern Ireland due to coronavirus struck terror into her and while she praised the public for helping to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases, added now was not the time to relax. Nine further people have died as a result of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 216. Detailing how Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots had allowed forest parks to be reopened to people who live nearby, she warned that any abuse of the relaxation would not be tolerated. We are not out of the woods, nor would we seek to make a dash for the exit, she said. To do so would be foolish and would risk a second wave which would undo all of the good work that we have collectively been involved in over the past few weeks. We have worked very hard to map out a road to recovery to support every part of society, she added. It will be graduated, one step at a time, implemented at the right time. Mrs Foster also said she is concerned about people not attending emergency departments because of Covid-19. If you feel unwell you should definitely attend a hospital or a GP. We recognise that there are non-covid healthcare issues that we will need to discuss with the health minister. It is an ongoing problem that I am concerned about, she said. We are not out of the woods, nor would we seek to make a dash for the exit Arlene Foster Mrs Foster and deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill also addressed the division between Northern Irelands political parties on whether to reopen cemeteries amid the coronavirus pandemic. I do fully recognise and we all sympathise with the many distressed constituents who have made contact right across the political spectrum who have not been able to maintain graves or visit graves as a result of the regulations, said Mrs Foster. Much has been said on the negative impact from lockdown on peoples mental health and anguish. I think that this is a very good example of that. We are not just dealing with the direct harm caused by Covid-19- we come here every day and talk about the number of lives lost tot his but we also have to acknowledge the wider harm that is going on is society as a result of Covid-19. She said further discussions will take place at Executive but her view was that cemeteries should be re-opened with social distancing rules. Mrs ONeill said she said recognise the sensitivities of the issue but warned against the re-opening of cemeteries. We still are in a pandemic, she said. Yesterday 90 people across this island lost their lives. In the north nine people lost their lives. We are not out the other side of this yet. So we have to focus very much on the public health message, which is to stay at home. Restrictions will only be lifted when it is safe to do so. This is for the public interest. Ultimately this is still about saving lives, she added. Small companies across the UK are unable to access the Governments 12bn grants fund for small firms because of an anomaly in its design. The Government established the Small Business Grant Fund last month offering one-off 10,000 grants to firms operating from properties that are eligible for small business rate relief. The purpose of the grant is to help small firms cope with the often disastrous impact of the state-ordered anti-Covid-19 lockdown on their sales. But many small firms operate from properties where the landlord handles any business rate charges or relief claims on their behalf, leaving the firms themselves unable to claim the local council-administered grant. This is totally perverse, said Kevin Cunliffe who runs a printing company called Smart Fleet Media in Warrington, Cheshire. We pay business rates through our rent and receive nothing. Identical small firms that claim business rates relief and pay no business rates receive 10,000. Colin Stracey who runs a sailing school in Essex called Premier Sailing rents a small office space in the Fambridge marina and finds himself in the same situation. When I first heard there was a grant I thought thats brilliant, this will help us survive without taking out a loan, he says. But when Mr Stacey made inquiries he was told the company was ineligible because it did not claim business rates relief directly. When I realised I couldnt get it I did think about expletives, he says. When The Independent put these cases to the Department for Business a spokesperson suggested that such companies should try to ask landlords to claim the grants and pass them on. Yet often the properties that these landlords run are subdivided into many units and the overall estate has a rateable value that is higher than the threshold for claiming the grant, making them ineligible in any case. The retail estate adviser Altus estimates that there are 1.16 million micro businesses in the UK with between 1 to 9 employees. But there are only around 720,000 properties liable for business rates relief or reduced rates. Small companies without physical business premises such as those that are run from peoples homes are also ineligible. That means that potentially hundreds of thousands of small firms are missing out on the grants. The Government had to act decisively and quickly to help with the liquidity of small business and the business rates system offered a simple mechanism for that, said Robert Hayton, Altuss head of UK business rates. This simplicity has created some anomalies leaving certain types of business behind. The Federation of Small Businesses acknowledged the anomaly in the grant scheme and suggested landlords should offer financial support to their struggling tenants who are unable to claim the grant. Landlords must play their part at this time of national emergency, said the Federations chairman Mike Cherry, Wed remind struggling small firms that they have eviction protection and, if struggling, should speak to their landlord about rent holidays or deferrals. A Business Department spokesperson did not address the anomaly or say that action would be taken to close it, but stressed the other financial support the Government was offering to small firms. Businesses must be ratepayers on a property in order to be eligible for Small Business Grants, which are designed to assist them with ongoing fixed costs, the spokesperson said. We are providing further support by paying 80 per cent of wages for furloughed workers to deferring VAT payments until the end of June. The Treasury has given 12.3bn to local authorities in England to distribute as part of the grant scheme. As of 20 April 6.1bn had been paid out to some 490,000 business properties, according to published data. Small companies are eligible to use the governments furlough scheme, whereby 80 per cent of the wages of employees will be covered. Some 140,000 companies applied on Monday when the scheme opened. Small firms are also able to apply for 12 month interest free loans from private banks which have an 80 per cent state guarantee, although many report difficulties accessing these liquidity lines. According to UK Finance, which represents lenders, as of 14 April, only 6,000 loans had been made, despite 28,000 formal applications and more than 130,000 inquiries. The small business grant scheme was first unveiled by the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, in the 11 March Budget. The size of the individual grant available was increased from 3,000 to 10,000 on 17 March. On that later date the Chancellor said: The interventions I am setting out today will help support businesses of all sizes so they can continue operating during these unprecedented times. Yeah I have pretty good hair thanks to the South Asian-ness. I recently donated 18 inches so it's too 'short' for my liking atm (comes to just under my shoulders) but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it. Reply Parent Thread Link u lucky!!!! not all of us are blessed :( Reply Parent Thread Link i cut my own hair last week and i completely fucked it up lmao. but i have curly hair so i think i can hide it better until it grows back. also can we talk about andrew scheer being a complete idiot and still wanting parliament to meet 3x a week just so he can get TV time. Reply Thread Link also can we talk about andrew scheer being a complete idiot and still wanting parliament to meet 3x a week just so he can get TV time. I sincerely don't understand wtf he was trying to do. Like literally all the other parties were like "Please don't do this it's a pandemic you are literally endangering people." Did he think he was taking a brave stand or something? We have the ability to go virtual! And dragging this petty shit out on a day of national tragedy on top of a global tragedy was really something else. Reply Parent Thread Link i don't get it. he needs to take his L and realize that he couldn't beat trudeau and just be quiet until his party picks a new leader. his weird "gotcha!" moments are so dumb lmao Reply Parent Thread Expand Link He's such a turd lol Reply Parent Thread Link It looked cute for exactly 20 minutes before becoming a poofy helmet. My hair is natural and it stays LAIDT when I get it professionally done, but it laughs in the face of my home flat-iron. I tried and failed to do own silk wrap It looked cute for exactly 20 minutes before becoming a poofy helmet. My hair is natural and it stays LAIDT when I get it professionally done, but it laughs in the face of my home flat-iron. Reply Parent Thread Link I dont understand why he wont go away!! Thank GOD he didnt get elected. Reply Parent Thread Link My motivation behind cutting off my mullet: curls. Reply Parent Thread Link he knew what he was doing Reply Thread Link Wo dis, opah? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I have nice weaves and wigs. Reply Thread Link I wish my hair was full still. I lost so much over the past years and idk if it's because I'm stressed, my seborrheic derm, or I just have hair loss genes somewhere. It just sucks cuz hair means so much to Indian people and I'm losing it!!! Reply Thread Link Washing one day with t gel and one day with head & shoulders helped me getting rid of it Reply Parent Thread Link Really? I think I'll try t-gel. My doctor told me to not use H&S because it might be adding to the hair loss because its harsh. I just don't know anymore. Reply Parent Thread Link The medicated shampoo is usually corticosteroid. You'll go treatment for like 2 weeks to a month, depending on the severity and they'll give you an alternate shampoo. I basically alternate between 3 medicated shampoos, 2 of which are safe to use frequently. The corticosteroid is only used when needed as to not let your body develop immunity against it. The shampoo is Clobex. My alternates are Scalpex and Climbac (these are what you can use frequently). Another one that I use is Ginger shampoo for men, it should work wonders with you. But I would heavily suggest to use one that is going to be your everyday. The ones I mentioned above should be used sparingly. Ginger shampoo (can be frequently used, but I don't recommend it everyday as your body will grow immune to it): https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-us/hair/shampoo/ginger-scalp-care-shampoo/p/p002450?text=Ginger+Scalp+Care+Shampoo&autosuggest=Ginger+Scalp+Care+Shampoo&typed=ginger Climbac - it seems to be not on US. But the ingredient is Climbazole. Clobex - Ketoconazole (Scalpex)- I haven't tried T-Gel, but I heard it's very dangerous when used frequently. It's linked to cancer. These shampoos when rotated, changed my life. But please consult your doctor as you may need prescriptions, at least, for the corticosteroid one. I've also been experiencing some hair thinning/loss myself and I have seb derm. My dermatologist said it's either stress or genetic. But my dermatologist is suggesting alternating these two hair treatments every other night: Autrich and Folimax. One for hair loss, one for hair growth stimulation. It takes months for it to take effect, but I've been using it infrequently nowadays due to lockdown and I don't want to run out of them. Also, I've been doing efforts to take vitamin D as much as possible. Sunlight, fish oil supplements and eating fish/seafood. It should also help with it. Edited at 2020-04-21 07:25 am (UTC) Girl, Seb Derm should be manageable. I used to have really itchy cases for years until I consulted a dermatologist about it and prescribed me a medicated shampoo. It really disappeared for some time. Since it's chronic, you will never get rid of it. I still get it from time to time, but the itchiness got reduced about 98%. But it's there on your scalp on some cases.The medicated shampoo is usually corticosteroid. You'll go treatment for like 2 weeks to a month, depending on the severity and they'll give you an alternate shampoo.I basically alternate between 3 medicated shampoos, 2 of which are safe to use frequently. The corticosteroid is only used when needed as to not let your body develop immunity against it.The shampoo is Clobex. My alternates are Scalpex and Climbac (these are what you can use frequently). Another one that I use is Ginger shampoo for men, it should work wonders with you. But I would heavily suggest to use one that is going to be your everyday. The ones I mentioned above should be used sparingly.Ginger shampoo (can be frequently used, but I don't recommend it everyday as your body will grow immune to it):Climbac - it seems to be not on US. But the ingredient is Climbazole.Clobex - https://www.drugs.com/pro/clobex-shampoo.html or refer to the generic name. The MVP for me. It's the medicine you take for seb derm basically. The rest of the shampoos are maintenance of if you have mild flare ups.Ketoconazole (Scalpex)- https://www.ndrugs.com/?s=scalpex it's similar to Nizoral.I haven't tried T-Gel, but I heard it's very dangerous when used frequently. It's linked to cancer.These shampoos when rotated, changed my life. But please consult your doctor as you may need prescriptions, at least, for the corticosteroid one.I've also been experiencing some hair thinning/loss myself and I have seb derm. My dermatologist said it's either stress or genetic. But my dermatologist is suggesting alternating these two hair treatments every other night:Autrich and Folimax. One for hair loss, one for hair growth stimulation. It takes months for it to take effect, but I've been using it infrequently nowadays due to lockdown and I don't want to run out of them.Also, I've been doing efforts to take vitamin D as much as possible. Sunlight, fish oil supplements and eating fish/seafood. It should also help with it. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link seb derm is a mf and im sorry you deal with it, too Reply Parent Thread Link I believe I have seborrheic derm as well (can't get an official diagnosis since I can't see a dermatologist at the moment) and it sucks. I've lost so much hair, it's really embarrassing and it's affects my face as well. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Ugh I'm desi too and I've lost a lot of hair over the last few years to stress. It sucks, I really feel a lost sense of identity as silly as it sounds, so I totally feel you :( Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Same:( It really bums me out because I used to have really nice and thick hair. Reply Parent Thread Link I am Indian as well. I was diagnosed with PCOS and it made all of my hair loss make sense. Have you ever been tested for PCOS? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Stress has thinned out my hair a lot, I wouldn't really care but I'm surrounded by people with thick long Indian hair, all my friends, relatives.. and then there's me lol I feel like an anomaly Reply Parent Thread Link This is me. I used to have enough hair for three people. I went vegetarian and lost a manageable amount and it was perfect: thick, wavy, and easily styled. Now, it has been consistently falling out for months. This is the least amount of hair I've ever had and I want to cry. It's also become oily for no reason? All the research I find says it's "stress" which is bullshit. As soon as COVID is done, I'll be heading to the dermatologist, endocrinologist, witch-doctor, etc. to get my hair back! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Ketoconazole is clutch. Get some Biotin Forte and some generic rogaine. Reply Parent Thread Link lmao what is this harlequin purple prose i'm reading about a world leader right now Reply Thread Link Is our OP looking into a new career shift into romance novels after having the month to reflect in quarantine Reply Parent Thread Link lol @ the sax playing over the clip Reply Thread Link That was the best! Reply Parent Thread Link He's got nice hair but I was expecting a Charlie Angel's-like flip~ LOL irl at the music!!He's got nice hair but I was expecting a Charlie Angel's-like flip~ Reply Thread Link lmao same, with "hair flip" in the title I was expecting something much more dramatic Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah they had me at the build up and then it was too anticlimatic! Reply Parent Thread Link I was totally expecting an 80s skater boy no-handed hair flip. I am disappoint. Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah same. He tepidly pushed it off his forehead. Reply Parent Thread Link Since this is a politics post, can we discuss the reporting the Kim Jong Un is in 'grave condition' after a heart surgery? Because whoa. Reply Thread Link i just saw that like what in the fuck Reply Parent Thread Link What will happen if he dies? /Uninformed Reply Parent Thread Link His sister is next in line, but like.... idk! NK (especially its military) doesn't strike me as a society that would super love having a woman as dictator. So like.... IDK. I'm wondering if other people high up in government might try to jockey for control. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link who operated on him? Reply Parent Thread Link His entire surgical team and their families will mysteriously disappear Reply Parent Thread Link if he dies things are going to get even more fucked and that's saying something Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I'm seeing brain dead which is a big .-. Reply Parent Thread Link he's so young! that's wild. but also that American kid fell into a coma almost immediately after his prison sentence began there so I guess things like this shouldn't be wholly surprising Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Now Yonhap is saying he's fine. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link South Korea is saying they have no reports of that being true. Who knows! Reply Parent Thread Link 2020 really just going balls to the wall Reply Parent Thread Link Damn this has been a wild year Reply Parent Thread Link This is super weird timing because just yesterday I read a profile on his sister who is like his #2. Honestly, would not be shocked. He has been in incredibly poor health for years. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link wow Reply Parent Thread Link If it ends up being true and he dies can you imagine the adoration Trump is gonna send his way? He'd 100% go to his funeral and shit. Gonna be a mess. Reply Parent Thread Link holy shit. Reply Parent Thread Link I am legit on edge about this!!! Reply Parent Thread Link I'm interested in what heart surgery a 36 year old needed? Unless it was an adult surgery for a childhood issue that was never dealt with . . . . Reply Parent Thread Expand Link might be totally unrelated to kim jong un's current health predicament but I'm so so curious as to how coronavirus is impacting north korea Reply Parent Thread Link I'm cackling Reply Parent Thread Link because he's worth it. Reply Parent Thread Link Lol all these background music choices are so hilarious and perfect Reply Parent Thread Link Suddenly had the urge to move to Canada. Reply Parent Thread Link lmao this was lowkey kind of attractive but WOW he looks like that youtuber nick robinson Reply Parent Thread Link lmao he ain't shit but I love a man with nice hair Reply Parent Thread Link I am a SUCKER for nice hair. When Trudeau actually speaks in English I find him really cheesy and I don't feel charmed or attracted to him. But when I watch him without sound, or watch him in French, or see clips like THIS?????? HOOOOOOOOOO BOYYYYYYYYYY. I refuse to date any man with hair less amazing than his, I am sorry. Reply Parent Thread Link I would like to learn more about his hair routine. Reply Parent Thread Link LMFAO Reply Parent Thread Link I go back and forth between wanting to care for my hair properly and wanting to shave it all off, eyebrows included. Reply Thread Link Mood. Mine just ends up in a messy bun 99.9% of the time because of this Reply Parent Thread Link he reminds me of cartoon Aladdin with this hair Reply Thread Link didn't he dress up in brown face as Aladdin? Reply Parent Thread Link i don't like him or his politics at all and my american cousins thirsting after him makes me want to die. and my hair is fine? i've always felt insecure about my hair because lbr it's brown and until i grew it out again (after buzzing it and/or keeping it short for 5+ years) it was super straight but now it's wavy with a slight curl??? idk Reply Thread Link I would love to blame this foolishness on the quarantine but this is not the first time a white man running his finger through his hair has got people in a tizzy. Fuck love, yall need to tolerate yourselves. Reply Thread Link ' tolerate ' haahahhaahah Reply Parent Thread Link Bengal govt not cooperating claims central team on COVID-19 India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Kolkata, Apr 21: A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed she was kept in "dark" about the visit of central teams to assess the Covid-19 situation, the leader of one of the panels claimed the state government is not extending adequate cooperation. The central government has constituted six Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) to make an on-spot assessment of the Covid-19 situation in these places and issue necessary directions to the four states -- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal -- for redress. PM, Amit Shah must explain: Mamata Banerjee on COVID-19 teams in Bengal The Union home ministry said on Monday morning the Covid-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and that the violation of lockdown measures risk the spread of the novel coronavirus. Apurva Chandra, the leader of one of the two teams sent to the state, claimed its members were told they "will not be going out" on Tuesday. Chandra, an Additional secretary in the defence ministry, said, "We have been deployed by the central government and our order of deployment says that the state government is to provide logistic(al) support to us... I have been in touch with the chief secretary and seeking his support since the time I landed here. "I had also met him yesterday. But today we have been informed that there are some issues so we are not going out today. The chief secretary is likely to visit us and we will again hold a meeting with him," he told a TV news channel. Chandra said the team had made it clear that it would be moving out with state government officers in order to make the visit more productive. "But now it is more than one day and we have only visited NICED (an ICMR facility) and the state secretariat only," he said. West Bengal govt accuses ICMR-NICED for providing defective COVID-19 test kits Banerjee had on Monday expressed her displeasure in a series of tweets and sought to know the rationale behind the formation of central teams to visit the states. She urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to share with her the criteria to be followed by the teams for the assessment of the situation, without which her government "would not be able to move ahead". Korea bears brunt of global economic tsunami The coronavirus pandemic has begun to take its toll on South Korea as its exports plunged this month. According to the Korea Customs Service, the country's overseas shipments nosedived 26.9 percent to $21.7 billion in the first 20 days of April from a year ago. This figure appears to be a prelude to a further setback to export-oriented industries and the overall economy. The steep shrinkage in exports is in contrast to the mere 0.2 percent in March. This indicates Asia's fourth-largest economy is just starting to feel the crippling impact of the global public health crisis. Even worse, the country's exports are expected to tumble by well over 40 percent for the entire month of April. The spread of COVID-19 is showing signs of a slowdown as new daily infections are now leveling off worldwide. But the problem is that the global economy is likely to suffer its worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Lockdowns and quarantines have caused disruptions in global supply chains with the world economy grinding to a halt. Thus it is inevitable for Korea to see its exports contract further, dealing a severe blow to the economy. The data showed that the country's major export industries are sustaining a sharp fall in their overseas shipments due to decreasing global demand. Exports of semiconductors, a key item, dropped 14.9 percent and those of automobiles fell 28.5 percent during the April 1 to 20 period. Shipments of mobile devices and auto parts plummeted 30.7 percent and 49.8 percent, respectively. Those of petrochemical products tumbled 53.5 percent. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted in its World Economic Outlook report last week that the Korean economy will contract 1.2 percent, a milder setback compared with a 3-percent contraction for the global economy. Yet, the country is feared to see a steeper economic shrinkage if its exports continue on a downward spiral for an extended period. Also worrisome is that Korea's exports to its major trading partners fell conspicuously. Shipments to China and the U.S. declined 17 percent and 17.5 percent, respectively. Those to the European Union shrank 32.6 percent and those to Vietnam plunged 39.5 percent. The Moon Jae-in administration and the ruling party have vowed to work hard for an economic recovery after winning a landslide victory in the April 15 general election. Policymakers should not forget that the country cannot avoid an economic recession without reversing the export contraction. The government has already decided to extend 36 trillion won ($29 billion) in export financing to corporations. But the sum is insufficient. It is, therefore, necessary to provide more financial and administrative support to boost overseas shipments. Most of all, the authorities should help the auto, shipbuilding, petrochemical and other key industries ride out difficulties arising from the economic shock. They must mobilize all available means, including deregulation and innovation as well as relief packages, to increase exports and prop up the economy. State leadership has action plan for gradual stimulation of economy after peak of disease incidence Ukrainian president's advisor State leadership has action plan for gradual stimulation of economy after peak of disease incidence Ukrainian president's advisor KYIV. April 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) The state leadership has an action plan for gradual stimulation of the economy, Advisor to the President of Ukraine on Economics Oleh Ustenko has said during a webinar with the participation of Ukrainian businessmen on Monday. "It will be implemented step by step as soon as we overcome the peak of disease incidence," the press service of the Office of the President quoted him as saying. Ustenko also said that one of the ways to overcome unemployment in Ukraine is stimulation of small businesses and individual entrepreneurs as this sector will require government's assistance after the crisis. "The stimulation of a growth in number of jobs is more effective than payment of unemployment benefits to these people," he said. The advisor also said that by initiative of President Volodymyr Zelensky the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has presented its first programs that will help to preserve jobs and provide financial aid for further activities. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Megan Rowling (Reuters) Barcelona, Spain Tue, April 21, 2020 14:01 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd348ea8 2 Entertainment idris-elba,fundraising,coronavirus,COVID-19,United-Nations Free British actor and filmmaker Idris Elba launched a new United Nations fund on Monday to help farmers in poorer nations, calling on richer economies to provide aid to prevent "needless hunger and suffering" stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. Elba and his wife, model and activist Sabrina Dhowre Elba, gave their support to a fund set up by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), to help stop economic shocks caused by COVID-19 triggering a global food crisis. The couple, who were also designated on Monday as goodwill ambassadors for IFAD, contracted the virus themselves in March although reportedly only suffered mild symptoms. "The world's advanced economies are in the midst of this pandemic right now and, of course, they must do everything they can to help their own people," said Elba, 47, in a statement. "But the fact is, global action is also a matter of self-interest. As long as the pandemic is still raging anywhere, it will pose a threat everywhere," he added, urging donors to ramp up financial support to keep rural food systems operating. IFAD, a UN agency that promotes rural development, said it would put $40 million into the new fund to counter the effects of the pandemic on food production, market access and employment in developing countries. It also aims to raise at least $200 million more from governments, foundations and the private sector. In December Elba and his wife visited rural Sierra Leone, where IFAD provided financial services to communities hit by Ebola. Since the coronavirus began to spread in developing nations, IFAD has been finding ways to help rural families - many of them poor farmers - deal with the deadly disease's ripple effects. In eastern Senegal, where a curfew and market closures make it hard to sell produce or livestock, the agency is supporting cash transfers and subsidies via smartphones, and distributing seeds and fertilizers ahead of the planting season. In India's Odisha state, it has worked with local authorities to get watermelons transported to markets, avoiding the loss of 600 tonnes of fruit due to COVID-19 restrictions. IFAD President Gilbert F. Houngbo, who was raised in rural Togo, West Africa, said farmers were worried about losing their income during the pandemic as lockdown measures in many places could stop them selling crops and buying seeds and fertilizers. He warned if this happened, progress in the fight against poverty could be upended for the first time in three decades. "What we are talking about is the risk of a health crisis creating a food crisis," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "(But) I think we have to go even beyond the risk of food insecurity and look at it as we, as a global community, going backwards in the fight against poverty." Tocilizumab, marketed as Actemra, will be given to hundreds of critically ill coronavirus patients in the NHS Hundreds of critically ill coronavirus patients in the NHS will be given an arthritis drug as part of the world's largest trial of promising therapies. Tocilizumab, sold as RoActemra or Actemra, will be administered to patients whose lungs have become severely inflamed due to a dangerous immune reaction caused by the virus. It is hoped the arthritis drug, given via an IV drip, can help to calm the deadly reaction, which sees inflammatory molecules flood the lungs and fill them with fluid. Tocilizumab is the latest drug to be added to the Recovery trial, which is also testing four other promising treatments, including HIV, malaria and antibiotic medications. The trial has already recruited about 6,000 NHS patients in five weeks, making it the largest study looking at repurposing existing therapies to treat the incurable virus. Patients from almost every NHS trust in the country are taking part in the trial, which is being run by Oxford University. Martin Landray, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health at Oxford, told The Times: 'The transition between just having a nasty viral infection and needing ventilation is accompanied by this hyper-inflammatory response. WHAT IS THE RECOVERY TRIAL? More than 6,000 coronavirus patients in the UK have volunteered to take part in a drug trial run by the University of Oxford to find a treatment for COVID-19. The programme is called the RECOVERY Trial (The Randomised Evaluation of COV-id19 thERapY) and is the world's biggest single trial of drugs to treat the coronavirus. The university got the support of Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty and put out a plea to doctors around the country to enrol patients in the voluntary trial. Volunteers have since joined the trial from more than 160 NHS trusts around the country and scientists are hopeful more people will continue to sign up. Medics have not put a number on the amount of people the trial needs in order to be successful but has said the more participants the trial has, the more likely it will be the team will find answers. Participants will receive one of five drugs currently on the market including the anti-malaria drug touted by Donald Trump, known as hydroxychloroquine. The other drugs being looked at as a treatment for COVID-19 include a combination of Lopinavir and Ritonavir (known by the brand name Kaletra), which is used to treat HIV; low-dose Dexamethasone,a steroid used to reduce inflammation; azithromycin, a commonly used antibiotic which may have antiviral properties; and the steroid Tocilizumab. Similar trials are being set up around the world, which run independently to the Recovery Trial, but none have garnered as many participants as the UK programme. Advertisement 'There's good grounds for believing that if we can block that, then this might reduce the risk of going on to ventilation or dying. 'The drug has been used on quite large numbers of people in places like Italy, but it was done willy-nilly so at the end of the day you have no idea whether it did any good, or indeed whether it did any harm.' Tocilizumab works by reducing levels of IL-6 protein in the body, which people with rheumatoid arthritis or another autoimmune conditions have too much of. If there is an abundance of IL-6, it can cause inflammation and damage. Tocilizumab blocks the effects, and has become a go-to for inflammatory disease treatment. It's thought the drug can prevent an overreaction of the immune system seen in some coronavirus patients. Called a 'cytokine storm', the body's immune response can go into overdrive and produce a flood of inflammatory molecules. It releases these molecules into the lungs where the virus has burrowed deep, clogging up the tiny air sacs in the organs and making it hard to breathe. The overreaction of the immune system is considered a major factor behind catastrophic organ failure and death in some coronavirus patients. The Recovery trial will also look at the Donald Trump-touted hydroxychloroquine, the HIV drug lopinavir-ritonavir, the steroid dexamethasone and azithromycin, an antibiotic that may kill off viruses. Medics have not put a number on the amount of people the trial needs in order to be successful but has said the more participants the trial has, the more likely it will be the team will find answers. It comes as the NHS is now asking coronavirus survivors to donate blood in hope of trialing a promising plasma-based therapy on infected patients. Health regulators say the treatment - convalescent plasma - is already approved for British medics to use in tackling COVID-19. NHS Blood and Transplant says it is waiting on approval for a trial of the therapy, to see if it can boost recovery speed and survival odds. People who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies in their blood which can fight the virus. These could help a patient currently ill with the virus. Trials of the therapy are underway worldwide, but British scientists fear the UK has been too slow to adopt it. The NHS is now asking coronavirus survivors to donate blood in hope of trialing a promising plasma-based therapy on infected patients WALES FIRST TO TRY BLOOD THERAPY Wales will be the first in the UK to convalescent plasma therapy (CP) for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Patients at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff will be injected with blood plasma taken from people who have already recovered from the killer infection. Recovered patients are being invited by letter, if eligible, by Public Health Wales to donate blood to the scheme. The plasma will be collected and processed by the Welsh Blood Service from donors who have fully recovered and are virus free. It will be collected no sooner than 28 days after recovery and has to match the established safe blood donor selection criteria. Welsh health authorities are set to collect blood donations and give them to patients in 'the near future'. The Welsh government said the country was 'playing a leading role' in a UK-wide programme to test CP. Senior professional advisor to the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Gill Richardson, said: 'The Welsh Government has worked at speed with our expert scientists at the Welsh Blood Service, the Department of Immunology at University Hospital of Wales, critical care consultants and Public Health Wales to launch this innovative scheme. 'In the absence of any current vaccine or antiviral therapy, it has significant potential to aid the recovery of patients.' UHW is 'at the forefront', in part due to the expertise of its staff, according to Dr Richard Skone, clinical board director for specialist services, the BBC reported. Advertisement Convalescent plasma therapy (CP) was given the green light by medical regulators in the UK in early March in anticipation of the crisis. It means the NHS patients are allowed to receive the treatment, if a trial is set up. But no large-scale trials have begun yet. It's not clear how many British patients have - or could have - benefitted from the treatment so far, but scientists say CP could be the difference between life or death. Health regulators in the US followed the UK to approve CP, but trials are already underway involving more than 1,500 hospitals. NHSBT is now appealing to people who have recovered from COVID-19 to see if their blood can help critically ill patients in the UK. 'NHS Blood and Transplant is preparing to collect COVID-19 convalescent plasma from people who have recovered from this illness,' a spokeswoman said. 'We envisage that this will be initially used in trials as a possible treatment for COVID-19. 'If fully approved, the trials will investigate whether convalescent plasma transfusions could improve a COVID-19 patients speed of recovery and chances of survival,' the blood service said. 'We are working closely with the government and all relevant bodies to move through the approvals process as quickly as possible.' People who have recovered from COVID-19 can register with the NHS if they are interested in donating plasma. They should not just turn up at blood donation centres, NHSBT said. Antibodies rise steadily in the blood stream when someone is ill and are thought to peak between 21 and 28 days after recovery, according to the NHS. Donors must have tested positive for the illness either at home or in hospital, but should now be three to four weeks into their recovery, ideally 29 days. According to an email sent by NHSBT, plasma can be taken by a machine similar to those used in regular platelet donation. The announcement follows concerns the NHS weren't being quick enough to start trials of CP, as the coronavirus death toll reached 16,060 yesterday. Professor Sir Robert Lechler, president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, told the BBC: 'I think there are many aspects of this pandemic we'll look back on and say, I wonder why we didn't move a little bit faster. I think this could be one of those. 'Let's hope that the NHSBT national trial gets into gear really quickly.' Professor Lechler is eager to use plasma for seriously ill patients that have no other treatment options, while a larger national trial is getting under way. He said: 'I would be disappointed if we weren't able to see some patients given this form of therapy within a couple of weeks.' Another leading doctor has said it was 'incredibly frustrating' only a handful of patients were getting the treatment, first used 100 years ago. Dr Colin Hamilton-Davies, of Barts Hospital in London, told SkyNews: 'We could be administering it, not just to one or two people, but hundreds of patients. 'It's not only myself, but many colleagues are saying "why aren't we looking at this in greater depth and in a faster timeframe?" 'There is a research framework which is up and running, which it may or may not become part of.' Dr Hamilton-Davies added: 'I very much hope it does. This is something we could get up and running very quickly indeed.' BETHESDA, Md., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) today reported first quarter 2020 net sales of $15.7 billion, compared to $14.3 billion in the first quarter of 2019. Net earnings in the first quarter of 2020 were $1.7 billion, or $6.08 per share, compared to $1.7 billion, or $5.99 per share, in the first quarter of 2019. Cash from operations in the first quarter of 2020 was $2.3 billion, compared to cash from operations of $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2019. "As we confront the challenges introduced by the global pandemic, our corporation remains focused on providing vital national security solutions for our customers while maintaining a safe and healthy environment for our employees," said Lockheed Martin chairman, president and CEO Marillyn Hewson. "I'm so proud of the work the dedicated men and women of Lockheed Martin are doing as part of our strong portfolio to deliver critical products and services for our customers and long-term value for our shareholders." Summary Financial Results The following table presents the corporation's summary financial results. (in millions, except per share data) Quarters Ended1 March 29, 2020 March 31, 2019 Net sales $ 15,651 $ 14,336 Business segment operating profit2 $ 1,725 $ 1,715 Unallocated items FAS/CAS operating adjustment 469 512 Other, net3 (72) 56 Total unallocated items 397 568 Consolidated operating profit $ 2,122 $ 2,283 Net earnings4 $ 1,717 $ 1,704 Diluted earnings per share $ 6.08 $ 5.99 Cash generated from operations $ 2,314 $ 1,663 1 The corporation closes its books and records on the last Sunday of the calendar quarter to align its financial closing with its business processes, which was on March 29 for the first quarter of 2020 and March 31 for the first quarter of 2019. The consolidated financial statements and tables of financial information included herein are labeled based on that convention. This practice only affects interim periods, as the corporation's fiscal year ends on Dec. 31. 2 Business segment operating profit is a non-GAAP measure. See the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" section of this news release for more information. 3 In the first quarter of 2019, the corporation recognized a previously deferred non-cash gain of $51 million ($38 million, or $0.13 per share, after tax) related to properties sold in 2015 as a result of completing its remaining obligations. 4 Net earnings in the first quarter of 2019 include benefits of $75 million, or $0.26 per share, from additional tax deductions, based on proposed tax regulations released on March 4, 2019, which clarified that foreign military sales qualify as foreign derived intangible income. Approximately $65 million, or $0.23 per share, of the total benefit was recorded discretely because it relates to 2018. 2020 Financial Outlook The following table and other sections of this news release contain forward-looking statements, which are based on the corporation's current expectations. Actual results may differ materially from those projected. It is the corporation's typical practice not to incorporate adjustments into its financial outlook for proposed acquisitions, divestitures, ventures, changes in law, or new accounting standards until such items have been consummated, enacted or adopted. For additional factors that may impact the corporation's actual results, refer to the "Forward-Looking Statements" section in this news release. (in millions, except per share data) Current Guidance1 January 2020 Net sales $62,250 - $64,000 $62,750 - $64,250 Business segment operating profit $6,800 - $6,950 $6,800 - $6,950 Net FAS/CAS pension adjustment2 ~$2,090 ~$2,090 Diluted earnings per share3 $23.65 - $23.95 $23.65 - $23.95 Cash from operations $7,600 $7,600 1 The corporation's 2020 financial outlook includes updated guidance for net sales reflecting the currently expected impacts related to COVID-19. The ultimate impact of COVID-19 on the corporation's financial outlook for 2020 remains uncertain. Additionally, the corporation's financial outlook for 2020 does not include any non-cash impairment charge related to its equity method investment in AMMROC as discussed below or potential impacts to the corporation's programs, including the F-35 program, resulting from U.S. Government actions related to Turkey. Currently, the corporation does not expect U.S. Government actions related to Turkey will have a material impact on its 2020 financial results. 2 The net FAS/CAS pension adjustment above is presented as a single amount and includes total expected 2020 U.S. Government cost accounting standards (CAS) pension cost of approximately $1,975 million and total expected financial accounting standards (FAS) pension income of approximately $115 million. CAS pension cost and the service cost component of FAS pension expense are included in operating profit. The non-service cost components of FAS pension expense are included in non-operating income (expense). For additional detail on the corporation's FAS/CAS pension adjustment, see the supplemental table included at the end of this news release. 3 Although the corporation typically does not update its outlook for proposed changes in law, the above includes the effect of proposed tax regulations confirming that foreign military sales (FMS) qualify for tax deductions for foreign derived intangible income. The corporation believes incorporating the effect of the proposed regulations yields more accurate disclosure of the company's expectations because the proposed regulations describe the tax treatment of FMS sales in accordance with the corporation's analysis of the Internal Revenue Code. COVID-19 The global outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and a national emergency by the U.S. Government in March 2020 and has negatively affected the U.S. and global economy, disrupted global supply chains, resulted in significant travel and transport restrictions, including mandated closures and orders to "shelter-in-place," and created significant disruption of the financial markets. Lockheed Martin has taken measures to protect the health and safety of its employees, work with its customers to minimize potential disruptions and support its community in addressing the challenges posed by this global pandemic. The extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the corporation's operational and financial performance, including its ability to execute its programs in the expected timeframe, will depend on future developments, including the duration and spread of the pandemic and related actions taken by the U.S. Government, state and local government officials, and international governments to prevent disease spread, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted. The outbreak did not have a material impact on the corporation's operating results or business in the first quarter of 2020. However, the corporation is beginning to experience some issues in each of its business areas related to COVID-19, primarily in access to some locations and delays of supplier deliveries. The corporation is updating its 2020 guidance for net sales to reflect these impacts, as production and supply chain activities have recently slowed in the Aeronautics business area. However, the ultimate impact of COVID-19 on the corporation's 2020 outlook for sales, segment operating profit, earnings and cash flows from operations remains uncertain. The corporation's 2020 outlook assumes, among other things, that its production facilities continue to operate and it does not experience significant work stoppages or closures, it is able to mitigate any supply chain disruptions and these do not worsen, and it is able to recover its costs under contracts and government funding priorities do not change. In addition, the corporation's financial performance assumes actual returns on its pension assets during 2020 will be 7.0%, and the discount rate used to re-measure its pension liabilities at year-end 2020 will be 3.25%. Differences between these assumed values and actual values will affect the corporation's plan funded status and stockholders' equity as measured at year-end 2020. The corporation is also monitoring the impacts of COVID-19 on the fair value of its assets. While the corporation does not currently anticipate any material impairments on its assets as a result of COVID-19, future changes in expectations for sales, earnings and cash flows related to intangible assets and goodwill below its current projections could cause these assets to be impaired. While these are the corporation's current assumptions, this is an emerging situation and these could change, including if the duration of the pandemic is extended, which could affect outlook. Investment in Advanced Military Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Center LLC (AMMROC) As of March 29, 2020, the corporation had an investment in the AMMROC joint venture with a carrying value of $435 million. Substantially all of AMMROC's current business is dependent on a single customer contract to provide maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services for fixed and rotary wing military aircraft that was up for re-competition. In April 2020, subsequent to the end of the corporation's first quarter, the customer announced its intent to award the contract to a competitor. The corporation is working with AMMROC's management and its joint venture partner to understand its options, including whether there is a basis to challenge the award and retain the MRO services, explore the possibility of AMMROC continuing to provide MRO services as a subcontractor to the competitor, an opportunity to replace the contract with other customer arrangements, or winding down the business. At this time, the corporation cannot determine the extent of the non-cash impairment charge, if any, related to its investment. However, if the customer moves forward with transitioning the MRO services to the competitor and AMMROC is not a subcontractor (or has only a limited role), the corporation expects there would be an adverse impact to AMMROC's business and the carrying value of its investment, which could be significant and an impairment could occur as early as the second quarter of 2020. Other than the impact to earnings for a potential non-cash impairment charge, currently the corporation does not expect any other significant impacts to its 2020 operating results, financial position or cash flows. Cash Activities The corporation's cash activities in the first quarter of 2020 included the following: paying cash dividends of $693 million , compared to $638 million in the first quarter of 2019; , compared to in the first quarter of 2019; repurchasing 1.7 million shares for $756 million , which includes $500 million paid pursuant to an accelerated share repurchase agreement (ASR), which will settle in the second quarter; compared to 1.0 million shares for $281 million in the first quarter of 2019. The actual number of shares delivered under the ASR is based on an average volume-weighted average price (VWAP) over the plan period and, based on the average VWAP as of April 20, 2020 , the corporation expects to receive approximately 0.5 million additional shares upon final settlement; , which includes paid pursuant to an accelerated share repurchase agreement (ASR), which will settle in the second quarter; compared to 1.0 million shares for in the first quarter of 2019. The actual number of shares delivered under the ASR is based on an average volume-weighted average price (VWAP) over the plan period and, based on the average VWAP as of , the corporation expects to receive approximately 0.5 million additional shares upon final settlement; making capital expenditures of $293 million , compared to $284 million in the first quarter of 2019; and , compared to in the first quarter of 2019; and no net proceeds from or repayments of commercial paper, compared to making net repayments of $200 million in the first quarter of 2019. Segment Results The corporation operates in four business segments organized based on the nature of products and services offered: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control (MFC), Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) and Space. The following table presents summary operating results of the corporation's business segments and reconciles these amounts to the corporation's consolidated financial results. (in millions) Quarters Ended March 29, 2020 March 31, 2019 Net sales Aeronautics $ 6,369 $ 5,584 Missiles and Fire Control 2,619 2,350 Rotary and Mission Systems 3,746 3,762 Space 2,917 2,640 Total net sales $ 15,651 $ 14,336 Operating profit Aeronautics $ 672 $ 585 Missiles and Fire Control 396 417 Rotary and Mission Systems 376 379 Space 281 334 Total business segment operating profit 1,725 1,715 Unallocated items FAS/CAS operating adjustment 469 512 Other, net (72) 56 Total unallocated items 397 568 Total consolidated operating profit $ 2,122 $ 2,283 Net sales and operating profit of the corporation's business segments exclude intersegment sales, cost of sales, and profit as these activities are eliminated in consolidation. Operating profit of the corporation's business segments includes the corporation's share of earnings or losses from equity method investees as the operating activities of the investees are closely aligned with the operations of its business segments. Operating profit of the corporation's business segments also excludes the FAS/CAS operating adjustment described below, a portion of corporate costs not considered allowable or allocable to contracts with the U.S. Government under the applicable U.S. Government cost accounting standards (CAS) or federal acquisition regulations (FAR), and other items not considered part of management's evaluation of segment operating performance such as a portion of management and administration costs, legal fees and settlements, environmental costs, stock-based compensation expense, retiree benefits, significant severance actions, significant asset impairments, gains or losses from significant divestitures, and other miscellaneous corporate activities. The corporation recovers CAS pension cost through the pricing of its products and services on U.S. Government contracts and, therefore, recognizes CAS pension cost in each of its business segments' net sales and cost of sales. The corporation's consolidated financial statements must present pension and other postretirement benefit plan expense calculated in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (referred to as FAS expense). The operating portion of the net FAS/CAS pension adjustment represents the difference between the service cost component of FAS pension expense and CAS pension cost. The non-service FAS pension expense component is included in other nonoperating expense on the corporation's consolidated statements of earnings. The net FAS/CAS pension adjustment increases or decreases CAS pension cost to equal total FAS pension expense (both service and non-service). Changes in net sales and operating profit generally are expressed in terms of volume. Changes in volume refer to increases or decreases in sales or operating profit resulting from varying production activity levels, deliveries or service levels on individual contracts. Volume changes in segment operating profit are typically based on the current profit booking rate for a particular contract. In addition, comparability of the corporation's segment sales, operating profit and operating margin may be impacted favorably or unfavorably by changes in profit booking rates on the corporation's contracts for which it recognizes revenue over time using the percentage-of-completion cost-to-cost method to measure progress towards completion. Increases in profit booking rates, typically referred to as risk retirements, usually relate to revisions in the estimated total costs to fulfill the performance obligations that reflect improved conditions on a particular contract. Conversely, conditions on a particular contract may deteriorate, resulting in an increase in the estimated total costs to fulfill the performance obligations and a reduction in the profit booking rate. Increases or decreases in profit booking rates are recognized in the current period and reflect the inception-to-date effect of such changes. Segment operating profit and margin may also be impacted favorably or unfavorably by other items, which may or may not impact sales. Favorable items may include the positive resolution of contractual matters, insurance recoveries and gains on sales of assets. Unfavorable items may include the adverse resolution of contractual matters; restructuring charges, except for significant severance actions which are excluded from segment operating results; reserves for disputes; certain asset impairments; and losses on sales of certain assets. The corporation's consolidated net adjustments not related to volume, including net profit booking rate adjustments, represented approximately 27 percent of total segment operating profit in the first quarter of 2020 as compared to 33 percent in the first quarter of 2019. Aeronautics (in millions) Quarters Ended March 29, 2020 March 31, 2019 Net sales $ 6,369 $ 5,584 Operating profit $ 672 $ 585 Operating margin 10.6 % 10.5 % Aeronautics' net sales in the first quarter of 2020 increased $785 million, or 14 percent, compared to the same period in 2019. The increase was primarily attributable to higher net sales of approximately $695 million for the F-35 program due to increased volume on production, sustainment, and development contracts; and about $70 million for higher volume on classified development contracts. Aeronautics' operating profit in the first quarter of 2020 increased $87 million, or 15 percent, compared to the same period in 2019. Operating profit increased approximately $80 million for the F-35 program due to higher volume on production, sustainment, and development contracts. Adjustments not related to volume, including net profit booking rate adjustments, in the first quarter of 2020 were comparable to the same period in 2019. Missiles and Fire Control (in millions) Quarters Ended March 29, 2020 March 31, 2019 Net sales $ 2,619 $ 2,350 Operating profit $ 396 $ 417 Operating margin 15.1 % 17.7 % MFC's net sales in the first quarter of 2020 increased $269 million, or 11 percent, compared to the same period in 2019. The increase was primarily attributable to higher net sales of approximately $175 million for tactical and strike missile programs due to increased volume (primarily High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) and hypersonic development programs); and about $125 million for integrated air and missile defense programs due to increased volume (primarily Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3)). These increases were partially offset by a decrease of $40 million as a result of lower volume on energy programs and the divestiture of the Distributed Energy Solutions business in November 2019. MFC's operating profit in the first quarter of 2020 decreased $21 million, or 5 percent, compared to the same period in 2019. Operating profit decreased approximately $55 million for integrated air and missile defense programs due to lower risk retirements on international contracts (primarily PAC-3 and THAAD). This decrease was partially offset by an increase of $20 million for sensors and global sustainment programs due to higher risk retirements (primarily Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) and Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (SNIPER)). Adjustments not related to volume, including net profit booking rate adjustments, were $30 million lower in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Rotary and Mission Systems (in millions) Quarters Ended March 29, 2020 March 31, 2019 Net sales $ 3,746 $ 3,762 Operating profit $ 376 $ 379 Operating margin 10.0 % 10.1 % RMS' net sales in the first quarter of 2020 were comparable to the same period in 2019. Net sales decreased approximately $95 million for Sikorsky helicopter programs due to lower volume (primarily combat rescue helicopter and Black Hawk production programs). This decrease was mostly offset by an increase of about $85 million for C6ISR (command, control, communications, computers, cyber, combat systems, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) programs due to higher volume (primarily undersea combat systems programs). RMS' operating profit in the first quarter of 2020 was comparable to the same period in 2019. Operating profit increased approximately $20 million for Sikorsky helicopter programs due to better cost performance and higher risk retirements on international military aircraft programs. This increase was offset by a $20 million decrease for integrated warfare systems and sensors (IWSS) programs as lower risk retirements were partially offset by charges that were $30 million lower on a ground-based radar program. Adjustments not related to volume, including net profit booking rate adjustments, were $35 million lower in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Space (in millions) Quarters Ended March 29, 2020 March 31, 2019 Net sales $ 2,917 $ 2,640 Operating profit $ 281 $ 334 Operating margin 9.6 % 12.7 % Space's net sales in the first quarter of 2020 increased $277 million, or 10 percent, compared to the same period in 2019. The increase was primarily attributable to higher net sales of approximately $180 million for strategic and missile defense programs due to higher volume (primarily hypersonic development programs and fleet ballistic missile programs); and about $100 million for government satellite programs due to higher volume (primarily Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next Gen OPIR)). Space's operating profit in the first quarter of 2020 decreased $53 million, or 16 percent, compared to the same period in 2019. Operating profit decreased approximately $40 million for government satellite programs due to lower risk retirements (primarily Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF)); and about $35 million due to lower equity earnings from the corporation's investment in United Launch Alliance (ULA). These decreases were partially offset by an increase of $20 million for commercial satellite programs for charges recorded for performance matters in 2019 not repeated in 2020. Adjustments not related to volume, including net profit booking rate adjustments, were $40 million lower in the first quarter of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. Total equity earnings recognized by Space from equity method investments (primarily ULA) represented approximately $30 million, or 11 percent of Space's operating profit in the first quarter of 2020, compared to approximately $65 million, or 19 percent in the first quarter of 2019. Income Taxes The corporation's effective income tax rate was 15.4 percent in the first quarter of 2020, compared to 12.4 percent in the first quarter of 2019. The rate for the first quarter of 2019 benefited from additional tax deductions of $65 million, or $0.23 per share, recorded discretely for 2018, based on proposed tax regulations released on March 4, 2019, which clarified that foreign military sales qualify for foreign derived intangible income treatment. The rates for both periods benefited from tax deductions for employee equity awards, the research and development tax credit, tax deductions for foreign derived intangible income, and dividends paid to the corporation's defined contribution plans with an employee stock ownership plan feature. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures This news release contains the following non-generally accepted accounting principles (non-GAAP) financial measures (as defined by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Regulation G). While management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures may be useful in evaluating the financial performance of the corporation, this information should be considered supplemental and is not a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, the corporation's definitions for non-GAAP financial measures may differ from similarly titled measures used by other companies or analysts. Business segment operating profit represents operating profit from the corporation's business segments before unallocated income and expense. This measure is used by the corporation's senior management in evaluating the performance of its business segments and is a performance goal in the corporation's annual incentive plan. Business segment operating margin is calculated by dividing business segment operating profit by sales. The table below reconciles the non-GAAP measure business segment operating profit with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, consolidated operating profit. (in millions) 2020 Financial Outlook1 Business segment operating profit (non-GAAP) $6,800 - $6,950 FAS/CAS operating adjustment2 ~1,875 Other, net ~(230) Consolidated operating profit (GAAP) $8,445 - $8,595 1 The corporation's 2020 financial outlook includes updated guidance for net sales reflecting the currently expected impacts related to COVID-19. The ultimate impact of COVID-19 on the corporation's financial outlook for 2020 remains uncertain. Additionally, the corporation's financial outlook for 2020 does not include any non-cash impairment charge related to its equity method investment in AMMROC or potential impacts to the corporation's programs, including the F-35 program, resulting from U.S. Government actions related to Turkey. Currently, the corporation does not expect U.S. Government actions related to Turkey will have a material impact on its 2020 financial results. 2 Refer to the supplemental table "Other Financial and Operating Information" included in this news release for a detail of the FAS/CAS operating adjustment, which excludes $215 million of expected non-service FAS income that will be recorded in non-operating income (expense). Conference Call Information Lockheed Martin Corporation will webcast live the earnings results conference call (listen-only mode) on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, at 11 a.m. ET. The live webcast and relevant financial charts will be available for download on the Lockheed Martin Investor Relations website at www.lockheedmartin.com/investor . For additional information, visit the corporation's website: www.lockheedmartin.com . About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin Corporation is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 110,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that, to the extent they are not recitations of historical fact, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, and are based on Lockheed Martin's current expectations and assumptions. The words "believe," "estimate," "anticipate," "project," "intend," "expect," "plan," "outlook," "scheduled," "forecast" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially due to factors such as: the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak or future epidemics on our business, including the potential for facility closures or work stoppages, supply chain disruptions, program delays, our ability to recover our costs under contracts, changing government funding and acquisition priorities and payment policies and regulations; and potential impacts to the fair value of our assets; our reliance on contracts with the U.S. Government, which are conditioned upon the availability of funding and can be terminated by the U.S. Government for convenience, and our ability to negotiate favorable contract terms; budget uncertainty, affordability initiatives or the risk of future budget cuts; risks related to the development, production, sustainment, performance, schedule, cost and requirements of complex and technologically advanced programs including our largest, the F-35 program; planned production rates for significant programs; compliance with stringent performance and reliability standards; materials availability; the performance and financial viability of key suppliers, teammates, joint ventures, joint venture partners, subcontractors and customers; economic, industry, business and political conditions including their effects on governmental policy and government actions that disrupt our supply chain or prevent the sale or delivery of our products (such as delays in obtaining Congressional approvals for exports requiring Congressional notification and export license delays due to COVID-19); trade policies or sanctions (including Turkey's removal from the F-35 program, the impact of U.S. Government sanctions on Turkey and potential sanctions on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ); removal from the F-35 program, the impact of U.S. Government sanctions on and potential sanctions on the ); our success expanding into and doing business in adjacent markets and internationally and the differing risks posed by international sales; changes in foreign national priorities and foreign government budgets; the competitive environment for our products and services, including increased pricing pressures, aggressive pricing in the absence of cost realism evaluation criteria, competition from outside the aerospace and defense industry, and bid protests; the timing and customer acceptance of product deliveries; our ability to continue to innovate and develop new products and to attract and retain key personnel and transfer knowledge to new personnel; the impact of work stoppages or other labor disruptions; the impact of cyber or other security threats or other disruptions to our businesses; our ability to implement and continue, and the timing and impact of, capitalization changes such as share repurchases and dividend payments; our ability to recover costs under U.S. Government contracts and changes in contract mix; the accuracy of our estimates and projections; timing and estimates regarding pension funding and movements in interest rates and other changes that may affect pension plan assumptions, stockholders' equity, the level of the FAS/CAS adjustment and actual returns on pension plan assets; the successful operation of joint ventures that we do not control and our ability to recover our investments; realizing the anticipated benefits of acquisitions or divestitures, joint ventures, teaming arrangements or internal reorganizations; our efforts to increase the efficiency of our operations and improve the affordability of our products and services; risk of an impairment of our assets, including a potential non-cash impairment charge as early as the second quarter for our equity investment in Advanced Military Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Center LLC (AMMROC) and the potential impairment of goodwill, intangible assets and inventory recorded as a result of the acquisition of the Sikorsky business; the availability and adequacy of our insurance and indemnities; our ability to benefit fully from or adequately protect our intellectual property rights; the effect of changes in (or in the interpretation of) procurement and other regulations and policies affecting our industry, including export of our products, cost allowability or recovery and potential changes to the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) acquisition regulations relating to progress payments and performance-based payments and a preference for fixed-price contracts; including the potential for DoD to temporarily modify these in response to COVID-19; the effect of changes in accounting, taxation, or export laws, regulations, and policies and their interpretation or application; and the outcome of legal proceedings, bid protests, environmental remediation efforts, audits, government investigations or government allegations that we have failed to comply with law, other contingencies and U.S. Government identification of deficiencies in our business systems. These are only some of the factors that may affect the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. For a discussion identifying additional important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, see the corporation's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission including, but not limited to, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Risk Factors" in the corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2019 and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The corporation's filings may be accessed through the Investor Relations page of its website, www.lockheedmartin.com/investor , or through the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov . The corporation's actual financial results likely will be different from those projected due to the inherent nature of projections. Given these uncertainties, forward-looking statements should not be relied on in making investment decisions. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release speak only as of the date of its filing. Except where required by applicable law, the corporation expressly disclaims a duty to provide updates to forward-looking statements after the date of this news release to reflect subsequent events, changed circumstances, changes in expectations, or the estimates and assumptions associated with them. The forward-looking statements in this news release are intended to be subject to the safe harbor protection provided by the federal securities laws. Lockheed Martin Corporation Consolidated Statements of Earnings1 (unaudited; in millions, except per share data) Quarters Ended March 29, 2020 March 31, 2019 Net sales $ 15,651 $ 14,336 Cost of sales (13,560) (12,148) Gross profit 2,091 2,188 Other income, net2 31 95 Operating profit 2,122 2,283 Interest expense (148) (171) Other non-operating income (expense), net 56 (167) Earnings before income taxes 2,030 1,945 Income tax expense3 (313) (241) Net earnings $ 1,717 $ 1,704 Effective tax rate 15.4 % 12.4 % Earnings per common share Basic $ 6.10 $ 6.03 Diluted $ 6.08 $ 5.99 Weighted average shares outstanding Basic 281.3 282.5 Diluted 282.6 284.3 Common shares reported in stockholders' equity at end of period 279 281 1 The corporation closes its books and records on the last Sunday of the calendar quarter to align its financial closing with its business processes, which was on March 29 for the first quarter of 2020 and March 31 for the first quarter of 2019. The consolidated financial statements and tables of financial information included herein are labeled based on that convention. This practice only affects interim periods, as the corporation's fiscal year ends on Dec. 31. 2 In the first quarter of 2019, the corporation recognized a previously deferred non-cash gain of $51 million ($38 million, or $0.13 per share, after tax) related to properties sold in 2015 as a result of completing its remaining obligations. 3 Net earnings in the first quarter of 2019 include benefits of $75 million, or $0.26 per share, from additional tax deductions, based on proposed tax regulations released on March 4, 2019, which clarified that foreign military sales qualify as foreign derived intangible income. Approximately $65 million, or $0.23 per share, of the total benefit was recorded discretely because it relates to 2018. Lockheed Martin Corporation Business Segment Summary Operating Results (unaudited; in millions) Quarters Ended March 29, 2020 March 31, 2019 % Change Net sales Aeronautics $ 6,369 $ 5,584 14 % Missiles and Fire Control 2,619 2,350 11 % Rotary and Mission Systems 3,746 3,762 % Space 2,917 2,640 10 % Total net sales $ 15,651 $ 14,336 9 % Operating profit Aeronautics $ 672 $ 585 15 % Missiles and Fire Control 396 417 (5) % Rotary and Mission Systems 376 379 (1) % Space 281 334 (16) % Total business segment operating profit 1,725 1,715 1 % Unallocated items FAS/CAS operating adjustment 469 512 Other, net1 (72) 56 Total unallocated items 397 568 (30) % Total consolidated operating profit $ 2,122 $ 2,283 (7) % Operating margin Aeronautics 10.6 % 10.5 % Missiles and Fire Control 15.1 % 17.7 % Rotary and Mission Systems 10.0 % 10.1 % Space 9.6 % 12.7 % Total business segment operating margin 11.0 % 12.0 % Total consolidated operating margin 13.6 % 15.9 % 1 In the first quarter of 2019, the corporation recognized a previously deferred non-cash gain of $51 million ($38 million, or $0.13 per share, after tax) related to properties sold in 2015 as a result of completing its remaining obligations. Lockheed Martin Corporation Consolidated Balance Sheets (in millions, except par value) March 29, 2020 Dec. 31, 2019 (unaudited) Assets Current assets Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,988 $ 1,514 Receivables, net 2,892 2,337 Contract assets 10,189 9,094 Inventories 3,539 3,619 Other current assets 614 531 Total current assets 19,222 17,095 Property, plant and equipment, net 6,605 6,591 Goodwill 10,565 10,604 Intangible assets, net 3,142 3,213 Deferred income taxes 3,164 3,319 Other noncurrent assets 6,550 6,706 Total assets $ 49,248 $ 47,528 Liabilities and equity Current liabilities Accounts payable $ 3,166 $ 1,281 Contract liabilities 7,205 7,054 Salaries, benefits and payroll taxes 2,022 2,466 Current maturities of long-term debt and commercial paper 1,250 1,250 Other current liabilities 2,009 1,921 Total current liabilities 15,652 13,972 Long-term debt, net 11,439 11,404 Accrued pension liabilities 13,078 13,234 Other noncurrent liabilities 5,592 5,747 Total liabilities 45,761 44,357 Stockholders' equity Common stock, $1 par value per share 279 280 Additional paid-in capital Retained earnings 18,708 18,401 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (15,541) (15,554) Total stockholders' equity 3,446 3,127 Noncontrolling interests in subsidiary 41 44 Total equity 3,487 3,171 Total liabilities and equity $ 49,248 $ 47,528 Lockheed Martin Corporation Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (unaudited; in millions) Quarters Ended March 29, 2020 March 31, 2019 Operating activities Net earnings $ 1,717 $ 1,704 Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities Depreciation and amortization 301 277 Stock-based compensation 42 37 Gain on property sale (51) Changes in assets and liabilities Receivables, net (555) (389) Contract assets (1,095) (1,025) Inventories 80 (288) Accounts payable 1,894 744 Contract liabilities 151 305 Postretirement benefit plans (39) 278 Income taxes 167 243 Other, net (349) (172) Net cash provided by operating activities 2,314 1,663 Investing activities Capital expenditures (293) (284) Other, net (2) 27 Net cash used for investing activities (295) (257) Financing activities Dividends paid (693) (638) Repurchases of common stock (756) (281) Repayments of commercial paper, net (200) Other, net (96) (68) Net cash used for financing activities (1,545) (1,187) Net change in cash and cash equivalents 474 219 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 1,514 772 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 1,988 $ 991 Lockheed Martin Corporation Consolidated Statement of Equity (unaudited; in millions) Common Stock Additional Paid-in Capital Retained Earnings Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss Total Stockholders' Equity Noncontrolling Interests in Subsidiary Total Equity Balance at December 31, 2019 $ 280 $ $ 18,401 $ (15,554) $ 3,127 $ 44 $ 3,171 Net earnings 1,717 1,717 1,717 Other comprehensive income, net of tax1 13 13 13 Repurchases of common stock (2) (29) (733) (764) (764) Dividends declared2 (677) (677) (677) Stock-based awards, ESOP activity and other 1 29 30 30 Net decrease in noncontrolling interests in subsidiary (3) (3) Balance at March 29, 2020 $ 279 $ $ 18,708 $ (15,541) $ 3,446 $ 41 $ 3,487 1 Primarily represents the reclassification adjustment for the recognition of prior period amounts related to pension and other postretirement benefit plans. 2 Represents dividends of $2.40 per share declared for the first quarter of 2020. Lockheed Martin Corporation Other Financial and Operating Information (unaudited; in millions, except for aircraft deliveries and weeks) 2020 Outlook 2019 Actual Total FAS expense and CAS costs FAS pension income (expense)1 $ 115 $ (1,093) Less: CAS pension cost 1,975 2,565 Net FAS/CAS pension adjustment $ 2,090 $ 1,472 Service and non-service cost reconciliation FAS pension service cost $ (100) $ (516) Less: CAS pension cost 1,975 2,565 FAS/CAS operating adjustment 1,875 2,049 Non-operating FAS pension income (cost)2 215 (577) Net FAS/CAS pension adjustment $ 2,090 $ 1,472 1 The corporation projects FAS pension income in 2020, compared to FAS pension expense in 2019, as a result of completing the planned freeze of its salaried pension plans effective Jan. 1, 2020 that was previously announced on July 1, 2014. The corporation's FAS pension expense is comprised of service cost, interest cost, expected return on plan assets, amortization of prior service credit, and amortization of actuarial losses. The service cost and amortization of actuarial losses components of FAS pension expense are significantly lower due to the freeze. As a result, the expected return on plan assets and amortization of prior service credit exceed all other FAS pension expense components in 2020. For additional information regarding the corporation's FAS pension expense or income and CAS pension cost, see the corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2019. 2 The corporation records the non-service cost components of net periodic benefit cost as part of other non- operating income (expense) in the consolidated statement of earnings. The non-service cost components in the table above relate only to the corporation's qualified defined benefit pension plans. The corporation expects total non-service income (cost) for its qualified defined benefit pension plans in the table above, along with non-service cost for its other postretirement benefit plans of $30 million, to total non-service credit of $185 million for 2020. The corporation recorded non-service cost for its other postretirement benefit plans of $116 million in 2019, in addition to its total non-service cost for its qualified defined benefit pension plans in the table above, for a total of $693 million in 2019. Backlog March 29, 2020 Dec. 31, 2019 Aeronautics $ 52,886 $ 55,636 Missiles and Fire Control 27,070 25,796 Rotary and Mission Systems 37,484 34,296 Space 26,680 28,253 Total backlog $ 144,120 $ 143,981 Quarters Ended Aircraft Deliveries March 29, 2020 March 31, 2019 F-35 22 26 C-130J 3 5 C-5 Government helicopter programs 13 15 Commercial helicopter programs International military helicopter programs 2 2 Number of Weeks in Reporting Period 2020 2019 First quarter 13 13 Second quarter 13 13 Third quarter 13 13 Fourth quarter 13 13 SOURCE Lockheed Martin Related Links www.lockheedmartin.com Open source President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has congratulated the Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms Elizabeth II on her birthday. A corresponding message was posted on the president's Twitter page. On behalf of Ukrainian citizens, Zelensky wished Elizabeth II good health, harmony and well-being. On behalf of all Ukrainians, I have the pleasure to convey warm greetings to Her Majesty The Queen @RoyalFamily on Her Majestys Birthday! The Queen is a symbol of courage, faith & devotion. I wish Her Majesty & all Britons good health, harmony & well-being, Zelensky wrote. It should be noted that Elizabeth II ascended the throne in 1952 at the age of 25. In September 2015, she became the monarch-long-ruler of the United Kingdom, overtaking her great-grandmother - Queen Victoria. As we reported earlier, on April 12, UK's Prime minister Boris Johnson left St Thomas' Hospital in central London. The PM paid tribute to the "personal courage" of doctors, nurses, cleaners, cooks, and all other healthcare workers at St Thomas' and named individual staff who had steered him away from danger over the past week. Moving far away from a place where you have lived your entire life is never easy. However, unlike many people, Prince Harry is currently taking this experience to a whole new level. He left the United Kingdom, the place that he has called home since he was a child, and relocated to another country altogether. Although his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Prince Harry has only visited the United States, never lived there. So, we can only imagine that it may be a bit of a culture shock for the prince now that he is living in an environment that is so extremely different from the one he is used to. As we all know, the world is going through a very difficult time having to deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of people are separated from their families and friends as everyone continues to stay at home during this period of self-isolation. Prince Harry, however, is so accustomed to having everyone who is close to him nearby, and now a royal expert says that the prince is separate and isolated in Los Angeles without his family. Lets look further. Resigning from royal duties Fans have known for quite some time that Meghan and Prince Harry werent exactly happy with life as senior working royals. Ever since they announced that they were in a serious relationship, the British tabloids have been nothing less than brutal, making a point of bashing the couple whenever the opportunity arose. Meghan, in particular, has taken serious backlash from the media from everything to her mixed-race heritage to her intentions as a member of the royal family. Over the few years that Meghan and Prince Harry were married, it seemed that things went from bad to worse, with Prince Harry releasing a statement in defense of his wife. Unfortunately, the situation just didnt improve, and according to The Daily Beast, Meghan and Prince Harry made the decision to step down from their positions within the royal family. Making the move to Los Angeles At the beginning of their relationship, Meghan and Prince Harry lived at Nottingham Cottage, a small, cozy home on the grounds of Kensington Palace. It was thought that after they became husband and wife, that they would remain at the royal residence, moving the short distance to apartment 1, next door to Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge. Instead, Meghan and Prince Harry surprised their fans when they packed up and left for Windsor, in search of a quieter life away from the glaring spotlight of London. Apparently, the couple didnt find what they were looking for, and after their plans for Megxit were announced, they, along with Baby Archie, spent a few months in Canada. Although many people thought that they would make Vancouver their permanent residence, they instead decided to relocate to Meghans hometown of Los Angeles, California. Prince Harry is separate and isolated in Los Angeles without his family There is absolutely no doubt that Los Angeles and London are worlds apart, so it is only expected that it would take some time for Prince Harry to get used to his new surroundings. However, it is a little more complicated than that, and Express even reports that a royal expert claims Prince Harry is separate and isolated in Los Angeles without his family. I very much think that Harry will be suffering from irrelevancy, said royal expert Angela Mollard. Right now, the world is not focused on them. He knew for months that they would be miles apart, so why is he feeling this way? Well, as it turns out, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, Prince Harry isnt able to do what he wants to do. He isnt in communication with the rest of the royals, and it is likely that the entire situation has him feeling a bit lonely. Mollard added: He is separated from his family at a time when the rest of the world is using Zoom or WhatsApp to chat with each other. I can hardly see that happening, he must feel very separate. He doesnt have friends in LA, she does. EAST LONGMEADOW U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal said Tuesday he expects to go back to Washington later this week and vote on a new $484 billion coronavirus relief bill, legislation he said he spent the weekend hashing out with the Trump administration while working in concert with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others. The bill passed the Senate Tuesday afternoon. Itll have more money for local hospitals, Neal said during a brief news conference at the Cartamundi plant on Shaker Road in East Longmeadow. The plant, in partnership with Hasbro, which is its biggest customer, is making clear plastic face shields as personal protective devices for health care workers, first responders and law enforcement. Workers, about 25 of the hundreds who normally work at the plant, started last week and can make 50,000 plastic face shields per week for donation to hospitals in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Neal, chairman of the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, said he and his fellow Democrats were pushing hard for the bill, the fourth coronavirus response spending package and a follow-up to a $2.2 trillion measure enacted in March. According to The Washington Post, the new bill doesnt include money for state and local governments money Neal said is needed to restart the economy and plug holes in budgets. The $484 billion package would increase funding for the Paycheck Protection Program by $310 billion, add $60 billion to a separate small business emergency grant and loan program and direct $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion to a new coronavirus testing program. Testing, Neal said, is the key to building confidence and ending stay-at-home advisories. He described the back-and-forth of the legislative process with Trumps Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "It, for me, was a window on how Congress should work," he said. Neal said he and his fellow Democrats would ask for an item in the bill, and Mnuchin would say he had to call back in a half an hour. Then the shoe would be on the other foot as Democrats researched a Republican proposal. "Because they have to check with staff, see, who have all these facts laid out in front of them," Neal said. Neal also on Tuesday sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar requesting HHS change the way hospital funds are distributed. The federal government formula favors hospitals with a large Medicare population mostly seniors. Neal wants the money divvied up according to Medicaid patient loads. Medicaid recipients are generally people with low incomes. Massachusetts received nearly $1 billion from the initial disbursement, but Neal said the current distribution shortchanged many essential community hospitals that do not have a large Medicare fee-for-service revenue base, such as Holyoke Medical Center and Mercy Medical Center in Springfield. In the letter, Neal outlined how the state should be doing more testing than it is currently able to do to mitigate the risk of overwhelming the health care system. While the commonwealth has done a commendable job preparing for and managing resources in this incredibly difficult time, the state cannot backfill the excess costs and lost revenue that the COVID epidemic has caused, Neal wrote. Our Massachusetts providers are on the front lines of the fight. It is imperative that hospitals that treat the most vulnerable patients, Medicaid patients, cancer patients, and children with serious illnesses, have the resources they need to treat and care for Massachusetts patients expeditiously. Related Content: KNOXVILLE, Tenn., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NellOne Therapeutics Inc., the early stage biopharmaceutical company using a talented protein to plot a new future for regenerative medicine, has appointed accomplished leader and entrepreneur William A. Malkes as its new Chief Executive Officer. NellOne Therapeutics is pioneering research into the NELL1 protein as a candidate to treat acute major traumatic wounds in soft tissue. The appointment of Malkes marks an important moment for NellOne Therapeutics, as the company begins to move from development to commercial exploration. The company was founded by Oak Ridge National Labs scientist Bem Culiat and venture capitalist Tracy Warren. Malkes previously co-founded and led GRIDSMART Technologies Inc., a global intelligent transportation solutions business, which was sold to Cubic Corporation for $87 million in 2019. Under Malkes' leadership, the business grew to be the second largest in its space, and expanded to 22 countries around the world. Prior to GRIDSMART, Malkes held a number of senior leadership and advisory roles in technology and healthcare businesses including Health Care Solutions, ASIC International, Tradewind Technologies and Learning Technology Systems. Tracy Warren commented: "We are excited to have Bill Malkes join the team at NellOne Therapeutics. He has a long track record in branding, scale and execution, and his involvement will be critical as we transition from research to development and launch of NELL1 based regenerative products to improve the lives of millions of patients. Having known Bill for more than a decade as an investor, I'm thrilled to have him take the helm and write the next chapter of the NellOne story." Bill Malkes said: "Bem and Tracy have really been a decade ahead of the world in their approach to regenerative therapies. Their work has the potential to help ten of millions of people get their lives back, and reduce healthcare costs in the process. I have been motivated consistently through my career by a desire to make a difference, and I am thrilled to have this remarkable opportunity to help NellOne do exactly that by revolutionizing soft tissue regeneration." CONTACT: Dylan Jones, 718-687-8994 [email protected] SOURCE NellOne Therapeutics A stark guide to deathbed etiquette has been released in a bid to aid families hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The Centre for The Art of Dying Well at St Mary's University, London, advised relatives unable to be physically with their loved ones to communicate with them virtually, trust in the care of doctors and nurses and not let feelings of guilt take over. The guide also said relatives should speak from the heart, remember to say important last words and reassure them that you 'will be ok'. The UK has recorded 16,509 deaths from Covid-19 since the outbreak began, the majority of which are in individuals more than 60 years old. As many as 124,743 cases of the virus have been identified following testing. The guide was released by end-of-life carers at the Centre for The Art of Dying Well at St Mary's University, London. It advises families during the coronavirus crisis The guide recommends families should try to communicate virtually with their loved ones End-of-life care experts Dr Lynn Bassett, a retired healthcare chaplain, Dr Jo Elverson, a consultant in palliative medicine at St Oswald's Hospice in Newcastle, and Dr Amy Gadoud, a consultant at Trinity Hospice and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, compiled the guide to help families hit by fatalities at this time. 'There are no rights or wrongs about the way we feel and react; no definitive map to navigate through the loss and pain,' the guide says. 'If these thoughts are helpful, use them; if not, trust your instincts.' Dr Elverson said families should 'feel free to talk to staff' at hospitals to find out the best way to keep in touch and get updates. 'So at least you're not feeling completely out on a limb,' she said. 'with no idea what's going on.' She recommended sending in messages be they written, texts, emails or to ask the staff to pass on messages of love. Dr Gadoud said: 'The thing to remember is that the healthcare professionals are never going to desert the dying, that is something that I can categorically say would not happen. 'So the contact would still be there, it might be a little bit different in that they might have to wear a face mask and the equipment you might see on television, but they will be there, and the contact will be there.' She added there are cases where families are allowed to visit the hospital to see a loved one, although it may be for a short time. She said: 'I think that's the bombshell that we've all been hit by in this coronavirus crisis. 'If people are dying of some other disease at this time, it's possible that one relative may be allowed into the hospital or care home. It's possible. It's also possible you may not.' Guidance for end of life care issued by government keeps changing in response to the coronavirus crisis. Health secretary Matt Hancock said last week that 'wherever possible' people will be given the 'chance to say goodbye' to loved ones dying following reports of elderly people dying alone in care homes and hospitals banning all visitors. He said: 'Wanting to be with someone you love at the end of their life is one of the deepest human instincts.' Dr Elverson said visitors to St Oswald's Hospice, where she works, are asked to wear protective gear such as a mask when they are visiting someone suffering from coronavirus. The team will also give patients phones and tablets if their loved ones cannot be present. It also says that doctors and nurses on the wards will not ignore dying patients (Pictured: Milton Keynes hospital) 'It's not the same,' she said, 'but actually sometimes there are parts of that being present that we can do in a different way'. 'Yes, you might not be able to be sitting right at their bedside holding their hand, but actually if they can hear your voice, if they can see your face, that can give them the comfort you're hoping to give them. 'The reason people want to be there at the bedside is to make sure their loved one is OK, to make sure that they are present to comfort and reassure them, to say the things they want to say to them, and actually if it comes down to those core things, yes it's a compromise, but actually we can still do those things from a distance.' Dr Sarah Holmes, medical director at the Marie Curie Hospice Bradford, said: 'As the nation's end of life care charity we encourage people to plan conversations with loved ones at the end of life, as it provides an opportunity to discuss topics and ask questions that you might never have the chance to talk about again. 'Having these conversations can help avoid long-term psychological damage and complicated grief." She added: 'It's a very human need to want to be with the people we love when they are dying, to care and comfort them, to hold their hand and let them know they are loved.' Dublin, April 21 : A total of 77 COVID-19-related deaths were reported in Ireland on Monday, the highest figure ever recorded in a single day since the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, according to the statistics released by the Irish Department of Health. To date, there are altogether 687 COVID-19-related deaths in Ireland, said the department in a statement on Monday night, adding that another 401 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country on the same day, bringing the total number to 15,652, Xinhua reported. Irish Health Minister Simon Harris said in a twitter video message on Sunday night that he fears that complacency could be setting in regarding the battle against COVID-19. He warned that such complacency would be "disastrous" and could potentially be "fatal". His warning came after some of the European countries have recently decided to ease their lockdown measures. In another development, the Irish Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection issued a statement on Monday, saying that to date 584,000 people have been paid under the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment, a relief plan announced by the Irish government on March 16 to pay all those who have lost their jobs in the country due to the pandemic on a weekly basis of 350 euros (about $380) for an initial period of 12 weeks. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Bern, 21.04.2020 - Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, met by videoconference earlier today, 21 April, with his counterparts from the other German-speaking countries. He called on neighbouring countries and the EU to proceed in a coordinated manner to ease COVID-19 restrictions as quickly as possible. He also thanked his counterparts for the excellent cooperation which made the repatriation flights to bring Swiss and foreign citizens home possible. The COVID-19 crisis was the main topic of the talks between Mr Cassis and the foreign ministers of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. State Secretary and head of the Directorate for European Affairs Roberto Balzaretti also took part in the videoconference. Close cooperation to manage the crisis Mr Cassis emphasised that a crisis of this magnitude affecting all of Europe can only be tackled together. In recent weeks, he noted, Switzerland has taken in patients from French hospitals and sent personal protective equipment to Italy. Switzerland has also benefited from its close integration in EU crisis management efforts and regular bilateral consultations with EU states. This cooperation has proven to be a key asset in managing the crisis. "COVID-19 is at present still a health crisis. But the pandemic is already triggering an economic and financial crisis, and the necessary measures being taken to stem it will lead to a social crisis," said Cassis. "That's why now is the time to think about the best way out of the crisis and the steps we need to take in the coming weeks". Non-pharmaceutical interventions (social distancing) to stem the spread of the pandemic ought to be eased in a coordinated manner as soon as possible in order to ensure a phased return to normality and at the same time stave off a new wave of infections. Repatriation of European citizens Mr Cassis also spoke about Switzerland's role in the repatriation flights to bring home Swiss citizens and other Europeans. Over 30 repatriation flights have been carried out since the crisis began. In addition to Swiss nationals, Switzerland has organised the repatriation of 1,870 EU citizens, including 458 Germans, 151 Austrians and 16 Luxembourgers. Some 655 Swiss citizens have been able to return home on flights organised by Germany, Austria and Luxembourg. Mr Cassis expressed his thanks for the excellent cooperation, direct communication and "solidarity in practice" that made these flights possible. Close relations The German-speaking countries were working closely together and regularly exchanging information long before the COVID-19 crisis, and continue to do so in areas unrelated to the pandemic. Mr Cassis and his counterparts also discussed the difficult situation of migrants and refugees in the Greek-Turkish border region, stressed the importance of multilateral cooperation and the role of the UN in times of crisis, and conferred about Germany's upcoming EU Council presidency against the backdrop of the pandemic, as well as digital forms of communication that will be required. The foreign ministers agreed that Swiss-EU bilateral relations should be closely coordinated during the German presidency. The first annual meeting of foreign ministers from German-speaking countries took place in 2006. The aim of the meetings is to preserve and strengthen the excellent relations between Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. This is necessary as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown to ensure seamless cooperation even in times of crisis. Mr Cassis also invited his counterparts to meet in Switzerland next year. Address for enquiries FDFA Communication Federal Palace West Wing CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland Tel. Communication service: +41 58 462 31 53 Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55 E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch Twitter: @SwissMFA Publisher Federal Department of Foreign Affairs https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html A U.S. coronavirus study says a malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as a possible COVID-19 cure showed no benefit and more deaths, according to results released Tuesday. The Associated Press reports a nationwide study conducted at VA hospitals gave hydroxychloroquine, with or without the antibiotic azithromycin, to 368 patients, who were all male veterans. Researchers analyzed Veterans Health Administration medical center records of those confirmed to have COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, and died or were discharged by April 11. The study found: 28% who were given hydroxychloroquine plus routine care died, compared to 11 percent of those getting routine care alone. 22% who got hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin died, though researchers said the difference between the group and usual care was significant. Hydroxychloroquine made no difference in preventing needs for a ventilator. Hydroxychloroquine might have damaged other organs, though researchers did not track side effects. The drug, derived from the anti-malaria drug chloroquine, is known to cause heart issues in some patients and can prove fatal. The AP reports the study, paid for by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the University of Virginia, has been submitted to the New England Journal of Medicine, but has not been reviewed by other scientists. The NIH and others are also conducting more rigorous studies. But studies in other countries have found similar results, diminishing hope for chloroquine and its close relative hydroxychloroquine. The Los Angeles Times reports a French study found hydroxychloroquine reduced neither deaths nor ICU admissions among patients who received it; a Brazilian study was shut down after two deaths and heart problems among patients who got a high dose of chloroquine; and a Chinese study showed patients who got hydroxychloroquine didnt recover any faster or better than patients who didnt get the drug. Another hydroxychloroquine study is currently underway on 20 patients at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. Dr. Stephen Thomas, Upstates chief of infectious diseases, said their researchers hope to know within a few weeks if its safe and has a clinical benefit. Trump has frequently suggested hydroxychloroquine, commonly used to help people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, could be a game-changer to treat coronavirus. What do you have to lose? Trump said earlier this month. Im not looking at it one way or another. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didnt do it early. But what do I know, Im not a doctor. But I have common sense. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top infectious disease expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, has cautioned against unproven anecdotal stories of individuals who have reported success with hydroxychloroquine. He said there are concerns about side effects and toxicities as well as taking the drug off the market from people who need them for other conditions. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Dr. Anthony Fauci: If states reopen too fast, its going to backfire Ohio man dies of coronavirus after calling it a political ploy New York to consider region by region reopening after coronavirus shutdowns, Cuomo says McMahon: Doctors, not coronavirus protesters, will dictate when economy reopens It sold for under land value for that size lot, Fisher said. The owner did not want to sell to anybody who was going to tear it down. I could have sold it a million times over, even at (a) $1.1 million asking price. But even if (the sellers) had allowed that, anyone who had tried to tear it down would have gotten holy hell (from preservationists). WASHINGTONA $483 billion coronavirus aid package flew through the Senate on Tuesday after Congress and the White House reached a deal to replenish a small-business payroll fund and provided new money for hospitals and testing. Passage was swift and unanimous, despite opposition from conservative Republicans. President Donald Trump tweeted his support, pledging to sign it into law. It now goes to the House, with votes set for Thursday. I urge the House to pass the bill, Trump said at the White House. After nearly two weeks of negotiations and deadlock, Congress and the White House reached agreement Tuesday on the nearly $500 billion package the fourth as Washington strains to respond to the health and economic crisis. The Senate is continuing to stand by the American people, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to an almost empty chamber. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the bill was made better and broader after Democrats forced the inclusion of money for hospitals and testing. A copy of the measure was provided to The Associated Press by a GOP aide. Most of the funding, $331 billion, would go to boost a small-business payroll loan program that ran out of money last week. An additional $75 billion would be given to hospitals, and $25 billion would be spent to boost testing for the virus, a key step in building the confidence required to reopen state economies. Missing from the package, however, was extra funding for state and local governments staring down budget holes and desperate to avert furloughs and layoffs of workers needed to keep cities running. Trump said he was open to including in a subsequent virus aid package fiscal relief for state and local government which Democrats wanted for the current bill along with infrastructure projects. Not all Republicans are backing Trump on the deal. Two conservative Republicans, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voiced opposition during Tuesdays session but did not halt passage. Lee said it was unacceptable that the full Senate was not present and voting in the pro forma session as Congress shuttered during the virus outbreak. Paul said no amount of federal funding will be able to salvage a shuttered economy. Deaths from infectious disease will continue, but we cannot continue to indefinitely quarantine, said Paul, who tested positive for the virus last month but has since recovered. The House is being called to Washington for a Thursday vote, said Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader. Hoyer, D-Md., said the House will also vote on a proposal to allow proxy voting on future business during the pandemic, a first for Congress, which has required in-person business essentially since its founding. The House must show the American people that we continue to work hard on their behalf, Hoyer wrote to colleagues. But the landmark rules change met with objections from conservative Republicans. I dont support it at all, said Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., one of a handful of Republicans who showed up for Tuesdays pro forma session to protest proxy votes. Congress should be in session. Signalling concerns, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wrote Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., seeking more information on plans to reopen the House. The emerging virus aid package originally designed by Republicans as a $250 billion stopgap to replenish the payroll subsidies for smaller businesses has grown into the second largest of the four coronavirus response bills so far. Democratic demands have caused the measure to balloon, though Republicans support additions for hospitals and testing. The now $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program includes $60 billion or so set aside for and divided equally among smaller banks and community lenders that seek to focus on underbanked neighbourhoods and rural areas. Democrats have highlighted the number of smaller and minority-owned shops missing out on the aid. Another $60 billion would be available for a small-business loans and grants program delivered through an existing small business disaster aid program, $10 billion of which would come in the form of direct grants. The bill provides $25 billion for increased testing efforts, including at least $11 billion to state and tribal governments to detect and track new infections. The rest will help fund federal research into new coronavirus testing options. Currently, the U.S. has tested roughly 4 million people for the virus, or just over 1% of its population, according to the Covid Tracking Project website. While the White House says the U.S. has enough testing to begin easing social distancing measures, most experts say capacity needs to increase at least threefold, if not more. Despite yet another big package from Congress, all sides say more aid is likely needed. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin outlined infrastructure and broadband spending for the next bill. And theres pressure to help cities with populations of less than 500,000 that were shut out of the massive $2 trillion relief bill that passed last month. Schumer said Monday that he had talked to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell and that Powell said the Fed is working to open up the Main Street Lending program to nonprofits and municipal governments. The governments Paycheck Protection Program has been swamped by companies applying for loans and reached its appropriations limit last Thursday after approving nearly 1.7 million loans. That left thousands of small businesses in limbo as they sought help. Controversies have enveloped the program, with many businesses complaining that banks have favoured customers with whom they already do business. Some businesses that havent been harmed much by the pandemic have also received loans, along with a number of publicly traded corporations. ___ Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone, Mary Clare Jalonick and Matthew Daly contributed to this report. ROME After five weeks under a nationwide coronavirus lockdown, Cristiano Barberi's children's clothing store was among the few Roman shops allowed to reopen last week. But what may have looked like much-needed relief brought more financial punishment. "It's only for surviving," said Barberi, wearing a mask and rubber gloves outside his family-owned boutique in one of Rome's most fashionable neighborhoods, adding that he was opening to show "the people a new way, a new day." Almost a century old, his I Vippini Roma children's clothing shop sells mostly handmade outfits. It had only a few customers on the day it reopened, and only one made a purchase. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Barberi's tiny store and its customers are at the tip of the spear of Italy's delicate economic reopening, one that will be watched by the rest of the world as policymakers try to prevent the pandemic from becoming an economic catastrophe. Image: Christiano Barberi (Bill O'Reilly / NBC News) Politicians, as well as medical and economic experts, warn that Italy may not make a convincing model for other countries its death toll remains the highest in Europe, at 24,114, according to Johns Hopkins University. Some complain that Italy's planning for its "phase two" of the outbreak is still too little, too late. "Come on, you need to have a plan," said Alessandro Vespignani, an Italian American physicist and expert on mathematical epidemiology at Northeastern University in Boston. "This is like everyone is talking about D-Day but they don't know if they have ships, soldiers or support. But all everyone is talking about is when is [the date] of D-Day." Around two weeks before Italy is scheduled to reopen for business on May 3, an advisory task force of scientists, business and economy experts appointed by the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has yet to roll out a comprehensive plan to put Italians safely back to work. On Tuesday, Conte said that he was confident that he would be able to announce a plan for reopening the country by the end of this week. Story continues The government describes this phase as the one in which Italians find a way to live with the virus allowing people to return to work and use public transportation while still practicing social distancing, tracking personal associations and strengthening the health system to prepare for fresh outbreaks. In Italy, as elsewhere, medical caution is colliding with hard economic realities. The heavily indebted country ranked among the least financially solvent in Western Europe even before the crisis, and recent estimates from the International Monetary Fund see Italy's economy contracting by more than 9 percent by the end of the year the worst projection in Europe. Even after Silvio Brusaferro, president of Italy's National Health Institute, said last week that the "contagion curve is dipping," the government is debating whether to extend the lockdown past May 3 over concerns of a viral rebound. Image: Gianicolo Hill in Rome (Alberto Lingria / Reuters) The debate over Italy's reopening has played out across familiar fault lines, pitting big business and industry against labor unions and the wealthy north against the much poorer south. The government is tentatively planning to slowly reopen the economy in three stages across the north by far the worst afflicted by the virus the center and south of the country, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. Which businesses open first and how has become a central sticking point in the debate. Children's clothing stores like Barberi's were allowed to open last week, along with bookstores, stationery stores and logging activities counterintuitive categories that labor and industry leaders said were meant to prevent swarms of new customers. "I think it's because children grow up," Barberi said about why his store was allowed to open so early. "If there was someone that was born in December or January, they finished their little dress." Barberi's shop is among the 95 percent of Italian businesses that employ fewer than 10 employees. Those companies, less equipped to provide protection for their employees and typically more financially exposed, are among the most vulnerable to the virus. But representatives of major industries in the automobile and garment sectors have been applying substantial pressure on the government to allow large factories to reopen. Of particular concern are the "Made in Italy" brands labels in fashion, food, furniture and mechanical engineering (mostly automobiles) that are largely for export and considered iconic. The newspaper Corriere della Sera reported over the weekend that such businesses may be allowed to reopen before May 3. "There is a real risk that these industries will be severely damaged," said a representative of Confindustria, the Italian employers' federation, which has been pushing hard to reopen big brands. "You can find ways to allow safe work. But you can't just stay at home ... because the social consequences can be really very, very serious." The Confindustria representative argued that most new cases were transmitted within hospitals, private homes and nursing homes, not workplaces. But epidemiologists have called such arguments misleading. While most patients who died from the disease are elderly and retired people, many probably contracted the virus from younger working people who carried few symptoms. Labor unions have argued against returning to work while complaining that big business is prioritizing the economy over workers' safety. Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak "There's a sort of contradiction between saying always 'stay at home, stay at home, stay at home,' but at the same time to tell workers to go to work without the security and conditions," said Gianna Fracassi, deputy secretary-general of the Italian General Confederation of Labor, Italy's main labor union. Fracassi said that even after major industries had agreed with the government to keep the economy shut in public meetings Friday, they then privately lobbied the prime minister to reopen early. The representative from Confindustria denied that industrial lobbies had disagreed with the government's decision to extend the lockdown. But the arguments around the reopening point to an emerging realization about phase two: For many, in particular labor unions such as Fracassi's, it's less a new phase than a new reality. "We will be in a different world, and we will need to be in a very different social and economic situation," Fracassi said. "We know that we are going to be different at the end of this story, which will be very long." Authorities arrested an airman at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona Tuesday morning for allegedly murdering Sasha Krause, a woman whose body was found near Sunset Crater in February. Mark Gooch, an Airman First Class at Luke Air Force Base, was arrested for homicide by Coconino County Sheriff's Office and San Juan County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's officials allege the 21-year-old airman traveled from Luke Air Force Base to Farmington, New Mexico when Krause was first reported missing in January. Authorities believe Gooch was near Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument where Krause's body was eventually found. A warrant for Gooch's arrest was signed by a Flagstaff Justice Court judge on Friday, April 17, according to court documents. Gooch has been accused of first-degree murder, kidnapping and theft in the Flagstaff Justice Court. Sheriff officials alleged the murder occurred between Jan. 18 and Jan. 19. Krause, 27, was first reported missing from the Lamp & Light community near the Farmington Mennonite Church on Jan. 18. Gooch was charged with theft for taking Krause's head covering and underwear, according to Flagstaff Justice Court documents. Gooch is currently being held without bail according to court documents. Shane Ferrari, San Juan County Sheriff, shared in a video that investigators also initiated search warrants when they arrested Gooch at the Air Force base. The sheriff was confident in the arrest. "Over the last few months, San Juan County has lived in fear not knowing if we had a predator inside of our community, or if someone was preying upon it," Ferrari said. "I can assure you, we have our man." Ferrari said he supported the max penalty in the case. "The sheriff of Coconino and I are committed to making sure that Mark Gooch receives a max sentence for these horrible crimes, and yes, Arizona still has the death penalty," Ferrari said. Prosecutors ultimately make the decision about whether to charge someone with the death penalty, meaning prosecutors at the Coconino County Attorney's Office will have the final say on their case. Krause's body was first found by a man setting up camp near Sunset Crater in February, who reported the body to officials in the area off of Forest Road 545. Sunset Crater is approximately 20 miles northeast of Flagstaff on Highway 89 near the Wupatki National Monument, and more than 250 miles from Krause's home in New Mexico. The Sheriff's Office had not released any other information about the investigation until the arrest was made Tuesday. The young woman's disappearance led to an initial countywide search that drew people from around the state and country. Thousands connected on social media to network in the hopes of finding the young New Mexico woman. Coconino County officials said the arrest was due to a collaboration between sheriff staff, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Glendale Police Department, Office of Special Investigation Detachment 421, U.S. Air Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Luke Air Force Base and Coconino County Sheriff's Office did not respond in time for comment. Love 5 Funny 2 Wow 3 Sad 44 Angry 23 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Opinion Article 21 April 2020 Do you remember where you were when COVID-19 changed the world? Although it was not until several hours later that it dawned on me that it happened, I was at the Dubai International Airport. It was the typical hurry, bump and for some, shove, of any airport. As I boarded the tram, I was surrounded by a plane full of passengers departing for Iran at a gate close to mine. We were packed in a crowded train car and some were coughing, sneezing and sweating due to the temperature. After arriving at home, the next day's headline was about all the horrible cases of COVID-19 in Iran. That was how it all became real for meFebruary 20, 2020. Advertisements Two months later, and some areas of the world are finally returning to what will become a new normal. I am not going to waste column inches reminding everyone of what has happened in the last two months. It is fair to say it has been devastating and, suddenly, hospitality must make a transition from offering clean rooms to cleaner rooms, clean restaurants to cleaner restaurants, clean clubs to cleaner clubs and so on. CLEAN is the new buzz word, competitive advantage and the one thing that can propel our enterprises into the future. As you prepare to ramp up your enterprise and develop strategies to return to the good old days of January and profitability, what are solutions that are currently available, and how can you convince your potential customers doing business with you is not only CLEAN but also safe? Some of these are simple: accelerating your current cleaning practices, cleaning in full view of guests, adding hand sanitizer stations in all public areas and posting signage as to what your enterprise does to maintain a high level of cleanliness. Internally, you could schedule intensive team member training so that they display hygienic practices, work with the cleaning products vendors for ideas to extend cleanliness and even publish in rooms the contact information for a Chief Cleanliness Officer who is on duty to help with any cleanliness issues. You might want to consider door hangars, looped electronic messages or even window clings depending your type of enterprise. Some of the things we are doing at HFTP, as the producers of HITEC, to help the industry is increasing both education and product exposure to cleaner options and best practices from around the world. Our research teams are already discovering products that have been used in some of the most impacted regions. A few examples of these are disposable sheets, cleaning robots, bacteria resistant products and coatings, temperature scanning for guests, contactless entry, self-sanitizing toilets and more. These will be highlighted through special reports, education sessions and a feature pavilion at HITEC 2020 in San Antonio, Texas, USA, October 26-29, 2020. Currently our industry has quite a few obstacles that have been caused by this nasty old virus COVID-19. However, like all challenges, hospitality has always adapted and moved forward. The hospitality industry is and always will be a family industry. There is no one more capable of taking care of family than family. Look forward to seeing you IN PERSON at HITEC. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 19:46:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ABUJA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government says it is ready to commence the evacuation of its citizens who are stranded across the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic starting from next week. Foreign affairs minister Geoffrey Onyeama told media in Abuja late Monday that over 2,000 Nigerians, many of whom were stranded, had indicated an interest in returning home. "The most important part at this stage is to secure the planes to bring them back and we have now done that. So, hopefully, if we can tie up the other loose ends, we hope to start maybe towards the end of next week," Onyeama said. Already, the Nigerian government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two airlines to bring back the citizens at affordable rates, he said. It is not clear if the airlines are domestic or foreign operators. Nigeria had shut down its airports since late March, as part of moves to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country. The Nigerian FM said during the exercise, citizens would be brought back into the country in batches of 200 persons. This, he explained, is due to the lack of sufficient space at isolation centers. Returnees would be made to stay in seclusion for two weeks. "The next challenge is accommodation; everything has to be absolutely ready. We are actually determined when we start that, everything should go very smoothly and so, we really want to take all the necessary steps to ensure that would be the case," the official added. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 20:05:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SEOUL, April 21 (Xinhua) -- China's economy is expected to recover in the second quarter after shrinking in the first quarter amid the COVID-19 pandemic, experts said Tuesday. "China rapidly responded to the COVID-19 outbreak with fiscal and monetary stimulus packages, leading to a rapid rebound in the financial market," Piao Renjin, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities in Seoul, told Xinhua. "The Chinese government is forecast to expand fiscal and monetary stimulus measures... You can see a recovery in China during the second quarter," said the analyst. China's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 6.8 percent year on year in the January-March quarter amid the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, according to data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics. Despite the shrinkage, China is expected to be one of the few major economies that could see economic growth this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s recently released World Economic Outlook report, which predicted the global economy would decline 3 percent in 2020. China's economy is forecast to expand 1.2 percent this year, while the U.S. economy and the Euro Area are predicted to dive 5.9 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively, according to the report. Advanced economies are on track to plummet 6.1 percent, while emerging market and developing economies are set to fall 1 percent, it added. "China's export depends mainly on the European Union (EU) and the United States. The full-blown upturn of China's economy can be seen when the economies of the EU and the United States recover," Han Jae-jin, a manager of the global emerging markets team at Hyundai Research Institute in Seoul, told Xinhua. Predicting that China's economy will rebound from the third quarter after recording better economic indicators in the second quarter than the first quarter, Han said this year's economic growth rate in China is forecast to be higher than the IMF outlook of 1.2 percent on condition that the pandemic is contained globally. The experts emphasized the importance of the recovery of consumption and investment to a full-blown growth of the Chinese economy, as export takes up only one-third of the world's second-largest economy. "Factories in China had been on the pause in the first quarter, but almost 90 percent resumed operation... However, consumers still refrain from spending money amid a lingering worry about the virus, while offline shops reopen in a gradual manner," said Piao. She noted that consumer spending is expected to be bolstered by the expected additional stimulus measures taken by the Chinese government. The Korea Center for International Finance said in a report that the Chinese economy is projected to show a moderate growth due to the reopening of factories and the eased restrictions on movement that would prop up the domestic demand. Han worried that protectionism will emerge in global trade in the aftermath of the pandemic. "Once the (world) economy falls into downturn, protectionism tends to loom, given that the downturn prompts countries to protect homegrown companies," said Han. He noted that China and South Korea could take the opportunity to cooperate in various business fields amid the outbreak, such as in information and communications technology, to utilize their competitive edges in technology for stay-at-home work and online classes during the quarantine period. Enditem A massive lead-zinc deposit has been discovered in southwestern China's Guizhou Province, which is estimated to be worth over 70 billion yuan (about 9.88 billion U.S dollars), according to the provincial department of natural resources. Ninety-two major ore bodies have been delineated with an average lead ore grade of 2.27 percent and 6.76 percent for zinc in the Shuitang Township, Hezhang County, equivalent to six large lead-zinc mines due to the thickness of the ore body, said the department. The reserve of lead and zinc is estimated to reach over 3.27 million tons, along with gold, silver, gallium, cadmium, germanium, selenium, sulfur, copper and other important mineral resources. The deposit will help local impoverished regions shake off poverty and provide key resources to revitalize the basic material sector in Guizhou, said an official with the department. Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! Australia Echoes US Calls for Investigation Into CCP Virus Outbreak Australia will call for an independent international review of how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) handled the outbreak of the CCP virus. Speaking to ABC Insiders, Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said its essential that an independent investigation probe the initial outbreak, which has since infected more than 2 million people and caused economic crises in many countries. An independent review would identify for us about the genesis of the virus, about the approaches to dealing with it and addressing it, about the openness with which information was shared by the WHO, said Payne. Responding to a question about who should conduct the review, Payne said there was precedence in past reviews of egregious human rights issues. She then ruled out the WHO. That strikes me as a bit poacher and gamekeeper, she said. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the foreign affairs minister has his very, very strong support on the issue, adding that transparency is important for global public health. Its important that the WHO and all parties part of the WHO, act with great transparency. Its important for public health globally that there is a transparency in the way that you can get access to this important information early, he told reporters in Canberra on April 21. It is known that by at least mid-December, the CCP was aware of human-to-human transmission in the virus epicenter of Wuhan. Yet the CCP didnt admit this until Jan. 20, after 5 million people had left Wuhan. Another three days passed before Chinese authorities implemented the first containment measures for the surrounding Hubei Provinceby which time the disease had already spread around the country and overseas. Read More Australian Politician Defends Virus Travel Ban Extension After China Calls It Extreme Yet at the time, the WHO advised countries such as Australia against implementing bans on travel from China. Against the WHOs advice, Australia announced a China travel ban on Feb. 1. Payne stated that Australia shares the same concerns that the United States has identified in relation to the WHO. An independent review of #COVID19 will need countries to come to the table with a willingness to be transparent, says Foreign Minister @MarisePayne pic.twitter.com/FuFbs5g6iT DFAT (@dfat) April 19, 2020 Despite these concerns, the prime minister recently said that Australia wasnt cutting funding to the WHO. Australia has a joint project with the WHO in the Pacific region. This came after U.S. President Donald Trump cut $400 million (AU$635 million) in annual funding to the WHO. Former Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer agreed with Payne. He said the worlds policy toward China needs to change and China needs to be held accountable for the crisis it unleashed. China must be held to account for unleashing a global catastrophe https://t.co/V9zczQY9u6 Alexander Downer (@AlexanderDowner) April 19, 2020 CCP Response and Cooling Relations On April 20, CCP Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang denied that the Chinese regime had done anything wrong in relation to the pandemic. Geng asserted that Paynes remarks were not based on facts and that Chinas ruling party had acted in a transparent and responsible manner. Related Coverage Programming Alert: Exclusive Documentary on Origin of the CCP Virus Premieres Australia and China are currently experiencing a cooling of diplomatic relations, with Payne saying that Australia is currently reviewing its strategic partnership with the communist regime. All of these things will need to be reviewed, [and] will need to be considered in the light of changes in the world economy, she said. Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, chairman of the Australian Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committee, has called for just such a review. Hastie began a petition to push back against the CCPs attempts to influence and reshape Australia to its advantage. He described it as a generational challenge for Australians. Over the past month, the Chinese Embassy in Australia has denounced the Australian media and vocal politicians such as George Christensen and Liberal Sen. Alex Antic for what it sees as disrespectful or slanderous commentary about its handling of the pandemic. Australia, alongside hundreds of countries, is suffering from the severe public health and economic impacts of the CCP virus pandemic. Epoch Times reporter Caden Pearson contributed to this article. In the year 430 BC, two years into the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, an outbreak of plague overtook the city of Athens. The illness persisted intermittently in Greece and parts of the eastern Medtiterranean until 426 BC. Originating sub-Saharan Africa, the plague swept through Egypt, Libya, and Persia before entering Athens through the port of Piraeus. Ancient Greek historian Thucydides recorded the outbreak in grotesque and frightening detail in his history of the Peloponnesian War: The disorder first settled in the head, ran its course from thence through the whole of the body, and, even where it did not prove mortal, it still left its mark on the extremities; for it settled in the privy parts, the fingers and the toes, and many escape with the loss of these, some too with that of their eyes. Using Thucydides account scholars today estimate that in total the epidemic killed between 82,500 and 99,000 persons, about one-third of the Athenian population. Almost a millennium after the plague of Athens a pandemic struck the metropolis of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, or the empire that endured in the eastern Mediterranean after the collapse of Rome in the west. The outbreak, which likely originated on the border of China and Kazakhstan, hit Constantinople in AD 542 in the middle of the reign of Justinian I. A chronicler of the period paints a grim picture: dead bodies littering the streets by the thousands, burial pits and trenches, corpses thrown into the sea, and even the deaths of domesticated animals. The emperor himself contracted the disease, but survived. By some estimates up to 10 percent of the worlds population at the time were not as fortunate. Eight hundred years later the most fatal pandemic in human history, the Black Death, or as it was then known, the Great Pestilence, overwhelmed Europe. As with the Plague of Justinian, the Black Death originated in East Asia and gradually spread westward. In 1347 Italian traders using silk road routes found themselves temporarily waylaid in the Crimean city of Kaffa. At the time Kaffa was fighting off a siege of Mongol invaders. One strategy the Mongols used in their assault was to catapult corpses infected with the disease over the walls of the city. It worked. When the Italian traders left Kaffa for Sicily they were infected. From Sicily the plague spread to Genoa, from Genoa to Venice, from Venice to Pisa and from Pisa to all of Europe. What we now know to be a version of bubonic plague resulted in the deaths of up to thirty million people. Three different plagues, three different time periods, three different civilizations. Apart from the awful loss of life, the emotional and economic toll, and the chaotic disruption of normal habits of living what might we learn from them? First, all three outbreaks are found in historical situations where large groups of people concentrated in cities and where freedom of movement and increased commercial trade brought people into closer contact. Athenian wealth exploded in the decades leading up to the Peloponnesian War, as did immigration into Athens. Over a half-century of peace since the defeat of the Persians swelled the population with peoples from surrounding areas seeking a chance at prosperity. A similar pattern followed in Constantinople during the reign of Justinian. Historians estimate the imperial capital saw a population jump of 150,000 between the late 5th century and the time of the plague. Byzantine port cities expanded and agricultural trade with Africa increased to feed the growing populations in the cities. Likewise, in Europe beginning around AD 1300 urban growth swelled populations in port cities in Italy and the Netherlands as trade expanded and older patterns of feudalism met resistance from emerging economic freedoms found in urban centers. A second lesson is all three plagues generated changes in the meanings of citizenship and social membership. As the Spartans advanced on Athens refugees poured into the city seeking safety but also worsening the spread of the disease while the countryside suffered much less. The population influx heightened the distinction between Athenian citizens and non-citizens. Before the war and the plague non-citizens or resident aliens, called metics, flocked to Athens in droves, so much so a law passed in 451BC restricted Athenian citizenship to only those born to Athenian citizens. Though non-citizens still found a home in Athens their future was legally uncertain. When the epidemic changed the population balance between citizens and non-citizens, further restrictions against metics that had begun in the 450s resulted. In the wake of the plague and the war metics permanently lost the means to become citizens. Like the earlier Romans, the Byzantines experimented with universal citizenship to all who agreed to the protection of the emperor, his supreme will, and the rights and duties thus entailed. Evidence suggests the plague years did not seriously interrupt Justinians efforts to codify legal statutes and territorial ambitions inherited from the older Roman empire. Eventually, as the ideal of universal citizenship under an autocrat combined with geographic expansion into the Near Middle East, Byzantium suffered. In AD 638-639 the plague of Emmaus, a likely reemergence of the plague of Justinian, struck Syria and the surrounding area. The epidemic significantly contributed to the weakening of the Eastern Roman Empire at a time when the early Islamic caliphate expanded its territorial reach. The political and religious boundaries of Byzantium receded incrementally, and a permanent cultural divide retained. In late medieval Europe privileges of citizenship often required residency in a city for a year and a day. Urban populations depended on community solidarity supported by swearing an oath to comply with the provisions of city charters. Citizenship meant investment in the joint enforcement of the city charter and mutual protection against external dangers. In the aftermath of the Black Death the idea of the common good shifted in many European cities where trade collapsed and endemic outbursts persisted. New arrivals and strangers were met with suspicion, and communal forms of government yielded to dynastic lordships who regulated commerce as well as decisions about who could and could not become citizens. History shows a link between commerce, population density and disease. It also shows that unmitigated openness in the pursuit of prosperity involves serious hazards. In the thirty years since the end of the Cold War the United States and Europe optimistically embraced globalism and ill-defined notions of global citizenship as aspirational goals for enlightened, free and progressive societies. Covid-19 is exposing the risks and the costs. Questions occasionally important to mainstream Western political conversations are now front and center: Are the economic benefits of globalism worth the despair of diseases that cannot be contained? Is global citizenship a political fiction benefiting some and punishing others? Which jobs are essential to our workforce and which are not? How do the rights and responsibilities of citizenship cohere in a borderless world? How much of life can be controlled by policy and how much depends upon an individuals character and familiar obligations? The pre-modern worlds of Athens, Byzantium, and late medieval Europe may not recognize these exact questions, but their experience of plagues raised analogous ones. Yet another potential fatality of the coronavirus is the naive faith that progress and tolerance can transform the rights and privileges of citizenship into a global aspiration. Jason Wallace, Ph.D. is a professor of History at Samford University; Stockham Chair of Western Intellectual History; Director, Core Texts Program History Department. The Australian share market stumbled on Tuesday, 21 April 2020, with almost all of ASX sectors declined, after a historic plunge in U. S. crude prices and reports that North Korean leader is unwell. Around late afternoon, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index dropped 104.11 points, or 1.94%, to 5,248.90. The broader All Ordinaries fell 110.44 points, or 2.04%, to 5,304.30. Crude oil futures collapsed to below zero for the first time in history on Monday as the deepening concerns about the economic damage being done by coronavirus shutdowns left traders desperate to avoid taking delivery of physical crude. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery finished down $55.90 on Monday, more than 306%, to settle deeply in negative territory at -$37.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, meaning that you have to pay to get someone to take barrels of oil off your hands amid a growing supply glut and storage shortage. The May contract expires at Tuesday's close. Any traders that are still long crude at that time must take physical delivery, while anyone short must make delivery. In the morning of Asian trading hours on Tuesday, the price of the May WTI contract bounced into positive territory, trading at $1.35 per barrel. The June U. S. crude contract gained 3.23% to $21.09 per barrel. International benchmark Brent crude futures, on the other hand, dipped 0.9% to $25.34 per barrel. The North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is in grave danger after undergoing surgery, according to reports. North Korea's supreme leader recently missed the birthday celebration of his grandfather - the national founder, Kim Il Sung on April 15, sparking speculations about his health. The last time Kim was seen publicly, he was presiding over a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's politburo on April 11. Almost all ASX sectors declined, with shares in info tech, real estate, and industrial sectors being notable losers, with all down about 3%. The heavier financials sector was down about 1%, and materials about 1.5%. The only sector inclined was utilities, thanks to gains in AGL and APA, after APA confirmed it will be paying a 50 dividend this year. However, it did trim guidance from between A$1.66 billion and A$1.69 billion to between A$1.635 billion and A$1.655 billion. On the corporate news front, Virgin Australia announced Tuesday that the firm has entered voluntary administration to recapitalise the business and help ensure it emerges in a stronger financial position on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis. That comes as the airline sector has taken a huge beating from the coronavirus pandemic, with travel heavily restricted as authorities globally race to stem the virus' spread. ECONOMIC NEWS: The Reserve Bank of Australia's minutes for its April meeting released earlier on Tuesday, showed the Board remained committed to supporting jobs, incomes and businesses as the country responds to the coronavirus outbreak. In the minutes, members also noted that the Australian banks were in a strong position to withstand the large economic shock from the Covid-19 outbreak and financial market volatility. CURRENCY NEWS: The U. S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against as basket of its peers, was last at 100.19 after an earlier low of 99.928, after news that the U. S. is monitoring information surrounding the health of North Korea's dictator. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6301, off levels above $0.635 seen yesterday. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced plans on Friday, April 17, for a farm relief program. Funded largely through the CARES Act, the $19 billion package will be used to funnel funds to corporate farms while providing little assistance for the vast majority of small or working farmers. Like other government programs to help farmers, most of this money will end up in the hands of agribusiness. The majority of farmland is owned by farms grossing over $500,000 in sales, a figure that demonstrates the demise of the American family farm. In total, $16 billion will be handed directly to farmers, of which $9.6 billion goes to the livestock industry. This funding will be given largely as reimbursements for losses and will not be contingent upon providing food to those in need. The remaining $3 billion will be used to purchase $100 million each of produce, meat and dairy that will be distributed to food banks, nonprofits and community and faith organizations every month. This is a paltry sum, amounting to just 27 cents a day for every food insecure person, a figure that will only decline as Americas now 22 million unemployed seek assistance. It will also provide funds to distribute 1,000,000 meals a week to children in a limited number of rural schools. How this would actually be done given the wide dispersion of such students, many of whom rode buses for an hour or more to reach their schools, is unclear. This bailout is intended to offset financial losses from the collapse of distribution systems during the pandemic. While grocery stores are having difficulty keeping their shelves stocked, much of the food in the pipeline is packaged in bulk quantities for institutional buyers such as restaurants and schools. The closure of restaurants, schools and other institutional buyers has resulted in farmers destroying millions of pounds of food as their distribution chains are disrupted. This is not because there is no demand, but because transitioning to retail packaging is too costly. It is cheaper to destroy food than to repackage it and send it elsewhere. This mass destruction of crops and dairy products comes at a time when millions of Americans have lost their jobs and are now turning to food banks to feed their families. Some food banks are reporting an increase in demand as high as 300 percent. Lines of cars in the thousands have been reported queuing up at food banks across the country. But even if all the available food was sent to food banks, they lack the necessary resources and equipment to handle such an expansion in supply. A study of food banks in San Diego County, California, found that in 2015 less than half of food banks had enough refrigerator space and only 54 percent had enough freezer space to service people in need. If food banks around the country did not have enough storage space before the pandemic, there is no reason to believe that they are prepared to handle a huge rise in demand or supply. Feeding America, one of the largest organizations representing food banks, estimates that an additional $1.4 billion is needed to cover the increasing operating costs of food banks, an insignificant amount compared to the $2 trillion granted to bail out the banks and corporations. Whether or not food banks and charities can handle a massive influx is not issue for the capitalist class and the state that protects it. They do not care whether people receive enough food, as long as the agricultural industry remains profitable and the pretense of aid is maintained. There is not even mention in the legislation of providing agricultural and food processing workers with aid. Without proper protective equipment, these workers are at great risk, and migrant workers in particular are threatened with destitution without income support. Farm laborers earn between $15,000 and $24,499 a year, according to official figures, with a quarter living below the poverty line. Already working and living in horrid conditions, these workers face privation during a global health crisis. Suffering similarly horrendous conditions, meat packing workers are kept on the job while the virus is allowed to tear through their plants. It has already taken several lives and infect ed hundreds of workers. These workers need aid far more than the capitalists who exploit them. The ruling class has made it clear with this relief program that it only cares about protecting profits at the expense of workers. Kenneth Sullivan, CEO of the meatpacker Smithfield Foods, said, We have to operate these processing plants even when we have COVID. If we dont, we sadly wont have food. This is a falsehood. Tens of millions of pounds of food are being destroyed while the USDA estimates that 2.4 billion pounds of meat sits in cold storageenough to cease all meat packaging for several weeks until protective measures are put in place. An estimated 3.7 million gallons of milk are dumped every day, enough to provide all 37 million food insecure people with two quarts a week. There is plenty of food to last while measures are taken to protect workers, both citizen and immigrant. The claim that workers must die to keep production flowing is a nefarious lie. What the working class needs is not a haphazard dumping of goods into food banks and charities, but an adequate income so that all working people can afford to buy food, and an adequate supply so that the food is available to those who want it. This should be combined with a coordinated effort to reorganize food supply chains to meet social needs. The vast resources of the state and private industry must be placed under the control of the working class, with a coordinated and scientific plan for the safe harvesting and distribution of agricultural goods. The retooling of currently unused supply chains is a necessary and far from impossible task. Restaurants, schools and hotels must have their cold storage resources reconverted into temporary distribution centers for those in need. One restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland, called La Cuchara, has already repurposed its supply chain to create a makeshift grocery store. The widespread capacity for converting existing resources is apparent. But such changes must be made to feed the working class, not to benefit the capitalists who would sacrifice millions of workers to the virus to keep their profits flowing. A desperate father resorted to pulling out his own tooth in an excruciating hour-long ordeal after he couldn't get an emergency appointment with a dentist. Billy Taylor, 33, from Devon, decided to take the tooth out as he couldn't handle the pain. He had been told by NHS 111 that unless he was struggling to breathe, there was nothing they could do to help. Dentists have today warned that patients are being left untreated as urgent treatment centres face a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). Patients with urgent matters such as infections are being forced to take matters into their own hands, as dentists are unable to see them as they do not have the adequate supplies. The British Dental Association said that 54 per cent of dentists in England have been unable to treat patients at urgent dental care (UDC) hubs, that have been set up across the country after surgeries closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Billy Taylor (left) was forced to pull out his own tooth as he was unable to get an appointment. His son Leo (together right) helped him pull it out The 33-year-old this morning told BBC's Radio 4: I phoned my dentist and they said they were closed and would put me on an emergency waiting list but I didnt know how long that would take so I phoned 111 and they basically said that unless it was stopping me from breathing they couldnt do anything. 'This wasnt the case but the pain was excruciating, so I got an ice pack put it on my face until I couldnt feel it anymore and the final tug, me and my son just went for it and it came out, it was quite tricky, I thought maybe 20 minutes but it took an hour and a half.' Billy had to take drastic measure due to the shortage of urgent care centres open, and even some centres that are open are unable to perform some treatments due to a lack of PPE. Billy had to take drastic measure due to the shortage of urgent care centres open his tooth, his tooth is above Dr Mike Urlish from West Yorkshire said he is working at the Brighouse surgery but is unable to treat anyone. I have all the equipment to treat people but Im not doing it, all Im allowed to do is give prescriptions out because we have no PPE. What should you do if you are experiencing dental issues? Vice Chair of Dental Association Eddie Crouch today said that it's still important to seek help for dental issues. He said that if a patient has swelling that is impacting the airway or the eyes, then you should attend A&E. 'But if they are not that severe they should phone their local dental practice where the dentist will give then some advice, some antibiotics and if that doesnt work then that dentist can refer them on to a dental care centre when they are operating.' 'Some dental infections can be life threatening, we know people are keeping away from hospitals but if you have something that severe you ought to be turning up at A&E.' Advertisement 'We havent seen anyone for three weeks because a face to face without the appropriate PPE is not advised and not possible. Ive advised people to get temporary filling kits, to take pain killers and if necessary we can prescribe anti biotics but thats all we can do. Dr Urlish said he ordered visors from a school technology department but cant get hold of the right masks. There arent enough in the country and I understand that, they need to go to A&Es and hospitals obviously but we cant do anything without them because using the dental drill creates an aerosol spray which can spread virus particles. 'Its not just a case of getting these masks they need to be professionally fitted as well. Despite the shortages chief dental officer Sara Hurley, says PPE is on its ways and that a network of more than 200 urgent care centres is up and running. But Dr Urlish said there are no urgent dental centres in his region and said his surgery has applied to be one but has not heard back. The urgent dental centres still have not been set up and thats because they havent got the PPE, Im frustrated, I think that is the only word, frustrated I cant do what I know I should be able to do. Vice Chair of Dental Association Eddie Crouch said there is a back log in of patients that are in pain, he said dentists want to help them but added that they need the support to do so. Some PPE is acceptable for doing non-aerosol procedures but that limits what the dentist can do for his patient. Many of our techniques and treatments involve aerosol and wearing the proper respirator type masks and gowns and we know that this is a real problem across the health service. 'We know dentistry is low priority in comparison to saving lives but we do want to help patients and its ridiculous that patients are taking their own teeth out in a country'. With pressure already mounting on the struggling NHS due to the amount of coronavirus cases and a shortage of PPE, Mr Crouch said further dental problems could put even more of a strain on the NHS. 'Many of the countries, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have been delivering urgent care centres for much longer than we have in England and the real problem is the organisation within NHS England. 'The command structure that is there means things are done a lot slower and it means that we have had to wait in England a lot longer for policy and distribution and in other countries it seems to have been much slicker and patients are being seen quicker. The Supreme Court has managed to transform a very straightforward issue into something quite complex. Dont blame the current justices, though. On the issue in question, the right to have criminal cases decided by a unanimous jury, this is not the Courts first rodeo. In Mondays decision, Ramos v. Louisiana, the Court correctly ruled (a) that the right to a jury trial, which is specified in Article III, Section 2, and yet again in the Sixth Amendment, includes the right to a unanimous verdict and (b) that this federal constitutional right applies to the states. The case centers on Evangelisto Ramos, who stood to spend the rest of his life in prison for a serious crime on which he was convicted at a state trial in Louisiana by a jury whose verdict was 102 against him. That would not be good enough to convict him in 48 states or federal court, which require unanimous verdicts. But two states, Louisiana and Oregon, have permitted non-unanimity since shortly before the end of the 19th century. These two states are lonely outliers from the centuries-long understanding of what a jury trial is. The reprehensible rationale for their diversion, at least originally, was racial prejudice. In the legacy of Jim Crow, Louisiana was attempting to water down Reconstruction-era constitutional amendments and civil-rights legislation that ensured the fundamental rights of African Americans to serve on juries. Oregon, similarly, was attempting to dilute the influence of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities. Louisiana and Oregon have long since renounced the racist underpinnings of their non-unanimity rule. Yet they nonetheless retained it on less noxious but still ill-conceived reasoning: the theory that non-unanimity discourages hung juries, which waste resources, since cases then have to be retried. Besides ignoring that a unanimous jury is a fundamental right, this theory proceeds on two faulty assumptions: (1) Hung juries are worse than wrongful convictions or acquittals and (2) permitting non-unanimous verdicts makes hung juries less likely to the contrary; it undermines the spirit of open-minded deliberation that encourages juries to arrive at a consensus. Story continues The Ramos case should have been as simple as: The Constitution requires a unanimous jury, that applies to the state, Ramos was convicted by a non-unanimous jury, conviction reversed, case closed. It was not closed, because of a confusing precedent from the Seventies, the era of confusing precedents: Apodaca v. Oregon (along with its companion case, Johnson v. Louisiana). The nine justices in that 1972 case acknowledged unanimity as a constitutional requirement, and four dissenters were prepared to reverse non-unanimous convictions. But four justices, leaning against imposition of federal constitutional mandates on the states, reasoned that the issue, in contemporary society, was whether unanimitys costs outweighed its benefits. Deciding it did not, they voted to uphold non-unanimous convictions. It was left to Justice Lewis Powell to break the tie. He sided with the states-rights plurality, pressing his peculiar theory that the Courts doctrine of incorporating constitutional rights against the states should proceed on a dual track. That is, Powell believed that the states had to honor the incorporated rights in some form but that they were free to interpret those rights differently from federal law. This theory had no support then and has been rejected since. To summarize, Apodaca has stood as precedent for nearly half a century, even though it denied the right to jury unanimity, the wrongness of its result has been patent, and its deciding vote was based on a wayward theory of dual-track incorporation that is untenable and was untenable even when Apodaca was decided. In Mondays 63 ruling, the justices threw Apodaca overboard and vacated Ramoss conviction. The majority opinion by Justice Gorsuch was essentially joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Brett Kavanaugh. Justice Clarence Thomas concurred in the judgment, but on importantly different reasoning that I shall come to momentarily. Justice Samuel Alito dissented in an opinion that was a ringing endorsement for stare decisis. That is the doctrine of promoting predictability in the law by adhering to precedent, even precedent conceded to be wrong, if too much upheaval would be wrought by reversal in light of longstanding reliance on those rulings. It is not surprising to find Chief Justice John Roberts signing on to such a dissent, but some eyebrows will be raised at Justice Elena Kagans joining in. More indication, perhaps, that she and Roberts are the Courts emerging center of gravity, along with Kavanaugh who, though in the majority, wrote a separate concurrence in a dubious effort to add more clarity to the stare decisis jurisprudence. Justice Kagan, I suspect, sees robust stare decisis as the best strategy for the liberal bloc in fending off any future rollback of progressive sacred cows by the conservative majority. Key to the dissent was its insistence that the original racist underpinnings for allowing non-unanimous juries had been superseded. In the dissenting justices view, this stripped things down to the inadvisability of undoing an infirm but decades-old precedent. Justice Gorsuchs majority opinion aside: he is such an engaging writer convincingly countered that the legacy of racism was essential to understanding what an unwelcome departure non-unanimous juries were from the basic constitutional and common-law understanding of what a jury trial is. As for stare decisis, Gorsuch illustrated that Apodaca is not just wrong but indefensible. Moreover, it has been relied on by only two states, meaning that reversal will cause much less disruption than several of the Courts past reversals, which have roiled the criminal-justice system nationwide. Justice Thomas emphatically agreed that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimous jury verdicts. He could not agree with the majoritys ruling, though, mainly because he does not accept the Supreme Courts incorporation jurisprudence. As Thomas points out, the privileges-and-immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment plainly and expressly ensures that the enumerated rights of the Constitution may not be abridged by the states. Yet the Court has failed to interpret the clause this way. To compensate for this error, the Courts incorporation doctrine purports to apply the Bill of Rights to the states through the Fourteenth Amendments due-process clause. Thomas, however, has long rejected the notion that a mere guarantee of process before fundamental rights may be infringed somehow defines the substance of those rights. I believe that he is correct, and that the hocus-pocus of using a procedural guarantee to craft substantive rights (many that turn out not to be in the Constitution at all) is sheer judicial legislating. In any event, Justice Thomas would hold that the right to a unanimous jury verdict in state criminal cases is among the privileges and immunities safeguarded by the Fourteenth Amendment. So, yes, this seemingly simple case generated five separate opinions (Justice Sotomayor wrote one, too). Thats a lot of telling us how to build a clock, but the justices did get the time right. More from National Review Dr. Lord Graceful Mensah, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Ho Teaching Hospital Tuesday said presentation of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to health institutions boosts morale of staff to up the fight against COVID19. "PPE are essential. They boost our morale to do more so when we receive such donations, we are happy and prepared to take good care of all patients...," he said. Dr. Mensah said this when Mr Francis Albert Nyonyo Agboada, Member of Council of State for the Volta Region donated assorted PPE worth GHC100,000.00 to the Ho Teaching Hospital and the Anloga Health Centre in the Anloga District. He expressed gratitude to Mr Agboada for the gesture and said workers were happy the facility was not forgotten in the wake of the Coronavirus disease. "It feels good when you work and your performance is recognized so we are happy and we say thank you," Dr.Mensah added. Mr Kofi Humado, Member of Parliament for Anlo, who presented the items on behalf of the Member of Council of State, said the presentation, also under the auspices of the Nyonyo Foundation, was necessitated by the seriousness of the pandemic, requiring the support of all. Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, Volta Regional Minister who received the items on behalf of the institutions commended Mr Agboada for the items and said concerted efforts were needed to fight the pandemic and reiterated the need for all to comply with the social distancing protocols and other precautionary measures. The Volta Region has a total of ten confirmed cases of COVID19, with the patients said to be in stable condition receiving treatment. 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 The Shahi Imam of Fatehpuri mosque in Delhi has appealed to Muslims to not step out during Ramzan and offer prayers at home. Covid-19 is taking a very dangerous form, please listen to the advice of the doctors. Dont come out of your houses without reason. The fast can be observed at home too. Prayers too can be done alone at home. Please dont ask neighbours to join you, Imam Mufti Mukarram Ahmed said in his public appeal. The Ramzan will begin on April 23 (Thursday). Another prominent Muslim body Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind too appealed to Muslims on Monday to adhere to the lockdown guidelines and perform all religious rituals during Ramzan staying inside their homes. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani urged Muslims to offer prayers, including special Taraweeh prayers, during Ramzan at home rather than in mosques. In view of deadly Covid-19 that has caused death and destruction all over the world, medical experts have suggested that social distancing is only option to break the chain of spread of this dangerous virus, Madani said. The nationwide lockdown, which was from March 25 till April 14, has been extended to May 3 by the government to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease Covid-19. Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi last Thursday had directed state waqf boards to ensure strict implementation of the lockdown and social distancing guidelines during the holy month of Ramzan. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON French English MONTREAL and TORONTO, April 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nexus Real Estate Investment Trust (the REIT) (TSXV: NXR.UN) announced today that it intends to release its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 before the opening of the TSX Venture Exchange on Friday May 15, 2020. Management of the REIT will host a conference call at 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on Friday May 15, 2020 to review the financial results and operations. To participate in the conference call, please dial 416-915-3239 or 1-800-319-4610 (toll free in Canada and the US) at least five minutes prior to the start time and ask to join the Nexus REIT conference call. A recording of the conference call will be available until June 15, 2020. To access the recording, please dial 604-674-8052 or 1-855-669-9658 (toll free in Canada and the US) and enter access code 4378. April and May Distributions The REIT announced today that it will make a cash distribution in the amount of $0.01333 per unit, representing $0.16 per unit on an annualized basis, payable May 15, 2020 to unitholders of record as of April 30, 2020. The REIT will also make a cash distribution in the amount of $0.01333 per unit, representing $0.16 per unit on an annualized basis, payable June 15, 2020 to unitholders of record as of May 29, 2020. The REITs current distribution per unit continues to be $0.01333 per month. The REITs distribution reinvestment program (DRIP) entitles eligible unitholders to elect to receive all, or a portion of the cash distributions of the REIT reinvested in units of the REIT. Eligible unitholders who so elect will receive a bonus distribution of units equal to 4% of each distribution that was reinvested by them under the DRIP. Issuance of Units to Settle Debt On April 1, 2020, the REIT issued a total of 2,639,745 Class B LP Units of a subsidiary limited partnership of the REIT, valued at $2.30 per unit, in settlement of a total of $6,071,413.50 of contractual obligations. The units were issued at a $0.78 per unit premium over the $1.52 closing price of the REITs units on April 1, 2020. The Class B LP Units are exchangeable for REIT units on a one for one basis. Under applicable securities laws, the units issued are subject to a four-month hold period which will expire on August 1, 2020. The units were issued pursuant to a development management agreement entered into between the REIT and the vendor of the REITs Richmond, BC property (the Richmond Partner), under which the REIT has engaged the Richmond Partner to manage the development of the Richmond, BC property, and pursuant to which the REIT will split the increase in value of the Richmond, BC property with the Richmond Partner, as previously noted in the REITs press release dated March 26, 2020, and will pay a development management fee to the Richmond Partner. The 2,639,745 units issued represent an advance of $5,000,000 (2,173,908 units) against the Richmond Partners portion of the increase in the property value (the Lift Advance), as well as payment of $1,071,413.50 (465,837 units) of the total of $3,000,000 in development management fees payable to the Richmond Partner pursuant to the development management agreement. On April 1, 2020, 181,159 units, valued at $416,666, were released to the Richmond Partner, and the REIT holds the remaining 1,992,749 units issued in respect of the Lift Advance for disbursement to the Richmond Partner in equal installments of 181,159 units on the first of each month for 11 months commencing May 1, 2020, in full satisfaction of the Lift Advance. On August 1, 2020, the 465,837 units issued on account of development management fees will be released to the Richmond Partner. While units are held by the REIT for disbursement, they will not accrue distributions. Annual General Meeting The REITs annual general meeting will be held at 9:00 AM Eastern Standard Time on Thursday May 14, 2020. In order to comply with government and public health directives regarding Covid-19 social distancing, unitholders are strongly encouraged to submit a form of proxy or voter information form in advance of the meeting, and not to plan to attend the meeting in person. The Meeting will be available through a conference call: 1-604-638-5340 or 1-800-319-4610 and a webcast: http://services.choruscall.ca/links/nexusreit20200514.html . The REIT expects to file its management proxy circular and related materials with the securities regulators on SEDAR and mail such materials to unitholders on or about April 23, 2020. About Nexus REIT Nexus is a growth-oriented real estate investment trust focused on increasing unitholder value through the acquisition, ownership and management of industrial, office and retail properties located in primary and secondary markets in North America. The REIT currently owns a portfolio of 72 properties comprising approximately 4.0 million square feet of rentable area. The REIT has approximately 107,329,000 units issued and outstanding. Additionally, there are Class B LP units of subsidiary limited partnerships of Nexus REIT issued and outstanding, which are convertible into approximately 24,457,000 REIT units. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information please contact: Kelly C. Hanczyk, CEO at (416) 906-2379; or Rob Chiasson, CFO at (416) 613-1262. Swati Ray, a Kolkata-based education consultant whose firm helps students choose higher education institutions, has seen 20 cancellations over the past two weeks. Amidst the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak across the world, both students and parents do not want to risk going abroad for education. The impact: Companies like that of Ray are struggling to survive. Almost 750,000 Indian students study abroad in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Assisting them in the journey of enrolling in a foreign university are study abroad consultants. But the movement of students has come to a grinding halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Popular study destinations like the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Italy are now the hotspots as far as COVID-19 is concerned. This has led to students looking to postpone their study abroad dreams. What do study abroad firms do? This industry, which is estimated to be Rs 3,000 crore, has both organised and unorganised players operating in the space. Charges range from Rs 10,000-60,000 for the services per student depending on the inclusions. 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 Also Read: Live updates of the Coronavirus pandemic in India The study abroad firms offer a slew of services including which institute to choose as per the students grades/aptitude, filling up the forms and statement of purpose, preparing the resume and helping candidates for tests like GRE and TOEFL. Education consulting firms also help in sending the admission application form to the institutes concerned. It is estimated that Indians spend Rs 47,000-50,000 crore every year on foreign education. This amount includes the institute fees, stay, books/library membership and travel. How is the industry impacted? Prateek Saxena who owns PS Education Abroad told Moneycontrol that business is down to zero since March 2020. While the academic session will only begin in September, Saxena said that it is highly unlikely that students will be ready to go. Moneycontrol had reported that it will take 10-12 months for the study abroad market to revive among Indian students. Only firms that pivot to allied fields, like offering online foreign education courses to Indian students, will be able to survive in this market. The head of the pan-India overseas education consulting firm said that smaller entities are now getting open to merge with larger consultants. Some firms only offer options to study in places like Singapore, China and Australia. Since there wont be any physical admissions to the institutes in these countries, survival will be a concern. Hence, M&A will also begin in the study abroad consulting space, he added. By January 2021, it is estimated that a large proportion (1,000 plus firms) of the unorganised players in this industry will be out of business. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here Nurse Christopher Darby, left, SVMC's Emergency Department clinical coordinator, and physician's assistant Karena Webber use the mask developed in partnership with Mack Molding in this image shared by SVMC. Mack Molding, SVHC Partner to Develop Protective Masks for Hospital Workers BENNINGTON, Vt. Mack Molding and Southwestern Vermont Health Care have partnered to develop an innovative alternative for personal protective equipment for the health system. Similar to the rest of the country, southern Vermont has not been immune to the challenges of acquiring PPE during the COVID-19 crisis, and most specifically disposable masks. Through their collaboration, Mack and SVHC began investigating alternative mask options that could be modified since N95s masks and 7700 respirators are in high demand. The collaboration arose out of personal connections. Kevin Dailey, the vice president of administration and chief human resources officer at SVHC, had led human resources at Mack until five years ago. He knew the type of specialty plastics manufacturing and rapid product development Mack was capable of. When it was clear that PPE would likely run short, he gave his friends there a call. Realizing the extraordinary tight time-frame and regionally important challenge, Mack a leading supplier of contract injection molded plastic parts to companies in a range of industries called on Adam Lehman, president of their subsidiary, Synectic, to identify immediately available options that could be redesigned to function as a respirator. Lehman located a snorkeling mask that the Synectic design team could quickly reengineer into PPE. "When I informed Synectic's team about this project, they were ready and excited for the challenge," said Jeff Somple, president at Mack, headquartered in nearby Arlington. "It was an opportunity for some groundbreaking innovation and to make a meaningful difference for our region's front line health care workers." After only two weeks of design, testing and manufacturing, Mack's team at Synectic fabricated an attachment to a snorkeling scuba mask. The mask covers the entire face and thus does not require the use of disposable masks and shields. Their engineers removed the part that usually protrudes out of the water when snorkeling and replaced it with a new, custom-designed branched component equipped with cartridges containing P100 HEPA filters. "Mack has always been a tremendous regional partner and an integral supporter of the health system for many years," Dailey said. "As an essential manufacturer of health care products, I knew that they would want to help and came through with a brilliant solution for us." Each SVHC staff member is "fit tested" to ensure an adequate seal and assigned a mask. Each employee receives cleaning and storage guidelines, instructing how to disinfect and store their mask after each shift. The custom snorkeling branch modification and P100 HEPA filter casings can be easily removed for cleaning and screwed securely back in place. Before each use, staff conduct a positive and negative pressure test to ensure the masks are holding up for their protection. The fact that the air intake is above the wearer's head improves the line of site and allows patients to see their physicians and nurses faces more clearly. "Our priority is to ensure the safety of our staff while caring for patients during the pandemic," said registered nurse Shiela Boni, nursing director and PPE officer for SVHC. "The retrofitted scuba mask accomplishes this while decreasing our dependence on disposable masks." Unlike medically approved respirators, the scuba mask has been adapted to meet the filtration requirements of personal protective equipment. The risk assessment conducted by Mack's design and SVHC showed that the mask fully seals around the face with silicone, reducing skin breakdown, and the N100 HEPA filters have a higher rate of filtration than the material in the traditional N95 masks. Less than three weeks after the initial request to Mack, their subsidiary Synectic delivered 500 scuba masks and 2,000 N100 HEPA filter casings to the hospital. Thomas A. Dee, SVHC's president and CEO, expressed relief at having secured the adapted scuba masks to outfit those in the highest risk areas of the hospital. "This is a great example of how collaboration and innovation sustain us during challenging times," Dee said. "Our gratitude for the hardworking teams at Mack and Synectic, who put many long hours into this project, cannot be overstated. This is another wonderful example of Mack's continued support of SVHC." China's vice public security minister under probe Global Times Source:Globaltimes.cn Published: 2020/4/20 1:26:48 Vice minister of public security, Sun Lijun, is under investigation for suspected severe violations of discipline and law, the top anti-graft body said Sunday. The Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission are leading the probe into the alleged violations. The Party Committee with the Ministry of Public Security said on Sunday it firmly supports the CCDI's investigation into Sun on Sunday, stressing that officials, regardless of power or status, will be punished for violating the law and Party discipline. The meeting also stressed that despite the positive momentum is strengthened in China's epidemic prevention and control work, the country still faces great pressure in guarding against a possible rebound of COVID-19 infections, public security organs are facing an arduous task in maintaining the national political security and social stability. Sun's case is an opportunity for national law enforcement agencies to implement self-inspection, rectification, reform, and improvement measures, while withstanding tests, according to the meeting. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The researchers said the study did not have enough patients in the lower-dose portion of the trial to conclude if chloroquine was effective in patients with severe disease. More studies evaluating the drug earlier in the course of the disease are urgently needed, the researchers said.Several clinical trials for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are testing low doses for shorter periods of time in coronavirus patients. But the Health Commission of Guangdong province in China had initially recommended those sick with the virus be treated with 500 milligrams of chloroquine twice daily for 10 days. When Jorge Galicia was told that college students in the United States might benefit from his story, because many campuses are pro-socialism, he didnt understand. Galicia had not long ago spent months in isolation, off the grid, hiding from the state police in Venezuela because he had been involved in political demonstrations calling for liberty. In the United States, hed sought asylum, knowing someone who is politically active as he is would only face persecution if he went back. He saw socialist policies impinge on the quality of life back home year after year, and had been working very hard to protest against the flawed system. When I came [to the United States] at the beginning, I was really impressed. I saw a really functional, beautiful country. I had only been here two years and saw double the opportunities I had in my whole life in Venezuela, Galicia said. Then he started telling people his story, and from their shocked responses, realized that many Americans have no understanding of what socialism is. Since last fall, Galicia and a friend, Andres Guilarte, have been telling their stories to students across the country, in 22 states so far. Their spring commitments are being postponed, but in the meantime, they have been doing online talks. Dependency and Dignity Guilarte was also involved in the student movement for liberty in Venezuela. Living under a socialist regime and seeing its policies deteriorate the quality of life around you, Guilarte said it was second nature for students to want to be involved in change, and many students were. I was really bold in the movement, he said, getting heavily involved in all of organizations calling for liberty, and being elected student body president because of it. Hed started at university in 2014, and early last year, he went to Washington to intern for the Cato Institute. Then, things took a turn in Venezuela, and the situation went from bad to worse. Guilarte knew if he went back, it could cause problems for him and affect the safety of his family, so he decided to apply for asylum instead. Guilarte says that people may have heard in general terms that Venezuela is in a bad place, but they seldom realize just how bad it is. Socialism invents new ways of miseries you cannot think about, Guilarte said. For instance, people in a neighborhood know what time a local restaurant takes out the garbage. And when they do, youll see two or three families waiting to go through the garbage, Guilarte said. He would see small children eating together out of the garbage, or people going behind garbage trucks to look for food. Thats just one example. It sounds degrading, and thats the crux of it: He wants people to know that the price of this system is human dignity. Policies several decades ago expanded the national governments power, creating social programs on top of social programs until everything became centralized. The result is the lack of spirit, individualism, or independence in the people across the country. The longer you are dependent, the harder to let go, Guilarte said. You reach a moment like right now, where people are down to their most primitive survival skills. We seek food, water, shelteryou have to. The people you see digging through the garbage, they are still dependent on the state. For Galicia, fear of persecution had been the new normal. He and his best friend had been heavily involved in the student movement and protesting Nicolas Maduro. Then, the police broke into his best friends home in the middle of the night and arrested and detained him, and Galicia knew he was next. He went into hiding and emerged months later, after his friends release, but said hes now always looking over his shoulder and living in fear. But frankly, so were many others who similarly protested. All of these things about political persecution and hiding and not having anything to eat, this was my normal, he said. Not having reliable water, gas, or electricity was to be expected, and utilities failed more with every year. When I started sharing my story, I started noticing everyone was shockedthats when I learned that everything I went through was not okay and was not normal at all. This Was Progressive Socialism doesnt always happen overnight, with a dictator sweeping in and making violent changes. It happened progressively in Venezuela: industry by industry, not unlike what Galicia and Guilarte have noticed about the United States. In the 1970s, an oil boom changed the economy of the previously stable Venezuela, and during that decade, the iron industry was nationalized, and then the oil industry was nationalized. More industries would soon follow, the start of what Guilarte and Galicia call a snowball that Venezuela never recovered from. Along with the nationalized industries came huge spending packages and social programs, which led to dependency on the government, and more spending and dependency, until eventual bankruptcy. Thats when Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro appeared on the scene, because they were the only ones promising to keep the spending going, Galicia said. He often emphasizes this point, because he hears Americans say they support socialism but not the measures of Chavez and Maduro, without realizing that these dictators are not the ones who put socialism into action. They [the dictators] are a consequence of following the wrong ideas. It sounds really good when politicians sell it to you, Galicia said. But when you try to implement it, it destroys lives. Regardless of how socialism is implemented, and to what degree, the end will always be centralized government, Guilarte said; history has shown that these centralized governments dont work for the people. The majority of their audiences are curious about what life in Venezuela is like but have little understanding of it, and Guilarte and Galicia are happy to continue their fight for freedom outside Venezuela by spreading the truth and help dispel misinformation. Millions of people have fled Venezuela, Guilarte said, and they are all around the world, eager to tell their stories so that what happened to their own country wont happen elsewhere. We dont want any other society to go through what we have been through, he said. The current pandemic and the panic buying that ensued in some places has led to Americans sharing photos online of empty shelves in grocery stores with some kind of bewilderment. For them in the U.S., this is the first time; for us, it is normal, Guilarte said. This is because there is a crisis, but it is a temporary crisis. Socialism is an eternal crisis. The shelves will be replenished in a few days, because thats what happens in a market economy. In Venezuela, they wont be replenished, not for days, or weeks, or months. US consulate warns Americans to avoid Chinese city terrorizing black people McDonalds apologizes for banning black people from entering restaurant in China Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment As a U.S. consulate has advised African Americans to stay away from the Chinese city of Guangzhou, where authorities have forced people of African origin out of their homes and hotels and denied them access to buy food in an alleged crackdown on imported coronavirus, a McDonalds restaurant has apologized for banning black people from entering its restaurant. Black people are not allowed to enter, said a sign displayed at a McDonalds restaurant in the southern Guangzhou metropolitan area, according to numerous social media posts after Chinese officials alleged that the incidence of imported coronavirus cases was rising. The sign is not representative of our inclusive values and has been removed, McDonalds said in a statement to NBC News on Friday. The restaurant has been temporarily shut down to further educate managers and employees on our values, which includes serving all members of the communities in which we operate, the fast-food chain added. Taking note of a campaign against black people, the office of the U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou said the city police ordered bars and restaurants not to serve clients who appear to be of African origin. It added, Moreover, local officials launched a round of mandatory tests for COVID-19, followed by mandatory self-quarantine, for anyone with African contacts, regardless of recent travel history or previous quarantine completion. African Americans have also reported that some businesses and hotels refuse to do business with them. Chinas government denied that it has discriminated against African brothers," despite mounting evidence disputing the regime's claims. All foreigners are treated equally, a foreign ministry spokesman claimed, according to The U.K. Sunday Times. We have zero tolerance for discrimination. The Chinese people always see in the African people partners and brothers through thick and thin. African friends can count on getting [a] fair, just, cordial and friendly reception in China. The spokesman blamed the U.S. for sowing discord, calling it irresponsible and immoral. On social media in China, topics like a black man beating a nurse in Guangzhou and five Nigerians being tested positive for COVID-19 are trending. Amid the reports of discrimination, the musician turned Ugandan presidential candidate Bobi Wine is planning a humanitarian mission to airlift black people out of China, the Times reported. Wine plans to use private jets of his wealthy contacts for the mission. He also said that there are over a million Chinese people in Africa, who are in most cases treated better than Africans. Our priority is to restore our peoples dignity. This virus did not start in Africa so it is not right that Africans should be punished for it, he added. Nigerian activists are urging their government to intervene and warning China that its diplomatic relations with Nigeria could be at risk due to the discrimination, according to The Epoch Times. In Nigeria, we have a lot of Chinese. I dont think you have ever received any information that the government of Nigeria go to their various houses and pick them for quarantine, so why are Africans and indeed Nigerians being targeted? asked the Consul-General of the Nigerian High Commission in China, Anozie Maduabuchi Cyril. We have European people here, people from America, Spain, and Italy and other countries, so why are you harassing them? There have been reports pointing to the responsibility of the Chinese Communist Party in putting millions of lives and the global economy at huge risk due to its lies about the coronavirus outbreak. Cardinal Charles Bo of Myanmar recently called on China to apologize to the world and pay compensation for the damage caused. There is one government that has primary responsibility for what it has done and what it has failed to do, and that is the CCP regime in Beijing, the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yangon wrote in an op-ed published in UCA News. A display dedicated to Constable Heidi Stevenson at RCMP headquarters in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, on April 20, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Riley Smith) A Look at Some of the Lives Lost in Nova Scotia Mass Shooting PORTAPIQUE, N.S.The victims in one of Canadas worst mass killings include an RCMP officer, a teacher, two nurses, neighbours of the shooter and two correctional officers killed in their home. Here is a look at some of the lives lost: Tom Bagley Bagley died while trying to help, his daughter Charlene Bagley says. His neighbours in Wentworth, N.S., say Bagley, a military veteran and retired firefighter, was killed Sunday morning as he walked toward a burning home on Hunter Road. If you knew him, you knew that was just who he was all the time, Charlene Bagley wrote in a Facebook post. Bagley served as a firefighter at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport from 1975 to 2006, a spokeswoman for the airport authority said in an email. Corrie Ellison Ellison, 42, was remembered Monday as a thoughtful, kind friend who went out of his way to help others. Hes the type of person that I dont think anybody would want to see that happen to him, his father Richard Ellison says. Corrie Ellison lived in Truro, N.S., but was visiting his father in Portapique when he was killed. Richard Ellison declined to comment on how his son died. Ashley Fennell says she was good friends with Corrie Ellison for almost a decade. She describes him as a beautiful soul. Corrie Ellison was on disability support because of an old injury. He had no children of his own but he loved kids, Fennell says. He would join Fennell and her son swimming in the summer and last Christmas, he offered some money for her sons gifts. He once paid for Fennell to take her son on a trip to a water park when she was struggling. A person leaves flowers at a make-shift memorial dedicated to Constable Heidi Stevenson at RCMP headquarters in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, on April 20, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Riley Smith) I would call him, and it didnt matter what he was doing, he would jump for me, she says. He had texted her about picking up a cigarette roller about a week ago, but the two never arranged a time with the ongoing pandemic. Fennell didnt know it would be the last time she talked to her friend. I didnt text him back right away and now Im regretting all this, she says. He was just such a nice guy. Jolene Oliver, Aaron Tuck, and Emily Tuck The family members were neighbours of the shooter. Olivers sister, Tammy OliverMcCurdie, said the three were found dead in their Portapique, N.S., home. Oliver was turning 40 this year and her husband was 45. Their daughter, Emily, was 17. They had moved to the community after Tucks father died a few years ago. No matter how much they went through in life they always stayed together, and there was times that they had nothing, OliverMcCurdie said. The sisters grew up in Calgary and remained close into adulthood. OliverMcCurdie said Oliver was a people person who loved working as a waitress, which she did for most of her life. She was such a great listener. Emily was an intelligent girl who had plans to continue her education, but couldnt decide whether to pursue art or welding, her aunt said. That kid was so bright. She knew how to weld. She knew how to fix cars. She played the violin. An RCMP officer speaks with a man after the police finished their search for the shooter in Portapique, Nova Scotia, Canada on April 19, 2020. (John Morris/Reuters) Sean McLeod and Alanna Jenkins The Wentworth, N.S., couple were correctional officers. McLeods daughter, Taylor McLeod, said Jenkins worked at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro and McLeod worked at the Springhill Institution for more than 20 years. McLeods daughter said the couple deeply loved and cared for her, her little sister and Taylors daughter. They would have done anything for anybody and they always made sure people were welcome in their home. Greg and Jamie Blair The couple ran a firm that provides service, sales and installation of natural gas and propane units in the area where the shootings happened. Relative Judy MacBurnie, said the pair had two small children who are being cared for by grandparents. Greg Blair also had two older sons from an earlier relationship. MacBurnie said her nephew was a wonderful person who was always laughing and was the funniest person you ever met. He could find humour in anything and anybody You couldnt be around him too long because your face and belly hurt so bad from laughing. Heather OBrien The Victorian Order of Nurses said OBrien was a licensed practical nurse and had worked with VON for nearly 17 years. OBriens daughter, Darcy Dobson, posted on Facebook about her mother. She was kind. She was beautiful. She didnt deserve any of this, Dobson wrote, pleading with friends and family not to let the shooting define her mother. I want everyone to remember how kind she was. How much she loved being a nurse, she wrote. The way her eyes sparkled when she talked to her grandchildren and the way she just loved Christmas. Let those things define her. Not the horrible way she died. Portapique resident Lucille Adams says she knew OBrien. She has so much compassion for the people she worked for and her family, she says. She was a very loving person. She was always out there to help somebody. Its a tragedy that her family has to deal with this. Gina Goulet Goulet, a 54yearold Shubenacadie, N.S., resident, beat cancer twice. Her daughter, Amelia Butler, said Goulet was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2016. Goulet was warned that her prospects didnt look good, but she beat the odds. Goulet was diagnosed with cancer a second time late last year, and had almost fully recovered when she died. She fought so hard for her life, Butler said. Goulet was a denturist for 27 years. Butler couldnt say whether her mother encountered the shooter, who worked in the same field. Butler said her mother was an avid angler and would often retreat to her cottage with her two dogs to go bass fishing. Goulet was also a salsa dancer who would travel to Cuba whenever she got the chance. That was the place where she was the happiest. Kristen Beaton The Victorian Order of Nurses confirmed that Beaton had worked for the organization for six years. Kristen began work with VON nearly six years ago and was a caring and compassionate member of the VON team. Beatons husband Nick Beaton posted on Facebook a plea to get Nova Scotia nurses the proper equipment to protect them from COVID19 in his wifes honour. She cried everyday before and everyday after work scared to bring this covid home to her son she loved more than I could even imagine anyone could love one person, Nick Beaton posted. We need to be her voice now. So please for Kristens sake protect the ones who are protecting us. Lisa McCully McCully was a teacher at the elementary school in the community of Debert, N.S. Paul Wozney, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, said McCully was known as a passionate teacher and as a shining love in the lives of her friends and family. Const. Heidi Stevenson Stevenson had been with the RCMP for 23 years and was a mother of two. Heidi answered the call of duty and lost her life while protecting those she served, Nova Scotia RCMP Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman said in a statement. Two children have lost their mother and a husband his wife. Parents lost their daughter and countless others lost an incredible friend and colleague. There are no words to describe their pain. The Nova Scotia Teachers Union said Stevensons husband, Dean Stevenson, teaches at Cole Harbour District High School. COLUMBUS, Ohio - Its been five weeks since Gov. Mike DeWine closed public and private schools in response to the coronavirus pandemic, sending children home to continue their studies under the supervision of parents. Hows it going? We are seeking stories from parents and teachers about how at-home learning is enhancing -- or holding back -- education. What is working? What could be improved? Send your ideas and experiences to lhancock@cleveland.com. On Monday, DeWine announced schools will remain closed -- at least for the rest of the year. No decisions have been made about the fall. DeWine was the first Ohio governor to close schools, since children are prolific vectors of disease. Children are still learning from home, thanks to technology, although its unclear how rigorous their education is. In late March, the Ohio General Assembly passed sweeping legislation in response to the epidemic, including a provision that waives school standardized testing for this year. The Ohio Department of Education provided guidance for educators, saying, districts and schools must make a good faith effort to support continued learning. Districts may choose to use traditional letter grades, opt for a pass/fail/incomplete approach or utilize a standards-based/mastery approach to report learning, the guidance states. ...Teachers should play the primary role in making grading decisions regarding student performance. The document doesnt specify whether the state will be sanction educators not making the good-faith effort to ensure learning continues. Other coronavirus coverage: Ohio K-12 schools closed the rest of the school year, Gov. Mike DeWine says Some Ohio coronavirus protesters using anti-Semitic symbolism Hundreds protest in Columbus against Ohio coronavirus restrictions Mapping Ohios 12,919 coronavirus cases, updates and trends Married At First Sight's KC Osborne and her boyfriend Michael Goonan jetted to Sydney for a business trip last week. But it appears the reality couple are back in Melbourne, where Michael works, as KC was spotted at Brighton Beach on Tuesday. The 31-year-old dance instructor grabbed a coffee with her actress friend Kylie Gulliver and went for a walk along the beach. Coffee date! Married At First Sight's KC Osborne (pictured) visited the Brighton Baths with her actress friend Kylie Gulliver KC was dressed warmly and comfortably for what was a cold day in Melbourne. She wore a black hoodie from Melbourne brand Elliott Label, black tights and had black Nike sneakers on feet. KC also carried a Louis Vuitton Rivoli PM handbag, which costs $2,610. Energy boost: The 31-year-old dance instructor lined up to buy a coffee before going on her walk Practical: KC was dressed warmly and comfortably for what was a cold day in Melbourne KC's outfit: She wore a black hoodie from Melbourne brand Elliott Label, black tights and had black Nike sneakers on feet Mates: KC went for a walk with her actress friend Kylie Gulliver (left) KC arrived at the beach wearing sunglasses in a black four-wheel drive before grabbing a coffee with her friend. The pair then walked down the beach, with KC clutching her hoodie to brace the windy sea breeze. Despite the gloomy weather, the friends were all smiles as they chatted along their walk. Expensive taste: KC also carried a Louis Vuitton Rivoli PM handbag, which costs $2,610 Coffee fixes everything! KC clutched her warm beverage on the cold day Good vibes: Despite the gloomy weather, the friends were all smiles as they chatted along their walk The MAFS star has been keeping busy amid the COVID-19 pandemic by teaching online dance classes, which cost $25 per lesson. Classes are available on her website 'KC You Got This' where she also sells merchandise such as hoodies, T-shirts, tote bags and water bottles. KC is from Sydney's Sutherland Shire but recently moved to Melbourne to be with her boyfriend Michael Goonan. Relocating: KC is from Sydney's Sutherland Shire but recently moved to Melbourne to be with her boyfriend Michael Goonan Pulling up: KC arrived at the beach wearing sunglasses in a black four-wheel drive before grabbing a coffee with her friend Busy: The MAFS star has been keeping busy amid the COVID-19 pandemic by teaching online dance classes, which cost $25 per lesson She's got her own merch! Classes are available on her website 'KC You Got This' where she also sells merchandise such as hoodies, T-shirts, tote bags and water bottles What's so funny? The pair had a laugh during their walk Michael, who is from Adelaide, is managing the Melbourne branch of his family's commercial ice business. The couple debuted their new relationship after MAFS concluded airing earlier this month. On the show, Michael was 'married' to Stacey Hampton, who was friends with KC before she found out she was dating her ex. The backstory: KC and Michael debuted their new relationship after MAFS concluded airing earlier this month Old friends: On the show, Michael was 'married' to Stacey Hampton, who was friends with KC before she found out she was dating her ex Famous location: Brighton Beach is known for its iconic colourful huts along the sand Where it all began: Michael and KC started dating almost eight weeks ago, after Michael's split from Stacey, which happened on January 16 in between filming the MAFS reunion dinner party and the finale Michael and KC started dating almost eight weeks ago, after Michael's split from Stacey, which happened on January 16 in between filming the MAFS reunion dinner party and the finale. KC amicably split from her 'ex-husband', Drew Brauer, shortly after their final vows in December. Drew, 32, has known about KC and Michael's relationship since March 11 and is supportive. Stacey, on the other hand, is not happy. Moving on: KC amicably split from her 'ex-husband', Drew Brauer, shortly after their final vows in December The current situation: Drew, 32, has known about KC and Michael's relationship since March 11 and is supportive. Stacey, on the other hand, is not happy Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - American Aires Inc. (CSE: WIFI) (the "Company" or "Aires") is pleased to announce record sales during the month of March 2020. For the month of March 2020, Aires had record sales of $172,672 CAD (unaudited), with a gross margin of 63%. Aires is also pleased to announce it shipped 1,452 units, representing a 244% increase in units sold over the comparative month ended March 31, 2019. Units sold include the Aires Shield Pro, Aires Defender Pro and Aires Guardian. For April 2020, Aires sales for the first six days of the month already surpassed the total sales figures for all of April 2019. Once again, the Company is on track to have all-time record sales for April 2020. Management looks forward to reporting April 2020 sales figures to shareholders during the first week of May 2020. It is noteworthy that these sales figures for March and April 2020 were achieved organically. "We continue to see sales increase naturally. As we move to the 2nd quarter of 2020, we look to further sale increases while implementing automation to increase margins. We are pleased to report current sales figures are exceeding management's budgeted figures, and, are delighted to report this occurred progressively" commented Dimitry Serov, President and CEO. About American Aires Inc. American Aires is an Ontario based technology company that is focused on the research, development and implementation of innovative technology solutions to allow consumers to safely engage with electronic products of the 21st century. The Company is currently engaged in the business of production, distribution and sales of products intended to protect persons from the harmful effects of electromagnetic emissions, which is produced from electronic devices such as cell phones, Wi-Fi routers, tablets and electric cars to name a few. The Company has developed a technology that restructures and transforms electromagnetic field haze into a more biologically-compatible form to reduce the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation. The Company's current principal products are the Shield Pro, Aires Defender Pro and Aires Guardian. For more information please visit: www.airestech.com On behalf of the board of directors Dimitry Serov, President & Chief Executive Officer Email: dimitry@airestech.com Phone: (905) 482-4667 Investor Relations: Samina Deen, Head of Partnerships Email: samina@airestech.com Phone: (416) 320-1634 wifi@airestech.com Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements may be discussed in this news release and the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis filed at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The Shares have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of any person in the United States, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any common shares in the United States, or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. We seek safe harbour. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Not intended for distribution to United States Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of United States Securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54641 Hundreds of school support staff have joined the ever-growing list of Winnipeggers out of work due to COVID-19 workforce disruptions. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Hundreds of school support staff have joined the ever-growing list of Winnipeggers out of work due to COVID-19 workforce disruptions. Last week, the Pembina Trails School Division informed upwards of 500 staff members that for the time being, the division doesnt have any work for them. "It is with great sadness that we must temporarily reduce our workforce, due to COVID-19 and the directive from the province to lessen spending and support critical services during this pandemic," spokeswoman Stacey Ashley said in an emailed statement. Among the positions being temporarily eliminated, 472 educational assistants, 32 library technicians and 24 bus drivers. A total of 370 breakfast and lunch supervisors, crossing guards and bus duty positions combined, and 36 staff who support programs including after-school sessions, are also on the list of temporary layoffs. Since these staffers many of them part-time employees often take on overlapping roles, the division estimates the tally is above the 500 mark. At the opposite end of the city, 47 educational assistants in the Seven Oaks School Division will be out of work starting next month. Superintendent Brian OLeary said the division has also offered bus drivers the option of custodial work or a layoff; 21 employees have accepted the former and 27 have accepted the latter, effective May 13. The province has tasked divisions with finding "meaningful work" for all staff, if possible. At the same time, Premier Brian Pallister has made clear that public-sector employees will not be paid if they are not working. 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. "Our division is trying very hard to maintain our employment levels, as is and making sure all of our staff have meaningful work. Thats the key to make sure they have meaningful work," said Radean Carter, of the Winnipeg School Division. Carter said Monday the provinces largest division is still in the process of determining what kind of work is available to each staff member. Other Winnipeg area divisions, including the Louis Riel School Division and the St. James Assiniboia School Division, have also yet to announce any related reductions; spokespeople for both suggested Monday there were no immediate plans to revisit staffing levels. The River-East Transcona School Division did not provide details about any layoffs before deadline Monday. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie McCrae Dowless, the Bladen County political operative at the center of the allegations of absentee-ballot fraud that brought down Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris in 2018, has been indicted on new charges. A federal grand jury accused Dowless of collecting thousands of dollars in Social Security disability payments in 2017 and 2018 even though he was working for multiple political campaigns including Harris bid for the 9th Congressional District, according to a newly unsealed federal indictment. Social Security disability payments are typically available only to people who cant work because of a disability. And Dowless, the indictment said, told the government that he remained disabled and did not receive income beyond his SSI benefits even though in fact he was working. He was charged with one count of taking money belonging to the United States exceeding the sum of $1,000, to which he knew he was not entitled, as well as with two counts of defrauding the Social Security Administration and one count of making false statements. Charlotte TV station WSOC first reported on the charges Tuesday. The charges were filed earlier this month but werent unsealed until Monday. Dowless received Social Security disability payments, as well as regular Social Security payments, even as he failed to report more than $130,000 in income from political campaigns he was working for, the indictment states. Ultimately, hes accused of taking at least $14,000 in unauthorized payments. The indictment says Dowless knew he was not entitled to the disability payments since he was able to work. And the government only paid him those benefits because it was not aware of Dowless ongoing work activity, the indictment states. A lawyer for Dowless, Cynthia Singletary of Elizabethtown, did not respond to a message left at her law firm Tuesday afternoon. Leslie McCrae Dowless poses for a portrait outside of his home in Bladenboro, NC on Dec. 5, 2018. Dowless has previously been charged with numerous federal crimes related to a ballot-harvesting scheme hes accused of running in both 2016 and 2018 for Republican candidates for the 9th Congressional District, which stretches along North Carolinas southern border from Charlotte into rural southeastern North Carolina. Story continues Through those investigations, he faces charges of felony obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, perjury, solicitation to commit perjury and unlawful possession of an absentee ballot, The News & Observer has reported. Most of those charges come with multiple counts, The N&O reported, based on separate instances of alleged fraud from the 2016 primary, the 2018 primary and the 2018 general election. Several people who are accused of working with Dowless to carry out the election fraud scheme in which he is accused of paying them to collect absentee ballots and in some cases vote in other peoples names have also been charged. One of them was Dowless former stepdaughter, Lisa Britt, who said that they would even fill out incomplete and unsealed absentee ballots they collected, voting for Republican candidates in local races, the N&O reported after the first round of criminal charges in February 2019. ConsumerAffairs is not a government agency. Companies displayed may pay us to be Authorized or when you click a link, call a number or fill a form on our site. Our content is intended to be used for general information purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based on your own personal circumstances and consult with your own investment, financial, tax and legal advisers. Company NMLS Identifier #2110672 Copyright 2021 Consumers Unified LLC. All Rights Reserved. The contents of this site may not be republished, reprinted, rewritten or recirculated without written permission. Alarmed over 53 journalists testing positive for COVID-19 in neigbouring Maharashtra, the Karnataka government on Tuesday decided to conduct a health check up camp for journalists in Bengaluru. On the directions of Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa,the Information and Public Relation Commissioner S N Siddaramappa wrote to the Commissioner of Health and Public Welfare to conduct a medical checkup camp for the journalists. Stating that there are about 1,000 journalists in the city, Siddaramappa asked the health commissioner to fix the date, time and place for the checkup camp. The Chief Minister felt the need to conduct such test after the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar wrote to him on Tuesday. During the regular COVID-19 related briefing on Monday, a reporter had raised the issue of 53 journalists in Maharashtra testing positive for the disease, with Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar. In Maharashtra, 53 out of the 171 scribes examined medically were found to have the viral infection. In his letter to the Chief Minister, Kumar requested that a similar test be carried out for the journalists in Karnataka. Yediyurappa tweeted on Tuesday, "Dear friends in media, you are toiling 24 hours a day without bothering about your life just like the doctors and police. Our concern is that you should not overlook your health while performing your duty. I request you to please take care of your health and undergo medical examination," the Chief Minister tweeted. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had collected swab samples of 171 mediapersons, including electronic and print media journalists, photographers and cameramen at a special camp organised at Azad Maidanhere in Mumbai on April 16 and 17 for COVID-19 testing of scribes,. Out of them, 53 tested positive for COVID-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ministers face criticism over PPE as Parliament returns after extended Easter break Ministers will today face criticism over a failure to ensure NHS staff treating coronavirus patients have vital protective equipment as Parliament returns following an extended Easter break. The Government has insisted "every possible option" is being pursued to secure additional kit but said with unprecedented worldwide demand, the situation was "very challenging". It comes as the first of three RAF flights finally left for Turkey to begin collecting a consignment of personal protective equipment (PPE) including 400,000 surgical gowns. Some 140,000 gowns had arrived from Burma, but with the NHS using 150,000 a day, the demand on resources remains intense. Trump to temporarily suspend all immigration into US amid coronavirus crisis Donald Trump has said he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the US amid the coronavirus crisis. The US President unveiled the plans in a tweet in the early hours of this morning. He offered no details as to what immigration programs might be affected by the order and the White House did not immediately elaborate on Trump's tweeted announcement. Virgin Australia slumps into voluntary administration Virgin Australia has gone into voluntary administration after failing to secure a government bailout due to impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The countrys second largest airline cut most of its flights last month following widespread travel bans as the global outbreak took its took on the aviation industry. Its founder Sir Richard Branson, in a statement given as the news emerged, said it "is not the end for Virgin Australia, but I believe a new beginning. Man charged in Essex lorry deaths probe to face extradition proceedings A man is due in court to face extradition proceedings over the alleged manslaughter of 39 migrants found in a refrigerated lorry container in Essex. Ronan Hughes, of Co Armagh in Northern Ireland, is due before Dublin's High Court to face 39 counts of manslaughter, as well as immigration offences, Essex Police said. The 40-year-old was detained yesterday following the execution of a European arrest warrant in the Irish Republic. The 39 Vietnamese nationals were found in a lorry container parked on an industrial estate in Grays on October 23 last year. UK to be hotter than Lanzarote this week as temperatures soar Sweltering temperatures are expected to hit the UK this week as the hottest April in almost a decade continues. A sunny Thursday and Friday will see the mercury hit highs of 24C in London, meaning it will be hotter in the UK capital than in Lanzarote and Corfu. But many of the UK's beaches and open spaces will be largely empty as Britons are urged to stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown. Forecasters said the expected heatwave is due to a large area of high pressure to the north of England making the days clear and bright. On this day... 753BC: Romulus founded Rome. 1509: Henry VII died at the age of 52 and his second son acceded to the throne as Henry VIII. 1918: Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, scourge of the First World War British fliers, was shot down in his red Fokker tri-plane and died. 1945: Ivor Novello's Perchance To Dream opened at the London Hippodrome with his now classic song We'll Gather Lilacs. The show ran to 1,022 performances. 1960: Brasilia became the new capital of Brazil, transferred from the old capital of Rio de Janeiro. 1983: One pound coins went into circulation in Britain, replacing paper notes in England and Wales but not in Scotland and Northern Ireland. "There's no excuse for banks keeping 72% of business owners in the dark for weeks on end," said Alignable's Co-Founder and CEO Eric Groves. "According to senior SBA officials, the approval process is instantaneous upon submission of a completed application. So, why aren't banks coming clean with their customers? It's a question we're going to dive deeper into in the weeks to come." While 44% of business owners have applied for the loans, among those who didn't, some 22% said they wanted to apply, but didn't make it under the wire before the $349 Billion ran out. And another 5% said their banks weren't ready to process their applications. "The need for this funding is great and becoming more pronounced as the days and weeks go by," added Venkat Krishnamurthy, Alignable's Co-Founder and President. "More than 45% of the businesses we polled have been forced to shut their doors already." The impact of the quarantines is staggering with 98% of small businesses reporting that revenues have dropped by at least 25%, and 47% have already lost half of their revenue. Hopefully, Congress will be able to offer small businesses another large infusion of funds soon -- earmarked for the very small businesses and solopreneurs that drive the American economy and need the money to stay afloat. Survey Methodology This survey was conducted via email with a random sample of Alignable's membership database of 4.5 million+ small business owners. It includes results from April 17-20, 2020 -- 38,500 responses from small businesses throughout the U.S. with 1-50 employees. Alignable's polls are the most immediate and comprehensive surveys available reflecting small business owners' sentiments nationwide. Stay tuned for new polls throughout the rest of the Coronavirus crisis. For more information, contact [email protected] . SOURCE Alignable Related Links alignable.com LUND, Sweden, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alfa Laval - a world leader in heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling - has amended the company's Revolving Credit Facility into a facility of EUR 900 million and with a one-year extension of the maturity from June 2021 until June 2022. Alfa Laval has amended the company's Revolving Credit Facility with a change of the current facilities EUR 400 million and USD 543 million into a facility of EUR 900 million and with a one-year extension of the maturity from June 2021 until June 2022. This has been done in a successful syndication process supported by a group of Alfa Laval's relationship banks. SEB acted as Coordinator, and was joined by the existing lenders BNP Paribas, Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, HSBC, ING, Nordea Bank and with Standard Chartered joining as a new lender. The company has therefore secured that the company's strong balance sheet is supported with a strong liquidity buffer. For further information please contact: Jan Allde CFO Alfa Laval Tel: +46-46-289-18-72 Henrik Welch Group Treasurer Alfa Laval Tel: +46-46-289-16-39 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/alfa-laval/r/alfa-laval-extends-maturity-of-revolving-credit-facility,c3092996 The following files are available for download: SOURCE Alfa Laval Some Jersey City Board of Education trustees and school officials are questioning whether its appropriate to proceed with a budget built for a pre-coronavirus world. Hudson Countys interim superintendent has approved the Jersey City school districts $736 million budget for the 2020-2021 school year, which could increase the average tax bill by nearly $700 next year. The BOE budget grew by $66 million from a year ago and calls for a 47% hike to the school tax levy. But the economy has drastically changed since the BOE gave its preliminary approval of the budget on March 20. The COVID-19 pandemic has left 718,000 out of work across the state since March 15, prompting some in Jersey City to ask whether a tax increase remains feasible. We are asking taxpayers to pay more at a time when they have less, said Alexander Hamilton, the lone BOE member who voted against the budget last month. When people are worried about where their next meals are coming from and whether they can stay in their house. Im trying to be realistic about making sure we have what our kids need but also you cant do it at the expense of putting people in the street and not find their next meal. BOE Trustee Mussab Ali said he personally feels there must be significant changes to the budget based on the pandemics economic fallout especially if the city cannot guarantee tens of millions of dollars the payroll tax was expected to generate. The payroll tax, a 1 percent levy on businesses, is intended to offset cuts to state education aid. The tax has become a vital financial tool for the cash-strapped school district. We have to come to terms with an estimate from the city no matter what that is, Ali said. Because at this point if they dont provide us with a number, we are going to have to put zero into our budget and that leaves us in an additional $70 million hole. Jersey City notified the BOE on March 20 that it cant guarantee the $86 million in payroll tax revenue the district was expecting, citing the financial uncertainty the coronavirus has unleashed. Mayor Steve Fulop said the pandemic will cost the city at least $70 million, including $50 million in revenue losses. The mayor and superintendent have been in regular communication over the last couple of weeks, and they are working together on the challenges for the schools and the city, Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said. The situation is changing daily, but they are certainly working closely together. The COVID-19 pandemic arrived as the district was facing down an estimated $150 million budget shortfall, due in large part to the state funding change that will cut an additional $55 million from the schools next year. Members of Hudson Countys delegation in the state legislature sent a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy in March asking if the state would delay aid adjustments for all municipalities to help Jersey City deal with the financial impact of the pandemic. Assemblyman Raj Mukherji and Nicholas Chiaravalloti said the state has yet to respond. Now that the county superintendent has approved the budget, the BOE can make tweaks, but the bottom line total $736 million must remain the same, Jersey City Superintendent Franklin Walker said. My job as superintendent was to identify the needs of our students education and then coming up with a budget that is going to support them, Walker said. There is no question about it has be reconsidered in some form or fashion, but I think what it also means is the state may have to decide and will know that the funding formula is not appropriate for us. Trustee Lekendrick Shaw wants the board to consider the economic effects of the pandemic before finalizing the budget. BOE President Lorenzo Richardson said the board must move forward with its budget adoption. Walker will work with the state, county, and board to adjust where needed, Richardson said. Its still going to be a waiting game, but we still have to pass an appropriate budget to make sure the needs of the student are met given normal conditions, Richardson said. Kate Langbroek has confessed to using disabled parking spaces while pregnant. The 54-year-old radio presenter said on Monday's season finale of Hughesy, We Have a Problem that a doctor had told her she was entitled to use the parking bays. 'I've had four children. It's a lot of work!' she told the panel during the episode, which was filmed in December. 'Doctor's orders!' Kate Langbroek has confessed to using disabled parking spaces while pregnant. Pictured on Monday's episode of Hughesy, We Have a Problem She said: 'When I was heavily pregnant, I didn't know this, at one stage, maybe baby number three or four, I could hardly walk... you're allowed to park in a disabled park.' Host Dave 'Hughesy' Hughes asked her: 'Are you sure? I don't like this...' Kate replied with a smile: 'But the doctor told me I could!' Defending herself: 'When I was heavily pregnant, I didn't know this, at one stage, maybe baby number three or four, I could hardly walk... you're allowed to park in a disabled park,' she said He's not convinced! Host Dave Hughes (pictured) replied: 'Are you sure? I don't like this...' Despite his misgivings, Dave admitted that 'no man could ever have a crack at a pregnant woman who parks in a disabled spot'. Kate then stood up and pretended to walk with a limp, saying: 'Hang on, would you have a crack at a woman getting out of a car in a disabled spot who walked like this?' The fine for misuse of a disability parking bay in Victoria is $165. Believe me now? Kate then stood up and pretended to walk with a limp, saying: 'Hang on, would you have a crack at a woman getting out of a car in a disabled spot who walked like this?' Kate is no stranger to breaking the rules, having received two parking tickets during a visit to Melbourne in May last year. She and her husband, Peter Allen Lewis, relocated to Italy in January 2019 with their children, Lewis, Sunday, Artie and Jan, for what was supposed to be a 'gap year', but they have since extended their stay for another 12 months. The family is currently in lockdown in Bologna amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated Italy and claimed more than 24,000 lives there. Whoops! Kate is no stranger to breaking the rules, having received two parking tickets during a visit to Melbourne in May last year Adventure: Kate and her husband, Peter Allen Lewis (left), relocated to Italy in January 2019 with their children, Lewis, Sunday, Artie and Jan, for what was supposed to be a 'gap year', but they have since extended their stay for another 12 months By Trend The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) held a foreign exchange auction with the participation of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), during which Azerbaijani banks acquired $38.8 million, Trend reports referring to CBA. According to CBA, demand from the banks at the auction decreased by 26.8 percent or by $14.2 million compared to the previous auction. Considering the number of days remaining before the next scheduled auction, as well as with the aim of ensuring uninterrupted currency trading by the banks on weekends, the demand of banks at the auction will be fully provided. The first foreign exchange auction in a long time was held with the participation of SOFAZ on March 10, 2020, during which Azerbaijani banks acquired 323.2 million manat ($190.1 million). The CBA began to hold foreign exchange auctions through unilateral sale of foreign currency in competitive conditions since mid-January 2017. In March 2020, it was decided to hold extraordinary foreign exchange auctions in connection with the increased demand of the population for foreign currency amid the failed OPEC+ deal, which entailed a sharp decline in oil prices. (1 USD = 1.7 AZN on April 21) --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz An Iowa beef processing plant that was idled after a coronavirus outbreak resumed production Monday, one day after the state said 177 workers there have tested positive. The Iowa Premium plant in Tama, owned by National Beef, had suspended production after the company confirmed that multiple workers had the virus. On Sunday, the office of Gov. Kim Reynolds said that 177 out of more than 500 National Beef workers tested were positive for coronavirus. A woman who answered the phone at the plant confirmed that production resumed Monday. A National Beef spokesman said last week that its plan to resume production April 20 hadnt changed, and hasnt responded to inquiries since then. The company closed the plant for what it called a regularly scheduled cleaning two weeks ago. On April 10, National Beef said the closure would continue through April 20 out of abundance of caution and concern for the health and well-being of our employees. The governors office also said Sunday another 84 employees of Tyson Foods had tested positive. Tyson said that its Waterloo pork plant remained open Monday, defying calls from local officials to suspend production. Its Columbus Junction plant remained closed and its Perry plant was idled for a one-day cleaning. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics COVID-19 Iowa OROVILLE, Calif. Community members have come together to create and distribute what is being called essential worker kits. The organization Tiny Homes for Camp Fire Survivors, coordinated this effort. Alyssa Nolan, from Oroville, founded the non-profit organization and teamed up with other members of the community to build tiny houses for survivors, shortly after the Camp Fire. "We do more than tiny homes...we work continuously to meet various needs in our community through a vast network of like-minded givers and bloody do-gooders," Tiny Homes for Camp Fire Survivors said via Facebook. Volunteers put together and gave out over 200 kits Monday in Oroville. They handed them out to grocery store employees, United States Postal service workers, and gas station employees. Thanks to the help of donations from Sewa International in San Francisco, Nevada Mask Ladies, Lisa Boo Richardson, Dax-It Recovery Services, and Clif Bar Company, the organization was able to package these kits up. The kits contained two pairs of gloves, a mask, sanitizer, tissues, and a Clif Bar. The organization said they are still assembling more kits. Click Here to message Tiny Homes For Camp Fire Survivors, if you would like to donate towards the kits, or supply materials for them. READ MORE: 2008 fire survivor brings tiny homes to those impacted by Camp Fire Photo: The Canadian Press RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather, left, and Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman field questions a news conference at RCMP headquarters in Dartmouth, N.S. on Sunday, April 19, 2020. More than ten people have been killed, including RCMP Cst. Heidi Stevenson, after several incidents in Portapique, and other Nova Scotia communities. Alleged killer Gabriel Wortman, 51, was shot and killed by police. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan Premier Stephen McNeil said Monday the province's emergency alert system wasn't used to warn people an active shooter was on the loose in northern Nova Scotia on the weekend because no request was received. McNeil said the province's Emergency Measures Organization has to be asked to issue an alert and that didn't happen, but McNeil wasn't about to place blame on the RCMP. "This is a province in mourning. There will be lots of questions, but I can tell you I'm not going to second guess what someone with the organization did or didn't do at this moment in time," he said. "This was an active environment deaths, gunfire let's give them an opportunity as an organization to explain that." Cpl. Lisa Croteau, an RCMP information officer, said the police force opted to use its Twitter account to warn people because the incident was unfolding. The first tweet was sent at 11:32 p.m. local time Saturday and said police were "responding to a firearms complaint" in Portapique, N.S. "The public is asked to avoid the area and stay in their homes with doors locked at this time." The next message on the Nova Scotia RCMP Twitter account came at 6:02 a.m. Sunday, advising that police were still on the scene in Portapique and it was "an active shooter situation." At 6:54 a.m. the suspect was identified in a tweet and a photo was published. Chief Supt. Chris Leather Leather said the RCMP relied on Twitter because its account has thousands of followers and it was judged "a superior way to communicate this ongoing threat." But he said the question of why the provincial alert system wasn't used is a good one. "We'll be looking at that ... and I hope to have a more fulsome response tomorrow (Tuesday) or in the coming hours." Before being killed by police, the shooter claimed at least 19 lives, including that of RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson, at 16 locations across northern and central Nova Scotia, RCMP say. In Ottawa, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki said the question of how the threat was communicated will be looked at. "In any incident such as this, we always have to look back at what we did," she said. "Nobody can lose their life in vain, and Heidi will not lose her life in vain, nor will the (many) other victims." Lucki did not say whether the suspect had a firearms licence. "We have to determine at each location what weapon was used," she said. "Until we know exactly the cause of each death, we're not in a position to say what types of weapons that the suspect was in possession of." NEW HAVEN At least 603 Yale New Haven Health employees have tested positive for COVID-19, while more than 1,000 patients who have been treated for the virus have been discharged, officials said Tuesday, Obviously the majority of people that have entrusted their care to us have gotten well enough to be discharged either to home or to another facility, Yale New Haven Health CEO Marna Borgstrom said of the systems five hospitals. There have been 185 fatalities across the health system. As for staff, Vincent Petrini, senior vice president for public affairs, said about 1,000 employees, at a peak time, were out of work because of the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, with 603 having tested positive. The total universe of all Yale New Haven Health employees is 27,000. As of this week, the number of active positive cases for staff, plus those with symptoms and awaiting results was 92 at Bridgeport Hospital; 49 at Greenwich Hospital; 251 at YNHH; 29 at L&M and 13 at Westerly Hospital in Rhode Island. Borgstrom said that, after a month of consistent growth in coronavirus cases, there has been a little bit of a downturn, particularly at Greenwich Hospital, which has been hard-hit with cases coming over the border from Westchester County. She said at one point Greenwich Hospital had more than one-half of its licensed beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. They have seen a continuing decline and are now just below 100 patients, down from a peak of 114 last week, she said. Across the system, a total of 790 patients have COVID-19; 450 are at Yale New Haven Hospital and 213 are at Bridgeport Hospital. Borgstrom said to date, they have not seen the dire predictions that originally forecast Connecticut would need 10 times the number of hospital beds it had. She said they have been able to meet the needs of patients in its existing spaces. She said the reason the curve has flattened and becoming manageable is because the public has heeded the request for social distancing. It has been a tremendous personal price for families with kids at home, for people who havent been working, but we have all played a role, she said. Borgstrom hoped that spirit prevails so that we can manage whats ahead of us that we cant completely predict at this point. In answer to a question, Borgstrom said with revenues down and expenditures escalating, the system will experience operational losses this year and next year as they expect to see some level of COVID-19 patients into the future. She said the planning guide months ago was to protect the staff and set up additional care areas if needed for patients. We kind of threw our budgets out the window, she said. She said financial recovery will be slow and fairly painful. Borgstrom again said she does not favor hazard pay for workers. Asked whether she expects to have layoffs to balance the cost of this pandemic, she said we will do everything in our power to avoid layoffs and so that is not anywhere in a public or secret plan that we have. She added, however, that across the county, many institutions are furloughing employees. She said before the pandemic the hospital system was running at 90-plus percent occupancy. Now it is in to the mid-to-low 70 percent. Borgstrom said the crisis for the past two months does not a health system make. We will return to some new normal and we would rather do that with the people who have been trained, committed and participative employees of the Yale New Haven Health System. The CEO said they will soon announce special recognition for the staff that has nothing to do with saving money some place. It is the right thing for us to do. Dr. Tom Balcezak, chief clinical officer for Yale New Haven Health, said the system has performed more than 23,000 tests for the coronavirus, with approximately 5,000 found to be positive. We have really cleared the backlog of testing. We now have just a couple of hundred that are pending, Balcezak said. He said he has made different predictions as to when the virus will peak in Connecticut, from April 15, to April 18, then April 23. The fact that it keeps getting later is actually good news. I think we are very close to where we will peak, Balcezak said, but again, staying home and practicing social distancing needs to continue. He said they are doing testing on three different avenues. One is a rapid in-house test with a commercial platform, although the challenge there is maintaining an adequate supply of kits needed to run the tests. The second one is a test developed by its own lab staff, but it has a longer turnaround time. The last one uses the Mayo Clinic for a lot of its out-patient needs. All of this gives the system adequate testing ability for all its health care workers and inpatients, Balcezak said. He said the system has adequate personal protective equipment and while the challenge had been the need for more N95 respirators, it has now switched to isolation gowns. Dr. Keith Churchwell, chief operating officer at Yale New Haven Hospital, said there continues to be a disturbing drop in the number of patients seeking care for heart and stroke problems, most likely due to fear of contracting COVID-19. He said people should address these problems before they get more serious and cause complications. Churchwell said the treatment teams are still here, there is space at the hospital for patients and systems have been put in place to keep them safe from the pandemic. Across the state, 20,360 residents have tested positive for COVID-19, up 545 from Monday, according to Gov. Ned Lamont said. There have been 1,423 deaths. As of Tuesday there were 1,949 residents currently hospitalized and 64,192 tests have been performed in the state. A Belgian biotech firm claims it has developed a foolproof coronavirus antibody test that is 100 per cent accurate. Liege-based ZenTech said it had started making tens of thousands of its government-certified tests a week. Zentech plans to roll them out in Belgium first before scaling up manufacturing to three million per month so the tests can be used in other European countries. The devices detect if someone has previously had coronavirus and has since recovered, even if they are unaware they were infected. Results take 15 minutes. Scientists say they are crucial for countries coming out of lockdown because they can tell who is likely to have immunity to the virus. The announcement will raise hopes for antibody testing in the UK, where the Government has struggles to one reliable enough for mass-use. Britain says it will not consider rolling out any antibody test that is less than 98 per cent accurate. There are two different types of antibody tests - one which is done at home and takes a few minutes, and another which is posted to a lab to be analysed. Both versions of the test are carried out using a finger pricker to extract a blood sample. Zentech's test is not suitable for home-use. Belgian biotech firm ZenTech claims it has developed a foolproof coronavirus antibody test that is 100 per cent accurate The company, based in Liege, said it had started making tens of thousands of its government-certified tests a week Zentech plans to roll them out in Belgium first before scaling up manufacturing to three million per month so the tests can be used in other European countries MailOnline has approached the Department of Health for comment. Zentech founder and CEO, Jean-Claude Havaux, said: '[The tests'] sensitivity is 100 per cent - meaning all patients who have COVID-19 antibodies, we see them with our test. WHAT IS AN ANTIBODY TEST? ANTIBODY TEST An antibody test is one which tests whether someone's immune system is equipped to fight a specific disease or infection. When someone gets infected with a virus their immune system must work out how to fight it off and produce substances called antibodies. These are extremely specific and are usually only able to tackle one strain of one virus. They are produced in a way which makes them able to latch onto that specific virus and destroy it. For example, if someone catches COVID-19, they will develop COVID-19 antibodies for their body to use to fight it off. The body then stores versions of these antibodies in the immune system so that if it comes into contact with that same virus again it will be able to fight it off straight away and probably avoid someone feeling any symptoms at all. To test for these antibodies, medics or scientists can take a fluid sample from someone - usually blood - and mix it with part of the virus to see if there is a reaction between the two. If there is a reaction, it means someone has the antibodies and their body knows how to fight off the infection - they are immune. If there is no reaction it means they have not had it yet. Advertisement 'We don't want, and don't intend for, these tests to be used by just anybody. It's not a pregnancy test. It's really pretty complicated to carry out and to interpret the results.' He emphasised that the test kits were only for medical professionals, first in Belgium and then later in other countries in the EU and beyond. Antibody tests are seen as a crucial tool for determining who has had COVID-19 - especially non-symptomatic carriers - and could therefore be immune to it. Such tests could pave the way to allowing people to return to work as countries mull easing widespread lockdown measures. That could be especially important for healthcare workers on the front line of the pandemic. As a result, labs in several countries are racing to roll out huge numbers of reliable testing kits. But the World Health Organization has warned that while reliable testing is welcome, the presence of COVID-19 antibodies is not proof that an individual is immune. Even if there was immunity, it says, it is unknown how long it might last. Dr Pascale Huynen, clinic head of the microbiology unit in Liege's university hospital - which confirmed ZenTech's test was reliable to 97 per cent - echoed the WHO. 'Nobody knows if the (COVID-19) antibodies are protective,' she said. She added that scientists also do not know how long immunity could last, or whether the new coronavirus might mutate around any initial immunity, as happens with the flu. Pressure is mounting on the Government to introduce antibody tests as the UK looks to ease lockdown. Health Secretary Matt Hancock promised 100,000 tests would be carried out a day by the end of April - but Britain isn't even managing a quarter of that DIY HOME ANTIBODY TESTS CAN'T BE RELIED ON, OXFORD UNIVERSITY STUDY FINDS Rapid coronavirus antibody home tests cannot be relied on to provide reliable results, an Oxford University study suggests. But researchers said laboratory tests showed promising results when indicating whether someone had developed COVID-19-specific antibodies. They found home antibody tests were accurate between 55 to 70 per cent of the time. Antibody tests analysed in a lab were correct 93 to 100 per cent of the time. PCR tests - which the Government is currently using - gave the correct result 95 to 100 per cent of the time. The authors write that there is an urgent need for robust antibody detection approaches to support diagnostics, vaccine development, safe individual release from quarantine and population lockdown exit strategies. However, the early promise of the fingerprick-type home tests has been questioned following concerns about sensitivity and specificity. The research indicates DIY commercial antibody tests for home-use are not sensitive enough. The investigations were led by the National Covid Testing Scientific Advisory Panel. Professor Derrick Crook, of the Nuffield Department of Medicine and NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, University of Oxford, is the corresponding author of the study that has not been peer-reviewed. The researchers write: 'The performance of current LFIA devices is inadequate for most individual patient applications. 'ELISA can be calibrated to be specific for detecting and quantifying SARSCoV-2 IgM and IgG and is highly sensitive for IgG from 10 days following symptoms onset.' The antibody IgM and IgG are the different antibodies the immune system produces - when it is attacked - depending on the stage of infection. In their pre-print study, the researchers tested samples from 40 people. The ELISA test detected both Covid-19 antibodies in 34 of the 40 patients, with the diagnosis confirmed with a separate test. IgG levels were detected in 31 out of 31 patients tested 10 or more days after symptom onset. Commenting on the findings, Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'It shows that the problem with the commercial rapid antibody tests is that they are not sensitive enough - they fail to pick up antibodies in over a third of people who do in fact have antibodies. 'However, these tests do have acceptable levels of specificity - that is, they are only picking up people who have genuinely been exposed to the Covid-19 virus. 'This means if your test is positive, you can be confident that you have been infected and have antibodies. 'But if your test is negative, you can't rule out that you might have been infected. ' Just as importantly, this paper shows that we do have a very good assay for use in the lab.' The authors summarise: 'Antibody testing is crucial to inform release from lockdown.' Advertisement ZenTech's test, she said, simply indicates whether a patient has 'come into contact' with COVID-19 with a positive or negative result. It does not show the level of antibody response. But that in itself is useful for determining the spread of the virus in a population, and for patients who have not received a nasal swab tests that detect whether a person is in the infectious phase, thought to last around two weeks. Pressure will now begin mounting on the UK Government to look into the tests. Minister promised weeks ago that antibody tests would be rolled out en-masse. Britons were told they would be able to buy them from Amazon or Boots. But none have so far proved to be reliable enough for the public. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency says no test under 98 per cent accurate is safe for mass-use. However some scientists say that even imperfect tests which lack sensitivity can be used to estimate the true scale of infection. Eleanor Riley, professor of Immunology at the University of Edinburgh, told The Guardian: 'Antibody tests even if they lack some sensitivity can be used to estimate what proportion of the population has already been exposed to the virus. 'This is really helpful in telling us whether there is likely to be widespread immunity in the population and thus how likely there is to be a second wave of infections (and how big that wave might be), once the social-distancing measures are relaxed.' There have only been 4,800 antibody tests carried out on COVID-19 patients in the UK. They are being trialled at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, near Salisbury. By comparison, Germany is trialling the tests on tens of thousands of its population. Last month, the UK Government ordered 3.5 million finger prick tests, mainly from Chinese manufacturers. Later it announced it had placed provisional orders for 17.5 million tests from nine firms including some based in the UK. Among them were two tests made by Chinese companies. Britain paid an estimated 16 million for them. But the deals were on the condition that they could pass reliability tests by scientists at Oxford University. Researchers at the prestigious university did not approve any of them, meaning it could now be months before they are used in the UK, if at all. The tests were said to give 'false positive' results too often, meaning they incorrectly tells people they are immune. This might give people false confidence that they can't catch the bug and put them at risk of infection. After being stung by the faulty Chinese antibody tests, the UK Government is said to now be looking for 'home grown' devices made by British firms. But UK-based manufacturers are struggling to access blood samples of infected patients to trial their devices on. Essex-based Biosure said there was 'a national shortage' of samples. It is now calling for blood donations from members of the public who were either diagnosed with, or were suspected of having, the virus. A spokesperson told MailOnline: 'We have discovered there is no current UK based bio-bank for confirmed positive COVID-19 blood samples. 'We recognise the Government is under immense pressure with this global crisis, so for swift action we need to call to the nation for urgent support. 'We are asking people to fill in an on-line questionnaire so we can build a database of people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and who would, if needed, be prepared to provide a small sample of their blood. 'People who fit the criteria will be contacted and sent a collection kit though the post, so that a blood sample could be self-collected at home and posted back for inclusion in our validations.' 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 By Express News Service KOCHI: Believing reports in some media that lockdown restrictions would be relaxed in the city from Monday, more people ventured out with their vehicles in Kochi. In some areas, the officers on duty faced a tough time managing vehicular traffic. MG Road, Banerjee Road, Chittoor Road, Vyttila Bypass, Edappally and Palarivattom junctions witnessed heavy traffic compared to the previous days. As part of enhancing the enforcement activities the city police conducted route marches in various locations. Route marches were held at Madhava Pharmacy Junction, Pulleppady, Kaloor, Pottakuzhi, Vaduthala, Thrikkakara, Mattancherry and Palluruthy. According to the police officials, strict actions will continue as Kochi Corporation and Mulavukadu have been declared as Covid-19 hotspots. Checks will continue till the end of the lockdown, said ACP K Laljy. City Police on Monday registered 107 cases for lockdown violations and arrested 131 persons. 75 vehicles were also seized. The Mattancherry police arrested three officials of a co-operative bank who were responsible for the gathering of the members of the bank for collecting food kits distributed by the state government. The incident happened on Saturday at Mattancherry Sarvajanik Co-operative Bank. Following an SMS from the bank informing the members coming under BPL category to collect food and grocery kit from the bank hundreds gathered on the bank premises violating the lockdown. R Naveen Kumar, president of the bank, Ajitha Kumari, deputy general manager and director board member Naveen were arrested under Kerala Diseases and Epidemics Ordinance, 2020. All were later released on station bail. 87 held, 118 cases registered Rural police on Monday registered 118 cases for lockdown violations and arrested 87 persons. 55 vehicles were seized. According to the officers, 7,009 cases have been registered so far and 6,533 persons arrested. 3,979 vehicles were confiscated so far. Rural SP K Karthik said that stringent action would continue until the lockdown ends. 3 held for brewing liquor The Chengamanad police arrested three persons who were involved in illicit brewing at Kunnukara near Aluva. Balachandran, 50, Akhil, 27, Sarath, 24, and Syam Shankar, 26, were arrested for manufacturing local arrack at the residence of Balachandran. 600ml of arrack and equipment used for brewing were seized. Houston ISD schools dominated U.S. News and World Report's latest ranking of best high schools in the Houston metro for 2020, accounting for nine of the top 25 spots. The new report ranks more than 17,700 public high schools across the nation based on how well they serve all of their students regardless of economic or ethnic background, according to an April 21 news release. The Best High Schools rankings provide the most comprehensive, data-based information on nearly every public high school in the country, Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News, said in the release. Families can use this information to see how their local schools compare on graduation rates and state assessments, as well as academic performance by students who are traditionally underserved those who are black, Hispanic or from low-income households. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Now more than ever, Houstons digital divide puts childrens education in peril Schools were evaluated on a variety of factors, including graduation rates, college readiness (which is measured by AP and IB exam performance) reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance and college curriculum breadth, according to the report. The rankings are also offered on the state, metro area and school district level. Only school districts with three or more high schools were included. Houston ISD schools took a majority of the top 25 spots for the Houston metro ranking, with DeBakey High School for Health Professions, Carnegie Vanguard High School and Eastwood Academy ranked as the top three schools, respectively. YES Prep schools also made a hefty dent in the ranking, earning five of the top 25. Katy ISD, Alief ISD, Aldine ISD, Clear Creek ISD and Fort Bend ISD each had at least one school represented in the ranking. SCHOOL RELIEF: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suspends STAAR testing requirements over coronavirus On the state level, 7.1% of the 1,485 of Texas schools that were evaluated ranked in the top 5% nationally; while 11.7% ranked in the top 10%; and 24.9% ranked in the top 25%. Two Dallas schools made top 10 list of best in the country: Irma Lerma Rangel Young Womens Leadership School was ranked No. 10 and The School for the Talented and Gifted was ranked No. 6. The report found that Massachusetts schools were the top performers in the U.S., with 49.6% of that states' eligible high schools ranked in the top 25% of the rankings. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia was ranked the overall No. 1 high school in the U.S. For more information on the top high schools for 2020, visit U.S. News and World Report's website. Rebecca Hennes covers community news. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | rebecca.hennes@chron.com SALT LAKE CITY, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- RizePoint, a software as a service solution and industry technology leader in the food safety, quality management, compliance, and social responsibility space, has partnered with Savvy Food Safety, the leading food safety experts, to help companies dramatically elevate their safety and cleanliness protocols as a result of COVID-19. Coronavirus has dramatically increased the need for companies to ensure the health and safety of employees and customers. Organizations must implement new processes, continuously train staff on the new expectations, regularly audit and inspect facilities, ensure employee compliance, and enforce behavior changes accordingly. RizePoint offers the leading mobile auditing platform in the marketplace, which is helping companies worldwide adjust to the drastic changes in this post-COVID world. Savvy Food Safety provides the highest-quality compliance training, education, and inspections, and supports businesses as they increase their cleaning and sanitizing protocols to reduce coronavirus risks. Together, RizePoint and Savvy Food Safety are providing tools and support to ensure employees are trained around the new safety and cleanliness procedures and compliant in following them. "RizePoint and Savvy Food Safety are working together to boost food safety culture in this new post-COVID world. We're collaboratively providing companies with the tools and information they need to educate, train and reinforce key behaviors around cleaning, sanitation and safety. We can make this world safer by helping many industries take proper, proactive steps to keep employees and customers healthy amid global COVID concerns," explained RizePoint's CEO Dean Wiltse. "This isn't about adding new activities to your company's daily workload. This is about shifting your protocols so your business successfully transforms to this new normal." "RizePoint and Savvy Food Safety have partnered to offer the best platform in the marketplace to help companies respond to the COVID-19 outbreak," said Francine L. Shaw, President & CEO of Savvy Food Safety. "It's my great honor to partner with RizePoint to help companies adopt new protocols, build consumer confidence, boost employee trust, and communicate the proper steps they're taking to elevate their cleaning and sanitation processes. Our ultimate goal is to assist our clients with making the world a safer place." Complete, comprehensive, and user-friendly are benefits at the heart of RizePoint's best-in-class solution. Additionally, RizePoint gives businesses the tools to reassure employees and customers about the safety and cleanliness of their venues through transparency about their elevated protocols. The tools help companies: Train staff on the new safety precautions implemented due to coronavirus and reinforce proper behaviors. implemented due to coronavirus and reinforce proper behaviors. Audit and track activities to ensure compliance. Aggregate audit and checklist data across all locations and business operations. Use multi-level reporting by location, region, and corporation to ensure compliance. RizePoint seamlessly integrates these new, post-COVID processes into companies' standard operating procedures. RizePoint's proven solution: Can quickly and easily be set-up, allowing organizations to be up and running in every location in two days or less. allowing organizations to be up and running in every location in two days or less. Is built using the language companies already use . . Doesn't change or disrupt normal business practices; it enhances and supplements what businesses are already doing. it enhances and supplements what businesses are already doing. Fits your needs, whether you're busy now or working to return to normal business levels. "Whether you're rapidly responding to increased business traffic or planning to return to business as soon as possible, RizePoint will help you reinstate employee and consumer confidence, rollout the recommended government guidelines, and ensure proper protocols are being followed," Wiltse continued. "As we shift from strict stay-at-home orders to reopening more businesses, we all need to feel safe and comfortable being around people again. RizePoint and Savvy Food Safety are providing the tools, audits, checklists, reporting dashboard, and support to successfully accomplish this. Our mobile applications are available for all devices and are customized for each customer." RizePoint is introducing three levels of their proven solutions, including free access to the online/offline mobile application, as well as complimentary access to COVID-19-related forms, reports, and auditing tools, all reviewed and endorsed by food safety leader, Savvy Food Safety. Levels two and three build on this free RizePoint offer, with options for customizable forms, videos, and consulting from Savvy Food Safety experts. For more information on these levels, visit https://rizepoint.com/mobile-auditor-covid-19-free-use/. About RizePoint RizePoint, headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, offers a quality management software solution that helps companies keep brand promises through their quality, safety, and compliance efforts. Customers gather better data, see necessary actions earlier, and act faster to correct issues before they become costly liabilities. The company serves the food, hospitality, and retail industries with a robust mobile auditing tool and a cloud-based platform that automates quality management systems and supplier quality management programs. RizePoint works with the most prestigious brands in the world, including Starbucks, McDonald's, L Brands, and Marriott, supporting them on a variety of safety and compliance activities. For more information, visit https://rizepoint.com/. About Savvy Food Safety Savvy Food Safety, Inc. is a woman-owned business offering a robust roster of services, including consulting, food safety education, food safety inspections, crisis management training, writing norovirus policies and procedures, curriculum development, responsible alcohol service training, and more. The Savvy Food Safety team has more than 100 combined years of industry experience in restaurants, casinos, and convenience stores and has helped numerous clients prevent foodborne illnesses. Francine L. Shaw, President/CEO of Savvy Food Safety, is an international speaker, and has been featured as a food safety expert in numerous media outlets, including the Dr. Oz Show, BBC World Service Radio, the Huffington Post, iHeartRadio, Food Safety News, Food Management Magazine and Food Service Consultants Society International. For more information, visit https://savvyfs.com/. SOURCE RizePoint Related Links http://www.rizepoint.com A sure sign of spring is the annual bird migration. This field near Pigeon was busy recently with Tundra swans and Canada geese. Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi,who has been booked by the Delhi Police for holding a religious congregation here during the lockdown, on Tuesday appealed to coronavirus survivors to donate blood plasma for infected people. In a letter issued on Tuesday, Saad said he and some other members of the organisation are exercising self quarantine. He said most of the members who were quarantined did not have any infection and they tested negative for COVID-19. "Even from amongst the ones who tested positive for the disease, a majority of them have now undergone treatment and are now cured while I and a few others are still under quarantine. "It is required that such people who are now cured of this disease should donate blood plasma to others who are still fighting the disease and are under treatment," he said. On Monday, he had urged the followers of the organisation to pray at home in the month of Ramzan. While addressing an online briefing on Sunday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal cited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation last month, a major hotspot, and the large inflow of travellers from other countries to Delhi as the reasons for the spread of the virus, and said the city was "fighting a difficult battle". The Delhi Police crime branch, had on March 31, lodged an FIR against seven people, including the cleric, on a complaint by the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin police station for holding the congregation in alleged violation of the orders against large gatherings to contain the spread of coronavirus. Later, the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) was added to the FIR. The cleric is wanted by the Delhi Police and he responded twice to them. He is currently under home quarantine. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As of today, Ukrainian firefighters are trying to contain three fires in the Chornobyl zone. Ambassador of Ukraine to the Kingdom of Belgium, Representative of Ukraine to the European Union and European Atomic Energy Community Mykola Tochytskyi has said the EU is ready to help Ukraine to eliminate fires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. Read alsoUkraine's Emergency Service: 45 people killed in fires last week "The EU always supports Ukraine. During our conversation, European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic assured the EU is ready to provide comprehensive support to Ukraine in resolving the situation with fires in the Chornobyl zone," the ambassador wrote on Twitter on April 20, 2020. "We highly appreciate the willingness of European friends to help Ukraine," Tochytskyi added. As UNIAN reported earlier, wildfires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone broke out on April 4 and were extinguished on April 14. However, they resumed on April 16. Tens of hectares of forest were burned. As of today, Ukrainian firefighters are trying to contain three fires in the Chornobyl zone. Over 1,300 firefighters and 299 pieces of equipment, including three helicopters, are involved in extinguishing the fires. LEYDEN A report of shots fired in Vermont Friday afternoon led to a police chase and the arrest of a suspect at gunpoint on North County Road. The incident began about 1:30 p.m. when a be on the lookout or BOLO was issued out of Vermont for a report of shots fired, the Recorder reported, citing Police Chief Dan Galvis. Brattleboro police located the suspects pickup truck and followed him over the state line into Leyden. Police received a call for assistance at about 5:30 p.m., Galvis said. Officer Nicholas Hansmann, Sgt. Tina Riddell and a state trooper responded and pursued the suspect as he fled along Greenfield and Alexander road. Hansmann intercepted the vehicle on North County Road and ordered the suspect out at gunpont after he was slow to get out, Galvis said. Police did not find any weapons in the pickup. William Tronsen, 50, of Bennington, Vermont, was charged with attempting to elude officers, aggravated disorderly conduct, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop and a marked lanes violation. Galvis said Tronsen was also charged with operating under the influence after he refused a field sobriety test and breathalyzer. The governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, on Tuesday, said the state is isolating suspected cases of coronavirus in hotels to avoid the spread of the diseases at the community level. Mr Ganduje said peculiar situations require peculiar regulations and processes, while addressing the head of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Chikwe Ihekweazu, during a visit to Kano, the governors spokesperson, Abba Anwar, highlighted in a statement. We are doing as much as we can to tame the situation. That is why those suspected cases that are less privileged, we take them to (a) hotel after taking their samples, to keep them there, Mr Anwar quoted his principal as saying, in the statement. Mr Ganduje also said all the index cases in Kano are within the metropolitan Local Government Areas, as such, community transmission is not there. There is a need to increase our capacity for testing our suspected cases. At the same time, we also need more collection centres, the governor pleaded with NCDC. The governor said so far, the state does not have very serious cases where cases need the usage of ventilators and monitors. Rising cases Mr Ganduje said the cosmopolitan nature of Kano was one of the reasons for the rise in cases in the state. There is no surprise that the numbers of cases are rising. Kano becomes the third in this category of states with highest infection. It is just like what is happening in other global cities, due to the metropolitan nature of the settlement, the governor said. READ ALSO: In his remarks, the Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu commended Kanos response to the fight against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic in the state. The NCDC chief said Kanos response team is one of the best in the country.We appreciate your good support and contribution in the state response team. We have no other option but to support you, Your Excellency, he said to the governor. Mr Ihekweazu, who was on an assessment tour in the state, visited some Isolation Centres to see the level of the states preparedness. We are supporting you with all our commitment. It is good to let you, Your Excellency, know that, we have a collective responsibility to do our very best to make sure that Kano is supported to move forward. Lawmakers in the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a bill that requires long-term care and assisted-living facilities to share daily reports on COVID-19 cases and deaths to health officials. The House passed the bill Tuesday afternoon after approving an amendment from Rep. Ruth Balser, a Newton Democrat, substituting new language, according to a transcript published by the State House News Service. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration. The legislation, H 4663, includes reporting requirements for elder housing, assisted-living, nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, including the Soldiers Homes in Holyoke and Chelsea that have seen dozens of COVID-19 deaths. It is our hope that with transparent reporting, the necessary testing, personal protective equipment and staff support will be made available to these facilities, said Balser, House chair of the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs. Coronavirus cases in Massachusetts climbed to 41,199 following news of 1,556 new cases, health officials announced. Nine percent of people with the virus are hospitalized, Tuesdays data show. More than 7,000 residents in housing facilities across the state have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the state Department of Public Health. And more than half of COVID-19 deaths stem from these facilities. Of the 1,961 deaths reported Tuesday, at least 1,059 come from long-term care facilities. Our long term care facilities, assisted living residences, and elder housing are the epicenter of this public health crisis, Balser said. Those with loved ones in these residences, and the larger community, are understandably alarmed." One of the worst outbreaks in Massachusetts nursing homes was discovered at the Soldiers Home in Holyoke after Mayor Alex Morse struggled for days to confirm rumors of coronavirus cases. Morse enlisted the help of the Baker administration on March 29, a Sunday, saying he didnt hear much urgency from the Soldiers Home, according to communications obtained by the Springfield Republican / MassLive.com. By the next day, lawmakers confirmed that the first death had been Wednesday and that at least 12 veterans had died since the outbreak. Superintendent Bennet Walsh was placed on leave, though he said he never kept officials in the dark about the cases. The COVID-19 cases continue to rise at the facility. Nearly a month after the first death, state officials say at least 52 residents with the coronavirus have died. Eleven other residents have died, but nine of them tested negative, one has a test result pending and one was labeled unknown." As of Tuesday, 94 veteran residents and 81 employees have tested positive, according to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Nine residents have test results pending. Sixty residents have tested negative. The Chelsea Soldiers Home has also seen multiple deaths linked to COVID-19. As of Tuesday, state officials say at least 12 veteran residents who tested positive have died. Four other residents who died tested negative. It is unclear whether those figures include a veteran who was moved from the facility to the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford and later died from complications from COVID-19. Altogether, 25 residents and 52 employees have tested positive in Chelsea. Another 206 residents have tested negative. Under the reporting bill, these facilities would have to submit daily reports to local health departments and the state Department of Public Health. The reports would include the number of people who tested positive for the coronavirus and the number of deaths linked to COVID-19, broken down by residents and staff. The facilities would also be expected to report the number of known COVID-19 cases and deaths to residents families, guardians and legal representatives, according to the bill. DPH would have to make the data, including the names each facility, available to the public on its website. The state would be expected to update that daily. Under the bill, DPH would also have to submit weekly reports on the number of COVID-19 positive cases and deaths at these facilities to the House and Senate Ways and Means committees. The reports to lawmakers would have to include data on race, age, sex and other demographics. House Speaker Robert DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat, said in a statement called the legislation crucial. In an effort to protect those most in need, we seek accurate and daily data on COVID-19 cases and mortalities at our long-term care, assisted living and senior housing facilities, which have been difficult to obtain since the outbreak began, he said. Related Content: Massachusetts reports 152 new COVID-19 deaths; 9% of those with virus are hospitalized Coronavirus: Which Massachusetts nursing homes have confirmed cases of COVID-19? Gov. Baker leaves door open for Massachusetts businesses to reopen before end of June if COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations decline By Express News Service CHENNAI: Private schools cannot compel parents to pay fees for the academic year 2020-21 or demand the pending fees for 2019-20 or levy any penalty for delay, the state government reiterated on Tuesday. The Revenue and Disaster Management Department, in an order on Tuesday, said that the government has been receiving complaints from parents that private schools have demanded various fees during the lockdown period. CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES Many parents have lost their livelihood and are unable to go to work during the lock down. However, in order to pay taxes, schools have been pressurising parents for fees. State government officials had already announced on multiple occasions that schools should not compel or threaten parents to paying fees during the crisis. The coronavirus pandemic has amplified and exacerbated the many crises threatening press freedom across the world, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday, lambasting governments for taking advantage of the outbreak to pass repressive media laws, punish journalists and censor information. Christophe Deloire, RSFs secretary-general, said governments were using the fact that politics are on hold, the public is stunned, and protests are out of the question in order to impose measures that would be impossible in normal times. Unveiling its annual press freedom rankings, RSF said both China and Iran have censored the major coronavirus outbreaks in their countries extensively, while authorities in Iraq stripped Reuters news agency of its licence for three months over a story questioning official figures. RSF said China where authorities are accused of a cover-up after coronavirus was first detected in late December has tried to establish a new world media order characterised by hyper-control of information. The entire world was now seeing the negative effects of Chinas censorship, the group added. Many blame Chinas cover-up and delayed response for the rapid spread of the virus to every corner of the globe. Worldwide, nearly 2.5 million people have been infected and more than 170,000 people have died from the virus. False information In Hungary, RSF highlighted Prime Minister Viktor Orban passed a law punishing false information about the outbreak with penalties up to five years in prison a measure the group called completely disproportionate and coercive. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte also approved measures to punish false information, and now at least two journalists face prison terms and hefty fines on charges of spreading misinformation about the virus. Meanwhile in Brazil, RSF said President Jair Bolsonaro has stepped up his attacks on the media since the start of the pandemic, blaming them for causing hysteria and panic. And in Russia, India and the Philippines, state troll armies are using social media to spread disinformation about the pandemic, it said, adding there was clear correlation between a countrys ranking in the Press Freedom Index and its suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus outbreak. In effect, RSF said the disease has compounded five different factors already affecting the press a geopolitical crisis due to aggressive authoritarian regimes suppressing information; a technological crisis owing to a lack of appropriate laws regulating digitalised communication; a democratic crisis due to the fomenting of hatred and hostility towards journalists in democracies; a crisis of trust in the media amid public suspicion that news is contaminated by misinformation; and finally an economic crisis with the digital transformation causing a collapse in advertising revenue for newspapers and online media. The coronavirus pandemic illustrates the negative factors threatening the right to reliable information, with the pandemic itself an exacerbating factor. What will freedom of information, pluralism and reliability look like in 2030? The answer to that question is being determined today, said Deloire. RSF reported few significant changes in its rankings from last year. Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden topped the index of 180 countries, while isolated North Korea took the last position from Turkmenistan. Malaysia and Maldives saw the biggest rises in rankings, at 101 and 79, respectively, following changes of governments through polls. Sudan, at 159, also saw a big leap due to the removal of Omar al-Bashir last year. Haiti, where journalists have been targeted during violent protests, registered the biggest decline. China, Saudi Arabia and Egypt were the worlds biggest jailers of journalists, according to RSF. In the United States, RSF said, President Donald Trump was responsible for rising hostility towards the media, a sentiment it said has trickled down to local governments, institutions and the American public. First Minister Arlene Foster with staff from Dougan Contracts in Bangor, who are making face masks Rebuilding Northern Ireland's economy following lockdown could take an effort on a post-war scale depending on the severity of the damage, it's been claimed. First Minister Arlene Foster has confirmed that the Executive is looking at a potential recovery plan for when the lockdown is lifted. But there was no detail of any plans at Tuesday's Covid-19 briefing as she warned that there would be no return to "pre-Covid-19 routines". Mrs Foster said: "While it is sensible for the public and private sector to be considering how we reboot, we must not lose sight of our primary focus to flatten the curve of the pandemic and to follow the public health advice." She said that the pandemic would have long-term global economic repercussions which employers should consider when there is a return to work. "Can I facilitate remote working among my employees? Are there technological solutions we have introduced to the way we are doing business during the crisis, and could continue with once the initial threat recedes? And are there creative ways to keep production lines going whilst guaranteeing the safety of our workers?" she added. "Those of us in government are working very hard to map out a path to recovery to support every part of society, but the recovery will be graduated." Stephen Kelly, chief executive of Manufacturing NI, said a plan was needed for a safe restart to business, and for a safe rebuilding. And with job losses likely to be concentrated in sectors like tourism, construction and manufacturing, which are largely located outside of Belfast and Derry, Mr Kelly said that those provincial areas should be targeted for support. Experts said that Stormont should expedite capital spending projects, such as the North-South Interconnector. Economist John Simpson said he believed private firms should not expect further generous payouts from Government, but should instead "wait for the economy to pick up again and gain its own momentum". But he urged the Executive to make progress on its public sector capital programme, which would bring work to private firms. Gareth Hetherington, economist and director of the Ulster University economic policy centre, said there would be deeper support required if the economic contraction is compounded for every month of shutdown. And he referred to the large-scale US plan for the rebuilding of Western Europe following the Second World War, known as the Marshall Plan. "There is the potential for the economic impact to be exponential," he said. "If you're looking at a bounceback from a three-month lockdown, you could be getting into a very significant post-war effort, like a Marshall Plan-type effort depending on the scale. But that's uncertain just at the minute and we don't have the data to make that judgment." He said the Executive lacked the policy levers of Westminster - such as most forms of tax deferrals and borrowing - to help restart the economy, other than the ability to potentially extend a three-month rates holiday to a year. But he added: "It's unlikely that businesses are going to get back to pre-crisis levels of investment straight away, not that that was at high levels. "But that should create spare capacity in the economy so the Government should fast-track investment plans, if there is a potential to bring those on quickly. "Firms will be fighting over public sector contracts, so will provide reasonable value for money. All of that work will start to create confidence and spending in the economy." And he said that with more firms and organisations likely to permit more working from home, the Executive should also look to encourage investment in telecoms infrastructure such as broadband in rural areas. Co Down businessman Connaire McGreevy, who owns construction industry business CTS Projects, as well as a bar and a brewery, said the rates holiday should be extended to 12 months. And he added the Executive should give an indication of what a phased opening-up of business will involve. "We need to be able to see what will come first so that people can start getting their minds towards it," he said. See Full Image Gallery >> Introduced in 1950, the innovative Aurelia is one of the most sought-after Lancia models made after World War II. Collectors pay a premium for cars with a documented racing history, and one-offs built as in-house experiments are fascinating, so it's no wonder a 1951 coupe that ticked both boxes deserved a 4,000-hour restoration. United Kingdom-based shop Thornley Kelham explained a wealthy privateer racer named Giovanni Bracco purchased this 1951 Aurelia new in Italy and took it racing almost immediately. It finished second overall in that year's Mille Miglia, first at the Caracalla Night Race, and it earned first in its class (and 12th overall) in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. These were impressive results for the Aurelia, whose main claim to fame was being the first regular-production car equipped with a V6 engine, but Lancia was no stranger to podium finishes. Its story took an intriguing turn when it showed up at the 1951 edition of the Carrera Panamericana with a markedly lower roof line. Bracco knew the Lancia family well, and he arranged to have its top chopped at the factory to make it more aerodynamic. He crashed on the fourth day of racing, sold it to a Mexican architect, and returned home. It re-appeared at the following year's Carrera Panamericana and finished ninth before disappearing. Some speculated it was hidden in America; others assumed it had been crushed and recycled. The first hypothesis was correct, but proving it was easier said than done. The car had received a redesigned rear end Thornley Kelham described as hump-backed and Volkswagen Beetle-like. Some of the original parts had been cut out and discarded, which made the restoration process exponentially more challenging. The shop fabricated a new, period-correct rear end using 3D scans and fiberglass molds. It then painted it black, its original color, before giving it a coat of red, the color it wore when it was entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and finally spraying a second coat of black, the color it was painted in when it raced in the Carrera Panamericana. It was fitted with seats from an Ardea Lancia's V4-powered entry-level model when it raced, so Thornley Kelham sourced a pair and re-trimmed it. Period-correct lettering added a finishing touch to the restoration. Story continues The V6 engine and the four-speed manual transmission were completely rebuilt. All told, resurrecting this one-of-a-kind Aurelia required 4,000 hours of work spread out over a three-year period. "Decades of modifications and misuse made this perhaps one of the most difficult restorations we've ever done," explained Simon Thornley, co-founder of Thornley Kelham, in a statement. The shop is currently working on a project that looks even more ambitions than reviving the Lancia. It's in the process of bringing a 1930 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 purchased new and raced by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini back to life after decades of neglect. You Might Also Like Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) -- For almost a month, Dr. Christine Joy Castillo had to stay inside her workplace not as a doctor but as one of the patients infected with COVID-19. It started after she intubated a patient infected with the disease, days later she herself was infected. After a few days, I started to have three to four episodes of soft stools per day, then I started to have high-grade fevers, loss of appetite and dry cough. My doctor advised me to be admitted, Castillo shared with CNN Philippines Not Politics As Usual. Despite being initially tested negative for the virus, her situation got worse. But my pneumonia was slowly progressing, I got tested again for COVID, which turned out positive. Since my pneumonia is slowly progressing, they advised me to be transferred to ICU for close monitoring, said Castillo. My lips were starting to get blue, they advised me that I need to be intubated. So I was intubated at the ICU for 12 days. READ: Over 700 healthcare workers, including 339 doctors, have contracted COVID-19, DOH says Dr. Raymund Baello, a colleague of Castillo, said it was a challenge for other doctors in VRP Medical Center to see her fighting against COVID-19. So treating her, seeing her before COVID, during COVID, during the time her condition was mild, until it progressed to something critical to the point she was admitted to the ICU, it actually crushed our hearts, he said. But if there was something that helped her win the fight, Castillo and Baello have one answer: prayer. During those dark times, Castillo admitted that she felt weak deep inside while also having the urge to fight for her loved ones. I felt vulnerable. I also wanted to treat myself. Im scared, but I hold on to my faith in God, I lifted up everything to Him. I always say to myself that God will heal me as I always tell my consultants. He will not forsake me. Meanwhile, Baello said that they asked for prayers for their colleague in hopes of healing and recovery upon her. So looking back at the experience, we were actually praying a lot that time, we are praying for miracle, he said. We gathered people to storm heaven with prayers. We want to treat CJ, we want to see her alive, and be an inspiration to everyone. READ: Far from home: Doctors share struggles of physical distancing amid the pandemic Along with continuous treatment and prayers, the heavens heard their cries. Castillo was extubated on April 3. Four days later, she was transferred to a regular room and was discharged from the hospital on April 14. Just like other patients who recovered from COVID-19 in the hospital, she was welcomed like a hero by everyone. When I learned that I was positive, it really changed my perspective in life. Ngayon mas makaka-relate ako sa patients ko na really hopeless (I can now relate more to my patients who feel hopeless). I can be an inspiration to them, I can give them hope, she said. NORTH BERGEN, N.J. - The caller was 18 years old. He was from Peru and lived with his father, just the two of them, everyone else back at home. The father, 56, had tested positive for covid-19 and now the son was unable to wake him from his bed. When Dave Prina and the other EMTs arrived, there was nothing to do but express condolences and ask for the father's identification for the paperwork. What's the boy going to do? he wondered. How will he live? How will he pay next month's rent? "When we left, he was hysterical on the stairs," Prina recalled. The ambulance call that haunts him is one of thousands during a relentless three weeks in which this region has become the world's coronavirus epicenter. North Bergen is located at the other end of the Lincoln Tunnel from New York City on hilly cliffs, part of a constellation of densely populated, working-class cities and towns where the virus has flourished. As of Sunday, New Jersey had 85,000 confirmed cases with 4,200 deaths - and most are concentrated here in the northern part of the state. While most Americans shelter at home, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who operate the nation's ambulances, go toward the danger. Working in chaotic conditions in unpredictable environments, they are a resilient bunch trained to respond to everything from highway pileups and bar fights to people having seizures in their homes. But operating against an invisible virus that kills so indiscriminately is different. At least 13 EMTs and 50 police officers and firefighters nationwide have died of covid-19-related complications in recent weeks. And in a pandemic that has killed mostly the elderly, a disproportionate number of the first responders who have perished have been in their 30s and 40s. Two of the dead are this area's own: Kevin Leiva was a 24-year-old EMT in North Bergen. Israel "Izzy" Tolentino Jr., a 33-year-old father of two, was a firefighter and EMT from neighboring Passaic. Both had second jobs as EMTs for Saint Clare's Dover Hospital, where they sometimes worked together. Franklin Pachay, also an EMT, was Leiva's best friend. They met 4 1/2 years ago as trainees and became so close that Pachay became an ordained minister online so he could officiate at Leiva's wedding. Leiva did the same for him. "We all know what the job is. But no one expected this," said Pachay, 24. "Once his passing was made public, everyone - even people who didn't work with him regularly - was upset. It's a small community." In northern New Jersey, ambulance crews are almost a family business, with every one linked in some way to every other one in the region. The job pays $16.50 to $20 an hour (with an extra $10 an hour thrown in these days as hazard pay) for a 12-hour shift. It's not enough to make a living on its own, so many of those who work in North Bergen have two jobs, some three, with other EMT services in places such as Union City, Passaic, Paterson and Jersey City. Many have spouses, significant others, siblings, cousins, parents, and aunts and uncles who are also on the front lines on ambulances or at hospitals. Most are bilingual Spanish speakers who were born in the United States or who immigrated at a young age, reflecting the area's increasing diversity. For many who serve with North Bergen's Emergency Medical Services, the job is a calling. Liz De Bari, is one of the crew's oldest at age 44. She joined after witnessing the collapse of the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, from a street not far from the ambulance bay on Granton Avenue where she now works. Marco Navarro, 30, is a former Marine reservist who did a tour in Iraq. Estafania Castaneda, 29, was working at Dunkin' Donuts when a customer suggested she consider becoming an EMT. She thought why not and ended up loving it. As for Leiva, he had always dreamed of becoming a doctor, says his wife, Marina, but his parents didn't have much money and he realized he probably wouldn't be able to pay for medical school. Then one day when he was in college, he received an email meant for someone else about a scholarship for a student who wanted to go into emergency medical services. He applied, and got it. Marina said he felt it was "an act of God." Unlike some medical centers where doctors and nurses are facing shortages of masks and other protective gear, the North Bergen Township has plenty because of stores it created during the Ebola panic. It has N95 masks, goggles, face shields, gowns, hats and gloves. Yet EMTs are still somehow becoming infected. - - - Officially, 47 people are on the North Bergen EMS roster. After Leiva's death on April 7, however, three co-workers went AWOL - "just disappeared," scheduler Gendi Santiago said. A fourth called in to say that her husband didn't want her to work while covid-19 was still tearing through the town. A fifth broke down crying last week with two hours left to go in her shift and went home early. Four EMTs tested positive for covid-19 and had to self-isolate. Brigdon Campbell, 39, was one of them. When he first noticed symptoms - he lost his sense of taste and smell, a trademark of the infection - he wondered if he would die, too. "I was like, 'We had a good run.' I accepted it," Campbell recalled. But nine days later, he was feeling fine and cleared to return to work. He thinks that becoming infected was inevitable, almost a mathematical certainty based on his close contact with so many infected people. "It doesn't matter how careful you are," he said. "The more times you do it, the more chances you have to catch it." Those who remained worked back-to-back shifts as 911 call volume soared from about 600 a month to more than 1,000. One particularly bad day in April, De Bari worked 30 hours straight. She said afterward that she felt as though she couldn't breathe, even though she wasn't sick, and she had to take time off. "It was PTSD," she said, post-traumatic stress disorder. She said she just sat at home for two days and thought. "I didn't know what was going on. Everyone was dropping dead. I just wanted to be with my family. At that point, I started thinking, should I say goodbye to my parents? Am I going to die tomorrow?" she said. "Now I came to terms with it. I'm not a quitter. I'm going to keep going." Other EMTs are dealing with similar stress. Navarro's daughter was born two weeks ago at 1 pound, 13 ounces, and is still in a neonatal intensive care unit. He couldn't be there for the birth and hasn't dared to go anywhere near her for fear of transmitting the coronavirus. "I go visit by the window," he said. Campbell wears a mask when he's at home 24-7, even when he sleeps, because he doesn't want to infect his 2-year-old. Castaneda hasn't seen her elderly parents in a month for the same reason. Following the deaths of their fellow EMTs, there was an outpouring of support from the community. The local pizzeria sent pies. School parent associations delivered bag lunches. And Starbucks offered free coffee. The Justice Department clarified that a federal program for first responders that provides benefits for the survivors of those who die "in the line of duty" will include covid-19, if it's "more likely than not" that they were exposed during their work. Politicians from New Jersey, including Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat, have argued that in a pandemic, it can be impossible to pinpoint the source of an infection, and that all working first responders who perish from covid-19 should be included. The EMTs say they are grateful for the support, but don't feel like heroes when so many are dying. Everyone has that one coronavirus call that they think about over and over again. For Castaneda, it was the man who had collapsed on the floor, dying, with his three children, wife and mother saying prayers in Spanish and begging her to "please bring him back to life." "When you are treating the patient, the adrenaline is rushing, but when you get off shift, that's when it hits," she said. "The kids crying and screaming and screaming." For Pachay, it's the 50-year-old man who suffocated in front of him. "Just watching him going from talking to you to being dead a few minutes later. . . . His wife was there. She saw everything," he recalled. For Prina, it's the mounting number of DOAs, or dead on arrivals - the people dying in their homes - that make him feel helpless. In normal times, they might see one, maybe two a month or every few months. Now it's more like six or seven a week. The county leased two refrigerator trucks, room for 45 bodies each, but there is so much death that the waits for pickup can be agonizingly long. Families that have money can call a funeral home to come get the body from the house, he said. Those that don't face a nightmare. It could be one to two days before a medical examiner shows up. "It's just call after call after call. I have never seen anything like it," said Prina, a former firefighter. "Every other is 'flu-like symptoms.' I have been an EMT for 25 years. I see death all the time. I have seen some awful things. But it's the repetition that gets me. If you go on shift now, it is a guarantee you will see death." Prina thought again of the 18-year-old boy and his 56-year-old father. His own son is 18. He's 51. "I heard they are putting people on the malaria drug and a Z-pack, which works great for some people. My friend's father took it early on and he had a fever for one day and was better," he said, referring to the anti-malarial hydrochloroquine touted by President Donald Trump and the antibiotic azythromycin. (The combination, which can cause dangerous cardiac effects, has not been recommended to prevent infection but some hospitals are trying it for sick patients.) "I have a stash in my house." - - - As chief of the North Bergen crew, Prina has had to make dozens of decisions, big and small, over the past few weeks that weigh heavy. Many times, he's facing only bad choices. In early April, all seven nearby hospitals went on "divert" status, signaling that they were too overwhelmed to handle any more patients. But Prina calculated that the next closest hospital was 20 to 25 minutes away - too far for a patient in cardiac arrest or respiratory distress. A one-hour round trip, including the time to hand off the patient - would also mean leaving others who called 911 waiting. So he ordered the trucks to take patients to the closer hospitals anyway. Another big issue was a nearby nursing home with several dozen deaths. He did not want his EMTs going inside, if at all possible, because he thought the entire complex was probably contaminated. So he worked out a compromise: The nursing home staff members wheel patients outside so the crew can treat them there. CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which involves chest compressions and tends to aerosolize the virus, putting EMTs at increased risk, was another big concern. "All the rules are different," he said. "We do three rounds of CPR and then it's over. They just leave you there. In the past, they would work you all the way to the hospital." He said the town is bringing in antibody tests so that every EMT will be tested this week to see if they have been exposed to the virus. And it has set up a mental health counseling service that will allow everyone to have up to 12 one-on-one sessions. Reinforcements arrived at 3 a.m. on April 11, finally: Six fresh-faced men and women from Indiana, all in their early 20s, hired by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who had driven all night to get there. "They thought they would be transporting people to the covid hospital ship," Prina said. "They never had any idea they be doing 911, never had any idea they would be thrown into hell. Some had never done CPR. The first day, our guys were like, what the [expletive] are they doing here?" What ensued was an almost comical culture clash, between the loud and cynical New Jersey natives and the more soft-spoken and mellow Indiana visitors. Some issues were technical. None of the Indiana EMTs knew how to use stair chairs or lifts, which are critical for getting patients downstairs in the narrow rowhouses in North Bergen. A genuine observation: "It's like they don't have stairs there. Like maybe everything in Indiana is one story?" When the New Jersey crew asked about the types of 911 calls they got in their area, the Indiana EMTs talked about "shooters" - people with guns shooting themselves or others by accident - a concept that left the urbanites agape. But it wasn't long before the FEMA group earned their respect. "They are totally not like us," Prina said. "But they learned in 12 hours what took us months." With up to six ambulance trucks operating instead of three and the volume leveling off somewhat as it has in New York City these past few days, things have felt more in control, he said. Yet the calls keep coming. A recent weekday morning brought some good news. A mother had called about her 20-something son, saying she couldn't rouse him. The crew feared the worst, but when they arrived he was sitting up and chatting. Everyone smiled, but the reprieve was brief. The radio had started up again. "She's turning purple and fainted." "He's blue and nonresponsive." "Reporting shortness of breath, back pain." The requests inevitably end with: "Use universal precautions." That's dispatcher lingo for "This is probably a covid-19 case" and a signal that the team should put on masks, face shields and other equipment to avoid the contagion. The reminder, of course, is unnecessary. The number of coronavirus cases (Covid-19) in Gujarat crossed the 2000-mark after 127 more people tested positive for the infection on Tuesday, news agency PTI reported. Gujarat had breached the grim 1000-mark last Friday. The new cases, which took the states Covid-19 tally to 2066, were reported from Surat with 69 and Ahmedabad with 50 patients. Rajkot and Valsad reported two cases each and Aravalli, Gir Somnath, Kheda and Tapi reported one each, the agency reported citing health department officials. The death toll due to coronavirus disease also rose to 77 in Gujarat as six more people succumbed to the disease. Also read: Delhi-Ghaziabad border sealed to check the spread of Covid-19 Jayanti Ravi, principal secretary of the health department, said five of these deaths were reported from Ahmedabad and one from Bhavnagar. She added that all the victims suffered from co-morbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension and kidney disease. The dead included four women and two men, all in the age group of 50 to 72 years, she added. Out of the 1858 active Covid-19 cases in Gujarat, 19 are on ventilator support and the condition of 1839 is stable, the official said. So far, 131 patients have been discharged after recovery in the state. Jamnagar and Morbi in Gujarat, which is now the third worst-hit state in the country, have not reported any fresh cases during the last 14 days. Transaero seeks for bankruptcy of ex-airline top managers flickr.com/ Papas Dos 13:51 21/04/2020 MOSCOW, April 21 (RAPSI) Commercial courts will consider bankruptcy claims filed by Transaero air carrier against its two former top managers Maria Akchurina and Dmitry Lipinsky in summer, according to the Commercial Case File. The Moscow Regional Commercial Court has scheduled bankruptcy proceedings against ex-head of the airlines legal directorate Lipinsky for June 16. The Moscow Commercial Court in March introduced a debt restructure procedure against ex-deputy CEO for finances of Transaero Akchurina. Bankruptcy hearings on merits are set for June 22. In January, the Supreme Court of Russia upheld lower courts rulings to recover 9.5 million rubles (about $150,000) from Akchurina in favor of the air carrier. The court held that the applicants arguments did not have sufficient grounds for consideration of her appeal by the Judicial Chamber on Economic Disputes. In July 2019, a court invalidated an additional agreement to a labor contract between the airlines insolvency practitioner Alexey Belokopyt, the air carrier and Akchurina as well as orders on monthly extra payments. In October 2019, the Commercial Court of North-Western District upheld it. Transaero found itself unable to pay its debts valued at 250 billion rubles (about $4 billion) in 2015. The government-approved plan of transferring 75% of companys shares to Aeroflot failed. Its problems resulted in mass flight cancels and delays. In October 2015, Sberbank and Alfa Bank filed bankruptcy petitions against the troubled airline. The Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region initiated bankruptcy procedure against Transaero on December 16. The Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region declared Transaero air carrier bankrupt in September 2017. Space X "Starlink" satellites in the night sky (Getty) Sky watchers in Britain have spotted something very strange in recent nights a train of stars moving in a line across the night sky. The chain of lights are actually tiny satellites launched by Elon Musk and should be visible for the rest of the week, according to space experts. Reports of sightings were spread across the UK, with users in London, Manchester and Leeds among those on social media claiming to have seen the craft. Clear skies and the position of the satellites should ensure they are visible for the next five or so days, space experts said. Read More: Starlink, everything you need to know about the satellite network SpaceX launched a batch of 60 small satellites into low-Earth orbit in March for Musk's new Starlink internet service. In total, 300 have been launched so far, with 12,000 planned in the long run. Musk hopes the Starlink satellites will generate cash for his larger ambitions in space. The satellites have become easily visible from the UK in recent days, with apps allowing stargazers to work out when they will be visible. Sophie Allan, of the National Space Centre, said that the satellites are visible due to their low orbit and their angle to the sun plus clear night skies over Britain. Read more: Elon Musk dismisses astronomy concerns over Starlink network The National Space Centre wrote in a blog post: Many people have been asking about a string of bright lights heading over their houses late at night. If you have seen this series of bright objects in the night sky, it is most likely that you have seen the SpaceX Starlink Satellites. Story continues The satellites are launched in batches of 60 deploying into an orbit about 180 miles above our planet, before thruster firings over the next one to four months move them to an operational altitude of around 340 miles. The satellites form the initial phase of a planned constellation capable of beaming signals for high-speed internet service from space to paying customers around the globe. Musk has said he sees the new Starlink venture as an important new revenue stream for his California-based Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX. Tech billionaire Musk said last year: We think this is a key stepping stone on the way toward establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars and a base on the moon." While some might dip into a good book at the end of the day, Katie Porter unwinds in bed with an altogether more fashionable form of 'me' time. On a quiet evening, the 51-year-old events manager is to be found on her bed, marvelling at her foot in one of her 500 pairs of shoes. 'When I go to other people's houses they have their books on display on shelves. But I have my shoes because it says far more about my personality. I think they're fascinating. 'I spend hours looking at my shoes, sometimes just lying back on my bed and admiring my ankle while I try them on. It's good to have something that keeps you happy, and for me it's definitely enjoying my collection.' A few years ago, such behaviour might have led some to question whether Katie had some form of obsessive compulsive disorder. Well-heeled: Katie Porters 500-strong collection includes designs by Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen Yet these days, her 25,000 collection, which includes designs by Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, and which are housed on shelves in a giant walk-in cupboard at her Edinburgh home, are more likely to be seen as a modern woman's Shangri-La. While most of us don't reach Katie's giddy heights of a shoe collection, more than a quarter of women will admit to owning more than 50 pairs, according to research. As to the cost, most think nothing of spending more than 100 on a single pair of shoes. Yet despite the expense, four in ten women confess there are at least five pairs in their collection which they haven't worn more than once. Moreover, our relationship with shoes is far from healthy: more than half of women are happy to hobble around in agony as long as a pair of shoes looks good, while 86 per cent have suffered an injury while wearing them. So what is it about shoes and in particular stilettos which make women go, quite literally, weak at the knees? Our fascination with footwear goes way beyond aesthetics. It's our gateway to instant gratification with the added bonus that the joy carries on. According to branding expert Martin Lindstrom, author of Buyology: Truth And Lies About Why We Buy, women feel more justified in buying shoes than any other item of clothing. Annie Cooper, 33, displays her collection of over 100 pairs of shoes on floor-to-ceiling shelves in the dressing area of her North London home 'When shopping, dopamine the neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centres is released until the moment you swipe your debit card,' he says. 'Usually, with other purchases, the high then flatlines and guilt starts creeping in. Except, that is, when the item you're purchasing is a pair of shoes. 'Shoppers rationalise shoes as a practical buy something they can wear multiple times a week so they hold on to that pleasurable feeling longer.' Shoe expert Katie Owen, founder of wide-fit shoe company Sargasso & Grey, points out that in an age where we no longer wear hats and gloves, shoes have become the key way for women to show off their individual styles. 'Even handbags don't have the role they once had because nowadays we carry so much around in them. There is no other item in our wardrobes which, just by slipping them on, makes you instantly look taller and more glamorous. Plus you can lust after celebrity outfits, but while you may not be able to fit into their size-zero clothes, you can always fit into their shoes.' When Dr Daisy Mae slides her feet into one of her collection of more than 100 pairs, the rush of pleasure of the day they 'first met' comes back to her all over again. 'As a doctor for 30 years, I've spent a lot of time on my feet, walking up and down to fetch patients to clinics, so I have to wear flat, comfortable work shoes. But when I put my sparkly shoes on, I go from a jobbing professional to carefree Cinderella at the ball.' For Daisy, 58, a sexual health specialist, her shoes are also a constant in a changing world. Like many women, Daisy, who lives in Eastleigh, Hampshire, can tell the story of her life through her footwear. She still remembers the excitement of getting her first pair of red shoes at the age of ten. And when Daisy's 27-year marriage ended seven years ago, her first present to herself was to buy ten new pairs, which she felt would represent 'the new me'. 'I'd been so miserable in my marriage that by the end I was depressed and saw the world in black and white. 'When I started my life again, I started to notice colours again. When I went into a shoe shop, I saw that the shoes were all the colours of the rainbow, like the flavours on display in an ice- cream shop.' Despite her collection being worth around 10,000, Daisy says it is more about volume than price. She owns more than 100 pairs, yet the most she's ever spent on her heels is 120. Her post-divorce 'splurge' set her back a 'modest' 500. 'I'm at an age now when I was expecting to be wearing slippers, but the reality is that I'm wearing sparkly shoes because I go ballroom dancing three times a week. 'There's a certain chemistry to putting on a pair of shoes. When I get them out of the box, I love to hold them and admire the seams, the buckles and sparkly bits. 'Buying them is such a pleasure, too. While I've gone up and down in dress sizes over my lifetime, from a 12 to a 16, my shoe size always stays the same. Pictured: Dr Daisy Mae with her impressive collection of shoes at her home in Hampshire 'I find it impossible to buy just one pair. A few months ago, I bought five pairs of dancing shoes costing around 50 each in one go. You think: 'I'll have that colour and that one.' Then after you get a few plain ones, you think, 'I should have few glittery ones, too.' ' There is another reason why women find shoes irresistible. Professor Suzanne Ferriss, editor of the book, Footnotes: On Shoes, explains: 'Shoes are a collector's item, whether women perceive them that way or not.' That's just how Annie Cooper, 33, looks at her collection of over 100 pairs, which she displays on floor-to-ceiling shelves in the dressing area of her North London home. They include Valentino sandals, Christian Louboutin stilettos, Fendi platforms and 40 pairs of trainers. The entire collection is worth more than 25,000. Annie, an actress and mother-of-three, says: 'I like to see my shoes displayed on my shelves, ready and waiting, like ornaments. And when I put them on I find them instantly mood-altering. 'I walk differently, I hold my body differently and feel more confident. You feel like you can take on the world in the right pair of shoes. As Coco Chanel said: 'A woman with a good pair of shoes is never ugly.' I think that's true.' No matter how much they cost, Annie agrees there is less guilt attached to buying shoes, although she says it helps that her husband Chris, a property developer, loves footwear as much as she does. 'I think buying shoes is different from other clothes. It's a present to yourself that instantly makes you feel a million dollars. There's the experience of unwrapping them from the box, taking off the tissue paper, smelling them, and feeling the crisp new leather. 'A new designer pair is something you can keep for ever and I justify buying them because I'm hoping my daughters will one day enjoy my collection as much as I do.' In her mind, Annie's pre- lockdown weekly shopping trips to Selfridges and Bond Street were like 'the thrill of the chase' and she says she is never tempted to kick them off on a night out. 'No matter how much pain I'm in, they don't come off until I get home. If I took them off, it would make me feel half-dressed. The pain is never anything another glass of a champagne won't help.' Yet Katie Owen points out that many women have 'a strange relationship' with their top-end designer high heels, which sometimes borders on the unhealthy. 'When it comes to footwear, women will compromise comfort for style and suffer pain and lasting damage to their feet to be seen in the 'right pair' which they wouldn't do with anything else in their wardrobe.' Yet, stilettos definitely have some advantages. Researchers at the Universite de Bretagne-Sud in France found that women who dropped their gloves or asked for help completing a survey in the street were more likely get help from passing men if they wore high heels instead of flat shoes. This may be down to the fact that high heels force women to adopt a primal mating pose called lordosis, according to anthropologists, which makes their bottoms sick out up to 25 per cent more. Allan Pease, author of Why Men Don't Have A Clue And Women Always Need More Shoes says women's love of footwear is so deeply embedded it also appears to cross cultures. 'On average female Inuit own four pairs of snowshoes to every pair that men own.' The start of the modern love affair with shoes came when the high heel was born in around the 14th century when Venetian prostitutes started adding cork platforms to their shoes to be head and shoulders above the competition and attract more customers. Yet it was the arrival of the American TV series Sex And The City centred around fashionable, stiletto-lover Carrie Bradshaw more than two decades ago which turned footwear into a cultural fetish, according to Rebecca Shawcross, author of Shoes: An Illustrated History. 'Before then, there had always been a fascination with shoes but this series gave it the stamp of approval.' And, says psychologist Diana Parkinson, new shoes of any kind are just as much a sign of status today as they were for women hundreds of years ago. 'If you're spending a reasonable amount, there will be a sales assistant bringing loads of boxes and kneeling at your feet. Even though we don't have maids any more, it evokes the feeling of being waited on hand and foot.' Beyond that, the most common reason shoes give us pleasure is because they are the items of clothing we can most easily admire ourselves wearing, just as Katie Porter does in her bedroom. Diana says: 'To see the rest of your outfit, you have to look in the mirror. If you're wearing a good pair of shoes, you can get a kick just by looking down. 'They are like works of art at the ends of our feet.' Exports of agricultural machinery from Ukraine shrank by 9.4% in 2019, to $37.6 million, the head of the department of investment and logistics of the Institute of Agrarian Economics, Oleksandr Zakharchuk, has said. "Traditionally, Ukraine's export capabilities on basic agricultural machinery are much lower than imports. However, in 2019, foreign deliveries declined sharply - by 9.4% - and amounted to only $37.6 million," the institute's press service quoted Zakharchuk as saying. According to him, exports of agricultural tractors saw the largest decline in 2019 by almost 2.5 times. Last year, they totaled only $3.3 million compared to $7.4 million in 2018. The main importer of this type of domestic agricultural machinery was Belarus. It purchased $1.1 million worth of tractors in Ukraine, or 33.3% of total sales. In second place was Romania, which paid $0.9 million for Ukrainian tractors (27.3%). Significantly smaller shares in imports of tractors were recorded by Moldova ($0.5 million, 15.2%), Cuba ($0.4 million, 12.1%), and Israel ($0.2 million, 6%). According to the scientist, domestic manufacturers of agricultural machinery received the largest revenue - $10.3 million from exports of seed drills. However, this figure decreased by 30% compared to 2018. The largest number of seed drills - 36.9% - was purchased by Belarus, which paid $3.8 million for this type of agricultural machinery. Kazakhstan imported seed drills for $2.7 million (26.2%), Moldova for $1.3 million (12.6%), Bulgaria for $1.1 million (10.7%), and Poland for $0.7 million (6.8%). Foreign deliveries of mowers in 2019 decreased by 9.9% compared to 2018, to $6.4 million. Russia bought the lion's share of mowers and paid $4.2 million for them (65.6%). Kazakhstan purchased this type of agricultural machinery for $0.8 million (12.5%), Moldova for $0.5 million (7.8%), and Argentina, which purchased Ukrainian agricultural machinery for the first time, for $0.3 million (4.7%). Disc harrows brought $2.8 million in total to domestic exporters last year. They were exported mainly to Moldova ($0.8 million, 28.6%), Bulgaria ($0.6 million, 21.4%), and Lithuania ($0.3 million, 10.7%), Zakharchuk said. op Kentucky reported its highest one-day increase in new coronavirus infections following a week of protests from a group of 100 residents calling for an end to the shutdown. The state set a grim record Sunday, with 273 new confirmed cases meaning it had its highest single-day spike. Confirmed coronavirus cases in Kentucky total 3,050 as of Tuesday morning and there have been 154 deaths, as Governor Andy Beshear warns that lockdown measures will be maintained despite public protests. The drastic increase came after protesters gathered outside the Democratic governor's press conference on Wednesday calling for him to 'Open up Kentucky' with an end to the shutdown restrictions. It is unclear if the protests had any impact on the surge in cases Sunday. A protestor shouts as hundreds gathered outside of the Kentucky State Capitol on Wednesday to call for social distancing measures to be lifted. Since the protests, Kentucky saw its largest one-day increase in new coronavirus cases on Sunday and deaths have reached 154 New cases increased on Sunday, April 19, two days after protests. Around 100 people gathered at the State Capitol on the days listed in red to protest social distancing restrictions The lower blue line charts the number of new daily coronavirus cases in Kentucky. The number dipped after the first spike on April 10 but jumped to the highest number of new cases yet on Sunday, April 19, when 273 new cases were confirmed. The state total is more than 3,000 The lower gray line shows the number of new coronavirus deaths each day in Kentucky. The state had its worst day on April 12 when 19 deaths were reported 'We are still in the midst of this fight against a deadly and highly contagious virus,' the governor said during his daily news conference Sunday as he announced the spike. 'Let's make sure, as much as we're looking at those benchmarks and we're looking at the future, that we are acting in the present and we are doing the things that it takes to protect one another.' The worst day for new cases in Kentucky before Sunday was on April 10 when 241 new cases were reported. Since then, new cases had dropped as low as 81 a day before they began to rise again. There were 92 news cases reported Friday and 188 on Saturday before Sunday's spike. The number of new cases dipped again Monday to 94. Kentucky saw its highest number of deaths on April 12 when 19 new deaths were reported. The total number of coronavirus cases reached over 3,000 for the first time Monday The number of active cases in Kentucky is listed as cases continue to increase On Wednesday, around 100 Kentucky protesters stood outside the window of Gov. Beshear at the State Capitol in Frankfurt as he spoke to the state's residents about the ongoing lockdown and its restrictions. The group gathered on the lawn to shout 'Open up Kentucky!' and 'King Beshear.' Hearing their shouts of 'facts over fear', Beshear said: 'Folks, that would kill people. That would absolutely kill people.' Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear warns that lockdown measures will be maintained despite public protests that gathered around the State Capitol on Wednesday and Frida The same group of protesters returned on Friday but were met by barricades. Instead, a caravan-style protest was held as drivers drove around the state capitol denouncing the governor's stay-at-home orders. Protesters, whose 'drive-thru' protest was in line with social distancing orders imposed by the state, told WKYT-TV that the governor's decision to shut down commerce was unconstitutional. 'When they started collecting license plate numbers that was one step too far,' said Brett Beaderson, one of the protesters. 'And seeing what is happening in Michigan and other states, he needs to have some liberty pressure on him.' Protesters called for Governor Andy Beshear to 'Open up Kentucky' on Wednesday Around 100 protesters gathered in Frankfurt to for an end to social distancing Beaderson referred to Beshear's order banning gatherings of more than 10 people during Easter Sunday. Beshear said that state officials would enforce the ban by collecting license plate numbers of local residents who attended church services in violation of stay-at-home orders. 'It sucks that people die, but they do, we can't stop that,' said Allison Atkinson, 44, of Clark County told the Lexington Herald Leader at the protest. 'At this point we're putting every Kentuckian in a place of vulnerability because they can't feed their families.' Within the past month, more than 500,000 Kentuckians have filed for unemployment. A protester shouts as hundreds rallied outside the Kentucky State Capitol against current social distancing requirements and business closures ordered by Gov. Andy Beshear. The governor says that the requirements will continue until new daily cases decrease for 14 days Hundreds of protesters march outside the Kentucky State Capitol Wednesday as they call on the governor to ease coronavirus social distancing restrictions across the state There is currently a stay-at-home order in place in Kentucky in with mass gatherings are prohibited but smaller gatherings are allowed with social distancing. Nonessential businesses limited to minimum operations or remote work and bars and restaurants are limited to take-out only Visitors from out of state must also self-quarantine for 14 days. Gov. Beshear was among seven governors from the Midwest who announced Thursday they will coordinate on reopening their state economies amid the coronavirus pandemic, after similar pacts were made in the Northeast and on the West Coast. The latest agreement includes Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kentucky. Governors to focus on four factors to reopen state economies Controlling the rate of new infections and hospitalizations Enhanced ability to test and trace for the virus Sufficient healthcare capacity to handle a potential resurgence Best practices for social distancing at work Advertisement 'We look forward to working with experts and taking a fact-based, data-driven approach to reopening our economy in a way that protects families from the spread of COVID-19,' the governors said in a statement. 'Phasing in sectors of our economy will be most effective when we work together as a region.' On Friday, Gov. Beshear revealed his own plan for a phased reopening of the state's economy that mimics the guidelines released by President Trump's administration last week. The plan includes ramping up testing for health care professionals and the need for a 14-day decrease in new confirmed cases. Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said that the state had 'not yet hit a downward trajectory' as can be seen from Sunday's spike. Gov. Beshear, however, said that some measure's could be lessened in the coming weeks but warned that new daily cases would need to decrease first. 'We see the ability to really start opening up in some small ways maybe leading up to May and some other small ways in May and then have a lot more optimism as we get towards the end of it,' he said. 'We're not in the 14 days of decreasing under the White House guidelines to do certain things.' Cases numbers in Kentucky remain relatively low compared to neighbors in Missouri (5,807 cases), Tennessee (7,238 cases) and Virginia (8,990 cases). The state's death rate is 5.05 percent, however, just below the national fatality rate at 5.4 percent. At least 13 percent of cases reported in Kentucky have been nursing home residents. There were more then 812,000 cases and 44,292 deaths across the United States as of Tuesday morning. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is not what you might call a master of timing. During one of his interminable press briefings last week, the mayor switched from the threat posed by coronavirus to the threat posed by climate change. To fight global warming we need to get away from individual automobile use more, de Blasio said. We have to build a city that more and more relies on mass transit. That was around the same time that Jeffrey E. Harris of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was releasing a paper titled The subways seeded the massive coronavirus epidemic in New York City. Harris, who is a physician, wrote that his study indicated that New York Citys multi-tentacled subway system was a major disseminator if not the principal transmission vehicle of coronavirus infection during the initial takeoff of the massive epidemic that became evident throughout the city during March 2020. Also around that time, New Yorks public radio station, WNYC, offered a discussion in which host Brian Lehrer discussed differing rates of coronavirus with Thomas Fuller, who is the New York Times San Francisco correspondent. Fuller opined that the reason New York City has a much higher rate of transmission than San Francisco was Californias car culture. Cars may burn a lot of fuel and cause traffic jams, Fuller said, but If youre in your car youre not in contact with other people and there is much less chance of transmission. Lehrer, who lives in the city, replied, I dont own one now, but I found myself craving having a car over the past few weeks. He added, I wouldnt have the anxiety and risk of riding in a subway or even a taxi or an Uber. I was in my car at the time, and I heartily agreed. Im sure a lot of commuters feel the same way. They certainly would after reading that MIT report: We know that close contact in subways is fully consistent with the spread of coronavirus, either by inhalable droplets or residual fomites left on railings, pivoted grab handles, and those smooth, metallic, vertical poles that everyone shares. I had never heard the term residual fomites before. But whatever they are, I dont want them on my hands. Here in New Jersey, I dont have to risk it. Our state is set up well for the private automobile. Thats a real advantage, said one transportation expert. It comes down to how do you best get to work and most New Jersey suburban commuters now work in the suburbs, said urban policy analyst Wendell Cox. If you live and work in New Jersey, you look more like a Houstonian than a New Yorker. In a recent piece on the New Geography site, Cox noted that New York Citys population density is unique in that two-thirds of the population, or 5.4 million people, live at densities above 15,000 per square kilometer. This is 80% of the national total. That means that its very difficult for such a New Yorker who works in the city to maintain social distancing, said Cox, whose office is in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Social distancing is real easy for you in Ocean County or me in St. Louis, Cox said. But its almost impossible for many people in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. Barring some sort of miracle cure or vaccine, it looks like the coronavirus will be lingering for months or even years. New Jersey will be much better suited to deal with it than New York City, Cox said. All of a sudden its occurred to a lot of people that working from home is not bad, he said. Thats good for us, but bad for New York City. Our suburban office parks are well-suited to become bases for businesses relying on work-at-home employees and other forms of expanded social distancing. Theres a looming threat of a second wave of coronavirus transmission, Cox said, and Manhattans office towers are ill-suited to deal with it. This wont be the last pandemic, he said. But every time theres a serious threat of a virus they have to shut down. Lets hope that doesnt happen. But de Blasio doesnt sound like hes given it a whole lot of thought. The mayor also said New Yorkers need to plan on getting out of our cars to the maximum extent possible. If hes going to be making the plans, I suspect most New Yorkers would rather get into their cars and drive as far away as they can. The Kansas City, Kansas police department is investigating a Tuesday morning homicide. Police said officers were called to the area near 18th Street and Walker Avenue before noon.Officers said one man was found dead in the area. The police investigation is centered on a single house in the area.There are no additional details available at this time. MBABANE A Chinese businesswoman has been arrested and sentenced to three years for failing to take steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Aking Zheng, who operates V- Best wholesalers at Sidwashini in Mbabane, violated Section 3 as read with Section 24 of the coronavirus (COVID-19) Regulations of 2000 by selling liquor in bulk to various customers. Section 3 of the regulations stipulates that: Every person in the Kingdom of Eswatini shall take steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the manner stipulated in the First Schedule and as may be determined by the Ministry of Health from time to time. Zheng (37) was arrested by police last Friday while they were going about their routine spot-checks, as means of ensuring that members of the public and businesspeople adhered to the stipulated regulations. During the raid, the officers confisticated 40 cases of alcoholic beverages from the buyers. Guilty The businesswoman made her appearance at the Mbabane Magistrates Court on Saturday before Magistrate Lenhle Zulu and when the charge was read to her she pleaded guilty. In mitigation, she implored the court to consider that she was a first offender and that she was not aware of the regulations. I am so sorry Your Worship; it was not my intention to break the law. When I was arrested by the police I was not aware of the regulations but I have now learnt my lesson. I will now comply, submitted Zheng. Magistrate Zulu found her guilty as per her own plea and further warned her to obey the law. You must follow the law and you must not take the COVID- 19 pandemic lightly. The court finds you guilty and you are sentenced to three years imprisonment with a fine option of E3 000, said Magistrate Zulu. Violated Meanwhile on Sunday, two men appeared at the Mbabane Magistrates Court after they were also found to have violated the COVID-19 regulations. They were reportedly found loitering while carrying alcoholic beverages. According to the charge sheet, each of the accused failed to take steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They both pleaded guilty and they were each sentenced to two years imprisonment with a fine option of E2 000. Also, a kombi driver was arrested and charged for failing to maintain one metre social distancing. Themba Thwala of Mpolonjeni in Mbabane overloaded the kombi and in the process violated Section 15 (3) as read with Section 33 of the COVID-19 Regulations of 2020. Section 15 (3) provides that: Public transport shall only operate for essential travel, provided there is one (1) metre distance between passengers. According to the charge sheet, Thwala unlawfully drove the kombi along Sheffield Road and failed to maintain one metre social distancing by overloading the vehicle with six passengers. He is said to have carried 17 passengers instead of 11 and in the process violated the regulations. He was further charged with the offence of contravening Section 27(2) of the Road Transportation Act of 2007 in that he also failed to produce a public driving permit when ordered to do so by the traffic police officers. Thwala made his appearance on Saturday before Mbabane Magistrate Lenhle Zulu. When the first charge was read to him, he pleaded guilty and also informed the court that he was not aware of the COVID- 19 Regulations. In mitigation, he averred that it was not his intention to break the law as he was not aware of the regulations. He claimed that when the COVID- 19 regulations were announced by government, his kombi was not operating after it developed mechanical problems. Threatening I was informed by someone that public transport was operating normally hence I was not aware that I was committing an offence by allowing more passengers to board the kombi. I would also like to bring it to the attention of the court that one of the customers forcefully boarded the kombi after threatening me, said Thwala. He went on to tell the court that he had four children who were all dependent on him. Thwala also claimed that his sickly mother would be prejudiced in the event the court issued a sentence without a fine option. Magistrate Zulu found him guilty in both counts. The magistrate warned Thwala to adhere to the regulations as public transport operators were aware of them. It is very critical Mr Thwala, we speaking of peoples lives here. You should not put money first but consider the lives which are at risk due to your behaviour, said Magistrate Zulu. Imprisonment The court sentenced Thwala to 15 months imprisonment or to pay a fine of E1 500 for violating the COVID-19 Regulations while he was sentenced to one year imprisonment for failing to produce a public driving permit when he was ordered to do so by the traffic police office. He was, however, afforded an option to pay a fine of E1 000. Meanwhile, 11 others were arrested for contravening the COVID-19 regulations in Manzini. They were charged with unlawful loitering. They made their court appearances at the Manzini Magistrates Court charged with contravening the Disaster Management Act 1/2006 as read with the Regulations of COVID 19. One of the offenders was Jesus Matsinya (48), who appeared before Acting Magistrate Sicelo Lokotfwako. He was found guilty as per his own plea. In mitigation he pleaded for a lenient sentence based on the fact that he had two children who are dependent on him and that he was unemployed. Matsinya was sentenced to spend five months in prison or to pay a fine of E900. Five Plateau state indigenes have reportedly escaped from an isolation centre in Nasarawa State. Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullah... Five Plateau state indigenes have reportedly escaped from an isolation centre in Nasarawa State. Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule who confirmed the development during a press briefing on Tuesday said five of the arrested persons escaped into the bush after their vehicle stopped in the Forest Village area, a boundary between the state and Nasarawa. He said they were on their way to Jos, Plateau State. He added that 13 others, who claimed to come from Nasarawa State, are on their way back to Lafia, Nasarawa State capital, where they will go into isolation on their arrival. The Governor also ordered a mandatory 14 days isolation for persons returning to the State. According to Daily Trust, he said the step became necessary in view of the alarming increase in the spread of the virus. Netanyahu and Gantz Agree to Form Emergency Coalition Government Sputnik News 16:11 GMT 20.04.2020(updated 17:10 GMT 20.04.2020) According to a joint statement from Netanyahu's Likud party and Gantz's Blue and White party, the two politicians are expected to meet later in the day. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his election rival, leader of the Blue and White party Benny Gantz, have agreed to form an emergency coalition government, a joint statement from their parties says. "At this hour, an agreement on the establishment of an emergency national government between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the chairman of the Blue and White alliance, was signed," the statement read. Israeli media have reported that under the deal, Netanyahu will remain the prime minister for 18 more months, while Gantz will be the defence minister and will subsequently replace Netanyahu. The statement added that the two political leaders are expected to meet later on Monday. Th agreement comes following three elections in Israel in one year (in April and September 2019 and on 2 March) when none of the political parties managed to win a majority in parliament and form a new government. Last week, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin tasked Knesset members with picking a new head of government after the mandate he had given to the Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz to form a coalition government expired. Netanyahu and Gantz have made several attempts to reach an agreement on a coalition government after each round of elections but their efforts were not enough to end the political deadlock in the country. On 15 April, they held talks for 11 hours straight but failed to overcome disagreements they had concerning the appointment of officials to the judiciary. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address As part of measures to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, the Nigerian government has said court proceedings will now be held through teleconference, using digital tools. The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said this on Monday. The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Mohammed, had ordered the suspension of all court sittings except in matters that are urgent, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But Mr Malami in a statement he signed and made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday said the new plans are aimed at ensuring that the judicial time lost to the COVID-19 lockdown is recovered. He said judges will be sitting and maintaining social distance while lawyers would be interfacing with the courts through their digital devices. According to Mr Malami, Robust use of technological tools to conduct proceedings including virtual proceedings, this would also enable the justices/judges to preside over matters in their chamber without being physically present in a formal courtroom, parties and their counsel will only connect through teleconference means. The way to go in effect is that court proceedings should also be handled in a manner that reduces the number of persons in the courts at any given time. Although this requires the movement of suspects from prisons to the courts, all such suspects should be tested, in fact, everyone entering the court premises should be tested to ensure that they are not already positive, thus risking the lives of other people. Some of the changes sought by the minister would need to be backed up by the National Assembly and effected by the National Judicial Council (NJC), thus empowering the institutions of the ACJA, 2015 to commence functioning immediately, Mr Malami said. Other measures The net result will galvanise the judicial sector into a rapid mode to fast track trials and release of those who are deserving. Deployment of ICT facilities to fast-track taking evidence from witnesses. Digital platforms such as Skype and Zoom can be used. NTA stations across the country can be connected to courts to facilitate taking evidence as witnesses do not have to necessarily be physically present in court. Ensuring that court dockets have only a few cases per day can reduce the number of persons in courts. So, all the pending judgments should be drafted and concluded during a short period of time. This does not require lawyers to be present. Once the judgment is ready, the lawyers should be able to receive them in their email or it should be posted on the courts website for any interested party to download it. This is the way to go and thus provide greater transparency. Mr Malami also proposed that persons awaiting trial on minor criminal charges would be discharged, especially in cases where adjournments have been at the instance of the prosecution. READ ALSO: Criminal charges of minor and non-indictable offences should be summarily tried and sentenced to non-custody penalties. Even in cases where sentenced persons cannot pay their fines, the court should consider other alternative punishments other than a jail term. This can include parole or probationary sentences and, if possible, community service like cleaning public places etc. Persons awaiting trial on minor criminal charges should be discharged, especially in cases where adjournments have been at the instance of the prosecution. He also said this years annual vacation could be suspended as the lockdown had provided judges with many breaks from official duties. Setting aside special dates and that courts work extra hours to decongest their case files. The 2020 court vacation could be suspended as the COVID 19 lockdown period has provided judges with the much-needed break from official duties, he said. Having courts that are fully IT-compliant in order to fast track the digital recording and production of the record of court proceedings. Appointment of more judges and justices, as appropriate. Additional judicial decisions of federal courts are to be created. This will, as a proactive measure, help in decongesting the already loaded court hearing schedules. Nigeria as of Monday night has a total of 665 confirmed coronavirus cases. Also, the number of infected people who have recovered from the virus in the country is now 188. Hundreds of Amazon workers have planned a 'mass call out' beginning today over claims the trillion-dollar company has placed warehouse staff at 'increased risk and exposure' to coronavirus. More than 300 Amazon workers across at least 50 facilities will call in sick as part of a week-long protest, organized by worker rights group United for Respect. The protest will see workers from Tuesday call out of work 'en masse across the country' as they demand better protection from the killer virus. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed at more than half of the company's US warehouses and at least one worker has been killed by the virus, according to United for Respect. More than 300 Amazon workers across at least 50 facilities will call in sick as part of a week-long protest, organized by worker rights group United for Respect Fears have been mounting for Amazon staff ever since New York warehouse worker Chris Smalls organized a protest in March over a lack of protective gear for staff. The company has since introduced a number of measures to better protect workers and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos said he is considering mass coronavirus testing for all staff in a letter to shareholders Thursday. But United for Respect has warned that workers' lives are being put at risk by the company, with at least 130 warehouses now plagued by outbreaks of the deadly virus. 'Amazon's response to the Coronavirus outbreak has unnecessarily put the lives of Amazon employees at increased risk and exposure,' the petition by the group reads. 'There are now over 130 warehouses where employees have contracted COVID-19 (Coronavirus) including some warehouses with over 30 confirmed cases because of Amazon's inaction. Nationwide, we have been and will continue to call out sick until Amazon makes the necessary changes to put our health and safety first.' This week's protest will be spread out across several days since workers are scheduled to report to their warehouses at different times and on different days. Workers are demanding any warehouses where staff test positive for COVID-19 must 'immediately close down' and provide testing and two weeks of pay for workers during that time. They are also calling for the retail giant to provide paid sick leave, guaranteed healthcare for all Amazon associates, regular deep cleaning and sanitation, to eliminate rate-based quotas 'that make hand-washing and sanitizing impossible' and to pledge not to retaliate against workers who speak out about conditions. One concerned packer at the firm's facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, told CNBC workers just want 'better treatment' and to feel safe doing their jobs. Amazon employees at the Staten Island, New York, stage a protest on March 30 over claims the company had not provided adequate protective gear or cleaned the warehouse The Staten Island walkout (above) was the first in a series at individual sites. This week's walkout marks the first nationwide strike at the retail giant 'I would feel a whole lot safer if they would just close down facilities for two weeks and clean them. I would go back to work, no problem,' she said. Amazon told DailyMail.com in an email statement Tuesday that the workers' claims are 'simply unfounded'. 'These accusations are simply unfounded. Nothing is more important than the safety of our teams. Our employees are heroes fighting for their communities and helping people get critical items they need in this crisis,' said Amazon spokesperson Rachael Lighty. 'Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are working hard to keep employees safe while serving communities and the most vulnerable. We have taken extreme measures to keep people safe, tripling down on deep cleaning, procuring safety supplies that are available, and changing processes to ensure those in our buildings are keeping safe distances. 'The truth is the vast majority of employees continue to show up and do the heroic work of delivering for their communities every day. We encourage anyone interested in the facts to compare our overall pay and benefits, as well as our speed in managing this crisis, to other retailers and major employers across the country.' This marks the first nationwide walkout by Amazon warehouse workers, following a series of walkouts at facilities in New York, Detroit and Illinois over the last month. The March 30 protest. Amazon's corporate employees are rallying in support of their warehouse colleagues, with many muted to take part in a 'virtual sick out' Friday Chris Smalls (above) who led the March 30 protest and was subsequently fired The company's corporate employees are rallying in support of their warehouse colleagues, with many muted to take part in a 'virtual sick out' Friday to protest the treatment in warehouses and pressure the firm to reinstate fired workers. The virtual walkout for tech workers has been organized by former employee Maren Costa who has said he was fired along with Emily Cunningham after criticizing the company's policies. 'We want to tell Amazon that we are sick of all this - sick of the firings, sick of the silencing, sick of pollution, sick of racism, and sick of the climate crisis,' said Costa. Amazon has been accused of trying to shut down a virtual event for workers to speak out about their workplace conditions during the pandemic by deleting workers' calendar invites, Business Insider reported. A new report on working conditions at Amazon revealed there have been COVID-19 cases at more than half of the company's warehouses in the US and predicts the disease will spread exponentially among workers in the coming weeks. The report was prepared by the workers rights groups Athena Coalition and Hedge Clippers, using data from government health agencies and a range of local and national news sources. As of April 14, the report claims 'nearly 75' of Amazon's 110 US warehouse facilities had at least one worker test positive for COVID-19, and without intervention the groups predict case numbers among Amazon workers will 'exponentially' increase. 'Amazon is responsible for not becoming a vector for the coronavirus,' the report says. 'The company must protect the health and safety of more than 250,000 people across 110 US warehouses, subcontracted delivery service partners, and 75,000 Flex drivers, for the sake of workers, their loved ones and Amazon customers.' The groups argue Amazon's inadequate safety policies have placed a disproportionate burden on people of color, who make up 58 percent of the company's warehouse workers. Amazon has disputed the report's findings, describing Athena Coalition and Hedge Clippers as 'self-interested critics' who are funded by unions and Amazon's competitors. 'Nothing is more important than the safety of our teams,' Amazon spokesperson Kristen Kish told Vice. 'Since the early days of this situation, we have worked closely with health authorities to proactively respond, ensuring we continue to serve communities while taking care of our associates and teams. 'And, we have implemented more than 150 significant process changes to support our teams including increasing rates of pay, adjusting time off and providing temperature checks, masks, gloves and other safety measures at our sites.' Amazon recently posted a blog highlighting a number of changes it has made at its warehouses, including daily temperature checks and regular face mask distribution for warehouse workers. The company has also increased the pay rate for US employees by $2 an hour, doubled overtime pay, and established a $25 million relief fund for partners like contract delivery drivers. Amazon is also working to develop its own in-house testing facilities to help identify and isolate infected workers. According to the Athena and Hedge Clippers report, these are piecemeal measures that don't adequately address the concerns of many of the company's workers. The groups call for Amazon to pay for COVID-19 testing and treatment, both for full-time employees and contractors, and offer full pay for all workers who self-quarantine for pre-existing health conditions or suspect a family member or housemate may be sick. They also say the company should give workers hazard pay equal to time and a half the hourly wage, not just a $2 an hour increase, and also suspend its productivity quotas for employees, which leave no time for proper protective sanitation. The groups say Amazon should close all its warehouses for two weeks and perform a comprehensive disinfecting deep clean. The National Labor Relations Board is looking into multiple claims that Amazon has unlawfully retaliated against staff for speaking out about the firm's response to the pandemic. Amazon controversially fired the warehouse worker who led the walkout of staff at its Staten Island, New York, facility on March 30. Chris Smalls led the protest, claiming the company had not provided adequate protective gear or cleaned the warehouse after at least seven workers fell ill from the virus. Amazon fired 31-year-old Smalls, claiming he was fired for violating a company-mandated 14-day quarantine after he was in contact with an infected employee. But Smalls argued his axing was in retaliation for begging management to sanitize the warehouse and be more transparent about sick workers. A new report from workers rights groups warns that COVID-19 infections could grow exponentially in Amazon's US warehouses without urgent intervention A leaked memo then revealed plans from top Amazon executives to vilify him. In the memo obtained by Vice News on April 2, the company planned to smear the former management assistant, referring to him as 'not smart'. 'He's not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we're trying to protect workers,' wrote Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky. In the memo, which took place at a day meeting and included CEO Jeff Bezos, Zapolsky's notes reportedly show executives mapping how to navigate bad press of Smalls' firing. They allegedly wanted to make Smalls the center of Amazon's narrative about worker safety. Zapolsky wrote: 'We should spend the first part of our response strongly laying out the case for why the organizer's conduct was immoral, unacceptable, and arguably illegal, in detail, and only then follow with our usual talking points about worker safety. 'Make him the most interesting part of the story, and if possible make him the face of the entire union/organizing movement.' The memo allegedly showed executives considering using Smalls to discredit the company's labor movement. A major breakout at Amazon warehouse facilities could have a devastating impact not just on the company's employees and contractors, but all of Amazon's customer base which includes more than 112 million Amazon Prime subscribers in the US. TEHRAN, Iran, April 21 Trend: Free-interest loans to families and businesses affected by coronavirus in Iran shall be provided with simple guarantees and without bureaucratic complications, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said. Manufacturing and export of non-oil products are necessary due to increased global demand in food, health care and pharmaceutical products, the head of state said at a governmental meeting at the president's office on April 21, Trend reports citing IRNA. During the meeting, Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Mohammad Shariatmadari reported about provision of the free-interest loans to households. The Central Bank's Governor Abdul Nasser Hemmati delivered a report on the pursuit of credits from International Monetary Fund. Rouhani stressed that arrangements should be made to provide the loans with simple guarantees and without complexities. The president noted that the credit from IMF should be used to meet the basic needs of the population through INSTEX financial mechanism. Head of the Planning and Budget Organization Mohammad Baqer Nobakh made a report on the status of resources, budget expenditures and necessary measures to be taken to deal with the economic effects of coronavirus. New Delhi, April 21 : "Avengers: Endgame" co-director Joe Russo says India is a beautiful country but its locales are rarrely been tapped in modern international action films. Russo is glad that he got a chance to capture the beauty of the country in Netflix's upcoming action film "Extraction". "India is a beautiful country. It is also rarely seen in a modern international action film. Some beautiful cultural aspects of the story (in 'Extraction') would be enriched by setting in India and it does really pay off beautifully in the film," Joe said in a video, released by Netflix before the release of the film. Originally titled "Dhaka", the film revolves around Tyler Rake (essayed by Chris Hemsworth), a fearless, black market mercenary, who embarks on the most deadly extraction of his career when he is enlisted to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord. It has been shot extensively in India, along with other places around the world. It is directed by Sam Hargrave. It also stars Indian actors Randeep Hooda, Pankaj Tripathi, Priyanshu Painyulli, and Rudraksh Jaiswal. The screenplay of the film is done by Joe Russo. The film is produced by Russo Brothers (Joe and Anthony Russo), Mike Larocca, Chris Hemsworth, Eric Gitter, and Peter Schwerin. In the clip, Hargrave is seen embracing Indian traditions and praying before starting the film. "We started the day with a traditional Indian blessing.They infused the production with a lot of Indian traditions," Hargrave said in the clip. Looking back at his time in India, Hemsworth said: "Here we are in India. We are on the set of our movie for Netflix. Aesthetically, I think this film is beyond unique. So vibrant and full of movement. I don't think anyone shot a film like this here before. The public would turn up in thousands to watch us shoot. Every time they would call cut, they would cheer and clap. It was like being in a coliseum or something." "Extraction" will release on April 24. The textile and fashion industry have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Stakeholders in production, retail and procurement are facing the heat with grim exports, paucity of cash flow and zero footfall at mass retail and designer stores alike (keeping in mind these are closed). India exported USD28.36 billion worth of textiles from April 2019 till January 2020. A majority of domestic companies are facing massive order cancellations from the US and Europe, along with factory shutdowns, raw material shortage, delayed delivery of summer apparels. Average exports during the first quarter typically stand at USD8 billion-10 billion, hence the industry is staring at an equivalent quantum of revenue loss from exports across the value chain because of the extended lockdown till May 3 which would take at least an additional month to resume. Furthermore, the full-fledged resumptions of exports would mainly depend on the containment of pandemic in key export geographies, the US and Europe which are Indias major markets for textile. Prolonged Suspension and Muted Domestic Demand may further dent sentiments The sector is facing headwinds in the form of a flattening demand from key exporting countries, higher production leading to lower realisations and increasing competition from neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam. The COVID-19 related demand disruptions could substantially impact companies with weaker balance sheets and limited scale, should the recovery stretch beyond one quarter. In such a situation, consolidation is expected within sub-segments such as yarn producers, spinning and dyeing, since the industry is largely fragmented due to limited entry barriers, say reports by India Ratings. Muted Demand in Domestic retail market With production coming to a halt, retail stores being closed, rising inventories, whats in store for designers? Summer fashion usually starts in late February or early March, a lot of our designers have produced a certain collection and quantity for summer, which were in the process of production and now have now come to a halt. We definitely have to reduce the quantity of merchandise that we are taking in. This is to ensure basically nothing goes into our storeroom, everything is on the rack so that it also helps the designer as in when the lockdown opens; they will not have to go full scale, they can work with smaller unit, said Aparna Badlani, Atosa Mumbai at the #InThisTogether webinar by FDCI. Adding, One really has to see what happens when the lockdown opens. We dont know whether there will be a panic buying situation like in China or it is going to be the fact that there has been absolutely no income in past one and half months. We dont know if people are actually going to come out and shop or is it beacuse of the scare, people are going to come our at all. Government Support Critical for Recovery post COVID-19 The textiles industry being heavily concentrated in medium and small scale enterprises (MSME), compared to large scale producers across the value chain, MSME players are highly vulnerable to the business risks. Subsequently, the resumption of operations for MSMEs heavily hinges on working capital availability and orders from large scale companies as well as exports. On April 17, The Reserve of India announced a targetted long term repo operation {TLTRO) totalling Rs 50,000 crore for small businesses in the domestic market facing liquidity crunch. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. ) Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter 3 1 of 3 Contributed photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Contributed photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3 * M-u-l-t-i-p-l-i-c-a-t-i-o-n was the winning word for 8th-grader Dana Davis at the 41st Annual West Haven School District Spelling Bee for grades 5-8 held in January. Davis, the school champion from Harry Bailey Middle School School, defeated seven other competitors including the May V Carrigan Intermediate School Spelling Bee Champion, 5th Grader Martha Agustin. Superintendent of Schools Neil C. Cavallaro, supervised the event, carefully reading out each of the words from the 2020 Scripps Spelling Competition List. Judges were veteran spelling bee coordinators Jamey Sitro from Carrigan with teachers Sean Griffin and Matthew DiGoia from Bailey. The individual school PTAs awarded $50 Barnes and Noble gift certificates to their school winners. This years event was dedicated to the memory of Ralph Eberle, former PTA Chairperson for West Haven Schools. Davis and Agustin will be invited to the Connecticut statewide competition representing their schools, which will be sponsored by the Noah Webster House Historical Society in West Hartford. * The East Haven Rotary Club recently recognized two East Haven High School juniors as November and December Students of the Month: Ashley Lynch and Ohm Patel. Ashley Lynch , is a member of the EHHS Cheerleading Team; Treasurer of the National Honor Society; Executive Leader of S.A.D.D.; along with being a member of HOSA and the Math League. She is looking to attend college with earning a degree in physical therapy or mathematics. Ohm Patel is also a member of HOSA, S.A.D.D. and the National Honor Society. He plans to major in biology at college and then attend medical school with the goal of becoming a doctor. Each month the Rotary recognizes a student from East Haven High School's junior class. The student is invited to attend a Thursday night dinner meeting at the Twin Pines Diner Restaurant and is presented with a certificate and a check for $ 100. Winners then become eligible for the $ 1000 Jack Leary Memorial scholarship to be awarded at the end of their senior year. For further information visit www.easthavenrotary.org or the clubs Facebook page. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 21:31:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The United States has some of the world's most innovative scientists. Yet their ability to imagine can be easily outshined when some Washington politicians scramble to smear China during the coronavirus pandemic. Talking to Fox Business on Monday, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro alleged that China may have withheld data on the virus during its early stages to win a business race to find a vaccine ahead of others, adding "but we're going to beat them." However, the fact is that China has since the outbreak shared information with the international community including the United States in an open, transparent and responsible manner. China publicly shared the genome sequence of the virus on Jan. 12, five days after the pathogen was first identified, in what was described by World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as a record-short time. Anyone with just a little scientific common sense would know that the virus-related information Beijing has presented to the world can lay a solid foundation for global research on vaccines, medicine, and treatment of the disease. With this data, scientists worldwide, including those from China and the United States, are on a level playing field to develop a vaccine. Navarro's remarks only lay bare his cold-blooded calculation that for him, commercial and political interests override people's lives and health. To similar minds in Washington, human life is a card they can use to garner more votes and interests. China, however, puts life above all else. The life-first principle has been demonstrated by the all-out efforts it has made to save every life from the deadly disease and contain its spread by locking down a whole city and halting most business activities nationwide. Meanwhile, China has been calling on the world to work closer in epidemic prevention and control and step up international communication and cooperation to accelerate the research and development of effective vaccines and drugs for the benefit of all. As the fatal pandemic has infected over 2.4 million people worldwide and claimed more than 170,000 lives so far, scientists from different countries are joining together in a bid to shorten the time frame of vaccine development. Vaccines are about saving human lives, and their research should not be read as a kind of commercial or political race. No matter which country successfully finds a vaccine for the coronavirus, it will surely be good news for all of humankind. In the past weeks, some U.S. politicians, for their selfish political interests, have been busy with smearing and stigmatizing China. Their groundless and irresponsible accusations to deflect blame for Washington's botched handling of the public health crisis at home will achieve nothing other than damaging global solidarity during this difficult time. To soon win the battle, all countries need to pool their wisdom and efforts and avoid leveraging the disease as a political tool. In the face of the common enemy of the human race, it is time for those China hawks in Washington to abandon their old-fashioned Cold War mentality and zero-sum game mindset and build both trust and cooperation with others. Enditem Amazon warehouse workers will stage a mass call out this week to protest what they claim to be the companys failure to adequately protect them from the spread of COVID-19. More than 300 employees who work across at least 50 facilities signed up to participate in the protest initiated by United for Respect, a worker rights group. The group said that starting on Tuesday workers will call out en masse across the country until the end of this week. The protest will be spread out across several days since workers are scheduled to report to their warehouses at different times and on different days. DailyMail.com has reached out to Amazon for comment. An Amazon warehouse is seen above in Staten Island, New York, in this March 31 file photo Amazon employees staged a protest on March 30 after walking out on the job in the Staten Island warehouse Amazon's response to the Coronavirus outbreak has unnecessarily put the lives of Amazon employees at increased risk and exposure, the petition by United for Respect reads. There are now over 130 warehouses where employees have contracted COVID-19 (Coronavirus) including some warehouses with over 30 confirmed cases because of Amazon's inaction. Nationwide, we have been and will continue to call out sick until Amazon makes the necessary changes to put our health and safety first. Workers are demanding hazard pay, immediate notification of a COVID-19 diagnosis among staff members, regular deep cleaning and sanitation, and other protective measures. The planned protest comes as a new report on working conditions at Amazon reveals there have been COVID-19 cases at more than half of the company's warehouses in the US and predicts the disease will spread exponentially among workers in the coming weeks. The report was prepared by the workers rights groups Athena Coalition and Hedge Clippers, using data from government health agencies and a range of local and national news sources. As of April 14th, the report claims, 'nearly 75' of Amazon's 110 US warehouse facilities have had at least one worker test positive for COVID-19, and without intervention the groups predict case numbers among Amazon workers will 'exponentially' increase. 'Amazon is responsible for not becoming a vector for the coronavirus,' the report says. 'The company must protect the health and safety of more than 250,000 people across 110 US warehouses, subcontracted delivery service partners, and 75,000 Flex drivers, for the sake of workers, their loved ones and Amazon customers.' The groups argue that Amazon's inadequate safety policies has placed a disproportionate burden on people of color, who make up 58 percent of the company's warehouse workers. A new report from workers rights groups warns that COVID-19 infections could grow exponentially in Amazon's US warehouses without urgent intervention A major breakout at Amazon warehouse facilities could have a devastating impact not just on the company's employees and contractors, but all of Amazon's customer base which includes more than 112 million Amazon Prime subscribers in the US. Amazon has disputed the report's findings, describing Athena Coalition and Hedge Clippers as 'self-interested critics' who are funded by unions and Amazon's competitors. 'Nothing is more important than the safety of our teams,' Amazon spokesperson Kristen Kish told Vice. 'Since the early days of this situation, we have worked closely with health authorities to proactively respond, ensuring we continue to serve communities while taking care of our associates and teams.' 'And, we have implemented more than 150 significant process changes to support our teams including increasing rates of pay, adjusting time off and providing temperature checks, masks, gloves and other safety measures at our sites.' The Athena Coalition is a new collaborative project between more than 30 workers right groups that is partially backed by $15million in seed funding from George Soros's Open Society Foundations. Hedge Clippers is an open structure advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness on the exploitative effects of hedge funds on education, healthcare and workers rights. Amazon recently posted a blog highlighting a number of changes it's made at its warehouses, including daily temperature checks and regular face mask distribution for warehouse workers. The company has also increased the pay rate for US employees by $2 an hour, doubled overtime pay, and established a $25 million relief fund for partners like contract delivery drivers. Amazon is also working to develop its own in-house testing facilities to help identify and isolate infected workers. According to the Athena and Hedge Clippers report, these are piecemeal measures that don't adequately address the concerns of many of the company's workers. Amazon disputes many of the claims in the report, saying it was funded by 'self-interested' pro-union groups, and points to the fact that it has raised wages $2 an hour for warehouse workers as well as offered face masks and daily temperature checks as evidence it's supporting workers A group of current and former workers have called for a 'virtual walkout' to protest the company's COVID-19 policies on April 24 The groups call for Amazon to pay for COVID-19 testing and treatment, both for full-time employees and contractors, and offer full pay for all workers who self-quarantine for pre-existing health conditions or suspect a family member or housemate may be sick. They also say the company should give workers hazard pay equal to time and a half the hourly wage, not just a $2 an hour increase, and also suspend its productivity quotas for employees, which leave no time for proper protective sanitation. The group says Amazon should close all its warehouses for two weeks and perform a comprehensive disinfecting deep clean. The report arrives as another group of Amazon workers have announced plans to organize a one-day 'virtual workout' to protest the company's COVID-19 worker safety policies. 'We're asking tech workers to virtually walk out on Friday (April 24),' organizer Maren Costa said. A former Amazon employee, Costa was fired along with Emily Cunningham after criticizing the company's policies. 'We want to tell Amazon that we are sick of all this - sick of the firings, sick of the silencing, sick of pollution, sick of racism, and sick of the climate crisis.' Bazaar Corporate Radar | Feb 22, 2021, 12:00 AM IST Bazaar Corporate Radar Bazaar Corporate Radar is your window into the minds of top CEOs, Boardrooms, global economists, fund managers and sector analysts. If it?s making news, you?ll find it on Bazaar Corporate Radar. Organisers of the Dutch GP at Zandvoort are keenly awaiting an announcement by the government on Tuesday. The original May 3 race date is among many that cannot currently take place, but the Netherlands' blanket ban on mass organised events is only set to run until June 1. And it is possible that an extension to the ban through September will be announced by the Dutch prime minister on Tuesday. "We are eagerly looking forward to the press conference," Zandvoort circuit director Robert van Overdijk told De Telegraaf. "It is important not only for Formula 1, but also for the start-up of circuit operations. It has actually been stopped since the start of the circuit renovation in November," he added. (GMM) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 19:36:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HANGZHOU, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation will donate medical supplies to the World Health Organization, Jack Ma, founder of the Alibaba Group, announced on Tuesday. The donation, which includes 100 million medical masks, 1 million N95 respirators and 1 million testing kits, will be distributed by the WHO to countries and regions across the world based on the organization's assessment of urgency. The donation is the latest effort by the two foundations to support the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Since February, the foundations have sent various types of medical supplies to over 150 countries and regions across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. "It has been a fight that the whole world must take on together," Ma said in a microblog post. "To overcome all the challenges, we need to act faster, more cooperatively, and with greater confidence." Enditem TORONTO, April 21, 2020 /CNW/ - Ontarians can show their appreciation for doctors on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, and all doctors who work to keep their patients healthy, by simply turning on their phone flashlights and holding them high on May 1 at 9:00 p.m. The province-wide show of appreciation is being organized by the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) as a way for all Ontarians to recognize doctors for their bravery and dedication. "Ontario has been celebrating Doctors' Day for many years to recognize the many ways doctors lead us to better health. This year on Doctors' Day, we wanted to do something special to recognize how doctors prepared for COVID, manage through COVID, and getting ready for the next waves of COVID, all while taking care of their patients," said Dr. Sohail Gandhi, OMA President. "Shining a light has become a universal way of expressing gratitude for those leading the way out of crises." Doctors' Day occurs every year in Canada on May 1 and is a time to highlight and celebrate doctors' expertise and dedication to patient care. With this year's Doctors' Day falling in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the OMA is initiating the special light shining moment called 'Shine A Light For All They Do' so Ontarians can come together, from a distance, and participate in celebrating doctors. At 9:00 p.m. Ontarians are asked to turn on the flashlight on their phones and hold it high, through their window, from their balcony, front porch or driveway, for about five minutes. "We're hoping everyone across the province can take a moment to join us on Doctors' Day and shine a light for all they do," said Dr. Gandhi. Ontarians can also participate by posting their appreciation to social media using the hashtags #DoctorsDay and #ShineALightForThem. There's also a website, www.doctorsday.ca, where people can access shareable social media content and pledge their participation in the light shining event on May 1. "Ontario's doctors are with us through some of the most important times of our lives. Right now, they are selflessly serving our family, friends and neighbours on the frontlines of COVID-19," said OMA CEO Allan O'Dette. "The OMA is proud to serve the men and women of the medical profession, and I encourage all Ontarians to show their appreciation by shining a light for them on May 1." Every day, more than 340,000 patients across Ontario are treated and cared for by a doctor in Ontario. Ontario's doctors work hard to ensure that patients are getting the care they need, whether it's in a hospital, long-term care home, clinic, research lab or directly in a patient's home. ABOUT THE OMA The Ontario Medical Association represents Ontario's 43,000 plus physicians, medical students and retired physicians, advocating for and supporting doctors while strengthening the leadership role of doctors in caring for patients. Our vision is to be the trusted voice in transforming Ontario's health-care system. SOURCE Ontario Medical Association For further information: MEDIA CONTACT: Jeff Blay, 289-241-5114, [email protected] Related Links http://www.oma.org One minute, Donald Trump is declaring he will help Americas allies fight coronavirus. The next, hes back to slamming them for having taken us much more so than the enemies. The presidents latest besmirching of US allies hes been making such claims since launching his presidential campaign in 2015 came during one of many rambling diatribes during his nightly Covid-19 briefing on Monday. Mr Trump was asked a relatively straightforward question about whether he would sign off on unlimited aid to states or if he would only sign future coronavirus bills if they stated federal monies would only go for things deemed pandemic specific. Were going to be talking about that in phase four [legislation], as you know, which will start very shortly, he said of talks with legislators from both parties that could start as soon as this week. And that has to do with infrastructure, hopefully infrastructure, because this country needs infrastructure. Almost as if that one word infrastructure was a verbal cue, the president went into campaign rally mode. We spend all this money in the Middle East, $1trn, $8trn, trillion with a T, dollars in the Middle East, the commander in chief said, throwing around a wide range of expenditures. But if you have a pothole in a highway someplace, they dont want you to spend the money [at home] to fix it. How stupid have we been in this country? How stupid have we been? That part of his out-of-the-blue rant is straight out of his usual campaign rally spiel. The coronavirus briefing-turned-rally continued. And thats changing rapidly. You know that. Youve seen that, including things like negotiating with friends, he said. When we are helping friends, friends should reimburse us for the cost. I mean, why should we be defending nations for free? Were defending a nation for free, the president said, seemingly careful to avoid naming any. As far as, as far as the other is concerned, look, we have to be smart in this country. Weve been taken to the cleaner by every, and I mean with allies, not just with the enemies. With allies. Weve been, frankly, the allies have taken us much more so than the enemies, Mr Trump said. Then it was time for a global political and economic lesson from Professor Trump. The enemies we dont do business with, right? The allies we do business with, he said. And whoever made these deals, whoever made these contracts, in many cases, we didnt have a contract, like we didnt have a contract, we didnt have a trade deal with China, he said before again lauding an incremental trade pact with the Asian giant that he wants to be followed by a larger, more comprehensive one. Republican and Democratic officials alike want him to be more forceful with Beijing over the government there and its alleged covering up of the Covid-19 going public there. He has sought to be lightly critical, while also treading lightly enough to leave that second trade pact a possibility. This is not a good thing that happened, Mr Trump told reporters Sunday evening. It came out of China, so were not, were not in a position where were going to say much yet. A film score is so much more than mere background noise. The best dictate mood, dynamic and pace in movies as much as any element of the filmmaking process, and can be as memorable as the films themselves. Some act as textures and atmospheric tones, supporting the main narrative. Others take on a life of their own, becoming a separate entity as acclaimed as the movies they originate from. The approach directors take with soundtracks is always an interesting one. For crowd-pleasing blockbusters, directors often turn to heavyweights like John Williams and Hans Zimmer for bombastic themes, while quirkier movies might opt for more esoteric themes from the likes of Danny Elfman or Randy Newman. Some filmmakers, like Tarantino, even look to recycle scores from old movies, giving new meaning to pre-existing pieces of music. Weve put together our picks for the best movie soundtracks of all time, opting for a mix of films some of which consist of instrumental scores and some which are composed of popular songs. Weve chosen movies with coherent soundtracks that work consistently throughout the length of an entire movie, rather than films known for just one particular theme. We've left out musicals like West Side Story, Wizard of Oz and Singin in the Rain, and there's no space for biopics like Ray or Straight Outta Compton, either, as both deserve their own recognition. Blade Runner Blade Runner has one of the most evocative worlds ever put to screen, with a cityscape as futuristic and slick as it is sludgy and depraved. The mood was perfectly captured with the striking, mysterious score from Greek electro icon Vangelis. Blade Runner was released in 1982, just a year after Vangeliss triumphant score had been featured on Chariots of Fire yet the two could hardly be more different in tone. The movie is packed with strange synthetic textures, and while its undoubtedly 80s, theres also a transcendent and timeless quality to it, which is one of the reasons the film still stacks up decades later. Evocative romantic scenes are peppered with tasteful saxophone and fretless bass in a way that avoids cliche, while the main themes are a strange mixture of stark and emotive the perfect pairing for one of the most haunting sci-fi movies ever made. Black Panther One of the most culturally significant movies of recent years, with a soundtrack to match. The tracklisting to the 2018 smash which was the first major black superhero movie, and a landmark moment for Marvel and Hollywood as a whole is packed with some of the biggest and most expressive voices in hip hop, including Kendrick Lamar, SZA and Travis Scott. Involving Lamar proved a masterstroke, speaking eloquently on social themes like black power and loyalty like he has throughout his entire career, which fit perfectly with the films storyline. He leads the way on a selection of fantastic songs, not least the soaring All the Stars, that brought a contemporary edge to the movie and stands alone as a fantastic collection. On Her Majestys Secret Service Even 55 years after the franchise first arrived, the Bond music is still as big a deal as the films themselves. None of the series soundtracks are quite as timeless as On Her Majestys Secret Service though, which brings together the best, bombastic sides of Bond composition, with some of the most tender orchestrations. There are the mandatory variations on the classic John Barry Bond score some of the finest film score writing ever before the arrival of Louis Armstrongs We Have All the Time in the World, which plays over the gut-punch ending of the film and lends real emotional heft. Toy Story The Toy Story score is everything youd hope for from a kids film: playful, charming and full of joy. Randy Newmans score gives the movie real verve, as animated as Woody and Buzz themselves, with songs like You Got a Friend in Me leaving an indelible mark on millions of children and adults alike. The emotive ballads, though, are where Newans songwriting prowess really comes to the fore. There is an ineffable pathos at the heart of the classic film series, with decay and the passing of time playing key roles. Its part of what makes them so relatable and unforgettable, and Newman perfectly expresses it on moving tracks like I Will Go Sailing No More and When She Loved Me, which he wrote for Sara McLachlan to sing on Toy Story 2. Star Wars It couldnt be a best soundtracks list without John Williams, one of the true heavyweights of film composition. We could have focused on any number of Williams movies Jaws is one of the most instantly recognisable themes in film, Jurassic Park is deeply cinematic, and his work on Indiana Jones is full of adventurous spirit but Williamss finest work came on Star Wars. Everything about the opening theme is as bombastic, expansive and immediate as the movies, with the kind of thunderous strings and striding march that puts a sense of anticipation and excitement right into the listener's chest. The ability to match the films scale with vast, sweeping compositions, capturing the intensity of battles in deepest space with pieces like Duel of the Fates, is a staggering achievement. Drive Despite the violence and bare-knuckle action, Drive is actually rather understated. Theres minimal dialogue Ryan Goslings driver says just 891 words in the entire movie and its the soundtrack that does most of the heavy lifting, with the music revealing how the characters are feeling, rather than having them tell us. There are tasteful splashes of synthwave and 80s nostalgia, with the crepuscular synthesisers and thudding drums of Kavinskys Nightcall pulling us in and setting the tone over the opening credits perfectly. The use of A Real Hero by College and Electric Youth during a sun-drenched drive along the reservoir is beautifully done too, expressing the inner happiness of the movies protagonists even when they aren't able to. Psycho Alfred Hitchcocks masterful use of tension was, of course, at the heart of all of his greatest achievements, and its the score in Psycho as much as anything that gives it such heart-thumping suspense. He enlisted Bernard Herrmann for the score, who had previously worked on Citizen Kane and the Hitchcock movies The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man and North By Northwest. The film's angular, visceral soundtrack is one of the most recognisable in cinema, with the infamous shower scene one of the most brutally memorable in film. It was, in fact, born out of necessity and could have been so different. The production's modest budget meant that Herrmann wrote the score to be performed by just the strings, rather than a full orchestra. The rest was so striking, uncluttered and direct that it led Hitchcock to claim that "33 per cent of the effect of Psycho was due to the music. Praise indeed. 2001: A Space Odyssey For a movie contemplating the entire span of human existence, the implications of artificial intelligence and other weighty themes, only music as towering and grandiose as Richard Strausss Also sprach Zarathustra will do. 2001 is an example of a movie transporting music from elsewhere into new settings and situations in this case, some of the finest classical compositions from history into the depths of outer space. Director Stanley Kubricks selection of classical pieces are expertly chosen, with Ligetis Requiem II Kyrie ramping up the tension and claustrophobic atmosphere. The Blue Danube Waltz, meanwhile, adds a touch of the surreal to the thought-provoking sci-fi masterpiece. Guardians of the Galaxy If theres one thing the often earnest, overblown DC universe can learn from Marvel, its how to have fun with its soundtracks. Guardians of the Galaxys inventive use of 70s rock and pop music helped to create an atmosphere entirely of its own, injecting a loveable goofiness to the character of Chris Pratts Starlord and spark of humour that can easily go amiss in big budget blockbusters. Blue Swedes Hooked on a Feeling became the films anthem, while soundtrack staples like ELOs Mr Blue Sky took on new life in this fresh intergalactic setting. As fresh as they come. A Fistful of Dollars No other soundtracks transport viewers to a specific time or place quite like Ennio Moriccone's scores. The Italian composers work is synonymous with the sound of spaghetti western pioneer Sergio Leones films, whether it be The Good, The Bad or the Ugly, or his masterwork A Fistful of Dollars. The latter's main titles are wonderfully evocative, with the shuffling drums like horses racing across the land, the melody of the idle whistle of a cowboy riding into town and the bell strikes announcing his arrival. Its packed with the kind of mischief and adventure that makes these films such exciting and compelling viewing. The State is to oppose a High Court challenge brought by John Waters and Gemma O'Doherty against laws introduced by the state arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic. They claim that the laws are flawed and unconstitutional and want them struck down. In judicial review proceedings against the State and the Minister for Health they seek to have various pieces or recently enacted legislation declared null and void by a judge of the High Court. The legislation challenged includes the 2020 Health Preservation and Protection and Other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act, the 2020 Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act Covid-19 Act, The 1947 Health Act (Affected Areas) Order. Their proceedings are also aimed at striking down temporary restriction regulations brought due to Covid-19 under the 1947 Health Act. The action against what they claim are laws is against The Minister for Health, Ireland and the Attorney General. Last week the High Court directed that the journalists' application for permission to bring the challenge be heard on notice to the state parties. The matter was listed for mention before Ms Justice Deidre Murphy on Tuesday morning. Gerard Meehan Bl for the State told the court it will oppose the application for leave to bring the challenge. Counsel asked the court to adjourn the case for two weeks to prepare a sworn statement in response to what is a "quite substantial" challenge. In the current climate counsel said while the State has been working on its response things were taking longer to get done, particularly when when trying to work with with persons in the Department of Health. Counsel also told the court given that part of the challenge concerns how the laws in question were enacted the Dail, the Seanad and the Ceann Comhairle would have to be added to the proceedings as notice parties. Counsel said that as well as hearing from the notice parties, legal submissions might also be required as part of the leave application. In light of that counsel asked that the matter be listed for mention in two weeks time. The applicants, while not objecting to the addition of the notice parties, expressed strong concerns about the state's application regarding the adjournment and said the leave application needs to be heard as soon as possible. Mr Waters told the court that the state parties were attempting to "filibuster" "procrastinate" and delay what he said is a very important matter. Outlining the nature of the action Ms O'Doherty said what was happening regarding the lockdown was "outrageous". She said people were being held under mass house arrest, or fear being interrogated by the Gardai if they leave their homes. People she said should be allowed go about their business and normal life must be allowed resume. The vast majority of people are unaffected by covid-19, which she said was "no threat to life", and that the Irish people should be allowed to go outside and "build up a heard immunity." Ms O'Doherty added that expert medical evidence supporting her claims will be presented to the court as part of the case. Ms Justice Murphy told Ms O'Doherty that the court was not considering what were substantial arguments in the action, but was making directions with a view to getting the application heard. The judge said that she accepted that the leave application raised issues that needed to be heard. The judge said that the leave hearing should be heard in two weeks time. The judge also adjourned the matter for a week, when it is to be mentioned before the court to see how the parties are getting on. Earlier in the proceedings both the applicants questioned if the proceedings were being held in public. Up to 100 supporters of the two gathered in the Round Hall of the Four Court's but were not permitted to enter court due to social distancing guidelines introduced by the Chief Justice and the Presidents of the Courts arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic. An application to let, some or all of those persons into the courtroom was dismissed by the Judge. The judge said the case was being heard in public and was being reported on by the media. The judge said that not everyone could fit into a courtroom, and wondered if a larger than capacity group wished to attend a hearing should the court be moved to the "National Convention Centre." The applicants expressed their dissatisfaction over the court's decision. The Judge said that a Digital Audio Recording of Tuesday's proceedings should be made available to the applicants. Executive Officer, Geneva, Switzerland Organization: World Health Organization (WHO) Country: Switzerland City: Geneva, Switzerland Office: WHO Geneva, Switzerland Grade: P-5 Closing date: Thursday, 7 May 2020 Executive Officer ( 2001735 ) Grade : P5 Contractual Arrangement : Fixed-term appointment Contract duration : two years Job Posting: Apr 16, 2020, 9:18:14 AM The mission of WHOs UHC/Healthier Populations Division is to contribute to reducing health inequalities and reducing preventable disease and injury caused by environmental, social and economic determinants of health. This is achieved through a coordinated inter-sectoral approach aimed at enabling all people to enjoy better health and well-being, in line with the Organizations 13th General Programme of Work (GPW13) and the Sustainable Development Goals. The office of the Assistant Director-General (ADG) coordinates, guides and oversees the programmatic and administrative cohesion of the departments of the Division, ensuring optimum delivery of services and output in line with Governing Body resolutions, including the General Programme of Work and the Programme Budget, and within the available resources. The office also aims at achieving synergies between individual programmes and their implementations, in compliance with the regulatory framework of the Organization. DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES Oversee and provide the senior executive level support to the ADG, ensure the timely delivery of outputs, and the preparation of regular communications between the ADGO, Division and its various Departments; liaising on behalf of the ADG with staff at all levels throughout the Division, and with senior-most WHO management on issues of strategic, technical and programmatic relevance. Provide senior level advice and guidance to the ADG on the technical and programmatic content of the work plan and oversee the technical aspects of the preparation of a coherent annual work plan that will enable the ADG to carry-out his/her mandate effectively. Make recommendations regarding solutions, modifications, improvements and alternative actions in response to existing problems, and proactively advise the ADG on technical programme initiatives to build and maintain a working environment in which staff can best execute their work plans. Provide technical advice, expertise and leadership advice to the development and execution of advocacy efforts that will ensure effective commitment of critical partners at the highest level. Provide project management in respect of activities and priorities of the office of the ADG. Assist with initiatives under his/her responsibility in relation to the implementation and executive management of the office. Manage steps and procedures related to grant management, engaging with stakeholders, interacting with cross-functional teams, in order to ensure alignment and optimum outcomes for effective grant management and performance. Oversee the preparation of data, analysis and background documentation to support agenda items and provide strategic guidance to Senior management to facilitate strategic decision-making on priority projects. Monitor implementation levels, provide qualitative feedback to the ADG and the Directors, and ensure pertinent follow-up actions where required. Represent the ADG in various technical level internal and external across the Three Levels of the Organization, within the UN agencies, Member States, Donors, and other Stakeholders. Ensure the substantive technical preparation and organization of briefings and consultations attended by the ADG. Liaise with technical counterparts of other WHO Divisions in providing technical expertise in their respective areas. Perform all other related duties as assigned. Specific duties: Work with the ADG and senior leadership across the HEP Division to set strategic priorities. Collaborate with the ADGO and divisions senior leadership to identify, define and manage cross functional programmes to create synergy of them and to deliver strategic priorities. Facilitate and lead the Billion Network with collaboration with WHO Regional and Country Offices to support ADG and divisions senior leaders for maximizing impact at country level. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS Education Essential: An advanced level university degree in Business Administration, Management, a health technical area (such as public health) or another field related to the tasks of the position. Experience Essential: A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience working with increasing levels of responsibilities in the area of executive support, management or public health programmes, including experience in providing guidance to senior level decision makers. Demonstrated experience at the international level. Desirable: Experience using Enterprise Resource Planning systems or similar packages.In-depth knowledge of WHO procedure. Skills The duties require an understanding of WHO policies, the UN system and general managerial practices, and knowledge gained through experience in establishing collaborative relationships with a range of staff across the three levels of the organizationStrong skills and expertise in providing senior level advice and guidance to Senior level decision makers. Outstanding managerial, technical and programmatic skills and knowledge and advocacy skills; demonstrated managerial skills with a proven capacity to coordinate a wide range of stakeholders, working groups and staff in pursuance of global goals and policy initiatives. Experience translating data, reports and recommendations to messages for different target audiences. Excellent knowledge and proven skills in public health, executive support, and administration, specifically as applied to high-level meetings and engagements. Effective working relations with multidisciplinary and multicultural teams. Personal attributes include integrity, tact, and discretion. Ability to anticipate risk/problems and to make proposals to ameliorate these. High level of judgement, responsibility and initiative. Proven leadership ability, extensive knowledge and skills in international health and development. WHO Competencies Teamwork Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences Communication Producing results Moving forward in a changing environment Creating an empowering and motivating environment Use of Language Skills Essential: Expert knowledge of English. Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of French. REMUNERATION WHO salaries for staff in the Professional category are calculated in US dollars. The remuneration for the above position comprises an annual base salary starting at USD 88,162 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as applicable), a variable post adjustment, which reflects the cost of living in a particular duty station, and currently amounts to USD 6171 per month for the duty station indicated above. Other benefits include 30 days of annual leave, allowances for dependent family members, home leave, and an education grant for dependent children. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted. Tags enterprise resource planning health programmes project management sustainable development sustainable development goals technical aspects A written test may be used as a form of screening. In the event that your candidature is retained for an interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review. Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and Manual. Staff members in other duty stations are encouraged to apply. For information on WHOs operations please visit: http://www.who.int. WHO is committed to workforce diversity. WHOs workforce adheres to the WHO Values Charter and is committed to put the WHO Values into practice. WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco. WHO has a mobility policy which can be found at the following link: http://www.who.int/employment/en/. Candidates appointed to an international post with WHO are subject to mobility and may be assigned to any activity or duty station of the Organization throughout the world. Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged. There are all kinds of weather showing out your window today, but you might not want to go out in that weather. In Iceland they call it a gluggavedur, which translates to window-weather according to the National Weather Service at Grand Rapids. The terms means it looks pretty outside, but its weather you want to admire from inside. Today is a great day to stare through your gluggavedur. Many of our Facebook friends in the Michigan Weather Facebook group have shared the weather through their gluggavedur. Really Posted by Jennifer Lamet on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 Its a good day to watch birds in the snow and sun, from inside. There are also other odd weather terms used around the globe. We even have some strange weather terms here in the U.S. I always crack up at the term back door cold front. I even crack up when I say the term. Its a cold front that moves into the Great Lakes from a different direction - the northeast. Normally cold fronts move in from the west or northwest. When they back their way in from Ontario, we call them back door cold fronts. We talk about the moist tongue during severe weather. If we connect the dots on equal dew points, we get a shape of a tongue coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. So its a tongue shaped area of moisture where severe thunderstorms usually form. In the desert areas of the world they have haboobs, which are massive dust storms that make the horizon disappear. A haboob dust storm rolling into Phoenix. (photo courtesy National Weather Service) Crepuscular rays is another term Ive always found odd. Its the rays of sun shining through clouds. The sun ray pattern looks like a fan in the sky. Crepuscular rays over the ocean (NOAA) Virga is rain that doesnt make it to the ground. It evaporates before it hits the ground. You can see the rain shafts in the air, and see them disappear above the ground. And one final weather word that weve actually experienced lately in Michigan - graupel. Graupel is a German word for soft hail. By IANS NEW DELHI: BJP leader Uma Bharti has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhhav Thackeray on Tuesday raising the Palghar mob lynching in which two sadhus were killed along with their drivers. Uma Bharti, started the letter by mentioning Bal Thackeray, saying, "You are the son of a great father" and thus trying to remind him of his father's legacy. Uma Bharti has demanded that all the police personnel spotted in the viral video of mob lynching where they were seen shirking their responsibilities to save the victims should be booked under Section 302 of the IPC that pertains to murder. "...Those police personnel are also accused of murder. They too should be booked under IPC 302. Had they wanted, they could have save the lives of the sadhus by firing in the air," wrote Bharti. In a strongly-worded statement, she asserted that the Maharashtra Chief Minister would be "part of the act" if he fails to bring the perpetrators including the erring police personnel to book. In the letter, the BJP Vice President has expressed shock at the lynching. She said though Thackeray may not be individually responsible for the horrific act but as the violence took place in a state governed by him, Udhhav Thackeray is duty-bound to bring the perpetrators to justice. The firebrand BJP leader who herself wears a saffron robe, said she would observe fast for a day in remembrance of the deceased saints. Making a fierce attack on the former NDA ally, Bharti said, "Bringing the perpetrators to book will be your atonement". The BJP leader concludes by saying she will visit Palghar once the nationwide lockdown is over and stay there to hold prayers for the slain sadhus. An aggressive mob of around 200 villagers flouting all lockdown norms, had accosted a vehicle in which the two sadhus were travelling from Nashik to Surat with some relief materials late on Thursday night. Suspecting them to be thieves, the crowd started questioning them, abused them and then assaulted them brutally with sticks, rods and stones. When the police team reached the spot and took them to their van, the crowds swooped on the police van and continued to assault them till they succumbed. A few policemen were also injured in the process. The victims were later identified as Sushilgiri Maharaj, 30, Chikne Maharaj Kalpavriksha Giri, 70 and their driver Nilesh Telwade, 30. Some parts of the country have a higher rate of type 1 diabetes than others and men are more likely to have the condition. Researchers estimated the prevalence and incidence of type 1 diabetes in the Irish population using a national pharmacy claims database, in the absence of a national diabetes register. Entitled Prevalence and Incidence of Type 1 Diabetes in Ireland: A Retrospective Cross-sectional Study Using a National Pharmacy Claims Data from 2016, the study found 20,081 prevalent cases of type 1 diabetes in 2016. Incidence was based on the first claim for insulin in 2016, with no insulin use in the preceding 12 months. There were 1,527 new cases of type 1 diabetes in 2016, giving an incidence rate of 32 per 100,000 population/year. According to the research, published in the BMJ Open journal, Significant variations in prevalence and incidence between the different geographical regions were observed. The average national incidence rate for type 1 diabetes is 32.07 per 100,000 of population per year. But in County Louth, the comparable incidence rate is 53.54, the highest in the country. Cork, combining the city and county, has the second-highest prevalence, at a rate of 40.53 per 100,000 of population per year. Louth also has the highest incidence rate in children aged under 14, followed by Mayo and then Cork, and the highest incidence rate for adolescents and children aged under 14, followed in that metric by Kerry and then Cork. However, when it comes to prevalence in children as a percentage of population, Waterford has the highest level of any county. The study highlights the need for a national register to measure diabetes, the researchers say: Establishing a national diabetes register is essential to enable updated epidemiological estimates of diabetes and for planning of services in Ireland. According to the report, while the prevalence and incidence of diabetes are increasing worldwide, a recent systematic review shows the paucity of data available on incidence and prevalence of type 1 diabetes in adults. Incidence rates in adult populations are rarely available, in part due to the difficulty in distinguishing type 1 diabetes from type 2 diabetes requiring insulin treatment. In addition, more than 20% of adults with type 2 diabetes may also be receiving insulin, the report says. The researchers determined that of all prevalent cases, 55% are men and diabetes is highest in the oldest age groups, and lowest in children under 14 years. There was a significant increasing prevalence with increasing age, it says. Based on pharmacy claims data, this national study estimated the overall prevalence of type 1 diabetes in Ireland as 0.45%, and it increases with age. The prevalence in adults was 0.48%, with the highest number of prevalent cases being observed in the 4554 years age group. More information is available here. Along the US-Mexico border, the growing wave of strikes and protests in sweatshop maquiladora factories marks a critical flashpoint in the struggle between the capitalist class and the working class over the global response to the coronavirus pandemic. Giving voice to the interests of billions of workers worldwide, maquiladora employees who produce parts for transnational corporations in Tijuana, Matamoros, Mexicali, Reynosa and Ciudad Juarez are demanding a shutdown of non-essential production, full pay if plants close and the provision of adequate health care and safety precautions for the inhabitants of the countrys industrial north. Though the protests have been subjected to a media blackout in the US, videos are circulating of managers shouting at desperate and furious workers who finally throw their work smocks to the floor before marching off the job. As in early 2019, when 70,000 workers in Matamoros rebelled against the unions and launched the largest wildcat strike in North America in decades, workers are again acting on their own independent initiative, this time to save their lives. Workers on strike in Matamoros, Mexico, in early 2019. Sign reads SINDICATO Y EMPRESA *MATAN* A LA CLASE OBRERA, Unions and bosses *kill* the working class. The response of the corporations and their trade union partners has been to try to keep the plants running, no matter the human cost. Doctors across the border region report that hospitals are overflowing with sick and dying maquiladora workers. At one major plant in Ciudad Juarez, owned by Michigan-based Lear Corporation, the company forced production to continue even as the virus spread throughout its facility. At least 13 workers at this facility alone have died. Monica, the daughter of a sick Lear worker, told the World Socialist Web Site, My father is in a very delicate state in a coma. While still on the job in March, he said Lear sent a sick person back to work. He and other people had contact with this person. Its irresponsible that plants remain open and expose their employees in such a way. Workers, from the experience I lived with my dad, dont expose yourselves. Take care of your lives and families first. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, By late March it became clear that the [Lear] Juarez factory was the center of a major COVID-19 outbreak. When many workers grew sick and went to the company infirmary, nurses diagnosed them as having allergies or colds, gave them painkillers and told them to get back to work. Lear CEO Ray Scott earned $9.9 million in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. At another maquiladora owned by Georgia-based Cooper Lighting, owners forced workers to work through the pandemic and installed chains on its doors to prevent its roughly 800 workers from leaving, the Times reported. Company CEO Eric Rondolat reportedly earned $2.8 million in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. Such brazen criminality is the rule, not the exception. It embodies the response of the entire capitalist class and the major world governments to the pandemic. Trillions of dollars have been made available to the banks and corporations, enriching the financial aristocracy while billions of workers still go without the most basic protections. As of April 15, 23 US autoworkers employed by Ford and Fiat Chrysler had died of the coronavirus. Twenty-seven US nurses and doctors have died of the virus, according to official Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data. As of April 12, 41 US grocery store workers had died of coronavirus. At least 12 meat processing workers have died in recent weeks, with hundreds more testing positive, and 81 active and retired New York City transit workers are dead. Due to limited testing, these numbers likely vastly undercount the death toll. Those who have died were sacrificed at the altar of private profit. And for Wall Street and US imperialism, continued production across the Mexican maquiladoras is a geo-strategic necessity, no matter how many Mexican workers die in the process. Over one million workers are employed at maquiladoras, which produce parts for most major US industries, including defense production. Maquiladora production is therefore essential to the efforts of the Trump administration and the US media to reopen the US. Trump has proposed to ease restrictions on work and travel by May 1, despite warnings from medical experts that this will cause thousands of deaths. At his daily press conference Sunday, Donald Trump announced: I spoke with the president of Mexico yesterday And were in very good coordination right now Were doing the supply chain. Its not going to affect trade And if it does, I will tell you: If a supply chain based in Mexico or Canada interrupts with our making a big product and an important product, or even a military product, were not going to be happy, let me tell you that. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors response to the virus has been dictated by his prostration before the Trump administration and the economic and geopolitical demands of US imperialism. At the end of March, as the virus was spreading through the maquiladoras, Lopez Obrador said in a video message, If we grind to a halt, we dont do any good. Lets keep going about our lives as normal. Lopez Obrador then made a number of high-profile public appearances in which he kissed supporters amid crowds of people, violating social distancing requirements. Mother Jones noted, During one of the presidents daily press briefings, a reporter asked Lopez Obrador how he would protect Mexico, and he responded by pulling religious amulets from his wallet and saying those were his protective shields. Also at the end of March, Luis Miguel Barbosa, the governor of Puebla and a member of Lopez Obradors Movement for National Regeneration (MORENA) party, said the poor are immune to the disease, implying they should not be concerned about going to work. Puebla is a major center of foreign auto production. The response of Lopez Obrador exposes the bankruptcy of those in Mexico and the US, like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Jacobin magazine, who promoted the president as a transformative left-wing or even socialist fighter for the working class. In June 2019, Jacobin praised Lopez Obrador for advancing a progressive agenda, saying his administration bucks international economic nostrums. On the contrary, Lopez Obrador is now planning to use the countrys National Guard to crush workers protests and keep the profits flowing to Wall Street. A thirty-page internal National Guard document released recently says the force is preparing to deploy against social unrest. The experiences of the last two months expose the total indifference of the ruling class to the deadly impact of the virus on the working class. Calls for an imminent return to work mean even larger numbers of workers are being marched to their deaths to protect corporate profit and the wealth of the rich. The growing action by Mexican workers in plants and warehouses located at the border speaks to the immense potential social power of an internationally unified working class response to the crisis. The Washington Post reported Sunday, Stirrings of unrest around the world could portend turmoil as economies collapse. The article cited UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who warned of an increase in social unrest on the immediate horizon. The year 2019 ended with the largest wave of mass demonstrations in decades, but, absent revolutionary leadership, none of the issues over which workers protested were resolved. Now, this growing social anger has entered a new, more urgent phase. Strikes, walkouts and protests are taking place in the US, Europe, across Latin America and the rest of the world as workers raise the same demands: indefinite time off with full pay, adequate protections for genuinely essential work, and the allocation of sufficient funds for health care and the production of protective equipment and ventilators. The nature of the virus itself renders any purely national response obsolete. The nationalist trade unions are joining the ruling class of each country in conspiring to force workers to return to work as soon as possible. To save their lives and the lives of their loved ones, workers must have control of health and safety measures in their workplaces. They alone must be allowed to democratically determine if, when and under what conditions workers are to return to work. This cannot be accomplished through the trade unions or in the absence of democratic workers' control of production. This means establishing new organizationsrank-and-file committeesto connect workers across industries and national boundaries and unite them in a global struggle against the capitalist system. Imbued with a revolutionary socialist perspective, this movement of the working class can ensure that production is organized not for profit, but to meet human need and save lives. CAMBRIDGE, England, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Her Majesty The Queen has today (21 April 2020) named Cambridge Healthcare Research among top businesses in the country with prestigious Queen's Awards for Enterprise to celebrate Her Majesty's 94th birthday. Founded in 2013, UK based consultancy Cambridge Healthcare Research (CHR) has been granted a Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade in recognition of the high quality of its services in demand across the world, and of the determination that comes with building and scaling a successful international business. "We are truly delighted that the hard work of everybody at CHR has been acknowledged with this award. We have a brilliant team and this is testament to their passion and commitment. Their dedication to quality and strong customer focus has allowed us to compete successfully in this global market," said Edward Cartwright, one of the founding partners. Incoming CHR CEO, Chris Stevenson, said: "The Queen's Award demonstrates the high regard for the work that CHR does for its global customers and provides deserved recognition to the CHR team for the standards they set themselves daily, their dedication, skill, and knowledge. Our overall feeling is one of pride that our work has been recognised as being of the highest quality." Now in its 54th year, the Queen's Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the United Kingdom. CHR will celebrate at the royal ceremony when the Queen's Representative, the Lord-Lieutenant, presents the award. Notes for Editors: Cambridge Healthcare Research is a management consultancy providing strategic decision support to the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer healthcare industries. Working closely with clients on asset commercialisation, product strategy and opportunity assessments, CHR enables its partners to navigate difficult commercial decisions, mapping their position in a complex marketplace as well as outlining competitor activities, intent and capabilities. The team is passionate about healthcare and medical innovation, and its evaluation of market dynamics combined with a targeted understanding of key trends in the prescriber, regulator and payer environments equips clients to make the best decisions from an optimally informed position. CHR's team spans the globe, with offices in Cambridge and London as well as consultants located across Europe, Asia and North America. For more information, visit: http://www.camhcr.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1157854/Cambridge_Healthcare_Research_Logo.jpg Contact: Edward Cartwright, +44(0)1223-900191, [email protected] SOURCE Cambridge Healthcare Research Philippine Airlines (PAL) planes are parked at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, the Philippines. Photo by AFP. The Philippine embassy in Vietnam has repatriated 143 citizens from Hanoi and HCMC through a Philippine Airlines charter flight. The Philippines Airlines flight last Saturday took home 71 people from Ho Chi Minh City and 72 from Hanoi, that countrys Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Many of the repatriated people were stranded in Vietnam due to flight cancellations and faced economic difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the statement said. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola said the returnees were subject to health protocols. The Philippine embassy had earlier provided accommodation and food allowances to 43 of the repatriates while they were waiting for the flight. Over 167 workers also returned home to the Philippines from Cambodia by an AirAsia charter flight last Saturday. They were distressed after losing their jobs and incomes due to the pandemic. The Philippines has been one of the countries hit hardest by the outbreak in Southeast Asia, with nearly 6,500 cases and 428 deaths. Vietnams Ministries of Transport and Foreign Affairs liaised with the embassies of countries whose citizens were stranded after the countrys borders were closed and international flights were suspended. Last week more than 100 British tourists in Vietnam and Cambodia were sent home by a Vietnam Airlines flight as were more than 50 Italians stranded in Vietnam, the foreign ministry said. Vietnam has prohibited entry for all foreign nationals since March 22 and Vietnamese carriers suspended international flights on March 25. Vietnam has not had new Covid-19 patients for five days now. Of 268 confirmed cases, 215 have been discharged from the hospital. There have been no deaths. Covid-19 has spread to 210 countries and territories, and claimed more than 170,300 lives. COLUMBIA, Mo. - The state of Missouri filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Chinese government over the coronavirus, alleging that nations officials are to blame for the global pandemic. The lawsuit, filed in federal court by the states top lawyer, alleges Chinese officials are responsible for the enormous death, suffering, and economic losses they inflicted on the world, including Missourians. Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt in a written statement said the Chinese government lied about the dangers of the virus and didnt do enough to slow its spread. 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, he said. They must be held accountable for their actions. Its unclear whether the lawsuit will have much, if any, impact. U.S. law generally prohibits lawsuits against other countries with few exceptions, said Chimene Keitner, an international law professor at University of California, Hastings College of the Law. The legal problem is, its just not possible, said Keitner, who recently wrote a blog titled Dont Bother Suing China for Coronavirus. Missouri Democratic Party Executive Director Lauren Gepford called the lawsuit a stunt by a Republican attorney general who is up for re-election this year. The number of Missouri deaths statewide rose by 16 Tuesday to 215, according to Johns Hopkins Universitys Center for Systems Science and Engineering. The number of cases rose by 156 to 5,963. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death. UPDATED: Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Some residents of southern areas of The Woodlands in the village of Grogans Mill are fed up with what they claim are rank, noxious odors emanating from a San Jacinto River Authority waste water treatment plant. Four residents of the area broke their silence during public comment of the township board meeting on Thursday. They alleged the associated smells have continued for years. Officials with the SJRA said in an interview that the waste water plant, built in 1975, does emit normal odors associated with all waste water treatment plants. Officials also said the facility was originally constructed in an area with few homes, and the resulting encroachment of developments and homes over the past four decades has led to people residing much closer to the facility, in turn smelling the emissions. Neil Gaynor, who is a member of the Grogans Mill Village Association board, was one of four residents of Grogans Mill to call and complain about the sewage treatment plant during the April 16 virtual board meeting of The Woodlands Township Board of Directors. Like other callers, Gaynor, said the odor from the facility at 2436 Sawdust Road, which is near South Millbend Drive and Lake Harrison, which is north of the Grogans Mill shopping center, has gone on for years. The area is filled with plush homes in a neighborhood called Lakeside Cove, and callers residing in the area told the board the odors have been a problem for anywhere from four to 15 years or longer. Seeking solutions Gaynor claimed efforts to get SJRA officials to fix the issue have not led to a resolution. Gaynor and the three other callers wanted township officials to help with the process, however the township has no authority or power over the facility as it is owned and managed by the SJRA with financial support from the 11 municipal utility districts in the township. Gaynor said he sent to SJRA officials a lengthy eight-page white paper, a type of research document often used by corporate public relations firm to present complex information with a proposed resolution, he had written in November 2019. He read excerpts from the document with a list of proposed solutions he and others are seeking that have yet to happen and the community continues to struggle with the issue that he claims has gone on for years. Another resident who identified himself as a Grogans Mill resident named Mark Crabbe, said the smell is, your classic sewage smellrotten eggs. There are times I can smell it in my garagesometimes I can smell it in our house, Crabbe said. One resident, Kenneth Hall, said the smells have existed for 15 years and, like others, said residents want an immediate cessation to all of the smells no later than December 2021. The incidents always seem to occur at nighttime hours. Why do the emissions seem to occur only at night, Hall said. Plant history Jace Houston, general manager of the SJRA, said the Waste Water Treatment Facility No. 1 was constructed in 1975 and is one of three similar treatments plants in The Woodlands. Houston said that he and other officials are aware of and agree that the facility does at times emit rank, unpleasant odors. However, he said that is what is expected from any waste treatment plant and that the facility has passed inspections from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and is operating as normal. Is one of the first waste water plants in The Woodlands. It is one of three plants that serve The Woodlands. I guess the bottom line is, waste water plants built especially 45 years ago naturally have some odors from time to time, that is just normal. When it was built, it was built in an undeveloped area, Houston explained. As development has closed in around the plant, there are more and more people, and they are starting to notice the odors. There is nothing wrong with the plant. it is doing what it is supposed to do. Shifting winds In response to claims by the four residents that dozens of complaints per year have been filed with SJRA by residents for more than five years, Houston said neither he nor other SJRA staff were aware of that many complaints. He acknowledged that there have been complaints. The area surrounding the facility is filled with a mix of luxurious homes along the shores of a small lake as well as a mix of swanky apartment complexes, condominiums and more moderate priced apartments. The Grogans Mill shopping center is less than a mile away from the facility. Weve had odor calls periodically for many years. Plants dont produce odors all the time, there are cases where there is a change in process, a change in winds or temperatures, then youll get an order, he added. Nothing has changed about the plant. it still runs great and does what it is supposed to do. There are just more and more people living closer and closer. Houston said the only way to reduce the odors, which is possible, was to make significant upgrades to the facility that would cost millions of dollars and would need to be approved by the governing boards of all 11 municipal utility districts serving The Woodlands. Each entity would be required to follow state law and do extensive notification of possible tax increases, costs to fix the facility and host public hearings, he added. The MUDs are the customers of this (facility). They set the budget, they determine what they want to have spent on infrastructure improvements. They have to approve the improvements to the plant, Houston explained. What we will do, is we will take to the MUDs a list of recommendations, here are some short-term improvements, here are long-term that will fix the problem permanently, and here are a range of costs. if you want it to be a completely odor-free plant 100 percent of the time, its probably going to be tens of millions of dollars. In the meantime, the pleas for help from residents to the township may have raised awareness of the issue, but will not end the odors, something that annoys Crabbe, who lives on Secluded Trail, a small cul de sac directly north of the plant.. It is ongoing. It is your classic sewage smellrotten eggs, Crabbe told directors. I think what (SJRA) are doing is woefully inadequate. jeff.forward@chron.com The slump in the U.S. crude oil futures below $0 per barrel is not a reflection of the reality in the global oil market capable of impacting Nigerias oil production, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, has said. Last Monday, the U.S. crude oil price dropped to its worst level since New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) opened oil futures trading in 1983. The drop, coming few days after Nigerias benchmark crude oil grade, Bonny Light, slumped to an average $12-$13 per barrel, heightened apprehension about Nigeria abandoning oil production amid declining prices. Despite the recent intervention by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, led by Russian, to cut global crude oil, no significant improvement has emerged in the oil market. With crude oil prices on a downward swing, market analysts say the record output cuts by OPEC+ expected to take effect from May 1 needs some time to rebalance the market. No cause for apprehension But, the GMD of NNPC who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday said Nigeria has no cause to be apprehensive over the current situation as the US $0 price has no capacity to impact Nigerias oil production. That is not real crude oil price. That is the traders paper figure just showing the detail at the close of their business for the month. You would have observed that it has changed this morning (Tuesday). This is because they are not sure of the storage facilities for their stock of products they have, the NNPC boss said. He said the situation, which reflects the current position in the U.S market, does not have any direct impact on the price of the Brent crude oil blend, which rose to about $28 per barrel before dropping to the current price of to $26.24 a barrel on Tuesday. Usually, the spread between OPEC price and the other prices vary by about $8 to $9. When that is deducted from the prevailing price, we have the real price in the market. But, today, Brent is about $28 per barrel. If $8 or $9 is deducted, we will know what the real price is today. But, its really nothing for us (Nigeria) to worry about at all. Like I said the other day, the market will still change and rebound after the OPEC output cut. We will have to wait and see what is going to happen. It is just the close of the market month, he said. On whether the current situation has any impact on Nigerias oil production, he said that is a different issue, pointing out that oil production is usually a factor of the availability of the market for the product. He said now that there is a drastic drop in the price of crude oil at the internal oil market, there is the problem of storage facilities, which is why traders have taken that position to show inactivity. However, as soon as most countries return to the market by May after the lockdown period, as a result of the impact of the Coronavirus on the global economy, Mr Kyari said storage facilities would become available, and of course, crude oil price will rebound. Nigeria has not shut-in oil production He debunked reports that Nigeria has shut in its oil production as a result of the current situation, adding that the recent decision of the OPEC+ on output cut would take effect in May and June. At its last meeting a fortnight ago, OPEC and its allies agreed to cut a total of about ten million barrels of crude oil per day, with about eight million barrels per day in the first phase of the implementation of the deal. The NNPC Chief said Nigeria achieved the highest oil production capacity it has not in the last two to three days, with the country approaching about 2.44 million barrels per day. Nevertheless, he said the country has to scale down the production, considering that ultimately it has no way to take the oil to during this period of coronavirus pandemic. We have to cut down, whether with or without OPEC output cut deal. We have to reduce our oil production level because we do not have where to take the oil to, till the situation improves. The impact of the crisis is global and not on Nigeria alone, he said. Pandemic Expansion: The Greatest Expansions in Government Result From Crises, Part II Commentary The history of governments is that they start out small and wind up large. Along the way, they grow in fits and starts. Crises, however, often cause large and irreversible spurts in the growth of governments. The American ideal for government was that it was to be limited, with power disbursed. So wedded to those ideas were we that, after fighting a revolution over an abuse of power, we created a federation of governments instead of a united set of states. So deliberately weak were the Articles of Confederation that the federal government couldnt require states to contribute money to it, i.e., there was no federal power of taxation over the states or its citizens. Power, however, is inefficient when disbursed. When a crisis arises, that inefficiency is often decried if not demagogued and soon action becomes synonymous with the assumption and centralization of power. So, not that many years after winning our freedom, the American nation-states were bickering, they printed money almost at will and overrode private contract rights. Debtors fought creditors and the individual nations could effectively veto federation foreign policy, thereby limiting us internationally. It became so bad that Alexander Hamilton thought the nation-states would resort to war if nothing was done. What was done was the centralization of power to a more perfect union under the Constitution. The autonomous nation-states were no more, federal taxation was established along with courts and more, and power was centralized in the federal government. Later in our history, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Before the Federal Reserve was founded, the nation was plagued with financial crises Banks needed a source of emergency reserves to prevent the panics and resulting runs from driving them out of business. A particularly severe panic in 1907 resulted in bank runs that wreaked havoc on the fragile banking system and ultimately led Congress in 1913 to write the Federal Reserve Act. The Federal Reserve System, initially created to address these banking panics, is now charged with several broader responsibilities, including fostering a sound banking system and a healthy economy. Need more proof? Beyond the adoption of the Constitution in response to a crisis, perhaps the largest single expansion of government power was in response to the Great Depression. Prior Constitutional law was upended and our federal government was granted vast powers as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said that Americans cannot seriously be alarmed when they cry unconstitutional at every effort to better the condition of our people. In our time, in response to 9/11, enormous power was consolidated in the Department of Homeland Security. According to its website, The Department of Homeland Security was established in 2002, combining 22 different federal departments and agencies into a unified, integrated Cabinet agency. Not every crisis in American history has been met with a consolidation of power. President James Monroe, who resisted government action, famously bragged in an inaugural speech, Who has been deprived of any right of person or property? From my book, The Divided Era, I note that even during the throes of the Panic of 1819, Monroe remained steady. The Panic is historically recognized as Americas first peacetime financial crisis with eerie similarities to the financial crisis of 2008. At the time, the regulation of banking was left to the states, and those banks fueled Western land speculation. When the economic bubble suddenly popped, with hundreds of banks shutting down, and thousands of depositors and investors wiped out Monroe and his Congress, however, stayed within the constructs of the Constitution and refused to undertake a federal takeover of the banking systema decision which stands as a stark, 180-degree contrast to our federal government of today. To be sure, the centralization of power in response to crisis is not new to our time or place. The historian Will Durant teaches us that full socialism was instituted in Rome A.D. 301, under the Emperor Diocletian. The government brought nearly all major industries and guilds under detailed control When businessmen predicted ruin, Diocletian explained that the barbarians were at the gate, and that individual liberty had to be shelved until collective liberty could be made secure. Today, with the push of the media, federal government spending is rising at record rates as we respond to, among other things, hurricanes, border problems, ISIS, and now the pandemics. With the Coronavirus, the federal government is spending in unprecedented fashion, the Federal Reserve is intervening in the economy is record ways, and governors are proliferating orders of questionable legal standing. All of which underlines the basic point that, amid a crisis, politicians act, and the worse the crisis, the more they act. Most often, they grab power and increase the size and scope of government. As this most recent crisis unfolds, our governments will have spent more money, as a percentage of the economy than ever before. The only question is whether any of them will relinquish the power they grabbed during this crisis. If history is our guide, the answer will likely be no. Read: The Pandemic Expansion: The Greatest Media Bias of All Is Pushing Ever Larger Government, Part I Thomas Del Beccaro is an acclaimed author, speaker, Fox News, Fox Business, and Epoch Times opinion writer, and the former chairman of the California Republican Party. He is the author of the historical perspectives, The Divided Era and The New Conservative Paradigm. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Patricia Frieson - known to her nephew Tarah Frieson as simply "Aunt Pat" - had faith in his creative ambitions from a young age. "When I was maybe 12 or 13, my aunt let me draw a picture on her door," Tarah said, sounding slightly astonished more than three decades later. "Most kids get in trouble for that." Tarah Frieson still remembers what he drew on the door of his aunt's Chicago home: a rose with a mask on top of it and a falling teardrop. His Aunt Pat eventually took the door down, cut out the drawing and had it professionally framed. She kept it for more than 20 years, he said. Tarah Frieson's mother, Wanda Bailey, was Patricia Frieson's older sister - the two were fifth and sixth out of nine siblings. Patricia didn't have children, but often cared for her nieces and nephews, such as Tarah, when their parents couldn't get day care. Patricia, who was sent to live with her newly widowed grandmother in Arkansas as a girl, became a nurse and later returned to Chicago to care for her mother. When she developed disabilities that made it hard to get around, Wanda, who lived in nearby Crete, Illinois, would pick up her sister. Together, the two regularly attended Progressive Beulah Pentecostal Church on Chicago's South Side - the family's church for years. "They were two loving souls," Tarah said. "I can't recall when they weren't around each other." One of the last events they attended together was a funeral in early March. Days later, Patricia fell sick. "We heard about the virus going around," Patricia's younger brother Richard Frieson said. Patricia, who had severe asthma and lymphedema, had occasionally been hospitalized before but always emerged strong. "When she checked herself into the hospital, [the virus] was of course on my mind, but she had done this many times before." On March 12, Patricia's breathing got worse, prompting family to take her to the University of Chicago Medical Center. At the time, there were fewer than 1,700 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the entire United States, and most patients were on the West Coast in clusters around Seattle and San Francisco. Patricia was diagnosed with pneumonia and tested for the virus. Before her results came back, family members said they behaved normally around her and one another "at the end of the day, hugging, kissing, just living life," her brother Anthony Frieson told the Chicago Sun-Times. By the time Patricia's test came back positive three days later, she was quarantined and on a ventilator. The next day, doctors called the family, and one of Patricia's sisters and a niece were able to see her through a glass window before she died that night. On March 16, the 61-year-old retired nurse was the first person in Illinois to die as a result of the novel coronavirus. "She took care of everybody else at cost of herself," Richard said. "She was just a caregiver." By the time Patricia died, family members in town were self-isolating and those out of state, such as Richard and Tarah, were unable to travel. It wasn't clear when they could hold a memorial. "It was shocking that she was the first in Illinois," Richard said. "You never expect it's going to be your family that's the first." Patricia wasn't the last in the Frieson family to die of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Richard had heard other family members might have symptoms; Wanda in particular had developed a bad cough. Before the family could grieve one member, a second went to urgent care. "I thought Wanda would pull through," Richard said. The night Patricia died, Wanda's condition worsened and she was moved to intensive care. Like Patricia, Wanda didn't recover. The 63-year-old former medical coder died on March 25, 10 days after her younger sister. Tarah said it's been difficult to think about his mother's death, isolated amid a growing pandemic, in contrast to her vivacious life. "She was always the life of the party - the go-to person," Tarah said. "She didn't deserve to die alone." Wanda was the memory-maker of the family. Even when people would insist they didn't want a party, she would craft a plan. "My mom would go all the way out; she would decorate the house and secretly invite people," Tarah said. "I'm not talking about 10 people - I'm talking 40 to 50. She would make everyone's birthday an event." Tarah's most recent birthday fell on the day his Aunt Pat died and his mother moved to the ICU. Her absence hasn't quite seemed real, he said. Weeks later, he struggled to recall a time in his life that his mother wasn't there for him. Wanda married about 10 years ago, but she was a single mother when she raised Tarah. He could rely on her to dispense love and wisdom and never sugarcoat the truth. "She was strong-willed, always wanted to help," he said. "Even the days I tried to push her away, she was there." One test of wills Wanda prevailed in to the end was her insistence on calling Tarah, her only child, her "baby." "I tried to stop her from saying it," Tarah said. "I'm a grown man! But she always would say it." Tarah, who is in Texas, doesn't know when he'll be able to reunite with his family now that social distancing orders across the country have intensified. He said relatives check in with each other on video calls for now. "It's totally not the way we're used to handling family situations and losses," Tarah said. "But believe, when this all over, we're going to celebrate their homegoing. We just have to weather the storm." Representative image The prolonged lockdown across the country has disrupted supply of essential food items and agricultural products to retail markets due to closure of units providing logistical and processing facilities. Companies operating in this space say that bulk buyers like large retailers are facing challenges procuring these items as mandis and wholesale centres are mostly shut. They feel there is an urgent need to look into ways of getting these cogs in the wheel operational. A large part of what is being made available to the consumers through retail stores is actually from stocked up goods. But that is going to run out soon as consumers are known to panic in these times of crisis. "Around 70 percent of the mandis are shut and the government only allows exchange of agricultural produce in these mandis. For a few months, I think exchange should be allowed outside these mandis so that trading can happen more seamlessly," said Mahesh Jakhotia, co-founder of Bijak, a Gurugram-based agricultural supply chain startup. Procuring staples at a large scale is a challenge now, be it potatoes, onions, rice, pulses, wheat. The demand among consumers for these products is high but supply continues to be erratic. 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 "Manufacturing mills are not getting their supply of raw materials. They are now dependent on Food Corporation of India. Also, getting labourers for the mills and logistics providers for transportation continues to be a challenge," said Jakhotia. Track this blog for latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya, chief executive officer of EkGaon, which connects farmers with consumers through a technology platform said that wholesale players may have stocks for 15 days but they also need fresh supplies from processing centres. He noted that the the mills not being operational is a big problem. "In the Noida Transport Nagar, more than Rs 35,000 crore worth goods are stuck. Much of that is perishable and is bound to get spoilt," said Aditya. The only items which have still managed to remain in good supply is vegetables and milk. Vegetables mostly do not need to be transported over long distances and milk production continued unabated during all these weeks of the lockdown. While the government is slowly easing lockdown rules and certain industries are being made operational, industry observers believe that it will take time to get things back on track. With the large chunk of migrant workers gone to their natives, getting workers to restart factories will be challenging. Further every industry is dependent on a supply network and smaller manufacturers in such nodes need to become operational. For instance, for fisheries to function, the packaging industry needs to get back online. Packaging can only work once paper mills start chugging and transportation bottlenecks are gone. Big Basket co-founder Hari Menon recently took to social media to explain how they are facing severe shortage of labour which is causing online orders to get piled up and deliveries to get delayed. "Places in the north east are dependent on other states like West Bengal for their supplies and that happens mostly through the highways. It is very difficult currently to book a big truck. These kinds of localised crisis has already started taking shape," said Aditya. With all the major cities been identified as 'COVID-19 hotspots', these issues are not going to be sorted soon. The supply bottlenecks have also compounded problems for restaurant owners, who are running takeaway operations. They need raw materials to prepare food but their regular suppliers have mostly vanished. A restaurant owner in New Delhi explained how he had separate suppliers for meat, vegetables, fruits and staples. "Usually, there is an agreement between restaurant owners and these suppliers and payments are made only once in a month or six months depending on the credit cycle, all those supply chains have been disrupted, these chains cannot be replaced at such a short notice," he said. LocalCircles, a hyperlocal crowdsourcing platform said that as per their surveys conducted over 17,000 respondents there is a slight improvement in availability of essential goods through ecommerce. Still 42 percent of the respondents did not find essentials through online platforms. In case of retail stores, 33 percent respondents could not find their essentials, over the last two days. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Why it matters: Samsung entered 2020 owning no less than 36 percent of the NAND flash market, a position it will not easily concede to other players. The Korean giant is scrambling to be the first company that can produce 160-layer NAND, and is going to great lengths to make it happen through its Chinese factories. Earlier this month, news broke that China's biggest chipmaker has come up with a 128-layer QLC NAND chip that is better than Samsung's sixth generation, 136-layer V-NAND in terms of capacity, speed, and power efficiency. SK Hynix is also in the sampling phase with its 128-layer TLC NAND for consumer and enterprise SSDs that will range in capacity from 250 GB to 16 TB and come in both blade and 2.5 inch formats. Western Digital and Kioxia (formerly Toshiba) are expected to ship 112-layer 3D NAND in Q4 2020. With a bit of luck, Micron's fourth generation, 128-layer NAND chips will ship in consumer SSDs even earlier than that. Samsung appears to have accepted the challenge and is fast-tracking development of its seventh generation, 160-layer V-NAND memory with a plan to match the release date of YMTC's 128-layer QLC NAND, which is slated to enter mass production by the end of this year. The Korean giant's new NAND chip will use its advanced Double Stack technology to achieve a 67 percent higher cell density per package when compared to 96-layer chips that are widely used on the market. This would result in reduced power consumption and price per gigabyte, but we can also expect a compromise in overall write endurance that will limit the new chip's value for enterprise applications. For the enterprise market, Intel's 3D XPoint and Samsung's Z-NAND are still the best choice in terms of latency and write endurance, with Intel looking to deliver 144-layer QLC flash in upcoming Optane drives that can take a beating. Kioxia and Western Digital are also coming up with an alternative called XL-FLASH, which is only going to heat up the competition and eventually bring the cost down enough to see the tech make it into consumer drives. Samsung made $16.5 billion in NAND flash sales in 2019, and has invested more than $8 billion into upgrading its factories in China. Recently, the company asked the Chinese government to allow 200 Samsung engineers to be allowed to travel to its Xian factory to oversee the production of the new NAND chips. If everything goes to plan, the plant will have an output of 130,000 wafers per month. Imran Khan has agreed to get tested for the novel coronavirus after a well-known philanthropist was tested positive for the COVID-19, days after meeting the Pakistan prime minister, his doctor said on Tuesday. Faisal Edhi, the son of late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi and chairman of the Edhi Foundation, met Khan last week. Khan's personal physician and CEO of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, Faisal Sultan, told the media that Khan would undergo COVID-19 test. "Prime Minister Khan will undergo test of the coronavirus to show that he is a responsible citizen of this county, Sultan said. "We will follow all protocols in place and make recommendations accordingly. The protocols recommend self-isolation for people who meet those tested positive for the coronavirus. Pakistan on Tuesday reported 16 more deaths from the coronavirus, taking the country's toll to 192, while the number of confirmed infections spiked to over 9,000. It is not clear how Khan will run the government if he was asked to go into quarantine. Khan is currently working as per routine and also chaired a meeting of Cabinet. Earlier, Saad, the son of Faisal Edhi, told the Dawn newspaper that his father started showing symptoms last week, soon after meeting Khan in Islamabad on April 15. "The symptoms lasted for four days before subsiding," Saad said. He said that his father was currently in Islamabad and was doing better. "He has not been admitted to any hospital and is self-isolating," he said. Faisal Edhi had met Prime Minister Khan to hand over a Rs 10 million cheque for the premier's coronavirus relief fund. The Edhi Foundation was founded by the late Abdul Sattar Edhi and is the leading charity organisation in Pakistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) One year ago, two Australian hackers found themselves on an eight-hour flight to Singapore to attend a live hacking competition sponsored by Dropbox. At 30,000 feet, with nothing but a slow internet connection, they decided to get a head start by hacking Zoom, a videoconferencing service that they knew was used by many Dropbox employees. The hackers soon uncovered a major security vulnerability in Zoom's software that could have allowed attackers to covertly control certain users' Mac computers. It was precisely the type of bug that security engineers at Dropbox had come to dread from Zoom, according to three former Dropbox engineers. Now Zoom's videoconferencing service has become the preferred communications platform for hundreds of millions of people sheltering at home, and reports of its privacy and security troubles have proliferated. Zoom's defenders, including big-name Silicon Valley venture capitalists, say the onslaught of criticism is unfair. They argue that Zoom, originally designed for businesses, could not have anticipated a pandemic that would send legions of consumers flocking to its service in the span of a few weeks and using it for purposes like primary school classes and family celebrations for which it was never intended. MSC Magnifica cruise ship passes through the Saint Mark Basin in Venice, Italy June 9, 2019..JPG REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri/File Photo The MSC Magnifica, the Costa Deliziosa, and Pacific Princess are expected to dock on Monday at ports in France, Italy, Spain, and Los Angeles, California. The ships have all been at sea for weeks, and there are no reported COVID-19 cases aboard any of them. The novel coronavirus spread on several at-sea cruise ships, and the CDC has since banned new cruise-ship travel on US-owned waters. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. The final three cruise ships still sailing around the world amid the novel coronavirus pandemic are set to dock on Monday after weeks at sea. Passengers on the MSC Magnifica, the Costa Deliziosa, and Pacific Princess are expected to touch land for the first time in weeks when the ships dock on Monday, according to UPI. None of the cruises have had any known COVID-19 cases, and all three have been at sea for months, only stopping for fuel since mid-March. The novel coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the cruise industry in recent weeks, with COVID-19 spreading on several ships. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has banned future sailings on US-owned waters for the time being. The Swiss-owned MSC Magnifica has been at sea since January 5, when it left Genoa, Italy with 1,760 travelers. It is docking in Marseilles, France, on Monday, the BBC reported. The Italian-owned Costa Deliziosa, which set sail 15 weeks ago for an around-the-globe trip, disembarked in Barcelona, Spain, and Genoa, Italy, on Monday. The ship had 1,831 passengers on board, including 168 Spanish citizens and 453 Italian citizens. A third ship, the Pacific Princess, of Princess Cruises, is scheduled to dock in Los Angeles, where 115 passengers will disembark. The ship had also started an around-the-world cruise on January 5. Magnifica Captain Roberto Leotta told the BBC that the ship had permission to dock in mid-March, but he opted not to dock. "We decided it was much safer for our passengers to remain safely on board," he said, adding: "It was clear that there was basically nowhere to go." When the Magnifica docked in Marseilles, all passengers appeared healthy, and before disembarking, every person had their temperature read and were evaluated for symptoms. Read the original article on Insider During a press conference last Wednesday, Trump threatened to adjourn Congress, forcing it into a recess, for the purpose of overriding and circumventing the confirmation process for his nominees to positions in the federal government. This is a threat without any precedent in American history. While workers around the world have launched strikes and walkouts in response to the life-and-death risks they are being compelled to take without adequate safety measures and equipment during the pandemic, an opposite process is playing out within ruling establishments around the world, which are stumbling even further to the right. Trumps regular press briefings during the pandemic have become a fixture of the news cycle. Surrounded by flags and official regalia, and with his pig-grunt style of delivery, the American president praises himself, falsifies the scale of the disaster, rambles and embellishes in the style of a corporate salesperson, hurls abuse at the assembled reporters, promotes snake-oil cures for the virus and threatens to assume dictatorial powers. On Wednesday, in the midst of an hour-long rant that careened through a wide range of subjects, Trump bemoaned the failure of Congress to approve his various nominees to federal positions. He declared that Congress must either vote on his appointees or adjourn so that he can make the appointments himself. If Congress refuses to adjourn, Trump said, he would force it to adjourn. If the House will not agree to that adjournment, I will exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both Chambers of Congress, he declared. The American president has no such constitutional authority, and this supposed power has never been exercised by any previous president. But lest anyone think that Trump misspoke or was making an idle threat, he rambled on for emphasis: The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony, pro-forma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis. It is a scam. What they do. Its a scam and everybody knows it, and its been that way for a long time, and perhaps its never done before. Its never been done before. Its ridiculous. After threatening to adjourn Congress, Trumps next talking point was his decision to withhold funding to the World Health Organization, which has been at the forefront of global efforts to fight against the spread of the coronavirus. Turning reality on its head, Trump sought to shift blame for his own administrations colossal mismanagement of the crisis onto the WHO. The US constitution, as it has been amended and interpreted since the American Revolution, provides for a separation of powers between the various branches of the federal government, with each operating in theory to limit the powers of the others. When the president seeks to appoint an official to a post in the federal government, the appointee goes through a confirmation process in the Senate. The constitution also provides that while the Senate is in recess, the president can make appointments without waiting for confirmation. These are known as recess appointments. When the Senate is in the control of another political party, that party will often try to prevent the president from making recess appointments by refusing to adjourn for more than three days, a tactic that has been upheld in the Supreme Court. As Trumps Democratic Party opponents were quick to point out, what Trump called phony and a scam and a dereliction of duty is precisely the same practice that the Republican Party used to block the appointment of federal officials nominated by Obama. The provision Trumps lawyers have cited for his purported authority to adjourn Congress simply does not say what they say it does. In a separate article of the constitution dealing with other miscellaneous presidential powers, the president is given the authority to break a deadlock between the House of Representatives and the Senate as to the time for adjourning. No such deadlock exists today, and this provision has never been invoked to date. This provision dates from a time when the Congress was not in session for months at a time, and owing to the difficulty and hardship of long-distance travel in the 18th century, it was difficult to convene on short notice. As transportation became more reliable and congressional proceedings became more regular, this tie-breaking provision faded into irrelevance. It was never invoked from the opening of the first session of Congress in March 1789, during the presidency of George Washington, until April 2020, when it was cited by President Donald Trump. This provision does not permit the president unilaterally to adjourn Congress. Indeed, it was one of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence, which justified the revolution, that the tyrant King George III had dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly. The president was denied that power in the American constitution, in contrast with the power of the British monarch to prorogue (suspend) Parliament. But Trump is not the sort of president to let history, facts, or law get in his way. Indeed, under the banner of so-called constitutional originalism, far-right jurists have long occupied themselves with seeking out and inventing new authoritarian meanings for otherwise innocent constitutional provisions. Pioneered to a great extent by the late arch-reactionary Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, a significant body of pseudo-legal and fascistic jurisprudence has been built up around theories such as the one advanced by President Trump on April 15. Trumps lawyers have been hard at work developing the legal justifications and doctrines necessary to a presidential dictatorship. One suspects that the presidents supposed power to adjourn Congress unilaterally represents only their most recent discovery. In an unhinged rant to the National Lawyers Convention in November, Trumps Attorney General William Barr declared that the purpose of the American revolution was to consolidate tyrannical power in the hands of a single individual. Last month, Barr demanded that Congress pass legislation that would allow for the suspension of due process during the coronavirus crisis. Barrs proposal would override constitutional protections such as habeas corpus and allow imprisonment without hearings or trial. In its perspective on Saturday, the World Socialist Web Site remarked that, Deeply reactionary and inhuman ideas are wafting about Germany, referring to efforts to prepare public opinion for a government policy that would result in death on a mass scale. The same can be said of Washington, DC, where the legal framework of a presidential dictatorship is the subject of open discussion. The Atlantic magazine responded to Trumps comments Wednesday with evident alarm: All this talk of adjournments and recesses may sound technical, wrote law professor Neal K. Katyal and attorney Thomas P. Schmidt. But many important principles of constitutional law are embodied in constitutional fine print. Most obviously, a president cannot just make Congress disappear when he wishesin order to end an oversight investigation, for instance, or to prevent Congress from voting against a war he would like to wage No crisis, not even the present one, is an excuse to do that. If the American president had the power to unilaterally adjourn Congress to override any opposition to his policies, the anti-democratic and authoritarian consequences would be immense. It would, at a minimum, clear the way to open and unbridled presidential despotism. The opposition party in Congress would be relegated to an irrelevant applause chamber, since in the event of any opposition the president could simply lock the doors. In the context of the pandemic, with the callous indifference and incompetence of the capitalist ruling elites on full display, masses of workers around the world will draw conclusions in the direction of socialism and revolution. The ruling elites are drawing conclusions in exactly the opposite direction: that any vestiges of democratic forms have to be cleared aside in favor of dictatorship, repression, and death on a mass scale. High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has assured Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba that EU's sanctions policy towards Russia is unchanged. "The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs assured that the EU's sanctions policy towards Russia remained unchanged. He noted that sanctions against Russia should be maintained until it completely fulfills the Minsk agreements and Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty is restored," the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine informs upon the telephone conversation of diplomats on the eve of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting where special attention will be paid to Ukraine. It is noted that Kuleba informed Borrell in detail about the situation on the demarcation line, where the attacks from the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions temporarily occupied by Russia continue to be launched. The Foreign Minister of Ukraine noted the recent progress in the exchange of detainees. At the same time, the minister added that the progress had not yet been made in other areas of the talks in Minsk. Ukraine's goal is to continue achieving peace in Donbas, Kuleba stressed. He drew particular attention to the situation of Ukrainian political prisoners who are still illegally detained in Crimea and Russia. The parties discussed the priorities of key reforms in Ukraine. The parties also agreed to step up the EU-Ukraine joint efforts in combating misinformation which has proliferated significantly during the pandemic. Minister Kuleba thanked the European Union for the 190 million support package provided to Ukraine. In response to the ministers invitation, Josep Borrell confirmed his readiness to visit Ukraine as soon as the situation would allow him to resume foreign trips and stressed that it would be his first foreign visit. ol Jessica Alba has been enjoying some quality family time as she self-quarantines amid the growing coronavirus pandemic. But the Golden Globe nominee is missing some of her extended family, showing her love for them on social media. She posted a video Sunday to her Instagram story of a photo wall in her home, revealing a glimpse at her family in some old black-and-white photos. Family photos: Jessica Alba posted a video Sunday to her Instagram story of a photo wall in her home, revealing a glimpse at her family in some old black-and-white photos Quality time: She's been enjoying some quality family time as she self-quarantines amid the growing coronavirus pandemic (pictured in February, 2020) The 38-year-old wished her grandparents a happy 68th wedding anniversary with photos from their big day. She also showed one snap of her grandmother Isabel in her wedding dress with her great grandmother Guadeloupe. Alba has recently been opening up on social media about her experience in isolation with her family. She said on her new YouTube channel: 'It's important to mention that given the state of the COVID-19 outbreak, I think we should all have a healthy level of awareness and respect for this challenging experience we are facing. Happy anniversary! The 38-year-old wished her grandparents a happy 68th wedding anniversary with photos from their big day Mother of the bride: She also showed one snap of her grandmother Isabel in her wedding dress with her great grandmother Guadeloupe 'However, I also want my channel to be a place for happiness and community as we explore fun and family moments while staying safe at home.' The Sin City star has also been sharing some beauty and self-care tips for her 18million Instagram followers. She was recently joined via FaceTime by celebrity hairstylist Jen Atkin, who guided her through cutting her own hair. Alba also shared a selfie with her daughters, as they all sported face masks during a stroll in their neighborhood. She shares daughter Honor, 11, Haven, eight, and son Hayes, two, with husband Cash Warren, 41, whom she married in 2008. Self-care tips: The Sin City star has been sharing some beauty and self-care tips for her 18million Instagram followers DIY haircut: She was recently joined via FaceTime by celebrity hairstylist Jen Atkin, who guided her through cutting her own hair Foreign Correspondent tonight looks at how New York has been crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Big Apple is in bad shape. Its the epicentre of the US fight against the corona virus outbreak. Its people are in lockdown while frontline services wage war against the pandemic. With over seven thousand dead, New York City accounts for nearly one third of all corona-related deaths in the US. Every day, there are hundreds of new infections and deaths. The citys hospitals are overflowing, health workers lack medical and protective equipment and morgues have run out of space. Foreign Correspondents reporter Karishma Vyas, a New York resident, goes behind the lines of the citys battle to slow infections, save lives, protect its vulnerable and bury the dead. We follow paramedics as they respond to emergency house calls, helping desperate families. We discover many who die of COVID -19 dont make the official death toll. We film with the police union as they hand out desperately needed personal safety equipment to their officers. I thought Id seen it all on September 11th, but Ive never seen anything like this. Were anticipating this getting even worse. So thats why were trying to get this equipment out to our guys, says a Union officer. We speak with an ICU nurse whos travelled from out of state to lend a hand in a Bronx hospital. He tells us about working double shifts, often with no break, and the pressure of looking after multiple critically ill patients at the same time. A good day is when none of his patients die. One overworked doctor describes his frustration with the US health system. Ive had people come in barely breathing and their first question isnt Am I going to survive? Its How is this going to impact my family financially? This illness exposes all the fault-lines throughout American society, says the doctor. We meet a restaurant owner in Chinatown whos transformed his floundering business into a lunch delivery service for frontline health workers. And we catch up with characters who embody the citys spirit of defiance and survival. I want to be remembered as someone who never left the frontlines and who was essential, says the Naked Cowboy, a performer whose stage is Times Square rain, hail or coronavirus. This is an intimate and powerful portrait of a city in crisis. Tuesday 21 April at 8pm on ABC. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is lamenting the number of job losses due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country's economy. The Secretary-General of the TUC, Dr. Yaw Baah at a meeting with President Nana Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House on Monday said the developments that necessitated a lockdown of some parts of the country has led to many job losses with many people likely to lose their jobs should restrictions on movement remain. He said the government must intervene to stop the loss of jobs in the wake of the pandemic. We are in the process of assessing the impact of the health crisis on employment in Ghana. What we are seeing is mindboggling. Businesses are collapsing in almost all the sectors of the economy, many people have already lost their jobs, many more will have lost their jobs without the easing of some of these restrictions, he said. The Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Tema, Kasoa and the Kumasi Metropolitan Area have just come out of a three-week partial lockdown that was imposed in March as part of measures to slow and contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. President Nana Akufo-Addo in a televised broadcast on Sunday, April 19, 2020 lifted the partial lockdown on some parts of the country which was necessitated by the spread of the novel coronavirus. According to the President, the ease of restrictions was in view of the country's ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected persons among others. President Akufo-Addo in his address , however, indicated that other restrictions such as the one on public gatherings are still in place. He urged Ghanaians to wear face masks everywhere they go and strictly adhere to the various COVID-19 prevention protocols including handwashing and social distancing. He also tasked businesses to ensure social distancing and make available sanitation facilities to promote handwashing. The announcement of the partial restriction saw many businesses in the formal sector close down some of their branches and reducing their operation hours. The financial implications led to some staff losing their jobs with others forced to take salary cuts. With the announcement of the ease of the restrictions, some formal businesses have started opening closed branches. On April 15, 2020, the ceremony of transferring the Chilean Navy to the frigates FFG 05 Melbourne and FFG 06 Newcastle type Adelaida (American type Oliver H. Perry ) from the Australian fleet took place at the Australian naval base Watson in Sydney on Sydney April 15, 2020. On April 15, 2020, the ceremony of transferring the Chilean Navy to the frigates FFG 05 Melbourne and FFG 06 Newcastle type Adelaida (American type Oliver H. Perry ) from the Australian fleet took place at the Australian naval base Watson in Sydney on Sydney April 15, 2020. HMAS Newcastle departs Newcastle Harbour for the last time before decommissioning (Picture source: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jon Dasbach) Both ships were purchased under the Puente IV program to replace the Chilean fleet of two former Dutch frigates of the Jacob van Heemskerck type (type L) built in the mid-1980s, purchased by Chile in 2005 and included in the Chilean Navy under the same names and airborne numbers FFG 14 Almirante Latorre and FFG Prat 11 Captain. Both of them were withdrawn from the Chilean fleet in December 2019. The Australian Navy had six frigates of the Adelaida type ( Oliver H. Perry type ), of which four were built in the USA in the early 1980s (all were decommissioned from 2008 to 2017), and the last two were Melbourne and Newcastle were built in Australia under an American license and commissioned in 1992-1993. Both were withdrawn from the Australian fleet in November and June 2019, respectively. It should be noted that in the early 2010s, both of these ships in Australia underwent modernization, with the upgrade of part of electronic and fire weapons and the installation of an additional 8-charge vertical launcher Mk 41 for the ESSM air defense system. Interest in acquiring these two frigates, which are relatively young and in good technical condition, has been expressed by several countries since 2017, including Poland and Greece, but in the end, they were bought by Chile. The date of arrival of purchased frigates from Australia to Chile is still unknown, since on March 31, coronavirus was detected in 15 Chilean crews arriving in Australia, and now Watsons base is closed for quarantine. Characteristically, the transfer of frigates did not find any reflection on the official resources of the Chilean Navy. HMAS Melbourne underway during her North-East Asia deployment (Picture source: Royal Australian Navy) Ultimate control over COVID-19 will be possible only after a large part of the world population becomes immune. This can happen either after a large fraction of the world population gets infected or by prophylactic vaccination. Efforts are underway to accelerate the development of safe and effective vaccines. However, vaccines can be used for mass immunization only if they prove to be safe and effective by thorough clinical evaluation. Given the time this requires, vaccines specific to COVID-19 are likely to remain unavailable for mass immunization during the current pandemic. In the meantime, we propose an approach to mitigate the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic through the use of existing attenuated live viral vaccines. In particular, oral polio vaccine has been documented to induce protection against a number of viral and bacterial infections. OPV, developed by Albert Sabin, consists of attenuated (weakened) poliovirus and has been used with great success in worldwide efforts to eradicate poliomyelitis. The importance of innate immunity In addition to protecting against polio by inducing antibodies that kill the virus, OPV activates other protective mechanisms, including an innate immune system, thus making people resistant to infections caused by other viruses and bacteria. For example, in large scale multicenter clinical trials conducted in the 1970s during outbreaks of seasonal influenza, OPV protected more people from influenza than most flu vaccines do. Furthermore, observational studies in many countries suggested that the hospitalization rate and the overall mortality among children immunized with OPV were consistently lower compared with unimmunized children, even in the absence of poliovirus in communities. Clinical testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Seattle on April 17, 2020. Related studies revealed that similar nonspecific protection can be induced by immunizing people with measles vaccine, tuberculosis vaccine (BCG) and some other live attenuated vaccines. These observations suggest that the nonspecific protective effects are a result of boosting innate immunity that is our bodys front-line defense against infectious agents. This protection would last for a period of several weeks or months preventing or reducing the severity of disease in immunized individuals and slowing down the spread of COVID-19. Story continues Lower incidence of COVID-19 in countries using BCG could suggest that the nonspecific protective effects could last much longer. Involvement of innate immunity could be particularly important because there is an indication that it is suppressed by SARS-CoV-2, while immunization with live vaccines is expected to stimulate it. OPV is a proven safe and inexpensive vaccine routinely used orally in young infants and even newborn babies around the world. Focused analysis and experimentation will be required to ascertain how best to deploy a vaccine conferring high immunity but for a limited duration. Doctors: Violent trauma will surge amid coronavirus upheaval. We're already seeing it. In summary, we propose here that trials to test the potential of vaccination with OPV should be quickly explored as a tool to mitigate the pandemic until vaccines specific to SARS-CoV-2 become available. If the outcome of trials proves positive, this approach could be used to control this pandemic as well as subsequent waves of COVID-19, if they occur. The demonstrated ability of OPV to activate nonspecific immune responses provides a unique opportunity to reset the course of the pandemic. Researchers are testing multiple drugs licensed for other indications to ascertain whether they are effective against SARS-CoV-2. Since strong science already points to the broad nonspecific protective effects of live attenuated vaccines, trials of OPV should now join the drug trails in the quest for effective tools against COVID-19. Dr. Konstantin Chumakov, associate director for research in the Food and Drug Administration Office of Vaccines Research and Review, is the director of its Global Virus Network Center of Excellence. Dr. Robert Gallo is The Homer & Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine, co-founder and director of the Institute Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and the co-founder and international scientific adviser of the Global Virus Network. The views expressed in this column are solely those of its authors and may not represent the official position of their employers. You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Oral polio vaccine has the potential to treat the coronavirus The price of a WTI barrel of oil rebounded on Tuesday and is now back in the black, mimicking the June futures contractrather than Mays future contract that is set to expire Tuesday afternoon. But the volatility is not yet behind us. The June contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading down more than 65% on the day at $6.5 per barrel at 13:45pm EST. The spot prices yesterday were closely linked to the May futures contract, which were also in the red on Monday. Today, however, on the day that this CLK20 futures contract is set to expire, WTI prices are tracking the June futures instead. The May futures contract, or CLK20, rose $41.88 on Tuesday, reaching $4.25. The extreme volatility in the oil markets this week is largely the result of the timing for the May 2020 futures contract which expires this afternoon, helped along by limited storage and severe demand destruction. US President Donald Trump added to the volatility today, asking the Energy and Treasury Secretaries to come up with a plan to aid US oil and gas companies by making funds available. The US President also said he would take a look at the suggestion that the United States should block Saudi oil from coming into the U.S. to help alleviate the domestic glut. As we move onto the June futures contract, more volatility is in store, as the fast-paced developments in the U.S. industry prompted by a desperate attempt to keep the industrys head above water will continue to wildly swing prices up and down for the foreseeable future, until the pandemic is behind us, when demand is expected to be somewhat restored. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. has launched a special 'buy one, give one' program this week where it will donate a burrito to healthcare workers each time a customer makes a purchase. The program is intended to support healthcare workers in the U.S. as they help combat the coronavirus pandemic. The Mexican food chain said that from April 21 through April 26, it will donate a burrito to medical professionals every time a Chipotle digital customer makes a purchase and names his burrito order '4HEROES' on the Chipotle app or website. Healthcare workers can sign up for a chance to receive their free burritos starting on Nurses Day, May 6. The program applies only when a customer purchases regular-priced burritos via order.chipotle.com or the Chipotle mobile app from U.S. Chipotle restaurants during the six-day period. The company plans to donate a maximum of 100,000 burritos to healthcare workers. However, the actual number of donated burritos will depend on the redemption rate by qualifying health care providers during the promotional period. 'We've seen firsthand how real food can go a long way in lifting the spirits of our country's incredibly resilient healthcare community. We're excited to give fans another opportunity to support our heroes by simply naming their burrito,' said Chris Brandt, Chipotle's Chief Marketing Officer. Recently, Chipotle launched a new egift card program that will support healthcare workers on the frontlines. Through May 31, Chipotle will be matching 10 percent of 'Thank You' egift card purchases, up to a maximum of $250,000. The company will donate the amount to Direct Relief, an organization working to provide personal protective equipment and essential medical items to healthcare workers in the U.S. and around the world. In addition, Chipotle has delivered 100,000 burritos to more than 2,500 healthcare facilities around the country during World Health Worker Week. The company is continuing to offer free delivery on any Chipotle order $10 or more via the Chipotle app and Chipotle.com through April 30. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. By Susan Schreiber Haber/Special to the Advance The Very Viral Verse Most of you know my thing is to rhyme No excuse now I sure have the time Its hard to stay focused and write whats upbeat When you see friends gloved up right there on the street And difficult to smile behind the white mask Waiting for healing becomes our main task I write rhymes for the happy times and those that are good It is a challenge when there is fear in my dear neighborhood And not just my neighborhood I am sorry to say But more and more neighborhoods day after day *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** We are all concerned and worried that is for sure I have confidence our scientists will find the right cure Many believe it is all part of Gods plan Though we must use our skills to do what we can HATS OFF TO RESPONDERS Hats off to responders for doing more with much less If we keep it together we will exit this mess Take time to enjoy family and a bright sunny day Spend an hour outside watching them play Kids wave to the Easter Bunny during the Dalton Farms Tour of Tulips in Logan Township, N.J., Saturday, April 11, 2020. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, guests had to remain in their vehicles to help stop the spread of COVID-19.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Pick up that book you have been meaning to read Try to donate something to the people in need Exercise if you can and try a nice walk Or pick up the phone for an overdue talk Connect with a senior which includes people like me And think of those afflicted though hard it can be The nature of a community is interacting together This crisis wont stop us even if theres bad weather We will find out new ways to stay connected and close Always remembering coronavirus COVID-19 is so very gross It is tragic and sad that we will lose more than a few Its why its so very important to do all we can do The sirens just keep blaring one right after another Let bygones be bygones and go talk to your brother Just keep washing hands with soap at least once every hour Sanitize and use hand cream that smells just like a fresh flower Its normal to be more than a little afraid Especially with no work and not being paid My son is a paramedic and my daughter in law a nurse My Jewish mother worry gene couldnt be any worse And parents at home working and with children to watch They kept liquor stores open so you can buy some good Scotch TEACHERS ARE TRYING Teachers are trying but its very hard to do Not all families are wired and some dont have a clue A floating hospital in our harbor and tents in the park This goes on all day and into the dark Just buy what you need and try not to hoard Keep looking for ways just not to be bored Try to support the small business to keep them afloat But please dont go in if you have a sore throat Its not normal for us to do things alone Be grateful for tech and the newest smart phone There may be a learning curve to use the app thats called Zoom Ask those that are younger how to enter the room Passover, Easter, and Ramadan will all be here soon We cannot let our holidays be left in a ruin And how do we tell the rich Passover saga When we must ration four cups of extra heavy malaga This year the herbs will be just a little more bitter Holy days and the Sabbath bring a respite from Twitter WHAT ABOUT APRIL AND MAY? Will there be eggs to paint as well as to eat And a honey glazed ham for a real Easter treat Holidays will arrive but we wont gather to pray We will stay in place for April and most certainly May We wont go to synagogue or mosques or the church This pandemic virus has left us all in a lurch COVID-19 is insidious and attacks with no reason Doesnt seem to matter what time or what season Listen to the scientists and those in the know Follow the rules and our good health will grow KEEP THE CHAIN STRONG We need everyone helping to keep the chain strong One break in the chain and all could go wrong We are only as strong as our weakest link The fact some folks are lying really does stink It does us no good to shake and to cower If we do whats correct we can harness our power Please try to remember those truly in need You will feel so much better when you do a good deed It is important to remember to take time to laugh With everyone helping we will be on the right path Please dont forget the power of prayer It doesnt matter to what G-d nor even where Try to concentrate on everything that is very kind And be grateful that you still have a sound working mind Stay six feet apart as we put life on pause And try to get used to all these new laws AN END TO THE DARK DAYS There will be an end to this dreary dark tunnel The biochemists will pour perfect drops through the funnel Keep your social distance to flatten the curve And once again remember all that do serve Please follow the rules and do whats permitted And Ill do my best to remain sharp and quick witted This will get much better just give it some time And that my dear friends is the end of this rhyme (The author is a retired educator, who taught science in New York City public schools for almost 35 years. In her heart, though, she always thought she was a writer, although she uses that term loosely.) [April 21, 2020] Harrison Street Continues European Growth With Hire of Real Estate Veteran Paul Bashir Harrison Street, one of the leading investment management firms exclusively focused on alternative real assets, today announced Paul Bashir is joining the firm as Chief Executive Officer of the firm's European business, effective June 1, 2020. Mr. Bashir was most recently President and Chief Operating Officer at Round Hill Capital, a real estate investment and asset management firm with a global footprint. In this new role, Mr. Bashir will lead the expansion of Harrison Street's strategies which focus on investments in student housing, build-to-rent (BTR) and healthcare real estate. He will also be responsible for overseeing and growing the firm's talented team of professionals across the U.K. and Europe. Mr. Bashir will be based in London and report to Robert Mathias, Partner and Head of Harrison Street's International Business. Mr. Bashir brings over 20 years of experience in private equity real estate, operations and corporate finance to Harrison Street. While at Round Hill, he managed a business with a $8+ billion portfolio as well as a team of 260 people across 15 offices in 14 countries. He has overseen investment and development projects, regulatory approvals, complex refinancings and capital raises in multiple European locations across a wide array of real estate asset sectors including retail, commercial, residential and student housing. Mr. Mathias said, "We are thrilled to welcome an executive of Paul's caliber to Harrison Street as we continue to scale our growing European platform, expand our world-class team and drive attractive investment opportunities for our global investors. Paul is a proven leader whose diverse skill set, investing acumen, network of industry relationships and dee understanding of Harrison Street's core sectors, make him the ideal fit to lead the day-to-day growth and execution of our European strategy." Christopher Merrill, Harrison Street's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, added, "Amid these unprecedented times, Harrison Street is committed to its objective of generating exceptional risk-adjusted performance across cycles globally by investing in needs-based asset classes that it believes are resilient and backed by strong demographics. We continue to see strong demand for high quality student housing, build-to-rent and life sciences assets in Europe, which are needed now more than ever. Paul is a seasoned and talented investor who shares our values, has a deep understanding of market environments and highly complex situations, and will meaningfully bolster our European capabilities." Prior to joining Round Hill, Mr. Bashir served as a Partner at Aggmore Group, where he was responsible for raising and deploying over 500 million of new capital and developed JV partnerships with European operators in the residential and commercial real estate space. Earlier he served as Chief Operating Officer at North Bridge Capital Partners Ltd. Mr. Bashir began his career at KPMG LLP. as a senior manager in the transaction services department. Mr. Bashir earned a B.A. in Accounting and Financial Analysis from Newcastle University. Since establishing its European platform in 2015, Harrison Street has invested approximately 2.4 billion in the student housing and private rented sectors and most recently entered the European life sciences sector with the acquisition of five life sciences and innovation properties, the largest portfolio of its kind in the UK. In May 2019, Harrison Street announced it raised 700 million for its second European closed-end fund. Harrison Street currently manages 11,579 student housing beds, 1,321 build-to-rent units and 1.6 million square feet of life sciences real estate in Europe. About Harrison Street Harrison Street is one of the leading investment management firms exclusively focused on alternative real assets. Since inception in 2005, the firm has created a series of differentiated investment solutions focused on demographic-driven, needs-based assets. The firm has invested across senior housing, student housing, healthcare delivery, life sciences and storage real estate as well as social and utility infrastructure. Headquartered in Chicago with an office in London, the firm has more than 150-employees and approximately $24.8 billion in assets under management. Clients of the firm include a global institutional investor base domiciled in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.harrisonst.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005176/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] NEW YORK (AP) (UPDATED) -- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said hospitals in parts of New York will be able to conduct outpatient elective surgeries again. He said elective outpatient treatment will be allowed in counties and hospitals without significant risk of a COVID-19 surge in the near future. Westchester, Rockland, Erie, Albany, Dutchess and several other counties are excluded from elective surgery for now, as they still have a high number of coronavirus cases. The governor also pledged to consider regional differences when re-opening the states outbreak-stalled economy. Cuomo is heading to the White House as he seeks help with coronavirus testing. And New York City is planning to stockpile medical equipment and supplies to meet its own needs in any potential future coronavirus surge, rather than looking to federal authorities or global markets. Meanwhile, elective surgeries will be allowed in parts of the state where the outbreak is not so severe. UNODC and Partners adapt to COVID-19 restrictions with use of online counter-terrorism learning platform Photo: UNODC 21 April 2020 - With the rapid expansion of internet and social media use, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has remained committed to providing criminal justice officials with the tools and knowledge they need to tackle challenges associated with electronic evidence and terrorist use of the Internet. Issues related to the preservation, collection and utilization of essential electronic evidence in terrorist cases have become even more critical as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the virus continues to spread globally, new terrorist threats emerge. Far-right networks are reported to be preparing to take advantage of the possibility of social disorder. Groups affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Daesh (ISIL) continue to use media platforms such as Telegram to incite the commission of offences by supporters in countries distracted by COVID-19, framing the pandemic as a divine reinforcement of their struggles. The evolving situation has become a hindrance to many legislative and capacity-building activities worldwide. A combination of travel restrictions and nationwide lockdowns have placed additional reliance onto online knowledge-sharing and technical assistance tools. UNODC is well-equipped to respond to these unprecedented circumstances, through the implementation of interactive approaches designed to ensure the continued delivery of tailored technical assistance. One such strategy is the deployment of the UNODC Counter-Terrorism Learning Platform (CTLP). Masood Karimipour, Chief of the UNODC Terrorism Prevention Branch (UNODC/TPB), noted that UNODC embraces a move to online delivery of capacity-building and technical assistance: Our interactive e-learning courses, global network of experts and virtual convening authority have continuously supported face-to-face activities. Now, in this unprecedented environment, online-conferencing and peer-to-peer platforms such as the CTLP will take the lead, but the experience and subject matter expertise of UNODC remains the same. However, we are still focused on the emerging threats this unique situation presents. Mr. Karimipour said that increased internet usage and recent attempts by terrorist groups to spread fear and incite the commission of offences shows that UNODCs work in the areas of electronic evidence and harmful online content remain essential. The CTLP is a tool that allows the delivery of numerous online legislative and technical assistance activities in multiple languages ranging from one-hour webinars to multi-week online courses to a global audience of practitioners. To ensure the sustainability of training courses, as well as to address emerging global threats, a new online space was inaugurated on the platform specifically dedicated to electronic evidence matters. This area will act as a one stop shop for technical assistance delivery, sharing of best practices, stocktaking and development of new tools on electronic evidence. This online space will work as a secure interactive room, called the iRoom, developed to create an accessible learning platform for prosecutors, investigators and the judiciary in cross-border terrorism and organized crime cases involving electronic evidence. On 21 April 2020, in the framework of projects in Sri Lanka and the Maldives generously funded by the European Union and jointly implemented with INTERPOL, UNODC convened the first online meeting on the newly established iRoom. Hilde Hardeman, Head of the European Commission's Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI), said that People across the globe are joining forces to save lives and livelihoods. We cannot allow this situation to be exploited to stoke hatred and fear. The EU stands for solidarity in adversity. Through this project with UNODC and its partners, we make new tools available to exchange best practices in the fight against terrorism. In close collaboration with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the event brought together subject matter experts to seek inputs on a draft training module based on the Practical Guide for Requesting Electronic Evidence Across Borders, jointly drafted by UNODC, the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP). Last year the OSCE facilitated the translation and printing of the Practical Guide into Russian language. Ambassador Alena Kupchyna, OSCE Co-ordinator to address Transnational Threats said that the OSCE participating States commended the guide and how it provides practitioners with the necessary skills and methods to handle the critical electronic evidence needed to prevent, investigate and bring to justice those who seek to undermine the rule of law. Building on this successful achievement, we are keen to continue our fruitful cooperation with UNODC and other international partners to support law enforcement authorities, prosecutors, and judiciary in developing long-term, sustainable, and human-rights complaint approaches in handling electronic evidence, she added. Through the iRoom, key representatives of 13 regional and international organizations and high-level delegates of law enforcement/criminal justice training academies and institutions from 13 countries were connected and further conceptualized the new training module. Further information Web story: UNODC concludes first phase of global initiative on strengthening officials' capacity in obtaining and preserving electronic evidence Two UK motor-makers win Queens Innovation Awards A Surrey-based servomotor manufacturer has won a Queens Award for Enterprise in Innovation for a range of direct-drive integrated servomotors that combine brushless DC motors, drive electronics, position encoding and software in a compact package, capable of precise, smooth and silent motion. Woking-located Overviews Servotorq motors are aimed at applications such as surveillance platforms, precision cameras, lasers and military sensor systems. Founded in 1985, Overview employs around 45 people and manufactures more than 75,000 camera and sensor positioning systems every year. The company says that its motors can solve complex positioning challenges faster and with lower development and production costs than before. Frustrated at the limitations of existing positioning systems, and not being able to find suppliers of positioning motors with the characteristics it needed, the company realised there was a gap in the market and set out to develop a product to fill it. It collaborated with Newcastle University and received support from Innovate UK to develop the technology. As an organisation which invests heavily in research and development, we are thrilled to be recognised for innovation at this level, says CEO, Graham Jones. The Queens Award is testimony to the dedication and talent of our entire team as well as their pursuit of the very best in continuous product innovation. The Queen's Awards for Enterprise scheme, now in its 55th year, is recognised as a mark of excellence with awards going to UK businesses that demonstrate strong commercial success through innovative products or services. This year, 220 UK businesses have been recognised for their contribution to international trade, innovation, sustainable development and promoting opportunities through social mobility. Another 2020 Innovation Award has gone to Aeristech, based in Leamington Spa, which was established in 2006 to develop and commercialise a new type of variable-speed permanent magnet electric motor. The high-speed motor is incorporated into a high-performance centrifugal air compressor that is used for applications including industrial air compressors, air-side compression in hydrogen fuel cells, and superchargers for automotive engines. The motor and compressor are protected by a portfolio of patents, with the largest versions being rated above 20kW. Aeristechs technology splits the control system for torque and speed, enabling smaller, more efficient controllers, coupled to dedicated motors. In fuel cell applications, the devices can replace positive displacement compressors, and are said to be smaller, lighter, and less than half the price. Users have reported increases in energy efficiency of up to 40% over existing compressors. Over the past few years, Aeristech has developed and commercialised what we believe to be the most advanced, oil-free, high-speed electric motor systems available, and it is very gratifying to have this recognised by receiving a Queens Award for Enterprise, says CEO, Richard Wall. I am very proud of our talented team and am delighted to have won this award. Our clients in the automotive industry, as with other sectors we operate in such as aviation, stationary power and industrial are adopting our technology as part of their strategy to reduce emissions. He adds the company plans to build on its position at the forefront of electric motor design, not just in automotive, but across other sectors which require continuous, clean air from an oil-free source. These include pharmaceutical, aviation, industrial and aerospace. Winning the Queens Award is a great way to start. Other winners of 2020 Queens Awards for Innovation include: Berkshire-based Xtrac, which has designed and developed an integrated, lightweight range of gearboxes for the single-speed electric vehicle (EV) market. The gearboxes can be configured for precision differential or torque vectoring and packaged for front-wheel, rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive systems. Aston Martin, McLaren, Williams and other car brands are planning to include the technology in future models. Overview developed its integrated servomotors to plug a gap in the market Warwick-based 3P innovation, a custom automation company formed in 2006 to develop innovative manufacturing machinery and processes. Its award is for a patented gravimetric filling technology called Fill2Weight, that is used for micro-dosing and weight-checking of pharmaceutical powders. The precision equipment combines stirring, vibration and controlled apertures to ensure powders flow and are weighed accurately. A simple user interface allows rapid adjustment to deliver different powders. Fill2Weight is used in filling machines from laboratory bench-top systems to full-scale manufacturing. Birmingham-based Jonic Engineering was formed in 1966, initially to produce a range of conventional hydraulic cylinders for a large UK manufacturer. Faced with severe contraction and the risk of losing the business, Jonic developed, and patented, a lower-cost ejector cylinder. This uses a shaft made from single pieces of chrome-plated tube, and does not need pistons or separate retaining glands. The design saves on material and machining by using a faster, cheaper centreless grinding process. The winners of 2020 Queens Award for Enterprise for International Trade include: Suffolk-based PCE Group (owned by Snap-on UK), which designs and manufactures automated systems for sectors such as fast-moving consumer goods, industrial automation, build to print, and medical/pharmaceutical. Originally founded in 1961 to build luxury day cruisers, the company pivoted to become a manufacturer of packaging machinery in 1981. Today, it employs 72 people and combines technologies including robotics, vision and additive manufacturing. PCE has customers in the UK, Europe, US, Canada, Central and South America. Its overseas sales have grown by 2,061%, and the percentage it exports has risen from 3.5% to 36%. Drive System Design, located in Leamington Spa, which specialises in power transfer systems, mainly for the automotive industry. It designs and develops drivetrains for internal combustion and electric vehicles, including control systems and power electronics. The company has a subsidiary in the US and sells across the US, Europe and Asia. In the past three years, its overseas sales have climbed from 2.1m to 5.4m a rise of 155%. Overseas sales as a percentage of total sales have risen from 36% to 49.5%. Hampshire-based Kwikbolt which has developed and patented a temporary fastening system that allows rapid fastening from one side. The system is said to increase quality and production speeds, while cutting labour and assembly costs compared with rival products. It works with manual, power-assisted (nut runners, power tools) and robotic automation systems. In the past three years, the companys overseas sales expanded from 108,649 to 432,359 a growth rate of 298% and now represent 72% of its sales. Kwikbolt is one of only four companies this year to win Queens Awards for both Innovation and International Trade. John King Chains, based in Elmet, North Yorkshire, which manufactures heavy and bespoke conveyor chains for the mechanical handling of bulk materials. The fifth-generation family business has around 100 employees, and subsidiaries in Africa, South America, North America and Central Europe, with plans to open in Australia later this year. Over the past three years, overseas sales have grown by 77%, including sales to clients in Sweden and Hong Kong. Lancashire-based Slingco, which makes products that simplify the installation and support of industrial electrical conductors, cables and hose. Its overseas sales have grown by 178% in the past three years and the proportion of its sales exported has increased to 86%. In 2016, Slingco won a Queen's Award for International Trade. London-based Andrew Reid & Partners (Consulting Engineers) which offers specialist knowledge in complex engineering relating to the design and commissioning of mechanical and electrical building services. In the three years to March 2019, its overseas sales grew by more than 5m to 7.2m a 155% growth rate. The company's markets are spread across Europe, Singapore and Australia. Saudi Arabia will be best positioned to weather the impact of an unprecedented collapse in U.S. oil prices, energy analysts told CNBC on Tuesday. It comes at a time when the market is awash with crude, storage tanks are being filled and the coronavirus crisis continues to ravage global demand. On Monday, the May contract for U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures tumbled into negative territory for the first time ever. The contract, which expires on Tuesday, traded at negative $4 a barrel during afternoon deals. Remarkably, this means traders would effectively have to pay to get the oil taken off their hands. The May contract of WTI had settled at a discount of $37.63 on Monday. The historic collapse in the market for crude oil futures was thought to have been exaggerated by the contract's imminent expiration. The June contract for WTI, which is much more actively traded and tends to be more indicative of how Wall Street views the price of oil, stood at $15.75 a barrel on Tuesday, around 22% lower. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $20.64 a barrel Tuesday morning, over 19% lower. "Saudi Arabia and Russia have both won here, but it's a very pyrrhic victory," Dave Ernsberger, global head of commodities pricing at S&P Global Platts, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday. Riyadh and Moscow have long had U.S. shale output "in their sights," Ernsberger continued, but "they need to look over their shoulder because Brent is not far behind, other crude benchmarks are not far behind, and the world is running out of storage." Celebrations should be 'brief' The Covid-19 pandemic has meant countries around the world have effectively had to shut down, with many governments imposing restrictive measures on the daily lives of billions of people. It has created an extreme demand shock in energy markets, with storage space both onshore and offshore quickly filling up. In the U.S., the situation is thought to be particularly acute, with storage facilities at the country's main delivery point in Cushing, Oklahoma expected to be full within weeks. Pipelines and oil storage tanks in Cushing, Okla. Justin Solomon | CNBC "So, what we saw in Oklahoma yesterday, not unlike the virus in Wuhan, we can see the oil market virus spread to the rest of the world very quickly here," Ernsberger said. "Our estimates are the total inventory in the world could be exceeded by the end of May (or the) beginning of June," he predicted, before warning Saudi Arabia and Russia should keep their celebrations "short and brief." Deeper production cuts are the 'only way out' An energy alliance between OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC leader Russia, sometimes referred to as OPEC+, agreed earlier this month to take 9.7 million barrels per day of crude off the market from May 1. It is the largest single output cut in the group's history, but analysts still do not expect it to comprehensively alleviate oversupply concerns. "Ultimately, Saudi is a winner," Christian Malek, the head of EMEA oil and gas equity research at J.P. Morgan, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday. "They have managed to get out the door early selling oil while there was demand and then retracted that in their latest cut which we view as a weak deal," he added. Boris Johnson will break off his from his recuperation at Chequers to speak with Donald Trump and hold his first virtual audience with the Queen since being admitted to hospital with coronavirus. In a sign the prime minister is edging himself back into work, No 10 said he continues to receive daily updates from Downing Street on the governments response to the covid-19 pandemic. But his spokesperson insisted the PM isnt formally doing government work and is continuing his recovery at his countryside residence, where he has been staying since leaving St Thomas Hospital nine days ago. Dominic Raab, the first secretary of state and foreign secretary, will continue to deputise in Mr Johnsons absence and will step in for him at prime ministers questions on Wednesday facing new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou He has been receiving updates from Number 10 on the coronavirus response and has spoken with the first secretary of state and with senior members of his team, Mr Johnsons spokesperson said. Yesterday he sent a message of condolence to Justin Trudeau after the very sad loss of life in the shooting in Canada. Later today, at around 2pm, he will be speaking with president Trump. The spokesperson added he will receive an update from the US president on last weeks G7 virtual conference, and also thank Mr Trump for the messages of support during his time in intensive care at the central London hospital. Later this week, the prime minister is expected to have an audience with Her Majesty the Queen. That will be the first for three weeks, No 10 added. However, the prime ministers spokesman denied suggestions Mr Johnson had returned to work, insisting: In terms of when the PM does return to work he will be guided by the advice of his medical team. He is receiving updates on the coronavirus response and making some calls, but the first secretary of state continues to deputise for the prime minister and will take prime ministers questions and also chair a cabinet on Thursday. It also emerged Mr Johnson had held a meeting at Chequers on Friday with Mr Raab and his senior adviser Dominic Cummings, and urged caution over relaxing the UK-wide coronavirus lockdown due to fears of a second damaging wave of infections. During the meeting, the prime minister said he had concerns about a second peak if the government lifts severe restrictions too soon potentially inflicting even greater damage on the economy and public health. Unprecedented fall in crude oil prices, weak global cues and muted March quarter earnings dragged the Indian market benchmarks into the red on April 21. Weak oil demand, due to pandemic and lockdown in countries continues to drag oil prices in negative territory which is impacting the global sentiments. Sensex closed the day with a loss of 1,011 points, or 3.20 percent, at 30,636.71 while Nifty settled 280 points, or 3.03 percent, lower at 8,981.45. "Technically, Nifty has closed below the psychological level of 9,000 and 8,821 is the next crucial support and if it gets breached, a sharper fall could ensue. On the upside, 9,091 could offer resistance," said Deepak Jasani, Head Of Research, HDFC Securities. We have collated 14 data points to help you spot profitable trades: Note: The OI and volume data of stocks given in this story are the aggregates of the three-months data and not of the current month only. Key support and resistance level for Nifty According to the pivot charts, the key support level for Nifty is placed at 8,912.43, followed by 8,843.42. If the index starts moving up, key resistance levels to watch out for are 9,047.43 and 9,113.42. Nifty Bank Nifty Bank closed 5.42 percent down at 19,409.35. The important pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 19,141, followed by 18,872.7. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 19,784.5 and 20,159.7. Call options data Maximum call open interest (OI) of 16.68 lakh contracts was seen at the 9,000 strike price. It will act as a crucial resistance level in the April series. This is followed by 9,500 strike price, which holds 15.13 lakh contracts in open interest, and 8,500, which has accumulated 6.7 lakh contracts in open interest. Significant call writing was seen at the 9,000 strike price, which added nearly 3 lakh contracts, followed by 9,300 strike price that added nearly 2 lakh contracts. A minor call unwinding was witnessed at 8,700 strike price, which shed 21,300 contracts. Put options data Maximum put open interest of 21.71 lakh contracts was seen at 8,500 strike price, which will act as crucial support in the April series. This is followed by 9,000 strike price, which holds 21.39 lakh contracts in open interest, and 9,500 strike price, which has accumulated 8.20 lakh contracts in open interest. Put writing was seen at the 8,500 strike price, which added 1.56 lakh contracts, followed by 8,600 strike, which added 1.18 lakh contracts. Put unwinding was seen at 9,000 strike price, which shed 2.10 lakh contracts, followed by 9,200 strike price which shed 1.04 lakh contracts. Stocks with a high delivery percentage A high delivery percentage suggests that investors are showing interest in these stocks. 17 stocks saw long build-up Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which long build-up was seen. 48 stocks saw long unwinding Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which long unwinding was seen. 74 stocks saw short build-up An increase in open interest, along with a decrease in price, mostly indicates a build-up of short positions. Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which short build-up was seen. 7 stocks witnessed short-covering A decrease in open interest, along with an increase in price, mostly indicates a short-covering. Bulk deals (For more bulk deals, click here) Board meetings Kotak Mahindra Bank: The board will meet on April 22 for general purposes. Indian Hotels: The board will meet on April 22 for general purposes. Infomedia Press: The board will meet on April 22 to consider and approve audited results. Reliance Industrial Infrastructure: The board will meet on April 22 to consider and approve quarterly results and dividends. Tanla Solutions: The board will meet on April 22 to consider and approve the buyback of shares. Stocks in the news Federal Bank: Bank to buy an additional stake of up to 4 percent in IDBI Federal Life Insurance from IDBI Bank. HDFC: Corporation reduced its retail prime lending rate on housing loans by 15 bps. Tejas Networks Q4: Loss at Rs 126.53 cr versus profit at Rs 35.89 cr, revenue fell to Rs 54.57 cr versus Rs 273.13 cr YoY. Shalimar Paints: Equity Intelligence India bought 1.84 percent stake, Assured Fin - Cap Pvt Ltd 1.28 percent in the company during March quarter. Kalpataru Power Transmission: Companys project sites in the country have been partially resumed. Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals: Company partially resumed operations at Goa and Vadodara plants in a phased manner. Fund flow FII and DII data Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,095.23 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also sold shares of worth Rs 68.46 crore in the Indian equity market on April 21, provisional data available on the NSE showed. The Cambodian government has so far received at least $60 million in donations and foreign aid, on top of a $30 million budgetary allocation, to fight the novel coronavirus, though providing little accounting for the usage of these funds. Officials have only recently provided some amount of transparency in the number of funds collected to tackle the novel coronavirus pandemic. As of Tuesday, Cambodia had a total of 122 reported cases of the respiratory disease and 110 recoveries. Public calls for donations, including government officials giving up months of salary for the cause, resulted in $13.5 million in collections, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a Facebook post on Friday. This was on top of the $2.1 million given by the U.S., $1.6 million from Germany, some $20 million from Japan and around $20 million from the World Bank. These allocations included direct fund transfers and medical equipment. Additionally, China has donated an unspecified amount of aid, in the form of reagents used for testing, masks, protective gears, and traditional medicines, in 18 packages through chartered flights, the Health Ministry said. Health Ministry Secretary of State Yok Sambath said all these funds were in addition to the $30 million taken from the state budget in early March to fight the spread of the respiratory disease. With zero new infections in the past week, it appears to be a better situation, Yok Sambath told VOA Khmer after a press conference on Monday. We can save some more of the budget if there are no new infections in the coming weeks. Around $10.5 million had been spent so far, Yok Sambath said, including a $1 million allocation for the mass quarantine of around 15,000 garment workers. Asked for a breakup of the figures, she added that $4.5 million was used from the national budget and $6 million from the donated funds. Key spending areas would be on 11 million surgical and N95 masks, 35,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE), and an additional daily wage of $50 for about 3,000 frontline medical workers, Sambath added. Asked about how long the existing budgets and resources could handle the epidemic fight, Yok Sambath said briefly: It is not a problem. No detailed budgetary documents or numerical statistics were given by the ministry to account for all these expenses. The ministry only revealed that it cost around $2,000 to $2,500 to treat a single person for around 10 days in the hospital and that each test cost between $100 and $120. So far, there have been 122 patients treated for the respiratory disease, and over 9,000 tests, involving close to 6,000 individuals, conducted in the country. An independent attempt by VOA Khmer on Friday to request such documents and figures at the Health Ministry, where the National Committee for Combating COVID-19 is located and accepts funds, was not successful and officials stationed at the donation desks ignoring requests for such documents nor providing a detailed description of income and expenditure. San Chey, executive director at the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, said the government is obliged to publicly provide figures and statistics of its anti-virus funds financial activities. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 21:47:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NEW DELHI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- India's federal health ministry Tuesday evening reported 13 new deaths due to COVID-19, besides 384 new positive cases, taking the number of deaths to 603 and total cases to 18,985. "As of 5:00 p.m. (local time), today 603 deaths related to novel coronavirus have been recorded in the country," said the information released by the ministry. According to ministry officials, so far 3,260 people have been discharged from hospitals after showing improvement. "The number of active cases in the country right now is 15,122," said the information. Tuesday marks the 28th straight day of ongoing lockdown across the country announced by the government to contain the spread of the pandemic. The lockdown which was imposed on March 25 has been extended until May 3. Meanwhile, top health research body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has asked all states not to use the new rapid antibody test for COVID-19 for two days. "We have also decided to tell states not to use these COVID-19 testing kits during the next two days," ICMR Chief Raman Gangakhedkar told the media. "To check the variations, our teams will go to the ground and carry out validation of testing kits. If there will be some fault in the batch, we will ask the company to replace the kits." Several states, including Rajasthan, have complained about the faulty test kits. Reports said Rajasthan stopped tests through rapid test kits on Tuesday, citing they had only a 5.4-percent accuracy. Enditem By Giuseppe Fonte and Stephen Jewkes ROME/MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's government gave the green light to a third term in office for the chief executives of Italy's top two energy firms Eni and Enel on Tuesday but flagged new chairmen, reflecting an intention to monitor their performances. In its list of candidates for top state-controlled companies, Rome indicated Claudio Descalzi and Francesco Starace would be reappointed as CEOs of Eni and Enel , respectively, confirming what sources had told Reuters. But it selected two new chairmen in a move government sources said was partly designed to appease critics within ruling coalition party 5-Star Movement and to oversee certain key strategies at the companies. The anti-establishment 5-Star, which governs alongside the Democratic Party, wants to speed up Italy's green energy agenda and is keen for Eni to accelerate moves to cut carbon emissions. It has been highly critical of Descalzi in the past because of his involvement in alleged corruption over a 2011 oil deal in Nigeria. Descalzi denies any wrongdoing. Last Saturday, after the coalition reached an agreement on the nomination process, 50 representatives of the Movement released a document in which Descalzi's reappointment was called "totally inadmissible". The new Eni chairman backed by Rome is Lucia Calvosa, a board member of the Fatto Quotidiano, the newspaper that led a campaign against Descalzi's reappointment over his involvement in the Nigeria graft case. Some key members of 5-Star have also taken issue with Enel's Starace, accusing him of dragging his feet over a plan to merge Telecom Italia's fibre broadband assets with those of Open Fiber, controlled by Enel and state lender CDP. "We have put as chairman in there a watchdog that Starace never wanted," a 5-Star source said. The government has put forward the name of Michele Crisostomo, a founding partner at Milanese law firm RCCD. Story continues The party has put the creation of a single ultrafast broadband network at the centre of its agenda in an effort to close the digital gap with the rest of Europe. Since taking over in 2014, the Eni and Enel managers have won plaudits from investors for financial results and stepping up efforts to green their businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit Italy particularly hard, also prompted a call not to rock the boat. The state owns just over 30% of Eni and 23.6% of Enel and calls the shots at shareholder meetings when management slates are voted on. At other state-controlled companies, the government flagged Alessandro Profumo would be confirmed for a second term in office as CEO at defense group Leonardo and Matteo Del Fante at Poste Italiane . The nomination process at Italy's state-controlled companies is traditionally the subject of intense political horse trading because of their size and importance. (Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images As New Yorkthe global epicenter of the coronavirus outbreakcontinues to see a decline in infection rates and daily death tolls, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday urged for society-wide changes and stressed that opportunity can come out of the pandemic. When we look back, we can say, Wow, we went through hell, but look at all the lessons we learned and look at how much better we made this place from this incident, Cuomo said at his latest press conference in Albany, comparing how New York City rebuilt after the attacks of 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy. Lets use this situation, this crisis, this time, to actually learn the lessons. Cuomo Extends New Yorks Shutdown as Hundreds More Die More than 14,300 people have died and 242,786 have been infected by COVID-19, which continues to spread across the Empire State. While he reported the joyless news that more than 478 residents died overnight, Cuomo said New York is past the high point of the virus as the death toll has dropped sharply, the rate of hospitalizations has decreased, and the number of ICU admissions has taken a significant fall over the last five days. The question is, how long is the descent, and how steep is the descent? he said. Nobody knows. Just as nobody knew how long the ascent was, nobody can tell you how long the descent is. Cuomo said that after another month of closed-down policies, state officials will start determining what other businesses are essential, or what changes can be made in order to reopen without risking a resurgence of the killer virus. He said that although the state needs to reimagine society as it works to reopen businesses, there is no question that the process needs to happen as quickly as possible. You dont need protests to convince anyone in this country that we have to get back to work and we have to get the economy going and we have to get out of our homes, Cuomo said, stating that despite public frustration, he wants to plan and change what we could normally never do unless you had this situation. Story continues In New York City, hospital systems remain overwhelmed with patients, with physicians struggling to keep up with the wave of new cases that continue to surge daily. The New York State Nurses Association on Monday filed multiple lawsuits regarding the ongoing lack of supplies, accusing the state and at least two hospitals of compromising the health and safety of its members on the frontlines. In addition to demanding supplies for the thousands of New York nurses it represents, the union is also calling for prioritization of COVID-19 testing for health-care workers. More than seven in ten of our nurses are reporting exposure to COVID-19 and most are still untested. These lawsuits were filed to protect our nurses, our patients, and our communities from grossly inadequate and negligent protections, Nurse Pat Kane, the unions executive director, said in a statement. We cannot allow these dangerous practices to continue. Reiterating Cuomos warning that hospitals are still under siege and the latest lawsuits, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called on President Donald Trump on Monday for a stimulus program to help cities and states most affected by the virus. Cuomo Suggests Possible Flattening of the Curve in New York Mr. President, youre the only one whos been missing in action right now, de Blasio said, adding that all Trump has to do is say the word so New York can be made whole. I think Im the only person in history to challenge Trump to speak uphes not shy. Cuomo on Monday also made his now-daily plea for more federal aid, stating that the money would be hazard pay for frontline workers and ensure that cuts do not have to be made to schools, local government, and hospitals. But for now, while the federal government has not funded states, Cuomo said his administration has a plan to fight for New Yorkers. He said the New York Department of Health has begun to conduct an antibody testing survey, sampling about 3,000 people across the state. The survey is among several stepsincluding coordinating with the federal government to ramp up diagnostic testingstate officials are taking to determine when, and how, individuals will return to work. New York has developed a COVID-19 antibody test and state officials are working with the FDA to get it approved. White House Coronavirus Task Force member Anthony Fauci, however, warned that antibody tests alone may not determine whether someone who has recovered from COVID-19 is now immune. Fauci said that while this is an assumption that an individual with an antibody for a virus is protected against reinfection, experts have not proven that is the case for COVID-19. The problem is that these are tests that need to be validated and calibrated, and many of the tests out there dont do that. So even though you hear about companies flooding the market with these antibody tests, a lot of them are not validated, Fauci said in a Monday interview on ABCs Good Morning America, stating that the medical community still has a way to go. Clearly Spoiling for a Fight: Cuomo Says Pandemic Is More Important Than Trump Feud As Cuomo addressed the emphasis New York and neighboring states are putting on testing to start the process of re-opening, Trump seemingly slammed the Democratic governor for his planemphasizing how local governments have shifted their pleas to the federal government from medical supplies to tests. Trumps tweets come days after he sparred with Cuomo over the presidents assertion he had total authority. Last month all you heard from the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats was, Ventilators, Ventilators, Ventilators. They screamed it loud & clear, & thought they had us cold, even though it was the States task, Trump tweeted on Monday, while Cuomo spoke. But everyone got their Vs, with many to spare. Now they scream Testing, Testing, Testing again playing a very dangerous political game. States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing - But we will work with the Governors and get it done. This is easy compared to the fast production of thousands of complex Ventilators! Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here 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. New Delhi/UNI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it cannot pass orders to direct the Union of India to bring back the stranded students in Moldova in Europe and refused to interfere with the petition. The bench, headed by Justice N V Ramana, was hearing a plea, which seeks to airlift of Indian students from Moldova. It was submitted by the petitioner that the students have been in self-isolation for 1.5 months and that as there are no cases in Moldova anymore, Air Moldova is ready to transport them back. The Bench responded and said, "The government has said that no people will be allowed to come. The same thing happened in case of students from the UK and the US. The government has taken a decision not to allow any more flights or trains. How can we ask them to allow the plane to land?" "Let the government take a decision in this regard," the court added. MADISON, Wis. - Health officials in Wisconsin said they have identified at least seven people who may have contracted the coronavirus from participating in the April 7 election, the first such cases following in-person voting that was held despite widespread concern about the public health risks. The infections involve six voters and one poll worker in Milwaukee, where difficulty finding poll workers forced the city to pare nearly 200 voting locations back to just five, and where voters some in masks, some with no protection were forced to wait in long lines for hours. Its not certain that the seven people contracted the virus at the polls. The possible connection was made because local health officials are now asking newly infected people whether they participated in the election. It means they were at the polls, which is a potential exposure, but (we) cant say they definitely got it at the polls, said Darren Rauch, the health officer/director for suburban Greenfield, and one of the health officials helping with the coronavirus response in the Milwaukee area. Milwaukee officials are still gathering information from about 70% of people who have tested positive since the election and hope to have a full report later this week, city health commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said. The election, which included a presidential primary as well as a state Supreme Court race and local offices, took place after a legal struggle between Democrats and Republicans. A day before the election, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers ordered that it be delayed and shifted to all-mail voting, only to be overturned when Republican legislative leaders won an appeal in the states conservative-controlled Supreme Court. Thousands of Wisconsin voters stayed home, unwilling to risk their health and unable to be counted because requested absentee ballots never arrived. State health officials had warned of an expected increase in infections from the election. State health secretary Andrea Palm said Monday that they had not shown up, but noted that symptoms may not have surfaced yet. Health officials say symptoms of COVID-19 typically appear within two weeks of exposure to the virus, and Tuesday is the 14th day since the election. That means more voters and poll workers could come forward with infections in the coming days. Representatives for Evers and for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald both Republicans havent responded to emails seeking comment. The coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. To date, 242 people have died in Wisconsin and more than 4,600 have tested positive. Wisconsins election has been a flashpoint of contention as Democrats and Republicans grapple with how to conduct elections in the coronavirus era as the November presidential race approaches. Democrats and voting rights groups have filed lawsuits to expand mail and absentee voting options, and pushed for an extra $2 billion to help states adjust their election systems. National Republicans are fighting those efforts, while President Donald Trump claims without evidence that mail-in voting is vulnerable to fraud. Wisconsin is a key state in the 2020 presidential election. Democrats and liberal groups are intent on reminding voters that Republicans insisted on holding the April election despite the public health crisis. American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super PAC, jumped on the report of election-related cases, accusing Trump of not taking responsibility for the victims. ___ Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1 A coal company based in Indiana received $10 million from a federal loan program intended to rescue faltering small businesses from the economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic. But Hallador Energy has several hundred more employees than the standard firm awarded money under the $2 trillion stimulus bill. And it has at least two important ties to the Trump administration: Scott Pruitt, the former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, was hired last year to lobby for it; and the company's former government relations director now works at the Energy Department. A coal and gas extraction firm, Hallador Energy said it got the low-interest loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, a $350 billion fund designed to bolster small businesses during the current downturn. It quickly ran out of money in the face of wide-scale demand: Congress and the White House are nearing a deal to provide $500 billion to replenish the fund. The measure was designed for companies with fewer than 500 workers, but has been exploited by firms that are far larger. The administration is now facing a backlash for giving millions of dollars to national hotel and restaurant chains before program ran dry. One of them, the upscale burger chain Shake Shack, decided to return the $10 million loan it got from the program. Under Small Business Administration guidelines, some bituminous coal mining firms with up to 1,500 employees can qualify for the loans. The Terre Haute, Ind.-based company had a head count of 768 as of March 9, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Asked about the loan, agency spokeswoman Carol Wilkerson said in an email Tuesday, "Under SBA's Small Business Size Standards, mining operations allows for more than 500 employees." The program aims to keep workers employed by extending loans that are forgivable if their employers keep workers on the payroll. Hallador said in a statement it plans to use its loan to pay employee salaries for two months, along with other expenses. The company did not reply to questions about the loan. With unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression, the lending program has been overwhelmed and has left thousands of traditional small businesses without aid. Hallador's SEC filing saying it had been approved for the loan came Wednesday, a day before the SBA announced the program had run out of money and that it was no longer accepting new claims. Several Democrats and environmental groups have called for barring any coronavirus-related money from going to oil, gas and coal firms, arguing they are helping fuel climate change. "No bailouts for the fossil fuel industry," tweeted Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass. President Donald Trump often touts the benefits of "beautiful, clean coal," and Hallador boasts at least two ties to his administration. In 2019, the publicly traded firm hired former EPA head Pruitt, to lobby for it in Indiana, and its former government relations director now works in the Energy Department. Like many other American coal-mining companies, Hallador and its main subsidiary, Sunrise Coal, has shrunk as coal-fired electricity generation in Indiana fell by 30% over the past decade due to stiff competition from cheaper gas and wind sources. Pruitt was brought in to help mount an ultimately unsuccessful effort by Hallador to convince Indiana state legislators to stop two of the state's electric utilities from moving forward with plans to close most of their coal plants. During his 17-month tenure heading the EPA, Pruitt cast the Obama administration's efforts to combat climate change as a "war against coal" and started unraveling rules designed to reduce pollution from the mining and burning of coal. But Pruitt was unable to see through many of those rollbacks after resigning as EPA head in 2018 under a cloud of ethical and managerial lapses. When it hired Pruitt as a lobbyist, Hallador ran four coal mines in southwestern Indiana. But in February, Hallador decided to shut down one of them. It began the year with 915 full-time employees and temporary miners, but reduced its headcount to under 800 by early March. But with a market valuation of about $21 million, Hallador is still not most people's idea of a small business. In 2018, it dug up 7.6 million tons of coal, making it the country's 18th biggest coal producer by weight that year, according to Energy Information Administration data. The firm, whose motto is "Coal Keeps Your Lights On," also has a stake in an Indiana gas exploration company and in an operation that mines sand in Colorado for use in hydraulic fracturing. The entire U.S. coal sector has suffered from competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy sources and, more recently, a decline in electricity demand due to the pandemic. And the Illinois Basin, where Hallador mines its coal, "is probably at the moment the hardest hit basin" in the country, according to Chiza Vitta, an analyst with S&P Global Ratings. Locked in the interior of the country, the coal mining region stretching through Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky lacks good port access to overseas markets. And unlike Appalachia, it also has little high-quality coal suitable for steel production. One of the region's leading producer, Foresight Energy, filed for bankruptcy protection last month. There is at least one other connection between the Trump administration and Hallador beyond Pruitt. Suzanne Jaworowski, Hallador's former communications and government affairs director, now works as a senior adviser at the Energy Department's Office of Nuclear Energy. She was also the state campaign director in Indiana for Trump's 2016 presidential run. Jayson O'Neill, executive director of the liberal advocacy group Western Values Project, said in an email that Hallador's loan reveals a flaw in the administration's approach to addressing the outbreak's devastating economic impact. "With small businesses shuttering their doors and unemployment skyrocketing to historic levels, shifting millions of taxpayer-funded bailout dollars to dirty, polluting corporations is only the latest example of the corruption derailing America's economic recovery under the Trump administration," O'Neill said. To figure out who would take the test for $100 but not for $80, you would subtract the share of people who responded to the $80 reward from those who took it for $100. The infection rates for the group could be computed in a similar fashion, to reveal the pattern about how testing changes and the infection rate changes as rewards increase. There are likely to be people who decline to take the test even at the highest reward. But the researchers can approximate their infection rate by extrapolating from the information they have. If they know how the participation rate and the odds of testing positive change as the reward rises from $160 to $180 to $200, they can deduce what the results would be at $220 and $300. The underlying assumption is that peoples behavior changes smoothly as incentives change. If that holds, the researchers could construct a decent estimate of the infection rate in all or most of the population. As the virus becomes more and more prevalent across countries, such testing will become critical. What is the probability that if I go to the store I will become infected? asked Marc Suchard, a professor of biomathematics at U.C.L.A. You cant nail that down without knowing the underlying rate of infection. Notably, as Mr. Atkeson found out, its hard to tell what share of infected people die from the virus if you dont know how many have had it. You could get the same number of deaths with a high mortality rate and a low infection rate or the other way around, if the virus propagated very fast but killed fewer people. Different findings would call for different strategies. A slow spread with a high death rate might suggest the containment policies deployed around the world are working, and would support maintaining a strict lockdown. The alternative could suggest that more people have some resistance to the virus and support relaxing quarantines across U.S. cities and states. Distinguishing between these two scenarios is key, Mr. Mogstad said. And yet nobody has measured this statistic. Countries testing for the virus have mostly focused on testing people suspected of being sick people with symptoms and those who have come into contact with them. By Terje Solsvik OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian Air on Monday reported that four Swedish and Danish subsidiaries had filed for bankruptcy and that it had ended staffing contracts in Europe and the United States, putting some 4,700 jobs at risk. The airline is seeking to convert debt to equity, money from shareholders and Norwegian state guarantees in a bid to survive the coronavirus crisis. Earlier on Monday Virgin Atlantic said it would only survive the pandemic if it got financial support from the British government, while Virgin Australia is set to enter voluntary administration, according to sources close to the matter. Norwegian Air said the four subsidiaries in Sweden and Denmark were companies that employed pilots and cabin crew. The cancelled agreements involve firms which provide crews based in Spain, Britain, Finland, Sweden and the United States. Combined, it said some 4,700 pilots and cabin crew members would be affected while about 700 pilots and 1,300 cabin crew based in Norway, France and Italy remained unaffected. "We have done everything we can to avoid making this last-resort decision and we have asked for access to government support in both Sweden and Denmark," CEO Jacob Schram said in a statement. "We are working around the clock to get through this crisis and to return as a stronger Norwegian with the goal of bringing as many colleagues back in the air as possible," he added. The company's shares fell on the news and were down 3.6% at 1230 GMT. The stock has shed 86% of its value year to date. Norwegian has grown rapidly in the last decade to become Europe's third-largest low-cost airline and the biggest foreign carrier serving New York and other major U.S. cities but it also accumulated debt and liabilities of close to $8 billion. Last month it announced it would halt 85% of it flights and planned to furlough 90% of the staff to preserve its dwindling cash reserves, but it faced obstacles in carrying out the cuts. Story continues "Despite the measures that the company has already taken, coupled with the lack of significant financial support from the Swedish and Danish governments, we are left with no choice," it said. "In Norway, there are efficient furlough opportunities which means that the government pays for all salary-related costs throughout the duration of the furlough period. "Unfortunately, there is not the equivalent coverage in Sweden or Denmark schemes," the company said. (Editing by Gwladys Fouche and Jason Neely) To paraphrase Winston Churchill, Iraq today is a disaster, wrapped in a catastrophe, inside a tragedy. For two years, Iraqs government has been paralyzed, caught in a stalemate between Iraqi nationalists and allies of Iran. Since 2014, the latter have been trying to build the Hashd ash-Shaabi militias into an Iraqi Revolutionary Guard, reporting to Tehran. The political and bureaucratic system has been rotted out by corruption. In October of last year, the problems became so onerous they triggered massive popular protests that shut down what little remained of Iraqs political activity and pushed Prime Minister Adel Abd al-Mahdi to resign. Then in January, the United States killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Tehrans pro-consul for Iraq. The strike also killed Soleimanis principal Iraqi cats paw, Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis, the head of the most pro-Iranian of the Hashd militias. The strikes threw Iraqi politics into an uproar and sparked demands that American troops withdraw from the country. In recent weeks, Iraq has been swamped by two new disasters: COVID-19 and the collapse in global oil prices. Iraq remains wholly dependent on oil revenues to sustain its bloated federal budget, which is the source of most jobs in the country. Although Iraq has not yet experienced widespread coronavirus contagion, it is next door to Iran, one of the global epicenters of infection, and there is a high risk that it too will succumb. Iraqs healthcare system is even less capable than Irans, and it has proven difficult to overcome cultural practices that spread the virus. A ferocious political battle is raging in Baghdad over the selection of a new prime minister. Two excellent candidates have already been defeated. Iraqs courageous President, Barham Salih, recently called on the best candidate of all Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the chief of Iraqs most professional intelligence service to try to form a new government. It is important to understand how Kadhimi got the nod. After Abd al-Mahdis resignation, President Salih first chose Muhammad Allawi, a moderate Islamist Shiite with strong ties to the West but no history of opposition to Iran. Yet Iran and its allies blocked him. Then Salih chose Adnan Zurfi, an ardent Iraqi nationalist with American citizenship, who had done a superb job as the law & order governor of Najaf. Because he was an even stronger opponent of Irans, Tehran and its allies blocked him too. Now Salih has gone one step further and chose, Kadhimi, who had always been his first choice for the job. Kadhimi is highly intelligent, practical, insightful, and careful. He has proven himself to be an exceptionally effective intelligence chief, in which post he has fought corruption, incompetence, and national security threats with equal vigor and success. Thats a rare thing to say about any politician; in an Iraqi leader, it qualifies him for sainthood. Kadhimi is an Iraqi nationalist who believes that a strong Iraq requires a strong relationship with the United States. He has worked hard to maintain good ties to the U.S. intelligence community. However, as a Shiite, he knows that Iran has too much to lose and too much influence in Iraq to be ignored. And as a one-time journalist, Kadhimi understands the Iraqi people, what they want, what they need, and why they feel so deeply betrayed by their leadership. For all those reasons and because Iraqs intertwined catastrophes are making even Irans allies fearful that the whole state might collapse Kadhimi has so far garnered support across the Iraqi political spectrum. Whether Iran will ultimately support or fight his candidacy remains unclear. Kadhimis work with the United States as Iraqi intelligence chief made some Iranian hardliners suspicious of him. Worse for them, he has shown a desire to address Iraqs rampant corruption and the competence to succeed. That is a huge problem for Tehran which needs corrupt Iraqi political and economic systems to endure U.S. sanctions through graft, hard-currency manipulation, and smuggling. Should Kadhimi get a nod from Tehran, he will have to address Iraqs myriad crises. He will desperately need a more active and supportive American policy to address Iraqs problems and stop Iraqis from deciding that the system is unsalvageable, and the only solution is a revolution. If there were ever a moment to build a strong, independent Iraq one capable of someday standing up to Iran this is it. There are small but important steps Washington could take to demonstrate its support for Kadhimi at little or no cost. Announcing that the U.S. will consult with the Iraqi government before striking targets on Iraqi soil would be a start. Easier still, Washington could grant Baghdad a six-month waiver to buy Iranian natural gas, rather than the 30-day waivers it has been issuing recently. Mustafa Kadhimi may be the last, best hope to begin moving Iraq in a better direction the direction weve wanted it to move in for years. Shouldnt we help him help us? Kenneth M. Pollack is a resident scholar of the American Enterprise Institute and a former Director for Persian Gulf Affairs at the NSC. The views expressed are the author's own. GALVESTON In an alternate reality where the novel coronavirus doesnt exist, Jena and Joshua Campbell would be getting married on Monday on a bucolic plot of 10 acres in Huntsville. But with a walk down the aisle in front of friends and family out of the question in the age of social distancing, the Baytown couple instead found themselves making a quick stop at the Galveston County courthouse to get their marriage license and then unloading their cars at one of the boat launch stations at Galveston Island State Park with their two children. (Galveston County) was the only courthouse that was open in the state of Texas so we came and got the license today and, screw it, we just decided to make a day out of it, said Jena Campbell. State parks like Galveston reopened Monday, two weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered them closed in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The decision is a relatively minor step in Texass phased reopening, which also includes authorizing retail to-go operations at closed businesses on April 24. Abbott is expected to announce other reopenings this week, possibly aimed at reviving the states flagging economy, and the drumbeat to reopen the entire state will likely only grow louder after the price of U.S. oil collapsed to below zero Monday. But for Texans cooped up inside for weeks fending off cabin fever, the reopening of state parks on Monday was a much-needed mental health respite a chance to view wildlife, cast a line from a fishing rod, or stretch ones legs on a surface other than a neighborhood sidewalk. Monday was not, however, your normal day at the park. Park visitors are still required to follow social-distancing rules of 6 feet or more and wear masks over their faces, and park fees and reservations had to be purchased online before entering. Reservations for more than 22,800 people to Texas parks have been requested in the day since Abbotts order on park closures was lifted, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials. The statewide data accounts for reservations that began at noon Sunday, when the first phase of Abbott's plan to restart Texas' economy began, to around 12:35 p.m. Monday. Of those people, at least 2,200 account for visitors based on 864 reservations to Houston-area state parks, including Brazos, Stephen F. Austin, Galveston, Huntsville and Lake Livingston, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesman Tom Harvey said. At Galveston Island State Park, park visitors stuck to mostly solitary activities, trudging through the mud to fish on the banks of the wetlands or casting lines from their kayaks while paddling the bayous. Even Rose and Dan Sipps of Manvel, who arrived at the state park in Galveston for a picnic with friends, purposefully set up at a location where they could all eat their lunches at picnic benches a safe distance away. This is our new normal, said Rose Sipps. A foggy drive from Katy didnt hinder people from riding their bikes down the trails at Brazos Bend State Park Monday. Families could be seen wearing masks as they cycled along the parks trails that passed open fields with herds of deer during their morning feeding. Visitors were greeted by a customer service representative wearing a mask and gloves, ensuring that patrons pre-registered and paid online before entering. Other park employees donned masks as they rode around the park on four-wheelers. Now Playing: 'COVID-19 in 60': Houston coronavirus news in a minute Video: Houston Chronicle Connor Murnane, a forester with Texas A&M Forest Service, which operates the W.G. Jones State Forest in Montgomery County, said he was looking forward to seeing people birdwatching and horseback riding. Murnane believes the last time the forest was closed was in the late 1990s or early 2000s, for maintenance. It was just very strange and surreal to drive down the forest trail and not see a soul, Murnane said. The wildlife were certainly out and active and enjoying the vacation, I think. On the farthest east bank of Galveston Island State Park, Mario Esparza and his daughter, Alyssa, planted three fishing rods in the damp soil and waited for any nibbles. The Esparzas have a state park pass and jumped at the first chance to drive from their home in Conroe down to Galveston to go fishing. Mario Esparza works two jobs, as a teacher and as a respiratory therapist at a hospital, where he works with coronavirus patients, often with limited personal protective equipment. Its different being in shortage of supplies for personal protective equipment, you just have to adapt, he said. Its definitely nice being outside. Alyssa sat in a beach chair, a cooler filled with their lunch at her side. A high school senior who will never set foot in her school building as a student again Abbott closed schools for the year last week to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus Alyssa had gotten used to her new way of life: remote learning, social distancing, and limited outdoor time. She basked in the fresh air after weeks of being mostly stuck inside. Its very soothing just being out in nature, she said. Staff writers Nicole Hensley and Jamie Swinnerton contributed reporting. nick.powell@chron.com Over 80 scientists, including prominent climate experts, are out with an open letter endorsing Joe Biden just ahead of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Why it matters: The letter comes as Biden is seeking to consolidate support among progressives who prefer Sen. Bernie Sanders' more aggressive climate platform. What they're saying: "We are confident that, unlike President Trump, Joe Biden will respect, collaborate with, and listen to leaders in the scientific community and public health experts to confront the existential climate crisis and other environmental threats," the letter states. "Bidens plan to address climate change leads with science and facts and pledges U.S. leadership on climate action," it states. Who they are: Signatories include the prominent Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann and Jane Lubchenco, who ran NOAA under former President Obama. Catch up fast: Biden yesterday signaled that he plans to expand his climate platform. And Sanders' endorsement of Biden last week included the announcement of plans to form joint policy "task forces," with climate among the topics. Go deeper: Joe Biden signals expanded climate plan as a "key objective" Editor's note: This story has been updated as more scientists have signed onto the letter. Joe Biden says he would love to have Obama as his running mate in this November's presidential election - but not Barack, his wife Michelle. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and former vice president told CBS News that the former first lady would be a strong addition as VP. However, he is unsure if she would accept the nomination. 'I'd take her in a heartbeat,' Biden said during an interview on Monday. 'She's brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a really fine woman.' The former first lady has made clear she's not interested in running for office but that is not stopping admirers from trying to convince her otherwise. Joe Biden has said he would love to have former first lady Michelle Obama as his running mate Michelle Obama is preparing to roll out her endorsement of Joe Biden, now the presumptive Democratic nominee but she has said she has 'no interest' in running for office Biden hugs Michelle Obama while on the campaign trail with Barack in 2008 'I'll say it here directly: I have no intention of running for office, ever,' she wrote in her in her best-selling memoir, Becoming, released in 2018. Biden has has already committed to choosing a woman as his running mate and noted that it was still early in the process of selecting a vice president. 'In terms of who to pick, we're just beginning the process,' Biden told KDKA. Michelle Obama (left), pictured with Jill (center) and Joe Biden (right) in 2008. The former first lady will soon endorse the former vice president's 2020 bid 'We'll shortly name the committee to review this and begin to look through the backgrounds of the various potential nominees. And that's just getting underway. 'I'll commit to that be a woman because it is very important that my administration look like the public, look like the nation. And we will be committed that there will be a woman of color on the Supreme Court, but it doesn't mean there won't be a vice president, as well,' Biden said. Biden then reiterated the 'importance' of remembering there's 'plenty of qualified people who have the experience and background who are women and are ready to be president on day one. And I'm gonna stick with that.' During a Democratic Debate back in March, Biden publicly pledge to select a female running mate. 'I would pick a woman to be my vice president,' Biden said at the time, following a promise to also elect the first black woman to the Supreme Court. Mrs Obama made a memorable speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention where Hillary Clinton was nominated famously telling Americans 'when they go low, we go high' but made few appearances on the campaign trail for Clinton. Michelle Obama (right) campaigned for Hillary Clinton (left) in 2016, but it wasn't enough to help the Democratic nominee with the election over President Trump The two women didn't appear at a rally together until October 27th of that year less than two weeks before the election - where Obama called her 'my girl' and Clinton gushed Obama was 'amazing.' At that North Carolina event, it was Obama who got the most cheers and applause. Michelle Obama also held solo get-out-the-vote rallies that year but it wasn't enough to help Clinton beat Donald Trump. This year, Obama is a part of When We All Vote an initiative to get people to the polls this November. She had planned a voter participation rally in Detroit last month that was canceled when containment measures to combat the coronavirus were put into place. On Monday evening, Obama held an online voter registration drive. 'I'm counting on all of you to help make sure everyone in this country knows how to register and vote safely in the 2020 elections. Join me and @WhenWeAllVote this Monday nightRSVP now for the voter registration #CouchParty at http://weall.vote/couchparty,' she tweeted on Thursday. Obama launched the group in the 2018 election cycle with the help of celebrity friends like Tom Hanks and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Michelle Obama is also reactivating her get out the vote group When We All Vote, an hosted a 'couch party' on Monday evening Since she left the White House, she's also wrote her best-selling memoir 'Becoming' and went on a book tour that filled arenas usually only sold out by rock stars. The timing of her Biden endorsement is yet to be determined. She was close to both Joe and Jill Biden when President Barack Obama was in office. Michelle Obama and Jill Biden worked together to support military spouses and families as part of their Joining Forces campaign. Michelle Obama (left) and Jill Biden (right) and the Biden's dog Champ are photographed as part of their Joining Forces initiative in 2012, when their husbands were still in the White House The two couples at an event in Iowa City, Iowa during their re-election bid in 2012 And Obama remains close to Kathleen Biden, the former wife of Hunter Biden. The two women have been workout buddies for years. Additionally, the children of both - Maisy, Finnegan, and Naomi Biden and Malia and Sasha Obama all attended Sidwell Friends, the posh Washington D.C. private school that counts Chelsea Clinton as one of its alumni. Her endorsement of Joe Biden would follow former President Obama's blessing. Among the suspected contenders are former 2020 rivals Kamala Harris (left) and Elizabeth Warren (right) Among the contenders to be Biden's running mate are former 2020 rivals Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren. While pundits are continue to discuss the options, bookmakers in Las Vegas have identified Harris as the most likely pick. Senator Elizabeth Warren said last Wednesday that she would accept the offer, if she was asked to assume the role by Biden, despite so far refusing to publicly endorse him. 'Yes,' said Warren when she was asked on MSNBC how she would respond if Biden asked her to serve as his vice president. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Georgia's Stacey Abrams are also all considered likely candidates. 'I would be an excellent running mate,' Abrams said in an interview published in Elle last week. I have the capacity to attract voters by motivating typically ignored communities. I have a strong history of executive and management experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. 'I've spent 25 years in independent study of foreign policy. I am ready to help advance an agenda of restoring America's place in the world. If I am selected, I am prepared and excited to serve.' She added that she was very 'fortunate' to hear her named mention in contention. Ukraine's Finance Ministry after consultations with primary dealers has decided not to hold auctions to place government domestic loan bonds on Tuesday, April 21. "Further auctions will be held in accordance with the schedule, taking into account demand and market conditions," the ministry said. Last week, the Finance Ministry said that it had created a sufficient supply of financial liquidity in order to comfortably pass a period of unfavorable conditions in the domestic capital market, timely and fully fulfilling its financial obligations. As reported, the Finance Ministry held the latest auctions for the placement of hryvnia-pegged government bonds on March 3, and foreign currency auctions on March 24. In the previous two weeks, the ministry also refused to sell any bonds. More than 46,000 employees on the holiday island were furloughed last week The resort island of Bali could reopen for holidaymakers by June as Indonesia tries to forge a path out of the coronavirus pandemic. Flights to Indonesia were suspended on April 2 as nations around the world closed their borders in an attempt to curb the rate of COVID-19 infections. Tourism businesses in Bali were among the hardest hit by the travel restrictions with more than 46,000 employees being furloughed last week. But the island's tourism boss is optimistic that the resort could open its doors to tourists again if the Balinese people are 'disciplined' about social distancing. Foreign tourists wearing face masks flock to Bali Immigration Office amid the coronavirus outbreak on March 23 Foreigners wear protective masks as they queue up outside the immigration office to extend their visa in Bali on March 23, as borders around the world close 'The key is no more local transmissions. When we achieve that, not even until June, even May we can start welcoming Chinese tourists,' head of the Tourism Agency in Bali Putu Astawa told local publication Tribun on Thursday. The Bali Tourism Agency provided an update on Thursday, saying its priority was defeating the virus. 'At the time, the Bali Provincial Government along with tourism stakeholders in Bali are focused on handling the COVID-19 pandemic in the Island of the Gods. Efforts to recover the tourism sector by attracting tourists to Pulau Dewata will only be done once the pandemic comes to an end,' it said in a statement. While the Indonesian government was adamant it would focus on eliminating the virus before opening the borders, tourists from countries recovering from the outbreak will be the targets of tourism campaigns. Those countries include China, which recorded 12 new cases of the virus as of Tuesday morning, South Korea which had 13 cases, and Japan which had none. Indonesian president Joko Widodo is confident the pandemic will be resolved by the end of the year and expects tourism to flourish in 2021. 'Everyone is yearning to go out, people want to enjoy the beauty of tourism and so this is the optimism that we must continue to build on,' he said last week, according to Balinese publication Coconuts. But workers in Bali have been suffering financial losses in the face of the coronavirus economic downturn since last month - before flight restrictions were implemented. Eerie photos of Ngurah Rai International Airport emerged on March 12 of the once-bustling international airport almost devoid of people. The photos were posted on social media by a local tour guide accompanied by the caption: 'Bali Airport today at 9.30am. Very Empty. Bali very sad and hard life.' Eerie photos of Ngurah Rai International Airport emerged on March 12 of the once-bustling international airport almost devoid of people Photos of Ngurah Rai International Airport show the severe damage the coronavirus is doing to Bali's tourism industry The tour group employee told Daily Mail Australia that March is normally a busy time. 'Every country has travel warnings now not to travel to Indonesia,' he said. 'I understand that corona is very bad for the tourism industry, but now everyone is scared come to Bali.' He used the comments section on the airport's Facebook page to plead with tourists to give his company some business. 'If you still come to Bali for your holiday, use our transport service,' he wrote. CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement The Indonesian government previously came under fire for trying to entice people to visit the tourist resort before Indonesia had confirmed cases of the virus. Bali has since reported 135 cases in total. Three people have died and 38 have recovered. Despite Balinese tourism officials claiming the island could be back open for business next month, travel bans for Australians are expected to extend to 2021. Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham told ABC's News Breakfast last week: 'I wouldn't put any guarantees that you could undertake that overseas trip in December.' 'This is a time where, unfortunately, people can't undertake holidays and they won't be able to go overseas for quite some time to come.' Razak Kojo Opoku 21.04.2020 LISTEN The leadership of the Concerned Voters Movement(CVM) is very worried about the attitude of Former President John Mahama in this period of Coronavirus pandemic. Former President John Mahama presented a quantity of food items to the National Democratic Congress COVID-19 Team for onward distribution to only card-bearing members of the National Democratic Congress in the Lockdown areas. The canned and packaged foodstuffs were distributed on tribal grounds. Some households within the Lockdown areas suspecting to be against NDC and John Mahama were completely ignored by the National Democratic Congress COVID-19 Team. This is a very disgraceful act to our democracy. Ama Nimoh, a 60-year-old poor widow in Ashaiman Constituency was denied access to Mahama's food and was verbally abused by the guards of NDC COVID-19 Team supervising the distribution of John Mahama's food simply because the woman's daughter was singing free SHS Song composed by Daddy Lumba. CVM wishes to condemn the conduct of the National Democratic Congress COVID-19 Team for sharing food on grounds of discrimination, political and tribal lines. The behaviour of the NDC COVID-19 Team is very shameful. If not for Politics, John Mahama and National Democratic Congress COVID-19 Team should have partnered the Gender Ministry and Ministry of Local Government in the distribution of Mahama's canned and packaged foodstuffs to the vulnerable and deprived communities under the Lockdown areas. ....Signed... Razak Kojo Opoku (CVM Founder And President) Kelly Dodd has apologized after making insensitive comments about the COVID-19 pandemic. In now-deleted comments on her Instagram the 44-year-old Real Housewives of Orange County star called the outbreak 'God's way of thinning the herd.' The reality star was responding to critics who asked why she was flying from New York to LA at such a time after she posted photos from the empty airport and plane. Yikes: Kelly Dodd said that COVID-19 was 'God's way of thinning out the herd' in comments she made on Instagram on Tuesday 'If it's dangerous why are the airlines still flying? You think I want to fly? I had to get back, how is that elitist?' Kelly snapped back. In a separate comment the TV star then claimed the people who have fallen victim to COVID-19 'would have died this year they were compromised,' 'Do you know how many people died from the H1N1, the swine flu or SARS?' she wrote. 'It's 25% get your facts straight you only hearing numbers not the reality! It's God's way of thinning the herd!' 'God's way': The Bravo star was responding to critics who questioned why she got a flight from New York to LA during the pandemic Fake news: The TV star then claimed that the people who have fallen victim to COVID-19 'would have died this year' because they were 'compromised,' Viral on Reddit: Kelly had a response for many of her followers who were angered at her comments and actions She finished the comment with some 'common sense' ways vulnerable people can protect themselves. 'If you are vulnerable or compromised, stay inside. If you don't protect others by wearing masks and gloves keep your distance and don't go out if you are ill,' she ranted. 'Its common sense!' Realizing how controversial her words were, Kelly later apologized In a selfie video, claiming her words were taken the wrong way. 'I want to give a public apology. When I wrote this is 'God's way of thinning the herd,' that's not what I meant,' she said. 'I want to give a public apology. When I wrote this is Gods way of thinning the herd, thats not what I meant,' Kelly said in her apology video later in the day 'What I meant was, do these pandemics happen because it's Gods way? I'm not God, I'm not insensitive. I feel bad for all the families who have lost loved ones.' she tried to explain Backtracking: 'I want to apologize to anybody who got offended. Im sorry.' 'What I meant was, do these pandemics happen because it's Gods way? I'm not God, I'm not insensitive. I feel bad for all the families who have lost loved ones. And I do think we should all stay home and protect everybody. That's not what I meant, and I want to apologize to anybody who got offended. Im sorry.' On Monday the Bravo star shared a video of her at the doctor's office while getting tested for coronavirus. Kelly winced as the doctor pushed a swab high up into her nasal cavity. 'Getting my covid test!! That hurt' she captioned the clip as she pulled faces at the camera. Painful: On Monday the RHOC was filmed having the coronavirus test done despite having no symptoms Ouch: Kelly winced as the doctor pushed a swab high up into her nasal cavity Precaution: Kelly decided to get the test after flying back from New York to her home in Orange County, California The move angered her Kelly's fans who questioned how she could get tested without exhibiting any symptoms of the disease - and many people who are very sick are still having trouble getting tested. One Instagram user asked: 'How did you get tested? People who have symptoms can't get a test [crying emoji].' 'You can get tested if you know people!' Kelly responded. Anthonys blog is so impactful because he, more than anyone else, knows the challenge of being isolated and the power of persons mind in that situation," his attorney Nicolette Ward said. "The hope he had during his years of solitary confinement helped him survive and gave him a vision of better days when he had his freedom. He wants to encourage all Americans to stay hopeful at this challenging time and let people know that things will indeed get better. Image: AP For weeks President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has presented Turkeys performance in handling the coronavirus as one of the worlds most successful, as he maintained strict control over information about the outbreak. The presidential palace rolled out a carefully orchestrated propaganda campaign, ensuring reports from hospitals, grave sites and mourning relatives remained virtually absent. Doctors who spoke out on social media were reprimanded, and 410 people were detained in March for provocative and abusive posts. But data compiled by The New York Times from records of deaths in Istanbul indicate that Turkey is grappling with a far bigger calamity from the coronavirus than official figures and statements would suggest. The city recorded about 2,100 more deaths than expected from March 9 to April 12, based on weekly averages from the last two years, far more than officials reported for the whole of Turkey during that time. While not all those deaths are necessarily directly attributable to the coronavirus, the numbers indicate a striking jump in fatalities that has coincided with the onset of the outbreak, a preliminary indicator that is being used by researchers to cut through the fog of the pandemic and assess its full toll in real time. Even by the official count, confirmed cases in Turkey rose to more than 90,000 by Monday, lifting Turkey above China to become the seventh most affected country in the world. Deaths have reached 2,140. 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 government maintains that it acted swiftly, stopping flights and border crossings from five of the most affected countries in February, and closing schools, restaurants and bars in mid-March, when the first infection was confirmed. But by then, the statistics compiled by The Times show, the damage was done. The government announced the countrys first death from COVID-19 on March 17. But the statistics compiled by The Times suggest that even around that time, the number of deaths overall in Istanbul was already considerably higher than historical averages, an indication that the virus had arrived several weeks earlier. Still, Erdogan assured the nation on March 18, after the second death was announced, that Turkey had quickly taken all precautions. We, together with our people, rose to this challenge ably and decisively, as we always do in the face of attacks against our country, he said. Yet the actions taken by Erdogan since early February have revealed his priorities. He has repeatedly tried to reassure the population, describing how he eats a spoonful of mulberry molasses every morning to boost the blood. And, in an effort to keep at least part of the economy functioning, he has avoided ordering a complete nationwide lockdown. An economic collapse would spell disaster for his presidency. His popularity had been sliding amid a faltering economy and high unemployment, even before the pandemic. Instead, Erdogan has introduced gradual measures to encourage social distancing, restricted domestic travel, and ordered a curfew for those over 65 and under 20 years old. Yet the infections have spread, ballooning in Istanbul and Izmir, big cities with international business and tourism connections, as well as in central cities where 6,000 pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia did not always follow self-isolation rules. The government has said the high case count is because of its widespread testing there have been more than 600,000 tests. And it has also pointed out that the rate of infection is dropping. Still, deaths in Istanbul during the five-week period between March 9 and April 12 were about 30% higher than historical averages, The Times has found. In the first two weeks of April, the most recent figures available, deaths in Istanbul were about 50% higher than average. Increases of that magnitude are worrisome and seem clearly related to the outbreak, said Stephane Helleringer, a demographer at Johns Hopkins University. Any death statistics in the midst of a pandemic are tricky to pin down and must be considered preliminary. Many European countries are engaged in trying to improve their death statistics, which they now acknowledge are incomplete. The Istanbul totals may include both deaths directly linked to the coronavirus as well as those from other causes, like cancer or heart disease, that may have become more common as hospitals reached capacity and people avoided seeking medical care. The Times findings were supported by Onur Altindag, an assistant economics professor at Bentley University, who has published data from 10 cities in Turkey comparing them with statistics from the previous four years. He found a similar number of excess deaths in Istanbul from March 11 to April 12. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths across Turkey as of April 12 was 1,006, less than half the excess deaths in Istanbul alone, he said. Turkeys Health Ministry has released only limited data on the spread of the virus and only announced numbers of COVID-19 cases in individual cities on one occasion, on April 1. Istanbul, a city of 16 million, accounted for 60% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 on that day, said Dr. Fahrettin Koca, the health minister. Several others cities, including Ankara and Izmir, have been declared growing hot spots. On April 10, Turkey began enforcing lockdowns on weekends in 31 metropolitan areas. Altindag also found early signs of excess deaths in the town of Sakarya, one of the cities included in the lockdown order. Officials like Koca have emphasized that Turkeys health care system was vastly expanded over the last two decades under Erdogan, that patients are recovering from the virus and that Turkey will reach its peak in about a week. But medical professionals warn that Turkey may not have a grip of the spread of the virus. In February they did nothing although it was known the disease was there, Dr. Sinan Adiyaman, head of the Turkish Medical Association, said in a telephone interview. Personal protection equipment has been lacking in some places, and testing was only ramped up to a sufficient level in April, he added. And Turkey is only counting cases of COVID-19 that have been confirmed with a positive test result. It is not including in its totals cases that have been clinically diagnosed as COVID-19 but have not been tested positive, Adiyaman said. The data we have is not sufficient to say if they are controlling the pandemic, he said. The Turkish Medical Association, an independent professional association with about 120,000 members, has called for more transparency, which would help doctors better understand the disease. The association presented 22 questions to the minister last week, requesting data about cases, the demographics of those infected and details on the number of health care workers who have become sick. They have yet to receive answers. Adiyaman said that the science board, a group of experts set up by the government to advise its management of the pandemic, does not make its decisions public and the government does not share data with his association. The health minister announced that 601 health personnel had been infected with the virus by April 1. But Adiyaman said that nearly 1,500 have been infected, including 1,000 in Istanbul. Seventeen health professionals have died from the virus in Istanbul, according to reports released by several trade unions. From the beginning there has been a problem with personal protective equipment, he said. Some are worried that their PPE will run out and they will not have new ones. Some are working 12-hour and 24-hour shifts, and this is causing burnout, he added. Although the government showed a 63% approval rating in a recent poll for its performance tackling the coronavirus pandemic, the rush of panic buying that occurred around the country when a curfew was abruptly announced in several major cities on April 10, gave a glimpse of growing public anxiety. Erdogans government is already short of cash and has depleted reserves shoring up the Turkish lira over the last year. With businesses closing and one of Turkeys main income earners, tourism, halted, the government has several times had to announce additional assistance for workers and businesses. The virus has already revealed the gathering strength of Erdogans opponents. Increasingly confident and active opposition politicians, including the mayors of Istanbul and Ankara Ekrem Imamoglu and Mansur Yavas have marked Erdogans every step, and have often been ahead of him in offering assistance to their constituents. The opposition mayors have forced Erdogan to provide free face masks for the entire population an added cost when the government had at first planned to have private companies sell masks to people. The government has also offered free health care for all, including for those who have not made social security contributions. Well aware of the governments economic straits, the opposition has not eased the pressure during the pandemic. If anything, it has increased its efforts to see that the people of Turkey do not lose out. The government is devastated, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the opposition Republican Peoples Party, said in an interview on a national television channel Haberturk TV. They do not know what to do. There is no money. This is the truth. c.2020 The New York Times Company Trevon Marquise Smiley, 26, of Waldorf, was standing outside of an apartment building in the 2000 block of Aldermans Place when he was shot about 2 p.m., according to the sheriffs office. He died on the way to a hospital. Our seasonal workers are sometimes forgotten by consumers, but their skills are vital in the commonwealth, Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said Tuesday at a news conference. Read more Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PennLive/Patriot-News. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter. HARRISBURG Pennsylvania is failing to adequately protect migrant farmworkers from the coronavirus, an issue that will become more critical as orchards and farms ramp up efforts to recruit laborers in the coming months, experts and advocates said. There are 360 farm labor camps in Pennsylvania that house 4,300 seasonal and guest workers most of whom are migrant laborers hired through a contractor or those with H-2A visas, according to the state in barracks-style facilities as well as motels, rooming houses, dormitories, and mobile homes. Those conditions could facilitate the spread of COVID-19 through a population that experts say is particularly vulnerable because of limited access to health care, language barriers, and a lack of clear information about disease prevention. Even if you have a permitted farm labor camp in Pennsylvania, it is more likely than not going to be overcrowded if somebody doesn't set up new requirements, said Arthur Read, an attorney with Justice at Work, a nonprofit that represents low-wage immigrant workers. Clearly, I think the reality of lots of these things is they're going to get worse before they get better. On Monday, a week after Spotlight PA began making inquiries with state officials about the concerns, the state Department of Agriculture which is responsible for permitting and inspecting these labor camps released new recommendations on employer-provided housing for workers. Our seasonal workers are sometimes forgotten by consumers, but their skills are vital in the commonwealth, Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said Tuesday at a news conference. While they are performing critical functions, we cannot forget about their health, the value they add, and their reasons for being in Pennsylvania to help us in our agricultural sector. The guidance states beds should be placed at least six feet apart, soap or hand sanitizer should be provided, and all high-contact surfaces cleaned. If the current housing unit does not allow for segregation of workers under social distancing guidelines, arrangements may be needed to secure additional housing such as rental units at motels and hotels, the guidance states. Designated areas for quarantined employees should be provided with separate sleeping, cooking, and bathing facilities. Redding said the department is asking employers to please adhere to the guidance. There is a state order that requires essential employers to provide masks and implement social distancing at worksites, which a department spokesperson said applies to farmworker housing. But the spokesperson, Shannon Powers, said any inspections by the department would be announced and triggered only if theres a worker complaint. Thats a normal procedure. No one is sitting on a farm on a daily basis watching how the farming is managed," Powers said. She said there are civil penalties outlined in existing regulations, as well as additional penalties provided for under the state order. Changes to the visa process, however, could potentially leave migrant workers without the information they need to report complaints. Amid a national shortage of farmworkers and an anticipated need for field laborers during the pandemic, the U.S. Department of State relaxed the process for temporary workers to enter the country and is no longer requiring in-person interviews at U.S. consulates in Mexico. (These workers, deemed essential, would likely not be affected by President Donald Trumps still-in-development order halting immigration.) That process, especially the interview, is critical to protecting workers, Read said. Thats when they receive information on their wage rights, a human-trafficking hotline, how to file complaints, and other resources. A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau a lobbying organization that represents 23,000 farm families said farm owners are taking steps to protect workers health, including limiting interactions, staggering lunch breaks, and making sure laborers are not near one another when working. These owners are also increasing the number of handwashing stations available, educating workers on how the virus spreads, and delivering food to limit the workers exposure to community spread, the spokesperson, Liam Migdail, said. But advocates say requirements with enforcement and penalties, not recommendations without teeth, are needed to keep these workers safe. Because there are costs involved, it helps to have some level of not just This is a good thing to do, but This is what you gotta do, said Read, the attorney with Justice at Work. Redding said the department would not provide funding to implement the recommendations. We dont see the additional cost here being prohibitive and would expect that the employers would adhere without much additional cost or difficulty, he said. Read wrote a letter to Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine in March to raise concerns about employer-provided housing, health and safety at worksites, and access to health care. Nearly a month later, he said, the state had not written back to him to acknowledge his concerns. In the letter, Read wrote of the virtual non-existence of health insurance for a significant percentage of these workers, especially for nearly all of the thousands of H-2A and H-2B temporary foreign workers who will arrive in Pennsylvania healthy, but who are in danger of contracting COVID-19 during their employment over the next 10 months. It is critical that health insurance coverage and wage loss compensation is provided for these workers either through the commonwealth or through the established workers compensation system, he wrote. While guidance released by the state earlier this month recommends paid sick leave with no penalties for food-processing workers whose union vocally called for protections similar language is not in the guidance for farmworkers, who are not unionized. While not stated here, I think that the expectation is that the employee would not be further harmed in their compensation if they are COVID-19 positive, Redding said. Caitlin Barry, a lawyer and director of the Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic at Villanova University, said that in addition to transportation issues, many migrant workers dont know if they are even able to access health care, as mobile clinics that usually provide farmworkers with services have ceased going out to the farms. In addition to the physical barriers or not being able to get to a location, there is also the psychological fear around accessing health care that a lot of farmworkers now have, Barry said. Theres a lot of fear of accessing health services. No one that I have spoken to so far knows where to go to get tested. People dont know how to access the services even to find out. Latinx migrant farmworkers have higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and other health issues, according to a 2004 legislative report by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. They also have a greater risk of lung injuries, usually associated with exposure to pesticides and fungi found in crops. All of those conditions have been flagged as high risk for severe COVID-19 complications and even death by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration is responsible for inspecting field safety and sanitation, including handwashing stations and toilets. But it has temporarily halted inspections. State agriculture officials, who are responsible for inspecting labor camps before and after a permit is issued, said their oversight will continue. In 2019, Ed Franchi, director of the Keystone Rural Health Centers Agricultural Worker Program, detailed issues with Pennsylvanias inspections of labor camps to the National Advisory Council on Migrant Health. He said the state does not have an enforcement arm to determine if a farm is housing workers and requires workers to file public records requests for inspection reports, meeting minutes show. He also noted that Pennsylvania law regarding farm labor camps had not been updated since 1996. Jessica Culley of CATA, an organization that represents low-wage migrant and immigrant workers in Southeast Pennsylvania, said the state should have more protections concerning farmworkers, especially as other inspecting bodies, like OSHA, cease inspections during the coronavirus pandemic. Its the [state] Department of Agriculture that actually monitors this and is responsible for enforcing the rules, which is really problematic just because of the nature of the relationships between folks in the [department] with farmers, she said. Barry, of the Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic, also said OSHAs decision to cease inspections might have negative consequences for farmworkers. Its not as if the monitoring of the conditions that people live and work with on farms was robust to begin with, she said. Anytime that there is going to be a restriction on services there is concern that this is going to lead to more exploitation, because people are afraid that even the limited monitoring that occurred before will now be weaker. 100% ESSENTIAL: Spotlight PA relies on funding from foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. If you value this reporting, please give a gift today at spotlightpa.org/donate. Press Trust of India Higher levels of nitrogen dioxide pollutants in the air may be associated with an increased number of deaths from COVID-19, according to a study. The research, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, combined satellite data on air pollution and air currents with confirmed deaths related to COVID-19. It revealed that regions with permanently high levels of pollution have significantly more deaths than other regions, according to the researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in Germany. Nitrogen dioxide is an air pollutant that damages the human respiratory tract, the researchers said. For many years it has been known to cause many types of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in humans, they said. "Since the novel coronavirus also affects the respiratory tract, it is reasonable to assume that there might be a correlation between air pollution and the number of deaths from COVID-19," said Yaron Ogen from MLU. The researchers combined three sets of data, including the levels of regional nitrogen dioxide pollution measured by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Sentinel 5P satellite, which continuously monitors air pollution on the Earth. Based on this data, he produced a global overview for regions with high and prolonged amounts of nitrogen dioxide pollution. "I looked at the values for January and February of this year, before the corona outbreaks in Europe began," explained Ogen. He combined this data with data from the US weather agency NOAA on vertical air flows. He explained that if air is in motion, the pollutants near the ground are also more disseminated. However, if the air tends to stay near the ground, this will also apply to the pollutants in the air, which are then more likely be inhaled by humans in greater amounts and thus lead to health problems, Ogen said. Using this data, the researcher was able to identify hotspots around the world with high levels of air pollution and simultaneously low levels of air movement. He then compared these with the data on deaths related to COVID-19, specifically analysing the data from Italy, France, Spain and Germany. He found that the regions with a high number of deaths also had particularly high levels of nitrogen dioxide and a particularly low amount of vertical air exchange. "When we look at Northern Italy, the area around Madrid, and Hubei Provence in China, for example, they all have something in common: they are surrounded by mountains. This makes it even more likely that the air in these regions is stable and pollution levels are higher," Ogen said. The advantage of the analysis, he noted, is that it is based on individual regions and does not only compare countries. "Even though we can obtain a country's average value for air pollution, this figure could vary greatly from region to region and therefore not be a reliable indicator," said Ogen. The geoscientist suspects that this persistent air pollution in the affected regions could have led to overall poorer health in the people living there, making them particularly susceptible to the virus. "However, my research on the topic is only an initial indication that there might be a correlation between the level of air pollution, air movement and the severity of the course of the corona outbreaks," said Ogen. CHICAGO, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ActiveCampaign, the leader in Customer Experience Automation, announced today that it has ranked #12 on the list of Best Software Companies, #26 for Best Product for Marketers, #48 on the list for Software for Sales and #96 on the Fastest Growing Products List. Akin to The People's Choice Awards for tech companies, G2's Best Software Awards rank the world's best software companies and products based on authentic, timely reviews from real users. ActiveCampaign earned its place on the list thanks to its customer service commitment promising excellence in value, service and trust. Its marketing and automation solutions rank highest in each category on G2 for excellence across all six attributes, including ease of use, meeting requirements, ease of doing business with, ease of setup, quality of support and ease of administration. Tech companies on the list have proven their commitment and value based on thousands of verified reviews. With over 77,000 software companies on G2, ActiveCampaign is honored to be recognized on the Best Software Companies, Best Product for Marketers and Software for Sales lists, an achievement that can only be earned through the endorsement of its customers. G2 created the lists based on data from over 1M authentic, verified customer reviews, and were written and published between January 1, 2019 - March 3, 2020. These reviews are each vetted by a G2 employee who ensures legitimacy. "This isn't a subjective list based on a few peoples' opinions," explains G2 CEO, Godard Abel. "With the highest traffic and engagement, largest selection of product and services, and highest quality data, G2 analyzes more than 4 million data points to determine which products and companies make the list." Maria Pergolino, CMO of ActiveCampaign shared, "We're very excited about the recognition from our customers via G2's reviews. It's a testament to the fulfillment of our brand promise. Now more than ever, we are here to help our customers to build relationships and meet their business goals." Related Links: ActiveCampaign's Customer Success Commitment Start a Free Trial with ActiveCampaign About ActiveCampaign ActiveCampaign's category-defining Customer Experience Automation Platform helps over 95,000 businesses in 161 countries meaningfully engage with their customers. The platform gives businesses of all sizes access to hundreds of pre-built automations that combine email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, and machine learning for powerful segmentation and personalization across social, email, messaging, chat, and text. Over 70% of ActiveCampaign's customers use its 300+ integrations including Shopify, Square, Facebook, Eventbrite, and Salesforce. ActiveCampaign scores higher in customer satisfaction than any other solution in both Marketing Automation and CRM All-In-One on G2.com. Pricing starts at just $9/month. Start a free trial at ActiveCampaign.com . Media Contact: Amy Dardinger [email protected] SOURCE ActiveCampaign Related Links http://ActiveCampaign.com On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, an annual event for people to show their support for protecting the Earth, we are also faced with a pandemic unprecedented in our lifetimes, and which requires a global response. COVID-19 spread in a matter of months across the world and has had devastating impacts, particularly on vulnerable communities. In an increasingly connected world, we feel a sense of responsibility to care for each other. The indiscriminate nature of the pandemic has resulted not only in a shared sense of suffering, but in a shared sense of caring too, regardless of where in the world you live. A better future Where does climate change fit in this context? It may not seem as urgent as the pandemic, and some may find cause for celebration in news and pictures of cities with car-free streets and clear skies. Tackling the pandemic is a critical priority for sure, but we should also consider how we can lay the building blocks for a better future for all. The science is clear; countries must take action now to transition to resilient, low-carbon pathways in order to limit global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. There is no going back, and failure to do so will result in not a new normal but a no normal. At UNDP, we are committing significant resources from our climate and sustainable development portfolio to prepare, respond, and recover, and to protect all people, especially the most vulnerable, from pandemic and disaster. How do we tackle climate change and the pandemic? One way is through UNDPs Climate Promise; our commitment to support over 100 countries to enhance their pledges under the Paris Agreement. These can provide helpful roadmaps to inform the COVID-19 recovery and support long-term change that makes economies more equitable, resilient, and driven by green growth. This Earth Day, stay home and play People everywhere are working together, and governments are taking strong and decisive action. This is a chance for us to raise our voice. There is no better time to stay home and play our mobile game Mission 1.5, to learn about the solutions to climate change and start a conversation about a sustainable future. The web-based game, available in six UN languages, was launched in February by UNDP as part of the Climate Promise, in partnership with several environmental and science NGOs, and technology partners. It is a tool for anyone to vote on climate action. UNDP will collect the votes and deliver them to world leaders. This Earth Day, we will see young climate activists fill the digital landscape with online strikes for climate action, while also calling for people to stay home and play Mission 1.5. We are seeing in the global response to the pandemic just how effectively people around the world can come together to tackle a crisis. Mission 1.5 In China, one of the largest game streaming platforms Huya, has joined the force of Mission 1.5. With 150 million unique users per month, Huya will help the mobile game reach millions of new players and educate them on ways to tackle climate change. In Turkey, a well-known gamer Ege Arseven has also joined, promoting and streaming on his Twitch platform for Earth Day. In addition to Mission 1.5, Samsung Galaxy users can easily support climate action, learn about the SDGs, and even donate to UNDP by downloading the Samsung Global Goals app from Google Play. The most exciting part of these partnerships are that these mobile game and app technology is reaching millions of people that can now make their voices heard. If there is one thing the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, it is that we are all capable of adapting. There is so much hope and evidence that working together in international solidarity in the service of the most vulnerable will meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. While healthcare workers and conscientious public officials are working tirelessly to help Americans combat the coronavirus, unscrupulous politicians and rabidly partisan advocacy groups are busy exploiting the crisis to help themselves. On April 13, the Trump campaign initiated a defamation action in the Circuit Court of Price County, Wisconsin, against a television station that repeatedly ran an outrageously false advertisement. The piece was written and produced by Super Pack Priorities USA (PUSA), a heavily-monied liberal advocacy group, whose express goal is to elect Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. In fact, according to a Washington Post story appearing last Wednesday, the Biden campaign has made it clear to donors that PUSA will be its major financial partner. To produce the advertisement, entitled Exponential Threat, PUSA used digital technology to extract two separate audio clips from a lengthy speech given by Trump during a Feb. 28 campaign rally in South Carolina. PUSA then pieced them together to fraudulently manufacture this statement: The coronavirus, this is their new hoax, referring, of course, to the Democrats. In reality, Trumps words The coronavirus were uttered a full one minute before the words this is their new hoax. To magnify the impact of the false, digitally concocted statement, the advertisement simultaneously displayed a background graphic showing the growth of COVID-19 cases in the nation between January and March of this year. Thus, courtesy of PUSAs brazen trickery, millions of television viewers were led to believe that Trump had called the coronavirus a hoax. Four Pinocchios Every fact-checking site that reviewed the advertisement, including Snopes and Politifact, labeled it false. The Washington Post, although regularly antagonistic to Trump, ran an article entitled Biden ad manipulates video to slam Trump. And the newspapers own fact-check of the advertisement gave it Four Pinocchios, its highest level of falsity. Still, the Biden campaign continued to promote the advertisement. The television station, WJFW-NBC, despite receiving a cease and desist letter from the Trump campaign on March 25, ran the advertisement 36 times over 11 days, knowing full well that it was fraudulently produced. In addition to the harm to its reputation, the Trump campaign notes that it has been forced to expend substantial funds on corrective advertisements and to otherwise publicize the fact that candidate Trump did not refer to the very real and very serious coronavirus as a hoax. If the Trump campaign were to win this lawsuit, the American people would be winners too. For what PUSA did here, and what WJFW-NBC and Biden perpetuated, epitomize the worst of the worst in todays politics. This advertisement wasnt just an exaggeration or puffery; it wasnt even a gross exaggeration or shameless puffery; it was a willful, malicious, contemptible fraud, cunningly calculated to profit the evildoers by fooling the American people. Landmark ruling Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Courts 1964 landmark ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan and its progeny have created a near-impossible hurdle for public figures to overcome in pursuing defamation claims. And it likely dooms the Trump campaigns suit too. The case involved a full-page advertisement signed by various civil rights leaders and published in the New York Times. Accusing police in Montgomery, Ala. of conducting an unprecedented wave of terror against peaceful demonstrators, it was riddle with factual errors. For instance, it falsely accused police of padlocking a college dining hall in an attempt to starve students. L.B. Sullivan, the Montgomery Public Safety Commissioner, brought a libel action against the Times and four individuals mentioned in the advertisement. Although a jury awarded him $500,000 in damages, the Supreme Court overturned the judgment. The unanimous ruling cited this countrys profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open. This, the court reasoned, was superior to the right of public officials to be free from unfair, unwarranted, and even downright false accusations. Thus, in order to prevail, a public-figure plaintiff must prove actual malice, a concept whose elements as interpreted over the years are extremely stringent. Given that Trump may well be the most public of public figures in the entire world, his chances of winning this lawsuit are close to zero. The cutthroat lies and deceit that permeate American politics today are the legacy of New York Times v. Sullivan. If the ruling is construed to bar Trumps lawsuit over a digitally contrived fraud, it will deepen that legacy by making todays political climate even more toxic than it already is if thats possible. Daniel Leddys column On the Law appears weekly. Follow him on Twitter. His email address is column@danielleddylaw.com. Many stores are closed and others are essentially empty in the City of Worthington in Columbus, Ohio, on March 17, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Main Street Bailout Rewards US Restaurant Chains, Firms in Rural States WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCOOver two frantic weeks, the U.S. government pledged $350 billion to Main Street businesses across the United States desperate for cash following CCP virus-related lockdowns. Now a picture is emerging of who got the money. More than 25 percent of the total pot went to fewer than 2 percent of the firms that got relief. They include a number of publicly traded companies, with thousands of employees and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales. The loans from the U.S. Small Business Administrationtotaling $342.3 billion as of April 16went to companies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories, and were spread across all 20 of the main industry sectors. Congress directed the SBA to award $349 billion to struggling businesses with 500 or fewer workers as part of a $2.3 trillion coronavirus aid package that President Donald Trump signed into law on March 27. The Payroll Protection Program (PPP) was crafted to keep Americans off unemployment benefits, by giving small and mid-sized companies forgivable loans for keeping employees on the books. The SBA doesnt make the loans directly, but instead backs loans made by participating in financial firms. The three biggest state economiesCalifornia, Texas, and New Yorkaccounted for 23 percent of the loans, more than $82 billion. Meanwhile, businesses in a number of small, rural states that have avoided the brunt of the outbreak of the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, took home a disproportionate share of the pie. The business sector receiving the most money was construction, with 13 percent of the total. The sector represents less than 9 percent of overall employment among U.S. firms with 500 or fewer employees, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2017, the latest available. Companies on the front line of the virusin the accommodation and food services sectorreceived about 9 percent of the pot while representing nearly 14 percent of workers among sub-500-person firms. Main Street? Wall Street? Loans of $2 million or more made up nearly 28 percent of the total, and those of at least $5 million accounted for 9 percent, with a number of those going to companies with access to public securities markets. At least 60 publicly traded firms have claimed a share of the total, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Theres no prohibition in the CARES Act against money going to publicly listed firms. Someincluding the holding companies for well-known restaurant chains Shake Shack and Ruths Chris Steak Houseappear to have taken advantage of a provision in the CARES Act that allows companies with more than 500 workers overall to get loans. The exemption allows businesses in the accommodation and food services industry to participate as long as they dont exceed 500 employees per physical location. Shake Shack Inc., Ruth Hospitality Group Inc., Potbelly Corp., and Fiesta Restaurant Groups Texas Taco Cabana all borrowed $10 million under the program through JP Morgan Chase & Co., SEC filings show. Hallador Energy Co., which operates coal mines, received $10 million from First Financial Bank. All have more than 500 employees. Shake Shack has closed 63 of its 120 locations worldwide and furloughed or laid off more than 1,000 employees after sales fell about 29 percent in March, it said in a filing April 17. It was unclear how many of its 100 U.S. stores remain open, but filings showed that it employed 7,600 at the end of 2019. The company, which generated $595 million in sales and a $20 million net profit in 2019, said it will continue to pay all general managers and cover all employees health insurance. Texas Taco Cabana operates 164 outlets from Houston to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fiesta, which also runs a chain of chicken restaurants in Florida and posted $661 million in sales last year and a net loss of $84.4 million, employed 10,480 at the end of 2019. It didnt immediately respond to an inquiry about the number of employees that would be covered under the loan. Potbelly had 474 shops in 32 states, including 48 franchisees, and employed 6,000 people at the end of 2019, filings showed. While sales last year totaled $410 million, it posted a net loss of $24 million. Every penny will be used to financially support the employees in our shops, said Matt Revord, Potbellys chief people officer. Hallador employed 768 as of February 2020, its filings showed. It didnt immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Small States, Big Wins With the PPP funds depleted as of this week, further aid has stalled in Congress amid a partisan dispute over support for state governments and hospitals. The economic pain of CCP virus-related shutdowns has been felt throughout the country. The SBAs loans appeared to reach a greater proportion of businesses in Republican-leaning states that have imposed the lightest restrictions on business and have had relatively few confirmed virus cases. SBA awarded 583 loans for every 1,000 businesses in North Dakota, according to a Reuters analysis of SBA and Census Bureau data. In California, SBA loans reached 149 of every 1,000 businesses. The SBA hasnt released data on the number of firms seeking loans, either overall or in each state, so its unclear what contributed to the higher proportion of businesses in so-called red states getting loans. Im hard-pressed not to think this is political. Blue states like California got a pathetic number of loans issued, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said on Twitter. Others said the disparity was due to the different types of lenders involved. Smaller banks, which have a greater presence in rural areas, were ready when SBA launched the program on April 3, while many larger banks and nonbank lenders werent able to participate until the following week. The bankers here, they know the farmer, they know the barber, they know the cafe owner, said Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), where SBA loans reached 558 of every 1,000 businesses. By Andy Sullivan & Howard Schneider. The Epoch Times contributed to this report. Advertisement The UK faces tough coronavirus curbs until 2021 amid claims Boris Johnson's personal battle with the disease has made him 'tentative' about lifting lockdown. Tories have suggested the PM is 'frightened' of taking chances with the deadly virus after his own close call, despite fears the economic havoc might prove even more damaging to public health. The pressure is intensifying on ministers to plot a way out of the crisis, but divisions have emerged between cautious 'doves' and 'hawks' who believe the NHS has capacity and would prefer to loosen the draconian social distancing measures earlier. The PM has intervened from his recuperation at Chequers to snuff out speculation about an imminent easing, with Downing Street making clear his priority is avoiding a 'second peak' in the outbreak. There are reports Mr Johnson's close circle has stopped using the phrase 'exit strategy' and instead wants to signal a 'next phase' of lockdown, with varying levels of restrictions set to continue for the rest of the year until the outbreak dwindles altogether or a vaccine is found. The 'doves' have been supported by grim behind-the-scenes warnings from scientists, who have advised that control of the outbreak is still so uncertain that even slight changes to the curbs on normal life could result in a disastrous flare-up. In other developments today: Official figures showed there were 12,516 deaths involving Covid-19 in England up to April 10 (and which were registered up to April 18), significantly higher than the 10,260 deaths in hospitals in England for the same period; An RAF plane sent to collect crucial PPE for the NHS from Turkey still has not start its return journey with ministers admitting it might be 'days' before the supplied arrive; The House of Commons is returning from Easter recess, but only to approve a 'virtual' Parliament that will kick off tomorrow. How members of the cabinet are currently split over the ending of the lockdown. Mr Johnson (top left) and Matt Hancock (bottom left) are classed as 'doves'; Michael Gove, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak (right, top-to-bottom) as 'hawks'; and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (top centre) is among those in the middle, with Gavin Williamson (centre) and Alok Sharma (centre bottom) Easing coronavirus restrictions will lead to a resurgence of the illness and 'we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living', WHO warns The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of the illness. The warning comes as governments across the world start rolling out plans to get their economies up and running again. Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said: 'This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future.' He said governments must remain vigilant to stop the spread of the virus and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. Despite concerns from health officials, some US states have announced aggressive reopening plans, while Boeing and at least one other American heavy-equipment manufacturer resumed production. Elsewhere around the world, step-by-step reopenings are under way in Europe, where the crisis has begun to ebb in places such as Italy, Spain and Germany. Advertisement There is no prospect of lockdown measures being eased before the current period comes to an end on May 11. However, some senior Tories have been pushing plans for an easing soon afterwards, pointing out that the NHS is still below surge capacity and could 'run hot' to limit the economic meltdown. Before his illness there were rumours Mr Johnson was alarmed about the devastation being wrought on UK plc. However, the premier, who was released from hospital a week ago, is now seen as aligned with the Cabinet 'doves' cautious about shifting too early. Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who also contracted coronavirus, is also urging a safety-first approach, regarding a second wave of the virus as more dangerous than the impact of lockdown. Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Trade Secretary Liz Truss, and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove are thought to be more hawkish about the need to ease restrictions sooner - although they have been toeing the line in public. Downing Street has been furiously playing down hints that schools could partly reopen in the middle of next month, with June now looking the earliest timetable. Government scientists have been warning that the situation is currently so finely balanced that even marginal loosenings could have disastrous effects, One Cabinet source told the Guardian the government's advisers on Sage had suggested any easing would push up the rate of transmission - known as R. The source said: 'The scientists are very clear. There's no loosening of measures we can do that won't bring the R back over 1. 'There may be some small changes on their own that could do it, but the question is whether behaviours change in other ways and push the R above 1. 'The second you have the R above one then you're back to exponential growth. 'We did have an R of about 3. And we've driven that down. But even a small increase in transmission could put you above 1.' Amid calls from senior Tories for the government to spell out an exit strategy, one MP told The Times that fighting for his life in intensive care had changed Mr Johnson. The MP said: 'The Prime Minister is in a funny place, I think he's quite frightened. His illness and the warning from the doctors has really hit him hard. 'To find himself floored like this has really got into his head. He has become really tentative.' There are growing signs that Mr Johnson could be back in action soon, with Downing Street confirming he is now receiving daily updates and speaking to deputy Dominic Raab by phone - although he is still not doing official work. While there are some ministers taking stronger positions either way, the bulk of the Cabinet - including Mr Raab - are content to wait for more evidence. Scientists have been asked to present options for the lockdown by the end of the month. The UK yesterday announced 449 more coronavirus deaths - the fewest for a fortnight - taking Britain's total death toll to 16,509. The death toll for Monday was a fall on the 596 fatalities announced on Sunday, and half as many as the day before that (888). It was the lowest number for a fortnight, since April 6 when 439 victims were confirmed. Although the statistics are known to drop after a weekend, the sharp fall adds to evidence that the peak of the UK's epidemic has blown over. A leading expert at the University of Oxford argued yesterday that the peak was actually about a month ago, a week before lockdown started on March 23, and that the draconian measures people are now living with were unnecessary. Professor Carl Heneghan claims data shows infection rates halved after the Government launched a public information campaign on March 16 urging people to wash their hands and keep two metres (6'6') away from others. He said ministers 'lost sight' of the evidence and rushed into a nationwide quarantine six days later after being instructed by scientific advisers who he claims have been 'consistently wrong' during the crisis. Professor Heneghan hailed Sweden - which has not enforced a lockdown despite fierce criticism - for 'holding its nerve' and avoiding a 'doomsday scenario'. The country has recorded just 392 new patients and 40 deaths today, approximately 10 per cent of the UK's figures. Britain's diagnoses have not been announced yet. In separate research, the Oxford professor said he estimates that the true death rate among people who catch the virus is between 0.1 and 0.36 per cent, considerably lower than the 13 per cent currently playing out in the UK. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 03:12:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A man wearing a face mask walks in Milan, Italy, on April 18, 2020. (Xinhua) -- Total active COVID-19 infections in Italy drop for first time; -- France's COVID-19 deaths top 20,000; -- Coronavirus cases in Spain top 200,000; -- Portugal creates Biobank to study COVID-19. BRUSSELS, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries. ROME -- The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 24,114 lives in locked-down Italy as total active infections fell for the first time since the pandemic broke out in the northern regions on Feb. 21, according to the latest data released Monday by the country's Civil Protection Department. Addressing a televised press conference, Civil Protection Department Chief Angelo Borrelli said 454 new fatalities were registered over the past 24 hours. At the same time, a positive signal came from statistics of active infections, which decreased by 20 cases on Monday compared to the previous day, and totalled 108,237 nationwide. Medical workers plan the care work for COVID-19 patients at Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, April 13, 2020. (Vall d'Hebron Hospital/Handout via Xinhua) MADRID -- The cumulative number of coronavirus infection cases in Spain surpassed the 200,000 mark, while the daily number of new deaths dropped to 399, the health ministry said on Monday. Spain's COVID-19 cases rose from 195,944 cases on Sunday to 200,210 on Monday, the ministry said. Monday's death toll is the lowest registered in the past four weeks, in a sign that the coronavirus pandemic in Spain was slowing down thanks to one of the toughest lockdown measures. A medical worker gets free food from a food truck in Paris, France, April 15, 2020. (PSG/Handout via Xinhua) PARIS -- France has registered 20,265 COVID-19 deaths since March 1, becoming the fourth country to surpass 20,000 COVID-19 deaths after the United States, Italy and Spain, Director-General of Health Jerome Salomon announced on Monday. "Our country crossed a symbolic and particularly painful threshold," said Salomon at the daily briefing on the outbreak. Few people are seen on the square near the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, April 16, 2020. (Photo by Ulrich Hufnagel/Xinhua) BERLIN -- Germany reported 1,775 new cases of COVID-19 infection in the past 24 hours, raising the country's cumulative number of infection to 141,672, fresh figures showed on Monday. A further 110 patients had died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 4,404, according to figures released by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention. Germany has staggered the rest of the world with an impressively low "case fatality rate," which is the number of deaths divided by the total number of confirmed cases. A man plays cards at a temporary shelter converted from a school gym for the homeless at Cascais near Lisbon, Portugal, April 17, 2020. (Photo by Pedro Fiuza/Xinhua) LISBON -- The Portuguese Joao Lobo Antunes Institute of Molecular Medicine has created a Biobank to study COVID-19. By storing biological samples from patients diagnosed with the disease in the country the aim is to create a database that will enable experts to understand why people react differently to the new coronavirus. "We started a collection because we feel that there is a great interest in characterizing the immune response of different patients to infection by COVID-19," Sergio Dias, co-director of the Biobank and responsible for the initiative, told Xinhua. "What we intend to do is create a repository of samples from COVID-19 patients, accompanied by respective clinical information, which can later be used in studies of immunological characterization of the response to COVID-19," he explained. Staff members load a chartered flight of Xiamen Airlines with medical supplies to be delivered to the Netherlands, in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, April 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Haobo) THE HAGUE -- Dutch Minister for Medical Care Martin van Rijn personally welcomed an aircraft from China with 800,000 face masks for medical personnel at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on Monday morning. The protective equipment against the novel coronavirus arrived via a Boeing 747 from Shanghai. It was the first flight of an airbridge between the Netherlands and China for the transport of medical equipment and masks. In total, 6 million face masks are expected to arrive from China in the forthcoming days. "Great news that there is now an airbridge for protective equipment with China," Van Rijn said on Twitter. "The first flight of this was welcomed last night at Schiphol with hundreds of thousands of masks, 30,000 coats and 30,000 safety glasses. More will follow in the coming days, including millions of masks." While Gov. Gavin Newsom released a six-point plan for lifting the stay-at-home order in California last week, both Santa Barbara County and the city have struggled to determine how the vague guidelines can be molded to fit the specific needs of communities, as well as what businesses qualify as essential to reopen. Sindhudurg : , April 21 (IANS) Prime Minister of Ireland, (Dr.) Leo Varadkar on Tuesday issued a special message to the people of the Varad village in Malvan, Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra and the people of India, expressing his concerns as this country grapples with the COVID-19 epidemic. "Hello, everyone! I want to send this very special message to the people of Varad, Malvan in Maharashtra and everyone across India," Varadkar said in a warm greeting to the people of his ancestral village which he visited in December 2019. Drawing comparisons, the Irish Prime Minister said that both the people of India and the people of Ireland are trying to deal with the enormous challenges posed the coronavirus pandemic. "Like in India, the Irish have been subjected to a lot of restrictions, social restrictions, designed to ensure that the virus doesn't spread. I know how difficult that is in India as well as Ireland," said Varadkar, 41. His cousin Shubhada Varadkar said he regularly keeps enquiring after everybody in the family, his relatives in Varad village and Mumbai. "He is perhaps the only world leader who is also now a health worker. He consults many patients on phone, anybody in Ireland is free to call him up anytime," Shubhada Varadkar told IANS. Admitting that the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting every country, though in different ways, Varadkar said Ireland is ramping up testing, contact tracing, trying to develop new vaccines, new medicines and also making efforts to protect the country's healthcare staff from getting infected. "I know this is going to be extra difficult around the world, not only on our health but also on our economy. But history tells us that any plague can be overcome, any pandemic beaten and any virus put back in its box," asserted Varadkar on an optimistic note. Another cousin Shekhar Varadkar said that the Irish Prime Minister is well aware of the pandemic situation in India and particularly Maharashtra, which is now the worst-hit state in the country with 232 deaths and 4,666 positive cases. In comparison, Ireland's total population is around 6.50 million -- around one-third of Mumbai's 18 million. Until April 20, Ireland notched 687 Covid-19 deaths and 15,652 patients. Luckily, Sindhudurg district has remained virtually unscathted with only one positive case till date and no casualties. Undeterred, Prime Minister Varadkar pointed out how global economies, even when they are dealt with a very severe blow, have recovered again "if governments make the right decisions and people work hard". "I want you to know that my thoughts and prayers, and those of the people of Ireland are with the people of India as well," Varadkar concluded on a note of hope. In the Christmas-New Year week of December 2019, the Irish PM and his family made a private visit to India -- sans and VVIP trappings or protocol. First, he spent a night in Goa and then drove down for his maiden trip to his 80-year old father Ashok Varadkara's picturesque native village to spend a couple of days there as a commoner in Varad, interacted with the villagers and gorged on the Konkani cuisine. Varad is close to Goa, around 525 kms south of Mumbai, where the Varadkars enjoyed an extended Christmas and celebrated New Year 2020 in advance with the 3,500 village folk. Varadkar took over as the 14th Prime Minister or 'Taoiseach' of Ireland in June 2017, and for the Covid-19 pandemic, renewed his medical licence to concurrently serve as a healthcare worker. (Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in) Burma One Death and 50 COVID-19 Infections Reported Among Myanmar Migrants in Malaysia The COVID-19 ward at Kuala Lumpur Hospital in Malaysia this month. / REUTERS Yangon Fifty migrants from Myanmar in Malaysia have tested positive with COVID-19 and one has died, according to the embassy in Kuala Lumpur. U Aung Zaw Min, Myanmars labor attache in Malaysia, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the figures came from the Malaysian health ministry. No information was given about individuals, he said. One of the patients died yesterday, said U Aung Zaw Min. He said all embassies in Malaysia had closed last month after an instruction from Malaysias Foreign Affairs Ministry. The Malaysian Health Ministrys director-general Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah said 28 COVID-19 patients, including a 36-year-old from Myanmar, died with coronavirus linked to the area around Kuala Lumpurs wholesale market, which was recently placed under a movement-control order. Many migrants from Myanmar are facing hardships after losing their income due to the factory closures, said U San Win, chairman of the Kathpone Free Funeral Service Society in Kuala Lumpur. He told The Irrawaddy that Myanmar civil society organizations in Malaysia were supplying food to migrants and requesting travel permission from the Malaysian authorities with recommendation letters from Myanmars Embassy. By April 21, Malaysia has reported 5,425 COVID-19 cases, including 80 deaths and 3,295 patients who had recovered. More than 500,000 migrant workers from Myanmar, including undocumented workers, are estimated to be working in Malaysia, according to Myanmar migrant rights groups. The Thai-based Myanmar Labor Hittai news report said 17 Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand tested positive with COVID-19, while the country has reported 2,811 cases. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Workforce Promised Govt Payments During COVID-19 Factory Closures Myanmars Shan State Imposes COVID-19 Curfew Advertisement Patients are being turned away from the new 4,000-bed NHS Nightingale hospital in London due to a lack of nurses, it has been claimed today. The field hospital at the ExCeL Centre has been unable to accept around 50 coronavirus patients needing 'life or death' care since it opened on April 7. Thirty of those were transfers from existing London hospitals that were not able to go ahead because of nursing staff shortages, reports The Guardian. So far the Docklands site has only had 41 patients through its doors, including four who have died, seven who have been downgraded to less critical care and 30 still being looked after. With thousands of beds empty, there has been increasing concern among London hospital managers that the Nightingale is becoming a 'white elephant' and taking away vital resources from other neighbouring sites. Dozens of patients have been turned away from the NHS Nightingale Hospital in east London (pictured) due a lack of critical care nurses, it was claimed today A hospital bed and a respirator are pictured inside the ExCeL centre in London, where just 41 patients have been treated for the deadly virus so far As concerns continue to grow due to the lack of nurses and vital PPE: A delayed RAF plane finally lands in Britain with just half of the PPE promised because it's too small to carry full load of 84 tons Top civil servant has been forced into embarrassing U-turn after claiming ministers made a 'political decision' to snub EU schemes to buy PPE Dozens of homeless people sleep at a deserted Heathrow airport after being stranded Health Secretary Matt Hancock vowed not to compromise the national effort against the disease Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey warns against easing social distancing too early and says 'false start' could damage the economy more Home listings drop by 82 per cent on average across UK as coronavirus puts property market into the deep freeze NHS documents seen by The Guardian claim there has been difficulty recruiting nurses who are normally based at other hospitals. How many nightingale hospitals are being built and which are open? NHS England has announced seven temporary hospitals to aid in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. The hospitals are in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Harrogate, Exeter and Tyne and Wear. The London hospital was opened by Prince Charles via video link nearly two weeks ago and has started receiving patients. The Manchester facility located in the main central hall of the former Manchester Central railway station, is equipped to take 750 coronavirus patients and opened today. It does not currently have any patients. The Birmingham hospital set up in the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is also now available to take patients, and has a 500 bed capacity, that can be increased to 1,500 if necessary. It has not yet been confirmed if it has any patients. The Exeter and Tyne and Wear sites are both expected to be open in late April or early May and will add up to 700 beds. There will also be one at the University of the West of England, Bristol able to look after up to 1,000 patients while the one at the Harrogate Convention centre will be able to care for up to 500. They are both currently under construction. Advertisement One member of staff said: 'There are plenty of people working here, including plenty of doctors. But there aren't enough critical care nurses. They're already working in other hospitals and being run ragged there. 'There aren't spare people [specialist nurses] around to do this. That's the problem.' Boris Johnson paid special tribute to the two critical care nurses that stayed by his bedside while he was at the Guys and St Thomas's intensive care unit fighting off the virus. He claimed he would not have survived without them. Another 20 COVID-19 patients have also been rejected by the Nightingale because they were 'too unwell', the documents reveal. The Nightingale sites nationwide were designed to take pressure away from existing hospitals by treating those in need of critical care. A huge amount of public resources was poured into the pioneering London site, with 200 military personnel helping to transform the exhibition centre in just nine days. If it were to reach full capacity, more than 16,000 staff would be needed to run it. But Boris Johnson and his team have repeatedly stressed that the Nightingales are only contingency facilities, which if they remain empty as they are now are a sign that NHS strategic planning is working. The revelation comes after Matt Hancock last night insisted the coronavirus lockdown must stay until there is no risk of a second peak - as scientists warned the outbreak might not be fading. The Health Secretary vowed not to compromise the national effort against the disease as Professor Jonathan Van-Tam told the daily Downing Street briefing that while hospital occupancy rates had dipped in in London the picture in other parts of the UK was 'more of a plateau'. The figures - along with another 828 deaths being declared in the UK - add weight to the arguments of those who want to err on the side of caution despite the devastation being wreaked on the economy. Divisions have emerged between Cabinet 'doves' such as Mr Hancock and 'hawks' who believe the NHS has capacity and would prefer to loosen the draconian social distancing measures earlier. Public Health England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has also said that if hospitals like the London Nightingale end up with more ICU beds than needed then it 'will be a success'. Earlier this month, NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said the Nightingale London has not been used because 30,000 beds have been freed up at other nearby hospitals. He said in a statement: 'We have not yet had to make extensive use of the Nightingale London thanks to the hard work of NHS staff who have freed up more than 30,000 existing hospital beds and the public, who have played their part by staying at home and saving lives. 'It will count as a huge success for the whole country if we never need to use them but with further waves of coronavirus possible it is important that we have these extra facilities in place and treating patients.' A sea of unused beds are pictured inside the field hospital in the London Docklands The ExCeL site is pictured on March 27 during construction. The Nightingale Hospital was built in just nine days A worker at the ExCel London, during its conversion into the temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital But one senior intensive care doctor told the Guardian: 'The Nightingale is clearly not a hospital. It's an emergency overflow facility to ventilate patients to stop them from dying when hospitals have run out of space.' An NHS London spokesman told MailOnline: 'The most important point about staff at the Nightingale is that thanks to their care and expertise, patients in that hospital are being successfully treated, discharged and ultimately having their life saved. 'There remains spare capacity in the critical care network across the capital to look after all coronavirus patients and others who need our care, and while it is incredibly reassuring for both staff and patients to have backup capacity at the Nightingale to alleviate pressure on ICU departments where needed, patients can be transferred to other hospitals in the city if they are better placed to receive them at that time as is always the case.' And a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'This story is incredibly misleading - there is no shortage of nurses and all coronavirus patients who need treatment are being treated in existing London hospitals. 'NHS Nightingale has been set up to treat patients if the NHS was overwhelmed, but thanks to the great work of selfless NHS staff, there is spare capacity in existing London hospitals. 'NHS Nightingale's staffing model was always designed to be flexible based on demand across London. Nurses working across the city in other roles have received critical care training and are ready to be deployed to NHS Nightingale to treat coronavirus patients should capacity be reached in existing London hospitals.' Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey warns against easing social distancing too early and says the psychological effects of a 'false start' that forces Britons back into lockdown could damage economy more Andrew Bailey told the Daily Mail a premature end to restrictions could result in a loss of confidence The Bank of England governor issued the stark warning at a time of increasingly heated debate over lockdown It comes as 'hawks' have been advocating for early easing of restrictions to save the huge costs to economy On the other side, 'doves' argue relaxing constraints too early would be reckless and devastating for the NHS The governor of the Bank of England today issues a stark warning that Britain should be cautious about lifting the coronavirus lockdown too early. In his first interview since taking the top job, Andrew Bailey told the Daily Mail that a premature end to the restrictions could cause a severe loss of confidence and inflict further damage on the economy. 'I think we have to be careful when thinking about human psychology,' he said. 'If we had a lifting and then [lockdown] came back again, I think that would damage people's confidence very severely. 'If we have a false start... that would have potentially quite difficult effects I think.' The new governor's stern intervention comes at a time of increasingly heated debate over how soon the lockdown can be lifted. 'Hawks' advocating an early easing of restrictions point to the huge costs to the economy of remaining in a deep freeze. In his first interview since taking the top job, Andrew Bailey (pictured) told the Daily Mail that a premature end to the restrictions could cause a severe loss of confidence and inflict further damage on the economy But on the other side, 'doves' argue that relaxing the constraints too early would be reckless and could lead to a devastating second wave of infection which would hit an enfeebled economy even harder. Mr Bailey's stance puts him at odds with one of his predecessors, Mervyn King, who was at the helm of the Bank during the financial crisis in 2008. Lord King said recently that young people would question why their futures were being put at stake 'to help prolong the life expectancy of older people' and that they might rebel if curbs are in place for too long. But Mr Bailey, who took over as governor in the middle of last month, said: 'I would apply slight caution to the Mervyn King line, which I have read and seen when he has been on television.' He added that before the lockdown is lifted, employers need to ensure that their staff are not being put at risk in offices or when travelling to work. Mr Bailey said: 'As an employer and we have this at the Bank of England you have to be able to answer the questions for your staff: is it safe to come to work? 'And what constitutes being safe, not just for people when they are in the building but travelling to and from the building?' The governor is splitting his time between working at the Bank on Threadneedle Street in the heart of the City and his family home in Kent. A mounted police officer was pictured speaking to dog walkers on Primrose Hill on Tuesday, April 14. Police have ramped up measures to ensure those out for their daily exercise maintain social distancing 'It is weird going in the building with almost nobody in it,' he said. 'Most of our operations are running from people's homes, including some very big and novel ones.' These include a multi-billion pound scheme to lend money to large businesses. The governor said that not enough finance has got through to small firms under the bailout loan programme set up by Chancellor Rishi Sunak. Only around 2billion has been lent to UK firms under the Covid Business Interruption Loan scheme far less than in countries such as the US, Switzerland and Germany. Mr Bailey said there are a number of 'bottlenecks' in the system. These have been created because the banks are finding it hard to deal with a huge surge in demand for loans at a time when many of their own staff are sick or self-isolating, he said. Lenders are also struggling to assess how big a risk there is that small firms will not be able to repay any loans they are given. Mr Bailey said: 'This gums up the operational side. It is clearly not satisfactory and [the system] clearly needs to be un-gummed. 'I gee up the banks regularly. The Chancellor and I are both extremely keen that credit flows to firms.' He added that he is watching closely to make sure the banks do not repeat the mistakes they made in the meltdown of 2008. Following that crisis, relations soured between many firms and the banks, who were accused of exploiting their customers' misery by charging them high fees or seizing their assets at knockdown prices. 'I know from a painful past that lending to small firms is not easy,' he said. 'I am very keen, very sensitive that we don't get back into a situation we are still trying to clear up after the last crisis. 'The last thing we need is a re-run of those problems.' The governor said UK banks now have much stronger balance sheets than they did in the run-up to the financial crisis. But he admitted they had not been stress tested to see if they could withstand a deadly pandemic like Covid-19. He said that the Bank would report on how resilient lenders are next month. He conceded that if the pandemic is worse than expected, they could buckle under the strain. 'Yes, there is a breaking point in any system, we can't deny that,' Mr Bailey added. Matt 'the dove' Hancock holds out no hope of end to lockdown as depressing death and infection charts stay obstinately high - and Boris Johnson sides with ministers pushing for restrictions to stay, possibly for months by James Tapsfield Political Editor for MailOnline Matt Hancock last night insisted the coronavirus lockdown must stay until there is no risk of a second peak - as scientists warned the outbreak might not be fading. The Health Secretary vowed not to compromise the national effort against the disease as Professor Jonathan Van-Tam told the daily Downing Street briefing that while hospital occupancy rates had dipped in in London the picture in other parts of the UK was 'more of a plateau'. The figures - along with another 828 deaths being declared in the UK - add weight to the arguments of those who want to err on the side of caution despite the devastation being wreaked on the economy. Divisions have emerged between Cabinet 'doves' such as Mr Hancock and 'hawks' who believe the NHS has capacity and would prefer to loosen the draconian social distancing measures earlier. The PM has intervened from his recuperation at Chequers to snuff out speculation about an imminent easing, with Downing Street making clear his priority is avoiding a 'second peak' in the outbreak. There are reports Mr Johnson's inner circle has stopped using the phrase 'exit strategy' and instead wants to signal a 'next phase' of lockdown, with varying levels of restrictions set to continue for the rest of the year until the virus gets 'close to eradication' or a vaccine is found. Australia has successfully suppressed cases to very low numbers. Scientists have been telling ministers behind the scenes that control of the outbreak is still so uncertain that even slight changes to the curbs on normal life could result in a disastrous flare-up. Mr Hancock said tonight: 'We have been clear that we will not risk lives by relaxing the social distancing rules before our five tests have been met. 'First, that the NHS can continue to cope, second, that the operational challenges can be met, third, that the daily death rate falls sustainably and consistently, fourth, that the rate of infection is decreasing, and most importantly, that there is no risk of a second peak.' Deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof Van-Tam said: 'It is not absolutely clear that there have been peaks, nor is it absolutely clear that the number of cases is dropping.' He warned that meant 'we must keep pushing' on social distancing. In other developments today: The UK has announced another 828 deaths from the coronavirus today, taking Britain's total number of victims to 17,337. Although the rise in fatalities is the biggest since Saturday, April 18 (888), and almost double the number that were announced yesterday (449), it does not necessarily mean the outbreak is getting worse because the deaths are backdated; Official figures suggest the true number of coronavirus victims in the UK may be 41 per cent higher than previously announced. Mortality data released by the ONS imply the death toll might be closer to 23,000 up to April 10; Mr Johnson appears to be gearing up to take back the reins of government, speaking to Donald Trump on the phone today, although Downing Street insisted he is not doing any 'official work'; An RAF plane sent to collect crucial PPE for the NHS from Turkey still has not started its return journey with ministers admitting it might be 'days' before the supplied arrive; The House of Commons has returned from its Easter recess, but only to approve a 'virtual' Parliament that will kick off tomorrow. How members of the cabinet are currently split over the ending of the lockdown. Mr Johnson (top left) and Matt Hancock (bottom left) are classed as 'doves'; Michael Gove, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak (right, top-to-bottom) as 'hawks'; and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (top centre) is among those in the middle, with Gavin Williamson (centre) and Alok Sharma (centre bottom) Professor Jonathan Van-Tam told the daily Downing Street briefing that while hospital occupancy rates had dipped in in London the picture in other parts of the UK was 'more of a plateau' Deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof Van-Tam (left) said the stubborn level of hospital admissions meant 'we must keep pushing' on social distancing. Health Secretary Matt Hancock reiterated at the update that the lockdown will not be relaxed until there is 'no risk of a second peak' Easing coronavirus restrictions will lead to a resurgence of the illness and 'we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living', WHO warns The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of the illness. The warning comes as governments across the world start rolling out plans to get their economies up and running again. Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said: 'This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future.' He said governments must remain vigilant to stop the spread of the virus and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. Despite concerns from health officials, some US states have announced aggressive reopening plans, while Boeing and at least one other American heavy-equipment manufacturer resumed production. Elsewhere around the world, step-by-step reopenings are under way in Europe, where the crisis has begun to ebb in places such as Italy, Spain and Germany. Advertisement There is no prospect of lockdown measures being eased before the current period comes to an end on May 11. However, some senior Tories have been pushing plans for an easing soon afterwards, pointing out that the NHS is still below surge capacity and could 'run hot' to limit the economic meltdown. Before his illness there were rumours Mr Johnson was alarmed about the devastation being wrought on UK plc. However, the premier, who was released from hospital a week ago, is now seen as aligned with the Cabinet 'doves' cautious about shifting too early. According to the Times, Mr Johnson is thought to be leaning towards 'a longer lockdown that aims to drive the virus close to eradication, allowing occasional flare-ups to be isolated and shut down through testing and contact tracing'. Mr Hancock, who also contracted coronavirus, is also urging a safety-first approach, regarding a second wave of the virus as more dangerous than the impact of lockdown. Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Trade Secretary Liz Truss, and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove are thought to be more hawkish about the need to ease restrictions sooner - although they have been toeing the line in public. Downing Street has been furiously playing down hints that schools could partly reopen in the middle of next month, with June now looking the earliest timetable. Government scientists have been warning that the situation is currently so finely balanced that even marginal loosenings could have disastrous effects, One Cabinet source told the Guardian the government's advisers on Sage had suggested any easing would push up the rate of transmission - known as R. The source said: 'The scientists are very clear. There's no loosening of measures we can do that won't bring the R back over 1. 'There may be some small changes on their own that could do it, but the question is whether behaviours change in other ways and push the R above 1. 'The second you have the R above one then you're back to exponential growth. 'We did have an R of about 3. And we've driven that down. But even a small increase in transmission could put you above 1.' Matt Hancock 'lined up as fall guy' for government coronavirus failures Matt Hancock is being lined up as the 'fall guy' for the government's coronavirus failures, it was claimed today, as the Health Secretary faced growing criticism over his 100,000 daily testing target. Mr Hancock has been one of the government's most visible ministers during the outbreak after returning to the frontline following his own battle with the disease. But he is under increasing pressure from critics who have questioned the wisdom of promising to increase the number of tests to six figures a day by the end of this month. They have also attacked Mr Hancock over his handling of PPE shortages which have seen doctors, nurses and care home staff blast the government for failing to do enough to keep them safe. Government inside sources said Mr Hancock has 'not had a good crisis' while a former Cabinet minister said some in Whitehall believe the Health Secretary had developed 'a sort of Messiah complex'. Some now expect Mr Hancock to be moved from the Department of Health before a widely-anticipated future inquiry is held into the government's response to the outbreak. Advertisement Amid calls from senior Tories for the government to spell out an exit strategy, one MP told The Times that fighting for his life in intensive care had changed Mr Johnson. The MP said: 'The Prime Minister is in a funny place, I think he's quite frightened. His illness and the warning from the doctors has really hit him hard. 'To find himself floored like this has really got into his head. He has become really tentative.' There are growing signs that Mr Johnson could be back in action soon, with Downing Street confirming he is now receiving daily updates and speaking to deputy Dominic Raab by phone - although he is still not doing official work. But while his spokesman insists that Mr Johnson is not doing any 'official work', it emerged that he is speaking to the US president this afternoon. Mr Johnson will also have his audience with the Queen by phone later in the week - although his deputy Dominic Raab will take PMQs in the Commons tomorrow and chair Cabinet on Thursday. The No10 spokesman said of the conversation with Mr Trump - whose wife Melania called Ms Symonds to pass on best wishes: 'It is an opportunity to thank the President for the messages of support he has sent to him. 'But it is also the case it will allow the PM to get an update on the international G7 response, as the US is the chair.' While there are some ministers taking stronger positions either way, the bulk of the Cabinet - including Mr Raab - are content to wait for more evidence. Scientists have been asked to present options for the lockdown by the end of the month. As tensions rise, Mr Hancock is reportedly being lined up as the 'fall guy' for the government's coronavirus failures - particularly his high-profile 100,000 daily testing target. Mr Hancock has been one of the government's most visible ministers during the outbreak after returning to the frontline following his own battle with the disease. But he is under increasing pressure from critics who have questioned the wisdom of promising to increase the number of tests to six figures a day by the end of this month. London is still the region with the most deaths caused by coronavirus - 1,506 people there have died with the virus (24.3 per cent of all deaths in England and Wales). England and Wales as a whole has recorded significantly more deaths than average so far this year The Office for National Statistics data, which reveals the true scale of coronavirus deaths, is now considerably higher than the Department of Health's daily updates The vast majority of coronavirus deaths are happening in hospitals, but today's data suggests one in every 10 of them happens in a nursing home. ONS figures have also made clear that people aged between 75 and 84 are dying in the biggest numbers, while NHS data suggested it was over-85s Week 15 of this year (April 4 to April 10), when the coronavirus outbreak is believed to have peaked, was the deadliest week for more than 20 years in England and Wales, and more than a third of fatalities involved COVID-19 They have also attacked Mr Hancock over his handling of PPE shortages which have seen doctors, nurses and care home staff blast the government for failing to do enough to keep them safe. Government insiders told the Telegraph Mr Hancock has 'not had a good crisis' while a former Cabinet minister said some in Whitehall believe the Health Secretary had developed 'a sort of Messiah complex'. Some now expect Mr Hancock to be moved from the Department of Health before a widely-anticipated future inquiry is held into the government's response to the outbreak. Is the UK's REAL coronavirus death toll 40% higher? The Office for National Statistics data, which reveals the true scale of coronavirus deaths, is now considerably higher than the Department of Health's daily updates The true number of coronavirus victims in the UK may still be 41 per cent higher than daily Government statistics are letting on. Weekly data published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that at least 13,121 people had died in England and Wales by April 10. Department of Health statistics had, by that date, announced only 9,288 fatalities - the backdated deaths increased the total by 41.2 per cent. That suggests the death toll of 16,509 confirmed yesterday could in reality be closer to 23,000. And care homes in England and Wales had recorded the deaths of at least 1,644 residents by April 10 - 10 per cent of all the UK's COVID-19 deaths. Today's update is one of the first real official glimpses of the crisis gripping the care sector. Fifteen per cent of all people dying with COVID-19 were succumbing to their illness outside of hospitals, the stats showed, revealing the crisis cannot be managed solely by the NHS. And one in every three people (33.6 per cent) who died of any cause between April 4 and April 10 had coronavirus. That week, authorities recorded the most deaths for a single week in 20 years, with 18,516 people dying - 8,000 more than average. Around 6,200 of those were officially linked to the coronavirus, suggesting a further 1,800 were indirect 'excess' deaths or COVID-19 sufferers who never got tested. The record number of fatalities coincides with what now appears to have been the peak of the UK's COVID-19 outbreak on April 8, when NHS hospitals recorded 803 coronavirus patients dying. Advertisement England, Scotland and Wales have announced another 873 deaths from the coronavirus today, taking the UK's total to 17,382. This rise in fatalities is the biggest increase since Saturday, April 18 (888), and almost double the number that were announced yesterday (449). Although the rebound looks bad on a graph it doesn't mean the outbreak is getting worse because the deaths are backdated - 43 of them actually happened in March, and 493 were spread across Saturday, Sunday and Monday. NHS data shows April 8 remains the deadliest day so far in the epidemic and, with today's announcements added, the day believed to be the peak of the outbreak saw 815 hospital fatalities. But the true number of coronavirus victims in the UK may still be 41 per cent higher than daily Government and NHS statistics are letting on. Weekly data published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that at least 13,121 people had died in England and Wales by April 10. Department of Health statistics had, by that date, announced only 9,288 fatalities - the backdated deaths increased the total by 41.2 per cent. That suggests the death toll of 17,382 confirmed today could in reality be closer to 25,000. And care homes in England and Wales had recorded the deaths of at least 1,644 residents by April 10 - 10 per cent of all the UK's COVID-19 deaths. Today's update is one of the first real official glimpses of the crisis gripping the care sector. Fifteen per cent of all people dying with COVID-19 were succumbing to their illness outside of hospitals, the stats showed, revealing the crisis cannot be managed solely by the NHS. And one in every three people (33.6 per cent) who died of any cause between April 4 and April 10 had coronavirus. That week, authorities recorded the most deaths for a single week in 20 years, with 18,516 people dying - 8,000 more than average. Around 6,200 of those were officially linked to the coronavirus, suggesting a further 1,800 were indirect 'excess' deaths or COVID-19 sufferers who never got tested. The record number of fatalities coincides with what now appears to have been the peak of the UK's COVID-19 outbreak on April 8, when NHS hospitals recorded 803 coronavirus patients dying. A leading expert at the University of Oxford argued yesterday that the peak was actually about a month ago, a week before lockdown started on March 23, and that the draconian measures people are now living with were unnecessary. Professor Carl Heneghan claims data shows infection rates halved after the Government launched a public information campaign on March 16 urging people to wash their hands and keep two metres (6'6') away from others. He said ministers 'lost sight' of the evidence and rushed into a nationwide quarantine six days later after being instructed by scientific advisers who he claims have been 'consistently wrong' during the crisis. Professor Heneghan hailed Sweden - which has not enforced a lockdown despite fierce criticism - for 'holding its nerve' and avoiding a 'doomsday scenario'. He was among a group of scientists today who argued that the peak in the number of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales happened on April 8. Commenting on the death data released by the ONS, a panel convened by the Science Media Centre said the death rate had been consistent for the last 13 days. Prof Heneghan said: 'From an epidemiological perspective we can say that the numbers are consistent with the peak happening on April 8. 'We've now tracked for 13 days that that has been consistent - it hasn't jumped up. 'All of the other data surrounding this, the triangulation of the data is showing us that is the case.' But he added: 'What we are worried about is that in the background someone has made an error and pulled out some data sets. 'Looking at what the ONS are doing now is hugely impressive - I think we can be clear that in this peak it occurred on April 8 and in the last 13 days we've seen no change to that.' BRITAIN'S CORONAVIRUS CRISIS MAY NOT PLUMMET TO LEVELS SEEN IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND FOR MONTHS Britain's coronavirus outbreak may not plummet to levels seen in Australia and New Zealand for months, data suggests. Figures from the Our World in Data project shows Australia's recorded more than one new case for every million people for a fortnight. It eventually peaked on March 27 at 17.56 but analysis shows it has yet to dip below the one mark 25 days later. IT MAY NOT DROP DRAMATICALLY UNTIL MID-JUNE... If the same outbreak trajectory was applied to the UK, it would mean Britain's rate of cases per million people would not dip below one for another 10 weeks. For example, Britain's cases peaked on April 13, with 94 positive tests for every one million people. It took 32 days for Britain to reach its peak from passing one new case per a million people - 2.3 times longer than Australia. Simple maths would suggest it could take the UK 2.3 times longer than Australia to dip below the same threshold, if it miraculously followed the same path. Such an equation would result in Britain getting back to fewer than one case per a million people each day by mid-June. ...BUT IT COULD DROP IN A MATTER OF WEEKS But if the UK's outbreak took a similar trajectory as New Zealand, the cases could dip much sooner. For example, New Zealand's rate was also higher than one for 14 days before hitting the peak (15.97) on March 31. However, the Our World in Data statistics show it took the country just 16 days to get the rate below one again. Using that same equation, it would mean it would take fewer than three weeks for Britain's curve to dip below one. ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE DATA SUGGESTS IT COULD PEAK BY MID-MAY Britain's outbreak would potentially be over sooner if it followed similar percentage drops as seen in Australia and New Zealand. For instance, the Our World in Data analysis shows that Australia's cases per million halved in eight days, dropping to 8.72 on April 3. It then took four days to halve again (3.87 on April 7) and then a week to drop two-fold again (1.67 on April 14). Using the same figures for the UK, it would mean Britain's cases per million would have halved by April 21. They would then halve again by April 25 and then dropped two-fold again by May 2 - at this point the rate would be around 11 to 12. From this point, it took New Zealand 16 days to dip below one - 16 days from May 2 would take the UK to May 18. But Australia's has still yet to dip below one again - 20 days after the rate was less than 12, suggesting it could take even longer. BRITAIN'S OWN DATA SUGGESTS IT WON'T DIP TO AUSTRALIA LEVELS UNTIL THE END OF JULY But Britain's outbreak did not follow the same percentage trajectory. Instead they fell by just 16 per cent, from 94.21 to 78.81, over that eight-day period. If the figures dropped 16 per cent every eight days, it would that mean Britain's crisis would not dip below the one case per million mark until the end of July. One new case per million people would be the equivalent of around 60 a day in the UK - a rate still five times higher than that seen currently in South Korea. For example, official figures from South Korea - which never imposed a lockdown - show the country recorded just nine new cases today. Top scientists praised the country's rigorous testing and tracing regime, which saw health chiefs contain the crisis which peaked at the end of February. However, epidemiologists say there is no accurate way of predicting the demise of an outbreak because no two crises are the same. Several different factors are at play in causing a reduction in the number of cases, including lockdowns and testing regimes. WHAT ABOUT WHEN LOOKING AT DEATHS? Using the same set of figures but for deaths paints a similarly bleak picture - neither Australia or New Zealand ever had a rate higher than 0.35 per million. The UK's rate exceeded this mark on March 20 - and kept accelerating for 22 days until peaking on April 11 (13.74). It took 10 days to drop to 9.49 - the equivalent of a 31 per cent decline. It suggests it would take 40 days to get to around two deaths per million. But Australia has only recorded 71 deaths and New Zealand 13, meaning their death rates are not able to be accurately compared to Britain. Leading statisticians say the decline in COVID-19 outbreaks is never as sharp as the spike, meaning the curve down will not be symmetrical. WHY DO AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND HAVE DIFFERENT SIZED OUTBREAKS? Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, said Australia and New Zealand had their epidemic in the summer. He told MailOnline: 'Although we don't know for certain whether this disease will have a seasonality, I'm more convinced now than I was. 'I expect it to be less infectious during the summer. [They] haven't had exposure at the same sort of time of the year and that might have a big impact.' New Zealand imposed a lockdown on March 23. At the time, it had around 150 cases. Australia had fewer than 1,000 cases when it shut its borders. The UK had more than 6,000 cases when it imposed its lockdown on March 23 - but had given up on testing all patients, instead only swabbing those hospitalised. It suggests the virus was circulating much more widely in Britain - and still will be - than in either of its counterparts in the Southern Hemisphere. HOW MANY NEW CASES WILL BRITAIN RECORD BY THE END OF THE LOCKDOWN? Professor Hunter pointed to the outbreak in Italy, which peaked at around 6,000 new cases a day on March 23 - but is now below 3,000. He added that it is 'achievable' for the UK to get down to fewer than 2,000 cases a day by the end of the three-week lockdown extension. And he said ministers would likely ease some strict measures by then but warned Britons not to get their hopes up for festivals and sports matches. Professor Hunter told MailOnline: 'Care homes won't have restrictions removed any time soon, in my view. 'And we're not going to go back to large-scale public gatherings any time soon, so your Glastonbury tickets are worthless. 'But there may be other aspects we can relax without putting us at particular risk... small family gatherings might be allowed. Advertisement We MUST get rescue loans to our small firms: ANDREW BAILEY's interview in full by Alex Brummer and Ruth Sunderland When Andrew Bailey switched on his TV at home on Monday evening for the latest Covid-19 coverage and saw that the price of West Texas Intermediate oil had plunged into negative territory, it was something of an alarm call. For the Governor of the Bank of England one of the small team of executives on the front line during the 2007-09 financial crisis it was a signal that the turbulence on markets is far from over. 'It was fairly clear that this was closely related to Covid and demand for oil,' he tells the Daily Mail in his first newspaper interview since taking over from Mark Carney on March 16. 'Central banks had to stabilise markets and bring a huge amount of firepower. It was a reminder you can't assume this is ever done.' When Andrew Bailey (pictured) switched on his TV at home on Monday evening for the latest Covid-19 coverage and saw that the price of West Texas Intermediate oil had plunged into negative territory, it was something of an alarm call It was a baptism of fire even for a man who has been with the Bank since 1985 and has lived through every financial debacle since. 'The first week or two were pretty extreme,' he says. 'On day three, the Wednesday of my first week, markets were borderline disorderly.' That is a piece of typical Bailey understatement, as shares were in turmoil. But this is a man legendary for his calm. One story told about him is that, in the middle of the Northern Rock disaster, he took a phone call from his American wife Cheryl who was trying to fend a marauding bear at their holiday home in Idaho, United States. 'A brilliant economist and a dear colleague' Peter Sinclair, a long-standing adviser to the Bank, passed away March 31 The Governor paid tribute to Peter Sinclair, a long-standing adviser to the Bank who passed away on March 31 after several weeks in intensive care with Covid-19. Aged 73, Sinclair was emeritus economics professor at the Birmingham Business School. Before that, he taught economics at Oxford University for 24 years, mainly economic theory, monetary policy and international economics. He was a mentor to generations of this country's most respected economic thinkers, many of whom have paid tribute to his intellectual prowess, his vocation for teaching, and his kindness. Other students included David Cameron he was tutor to the former Prime Minister at Brasenose College, Oxford and King Letsie III of Lesotho. 'A number of colleagues have had the virus and sadly we lost a very dear colleague, Peter Sinclair,' Bailey said. 'He was a brilliant economist and a very dear man.' Sinclair also served as a consultant to City regulator the Financial Services Authority, the Treasury and the US Department of Labor. Professor Catherine Cassell, the dean of Birmingham Business School, said that Sinclair was 'well loved' and that he had 'endless time for colleagues and students, and was always passionate and enthused when discussing how economics could make the world a better place'. Advertisement Cheryl, a professor of public policy at the London School of Economics, chased off the grizzly and her husband carried on saving the financial system. This crisis, however, has tested even his legendary sang-froid. Speaking to us from an almost empty Bank building on Threadneedle Street, Bailey, 61, now spends half his week in his usual office and the other half at his family home in Kent. When he arrived in the Governor's office last month, some 50pc of the Bank's staff were still operating from their desks. As lockdown was imposed a week later, all but a handful of staff began working from home. That means major operations, such as buying up billions of pounds of gilts IOUs issued by the Government or dispensing huge sums in crisis aid to large businesses, are being carried out from officials' kitchens and living rooms, under appropriate security of course. Bailey is pleased with the heavy lifting the Bank has done in channelling funds to larger corporations since the lockdown began. But he is more critical of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans Scheme (CBILS) for small firms which he says has been 'clearly not satisfactory'. The rescue plan for big corporates has dispensed just over 10bn, enabling 'businesses to come back' when the medical crisis recedes and the lockdown is eased. On Monday of this week 'just over 10.4bn had been lent, a run rate of half a billion pounds a day,' Bailey says. The scheme is doing what it is meant to do. He says: 'It has saved jobs.' Bailey is far more circumspect in his comments on the CBILS support for small businesses, where the Bank doesn't have a direct role. He says he is talking to the banks on a 'regular basis' and has been trying to 'gee them up'. However, he acknowledges that there 'are bottlenecks at various points in the chain' and, as a result, the banks are 'finding it hard to deal with the flow'. He is reluctant to condemn the banks. Lenders are being deluged with applications at a time when they are short-staffed due to the virus. Many of the small firms lodging claims 'have never applied for credit, and do not have business plans. The problems of risk assessment gum up the operations,' he says, adding that the system 'needs to be un-gummed'. He has hinted that a 'grant' scheme instead of loans which are 80pc guaranteed by the Government might work better. The current system has problems because many firms do not want to take on debt at a time like this. And because the banks are on the hook for some of the money if firms cannot repay, they are forced to do time-consuming risk assessments. A highly-respected operator, Bailey has spent virtually all his career at the Bank after graduating from Queens' College Cambridge, where he did history. His most recent job was as boss of the Financial Conduct Authority, where he came under fire over the Neil Woodford affair. But that was one of only a very few blots on the copybook in a long career. The Bank will set out its view on the economy and on the health of the financial system in two separate reports in early May. As part of that, it will be trying to test the resilience of the financial system. He acknowledges that none of the stress testing done until now has been 'motivated by a pandemic'. His main concern for the economy is to minimise what the Bank calls the 'scarring' things like 'business failures, long-term unemployment. We're determined to keep that to a minimum.' Some fear that the actions the Bank is taking risk fuelling higher inflation down the line a concern for Bailey, whose job is to keep it at around 2pc. His feeling, however, is that the collapse in the oil price 'will put downward pressure on inflation'. Speaking to us from an almost empty Bank building (pictured) on Threadneedle Street, Bailey, 61, now spends half his week in his usual office and the other half at his family home in Kent Equally, he rejects suggestions that the current disruption to the normal economy could lead to Japanese-style deflation. He suggests there is every reason to believe there will be a V-shaped recovery depending on how lockdown is lifted. As a veteran of the financial crisis, he observes that the coronavirus fallout has 'happened a lot more quickly', noting there was a full year between the collapse of Northern Rock in the summer of 2007 and Lehman in 2008. 'This has happened in a small number of weeks,' he says. Despite taking over in the middle of the most frightening crisis of our lifetimes, Bailey does not betray the least trace of panic. He has the confidence of a man who has lived through multiple disasters and coped with all of them. That should be reassuring to us all. John Lewis's outgoing chief was paid nearly 1million to go as department store chain admits sales have plunged by a third with locked-down shoppers 'buying more Scrabble but fewer sofas' by Chantalle Edmunds for MailOnline John Lewis has handed almost 1 million to its former managing director as hundreds of staff lose their jobs and the chain faces one of the toughest periods in its history. The business paid out 939,773 to Paula Nickolds, who was ousted from the department store business in January, John Lewis Partnership's latest annual report document reveals. The group also confirmed an 892,362 pay packet given to Rob Collins, who had been managing director of the group's Waitrose supermarket arm until he stepped down in October when the group's restructuring was announced. This comes as some 400 staff members were made redundant and John Lewis furloughed 14,000 staff after closing all of its 50 stores in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Beleaguered staff were also told they will receive the lowest staff bonus since 1953 as it revealed a 23% plunge in profits for the year to January 25. Group sales at the embattled high street giant nose-dived to 146 million at the start of the year, down from 452 million three years ago. The employee-owned company is now fighting for survival, having been dragged into the deepening high street crisis. The John Lewis department store chain saw total sales tumble 17% in the weeks since March 15, after it closed all its sites on March 23. The business paid out 939,773 to Paula Nickolds, who was ousted from the department store business in January, John Lewis Partnership's latest annual report document reveals John Lewis sales have plunged after it was forced to shut stores in face of coronavirus despite a surge in online orders Businesses lost to coronavirus With the High Street struggling to cope with the national coronavirus lockdown, a few have started filing for administration. These include: Debenhams: 22,000 jobs at risk Carluccio's: 2,000 jobs at risk Brighthouse: 2,400 jobs at risk Chiquito: 1,500 jobs at risk Laura Ashley: 2,700 jobs at risk Oasis and Warehouse: 200 immediate job losses Flybe: 2,000 jobs at risk Advertisement The high street retailer warned that a worst-case scenario would see the chain's annual sales plunge 35%. Nevertheless, John Lewis said online sales have jumped 84% as shoppers purchased more technology and food preparation products. The retailer said demand has particularly spiked in some of its 'less profitable lines', with people 'buying more Scrabble but fewer sofas' The John Lewis Partnership group said its Waitrose supermarket chain saw sales surge as shoppers stocked up on essentials. Waitrose sales increased by 8% in the period since January 26 as supermarkets were buoyed by the crisis. Sales increased both in store and online as shoppers bought more essentials like rice, pasta and long-life milk. Demand for home delivery has been 'especially strong', it said, with the company increasing its delivery capacity by 50%, which puts it 'in good stead' ahead of the end of its contract with Ocado in September. The John Lewis Partnership group said it is set to receive 135 million in savings from the business rates holiday and will reduce operating costs, including a cut of almost 100 million to marketing spending. In a letter to partners, recently appointed chairwoman Sharon White said: 'We are confident that the future of the business is strong. OUSTED JOHN LEWIS BOSS HANDED ALMOST 1M PAYOUT John Lewis handed an almost 1 million payout to its former managing director, according to new figures from the retail giant. John Lewis Partnership's latest annual report document revealed that the business paid out 939,773 to Paula Nickolds, who was ousted from the department store business in January. Ms Nickolds had worked for the business for 25 years before her departure, after failing to arrest a decline in John Lewis' trading performance. The employee-owned company said the payout was in respect of her notice period, contributions to her legal fees and career development support. The group also confirmed an 892,362 pay packet given to Rob Collins, who had been managing director of the group's Waitrose supermarket arm until he stepped down in October when the group's restructuring was announced. The payouts come after hundreds of redundancies at the business, including 400 job losses linked to the closure of Waitrose stores and the loss of 75 head office roles. John Lewis has also furloughed 14,000 staff after closing all of its 50 stores in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. It also comes after the group said it will pay out its lowest staff bonus since 1953 as it revealed a 23% plunge in profits for the year to January 25. Advertisement 'Our short-term trading has though been significantly affected, principally because of the closure of all 50 John Lewis branches. 'The Partnership has been trading for nearly a century. It has survived a World War and bombings, economic crashes and crises. 'Thanks to you, we shall also come through Covid-19 and emerge stronger.' At the beginning of March - just before the nationwide lockdown was announced - bosses announced 'dire' results at one of Britain's best-loved names. In March, bosses told 80,000 staff that their much-coveted bonus had been cut to about 370 each the lowest level since 1953. New boss Dame Sharon White, who joined from regulator Ofcom in Feburary, said it could take five years to return John Lewis to its former glory. She said: 'We need to reverse our profit decline and return to growth so that we can invest more in our customers and in our partners. This will require a transformation in how we operate as a partnership. 'These are the most challenging but exciting times in retail for a generation.' Ms White was already tasked with steering the partnership through a tough restructuring, merging the two firms and axing a third of head office staff - before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Profits fell from 541m in 2017 to 162m last year, and outgoing chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield, 53, warned they would be 'significantly lower' in the year to January 2020. John Lewis has struggled with rising bills for rents, rates and staff a tough environment that has also taken a toll on its department store rivals. The department stores posted a 37 million loss in the year to January 31, compared to 93million profit the year before. Waitrose posted profits of 212 million. The 156-year-old department store's price promise has been in place since 1925. It states that customers who found lower prices elsewhere on the high street would receive a refund for the difference. It is rigorously enforced by John Lewis, which checks its bricks-and-mortar competitors regularly for sales and promotions. But heavy discounting at rivals such as Debenhams and House of Fraser, and the rise of Amazon, has led many to suggest it is out of date. John Lewis will close three branches of grocery arm Waitrose in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire; Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield; and Waterlooville, Hampshire this year, in addition to the seven it closed last year. The 400 employees affected who wish to stay with the group will be 'actively supported' to do so. Cath Kidston confirms its 60 UK stores will not reopen after coronavirus crisis putting 740 jobs at risk as Primark owner furloughs 68,000 workers across Europe with chain's sales plunging from 650m a month to zero Cath Kidston is to permanently to shut its 60 UK stores with the loss of more than 900 jobs. The fashion retailer confirmed its stores will not reopen once the coronavirus lockdown is over after the company's owners secured a deal to buy back its brand and online operations following its fall into administration. Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA), which has held a stake in the retailer since 2014, said it will buy the online business, brand and wholesale arm from administrators Alvarez & Marsal. It said the move will result in the 'cessation of the retail store network'. Cath Kidston is to permanently to shut its 60 UK stores with the loss of more than 900 jobs The company confirmed that only 32 of its 940 staff will see their jobs secured as part of the deal. Melinda Paraie, chief executive officer of Cath Kidston, said: 'While we are pleased that the future of Cath Kidston has been secured, this is obviously an extremely difficult day as we say goodbye to many colleagues. 'Despite our very best efforts, against the backdrop of Covid-19, we were unable to secure a solvent sale of the business which would have allowed us to avoid administration and carry on trading in our current form. 'I would like to thank all our employees for their hard work, loyalty and patience over the last few weeks as we worked through this process.' A spokesman for BPEA said: 'While we are disappointed that the Covid-19 crisis has resulted in the cessation of the retail store network and impacted many employees, we are pleased to have secured a future for a number of Cath Kidston staff and the Cath Kidston brand in the form of a viable digital business. 'Going forward we will continue to help the company grow through its e-commerce platform and international wholesale and franchise businesses. Associated British Foods boss George Weston said the group had been 'squarely in the path of this pandemic' but would not reopen Primark stores until the disease is under control A message from the CEO of Primark, Paul Marchant, talking about store closures during the coronavirus crisis 'We would like to thank Melinda and the company's management team for their hard work in managing through this difficult economic crisis and establishing a viable future for the business in the UK.' Meanwhile the UK's high street woes continue to grow amid the coronavirus lockdown as 68,000 Primark staff are furloughed across Europe. The owner of budget fashion firm Primark has also revealed a 248 million hit for unsold stock as all its stores remain shut. Associated British Foods boss George Weston said the group had been 'squarely in the path of this pandemic' but would not reopen Primark stores until the disease is under control. Mr Weston said the company would have 'had no option but to fire staff' were it not for the furlough scheme. Who is Sharon White? Ex Ofcom chief faced with the 'mammoth' task of turning around John Lewis Dame Sharon White Dame Sharon White took over the helm at John Lewis Partnership in February. The former Ofcom chief, 52, has enjoyed a glittering career in the civil service, but joined with no retail experience. Earlier this year, the three most senior executives left the brand. Ms White was already tasked with steering the partnership through a tough restructuring, merging the two firms and axing a third of head office staff - before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Independent retail analyst Richard Hyman said: 'It is a mammoth challenge. They've got a new leader with no experience of business, let alone retail. 'How quickly is Dame Sharon going to become a genius retailer? Because that's what they need.' Last month, new chairwoman Dame White outlined a plan to return the group to profit growth, including 'right sizing' its store estate and slimming down its head office. Advertisement A survey from the British Chambers of Commerce suggested around one in three British businesses has furloughed between 75% and 100% of its workforce. Primark has seen sales plunge from 650 million a month to zero as coronavirus has caused the 376-strong chain to shut completely, with no online business to fall back on. Half-year results showed pre-tax profits slumped as Primark was left with piles of stock it was unable to sell amid the global coronavirus lockdown, falling 42% to 298 million in the six months to February 29. Total charges in the first half soared to 309 million, compared with 79 million a year earlier, including the 248 million stock costs. However, Mr Weston said the company would not launch online in a bid to shift stock it has been unable to sell. He said: 'We will sell that stock in stores but it might take a while. 'It might be in a year's time but it's not going to deteriorate and we will just have to wait until we can open stores again safely. 'I think this is the cost of Covid rather than not having online operations.' Primark revealed on Monday it had agreed to pay an additional 370 million to suppliers to cover stock currently in production or yet to be delivered after facing criticism over order cancellations during the coronavirus crisis. The fashion chain said the deal will cover products which were in production or due for shipment by April 17, having previously committed to pay for orders which were in transit or booked for delivery by March 18. Bosses also set up a fund to support the thousands of garment workers affected. Mr Weston laid bare the 'human tragedy' of the Covid-19 crisis as he reported half-year figures, as he said two of the group's employees have died from Covid-19 in the past three weeks while another remains in intensive care in the United States. Its food and agriculture business - spanning sugar, groceries and ingredients, including brands such as Twinings tea and Kingsmill bread - is helping the firm weather the crisis while cost cutting will also help it mitigate half the operating costs of Primark while stores remain shut. The company said it has seen a 20% jump in bread sales, while other store cupboard products such as Blue Dragon noodles and Ryvita crackers have also seen sharp sales increases. Mr Weston said: 'Much as I would love to be allowed to reopen Primark stores across the UK, continental Europe and the USA soon, because lockdown has so harmed our business and our supply chains, I know that we must not do so until we have suppressed this disease. 'When we are allowed to reopen we must make our Primark stores safe for our staff and our customers, even if that means ensuring there are fewer people shopping at any one time and so accepting lower sales at least until the remaining risk is minimal. 'In time, we can rebuild the profits. We can't replace the people we lose.' A survey from the British Chambers of Commerce suggested around one in three British businesses has furloughed between 75% and 100% of its workforce. Meanwhile High Street fashion chains Oasis and Warehouse have fallen into administration, leading to more than 200 immediate job losses. Closed shops on a quiet Kings Road in Chelsea, West London, as life in Britain continues during the lockdown Some 1,800 staff across the shops, concessions and head office will be furloughed and receive 80% of pay. The brands will continue to be sold online 'short-term' while the administrators try to sell the brand. The two brands, which run 90 stores, appointed auditor Deloitte to run the process. The Oasis and Warehouse Group has been looking for a saviour for weeks but could not close a deal due to the pandemic. It is owned by failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing. The lockdown has already claimed Laura Ashley, electrical retailer Brighthouse, and restaurant chains Carluccio's and Chiquito. Many firms were already reeling after last year, the worst for the high street in a quarter of a century. Meanwhile, there are fears are building that gyms, pubs and restaurants may never reopen as landlords threaten them with eviction for unpaid rent during the coronavirus lockdown. Nearly 3,000 gyms and leisure centres now face the threat of closure, while top chef Yotam Ottolenghi has warned that restaurants are suffering the same issue. The Oasis and Warehouse Group has been looking for a saviour for weeks but could not close a deal due to the pandemic Pubs and non-essential shops have also faced trouble paying rent, amid fears they will not be able to reopen after the pandemic because they will have no cash left. Up to 100,000 jobs could be at risk at gyms with trade body UKActive calling for urgent action to protect places of exercise which remain shut due to the pandemic. Fresh legislation to protect commercial tenants was brought in last month, but it does not stop landlords forcing them to pay rent withheld due to the lockdown. A study of 34 non-food retailers including Dunelm, JD Sports, John Lewis and Next has found that many may not survive the pandemic sweeping the nation. Even after government support, more than half of major non-food UK retailers will run out of cash within six months, according to the report. The study was conducted by professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), in partnership with Retail Economics. It found that five out of the 34 major non-food retailers analysed already had negative cash flow at the outbreak of the pandemic. Coronavirus outbreak at hotel in southern town becomes third Greek refugee site this month confirmed to have virus. Athens, Greece At least 148 asylum seekers at a hotel in Greece managed by the International Organization of Migration have tested positive for COVID-19. The hotel, in the southern town of Kranidi, hosts around 450 asylum seekers, most of whom are from Africa. After visiting the site on Tuesday, Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias told reporters that 150 people tested positive overall at least 148 were refugees, one was an aid worker and the other was the employee. All were asymptomatic, he said. A 28-year old woman from Somalia who lives at the hotel, who is six months pregnant, was tested for the virus during a visit to the Hospital of Nafplio on Sunday and was confirmed as positive for COVID-19 on Monday. The hotel has been quarantined since last week when a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. It was not clear whether this staff member was the same person Hardalias referred to on Tuesday. Refugees gather on their balconies at the hotel in Kranidi, which hosts about 450 asylum seekers and was placed in isolation on Monday after a pregnant resident tested positive for the new coronavirus during a hospital visit [Thanassis Stavrakis/The Associated Press] There are currently two refugee camps in Greece with confirmed cases of COVID-19. On April 2, the Ritsona refugee camp with a population of 2,700, became the first in the country to have positive cases among residents, when a woman who had recently given birth in the local hospital tested positive. Ritsona was subsequently put under quarantine for two weeks with no residents permitted to leave. At the time, IOM told Al Jazeera that hygiene kits, food and medical supplies would continue to be distributed to the residents. Nearly three weeks later, the refugees and migrants there are still in quarantine and were expecting an update on the situation in the coming days, Parwana Amiri, a 16-year old Afghan resident of the camp, told Al Jazeera. On April 5, the Malakasa camp, around 24 miles north of Athens, was also placed under quarantine measures after a 53-year-old Afghan resident tested positive. Greece, which swiftly implemented strict lockdown measures for its citizens, has fared better than many of its neighbours, with a death toll of just 116 as of Monday. But fears are growing about the potential impact of the virus sweeping through refugee camps, particularly in overcrowded sites on the Aegean islands. Only a small number of cases have been confirmed among the local island populations, but to date none in any of the refugee camps. On the island of Lesbos, the Moria refugee camp has a population of around 19,000 in a space designed for just under 3,000. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders has repeatedly called for the urgent evacuation of the camp. In some parts of Moria camp, there is just one water tap for every 1,300 people and no soap available. Families of five or six have to sleep in spaces of no more than 3m2, Dr Hilde Vochten, MSFs Medical Coordinator in Greece said in a statement. This means that recommended measures such as frequent hand-washing and social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus are just impossible. On Sunday, a fire tore through the Vial refugee camp on the island of Chios where 5,000 people live in a space designed for just over 1,000. The fire started during protests after the death of a 47-year-old Iraqi woman in the camp, who had been taken to hospital exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 but had tested negative. Her cause of death is unknown but according to reports, despite the negative test, residents believed she died of the virus and this fear prompted the protests. On Monday, Notis Mitarakis, Greeces Minister for Migration, announced that around 1,500 of the most vulnerable people living in the Moria camp would be evacuated on a specially chartered ship to the mainland by the end of this week. A plan to move 1,600 unaccompanied refugee children from the island camps was set in motion last week as 12 children arrived in Luxembourg and 47 went to Germany a development criticised by figures such as Erik Marquardt, a German member of the European Parliament for the Greens Party, who tweeted that the small number was an embarrassment. A charter plane with more than 300,000 COVID-19 rapid tests and other medical supplies from China arrived at Callao on Monday. The rapid tests along with sanitiser, masks and protective equipment purchased by the Peruvian National Health Institute will be distributed around the country. The Peruvian government has already distributed 330,000 other rapid tests. Meanwhile, outside the air base, families stranded in Callao waited for the government to help them get back to Piura. The lockdown has kept them from working, many fear homelessness and hunger, and are looking to return to their home towns. Peruvian authorities have offered to transfer those who want to go back, but under strict sanitary protocols as they try to limit the spread of the new coronavirus to other regions in the country. Housing Ministry Rodolfo Yanez inspected a temporary coronavirus isolation facility in Piura, where those who arrive from other regions will have to comply with a mandatory quarantine. Yanez also delivered more than 100,000 pieces of personal protective equipment purchased by the Piura regional government for doctors, nurses and other medical staff treating coronavirus cases. Peru has 16,325 COVID-19 cases and 445 deaths. Cases of recovery have lifted the spirits among Peruvians, such as the recovery of 97 years old Maria Morales who left hospital after eight days in the intensive care unit in Trujillo. She is the oldest person in the country to have recovered from COVID-19. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and could lead to death. It was late at night in March and two doctors from Bendigo found themselves laying out a sewing pattern on the floor of their newly-opened clinic. They were desperate. GPs around the nation had witnessed supplies of protective gear dry up almost overnight as the coronavirus crisis hit and the only solution they could think of was to get sewing. Sewer Carol McCooke has been helping Bendigo GPs Dr Nicole Townsend (left) and Dr Kirby White (right) produce thousands of reusable protective gowns. Credit:Joe Armao The project, headed by doctors Kirby White and Nicole Townsend, has since snowballed and, with the help of 120 volunteer sewers, they have distributed hundreds of reusable gowns to dozens of doctors around Victoria. They are among a number of grassroots groups calling on governments to consider them more than a good news story and adopt the initiative more widely as a serious solution to the shortage of protective gear. Schools could begin reopening in June under plans for a cautious easing of lockdown restrictions. Whitehall sources told the Daily Mail that ministers want a partial reopening of schools after the summer half-term at the end of May. This is seen as the earliest possible date for easing restrictions and could result in many children going back to school in early June for the first time in more than two months. But sources cautioned that a full reopening will take longer. As a first step, ministers are looking at focusing on key groups such as those taking exams next year or bringing a wider group of children back part time. Lulu Byrne, 13, and Maisy Byrne, 15, ake part in home schooling, studying mathmatics, english and sciences from their home in Liverpool as schools reopen after the Easter break The Government is under pressure to reopen schools to prevent damage to childrens education and to allow more parents to go back to work. But a Whitehall source said official analysis produced for ministers found that a full opening of schools now would immediately drive up the so-called R rate which measures how quickly the virus is spreading. This would undo much of the progress achieved by the lockdown and will risk a second wave of infection. The analysis is that opening schools now would be enough to drive the R rate above one, even if you left the rest of the lockdown in place, the source said. Then you have the virus spreading exponentially again. So its a non-starter now but the hope is things will look better by [May] half-term. Nothing is fixed but thats the earliest you could look at. The revelation came as No 10 confirmed ministers are adopting a cautious approach to easing the lockdown because of the risk of a deadly second peak of infections. Wilfred, aged 7, reads on a kindle tablet as he takes part in home schooling at home in London The Prime Ministers official spokesman told reporters: The big concern is a second peak. That is what ultimately will do the most damage to health and the most damage to the economy. If you move too quickly then the virus could begin to spread exponentially again. The public will expect us to do everything we can to stop the spread of the virus and protect lives. Chancellor Rishi Sunak yesterday weighed in publicly behind the strategy, saying the lockdown would not be lifted until there was no risk of a second peak. However behind the scenes, Mr Sunak has been the most senior minister pushing for an easing of restrictions in order to reduce the damage to the economy. But yesterday he indicated that he accepted that allowing a return to more normal life too early could cause even greater hardship. Decisions on the next stage of the lockdown will be based on advice from Sage the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies which is due by the end of the month. When asked whether the restrictions could be modified rather than lifted entirely, the PMs spokesman said: If you move too quickly, lifting the social distancing measures wholesale, then that could lead to the virus spreading exponentially again. Downing Street yesterday confirmed that Boris Johnson is still convalescing at his country retreat Chequers in Buckinghamshire. He is receiving daily updates but is not yet working. He held talks with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his senior aides on Friday but is not involved in day-to-day decision making. These decisions are still being led by a quad of senior ministers comprised of Mr Raab, Mr Sunak, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove and Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Education sources last night insisted there was still no fixed date for the reopening of schools. One source said Education Secretary Gavin Williamson was clear that any move had to be driven by the science and that teachers and parents had to be given sufficient notice of any mass return to the classroom. The source also pointed out that schools are already doing a brilliant job caring for the children of key workers, including during what should have been the Easter holidays. Children in Scottish state schools could be returning to the classroom during the summer break after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday refused to rule out opening schools. Meanwhile more than a quarter of a million lessons were accessed online yesterday on the first day of the national virtual classroom Oak National Academy. The learning hub provides a plan of daily lessons and resources for teachers and parents. 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 By John Miller and Michael Erman ZURICH/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG said on Monday it will test the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in a randomized trial to see if the much talked about medicine is actually effective against COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. By John Miller and Michael Erman ZURICH/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG said on Monday it will test the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in a randomized trial to see if the much talked about medicine is actually effective against COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. The company hopes to have data on its efficacy by June, a lead researcher for the trial told Reuters. The decades-old generic medicine has been touted by U.S. President Donald Trump and others as a "game changer" treatment for the highly contagious respiratory illness, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized it use in COVID-19 on an emergency basis. But there is not yet scientific proof that it works. There are currently no approved medicines or vaccines specifically for COVID-19. "Right now, we're in a sea of anecdotes, and a lot of non-professional, poorly-informed people are making recommendations that are swaying how the public and patients view this (drug)," Dr. Richard Chaisson, the Johns Hopkins University professor leading the trial, said in an interview. Novartis said it got the go-ahead from the FDA for the trial and it hopes to start recruiting 440 patients within weeks at more than a dozen U.S. sites. Results will be reported as soon as possible, the company added. Use of the drug, which is also approved to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, has soared since Trump started promoting it. But critics have expressed concern that the administration's advocacy for an unproven medicine has short-circuited the FDA's oversight process. "We recognize the importance of answering the scientific question of whether hydroxychloroquine will be beneficial for patients with COVID-19 disease, said John Tsai, Novartis's top drug developer. "We mobilized quickly to address this question in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study." Companies such as Novartis, Roche and Gilead Sciences Inc are testing older medicines developed to treat other diseases for signs they could be repurposed to tackle the coronavirus epidemic. Gilead just expanded a trial of its antiviral drug remdesivir, which previously failed as a treatment for Ebola. Still, some fear the championing of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 has overshadowed potentially dangerous side effects like vision loss and heart problems. Novartis Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan has also said the medicine is one of his biggest hopes against the pandemic. Chaisson said many of the clinical trials to research the drug are "either small or uncontrolled or overly ambitious." He said the Novartis trial is designed to test the drug's effectiveness quickly, and could yield results in June. There are several additional studies of hydroxychloroquine underway, including at the University of Washington and University of Minnesota, as well as work by the National Institutes of Health in the United States. Novartis' Sandoz generics unit has pledged to donate 130 million doses of the medicine. Sanofi has also said it will donate 100 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to 50 countries. (Reporting by John Miller, editing by John Revill and Bill Berkrot) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The never-ending violence in Mexico generated the deadliest month in two years with an average of 99 murders a day during March. Mexico's Secretary General of National Public Security reported Monday that 3,078 people were murdered last month - the highest figure since June 2018 when 3,158 homicides were reported. March was also the most violent month under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's administration. Leonardo Ortiz (left), a 12-year-old boy from Salamanca, Mexico, was one of five people murdered by armed gunmen who attacked a restaurant March 14. Ortiz, who was dining with his father Juan Francisco Ortiz (right), was one of 3,078 people in Mexico who were killed during the month of March Nadia Rodriguez Saro Martinez was shot when she was talking to her family while driving her car after dropping off a friend at a home in the municipality of Salamanca on March 8 The Secretary General of National Public Security said the murders in March increased by 7.7 percent from February, which had 2,858 homicides or an average of 98.5 murders per day. The central state of Guanajuato, which has been engulfed by a three-year war between the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel - considered the most powerful criminal organization in the country - reported 810 murders in March. On March 31, at least five people were executed inside a scrap metal yard by alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. On March 14, 12-year-old Leonardo Ortiz and a family friend were among five who died after they were caught in the middle of a shooting while leaving a restaurant in the Guanajuato municipality of Salamanca. Nadia Rodriguez Saro Martinez, 23, was gunned down while driving her car in Salamanca after had dropped off a friend after a night out partying March 8. Police officer survey the aftermath of a restaurant massacre in Salamanca, a municipality in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, where five people were killed March 14 At least five people were executed and another was wounded inside a scrap metal yard by alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel on March 31 in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato. Government data shows Guanajuato 810 murders in March The United States Embassy in Mexico City banned to all government personnel official travel to Guanajuato, which was among the most deadliest states in Mexico with 2,834 homicides last year. Government homicide data for March shows Guanajuato was followed by State of Mexico, 444; Michoacan, 467; Chihuahua, 391; Baja California, 384; Jalisco, 331; Guerrero, 244; Sonora, 236 and Veracruz 223. Mexico's capital, Mexico City, registered 226 homicides throughout March. Prosecutor offices of the 32 states and the capital that make up the country of 126million residents reported that 8,829 people have been murdered throughout the first three months of 2020. Overall, there have been 46,327 murders since President Lopez Obrador entered office December 2018. The 2020 Vesak Festival will be broadcast live on Youtube, Facebook, Butta and Phatsuonline, as well as An Vien TV due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A flower parade in Day of Vesak 2019 (Photo: VNA) This year, the celebration will be held at the headquarters of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS)s Central Committee from the 30th day of the fourth month to the seventh day of the fifth month in the lunar calendar, which falls on April 8-15. The Central Executive Council has advised its local committees, pagodas, Buddhist institutions nationwide not to hold rituals, parades or art shows that gather more than 20 people, in line with the Governments regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control. The VBS said three bells will ring in unison on the morning of the 30th day of the fourth lunar month at offices of Buddhist committees at all levels, pagodas and Buddhist institutions across the country. At the same time, Buddhist followers nationwide will also perform rituals to pray for the nation during this difficult period./. One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (HKG:2318). Return on equity or ROE is an important factor to be considered by a shareholder because it tells them how effectively their capital is being reinvested. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders. Check out our latest analysis for Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China How To Calculate Return On Equity? Return on equity can be calculated by using the formula: Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) Shareholders' Equity So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China is: 19% = CN164b CN852b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019). The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. That means that for every HK$1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated HK$0.19 in profit. Does Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Have A Good ROE? One simple way to determine if a company has a good return on equity is to compare it to the average for its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. Pleasingly, Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China has a superior ROE than the average (13%) in the Insurance industry. SEHK:2318 Past Revenue and Net Income April 21st 2020 That is a good sign. However, bear in mind that a high ROE doesnt necessarily indicate efficient profit generation. Aside from changes in net income, a high ROE can also be the outcome of high debt relative to equity, which indicates risk. To know the 3 risks we have identified for Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China visit our risks dashboard for free. Story continues How Does Debt Impact ROE? Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the case of the first and second options, the ROE will reflect this use of cash, for growth. In the latter case, the debt required for growth will boost returns, but will not impact the shareholders' equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking. Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China's Debt And Its 19% ROE It's worth noting the high use of debt by Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, leading to its debt to equity ratio of 1.59. While its ROE is pretty respectable, the amount of debt the company is carrying currently is not ideal. Investors should think carefully about how a company might perform if it was unable to borrow so easily, because credit markets do change over time. Summary Return on equity is one way we can compare its business quality of different companies. A company that can achieve a high return on equity without debt could be considered a high quality business. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt. But ROE is just one piece of a bigger puzzle, since high quality businesses often trade on high multiples of earnings. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So I think it may be worth checking this free report on analyst forecasts for the company. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. While the subdued Bihu seems like a historic first to many hardships, earthquakes, even war have seemingly proven small deterrent for the festival there is a precedent for it, one that dates 193 years ago. Amid a nationwide lockdown to combat the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Bihu was an eerily quiet affair in Assam. Rongali or Bohag Bihu is the states main festival the start of a new year and calls for communities to celebrate together. The first day of the festival is called Garu Bihu, which sees all the households in a village bathe their cows by the riverside, followed by songs and merry-making. This sets off a weeklong celebration, the second day of which is Manuh Bihu, when people visit relatives, friends and neighbours to exchange Bihu snacks like pitha and laru, gift gamusas and bihuwans, while also receiving blessings from elders. To understand what significance the festival holds in the lives of Assamese, one need look no further than the words of Dr Bhupen Hazarika: Bohag mathu eti ritu nohoi, nohoi bohag eti mah, asomia jatir ei ayushrekha, gana jiwanar ei sah (Bohag is not just a season or month it is lifeline of Assamese and the strength of mass life). For the first day of the Assamese calendar to pass unmarked, without the usual joyous celebration, has been difficult for the states people, although they understand the reasons for the muted observance. We couldnt celebrate properly, says Saurav Borah of Jorhats Jakharia village. Traditionally we exchange vegetable sticks for the Garu Bihu ritual, but couldnt this time. Since the shops were closed, we couldnt buy new clothes. Thats okay though, as saving our society and country is most important right now. In the current sombre atmosphere, with most of what constitutes everyday life coming to a standstill, this non-festive Bihu feels like part of the new normal as Thanu Gogoi from Number1 Kapahuwa village, Lakhipathar, Tinsukia district, attests. These are hard times and we have to accept practical solutions for our own safety, Gogoi says, listing all the traditions that the villagers had to forego this Bihu preparing sweets together, weaving gamusas on the loom, preparing chat (long sticks stuffed with various vegetables), making a new pagha (post to tie the cow to), community celebrations. This time, we maintained social distancing and the rituals were just a formality, Gogoi notes. I have never seen such a Bihu in my 70 years Maybe we have caused nature enough destruction and must now answer for our deeds. Anyway, we have had to sacrifice emotion for the sake of safety and abiding by government regulations. As village headman, I requested people to be rational and careful for the sake of humanity. Assamese households narrate similar stories of a Bihu in lockdown: We completed all the customs within the household. We bathed our cows within our compound and on the first day of the Assamese New Year, we offered sarai (traditional bell metal utensils) to our lord in the home temple and prayed for good times. We have consoled ourselves that this year its a sacrifice for the greater good and this would help our next generation to celebrate Bihu properly, said Dipali Dutta, a resident of Digboi. We made pitha just for our family, performed a puja, said Rumi Chetia from Tiyok, Jorhat. With many younger Assamese living in different states or areas for work or education, families couldnt reunite for the Bihu celebrations as is the norm. Our children couldnt return home and we are just praying for their safety. Bihu celebrations are hollow without their presence, said Rina Das from Guwahati. Social concerns were also on peoples minds in the midst of the festival, with requests for those from low income families to receive support. While the subdued Bihu seems like a historic first to many hardships, earthquakes, even war have seemingly proven small deterrent for the festival there is a precedent for it, one that dates 193 years ago. Acclaimed researcher of Assamese folk music and culture Dr Anil Saikia points to the signing of the Yandabo Treaty in February 1826 (which marked the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War), following a truly dreadful year for the Assamese people, when they were forced to seek shelter in hills and caves. There is a significant difference between that time and the present, Dr Saikia adds, as this year we are at least celebrating our customs with social distancing etc, but in that year Assamese couldnt even take part in any traditional activity. Bihu is primarily an agriculture festival and during the time of the Burmese invasion, the predominantly agrarian society was completely in shambles. There were uncountable deaths, and untold misery. Dr Saikia says, Our farmers are the original flag bearers of Bihu. We recite lau kha, bengena kha (eat bottle gourd, eat bitter gourd) while bathing our cows on Garu Bihu. We prepare the gamusa on our personal looms. Assamese have never celebrated Bihu with market-bought items. However, eminent historian and former civil servant Lakhinath Tamuly counters that Bihu was not skipped even in the year of the Yandobo Treaty even if the festival may not have been marked with the usual pomp and gaiety since the Assamese ruling family was in hiding, and hence no royal celebration could be held. Tamuly points out that even before the events leading to the Treaty, there was the Moamoria rebellion (1769 to 1805) that disrupted the socio-economic condition of the region. The Burmese invasions too marked a period of agony for the Assamese started in Assam: a time of mass murders, dacoity, lakhs of men and women taken as hostages. While grand celebrations were impossible in this situation, the villages would observe Bihu in a low-key manner, Tamuly says. Tamuly points to the self-sufficient, self-reliant and community-centric nature of Assamese society at the time as a reason for doubting that Bihu could go entirely unobserved even in times of grave social distress. As in the past, so in the present. While modernity has wrought change in Assamese society, the spirit of Bihu sustains. All images courtesy of the author. Bexar County leaders, trying to plot a path forward through the COVID-19 pandemic, launched a $4 million rental assistance program Tuesday and said they might need to expand a $5 million loan program to small businesses that already has neared its limit. Commissioner Sergio Chico Rodriguez said he was disappointed that only five businesses in his South Side precinct are among the 64 that have secured the interest-free loans to survive the economic fallout from the health crisis. Many people on the South Side dont have internet access, he said. I really am challenging you and your organization to really make an outreach to Precinct 1, he told Janie Barrera, founding president and CEO of LiftFund, a 26-year-old local nonprofit that is administering the loans. Kids are going to where the school district park their buses because we dont have the internet. Barrera encouraged the commissioner to be part of the solution. On ExpressNews.com: County judge rethinks last term goals in wake of COVID-19 When the needs are from minority, women, veterans, we need your help to have town meetings, let us go make presentations. Could we do intake at your place? It needs to be two ways, she said. The people that are ready and motivated are first in line. And the ones that need help are the ones that we have to handle. Rodriguez offered his assistance, but said he had expected when he voted for the program last month to have more geographic equity. Whatever we can do, even if we have to go leafleting down Military Drive or Roosevelt or Pleasanton or Flores, because I just want to see some support. Hopefully not all the moneys gone by then, he said. LiftFund has closed 64 loans up to $25,000 each for gyms, hair salons and other small businesses totaling $1.2 million, and expects another 24 loans for $366,000 to close this week. Borrowers dont have to start paying the principal for up to four months. But another 63 loans are in review at $1.6 million, and there still are 87 applications for $4.1 million, so we have about $2 million worth of loans that people have requested that qualify for this program that are not going to be able to receive it, she said. We really are trying to help the mom-and-pop small businesses. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the county would look for other funding to fill the gap. Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, who helped launch the initiative, said it was not a perfect program but had needed to be quickly established. This may not be the last of it, he said. I know theres still plenty of need out there, but it was important that we got out early and stopped the bleeding for a lot of people. In one of several actions related Tuesday to COVID-19, commissioners approved the $4 million Temporary Rental Assistance Measure, or TRAM, to provide up to three months of assistance for people affected by furloughs, layoffs or other income losses resulting from the pandemic. It will be overseen by the Housing Authority of Bexar County. Wolff said program grew from provisions in county emergency orders suspending foreclosures and evictions. He predicted the county would have to respond nimbly to actions by Gov. Greg Abbott early next week to begin re-opening businesses in Texas. As we come closer to opening up, it was an appropriate time to put together the funding to help with the rental assistance program. So its a start, Wolff said. County leaders also discussed how to handle an expected steep rise in use of mail-in ballots, even though a lawsuit is pending on whether voters can claim eligibility out of fear of getting coronavirus as a disability. Commissioners said they need to be prepared for a jump in costs to administer the ballots in the July 14 party primary runoffs and the combined local and general election on Nov. 3. The Texas Democratic Party sued the state in an attempt to give all Texans the option to vote by mail in the wake of the pandemic. A judges order last week to allow that choice is on appeal. I think weve got to take it as a given that mail-in ballots are going to dramatically increase, regardless of the outcome of the case, Commissioner Kevin Wolff said. On ExpressNews.com: Face coverings become mandatory in Bexar County Commissioners, holding a regular meeting for the first time in nearly a month, also heard updates on the local public health response to the pandemic. Dawn Emerick, director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, gave an overview, noting that 8 percent of the more than 1,000 people testing positive to date in Bexar County had no symptoms. Nearly half of those with COVID-19 have had a co-morbidity, she said, with hypertension leading the list, followed by diabetes. Emerick said testing needs to focus on people and communities with those risk factors. Of the roughly 13,000 tests administered locally, more than 20 percent were at the drive-up testing site at Freeman Coliseum, she said. A similar testing site will open on the South Side, she said. Bexar County, like much of the nation, has had problems with a shortage of testing supplies, particularly vials to transport samples, as well as testing capacity and a slow turnaround on results, Emerick said. Emerick, who serves on a city-county COVID-19 Health Transition Team, said Metro Health is trying to gauge whether more testing data is needed to offer recommendations for best health practices to businesses resuming operations. Its really vitally important that we allow public health and the health care data and experts to drive the first phase of this, she said. shuddleston@express-news.net Twitter: @shuddlestonSA - President Trump said his move was aimed at protecting American workers from foreign competition - Trump said he would sign an Executive order to temporarily halt immigration to the US - The US has the highest number of cases in the world and its tally currently stands at 799,515 infections United States (US) President Donald Trump has said he will temporarily ban immigration into his country in the wake of COVID-19. Trump said he would sign an executive order suspending immigration to protect Americans' jobs from foreign competition once the country begins rebuilding its economy which has been largely shattered by the virus. READ ALSO: Lawyer Ahmednasir terms daily COVID-19 updates nonsense, asks govt to conduct mass tests Trump said immigration would be banned to protect American jobs. Photo: Getty Images. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Comedian Eric Omondi imitates famous Ghanaian pallbearers in coronavirus gear Taking to his Twitter, the tough-talking head of state said the "invisible enemy" necessitated such drastic orders which he said would protect Americans in the long run. "In light of the attack from the invisible enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our great American citizens; "I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" he said in his Twitter. READ ALSO: Rapa Eko Dydda awekwa katika karantini ya lazima kwa kukiuka sheria za kafyu Essentially, an order barring the issuance of green cards and work visas could follow in a bid to enforce the order. This unfolds at a time when the US is the hardest-hit country by the virus with 799,515 cases and 42,897 deaths. In a separate story, Trump recently promised China unspecified consequences if it was found that it was knowingly responsible for the spread of COVID-19. President Trump promised China unspecified consequences if it was found responsible for the spread of the pandemic/ Photo: Getty Images. Source: UGC He said had the Asian country been cautious with the virus since its onset, the rest of the world could have been spared from the pandemic. 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 Ruth Matete is not telling the truth about her husband's death - Pastor John's manager | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke A fire broke out at a hotel in Mumbai's Nagpada area which is being used as a coronavirus quarantine centre on Tuesday evening, but there were no reports of anybody getting injured, an official said. The blaze started in the four-storey Hotel Ripon Palace on Bellasis Road around 6.20 pm, said a Fire Brigade official. Most of the quarantined patients were rescued from the smoke-filled building while search was on for others, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ken Woodbury has spent the last few weeks driving around in his car around neighborhoods in Holden and Worcester, searching for the increasingly elusive for rent sign. The 71-year-old Holden native and his family are supposed to move out of the apartment theyve rented for 20 years by April 30 under an agreement reached with his landlord in the Worcester Housing Court. A surgery to remove his cancer-ridden bladder pushed back his move-out date from late March to the end of this month. Then the coronavirus pandemic shut down life as we know it in Massachusetts. But Woodburys landlord will not budge on the latest move-out date, Woodbury said. He is among hundreds, if not thousands, across the state whose lives are upended by evictions one way or another during the public health crisis. Ive been on pins and needles ever since the beginning of the month, said Woodbury, who lives with his wife, daughter and 16-year-old grandson. Im supposed to find a place by the end of the month, and I havent found a place. The closure of courthouses and non-essential stores have brought new questions for renters like the Woodbury family who struggle to find a new place to live and others who cant make rent after being laid off or forced to take pay cuts. While the courthouses remain closed until at least May, that hasnt stopped some functions of the Housing Court. Evictions can still be filed online or by mail. Executions orders, which make someone move out, can be enforced with the help of a constable or sheriff. The housing courts order prevented a lot from going forward, but it left a bunch of areas unregulated, including this preliminary notices, said Joel Feldman, a Springfield tenant attorney who advocated for the moratorium bill. Those are still getting cranked out. At least 627 eviction cases have been filed in housing courts between March 16 and April 13, the duration of the state of emergency over COVID-19, said Andrea Park, an attorney at the Mass Law Reform Institute, who is tracking the filings. Another 144 eviction cases have been filed in the district courts. In these new cases, the summons often list a date and a response deadline while the courts are closed, Park said. This causes confusion and often times panic in tenants who believe they may soon be evicted, Park said. Despite hearing daily about the importance of social distancing we know of tenants who have gone to the courthouse to file papers only to be turned away at the door, left home to seek help filing an answer only to learn legal offices are closed. These loopholes prompted housing advocates and attorneys to push for a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures in the Legislature. The Legislature passed the bill after weeks of negotiations. Gov. Charlie Baker signed the bill into law on Monday. We are in the midst of a pandemic, and every day we hear terrifying updates about how quickly the virus is spreading, how many infected people are asymptomatic, and how staying home during the surge will save lives, said Andrea Park, an attorney at the Mass Law Reform Institute. Smart public health policy demands that we do everything we can to keep people at home, not out looking for new housing or stretching an already-burdened shelter system. While the new law puts evictions on hold, it doesnt remove the scarlet letter that comes with having an eviction case on record. A tenants name can pop up in an eviction case, even if the tenant wasnt at fault and the matter was resolved amicably. Sometimes, prospective landlords can find erroneous information by search a tenants name on the MassCourts database and deny a tenant without ever verifying the details firsthand. A report filed by the Mass Law Reform Institute in June, entitled Evicted for Life, states that renters with past eviction cases were repeatedly rejected by owners unwilling to rent with them, sometimes due to inaccurate information on MassCourts. Some of those with housing vouchers were unable to find housing for so long that they lost those vouchers and ended up homeless for long period of time, according to the report. Landlords use the court database as a free tenant screening tool, and reject prospective tenants just for having a record in the database, never checking to see if it is the same person or what happened in the case, Park said. "Having a court record is a tremendous barrier to finding new housing in an already-difficult market. Wave of evictions' More than half a million people have filed for unemployment in Massachusetts since mid-March. That total number of claims, 572,562, is equivalent to 16% of workers who are eligible for benefits in the Bay State. Some of those laid-off workers are tenants who may not be able to pay rent this month or next. Attorneys across Massachusetts are hearing from many of those people, who are fearing eviction, along with their current clients. Attorneys and advocates at City Life/Vida Urbana have organized weekly meetings that are streamed on Facebook to share updates and information with renters about their rights. Ive been handling a lot of brief advice calls, either talking individually to people reminding them of their rights or giving information at community meetings, Joey Michalakes, a housing attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, represents tenants facing no-cause evictions in East Boston, Chelsea and Revere. He has offered advice in Spanish during the City Life/Vida Urbana meetings. At a March meeting, Michalakes explained that hearings in Housing Court cant take place while the courts are closed unless a landlord is granted an emergency hearing. That typically happens under limited circumstances, such as egregious, possibly illegal, behavior or major safety concerns. The courthouse closures dont stop the tail end of the eviction process, attorneys say. Landlords who have won a case against a tenant can request an execution from court, the order authorizing a landlord to make a tenant leave the property. A landlord can take that execution to a sheriff to enforce the order. When that happens, the tenant receives a 48-hour notice of execution, and after that waiting period a sheriff and a moving truck arrive to remove a tenant and belongings out of the unit. Landlords who are holding an execution from before the emergency may be able to use it anytime, until there is a clear ban on using, or levying on, the execution, said Park, the MLRI attorney. Michalakes, Feldman, Park and other attorneys turned their attention to the moratorium proposal after courts closed. The moratorium doesnt fix everything, but it does prohibit new filings and prevent sheriffs and constables from enforcing executions during the pandemic. It also instructs creditors to offer a forbearance to owners of residential and commercial properties so they arent punished if they cant pay their mortgage. We recognize that this is the first of many necessary steps that have to happen in order to ensure not just housing stability over the course of the crisis, but that renters and homeowners dont come out of this in four months, six months, however long, ruined financially, Michalakes said. The last thing anyone wants is a wave of evictions at the end of the crisis. Fear of evictions Even with the moratorium law, some renters in Massachusetts remain worried about being able to stay in their homes after the pandemic. One pair of renters in a West Boylston house say theyre not facing eviction, but they worry disagreements with the property manager could trigger an eviction case that would ultimately leave them displaced. Carrol Warren, 73, has rented a condo in a split-level house in West Boylston for nearly 10 years. Shes worried she will unwittingly violate provisions she signed in a lease last year after a new landlord took over the property. According to the lease, tenants cannot walk barefoot outdoors or smoke within 20 feet of the entrance. Warren would often catch up with neighbors while smoking on the front porch. I got it in the lease, and I signed the lease. Peter told me not to, but I was scared because Ive been here all this time, and Im too old to find someplace else, Warren said. Carrol WarrenCourtesy of Peter MacEachern Peter MacEachern, 63, rents the other unit. He is listed as an occupant, or a subleaser to Warren, because he refused to sign the lease. MacEachern emailed the property manager, David Cruise, in early April to let him know he couldnt pay rent until the extension of his unemployment benefits kicks in under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act. Cruise said he did not see MacEacherns email but that he does not deal with MacEachern because he did not sign the lease. But Warren said she wouldnt be able to pay his share of the rent. The lease also states that the landlord can issue a 14-day notice to quit if a resident doesnt pay rent when its due and that more than two late payments will be grounds for termination of tenancy. Under state law, a landlord can begin the eviction process even if rent is one date late. Despite the provisions in the lease, Cruise told Massive he wouldnt throw out Warren for walking barefoot. He said he put it in there to look out for her. Im proud of that provision, Cruise said. It protects the customer, and it protects me. Warren and MacEachern said they became more concerned after a disagreement with Cruise led to a visit from police on April 8. Cruise said he called Warrens daughter, Elizabeth, as well as the West Boylston Council on Aging and the police, after Warren refused to speak with him without MacEachern present. Elizabeth relayed the information to Warren and MacEachern, who explained she did not want to be on the phone alone with the property manager. When Elizabeth was on the phone with them, two police cruisers showed up. They start talking to us, and they ask Carrol if shes OK," MacEachern recalled. West Boylston Police Chief Dennis Minnich confirmed an officer responded to a call for a wellness check on April 8 at the Warren and MacEacherns house but left after determining the matter was a landlord-tenant dispute. Cruise said he only called because he was concerned about Warrens safety, arguing that MacEachern had possession of her cellphone. Between the concerns about the lease and the police call, Warren said shes worried shes worried how long she can call the West Boylston apartment home. I really love West Boylston, and I know a lot of people in West Boylston. I try to stay out of my kids hair so I dont have to ask them anything," said Warren, a widow and mother of six. I dont want to move. Resolutions revisited Some tenants, such as Woodbury, worked out amicable resolutions only to see the coronavirus pandemic throw a wrench in those plans. Woodbury received an eviction notice in April 2019 after his new landlord was notified by the town that a bedroom in Woodburys unit on Main Street contained metering equipment, said Caitlin Bryers, a housing attorney from Community Legal Aid who represents him. A letter from the Holden Municipal Light Department submitted to the new building owners of the building in March 2019 raised concerns about emergency access, suggestion the apartment be modified. Woodbury and his landlord took the matter to court. In October, they reached an agreement in which Woodbury and his family would move out by March 31. Woodbury got the move-out date pushed back a month because he had bladder surgery, which came months after two heart procedures. His new move-out date of April 30, however, comes in the middle of a state of emergency over COVID-19 in which non-essential businesses have gone remote or closed. Woodbury continues to look for a new apartment in neighboring towns with no avail. Right now, theres confusion because theyre basically being asked to do the impossible, Byers said. Its unclear how many people fall into the same situation as Woodbury, as the information isnt easily tracked on MASSCOURTS. But attorneys say the moratorium should prevent people from having to leave their homes if they cant secure alternatives. We are in the midst of a pandemic, and every day we hear terrifying updates about how quickly the virus is spreading, how many infected people are asymptomatic, and how staying home during the surge will save lives, Park said. Smart public health policy demands that we do everything we can to keep people at home, not out looking for new housing or stretching an already-burdened shelter system. Woodburys landlord issued a statement through his attorney, Jaclyn Packard, stating that the tenants moving plans are not a coronavirus issue, but rather part of a long-existing agreement. Mr. Woodbury has had seven months to find alternative housing so that he can honor the terms of the housing court agreement he signed and has had a full year to find alternative housing since the initial written notice we sent to him, the statement reads. It goes on to say, the termination of Mr. Woodburys lease has nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic and everything to do with a legal process that was initiated more than a year ago. Woodbury and his wife of 47 years, Wendy, have hosted holidays and Sunday dinners at the house they rent. Woodbury makes roast or bakes chicken. In the summer, he turns on the grill to barbecue meat. Woodbury said he hopes to find a new home where his family can continue their traditions, but first he has to lock down a new apartment. The next place is hopefully going to be new and nice and everything, and hopefully, we can keep it up," he said. Youve got to have a positive attitude. Otherwise, you go crazy. On Monday afternoon, Woodbury heard a sliver of good news. His landlord wouldnt be able to force him out if he cant leave by April 30. The moratorium bill signed by Baker bars the courts from issuing executions up to 45 days after the state of emergency declaration is lifted or 120 days after the bill is ratified, whichever comes sooner. Related Content: Expanding Access Lack of Infrastructure Creating a Broadband Hub (TNS) For Nils Johnson, accessing the internet for work requires driving down a hill and pointing his vehicle toward a data antenna to obtain a signal.Johnson, who lives south of Chewelah, had internet at home via a Verizon hotspot, which provided access to Zoom meetings, email and Netflix. That service disappeared in November, and Johnson is unable to work out of his office in town because he is caring for his children, who are learning from home as a result of COVID-19 school closures.Communication is imperative for Johnson, who transports local produce to food pantries, grocery stores and gas stations as an agriculture extension coordinator for Washington State Universitys Stevens County Extension.Im used to working out of my vehicle, but this is taking it to a whole new level, he said. Johnson is among many residents in rural communities nationwide with limited or nonexistent internet access because of the lack of infrastructure and cost of installing fiber optics or cell towers.Gov. Jay Inslees Stay Home, Stay Healthy order, which forced most employees to work from home and schools to shift to online learning to help stem the spread of COVID-19, has placed even more emphasis on the digital divide in rural areas.Now, with the stay-at-home order, everybody is using Zoom, so most times I cant download email until 10:30 at night, Johnson said, referring to the increase in network traffic amid the coronavirus pandemic. Last night, I was trying to engage in a text conversation with a 10-minute delay. So far, the voice signal is fine, thanks to the fact that I have an antenna and amplifier in my house.The lack of broadband access in rural communities is a long-term problem and not an easy fix, said Debra Hansen, director for WSUs Stevens County Extension, and facilitator of the Stevens County and Spokane Tribe Broadband Action Team.I think with COVID-19, it has really raised everybodys awareness of (the lack of broadband access) because you cant apply for unemployment benefits and housing assistance, she said. All those things weve been talking about for years.Although Chewelah, Colville and Kettle Falls in Stevens County have broadband access, a majority of Stevens County residents live in areas where internet is inconsistent and limited. Some students have to drive 20 miles to download homework from area schools, Hansen said.When the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order forced schools to shut down during the pandemic, it put Johnson in a predicament trying to figure out how his children will complete schoolwork online.We are limited to whatever paper homework comes home, he said. Its a very tough situation, especially for kids that have no access to schoolwork, or people that need access to internet for doing their work.The Stevens County Library District, which provides broadband internet at eight libraries, has opened up Wi-Fi access, allowing residents to obtain a signal from their cars to attend Zoom meetings or download school assignments.We are trying to see if there are other places where we can set up that type of access, said Hansen, adding the broadband action team is looking into installing Wi-Fi hotspots at fire districts or Grange halls.Inslee signed a law last year that established a state broadband office charged with developing and improving internet access to support education, health care and economic development in rural communities.The state is aggressively pursuing options for increasing Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities in underserved communities, said Russ Elliott, director of the Washington State Broadband Office.Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the state broadband office began mapping and identifying areas with internet service gaps. Its working with Chris Reykdal, the Washington state superintendent of public instruction, to collect data from students through internet speed tests.The broadband office also is working with Washington state librarian Cindy Aden and WSU which has extension offices in every county to discuss how people can connect to broadband during the pandemic.Internet providers, such as Comcast and CenturyLink, have adopted or expanded low-income broadband programs and eliminated data caps during the oubreak.Rural communities, such as Stevens County, lack internet access in areas, in part, because broadband mapping is inaccurate, Hansen said.U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., introduced the Broadband Data Improvement Act in 2019 to improve the broadband mapping process. Elements of the bill were signed into law in March, allowing federal agencies and private industries to target improvements in areas that need broadband.The state broadband office has set up an internet speed test for people to assess connectivity. Data collected from the speed tests will help the state understand which areas to focus on for broadband deployment, Elliott said.The Stevens County and Spokane Tribe Broadband Action Team will pilot the first effort to collect speed test data.Broadband is primarily a private investment and its difficult to make a business case to internet service providers to deploy in remote areas, because its expensive to build towers and lay fiber. If communities can show there are enough people living in the area through mapping, it opens up opportunity for grants that could support broadband infrastructure, Hansen said.The Federal Communications Commission established the $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund this year to expand rural broadband. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also offering $600 million in loans and grants to build broadband infrastructure in rural areas.A future challenge will be to scale infrastructure to meet a growing demand for bandwidth in the state, Elliott said.Internet service providers made significant investments in infrastructure that supports internet download speeds of 10 megabits per second with upload speeds of 1 megabit per second, he said.However, internet download speeds below 25 megabits per second with upload speeds of 3 megabits per second is considered underserved, he added.State legislation requires all business and residences in the state to have access to the 25 mbps/3 mbps platform by 2024.We need to ensure we are investing in technology throughout the state that will allow us to be forward thinking for decades, not the next few years, Elliott said.Harrington, a community of more than 400 residents in Lincoln County, became a model for do-it-yourself rural internet.In 2012, Harringtons library received a high-speed fiber internet connection as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.The Lincoln County Public Development Authority, in an effort to spur business development, partnered with the librarys internet service provider in 2016 to extend gigabit broadband coverage in downtown Harrington.Former Harrington Mayor Justin Slack and wife, Heather, moved from Seattle to the rural community in 2014 in search of a quieter area to raise their family.The couple purchased a vacant building in downtown Harrington in 2016 and transformed it into The Post & Office, which includes a coffee shop and co-working space.The co-working space allows Justin to continue telecommuting for his job with a Seattle-based bank. It has also become a community hub for residents and travelers stopping by to check email.The Slacks aim for the Post & Office to be a catalyst for growth in the community by attracting telecommuters wanting to keep their corporate jobs while living in a rural area, Heather said.Although Harrington offers broadband internet in its downtown core, it can be tricky for residents living on the outskirts to obtain service, she said.Rural areas get left behind because theres not a lot of people here, which is unfortunate, Heather said. Being connected online is important these days. Those areas that cant be online are isolated in so many ways. It really sets communities back by not being able to offer a basic resource to their community.Internet service is expanding in Harrington, but at a slow pace, she added.We are in the same boat as other communities, but we are one step ahead because we have broadband already here, Heather said. The next step is to filter it out to some individual homes. That is just the beginning of what we need. Protests and looting broke out last week in Colombias major cities over the abject failure of the right-wing government of President Ivan Duque to provide promised aid to working people left without income or food amid a nearly month-long coronavirus quarantine. Riot police attacked protesters banging pots in the street with tear gas in southern Bogotas impoverished district of Ciudad Bolivar, while looting was reported in several parts of Medellin, the countrys second largest city, as well as in Vichada provinces capital of Puerto Carreno and in Sincelejo, the capital of the northern province of Sucre. There were also reports of the hijacking and looting of trucks carrying goods, forcing the closure of a road between Cordoba and Antioquia provinces. When Duque first imposed the nationwide quarantine on March 25, he promised to provide emergency financial aid and food deliveries to Colombias poorer areas, where much of the population is employed in the so-called informal sector, making their money through casual labor and street vending, with little means of support. Since then, food has failed to arrive, and the main emergency aid program, the so-called Solidarity Income, which was supposed to provide the poor with a meager 160,000 pesos ($41), has been suspended amid charges of systematic embezzlement and a failure to make payouts to those who need them. Popular anger over the governments malign indifference to mass suffering, defense of the interests of the rich and rampant corruption boiled over as Duque has continued to clash with Colombian governors and mayors over his demand for the reopening of the economy. As of Sunday, the official number of coronavirus cases in Colombia stood at 3,792 and the death toll at 179. As in every country, these figures are a gross underestimation of the real toll of the deadly virus. Health Minister Fernando Ruiz himself admitted last week that 12,000 people have been infected, roughly four times the official estimate. No doubt the number of deaths is a similar or greater multiple, with many people never reaching a hospital. As elsewhere in the country, in Cali, Colombias third most populous city, residents of impoverished districts have hung red rags from their windows to indicate that they are without food and need aid. Mabel Avendano, environmental coordinator of Calis Tercer Milenio neighborhood told the Spanish news agency EFE that people had taken to the streets in protest because they locked us up for a month and a half and told us that they were going to bring us food. People are hungry, theyre leaving their homes, risking their lives, and they havent brought them food. We were told that we had been sent two trucks but they have sent us nothing; weve received nothing ... We need help, said Avendano, one of the leaders of a protest that saw over a hundred people take to the streets banging pots and pans, while many more joined in from inside their homes. The mayor of Bogota, Claudia Lopez, claimed that aid from the city had benefited 262,561 families, out of over a half a million who had applied for assistance, and in a city of 7.5 million people, most of whom are out of work. The boast only underscores the complete lack of preparation to meet the crisis unleashed by the pandemic and the callous indifference of Colombias bourgeoisie to the plight of the working class and poor. This lack of preparation is also expressed in the catastrophic state of Colombias health care system. At least four Colombian health care professionals are known to have died from COVID-19. In the north of the country, near the Panamanian border, doctors at the Clinica Apartado walked out for the second time in a week Monday, protesting both the lack of personal protective equipment and the failure to receive a paycheck for the last three months. One carried a sign referring to the cheering for medical workers saying, What good is the applause if our families are going hungry and our colleagues are dying. The economic impact of the pandemic upon Colombia is already devastating. According to the daily El Tiempo, the IMF is warning that the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic are expected to generate the first recession in Colombia since 1999, with a negative 4 percent growth rate, which would make it the worst crisis in Colombias history. Under these conditions, the government of President Duque has been thoroughly discredited. The main government aid program, which was supposed to prevent Colombians from going hungry, has been suspended while authorities investigate how massive amounts of money allocated for it were diverted into ghost accounts set up for dead and non-existent people. This has stopped the distribution of $75.5 million out of the wholly inadequate $126 million allocated to prevent starvation. Colombias weekly Semana reported that the countrys National Registrar has already discovered 35,000 ghost accounts to which money has been sent. The legislation establishing the program included in its first paragraph a clause granting immunity to all public officials from criminal investigations or charges, in apparent anticipation of massive embezzlement. Duque, responding to the demands of Colombian and foreign capitaland in direct consultation with Washingtonhas called for an immediate reopening of the countrys economy saying that he favors a plan to recover productive life without social life. Thus far, however, mayors and governors have opposed this plan, maintaining in place orders restricting social mobility. Colombias medical professionals have warned of the collapse of the countrys health care system. According to most estimates, the pandemic in Colombia will not peak before the second half of May at the earliest. The nationwide quarantine, and the growing hunger among the population, is only intensifying the extreme tensions that erupted into a series of mass protests and strikes in November and December of last year. This movement of the Colombian working class was directed against rising social inequality and unemployment as well as the series of reactionary fiscal policies imposed at the behest of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These policies shifted social resources to private capitalist interests at the expense of the working class and were paid for through continuous cuts in social programs, with education and health the most affected. The coronavirus has exposed the criminality of these policies, which are now leading to the unnecessary deaths of working people and health care professionals. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 21 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: The total number of coronavirus infected people in Uzbekistan rose to 1,657, Trend reports on April 21 with reference to the Ministry of Health. To date, 261 patients have fully recovered from the coronavirus infection in the country, five have died. Since April 1, Uzbekistan announced a self-isolation regime in Tashkent, the capital, as well as in Nukus and other regional centers. Citizens over 65 are categorically prohibited from leaving their homes. They can go out only to visit pharmacies and shops near their respective places of residence. The first case of coronavirus infection in Uzbekistan was detected on March 15 in the laboratory of the Research Institute of Virology; it was an Uzbek woman who returned from France. The Ministry of Health later announced that her son, daughter, husband and grandson also tested coronavirus-positive. The outbreak of the coronavirus began in the Chinese city of Wuhan (an international transport hub), at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 170,400. Over 2.4 million people have been confirmed as infected, over 652,1000 have reportedly recovered. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 17:45 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd35a74e 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,APD,PPE,personal-protective-equipment,South-Korea,doni-monardo,raw-materials Free Indonesia must export ready-to-use personal protective equipment (PPE) to South Korea as a form of compensation after the government bought raw materials from the country to meet domestic PPE production needs, COVID-19 task force chief Doni Monardo said on Monday. Please understand that no country can meet its own needs, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head said after a meeting with President Joko Jokowi Widodo via video conference on Monday. Doni said the deal was a common one between countries needing to meet their logistics needs and that Indonesia should not risk a raw materials shortage by not cooperating with other countries. We should not just have other countries send PPE [raw materials] to our homeland and not give some [finished products] back. Once again, cooperation is very important, Doni said. Previously, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said that Indonesia, as one of the world's largest PPE producers, had made an agreement with other countries, including South Korea and Japan, to contribute to their PPE supply. Read also: The time is right: COVID-19 gives more room for telemedicine to grow in Indonesia She said the government would ensure that PPE exports would not affect domestic supply since Indonesias trade partners had understood that the country was in need of PPE as well. Many countries desperately need PPE and require immediate supply to their country, Sri Mulyani said. But South Korea and Japan have agreed that we should meet domestic needs before helping other countries that lack PPE manufacturers. National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker Saleh Daulay, criticized the governments move amid the worsening COVID-19 pandemic, saying that it was alarming since the domestic need for PPE had yet to be fully met. It certainly leaves a concern in the community because the need for PPE in the country has not yet been fulfilled, Saleh told kompas.com on Friday, adding that the government should prioritize all resources for national countermeasures. The government said it aimed to produce 16,000 pieces of PPE per day and claimed to have distributed as many as 700,000 pieces to all provinces in Indonesia as of April 9, with plans to distribute another 300,000. WOOD RIVER One new death was reported Tuesday by the Madison County Health Department, bringing the total of coronavirus related deaths to nine. According to the department, the latest victim was a man in his 70s. The county also reported a total of 216 cases, 124 women and 92 men, up 28 from Monday. The county figures include 64 people hospitalized and 72 recovered, meaning they have completed isolation. The Illinois Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported 190 cases and 10 deaths in Madison County, but health officials have said there will be some discrepancies on a day-to-day basis as the number of cases increase. Statewide, IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike reported 1,551 new coronavirus cases and 119 deaths, bringing the state totals to 33,059 cases and 1,468 deaths Tuesday. IDPH information by ZIP codes on Tuesday showed additional cases in the Alton, Jerseyville, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Collinsville and Highland areas. Also, for the first time, the 62010 ZIP code (Bethalto) was listed. Both 62002 (Alton) and 62040 (Granite City/Pontoon Beach) had 33 cases Tuesday, according to the IDPH, while 62025 (Edwardsville) had 32. Twenty cases were reported in 62234 (Collinsville), while 62034 (Glen Carbon) and 62294 (Troy) each had 10. Nine cases were reported in 62249 (Highland), while eight cases were reported in 62035 (Godfrey), 62052 (Jerseyville) and 62095 (Wood River). Seven cases were reported in 62024 (East Alton) and 62060 (Madison). Six cases were reported in 62010 (Bethalto) and 62069 (Mt. Olive). The IDPH is releasing case numbers by ZIP code for areas with more than five cases. Numbers are not released in ZIP codes with fewer cases to protect the privacy of patients. More Information Area COVID-19 cases by county St. Clair - 289 (18 deaths) Madison - 190 (9-10 deaths) Monroe County- 55 (7 deaths) Montgomery - 17 (1 death) Bond County - 4 (1 death) Clinton -46 Macoupin -22 Jersey - 10 Washington - 7 Greene - 1 Calhoun - 1 Sources: Illinois Department of Public Health and Madison County Health Department See More Collapse The information is available on the IDPH website www.dph.illinois.gov. Click on the coronavirus banner, then COVID-19 statistics in the drop-down menu on the left side. The IDPH on Tuesday also reported additional cases in Jersey, Montgomery, St. Clair, Clinton and Monroe counties in the Metro East, according to the IDPH website. During his comments Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a new multi-state agreement designed to offer relief for residents with student loan debt and additional benefits for families with children receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. He also briefly discussed statements he made earlier Tuesday that the virus may peak in Illinois in mid-May, rather than the earlier forecast of mid-April. Were working hard to make changes in the stay-at-home order, he said. Ive given enough information to people so they know the peak is still to come. Pritzker said the state may tweak the stay-at-home order. He also talked about what would happen after and spent most of his briefing Tuesday discussing economic issues, specifically the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Pritzker said that, while the federal CARES Act includes relief for people facing student loan debt including delaying interest, payments and collections it does not extend all student loans. Under Tuesdays agreement, those same protections were extended to some debts held by private companies. He said it would impact about 140,000 people with existing debt and said people should contact their loan providers, adding there may be some delays. This is new, so even the lenders are getting up to speed to this, he said. Pritzker also said Illinois is providing $112 million more for families with children who qualify for SNAP benefits. The distribution began Monday, with those already in the system receiving the money through existing LINK cards. He said information will be available soon for those not in the system. No child should ever have to worry where their next meal is coming from, he said. This change will make a big difference for 300,000 households. For the latest information on COVID-19 or coronavirus resources, visit the Madison County Health Department online at www.madisonchd.org or on Facebook @MadisonCHD. Also visit www.co.madison.il.us or on Facebook @MadisonCountyIL. Coca-Cola's global volume tumbled 25% in April as the coronavirus pandemic gripped large swaths of the world population. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. In this Tuesday, March 24, 2020, photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a worker wearing a face mask drives a forklift at a Swire Coca-Cola Beverages Hubei Limited plant in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. According to Chinese state media, the plant restarted some production lines on Monday. While many migrant workers across China remain trapped by travel bans due to the coronavirus, some industrial production has returned to action, including in the crucial auto manufacturing industry, which is largely based in Wuhan, and in businesses that provide critical links in global supply chains. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua via AP) Coca-Cola's global volume tumbled 25% in April as the coronavirus pandemic gripped large swaths of the world population. Those volumes made up of bottled drinks and the syrups Coke sells to theatres, restaurants, stadiums and music venues were humming early in the year, revealing how fast the virus hobbled human activity and commerce, from mom-and-pop shops to global operators like Coca-Cola Co. There has been temporary but profound pressure on our customers and our business," Chairman and CEO James Quincey said Tuesday. Volume was up 3% through February excluding China, and Coke was on track to reach and possibly exceed its financial targets. But within a month the Tokyo Olympics, of which Coke is a major sponsor, were off. Theaters and restaurants closed in Europe, the Americas and Africa, and billions took shelter in their homes. Global unit case volumes rose 7% in China in January, then it began to slide. The same pattern was repeated first in Europe, and then in North America. While sales to homes spiked briefly, almost half of Coke's sales come from movie chains, vending machines, concerts and other events. Almost all of the volume decline to-date in April came from those places. And sales of drinks that go in people's pantries or refrigerators have levelled off. In some places, like India, social distancing measures are so strict that home sales have suffered as well, Quincey said. The ultimate impact on the second quarter and full year 2020 is unknown at this time, as it will depend heavily on the duration of social distancing and shelter-in-place mandates, as well as the substance and pace of macroeconomic recovery, the company said in a prepared statement. However, the impact to the second quarter will be material. Coke remains optimistic about a rebound in the second half of this year, but Quincey stressed that the company is navigating uncharted territory. We are still some way from the new normal," he said. Cokes headquarters are in Georgia, where the state governor has announced aggressive plans to reopen some businesses starting Friday. Those roll-outs would extend to restaurants and other places next week. Quincey did not directly address those plans, which are being questioned by health experts. But he does not believe the company's Atlanta headquarters will open that soon. Some Coca-Cola labs or technical facilities might open sooner than headquarters and when they do, the company will likely implement strategies like employee temperature monitoring or staggered shifts, like those being used in Shanghai, the only company office that is currently open. Offices in Shanghai are disinfected at the end of each day. Well have to see how the health situation performs, Quincey said Tuesday. Most Coke employees are still on the job in some way. Production is focused on the company's most popular drinks to keep store shelves stocked. Try our Dish The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Dish arrives in your inbox every other Friday. See sample. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Coke has furloughed 14,000 baristas at its Costa coffee chain in China and the United Kingdom, but those workers are being paid, Quincey said. The company reported Tuesday that first-quarter net income jumped 65% to $2.8 billion, or 64 cents per share. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned 51 cents per share, easily beating Wall Street projections of 44 cents per share, according to FactSet. Coke's adjusted revenue of $8.6 billion also edged out analyst projections. Coke has already disregarded earlier projections for the year, but said its financial standing is strong Tuesday. Coke ended 2019 with $8 billion in cash and there was strong demand for a $5 billion debt offering last month. Plants have reopened in China, where the company checks the temperatures of workers daily. It's ramped up sanitation measures at all facilities. The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday expressed concern over the 'high-handed manner' in which the law enforcement agencies in Jammu and Kashmir used prevailing laws aganst The Hindu journalist Peerzada Ashiq and freelance photographer Mazrat Zahra New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday expressed concern over the "high-handed manner" in which the law enforcement agencies in Jammu and Kashmir used prevailing laws to deal with two Srinagar-based journalists and demanded that the charges against them be withdrawn. In a statement, the Guild also said it believes that this is an indirect way of intimidating journalists in the rest of the country as well. The Editors Guild of India has issued a statement pic.twitter.com/GUam3Ti53N Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) April 21, 2020 It noted that while only an FIR has been filed in connection with a report filed by Peerzada Ashiq, a reporter working for The Hindu, the authorities in the Union Territory have used the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against Masrat Zahra, a young freelance photographer. "Any recourse to such laws for merely publishing something in the mainstream or social media is a gross misuse of power. Its only purpose can be to strike terror into journalists," the Guild said. The editors body said it has noted with shock and concern, the "high-handed manner" in which the law enforcement agencies in Jammu and Kashmir have used the prevailing laws to deal with the two Srinagar-based journalists. "The journalists should be put to no harm or further harassment. If the government has any grievance against their reporting, there are other ways of dealing with such issues in the normal course," the Guild said. Mere social media posts of factual pictures can't attract the toughest anti-terror laws passed for hardened terrorists, it said. In the case of The Hindu reporter, the correct course was to escalate the complaint to the newspaper's editor, the Guild said. It demanded that the Union Territory administration of Jammu and Kashmir withdraw the charges forthwith. Zahra, who was booked for uploading "anti-national" posts, was questioned by police on Tuesday in connection with the case filed against her under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. While she was booked for a Facebook post about slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, Ashiq was booked for a story about the recent Shopian encounter in which two militants were killed. In a day of chaos in the international oil market yesterday, futures contracts expiring today on US-produced West Texas Intermediate crude dropped to as low as -$40.32 per barrel, meaning that producers were paying buyers to take them off their hands. The price at the close of trading was -$37.63 compared with $18.36 a barrel on Friday. It is the first time in history that oil prices have gone into negative territory. The reason for the collapse is the lack of storage capacity in the US because of the collapse in demand due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown measures. The main US storage facility is at Cushing, Oklahoma, a town of 10,000 people. The storage hub was at 70 percent capacity last week with traders saying it would be filled within two weeks. This prompted the futures selloff because the holder has to deliver 1000 barrels for every contract they hold to Cushing. Traders in the futures market described the chaos. Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, told the New York Times: We saw a total collapse in the market. There was everybody selling it into the hole with no buyers. Theyre going to have to drive down to a price where someone wants to buy it, and no one wants to buy it. The director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York told the Times: Im 55 years old, and I worked on the trading floor in college. Ive been through the first Gulf War, second Gulf War, World Trade Center, dot-com crisis, and nothing came close to this. It could get worse. This situation we are in is that bad. In an interview with Bloomberg, Michael Lynch, the president of Strategic Energy and Research, said: The background psychology right now is just massively bearish. People are concerned that we are going to see so much build-up of inventory that its going to be very difficult to fix in the near term and there is going to be a lot of distressed cargoes on the market. People are trying to get rid of the oil and there are no buyers. Some futures traders are still betting on a revival and so contracts for June remain positive. But an even bigger crash could be in the making when they become due. Stephen Schork, the editor of an oil-market newsletter, told the Financial Times: It just gets uglier from here. The rapid rise in US unemployment22 million workers have applied for jobless benefits in the past monthmeans that fewer and fewer Americans will be driving in the coming months, pushing down summer demand for petrol, usually the peak period. This summer is dead on arrival, he said. The biggest demand months are not going to happen. Global oil demand, which was 100 million barrels a day in 2019, has now fallen by 30 million barrels due to the pandemic. Prices for oil deliveries in June remain positive but the most actively traded futures contracts fell by 18 percent yesterday to close at just over $20 per barrel. Back in January they were trading at $65 per barrel. The price of contracts for Brent crude remains positive because it is stored on tankers which still have a capacity to take additional supplies but it is only a matter of time before this runs out. At the end of March there were 109 million barrels of oil stored on tankers at sea. Last Friday it has risen to 141 million. The oil price crash has shattered the agreement orchestrated by US president Donald Trump for Russia and Saudi Arabia to cut oil production by 9.7 million barrels a day. Trump claimed the deal would save thousands of jobs in the US oil industry. But like so many of the other assertions by the blowhard in the White House this pronouncement has been torn to shreds within a matter of days. Speaking at a press briefing yesterday, Trump said the administration was looking at increasing the holdings of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This is a great time to buy oil, he said. The idea was first floated several weeks ago but Congress refused to supply the funds for purchases. Trump said the administration was looking to fill up national petroleum reserves by as much as 75 million barrels and one way or the other it will be full. But such is the extent of the contraction it is doubtful this will halt the slide, any more than the agreement with Russia and Saudi Arabia did. The crash in the futures market will accelerate the already rapid decline in the physical market where prices are already down by more than 60 percent from the start of the year. Even before yesterdays historic events, Bloomberg reported that some buyers in Texas were offering as little as $2 a barrel for some oil streams. In Asia, it noted, bankers are increasingly reluctant to give commodity traders the credit to survive as lenders grow ever more fearful about the risk of a catastrophic default. The crash is ripping through the US oil industry. Last week producers shut down 13 percent of oil drilling operations but this has not been sufficient to counter the oversupply. The shale industry, which produces around 10 million barrels a day, providing what Trump has hailed as US energy dominance, now faces a rapid decline, if not a collapse. And it could have ramifications that reach into financial markets. Much of shale oil production has been financed by high-yield junk bonds and risky leveraged loans, predicated on oil prices of at least $60 per barrel. If major defaults occur this could have large knock-on effects in financial markets and eventually reach the banks. In the middle of last month, the Financial Times reported that most oil companies, with the exception of Exxon [Mobil] and Chevron were on life support and that even with oil prices at $57 a barrel the US shale industry was already struggling to generate cash and retain investor support in 2019 and 42 companies, with $26 billion in debt, had filed for bankruptcy. In the month since that report, the situation has become dramatically worse at a speed never seen before in history. US President Donald Trump said hell look into a proposal to prevent Saudi Arabian oil from unloading in the US and that he wants to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after crude prices fell into negative territory. This is a great time to buy oil, Trump said in a White House press conference Monday night. He said he wants either permission from Congress to purchase oil for the reserve or will allow companies to use its 75 million barrels of spare capacity to store crude. Trump also said he would look into a proposal by Republican Senator Kevin Cramer to stop Saudi crude shipments currently on their way to the US. We certainly have plenty of oil, so Ill take a look at that, he said. West Texas Intermediate oil, the US benchmark, plunged to minus $37.63 a barrel Monday, the most extreme price reaction to the severe drop in global demand amid an unrelenting supply glut. Trump called the unprecedented slump below zero largely a financial squeeze, though the situation is also rooted in physical practicality: the world is running out of places to store crude oil. The crash accelerated as May futures are set to expire Tuesday, forcing traders to unload contracts to avoid taking physical delivery because storage space is almost maxed out. The June contract, by comparison, settled at $20.43 a barrel. Its more of a financial thing than an oil situation, he said, adding that it will be very short term. USS America has steamed to intercept a Chinese government survey ship and several of its China Coast Guard escorts after they ventured into contested waters off the coast of Malaysia - amid an international maritime stand-off between the two Asian nations. The United States called on China to stop its 'bullying behavior' in the South China Sea on Saturday, citing concerning reports regarding Beijing's 'provocative' actions aimed toward offshore oil and gas developments in Malaysia's mineral-rich Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). US officials accused China of taking advantage of the distraction posed by the coronavirus outbreak to increase its maritime presence in the region, ordering them to desist. However, the warning was not clearly not heeded, and China's survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 has persisted with a number of patrols close to Malaysian oil platforms in the South China Sea, namely the West Capella drillship, which sparked territory contentions between China and Malaysia when it began exploration activities in October. With USS Theodore Roosevelt temporarily sidelined in Guam after suffering a high-profile coronavirus outbreak on board, USS America is currently the most significant operational naval asset the US Navy has in the region. The amphibious assault ship - with a fleet of Marine F-35B Lightning II stealth jets, MV-22Bs tiltrotors and CH-53 helicopters onboard - was seen sailing at high speed towards West Capella late Sunday to intercept the Chinese vessel. USS America has steamed to intercept a Chinese government survey ship and several of its China Coast Guard escorts after they ventured into contested waters off the coast of Malaysia, amid an international maritime dispute between the two countries Haiyang Dizhi 8 has persisted with a number of patrols close to Malaysian oil platforms in the South China Sea this week, namely the West Capella drillship, which sparked territory contentions between China and Malaysia when it began exploration activities in October Haiyang Dizhi 8, and its some 10 Chinese Coast Guard escorting boats, have been operating around 200 nautical miles off the coast of East Malaysia for several days. The contested waters are claimed by Malaysia, Vietnam and China. Since its commission six months ago, West Capella - which is under contract to Malaysian oil company Petronas - has of prompted a number of patrols from China Coast Guard and maritime militia ships, Vietnamese maritime militia ships and ships of the Royal Malaysian Navy and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency. Despite the volume of activity, no at-sea incidents have yet been reported, and all three governments are content to keep matters out of the public eye, USNI News reported. West Capella, which is under contract to Malaysian oil company Petronas, has triggered a flurry of patrols from China Coast Guard and maritime militia ships, Vietnamese maritime militia ships and ships of the Royal Malaysian Navy and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, since its commission six months ago With USS Theodore Roosevelt temporarily sidelined in Guam after suffering a high-profile coronavirus outbreak on board, USS America is currently the most significant operational naval asset the US Navy has in the region The amphibious assault ship was seen sailing at high speed towards West Capella late Sunday to intercept the Chinese vessel USS America is bristling with fleet of stealth aircraft, including Marine F-35B Lightning II jets (left), MV-22Bs tiltrotors and CH-53 helicopters (right) onboard Rival countries have wrangled over territory in the South China Sea for centuries, but tensions have steadily increased recently. On Wednesday, Haiyang Dizhi 8 was spotted operating off Vietnam, where it had last year conducted suspected oil exploration surveys in large expanses of Vietnams exclusive economic zone. The ship appeared to have started a survey in waters 352 kilometers (218 miles) off the coasts of Brunei and Malaysia, just north of Malaysias exclusive economic zone (EEZ), near waters claimed by both Vietnam and Malaysia. 'The United States is concerned by reports of Chinas repeated provocative actions aimed at the offshore oil and gas development of other claimant states,' the U.S. State Department said in an emailed statement in response to questions on the Haiyang Dizhi 8s presence in the area. 'In this instance, [China] should cease its bullying behavior and refrain from engaging in this type of provocative and destabilizing activity,' it said. In response, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman had said the ship was conducting normal activities and accused U.S. officials of smearing Beijing. Graphics tracking the Haiyang Dizhi 8 survey ship operating unimpeded in Malaysian EEZ waters, show the ship after 3rd survey line and carrying out it's fourth round past The latest incident in Malaysia came just a week after China took advantage of the USS Theodore Roosevelt being crippled by the coronavirus by sending an aircraft carrier and fighter jets close to the disputed territory of Taiwan. Taiwan's Defense Ministry said the Liaoning, China's first operational aircraft carrier, and five accompanying warships passed first through the Miyako Strait, located between Japan's islands of Miyako and Okinawa, to the northeast of Taiwan, on Saturday. The USS Roosevelt and USS Ronald Reagan are the only two US carriers in the Pacific, but both have been forced to dock due to confirmed coronavirus cases onboard, which effectively gives China free range in the region. With the US vessels in port, the Liaoning, which can carry up to 24 J-15 fighter jets, is currently the only aircraft carrier active in the western Pacific. The USS America is officially classed as an amphibious assault ship, not an aircraft carrier, despite being able to launch fighter jets from its deck. On Sunday, the Liaoning's carrier group, which includes two missile destroyers, two missile frigates, and a supply ship, sailed in waters on Taiwan's east coast and then into seas to the south of Taiwan, carrying out exercises, the ministry said. In response to China, the US Air Force and Navy put on a show of strength with a runway formation of a dozen B-52 bombers and other aircraft on Monday. Taiwan also said its armed forces monitored the carrier group's progress throughout and 'completed relevant actions in response to ensure national security and protect regional peace and stability'. There was no immediate response from China's Defense Ministry. Liaoning and accompanying warships passed first through the Miyako Strait over the weekend. Pictured here, the Liaoning sailing with a flotilla of Chinese ships in April 2018 The USS Roosevelt (pictured in 2017) and USS Ronald Reagan are the only two US carriers in the Pacific, but both have been forced to dock due to confirmed coronavirus cases onboard, which effectively gives China free range in the region Members of the People's Liberation Army navy are seen on board China's aircraft carrier Liaoning as it sails into Hong Kong, China, in July 2017 Chinas sweeping claims of sovereignty over the seaand its estimated 11 billion barrels of untapped oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gashave antagonized Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei, who all have competing claims to the territory. The United States, which maintains important interests in ensuring freedom of navigation and securing sea lines of communication (SLOCs), has expressed support for an agreement on a binding code of conduct to ease tensions in the region. Chinas claims, and recent conduct in the region, threatens SLOCs, which are important maritime passages that facilitate trade and the movement of naval forces. The U.S. State Department had urged Beijing to focus on combating the coronavirus pandemic and 'stop exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea.' We have been able to re-imagine our office from a process-centered philosophy to a student-centered and customer service driven mission," said Elizabeth Hilton, Director of Student Financial Services at Riverside City College. CampusLogic, higher educations leading student financial success platform, today announced that it has exceeded 100 institutional partnerships in California. With 500+ schools now leveraging the CampusLogic platform, California is the first to hit the 100+ mark and leads significantly in the number of schools that are currently committed to empowering student financial success in higher education. Butte College in Oroville, CA, has implemented both CampusMetrics and StudentForms, and Director of Financial Aid Tammera Shinar says students are now moving through the process of applying for aid and are receiving their much-needed financial aid faster than ever before. Implementing CampusLogic was a game-changer for our students, Shinar comments. The feedback we hear from students is very positive. They really appreciate the online functionality that CampusLogic offers along with the great communication features that keep students informed about their financial aid. Regional Vice President for CampusLogic, Chris Jordan, is zeroed in on California institutions. Currently, there are more than three million students who drop out of school for reasons related to finances every year in the U.S., and CampusLogic is on a mission to change that, said Jordan. There are more than 281 colleges and universities in California, and as the higher education student population continues to become more diversewith more diverse needsit is imperative that we equip schools to meet those students where they are with dynamic, personalized interactions that will empower student financial success. California State University San Marcos implemented StudentForms to modernize their financial aid office and deliver better customer service to their 17,000+ students. Julie Lindenmeier, Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships, comments, Implementing CampusLogic freed up staff from opening mail, scanning, and indexing documents; and now we spend our time counseling students rather than getting paper cuts. At the University of California Santa Barbara, the financial aid office has leveraged the power of StudentForms and ScholarshipUniverse to deliver personalized, mobile information to students and provide them with a one-stop-shop for scholarship opportunities. "CampusLogic has been a game-changer for the families we serve. Almost overnight, we were able to greatly enhance the level of service we provide, said Mike Miller, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Enrollment. The ability to turn on a dime and be a completely virtual financial aid office appeals to Jose Aguilar, Director of Financial Aid at UC Riverside (UCR). StudentForms has been a godsend to UCRs financial aid office, said Aguilar. With StudentForms in place, we were able to have a smooth transition for working remotely during the COVID-19 interruption. Our staff was in a position to continue working on verification with minimal disruption. Elizabeth Hilton, Director of Student Financial Services at Riverside City College, summarized their experience by saying, StudentForms from CampusLogic has changed the landscape of financial aid at our college. She explained that moving from paper-driven processes to a virtual platform significantly decreased processing time while showing an increase of 16% in student files submitted. We have been able to re-imagine our office from a process-centered philosophy to a student-centered and customer service driven mission. California is leading the way in empowering student financial success by getting rid of old, paper-driven processes and replacing them with innovative, personalized experiences. Joel Brown, Assistant Director of Financial Aid at California Baptist University, attests to the positive changes since implementing CampusLogic software. CampusLogic took our manual verification process and streamlined it to be able to do 150+ verifications per week with only two employees processing our entire university, said Brown. From mobile communication to maximized scholarship opportunities to clear and understandable pricing information, institutions are stepping up to ensure students have every opportunity to enroll in school and complete their higher education goals. And CampusLogic will be beside them every step of the way. About CampusLogic CampusLogic helps schools change lives by delivering the firstand onlystudent financial success platform that incorporates a net price calculator, complete scholarship management, personalized digital communications, simplified financial aid verification, 24x7 multilingual virtual advising, tuition and scholarship crowdfunding, and integrated data visualizations. Over 500 schools across the country use CampusLogic to provide their students with an easy, mobile, and personalized experience to simplify the financial success journey, resulting in increased enrollment, better informed borrowing, and improved retention. CampusLogic annually hosts EmpowerED, a conference dedicated to providing student financial success professionals with access to industry trends, best practices, and networking opportunities with like-minded colleagues. For more information, visit campuslogic.com. Media Contact Allison Duquette Chief Revenue Officer, CampusLogic Allison.duquette@campuslogic.com (Photo : www.pexels.com) Over 600 people have been killed, and 3,000 rushed to the hospital in Iran due to their mistaken belief of drinking neat alcohol cures the coronavirus. Read More: Distilleries Join Fight Against COVID-19 By Converting Whisky and Gin Into Hand Sanitizers Amid Shortage What Happened in Iran There have been hundreds of people and thousands more who have been poisoned in Iran after they drank high-concentration alcohol due to their belief that it would cure the deadly coronavirus. Already, the death count reached 600 people. Also, there are about 3,000 people admitted in hospitals all over, said the Iranian judicial spokesman Gholam Hossein Esmaili on Tuesday, Apr. 21. He said in a press conference, "The numbers are very high and are beyond our expectations," and added, "Alcohol consumption is not a cure but can be lethal." The government orders arresting people who are spreading false information about COVID-19 cure, suggesting to drink highly-concentrated alcohol to cure the coronavirus. The state will deal with them accordingly, says Esmaili to the state-run Tasnim News Agency. "They must be held accountable for their criminal acts, for causing death and damage to citizens." Iran is the country in the Middle East, which has the highest number of coronavirus cases, numbering at almost 63,000 confirmed cases as well as over nearly 4,000 deaths. Read More: [VIRAL] Indonesians Who Disobeyed COVID-19 Self-Isolation Orders Now Quarantined in an Abandoned Haunted House What Else Are People Talking About Over in Iran There are now several questions towards the country and how they downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in their country. Their initial data was largely off-base with reality. Also, Iran's parliament convened on Tuesday for the very first time since the coronavirus pandemic forced its doors to close, temporarily. The country reports as well that there has been a drop in new infections of the coronavirus for the seventh straight day. The parliament was two-thirds complete out of the 290 members as they gathered, noticeably absent in the meeting is the veteran politician Ali Larijani, who was tested positive for COVID-19 just last week. The state television shot footage of the opening session showed some MP's huddling close to one another despite the guidelines on social distancing by WHO to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The parliament's agenda that time was to debate and ultimately block a bill that would call for total lockdown in the country for a month, as they said it would damage the economy even more so. MP Shadmehr Kazemzadeh said to the news agency ISNA, 'This plan is against jobs and growing productivity. Who's going to pay for implementing it?' However, Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, the person responsible for drafting the bill, said that Iran is "confused" on how to contain the coronavirus pandemic in their country. He had this to say, "We must urgently make a decision, as history will judge us," Iran decided to close down all non-essential businesses and has imposed inter-city travel bans, while not going on lockdown in a bit to stop slightly stop the coronavirus pandemic. Read More: Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Astronauts From Space Coming Home 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In what amounts to a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trumps views on the subject, the Republican-chaired Senate Intelligence Committee released a 158-page report on Tuesday, concluding that Russian President Vladimir Putin did interfere in the 2016 election, with the aim of denigrating Hillary Clinton and boosting Trumps chances of winning. The report also states that the U.S. intelligence communitys analysis of Putins campaign, which came to the same conclusion, was a sound intelligence product, written under no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions. (That analysis was ordered by President Barack Obama near the end of his term and finished three weeks before Trump took office.) Advertisement Although the reports authors dont take issue with Trumps claims explicitly, Sen. Ron Wyden, the committees ranking Democrat, highlights the contrast in a brief minority report. Wyden recalls that Trump had denounced the intelligence communitys findings as a hoax, citing as evidence the fact that Putin had very strongly denied them. Trumps deference to Putin, Wyden writes, only serves to further Russian disinformation and undermine efforts to defend the United States against similar attacks in the upcoming election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report dismisses several other assertions that Trump and his allies have made. For instance, Trump has often claimed that the investigation of Russian interference was sparked by the Steele dossier, a reportwritten by a former British intelligence agent, as part of opposition researchthat further charged that Trumps campaign colluded with the Russians. However, the Senate report concludes, The Steele material did not in any way inform the analysis in the ICA [Intelligence Community Assessment]including its key judgments. Advertisement Advertisement For one thing, the report states, the Steele dossier was not even among the materials circulated for the assessment. For another, the FBI opened its investigation into the Trump campaigns possible coordination with Russia on July 30, 2016well before the dossier was complete. The Senate report started out as a highly classified document, based on 25 interviews with more than 40 intelligence officials, as well as many follow-up conversations and emails. The just released, declassified version is heavily redacted; many chapters, especially those detailing each intelligence agencys reporting, are blacked out almost entirely. Neither the witnesses nor the reports authors address whether Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russians, mainly because the intelligence agenciesincluding the CIA and NSArefused, as a matter of policy and principle, to investigate American citizens, leaving that question to the FBI. The FBI turned the inquiry over to special counsel Robert Mueller, who decided not to pursue any matters involving counterintelligence, leaving that subject to the Justice Department. But given that Attorney General William Barr acts as if his main job is serving as Trumps personal lawyer, those inquiries are probably long dead in the water.* And so the most tantalizing pieces of this whole puzzlewhat did the president know and when did he know itremain unsolved. Correction, April 21, 2020: This article originally misidentified William Barr as Robert Barr. For more of this weeks political news, listen to Tuesdays What Next. By Emmanuel Ogebe Several complimentary commentaries have been shared with regard to the recently deceased Chief of Staff to the p... By Emmanuel Ogebe Several complimentary commentaries have been shared with regard to the recently deceased Chief of Staff to the president, Abba Kyari. These included glowing tributes from a current minister who was singlehandedly appointed by Kyari, not by his state or APC or the president, but solely on the basis of their personal friendship. Other tributes are from schoolmates etc some of whom claim Kyari was merely misunderstood. In law, such witnesses are called character witnesses. Character witnesses are usually called when a convicted person is seeking mercy from the court with regard to a lighter sentence. During this allocution stage, when a defendant may speak in his own behalf, others may be invited to speak on his behalf extolling his good sides so that justice is tempered with mercy. In law we also have fact witnesses. These are people who testify to actual happenings around the matter at issue. Unlike character witnesses, they do not speak on extraneous or historical issues but directly on the case at hand. Most times, they are eyewitnesses. Having heard character witnesses of Kyaris earlier days and deeds, let us now look at other witnesses whose stories we saw play out on the national stage during his very specific tenure as Chief of Staff which is the particular matter at issue right now. 1. Oyo Ita Former Head of Service in an altercation with Kyari claimed that she warned them not to reinstate wanted pension scandal fugitive Abdulrasheed Maina. She was removed as HOS and criminal charges of fraud slammed on her. 2. Justice Walter Onnoghen Former CJN, confirmed by Acting President Osinbajo, who a ghost Tribunal mysteriously removed on trumped up charges to install a northern Muslim. 3. Matthew Seiyafa Former Acting DG DSS appointed by Acting Prez Osinbajo served for just three weeks till the presidency sent him on early retirement so a northern Muslim could replace him. 4. Babatunde Fowler Former head of FIRS and supposed acquaintance of VP Osinbajo unceremoniously booted, disgraced and replaced by a northerner. 5. Ibe Kachikwu Former minister of state for petroleum dumped after exposing $25B oil deal discrepancy by a northerner Baru in NNPC. 6. Prof Isaac Adewole Former minister of health stripped of funding for health services because he suspended the indicted Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf a Muslim northerner. Kyari moved Health procurements to the ministry of Agriculture and Adewole was dumped as minister. Agric ministry reportedly supplied animal medication to the health ministry. 7. Omoyele Sowore Once an ardent pro-Buharist, the Activist reporter was framed for treason, serially arrested and detained and injected with unknown substance by a northern lawyer despite court ordered bail. It took pressure from USA to secure his release months later. 8-9. Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and John Okoro Supreme Court judges, whose doors were broken at midnight and were arrested and detained by DSS just because they refused entreaties by the presidency to rule in favour of APC in election appeals. 10. Major General Life Ajemba Rtd distinguished military doctor denied approval by Nigeria upon his nomination by USA to head a West African pandemic response isolation centers for Ebola/corona etc because the presidency preferred a northerner instead. APART FROM THE AFOREMENTIONED SOUTHERNERS WHO ERRONEOUSLY BELIEVED IN ONE NIGERIA AND IN BUHARIS ANTI-CORRUPTION STANCE, A FEW NORTHERNERS SUFFERED IN KYARIS HANDS TOO: 11. DSP Tijjani Bulama Investigating police officer detained in DSS custody for months for daring to investigate a contract scam involving Abba Kyari. Also posted out of Abuja on punitive reassignment. 12. Bako Waziri Kyari A cousin of Kyari detained by the DSS for months for reporting he was duped of 300m in a contract scam by Kyari. Kyari abused his office and used the DSS to get him locked up. 13. Sambo Dasuki Ex-NSA detained for five years despite numerous court orders on allegations of sharing weapons funds even though Buhari was a beneficiary of two vehicles from the same funds. 14. AVM Jon Ode Headed military arms corruption probe panel and after finding links to senior Buhari aides was marked for elimination along with other members of the panel (some of whom have died or escaped death or in hiding.) 15. El Zakzaky 1000 of his followers were killed, his sect banned and branded terrorists and he and his wife detained for five years despite court ordered bail. 16. AVM Morgan & Gen. Aliyu Chief and Deputy Chief of Defense Intelligence both removed from office for chairing a panel of investigation into US- based international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe and refusing to wrongfully indict him as directed and were subsequently retired from service. Replaced with a northern Muslim. KYARI & THE CABALS THREATS EXTENDED TO EVEN HIGHLY PLACED PERSONS 17. VP Osinbajo The VP was marginalized for confirming Onnoghen as the first Southern Christian CJN in 30 yrs, for firing cabal chieftain Lawal Daura and appointing a Christian as acting DG DSS. Both appointments were reversed and replaced by northern Muslims. VP was stripped of his aides and portfolio and his constitutional headship of the economic council undermined by the creation of a counterfeit council and a new ministry. 18. Prominent northern religious ruler Reported that efforts were in the works to depose this top cleric but for the intervention of a foreign leader who had bankrolled the presidents past campaigns. 19. Aisha Buhari Presidents wife badly marginalized. Nicknamed suicide bomber, and a surrogate female SA was appointed to stand in for her on most occasions including traveling with president abroad. Aisha was infamously locked out of villa apartment, denied cash transfer funding for poor in her state and an attempt made to marry another wife for the president in the person of a current cabinet member. 20. Muhammed Dauda Acting DG NIA was removed for allegedly refusing to share the recovered $40 million Osborne loot recovered from ex-DG Oke. He was replaced by Ahmed Rufai a deputy director reported to have failed promotion exams and retired from service but was now translator to Buhari. New DG NIA also northern Muslim of Chadian roots. 21. Governor Ortom Benue state Chief executive was subjected to an attempted impeachment orchestrated from the presidency by the DSS because of his anti-grazing bill to stem herdsmen massacres of his statesmen. 22. Sanusi Lamido Emir of Kano dethroned overnight and banished for criticising forex corruption at CBN and retrogressive almajiri practice in the north. Kyari received the replacement Emir less than 24 hours after Sanusis removal in Abuja. These are but a few examples of travesties that occurred during the tenure under examination due to limitation of time and space. It is telling that the EU Nigeria Head of Delegation, Ambassador Ketil Karlsen, in a tribute, said: He became a friend and was an inspiration with his passionate approach to the development of Nigeria in general and the north in particular. It is hard to see how we could have conceivably misunderstood all the horrors we experienced. Whatever the case, suffice it to say therefore that Kyari was a good man except for the terrible things he did as Chief of Staff. The wise would take a hint, at this juncture, to chart a new progressive and inclusive course right now since the alleged Wizard of Oz is no more. For instance, Major General Buhari would rekindle hope in one Nigeria and reunite the nation if he appointed someone from the southeast or south south as Chief of Staff. There is simply no one from those regions in the top echelon of government. More easily, Buhari should release VP Osinbajo from enforced lockdown. It has been the historic lot for Buhari to have been made to look good by able Yoruba adjutants. Tunde Idiagbon made him look good as military dictator. The fact is Osinbajo made him look good while Kyari made him bad. The presidents wife, Aisha, who is liked for her forthrightness should also emerge from the oppressive alienation which the cabal foisted between her and her husband. Nigeria needs, nay requires, leaders who are competent to run their personal homes at the very least. For all of us humans, we are enjoined thus, live well so the pastor wont have to lie at your funeral. A word is enough for the wise. MAUMEE, Ohio, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dana Incorporated (NYSE: DAN) will release its 2020 first-quarter financial results on Thursday, April 30, 2020. A press release will be issued at approximately 7 a.m. EDT, followed by a conference call and webcast at 10 a.m. EDT. Members of the company's senior management team will be available at that time to discuss the results and answer related questions. Participants may listen to the audio portion of the conference call either through audio streaming online or by telephone. Slide viewing is available online via a link provided on the Dana investor website: www.dana.com/investors. U.S. and Canadian locations should dial 1-888-311-4590 and international locations should call 1-706-758-0054. Please enter conference I.D. 7277164 ask for the "Dana Incorporated's Financial Webcast and Conference Call." Phone registration will be available beginning at 9:30 a.m. EST. An audio recording of the webcast will be available after 5 p.m. EDT on April 30 by dialing 1-855-859-2056 (U.S. or Canada) or 1-404-537-3406 (international) and entering conference I.D. 7277164. A webcast replay will also be available after 5 p.m. EDT and may be accessed via Dana's investor website. About Dana Incorporated Dana is a world leader in providing power-conveyance and energy-management solutions that are engineered to improve the efficiency, performance, and sustainability of light vehicles, commercial vehicles, and off-highway equipment. Enabling the propulsion of conventional, hybrid, and electric-powered vehicles, Dana equips its customers with critical drive and motion systems; electrodynamic technologies; and thermal, sealing, and digital solutions. Founded in 1904, Dana employs more than 36,000 people who are committed to delivering long-term value to their customers, which include nearly every vehicle manufacturer in the world. Based in Maumee, Ohio, USA, and with locations in 34 countries across six continents, the company reported sales of $8.6 billion in 2019. Having established a high-performance culture that focuses on its people, the company has earned recognition around the world as a top employer. Learn more at dana.com. SOURCE Dana Incorporated Related Links http://www.dana.com Cath Kidston permanently closed all of its stores with the loss of 900 jobs, while Primark's owner said sales had fallen to zero and it had furloughed 68,000 staff on another ominous day for British retailers, who have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, pubs, bars and restaurants warned MPs that they face a bloodbath as lockdown conditions are eased, with up to a third of the sector at risk of going out of business. Associated British Foods (ABF), which owns budget retailer Primark, was the first to sound the alarm on Tuesday, as it revealed that sales had dropped from 650m per month to zero as a result of all its stores closing in Europe and the US. Unlike many rivals, Primark does not sell clothes online meaning it has been unable to mitigate lost revenues by ramping up deliveries to customers homes. ABF boss George Weston said the group had been squarely in the path of this pandemic and would have had to have laid off staff if governments had not implemented furlough schemes which cover wage costs. Pre-tax profits slumped 42 per cent to 298m for the half-year to February as Primark was left with millions of pounds of stock it was unable to sell. The company wrote down the value of its stock by 243m. Mr Weston said that when stores can reopen, we must make our Primark stores safe for our staff and our customers, even if that means ensuring there are fewer people shopping at any one time and so accepting lower sales at least until the remaining risk is minimal. In time we can rebuild the profits. We cant replace the people we lose. Home furnishings chain Cath Kidston confirmed on Tuesday that its 60 stores will not reopen after the coronavirus lockdown ends, with just 32 out of 940 employees to keep their jobs. The brand will continue after a deal with the one of the retailers shareholders, Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA), which will buy the online business, brand and wholesale arm from administrators Alvarez & Marsal. Melinda Paraie, chief executive officer of Cath Kidston, said: While we are pleased that the future of Cath Kidston has been secured, this is obviously an extremely difficult day as we say goodbye to many colleagues. Despite our very best efforts, against the backdrop of Covid-19, we were unable to secure a solvent sale of the business which would have allowed us to avoid administration and carry on trading in our current form. Hospitality firms are facing similar problems to retailers, with the sectors trade body calling for deferral of rent payments that have built up during the pandemic to help prevent mass insolvencies. UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls called for urgent action, including extending the employee furlough scheme for premises that may be forced to continue social distancing measures as late as Christmas, long after the rest of the country has left lockdown. Ms Nicholls told MPs on the House of Commons Treasury Committee that large numbers of hotel and restaurant staff are already missing out on furlough payments because income from tips and service charges is not included. Ms Nicholls said: It is undoubtedly the case that we are not going to be able to save every business and we are not going to be able to save every job in hospitality. Editors' Note: The Industry Dialogue is a multi-part series by News18.com in which the industry talks about the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and the challenges because of the COVID-lockdown, as well as the possible solutions and measures to get the economy back on track at the earliest. Online Classes were the quintessential no-go zone for almost all higher education institutions in India until Covid-19 struck. This medium was largely restricted to distance learning programs or new age Education Technology start-ups who have been trying to disrupt the for-profit education and training landscape. With the pandemic, Higher Educational institutions were left with no option but to transition online almost overnight. With the nature of the current lockdown, remote learning has become the (temporary?) norm across the entire value chain of learning including K-12 schools. My daughter who is currently in Kindergarten now has online classes everyday albeit for an hour with a 30 min break in the middle. Who could have foreseen this scenario? Resistance to change melted away instantaneously and both students and faculty found themselves glued to their laptops or tablets engaging with each other. Whilst technological tools are aplenty and connectivity is a lesser problem now, online learning is proving to be a great leveller. This is driving faculty and those facilitating them to rediscover the learning process to go back to the science and art of knowledge facilitation. Surprisingly, some faculties who were excellent communicators in traditional face to face classrooms have struggled somewhat on this new stage. Other faculty who may have found it difficult to hold the attention in a traditional classroom have come into their own here. Research suggests that attention spans shrink further online even with the best of students. Sometimes the best you can get is 6 minutes of attention in an online lecture. The online learning medium lends itself better to a constructivist approach where learners build meaning from their own experiences. Personal interpretations and self-exploration of complex topics enhance the learning experience of the students. Problem based learning is an important example of constructivist learning where students go through a collaborative discussion process to enhance their own understanding. This learning approach is easier said than done in India where a major section of the education system is still focused on rote based learning. The flipped classroom approach has had a mixed response precisely for that reason. The stock price of Zoom Communications had gone through the roof before being dented by privacy concerns. According to some research, the companys active user count was up by 340 percent compared to December 2019. Other online communication technology players are also pushing usage and importance across the work and home spheres as well. The scale of this move online was global and unprecedented. Covid-19 is not just a localised flood or earthquake, it is incomparable in its scale and not previously witnessed by any of the generations that co-habit this planet currently. The coronavirus has been ruthless in its destruction and if analysts are to be believed, this virus will leave deep scars on the political economy, business and the human psyche. Institutions all over the world including India were left with no option but to make their move online. For those new to online teaching, it will be important to start small with limited experimentation but a greater focus on generating interaction and engagement. There is a tendency at times to bombard participants and learners with a lot of lecture content but this is counter-productive. After building a proxy lecture environment and increased comfort, faculty could incorporate forums, quizzes and other asynchronous content. Online instructional designers could work with faculty to help design a structured approach to lessons. A robust peer-to-peer collaborative review process also helps create an online learning culture. Pre and post lecture engagements are as important as the lecture itself. Research does suggest that slow learners would require a much greater emphasis in the online classroom and be prepared to spend more time with them. Over time, faculty could start incorporating more digital learning tools such as Mentimeter, Kahoot, Edmodo, Padlet, Socrative and Visme. As in the physical world, let your personality reflect in the online medium too. The initial days of online cacophony, muting, unmuting, background noise of all denominations would steadily lead to a tango of engagement and mutual respect for learning. About the Author: Dr. Vishal Talwar is the Dean of the School of Management at the BML Munjal University. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Tuesday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide financial assistance of Rs 30,000 crore to the state in the next three months to operate relief and welfare schemes. A state government release said Baghel also sought exemption for functioning of electronic items and vehicle showrooms, sweet shops, and construction activities in cities during the lockdown for the coronavirus outbreak. "In a letter to the Prime Minister, Baghel said due to the long period of lockdown, economic activities have come to standstill and revenue collections declined to almost zero in the state. In view of the current scenario, there is also possibility of a big reduction in the amount that the state receives from Central taxes," the release said. The state government needs additional resources to ensure livelihood of 56 lakh poor families, who have no means of income left, it said. "The state should be given financial assistance of at least Rs 30,000 crore from the Centre in the next three months, out of which Rs 10,000 crore should be released immediately, so that industry, business, service and agriculture sectors can be provided monetary aid," Baghel wrote in the letter. "Exemption should be given to the operation of sweets shops, so that dairy farmers can sell milk there. Operation of showrooms of vehicles, registration of sale and purchase of properties, construction work in cities, outlets of air conditioners, coolers and fridges in view of summer season and all repairing works should also be allowed," it said. It would be appropriate to allow retail works in all districts identified as green zones during the lockdown, the CM said in the letter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Businesses in Georgia and Tennessee will soon reopen as governors in the states peel back orders issued to curb the spread of coronavirus. In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp said gyms, hair and nail salons, tattoo parlors, barbers, bowling alleys and massage services can reopen Friday, April 24. Theaters, private social clubs and restaurants will be allowed to reopen April 27. Businesses will be required to stagger shifts, keep work spaces six feet apart and screen workers for illnesses. Employees will also be required to wear masks and gloves when appropriate. "By taking this measured action, we will get Georgians back to work safely without undermining the progress we all have made in this battle against COVID-19," Kemp said. Bars, nightclubs, amuse parks and live performance venues will remain closed. Georgias shelter in place order is set to expire April 30 at 11:59 p.m. The state has 18,947 cases of coronavirus with 733 deaths. Due to favorable data & more testing, gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, their respective schools & massage therapists can reopen Friday, April 24 with Minimum Basic Operations. #gapol Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) April 20, 2020 In Tennessee, Gov. Bill Lee said he is not extending the states Safer at Home Order, past April 30, a move that will allow the vast majority of businesses in 89 of the states 95 counties to reopen May 1. Restrictions will continue in Shelby, Madison, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox and Sullivan counties, though Lee said he is working on plans to safely reopen those areas. While I am not extending the safer at home order past the end of April, we are working directly with our major metropolitan areas to ensure they are in a position to reopen as soon and safely as possible, Lee said. Social distancing works, and as we open up our economy it will be more important than ever that we keep social distancing as lives and livelihoods depend on it. Tennessee currently has 7,238 cases of coronavirus with 152 deaths. NEW: Tennessee Begins Phased Reopening Next Week Our Economic Recovery Group is working with industry leaders around the clock so that some businesses can open as soon as April 27. Read more: https://t.co/mWA9rZjyq9 Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) April 20, 2020 Elsewhere, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced the states beaches and some non-essential businesses will be opening. Beaches can open April 21 at noon, though that decision will be up to local officials. Retailers such as clothing, sporting goods, crafts stores can reopen today with limited occupancy. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 00:24:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Djibouti's Ministry of Health on Tuesday announced 99 new COVID-19 confirmed cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Horn of Africa nation to 945. The Djiboutian Ministry of Health, in a statement issued on Tuesday, disclosed that from a total of 811 people who were tested over the last 24 hours, 99 were tested positive for the virus. The ministry also announced that some 112 people who have been infected with the COVID-19 have recovered as of the stated period. Ten of the patients recovered during the past 24 hours. Amid the rising COVID-19 confirmed cases in Djibouti, the Red Sea nation had on Sunday reported 114 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, after the country tested some 658 people. Djibouti has so far conducted a total of about 8,955 COVID-19 tests, according to the Djibouti Ministry of Health, which has reported two COVID-19 deaths. Enditem [April 21, 2020] Shift Technology And ALFA Join Forces To Fight Organized Auto Insurance Fraud PARIS and BOSTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Shift Technology, a provider of AI-native fraud detection and claims automation solutions for the global insurance industry, today announced that the Agency Against Insurance Fraud (ALFA) is using the company's Force fraud detection solution to better identify suspicious activities impacting multiple insurers. As a result of the partnership, ALFA members are better prepared to identify and mitigate auto insurance fraud committed by organized networks. ALFA is an offshoot of the French Federation of Insurance (FFA) and was specifically created to help its member companies advance the fight against insurance fraud. The organization offers a variety of services including access to technical and methodological documents, the ability to tap into an extensive network of AFNOR-certified (Association Francaise de Normalisation) insurance investigators, as well as other advisory services. Currently, the 320-member association includes 100% overage of the French P&C insurance market. "In partnership with Shift, ALFA has created a unique tool for the insurance sector," explained Maxence Bizien, Director, ALFA. "The ability to quickly and efficiently identify the networks of organized fraud that are impacting multiple insurers is something that will change the way in which our members collectively approach fraud, ultimately benefiting all honest policy holders." Shift was selected to support this project as the company and its technology met the requirements set by ALFA, specifically, in-depth knowledge of the data processed by member insurance companies and a unique capacity to organize and analyze it appropriately. In addition, Shift presented the advantage of being a company which exclusively services the insurance sector. For this project, Shift's Force solution looks for evidence of policy holders who have taken out multiple policies with various member insurers, those who have taken out coverage after an event, the trafficking of wrecked vehicles, policy holders with multiple total losses, as well as overall suspicious claims. Following a review by ALFA personnel, alerts with a high level of suspicion are delivered to member organizations. "The capability in Force to identify fraud networks is already of tremendous benefit to individual insurers because it allows investigators to make important connections that they most likely cannot see on their own," stated Jeremy Jawish, CEO and co-founder, Shift Technology. "Through our work with ALFA, we're multiplying that power exponentially by allowing those same connections to be seen across several insurers, which is something that simply couldn't be done before now." About Shift Technology Shift Technology delivers the only AI-native fraud detection and claims automation solutions built specifically for the global insurance industry. Our SaaS solutions identify individual and network fraud with double the accuracy of competing offerings, and provide contextual guidance to help insurers achieve faster, more accurate claim resolutions. Shift has analyzed hundreds of millions of claims to date and is the Frost & Sullivan 2020 Best Practices Award Winner for Global Claims Solutions for the Insurance Market. For more information please visit www.shift-technology.com . Contact: Shift Technology Rob Morton Corporate Communications [email protected] 617-416-9216 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shift-technology-and-alfa-join-forces-to-fight-organized-auto-insurance-fraud-301043737.html SOURCE Shift Technology [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Editor's note: Kent Sepkowitz is a CNN medical analyst and a physician and infection control expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN. (CNN) As the relentless rise of Covid-19 cases and deaths continues unabated, treatment options have begun to occupy center stage. The politically charged rush to hydroxychloroquine initially clouded people's judgment, but the current data is not confusing. The benefit, if any, may be quite modest, and the risk of toxicity is still real. A second drug, remdesivir, has made a splash and raised hopes, though in the new drug arena, early enthusiasm is common while actual advance is not. I am one of many specialists who consider one dose of convalescent plasma as the most promising treatment right now. The way it works might seem like a corny World War II movie designed to stir the guys and gals back home: Recovered Covid patients make their way to a medical station and donate their plasma (and its protective antibodies) to help a sick patient. The reports thus far are promising, yet lack control arms and adequate numbers to celebrate. Strangest and most miraculous of all, convalescent plasma treatment is cheap no drug company, villainous hedge-fund mover and shaker or insurance company is getting a cut. Rather, plasma uses altruistic donors, an existing network of blood banks and routine hospital processes for collection and delivery. For now. But before following the non-money, a quick primer on medical terms. Blood is about half cells (reds, whites and platelets) and half fluid; the latter is called plasma and includes various proteins and other useful molecules. Among plasma proteins is the target of interest: antibody. This might also be referred to as immunoglobulin, gamma-globulin, or IVIG. To get the antibodies out of the donor's blood, whole blood is drawn at a blood bank (free-standing or in-hospital) and separated into parts. The red blood cells are then infused back into the donor to avoid the anemia that can occur after regular blood donation. Once the antibodies from the previously infected donor are collected, the product enters the usual process for administering this sort of treatment. Hospitals and clinics administer antibodies (immunoglobulins) routinely for an array of non-Covid-19 conditions. A pharmacist reviews and approves, then a nurse connects the ill patient to an IV and the treatment, full of antibodies against Covid-19, begins to drip in. The current plasma treatment approach is perhaps the only example of vertical integration in healthcare. So, what's the cost of the program? The blood bank staff, the pharmacy staff, and the nurses are part of the fixed cost of healthcare, so there is no incremental cost. Dr. Louis Katz, former Chief Medical Officer of America's Blood Centers and now Chief Medical Office of the Mississippi Regional Blood Center in Davenport, Iowa, where he grew up, has said that under normal circumstances, the cost of a unit of plasma is about $60. But this is not a normal circumstance. The hubbub to assure speed, safety and high titers against a pressing deadline has upped the ante. "Blood bankers are currently working with the Feds to model cost and I am guessing it will end up in the range of $800 or less [per treatment]," Katz explained, "not counting the zillion hours spent by blood banks and hospitals building a new process in the middle of chaos." In other words, the one-time treatment, as currently configured, costs a fraction of one night in an American ICU, which can cost about $6,000. But don't celebrate yet. There may be a shift away from this Mom-and-Pop, let's-all-help-each-other approach. It is possible that an alternative approach is gathering strength in the distance. Meet the plasma fractionation companies, a series of multinationals in the business of collecting, processing, and distributing plasma products for decades. Specific antibodies have been given for diseases like hepatitis B or for rabies prevention, as well as rare conditions such as infants with certain blood mismatches. This business is not small potatoes. According to an analysis from biomed trade publication Medgadget, "the global plasma fractionation market size was worth $ 24.1 billion in 2018 and is expected to gain a compound annual growth rate of 7.1% during the forecast period (2019-2026)." As ever, healthcare for profit has some pluses (efficiency, research and development) and many minuses (cost, cost, and cost, as well as the unsettling notion of "growing markets" of certain diseases). Perhaps if the plasma fractionators enter this field, they will be altruistic and provide the convalescent plasma pro bono. Perhaps. Ditto their fleet of paid donors who give blood to earn money (and perhaps to help the world as well). But the chilling story of the 1990s epidemic of HIV in China shadows this endeavor. A different time and a different place and a very different regulatory climate, but a tragedy of historic proportions. About 25 years ago, blood collecting services appeared in small towns and villages in Henan province, in China's interior. Their offer was irresistible. During the near-starvation days of winter, the company would pay a farmer or his wife for their plasma. After blood collections, they would pool the donations from the entire village, siphon off the plasma then return a portion of the pooled red blood cells to each donor so that they could be strong enough to donate again in a week or two. The problem is that no HIV (or hepatitis) screening was done, so the infection of one person in the town spread to all other donors, their spouses and, for those pregnant, their babies. In addition, products sold to hospitals were transfused into patients where virus spread further. At least 100,000 people -- and perhaps as high as 500,000 -- in China contracted HIV in this manner. Furthermore, the two physician whistleblowers, Dr. Gao Yaojie and Dr. Shuping Wang, were reportedly intimidated and marginalized so extensively that each left the country. Since then collecting and administering blood has become decidedly safer in China, as plasma collection sites were shut down and then reopened with routine HIV testing. A disaster of this magnitude is extremely unlikely to recur during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the combination of desperation and a company willing to cut corners should give pause to any country considering this treatment approach. And it bears pointing out that similar stories, though smaller in scale, continue both in China and Pakistan. The latter is particularly pertinent as HIV was spread to 900 children not by contaminated product, but rather contaminated needles a key piece of the patient-to-patient convalescent plasma program. The shift from our current local donor to local patient approach likely will be conducted safely, and the cost may not become an issue. But a change to the for-profit model would remove a crucial element: satisfaction, the remarkable feeling of one person helping the next. And it is exactly this feeling that is required to get the world past the ongoing threat of the pandemic, be it as a commitment to social distancing, assurance of adequate food and lodging for all, or, if necessary, volunteer donation of potentially life-saving plasma. This story was first published on CNN.com 'Plasma may be the best option in the fight against Covid-19, but don't celebrate just yet' BJP vice president Uma Bharti on Tuesday urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to register a case of murder against the policemen who failed to save three men, including two seers, from being lynched by a mob in Palghar district. In a letter to Thackeray, the former Union minister termed the lynching of seers as a great sin and said she was observing a one-day fast on Tuesday to repent the incident. She said all those found guilty of the crime should be punished. "I request that you (Thackeray) punish the murderers, including all the police personnel, otherwise you will also be a partner to this sin," Bharti said in the letter. She said the "helpless sadhus were holding hands of policemen and pleading for protection". "But instead of saving the seers, the policemen handed them over to the crowd and saved themselves. The policemen are also accused of killing. A case should be registered against them under IPC section 302 (murder). If they wanted, they could have saved the seers by firing in the air, she said. Bharti said she will visit the incident site after the lockdown is lifted. "I am observing fast at my residence in Bhopal today for atonement, and I have appealed to the sadhu samaj to observe a day-long fast while staying at their places," the BJP leader said in the letter. She said the killing of the great sadhus by a mob in Palghar is a heinous crime in terms of law, but a great sin in the eyes of religion. The incident took place on the night of April 16 when three men - two seers and their driver - were going from Mumbai in a car towards Surat in Gujarat to attend a funeral. Their vehicle was stopped near a village in Palghar district where the three were dragged out of the car and beaten to death with sticks by a mob on suspicion that they were child-lifters. The deceased were identified as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushilgiri Maharaj (35), and driver Nilesh Telgade (30). The Maharashtra government earlier ordered a high- level probe into the incident, and two policemen from Palghar were suspended on Monday for alleged dereliction of duty. Palghar Police have arrested over 110 people in connection with the incident. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) James McAvoy has stressed the importance of supporting the NHS after revealing that UK doctors saved his life following a botched operation. The X-Men actor recently personally donated 275,000 to a campaign to give protective equipment to NHS workers on the frontlines in the battle against coronavirus. Speaking about his support for the Masks for NHS Heroes campaign, McAvoy told Good Morning Britain that the NHS had helped him throughout difficult times in his life. The NHS has been there for me from the day I was born, he said. Throughout my life, me personally, they saved my life, which I wont go into too much. I would be without multiple members of my family if it werent for the work of the NHS. In a less developed society random everyday things might kill us you can fall over and bang your head and youve got this beautiful thing called the NHS which will save your life. You can have a little botched surgery, which is what happened to me, and the NHS is there to save your life. McAvoy continued: You quickly realise in a situation like this just how close we are to all of that falling apart, how delicate and how precious it is and how much we need to look after it going forward. As horrible as this experience is that we are all going through, it is teaching us just how important our welfare system is and our healthcare system is and how important it is that we respect, and that we reward and protect those who are in the business of protecting us. The Masks for NHS Heroes crowdfunder has raised almost 2 million to provide NHS staff with PPE at a time when UK hospitals are struggling to provide doctors with gowns, masks and other equipment needed to safely treat Covid-19 patients. Downpatrick-based guitar maker Lowden Guitars has received a Queen's Award for Enterprise for International Trade. It follows the company's recent 45th anniversary celebrations and a strong year of exports. Lowden brand guitars are played by some of the music industry's best loved performers including Paul Brady, Jon Gomme, Pierre Bensusan, Alex De Grassi, Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, Damien Rice and Eric Clapton. In 2019 the company launched a collaboration with hitmaker Ed Sheeran. Founded in 1974 by the then 22-year-old, Lowden has grown from one work bench to a sprawling workshop. "It has been a milestone moment to be included by the Prime Minister and Her Majesty the Queen on the list of businesses in this year's Queen's Awards for Enterprise," said George Lowden, the business founder. "It's taken a lot of hard work, patience and determination during the last 45 years and we are delighted and humbled," the 68-year-old Co Down man added. Managing director David Ausdahl added: "The whole team here is pleased to congratulate George Lowden on this truly special commendation which recognises his dedication to continued growth while maintaining the outstanding reputation of the brand." Expats brought back from Europe due to the outbreak A specially arranged flight left London and arrived in Ankara in the evening. Turkey evacuated 337 citizens from the UK on Monday on a special flight in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. CITIZENS WERE QUARANTINED IN DORMITORIES At the instruction of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and in coordination with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkey decided to bring back nearly 25,000 citizens before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Following health checks, the citizens were sent to the city of Krkkale to be quarantined in a student dormitory. Meanwhile, Turkey also brought home some 448 Turkish citizens from Germany. Some 210 expats from Frankfurt landed in the city of Ordu and were transported to the northeastern city of Giresun to be quarantined. Another 238 citizens also arrived from the country and were quarantined. Citizens thanked President Erdogan, Vice President Fuat Oktay and foreign ministry staff for this opportunity. As part of the same measures, Turkey also brought back 93 expats from Spain. A Turkish Airlines flight carrying them landed at Samsun Airport in northern Turkey. After routine checks, they were sent to the city of Tokat to be quarantined. When an institution and partner such as SFMoMA calls for help in the middle of a pandemic, we grab our gloves and masks and go! San Francisco event production company, Got Light teams up with SFMoMA to light up the museum in blue to celebrate and honor the front line health care workers battling COVID-19. Every Wednesday night, the exterior facade of SFMoMA will be bathed in deep blue light, symbolizing San Franciscos dedication and appreciation for the health care industry. We are honored to find ways to celebrate health care workers and keep our employees working during this unprecedented time, says co-owner Russell Holt. On Monday nights, the lights change to purple hues to celebrate and honor those effected in the hospitality and restaurant industries. Got Light enjoys a near 15-year partnership with the museum, lighting their internal events, fundraisers, galas, and art openings. When an institution and partner such as SFMoMA calls for help in the middle of a pandemic, we grab our gloves and masks and go, says co-owner Jon Retsky. # # # About Got Light: Got Light began in 2003 by Jon Retsky in a Russian Hill basement turned lighting workshop. Today, Got Light occupies over 35,000 square feet of warehouse space, with over 120 employees, producing upwards of 800 events, museum openings, weddings, and galas per year. Visit Got Light at http://www.got-light.com. About San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the United States and a thriving cultural center for the Bay Area. Their remarkable collection of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design, and media arts, is housed in an LEED Gold-certified building designed by the global architects Snhetta and Mario Botta. In addition to our seven gallery floors, SFMOMA offers 45,000 square feet of free, art-filled public space open to all. Visit SFMoMA at http://www.sfmoma.org Mallya's legal team had claimed that the loan defaults by KFA were the result of wider issues faced by the aviation industry at the time. London: Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who lost his UK High Court appeal against an extradition order to India, has said that he is "disappointed" with the ruling but will continue to seek legal remedies as advised by his legal team. I am naturally disappointed with the High Court decision. I will continue to pursue further legal remedies as advised by my lawyers. I am also disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9000 crores. Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 20, 2020 The 64-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss reiterated that he has repeatedly offered to pay the Indian banks the loan amount owed by his now-defunct airline, an offer which the banks have rejected. I am naturally disappointed with the High Court decision. I will continue to pursue further legal remedies as advised by my lawyers, Mallya said in a statement on Monday evening. I have repeatedly offered to repay the banks in full, but sadly to no avail, he said. The dismissal of the appeal this week means Mallya has 14 days to apply for permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court. As he has now indicated his intention to seek further legal measures, the UK Home Office would wait for the outcome of that appeal before it can formally certify the court order for Mallya to be extradited to India. The businessman, who has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail after his arrest on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017, also expressed his disappointment with the media narrative which quotes Rs 9,000 crore as the amount owed in the fraud and money laundering case brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him. I am also disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9,000 crore. Please note that the allegations against me and others are specifically and only related to three tranches of borrowing from IDBI Bank for a total of Rs 900 crores in 2009. This loan was subsumed along with loans from other banks within the Master Debt Recast Agreement of 2010. Following the DRT (Debt Recovery Tribunal) order for the payment of approximately Rs 5,000 crore by way of Principal and Rs 1,200 crore by way of unapplied interest making a total of Rs 6,200 crores, the banks have already recovered in cash a sum of Rs 2,500 crore, which is 50 per cent of the Principal amount, he claimed. Mallya refers to paragraphs contained within the High Court judgment handed down by Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing, the two-member bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London presiding over the appeal, which refers to these specific amounts. The judgment notes that between April and November 2009, five banks the State Bank of India (SBI), the Bank of India, the Bank of Baroda, the United Bank of India (UBI) and United Commercial Bank (UCO) extended loans to Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) totaling Rs 1,250 crore, leaving a shortfall of Rs 750 crore from the desired infusion of Rs 2,000 crore. The KFA then approached an additional bank, the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), to make up that shortfall. The Requesting State, the Government of India (GoI) seeks the extradition of the Appellant (Mallya) in respect of these loans. It is said that the loans were obtained by means of a conspiracy to defraud and by means of fraudulent misrepresentations; it is further said that the Appellant engaged in money-laundering some of the proceeds of the loans, the judgment states. In the judgment handed down on Monday, the High Court judges upheld the December 2018 extradition order of the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London and accepted that there is a prima facie case both of misrepresentation and of conspiracy, and thus there is also a prima facie case of money laundering. Mallya's legal team had claimed that the loan defaults by KFA were the result of wider issues faced by the aviation industry at the time. But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, managed to establish a blueprint of dishonesty against the businessman and co-conspiring bankers. A northwestern Indiana man has been arrested for murder and aggravated assault that resulted in the death of his girlfriend's 5-year-old son. The boy's bruised body reportedly had fresh bite marks. Michael Tunstall, 26, told authorities that after a nap, the boy woke up Thursday vomiting and became unconscious after he took the child to a bathtub. When questioned about the bite marks, the accused said he had played a "bite game" with the boy earlier in the day in order for him to calm down. He added that he had not noticed any bruising on the child's body. The accused from Homewood, Illinois is in the custody of Lake County Sheriff's Police for the death of the boy, who he was watching at his girlfriend's sister's Schererville home on Thursday. Records said that Tunstall told the police he and his girlfriend and her children had gone to an open house and a fast food place prior to arriving at his girlfriend's sister's home and putting the younger children down for a nap. The child woke up after a couple of hours of vomiting, so he carried the boy to the bathtub and, after the boy became unconscious, splashed water on him and notified his girlfriend's sister, who was in the house, as indicated in the probable cause affidavit. According to the mother, upon going to the bathroom, she witnessed that the child's lips and fingertips were blue then performed CPR. She said she did not see or hear anything before seeing the boy in the bathroom. But the police said that the 5-year-old died of blunt force trauma that resulted in a ruptured left lung and multiple head injuries caused by several heavy strikes to his body. Also Read: Four Teens Attack Elderly Asian Woman on a Bus, Suspecting She Has COVID-19 An officer who noticed the bite marks and bruises went to Franciscan Health in Dyer where the deceased body was held. Court records indicated most of the injuries were experienced around an hour leading to the boy's death. Further examination revealed the kid's mother had not been home Thursday evening when it transpired. The woman was working and left at about 5:45 PM at the point when she received a call from home. The suspect was arrested on Friday afternoon and is being held without bond. "In my 27 years in law enforcement, I have seen many types of tragedy," according to Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr. "But as a police officer, the death of a child is always particularly difficult to accept." The autopsy indicated that the boy's ruptured lung and other serious injuries inflicted on the boy. The investigation into the occurrence is ongoing. In a similar case in Michigan in March, a man was jailed for murder for the death of his girlfriend's infant son. Police responded after receiving a call from the eight-month-old baby's mother indicating that she found the child lying unconscious in his crib. Related Article: Mexican Man Cuts Throat at U.S. Border After Denied Entry @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Research Future (MRFR's) latest report on the global rough terrain crane market delivers actionable insights which are backed by thoroughly studied analysis of historical data and forecast for 2017-2023. As per MRFR's analysis, the rough terrain crane market is likely to capture a CAGR of 4.30% over the forecast period. Rough terrain cranes are extensively used across industries which include construction, oil & gas, mining, and non-residential infrastructure. Accelerated construction activities across the globe combined with industrial development is signaling positive growth within the market. Moreover, upgradation of existing structures and rising investment in oil & gas industry is another factor contributing to the growth of the market. The rough terrain cranes market is ride with continuous product development and innovation to meet the evolving needs of various industries. Manufacturers are consistently adding new products to their product portfolios and are focused on various strategies such as mergers and acquisitions aimed at diversification and expansion of their sales which is likely to boost the growth of the market in the coming years. On the other hand, the high cost associated with rough terrain crane remains a significant challenge for the growth of the market. Segmentation The global rough terrain cranes market has been segmented based on capacity and application. By capacity, the rough terrain crane market has been segmented into upto 25 T, 26 T - 74 T, 75 T-100 T, and Above 101 T. The 26 T - 74 T rough terrain cranes segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment over the forecast period. Meanwhile, the 75 T-100 T rough terrain cranes segment is anticipated to showcase noteworthy growth over the forecast period. These cranes are versatile and can be applied to major lifting operations. Moreover, they are capable of performing both on and off-road projects. By application, the rough terrain crane market has been segmented into construction, utilities and others. The construction segment is leading the market. Fast-track urbanization across the globe has generated massive demand for these cranes from the residential construction sector. The growth of the segment is majorly from the developing regions where there is a boom in both residential as well as commercial construction projects. The utility segment is also estimated to exhibit impressive growth over the forecast period. Escalating investment in power transmission and distribution (T&D) networks can be credited for the growth of the segment. Regional Analysis Region-wise, the rough terrain crane market has been segmented into North America, Rest-of-the-World (RoW), Europe, and Asia Pacific (APAC). APAC is the largest market for rough terrain cranes and is anticipated to expand at the fastest rate over the forecast period. Upsurge in construction and infrastructural activities in the region is primarily supporting the growth of the market. The emerging economies of the region have generated massive demand for rough terrain cranes. Rise in spending capacities and fast-track urbanization are supporting the market growth. China, in particular, is a major contributor the APAC market. Favorable policies in China has led to an increase in construction activities which has induced demand within the rough terrain drones market. In addition, recovery of the commercial housing market has provided a boost to the market. Escalating upgradation of existing infrastructure and investment in power grids and distribution networks in Europe is favoring the growth of the market. The UK and Germany are the key contributors to teh Europe rough terrain cranes market. The North America rough terrain crane market is driven by accelerated commercial and residential construction projects. Competitive Landscape KATO WORKS CO., LTD (Japan), Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co., Ltd. (China), Broderson Manufacturing Corp. (U.S.), Liebherr Group (Switzerland), Terex Corporation (U.S.), The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (U.S.), TIL Limited (India.), ENTREC Corporation (Canada), Maxim Crane Works, L.P. (U.S.), Tadano Ltd. (Japan), SANY GROUP (China), and Manitex International Inc. (U.S.) are the noteworthy players in the rough terrain crane market. Industry Updates July 2019 - Manitex International, Inc., a leading provider of highly engineered mobile cranes, announced the expansion of its crane distribution network with the inclusion of two companies. Terex Dealers MADISA Group based in Mexico and Wyoming Machinery Company based in Wyoming are joining Manitex's network. 21.04.2020 LISTEN An Accra Circuit Court has today, Tuesday, April 21 fined six persons GHS14,400 (1,200 penalty units) each for violating the restrictions law. As part of efforts to curb the spread of the Coronavirus in Ghana, the government placed a ban on public gatherings and partially locked down the Greater Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan areas. The six who are all males according to the police violated the directive and attended a party on the 18th of April 2020. In default, the six convicts will each serve five years in prison. All the six pleaded guilty to conspiracy not to comply with restrictions imposed by the Imposition of Restrictions Act, 2020 (Act 1012) and failure to comply with Act 1012. In the facts presented to the court by the prosecution, the six were part of about fifty people who attended the party at Teshie, First Junction. About the arrest According to police, they (police) went to the venue upon a tip-off and managed to arrest the six people who took to their heels alongside the other persons at the party. Giving her judgment, the judge Efia Owusua Appiah explained her decision is to serve as a deterrent to other people. ---citinewsroom Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) Three more government facilities are ready to accommodate over a thousand COVID-19 suspected, probable and confirmed patients, the Department of Health said Tuesday. These are the Eva Macapagal Super Terminal in Manila, the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay and the New Clark City National Government Administration Center in Pampanga. The department said the terminal located in Manila South Harbor's Pier 15 which was commissioned by the Department of Transportation as a COVID-19 treatment facility, is now open with 211 available cubicles. The PICC has finished its conversion, and can now house 294 beds for patients once other facilities in Metro Manila have reached capacity. On the other hand, the National Government Administration Center, one of the largest quarantine facilities with a bed capacity of 688, completed construction and already started welcoming occupants. The government earlier said it identified 125 facilities which can be converted into quarantine centers. The Ninoy Aquino Stadium, with a 112-bed capacity, already discharged its first recovered COVID-19 patient on Monday. Authorities are also preparing The World Trade Center in Pasay, Philippine Arena in Bulacan, the PhilSports Arena or ULTRA in Pasig, the Filinvest Tent in Alabang as well as the ASEAN Convention Center in Pampaga. Medical staff from the police, coast guard and the Armed Forces together with the DOH will be assigned to some of the facilities, the agency said. The DOH also earlier reported that the country currently has 75 COVID-19 referral hospitals. Battling the invisible enemy, thousands of Iranians are playing their part in keeping their country safe. Iran reported 91 new deaths on Monday, just as the country said it is open for business. Iranians are doing their bit to help the government in the battle against the spread of the new coronavirus. And efforts to fight the pandemic have brought people together. Al Jazeeras Zein Basravi reports from Tehran, Iran. The Irish Red Cross Laois Area division is appealing for cotton and elastic supplies to continue making vital scrubs and face masks for frontline staff battling the Covid-19 pandemic. In a post on their Facebook page, they said: "We are appealing for help to source cotton. Our member Doris and her team are busy working away making facemasks and scrubs for nursing homes & hospitals. "All this is done voluntary and anybody who needs them can get in touch through this page or by ringing 0879276507. These are offered completely free. "With this in mind we are now opening our unit in Mountrath from 8pm to 9pm Tuesday & Wednesday and if anybody locally has any spare cotton i.e bed linen (if used needs to be boil washed) please drop them in. If your out shopping maybe pick up a sheet or duvet. If you are not local to Mountrath we can arrange collection. "We are also looking for any spare elastic between 5mm and 8mm for face makes. "Please support us as we try to support those on the frontline," they finished. To contact the Irish Red Cross Cross Laois Area division you can do so via their Facebook Page or by calling 0879276507. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, like all brides, wanted her wedding to be special and for her, that included an element of surprise about her wedding dress. According to a documentary, Kate was left in tears when the details of her wedding dress designer leaked ahead of her royal wedding to Prince William. Though the exact style of her dress wasnt revealed until the day itself, the name of the designer was spoiled ahead of time. Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge | Chris Jackson/Getty Images Kates wedding dress designer was revealed before the big day Kate reportedly hoped to keep all of the details of her wedding dress under wraps, but things didnt quite turn out that way. The Sunday Times leaked more than a month before the wedding day that Kates dress was designed by Sarah Burton, the creative director of Alexander McQueen. At the time, The Guardian reported that the Alexander McQueen label denied the Sunday Times report and Clarence House issued a statement. Were not commenting on the specific designer for the dress because Catherine Middleton wishes to keep the designer a secret until the wedding day, they noted. Did the designer leak leave Kate in tears? Kate walked down the aisle to marry Prince William on April 29, 2011, wearing a dress designed by Burton. In the documentary Secrets of the Royal Dressmakers, royal correspondent Katie Nicholl shared how devastating it was to Kate that Burton was spoiled as her dress designer. Behind the scenes, I think that caused tears at the palace because Kate had done everything she could to keep the wedding dress a secret, Nicholl explained in the documentary. In a press release following the wedding, the palace shared why Middleton chose McQueen for the task. Miss Middleton chose British brand Alexander McQueen for the beauty of its craftsmanship and its respect for traditional workmanship and the technical construction of clothing, the release noted. Miss Middleton wished for her dress to combine tradition and modernity with the artistic vision that characterises Alexander McQueens work. Miss Middleton worked closely with Sarah Burton in formulating the design of her dress. Kates dress turned heads Despite the public finding out ahead of the big day that Kates dress was designed by Burton, it was a surprise to everyone. Kates wedding dress included a train that was nearly 9 feet long and details that included lace flowers and 58 buttons up the back as well as a narrow waist bodice, which the press release shared, draws on the Victorian tradition of corsetry and is a hallmark of Alexander McQueens designs. Other elements of Kates big day were heavy on tradition Kate observed some of the common wedding day traditions, including the idea of something borrowed, something blue, with quite a unique borrowed item. She wore the Queens Cartier Halo tiara, also known as the Cartier Scroll tiara. The something blue was hidden from view, however, with Good Housekeeping reporting that Burtons team sewed a blue ribbon inside the dress. Her bouquet included a traditional element as well, with myrtle, lily-of-the-valley, hyacinth, and sweet William a subtle way to honor her husband. The stems of myrtle, the palaces press release explained, came from the same plant used in Queen Elizabeths wedding bouquet in 1947. The tradition of carrying myrtle begun after Queen Victoria was given a nosegay containing myrtle by Prince Alberts grandmother during a visit to Gotha in Germany, the release noted. In the same year, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought Osborne House as a family retreat, and a sprig from the posy was planted against the terrace walls, where it continues to thrive today. Queen Victorias eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, was the first to include myrtle in her wedding flowers when she got married in 1858. KV Navya By Express News Service CHENNAI: Alleging that they are unaware of containment zones, suburban residents claim they often come to know about it after seeing barricades. A containment zone is a specific area where one or more COVID-19 cases have been detected. Strict restrictions are imposed in the zone to prevent community spread. For the last two weeks, we have been trying to find out where the containment zones are and if we are falling in that zone. There is no response from any official. If information is not given, there is no point in having a containment zone at all. We need to keep all informed and coordinate to avoid risky pockets, said S Ramanathan, a resident of Maduravoyal. He further said the service road and Poonamalle road which lead to the market, have been completely barricaded. Till date, we dont have information on the size of this containment zone. We are struggling to get essentials. The government should at least communicate with resident associations, he said. Echoing similar views, Dayanand Krishnan of Thirumagal Nagar said Sembakkam too was shut without information. The residents are relying on WhatsApp messages to know about barricaded areas. Also, checking must be robust in these zones and movements must be completely stopped, he said. The residents also rued that local officials are neither active on social media nor attending phone calls. Express could not contact Tiruvallur and Chengalpet district administration officials despite repeated attempts. Three captive bears that were kept on a farm in the northern province of Nam Dinh were taken to the Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre in Tam Dao National Park, Vinh Phuc Province on Tuesday. It takes about four hours to take the bears from Nam Dinh Province to the Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre in the northern province of Vinh Phuc. Photo courtesy of Animals Asia A farm owner in Hai Xuan Commune, Hai Hau District in Nam Dinh Province voluntarily handed over the bears a male bear weighing about 100kg and two female animals weighing 80-100kg each to Giao Xuan Hai Forest Protection Station late last month. As soon as they were informed about the bears, Animals Asia worked with the Forest Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Nam Dinh Forest Protection Department to receive them. However, the rescue was delayed due to national social distancing measures imposed since the beginning of this month. Animals Asias Vietnam Director Tuan Bendixsen said that they first got the information two weeks ago, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to wait until it was safe for their team to conduct the rescue, for their safety and the safety of the community. According to the provinces Forest Protection Department, besides the three bears, another bear died at the farm, so the department moved the three bears to the local forest protection station. On Tuesday, Animal Asias rescue team reached the station to take the bears to the rescue centre. This rescue will be more challenging than most, given the need to observe COVID-19 guidelines of wearing masks in public, having no more than ten people gathering at a public/government place, having temperatures taken, and the need for foreign staff to bring passports to show they have not been overseas recently. Thats just something we have to factor in, says Tuan. But we have a responsibility to get to these bears as soon as possible. We need to get them back to our rescue centre and give them the chance to finally live happily ever after. As soon as they arrive at the rescue centre, the bears would be quarantined for 45 days and treated before being grouped with other bears and re-integrated to a semi-natural environment. Animals Asia has been rescuing bears in Vietnam and China for over 20 years, and entered into an exclusive Memorandum of Understanding with the Vietnamese government in 2017 to help rescue all the bears remaining on bile farms to finally end bear bile farming in Vietnam for good. Since 2007, Animals Asia has rescued 214 bears and at present, it is taking care of 185 bears at the rescue centre. VNS Caged bears rescued in Binh Duong Six bears, that have shown signs of having sickness have been rescued at a farm in Binh Duong Province by the Austria-based Four Paws organisation. Everybody was glued to their screens when the royal wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry was broadcasted in different parts of the world. It changed Meghan's life, but was it for the better? Or worse? While it looked like she was living the fairytale dream planning the wedding of the century, the night before the royal wedding, Prince Harry sent text messages to Meghan Markle's dad Thomas, warning him that contacting the press would backfire. Messages were revealed in court documents that were issued ahead of the first hearing of the Duchess of Sussex's lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, both British tabloids that published letters and texts on their portals without Meghan's consent. In texts sent on May 14, 2018, after calls were made to the 75-year-old went unanswered, Prince Harry wrote, "Tom, Harry again! Really need to speak to u." Another message was sent by the Prince that said, "U do not need to apologize (sic), we understand the circumstances but 'going public' will only make the situation worse." The messages from Prince Harry to Thomas is proof that the royal family fiercely guard their privacy and personal lives. The text continued, "If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me as there are two other options which don't involve u having to speak to the media who incidentally created this whole situation." Prince Harry continues to plead so he can explain while adding that the couple is not angry with him and only just wanted to speak to him. He, however, followed it up with, "Any speaking to the press WILL backfire, trust me Tom. Only we can help u, as we have been trying from day 1." According to the Duchess of Sussex's lawyers, the tabloids she is suing harassed and humiliated her father which only contributed to the fallout between them, even misquoting the letter she sent him. Meghan Markle has also learned about her father had a heart attack and had been hospitalized via TMZ. She also sent text messages to Tom saying that she has been trying to reach out to her father all weekend "but you're not taking any of our calls or replying to any texts." Meghan went on to say that she is very concerned about her dad's safety and health and "have taken every measure to protect you but not sure what more we can do if you don't respond." The 38-year-old duchess then asked if he needed help and if Thomas would need a security team so she could send him some. "I'm very sorry to hear you're in the hospital but need you to please get in touch with us. What hospital are you at?" Despite not getting any replies, Meghan Markle sent another message that she and her then-fiance would be sending security to him "just to make sure you're safe," adding that the team will be at his disposal. As per the court documents, the former "Suits" star claimed that the last contact she received from Thomas was a missed call at almost 5 AM on the day of her wedding. The latest news came shortly after Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry sent a letter to four British tabloids saying that they will never work with them ever again. These four tabloids are The Daily Mail, Express, Mirror, and The Sun. READ MORE: Prince Harry The Real Cause of Prince Charles, Diana Divorce? 'He's a Disappointment!' Russian fighter jet shadows US reconnaissance aircraft off Syrian coast Iran Press TV Monday, 20 April 2020 2:17 PM A Russian fighter jet has intercepted a US Navy surveillance aircraft flying over the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Syria, after the latter sought to break through Russia's air defense. "On April 19, the Russian equipment controlling the airspace over the neutral waters of the Mediterranean Sea detected an air target flying towards Russia's military facilities in the Syrian Arab Republic. "A fighter jet from the air defense quick reaction force of the Hmeimim air base scrambled to identify the target," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement released on Monday. The statement added that the Russian fighter shadowed the US spy plane and returned to its air base, after the American aircraft changed its course. "The aircraft of Russia's Aerospace Force have performed and will continue to perform all flights in strict compliance with the international rules of using the airspace over neutral waters," the ministry added. Russia has been helping Syrian forces in the ongoing anti-terror battles across the conflict-plagued Arab country. The Russian military assistance, which began in September 2015 at the official request of the Syrian government, has proved effective as Syrians continue to recapture key areas from terrorist groups across the country, thanks to Russia's air cover. Turkish forces bring in logistical equipment, military hardware to Syria's Hasakah Separately, local sources told Syria's official news agency SANA that three Turkish military vehicles passed through al-Sokkariyeh village on Monday morning, and headed towards al-Dawoudiya village in the Abu Rasin district, which lies in the northern environs of Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah. The sources, requesting anonymity, added that the vehicles were carrying "rocket-propelled grenades and logistic equipment." In another development, a convoy of 40 pickup trucks with dozens of Turkish-backed Takfiri militants aboard moved from the southern suburbs of al-Duwaira village to the strategic border city of Ra's al-Ayn, and continued their journey to Turkish territories. Ankara-backed militants were deployed to northeastern Syria last October after Turkish military forces launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion in a declared attempt to push militants of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) away from border areas. Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984. On October 22 last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a memorandum of understanding that asserted YPG militants had to withdraw from the Turkish-controlled "safe zone" in northeastern Syria within 150 hours, after which Ankara and Moscow would run joint patrols around the area. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The advertising and marketing of infant formula products will now be subject to stricter rules, in the interest of promoting and protecting breastfeeding. A new EU food law came into effect on February 22 which further restricts advertising and marketing of infant formula (products suitable for infants age 0-12 months). The Food Safety Authority of Ireland and Dairy Industry Ireland have developed a document to provide guidance with the law governing commercial communications in relation to infant formula products. The restrictions involve discontinuing the use of most nutrition and health claims on or about infant formula. Product labels will have to be clearer. For example, infant formula composition cannot be linked to breast milk, immune or gut health benefits (in either the presentation, labelling or advertising). The new rules also extend restrictions on the use of claims and pictures of infants in the advertising and marketing that aim to help manage feeding problems like reflux. Infant formula remains a critical element of the Irish dairy industry despite a tough 2019 which saw a decrease of 10.2pc in the value of exports to 929m, according to Bord Bia. China accounts for 36pc of total exports. CORRECTION: This editorial has been updated to remove the cost of postage on a ballot, which was incorrect. On a good Election Day with the stars aligned, getting New Mexicans to turn out to vote is challenging. Now theres a pandemic. And considering New Mexico barely topped 55% voter turnout in the 2018 general election, and the presidential nominees are all but officially crowned, getting voters interested enough in the Republican and Democratic primaries to vote amid a health emergency is a bigger than usual ask. So it is welcome news the N.M. Supreme Court has delivered a reasonable compromise that helps ensure only registered voters get ballots mailed to their homes, and they have one less hoop to jump through to make that happen. Instead of having to request an application for an absentee ballot, voters will automatically receive one and then can fill it out (name, address and signature), stick a stamp on it and mail it in, and wait for their ballot to arrive to fill out and mail back on the states dime by June 2. In these COVID-19 times, more than two dozen of New Mexicos top election officials had asked the high court for permission to close polling sites and conduct the primary elections largely through mail-in ballots. On the other side the Republican Party of New Mexico and a handful of county clerks said mail-in elections are susceptible to fraud given widespread outdated voter registration addresses. Justices rejected the emergency petition last Tuesday for mail-in balloting and found the sweet spot, directing Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and the states 33 county clerks to mail out absentee-ballot applications to be clear, not the ballots themselves to all registered voters. Its a smart shortcut that spares voters the chore of requesting an absentee-ballot application. And for the safety of poll workers and voters alike, its critical all but a few ballots are cast absentee rather than in person. Toulouse Oliver is encouraging voters to update their voter registration to make sure the state has the correct address to mail absentee-ballot applications. And requesting an absentee-ballot application or updating your address is pretty easy for those who dont automatically receive an application. Voters can call their respective county clerks or go online at sos.state.nm.us. While the plan to date is to have a limited number of polling sites, voters should plan on going absentee this election. Your vote counts the same as if you filled in the ballots circles in a plastic booth in a strip mall or community center. It saves travel time and gasoline. And it helps flatten the curve of community spread of the coronavirus. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. A free press in China could have prevented the coronavirus outbreak from turning into a global pandemic, a leading watchdog has said. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has criticised the countrys authorities for their programme of censorship in the early stages of the pandemic, saying that the suppression of information and media reports has proven deadly. It also warned that strongman leaders are capitalising on the current climate to curtail media freedoms, highlighting the example of Hungarian president Viktor Orban who has secured new powers to punish journalists if their reporting undermines the governments Covid-19 response. If there had been a free press in China, if these whistleblowers hadnt been silenced, then this could have been prevented from turning into a pandemic, Rebecca Vincent, director of the RSFs UK bureau, told CNN Business. Reporting the truth at the earliest possible moment would have allowed the rest of the world to react probably earlier and probably more seriously. The consequences [of stifling media freedom] are actually deadly. Chinese authorities have been accused of widespread censorship during the pandemic, having suppressed coronavirus-related information last year before later deleting a number of media articles. According to one report posted on WeChat, which has since been removed, 41 news stories written by major Chinese publications were deleted or censored from 23 January to 13 March. Analysis from the Citizen Lab at the University of Torontos Munk school of global affairs and public policy also found that Chinese social media censors blocked neutral information about the coronavirus outbreak. Hundreds of keywords and phrases, including Wuhan seafood market, were censored in late December, as doctors sought to warn about the new virus. Citizen Labs report showed between January and February, a wide breadth of content was censored on WeChat and YY, a Chinese live-streaming platform, including criticisms of the Chinese government. Our findings show that information on Covid-19 is being tightly controlled on Chinese social media, the report said. Censorship of Covid-19 content started at early stages of the outbreak and continued to expand blocking a wide range of speech, from criticism of the government to officially sanctioned facts and information. Outrage was also sparked within China following the death of doctor Li Wenliang from Covid-19. The 34-year-old had warned colleagues in late December about coronavirus but was detained by police in Wuhan on 3 January for spreading false rumours. He was forced to sign a police document to admit he had breached the law and had seriously disrupted social order. China has pushed back against accusations of censorship and defended its early handling of the outbreak. On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said: China upholds the basic national policy of opening up to the outside word, and welcomes foreign media and journalists. We are opposed to ideological biases against China, publication of fake news in the name of so-called press freedom as well as behaviour that are against journalistic ethics. The ministry also singled out RSF, saying that this organisation has always held deep-rooted prejudice against China and their so-called report is not worth rebutting. Ms Vincent said that suppression of important information and reports pertaining to the coronavirus outbreak had real-life consequences. Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Show all 20 1 /20 Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Top: Nabi Younes market, Mosul Bottom: Charles Bridge, Prague Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Grand Mosque, Mecca Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Sagrada Familia, Barcelona Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Nabi Younes market, Mosul Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Basra Grand Mosque, Iraq Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Charles Bridge, Prague Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Taj Mahal hotel, India Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Dubai Mall, UAE Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Beirut March, Lebanon Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Gateway of India, Mumbai Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo University, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Beirut March, Lebanon Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo University, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Victoria Memorial, India Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Sidon, Lebanon Reuters Sometimes we can talk about press freedom in a theoretical way, but this shows the impact can at times be physical. It can affect all of our health, she said. Her warnings came as the RSF released its annual review of global press freedoms, which surveys the state of the media in 180 countries and territories. The UK stands at 35 in the World Press Freedom Index, having slipped down two places from last year largely due to the fallout triggered by the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Derry and the death threats made against reporters in Northern Ireland. Norway remains in the top spot for the fourth year running. The US is ranked 45th. 2020 World Press Freedom Index (selected countries): 1. Norway 2. Finland 3. Denmark 4. Sweden 5. Netherlands 6. Jamaica 7. Costa Rica 8. Switzerland 9. New Zealand 10. Portugal 11. Germany 16. Canada 26. Australia 34. France 35. United Kingdom 45. United States 142. India 149. Russia 177. China Bhumi Pednekar has opened up about losing her father to cancer and credits that unfortunate event for her coming of age. The actor was just 18 and her almost identical sister Samiksha just 15 when their mother took the command of the family in her hands. Sharing how they dealt with his death as a family, Bhumi told Pinkvilla in an interview, We were quite young. I was 18, Samiksha was probably 15 when we lost our dad due to cancer. We saw him through prolonged sickness and really suffer a lot. Obviously, losing a parent is never easy and I had a wonderful father. He was just a father. We miss him every day but my mom is made of something else, she really got us together. I think just us as a family, we went into warrior mode post that. The actor, who initially worked as an assistant film director with Yash Raj Films, went on to add, I start working, 10 times harder than I would. We both just grew up and realised that s*** is getting real, and we need to get our act together. The two years were a mess but we gathered ourselves really fast. Today when we look back, we wonder how we survived those days, how we got through it, but it happened. Bhumi is occasionally spotted with Samiksha at parties and events and bear a strong resemblance with each other. Also read: Mahabharat: Juhi Chawla bowed out as Draupadi, Puneet Issar was looking for work after Coolie accident Bhumi was recently seen in a brief but pivotal role opposite Vicky Kaushal in Bhoot Part One: The Haunted Ship. She will now be seen in a title role in Akshay Kumars Durgavati. The actor had four major releases last year including Sonchiriya and Saand Ki Aankh. She was also seen as one of the female leads in 2019 films Pati Patni Aur Woh and Bala. Follow @htshowbiz for more The oil markets have just gone through an epic long squeeze, with oil prices crashing into negative territory for the first time in history. The May 2020 WTI futures contract sunk an agonizing 310% to minus $38.45/barrel by late Monday afternoon, marking the first time that a futures contract for U.S. crude prices went negative--and made all those seemingly improbable 'negative oil' prognostications suddenly appear prescient. Other maturities with oil-related assets such as Brent took it on the chin, too, recording double-digit declines. None, however, came anywhere close to the WTI crash, which adds to the sense of the mystique in the oil markets. Negative oil prices is an absurd notion that essentially means that producers would pay traders to take the oil off their hands. However, there's more to it than meets the eye in the sometimes arcane and convoluted world of futures trading. Front-Month Futures We will be hearing more of this in the coming days and weeks after forensics analysts have done a deep dive into the day's trades. The early consensus though, seems to point to one culprit: The United States Oil Fund LP (NYSEARCA: USO), the country's largest long-only crude oil exchange-traded fund (ETF) with $2.35B in net assets. As of last week, USO owned 25% of the outstanding volume of May WTI oil futures contracts as per Bloomberg. The May contract was set to expire on Tuesday, meaning owners of this paper oil had to take physical delivery of the underlying oil assets they represented. However, it's impractical for ETF buyers like USO's general partner/sponsor is U.S. Commodity Funds, LLC (USCF), to take physical delivery of all those millions of barrels of oil, leaving them with selling the contracts as the only viable option. But dumping such huge volumes of contracts in such a dire market is just the perfect recipe for disaster. The big issue here is that USO has an obligation to invest in front-month WTI contracts and to roll them over two weeks before the month ends under its investment mandate. Rolling contracts in this manner exposes USO to either contango, whereby the market prices the future at a premium relative to the front-month, or the reverse known as backwardation, whereby the market discounts the future versus the front-month. Premium: The Oil Sector That Will Suffer The Most Indeed, the Financial Times reported that USO recorded inflows of $1.5 billion as oil prices sunk to fresh lows. Traders are, of course, always waiting for opportunities like these to pounce. The front-running made the contango even stronger, with traders even stockpiling physical oil and putting it into storage to sell in the future for a guaranteed profit. Right now, WTI crude futures are in deep contango with the contango very front-loaded, meaning traders and speculators largely believe that oil prices will improve significantly as the months roll on. Other near-term futures contracts have also been caught up in the melee, including the June WTI contract, which is down 25.8% over the past 24 hours to $15.20/barrel while USO ETF itself has lost 20.5% of its value. Source: MarketWatch No Slam Dunk Traders and speculators have been looking to benefit from crude oil's worst bear market, with USO seeing its assets under management (AUM) more than double from $2 billion to more $4.2 billion before Monday's selloff as oil prices went into a furious tailspin. Premium: Oil Storage Nears Its Limit But all this bottom-hunting by traders is not an automatic slam dunk. Professional traders have been [unsuccessfully] trying to pick the market bottom by betting that the coronavirus pandemic would be quickly brought under control and allow crude prices to rebound. Specialists now fear that greenhorn investors might not have a clear understanding that oil contracts do not trade like equities; rather, they expire monthly and the underlying crude delivered to the buyers. This exposes them to rolling losses every month until the day when market fundamentals will eventually stabilize. These rolling losses can easily wipe away any crude oil gains, such as they did for many investors who bought at the 2009 crude oil low. Back then, WTI prices sunk to $30/barrel, before tripling over the next 12 months but left USO investors with little to show for their efforts thanks to cumulative rolling losses. It has happened again, and you can bet we haven't heard the last word yet. USO typically absorbs cash from investors whenever crude prices hit bottom by issuing extra shares, meaning its investors who ultimately bear the brunt of it all. USO recently announced that it would move 20% of the WTI contracts it holds into later months in a bid to lower volatility. But maybe the fund needs to join the likes of XIV, the notorious inverse VIX exchange-traded note that roiled the markets and left millions in a world of pain before being discontinued by its issuer, Credit Suisse. By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday afternoon that New York is no longer in need of the supplemental beds provided by the floating naval hospital USNS Comfort. Cuomo made the announcement during an interview with MSNBC after meeting with President Trump in the White House. Docked in New York Harbor since March 30, the ship was meant to add 1,000 additional beds to New Yorks hospital system as it prepared to deal with the worst of the coronavirus outbreak. The President sent up a Navy ship, the Comfort, a hospital ship which was very good to have in case we had overflow but I said we dont really need the Comfort anymore, he told MSNBC Anchor Nicolle Wallace. It did give us comfort but we dont need it anymore so if they need to deploy it somewhere else they should take it. The governor said the ship could be redeployed if need be. Originally, the ship was meant to handle non-coronavirus patients who needed emergency treatment, but that proved to be unnecessary. In the first week of April, the ship was reassigned to deal with patients suffering from the coronavirus. At least one crew member tested positive for the virus. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** Cuomo headed to the U.S. capital Tuesday following a morning press briefing in Buffalo. He said he was going to speak with the president about the need for more testing and state funding. As of Tuesday morning, New York had over 250,000 statewide cases, and accounted for more than 40% of the nations death toll. However, numbers have been on a steady decline since last week, and Cuomo has said he believes the worst of the outbreak is behind us. Overall, the governor described a positive meeting with the president, and that the focus remained on the issue of testing. The meeting went well and I think it was productive, he said. The big issue was testing. As everyone knows, thats going to be the next step as we go forward and how do we separate the responsibilities and the tasks on testing vis-a-vis the state and the federal government and the acknowledgment that we all need to work together on this. He said the federal government needs to have a role ensuring private companies testing supply chain is directed to the parts of the country that need it most. The Duchess of Sussex will claim her father was manipulated into giving interviews with UK newspapers and that he later called them lies and bulls***, according to court documents. Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers, which owns the Mail On Sunday and the MailOnline, after the papers published excerpts of a personal letter she wrote to her father. Her father, Thomas Markle, came under criticism before Harry and Meghans wedding for staging paparazzi photos of him near his home in Mexico. Although he was meant to walk his daughter down the aisle when she got married, he ended up unable to travel to the UK for the big day due to ill health. The Mail On Sunday and the MailOnline ran details of the letter the duchess wrote under the headline Revealed: The letter showing true tragedy of Meghans rift with a father she says has broken her heart into a million pieces. Court documents released on Monday revealed a series of text messages sent from Meghan, 38, and her husband, Prince Harry, as they tried to get in touch with him in the days before their wedding. Meghan with Thomas Markle. (Splash News/Getty) Read more: Harry and Meghan's private texts to Thomas Markle revealed in court documents They also reveal that Markle, 75, called stories on the MailOnline lies and bulls***. The MailOnline piece referenced was written in July 2018, and claimed to come after a nine hour interview with the new royals father, in which he said she had cut him off. In a letter written by Markle to his daughter, he said: The next day [Peter Sheridan] announced and bragged that he got a 9 hour interview. He said a few things I said in confidence, but 85% were lies and bulls***! Meghan announced she was taking action after the tour in South Africa. (Getty Images) I called him and told him he was a thief, a liar and a coward and I would GET EVEN! . I didnt want or intend to give him an interview and I certainly would not do 9 hours for free!. When I was asked if I tried to borrow money from you, three days before the wedding? I said, no I did not, but I know she would have helped me if I would have asked. Story continues I made a comment about Tom Jr not paying me back, not one red cent, and they changed it to Meghans dad complaining that his kids wont pay him back one red cent!! That comment came from Peter Sheridans 9 hour interview.... I never said anything about your grandma, never!! I know you took care of her, I dont know where that comes from? I appreciate that you have always been concerned for my health and you were trying to get me help. The first hearing in the duchess' case will come on Friday. (Getty Images) The duchess will use this as evidence that the Mail On Sundays claim they had to run her letter for Markle to set the record straight was only because of a dispute they had started. Papers filed for the Duchess of Sussex say: In revealing the detailed contents of this letter, the UK media publisher was simply seeking to set the record straight on behalf of the authors father as to a dispute which had arisen as to the correct version of events surrounding their relationship (as opposed to self- serving commercial interest), when in fact it was the same publisher which had first harassed and humiliated the authors father (despite him trying to avoid the limelight), had then exposed him to the world as a Royal scammer for staging fake paparazzo photographs (in order, he claimed, to counteract the humiliation of him in the UK press) and had finally manipulated this vulnerable man into giving interviews, which he later described as lies and bulls***, thereby causing the very dispute which they claim justified the publication of this letter, as well substantial damage to his relationship with his daughter. Read more: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle cut ties with four UK tabloids over 'invasive' stories Meghan will also deny that she orchestrated an interview with her friends in People magazine, which made reference to the letter she had written to her father. Documents state she did not know about the interview, which Markle said was the only reason he released the letter. Court papers emerged on the same day Harry and Meghan announced they would be cutting ties with four UK tabloid publications, including the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, The Sun and the Daily Express. It includes the websites for each publication, and means the couples communication team will not engage with anyone from those newspapers. The documents have also revealed the number of times the couple tried to get in touch with Markle, sending him several messages and urging him to call them. Harry, 35, also told his father-in-law to be not to go to the press. Read more: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle 'volunteer to deliver meals' in LA The couple say they heard Markle was unwell because he put a statement out through TMZ. A text from the prince to Markle on 14 May 2018 read: U do not need to apologize [sic], we understand the circumstances but going public will only make the situation worse. If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me as there are two other options which dont involve u having to speak to the media, who incidentally created this whole situation. So please call me so I can explain. Meg and I are not angry, we just need to speak to u. Thanks. Oh any speaking to the press WILL backfire, trust me Tom. Only we can help u, as we have been trying from day 1. They offered to send him security to help but he refused. The court case comes as the couple start life away from being senior royals. (Getty Images) Read more: Meghan Markle discusses Disney+ voiceover role in first post-Megxit interview Meghans relationship with her father has been portrayed as fractured in the years she has been in the public eye as a royal. She claimed in papers that the letter she sent was clearly private because it contained her deepest and most personal thoughts about Markles health. Associated Newspapers deny allegations the letter was edited and said: The contents of the letter were not private or confidential, self-evidently or at all. A Mail on Sunday spokesman said: As we have said before, we will be defending this case with the utmost vigour. There is nothing in this document which changes that position. Watch the latest episode from Yahoo UK's The Royal Story The United States ambassador in Moscow accused Russian authorities on Monday of making a mockery of justice after he was turned away for a second time from what he called a secret trial behind closed doors of an ex-US Marine charged with espionage. Russia last week began the trial of US national Paul Whelan on charges of spying after his arrest by Russian security agents in a hotel room sting operation in December 2018. He denies the charge. The case, as well as that of Michael Calvey, a US investor charged with embezzlement in Russia, has complicated already strained relations between Moscow and Washington. Whelan, who also holds British, Canadian and Irish citizenship, faces up to 20 years if found guilty. The Moscow court had said the trial would involve classified information and would therefore not be open to the public, but US Ambassador John Sullivan said he had tried to attend the hearing in Moscow on Monday and had been turned away. The fact that it is a closed hearing, that it is a secret trial Paul hasnt seen the evidence against him it makes a mockery of justice, Sullivan said in remarks carried on the US embassys website. He urged Russias authorities to ensure Whelan would receive a fair and impartial trial, to grant him a phone call to his family and to allow him medical treatment. He hasnt been allowed to make a phone call, to speak to anyone in his family in 16 months, Sullivan said. It makes a mockery of justice John Sullivan, US ambassador to Moscow Whelan, who turned 50 in custody last month, has used his appearances at hearings since his arrest to allege he has been ill-treated by prison guards and also denied medical attention. Russian authorities have dismissed his remarks and accused Whelan of faking health problems in custody to draw attention to his case. The trials preliminary hearings began on March 23 even as many court hearings have been put on hold because of the coronavirus lockdown. Moscow says Whelan was caught red-handed with classified information, but his lawyer has said he was set up and thought he was receiving holiday photos from a Russian acquaintance. Paul said that he believes he was framed and that [the case] was a provocation against him, Olga Karlova, one of his legal team, told CBS News last week. He appeared to be in good spirits, she added. Russian security agents detained Whelan in a hotel room in December 2018, seizing a USB drive allegedly containing top-secret information. Whelan says the device was planted on him while in the Russian capital attending a wedding. When his detention was extended in May last year, Whelan told reporters he was a victim of political kidnap and ransom. Onondaga Nation State Police said a Buffalo-area man was killed this morning after the tractor-trailer he was driving went off the side of Interstate 81 and crashed onto the Route 11 below. Police said Talwinder Singh, 36, of Amherst, was killed in the crash, which happened around 7:17 a.m. near Exit 16 (Onondaga Nation | Nedrow). Singh was driving a 2016 Volvo tractor-trailer north on I-81 when the truck crossed from the driving lane to the passing lane and then off the west shoulder of the road, striking a guide rail and cement bridge abutment. I-81 runs as a raised highway above Route 11 near Exit 16. The truck continued along the abutment and struck the U.S. Route 11 bridge overpass guide rail, state police said, causing the truck to flip and land upside-down on Route 11. Singh, the lone occupant of the truck, was pronounced dead at the scene. Route 11 reopened at 3:30 p.m. between Quarry Road and Kennedy Road, according to a state DOT alert. All northbound lanes on I-81 have reopened. Ghaziabad, April 21 : With authorities ordering a ban on to and fro movement on the Delhi-Ghaziabad border, a large number of daily commuters got stuck at the inter-state checkpoint at the Ghazipur border on the National Highway-9 on Tuesday morning. The commuters, angry over the sudden ban, could be seen arguing with policemen manning the barricades on the route. There were queues of vehicles stuck on both sides of the border. The orders to seal the Ghaziabad borders were issued by District Magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey on Monday, but many people were unaware of the directive. Even people with valid passes were allegedly not allowed to move across the inter-state border as police questioned them. People were angry as to why the decision was taken in a hurry and why adequate public awareness on the issue was not undertaken before its implementation. Even media persons holding valid passes were stopped at the inter-state border on the pretext that the ban was for all persons. Later, some of them were allowed to proceed after a lot of effort. The ban on the Ghaziabad-Delhi border was imposed after a report from health authorities said that the six coronavirus positive cases reported in the district had come from Delhi. Except for essential items and emergency cases, a ban was thus imposed on inter-state movement. Global cases of the coronavirus hit a new milestone of 2.5 million Tuesday, as key U.S. states continued a phased restart of their economies, even as the pandemic continued to take a toll on America. Globally, deaths have surpassed 171,000, while in the U.S. that number jumped above 42,000 Tuesday setting an average of 2,000 per day in the past several days. The worlds largest economy still accounts for more confirmed COVID-19 cases than any other country, with over 788,000 infected. As some southern states push to reopen public spaces and some businesses with some social distancing limits, concerns linger about adequate infrastructure to continue monitoring the outbreak. In Georgia, for example, gyms, bowling alleys, barber shops and theaters will throw open their doors amid an acknowledged risk that cases there may rise. Some officials seem to be banking on the concept of herd immunity, an effect that happens when a large segment of a population becomes immune to a disease, thereby helping to protect those who havent been sickened. The U.S. coronavirus count is creeping toward 800,000, with over 40,000 dead. However, the World Health Organization recently downplayed the ideas impact, saying globally the number of individuals with antibodies to the virus remains too low for it to be effective. Meanwhile, more effort is being devoted to testing, as one California town runs a pilot on the potential to test all its residents for virus antibodies, while New York ramps up mass testing in the hard-hit state. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that while the state is far ahead, per capita, in testing, it is still hard pressed to provide adequate testing levels to justify relaxing restrictive stay-at-home orders that have shut down the state. Other governors have also pushed back on restarting without an ability to assess whos been infected, or developed immunity. Here in west Michigan, we have not hit our peak yet, Dr. Rob Davidson, an ER doctor, told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday. He added that hes troubled by talk of reopening as the number of coronavirus cases are still growing. And in fact, just three days ago, were finally able to test every person who comes in with symptoms of COVID-19. Thats a new phenomenon now three months after the first case. So, Im extremely concerned with all the talk of charging ahead with reopening when we truly do not have a grasp of how many cases are actually out there. Story continues Amid a tussle with the Trump administration over testing resources, Gov. Larry Hogan circumvented the federal hold over supplies in the country and received 500,000 testing kits from South Korea, which has been widely praised for its aggressive COVID-19 response. The debate has taken on added significance as the economic toll of widespread shutdowns pummel the economy. After days of criticism, the Senate reached a deal to provide nearly $500 billion more in relief to small businesses and hospitals, on top of a broad $2 trillion plan to contain the economic fallout from the pathogen. Yet volatile stock markets tumbled anew on Tuesday, as a dramatic slide in oil which is being hammered by falling global demand stemming from the crisis soured investor sentiment. WHO disputes Wuhan lab theory The WHO addressed a controversy over the origins of the virus, which some have speculated came from a lab in Wuhan, the epicenter of the global outbreak. The embattled agency, which has taken fire from President Donald Trump for being too close to China and slow to recognize the coronavirus threat, said the outbreak came from an animal, likely a bat. All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else, a spokesperson said. Yahoo Finances Adriana Belmonte contributed to this article. Coronavirus is permanently shaking up the global outsourcing industry as lockdowns from Bangalore to Manila prompt firms to "reshore" jobs and, with AI, to move further away from needing humans at all. Restrictions on normal activity in these countries and others have created a logistical nightmare for the managers of call centres and other back-office operations for foreign corporations. Having their staff work from home is difficult because of rules governing the handling of sensitive material such as financial transactions for bank customers from Scotland to San Francisco. Also, many workers in places like India and the Philippines live in crowded housing with poor-quality broadband, while some firms do not have enough equipment like laptops to provide to employees. "The outsourcing industry doesn't lend itself to working from home," consultant Vivek Sood, author of "Outsourcing 3.0", told AFP. "We are talking about companies which used to ask employees to leave even their pens and pencils outside the office because of security concerns." - 'Temporary stay arrangements' - Desperate to stay operational, some firms have resorted to having staff live at their place of work. Vodafone India, for example, says it has "organised temporary stay arrangements at our data centre locations, (and) made food and groceries available at critical locations". Similar practices by others have sparked the ire of trade unions. Mylene Cabalona, president of the Business Process Outsourcing Industry Employees' Network (BIEN), told AFP the union had received reports of some workers "effectively quarantined and locked down in their offices". The Financial Times in early April published photos that it said appeared to show workers sleeping on the floor of a call centre in the Philippines, living in what they described as "subhuman" conditions. - Don't call - Anthony Esguerra, who works at a Manila firm handling data for a Chinese online gaming company, admitted that 80 percent of its operations were disrupted. "The workflow of processing players' requests really slowed down, since our internet access was limited compared to when we were working at the office," he told AFP. Companies like telecom firm Spark New Zealand and Taiwanese computer maker Acer, which uses a Philippine facility to serve Australian and Kiwi customers, have simply told people not to call. Australia's Telstra and Optus and Britain's Virgin Media -- all of which have offshore units in India and the Philippines -- have announced plans to recruit hundreds of staff back home. Telstra, which heavily relies on its Philippine facility for customer service, initially said it would hire 1,000 temporary workers, but later raised that figure to 3,500. Optus sought to fill 500 vacancies, saying that while the company had previously believed "its diversity of locations would make us resilient to any disruptions", this was no longer the case. - OK computer - But the bigger lasting change from the pandemic will likely involve the wider use of artificial intelligence to handle tasks currently performed by human beings, experts said. "AI doesn't go on strike, it can work 24/7 and throws up fewer complications," said Michael Czinkota, who teaches international business at Washington's Georgetown University. Telstra, for instance, which was already planning to slash customer service calls by two-thirds by 2022, now intends to accelerate its use of AI. "(We) will be using this as an opportunity to further digitise and automate our business," CEO Andy Penn told The Sydney Morning Herald this month. - Trailblazer - "COVID-19 (has) achieved in six to eight weeks what the evangelists of automation have not managed... for more than five years," Ilan Oshri from the University of Auckland's Graduate School of Management told AFP. But the "onshoring" of jobs and the increased use of AI will have a big impact on countries that for years have benefitted from taking on the back-office operations of multinationals. India, in particular, was a trailblazer. As of 2017, the industry employed nearly four million Indians and raked in revenues of more than $150 billion, according to trade body NASSCOM. In the Philippines, the industry started from scratch in the early 1990s but by 2019 its revenues were equal to 7.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product, employing 1.3 million people. "We will have to rethink the whole outsourcing model," said consultant Sood. "The assumption that you can offshore everything to Bangalore and Manila and relax has gone out of the window." Restrictions on normal activity have created a logistical nightmare for the managers of call centres and other back-office operations for foreign corporations Top Melbourne private school Haileybury has abandoned moves to stand down some of its teachers without pay as a way to cut costs during the COVID-19 pandemic after a backlash from parents. The back-down follows a Fair Work hearing last week at which the union for non-government teachers argued the school had made premature and unjustifiable cuts to its workforce. Haileybury principal Derek Scott said the decision to stand down music teachers was "sad and distressing". Credit:Arsineh Houspain Haileybury summoned dozens of music teachers to a meeting via the remote conferencing app Zoom during the Easter holidays and told them that they would be stood down or have their hours cut while the high-fee independent school shifted to remote classes for term two. Principal Derek Scott said at the time the decision was "sad and distressing". New Delhi, April 22 : Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar participated in an extraordinary virtual meeting of G-20 Agriculture Ministers on Tuesday to address the issue of COVID-19 impacts on food security, safety and nutrition. Sharing the measures taken to contain the spread of Coronavirus in India, Tomar informed his counterparts that India has decided to exempt all agriculture operations during lockdown period and ensuring continued availability of essential agriculture produce and supply, while adhering to protocol of social distancing, health and hygiene. He said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been at the forefront of supporting countries to tide over this crisis in various ways and that agriculture will not lag behind. The G-20 Agriculture Ministers virtual meeting was organized through video conferencing by the Saudi Presidency to deliberate on the ways and means of ensuring continuity of the food supply value chain including livelihood of farmers. Agriculture Ministers of all G-20 members and the representatives of some guest countries and International organizations attended the meeting. The G-20 nations resolved to have international cooperation in the backdrop of COVID-19 pandemic, to avoid food wastage and losses, and maintain the continuity of food supply value chain across borders. They also resolved to work together for food security and nutrition, share best practices and lessons learnt, promote research, responsible investments, innovations and reforms that will improve the sustainability and resilience of agriculture and food systems. The G-20 nations also agreed to develop science based international guidelines on stricter safety and hygienic measures. A CRPF battalion deployed deep inside the Naxal hotbed of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra has been providing meals to two wedding parties for close to a month after they got stuck in the remote location due to the lockdown clamped to contain COVID-19 infection in the country, officials said on Tuesday. Serving the wedding parties in Desaiganj Tehsil, about 60 kms from the district headquarters, is a young Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of the paramilitary force Sonu Kumar who had to cancel his leave for travel to Uttar Pradesh. He was supposed to get married on April 5. The unique situation occurred when two wedding parties, one from neighbouring Bhandara and another from Chandrapur, reached Gadchiroli on March 23 all decked up. Each wedding party had about 20 people. While the marriages took place, the parties got stuck in the area after the lockdown was declared the next day. "There are two wedding parties comprising about 20 people each who are being provided meals by our unit since the last over 20 days now. "The families of the two brides are daily wage earners and as soon as we were informed about the situation, we decided to mobilise all our resources," Prabhakar Tripathi, Commanding Officer of CRPF's 191 battalion, told PTI over phone from Gadchiroli. As the wedding hosts were people with limited resources, they did not have ration to cater to these many people for so long. The CRPF unit was then sent an SOS call by locals to provide food to these members and the hosts as their ration had run out. The neighbours of the two bride families made living arrangements for the prolonged stay of the wedding party in their own houses and some common area, the CRPF Commandant said. However, after the force sent logistics and cooks for the meals to be prepared for the wedding parties at their location in Desaiganj, the security personnel were approached by others living in the vicinity for the same help as they were not able to purchase ration for preparing two square meals a day as all work was shut. "We are now providing meals two times a day to about 600 people, including the wedding parties, in our area of responsibility. This is the least we could do for our brothers and sisters with whom we have been living for so long," Tripathi said. In fact, the Commandant shares enthusiastically, that ASI Sonu Kumar who was supposed to get married on April 5 is supervising this entire exercise of providing food to the needy and the wedding parties. "We have assured Kumar that we will give him a great wedding gift when he gets married post the lockdown and coronavirus situation normalises. He has become the most eligible bachelor after dedicating himself for this noble task," Tripathi quips. The force is also providing milk to children present in the wedding parties and the local area, he said. The Gadchiroli district is one of the serious and sensitive Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts in the country and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been deployed here for conducting anti-Naxal operations. The units or companies (about 100 personnel each) of this 191st battalion are deployed in remote locations like Etapalli (that borders the Abujhmaad area of Chhattisgarh), Hedri, Gatta (Jambia), Heliwada, Kasansur and Kotami, which are about 150-200 kms from Gadchiroli district headquarters. A senior official of the force based in Delhi said the CRPF battalion comprising over 1,000 troops is also providing food, essential items like soap, sanitiser, face mask and detergent to the locals living around their areas after "meticulous planning of their movement" in the LWE violence affected area. While providing food is not a major problem in these Naxal affected areas, he said, the challenge is to protect the team of cooks and other force workers who are involved in preparation of meals and distribution of essentials. For a team of four to five cooks and helpers, a squad of 15-20 armed personnel are mobilised to ensure there is no misadventure or attack from Naxals, and to plan clandestine movement of the forces in the area, the official added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brad Paisley wants to raise a glass to friends, family and frontline workers in the middle of the global pandemic. With the release of his new single No I in Beer, the country star been surprising people on video conference calls to share in a virtual happy hour. The song originated in 2018 with co-writer Kelley Lovelace, but the chorus of Were all in this together felt right for the moment to release, Paisley told The Associated Press from his home in Franklin, Tennessee. As this pandemic began, everybody adopted this catchphrase, Were all in this together, said Paisley. And I had this song rolling around in my head. Instead of just a rousing drinking song, Paisley thought it could also raise spirits, too, when people needed to find a little happiness. Its not just a Well get through whatever youre going through thing, said Paisley. Its literally a rallying cry. Its a fight song. Paisley said he updated some of the original lyrics, which now include a call out to the frontline workers during the spread of the coronavirus, including nurses, first responders, farmers and truck drivers. Its a just a shout-out to the people who are keeping this country going, said Paisley. In the spirit of virtual happy hours that have been popular online, Paisley wanted to connect with fans, especially since he couldnt play the song while touring. Paisley, like most touring artists, had to reschedule his concert plans this year. So Paisley put a phone number on social media and asked people to text him the link to their conference calls. He already joined a group of elementary school teachers in Illinois, a young man celebrating his 21st birthday and a group of healthcare workers. On his computer desk, hes got a few handy beer cans ready for a computer screen toast. Its inspiring, said Paisley. They are just staying connected anyway they can. Long before the virus brought to the forefront issues like economic insecurity and lack of access to food, Paisley was working to help people in his community make ends meet. A year ago, Paisley helped break ground in Nashville on a free grocery store called The Store that aimed to help needy families. In partnership with his alma mater Belmont University, The Store opened last month, but the developing pandemic made the organization adapt quickly to fit the immediate needs of the community. They shifted to handing out food at the door to prevent the spread of the virus and delivering food to elderly people who are at risk of serious health problems if they catch the coronavirus. His producer, Luke Wooten, even pitched in and recruited his recording studio interns to help The Store deliver food to a local retirement home. They went down the hallways and left food at the doorways of each of these elderly folks, said Paisley. And then as the volunteers got to the end of the hall, all the folks came out of their doors and gave them a standing ovation. And it brought them to tears. At a time when shifts are longer for hospital workers and calls have increased for EMS providers, Rex Evans reached out to a photographer to honor first responders during the coronavirus crisis. Evans approached Bryan Anderson after seeing him post multiple other photos he took for the Houston Police Department and local nurses on Facebook. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Coronavirus live updates: H-E-B adds Houston restaurant star to list of to-go options Klein ISD along with the Harris County Sheriffs Office, Champions Fire Department, Harris County Hazmat Response Team, Spring Fire Department, Harris County Precinct 4 Constables Office, Klein Fire Department and Cypress Creek EMS participated in one of Andersons photoshoots at Klein High School on April 20. He did another one over in Cleveland in Liberty County. I was like, Hey man, so youll travel? and he goes, Absolutely, said Evans, the emergency management coordinator for Klein ISD. I sent an email to all of the departments that are in Klein ISD and told them what Id like to do, and I sent a couple of the previous photos that he had already posted. They loved it, and they were all on board. They were shining up their fire trucks all weekend and everything rolled up looking really pretty. MORE FROM CHEVALL PRYCE: Cy-Fair ISD schools closed for remainder of 2019-2020 school year The photos were displayed online on Bryan Andersons Facebook page and on the First Responders Texas Strong Facebook group with previous photos of other first responder groups in Texas. It's not about making a bunch of money, but a purpose, Anderson said. Anderson, a professional photographer for 15 years, said he wanted to use his talents for free at a time when large events needing photographers, like weddings, and other clients have canceled shoots during the Stay Home-Work Safe order from Harris County. I realized I could either do photoshoots with models, which I could care less about right now, or I could reach out to those that are already OK to go outside, those essential workers that are allowed to be outside, Anderson said. While I'm at home being really comfortable on my couch with my dog and going to the dog park, they're really dodging bullets and saving lives just like doctors and nurses. MORNING REPORT: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox Nurses and doctors were invited to the shoot by Evans, but were unable to make it due to their busy schedules. Evans said Bryan would be working on photoshoots with the Galveston Police Department as well as Beaumont and Orange police departments. Anderson said he organizes shoots so the actual photography takes between 15 and 20 minutes so first responders are allowed to go about the rest of their day. Each first responder shifts positions several times during the shoot so they all get a chance to be in the front, Anderson said. Its really neat how the families of first responders are loving it. Its a really nice photograph of this time, Evans said. A lot of us are working a lot of overtime, were not home a lot so its just kind of a nice thing to do. Evans said the Klein Police Department has been weathering COVID-19 with split shifts across the department. We had an A shift and a B shift as a preventative measure to try to make sure that we keep people apart, he said. Were 24/7, 365 so we rotate five days on and five days off, each shift back and forth. Weve not had any problems with that. Weve had several officers tested but thankfully as a whole the department is still doing well. Everybody is remaining safe. Evans said the department is prepared to handle the pandemic from their perspective as long as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like were going to all deal with this for a long time to come, Evans said. Everybodys kind of tired. Like everybody, this has been very frustrating. Its hard on people. chevall.pryce@chron.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - Mark Jarvis, CEO of Shoal Point Energy (CSE: SHP), today provided an update of corporate operations. "Our operations have been severely impacted by the coronavirus, the consequent demand destruction in oil products, and the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia," said Mr. Jarvis. "The pandemic could continue to have a negative impact on the stock market, including the trading price of our shares, our Company's ability to raise fresh capital and our liquidity." At the Mount Evans project in Kansas, the company continues to pump the lower, secondary zone in its first well. The goal is to ascertain whether the reservoir is a water drive or a solution gas drive, and this would also provide valuable information about the upper, primary zone prior to completing it. "The jury is still out on that question," said Mr. Jarvis. "We are pumping very slowly in case it is a water drive, and at current oil prices, there is little incentive to take the risk of increasing production. Consequently, it may be another two months or more before we have the information necessary to increase the pumping rate. When on production, the oil cut has ranged between 7 and 35 barrels per day. There is no incentive to move up the hole and complete our primary zone or to drill any more wells until oil prices improve." The well's break even oil price on an operating basis from the secondary zone is approximately $20 per barrel. Storage facilities in the United States are filling up and there is a possibility that the Mount Evans production could be shut in for lack of storage space. Reports are that the U.S. government is debating whether to buy up to 75 million barrels for the Strategic Reserve, which would solve the storage issue and probably have a positive impact on the price, but there can be no assurance that this will happen. Sustained pricing below $20 per barrel could also lead to a decision to shut the well in until prices improve. "Long term we remain optimistic about the Mount Evans play," said Mr. Jarvis. "In contrast to conventional plays such as Mount Evans, shale oil production, the source of most new U.S. production the last few years, had challenging economics when oil was at $55 per barrel. We think shale production will decline significantly at current pricing. As I write this, spot prices for WTI are negative $35 per barrel, while the June contract is at (positive) $21 per barrel." About Shoal Point Energy Ltd. Shoal Point Energy Ltd. is a public company listed on the CSE exchange under the symbol "SHP". The company is focused on its Mount Evans project in Kansas and retains its oil and gas interests in the Humber Arm Allochthon play in western Newfoundland. For further information, please contact: Mr. Mark Jarvis, Chief Executive Officer, Tel: 416-637-2181 extension 310 The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. #203-700 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 1G8 Tel: 416 637 2181 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54692 Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 22:07:13|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian (1st L front) hands over the medical items to Phnom Penh Governor Khuong Sreng (2nd L front) during a ceremony in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, April 21, 2020. China on Tuesday donated a batch of medical supplies to Cambodia's Phnom Penh Capital Hall to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The supplies, including 20,000 surgical masks, 3,000 N95 masks, and 500 protective suits, were donated by Shanghai to Phnom Penh. (Photo by Sovan/Xinhua) PHNOM PENH, April 21 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday donated a batch of medical supplies to Cambodia's Phnom Penh Capital Hall to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese Ambassador Wang Wentian handed over the medical items to Phnom Penh Governor Khuong Sreng at a ceremony held at the Phnom Penh Capital Hall. The supplies, including 20,000 surgical masks, 3,000 N95 masks, and 500 protective suits, were donated by Shanghai to Phnom Penh. Speaking at the event, Ambassador Wang said China firmly supported Cambodia's efforts to combat and overcome the pandemic and would continue to provide medical supplies to the country upon its request. Meanwhile, Wang expressed his gratitude to Cambodia for voicing full support to China in February when the country was in an all-out fight against the virus. For his part, Sreng extended his sincere and heartfelt thanks to China for donating the medical items, saying that they were very useful for Phnom Penh. "This medical assistance truly shows China's generosity and brotherhood between Cambodia and China," he said. "A friend in need is a friend indeed. We will keep this generous help in mind forever." The batch of medical supplies was just one of many donations that the Chinese government and people had provided to Cambodia for COVID-19 fight. Last month, China had sent to the country a team of doctors specializing in fighting against COVID-19, along with tons of necessary medical equipment and supplies. Cambodia has so far recorded 122 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 110 patients cured, according to the Ministry of Health on Tuesday. Enditem A month after the deaths of his wife and son, Joshua Norwood filed a petition to restore his gun rights. According to his petition, he had been involuntarily admitted to a facility or ordered to mandatory outpatient treatment in the Richmond area from March 11 to March 13. He was scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday in Fauquier County General District Court, but the proceeding was pushed back to May 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to court records and the court clerk. The Michigan appeals court has reinstated murder charges against two brothers who were accused of allowing their severely disabled mother to starve and die weighing just 79lbs. The appeals court said there was 'sufficient evidence' to allow a jury to decide whether caregivers Grant and Gabriel Balogh, from Trenton, Michigan, had abused their mother and were responsible for her death. Vickie Balogh was 57 years old in 2016, when she lost her battle with an incurable neurological disorder called Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1. The inherited terminal wasting disease, which causes poor coordination, slurred speech, difficulty walking and swallowing, had afflicted generations of the Balogh family. Scroll down for video Grant Balogh (left) and Gabriel Balogh (right) have had murder charges reinstated against them in the 2016 death of their mother, who had a terminal illness Vickie Balogh died at age 57 in October 2016 after battling an incurable neurological disorder called Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1 A doctor at the Wayne County Medical Examiners Office has concluded that Balogh's death had to do with her body withering from malnutrition. An expert hired by the Balogh brothers' defense, however, countered by saying that their mother's death was likely caused by pneumonia and Ataxia complications. In 2017, a Woodhaven judge dismissed charges of murder and abuse against the brothers, a decision that was affirmed by a Wayne County judge. According to her obituary, Vickie Balogh was a widowed mother who worked for a Michigan phone service provider for 30 years. Balogh had begun showing symptoms of the terminal illness, which killed her own mother and three brothers, when she was in her 30s. Vickie is pictured on the left with her two sons, Grant and Gabriel, as children. She had begun experiencing symptoms of ataxia in her 30s Vickie's condition worsened in 2013, when she lost her husband (right) to lung cancer Ataxia, which is hereditary, took the lives of Vickie's mother (center) and all three of her brothers (pictured above together) Over time, her condition progressively deteriorated. When her husband died of lung cancer in 2013, she took a turn for the worse. In an interview with Fox 2 last year, Grant and Gabriel said they were told by countless doctors, including experts at the National Institute of Health, that their mother's illness had no known cure. That is when they said Vickie told them she wanted to move in with them and spend her final days in their company. 'I would specifically ask her if she wanted to go to a nursing home or if she felt she would be better off there,' Gabriel said. 'She said, "No, I don't want to go to a nursing home." She would specifically tell me that."' Vickie's sons said their mother had moved into their Trenton, Michigan, home because she wanted to live out her days with them Vickie passed away on the morning of October 23, 2016, but it was not until hours later that her sons realized she had stopped breathing and transported her to the hospital. Her body was emaciated and dotted with sores and lesions, and the deceased woman had a disheveled and dirty appearance, prompting hospital staff to suspect abuse and contact the police. An autopsy was performed on Balogh and found that her death was caused by wasting disease due to malnutrition, but a manner of death was never determined. Seven months after the woman's death, both her sons were arrested on charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter and abuse. In October 2017, Judge Jennifer Coleman Hesson dropped the charges against the brothers, saying there was no evidence the men caused Balogh's death. During a preliminary hearing, Grant and Gabriel's grandfather, who lost his first wife and all four of his children, including Vickie, to Ataxia, testified on his grandsons' behalf, telling the court that pair took good care of their mother during her illness, reported Monroe News. 'I feel I can breathe again,' Grant said following the hearing. 'I know in my heart we didnt do anything wrong. All we tried to do was take care of our mother. Our first priority was her.' Two judges had previously dismissed charges of murder and abuse against the Balogh brothers, but the appeals court last week reinstated them Gabriel has recently learned that he, too, has the gene that causes Ataxia Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy continued pursuing the case and took it to Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Hathaway, who also dismissed the charges Worthy then appealed the ruling to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and last week, in a 2-1 decision, the panel reinstated the charges against the Balogh brothers. If convicted at trial, Gabriel and Grant Balogh could face life in prison. Gabriel has recently learned that he, too, has the gene that causes Ataxia, which has killed his mother, grandmother, three uncles and five great-uncles. People suffering from the illness have a life expectancy of around 50 years. 'I just want this to be over with so I can enjoy the last bit of life I have, you know, having to deal with this isn't any way to live,' Gabriel said of the drawn-out criminal case. The governing Liberals and the opposition Conservatives were not at their best on Monday defending their disagreement over reconvening Parliament amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Both sides were transparently manoeuvring for partisan advantage while offering flimsy pretexts in defence of their quarrel. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The governing Liberals and the opposition Conservatives were not at their best on Monday defending their disagreement over reconvening Parliament amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Both sides were transparently manoeuvring for partisan advantage while offering flimsy pretexts in defence of their quarrel. The House of Commons met Monday with a bare quorum of members distributed about the chamber, so as to respect the two-metre separation intended to prevent coronavirus contagion. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had warned that all 338 MPs would have to fly to Ottawa and gather in the chamber, at great risk to their health, if the Conservatives did not accept his plan for scaled-down or virtual sittings. The Conservatives did not accept his plan, but the scaled-down House met anyway. The hollowness of Mr. Trudeaus previous warnings was evident. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer came up with a list of objections to conducting parliamentary business by video link. It could be unfair to members from remote rural and northern districts, such as Manitoba MPs James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman), whose internet connections are non-existent or slow. Mr. Scheer refuses to allow all MPs to take part in a virtual gathering because he thinks it could be unsatisfactory for a few, whom he has never identified. Mr. Trudeaus concern for the health of MPs and Mr. Scheers regard for the rural and remote members is all very considerate, but the heart of the matter lies elsewhere. Oppositions usually want Parliament to meet so they can publicly harass the government. Governments usually want to send Parliament away to spare themselves the harassment. The case is no different now. Want more great journalism? Get our best news and features delivered in your inbox every weekday evening. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press) The pandemic and the ban on large gatherings forced the ruling Liberals, with great regret, to send Parliament packing. Mr. Trudeau has been obliged to appear alone on national television each morning to address the nation, ask for compliance with public-health advice and describe the measures his government has adopted to help companies, families and workers that have been hurt by the stay-home orders. To his credit, Mr. Trudeau has not abused these daily appearances in the way that is seen every day in Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump has used his television appearances to insult his political opponents, belittle state governors who find fault with his administration, pick quarrels with the journalists in front of him, offer medical advice outside his competence and call forward fawning guest speakers to praise him. Mr. Trudeau has been far more restrained in his use of the nations attention. The excellence of Canadas parliamentary system lies in the regular confrontation of government and official Opposition. The ministers who hold power must appear every day during parliamentary sessions to absorb the abuse, the accusations, the innuendoes, the raucous horse-laughs flung at them by the opposition. Most of the opposition attacks are ill-informed or unfair, but the odd one hits home. Most of the governments answers are evasive or disingenuous, but they must at least seem reasonable. The spectacle is unedifying, but it is the way Canada and other parliamentary democracies have developed for keeping the authorities honest or at least curbing the most flagrant abuses. The parties should agree to hold one virtual sitting of the Commons, empowering the Speaker to uphold the rights of all members. They should give members the chance to attend in person or by video link. They should find what goes wrong at the first sitting and make the second one better and the third one better still. PARK RIDGE, Ill., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- (AANA)The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) is one of seven organizations to endorse a statement on the pivotal role advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are playing in the care of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement thanks the governors who have removed regulatory barriers that restrict access to high-quality, evidence-based care in their states, and it encourages other state governors to take similar action. Below is the full statement with signatories: As the nation experiences unprecedented hardships and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, all eyes are turned to America's healthcare system. Individual practices and facilities, as well as local and state systems are being stretched to the limit and beyond. The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis unlike any other. The end is not likely to come quickly or easily. Providing the care that all patients need during this unprecedented time requires innovative, evidence-based solutions and the participation of all qualified providers to optimize workforce. America's advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) have and continue to step up and be essential providers, answering the needs of patients during this crisis. Removing unnecessary regulatory barriers so that they can practice to the top of their skills, education, and training is a critical step forward. The pandemic requires a broad, coordinated effort among stakeholders across the healthcare continuum, including state governments and state boards of nursing. Many governors across the nation are recognizing the importance of allowing providers such as APRNs to serve the healthcare system without having to adhere to burdensome regulatory barriers that restrict access to high-quality, evidence-based care. On behalf of the members of the organizations we represent, we thank those governors for their foresight, and we urge them to improve access to care for patients in their states by permanently removing these barriers. Additionally, we would like to encourage the governors of the states that have not yet taken the action to relax or remove regulatory barriers for APRNS to do so as soon as possible in order to significantly improve the ability of our nation to respond to increased healthcare needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. America's APRNs have answered the call of duty and are on the front lines of this disaster, caring for patients and communities. APRNs' nursing background means that they bring a unique range of specialized skills, advanced education, and a holistic philosophy to patient care, as well as an exemplary track record of promoting the health and safety of their communities. Signatories: American Association of Nurse Anesthetists American Association of Nurse Practitioners American College of Nurse-Midwives American Nurses Association Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners National Council of State Boards of Nursing SOURCE American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Related Links www.aana.com Call to address coronavirus in correctional centres University human rights centres call for South African governments intervention on correctional centres conditions during the coronavirus pandemic The Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, call on the South African government to act swiftly to reduce the further spread of COVID-19 in South African correctional centres. This can be done by releasing a limited number of incarcerated persons so as to reduce their risk of contracting the virus, and allowing for more effective social distancing within correctional centres. So far, the Regulations issued under the Disaster Management Act have focused on two issues: limitation on visits to correctional centres and other places of detention, and a directive that an accused person arrested for a petty offence must be released and warned to appear in court on a future date. These measures are helpful, but do not go far enough. According to the Director of the Centre for Human Rights, Frans Viljoen: It is imperative, in the light of the contagious nature of the COVID-19 virus, that the government takes more measures to ensure that South African correctional centres do not become killing fields for the virus. There is a need for the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) to develop an operational plan dealing with COVID-19 in correctional centres. The DCS operational plan should address issues such as preventative measures that have been taken or will be put in place by the DCS to prevent the spread of the virus in correctional centres. According to the Director of the Centre for Legal Studies, Tshepo Madlingozi: The DCS operational plan must also detail how complaints of human rights violations in correctional centres will be reported; and how access to medical treatment for incarcerated persons living with chronic illness will be ensured. Additionally, in the light of recent information that there are a total of 99 COVID-19 infections in South African correctional centres, COVID-19 screening and testing in correctional centres has now become essential. Incarcerated persons at elevated risk of contracting COVID-19 Incarcerated persons are at an elevated risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus. They are placed on permanent constricted lockdown and access to fresh air and ventilation is often lacking. Also, there is limited floor space, scanty sanitation and washing facilities. It is common knowledge that correctional centres are notoriously overcrowded. At the best of times, it is extremely difficult to ensure personal sanitation and social distancing in correctional centres. By keeping incarcerated persons in these conditions, they are put at an extremely elevated risk of being exposed to and contracting COVID-19. It should be kept in mind that the conditions of lockdown, which the whole of South Africa currently experiences, is a permanent feature of life in correctional centres. Solutions that address the core of this continuous elevated risk of incarcerated persons therefore need to be found. South Africas obligation on the protection of incarcerated persons It is in line with the South African Constitution and international legal obligations to prioritise the plight of incarcerated persons and to release at least some of them during this global pandemic. While incarceration deprives incarcerated persons of their freedom of movement, section 35(2)(e) of the Constitution provides that incarcerated persons are to be detained under conditions of detention that are consistent with human dignity, including at least exercise and the provision, at state expense, of adequate accommodation, nutrition, reading material and medical treatment. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the requirement of dignified incarceration demands that adjustments be made to the life and dignity of incarcerated persons. The current COVID-19 crisis brings into stark focus the misconception that incarcerated persons lose their rights as they enter correctional centres, placing them at the mercy of their incarcerators. Judge Jansen JA, famously held in the case of Mandela v Minister of Prisons 1983(1) SA 938(A) (at 957E-F): On principle a basic right must survive incarceration except insofar as it is attenuated by legislation, either expressly or by necessary implication, and the necessary consequences of incarceration. Similarly, in the case of Minister of Justice vs Hofmeyer (1993) 3 SA 131 (AD) the highest court noted that incarcerated persons retain all their personal rights unless those rights are specifically abridged or proscribed by law. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules), stipulate that correctional centres shall not impose or constitute a punishment additional to the deprivation of liberty imposed by the imprisonment, nor should they aggravate the suffering caused by the imprisonment. The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, in its recent Press Statement on human rights based effective response to the novel COVID-19 virus in Africa, called on states to take measures to reduce congestion in prisons and places of detention by releasing those held for minor offences, and those who have been rehabilitated and pose limited risk to society; and persons in remand awaiting trial for minor offences. Limited release based on balancing of factors While we do not advocate for the blanket release of all incarcerated persons, a balance has to be struck, as in many other spheres of the pandemic. In this instance, a balance must be struck between the risk to the incarcerated persons resulting from their prolonged detention, and the risk to the society resulting from the incarcerated persons release. While it is well-established that the protection of society is one of the aims of punishment, determining the extent and likelihood of risk is elusive in concrete cases. One way of attempting to strike this balance is for the government to release those categories of incarcerated persons who pose the least risk to society. By releasing at least a significant number, the possibility of effective social distancing within correctional centres would be enhanced. Categories of incarcerated persons that could be released The first category of incarcerated persons that can be released are trial-awaiting detainees who do not pose a threat to the community. Under our Constitution, these detainees are presumed innocent. This fact should, particularly in the present circumstances, weigh heavily in favour of their release. Some trial-awaiting detainees are denied bail because they pose a clear risk of disappearing and of interfering with witnesses. A case for their prolonged detention may well be made, even during this period. However, many trial-awaiting detainees are in prison merely because they cannot fulfil the conditions of bail. In their case, the balance clearly tilts in favour of their release. Suspects or accused persons who are presumed to be innocent should not be exposed to an elevated risk of contracting COVID-19 just because they are unable to pay the required bail amount. The second category of incarcerated persons are people who have been sentenced for petty or minor offences. The sentences for these offences are often short terms of imprisonment or fines that those convicted of these offences cannot pay. The current Regulations issued under the Disaster Management Act directs that an accused person arrested for a petty offence must be released and warned to appear in court on a future date. It should be clarified that this directive is applicable also to incarcerated persons sentenced for these offences and not only to accused persons awaiting trial. The third category of incarcerated persons are persons convicted of offences that do not pose a threat to society and whose sentences will end in the upcoming months, for example, in the next six months. The fourth category of incarcerated persons are persons who show that they have rehabilitated and do not pose any risk to society. To the extent possible, the position of older incarcerated persons should be given particular consideration. Parole boards should be convened virtually to identify incarcerated persons who could be released on this basis. More effective social distancing for remaining incarcerated persons Once some incarcerated persons in the four categories mentioned above have been released, the circumstances in correctional centres would be more conducive to the effective social distancing of remaining incarcerated persons. In the process of securing their well-being, incarcerated persons at particular risk to develop COVID-19 symptoms within places of close confinement should be prioritised. These incarcerated persons include pregnant women; older persons, persons living with HIV or TB, or both; and persons with disabilities. We therefore call on the government of South Africa to: Embark on the immediate, widespread and ongoing COVID-19 screening and testing of incarcerated persons; Ensure the screening and isolation of all persons who are incarcerated, as they pose a serious risk to already incarcerated persons; Require the Department of Correctional Services to develop a COVID-19 operational plan; Immediately take measures to decongest correctional centres in South Africa by releasing incarcerated persons who fall within the categories mentioned above; Prioritise the well-being of incarcerated persons that are at heightened risk of developing COVID-19 symptoms; Take steps to ensure that correctional centres are generally safe for the remaining incarcerated persons in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in correctional centres. [UPDATE]: In a statement on 8 May, the Presidency announced that around 19,000 incarcerated people would be placed on parole in a response to outbreaks of coronavirus in some of our correctional centres. More details from the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development here. As far as we are aware, no qualifying candidates have yet been released as at 30 May 2020. For inquiries, please contact: Ms Sithuthukile Mkhize, attorney at CALS on sithuthukile.mkhize@wits.ac.za or on 072 985 9190. NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Staten Islands two private hospitals will be getting 20 volunteers from the citys Medical Volunteer Corps program to help in their coronavirus response, but the borough once again will not be getting any medical military staff support from the city. Over the weekend, Mayor Bill de Blasio said 1,400 volunteers from its Medical Volunteer Corps program had been sent to more than 40 hospitals and 40 nursing homes across the city. He said an additional 600 medical personnel, which are contracted clinical personnel, would be sent to 11 independent hospitals and that another 535 military medical personnel, which include nurses, respiratory therapists, physicians assistants, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists, were being sent to hospitals in the citys Health and Hospitals network, which Staten Islands hospitals are not a part of. The latest deployment of medical staff to the citys hospitals comes after the Island did not receive a portion of the 291 military medical personnel the city deployed to its public hospitals earlier this month despite the Islands two private hospitals -- Richmond University Medical Center and Staten Island University Hospital -- asking for additional medical staff during the coronavirus outbreak. De Blasio said SIUH and RUMC did not receive any of the latest 535 military medical staff because the city was focused on sending them to hospitals that bore the brunt of the coronavirus crisis, a response that has overwhelmingly come from its public hospitals. Obviously, I'd like to see a lot more help come in and then we could expand it more broadly. But we have been able to get that medical volunteer group, which is a lot of the same exact medical professionals in terms of training out to a broader swath of the city and our health care institutions, our nursing homes, and we're going to keep making adjustments as the need is clear, he told reporters during a press conference Monday morning. Its really going to come down to ... where are the gaps that we need to fill? And we will move people according to the gaps, he said of how he plans to deploy medical military staff. Whenever we see a situation where, you know, someplace just doesnt have enough personnel and another place has more than they need, were going to move them around accordingly to address that need. RUMC recently said that in order to expand its hospital capacity it would need more staff. The hospital said it had requested 60 registered nurses, eight respiratory technicians and four laboratory technicians from the city. On Monday, RUMC said the city received its request and that the hospital had been given assurances the city was working to help them with staffing. But RUMC could not say whether the additional support had been sent. SIUH also recently told the Advance it had been reaching out to staffing agencies to hire more nurses and retired doctors. But the hospital has not been able to say how much more staff it requested or if it had received any additional staff from the city to date. City Hall could not immediately specify what types of volunteers they had provided the Islands hospitals of the 20 volunteers and how many to each hospital. City Hall said the 600 medical personnel were not volunteers but contracted clinical personnel, who could be deployed to hospitals in all five boroughs. However, City Hall said it was still in the process of determining where to send them. The Islands private hospitals, which are not part of the Health + Hospitals network have not only missed out on military medical staffing in recent days but was also left out of the citys surge planning for the coronavirus outbreak because it is not part of the citys public hospital network. The citys recent omission of the Island from coronavirus planning prompted the Islands political delegation to slam the mayor for leaving Staten Island out. Borough President James Oddo has also been a vocal critic of the citys treatment of the borough during the coronavirus outbreak, but said he received a commitment from City Hall to help the Islands hospitals. As of Sunday, there were 9,986 confirmed coronavirus cases on Staten Island and 448 confirmed deaths. FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson will speak to U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday and meet Queen Elizabeth later this week, his spokesman said, adding that the British leader is still not formally doing government work. Johnson is recovering at his country residence after he was hospitalised with COVID-19. His foreign minister, Dominic Raab, is standing in for him while he recovers. Yesterday he sent a message of condolence to (Canadian Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau after the very sad loss of life in the shooting in Canada. Later today ... he will be speaking to President Trump, the spokesman told reporters. Later this week, the prime minister is also expected to have an audience with Queen Elizabeth, the spokesman said, adding that it would be the first such meeting for three weeks. Berkshire Legislators: 'Back to Normal' Not Good Enough WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. Life looks very different today than it did just more than a month ago and it should look very different when the COVID-19 crisis ends, the Berkshire County legislative delegation agreed last week. All four county representatives and state Sen. Adam Hinds participated in a virtual town hall hosted by the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires. "We keep saying the term, 'We want to get back to normal,'" state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier of Pittsfield, said. "I think everybody here agrees, especially when we're talking about this topic, that we don't want to get back to normal. What is 'normal?' We need to really think about this in a different way. "I think one of the most obvious ways, the part that everybody gets is what we're referring to now as 'essential workers.' An essential worker is a [certified nursing assistant], who makes $12.50 an hour. An essential worker is someone who is stocking grocery stores and checking people out. But they are some of the most low-paid workers." The public health crisis has exacerbated and exposed disparities in the American economy, Hinds said. "It's clear that vulnerable populations were hit hardest," he said. "They were hit first. And we even see gaps in what we're trying to do. Undocumented workers are not getting support right now, and they're still playing a big part in the economy, just as one example." Hinds said he raised the issue of income disparity last week with a Senate revenue working group, a body that includes representatives of chambers of commerce and organized labor. He asked that group to think about how the commonwealth could change its revenue generation strategies. "We talked about expanding the earned income tax credit, we talked about expanding the child tax credit, we talked about shifting to more sales tax from digital goods," Hinds said. "Honestly, the general consensus was it's too soon. We don't know where we're headed. So we put a pause on the conversation. "But there is an appetite to take a step back when you have a crisis like this to say, 'Is our system fair? Is this system the one we would choose if we were to create it right now?' And I think, quite honestly, the answer is no." The state Rep. Paul Mark of Peru said the pandemic has shown that even in Massachusetts, which has one of the better social safety nets in the United States, too many people fall through the cracks. "I can't imagine if this is hitting a place like Oklahoma, how things are going there," Mark said. "But I think it's exposed that far too many people were living paycheck to paycheck. Far too many people were living on the edge of disaster. When a disaster hit, they wouldn't have the resources at their disposal to be able to get ahead. "And I think it's really important that, in areas like health care, areas like paid sick leave, areas like making sure workers have proper protection, making sure workers have the ability to work with business to try to ensure wages, the ability for business to be able to survive and thrive without having to just barely eke by And for non-profits, because I know that's the focus of this call. How many non-profits out there are inadequately funded at all times?" Mark said there are steps legislators can take to correct the injustices in the system after the state of emergency has passed that will ensure that Massachusetts residents are better equipped to deal with the next emergency. "Remember that this happened, remember that they weren't happy with it happening and how they feel during this and then advocating for appropriate measures moving forward that are hopefully going to change things," Mark said. "I've filed bills about expanding unemployment. I've filed bills about helping access health care. We've been filing bills about a lot of different crisis topics. "But imagining that people can get back to normal in a month or two, we can't forget how we got there, how easy it was for the rug to be pulled out underneath us. And people need to act and organize accordingly." Mark said his fellow members of the Berkshire delegation have been advocates for that kind of systemic change long before the current crisis but that those voices have to "get louder." State Reps. John Barrett III of North Adams, and William "Smitty" Pignatelli of Lee, mentioned other kinds of systemic change that they would like to see become part of the "new normal." Barrett mentioned a change he would like to see at the federal level and called on U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, to help make it happen. "The first thing [President] Trump talked about is he wants to help businesses, and the first thing he said was, 'We've got to allow the [business] deduction so we can help restaurants,' " Barrett said. "Big business again is the first thing on his mind. How about making [deductions] available so people can donate as generously as they used to giving to non-profits? I think we're going to see changes in our tax system that are going to allow that to happen." Pignatelli, calling himself an optimist, said he hopes the current crisis will yield some positives, like a renewed focus on telemedicine and distance learning if the infrastructure can be built up to support those opportunities in areas of the commonwealth that are underserved by broadband communications. The South County representative went on to say the COVID-19 crisis has exposed another kind of systemic change that is needed. "I think this whole process has exposed that in this country, we don't make anything anymore," Pignatelli said. "We've seen the prices for surgical masks go from 15 cents to 78 cents for the hospital, and they're ordering hundreds of thousands at a time. There are organizations selling them for $5, $6, $7 for a cloth mask. "I think we have an opportunity here. I think Boyd Technology down in Lee has done a good job stepping up. I think there's a great opportunity, if we can compete with the labor costs, to start bringing some of these manufacturing opportunities back home. "We should try to retrofit some of these manufacturers, like Boyd Technology, to be making these kinds of products that would be sold locally." By PTI NEW DELHI: The Press Council of India on Tuesday issued a notice to the Maharashtra government over prohibition of door-to-door delivery of newspapers and magazines in the state, seeking an explanation and expressing concern over the issue. The Maharashtra government on Saturday decided to stop door-to-door delivery of newspapers and magazines to contain the spread of coronavirus infection in the state. However, on Tuesday it revised its last week's guidelines and said the curb will be in force only in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune city, both COVID-19 hotspots. Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman C K Prasad noted with concern the order of the Maharashtra government, a PCI statement said. It said the order did not adhere to the central government's directive issued on March 23 to Chief Secretaries of all States and UTs to ensure operational continuity of print media in view of the threat of COVID-19 outbreak. The Press Council of India (PCI) had also advised all state governments and administrative authorities to take necessary measures to ensure the smooth functioning of media during the lockdown to combat the coronavirus outbreak. "Taking suo motu cognizance on the issue, the Chairman has issued a notice for comments to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Maharashtra," the PCI statement said. Global use of the death penalty has decreased for the fourth consecutive year and fallen to its lowest level in a decade, according to a new report by Amnesty International. The number of recorded executions fell to 657 worldwide, 33 fewer than in 2018, with all carried out in just 20 countries, according to the report published on April 21. "The death penalty is an abhorrent and inhuman punishment, and there is no credible evidence that it deters crime more than prison terms," said Clare Algar, Amnesty International's senior director for research, advocacy, and policy. "A large majority of countries recognize this and it's encouraging to see that executions continue to fall worldwide." However, the human rights watchdog said a lack of transparency in reporting executions meant the real number could be much higher. The figures did not include the use of the death penalty in China, for example, by far the world's most prolific executioner. The number of people executed there is classified but is believed to be in the thousands. Iran, with at least 251 executions; Saudi Arabia, with 184; Iraq, with at least 100; and Egypt, with at least 32, rounded out the world's top-five countries who carry out the most executions, according to the report. Algar singled out a number of countries for their lack of transparency in using the death penalty. "Executions are taking place in secret all over the world," Algar said. "In countries from Belarus to Botswana and Iran to Japan, executions were being carried out without any advance notice to the families, lawyers, or in some cases the individuals themselves." Absence Of Openness China, North Korea, and Vietnam continued "to hide the full extent of their use of the death penalty by restricting access to death penalty information, Algar said. She suggested that the absence of openness was telling. "Even countries that are the strongest proponents of the death penalty struggle to justify its use, and opt for secrecy," Algar said. "Many of them take pains to hide how they use the death penalty, knowing it will not stand up to international scrutiny." One such country is Iran, where the use of the death penalty fell to a historic low, but which Amnesty admonished for the secret execution of two boys who were arrested and convicted at the age of 15 "on multiple rape charges following an unfair trial." The two were not aware that they had been sentenced to death prior to their executions, and their "bodies bore lash marks, indicating they had been whipped before their deaths." The number of people executed in Iran fell by at least two from the previous year, when some 253 cases of the death penalty were recorded. However, four of those killed were below 18, according to the rights watchdog. Amnesty attributed the fall in the overall number of executions in part to "significant reductions" in the number of confirmed executions in states such as Egypt, Japan, and Singapore that it said are traditionally strong adherents of the death penalty. Kazakhstan, Russia, and Tajikistan were among the countries that continued to respect official moratoriums on executions, according to the report. And no executions were carried out in Afghanistan for the first time since 2010. A "significant downward trend" was also reported in Pakistan, where 14 executions were carried out for the second year in a row. That followed a spike in the use of the death penalty in 2015. Of those countries that defied the global trend away from capital punishment, Saudi Arabia, with 184 executions, was criticized for its increased use of the death penalty, "including as a weapon against political dissidents." It marked the highest number of executions on record in the Middle Eastern country. The report said that the number of executions nearly doubled in one year in Iraq, where the death penalty was employed at least 100 times in 2019. The rise was attributed largely to the punishment of individuals accused of being part of the Islamic State extremist group. The United States continued its 11-year run as the only country to carry out executions in the Americas region, with 22, but recorded fewer executions and death sentences. Amnesty said the year 2019 in the United States "was dominated by significant progress towards its abolition at the state level and yet the pursuit of executions by federal authorities." A 68-year-old Nigerian woman and her 70-year-old husband are celebrating after she gave birth to twins after 43 years of trying. Margarett Adenuga gave birth to the children - a boy and a girl - by cesarean at a hospital in Lagos on April 14, and is reported to be doing well. Husband Noah, 70, revealed that she fell pregnant last year via IVF after three previous rounds of treatment failed. Margarett Adenuga, 68, and 70-year-old husband Noah celebrate after giving birth to twins - a boy and a girl - following 43 years of trying and four rounds of IVF He told Nigeria's TVC News that the couple were inspired to keep going by a dream he had in 1996 that told him he would be 'known across the world.' Speaking to the BBC, he acknowledged that a group of fertility doctors had warned him that it was dangerous for his wife to go ahead with the pregnancy. But he added that the decision was private and not the doctor's concern. Lagos University Teaching Hospital said the IVF treatment was carried out elsewhere and the couple were only referred to them for treatment afterwards. Medics continued to monitor her throughout the pregnancy, until she opted to undergo surgery at 37 weeks. The hospital said it was the first case of pregnancy in a woman of her age they had dealt with. Attending physician Dr Adeyemi Okunowo called the birth "a miracle" but added that the couple took a huge risk going ahead with the pregnancy. The pair were delivered at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (pictured) via cesarean section on April 14, and both mother and children are healthy, medics said It is not clear exactly where the most recent treatment was carried out, but Noah revealed that the couple previously travelled to the UK for a procedure. IVF involves fertilised eggs being implanted into a woman's womb and is used to overcome a range of issue than can make it hard for couples to conceive naturally. The procedure can be carried out using a couple's own sperm and eggs, or those from donors. According to the British NHS, the chance of success for a single round of IVF range from 30 per cent for those under 35 - to 2 per cent for those over 45. More than one embryo is usually implanted at a time to increase chances of success, which means that IVF is significantly more likely to result in multiple-pregnancies compared to natural conception. F riday night dinner was at the bottom of a very long list of things I wanted to do as a teenager. Here is an abridged version of that list: 1. Pretend I was having a sleepover at a friends house, but go out to a bar with a fake ID. 2. Pretend I was having a sleepover at a friends house, but drink straight vodka out of a plastic bottle in the park. 3. Actually have a sleepover at a friends house. ... ... > 1000. Friday night dinner at home with my family. I wanted to do the things my non-Jewish friends were doing. I wanted to be normal, UGH. And I would whinge about it. A lot. Now, at 28, Im back if only temporarily at my childhood home, living here for the first time in a decade. I was lucky enough to make it back before we went into full coronavirus lockdown, and things are about as far from normal as Ive ever known. Im not sure any of us know how to categorise normal at the moment. Strangely though, and much to the disbelief of the 17-year-old me still lurking in a dark corner of my brain, Friday night at my parents house has sneakily taken up a place as the highlight of my week. Its an unexpected positive side effect of my slight backslide into adolescence. For anyone unfamiliar, Friday night in a Jewish household marks the beginning of Shabbat, when we light candles, say blessings and welcome in a day of rest. Its a very rare occurrence for me to do this at my flat, and Ive never once done it without any family or Jewish friends present. For me, Shabbat is usually marked by a text from my mum, which, Im ashamed to admit, Ill probably forget to reply to until the next day. Here, with a few exceptions, things happen pretty much the same way every time. When flour and yeast can be sourced, I end work on Friday to the smell of freshly baked challah wafting up the stairs. My mums wonderful plaited bread might not get a Paul Hollywood handshake seal of approval for symmetry (and nor would she want one), but I can guarantee they taste better than any youd find on Great British Bake Off. Before dinner, which always starts with chicken soup, we light and bless the candles and wish each other Good Shabbos. We bless and take a sip of Kiddush wine, which is supposed to be symbolic rather than delicious. (Its like dessert wine. I love it. My sister, who has taste, does not.) We bless and eat a piece of challah, tearing it with our hands rather than slicing with a knife. Every item on the table has meaning and a reason for being there: The cups that hold the ceremonial wine are a product of the shtetls (villages) of Eastern Europe from which my great-grandparents were forced to flee to escape violence. The candlesticks are my inheritance, given to me on the occasion of my Bat Mitzvah and passed down from my great-grandmother who grew up in Manchester after leaving Odessa as a baby. The cloth we use to cover the bread was embroidered by my mum at Hebrew school as a child. In Jewish law, there is a specific time youre supposed to light the candles, and strict rules about how to say the blessings and who does which bit (generally based on ancient patriarchal ideals that we ignore). Despite my mums upbringing in an Orthodox family, we have found our own ways to be Jewish. For us, its more about continuing the traditions weve inherited and adopting new ones from friends who have become family throughout the years. We dont do every part as instructed by God/Moses/whoever wrote down the original 613 commandments. Sometimes shall we just do the short version? is a lot more appealing after a particularly stressful week. But the main things remain the same, and crucially, we are all together as a family safe, warm and practising the rituals our relatives just a couple of generations before were risking their lives to keep going. As someone prone to getting overwhelmed at the best of times, I find a huge comfort in ritual, something Ive grown to understand more with age. As a teenager, my instinct was to run away from this routine into a chaos of my own making, but these days chaos is the last thing Im looking for. Now, when the hours run into each other without much to define them, it feels increasingly necessary to have time set aside to look back over the week and then leave it behind. Britons from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities are disproportionately at high risk from coronavirus, according to new data. Figures published by NHS England show that of 13,918 patients in England who tested positive for Covid-19 at time of death up to April 17, 16.2 per cent were BAME and 0.7 per cent had mixed ethnicity. These groups also accounted for 35 per cent of all coronavirus patients in intensive care, according to the Guardian, despite only making up 13 per cent of the population. The statistics emerged days after a review was announced to examine what appears to be a disproportionate number of BAME people who have been affected by Covid-19. The first ten doctors to die in the UK from Covid-19 were all BAME - with ancestry from regions including Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Pictured: Dr Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, 53, who passed away in hospital after a 15-day battle against the virus Those with Indian heritage are the most affected, making up three per cent of hospital deaths, followed by those from the Caribbean at 2.9 per cent and Africans at 1.9 per cent. The first 10 doctors to die in the UK from Covid-19 were all from BAME backgrounds - with ancestry from regions including Asia, the Middle East and Africa, a figure Labour described as 'deeply disturbing'. Analysis from Sky News suggests that of 54 medical and care staff killed by coronavirus, 70 per cent were non-white. BAME staff make up 44 per cent of medical personnel and Labour and the British Medical Association were among those calling for an inquiry. In the 2011 UK census, around 7.5 per cent of the population were Asian and 3.3 per cent black. Dr Amged El-Hawrani became the UK's first front-line hospital doctor to die from coronavirus following warnings that a lack of protective equipment would cost medical staff lives Dr Fayaz Ayache, 72, died six days after being taken to Ipswich Hospital by ambulance Last week, Downing Street confirmed the NHS and Public Health England will lead the review of evidence, following pressure on ministers to launch an investigation. Discussing the review, Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said ethnicity is 'less clear' than three others factors in determining who is most at risk from coronavirus. 'This is something we are very keen to get extremely clear,' he said. 'We've asked Public Health England to look at this in some detail and then what we really want is, if we see any signal at all, we want to then know what next we can do about it to minimise risk.' Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said ethnicity is 'less clear' than three others factors in determining who is most at risk from coronavirus A London doctor working with Covid-19 patients said the virus has exposed health inequalities for minority communities. Mohammedabbas Khaki, 34, a GP with Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: 'Existing inequalities will be more greatly exposed at a time of crisis. For example, south Asians live in more deprived areas and have more diabetes, kidney and cardiovascular disease. 'Additionally, south Asian people often live in larger, multi-generational households, where social isolation may not be as easy. 'Many of these workers may also be in key worker jobs - combining their frontline roles with their living arrangements might be a reason that we are seeing so many of the BAME population in intensive care units.' On January 24, nine people from three families contracted Covid-19 while having lunch at a restaurant in Guangzhou, China. Another 81 who were in the eatery did not. The infections, according to an analysis by Center for Disease Control (CDC) experts in China, took place because the three families were in the draught of the same air conditioner as the index patient, although they were on different tables. The findings now offer new insights -- how the virus travels (it infected only those in the air current while others were safe); the challenge in detecting infected persons (the index patient did not have any symptoms); and consequences for closed, air-conditioned spaces (restaurants, offices, even public transport) -- as the world struggles to determine how people can go back to everyday routines. On January 23, family A travelled from Wuhan and arrived in Guangzhou. On January 24, the index case-patient (patient A1) ate lunch with 3 other family members (A2A4) at restaurant X. Two other families, B and C, sat at neighbouring tables. Later that day, patient A1 experienced fever and cough and went to the hospital. By February 5, a total of nine others (four members of family A, three members of family B, and two members of family C) had become ill with Covid-19, said the research letter published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. Illustrations based on diagrams published in Emerging Infectious Diseases journal along with report by CDC authors. The researchers say the infections show the virus was spread through droplets carried in the air-conditioning draught. The lack of infection in others at two tables close by (but not in the line of the air flow), and in other floors of the restaurant appeared to suggest the virus did not spread through aerosol transmission. If a virus spreads as an aerosol, it is harder to contain since it lingers in the air for longer and disperses more easily over longer distances. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON " " OPI Man Repeller nail polish is just one example of the nail polish brand's fantastic naming practice. Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for ELLE Magazine Names matter. Anyone who has purchased nail polish knows there's way more to choosing the perfect peach than just a quick glance at a few different shades. It's impossible to pick that little bottle without turning it over to read the name. "Size Doesn't Matter," "Turquoise and Caicos" and "Ballet Pink," have general connotations, add individual life experiences (who can forget being the sugarplum fairy who danced her way into the orchestra pit?) into the mix and the right name can mean something different to everyone. Advertisement Cosmetic company executives say that not only do names impact nail polish sales, but they also can determine the overall success of a color, proving that nail polish naming is not something they take lightly. So where do nail polishes get their names? Can you major in nail polish naming (asking for a friend, of course)? Are there boardroom brawls over "Mean Green" or "Grinch Green"? Have names like "Dryer Lint," "Fish Tank Fungus" and "Dental Floss" ever made the short list? Essie is one of the best known and bestselling brands of nail polish on the market. Essie Weingarten founded the brand in 1981 and used to have the final say on every shade moniker. The brand is owned by L'Oreal now, so Weingarten serves as the global brand consultant. But she always believed names should be witty, fun and memorable like "Jamaican Me Crazy" and "Trophy Wife." Her inspiration included destinations, fashion trends and pop culture. The most famous of all Essie colors is, "Ballet Slippers." It's reportedly the only color Queen Elizabeth wears or approves of, and it's the color both Princess Eugenie and Meghan Markle wore as brides. The brand OPI is practically synonymous with nail polish. Oddly, though, the popular polish company started as a dental supplier (OPI stands for Odontorium Products, Inc., and didn't start carrying nail care products until 1981 and nail polish in 1989). Current Executive Vice President and Creative Director Suzi Weiss-Fischman decided to make things interesting by using fun names instead of boring ones like mauve #6, red #3 and pink #12. Weiss-Fischman told The Times of Israel the OPI color names are a huge part of the brand's DNA, and that names are always based on a geographic locations, food and some fun unmentionables. The results are some of the funniest and cleverest nail polish names out there. How can you not love a polish with the name "I Cannoli Wear OPI," and "Teal the Cows Come Home"? The first shade Weiss-Fischmann named is her favorite, as well as a reviewer and fan favorite. "I'm Really Not a Waitress" is an award-winning red that will exist for eternity in The Allure Beauty Hall of Fame. Perhaps the best thing about a great nail polish color with a quirky name is when others admire and inquire about the shade. If you have the right color on you will be able to say, "None of Your Risky Business," "Leaf Me Alone" or "Stop It, I'm Blushing." So the next time you choose a nail polish, remember to focus on names and don't just judge a polish by its color. Now That's Awesome Deborah Lippmann lets her passion for music guide the naming of all Deborah Lippmann colors after song titles. The songs are chosen by a small group of people who spend an evening with a little wine and a lot of iTunes perusing. The festive gatherings have yielded such unforgettable names as "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Single Ladies." Advertisement Originally Published: Apr 20, 2020 Dr Eric Oduro-Osae, the Dean of Graduate Studies at the Institute of Local Government, says the lifting of the ban on partial lockdown in the COVID-19 hotspots is timely and makes a lot of economic sense. He believed that the decision was based on data available to the President and the COVID-19 Response Team and, thus, entreated the public to exercise restraint in their criticisms. Dr Oduro-Osae, however, underscored the need for the Information Minister, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, to provide further explanations and breakdown of what the lifting meant to the average Ghanaian. "If you look at the public jubilations and what's happening in town now, it's like all the safety precautions have been relaxed, but we're not out of the woods yet," he noted. Dr Oduro-Osae said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Monday following the lifting of the three-week ban on the stay home directive of Greater Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Greater Kumasi by the President effective Monday, April 20, at 0100 hours. The reason for the ban lifting, the President said, was Ghana's ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing, enhanced testing, expansion of the number of treatment and isolation centres as well as the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the poor and vulnerable in the affected areas. Dr Oduro-Osae said there should be more public education on the implication of the lifting of restriction on movements whilst security personnel remained at the checkpoints to enforce the safety and social distancing directives. The Local Government Expert urged the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies and Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to enforce the social distancing and hygiene protocols at the various markets to avoid possible community spread of the virus. "My greatest disappointment is the low arrest and prosecution of persons who breached the lockdown directives. I believe those who break such directives must be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others," Dr Oduro-Osae added. Ghana's case count for COVID-19 now stands at 1,042 as at Sunday, April 19, with nine deaths and 99 persons fully recovering, after 68,591 test results were received. 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 Pop stars and perfume. Athletes and sneakers. Big-budget movies and toys. When it comes to cross-promotional licensing deals, there are few pairings that marketers havent tried to raise the profile of their products. Add to that list a new and perhaps unusual partnership: fashion brands and luxury condos. Across Miami, high-end condos are teaming up with upscale brands in a bid to stand out in a crowded field and reach new consumers. The trend preceded the coronavirus crisis and is expected to last beyond it. It may be risky to yoke a long-term real estate development to a name that could someday fall out of favor. Indeed, condos in New York and elsewhere have removed Donald J. Trumps name from their facades. But the strategy, which involves designer labels like Armani, Diesel, Fendi and Missoni as well as luxury automakers like Aston Martin and Porsche, makes sense in place with a fondness for status symbols, industry observers say. Public TV Weed Party A Flatland Flight of Fancy for 420 Day (Editor's note: Some folks - not us, of course - may be celebrating an unofficial holiday right about now. So Flatland has decided to take some fictionalized creative liberties to mark 420 Day, celebrated by followers of cannabis culture. After all, we could all use a break from round-the-clock COVID-19 coverage - all in our own special way.) Local Lady In Need Woman with lung cancer, COPD has no running water, electricity during COVID-19 The family of 80-year-old Lillian Daniels moved her into the Heart Mobile Village near U.S. Latina Stereotypes Endure During Pandemic A Kansas City Mom Who 'Can Make A Meal Out Of Anything' Is Still Waiting On Federal Food Aid During Pandemic Tiffanie White is still able to feed her three kids, but buying groceries isn't easy right now. She lost her customer service job because of the pandemic, and she hasn't been able to get through to unemployment to file a claim. Survey Seyz: Veep Biden Stays Winning Over Prez Trump?!?! Biden tops Trump in November matchup, but president leads on economy: poll With just over six months to go until November's general election, a new poll suggests former Vice President Joe Biden is holding a 7-percentage point lead over President Trump. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee stands at 49 percent among registered voters nationwide, with the Republican incumbent at 42 percent. KCK COVID-19 Confusion KCK coronavirus patient warns of unexpected symptoms KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) - People have been showing up to testing sites in Kansas City, Kansas, Monday because they think they might have COVID-19 and they just want to get a test to be sure. One local woman is warning all signs may not be the same. Pandemic Blue Wave?!?! Democrats' momentum puts Senate majority in play Republicans started this election cycle as heavy favorites to keep their Senate majority, with a lineup of elections mostly in red-tinted states and GOP incumbents favored over a slate of relatively unknown and untested challengers. Now,nearlysixmonthsoutfromtheelection, Democrats are making them sweat. Hamburger Cash Debate Mark Cuban on Shake Shack initially taking small business loan: 'You're going to kill your brand' Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban joined CNBC's "Fast Money" on Monday. Coronavirus Chokes Mexican Drug Money 'Cartels are scrambling': Coronavirus snarls global drug trade The coronavirus is dealing a gut punch to the illegal drug trade, authorities say, paralyzing economies, closing borders and severing supply chains in China that traffickers rely on for the chemicals to make such profitable drugs as methamphetamine and the powerful opioid fentanyl. After Horrific Tragedy Canada Gun Crackdown Coming Soon UPDATE: Trudeau promises swift action on gun control following Nova Scotia shooting | The Chronicle Herald OTTAWA, Ont. - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government will strengthen gun control legislation as soon as possible. As MPs debated in the House of Commons about how to facilitate a return to Parliament during the COVID-19 pandemic, Trudeau addressed Canadians Monday about the tragic shooting in Nova Scotia that left at least 18 dead on Sunday. Local Love Celebration Cont'd Stay-at-home order won't stop spread of kindness during Seven Days event KANSAS CITY, Mo. - This year, there won't be a Seven Days Walk bringing thousands of people together because of COVID-19. But stopping the spread of kindness was not an option. Aside from blood donations, all events from "Love Day" to "Go Day" are virtual. KC COVID-19 Biz Advice How to weather the COVID-19 storm: Lessons from a 2008 startup survivor Editor's note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author's alone. Steve Roatch is CEO of Leawood-based 27Global, a custom software development company. While the specifics of this coronavirus pandemic are unique, we've seen recessions, depressions, national emergencies, wars and even pandemics before. Kansas City Spring Warmup Tuesday will be sunny, temps in mid-60s Temperatures will fall back into the 40s Monday evening. We'll see plenty of sunshine Tuesday with highs in the mid-60s. We delve deep into local files asand inspire us to share a glimpse of pop culture, community news and info from across the nation . . .And this is thefor tonight . . . On 26 March, Fayez Al-Sarraj, prime minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), launched operation Peace Storm against the Libyan National Army (LNA) under the command of Benghazi-based Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. In two weeks, the operation has succeeded in recapturing the western coastal zone from Tripoli to the border with Tunisia. It then turned its attention to Tarhuna. The strategically located city, 65 kilometres southeast of Tripoli, is a forward staging point for the LNA in the Flood of Dignity campaign that Haftar launched just over a year ago with the aim of recapturing the Libyan capital. During the past year, the lines between the two sides have remained largely unchanged. The long LNA siege has been unable to break GNA defences around the capital, which have been heavily bolstered following a highly controversial military cooperation agreement between the GNA and Ankara. Turkish military support, in contravention of the international arms embargo, has helped shift the balances on the field in favour of GNA militias which, while outnumbering Haftars forces, had been less equipped. Now that the GNA forces have taken the initiative, observers see a turning point in the war that could shift its focus away from Tripoli and towards the east, especially in light of the LNAs loss, last week, of Sabrata, Al-Ajailat, Surman, the towns of Gemayel, Riqdalin and Al-Assa near the border with Tunisia. For over a year, these western coastal towns had been a major source of social and tribal support for Haftars forces. The air force base in the Jafara district to the southwest of Tripoli, which Haftars forces had used to support his ground forces, is now nearly surrounded, eliminating it as a strategic asset in his operations to the southeast of Tripoli. GNA militias have also acquired air superiority thanks to Turkish drones. The purpose of the GNA offensive against Tarhuna, which began this weekend, is to cut off support for LNA forces on the outskirts of the capital and force them to withdraw. During the past two weeks, Turkish drones have intensified attacks against LNA supply lines from the Jafara district and other supply routes through the desert. The GNA launched its recent offensive despite repeated UN calls for a humanitarian truce in order to unify efforts in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Libya so far has 48 recorded infections, according to UN sources in Libya. Civilians, in general, continue to suffer from hostilities in the vicinity of the capital which have claimed hundreds of civilian casualties (over 350 dead and 330 wounded) and more than 345,000 displaced persons since Haftar launched the Tripoli offensive on 4 April last year. Al-Sarraj claims Operation Peace Storm is in response to the LNAs constant violations of the truce and to repeated terrorist attacks against civilians. He also stated that he heads a legitimate civilian government that respects its obligations to the international community, but that it has the prior obligation to its people and the need to protect them within the framework of the legitimate right to self-defence within the bounds of international law, according to a press statement from his office. The statement continued: The systematic bombardement of residential neighbourhoods in Tripoli has not stopped despite the truce and has caused civilian casualties, including women and children, heedless of the UN Security Council resolution, in disregard for the resolutions of the Berlin Conference and in contempt for the lives and security of the Libyan people. Peace Storm was to avenge the victims of the invading terrorist militias and the terrorist mercenaries fighting with them, the statement added, referring to the LNA. According to sources close to GNA forces, their commanders are determined to push LNA forces away from the outskirts of the capital by Ramadan in order to enable hundreds of displaced families to return to their homes and alleviate the pressures on the centre of the capital where these families have sought refuge. LNA command reports that its forces continue to hold their ground in the vicinity of Tripoli and Tarhuna and that they have repelled GNA offences in both areas. LNA Spokesman General Ahmed Al-Mismari also mentioned that his forces have downed a number of Turkish drones. On the other hand, observers have noted that LNA air forces have been noticeably absent from the battle in the vicinity of Tripoli in recent weeks, despite losses in their ranks. Mismari seemed to underplay the strategic significance of the loss of the western coastal towns. He held that this was achieved solely due to Turkish military support for the GNA. The Libyan army is fighting an all-out war against the Turkish Army, with all its land, sea, air and electronic strength, he said in a press conference Wednesday, 16 April. Speaking in Benghazi on Sunday, Mismari said: Turkey had been preparing for months and mobilising personnel and equipment to carry out the attack on Tarhuna south of Tripoli. Confirming that LNA forces downed five Turkish drones that were preparing to attack Tarhuna, he added that these forces were able to deprive the GNA of its air capabilities that were used in the attack on Sabratha. He also reciprocated Al-Sarrajs terrorist charges: The Al-Sarraj government (GNA) funds terrorist groups in the southwest with Turkish sponsorship, which have been monitored by LNA reconnaissance... Turkey and Al-Qaeda are behind the movement of militias in all regions of Libya. Meanwhile, to the east of Tripoli and Tarhuna, LNA and GNA forces have been skirmishing in the open desert area south of Misrata using heavy artillery and drones. Dozens of fighters from both sides have died in the clashes in which GNA forces claim to have downed an LNA helicopter, killing its crew, Wednesday. The LNA, for its part, claims to have downed a Turkish drone in the vicinity of Al-Washka, southeast of Misrata. It differs from the usual Turkish drones, Mismari said. The LNA has also begun to patrol areas in southwestern Libya in anticipation of hostile actives targeting the LNA and petroleum facilities in that part of the country where the local populace suffers shortages in basic goods and services. A number of political activists in southern Libya have called for the creation of a political body to advocate the rights of this marginalised region. Local sources also reported that the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) plans to launch a television station addressing the region which observers fear may soon become engulfed in the warfare in Libya. The area has long suffered instability as the result of porous borders and the proliferation of foreign fighters and militant opposition groups from Chad and Sudan, many of whose members have been involved in the fighting in the vicinity of Tripoli, as has been documented in reports by UN Security Council committees of experts on Libya and Sudan. *A version of this article appears in print in the 23 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Rome, Italy Tue, April 21, 2020 14:45 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd34d197 2 World Italy,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-lockdown,COVID-19-death-toll,COVID-19-quarantine,pandemic,health Free Italy will announce before the end of this week its plans for the gradual reopening from a lockdown imposed to fight the coronavirus emergency that will be applied starting from May 4, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Tuesday. The lockdown, closing most Italian businesses and preventing people leaving their homes for all but essential needs, has been in place since March 9, putting a major strain on the euro zone's third largest economy. "I wish I could say: let's reopen everything. Immediately. We start tomorrow morning ... But such a decision would be irresponsible. It would make the contagion curve go up in an uncontrolled way and would nullify all the efforts we have made so far," Conte wrote in a Facebook post. "We must act on the basis of a national [reopening] plan, which however takes into account the territorial peculiarities." After the government shuttered businesses not deemed essential to the supply chain on March 22, calls have recently been growing from industry lobbies to reopen some activities to prevent an economic catastrophe. Italy's Treasury expects the economy to contract by around 8% this year, two sources close to the matter told Reuters on Monday, underscoring the negative impact of the nationwide restrictions. Conte said the easing of restrictions would happen on the basis of a thorough study and scientific data and not to "satisfy a part of public opinion or to satisfy the requests of some production categories, individual companies or specific regions". "The easing brings with it the real risk of a decided increase in the contagion curve and we must be prepared to contain this ascent to the minimum levels, so that the risk of contagion is 'tolerable'," he added. Such plan would not only ensure that companies followed the necessary safety precautions at work, but that it also considered the flow of workers such opening would generate and its impact on public transport, especially during peak times. "The easing of the measures must take place on the basis of a well-structured and articulated plan," he added. The number of new COVID-19 cases dropped to 2,256 on Monday, the lowest level in well over a month, the Civil Protection Agency said. The total death toll stood at 24,114, the second highest in the world after that of the United States. Labour TD for Louth, Ged Nash has called for the establishment of a body to regulate and enforce social distancing in the workplace. Speaking to the Democrat, he explained: The reality is that the social distancing requirement is here to stay for some time yet. It will be the new normal for the foreseeable future. We all hope that our collective national effort will continue to help stall the march of Covid-19 to a point where we see workplaces re-opened on a phased, sector by sector basis when the expert assessment says its safe to do so. We need to start planning now for the potential reopening of workplaces and in doing so we need to ensure that workers have the confidence that their health will be protected. In the interests of public health, workers and compliant companies, we need a body or mechanism with input from worker and employer representatives to provide clarity on essential services and compliance with social distancing in workplaces. The Health & Safety Authority, the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) and HSE environmental health officers are working day in day out to provide advice and guidance to businesses, workers and the general public. They are doing good work and are sharing approaches and information, but without a formal consolidation of this service, gaps and problems will emerge. The creation of a single, go-to body established at the very least on an ad-hoc basis to formally combine this expertise should play a crucial role in the next phase of reopening our economy, as we need a calm and considered sector-by-sector approach rather than a chaotic free-for-all. As envisaged, it would also outline more formally procedures for following and enforcing social distancing guidance in workplaces to protect the health of workers and everyone else. Any established body must be provided with the necessary resources and powers (including appropriate sanctions) to promote compliance. For example, a 2-metre law for social distancing in the workplace has been recently introduced by the Welsh Government to ensure all reasonable actions are taken to keep staff safely apart, with penalties for non-compliance. Such measures should be considered here as a matter of urgency. Bats are carrying a family of deadly viruses that could trigger an AIDS-like disease in koalas and wipe out the already-vulnerable population. The viruses that have been found in bats can trigger the koala retrovirus called KoRV, which exposes them to cancer, chlamydia, infertility, blindness and kidney failure. Scientists believe bats transmitting an infectious retrovirus could be a greater threat to the koala population than the recent bushfires, which killed thousands of the marsupials and destroyed hundreds of their colonies. The viruses that have been found in bats can trigger the koala retrovirus called KoRV, which exposes them to cancer, chlamydia, infertility, blindness and kidney failure Retroviruses, such as HIV, are a type of virus that uses a special enzyme to translate its genetic information into DNA. That DNA can be integrated into the host cell's DNA which causes the infection. Burnet Institute research officer Joshua Hayward said bats could also transmit the retrovirus to other animals. He said this may explain how KoRV-related viruses made its way to Australia from Southeast Asia. Scientists believe bats transmitting an infectious retrovirus could be a greater threat to the koala population than the recent bushfires, which killed thousands of the marsupials and destroyed hundreds of their colonies WHAT IS KoRV? It is a koala retrovirus. Retroviruses, such as HIV, are a type of virus that uses a special enzyme to translate its genetic information into DNA. That DNA can be integrated into the host cell's DNA which causes the infection. This can also expose koalas to cancer, chlamydia, infertility, blindness and kidney failure. Advertisement 'It highlights the role of bats as really important reservoirs of viruses that can be transmitted to other animal species,' Dr Hayward said. 'Our nation is trying to conserve koala populations decimated by the fires, but how can they be protected from viruses? The existence and spread of KoRV and other infectious threats is something likely to concern conservation scientists.' Dr Hayward said bats were able to host the viruses, including Ebola, Hendra and coronaviruses, but remain unaffected by them. He also said bats transmit the deadly viruses through their droppings and bodily fluids. Burnet Institute Head of Life Sciences, and President of the Australasian Virology Society, Professor Gilda Tachedjian, said: 'The further we encroach into bat habitats, the greater the chance of a spillover of viruses from bats to animals and humans, so the identification and characterisation of what viruses might be out there is really important.' Dr Hayward said the study highlights the need for ongoing research into the impact of the spill over of viruses between species, and how we might harness bat antiviral mechanisms to prevent and control viral infections. This study was led by Burnet Institute and the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (formerly the Australian Animal Health Laboratory), Health and Biosecurity Business Unit CSIRO. Australia's koala population was estimated to have fallen to 80,000 before the recent bushfires, in which tens of thousands are believed to have died. . Darcy Paquet, left, subtitle translator of the Oscar-winning film "Parasite," poses for a photo after receiving a certificate of honorary citizenship from Busan Vice Mayor Byun Seong-wan at Busan City Hall, Monday. Yonhap By Kwon Mee-yoo Darcy Paquet, American film critic and subtitle translator of the Oscar-winning film "Parasite," became an honorary citizen of Busan for his contributions to the city's film education. Paquet, 48, has been lecturing at the International Film Business Academy of the Busan Asian Film School as an adjunct professor since 2017. He teaches courses such as Asian Film Industry and Cinema Genres and guides student's films, discovering and educating budding film students in Asia. "I am honored to be appointed as an honorary citizen of Busan. Busan is a great city to work on films. We will see Busan more often in international films when our students, who are the future of their country's movie industry, return to the city as producers," Paquet was quoted saying after receiving the honorary citizen certificate. Established in 2016, the Busan Asian Film School aims to nurture international film business experts based on the city's longstanding interest and efforts in cinema including the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) and its UNESCO designation as a Creative City of Film. Busan local government said Paquet's students have been invited to and won awards at the world's top film festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlinale and Venice Film Festival, promoting the school as well as the city's efforts to become the hub of film education in Asia. Paquet, who first came to Korea as an English instructor at Korea University back in 1997, was fascinated by Korean film and learned the Korean language. He started working with Bong Joon-ho of "Parasite" fame in 2000 when Paquet was asked to revise the English subtitles of the director's first feature, "Barking Dogs Never Bite." Since then Paquet has translated most of Bong's films into English, except for "Okja," which was produced in the States. Paquet is considered one of the hidden heroes of the historic Oscars win at the Academy Awards in February as he translated the Korean dialogue for English-speaking audiences and bridged the cultural gap deftly. One of his best coinages was "ramdon," his translation of "jjapaguri," which became the iconic dish of the film encompassing a complicated class story. Jjapaguri is a mixture of Chapaghetti, Korean instant black bean noodles, and Neoguri, spicy udon-like noodles, but since non-Koreans are not familiar with Korean instant noodle brands, Paquet came up with the idea of combining the words "ramyeon" and "udon," which are more widely known. He also changed Korea's most prestigious Seoul National University to Oxford and popular chatting application KakaoTalk to WhatsApp for better universal understanding without harming the original intention. Paquet is the founder of Koreanfilm.org and the author of "New Korean Cinema: Breaking the Waves" (2010). As a film expert specializing in Korean cinema, Paquet was awarded the Korea Film Reporters Association Award at the 15th Busan International Film Festival in 2011 for his efforts to introduce Korean films to the world. In 2014, he co-launched the Wildflower Film Awards Korea, which recognizes achievements in Korean independent filmmaking. Other films Paquet has translated English subtitles for include "The Handmaiden," "The Day After" and "The Age of Shadows." 125 families residing the Rashtrapati Bhawan complex in the national capital have been put under self-isolation after one person tested positive for COVID-19. According to reports, the COVID-19 positive patient is not a staffer at the Rashtrapati Bhawan but is a resident of the complex as her father-in-law is a sanitation worker there. Rashtrapati Bhavan "A relative of a resident of Rashtrapati Bhavan Estate Quarters died a few days ago. The person who has tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday had attended the funeral," a source told IANS. The woman's mother had died of COVID-19 in her village recently and all of the family members had attended her funeral. The woman tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday all the other family members have tested negative. She has been sent to the quarantine centre in the nearby Birla Mandir complex. Rashtrapati Bhavan Following the development, all 125 families in the complex have been asked to self-isolate and 25 houses in the same block have been kept under strict isolation. This comes as the number of coronavirus cases in India crossed the 18,000 on Tuesday morning with 18,601 cases, including 590 deaths. The country recorded the biggest jump in the number of deaths in a day with 47 patients dying in the last 24 hours. With a total of 2081 active cases, 431 recoveries and 47 deaths so far Delhi is one of the worst-hit due to the pandemic. On Monday, the Delhi government added 5 more containment zones (red zones or hotspots) taking the total count of such areas to 84 in the national capital. These hotspots are Block 34 of Trilokpuri, Block - G of Jahangirpuri, Block AF of Shalimar Bagh, Flat number 265 to 500 of Sanjay Enclave and Lane 24-28 of Tughlakabad Extension. BCCL The Delhi government also started the use of rapid antibody testing kits in the red zones in the central district of the national capital. According to the health department, there a total of 42,000 such kits as of now which will be used for testing the presence of coronavirus antibodies in a patient. With the number of cases on the rise, the Delhi Government had said that there will be no immediate relaxation of the lockdown restrictions in the capital. BCCL Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said on Sunday that the COVID-19 was spreading very fast and it would be difficult to contain it if any relaxation in the lockdown was given in the capital at this point in time. Police in West Jordan, Utah, are searching for a 31-year-old man suspected of shooting dead a young couple in a targeted attack early on Saturday morning. Albert Johnson was named by police Monday as the suspect in the deaths of Katherine Butterfield, 30, and Tony Butterfield, 31, who were murdered in their home as their three young children, all under the age of four, slept. Police say it 'was a targeted and isolated act' and 'not random' but West Jordan Police Sergeant J.C. Holt could not reveal a motive when questioned by DailyMail.com. Holt said the suspect in this 'very difficult case' was 'still on the run' as of Tuesday morning. Johnson's wife was arrested Monday and is being held for withholding information and interfering in the investigation. She is reported to have disposed of evidence. Tony Butterfield, pictured left, was found in the yard and Katherine's body was inside the house. They both died of a gunshot wound. Police have yet to locate the gun used Katherine and Tony Butterfield were murdered in their home in West Jordan, Utah, around 1.15am on Saturday morning as their three young children slept in the house The Butterfields are believed to have tried to fend of their attacker and police say that Johnson may have injuries to either his arms or legs consistent with a knife. 'Our detectives are working to find where he may be. We believe that the Butterfield's were absolute true victims in this senseless act,' said Sergeant Holt in a statement. Police found the Butterfields dead in their home near 3200 West and 6900 South from gunshot wounds at around 1.15am on Saturday morning after a home invasion. A neighbor called the police after they heard gunshots and a woman screaming. Katherine was found inside the house while Tony's body was found in the yard. It appears he fought the suspect outside before he died. Police are searching for Albert Johnson, 31, (left) a suspect in the murder of Katherine Butterfield, 30, and Tony Butterfield, 31. Johnson's wife Sina Anne Johnson, 29, (right) was arrested on Monday and confessed to destroying evidence connected to the crime, according to West Jordan police The gun has not yet been recovered. Holt said that the home showed signs of forced entry and the suspect had looked through the couple's belongings, although police do not know what was taken. The couple's three children - aged four, two, and six months old - were in the home at the time of the murder but are unharmed. They are staying with family members and a GoFundMe has been established to support them. Breast milk donations were also made for the couple's youngest baby baby girl. Police describe Johnson as 5-foot-10 and about 270 pounds and say he was an acquaintance of the murdered couple, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. They are also searching for 2008 Toyota Corolla, license plate V464MW. Sergeant Holt said Johnson had a criminal history and also lives in West Jordan but not in the same neighborhood as the Butterfield family. They are not looking for any other suspects. Police arrested Johnson's wife Sina Anne Johnson, 29, on Monday, accused of withholding 'the whereabouts of the homicide suspect' and 'falsifying her [statements] of what occurred and her involvement'. Sina Johnson had been in contact with her husband 'on multiple occasions prior to and after the homicide' and 'admitted ... to disposing of the evidence', police say. She is being held without bail for obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence and is working with police as they continue the investigation, Sergeant Holt said. A vigil was held for the Butterfields on Sunday night as friends and family gathered to pay tribute to a couple described as 'incredible, Christ-like, kind, happy, and loving parents'. 'It was the least we could do. We all love them so much, and it was an unfathomable thing that happened,' Molly McKeon, a family friend, told KSL.com. 'It was our only way to really show support.' The couple's family issued a statement through police Saturday night, in which they thanked the community for its outpouring of love and support. Police found the Butterfields dead in their home near 3200 West and 6900 South from gunshot wounds at around 1.15am on Saturday morning after a home invasion 'Tony and Katherine were incredible Christ-like, kind, happy, and loving parents, children, siblings and friends,' the statement said. 'We mourn their loss, but are grateful for the sure knowledge we have that we will be with them again.' The family said it holds 'no ill-will towards the perpetrator(s) and pray for them and their families. 'We ask for prayers for Tony and Katherine's three sweet children, as well as for the many, many people who love Tony and Katherine,' the statement continued. 'We are appreciative and overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support we have received. Thank you.' Anyone with information is asked to call West Jordan police at 801-840-4000. Civic Chamber reports upsurge in online bullying of minors under self-isolation regime RAPSI, Eugeny Varlamov 17:21 21/04/2020 MOSCOW, April 21 (RAPSI) The rate of cyberbullying of underage persons has surged since early April, experts of Bezopasnost 2.0 (Security 2.0) Center at the Commission on Development of Public Diplomacy, Humanitarian Cooperation and Preservation of Traditional Values of Russias Civic Chamber inform on Tuesday. According to the Chair of the Commission Elena Sutormina, main internet sites, where the most such cases have been detected, are VKontakte and YouTube. Since early April, the social activist says, experts have been registering an increase in the number of cases relating to cyberbullying of minor in social networks. Whereas in March there were registered 238 such high-profile cases, that is, the audience made over 1,000 persons, since early April the result was 362 bullying incidents. VKontakte network leads in this respect, Surmina notes, especially as concerns anonymous user group Overheard, which accounts for 70% of all cases of bullying. In terms of geography, the results of the analysis demonstrate, Moscow and the Moscow Region lead, followed by St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region; Krasnoyarsk Region rated third and is followed by the Crimea Republic and Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Commission Chair observes. The experts of the Security 2.0 Center, according to the Civic Chamber report, have analyzed over 2,500 open communities and publications on VKontakte, YouTube and Instagramm. The figures show that parents need to pay more attention to interaction with their children, develop trust-based relationship with them, in order to timely learn about problems they encounter online, Sutormina believes; she also recommends to engage children in joint activities outside internet, what is especially important under the self-isolation regime. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Export of Turkish cars to Azerbaijan increased by 41.17 percent from January 2020 through March 2020 and exceeded $21.9 million, Trend reports citing the Turkish Trade Ministry. In March 2020, Turkeys car export to Azerbaijan decreased by 15.66 percent compared to March 2019, amounting to $4.9 million. In 1Q2020, export of cars from Turkey to world markets dropped by 10 percent compared to the same period of 2019, and amounted to $6.9 billion. Meanwhile, Turkeys car export amounted to 16.3 percent of the country's total export. In March 2020, Turkey exported cars worth $2 billion to world markets, which is 28.5 percent less compared to the same month of 2019. Turkeys export of cars amounted to 15.4 percent of the country's total exports. From March 2019 through March 2020, Turkey exported cars in the amount of $29.8 billion. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-21 19:10:43 Press Information Goldstein Market Intelligence 99 Wall Street ,Suite No- 527, New York, NY 10005 +44 7520 644482 Dennis Abraham Digital Marketing Research 07520644482 email https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/ # 499 Words 99 Wall Street ,Suite No-527, New York, NY 10005+44 7520 644482Digital Marketing Research07520644482 The competition for biosimilars is weak, because the entire supply chain, including manufacturers, pharmacy welfare management, group purchasing organizations, and distributors, is more inclined to split monopoly profits by obtaining generous rebates from original biologics, instead of accepting competition of biosimilars and their lower prices. said Scott Gottlieb, FDA Director.Report is available at:- https://bit.ly/3cyZW3Y Global Biosimilars Market SegmentationBased on Product Typeo Recombinant Non-Glycosylated Proteins Insulin Human Growth Hormone Granulocyte Colony-stimulating Factor (G-CSF)Based on Implicationso Oncologyo Nephrologyo OthersBased on Manufacturingo In-House Manufacturingo Contract ManufacturingBased on Geographyo North America (U.S. & Canada) Biosimilars Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)}o Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina & Rest of Latin America) Biosimilars Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)}o Europe (The U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Poland, Sweden & Roe) Biosimilars Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)}o Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia) Biosimilars Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)}o Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, North Africa, Romea) Biosimilars Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)}Request for Sample Report at :- https://bit.ly/2XScaR3 Covered in this Global Biosimilars Industry Market Report areGlobal Biosimilars Industry Market Analysis 2030 by Goldstein Market Intelligence contains detailed overview of Global Biosimilars Industry Market in terms of market segmentation by analysis basis, therapy type and geography. The Report highlights the competitive outlook of major global players that includes the business strategies, product portfolio, revenue distribution, financial analysis, R&D activities, and investments. The in-depth analysis of Global Biosimilars Industry Market report will help the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Companies covered in the Global Biosimilars Market Humira Remicade Enbrel Aranesp MylanFurther, Global Biosimilars Industry Market Report encompasses the major trends & opportunities, market dynamics and other growth factors of the market Global Biosimilars Industry Market Report also comprises of key challenges, risk analysis, BPS analysis, SWOT Analysis and Market Attractiveness. The report also highlights the expert analysis to provide a complete overview of the market including the PESTLE analysis of each region and country.About Goldstein Market IntelligenceGoldstein Market Intelligence helping businesses to be successful at strategy and take informed decisions to grow the business in future. Goldstein Market Intelligence is one of the leading professional services firms, providing Intelligence Services, Consulting & Advisory and research related services to clients. We, at Goldstein Intelligence Group (GIG) practice works side by side with chief executives and their teams to create effective strategies and secure alignment across the organisation. Goldstein Intelligence Group (GIG), a network of worldwide professional services firms, as a leading group with a strong commitment to establishing itself as a truly global-minded professional firm that can provide professional services across the world.Contact for more Info:Dennis Abraham(Global Sales Head)UK: +44 7520 644482Email Us :- dennis.abraham@goldsteinresearch.com Then-FBI Assistant Director for the Counterintelligence Division, E.W. Bill Priestap, told the committee the bureau didnt want to stand behind the Steele report, but because then-President Obama had directed the agencies to include all information on Russian interference in the 2016 election, the bureau felt it would have had a major problem if it had not been cited in some way. Ultimately, the FBI included a two-page summary of the Steele material in an annex to the classified version of the ICA. Spanish English BOGOTA, Colombia and SMITHS FALLS, Ontario, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clever Leaves, a leading multinational operator (MNO) and licensed producer of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis and hemp extracts, and Canopy LATAM Corporation ("Canopy LATAM"), a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of Canopy Growth Corporation ("Canopy Growth") (TSX:WEED, NYSE:CGC), announce that both parties have entered into a regional supply agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Clever Leaves will supply Canopy LATAM with extracted products from its GMP-certified, licensed cannabis processing system and cultivation sites in Colombia. Clever Leaves has delivered the first of these products to Canopy Growth under the terms of the one-year agreement, which includes an option to renew for two additional years. With Canopy Growths large-scale capacity and network in Latin America, we expect this agreement to provide Clever Leaves with significant near-term revenue, said Kyle Detwiler, CEO of Clever Leaves. It also validates Colombia as a key source for the future of the cannabinoid supply chain, an important milestone for both Canopy Growth and Clever Leaves. Certified with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to produce medical cannabis, Clever Leaves is well positioned to supply companies such as Canopy Growth, enhancing their returns on capital invested and enabling greater focus on downstream commercial activities. Clever Leaves has proven its capabilities in Colombia and through this supply agreement, Canopy LATAM is furthering the implementation of its asset-light model and accelerating time to market with regionally produced GMP-certified medical cannabis products, said Antonio Droghetti, Managing Director, Canopy LATAM. This agreement strengthens Canopy LATAMs regional supply chain and demonstrates our continued commitment to working with industry partners to further the growth of Colombia and the LATAM regions medical cannabis industry. Clever Leaves also recently received in Colombia the quotas to cultivate, extract, and commercialize through exporting high-THC medical cannabis. With this approval, Clever Leaves is permitted to provide psychoactive products to global customers subject to the required import permits being granted, positioning the company to become one of the largest suppliers of medical cannabis globally. About Clever Leaves Clever Leaves is a multi-national cannabis company with a mission to operate in compliance with federal and state laws and with an emphasis on ecologically sustainable, large-scale cultivation and processing as the cornerstones of its global cannabis business. Clever Leaves is a leading vertically integrated producer of medical cannabis and hemp extracts and is currently cultivating over 1.8 million square feet of greenhouses under Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) in Colombia. Clever Leaves Colombian operation obtained its Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification from INVIMA, Colombias food and drug regulatory agency, after inspection of its top-of-the-line extraction facility and is being evaluated for certification under European Good Manufacturing Practices (EU GMP). Clever Leaves first extraction facility is currently capable of extracting 2,400 kilograms of dried flower per month, with expansion underway to increase expected extraction capacity to 9,000 kilograms of dried flower per month by mid-2020. In November 2019, Clever Leaves received authorization from INFARMED I.P., the Portuguese regulatory authority, to start cultivation operations in Portugal. Based on the pre-license received in Portugal, Clever Leaves Portugal is currently cultivating its first medicinal cannabis crop on its 90-hectare farm. Clever Leaves is one of the worlds largest hemp and medical cannabis producers, with a global footprint encompassing brands, extraction facilities, cultivation operations and other investments across Canada, Colombia, Germany, Portugal, and the United States. About Canopy Growth Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED, NYSE:CGC) is a world-leading diversified cannabis, hemp and cannabis device company, offering distinct brands and curated cannabis varieties in dried, oil and Softgel capsule forms, as well as medical devices through Canopy Growths subsidiary, Storz & Bickel GMbH & Co. KG. From product and process innovation to market execution, Canopy Growth is driven by a passion for leadership and a commitment to building a world-class cannabis company one product, site and country at a time. Canopy Growth has operations in over a dozen countries across five continents. Canopy Growths medical division, Spectrum Therapeutics is proudly dedicated to educating healthcare practitioners, conducting robust clinical research, and furthering the publics understanding of cannabis, and has devoted millions of dollars toward cutting edge, commercializable research and IP development. Spectrum Therapeutics sells a range of full-spectrum products using its colour-coded classification Spectrum system as well as single cannabinoid Dronabinol under the brand Bionorica Ethics. Canopy Growth operates retail stores across Canada under its award-winning Tweed and Tokyo Smoke banners. Tweed is a globally recognized cannabis brand which has built a large and loyal following by focusing on quality products and meaningful customer relationships. From our historic public listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange to our continued international expansion, pride in advancing shareholder value through leadership is engrained in all we do at Canopy Growth. Canopy Growth has established partnerships with leading sector names including cannabis icons Snoop Dogg and Seth Rogen, breeding legends DNA Genetics and Green House Seeds, and Fortune 500 alcohol leader Constellation Brands, to name but a few. Canopy Growth operates eleven licensed cannabis production sites with over 10.5 million square feet of production capacity, including over one million square feet of GMP certified production space. For more information visit www.canopygrowth.com Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, estimates, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements or information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Canopy Growth or its subsidiaries to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including the Companys ability to satisfy provincial sales contracts or provinces purchasing all cannabis allocated to them, and such risks contained in the Companys annual information form dated June 25, 2019 and filed with Canadian securities regulators available on the Companys issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information or forward-looking statements in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking information or forward-looking information to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities laws. Press contacts: McKenna Miller KCSA Strategic Communications +1347-487-6197 mmiller@kcsa.com Diana Siguenza Strategic Communication Director +573102368830 Diana.siguenza@cleverleaves.com GARY More than 13 months after the 36-year-old mother of six went missing and was presumed murdered, Jessica Flores's remains have been found in the woods in Gary. Last week, a city worker discovered a human skull and more skeletal human remains in a wooded area by the 700 block of Clark Road in Gary. Lake County Sheriff's Department deputies, Gary police and a cadaver search dog turned up additional remains while searching the area. Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr. said the remains were identified as those of Jessica Flores, of South Chicago Heights, who disappeared in Gary in late February 2019, prompting extensive manhunts that raked across the city last year. "According to the Lake County coroner's office, dental records matched remains that were found in a wooded area near 9th and Clark in Gary," Martinez said. Jessica Flores sister, Mady Perez, said the family was relieved that she was finally found and that justice must now be served. We want to thank everyone who came out to help search for my sister Jessica and have kept her in prayers," she said. "We will not stop until we get justice for my sister. Her children and my mother deserve this. My sister is now free." European markets closed sharply lower on Tuesday as oil market volatility and the coronavirus outbreak remained in focus. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down over 3% provisionally, driven lower by basic resources stocks, which cratered almost 6%. All sectors and major bourses finished below the flatline. Oil markets have come into sharp focus after dramatic moves in prices Monday as the coronavirus dents demand and concerns over production storage grow. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for May delivery plunged below zero for the first time in history on Monday. The contract in question is set to expire on Tuesday, fueling Monday's wipeout. German institute says measures against virus should go on The German government announced last week that it managed to bring coronavirus health emergency under control and partially relaxed strict lockdown measures, allowing small shops to reopen. Life can only fully return to normal once a vaccine against the novel coronavirus is found, an official from Germanys disease control agency said on Tuesday. Lars Schaade, vice president of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), told a news conference in Berlin that hygiene and social distancing measures should continue for a long period, despite a recent slowdown in the rate of new coronavirus cases in Germany. "LIFE CAN RETURN TO NORMAL ONLY WHEN VACCINE IS FOUND" Even if we came to a point where we have no new cases in Germany, a new wave would still be possible due to new infections from abroad, he said. Until we have a vaccine available, and for the time being nobody knows if or when it will be available, we must continue our measures to avoid infection, he stressed. But Chancellor Angela Merkel also warned against complacency and urged citizens to closely follow social distancing measures to prevent a new wave of coronavirus. The death toll from coronavirus in Germany reached 4,856 on Tuesday, while the total number of cases neared 148,000, according to data analysis firm Risklayer and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The German Green Party knows all about internal disputes when faced with tough decisions. Much of the party's time during the eighties and nineties was spent trying to appease various factions within its membership. On one side was the radical 'Fundis', or the fundamentalists, and on the other the more pragmatic 'Realos', or realists. The Fundis were more predisposed to protest than their counterparts and were not keen on parliamentary democracy as a means to implement change. On the other hand, the Realos believed entering government was the only way the party could ensure green policies were enacted. For years, they argued over the best approach. Eventually, the most radical of the Fundis left the party and the Realos finally entered into coalition with the German Social Democrats. It wasn't always a smooth ride in government but they managed to get their policies implemented and Greens are still regarded as a moderate party in Germany. The Irish Green Party has never gone through a similar blood-letting process but maybe it is edging closer to one. Even in 2007, its path to government was a relatively painless process. Yes, there were members who were not in favour of propping up Bertie Ahern's Fianna Fail but in the end the vast majority of the party voted in favour of coalition. Despite the turmoil of that period the party enjoyed relative unity while it faced into the economic abyss posed by the financial crash. The difference between now and then is that the party signed up to government during the good times and ended up in the depths of despair. The current incarnation of the Greens' parliamentary party is standing on the edge of an economic abyss being asked to jump in. The decision they are facing is certainly not an easy one. There will be no celebrations on the streets of their constituencies if they decide to enter government with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. Mostly because of social distancing restrictions but also because there are no prizes for doing your job. The men and women who get up every morning and put their lives at risk to work in your local supermarket don't expect celebrations. Even though we probably should honour them when all this is done. Apart from some applause on a Thursday evening, our healthcare workers don't get much praise for their valiant efforts during this crisis either. The Green Party is not driven by a desire for the perks of office. Chauffeur-driven electric cars is not what they got into politics for. The internal debate they are having at the moment is based on ideology - not a dispute over who gets a title before their name. But ideological conflict can be just as inhibiting as egotistical wrangling over political careerism. And in some ways, they can be one and the same thing. There is clearly an ideological faction in the current crop of Greens. You only have to look at their media-friendly general election candidate in Mayo, Saoirse McHugh, who wants to overthrow society and suggested this could involve guillotines. McHugh gets more column inches than votes but she is a representative of a Fundi-like faction in the Green Party. In the parliamentary party, Neasa Hourigan is an influential figure who is less than eager to go into government with establishment parties like Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. When they published their policy framework document last week, TDs from both parties were more interested in what Hourigan thought of the deal than the rest of the Green Party. The Greens have yet to decide how to reply to the document they received last Thursday and frustration is growing across the board with the party. Yesterday, the Regional Independents issued a statement after their meeting with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, insisting a deadline must be set for the smaller parties considering government. During the meeting, Independent TD Denis Naughten made a valid point that decisions will soon have to made on the public health, mental and economic costs of the virus and only a strong government can do that. A caretaker government should not be left to make these decisions, Naughten argued. He is of course right. A strong stable government with a majority will be needed to make unpopular decisions. The Greens might eventually sign up but if they do so while still internally at war over ideology it might be counterproductive to those interested in governing. This would leave the Greens with the option of splitting and entering government or remaining in opposition while they work out what direction the party should take. Throughout Europe, support for the Greens comes and goes in waves and in Ireland it is no different. The party is on the crest of a wave at the moment but that wave is crashing towards the shore at pace. The Irish Fundis and Realos in the Green Party might yet settle their differences and enter into government more unified than ever but time is running out. Iowans are meeting the coronavirus pandemic with the heartland grit and resilience our state needs to get through this crisis together. As lifelong family farmers, we are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with hard-working Iowans who are plowing forward to get us through this public health emergency. Across our states farm-to-fork supply chain, Iowans are putting food on our tables and delivering critical supplies Americans need to survive. Iowa leaders in food and agriculture, manufacturing, fuels, logistics, and nonprofit organizations are adapting to extraordinary circumstances to carry out essential functions. Just as health care professionals are working around the clock to care for COVID-19 patients, food and agriculture laborers are on the front lines to make sure food and fuel supply chains are functioning and secure. As crop farmers charge ahead into the spring planting season, livestock producers are putting in longer hours to keep meat, dairy and eggs on the grocery store shelves. As a leading producer of corn, soybeans, pork, eggs, meat, and renewable fuels, consumers depend on Iowa to feed their families, stock their pantries and fill their gas tanks. On the production floor, manufacturing and industrial workers are lending a helping hand to Iowa agriculture. Iowa companies are leaning on their innovation and problem-solving skills to support food and nutrition while still putting health and safety first. Community stewardship defines the renewable fuels industry in Iowa. Renewable fuels producers across the state have shifted production to manufacture hand sanitizer to help meet the needs of Iowa hospitals and local communities. When these companies flagged a regulatory hurdle to doing this, we worked to cut red tape so they could help. The nationwide efforts to flatten the curve and save lives have delivered a financial setback to the renewable fuels industry and to Iowa farmers who were already battling Big Oil for a level playing field at the pump. Idled ethanol and biodiesel plants deliver a damaging ripple effect that includes a lost market for farmers, lost jobs for workers and lost production of the Dried Distillers Grains that biofuels plants deliver to livestock producers as a high-quality feed component. Were fighting tooth and nail to ensure the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is implemented as the law requires. We strongly support nationwide application of the Tenth Circuit Courts ruling on small refinery exemptions to uphold the integrity of the RFS. From our leadership positions in the U.S. Senate and as Iowas Secretary of Agriculture, theres no daylight between our efforts to support Iowa farmers and our states renewable fuels industry. At the federal level, were making the case to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to use the Commodity Credit Corp. funds to help the biofuels industry get through this crisis. Were also working with Iowas leaders in our states food, agriculture, fuel, and critical manufacturing industries to keep supply chains running. At the state level, that means working with Gov. Kim Reynolds to support the entire food and agriculture community. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship is providing information to ag producers and businesses while also supporting consumer protection through essential inspections. At the federal level, this also means holding the line for our cattlemen while minimizing disruptions to the food supply. Protecting the health and safety of employees who work at processing plants is of the highest importance. At the same time, we have to make sure this emergency isnt giving cover to market manipulation and other illegal activity by meat packing executives. Attorney General William Barr and USDA Secretary Perdue have the authority to launch an investigation into this and were glad the USDA has launched its look into price fixing by beef packers. Cattle producers need competitive markets to get a fair price. We look forward to the USDAs report as soon as possible. The third phase of federal coronavirus relief provided $14 billion for the Commodity Credit Corp. and $9.5 billion specifically for agricultural producers. Making sure these funds reach Iowa food and agriculture producers and businesses is a top priority for us. As champions for Iowa agriculture, were looking out for our entire food and agriculture community and were laser-focused on the challenges and disruptions stemming from the pandemic. U.S. Senator Chuck Grassleys three-generation farming operation is in Butler County. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naigs family century farm is located in Northwest Iowa. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 by Shafique Khokhar Raja Walter gives free food to those who need it, irrespective of faith and ethnicity. The pandemic has worsened the problem of malnutrition in the country. The Christian businessmans example is used to promote social and religious harmony during the anti-COVID-19 fight. Lahore (AsiaNews) Raja Walter feeds 300 people a day in Youhanabad, a predominantly Christian area in Lahore. All are suffering from the effects of the coronavirus. Raja, a small Christian restaurateur, provides food to anyone who needs it, regardless of their faith or ethnicity. Recent acts of hatred and prejudice against Pakistans Christian minority at this time of crisis had a deep effect on him, prompting him to help others. According to him, "love for humanity must prevail in Pakistan" at a time when more and more people are being infected. So far, 8,418 COVID-19 cases have been reported with 176 deaths. In order to contain the outbreak, the government has imposed strict measures to isolate the people. The lockdown has interrupted most economic activities, worsening the already serious problem of malnutrition among many Pakistanis. According to the 2018 National Nutrition Survey, 33 per cent of minors are underweight and 50 per cent suffer from malnutrition. Without Raja's work of charity, I would not be able to feed my children," said Snober Ashiq, a mother forced every day to look for food to survive. The Christian businessman, who is helped by his brother who lives and works in Sweden, makes no distinctions. If he sees Muslim families queuing up to eat, he offers them a table in his small eatery. Shanila Ruth, a member of the National Assembly with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice), the party of Prime Minister Imran Khan, went to Raja's diner yesterday, to congratulate him for his great humanitarian effort. Fr Francis Nadeem, delegate of the National Commission for Interreligious Dialogue and Ecumenism, did the same, calling him a "great example of social and interreligious harmony". He used Raja's story to urge Pakistani Muslims to help those in need, without discrimination. Since the pandemic, in some parts of Pakistan, the Christian population has been denied food aid. A well-known cleric, Sahibzada Asim Makhdoom, deems this unacceptable; in his view, Pakistani Muslims should help their Christian brothers. UN agency says five women and two children killed after heavy rains and flooding across northern governorates. This months flash floods in Yemen have resulted in the death of at least seven people while 85 others have been injured, the United Nations has said. Heavy rains and flooding across northern governorates, including Marib, in mid-April led to casualties and damaged property and sites for internally displaced persons, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday. Initial information indicated that seven people five women and two children were killed in the flooding and another 85 people were injured, including seven who were seriously injured and hospitalised. The rebel-held capital Sanaa and districts in the same governorate have been badly affected, it added. Storms also hit provinces Ibb and Hajjah as well as Marib, which is the governments last northern stronghold and currently the conflicts centre of gravity. Yemen has endured one of the worlds largest cholera outbreaks in recent memory and health officials have dreaded the coronaviruss outbreak in the country. The country announced its first case of COVID-19 on April 10, and aid organisations have warned that the countrys health infrastructure all but collapsed since a conflict between the government and Houthi rebels broke out in 2014 is not equipped to handle the crisis. Repeated bombings and ground fighting over nearly six years of war have destroyed or closed more than half its health facilities. Willemstad/Philipsburg:---The Centrale Bank van Curacao en Sint Maarten (CBCS) has recommended the governments of Curacao and Sint Maarten to invoke article 36 of the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands in order to obtain aid from the Netherlands for financing the national budgets, safeguarding employment, and - if needed - financing the balance of payments. The foreign exchange reserves are managed by the CBCS, who must ensure a sufficient supply of foreign exchange for the unhampered execution of foreign transactions. By doing so, the confidence in the fixed peg of the NAf to the US dollar can be maintained. Thus, contrary to what certain media are proposing, foreign exchange reserves cannot serve to finance the support programs. Furthermore, the support programs of the countries Curacao and Sint Maarten are aimed at maintaining a certain level of spending to meet the minimum needs of affected citizens and companies, which - through imports - causes pressure on the foreign exchange reserves. However, by receiving funding from abroad, in particular the Netherlands, for financing of the support programs, a compensating foreign exchange inflow is ensured. Prior to the closing of the borders, the import coverage was 3.8 months, which is a comfortable level. After having received the first instalment of the liquidity support from the Netherlands, the import coverage even exceeded temporarily 4 months of imports. CBCS is committed to safeguarding the stability of the peg of the NAf to the US dollar and will use all necessary instruments to that purpose, as was successfully done in the past, according to the acting CBCS-president, Mr. Jose Jardim. CBCS will thus continue its efforts to finance the economy, without failing its primary monetary task. The measure implemented by the CBCS on March 20, whereby foreign exchange licenses are no longer granted for capital transactions that result in an immediate drop in foreign exchange reserves, remains in effect until further notice. Depending on the further developments, additional measures may be announced. CBCS will also assist the countries in drafting a plan for financial-economic recovery geared at enhancing the competitiveness of the monetary union as well as strengthening the sustainability of the public finances of both countries, said Mr. Jardim. WASH Officer NO-A Temporary Appointment, Mexico City, Mexico Organization: Unicef Country: Mexico City: Mexico City, Mexico Office: UNICEF Mexico Closing date: Saturday, 2 May 2020 WASH Officer, NO-A, Mexico City, Mexico, Temporary Appointment Job no: 531217 Position type: Temporary Appointment Location: Mexico Division/Equivalent: Latin America and Caribbean Regional Off School/Unit: Mexico Department/Office: Mexico City, Mexico Categories: WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), NO-1 UNICEF works in some of the worlds toughest places, to reach the worlds most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up. For every child, UNICEF Mexico also supports humanitarian responses related to migration and internal displacements. UNICEF in its new programmatic cycle 2020-2024 will work at national level with specific interventions in CDMX and the following States: Chihuahua, Guerrero, Chiapas, Mexico City and Mexico State. The WASH Officer provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout the WASH in schools/MHM and WASH in emergency programming process, through the application of theoretical and practical technical skills in researching, collecting, analysing and presenting programme information while learning organizational rules, regulations and procedures to support the development, implementation and monitoring of the WASH results of the equity output under the Education Strategy of the 2020 -2025 Country Programme. How can you make a difference? 1. Programme development and planning Research and analyse national WASH economic and development trends and its links with other key sectors to UNICEF. Collect, analyse, verify and synthesize information to facilitate programme development, design and preparation. Prepare technical reports and inputs for programme preparation and documentation, ensuring accuracy, timeliness and relevance of information. Assist in the development/establishment of WASH-related output results, as well as related strategies, through analysis of WASH in schools and emergency sector needs and priorities. Provide technical and administrative support throughout all stages of programming processes by executing/administering a variety of technical programme transactions, preparing materials/documentations, complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support progress towards the WASH-related results within the Education outcome. Prepare required documentations/materials to facilitate review and approval processes. 2. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results Work collaboratively with colleagues and partners to collect/analyze/ share information on implementation issues, suggest solutions on routine programme implementation and alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level interventions and/or decision. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned. Support the development and design of a strategy to influence the improvement of the Educational Management Information Systems (EMIS) to monitor WASH in Schools services under the SDG framework. Implement, monitor and report ongoing initiatives on WiS and MHM in priority states. Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with government and other counterparts and prepare minutes/reports on results for follow up action by higher management and other stakeholders. Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verify compliance with approved allocations, organizational rules, regulations/procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity. Report on issues identified to enable timely resolution by management/stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution. Prepare inputs for programme and donor reporting. 3. Technical and operational support for programme implementation Undertake field visits and surveys, collect and share reports with partners/stakeholders. Report critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems to supervisor, for timely action. Contribute to the development of the Communication for Development (C4D) strategy for WASH/WiS, gender equity (MHM) and with a climate resilience lens. Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes and best practices in WASH, to support programme implementation. 4. Humanitarian WASH preparedness and response Tags caribbean region civil engineering climate resilience communication for development content management development trends displacement early recovery educational management emergency preparedness good practices humanitarian response information systems knowledge management latin america management information systems monitoring and evaluation programme implementation programme management resource mobilization social sciences Draft inputs for the preparation of WASH emergency preparedness, including the drafting of required supplies and services, long-term agreements, partnership agreements, and coordination mechanisms. Study and fully understand UNICEFs procedures for responding in an emergency. Take up support roles in an emergency response and early recovery, as and when the need arises. Support in the implementation of international standards (SPHERE, CCCs, etc.) in government responses Strengthen national/state coordination and support provision of WASH in schools and in the context of the protection of migrant children and adolescents. 5. Networking and partnership building Build and sustain close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve WASH output results. Draft communication and information materials for WASH programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support fund raising for WASH. Participate in inter-agency meetings/events on WASH programming to collaborate with inter-agency partners/colleagues on UNDAF operational planning and preparation of WASH programmes/projects and to integrate and harmonize UNICEF output results and implementation strategies with UNDAF development and planning processes. Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fund raising and partnership development purposes. 6. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building Assist in the development, implementation, monitoring and documentation of WASH action research and innovation (technical or systems). Assist in the preparation of learning/knowledge products, covering innovative approaches and good practices, to support overall WASH sector development, in alignment with UNICEF Mexico Enterprise Content Management strategy and UNICEF regional WASH Knowledge Management strategy and workplan. Assist in creating and delivering learning opportunities for UNICEF WASH staff, to ensure our sector capacity remains up to date with latest developments. Participate as a resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders. Support inclusive gender-sensitive WASH interventions including MHM To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have Education: An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health, social sciences, civil engineering or another relevant technical field. Experience: A minimum of one year of professional experience in WASH-related programmes in an upper-middle income context is required. Work experience in WASH in emergencies is required. Knowledge and work experience in the implementation of WASH in schools is considered an asset. Language Requirements: Fluency in Spanish and English required For every Child, you demonstrate... UNICEFs values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. The functional competencies required for this post are... Formulating strategies and concepts, analysing, applying technical expertise, learning and researching, planning and organizing. View our competency framework at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. Remarks: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. Candidates must be citizen of Mexico to be considered eligible for this post. Advertised: Apr 17 2020 Central Daylight Time (Mexico) Application close: May 01 2020 Central Daylight Time (Mexico) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 11:52 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd338c2b 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,mudik,Jokowi,Idul-Fitri,Idul-fitri-holiday,idul-fitri-exodus,Greater-Jakarta,coronavirus Free President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo announced his decision to ban the Idul Fitri mudik (exodus) to curb the spread of COVID-19 ahead of Ramadan. "Based on field research and a survey conducted by the Transportation Ministry, we found that 68 percent of people had decided to not participate in the annual exodus, while 24 percent still insisted on leaving and 7 percent had already left," Jokowi said in a teleconferenced limited Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. "It means we still have a very big percentage [of people who will participate in the mudik]," he continued. "So I want to announce that we will ban the mudik altogether." He said the government would prepare the necessary measures to enforce the ban. The decision is an about-face from the Jokowi administration's previous policy of merely advising the public not to participate in the mudik. The government previously issued regulations prohibiting civil servants, military personnel and police officers from returning to their hometowns but stopped short of banning the practice altogether, citing economic considerations. Annually, some 20 million people from Greater Jakarta, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia, travel to their hometowns to celebrate Idul Fitri. The tradition, public health experts say, could lead to the further spread of COVID-19 on Java, an island of 141 million people, where many regions have far worse healthcare systems than Jakarta. (nal) Results from antibody testing studies for the coronavirus are starting to paint a picture of the scope of the disease it causes in parts of the U.S. But the initial findings won't identify which people are immune to the virus; in other words, a positive result from an antibody test can't be considered a "get out of jail free" card for those who wish to stop social distancing and get back to life as usual, experts say. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak "There is not going to be a magic wand that will say you can be out of this crisis," said Neeraj Sood, a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California. Sood released results this week on COVID-19 antibody testing of 863 adults living in Los Angeles County. The participants were selected, he said, to reflect a population representative of the county. The results are considered preliminary, as they haven't been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. Still, the study is one of the country's first to give a glimpse into what may be the true numbers of COVID-19 infections. The USC report estimates that 4 percent of Los Angeles County residents have COVID-19 antibodies, meaning they either had an active infection or have recovered. Experts suspect that people who've had the virus can't immediately become infected a second time, although it's unclear how long the protection lasts. Sood said the 4 percent figure translates to about 320,000 people in the county far higher than the actual number of positive COVID-19 tests, which was about 8,000 at the time the research was conducted in early April. Image: COVID-19 blood test for antibodies (Karen Ducey / Getty Images) While the USC estimate may seem high, it actually suggests that Los Angeles County may be in the early phases of the pandemic. If "roughly 4 percent of adults have been infected, it means the remaining 96 percent are still susceptible to this disease," Sood said. He estimated that 60 percent of the public would need COVID-19 antibodies for what's known as herd immunity to kick in, meaning enough people in a community have a level of immunity that makes it more difficult for infectious diseases to spread. Story continues It's unclear whether the 4 percent figure would hold true for other areas of the country. A similar antibody study from Santa Clara County in Northern California estimated that 2.5 percent to 4.2 percent of those residents have antibodies. That research also wasn't peer-reviewed. What do COVID-19 antibodies mean? If a person has a positive test for COVID-19 antibodies, it means the person has been infected with the virus at some point in the past. "Just because you're antibody-positive doesn't necessarily mean you're immune," said Joel Baines, a virologist and professor of pathobiological sciences at Louisiana State University. "That's a very dangerous conclusion." Only time perhaps a year or more, experts predict will be able to determine whether immunity lasts several weeks, several months, several years or even a lifetime. The unknowns suggest that the public shouldn't rely on antibody tests to determine when to resume normal activity. "It's risky to base everything on that," Baines said. Lower mortality rates But the USC data do offer some reassuring news: COVID-19 death rates may be lower than expected. When experts factor in those additional cases, the mortality rate plummets to less than 0.2 percent. That's because there are more patients overall, making the number of people who've died a smaller percentage of cases in total. USC researchers will repeat the study with a different set of Los Angeles County residents every few weeks over the coming months to give public health officials a better sense of how the virus is spreading in that community. Similar testing should be done in a variety of areas around the country, Sood said, for a better understanding of how the virus is acting nationwide. Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Still, antibody tests are only one piece of the puzzle for reopening the country. Diagnostic tests and contact tracing capabilities are essential. "It will be critical to have a system in place in every major city where in the workplace you can get quickly tested and then have a system in place do the contact tracing," said Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Sood agreed. "This pilot study was to show look, this can be done," he said. "We should be doing this on a much larger scale." Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook. LONDON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Citizenship by InvestmentA (CBI) from the Commonwealth of Dominica remains in demand in the Middle East. Earlier this month, Ambassador Emmanuel Nanthan, the Head of the Citizenship by Investment Unit, spoke with London-headquartered government advisory CS Global Partners about why Dominica remains a popular choice with investors of good moral character. Ambassador Nanthan explains that Dominica is very protective of whom it allows to become its citizen. His Excellency says that, to run a CBI Programme as successful as Dominica's, it takes "relentless commitment to due diligence." "An applicant must be of high moral character and present a clean source of funds," Ambassador Nanthan says. "We have applications that come from Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, Europe, and Africa." Last year, the Financial Times' Professional Wealth Management magazine ranked Dominica as having the best CBI programme in the world. The small Caribbean island has held on to its number one position for three consecutive years. Earlier this year, Dominica opened an embassy in Abu Dhabi. It serves a growing number of individuals from the United Arab Emirates obtaining Dominican citizenship through the CBI Programme. With regards to why applicants hope to be approved for Dominican citizenship, Ambassador Nanthan says "obviously, this is a beautiful country." Dominica offers safety, stability and security, is well-respected internationally, with good diplomatic relations, especially with fellow Commonwealth countries. Should applicants successfully pass all the due diligence checks, they then make a qualifying investment to complete their citizenship application. They can either contribute directly to a government fund or invest in pre-approved real estate. The fund route requires single applicants to make a US$100,000 contribution to the Economic Diversification Fund. This is one of the most affordable options in the world for anyone looking for second citizenship by means of investment. Those with an entrepreneurial predilection may prefer to invest in a luxury hotel or resort that the Dominican government has carefully handpicked as trustworthy and most likely to succeed. Immersed in nature with intimacy and luxury unlike any other place in the world, Dominica attracts investors who understand the potential for luxury ecotourism. FT's fDI Intelligence service ranked Dominica as one of the top 20 tourism destinations of the future. To see if you can qualify for Dominican citizenship by investment, speak to an authorised agent. pr@csglobalpartners.com www.csglobalpartners.com A Experts at the University of Tokyo have identified a new protein in the pathway that leads to Alzheimer's disease. Researchers used the "molecular scissors" of CRISPR/Cas9 to search for new genes related to the neurodegenerative disease. The exact causes of Alzheimer's disease remain unknown, but one of the most well-supported theories focuses on a protein called amyloid beta. Aggregation, or clumping together, and the depositing of two proteins, amyloid beta and tau, throughout a patient's brain are a signature of Alzheimer's disease. CRISPR/Cas9 allows scientists to make specific changes to the DNA inside cells. Researchers used the CRISPR/Cas9 system to delete individual genes in mouse cells growing in a dish and then measured the amount of amyloid beta that the cells produced. We believe this is the first time anyone has used this CRISPR/Cas9 genetic screening technique to look for changes in amyloid beta production." Yukiko Hori, Study Co-First Author and Lecturer, University of Tokyo The research paper was published in FASEB Journal. Researchers tested a total of 19,150 individual genes for their effect on amyloid beta levels and ruled out all but one: calcium and integrin-binding protein 1 (CIB1). Cells without functional CIB1 genes produced abnormally high levels of amyloid beta protein. "Nobody knows why the deposition of amyloid beta occurs in Alzheimer's disease patients' brains, but we think a starting point of the process could be CIB1," said Professor Taisuke Tomita, an expert in pathological biochemistry at the University of Tokyo and leader of the research lab that performed the study. In healthy cells, CIB1 is not directly involved with processing amyloid beta, but CIB1 stays attached to a protein called gamma secretase both inside cells and at the cell membrane. In cells without CIB1, gamma secretase spends more time inside the cell and does not move to the membrane. Amyloid beta protein goes through a multistep process of trimming before it reaches its final form. Under healthy conditions, gamma secretase processes amyloid beta precursors to produce the final amyloid beta protein. That processing activity occurs in an internal compartment within the cell, then gamma secretase moves to the cell's surface membrane. Additional experiments in mouse cells allowed researchers to track how CIB1 regulates gamma secretase. In healthy cells, CIB1 is not directly involved in gamma secretase's activity to process amyloid beta, but CIB1 is attached to gamma secretase both in the internal compartment and at the cell surface membrane. In cells without CIB1, gamma secretase remains in the internal compartment inside the cell and does not move to the surface membrane. More time in that internal compartment allows gamma secretase to produce more amyloid beta proteins. "Our results show that regulating the location of CIB1 and gamma secretase could be a new target for Alzhemier's disease therapy," said Hori. Convinced by their cellular experiments, Tomita's research team then decided to search directly for changes in the amount of CIB1 in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. The patient data they examined comes from a long-term project based in the U.S., the Religious Orders Study and Memory and Aging Project (ROSMAP). The project tracks the health of volunteers who are all professional religious leaders (nuns, priests, brothers) and agree to donate their organs for research after their death. People diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's disease had lower levels of CIB1 in their brains than healthy people. Paradoxically, people diagnosed with late-stage Alzheimer's disease had higher-than-healthy levels of CIB1. "We cannot say for certain why CIB1 is increased in late-stage Alzheimer's disease. What is important is that in both the early and late stages of Alzheimer's disease, something is abnormal about the regulation of CIB1," said Tomita. Future research projects will uncover more details about the role of CIB1 in the cellular processes that lead to unhealthy levels of amyloid beta and Alzheimer's disease. Researchers also plan to use their CRISPR/Cas9 screening technique to search for new genes that affect the other major Alzheimer's disease protein, tau. I didnt have time to sulk, he said. It was just like, OK, what am I going to do?' This domino effect is happening and the next domino to fall is going to be Chicago. President Donald Trump interrupted the daily White House briefing on the coronavirus on Monday to brandish what he said were media articles backing his assertion his administration has handled the crisis well (Alex Brandon/AP) A chorus of governors from both parties pushed back hard on Monday after President Donald Trump accused Democrats of playing a very dangerous political game by insisting there was a shortage of tests for coronavirus. It came as Mr Trump also said he would sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States because of the coronavirus, while offering no further details. After the presidents warnings to them, the governors countered that the White House must do more to help states conduct the testing required before they can ease up on stay-at-home orders. Kansas Democratic governor Laura Kelly said the current federal effort really is not good enough if were going to be able to start to open our economy. We cannot do that safely without the tests in place. Supply shortages have stymied US testing for weeks. The needs range from basic supplies like swabs and protective gear to highly specialised laboratory chemicals needed to analyse patient results. Hospitals, laboratories and state health departments report scouring the globe to secure orders, competing against each other and their peers abroad. The governors plea for stepped-up coordination came Monday when the Trump administration again provided discordant messaging: Trump blasted state leaders on Twitter for being too dependent on the federal government and later said some governors simply did not understand what they had, while Vice President Mike Pence assured governors the government was working around-the-clock to help them ramp up testing. Mr Pence sought to soften the administrations message amid growing clamour from both parties for a national testing strategy to help secure testing swabs, chemical reagents and other crucial supplies. When it comes to testing, were here to help, Mr Pence told governors during a video conference from the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Associated Press obtained audio of the call. Mr Pence said the administration sent each state a detailed list on Monday of testing capacity. But Maryland Republican governor Larry Hogan said much of the unused lab machinery listed for his state was in federal labs to which the state did not have access. Mr Pence said the administration had agreed to open up federal labs to help states. Mr Hogan announced on Monday that the state had received 500,000 tests from South Korea a game-changing deal negotiated by his wife, Yumi Hogan, who grew up outside Seoul. They want the states to take the lead, and we have to go out and do it ourselves, and so thats exactly what we did, Mr Hogan said. Mr Trump did not take that lying down. In his daily briefing, he said some governors have more capacity than they understand. The governor of Maryland could have called Mike Pence, could have saved a lot of money, Mr Trump said. I dont think he needed to go to South Korea. He needed to get a little knowledge. In Ohio, Republican governor Mike DeWine said his state was working with another federal agency, the Food and Drug Administration, to find a source of reagent, the chemical used to analyse test results. Democratic Montana governor Steve Bullock said his state received 5,000 nasal swabs on Monday from FEMA evidence the federal government was listening. But he added, It doesnt get us far enough. In New York, Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo said states should take the lead on testing but it was up to the federal government to help sort out supply chain issues facing testing manufacturers. As Mr Pence spoke with the governors, Mr Trump took to Twitter with a more combative tone than his deputy, complaining that the radical left and Do Nothing Democrats were playing politics with their complaints about a lack of tests. Now they scream Testing, Testing, Testing, again playing a very dangerous political game, Mr Trump tweeted. States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing But we will work with the Governors and get it done." Public health experts say the US needs to dramatically increase its testing infrastructure if it is going to safely roll back restrictions and reopen businesses without risking a major spike in infections. Meanwhile, the White House did not immediately elaborate on Mr Trumps tweet declaring he would suspend immigration. The president tweeted: In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! He offered no details as to what immigration programs might be affected by the order. Mr Trump has taken credit for his restrictions on travel to the US from China and hard-hit European countries, arguing it contributed to slowing the spread of the virus in the US. But he has yet to extend those restrictions to other nations now experiencing virus outbreaks. Due to the pandemic, almost all visa processing by the State Department, including immigrant visas, has been suspended for weeks. Quarterly Activities Report 31 March 2020 Perth, April 21, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Horizon Minerals Limited ( ASX:HRZ ) s pleased to provide the March 2020 Quarterly Activities Report. Horizon is a gold exploration and development company with a key focus in the Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie regions of Western Australia (Figure 1*) and has a joint venture in place covering the world class 2.6Bt Richmond oxide vanadium project in North Queensland (Figure 12*).Primary activities during the Quarter included technical, statutory and financial preparations for the development of the Boorara gold mine, commencing a small drilling program at Rose Hill and reviewing all aspects of the business in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.HIGHLIGHTS- $2 million Placement completed and $4 million Working Capital Facility Deed executed- Highly successful grade control drilling program completed and positive Feasibility Study for Boorara Stage 1 released with the following results:o Open pit mine design producing 159,000t at a fully diluted grade of 1.86g/t Au for 9,500 ounces over a six month mine lifeo Toll milling at 91.5% metallurgical recovery produces 8,700 ounces recoveredo Low up-front capital costs of A$0.44mo C1 Cost of A$1,570/oz and All In Sustaining Cost of A$1,680/ozo Project generates A$7.1m in free cash flow at a current gold price of A$2,600/oz after all costs including debt and interest repayment- Toll milling Agreement in place, statutory approvals, award of mining and haulage contracts and mine development planned for the current June Quarter 2020- High grade drill results received from the Rose Hill gold project and additional historic data recovered growing both the quality and scale of the project- Follow up RC and diamond drilling commenced at Rose Hill with results expected in the current June Quarter and an updated open cut and underground Mineral Resource estimate expected in the September Quarter 2020- Cash on hand of $3.9 million, listed investments totalling $3 million and a $4 million undrawn Working Capital Facility in place for Boorara mine development- Subsequent to Quarter end, the Company released a number of cash conservation measures and management guidelines in response to the COVID-19 pandemicJUNE QUARTER ACTIVITIES- Safe and efficient mine development at Boorara with first ore mining planned in the upcoming June Quarter and first gold production in the September Quarter 2020- Drilling results and open cut and underground Mineral Resource compilation for the Rose Hill gold project- Continued monitoring of the COVID-19 pandemic and further responses as required*To view the full report, please visit:About Horizon Minerals Limited Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed. Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline. Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage. RICHMOND, Va. - The House of Delegates will meet under a canopy outside the state Capitol. The Senate will convene 2.5 miles away in a cavernous room at a science museum. The Virginia General Assembly returns to town Wednesday for an extraordinary session consumed by the coronavirus pandemic. Its top tasks: pare down the state budget to handle the massive cost of the disease, and don't get infected. "This is definitely unique," House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D, said. "Health and safety are a top priority." The annual reconvening lets lawmakers take up any vetoes or amendments issued by the governor to the 1,291 pieces of legislation passed during the regular session, which adjourned March 12. Theoretically, there shouldn't be much to do. Democrats won control of the legislature in last fall's elections and worked with Gov. Ralph Northam, also a Democrat, to enact a mountain of shared priorities. From gun control to LGBT protections and easing of abortion restrictions, everything that passed closely matched Northam's agenda. He issued only one veto - for a bill defining milk as only coming from a cow or other mammal. But the state budget - a $135 billion, two-year spending plan - is up for a massive redo. Passed five days after the General Assembly was supposed to adjourn, on the same day Northam declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus, the budget now looks like a relic from another era. Rather than gut the spending blueprint now while the state is shut down and waiting for the pandemic to reach its peak, Northam has proposed freezing new spending and diverting reserve funds toward coronavirus expenses. Then he'll call the General Assembly back into session, probably in midsummer, to look at a reforecast of Virginia's economy and make some hard choices. "This will really give us an opportunity to take a look and see where we are," said Del. Luke Torian, D, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "What we're really trying to do is make sure we've got the resources available to deal with the covid-19 right now ... then we're going to have to reprioritize some spending." Northam's proposed budget amendments would divert hundreds of millions of dollars to fight the virus in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and set aside another $2 billion to absorb costs and lost revenue over the next two fiscal years. It would delay some priorities passed by Democrats, such as raising the state's minimum wage. The state would still increase the current $7.25-an-hour wage to $12 by 2023, but the first incremental bump would push to May 1, 2021, instead of going into effect in January. While most of the budget recommendations seem to have broad support, two of Northam's proposals appear headed for debate. The legislature haggled long and hard before deciding to ban "gray machines," unauthorized gambling devices that have popped up in convenience stores and restaurants because of a gray area in state law. Northam has proposed allowing the machines to exist for one more year and taxing them to help pay for the coronavirus crisis. Several Democrats said privately that that's going to cause a fight. And because of an executive order banning public gatherings through June 10, Northam has proposed postponing local elections scheduled for May until November, as well as delaying by two weeks federal primary elections that had been set for June 9. Three Democratic senators have already made a counterproposal to move the local elections to June 23 along with the primaries. Lawmakers generally have supported Northam's efforts to restrict social movement to fight the coronavirus. But in the past week Republicans have begun chafing at the business closures; on Tuesday, GOP House leaders wrote to Northam, urging him to gradually allow nonessential businesses to reopen. Northam has said he will stick to federal guidelines calling for 14 days of declining covid-19 cases before relaxing restrictions. Beyond the legislative battles, lawmakers have been consumed in the past few weeks with dust-ups over how to conduct Wednesday's unusual session. The House and Senate need to work in concert, one chamber acting on measures that have cleared the other. Usually that entails staffers shuttling back and forth within the Capitol, but this time the two bodies will be far apart along Richmond's busy Broad Street. They'll have to communicate electronically. The 100 House members will sit more than six feet apart at temporary desks under a huge white festival-style canopy erected outside the Capitol this week. They'll be encouraged to wear face coverings. Disinfectant wipes will be everywhere. The outdoor venue could make it hard for the House to tune out demonstrators opposed to the stay-at-home order and business restrictions that Northam has imposed to help slow the spread of the virus. A group called Reopen Virginia is urging protesters to drive around Capitol Square for the first few hours of the session, leaning on their car horns. The group drew about 50 demonstrators to a protest on the square last week. Speaker Filler-Corn has proposed shortening the physical session by having the House approve a rules change allowing online voting, which would enable them to adjourn, go back home and resume a "virtual" session over the internet. But two-thirds of House members would have to vote in favor of the change, and many are skeptical. "We have members with varying degrees of technical savviness," Del. Todd Gilbert, R, the minority leader, said Monday during a radio interview, noting that some members live in rural areas with spotty internet connections. "If we have to be there anyway, maybe we should just get this over with like the Senate is doing." If the effort fails, Filler-Corn said, she has worked with Gilbert and others to plan how to keep the session moving so members don't have to gather for long. Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D, expressed frustration earlier in the week about the uncertainty. In a conference call with fellow members of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, the chairwoman, Sen. Janet Howell, D, endorsed plans to cast votes in blocs and said she hoped the House would do the same. Saslaw responded, "I don't think they know what the hell they're going to do." Howell said in an interview that she didn't want the Senate to have to stay in Richmond for a second day to wait for the House to finish, hunkering down at a dwindling list of hotels that remain open in the city. "We're all at risk," she said. "Many members live too far away to just go home." Each of the 40 senators will sit alone at tables spaced 10 feet apart. Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar said her staff has been "scrubbing down desks" all week. Typically a stickler for decorum, Schaar has directed senators to dress "business casual." That means leave the ties at home, following the lead of Northam, a physician who recently announced he'd quit wearing them because they can harbor pathogens. No scarves will be allowed either. Senators must wear masks, and Schaar will supply hand sanitizer and gloves if members want them. Though unusual, this is not the first time in the Virginia legislature's 401-year-history that a session has been altered by disease. During a cholera outbreak in 1849, the General Assembly fled to Fauquier County to conduct its business from the safety of a posh spa. A worker sprays shopping carts with sanitizer at the Sams Club in Deptford. Read more The poor are, ironically, the most likely to be employed in the industries deemed essential while their upper-class peers are freed to bunker down for weeks until the first death wave passes. Facebook post, March 18 In the earliest days of the coronavirus outbreak, when public officials scrambled to close schools and businesses, a Facebook user lamented the inequity of the quarantine that Gov. Tom Wolf had imposed on Pennsylvanians. The poor are, ironically, the most likely to be employed in the industries deemed essential while their upper-class peers are freed to bunker down for weeks until the first death wave passes, the Facebook user wrote on March 18. We wondered whether this claim would hold up when we looked at the data. Starting with Wolfs executive order forcing all non-"life-sustaining" businesses to close, we pulled U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics information on the number of Pennsylvania workers in each essential industry and calculated their average annual wages. The Facebook user is right. The vast majority of workers in the life-sustaining industries earn low and working-class wages. A quarter of Pennsylvanias essential workers make less than $30,000 annually, and two-thirds make less than the states household median income of $60,000, raising questions about whether the people keeping the rest of society afloat are being sufficiently protected and compensated. Grocery stores employ one of the largest groups of workers making the lowest wages. There are more than 120,000 grocery store workers in Pennsylvania, the data shows, and average annual wages for workers in the sector are about $23,000. Gas stations, assisted-living centers, and building maintenance firms are among the other essential businesses employing large numbers of low-wage workers across the state. Philadelphia-area grocers including Giant, Acme, and Aldi recently started limiting the number of shoppers allowed in their stores at the same time, to protect workers. Across the country, dozens of grocery clerks have been sickened with the virus. And a Trader Joes worker in Scarsdale, N.Y., a greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Md., and two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died from the coronavirus. Acknowledging how vulnerable essential workers are, Wolf announced new rules aimed at preventing the virus from spreading in businesses open to in-person customers. Grocery stores in the state must now make all workers and customers wear masks, and start taking employees temperatures if a coworker tests positive. But even as the state rolled out these new protections, it hasnt done any more to ensure that the workers Wolf deemed essential are fairly compensated besides asking employers to step up and do the right thing. Wolf called fair pay for essential workers the responsibility of the private sector. Among the grocers that operate in the Philadelphia area, several chains, including Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Wegmans, Fresh Grocer, Giant Eagle and Acme have started offering bonuses or higher hourly wages to their workers because of the coronavirus outbreak. The second part of the Facebook post addresses the perk the user believes white-collar workers have enjoyed since Wolf ordered millions of Pennsylvanians to stay at home the freedom to work from home. Federal data from a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey on the share of workers who say theyre able to telecommute shows a stark divide among industries, the Washington Post reported. About 60% of people who said they work in management, business and financial operations said they can work from home. But fewer than 10% of workers said they could do so in categories such as services, construction and extraction, installation, maintenance and repair, production, and transportation and material moving. READ MORE: Sen. Pat Toomey says the coronavirus outbreak has reached a peak. Thats half true. | PolitiFact The Post also found divisions along race and class lines. Thirty-seven percent of Asian Americans and 30% of whites said they could work remotely. But only 20% of African Americans and 16% of Hispanics said they had that ability. Almost 52% of those with a college education or higher said they could work from home, but only 4% of those with less than a high school diploma said they could. Our ruling The Facebook post stated that the poor are the most likely to be employed in essential industries while workers who earn more are free to shelter at home until the outbreak subsides. Our data analysis shows that the vast majority of workers Wolf deemed essential earn low and working-class wages, and a recent analysis by the Washington Post shows that many white-collar workers say theyre able to telecommute. For these reasons, we rate the Facebook post True. Our sources Wolf administration, All non-life-sustaining businesses in Pennsylvania to close physical locations as of 8 pm today to slow spread of COVID-19, March 19, 2020 The Philadelphia Inquirer, analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on Pennsylvania workers, April 9, 2020 The Inquirer, Giant, Acme, Aldi, among Philly-area grocery stores limiting customer capacity due to the coronavirus, April 13, 2020 The Inquirer, Grocery workers in U.S. are beginning to die of coronavirus, April 6, 2020 The Inquirer, All Pa. businesses must require employees and customers to wear masks amid coronavirus pandemic, April 16, 2020 CNN, Bonuses and pay hikes: How grocery stores keep workers on the front lines, March 23, 2020 The Washington Post, Working from home reveals another fault line in Americas racial and educational divide, March 22, 2020 PolitiFact is a nonpartisan, fact-checking website operated by the nonprofit Poynter Institute for Media Studies. 21.04.2020 LISTEN A Mason, Eric Kofitse, has been jailed 20 years for defiling and impregnating his 13-year-old stepdaughter at Achimota in Accra. Her Honour Mrs. Christiana Cann a Circuit Court in Accra sentenced Eric Kofitse into prison with hard labour for the offence. Prosecutor of the case Chief Inspector Kofi Atimbire giving details of the case said the girl a class four pupil was staying with the mother and stepfather at Christian Village at Achimota. Chief Inspector Atimbire disclosed that anytime the victim's mother is not around the stepfather abuses her sexually. The victim later told the mother about the abuse but never nothing changed. According to Chief Atimbire noted the victim later runs to the biological father who stays at Dansoman. It was detected that the victim was seven months pregnant when she fell ill it was during the detection that she narrated what she has gone through. The father of the victim reported the incident to the Achimota Police which led to the arrest of Mason and his subsequent jailing. ---First1News.com Was the COVID-19 pandemic avoidable? That's a question many are pondering as the virus is taking thousands of lives daily. Such a reflection is necessary, as it enables us to be better prepared for the next public emergency. But sadly, it is in turn being used by anti-China forces in the U.S. to deflect blame. Whenever there is a disaster, we tend to look for someone to be held accountable. But this time, it seems that the U.S. has got the wrong one. The reason America is one of the hardest-hit countries by COVID-19 is not because of what has been alleged by some in the U.S. China's "cover-up." More likely, it is because of the White House's delayed response when there were warning signs from the outset. In late December, cases of pneumonia of unknown cause were first detected in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. Three weeks before the lockdown on January 2, China started the virus identification work. From the next day, China began to inform the WHO and exchange information with the U.S. regularly about the new virus. On the same day, the potential threat of the new virus began to be included in Trump's daily brief. From January onward, as China was busy tracking the spread of the virus and developing test kits, the volume of warnings also increased from U.S. intelligence agencies. It was about the same time when Sen. Richard Burr sold up to 1.72 million U.S. dollars worth of stocks. On January 21, the first coronavirus case was confirmed on U.S. soil. However, the sense of a looming crisis in the White House did not seem to alert high-level officials of the Trump administration and the president himself. Paramedics perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a man who collapsed on a Brooklyn street amid the coronavirus outbreak in New York City, U.S., April 20, 2020. /AP On January 23, Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, went under lockdown, with a nationwide battle against the new virus started. Scared by SARS 17 years ago, everyone was in a wartime mode. Don't forget, even then, some Western media outlets were still questioning China's method, calling the lockdown "excessive" and a move of human rights "violation". "Western nations knew after Chinese New Year the impact of COVID-19 was having, the lockdown in Wuhan, etc. They knew this was a serious problem. So why were they not prepared? They knew what was happening. China wasn't covering up. And in fact, China let the genome of the COVID-19 virus be recognized internationally as soon as it was known within China," said Daryl Guppy, board member of the Australia China Business Council. At the end of January, the U.S. reported its first person-to-person transmission case. The next day, it closed its borders to travelers from China, which seemed to be already good enough. Only it was not. The Trump administration has spent this period playing down the outbreak. The critical window was lost, a window that could have been used to produce more qualified testing kits and other medical supplies and plan a more coordinated strategy. It wasn't until mid-March that the White House started to take this more seriously and announced a national emergency. The public was warned and schools were closed, but an outbreak was inevitable due to such delays by the administration. As the CDC failed to coordinate testing kits, many more patients who were not aware of their infection continued to spread the virus. Looking back at the timeline, anyone could say, "If China did this at this time, things could have been better." But don't forget that China entered uncharted territory and started the battle on its own. Other countries had a choice. The group of people who accused China of being responsible for the pandemic are the very same ones who played it down in the first place. The same questions could also be raised with other countries: Would things be better if Italy locked down its northern region sooner, or if the U.S. government prepared more medical supplies when China already sounded the alarm in late January? The past is history; but the U.S. can still seize the present to treat more people, instead of sparing no effort to find a scapegoat. Scriptwriter: Zhao Yuanzhen Edit and design: Liu Shuo, Cai Yuesheng Senior producer: Bi Jianlu Managing director: Mei Yan Supervisor: Fan Yun With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the news about the deaths and hardships can sometimes impact mood and many aspects of our thought process and behaviour. Among several perpetually devastating, emotional and heart-wrenching events taking place worldwide, some positive news certainly can lift the spirits up. As has been reported by Google Trends that the good news in recent times have hit an all-time high as many users have preferred to ingest good news. One could account for the numbers to the health emergency and the rising death toll that has triggered anxiety amongst people that need uplifting information from time to time. So heres the compilation of the top 5 positive news from the day. New York woman collects 650 tablets to Help COVID-19 patients Amid the unprecedented outbreak of deadly coronavirus, while the global death toll continues to spike, people have showcased kind gestures including raising money of public health staffers. Jumping on the bandwagon of heartwarming deeds, a New Yorker is now looking for hospitals in the state that require tablets, Kindles, iPads for coronavirus patients to communicate while in isolation. Earlier this month, Ee Tay had successfully arranged for the donation of at least 650 Kindles, tablets, iPads for COVID-19 patients who remained away from their families and often battle with loneliness. Baby Aces 'Flip A Bottle' Challenge, Her Reaction Wins The Internet An adorable video of a child getting the flip a bottle challenge right and then giving an epic reaction has left netizens amused. In the 8-second-long clip, Lylah Rae could be seen seated on the floor playing when she happens to catch a bottle and casually flips it, to her surprise, she manages to get the trick right. Not just that, her expressions to the camera are noteworthy. The clip was shared by the babys mother on Facebook as well as Instagram and has amassed over 6 million views on Facebook. YouTuber Leaves A Note After Scratching Man's Car, Owner Sends a Generous Text A YouTuber took to his official Twitter handle to share an incident about a generous man whose car he accidentally bumped with his pickup truck while parking, the mans response has left the internet speechless. Casey Neistat wrote a post saying that he had been complaining about Los Angeles a lot, but, in fact, has fallen in love with it. The man wrote in response, thank you so much for the note. Please dont worry about the scratch. Any money you had to put towards my car feel free to please donate to a local Venice food bank. been complaining about LA a lot, lemme share why I love LA. I scratched a guys car this morning when parking my truck, total accident, small but noticeable scratch. I left the owner a note on the wiper and he texted me... pic.twitter.com/0x8HQkjGa2 Casey Neistat (@Casey) April 20, 2020 Read: Coronavirus: 2 Women Cops In Odisha Postpone Wedding Read: Now, Robot Is Part Of Kerala's Fight Against Coronavirus Netizens Get Nostalgic As They Recall Their Favorite Shows From 80s-90s Indian kids born in the 80s and 90s have taken over the social media amid the coronavirus lockdown walking down the memory lane about their favourite childhood shows. On Twitter, several users converged discussing their preferred television shows that they had spent their time majorly watching when they were kids which included 90s shows such as Shaktimaan, Mahabharat, and cartoons like duck tales, Pokemon, etc after school. Sunday mornings were filled medley of Sri Krishna > mahabharat > captain vyom > shaktiman Sunday afternoon movies on DD 5 o'clock cartoons after school ( duck tales / tale spin / thundercats/ swat cats ) Apurv Ray (he/him/his) (@apurvrdx) April 20, 2020 Woman Saves Her Child From Crocodile By Blocking Its Nose In an unusual incident, a woman in Zimbabwe rescued her toddler from the clutches of a crocodile by blocking its nose with fingers, a media portal reported. Maurina Musisinyana had left her two children playing on the banks of the Runde river when her son Gideon was attacked by the reptile. The boy shrieked as the crocodile dragged the toddler halfway into the river which prompted Maurina to the boys rescue. Read: Coronavirus: Singapore Extends Partial Lockdown Until June 1 Read: Coronavirus Live Updates: 1336 Cases Reported In Last 24 Hours; Total Cases Soar To 18985 During a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am, political scientist and expert on the issues in the Middle East and the Caucasus Stanislav Tarasov said the sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict need to reach a new agreement on a temporary ceasefire before moving on to the Kazan scenario, and so long as there is no new agreement, the statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov seems strange. According to him, this agreement would be logical amid the pandemic. Tarasov noted that the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan have held a couple of long meetings, but they havent provided details, and now there are talks about the Kazan document. In addition, Mnatsakanyan and Mammadyarov are expected to hold a teleconference, which is being held right after the elections in Karabakh. What I also dont understand is what Moscow is referring to. Is Lavrovs statement an agenda for Yerevan and Baku? If the Kazan document is on the agenda, this concerns the liberation of the regions of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the interim status of Karabakh and a referendum for the final status, the expert clarified and noted that President-elect of Karabakh Arayik Harutyunyan hasnt made any statement on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict yet. Over 100 health workers and police personnel in the frontline in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak have tested positive so far in Gujarat, officials said on Tuesday. They comprise 62 health staff, including 12 from state-run LG Hospital in Ahmedabad, and 44 policemen, officials added. "The 62 health staff include doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers among others," said Dr Prakash Vaghela, additional director, public health, state Health Department. Gujarat DGP Shivanand Jha said that 44 policemen were infected with the virus, of which 40, including an inspector, are part of Ahmedabad police. "Of the remaining four, two are from railway police, one each from Vadodara and Valsad," Jha said. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani interacted through video call with some of these coronavirus positive persons receiving treatment at Ahmedabad civil hospital. These included two constables and a municipal health worker from the city, a state release informed. The CM hailed them as "corona warriors", it added. Rupani also spoke to doctors and inquired about availability of protective gear like masks, gloves, PPE kits to fight the outbreak. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ICICI Bank is asking for authorities to impound two vessels operated by Ocean Tankers (Pte) Ltd, a unit HLT, an ICICI source said on Monday. New Delhi: ICICI Bank, Indias second largest private lender, on Friday confirmed its exposure to the Singapore-based troubled oil trader Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd (HLT) and said it is taking steps to protect its interest. The firm owes nearly $100 million -- or nearly Rs 760 crore -- to the lender, according to news reports. #MarketAtClose | ICICI Bank falls over 8% after co confirms exposure to Singapore co Hin Leong pic.twitter.com/gFk52WlJj7 CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 21, 2020 We confirm that the Bank, in the normal course of its business, has exposure to the borrower group in question, is taking due steps to protect its interests, and will appropriately reflect the same in its financial statements, as it would do in respect of all its banking exposures, ICICI said in a stock exchange filing. The Bank did not elaborate the extent of its exposure and the steps it is taking to protect its interest. Reuters on Monday reported the ICICI Bank has $100 million exposure to the trader. ICICI Bank is asking for authorities to impound two vessels operated by Ocean Tankers (Pte) Ltd, a unit HLT, an ICICI source said on Monday. According to a court filing reviewed by Reuters, HLTs founder and director had directed his firm not to disclose hundreds of millions of dollars in losses over several years. Shares of ICICI Bank fell about 4 percent after Reuters reported ICICI's exposure to HLT. ICICI, Hin Leong and Ocean Tankers did not immediately respond to Reuters emails seeking comments. Shares of ICICI Bank fell about 9 percent on Tuesday. --With inputs from agencies Hema Malini urged everyone to make a small contribution to the fund for coronavirus relief and accept it as a challenge, and also nominate friends to donate New Delhi: Veteran actor Hema Malini on Monday pledged to donate to the PM-CARES Fund and also urged others to donate and fight the battle against coronavirus pandemic. (Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak) The 71-year-old actor took to Instagram and shared a video message in which she said, "My country is my identity, and today my country needs me. During this corona war, I am making my small contribution to the PM CARES Fund and I am giving more power in the hands of our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi." The Dream Girl actor also urged everyone to make a small contribution to the fund and accept it as a challenge, and also nominate friends to donate. "Hello, I have a request for all my fans and well-wishers. I am donating for PM Care Fund to help our honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to fight against the Corona Pandemic. It is my humble request to all if you could also contribute whatever little amount to PM Care Fund then together we can fight this battle against Corona. Jai Hind," read the caption of her post. Check out the post Other celebrities who have chipped in support to combat the outbreak of the virus are Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Varun Dhawan, Kapil Sharma, Vicky Kaushal, Alia Bhatt, and Bhumi Pednekar. (With inputs from Asian News International) Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the family of a 12-year-old girl who died in Chhattisgarhs Bijapur after walking about a hundred kilometres over three days through dense forests to reach her village during the nationwide lockdown. A press release issued by the state government said on Tuesday the family members of Jamlo Madkami will get the financial assistance from the Chief Ministers Relief Fund. The tragic death of 12-year-old-girl Jamlo Madkam of Bijapur is heartbreaking. In this difficult time, as an immediate help, I give Rs 1 lakh from the CM Relief Fund and Rs 4 lakh from the voluntary grant. Bijapur Collector has been instructed to investigate the matter & report, the CM tweeted. Madkami, who went to Perur in Telanganas Mulgu district along with 13 migrant workers to pluck chilly, died in the jungle after reaching Chhattisgarh on April 18. She was about 50 kilometers from her village. Madkami and the others, including her uncle, began their long walk back home on April 15. Also read| Covid-19 lockdown: States under pressure to bring back migrant workers Bijapur collector KD Kunjam said the girls post-mortem was done on Monday and the body was handed over to the family. On April 20, after the report of the blood sample sent to Jagdalpur Medical College was found negative for the coronavirus, post-mortem was done by the district hospital in Bijapur. The body of the deceased was handed over of family members, said the press release. On Monday, Bijapur chief medical health officer (CMHO) RS Pujari said electrolyte imbalance could have caused the girls death though he pointed out that the exact reason could not be ascertained immediately. Also read: Kalimpongs only Covid-19 hit family triggers panic, discrimination in north Bengal hills Since she travelled on difficult terrains for three days, she could be facing muscle fatigue which could led to some imbalance. Secondly, as per the people who were walking with her, she fell from a hillock and sustained injuries also, Pujari added. An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said hundreds of workers have returned to their homes on foot from Telangana through dense forests since the lockdown was imposed in March and extended last week until May 3. The forest routes are surrounded by Maoist-affected areas. Hence no one can monitor their movement, said a police official involved in anti-Maoist operations, who did not want to be named. The lockdown triggered an exodus of migrant workers from bigger cities in March as tens of thousands of them left jobless because of the curbs imposed to check the spread of Covid-19 pandemic began leaving for their homes on foot. This prompted the Centre to direct the states and Union territories to seal their borders and ensure the migrant workers are taken care of in shelter homes. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON New Delhi, April 11 (IANS) Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is considering the stand of various Chief Ministers to extend the nationwide shutdown, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday jumped the gun to tweet that the PM had decided to Image Source: PK New Delhi, April 21 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said 83 per cent of patients who died due to coronavirus in the national capital had co-morbidity or other serious medical conditions like sugar, blood pressure, kidney disease or cancer. Speaking to the media, the Chief Minister also said that in 80 per cent of the deaths, the patients were above 50 years old. "We have found that 83 per cent of patients who have died had co-morbidity which means serious medical conditions like sugar, blood pressure, kidney disease, cancer etc," he said. Kejriwal said the government has analysed the deaths due to COVID-19 in Delhi. "We found that in 80 per cent of the cases the patients were above 50 years old and only 20 per cent were below 50 years. This shows that senior citizens are more at risk." So far, Delhi has reported 47 deaths related to coronavirus. Kejriwal also said that the government will start COVID-19 testing for mediapersons from Wednesday. "We have received reports that in many states the journalists were found positive with COVID-19. Journalists are working in the frontline in this extraordinary time and I salute their courage. This is the time when people need proper information and by risking their life journalists are working round the clock." From Wednesday, the government will open a centre where any journalist can visit for COVID-19 test. "I wish no journalist will be found positive with COVID-19 and stay in good health," said Kejriwal. On the cases in Delhi, he said till Monday, there were 2,081 number of COVID-19 positive cases. "As much as 431 people have recovered so far and went back home, 47 people have died and we have 1,603 active cases. On Monday, we collected 1,397 samples which means nearly 1,400 samples and only 78 cases were found positive," said Kejriwal. Kejriwal also said that to accommodate more people if the number of cases increases the Delhi government has also ordered 60 new ambulances. Delhi's COVID-19 patient count reached more than 2,150 on Tuesday. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Monday released a list of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities with at least two confirmed cases of COVID-19, offering a window into the world where the disease caused by the new coronavirus has been most ruthless. As of Sunday, residents and employees of such facilities accounted for about 16% of the states COVID-19 cases but they represented over half the states deaths attributed to the disease. In Massachusetts, the illness is over three times as likely to kill when it strikes at a nursing home, according to an analysis by The Republican / MassLive. The states release of the information came a day after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued new requirements for nursing homes, mandating that they report COVID-19 cases to residents and their families, and to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The move also follows calls for transparency from advocacy groups including the AARP, which said in an April 7 letter to Gov. Charlie Baker, caregivers and family members need and deserve to have this information for their own health decisions and as they consider possible next steps and interventions for their loved ones. The states figures do not include assisted living residences, and the dataset does not offer a breakdown of cases confirmed among residents versus those confirmed among employees. Nor do the numbers suggest just how widespread the virus might be at some sites. Over a week ago officials with JGS Lifecare in Longmeadow acknowledged over 130 confirmed cases among their residents and staff. The states report for April 20, though, lists the facility as having more than 30 cases the highest of three ranges that appear in the table. Over a third of the facilities fall into that upper range, and the median number of beds for the group is 128. Meanwhile, some low numbers 31% of the facilities have under 10 cases may point to a lack of testing. Some facilities have tested some or all residents only; some have also tested staff," the states tables note. A low number of cases may reflect that not all residents and staff have not been tested, not necessarily low prevalence. Also missing is any information about how the roughly 900 nursing home deaths are distributed among the 200-plus sites, which include rest homes and skilled nursing facilities. Death tolls at some long-term care facilities have soared into the dozens most notably at the Holyoke Soldiers Home, where over 50 veterans have died in the month since the first case was detected there. Last week Connecticuts Department of Public Health released a report that included the number of cases and deaths at nursing homes in the state. Neither Florida nor California have included data on deaths in recently released lists of long-term care facilities with confirmed COVID-19 cases. Note: The table below has been updated with new data released by the states Department of Public Health on April 28, 2020. Related content: Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 19:20:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NANNING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- An online trade fair kicked off on Tuesday, which attracted 129 enterprises from China and Vietnam, according to the commerce department of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The three-day event will exhibit more than 70 kinds of commodities including nuts, fruits, seafood and beverages. Enterprises from both countries have intended to purchase 610 million yuan (about 86.09 million U.S. dollars) worth of commodities. "I hope enterprises from both countries can seize the opportunity, expand imports and exports, look for new business opportunities and overcome difficulties together," said Jiang Liansheng, director of the department. Jiang added Guangxi's import and export trade volume with Vietnam reached 175.39 billion yuan in 2019, and Vietnam has been Guangxi's largest trading partner for 21 consecutive years. Guangxi plans to hold another online trade fair with Vietnam in late May. Enditem Altitude has had more frequent communication with the operator over the past month and has offered to provide assistance, said William Rothner, the firms president. He said Alliance had not requested any. The lowest-rated homes were disproportionately operated for profit. Nearly half the residents of for-profit nursing homes lived in ones where the federal government found below-average staffing levels, compared with 23 percent of the residents of government or nonprofit facilities, according to a New York Times analysis of government data. Genesis HealthCare, one of the countrys largest for-profit operators, exemplifies many of the pressures. It rents the property for more than 70 percent of the 357 nursing homes it operates in the United States. Genesis shares trade for under $1, in part because of investor concern over its $1.6 billion in debt and the $5 billion outstanding on the value of its long-term leases. And nearly half the properties operated by Genesis scored two stars or lower in the government rankings. Lori Mayer, a company spokeswoman, did not address Genesis financial situation and said any update would come when Genesis reports earnings next month. The company, she said, has taken a number of precautions to limit the spread of the highly contagious virus, which has torn through nursing homes from Washington State to New York. The Times has tallied more than 4,000 nursing homes and other long-term care or elder facilities across the United States with coronavirus cases, based on reports by states and counties. More than 36,500 residents and staff members at those facilities have contracted the virus, and more than 7,000 have died. The names of most of those facilities have not been made public, but The Times has been able to identify at least 1,700 nursing homes on that list of facilities, which have reported 4,000 deaths. Technavio has been monitoring the integrated traffic systems market and it is poised to grow by USD 10.2 billion during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of over 8% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005597/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Integrated Traffic Systems Market 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is concentrated, and the degree of concentration will accelerate during the forecast period. Cubic Corp., FLIR Systems Inc., Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., and SWARCO AG. are some of the major market participants. The increasing toll road expansion will offer immense growth opportunities. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Increasing toll road expansion has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Integrated Traffic Systems Market 2019-2023: Segmentation Integrated traffic systems market is segmented as below: Solution Traffic Monitoring System Traffic Control System Others Geographic Landscape APAC Europe MEA North America South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download latest free sample report of 2020-2024: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR31401 Integrated Traffic Systems Market 2019-2023: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our integrated traffic systems market report covers the following areas: Integrated Traffic Systems Market Size Integrated Traffic Systems Market Trends Integrated Traffic Systems Market Industry Analysis This study identifies emergence of smart cities as one of the prime reasons driving the integrated traffic systems market growth during the next few years. Integrated Traffic Systems Market 2019-2023: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the integrated traffic systems market, including some of the vendors such as Cubic Corp., FLIR Systems Inc., Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., and SWARCO AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the integrated traffic systems market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Integrated Traffic Systems Market 2019-2023: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023 Detailed information on factors that will assist integrated traffic systems market growth during the next five years Estimation of the integrated traffic systems market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the integrated traffic systems market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of integrated traffic systems market vendors Table Of Contents: PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2018 Market size and forecast 2018-2023 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY SOLUTION Market segmentation by solution Comparison by solution Traffic monitoring system Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Traffic control system Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Others Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Market opportunity by solution PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison North America Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Europe Market size and forecast 2018-2023 APAC Market size and forecast 2018-2023 MEA Market size and forecast 2018-2023 South America Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Increasing global road traffic congestion Emergence of smart cities Extensive use of HDR cameras and Ethernet-based ADAS PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Cubic Corp. FLIR Systems Inc. Kapsch TrafficCom AG Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. SWARCO AG PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200420005597/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - People in cities across the country are protesting to reopen the economy, including here in Indiana, despite warnings from health care leaders. "We're just not there yet as a country, or a region, or a state," said Dr. Jim Bien from IU Health Arnett. Some people feel we are ready to reopen our economy after a month of stay-at-home orders. People protested outside Governor Eric Holcomb's mansion on Saturday. "It's hurting the economy, it's hurting people's livelihoods, there is more suffering from the shutdown than there is from the virus," said a man who was at the protest. However, many Americans feel now is too soon. A poll conducted by Gallup shows that only 20% of Americans want things to reopen. While 71% want to wait and see what happens and 10% want to see restrictions put in place indefinitely. Dr. Bien said we shouldn't have to choose between economic prosperity and public health. "I think that's a false choice because I don't think that we have to sacrifice the economy to be safe and to have people be as healthy as they can be," he said. Some models projected April 19th as when Indiana would see its peak in cases. Dr. Bien said things are constantly changing right now. However, he said Greater Lafayette and surrounding counties haven't seen the dramatic surge they were anticipating for an important reason. "It's working," he said. "What we've been asked to do is working, physical distancing, social distancing, mask wearing in public, staying at home." And if the state were to reopen? "We'd start to see more cases emerge and more people would get sick," he said. "It's my strong recommendation that we stay the course. It's working, lives are being saved by these difficult actions that all of us are bearing." Dr. Bien said that we need more testing, and that such strong restrictions are in place because there is still so much unknown about this disease. "Without the knowledge that testing and contact tracing are going to be able to provide us at some point, we still unfortunately have to use this very blunt instrument of restricting many of our activities," he said. As we've previously reported, Governor Holcomb has extended the stay at home order until May 1st. ROME, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Local and regional elections originally scheduled for next month have been postponed until at least September. This is the latest change in Italy's political and cultural landscape due to the coronavirus pandemic. Monday's decision agreed to by the Council of Ministers represents the first time Italy has delayed local elections across the country since the end of World War II, media sources indicated. Over the weekend, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the economy could gradually reopen starting from May 4, the day after the current national coronavirus lockdown is scheduled to end. But Conte noted that any economic activity would have to include safety measures such as proper social distancing policies which would be hard to maintain with in-person voting. In a statement, Minister of Health Roberto Speranza also expressed concern over political parties campaigning in a country under lockdown. The local and regional elections which had been scheduled to take place over a three-week period in May in more than 1,000 municipalities spread over seven Italian regions -- Apulia, Campania, Liguria, Le Marche, Tuscany, Valle d'Aosta, and Veneto -- will now take place in a three-month window between Sept. 15 and Dec. 15. Members of Regional Councils and municipal governments that had been scheduled to step down in July, will now remain in office until the votes can take place. The change will not have a direct impact on Conte's coalition government, though local and regional elections have often served as a barometer of public support among the country's main political parties. Two persons who have tested positive for coronavirus in Abia, South-east Nigeria, have no previous history of travelling abroad at least in the recent past, the Abia State governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, has said. The state recorded its first two cases of the viral infection on Monday, Mr Ikpeazu told journalists on Tuesday in Umuahia. The two patients are said to be 70 and 72 years old, with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and heart problems. This pretty much looks more like community transmission, placing a huge burden on our shoulders as citizens to continue with the lockdown and maintain social distancing, Mr Ikpeazu said. The governor said the state government has shut down a private clinic where one of the patients was treated. The facility would remain close to the public until it has been properly disinfected, while the medical doctors and nurses who attended to him are to remain quarantined until the result of their tests is out, he said. We shall embark on massive contact tracing across all the LGAs where these index cases have been associated with in the recent past. Hence, Ikwuano, Ukwa West and Umuahia North will be covered during this contact tracing. The days ahead will be difficult and calls for more courage and commitment in the hands of our front line officers and all citizens. Government will continue to provide all the PPE (personal protective equipment) required to protect our medical and paramedical personnel. We are sending a consignment of additional PPEs and other materials to support Federal Medical Center (FMC), Umuahia. Government will insist that all borders shall remain locked till further notice. All our citizens should remember that wearing of face masks in Abia is compulsory, the governor said. Korea Times file By Kyung Lee Erin Murphy, a law professor at Yeungnam University in North Gyeongsang Province, has not introduced her courses to her students the way she preferred following the COVID-19 lockdown. Instead she prerecorded her lectures through existing online platforms that the university's IT department helped normalize to start the spring semester. On the importance of meeting each student and getting acquainted with their communication abilities, Murphy said: "The first week of class I typically try to speak to my new students and assess their level of comfort with English. As for the online lectures, I do not think it is a perfect substitute for my classes." While foreign academics like Murphy told The Korea Times of their initial struggles with e-learning systems, they also accepted to an extent the need to adapt to applications that best interpret their physical classrooms during the lockdown. Into her second week of teaching classes online, Murphy stressed the necessity of dialogue rather than prerecorded lectures between a professor and students to fully grasp electives like substantive law. ? And she added it is the perfect time to adjust and make remote learning more interactive during the pandemic. ? "Right now, I would say a combination of lectures and contemporaneous dialogue would be optimum," she said. "But I hope to be able to directly discuss the cases and legal issues with students, creating dialogue that enables them to sharpen their critical thinking." If the lockdown persists in the coming months, Murphy added she would transition from forwarding her bundle of recorded lectures and questions to applications like Zoom where she could engage in the law with her students through an intensely Socratic approach. In a response provided by email, she continued: "If my students read this, they will surely get nervous." Students' struggles Students like Wu Hao, a Ph.D. candidate at Korea University's Graduate School of International Studies, first noted connection issues and background noise in online discussions set up by the faculty at the start of the spring semester. Having overcome most technical difficulties, one limitation Hao mentioned as significant was the online discussions lacked prominent guest lecturers, who prefer speaking in front of a live student body rather than through the monitor. He added that convening a large class through a live online seminar could lend itself to only a few participating students, the possibility of "free riders" and individuals reluctant to chime in. "I'm curious if this function will deter professors and students from speaking their minds," he said. Still, despite e-learning methods proving a challenge for professors who itch to return to their physical classrooms according to Hao, the virtual learning system offered in one of his courses delivers more practicality to students beyond the convenience of recorded lectures uploaded to the school's web portal. The system enables professors who manage larger classrooms to assign students into small discussion groups, only to rejoin the seminar when the customized session expires. For these small discussion groups and seminars to work, however, rests on another component that is less technical. "Class size matters initially, especially during the first few lectures," Hao said. "And ultimately, it rests on the kind of rapport built between professors and students." E-learning vs. culture The practice of incorporating e-learning programs and recorded lectures may have flourished in Korea long before the COVID-19 lockdown, but the most effective platforms to date offer students a more interactive interface, livestreaming sessions and multiple communication channels that enable direct contact with instructors and curricula reaching a broader audience. According to Michael Kim, an education expert based in Korea and co-founder of an online academy for medical professionals, remote programs designed by Khan Academy, an international online education platform for kids and adults, qualify as a model example in providing these features in the form of videos, games and visual exercises, with homework and questions also checked by real tutors. He also believes its methods can be reinterpreted and adapted successfully for other practical and technical subjects. "Look at a music class, where students can record their parts and contribute to an ensemble piece," he said. "And if they have amazing internet speed, maybe they can just jam together remotely." Even as Korea's academic institutions have adopted various e-learning platforms as temporary responses to the country's social distancing measures, Kim added that its educational culture is still too rigid to accept such alternatives as mainstream learning vehicles when schools eventually reopen their doors. In fact, according to Kim, innovative virtual learning tools and advanced learning beyond physical classrooms and textbooks are much more scolded than praised as acceptable practices. "Once systems are established, there is a tendency to iterate rather than innovate on the educator's side," he said. "And on the learner's (side), people tend to favor what the herd is doing, or what key influencers are doing whether it's in the individual's best interests or not." Andhra Pradesh continued to register a high incidence of Covid-19 with two deaths and 35 fresh positive cases being reported in the last 24 hours, taking the toll of casualties in the state to 22 and the positive cases to 757. On Monday, the state had recorded three deaths and 75 new positive cases, the highest-ever in a single day that set alarm bells ringing in the state. An official bulletin from the state medical and health department said both the deaths on Tuesday had occurred in Guntur district, which has emerged as a hotspot for Covid-19 with 158 positive cases and six deaths. In the last 24 hours, the district reported nine new cases. Similarly, Kurnool district in Rayalaseema region has also become a matter of concern for the authorities. The district also reported five deaths and 184 positive cases for Covid-19, including 10 in the last 24 hours. Krishna district with 83 positive cases, Chittoor with 53 cases and Kadapa with 46 cases have also been causing concern for the authorities. Follow coronavirus latest updates here. The health department has attributed the increasing number of cases to increase in the number of tests being done in the state in the last few days. In the last 24 hours, as many as 5,022 samples have been tested. A total of 35,755 samples have been tested since the epidemic broke out. Quoting the central figures, an official spokesman from the chief ministers office said Andhra Pradesh stands at the top in terms of tests being conducted for Covid-19. As against the national average of 290 tests per million people, AP is at the top of the list with 715 tests per million, the spokesman said. Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy told officials to focus on the districts like Kurnool and Guntur which reported high incidence of Covid-19 particluarly after the return of Tablighi Jamaat members from a congregation in Delhi last month. The chief minister held a video conference with district collectors and Muslim religious leaders on the measures being taken to contain Covid-19. He appealed to the religious leaders to ensure that the people would offer Ramzan prayers at homes and not in congregations. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON India must turn focus inward for its military needs in the post-Covid world and make every effort to cut dependence on imported military hardware that could not only become cost prohibitive but also hard to come by in the coming years, three senior military officers said on Tuesday on condition of anonymity. The armed forces will have to get rid of their traditional appetite for imported weapons and equipment, and work in harness with the domestic industry to guarantee self-reliance in defence, said the officers with direct knowledge of the militarys modernisation goals. Despite pursuing the Make in India programme vigorously to reduce military imports, the country was the second-largest arms importer in the world over the last five years, according to data published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute last month. Indigenisation with Make in India as the dictum can no longer be a mere slogan. If the coronavirus crisis has energised us to produce ventilators, personal protective equipment and other gear for our healthcare workers in a matter of weeks, the focus in the coming times should be on fueling a new wave of innovation in the defence sector, said the first officer cited above. Imports account for 60-65% of the countrys military requirements and it has signed contracts worth billions of dollars during the last decade for a raft of weapons and systems, including fighter jets, air defence missile systems, submarine hunter planes, attack helicopters, heavy-lift choppers and lightweight howitzers. This is the time for us to look inward. The local industry is willing to support indigenisation, although it may not be able produce the best weapons and equipment. But if given the opportunity, it will reach global standards over time. It requires the full support of the armed forces. The temptation to import hardware will have to be resisted, said the second officer cited above. From warships, fighter jets to air defence systems and helicopters, modern artillery gun systems to ammunition, the domestic industry has demonstrated that it has potential to contribute to building a stronger military, the second officer pointed out. One of the key responsibilities assigned by the government to the department of military affairs, headed by chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat, is to promote the use of indigenous military equipment in the armed forces. After the 2016 Uri strike, the armed forces scrambled to fill worrying gaps in their arsenal, including ammunition. We cant allow this to happen. Encouraging the domestic industry will help us get more bang for the buck and ensure we are not in dire straits in times of conflict, said the third officer cited above. He added a robust indigenous defence industry would allow the armed forces to cut costs by holding lesser stocks of weapons and ammunition because production and supplies could be ramped up when required. Storage in itself is cost prohibitive because high-grade weapons and ammunition require special storage conditions, including air conditioning. Round-the-clock security of large ammunition and weapon storage depots also adds to the cost, he stressed. The draft Defence Production Policy-2018 visualises India as one of the top five countries in the aerospace and defence sectors in the coming years, with defence goods and services accounting for a turnover of 1.7 lakh crore by 2025. It also seeks to drastically reduce Indias dependence on imported military hardware over the next five years. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ALBANY Police say the man stabbed to death early Sunday morning in the city was Joseph A. Galindez, 27, of Schenectady. Officers found Galindez on Clinton Avenue near Henry Johnson Boulevard with a stab wound to his torso after originally responding to a call for shots fired. As armed attacks continue in the Sahel, two sisters share their familys ordeal of kidnapping, death and survival. Editors note: To maintain the familys safety and anonymity, all names have been changed and details that identify the village have been omitted. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Just weeks after Dinas father celebrated two decades of being a pastor, he was murdered by men who did not think he should preach. Staring longingly at her phone, the 23-year-old runs her fingers over a photo of him smiling with friends and relatives at his party in January. I wish he was still alive so things could be like before, she said. The sadness is unbearable. It was a Monday evening in early February when Dina, who was living in Burkina Fasos capital, Ouagadougou, heard that armed fighters had kidnapped seven people from her familys home in the countrys Sahel region an arid expanse below the Sahara Desert. Her father, a pastor at the village church, her 20-year-old brother, 15-year-old sister Jane, and 17-year-old cousin Mary, were among those abducted. Three days later, everyone besides Jane and Mary had been killed. Two men from a self-defence militia group ride a motorbike outside the city of Boulsa [File: Sam Mednick/Al Jazeera] Violence has ravaged the once peaceful nation as attacks linked to armed fighters and local defence groups have displaced nearly 840,000 people, according to the United Nations, creating one of the fastest-growing displacement crises in the world. The country is also one of the hardest hit on the continent in terms of the coronavirus, with 581 cases and 38 deaths as of Monday. Extremist groups and home-grown militias are exploiting local grievances over land and a lack of social services, and intensifying attacks across the country, including targeting churches and local leaders who do not embody their religious beliefs. In February, days after Dinas family was abducted, gunmen killed 24 civilians including a church pastor in the town of Pansi in Yagha province. At least 14 people were killed when gunmen opened fire in a church in the east of the country in December. Taken in the dead of night While violence has spread to the centre north, east and western regions, the Sahel remains the epicentre of the crisis, with many towns void of a government presence. The commune where Dinas family lived was one of the last villages in the area with a functioning government. Now the schools are closed, as is her fathers church where for 20 years the beloved pastor led a small, devoted congregation. Sitting in a cafe in Ouagadougou, Dina barely makes eye contact as she recounts the harrowing story told to her by her younger sister, Jane, and cousin Mary, the sole survivors of the abduction. Neither of the girls would speak to Al Jazeera directly but Jane made an audio recording of her experience, which corroborates Dinas account. Members of a self-defence militia ride through Boulsa on their way to see their chief [File: Sam Mednick/Al Jazeera] At 11pm one night, Dinas mother was asleep and Jane was texting friends in the bedroom next door, when approximately 30 men burst into the house shooting guns and demanding money, said Dina. Her father was across the compound and out of sight when the men arrived, but instead of escaping, he ran to confront them, she said. In an immediate show of solidarity, the pastors son, two nephews and a friend emerged from around the compound to stand by his side. They didnt want to leave him alone, said Dina. The gunmen half of whom were dressed in what appeared to be military fatigues, the other half in brown trousers cuffed and blindfolded seven of them: Dinas father, her brother and his teenage friend, two of Dinas 15-year-old male cousins, and Mary and Jane. They forced everyone into a 4X4 and drove into the bush. Kidnappings as currency Kidnappings and forced disappearances by armed groups in Burkina Faso have increased almost seven-fold between 2017 and 2019 from eight recorded incidents to 54 according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Kidnappings have always been part of the modus operandi of terrorism. They are particularly used to provide terrorist groups with currency in their fights against the states or populations they want to subjugate to violence, said Siaka Coulibaly, an analyst with the Center for Public Policy Monitoring by Citizens. A man sits on the ground in a makeshift displacement site in Yatenga province. Days earlier he was forced to flee his home when gunmen attacked his village [File: Sam Mednick/Al Jazeera] Recently some countries, like neighbouring Mali, have expressed willingness to negotiate with these armed groups, and the increase in kidnappings could allow extremists to acquire leverage during negotiations, potentially creating a new terrorist phenomenon in West Africa, he added. According to analysts, most of those who are abducted remain unaccounted for their fate and whereabouts unknown. In the 4X4 in the bush that night, scared of the torture they might endure, Dinas father prayed they would get into a car accident and die instantly, Jane recounted in her audio recording. I told my dad to stay strong because God said in the Bible: The lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace, she said. They drove through the night without incident, arriving the next morning at a non-descript campsite where they were fed a small portion of fried rice. But Dinas father barely ate, saving the little food he was given for his children. Later that day a man came and started preaching the laws of Islam, forcing the hostages to recite lines from the Quran, said Dina. They told my father if he became a Muslim, theyd take him to Mali and hed be a chief of a terrorist group and my cousins and brother could become terrorists in Mali as well, she said. A member of a self-defence militia in the town of Pooli [File: Sam Mednick/Al Jazeera] Burkina Fasos violence is rooted in neighbouring Mali, which plunged into crisis in 2012, before a French-led military intervention regained control from armed fighters in some major towns. The initial spillover has evolved into a full-fledged insurgency, putting Burkina Faso at the epicentre of the crisis, Heni Nsaibia, a researcher at ACLED told Al Jazeera. Yet cross-border dynamics persist as groups use uncontrolled expanses between and within countries as bases to regroup and recruit, he said. He knew he would be killed After a day of being forced to learn the Quran, the hostages were blindfolded and questioned by their captors about whether they would renounce their God, Jane said in her audio recording. The pastor who had converted to Catholicism from Islam more than 30 years ago, but kept his Muslim name tried to explain to the men that he embraced both religions, but said he would rather die than become a terrorist. After refusing to acquiesce, her father knew he was going to be killed, said Dina. Be humble, don't be arrogant and learn to better control your anger. The pastor's last words to his daughter, Dina Believing that the men might spare the lives of the two girls, the pastor and his son imparted messages for the rest of the family: To take care of their mother, be courageous, continue studying and not to worry about anything, because even in death he would always be by their side, said Dina of her fathers words. Regarded as the stubborn one in the family, yet also the pastors favourite, Dinas father sent a special note to her: Be humble, dont be arrogant and learn to better control your anger, she said. Cracking a smile, she joked that when she was younger her family nicknamed her Djinia-Djon a phrase in her local language meaning the leader of everything bad, she said. Her brothers parting words to his younger sister were inspired by the late Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid freedom fighter who overcame nearly three decades in prison to become a president. I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it, he said to Jane the night before he died. Women who were displaced from home when gunmen attacked their village walk to a makeshift displacement site in Yatenga province [File: Sam Mednick/Al Jazeera] The seven hostages spent three days in captivity, while their kidnappers squabbled over their fate. Some of the men wanted to release them, others thought they should all be murdered, while some wanted to kill the men and free the women, said Dina. By the third day they finally decided. Five shots It was a Wednesday afternoon and the kidnappers forced everyone into the car. After driving a short distance, they let the men out, placing them in a circle with Dinas father and brother at the centre. The two girls were slowly driven away, while the sound of five gunshots one for each of the people they had left behind reverberated behind them. At least we can see their graves and know where they are, otherwise we'd be living in limbo, constantly terrified. Dina We were sure that our relatives had left this world, Jane said in the recording. Together with Mary, she was dropped off along the road and the two girls were shown the way home. They walked for 12 hours before arriving broken and defeated. Back in Ouagadougou, Dina was anxiously waiting by her phone. I thought 95 percent theyd be released, she said. But when she heard the news, she was inconsolable. Days later, the mens bodies were retrieved and the family held a funeral in their village. But because of the ongoing insecurity, Dina was unable to attend the burial. She has found some solace in knowing that at least one day she will be able to visit the site to pay her respects. At least we can see their graves and know where they are, otherwise wed be living in limbo, constantly terrified, she said. Violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Burkina Faso, including these families who shelter under a tree in a makeshift displacement site in Yatenga province [File: Sam Mednick/Al Jazeera] Since the incident there have been preliminary investigations into who was behind the attacks. Some family members said they knew a few of the men involved and that they were Fulani members of the community a tribe that has been largely accused of joining the armed groups. Due to the real or perceived support for these groups by some Fulanis, their community has been increasingly targeted by the Burkinabe army and local defence groups, who are accused of committing human rights abuses against them. This has sparked concern that the violence has taken a disturbingly ethnic tone which threatens to worsen and blight ever more lives, said Corinne Dufka, the West Africa director for Human Rights Watch. During the abduction, Dinas cousin had recognised one of attackers voices and wanted to confront him, but her father would not let him. He did not want to further community divisions or prompt retaliation against his family after he died, she said. To date, only one person accused of being connected with the abductions and murders has been arrested, but other suspects have fled, said Dina. In the weeks following her fathers death, the family moved from the Sahel to settle in Ouagadougou. But life has become harder, and they are struggling to cope financially and emotionally. This has turned our life upside down, Dina said. We think about him all the time, and we miss him. A supporter of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) paints over the party logo at party headquarters in Phnom Penh, Nov. 18, 2017. Authorities in Cambodia arrested a former official of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) on Monday over what they claimed was a debt to a microfinance institution, according to his wife, amid an ongoing government crackdown on the opposition. Sok Chenda, a member of the CNRPs now-dissolved Prey Veng Provincial Council, was taken into custody at his home in Kram village and sent to the capital Phnom Penh without a warrant, his wife Soun Chanthu told RFAs Khmer Service, echoing reports of similar tactics used by police to arrest opposition members in recent months. They came to arrest my husband after 3:00 p.m. and took him to Phnom Penh, Soun Chanthu said of the large group of authorities who surrounded the couples home. All they said was that my husband had a debt with a microfinance institution, she said. While Soun Chanthu acknowledged that Sok Chenda is in debt to a microlender, she did not specify which one or how much he owes. It was also not immediately clear where authorities took Sok Chenda in the capital. Chhay Kim Kheoun, spokesperson of the National Police, refused to comment when asked by RFA about the former CNRP officials arrest by telephone. Soeung Senkarona, spokesman for Cambodian rights group Adhoc, told RFA he also does not know Sok Chendas location. But he suggested that the government had been using the spread of the coronavirus to legitimize what he called the arbitrary arrests of nearly a dozen CNRP members since the outbreak was first confirmed in Cambodia in January. I think [these arrests are] politically motivated, rather than a proper implementation of the law, because they were made [without warrants], he said. Overcrowded prison Sok Chendas arrest came as the wife of detained former CNRP chief of Toul Kok commune Khem Phearna told RFA that her husband, who suffers from hypertension, had called her from Phnom Penhs Prey Sar Prison, saying that overcrowded conditions are forcing detainees in his cell to take turns sleeping, sitting, and standing. He said he is in shock and when I heard what he told me, my heart almost stopped beating, said Sok Polyma. However, I am trying to stay strong mentally because if I fall sick, nobody will be able to help my husband. I am so worried for his safety. Sok Polyma pleaded for Prime Minister Hun Sen to grant her husband bail so that he can receive treatment for his medical condition. Prison spokesperson Nuth Savana dismissed Sok Polymas claim that Prey Sar is overcrowded, saying the government recently relocated 200 prisoners to detention centers outside of the city. She simply told the media, unofficially, and told the media to ask me, he said. Anybody can come up with this kind of claim. She should submit a complaint to the Ministry of Interior. But deputy director of Cambodian rights group Licadhos Human Rights Investigation Team, Am Sam Ath, told RFA that his organization has documented overcrowding at Prey Sar and other prisons, and said authorities have done little to resolve the problem. He called on the countrys courts to expedite pending cases and release detainees being held for minor crimes. As of April, Cambodian prisons hold some 38,500 detaineesonly around 10,000 of whom have been tried and convicted. Call to expedite investigation Also, on Monday, the family of a CNRP activist who died six months ago while being taken into custody by authorities called on court authorities to expedite an investigation into her case and provide them with justice. Sam Bopha, 48, from Svay Rieng province had been involved in an argument with her husband in October last year after his fathera former elected official with the CNRPconfessed to authorities about acting party chief Sam Rainsys planned return on Nov. 9 to restore democracy in Cambodia, which the government had labelled part of a coup attempt and ultimately blocked. Sam Bophas father-in-law filed a domestic abuse complaint against her with the police, who came to detain her at her home, but she was killed after she fell from an officers motorbike en route to the local station, her brother Sam Dina told RFA at the time, suggesting that the arrest appeared politically motivated because of the large police response to a family dispute. On Monday, Sam Dina questioned why the Svay Rieng Provincial Court has dragged its feet on the investigation into his sisters death. We have plenty of evidence, including photos and video, showing when the police officers came to arrest my sister at her home, he said. We submitted this evidence to the court long ago, so why does it continue to delay the case? The victims lawyer, Sam Sok Kong, told RFA that court officials have only spoken with the family once since the complaint was filed in November. Dragging things on without expediting the investigation really impacts due process and justice for the victim, he said. Svay Rieng Provincial Court deputy prosecutor Chhiv Echkong attributed the delay to the recent appointment of a new prosecutor, Kam Sophary. He just arrived, so he is unfamiliar with the case, he said, adding that he will speak with Kam Sophary about the matter. Human rights campaigners and her lawyer have called the arrest of Sam Bopha arbitrary and forceful, and said the police who took her into custody should be held accountable for her death. Warrants issued Also, on Monday, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued arrest warrants dated April 20 for Heang Kimreoun, a former official with the smaller opposition Beehive Social Democratic Party and the head of his partys youth wing, Thol Sophanna, for alleged incitement to commit crimes and public insults. The two men have been in hiding after Heang Kimsreoun made comments critical of the governments handling of border issues with Vietnam, and Mondays warrants followed a complaint submitted to the court by Pich Sros, the president of the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party-affiliated Cambodian Youth Party. Speaking to RFA from an undisclosed location on Monday, Heang Kimsreoun called the court order to arrest him and Thol Sophanna illegitimate because it violates his right to freedom of expression. I am a victim of the improper implementation of law in Cambodia because [the warrant] is not based on rule of law, but rule of lip, he said. In December, Cambodia signed a treaty for the countrys border with Vietnam which is based on a combination of border treaties the two countries used in 1985 and 2005, and recognizes 84 percent of the borders current demarcation. Border activists say that the legislation will cede land to Vietnam because it is based in part on the 1985 treaty, which was enacted after Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979 to oust the Khmer Rouge regime and installed a puppet government to run the country. Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Elyse Knowles has said she plans to use the coronavirus pandemic to take some time out for herself and enjoy life at a slower pace. And the 27-year-old model was true to her word on Tuesday when she went for a leisurely stroll down Belongil Beach in Byron Bay. The Myer ambassador, who lives in the NSW coastal town, was joined by her boyfriend, Josh Barker, as they walked their dog. Keeping her distance! Myer ambassador Elyse Knowles flaunted her trim pins while taking a stroll down Belongil Beach in Byron Bay on Tuesday She looked every inch the boho babe in denim shorts that highlighted her slim legs. Elyse also wore a loose shirt over a green bikini top, and accessorised with tortoiseshell sunglasses, an anklet and several bangles. She stayed close to Josh, but they made sure to keep a safe distance from other beachgoers in accordance with the government's social distancing guidelines. Social distancing matters: Elyse and her boyfriend, Josh Barker, kept a safe distance from other beachgoers in accordance with the government's social distancing guidelines Families could be seen strolling across the picturesque beach, with several of them joined by their dogs. Elyse recently told fans she would be using the pandemic to take time out for herself. Sharing a glamorous photo to Instagram last week, she outlined her plans to her 900,000 followers. 'Taking this time to feel gratitude for the little things that tend to be forgotten about': Elyse recently told fans she would be using the pandemic to take time out for herself 'Taking this time to feel gratitude for the little things that tend to be forgotten about when we are in the hustle of Go go go! Embracing this time for me,' she wrote. It comes after Elyse was criticised last month for sharing photos from her camping trip to Moreton Island in Queensland. Elyse left fans fuming after she uploaded a picture of herself and Josh alongside a gushing caption about their 'magical week'. Criticism: It comes after Elyse was criticised last month for sharing photos from her camping trip to Moreton Island in Queensland. Responding to the backlash, Elyse explained that she hadn't been aware of the severity of the pandemic when she and Josh set out on their holiday Responding to the backlash, Elyse explained that she hadn't been aware of the severity of the pandemic when she and Josh set out on their holiday. 'A lot has changed in a week, let alone daily. We were away last week, and it was more so we weren't near anyone,' she wrote. As soon as they became aware of the severity of the situation, she said, they made every effort to return home to Byron Bay. Armenian News NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 21.04.2020: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has reached 1,401 in Armenia. According to the latest data, 609 COVID-19 patients have recovered thus far, whereas 24 others have died. According to Armenian health ministry spokesperson Alina Nikoghosyan, the latest coronavirus casualties in Armenia were 88 and 65 years old. In the meantime, health minister Arsen Torosyan noted that analyzing the number of new cases of the coronavirus infection in the past one week, we can record that we have a steady growth rate, which ranges around 3-4% per day. The Armenians staying at Moscow Domodedovo Airport were forced out of the airport last night. A video was posted on the Facebook page of one of these Armenians, in which it is said that the airport management had moved them out of. To note, people who want to return to Armenia but have not returned due to lack of flights amid the COVID-19 pandemic are staying at the Domodedovo airport since April 12. Those who stayed at the airport refused to be transferred to hotels as they thought that if they stayed at the airport, they would return first if there was a flight. The Armenian embassy in Russia has registered 268 Armenians who shall return, and 120 of them were spending the night at the airport. Meanwhile, the Armenian deputy FM Avet Adonts has called on compatriots not to gather at Moscow airport and urged the Armenians abroad to obey the demands of the host country's authorities. Russian FM Sergei Lavrov spoke about the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. According to him, the decisions proposed at the meeting of the FMs of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in Moscow last year regarding the Karabakh conflicts settlement are actively discussed, and their signing would be an important step towards the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions. Lavrov clarified that these documents mean "reaching a settlement based on a phased approach, assuming in the first phase the solution of more urgent problems, the liberation of a number of territories around Nagorno-Karabakh, and the unblocking of transport, economic and other communications." Margarita Grigoryan, Executive Director of the Public Television of Armenia, submitted a letter of resignation. As reported earlier, the footages of preparations ahead of PM Nikol Pashinyans April 17 televised address have been disseminated on the Internet, showing the PM coughing, taking medicine and drinking water. According to Grigoryan, it is unacceptable. Now I share responsibility for what happened, presenting my letter of resignation, she said Earlier, Vardan Hakobyan, who was in charge of ensuring the live broadcast of the PM, has been fired. Former Miss Armenias house has been robbed. The police officers who arrived at the scene found out that an expensive belt belonging to Gohar Harutyunyan's husband had been stolen from the house, shamshyan.com reported. The police found out the theft was committed by Irina D., 47, the cleaning lady of the house. The police found the woman as well as the stolen item. Srinagar, April 21 : After 41 people tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in Danger Mohalla (Gund Jahangeer) of Bandipora district, authorities on Tuesday decided to quarantine the entire village with a population of 400. This is the first village in Jammu and Kashmir, where the entire population has been put under quarantine. "After 36 out of 41 positive cases in the Gund Jahangeer area turned out to have come from Danger Mohalla, the entire village which has a population of 400 has been put under quarantine. "Half of the village population is under administrative quarantine while the other half has been restrained into home quarantine", a top official told IANS. The most baffling part of the infection spread in this village is that the first positive patient, who later passed away in a Srinagar hospital, had no travel history. "The son of the deceased said his father had been bedridden for four months and he had not travelled outside the valley. "He was a fruit merchant who had not gone out nor met any contact from outside the valley during the days of his sickness which was due to multiple ailments like kidney dysfunction, cardio-vascular problems, etc. "We have found that people from the village used to call on him during his sickness. "Whether he got the virus from his visitors or he gave it to them is still a mystery", the officer said. Twelve of the 36 infected people in the village are members of the deceased's extended family or his friends and neighbours. Authorities are still working hard on contact tracing of the people from this village who in all livelihood would have moved into adjoining areas before the infection became full blown in this village. Consequent upon the increase in the number of positive cases in this village, Bandipora district has now 91 COVID-19 cases which is the highest in J&K followed by Srinagar district at 79 cases. Demonstrators gather to protest against the state's extended stay-at-home order to help slow the spread of the CCP virus in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on April 20, 2020. (Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters) Protesters in Arizona, Pennsylvania Demonstrate Against Lockdowns Protests have erupted in the states of Arizona and Pennsylvania over lockdown measures put in place to curb the transmission of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. Pennsylvania residents on April 20 became the latest to demand lockdown measures be lifted as state Gov. Tom Wolf announced its stay-at-home order would be extended to May 8. It had previously been scheduled to end on April 30. You must only travel, if needed, for businesses that are open, Wolf said in a news conference on Monday. Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs as a result of the lockdowns, which are aimed at curbing the spread of the CCP virus that emerged in mainland China last year, but have proven increasingly controversial as some orders close beaches, prevent people from buying seeds, and restrict travel. The economic damage has led to increasing agitation for relaxing social-distancing restrictions, especially as the rate of CCP virus hospitalizations and other indicators of the outbreaks severity have begun to level off in recent days. Some Pennsylvania residents demonstrated near the capitol in Harrisburg on Monday, holding signs, honking horns, and waving American flags. Many expressed uncertainty over the governments response to the spread of the virus. Demonstrators gather to protest against the states extended stay-at-home order to help slow the spread of the CCP virus in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on April 20, 2020. (Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters) All the projections were wrong, but we are still telling people to stay home and businesses to close, said Mark Cooper, a retired truck driver. This is not quarantine, this is tyranny. Others, meanwhile, said the implemented measures have been critical in saving lives. They are dying everyday, said Yetta Timothy, a 43-year-old who was part of a counter-protest in Harrisburg. My life is on the line. The states demonstration came on the heels of large demonstrations held in recent days in states including Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Maryland, Washington state, and Colorado. An estimated 2,500 people rallied at the Washington state capitol in Olympia over the weekend to protest Gov. Jay Inslees stay-at-home order, defying a ban on gatherings of 50 or more people. Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators in Arizona on Monday defied recommendations of health officials to wear masks in public and to adhere to social distancing measures as they took to Arizona State Capitol, demanding that strict controls on public activity are lifted. Restrictions in Arizona put in place by Gov. Doug Ducey are set to be lifted on April 30, however he has been cautious in detailing how and when they might be eased. Ducey said last week that while he wants to see everyone get back to work and back with their lives, he wants that to happen when it is safe and healthy to do so. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey talks to reporters after meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on April 3, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) We appreciate the passion expressed by Arizonans today, and we share their desire to get back to normal as quickly as possible, Duceys spokesman, Patrick Ptak, said in response to Mondays demonstration. Mondays protests came after President Donald Trump encouraged people to protest stay-at-home orders in a handful of battleground states led by Democratic governors. Heading into the weekend, Trump issued separate tweets calling to LIBERATE MINNESOTA, LIBERATE MICHIGAN, and LIBERATE VIRGINIA, warning that Virginia was literally under siege over Second Amendment issues predating the lockdown. On April 18, Trump defended the demonstrations, saying: These people love our country. They want to go back to work. There are over 787,000 cases of the CCP virus across the United States and at least 42,364 deaths, according to a tracking map from Johns Hopkins University that collates official government data. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, in an April 20 interview on ABC, cautioned against lifting restrictions too early. What you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, youre gonna set yourself back. Its going to backfire. Thats the problem, Fauci said. Tom Ozimek and Reuters contributed to this report. States need to assess their complete inventory of available capacity. Some states have far more capacity than they actually understand, and it is a complex subject, but some of the governors didnt understand it. The governor as an example, Pritzker from Illinois, did not understand his capacity, Trump said. Not simply ask the federal government to provide unlimited support. I mean you have to take the support where you have it, but we are there to stand with the governors and to help the governors and thats what were doing. However, he added the government won't just stand by and let this happen: "our planned economic response is protecting millions of jobs, businesses, self-employed people, charities and households." Citing the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), Sunak said the economic impacts of this crisis will be significant but temporary. The COVID-19 death toll in hospitals across the United Kingdom rose to 12,107, up by 778 on the day before, Sunak said. 302,599 people have been tested of which 93,873 tested positive. In regards to Brexit, the Finance Minister said that "we remain very committed to the timeline that we've sat out to conclude those (talks) by the end of this year." He said that texts and legal agreements were being exchanged between the UK and the European Union. Moroccos leading telecom operator said it will donate its first quarter profit amounting to 1.5 billion dirhams (150 million US dollars) to the special fund created to mitigate the social and economic consequences of Covid-19. The government has pledged 10 billion dirhams to the fund which included a fine of 3.3 billion dirhams that Maroc Telecom had to pay the treasury after it was found guilty by the telecom regulator of unfair competition practices regarding its falling short of opening its telecoms infrastructure to other operators, an operation technically known as local-loop unbundling. The fund has exceeded 30 billion dollars after generous contributions from major companies, banks and employees as well as ordinary citizens. Maroc telecom reported revenue of 9.3 billion dirhams in the first three months of 2020, that is an increase of 4% thanks to its data service in Morocco and in Africa. The Moroccan state owns 22% of the company after it sold last year 8% mostly to other Moroccan institutional bodies. The remaining is owned by the UAEs Ettisalat. The Morocco-based group has subsidiaries in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Gabon, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Togo and the Central African Republic. Tommy Barnett on most important thing he's learned about Holy Spirit over decades-long ministry Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Tommy Barnett, global pastor of Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, doesnt have many regrets. But if pressed, there are two things the 82-year-old pastor wishes he wouldve done differently over the course of his decades-long ministry. I dont live in the past; I live in the future, he told The Christian Post. "But there are two specific things I would do over if given the chance to do my life all over again: I would dream bigger dreams and I would take bigger risks. Every dream I have, God fulfilled. Every risk I took, God did exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ask for or could ever think. Its this kind of tremendous faith and boldness that has made Barnett one of the most influential pastors of today. Barnett, who also serves as chancellor of Southeastern University, entered the ministry at just 16 years old. He became the pastor of Phoenix First Assembly (now Dream City Church) in 1979. Under his leadership, the church quickly became one of the largest Assembly of God churches in the U.S., with an average weekly attendance of over 16,000. Now led by Barnetts son, Luke, the church has become known as The Church with a Heart because of its more than 260 ministry outreaches. In his autobiography, What If?: My Story of Believing God for More Always More. In it, Barnett looks back over a lifetime of walking with God, being directed by the Spirit, and boldly taking risks to reach more people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He shares the story of his lifes journey to highlight the power of living in obedience to the call of God. The title, he told CP, is not one of regret, but one of opportunity. God speaks through different people in different ways, visions, dreams, and various things, Barnett said. God speaks to me through opportunities. In other words, when presented with an opportunity, I say, That could be Godand Im going to go down that road because if I don't go down that road, I'll never know if God was in it or not. I went down that road and God blessed it and opened another opportunity and road, and another and another. Its looking at opportunities that God opened up and with those opportunities come miracles. Barnetts ministry extends far beyond the four walls of the church. In 1994, the pastor and his son, Matthew, felt God calling them to open The Dream Center in Los Angeles, an inner-city church and outreach center that touches the lives of 50,000 people each month. Now, nearly 26 years after its founding, the Dream Center Network consists of more than 150 centers helping individuals and communities across the globe. Matthew shared with CP how, growing up, his father would take him and his siblings into the inner city every week to pick up homeless individuals and bring them to church. My father is very successful and visionary, but hes got a lot of patience when it comes to the calling God gives him, Matthew said. He would pick people up before church and take them to eat after. Watching my fathers kindness and compassion influenced my own ministry deeply. Matthew recounted another formative ministry moment when 200 wealthy church members approached his father and told him, Our church is influential. Weve noticed you busing homeless people into our balcony and its affecting our church. Were beyond that now. Basically, they were saying, youll lose our financial support if you keep bringing homeless people here.' My dad said, I love each and every one of you guys but theres no way Im going to stop bringing those people in from the street. Unsurprisingly, many of those men never came back to the church. Tommy Barnett told CP his approach to ministry was influenced heavily by his own father, an evangelist and pastor who first started the bus ministry concept. He had a Sunday School bus and would take people from all over Kansas City to church, Barnett recalled. He influenced my life greatly. He took me to hospitals with him to visit dying people. He brought me along as he ministered to the poor and sick. He showed me what it meant to be the hands and feet of Jesus. He was my hero. When his father died, Barnett said the sense of loss he felt was overwhelming. The man that taught me how to run buses was gone. The man I called up every week after services, my prayer partner, the one who shared in my joys and sorrows, he said. Most of the things I did were because of my father. One day I sat there weeping, asking, Who will help me now? Amid his grief, he felt the Holy Spirit speak to him. Now, Im not one who hears voices, he clarified. The Holy Spirit speaks to me through impressions. He impressed upon my heart and said, If you just let me, Id like to rejoice with you when you rejoice, celebrate victories, be there, and weep with you in your sorrow. Id like to be the one that one would help you build your church and give you creative ideas. If youd let me, Id like to be your prayer partner. That moment, Barnett said, forever changed his prayer life and the course of his ministry. I made the Holy Spirit my prayer partner, he said. What that means is, before I go to the Father in prayer, I take my petitions to the Holy Spirit. He filters them out for me, and once my silly requests have been filtered out, I go to God with what I really need. Often, I dont even know what I need, but the Holy Spirit breaks in with groanings and tells the Father exactly what I need, things I didnt even know I desired, things that werent even my vision, yet brought more joy to me than things that were natural to me. The Holy Spirit is given to us for our personal prayer lives to commune with the Father because we know not what to ask for, but the Holy Spirit does. Over my years of ministry, that's the most important thing I've learned about the Holy Spirit. Barnett, who currently resides in Phoenix with his wife, Marja, told CP that he doesnt think much about the legacy hell leave behind. I just feel you do your best and when you're gone, God raises people up in your kids to carry on your ministry. But life goes on. Ultimately its about bringing Him glory. But according to Matthew Barnett, his fathers legacy is one of humility, perseverance and boundless faith. My father taught me to enjoy every victory and not beat yourself up over the losses, he said. He taught me to make a bigger deal over victories than defeats. He celebrates everything, from the little offering someone gives to the kind words someone says. Hes never caught up in the excitement of big or showy events but takes joy in serving others well. He has continued to be a committed co-parent by spending as much time with his children as possible amid the coronavirus pandemic. Ben Affleck spent some more time with his son Samuel, eight, as they went for a bike ride through Los Angeles' tony Brentwood neighborhood. Samuel's bike was overmatched by the 47-year-old actor's motorcycle, but Ben still rode behind his son. Cruising: Ben Affleck, 47, had one-on-one time with his son Samuel, eight, as they rode bikes through LA's Brentwood neighborhood, though Samuel was overmatched by Ben's motorcycle Ben was covered up in muted colors with a navy jacket over a charcoal shirt. He also had on gray pants and gray and white sneakers, and he wore a black motorcycle helmet for safety. His son wore a navy zip-up hoodie with colorful stripes over the chest, along with black pants and a smaller blue helmet. Ben's ex-wife Jennifer Garner, 47, was spotted last week on a bike ride with Samuel as well. Casual attire: Ben wore muted colors with a navy jacket, charcoal shirt and gray jeans. Samuel had on a navy zip-up hoodie with colored stripes on the chest and black pants Thinking alike: Ben's ex-wife Jennifer Garner, 47, was spotted last week on a bike ride with Samuel as well; shown Wednesday The Way Back actor's helmet covered his mouth and nose on his bike ride, while Samuel wore a respirator mask over his face. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's order for people in the city to wear masks only covers visits to public places, but Ben and Jennifer have been playing it safe when it comes to outings with their children. The Triple Frontier star usually spends time with all three of his children, including Violet, 14, and Seraphina, 11, though the girls seem to have sat out this trip. They've mostly been staying with their mother throughout the coronavirus quarantine. After returning from a vacation with his girlfriend Ana de Armas last month, Ben stayed away from his children for 14 days to ensure he was free of infection. But since then he has been visiting regularly. Tough love: After returning from vacation with his girlfriend Ana de Armas, 31, last month, Ben stayed away from his children for 14 days to ensure he was free of infection; shown Saturday Popular spot: Before heading over to see his children on Saturday, the Argo director and Ana tried out a popular gourmet donut shop in Santa Monica New love: 'They order delivery food and groceries and only leave the house for walks around the neighborhood with their dogs. Ben looks incredibly happy. They are flirty and goofy,' a source told People; shown Saturday Before heading over to see his children on Saturday, the Argo director and Ana tried out a popular gourmet donut shop in Santa Monica. Ana, 31, was dressed in a white blouse that threatened to fall off her shoulders, along with a tan overcoat. The two have been spotted together when taking breaks from social distancing together at Ben's home in Pacific Palisades. 'They order delivery food and groceries and only leave the house for walks around the neighborhood with their dogs. Ben looks incredibly happy. They are flirty and goofy,' a source told People. Work romance: The lovers met on the set of their upcoming thriller Deep Water, though they only went public in March following a romantic trip to Ana's native Cuba; pictured Thursday The lovers met on the set of their upcoming thriller Deep Water, though they only went public in March following a romantic trip to Costa Rica and Ana's native Cuba. A source previously told the magazine that they had an 'instant connection' while filming the movie. 'They had great chemistry right from the start,' the source said of Ben and Ana, who play a couple in the movie from Fatal Attraction director Adrian Lyne. 'Ben always seemed very relaxed and happy around Ana, but at the time there were no signs of romance. He was very focused on making a fantastic movie.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 12:49:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SEOUL, April 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea expressed deep regret on Tuesday over Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ritual offering to the notorious war-linked Yasukuni Shrine on the occasion of Japan's annual spring festival. South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement that the country expresses deep regret and disappointment over Prime Minister Abe for making ritual offerings again to the Yasukuni Shrine, a symbolic facility that beautifies Japan's war of aggression and colonial plunder. The statement strongly urged the Japanese leadership to show willingness to improve South Korea-Japan relations by squarely facing up to the history and showing humble introspection and sincere repent over the past atrocities with action. Earlier in the day, Abe made the masakaki tree offering to the shrine under the name of the prime minister on the first day of the annual spring festival. Yasukuni Shrine honors 14 Class-A convicted war criminals among 2.5 million Japanese war dead from World War II (WWII) and is regarded as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. Visits and ritual offerings made by Japanese leaders and officials to the infamous shrine have consistently sparked criticism and hurt the feelings of South Korea and other countries brutalized by Japan during the war. The Korean Peninsula was colonized by the Imperial Japan from 1910-1945. Enditem By IANS LONDON: Researchers have found that obesity increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by at least six times, regardless of genetic predisposition to the disease. "The results suggest that type 2 diabetes prevention by weight management and a healthy lifestyle is critical across all genetic risk groups," said study researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Using data from a case-cohort study nested within the Diet, Cancer and Health cohort in Denmark, the research team examined the joint association of obesity, genetic predisposition, and unfavourable lifestyle with incident type 2 diabetes (T2D). The study, published in the journal Diabetologia, included samples of 4,729 individuals who developed type 2 diabetes during a median 14.7 years of follow-up, and a randomly selected cohort sample of 5,402 individuals (the control group). Overall, 21.8 per cent of all participants were classified as obese, 43.0 per cent as overweight and 35.2 per cent as having normal weight; and 40.0 per cent of the participants had a favourable lifestyle, 34.6 per cent had an intermediate lifestyle and 25.4 per cent had an unfavourable lifestyle. Genetic predisposition was quantified using a genetic risk score (GRS) comprising 193 known types 2 diabetes-associated genetic variants and divided into five risk groups of 20 per cent each from lowest to highest genetic risk. Statistical modelling was used to calculate the individual and combined associations of the GRS, obesity and lifestyle score with developing T2D. Compared with people of normal weight, those with obesity were almost six times more likely to develop T2D, while people who were overweight had a 2.4 times increased risk. For genetic risk, those with the highest GRS were twice as likely to develop T2D as those with the lowest, while those with the unhealthiest lifestyle were 18 per cent more likely to develop T2D than those with the healthiest. According to the study, individuals who ranked high for all three risk factors, with obesity, high GRS and unfavourable lifestyle, had 14.5 times increased risk of developing T2D, compared with individuals who had a normal body weight, low GRS and favourable lifestyle. Notably, even among individuals with a low GRS and favourable lifestyle, obesity was associated with 8.4 times increased risk of T2D compared with normal-weight individuals in the same genetic and lifestyle risk group, the researchers said. "We found that the effect of obesity on type 2 diabetes risk is dominant over other risk factors, highlighting the importance of weight management in type 2 diabetes prevention, the authors wrote. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) The opening of classes for the next school year may be moved to a later date due to COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, the Department of Education said Tuesday. Education Secretary Leonor Briones told CNN Philippines that upon consultations with partners and experts, the agency is looking at August as the possible new timeline for resumption of classes. "We have been having nationwide consultations. The leaning is towards August for opening," Briones said in an interview with The Source. "Sangayon sa batas, we should open classes first week of June, up to the last day of August. 'Yun ang window namin. Ang mukhang trend na lumalabas is really for August," she added. [Translation: According to the law, we should open classes first week of June, up to the last day of August. That's our window. But the trend that we're seeing is really for August.] Should the move be finalized, Briones said the department is also looking into the possible implementation of Saturday "stay-at-home" classes so that the next school year can wrap up in line with the original schedule. "Ang concern namin, gusto namin matapos din by March, but at the same time, mag-comply ng number of days which is required by law for students to be learning," the Education chief said. "Kinoconsider namin ang possibility ng Saturday classes, pero hindi 'yung mga face-to-face classes, they can do their work at home." [Translation: Our concern is we want the school year to end by March, but at the same time, we want to comply with the number of days which is required by law for students to be learning. We're also considering the possibility of Saturday classes, but not face-to-face classes, they can do their work at home.] Briones, however, stressed that DepEd will also be awaiting the recommendations of the government's COVID-19 task force regarding the imposed community quarantine in several regions in the country, as such decisions will have an impact on their timeline. Education Spokesperson Anna Sevilla meanwhile said the department is also looking into the possible adjustment of the present budget in order to provide more resources for online communication and training, as well as other digital learning resources. "Other expenses will be lowered and will be source of fund for new or emerging activities," Sevilla said in a message to reporters. The agency earlier announced that graduation rites in the country will be postponed indefinitely due to government restrictions against the infectious disease. Majority of DepEd's scheduled programs, including preparations for the openings, have also been put on hold due to the quarantine protocols. To date, the country has recorded 6,459 cases of the viral disease, including 613 recoveries and 428 fatalities. FP Trending Search giant Google has issued a security warning for users of Chrome and asked them to update to the latest version, which patches the issue. The update of the browser, version 81.0.4044.113 has been rolled out for Windows, Mac and Linux, Google posted on support pages. In a small note with the security update, Google has said, Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix. We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third-party library that other projects similarly depend on, but havent yet fixed. Chrome users can check their version by clicking the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the browser before going to the About section, under Help. The note goes on to mention that the update includes one security patch, which has been deemed critical. The exploit codenamed CVE-2020-6457 was accompanied by a vague description: Use after free in speech recognizer. Nothing more is mentioned about the exploit in the post. Meanwhile Google has pushed out the Chrome 81.0.4044.92 update, which includes patches for 32 vulnerabilities. Also, earlier this month Google, temporarily rolled back SameSite cookie changes in Chrome due to COVID-19, writing, "In light of the extraordinary global circumstances due to Covid-19, we are temporarily rolling back the enforcement of SameSite cookie labelling. The SameSite Cookie changes allowed Chrome to enforce secure-by-default handling of third-party cookies as part of their ongoing effort to improve privacy and security across the web. A woman who was raped daily, set on fire and tortured by an evil banker during a horrific three-week ordeal fears she will never have friend, a lover or a job again because of her mental and physical scars. Nicholas John Crilley, 34, subjected the then-21-year-old to 'physical, psychological and sadistic violence' over 23 days in June 2017 at his townhouse in Bulimba, Brisbane. The former Commonwealth Bank worker's assaults left his victim so severely injured paramedics initially thought she was dead. But nearly three years on and with her attacker behind bars awaiting sentencing, the woman's nightmare is still far from over. She told Brisbane District Court on Tuesday of the unimaginable horror she endured, and said strangers now look at her like she is a 'monster' due to her disfigurement. She said her facial scars have made her feel 'unworthy of human interactions'. Nicholas John Crilley, 34, subjected the then-21-year-old to 'physical, psychological and sadistic violence' over 23 days in June 2017 at his townhouse in Bulimba, Brisbane The woman was placed in an induced coma and spent eight weeks at Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital recovering. She said it took her seven weeks to work up the courage to look at her face in the mirror, fearing what she would see. 'When I finally did, I was so distraught. I didn't look like myself at all. I was unrecognisable. My whole body throughout hasn't felt like my own,' she told the court, the Courier Mail reported. She said 'part of my dream as a little girl was finding someone to love and marry,' but Crilley had 'taken away' that dream. Her muscles wasted away so much she had to learn to walk again, and her little finger was amputated. The woman, who is now 24, also went through weeks of agonising treatment for burns on nearly half of her body. 'The injuries I have sustained are horrific, very visible and irreversible and have, and will forever, affect me,' she told the court, Nine News reported. 'My face will never look the same... I will always have a physical reminder every time I look in the mirror. 'It makes me feel numb that no one will ever want to be my friend, lover or employ me again.' The victim, who was 21 at the time, was found barely alive in Nicholas John Crilley's house (pictured) on July 2, 2017, so badly injured police who found her thought she had been involved in an explosion The woman's teeth are broken from endless beatings at the hands of Crilley. She now has to wear a wig after losing chunks of her hair due to a badly burned scalp. The bridge of her nose had to be removed because it was shattered into pieces, and her vision has been reduced due to burning liquids being poured in her eyes. Surgery may be required to put a metal plate in her head to stop her eyes sinking further back. She has large 'divots' in her skull where skin tissue turned black and died, later becoming infested with maggots. The woman also finds it difficult to exercise and even shower as her body struggles to regulate temperature. But she said the worst wounds are those to her psyche. She described herself as having a 'very smiley and bubbly personality' before the ordeal, but Crilley's abuse has left her weak and vulnerable. Crilley pleaded guilty to 54 offences, including grievous bodily harm, deprivation of liberty and torture. Crilley repeatedly called her a 's**t' and forced her to confess to sleeping with other men while he was in jail Prosecutor Sandra Cupina told the court Crilley raped the woman daily, set her on fire and poured burning water on her genitals. He used a cigarette lighter, acetone and boiling water to burn her body. The victim was also forced to eat her own vomit and faeces, and made to sleep on the floor or outside. Crilley also made the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, choose how she wanted to die - being shot or in a car crash. 'I've pummelled her so hard she cant talk anymore,' Crilley bragged to a friend. The 34-year-old then 'hid' her for five days at the nearby Tower Mill Metro Hotel. The beatings became so severe the woman's upper lip detached from her face. 'He increased and escalated the methods he was using to harm her, boiling water then acetone then setting her on fire,' Ms Cupina said. Nicholas John Crilley forced the woman to eat her own vomit and faeces, and made her sleep on the floor or outside She suffered multiple broken bones, deep lacerations to her face, including the 'degloving of the skin', and burns to 46 per cent of her body. 'The tissue on part of her face was so severely infected it was also infested with maggots,' Ms Cupina said. 'If she had not been treated in hospital she would have died.' Three weeks in to the humiliating torture, Crilley eventually called triple-zero before fleeing the Brisbane home where most of the offending occurred. His victim was found barely alive in his house on July 2, 2017, so badly injured police who found her thought she had been involved in an explosion. Police thought she was dead until she groaned. Crilley was taken into custody eight days later following a dramatic police chase involving several stolen cars. Defence lawyer Malcolm Harrison said Crilley was in a methylamphetamine-induced delusional state during the prolonged assault. He said Crilley believed the woman had been part of a drive-by shooting that targeted him, but it was not based on reality. 'This is a dreadful and extremely serious example of violence against a woman,' he said. 'The offences were sadistic in nature.' However, Mr Harrison reminded the court Crilley had called triple-zero. 'That is probably the one factor in his favour,' he said. Crilley will be sentenced on May 1. The Crown has asked that he be jailed for life. Rahul Dhir, the new CEO of Tullow Oil Irish exploration group Tullow Oil has appointed Rahul Dhir as its new chief executive. He replaces Paul McDade who resigned from the helm of Tullow in December. Mr Dhir is currently CEO of Delonex Energy, an Africa-focused oil and gas company that he founded in 2013. Under his leadership, Delonex has delivered low-cost drilling and seismic operations in sub-Saharan Africa. In Chad, the company has achieved material exploration success and discovered substantial oil resources, according to a statement from Tullow. Delonex has also delivered exploration campaigns in Ethiopia and Kenya, where it operates an oil block with Tullow as a non-operating partner. Prior to establishing Delonex, Mr Dhir served as managing director and CEO of oil business Cairn India from its initial public offering in 2006 until 2012. With oil prices collapsing currently, the newcomer will face a massive task at Tullow. Last month Tullow said it was to reduce its headcount by 35pc after it reported a loss after tax of $1.7bn for 2019, on the back of exploration write-offs and impairments. Dorothy Thompson, chair of Tullow Oil, said: "I am delighted to welcome Rahul to Tullow and am very pleased that he has accepted the position of CEO. His oil & gas, financial and African experience combined with his record of strong leadership made him the stand-out candidate for the board. Mr Dhir started his career as a petroleum engineer, before moving into investment banking where he led teams at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, advising oil and gas companies on merger and acquisition and capital market related issues. A UK citizen, he was educated at the Indian Institute of Technology, the University of Texas and the Wharton School in the United States. They will assess the EU policies and approach towards the Eastern Neighbourhood in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. EU ministers of foreign affairs will hold a video conference on April 22 to discuss, among other issues, the current situation in Ukraine. "Ministers will assess the EU policies and approach towards the Eastern Neighbourhood in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ministers will focus particularly on Ukraine and the Eastern Partnership region," the Council of the European Union said on its website. Read alsoVideo talks between Ukraine's PM and German Chancellor indefinitely postponed Under current affairs, ministers will focus on recent international developments, particularly related to the follow-up to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and will also touch upon the situation in Libya. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell will chair the video conference. The confirmed toll in Europe has passed one million infections and 100,000 deaths. Germany has begun restarting its economy, allowing small shops to open for the first time in nearly a month. South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee said they would start letting certain businesses reopen. Get the latest updates here, plus maps and full coverage Testing is the sticking point When can stay-at-home orders be relaxed safely? Not until we get much more testing, many state governors say. Can Congress pass a bill to replenish the emergency loan fund for small businesses that ran dry last week? Not without establishing a national strategy for testing, Democrats say. The slow, problem-plagued buildup and limited availability of coronavirus testing in the U.S. have attracted frequent criticism, and opened a rift between the Trump administration and governors of both parties. Now that rift is getting in the way of progress on several fronts. The No. 1 problem facing us is lack of testing, said Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican. We cant open up our states without ramping up testing. Impatient to address the problem, he arranged for Maryland to buy test kits from South Korea without waiting for federal approval. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 13:56:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JAKARTA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Tuesday announced the prohibition of the mass exodus tradition, locally known as "mudik", to curb the spread of COVID-19 ahead of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. "Today, I want to announce that 'mudik' will also be banned," the president said in at a limited cabinet meeting via teleconference. Widodo said the government would set necessary measures to carry out the ban. Earlier, the government issued regulations prohibiting civil servants, military and police personnel from returning to their hometowns. Ramadan in Indonesia will begin on Thursday evening and end on May 23. Enditem The City of Midland Health Department is currently conducting their investigation on 17 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Midland County, bringing the overall case count to 64. The 48th confirmed case is a male child (0-9) who was tested by a private provider. The male is currently self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is contact to known case. The 49th confirmed case is a male in his 20s who was tested by Midland Health at Midland Medical Lodge. The male is a staff member at Midland Medical Lodge and his last day at work was April 18, 2020. The male is self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is contact to known case. The 50th confirmed case is a female child (0-9) who was tested by Midland Health. The female is self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is contact to known case. The 51st confirmed case is an adolescent female (10-19) who was tested by Midland Health. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is contact to known case. The following confirmed cases, case numbers 52-64, are all residents at Midland Medical Lodge. They were all tested by Midland Health at the Midland Medical Lodge. The following cases are currently self-isolating in the isolation wing at Midland Medical Lodge. The 52nd confirmed case is a male in his 80s. The source of his exposure is contact to known case. The 53rd confirmed case is a male in his 80s. The source of his exposure is contact to known case. The 54th confirmed case is a male in his 60s. The source of his exposure is contact to known case. The 55th confirmed case is a female in her 70s. The source of her exposure is contact to known case. The 56th confirmed case is a male in his 70s. The source of his exposure is contact to known case. The 57th confirmed case is a female in her 50s. The source of her exposure is contact to known case. The 58th confirmed case is a female in her 40s. The source of her exposure is contact to known case. The 59th confirmed case is a female in her 70s. The source of her exposure is contact to known case. The 60th confirmed case is a female in her 50s. The source of her exposure is contact to known case. The 61st confirmed case is a female in her 80s. The source of her exposure is contact to known case. The 62nd confirmed case is a female in her 70s. The source of her exposure is contact to known case. The 63rd confirmed case is a female in her 80s. The source of her exposure is contact to known case. The 64th confirmed case is a female in her 80s. The source of her exposure is contact to known case. Of the testing facilitated by Midland Health at Midland Medical Lodge on April 17, 2020, 19 tests were negative. The City of Midland Health Department will continue to monitor the individuals in accordance with the CDC. WASHINGTONThe U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to decide whether individuals who misuse their authorized computer access can be held liable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Justices will consider the case of Nathan Van Buren, a Cumming, Ga., police sergeant who conducted a search for an improper purposeto check a strip club dancers license plate in a law enforcement database as a favor, according to a petition to the high court. Van Buren did the search at the request of a man who gave him $6,000. But, as it turns out, he was set up by the FBI and convicted under the act. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, which he has yet to serve, and later appealed his case to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In an amicus brief, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as other groups, said that some courts have rightly interpreted the law narrowly, focusing on hacking and other illegal computer intrusions. But other courts have bought into tactics used by creative prosecutors, who argue that when the statute outlaws exceeding authorized access to a computer, it also covers violating the terms of service of websites and other apps, the EFF told the high court in a brief urging it to take the case. Some courts take a narrow view that the law covers only those who hack into or use a system without permission. Other courts take a broader position that people authorized to use computer systems, such as the police officer, can still be violators. People who lie about their ages on dating apps or misuse Walmarts Wi-Fi in violation of its policy could risk being held in violation of the law under the broad view, the EFF said A ruling by U.S. justices is certain to have broad consequences for how website owners, employers and prosecutors can pursue criminal and civil computer hacking and fraud cases. The court will hear the case in its next term, starting in October. I hope that the result is a balanced standard so that the law is criminalizing true hacking and even some forms of unauthorized use of a computer, but not sweeping in innocent use of a computer for a purpose simply outside the scope of a users permission that has no harmful effect or deleterious motivation, such as to check lottery results for an employee pool, industry attorney Maxine Lynn told AVN. Lynn practices at the law firm of Keohane & DAlessandro in Chicago and Albany, N.Y., and also operates Unzipped Media Inc., which publishes information on sex, technology and the law. Lynn said that appeals courts in the U.S. are divided on how to interpret the provision of the 1986 law that makes it a crime to exceed authorized access and, thereby, obtain information from a protected computer. "The U.S. Supreme Court will make a determination that may cure the split among the circuits as to the proper interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Lynn said. The interpretations by various circuits are very different in breadth, and that can lead to vastly different outcomes for a defendant based on where a lawsuit is brought. In these situations, it is appropriate for the Supreme Court to step in to rectify the differing interpretations into a single standard, such that federal laws are applied uniformlyacross the board, so to speak, she said. When evaluating the merits of this case, the justices will likely look at the legislative intent behind the statute, the facts of the case at issue, and other relevant information on the split among the circuits. Bri and Chris -- one of the only interracial couples from any of the "The Bachelor" affiliates -- were given the second date of the week at Guitar Center. The two spent the night strumming instruments and spitting lyrics back and forth before they had a heart-to-heart. Bri, who was engaged a year ago, recounted her emotional breakup before she confessed that she was "falling in love" with Chris. Millions of tenants are struggling to pay their rent as the coronavirus lockdown continues, it has emerged. A staggering three quarters of all landlords have been contacted by tenants worried about their rent payments, according to a survey. Around five million households in the UK live in private rented accommodation, many of whom have had to take time off work, been furloughed, or lost their jobs. A survey of 537 landlords carried out by eviction firm Landlord Action found that since the lockdown took place in March some 74 per cent of landlords have been contacted by tenants saying they will struggle to pay their rent. Seven in 10 landlords have been contacted by tenants worried about paying their rent This comes as a number of renters' unions call on the Government to suspend future evictions based on rent arrears for the duration of the coronavirus crisis. Renters' union Acorn is calling for a rent waiver which would see any arrears accrued by tenants during the crisis not included in any future grounds for eviction. In a petition that has garnered over 40,000 signatures the union said: 'Nothing has been done to protect renters from getting into rent arrears. The Government has said that landlords and tenants should agree repayment plans but have not legislated for this and have given renters no security on this.' However Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action, said the Government should be wary of taking a 'one-size-fits all' approach. Shamplina said: 'This is a nightmare scenario for everyone - landlords and tenants alike. However, taking from one group to give to another is not the solution. 'The vast majority of private landlords own one or two properties, many with mortgages, and they too will be facing the same challenges of job losses.' In Landlord Action's survey, some 36 per cent of landlords said they would struggle to pay their mortgage if their tenant did not pay rent this month though landlords who are up to date with their payments can currently apply for a three-month payment holiday on their mortgage. On top of this seven in 10 landlords said they would hold off serving an eviction notice if their tenant falls into arrears within the next three months. The Government was recently accused of rowing back on its promise to protect renters from eviction during the coronavirus crisis. The Ministry of Housing originally promised a 'complete ban on evictions' for those unable to work due to the pandemic for up to three months. However, while tenants can't be physically removed from their property, landlords will still be able to serve them notice to kick them out once the three month period ends. Shamplina added: 'Good tenants do not become bad tenants overnight. These are extraordinary circumstances, and everyone is impacted in some way. 'Those landlords who work with their tenants throughout this difficult time will strengthen their relationship and be far more likely to maintain the tenancy in the long-term.' Students on Temple University's campus last August. The school has moved its courses online due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Read more The federal government has begun doling out $14 billion in stimulus money to the nations colleges and universities, including hundreds of millions to schools with campuses in the Philadelphia region. Nearly half must be given directly to students, though most area schools said they are still trying to figure out how they will do that. One things for sure: The other half wont be enough to stem the losses colleges are anticipating from the coronavirus. Pennsylvania State University is slated to receive the largest amount of federal stimulus dollars nearly $55 million, about $27 million of which can be applied toward losses, such as the tens of millions it refunded to students in room and board after forcing them to leave campus mid-semester. But the college is anticipating $138 million in losses through the end of the semester, said spokesperson Lawrence Lokman, and an additional $6.5 million in expenses. The university did not provide a breakdown, but losses include diminished revenue for its hotels and conference centers and airport, and sports-related activities. At Rutgers University, which is receiving about $54 million, losses are expected to approach $200 million over three months, said spokesperson Dory Devlin. That includes about $50 million in student refunds, about $73 million less in state funding, and clinical losses of nearly $60 million, Devlin said. The 14 Pennsylvania state universities, including West Chester and Cheyney, are expected to receive nearly $80 million, about half of which can be used to offset losses currently projected at $100 million. If there is a common element, its that every college in the country is facing an immediate cash-flow crisis, Terry W. Hartle, a senior vice president at the American Council on Education, said late last month. READ MORE: Colleges stand to lose millions because of the coronavirus The council is among about 40 higher education groups that have asked the federal government for $46.6 billion for colleges in the next round of funding, about half of which would provide financial aid to students to keep them in school. The request anticipates a 15% decline in fall enrollment, plus a 20% increase in students who need more financial aid as a result of job loss or other virus impact. Philanthropic donations also are likely to be down, as well as other revenue, including summer camps and programs that colleges may not be able to hold. We feel very comfortable its a defensible ask, said Dan Madzelan, the councils associate vice president for government relations. Colleges were awarded money based on students enrolled from lower- and middle-income families as measured by federal Pell grant eligibility, as well as full-time enrollment. The government has begun releasing the half that goes to students. Colleges are trying to figure out how to distribute it. Theres very little guidance from the federal government on whats allowed and what isnt, said Julie E. Wollman, president of Widener University in Chester. Clearly, it has to benefit students. Students can use it for tuition, books, food, child care or other needs to support their education, she said. Its very much like the stimulus checks that people receive, she said. Penn State has created a task force to determine how the money will be distributed. Our goal is to get this money into the hands of our students as quickly as possible," president Eric Barron said. READ MORE: Charging full tuition for online classes? No, say some students, despite the coronavirus. Schools have choices on distribution, said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a Temple University education policy professor, whose center has offered guidance. They could distribute it all immediately, or give money to students as needs arise, she said. Money can go to any student in need not just those who have received Pell grants, she said, noting that students whose families were financially fine before the virus could be reeling from unemployment by the fall. Congress did a decent job here with giving colleges a lot of leeway on that, she said. Colleges are also anxiously awaiting the second half of the money as losses mount. Rowan University in New Jersey, which is receiving about $14 million in stimulus money, anticipates a $33 million shortfall in its budget from student housing and meal refunds, lost patient revenue and lower state funding. FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered. With so much uncertainty ahead, I have asked that nearly everything for the immediate future be put on hold that is unrelated to our core mission, president Ali A. Houshmand told the campus last week. Plans for major renovations, facility expansion projects, new academic buildings and residence halls are temporarily shelved. Every budget expense is being scrutinized. And, except for a few instances, we have implemented a hiring freeze across the university. Temple University will receive $28.7 million in stimulus, half of which will go to students. The remainder will come nowhere near to making up for the losses we have suffered so far, much less make up for what we might experience in the future, Ken Kaiser, Temples chief financial officer, said in a campus message. Temple last week announced a 10% pay cut for officers, deans, and advisers to the president, and a 5% cut for nonunion employees earning more than $100,000. St. Josephs University, which will receive about $2.8 million in stimulus, projects a $12 million to $15 million loss through May 31, said president Mark Reed. About $9.1 million is due to room and board reimbursements. The university has instituted a temporary hiring freeze and spending restrictions. There are projects that we will simply push off and not do for a period of time, Reed said. But the school anticipates finishing the year with positive cash flow, thanks to earlier savings, including a voluntary separation program for long-serving faculty and staff and refinancing of debt, he said. Widener has frozen hiring, eliminated most travel, and is planning pay reductions for top administrators, Wollman said. We are predicting there are going to be some very significant revenue shortfalls, she said. The college, which will receive about $2.8 million in stimulus dollars, has refunded $4.5 million in room and board and faces $500,000 in expenses or losses, she said. But the real problem could come in the fall, when enrollment is projected to be down, she said. In addition, the university likely will have to increase aid to students while weathering a drop in donations and lower returns on the endowment, a portion of which many schools use to support operations. Ursinus College officials also worry about the fall. The Collegeville campus faces a $6 million loss this semester, which is equivalent to about 10% of its operating budget. One way or another, we will get through this fiscal year," said Mark Schneider, vice president for academic affairs and dean. "The question of what happens next year, this, frankly, is the thing that has me kind of staying awake at night. In an effort to help independently-owned movie theaters recover from the coronavirus pandemic, IFC Films announced on Tuesday that it will offer over 200 of its films to those theaters without any rental fees. This will help give those theaters some classic films to screen when they reopen while they wait for new films to be released. Independent theaters across the country have been essential partners for us at IFC Films, and we would not be where we are today without their support, the distributor announced in a statement. We wanted to take the first step and let theaters know that we are committed to helping them reopen their doors by providing a selection of films to program while the new release landscape gets back to normal. Dubbed The Indie Revival Project, the program will offer selections from IFCs catalog in various curated packs, including a Yes We Cannes! program of 15 films that have won awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Among the films on that list include Ken Loachs Palme DOr winners I, Daniel Blake and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, as well as Hirokazu Kore-edas touching Jury Prize-winning family drama Like Father, Like Son. Also Read: Dave Franco's Directorial Debut 'The Rental' With Alison Brie Picked Up by IFC Films Also being offered is a Greatest Hits pack that includes Armando Iannuccis black comedy The Death of Stalin, Noah Baumbachs Frances Ha, Alfonso Cuarons Y Tu Mama Tambien and Richard Linklaters Best Picture Oscar-nominated Boyhood. A list of IFC-released cult films is also included that includes Christopher Nolans debut film Following, Jennifer Kents critically-acclaimed horror film The Babadook and Tom Sixs critically-panned gross-out flick The Human Centipede. The announcement comes a day after state governments in Georgia and Tennessee announced that a majority of businesses, including movie theaters, will be allowed to reopen as early as next week. While it is unclear how many theaters in those states will choose to reopen, those that do will not have any new films to screen until July as studios have postponed all their spring and early summer releases in response to global theater closures brought about by the pandemic. This means that theaters, especially indie theaters, will have to rely on repertory screenings until new films arrive, making IFCs program an opportunity to provide classic films to cinephiles without rental costs. Story continues More retrospective programs will be announced in the coming weeks. Check out the full list of IFCs initial programs below: Also Read: Georgia Movie Theaters to Reopen on April 27 Greatest Hits: Indie Blockbusters from IFC Films BOYHOOD (Richard Linklater, 2014) Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (Alfonso Cuaron, 2002) THE DEATH OF STALIN (Armando Iannucci, 2018) CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (Werner Herzog, 2011) TOUCHING THE VOID (Kevin Macdonald, 2004) 45 YEARS (Andrew Haigh, 2015) FRANCES HA (Noah Baumbach, 2013) BUCK (Cindy Meehl, 2011) ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (Miranda July, 2005) THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY (Matt Brown, 2015) PHOENIX (Christian Petzold, 2014) BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013) Yes We Cannes! A selection of 15 IFC Films releases that have won major prizes at the Cannes Film Festival Palme dor (Best Film) winners: I, DANIEL BLAKE (Ken Loach, 2016) DHEEPAN (Jacques Audiard, 2015) BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013) 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (Cristian Mungiu, 2007) THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY (Ken Loach, 2006) Camera dor (Best First Film) winners: ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (Miranda July, 2005) HUNGER (Steve McQueen, 2008) Grand Prix (Second place award) winners: GOMORRAH (Matteo Garrone, 2008) THE KID WITH A BIKE (Dardennes Brothers, 2011) Jury Prize: FISH TANK (Andrea Arnold, 2009) LIKE FATHER LIKE SON (Hirokazu Kore-Eda, 2013) Best Director: PERSONAL SHOPPER (Olivier Assayas, 2016) Best Actress Charlotte Gainsbourg: ANTICHRIST (Lars von Trier, 2009) Best Actress Juliette Binoche: CERTIFIED COPY (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010) Best Actor Benicio Del Toro: CHE (Steven Soderbergh, 2008) Cult Icons What makes a cult icon? Only the audience can decide. Explore 10 cult hits from IFC Films. THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE (Andre vredal, 2016) THE BABADOOK (Jennifer Kent, 2014) COLD IN JULY (Jim Mickle, 2014) DEPRAVED (Larry Fessenden, 2019) FOLLOWING (Christopher Nolan, 1998) THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT (Lars Von Trier, 2018) THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (Tom Six, 2009) KILL LIST (Ben Wheatley, 2011) SIGHTSEERS (Ben Wheatley, 2012) VALHALLA RISING (Nicholas Winding-Refn, 2009) WITCHING AND BITCHING (Alex De La Iglesia, 2013) Read original story IFC Films Offers 200 Films to Indie Theaters Without Rental Fees At TheWrap China devotes every effort to treat every COVID-19 patient: official BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- China will make all-out efforts with superior resources and technology to treat every COVID-19 patient, a health official said Tuesday. Fewer than 10 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, both imported and domestic, have been reported daily for three consecutive days, said Mi Feng, an official with the National Health Commission, warning about new clustered infections at a press conference. The number of severe cases dropped below 20 in central China's Hubei Province for the first time on Monday, but the number has been on the rise in other provinces in the past week, Mi said. He urged officials to maintain regular anti-epidemic prevention and control measures. The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative will have an online discussion on April 24, 2020, the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, at 8:30 am (PDT), 11:30 am (EDT), 3:30 pm (GMT), 6:30 pm (GMT+3), 7:30 pm (GMT+4) to honor those who perished a century ago and celebrate modern heroes, including those fighting the global outbreak of COVID-19. The names of the 2020 Aurora Humanitarians will also be announced during the event. The online discussion will bring together Noubar Afeyan, Vartan Gregorian and Ruben Vardanyan, Co-Founders of the Initiative; Lord Ara Darzi, Chair of the Aurora Prize Selection Committee, and Marguerite Barankitse, Founder of Maison Shalom and inaugural Aurora Prize Laureate (2016). The event, hosted by the Futures Studio discussion platform, will be moderated by Nicola Stanisch, Executive Director of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. April 24 has always had a special place in the hearts of all Armenians, but this year, its particularly remarkable as were honoring the 105th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust, as well as celebrating Auroras 5th anniversary. For years, Aurora has been upholding its symbolic traditions of remembering the Armenian Genocide martyrs at a flower-laying Ceremony in Tsitsernakaberd, the Armenian Genocide memorial complex, and honoring modern heroes by announcing the Aurora Humanitarians at Matenadaran, the national repository of ancient manuscripts, and inscribing their names in the Chronicles of Aurora. Now that the global agenda is focused on COVID-19, we cannot gather at Matenadaran as usual and have to adjust our plans accordingly. But we still stand together, and this online event will give us an opportunity to celebrate the 2020 Aurora Humanitarians while touching upon Auroras core philosophy: our strong belief in second chances for everybody and our commitment to turn the gratitude to our ancestors saviors into action. As descendants of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide we understand better than most what some people are going through right now. We treasure the knowledge, gained from a personal experience, that after survival comes revival and thriving, and strive to instill this hope into humanity. We have done this before, and we will be able to do this again together. The online event on April 24, 2020 is open to all. The discussion will be held in English, with Armenian and Russian translation available. Participants should register to receive a Zoom link or may watch the discussion via Facebook Live. It should be noted that only the participants who registered via Zoom will have access to Armenian or Russian simultaneous translation. Join the webinar and help us spread the message of resilience and gratitude. The coronavirus crisis in the country has no doubt exposed the defiance, ignorance and creativity among Kenyans in equal measure. Of notable interest has been the seemingly irresistible urge among members of the public to sidestep the dusk-to-dawn curfew, travel restrictions and other measures put in place to contain COVID-19 spread. READ ALSO: 30 people who had contact with fake Homa Bay mourners placed under mandatory quarantine The government has resolved to quarantine Kenyans flouting basic precaution procedures at their own cost. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Coronavirus update: 11 more people test positive, national count jumps to 281 From a group of drunken teenagers riding in an Emergency Plus Medical Services (E-Plus) ambulance to beat the curfew, then foolishly share videos of the same on social media, to individuals stuffed in sacks and ferried in cargo trucks disguised as farm produce, are some of the schemes have been simply intriguing. We have seen others throwing private house parties or attend estate weddings enmasse in total disregard of the danger they are exposing themselves to. Others have tried to bribe their way out of police grip after they have been caught red-handed drinking in bars that have been ordered to shut down, or loitering outside past curfew hours. Unfortunately for them, the government has finally put itself well in charge of this hide and seek game with what is arguably the most dreaded set of words in the country today; mandatory quarantine. While putting those violating various measures - especially those contravening rules on social gathering - in mandatory quarantine for 14 days at their own cost has become the in-thing in recent days, the government has now made it official this will be the standard procedure for any culprits nabbed henceforth. According to the Ministry of Health, those who break the curfew rules will be assumed to have been in contact with suspected cases, hence the need to put them away from the rest of the population for at least a fortnight. Woe unto those raring to engage the government in this game as the Ministry of Health plans to use technology to monitor congregations of persons, a move that will surely make this a losing game for the daring individuals. Revelation that some drunk Kenyan youths used an ambulance to beat police officers enforcing curfew hours ignited online uproar. Photo: Nation. Source: UGC The throwing of offenders into mandatory quarantine is a suitable protective yet disciplinary measure that could prove vital if Kenya is to stand any chance of overcoming the COVID-19 crisis. It is the perfect way to save reckless individuals from themselves, and save the rest of the public from paying for the sins of others. The number of positive cases in the country has risen steadily to the current 281. READ ALSO: Opinion: Fellow Kenyans, COVID-19 is no joke Local transmissions are now accounting for almost half the figure. Almost all persons who have tested positive in the past fortnight have no recent travel record and are drawn from across the country. This is a stark warning of the silent danger that lurks in our midst. The coronavirus is well and truly here with us and continues to spread fast; the absurd acts of defiance among Kenyans is according it the perfect catalyst. This explains why the government must go out of its way to tame those breaking the rules and fuelling local infections. They deserve no mercy and two weeks of confinement, at their own cost, is what they need to come back to their senses. While we sympathise with persons who have inevitably found themselves in these centres after unknowingly coming into contact with positive cases, those who find themselves there for knowingly violating rules should live and deal with the soreness of self-inflicted wounds without grumbling. As a streetwise Nairobian would put it, wacha wakule ujeuri wao (let them dine on their own arrogance). The writer is Milan Kiplagat, a regular commentator on social, economic and political affairs. The views expressed in this opinion piece are his and do not necessarily represent the position of TUKO Media Ltd in any way. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. Kenyans in China speak out on the discrimination of Africans by Chinese citizens | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke A motorist has been killed after the little hatchback they were driving was crushed by a truck. The accident occurred on the Princes Freeway approaching Kororoit Creek Road in Laverton, Melbourne, early on Tuesday morning. Two trucks and two cars collided in the incident. Diversions are in place and motorists have been urged to find another route. Emergency services are on the scene and Victoria Police are investigating the circumstances of the incident. A motorist has been killed after the little hatchback (pictured) they were driving was crushed by a truck Traffic banked up behind the crash, which blocked all three lanes of traffic. Impatient drivers were spotted performing U-Turns across the median strip to return the way they came. Victoria Traffic urged anybody in the area to plan ahead. 'Consider using the M80 Ring Road, Boundary Road and Fitzgerald Road to return to the freeway,' a spokesman said. The freeway is closed Geelong-bound. Fearne Cotton urges people to "find your tribe" and "love them hard" during coronavirus lockdown. (Getty Images) Yahoo Lifestyle is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. As we enter the fifth week of isolation in the UK, it is safe to say everyone across the nation is missing their loved ones. For those who are struggling with not seeing their friends and families during the coronavirus lockdown, and want their nearest and dearest to know they are thinking of them, there are plenty of gifts to send their way. Fearne Cotton has taken to social media to share the heartwarming gift her in laws sent to her during this difficult time. The 38-year-old presenter showcased a slogan t-shirt, which had the phrase Find your tribe. Love them hard emblazoned on the front, on her official Instagram account. She has revealed not only did the sentimental present touch her, but so did the words, and she has urged everyone to appreciate the ones that mean the most to them in this unsettling period. Cottons post has attracted a lot of attention, including a lot of praise from fans, as well as her famous friends. Emma Willis commented: Love that. While a separate Instagram user wrote: Feeling thankful for my tribe in times like this, and a third added: Amen to that. Other followers were desperate to know where to buy the slogan garment - well, youre in luck. The Find Your Tribe Love Them Hard T-shirt is available to buy from a unique seller based in Aberdeenshire, named Oli & Zo, on the online retailer Not On The High Street. Buy it: Find Your Tribe. Love Them Hard T Shirt | 28 from Not On The High Street The design only comes in a classic white soft cotton t-shirt with black font and printed on the front. It is available to buy in sizes small to large, and retails for an affordable 28. Plus, there is free delivery to orders in mainland UK - what more could we want? Kanye West: Christians have a right to righteous anger Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Music and fashion mogul Kanye West recently commented on the view that Christians are seen as "judgmental" and noted that Christians should be held accountable by other believers. "I feel that we all have sin, and when certain sins are worn more on our sleeves, its easier for Christians who are not Christ, but are human beings, to be able to channel judgment at what they see in front of them," he told GQ magazine. "The other thing is, if anyone claims to be Christian, theyre accepting accountability to other Christians. "But people dont realize that Christians are loud. That we have a right to righteous anger. That Jesus flipped tables. They think that all of a sudden you believe in Christ, so were not even supposed to speak up. And if we speak up, people will say, Oh, youre being judgmental. And its like, Oh, now, because Im Christian, I dont even have an opinion anymore? Im Christian and I still have an opinion. But my opinion is based on the Word. Although he believes in biblical accountability, the hip-hop artist said he is happy that his popular Sunday Service events are a no judgment zone. I feel that the church that most people grew up in as kids had a negative environment. The greatest thing for me, as someone whos given their life to Christ, is knowing that other people have that as an anchor and a form of healing, he said of his Sunday Service gatherings. The husband and father of four affirmed that he's "definitely born again" and maintained that those who are not in service to God are in service to everything else. To live inside of sin, its going to cost you more than you can pay, West added. You dont want to continue to sin with no repentance. I understand that people feel that Ive made some cultural sins. But the only real sins are the sins against God, and you dont want to continue to sin against God. Part of his outspokenness has always been his support for Donald Trump and the Yeezy founder once again said he will be voting for the 45th president come November. I will not be told who Im gonna vote on because of my color, he told GQ. Im definitely voting this time. And we know who Im voting on. West's album, Jesus Is King, made history on the Billboard charts, ranking No. 1 on five charts upon its release. It is the rappers first faith-based album and it topped the all-genre Billboard 200 in November, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Top Rap Albums charts, Top Christian Albums and Top Gospel Albums. As the coronavirus pandemic moved across the United States, the stock market plunged and many of the countrys businesses closed, a major platform for social media influencers had a rosier message: Good news in consumer shopping trends! RewardStyle, which connects retail brands with thousands of Instagram personalities and bloggers, told influencers in an email March 30 that orders through its app, LikeToKnow.It, had surged. It encouraged users, who earn commissions on products they help sell, to keep posting to capture this demand while using a softer approach to drive shopping. We recommend that for every five posts, you make two posts relatable about life at home and three posts about shopping, the company said in the email, which a recipient shared with The New York Times. This approach creates a softer sell in your feed while continuing to provide guidance to your followers during this time. To track all live updates from the coronavirus pandemic, click here RewardStyle also provided an image that said Staying In is So In, that could help give context and balance to shopping posts. People stuck at home could be a good thing, a company representative wrote, adding, Nothing like a little retail therapy to help pass the hours. 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 messages were jarring to influencers uneasy about promoting new fashions in the midst of a public health crisis that was crushing the economy. But they provided a glimpse into how desperate retailers and marketers are tailoring their sales pitches for newly homebound consumers, who are fluctuating between panic and ennui while scrolling through their Facebook and Instagram feeds. Retail sales plummeted 8.7 percent in March, the largest decline since the data started being tracked three decades ago. With online business now crucial for many brands whose futures are threatened by store closings, the sell itself has become a delicate dance. People are more anxious, theyre on high alert, theyre under a lot of stress and theres a lot of bad news theyre consuming and experiencing, said Mae Karwowski, Chief Executive of Obviously, an influencer agency that has been adjusting the tone and messaging of campaigns. We want to make sure brands arent attached to those really negative things that are happening while still acknowledging that were all communally going through this. Apparel chains have whipped up ads with references to indoor living, social distancing and videoconference calls. Loungewear has become de rigueur. Even Brooks Brothers yes, Brooks Brothers has advertised its work-at-home styles. Keep your hands to yourself and get denim delivered, Gap said in an ad that showed a persons hands in their back pockets. Joie advertised a cosy meets chic sweatsuit, a month after promoting $250 floral tops. A tip for tomorrow mornings 9 a.m. videoconference call: Doubled-up headbands make bedhead look beautiful, Anthropologie proclaimed in a recent Instagram post. The brand Lively gamely promoted its perfect work-from-home bra, even as the necessity of such garments has been questioned in a quarantined world. The subject line of a recent email from Reformation simply read: WHAT DAY IS IT. Brands are aware that people are glued to their phones and they are desperate to engage. Every Instagram Story frame going up, were seeing an increase of 30 percent more viewers than we normally would thats such an aggressive increase, said Vickie Segar, founder of Village Marketing, an influencer agency. But they are trying to proceed carefully, with messages of optimism and self-care and varying levels of references to the grim state of the world. Some companies have barred any mention of the coronavirus or COVID-19 in influencer posts, even if the ads are about staying at home or taking care of family. Karwowskis agency, Obviously, has recommended that influencers working at home should portray products in everyday clothing and that images should feel bright and cheerful. It advised against advertising from bed or in pajamas. Being in bed can work if youre talking about self-care and taking care of yourself, but not Havent left my bed in days send help, Karwowski said. One thing to ask yourself if you are a creator: How is this going to make my audience feel, what emotions will it bring out in them? The idea, she said, is to aim for positivity and calmness rather than stress or anxiety. Ulta Beauty, the cosmetics chain with 1,200 stores that are currently closed, introduced a new ad campaign with Obviously this month called See Beautiful Today. It was based on the idea that no matter how dark the world seems, people seek moments of beauty to help get through difficult times, a representative said. A group of influencers this month will create quarantine content for Ulta, like how-to hair tutorials and do-it-yourself nail care as part of its broader focus on self-care and joy. This type of messaging represents a much softer sell and acknowledges todays reality, Karwowski said. Its more of a conversation. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here Influencers are also changing how they sell products based on their personal challenges. Jacqueline Granquist, a 31-year-old part-time influencer in San Diego who has worked with brands like Joie and Hobo bags, said that she had been posting more about her own struggles and encouragement for others even as she promotes fashion items. Granquist recently lost her waitressing job because the restaurant closed, and she said others are facing similar issues and may not want to shop. Even Im in a situation where I shouldnt be spending money and here I am trying to sell products, Granquist said. It is a different world and a weird way to sell and so I think thats why Im posting more messages saying, its OK to not be OK, or that I had an off day today, and trying to humanise it a bit. Its not just, Buy these shoes. She added, I dont think I normally would have posted that kind of stuff prior to all this. c.2020 The New York Times Company Advertisement The Queen's role as a driver and mechanic during WWII helped shape a teenage princess Elizabeth into the country's longest reigning monarch, a new documentary will reveal. The story of how what she called 'the terrible and glorious years of WWII' and how it forged her character for years to come will be told in Our Queen At War, due to be broadcast on ITV 1 at 9pm tomorrow. Drawing on interviews with a childhood friend, people who shared her experiences, and royal experts, it will explore how The Queen had to endure great pressure in her younger years. It comes as Her Majesty turns 94 today, marking the occasion away from her family due to the coronavirus lockdown. She is with her husband of 72 years, the Duke of Edinburgh, at Windsor Castle in Berkshire. From the demands of making a radio broadcast to the British Empire at the age of just 14 in 1940 and the terror of a V-1 bomb, to being the first female member of the royal family to serve in the armed forces, Princess Elizabeth had to grow up fast. Ahead of the 75th anniversary of VE Day in May, the 60 minute documentary will also chronicle how the Queen met the man she would later marry, Phillip Mountbatten, at the age of just 13. As a young woman, the Queen became the first female member of the Royal Family to join the Armed Services as a full-time active member when she became a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in 1945 (she is pictured doing technical repair work during her WWII military service 1944). She reached the rank of Junior Commander after completing her course at No. 1 Mechanical Training Centre of the ATS and passed out as a fully qualified driver. When the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) was founded in 1949 as a successor to the ATS, she became an Honorary Senior Controller and later Honorary Brigadier. She resigned these appointments on becoming Queen in 1953 The Queen's relationship with the Armed Forces began when, as Princess Elizabeth, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in 1945, becoming the first female member of the Royal Family to join the Armed Services as a full-time active member (she is pictured next to an Army ambulance during WWII). During her time in the ATS, the Princess learnt to drive and to maintain vehicles. Since then, The Queen has maintained a close relationship with the Armed Forces through regular visits to service establishments and ships. She holds many military appointments and honorary ranks It was at Windsor Castle back in 1940, at the height of the Blitz - where 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth delivered her very first public address to Britain's child evacuees. Some 75 years after the end of WWII, a new documentary will draw on interviews with a childhood friend, people who shared her experiences, and royal experts to explore how what the Queen called 'the terrible and glorious years of world war two' transformed her from a teenage princess into the nation's longest serving monarch (she is pictured alongside Princess Margaret during her wartime speech in 1940) Princess Elizabeth talking to her father, King George VI while he goes through the Royal boxes in a study at Windsor Castle, Berkshire on April 11, 1942. Elizabeth succeeded her father George to the throne. George, known as the 'reluctant king', was crowned following his brother Edward VIII's abdication. His coronation was held at Westminster Abbey in May 1937. One month after George's coronation, Edward VIII married American socialite divorcee Wallis Simpson at the Chateau de Cande in Monts, France. Four months into their marriage, the couple went to visit Nazi Germany as Adolf Hitler's guests. Meanwhile King George's popularity soared as a wartime monarch and he became a figure of stability despite previously being marred by his speech impediment as well as a reputation for being unprepared. The boon to his reputation was aided by his decision to remain in London as the bombs of the Blitz rained down on the capital. George died of ill health in 1952, leaving his daughter Elizabeth, 25, to take over as Queen in a spell that has seen her become Britain's longest-reigning monarch Unlike many of her peers who were evacuated abroad, Elizabeth remained in Britain. She was prepared for the throne by studying the British constitution at Eton College, while putting on fund-raising pantomimes at Windsor Castle and worrying about the safety of her parents who remained at Buckingham Palace. By the time she was 16, Princess Elizabeth was inspecting the troops and launching ships while living in a secret location and keeping up with developments in the war by watching weekly newsreels. At the age of 18 the Princess joined the women's arm of the British Army, the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), and became the first female member of the royal family to serve in the armed forces. The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret standing by a tree in the grounds of Windsor Castle in England on 8 July 1941. Elizabeth and Margaret were often photographed in matching outfits, sometimes even with their hair styled in the same way. They also indulged in some fancy dress together, wearing exotic jackets as they 'dressed for Aladdin' in 1943 Collected by a friend of the Queen, pictures reveal how traditional pantomimes were an integral part of the wartime festivities at Windsor Castle. Of course, the shows werent your average am-dram productions. Starring the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, and younger sister Princess Margaret, music was provided by the Salon Orchestra of The Royal Horse Guards (pictured, Queen Elizabeth II (as Princess Elizabeth), Princess Margaret (right) and two other cast members performing the tea party scene in a production of 'Aladdin' at Windsor Castle, Berkshire). In 1942 the show was Sleeping Beauty with the young Queen playing Prince Salvador and Margaret Fairy Thistledown. The following year saw a production of Aladdin with Princess Elizabeth in the starring lead and her sister as Princess Roxana. The final show in 1944 was Old Mother Red Riding Boots with the young Queen as Lady Christina Sherwood and Margaret as the Honourable Lucinda Fairfax The four royal pantos were staged during the war after the future Queen and her younger sister were evacuated from Buckingham Palace at the conflict (pictured Elizabeth and Margaret during Aladdin in 1943). The pair stayed at the Royal Lodge, in Windsor, until 1945. Their parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stayed in London during the week and returned to them at weekends. The idea to stage a panto came after the two young princesses appeared in a concert with children from the Royal School to aid the war effort. Funds from the show went towards the Royal Household Wool Fund which provided comforts for the troops. It was Princess Margaret who first suggested a panto and school head Hubert Tannar was invited to write the script and produce the first show in December 1941 These days no-one would expect to find the 86-year-old monarch getting her hands dirty in Camp Bastion - but there was a time when she pulled on her fatigues and mucked in alongside her future subjects. Princess Elizabeth's adolescence took place in the shadow of World War II and, with the country in crisis, she did not shy away from her royal duties. Her first solo public appearance came at the age of 16, with a visit to the Grenadier Guards. By then she had already been named Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment - effectively the link between the infantrymen and the Royal Family. And by 18, changes to the law meant she could act as a Counsellor of State, meaning she would be one of five royals holding the fort in the event of her father going abroad or becoming incapacitated. Shortly after that, in February 1945, she signed up with the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service and was given the service number 230873. She joined as an honorary Second Subaltern but must have impressed in her duties as a driver and mechanic, as she rose to the rank of honorary Junior Commander within five months Unlike many of her peers who were evacuated abroad, Elizabeth remained in Britain. She was prepared for the throne by studying the British constitution at Eton College, while putting on fund-raising pantomimes at Windsor Castle and worrying about the safety of her parents who remained at Buckingham Palace. By the time she was 16, Princess Elizabeth was inspecting the troops and launching ships while living in a secret location and keeping up with developments in the war by watching weekly newsreels. At the age of 18 the Princess joined the women's arm of the British Army, the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), and became the first female member of the royal family to serve in the armed forces (she is pictured studying at her desk in Windsor Castle on June 22, 1940) Royal biographer Jane Dismore says: 'The war gave Princess Elizabeth a humanity that she might have taken longer to discover she shared a lot in common with ordinary people in that she saw their suffering, she knew about it. She knew that people looked to her as that new generation, that new generation of hope. ' When the end of the War came, on VE day in May 1945, she mingled with the crowds outside Buckingham Palace incognito in her ATS uniform - seven years before taking the throne. Ingrid Stewart, editor in chief of Majesty magazine, says: 'She actually described it as the most exciting night of her life.' Using rare archive including home movie footage Our Queen at War tells the story of how Queen Elizabeth II's reign was forged by the events of the second world war. The new documentary explores how the Queen - yet to be crowned Britain's monarch - was shaped by the events of WWII (she pictured alongside Margaret speaking to evacuees in October, 1940). Drawing on interviews with a childhood friend, people who shared her experiences, and royal experts, this programme looks at how the war transformed a teenage princess into the country's longest-reigning monarch. Marking 75 years since the end of the war, the programme chronicles how from meeting her now-husband Philip at 13, to the demands of making a radio broadcast to the Empire, to experiencing the terror of a V-1 bomb, Princess Elizabeth had to grow up fast Royal governess Marion Crawford ('Crawfie') accompanies Princesses Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II, centre) and Margaret (left) to the headquarters of the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association), off Tottenham Court Road, London, on May 15, 1939. The princesses have just had their first ride on the London Underground Princess Elizabeth is pictured among a syringa bush in the grounds of Windsor Castle. A new documentary will chronicle her life during the war tomorrow. It comes as the Queen celebrates her birthday today. She is with her husband of 72 years, the Duke of Edinburgh, at Windsor Castle in Berkshire with a reduced household for their protection. Like the rest of the nation, the royals are staying away from one another as they follow the social distancing rules amid the coronavirus pandemic. Family members are expected to be telephoning and video-calling the Queen privately to deliver their birthday messages The Queen is pictured during a production of Aladdin at Windsor Castle during the war. It is notable that the future Queen took a male part in three of the four productions, while her younger sister Margaret always got a female role. Our Queen At War, due to be broadcast on ITV 1 at 9pm tomorrow, will tell the story of how what she called 'the terrible and glorious years of WWII' forged her character for years to come. It will include detail of the performances at Windsor Castle Tom Giles, Controller of Current Affairs, ITV said: 'The Queen is not only our longest-reigning monarch, she is an important emblem of Britain, able to represent us across the world and as we have seen recently, to provide leadership and reassurance in times of crisis. 'This documentary provides a timely and vivid insight into those key years of her life when she developed into a monarch.' Chris Granlund, Executive Producer of BBC Studios, which was commissioned to make the programme, added: 'Our Queen at War with its perceptive interviews and extraordinary archive material much of it in colour - promises to offer a fascinating insight into HRH The Queen's life during those influential war years and during such an important chapter of the UK's history.' This is BBC Studios Production's second commission from ITV, following Prince Charles: Inside the Duchy of Cornwall, which transmitted last autumn and achieved a consolidated audience of 3 million. (Photo : Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay ) Advertisement Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Paul Whiteley, University of Essex and Harold D Clarke, University of Texas at Dallas The US currently has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world and the highest number of deaths. Many commentators claim that President Donald Trump's reaction to the mounting health crisis has been confused and incoherent. Despite this, the crisis has produced a "rally round the president" effect in public opinion. The graph below tracks the average percentage of Americans in monthly Gallup Polls who approve or disapprove of the job Trump has been doing since his inauguration. Presidential approval ratings have rallied in the past when the US has faced significant crises. 9/11 was a good example, with support for President George W Bush, skyrocketing from 56% to 88% between August and October 2001. Trump's job approval ratings Following his inauguration in January 2017, Trump's job approval ratings fell rapidly, and there was a gap of minus 22% between approval and disapproval by August of that year. His ratings then gradually improved only to crash again following the mid-term Congressional elections in November 2018 when the Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats. Since the coronavirus pandemic emerged, public opinion has rapidly shifted and more Americans now perceive the virus as a serious threat to public health and the US economy, according to Pew Research Centre data. Despite this, Trump's job approval ratings have improved in recent weeks with some polls giving him a positive net rating for the first time since his inauguration. Does this mean that Trump will be re-elected in November on a wave of public endorsements of his handling of the crisis? Our statistical analyses suggest not. Falling consumer confidence Efforts to combat the coronavirus have sent the American economy into a tailspin, with 22.2 million people filing for unemployment in the four weeks since March 14. This is the highest number on record, far surpassing the previous high of 6.6 million unemployed in May 2009 during the depths of the great recession. Our forecasting model is known as an error correction time series model which we used to analyse the relationship between the state of the economy and attitudes to Brexit in the UK over more than a decade. If we apply it to the task of modelling the relationship between Trump's job approval ratings and consumer confidence in the US, his ratings will fall sharply by the time of the election if the economy continues to crash. This is illustrated in the graph below, where the red line is the forecast and the blue lines measure our confidence in it. The forecast is based on the relationship between presidential approval and consumer confidence over 506 months going back to January 1978. Consumer confidence is measured using the Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, a widely used index of public attitudes about the state of the economy. A high score on the index means that Americans are optimistic about the economy and a low score that they are pessimistic. The consumer confidence index fell sharply from 101 to 89 between February and March 2020. This is the fourth largest one-month decline in nearly half a century and recent Pew survey shows that 65% of Americans expect a recession or even a depression in the months ahead. In our forecast we assume that a sharp economic downturn will occur, and that the consumer confidence index will fall to 55 in April, as it did in November 2008 during the financial crash. In December 2008, it recovered up to 60, but by February the following year it had fallen again to 56. Overall, the index is fairly volatile but the current sharp decline in the US economy is much more likely to make it fall rather than increase before this year's election. Our model assumes that if the index stayed at 55 until the November presidential election, Trump's job approval would decrease to 37.2%. Where Trump's approval ratings could go Our analysis indicates that when consumer confidence is high, Americans are optimistic and reward the president for his performance, and when it is low they become pessimistic and punish him. This relationship can be disturbed temporarily by events such as international crises and wars (which we take into account), but presidential approval and consumer confidence continue to track each other as the effects of such events gradually dissipate. Election prospects If Trump's job approval rating did fall to 37.2%, this would translate into an electoral disaster for him. Although it is not the only factor at work in any particular election, a president's job approval rating is always crucial. In an accompanying analysis we used historical data on the popular vote - which we employ as a proxy for presidential approval - and seats won in the electoral college between 1920 and 2016 to model how many electoral college seats Trump could be expected to win if his job approval rating was at 37.2% in November 2020. If he won this same percentage of the popular vote, our model indicates that he would win only 55 electoral college seats, far below the 270 needed to remain in the White House. Consumer confidence does not need to be so extremely pessimistic for the president to be in serious trouble. Trump has a strong base of supporters and his approval rating has seldom fallen below 40% during his term in office. If most of these people continue to view his efforts positively and the consumer index falls only half as much (to 73 points rather than 55 until November), we predict Trump would get 43.7% of the popular vote and 181 electoral college votes - again a decisive defeat. A third scenario underscores how the president's re-election chances hinge on an economic recovery and the increasingly sanguine consumer confidence it would generate. If we assume that consumer sentiment follows a V-shaped path, falling to 55 in April but then gradually recovering to 101 in October (where it was in February), our model shows that Trump gets a slim majority - 50.9% - of the popular vote. This translates into 320 electoral college votes, and Trump's re-election. Taken together, these forecasts emphasise the importance of a healthy economy for Trump's prospects of a second term. Clearly, he would be in serious trouble if there is a major erosion of consumer confidence. He won in 2016 with 46% of the popular vote, but only with extremely narrow victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. These manufacturing states of the so-called rust belt are likely to be hard hit by a protracted recession, so consumer confidence and the presidential approval ratings it generates could be even lower in such places than elsewhere. The upshot is that while a number of Americans have rallied around the president in reaction to the coronavirus crisis, this may not last if the economy is in recession and consumer confidence plummets. Paul Whiteley, Professor, Department of Government, University of Essex and Harold D Clarke, Ashbel Smith Professor, School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Advertisement Tagseconomic crisis, Coronavirus Pandemic, Trumps Re-election Prospects This piece has been updated with new information from Virgin Group. Richard Branson has taken out a loan using Necker Island, which he owns and where he lives, as collaterol to try and save Virgin Atlantic and other Virgin companies that are facing hard times because of the dropoff in travel caused by the coronavirus. The the move fulfills a promise made in a lengthy open letter by the Virgin founder. The loan and the letter are intended to improve Branson's image with the public, and with the British government in particular, in the hopes of securing a more significant government loan that he says the airline will need to survive. By any measure, this is a tough time for airlines. United, for example, just announced in a financial filing that it suffered $2.1 billion in losses in the first quarter of 2020, entirely because of the coronavirus. United, however, expects to receive $5 billion in grants and loans from the federal government to help keep it afloat and let it keep paying its employees, and the airline has said it will ask for $4.5 billion more. The picture is considerably different for Virgin Atlantic, which is based in the U.K. Although the airline has not said exactly how much money it's lost as a result of the coronavirus, it has said that it's cutting 80 percent of its service and grounding 75 percent of its fleet. The British government, however, has declared itself reluctant to bail out airlines during the current crisis, and has instructed the nation's airlines to exhaust all other options before asking the government for money. When Virgin Atlantic submitted a request for a $500 million loan from the government, the airline was told to resubmit its application. Apparently it hadn't done enough to show it had tried hard to get the money elsewhere. Bad times for travel and tourism. These are tough times for Virgin companies in general. It's not a great time to be offering airplane trips, cruises, resorts, health clubs, and space travel. Branson, who has a reported net worth of $4.4 billion, has pledged $250 million to save as many jobs at Virgin companies as possible. That wasn't any help for Virgin Australia, though. That troubled airline just announced that it's going into "voluntary administration" -- which resembles Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. -- because its request for a $1.4 billion loan from the Australian government was rejected. Back in the U.K., Virgin Group, and Branson himself, are suffering from negative public opinion for several reasons. Virgin Atlantic employees have been asked to go without pay for eight weeks, which just doesn't look great when your majority owner is a kite surfing billionaire who lives on a tropical island that he owns. The island, incidentally, is part of a territory that collects no income tax and Branson hasn't paid any for the past 14 years. British taxpayers may contemplate that fact as they're asked to foot the bill for saving his airline. Recent controversies haven't helped. In 2016, Virgin Care, a provider of health care services, sued six National Health Service clinical commissioning groups in Surrey claiming their procurement process was flawed. The NHS (which is funded by taxpayers) settled the case by paying Virgin Care an undisclosed amount in 2017. Then there's the 2 percent processing fee donation site Virgin Money Giving had been collecting, although after a flood of social media criticism it is now waiving that fee for the duration of the coronavirus lockdown. Can one letter fix everything? Branson seems to be trying to fix his entire public image in one go with a very lengthy letter that covers all of these issues. He explains that a) no Virgin Atlantic employees have been required to take eight weeks off without pay -- they're doing it voluntarily; b) he and his wife moved to Necker Island because they love it there, not to avoid taxes; c) Virgin Care donated its entire settlement back to the NHS; and d) Virgin Money Giving is a non-profit and it's not collecting any fees for the moment. The entire letter clocks in at 1,903 words which I suspect will make it TL;DR for most people who don't work for Branson. Buried in the twelfth paragraph is this: "As with other Virgin assets, our team will raise as much money against the island as possible to save as many jobs as possible around the Group." That one sentence grabbed more headlines than the rest of the letter put together. One estimate put the value of the island (which, besides being the Bransons' home, is a very small luxury resort) at about $100 million before it was struck by a hurricane in 2017. So the company probably could use it to raise enough to save some number of jobs. A Virgin Group representative has confirmed to Inc. that Branson has now raised bank debt against Necker Island, but did not specify when or for how much. Initial reactions to the letter suggested that Britons and the British government remained unconvinced, though perhaps that will change as word gets out that Branson has actually taken out a loan. The governments campaign is in tandem with recent efforts by mainland Chinas central government, itself a core target of antigovernment demonstrators, to assert more stridently what it perceives as its right to intervene in the affairs of the semiautonomous Chinese territory. These moves have raised concerns in Hong Kong that Chinas ruling Communist Party is pressing for restrictions that would curb the protests, which were among the biggest challenges for Chinas leader, Xi Jinping. Many fear that such restrictions, which could include a widely contested national security law, would accelerate the erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former British colony that enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland. As anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Beirut, Lebanons Health Ministry reported no new cases of the novel coronavirus. For the first time since COVID-19 emerged in Lebanon two months ago, the country has recorded no new cases in the previous 24 hours, the Health Ministry said today. Following 487 tests conducted in the previous 24 hours, the countrys total number of infections hit 677, with a death toll of 21. Public health experts say at least 2,500 tests must be carried out daily, at random before lockdown measures can be eased, writes The Daily Star newspaper. Lebanese lawmakers were sprayed with sanitizer today and had their temperatures taken before walking into a large theater that is being used in place of the Beirut parliament building. During their session, the members of parliament approved a $120 million loan from the World Bank to help Lebanon tackle the coronavirus outbreak. The coronavirus pandemic has compounded the countrys financial crisis. The economic downturn considered Lebanons worst in decades was brought on in 2019 by dwindling dollar reserves, a plunge in the currencys value and a sharp decline in foreign investment. Amid its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, Lebanon defaulted on its Eurobond debt in March for the first time in its history. As lawmakers met today, hundreds of protesters defied stay-at-home orders and returned to the streets of Beirut. Nationwide protests, which erupted in October over government corruption, high youth unemployment and a lack of basic services, had largely subsided amid the outbreak. Since Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab gave security forces last month the authority to police social distancing, protest organizers have relied on virtual gatherings and seminars to keep their message alive. This story contains reporting from Agence France-Presse. MIAMI, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is occurring in 2020 during the very uncertain and dangerous coronavirus pandemic, with its terrible toll in human lives and suffering. Our hearts go out to all who have lost their lives and loved ones, which includes many of our dear brothers and sisters who survived the ultimate hell but who, due to their age and living conditions today, were vulnerable to this terrible virus. We are dwindling in numbers, but for the remnants of the surviving generation, and our families, there are issues of justice and dignity that remain unresolved. At the same time, we reflect on our survival and the survival of the Jewish people, and share a common message of hope and belief that the only way forward is to help each other, to rely on ourselves. Hope for the Future We Have to Help Each Other The devastating losses we experienced are with us every day of our lives. We have devoted thousands of hours of our personal time to educating adults and students of all ages and all walks of life, throughout the U.S. and Europe, about our experiences as Holocaust survivors. And we are determined to continue as long as we have the capacity to do so. Our common theme is that we must help each other. Everyone who survived did so through luck and with the help of many souls, whose generosity we can never repay except by setting an example and telling our stories. Esther Widman, Brooklyn: "We survivors have been through very hard times in our own lives, and thank God most of us are not hungry, have food, and no one is trying to kill us. I am an optimist. I truly believe everyone is trying to help and wants to do good. Even so, our responsibility is to go on living and hope for the best. Whatever anybody can do for the Holocaust survivors is very welcome, but we cannot rely on others, we have to rely on ourselves, that is, the Jewish people, to rely on one another. We are still around, and we will continue to stay around for as long as we can." Israel Arbeiter, Boston: "In the ghettos and camps, we were subjected to such inhumanity as one cannot imagine unless you experienced it. Yet there were so many of our family members and fellow Jews who helped one another when they could, and even an occasional German who understood the torture and inhumanity were too much. The people who helped each other in the camps can never be forgotten." Renee Firestone, Los Angeles: "We all need to cooperate in this world. We need to take care of each other. We cannot be selfish. People say this is a terrible time. But terrible was the Holocaust. What we are living through today is a gross inconvenience, and our hearts go out to the victims who died and who are sick, and their families. But we are the Jewish people, we've managed to survive everything for millennia. We know how to survive and to rebound. The Jewish people need to convey to everyone to have hope, because we've survived and overcome such adversity. The reason is that we supported each other, and that is how we survived and came out stronger. And so will everyone else." David Schaecter, Miami: "Nothing like the Holocaust has ever happened in the history of the world, so it is impossible for me to talk about it in a short time. When anyone asks me to discuss my life and the Holocaust, I ask only three things: First, hear me speak. Second, understand and remember what I tell them. Third, most importantly, I want you to become my mouthpiece when I am no longer able to speak for myself. We have a program in Miami called the Young Lion Program, teaming a Holocaust survivor with young people who are becoming bar and bat mitzvahs. We meet and talk for hours. I tell them that I want them to know who they are, to know what they are, and to know what they have to be. They want to know me, to touch me, to hug me, and to talk to me. The most fabulous word in our tradition is 'Dayenu.' My experiences with these young people is my Dayenu." Louise Lawrence-Israels, Washington, D.C.: "We have to take care of each other. We cannot afford to be selfish. That is the only way we'll have a chance. We would not have survived if my parents had not done everything possible to take care of us. So, we have to do what we can to take care of each other. We need to wait until the scientists say it is safe." David Mermelstein, Miami: "Yom Hashoah is important to make sure the world does not forget what happened. We survivors don't need to be reminded because we lived through it and are reminded every minute of the day. A few years ago I added some lines to the El Malei Rachamin Prayer to include the six million and the million and one half children, which is now used in most synagogues in Miami. Leo Rechter, New York City: "The injustices committed against the survivors continue, and we are doing our best to reclaim our rights, and to secure justice for all survivors." Continuing Injustices Half of all survivors in the world today, including in the U.S., live below or near the official U.S. poverty level, and cannot afford food, medicine, rent, utilities, dental care, in-home care, and other vital services. The system of annual negotiations between the Claims Conference and Germany yields modest increases every year but has never produced sufficient funds to provide for anywhere close to all survivors' needs. Much suffering could be alleviated if Germany stepped up and paid for 100% of survivors' needs. Another outrage today is that the courts have held that because we are Holocaust survivors, we do not have the same rights as every other U.S. citizen to go to an American court to enforce the insurance policies sold to our parents and grandparents by insurers such as Allianz, Generali, and AXA, policies these global giants shamefully dishonored after the Holocaust. The insurers are holding more than $25 million in Holocaust profits, as shown in a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. There is bi-partisan legislation in both houses of Congress to restore our rights, and we pray that Congress will act this year before more of us are gone. https://vimeo.com/361935232 The Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA Executive Committee: Israel Arbeiter, Boston MA Dena Axelrod, Ft. Lauderdale, FL Renee Firestone, Los Angeles, CA Ella Frumkin, Los Angeles, CA Jay Ipson, Richmond, VA Louise Lawrence-Israels, Washington D.C. Herbert Karliner, Miami Beach, FL Annette Lantos, Washington, D.C. David Mermelstein, Miami FL Leo Rechter, Queens, NY Shirley Rubin, Boynton Beach, FL David Schaecter, Miami, FL Anita Schuster, Las Vegas NV Charles Srebnick, NY Agnes Vertes, Weston, CT Esther Widman, Brooklyn NY Contact: David Schaecter, President, Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA, (305) 742-8501 Samuel J. Dubbin, Counsel, Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA (305) 815-8060; [email protected] For more information, see www.hsf-usa.org. SOURCE Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA Related Links http://www.hsf-usa.org Analyst predict Russia will lose around $165bn in revenue from oil and gas exports in 2020. The Kremlin put on a brave face as prices for Russias benchmark crude closed in on levels last seen in a devastating 1998 financial crisis. The pandemonium with futures is absolutely speculative, just a trading issue, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday, referring to negative prices on some U.S. futures contracts. Theres no need to give this an apocalyptic tinge. As Peskov was talking, Brent crude, which is used to price Russias Urals export blend, fell to its lowest level since 2002 and the ruble plunged. The blow to budget revenues comes just as officials in the worlds biggest energy exporter were trying to figure out how to stimulate an economy battered by the fallout from coronavirus without eroding reserves. Russia gets nearly 40% of its budget revenue from taxes on oil and gas sales and the Finance Ministry is already rewriting this years budget to factor in a deficit and average prices of $20 a barrel. The Kremlin is monitoring the market closely and the state has enough resources to cushion the blow, Peskov said. If this continues for longer then the budget will get drastically less in revenue, limiting its resources, said Alexandra Suslina, a budget specialist at the Economic Expert Group, a Moscow think-tank that advises the government. The ruble tumbled 2.1% Tuesday, more than any other major currency, and Russian borrowing costs jumped, with 10-year government bonds heading for their biggest one-day drop this month. Current ruble levels arent sustainable if oil remains here, analysts at Deutsche Bank including Christian Wietoska wrote in a research note published Tuesday. Russia has some of the biggest foreign-currency reserves in the world, but concern about the long-term trajectory of oil prices has made policy makers cautious about spending to limit the fallout from the coronavirus. The economy could slump 5.5% this year, double the global drop, the International Monetary Fund forecast last week. Russia will lose around $165 billion in revenue from oil and gas exports in 2020, more than in any of Russias recent financial crises, Nordea analyst Tatiana Evdokimova estimated. Thats around 60% of Russian oil and gas exports and a third of the total exports, she said. What Our Economists Say: Whether the Urals price is negative or even $20 a barrel, its well below levels Russia can tolerate. Fiscal reserves can fill temporary budget holes, but the government is in a tight spot as it looks to fund a much-needed rescue of the economy. Scott Johnson, Bloomberg Economics Urals crude, the key price benchmark for the budget, hasnt fallen into negative territory like its U.S. counterpart, according to price-reporting agency S&P Global Platts. But it did fall below $11 early this month, the lowest level since 1999, when Russia was struggling with an economic crisis, according to data from Argus Media, another pricing agency. With prices near $20 a barrel, the budget will burn through about 2 trillion rubles ($26 billion) from the $165 billion wealth fund this year, according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. The Finance Ministry may increase borrowing to fund stimulus. This should be viewed as a temporary shock for now and Russia shouldnt tighten the budget, said Natalia Orlova, chief economist at Alfa-Bank in Moscow. The economy is contracting and tightening the budget now would only intensify the scale of the decline. Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja aka Shailaja Teacher has been named as the winner of World's Top 50 Thinkers Thinkers of COVID-19 Age by UK-based Prospect Magazine. Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand is ranked second in the list that was prepared from the result of a public ballot. "So deft was her handling of a 2018 outbreak of the deadly Nipah disease that it was commemorated in a film, Virus. In 2020, she was the right woman in the right place. When Covid-19 was still a China story in January, she not only accurately foresaw its inevitable arrival, but also fully grasped the implications," the magazine wrote about the Kerala Health Minister. The COVID-19 outbreak is an unprecedented disaster and leaders around the world are still learning how to deal with the crisis that is evolving every day. The situation in India is no different. The Central government, various state governments, and agencies are still working out their strategies to combat the spread of COVID-19. But Kerala was the one state which stood out and was able to keep tabs on the pandemic. AFP The state was the first to report COVID-19 in India, back in January. In a matter of days, it swung into action on a war-footing level, anticipating the explosion of cases that were to follow. The COVID-19 response of Kerala was spearheaded by state health minister KK Shailaja - or Shailaja Teacher as she is fondly called. As the Health Minister, Shailaja had the experience of tackling another epidemic - the Nipah Virus outbreak in the state in 2018. BCCL Though it was on a much smaller scale, the Nipah, just like COVID-19 had no known medication and had all the potential to be a disaster. But aggressive testing, contact tracing, and hospitalization meant that the state managed to reduce the death toll to just 19. Kerala's response had even won praises from the WHO. After the first three cases were reported in the state, the former high school teacher turned politician took a similar approach and it has paid dividends. BCCL/FILE Kerala, which until a few weeks back had the most number of COVID-19 cases, has seen its numbers plummet and a spike in the number of recoveries, with just two deaths so far. "Coronavirus mortality rate in Kerala is below 0.5% but in the world, it is more than 5%. In some places, it is even more than 10%. Most of the people who are in isolation in the hospitals are stable and very few are in critical stage. We are treating them with most care. The discharging or cure rate is also very high in Kerala because of our systematic work. We evaluate everything every day," Shailaja recently told ANI. BCCL/FILE The first COVID-19 patient in India, a medical student who had returned from Wuhan, who was also the first to recover from the infection had said that the health minister used to call her while she was in the hospital and encouraged her to remain positive. It was not just the patients who be reassured by the minister - for nearly two weeks Shailaja held daily press conferences briefing the media about the developments in the state due to COVID-19. Her social media pages also were on the hyperactive mode with tips, advice, and words of encouragement. BCCL Now, as the state has managed to flatten the curve, and announced a relaxation on restrictions, Shailaja said that things can still go haywire anytime if we are not alert, but at the same time, life has to go on, if not, there will be other issues. "It should not be like, we saved people from COVID, but people die out of hunger. So whatever relaxations are now announced to be effective after April 20, should not be an occasion to forget the alertness that we maintained. Instead, the relaxation should be used to revive the economy and it should happen by keeping all the rules and regulations of maintaining social distancing," she said. The fact that she is being rated by the masses above someone like Jacinda Ardern is a testament to the hard work she has put in. Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano State has come under attack over the deportation of Almajiris from the State. Ganduje said that the ... Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano State has come under attack over the deportation of Almajiris from the State. Ganduje said that the move became necessary to reduce the risk of exposing almajiris to the deadly coronavirus. However, this move has been met with diverse reactions from Nigerians on social media, as they are accusing the Governor of putting other states at risk. Some Nigerians are of the opinion that the move should be stopped as Kano has recorded a recent spike in Covid-19 cases and the deported almajiris could be carriers of the virus. As of Monday night, Kano recorded twenty-three cases which brings the tally in the state to 59. Here are some comments gathered from Twitter: @nemerem Governor Ganduje is not smart,he is redistributing the virus. Think of some other solution. House them in all the empty houses and public schools etc. @Tutsy22 If this deportation was carried out by a Southern Governor, Arewa will start convulsing. Civil war will start from Kano, churches will be burnt, Christians will be killed. You people knew their home towns, but you left them on the streets to perform the role of political thugs. @Eion7 How is this move a good one? What if there are infected people among those to be deported? So they go back and spread the disease in communities that are neither aware or prepared for whats coming? @Morikijamilu Please leave them to stay there, because deporting them to their various states will do nothing than to further spread the pandemic because you may not know that, they are already infected with virus. @Emmaezeokoro Test them before deporting them; lets not take this disease to rural areas where the government doesnt care about. @gentlelink This is Nigeria, Gandollar is simply saying their work is done and is time to go home pending the resumption of next season. @Jgodwin2k Why deport them in this critical time when everyone is supposed to stay put wherever you are. NCDC isnt this going to more or less trigger a spreading tsunami in an event some of this boys might have had contacts with a carrier and not tested before deportation. @Babaiyali5 Deporting them to where? There shouldnt be movement out of Kano. That will spread the virus more. Provide some sort of shelter and care for them. That would have been the right and moral thing to do. @Dann_10 Every Nigerian has the right to live and practice his/her anywhere in the country. Deportation of citizens is against the FCON. @Teefire112 Thats the most senseless thing to do. They are Nigerians and they should be catered for. There are a lot of Kano Almajiris in other states should they be deported as well? @Marce11inus Remember the Lagos bike incedence.All of a sudden, deportation is now a good option.Because it is done by Kano state tyrant. My Northern fellow on this timeline, what is Hypocrisy please? @Mamuzoadums Deportation yeah? Deporting fellow Nigerians is illegal I hope you know. Plus, if you people actually tried to take them off the street with proper education, there wont be need for it. But nah, keep them there and use them when its time for elections. Kano will be fine. Welcome to Pandemic Portfolio, a bi-weekly series from Corporate Knights and the Toronto Star that spotlights companies relatively well positioned to weather the economic storm triggered by COVID-19. The stock markets reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic was swift and harsh, crashing more than 33 per cent in about a month. The market has bounced back somewhat from those mid-March lows, sparking optimistic talk of a V-shaped recovery, where the economy quickly returns to normal, though RBC CEO Dave McKay suggests a longer downturn, with a U-shaped recovery, is more likely. Bank CEOs warn that we should prepare for a recovery period that spills into next year, so lets examine a handful of eco-friendly companies that will continue to profit during a longer period of pandemic-induced economic pain. Note: These are investment ideas, not recommendations. Speak to a financial professional before investing and ensure that any holdings are part of a more diversified investment strategy. Cascades I would have never picked toilet paper to be the hot commodity as society faces a global pandemic, but here we are. Cascades is a Quebec-based company that makes tissue paper and packaging from recycled materials. The company is the most sustainable toilet paper manufacturer in Canada and is well positioned to take advantage of the growing demand for eco-friendly home-delivery and takeout packaging. Long considered a leader in developing a closed-loop or circular economy, Cascades uses recycled fibres for 84 per cent of its paper products. The remaining materials are sourced using a strict procurement policy that prioritizes fibre suppliers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). In 2015, Cascades set ambitious sustainability targets for 2020, and Im excited to see how much further theyll push the targets with their next five-year plan. Cascades was #49 on the 2020 Corporate Knights Most Sustainable Companies in the World list. Cascades share price didnt dip much in the initial crash, and is up 16 per cent over the past two months. The stock is expected to pay a 2.54 per cent annual dividend. Microsoft The pandemic is forcing everybody to work from home, and Microsoft the worlds largest company is perfectly placed to profit from this massive transition in our economys workforce. Consumer device sales will likely drop as unemployment rises and people are less likely to upgrade their phones and computers, but only about 36 per cent of Microsofts revenue comes from personal computers and gaming. Its other segments include productivity and business processes and Intelligent Cloud. My instinct is that demand for these business-to-business segments will be resilient to the current economic current and will likely benefit as old-school businesses evolve to become completely or much more remote. Microsoft is highly rated by environmental, social and governance (ESG) rating agencies including Corporate Knights, MSCI and Sustainalytics, and the company has pledged to become carbon negative by 2030. However, Microsoft did come under pressure last year when employees threatened to walk out after it signed a big contract with the U.S. military. Its hard to argue that Microsoft is leading us directly into a green economy, but its fair to classify it as doing less harm and ahead of the curve on corporate responsibility measurements. Microsofts share price initially fell by 27 per cent, but rebounded nicely such that it is only down 5 per cent over the past two months. The stock is expected to pay a 1.19 per cent annual dividend. Brookfield Renewable Partners Brookfield Renewable Partners, the renewable energy division of Brookfield Asset Management that generates electricity through hydro, wind and solar projects, is well positioned to resist the current economic storm. (Full disclosure: The author owns shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners). I consider Brookfield Renewable Partners pandemic-proof because the companys revenue comes from multi-decade purchase price agreements (PPAs) to sell electricity at a pre-set price. Electricity demand is falling as factories are locked down, yes, but that doesnt affect the price that Brookfield Renewable gets paid for generating electricity. The weighted average remaining duration of these contracts is about 17 years, so investors can reasonably expect the company to maintain consistent cashflows. Brookfield Renewable Partners seems to be on solid financial footing, having just raised $350 million in green bonds. Ive criticized Brookfield Renewable Partners in the past for not reporting sustainability data, so Im thrilled to see that its produced a detailed ESG report for 2019. Now that the company is finally disclosing data, I expect it to start popping up more regularly on lists of sustainability leaders. About 2 per cent of its energy portfolio comes from relatively carbon-intensive natural gas co-generation (also known as combined heat and power), so although it isnt quite 100 per cent renewable, I still consider it to be green. Brookfield Renewable Partners share price fell by 30 per cent like the rest of the market during the crash, but has recouped more than two-thirds of that loss in the rebound. The stock is expected to pay a generous 4.82 per cent annual dividend. Credit unions inherently support the communities in which they operate. Its in our DNA. In times of trouble or natural disaster, credit unions have always taken on the role of financial first responder. Its second nature to work to reopen impacted buildings and ATM machines as quickly as possible, to offer ways to help affected members with payment options, short-term loans and other creative solutions. But the unprecedented times in which we are living have prompted credit unions to step up their game and do even more. And boy, have they! In the Mountain West region, which includes Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming, credit unions have shifted into high gear to help not only their members, but their greater communities. Because the shut down and shelter-in-place orders have impacted numerous local businesses, essential workers and credit union members and employees, Mountain West member credit unions have developed unique and impactful ways of helping others. Here are just a few examples: Denver, CO-based Westerra Credit Union created the Yes, Denver, Were Open website where small, locally-owned businesses can complete a short questionnaire about their business and Westerra then creates a social media campaign by sharing a post about their business with the credit unions 125,000 members and social media followers. Westerra is putting its own marketing dollars behind boosting the Facebook posts in the targeted areas where the businesses are located. Yes, Denver, Were Open also provides a tool kit for the small business with signs, graphics and social media templates for getting the word out that they are open for business. Colorado Springs, CO-based Ent Credit Union is asking people across Colorado to nominate any worthy Front Range small business for a cash infusion. Anyone can nominate their favorite (non-franchise) independently-owned, local business which is within the 14 counties Ent serves, via the credit unions Facebook page. Twenty semi-finalists will be randomly selected from all nominations and from this group a panel of Ent judges will select four finalists. The public will then be invited to vote for their favorite business. Prizes will be awarded per Facebook vote totals: $20,000 First place; $15,000 Second place; $10,000 Third place; and $5,000 Fourth place. Tucson, AZ-based Tucson Federal Credit Union (TCFU) has donated a total of $65,000 to four local nonprofit groups in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. With an increase in food requests from those in need, TFCU will gift $20,000 to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, to continue providing emergency food to the community. TFCU will also gift $15,000 to Old Pueblo Community Services, supporting programs for those whove been incarcerated so that they can make a successful transition to becoming contributing members to society. Another $15,000 will be gifted to Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse, to provide support and services to individuals experiencing domestic abuse. And $15,000 to the Childrens Clinics Comprehensive Services For Children And Teens, to provide primary care services and more for families. Members of Boulder, CO-based Elevations Credit Union have donated $75,000 to assist those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The credit union has matched those donations for a total of $150,000 that will be granted through the Elevations Community Relief Fund. Cheyenne, WY-based Blue Federal Credit Union made a difference for healthcare professionals and first responders impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the communities they serve. Blue delivered over 700 COVID Survival Kits to these professionals throughout Wyoming and Colorado. Blue recognizes what a huge impact these professionals have in our communities and have focused on spreading their mission of doing good and changing lives during these unprecedented times. Tempe, AZ-based Landings Credit Union has been purchasing meals in local restaurants for its staff who are working hard to serve members during the pandemic. The gesture not only boosts the morale of the credit unions employees, but it is a great way to support and promote local businesses trying to survive in this unusual climate. Centennial, CO-based Columbine Federal Credit Union wanted to make an impact in the local communities so heavily impacted with closures and scaled back services. Each team member was given a $50 bill and asked to spend it at a local merchant/restaurant etc. Team members then took photos at the local businesses when they made their purchases which turned into a popular social media campaign highlighting the local business. The program not only helped local businesses, but helped the credit unions team members and their families as well. Phoenix, AZ-based OneAZ Credit Union and OneAZ Community Foundation will award $200,000 in emergency COVID-19 Community Impact Grants. The goal is to provide emergency funding for nonprofit organizations that serve one or more of OneAZs five key community focus areas, including (1) childrens health, (2) food banks, (3) financial literacy, (4) military, veterans and first responders interests, and (5) local youth programs. Grants will be awarded in $2,000 increments with applications reviewed weekly until all $200,000 is awarded or May 1, 2020, whichever comes first. While the uncertainty of the times we are in may cause many to be fearful, credit unions have done what they always do in crisis. They have rolled up their sleeves, looked around at the need and asked, what can we do to help? And then they put plans and programs in place to do just that. Theres no doubt that we will continue to see credit unions across the nation find unique and meaningful ways to help those in their communities who need it the most. Some parents are calling the 2020 high school graduating class, heroes while others say, "Hmmm . . . not so fast. Yes, theres justified sadness because prom was cancelled, leaving pretty dresses hanging unworn in the closet. And theres both frustration and elation because final exams and term papers were dropped. And of course, the greatest letdown has been the cancelation of the graduation ceremony itself. But these annoyances, including the big boredom of having to stay home, dont carry enough tragedy, risk or bravery to elevate these 18-year-olds to hero status. There were once high school seniors who accepted their diplomas knowing they would leave the next day for the Vietnam or Korean War places where their older brothers were sent and never returned. Yet they boarded a bus the next day anyway, and their mothers were left with a final photo of them wearing their cap and gown. Those were high school heroes. Other graduates walked across the stage with cardboard stuffed in their shoes to patch worn holes, because in the middle of The Great Depression their parents didnt have money to buy anything new. Although they worked long hours on the family farm, they still managed to memorize classic poetry and learned to solve higher math problems in their heads. They grew up to be The Greatest Generation and were true heroes. But dont rule the class of 2020 out just yet. They may not be heroes now, but their opportunity for greatness is sizzling hot on the launchpad. The world is crying with outstretched arms like a baby longing for comfort in the middle of the night, and these seniors will have to decide what to do. Plans may change and goals may be adjusted to fit a new kind of world. Some will confidently develop innovations in medicine, science, politics and the military. Many will find new ways of doing business while others create better methods for soothing hungry stomachs or nourishing starving souls. Theres nothing more electrifying than a brainstorming session with teenagers. Their excitement and determination reflect the American dream that anything is possible. Theyve heard stories of previous generations who came to this country with nothing and worked their fingers to the bone to create a beautiful life. Maybe theyre starting to realize its their turn for greatness. Although they look like theyve just been sitting on the sofa watching TV these past few months, these seniors may just be daydreaming of ways to slay the problems of the world. This sheltering at home experience may inspire them to be a new kind of parent who someday prioritizes more unstructured play with their families. Marriages of the future may be stronger because relationships suddenly seem more valuable. Theyve quickly learned that human connection is precious. The graduates of 2020 arent heroes just yet. But the frightening and puzzling situation theyve been handed will provide opportunities for future greatness. Well be watching, cheering and praying for them to rise to the occasion. They may have missed walking across a stage to be handed a diploma, but theres a very real possibility that someday, well hand them the well-deserved title of true American hero. Leslie Anne is the author of The Majorettes are Back in Town. You can read more at: http://leslieannetarabella.com Karen Mason in her now-defunct West Hollywood bookstore, Circus of Books. (Netflix) Karen and Barry Mason never talked to their three children about the family business. If anyone asked, they were instructed to say their parents "ran a bookstore." Which was true. But on the rare occasions the Mason kids accompanied their parents to their West Hollywood business, they were told to "look at the floor" as they walked through certain sections of the store. The Netflix documentary "Circus of Books" takes its name from the Masons' now-closed West Hollywood institution, which during the height of its business, Karen notes (it's not a boast, she's too modest) was "probably the biggest distributor of hardcore gay films in the United States." The movie is the work of the Masons' daughter, Rachel, as she attempts to understand how her middle-class, conservative parents, who met at a Jewish singles party in Woodland Hills, came to devote their lives to this particular line of work. Rachel Mason performs a nice bit of misdirection with the film, starting with humorous juxtapositions of this nice, elderly Jewish couple running a gay porn shop and then moving toward a poignant story of acceptance. She doesn't pry or dig too deep into her parents' feelings about the material they sell or why they continued in the business for decades ("You don't have the luxury of not earning a living," Karen says). But their humanity shines through. Karen Mason began her professional career as a journalist, pushing boundaries by writing about controversial subjects such as Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt. Barry, described as someone whose "default state is happiness," worked as a special-effects technician on "2001: A Space Odyssey" and the original "Star Trek" TV series, parlaying his technical knowledge into designing dialysis equipment. But these ventures didn't always pay the bills. Karen, pregnant with their first child, came across an ad in The Times from Flynt, looking for distributors. ("I was sleeping late," Barry says. "I didn't have anything to do until she woke me up with the ad.") From that morning, the Masons would go on to have three children, regularly attend synagogue and make enough money selling hardcore gay porn that they could open up two bookstores, the flagship location in West Hollywood and another in Silver Lake. Story continues Through looking at her parents' store, Rachel Mason includes a brief history of Los Angeles LGBTQ community and Circus of Books' place in it, touching on the 1967 New Years police raid of the Black Cat Tavern and subsequent gay rights protests, as well as the devastating effects of the AIDS crisis. There's also a good dozen interviews with people talking about the store's importance as a safe place where gay people could meet. But "Circus of Books" is at its heart a family story, centering on the relationship between the forceful, opinionated Karen and her youngest son, Josh, who comes out as gay while in college. Karen wasn't prepared to have a gay child, and it takes some time for her reconcile her religious beliefs with Josh's sexual orientation. "I made sure I had my flight booked and paid for because it wasn't an impossible thought that I was going to get thrown out," Josh says, a revelation that brings his sister to tears. And while Karen's talent for compartmentalization isn't always fully explored, Rachel manages to confront her mother's contradictions on this count, resulting in a powerful conclusion that reveals what may be her greatest legacy. If nothing else, the world will now know that she and her husband did a little something more than "run a bookstore." It's "no surprise" the UK has slipped on the World Press Freedom Index because of the threat faced by journalists in Northern Ireland, an Amnesty director has said. The list, produced by the Reporters Without Borders, surveys the state of the media in 180 countries and territories around the world. The UK has slipped two places to number 35 and is now considered more dangerous than countries including Costa Rica, Jamaica and South Africa, while the top spot went to Norway for the fourth year running, followed by Finland and Denmark. It comes a year after the killing of journalist Lyra McKee as she observed a riot in Londonderry last April. Also in August, journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey were arrested over the alleged theft of a Police Ombudsman document which was used in their film No Stone Unturned about the Loughinisland massacre. The Lord Chief Justice later ruled search warrants used by police had been inappropriate. Reporters Without Borders UK director, Rebecca Vincent, told the Guardian newspaper there was shock at reports from journalists in Belfast and Derry, who are clearly among the most at-risk reporters in the UK. As we remember and honour Lyra McKee, we must also act to protect those who continue to take great risks to report information in the public interest, she said. These issues must be addressed by the UK authorities as a matter of urgent priority to prevent further acts of violence. Amnesty Internationals programme director in Northern Ireland Patrick Corrigan said the incidents were a reminder of the risks reporters face here. Sadly, this news comes as no surprise. The tragic death of Lyra McKee at the hands of republican paramilitaries 12 months ago is a reminder of the risks that reporters face in Northern Ireland," he said. Northern Ireland continues to be the most dangerous part of the UK to be a journalist, threatening press freedom daily. In the year since Lyras death, reporters have continued to receive threats of violence and death on a regular basis and two reporters have had to defend their freedom in court after groundless arrests by the police. Mr Corrigan said his organisation will continue to stand with journalists who were under threat and who work to expose uncomfortable truths. The PSNI said they had no comment to make on the matter. We recall too the 2001 killing by loyalist paramilitaries of Sunday World reporter Martin OHagan, for which no-one has ever been held to account, he added. Press freedom is the cornerstone of a rights respecting society and we must all act together to guard it closely. The annual index is based on a survey of media experts assessing issues such as the level of media independence, transparency, and the quality of infrastructure that supports the production of news and information. Meanwhile, Malaysia and the Maldives registered the biggest rises in the 2020 index after recent changes of government, followed by Sudan, which rose 16 places to 159th after the removal of Omar al-Bashir as president. The biggest decline was in Haiti, where journalists have often been targeted during violent nationwide protests. Comoros and Benin also fell down the list owing to press freedom violations. Dubai, April 21 : The Indian Consulate in Dubai has been coordinating various efforts to support the Indian community here in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported. Over 4,000 Indian workers and individuals in need have received food packages and supplies from the Consulate General of India in Dubai in the last four weeks, the Khaleej Times reported on Monday. In a statement issued on Monday, Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul, said: "We have helped more than 4,000 people with food packets, rations or both through our Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) and with support from various community organisations and Indian associations. "Three labour camps with 150, 190 and 90 workers have also benefited from the initiative and we have also arranged accommodation for at least 60 people from the ICWF." The Consulate has been coordinating various efforts and activities to support the Indian community in Dubai and Northern Emirates in the wake of the pandemic, including repatriation of mortal remains of 17 deceased Indians. Dallas, TX, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Associa, the industrys largest community management company, recently hosted its third webinar, COVID-19: Considerations for Community Association BoardsPart III, which examined the implications that the current health pandemic has on community associations, board of directors, and community managers. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, boards and associations are facing new, historically unique challenges. To help assist boards as they address issues that arise during this time, Associa invited leading attorneys from California, Florida, and Ontario, to discuss regional updates, ongoing duties, and future plans for addressing COVID-19 concerns. Andrew Fortin, Associas senior vice president of external affairs, moderated as panelists addressed issues within managed communities, including assessment collection, maintenance, government relief programs, and rule enforcement. To assist Associas clients as they face the uncertainty of COVID-19, the webinar was designed to help guide board members decision-making and encourage them to engage with attorneys and local health authorities for counsel during this time. Panelists for the webinar included: Sandra L. Gottlieb, senior managing partner, SwedelsonGottlieb, California Denis Lash, founder, Lash Condo Law, Ontario Donna DiMaggio Berger, shareholder, Becker, Florida As COVID-19 continues to spread and affect the management of communities across North America, different and unique issues are beginning to unfold, stated Andrew Fortin, Associa senior vice president of external affairs. This webinar was designed to connect our clients with legal experts and provide them a forum to engage in critical conversations about how to navigate those new challenges of this historic pandemic. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE WEBINAR This webinar is designed to provide board and council members with information to assist them in understanding their role as it applies to concerns related to the COVID-19 virus. It is important to understand that this information is provided for your consideration and is not legal advice. Nothing in this presentation should be understood to create a lawyer client relationship between the webinar presenters and any person watching this program. It is important that questions related to current or future community health concerns be directed to qualified local counsel or authorities serving your specific community. With more than 200 branch offices across North America, Associa delivers unsurpassed management and lifestyle services to nearly five million residents worldwide. Our 10,000+ team members lead the industry with unrivaled education, expertise and trailblazing innovation. For more than 40 years, Associa has provided solutions designed to help communities achieve their vision. To learn more, visit www.associaonline.com. Stay Connected: Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/associa Subscribe to the Blog: https://hub.associaonline.com/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/associa Join us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/associa Hyderabad: State Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Monday instructed officials to ensure both local and migrant workers' needs are addressed during the lockdown. He said that the state government has already announced measures to take care of the poor and migrant workers. He asked the officials to ensure that no worker suffers during the lockdown. Rama Rao and Labour & Employment Minister Mallareddy held a video conference with district-level officials of Industries & Labour Depts at Command Control Centre in the GHMC Head office on Monday. The meeting was held to review the various measure being undertaken for the welfare of workers in various industries and organizations in the state, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Minister KT Rama Rao also asked the officials of Industries Department and Labour Department to jointly inspect various factories and worker camps and check if the necessities and healthcare needs of the workers are taken care of. The Industries Minister urged the officials to respond to any distress calls from migrant workers immediately and ensure their food and healthcare needs are met. Rama Rao instructed officials to engage private Doctors if ESI and government healthcare facilities are overburdened. The Minister said that officials from Labour and Industry departments should work jointly to attend to issues of migrants and also our state workers. KT Rama Rao stated that industries have stopped functioning due to the lockdown for a month. He appealed to IT and Industry heads to ensure that no employee regular, contractual or outsourced, loses their job during this crisis. A surge in jobless claims in California has jammed phone lines to the state's claims center despite a shift of hundreds of additional workers to answer phones. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press) California has expanded phone assistance to those filing unemployment insurance claims during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the state Employment Development Department continues to receive criticism from people who have not been able to get through on jammed lines despite making dozens of calls to the agency. California Labor Secretary Julie Su acknowledged Monday afternoon that jobless Californians were still having a difficult time reaching live representatives for help with their unemployment claims and said her office is working to resolve the issue. I know that people have continued to have trouble today reaching someone on the phone center. I know that people are still not getting through, Su said during a Facebook Live chat in which residents peppered her with 1,500 questions and messages, many of them showing frustration. The EDD has shifted 1,340 state workers to answer phones and process requests for assistance in response to more than 2.7 million new jobless claims filed in the last month. Su said Monday that she has heard from some people who have gotten through on the phone line but added, I know that is not the experience for the majority of people who are listening in now, and I want you to hear from me directly that that is not acceptable and we are going to fix it. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that EDD phone services previously available from 8 a.m. to noon on weekdays would begin operating from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week starting Monday. While many people are able to file jobless claims online without issue, others have specific problems they are trying to resolve, including addressing denied claims, which require talking to a live EDD representative. Shelly Jaffe, an Orange County resident who lost his job as a salesperson in the steel industry, said he was unable to get through the EDD phone lines Monday to obtain answers about how to arrange a 13-week extension of benefits recently granted by Congress. Story continues I have tried to reach the unemployment office for the last three hours. You cannot get through to them, said Jaffe, 80, who says the loss of income is making it hard to pay bills. Calls by The Times to the EDD call center were answered with a recording that says: "We are currently receiving more calls than we can answer and are unable to assist you at this time. Please try again later." Alameda resident Eva Cazares, 50, faced similar frustrations. She was furloughed by Macy's at the end of March and is trying to get information from EDD about how to update her claim, which was initially denied. Cazares said she called the line 100 times on Monday and couldn't get through. Ive been on it for an hour straight and still haven't been able to contact anyone, she said. Su said she hears the concerns. I acknowledge that problem. I own it, Sue said Monday. We need to be accessible and we are definitely going to fix that problem. In directing the expanded hours for EDD phone services, Newsom said Wednesday that he understands the frustrations of unemployed Californians. Many Californians are one paycheck away from losing their homes or from being able to put food on their tables, and COVID-19 has only made these challenges worse, Newsom said. California is focused on getting relief dollars and unemployment assistance in the hands of those who need it as quickly as possible. Times staff writer Sarah D. Wire contributed to this report. Trump and leaders of many states continue their war of words as they agree more testing is needed before the US reopens. A chorus of Republican and Democratic governors pushed back hard after United States President Donald Trump accused Democrats of playing a very dangerous political game by insisting there is a shortage of tests for the coronavirus. The governors countered that the White House must do more to help states do the testing thats needed before they can ease up on stay-at-home orders. Kansas Democratic Governor Laura Kelly said the current federal effort really is not good enough if were going to be able to start to open our economy. We cannot do that safely without the tests in place. Supply shortages have stymied US testing for weeks. The needs range from basic supplies like swabs and protective gear to highly specialised laboratory chemicals needed to analyse patient results. Hospitals, laboratories and state health departments report scouring the globe to secure orders, competing against each other and their peers abroad. The governors plea for stepped-up coordination came on Monday when the Trump administration again provided discordant messaging: Trump blasted state leaders on Twitter for being too dependent on the federal government and said later that some governors just did not understand what they had, while Vice President Mike Pence assured governors the government was working around the clock to help them ramp up testing. Vice President Mike Pence, centre, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar during a tour of the secretarys operations centre [Andrew Harnik/AP Photo] Pence sought to soften the administrations message amid growing clamour from both parties for a national testing strategy to help secure testing swabs, chemical reagents and other crucial supplies. When it comes to testing, were here to help, Pence told governors during a video conference from the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Associated Press news agency obtained audio of the call. Pence said the administration sent each state a detailed list Monday of testing capacity. But Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan said much of the unused lab machinery listed for his state was in federal labs to which the state does not have access. Pence said the administration has agreed to open up federal labs to help states. Hogan announced Monday that the state had received 500,000 tests from South Korea a game-changing deal negotiated by his wife, Yumi Hogan, who grew up outside Seoul. They want the states to take the lead, and we have to go out and do it ourselves, and so thats exactly what we did, Hogan said. Trump didnt take that lying down. In his daily briefing, he said some governors have more capacity than they understand. The governor of Maryland could have called Mike Pence, could have saved a lot of money, Trump said. I dont think he needed to go to South Korea. He needed to get a little knowledge. In Ohio, Republican Governor Mike DeWine said his state is working with another federal agency, the US Food and Drug Administration, to find a source of reagent, the chemical used to analyse test results. A lot of good things are going on, but were not there yet, DeWine said. Democratic Montana Governor Steve Bullock said his state received 5,000 nasal swabs Monday from FEMA evidence the federal government is listening. But he added, It doesnt get us far enough. In New York, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo said the states should take the lead on testing but its up to the federal government to help sort out supply-chain issues facing testing manufacturers. What the states will run into is when you talk to those labs they buy machines and equipment from national manufacturers, said Cuomo, who met Trump at the White House on Tuesday. And those labs can only run as many tests as the national manufacturers provide them chemicals, reagents and lab kits. Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Tom Wolf said, We need the reagents, we need the test kits and I think thats the sort of general cry from other states. As Pence spoke with the governors on Monday, Trump took to Twitter with a more combative tone than his vice president, complaining that the radical left and Do Nothing Democrats were playing politics with their complaints about a lack of tests. Now they scream .Testing, Testing, Testing, again playing a very dangerous political game, Trump tweeted. States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing But we will work with the Governors and get it done. Testing, Testing, Testing, again playing a very dangerous political game. States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing But we will work with the Governors and get it done. This is easy compared to the fast production of thousands of complex Ventilators! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 20, 2020 Public health experts say the country needs to dramatically increase its testing infrastructure if it is going to safely roll back restrictions and reopen businesses without risking a major spike in infections. Dr Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious diseases expert at the National Institutes of Health, told ABCs Good Morning America on Monday that the country is currently running about 1.5 million to 2 million tests per week. But, he said, We really need to get up to, at least, you know, maybe two times that, three times that. The White House said the Pentagon is finalising negotiations with a Maine medical company to ramp up production of nasal swabs under the Defense Production Act. An Ohio manufacturer of cotton swabs has also agreed to convert its facilities to allow for 10 million testing swabs per month. Testing was an issue on Capitol Hill, too, where the administration and Congress were inching towards agreement on an aid package of more than $450bn to boost a small-business loan programme that has run out of money. The deal is expected to add funds for hospitals and COVID-19 testing, as well. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The Federal government has apologised to Nigerians for the violation of the social distancing order at late Abba Kyaris burial. C... The Federal government has apologised to Nigerians for the violation of the social distancing order at late Abba Kyaris burial. Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, tendered the apology during the daily media briefing of the taskforce in Abuja on Monday. He said On the 17th of April 2020 we lost the Chief of Staff to the President to the coronavirus. He was fully committed to ensuring Nigeria responded effectively to the challenge of COVID-19 and he died in the line of duty. We will always remember his robust efforts, his dedication, and unwavering commitment to strengthening Nigerias capacity to manage the impact of this pandemic. We have resolved to remain focused on the response to the pandemic in honour of Mr Kyari and all those who have lost their lives to COVID-19. The PTF recognises regrettably the unintentional violation of the principles and protocols that form the core of our messages to Nigerians at the funeral of the late Chief of Staff. These principles for emphasis include the guidance provided on mass gatherings, social distancing, personal hygiene and restriction of movement. Lessons have been learnt and appropriate measures have been taken to close all gaps. The Presidency had come under attack over non-compliance to social distancing order at the burial of Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari after videos and photos from the burial surfaced online showing a large crowd. See video below Hurlbert points to research on how social networks and social support reduced the stressful effects after Hurricane Katrina, which showed that individuals who had better social support fared much better than those who had received little to none. The latter group reported higher levels of sadness, had more trouble sleeping, found it difficult to get started each day, had difficulties focusing on a task, felt blue more often and experienced other issues. "One can easily see how these symptoms could impact productivity and well-being," says Hurlbert. "The net effect, then, will depend in part upon how well companies structure remote work during the pandemic and how well employees combat the isolation." Even as teachers scramble to transition to distance-learning, a small group of science teachers in Missouri are using the coronavirus as a teachable moment thats aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards. Working with researchers from two universities, nine teachers designed high school science activities they hope will accomplish two things at once. Students will get the chance to study a natural phenomenon thats meaningful in their livesa key aim of the NGSSand theyll also get to process the pandemics impact on their lives. Currently, the group has developed four activities. One is a simulation that lets students change the percentage of people who are practicing social distancing to see what the impact would be on coronavirus infection rates. Another activity walks students through the creation of a mathematical model for the spread of the virus. There are also system thinking tools, like a star-shaped organizer, to help students summarize the science and societal impacts of the coronavirus, and a set of media literacy activities about the disease. The researchers have gathered the instructional activities onto a website thats a work in progress: Theyre adding more as they go. The teachers are using the activities with their students now, virtually, and theyll refine them, based on their experiences this spring, and expand on the work in the fall. The team aims to create lessons that not only draw on the NGSS emphasis on relevant natural phenomena, but also its vision of instruction that draws students into developing their own questions about those phenomena, and designing experiments, models and other activities to help them uncover answers. Jumping on an Opportunity Troy Sadler, a professor of experiential learning at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is leading the project, along with Patricia Friedrichsen and Laura Zangori, professor and assistant professor, respectively, at the University of Missouri. To support the project, they secured a $200,000 grant from the National Sciences Foundations rapid response research program, which is designed to support urgent research proposals. The coronavirus activities grew out of an ongoing project the team runs, in which theyve developed model-oriented science units grounded in current issues that are of interest to students. Weve been teaching an issue-based approach for the last five years, and [coronavirus] was certainly an interesting issue, Friedrichsen said. The science is there, but its embedded in economics and politics. Its a great way to support systems-level thinking in students as well as helping them understand the science. Nine teachers whod worked with the research team before gathered for a professional-development session by Zoom in late March, ready to start brainstorming instructional activities. But theyd expressed some uncertainty about whether teaching about coronavirus was wise. Would it be upsetting for students? In response, the research team sought the advice of University of Missouri pediatric psychologist Dawn Huber, and brought her into the PD session, Friedrichsen said. She told us that that avoidance is never a solution, but informing students and helping them understanding whats going on is the best way to support their mental health, Friedrichsen said. Simulating a Virus Spread Teachers are using the activities in different ways, adding direct instruction, discussion prompts, and other pieces to build the activities into lessons or units. Christy Darter, who teaches microbiology in Raytown, Mo., started the simulation with a screencast so students could listen to her give instructions on how to use the tool while they watched her, virtually, doing so herself on her own laptop. (Her screencast for the math modeling activity is here .) Then students ran the simulation on their own, and used a Google Form she supplied to reflect on the experience. Based on what theyd learned, did they think stay-at-home orders are a good idea? Why? She asked them to describe the ways social distancing plays out in their lives, and whether theyd change their practices based on what they saw in the models. Students started asking so many questions about the basic dynamics of coronavirus contagion that Darter created a forum on her Google Classroom page for discussion and a way to find answers together. I learned that they were really worried, Darter said. Normally, when something scary happens were in school and Im there with them and they can ask me, and we can talk about it. Having the right information makes everybody feel better. The Missouri project isnt the first to emerge with science-class resources on coronavirus. Teachers are coming up with lots of creative ideas to engage students in discussion about the virus. One 8th grade teacher in Washington state adapted the baby-shower game known as Dont Say Baby to coronavirus , making students surrender their clothespins when they touched their faces. Teachers are trying simultaneously to create space for students to talk about their feelings about the pandemic, and to turn the pandemic into lessons , explaining what the virus is and drawing students into analyzing information about it. Some teachers have begun posting coronavirus lesson plans in a special section of the National Science Teaching Associations website . And NGSS co-writer Peter McLaren has begun assembling coronavirus-related lesson plans for teachers on a Google doc here . Screen grab of infection-curve modeling activity courtesy of Christy Darter Image of Missouri teachers in Zoom PD session courtesy of Patricia Friedrichsen Missed the most recent top news in Houston? Read on for everything you need to know. 2 grandmothers who lived at a southwest Houston nursing home die hours apart Candise Coleman lost her maternal and paternal grandmothers on the same day in a matter of just hours. Read the full story on KPRC2 / Click2Houston. Big rigs block East Freeway Monday in apparent protest over wages, HPD says Several big rigs blocked the East Freeway Monday afternoon in an apparent protest over wages, according to the Houston Police Department. Read the full story on KPRC2 / Click2Houston. Who murdered Yuliet Fernandez? Houston police are searching for a suspect Houston police, Crime Stoppers and family members are asking for the public's assistance in identifying the suspect(s) responsible for the murder of a Houston woman. Read the full story on KPRC2 / Click2Houston. Officials knew coronavirus could spread at the Houston Rodeo and proceeded with the event anyway Days before the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo kicked off, area politicians celebrated this great piece of Americana dubbed the worlds largest livestock show which was going forward in the age of the coronavirus. Read the full story on KPRC2 / Click2Houston. Woman struck child with her car and then sped away, Houston police say Houston police on Monday released surveillance video of a driver who is wanted in a hit-and-run incident that injured a child last week. According to police, the crash happened at about 5:35 p.m. on April 13 in the 4600 block of Galesburg Street, in far southeast Houston. Read the full story on KHOU. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. Conspiracy theories that link 5G mobile networks with the coronavirus pandemic are unfounded and are impacting on key health workers, a Vodafone executive said Tuesday. "It's really the worst type of fake news," Johan Wibergh, Vodafone's chief technology officer, told CNBC's "Street Signs Europe," adding: "I'm really saddened about it." Such baseless claims have inspired people to torch cell phone towers in Britain and the Netherlands, resulting in outcry from officials, carriers and scientists. As of Monday, 24 of Vodafone's masts in the U.K. had been burned down by attackers, Wibergh said. One of the towers was supporting the National Health Service's new Nightingale hospital in Birmingham, England. "It's really terrible," Wibergh said. "NHS workers want to talk to their family," he added, but can't because of "some ignorant people." The bogus conspiracy theories have also led to attacks on telecoms engineers. A clip that went viral on social media earlier this month showed a woman harassing two workers, claiming 5G can kill people. Finland has requested from the Russian Security Service access to World War II archives after the publication of declassified documents revealing the details of atrocities and torture exacted upon prisoners of Finnish concentration camps in occupied Karelia during the war HELSINKI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2020) Finland has requested from the Russian Security Service access to World War II archives after the publication of declassified documents revealing the details of atrocities and torture exacted upon prisoners of Finnish concentration camps in occupied Karelia during the war. Earlier in April, Sputnik published newly declassified documents from the national archives of Russia's northern region of Karelia revealing military crimes of Finnish Nazis against peaceful Soviet citizens. On Monday, the Russian Investigative Committee launched a probe regarding Finnish crimes in Karelia during the war. "This is a new problem neither for Finland, nor for Russia. The issue of responsibility for the military policy of Finland was carefully studied by the court after the war. The Allied Control Commission that included the Soviet Union, chaired by Andrei Zhdanov, was monitoring the trial. As for the war-related judicial issue between our countries, they were resolved by the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947," the Finnish Foreign Ministry said in a statement obtained by Sputnik. The ministry called on Moscow to provide access to the archives for research so that they could take part in the discussion of the issue. "Finland is strongly committed to providing access to all archive materials to researchers and anyone interested in this, to facilitate a general discussion on these issues. This also applies to materials related to prisoners of war and civilians. A lot of research studies have been published on these issues," the statement said. The ministry expressed confidence that these issues should be addressed with the involvement of the scientific community. At the onset of the Second World War, Finland sided with Nazi Germany to launch a surprise attack on the Soviet Union from the north, occupying large swathes of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic and setting up 14 concentration camps that incarcerated mostly local ethnic Slavs and Red Army prisoners of war. Records of interviews with former prisoners and fugitives reveal rampant abuse, including torture, starvation and the murder of Soviet civilians at the hands of Finnish military administration in Karelia. Hyderabad, April 21 : In another tragic incident highlighting the miseries of migrant labourers during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, a 12-year-old girl, working in Telangana's chilli fields, died after walking for three days to reach her home in Chhattisgarh. Jamla Makhdam, who had started walking along with 10 others on April 15, collapsed and died when she was just an hour away from home in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh. The group had walked nearly 150 kms from Kannayaguda village in Jayashankar Bhupalapally district. The incident came to light on Tuesday when Balala Hakkula Sangham, a NGO fighting for child rights, filed a petition in Telangana State Human Rights Commission seeking a probe into the incident. According to the NGO, the girl along with her family was working in a chilli farm at Kannayguda of Eturu Nagaram mandal in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district. Achyuta Rao, president, Balala Hakkula Sangham, told IANS that they requested the commission to direct the district collector to answer as to how a 12-year-old was employed in a farm and how the district admission allowed them to cross the district border in this lockdown. "We also requested the commission to direct the district collector of Bhupalpally district to initiate action against the officials for their negligence regarding the safety of the child, which ultimately led to her death," he said. The NGO also sought directions to the government to pay compensation to the family of the deceased. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage countries around the world, it is laying waste to global supply chains. In recent days, Larry Kudlow, the director of the United States National Economic Council, has called on the American government to fully cover the moving costs of U.S. businesses that want to get out of China. Meanwhile, the Japanese governments post-epidemic recovery plan includes financial assistance for firms that want to extricate themselves from their East Asian neighbor. Both of these moves have sparked uproar in China. Kudlow made the remarks while answering a question about perceived American overreliance on China. Although he is a White House economic advisor, it remains to be seen whether his suggestion will become official government policy. He followed up by saying that his statement wasnt about playing favorites and he wasnt out to pick on China. But his remarks immediately drew a backlash from the American business community. However, we must not jump to conclusions. The fact that the U.S. and Japan are considering getting these moves is likely the result of rational reflection on the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on their own industrial structures, leavened with a healthy dose of political showmanship. Consequently, while we must take seriously the de-Sinicization arguments that have made headlines during the pandemic, we mustnt overreact to them. Compared with the heated debate in the Chinese public sphere, the countrys government has reacted to the above developments with more restraint. After all, China is one of the first countries to bring its domestic Covid-19 outbreak under control and is accelerating efforts to get the country back to work. Why would multinationals with China offices leave now? On a basic level, global industrial, supply, and value chains what you might call the skeleton of globalization dont just exist by design; theyre the result of years and years of evolution. Multinationals cant avoid the effects of international relations and public health incidents on their industrial arrangements, but in the end, they must follow business logic. Companies decide policies, compete and cooperate under the guidance of the markets invisible hand. Governments in mature market economies have no right to compel multinationals to repatriate. Chinas most pressing issues are therefore to accelerate reform and opening in accordance with the overall plan, continue to optimize the business environment, and work hard to raise its own position within global industrial and value chains. For now, that also means demonstrating our commitment to international pandemic cooperation as a responsible superpower. How the pandemic will ultimately play out remains unclear, especially in the economic sphere. Covid-19 will certainly force governments to reflect on their industrial structures. However, the sudden and uncommon nature of the pandemic means it will not reverse the overall trend toward ever more closely connected global industrial, supply, and value chains. Some think the movement of product chains out of China will actually slow down during the pandemic, not speed up. Theres a certain amount of logic in that. If countries come together, the fight against Covid-19 might actually become a catalyst for bringing international industrial chains even closer together. The de-Sinicization debate has been floating around for a long time now, having received a lot of airtime during the trade tensions between China and the U.S. This wont be the last time the pandemic prompts remarks like Kudlows. While we shouldnt look lightly upon the effects of Covid-19 on global industrial and supply chains, we must consider the issue from a medium- to long-term perspective. Many things affect industrial structures, but we cant get away from the stage of development that countries currently find themselves in. East Asian economies once formed the flying geese paradigm; later, China became the factory of the world; and in recent years, many industries have shifted from China to Southeast Asia. Beyond a certain point, countries that try to make their own multinationals come home will suffer from high labor costs, low supporting capabilities and fluctuating market demand. The economic structures of developed nations are already predominantly service-oriented. Thats why the effects of re-industrialization strategies laid out by some of those countries in the last few years have been limited. China also has certain advantages that other countries cant easily emulate, such as a well-established manufacturing system, relatively high-quality labor, well-developed basic infrastructure, and a huge domestic market. In addition, the countrys research and development sector is continuously improving and steadily raising its profile in global value chains. Other countries can hinder the progress of this trend, but they cant reverse it. Multinationals will decide for themselves whether to leave China. Whether the Chinese government plans to try and make them stay depends on the countrys own development needs. As China continues to upgrade its domestic industrial structure, labor and other costs rise, and environmental standards improve, some multinationals might not only choose to leave, but their doing so may actually be good for Chinas sustainable development. During this process, the Chinese government should make sure to stabilize employment, strengthen skills training, increase labor capital, and lay a strong foundation for social safety net. At the same time, we must listen closely to reasonable concerns from the multinationals willing to stay in China, and treat them in the same way that we treat domestic enterprises. A few years ago, companies attending the EU-China and U.S.-China business summits complained about the trading environment. In recent years, China has deepened reforms and made efforts to improve the domestic business environment. We have seen positive results, but there is still huge scope for improvement. When it comes to foreign business key concerns intellectual property protection and forced technology transfer the phase one trade deal between China and the U.S. shows a detailed path forward. We must implement it as soon as possible. More importantly, China must move quicker to realize the modernization of social management capabilities and governance systems, in order to allow talented people from all walks of life fully exercise their creativity and intelligence. Only when that happens will we level up from a made in China to an innovated in China economy, thereby further raising our profile in global industrial and value chains. Many of our compatriots will feel unhappy about the de-Sinicization debate, but we mustnt let ourselves fly off the handle. If the Chinese public becomes too agitated about it, de-Sinicization might become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Recently, Chinese leaders on the international stage have repeatedly said we must come together to stabilize global industrial and supply chains and send a positive signal to the rest of the world. Now, we must continue to actively cooperate in the international fight against the pandemic, expand our global friendship network, and avoid pointless arguments. For more than 40 years, the outside world has harbored doubts about Chinas development. Time and again, we have seen the emergence of all kinds of theories about the countrys coming collapse. China has responded by deepening reform and opening and transforming into the worlds second-largest economy. Now, new doubts are bubbling to the surface. Like their predecessors, the questions arent groundless: For instance, as key elements of Chinas productivity shrink and the population rapidly ages, the hard bones of reform become increasingly difficult to chew on. How should China respond? The answer is obvious. Deepen reform and opening, and raise high the banner of globalization. In other words, whether the de-Sinicization debate flourishes or withers hinges on China itself. Contact translator Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com) Ossify industries, which recently announced the Compaq television business has invested over 225 crores to acquire a manufacturing facility in Kundli, Haryana. The company also plans to make investments of approximately INR 210 crores on infrastructure development of the facility over the next 48 months. Acquired in February 2020, the plant is currently under development and will be commissioned by the Diwali of 2022. During these uncertain economic times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the acquisition of the facility displays long-term optimism from the company about the TV industry and resurgence of the economy from the current crisis. Ossifys state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will primarily cater to the domestic and international business for Compaq televisions for which it holds license for multiple countries and regions. However, a small percentage of the production may also serve the domestic and South Asia OEM/ODM business for some prominent TV brands. The manufacturing is slated to begin by the end of 2022. Speaking on the occasion, Anand Dubey, CEO, Ossify Industries, said, The acquisition of the manufacturing facility is a crucial step for us, as the company is embarking on its next phase of growth. This will help us immensely in fulfilling the projected domestic demand for Compaq. Equipped with cutting-edge technology for product design, development and testing, the new plant in Kundli will be rolling out a large volume of televisions annually. Ossify Industries, is the partner for Compaq smart television business in India and multiple other territories under a license from HP. With this partnership, the Delhi-based company intends to scale up the Compaq business and establish it as one of the leading television brands in the country. The first wave of products is slated to be rolled out in April 2020. When Tucson resident Regina Watkins noticed that her stimulus money appeared in her bank account, she wrote a check for $1,200 with her nephews name on it. Her nephew, Paul Osantowski, and his girlfriend, Katie Bittner, were both laid off due to the pandemic and need the money more than she does, Watkins said. The couple has a newborn, a daughter who is about seven years old and two teenage sons. The check is on its way to Michigan, where Osantowskis family will be able to use it for groceries, to help with their house remodel or for anything else they might need, Watkins said. Watkins is one of many Tucsonans who have chosen to donate their share of government funds to those in need. Nancy Nan Standish said she planned to donate most or all of her stimulus money since she read about the federal bill that would send up to $1,200 to individuals and $2,400 to married couples, plus an additional $500 for each child in a family. Standish said shes not rich but is financially stable and knows the money could be used to help local charities support families and children across Tucson. I feel that Ive been so lucky and so blessed with what I have that Id like to share it, she said. Standish hasnt seen the $1,200 deposited in her account yet. When it arrives, she said, her plan is to donate it to three or four local charities. Theres been a surge in donations in the days since the federal funds started to appear in peoples accounts, said Tony Penn, president and CEO of the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. A paper published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO), "Imaging hydroxyapatite in sub-retinal pigment epithelial deposits by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy with tetracycline staining," demonstrates a potential new diagnostic option for catching a degenerative eye disease in its earliest stages. Tiny deposits of lipids, proteins, and minerals, sometimes known as drusen, can collect under the retina. They may indicate a person's risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), so enhanced and early detection is a current clinical need. The initial findings presented in the paper show a new way to achieve molecular contrast based upon sub-retinal mineral deposits. The approach uses a well-known property of the tetracycline-family of antibiotics - their propensity to stain teeth and bones - making visible the smallest of mineral deposits. Utilizing human cadaver retinas containing drusen, the researchers used fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) to measure the light emission from tetracycline staining within those ocular mineral deposits. According to JBO Editor-in-Chief, SPIE Fellow, and MacLean Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth Brian W. Pogue, the novel use of FLIM to harness the properties of a common antibiotic marks an exciting approach to molecular imaging in the eye, and opens up the potential for developing a diagnostic test for early transition to eye disease: "Eye diseases are typically diagnosed by shape, blood flow, or morphology changes in the retina, but this fluorescence test could be more sensitive because the signal is highly specific. It can be used to detect very small molecular mineral deposits that cannot be seen well otherwise and detect them early in the disease process. Since this is a first study, a lot more work needs to be done to make this a real human diagnostic test, but the concept that a common antibiotic could be used in this way, to reveal small mineral deposits, is a very important fundamental discovery." ### The article authors are Henryk Szmacinski, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; Kavita Hegde, Department of Natural Sciences, Coppin State University, Baltimore, Maryland; Hui-Hui Zeng, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine; Katayoun Eslami, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine; Adam Puche, Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University of Maryland School of Medicine; Imre Lengyel, Wellcome Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Science, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK; and Richard B. Thompson, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine. JBO, an open-access journal, is published by SPIE in the SPIE Digital Library, which contains more than 500,000 publications from SPIE journals, proceedings, and books, with approximately 18,000 new research papers added each year. About SPIE SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering, and technology. The Society serves more than 255,000 constituents from 183 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2019, SPIE provided more than $5.6 million in community support including scholarships and awards, outreach and advocacy programs, travel grants, public policy, and educational resources. http://www.spie.org Contact: Daneet Steffens Public Relations Manager daneets@spie.org +1 360 685 5478 @SPIEtweets By Naomi Tajitsu TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> said on Tuesday it will shut its global headquarters in Japan for 16 days through early May to contain the spread of the coronavirus, even though the government has permitted keeping workplaces open to get the economy running. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has allowed manufacturing plants to keep operating under a state of emergency that was declared this month and broadened last week, but Nissan and its rivals had already suspended output at many of their factories due to plummeting global demand. Nissan is the latest Japanese company to shutter its global headquarters to reduce the number of staff commuting, as the COVID-19 infections in the country increased to around 11,000 this week. Canon Inc <7751.T> and Toshiba <6502.T> also announced similar measures earlier this month. Nissan said that 15,000 employees at its headquarters in Yokohama and main R&D centre in nearby Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, would be required to take leave for 16 days from next Monday through Japan's "Golden Week" holiday that starts on May 4. Its headquarters would be closed to all but essential workers, a Nissan spokeswoman said, adding that those affected would receive "the majority" of their full salaries during the period. She said the measures were aimed at keeping more than 90% of its employees away from its offices, up from 80% at the moment. Like many of its global rivals, Nissan has also shuttered most of its global production facilities in compliance with "shelter at home" directives to contain the spread of the virus. Nissan stopped production at its Tochigi vehicle plant, which produces the Skyline sedan and Infiniti models, for much of this month, and plans to keep it closed for most of May. Its plant in Kyushu, southern Japan, will operate only the day shift during April and May and shut down completely for four days during that period. Story continues Nissan's bigger rival Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> has said it expects to cut its domestic production by around 40% as it significantly reduced output at its Japanese plants starting earlier month. Honda Motor Co <7267.T> also said it would stop production at some of its domestic plants next week, citing disruptions in its global supply chain. Most automakers are bracing for a big financial hit from the virus, as lockdowns in the United States and Europe have kept buyers out of dealerships. But Nissan's sales and profits had been slumping even before the outbreak, forcing it to roll back on an aggressive expansion plan pursued by ousted leader Carlos Ghosn. The pandemic has only piled on urgency and pressure to renew efforts to downsize. Nissan is due to announce a new recovery plan next month. (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Additional reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Muralikumar Anantharaman) The May '20 WTI contract rebounded on Tuesday morning, but the June '20 WTI contract, the new front month contract is tanking, indicating that producers could be about to face much more pain the coming month. Chart of the Week WTI closed at -$37 per barrel on Monday, the first time it has ever closed in negative territory. The development reflects traders trying not to get stuck with physical delivery for May as the contract expires on Tuesday. But the hot potato chaos also reflects a fundamental lack of storage. June WTI contracts are trading at a more reasonable but still catastrophic $9.40 per barrel as of 11:55 AM CT on Tuesday. Market Movers BP (NYSE: BP) refineries are operating well below normal rates. Its Toledo, OH refinery is down nearly 30 percent, and its Whiting, IN refinery is 17 percent below capacity. refineries are operating well below normal rates. Its Toledo, OH refinery is down nearly 30 percent, and its Whiting, IN refinery is 17 percent below capacity. Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) was upgraded to Buy by Bank of America while PBF Energy (NYSE: PBF) was downgraded to Neutral. was upgraded to Buy by Bank of America while was downgraded to Neutral. Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) cut spending by $1 billion and also posted a $1 billion loss for the first quarter. Tuesday April 21, 2020 In a historic first, WTI closed in negative territory on Monday, or -$37.63 to be exact. The decline comes as the WTI contract for May expires on Tuesday. Analysts differed over the significance, since the expiring contract becomes increasingly irrelevant. But on Tuesday, the June and July contracts began to collapse as well, deepening the crisis for the oil industry. Trump calls for bailout. In a tweet on Tuesday, President Trump said: We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future! For now, it is unclear what form such government help will take, although a week ago, Bloomberg reported that the Department of Energy was considering a plan to pay shale drillers not to produce. Saudi Arabia considers cuts sooner. Saudi Arabia may cut as soon as possible, rather than waiting for May, according to the Wall Street Journal. Something has to be done about this bloodbath, said a Saudi official familiar with the matter. But it might be a little bit too late. Trump considers halting Saudi imports. The U.S. celebrated the OPEC+ deal a week ago, but with oil prices collapsing once again, the Trump administration may consider limits on imports. We certainly have plenty of oil, so Ill take a look at it, he said. Trump wants to fill SPR. On Monday, Trump once again pushed for filling up the SPR. This is a great time to buy oil...Nobody's ever heard of negative oil before. Oil industry lobbying for Fed help. The U.S. oil and gas industry has asked the Federal Reserve to change the terms of a $600 billion lending facility so that oil and gas companies can use the funds to repay their ballooning debts, Reuters reported. Premium: Oil Storage Nears Its Limit Alberta calls for help. The Canadian government announced a C$2.45 billion aid package for Canadas energy sector last week. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the province needs more. More support is needed to deal with the crisis in Canadas energy sector, but this is a great first step, Kenney said. Our energy sector is facing its biggest challenge ever, and we need to be sure that industry can access the capital it needs to survive and thrive in future years. Saudi oil stored at sea. At least one in 10 supertankers is storing oil at sea, and some of those cargoes originated from Saudi Arabia, according to the Wall Street Journal. The kingdom is now facing a situation where they may have to shut parts in their production, likely from Ghawar and others because they dont have buyers, a senior Aramco executive told the WSJ. The fact is buyers dont have storage so regardless of whatever level of output you want, there wont be storage for it. Canada cuts steam-driven oil projects. Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) oil projects in Canada are facing shut ins and the curtailment could cause permanent damage. ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) cut output by 100,000 bpd, while Husky Energy (TSE: HSE) and Cenovus Energy (NYSE: CVE) cut production by 15,000 bpd and 45,000 bpd, respectively. Total Canadian shut ins could total 1.5 mb/d, according to TD Bank. Halliburton cuts $1 billion. Halliburton is cutting jobs, cutting capex by $1 billion and warning of a steep downturn. We expect activity in North America land to sharply decline during [Q2] and remain depressed through year-end, impacting all basins, CEO Jeff Miller said. Activity is in free fall in North America. Premium: The Oil Sector That Will Suffer The Most Oil industry loses 51,000 jobs. An estimated 51,000 jobs were lost in the oil industry in March, a 9 percent reduction that will surely grow much more severe in the weeks ahead. Were looking at anywhere between five and seven years of job growth wiped out in a month, Philip Jordan, VP at BW Research Partnership, a research consultancy, told Bloomberg. What makes it sort of scary is this really is just the beginning. April is not looking good for oil and gas. WoodMac: Non-OPEC supply to fall by 4 mb/d by end-2021. Wood Mackenzie updated its forecast for supply declines, noting that cut backs are happening faster than the firm thought just a few weeks ago. Indias fuel demand plummets by 50%. Indias demand for all fuels fell by 50 percent in April. Russia orders companies to cut 20 percent. Russias energy ministry told domestic oil producers to cut oil production by 20 percent from February levels, a sign that Moscow intends to follow through on the OPEC+ deal. China doubles stockpiling. China doubled the fill rate at its strategic and commercial inventories in Q1 2020, with some 2 mb/d of oil not processed by refiners in the first quarter. Whiting Petroleum gets delisting warning. Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL) was given a delisting notice from the NYSE because its share price is in danger of trading below $1 per share for a 30-day period. Whiting filed for bankruptcy on April 1. By Tom Kool of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 12:48:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NANNING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A hospital in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region shared COVID-19 treatment experience with Cambodian medical experts via a video conference on Monday, with over 150 medical staff from both countries in attendance. Medics with the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University introduced detailed epidemic prevention and control measures and an expert team from the hospital who fought against COVID-19 on the frontline in the hardest-hit Hubei Province shared first-hand clinical treatment experience with the Cambodian counterparts. Cambodian experts from several medical institutions consulted their Chinese counterparts about how to deal with asymptomatic cases, improve diagnostic accuracy and other issues. Chen Junqiang, president of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, said the hospital would like to share more anti-epidemic experience with ASEAN countries. Enditem Councils handed 12billion last week to distribute to local firms are still siting on half of it, it has been revealed today. The government distributed some 12.3 billion to local authorities in England as part of its coronavirus business support package. The grant payments are to be distributed to some of the hardest-hit businesses but the latest figures show only about a third of companies have actually received the money. As of yesterday, only 6.11 billion has been paid out to 491,725 business properties - approximately half of the grant funding allocated (49.58%). Birmingham City Council, one of the biggest in the country, has paid out to barely one in 10 small businesses while Arun District Council has more than 25,000 left to distribute. The Small Business Grants Fund is a 10,000 grant per eligible business, originally announced at the Budget. Chancellor Rishi Sunak last week agreed to a new fund to support struggling mid-sized businesses in the UK The Small Business Grants Fund The Small Business Grants Fund is a 10,000 grant per eligible business, originally announced at the Budget. Businesses included in this scheme are those which on 11 March were eligible for relief under the Small Business Rate Relief Scheme (including those with a rateable value between 12,000 and 15,000 which receive tapered relief) or the Rural Rate Relief Scheme. The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund was announced by the Chancellor on 17 March. Businesses in scope will be those that were eligible on 11 March for a discount under the Expanded Retail Discount scheme and with a rateable value of less than 51,000. Grants will be provided in respect of each property (hereditament); therefore, businesses with multiple outlets would receive more than one grant and may receive grants from separate local authorities. Businesses with multiple outlets can receive more than one grant and may receive grants from separate local authorities, if their different outlets are in different local authority areas. Only one grant can be paid per business premise. Local authorities are contacting eligible businesses. Businesses who have been contacted are told to 'respond quickly' while any businesses who believe they are eligible check the arrangements in their area on their local authority website if they have yet to be contacted. Advertisement The Small Business Grants Fund is a 10,000 grant per eligible business, originally announced at the Budget. With the UK's state of lockdown now extended for at least a further three weeks, businesses are scrambling to ensure they can remain solvent until the economy can return to normal. Wolverhampton Council has paid 1,857 businesses a slice of the Government grants, with a further 736 currently being processed. Scarborough Council had paid 43,170,000 via 3,720 individual grants from the 68,310,000 earmarked for the borough. There are an estimated 5,717 businesses in the borough eligible for a grant, though all businesses may not have applied. The council said it has been working, 'every day of the week, including evenings and bank holidays, to process the payments and will continue to do so until every business eligible for a grant has received their payment.' Jenny Pawsey who sub-lets an office in Oxford, said: 'The grant of 10,000 would enable us to get back on our feet when the world is starting up again. 'Our business is a very viable one, and we've been going since 1964, but like everyone our cash flow is suffering'. Adam Marshall, director general at the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC), said the situation for so many firms was 'extremely difficult'. He was asked about the consequences of support not coming through fast enough, and told Sky News's Sophy Ridge On Sunday: 'Well, the cost here is in terms of people's livelihoods. 'We've really got to see the banks and the Government working together to speed up the process so that as many businesses as possible can get access to those loans. 'And the same holds true for local councils as well. They've got 12 billion in grant payments to distribute to some of the hardest-hit businesses out there, but from the latest figures that we've seen only about a third of companies have actually received the money, so all efforts right now really have to be focused on getting cash to the front line, because there are so many businesses that are counting the time they've got left in hours and days. 'They don't have weeks or months to wait for those Government support schemes to begin working.' This comes as a petition against the government's small business rate relief grant scheme hits 11,900 signatures, as desperate small or medium-sized enterprises in shared offices miss 1bn worth of support. Jonathan Ratcliffe from Offices.co.uk said: 'Put simply, if you don't have a business rates account for your business with your local authority you get nothing. It's a very unfair situation. 'Small businesses across the UK are absolutely fuming; and at no fault of their own, because their choice of office type dictated whether they got a 10,000 cash grant or not. 'We've estimated that the support missed is over 1bn and it's all small businesses who are the big employers of the future and they need helping. 'If we can push this to 100,000 signatures, it will be discussed in Parliament. I just hope this happens soon as many small businesses are being pushed to the wall this month'.' Welcome to Money Diaries, where were tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. Were asking millennials how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period and were tracking every last dollar. Today: a consultant who makes $105,000 per year and spends some of her money this week on wine. Occupation: Consultant Industry: Management Consulting Age: 24 Location: Chicago, IL Salary: $105,000 + $25,000 bonus Net Worth: $75,000 Debt: $0 Paycheck Amount (2x/month): $2,420.86 Pronouns: She/her Monthly Expenses Rent: $1,200 (I live with my boyfriend and he pays about $800 because he makes less than I do and has student loans, this includes utilities) Student Loans: $0 (I was lucky enough to have my parents pay for college and I dont have a car) Hulu: $13.07 NYTimes: $10.95 Weight Watchers: $13.96 Recurring Human Rights Campaign Donation: $25 (plus other donations throughout the month as they come up) Savings: In addition to my 401K (15% after-tax dollars deducted from my paycheck), I contribute $500 to Roth IRA monthly, $600 to an investing account with betterment, and transfer extra cash every few months (plus my annual bonus) to a high yield savings account. Day One 7:30 a.m. I wake up when my boyfriend, N., heads to work. He still has to go into work because his company has been deemed essential. I, on the other hand, have been working from home for about two weeks at this point. I typically travel to be in the same city as my client Monday through Thursday, so its a very strange change of pace to be home for so long. I notice my card was charged for the keyboard and mouse that I ordered from Target my company will reimburse me for this purchase, given the new WFH mandates ($28.36 expensed). 8 a.m. I do my morning skincare routine (basic drugstore cleanser, Drunk Elephant moisturizer, and Neutrogena sunscreen even though I likely wont be going outside). My friend texts me that she was just staffed to a new project and I get excited that she may be joining my project. At my company, we are staffed on one project at a time that lasts anywhere from one month to over a year and my team happens to be looking to add another consultant. I FaceTime her to hear the details, but it turns out shes joining a different team. Im bummed about it since consulting tends to be very male-dominated and Id love to have another woman on the project, but Im happy that we end up talking on the phone until 9 am when we both need to join other meetings. Story continues 11 a.m. I realize I havent had any food yet, so I make a bowl of oatmeal and pour a glass of pre-made cold brew. My current project is in a transition phase because of COVID-19, so the work is very light at the moment. During normal times, I work 50-70 hours per week depending on the project, but lately, its been much closer to 40 hours per week. 3:30 p.m. I have a weekly team check-in for a volunteer consulting group Im part of and discuss scheduling virtual meetings with one of our clients, who works to improve access to services for people experiencing homelessness. I also get an email about a fundraiser that analysts at my company are running where theyre asking people to donate part of their next paycheck to a Chicago-based relief fund. I quickly oblige, because if I dont do it now, Ill forget to come back to it later. $220 6 p.m. N. gets home from work and we decide to order Thai food to be delivered from one of our favorite local restaurants. We are trying to support local businesses and choose a no-contact delivery for everyones protection ($34.70 + extra tip, split). $24.85 8 p.m. After dinner, I do my skincare routine (same as morning minus the SPF), we crawl into bed for an early night and watch a few episodes of Veep, our current obsession, and go to sleep. Daily Total: $244.85 Day Two 9:30 a.m. I have been struggling to sleep in lately I think because of so many changes to my routine, so I am thrilled when I wake up naturally at 9:30. While N. keeps sleeping, I FaceTime my dad in our kitchen. He tested positive for COVID-19 a few weeks ago, so Ive been trying to talk to him on the phone as often as possible. He was really sick for about a week, but thankfully he seems to be on the mend. His appetite is back and he is no longer falling asleep three minutes into our phone calls from lack of energy. 11 a.m. When N. is finally awake, we make brunch (breakfast tacos) and put away the laundry thats been sitting in our dryer all week. Once thats done, we gear up for a trip to Trader Joes. We spend about half an hour figuring out our meal plan for the next week and developing a list, then drive over to the store. This is a new development since social distancing started. Usually, Id make at least one trip per day. We wait in line for about 45 minutes to get in, but once inside its very relaxed social distancing is much easier when the grocery store isnt packed. We load up on basics and TJs favorites like frozen turkey meatballs, jicama, jalapenos, popcorn, goat cheese, chicken cilantro wontons, and a few bottles of wine. We also get Everything But the Bagel seasoning and paper towels, since both are in stock. We split the bill ($137.65) evenly between the two of us. $68.83 12 p.m. After wiping everything down and aggressively washing our hands, we unload the groceries and watch Veep for hours. Unfortunately, we are spending more time watching TV these days than usual. I take a break for a Zoom date with my siblings and cousins for about an hour while N. plays video games. I then see on Instagram that a friend is promoting a fundraiser to use local restaurants to feed hospital workers, so I donate $25 to that. I figure Im saving more money than usual by not buying lunch, shopping, taking Lyfts, and eating out, so Im trying to put the money I wouldve spent towards good causes. $25 7 p.m. By the time we are hungry, Im craving noodles with peanut butter and soy sauce (sounds gross but google it, I promise its great). We also make a few drinks while cooking vodka soda with extra lime for me, bourbon for N. We fall asleep early after continuing our Veep binge (Im trying to convince N. to watch Tiger King with me, but so far hes unconvinced). Daily Total: $93.83 Day Three 8 a.m. I wake up at 8 and sneak out of our bedroom to let N. keep sleeping. I FaceTime my dad again (he seems to be doing well still!), then spend time talking to my sister, who lives in Vermont, and my mom. 10 a.m. When N. finally wakes up, we have yogurt and coffee for breakfast then decide to go for a walk around our neighborhood. The mayor recently closed the lakefront because people werent taking social distancing seriously enough in Chicago, so we try to stick to quiet side streets to decrease the chances we run into other people. 2 p.m. When we get home, we work on a puzzle for a few hours (its been taking over our kitchen table for months but I have so little motivation to actually finish it). We make very little progress, so decide to cook an absurdly early lunch/dinner combination meal. We rarely cook red meat at home, but the Trader Joes meat selection was lacking on Saturday, so we decided to take a chance on steak. We bake potatoes, roast asparagus, and cook steak, and we are done with dinner before 5 (new record). 8 p.m. N.s boredom has finally gotten the best of him, so he agrees that we can try watching Tiger King. We watch an episode and are fascinated, but also feel uneasy, so switch to Veep for a lighter show before bed. I also help him draft a few emails to law schools where he has been accepted to ask about increasing his scholarship offers. Hes trying to figure out if law school is still right for him if theres an impending recession. Afterward, I have trouble turning off my brain, so I take melatonin and am out within 30 minutes. I sometimes wonder if its a placebo effect, but it works for me, so I try not to question it too much. Daily Total: $0 Day Four 7:30 a.m. I wake up when N. goes to work and decide to do a virtual yoga class because I feel like I havent moved my body in weeks (probably true). After, I shower, make oatmeal, and settle into my desk with a cold brew at 9. I get sidetracked from work reading the news and contribute $25 to a local restaurant employee fund that I see on social media. $25 10 a.m. I call my parents to check-in. My dad seems to be doing well! My mom is getting discouraged by the need to be inside all the time and is worried about my younger brother, who seems anxious about the pandemic. I tell her Ill give him a call later today and see if theres anything I can do to help. When I give him a call, he assures me hes doing okay, just stressed about how many people in his college town are ignoring social distancing guidelines. 12 p.m. I eat leftover noodles and then have my virtual therapy session. I started going to therapy last summer after I got promoted and the stress from increased responsibility severely affected my ability to sleep. Its awesome. Some sessions feel more directly productive than others, but I really like my therapist, so even the less productive sessions are still enjoyable and relaxing. Today is our second virtual session and we talk about small ways that I can feel more in control, even when bigger things in my life are out of my control. She also reminds me how lucky I am that I can work remotely and have a secure job. My insurance covers most of this, but I have a copay. $25 6 p.m. The rest of the workday flies by with a combination of client calls, non-profit calls, and internal team calls, and before I know it N. is home. We make knock-off Chipotle bowls for dinner with homemade guacamole and extra hot salsa from Trader Joes, then play a few games of chess before bed. I win one and he wins three (but whos counting?) then go to sleep before 10 pm. Daily Total: $50 Day Five 7:30 a.m. I realize Im almost out of the coffee beans I use to make cold brew, so I order a big replacement bag using N.s Prime account and venmo him for the charge. $25 10 a.m. I decide its almost an appropriate time for lunch, so I simmer canned black beans with a bunch of spices and mix it with leftover brown rice in my fridge. I also realize that I didnt receive my mid-month paycheck due a few weeks ago, so send a note to HR to check out whats going on. It turns out that there was a data entry issue on the back end, so theyll add the money to my next paycheck. I dont usually audit my paystubs, so I feel lucky that I decided to look this one time. 2 p.m. I pause work to call my dad and we catch up for a bit while I snack on blueberries. 6 p.m. N. gets home from work and we make homemade pizza for dinner. We use a shortcut for the dough (equal parts nonfat Greek yogurt and self-rising flour, I have no idea how it works but couldnt be easier) with plenty of cheese and veggies on top. We crawl into bed and feel our bed frame immediately break oops! Its a bummer but an old frame, so I try not to get too hung up the inconvenience. We order a new frame immediately ($110.07 split), watch more Veep from our new mattress-on-the-floor set up, and go to sleep around 9. $55.03 Daily Total: $80.03 Day Six 8:15 a.m. After my usual cold brew, my friend from New York calls to catch up. He and his immediate family all tested positive for COVID-19 a few weeks ago, but thankfully they are recovered now. We talk about how his law school classes are going remotely and how his family is feeling. We also talk about the idea of virtual grad school for me I am planning to go to business school in the fall (I already put down a deposit for a school), and Im lucky enough that my company will pay for me to go full time. In return, Ill return to my current job for a few years after school. Im trying to decide if I would rather delay a year if social distancing goes through the fall or just risk my first semester being done virtually. 12 p.m. I break at a more acceptable lunchtime today and eat my version kale, leftover wild rice, goat cheese, chopped almonds, apples, chicken, and fat-free balsamic vinaigrette. Its just okay, Ill never be able to make mine taste as good as the $12 version. I FaceTime my parents while eating and am glad to see theyre both doing well. 6 p.m. My company gives us a budget for team bonding, either in the city we travel to or at home in Chicago. Given the current situation, we can now use it for virtual case team events where we all order takeout from the same place. I order a chicken caesar salad with a side of parmesan fries, and we all eat dinner over video chat. I share the food that I ordered with N. and he waves hello to my colleagues before going to play video games. ($27.00 expensed) 9 p.m. After another episode of Tiger King, N. and I fall asleep before 9:30. Weve been getting a ton of sleep during this whole terrible situation, which is something Im going to try to continue when the world goes back to normal. Daily Total: $0 Day Seven 7:30 a.m. I wake up and do another virtual yoga class. Then I shower, make scrambled eggs, and am drinking cold brew by 9 at my desk. 12 p.m. After a morning of calls, I break for lunch the final peanut butter soy sauce noodle leftovers (can you tell Im a creature of habit?), which I eat while reading todays Money Diary. 5 p.m. N. gets home earlier than usual, so I decide to log off at 5 to cook an early dinner with him. We make chicken fried rice and work on our puzzle while we eat. Afterward, I log back on for a few more hours to finish up my work. 8 p.m. I FaceTime with my sister and high school best friend, F., and I hear about how F.s virtual grad school is going. Shes staying with her boyfriends family during the crisis and is starting to feel antsy being a guest for so long. I feel bad that I cant help, but its great to talk to both of them. After the call, N. and I have fall right asleep. No TV for the day feels like a win! We didnt used to be so glued to screens, but its hard to feel like theres enough to do otherwise. Daily Total: $0 COVID-19 has been declared a global pandemic. Go to the CDC website for the latest information on symptoms, prevention, and other resources. Money Diaries are meant to reflect individual womens experiences and do not necessarily reflect Refinery29s point of view. Refinery29 in no way encourages illegal activity or harmful behavior. The first step to getting your financial life in order is tracking what you spend to try on your own, check out our guide to managing your money every day. For more money diaries, click here. Do you have a Money Diary youd like to share? Submit it with us here. Have questions about how to submit or our publishing process? Read our Money Diaries FAQ doc here: r29.co/mdfaqs Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? A Week In Brooklyn, NY, On A $75,000 Salary A Week In Phoenix, AZ, On A $50,000 Salary A Week In Denver, CO, On $18 An Hour A former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, expresses disappointment over President Nana Akufo-Addos decision to lift the lockdown imposed on the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Areas. According to him, the inadequate testing centres and upsurge in COVID-19 cases in the country defeat governments decision to lift the lockdown. Speaking on the Point of View on Citi TV, Prof. Akosa said: looking at the science of this whole distribution of COVID-19, one will realize that it has moved from the centre, Accra, towards the peripheryEven with our cases, there was still a lot of backlog in testing which we felt was not good enough [to warrant the lifting of the lockdown]. We needed a situation where more centres could have come online. In anticipation of the Presidents nations address on COVID-19 update on Sunday, 19th April, 2020, Prof. Akosa said he had expected an extension of the lockdown at least by two more weeks to enhance contact tracing of persons believed to have come into contact with those who have tested positive to the virus. I expected probably two weeks to the end of April and I expected that at least all regional capitals should have been locked down as well, he said. On the contrary President Nana Akufo-Addo on Sunday lifted the lockdown but maintained restrictions on public gatherings, a measure adopted to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Presidents Akufo-Addos decision to lift the lockdown has been met with mixed reactions. Whereas some believe that the lockdown should have been extended, others argued otherwise. Okoe Boye disagrees Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye who also spoke on the Point of View defended the decision to lift the lockdown. Lifting of lockdown a bad idea Member of NDC's COVID-19 Team A public Health Specialist and a member of the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) COVID-19 Technical Team, Dr Prosper Akambong had earlier argued that President Nana Akufo-Addo's decision to lift the partial lockdown was hasty. In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, Dr Prosper Akambong said the President should have rather extended the lockdown to other areas that have confirmed cases of COVID-19. Lifting the lockdown is not a good idea because the government is only doing contact tracing and the cases are rising at the time that they are lifting this sanction. And these contact traces are only primary contacts and because of the delay in some of the results that are coming from the primary contacts, the primary contacts have also contacted primary contacts, tertiary contacts and quaternary contacts. So you just can't test a few people and think that because your curve appears to be flattening you should lift the restrictions, I don't think so, he said. Dr Akambong also indicated that the best option was to embark on a mass testing exercise before lifting the lockdown. ---citinewsroom Betsy James Wyeth, 98, the widow of painter Andrew Wyeth who was his muse, model, archivist, and the business brains behind his career, died Tuesday, April 21, at home in Chadds Ford. Mrs. Wyeth had been in declining health for a number of years, a spokesperson for the family said. The Wyeths met in 1939, when Betsy was 17. Andrew proposed within about a week, they married 10 months later, and they quickly formed one of the most successful personal and professional partnerships in the history of art. More than just the organizational and financial genius of the enterprise, Mrs. Wyeth also had a firm hand in guiding her husband's artistic development. She critiqued his work and suggested subjects for his paintings. She encouraged Andrew Wyeths artistic independence from his father and only teacher, illustrator N.C. Wyeth. Later she came up with the idea of turning an old grist mill in Chadds Ford into what would become the Brandywine River Museum of Art, which opened in 1971 and continues in part as a shrine to her husband and the artist family from which he sprang. Virtually every corner of [Andrew] Wyeths existence is somehow influenced by Betsy, wrote Richard Meryman in Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life. "She frees him from all responsibilities, administers the investments, the painting collection, the files and records, her staff, the properties, the business decisions. Mrs. Wyeth gave her husband the protected, predictable, disciplined platform essential to his life," Meryman wrote. "She lived life quietly but large, said Peter Ralston, who met the Wyeths in the late 1950s and often photographed them. "She had a great sense of humor; she was intellectually gifted, to say the very least. She was every bit as creative and brilliant as Andy. It was she who introduced Andrew Wyeth to Christina Olson, a family friend in Cushing, Maine. The resulting image, produced a few years later, featured a female figure part Betsy Wyeth, part Christina Olson appearing to drag herself across a large field, and Christinas World became a rare instance of fine art crossing over into pop iconography. Andrew and Betsy Wyeth were often referred to as being two sides of the same coin. Really she should have also signed his paintings, said Jamie Wyeth, one of the couples two sons, in the short film Betsys World. But Mrs. Wyeth did not widely project a powerhouse persona. There were all of these different angles to this woman, and yet she always stayed in the background, said Mary Landa, the manager of the Betsy & Andrew Wyeth Collection who knew Mrs. Wyeth for nearly a half-century. She never wanted her picture taken. It was always Andrew. And she was a very shy person, so that was great cover for her. A life in art seemed like a birthright for both Wyeths. His father, N.C., made his fortune illustrating advertisements and popular editions of Treasure Island and The Boys King Arthur. Born Sept. 26, 1921, in East Aurora, N.Y., Betsy Merle James was the daughter of Elizabeth Browning James and Merle Davis James. Her father was a rotogravure editor at the Buffalo Courier-Express, a painter, and art director for Roycroft, the community of artists and craftworkers. The family summered in Cushing, where she met her husband. The Wyeths married in East Aurora and honeymooned in Port Clyde, Maine. After a few days, Andrew returned to painting. Ive got to get back to work, he told his new bride. Everything else is going to be secondary. Mrs. Wyeth made sure of it, and she set about creating the conditions under which he would be able to pursue art to the exclusion of everything else. She was often the person who named the paintings, and she was also his greatest critic and judge, said Kathleen A. Foster, the Philadelphia Museum of Art senior curator of American art who organized an Andrew Wyeth retrospective at the museum in 2006. There was a great moment of revelation when he finished a painting and brought it in and hung it on a nail in the wall. She was his number-one audience in that respect. He was painting to please her, to get her approval. Sometimes he would make changes based on her comments, and she had strong opinions about framing designs. She even intuited his aesthetic sensibilities, assembling one mise en scene after another meant to catch his eye. She would create environments to inspire him, like the landscape on Benner Island that was largely invented by Betsy, said Foster, referring to one of several islands in Maine occupied by Wyeth family members. She brought those buildings there and constructed the whole village out there on these islands. That was her artwork. I really do think she was creating the landscape that she thought he would like to paint. The scenes she was setting up on the inside of the houses and on the outside I see her as a kind of landscape artist. Betsy Wyeth was the author of a certain carefully constructed look, a kind of rustic glamour that permeated his art as well their homes in Chadds Ford and coastal Maine. But Andrew also went his own way. Betsy had an aesthetic of glacial neatness. Andrew would say that he liked to go between the two worlds of Chadds Ford and Maine, or back and forth between free wild watercolor and very precise tempera, said Joyce Hill Stoner, a trustee of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, longtime Wyeth family friend, and conservator of his works. And he also had another two worlds: Betsy's stark rooms and houses versus his own various studios with Helga Testorf as his studio assistant for his last two decades. Helga kept things in a tumult. Testorf was a neighbor who modeled for Andrew Wyeth for more than 15 years. Their collaboration produced more than 240 paintings and drawings of Testorf both nude and clothed that, when revealed, were a surprise to many, including Mrs. Wyeth. The Helga Pictures, as they came to be known, created a splash of scandal, landing on the covers of both Time and Newsweek. Asked why her husband felt he had to keep the pictures a secret and what they were about, Betsy Wyeth answered: Love. Otherwise, she responded to the notoriety by cataloging the Helga pictures, which were then sold. The only way she could ground herself was to put them in order. It was a very rough few years for Betsy, said Landa. She was an expert at leveraging the commercial value of her husbands art. At age 18 or 19, she was already questioning the commissions collected by galleries. She wrote and edited books: among them, a monograph on Christinas World, the collected letters of N.C. Wyeth, and a survey of images Andrew produced over 44 years of the people, places, and objects in the crude but subject-rich world of Kuerner Farm in Chadds Ford. In the 1970s, she marketed art reproductions connected to a Wyeth show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the 1980s, she worked with IBM to develop computer imaging software to preserve, organize, catalog, and reproduce high-quality digital images. Christinas World became one of the most widely reproduced art posters in history, according to the Brandywine Museum. After Andrew Wyeths death in 2009, she donated his studio to the Brandywine, whose existence she had first imagined decades earlier. Im sure there would not be a Brandywine Museum without Betsy, Im sure of that, said James H. Duff, the museums former director. The Wyeths enjoyed giving extravagant birthday or anniversary gifts to each other, like Howard Pyle paintings. Andrew had jeweler Donald Pywell make Betsy platinum or gold necklaces that echoed features from his tempera paintings, said Stoner. She would knit him the most complicated patterned sweaters of gorgeous colors from his paintings sky blues of the Maine landscape skies or earth colors, said Stoner. Few gifts, though, could match what Betsy gave Andrew the day they met, when she brought him over to meet the Olsons. As Jamie said in Betsys World, Wyeth started painting images of the Olson house that very day. And then for the next 45 years, that house and that family [brother] Alvaro and Christina Olson became [a] focus of his work. And how a 17-year-old girl could sense that I think is just extraordinary. Surviving in addition to Jamie Wyeth of Wilmington, are her son Nicholas Wyeth of Elkton, Md., and granddaughter Victoria Wyeth of Philadelphia. Services are private. Donations in her name may be made to the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art, P.O. Box 141, Chadds Ford, Pa., 19317, or the Farnsworth Art Museum, 16 Museum St., Rockland, Maine, 04841. King Gon embraced Officer Tae-Eul as he had been longing to see her after that painful night in the year 1994. Tae-Eul pushed him and tried to stay focused by interrogating him for any violations. Tae-Eul asked for his ID and his reasons for showing in the middle of the street with a horse. King Gon didn't have any ID with him, and his explanation wasn't enough for Tae-Eul to believe. He was brought to the station for further examination. The Republic of Korea At the office, King Gon tried to explain his status but Tae-Eul continued to dismiss his words. She asked all his materials to surrender and check each of the items. King Gon tried to pull away from her arms since no one had ever touched his body. Tae-Eul was strong enough to grab his hands for fingerprints. The Kingdom of Corea Court Lady Ok-Nam was worried as King Gon didn't return since they lost his whereabouts. She asked help from Yong In, one of the royal family members, to come up with a plan to keep the king busy. Jo Young, together with his men, searched the forest until night time. They lost King Gon's track in the middle of the bamboo forest and no other leads after that. Jo Young asked to talk with the two prisoners who might have known about "White Rabbit." Jo Young tried to get more information form the prisoners but they didn't have the full details of the lady. They call her "Luna" who get their money through scams. Jo Young then asked the police to prepare the recording videos around the place. The Republic of Korea King Gon, now behind bars, asked for a chair from Tae-Eul. He mentioned that he never tried to sit on the floor. Tae-Eul didn't answer back and continued to work on her desk. Jo Eunsup came in and asked why he kept on calling to the officer. King Gon looked at him and surprised to see a familiar face - it's Jo Young! Although his hair and dress are different from what he used to in Corea, Eo Eunsup past a document to Tae-Eul informed her that it comes from his department. He took one sachet of juice and made a dance move with it. King Gon dropped his jaw and confirmed that he is not Jo Young. Jo Eunsup possesses good vibes and jokes around in the station. He smiles by showing his teeth and closing his eyes. The forensic team cannot find any records using King Gon's fingertips. Tae-Eul released King Gon as it will give her more work to do since no records under his name. No place to go, King Gon requested to visit a jewelry shop nearby. Tae-Eul brought him to one of the shops. King Gon took out a piece of his buttons and pawned it for cash. The owner checked the authenticity of the stone and told them it is his first time to see such a rare diamond. He gave the money worth for the stone. King Gon used the money to rent a big suite room of a hotel. He advised Tae-Eul that he wishes to stay longer in her world to study about parallel universes, though one of his main reasons is he wanted to spend more time with her. King Gon made 13 attempts until Jo Eunsup picked up his call. He asked him to accompany him to buy clothes. He bought stuff for Eunsup and, at the same time, asked to see his family picture. Looking at the picture, Eunsup and his father looks different than the one Jo Young has back in the kingdom. The next day, King Gon visited shops around the city. He kept on calling Tae-Eul to describe his experience, but Tae-Eul always ends the call. He loves the bread that tastes like the one he ate for breakfast. He also likes the clothes and bought a lot for him to use. Meanwhile, Ye Rim enjoys painting the temple with colors that he created. He is thankful to the monk as he got the chance to paint the walls. Ye Rim still holds the power of the "Manpasikjeok." He helps people in suffering and turns their evil wish to reality. Welcome to this weeks security newsletter. Lets get started:. Security challenges have emerged as states expand their telework programs to allow staff to work from home. Some states are better prepared than others , thanks to early efforts to reduce commuting time and carbon emissions, reportss cybersecurity reporter Lucas Ropek. Washington state has been pushing remote work options since 2014, when Gov. Jay Inslee signed an executive order to encourage telework and flexible working hours.Washington was one of the few states where telework was already highly encouraged. I think that helped us very much in this situation, because many folks, many agencies, were already used to it, Washington CISO Vinod Brahmapuram told Ropek.Utah has had a statewide telework program since 2018, involving more than 2,500 workers. When COVID-19 struck, the government had already been given the opportunity to build out associated infrastructure, according to Phil Bates, state CISO with Utah's Department of Technology Services.Increasing the number of remote state workers has forced CISOs to move quickly with security provisions, as government, business and individuals have seen a surge in malicious activity that has accompanied the pandemic. Experts have warned that increases in social engineering attempts, virus-related lures and ransomware should all be considered possibilities.David Allen, state CISO with the Georgia Technology Authority (GTA), said that his agency has witnessed an undeniable uptick in interest from bad actors.This crisis has presented some challenges across all IT fronts. When your capacity is built around a certain concurrent number on any given day and now 100 percent of your workforce is remote, that puts a certain stress on the technology," he told Ropek. "From a security standpoint, in the beginning it was kind of business as usual. But now as we enter the third week or so weve seen a lot of increased activity; weve seen increased phishing campaigns against employees, a lot more scanning activity against networks.Utah has seen a similar increase in phishing campaigns since the coronavirus forced the state to curtail office work. The state gets anywhere from 1 billion to 1.4 billion scan attempts on its network per day. But that's been ramping up since this [COVID-19] has happened over the past couple weeks. I think we hit 2.1 billion last weekend, said Bates.Along with rapid and repeated testing of large segments of the population, a key component to reopening the economy during the pandemic will be tracking how COVID-19 spreads. Government and public health systems will have to track and monitor Americans as they get on with their daily lives.Technology could gauge the spread of the disease and help identify and isolate the infected by pulling data from diagnostic testing labs and hospitals to mobile phone-based apps where individuals who are infected would voluntarily identify themselves to help others avoid contact.For example, the state of Connecticut is considering a plan to ease the state and its economy out of its current shutdown that includes investing in not just more testing, but also measures to track and even confine those officially known to have COVID-19. This form of contact tracing has been recommended by a report from the American Enterprise Institute, but the word surveillance has entered the conversation, alarming privacy advocates.Massachusetts has already made an investment in contact tracing , allocating $44 million and hiring 1,000 people to track the contacts of people who are infected. 'Pastor' to plead guilty to $33M church-based investment scam Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A man claiming to be a pastor in California will plead guilty to organizing an investment scam using the guise of a church to swindle over $33 million away from investors, primarily from Orange Countys Vietnamese community. He could face over two decades in prison. The Department of Justice announced last week that 38-year-old Kent Whitney of Newport Beach has agreed to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of filing a false federal income tax return. According to the plea agreement, Whitney will admit that he engaged in a scheme to defraud investors through an entity he founded called the Church for the Healthy Self and its investment program, CHS Trust. The scam lasted from September 2014 until April 2019. The Church for the Healthy Self was launched by Whitney only three months after he was released from federal prison for organizing a previous commodities-driven investment scheme, according to court documents. Even though the church is physically operated out of a strip mall in Westminster, California, CHS Trust is headquartered out of Dallas, Texas. The church no longer has an active Facebook page or website. But Whitneys LinkedIn profile claimed that Church for the Healthy Self supported over 20 charities and offered programs in everything from Young Earth Creationism to Health and Wellness and managing your Personal Investments. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Whitney last March when it announced a bust of a $25 million Ponzi scheme that falsely promised high annual returns with minimal to no risk to investors. The churchs co-pastor and alleged director of CHS Trust, David Lee Parrish, was also charged by the SEC in its complaint filed March 13, 2019. The SEC alleges that the Church for the Healthy Self targeted the Vietnamese community of Orange County with radio and television advertisements that included various misrepresentations and false claims about CHS Trust. According to the SEC, CHS Trust promised investors tax-deductible, guaranteed, and insured returns of at least 12 percent through reinsurance investments and options trading. CHS Trust also assured investors that there was no risk because their investments were federally insured and that the trust was audited. CHS told investors it was not a Ponzi scheme, but is managed by Wall Street investors, audited by KPMG, and is a well-run company that brings big returns to its investors, the SEC complaint reads. These assurances are false. According to the U.S. Attorneys office, CHS representatives appeared on television and at live seminars at CHS offices to solicit investments in CHS Trust. The Federal Bureau of Investigation seized the funds remaining in the CHS Trust accounts last March. The Defendants misused almost all of the roughly $25 million raised from investors, the SEC wrote in its legal complaint last March. Last Wednesday, authorities alleged that investors sunk over $33 million into the Ponzi scheme in over 4.5 years. However, a very small percentage of that money actually went into trading accounts. Relying on these false statements, victim-investors sent more than $33 million to CHS from 2014 to 2019, the press release explains. Court documents indicate that CHS Trust sent falsified monthly statements showing investors that the trust was earning returns. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of California accuses Whitney of trying to lull victims into believing their money had been invested. Whitney also admitted in his plea agreement to filing a false federal income tax return in 2018 in which he claimed to have earned only $17,539. However, authorities believe his true income was at least $452,872, most of which was obtained through the fraud scheme. According to the plea agreement, the resulting tax loss was at least $130,808. Whitney could face a maximum sentence of up to 23 years in federal prison, according to prosecutors. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Monday reached a consensus on the investment scale of Public-Private Partnership projects. NA deputies discuss thedraft law on PPP and draft revised Youth Law on Monday morning. While discussing the draft law on PPP at their 44th session, legislators agreed that PPP projects in healthcare and education in remote and extremely disadvantaged areas must have a minimum investment of VN100 billion (US$4.4 million). PPP projects in other sectors and areas must have a minimum investment of VN200 billion ($8.8 million). The PPP project investment scale is mentioned in Item 3, Clause 5 of the draft law. NA vice chairman Phung Quoc Hien said the draft law must ensure consistency within the legal system but could still contain specific regulations to attract investment. The legislators agreed to uphold the responsibilities of people who approved and assessed investment projects. They said there should be a risk-sharing mechanism between the public and private sectors in case projects suffered falling profits due to changes to State policies. Youth Law According to Phan Thanh Binh, chairman of the NA Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children, the draft revised Youth Law included a new chapter regulating the responsibilities of the youth towards the nation, their families and society. To create legal conditions for the youth to prove themselves, the draft law regulates State policies on the responsibilities of agencies, organisations, schools and families. The draft law would legalise the responsibilities of the youth and organisations, families and society in order to highlight the youths pioneering roles in all sectors as well as create conditions for them to make contributions to the nation. NA Standing vice chairwoman Tong Thi Phong asked agencies in charge of preparing the draft law to co-ordinate with the Central Youth Union and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to collect legislators feedback. Relevant agencies have been asked to explain content related to youth age, policies to exploit intellect, responsibilities of the youth in national construction and defence, detailed policies for specific groups of young people, and the responsibilities of sectors and localities in holding dialogues with young people. The NA last week announced that half of the meetings at the 14th NAs ninth session to take place next month would be held online. The opening session will be held between May 20 and 25. The law makers gathering in the middle of the year will be divided into two phases depending on the COVID-19 pandemics developments. The first phase (online) will last for five to seven days when legislators stay at their localities to join teleconferences. The second phase is expected to take place after the pandemic is over when the law makers will gather in Ha Noi to have confidential votes on a number of issues. VNS Crunch time for expressway PPPs in Vietnam The key Eastern Cluster of the North-South Expressway venture has run aground, prompting the Ministry of Transport to reconsider investment scenarios to improve the bankability of each component project After a 39-year-old federal prison employee died and later tested positive for the new coronavirus, employees are speaking up about what they said are unsafe conditions at the facility where she worked. The Bureau of Prisons on Friday confirmed its first staff death potentially due to COVID-19. Robin Grubbs, a caseworker at the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta, was found dead in her home Tuesday and posthumously tested positive for the virus, a BOP spokesperson said. CBS News spoke with four correctional officers at USP Atlanta who complained of insufficient access to protective equipment and inconsistent communication about how many staff and inmates were infected at any given time. "Already, it's a stressful job. Already, you don't ever know what you're walking into, but to add this on, this pandemic, where it could jump on you and just take your life away like that, it's mind-boggling. It's terrifying," said one correctional officer who was a close friend of Grubbs. Grubbs's office, employees said, was located in the "Baker 3" unit, a previously empty area where the facility had begun to house inmates who were sick or exposed to the coronavirus. One friend said Grubbs had talked about not being provided with equipment to stay safe and that she was trying to get out of the unit. Grubbs was most recently a case manager and employees remembered her as a hard worker who just last month had scored a promotion to a job helping released inmates transition back into society. The position would have landed her an office in a different building. As the illness spread, she told friends she repeatedly asked to assume her new position and move to her new office but was never able to start her new job. Taneka Miller, Grubbs's colleague and executive secretary of the union representing USP Atlanta employees, said she spoke to Grubbs last week. "She was like, 'Girl. Oh my God, they won't let me go for whatever reason. I'm so ready to go. I'm so ready to go," Miller said. Story continues Jacquetta Rosemond, union treasurer and paint worker supervisor at USP Atlanta, was surprised that Grubbs hadn't moved to a different floor. As a case manager for the Baker unit, Grubbs would have been assigned to work with inmates on the first two floors of the building, but not with the sick and isolated inmates in Baker 3, Rosemond said. "She didn't even get to go to her new job," Rosemond said. "There was really no reason for her to stay on that unit Those particular inmates in that unit were not on her caseload." "Everything was on backorder" A former colleague said that when the illness first hit the federal prison system, Grubbs tried to purchase her own mask. "All she kept telling me was that she didn't want to catch the COVID-19. So she personally bought some masks, but, you know, everything was on backorder," the colleague said. Robin Grubbs Prison Coronavirus Death Robin Grubbs Robin Grubbs/Facebook Miller said even surgical masks weren't readily available until last week when the prison began providing them weekly to each staff member. Three employees who ran into Grubbs in other units in the facility the week before she died said they saw her wearing either no mask or a surgical mask, and none said they had seen her with an N-95 mask. Employees said that each USP Atlanta staff member would have had access to at least one N-95 mask starting around the end of March, but they needed to be fit-tested first. But Rosemond and Miller said that some officers weren't tested until April, while others were unwilling to reuse their single N-95 mask day after day. When asked about the availability of masks, claims of inconsistent communication and when Grubbs was scheduled to assume her new role, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson on Sunday sent the following statement: "We can acknowledge the death of an employee at USP Atlanta, however, there is no information or evidence relating to a cause of death." The agency declined to comment on the specific concerns raised by staff. Rosemond and Miller told CBS News in March that Atlanta employees many of whom are charged with patting down hundreds of inmates per day could not reliably access gloves. Some staff members would purchase and wear their own gloves, Miller said, but many didn't own their own gloves and would use bare hands to pat-search inmates. Rosemond and Miller said management distributed more PPE this month, but access remains inconsistent and many staff wished it had come sooner. "Word of mouth" For weeks, Atlanta employees have told CBS News they wished management would notify them more frequently about the number of staff and inmate cases at the facility. "The communication is horrible. It's late, it's last minute, and it's not full information," Miller said. "It's like they're sitting on the information." Miller said 13 days after she was allegedly exposed to the virus on the job, a member of the medical staff contacted her and informed her that she'd been exposed. Because the incubation period was only 14 days and she hadn't experienced any symptoms, the staff member told her that she should come back to work for her next shift. "I was highly pissed off," Miller said. "I come home to a 2-year-old every day who does not have the best immune system." After the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Medical Examiner's Office informed BOP that Grubbs had posthumously tested positive for COVID-19, Woods sent a memo Friday to notify staff. A BOP spokesperson said that Grubbs's official cause of death has not yet been determined, as her autopsy is not yet complete. Prior to last week, three staff members told CBS News they were only officially informed of one inmate and two staff cases of COVID-19 at the Atlanta prison. On Thursday, Woods said in an email to staff that the facility had "six staff and 12 inmate positive cases for COVID-19." On Friday, the BOP publicly reported three staff and eight inmate positive cases. Atlanta employees said they were confused by the discrepancy. Other than those two emails, Rosemond said, "everything else was word of mouth." "I don't feel safe," another correctional officer said. "We're not being informed of how the numbers have changed." When asked about the discrepancy, a BOP spokesperson said, "The positive test numbers are based on the most recently available confirmed lab results involving open cases from across the agency as reported by the BOP's Office of Occupational Health and Safety. BOP field sites may report additional updates throughout the day. Data on the dashboard is subject to change based on additional reporting by field sites." As of Sunday, the Bureau of Prison said 495 federal inmates and 309 staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 nationwide. A total of 155 inmates and 29 staff have recovered from the disease, while 21 inmates have died. Since Attorney General William Barr encouraged the use of home detention on March 21, a total of 1,280 inmates have been sent to home confinement. Rosemond said that as a case manager, Grubbs was at level 11 in the federal service pay scale, which would have put her annual salary somewhere between $67,437 and $87,667. Earlier this month, the union that represents prison staff, as well as 700,000 other federal employees, filed a class-action lawsuit against the BOP and other agencies for Hazard Pay, which would increase their hourly wage by up to 25%. The BOP declined to comment on the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges a pattern of employee exposure to COVID-19 due to lax safety standards. The complaint highlights the case of one BOP employee at FCI Oakdale who was given only gloves to wear as personal protective equipment while escorting an inmate to a nearby hospital. The employee later learned the inmate was sick with COVID-19. Grubb's final days Grubbs's colleagues described her as someone who savored life. She was a passionate Atlanta Falcons fan and loved trying new restaurants, a work friend said, especially if seafood was involved. She traveled often and was constantly looking forward to her next trip, according to the friend, who said they'd recently fantasized about taking a trip to Belize this fall after the pandemic calmed down. Grubbs was an Army veteran and leaves behind her brother, parents, two grandmothers, and her beloved Yorkie named Louie. On April 10, she posted a video of her parents after they had dropped off a "Corona Care Package" filled with cough medicine, ginger ale and hand sanitizer. She wrote, "Airhugs because Corona is everywhere at this point... How did I get so lucky?" Additional reporting by Clare Hymes. Famous D.C. restaurant fights to stay open during coronavirus outbreak Doctors find unexpected symptom in children with COVID-19 Controversial smartphone app tracking people exposed to coronavirus Terming last week's Palghar lynching incident as a "blot on humanity", Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday said the guilty will get strict punishment as per the law. Pawar said a criminal investigation department (CID) probe is already on into the matter and more than 100 persons have been arrested. On Thursday, two seers and their driver were lynched by a mob in Kasa police station limits in neighbouring Palghar district while they were on their way to attend a funeral in Surat in Gujarat amid the lockdown for the coronavirus outbreak. "The Palghar incident is a blot on humanity, it is condemnable. A CID probe has begun into the incident and more than 100 persons have been arrested. All the guilty will be punished strictly as per law," a statement quoted him as saying. Speaking on the lockdown, Pawar asked people to stay inside their homes and not behave "irresponsibly" if they wanted to prove wrong World Health Organisation Director- General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who has warned that "the worst is yet ahead of us" in the coronavirus outbreak. Pawar said it was "increasingly worrying" that the number of COVID-19 patients had gone up in Mumbai. Thane, Pune and Malegaon. He also raised concern over 53 media persons getting infected by the coronavirus in Mumbai. "Yet people are gathering on roads without any reason. They are risking their own and their families' lives. This should be stopped," Pawar said women and children should take the responsibility of not letting anyone in their families step out during the lockdown. Pawar reiterated that social distancing must be followed properly in line with the appeals made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, state Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope, doctors and police. He said people should fight the coronavirus outbreak unitedly forgetting castes, religions, languages and regions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Chinese student studying in the United States has been accused of triggering a cluster of coronavirus cases involving dozens in north-eastern China after flying home from New York. At least 70 people have been infected and more than 4,000 are being tested in Harbin after the virus was 'imported' into the city by the 22-year-old, known by her surname Han, according to Chinese media. Although most of the infections have been linked to a hospitalised 87-year-old man, known as Chen, Harbin's health officials have named Han as the likely source of the local crisis. A Chinese student studying in the United States has been accused of triggering a cluster of coronavirus cases involving dozens in Harbin, north-eastern China. Passengers wearing face masks are pictured pushing luggage carts at an airport in Harbin on April 11 Harbin health officials are dealing with a cluster of coronavirus cases. At least 70 people have been infected and more than 4,000 are being tested in the provincial capital of Heilongjiang Han tested negative during isolation after landing in her hometown, but local health officials said her two recent tests in April showed she had coronavirus antibodies, which indicated a previous infection. Officials suggested that Han spread the bug to one of her neighbours, whom she never met during her quarantine, by polluting the public space. Her neighbour, Cao, then pass the virus on to various others, who in turn transmitted it to Chen. Chen then spread the virus to dozens others, including at least seven medical workers, reported multiple media outlets, including Southern Urban Daily. Although it still remains unclear when Han had the infection, Chinese media outlets have billed her as a 'super-spreader'. The news comes amid fears that people arriving from abroad and carriers without symptoms could trigger a fresh outbreak in China. Pictured, a job applicants donning a face mask and sun glasses read recruitment information at an on-site job fair on April 21 in Wuhan, Hubei Province Her hometown Harbin, which has around 10 million people, is the capital of Heilongjiang province. The province, which borders Russia, has reported a total of 530 cases since the outbreak began in December, according to its latest statement. The news comes amid fears that people arriving from abroad and carriers without symptoms could trigger a fresh outbreak in China. It also comes as Chinese cities appear to be downplaying native transmissions, but highlighting 'imported cases'. Out of the 60 people who had been diagnosed in Harbin as of Sunday, 21 were silent carriers who showed no symptoms but could pass on the virus to others, according to Beijing Daily. The hospitals in Harbin were arranging 4,106 people to be tested in response to the cluster infections, the report said. The Second Hospital of Harbin halted its operation yesterday after all of the six cases the city registered on Sunday were said to be related to the hospital. According to the Harbin Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Han is a Master's student at New York University in New York. Her parents and brother live in Harbin. Han arrived in her hometown at around 6pm on March 19 after flying out of New York the day before with stopovers in Hong Kong and Beijing. She was met by health workers at the Harbin Taiping International Airport and immediately put under home isolation. On March 31, she was escorted by community officials to a hospital to undergo a nucleic acid test. She passed her quarantine on April 3 after her test result came back negative on the same day. Han and her family went out to have meals with other relatives on April 3 and April 4. She then travelled to Shanghai and spent three nights there to undergo a surgical operation, Li Xikun, an official from the Harbin CDC told Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. A local health official explains to CCTV how Han has caused the chain of infections in Harbin The local health authority contacted Han for another test on April 10 after one of her neighbours, Cao, was identified as an asymptomatic case who showed no symptoms. The result showed Han was negative in IgM, but positive in IgG. It indicated that she was likely to have been infected at some point in the past. Another test, carried out on April 11, showed the same result. Han and her family members have been put under quarantine in a hotel. With the number of new cases dropping sharply in China but soaring abroad, China now views the coronavirus as a 'foreign' problem. Officials have been flaunting their triumph in stemming the outbreak so quickly, and rejecting any claim that describes Wuhan as the birthplace of the pandemic. Beijing's state media compares America to a 'primitive society' over the handling of coronavirus crisis A Chinese newspaper has slammed America's handling of the coronavirus crisis and compared the US to 'a primitive society' in a recent opinion article. Beijing's state media Global Times claimed that the US is 'no match for China in terms of anti-epidemic organization and mobilization' in a column published on Sunday. The startling comment was followed by another opinion piece in which the newspaper declared that 'American democracy is dying'. A volunteer looks out near a Chinese national flag during a farewell ceremony for medical workers who came from outside Wuhan to help the city during the coronavirus outbreak In a column titled 'Smearing China a lame trick to aid reelection for White House', the Global Times described the escalating epidemic in the US is 'like that of a primitive society', blasting Washington's poor handling of the virus outbreak. 'The COVID-19 spread in the US is almost like that of a primitive society. It should not have been like this if the US had the slightest science and organization,' the Chinese state media outlet said. 'To put it bluntly, the U.S. is no match for China in terms of anti-epidemic organization and mobilization. 'The US political system has been hit by the pandemic on its weak side and we were willing to show understanding for that. After all, every system has its weaknesses,' the newspaper asserted. Advertisement The news comes as a north-western province on the frontline of China's coronavirus battle reported today its first cases in nearly three weeks, all involving travellers from overseas. Like other countries hit by the pandemic, China has ordered tough curbs for arriving travellers, such as mandatory quarantine, besides cutting back on international flights and limiting arrivals of foreigners, including business visitors. The province of Shaanxi reported 21 new infections from abroad, as well as seven cases with no clinical symptoms, all travellers on a commercial flight from Moscow bound for the Chinese capital of Beijing. The province of Shaanxi today reported 21 new infections from abroad, as well as seven cases with no clinical symptoms, all travellers on a commercial flight from Moscow bound for the Chinese capital of Beijing. Chinese President Xi is pictured during a visit to Shaanxi on April 20 As the result of a ban on international flights arriving in Beijing, the Air China jet landed on Monday in the provincial capital of Xi'an, where the virus was detected by medical staff running tests at the airport, and confirmed on Tuesday. All those infected were Chinese nationals. New imported infections in mainland China fell to four cases on Monday, the National Health Commission said, the lowest since March 12. The coronavirus outbreak has killed 4,632 people and infected 82,758 in China, according to the latest figures from its National Health Commission. Worldwide, the pandemic has claimed more than 171,000 lives and infected over 2.5 million. Mississauga, Ontario and Sacramento, California--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (TSXV: BEE) (OTCQB: BEVVF) (CVE: BEE) (the "Company" or "BVT") today announced that, with Georgia's blueberry blooming period now complete, growers in the region using the Company's proprietary crop protection system have reported notably-high fruit set and low fruit drop, both typical early indicators of a successful, high-yield harvest. "BVT continues to positively impact our blueberry operations. We had very high fruit set despite poor weather conditions at times. 2020 will definitely be the highest production year for us and we will continue to use BVT for years to come," said Winn Morgan, Co-founder of Major League Blueberries (MLB) and a leading blueberry expert. "This was our first experience with the BVT system, and we are very pleased with what we saw," said John Bennett of Alma Sunbelt Blueberries, a leading Georgia blueberry grower who farms 355 acres of highbush and rabbiteye. "We are encouraged with the results on our highbush farm and we are going to use the BVT system next year." "We are hearing from growers like MLB and Alma Sunbelt that BVT's natural precision agriculture system is mitigating the long-standing issue of early fruit drop in highbush blueberries," said Ashish Malik, CEO of Bee Vectoring Technologies. "More berries making it to maturity mean higher yields. Feedback from growers who used our system on a combined 750 acres this season has been extremely positive and clearly associated the high fruit set they have seen with use of the BVT system." In conventional commercial crops, growers traditionally control disease with chemical pesticide sprays. Now they are adding BVT's natural, 100% organic, precision agriculture system, which uses biological pesticide alternatives delivered directly to blueberry flowers by commercially grown bees. This is improving yields, protecting against disease and reducing the use of water and fossil fuels, all while using a fraction of the product required with traditional spray applications. "The Georgia growers who piloted our system this season farm on a combined total of about 3,000 acres," said Mr. Malik. "Most are first-time users, and based on this initial success, we anticipate they'll progressively add BVT across their entire operations over the next two to three seasons." Up next for BVT is the berry season in the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest and Southeastern regions of the US have a combined 60,000(1) acres of cultivated highbush blueberries, representing two-thirds of the 90,000(2) acre US market. With the blooming period in Georgia now complete, harvesting will occur through May and into June. Right now, the blooming period has just started in Oregon, and in Washington state it starts in early May. Yield reports will be compiled after harvesting closes for each region, as the growing season progresses geographically across the US. The Company also announced that it has issued an aggregate of 50,000 restricted share units of the Company ("RSUs") to two consultants of the Company under the Company's shareholder approved restricted share unit plan (the "RSU Plan") as an incentive for the consultants to drive the growth of the Company. The RSUs vest on the 30th day from grant and entitle the holder to acquire one common share (a "Common Share") of the Company underlying each such RSU by delivering a notice of acquisition to the Company in accordance with the RSU Plan. In accordance with the RSU Plan, the RSUs were priced at $0.445 based on the closing price of the Common Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange on April 15, 2020. (1)(2) Source: USDA, 2018 Agricultural Statistics Annual About Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. BVT, an agriculture technology company, is a market disruptor with a significant global market opportunity in the $240 billion crop protection and fertilizer market. BVT has pioneered a natural precision agriculture system that replaces chemical pesticides and wasteful plant protection product spray applications by delivering biological pesticide alternatives to crops using commercially grown bees. BVT's award-winning technology, precision vectoring, is completely harmless to bees and allows minute amounts of naturally-derived pesticides (called biologicals) to be delivered directly to blooms, providing improved crop protection and yield results than traditional chemical pesticides - and improving the health of the soil, the microbiome and the environment. Currently, BVT has over 65 granted patents, over 35 patents pending in all major agricultural countries worldwide, and has US EPA registration of its VECTORITE with CR-7 (EPA Registration No. 90641-2) for sale as a registered biological fungicide for use on the labeled crops. Additional information can be viewed at the Company's website www.beevt.com. To receive regular news updates from the Company, subscribe at www.beevt.com/newsletter. Contact: Ashish Malik, President & CEO info@beevt.com Babak Pedram, Investor Relations Virtus Advisory Group Tel: 416-995-8651 bpedram@virtusadvisory.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, "annual revenue potential", are intended to identify forward-looking information. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, and current information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including: planted acres of strawberries in Florida, selling price of competitive chemical pesticides and the US to Canadian dollar exchange rate. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information to vary from those described herein should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize. These factors include changes in law, competition, litigation, the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities, state of the capital markets, the availability of funds and resources to pursue operations, new technologies, the ability to protect intellectual property rights, the ability to obtain patent protection for products, third-party intellectual property infringement claims, regulatory changes affecting products, failing research and development activities, the ability to reach and sustain profitability, dependence on business and technical experts, the ability to effectively manage business operations and growth, issuance of debt, dilution of existing securities, volatility of publicly traded securities, potential conflicts of interest, unlikelihood of dividend payments, the potential costs stemming from defending third-party intellectual property infringement claims, the ability to secure relationships with manufacturers and purchasers, as well as general economic, market and business conditions, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's Filing Statement dated May 29, 2015, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law. All figures are in Canadian dollars. ### To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54680 Officials in Milwaukee have been able to trace seven positive coronavirus cases back to in-person voting during the Wisconsin primary. Wisconsin went ahead with its Democratic primary on 7 April, despite the states governor, Tony Evers, attempting to postpone the election. Although the state had a stay-at-home order in place, the conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked Mr Evers attempts and ruled that the primary had to go ahead in-person. At the time, the governor said that the health of the states citizens was more important than the primary. At the end of the day, this is about the people of Wisconsin, he said. They frankly dont care much about Republicans and Democrats fighting. Theyre scared. We have the surgeon general saying this is Pearl Harbour. Its time to act. Milwaukees health commissioner, Jeanette Kowalik, revealed on Monday that six of the citys voters and one poll worker had tested positive for Covid-19. Ms Kowalik added that they hoped to know more about the situation later in the week. Wisconsin senator Dave Hansen told reporters, including one from NBC, on a conference call on Tuesday: I fear this is just the beginning. Additionally, Sean Eldridge, founder of advocacy group Stand Up America, told the outlet that if postal voting isnt introduced, more positive cases could occur. This was entirely preventable, but now Wisconsinites are paying a real price for the reckless disregard for their safety, he said. If Congress fails to provide states funding for vote-by-mail and other election assistance, then what were seeing in Wisconsin right now could be the tip of the iceberg, Mr Eldridge added. Before the election went ahead, Bernie Sanders, who was a candidate in the primary, blasted the decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court to continue with the election in-person. Lets be clear: holding this election amid the coronavirus outbreak is dangerous, disregards the guidance of public health experts, and may very well prove deadly, he said. For that reason, our campaign will not be engaged in any traditional GOTV efforts, the senator from Vermont added. There has not been a Democratic primary since the one in Wisconsin, and states all over the country have postponed their elections, amid the pandemic. Googles dedicated coronavirus page shows that Wisconsin has upwards of 4,199 confirmed cases and at least 211 deaths. According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, nationally there are upwards of 788,920 people who have tested positive for coronavirus. The death toll has reached at least 42,458. Shake Shack and Harvard University have been under fire this week for taking millions of dollars of stimulus money that was meant to help small businesses cope with the coronavirus pandemic. With Congress set to replenish the Small Business Administrations Paycheck Protection Program this week, the White House is planning to update its guidance to ensure that rich organizations do not take money that they do not need. Harvards going to pay back the money, President Trump said at a news conference on Tuesday. Harvard, which has a $40 billion endowment, received $8 million in loan money. Shake Shack said this week that it would return its $10 million loan after a public uproar. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it appeared that there was some ambiguity in the rules surrounding the loan program that made big companies think they were allowed to apply for the loans. The intent of this was for businesses that needed the money, Mr. Mnuchin said. The intent of this money was not for big public companies that have access to capital. Mr. Mnuchin said that the Treasury Department would release new guidance explaining the certification requirements for the loans and that companies that did not meet those requirements would have the opportunity to return the money. Those that fail to do so will face severe consequences, Mr. Mnuchin said without elaborating on what the penalties would entail. General Motors shuts down Maven, its car-sharing service. General Motors said on Tuesday that it was shutting down its four-year-old car-sharing service, Maven, the latest such venture to close its doors. Maven, which allows customers to rent cars by the hour, has struggled to build a substantial following. It was forced to suspend services in March because of the coronavirus outbreak. Research institutes Inria and Fraunhofer have shared details on their contact-tracing protocol that could be used by the French and German governments in the coming weeks. It is named ROBERT for ROBust and privacy-presERving proximity Tracing protocol. Inria and Fraunhofer are members of the Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) project. On Friday, PEPP-PT said that seven European governments were interested in developing national apps based on the standardized approach. So ROBERT could become an important inspiration for various contact-tracing apps around Europe. The French and German research teams have chosen to share technical specifications on GitHub with various documents explaining their work so far. In addition to a full-fledged specification document, the group has written a high-level overview with frequently asked questions, an illustrated example and an interestingly-named document: Proximity Tracing Applications: The misleading debate about centralised versus decentralised approaches. Inrias CEO Bruno Sportisse also wrote an article on Inrias website describing the thinking behind Inrias (and Fraunhofers) work. In addition to explaining the concept of contact tracing, he says theres no such thing as a decentralized contact-tracing protocol or a centralized contact-tracing protocol. None of the projects aim to implement a peer-to-peer network in which everything would rely on a supposedly independent community [] of devices/smartphones that exchange information between them. The main reason why thats not the case is that security vulnerabilities could have an impact with such an approach, Sportisse wrote. All systems in the works include a common component (a server) and a decentralized component (a group of smartphones that can communicate between them using Bluetooth): all systems currently in the works are therefore both centralized [] and decentralized, he continued. And yet, centralization and decentralization have been at the heart of a debate between privacy researchers in Europe, with backers of the DP-3T initiative sometimes calling out PEPP-PTs approach. DP-3T is another coalition of experts that claim to care more about privacy than PEPP-PT. Story continues So lets dive in to ROBERT and find out what Inria and Fraunhofer mean by a centralized-decentralized contact-tracing protocol. Unpacking ROBERT In the specification document, Inria and Fraunhofer define the big principles behind ROBERT. Our scheme provides the following goals as detailed in [2]: Those are all fair points, but based on the rest of the document, anonymity is not 100% guaranteed for all actors involved (the government, other app users, malicious users). The document itself describes why there could be some loopholes in the protocol: The authority running the system, in turn, is honest-but-curious. Specifically, it will not deploy spying devices or will not modify the protocols and the messages. However, it might use collected information for other purposes such as to re-identify users or to infer their contact graphs. We assume the back-end system is secure, and regularly audited and controlled by external trusted and neutral authorities (such as Data Protection Authorities and National Cybersecurity Agencies). Thats a big if. Basically, the protocol is designed in such a way that it protects your privacy as long as you trust the government/the health ministry/whoever is in charge of running the central server. Based on that statement alone, it seems like the authority could log a ton of information about app users. Generating a log of your proximity contacts At its core, a contact-tracing app uses Bluetooth to build a comprehensive list of other app users who youve interacted with for more than a few seconds. A ROBERT-based contact-tracing app would make those matches on your device. ROBERT uses ephemeral Bluetooth IDs that change every 15 minutes. For example, if youre talking with someone for 10 minutes, youre going to regularly send your ephemeral Bluetooth ID to the other person, and youre going to receive the other persons ephemeral Bluetooth ID. If nobody gets infected with COVID-19, those IDs remain on your device (and might even get purged after a while). The app also collects additional information associated with ephemeral Bluetooth IDs. For instance, it collects the strength of the Bluetooth signal to evaluate the distance between the two persons. All of this is fairly standard. Uploading your contact list, not your own ephemeral identifiers Approaches differ if somebody is confirmed to be infected with COVID-19. Under the ROBERT implementation, if a user is diagnosed COVID-positive and gives their consent to help the community of other app users, the app will upload the list of ephemeral Bluetooth IDs of other users that theyve been interacting with over the past 14 days. Again, the app doesnt send the users own ephemeral Bluetooth IDs it sends information about the circle of people gravitating around the infected user. The server then has a list of potentially exposed users. It doesnt necessarily mean theyll be infected with COVID-19. Computing a risk score on the server So what does the server do with this list of potentially exposed users? When you download a ROBERT-based contact-tracing app (such as Frances Stop Covid app that is in the works) and launch it for the first time, the server is notified. The server generates and sends a permanent ID and a list of ephemeral Bluetooth IDs. The server also keeps a list of all temporary IDs associated with permanent IDs. In other words, the authority has a giant database of all permanent and ephemeral IDs associated with all app users. While the specifications say the stored information are anonymous and, by no mean, associated to a particular user, its in no way anonymous. Its pseudonymous. When a user is diagnosed COVID-positive and accepts to share a list of the ephemeral Bluetooth IDs of people theyve interacted with, the server logs all that information and increases the risk score of people theyve interacted with. Over time, multiple users who are confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 could flag different Bluetooth ephemeral IDs that belong to the same user. The server is going to increase the risk score of the permanent ID associated to that user. Essentially, the authority will have a database of permanent IDs with each ID representing one person. There will be a risk score associated to each person. When the risk score reaches a certain threshold, the user is notified. A weak defense of centralization As you can see in my description of the ROBERT protocol, the project tries to minimize the attack surface by centralizing most computing on a server. It is designed to be resilient against malicious users as much as possible it requires you to register your account by obtaining a permanent ID from a central server. But this centralized implementation means that youll have to trust your government. In particular, you have to trust that: Theyre not doing anything nefarious without telling you. They have developed a secure implementation of the ROBERT protocol. For instance, what if a ROBERT-based app uploads your IP address when your app checks the risk score associated with your permanent ID? What if the government wants a little more data to examine the social graph of pseudonyms? Those could be huge privacy risks and the end user wouldnt even be aware of the vulnerability. It is basically the opposite of "privacy by design." Instead, Inria and Fraunhofer throw the DP-3T implementation under the bus: Other, qualified as decentralised, schemes broadcast to each App an aggregate information containing the pseudonyms of all the infected users. This information allow each App to decode the identifiers of infected users and verify if any of them are part of its contact list. Our scheme does not follow this principle because we believe that sending information about all infected users reveals too much information. In fact, it has been shown that this information can be easily used by malicious users to re-identify infected users at scale. We claim that infected user re-identification must absolutely be avoided since it could lead to stigmatisation. Instead, we chose to securely store this information on a central server. Dismissing decentralized protocols in such a way is completely irresponsible. In both cases, it depends on the implementation. Thats why its going to be important to let developers audit the code that runs both on the smartphone and the server whether the server is only a relay server or a central database. Otherwise, people are not going to trust contact-tracing apps and they will be useless. Data on your device can be encrypted and inaccessible to other apps and malicious users. The government could even control a decryption key using a multi-signature authentication. This way, malicious users wouldnt be able to decrypt data without interacting with the central server, and the central server wouldnt be able to access user data. Students of Hanoi's Mechanical and Electric College in a robot control class. (Photo:VNA) The local labour market has long faced a paradox of many trained labourers being unable to find suitable jobs while businesses dealt with a labour shortage, as graduates often had to be retrained to be competent. Vietnam is also one of the countries most heavily influenced by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), with many jobs set to become obsolete and many other new ones to appear. Facing the trend of automation, Vietnamese workers must be trained to meet job requirements in this new situation. According to Tran Tuan Anh, former vice director of Ho Chi Minh Citys Human Resource Forecast and Labour Market Information Centre, businesses' demand for workers of all types would increase by 14.5 percent by 2025. The demand for average-skilled jobs would generally rise at the fastest rate of about 28 percent while skilled workers would be at 13 percent, he told online newspaper baotintuc.vn. The labour market in HCM City was always busy, he said. Only in the first quarter this year, businesses in HCM City still needed 65,430 employees although it was a time of difficulties for all economic sectors due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. In the second quarter, businesses would need about 47,000 workers in commerce, information technology, administration, health care, consulting service and customer care, he said. The demand for trained labourers accounted for 81 percent of the total. According to human resource experts, skilled and high-qualified human resources have not yet met labour market demand. Many graduates were not well equipped with expertise, soft skills and foreign languages so they could not find jobs. In order to overcome the situation, training cooperation among education institutions and businesses should be enhanced to supply high-qualified human resource meeting businesses requirement as well as increase the prestige of educational institutions, said Nguyen Hoan Hao, a lecture of HCM Citys Pedagogical University. Businesses would decide how many qualified and capable employees they need every year while schools would be responsible for training students to the firms' requirements, said Hao. Nguyen Hong Quang, vice president of C.T Group, said that close relations between schools and businesses via training courses and internship programmes would help employers find suitable employees. HCM Citys University of Economics has long had ties with businesses via workshops for evaluating students suitability for businesses needs, seminars on improving training courses, career festivals, and internship programmes. Since 2017, the percentage of newly-graduated students from the university who found jobs immediately after their studies has been 93.4 percent. After graduating, the students often looked for jobs from business recruitment ads, career fairs or job promotion centres, said Dr Dinh Cong Khai, a lecturer of HCM Citys Economics University. Knowledge and skills are important requirements to recruiters, said Khai. Lack of soft skills such as communication, time management and teamwork were reasons that made graduates fail to find jobs, he said. Cao Van Duong, an employee of KPMG Ltd Co Vietnam, said to meet the demands of the labour market, graduates must be strong in their expertise. Technology could change rapidly but basic knowledge of a professional is a solid foundation for employees to quickly grasp new knowledge in their working environment, Duong said. Additionally, recruiters now focused on soft skills such as communication skills, time management, teamwork, crisis management and personal life balance, he added. Hours after the high court of England and Wales dismissed his appeal against extradition to India, controversial businessman Vijay Mallya tweeted that he is naturally disappointed, but will continue to pursue further legal remedies. He reiterated in a series of tweets his offer to repay what he owes Indian banks that had lent his Kingfisher Airlines loans, claiming that the banks had already recovered Rs 2,500 crore in cash. I am naturally disappointed with the High Court decision. I will continue to pursue further legal remedies as advised by my lawyers. I am also disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9000 crores. Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 20, 2020 Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing on Monday dismissed his appeal, upholding the Westminster Magistrates Courts December 2018 ruling that concluded that Mallya had a prima facie case to answer in Indian courts for charges of financial offences. Mallya tweeted: I am naturally disappointed with the High Court decision. I will continue to pursue further legal remedies as advised by my lawyers. I am also disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9000 crores. I must draw attention to paragraph 6 of the judgement which is available to the public. Please note that the allegations against me and others are specifically and only related to three tranches of borrowing from IDBI Bank for a total of Rs 900 crores in 2009. This loan was subsumed along with loans from other Banks within the Master Debt Recast Agreement of 2010. Following the DRT order for the payment of approximately Rs 5000 crores by way of Principal and Rs 1200 crores by way of unapplied interest making a total of Rs 6200 crores. The Banks have already recovered in cash a sum of Rs 2500 crores which is 50 percent of the Principal amount. I have repeatedly offered to pay the Banks in full but, sadly to no avail. According to the Crown Prosecution Service representing India in UK courts, Mallya has 14 days to apply to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal against Mondays judgement. If he does not appeal, he will be removed to India within 28 days thereafter. If he appeals, the removal will await the outcome of that application. Secondly, he could approach the European Court of Human Rights, since the UK remains under its jurisdiction until December 31 under the terms of the Brexit transition period. His team has previously alleged in court that he faced a risk to human rights if sent to India. The legal threshold for remedy on both options is high. Vijay Mallya extradition case timeline --- March 2, 2016: Arrives in London from India. --- February 21, 2017: Indias extradition request certified by Home secretary. --- April 18, 2017: Arrested and bailed. --- April 24, 2017: Indian passport revoked. --- May 2, 2017: Resigns as member of Rajya Sabha. --- June 13, 2017: Series of case management and extradition hearings in the Westminster Magistrates Court. --- December 10, 2018: Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot clears extradition and sends file to home secretary. --- February 3, 2019: Home secretary orders extradition to India. --- April 5, 2019: Judge David of the high court of England and Wales refuses permission on papers to appeal. --- July 2, 2019: In an oral hearing, Judge Leggatt and Judge Popplewell allow permission to appeal on the ground that the Arbuthnot was wrong to conclude that India had established a prima facie case against Mallya. --- May 11-13, 2019: Judge Irwin and Judge Laing hear appeal. --- April 20, 2020: Appeal refused. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Ghaziabad: A large number of daily commuters, including those involved in essential services, were on Tuesday (April 21) stuck at the border with Delhi after Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad District Magistrate issued an order to seal all borders to contain the spread of coronavirus COVID-19. The ban led to chaos at the highway with long queque of vehicles seen on the Delhi-Ghaziabad border. On April 21, Ajay Shankar Pandey, Ghaziabad District Magistrate issued a direction prohibiting any travel between the national capital and Ghaziabad until further notice. "The decision was taken after six people who had come from Delhi tested positive for coronavirus. The said order is being issued under the National Disaster Act 2005," Pandey said. On April 21 morning, hundreds of people, including doctors, bankers were stuck on both sides of the border as the police refused to allow their entry or exit, an ANI report claimed Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday ordered the deployment of 400 vans which will be used as mobile outpatient department (OPD) units across the state to ensure uninterrupted health services for the public. The government has also decided to issue appointment letter to 9000 Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery (ANM) and General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) that were pending for the last two years. Addressing newspersons through video conferencing, chief minister Gehlot said, We have decided that 400 mobile vans will be deployed at sub-divisional headquarter and other places across the state, they will work as mobile OPD units. He said the Chief Medical and Health Officers (CMHO) have been directed for the same and the units will be operational from Wednesday in rural and urban areas. Also read: Testing, quarantine more effective than lockdown to check Covid-19, suggests epidemiological model The public can approach these vans for any general health related problem. The mobile units are instructed, if any person approaches with serious illness, the CMHO should be immediately informed to ensure that the treatment starts on priority at government or private hospital, he said. The CM said regular patients are suffering as some hospitals have been dedicated to only to treat Covid-19 patients. The private hospitals should fulfil their responsibility but some are not doing so and the health department has issued notices to them. Strict action will be taken against hospitals which deny treatment. It is the moral and social responsibility of private hospital to provide treatment to patients approaching them, he said. Rajasthan has recorded 1,576 cases of Covid-19 so far. The government also decided to boost manpower in the fight against Covid-19 as it gave appointment letters to 9000 ANM and GNM from 2018 recruitment. Gehlot who also interacted with a five-member central team through video-conference, emphasised on a centralised procedure for the procurement of testing kits, ventilators, PPE and other medical equipment by the central government. He said that the centre should procure the equipment and make available to the states so as to avoid competitions among states. The rapid testing kit results are inaccurate and it is a matter of concern. A research team of SMS medical college and Rajasthan University of Health Sciences is examining it. The further course of action in context of the rapid testing kit will be taken after the response from the Indian council of medical research and report of the research team, said Gehlot. He also raised the issues of migrant labours, demanded a relief package by the central government to all the states, packages for reviving business and for social security of people among others. The central government should announce a relief package for states without any further delay, he reiterated. Earlier in the day, the Centre asked states to suspend rapid testing for Covid-19 for the next two days, following complaints from at least two states that the antibody testing kits were returning erroneous results. Veterans advocates and lawmakers are stepping up pressure on the Department of Veterans Affairs to increase outreach and services for thousands of veterans thought to be at-risk for life-threatening cases of coronavirus: former troops exposed to burn pits in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, sent a letter to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie on Tuesday urging his department to be more proactive in caring for veterans with compromised respiratory systems as a result of exposure to burn pits used to dispose of waste at more than 250 overseas locations. The senators asked Wilkie to follow the department's own COVID-19 response plan, which calls for veterans with service-connected respiratory issues to have access to counseling services through local Vet Centers. But with many of those facilities doing only telehealth counseling, and not all equipped to handle telemedicine, Klobuchar and Rounds say veterans are missing a vital service and also may be at risk during in-person Vet Center visits due to a shortage of critical medical supplies. Related: In Locked-Down New York, VA Workers Seek Out Isolated Veterans in Crisis "The VA estimates that over 3.5 million veterans have been exposed to burn pits, and over 200,000 veterans and service members have signed up for the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry to date," the senators wrote. "Given the significant number of at-risk veterans, it is critical that the VA prioritizes efforts to ensure that these brave men and women are able to safely receive care during the current public health crisis." The letter follows on the heels of correspondence sent to Wilkie on March 31 by five veterans organizations that raised concerns about the availability of COVID-19 testing for VA patients and a perceived failure by the VA to communicate the seriousness of the risk the novel coronavirus poses to veterans with asthma, emphysema and other lung conditions. That letter, signed by the Association of the United States Navy, Burn Pits 360, the National Vietnam & Gulf War Veterans Coalition, the Non Commissioned Officers Association, Sergeant Sullivan Circle, Veteran Warriors and Veterans for Common Sense, said disparate messages have been sent from the VA's regional offices on COVID-19, ranging from some sending no dispatches, to others not including information on how to receive testing. In one instance, the groups wrote, a veteran experiencing severe shortness of breath and other symptoms was turned away from the Portland VA medical center because the vet was accompanied by a service dog. With the help of a volunteer outside the VA system, the veteran received medical care in the private sector through the VA's Mission Act urgent care program. "We are deeply concerned that at least some veterans screened by VA, identified as having symptoms presumed to be COVID-19 and told by VA screeners their symptoms are most likely COVID-19, are then being denied or otherwise prevented from receiving testing for the COVID-19 virus," they wrote. Burn pits were used at U.S. military bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, Djibouti and elsewhere to incinerate solid waste generated by millions of U.S. troops during deployment, including garbage, rubber, plastics, petroleum, medical waste and more. Troops reported thick black smoke and dust in the air at all hours of the day and night near the largest burn pits -- clouds that drifted over their work spaces and barracks, causing them to wheeze and cough up dark mucus. While the VA considers claims for burn-pit related conditions on a case-by-case basis, it points to research in saying that there is no evidence that they cause long-term health problems. According to the VA's Airborne Hazards and Burn Pit Registry page, "most of the irritation" caused by burn pits "is temporary and resolves once the exposure is gone." As far back as 2006, however, some U.S. military personnel generated reports on the acute health concerns of the burn pits and, later, long-term health risks such as chronic bronchitis, asthma, cardiopulmonary diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. During the current pandemic, the VA has posted information on COVID-19 on its main web page, the Airborne Hazards and Burn Pit Registry page and War Related Illness and Injury Studies Center page, warning that the coronavirus poses a risk to older veterans, those in nursing homes or long-term care facilities and those with underlying health conditions, including chronic lung disease, asthma, heart conditions, breathing problems, diabetes, obesity, liver or kidney disease, or who are immunocompromised. The department also has sent out more than eight million text alerts to veterans about the virus. But Klobuchar, an architect of legislation that requires the Defense Department to evaluate service members for exposure to airborne pollutants during routine health exams, and Rounds, who worked with Klobuchar and others in mandating the creation of a burn pit "center of excellence" at the VA, say more must be done. "We request that you provide information at your earliest convenience on how the VA is expanding telehealth capabilities across [Readjustment Counseling Services] facilities to provide veterans, including those with respiratory issues brought on by burn pit exposure, with greater access to care, as well as what the VA is doing to provide all necessary medical and sanitation supplies to Vet Centers and other RCS access points to promote the safety of staff and the veterans they serve," they wrote. "Additionally, we request that you communicate with veterans the resources that are available to them during the pandemic." As of Tuesday, 5,597 veteran patients in the Veterans Health Administration have been confirmed with COVID-19 and 357 have died in VA hospitals. -- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime. Read more: VA Taking Note of 'Alarming' Burn Pit Trends in WWP Survey. Kylie Jenner is enjoying some quality time while under quarantine with her daughter Stormi. However, the reality star appears to be worried that time is flashing by too fast, as on Monday she posted a snap of Stormi - who turned two in February - saying: 'My baby is getting so big' with two crying face emojis beside it. The 22-year-old billionaire entrepreneur is currently on lockdown at her momager Kris Jenner's luxe $12million Palm Springs vacation home in California. Growing up fast: On Monday, Kylie posted a snap of Stormi - who turned two in February - saying: 'My baby is getting so big' with two crying face emojis beside it. As well as posting cute snaps of her daughter, Kylie has also been showing fans her varied bikini collection, sharing a nude-colored two-piece on Monday. But it's not all been about babies and bikinis. Last week, Kylie posted a shot of her on the compound in active wear, wanting to share her concerns about the current global pandemic. Bikini latest: Kylie couldn't resist showing off another one of her many two-pieces on Monday 'Sending out my love and prayers. & hoping this will all be over soon,' she captioned the photo. Impressively, the mother-of-one has been trying to do her most as COVID-19 claims over 30,000 lives in the US. The reality star has not only donated $1m of her own money, but her Kylie Cosmetics company, along with its new parent company Coty Inc, has made 6,000 pounds of hand sanitizer for hospitals. Momager in training: Kylie pictured with her daughter Stormi and ex Travis Scott 'The hand-sanitizers will be donated to the emergency and healthcare workers caring for patients on the front lines of the current COVID-19 public health crisis,' a representative said. 'The custom hand sanitizer includes a special message for recipients: Dedicated to first responders working to support our communities.' This post comes after a report the siren has been leaning on her ex-boyfriend Travis Scott amid the coronavirus pandemic. Positive message: Earlier in the day Kylie posted her prayers for fans on Instagram Keeping up with Kylie: The 22-year-old billionaire entrepreneur is currently on lockdown at her momager Kris Jenner's luxe Palm Springs vacation home in California. The star and the 27-year-old rapper - who have two-year-old daughter Stormi together - split last year, but have been spending more time together in recent months, with several rumours swirling about a possible reconciliation. Meanwhile, Kylie recently fired back at an online troll after they attempted to insult her post-baby body on Instagram. Doctors all over the world have been honoured for their service amid the coronavirus pandemic, In India, people took to their balconies and streets to collectively commemorate the dedication and hardwork of public health. In Spain, too, people broke into applause for health workers from balconies. Now, an Indian-origin doctor living in the United States has been given a special 'drive-thru' honour by her neighbours for her extraordinary service during the coronavirus pandemic. Uma Madhusudan, an Indian-origin doctor originally from Mysuru, Karnataka and was in 1990 batch that graduated from JSS Medical College in Shivarathreeshwara Nagar. YouTube/@Aniket Yewale Everyone from police officials, firefighters to neighbours in her area drove by her house with 'Thank you' placards and blaring horns and sirens to thank her for her dedication and courage. She has been treating coronavirus patients at South Windsor Hospital. As I head to Mysuru, happy to share a video of Uma Madhusudhan, Mysuru origin Doctor in US being honoured in front of her house by grateful patients. It's a beautiful sight of cars, police vehicles, fire trucks lining up in gratitude, waving & honking to say Thank you Dr Uma! pic.twitter.com/42ayy6hEUd Dr Sudhakar K (@mla_sudhakar) April 21, 2020 The video was also shared by Karnataka MLA Dr Sudhakar K on Twitter, in it Dr Uma Madhusudhan can be seen standing at her lawn while a string of vehicles passes her by with the drivers waving at her, honking and cheering. "Happy to share a video of Uma Madhusudhan, Mysuru origin Doctor in US being honoured in front of her house by grateful patients," Sudhakar wrote. "It's a beautiful sight of cars, police vehicles, fire trucks lining up in gratitude, waving & honking to say Thank you Dr Uma!" The number of deaths from the new coronavirus in the United States topped a reported 40,000 on Sunday, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. The US toll exceeds that of Italy, which has the second-highest number of deaths at 23,660, according to Johns Hopkins. The tracker shows a total US caseload of 742,442 nearly four times that of Spain, which has almost 196,000 cases. Editor's Note: With so much market volatility, stay on top of daily news! Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news and expert opinions. Sign up here! (Kitco News) - Rob Henderson has been named the new president and chief executive officer of Great Panther Mining Ltd. (TSX: GPR; NYSE-A: GPL), the company announced Tuesday. Meanwhile, David Garofalo has been named as the new board chair, effective immediately. He was most recently president and chief executive of Goldcorp Inc. until its sale to Newmont Corp. a year ago in a move that created the worlds largest gold-mining company. Henderson is an engineer and mining executive with 35 years of experience in operations, capital projects and mine finance. Most recently, he was president and CEO of Amerigo Resources Ltd., a copper producer with assets in Chile. Prior to Amerigo, he was senior vice president of technical services with Kinross Gold Corp. His strong technical skills, combined with operating and executive experience and extensive track record in Latin America, make him ideal to lead Great Panther through its next stage of growth, said lead independent director Bob Garnett. Great Panther's operations include the Tucano Gold Mine in Brazil and the Topia Mine and Guanajuato Mine Complex in Mexico. The company also owns the Coricancha Mine in Peru, which is currently on care and maintenance. My immediate priorities will be to continue building on cost and operating efficiencies at Tucano and grow production at all three mines, Henderson said. I see tremendous potential in the asset base and am looking forward to leading the company through this period of transition into a mid-tier precious-metals producer. Henderson succeeds interim president and CEO Jeffrey Mason, who also had been chairman of the board of directors. Mason has stepped down from these roles and has resigned from the board, but will continue to provide consulting services to ensure a smooth transition, the company said. In addition to Garofalo, Joseph Gallucci and Alan Hair have joined the board. The company described Gallucci and Hair as experienced mining professionals with track records of creating shareholder value in the mining industry. Bob Archer will remain on the board until the upcoming annual meeting on June 24, but will not stand for re-election, the company said. Instead, he will serve Great Panther in an advisory capacity. Archer is co-founder of the company and served as president and CEO from 2004 until 2017, remaining a director since. Great Panther said the board additions will result in a slate of nine directors as of this years annual meeting in order to allow for an orderly continuity amid the leadership changes. However, the number will be reduced to seven, of which six will be independent, by the 2021 annual meeting, the company said. Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. This week, hes endorsed his rival, former vice president Joe Biden. Why did Sanders go from winning the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary in January and February to now exiting the race? The answers are relatively simple and straightforward. First, even though he packed auditoriums and raised tens of millions of dollars in small donations, in 2020 Sanders again built his campaign on younger voters who simply do not turn out in high numbers. Also, younger Democrats simply do not constitute enough of a share of the Democratic electorate to make a difference. In Texas, only 15 percent of voters were 30 or younger with almost 66 percent of the electorate 45 or older. Even more, Sanders did not move beyond the progressive wing of the Democratic Party as the number of very liberal Democrats is miniscule. Exit polls show their share of the Democratic electorate fell from 2016 to 2020. Second, Sanders did not expand the electorate and struggled with first-time voters, the very groups he promised would bring him to victory and help defeat Trump in November. Sanders received very little support from African-American, older, suburban, rural, and Midwestern and Southern voters. Third, from the beginning, Democrats were suspicious of Sanders. Few elected Democratic senators, house representatives, and governors endorsed him. Following Bidens massive rout of Sanders in South Carolina, Democratic candidates and their supporters flocked to Biden. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden, helping clear the path for him on Super Tuesday. This was followed up by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg exiting the race on March 4 and Senator Elizabeth Warren suspending her campaign on March 5. Senators Kamala Harris, Corey Booker and Andrew Yang all endorsed Biden and their voters followed. Fourth, Sanders lost states to Biden in 2020 that he won against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, namely Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Maine. Also, Biden won states he hardly campaigned in, such as Tennessee and Massachusetts. On March 17, the pressure mounted on Sanders to end his campaign after Biden built a massive delegate lead after winning Florida and Illinois by wide margins and then by a comfortable margin in Arizona. The fire in the progressive, ideological left-wing of the Democratic Party had been extinguished. Fifth, when it became a two-person race, it became evidently clear that Bidens base was much larger and more diverse. In addition to massive support from African American voters in the South, Biden had support from large numbers of women voters. Among women, Biden defeated Sanders by 32 points in Missouri and by 23 points in Michigan. Sanders 2016 victory against Clinton in Michigan was driven by his appeal in rural areas of the state. In 2020, Biden defeated Sanders in rural Michigan by wide margins. On Super Tuesday, Biden took back rural Oklahoma from Sanders. Biden also dominated Sanders in the suburbs. Biden bested Sanders by roughly the same margins in middle and upper-middle income suburban areas in Missouri, Michigan and Washington. Finally, and perhaps most important, Democrats view Biden as the best chance for defeating Trump in November. Biden will also help down ballot Democrats who were propelled to their seats in the 2018 midterms and could help Democrats take back the Senate in 2020 in Montana, Maine, Colorado and Arizona. Given these reasons and with some hindsight, you should not be surprised Sanders lost. **Chris Dolan is a professor of political science at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa. CHENNAI: The 2020 edition of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for admission to National Law Universities across the country has been postponed to June 21 due to the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown across the country. A notification on the website https://consortiumofnlus.ac.in/ - the official website for CLAT examination said on Tuesday that the exam will now be held on June 21, 2020, from 3 pm to 5 pm. The deadline for applications has also been extended to May 18, 2020. The exams have been postponed because of the coronavirus health crisis and the lockdown that has been called to stop the virus from spreading. The exam, conducted for entry into National Law Universities across the country, was initially postponed to May 24. It was earlier scheduled to be held on May 10. The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a national level exam for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate law programs offered by the 22 National Law Universities in the country. The entrance exam is organised every year by the Consortium of National Law Universities. On Tuesday, Italy recorded a drop in the number of people currently infected for the second day in a row. By the end of this week Italy will announce a plan to gradually exit its lockdown, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said. In a Facebook post, Mr Conte said the country could not give up its policy of "maximum caution", and said Italy would reopen in line with "serious scientific policy". "A reasonable expectation is that we will apply it from May 4," he said. Italy has reported 24,648 deaths, the highest recorded toll in Europe. Data released on Tuesday showed the number of people currently confirmed as infected fell for the second consecutive day. But deaths rose by 534 in the previous 24 hours, compared with a rise of 454 announced on Monday. The third-largest economy in the eurozone has been under lockdown measures since 9 March, brought in to tackle the spread of the virus. Countries across Europe are slowly beginning to ease the restrictions, on businesses and on education. There is however no co-ordination between states. Some countries like Denmark have already reopened primary schools, while Spain's government on Tuesday finally decided to allow children outside - under strict conditions. What did Italy's PM say? Mr Conte posted his statement on Facebook on Tuesday morning, insisting the government was working non-stop to co-ordinate moves towards "phase two" of its lockdown - "coexistence" with the virus. "I would like to be able to say, let's open everything. Right away," he wrote. "But such a decision would be irresponsible. It would make the contagion curve rise uncontrollably and would jeopardise all the efforts that we've made until now." "The easing of measures must take place on the basis of a well-structured and articulated plan," he said, adding that Italy "cannot abandon the line of maximum caution". Current national quarantine restrictions officially expire on 3 May. What about other European lockdowns? Many European nations have slowly started to ease restrictions this week, with Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Czech Republic among countries allowing certain businesses to reopen. There is however no co-ordination at an EU level, and countries are reopening at different rates. Denmark was the first in Europe to allow pupils back in the classroom, with students under the age of 12 returning to education last week. Norway allowed kindergarten students to return on Monday, provided they bring their own lunches and follow new hygiene rules. But older students across Europe remain at home. France has officially extended its nationwide lockdown until 11 May, but even after then schools are not expected to return immediately. Primary schools will likely return that week, followed by final year students from 18 May and all pupils from 25 May, the education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Tuesday. Spain has implemented one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe. Children of any age there are not currently allowed outside for any reason. But the government announced on Tuesday that from 27 April children under the age of 14 would be able to accompany their parents on trips to grocery shops or pharmacies. The lockdown itself meanwhile has been extended until 9 May. BBC The coronavirus pandemic is expanding threats to media freedom around the world, where authoritarian regimes such as China and Iran are stifling details of the outbreak, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says in its annual press freedom rankings. The outbreak is "highlighting and amplifying the many crises" already casting a shadow on press freedom, the Paris-based RSF said on April 21, adding that the pandemic had encouraged some regimes to "take advantage of the fact that people are stunned" to impose measures "that would be impossible to adopt in normal times." Turkmenistan and North Korea were placed at the bottom of the list of 180 countries. Norway topped the index for the fourth year in a row, and Finland was again the runner-up. The report, titled Entering A Decisive Decade For Journalism, Exacerbated By Coronavirus, said China and Iran -- in 177th and 173rd place, respectively -- were censoring major coronavirus outbreaks. The communist regime in Beijing "maintains its system of information hyper-control, whose negative effects for the entire world have been seen during the coronavirus public health crisis," it said, pointing to accusations that China concealed the initial extent of the outbreak. Russia, in 149th place, is continuing "efforts to control the Internet, using ever more elaborate methods," the report said, pointing to legislation that would allow the country to disconnect the Russian Internet from the rest of the world. RSF said "the closure of the national Internet" is already a reality in Turkmenistan, where the few users are allowed to view only a highly censored version of the Internet, often in public outlets where their identity is checked. It also pointed to media censorship in EU member Hungary, where right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government has passed a special law on false information that was a "completely disproportionate and coercive measure." "Almost everywhere in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, strongmen are consolidating their grip on news and information," RSF said. Published annually by RSF since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index analyzes factors such as media independence, self-censorship, the legal framework, and transparency based on a questionnaire filled out by experts. With reporting by AFP Neither Crosby ISD superintendent Scott Davis nor Huffman ISD superintendent Benny Soileau were surprised when Governor Greg Abbott issued an order on April 17 mandating that all schools in the state remain closed for the remainder of the school year as part of the efforts to flatten the curve and curtail the spread of the coronavirus. Coronavirus school closures: Gov. Abbott closes Texas schools but takes steps to reopen economy Schools in both districts, just like schools all over Texas, will continue to use the remote learning systems that they have been developing and using for the past month. We have all invested great amounts of effort and time into setting up remote learning for our students in CISD, said Davis. So our continuance of that instructional format for the duration of the school year validates those massive efforts to redesign public education on a moments notice. Both superintendents acknowledged the fluidity of the situation and the uncertainty of the future. Soileau said Huffman ISD is planning for each of the two paths traditional, in-person learning and remote learning going into next school year. There really is no certain way to guarantee what social and health contexts we will all face that many months away given COVID-19s impact on us all, Davis stated. We have always operated knowing that flexibility guides how we go about teaching kids. That wont go away any time soon. Coronavirus lasting effects: Texas school districts still could feel ill effects of coronavirus pandemic on budgets next year Both school districts are working on plans for graduation. Davis expressed pride in the way students, parents, teachers and support staff have been handling the challenging circumstances. Huffman ISD will hold a Facebook live online session on Thursday, April 23 starting at 6 p.m. to answer questions from community members. elliott.lapin@hearst.com Not only is Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari behind what several international observers are calling a genocide of Christians in his nation, but Barack Hussein Obama played a major role in the Muslim presidents rise to power. These two interconnected accusations are increasingly being made -- not by xenophobic Americans but Nigerians themselves, including several leaders and officials. Most recently, Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigerias former minister of culture and tourism, wrote in a Facebook post: What Obama, John Kerry and Hilary Clinton did to Nigeria by funding and supporting Buhari in the 2015 presidential election and helping Boko Haram in 2014/2015 was sheer wickedness and the blood of all those killed by the Buhari administration, his Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram over the last 5 years are on their hands. Kerrys and Clintons appeasement of Boko Haram -- an Islamic terror organization notorious for massacring, enslaving, and raping Christians, and bombing and burning their churches -- is apparently what connects them to this sheer wickedness. For example, after a Nigerian military offensive killed 30 Boko Haram terrorists in 2013, then secretary of state Kerry issued a strongly worded statement to Buharis predecessor, President Goodluck Jonathan (2010-2015), a Christian. In it, Kerry warned Jonathan that We are deeply concerned by credible allegations that Nigerian security forces are committing gross human rights violations against the terrorists. Similarly, during her entire tenure as secretary of state, Clinton repeatedly refused to designate Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization, despite nonstop pressure from lawmakers, human-rights activists, and lobbyists, ignoring Boko Harams countless atrocities against Christians. Those of you that still love the evil called Barack Obama, Fani-Kayode added in his post, should listen to this short clip and tell me if you still do. He was referring to a recent Al Jazeera video interview of Eeben Barlow, a former lieutenant-colonel of the South African Defence Force and chairman of a private military company hired in 2015 by Nigerian President Jonathan to help defeat Boko Haram. In one month, Barlow said in the interview, we took back terrain larger than Belgium from Boko Haram. We were not allowed to finish because it came at a time when governments were in the process of changing, he said in reference to Nigerias 2015 presidential elections. The incoming president, President Buhari, was heavily supported by a foreign government, and one of the first missions [of Buhari] was to terminate our contract. On being asked if he could name the foreign government, the former lieutenant-colonel said, Yes, we were told it was the United States, and they had actually funded President Buharis campaign, and the campaign manager for President Buhari came from the US. And I am not saying the United States is bad -- I understand foreign interests -- but I would have thought that a threat such as Boko Haram on the integrity of the state of Nigeria ought to be actually a priority. It wasn't. Fani-Kayode was quick to add in his Facebook post that it would have been the priority had Obama not been president: I just thank God for Donald Trump, the former minister said in the same post. Had he been President of America in 2015 things would have been very different, Jonathan would have won, Boko Haram would have been history and the Fulani herdsmen would never have seen the light of day. Fani-Kayode and Barlow are not alone in accusing Obama of heavily supporting and actually funding a presidential candidate who, since becoming president, has been increasingly accused of turning a blind eye to -- when not giving active support, which included jet fighters -- the worsening slaughter of Christians at the hands of Muslims in his nation. In 2018, former president Jonathan revealed that, On March 23, 2015, President Obama himself took the unusual step of releasing a video message directly to Nigerians all but telling them how to vote Those who understood subliminal language deciphered that he was prodding the electorate to vote for the [Buhari/Muslim-led] opposition to form a new government The message was so condescending, it was as if Nigerians did not know what to do and needed an Obama to direct them. Between 2011 and 2015, and supposedly because they were angry at having a Christian president, Boko Haram slaughtered thousands of Christians, particularly those living in the Muslim majority north, and destroyed countless churches. In 2015 -- and in part thanks to Obama -- Nigerias Muslims finally got what they wanted: a Muslim president in the person of Muhammadu Buhari. As seen, however, not only did he immediately rescue Boko Haram from imminent defeat, as former lieutenant-colonel Eeben Barlow has now revealed; but atrocities against Christians have gotten significantly worse since Buhari replaced Jonathan -- they are now regularly characterized as a pure genocide -- particularly at the hands of Muslim Fulani herdsmen, the ethnic tribe whence Buhari himself happens to hail. Thus according to a March 8, 2020 report titled, Nigeria: A Killing Field of Defenseless Christians, Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central [Buhari-led] government of Nigeria came on board. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000 and the Highway Bandits 150-200. How and why Fulani tribesman have managed to kill nearly twice as many Christians as the professional terrorists of Boko Haram -- and exponentially more Christians than under Jonathan -- may be discerned from the following quotes by various Christian leaders and others: They [Fulani] want to strike Christians, and the government does nothing to stop them, because President Buhari is also of the Fulani ethnic group. -- Bishop Matthew Ishaya Audu of Lafia , 2018. Under President Buhari, the murderous Fulani herdsmen enjoyed unprecedented protection and favoritism... Rather than arrest and prosecute the Fulani herdsmen, security forces usually manned by Muslims from the North offer them protection as they unleash terror with impunity on the Nigerian people. -- Rev. Musa Asake , the General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, 2018. Buhari is openly pursuing an anti-Christian agenda that has resulted in countless murders of Christians all over the nation and destruction of vulnerable Christian communities. -- Bosun Emmanuel , the secretary of the National Christian Elders Forum, 2018. Buhari is himself from the jihadists Fulani tribe, so what can you expect? -- Emmanuel Ogebe, Washington D.C.-based human rights lawyer, in conversation with me, 2018. Based on all these developments, statistics and accusations, it seems clear that the Muslim president is behind the unfolding genocide of Christians in Nigeria -- and Obama helped. Raymond Ibrahim, author most recently of, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Shillman fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Rosen Friedman fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute. Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Monday appealed to those living along the Indo-Bangla border to patrol the area. He said the locals should undertake janata patrolling to ensure no people from Bangladesh cross the border and enter the state amid the coronavirus threat. We have come to know through the media that social distancing is not followed in Bangladesh. And you may have relatives there who may seek your help for treatment here. I am not against humanitarian approach but it should not act as a weakness. So, I request the people, irrespective of caste, religion and political identity, living in the bordering areas to do patrolling to ensure no people from Bangladesh can cross the border and reach here, said Deb through a video message that was shared on his Facebook page. Bangladesh has been friendly to us. But we need to prevent the spread of coronavirus through the borders, he said. The Border Security Force (BSF) and state police have been put on alert to intensify patrolling along the unfenced border areas in different parts of the state including Gandacherra, Boalkhali, Sonamura and others, according to a press release issued from Chief Ministers Office (CMO) on Monday. Out of 856 kilometre-long international boundary shared by Tripura with Bangladesh, 67 kilometres is still unfenced in different parts of the state. Tripura reported two Covid-19 positive patients, one has recovered. Coronavirus impacts Pakistani cement trade 21 April 2020 The exports of clinker and cement from Pakistan to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and rest of the world have been impacted by the lockdown, curfew and other measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus in these countries. This was disclosed by Irfan Amanullah, senior general manager, Attock Cement Pakistan Ltd (ACPL), during a presentation of Cement Sector Outlook, organised by BMA Capital in Karachi. He attributed the disruption due to a number of reasons and said no exports were being made to Afghanistan due to the closure of the border between both countries. Sri Lanka has curfew in place and even imposed a three-month ban on imports of bagged cement, due to the depreciation of the Sri Lankan currency with dollar. Exports to Bangladesh have also slowed, due to the persisting lockdown in the country. Exports to Qatar and other countries have also been affected. However, he was optimistic that as soon as the fear of COVID-19 is disappeared or was overcome, normality would return to exports as well as to local dispatches. Pakistan's export of cement and clinker in FY20 to date stands at 6.446Mt. This includes exports of 3.2Mt of cement and 3.2Mt of clinker. The average price of cement ranges is US$55/t, while clinker sells at US$30/t. Published under BRUSSELS -- EU states have yet to reach a full agreement on the membership aspirations of their eastern neighbors and are concerned about the consequences of the already implemented visa liberalization, according to a leaked document seen by RFE/RL. The seven-page document is being debated by diplomats from the 27 EU states representing the European Council. It represents the response to the European Commissions communique on the Eastern Partnership that was presented last month, and is expected to be approved in the coming days. The Eastern Partnership program was launched in 2009 and is meant to bring Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine closer to the bloc without a clear offer of future membership. Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine have since inked association agreements with the EU, including free-trade deals, but some member states have been reluctant to openly discuss the issue of these countries' eventual EU membership. Moscow has expressed strong misgivings about the program, arguing that closer economic ties between the EU and its main trading partners could harm Russian interests. The document being discussed still lists several conclusions in brackets -- meaning that unanimity has not yet been reached on the language. Officials told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that France, backed by some southern EU member states, has insisted on putting in brackets the phrase that states that "the Council acknowledges the European aspirations and European choice of the Eastern Partners concerned, as stated in the association agreements." However, the officials said they expect that France will eventually back down since the phrase has for several years been the EU standard for acknowledging that Eastern Partnership countries such as Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine can join the bloc in the future. 'Unfounded Asylum Applications' In a paragraph describing the need to enhance the capacity of the eastern partners to counter hybrid threats and malicious cyberactivities, some countries have also pushed to add "while recalling the non-confrontational approach of the Eastern Partnership," which currently is in brackets. However, the Council members appear to be in full agreement when it comes to the possibility of suspending visa liberalization. While no suspension is thought to be imminent, the document says member countries "note that the high number of unfounded asylum applications by some Eastern partner countries nationals in the EU member states raises concern. Both Germany and Sweden have, in the past, complained that Georgian criminal gangs have used visa liberalization to carry out burglaries in their countries. The document is being discussed while the European Parliament is debating a draft report on the future of the Eastern Partnership. The nonbinding draft states more ambitious goals than the Council text. It suggests a common economic space between the EU and the Eastern Partnership as well as gradual integration of the six countries into the EU's energy union, transport community, and digital single market. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti gives his annual 'State of the City' speech at City Hall on April 19, 2020. (Los Angeles Times) A year ago, when Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled his budget for the 2019-20 year, Los Angeles was flush with cash from a strong economy and planning to spend big. The mayor wanted to spend the extra money to fix more sidewalks, fill more potholes and make city streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists. City workers were going to plant more trees and coat the streets in cool pavement to lower the amount of heat they radiated. And the city was increasing the amount of funding available to build homeless shelters and offer services to get people off the streets. Today? Amid a pandemic that has triggered an economic crisis, the citys outlook couldnt look more different. Garcetti declared a fiscal emergency on Monday when he released his 2020-21 budget plan. Instead of boosting services, the city will slash them. There will be fewer sidewalks and streets repaired, trees trimmed and infrastructure projects completed. There will be less money for graffiti removal, gang intervention, neighborhood councils, animal shelters and pretty much every other public service that isnt directly related to public health or safety. And for the first time in nearly a decade, the city will furlough nearly 16,000 civilian employees for up to 26 days next fiscal year. That would equate to a 10% pay cut. Granted, the city was already headed for some budget turbulence of its own making. After Garcetti and the City Council signed off on half a dozen labor contracts with firefighters, police officers and civilian employees last summer, the city was back in the red and budget analysts warned that some services could be trimmed. But those were longer-term issues. The problems caused by the pandemic are acute, immediate and deep. And painful. At a time when residents are demanding more from their local government in terms of public health protection and safety net services, their city has significantly less money with which to help them. Los Angeles is not unique. More than 2,100 cities across the country expect major budget deficits this year, and many will have to cut employees and slash services to break even. No wonder; local governments generate much of their revenue from taxes on sales, business receipts and tourism. With the social-distancing shutdowns, that economic activity has ground to a halt, and tax revenue has fallen off a cliff. Even cities with robust rainy day funds Los Angeles, for example, had reserves of $560 million last year will quickly burn through their savings to maintain basic services. Story continues Through its relief program, the federal government has committed to reimburse cities and states for costs associated with the pandemic response. That includes paying overtime for public safety and medical personnel, buying gloves and masks, and providing hotel rooms and expanded shelters for the homeless. But for now, at least, the Trump administration insists that those federal dollars cannot be used to cover general budget shortfalls. Its absurd to say that cities budget woes are unrelated to the pandemic. Local governments are bleeding revenue because commerce has been shut down to slow COVID-19 and save lives. Businesses are closed. Hotels are empty. Garcetti, like many other mayors, is rightfully pushing the federal government to reimburse local governments for the revenue they lost to help fight the pandemic. Senate Democrats proposed an additional $150 billion in federal aid to help local, state and tribal governments cover their lost revenue. Some Republicans have refused to consider such a local government bailout, saying it would subsidize bad fiscal decisions that occurred before the pandemic. But the president has said he supports providing such aid, and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said over the weekend that local government relief funding could be included in a future relief package. As for Los Angeles, budget cuts may be inevitable at this point, but they're still hard to take. The city never fully recovered from the last recession and hasnt restored the services that were cut then. Despite record revenue growth in recent years, the city has struggled to balance its budget. And that was before the pandemic. A message of condolence from Queen Elizabeth II and musical tributes for the victims of the worst mass shooting in Canadian history poured in on Tuesday as the death toll continued to rise. According to public broadcaster CBC, police uncovered in the rubble of a home burned to the ground by the suspect the remains of a couple reported missing, bringing the total number of victims to 20. The gunman, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, had begun his rampage late Saturday in the seaside village of Portapique, Nova Scotia, dying 14 hours later in a hail of police gunfire outside Halifax, 100 kilometers (60 miles) away. Queen Elizabeth II said she and Prince Philip "have been deeply saddened by the appalling events in Nova Scotia." Canada's head of state also paid tribute to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers -- one of whom died, and another wounded -- and others who "selflessly responded to these devastating attacks." Across Canada, flags flew at half-mast, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proclaimed: "Today we are all Nova Scotians." He recounted how members of his RCMP security detail knew and remembered fondly Constable Heidi Stevenson, who was killed while responding to the shootings. "It really goes to show just how tightly knit, not just the RCMP is as a force, but how close we are as a country," Trudeau said. A "virtual vigil" was planned for Friday evening, but already several popped up on social media. A plane's flight path marked a heart-shape over the Atlantic coast town in mourning, unable to gather for in-person memorials or even hug each other due to coronavirus restrictions on large gatherings. "I wanted to reach out to the community. I wanted to be there with them. I wanted to tell them that I love them," pilot Neonakis told CBC, adding that because of social distancing, "my only avenue was through the air." His flight was shown on flight tracker website FlightAware. A church in Banff, Alberta, meanwhile, rang its bells to the tune of "Farewell to Nova Scotia." The Canadian rock band Northern Pikes and others posted online bagpipes and acoustic guitar versions of "Amazing Grace," while Toronto-based Choir! Choir! Choir! offered to lead an online rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at 8 pm (2400 GMT). And Winnipeg musician Scott Nolan wrote a new "gentle tune" for Nova Scotians. "Tonight I grieve for sons and daughters who never got to say goodbye... from Portapique to Shubenacadie, no one here will forget today," he sang. "The neighbor said he couldn't believe it... I thought I heard distant sirens, I see fire down the road, we can still hear the gunshots, at night it's hard to be alone. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Technical Team on COVID-19 has joined the growing number of groups and individuals who have criticised President Nana Akufo-Addos decision to lift the partial lockdown on some parts of the country. In a statement, the Team said the lifting of the restrictions is premature and dangerous and would most likely result in a significant escalation in the numbers of cases. The team argues that the virus is not yet under intense control to warrant easing restrictions on movement. It believes with a backlog of 18,000 samples yet to be tested, there is a likelihood that Ghanas cases may rise. We are mindful of the fact that a backlog of tests from samples of about 10,000 took us from 600+ cases to 1000+ cases. With over 18,000+ samples yet to be tested, there is a higher probability that our cases may surge as we are yet to get to our peak. We believe these backlog samples are from primary or secondary contacts who have in turn made several contacts in the chain of human interactions and whose test results are yet to be ascertained. Looking at the return to activities defying the basic social distancing protocols as recommended, we put ourselves in a very precarious situation for a potential second wave of infections, the NDC COVID-19 Team added in the statement. The Team thus cautioned Ghanaians to avoid a false sense of security and continue to stay at home as much as possible, avoid non-essential movement and respect all health protocols outlined from the onset. President Akufo-Addo in a televised broadcast on Sunday, April 19, 2020 explained that the lifting of the partial lockdown o n some parts of the country was necessitated by the country's ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected persons among others. While some groups and individuals have expressed their displeasure about the decision, others have welcomed it. Citi News' tour around some of the areas affected by the lockdown showed the return to normal business with vehicular traffic building up in most places. In some commercial vehicles are markets, it was observed that social distancing was not being observed as commuters and traders went about their work with little care or caution. Already, some experts have challenged the government's decision to lift the lockdown. They believe that the move is dangerous and could spark a new wave of infection of COVID-19. Ghana's COVID-19 case count cross 1,000 mark Ghana's Coronavirus cases have increased to 1,042. Nine deaths and 99 recoveries have also been recorded. So far ten out of Ghanas 16 regions have recorded cases of COVID-19. citinewsroom By Express News Service PUDUCHERRY: Tamilnadu Telecom Accounts and Finance Officers Welfare Trust has contributed a sum of Rs 50,000 to the COVID-19 relief fund of Puducherry. A cheque of Rs 50,000 was handed over to Chief Minister V Narayanasamy at his chamber on Monday, according to a release from P Santhakumar, managing trustee of the trust. Development commissioner and Education secretary A Anbarasu sponsored lunch for all homeless people of Puducherry on the occasion of his birthday. Integra Software Services Pvt Ltd, a member of CII, handed over 2 ventilators to the Health Department, in the presence of CM V Narayanasamy, Health minister Malladi Krishna Rao and Lok Sabha member V Vaithilingam. The Medical Students Network of Indian Medical Association has donated groceries to five special homes for 25 days by raising Rs 30,000 from students and interns of various medical colleges. Mexico records its deadliest day for the year in an official data shown on Monday. It reported 105 deaths from the murder of the previous day amid that stay-at-home order of the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On Sunday, the toll exceeded the latest high of 104 individuals on April 4, says federal data. Homicide and COVID-19 According to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, on Monday, the Mexican government is in the process of addressing the country's issue with COVID-19. However, the COVID-19 pandemic holds no effect on the country's homicide rate. Based on the data collected by the prosecutors of each state offices and federal agencies, the State of Mexico with the highest total of intentional homicides are Chihuahua, Mexico City, Guanajuato, and Oaxaca. Incidents of Violence Did not Affect Mexico amid COVID-19 In the middle of March, health protection measure was implemented by the country against COVID-19. However, the pandemic did not pose any changes to the rate of violence in the country. In 2019, there were 34,608 murders in Mexico; it is the highest number reached by the country since 1997. The toll in 2019 is the same with an average of more or less 95 intentional murders per day in Mexico, Mexico has been a country affected by a massive wave of inclining violence since the end of 2006. It was during the time that the battle against drug trafficking was militarized. Since then, more or less 275,000 individuals had lost their lives, based on the official data that do not show how these cases would become connected to organized crime. AMLO's Plan AMLO took office in December 2018. He believes that the cases of violence in the country can be reduced when the insufficiency of opportunities, poverty, and social exclusion are fought. Also, he thought that reducing the use of force to fight against criminals can help lessen the cases of violence in the nation. After getting through the COVID-19 crisis, the country will provide more options to criminals. This will allow them to rejoin the public and become good people, says AMLO. Check these out: Battling the COVID-19 Crisis According to a recent article, the government of Mexico had lacked a response to COVID-19. Due to the unclear and inconsistent messages about COVID-19 guidelines, the inaction of the government had resulted in rumors that are starting panic and insecurity among Mexicans, says an article. Many nations are already implementing measures to fight against COVID-19, such as Italy, China, and the United States. The government of Mexico's response to the COVID-19 crisis had a different start among other countries. The reason for this is that AMLO initially refused to follow social distancing measures. Some photos reveal him embracing and shaking hands with a lot of support. He even held rallies and supported mass gatherings before Mexico decided to take serious efforts to the increasing COVID-19 cases in the country. The riverside Brisbane suburb of Newstead will have an additional 20,000 residents within two decades, the Queensland government predicts. The former inner-city industrial area has since the 2011 Brisbane floods been transforming into a residential zone along the Brisbane River, with public open space. Property developer Mirvac in 2001 created a network of buildings in its Waterfront Newstead development, with walkways and cycleways linking through the historic Newstead House on Breakfast Creek. Artist's render of Mirvac's planned Sky Precinct residential tower at 58 Skyring Terrace in Brisbane's Newstead. Credit: In 2011 Brisbane City Council developed the Newstead and Teneriffe Waterfront Neighbourhood Plan, which guides development in the riverside precinct. A pedestrian crosses Market st and 11th in Center City Philadelphia on Wednesday, April 08, 2020. People are now being asked to wear masks outside due to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Read more Wait a minute. Breathe. Thats the first step, media literacy and digital information experts said, for dealing with the absolute torrent of information coming at all of us right now during the coronavirus pandemic. There are an infinite number of articles from news organizations, round-the-clock coverage on TV, a steady stream of info from public health organizations. There are the social media posts from friends. There are studies and charts everywhere you look. There are those emails your family keep forwarding. If you think its hard to navigate the information cycle right now, youre right. It is hard, said Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, executive director of the National Association for Media Literacy Education. People are really overwhelmed right now. That means, Lipkin said, that its not just you. But there are strategies that can help you make sense of it all. READ MORE: How to get through the coronavirus pandemic: Dos and donts 1. Be intentional about what you read. During a crisis, especially one that affects our lives and livelihoods, it makes sense that we want to know everything. But the quality of information is more important than the quantity. Be active in deciding what information youre looking for, instead of just reading whats in your social feed, Lipkin said. Think about what youre trying to do: Do you want to find out about the latest research on the coronavirus? Are you trying to understand what government orders are in effect? Are you trying to figure out whats safe to do? Those are all different questions that could lead to seeking out different sources of information. And when youre not intentionally setting out to get information, she said, its OK even healthy to disconnect. It is better to consume 30, 35 minutes of quality information, Lipkin said, than having [the television] on the entire day or notifications on your phone. 2. Take a breath. Disinformation, which is shared intentionally, is often meant to provoke an emotional response that leads to being shared. When you come across a piece of information, especially one that triggers an emotion, dont just share it or otherwise act on it: Pause first. Take a breath and think, Do I actually know what Im doing with that? said Mike Caulfield, a digital literacy expert at Washington State Universitys Vancouver campus. 3. Stick with trustworthy sources. Try to determine how trustworthy a source is, which can be as simple as looking an institution up on Wikipedia, Caulfield said. That can help you understand, for example, whether a website really does belong to an established organization, who they are, what they cover, and how they frame things. Different sources are experts on different things, and no one is an expert on everything. Consider whether a source has the appropriate background and expertise on a topic, and what motivations they may have for giving you information. Public health officials, for example, are tasked with understanding the science and helping you understand what it means and issuing guidance for how you should act. News organizations are tasked with sifting through information to provide the most verified, reliable news and information possible. Remember that you dont have to be the expert yourself. 4. Check the original source. Sure, that guy on Twitter may have told you what a chart meant, but where is it actually from and what did the original source say? This is perhaps the most difficult thing: Just like a game of broken telephone, meaning can change as it is passed through different hands. Try to figure out where information came from and how credible it is. Tracing back the source of a quotation or meme or chart, for example, will help put it into context. 5. Confirm the information Even if you think a source is trustworthy, you should do some reading to see whether other reliable sources are saying similar things. Take some of the keywords around a piece of information and search for it, doing what experts call lateral reading. Find out what other sources are, find out what else is out there, because there might be even more to the story than whats in that one thing that you find: There might be more research, there might be caveats that didnt make it into that particular article that you need to know," said Kristyn Wellesley, editorial director at the MediaWise news literacy project at the Poynter Institute. Go and read what other sources are saying. Get the full scope of the story and the information. 6. Remember: Things change fast. The coronavirus is so new, and our understanding of it and how to fight it changing so quickly, that information can quickly become outdated. Even when something comes from a reliable source such as the CDC or WHO, even if it was the best information available at the time, new information is coming out constantly. So even after youve determined that a piece of information seems true and comes from good sources and you understand its context you should check when it was released. Always check the date and the time that something is posted, Wellesley said, and if it was more than three or four days old, try to find something thats newer. The constantly changing nature of things also means that a lot of information isnt simply true or false. There are a lot of gray areas right now. When in doubt, the experts said, err on the side of caution and wait for consensus to emerge. 7. Share information thoughtfully. So youve gotten the context, youve checked your sources, and now you want to share some information. Thats great, the experts said, especially if you can help promote good information at a time like this. But recognize that when you share something, youre co-signing it, said Kristy Roschke, a professor at Arizona State University and director of its News Co/Lab media literacy initiative. Instead of simply sharing information widely, she said, you might consider sending to specific people. And adding some context in your message. Its important to share information. Its important in these times, this is part of how were helping each other get through this, Roschke said. But I dont think we need to share everything we come across. All the work you did to confirm that something was true? You can add that when you share something. Tell your friends and family that you cross-checked some information, show them where it came from. It wont just help fight bad information, Roschke said. It could help others approach their news consumption more thoughtfully, too. And recognizing how quickly things change, it might be nice to just step out of it. Contribute when you have something meaningful to add. Vodafone Ukraine (PrJSC VF Ukraine) plans to launch the eSIM service at the end of June or early July 2020, which is an alternative to physical SIM cards. "We considered various partnership solutions and expect that it will be already late June or early July. And I think that we will offer our customers a more interesting user experience," Marketing Director Andriy Otroschenko said during an online presentation of the operator's statements for 2019. He said that today, this project is at the finalization of the technical stage. eSIM is an Embedded Subscriber Identity Module that allows subscribers to use mobile services without the need to use a physical SIM card. To use the technology, it is necessary that both a smartphone and a mobile operator support it. Director was rushed to intensive care unit and given oxygen and antibiotics Also said he saw images similar to those drawn by Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel Nicholas Coleridge said he was met with snake visions during Covid-19 battle The director of the Victoria & Albert Museum has revealed that he was infiltrated by visions of snakes after he contracted coronavirus. Nicholas Coleridge, who was re-appointed Chair of the London museum in 2019, described seeing snakes and images similar to those illustrated by the famous Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel as he entered delirium during his treatment for the virus. The chairman, who is now recovering from his ordeal at home, explained that the virus hit him suddenly and left him becoming 'loonier and loonier very quickly'. Speaking on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 the chairman said: 'It was rather interesting because this Covid hits you suddenly out of left field. For me, first came a catatonic tiredness, I slept more and more, punctuated with very very high temperatures going well above 40 and icy legs [but] no cough. Nicholas Coleridge, who was re-appointed Chair of the London museum in 2019, described seeing visions of snakes as he battled coronavirus 'Very suddenly I had visions of snakes and Bruegel-like figures and fantastical creatures. 'My family noted that I was becoming loonier and loonier very quickly, and my daughter very wisely rang for an ambulance which arrived in highly impressive speed.' After he was rushed to the intensive care unit, NHS staff tried to provide the museum director with life-saving treatment, including oxygen and antibiotics, and his family were told to prepare for the worst. As Mr Coleridge sunk into delirium he described being met with hallucinations of snakes and images that bore a stark similarity to those drawn by Pieter Bruegel, who is known for his landscape art and for his illustrations of peasants during the Dutch and Flemish Renaissance. Following the terrifying ordeal, Mr Coleridge said there was a 'malevolent' and 'invasive' presence about the virus which felt like a' very dirty computer virus infiltrating every part of your system'. He continued: 'It is very strange because you have almost no memory of it except I've got snatches of quite odd memories that really didn't have very much to do with the job in hand. 'They pump you through with so much antibiotics and barrel loads of oxygen that it does play with your head and one is grateful to the doctors and the nurses. 'A doctor rang up and told my wife that they should prepare themselves for the possibility of my demise in the next few hours. But the skill and the speed with which they acted undoubtedly saved my life. The chairman of the London museum (Victoria and Albert Museum pictured) explained that the virus hit him suddenly The museum director said he also began to see images similar to those drawn by Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel, who is known for his landscape art and for his illustrations of peasants. Pictured: Bruegel's Triumph of Death 'There is something about this Covid-19 it's so malevolent and so invasive. It's like a very dirty computer virus infiltrating every part of your system and contaminating all your files and warping your mind and then closing you down.' During his interview, the chairman went on to say that he would advise the Prime Minister Boris Johnson to work for five hours a day before returning to bed as he tries to recover from Covid-19 himself. Mr Coleridge added: 'If I was the Prime Minister's doctor, I would tell him he could work flat out for five hours a day, and without question he should then go back to bed because he's going to be tired for a while to come.' The museum trustee, who is now recovering, also praised the selfless NHS staff who had helped treat him as he battled the deadly illness. Mr Coleridge's interview comes as the UK continues to grapple with the spread of the illness which has now claimed the lives of 16,509 people across the country. Earlier today, England declared 429 deaths and a further 20 were confirmed across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The day's death toll is a fall on the 596 fatalities announced yesterday. Hundreds of Amazon employees are planning to call in sick this week as they accuse the company of not prioritizing worker safety amid the coronavirus pandemic. Beginning on Tuesday, the worker rights group United for Respect says more than 300 Amazon employees in the United States will stay home as they say the company has not done enough to protect warehouse workers during the health crisis, including by allegedly not providing workers with enough face masks and not implementing regular temperature checks as promised, The Guardian reports. "We are calling out because Amazon is putting its revenue above our safety," one Amazon worker in Michigan, Jaylen Camp, told The Guardian. "We are not essential to them they just think of us as numbers and quotas. They are not protecting our health." This comes as walkouts protesting working conditions at Amazon warehouses have popped up in numerous states, although CNBC notes this is the first major nationwide effort. The protesters' demands include that the company close down any facility with coronavirus cases and provide workers there with testing and two weeks of pay. I would feel a whole lot safer if they would just close down facilities for two weeks and clean them," a North Carolina Amazon worker, Monica Moody, told CNBC. "I would go back to work, no problem." Additionally, the protesters are demanding Amazon eliminate quotas they say "make hand-washing and sanitizing impossible," as well as "provide proper safety equipment to all employees." Update: In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said "reports of employee participation in today's event organized by labor unions are grossly exaggerated" and that "the union organizers' claims are also simply false what's true is that masks, temperature checks, hand sanitizer, increased time off, increased pay, and more are standard across our network because we care deeply about the health and safety of our employees." More stories from theweek.com How close are we to herd immunity? Georgia's dangerous coronavirus experiment The Navajo Nation outbreak reveals an ugly truth behind America's coronavirus experience Deborah Jones, an evangelist presently residing in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her husband and their three children, has published her latest book In the Midst of My Trials: Gods Calling: a devotional true story of love, faith, and fulfillment. The author shares, This is a story of a ten-and-a-half-year-old girl. God can use anyone who is willing to surrender their lives over to him and trusting that his Word is true. He takes care of his own. I stand on the promises of God my saviorloving him because he first loves me. When God has a calling on your life, he will not stop until that calling is fulfilled. Whom he loves, he chases. God gave me a story to tell you. I pray and hope that all will receive his precious gift. Then it is well worth it. Published by Page Publishing, Deborah Joness spiritual book is an uplifting story celebrating the power of Gods love in daily life. Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase In the Midst of My Trials: Gods Calling at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. Mumbai: Granting relief to audit firms BSR and Associates, and Deloitte Haskins and Sells, both former auditors of IL&FS Financial Services, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday quashed all prosecution against the two firms that had been pending before the National Company Law Tribunal and a special court in the city, over alleged financial irregularities. BSR, part of KPMG India, and Deloitte had moved HC last year challenging the validity of the Union government's plea before the NCLT seeking their removal as auditors of IL&FS. Such removal under section 140 (5) of the Companies Act would also bring along a ban on the audit firms for five years. The Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs had sought such removal and also initiated criminal proceedings against the firms for their role in alleged financial irregularities at the now bankrupt IL&FS Group. In August last year, the NCLT had found merit in the Union government's pea, and subsequently approved the proposed removal of both firms. The firms however, approached HC arguing that they had already resigned as auditors of IL&FS much before the Ministry sought their removal. They had, therefore, challenged the constitutional validity of section 140 (5) of the Act. The section deals with removal and resignation of auditors and imposes a five year ban on an auditing firm that is proven to have "acted in a fraudulent manner", or to have "abetted or colluded in any fraud". On Tuesday, a bench of Chief Justice BP Dharmadhikari and Justice NR Borkar quashed the prosecution of both firms before the NCLT. While the bench upheld the constitutional validity of section 140 (5), it held that the provisions of the section did not apply to former auditors who had resigned. The bench also quashed a criminal complaint filed against the two firms by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), a Central agency, in the above case of financial irregularities. The bench said the SFIO complaint filed before a special court was "bad in law". In June last year, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had moved the NCLT against BSR and some of the then external auditors of IL&FS alleging professional misconduct. At the time, it had also directed the SFIO to initiate probe and disciplinary action against such audit firms. The SFIO had subsequently claimed BSR and some other audit firms had acted in breach of auditing standards and that they had failed to detect financial inconsistencies at IL&FS. Advocate Sujay Kantawala, who was a part of the legal team for BSR, said on Tuesday, the Union government sought a stay for eight weeks on HC's order quashing such prosecution. While the counsels for BSR and Deloitte opposed the government's request, HC granted such stay on its own order. Kantwala stated that HC granted such stay saying that denying time to the government for an appeal would not be "fair in todays troubled times". He added that Tuesday's order quashing prosecution would have major implications on the corporate world and would act as a precedent in preventing "harassment of innocent firms". This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. 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 Fellow Ghanaians, the assertion that "a Lannister keeps his word" might not be entirely accurate because not every Lannister really keeps their word. Sometimes, I am tempted to accuse our dear President of being under the influence of a magic spell. Who could have been responsible for such an esoteric manipulation is what I don't know But I do know karma has a surreal way of paying "handsome" rewards to its victims. Certainly, the voter's register compilation; Moody's rating agencies rating Ghana's economy being downgraded to negative; Free Senior High candidates inability to write WASSCE; desire for cheap and fake international recognition among other vanities of political hedonistic tendencies, are what have collectively prompted government's latest unwise and sadistic decision to cancel the partial lockdown. In an article I authored last year entitled, "Investigate the NPPs Economic Growth", I distinguished between two famous economic policies familiar with developing countries or emerging markets that don't have factors of production or those factors being in their infancy. These are the Contractionary Fiscal Policy and Expansionary Fiscal Policy. According to Kimberly Amadeo, these policies are resorted to so as to stimulate economic growth by developing countries, especially, the Expansionary fiscal policy. I exposed the NPP's adoption of the Expansionary fiscal policy which is mainly about pumping money into the economy using budgetary tools to either increase spending or cut taxes. And it is a direct opposite of the Contractionary fiscal policy that the IMF prescribed for Mahama which led to his lost in the general elections in 2016. In that article, I cautioned against the government's reckless use of the Expansionary fiscal policy for three consecutive years which is supposed to be used at most, one year unless in rescuing recession. I pointed to the American great economic depression in the 1930s under President Franklin D. Roosevelt who used that policy for only one year according to Kimberly Amadeo. This is because, if Expansionary fiscal policy is overused like the NPP is thoughtlessly using it and, unfortunately, a natural disaster strikes, the economy would become more miserable than you met it. So, I cautioned them to be very careful using the policy to spur economic growth and brag about it. With expansionary policy, anybody can grow the economy. It is not about any competence. What an individual needs is to spend more money into the economy and watch it grow. However, if along the way a natural disaster occurs, your example could only be likened to the man who uses all his huge sum of money to buy expensive clothes and furniture in order to brag. Then, in just one morning a fire outbreak consumes all of that. No more cash, and no more clothes and furniture. Now, imagine if that money was a borrowed one. What a Wahala? That's what has begun to happen in Ghana. Unless aid from donor countries save us, this is the beginning of our misery because of reckless usage of economic policy to score cheap political points. Meanwhile, "Ghana is beyond aid". Perhaps because I was just a mere graduate, a child, and without PhD in economics from Harvard or Oxford, nobody listened to this economic prophecy I foretold and forewarned. Now, one doesn't need to read between the lines in order to appreciate this shortsightedness and inappropriate confidence displayed by the government to lift the ban. It is sheer panic of driving the country into the abyss of economic mess and hardship as it has already been observed and rated by Moody's and B3. But, what could have encouraged this suicidal decision to lift the ban in order to rescue a sinking economy, might be a research conducted by an Israeli Mathematics Professor I stumbled upon online few days ago. I read with rather dissatisfaction, hopelessness, and confusion, a report or research on the infamous corona virus, conducted by an Israeli Professor of Mathematics at the Tel Aviv University who doubles as the head and chairman of Security Studies program at that university in Israel, Professor Isaac Ben-Israeli. According to the mathematics professor, he and others have conducted a research on the novel virus spread, around the world, and they have come to what I and anybody, would describe as a premature conclusion. The research opines that lockdowns by countries across the globe have really not made any impact to the spread of the disease. Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel has postulated that the pattern of spread of the virus, remains the same in affected countries despite the lockdowns. It therefore makes no difference, whether lockdown or open, the disease hits its victims hard. Thus, despite the huge Cos90 to those countries who lockdown their economies because of the virus, they still get infected badly. Suggesting that, it's better to have one's markets opened and gets infected with economic gain than to lose economically and get infected in addition. He even wondered why would Israel lose 20% of its GDP to a lockdown when only 140 people die everyday. Lord have mercy. This is, in summary, the findings of his research. Our elders say if your friend promises to give you a hat, you first check on his head. Although this mathematician and researcher is coming from Israel itself with his findings, the Israeli government though is planning on how to lift their lock-down on nonessential markets, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal for 50% lift up of the lockdown, was reduced to 30% on the advice of the Israeli Health Minister. What we must appreciate as Ghanaians is that, if our partial lockdown was like Kindergartners on break at school, what will be the situation like if we decide to lift the ban but observing certain social distancing protocols? Were we able to observe those protocols outlined during the partial lockdown? It's a resounding no. It's a fact that, our partial lockdown was like some affected countries' normal days. There was no political will to really enforce it by government. The military was threatened and cowed with all forms of litigations, and accused of Human Rights trespasses which rendered them more ineffective than the government itself. Without mincing words, our so-called partial lockdown was simply a joke. And we are, perhaps, yet to realize the effects of that rascality. Moving on, when the researchers graphically showed the results of various countries' infections patterns of the disease, some observers say their claims are not far from truth. That, there's really no impact of the lockdown. The disease gets to a peak in countries affected in spite of the lockdown, professor Isaac Ben-Israel alleged. However, the question the government should have asked itself before taking a decision based on this research if indeed that is what has caught their attention is, what is the guarantee that this research by Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel was not a clear case of "armchair professor job"? Or a guesswork? We all know that, for anybody to claim any research conducted on this disease at this material moment of global lockdown, he or she could not have moved beyond his or her living room where they have been lock downed. And to sit in the comfort of one's living room or library, and determine the genuine pattern of what majority would have concealed and disguised for fear of stigmatization, victimization, and ostracization, in their countries without any medical record about them, leaves much to be desired about this research by Professor Isaac Ben-Israel. Indeed, there are many countries who have lifted their bans partially for economics activities to kick-start, but we cannot mimic them because of our lack of strong and decisive leadership. These countries have showcased genuine patriotism and have worked hard to graduate from the talking point to taking serious actions, which enabled them to suppress and contain the disease. As at Monday April 20, countries that have partially lifted their ban include: Spain, Austria, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, China, USA, Poland, even Italy etc. after declaring serious war on the disease. Equally worthy of note, there are countries that have tightened the noose of lockdown with extended weeks, and even months and who have by far, better managed the virus than Ghana does. These include UK, Canada, Singapore, France, Portugal, Hungary, Australia, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, etc., including Israel where Professor Ben-Israel who conducted this research is coming from. Japan has actually strengthened its measures, and moved on from lockdown to State of Emergency. It therefore beats our imagination that, a government which could not simply enforce a partial lockdown has the temerity to basically cancelled everything. For God's sake, half a loaf is better than none. In our own backyard in Africa (West Africa) where experts are predicting to be the next epicenter, no country has come out to lift their ban. Somebody must knock sense in the government. Clearly, President Akufo Addo is, again, vaingloriously seeking for irrelevant global attention with his plenty of speeches as "Africa's best President" he never deserved. Is it not mind-boggling that a government that earlier released one million dollars to fight 1 case of a disease, sees it fit to abandon the fight when the cases have now hit 1014? God save Ghana. Submitted By: Abdul Hakeem Iddrisu, The Young Prof. The Young, by the permission of their Maker, shall grow. Updated at 4:04 p.m. ET on 2020-04-22 The United States has sent an amphibious assault ship and a guided missile cruiser to the site of an ongoing survey by a Chinese ship operating in Malaysian waters, the U.S. military said Tuesday, signaling Washingtons support for other countries in the region as China presses its advantage in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lt. Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman, spokeswoman for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, confirmed that the USS America and USS Bunker Hill have been deployed in the South China Sea. Through our continued operational presence in the South China Sea, we are working with our allies and partners to promote freedom of navigation and overflight, and the international principles that underpin security and prosperity for the Indo-Pacific, she wrote in an email. The U.S. supports the efforts of our allies and partners to determine their own economic interests. Schwegman did not state the exact location of the warships but satellite imagery from Tuesday provided by the European Union through the EO Browser service confirms that the USS America is less than 60 nautical miles from the West Capella, a Malaysian-contracted oil exploration ship. In close proximity, there are a combination of Chinese survey vessels, coast guard, and maritime militia ships, according to vessel tracking software. The Chinese survey vessel, named the Hai Yang Di Zhi 8, arrived in Malaysian waters on April 16 and is surveying an area within Malaysias exclusive economic zone, between the West Capella and Malaysias coast. As of Tuesday morning, the Hai Yang Di Zhi 8 was roughly 180 nautical miles from the Malaysian coast but only 100 nautical miles from the Luconia Shoals, which are claimed by China and Malaysia in the southernmost part of the South China Sea. On April 17, the Hai Yang Di Zhi 8 was also within 200 nautical miles of Indonesias Natuna Islands. Vessel-tracking software shows that the survey is being conducted in a back-and-forth manner over an area about 150 nautical miles wide, and creeping ever-closer to Malaysias Sarawak state. Malaysias coast guard last week confirmed that the Chinese survey ship was in Malaysian waters. Zack Cooper, a research fellow at the Washington-based think tank the American Enterprise Institute said there were many possible reasons for the U.S. to have sent warships to the area of the survey ship but it was unlikely that Malaysia had asked for the U.S. to intervene. I dont think the United States has any intention to directly engage on behalf of Malaysia, especially because Malaysia may not have asked for assistance and is not a U.S. treaty ally, Cooper explained. But it is useful for U.S. forces to be there to help monitor Chinese activities and show other claimants that China is not the only outside military capable of operating in the South China Sea. The commander of the USS America Expeditionary Strike Group said that his forces had interacted with Chinese naval forces in the South China Sea this week. All our interactions continue to be safe and professional with them, Rear Adm. Fred Kacher told Reuters by phone from the USS America. A graphic representation of the path of the Chinese survey ship Hai Yang Di Zhi 8 since it arrived off the coast of Malaysia on April 16. (MarineTraffic with annotation by BenarNews) China has said that the Hai Yang Di Zhi 8 is conducting normal activities and has accused U.S. officials of smearing Beijing. That followed statements from the U.S State and Defense departments strongly critical of Chinas recent activities in the South China Sea, particularly the April 2 sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat in a confrontation with a China Coast Guard ship. The State Department accused China of exploiting other nations distraction over COVID-19 to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea. The Hai Yang Di Zhi 8 is accompanied by China Coast Guard (CCG) and Peoples Armed Forces Maritime Militia ships. Two CCG ships, the Zhongguohaijing 4203 and 1105, are sailing alongside the Hai Yang and shadowing supply ships supporting the West Capella, according to vessel-tracking software. Another CCG ship, the Haijing 5203, has been sailing in and around Luconia Shoals since April 1. The apparent standoff near the West Capella occurs as Beijing faces diplomatic pushback from some of its Southeast Asian neighbors against its sweeping assertion of sovereignty across the resource-rich sea. Over the weekend, Chinas upped the ante when it announced two new administrative districts for the South China Sea and released a new map naming all the islands and reefs it claims in the contested region though Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have sovereignty claims that overlap with China. In recent weeks the U.S. has withdrawn key assets from the Pacific. The aircraft carrier the USS Theodore Roosevelt had to be pulled out of active deployment on March 26 because of dangerous rates of coronavirus infections among its crew. The U.S. Air Force announced last Friday it would no longer maintain a continuous presence of strategic bombers at its base on the Pacific island of Guam, opting instead for what it described as less predictable operations in the region at the time and tempo of our choosing. But Cooper said the arrival of the USS America and Bunker Hill serves as a reminder that the U.S. Navy is large and not dependent on one ship to show regional presence. He said the U.S. is using this deployment to remind China and other claimants in the South China Sea that China has no legal basis to economic rights in the area the Hai Yang Di Zhi 8 is operating in. KAMPALA Six Chinese nationals have been convicted by the Nakawa Magistrates Court after they pleaded guilty to escaping from quarantine. Mr Huang Haiguiang, Mr Li Chaochyan, Mr Lin Xiaofang , Mr Qin Shening, Mr Liang Xinging and Mr Huang Wei on Tuesday, April 21 appeared before Chief Magistrate Ruth Nabaasa before they pleaded guilty of disobeying lawful orders, an act likely to spread infection of disease. The magistrate then remanded the Chinese nationals until May 4 when they will appear for sentencing. Prosecution led by Ms Annette Namatovu states that on the 19th day of March 2020 at Kibuli Hotel Africa in Kampala knowing or having reason to believe that it was likely to spread the infection of a disease dangerous to life, the six Chinese nationals unlawfully or negligently escaped from self quarantined at the said hotel without completing their fourteen mandatory days against COVID 19 to Zombo district. According to the court records, the six Chinese arrived at Entebbe international airport aboard Ethiopian Airlines on March 10, 2020 and had been subjected to 14 days self quarantine at Kibuli Hotel Africa but decided but they decided to defy the orders of the Ministry of Health Im decided to run away under unclear circumstances. Related An analysis of show transcripts was conducted to document what the authors conclude are the significant differences in the hosts handling of the topic early on. For example, the paper cites a Feb. 27 Hannity transcript in which the host states, And today, thankfully, zero people in the United States of America have died from the coronavirus. Zero. Two days earlier, Carlson was telling his viewers that it was possible a million people could die in the U.S. from it. She noted that New Zealands transmission rate was a small 0.48%, and that it has a relatively low proportion of serious cases and a low mortality rate. Existing cases are almost all linked to contact with overseas travel, and random community testing in Queenstown, Wellington, Auckland and Waikato has returned a negative result. The director general is confident that there is no widespread community transmission in New Zealand, Ardern said. All of you have stopped the uncontrolled explosion of COVID-19 in New Zealand, and I couldnt feel prouder of the start we have made together. But I also feel a huge responsibility to ensure that we do not lose any of the gains we have made either. Cabinet wanted to make sure we lock in our gains, and give ourselves some additional certainty. Ardern says the extended lockdown will cost us just two more business days, but will mean a significantly smaller chance of having to go backwards and yo-yo between levels. C-COM reports a small loss due to global market conditions - driven by COVID-19 and uncertainty in the oil sector; 36th Consecutive Quarterly Dividend Payment Declared Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. (TSXV: CMI) (OTC: CYSNF), a leading global provider of mobile auto-deploying satellite antenna systems, announced today financial results for the first quarter ended February 29, 2020. The Company has generated revenues of $1,240,630 and a net after tax loss of $186,573 or zero cents per share. This compared with revenues of $2,948,252 and a net after tax profit of $424,404 or 1 cent per share as reported in 2019, representing a decrease of 58% and 144% respectively. The working capital of the Company decreased by 3.1% to $21,678,852 at February 29, 2020 as compared to $22,383,369 at November 30, 2019. The Company paid out $474,586 in dividends during this first quarter compared to $465,257 in the first quarter of 2019 representing a 2% increase. The Company has maintained its quarterly dividend payout while continuing to innovate and invest into the next generation of advanced antenna products. The Company also announced the payment of its eligible quarterly dividend in the amount of $0.0125 per common share payable on May 19, 2020 to all shareholders of record as of May 5, 2020. Based on the closing price of $1.93 per share on April 20th, 2020, this dividend represents a yield of 2.59% on an annualized basis. This is the Company's 36th consecutive quarterly dividend. "The small loss this quarter can be directly attributed to a slowdown in our markets in Asia, who were the first to experience the abrupt impact on their economies due to the COVID-19 virus. In addition, the OPEC oil production dispute has also dampened activity with our oil sector customers" said Dr. Leslie Klein, President & CEO of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. "The COVID-19 virus will make 2020 a challenging year for all businesses. Our healthy balance sheet, extensive inventory, and new products position us well to mitigate challenges that this year will bring. The company is considered to be an essential service, and we are working hard to maintain a "business as usual" environment. " Klein added, "For example, our new small, Manpack series antennas-designed to be carried back-pack like by a single person, are generating very strong interest from new market segments around the world. A new vertical market for tracking LEO's, Smallsats and CubeSats is emerging and C-COM has developed advanced tracking algorithms for this market for use with its existing Flyaway antennas. C-COM has deployed several antenna systems with these new entrants and has demonstrated successful tracking of these fast-moving satellites. We expect this new market to generate incremental revenue for the company in 2020 and beyond." "The Company is also involved in extensive R&D of next generation antenna technologies in conjunction with the University of Waterloo. This effort should provide C-COM with a revolutionary, patentable Ka-band antenna technology to be used with the growing number of HTS being launched in the next several years. This conformal antenna technology is designed to be mass producible and be compatible with 5G and other developing millimeter wave technologies." Klein concluded. The Company has maintained its quarterly dividend payout while continuing to innovate and invest into the next generation of advanced antenna products. The Company announces that despite the unprecedented public health impact of COVID-19 it will hold its annual shareholder meeting on May 1, 2020 as scheduled. C-COM is attempting to mitigate the risks to the health and safety of its community, shareholders, employees and other stakeholders by strongly encouraging shareholders to exercise their right to vote on the matters scheduled to come before the meeting by submitting proxies or voting instructions in advance of the meeting rather than attending in person. The only matters to be dealt with at the meeting are described in detail in the meeting materials mailed to shareholders and available at www.SEDAR.com. Instructions for submitting your proxy or voting instruction form were included in the notice of meeting mailed to shareholders. If you are a shareholder of C-COM and have not received a notice of the meeting in the mail, please contact the bank or brokerage through which you hold your shares to provide voting instructions. We thank all parties affected for their understanding. About C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. is a pioneer and world leader in the design, development, and manufacture of transportable and mobile satellite-based antenna systems. The Company has developed proprietary, auto-acquisition controller technology for rapid antenna pointing to a satellite with just the press of a button, enabling Broadband Internet via Satellite across a wide range of market applications worldwide, including regions unserved or underserved by terrestrial access technologies. C-COM has sold more than 8,500 antenna systems, in over 100 countries, through a dedicated dealer network that provides service to a wide range of vertical markets such as Oil & Gas Exploration, Military Communications, Disaster Management, SNG, Emergency Communications, Cellular Backhaul, Telemedicine, Mobile Education, Government Services, Mobile Banking, and others. The Company's iNetVu brand is synonymous with high quality, reliability and cost-effectiveness. C-COM is in late stage development of a potentially revolutionary Ka-band, electronically steerable, modular, conformal, flat panel phased array antenna. In cooperation with the University of Waterloo, C-COM is engaged in the design of this unique antenna with the intent of providing low-cost, high-throughput mobility applications over satellite for land, airborne and maritime verticals. iNetVu is a registered trademark of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. The Company is publicly traded on the Canadian Venture Exchange (TSXV: CMI) (CVE: CMI) and on the US OTC Exchange (OTC: CYNSF). ### Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. A number of factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements. For example, statements relating to future technology and product offerings, the anticipated results of research and development and the timing of such results and the anticipation of incremental revenues being derived from such efforts are all forward looking statements. New orders anticipated by C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. may not be received and current orders may be cancelled. Research and development efforts may not result in commercially viable products in the time frame anticipated if at all. New products and services released may not gain market acceptance. Any of those events could have an effect on future performance and C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.'s ability to achieve the results mentioned above. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54656 Donald Trump, seemingly in need of regular praise, came to his Monday evening coronavirus press briefing ready to share. He held up one, then two articles praising parts of his coronavirus response. Here's the catch: He had previously panned one of the authors as one of "the dumbest of the talking heads" and a "clueless pundit." Mr Trump has turned to using props during his now-nightly Covid-19 briefings. On Monday evening, he brought a thick list of testing centres he contends state governors were not using to process coronavirus tests. He also brought two articles he said made his point about ventilators and governors over-stating their needs for the breathing machines. "Unfortunately the press doesn't cover it other than the fair press, but then, so then you say, 'Gee, they needed ventilators,'" the president said in a mocking tone. "We don't need ventilators," he said, continuing to mock some governors even as over 40,000 Americans were dead from the virus. "Nobody that needed a ventilator in this country didn't get one, and a story that just came out how the media completely blew the Trump ventilator story." "I'm sure you would love to see that," he said, now mocking the 14 reporters seated in the social-distanced White House briefing room. So he read from his prop. "That is by Rich Lowry, a respected journalist and person,"Mr Trump said, contradicting his feelings for Mr Lowry from five years ago. Or perhaps his feelings for the man have just evolved similar to his quickly shifting policy positions. This was Mr Trump on 21 September 2015: ".@RichLowry is truly one of the dumbest of the talking heads - he doesn't have a clue!" And this was Trump on 23 September 2015: ".@FoxNews owes me an apology for allowing clueless pundit @RichLowry to use such foul language on TV. Unheard of!" No matter. Mr Trump had what he felt was a justification for his spring-long pushback of state officials about helping get them breathing machines, which he eventually did as the US death toll climbed. Now, with several highly populated areas past their expected peaks for cases and deaths, Mr Trump is declaring victory that he was correct for much of March that governors were over-stating their needs. "'How the media completely blew the Trump ventilator story,'" Mr Trump said, reading from the article as he showed it to the journalists in the room. "Which unfortunately it did." But the president was not finished. He had a second prop as he sought to settle yet another grievance. "And here's another one that just came out: Kyle Smith. 'The ventilator shortage that wasn't,'" Mr Trump said, also showing this article to the press. "The ventilator shortage that wasn't because we got it fixed, and we are also going to help the states, by the way, stockpile ventilators so if a thing like this should happen again, they have got them." The president has used his pressing American companies to to build new production lines to pump out ventilators to declare the United States the world's "ventilator king." He has since moved on from a war with governors over the breathing machines. Now he and state leaders mostly Democratic but some Republicans, too are feuding over whether they have ample testing kits and whether he is doing enough to help them test at a level to allow states to safely open up. "We provided each governor with a list of the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the labs where they can find additional testing capacity within their states. Many, many labs," Mr Trump said, later showing journalists that very list and he flipped through its pages on live television. "We are providing you with a list we will show to [you] now, if you need it we will give the details," he said. "But hundreds and hundreds of labs are ready, willing, and able. Some of the governors, like as an example the governor from Maryland, didn't really understand the list he didn't understand too much about what was going on so now I think he will be able to do that. It's pretty simple." He was referring to Republican Larry Hogan, who has since responded that he was forced to buy half a million Covid-19 testing kits from a South Korean company and felt he was merely following the president's directions in doing so. "This is exactly what the president has told us to do. Just yesterday, he was saying the governors are responsible for this. We're on the front lines," Mr Hogan told MSNBC, referring to a Monday afternoon call with Mr Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. "We should just get it done. Then we did get it done, and we get criticised. So I'm not sure how things could be different." The Government leader made the direction during a working session with the Standing Board of the Hanoi Party Committee on April 20 concerning the capital citys socio-economic situation in the first quarter of 2020 and key tasks for the remaining months of the year. He lauded Hanois efforts and resolve in combating the pandemic, asking the city to strive ahead with its work in the most effective fashion in the near future, in parallel with working towards realising the goals originally set for the year regarding growth, employment and budget revenue. Amid the outbreak of COVID-19, Hanois GDP growth rate of nearly 4% in Q1 was reasonable, but low compared to the same period last year, PM Phuc said, urging the city to take more drastic and synchronous measures to remove barriers to development, as Hanois growth would drive the development of the capital region as a whole. He asked the city to effectively implement Party congresses at all levels, mobilise non-State resources in the service of infrastructural development, accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital, and design development scenarios for different conditions in a significantly changing economy. General view of the working session. (Photo: NDO/Tran Hai) Hanoi should strive to become a prosperous, beautiful, civilised, smart and integrated capital, with synchronous and modern infrastructure, a friendly, sustainable, secure and safe living environment and leading services in various areas, the leader recommended, adding that the capital city must be a place for the convergence of Vietnams cultural quintessences in harmony with the progressive cultural values of humanity. He urged Hanoi to effectively deal with the issues of food supply, urban management, ensuring clean water for people at affordable prices, protecting the urban environment and improving the quality of lives for locals. Hanoi should exert greater effort to improve the business climate, focusing on accelerating the building of e-government and boosting e-commerce, digital agriculture and socio-economic development in a public and transparent manner, the PM said. He asked the city to firmly safeguard political security and the social order and safety of the people as well as of Party and State agencies, socio-political organisations and international diplomatic representative agencies, in addition to definitively dealing with existing issues related to the Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway project. A ward-winning film-maker Gurinder Chadha has hailed the NHS heroes who stayed at her aunts bedside as she lost the fight with coronavirus complications in hospital. Chadha, whose hit movies include Bend It Like Beckham and Blinded By The Light, described how family members, prevented by lockdown restrictions from being with their dying bhuaji [auntie], instead said prayers and their final goodbyes by video call on Sunday. Chadha wrote on Instagram: We said goodbye to my dearest bhuaji from #covid19 complications. She was my dads little sister ... and doted on me. She survived the Partition of India and sadly for us, her family, no one could be with her in person in her final moments. But two nurses in the Surrey hospital held her hand, FaceTimed her children who all chanted Sikh prayers during which her soul departed. God bless the #nhsheroes who made my dear aunts passing humane." It came hours before the release of a three-minute film targeted at the British Asian community, in which Chadha appears alongside a host of British Asian stars giving advice about staying safe from the virus. Actor and comedian Adil Ray, actress Meera Syal and TV presenter Anita Rani are among those taking part in the three-minute clip which contains advice developed in conjunction with Public Health England. Figures published yesterday by NHS England showed that 16.2 per cent of those who died with coronavirus up to April 17 were from a BAME background, with those of Indian heritage accounting for 3 per cent of hospital deaths. Ray, one of the organisers of the video, which is posted on YouTube, said: We all felt that we had to do something during these unprecedented times. "It is evident that some of the advice and messages are not getting to some communities when they need it most. Hospital support worker Sophie Fagan Bethnal Green and Bow MP Rushanara Ali described is as an urgent message. She tweeted: We know the virus is disproportionately affecting BAME communities, so its vital we reach them. Two nurses held her hand... God bless the NHS heroes who made my dear aunts passing humane Meanwhile, tributes were paid today to 78-year-old hospital support worker Sophie Fagan, who has become the latest health worker to die with the disease, after refusing to stop work because she was determined to carry on and do her bit for the NHS. She died on Sunday at Homerton Hospital in Hackney, the borough where she started work as a nurse 54 years ago. Mrs Fagan, who arrived from India in 1961 aged 16, had refused to retire and since 2000 had been working as a carer support specialist at the hospital. She had worked well beyond retirement age because of her love of the NHS, her family said. She was involved with the Princes Trust and had twice met Princess Anne through her work at the hospital. Shortly before she became ill, the hospital had insisted she take some time off in an attempt to shield her from the virus. Her son John, 49, said: We asked her to think about giving up work for a while because of her age and coronavirus but she wouldnt hear any of it. She was determined to carry on and do her bit for the NHS as she always had. She loved it. She was an extraordinary woman. She was a beautiful, caring person. We are all devastated. Mrs Fagan lived with her brother Frederick in Clapton. He said: I am heartbroken she was a wonderful sister. Mrs Fagan worked as a community nurse at the now closed Eastern Hospital until 1981, then at St Leonards Hospital Day Unit. She was the day unit organiser in City & Hackney community services prior to transferring to Homerton hospital in March 1998 as a discharge liaison officer. She took up her post of carers support specialist in 2000 and continued right up to this weekend. Colombia thanks Turkey for medical aid The country has nearly 3,800 cases and 179 deaths from the epidemic while 711 people have recovered so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Colombia thanked Turkey on Monday for donating 250 hospital beds to the country in efforts to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak. 250 HOSPITAL BEDS WERE DONATED "Thanks to the Turkish Embassy and TIKA Colombia, the Transient Hospital center of Corferias has 250 hospital beds for the care of low complexity patients," Colombia's Foreign Ministry said, referring to the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency. The Corferias Congress Center, located in Bogota, was turned into a transient hospital to meet the needs of patients during the epidemic. Colombia's Health Ministry also welcomed the aid, saying the donation of beds was "key help to continue saving lives." The Latin American country previously received 26,000 test kits for coronavirus from Turkey on March 22. Kosovo's Kurti Accuses U.S. Envoy Of 'Direct Involvement' In His Government Collapse By RFE/RL April 20, 2020 BELGRADE -- Kosovo's acting prime minister, Albin Kurti, has accused a U.S. envoy of being "directly involved" in the overthrow of his government less than two months after he took office as premier. Kurti's government was brought down in late March by a no-confidence vote initiated by its junior coalition partner late last month, plunging the Balkan country into a political crisis. Speaking during a video press conference with foreign media on April 20, Kurti said Richard Grenell -- U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy to Kosovo-Serbia talks -- put "pressure" on the coalition partner to quit their alliance. Kurti, who remains as head of the government in a caretaker role, said his government "wasn't overthrown for anything else but simply because Ambassador Grenell is in a rush to sign a deal with Serbia which I strongly believe is harmful since it includes territorial exchange." The U.S. ambassador, who has been working on a potential deal for Serbia to recognize Kosovo, denied the accusation on Twitter, saying: "There has been absolutely no talk of land swaps from me -- and it's never been discussed by anyone else in my presence. We have said this many times." Kurti also accused Grenell of trying to push through a "quick deal" to score political points ahead of the U.S. presidential election later this year, in which Trump is seeking reelection. An agreement normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia would be seen as a diplomatic success for the White House, which has pushed for an agreement to be worked out this year. Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, declared independence in 2008 in a move rejected by Belgrade. There has long been speculation Serbian and Kosovar leaders were considering an agreement that would involve trading pockets of territory as part of a process to normalize relations between the two countries. Kurti's political future remains unclear. President Hashim Thaci has said he would start the process to form a new government this week, while the acting prime minister has called for fresh elections instead. With reporting by AFP and AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kurti-accuses -us-envoy-of-direct-involvement-in-his- government-collapse/30566615.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 Our Ltd requires more than 10 x 40 feet containers of Refined Sunflower Oil packed in 1 Litre PET Bottles for exporting same to our client in Binghazi, Libya. The label design shall be given by our client. Could u pls confirm whether your company can meet our this requirement, if yes pls quote us the best rates FOB and CIF per ton. Also send specifications of your Sunflower Oil. If your oil and prices are accepted by our client, I assure u that we will establish long term business relationship with your company. Also like to tell u that our preferred mode of payment would be LC. MARSHALL, MI After 43 years in business, the Pizza Hut in Marshall is closed. The restaurant, 1114 W. Michigan Ave., closed permanently Monday, April 20, a news release said. The franchise opened in 1977. The pizzeria closed because the building was no longer useful, franchise owner Joyce Lunsford said in the news release. Pizza Hut might return to Marshall in the future, she said. Almost all the Marshall employees took a transfer to the Albion Pizza Hut, 1435 N. Eaton St., the release said. The building is expected to be for sale in the coming weeks. READ MORE JACKSON NEWS: Art, Beer, Wine Festival at Ella Sharp Park rescheduled due to coronavirus Ready for Takeout Tuesday? Why not try these 5 Jackson-area restaurants Road crack sealing on I-94 beginning in Jackson County About two dozen soldiers, 9 civilians killed in Taliban attacks across Afghanistan Iran Press TV Monday, 20 April 2020 3:24 PM Nearly two dozen Afghan government forces and nine civilians have been killed by the Taliban militant group in separate attacks across the country, officials say. The militants carried out the attacks late on Sunday in the northeastern province of Takhar, Uruzgan in the south, and Balkh in the north of Afghanistan. Khalil Asir, provincial police spokesman in Takhar, told AFP that the Taliban struck an Afghan army base on Sunday night, killing 16 soldiers and two policemen. The Takhar governor's spokesman, Mohammad Jawad Hejri, confirmed the attack by the militants, but put the death toll at 19. In the south, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint near Tarin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, and killed five police officers there. "Five Afghan policemen were killed and three others were wounded," said Zelgai Ebadi, a spokesman for the Uruzgan governor. In the northern province of Balkh, the Taliban claimed the lives of nine civilians after they reportedly refused to give the militants money. The militant group has yet to comment on the reports, but it previously claimed the US and Afghan forces had targeted its members despite a ceasefire deal with Washington in February. Under the deal, the Taliban agreed to halt their attacks in return for Washington's phased withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan and a prisoner exchange with the Afghan government. Kabul, which was excluded from the talks and was thus not a signatory to the accord, is required to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The militants are obliged to free 1,000 pro-government captives in return. The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 under the pretext of the so-called war against terror, overthrowing the Taliban regime that had ruled over the country till then. Since the US-led invasion, Washington has reportedly spent more than one trillion dollars on the war in Afghanistan. About 2,400 US soldiers have been killed, along with unknown numbers of Afghan troops and Taliban militants. Over 100,000 Afghans have been killed or injured since 2009 when the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan began documenting casualties. About 14,000 US troops and approximately 17,000 troops from NATO allies and partner countries remain stationed in Afghanistan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The service department at Fox Toyota has reduced its hours. At Fox Toyota, the service department hours have been scaled back. The coronavirus has shaken up the country. As a result, many businesses have had to close, limit hours or change the way it does business. At Fox Toyota, the service department hours have been scaled back. It will now be open from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. The weekend hours will remain at 7 a.m. until 12 p.m. on Saturdays and closed on Sundays. Customers who are looking for a new vehicle can do so from the comfort of home. Individuals can browse the dealerships current inventory online. If the person finds a vehicle that he or she wishes to test drive, the person should call the dealership and schedule an appointment. Finally, if the interested party wishes to purchase the vehicle, the sale can be completed remotely. The showroom at Fox Toyota will continue to be open and the hours will remain the same. There are a few new procedures that have been put in place. The team members have been more frequently washing hands, not touching their faces and avoiding people that are sick. In addition, any employees that are not feeling well are being asked to stay home. Fox Toyota has worked hard at earning the trust of its customers through the years by treating every guest like family. As a dealership that has been family owned and operated for over seventy years, it prides itself on providing quality customer service. Individuals that would like to schedule a service appointment or browse the current inventory available at Fox Toyota can visit https://www.foxtoyotaclinton.com/. The dealership can be reached by phone at 865-259-7686. Finally, for those that wish to visit the dealership in person, it is conveniently located at 288 Fox Family Lane in Clinton. COLUMBIA -- Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, sent a letter Monday to Gov. Henry McMaster concerning the issues of ensuring that the public docks in state parks are open and that public beaches are opened for all South Carolinians, not just the wealthy few who live on the oceanfront. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson issued an opinion in March that addressed local municipalities issuing stay-at-home ordinances. The opinion expressed that the state holds the exclusive power in the decision to issue an emergency stay-at-home order and that cities do not have the legal authority. Rutherford said. In addition, the attorney generals opinion stated that a private citizen could sue cities that have passed those ordinances. However, the opinion did not clearly address the issue of municipalities setting up roadblocks and checkpoints to prevent and prohibit access to the city for non-local South Carolinians. Rutherford said, I believe the attorney generals opinion clearly addresses this issue and that no municipality in South Carolina has the authority or right to bar, block or prohibit another South Carolinian from entering that city. Our tax dollars benefit all within our great state and therefore, all South Carolinians should have access to all public parts of our state. I believe the action is not only illegal, it shuns the all-in-it-together but at a safe-distance approach that most South Carolinians are taking to fight this pandemic. Rutherford also included in his letter a request to ensure that the docks located in state parks are open to the public as usual, with of course, the social distancing guidelines that South Carolinians have abided by in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources announced Tuesday that it will continue to keep several properties and facilities closed until further notice. The closures include piers at SCDNRs 13 state lakes, Capers Island, St. Helena Sound Heritage Preserve islands, Fenwick Island, and Botany Bay beach access, as well as Bald Rock Heritage Preserve and Sassafras Mountain Observation Tower. The Punjab government on Tuesday sought from the Centre an interim compensation of Rs 3,000 crore for the month of April in view of "alarming resource gap" and also demanded permission for sale of liquor to mobilise excise revenue. Pointing to the alarming resource gap between the state's anticipated receipts and committed expenditure, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday demanded interim compensation to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore for the month of April on account of the COVID-19 national disaster, said a government statement here. In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the chief minister also asked for expediting the release of the state's GST arrears of Rs 4,400 crore for the last four months, to help overcome resource constraint. Stating that the lockdown had substantial fiscal consequences for all states, Singh said the central government should compensate Punjab for its loss of revenue due to COVID-19. While the Rs 3,000 crore for April was an estimate, he said "detailed assessment of loss and requirement of funds for relief and rehabilitation will be submitted in due course,". However, he stressed that the Centre should provide interim assistance so that the fight against COVID-19 is not allowed to weaken in any way. Punjab was facing a huge stress on account of the required health and relief measures that are being continuously scaled up, "with hardly any revenue receipts accruing to the state during these days due to near complete shutdown of trade, business and industry", the chief minister said. The state government had made a provision of revenue receipts of Rs 3,360 crore for the month of April 2020 in the state budget 2020-21. It comprised Rs 1,322 crore of GST, Rs 465 crore of VAT on petroleum, Rs 521 crore state excise revenue, Rs 198 crore of Motor Vehicle Tax, Rs 243 crore of electricity duty, Rs 219 crore of stamp duty and non-tax revenue of Rs 392 crore. The chief minister observed that these receipts are expected to decline sharply as most economic activities in the state remain closed on account of the lockdown. The receipts on account of state GST, integrated GST, VAT, excise, stamp duty and motor vehicle taxes are almost negligible and the reduced electricity consumption has resulted in a drop of 60 per cent of the expected revenue from electricity duty during April 2020, he said. On the other hand, he pointed out, the committed expenditure of the state which is debt servicing, pensions, salaries, relief measures for COVID-19, health care and infrastructure etc., is budgeted at Rs 7,301 crore for the month of April 2020, resulting in the huge resource gap between the anticipated receipts and committed expenditure. Pointing to the critical fiscal situation of the state, the CM also sought the Centre's permission to allow sale of liquor, in a phased manner, to mop up value added tax and excise revenue. The Home Ministry should allow the state to take a conscious decision to allow the sale of liquor in certain areas in a phased manner with strict social distancing and other measures to prevent COVID-19", he said. This would help the state immensely in its efforts to scale up the relief and health care measures to combat COVID-19 and meet some, if not all, of its committed liabilities and other day-to-day expenses, he said. Singh requested the Home Minister for early action, while assuring him of the state's full and continued support in the efforts of the government of India to overcome the present crisis by effectively managing and containing the COVID-19. Notably, the Punjab government has projected collection of Rs 6,250 crore from the sale of liquor for 2020-21 in the state, which is known for its high consumption. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) (Adds details, context) GEORGETOWN, April 21 (Reuters) - More than 30 companies, including commodities traders like Gunvor and Vitol as well as units of oil majors like Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, submitted expressions of interest for a contract to market the Guyanese government's share of the country's crude, the government said on Tuesday. The National Procurement and Tender Board administration unveiled the bids after their Tuesday morning deadline. Other major companies submitting expressions of interest included units of Mercuria, Lukoil, PetroChina, Equinor , Total, Glencore, Petrobras and Aramco. Guyana, a poor South American country, joined the world's oil producers last year when an Exxon-led consortium began extracting crude from the prolific offshore Stabroek block, where it has discovered more than 8 billion barrels of recoverable resource alongside partners Hess Corp and China's CNOOC Ltd. The government is entitled to half of all oil produced after cost recovery, but with no domestic refining capacity or national oil company, it is seeking a third party to help it sell the oil. The government reached a deal with Shell last year to lift its first three cargoes. The current search, which the government opened in February, is for a 12-month contract to handle at least five lifts of 1 million barrels each. The government now plans to shortlist no more than 20 companies. Those companies would then be required to provide a full technical proposal and financial offer, a process that could take around two months. Reuters previously reported that Shell, Mercuria and Gunvor had submitted expressions of interest. (Reporting by Neil Marks Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Sandra Maler and Jonathan Oatis) - Drake shared a video done by the Masaka kids who were taking on the Tossie Slide challenge and amazingly killed it - The video got attention of many people even leading to a rise in social media followers for the group - According to the group's founder, they have been receiving requests from people who want to donate greatly to the kids The Tossie Slide dance challenge by Canadian artiste Drake went global and a children's dance group from Uganda got the attention of the famed rapper after partaking in it. The young kings and queens, Masaka Kids, are composed of orphaned children from Uganda. READ ALSO: US rapper Eminem celebrates 12 years of being sober with classy sobriety coin READ ALSO: KenyavsUganda: KOT faces off with UG after equating Kenya's national anthem to its poverty line The group posted the dance video version of Toosie Slide which was shared by rapper Drake to millions of his followers. Even better, Drake reached out to ask directly to post the video, which was confirmed by chats from the group's DMs. According to the group's founder, Suuna Hassan, many contacted them inquiring how they could help. She added they received donations which included money, clothes and several other items in order to help out the children as reported by TMZ. READ ALSO: Gengetone group Ethic stare at 5-year jail term for obnoxious Soko song READ ALSO: Comedian Jalang'o showers online funnyman Flaqo with praises: "Mad respect and talent son" Since Friday, April 17, when the video was shared, the Masaka Kids Africana Instagram account gained over 120,000 new followers. The dancer's only mission was to get the attention of Drake but more goodies came with his attention. Unlike the normal Tossie Slide challenges shared by many on social media, the orphaned kids put a lot of skill and time as they produced an African-styled masterpiece. The song was released days after Drake's 14 quarantine days were over and had been confirmed negative for COVID-19. The rapper shot the video at his KSh 710 million Toronto mansion, showing off how classy and neat his house was. The video is one of the most famous videos in terms of challenges on Tik Tok. 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. Doctor among people who have recovered from COVID-19 in Kenya | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke On Tuesday, US President took to Twitter to announce the temporary suspension of the immigration. He tweeted, In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States! Well, the announcement came days after the US government allowed applicants for H-1B visas to continue in the country. However, Trump talked about suspending immigration visas, and the H-1B visa, which is more popular among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa. But his reasoning that he needs to protect jobs of American citizens indicates that non-immigrant work visas too might be on his target. To remind, the allows US to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. Details of Trump's executive order were not immediately known. He also did not indicate when he would sign such an order. In response to Trumps tweet, Indias IT services industry body National Association of Software and Services tweeted NASSCOM seeks details on the Executive Order of the President of the United States suspending immigration temporarily. Speaking of the markets reaction, shares of information technology (IT) companies were under pressure, falling by up to 6 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in early morning deals on Tuesday. (TCS), Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Hexaware Technologies, NIIT Technologies and were down 1 per cent to 5 per cent on the NSE in intra-day trade. However, Nifty IT index has outperformed the market, down 2.1 per cent compared to 2.7 per cent decline in the benchmark index. It is understood that the move comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented economic crisis looming on account of the pandemic, which has taken a heavy toll on the US. Trump has already closed the Northern and Southern border that attracts a large number of illegal immigrants. Due to the pandemic, the US has experienced a record layoff. As off last week, a record number of 22 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits. Besides, with the lockdowns in place and several client projects shutting down, many Indians on H-1B work visas have also either lost jobs or are stuck in the US since Indian airspace is also shut. That apart, amid a coronavirus-induced supply glut, a historic collapse in the US crude futures saw it turn negative for the first time in history. The May contract of US WTI crude oil tumbled as low as minus $40.32 a barrel overnight, before recovering to around $2 a barrel. To know more, tune in to this podcast Advertisement The death toll is Canada's deadliest mass shooting has risen to 23 after police said Tuesday they had discovered the bodies of four more victims. Gabriel Wortman, a millionaire alcoholic whose denture business was shuttered by coronavirus, was shot dead after a 12-hour killing and arson spree across Nova Scotia. The 51-year-old gunman victim's, who were scattered across the eastern province, include a 17-year-old, mountie Heidi Stevenson, a mother-of-two, an elementary school teacher, a nurse, a care assistant, a family of three, and a husband and wife who leave behind four children. Cops initially discovered 18 victims but on Tuesday, officers recovered four more bodies from some of the five properties Wortman 'burned to the ground' during his rampage. The gunman is also included in the death toll of 23. It was also revealed today that the gunman had an obsession with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, known as 'mounties'. This infatuation, which his school yearbook showed spawned from an early age, reportedly saw him collect a haul of mountie gear including decommissioned cop cars he snapped up at auction. Wortman delved into this trove of memorabilia to disguise as an officer, pulling victims over in his fake police vehicle before executing them point blank. Police sources told Canadian media that the first two victims were Wortman's ex-wife and her new boyfriend, but he then easily slaughtered at random by pretending to be a police officer. Gabriel Wortman, the 51-year-old gunman who was shot dead after a 12-hour killing and arson spree across Nova Scotia, was said to have an obsession with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCMP chief superintendent Chris Leather said: 'His ability to move around the province undetected was surely greatly benefited by the fact that he had a vehicle that looked identical in every way to a marked police car.' Wortman is understood to have abandoned his fake cop car after he crashed it and resorted to stealing a vehicle from another motorist, sources told CNN. The shooter's obsession with the mounties was underscored by the 'shrine' he had erected at his home in Portapique, an acquaintance said. Nathan Staples, who lives in nearby Great Village and was approached by Wortman a few months ago asking if he would sell his own decommissioned cop car, told the Globe and Mail: 'He was one of those freaky guys, he was really into police memorabilia.' Wortman's 1986 Riverview High School yearbook said he would likely one day become a mountie and old friends yesterday expressed shock as they remembered a 'great friend and amazing person in High School,' according to the Chronicle Herald. But neighbors have painted a different picture of the killer, revealing he suffered an alcohol problem and his denture clinic, the Atlantic Denture Clinic in Dartmouth which they say made him a millionaire, was forced to mothball during the coronavirus lockdown. Husband and wife Greg and Jamie Blair were killed in the gun rampage and tragically leave behind four children. The couple are believed to have two sons together, while Jamie has two other boys Family of three Jolene Oliver, Aaron 'Friar' Tuck, and their 17-year-old daughter Emily were wiped out in the shooting Nurse Heather O'Brien (left) was also identified by her daughter in a Facebook post shared Sunday that read: 'A monster murdered my mother today.' O'Brien was killed along with Kristen Beaton (right). Both women worked for Von Canada, the long term health care company revealed The Atlantic Denture Clinic, owned by Wortman, was guarded by police in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, on Monday. The clinic was forced to shutter because of coronavirus Police warned residents that Wortman may be driving what 'appears to be an RCMP vehicle, releasing this image, and said he may be wearing an RCMP uniform Queen mourns Canada's mass shooting The Queen has sent a message of condolence to the people of Nova Scotia following the deadliest mass shooting in Canada's history. The Queen said: 'Prince Philip and I have been deeply saddened by the appalling events in Nova Scotia and we send our condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who have lost their lives. 'I also pay tribute to the bravery and sacrifice of the officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other police services who selflessly responded to these devastating attacks, and to the emergency services who are supporting those who have been injured and affected. 'My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Nova Scotia and all Canadians at this tragic time. Elizabeth R.' Advertisement Canadian authorities are still piecing together the moments leading up to the most deadly shooting in the country's history and reveal a timeline of the gunman's movements during his 12-hour rampage that left at least 23 people dead. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they are investigating 16 separate crime scenes in connection to the mass shooting, which coincided with the anniversaries of the 1995 Oklahoma bombing and the 1993 Waco Siege in Texas. 'We're relatively confident we've identified all the crime scenes,' Nova Scotia RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said Monday, but said that fires set at some of those sites, mostly residences, made the search for other victims difficult. 'We believe there may be victims still within the remains of those homes which burnt to the ground,' Leather said. Heartbreaking stories of the victims are starting to emerge, including a family of three from Portapique who were completely wiped out by Wortman. Jolene Oliver, Aaron 'Friar' Tuck and their 17-year-old daughter Emily were all killed, according to a friend posting on a GoFundMe page. Husband and wife Greg and Jamie Blair were also gunned down. The couple are believed to have two children together, and Jamie leaves behind four boys in total. Authorities said the violence began on Saturday night in Portapique, where officers were alerted to shots fired around 11.32pm. Wortman managed to evade police throughout the night and into Sunday morning. Police first revealed that they had an 'active shooter' situation around 8am in Portapique. While authorities still have not pinned down a motive for the shooting spree, police sources told the Toronto Sun that the first two victims were the gunman's ex-wife and her new boyfriend. It's unclear if he killed the couple Saturday night or Sunday morning. The sources said: 'He's been planning this for a while. He had the uniform and two decommissioned police cars.' Authorities said the violence began on Saturday night in Portapique, where officers were alerted to shots fired around 11.32pm. Wortman managed to evade police throughout the night and into Sunday morning. Police first revealed that they had an 'active shooter' situation around 8am in Portapique. The violence ended on Sunday in Enfield Police also responded to multiple fires, including one in Wentworth where volunteer firefighters were seen dousing hotspots near destroyed vehicles linked to Sunday's deadly shooting rampage Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) monitor Portapique Beach Road, as a fire truck travels along it during the search for Gabriel Wortman on Sunday Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers speak with a man, as two RCMP vehicles travel on Portapique Beach Road, after the police finished their search for Gabriel Wortman But the rest of the victims appeared to be slaughtered at random. Several bodies were found inside and outside one house on Portapique Beach Road, the street where the suspect lived, authorities said. By 8.54am, police shared with the public that there were 'multiple victims'. Just after 10am, police warned residents to avoid Highway 4 near Hidden Hilltop Campground in Glenholme, which is about 11 miles from Portapique, because Wortman had been spotted in there area. Police had also revealed that Wortman had disguised himself as a police officer and was driving around in a fake cop car. Between 10.20am and 11.24am, Wortman had been spotted in the areas of Debert and Central Onslow, near Brookfield and Milford. Timeline: Gabriel Wortman kills at least 22 people in 12 hours over a 55-mile stretch of Nova Scotia, Canada Authorities said Wortman began his reign of violence on Saturday night when police responded to a firearms complaint in Portapique. His rampage last for at least 12 hours until he was apprehended by officers just before noon on Sunday. While police are still piecing together the details, a timeline reveals some of Wortman's movements: Saturday, April 18, 2020: 11.32pm: Portapique Officers shard on Twitter that they were responding to an incident near Portapique Beach Road, Bay Shore Road and Five Houses Road . People were told to avoid the area and stay in their homes with the doors locked. That night, three house fires were also reported. Sunday, April 19, 2020 8am: Portapique Police reveal on Twitter that the scene has become an 'active shooter situation' and warn residents to stay inside. 8.54am: Portapique Authorities identify the gunman as Gabriel Wortman and say there are 'multiple victims' in the area. 10.04am: Glenholme Police warn residents to avoid Highway 4 near Hidden Hilltop Campground in Glenholme, which is about 11 miles from Portapique, because Wortman had been spotted in there area. Authorities also warned that Wortman is disguised as an RCMP officer and driving a fake cop car. 10.21am: Central Onslow and Debert Police share on Twitter that Wortman has been spotted in the Central Onslow and Debert area. They warn locals to stay inside and avoid the area. 11am: Brookfield Authorities said Wortman was seen traveling near the Brookfield area. 11.24am Milford By this time, Wortman changed cars and was spotted in a Chevy Tracker in Milford. 11.40am: Enfield Officers tweet that Wortman is in custody. A short time later, it was revealed that Wortman had died. Police did not confirm how he died Advertisement Authorities said at some point, Wortman was forced to abandon his car and then carjacked other vehicles to continue to 'circulate around the province steps ahead of our investigators'. At 11.40am, authorities shared that they had arrived to the Irving Big Stop in Enfield, nearly 60 miles from Portapique. Police initially said Wortman had been arrested, but later said he had died. It was not clear how, and they did not provide further details, although one police official said that there was an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and police at one point. An independent agency, the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT), which probes certain incidents involving the province's police, said in a statement that a confrontation had occurred in Enfield, which is near the Halifax airport, 'resulting in officers discharging their firearms'. 'The suspect was found to be deceased at the scene,' the statement read. Police confirmed the death of constable Heidi Stevenson who was 'executed point blank' when she rammed his vehicle in an attempt to apprehend him. Stevenson, a mother-of-two, was shot dead after Wortman dragged her out of her patrol car. At a press conference on Sunday, RCMP Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman confirmed Stevenson's death, saying: 'Heidi answered the call of duty and lost her life while protecting those she served. Earlier this afternoon I met with Heidi's family and there are no words to describe their pain. 'Two children have lost their mother. And a husband has lost his wife. Parents have lost their daughter and countless others lost an incredible friend and colleague.' Lisa McCully was informally identified by her sister in a heartbreaking Facebook post Sunday night. Jenny Kierstead wrote: 'This is so hard to write but many of you will want to know. 'Our hearts are broken today as we attempt to accept the loss of my sister, Lisa McCully, who was one of the victims of the mass shooting in Portapique last night. 'Our condolences go out to the other family members who are affected by this tragedy. Thank you for your support, it's a hard day.' McCully taught at Debert Elementary where she was a 'passionate teacher' and a 'shining love' in the lives of her family and friends, the teachers union said in a tribute. Nurse Heather O'Brien was also identified by her daughter in a Facebook post shared Sunday that read: 'A monster murdered my mother today.' O'Brien was killed along with Kristen Beaton. Both women worked for Von Canada, the long term health care company revealed. Several others were injured and are being treated at a local hospital, including a male RCMP officer. Family members also paid tribute to Corrie Ellison on Sunday afternoon, with his cousin Juliene Henderson writing: 'Tragic and surreal..RIP to my cousin Corrie and to the several others killed. 'Just texted him this AM to see if his Dad was ok (his Dad lived in portique) ..not knowing he was out there and already killed.' Another victim, Gina Goulet, was identified by her daughter, Amelia Butler, who said her mother was a denturist and a cancer survivor. Butler said Goulet, who loved fishing, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2016, and then again late last year. 'She fought so hard for her life,' Butler told the Toronto Star, adding that her mother was almost fully recovered when she was killed. Married couple Frank Gulenchyn and Dawn Madsen, were also gunned down during the shooting. Madsen, who was the mother of two sons, retired from her work at Oshawa's Hillsdale Terraces long-term-care home just last year. She and her husband were longtime residents of Oshawa, Ontario, before moving to Nova Scotia. Leather said during a press conference that the 'initial search for the suspect led to multiple sites in the area, including structures that were on fire'. RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told CBC there was no indication 'at this point' of a terrorist intent. 'What I would say is that it appears to be at least in part, very random in nature. We are in the early stages of an incredibly detailed and complex investigation that has forever changed countless lives.' Yet police sources told the Toronto Sun it was a calculated attack which Wortman had been plotting for a while. 'That fact that this individual had a uniform and a police car at his disposal certainly speaks to it not being a random act,' Leather said. He added that police believe he acted alone. Leather said they would investigate whether the attack had anything to do with the coronavirus pandemic but no link has been found thus far. Couple Alanna Jenkins and Sean McLeod lost their lives during Wortman's rampage over the weekend Tom Bagley (left) and Lillian Hyslop (right) were also killed, in the worst mass murder in Canadian history Family members also paid tribute to Corrie Ellison (left) on Sunday afternoon, with his cousin Juliene Henderson writing: 'Tragic and surreal..RIP to my cousin Corrie and to the several others killed.' Another victim, Gina Goulet (right), was identified by her daughter, Amelia Butler, who said her mother was a denturist and a cancer survivor Married couple Frank Gulenchyn and Dawn Madsen (pictured), were also gunned down during the shooting. Madsen, who was the mother of two sons, retired from her work at Oshawa's Hillsdale Terraces long-term-care home just last year. She and her husband were longtime residents of Oshawa, Ontario, before moving to Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers at a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia, on Sunday. Police first announced that they had arrested Wortman at the gas station but later said he had died Workers with the medical examiner's office remove a body from a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia, on Sunday. Late Sunday morning, there were half a dozen police vehicles at the scene of the gas station where the suspect died Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a press conference on Monday: 'The vast majority of Nova Scotians will have a direct link with one or more of the victims. The entire province and country is grieving right now as we come to grips with something that is unimaginable.' 'The pandemic will prevent us from mourning together in person, but a vigil will be held virtually to celebrate the lives of the victims,' Trudeau added, saying it would take place Friday night through a Facebook group. Trudeau asked the media to avoid mentioning the name of the assailant or showing his picture. 'Do not give this person the gift of infamy,' he said. 'As a country, in moments like these, we come together to support one another. Together we will mourn with the families of the victims, and help them get through this difficult time,' Trudeau said. Trudeau said his government would introduce further gun control legislation prohibiting military-style assault weapons, a measure that had already been planned before the coronavirus pandemic interrupted the current parliamentary session. 'I can say that we were on the verge of introducing legislation to ban assault-style weapons across this country,' Trudeau said, according to The Washington Post. 'It was interrupted when the pandemic caused Parliament to be suspended, but we have every intention of moving forward on that measure, and potentially other measures, when Parliament returns.' Trudeau pledged to ban all military-style assault rifles during his reelection campaign last year. He won in October but Canada's parliament has been suspended since March due to the coronavirus. Canada's Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said Monday that they were planning to introduce stronger gun control as soon as possible, but they had been delayed by the pandemic. 'There have been far too many incidents of gun violence in our country and we are working hard to make sure that we put the measures in place that significantly reduce those incidents and keep people safe,' Blair told CTV News reported. 'The actual schedule for bringing forward that legislation, that is still to be determined simply because we are in uncertain times in Parliament. But it doesn't in any way imply that we are any less committed to taking the steps that are necessary to keep Canadians safe.' Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year member of the force and a mother-of-two, was shot dead Stevenson (left) was killed by Wortman while trying to apprehend him. Lisa McCully (right), a mother-of-two, was informally identified as a victim of the shooting spree Wortman, who owned a denture practice in in the city of Dartmouth, near Halifax, lived part time in Portapique, according to residents. He is listed as a denturist - a person who makes dentures - in the city of Dartmouth, near Halifax, according to the Denturist Society of Nova Scotia website. Atlantic Denture Clinic, the practice Wortman owned, had been closed for the past month because of the coronavirus pandemic. A suspect photo issued by the RCMP matches video footage of a man being interviewed about dentures by CTV Atlantic in 2014. According to his high school yearbook, Wortman had a fascination with the Mounties. 'Gabe's future may including being an RCMP officer,' his yearbook profile said. The Globe and Mail reported that neighbors told authorities that Wortman, who struggled with alcohol, drove around to local homes in the town of Portapique or pulled drivers over before killing them. Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada. The country overhauled its gun-control laws after gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique college in 1989. Before this weekend's rampage, that had been the country's worst. It is illegal to possess an unregistered handgun or any kind of rapid-fire weapon in Canada. The country also requires training, a personal risk assessment, two references, spousal notification and criminal record checks to purchase a weapon. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has had to deal with a lot since marrying into the British royal family. Though the former actress was initially welcomed in the U.K., her American sensibility and her lack of understanding when it came to royal traditions quickly put her add odds with the British press and public. Unfortunately, it was not simply outsiders that the duchess had to contend with. The duchess father, Thomas Markle also began speaking to tabloids and even publishing their private correspondence for payment. As a result, the duchess no longer has a relationship with her elderly father. The duchess is currently suing Mail on Sunday for publishing a private letter she wrote to her father. As a result, shes submitted text messages she sent to her dad that prove that Markle hasnt exactly been honest about the things hes said about the duchess and Prince Harry. Meghan Markle has been estranged from her father since 2018 The Duchess of Sussex has always spoken warmly about her father. Thomas Markle was even set to walk her down the aisle at her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry. Unfortunately, that never came to fruition. Instead of attending the wedding, Markle told his daughter he was experiencing some health issues. He then stagged some paparazzi photos for pay. He also began speaking about her to the press. Markles actions also embolden her half-siblings, Thomas Markle, Jr. and Samatha Markle to begin speaking about her to the press. As a result, Markle has cut off her entire paternal family. Theyve never even met her 11-month-old son, Archie Harrison. Thomas Markle says he will never stop talking to the press about Meghan Markle Despite the fact that his daughter has cut him out of her life and he has never even met his grandson, Markle has declared he will never stop talking to the press. Im going to defend myself, he boasted in the documentary Thomas Markle: My Story. And Im going to be paid for it. Im not going to refuse to get paid for it. Ill do future things and be paid for it, I think. I dont care. At this point, they owe me. The royals owe me. Harry owes me. Meghan owes me. What I have been through, I should be rewarded for. My daughter told me that when I reach my senior years, she would take care of me. Im in my senior years now. Im 75 years old, so its time to look after Daddy. Markle has also shared his opinions on Megixt saying, Its disappointing because she actually got every girls dream. Inside Meghan Markles private text messages to her father In their case against Mail on Sunday, the Sussexes legal team just shared text messages between the duke, the duchess, and Thomas Markle. Markle had accused the couple of admonishing him for staging the paparazzi photos prior to their wedding and not caring about his health. The text messages prove a different story. It proves that the Sussexes attempted to reach Markle several times, but he never engaged or responded. Tom, its Harry and Im going to call you right now. Tom, its Harry again! Really need to speak to u. U do not need to apologize, we understand the circumstances but going public will only make the situation worse. If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me as there are two other options which dont involve u having to speak to the media, who incidentally created this whole situation. So please call me so I can explain. Meg and I are not angry, we just need just to speak to u. Thanks. Oh any speaking to the press WILL backfire, trust me Tom. Only we can help you, as we have been trying from day 1. Ive been reaching out to you all weekend but youre not taking any of our calls or replying to our texts Very concerned about your health and safety and have taken every measure to protect you but not sure what we can do if you dont respond Do you need help? Can we send the security team down again? Im very sorry to hear youre in the hospital but need you to please get in touch with us What hospital are you at? Harry and I made the decision earlier today and are dispatching the same security guys you turned away this weekend to be a presence on the ground to make sure youre safe they will be there at your disposal as soon as you need them. Please please call as soon as you can all of this is incredibly concerning but your health is most important. Its very unfortunate that its come to this. (.) April 21 (Reuters) - Fitch Ratings on Tuesday downgraded New Jersey's credit ratings, citing expectations the state's finances will "significantly weaken" due to the coronavirus outbreak. The credit rating agency dropped the state's general obligation rating one notch to A-minus with a negative outlook, affecting about $1.6 billion in outstanding bonds. Ratings on other state-related debt were also cut a notch to BBB-plus. "Despite progress made under the current administration, New Jersey's history of structurally imbalanced financial operations, as reflected in the persistent underfunding of liabilities, slim reserves and an elevated long-term liability burden, leave the state in a weak position to address the severity of the current downturn," Fitch said in a statement. Like in many other states, New Jersey businesses and services have been shuttered in an effort to stop the virus' spread, leading to high unemployment and low consumer spending. On Monday, Governor Phil Murphy said "expenses have skyrocketed at the same time our revenues have fallen off a cliff." He added that he is pursuing a state borrowing through the Federal Reserve. The central bank announced earlier this month a $500 million program to aid states and large cities and counties by buying their bonds with maturities of up to two years. Meanwhile, New Jersey became the first state to extend its fiscal year in the wake of the pandemic, pushing back the original end date of fiscal 2020 by three months to Sept. 30, 2020. Last week, Fitch downgraded another fiscally shaky state, Illinois, to BBB-minus, a notch above junk. (Reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago; editing by Jonathan Oatis) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City will begin evaluating the accuracy and effectivity of rapid antibody test kits for coronavirus disease. Food and Drug Administration Director General Rolando Enrique Domingo shared the news in a statement on Tuesday. Domingo then welcomed the development, saying this will guide end users in selecting the kits they will use for testing. The official said in the past weeks, the RITM did not have the capacity to perform this function due to the high number of polymerase chain reaction-based tests it needed to process and because of its lack of well-characterized serum samples needed to evaluate the rapid test kits. The FDA has not yet replied to CNN Philippines as to when the validation will start. RITM was forced to scale down its operations on April 18 after at least 40 of its employees contracted COVID-19. It is set to return to its normal operations by Saturday, the DOH said. As of April 16, a total of 16 brands of rapid test kits have been approved for commercial use by the food and drug regulator. All of the manufacturers of those kits were required to submit to RITM 300 pieces of their products, Domingo said. All future approvals of applications for special certification for COVID-19 shall be subject to performance validation as a post-marketing validation by RITM, he added. RITM is the national reference laboratory for emerging diseases. The institute earlier served as the only confirmatory testing laboratory for COVID-19 in the Philippines. Now it is joined by 16 other coronavirus testing centers across the country. Rapid tests give results in under an hour, while polymerase chain reaction-based tests may take 24 to 48 hours, sometimes longer due to backlogs. However, the DOH and local infectious disease experts have cautioned against rapid antibody tests, saying they do not give definitive diagnosis. A PCR test is considered the gold standard test. The health department has said rapid test results will still have to be validated using a PCR test afterwards. A visiting five-member team of the Central government held a video-conference with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday over the coronavirus situation in the state. The chief minister apprised them about the prevailing conditions and reiterated the state government's demand from the Centre to deal with the pandemic. A five-member team of the Central government has arrived here for 4-5 days to help the state. The chief minister held a video-conference with the officers and raised the state's issue before them, Health Minister Raghu Sharam said. He said that Gehlot raised the issues of migrant labourers, demanded a relief package from the Centre to all the states, aid for reviving business and ensuring social security of people, among others. He said the team will visit Ramganj area and SMS Hospital in Jaipur during their stay. The state government is working in a transparent manner and providing information to the government of India. The team will see for itself that that Rajasthan has conducted maximum number of coronavirus tests in the country, the health minister said. He said the state government contained the spread of coronavirus in Bhilwara through a ruthless containment model, which was much-talked about across the country and globally. He said the state was making efforts to contain the spread of the disease in Jaipur's hotspot Ramganj. In Ramganj, we have designated clusters of areas after mapping and conducting random sampling. The situation is under control, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British American Tobacco (NYSE:BTI) is about two years behind Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) in getting government approval for its heat-not-burn glo brand of electronic cigarette. But BAT may be able to play catch-up since it sued its rival earlier this month for patent infringement. The tobacco giant says Philip Morris' IQOS holder (which includes a rechargeable and reusable power unit, a disposable tobacco stick, and a charger) violates its patents. Because British American has sued Philip Morris through the International Trade Commission (ITC) as well as in federal court, it may be able to block Philip Morris from importing the IQOS device into the U.S. The future of smoking With sales of traditional cigarettes in a secular decline, tobacco companies are looking to technology to maintain their profits. Electronic cigarettes that heat an e-liquid to create a vapor have been a popular alternative for smokers looking to quit, but they have come under increasing scrutiny due to use among teenagers, particularly the device from Juul Labs. Heat-not-burn (HNB) technology is seen as the next generation of smoking alternatives. The devices heat real tobacco leaves to the point they create a vapor, which is seen as much less harmful because it contains significantly fewer toxic chemicals than when the tobacco leaves are burned. Philip Morris International was the first to gain widespread use of its IQOS device following its launch in Japan in 2014 and the massive adoption by smokers there. The tobacco company ships more IQOS units to Japan than it does actual cigarettes. While there were conditions specific to Japan that made for such growth -- including the fact that virtually all other types of electronic cigarettes were effectively banned -- Philip Morris has enjoyed strong sales elsewhere it was introduced, though not nearly on the same scale as Japan. Following the regulatory maze The U.S. represents a big growth opportunity, though, as it is the largest cigarette market and the IQOS is the only electronic cigarette approved for sale by the Food and Drug Administration. Philip Morris was the first to submit a Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA) to the agency in 2016, and it took the regulator three years to approve it. British American Tobacco submitted its own PMTA to the FDA only last year, and other manufacturers have until May 20 to submit theirs or face having their products removed from the market, although the FDA is currently seeking a deadline extension from the courts until September. The tobacco giants found the application process, which can cost millions of dollars, to be intricate, voluminous, and time-consuming. That suggests that even with an extension, many manufacturers won't be able to comply. That might mean Philip Morris International and its IQOS could be the only FDA-approved electronic cigarette, HNB or otherwise, on the market. And that certainly gives British American Tobacco incentive to thwart its rival's advance. Blocking a competitor Reuters reports British American sued Philip Morris in the U.S. and before the ITC in Germany. It says the IQOS heating blade technology infringes on patents for its glo HNB device, which it plans to introduce in Germany later this year. British American spokesman Will Hill told Reuters, "If we win, we may be able to get an ITC exclusion order blocking the importation of IQOS into the U.S. by Philip Morris, unless they agree to take a license to our patents." Philip Morris began selling the IQOS in the U.S. last year under an agreement with Altria (NYSE:MO), which markets and sells the device under its Marlboro brand. It is currently in just two markets, Atlanta and Richmond, Virginia, though it is scheduled to be introduced into the Charlotte, N.C., market this month, eventually rolling out nationally. Philip Morris previously sued British American Tobacco in Japan, stating the glo e-cig infringed on IQOS patents. That case is still before Japan's courts, and Reuters says the new lawsuit was in response to that one. Fighting for the future Philip Morris International shipped 59.7 billion heated tobacco units in 2019, 44% more than the 41.4 billion units it shipped in 2018. It has spent over $7 billion in the past two years creating cigarette alternatives. British American Tobacco has also spent billions itself designing reduced-risk products, and said in a statement, "Given the significant investment we have made in developing our products, we simply cannot allow competitors to use our patented innovations and technology in their devices without a license." Yet the real driving force behind these tobacco companies' competing lawsuits may be the billions in potential future revenue, and control of the lucrative U.S. market, which may soon be devoid of competing products. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday that partial lockdown measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the country will be extended by four weeks to June 1. Some of those measures, which the Singapore leader calls a "circuit breaker," involve shutting schools and most workplaces temporarily. Those measures, which were implemented two weeks ago, were initially supposed to end on May 4. To help businesses cope with the extended period of the partial lockdown, the government will extend some stimulus measures into the month of May, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat. That includes wage subsidies and rebates in foreign worker levies, he said. Those measures would cost an additional 3.8 billion Singapore dollars ($2.7 billion), said Heng. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) Commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh warned of legal action against traders charging more than MRP during the ongoing lockdown. The civic chief on Monday inspected chicken stalls and kirana stores at Patamata. After inspecting a chicken stall at Benz Circle, Venkatesh also distributed face masks and directed the trader to ensure social distancing. We request chicken and meat traders across the city to ensure hygiene on their premises and earmark boxes to enforce social distancing. Meat traders should operate their business only after getting necessary approval from the VMC, Prasanna Venkatesh said, adding that their stalls will be sealed if they violate the lockdown norms. After observing a crowd throwing social distancing norms to the wind at a grocery store near Patamata, the civic chief expressed his displeasure and warned that the store would be sealed if traders fail to enforce social distancing on their premises. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that all available evidence suggests the coronavirus originated in animals in China late last year and was not manipulated or produced in a laboratory. US President Donald Trump said last week that his government was trying to determine whether the virus emanated from a lab in Wuhan, where the coronavirus emerged in December. All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told a Geneva news briefing. It is probable, likely, that the virus is of animal origin. It was not clear, Chaib added, how the virus had jumped the species barrier to humans but there had certainly been an intermediate animal host. 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. She did not respond to a request to elaborate on whether it was possible the virus may have inadvertently escaped from a lab. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has dismissed rumours both that it synthesised the virus or allowed it to escape. Also on Tuesday, as global cases crossed 2.5 million, the WHO warned that lifting of lockdowns must be gradual, and if restrictions were to be relaxed too soon, there would be a resurgence of infections. Takeshi Kasai, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said, At least until a vaccine, or a very effective treatment, is found, this process will need to become our new normal. In Myanmar, a car used by the WHO to transport swab samples to be tested for the virus was attacked, killing the driver and wounding a passenger. In Germany, Bavaria cancelled the Oktoberfest for the first time since WWII. The event takes place from September to October. Spain unveiled a series of measures aimed at helping prostitutes and victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation survive the countrys lockdown. In the UK, as PM Boris Johnson said he would speak with US President Donald Trump and hold an audience with the queen this week, scientists at the University of Cambridge found a link between living in an area of England with high levels of air pollution and the severity of Covid-19. Researchers at the universitys MRC Toxicology Unit analysed data on Covid-19 cases and deaths against the levels of three major air pollutants, collected between the years 2018 and 2019. Meanwhile, watchdog Reporters Without Borders claimed China has extensively censored information on the outbreak, saying the impact of it has been experienced globally. Getty Images En espanol | Let's cut right to the chase: We have a lot to be stressed out about today. From the fear of you and loved ones contracting coronavirus to being cooped up at home to unemployment to investments such as your 401(k) taking a nosedive, it's easy to see why many people are more on edge than ever before. But you can do a few things to improve your mental health, experts say. That includes exercising, proven to decrease anxiety and stabilize mood; listening to meditative music, which studies show can decrease blood pressure during stress; and socializing with friends, perhaps through video chats. Several apps to download to your smartphone or tablet focus solely on mindfulness and meditation, each with a slightly different approach. Most are easy to use, even for beginners, and in many cases they're free to start. Even if you take just a short time-out each day to hit the reset button or to help unwind for a better night's sleep, consider these picks, available in both the App Store for iOS devices such as iPhone and iPad and Google Play for Android. WE HUB, Indias first state-led incubator to foster and promote women entrepreneurs to startup, scaleup and accelerate with global market access, has been working diligently on various initiatives to help its start-ups during COVID-19 pandemic that has sparked the slowdown of businesses globally. WE HUB is helping start-ups from various sectorsby addressing their pandemic-related challenges, and then extensively mapping solutions for them with the prime goal of keeping their business afloat. During this lockdown period, it is helping start-ups to re-strategize and reconnect with the market afterthe pandemic is over. Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE HUB said, As an enabler for Women Entrepreneurs, WE HUBs focus during this times of a global pandemic is entirely on ensuring that the start-ups we work with are able to sustain during this period.We are doing this by working with our start-ups 1-1 to guide them with interventions needed in organizational management, financial remodelling, financial Linkages including debt and credit linkages, Government liaising, new customer acquisition, product diversification, ideation including pivot on a few of our start-ups. With the steps being taken by the State and Central Government to contain the COVID-19 scenario, we as WEHUB are extending our support to Women led enterprises to sustain and scale and be prepared for the post lockdown scenarios. Radius EduTech, a WE HUB incubated start-up, provides end to end digital transformation for educational institutions. Radius has taken a hit as the hardware they use to build equipment has run into logistical issues due to the ongoing global crisis. WE HUB helped Radius in creating and strengthening alternate software platform, OCTA, a video conferencing platform by helping with design, test, and validation of the tool internally in the team first and by also using the tool for external meetings held by WEHUB. This has enabled the start-up to reuse resources and use the time of lockdown to build an alternate revenue model and work on product development, customer acquisition, UI/UX design, technical mentoring with multiple stakeholders. WE HUB has also been successful in enabling Radius to acquire the first paid proof of concept (PoC) from the Government at the time of lockdown when most of the officials are working from home. Sweetooth, another WE HUB start-up, has strategised its business plan during the pandemic by focusing on manufacturing only the essential food items (bread & bun).During this crisis, WE HUB has helped the start-up by providing a debt fund of INR1.35 crores through Credit Guarantee Funds Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) in association with Small Industries Development Bank of India(SIDBI). It connected the start-up with the Joint Director of the Agricultural Department to bridge the supply chain by providing the essential food items to RythuBazaars that facilitatesa direct interface between farmers and consumers. WE HUB also helped the start-up in filing a document for the food processing subsidy scheme and also getting it registered under MSME-COVID relief, where the start-up will be able to supply bread to hospitals. These steps will enable the start-up to pay the rentals and the salaries tohalf its employees. Nurture Fields from the first cohort of WE HUBs incubation programme,has partnered with City Police department. WE HUB helped the start-up in procuring an order for dehydrated 3000 Kilograms of gooseberries for the police department. Since the police officials are being exposed to the virus during this pandemic, the intake of dehydrated gooseberries will help build immunity. Adiro Labs Private Limited, a design, innovation and research start-up, a part of WE HUBS Community Slate / Acceleration Programme is facilitating the supply of essential supplies to the Government Institution Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), which is the nodal point for the distribution of PPEs to all state government hospitals. To support the start-up during this lockdown period, WE HUB is using its partnership with Office24by7 to help Adiro Labs Private Limitedstreamline and automate the main business areas using Office24by7s software for one year for free. CabDost Private Limited, a socially driven fintech-based start-up, has been impacted drastically due to this global pandemic. It needsan interim working capital loan to facilitate salaries and further tech development. WE HUB is exploring ways to identify suitable grants and also looking out for interested corporations/ CSR who can support CabDost with tech development. V .T. Enterprises, a manufacturing start-up and a part of WE HUBs Her & Now programme hasnt received any order since lockdown. The start-up is stitching face masks and selling them to the hospitalsto overcome the loss, WE HUB is exploring avenues in connecting the start-up to the market for the masks produced. WE HUB is helping the start-up by providing debt fund through Credit Guarantee Funds Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) in association with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). WE HUB is also adapting to these crucial times and exploring new ways to support and sustain the businesses of its start-ups. It is looking forward to connecting with corporates and CSR, who would like to support WE HUBs start-ups during this crisis. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 01:54:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DAMASCUS, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A total of 20 rebels were killed on Tuesday during infighting between two rebel groups in the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah, state TV reported. The infighting took place in the city of Ras al-Ayn in the countryside of Hasakah, said the report, without giving more details. The death toll is likely to rise given the number of critically wounded militants. Activists have repeatedly reported a state of lawlessness in areas controlled by the Turkey-backed rebels. Ras al-Ayn is one of the areas that were invaded by the Turkish forces and Turkey-backed rebels following a Turkish military campaign against the Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria last October. Enditem Officials Block Access to Major South Carolina Beaches After Governors Reopening Announcement Three major beaches in South CarolinaMyrtle Beach, Charleston, and Hilton Headwill not reopen immediately, local officials said shortly after Gov. Henry McMaster issued an order allowing all beaches to reopen on Tuesday. McMasters executive order lets local officials reopen beaches closed under an order he made last month. It also gives them the authority to keep beaches closed, for now. The Myrtle Beach city manager John Pedersen said in an executive order later Monday that beaches will remain closed until one of the following happens: South Carolinas emergency declaration expires, Myrtle Beachs City Council says otherwise, or the emergency order is rescinded. In a joint statement, four beach towns in Charleston County said they would continue denying access to public beaches. There is no evidence from medical professionals that indicates that the threat of COVID19 in our region has diminished. South Carolina is still in the acceleration phase and even with the reduction in growth of new cases, new cases could begin to grow quickly if social distancing restrictions are lifted, they said. The towns are: the City of Isle Palms, the Town of Sullivans Island, the City of Folly Beach, and the Town of Edisto. Hilton Head manager Steve Riley said beaches remain closed for now but the towns council will hold an emergency meeting Tuesday to consider a resolution for reopening beaches on April 30. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster looks on at a rally in Columbia, South Carolina on June 25, 2018. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Other beaches will reopen under McMasters new order. North Myrtle Beachs City Council approved a resolution late Monday that will reopen all access points to public beaches, parking areas for the beaches, and showers and bathrooms for beachgoers. People who visit the beaches are asked to follow social distancing measures, including not gathering in groups of more than three people, with exceptions for family units. We are opening up our public beach accesses, associated amenities and adjacent parking lots so that people can enjoy some much needed sun and recreation along our nine miles of beach, said North Myrtle Beach Mayor Marilyn Hatley in a statement. This will work if beach-goers are responsible and caring of the next person as they enjoy the beach. We are not out of the woods yet in terms of COVID-19 but as our community has shown in the past before this virus arrived, each one of us is capable of monitoring our own behavior, and this is a positive move in the right direction. Some other beaches in Horry County were also reopening Tuesday. Pawleys Island was holding an emergency town council meeting to mull reopening beaches there. Atlantic Beach and Georgetown County didnt have any announcements as of Tuesday morning. President Lopez Obrador called on gangs to stop distributing food and asked them to end violence instead. Mexicos president has acknowledged that drug cartels have been handing out care packages during the coronavirus pandemic, urging them to end violence instead of distributing food. Imploring criminals to behave better, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared on Monday that the care packages filled with basic foodstuffs and cleaning supplies were not helpful. These criminal organisations that have been seen distributing the packages, this isnt helpful. What helps is them stopping their bad deeds, he told reporters at a news conference. The left-wing president, who has advocated a less confrontational approach than his predecessors in taming raging cartel violence, said gang members should refrain from harming others and instead think of the suffering they cause to their own families and the mothers of their victims. Videos posted on social media last week showed one of the daughters of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, Alejandrina, handing out boxes of rice, pasta, cooking oil and toilet paper with Guzmans image printed on them under El Chapos 701 brand, a company founded by her. We are working and contributing. A great pleasure to visit your homes and give you these Chapo handouts, said a post on the companys Facebook page, that was later removed, showing Alejandrina, wearing a black face mask with Chapos face, handing out parcels. Beyond the Guzman-linked Sinaloa cartel, other gangs have similarly courted publicity with care packages for mostly poor residents, including the Jalisco New Generation and Los Durango cartels. Photos posted on social media on Monday showed heavily armed members from both handing out packages including toilet paper and shampoo. In the case of Alejandrina, while El Chapos son is said to have taken over some criminal operations, there is no indication that El Chapo 701 is involved in illegal activity. Reparten despensas de comida a nombre del Chapo Guzman a personas de la tercera edad en Mexico. Segun Alejandrina Guzman, hija del exlider del cartel de Sinaloa, la ayuda es financiada por las ganancias de su propia empresa Chapo 701. @victorsilcas Informa pic.twitter.com/9x7Xn6zMxr Noticias Telemundo (@TelemundoNews) April 16, 2020 Translation: They distribute food pantries in the name of Chapo Guzman to seniors in Mexico. According to Alejandrina Guzman, daughter of the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, the aid is financed by the profits of her own company Chapo 701, news agency Telemundo tweeted last week. Sharp criticism Mexico notched a homicide record of 34,582 dead during Lopez Obradors first full year in office in 2019, as the president advocated for more social spending to address the root causes of crime. Lopez Obrador, meanwhile, has come under sharp criticism for not advocating more financial support for companies or jobless workers. Over the past month, the countrys economy has dramatically slowed due to coronavirus containment measures. To date, there are more than 8,000 confirmed coronavirus cases as well as nearly 700 deaths attributed to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. Tomorrow: President Ramaphosa engages African business leaders on the impact of COVID19 Members of the AU Bureau, other invited Heads of State and/or Government, the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and business leaders from some of Africas largest firms are expected to participate in the meeting. The engagement aims to foster business support for the African Unions Joint Continental Strategy for the COVID-19 outbreak; and will discuss the development of a continent wide initiative to assure the resilience of the African economy, and Africas joint capacity to manage the economic consequences of the pandemic. Julia Spies, Maria Cantero: Strengthening African value chains in medical supplies (ITC) Some of the key suppliers of health products to Africa have recently introduced export restrictions, complicating the continents access to these essential materials. Access to goggles is particularly difficult as on average, 76% of African imports are subject to temporary trade measures. As a response to these shortages, African countries could consider ramping up regional production by adding value to available inputs and by cooperating with regional and global partners. Currently, only one in six litres of Africas disinfectant imports come from regional suppliers. By strengthening regional and global cooperation, this share could grow. Disinfectants require three inputs: ethanol diluted with distilled water, glycerine, and plastic bottles. Africa already produces ethanol, plastic bottles and caps in sufficient quantities. Providing nearly half a million bottles and caps corresponds to a fraction of Africas monthly exports of these products (0.2% and 0.1%), with Egypt and South Africa being the main suppliers. Likewise, the required 374,000 litres of ethanol constitute only 1.5% of the continents current monthly exports. Local glycerine production, however, might be insufficient to meeting the requirements for disinfectant production, calling for a global sourcing strategy in the short run. South Africa, the continents only net exporter of disinfectants, sources glycerine mostly from Malaysia and Argentina. An alternative supplier could be Germany with an unrealized export potential for glycerine of $2.9 million to South Africa, and $6.7 million to all Africa. For surgical gloves, Africa currently relies almost entirely on imports from non-African suppliers. Malaysia, China and India account for 84% of total imports. While surgical grade gloves can be produced using different types of materials, the most common one is latex. Some African countries have abundant rubber resources and could envisage dedicating some to the production of gloves. By using less than 1% of its monthly exports of latex, Cote dIvoire could produce the 13 million gloves that African health responders require each month to face COVID-19. Ghana and Cameroon also have relevant exports of latex but currently do not export any surgical gloves. African regulatory agencies, ethics committees to expedite COVID-19 clinical trial reviews (WHO Africa) National regulatory authorities and national ethics committees from across Africa have agreed to combine their expertise to expedite clinical trial review and approvals for new multinational preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, joint reviews are based on voluntary cooperation between the national regulatory authorities and ethics committees. Each country is solely responsible for granting regulatory approval. The agreement was reached during a virtual meeting convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 1 April 2020 under the platform of the African Vaccines Regulatory Forum (AVAREF), one of the Continental Technical Committees of the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization Initiative. WTOs DDG Wolff: Policy coordination needed to address pandemic challenges Is the post Covid 19 world going to be different? What is likely? What will the result be of a reevaluation by the private sector and by governments of global value chains? Will governments turn to what Pascal Lamy has called precautionnisme, the antithesis of the dominant motivating force that led to the creation of the multilateral trading system seven decades ago. To what extent will the urge to promote self-sufficiency, onshoring spread? How is this to be accommodated or shaped? Will the pressure for a number of countries to replace lost revenues result in a widespread desire to raise tariff rates (which in the case of many developing countries can be consistent with existing WTO obligations as applied rates are now at levels well below contractually bound rates)? Will a standstill be effective to resist a wave of trade-restrictive measures or will a positive counter, a trade liberalizing initiative be necessary? Where is leadership for the multilateral trading system to be found, and how should it best be expressed? To what extent is investment in the system required by all? Is participation in the system driven to some extent by altruism or is altruism, in reality, informed pragmatism? Is it useful to discern and seek to define common purposes? UNCTADs Robert Hamwey: Environmental impacts of coronavirus crisis, challenges ahead With the emergence of import restrictions in export markets and sharp declines in the availability of cargo transportation services, the coronavirus crisis has led to increased volumes of un-shippable agricultural and fishery commodities. Many export-oriented producers produce volumes far too large for output to be absorbed in local markets, and thus organic waste levels have mounted substantially. Because this waste is left to decay, levels of methane (CH4) emissions, a greenhouse gas, from decaying produce are expected to rise sharply in the crisis and immediate post-crisis months. As exports of agricultural and fisheries products have declined, production levels have plummeted, causing unemployment levels in both sectors to grow substantially. Many post-harvest processing workers in these sectors are women supporting households, causing extreme hardships, particularly for low-income women in developing countries where social safety nets are not in place. IATA media briefing on COVID-19: remarks of Alexandre de Juniac There is a group of passengersabout 60% who will return to travel relatively quickly. But an important 40% are telling us that they will likely wait six months or more. And an even larger portionnearly 70% are saying that they want to see their financial situation stabilize before returning to the skies. This caution is being seen in the behavior of Chinese and Australian travelers. The virus transmission there is largely seen to be under control. But we have not seen a return of air travel. And indictors from the US domestic marketthe worlds largestalign with this. This means that confidence-building measures will be needed to deal with a slower recovery than we had previously anticipated. The looming recession means that government stimulus will be critical. And government and industry must be aligned and coordinated in measures to ensure that travel is safe Specifically related to the measures that we will need to take, as we mentioned last week, IATA is hosting a series of regional summits to focus on the industry re-start. These bring together governments and key stakeholders. The aim is to help governments and the aviation value chain to work together for an orderly re-start. [IATA chief economist, Brian Pearce: Assessing prospects for domestic markets (pdf)] Asias airports at rock bottom as number of passengers plummets 95% (SCMP) Asias airports have reached rock bottom almost four months into the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of passengers at about 5 per cent of last years figures, the global airports representative has said. Airports Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific said new data up to mid-April from 18 of its hubs in major aviation markets showed a 95 per cent collapse in passenger volumes year on year. Hong Kong International Airport was on track for a 99.5 per cent decline, according to preliminary official data. COVID-19 updates: National trade facilitation committees as coordinators of trade facilitation reforms (pdf, UNCTAD) This new study, National Trade Facilitation Committees as Coordinators of Trade Facilitation Reforms, aims at updating, and building and expanding on the previous two studies,. The study further incorporates new research areas including monitoring and evaluation, regional integration and e-commerce in the context of the mandate of NTFCs. Information from 52 countries were collected from July 2019 to September 2019 via a standardized questionnaire distributed to chairpersons and secretariats of NTFCs around the world. Analyzing the data collected revealed twelve major trends currently predominant in the evolution of NTFCs around the world. These trends have been categorized into three main pillars: institutionalization, functioning, and financing of NTFCs. National trade facilitation Committees are fast evolving to meet the challenges at hand. This is evident in comparing the results of the past two studies with the outcome of this new study. By comparing the results of this study to those of UNCTAD studies in 2015 and 2017, this study sheds light on how National Trade Facilitation Committees are evolving in terms of mandate, scope, institutional framework and composition, among others, while adapting to new and emerging needs. These leading 12 trends are further elaborated in the study. Extracts: As reflected in Table 1, 42% (22 countries) are African NTFCs, 25% are American (13 countries), 17% (9 countries) Asian, 12% (6 countries) European and 4% (2 countries) are from Oceania. The majority of NTFCs (52%) affirm to be in contact with other NTFCs in their respective region. There is a positive correlation between the level of development of a country and the probability of being in contact with other NTFCs in the region. As such, 75% of developed countries report to be in contact with other NTFCs in the region, while this figure drops to 56% for developing countries and 36% for least developed countries. OECD and donor countries working to focus development efforts on Covid-19 crisis (OECD) The OECD and member countries that provide foreign aid are exploring how they can work to help the most vulnerable countries to weather the Covid-19 crisis, as new data showed a rise in Official Development Assistance in 2019, particularly to the poorest countries. ODA from members of the OECDs Development Assistance Committee totalled $152.8bn in 2019, a rise of 1.4% in real terms from 2018, according to preliminary data collected from official development agencies. Bilateral ODA to Africa and least-developed countries rose by 1.3% and 2.6% respectively. Excluding aid spent on looking after refugees within donor countries which was down 2% from 2018 ODA rose by 1.7% in real terms. Total ODA in 2019 was equivalent to 0.30% of DAC countries combined gross national income, down from 0.31% in 2018 and below a target ratio of 0.7% of ODA to GNI. Five DAC members Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom met or exceeded the 0.7% target (the same five countries as in 2018.) Among non-DAC donors, which are not counted in the DAC total, Turkey provided ODA equivalent to 1.15% of its GNI. ODA rose in 18 DAC countries, with the largest increases in Austria, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Norway and Slovenia. It fell in 11 countries, most notably in Poland, Portugal and Sweden, in some cases because of lower spending on refugees. Net ODA has risen for the most part steadily in volume terms from just below $40bn in 1960. Despite the 2008 crisis, ODA rose by 69% in real terms between 2000, when the Millennium Development Goals were agreed, and 2010, as donors committed to increases. Extract: 2019 ODA statistics in detail (pdf). Preliminary data in 2019 show that net bilateral aid flows from DAC members to Africa were $37bn, representing a slight increase of 1.3% in real terms compared to 2018. Within this total, $31bn were for sub-Saharan Africa, an increase of 1.1% in real terms. Piracy and armed robbery a threat to ships crews, warns IMB (ICC) Seafarers face continuing threats from pirates and armed robbers on the worlds seas, says the International Chamber of Commerces International Maritime Bureau, reporting 47 attacks in the first three months of 2020, up from 38 in the same period last year. Pirates boarded 37 ships in the first quarter of 2020. The Gulf of Guinea remains the worlds piracy hotspot. Seventeen crew were kidnapped in three incidents in these waters, at distances of between 45 and 75 nautical miles from the coast. IMBs latest global piracy report shows zero hijackings in the last two quarters, and no incidents around Somalia. New agreement to facilitate Sino-Africa trade (NewsGhana) The South Africa-China Economic and Trade Association (SACETA) and Africa Oil & Power (AOP) on Monday signed an agreement that will introduce Chinese corporations to African projects and firms, SACETA said on Monday. SACETA said the partnership will see the Chinese build critical new commercial links within the private and public sectors. SACETA has over 160 Chinese companies based in South Africa in the sectors of energy, finance, infrastructure, mining, ICT and among others. Rahul Dhir, the former Cairn India chief executive who had secured a USD 600 million funding from Warburg Pincus for his Africa-focused oil firm, was on Tuesday appointed the CEO of Tullow Oil Plc. In a statement, Tullow said Dhir will take over as the company's chief executive officer and executive director of the group from July 1. Dhir is credited with helping Cairn India, the firm that gave the country its biggest onland oil discovery, successfully list on bourses. He quit the company company in August 2012 to put together a new Africa-focused oil and gas explorer, Delonex Energy. In June 2013, Delonex announced that it had secured USD 600 million capital from an investor consortium led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Delonex acquired a few exploration blocks in Central and East Africa but Dhir could not replicate the success of Cairn. It was not clear what will be the fate of Delonex. The company website was down and Dhir could not be reached for comments. No announcement of his resignation from Delonex has been made public yet. "Rahul brings extensive leadership experience in oil and gas to Tullow. He is currently CEO of Delonex Energy, an Africa-focused oil and gas company that he founded in 2013," Tullow said in the statement. "Under his leadership, Delonex has delivered low-cost drilling and seismic operations along with leading social and environmental performance in sub-Saharan Africa." In Chad, Delonex has achieved material exploration success and discovered substantial oil resources. It has also delivered exploration campaigns in Ethiopia and Kenya where Delonex operates Block 12A with Tullow as a non-operating partner. "Prior tlishing Delonex, Rahul served as Managing Director and CEO of Cairn India from its IPO in 2006 until 2012," the statement said. During Rahul's tenure, Cairn India delivered operated production of over 200,000 barrels of oil per day with operating costs of less than USD 5 per barrel of oil. Cairn India also successfully delivered over USD 5 billion of development projects including the world's longest heated pipeline at a finding and development cost of less than USD 5 per barrel of oil. Dhir started his career as a Petroleum Engineer, before moving into investment banking where he led teams at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, advising major oil & gas companies on merger and acquisition and capital market related issues. He is a UK citizen and was educated at the Indian Institute of Technology (BTech), the University of Texas (MSc) and the Wharton School (MBA). Dorothy Thompson, Executive Chair of Tullow Oil Plc, commented: "I am delighted to welcome Rahul to Tullow and am very pleased that he has accepted the position of CEO. His oil & gas, financial and African experience combined with his record of strong leadership made him the stand-out candidate for the Board." Dhir said: "I am very excited at the opportunity to lead Tullow and re-establish it as an iconic company in our industry. The company has high-quality assets and great people. It also has a unique position in Africa, built on a proven track record of responsible operations, strong relationships and a commitment to sustainability. I am looking forward to working with the team and the Board to re-build an exceptional business. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The police insist that public carry residential proof while leaving their homes so that police can verify if restriction is being violated Hyderabad: In response to an ever increasing number of violations of lockdown rules, the Telangana state police on Monday have decided to make amendments in issuance of passes to people who are working in essential services category. The state police is now going to insist that public carry residential proof certificates while leaving their homes so that personnel at checkpoints can verify if 3-km restriction is being violated. However, those who do not have residence proof may face some issues and are advised to carry alternate documents related to their stay, or phone number of their owners, providing an option for police for cross verification. The old passes issued will be nullified soon after the police issues the new passes. Even passes provided to government empl-oyees are not exempt for the new ruling. Come April 21, Telangana police will review all 15,000 passes issued across the state to identify those who misused them, and will cancel them. New passes will have details regarding route, timings, home and workplace details, which will be verified at checkposts, and violators pass would be cancelled. DGP M. Mahendar Reddy said on Monday that there has been an increase in violation of lockdown by public, who are taking advantage of exemptions provided to essential services category. The police will review each pass and reissue new ones, but until then old pass will be valid. New passes will have details like location of house of pass-holder, workplace address, travelling route, timings of work. If a pass-holder deviates or violates route or timing, the pass will be cancelled, DGP Mr Reddy said. Mr Reddy said that about 20 percent of staff in government departments are allowed to work on each day. However, there is no provision to check if person who is leaving the house on such pretext is attending to duties or exploiting the provision. To check this, concerned department heads are being notified to issue a colour-coded pass to employees. The employees who are on duty on a particular day will all hold a pass of one colour. If same employee has to attend duties on multiple days, concerned HODs should issue multiple passes, which will have details of house, office location and route chosen to travel, the DGP said. In order to ensure that people who are leaving residences to purchase essential commodities and those visiting hospitals dont misuse provisions, state police will insisted they carry a residence proof as policemen at checkpoints will verify distance travelled and take necessary action against violators. The public has to carry proof of residence, which will be checked for violation. Several people were found violating 3-kms travel rule, Mr Reddy said. Responding to a query, the DGP said, if a person has no proof of residence, some sort of alternative document or at least phone number of owner should be carried. In such cases, the police can call and verify genuineness. Meanwhile, residential associations and communities have to ensure that only a single entry and exit road in their areas are open and all other routes are closed. The police has noticed that several people were seen taking advantage of exemption to visit hospitals. To address the issue, the DGP asked public to visit nearest hospital. In instances of visiting hospitals at longer distances (over 3 to 5 km), patients have to carry their medical records or referral documents provided by hospitals and doctors. Would it be a baby girl or boy? The gender of the child would depend on the father's undiscovered genes that control whether the sperm contains more X and Y chromosome, a study says. (Photo : Pixabay) Are you planning to have a baby? The baby's gender depends on the father's undiscovered genes that control whether the sperm contains more X and Y chromosome, a study says. The research from Newcastle University involving thousands of families suggests that a potential gene controls if a man's sperm will carry more X or more Y chromosome. This research involved a study of almost a thousand family trees that contains information of 556,387 people from Europe and North America and dates back as far as the 1600s. It explains why some men tend to have more sons, while others tend to have more daughters. Mr. Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at Newcastle University, explains that the study on the family trees show that whether you will have more sons or more daughters can be inherited from your parents. Men that have more brothers are more likely to have more sons, while men who have more sisters tend to have more daughters. The sex of a baby is dependent on whether the sperm that fertilizes the mother's egg carries an X or Y chromosome. An X chromosome that combines with the mother's X chromosome will result in XX; thus, a baby girl. In the same manner, if a sperm carries a Y chromosome, the resulting XY will yield a baby boy. A gene is composed of two parts called the alleles, and each allele is inherited from either parent. In his study, Mr. Gellatly establishes that men carry two distinct types of alleles which result in three potential combinations that affect the ratio or relation of X and Y sperm in a gene: The first combination is the "mm," which produces more Y sperms; therefore, men with this combination tend to have more sons. The second combination is the "mf," which produces roughly equal X and Y sperms and has approximately around the same number of sons and daughters. The last combination, known as the "ff," produce more X sperms, and have more daughters. In most of the countries that participated in the World Wars, there was a sudden upsurge in the number of sons born subsequently. After World War I, an extra two males were born for every 100 females in the United Kingdom compared to the year before the war began. Mr. Gellatly explained that the gene could explain why such occurrence transpired. Men with more sons had more chances of having a son return from the war. On the other hand, men with more daughters had the odds against their favor. This phenomenon would explain the boy-baby boom since men who returned from the war were more likely to have boys. In numerous countries, there are more boys than girls. In the UK and the United States, for example, the ratio is about 105 males for every 100 females are born. Although the genetic tendency of having boys or girls is not as predictable in women, this research may help prospective parents work out whether they are likely to have sons or daughters. Mumbai, April 21 : Ameesha Patel has expressed gratitude for Mumbai Police's relentless performance at a time when the nation is trying to battle the COVID 19 pandemic by observing a lockdown. The actress shared a video of cops on their daily evening rounds in Mumbai's Juhu area and encouraging local residents to fight the pandemic with the slogan "corona ko harana hai (we must defeat corona)". She captioned: "Salutations to the @police.mumbai .. the true soldiers .. spreading awareness about COVID -19 .. this is at JUHU this evening." Recently, other Bollywood actors also took to social media to laud Mumbai Police for their hard work during this lockdown period. Just a few days ago, Ameesha Patel shared a message for citizens on social media urging them to have patience and stay indoors amid the lockdown. She wrote: "With the passing of each day the situation is getting worse and tougher..my heartfelt request to all loved ones all over the world .. please have faith and don't loose patience. Stay indoors for your own safety and those all around you. Yes . Work. Life .etc are important n we can't deny that . But above all is the safety of ur own life and the loved ones around.. so stay strong and be indoors." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 08:52 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd32b1f8 1 City KSPI,omnibus-bill,omnibus-bill-on-job-creation,house-of-representatives,Jakarta-police,PSBB,May-Day Free The Jakarta Police have announced they will ban all rallies commemorating May Day after workers in the capital city said they planned to hold protests on April 30, in spite of the coronavirus pandemic, against the omnibus bill on job creation being deliberated in the House of Representatives. Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. com. Yusri Yunus said such rallies would violate the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) policy implemented by the Jakarta administration to clamp down on the transmission of COVID-19. "The PSBB has regulated physical distancing and the National Police chief's edict has clearly banned mass gatherings. So, we will not issue any permit for the protest," Yusri said on Monday. Yusri said police officers would forcefully disperse protesters if they insisted on going ahead with the rallies. "Yes, we will disperse them. We have informed them [about the policy], I hope they understand," he said as quoted by kompas.com. Read also: Desperate workers to hold mass rallies against job creation bill despite pandemic Previously, two large labor groups, the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) and the Indonesian Labor Workers Assembly (MPBI) had announced their plan to hold massive protests in front of the House and the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister on April 30, the day before May Day, which falls on May 1. KSPI head Said Iqbal said workers would comply with the physical-distancing policy during the rallies. They would also wear masks and bring hand sanitizers. "We will demand three things during the rallies: to reject the omnibus bill, to stop job layoffs and to give full compensation and Idul Fitri holiday bonuses [THR] for workers who are staying at home," Said Iqbal said. He went on to say that the notification letters about the May Day rallies were sent to the Jakarta Police and the National Police headquarters on April 17, but the letters were rejected. Said Iqbal said the labor unions would cancel their plan to stage the mass rallies only if the House ceased the deliberation of the omnibus bill on job creation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers, activists and members of the public have criticized the House and government for trying to push through the controversial bill. The bill, which seeks to concurrently amend 79 laws including the 2003 Manpower Law, has been vehemently opposed by labor unions, which have condemned the bill for cutting labor rights and benefiting employers. The deliberation of the disputed omnibus bill on job creation has met further resistance as the country faces massive layoffs as a result of the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Jakarta, the province hardest-hit by coronavirus, has recorded 3,097 people infected, making up nearly half of the country's official tally of 6,760 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Monday. At least 590 people in the country have died from the disease, of which 287 were reported in the capital. (nal) The much-awaited expansion of the single-member Madhya Pradesh cabinet under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan might take place on Tuesday, sources said Bhopal: The much-awaited expansion of the single-member Madhya Pradesh cabinet under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan might take place on Tuesday, sources said on Monday. "The Cabinet expansion will take place tomorrow (Tuesday) around noon," official sources said, adding that the size of the ministry is likely to be kept small. The exact number of probable inductees is not known yet. The cabinet has not been expanded since Chouhan took oath as chief minister for the fourth time on 23 March, after his predecessor Kamal Nath of the Congress stepped down. However, Chouhan could not get time to set up the council of ministers amidst the coronavirus pandemic. "Since 23 March, Chouhan has served as the lone member of Cabinet for the 28 days, which is a record of sorts in the country," BJP sources said. They said that five to six ministers are likely to be inducted into the cabinet. Opposition Congress has been slamming Chouhan and the BJP over absence of council of ministers at a time when the state is battling surge in COVID-19 cases. Senior Congress leaders Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha on Monday petitioned President Ram Nath Kovind, arguing that Chouhan government in its current format is unconstitutional. They also slammed absence of a full-time Health minister in Madhya Pradesh amidst the coronavirus crisis. For BJP, it will be a tightrope walk to accommodate six loyalists of former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia who had joined the BJP. All six were ministers in the erstwhile Kamal Nath government. It is likely that only two-three leaders from the Scindia camp might be taken on board by Chouhan, sources said, adding that the name of former Health minister Tulsi Silavat is doing rounds. Besides the then six ministers, 16 other MLAs of the Congress had also resigned from the party, which eventually culminated into the collapse of Nath government. Togolese security forces on Tuesday raided the home of opposition leader Agbeyome Kodjo over accusations of threatening state security, one of his lawyers said. "Mr Kodjo was forcibly arrested today. The security forces broke down his gate and front door before arresting him and taking away," Claver N'dry told AFP. A gendarmerie official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Kodjo was arrested for failing to comply with a police summons for a third time. The 65-year-old former prime minister was runner-up in elections on February 22 that returned the incumbent, Faure Gnassingbe, as president of the poor West African country. Kodjo's lawyers said he was unable to comply with any of the summonses -- on April 1 and 9 as well as on Monday -- for health reasons. Lome prosecutors stripped Kodjo of parliamentary immunity in mid-March after he declared himself Togo's legitimate president and called on the armed forces to rise up against the Gnassingbe government. The public prosecutor has accused Kodjo, head of the Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development, of public order offences and threatening state security. Kodjo challenged official results of the election that gave him nearly 20 percent of the vote against just over 70 percent for Gnassingbe. The constitutional court rejected his challenge and validated the results. Gnassingbe took office in 2005 in the former French colony upon the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who had ruled the country with an iron fist for 38 years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the MCX announcing a price of Rs 2,884 (minus) as settlement of the April crude oil contract which expired yesterday, more than 100 brokers are estimated to have lost over Rs 450 crore. Hardly 12-15 brokers, most of whom are algo players, have got credit, according to reliable information. In view of these developments, some brokers are considering to challenge the MCX settlement price decision in a court of law. Meanwhile, since these brokers have to pay the difference as the per final settlement price to the clearing corporation of the exchange, their margins lying as ... Italys plans to loosen restrictive measures are based on scientific data to limit risk of more outbreaks, says Conte. Italy will this week announce plans for the gradual reopening from a lockdown imposed to fight the coronavirus emergency that will be applied starting from May 4, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Tuesday. The lockdown, closing most Italian businesses and preventing people from leaving their homes for all but essential needs, has been in place since March 9, putting a major strain on the euro zones third-largest economy. I wish I could say: lets reopen everything. Immediately. We start tomorrow morning But such a decision would be irresponsible. It would make the contagion curve go up in an uncontrolled way and would nullify all the efforts we have made so far, Conte wrote in a Facebook post. We must act on the basis of a national [reopening] plan, which however takes into account the territorial peculiarities. After the government shuttered businesses not deemed essential to the supply chain on March 22, calls have recently been growing from industry lobbies to reopen some activities to prevent an economic catastrophe. Italys treasury expects the economy to contract by approximately 8 percent this year, two sources close to the matter told Reuters news agency on Monday, underscoring the negative effect of the nationwide restrictions. Conte said the easing of restrictions would happen on the basis of a thorough study and scientific data and not to satisfy a part of public opinion or to satisfy the requests of some production categories, individual companies or specific regions. The easing brings with it the real risk of a decided increase in the contagion curve and we must be prepared to contain this ascent to the minimum levels, so that the risk of contagion is tolerable, he added. Such plan would not only ensure that companies followed the necessary safety precautions at work, but that it also considered the flow of workers such opening would generate and its effect on public transport, especially during peak times. The easing of the measures must take place on the basis of a well-structured and articulated plan, he added. The number of new COVID-19 cases dropped to 2,256 on Monday, the lowest level in well over a month, the Civil Protection Agency said. The total death toll stood at 24,114, the second-highest in the world after that of the United States. Meanwhile, the Netherlands is expected to announce its plan on easing the lockdown on Tuesday, as some other European countries have also started loosening restrictions as coronavirus cases and deaths slow. Vietnams forest area totalled 14.6 million ha in 2019, with a coverage ratio of 41.89 percent, up 117, 925 ha in area and 0.24 percent in coverage against 2018, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Vietnam boasts 14.6 million ha of forest in 2019 (Photo: VNA) Of the total, 10.3 million ha are natural forests while planted forests covered 4.3 million ha, the ministry said. The ministry has assigned the Vietnam Administration of Forestry to establish a national forest resource database to serve the management, exploitation and use of forest resources nationwide. People's Committees of provinces and cities have been tasked with assigning People's Committees of districts and communes to perform State management in accordance with the provisions of the Forestry Law, and update relevant information the following year. Localities with reduced natural forest areas in 2019 have been required to clarify the causes behind the situation, take measures to recover the reduced forest areas, and consider the responsibilities of related organisations and individuals, if any./. The suspected "patient zero" of Wuhan market has been traced and it is a 57-year old woman suspected as the carrier of the initial genome of the virus that has killed many. From the start the outbreak, tracing back to the Huanan seafood and livestock market of Wuhan, the elderly Chinese lady is marked as "Patient Zero." Quite a while, the search for patient zero means tracing the first genome of the virus that will help in understanding how everything began. Patient zero, is a seafood merchant who sold shrimps in the Wuhan market. On December 10, she was not feeling okay. Initially, it was thought to be a cold even going to a local clinic to be checked. This began the unwitting spread, that is counter to the updated narrative. "I felt a bit tired, but not as tired as in previous years," she was quoted by the Paper when interviewed. She said that she had the flu which was worsened by the weather, only to find out that the novel coronavirus is just starting to wreak havoc in Wuhan and destined to be the historic breakout site. Things got worse for 'patient zero' Symptoms were getting worse, and eight days later she was hospitalized. The coronavirus is now infecting at a rapid rate. Soon the cremation chambers will burn non-stop, and more unaccounted urns will pop up. Toll bells ring nonstop as 2,482,598 coronavirus cases, 170,484 deaths later are registered by world odometers. Everything got worse and Wei went to Wuhan The Eleventh Hospital. The doctor told her that they could not diagnose her and gave her pills instead. The 57 year old was in such great discomfort and lacked the strength or energy to do anything. Also read: Coronavirus Antibody Research Shows Actual Number of Infected People Should Be Higher December 16, she visited the Wuhan Union Hospital and one of her doctors (Ai Fen? Li Wenliang?) told her she might have the "nascent" novel coronavirus (it was not called that yet). Other people are also experiencing similar symptoms already. When quarantined in late December, the doctors are now aware of the growing pandemic that the WHO may have kept from the world. In December 31, a press release was post-dated to January 5, instead of an immediate release. Tagged as only one of many infectees Later, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on December 31 confirmed that Wei is one of the first 27 patients who contracted the COVID-19, plus just one of the 24 cases linked to the Wuhan market. She later revealed that the COVID-19 was acquired after she used a public toilet in the market. Early January, she has recovered and left the hospital. She told the Paper that she got it in the Wuhan toilet. Soon after, other vendors got the novel coronavirus as well, and other members of her family, that included her daughter and niece. Hence, she may or may not be patient zero that got infected with the virus first. False 'patient zero'? Thee are some data implying a huge cover-up as to when the contagion began. It was not Ms Wei but a 'patient zero' who was recorded on November 17, far earlier than the Wuhan Breakout. Dr Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said it changes the narrative set by Beijing. She said that patient zeros are not known from infectious contagions. The patient zero of Wuhan market is not yet revealed, but it will help to know what is the REAL origin of the coronavirus. Related article: Israeli COVID-19 Treatment Reports 100% Survival Rate @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Samar Titi laughs and says her husband, Hassan, has hardly ever stepped into their kitchen throughout 27 years of marriage, not even to pour himself a cup of tea. One reason was that Hassan, a video journalist, was rarely home. The father of three would have coffee with his wife in the morning, then rush to work most days of the week. But since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the Palestinian territories a month ago, Hassan, like most of his colleagues, is staying home. In April, the Palestinian government declared a state of emergency and shut down public places, including schools, universities and markets. At home in Nablus in the West Bank, Hassan dabbled in the kitchen and prepared his first dish: msakhan, a Palestinian delicacy of chicken, onions, olive oil and bread. It was delicious, Samar said, explaining she had little to do with the preparations. Her husband had found the recipe online and didn't consult her. Hassan said, I was tired of doing nothing and picking up arguments with my wife because I was restless and on edge. I was surprised to discover that there are a lot of men cooking. At first, I felt shy cooking in front of my wife and daughters. But once he discovered that he could, Hassan started working with Samar in the kitchen. Samar said she was so happy" because the lockdown afforded her some time with her husband. Then Dina, their youngest daughter, a student of marketing and human resources, filmed her father and posted the videos on Facebook. "I saw my parents working together on one of our family's favorite dishes that we had not done before, as we did not have time," she said. "So I decided to record these special moments and share them with my friends. Cooking, baking sweets or coming up with healthy recipes is also a way of spending time together. In the Gaza Strip, where the situation is more difficult because of the Israeli blockade, Mohammed al-Ramlawi and his wife Noor also cook together at home in Gaza City. Mohammed also helps Noor clean the house which is perhaps even more rare than a Palestinian man cooking, as men, in Palestinian society, typically do not help with domestic affairs. Noor said the quarantine has changed the habits of some men, who are putting aside the mentality that real men do not do housework. But she admitted that her husband would rather cook than clean. Mohammed said he had never helped in the house over six years of marriage because it was neither necessary nor requested. "Most of the time, I was working outside," he said. "When I came home in the evening, everything was done and ready." Both the Ramlawis and the Titis have found a way to cooperate and help each other during these days of self-isolation. There have been many reports of violence both toward women and children in quarantine in the Palestinian lands, Laila Abu Aisha, a family counselor from Gaza City, told Al-Monitor. "Many men who are forced to stay home suffer from stress and frustration, particularly if they have lost their income," she said. "Fear, insecurity and stress negatively affect their psychology and they resort to violence they abuse their wives and children. She called on the Palestinian government to help alleviate Palestinians' financial difficulties and protect women who are victims of domestic violence. Womens groups active in the Middle East have warned against a potential increase in domestic violence since the coronavirus outbreak, saying that tight-knit family structures and multigenerational living conditions in confined spaces could increase violence. Stressful situations often lead to physical abuse, which was high in Palestine even before the added stress of the coronavirus. Though many womens groups have warned of increased domestic violence in the Middle East, no figures have been released since the start of the pandemic in the region. With Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho earning all the plaudits for his surprisingly ambitious efforts in combating Coronavirus, another Coast-based lawmaker has made his move. Mvita MP Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir has pledged his full salary of about Ksh532, 500 to the Covid-19 war in Mombasa County, making him the second legislator to donate his entire salary after Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro. Mr Nassir further told reporters that his constituency has set aside Sh12 million to be used for NHIF to cater for about 2,000 families in Mvita. The lawmaker also urged people to stop stigmatizing those infected by coronavirus, saying the disease does not discriminate based on tribe, race or societal status. At the same time, Abdulswamad said he has proposed a bill to have electricity bills waived for all Kenyans during Covid-19 pandemic. The bill is set for debate on Wednesday, April 22. LONDON (AP) The CCTV footage from a Dutch business park shows a man in a black cap pouring the contents of a white container at the base of a cellular radio tower. Flames burst out as the man jogs back to his Toyota to flee into the evening. Its a scene thats been repeated dozens of times in recent weeks in Europe, where conspiracy theories linking new 5G mobile networks and the coronavirus pandemic are fueling arson attacks on cell towers. Popular beliefs and conspiracy theories that wireless communications pose a threat have long been around, but the global spread of the virus at the same time that countries were rolling out fifth generation wireless technology has seen some of those false narratives amplified. Officials in Europe and the U.S. are watching the situation closely and pushing back, concerned that attacks will undermine vital telecommunications links at a time they're most needed to deal with the pandemic. "I'm absolutely outraged, absolutely disgusted, that people would be taking action against the very infrastructure that we need to respond to this health emergency," Stephen Powis, medical director of the National Health Service in England, said in early April. In this Tuesday, April 14, 2020 photo, a view of a cell tower after a fire in Dagenham, England. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)AP Some 50 fires targeting cell towers and other equipment have been reported in Britain this month, leading to three arrests. Telecom engineers have been abused on the job 80 times, according to trade group Mobile UK, making the U.K. the nucleus of the attacks. Photos and videos documenting the attacks are often overlaid with false commentary about COVID-19. Some 16 have been torched in the Netherlands, with attacks also reported in Ireland, Cyprus, and Belgium. Posts threatening to attack phone masts were receiving likes on Facebook. One post in an anti-vaccine group on April 12 shared a photo of a burned phone mast with the quote, "Nobody wants cancer & covid19. Stop trying to make it happen or every pole and mobile store will end up like this one." The trend received extra attention in Britain when a tower supplying voice and data traffic to a Birmingham field hospital treating coronavirus patients was among those targeted. "It's heart-rending enough that families cannot be there at the bedside of loved ones who are critically ill," Nick Jeffery, CEO of wireless carrier Vodafone UK, said on LinkedIn. "It's even more upsetting that even the small solace of a phone or video call may now be denied them because of the selfish actions of a few deluded conspiracy theorists." False narratives around 5G and the coronavirus have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media. They vary widely from claims that the coronavirus is a coverup for 5G deployment to those that say new 5G installations have created the virus. "To be concerned that 5G is somehow driving the COVID-19 epidemic is just wrong," Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health who chaired a World Health Organization committee that researched cell phone radiation and cancer. "I just don't find any plausible way to link them." Anti-5G activists are undeterred. Susan Brinchman, director of the Center for Electrosmog Prevention, a nonprofit campaigning against "environmental electromagnetic pollution," says that people have a right to be concerned about 5G and links to COVID-19. "The entire 5G infrastructure should be dismantled and turned off," she said by email. But there's no evidence that wireless communications - whether 5G or earlier versions - harm the immune system, said Myrtill Simko, scientific director of SciProof International in Sweden, who has spent decades researching the matter. The current wave of 5G theories dates back to January, when a Belgian doctor suggested a link to COVID-19. Older variations were circulating before that, mostly revolving around cellphone radiation causing cancer, spreading on Reddit forums, Facebook pages and YouTube channels. Even with daily wireless use among vast majority of adults, the National Cancer Institute has not seen an increase in brain tumors. The theories gained momentum in 2019 from Russian state media outlets, which helped push them into U.S. domestic conversation, disinformation experts say. By KELVIN CHAN, BEATRICE DUPUY and ARIJETA LAJKA, The Associated Press More: Watch: Protesters rally at Pa. capitol against Gov. Tom Wolfs coronavirus shutdown Some North Carolina beaches are reopening: To residents only and with restrictions Where to buy face masks, bandanas, scarves to wear in public during coronavirus pandemic WORCESTER Longmeadow gangster Ralph Santaniello has joined the ranks of scores of other inmates across the country vying to cut their prison terms short over coronavirus concerns. Santaniello, 52, is nearing the end of a five-year prison term for extorting a tow company operator and a gambling debtor in 2013 as he portrayed himself as the new face of the New York-based Genovese crime family in Western Massachusetts. Santaniello was already just weeks away from leaving the Loretto Federal Correctional Institute in western Pennsylvania, according to court records. He has been jailed at the facility along with high-profile inmates including Paul Manafort, President Donald Trumps former campaign advisor. Manafort is serving a 7-year sentence for convictions on a series of charges including tax evasion, failing to report foreign bank accounts, witness tampering and unregistered lobbying for foreign interests. The 71-year-old disgraced lobbyist filed his own appeal to shorten his sentence over COVID-19 fears last week. During a telephonic hearing before Worcester U.S. District Judge Timothy Hillman Tuesday, an attorney for Santaniello focused his argument on the fragility of Santaniellos daughter, who has suffered from a rare disease since birth. Massachusetts itself along with Chicago is the coronavirus hotspot of the country right now, argued his defense attorney, Daniel D. Kelly. He could lose his daughter. Kelly told the judge Santaniello is set to be released to a pre-release center in Ludlow on May 12, at any rate. He will be released to a halfway house 21 days from today, Kelly said, appealing to Hillman to instead release his client early to his parents house in Longmeadow right away. U.S. Department of Justice Trial Attorney Marianne Shelvey opposed Santaniellos motion for early release, and was quick to point out that Santaniello may be barred from living with his parents because his father, 81, also is a convicted felon. Talk to me about that, whats going on there? Hillman interjected. Amedeo Santaniello is an associate of the Genovese crime family. Hes been convicted in both federal and state court for gambling and similar crimes to this defendant, Shelvey responded. The elder Santaniellos last prison sentence came after illegal gambling convictions in 1989. Ralph Santaniello pleaded guilty to shaking down Springfield towing czar Craig CJ Morel for $20,000 after discovering Morel previously paid slain mob boss Adolfo Big Al Bruno tribute payments for city contracts until Brunos murder in 2003. Santaniello and co-defendant Giovanni Johnny Cal Calabrese approached Morel at his property in Hampden a decade later, and demanded the money. Santaniello cuffed Morel hard on the side of his face to make his point, Morel told police. Santaniello and his cohorts continued to cajole and terrorize Morel for payments over several weeks; Morel agreed to wear a wire at the behest of the state police and FBI during meetings with the men. Morel also filed a statement opposing Santaniellos early release, according to Shelvey. Santaniello, Calabrese and three others were arrested and charged in extortion conspiracies in 2016. Santaniello received the lengthiest sentence, and was described by Shelvey as the enforcer, the fear and the violence within the slapdash Springfield crew. Calabrese has filed his own petition for early early release, also based on COVID-19 anxieties within the prison system, court records show. He is scheduled for release in late November and is serving out his sentence in Kentucky. In addition to making the compassionate release" argument, as it is called within the federal sentencing system, Kelly said sending Santaniello to a so-called step-down program doesnt make practical sense in the coronavirus era. Most if not all the jobs he would be eligible for in the restaurant industry, et cetera are going to be shut down for the foreseeable future in this pandemic, Kelly said. Hillman took the matter under advisement, telling attorneys he will issue a ruling in short order. Not only Chinas state-owned business entities are on the prowl to take over weakened companies in India, but the communist country is also taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to expand its strategic footprint in South Asia. New Delhi is worried over Chinas renewed bid to spread its tentacles in the neighbourhood of India, on the pretext of providing assistance to South Asian nations in the wake of the pandemic and the consequent stress on the economies in the region caused by the curbs and the lockdowns enforced to contain it. China has already donated COVID-19 test kits, coveralls, masks and other protective gears to Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Maldives, in addition to its iron-brother Pakistan. New Delhi also moved early to counter the charm offensive launched by China in the region, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi joining other leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in a virtual summit on March 15. India donated medical supplies to almost all its neighbours, sent medical teams to some and even arranged webinars for healthcare professionals of the South Asian nations for training in management of the pandemic. New Delhi, however, is worried about the possibility of China taking the advantage of the pandemic, offering loans and putting the South Asian nations in debt traps thus posing a security threat for India. We can only go to a certain extent in reaching out to our neighbours in South Asia, maybe helping them with little bit of what they need in this hour of crisis, a source in New Delhi said, adding: But India surely cannot do what China can do with its deep pockets. China already provided a preliminary $ 500 million concessional loan to Sri Lanka to help it cushion the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of diplomatic sources in New Delhi indicated that Beijing has offered similar loans to Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives too. Sri Lanka had to lease out the Hambantota Port to China for 99 years after its construction by a company based in the communist country resulted in a huge debt burden on the tiny Indian Ocean nation. Maldives was also caught up in an estimated $ 3 billion debt-trap as the erstwhile government of the island nation in the past few years awarded the state-owned companies of China contracts to build several infrastructure projects, allegedly on unsustainable loan terms. The Chinese Government has often been accused of putting other nations in debt traps on the pretext of supporting development projects as part of its ambitious cross-continental Belt and Road Initiative, which New Delhi has been strongly opposing. If the countries in our neighbourhood get caught up in such debt-traps, it will ultimately pose a security threat to us, said the source in New Delhi. A Sydney man has been slammed on social media after he filmed himself disrespecting a police officer in an apparent attempt to go viral. The man, identified as Jason Jaxon Rollio, uploaded a series of clips to his TikTok account on Monday showing the moment he was stopped by two cops at Liverpool Station. Rollio is heard verbally abusing officers during the confrontation for which he bragged he was given a $1,000 fine. In the first of three clips, which features the song 'F**k the Police', the man begins to taunt cops after they apparently asked him to take his shoes off for inspection. Scroll down for video Jason Jaxon Rollio filmed himself verbally abusing two police officers at Liverpool Station in western Sydney Rollio repeatedly tries to provoke the officer throughout the video by repeatedly calling him a 'c**ksucker', a 'd***head' and other disparaging names 'Look at my shoe, take it. I'm not putting my foot down on the ground, take the f***ing shoe,' he says as the police officer orders him to put it down. 'Hurry the f**k up, get your sh*t done. Arrest me, do something,' he adds. Rollio repeatedly tries to provoke the officer throughout the videos by repeatedly calling him a 'c**ksucker', a 'd***head' and other disparaging names. He also urges viewers to stay tuned by telling them to 'follow for part two' in the caption. 'You're wasting taxpayers' money you piece of sh*t,' Rollio says. 'l don't give a f**k. F**k you, f**k the Crown. You're a pig. 'F**k the Crown mate. You think I care about the Crown? I'm not religious bro.' As the officers take his identification, Rollio tells them he is on parole and doesn't have any 'outstanding warrants.' As the officers take his identification, Rollio tells them he is on parole and doesn't have any 'outstanding warrants' The two police officers remain calm and collected throughout the entire incident before handing him a fine. 'See you later d**khead. You're f**king dog,' Rollio says as he walks away. The video clips have since emerged on Facebook, drawing criticism from disgusted viewers. Many were quick to praise the two officers for keeping their cool during their incident. 'My god these police officers have some patience! This clown needs to tagged and bagged,' one person commented. 'Omgosh (sic) that officer is a saint. Such poise! Well done for not responding to this barrage of abuse,' said another. One user suggested Rollio had pulled the stunt just to build his TikTok following. 'He definitely goes around calling the cops on himself for views,' he said. As of Tuesday, the first video has received 1,200 likes and more than 21,000 views on TikTok, but most followers remained unimpressed. 'Maybe treat them with a bit of respect and it will be easier champ,' one person quipped. 'You could've put the shoe down and not argue,' said another. American warships have sailed into disputed waters in the South China Sea, according to military analysts, heightening a standoff in the waterway and sharpening the rivalry between the United States and China, even as much of the world is in lockdown because of the coronavirus. The America, an amphibious assault ship, and the Bunker Hill, a guided missile cruiser, entered contested waters off Malaysia. At the same time, a Chinese government ship in the area has for days been tailing a Malaysian state oil company ship carrying out exploratory drilling. Chinese and Australian warships have also powered into nearby waters, according to the defense experts. Despite working to control a pandemic that spread from China earlier this year, Beijing has not reduced its activities in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which one-third of global shipping flows. Instead, the Chinese governments yearslong pattern of assertiveness has only intensified, military analysts said. Its a quite deliberate Chinese strategy to try to maximize what they perceive as being a moment of distraction and the reduced capability of the United States to pressure neighbors, said Peter Jennings, a former Australian defense official who is the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "I dont care how long youve worked with a company - two years or 22 years - to just get a generic automated email and to still have no communication, its just not right. "We still havent got our notice and this is all unknown territory for us all. "If you told me a month ago that wed be in this position, I wouldnt have believed you. I always looked at protests and thought that would never be me. I never had to email a TD or our union. I still think its a bad dream." Sales assistant, Madeline Whelan, was just weeks away from her 30-year service milestone. "We did 12-13hr shifts which meant it didnt cost the company to do the right thing over the years. They used to call us the A-Team," she said. Sales assistant Madeline Whelan "And two days before the announcement, we were told our jobs were not in danger. But when we got the news, it was shock first, then disappointment and now Im in fighting mode. We are determined we wont go down without a fight." Valerie Conlon, who would have been with Debenhams 24 years in May, said she and her colleagues are prepared to fight. "When we got the email that all 11 stores were closing, my heart stopped, I couldnt believe what I was reading," she said. "We were then left for the entire Easter weekend to digest the news, and we heard nothing. Former Debenhams employee Valerie Conlon "Mandate has done what it can but were facing statutory redundancy. Thats our thanks. We served Debenhams well. We were good employees. "Its a small issue when you hear news of over 70 deaths because of Covid-19 and our thoughts are with those families. "But we want to show our employer that we are not going to lie down, that we are going to fight." Treasurer Josh Frydenberg emphasised the question of foreign ownership, insisting the government was not going to bail out five large foreign shareholders, with deep pockets, who together own 90 per cent of the airline". At the same time he insisted that Virgin would survive, rejecting comparisons with the 2001 collapse of Ansett. The airline was already $5 billion in debt before the government's move to halt travel in response to the COVID-19 crisis cut off its revenue stream. Its often dysfunctional group of shareholders, including British billionaire Richard Branson, two Chinese conglomerates and the state airlines of Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, also made it difficult to provide coherent leadership. At a time when landlords and tenants across the country are being asked to show each other consideration and the government is working to keep small businesses afloat , the plight of Virgin Australia, which entered administration on Tuesday, might seem hard to sympathise with. Virgin also rejects comparisons with Ansett, arguing it could service its debt in normal circumstances. Though it has made poor strategic decisions over the years, its chief executive, Paul Scurrah, was right to point out on Tuesday that "we didn't trade our way into this problem we had our oxygen cut off". The question is whether the government, while acting in the clear national interest by suspending travel, should be held responsible for the wider effects of that decision? Talk of "deep pockets" overseas also glosses over the global character of this crisis. UAE flag carrier Etihad is in its own struggle to survive and another of Virgin's shareholders, China's HNA Group, only days ago admitted it was at a point of "life or death". Governments in Singapore, New Zealand and the United States are all propping up major carriers amid predictions that most airlines will be bankrupt by the end of May without intervention. Mr Scurrah has said the airline presented nine different proposals to the Morrison government to avoid a collapse, with the last seeking just $200 million in fresh capital. Canberra is clearly keen to avoid setting a precedent by bailing out such a big business. Loading There is also the question of what kind of second airline would emerge from any administration process. With the clock stopped on Virgin's debt and private equity players in the frame, there is a risk of the airline being stripped down to a skeleton serving only the major-city routes. Christians need to reexamine the issue of nuclear weapons. Most of us probably havent thought about it recently. With everything else going on, its not top of mind. But now is the time to reconsider seriously the moral challenge of nuclear weapons in the modern world. Pope Benedict raised the issue in 2006. Pope Francis raised it again in 2017 with a condemnation of the threat of nuclear deterrence. Many Christiansincluding previous popeshave said that in the moral calculations of war, threatening to use these weapons in order to stop other people from using them was justified. Now the Roman Catholic Church disagrees, and Pope Francis says a threat is to be firmly condemned. There is also renewed debate over a comprehensive ban on all nuclear weapons. Eighty-one countries have signed on to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, sometimes called the Ban Treaty. A debate about it was set to take place in New York City this month, but it has been delayed one year due to concerns about COVID-19. At the same time, the New START Treaty between the US and Russia is set to expire. This treatythe descendant of the agreement first proposed by President Ronald Reagan and signed by President George H. W. Bushhas continued important historic efforts to put real restraints on nuclear weapons. If it sunsets in February 2021, there will be no constraints at all on nuclear weapons for the first time in half a century. President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin can extend the treaty for five years, but so far its not clear that they will, although the ball appears to be in Trumps court. These three things should compel Christians to take up the moral challenge of nuclear weapons. Its time for Christians, particularly in America, to think deeply about our stance on the issue. How Christians have thought about nukes Protestants have never had one view on nuclear weapons. Perhaps the most incisive moral thinkers from the mainline churches were Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr. Their observation of war and the Holocaust, combined with their beliefs about the reality of sin and evil, led them to argue that nuclear weapons were necessary. Nuclear deterrence was acceptable, they said, at least in the current global conditions. Their view was never unanimous, though. Evangelicals have been espcially divided. They are the great undecided group, according to a National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) report in 1983. The NAE, however, has advocated for nuclear nonproliferation treaties, and Christianity Today has long argued for a carefully phased negotiation processultimately to encompass all nations, and aiming first at the reduction and then at the repudiation of all weapons. The Catholic Church, in contrast, can speak with an official voice and has a great body of thought on the moral questions of war. Back in the fifth century, Augustine of Hippo formulated the theory of Just War, which was further developed by Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. The official teaching says a war is just if it is under the auspices of a proper authority and has a just purpose. Peace must be a central motive, even during violence. The theology allows for the prohibitions of particular weapons. There was a papal proclamation against crossbows in medieval times, for example. Most Catholic thinkers have not opposed nuclear weapons in and of themselves, though. In 1982, Pope John Paul II said that nuclear deterrence is morally acceptable, provided it is a provisional measure on the way to progressive disarmament. The current pope has said the conditions that would make nuclear weapons morally acceptable are no longer being met. Pope Francis condemned nuclear weapons unilaterally, saying the threat of their use, as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned. He reiterated this statement in a visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2019. Article continues below This creates a dilemma for devout Catholics in the armed forces or who are associated with national defense in the private sector. Can they continue in good conscience? Protestants appear to have paid little attention to this dramatic change in Catholic thinking, but we would do well to think about this moral challenge to nuclear weapons. New push for a new treaty The second challenge to rethink nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence comes from the new treaty proposing a comprehensive prohibition on all nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. A group of 122 countries put forward the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations in 2017. It now has about 81 signatures and 36 ratifications and would go into effect, for parties to the treaty, when it has been ratified by 50 countries. Of course, it would place no legal obligations on nations that have not signed on to the treaty. Treaty advocates have generally not used religious or overtly moral arguments in its justification. Rather, they have appealed to Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and 1977. The conventions say that military responses must be proportional and should make every effort to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. Both are difficult to impossible with nuclear weapons. The treatys advocates have also pointed out that under some scenarios, nuclear war could produce a nuclear winter, resulting in a decrease in temperatures that could have a devastating effect on world agriculture. There are some strong objections to the ban treaty, though. It lacks definitions, elimination procedures, and any regimen for verification. It is also strongly opposed by states that actually possess nuclear weapons, so it is difficult to see how it will have any real impact. The New START Treaty, on the other hand, has placed constraints on nuclear weapons and continues the work of its predecessor agreements that resulted in significant reductions. There are still about 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world, though, which is a lot. An extension of this treaty is top priority for the arms control community and has been backed by some Christian groups, including the NAE. Starting proposals for Christians to support These discussions ought to push us to think about the morality of nuclear weapons and defense policy. Sincere Christians will differ on how to deal with all these high-stakes dilemmas. Perhaps agreement could be found on certain modest near-term policies and actions. I want to propose five points of agreement as a starting place. Christians should: Support the extension of the New START Treaty while seeking more ambitious measures to succeed it. Press for substantial reductions in the numbers of nuclear weaponsespecially in the US and Russia. Ask presidential and congressional candidates where they stand on nuclear weapons and have them explain what realistic plans they have for dealing with proliferation. Support nonproliferation efforts to prevent the further spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries or non-state actors. Support efforts to resolve serious regional issues that involve nuclear weaponsin particular, issues in the Middle East, South Asia, and the Korean Peninsula. There will be no sudden leap to a world free of nuclear weapons. Nor does the current status quo seem sustainable. Its up to us, then, to do something. With the moral challenge of the popes statements, the push for the ban treaty, and the deadline for extending New START, Christians should take this moment to engage the problem of nuclear weapons, to think seriously about what can be done. Edward Ifft is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. A retired State Department official, he has more than 40 years of experience negotiating and implementing nuclear arms control agreements. "Speaking Out" is Christianity Today's guest opinion column and (unlike an editorial) does not necessarily represent the opinion of the publication. A Chinese newspaper has slammed America's handling of the coronavirus crisis and compared the US to 'a primitive society' in a recent opinion article. Beijing's state media Global Times claimed that the US is 'no match for China in terms of anti-epidemic organization and mobilization' in a column published on Sunday. The startling comment was followed by another opinion piece in which the newspaper declared that 'American democracy is dying'. A volunteer looks out near a Chinese national flag during a farewell ceremony for medical workers who came from outside Wuhan to help the city during the coronavirus outbreak A Chinese newspaper has slammed America's handling of the coronavirus crisis, labelling the US as 'a primitive society' in a recent opinion article. People are seen waiting in line for a coronavirus test at one of the new walk-in COVID-19 testing sites that opened in New York City It comes as Chinese officials stated yesterday that the enemy of the US is the coronavirus rather than China. In a column titled 'Smearing China a lame trick to aid reelection for White House', the Global Times described the escalating epidemic in the US is 'like that of a primitive society', blasting Washington's poor handling of the virus outbreak. 'The COVID-19 spread in the US is almost like that of a primitive society. It should not have been like this if the US had the slightest science and organization,' the Chinese state media outlet said. 'To put it bluntly, the U.S. is no match for China in terms of anti-epidemic organization and mobilization. 'The US political system has been hit by the pandemic on its weak side and we were willing to show understanding for that. After all, every system has its weaknesses,' the newspaper asserted. The Global Times described the escalating epidemic in the US is 'like that of a primitive society', blasting Washington's poor handling of the virus outbreak. The file picture shows the Chinese President Xi Jinping visiting Wuhan during the coronavirus epidemic The Global Times also suggested that the US President Donald Trump tries to gain an advantage in the upcoming election by smearing Beijing. President Trump is pictured speaking at the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House yesterday Despite the nation has come under criticism of covering up the crisis, Beijing's state media insisted that 'the Chinese government has done its utmost to fight the epidemic'. 'China's achievements stand the test of time and all kinds of doubts. The Trump administration only wants to shirk responsibility by blackening China.' The Global Times also suggested that the US President Donald Trump tries to gain an advantage in the upcoming election by smearing Beijing. 'The Trump administration has repeatedly found fault with China, blatantly accused China of fabricating epidemic achievements, eagerly passed the buck to China and unscrupulously attempted to win reelection by stepping on China,' the Global Times concluded. Despite the nation has come under criticism of covering up the crisis, Beijing's state media insisted that 'the Chinese government has done its utmost to fight the epidemic'. The picture taken on February 6 shows medical workers transferring a patient at a hospital in Wuhan The Global Times suggested that the US President Donald Trump tries to gain an advantage in the upcoming election by smearing Beijing. Hundreds of people gather to protest against the lockdown yesterday in Sacramento, California Another comment piece featured Monday on the Global Times website proclaimed that the chaotic political landscape in the US is driving the country to the end of democracy. 'Some believe that American democracy is dying. Indeed, the recent chaos in the country has proved its in decay,' the newspaper suggested in the article titled 'Divisive US politics leads to democracy's fast decay'. The Global Times first noted that the US democratic system has 'a balance of power between states and the federal government'. 'However, as this public health crisis expands into to the economic, political and social fields with many subsequent effects surfacing, the weakness of the system is being exposed,' the newspaper added. 'It allows infighting between the federal and the states at this critical time, aggravates US society's fragmentation and polarization, and will erode the country's long-term interests. 'And it is the American people who will bear the losses and pain,' the Chinese state media said. Although the Global Times claimed that the article was based on an interview with Wang Yiwei, a Chinese professor. The column did not indicate or use any quotes from the academic. Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a tweet on Monday that 'right decisions can only be built on Facts'. The picture shows her speaking at a press conference in Beijing on March 30 The columns come as Chinese officials stated yesterday that the enemy of the US is the coronavirus rather than China. Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a tweet on Monday that 'right decisions can only be built on Facts'. 'Some people in the US should know that their enemy is the virus, not China.' Another Beijing's spokesperson, Geng Shuang, also called the US to stop blaming China for the coronavirus crisis during a press conference yesterday. 'The virus is the enemy of the humankind. China, like other countries, has been attacked by the virus. We are the victim, not the culprit or the accomplice of the virus,' said Geng. Geng Shuang, a spokesperson for Beijing, called the US to stop blaming China for the coronavirus crisis during a press conference yesterday. Geng is pictured during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing on March 18 On Thursday US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that China 'come clean' after unsubstantiated reports that coronavirus may have originated in a lab in Wuhan. Mr Pompeo speaks during a news briefing with members of the Coronavirus Task Force at the White House China and the US have been in a consistent war of words over the source of the deadly disease that has infected nearly 2.5 million people worldwide. On Thursday US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that China 'come clean' after unsubstantiated reports that coronavirus may have originated in a lab in Wuhan. Australian minister Peter Dutton on Friday also ordered China to 'answer those questions' before Ms Payne on Sunday called for an independent inquiry. Australian minister Peter Dutton on Friday ordered China to 'answer those questions' before Ms Payne on Sunday called for an independent inquiry. The picture shows a worker inside the controversial P4 laboratory in Wuhan Meanwhile, Chinese academics have accused Australia of joining an 'anti-China crusade' with the US to 'smear China'. Beijing's state media have been promoting debunked conspiracy theories and suggesting that the pandemic started in the US. It comes as a CGTN presenter hinted in an Arabic programme that the contagion could have escaped from a US lab or been brought into China during the Military World Games in Wuhan last October. When youre in the market for a new place to live, finding the right neighborhood is everything. But in our current state, with shelter-in-place orders in full effect in many areas (and mere common sense limiting people's excursions), scoping out a new neighborhood can be a little more challenging. But with some online detective work and the right tools, you can learn a lot about a neighborhood without leaving your home. That's because you're not the first one to consider buying a home without being able to pound the pavement personally. As buyer's agents, we will often shoot video of the neighborhood and/or home for our out-of-area clients, says Katie Wethman, a real estate agent with the Wethman Group at Keller Williams in McLean, VA. We also have video streaming apps like FaceTime, Skype, and Zoom to bring them with us. Even though you won't be able to pop in to a local coffee shop or take a leisurely stroll down Main Street, exploring a neighborhood in the time of coronavirus is possible. So let your fingers do the walkingon your laptopand get to digging. Here's how to start your research. 1. Check out neighborhood publications and local social media An active neighborhood community will sometimes have a print publication or local social media groups that connect residents. These can provide information on local events and activities that will give you a better feel for the neighborhood. For example, Carlsbad, CA, has a local publication called Carlsbad Magazine, which covers all of the cultural happenings in North San Diego County, as well as a Facebook page. Browse Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for groups or accounts that document what's going on in the neighborhood where you're interested in moving. You can even interact with locals in the community who can give you their opinions of their locale. 2. Take a walk with Google Want to take a stroll around your potential new neighborhood without leaving the couch? Google Street View is a great way to walk the street and neighborhood virtually, says Wethman. Every listing on realtor.com features a link to the Google Street View for that address. Take a look at the Google Street View on realtor.com. realtor.com Another way to access Google Street View is to go to google.com/maps, type in the address of the house you're interested in, and click on the photo of the property in the menu to the left of the map. If Google Street View is available for that address, you should be able to click and drag the image to move down the street. Search engines like Google also let you filter for videos when you search the neighborhood name," says Wethman. "Try adding review to your search terms, and also neighborhood association or homeowners association for better results. 3. Browse websites with neighborhood data You want to gather as much information as possible on your next neighborhood, and there are a lot of websites that can help you do that. City-Data provides detailed city profiles about everything from cost of living to weather to average home prices, and its forums give useful insight from community locals. Plug in your ZIP code at AreaVibes to get a livability score and help narrow down the best places to live. Yelp provides not only reviews on local cafes, restaurants, and nightlife, but also unfiltered reviews from local residents. 4. Search other real estate listings To learn about the typical architectural styles and ages of homes in a neighborhood, browse online listings on sites like realtor.com. Is the neighborhood full of '50s ranch homes or hundred-year-old Victorians? Looking at the homes for sale will clue you in. 5. Call a real estate agent Its also a good idea to get in touch with a tech-savvy real estate agentand these days, that's most of them. A real estate agent can help by using technology to test-drive the neighborhood for you. This can easily be done by making a video of the neighborhood and sharing it with you, says John Myers, a real estate agent with Myers & Myers Real Estate in Albuquerque, NM. Myers says he has helped a lady from New York City purchase a home in Albuquerque by using a video calling app called Duo. If you've identified a home you're interested in, contact the listing agent for more information about the neighborhood. The pro will be sure to have an insider's perspective on the area and extensive knowledge on homes there. 6. Investigate schools and educational data Relocating with your family? Then you will want to research schools in the area. A good resource is GreatSchools, which provides data on K-12 schools and reviews from parents. Areas with great schools typically maintain property values, and its neighborhoods are highly coveted. And if you want to research education statistics, U.S. News & World Report has rankings of high schools with data on more than 23,000 public high schools in all 50 states. 7. Check crime rates Safety is a priority for both buyers and renters, and crime rates can give you a picture of how safe or dangerous a neighborhood is. Low crime rates are not only safer but can also help keep property values high. Websites such as CrimeReports can provide crime data from law enforcement agencies. To see if there are registered sex offenders living nearby, type the address of your potential new home in the National Sex Offender Registry's public website. 8. Plan your daily commute Wethman also suggests getting a feel for the neighborhood by monitoring traffic and your potential work commute. I recommend people test-drive the commute using commuting tools that predict traffic like Waze or Google Maps, says Wethman. These tools will predict the level of traffic during your commute hours and give you an idea of how long it'll take to get to work. Realtor.com also offers a similar commute time feature on every home listing. The post 8 Ways To Test-Drive a Neighborhood While Sheltering in Place appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 21:48:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PARIS, April 21 (Xinhua) -- France's largest auto manufacturer PSA Group on Tuesday announced a 15.6-percent drop in its first-quarter revenue as the global COVID-19 crisis had weighed on demand. For the January-March period this year, PSA saw its revenue at 15.2 billion euros (16.5 billion U.S. dollars). Revenue at the core automotive division tumbled by 15.7 percent year on year to 11.9 billion euros "driven by a sharp volume drop partially offset by a strong product mix," the group said in its financial report. Affected by the coronavirus pandemic which locked down countries, global sales volumes dropped by 29 percent to 627,000 vehicles over the period, it added. "Having secured its liquidity and drastically cut its costs, the group now fully focuses on preparing the rebound in a chaotic economic environment," said Philippe de Rovira, PSA's chief financial officer. PSA expects the automotive market to tumble by 25 percent in Europe and Latin America, by 20 percent in Russia, and by 10 percent in China. "The outlook is currently difficult to assess and will depend on the scale, duration and geographic extent of the COVID-19 crisis, as well as the measures taken by the countries concerned," it said. (1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollars) Enditem Published: 21 April 2020 General government deficit 1.1 per cent and debt 59.4 per cent relative to GDP in 2019 According to the revised preliminary data reported by Statistics Finland to Eurostat, general government deficit was 1.1 per cent relative to gross domestic product in 2019. The deficit was clearly below the reference value of the European Unions Stability and Growth Pact, which is three per cent relative to gross domestic product. General government EDP debt, or consolidated gross debt, was 59.4 per cent at the end of 2019 relative to gross domestic product. The ratio of debt to GDP is below the reference value of 60 per cent. General government EDP deficit (-) relative to GDP In 2019, general government deficit, or net borrowing according to national accounts, was EUR 2.7 billion. The financial position of general government weakened by around EUR 700 million from the year before. The financial position of local government weakened most, by around EUR 900 million compared to 2018. This was particularly due to significant increases in the sectors consumption expenditure and investments. In 2019, local government sector deficit, or net borrowing, was EUR 2.9 billion. From 2018, central government deficit decreased by EUR 110 million, but still remained clearly in deficit. The deficit of central government stood at EUR 2.8 billion in 2019. Social security funds are divided into employment pension schemes and other social security funds. The employment pension schemes surplus was EUR 2.2 billion in 2019, i.e. approximately the same as in the previous year. The surplus of other social security funds was EUR 0.7 billion in 2019. General government EDP debt relative to GDP Consolidated general government gross debt (EDP debt) amounted to EUR 142.5 billion at the end of 2019. The debt grew by around EUR three billion in 2019. Central government debt grew by EUR 1.4 billion and local government debt grew by EUR 2.9 billion. The debt of social security funds decreased by EUR 0.9 billion. The increase in consolidated items between general government by EUR 229 million contributed to the debt of the entire general government sector growing by EUR one billion in 2019. The EDP debt describes general governments debt to the other sectors of the economy and to the rest of the world, and its development is influenced by changes in both the unconsolidated gross debt and the internal general government debt. In the publication of general government debt by quarter on 16 March, a review was made to the general government debt for the years 2015 to 2018 as the Manual on Government Deficit and Debt (MGDD) was updated. The data for 2019 have been compiled on the same principle. More information on the processing can be found in the decision on rearrangement of transactions in activity under Finnveras commitment to compensate credit and guarantee losses in national accounts . These corresponding recordings have now also been entered into the database and appendix tables containing annual data which are published in connection with the statistics on general government deficit and debt. Eurostat will publish preliminary data on Member States on 21 April 2020. About the content and concepts of the statistics General government surplus/deficit refers to net lending/borrowing according to the sector accounts of national accounts, which is the difference between the total revenue and expenditure. For instance, in the case of local government, the concept differs from the surplus/deficit of the accounting period according to the profit and loss accounts of municipalities and joint municipal authorities included in the sector. The key difference concerns investments, which are recorded in national accounts as expenditure as such. In general government accounts, the European Financial Stability Facility EFSF is, based on Eurostat's decision, handled so that the EFSF's borrowing is recorded as part of the gross government debt of the countries that have provided guarantees. The loan received by the beneficiary country from the EFSF is recorded as if it had been received from the countries in the euro area that have provided guarantees and these countries in turn owe the corresponding amount to the EFSF. As a result, the EDP gross debt of the countries that provided guarantees grows but the net debt remains unchanged because the countries have a similar receivable from the beneficiary country. The gross government debt to be recorded for each country on the loans granted by the EFSF is calculated by dividing the loan granted to the beneficiary country by the contribution key (based on the share in the ECB's capital of each country participating in the support operations). At the end of 2019, Finland's general government debt includes EUR 3,401 million of debt granted by the EFSF to beneficiary countries. At the end of 2018, the amount was the same. Corresponding treatment does not apply to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Central government's EDP debt differs as a concept from the central government debt published by the State Treasury. Central government's EDP debt includes loans granted to beneficiary countries by the European Financial Stability Facility EFSF, received cash collateral related to derivative contracts, the capital of the Nuclear Waste Management Fund, debts generated from investments in central government's PPP (public-private partnership) projects, and coins that are in circulation. In National Accounts, central government is also a broader concept than the budget and financial economy (http://www.stat.fi/meta/luokitukset/_linkki/julkisyhteisot.html). However, the State Pension Fund is classified as a social security fund. The valuation principle for both debt concepts is the nominal value, where the effect of currency swaps is taken into account. When these differences are taken into consideration, we reach the central government non-consolidated gross debt in accordance with the EDP concept (Appendix table 2). In 2019, the State Treasury's central government debt EUR 106.4 billion + conceptual differences of the debt EUR 7.8 billion + differences caused by the sector delimitation EUR 4.0 billion = central government gross debt EUR 118.2 billion. The valuation principle for both debt concepts is the nominal value, where the effect of interest-rate contracts and currency swaps is taken into account. A list of units belonging to general government (only in Finnish) can be found at http://www.stat.fi/meta/luokitukset/_linkki/julkisyhteisot.html . Source: General government deficit and debt. Statistics Finland Inquiries: Lotta Sjoblom 029 551 3342, Antti Suutari 029 551 3257, financial.accounts@stat.fi Director in charge: Jan Nokkala Publication in pdf-format (256.5 kB) Updated 21.4.2020 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): General government deficit and debt [e-publication]. ISSN=1799-5914. 2019. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 12.1.2022]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/jali/2019/jali_2019_2020-04-21_tie_001_en.html Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spaceliner captured this view of Earth during the vehicle's first trip to space, on Dec. 13, 2018. NASA astronauts may start hitching commercial rides to suborbital space in the near future. According to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine , agency astronauts may use private suborbital flights for training and research experiments once these commercial trips have been proven safe. Such jaunts could help pave the way for the next crewed mission to the surface of the moon, which NASA aims to do in 2024. Related: What's the difference between orbital and suborbital spaceflight? Brief suborbital flights would allow astronauts to gain experience in, and familiarity with, the space environment without being subjected to the hazards of long-duration missions, Bridenstine said. "This is a big shift for NASA," he said on March 2 at the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Broomfield, Colorado. "But it's an important shift." This shift could aid NASA's Artemis program of crewed lunar exploration, Bridenstine emphasized. In addition to the 2024 landing goal, Artemis aims to establish a long-term sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the late 2020s. Such work, in turn, will help pave the way for crewed Mars missions, which the agency wants to achieve in the 2030s. "You are the commercial partners that will enable us to go to the moon sustainably," he told the crowd of scientists and space corporation members. No waiver required Suborbital flights reach space or brush its edges. As these flights rise above the Karman line, the point above sea level that marks entry into space, the high velocity and reduced gravity can provide space-like environments for scientific research. (Though not everyone agrees on where space begins , the most commonly mentioned boundary is 62 miles, or 100 kilometers, up.) Already, a handful of companies are sending experiments toward or beyond this boundary using balloons as well as rockets. For example, Virgin Galactic has already flown two piloted test flights to suborbital space, and Blue Origin has launched a number of uncrewed demonstration missions with its New Shepard suborbital system. Both of these companies have flown research experiments on their suborbital test missions, and Virgin has already sold tickets to passengers who want to travel into space. Suborbital flights provide a way to test new technologies in space over and over again before putting travelers at risk. "That's a capability we as a nation have not had until recently," Bridenstine said. Private contractors already carry equipment to the International Space Station. But Bridenstine sees private flight as a doorway to more than just package delivery. "NASA astronauts would fly with equipment and payloads," he said. In exchange, NASA would expect a high level of safety. "We're not going to have astronauts sign a waiver," Bridenstine said, a step likely to be required for private passengers. Using a private spacecraft will in some ways require less oversight from the space agency. Rather than certifying and qualifying each individual component, a process that takes years, NASA would instead certify the flights themselves. Or rather, let the flights certify themselves. Bridenstine said he anticipates that repeated successful flights by a private company would go a long way toward proving their safety. Still, there would be qualifications. In order to qualify to carry crew to the International Space Station, Bridenstine said, commercial spaceflight companies must meet about 30 requirements from NASA. Suborbital flights would require similar qualification, but it wouldn't be as difficult to obtain. "I think if we did it right, we could take those 30 requirements [and] we could cut them down to 20," Bridenstine said. Suborbital flight also opens the door for non-NASA travelers to space. "Were rapidly approaching the day when a lot of people are going to be astronauts," Bridenstine said. "Thats good for our nation and good for the world." Related: NASA's Artemis program (reference) To the moon On Earth, weathering and plate tectonics have changed the planet over billions of years, wiping out much of the evidence of the planet in its youth. But the early days of the solar system are still visible on the lunar surface, whose surface remains relatively unchanged since its formation. Some scientists worry that human boots on the lunar regolith could erase much of that evidence. But Bridestone doesn't agree. Instead, he thinks science on the moon will be enhanced by human exploration. "We can get to every part of the moon," he said. "The amount of science we're going to get is amazing." Bridenstine pointed to the Dark Ages Polarimetry Pathfinder (DAPPER), a proposed radio mission to the far side of the moon that could investigate the early universe soon after the Big Bang. Current estimates put DAPPER's price tag around $500 million, Bridenstine said. But if humans were on the moon, DAPPER and other missions could use infrastructure for power and communications, reducing the cost to $90 million. "That means more astrophysics than ever before," Bridenstine said. The tension between science and exploration is a constant battle, he said. But it shouldn't be. "It's not that we're competing against science," he said. "We're enabling science." Sending humans to the moon will allow a more in-depth exploration than could be possible from orbiters and rovers, Bridenstine stressed. "It's not what we're giving up to get the moon ," he said. "It's what we're gaining." And returning to the moon is important, not only for science but also for exploration. "Im the first NASA administrator in history alive when we have not had people living and working on another world," the 44-year-old Bridenstine said. But when the Apollo missions changed history, they did so only for a specific class of people: white men. Bridenstine sees the next trip to the moon as a far more inclusive journey. "This time, we go to the moon with all Americans," he said. "We have to make this our moment in history." Bridenstine and other NASA officials have repeatedly said that at least one of the two astronauts who lands on the moon in 2024 will be a woman. No longer a 'zero-sum game' Artemis isn't the first post-Apollo push to return to the moon. Bridenstine said one reason these other efforts have failed is that the NASA budget tends to be a "zero-sum game, where the budget is flat." One previous attempt cannibalized money from the International Space Station, raising protests from states intimately involved like Texas, California and Florida. Another battle to send humans to Mars culled money from NASA's science budget, leading to more infighting among space-supporting politicians. The 2021 federal budget request proposed a $25.2 billion NASA budget , an increase of $6 billion over the agency's average take over the last three years . Roughly half of the increase goes into Deep Space Exploration Systems, including human landing systems and Gateway , a planned NASA waystation for humans and robots en route to the lunar surface. In previous years, Bridenstine said, the White House has been hammered in the press for cutting the space budget. That's because in previous Januarys, Congress has provided an appropriation larger than the request for the budget, which is released in February, making the budget request seem like a cut even though the proposed amount grows each year. "Now we have a $25.2 billion budget [for space]. I dare Congress to beat it," he said with a grin. Follow Nola on Facebook and on Twitter at @NolaTRedd . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jeff Paine (The Jakarta Post) Singapore Tue, April 21, 2020 16:35 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd354c36 3 Opinion #COVID19,#coronavirus,COVID-19,coronavirus,economy,digital-economy,e-commerce,business,marketplace,digitalization,digitalized Free A recent World Bank report on the impacts of COVID-19 provides sobering reading for the region. It states that "significant economic pain seems unavoidable in all countries. Indonesia's finance minister has said the best-case scenario for Indonesia is 2.3 percent economic growth, the lowest in 21 years. The worst case was for the economy to contract by 0.4 percent. While an economic slowdown seems unavoidable, this is a window to leverage the power of the internet and accelerate the pace of digitalization to help mitigate risks. Indonesia's digital economy, the largest in Asia, is valued at US$40 billion. By 2025, the number could reach $133 billion, a leap from just $8 billion five years ago. Maintaining this growth trajectory will be crucial to help enable a rapid economic rebound when the pandemic threat is over. The path to that growth is a balanced and proportionate policy and regulatory environment that takes a long-term view. The national e-commerce policy, GR80, will play a crucial role across Indonesia's economy and society. The plan is for a comprehensive framework designed to regulate e-commerce, define e-commerce services and develop regulatory and licensing requirements for e-commerce providers. The policy also outlines the responsibilities of providers in areas such as consumer rights, payments, advertising and dispute resolution. The government is right to drive this. However, the current approach outlined in the regulation could hurt investment, undermine competition, stifle growth and lead to less choice and higher costs for Indonesian consumers. A recent digital economy report highlighted online travel, ride-hailing and e-commerce as the brightest lights behind Indonesia's internet economy. Indonesian e-commerce itself is forecast to reach $21 billion in total value this year, or 52 percent of Indonesia's current $40 billion digital economy. By 2025, e-commerce is anticipated to comprise two-thirds of the country's digital economy. Indonesia's young, growing and digitally savvy population have among the world's highest social media and mobile-usage growth rates, which are critical drivers of e-commerce adoption. Underpinning this growth are Indonesians micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). These enterprises are crucial to the economy, and they also comprise virtually all online sellers. They have helped improve socio-economic outcomes for millions of Indonesians and have created new markets domestically and abroad. A platform like Tokopedia has over 7 million digitized microbusinesses operating across its platform; 86.5 percent are first-time entrepreneurs, and no matter the location across the vast archipelago, the marketplace is no longer the confines of their desa (village). Government initiatives to digitize MSMEs are well underway, but more must be done to ensure e-commerce policy can enable the sector's full potential. Implementation regulations for GR80 are currently being drafted. Vital areas need resolving to enable e-commerce to unlock opportunity and growth. Indonesia's e-commerce sector is at a nascent stage, with expenditure a relatively low 3 percent of total retail, compared to 16 percent for China and 12 percent for the United States. To capture this significant value, Indonesian MSMEs need simple and clear rules. These rules should be applied consistently and not create additional burdens that could restrict the ability for MSMEs to scale operations and trade. GR80 mandates such as having global players establish a physical in-country presence will serve as a market access barrier. Local consumers and businesses will face limited choice and increased costs if international companies are forced to limit their offerings to Indonesians as a result of these requirements. A premature tax burden will disproportionately impact MSMEs who rely on e-commerce to reach new customers, suppliers and markets. It may also push local sellers back into informal channels, inhibiting their growth and hence likely reducing the future tax base. Guidance from international organizations like the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), whose proposals on digital economy taxation are due at the end of 2020, will ensure Indonesia is at pace with global economies. An inclusive, fair and transparent approach, in alignment with other sectoral regulations, will ensure all businesses can participate in global export and trade opportunities. An increased burden at a country level will make it more difficult for Indonesian companies to export, and for global innovations and services to be imported. Cross-border data flow is core to global business and supply chains. Restrictions proposed by GR80 would remove the ease of doing business and deter investments into the development of high-value digital products in-country. These restrictions will also thwart the competitiveness of Indonesia's unicorns in the global playing field and cripple start-ups trying to internationalize. Productivity and growth will also suffer if local companies cant leverage technology like cloud-powered software, data analytics and artificial intelligence, which require data flow for processing. E-commerce comprises diverse businesses models and sectors. The significant growth forecast for Indonesia's digital economy is not the exclusive preserve of unicorns and e-commerce start-ups. Farmers looking to sell overseas, hotels managing bookings, sole traders banking online and a myriad of other transactions rely upon and interact with the digital economy. Many will have difficulty adhering to GR80 as it stands today. The intention behind GR80 is right. How it is currently structured can and should be urgently improved. The implications of implementing the GR80 framework without wide stakeholder consultation will likely create barriers for MSMEs trying to digitalize and innovate in this difficult time. Inclusive feedback from domestic and foreign players will help future-proof Indonesian e-commerce. That significance is underlined by President Joko Jokowi Widodo's ambition to make Indonesia ASEAN's digital powerhouse. To that end, national digital policies must be practical, give consumers more choice and control, create an even playing field and align with international best practices and standards. Indonesia will rebound more robust than ever. Making the right policy decisions now, in times of crisis, will be crucial for both the speed of the recovery and Indonesia's long-term prosperity alike. *** Managing director, Asia Internet Coalition Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. The director of new Bond film No Time to Die originally wanted to make a 007 film that took place in the British spys mind during a torture scene in Spectre. Cary Joji Fukunaga, whose film was pushed back from April to November due to coronavirus, made the revelation in an interview with Miranda July. He told July, who was interviewing the filmmaker for Interview Magazine: I swear to God, I had an idea that this movie could all be taking place inside the villains lair from the last film. Fukunaga explained: Theres this scene [in Spectre] where a needle goes into James Bonds head, which is supposed to make him forget everything, and then he miraculously escapes by a watch bomb. And then he and Lea [Seydoux] blow up the place, and go on to save the day. I was like, What if everything up until the end of act two is all inside his head? His pitch to make No Time to Die a film within a film was ultimately dismissed by MGM. An outing set within Bonds imagination might have been slightly too high-concept for the long-running franchise. No Time to Die will be Daniel Craigs final outing as the spy. Seydoux, who reprises the role of Dr Madeline Swann in the film, is the first cast member to have shared her verdict on the finished film. The film also stars Rami Malek, Ana de Armas, Ralph Fiennes, Rory Kinnear, Ben Whishaw and Jeffrey Wright. It will now be released on 12 November. Just last month, Craig revealed he has no plans to leave a single penny of his $125m fortune (108m) to his children when he dies, as he finds the idea of inheritance distasteful. Chandigarh, April 21 : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday suggested to the Centre a three-pronged strategy to bailout the states from the COVID-19 crisis, including a three-month special financial package. Citing the collapse in revenues as a result of the lockdown of business and industry, the Chief Minister in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged him to ask the Fifteenth Finance Commission to review its interim report for 2020-21 in the context of the much lower revenue share for the states compared with what was expected from the earlier projections which assumed 7 per cent growth of GDP. Noting that a zero growth scenario in GDP for India was not unlikely, he said some analysts were projecting even negative growth. Given the likelihood of very low growth, which was expected to cause the revenue shortfall to last for the whole year, Amarinder Singh requested the Prime Minister to direct the Fifteenth Finance Commission to defer the submission of its full report to October 2021, when they will be better able to make a realistic assessment of the likely growth of the economy over the next five years. "Nothing would be worse than getting committed to a five-year revenue sharing projection based on unrealistically high growth projections," he said, suggesting that the Finance Commission could make another interim report for 2021-22. Observing that the 40-day national lockdown till May 3 was perhaps necessary to curb the spread of coronavirus, Amarinder Singh said it has resulted in massive economic disruption, which in turn had created very serious fiscal difficulties for all states. Punjab was facing a huge stress on the state exchequer, he said, adding the near complete shutdown of trade, business and industry had led to a collapse in revenues, and this had happened at a time when essential health and relief expenditures needed to be massively scaled up. "With the states continuing to shoulder their committed liabilities and facing new demands on relief, health infrastructure expenditure etc, it is only fair and just that the Fifteenth Finance Commission should be requested to recommend a special COVID-19 revenue grant for 2020-21," said Amarinder Singh. In his letter, the Chief Minister sought an immediate three-month special financial assistance package to enables states to handle the additional health related expenditure and basic relief expenditure, and suggested that the package should give the states maximum flexibility to design, implement and execute it in a manner that is customised to local problems and needs. The immediate package may be adjusted against the special COVID-19 revenue grant, as proposed, he said. --IANS vg/rt A Furious taxpayers have today rounded on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and called for them to pay back the 2.4million used to renovate Frogmore Cottage. The Taxpayers' Alliance and anti-monarchy website Republic led fierce calls for the couple to reimburse the public, adding it needs to be done with transparency. The Sussexes took the eye-watering sum from the Sovereign Grant in April last year to fund the massive renovations at their home on the Windsor estate in Berkshire. In January they pledged to pay it back, but it is unclear when and how they are going to. The uproar comes after Prince Harry caused outrage on Sunday by suggesting the coronavirus crisis was 'better than we are led to believe through certain corners of the media'. Hours later he was widely condemned for a joint letter with his wife to four newspaper groups saying he would never again cooperate with the publications. The Taxpayers' Alliance and anti-monarchy website Republic led fierce calls for Harry and Meghan (pictured at Westminster Abbey in March) to reimburse the public, adding it needs to be done with transparency The couple took the eye-watering sum from the Sovereign Grant in April last year to fund the massive renovations at Frogmore Cottage (pictured in January) on the Windsor estate in Berkshire Frogmore Cottage was converted from five apartments into their official residence, which required significant structural work and the huge funds from the public purse. Fixtures and fittings were paid for by Harry and Meghan and Prince Charles helped to finance the project. It is not the first time the taxpayer has taken the brunt of the couple's spending. Their glamorous wedding in May 2018 is believed to have cost the country between 24million-30million. A spokesman for the Taxpayers' Alliance told MailOnline: 'Taxpayers would welcome the news of the Sussexes returning the funds used to renovate Frogmore Cottage to the public purse. The huge sums the Sussexes have taken from the taxpayer: Frogmore Cottage: News broke that the couple would take a staggering 2.4million from the Sovereign Grant to pay for updates to the Windsor home in April last year. The 19th century property was converted into five smaller staff houses and needed to be turned back into a single home. Ceilings and floors were replaced along with the addition of new bathrooms, bedrooms and a kitchen. It emerged in January Harry had offered to pay back the public money during the Megxit summit at Sandringham in Norfolk as they finalised their split from the Royal Family. But it is not clear over what time period or at what rate the couple will pay it. Security: Harry and Meghan last month agreed to pay for the cost of their security personally which could see them fork out around 4million a year. A spokesman for the couple confirmed on March 30 they had decided to meet the burden met by British taxpayers and fund the cost of their protection out of their own pockets after stepping down as senior working royals. Their security personnel will reportedly consist of former SAS soldiers at a cost of 400 per operative per day. Support from Charles: Prince Charles will continue to pay for the upkeep of his son and daughter-in-law for the first 12 months of their new life out of his private funds, not the Duchy of Cornwall. But it is understood this money will not be used for their protection. Advertisement 'The Royals are granted public money in accordance with their duties. 'Given Harry and Meghan have chosen to forfeit those duties and live abroad as private citizens, it is only right that they now seek to cover the costs themselves.' Graham Smith from Republic added: 'They need to pay the full amount back as soon as possible and with transparency about when that's done and how. 'They also need to be paying for their security and thinking about repaying the cost of their wedding.' Harry sparked fury over the weekend by claiming the UK's Covid-19 crisis is not as bad as the public are being told. In an interview with the Declassifed podcast, the 35-year-old said things were 'better than we are led to believe through certain corners of the media'. But his comments were branded 'outrageous' by expert Professor Karol Sikora, who asked: 'What are his qualifications for making these comments other than deserting his country in its hour of need?' Speaking on the podcast Harry said: 'I think what has happened especially in the UK is the very best of the human spirit and it's proving that things are better than we are led to believe through certain corners of the media. 'Certainly when you're in isolation it can be very worrying when you're sitting there and the only information you're getting is from certain news channels, but then if you're out and about and you're on the right platforms you can really sense this human spirit coming to the forefront.' Prof Sikora, who has led antibody tests and is a former No10 adviser, said he thought the remarks were 'outrageous' He added to the Sun: 'As for the media, I really don't understand what Harry's beef is. 'Journalists have been reporting the facts and have been doing great work in holding the Government to account. 'The media has also championed the NHS and become a key ally of doctors, nurses and key workers. They should be applauded, not vilified.' UK taxpayers also vented their fury at the couple - who appear to have turned their back on Britain - on social media over the Frogmore funds. One man wrote: 'When's the bill for Frogmore Cottage being returned to public funds!' A woman put: 'Meghan can show kindness by giving back the money for Frogmore cottage & stop us paying for her security!!!!' A male user posted: 'Let's hope they stay in the US and shut up.....after they've repaid the 2.5m Frogmore Cottage costs of course.' And another commented online: 'UK Taxpayers pay their enormous security bill and paid for Frogmore Cottage!' Other Britons weighed in on social media after the couple said they will also have 'zero engagement' with the four British newspaper groups Just hours after Harry attacked the media over the coronavirus crisis, the couple faced yet more criticism for saying they will 'no longer engage' with the UK's most popular newspaper titles in a move blasted by the Society of Editors as censorship. Executive director Ian Murray said the statement was 'sadly a clear attempt to undermine certain sections of the UK media who often ask uncomfortable questions'. Royal watchers also condemned the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's 'narcissistic' decision to have 'zero engagement' with the four British newspaper groups. How much could Harry and Meghan make in the US? Harry and Meghan are expected to walk in the footsteps of Barack and Michelle Obama, who agreed a production deal with Netflix to make TV and film projects. The former Suits actress is likely to be highly sought after by publishing houses who would see dollar signs at the prospect of a revealing memoir. Recent books written by Mrs Obama and Mrs Clinton topped bestseller lists and were accompanied by tours where they filled venues like rock stars. Experts have claimed that US TV networks could be willing to pay the Sussexes 38million [$50million] book deals, 20million [$25million] for US TV interviews and 470,000 [$600,000] based on the amounts secured by the Obamas since they left the White House. As a former lifestyle blogger, another option would be for Meghan to resurrect The Tig blog and become an a-list influencer, perhaps teaming up with brands, signing sponsorship deals, and getting paid in return for posting about brands on her blog and social media. It is thought that this route may be unlikely as it could be argued that it does not fit in with upholding the values of the Queen. Another possibility for Meghan would be to return to her role as paralegal Rachel Zane in Suits, which was filmed in Toronto, and would therefore be convenient if the couple settled in the Canadian city. The show has ended now but executives may be tempted to bring it back if they were to have a duchess among the cast. Advertisement The Queen's former press spokesmen Dickie Arbiter said the couple were 'wrong' and Prince Charles's biographer Tom Bower said they 'have become their own worst enemies'. The LA-based Sussexes released the letter to four newspaper groups on Sunday night detailing how their self-imposed ban is a refusal to 'offer themselves up'. Their message was sent from an official Sussex Royal email, despite the Queen banning them from using the title and them saying they plan to use Archewell. They messaged the editors of these popular publications: the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Sun and the Daily Express. Mr Arbiter told MailOnline: 'I really want to know who is advising them because they are wrong.. unless they are doing it themselves. 'Not only this, Harry was wrong over the weekend. because 2.4million deaths is bad, 16,000 in the UK is bad. 'So how he can even suggest it isn't as bad as what is being said about it is wrong. But then again, he is not the brightest bunny on the planet.' Mr Bower said: 'The Sussexes have become their own worst enemies. They clearly cannot stand being irrelevant and ignored. 'In the midst of a horrendous global crisis causing so much misery all they can think about is themselves. 'Constantly they push their obsession about their image and their financial income into the spotlight, and then outrageously harangue the public with their problems. Meghan, just understand: No one cares!' And Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams added: 'We know the intensity of both Harry and Meghan's feelings towards the British tabloids, I mean there's no question about that. 'The statement they've released simply means it is going to be slightly more difficult for journalists to get information. 'It won't mean fewer Royal stories because obviously the demand for Royal stories will remain enormous.' He added: 'It's important, I would have thought, and in their interests to have their point of view put across.' The stark split between the Sussexes and the rest of the Royal Family was amplified by the Duke of Edinburgh's heartwarming message to key workers yesterday. Prince Philip, 98, said he wanted to recognise the 'vital and urgent' medical and scientific work taking place to battle the deadly virus. It was a rare public statement from the Royal - who has not been seen since he was hospitalised in December - as he approaches his 99th birthday in June. In his tribute, published on the royal family's social media channels, he said: 'As we approach World Immunisation Week, I wanted to recognise the vital and urgent work being done by so many to tackle the pandemic; by those in the medical and scientific professions, at universities and research institutions, all united in working to protect us from Covid-19.' Harry and Meghan (pictured with baby Archie in September) will still walk away with an estimated 5.5million a year in Royal funds despite being 'financially independent' The Sussexes started married life at Frogmore Cottage - a gift from the Queen - but moved to Canada late last year and on to Los Angeles with their son Archie in March - when they turned their back on the Royal Family. They are currently understood to be living in rented accommodation near their friend Sir Elton John, but said they want to keep the Windsor cottage so they have a family home in the UK. Royal officials have previously admitted they have no idea how Harry and Meghan will pay back the 2.4million spent on its refurbishments. Prince Charles will be supporting the couple for a year from his private funds but it has not been confirmed whether 'the bank of dad' will bail them out for Frogmore. The royal couple's security bill could cost anywhere up to 4million, and Prince Charles is expected to pay a 'private contribution' towards the bill. A Royal source said: 'Charles has agreed to pay a ''private contribution'' to the Sussexes. 'It will not be revealed how much and what that is used for, but it is believed to be around 2 million. It would not be a surprise if it went into meeting the bill for security. 'However, the Prince of Wales does not have an infinite amount of money. The total income from the Duchy of Cornwall is annually around 21million.' The British public continued to hit out at Harry and Meghan online, with one woman writing: 'They'll be back when they want promotion for their next charity. 'Their sense of entitlement and lack of self awareness is astonishing. Time to invoice them or their guarantor Elton, for Frogmore Cottage.' One man commented: 'The amount of money they had spent on Frogmore Cottage & have now moved from the UK?!' And another added: 'Have they paid back the cost of upgrading Frogmore Cottage yet?' The British taxpayer has been calling for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to pay back the money for Frogmore Cottage's renovations Earlier this month the Mail revealed Harry and Meghan agreed to pay for the cost of their '4million' security personally, not using taxpayer funds. Their personnel will reportedly consist of former SAS soldiers at a cost of 400 per operative per day. The issue was raised when President Donald Trump tweeted the US taxpayer would not pay for their bill, following their move to Malibu, where they are currently self-isolating with their 11-month-old son Archie. A Sussex spokesman said this month: Security costs are being personally covered by the couple. The development suggests the Sussexes have negotiated a clean break, in which they will receive no public money, only funding from Prince Charless personal fortune until they start to earn an income of their own. A source said: The Prince of Wales supports them privately but the duke and duchess also have their own money. They are paying for this themselves. The duke has been adamant on that. Last month Prince Harry and Meghan announced they were launching a new charitable foundation named Archewell. The couple said they 'look forward' to getting started with the foundation, which will replace their Sussex Royal brand after it was banned by the Queen. The pair have plans to include their own charity as well as a website, as part of their new venture. Harry and Meghan also revealed the Greek word in the project Arche meaning source of action was the inspiration behind the name of their son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. Further official details about the organisation have been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Telegraph has previously reported that paperwork regarding their new brand was filed in the US last month and the couple are considering how to create their own charity and volunteering services. Plans also include a wide-ranging website and sharing 'education and training materials' via films, podcasts and books, according to the newspaper. In response to the Telegraph, the duke and duchess said they were focusing their efforts on the coronavirus pandemic but felt 'compelled' to reveal details of the venture. 'Like you, our focus is on supporting efforts to tackle the global Covid-19 pandemic but faced with this information coming to light, we felt compelled to share the story of how this came to be. 'Before SussexRoyal, came the idea of Arche the Greek word meaning source of action. 'We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son's name. To do something of meaning, to do something that matters. 'Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon. 'We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right.' Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will reimburse the taxpayer. The couple have been approached for comment. Penny stocks are controversial, to say the least. When it comes to these under $5 per share investment opportunities, Wall Street observers usually either love them or hate them. The penny stock-averse point out that while the bargain price tag is tempting, there could be a reason shares are trading at such low levels like poor fundamentals or insurmountable headwinds. However, the other side of the coin has merit as well. Naturally, with these cheap tickers, you get more bang for your buck in terms of the amount of shares. On top of this, other more expensive and well-known names arent as likely to produce the colossal gains that penny stocks are capable of. Given the nature of these investments, Wall Street analysts recommend doing some due diligence before pulling the trigger, noting that not all penny stocks are bound for greatness. With this in mind, weve dipped into the TipRanks database to find three penny stocks that offer a solid combination of risk and reward. With a low point of entry, and at least 30% upside potential, these stocks offer investors a chance to maximize their possible share appreciation while minimizing their initial outlay. Montage Resources Corporation (MR) Well start in the oil and gas sector, where Montage Resources is a small-cap player in Appalachia. The company engages in hydrocarbon exploration, production, and transport, with natural gas and crude oil operations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Montage boasts 325 actively producing wells and over 195,000 undeveloped acres. The company finished 2019 with a gangbusters quarter, seeing EPS come in at 85 cents and revenues hit $174.1 million. EPS was a whopping 608% over the forecast. Both numbers were also up significantly year-over-year, by 67% and 34% respectively. Looking ahead to the Q1 report, due out in May, MR is projected to show an EPS of 25 cents. Despite the strong finish to 2019, MR shares are down 40% in 2020. That share depreciation has brought MR down to an attractive point of entry, just $4.82 per share. Its not often that investors will find an oil play with so low a share price. Given the industrys ability to generate both cash and profits, even when prices are down, it points to high potential from this company. Story continues Roth Capital analyst John White agrees. He writes, We estimate MR will generate $32 million of free cash flow in 2020 We note the bulk of this free cash flow, $20.4 million, occurs in 1Q due to robust production and much higher commodity prices versus the remaining quarters. But cash flow isnt the only reason to buy into Montage. White also notes that while the worlds major oil suppliers are moving to cut production and boost prices, the cuts may not last and if they resume their crude oil price war, Montage is well-positioned to gain: Assuming OPEC+ continues to add incremental crude oil supply into a market with declining oil demand, we think gas weighted names have a positive outlook compared to oil weighted names and MR is 81% gas In line with his outlook on the company, White gives MR shares a $6.50 price target implying an upside of 35%. He has also upgraded his stance on the stock, moving from Neutral to Buy. (To watch Whites track record, click here) In general, the rest of the Street has an optimistic view of MR. The stocks Strong Buy status comes from the 4 Buy ratings and a single Hold issued in the past 3 months. The upside potential lands at 25%. (See Montage stock analysis on TipRanks) McEwen Mining (MUX) From the black gold, were on to the yellow variety. McEwen Mining, based in Toronto, is another small-cap company in the natural resources sector, this time mining for both gold and silver in North and South America. The company pulled 174,420 gold equivalent ounces out of the ground last year, and generated a gross profit of $9 million. In an unfortunate note, McEwen last month announced that it would scale down operations at two major mines, the Black Fox in Canada and Gold Bar in Nevada. Mexican operations would be unaffected by the scale back. The Black Fox mine was brought back to full capacity, starting on April 14. The mine scale backs coincided with the companys withdrawal of forward guidance for 2020 production. The company cites the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic as the reason and associated mine shut-downs at two sites in Argentina. McEwen did not issue new production guidance for the year. Gold and silver, however, remain highly sought-after commodities, and the long-term outlook for the stock remains upbeat. Heiko Ihle, writing from H. C. Wainwright, says of the stock, While the firm previously encountered a tumultuous FY19 that involved several operational issues, we note that the problems faced in FY20 thus far are mostly out of its control. In short, we continue to believe that we are on the cusp of a bull market for gold and that the current share price represents an attractive entry point." Ihle reiterates his Buy rating on MUX shares. While he did lower the price target from $2 to $1.75, he still sees an impressive 73% upside potential here. (To watch Ihles track record, click here) McEwen has a unanimous analyst consensus rating, with 4 recent Buy reviews adding up to a Strong Buy. The company is a true penny stock, selling for only $1.01 per share in New York. The average price target shows the reward potential of a fundamentally sound penny stock: at $2.29, it indicates room for an incredible 127% upside for this year. (See McEwen Mining stock analysis on TipRanks) Quantum Corporation (QMCO) Well wrap up this list with another small-cap company, this time in the tech sector. Quantum Corp offers storage and archiving solutions for data streams, in both digital and virtual environments. The companys products allow customers to store, preserve, and protect digital data for the long term. Digital data storage is an essential service in todays information age, and QMCO showed that in its last fiscal third-quarter report. The company turned a profit its second in a row and beat the earnings forecast by a wide margin. EPS came in at 7 cents, against estimates of only 1 cent. Net income nearly doubled, rising form $4.7 million to $9 million, derived from total revenue of $103.3 million. Gross margin was the best metric reported, at 45.6%, reflecting a value approach to selling a favorable product mix. Craig Ellis, who reviewed the company for B. Riley FBR, notet: We reflect sustained near-term business disruption in lower F1Q product sales, but then increase F2Q-4Q growth. Second, we believe relaxed F4Q loan amendments augur well for similar forward adjustments, noting MCHP (Neutral, $70 PT) recently achieved similar with key covenants. Third, we are unsurprised with logistics impacts to near-term product deliveries, an issue AMAT conveyed two weeks ago. We materially reduce near-term Product revenue but now expect a stronger snap-back beginning in F3Q20, for a v-shaped downturn and recovery for QMCO. In line with his positive assessment of the companys status, Ellis gives QMCO a Buy rating with a $6.25 price target, suggesting a 60% growth potential for the stock. (To watch Ellis track record, click here) QMCO is another stock with a unanimous analyst consensus rating. The Strong Buy rating is based on 3 Buy reviews. The average price target, $5.75, indicates a premium of 47% from the current share price of $3.90. (See Quantum stock analysis at TipRanks) To find good ideas for penny stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar has criticised CM Pramod Sawant for declaring the state COVID-19 free. He has said that tests have not been conducted properly and state rushed into declaring the state as COVID-19 free. Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar has claimed that the state government has not conducted the tests for COVID-19 properly and that it has rushed into declaring the State as COVID-19 free. The government is ignoring the dangerous aspects by testing just 0.04 per cent of total 16 lakh population of Goa till date. Goa has tested just 825 patients while 2158 patients are under isolation, said Chodankar. Goa CM is also boasting of covering five lakh houses in just three days with 7,000 surveys covering 16 lakh population. Again, the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan is tweeting and declaring Goa as COVID-19 free. This hurry of the BJP government is a worry for the Goans, he added. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant called Goa a zero coronavirus case state after the seventh patient tested negative here on Sunday. As of April 3, no new COVID-19 positive case has been reported. The last patient tested negative today. It gives me immense pleasure to announce that as of now, there are no COVID-19 positive patients in the State, said Chief Minister Sawant while speaking to ANI. A moment of satisfaction and relief for Goa as the last active #COVID19 case tests negative. Team of doctors and entire support staff deserves applause for their relentless effort. No new positive case in Goa after 3rd April: Dr. Pramod Sawant, Chief Minister of Goa pic.twitter.com/BEApw0YC4y ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2020 Also Read: Coronavirus update: 27 journalists of Tamil news channel test positive after coming in contact with infected colleague in Chennai Also Read: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi lashes out at OIC over Islamophobia remark, says India is heaven for Muslims and their rights are secured In India, the total number of coronavirus cases has reached 18,601, including 14759 active cases, 3252 cured/discharged and migrated and 590 deaths. About 1336 new cases and 47 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. Maharastra, which has the highest number of cases in India, has reported 4,666 cases and 232 deaths. Delhi has reported about 2081 cases and the toll has reached 47. The third worst affected state in Gujarat with 1939 confirmed cases and 71 deaths. 47 deaths and 1336 new cases reported in last 24 hours. India's total number of #Coronavirus positive cases rises to 18,601 (including 14759 active cases, 3252 cured/discharged/migrated and 590 deaths): Ministry of Health and Family Welfare pic.twitter.com/ZYumpbPvna ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 Also Read: Palghar mob lynching: Uma Bharti writes to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, demands strict action by invoking Bal Thackeray For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Winnipeg police have made one arrest and are looking for other suspects after two separate violent carjackings in the span of less than an hour on Monday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winnipeg police have made one arrest and are looking for other suspects after two separate violent carjackings in the span of less than an hour on Monday. Officers were called to Bannerman Avenue and Charles Street just after 8:30 a.m. morning after an injured man was seen lying in a back lane. Police are on the hunt for suspects in two different carjackings. (John Woods / The Canadian Press files) The officers determined the 68-year-old man had been run over by his own vehicle after it was stolen. According to police, the victim was hit with an object and pulled out of his car by a female and a male, who then drove over the victim while fleeing the scene. The vehicle owner was taken to hospital and is listed in unstable condition. Just under an hour later, patrol units were sent out after a major crimes unit reported a female driving the stolen vehicle. The driver fled and, following a pursuit, the vehicle was found abandoned in Riverbend. The suspect was found when a Riverbend resident called police reporting a person in a garbage bin was calling for help. Officers discovered the female stuck in the bin with the stolen vehicles keys. The 16 year old has been charged with robbery, aggravated assault, flight while pursued by a peace officer, driving dangerously and driving while prohibited by order under Criminal Code. She remains in custody. Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jay Murray said the police continue to search for the second suspect and have an idea of who it is. Police are asking for assistance in its investigation of the second carjacking, which took place at 9:25 a.m. outside the Health Sciences Centre. A 59-year-old man called police reporting his vehicle had been stolen while his 88-year-old father was in the passenger seat. A male suspect confronted the man outside HSC and, despite an attempt by security personnel to stop the robbery, stole the mans SUV with his father still in it. The senior was able to escape by falling out of the vehicle while it was stopped in traffic. He was taken to hospital with minor injuries and is in stable condition. The stolen SUV was seen driving on Notre Dame Avenue but police were not able to arrest the suspect after a chase that resulted in the stolen vehicle ramming two police vehicles. The SUV was later found abandoned in the Daniel McIntyre neighbourhood. 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 investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to call 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477. Murray said the city has seen a rise in carjackings, in part, because updates in technology have made it more difficult to steal a parked car. He called it a "crime of opportunity." "Car thieves are looking for people that are vulnerable and stealing vehicles that way," he said. malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: malakabas_ Island nation commemorates attacks that saw six churches and hotels bombed, killing more than 265 people. Colombo, Sri Lanka When Franklin Fernando saw the grey-and-white striped shirt on the body, he knew the worst had happened. He stepped out of the crowded accident ward of the Sri Lanka National Hospital and rang his mother. On the morning of April 21 a year ago, Franklin and his family were getting ready for the Easter Mass at St Anthonys shrine in Colombo, the capital of the island nation of Sri Lanka. His father had worn a pair of formal trousers and a grey-and-white striped shirt. In the church, father and I prayed together, says Franklin, remembering the moment his familys life changed forever. Suddenly I was thrown off the floor and my ears started ringing. Fire and smoke engulfed the church, as parts of the ceiling began to fall on worshippers. I got up and looked for my father and found him. He was trapped under the debris. Church bells tolled across the island of Sri Lanka, home to 21 million people, on Tuesday at 8:40am local time (03:10 GMT) to commemorate the moment of the start of an attack that saw six churches and hotels bombed, killing more than 265 people and leaving the nation devastated. Tuesdays commemoration ceremony, observed by Sri Lankans from their homes, is a simplified version of a more elaborate event that was cancelled owing to the continuing coronavirus pandemic. Sri Lanka remains under an indefinite curfew imposed to curtail the outbreak. At 8.45am (03:15 GMT), the moment that the bomb at St Anthonys Shrine went off, those commemorating observed a two-minute silence, remembering all who lost their lives across the island that day. Church bells tolled across the island of Sri Lanka, home to 21 million people [Aanya Erinyes/Al Jazeera] Overwhelming sadness Sixty-one-year-old Ravindran Fernando was rushed to the hospital on an ambulance along with many others. Franklin, his son, followed on a motorised rickshaw. At first, he was not allowed to go into the hospital. When he finally got inside, he looked for his father and located his body lying next to several others. Ravindran had not survived the impact of the debris hitting him. I have an overwhelming sadness and anger when I think about that day, Franklin says, adding that he thinks about it every day. Part of his anger comes from reports that the government had prior information about the attacks. According to a Sri Lankan parliamentary committee report, authorities had been tipped off regarding the attacks, with the last warning coming at 8:00am (02:30 GMT) on the day of the bombings, approximately 45 minutes before the first explosion. Casilda Jeyarathnam, 54, lost her 13-year-old son John Jeshuran in the bombing at Zion Church in the northern town of Batticaloa. Today, everything in her house reminds her of Jeshuran, the youngest of her three children. He was a Kobe [Bryant] fan. Even before going to church last Easter, he watched one of Kobes matches, she said. On Easter Sunday this year, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the head of the Roman Catholic church in Sri Lanka, said the church forgave the attackers for their actions, a pronouncement that has been met with a mixed reaction amongst those who lost family members to the bombings. Last year, some misguided youths attacked us and we as humans could have given a human and selfish response, said Ranjith. We thought about the Christs words and loved them, forgave them and had pity on them. Casilda, however, says that her wounds are still raw to forgive the attackers. I think I will eventually forgive them. But not now. A person who lost a loved one will not say such a thing. I first want justice, she said. Nearly 200 suspects were arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department and Terrorist Investigation Division following the attacks, but even a year later, there have been no formal charges brought forward or court proceedings begun. National police spokesman Jaliya Senaratne said during a news conference last week that authorities expect to take several successful measures in the future to conclude this investigation soon. The Easter Sunday attacks crippled Sri Lankas tourism industry [Aanya Erinyes/Al Jazeera] Stoking ethnic tensions Soon after the bombings, several attacks were carried out against Sri Lankas sizeable Muslim community across the island. At least one person was killed in those attacks. In a recent news conference, Cardinal Ranjith termed the attacks a political attempt to ignite ethnic disharmony. In Negombo, where many Muslim-owned businesses and homes were destroyed, Muslim community leaders told Al Jazeera that tensions had begun to subside, with the citys Muslim and Christian communities beginning to reunite. The local Inter-Religious Committee, which representatives of all religious groups are a part of, has held several programmes, including street dramas, to help promote ethnic harmony. Harinda Vidanage, director of Colombos Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, said tensions in Sri Lanka had been observed in the narratives on both sides religious fighters and hardcore Sinhala Buddhists even before the Easter attacks took place. The Easter attacks happened to happen within this context because tensions were already there within the narratives, he said. Those tensions continue to play out. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the government decreed that the bodies of all patients who died from the virus would be cremated, in violation of Muslims beliefs regarding funeral rites. Vidanage said move, taken by a government that wooed Sinhala Buddhist hardliners in its election campaign last year, should be seen within the context of the tensions that last years attacks inflamed. Buddhists make up the majority of Sri Lankas population, while 9.7 percent are Muslims, 7.6 percent are Christians and 12.6 percent are Hindu. The mass grave in Negombo where victims of St Sebastians Church bombing were laid to rest. [Aanya Erinyes/Al Jazeera] Fallout on politics The Easter Sunday attacks altered the tone of presidential election campaigns last year, in the run-up to the countrys November polls. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who announced his candidacy soon after the attacks, was sworn in as the countrys president following that election. The attacks basically gained the presidential campaign of the Sri Lanka Podujana Party [Rajapaksas party] a sort of a lead in mobilising the Sinhala Buddhist votes, political analyst Kusal Perera said. He explained that the entire campaign was basically catalysed on a Sinhala-Buddhist platform and to that effect the anti-Muslim flavour that was gained from the Easter Sunday attacks helped them. Keheliya Rambukwella, spokesman for Rajapaksas government said the presidential campaign was not based only on security, but also included many other policies. In any country today, the number one priority is security, second is finance and third foreign policies, Rambukwella said. He added that they are continuing to shape security policies with new technologies, new methodologies and new mechanisms as the world evolves. We never lapsed on our security. Same thing right now. Basically, priority is given to security. Intelligence play a major role in there, he said. Twin cataclysms for tourism The Easter Sunday attacks crippled Sri Lankas tourism industry, which is among the top three foreign exchange earners for the economy, as countries slapped travel advisories and warnings soon after the attacks. Sanath Ukwatte, president of The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL), said the Easter attacks were a significant blow to the tourism industry. This was the first-time tourists were targeted. And suddenly all countries asked their citizens to leave Sri Lanka. Occupancy in hotels dropped to 20 percent, Ukwatte said. Data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority shows that in May 2019, tourism arrivals plummeted by 70.8 percent, but gradually increased through the year, ending December with a difference of just 18 percent from 2018 arrivals. The tourism sector, which employs about 500,000 people both in direct and indirect businesses, was recovering when this years coronavirus pandemic crashed hotel occupancy to zero percent. We thought that Easter attacks was the worst of all. But in the light of the pandemic, [the] attacks look like childs play, said Ukwatte. Many fear that after surviving the Easter attacks, they may not be able to ride out the new crisis in the industry precipitated by the coronavirus outbreak. Srilal Mittapala, a tourism and hospitality specialist in Colombo, predicted that it could take as long as a year for Sri Lankas tourist sector to return to normal. The blow was especially bad for Vajira Keerthirathne, 30, who was planning to open a tour operating office a week after the attacks. We had to delay it because of the attacks. When we finally opened, we had to slash prices to attract tourists, he said. Just when business was picking up, the coronavirus pandemic broke out. Now it is 100 times worse. Now we have zero income, but still have to pay the rent for the building, pay electricity and water bills and loans. The air conditioner (ACs) industry, which sees a majority of sales in the March to June period, is waiting for the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, lockdown to be lifted to drive sales and begin servicing. In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Krishan Sachdev, Managing Director, Carrier Midea India, said the company is sitting on AC inventory. We have ready stocks (of air conditioners) and our channel partners (distributors) are also stocked up. The company is waiting for the lockdown to lift, he added. Carrier Midea India is a joint venture between US-based UTC Climate Control & Security (Carrier brand) and Midea Group of China (Midea brand). The company has a manufacturing facility in Bawal, Haryana, and a new one in Supa, Maharashtra. Carrier Midea India has exclusive rights to manufacture and sell Carrier and Midea brand air conditioners, Midea brand home appliances and Midea brand commercial ACs in India. Also Read: Live updates on COVID-19 in India 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 Sachdev said the COVID-19 crisis comes at a time when AC sales are at its peak in the country. India had announced a lockdown from March 25 onwards for 21 days, which has now been extended till May 3. About 75 percent of AC sales happen in the first half of the calendar year. Of this, 60 percent of sales occur between March 15 and June 15. The lockdown coincided with the start of this period, he said. The AC industry had component shortages from early February due to the COVID-19 outbreak with its epicentre in China. To prevent infection spread, China had ordered a closure of all manufacturing units across its cities. India imports components like air compressors from China. Sachdev explained that while in February there was a component shortage, the situation improved by March. However, by then, the virus had hit markets like India halting both production and sales. The Indian room AC industry market is pegged around Rs 12,000 crore (5.5 million units), with more than 20 companies competing in this space. As far as this year is concerned, Sachdev said the company is not eyeing any revenue growth over previous year but is looking to stay stable. We will have to wait till May 3 for sales to open up. But the worry is that by May 15, sales in south and west India will start declining, he added. The bigger concern for him is the fact that the company is not being allowed to provide servicing to room ACs. This is the hottest part of the year, so servicing requests are also piling up. There is loss of sales, but at least let companies carry out servicing of products, he added. The Ministry of Home Affairs had allowed self-employed persons, including technicians and electricians, to begin operations in non-containment zones from April 20. However, Sachdev said the company is wary of letting non-qualified technicians to service/repair their AC brands. Ours is a niche product. Regular electricians may not have the requisite expertise or the sufficient spare parts to service or repair our room ACs. We already have a team of 5,000 technicians and are hoping that maintenance and repair services resume soon, he added. MHA had also allowed resumption of manufacturing activities in non-containment zones for companies, subject to following safety protocols. Sachdev said the company is awaiting requisite permissions from the district administration in Haryana and Maharashtra to resume production. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here Over and over, the same phrases were uttered by men and women across Nova Scotia. Surreal. Senseless. No words. Why? But the full measure of shock and grief at the slaughter in their province didnt come from the lips. It came from the eyes. Haunted, red, glazed, bewildered. Eyes seeking, in some obscure middle distance, rational answers to a horrifically irrational act. A 51-year-old man cut a murderous swath through rural Nova Scotia from late Saturday night to Sunday morning, killing at least 18 people, leaving homes burned to the ground and cars torched at 16 separate crime scenes. Odds are it will get even worse. Chief Supt. Chris Leather, of the Nova Scotia RCMP, said police expect the death toll to rise as burned-out residences are searched. As much as anyone, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau best described things when he said the slaughter, on top of the COVID-19 lockdowns that make it impossible for stricken family and friends to gather and mourn, is heartbreak on top of other heartbreaks. On hearing the news, he said, many Canadians probably asked themselves how much more can we take? Trudeau has grown sadly familiar with the role of national consoler. Canadians have been killed in numbers in shootings at a Ste. Foy mosque and on Torontos Danforth, in the Yonge Street van attack, in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, in the downing of Flight 752. The prime minister was able once again, by dint of emotional intelligence or political shrewdness, to strike the right notes. Even as Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer once again misread the moment, going on about the need for enhanced parliamentary sittings on a day when most Canadians could have cared less. The newest devastation unfolded in a manner fit for fiction, the suspect eluding police for some 12 hours by driving a mock RCMP cruiser and wearing a police uniform remarkable in their detail. It seems unlikely such extraordinary materials would have been assembled by someone who simply snapped. Rather, they seem to suggest extraordinary planning. Yet no one acquainted with the killer seems to have noticed anything untoward. Local MP Lenore Zann said she heard from people who went to school with him, said he was such a nice guy, talked to him all the time, said he seemed to be fine. The rampage began in the community of Portapique, a cottage area so sleepy that signs around town spell it different ways. Its a place few Canadians had likely heard of, but a place that has become forever notorious after the killer left a list of dead that could have been pulled from a Tim Hortons ad. A grade-school teacher. A nurse. A volunteer firefighter. Health-care workers from the Victorian Order of Nurses. In the Commons, Trudeau said RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson, one of those killed, embodied the values that built this country. Integrity, honesty, compassion. Trudeau acknowledged the acute pain of mourners being unable to come together. But he and health authorities properly insisted that social-distancing measures in effect to combat the coronavirus pandemic must be maintained. Grieving will be done, but there will be few hugs. Rather, a virtual vigil, in the style of spring, 2020. On Monday, there remained large missing pieces in the story and many unanswered questions about the police response. How, for example, did the killer manage to carry on spitting death and flames for 12 hours? His costumery helped him remain steps ahead of our investigators, Leather said somewhat sheepishly. And why was the provinces emergency alert phone system not used? Good question. Such questions must continue. Nobody can lose their life in vain, said RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki. And Heidi will not lose her own in vain nor will the other 17 victims. She and her force have work to do to make good on that promise. Read more about: Novartis (Basel, Switzerland) has reached an agreement with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to proceed with a Phase III clinical trial with approximately 440 patients to evaluate the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 disease.Hydroxychloroquine has long been used for the treatment of malaria and certain autoimmune diseases. The drug has garnered interest in the medical community after showing preliminary promise in small clinical studies, including one with co-administration with the antibiotic azithromycin. In addition, hydroxychloroquine has demonstrated antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in laboratory tests.The large trial sponsored by Novartis will be conducted at more than a dozen sites in the US. Researchers at the company compressed months of work into a few weeks to design the large clinical trial in order to rapidly respond to the need for COVID-19 disease treatments. Novartis plans to begin enrollment for this study within the next few weeks and is committed to reporting results as soon as possible. Patients in the trial will be randomized into three groups. The first group or arm will receive hydroxychloroquine and the second group will receive hydroxychloroquine in combination with azithromycin, which is an antibiotic therapy, while the third group will receive placebo. Patients in all treatment groups are receiving standard of care for COVID-19.The clinical trial drug supply will be provided by Sandoz, the generics and biosimilars division of Novartis. The clinical trial complements a commitment by Novartis, through Sandoz, to donate up to 130 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine to supply global clinical research efforts in the event the medicine is proven beneficial for treatment of COVID-19. As part of its research and development commitment, Novartis has formed a clinical investigation team to provide rapid access for approved clinical requests and support of clinical evaluation of its medicines to be repurposed and address the needs of patients with COVID-19 infections.In addition to hydroxychloroquine, Novartis plans to sponsor or co-sponsor clinical trials to study ruxolitinib and canakinumab for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 infections. Requests for investigator-initiated trials have been granted for COVID-19-related clinical studies of ruxolitinib, canakinumab, imatinib mesylate, secukinumab, hydroxychloroquine and valsartan.We recognize the importance of answering the scientific question of whether hydroxychloroquine will be beneficial for patients with COVID-19 disease, said John Tsai, Head of Global Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer at Novartis. We mobilized quickly to address this question in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.We are donating hydroxychloroquine tablets for COVID-19 patients including for use in this and other clinical trials with the hope that researchers and healthcare workers can quickly and scientifically determine whether hydroxychloroquine can help patients around the world combat this disease, said Richard Saynor, CEO of Sandoz. Crooked Media cofounder Jon Favreau recently secured a home in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles joining his Pod Save America cohost Tommy Vietor who moved there just last month. According to Variety, Favreau, who worked on the presidential campaigns of both John Kerry and Barack Obama and later served in the Obama administration as the director of speechwriting, put down $3.5 million for an updated Tudor-style home spanning 3,245 square feet and comprising four bedrooms and five bathrooms. The main structure of the home was built back in 1920, and while the exterior still retains a Tudor-esque aesthetic, the interiors have been recently upgraded with a more contemporary vibe. The main living spaces are all open-plan, with a vaulted whitewashed ceiling and a stately fireplace in the living room. An entire wall of floor-to-ceiling French windows flood the room with natural light. The kitchen offers up a coffered ceiling, patterned white-and-gray tile backsplash, and a bubble light fixture hanging above an oversized central island with a white stone countertop. An adjacent family room boasting another fireplace and built-in bookshelves opens directly onto the backyard through a wall of accordion-style glass doors. The formal dining area is tucked just off the kitchen, with built-in banquet seating and glass-fronted cabinets. See the video. The front of the residence is one story, but there is a second floor above the back of the house, where three en-suite bedrooms are located. There, the master suite features its own Juliet balcony and spalike bathroom with dual vanities, marble countertops, and a glass-fronted shower that occupies an entire side of the room. The backyard is outfitted with a plunge pool and in-ground spa; a covered patio area for al fresco dining; a modern fire pit and lounge area; and a guest house with its own kitchenette, bedroom, and living and dining areas. Favreau and his wife are also the owners of a 1920s Spanish-style bungalow in Los Angeles, which they purchased for $1.9 million in 2017. That was the same year he launched Crooked Media, and along with it his popular podcast, which features conversations with journalists, politicians, and activists about current events. Favreau hosts Pod Save America alongside Vietor, Jon Lovett, and Dan Pfeiffer, all former Obama aides. Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest A former London rapper who stopped making music not long after his father's extradition to face terror charges in the bombings of two U.S. embassies was arrested Monday in southern Spain on suspicion of joining Islamic State fighters in Syria. Two sources close to the investigation told The Associated Press that police arrested Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary and two other men at a rented apartment. Abdel Bary is the son of an Egyptian operative of al-Qaeda who was convicted for events related to the 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people. A media release from Spain's National Police didn't name Abdel Bary. It described him as an Egyptian national who left Europe to fight in Syria and Iraq. The suspect is "one of the most sought terrorists in Europe, both because of his criminal trajectory in the ranks of Daesh (Islamic State) and because of the high danger that he represented, the police statement said. He and the two other men were arrested overnight at the apartment in Almera, a port city in southeastern Spain, the AP learned from officials on the ground and interviews with local residents. The three were being interrogated on Tuesday and scheduled to appear before a National Court judge in Madrid on Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the court that usually handles terror-related case. The spokesman who was not authorized to be named in media reports. Police said the operation was the result of international cooperation" between agents specialized in fighting terrorism who suspected that the Egyptian suspect might be traveling through Spain as he tried to return home from the Mideast. Abdel Bary grew up in London to become a rapper known as Lyricist Jinn and L Jinny. Music videos still available online show him performing raps with references to drug use, violence and his family's experience as asylum-seekers in Britain. His radicalization reportedly took place shortly after his father, Abdel Abdul Bary, was extradited in 2012 to the United States, where he was tried for the twin bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The father was convicted in New York and sentenced in 2015 to a 25-year prison term. In a 2013 post still viewable on what appeared to be his Facebook account, the younger Abdul Bary left a message for his fans: I have left everything for the sake of Allah," he wrote. One year later, in August 2014, a photo of him holding a man's severed head was posted on Twitter. British investigators initially suspected Abdel Bary as being Jihadi John, the IS militant who spoke with a British accent in the video showing the execution of American journalist James Foley. Foley, one of the Islamic State group's early foreign victims, was decapitated. The real Jihadi John turned out to be Mohammed Emwazi, who also grew up in London. Britain's Foreign Office declined to comment on Tuesday's arrests referring queries to the Spanish police. Shiraz Maher, an expert on radicalization at London's King's College, described Abdel Bary as one of the better known among a cluster of Islamist extremists that emerged in west London in the early 2010s. He was also one of the earliest so-called foreign fighters to become disillusioned with ISIS. Disillusionment kicked in at different stages for different people. He was known to have been disillusioned for quite a while. And he then just disappeared off the radar, Maher said, suggesting that Abdel Bary's early departure doesn't necessarily signal that he was no longer a threat. He was a member of ISIS and clearly participated in all kinds of horrors the group was involved in and should face punishment for those crimes," Maher said. "But at this stage, he is more likely to be someone who was trying to save himself in Spain. Abdel Bary was described by the Spanish police as having anextremely violent criminal profile. His arrest took place in Cerro de San Cristbal, a historic neighborhood in Almera known for its narrow streets dotted with nightclubs and a mix of old and new buildings leading to the city's Alcazaba, a 10th-century fortress of Arabic origin. Taxi driver ngel Vlchez told the AP that at least six police vehicles and about 30 officers, including many in plainclothes, had blocked access to several streets for most of Monday. Another neighbor, who asked not to be named in media reports, said police had showed up at 3 a.m. Monday and took away at least one person handcuffed from an apartment used for short stays by tourists. Spain's Interior Ministry says police have arrested nearly 400 people connected to extremist religious groups since 2012. Many of the arrests have not led to judicial convictions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A move to suspend most Albuquerque restaurant inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic is not sitting well with some local leaders. City Councilor Diane Gibson on questioned the wisdom of city inspectors stopping their normal reviews of local eateries during a public health crisis, saying she thinks it is imperative to resume the practice. If the city does not feel confident in sending an inspector into a restaurant, how can we expect the public as consumers to purchase food from that restaurant? Gibson asked city Environmental Health Director Ryan Mast during s City Council meeting. Mast said the department has worked to provide local restaurants with cleaning and coronavirus-related updates and guidance during the pandemic but suspended its routine in-person restaurant inspections more than a month ago. Halting inspections was done out of an abundance of caution to help stop city workers from getting or spreading coronavirus, a department spokeswoman recently told the Journal. Mast said the city is exploring how it can restart standard inspections but is presently only performing them based on specific complaints, which citizens can make by calling 311. Since Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams administration restricted all New Mexico restaurants to only takeout and delivery effective , Gibson cautioned that there are already fewer eyes on operations. Since most of us who do get takeout once in a while dont even go into the restaurant, the complaints would be just based on whats been delivered to us, she said. In the first month after the city suspended routine restaurant inspections which check for cleanliness, food storage temperatures and more the Environmental Health Department had received 16 complaints and done one in-person inspection, a spokeswoman said last week. Councilor Klarissa Pena said she has received several calls and emails from citizens wondering about the process. It appears several people are concerned maybe about the cleanliness of some of the restaurants, Pena told Mast. The city typically inspects each restaurant at least twice per year, according to the citys website. Mast said the city is looking to partner with Bernalillo County and the state of New Mexico on a possible alternative process to resume normal inspections. We are looking at ways to continue to provide that safety as it relates to this infection but also still conduct those inspections, he told the council. The black community is being hit hard by COVID-19. In neighborhood after neighborhood across the country, the virus is claiming the lives of African-American educators, activists, bus drivers, grocery store workers, police officers, preachers, politicians and pioneers . Every state that has collected racial data shows higher COVID-19 infection and death rates among black residents. In a breakdown of cases from 14 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one-third of patients were black even though black residents made up only about 18 percent of the states populations. In St. Louis, all but three of the 19 people who died of COVID-19 as of last week were black. In Louisiana, African Americans make up 70 percent of deaths but are only 33 percent of the population. In Houston and Harris County, nearly 40 percent of the people who died from COVID-19 were African American. Only 20 percent of Harris County is black. This crisis within a crisis is exposing and exacerbating the social and structural inequalities that undergird every part of American life and make African Americans more vulnerable to the virus that has claimed more than 42,000 lives in the United States. Many black Americans live in densely populated communities without easy access to grocery stores, green spaces or equitable health care. They make up about one-fourth of public transit users and are more likely to be part of the essential workforce as bus drivers, cashiers and other jobs that heighten risk. African Americans also have higher rates of underlying conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure that increase severity of illness. Theyre more likely to be uninsured, and often report that doctors take their pain less seriously. Those factors are a legacy of segregation, redlining and racial discrimination that kept African Americans from owning homes, moving up the economic ladder and holding certain jobs. As Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis told the editorial board, The broader inequalities that have existed for hundreds of years are simply being amplified by COVID-19. Immediate steps must be taken to address the disparities. Civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the National Medical Association, which represents black doctors and patients, called for better COVID-19 testing and treatment data. Jackson also supports a national commission to study the black COVID-19 toll. Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have also asked for comprehensive demographic data. Getting that data is imperative so that public health officials and elected leaders better understand who is most affected and take action. In Harris County, incomplete data make it difficult to get a full demographic picture of COVID-19 cases. We are not going to let this be dismissed with a wave of hand by people who say there is nothing we could have done, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told the editorial board. We have to confront discrimination and disparities in health care. We have to figure out what we did wrong. For Jackson Lee, who has led efforts to get mobile testing in vulnerable neighborhoods, the most pressing step is clear: Testing, testing, testing. Everyone who wants a test should have easy access to a testing site. That means ensuring that neighborhoods with large African-American and Latino populations should have sites that offer tests that are affordable or free of charge. Communities most at risk must have health clinics or pop-up triage centers equipped to treat suspected COVID-19 cases, so that infected people are not turned away or led to stay home only to get sicker. Front-line workers, such as grocery store cashiers, delivery people, home health aides and sanitation workers, must also be guaranteed paid sick leave so they dont feel they must go into work sick or risk losing their jobs. In some cases, employers should offer these workers hazard pay for the risks theyre taking on the job. Rashawn Ray, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Maryland in College Park and a fellow at the Brookings Institution, also suggests enlisting black churches, often trusted institutions within the community, as sites for testing, treatment and raising awareness about the virus. Elected leaders, public health officials and health care providers must work together to fight the virus in black communities and to dismantle the underlying inequities feeding the spread. Texas can begin by heeding calls by black lawmakers to revive the Office of Minority Health Statistics and Engagement, which studied inequities in state health agencies, and by following the lead of Michigan and Maryland, which have released demographic data on COVID-19 deaths. The virus has already robbed too many African-American families of loved ones and left too many communities mourning the loss of cherished members. Without better data and more testing, the toll will only get higher. The Indian Medical Association has demanded the Centre bring in a law on urgent basis to protect medical professionals from attack on duty, amid rising incidents of violence against healthcare workers on the frontline of the fight against COVID-19. Calling for a nation-wide 'White Alert', the IMA has asked doctors and hospitals across the country to light candles on Wednesday as a protest against such attacks. "Light a candle with white coat. White Alert is only a warning," the IMA said in a letter addressed to its doctors and hospitals. "The COVID-19 has only made us acutely aware of our helplessness against mindless abuse and violence. Stigma and social boycott are everywhere. Harassment by administration is nothing but violence by the state. "Our legitimate needs for safe workplaces have to be met," it said in the letter to all State Presidents and Secretaries, Local branch Presidents and Secretaries and all National office-bearers along with past National Presidents and Past HSGs. The doctors' body also warned that they will observe 'Black Day' if no action is taken by the government and doctors in the country will work with black badges on April 23. Further decisions will be taken if suitable steps are not taken by the government even after Black Day, the IMA said. "The IMA has maintained utmost restraint and patience in spite of extreme provocations. Doctors have been abused, beaten up, denied entry and residence. Obstruction to cremation is the last straw that IMA can bear. "If dignity is denied even in death, our patience and restraint lose their value, it said. We demand a special central law against violence on doctors, nurses, health care workers and hospitals by an ordinance," the doctors' body said in their letter. Several incidents of violence against medical professionals have been reported from different parts of the country during the coronavirus outbreak. In a poignant incident in Chennai, an orthopaedic surgeon had to bury his associate, a neurosurgeon who died of COVID-19, in the middle of the night using his bare hands and a shovel at a crematorium with the help of just two hospital wardboys after the undertakers fled when a mob, protesting the interment, attacked them. Their opposition was due to a misconception that the contagion may spread in their neighbourhood if the body is buried there. The windscreens of the ambulance, in which the body of the 55-year-old neurosurgeon was brought to the crematorium on Sunday night, were smashed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The coronavirus pandemic has brought a lot of changes for multiple industries, including the marijuana industry. Today is 4/20, a day that is usually full of large crowds gathering to celebrate the legalization of marijuana. Typically, it causes a spike in cannabis sales and consumption but this year will be different with social distancing orders in place and large groups prohibited from gathering. However, the changes certainly didnt slow down the marijuana industry, in fact, according to the OLCC, it brought a big boost. Over the beginning of first quarter weve seen a bigger boom, said Brie Malarkey, the Managing Partner at Breeze Botanicals, I think people are really stocking up. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) says marijuana sales were up 30% in March, compared to last year; making March 2020 the largest month on record for the state. You hear it all over the news with alcohol and cannabis, said Malarkey, I think people are just wanting to relax and take away some of the pressure and stress. In all, Oregon residents spent about $84 million on marijuana sales in March 2020, thats quite the increase compared to Februarys $69.5 million. Mark Pettinger, a spokesman for the OLCC, told NewsWatch 12 there was a distinct uptick in the week right before the stay-at-home. In March the OLCC made temporary changes to help make legal marijuana accessible throughout Gov. Kate Browns Stay home, save lives, executive order. OLCC was really responsive, said Malarkey, Ive ben really please with OLCC. Theyve really been listening to the needs of the industry and to consumers. One of the major changes allows alcohol and marijuana licensees to accept expired Oregon driver licenses or identification cards that expired on or after March 8th. That decision aligns with the DMV, which closed offices during COVID-19 effectively making it impossible to get a renewed license. The OLCC has also approved a temporary rule that allows licensed marijuana retailers to take order and deliver product. The rule also increases the amount of flower that OMMP cardholders and caregivers can purchase to 24 ounces per day and no more than 32 ounces per month. This change temporarily increases the daily purchase limit for OMMP cardholders to match their personal possession limit. This rule does not change the total monthly amount a cardholder or caregiver is currently permitted to purchase from an OLCC-licensed retailer. In California, there hasnt been changes in regulations outside of Governor Gavin Newsoms executive order that declares marijuana dispensaries essential businesses. Siskiyou county sheriff, Jon Lopey says hes seen an increase in marijuana use in the county and has deputies watching for drivers under the influence of marijuana, especially today on 4/20. Its a symbolic day, especially after 4:20p.m. Its encouraging people to get together and to consumer marijuana in celebration of this symbolic day, said Lopey, My concern is that we could have groups of people gathering and consuming marijuana products and because we are a big county a lot of the time these people are operating a motor vehicle. WASHINGTON Days after money for key small business relief programs ran dry, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a fresh $470 billion for coronavirus response aid, including new funding for business loans, hospitals and COVID-19 testing. Congressional leaders and the administration reach an agreement over the funding after midnight Monday, following more than 10 days of furious negotiations. Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer , D-N.Y., led the negotiations with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The House is expected to pass the measure later this week. The legislation does not include $150 billion in additional aid for states, which Democrats sought to add to the package. Friday night, Schumer sent Mnuchin a proposal that would have delivered a fresh $17 billion to New York, including more money for countries and rural areas. Republicans and the administration opposed the funding, but said that more money for states will be included in the next coronavirus relief bill the timing of which is uncertain. "After I sign this Bill, we will begin discussions on the next Legislative Initiative with fiscal relief to State/Local Governments for lost revenues from COVID 19, much needed Infrastructure Investments for Bridges, Tunnels, Broadband, Tax Incentives for Restaurants, Entertainment, Sports, and Payroll Tax Cuts to increase Economic Growth," President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon, before his meeting at the White House with New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. To help struggling businesses, the bill includes an additional $310 million for the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program, which ran out of funds on April 16 after just 13 days. The legislation makes changes to the program to allow more rural and minority-owned businesses and farmers to access the money. It also floods a new $60 billion into the SBA's Emergency Injury Disaster Loan Program, which also ran out of money. In addition, the package adds $75 billion in new funding for hospitals and health centers and a $25 billion investment in a "national testing strategy," a key to reopening the country. New York is expected to get about $1.5 billion from the legislation to support testing in the state, a senior Democratic aide said. The legislation also gives the federal government 30 days to create and share with Congress a national testing plan including metrics on how many people should be tested, how often, how the results will be collected and how contact tracing is performed so a consistent system is established for the country. This is one of the last things we had to hold out for," Schumer said. "The Trump administration will now at last be required to report what its national plan for testing actually looks like. Democrats and Republicans were united on the need to provide more aid to struggling small businesses, Republicans slammed Democrats for the delays in delivering it. "I wish it hadnt taken Democrats nearly a week after it ran out of money to put workers ahead of politics, but Im glad the program is one step closer to reopening and helping more businesses stay afloat," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Just days after the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program launched, the administration requested an additional $250 billion for the program. Democrats voted initially against funneling more money to the program and held out for changes that would allow more community-based lenders and minority-owned depository institutions to lend under the program. Reports have surfaced of large companies being approved for the loans, while thousands of small businesses are shut out. Shake Shack returned a $10 million PPP loan to the SBA, after public outcry over the weekend. Meanwhile, only about 3.86 percent of New York small businesses were approved for loans, according to a Times Union analysis of SBA data. The SBA approved 81,075 loans to New York small businesses through the PPP program for a total of $20.3 billion, as of April 16. In addition, the SBA approved 1,126 EIDL loans and 51,428 EIDL advances ($10,000 grants for companies with temporary difficulties due to coronavirus) to New York businesses, as of Sunday. "It seems that the large banks have tended to favor the pre existing relationships, particularly those who have existing loans with the banks, and that is discriminatory," said U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C. "That, by definition, prevents someone who does not bank with them, of being able to get taxpayer money as a loan. We're trying to fix that." Some banks have suggested that even this new $310 billion for PPP loans will run out in just a matter of days because demand for the forgivable loan program is so high among businesses forced to close or curtail operations due to the virus. Facebook said on Monday that it has deleted events for anti-quarantine protests in Nebraska, New Jersey and California that defied government guidelines, Reuters reports. Why it matters: Facebook has faced calls over the years to better police content shared on its site which often features misinformation. The platform says it will align with public health officials in supporting stay-at-home orders, which experts argue are essential to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. By Trend A train with 82 containers, operated by Azerbaijani ADY Container LLC transporting export products from Turkey, has arrived in Baku city, a source in the company told Trend. According to the source, freights are intended for Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The freight of 20 containers in a block train is intended for Azerbaijan, 30 containers through the Alat port will be delivered to the Turkmenbashi port (Turkmenistan), 24 to the Kazakh Aktau Sea Port and eight wagons to the Kazakh port of Kuryk. This train is the longest (940 meters) among those trains that traveled along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway. According to the sources forecasts, it is expected that the train will deliver products from Turkey to the final point Uzbekistan in 9 days. The operator of the transportation is ADY Container LLC. The territory of Azerbaijan accounts for 504 kilometers of the total length (846 kilometers) of the BTK railway. Baku-Tbilisi-Kart (BTK) was commissioned on October 30, 2017. The route connects the railway networks of Asia and Europe. This is the shortest way not only between 3 countries, but also between Asia and Europe. BTK allows to halve the time for cargo transportation. The railway simplifies access for the countries of Central Asia - Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan - to European countries and world markets. ADY Container LLC is engaged in the centralization, storage, maintenance and transportation of containers in accordance with international standards. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-21 21:18:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The UN Child Fund (UNICEF) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have urged more support than ever to forcibly displaced children amid the spread of the novel cornavirus disease. In a joint statement on Tuesday, Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director, and Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the needs of refugee children have become even more acute with the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stating that millions of children around the world have been driven from their homes and across borders by conflict, violence and other forms of harm, including 12.7 million refugees and 1.1 million asylum seekers, the officials said meeting those needs is key to safeguarding both their wellbeing today and future potential. "Displaced children are among those with the most limited access to prevention services, testing, treatment and other essential support. In addition, the pandemic and containment measures are likely to have negative consequences for their safety and education, which were precarious even before the outbreak of the disease. Going to school was already a daily challenge or impossibility for many displaced children around the world. Less than half of all school-aged refugee children were enrolled, with that dropping to 1 in 4 for secondary school. More displaced children are now likely to be out of school for a prolonged period and some might never return. The pandemic risks turning back hard-won gains that had been made in expanding access to protection, healthcare and education for refugee children globally, according to the statement. "We cannot let this happen. At a time when needs for support and attention multiply, the pandemic response must include clear commitments to the protection and wellbeing of forcibly displaced children," it said. UNHCR and UNICEF have expressed commitment to doing more and better in this crisis and beyond for refugee children, their families and communities, and those who host them. "This commitment aligns with our new initiative, the Blueprint for joint action launched by our two organizations in January 2020 to expand refugee children's access to protection, education, water and sanitation services in first group of priority countries," they said. The two officials said UNHCR and UNICEF collaborate in more than 40 countries around the world and are working together to see commitments made for children under the Global Compact for Refugees realized. Expressing continued possible support to all refugee children during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, they have urged governments and the international community to join us in these efforts. In Ethiopia, although no cases of COVID-19 have been reported amongst the refugee population and their host communities yet, UNHCR and UNICEF continue to strengthen efforts to prevent and limit the potential spread of the virus among the nearly 760,000 refugees in the country, said the statement. Prioritized interventions for UNHCR include the provision of soap and adequate water supplies, procurement of medical supplies, enhancing community awareness in hygiene promotion, installation of hand-washing facilities at communal centers and refugee households, disinfection of food distribution centres and making sure that refugees practice social distancing during food distribution and other activities. Temporary isolation sites have also been established in each camp to isolate suspected cases of COVID-19 until they are transferred to the government-designated isolation and treatment centres, it said. UNICEF has also positioned six water trucks and a similar number of large capacity bladder tanks to provide water to refugees at Kule, Teirkidi and Ngunyyiel refugee camps which will benefit an estimated 180,000 people, according to the statement. Enditem Congress reached a tentative agreement Tuesday with President Donald Trump on a nearly $500 billion coronavirus relief bill that would replenish a small business rescue program, provide hospitals with another $75 billion, and implement a nationwide virus testing program to facilitate reopening the economy. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced the agreement Tuesday morning and Trump tweeted his support hours later, saying he'll sign the bill if passes both chambers. It wasn't clear if the GOP-held Senate can pass the legislation during an afternoon session, which would take unanimous agreement to bypass Senate rules. We have a deal and I think we'll pass it today, Schumer said. He cautioned that staff are still dotting the I's and crossing the T's. Schumer said post-midnight talks among leaders of both parties and top Trump administration officials produced a breakthrough agreement on the package. Trump said he supports the measure, tweeting: I urge the Senate and House to pass the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act with additional funding. The president said he was open to including in a subsequent virus aid package fiscal relief for state and local government which Democrats had wanted for the current bill along with infrastructure projects. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has yet to publicly comment on the emerging deal, keeping his counsel until the Senate opens. Most of the funding, more than $300 billion, would go to boost a small-business payroll loan program that ran out of money last week. An additional $75 billion would be given to hospitals, and $25 billion would be spent to boost testing for the virus, a key step in building the confidence required to reopen state economies. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, told a conference call with reporters that House votes would occur Thursday. He said the House will also vote on a proposal to allow proxy voting during the pandemic, a first for Congress, which has required in-person business essentially since its founding. The Maryland Democrat insisted that proxy voting is no substitute for traditional roll calls. But he also wants to go further by opening committees hearings to remote ways of doing business during the crisis. The House must show the American people that we continue to work hard on their behalf, Hoyer wrote to colleagues. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wrote Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., seeking more information on plans to reopen the House, including an updated schedule, plans for annual Pentagon policy and appropriations measures, and decisions on proxy voting. But the landmark rules change met with objections from conservative Republicans. I don't support it at all, said Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., one of a handful of Republicans who showed up for Tuesday's pro forma session to protest proxy votes. Congress should be in session. The emerging virus aid package originally designed by Republicans as a $250 billion stopgap to replenish the payroll subsidies for smaller businesses has grown into the second largest of the four coronavirus response bills so far. Democratic demands have caused the measure to balloon, though Republicans support additions for hospitals and testing. With small-business owners reeling during a coronavirus outbreak that has shuttered much economic activity, the administration has been pressing for an immediate replenishment of the paycheck protection program. Talks have dragged as the Democrats tacked on the health priorities and two sides have quarreled over the design of a nationwide testing regime, among other pieces. Democrats were rebuffed in a request for another $150 billion in aid to revenue-strapped state governments, but left satisfied that the administration will help deliver such aid in the next aid bill. There's also pressure to help cities with populations of less than 500,000 that were shut out of the massive $2 trillion relief bill that passed last month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Rochelle Park nursing home has turned part of its facility into a dedicated COVID-19 unit aimed at assisting hospitals overwhelmed with coronavirus patients. The facility, which officials said was developed at the behest of the state, will provide 54 additional beds able to isolate patients recovering from COVID-19. Alaris Health at the Chateau said it will care for those stricken with the coronavirus who had been in hospitals and need a place to recover. As this pandemic has advanced, the need for COVID-19-only facilities throughout New Jersey became obvious, said Avery Eisenreich, president of Alaris Health. For the past week we have worked in conjunction with the New Jersey Department of Health and various local health departments to identify a number of potential sites. Nursing home officials said the facility had already been configured for ventilation and respiratory care, and were able to shift residents elsewhere to accommodate those recovering from the coronavirus in need of step-down care. New Jersey health officials declined comment. Alaris Health opened a similar 24-bed COVID-19 unit in Rahway in Union County last week, and is developing a third facility in Hudson County. The nursing home operator, which operates facilities throughout the state, came under fire recently in connection with allegations by healthcare staff that administrators at its Hamilton Park facility in Jersey City withheld personal protective gear and pressured employees to work even when they were sick. Alaris has denied the allegations. Statewide, there are currently 7,594 patients hospitalized with coronavirus, according to the latest census posted by the state health department. Of those, 1,501 are on ventilators and another 1,000 are in critical care units. Two hospitals in New Jersey for a time were on divert status for critical care patients on Tuesday afternoon St. Frances Medical Center in Trenton and University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro both because of patient volume. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Josa Lukman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 12:15 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd33db75 1 Environment #environment,#Conservation,#ClimateChange,#NationalGeographic,#TV,#TVShow,#EarthDay,#JaneGoodall Free For the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, the National Geographic channel will broadcast back-to-back premieres of Photo Ark: Rarest Creatures and Jane Goodall: The Hope. Indonesians can catch the premieres through their preferred subscription service, beginning at 7 p.m. with Photo Ark: Rarest Creatures that follows National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore on his globetrotting mission to photograph some of the rarest wildlife in the world. Sartores project, the Photo Ark, is his 25-year-long, primarily self-funded quest to document the worlds animals before they go extinct. The Photo Ark began in 2005 when Sartores wife Kathy was diagnosed with cancer. As Sartore stayed home to take care of his wife and children, he gained a new perspective on the shortness and fragility of life. One question Sartore had was how can I get people to care that we could lose half of all species by the turn of the next century?. Up close: Since 2005, National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore has made it his life's mission to document the 12,000 species of animal currently in human care before they go extinct. (Courtesy of National Geographic/-) With this burning question in mind, he set out to photograph 12,000 animal species currently in human care before it is too late. Currently, there are 9,844 species in the Photo Ark, spanning some 33,844 pictures shot with a simple black or white background. Perhaps a series of portraits, made as simply and cleanly as possible, would give us all a chance to look animals directly in the eye and see that theres beauty, grace and intelligence in the other creatures we share the planet with, Sartore wrote on his website. Black and white backgrounds level the playing field, making a mouse every bit as grand as an elephant. In these portraits, they are equals. At his website, joelsartore.com, visitors can search for images of specific animals or scroll down to see the thousands of images. Jane Goodall: The Hope follows at 8 p.m. a two-hour documentary on the life and times of the figure considered by many to be the worlds foremost expert on chimpanzees for her decades of experience and studies on the primate since she went to the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960. Picking up after the 2017 biographical documentary Jane, the latest one highlights the creation of the Jane Goodall Institutes Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education (TACARE) program and the Roots & Shoots youth empowerment program. TACARE was first launched in 1994 to address poverty and support sustainable livelihoods for the communities living around Lake Tanganyika, the second-deepest, second-oldest and second-largest-by-volume freshwater lake bordering four African countries. Meanwhile, Roots & Shoots was founded in 1991 when Jane worked with a group of Tanzanian students to discuss the role of youth in bettering the world. The initiative started with 12 students, and now has expanded to an active movement in over 60 countries. Apart from her activism, the documentary also touches on the 86-year-olds hope for future generations. Being out in the forest of Gombe, I had a great sense of spiritual awareness; I began to realize that everything is interconnected, Goodall said. Since then, every day, its become clearer that climate change is an existential threat to our natural world, and if we destroy this world, we destroy our own future. Each day, every single person has the chance to make an impact through small, thoughtful choices, and when billions of people make the right choices, we start to transform the world. Dont give up; theres always a way forward. Along with Goodall, the documentary also features interviews with The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, as well as experts in the field such as former US secretary of state James Baker, Harvard University professor of biological anthropology Richard Wrangham, director of the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins, and cofounder and director of the Institute of Human Virology Robert Gallo, who codiscovered HIV. The figures featured in the documentary were not chosen at random: Prince Harry has been an ardent supporter of environmental and conservation issues; Baker was the first recipient of the Jane Goodall Institute International Conservation Award for his work with chimpanzees; Wrangham founded the Kibale Chimpanzee Project; and Collins championed the retirement of government research chimpanzees after speaking with Goodall. Courteney Monroe, president of the National Geographic Global Television Networks, said in a statement that the 50th Earth Day was an opportunity to inspire viewers through the wonders of our planet and its incredible species, as the need to protect the planet becomes more urgent. With the Earth Day takeover across all of our networks and platforms, we are able to reach the largest audience possible to celebrate this momentous day and ensure that viewers fall in love with our planet and act to protect it, she said. (ste) By the 1980s, Dr. Houghton was in the vanguard of studying the alarming levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. He joined the nascent IPCC and tried to convince policymakers of the existential threat of climate change. In our first IPCC report, he told the South Wales Echo, it became very clear to us that there was some real danger ahead, without being able to spell it out as clearly as we can now. The Northern Regional Police Command has arrested two guests at a wedding ceremony at Kukuo, a suburb of Tamale, for violating social distancing protocol. The suspects are Iddi Ibrahim, 34, a staff of the Northern Regional Coordinating Council, and Abubakari Yusif Dauda, 33, a businessman. Superintendent Otuo Acheampong, Crime Officer of the Northern Regional Police Command, who announced the arrest to journalists in Tamale, said the suspects were assisting the Police with investigations. Superintendent Acheampong said on April 19, at about 1300 hours, information was received that a wedding ceremony was underway at Kukuo, a suburb of Tamale. He said, "Two patrol teams responded and arrested two suspects, who were part of the gathering in blatant disregard to Executive Instruments against public gatherings and social distancing." He said the groom and the bride had been invited to report at the Regional Criminal Investigations Department for interrogation. It will be recalled that the President, under the Imposition of Restrictions Act, has banned public gatherings of more than 25 people and that social distancing should be observed for such gatherings of not more than 25 people. 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 FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette visits the Terminal XXI at the port of Sines WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. energy secretary said on Tuesday he would talk with leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives later in the day and urge them to fund the purchase of crude to fill the emergency oil reserve. In March, President Donald Trump ordered Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, to the top as the price of oil plunged while the coronavirus crushed global demand. So far, Congress has declined to fund the purchase, with some Democrats opposed to bailing out the oil industry. "I'm going to meet with leaders later today in the U.S. House to discuss exactly this," Brouillette told Fox Business Network in an interview cut short due to problems with the audio feed. The House is controlled by Democrats. The reserve, held in salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana, currently holds about 635 million barrels and can take another 77 million barrels of oil, or less than what the United States consumed on average in four days in 2019. As the Energy Department works with Congress on a purchase it also is moving forward with a plan to rent an initial 23 million barrels of storage space in the reserve to oil companies. Brouillette said the SPR is legally mandated to expand to 1 billion barrels. But expanding the reserve to that level would likely require even more cooperation on funding from Congress. The June contract for U.S. crude was down nearly 30% below $15 a barrel on Tuesday after hitting $11.79, its lowest since 1999. [O/R] The expiring May contract fell to below minus $40 per barrel on Monday as the industry scrambled for places to store oil. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner) Sino Biological, Inc. today announced a co-development agreement with Nanommune Inc., an Irvine, California based biotechnology company specializing in the development and application of multiplex array technology. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will jointly develop coronavirus antigen array products for serological studies of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. The two companies also debuted the first product this week under Sino Biologicals new brand Sinommune. This new product features 65 viral antigens from six major groups of the viral superfamily that can lead to respiratory infections, including coronavirus (SARS-COV-2 and others), PIV, RSV, MPV, adenovirus, and influenza. The array will be used for serosurveillance studies of the aforementioned viruses in affected populations. Image credit: Sino Bino Biological Were very excited about this strategic alliance. This collaboration is built upon the companies shared interest in fighting infectious disease, a task now seems more important than ever, The collaboration allows us to make our recombinant coronavirus antigens available on a microarray multiplex-based platform, which enables rapid profiling of antibodies interacting with these targets in biological samples. I believe this will be a very useful resource for vaccine development and epidemiological studies. Sino Biological CEO Dr. Jie Zhang In a recent joint study published on bioRxiv, researchers from University of California Irvine (UCI), Cerus Corporation, University of Maryland, Oregon Health and Science University, and the Vitalant Research Institute used this array to characterize the antibody profile of convalescent blood specimens from eight PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients and 144 negative controlsera collected prior to the pandemic. The results demonstrated a distinct antibody profile for SARS-COV-2 only in confirmed COVID-19 patients. In comparison, both groups showed comparable reactivity towards antigens from common cold coronavirus and other virus types. This study highlights the potential of this array as a serosurveillance tool in epidemiological studies of COVID-19. The array can also aid in studies to correlate antibody responses with clinical outcomes. A former Bloomfield councilman, who pleaded guilty to a bribery charge in 2017, died while serving his sentence, according to state prison records. Elias Chalet, 58, died at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton Monday, Peter Till, his attorney, said. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2018, but would have been eligible to be released in July. He died alone, Till said Tuesday. Till said Chalets family was devastated and declined to comment on Chalets death. Till said the family believes Chalets death was a result of COVID-19. They are awaiting medical confirmation. Chalet was a local realtor and the Ward 1 councilman for the township when authorities arrested him at his Broad Street office in 2015. Investigators had recorded audio of Chalet telling a local business owner that the township would only purchase his property if he paid Chalet $15,000. He was paid a sum of money on two occasions, and when authorities arrived to arrest Chalet, the councilman locked himself in the bathroom and flushed the money down the toilet, prosecutors said. Chalet pleaded guilty to to a second-degree charge of bribery in official and political matters in Essex County Superior Court. At his sentencing, Chalet expressed remorse for his actions and apologized to his family for leading them through hell the last three years of my life. I can tell you now it was the darkest day of my life, he said. Till urged the Superior Court judge to lighten Chalets sentence because of the serious medical issues he had. He had a serious heart condition and had suffered strokes in the past, Till told the judge. If Chalet did not get a light sentence, the consequences could be devastating, the attorney warned. "Otherwise, I will have a client dying in jail, Till said, according to NorthJersey.com. The Department of Corrections (DOC) declined to comment on Chalets death. Till said within the last couple months Chalet had been moved from a prison facility to the James A. Hemm halfway house in Newark. He had recently been allowed to spend weekends with his family in Bloomfield. Chalet became sick at the halfway house on April 5 and was transported to Northern State Prison, Till said. The following day, he was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, which is a DOC hospital, the attorney said, where he died less than two weeks later. What a decent guy, Till said about Chalet. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow on Twitter @monavage. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. The Indian Army is readying separate teams to be deployed in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan to help those countries boost capabilities to deal with rising cases of coronavirus, official sources said on Tuesday. A 14-member Indian Army team was sent to the Maldives last month to help the island nation set up coronavirus testing laboratories and train local medical professionals to fight the pandemic. Earlier this month, India dispatched a 15-member team of Army to Kuwait as part of bilateral cooperation between the two countries. The sources said the teams for Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan are being readied as part of India's policy of extending helping hand to all friendly countries in the region to fight the pandemic. Follow latest updates on the COVID-19 pandemic here India has also been playing a key role in pushing for a common framework in fighting the pandemic in the SAARC region. At a video conference on March 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for formulating a joint strategy to fight COVID-19 in the SAARC region and proposed an emergency fund with an initial offer of USD 10 million from India. It is understood that India has already made the contribution. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a grouping comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. All the SAARC member nations are reeling under the adverse social and economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Also Read: Pandemic Podcast: How the lockdown is affecting women As part of its policy to help friendly countries to deal with the pandemic, India is also supplying anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to 55 countries. A number of countries including the US, Mauritius and Seychelles have already received the drug. Hydroxychloroquine has been identified by the US Food and Drug Administration as a possible treatment for COVID-19 and it is being tested on more than 1,500 coronavirus patients in New York. The demand for the drug has swelled rapidly after India decided to lift a ban on its export. In the neighbourhood, India is sending the drug to Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh Nepal, Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, sources said. [April 21, 2020] Progentec Readies Launch of Digital Lupus Research Study OKLAHOMA CITY, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Progentec, a leader in next-gen diagnostics and digital technologies for the management of autoimmune diseases, is announcing the launch of the OASIS Study. The purpose of the study is to measure and validate the link between digital signals and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). "OASIS is a 100% remote clinical research study. Participants can sign up online and complete the study without ever visiting a clinician," said Eldon Jupe, Ph.D., the Principal Investigator for the study and the Chief Research Officer at Progentec. This study will further Progentec's efforts to develop digital biomarkers for the prediction of lupus flares and the measurement of disease activity. These digital biomarkers complement the blood-based biomarkers used in Progentec's aiSLE () DX laboratory tests, which will be available to rheumatologists and other healthcare professionals in 2020. "Patient reported outcomes and sensor data from smart devices strengthen emerging models of remote patient care, including the use of telemedicine. These solutions empower clinicians by giving them the health data they need to make proactive treatment decisions. More han ever before, we are seeing the important role these technologies will play in improving care delivery and decreasing healthcare costs," said Mohan Purushothaman, Ph.D., CEO of Progentec. OASIS study participants will use Progentec's LupusCorner Research app, a 21 CFR Part-11-compliant data capture tool built using the FDA's open source MyStudies codebase. The app is a powerful tool that allows Progentec to conduct clinical grade studies across multiple therapeutic areas with strong configuration capabilities. It is available on both iOS and Android platforms. LupusCorner Research offers: Informed eConsent; Integration of wearable device data from Withings products including their smartwatch, "Steel HR"; Heart rate variability measurements using the device camera and flashlight; and Scheduled, adaptive surveys The OASIS study is expected to begin in May 2020 and will involve 550 participants. The study enhances Progentec's digital capabilities to further partnerships with large research organizations and pharmaceutical companies working on lupus trials. About Progentec Diagnostics, Inc. Progentec is committed to improving access and health outcomes for patients in therapeutic areas with a high level of unmet need by combining clinically-validated diagnostic interventions with state-of-the-art digital technologies. Through collaborations with research institutions and health practitioners around the world, Progentec is working to reduce mortality and morbidity while improving care management and service delivery for chronic health conditions. Forward-Looking Statements: Statements contained herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that represent management's beliefs and assumptions as of the date of this news release based on currently available information. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure that these expectations will prove to be correct. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Contact: Mohan Purushothaman (973) 885-5242 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/progentec-readies-launch-of-digital-lupus-research-study-301044538.html SOURCE Progentec Diagnostics, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Can staying up late make you fat? A growing body of research has suggested that poor sleep quality is linked to an increased risk of obesity by deregulating appetite, which in turn leads to more calorie consumption. But a new study published this week in PLOS Biology found that the direction of this reaction might actually be flipped: It's not the sleep loss that leads to obesity, but rather that excess weight can cause poor sleep, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and the University of Nevada, Reno, who discovered their findings in the microscopic worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). "We think that sleep is a function of the body trying to conserve energy in a setting where energetic levels are going down. Our findings suggest that if you were to fast for a day, we would predict you might get sleepy because your energetic stores would be depleted," said study co-author David Raizen, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Neurology and member of the Chronobiology and Sleep Institute at Penn. Raizen emphasized that while these findings in worms may not translate directly to humans, C. elegans offer a surprisingly good model for studying mammalian slumber. Like all other animals that have nervous systems, they need sleep. But unlike humans, who have complex neural circuitry and are difficult to study, a C. elegans has only 302 neurons -- one of which scientists know for certain is a sleep regulator. In humans, acute sleep disruption can result in increased appetite and insulin resistance, and people who chronically get fewer than six hours of sleep per night are more likely be obese and diabetic. Moreover, starvation in humans, rats, fruit flies, and worms has been shown to affect sleep, indicating that it is regulated, at least in part, by nutrient availability. However, the ways in which sleeping and eating work in tandem has remained unclear. "We wanted to know, what is sleep actually doing? Short sleep and other chronic conditions, like diabetes, are linked, but it's just an association. It's not clear if short sleep is causing the propensity for obesity, or that the obesity, perhaps, causes the propensity for short sleep," said study co-author Alexander van der Linden, PhD, an associate professor of Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno. To study the association between metabolism and sleep, the researchers genetically modified C. elegans to "turn off" a neuron that controls sleep. These worms could still eat, breathe, and reproduce, but they lost their ability to sleep. With this neuron turned off, the researchers saw a severe drop in adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels, which is the body's energy currency. "That suggests that sleep is an attempt to conserve energy; it's not actually causing the loss of energy," Raizen explained. In previous research, the van der Linden lab studied a gene in C. elegans called KIN-29. This gene is homologous to the Salt-Inducible Kinase (SIK-3) gene in humans, which was already known to signal sleep pressure. Surprisingly, when the researchers knocked out the KIN-29 gene to create sleepless worms, the mutant C. elegans accumulated excess fat -- resembling the human obesity condition -- even though their ATP levels lowered. The researchers hypothesized that the release of fat stores is a mechanism for which sleep is promoted, and that the reason KIN-29 mutants did not sleep is because they were unable to liberate their fat. To test this hypothesis, the researchers again manipulated the KIN-29 mutant worms, this time expressing an enzyme that "freed" their fat. With that manipulation, the worms were again able to sleep. Raizen said this could explain one reason why people with obesity may experience sleep problems. "There could be a signaling problem between the fat stores and the brain cells that control sleep," he said. While there is still much to unravel about sleep, Raizen said that this paper takes the research community one step closer to understanding one of its core functions -- and how to treat common sleep disorders. "There is a common, over-arching sentiment in the sleep field that sleep is all about the brain, or the nerve cells, and our work suggests that this isn't necessarily true," he said. "There is some complex interaction between the brain and the rest of the body that connects to sleep regulation." ### Additional authors on this paper include Jeremy Grubbs and Lindsey Lopes, who completed this research while students at the University of Nevada, Reno and the Perelman School of Medicine, respectively. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health grants R01NS107969 and R01NS088432, COBRE P20GM103650, and the National Science Foundation grant IOS1353014. She was studying hard and looking forward to all of this for three and a half years, and I feel very sad for her and for all of the seniors, Gaechter said. I had kind of been hoping they maybe might have re-opened in mid-May, so they could finish the school year. But now, everything they do will be online. ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - A change in asylum procedure by Ethiopias government is undermining neighbouring Eritreans access to asylum and denying unaccompanied children the necessary protection, Human Rights Watch asserted Tuesday. The rights group said Ethiopia in January changed its refugee policy that had granted all arriving Eritrean asylum seekers refugee status. Ethiopia has long welcomed tens of thousands of Eritreans fleeing persecution each year, said Laetitia Bader, the groups Horn of Africa director. With no letup in repression in Eritrea, the Ethiopian government shouldnt be denying protection to Eritrean nationals, particularly unaccompanied children. Eritreas system of forced military conscription leads thousands of people, mostly youth, to flee the country. Most go to Ethiopia, which currently hosts more than 170,000 Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers. Speaking to The Associated Press, the head of Ethiopias Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs said a lack of individual refugee status determination in the past has resulted in a high number of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia. This uncontrolled practice has resulted in a high influx of unaccompanied minors, illegal migrants and others who do not fulfil the criteria laid out in international instruments, Eyob Awoke said. As such, we have initiated a strict modus operandi whose implementation will be applied to all nationalities hosted by Ethiopia. Eyob said that from now on, current conditions in countries of origin including human rights, security situations and socio-economic and humanitarian factors will be taken into account to ensure an evidence-based process. Eyob also cited a funding cut from international partners and donors. Eritreans make up some 22% of the more than 750,000 refugees that Ethiopia currently hosts, according to U.N. data. Another 44% of refugees come from neighbouring South Sudan and 26% from neighbouring Somalia. Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2018 ended two decades of hostilities by agreeing to end a border conflict and restoring ties. But rights groups have noted little sign of repressive measures being loosened inside Eritrea. Human Rights Watch said some 6,000 Eritreans arrived in Ethiopia every month in 2019. According to the United Nations refugee agency, 44% of Eritrean refugees based in northern Ethiopia were children as of December. The refusal to register unaccompanied children may compel them to return to abusive situations, Human Rights Watch said. In March, Ethiopia announced it would close a refugee camp in the north that hosts more than 25,000 Eritreans, the group said, though the coronavirus pandemic has affected the timing. i thought something new came to light when i saw this. lol. Reply Thread Link Right? Twitter is so slow. Reply Parent Thread Link lmao mte this is old news Reply Parent Thread Link lol yup Reply Parent Thread Link Lmao Reply Parent Thread Link same, i got excited about him being #over :( Reply Parent Thread Link No, it's utterly stupid. It started--brace yourself for the crazy--after Reylos helped drive up an auction to over $10,000 (closer to 15, I think) in honor of the Ben Solo character. (The author of the Kylo comics offered to write a short story, non-canon, about Ben Solo for a charity auction. He'd initially had a goal of much less, and anyway, it exploded. The artist behind the comics is also drawing new art for the story.) People who do not like the Kylo Ren character or Reylo started having hissy fits. (I don't have a better way of rounding up this side of things other than saying what they're against.) To give you an idea of the crazy, one argued she was mad not that money went to charity, but that the Reylos were raising it for Ben Solo, not in honor of another character. (In particular, apparently one of them had set up a charity in honor of John Boyega a while ago and for some reason, it was not very successful. The success of the Ben Solo charity auction deeply offended this person, who said clearly the Reylos were not in favor of charity, they were just in favor of the Kylo/Ben character or Adam.) Because that logic went nowhere, they took another leap, and they went in on bashing the actor. (Insomnia + Twitter=you see a lot of the crazy in real time.) Reply Parent Thread Link These kind of people never make sense to me. Reply Parent Thread Link i mean twitter still loves nicki minazi. Reply Parent Thread Link LOL right, I thought this was at least going to be a new rotisserie chicken story Reply Parent Thread Link lol mte! Reply Parent Thread Link twitter is still at like 2012 tumblr era levels of discourse Reply Parent Thread Link Today I saw captive prince discourse on twitter and I had to check the date to make sure I didnt travel back to 2014 Reply Parent Thread Expand Link same I saw it trending and was so disappointed Reply Parent Thread Link nah twitter is usually late bc the crazy stans shut it down when its actually news, so im guessing this was award season and they obviously did the most to drown this out from becoming popular on the site ugh Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i feel like people find this out every six months Reply Thread Link they just now heard he was in the military? huh. Reply Thread Link lol really?? We've known this for years??? And he's made his disdain of the military culture/mindset pretty clear since then. I know we're all bored, but come on, there's gotta be more interesting ~scandals out there. Reply Thread Link there's gotta be more interesting ~scandals out there. Celebs are so boring these days. All their scandals are just them being ignorant, privileged, insufferable, and tone deaf. Long gone are the days of Xenu Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah's couch. Celeb gossip now just makes me feel like this: [ Spoiler (click to open) ] instead of this: [ Spoiler (click to open) ] Like, I'm so bored of them all that at this point that I really just need Leo DiCaprio to jump on instagram live with his teenage girlfriend, get wine drunk, and call Quentin Tarantino a fat, two-faced bitch. Give me drama! Like, I'm so bored of them all that at this point that I really just need Leo DiCaprio to jump on instagram live with his teenage girlfriend, get wine drunk, and call Quentin Tarantino a fat, two-faced bitch. Give me drama! Celebs are so boring these days. All their scandals are just them being ignorant, privileged, insufferable, and tone deaf. Long gone are the days of Xenu Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah's couch.Celeb gossip now just makes me feel like this:instead of this: Reply Parent Thread Link Lmao @ Xenu Cruise. Yeah, everyone's just exposing themselves as a bunch of clueless Jenna Maroneys, but that's not really news. It tells you something about how boring it all is rn that the paps are STILL taking virtually identical pictures of Ben & Ana every day. I will cross my fingers for some messiness! Extra points if it's a super-cringey couple like that! Reply Parent Thread Link lol for real. if you're gonna be clueless, at least be entertaining. Reply Parent Thread Link i've taken to reading up on old celeb scandals since the current ones are so boring. Lindsay Lohan should get a medal for how much she has given us Reply Parent Thread Link lmao that classic real housewives gif Reply Parent Thread Link nah the gossip hasnt changed much at all, its how we react to it. Reply Parent Thread Link mte Reply Parent Thread Link We been knew, tho. Reply Thread Link People are losing their minds stuck inside their homes Reply Thread Link stan twitter is bored lol Reply Thread Link this is late as hell. tbh a lot of americans are brainwashed to see the military as a way to get out of tough situations and do something meaningful, and teenagers make stupid decisions. but I also don't know that the way he's talked about it since then has really shown any new awareness about how fucked the US military actually is. and things like "he didn't end up serving" isn't a good defense. that wasn't his choice, it was happenstance. in general people need to learn that you don't have to defend every single thing someone does just because you find them attractive. Reply Thread Link To defend AMERICA ON FOREIGN SOIL FROM A BUNCH OF PEOPLE WHO DONT REALLY GIVE A FUCK ABOUT US Reply Parent Thread Link My comment wasn't intended as a defense of the military or sympathy for soldiers. All I'm saying is, a lot of teens don't reflect on their decisions beyond what they've grown up with, and America idolizes soldiers and frames the military as a way to make a life for yourself that "everyone" will admire. It's not hard to see why young people go that way if they're looking for a path. I wasn't only talking about poverty, either. Plenty of middle class teens don't have direction and/or can't move out on their own without help. There are absolutely people who sign up out of racism and violent patriotism and want a chance to act on it. I'm not discounting that or excusing it. But it's not always that for the individual. The US military does a great job with their propaganda and the message is propped up by huge swaths of the population, and a lot of people lack either the capacity or the desire to think about things beyond how they're fed to them. Edited at 2020-04-21 01:27 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link My mom joined the US army when she was 17. Shes a Canadian citizen, raised by two college professors (an art teacher and a journalist/English professor), skinny little art nerd growing up in North Dakota. The recruiter told her that because she was so good at drawing she could get a job making maps and theyd send her to a base in Germany. Shed never been to Europe and she wants to see dem old Masters!!!! Instead they sent her to Hawaii where she met her shitty first husband. She never killed anyone, just made maps. I hate the army and she describes it like a goddamn nightmare but the reasons for joining are widely varied and not all rooted in some kind of Uber masculine desire for racist violence (although plenty of it is). Not all army moms lol. She got her US citizenship this year so she could vote for the Dem. she goes to democratic socialists of America chapter meetings, escorts at the only abortion clinic in ND, and uses her veteran status to bolster her anti-gun/anti-war politics. Reply Parent Thread Link As a black person from the middle class this demographic is true lol. Whats funny is most of my family hate and dont trust the government and think war is stupid and yet.... most of them were or are currently in the military lmao. Im not sure about everyone else but in my familys case by the time we turn 18 were expected to be out or on our way out of the house in some way. We either better be in college, holding down a full time job, or in the military. You dropped out of college? Military. Youre aimless and have no plans for now? Better join the military in the mean time. My family and a lot of other military families I encounter arent really at all patriotic or in it to serve. They see it as a stable system with benefits that than can help them maintain their lifestyle. That being said I hate the military and could never join. Reply Parent Thread Link Esp. when you're objectively wrong about them being attractive. lol Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i dont see the point in shaming his reasoning-- thats literally who the military targets. bored, impressionable, needing-direction teenagers. Edited at 2020-04-21 03:22 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link also, adding my half a cent. america's pro-war propaganda machine runs too well. look at the avenger films, for example. i remember brie larson p much selling little girls the idea that they too! could join the air force. what the fuck? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link were never going to be able to fight against the militarys propaganda if we just write it off and dont understand (not sympathize, not forgive, not forget- just understand) the tactics they use to brainwash and manipulate people to joining their cause. Reply Parent Thread Link I SUPPORT ending his career and never having to see his face ever again! Reply Thread Link Cancel culture is a disease. People have way too much time on their hands Reply Parent Thread Link It's also selective bias too. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link more often than not, yes. Reply Parent Thread Link nobody ever truly gets cancelled, the actors are left off scot free no matter what, but these twitter arguments and memes are all just fanning ridiculous stan wars, the antis are convinced they committed big activism by getting a hashtag trending and the driver stans are further pushed into a fanatical worship and defense of an actor who doesnt know or care they exist. Reply Parent Thread Link ONTD right now: Reply Thread Link lmao the font choice. Reply Parent Thread Link Oh this old bs. I thought it was gonna be something new. It doesnt matter anyway people with bad eyesight are still gonna wanna fuck him. Reply Thread Link Amen Reply Parent Thread Link SatADSL and YahClick unite their efforts to steer Sub-Saharan Africa across the digital divide Posted by Publisher Telecommunication Brussels, Belgium 21 April 2020 ? SatADSL ? the Brussels-based provider of satellite services ? has partnered with YahClick to enhance its connectivity offering across Sub-Saharan Africa. The partnership appoints SatADSL as a new Virtual Network Operator (VNO) partner to YahClick, the UAE-based broadband satellite services provider owned by Yahsat and its partner Hughes Network Systems. The agreement will enable SatADSL to combine the capacity purchased from YahClick with its innovative cloud-based service delivery platform (C-SDP) to deliver a full range of flexible satellite services across Africa. In joining forces with SatADSL, YahClick gains full access to the Belgian operator?s extensive licensed partner network spanning 45 countries worldwide and boasting over 3,500 deployments. This presents YahClick with new opportunities to expand its distribution reinforcing YahClick?s status as Africa?s number one satellite broadband internet service. Forged to maximise YahClick and SatADSL?s efforts to eradicate digital exclusion on the continent, the partnership reiterates both companies? commitment to removing barriers to social and economic growth through the provision of world-class broadband solutions. Michel Dothey, Chief Commercial Officer at SatADSL, said, ?I am excited by the possibilities that present themselves ahead. Partnering with YahClick does more than just give us access to the company?s Service Delivery Platforms ? it significantly increases our ability to make a tangible and lasting difference in and across the communities from West to East Africa we serve as part of our global connectivity offering. Our ability to offer high throughput Ka-band services will significantly impact the fate of some of the most underserved countries in the world, helping them to cross the digital divide and make the most of their considerable potential.? Farhad Khan, Chief Executive Officer at YahClick, added, ?Working closely with SatADSL enhances the quality of our service delivery as we continue on our mission to unleash human potential through satellite broadband connectivity. The agreement will provide our customers with the best broadband solutions available, connecting them with the rest of the world through a fast and affordable service. In this uncertain period of enforced social distancing and self-isolation, we are delighted to help bring people together, supporting them to work, learn, and stay informed remotely.? YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Finance informs that a total of 974 million and 163 thousand drams has been donated to the Armenian government for its anti-coronavirus efforts, ARMENPRESS reports the government said. The treasury account (900005001947) was opened on March 17th for citizens and organizations willing to make donations. The government said a total of 3845 payments were made since. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan : Chinese police officers wear protective masks as they march during a shift change on April 14, 2020 in Beijing. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) Record Number of Americans Hold Negative Views of Beijing Amid Pandemic, Poll Shows A growing number of Americans hold a negative view of the Chinese regime, as the pandemic takes its toll on the United States, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Two-thirds of respondents to a March poll said they had a negative opinion of Beijingthe highest percentage recorded since the center first began asking the question in 2005. About nine in 10 Americans said they see the regimes power and influence as a threatincluding 62 percent who said they consider it a major threat, the survey found. Respondents were asked whether they considered China no threat, a minor threat, or a major threat. The results, based on a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted between March 3 and March 29, reflect a marked shift in attitudes toward the regime since President Donald Trump was inaugurated and took a harder stance with Beijing on issues including trade and human rights. The poll was conducted as the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak was worsening across the United States and officials call for the Chinese regime to be held accountable for its initial coverup of the outbreak in China, causing the virus to spread around the world. About 70 percent of respondents said they had no confidence in Chinese leader Xi Jinping to do the right thing when it comes to world affairsanother high since the center first asked the question. Chinas effect on the global environment and its cyberattacks ranked as the top two concerns among respondents, with 91 percent and 87 percent respectively viewing those issues as a somewhat serious or very serious problem. The regimes human rights policies were also a concern for 82 percent of respondents, and 57 percent flagged it as a very serious problem. The negative impressions of the regime cut across party lines, though generally, a higher proportion of Republicans than Democrats held unfavorable views of Beijing. In another recent poll, Americans reported bipartisan distrust of Beijing. A Harris Poll survey conducted from March 14 to April 5 showed that 77 percent of Americans blame the CCP for the spread of the virus. That belief was echoed across the political spectrum, as 67 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents, and 90 percent of Republicans think the Chinese regime was responsible for the pandemic. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has stepped up calls for transparency from Beijing, and has begun an investigation into the origins of the outbreak, including whether it came from a lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. A range of lawsuits, including one from the state of Missouri, have also been filed in U.S. courts against the regime to demand compensation for economic loss suffered as a result of the pandemic. Emel Akan contributed to this report. HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2020 / Memgen, a private biotechnology company developing innovative immuno-oncology drugs and immune therapeutics, announced today that it has entered into technology licensing agreements with the Moffitt Cancer Center, a premier center for cancer research and care. The agreements cover intellectual property developed jointly by scientists at Memgen and Moffitt, including Memgen's lead product, MEM-288, as well as additional pipeline products. MEM-288, incorporating the new technologies, exhibits significantly enhanced tumor selectivity and strong activity against a broad range of tumor types. This work paves the way for MEM-288 to enter the clinic later this year, treating patients suffering from difficult-to-treat cancers. "Oncolytic viruses are emerging therapeutics capable of specifically killing tumor cells and stimulating anti-tumor immunity," said co-inventor of the technology Amer Beg, Ph.D., who is a senior member of Department of Immunology at Moffitt. "MEM-288 not only exhibits high tumor cell killing but also induces a potent anti-tumor immune response in animal models through expression of MEM40 and IFN beta. As a result, we believe that MEM-288 will have substantial benefit in cancer patients who do not respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors." Beg worked with Scott Antonia, MD, Ph.D., Director of Duke Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and Mark Cantwell, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Memgen, to develop the technology. Dr. Gregory Brown, Memgen's CEO, noted, "We are very pleased to enter into these license agreements with Moffitt. Memgen and Moffitt have established a close and collaborative relationship that has already proven fruitful in generating actionable product candidates that are advancing toward the clinic." Haskell Adler, Ph.D., MBA, senior licensing manager in Moffitt's Office of Innovation and Industry Alliances, added, "This deal highlights the significance of Drs. Beg and Antonia's contributions to developing new immuno-oncology therapeutics to treat cancer patients." About Memgen Memgen is a cancer immunotherapy company focused on creating drugs that harness the power of the immune system to cure cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Its first-in-class immune-oncology therapeutics are designed for the treatment of patients who do not respond to currently available therapeutic options. The Company's lead product, MEM-288, is engineered to both selectively target cancer cells and supercharge the immune system through expression of two unique and powerful immune modulators: CD40 ligand (CD40L) and the powerful cytokine interferon beta. MEM-288 has been demonstrated to generate a strong systemic anti-tumor immune response following intra-tumoral vaccination in multiple tumors. The Company expects to begin clinical testing with MEM-288 in the current year. The Company's pipeline products all utilize its proprietary CD40L transgene, MEM40, which has already been tested in human subjects and has demonstrated the ability to elicit powerful, antigen-specific anti-tumor immune responses across a broad range of tumor types. In this press release, unless the context requires otherwise, "Memgen", the "Company," "Companies," "we," "our," and "us" refers to Memgen, LLC. Investor Contact: Gregory B. Brown, M.D. (203) 940-3742 gbrown@memgenbio.com Media Contact: Gregory B. Brown, M.D. (203) 940-3742 gbrown@memgenbio.com Related Images SOURCE: Memgen View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/585869/Memgen-Announces-Exclusive-License-Agreements-With-Moffitt-Cancer-Center-to-Develop-Innovative-Cancer-Immunotherapies Traders fled from the expiring May U.S. oil futures contract in a frenzy on Monday, sending the contract into negative territory for the first time in history, as barely any buyers are willing to take delivery of oil barrels because there is no place to put the crude. The May contract for U.S. West Texas intermediate crude oil plunged to below zero for the first time in history, settling on the day at minus $37.63 a barrel, a decline of some 305%, or $55.90 a barrel. Prices set a low of negative $40.32. Brent crude oil, the international standard price most often cited as the going price of a barrel of oil, also fell, down 5.27% to $26.60 per barrel. With demand down 30% worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the main U.S. storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, expected to fill up in a matter of weeks, very few want to be stuck with oil barrels that they have to take delivery on at some point during May. "The people who are long are desperate to get out," said Phil Verleger, a veteran oil economist and independent consultant. "If you dont have storage, you have to get out." Major oil-producing nations have agreed to cut output, and global oil companies are trimming production, but those cuts will not come quickly enough to avoid a massive clog. The excess from overseas producers can be stored in more places, including aboard tankers at sea. But that's not the case with domestic oil produced in the U.S. and Canada. The difference between the expiring May U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude contract and the coming June contract widened to a record at more than $60 a barrel and settled at $51.90. That yawning gap emerged because owning the May contract when it expires on Tuesday means that buyer is obligated to take those barrels, which few want to do. "For many investors or people using these contracts for hedging this is really a big pain," said Edward Moya, market analyst at OANDA in New York. "There's no place to put it we're running out of space to store oil." Story continues The June contract ended down 16% to $20.43 a barrel. When a futures contract expires, traders must decide whether to take delivery or roll their positions into an upcoming contract. Usually this process is relatively uncomplicated, but the May contract's decline reflects worries that too much supply could hit the markets, with shipments out of OPEC nations like Saudi Arabia booked in March set to cause a glut. Available storage space is dropping fast at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub, where physical delivery of U.S. oil barrels bought in the futures market takes place. Four weeks ago, the storage hub was half full now it is 69% full, according to U.S. Energy Department data. "Its clear that Cushing is going to fill, and it will stay full for the next several months," said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates. "Because producers have been lagging in their production cuts, were seeing an overwhelming amount of crude oil looking for a place to go around the world." Crude stockpiles at Cushing rose 9% in the week to April 17, totaling around 61 million barrels, market analysts said, citing a Monday report from Genscape. The world's major oil producers agreed to cut production by 9.7 million bpd in an attempt to get world supply under control as demand slumps, but those cuts do not begin until May. Saudi Arabia is ramping up deliveries of oil, including big shipments to the United States. Worldwide oil consumption is roughly 100 million barrels a day, and supply generally stays in line with that. But consumption is down about 30% globally, and the cuts so far are far less. U.S. exchange-traded funds are also playing a role in the action, analysts said. The U.S. Oil Fund LP the largest crude oil ETF, said on Thursday that it would start moving some of its assets into later-dated contracts earlier in the life of the monthly contract. Related Video: Click here to See Video >> SmartCone's critical closed-loop, 'return to work' solution starts by monitoring employees at home, then protects them with clean transportation to a safer work environment and back home again OTTAWA, Ontario, April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The SmartCone 19 Task Force, an international collaboration of technology companies dedicated to providing a safe, secure and protected work environment for both employees and employers, understands people need to work so they can provide for their families and keep the economy stimulated. But without a safe plan, many are uneasy to work at their essential jobs or return once their non-essential companies open back up. The solution put technology on the front line. SmartCone's "Return to Work" (R2W) solution provides a closed-loop, end-to-end mobility system that can track employees and keep them safe as they go to and from work. The closed-loop system includes: At-home health station for personalized health monitoring. Intelligent public transit with thermal scanning and disinfection systems paired with SmartCone's Artificial Intelligence to monitor safe distancing. At the office, factory or plant, checkpoint stations are installed to provide high-speed scanning for everyone entering the workplace. R2W then extends into the workplace by tracking people to ensure safe physical distancing through wearables to include contact tracing and advanced monitoring. Routine disinfection procedures will be recorded and stored. "Our mission has always been to collaborate and integrate existing solutions from sensors to AI to dashboards in a meaningful and useful way quickly," said CEO and founder Jason Lee. "In fact, that is why we created SmartCone to provide a rapid deployment ecosystem to address real-world problems. And I think the current situation qualifies." In the past 18 months, SmartCone has demonstrated the ability to deliver innovative and patented solutions in security, transportation, logistics, health and tracking based on its IoT communication, identification, sensing, monitoring and AI analytics technologies to include two iterations of this solution: Mobile Response Unit with LTE-powered Wi-Fi Access Points in New Mexico ; ; High-accuracy thermal cameras for automated group temperature readings at a nuclear facility. SmartCone is dedicated to finding relevant technologies to further the fight against COVID-19 and bring safety solutions to the world over. If you know a technology that can help, please contact us. About SmartCone 19 Task Force The SC19 Task Force initiative brings global companies together for rapid deployment of technologies to aid frontline workers, along with companies wanting to offer a safer workplace during these challenging times. Learn more at www.19taskforce.com. About SmartCone Technologies, Inc. SmartCone Technologies Inc. (SCTI) is a unique data sensory company that commercializes new Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies to power a wide array of sensors, cognitive edge computing, sensor fusion and artificial intelligence (AI) analytics. Learn more at www.thesmartcone.com. For more information, contact Tenille Houston at 613-617-7467 or [email protected]. Related Images smartcone-19-task-force.png SmartCone 19 Task Force SmartCone 19 Task Force, an international collaboration of technology companies dedicated to providing a safe, secure and protected work environment for both employees and employers Related Links http://www.thesmartcone.com SOURCE SmartCone Technologies, Inc. A high-ranking public security official in China has been placed under internal investigation, though whether it has to do with Beijings handling of the CCP virus outbreak is unclear. Sun Lijun, 51, a vice minister within Chinas Ministry of Public Security, is suspected of serious violations of Party discipline and the law, according to an online announcement on April 19. Hes now under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and National Supervisory Commission, the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) internal anti-corruption watchdogs. The public security ministry is in charge of Chinas police system. The two agencies didnt provide further details about Suns alleged wrongdoing, but the turn of phrase in the announcement is an oft-used euphemism for corruption. Sun played a significant role in Beijings effort to combat the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. In January, Beijing set up a coordination group for the prevention and control of the virus, under the Politburo Standing Committeethe Partys top decision-making body. Sun was a member of the group, which is headed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, according to Chinese state-run media reports. On Feb. 20, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported on its website that Sun was among a group of Chinese officials who accompanied Yin Yonga former mayor of Shanghai who became Party secretary of Hubei province on Feb. 13to listen to local prevention reports at the Wuhan Public Security Bureau a day earlier. Wuhan, the epicenter of Chinas outbreak, is the capital city of Hubei. Sun also appeared on Xianwen Lianbo, a daily news program on state-run broadcaster CCTV, on March 9. The program showed that Sun attended an oath-taking ceremony at a local police station in Wuhan, for two police officers who joined the Party after taking part in the virus response. On Sunday evening, when Zhao Kezhi, Chinas public security minister, held a meeting for police officials. According to Chinese state-run media, the meeting discussed how Sun had for a long time ignored the Partys discipline and political rules. In recent years, many Party officials who were charged with disciplinary violations later were convicted in formal court proceedings. Persecution of Faith Group Sun, a native of Qingdao city in eastern Chinas Shandong province, became the vice minister in March 2018. Prior to his post, Sun was a deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai municipal government; director of the public security ministrys office in dealing with affairs in Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; as well as a deputy director of the central 610 Office. The 610 Office is a Gestapo-like secret police force that was established expressly to carry out the persecution of Falun Gong adherents. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that involves meditative exercises and moral teachings based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Since July 1999, the Chinese regime has severely persecuted adherents, with hundreds of thousands detained in prisons, labor camps, and brainwashing centers, often while also being tortured. Thousands have died, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center, though the true number may be much higher. The pandemic has not slowed down the regimes persecution campaign. According to Minghui.org, a website that monitors the persecution of Falun Gong in China, 384 Falun Gong adherents were arrested and 363 harassedamong them 313 saw their homes ransackedin March alone. Hebei province saw the most cases of arrests with 48, followed by Liaoning province with 45 and Shandong province 44. In the same month, fifteen adherents were given court sentences due to their faith. Three adherents were persecuted to death, according to Minghui.org. Political Infighting A source familiar with internal Party affairs who does not wish to be named told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that Suns downfall had to do with political infighting within the Party, as Sun is part of a political faction loyal to former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. Since current Chinese leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he has utilized an anti-corruption campaign to purge the Party of Jiang faction officials. According to the source, Sun posed a threat to Xi because he is a high-ranking official within the Jiang faction. Sun was former director of the first and 26th departments of the public security ministry, which according to the source, is in charge of the security detail for top Party officials family members. Current leader Xi decided to eliminate such a high-level threat, as there have been recent rumors of a political coup against Xi, the source added. Suns downfall means that Xi is now in control politically. Previously, Xi purged high-level Jiang officials such as former Chinese security czar Zhou Yongkang and Meng Hongwei, former vice minister of public security and Interpol president. Before being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2015, Zhou, who climbed up the political ladder by carrying out the persecution campaign against Falun Gong, plotted with former Party boss of Chongqing Bo Xilai to stage a coup against Xi. From The Epoch Times On the third day of his mandatory isolation, Shivaji Park resident Mandar Raut said he couldnt stop looking at the quarantine stamp on his hand as he tossed and turned in bed, contemplating all possible scenarios if more people in his building tested positive for the Coronavirus. The local civic body had collected his swab sample earlier that same day, and Raut said: My heart didnt stop racing as my mind went through an array of negative possibilities. Every attempt to sleep was nullified as fear gripped my body. The only question I kept asking myself was: Am I positive too? Like Raut, 44 other residents of 15 flats at the four-storey Dinkar apartment complex heaved a sigh of relief when civic officials and police informed them on Sunday that their quarantine was over. The residents stepped out of their homes after 15 days and entered the societys common area. They distributed chocolates to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) staff and police for helping them get through this difficult period. It began on April 4, when one of the residents of the complex, a 60-year-old man with no travel history, was admitted to PD Hinduja Hospital after three days of dry cough, sore throat and pain in the lungs. He tested positive for Covid-19. On April 1, he returned from purchasing essentials at the local market and began feeling very drowsy, the mans wife said. Since March 15, every time he stepped out, he would wear a mask and gloves, and regularly sanitised his hands but we still dont know how he may have been infected. Along with the positive patients wife and son, Raut and his family, who live next door, tested negative for Covid-19. Mahesh Arte, another resident, said: Shocked as they were, the mans wife and son made it a point to inform society members about his admission to hospital, so we were prepared for what was to come. By the end of the day, every society resident had their hands stamped with the home quarantine sign in indelible ink. The society gates were sealed, with a police mobile van parked outside with a flickering blue light to alert passers-by to stay away from the building. Their complex was redeveloped in 1984, and has had the same residents since then. Unlike other housing societies in Mumbai, we are a close-knit unit. However, the looming fear of what might happen over the course of a fortnight led to sleepless nights, said Raut. Arte said support from BMC and police, whose officials checked in with the residents almost 10 times a day, helped them pull through. From April 7, we appointed one of our residents as the point of contact for essential supplies. BMC provided us medicines, vegetables and daily provisions free of cost throughout the quarantine, said Arte, adding the residents communicated their requirements through social media platforms. Ajit Dalvi, yet another resident, said, Owing to their support (BMC and police), we didnt feel neglected or abandoned throughout the isolation period. BMC officials explained the importance of waste segregation from the positive patients home. They used yellow bags and transported waste in a separate vehicle, the patients wife said. We were confused about the process. However, we got the hang of it within a couple of days when BMC officers ran us through a proper protocol, she said. Arte said, Waste from other residents was collected in black bags, checked for biomedical hazardous waste daily, and sprayed with disinfectants. Though their quarantine is over, residents have agreed to follow the same social distancing protocols during the lockdown till May 3. On Monday, doctors at PD Hinduja Hospital informed the societys residents the sole Covid-19-positive patient had tested negative. While this was the first of three tests, it brought a glimmer of hope to the residents that life could be normal again. These are trying times and may even bring out the worst in us, but we need to remember that while maintaining physical distance, we need to be there for each other, said Raut. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Photo: N.C. Chiropractic Association The coronavirus outbreak is ravaging North Carolina's health care system - threatening to shutter medical practices and worsen shortages of care during the coronavirus surge.Across North Carolina, health care workers and practices are taking an economic beating. With elective procedures canceled and patients wary, revenue streams are dry. Overhead expenses remain, forcing many to furlough or lay off staff. Evaporated federal funds and rumors of prolonged lockdowns stoke growing fear that medical practices won't survive the pandemic.The outbreak forced Dr. Rachael Wruble to lay off all but two of her employees. Like many businesses, she hopes to rehire them all if her optometric practice gets a loan from Congress' coronavirus relief package. But the loan program she is depending on ran out of money after hitting its $350 billion limit Thursday, April 16.said Wruble, president of the N.C. Optometric Society.She doesn't know whether she qualified for the loan before the federal funding ran out.Wruble said.As the outbreak continues, nurse anesthetists are losing hours, taking unpaid leaves of absence, and being furloughed for months in the Triangle area, said Linda Stone, president of the N.C. Association of Nurse Anesthetists.Nurse anesthetist Kimberly Gordon's weekly hours were cut in half in mid-March. She doesn't know if she'll keep any given shift at the hospital until the day before.Gordon said.She's not alone. A tenth of 354 nurses identified job security as a major concern back in late March, according to a survey by the N.C. Nurses Association. As hospitals emptied beds for the surge, cuts to support staff followed, Gordon said.Many ambulatory surgery centers are closed across the state. Surgery volumes have plunged to 30% of their pre-virus level, said Peter Lohrengel, N.C. Ambulatory Surgical Center Association executive director.Lohrengel said.Independent and specialist physician practices are suffering a similar drought. Tryon Medical Partners cut a fourth of its staff of some 300 medical professionals, as it made a "model-shift" to telemedicine in response to government requirements.Revenue at Dr. Mark Scheiderich's dental practice plunged from $85,000 a month to $4,000. His overhead consumes 60% of that revenue - a low percentage for a dentist. For dentists with student debt or business loans, that percentage can soar past 80%, says Scheiderich.Scheiderich said.His emergency savings are running out. If the lockdown continues much longer, he will have to fire workers to afford the supplies to restart his practice.Scheiderich said.Chiropractic practices were exempted from the shutdowns. But that hasn't saved their industry, said Heather Wrenn, N.C. Chiropractic Association executive director.Wrenn said.Chiropractor Glenn Jaffe was forced to furlough a member of his staff weeks ago, and he's cut his own hours nearly in half.Jaffe said.Providers hoped to rely on federal relief to weather the pandemic and social distancing. But that money ran out after just 13 days, leaving medical practices without any recourse. Many providers were already worried about the regulatory requirements for loan forgiveness.said Jordan Roberts , John Locke Foundation health care policy analyst.The financial devastation could worsen the shortage of health care workers during the surge of coronavirus patients, Roberts said.Roberts said.Gordon hopes to eventually see a backlog of elective procedures that will help providers make up for the losses. But she fears the emergence of a second wave in Winston-Salem and the rest of North Carolina.Gordon said. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Alex Brandon/AP/Shutterstock (10333251c) Donald Trump Jr., the son of President Donald Trump, steps off Air Force One with President Donald Trump as they arrive at General Mitchell International Airport, in Milwaukee Trump, Milwaukee, USA 12 Jul 2019 After weeks of protests against shutdowns around the country, an unexpected advocate of free speech has emerged and its a member of Americas First Family. Citing frustrations with Facebook for removing posts involving several anti-stay-at-home protests, Donald Trump Jr. is calling out the tech company on behalf of the First Amendment. Following protests in Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia states which Trump Sr. called to liberate just last week more cities began seeing organized efforts to combat what they believe are strict quarantine measures. Trump Jr. responded to concerns that organizing efforts were interrupted or stopped because of social media monitoring in a serious condemnation of Facebook. On Monday, Trump Jr. tweeted that Facebook is colluding with state governments to quash peoples free speech. In the tweet, Trump Jr. also stated, Regardless of what you think about the lockdowns or the protests against them, this is a chilling & disturbing government directed shutdown of peoples 1st Amendment rights. Why is @Facebook colluding with state governments to quash peoples free speech? Regardless of what you think about the lockdowns or the protests against them, this is a chilling & disturbing government directed shutdown of peoples 1st Amendment rights. Very dangerous! https://t.co/rnG09TSVhI Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 20, 2020 Trump Jr.s tweet came in response to reports that Facebook took steps to block protesters from using its platform to organize in-person rallies in California, New Jersey and Nebraska, but has not blocked users from utilizing its platform to organize in places like Michigan, Texas, and Virginia, where people have also been rallying. Story continues According to Politico, Facebook indicated that it had removed information that users had posted about anti-shutdown protests at the request of states whose authorities said they violated restrictions on large public gatherings. Later, the company clarified it also sought guidance from states but made the decision to take the posts down independent from state mandates. In an interview with ABC News, CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested that Facebook removes content that disputes social distancing practices and poses the risk of physically harming people. Certainly, someone saying that social distancing is not effective to help limit the spread of coronavirus, we do classify that as harmful misinformation and we take that down. At the same time, its important that people can debate policies, Zuckerberg said. Trump Jr. has now taken on the cause of fighting for protestors right to free speech, calling the companys actions very dangerous! But, the social media platform has taken heat in the past for failing to properly moderate political content on its platform before. This past year, Facebook came under fire for letting candidates post ads with false information on their site and did not remove those ads, citing the same free speech laws. However, Facebooks obligation as a private company is not necessarily to maintain free speech. While Trump Jr. is correct that the First Amendment protects peoples free speech, the fact is that Facebook is a private corporation and operates in its own lane means that they are technically able to only allow users abiding by the sites guidelines to continue posting as they see fit. In a statement from a Facebook company spokesperson sent to Refinery29, they said, Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook. For this same reason, events that defy governments guidance on social distancing arent allowed on Facebook. As nurses and healthcare workers reported being shut out from hospitals following protests in states like Michigan called Operation Gridlock, and reports indicate that protestors could actually end up spreading the novel coronavirus even further, Facebooks stance seems to err on the side of safety and protection, though it remains to be seen whether or not these efforts to moderate online discourse will continue in light of new backlash. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? Why Twitter Wants To Stop Airing Trump's Briefings Why Trump Refuses To Bail Out The Postal Service Why Trump's Plan To Reopen States Is Not Possible Hyderabad, April 21 : Two Rohingya refugees from Telangana who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month have tested positive for COVID-19, police said. According to Director General of Police Mahender Reddy, two Rohingyas from Nalgonda who attended the meet at Nizamuddin Markaz in the national capital were found infected. Both are under treatment at a hospital in Hyderabad and their condition is stable. A total of seven Rohnigyas from Telangana went to Delhi to attend the meet. Five of them were from Hyderabad but none of them was found positive. The Rohingyas were traced and tested following the Centre's directive to all the state states to look out for refugees who participated in the Markaz congregation. The police chief said all the people from the state who visited Delhi were traced. Demand destruction is how Andy Novakovic describes the impact of the current global COVID-19 pandemic on the dairy supply chain. Novakovic, longtime dairy economist at Cornell University, was joined by Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Chris Wolf, dairy economics professor at Cornell University, in the inaugural DairyLivestream broadcast on April 15. The panel was moderated by Corey Geiger, Hoards Dairyman managing editor. If you missed the live conversation, you can view it here. DairyLivestream is a special series of web meetings featuring expert perspective from our nations leading dairy economists. The panel presentation and discussion are designed to address producer concerns around the changes in dairy markets that have quickly piled up over the last month. This weeks broadcast focused on the issue of milk dumping from the perspectives of dairy farmers, processing plants and milk haulers, and dairy marketing. Wolf explained that small-scale milk dumping has occurred on farms in the past due to events such as weather or during the spring flush. This dumped milk is able to be paid for at the lowest class price, often Class IV. If farmers are having to dump milk now, they can at least feel secure that that volume should not affect their eligibility for the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC). Tracking just how much milk is being dumped is proving to be more difficult, though. Stephenson said that at least 1.5 million pounds are being dumped per day in Wisconsin alone, which is likely the epicenter of the countrys dumping. He cautioned, though, that the estimate may prove to be more like 5 million pounds. Processing plants are quickly approaching cold storage and facility limits. Novakovic reminded that the dairy supply chain is extremely nimble, but the current situation is unprecedented and forcing tremendous flexibility. The biggest influence on dairy demand has been the drastic cut in food service orders. However, we are also seeing a significant demand change, too, as retail fluid milk sales have been growing. In Wisconsin, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin and the states department of agriculture were able to get Target stores to lift limits on consumer dairy purchases, particularly milk. Checkoff organizations such as the American Dairy Association North East have partnered to deliver milk to thousands of food banks. Solutions across the supply chain continue to be explored. These panelists will join up again for more live discussion and questions next Wednesday, April 22 at 11 a.m. CST and also on Wednesday, April 29 at 11 a.m. You can register for both sessions here. To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com. (c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2020 April 16, 2020 Private sector lender City Union Bank on Tuesday said it has got RBI nod for reappointment of MD&CEO N Kamakodi. The Reserve Bank of India has given its approval vide e-mail dated April 20, 2020, for the reappointment of N Kamakodi as the MD&CEO of the bank, City Union Bank said in a regulatory filing. It said Kamakodi's reappointment is for a further period of three years with effect from May 1, 2020. City Union Bank stock was trading 2.18 per cent down at Rs 128 on the BSE. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CHENNAI: While the Centre and state governments are trying hard to ensure early return of migrants workers stranded in different parts of the country due to the coronavirus lockdown, some of them are taking desperate and unsafe measures to each their homes. In one such incident, around ten Odiya migrant labourers, who were stranded in Chennai due to nationwide lockdown, opted for the sea route to reach their home state Odisha. According to reports, along with 17 other migrant workers from Andhra Pradesh, they bought a boat for Rs 1.6 lakh along with fuel for this dangerous sea voyage. However, after reaching Ichhapuram of the Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh, they were detained by the alert policemen and put in a quarantine facility. This incident comes at a time when normally Odisha labourers stranded in other states are trying to come to their home state either through hired vehicles by road or by walking. The ten Odiya labourers are from Sunapur of Odishas Ganjam district. It is needless to mention that many labourers from Odisha work in the industries of Chennai. The imposition of lockdown has shut down industries in Chennai causing massive inconvenience in the income of labourers working there. This has forced many Odia labourers to return home, without paying any heed to lockdown norms. Meanwhile, five more persons tested positive for novel coronavirus in Odisha on Tuesday, taking the total number of such cases to 79 in the state, a health department official said. All the fresh cases have been reported from Balasore district neighbouring West Bengal, he said. "Contact-tracing of all the new cases are going on and follow-up action is also being taken," the official said. Two COVID-19 cases including a two-year-old child were also reported from Balasore district on Monday. The number of active cases in the state now stands at 53 while 25 persons have been cured of the disease. A 72-year-old man from Bhubaneswar died of the coronavirus infection. Of the 79 cases reported in the state, 46 are from Khurda district comprising Bhubaneswar, eight each from Balasore and Bhadrak, seven from Jajpur, three from Sundergarh, two each from Kendrapara and Kalahandi and one each from Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Puri districts. Sixty more people have been arrested in connection with attack on police and health workers on COVID-19 duty at Padarayanapura here, taking the total number of those detained to 119 in the past two days, Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Tuesday. In a related development, a district jail in nearby Ramanagara has been converted into a "sort of COVID-19" prison and the first batch of 59 people arrested in connection with the incident lodged there after being remanded to judicial custody by a court, an official said. The entire Padarayanapura, a minority-dominated area, is under 'control', Bommai said, a day after Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa termed as "goondaism" the attack on the health workers and police personnel on Sunday and directed stringent action against those taking law into their hands. Police had on Monday said 59 people had been arrested in connection with the incident during which a large number of residents gathered and thrashed the health workers, who visited the area to quarantine contacts of a COVID-19 patient, and also some locals who came to their rescue. "The Bengaluru police have so far arrested 119 people who had created a riotous situation at Padarayanapura. The entire area is under control," Bommai told reporters here. When asked whether action under the National Security Act would be initiated against them, he said criminal cases will be registered against them under the National Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Diseases Act in addition to the Indian Penal Code provisions. The health workers had visited the area to quarantine some 40 odd primary and secondary contacts of a COVID-19 patient when the people, mostly youths from the minority community, unleashed violence. According to one of the five FIRs, the mob allegedly raised slogans "Kill police.Don't spare them" and rused towards the workers and police holding stones, sticks and sharp-edged weapons. A prison official said the inmates already lodged in the Ramanagara jail were being shifted to the Central prison here. "At present there are 177 prisoners in Ramanagara Jail they will be shifted to the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail," the official told PTI. The strength and capacity of the prison may be enhanced, if the situation warranted, to lodge all such remand prisoners who are suspected to be infected with COVID-19 and had indulged in violent incidents, sources in the prison department said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Some artists embrace chance and whimsy, but Jess Johnson's painstaking focus puts her into a space entirely under her command. Right now, the contrast to the disorder and disruption outside her New York apartment couldn't be more stark. The New Zealander's meticulously detailed drawings are entirely accomplished by hand. It's a world that I control completely, she says. I've always used it as a respite in that way... It's a counterpoint to feeling that you have no control over other areas of your life. These events that I have no control over outside, I'm used to using my artwork to tune that stuff out. Artist Jess Johnson. 'That stuff', of course, is COVID-19. Like most artists, Johnson's once-packed 2020 calendar has been wiped clean. Johnson is holed up in New York city, one of the epicentres of infection. The state has recorded more than 14,000 deaths among a quarter of a million cases of coronavirus. There are mobile morgues on the streets of Brooklyn, where hospitals have been described as "conveyor belts" for the dead. Last years 13.3-inch Razer Blade Stealth was one of the first truly powerful ultrabooks with NVIDIA GTX 1650 graphics and a tiny 2.5 pound size, but it still had a few shortcomings. Razer has now addressed many of those the new Razer Blade Stealth 2020 model. It now packs a 120 Hz display for smoother gaming and comes with NVIDIAs GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU that should boost speeds, too. It also offers Intels latest Core i7-1065G7 quad-core processor with faster clock speeds of up to 3.9 GHz. Along with the 120Hz 1080p display, Razer also offers a 4K touch display with Gorilla Glass. That model is aimed more at content creation pros, but both displays cover 100 percent of the sRGB space and are calibrated from the factory to deliver accurate colors. Razer The design remains unchanged, with tiny 4.9 mm bezels, USB 3.0 ports, a USB Type C Thunderbolt port and a headphone jack. As before, it can be paired with a Razer Core X eGPU equipped with any GPU for greater gaming speeds. The weight has increased a bit to 3.1 pounds, but its still tiny for a laptop with such powerful specs. The Blade Stealth 13 is still pretty expensive at $1,800, especially considering that you can get the more powerful Blade 15 for just a couple hundred dollars more with a GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q GPU. However, lightweight laptops generally arent cheap, and the Blade Stealth weighs 1.6 pounds less than the Blade 15. It arrives today in the US and Canada at Razer.com and select retailers, and comes soon to Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Arizona General Hospital Dignity Health Emergency Department Leadership Emergency Medicine is our largest service line and the clinical excellence and skilled leadership that Drs. Linder, McHale and Betz bring will help position us to continue to grow and follow our vision.-Jane E.T. Hanson President & CEO Arizona General Hospital, Phoenix Dr. Joel Betz brings over 15 years of clinical and leadership experience to this position. He graduated from Arizona State University in 2002 and then attended University of Arizona School of Medicine graduating in 2006. After medical school he completed residency in Emergency Medicine at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Dr. Betz is board certified in Emergency Medicine by the American College of Emergency Physicians. After residency Dr. Betz joined the group covering Chandler Regional and Mercy Gilbert Medical Centers. Three years later he joined Banner Gateway Emergency Dept. as Assistant Medical Director. Subsequently, Banner Health acquired Banner Payson Medical Center, and Dr Betz served as Medical Director during the transition and for 2 years following, after which he returned to the Phoenix metro area joining the Adeptus and Dignity family. Currently he serves as Regional Medical Officer East Valley, based at the AGH Mesa Hospital location. His current interests and focus include increasing physician and staff communication, with a special focus on culture improvement. He is also passionate about patient satisfaction as well as physician satisfaction, and strongly believes the two are closely intertwined. Dr. Betz has organized and attended several medical mission trips to Guatemala and has provided care to the under-served communities in the Guatemalan highlands. In his off time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and children, and training for triathlons, recently completing his second IronMan in Houston. Dr. Joel Betz, MD shares I am truly blessed to be working with all these great people, both with Dignity and TEC. I am excited to implement these improvements to further excellent patient care through this health care model. Dr. Jason Linder is a graduate of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri (1996). In 2000, he completed his residency at Maricopa Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ and is board certified in Emergency Medicine by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. He is also trained in Hyperbaric Medicine. Dr. Linder has an extensive clinical, teaching, and leadership background. He brings with him over 25 years of experience. Previously Dr. Linder served as Associate Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at Indiana University (2000-2003). He also was a former partner in Chandler Emergency Medical Group where he served as Medical Director of the Emergency Department (2006-2009) and Medical Executive Committee Member at Large (2009-2012) at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, and Department Chair of Emergency Medicine (2013-2015) at Chandler Regional Medical Center. Most recently Dr. Linder has served at CRMC and MGMC as Vice Chief of Staff (2017, 2018) and Medical Staff President (2019, 2020). His other roles include: Member of the Ethics Committee (2004-2013) CRMC and MGMC; CRMC (2008-2012), and Track and Mass Gathering Physician, Phoenix International Raceway (1998-Present). When he is not working, JJ enjoys spending time hiking, biking, man caving, and camping in the family RV. As a 30-year veteran of Type 1 diabetes, he passionately donates his time volunteering for Diabetes Training Camp (DTC) each year to help support and teach people with insulin dependent diabetes learn how to live a whole active life. Dr. Jason (JJ) Linder, MD shares I am humbled and excited to join the team at Arizona General Mesa. It is a facility on a great growth curve in a great location and I believe will ultimately bring a modern twist on the idea of a community hospital. It will also bring the highly specialized network of physicians throughout Dignity Arizona to the East Valley in the form of care close to home with a network of specialists to fit your individual needs. I hope to be part of building a healthcare facility that serves the community in the way I would want for my own family." Dr. Paul McHale, MD is a graduate of Univ. of San Diego (1991), Univ of Minnesota Medical School (1996) and completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ in 2000. He is board certified in Emergency Medicine by the American Board of Emergency Medicine and trained in Hyperbaric Medicine. Dr. McHale was a founding partner of Chandler Emergency Medical Group, PLC (PEMS), formed in 2002. PEMS provided clinical physicians & support for the Emergency Departments at Chandler Regional Medical Center & Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. During the last 18 years Dr. McHale has helped lead ER Redesign teams in 2005 & 2014, helped implement a scribe program, served as EMS Director (03-05), Medical Director at CRMC ED (05-09, 14-15), Chairman of ED at CRMC (09-13). He also served on the East Valley Community Board (08-19) including serving as Vice Chair (14-16) and Chairman (16-18). Dr. McHale is also employed by Air Methods Corporation as a Medical Director for several bases in the Arizona service region, from 2009 - Present. He has also served as a Clinician for Gallus Detox (15-17) & interim Medical Director for BCBS AZ (18-19). Currently, he also serves as Medical Director, and is a minority owner in Trinity Air Medical, a logistics healthcare company based in Tempe, AZ (13-Present). Dr. McHale believes in creating an environment that is trusting, professional, supportive, and most importantly, he realizes we should enjoy our workplace. Paul Loves to work, but his most important role is family. He has been married to his wife of 25 years and has 3 children still at home. Paul loves to make food of all kinds, especially anything on the grill or smoker. He enjoys chasing Tarpon/Permit/Bonefish/Trout & other gamefish with a flyrod and some longtime friends. Dr. Paul McHale, MD shares I am extremely excited to join The Emergency Center, re-uniting with past colleagues from Maricopa Medical Center & Premier Emergency Medical Specialists. I am proud to have joined the Arizona General team and look forward to bringing our energy, thoughts, and teamwork mentality to our hospitals & freestanding ER's. The Emergency Center is thrilled to welcome these three outstanding physicians to its already robust team. The future of freestanding ED care in Arizona is bright with the addition of these three leaders to the partnership between The Emergency Center and Arizona General Hospitals. Dr. Keith Butler, MD, CEO of The Emergency Center announces TEC is pleased to partner with AGH Dignity and Drs. McHale, Linder, and Betz to extend our vision of the highest quality emergency care across the largest and most renown satellite facility organization in the state of Arizona. We are thrilled that we can now positively impact the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of patients. Washington: President Donald Trump said he wants to add as much as 75 million barrels of oil to the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, taking advantage of record low prices for crude, and that he'll consider blocking imports of crude from Saudi Arabia. Demand for oil continues to fall due to the new coronavirus outbreak. Credit:AP Oil is at "a level that's very interesting to a lot of people right now," Trump said Monday at a White House news conference. "That would be the first time in a long time it's been topped out -- we'll get it for the right price." Trump has sought to help US oil companies from record low prices. But with demand hurt by the global coronavirus shutdown, crude has continued to plunge. On Monday, the price of the futures contract for West Texas crude that is due to expire Tuesday fell into negative territory. Later in the news conference, Trump said he'll look at a proposal from Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota to block Saudi Arabian oil shipments to the US. As the number of coronavirus cases surge in Massachusetts, thousands of hospital beds remain available across the commonwealth. New data released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health shows the increased need for hospital beds has not reached the increased supply made available in Massachusetts. As of Sunday, 3,804 people were hospitalized in Massachusetts with COVID-19. This represents about 10% of total COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts, with 39,643 confirmed cases currently. 169,398 total tests have been performed in Massachusetts. About 14% of intensive care beds across the state remain available and 38% of non-ICU beds are available, as of the figures released Monday evening. These figures include surge hospital beds, 5,100 of which are not staffed, according to the report. State health officials have opened multiple field hospitals across the state to deal with the surge of COVID-19 patients, offering more than 5,000 more hospital beds across Massachusetts. The first to open was at the DCU Center in Worcester offering 250 hospital beds. Within the facility there are six pods with each having 40 makeshift rooms. There are 10 beds for resuscitation and intensive care. According to the city of Worcester, the homeless shelter at the DCU Center has 46 positive homeless clients as of Tuesday. The field hospital site at the DCU Center had 13 patients. The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center field hospital opened a day later offering 1,000 hospital beds. Hospitals at the Joint Base Cape Cod in Bourne and at the University of Massachusetts Lowells Recreation Center are scheduled to open next and each handle up to 100 patients. A fifth hospital at UMass Dartmouth is scheduled to open next week. In Boston, where 6,800 hospital beds are located, 60% of hospital beds were available, according to Mondays numbers. In MetroWest, where a field hospital has not been opened, 42% of hospital beds were available. In Western Massachusetts, a field hospital site was identified in the MassMutual Center in Springfield, but the need to open has not been reached. As of Monday, 65% of hospital beds remain available, including 17% of ICU beds and 48% non-ICU. Including the field hospital beds opened in Worcester, 63% of hospital beds remain available in Central Massachusetts, including 10% of ICU beds. The number of COVID-19 patients varies widely by region, from hundreds of patients at some hospitals to none at others. Suffolk County has the highest number of hospitalizations with 1,407. Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston topped the list with 447 hospitalizations of suspected and confirmed COVID cases. Boston Medical Center followed with 248 cases. Middlesex has 708 people hospitalized at a dozen hospitals in the county. In Worcester, 283 patients were reported hospitalized, with UMass Memorial system reporting the most patients - 84 at the University Campus and 55 at the Memorial Campus. In Western Massachusetts, Hampden County has the most hospitalized patients. Of the 217 people hospitalized across the county, the majority - 130 - are being treated at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Community hospitals on Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket are reporting no COVID patients hospitalized. Both islands remain the areas with the lowest number of cases reported. The data released Monday by Massachusetts health officials shows that the virus is impacting residents from students to seniors, though the severity of the illness increasing with age. More than half of all hospitalizations have been residents 70 and older - with those 80 and older representing about a third of total hospitalizations. The impact on younger residents has been significantly lower. Just over 100 Massachusetts residents under the age of 30 have required hospitalization. These COVID-19 diagnoses were impacted by preexisting health conditions. A single resident under the age of 30 has died from a coronavirus-related illness in Massachusetts. The overwhelming majority of deaths linked to COVID-19 have been older residents. The virus has claimed the lives of 1,809 people in Massachusetts, with 103 deaths reported Monday. Of the total deaths, 85% have been residents 70 or older, with the average age of 81 years old for those who died. While Middlesex County - Massachusetts most populous county - has seen the highest number of deaths from the virus, the rates per capita show statewide impact from the virus. Hampden County has the highest deaths per capita of any Massachusetts county, with 47 deaths per 100,000 residents. Norfolk County has the second highest deaths per capita at 37 deaths per 100,000 residents, followed narrowly by Franklin County at 36. Related Content The Brandenburg Gate casts long shadows over the almost deserted Pariser Platz, April 15, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Kay Nietfeld | dpa | picture alliance via Getty Images While much of western Europe has struggled to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Germany has appeared to navigate the outbreak relatively smoothly, with widespread testing and contact tracing that has helped keep its death rate far lower than its peers. Perhaps, then, it's time to look to Germany for how to lift the lockdown too. On Monday, Germany started to tentatively lift its restrictions, with smaller retailers of under 800 square meters being allowed to reopen, as long as hygiene and social distancing measures could be maintained. Larger car dealerships, bike shops, and book shops have also been allowed to open their doors. The country's influential and economically-vital car industry has lobbied hard for lockdown measures to be eased, and car group VW opened one of its major manufacturing plants in Germany, in the city of Zwickau, on Monday, with more plants to follow next week. Schools will reopen on May 4, with priority given to students taking exams. Large, mass gatherings will remain banned until August 31, however, and restaurants, cinemas and large retail stores remain closed for now. In short, Germany appears to have a clear plan for how to reopen its economy. Under control Germany has 147,065 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU), and has registered 4,862 deaths. These figures are starkly lower than some of its European neighbors: As of Monday, Spain has recorded 20,852 deaths (and over 200,000 cases of the virus), Italy has seen over 24,000 deaths and France over 20,000 deaths while the U.K. death toll has risen to 16,550, according to JHU. On Friday, Germany's Robert Koch Institute, which has collated the country's coronavirus data, said the reproduction or transmission rate (the number of people that each infected person goes on to infect) had dropped below one for the first time. This is a closely watched measure and led Germany's Health Minister Jens Spahn to declare: "As things stand today, the outbreak is again controllable." Strategists noted that Germany had the right strategy when it came to managing the coronavirus outbreak and that others could learn from Berlin. "(The) bottom line was Germany was better prepared, more decentralized (with a dispersed number of labs able to institute large-scale testing quickly, and the ability to contact trace) and swifter to react," Bill Blain, a strategist for investment firm Shard Capital, told CNBC Monday. He said countries like the U.K., where he is based, which has been criticized for not carrying out nearly as many tests or contact tracing, should learn from Germany's example. "The next stage is getting economies reopen, and again Germany is in a better position because of more testing and contact data. In the continuing absence of good data, the U.K. would be wise to watch carefully what Germany does," he noted. Germany's cautious re-opening of its economy could also give other European economies that are yet to lift restrictions (such as the U.K. and France) an insight into how consumers, and consequently the economy, will react. "One of the questions is going to be, if you've been ... at home during lockdown you're effectively forced to save money ... so are people going to rush out and spend as soon as the shackles of lockdown are partially lifted?" Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, said on CNBC's Squawk Box Europe Monday. "When we look at things like the Google location data and the anecdotal evidence from Germany, that's going to be a very useful indication." A lady walks past a sign in Berlin, Germany advising people to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic. Odd Andersen | AFP | Getty Images Donovan also highlighted that any second waves of the virus will come with a "greater preparedness." "So the health-care systems will be better able to deal with the strain and people will also generally be better prepared, and companies too ...so the economic damage of further waves of the virus is diminished," he said, adding that subsequent lockdowns would also likely be on a smaller scale. One size doesn't fit all The Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh in Cambodia has been using creative ways to continue its pastoral service amid the coronavirus emergency, says Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler. By Robin Gomes "Our heart is turned and entrusted to Our Lady of Smiles, amid the rice fields of Cambodia, amid the emergency to curb the coronavirus infection, said Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh, the capital. As of Tuesday, Cambodia had a total of 122 reported cases of the infection with 110 recoveries and no deaths. However, the government has taken aggressive action against the spread of the disease, closing down and restricting several sectors in stages since March 7. Religious gatherings and public activities have been banned by the Ministry of Health and schools have been closed until further notice. Creativity "The Catholic Church in this context has tried to organize itself creatively and proactively. All the gatherings in our communities: masses, common prayers, meetings, seminars are suspended and all our schools are closed, but the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh has been very active in trying to continue pastoral service", Bishop Schmitthaeusler told the Vaticans Fides news agency. The bishop established a special "Covid-19 task force" on March 19 with representatives from the various sectors of the Apostolic Vicariate. On Sunday, Catholics began celebrating Mass and daily rosary streamed live on Facebook and YouTube. The vicariates social communications service is open 24 hours a day to allow the faithful to come in communion with their community since no more than 4 persons can physically come together for church services. Shepherds among their sheep The apostolic vicar has asked every priest to live in a community of the vicariate to celebrate the sacraments, certainly without the faithful, saying this presence is precious and is a sign of concrete closeness to the people of the villages. Bishop Schmitthaeusler himself does not live in the bishops house but has temporarily moved to the parish of Our Lady of Smiles, 90 kilometres from Phnom Penh, where he was parish priest earlier for 10 years. The parish is home to the largest Cambodian community in the Apostolic Vicariate, as well as a large part of the education and development programmes. I celebrated the Paschal Triduum which was broadcast with whatever facilities were available in the middle of the rice fields, the bishop proudly recounts. Education The schools of the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh have also set up online courses for students from primary to high school. St. Pauls Institute is also planning to start a complete distance education programme for students. Online training has also been set up for kindergarten teachers, the bishop said. Catholic charity amid Covid-19 The Churchs charity is also very active, says the bishop. Its charity and development "Alliance", made up of Catholic charities, religious congregations, offices and bodies working especially in healthcare, Catholic education and social service sectors, the bishop says, is very active and is preparing for the post-covid 19 era. We are distributing food, soap and face masks for the needy, Bishop Schmitthaeusler says, adding, the Covid-19 will leave lasting effects on the most vulnerable. There will be people without jobs, soaring debts and closed businesses. In the name of the risen Jesus Christ, he says, the Churchs social services and charities will be able to serve the needy. 70 catechumens were scheduled to receive Baptism at the Easter Vigil Mass but could not because of the coronavirus emergency. May they remain strong in faith in this time of trial, the bishop prayed, hoping they will be able to receive it sacrament in the joy of the Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. Cambodia has some 20,000 Catholics, forming just 0.13% of its some 16 million population that is about 97% Buddhist. There are no dioceses but three ecclesiastical jurisdictions the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh and the Apostolic Prefectures of Battambang and Kompong Cham. (Source: Fides) For decades, Bill McKibben has been the harbinger of climate change and its impacts. The author and environmentalist continues to be, as the 50th anniversary of Earth Day approaches. A resident of Vermont and frequenter of the Adirondacks, McKibben shared his thoughts with The Times Union about the environmental progress the country and local region has made, while warning that threats remain. What are some of the countrys greatest environmental accomplishments that give you hope since Earth Day began 50 years ago? We took good care of the visible pollution problems, the stuff you could see. The air over our cities and the water in our rivers and lakes got lots cleanerwe owe the people who kicked off this work our great thanks. But of course they couldn't have known that we faced a much more difficult problem: the pollution you couldn't see, carbon dioxide, which is now rapidly warming and degrading the earth What do you think Earth will look like in 40 years? What about the Adirondacks and northeast? It will be much hotter and much more prone to bursts of violent extremes: drought, flood, searing heatwave. I fear that the Adirondacks, which I love above all landscapes, will be marked more by extended mud season than by real winter, and that drought may test its reputation as an 'asbestos forest.' How bad it gets still depends on how quickly we act to slow emissions. What do you mean by an asbestos forest? The idea was that the Adirondack forest was so damp it was hard to burn (except through mass logging operations like at the turn of the century). In general it should be getting wetter, but increased heat means that long dry stretches will really dry things out. There are already fires in the AdirondacksIve fought a couple of them over the yearsbut it could become more of a problem. What are some of the biggest positive, and biggest negative, environmental changes you have seen in the Adirondacks, since Earth Day began? The Adirondacks, in general, have continued to get steadily betterone of the few places on earth you can make that claim for. Acid rain exacted a serious price, but the Clean Air Act means that it has declined dramatically. And of course a series of blightsto the beech, the ash, the hemlockwork their damage. But in the largest sense, having a huge intact forest base has truly paid off, and will continue to do so as the climate warms. Thank heaven for the foresight of our forebears, and for all who work today to make sure the Park stays well-protected. What gets you up in the morning? Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The fact that we have, according to the scientists, about a 10-year window of real leverage left. What we do or don't do over this decade will determine how hot it eventually getspast a certain point we won't have much way to affect the outcome, so we should battle now. What keeps you up at night? Exactly the same thing. Do you think New Yorks Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act will have a lasting impact on greenhouse gas reductions? Yes it's a good start, and we should be so grateful to the activists, especially in the environmental justice community, who led the charge. What are some things you would encourage readers to do to help the environment and slow climate change? The easiest, most impactful step for New Yorkers to take would be to besiege Tom DiNapoli, the state comptroller, with the demand that he divest the state pension fund holdings in fossil fuel stocks. By delaying he's cost the state vast sums--the last number I saw was $17,000 per pensioner--but he also continues to lend credibility to the very companies that are raising the Atlantic and damaging the Adirondacks. Please tell him the day has come to join the other leaders around the world who have divested $12 trillion in one of the most effective campaigns against the industry yet. The Executive Director of the Bureau of Public Safety, Nana Yaw Akwada has described as a gamble, President Nana Akufo-Addos decision to lift the partial lockdown imposed on the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area. He says the decision could easily erode the gains made so far in the fight against COVID-19. Speaking on Citi TV, Mr. Akwada said the decision lockdown should have remained in place a little longer to guarantee that there were no longer threats of COVID-19 in the country. The decision to lift the lockdown was an executive gamble. We maintain that the seven reasons adduced for the lifting of the lockdown suggest that there were no lessons drawn from the experiences of other countries. Most epidemiologists that we have interacted with have all suggested that it was premature, he said. He said the governments safest bet to winning the fight against COVID-19 must be to ensure that there are no new cases and that can be achieved by ensuring restrictions in movement while enhanced tracing and testing is carried out. He added that the governments explanation that it has built its capacity and has expanded its health facilities, cannot guarantee it completely ridding the country of COVID-19. No country can be adequately prepared for a pandemic such as this. The best way to prepare for this pandemic is to prevent it, but to say that you have expanded facilities, and built capacity and to suggest that you are ready for the pandemic is a very serious gamble, Nana Yaw Akwada said. Lockdown lifted President Nana Akufo-Addo in a televised broadcast on Sunday, April 19, 2020 lifted the partial lockdown on some parts of the country which was necessitated by the spread of the novel coronavirus. According to the President, the ease of restrictions was in view of the countrys ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected persons among others. President Akufo-Addo in his address however, indicated that other restrictions such as the one on public gatherings are still in place. He urged Ghanaians to wear face masks everywhere they go and strictly adhere to the various COVID-19 prevention protocols including handwashing and social distancing. Decision not the best There have been mixed reactions to the decision of the president to lift the restriction. While some have suggested that the decision could spark a fresh wave of the new infections in the country, others believe it was the right thing to do especially due to the severe economic implications the decision was having on the country. Some health experts including the former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) have kicked against the decision to lift the partial lockdown at this time. Source: citinewsroom.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 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. (TSXV: SCZ) (the "Company" or "Santacruz") reports that in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, it has temporarily suspended its mine, mill and exploration activities at the Zimapan mine in Zimapan, Hidalgo, Mexico. The suspension of operations is strictly proactive as no cases of Covid-19 have been documented at the Zimapan mine. Subject to government regulations and other health expert input, activities are expected to re-commence on or about May 1, 2020 or at such other date as mandated by Mexican authorities. Mr. Carlos Silva, the Company's COO stated: "The Company enacted strict safety and personal protection guidelines in late March at all of its mine operations as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic and has closely monitored activities since then. Although no cases of Covid-19 have been documented with respect to staff working at any of our operations, the Company and the Zimapan mine owner, Grupo Penoles, S.A.B. de C.V., have determined to temporarily halt all mining, milling and exploration activities at the Zimapan mine so as to better protect the Company's labour force and local communities from this pandemic." Mr. Silva continued: "A minimum number of personnel will remain onsite to maintain security and critical services." About Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. Santacruz is a Mexican focused silver company with one producing project (Rosario) and several exploration properties (the Zacatecas properties), including the Panuco property. The Company also owns 100% of Carrizal Mining S.A. de C.V. Carrizal Mining is a private Mexican mining company, which holds a 20% working interest in the Company's Veta Grande Project and has the right to operate the Zimapan Mine until December 31, 2020 under a mining lease agreement. The Company is managed by a technical team of professionals with proven track records in developing, operating and discovering silver mines in Mexico. Our corporate objective is to become a mid-tier silver producer. 'signed' Arturo Prestamo Elizondo, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director For further information please contact: Arturo Prestamo Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. Email: info@santacruzsilver.com Telephone: (604) 569-1609 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54661 Pin 3 3 Shares The Call of the Wild is a pleasant surprise IF you can get passed the cheesey CGI effects. The story was a delight however, the CGI was a fail. The Call Of The Wild, which stars Harrison Ford and based off the book by the same name, has been released to rent early for all of us movie goers itching for something new and fresh during quarantine. While the story was a pure delight, I was often distracted by the cheesey CGI effects of the animals. But is it worth the watch? Check out my The Call Of The Wild movie review to find out! For other movie reviews & movie quotes check out: The Call Of The Wild movie quotes, The Willoughbys movie review, Trolls World Tour movie review. The Call Of The Wild Movie Review The Call Of The Wild will pull at the heart strings of dog lovers everywhere. Even if you are not a dog lover, you will feel for Buck, one of the major characters in the film who is in fact, a dog. The story follows Bucks journey from first being a family owned dog, to being stolen and shipped to the Alaskan Yukon. In Alaska Buck becomes part of a mail-delivery dog sled team, befriends John (Harrison Ford) and searches to find his true place in the world. A man and his dog is a story told which never becomes old. However, this story has a twist. In this case both man and dog have a mutual respect for one another. John is not Bucks owner but his friend, he is there to teach and help Buck find his place in the world. And in turn, Buck makes John a better person. There is even a scene in which Buck takes Johns bottle of liquor from him, having John realize a deeper problem. The Call Of The Wild CGI While I believe The Call Of The Wild story was simply amazing, it was still difficult to get pass the flawed CGI. I spent the first 30 minutes of the movie distracted as I was watching the cheesey expression on Bucks face. Luckily, by the time he arrived in Alaska and the meat of the story began, I forgot all about the bad CGI and was totally engrossed in the film. Overall Thoughts Bad CGI aside, I thought The Call Of The Wild was a fantastic film. I was pleasantly surprised! After watching the first trailer, I had no urge what so ever to see this movie. Being stuck in quarantine and running out of movies to watch, I decided to give it a try and I am so glad I did. Sometimes the message can be lost when a film is made based off the book, not in this case. The story of Buck touched my heart, I was emotionally connected to him and what happens to him throughout the movie, even with his cheesey CGI expressions. This movie made me forget of everything going on around me and took me on an adventure. What an adventure. -John Rating: 8 out of 10 IIT Kanpur has begun the online registration process for the joint admission test for M.Sc (JAM) 2020 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has begun the online registration process for the joint admission test for M.Sc (JAM) 2020. Eligible candidates can register themselves for the examination by visiting JOAPS page - joaps.iitk.ac.in. The last date for filling online application is 10 May and a candidate will have to provide his/her name, valid email address, mobile number and a password to register. While filling the online registration form, candidates should make sure that they have a scanned copy of their photograph, signature and other documents. They will have to upload the same along with the online registration form. An application fee of Rs 600 needs to be paid through net banking, debit or credit card. This fee is non-refundable. Important dates - The online application process began on 20 April - The last date to fill the application form is 10 May - Request for change of category and rectification of defective documents can be made till 15 May - First admission list will be released on 15 June - Second admission list will be released on 30 June - Third and final admission list will be released on 15 July - Admissions will conclude on 20 July How to fill JAM 2020 form The candidate needs to visit joaps.iitk.ac.in and enter the enrolment ID sent during the time of registration or the email address. The candidate has to enter the password and click on 'Submit' to get access to the JAM 2020 form. IIT Kanpur will inform candidates about developments on JAM 2020 through SMS and e-mail. The information will be available on the official website too. CORPUS CHRISTI Many healthcare workers are taking precautions to protect their families from exposure to COVID-19, but a Corpus Christi emergency room doctor is taking self-isolation to another level. Jason Barnes, 39, is a physician at Christus Spohn Hospital Beeville and Christus Spohn Hospital South. He couldn't risk exposing his wife, Jenna, and sons, Stiles and Bentley, to the coronavirus, so he packed his things and made his kids' backyard treehouse a temporary home. Working in the emergency room, Barnes has treated patients who came in for problems, such as a hurt leg, only to find out they were infected with coronavirus. "The main reason I'm isolating from my family because I've been treating patients with the virus," Barnes said. "My wife and kids often get sick with things I bring home from the hospital, and many times in the emergency department, we get caught off guard with patients." Jason Barnes, top right, sits in his kids' treehouse while his family plays in their backyard April 18, 2020. Barnes has spent nearly three weeks in the cabin treehouse. He often shouts down to his kids or sometimes goes up to the glass door of their home to ask for something. "They're within yelling distance," Barnes said. "But I can call or go up to the glass. They know not to open the door and risk catching something." Barnes said his sons, ages 6 and 9, miss their treehouse, but know there's a bigger reason behind their eviction. "They love that thing, but they understand so they're not missing the treehouse, per se," Barnes said. "They tell me they miss me once a day." Jason Barnes watches his wife, Jenna, and two children play in the backyard while standing in the treehouse April 18, 2020. Barnes purchased the treehouse from Tiny Town Studios, a Houston sculpture company. Initially Barnes considered moving into a travel trailer or apartment, but found the treehouse to be a lot easier and a lot closer. "Luckily the WiFi reaches the treehouse, so I have my laptop and my own little command center here," Barnes said. Barnes' living situation is similar to camping. He started with a bucket as a toilet, but now has a camping toilet with biodegradable bags. Story continues "It's much more comfortable," Barnes said. "I leave that on the porch and take it into the (tree)house when I need to use it for some privacy and then I just put it back on the porch." Barnes says showering is the hardest part. "Christus leadership has made it easy for us to shower at work, but when I'm off for a few days I don't want to go to work to shower, so my oldest son will rig up a water hose," Barnes said. "He's got a nozzle he created with one of those water balloon things that fills up like 30 balloons at a time and he'll set it up and I'll take a quick cold shower. "My wife won't let me touch the hose, so he sets it up and I take a quick shower. Luckily my fence is pretty tall." He keeps Tupperware full of dry food and snacks, like crackers, peanut butter and bagels, but still eats home cooked meals. "My wife will make breakfast or dinner and leave it on a table and I'll grab it before the dogs can get it," Barnes said. "I also bring home food from local restaurants when I'm out. We try to support local businesses." Jason Barnes' fist pumps with his 6-year-old son Stiles against the glass. Barnes hopes he can safely return home by the end of April. "We're always looking at the CDC and Gov. Greg Abbott's direction, but the final determinator is the wife," Barnes said. Barnes isn't the only physician isolating from family, though he may be the only one living in a treehouse. "Many people are doing this quarantining," Barnes said. "I just happen to have a more quirky way, but I'm not doing this to be funny. I'm taking these precautions to be safe." Follow Ashlee Burns on Twitter: @ashleevburns This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Coronavirus has Texas ER doctor self-isolating in kids' treehouse [April 21, 2020] Biobot Analytics Raises $6.7 Million in Seed Funding to Transform Wastewater Infrastructure into Public Health Observatories Biobot Analytics, a technology company that deploys wastewater monitoring equipment and analytical tools to provide novel public health insights at the community level, today announced it has raised $4.2 million bringing its total amount of seed funding to $6.7 million. In response to the emerging crisis, Biobot has begun deploying its platform to track the spread of COVID-19 and map its prevalence in cities across the U.S. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005182/en/ Biobot Analytics' founders: Mariana Matus (L) and Newsha Ghaeli (R). photo credit: Webb Chappell for the Boston Globe The funding round was led by The Engine, the venture firm spun out of MIT (News - Alert), that invests in early-stage Tough Tech companies that are solving the world's most urgent problems through the convergence of breakthrough science, engineering, and leadership. AmFam Institute Impact Fund joined the round as a strategic investor. Previous investors Y Combinator and DCVC also participated in this round. This capital will be used to support rapid growth of operations to address pandemic challenges and fund additional market expansion and product development. Biobot was developed at MIT, where the two founders, Mariana Matus, PhD and Newsha Ghaeli, combined their computational biology, wastewater epidemiology and urban planning backgrounds to develop the technology, which can provide sub-city-level human health data. Using anonymous data collected from sewage, Biobot's platform can trace health indicators that provide insights into drug use, the presence of viruses, environmental contaminants and nutrition. "Doctors use waste samples regularly to understand, diagnose and care for our individual wellbeing. We are deploying our technology to do the same at the population level, which is tremendously valuable to government and private sector partners and will be core to public health improvement and the development of smart cities," said Mariana Matus, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Biobot Analytics. Biobot conducted its first commercial implementation of the technology with an opioid analytics program in Cary, NC. The company's analysis gave local officials accurate information on the use of opioids, so they could better lead productive interventions, reducing overdoses by 40% and lowering their associated cost to the healthcare system. Today, seven cities in Massachusetts are conducting initial studies with the Biobot opioid product. "We are thrilled to support Biobot in accelerating growth of their company. The team has shown the potential of using our wastewater systems for mitigating the opioid crisis and now is the time to extend the approach to addressing other important health challenges, from COVID-19 and other viruses to environmental contaminants," said Ann DeWitt, general partner, of The Engine. In March, in collaboration with researchers at MIT, Harvard and Brigham & Women's Hospital, Biobot launched a campaign to solicit wastewater from facilities across the U.S. Its research protocol and findings from an initial review of samples from a large urban facility in MA were detailed in the academic paper which can be found on MedRxiv called "SARS-COV-2 titers in wastewater are higher than expected from clinically confirmed cases." Findings indicate that COVID-19 prevalence is orders of magnitude higher than confirmed cases suggest. National data spanning 100 locations will be published later this month. ABOUT BIOBOT ANALYTICS Biobot Analytics is a wastewater epidemiology company that is transforming wastewater infrastructure into public health observatories. Its wastewater monitoring technology analyzes urine and stool samples to create a health database that is independent from hospital reporting systems, free from societal biases affecting who can and can't seek care, and most importantly, rapidly adaptable to new and emerging public health threats. Find Biobot online: www.biobot.io View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005182/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] He has been self-isolating with his family in picturesque Hawaii amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And Pierce Brosnan has embraced a new look during lockdown as he unveiled new white silver hair and a clean-shaven beard on Monday. The former James Bond actor, 66, looked relaxed and care-free as he stepped out for a solo hike amid lockdown. Embracing lockdown life: Pierce Brosnan has embraced a new look during lockdown as he unveiled new white silver hair and a clean-shaven beard on Monday in Hawaii (pictured in January, right) Pierce, who had noticeably darker hair and a Van Dyke beard last month at The Prince's Trust Awards in London, opted for a laid back look for the day as he enjoyed the sunshine in a white T-shirt with light grey shorts and black trainers. Carrying a beige backpack, the film star completed his look for the day with a pair of sunglasses. Pierce took in the island's scenic beauty as at one point he rested on a rock and appeared to take some snaps of the view. Out and about: The former James Bond actor, 66, looked relaxed and care-free as he stepped out for a solo hike amid lockdown The actor's next film is slated to be Eurovision, also starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams while he is also set to play The King in a retelling of Cinderella starring Camila Cabello as the title character. It comes after Pierce left fans shocked on Friday when he shared a funny Instagram selfie with a rugged grey beard and scraggly long locks. The James Bond star appeared to have dirt on his face and left fans speculating whether he will be bringing back his shipwrecked character, Robinson Crusoe. Casual: Pierce opted for a laid back look for the day as he enjoyed the sunshine in a white T-shirt with light grey shorts and black trainers. Stunning: The star took in the island's scenic beauty as at one point he rested on a rock and appeared to take some snaps of the view The actor jokingly shared: 'Isolation and this is only week six!' Fans were left shocked by his unruly appearance which was a far cry from the iconic slick 007 tuxedo. Many fans teased that he is perhaps bringing back his 1997 role of Robinson Crusoe, who was left ship-wrecked on a deserted island. However, some followers suggested that he in fact resembled James Bond when he was held captive in North Korea. Just last month: Pierce had noticeably darker hair and a Van Dyke beard last month at The Prince's Trust Awards in London (pictured) Pierce looked completely different while sharing a tribute to his wife Keely Shaye Smith on their anniversary. The couple, who met in 1994 and tied the knot in 2001, took to Instagram to share sweet throwback snaps. Pierce wrote: 'My darling angel heart Keely, thank you for bringing such love and beauty into my life, for making these past twenty six years the greatest joy of my life...Happy anniversary my brown eyed girl'. Is that you? Pierce recently left fans shocked when he shared a funny Instagram selfie with a rugged grey beard and scraggly long locks In character: The star appeared to have dirt on his face and left fans speculating whether he will be bringing back his shipwrecked character, Robinson Crusoe (1997) Keely, 56, wrote: 'Still celebrating the day we met ...on a beach in Mexico. Happy 26th my love 4/8 (1994).' The American journalist posted a throwback photo alongside a more recent one of the pair. Pierce and Keely met the year before he made his James Bond debut and got married in 2001 at Ballintubber Abbey in his native Ireland. Sweet: Pierce and wife Keely Shaye Smith shared heartfelt tributes to one another as they celebrated their 26th anniversary last week He was previously married to Australian actress Cassandra Harris, herself a Bond girl to Roger Moore in For Your Eyes Only, from 1980 until her death after a battle with ovarian cancer in 1991. Pierce is the biological father of three sons, two by Keely - Dylan, 23, and Paris, 19, - and Sean, 36, by Cassandra. He is also the adoptive father of Charlotte and Christopher Brosnan, Cassandra's two children by her first husband Dermot Harris, whose brother was Richard Harris of Harry Potter fame. Soulmates: The couple, who met in 1994 and tied the knot in 2001, took to Instagram to share throwback snaps Charlotte, who like Christopher took Pierce's surname when she was adopted, died at the age of 42 in 2013 of the same illness that claimed her mother's life. He has often been vocal about how Keely saved him from depression following his personal tragedies, describing her as a ' strength I wouldnt be able to live without.' Pierce is now a proud grandfather of three - Charlotte's children Isabella, 21, and Lucas, 14, as well as Sean's daughter Marley May, four. JACKSON, MI Two ramps on and off I-94 in Jackson County are being closed in shifts for construction. Pavement and ramp repairs started 6 a.m., Tuesday, April 21, and closed the northbound U.S. 127 ramp to eastbound I-94, the Michigan Department of Transportation said in a news release. The eastbound I-94 off ramp to Sargent Road will close at 6 a.m., Friday, April 24. Both ramps are scheduled to reopen at 6 a.m., Thursday, April 30, the release said. The construction will increase safety and mobility, per MDOT. The following detours will be in place: Traffic heading for eastbound I-94 from northbound U.S. 127 will exit at I-94 Business Loop and head east on Michigan Avenue to enter eastbound I-94 from Sargent Road. Traffic from eastbound I-94 for the Sargent Road exit will go eastbound I-94 at southbound US-127, then exit at I-94 Business Loop and head east on Michigan Avenue back to Sargent Road. The construction is considered essential and workers will follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the release said. READ MORE JACKSON-AREA NEWS: Road crack sealing on I-94 beginning in Jackson County Art, Beer, Wine Festival at Ella Sharp Park rescheduled due to coronavirus Marshall Pizza Hut closes after 43 years in business Ready for Takeout Tuesday? Why not try these 5 Jackson-area restaurants Road crack sealing on I-94 beginning in Jackson County (CNN) The man behind a deadly Nova Scotia rampage, which began in the quiet town of Portapique on Cobequid Bay, disguised himself as a police officer as he led authorities on a miles-long manhunt across the Canadian province. The shooter, who at one point was driving a vehicle resembling a police cruiser, is believed to have pulled over random motorists before killing them, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CNN. When the manhunt ended about 12 hours later, the 51-year-old gunman had killed 18 people, including a police constable, a corrections officer, a nurse and a teacher. Another police officer was injured, police said, and in Shubenacadie, there were reports of gunshots and torched police vehicles, according to one of CNN's media partners. The gunman, identified as Gabriel Wortman, left a trail of 16 crime scenes that authorities are still working to process, officials say. The death toll may rise, police said. "We're unable to fully examine the crime scenes because, for instance, we have had five structure fires, most of those being residences, and we believe there may be victims still within the remains of those homes which burnt to the ground," said Chris Leather, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police chief superintendent and criminal operations officer in Nova Scotia. Wortman was killed in a shootout with police in Enfield, about 60 miles from the initial crime scene, Leather said. The motive behind the shooting, one of Canada's deadliest, is under investigation, Leather said. Wortman knew some of his victims, police said, while others were strangers. 23-year veteran of RCMP killed One of those killed was Constable Heidi Stevenson. Another officer was hospitalized, the RCMP said on Facebook. The injured officer is recovering from gunshot wounds at home, police said. "It is with tremendous sadness that I share with you that we lost Cst. Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the force," said Lee Bergerman, the RCMP's commanding officer in Nova Scotia."Two children have lost their mother and a husband his wife. Parents lost their daughter and countless others lost an incredible friend and colleague." The chaos began when police were first called to a "firearms complaint" at a Portapique property Saturday at 10:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. ET). "When police arrived at the scene, the members located several casualties inside and outside of the home," Leather said. Investigators believe the incident began with a domestic violence incident at a home in Portapique, where Wortman was trying to find his former significant other, the law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said. Wortman killed two people there before he fled, the source said. The gunman was wearing either an RCMP uniform or a convincing replica, while driving a car that appeared to be a police vehicle, Leather said. Wortman was not employed by the RCMP, authorities said. Wortman killed drivers he pulled over, source says Upon fleeing the Portapique residence, it is believed that Wortman began pulling over random motorists and executing them, the law enforcement source said. After the gunman was involved in a traffic accident, he ditched the fake police cruiser and stole a vehicle from a motorist, the source said. "His ability to move around the province undetected was surely greatly benefited by the fact that he had a vehicle that looked identical in every way to a marked police car," Leather said. "He was wearing a police uniform which, as I say, was either a very good fabrication of or actually a police uniform. That surely contributed to his ability to circulate." Wortman was a skilled mechanic and enjoyed cars and motorcycles, neighbor BIll McCormack told CNN media partner CTV News. Wortman had recently bought two used police cars which McCormack described as "mountie cars" and kept them behind a clinic where he worked, he told the station. "I never asked him about it," McCormack said. After the initial notice that a gunman was on the loose, police warned residents to stay away from a campground in Glenholme, about 15 miles east of Portapique. Police first asked the public to be on the lookout for the bogus police cruiser in Debert mid-morning Sunday. One of the 18 victims, elementary school educator Lisa McCully, worked at Debert Elementary School, according to the Nova Scotia Teachers' Union, which described her a "passionate teacher" and a "shining love" in her friends' and family's lives. Wortman was later seen in Central Onslow and farther south in Brookfield, where police updated the suspect's vehicle description to a silver Chevy Tracker. 'Oh my God, lock the doors! He's here!' Wortman was involved in a "serious criminal event" in Shubenacadie, about 15 miles south of Brookfield, the RCMP's Serious Incident Response Team said. Witnesses recalled hearing multiple gunshots in the area, according to CTV News. Several burned-out vehicles, which may have been police cruisers, sat along the highway, the station reported. "I hear the shots and ... there's a guy running back and forth up beside what looks to be a police vehicle," a witness at the scene told the station. "Then after a short bit I saw fire." Though it isn't clear where Constable Stevenson was killed, she and another officer tried to run Wortman's vehicle off the road at one point, the law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told CNN. Stevenson was killed and the other officer was injured in an ensuing exchange of gunfire, the source said. Following the incident in Shubenacadie, Wortman continued south to Milford and was ultimately found at a truck stop in Enfield between 11 a.m. and noon Sunday, about 12 hours after the initial 911 call to police. Truck driver Tom Nurani was at the truck stop when he heard a staff member frantically shouting, he told CTV News. "'Oh my God, lock the doors! He's here!'" Nurani recalled the woman saying. "I peek out of the window, and I saw some RCMP vehicles, and there was four or five uniforms with guns." Witness Glen Hines was driving past when he heard gunfire, he told the station. "All I could hear was gunshots and my wife. I thought I was going to call 911 because she was going into panic, it scared her so bad," Hines said. Politicians respond to shooting rampage Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil called the shooting spree "one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province's history." "I never imagined when I went to bed last night that I would wake up to the horrific news that an active shooter was on the loose in Nova Scotia," he said. "Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the shooting," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted. "To the Portapique community, we're keeping all of you in our thoughts. And on behalf of all Canadians, I want you to know that we're here for you and we'll be here for you in the days and weeks ahead," he said. Orders issued to protect the public during the Covid-19 pandemic will prevent Canadians from mourning in person, he said, but a virtual vigil is scheduled for Friday. The National Police Federation is "working hard to ensure all our members and their families are supported," federation president Brian Sauve said. "We are there for them now and will be there for them for the coming days and months as they work through this tragedy," Sauve said. "As Canadians, we are extremely fortunate these incidents are not common." A statement issued by the White House said President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump expressed their condolences. "The United States and Canada share a special, enduring bond. As friends and neighbors, we will always stand with one another through our most trying times and greatest challenges," the statement said. "The United States strongly condemns these murders, and our prayers are with the victims and their families." Trudeau promises to toughen gun laws On Monday, Trudeau said his administration will move ahead with stricter gun laws. "In regards to gun control, we took very serious commitments in the election campaign and have moved forward and are moving forward on them to ensure that we're strengthening gun control in this country," Trudeau told reporters, according to CTV. While campaigning last year, Trudeau said he wanted to ban assault-style rifles and set up a buyback program for all military-grade weapons that had been legally purchased. Authorities have not said what kind of weapons the gunman used in Nova Scotia. "I can say that we were on the verge of introducing legislation to ban assault-style weapons across this country; it was interrupted when the pandemic caused Parliament to be suspended," Trudeau said. CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the suspect drove two different vehicles while on the run. This story was first published on CNN.com "Gunman evaded police for nearly 12 hours and killed at least 18 in one of Canada's deadliest mass shootings" Subscriber content preview JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) Opponents have lost a court case against the proposed copper and gold mine near a major salmon fishery in Alaska's Bristol Bay region. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could withdraw a proposed determination about potential negative mine impacts dating from 2014, Alaska Public Media reported Sunday. . . . If it goes to May 5, it will have gone on five weeks, Tepfer said, who said he was sensitive to the emergency situation. But part of the fact is that this is an ever-changing situation, where we are seeking emergency relief. People who are responding need details. We have questions to ask. Police have issued almost 40 per cent fewer fines and people are dobbing in their neighbours less after a senior Victorian officer called for only the most blatant and deliberate breaches of coronavirus restrictions to be punished. Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said officers were using more discretion and people had become "by and large" compliant with the stage-three rules since their introduction at the end of March. Police Minister Lisa Neville watches as Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton addresses the media on Tuesday. Credit:Eddie Jim Earlier this month Mr Patton was forced to concede some officers were heavy-handed in their initial enforcement of coronavirus restrictions, after fines were given to a learner driver, a man washing his car and a couple who posted travel pictures from last year on social media. In an internal memo to officers revealed by The Age, Mr Patton said inconsistency and lack of discretion in the enforcement of lockdown laws were eroding public confidence in Victoria Police. NEW YORK, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP (Scott+Scott), an international securities and consumer rights litigation firm, is investigating the board of directors of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Occidental) (NYSE: OXY) for breaching their fiduciary duties to Occidental and its shareholders. If you are an Occidental shareholder, you may contact attorney Joe Pettigrew for additional information toll-free at 844-818-6982 or jpettigrew@scott-scott.com . Scott+Scott is investigating whether Occidentals board of directors (the Board) breached their fiduciary duties to Occidental and its shareholders in connection with recent Board actions and whether Occidental has suffered damages as a result. What You Can Do If you are an Occidental shareholder, you may have legal claims against Occidental and its directors. If you wish to discuss this investigation, or have questions about this notice or your legal rights, please contact attorney Joe Pettigrew toll-free at 844-818-6982 or jpettigrew@scott-scott.com . About Scott+Scott Scott+Scott has significant experience in prosecuting major securities, antitrust, and consumer rights actions throughout the United States. The firm represents pension funds, foundations, individuals, and other entities worldwide with offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Connecticut, California, Virginia, and Ohio. Attorney Advertising Reporters Without Borders points out that two sentences have been delivered in the Kuciak murder case. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled "A number of politicians often attack journalists verbally, using anti-media rhetoric that is reproduced in certain media and, above all, on websites specialising in disinformation," the Reporter Without Borders international non-governmental media freedom watchdog wrote about Slovakia in their annual ranking of countries based on media freedom. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement They specifically name Smer leader and former PM Robert Fico and former European affairs parliamentary committee head and MP for Smer, Lubos Blaha, whom the parliament repeatedly rejected in the vote for the human rights committee head. It is the first time in four years that Slovakia's ranking has not declined. While in 2019, the country ranked 35th in the World Press Freedom Index, in the 2020 ranking it ended 33rd. This index evaluates the situation surrounding journalism every year in 180 countries and territories. LAURINBURG, N.C., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sam M. Butler Inc. dba Service Thread is now one of the federal government's 2020 HUBZone-certified businesses. HUBZone , which stands for Historically Underutilized Business Zone, is a U.S. Small Business Administration program certifying at least 3% of all federal contracting dollars small businesses each year. In order to qualify, Service thread followed a rigorous certification process that included proving their status as a qualified tax-paying small business, operating in a federally-designated HUBZone, hiring at least 35% of its employees from a HUBZone, and maintaining at least 51% ownership by American citizens. Service Thread is a 100% American-owned business. HUBZone status brings numerous benefits to Service Thread and its clients. These benefits include: First consideration for bids on government contracts in HUBZone-designated areas Preferential consideration during full and open competitive bidding processes 10% price evaluation preference in full and open contract competitions Eligibility for set-aside contracts , which level the playing field for small businesses Service Thread CEO Jay Todd shares his appreciation for the company's new HUBZone status. "Every hardworking member of the Service Thread team helped make this happen and I am incredibly grateful. This is a proud moment for us that once again proves we are one of America's most successful small businesses." Like all HUBZone members, Service Thread will be required to re-certify its status once per year and maintain the high standards of the program. The Small Business Administration visits HUBZone business unannounced for inspections to determine ongoing program compliance. To learn more about the HUBZone program, visit the SBA's program information page . About Service Thread Based in Laurinburg, North Carolina, Service Thread offers American-made industrial yarns and threads for large-scale commercial manufacturing operations. The company is known for producing high volumes of high-quality materials, as well as delivering excellent customer service and tailored solutions for industrial yarn and thread processing. For more information, please contact Service Thread at (910) 277-7456 or [email protected]. https://www.servicethread.com SOURCE Service Thread Related Links www.servicethread.com Hailey Eckstein usually starts school at 11 a.m., a schedule more synced to teen rhythms than a traditional high schools. She begins by logging into her school-issued laptop and creating a checklist of the five or six things her teachers expect her to accomplish that day. Hailey works on assignments for an hour or two, takes a break for lunch and powers through the rest of her work for another hour or so. Shes usually done by 1:30 p.m. In normal times, the rest of Haileys day would revolve around the production schedule at the Albany Civic Theater, a 24-minute drive west of her hometown of Scio, itself about 25 miles southeast of Salem. But these arent normal times. The novel coronavirus pandemic has shuttered theater productions and the cast rehearses remotely for its future performances. Yet Haileys academic routine remains untouched. Shes a sophomore at Willamette Connections Academy, a public online charter school run by the Scio School District. Until this year, shed been enrolled in its sister program, the Oregon Connections Academy. Hailey transferred to the Willamette academy to give it a try as the school began its first year, mother Rozanna Eckstein said. Haileys been attending class online since she was in kindergarten. Eckstein noticed Hailey was easily distracted in pre-school and felt her daughter might need more targeted attention than the familys home district could offer at the time. Having a lot of noise wasnt a good place for Hailey. She needed to focus, Eckstein said. She briefly considered homeschooling Hailey. But after an afternoon of research, Eckstein decided her daughter would be better served in a program with an existing academic infrastructure rather than creating one of her own. I didnt have the patience or the time to do what traditional homeschoolers do, Eckstein said. It came down to, in a sense, was I smart enough to come up with the correct curriculum and come up with a daily schedule? Online classes were supposed to be temporary. At the end of every year, Eckstein would ask Hailey if she wanted to start the coming fall in a traditional classroom in the Scio district. And every year, Hailey would ask to re-enroll online. The academys flexibility came in handy when Hailey showed an interest in theater last year. She began doing set design for the Albany outfit and would power through two days worth of assignments on weeks when she knew shed be working late for a show. I can work ahead a few days. I can do the same amount of stuff other students do but on my own time, Hailey said. Both mother and daughter said theyve had a handle on Haileys academic routine for some time. But it took about two years of tinkering before things felt right. Even now, as Hailey nears the end of her sophomore year, the occasional disagreement breaks out and the two find themselves at odds. Just because weve done it for 11 years doesnt mean its gone smoothly, Eckstein said. It takes discipline to stay on task, Hailey said. And Eckstein said parents have just as much to keep track of its ultimately up to her to make sure her daughter doesnt fall behind. It doesnt just happen. You have to work for it, Hailey said. Melissa Brown, director of schools for both Oregon and Willamette academies, said she saw a surge in interest when Gov. Kate Brown shuttered the states public schools as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the state. At Oregon Connections Academy, the states largest public online charter, enrollment grew slightly from 3,849 in October to 3,886 at the beginning of this month. The governors order barred public online schools from enrolling new students, however, to avoid a steep financial hit to brick-and-mortar schools. And theres no word yet on how the pandemic might affect Oregon public schools come September when a new academic year begins. The states social distancing orders mean many parents can work from home or have to do so, giving those with younger children some ability to guide their kids through online programs. But Melissa Brown said the temporary nature of those orders mean parents might not reliably be able to forecast their capacity to monitor their childrens progress in an online charter a semester from now. Our brick and mortar schools have been thrust into a situation they didnt see coming. And its taken almost 20 years for us to figure out how to do this well, she said. Just be a little bit patient and give your school a chance to get their feet under themselves. Eckstein said shes had friends ask about enrolling their children in an online school. She gives them all the same advice: It can be overwhelming and it takes a lot of effort. Eckstein also said theres a supportive network of families that trade tips in how to manage the endeavor. But above all? Overall, just be calm. Your kids really do feel what youre feeling, Eckstein said. Theyre stressed out and worrying, too. Melissa Brown said shes given parents similar advice, regardless of whether theyre newcomers to the online academies she oversees or grappling with the possibility of prolonged closures across the states brick and mortar schools. Youve got this, she said. The most important thing you can do for your child is to create a schedule and a dedicated learning space for instruction. Have some semblance of routine. --Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano Do you have a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Eder at ecampuzano@oregonian.com or message either of the social accounts above. Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Oregons education reporters are looking for parents who would like to speak with a journalist about the effects coronavirus is having on families across the state. Would you like to chat with one of us? Fill out this form. The Ashanti Regional Health Directorate has said it will begin voluntary testing of commercial vehicle drivers and market women for the novel Coronavirus. The Directorate has classified these persons as those in high-risk groups since they come into contact with a lot of people as part of their daily activities. Tests will only be conducted for willing persons, according to the directorate. The measure, according to the Directorate is part of its enhanced surveillance to trace more contacts suspected to be carrying the virus. The Ashanti Region has recorded 68 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Emmanuel Tenkorang asked residents to continue observing the laid down safety protocols. We are also considering testing highrisk groups. The high-risk groups are the frontline workers, taxi drivers, uber drivers, market women, trotro drivers. These are people who come into contact with a lot of people. They will undergo voluntary testing. The disinfection of public and private Senior High Schools has also begun in all 42 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Ashanti Region. A total of 134 public and 53 private Senior High Schools (SHSs), as well as, three Special Schools in the region would be fumigated over a ten-day period. Government indicates that the ongoing exercise to disinfect Senior High Schools in the country is targeted at ridding buildings and facilities of rodents, bedbugs and other insects. ---citinewsroom (Natural News) Just as we predicted six weeks ago, when the lockdowns work to halt the exponential spread of the virus, the worst-case death projections will be averted, saving millions of lives. But the lower death count will cause shortsighted people to claim the virus wasnt that dangerous to begin with, and they will claim the lockdowns therefore werent necessary at all. Since we arent seeing millions of deaths, essentially, they claim we overreacted. This argument is now being made by none other than Ron Paul, who joins a large number of conservatives who are essentially arguing that if your house has a small kitchen fire, and the fire department arrives with a large fire engine to douse the fire, they werent necessary at all since your house didnt burn down. Ron Pauls argument is intellectually dishonest and lacking in any real knowledge of how an infectious bioweapon spreads and why strong social distancing averts millions of deaths which would have otherwise occurred without the lockdowns. Does Ron Paul think burglar alarms cause crime, too? He also argues that since there are more deaths in areas with the most strict lockdowns, that aggressive lockdowns cause more infections, essentially. This is like arguing that burglar alarms cause crime because high-crime areas have more burglar alarms. Heres how Ron Paul explains it: Kentucky, a strict lockdown state, is five times more populated than South Dakota, yet it has some 20 times more coronavirus deaths. If lockdown and house arrest are the answer, shouldnt those numbers be reversed, with South Dakota seeing mass death while Kentucky dodges the coronavirus bullet? Again, this is like arguing that police cause crime because high-crime areas have more police. The entire reason Kentucky went into a strict lockdown was because the spread of infections and hospitalizations was on track for catastrophe. The lockdowns halted the exponential spread. If we had continued with business as usual, we would be on track for millions of deaths in the USA by July What Ron Paul and nearly all conservatives fail to grasp is basic exponential math. Without the lockdowns, the United States would have reached the point of 80,000 deaths a day by early July. The 2,000+ deaths per day weve seen recently wouldnt have been anywhere near the peak. The deaths would have kept rising until millions were dead by the end of July. At that point, Ron Paul and other conservatives would have blasted the federal government for not acting soon enough. But when Trump and many state governors acted in mid-March to halt the exponential spread of the virus, they averted those millions of deaths, cutting off the death trend at a level that may hopefully only see fewer than 75,000 deaths by the end of July. It was the lockdowns that achieved this. We dont know who created the following illustration, but its brilliant. It shows that once the lockdowns start working, ignorant people claim we overreacted because the deaths start to fall: It is astonishing that someone as bright as Ron Paul cant see this. It raises questions about whether something has zapped the brain cells of prominent conservatives, causing them all to forget how to do math. The same brain damage appears to have occurred with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other prominent conservatives, too, leading to Michael Savage and myself lashing out against the science illiteracy and mathematical stupidity (which I have dubbed the stupid-19 disease) that now seems to dominate conservative thought leaders. It makes us wonder: Is Ron Paul also going to now claim the virus doesnt exist and that masks dont work? If so, why stop there? Why not go full denialism and go all-in with the Flat Earth society which claims gravity is an illusion and that outer space doesnt exist. To claim that social distancing lockdowns dont halt the spread of a biological weapon that spreads from person to person is about the same degree of absurdity as claiming the Earth is flat. Ron Paul is famous for wanting to audit the Fed to find out the truth behind the Feds numbers. So why isnt he curious about the truth behind the exponential spread of a biological weapon that will continue to double every 3.5 days if you dont stop it? In fact, had the nation waited just one more week before initiating the lockdowns, we would be on track to see 240,000 deaths over the next couple of months instead of only 60,000 deaths. (Thats because the number of infections doubles every 3.5 days, so there are two doublings per week. 60 x 2 x 2 = 240.) Similarly, if the lockdowns had started just a week earlier, the total casualties would have been closer to 15,000 rather than 60,000. Imagine the outcry then! Not enough people died! would be the rallying cry of conservatives who would claim the lockdowns werent necessary at all since a very small number died. We should set up a math-free zone where pandemic denialists can infect each other and observe the spread of infectious disease firsthand As it turns out, the only way to teach conservatives about infectious disease is to allow them all to infect each other so they can grasp the power of exponential spread. We should have a math-free zone in America where people like Ron Paul can gather and infect each other with no masks and no social distancing. Or maybe well call it a mask free zone, and we can let conservatives imagine that mask-free zones prevent infections in the same way that liberals believe gun-free zones prevent shootings. If people want to perish from their own delusions, I say let them proceed. Just dont come complaining to the rest of us who told you what was going to happen. Some of us can do math, and in this darwinian moment of natural selection, we prefer not to join the covidiot suicide cult that thinks infectious diseases are a hoax. Ron Paul embarrasses himself by claiming the lockdowns werent necessary after theyve averted millions of deaths. Yet his ignorance appears to be commonplace across conservative America, where masks are now seen as an object of enslavement, to be rejected by all patriotic people. This is madness. In the middle of a raging pandemic that spreads from person to person, Trump supporters have decided that masks are bad. This is the equivalent of arguing that in the middle of a gun fight, ballistic vests are bad. So why not just restart all the Trump rallies, then, and see what happens as infected Trump supporters join together in giant indoor arenas, spreading the virus in tightly packed crowds of covidiots who apparently dont believe in the Germ Theory. I cant think of a more effective way for Trump to lose the coming election than to watch his own supporters kill themselves off as they reject masks in the name of freedom! Personally, I think Trump has likely already lost the election, but even if he wins it, when will his own supporters realize hes transformed the U.S. economy into a Soviet-style economic system where the government pays the wages, controls the prices, rigs the markets and owns all the assets? Even if Trump wins, free market capitalism is already dead in America, thanks to Trumps own policies of endless bailouts and fiat currency printing. People who cheer for Trump arent cheering for American values anymore. Theyre cheering for the big banks, Big Tech, Big Pharma and the vaccine industry, because thats who runs the White House now, as is abundantly obvious. Ive waited for over three years for Trump to do something to protect free speech, investigate the vaccine industry and work to end Big Pharmas monopoly control over the nation, and he has done nothing on any of these fronts. And for those of you who still think you can trust the plan, youre delusional. The plan all along has been to crush your freedom, loot your wealth, oppress your speech and eventually exterminate humanity. Thats the plan, and youre watching it play out every day in America, with Trump apparently going right along with the most evil institutions that are carrying it out. The six-week delay in providing a childcare scheme for healthcare workers has been branded as unacceptable by the leader of the Labour Party. The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) met on Tuesday to discuss Government proposals on providing childcare for frontline workers. Alan Kelly said the Government has been promising a solution for healthcare workers since March 12. Childcare facilities and schools were closed on March 12 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our healthcare workers are putting themselves on the line to protect us, they should not be out of pocket because of these restrictions Alan Kelly, Labour leader Speaking on Monday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government has money to provide childcare but is seeking public health clearance from the NPHET. Mr Kelly said: Schools and creches closed over six weeks ago and we still have not seen a viable childcare solution for healthcare workers from Government that has been approved by NPHET. Yet here we are six weeks on with NPHET considering another proposal from Government. There was a proposal six weeks ago from Government to NPHET that clearly did not satisfy the health and safety parameters that NPHET have set out. What has changed in the proposal today? Healthcare workers from across the country have been contacting me who have been placed with an additional financial burden of nearly 1,000 euro a month for childcare for their children who are usually in school. Our healthcare workers are putting themselves on the line to protect us, they should not be out of pocket because of these restrictions. Unions that represent healthcare workers have outlined the stress that staff are under because of the lack of childcare available, with many taking sick days as a childcare stopgap. This isnt acceptable. The children of a "hero" carer who passed away after contracting Covid-19 have said she was always passionate about her work. Fintona mother-of-four Martina McCarron died in the South West Acute Hospital in Co Fermanagh six days ago on April 15. She had been admitted on Good Friday. It is understood she was off work at the time of her illness. Mrs McCarron worked as a carer locally for over two decades and was a "valued member" of the Omagh team of NW Care, who said she "was and will always be one of our heroes". Her children Seamus, Paul, Kevin and Mary paid tribute to their mum's "fantastic sense of humour" and told how she "really enjoyed making the people she cared for giggle". They also told how friends and neighbours lined the route as her remains were taken from the family home to her final resting place in St Lawrence's Cemetery in the village. Mrs McCarron's children said their mother went beyond the call of duty. "Martina worked as a carer for over 20 years with various companies, the most recent being NW Care, and she was so passionate about her work," a family statement said. "She had a fantastic sense of humour and really enjoyed making the people she cared for giggle to forget whatever pain they were in. "She was such a caring lady that she went above and beyond the call of duty. "She got to know the people she cared with on a personal level to the point where she would ring them to ensure they were okay, as she was genuinely worried if they were ill or members of their family were going through something difficult." They revealed that Mrs McCarron "counted the people she cared for as family and was always ready to lend an ear". "On endless occasions mum would visit her clients as friends out of hours to ensure they were okay or to deliver a gift that she thought they would like," they said. "Due to being a carer, mum became greatly loved and respected by the community of Fintona and the surrounding areas and everyone thought very fondly of her. "She enjoying helping the community beyond home help as she previously made funeral dinners and cleaned the church. "She enjoyed anything that could be done behind the scenes." For Mrs McCarron, a Draperstown native who moved to Fintona in 1976 when she married husband Packie, family was of paramount importance - and she particularly loved spending time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. "We were mum's priority at all times and she constantly put herself last to ensure we were all happy and was happy to do this," her sons and daughter said. "Mum never once looked for anything in return and she would act flippant if you tried to thank her." They added: "Family was everything to our mother and she doted on her seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, often taking a week off work in summer to fully enjoy their company. "We'd dare say the best part of the holidays for the children was when mum made her famous French toast - they could never get enough." Mrs McCarron's children expressed their gratitude to those who cared for their mother and to "all front line workers who are currently putting themselves at risk". They said that in her memory, donations were made in lieu of flowers to 'Cash for Scrubs Omagh and Fermanagh Area', c/o McAtees Funeral Directors. Mrs McCarron's employer NW Care said she was a "valued member" of its Omagh team and described her death as "a huge loss to us all and the wider community to which she passionately served". It added: "Martina was and will always be one of our heroes so when you're clapping health and social care workers, please share a thought for her and her loving family." A memorial Mass to celebrate her life will be held at a later date Lockdowns Return to China in Second Wave; Chinas Supplies to Drug Cartels Cut off by Virus Drug cartels in Latin America have seen their operations crippled by the new coronavirus, the CCP Virus. Reports say that their ability to produce drugs have been impacted, given that many of the synthetic drugs such as fentanyl come from China, and many of the precursor chemicals for drugs like methamphetamine also come from China. The case brings the Chinese regimes programs for drug warfare into the spotlight. As warned, the second wave of infections may have arrived in China. The CCP has renewed lockdowns in Henan Province and Harbin Province, and there are reports of people collapsing in the streets similar to what was seen in Wuhan, which was the epicenter of the virus. And the UK has joined other nations including the United States to investigate whether the CCP Virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. These stories and more in this episode of Crossroads. Crossroads is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook and YouTube. GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more As Aussie export Leonardo Nam is set to reprise his role as Felix Lutz for season three of Westworld, our very own Danny Clayton caught up with him whilst self isolating in San Diego to chat about life in the industry, being home with the kids and his tips for a good life in iso. Hint - it involves wine, and plenty of it! SHANGHAI, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Quectel Wireless Solutions, the leading global supplier of cellular and GNSS modules, has today announced a series of brand-new Wi-Fi 6 modules, including the industrial-grade FG50X series based on the Qualcomm FastConnectTM 6800 mobile connectivity subsystem, which is designed to deliver faster, more secure, and more robust Wi-Fi experiences and enable new Bluetooth audio capabilities, and the automotive-grade module AF50T based on the Qualcomm Automotive Wi-Fi 6 chip, the QCA6696, Qualcomm Technologies' most advanced automotive Wi-Fi solution. These two modules series are designed to deliver enhanced performance in capacity, data rates, latency, power consumption and coverage. They will bring premium wireless performance to a variety of consumer, industrial and automotive applications, such as smart homes, MiFi, smart TVs, over-the-top (OTT) devices, industrial controls, customer premises equipment (CPE), the Internet of Vehicles and much more. The FG50X series and AF50T modules support IEEE 802.11 ax and BT 5.1, and are backward compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac protocols. In addition to this, the low-power Wi-Fi 6 modules support Dual MAC, 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz Dual Bands Simultaneous (DBS) in 2X2+2x2 mode, MU-MIMO with 8x8 sounding, advanced Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and 1024-QAM (Orthogonal Amplitude Modulation) capabilities. When used in combination with Quectel's 5G module RG500Q, the FG50X series offers a superior 5G and Wi-Fi 6 solution for MiFi and CPEs that is designed to ensure high-speed connections which can support up to 32 clients at a time. Moreover, the FG50X series utilizes the WPA3 encryption mode to greatly improve the security of Wi-Fi connections. Engineering samples of the FG50X and AF50T modules are available now and have been provided to a range of customers for their new product designs, with the first wave of customer devices embedded with FG50X modules being available on the market in early May 2020. The full text is available on Quectel website: https://www.quectel.com/infocenter/news/quectel-launches-Wi-Fi-6-modules-to-bring-premium-performance-to-indoor-and-automotive-networks.htm About Quectel Quectel is the leading global supplier of cellular and GNSS modules, with a broad product portfolio covering 5G, LTE/LTE-A, NB-IoT/LTE-M, UMTS/HSPA(+), GSM/GPRS, Wi-Fi and GNSS technologies. Quectel products have been widely applied in IoT/M2M fields including smart payment, telematics and transport, smart energy, smart cities, security, wireless gateways, industry, healthcare, agriculture, and environment monitoring. For more information: www.quectel.com, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Ashley Liu media@quectel.com T he true death toll from coronavirus in Britains care homes started to emerge today with the number spiralling in just a week. Official figures showed the number of fatalities in England and Wales jumping from 217 up to April 3 to 1,043 until April 10. The four-fold increase, in figures from the Office for National Statistics, came amid warnings that the infection may still be spreading in care homes, and claiming a growing number of lives, despite being on the decline in the community. They also showed that 466 people had died with covoronavirus in their own homes, as of April 10, with a further 87 passing away in hospices. Nearly one in six Covid fatalities, or 1,555 in England, have happened outside hospital, according to the latest ONS figures, up from one in 10, or 383, the previous week. Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, was yesterday met with widespread scepticism when she told the Downing Street briefing that nine out of 10 coronavirus deaths were happening in hospital. A stark gap between the ONS data on the total number of coronavirus deaths and the Governments official daily count further raised concerns that several thousand people may already have died in care homes, with some estimates as high as 4,000. Covid-19 care home deaths have significantly increased / PA The most up-to-date figure from the ONS put the death toll up to April 10 at 13,121 3,833 more than the daily number reported by the Department for Health and Social Care. This difference has widened from 2,142 the previous week, a 79 per cent jump, and is due to the fact that the ONS counts community fatalities and its figures are far more up-to-date. Government health chiefs warned early on that it would be difficult to protect care homes from Covid-19 but they have faced accusations of providing inadequate personal protective equipment for staff and a lack of testing, including for patients being moved from hospital into homes. In the week ending April 10, there were 826 deaths in care homes in England and Wales involving Covid-19. It means that one in six care home deaths that week was linked to coronavirus. A total of 53 per cent of deaths in London that week, 1,506 out of 2,832, were linked to the infection. This was an increase of 336 Covid-19 deaths in a week in London. A London Ambulance worker puts on a protective mask outside the Royal London Hospital on April 20 / Getty Images Professor Keith Neal, emeritus professor of the epidemiology of infectious diseases at the University of Nottingham, said: These latest figures from the ONS show that over 6,000 of the 8,000 excess deaths reported in the week up to 10th April 2020 were Covid-19 related. "We know deaths are occurring outside hospitals and this is the best way we have in determining this. Loading.... Todays data showed that older people continue to be most at risk from coronavirus. Almost 40 per cent of deaths were among the 75-84 age group, closely followed by those 85 and older. From April 28, the ONS will publish counts of deaths involving Covid-19 in care homes, based on deaths reported by operators to the Care Quality Commission. We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down, Trump tweets on Tuesday. Fresh on the heels of the worst day ever for United States oil prices, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he has asked his administration to come up with a plan to throw a financial lifeline to the ailing US shale patch, where many firms are in danger of going bust as crude prices collapse. US oil and gas companies from Texas to Wyoming are struggling to stave off bankruptcy as worldwide stay-at-home orders and business stoppages designed to contain the spread of coronavirus obliterate global demand for fuel. The supply glut was exacerbated after Saudi Arabia declared an oil price war last month, further flooding markets. The Saudis and other major oil producers called a truce this month and struck an agreement to implement record output cuts, but analysts say they are insufficient to compensate for oversupply. We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future! Trump said on Twitter. With the world awash in crude and US storage facilities nearing capacity, US crude oil futures fell into a death spiral on Monday, plunging deep into negative territory for the first time in history as desperate traders actually paid to get rid of oil. On Monday, Trump said his administration will look at a proposal to block Saudi Arabian oil shipments to the US, in a bid to buoy prices for domestic producers. US Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told Reuters news agency last week that he was working with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to roughly double the size limit on loans available to mid-tier US energy companies under the recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act stimulus package to $200m-$250m. He added he and Mnuchin also planned to work with US regulators and the banking industry to ensure financial institutions dont discriminate against oil drillers when choosing those to whom they will provide credit. The US oil and gas industry is estimated to owe more than $200bn to lenders through loans backed by oil and gas reserves. They took on that debt to build new wells, but as energy revenue has plummeted and assets have declined in value, some companies are saying they may be unable to repay the loans. Also on Tuesday, two of the three Texas oil and gas regulators said they were not yet ready to vote on oil output cuts, but would revisit the issue on May 5. Whiting Petroleum Corp became the first producer to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 1. Others, including Chesapeake Energy Corp, Denbury Resources Inc and Callon Petroleum Co, have also hired debt advisers. A funeral was broken up by police for breaking social distancing laws after a council worker snapped a photo of the service. The March 27 service for a beloved local at Ayr Cemetery in North Queensland was given an exemption to social distancing laws which prohibit more then ten attendees at funerals. But 37 extra people turned up after news of the funeral spread, only for police to arrive cemetery when a council worker reported the large crowd. One of the exemptions was for a funeral that took place on March 27 so that 13 people could attend the memorial at Ayr Cemetery A witness told the Townsville Bulletin social distancing was followed at the funeral however the council worker believed the mourners were in breach of social distancing laws. Police were called but no fines were issued, a Queensland Police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. Burdekin Funerals director Neville Boyle, said families were left heartbroken by the limits on mourners put in place due to coronavirus. 'We feel for the families, they can't grieve,' he said. He has submitted five applications for funeral exemptions - three for Indigenous families. Burdekin Shire Council CEO Terry Brennan told Daily Mail Australia in a statement the council worker wasn't aware an exemption had been granted as no paperwork had been submitted to them. 'While many funeral patrons followed social distancing regulations, others didn't - at which stage the Council Officer took photos and notified police,' Mr Brennan said. However Burdekin Funerals, in North Queensland, director Neville Boyle, said families have been left heartbroken because of it 'Council had contacted all Funeral Directors earlier that week to ensure they were aware of the strict new restrictions, and informed them of their responsibility to enforce these guidelines.' Close to 140 funeral exemptions have been granted in Queensland since the funeral limit was put in place in late March. Scott Morrison announced a nationwide ban on large gatherings as part of 'stage two' restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19, but states and territories can make exemptions. Noah Hawleys brilliant anthology series Fargo has, like the Coen brothers film that inspired it, provided wonderfully strong roles for women: Kirsten Dunst, Carrie Coon and, most notable of all, Allison Tolman in the first season in 2015. Tolman, an unknown at the time with no more than a handful of small roles on TV to her name, played the aptly named Molly Solverson, an unassuming but smart deputy who outshines her patronising idiot of a boss (Bob Odenkirk) and cracks a knotty case wide open. Sharing the screen with such seasoned performers as Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton and Keith Carradine, Tolman sparkled in a breakout performance. I remember writing at the time that we were witnessing the birth of a new star. Tolman has worked steadily in films and television in the intervening years, but despite rave reviews and Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Fargo has been wasted in guest appearances or recurring supporting roles. So its great to see her taking the lead again in Foxs new series Emergence, even if the similarities to her Fargo character are hard to ignore. Tolman is back in uniform, and back in a small-town setting, as Jo Evans, the police chief of a Long Island community. Jo could be Molly, only a little older and wiser, with a daughter (Ashley Aufderheide) and an ex-husband (Alex Faison), from whom shes newly divorced. Like Molly, Jo also has a father (Clancy Brown) who lives with her. Hes a former firefighter and a September 11 first-responder whos suffering from cancer. The Fargo similarities end there, but Emergence shares an even stronger DNA with series such as Lost, Stranger Things and especially last years swiftly cancelled The Passage. Its a mystery-thriller with supernatural and science fiction elements, and features whats becoming a familiar trope: the mysterious child with strange powers. Following a series of unexplained electrical disturbances and power outages, a small private plane crashes on the beach. At the crash site, Jo finds a frightened 10-year-old girl (Alexa Swinton) in the dunes. It appears she was on board the plane, yet shes completely unhurt and has no memory of who she is or where she came from. Jo takes her to hospital. Some shady-looking dudes turn up in the regulation black SUVs (the bad guys vehicle of choice), claiming to be agents of the National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) and looking to take the girl away with them. Video of the Day Jo smells a rat and sends them packing. She decides to take the child to her own home, where the girl quickly bonds with her daughter Mia, and they give her the temporary name Piper. Also sniffing around is a British investigative journalist called Benny Gallagher (Welsh actor Owain Yeoman from The Mentalist), who seems to know a lot more about whats going on than hes telling. The following day, a couple called the Martins turn up at the police station, claiming the girl is their daughter Olivia, who went missing during the family camping holiday. Once again, Jo is suspicious and stalls them while she checks out the fingerprints they left on coffee cups. The power goes off again and when the lights come back on, the Martins have disappeared. The NTSB claim the plane was an unmanned drone, but Gallagher insists the black box and human remains were hastily removed. More paranoid than ever, Jo insists her family and Piper hide out in their holiday home. But the Martins follow them. When the lights go off yet again, they abduct Piper. Jo gives chase, the Martins car flips violently, killing them both but leaving Piper, once again, without a scratch. A final scene offering several possible explanations of who (or what) Piper might be is intriguing enough to pull you back for more. Supernatural thrillers have a poor strike rate on US TV, but Emergence deserves a shot, not least for Tolmans excellent, thoughtful performance. The owner of the largest number of Burger King franchises in United States has suggested it is looking at applying for a government loan meant for small businesses. Carrols Restaurant Group, which boasts a $145 million credit line with Wells Fargo and 1,036 stores, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday. 'If necessary, repay indebtedness incurred pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act', the company, which made $1.4 billion in revenue in 2019, wrote. Shake Shack Inc said Monday it will return the small business loan it received from the government, making it the first major firm to hand back money provided to help businesses ride out the impact of the coronavirus lockdown. The Small Business Administration (SBA) loan is a key part of the government's $2.2 trillion aid package and is aimed at helping small companies keep paying their employees and their basic bills during the shutdowns so that they are able to reopen quickly when public health allows. It limits loan recipients to businesses with fewer than 500 employees and revenue of less than $2.5 billion. But it makes an exception for restaurants and other food service businesses that employ fewer than 500 people per location, meaning that restaurant chains are as eligible for the loans as a neighborhood restaurant or bar. Carrols Restaurant Group runs 1,036 Burger Kings across 23 states. It has suggested it is looking at applying for a government loan meant for small businesses Carrols Restaurant Group, which boasts a $145 million credit line with Wells Fargo and 1,036 stores, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday What is the small-business relief program? The Paycheck Protection Program exhausted its $350 billion in funding last week and many small businesses were unable to obtain loans they desperately need to stay afloat. Congress and the White House say theyre close to an agreement on that would give the program about $300 billion in fresh funds. The government program, which is overseen by the Treasury and administered by the Small Business Administration, limits loan recipients to businesses with fewer than 500 employees and revenue of less than $2.5 billion. But it makes an exception for restaurants and other food service businesses that employ fewer than 500 people per location, meaning that restaurant chains are as eligible for the loans as a neighborhood restaurant or bar. The small business lending program is part of the $2.2 trillion rescue package approved by Congress last month. Advertisement Carrols Restaurant Group runs Burger Kings in 23 states and also owns 65 Popeyes, Buzzfeed reports. CEO Daniel T. Accordino made $3.7 million in 2018. DailyMail.com has contacted Carrols Restaurant Group for comment. More than 25 per cent of the total $350 billion fund went to fewer than 2 per cent of the firms that got relief, including a number of publicly traded companies with thousands of employees and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales. This led to a backlash from smaller establishments and mom-and-pop restaurants, one of the hardest-hit sectors as diners stay at home due to lockdowns. Congress and the White House said Monday they are close to an agreement on that would give the program about $300 billion in fresh funds. Late-stage negotiations in Washington dragged past Monday's hoped-for deadline, but the Trump administration and key lawmakers insisted a final pact is within reach. President Donald Trump said he expects a Senate vote 'hopefully' on Tuesday. Shack Shake CEO Randy Garutti and founder Danny Meyer said in a blog post on Monday it will immediately return the entire $10 million U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loan as it was able to raise additional capital. 'If this act were written for small businesses, how is it possible that so many independent restaurants whose employees needed just as much help were unable to receive funding?' Garutti and Meyer wrote. Shake Shack Inc said Monday it will return the small business loan it received from the government, making it the first major firm to hand back money provided to help businesses ride out the impact of the coronavirus lockdown Shares of Shake Shack, which raised about $150 million in an equity offering last week, fell about 3 per cent to $42 on Monday morning. Ruth Hospitality Group Inc, Potbelly Corp and Fiesta Restaurant Group's Texas Taco Cabana are among the chains that have borrowed money. Several franchises of McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts are also said to have applied for the loan. Shake Shack said the money it received could be reallocated to the independent restaurants 'who need it most, (and) haven't gotten any assistance.' Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a tweet said he was 'glad to see' that Shake Shack would return the loan. Mnuchin told CNN on Sunday that a deal being discussed with Congress would include $300 billion more for the Paycheck Protection Program loan program for small businesses. President Donald Trump said on Sunday Democrats and Republicans were nearing an agreement on extra money to help small businesses. Trump defended restaurant chains, hotel operators and hedge funds accessing funding meant for small businesses. The 12-week program will consist of teaching sessions and various exercises on friendship, communication, trust, commitment, and conflict management, among other topics. Couples will complete the sessions and activities both in a virtual group setting with other couples, as well as on their own with guided materials. Approximately 10 couples will attend each workshop, which will be facilitated by WWP staff from the organization's Combat Stress Recovery Program . "Wounded Warrior Project understands how important family and loved ones are in a warrior's recovery," said Lt. Col. (Ret.) Michael Richardson, WWP vice president of independence services and mental health. "That's why we're especially proud to provide this virtual programming to those couples who are managing both the impact of military experience and now the effects of this global health crisis. This is a challenging time, and we want warriors and their significant others to be equipped to persevere through any adversity." The virtual couples' workshops are an adaptation of Project Odyssey, one of WWP's marquee mental health programs. Project Odyssey helps warriors and their loved ones manage post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other combat stress through adventure-based learning that encourages a connection with fellow veterans and nature. Based on their unique needs, warriors can participate in an all-male, all-female, or couples Project Odyssey. WWP plans to launch similar virtual workshops soon to emulate the all-male and all-female Project Odysseys. Warriors and family members who participate in the virtual workshops will still be eligible to participate in the in-person Project Odysseys once they resume. Learn more about how you can support these efforts. About Wounded Warrior Project Since 2003, Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) has been meeting the growing needs of warriors, their families, and caregivers helping them achieve their highest ambition. Learn more. SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project Related Links www.woundedwarriorproject.org Dr. Natalia Echeverri, (R) uses a swab to gather a sample from the nose of Sammy Carpenter, who said he is homeless, to test him for COVID-19 on April 17, 2020 in Miami, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images An ambitious new plan to radically increase the number of coronavirus tests in the United States would see up to 30 million people screened each week and cost up to $100 billion to implement, a private foundation said Tuesday. But the effort for what some said would be the largest public health testing in history is necessary to stem the $300 billion to $400 billion in American economic losses each month as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Rockefeller Foundation contended. It said the sooner coronavirus tests become much more widely available, the quicker the U.S. economy can start getting back to normal. "We do have the capacity to do that, and we've got the resources to do that," said Dr. Michael Pellini, who helped devise the plan. Pellini is managing partner of health venture firm Section 32 and board member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition. "Yes, it's ambitious, but at this point we've got to do it," Pellini said. "We have to fix testing in this country to enable our workforce to be deployed once again." The plan comes amid calls by numerous experts and by CEOs to boost coronavirus testing to make sure businesses and social events can reopen safely without sparking second and third waves of virus outbreaks. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in a note to shareholders last week, wrote: Regular testing on a global scale, across all industries, would both help keep people safe and help get the economy back up and running." Rockefeller Foundation President Dr. Rajiv Shah said: "We envision an America where everyone who needs a test can get one." Rajiv Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images "The Rockefeller Foundation believes that testing access is critical to scaling up our lives and economy," Shah said during a conference call with reporters Monday, when the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached more than 766,600, and the number of related fatalities approached 41,000. He called the up-to-$100 billion cost of the effort "a modest investment," given the amount of monthly economic losses to the nation, as well as the societal costs related to the outbreak, which could end up increasing rates of suicides, alcoholism and domestic violence. While the goal of the testing plan is to build a state-led national program, the foundation said funding for it likely can come from federal funds through agencies or grants. The foundation itself is investing $15 million to help kick off the effort, which includes supporting cities that are among the first to adopt the plan's recommendations. The Rockefeller Foundation, which is a major philanthropic donor in areas including health and science, told CNBC last week that it had been in contact with the Trump administration, national groups of governors and mayors and leading American corporations as it prepared the recommendations. The foundation's plan lays out a strategy for tripling, within the next eight weeks, the existing 1 million coronavirus test per week now being done by maximizing efficiencies in testing capacity. After that, the foundation calls for multiplying those 3 million tests per week by at least 10 times to get to at least 30 million tests each week within the next six months. Reaching that level will entail, among other things, removing regulatory barriers to approval for new point-of-care and home-test kits, and ensuring payments for labs performing the tests. The Rockefeller plan says that more testing must be done to accurately capture the level of Covid-19 infections in the U.S. "In Taiwan, there have been 132 tests conducted for every confirmed case. In Australia, the number is 62. In the United States, it is five," an executive summary of the plan notes. "The unfortunate conclusion from this comparison is that the country's actual number of infections may be 15- to 20-times higher than the reported number of confirmed cases," the summary says. [April 21, 2020] OneConnect Announces Rescheduling of First Quarter 2020 Earnings Release OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. (NYSE: OCFT) ("OneConnect" or the "Company"), a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions in China, today announced that it will reschedule its first quarter 2020 earnings release from April 22, 2020 to May 6, 2020, to allow additional time to complete the quarter-end process. The Company will host a conference call to discuss the results on the same day. Date/Time Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 9:00 a.m., Beijing Time Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 9:00 p.m., U.S. Eastern Time Dial-in number U.S.: 1-877-791-0217 Hong Kong: 852-58030358 China toll free: 400-043-3098 Conference ID 9098186 Please join the conference call at least five minutes before the scheduled time to ensure the line is connected. The financial results and an archived recording will be available at OneConnect's investor relations website at ir (News - Alert).ocft.com. About OneConnect OneConnect is a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions in China. The Company's platform provides cloud-native technology solutions that integrate extensive financial services industry expertise with market-leading technology. The Company's solutions provide technology applications and technology-enabled business services to financial institutions. Together they enable the Company's customers' digital transformations, which help them increase revenue, manage risks, improve efficiency, enhance service quality and reduce costs. Our technology-as-a-service platform strategically covers multiple verticals in the financial services industry, including banking, insurance and asset management, across the full scope of their businesses - from sales and marketing and risk management to customer services, as well as technology infrastructure such as data management, program development, and cloud services. For more information, please visit ir.ocft.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005466/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Several aldermen said Tuesday they would rather meet weekly to appropriate spending than get reports after the fact. But city attorney Jeff Levine pointed to the need to act quickly enough when it is needed to respond effectively to the pandemic, saying the council process would slow things down. Former minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation Chief Abimbola Osuolale Richard Akinjide is Dead. The 88-year-old legal icon died in his Ibadan, Oyo State, home. A family source said he died around 1 am. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria had been indisposed for about three years According to a source close to the family, the remains of the legal luminary has been deposited at a morgue. Born in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital in the early 1930s to an influential family of warriors, the late foremost lawyer and Ibadan high chief attended Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife from where he passed out in Grade One (Distinction, Aggregate 6). He travelled to the United Kingdom in 1951 for his higher education and was called to the English Bar in 1955 and later to the Nigerian Bar. He established his law firm, Akinjide & Co soon after. The frontline Yoruba leader was a Minister of Education in the first republic, during the government of Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and Minister for Justice in the second republic, during the administration of President Shehu Shagari. He was a member of the judicial systems sub-committee of the Constitutional Drafting Committee of 1975-1977 and later joined the National Party of Nigeria in 1978. He became the legal adviser for the party and was later appointed the Minister for Justice. The late Akinjide also serves as a chieftain in the Olubadan of Ibadans court of clan nobles. As Attorney General, it was under his watch that Nigeria temporarily reversed executions of armed robbers. The Abolition of a decree barring exiles from returning to the country. He was the lead prosecutor in the treason trial of Bukar Zanna Mandara. The eviction of many illegal foreign nationals from Nigeria which contributed to mild violence against some foreigners in the country. The event also exposed some weaknesses within the West African economic community. He was a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic (PDP). CYNTHIA CHANDRAN By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The UK has so far witnessed more than 16,000 deaths due to COVID- 19 pandemic in hospitals alone. Dr Ajikumar Kavidasan, a Malayali chest physician and an interventional pulmonologist attached to Croydon University Hospital (CUH) under National Health Service (NHS) Trust in London and his team of pulmonologists have a tough task ahead as several scores of Corona -19 suspects are making a beeline for their consultation daily. Braving all odds, Alappuzha native Dr Aji has been on a path-breaking recovery trail. With more than 1.2 lakh confirmed COVID-19 cases in UK, it's capital city London is showing the maximum number of cases. CUH, which is like a district general hospital based in South London, has so far witnessed 120 COVID- 19 deaths which include a 13-year-old girl. It has not been easy for Dr Ajikumar and his team of five doctors to combat the coronavirus with no treatment protocol available initially. Dr Ajikumar, who is the head of the respiratory medicine at CUH, himself sees close to fifty COVID-19 patients a day wherein the majority of them turn out to be positive. He told TNIE that his major finding is that those affected with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has fairly no chance of contracting coronavirus. It may be because of previous multiple infections and careful self-isolation these patients have been practising. The most affected with coronavirus are mostly healthy people who are around 50 years of age and have already hypertension and diabetes, said 50- year-old Dr Ajikumar, a former student of TD Medical College, Alappuzha. For Dr Ajikumar, life has always been complex and he feels that it is his fighting skills which have kept him in good stead so far. His school days at Mangalam Government High School at Arattupuzha was not so rosy where he had to run back and forth dozens of times from his parents wayside teashop to the public tap. After filling all the tubs with water, he will help his parents, Kavidasan and Tulasi Bai, to prepare steam cake (puttu) and chickpeas curry at the wayside eatery near TD Medical College. Sheer hard work and determination helped him pursue his studies from the same medical college. He said that people in the UK took the pandemic seriously only after their Prime Minister Boris Johnson was confirmed COVID-19 positive. Dr Ajikumar feels that if the UK too had emulated the lockdown like his native country, things wouldnt have gone awry there. Arattupuzha native Dr Ajikumar is determined to see a good outcome after his team prepared a recovery trial to combat the deadly virus through a combination of hydroxychloroquine, Beta interferon and high-dose steroids where its success rate is still in the preliminary stages. SALT LAKE CITY, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The COVID-19 health crisis has forced businesses to vacate their physical office spaces to ensure the safety of their staff and compliance with new regulations. Many companies rapidly adopted a work-from-home (WFH) solution to sustain operations and service delivery. As entrepreneurs and business leaders start looking beyond the current challenges, it becomes quite apparent that the way people work has now been changed forever and permanent office space will no longer be cost-effective and may become obsolete altogether. However, companies still need a business address, mail-forwarding services, meeting spaces and reliable customer service while they adopt to their new work models. Over 50,000 forward-thinking mobile professionals and businesses have already figured it out. They rely upon virtual office addresses, meeting rooms for rent and outsourced live receptionist services from Davinci Virtual Office Solutions. 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Media Contact: Serena Johnston 801-990-9200 SOURCE Davinci Virtual Office Solutions Related Links http://www.davincivirtual.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-20 03:34:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A Red Cross worker(R) passes face masks to a volunteer, who will deliver them to seniors in need, in Prague, the Czech Republic, April 20, 2020. (Photo by Dana Kesnerova/Xinhua) PRAGUE, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic will implement blanket testing for COVID-19 starting on Wednesday, Minister of Health Adam Vojtech said on Sunday. The tests, which are to be carried out in Prague, South Moravia, and near the towns of Litomerice and Litovel, will help public health officials understand the general infection rate in the population, Vojtech told Czech Radio. Deputy Health Minister Roman Prymula, who is leading the implementation of the so-called smart quarantine program, previously said that up to 28,000 people would be tested in the study. These tests will be conducted in a representational manner similar to opinion polls. As of Sunday night, there had been 6,701 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. San Antonians proved how much they miss Fiesta as more than 500 cars showed up to a drive-thru Fiesta event hosted by La Familia Cortez last weekend at their Mi Famila restaurant located at the Rim. The restaurant launched the event on Saturday, featuring six to eight booths filled with Fiesta favorites such as chicken-on-a-stick, sausage wraps, crispy tacos, Aguas Frescas and margaritas. The company also hosted the drive-thru party on Sunday. After two days of success, La Familia Cortez decided to keep the Fiesta going as the event will take place from 2 to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. On Saturday, the drive-thru will end at 9 p.m. CURBSIDE: An updated list of San Antonio restaurants offering takeout and delivery The drive-thru event comes after Fiesta was postponed to November 5-15 due to the coronavirus pandemic. "The number of cars that showed up was amazing," said Manuel Moreno, corporate general manager for La Familia Cortez. "I think people in San Antonio have big hearts and they love their city, and they have great pride, and this is just a way to keep that Fiesta spirit alive." For this week, Moreno said the public can expect the same amount of booths, which are staffed with employees from La Familia Cortez. The only other vendor at the event that is not affiliated with the company is Churro Star, a local fresh churro shop. READ ALSO: 7 things you need to celebrate Fiesta at home The staff will be wearing face masks and gloves throughout the event, Moreno said, adding that no cash is accepted as a safety precaution. The company will also have Fiesta merchandise and medals available for purchase. All proceeds from the medals will go to the San Antonio Food Bank, Moreno said. As the event progresses this week, Moreno said they will add more safe activities to the event, such as a car decorating contest on Saturday. "This is new normal we are having to deal with and this is a good way to get your Fiesta fix," he said. "We will continue to adapt to all the changes and be as safe as possible for everybody's health." Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre Consultant geriatrician Professor Sean Kennelly has warned that nursing home residents could have to wait months before they receive visitors. There is a potential that residents could not see their families for months, he told RTE radios Morning Ireland. Most residents have already not received visitors for some time since restrictions were introduced in nursing homes in early March, said Prof. Kennelly. There is a need to find a way that residents can continue to live in their (nursing) home, but do so in a safe fashion. At present most patients are receiving care in their rooms so they are not congregating and this is having a severe psychological impact, he added. This pandemic has emphasised the need for a robust system of medical care. There will be 1.2million in the next 20 years over the age of 65. We need to be looking at more immediate solutions like own door assisted living so that people dont have to be moved early on (to a nursing home). Prof Kennelly has called for everyone in residential nursing homes, including staff, to be tested if Covid-19 is going to be eradicated from them. He pointed out that many patients and staff can be asymptomatic with only one third displaying symptoms of coughing and fever. A targeted approach towards testing in nursing homes is necessary as the HSE is already under pressure and it was a big ask for the executive to provide staff to shore up nursing homes, he said. Prof Kennelly, who provides support in 14 nursing homes in the Dublin area, said that patio visits are being organised in a number of facilities so recovered patients could get visits. Meanwhile, Simon Harris will meet Nursing Homes Ireland and the health watchdog today about the coronavirus crisis. Almost half of the 687 deaths from Covid-19 in the Republic relate to nursing home residents. Hiqa will today publish new guidelines for the sector ahead of urgent inspections next week. As people find themselves cooking at home more than ever before, Chrissy Teigen has shared a helpful list of food substitutions for common grocery items. Last week, the cookbook author shared the list of ingredient substitutions to her website Cravings by Chrissy Teigen, where she offered suggestions for everything from whole milk to vanilla extract. If I have learned anything from these past few weeks, its that being creative in the kitchen isnt just fun, its necessary! Teigen wrote in the introduction. There have been so many times where I crave something, but dont have all the ingredients to make it. And, I dont know about you, but once I want something I must. eat. It. The 34-year-old concluded the intro explaining that the substitutions mean one less trip to the grocery store, before reminding her readers to STAY HOME! amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to the list, home chefs can swap one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the same amount of bourbon or rum, maple syrup, or almond extract. If you find youve run out of light brown sugar just as youre meant to add it to a recipe, Teigen suggests instead using granulated sugar and molasses. Mixing dark brown sugar with granulated sugar also works. For a chilli powder replacement, Teigen advises a dash of hot sauce, oregano, paprika and cumin, while mayonnaise can be replaced with foods with similar consistencies, such as Greek yoghurt or mashed avocado. Most dairy products are also easily replaceable, with Teigen pointing out that coconut oil can be used as an alternative for butter and sour cream can be swapped for plain yoghurt. The list is especially useful as people continue to encounter difficulty finding grocery items such as yeast. You can find the entire list of ingredient alternatives here. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) - Forum Energy Metals Corp. (TSXV: FMC) ("Forum") is pleased to announce that it has completed six holes totalling 1,819 metres on its Fir Island uranium project located on the north rim of the Athabasca Basin (Figure 1). Forum is operator of the project and all exploration is funded by Orano Canada Inc. (formerly AREVA Resources Canada Inc.) as part of an option agreement to earn up to a 70% interest by spending up to $6,000,000 by December, 2023. Five drill holes completed in 2015 (DDH FI-006 to FI-010) demonstrated strong quartz dissolution and remobilization, tectonization in the sandstone, dravite, and sudoite clays locally in both sandstone and basement rocks and a fault offset of the unconformity at a depth of 150 to 200m below surface. All of these attributes are excellent indicators for discovering potential nearby uranium mineralization. This prioritized drill target has been further developed by follow-up ground gravity and soil sampling surveys, and a more recent resistivity survey completed in late 2019. Six holes (FI-011 to FI-016) were drilled in March, 2020 in an area of low resistivity and a series of gravity lows with associated boron soil anomalies of up to 3,350 ppm at the north end of Fir Island (Figure 2), approximately 1 km south of the 2015 drill fence. The program was successful in locating the prospective host structure for uranium mineralization with similar features as the 2015 drilling. Assays and an interpretation of the drill data are expected in May. Quality Assurance/Quality Control Samples include both systematic chip samples (10 metre intervals) and split core (0.5 metre intervals) that are submitted to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories (an SSC ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 Accredited Facility) of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for analysis. All samples are analyzed using ICP-MS for trace elements reported as partial and/or total digestion, ICP-OES for major and minor elements reported as total digestion, and fusion solution of boron by ICP-OES reported as total digestion. Figure 1: Location Map of Forum's Exploration Projects in northern Saskatchewan. The Snowbird Tectonic Zone (dashed line) transects the Basin, and is associated with the Nisto U mine in the north, and Cameco's Centennial U deposit on the south side of the Basin. This structure runs through the west side of the Fir Island project and is one of the target areas for the drill program. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4908/54636_1d1fc93954614865_003full.jpg Figure 2: 2020 Diamond Drill Hole Fence (FI-11 to 16).The blue-green shaded area is a resistivity low, the red is a resistivity high. Cut lines are from the EM and Resistivity surveys. All six drill holes were drilled in a fence on Line TDEM-L2, with the major fault lying directly beneath the collar of FI-014 (drill holes were angled to the east). To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4908/54636_1d1fc93954614865_004full.jpg Ken Wheatley, P.Geo., Forum's VP, Exploration and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. About Forum Energy Metals Forum Energy Metals Corp (TSXV: FMC) explores for energy metals, including copper, nickel, platinum, palladium and uranium in Saskatchewan, Canada's Number One mining province. In addition, Forum has also established a strategic land position in the Idaho Cobalt Belt. For further information: www.forumenergymetals.com ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Richard J. Mazur, P.Geo. President & CEO Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information contact: NORTH AMERICA Rick Mazur, P.Geo., President & CEO mazur@forumenergymetals.com Tel: 778-772-3100 UNITED KINGDOM Burns Singh Tennent-Bhohi, Director burnsstb@forumenergymetals.com Tel: 074-0316-3185 Ken Wheatley, P.Geo., Vice President, Exploration wheats@forumenergymetals.com Tel: 250-507-1818 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54636 Seoul/Washington: South Korean currency Won tumbled sharply on Tuesday (April 21, 2020) after US media reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in grave danger after a surgery. The South Korean government said that it was looking into US media reports saying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was in fragile condition after surgery. Officials from South Korea's Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they couldn't immediately confirm the CNN report which cited an anonymous US official who said Kim was in grave danger after an unspecified surgery. The report came after the US media reported that Kim has been receiving medical treatment at a villa in the resort county of Hyangsan, outside of Pyongyang, following a cardiovascular procedure. Meanwhile, the Korean Won fell 1.54% to trade at 1,239.35 per dollar on Tuesday. The South Korean markets also saw sizable declines, with the Kospi down 2.62% while the Kosdaq index fell 3.47%. Shares of defense firm Victek skyrocketed 29.66% while North Korea exposed stocks Hanil Hyundai Cement and Hyundai Elevator plummeted more than 6% each. Speculation has been rife about what happened to Kim since he apparently skipped an annual visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on the occasion of the 108th birthday of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il-sung on April 15. Kim was last seen on April 11 in state media reports presiding over a political bureau meeting of the ruling Workers` Party, calling for "strict national countermeasures to thoroughly check the infiltration of the virus". Kim took over as leader after his father and late leader Kim Jong-il died in late 2011. Credible information about North Korea and especially its leadership is difficult to obtain, and even intelligence agencies have been wrong about its inner workings in the past. A second plane with medical supplies purchased by Argentina from China arrived in Buenos Aires on Monday. The supplies include chemical reagents needed to run COVID-19 tests, masks, protective suits and robotic machinery which will be used to produce face masks at a local factory. Aerolineas Argentinas has also confirmed the departure of its third flight to Shanghai that will bring more medical supplies. The flight that arrived on Monday carried 14 tons of critical supplies, including laboratory material to carry out COVID-19 tests. After a month in lockdown, Argentina has entered a new quarantine phase which will last until April 26. The reduced restrictions allow car and tyre repair workshops and businesses that sell parts for car, motorcycles and bicycles to operate. In Argentina, as of April 20, the new coronavirus has infected over 2,900 people and killed 136. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and could lead to death. Gov. Kay Ivey said reopening Alabamas economy depends on widespread testing for COVID-19, the virus caused by coronavirus, but thus far there is no complete picture of how many people in the state have been tested. "Nobody wants to open businesses more than I do. Until we get more testing done, we cannot re-open the economy, Ivey said, adding that less than 1 percent of Alabamas population has been tested for the virus. That 1 percent number is incomplete, however. Data from the Alabama Department of Public Health shows 48,387 coronavirus tests have been administered in Alabama with 5,231 positive cases. A note on the ADPH website, however, clarifies that while commercial labs are required to report both positive and negative results to the state, some are only reporting positive numbers. That omission means the number of people tested in some areas of the state could be higher than what ADPH is reporting. State Health Officer Scott Harris said in some cases there is a delay in getting the accurate number of negative test results. We know how many (tests) were doing here in public health, Harris told WSFA in April. And we get good numbers from the large commercial labs that have been testing and reporting to us for a long time, but there are a number of pop-up testing sites, thats what we refer to them as, that are slow getting these results to us. We believe were capturing the positives quickly, but for negative test results, its still a manual process for them, and theyre not used to reporting electronically and so people are having to manually get that data put in. So, the number that you can see on our website shows the test results that we know about, but we know there are a lot more we just havent captured yet. Madison County testing According to the ADPH, there have been 2,611 total coronavirus tests in Madison with 202 confirmed cases, for a positive rate of 7.7 percent. However, data provided by Huntsville Hospital shows it has tested 5,986 people in Madison County with a positive rate of 3.27 percent. A total of 9,021 people have been tested across its service area with a positive rate of 3.44 percent. Huntsville Hospital uses multiple lab options, including commercial and ADPH facilities, so some of the tests likely show up in both totals or reflect residents of other counties but the difference in the numbers reported by ADPH and the hospital is significant 3,375 tests. In a statement, ADPH said it continues to work with commercial labs to ensure they are reporting both positive and negative results. Early in the outbreak, ADPH was not receiving negative results from entities. This is continuing to improve, and ADPH has contacted labs to provide all of their data, both positive and negative, ADPHs Dr. Karen Landers said. We are aware that a number of private labs both in and outside of Alabama are testing, although those numbers of labs can change as new entities come on board. While not having all negatives in the denominator could reduce the rate of positivity, the focus needs to remain on identifying cases and contact tracing while working to improve data submission moving forward, she said. Recently, ADPH reported an outside entity mistakenly marked COVID-19 lab test results as positive when they were, in fact, negative, causing an incorrect surge in the numbers. The outside entity has not been identified. Tonic International, a leading independent creative agency based in Dubai, is giving companies and enterprises in the UAE the opportunity to deliver the scale, theatre, richness and excitement of physical events online as it launches Podium, an immersive and virtual events initiative as part of the Affinita Global Independent Agency Network. Leading the initiative in the Middle East, Tonic will work closely with agencies around the world including New York based agency, Agenda and London based agency, The Crocodile to launch the platform. Built to enable B2B and B2C businesses with a digital event solution, the Podium offering combines best-in-class online event design, influencer marketing, and media rich interactive content formats to create an immersive, online event experience powered by the ON24 Platform. Created in response to the current global crisis and social distancing rules by a collective of industry professionals that include international agencies; The Crocodile, Onalytica, Turtl, and in partnership with leading technology company ON24, the need for companies to offer an alternative option to physical events, especially in the Middle Eastern market, has never been bigger. Arnaud Verchere, founder and head of strategy at Tonic International, said: Dubai is the Middle Easts epicentre for events so to be able to offer an alternative to physical events so quickly after weve been hit with a global pandemic, is invaluable to businesses in the region who rely on revenue from events. Podium will offer a truly immersive event experience and we couldnt be more excited to offer this service to our clients. He added: Almost overnight the way the world operates has changed, and weve had to re-think the services that we offer our clients to respond to this. Bringing Podium to the Middle Eastern market will be invaluable to our clients as it will give them the tools they need to change the way in which they operate, instead of having to halt operations altogether. With the first Podium event set to take place in July, Tonic International is the only agency to offer the Podium service in the Middle East, giving its clients the tools needed to elevate online experiences to match the engagement and impact of traditional events. The service also gives businesses the opportunity to create the next generation of immersive digital event experiences whilst replicating the theatre and excitement of physical events, as well as giving clients the opportunity to design data driven digital experiences that feel human, and allowing clients the opportunity to engage with a much wider online audience. Tessa Barron, ON24 vice president of Marketing, commented: Our mission at ON24 is to help businesses transform their marketing into an experience their audience demands. And, we know that realising that vision takes more than technology. Through innovative service offerings like Podium, we hope to help companies successfully bridge the physical-to-digital event divide, now and in the future. Tim Williams, CEO Onalytica, said: Physical events create spikes of social media engagement, but brands have historically struggled to build and sustain dialogue and engagement pre- and post-event. Integrating internal and external influencers in the promotion of events drives an 8-week audience engagement cycle, improves the quality of events and creates inspiring content assets that can be used in the sales cycle throughout the year. Nick Mason, CEO Turtl, said: I'm very excited for Turtl to be part of Podium. In the present climate, the ability to deliver amazing digital events is an absolute must and Podium will be leading the way with best-of-breed technologies for every step of the digital event experience. - TradeArabia News Service THE inmates and personnel of the Cebu City Jail who tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) should be kept in isolation, which according to the Department of Health (DOH) 7 can help prevent the spread of the illness in the overpopulated facility. In Mandaue City Jail, its 1,990 inmates have started wearing masks since last week to help them from being infected. Each of the inmates was given three masks sewn by the students of the Mandaue City College Technological, Entrepreneurial and Skills. The visits of the inmates relatives have been suspended since March 14, 2020, said Supt. Gil Inopia, warden of the facilitys male dormitory. The jail officers inside the Mandaue City Jail in Barangay Looc were not allowed to go out. There are personnel tasked to run errands for them outside the facility, but they are not allowed to go inside. The SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the virus that causes Covid-19, is highly contagious in crowded places. Several jails in the Philippines could be hotbeds of Covid-19 outbreak as they are mostly overpopulated. The Cebu City Jail was built for 1,800 inmates but it has a current population of over 5,000, while the Mandaue City Jail was built for only 119 inmates. Both facilities are run by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). Infected inmates Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella announced on Monday, April 20, 2020, that two inmates and two jail officers contracted the disease. These were the first confirmed cases in a jail facility in Cebu. One of the inmates, a man from Barangay Mambaling, succumbed to Covid-19 in a Cebu City hospital last Saturday, April 18. The inmate had died before his test results came out. On Tuesday, April 21, Labella announced that there were two more cases in the Cebu City Jail along with five cases from different barangays. Isolation rooms The BJMP has isolation rooms in its facilities for inmates with tuberculosis, a lung disease that is contagious. Story continues The Mandaue City Jail has two isolation rooms. Inopia said the new inmates are placed in an isolation cell for 14 days, and they will be sent to regular cells with other inmates if they do not develop Covid-19 symptoms. An in-house doctor, provided with improvised personal protective equipment, will attend to an inmate showing Covid-19 symptomscoughing, fever and shortness of breath. Just this April, Inopia said four inmates were rushed to hospital after they had struggled to breath, and two of the inmates later died. All four inmates, however, tested negative of Covid-19. The DOH 7 urged the BJMP to also continue monitor the contacts of the positive cases of Cebu City Jail inside the facility. (JCT & KFD) NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio -- The city hopes to sell about 13 acres of land between Ohio 82 to the north and South Akins Road to the south. The city once used the land -- also bordered by York Road and Lancelot Lane to the east and west, respectively -- to compost organic waste such as leaves and vegetable scraps into a rich soil component. However, the site has been dormant for about 20 years. It (composting) was more expensive than it was worth, Tom Jordan, the citys community development director, told cleveland.com Monday (April 20). The land borders another 13-acre property, closer to Ohio 82, that the city sold last year to the North Royalton Schools for $775,000. The schools bus garage is on that second property. Before purchasing it, the district had leased the land from the city. As for the land the city is now trying to sell, it has been appraised at $320,000, according to an ordinance City Council passed in February. The Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office website lists no value for the property. Jordan said the city has been advertising the land sale for several weeks. The deadline for bidders to submit an offer is Friday (April 24). City officials havent decided what action they will take if no one makes an offer. Jordan said the former compost facility was managed by the citys Wastewater Department. Several other communities used the facility and contributed money for its operation. At the time, the State of Ohio required communities to recycle waste products. Jordan said the state has since backed away from that requirement, so other communities stopped using and contributing funds toward North Royaltons compost site. Read more from the Sun Star Courier. [April 21, 2020] Employers Holdings, Inc. Schedules First Quarter 2020 Earnings Release and Conference Call Employers Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") (NYSE:EIG) today announced that it will release its first quarter 2020 financial results after market close on Thursday, April 23, 2020, after which these materials will be available on the Company's website at www.employers.com through the "Investors" link. Conference Call Details The Company will then review these financial results via a conference call and webcast on Friday, April 24, 2020, at 11:30 a.m. EDT / 8:30 a.m. PDT. To participate in the live conference call by telephone, dial +1 (888) 364-8443 or +1 (484) 747-6630 and use the conference call access code 4594137. The webcast will be accessible on the Company's website at www.employers.com through the "Investors" link. An archived version of the webcast will remain on the Company's website for up to seven days following the live call. To listen to a recording of the call by telephone, dial +1 (855) 859-2056 or +1 (404) 537-3406 and use the conference call access code 4594137. 2020 EMPLOYERS. All rights reserved. EMPLOYERS and America's small business insurance specialist are registered trademarks of EIG Services, Inc. Employers Holdings, Inc. is a holding company with subsidiaries that are specialty providers of workers' compensation insurance and services focused on select, small businesses engaged in low-to-medium hazard industries. The Company operates throughout the United States, with the exception of four states that are served exclusively by their state funds. Insurance is offered through Employers Insurance Company of Nevada, Employers Compensation Insurance Company, Employers Preferred Insurance Company, Employers Assurance Company and Cerity Insurance Company, all rated A- (Excellent) by the A.M. Best Company. Not all companies do business in all jurisdictions. See www.employers.com and www.cerity.com for coverage availability. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005860/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A University of Colorado at Boulder who has been taking classes on Zoom was tickled when her single mom called one of her professors a 'babe' so she decided to play matchmaker. Aly Oliver was preparing for a class when her mother noticed a photo of one of her professors, and quickly commented on how attractive he was. So Aly arranged for her mom to 'accidentally' walk in during virtual office hours with the professor, and recorded the whole thing for a TikTok video that has since gone viral. Lookin' good! Aly Oliver has been taking her University of Colorado at Boulder on Zoom. Her single mom saw one of her professors and thought he was a 'babe' Viral: Aly recorded her mother's excited reaction to her professor and shared it on TikTok The video begins with her mom looking over her shoulder at her laptop, staring at a photo of her professor. 'My mom started crushing on my professor during quarantine,' she explains in the caption. 'What!?' Aly's mom says in the clip. 'Oh my God, that guy is a babe!' Aly, meanwhile, is laughing at her mom's reaction but is ready to go to bat for her in the romance department. She explained that she set up virtual office hours with the professor, so her mom could 'accidentally' walk into the room and meet him. Chance meeting: They arranged for her to 'accidentally' walk in while Aly had virtual office hours with the professor, during which she let slip that her mother was divorced Saying hi! The two met briefly over video call, with Aly recording it all for TikTok Her mom was game and joked that she was 'gonna get [Aly] an A in that class.' During office hours, Aly is telling her professor about how her parents are divorced, so she has two houses to quarantine in. Just as she saying that, her mom walks into the room to offer Aly lunch. Playing it smooth, Aly asks her mom if she wants to come meet her 'favorite professor' and the pair wave and chat for a minute. Since the video was shared on TikTok, it has been already been viewed 9.4 million times, and commenters are excitedly writing that they hope romance is in the air. Whoops! After her TikTok video went viral, Aly (pictured with her mom) had to explain what happened to the professor who was 'chill' about it Expert setup: Her professor told her to write her next paper about TikTok and privacy issues and Aly plans to include her mom's number at the end 'Ohh I want this for her SO BAD,' one wrote. 'Your mom is so bold it's inspiring,' said another. But the video being wildly popular posed some complications namely, that Aly realized her professor might see it. In a follow-up video, Aly said that when the video already had five million views the day after she posted it, she realized she'd have to email her professor because it was now 'so awkward.' 'So I sent him an email and I was just like, "Yo, I did not know this was gonna go viral, I can totally take it down if you want,"' she says. According to Insider, her professor wrote back: 'Surreptitiously recording aside, that's [an] endearing thing for a daughter to do for a mother.' Aly added that he was 'super chill' and said she could keep it up, but would have to write her next paper about intellectual-property rights 'vis a vis TikTok.' 'However, I'm gonna drop my mom's cell phone number at the end of my essay, because, what do I have to lose?' She did note, though, that her mom and her professor live in different states and there's still quarantine so viewers shouldn't get their hopes up for too much from them. Ghanas Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta believes its an awkward time for sovereign rating agencies to downgrade global economies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, he describes as an unknown enemy. It is in my view that this is a very awkward time for sovereign credit rating downgrading and talks of moral hazard in the face of an unknown attack by an unknown enemy for what is not a blizzard but, at best, a long winter, he said in his concluding remarks at the just-ended 2020 IMF/World Bank Virtual Spring meeting. This comes a few days after rating agency Moodys downgraded Ghanas economy from positive to negative. Mr Ofori-Atta also called for a two-year moratorium for repayment of loans by African countries to the Bretton Wood institutions. He also asked for debt relief for all African countries. The need for a two-year or longer standstill given that the nature of this pandemic is not a passing blizzard but truly a long winter, if not a mild ice age. And, as indicated, a more comprehensive debt relief discussion and the US representative, Mr Mackintosh and David, indicated, to begin a dialogue with private sector creditors without coercion. Mr Ofori-Atta proposed a three-pronged approach to bringing the world economy back to growth. First, a recognition that this economic crisis will last much longer and have a greater impact on the developing world. Secondly, the need for additional capital to quickly address the issues of economic revival and global supply chains and healthcare systems, and thirdly, a new global financial architecture in order to rebuild global growth and institute a new global public good. Let us, from here, move rapidly to create an inclusive global forum to rebuild the international financial and economic architecture and a new ability to respond equitably and rapidly to such a catastrophe, he mentioned. The Finance Minister also called for a new global economic order to save the world from the economic ravages of COVID-19. Fellow Governors, I propose we establish an inclusive team of willing collaborators with the private sector from this meeting to create this new era that will make our future greater than the past. It is, indeed, a break-the-glass moment and we must seize it. Source: classfmonline.com Photo: Allie Caulfield/Flickr Missed the most recent top news in Sacramento? Read on for everything you need to know. Sacramento hairstylists petition to reopen salons with one client at a time Beauty salons and barber shops are closed across the county due to stay-at-home orders, but a new proposal hopes to change that in Sacramento. Read the full story on ABC10. Sacramento nonprofits lose donations, grants and volunteers amid coronavirus pandemic Local charities have become a major victim of the coronavirus pandemic, dealing with closures, layoffs and hundreds of thousands of dollars lost with little to no government relief available. Read the full story on CBS Sacramento. Coronavirus protests: CHP to be more cautious about issuing permits after large gathering monday Protests outside the California State Capitol drew hundreds of people Monday despite the governors strict coronavirus stay-at-home orders. Read the full story on CBS Sacramento. Sacramento man pleads guilty to impersonating FBI agent A Sacramento resident pleaded guilty Monday to impersonating an FBI agent earlier this year at a Sacramento hotel, authorities said. Read the full story on CBS San Francisco. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. Pakistan has so far managed to keep the spread of COVID-19 to a low rate due to assistance from its time-tested and fast friend, China. An expert medical team has left Pakistan after providing the necessary training to Pakistani health officials, doctors, and para-medical staff. They have given intensive training and crash courses to Pakistani health experts in all major cities, including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Karachi. The Chinese team was on a two-week visit to Pakistan and provided timely and valuable assistance to help deal with, overcome, and mitigate the challenges brought by COVID-19. At a critical time, the Pakistan-China relationship has once again proven that it can pass any test. China has also been looking after Pakistani nationals in China during the COVID-19 outbreak. China has provided critical medical supplies to Pakistan, including N95 masks, protective suits, testing kits, medical masks, and non-woven fabric for making protective suits. Chinese assistance in the form of expert advice and medical materials was timely and has helped Pakistan in its efforts to contain COVID-19. Pakistan has a population of 200 million, the sixth-largest in the world. However, as it was passing through an adverse economic crisis, the country was not ready to face the challenge posed by the contagion, and faced a major hurdle from its lack of medical facilities, medical materials, and expertise. As a result of Chinese assistance, Pakistan was able to contain the outbreak to a significant extent. The number of confirmed cases is 36 per million of the population, compared to the highest in the world of 300 per million of the population. The number of deaths stands at 0.7 per million of the population, while the world average is 20.6 per million of the population. Containing the spread of the virus has been possible with the intelligent policies formulated in close coordination with Chinese experts and precautionary measures that were promptly put in place. Medical materials provided by China were fully utilized to control the spread of the disease. China was the first victim of COVID-19, and after a huge struggle, became the first country to achieve significant results against it. The Chinese experience is valuable and can serve as a guide for the rest of the world. The history of China-Pakistan friendship is full of such examples, where we stood side by side in difficult moments and always helped each other. This exemplary friendship was inherited from previous generations, and we have the responsibility to pass it on to the next generation. The eternal love and friendship between China and Pakistan will live forever. Long Live the China-Pakistan friendship. The opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to People's Daily Online. Zamir Ahmed Awan is a senior fellow with the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) and a sinologist at the National University of Sciences and Technology in Pakistan. E-mail: [email protected] He was discovered smuggling three Albanian men in hide in the roof of a trailer A ruthless Romanian people smuggler has been jailed for more than three years after dousing his human cargo in bleach so that they would avoid detection while they hid in the roof of his trailer. Costel Nicuta, 42, was arrested on February 27 by Border Force officers at the Channel Tunnel entrance near Calais. He was discovered smuggling three Albanian men in a purpose-built hide in the roof of a trailer. Their clothing was stained with bleach while the substance was also present on Nicuta's hoodie. Costel Nicuta, 42, has been sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment after assisting unlawful immigration into the UK Nicuta with bleach on his arms - he doused his human cargo in bleach so that they would avoid detection while they hid in the roof of his trailer The trailer, which was empty, also emitted a strong smell of bleach. Nicuta, of no fixed addressed, was charged with assisting unlawful immigration into the UK and remanded in custody. He pleaded guilty at a pre-trial hearing at Canterbury Crown Court in Kent via video link on April 16. Nicuta was handed a three year and fourth month prison sentence. Chris Philp, Minister for Immigration Compliance said: 'We are working around the clock with law enforcement and international partners to make sure that people smugglers face the full force of the law. Nicuta was found smuggling three Albanian men hidden in purpose-built hide in roof of trailer A person in a hide with bleach on their trousers - the three men needed medical treatment 'This was a horrendous attempt to try and smuggle people into the UK illegally. 'I hope Nicuta's imprisonment sends a clear message - anyone who engages in this kind of criminality will be caught and brought before the courts.' Before being given to the French Police Aux Frontieres the three men needed medical treatment and the case was sent to Immigration Enforcement's Criminal and Financial Investigation (CFI) team. JERUSALEM At least there wont be a fourth election. That slender reed was about the only thing that truly united Israelis on both sides of the polarized countrys political chasm on Tuesday as they began to absorb the details of a deal for a joint government struck by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former challenger, Benny Gantz. Right-wingers felt betrayed by Mr. Netanyahus surrender of half the government to Mr. Gantz and his small band of centrists. Netanyahu haters felt betrayed by almost everything else about the pact, which keeps Mr. Netanyahu in office as prime minister. But not having to wait around for another noxious campaign? That, nearly everyone could get behind. Our country is constantly in crisis and holding elections, and our leaders are always fighting, said Limor Cohen, 54, accompanying her friend to a doctors appointment in Tel Aviv. We finally have a situation that can bring about some stability and quiet. Thats exactly what we need. The deal could still be blocked by the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on petitions claiming that because Mr. Netanyahu has been indicted on criminal charges he should be disqualified from leading a new government. Stertil-Koni Gives FDNY a "Lift" New Yorks Bravest put their lives on the line every single day to save others. We thank them, are proud to support them, and want them to be safe. In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, The Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) -- the largest municipal fire department in the United States and the second largest in the world has once again shown why its motto is so appropriate: New Yorks Bravest. In a city the size of New York, the scale of people and vehicles is enormous. FDNY employs more than 11,000 uniformed firefighters, 4,300 uniformed EMTs, paramedics, and nearly 1,900 civilian employees. And, while typical days are exceedingly busy, the requirements during the coronavirus outbreak have been herculean. Thats why heavy duty bus lift and truck leader, Stertil-Koni, is so honored to support FDNY by providing, on short notice, three sets of its wireless Mobile Column Lifts to help speed the repair and servicing of these essential vehicles. As Brian Myles, Eastern Regional Sales Manager for Stertil-Koni, explains: New Yorks Bravest put their lives on the line every single day to save others. We thank them, are proud to support them, and want them to be safe. About Stertil-Koni Stertil-Koni is the market leader in heavy duty vehicle lifts, notably bus lifts and truck lifts, and proudly serves municipalities, state agencies, school bus fleets, major corporations, the U.S. Military and more. Stertil-Koni's breadth of products meets all ranges of lifting needs and includes portable lifts such as Mobile Column Lifts, 2-post, 4-post, inground piston lifts, platform lifts, and its axle-engaging, inground, scissor lift configuration, ECOLIFT. The companys innovative, inground telescopic piston DIAMONDLIFT is now available with an optional Continuous Recess system, ideal for low clearance vehicles. Stertil-Koni USA is headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland with production facilities in Europe, The Netherlands, and Streator, IL. The covid-19 pandemic is plausibly the biggest challenge to Europe's economies since the Great Depression. The coronavirus is hurting all European countries at the same time - but with differing economic fallout. Countries such as Germany and the Netherlands can easily borrow money to respond to the crash. But countries like Italy and Spain fear that their bond yields - the price they pay to borrow money - will spike if they increase their public debt. Are common European bonds a possible solution? Some countries and economists have called for this response. Such suggestions have always failed in the past, because of perceived public opposition in northern countries like Germany and the Netherlands. Our new research suggests that public opinion in Germany is more complicated than most people think. The crucial question is whether the European Union - and in particular the euro zone, the group of 19 E.U. member states that share a common currency, the euro - can help protect its weaker members when they need to raise money to tackle an urgent crisis but can't go to the markets. In theory, Italy and Spain can take advantage of a special arrangement called the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). It would provide them with loans, in principle conditional on budget cuts and structural reforms, with the possibility of further support from the European Central Bank. In practice, the example of the Greek austerity program means that governments are wary of submitting themselves to the ESM. These objections explain why nine euro-zone countries and many economists have argued for the mutualization of European debt through commonly issued bonds, which were once known as "eurobonds" but are now called "coronabonds." In the past, northern E.U. members fiercely opposed eurobonds. German politicians, for instance, argued that they can't support eurobonds because their voters are strongly opposed to them. This results in an impasse. On the one hand, German and Dutch politicians don't want to issue common debt for fear of voter anger. On the other, Italian voters are increasingly alienated from the euro and their northern neighbors. In one recent Italian poll, 45% of respondents considered Germany an "enemy." Are German politicians right to worry that voters will punish them if they agree to the E.U. issuing coronabonds? To answer this question, we fielded a representative online survey experiment in Germany with 4,500 respondents in early April. The survey was funded by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. We gave each individual a scenario in which Italy is hit by a financial crisis and is considering exiting the euro. We randomly assigned respondents to receive different combinations of three pieces of additional information that might change how they interpreted events. Some individuals were informed that Italy's deficit had increased because of the coronavirus, a health emergency beyond its control. Others were told that Italy's exit from the euro might cause the currency's collapse, endangering the competitiveness of Germany's exports. Others were informed of the costs to Germany of agreeing to share Italy's future debt. Finally, some individuals received no further information beyond the initial scenario - this was our control group. Thus, each survey respondent was exposed to one of eight combinations of information. We then asked respondents how the German government should respond if Italy refuses to push through austerity measures in exchange for financial rescue programs. Respondents could choose to prevent Italy's exit from the euro or facilitate it. The results suggest that German voters want to stop Italy from leaving the euro zone. Among those who didn't receive any further information, a relative majority wanted to stop "Italexit." An absolute majority of those who had received information about the costs of Italy's exit to the German economy wanted to prevent it. When this information was combined with information highlighting the effect of the coronavirus, nearly 60% of Germans want Italy to remain in the euro. Some respondents who learned about the costs for Germany of sharing debt with Italy were less likely to want to stop Italy from leaving the euro, but the effect was smaller than that of the other two kinds of information. And when the respondents received all the information simultaneously, more than 50% of respondents wanted Italy to remain in the euro zone, while 30 favored Italexit. The figure below shows these results, on the left panel. Are Germans willing to share debt within the euro zone? We also asked respondents whether they preferred a scenario in which Germany and other European governments don't agree to share debts, and Italy exits the euro - or one in which Germany and other European governments agree to share debts, and Italy remains in the euro zone. Both scenarios are costly to Germany, leading to divided public opinion, according to our data. For the group that didn't get additional information, this second question showed 41% preferred that Italy left the euro, while 38% were willing to share the risks of supporting Italy's economic recovery. More than 20% were uncertain. Providing respondents with further information had less effect in this case, suggesting that people's preferences were more rigid in the face of this trade-off. However, mentioning the costs of Italexit affected people's opinions more than mentioning the costs of introducing eurobonds. When respondents were given all three pieces of information, almost 50% of them were in favor of eurobonds, while 35% were opposed, as shown in the results in the right panel. This suggests that Germans are open to mutualization, or shared debts - as long as there is a real risk of Italy leaving the euro zone. Another survey that we did at the same time suggests that Italian voters, for their part, are indeed seriously considering exiting the euro if there is no debt mutualization. In the face of this threat, preferences in Germany are malleable and uncertainty among voters is relatively high. This suggest that politicians have some room to shape people's understanding of the facts. All in all, public opinion imposes fewer constraints on German politicians than the consensus would suggest. - - - Baccarois is director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. Bremer is a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. Neimanns is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. For other commentary from The Monkey Cage, an independent blog anchored by political scientists from universities around the country, see www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Asip Hasani (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya Wed, April 22 2020 The Magetan regency administration in East Java has decided to quarantine Temboro village, home to Al Fatah Pesantren (Islamic boarding school) and its more than 20,000 santri (students of pesantren), after 43 tested positive for COVID-19 in Malaysia. Starting from today [Monday], Temboro is under strict quarantine. No one is allowed to enter the village, and those in the village are not allowed to leave except for emergencies, Magetan Regent Suprawoto told The Jakarta Post. Malaysian health authorities announced on Sunday that 43 Malaysian students who had recently returned from the pesantren had tested positive for COVID-19. 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 Kim Jong Un The US intelligence agencies are receiving information that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is in grave danger after undergoing surgery, CNN has reported citing a US official with direct knowledge. North Korea's supreme leader recently missed the birthday celebration of his grandfather - the national founder, Kim Il Sung, sparking speculations about his health. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report. The last time Kim was seen publicly, he was presiding over a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's politburo on April 11. April 15, the birth anniversary of the country's founding father Kim Il Sung, is North Korea's most important holiday. It was celebrated without any official mention of Kim Jong-Un's movements, said the report. As Kim was reportedly absent from a festivity celebrating his grandfather, experts were unsure of what to draw out of it, as per the report. In 2008, Kim Jong Il's absence from a parade celebrating North Korea's 60th anniversary was followed by rumblings that he was in poor health. But, it was later revealed that he had a stroke. After which his health continued to decline until he died in 2011, the report suggested. There have been a number of recent rumours about the health of the North Korean leader. If Kim is hospitalised, it would explain why he was not present on the important April 15 celebrations, Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former CIA deputy division chief for North Korea told the publication. However, over the years, there have been a number of false health rumours about Kim Jong-un or his father, he said, adding that we'll have to wait and see. The publication tried to reach out to The National Security Council and Office of the Director of National Intelligence but was refused to get a comment. New Delhi, April 21 : With the COVID-19 tally in the national capital set to soon touch the 2,100-mark, tracking down the trail of the novel coronavirus remains the only resort with the authorities to contain its spread. This tracking though is a huge task and requires much effort and resources -- approximately 300 people including doctors, government officials, data operators etc is involved in the process. Sub Registrar Aneesh Yadav, who is the nodal officer for surveillance and is heading the Surveillance Hub in Delhi's South District took IANS through the process. "When we receive the information regarding a patient from anywhere here, hospital or labs, a team of doctors is rushed to their residence to shift the person to a hospital. "Once the shifting is over and the patient is comfortable, we take their mobile number and track their routine for the past 15 days. Wherever the patient has visited, all those said areas are sanitized," Yadav said. "Along with this, a medical surveillance team tracks and visits all those the patient likely came in touch with or interacted directly. Each of these contacts are screened to ascertain whether they are symptomatic or a symptomatic. "The contacts of COVID patients are generally considered high risk and hence they are usually quarantined for around 28 days," he added. He further told IANS that once the doctors complete this process, they submit a report to the Surveillance Hub following which a sticker is put on the houses of the persons who came in contact with the patient announcing the duration of their home quarantine. Explaining the working of the hub, Anuja Vasudeva, District Surveilance Officer and a doctor told IANS: "We perform two major jobs at this Hub - First, contact tracing of all positive COVID-19 patients and Second, planning, survey and reporting of all the containment zones of the South District. Our team has 7 Physical Therapy (PT) students coming from Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) and two other doctors and one doctor for containment zone planning with the staff of the District Magistrate and some data entry operators, Vasudeva said. "As soon as we receive the information, we start the tracking and tracing process on the phone immediately and all the high risk contacts are put on either home or institutional quarantine and we inform all the other needful to our counterparts at the DM office," she added. District Magistrate, South Delhi, B.M. Mishra explaining how containment zones are created, said, "When we get information from our hub about a certain number of cases from a single area, we seek permission from the state and pass the containment order specifying the regulations and officers responsible for ensuring the implementation." "The Surveillance Hub is coming very handy. All the information and the number of cases is maintained on a Google spreadsheet which all of us can access from sitting in our offices or wherever we are. The best part about this data is that it updates in real time which makes it very easy for us to take important decision," Mishra said. South Delhi so far has 9 containment zones. The containment zones -- created to map the local transmission of the disease and prevent it from spreading -- completely shuts the movement of the common people in the area with the authorities taking care of the essential supplies. The area and the houses in it are sanitised properly. The DUP's Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has spoken of his pain of being unable to visit his elderly father Jim as he "fights his final battle". His comments came as a split developed in the Executive on the reopening of cemeteries. Sir Jeffrey said he and his family were contemplating final arrangements for his father. "It's not an easy time," he told the BBC Stephen Nolan Show on Radio Ulster. "We're a big family, we're a close family and it's tough at the moment. There are many families in Northern Ireland going through this. "There isn't going to be a church service so it's a very different scenario." Sir Jeffrey said he supported calls for cemeteries to reopen across Northern Ireland on a "controlled basis". He said his party has been contacted by members of the public and churches on the issue, and some had "heartbreaking stories" to tell. He said he supported the measures put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus but as parks were reopened, there was "merit" in discussing opening cemeteries. "Having a funeral in this country, having a wake for example is a very important part of the grieving process for most people," he said. "It's not just our family, it's the wider local community that are impacted," he said, revealing how his family had tried to communicate with his father through a window up until recently. "I just ask that people think about the families that have lost loved ones in recent weeks... who probably feel isolated right now." Although cemeteries are operated by councils as well as privately owned by churches, Stormont holds the legal power to decide when they should reopen. Sir Jeffrey said it was "about making balanced judgments". He added: "One of the issues we're going to have to deal with going forward... is the impact on the mental health of our population is something we're going to have to consider. "We allow people to go out to the supermarket where they queue up," he said. "We believe it is possible to put in place measures - limit the opening times, limit the numbers in the cemeteries at any one time and put in place a system whereby you don't have people passing each other. "We believe that it is possible to do this safely," he said. Meanwhile, on Good Morning Ulster Minister for Agriculture and the Environment Edwin Poots said his father Charlie's condition had deteriorated after he fell at his home outside Lisburn earlier this month. The DUP MLA for Lagan Valley has not been allowed visit his father in Ulster Hospital in line with new restrictions but praised staff who are taking care of his 90-year-old father. "He had been doing reasonably well but unfortunately he isn't doing so well at the minute. It is a matter of concern for the family at this time," he said. "The hospital are doing a superb job and providing good care for him and the healthcare system that we have in this country is something which needs to be cherished. "It's extremely difficult for him because he's 90 now and for older people it is really a desperate situation and it's a very difficult situation for families," he said. iStock / Getty Images En espanol | The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says it will not garnish stimulus checks for back taxes. It will, however, take money from your payment if you're behind on child support. States have to report individuals who owe child support to the federal Treasury Offset Program (TOP), which collects state and federal debts aside from income tax debts. The CARES Act, which authorized the coronavirus stimulus payments, allows TOP to collect delinquent child support obligations. It can take your entire stimulus check, up to the amount that you owe. If you're married to someone who owes child support (and you don't), you can file an injured spouse form. This can allow you to keep the portion of the stimulus that doesn't belong to your spouse. "Injured spouse relief may be available when Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation, is filed to get back a portion of a joint refund when the joint overpayment is applied to a past-due obligation of the other spouse, says Susan Allen, senior manager for tax practice and ethics at the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants. Taxpayers don't need to wait until they file their next tax return to file a Form 8379. Thus, if a taxpayer thinks he or she is entitled to injured spouse relief and therefore should receive an economic stimulus payment, he or she should go ahead and file the form." Leadership matters now more than ever. We see evidence of this globally, as leaders make tough decisions about life and death to protect the health and safety of their citizens the top priority of elected officials. Some decisions made by presidents, prime ministers and governors may be unpopular. But in these times, strong leaders leave politics behind and work together with everyone to do whats right for their constituents. Simply put, governors matter. Thats why Im supporting Whitney Williams for governor. Shes the new generation of leadership Montana needs. As CEO of her successful consulting company, shes worked alongside Fortune 500 companies, charities, governments and citizens to solve complex problems around the globe like those facing Montanans today. Shes tough enough to take on our challenges and fight for Montana families by bringing big, bold ideas to Helena to get our real lives and economy back on track. Our new lives underscore why governors are important. Its a tough time. Montanans are struggling many are laid off or working at home while their children try to learn online. Neighborhood businesses are shuttered or doing a fraction of the business before the coronavirus struck. We miss visits and hugs with our loved ones. Williams has the ability to lead our state in a crisis, and the steady hand to rely on science rather than guesswork. When solving problems, she believes in fishing far from the boat to bring more people and diverse thinking together. Having lived in China, I pay attention to whats happening around the world. Every year, the World Economic Forum releases a report on the gender gap in all nations. Metrics include health, education, and economic and political participation. Predictably, Iceland and Scandanavian countries top the list. But theres one surprise in the Top 10: Rwanda. Rwanda's placement was the culmination of necessity and foresight. Two decades ago, hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were killed through genocide. Women, out of necessity, became the backbone of the workforce. Ultimately, a law was passed requiring that 30% of Parliament must be female. New members of Parliament instituted policies, such as paid maternity leave, that helped women stay in the workforce. The United States, sadly, ranked 53rd on the 2020 list. Williams knows that when women are at the table, we act on issues often overlooked: Pay equity Access to quality health care Quality public education, career and apprenticeship training Safety of children and families from violence Reproductive rights Family and maternity leave Care of elders and seniors Williamss committed to having her administration and appointments to boards and commissions more accurately reflect the diversity of our population in Montana, where women are half the population. Now, this tough Montana woman can help lead the Big Sky State into the future. Williams has a fierce urgency to get work done for workers, families, and business coupled with a compassion born of her parents, Pat and Carol Williams, lifelong public servants whove given much more to our state and nation. Williams has selected a running mate, Buzz Mattelin, a Culbertson farmer, to bring urban and rural Montana together to charge into the future. With Williams's experience in battling the Ebola epidemic in Congo and Mattelins ag acumen in Culbertson, Im confident well be in capable hands. We face challenging times ahead. Our state, nation and world need strong, experienced leadership. Williams will bring experience and new ideas to overcome the new challenges facing our state. With her leadership, we can overcome this crisis, keep our families safe and healthy, and get Montana businesses running again and people back to work. Please join me in supporting and voting for Whitney Williams for governor of Montana. Melodee Hanes of Bozeman is an attorney and co-chair of the Baucus Institute, founded by her husband, former U.S. Ambassador to China and Sen. Max Baucus. In 2008 President Barack Obama appointed her to serve at the United States Department of Justice as the acting director of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and then as acting director of communications for the Office of Justice Programs. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 4 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 1 21.04.2020 LISTEN As concerns continue to mount over lack of storage facilities to store oil in the US, the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Ghana, (COPEC) is calling on the Government to help the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) get the needed credit facilities to stock oil for the country. We do believe this notwithstanding, however, that the markets are ripe for the Ghana Government to consider helping the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation ( BOST ) to get a good credit line or an open credit system in place immediately to stock oil at this point for the countrys strategic reserves or stocking needs, COPEC added in a statement. This follows reports that for the first time in history, the price of US oil has turned negative due to the supposed unavailability of storage space across the US market with some traders allegedly paying for cargo to be returned before the close of the futures market for the month of April on 22/04/20. Demand for oil has all but dried up as lockdowns across the world have kept people indoors. As a result, oil firms have resorted to renting tankers to store the surplus supply and that has forced the price of US oil into negative territory. The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for US oil, has fallen as low as minus $37.63 a barrel. Find COPECs full statement below: CHAMBER OF PETROLEUM CONSUMERS-GHANA Social media is currently awash with news of the collapse of Oil prices internationally with a section of Ghanaians demanding this price collapse immediately reflect at the pumps. Yes, it is indeed true that oil prices especially the WTI platform Is currently trading at -$15 which is about the lowest in several decades. Brent however is still trading around $26 as at close of day and as such pump prices are very unlikely to see any reductions as is being expected by a cross-section of the Ghanaian public. The disparity in the two benchmarks is largely due to a supposed unavailability of storage space across the US market with some traders allegedly paying for cargo to be returned before the close of the futures market for the month of April on 22/04/20. This pricing collapse is largely reflected on crude and has very little direct impact on processed or refined products and by extension local pump prices. Moreover the Ghanaian market is largely Brent benchmark dependent and as such a collapse on WTI is quite unlikely to have any trickle down effect on local pump prices here. We do believe this notwithstanding, however, that the markets are ripe for the Ghana Government to consider helping The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation ( BOST ) to get a good credit line or an open credit system in place immediately to stock Oil at this point for the countrys strategic reserves or stocking needs. The Government should also consider getting our local refinery back to productivity in order to process Ghanas oil locally as we understand some of our producers or Oil fields may be soon forced to shut down production due to lack of storage space globally. Whatever security guarantees or arrangements that needs to be put in place to forestall any games with the strategic reserves must certainly be robust and efficient so the country does not lose on both the upstream and downstream ends due to the low prices being recorded on the international market currently. Signed Duncan Amoah Executive Secretary ---citinewsroom After the session held by the Board of Civil Contract Party today, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenian Alen Simonyan told reporters that he will be filing lawsuits against media outlets that release defamatory articles that are not part of the context. Asked if the board had considered Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans statement that the latter is preparing to wipe the public administration system of the remainders of Serzh Sargsyan, Alen Simonyan said this is something that the Prime Minister and citizens of Armenia have been talking about for a long time and that the process of cleansing is in progress. The criminal cases and the people being investigated serve as brilliant evidence of this, and there will be more examples of this in the near future, he said. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who was also attending the board session, left without answering journalists questions. Foreign NHS workers helping save lives from coronavirus may be forced to leave the country because they are not covered by a blanket visa extension, MPs have been warned. Home Secretary Priti Patel announced on March 31 that some 2,800 medics with residency documents due to expire on or before October 1 will have another year added on automatically. But the Health Committee heard today that many workers doing 'essential' tasks in hospitals would not be covered by the move. In a remote hearing barrister Adrian Berry, chairman of the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association, said that the announcement 'initially appeared to include everybody working in the NHS but then subsequently looks as if it has been limited to those on tier 2 visas work permit visas, in other words and not family reunion visas or other things'. He added: 'It may also be restricted to certain types of work in the NHS for example, doctors and nurses and not those, for example, like hospital porters and others who do essential jobs in the National Health Service.' Adrian Berry, chairman of the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association, said that the announcement 'initially appeared to include everybody working in the NHS but then subsequently looks as if it has been limited to those on tier 2 visas work permit visas' Liberal Democrat home affairs spokeswoman person Christine Jardine said: 'It is completely unacceptable that anyone working on the frontline and putting themselves in harm's way during coronavirus crisis is having to worry about whether or not their visa will be extended' Liberal Democrat home affairs spokeswoman person Christine Jardine said: 'It is completely unacceptable that anyone working on the frontline and putting themselves in harm's way during coronavirus crisis is having to worry about whether or not their visa will be extended. 'The Government must give them certainty that they will have the right to stay. 'The UK should say, loudly and unequivocally, that those who have put their lives at risk for our country are welcome to live in it. 'They and their families should be granted the right to settle here, without the costs or bureaucratic hurdles that usually involves.' Mr Berry added that a form of legislation known as a statutory incident could be applied to 'give everyone legal certainty'. A legal precedent was set in 2016 when a similar provision was put in place, he said, adding: 'It's simple, it's straightforward, it's easy to do. 'You create legal certainty, they (migrants) know they have an extension of leave.' Colin Yeo, a barrister and founder of organisation Free Movement, said communication on the subject by the Home Office had been 'pretty terrible so far' and had caused confusion. He told MPs: 'If we are struggling to understand what is going on and what these announcements cover then the migrants affected will have no idea basically of what's going on.' He said 'ad hoc' information was 'really not helpful at all' adding: 'What we want to see is a much more comprehensive, strategic communications policy that has some real clarity and also that we are certain is legally effective.' Other NHS migrant workers like cleaners and hospital porters as well as those working in social care should have their visa rights extended and protected in the same way, MPs were told. The Home Office said it would make sure no-one would be penalised for circumstances out of their control and the measure fell under existing immigration legislation allowing the Home Secretary to act in exceptional circumstances such as the current pandemic. MPs also heard there was a 'lack of clarity' over whether the pledge was for all such staff or just those in the country on specific visas. Mr Berry told the committee 'it's not free from doubt' that a nurse, for example, would have their visa extended, suggesting it was either a 'shift in policy or a lack of clarity'. Priti Patel announced on March 31 that some 2,800 medics with residency documents due to expire on or before October 1 will have another year added on automatically Unveiling the move last month, Ms Patel said the change would be automatic so medical staff were not burdened with paperwork at a time when the NHS is facing a massive fight against the pandemic. In a statement she said said: 'Doctors, nurses and paramedics from all over the world are playing a leading role in the NHS's efforts to tackle coronavirus and save lives. 'We owe them a great deal of gratitude for all that they do. 'I don't want them distracted by the visa process. That is why I have automatically extended their visas free of charge for a further year.' The Home Office said today the extension applied to all migrant doctors, nurses and paramedics in question and NHS trusts were checking staff visa records to identify who would qualify. Kazakhstan bans cement imports ICR Newsroom By 21 April 2020 Kazakhstans Acting Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development has signed an order on the regulation of cement imports. The order introduces a ban on the import on certain types of cement from countries outside the Eurasian Economic Union for a period of six months with effect from 16 April, according to Kazakhstan Newsline. Published under From the studio wall to Spring to Action, a fundraiser organized by Monica King Contemporary. Info: Sharon Butler, May 11, 2018, 2019, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 inches. Contributed by Sharon Butler / Here are some articles and online projects that I thought might interest Two Coats readers. Ive been somewhat productive in working on an artists book project during lockdown, but I have trouble tearing myself away from the news and trying to make sense of it all. George Packer wrote We Are Living in a Failed State, a devastating piece in The Atlantic about how the coronavirus has exposed the extent of Americas weaknesses: Every morning in the endless month of March, Americans woke up to find themselves citizens of a failed state. With no national planno coherent instructions at allfamilies, schools, and offices were left to decide on their own whether to shut down and take shelter. When test kits, masks, gowns, and ventilators were found to be in desperately short supply, governors pleaded for them from the White House, which stalled, then called on private enterprise, which couldnt deliver. States and cities were forced into bidding wars that left them prey to price gouging and corporate profiteering. Civilians took out their sewing machines to try to keep ill-equipped hospital workers healthy and their patients alive. Russia, Taiwan, and the United Nations sent humanitarian aid to the worlds richest powera beggar nation in utter chaos. Read more. J. David Goodman writes in the NYTimes that restarting New York could take years. For artists, this might mean cheaper studio rents, but fewer galleries and arts organizationswill survive to show their work. In other words, prepare for a slew of artists to leave the city in search of other opportunities, and plenty of low budget DIY activity for those who remain. The economic impact in the city from the global pandemic has been striking: hundreds of thousands are already out of work; at least $7.4 billion in tax revenue is projected to be lost by the middle of next year. And the changes will be felt long after New York begins to reopen its economy Read more. Emergency doctor Richard Levitan, the guy who invented an imaging system for teaching intubation, drove down from New Hampshire and worked for ten days at Bellvue. He writes in the NYTimes that Covid-19 pneumonia is unlike anything hes seen before. We are just beginning to recognize that Covid pneumonia initially causes a form of oxygen deprivation we call silent hypoxia silent because of its insidious, hard-to-detect nature. To my amazement, most patients I saw said they had been sick for a week or so with fever, cough, upset stomach and fatigue, but they only became short of breath the day they came to the hospital. Their pneumonia had clearly been going on for days, but by the time they felt they had to go to the hospital, they were often already in critical condition. Read more. The studio shake-out has already begun according to Art Hag, who writes on her blog that Spaceworks announced on March 31 that it is going out of business and all of its affordable artist facilities will close. It is with heavy heart that we inform you that after much consideration, Spaceworks will be closing our doors this spring, the email announcement began. Launched in 2012 to address issues of space affordability for artists in New York City, Spaceworks has locations in the Bronx, Williamsburg, Long Island City, and Gowanus. Read more. If, like me, you have been thinking about how artists should move forward in a time of pandemic, you might take a look at this Brainard Carey/Praxis Center for Aesthetic Studies video interview with David Ross. Ross, director of the SVA Low Residency MFA Program and former director of the Whitney, suggests that artists need to recognize their privilege and understand that their job has changed. It can be depressing in coming to grips with how it has changed but you dont have to reach a million people, you dont have to have mass power. You can create work that meets the consciousness of one person. Thats an empowering thought. Watch video. Christopher Wool in The Painting Factory: Abstraction After Warhol, a 2012 exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The catalogue is now available online. A blast from the past: we got a note from Jeffrey Deitch alerting us to a new online project based on a painting exhibition he curated in 2012, The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Warhol. Having been a regular visitor to Andy Warhols Factory while he was creating his late abstract paintings, I was fascinated to see how many of the most accomplished contemporary painters were following Andys example, using adaptations of printing techniques and mechanical processes. This observation, and my studio visits with Christopher Wool, Rudolf Stingel, Urs Fischer, Mark Bradford, Julie Mehretu, and Tauba Auerbach, helped me to develop the theme of The Painting Factory, an exhibition that was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2012. The catalogue has long been out of print and rather than reprint it, we decided to create a website that incorporates both the catalogue and installation photographs of the exhibition. You can access the catalogue here. Another online project worth checking out: Monica King Contemporary has created an exhibition at Artsy called Spring to Action to help frontline workers and the art community. In support of the battle against COVID-19, 25% of Spring to Action sales will go directly to Feed the Frontlines NYC, which provides free meals to hospital workers bravely saving lives. Support will also directly help the struggling restaurant industry and artistic community. I contributed the small, affordably-priced painting pictured at the top of the post. Please go buy something if you can. Click here. Youve probably read this profile already, its from the April 7 issue of The New Yorker, but I was struck by Fran Lebowitzs insight into the art world: These big New York art galleries, theyre so rich. Im not worried that theyre going to close, and, if they did, so what? There will be art galleries. There arent very many small ones anymore, and that was caused by contagious unfettered capitalism, not a virus. She also shares her thoughts about Trump, Guiliani, and other tabloid characters she knew back in the day. Read more. Stay safe everyone. And let me know if you have any workspace available in Manhattan. It doesnt look like Ill be able to get back to Brooklyn for a while. Local pre-schools, Primary schools and colleges, which can reopen on April 29 under Alert Level 3, are beginning to prepare their premises for the return of students and asking families whether their children will return under Level 3. Yesterday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that as the country moves to Level 3, schools should plan to reopen for a teacher only day on April 28, and for students who need to attend from the following day. Schools and pre-schools can be accessed this week for cleaning, maintenance and other preparations and the Ministry of Education is working with the Ministry of Health to develop clear guidance that will support schools to safely re-open their premises to students and staff. In messages to parents/caregivers, schools are emphasising that health and safety measures will be in place and strictly enforced, and that children should remain at home if possible. Silverdale Schools notice says that children at school will not be getting any more learning than those at home and the best approach is for parents and caregivers to keep children learning at home, if able to do so. Principal Cameron Lockie also advised families that getting the school ready for Alert Level 3 will take some time to organise and that an important factor is to know how many of its roll of 747 will return to school next week. I need to know if you are sending your children to school so that I can staff the school, the notice says. The education union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, is seeking more details from the Ministry of Education to help schools and centres prepare for the return of children. The unions president, Liam Rutherford, says the union has also asked the Ministry of Education to release the full public health risk assessment that its guidelines to the sector are based, on so that educators can be better informed. The Ministry has been clear that the guidelines released so far are just a starting point, Liam says. We are engaging with the Ministry directly as they develop more detailed guidance for how Level 3 will work on the ground. Well be seeking answers to the many questions being raised by the sector. He says educators greatest concern is stopping the spread of Covid-19 and ensuring the health and safety of children, their whanau, and education staff. Under level three, the vast majority of children will still be learning from home, so we expect that a large number of teachers and support staff in both early childhood education and schools will also be working from home to support that. All education staff should be involved in the decisions about where theyre required to work and should be supported to work where they feel safe. The Government also needs to ensure it is continuing to sustainably fund the early childhood sector so that services are able to make decisions based on the health and safety of children and staff, not on their commercial viability. Were not there yet. As calls to reopen the economy intensify around the nation, our local leaders here in Pennsylvania and particularly in Berks and Montgomery counties issue words of caution. Their message to stay the course is especially important in the face of impatient protests. I so understand that everyone wants to get back to work, wants to get back to seeing their family and their friends. But we are not there yet, said Montgomery County Commissioners Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh at a county briefing last week. Arkoosh, a physician with both a medical degree and a masters in public health, has been at the center of Montgomery Countys efforts to combat coronavirus and provide citizens with daily information regarding the outbreak. I go with the data. Im trained to follow the data and the science, Arkoosh said last Tuesday answering media questions regarding the timeframe for easing social distancing and reopening local businesses. She echoed other leaders and health officials whove suggested the easing of restrictions must be accompanied by widespread testing, antibody testing to see who might be immune and increased contact tracing. Arkoosh said viruses dont care about county or state borders. We need to approach any decision to open up as a region, Arkoosh said. Unless we approach this as a big region, I think were likely to not be successful. County officials in Berks had similar words of caution and a stern warning to county residents on Saturday after the county recorded 211 new cases, the biggest one-day total, and eight more deaths pushing the total to 79. Two days earlier, Berks County Commissioners launched a campaign asking county residents to Do Your Part and adhere to social distancing and other mitigation measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. Things are certainly going in the wrong direction, said commissioners Chairman Christian Y. Leinbach on Saturday. In Harrisburg, Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday talked about a gradual reopening of the economy, but he did not provide a timeline or specifics. Wolf said he would rely on an evidence-based, regional approach guided by health experts and economists that will help him decide when its safe. There is no magic wand to wave to get us back to where we want to be, said Wolf, unveiling his Relief, Reopening, Recovery plan at a video news conference Friday afternoon. Wolf has imposed progressively tougher measures in the face of a pandemic that has sickened nearly 30,000 Pennsylvania residents and killed more than 750. Wolf shut down businesses deemed non-life-sustaining, closed schools through the end of the academic year and ordered all 12.8 million Pennsylvania residents to stay at home unless absolutely necessary. Just last week, the Wolf administration ordered people to wear masks inside supermarkets, pharmacies and other stores. The restrictions appear to be working as Pennsylvania has avoided the explosive growth in coronavirus cases that has overwhelmed hospitals in New York. But those efforts to contain the pandemic have caused economic devastation, throwing almost 1.5 million Pennsylvania residents out of work, or nearly one in four workers. Wolf has been under increasing pressure from Republicans, trade associations and business owners to relax the restrictions. Protesters gathered Monday in Harrisburg, the latest among demonstrations staged outside governors mansions and state Capitols across the country by groups defying social distancing rules to put pressure on governors to ease them, some voicing suspicion that the mitigation measures were ever necessary. Like our local leaders, were standing with the science. Health experts continue to warn that lifting restrictions too quickly could result in a surge of new cases of the virus. We respect and commend our state and local officials for staying the course and emphasizing the message Were not there yet. Opening the economy too soon will have disastrous effects on public health and in turn the economy if cases uptick as a result. Lets be patient. Persevere. And wait until we get there. An 18-year-olds plea for proper treatment for her father went viral all over social media and prompted a reply from AAP MLA Dilip Pandey. Pratibha Gupta, along with her mother Shweta, recorded a video in which she claimed that her father wasnt getting proper treatment at Lok Nayak Hospital (LNJP) where he was taken after testing positive for coronavirus. The mother-daughter duo pleaded for help in the video. AAP MLA Dilip Pandey replied to the SOS and promised immediate help. In a series of tweets and a video, Pratibha explained that her father was admitted at Fortis Hospital, in Delhis Shalimar Bagh on April 16. She added that on April 18 he was shifted to LNJP hospital after he tested positive for Covid-19. He called yesterday, told us that he was being taken to quarantine facility and was kept in a room for 9 hours and again shifted to the hospital ward stating that it was too late. Today at 5 am, his fever is 102C and yet no doctors. Please help, she tweeted. The duo mentioned in their video that he was awaiting treatment. He called yesterday, told us that he was being taken to quarantine facility and was kept in a room for 9 hrs and again shifted to the hospital ward stating that it was too late. Today at 5 am, His fever is 102C and yet no doctors. Please help pic.twitter.com/3WcQrTpea7 Shweta Gupta (@ShwetaG18133958) April 20, 2020 As the video went viral, Pandey replied to Pratibha and her mothers plea and assured help. Namaste @ShwetaG18133958 ji, I just had a word with doctor heading covid team in LNJP. Corona Patient shifting is a cumbersome process and all patient with symptoms are being attended. If you can please share ward details of the patient, I will ensure that he gets proper care https://t.co/7UTjZB9LBg Dilip K. Pandey - (@dilipkpandey) April 20, 2020 He later tweeted to confirm that doctors had attended to the patient. Shweta ji, doctor has attended the patient and will do the needful. Please don't worry now@ArvindKejriwal @AamAadmiParty https://t.co/1f4elsasIl Dilip K. Pandey - (@dilipkpandey) April 20, 2020 Pratibha also took to Twitter to share an update on her fathers treatment. Thankyou everybody !! My father is safe and his test samples have been collected. He has been alloted a separate room and is under constant supervision of supreme doctors. I had a talk with him recently and he is feeling much better now. Shweta Gupta (@ShwetaG18133958) April 20, 2020 AAP also shared this video in which Pandey explains the entire incident: As soon as @dilipkpandey got to know about Shweta ji's plight, he immediately got in touch with the doctors at LNJP Hospital and asked them to address this matter with urgency. Now a special team of Covid-19 doctors is looking after Shweta ji's husband. pic.twitter.com/RJeOLdQVcQ AAP (@AamAadmiParty) April 20, 2020 Earlier, a Delhi Police constable helped a diabetic senior citizen by delivering medicines to him. The senior citizen had called the Station House Officer (SHO) North Rohini and explained that he was diabetic and suffering from severe body ache. He needed to take some medicines but couldnt go to the chemist shop. A constable helped procure the medicines and helped the senior citizen out. Lisa Ray's Instagram account is a delight for all her fans. She's inspiring, lively and admirable. Be it her struggles or the way she fought with cancer and bounced back to life, there is something that's raw and honest about her. Currently, the actress lives in Singapore with her twins (Souffle)-Sufi and Soleil and husband Jason Dehni. Lisa Ray/Instagram The outbreak of pandemic is a tough time for all the parents. While we adults know how to cope up and be mentally strong, it could get tricky to deal with your children. However, Lisa, like always, has found a rainbow amidst the dark clouds of negativity around Pandemic. Sharing her experience of making Sufi and Soleil well-equipped to battle Coronavirus, she shared an important message for all her parents. Dressing her twins Sufi and Soleil in identical frocks, wearing adult-size masks, she penned down a note on how her kids are trying to grasp the concept of social distancing. Sharing the pictures on Instagram, Lisa wrote, What will my Souffle make of this time? I try to make it clear, mama has internalized the source of her joy: the process of thinking and reflecting on life. How do I ensure they see the human familys connection to nature and each other is sacred and immutable behind the masks? Quoting Marianne Williamson, she wrote, Instagram Two different realities coexist during this pandemic. One is physically, politically & economically devastating; while the other is a forced period of reflection which has already born fruit in the form of reminding us were one human family, connected with nature and each other. Just a few weeks ago, she had also shared the experience of being in Singapore. She had written, Theres a part of me that wants to volunteer as a social distancing ambassador and help enforce the rules. I understand its difficult for some people to adjust but were in the midst of a global health crisis and its no longer about the individual. We each have to shift our mindset. Its not a sacrifice but a necessity to stay home, stay sane and keep your distance for the welfare of us all. On the work front, she is basking in the success of her recently released web-series 'Four more shots please'-season 2. She plays the role of superstar Samaira Kapoor who comes out of the closet and chooses to live her life on her own terms and conditions. The Ashaninka people living in the Kampa do Rio Amonia Indigenous Reserve recently won a case in federal court against illegal logger groups in a historic end to a two-decade dispute. On April 1, 2020, the Prosecutor General of the Republic signed a settlement that guaranteed the tribe a compensation of nearly $3 million U.S. dollars and an official apology in reparations for cutting down thousands of mahogany, cedar and other tree species to supply the European furniture industry more than 40 years ago. Twenty-Year Dispute The legal dispute between the indigenous tribe and the lumber companies owned by the Cameli family lasted for more than two decades. The Ashaninka tribe prevailed in their first court case and the Superior Court of Justice. The case stalled after it reached Brazil's federal Supreme Court in 2011. An extrajudicial settlement was imposed. It took over a year of regular negotiation for both parties to agree to terms. A notification posted on the Federal Public Ministry's website celebrated the historic settlement, saying the enforcement of the constitution appreciated the indigenous people's rights to a decent life and taking part in crucial political decisions. "The case will define hundreds of thousands of cases on massive environmental crimes in Brazil," Antonio Rodrigo, the attorney for Ashaninka, said. The Superior Cout of Justice and the Supreme Court will now maintain that all environmental damage cannot be overturned. They also ruled that future environmental cases will not a statute of limitations. Placing limitations, Rodrigo said, will deny future generations the right to fight for a healthy environment. As such, the $3 million will be paid to the tribe over five years. The compensation will be applied to projects benefiting the community, the Amazon, and the peoples of the rainforest. Area Wildlife Amazon has been a victim of deforestation and other destructive environmental projects over the years. In Creporizao, a remote town in the south of the forest lives patches of muddy brown brought about by illegal gold mines. Wildcat miners are one of the causes of widespread destruction of the Amazon rainforest. The pits are often located on indigenous lands protected under Brazil's 1988 Constitution. Recent surveys show that 86 percent of all Brazilians are opposed to mining on indigenous territories. However, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly voiced support for mining and logging in the area. He has opened up the Amazon to commercial development, causing roughly 51 percent of the entire rainforest to be cut down. The president's words emboldened many gangs and individuals to participate in gathering resources in the Amazon. Some have resorted to killing indigenous leaders and environmentalists. Experts and activists warn of the devastating effects of illegal logging and wildcat mining in the area, saying it will lead to the death of indigenous culture and people if it does not stop. The presence of outsiders does not only pose a health threat to tribe members, but it also fosters prostitution and drug addiction. Gold mining activity also kills fishes--their primary source of nutrition--through mercury poisoning. Local tribes rely on the rivers for food and water needs. The mercury in the water can cause severe cognitive and visual impairment. It also contributes to deformed fetuses. Erik Jennings, a neurologist, began a study on mercury levels on over 112 tribespeople. "It's slow genocide," he said. Want more news from Brazil? Check these out: Indigenous filmmaker Tamara Whyte, from Nhulunbuy, in the Northern Territory, has been announced as the Centralised Documentary Australia Foundations Indigenous Fellowship 2020 Winner. The initiative from NITV, Documentary Australia Foundation (DAF), Screen Territory, the South Australian Film Commission (SAFC), and the Australian Film Television and Radio School supports the professional development of Indigenous documentary filmmakers who are resident in the Northern Territory or South Australia. Tamara Whyte will now undertake a year-long bespoke fellowship with the funds, in addition to $10,000 in kind support in skill specific training at AFTRS. The objective of the fellowship is to enable professional development to Tamara as she develops her documentary concept Base 8, a project that explores the use of mathematics in Indigenous Culture. Base 8 celebrates the mathematics embedded in the Kinship system of Central Arnhem Land. Following Aboriginal mathematician Dr Chris Matthews (Quandamooka) and Dr Jared Field (Gamilaroi), the nuanced and advanced mathematics that underpins Indigenous knowledge kinship systems in Central Arnhem Land and all of our lives, is revealed. This opportunity is a game changer. As a carer, parent and Aboriginal woman working in film and media, the ability to craft my own professional development pathway is an essential opportunity to move forward. The lives of carers are unique and nuanced and so are our professional development needs. Thank you. Im excited to be able to undertake this fellowship and be able to engage further with documentary making, said Whyte. NITV is proud to be a part of this important initiative, supporting the development of the talent that exists across Australias remote regions and communities. At NITV, were committed to providing pathways and developing the careers of First Nations storytellers from across our country and sharing their stories and experiences with all Australians. We look forward to supporting Tamara as she builds her skills and develops her exciting project over the coming year, said Tanya Orman, NITV Channel Manager. We are thrilled to be able to support Tamara Whytes career and vision for her fascinating projects. Living remotely has challenges in terms of networking with the wider film industry, so we are happy to alleviate some of that distance with financial support, introductions and greater skills acquisition. We are also very interested in Tamaras ideas, particularly the documentary concept she is developing, which has the potential to introduce us all to a wide knowledge base connected to land, the universe and ancient cultural wisdom, said Dr Mitzi Goldman, CEO, Documentary Australia Foundation. We are delighted that Territorian filmmaker Tamara Whyte has been selected as the recipient of DAFS inaugural Fellowship. We look forward to seeing Tamaras career continue to thrive with the support of the Fellowship partners. This is another great outcome from the Centralised initiative, said Jennie Hughes, Director, Screen Territory. As a founding partner of the Centralised initiative, the SAFC is proud to support this Fellowship which boosts the incredible work being done by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander screen creatives in South Australia and the Northern Territory. I congratulate Tamara on her success and look forward to even more great outcomes from Centralised, said Kate Croser, CEO, South Australian Film Corporation. Congratulations to Territorian Tamara Whyte who has been awarded the inaugural Centralised Indigenous Fellowship. This Fellowship will assist Tamara to further advance her career through the broadening of skills, knowledge and networks, which she will bring back and contribute to the Territory. The Northern Territory Government is pleased to support the initiative to help Indigenous screen professionals like Tamara to continue to bring their unique stories and perspectives to the screen and the world, said Lauren Moss, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Culture, Northern Territory Government. Two fellowships now remain for 2021 and 2022. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 21, 2020 18:12 631 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd360d70 1 National women-empowerment,rural-development,peatland-restoration,Kartini-day,COVID-19 Free Enik Maslahah, 49, is quite attuned to the environment she lives in, despite being a relatively recent transplant to Kalimantan. As a facilitator of Kemitraans Villages Care For Peatland (DPG) program in South Kalimantan, she has found a link between the quality of the handicraft that women from her local community make from purun, a type of sedge grass found in swampy areas, and the condition of the peatland they live on. If the purun handicrafts that get produced are not of good quality, it indicates that the peatland here has degraded and is no longer fertile, Enik said in a recent statement. On the other hand, [making purun crafts] is a source of income for the local women. Since migrating to Amuntai, the capital of North Hulu Sungai regency in 2017, the mother of one has become more aware of the link between the oppression of the environment and the oppression of women. In her own community, the lack of access to jobs weighs heavily on the local customs, preventing women from taking on outdoor work that could pay the bills. Most women resort to making purun handicrafts instead, Enik said. Even at the village council meetings, where residents are usually empowered to speak up about issues that affect their communities, people dont always take women seriously. Coming from a background of low income and education, purun craftswomen find it hard to muster the courage to participate in village planning discussions, she said. Women are playing an increasingly critical role in rural communities that both protect and rely on peatland for a living, but existing social barriers give them very few chances to empower themselves and their communities, especially when it comes to conserving the environment. The Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) recently found some evidence to suggest that women make for better caretakers of peatland than men, according to its Villages Care For Peatland Index (IDPG) issued late last year. It measures the progress in restoration efforts seen in 172 villages, out of the total 257 villages observed in 2019. According to the index, about 65 percent of villages that had women facilitate the program have shown marked progress, while only 5 percent are worse off. The results are comparable to those of community efforts led by men, with 66 percent showing progress and 6 percent getting downgraded. The index found that 89 percent of peatland villages led by women had gained adaptive, restored or empowered status, while 85 percent of those led by men got similar results. Only a third of all DPG program facilitators in 2019 were women. While the results are nowhere near conclusive, BRG deputy for promotional education and partnerships Myrna A. Safitri said the figures were worth looking into, especially in the context of eco-feminism. We havent really dug into the reason these figures emerged like this. We will leave that to the researchers, Myrna said in a recent virtual discussion. The IDPG is used internally by the BRG to measure the progress that the program has achieved to formulate its annual work program. The agency aims to establish the program in 500 villages by the end of 2020. Myrna said that the women facilitators of the DPG program showed a higher level of professionalism than the men and an ability to persuade other villagers to participate in restoration efforts. They have been able to educate local residents about farming on peatland without resorting to slash-and-burn methods, and more recently, they persuaded local women to sew masks to distribute for free to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the rural community. But they still have a hard time with the power relations that put women at a disadvantage, especially in bureaucracy. Even though they have been given the chance [to empower their communities], the current social structures have made it impossible for women to gain leadership roles, Myrna said. Adverse effects: In 2015, Indonesia experienced massive and severe fires for most of the year. The World Bank reported in February 2016 that at least 2.6 million hectares of land (mostly peatland) had caught fire that year in just five months, from June to October. The economic value of losses was estimated to be US$16.1 billion. (JP/Hotli Simanjuntak) Their relationship with poverty also has much to do with how women relate to conservation efforts. On Kalimantan and Sumatra, where peatland fires still often occur annually, traditional farmers used to employ slash-and-burn methods to clear land for agricultural production. Since the massive forest fires of 2015, the government has actively discouraged such tactics with the threat of criminal charges. But unlike rural men, who have more employment alternatives, women often have no choice but to commit destructive deeds to keep their families afloat. Men and women have different responses to the loss of local sources of income, according to a study conducted by Daju Resosudarmo, an environment researcher at the Australian National University (ANU). While men tend to migrate outside their communities to look for jobs, women are often forced to stay at home and carry the burden of becoming both breadwinner and domestic worker and even putting out the fires on peatland. They would often describe themselves as mothers and fathers at the same time, she said last week. Burning peatland, while destructive to the environment, provides opportunities to convert peatland into more productive rice fields, and the ashes that result from the blaze can be used as fertilizer. Refraining from such practices would have a great impact on rural womens livelihoods. Mothers tend to think about the consequences [of stopping the use of slash-and-burn methods] in their households, Dayu said. For Enik, the DPG program provides ways out for women who find themselves pinching pennies, including by setting up Women and Peatland support groups. These groups are important for women living in areas near peatland, [...] providing them a space to improve themselves and express their ideas, as well as improve their self-confidence, she said. Advertisement Boris Johnson told Donald Trump that he is 'feeling better and on the road to recovery' from coronavirus during a call with the US president today - as the Prime Minister increasingly appears to be back in the government driving seat. Despite Mr Johnson continuing to convalesce at Chequers with pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds, the two leaders held talks on the coronavirus pandemic this afternoon. Downing Street also revealed the Prime Minister will hold his regular audience with the Queen later this week - remotely via telephone. But his spokesman insists that the PM is not doing any 'official work', with his deputy Dominic Raab taking PMQs in the Commons tomorrow and chairing Cabinet on Thursday. Mr Trump's wife Melania called Ms Symonds last week, and a Downing Street spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister spoke to President Trump this afternoon, and thanked him for his good wishes while he was unwell. 'The leaders agreed on the importance of a coordinated international response to coronavirus, including through the G7 which the US currently chairs. 'They also discussed continued UK-US cooperation in the fight against the pandemic. 'The leaders committed to continue working together to strengthen our bilateral relationship, including by signing a free trade agreement as soon as possible.' The White House added that the PM said he was 'feeling better and on the road to recovery'. Boris Johnson will speak to Donald Trump today and hold his regular audience with the Queen this week as he increasingly appears to be back in the government driving seat First Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured in Whitehall today) will be taking PMQs in the Commons tomorrow despite Mr Johnson's increasing engagement with work Matt Hancock 'lined up as fall guy' for government coronavirus failures Matt Hancock is being lined up as the 'fall guy' for the government's coronavirus failures, it was claimed today, as the Health Secretary faced growing criticism over his 100,000 daily testing target. Mr Hancock has been one of the government's most visible ministers during the outbreak after returning to the frontline following his own battle with the disease. But he is under increasing pressure from critics who have questioned the wisdom of promising to increase the number of tests to six figures a day by the end of this month. They have also attacked Mr Hancock over his handling of PPE shortages which have seen doctors, nurses and care home staff blast the government for failing to do enough to keep them safe. Government inside sources said Mr Hancock has 'not had a good crisis' while a former Cabinet minister said some in Whitehall believe the Health Secretary had developed 'a sort of Messiah complex'. Some now expect Mr Hancock to be moved from the Department of Health before a widely-anticipated future inquiry is held into the government's response to the outbreak. Advertisement The activity underlines the impression that Mr Johnson is desperate to take hold of the reins again, despite aides insisting he will follow the advice of doctors and rest. It is barely a week since the PM was released from hospital after a spell in intensive care suffering from coronavirus. In an emotional speech in No10 after his discharge, he thanked staff at St Thomas' who watched over him and admitted that his condition could have 'gone either way'. However, PM has already intervened from Chequers to snuff out speculation of an imminent easing of lockdown, with No10 making clear his priority is avoiding a 'second peak' in the outbreak. He has been getting 'daily updates' on the coronavirus response and held discussions with Mr Raab, chief aide Dominic Cummings, communications director Lee Cain and Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill on Friday. The pressure is intensifying on ministers to plot a way out of the crisis, but divisions have emerged between cautious 'doves' and 'hawks' who believe the NHS has capacity and would prefer to loosen the draconian social distancing measures earlier. Tories have suggested the PM is 'frightened' of taking chances with the deadly virus after his own close call, despite fears the economic havoc might prove even more damaging to public health. There are reports Mr Johnson's close circle has stopped using the phrase 'exit strategy' and instead wants to signal a 'next phase' of lockdown, with varying levels of restrictions set to continue for the rest of the year until the outbreak dwindles altogether or a vaccine is found. The 'doves' have been supported by grim behind-the-scenes warnings from scientists, who have advised that control of the outbreak is still so uncertain that even slight changes to the curbs on normal life could result in a disastrous flare-up. There is no prospect of lockdown measures being eased before the current period comes to an end on May 11. However, some senior Tories have been pushing plans for an easing soon afterwards, pointing out that the NHS is still below surge capacity and could 'run hot' to limit the economic meltdown. Before his illness there were rumours Mr Johnson was alarmed about the devastation being wrought on UK plc. However, the premier, who was released from hospital a week ago, is now seen as aligned with the Cabinet 'doves' cautious about shifting too early. According to the Times, Mr Johnson is thought to be leaning towards 'a longer lockdown that aims to drive the virus close to eradication, allowing occasional flare-ups to be isolated and shut down through testing and contact tracing'. Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who also contracted coronavirus, is also urging a safety-first approach, regarding a second wave of the virus as more dangerous than the impact of lockdown. Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Trade Secretary Liz Truss, and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove are thought to be more hawkish about the need to ease restrictions sooner - although they have been toeing the line in public. Downing Street has been furiously playing down hints that schools could partly reopen in the middle of next month, with June now looking the earliest timetable. Government scientists have been warning that the situation is currently so finely balanced that even marginal loosenings could have disastrous effects, One Cabinet source told the Guardian the government's advisers on Sage had suggested any easing would push up the rate of transmission - known as R. Rouhani Aide Attacks Watchdog Saying No Money Disappeared From Iran's Budget Radio Farda April 20, 2020 President Hassan Rouhani's Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi has joined voices with other members of the cabinet to slam Iran's Supreme Audit Court (SAC) for a report last week that said $4.8 billion provided to importers disappeared. In a new response to SAC's annual report, Vaezi lambasted the court for keeping mum about the financial activities of other branches of power and state-controlled institutions. The Supreme Audit Court of Iran (SAC) is an agency of the Islamic Republic, supervised by Majles (the Iranian Parliament) and dates back to 1906. Every year, SAC publishes a monitoring report on the government's performance, providing information on financial flows and the implementation of government programs against the goals and targets set in the country's budget law. The report on fiscal 2018-19 was submitted to Majles by SAC Director Adel Azar on Tuesday, April 14. Once again, Vaezi dismissed the report as "inaccurate" and "biased", insisting that its publication was also "one-sided". In his annual report last Tuesday, Adel Azar had disclosed that almost five billion dollars of the Islamic Republic's money is missing. Based on the official rate of 42,000 rials for one U.S. dollar, the Islamic Republic government distributed billions of cheap dollars among local importers to buy essential goods from overseas. Many of these importers are politically well-connected individuals. The SAC report said $4.8 billion of the import appropriations went missing as no goods were imported by the recipients of the subsidized dollars. A day later, speaking on the Iranian state TV, an angry Rouhani asked why similar auditing is not done about the financial performance of military organizations, revolutionary institutions and the Judiciary (all close allies of the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei). Furthermore, several members of the cabinet also stepped in, echoed their boss' comments on SAC, lambasting the report as "one hundred percent wrong". They insisted that, contrary to the report, not "a single dollar" has been lost. Firing back, Adel Azar maintained on April 18 that Hassan Rouhani had seen the report before its publication, but neither challenged the content nor questioned the figures. Nevertheless, Vaezi dismissed Adel Azar's remarks as unfounded. "Immediately after receiving the report, President Rouhani called for a review, and further investigations. Nonetheless, SAC hastily decided to publish its 'incomplete' and 'one-sided' report", Vaezi asserted. Meanwhile, Vaezi echoed Rouhani's complaint about the "exemption" of other state-run entities from SAC's scrutiny. Although Vaezi did not name those institutions, he was implicitly referring to the entities directly or indirectly supervised by Ayatollah Khamenei. These entities, including the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and numerous so-called charity foundations in the clergy-dominated Iran are not accountable to any regulatory body and do not report on their financial performance. According to local news outlets, the director and prosecutor of the Supreme Audit Court are scheduled to attend parliament's session on Tuesday to discuss SAC's recent report. In the meantime, the head of the Islamic Republic Judiciary has also ordered an investigation into SAC's controversial report. Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/rouhani-aide- attacks-watchdog-saying-no-money-disappeared- from-iran-s-budget/30565592.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 Nollywood actor, Yul Edochie has expressed his frustration as people continued to send their account numbers to him begging for money in the midst of coronavirus lockdown. Taking to Twitter, Edochie asked people to stop sending him their account numbers as he also is affected by the lockdown which had limited his making of money through movies. According to him, some folks were still sending him account numbers after three weeks of lockdown. READ ALSO Yul Edochie Reveals Inspiration Behind His Name The Stow Board of Selectman is expected to meet Wednesday to consider officially placing the towns police chief on leave following claims he attempted to solicit a teenager, authorities said. Ralph Rusty Marino put himself on indefinite administrative leave after meeting with officials from Massachusetts State Police on Saturday, the Stow Police Department said in a statement Monday. Sgt. Darren Thraen was named as acting chief, and Marino was relieved of his duties, according to the statement. The members of the Stow Police Department are deeply disturbed, shocked and disgusted after hearing of the alleged actions of Chief Marino, the statement said. "We fully understand that these alleged actions, if true, may serve to undermine the trust that the Stow Police Department has worked hard to create within the Stow community. These alleged actions are outrageous in any civilized society but amplified in a small community such as Stow. A video posted to YouTube by Predator Poachers Massachusetts, a group that claims to catch sexual predators on online dating sites, prompted the meeting between state police and Marino. A man is shown in the video confronting someone the group claims to be Marino. The man tells the other individual that he is an activist who poses as young boys online to catch predators. He goes on to accuse the person, allegedly the chief, of trying to solicit a minor. The individual who the group claims to be Marino then leaves in a police-issued car. The confrontation appears to have happened in the past week in Worcester County. Sources told MassLive that investigators believe it was Marino in the video. The organizations video later shows a chat log in which Marino is accused of having a sexual discussion with a member of the organization who pretended to be a 14-year-old boy. The group claims the chief sent photographs of himself in the chat. Predator Poachers Massachusetts is not affiliated with law enforcement. The Worcester District Attorneys office and state police both said they are not releasing any information about the matter currently. The Stow Police Department confirmed state police are investigating the accusations, though. We thank the public for the trust that you have placed in us and we are working tirelessly to ensure that this trust is preserved and strengthened despite the allegations surrounding the news from this weekend, the department said in its statement. Related Content: Stow Police Chief Ralph Marino relieved of duties after group claims he tried to solicit teen Bengaluru, April 22 : With the help of Civil Defene Corps (CDC), the Karnataka government distributed a whopping 15 lakh food packets to thousands of migrant labourers, stranded across the state due to sudden lockdown since March 25, an official said on Tuesday. "As a voluntary organisation of the state home department, the CDC, in coordination with the state Home Guards and Akshaya Patra of Isckon, has distributed 15 lakh food packets to hundreds of migrant labourers in relief camps at Bengaluru and other cities/towns since March 30, as they are stranded with no trains/buses," a home department official told IANS. When the 21-day lockdown began on March 25, the CDC swung into action and reached out to the migrant labourers, who were without work, food and shelter, as the lockdown suspended every activity and they could not go back to their native places in the absence of trains and buses across the country. "As our mission is to protect life and property of the people in the hour of crisis or in the event of natural calamity or external aggression, about 2,500 corps volunteered to take care of the migrant labourers in make-shift shelters, providing them with basic amenities and food packets," CDC Commanding Officer P.R.S Chetan said in a statement here. The CDC also distributed 1.3 lakh grocery kits to the needy through the state government and Akshaya Patra from April 4-20. "Besides manning a social media room 24x7 with a helpline for enquiries and information, our personnel also stitched and distributed cotton masks and created awareness for social distancing among the people to contain the coronavirus spread," said the official. The Corps distributed 2 lakh food packets to migrant labourers in Bengaluru urban and rural areas through the state's labour helpline. A year-old child lit his father's pyre here last week, a poignant moment made heart-wrenching by the fact that the body wasn't there. It lay in a morgue, hundreds of kilometres away in Delhi. Crippled by poverty and the coronavirus lockdown, Sunil's family in Dumrikhurd village in Chauri Chaura police station area was forced to conduct a dummy funeral for him, setting an effigy on fire. The family did not have the money to get the body of the 38-year-old transported from Delhi and the lockdown against coronavirus made it almost impossible for them to travel to conduct the last rites there. The body will be cremated in Delhi on Wednesday after a post-mortem, Chauri Chaura sub divisional magistrate Arpit Gupta said. Sunil's contractor called the family in Gorakhpur on April 11, telling them that Sunil was sick with chechak, a possible reference to measles. We tried calling Sunil but he never answered the phone, as he was in hospital, his father Radheyshyam told PTI. A policeman called from Sunil's phone on April 14, telling them that he had died, his parents said. We were not able to bring back the body as the charges were Rs 25,000 and we can't pay such a big amount. His wife Poonam sent a letter through SDM Arpit Gupta to Delhi Police, asking them to conduct a post-mortem and the cremation. And last Thursday, the family conducted the cremation back home, with Sunil's son lighting the pyre, the parents said. The entire village is in a state of shock after the family performed the dummy cremation, Gupta said. The local administration has raised Rs 75,000 and deposited the amount in his wife's bank account and provided the family with groceries, he said. We will also provide free education to the children of the deceased, Gupta said. He had five children four daughters and a son. The SDM said the government would offer more help once the cause of death is ascertained. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hanoi needed to take drastic measures to kick-start its economy after being slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at a meeting with the citys leaders on Monday. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets Hanoi's leaders to discuss the city's socio-economic development on Monday. According to a report by the city's Peoples Committee, growth forecasts in the first three months were lower than the same period last year and far below expectations. The citys economy reported humble growth of 3.72 per cent from January to March, just over half that posted in the same period last year. Responding to the stagnation, local authorities have developed three scenarios to issue action plans, striving to achieve growth of 7.5 per cent in 2020. Secretary of Ha Noi Party Committee Vuong inh Hue said besides fighting the disease, the city had made efforts to accelerate economic growth after the virus. Disbursement of public investment in major projects was being promoted, he said, adding that city authorities had held talks with the private sector to resolve difficulties and offer assistance. Ha Noi was also creating favourable conditions to receive investment that was forecasted to flow into Viet Nam, according to Hue. PM applauded the efforts made by Ha Noi in the first quarter of 2020, especially amid the pandemic, but said GDP growth was too low. The city needed more assertive solutions to overcome existing challenges and motivate the development of the whole capital, he added. On the Cat Linh Ha ong Metro Project, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The asked the Government and related agencies to allow safety experts to enter Viet Nam in preparation for the projects commercial operation starting this September. PM Phuc urged the ministry to complete the project by June. One tonne of rice is donated to support poor households in Ha Noi's outlying Gia Lam District on Monday. He also asked authorities to pay due attention to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and protecting peoples health. Ha Noi needed to maintain supplies of goods and assist groups impacted by the disease, Phuc said. IT applications had been effectively implemented, according to Phuc, especially for online teaching and meetings. The PM also stressed the need for clean water supplies at affordable prices, adding the Government had asked heads of provincial Peoples Committees to reduce prices. VNS Around 90% of staff at hotels in Northern Ireland have been furloughed or laid off as one chain predicts the overseas visitor market may not return until 2022. McKeever Hotel Group, which owns five hotels, said the market would not bounce back quickly following the lockdown to halt the spread of coronavirus. It joined a call from the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation (NIHF) for government support after figures showed a 60% fall in occupancy in hotels in March. The NIHF predicted second quarter trading would be "minimal" after it had become the first sector to shut in the lockdown. According to global data service STR, revenue in the Northern Ireland hotels sector was down 25% in the first quarter, with occupancy down 25%. NIHF chief executive Janice Gault said the sector has a weekly payroll of up to 5m and needed support to survive and plot a viable return to business. Without guests, she explained most hotels had no income. "On January 1, there were 145 hotels in Northern Ireland," she said. "Over the course of the last five years these businesses have invested 600m to create accommodation and hospitality product that enable us to showcase Northern Ireland. "Businesses borrowed money with repayment plans linked to projected income and support in the region of 15,000 staff directly, indirectly and through the supply chain." But she said that the lockdown meant most hotels had no income but still had to meet outgoings such as payroll, loan repayments, security, utilities, insurance and services costs. She said 90% of hotel staff had been furloughed or laid-off and, that while the Government scheme to pay 80% of wages was welcome, staff still had to be paid in the short term. She said most hotels did not qualify for the Executives 25,000 grant scheme as rateable net annual value was over the 51,000 threshold. NIHF president Stephen Meldrum, who is also general manager at the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast, said the federation had asked the Economy Minister for grant support of a minimum of 25,000 for all certified accommodation businesses beyond the 51,000 NAV level. The federation has also reiterated its request for rate relief of 100% in relation to the 2020-21 rate year for all those in hospitality and tourism, he said. This approach would mean that Northern Ireland is in line with the measures being adopted in England, where the Chancellor has recognised the burden that rates will be to the sector and has acted to mitigate this liability. Bridgene McKeever, director of the McKeever Hotel Group which owns the Corrs Corner, Adair Arms, Dunsilly Hotel and Dunadry Hotel, all in Co Antrim, as well as Dillons Hotel in Letterkenny said it agreed support was needed for hotels. Most hotels are large properties with high rateable values and therefore dont qualify for the grants. Hotels rely heavily on international tourism, corporate travel amongst other things, all of which we dont expect to see bounce back quickly, she said. Large gathering restrictions will impact the events market and the food and beverage market will have social distancing measures in place and therefore will reduce capacity. Hotel revenues will be severely impacted even when restrictions are lifted and we are estimating that it could be two years before we see sufficient levels of international tourism return. During this time we need to try and protect our workforce and jobs all on severely reduced revenue incomes. She said that hotels were likely to be expected to pay rates again in July following the three-month holiday, when the hotel sector dont know if it will be open and if it is, will be dramatically reduced. A Department for Economy spokeswoman said: Businesses are eligible to apply for the 25,000 grant scheme if they are within the NAV range of 15,001-51,000. We will explore the potential to support businesses not currently eligible and will look to address as many of the gaps as we can. Colum McLornan, co-owner of the Marine Hotel in Ballycastle, said it had qualified for the 25,000 grant and had completed its online application yesterday. And he urged the Government to authorise the reopening of hotels in June, with hotels adhering to social distancing through adjusted lay-outs and work patterns. I do think to have residents come and stay, eat at the hotel in an organised way, would help the hotels have some sort of trade during the summer months and maintain these businesses, he said. President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday praised civil servants for handling the COVID-19 situation with sensitivity and professionalism. The civil services has played a key role in implementing policies and programmes for public welfare, Kovind said on occasion of the Civil Services Day. "In the present times too, the steel frame of our country, the civil service, has shown its strength and resolve in handling COVID-19 situation, with sensitivity and professionalism. Confident that our civil services will continue to serve in the best traditions of public service," he tweeted. The president greeted present and former civil servants and their families on the occasion. The government of India celebrates April 21 every year as 'civil services day' as an occasion for the civil servants to rededicate themselves to the cause of citizens and renew their commitments to public service and excellence in work. This date is chosen to commemorate the day when the first home minister of independent India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel addressed the probationers of Administrative Services Officers in 1947 at Metcalf House, Delhi, he referred to civil servants as the 'steel frame of India'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi while addressing a press conference says that India is heaven for minorities and Muslims, so they don't need to worry as their social, religious and economic rights are secure. Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Tuesday said that India is heaven for minorities and Muslims and asserted that their social, religious and economic rights are secured in the country. India is heaven for minorities and Muslims. Their social, religious and economic rights are secured in India than any other country. If someone is saying this out of a prejudiced mindset then they must look at the ground reality of this country and accept it Secularism and harmony is not political fashion but a passion, Naqvi said at a press conference here. We are doing our work. Modi Ji talks about the interest and well being of 130 crore people of India. Those who cant see this, it is their problem. All sections of the country including minorities are happy. Those who are trying to vitiate the atmosphere cannot be friends of Indian Muslims, he said. The Muslim community has itself taken this decision, just like they took for Shab e-Barat: Union Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi https://t.co/oFcy8qm2bF ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 The ministers remark came after the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) urged India to take urgent steps to protect the rights of its minority Muslim community and stop the incidents of Islamophobia in the country. India is heaven for minorities and Muslims. Their social, economic & religious rights are secure here. If someone is saying this out of a prejudiced mindset then they must look at the ground reality of this country & accept it: Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on OIC's remarks pic.twitter.com/BmQERMJUMz ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 1/2 #OIC-IPHRC condemns the unrelenting vicious #Islamophobic campaign in #India maligning Muslims for the spread of #COVID-19 as well as their negative profiling in media subjecting them to discrimination & violence with impunity, OIC-IPHRC tweeted. 2/2 #OIC-IPHRC urges the #Indian Govt to take urgent steps to stop the growing tide of #Islamophobia in India and protect the rights of its persecuted #Muslim minority as per its obligations under intl HR law, it said in another tweet. The minister emphasized that secularism and harmony is not political fashion but it is perfect passion. Holy month of Ramzan begins on 24th April. All religious leaders, religious & social orgs have together decided & made an appeal to Muslim community to hold prayers, Iftar&perform other customs at homes itself while maintaining social distancing:Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi pic.twitter.com/xKU52XfHrE ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020 Secularism and harmony is not political fashion but it is a perfect passion. This inclusive culture and commitment have united the country with the fabric of Unity in Diversity. Constitutional, social and religious rights of all the citizens including the Minorities are secured, Naqvi said. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government has been doing inclusive development with the mantra of development with dignity and empowerment without appeasement, he said. India's Muslims are prosperous; those trying to vitiate atmosphere can't be their friends: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi after OIC criticism Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 21, 2020 The minister cautioned the people about bogus bashing brigades involved in peddling fake news and further said, In these difficult times, bogus bashing brigades are involved in misinformation, fake news, and misguiding people. We should remain cautious of such evil forces as it is part of a conspiracy to weaken Indias unity in diversity, he said. Naqvi also appealed people to perform religious rituals at home during Ramzan in the wake of coronavirus and further said, Holy month of Ramzan begins on April 24. All religious leaders, religious & social organisations have together decided and made an appeal to the Muslim community to hold prayers, Iftar and perform other customs at home itself while maintaining social distancing. The Muslim community has itself taken this decision, just like they took for Shab e-Barat. Health workers, security forces, administrative officers, sanitation workers, who are on the frontlines, leading the battle against COVID-19 pandemic, should be respected and not insulted, said Naqvi. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App What you need to know: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 Get this free newsletter delivered to your email weekday mornings. Weather High: 58, low: 34. Partly sunny, thunderstorms. Photo of the Day A nurse holds a sign during the protest of Pennsylvania's coronavirus shutdown at the Capitol in Harrisburg yesterday. Photo by Joe Hermitt, PennLive.com. Open or closed Target date: Pa.Gov. Tom Wolf says May 8 is the next big date: Thats when stay-home orders could start to lift and some businesses could restart. Read more. Protests: Defying stay-at-home orders, social distancing and masking, more than 1,000 people gathered at the Capitol, calling for the state to reopen. Read more. Protesting protests: Some health professionals stood blocks away from a Capitol rally calling for the reopening of the state. They practiced social distancing, wore masks and scrubs, and urged protestors to go home. Read more. 58 Protest of Gov. Wolf's coronavirus shutdown at Capitol By the numbers The number of coronavirus deaths in Pennsylvania is over 1,100. Read more: Blake Lynch, center in truck, has helped lead the organization of feeding folks in Harrisburg since the coronavirus shutdown. Food & drink Feeding others: A Harrisburg policing coordinator has been coordinating food delivery in Harrisburg, helping people in need to get some hot meals. Read more. Waiting for a drink: People now can call certain Wine & Spirits shops for curbside pickup. However, it takes a few days from call to pickup. Read more. In sports On the list: Five-star Class of 2021 tackle Nolan Rucci has shaved his list of suitors from well over 20 to nine, including Penn State. Read more. Travers Award: For the 39th year, M&T Bank, in conjunction with PennLive and the Harrisburg Lions Club, is honoring central Pa.s top student-athletes with the John Travers Award. Here are the five male finalists and the five female finalists. In brief Best high schools in the U.S. | Warrant issued for woman in grocery store fight | Hershey rec center changes to be discussed, again | Where to find face masks | When to see Lyrid meteor shower | Death of 3-month-old under investigation | Fire displaces Harrisburg family | North Korea leaders health questioned | Thank you for reading Good Morning, Pennsylvania. Local journalism has never been more important. Please consider supporting our work by subscribing to PennLive. Syracuse, N.Y. The Salvation Army of Syracuse took delivery of nearly 9,000 gallons of donated milk Tuesday morning. The giant shipment of milk came from The American Dairy Association North East and Dairy Farmers of America. The Salvation Army will distribute some milk to Syracuse-area food pantries, soup kitchens and food delivery programs. The rest will be distributed around Upstate. A large donation of milk is being delivered to The Salvation Army and will be shared with a number of community groups, and social service agencies that are operating food pantries and soup kitchens in the face of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the strain on resources.Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Wegmans, Tops, others want shoppers to wear masks, but wont ban people who dont 5 die of coronavirus at CNY nursing homes, adult care facilities Coronavirus: How we might restart the CNY economy while keeping the virus at bay Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com AMBLER The 50th anniversary of Earth Day brought back fond memories for Ambler residents Rick and Carol Collier. The couple were college freshmen during the inaugural event. He was at Ursinus College in Collegeville and she was at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. I think my first Earth Day was longer than a day, Rick said. I think it extended through the weekend and there were all kinds of activities and it seemed to get bigger as time went on. Rick, 68, recalled participating in several outings including tree planting and organized cleanups that were designed as outreach opportunities for area students. Approximately 265 miles north of the Collegeville school, Carol, 69, said she watched movies about the [1969] Santa Barbara Oil Spill and listened to lectures discussing various ecological topics during the Earth Day programs. I remember going to classes, and I remember doing all these Earth Day activities that were planned, Carol said. It was the thing to do. Twenty million people took part in the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, according to earthday.org. The idea originated from Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-WI), who saw college students active participation in the anti-war movement, and wanted to generate interest in air and water pollution. In order to draw more participants, the event was scheduled in late April because it fell between spring break and final exams, according to the events website. The idea was first pitched as campus sit-ins, according to the movements website. However, with bipartisan support from co-chair Sen. Pete McCloskey (R-CA), and with help from activist Denis Hayes, they expanded outreach to a myriad of organizations nationwide. Rick Collier also attributed Earth Days popularity to the number of political and environmental causes that college students were already interested in. They included the Kent State shootings, the assassination of then-presidential candidate Robert Kennedy as well as legislation surrounding water and air quality issues. The Vietnam War was a topic for protest to many of their generation. We were all looking for a cause that we could feel good about instead of fighting a war and being worried about the draft, he said. For Rick, he said he believed Earth Day was a cause people could get behind. This was, I think, a positive thing we wanted to jump into and be part of a movement that had just gotten started, he recalled. Earth Days popularity led to policy changes at the federal level, according to the movements website. The United States Environmental Protection Agency was established and several pieces of legislation were passed including the National Environmental Education Act and the Clean Air Act. About one billion in more than 190 countries participate in Earth Day each year, according to the events website. As her freshman year was winding down, Carol said that participating in the first Earth Day affirmed her passion for environmental studies. I have to say it was something that changed my life and my direction, she said. Rick and Carol met while attending graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. Rick now works in consulting and Carol has held high ranking positions within the Academy of Natural Sciences and Drexel University. Both continue to volunteer with environmental organizations across the Philadelphia area. So getting hooked on ecology and the environment back when we were very formidable as young college students has actually made our careers and our lives, Rick said. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman The Human Rights Commission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has hired Qorvis Communications for a nearly $700K one-year contract to handle strategic communications, media training, editorial services and polling in the United States. Qorvis, which has long been Saudi Arabia's go-to firm since days after the 9/11 attacks, will receive a $57,500 monthly retainer, exclusive of expenses, under the one-year contract that began March 1. The move comes as bipartisan support grows in Congress to oppose aid to Saudi Arabia due to its poor human rights record. Congress Jim McGovern (D-MA), who chairs the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and Nadine Maenza, vice-chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, wrote an op-ed piece in The Hill on March 25, calling on president Trump to press Saudi Arabia for the release of blogger Raif Badawi, who has been jailed since 2014. His "blog posts called for greater religious tolerance and dared to imagine a freer future for the Saudi people," according to the op-ed. McGovern and Maenza called Badawi's detention a further stain on the Kingdoms already-abysmal human rights record. "From a 12-year prison sentence imposed on Shia minor Murtaja Qureiris for leading a bicycle protest, to the alleged torture of womens rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, to the brutal murder of journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia has made clear time and again that they do not respect or value the basic human rights to which all people are entitled," they wrote. Established in 2005, the Commission says it was formed "to promote and protect human rights in accordance with international standards, to increase awareness of such rights and to contribute to ensuring that such rights are enforced in the light of the sharia." Publicis Groupe owns Qorvis, which is the French firm's PA and public diplomacy unit. Onscreen, he's a fiery antagonist in a post-apocalyptic world, but at home, he couldn't be more comforting. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, best known for his role as Negan on the AMC's The Walking Dead, and wife Hilarie Burton debuted their new series Friday Night In With the Morgans on AMC. On the show, Morgan, 53, and the One Tree Hill actress, 37, chat with friends via video conferencing from their upstate New York home. Fun time: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, 53, and wife Hilarie Burton, 37, debuted their new series Friday Night In With the Morgans on AMC The guest slate included family doctor Dr. Sharagim Kemp, Supernatural star Jensen Ackles and wife Danneel, and Christian Serratos, who plays Rosita on The Walking Dead. Morgan said that he's been busy building a studio while Burton has been occupied making masks for people. Morgan and Burton initially began dating in 2009, but only wed last year after a decade together. The celebrity couple share son Augustus Morgan, nine, and daughter George Victoria Morgan, two. On the show, Jensen Ackles told fans how he initially brought together Morgan, his Supernatural costar, and Burton. Friends: The guest slate included (clockwise) Supernatural star Jensen Ackles and wife Danneel, Christian Serratos, who plays Rosita on The Walking Dead and family doctor Dr. Sharagim Kemp Focused: Morgan said that he's been busy building a studio while Burton has been occupied making masks for people Relevant: The show deals with life under quarantine, as well as perspectives from healthcare workers 'Hilarie was in town visiting, this was in L.A., and she was staying with us and so we went out one evening I remember it, it was like an Irish pub in Toluca Lake,' Jensen said, to which Morgan noted, 'Irish car bombs, baby!' Ackles recalled to Morgan, 'You pulled up in your Harley, and we were sitting there in the front window, and Hilarie sees this guy get off a bike in slow-motion and take his helmet off and throw his hair, and it was all very surreal. 'And you walked in, the two of you locked eyes, and that was pretty much the rest of the evening.' Danneel said the attraction between the two 'was, like, instant.' At last: Despite being together for years, it wasn't until September of last year that Jeffrey and Hilarie began their own marriage story Just the facts: She cleared up misconceptions that they had 'married in 2014 or 2015 and that Ive been married and divorced before. All untrue.' Despite being together for years, it wasn't until September of last year that Jeffrey and Hilarie began their own marriage story. The actress announced the news on Instagram at the time while clearing up some long-reported misconceptions about their relationship. 'I just want to put it out there that WE GOT MARRIED! For real,' she began. 'Weve lived as husband and wife for a decade... For years, publications have reported that we got married in 2014 or 2015 and that Ive been married and divorced before. All untrue.' In October, she told People they decided to get married because they 'had built this life together. Wed had kids together. I think there comes a point where you just dont want to go another day by being inauthentic about it' In October, she told People that they decided to get married because they 'had built this life together.' 'Wed had kids together. I think there comes a point where you just dont want to go another day by being inauthentic about it. 'Its not a convenient lifestyle, certainly for our business,' she said of their home life in rural upstate New York, 'but those choices that we made to create that life have really forced us to be, yeah, more authentic with our choices, like the animals have to be fed, the wood has to be chopped, and so we wanted to be a concrete truth, like those things.' Happy family: Morgan and Burton initially began dating in 2009 and finally wed last year, and they share son Augustus Morgan, nine, and daughter George Victoria Morgan, two The couple earlier this month previewed what to expect with the streaming show. 'We have been a part of the AMC family for a long time and are honored to create this comforting space with them,' Morgan and Burton said last month in a statement. 'From our home here at Mischief Farm, we look forward to shining a light on those who are doing good in the world, catching up with old friends and connecting with the awesome fan base we've gotten to know over the years.' AMC said in a statement: 'Each episode will have a free-flowing, raw feel featuring unfiltered conversation about how were all getting through this unprecedented moment, as this charismatic couple connect with friends, neighbors, animals and the broader community of fans. Focused: 'From our home here at Mischief Farm, we look forward to shining a light on those who are doing good in the world, catching up with old friends and connecting with the awesome fan base we've gotten to know over the years,' the duo said earlier this month 'Each week they will come together for conversations about how they are handling life in quarantine, practically helping communities, finding joy and even humor in these unprecedented times, entertaining themselves, and others, while in isolation - all done via video chat.' Upcoming guests on the slate include Katie Aselton, Sarah Wayne Callies and Mark Duplass. Friday Night In With the Morgans airs Fridays at 10/9c on AMC. The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution calling for global action to rapidly scale up development, manufacturing and access to medicine, vaccines and medical equipment to confront the new coronavirus pandemic. The Mexican-drafted resolution requests UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to work with the World Health Organization and recommend options to ensure timely and equitable access to testing, medical supplies, drugs and future coronavirus vaccines for all in need, especially in developing countries. It reaffirms the fundamental role of the United Nations system in coordinating the global response to control and contain the spread of COVID-19 and in supporting the 193 UN member states, "and in this regard acknowledges the crucial leading role played by the World Health Organization." US President Donald Trump suspended funding to the World Health Organization earlier this month, accusing the UN agency of failing to stop the virus from spreading when it first surfaced in China, saying it "must be held accountable.'' But the United States did not block adoption of the resolution. Under new voting rules instituted because the General Assembly isn't holding meetings during the pandemic, a draft resolution is circulated to member nations. If a single country objects before the deadline, the resolution is defeated. Normally, assembly resolutions are adopted by majority votes or by consensus. General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande sent a letter to the 193 UN member states Monday night saying there were no objections to the resolution. It calls on all countries "to immediately take steps to prevent ... speculation and undue stockpiling that may hinder access to safe, effective and affordable essential medicines, vaccines, personal protective equipment and medical equipment." -sponsored by about 170 countries, the resolution also encourages all countries to work in partnership to increase research and funding for vaccines and medicine, and to strengthen international scientific cooperation to combat the coronavirus. nd it calls for stepped up coordination, incIuding with the private sector, towards rapid development, manufacturing and distribution of diagnostics, anti-viral medicines, personal protective equipment and vaccines. The resolution is the second on COVID-19 approved by the General Assembly. "On April 2, the world body approved a resolution recognizing the unprecedented effects of the pandemic and calling for intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat the virus. The General Assembly has until noon EDT on Wednesday to consider two other draft resolutions on the coronavirus pandemic, one from Russia and the other from Saudi Arabia. The original Russian draft resolution, which failed to win approval on April 2, called for abandoning trade wars and protectionist measures, and said no unilateral sanctions should be applied without approval from the UN Security Council. Diplomats said the European Union, United Kingdom, United States and Ukraine objected to it. The revised Russian resolution being considered now expresses grave concern at the negative impact of the spread of COVID-19 on public health and the global economy, and makes a commitment to pursue coordinated and decisive actions aimed at defeating the pandemic, guided by the spirit of solidarity and international cooperation. The revised draft drops the reference to unilateral sanctions, but welcomes the April 3 statement on COVID-19 by the Group of 77 and China the main group of developing countries at the United Nations which now has 134 member states. That statement includes a call on the international community to adopt urgent and effective measures to eliminate the use of unilateral coercive economic measures against developing countries. The Russian draft also still includes a call to end protectionist practices. Saudi Arabia currently chairs the Group of 20 major global economies and its draft welcomes their March 26 summit call for effective and coordinated action to fight COVID-19, and their statement on injecting 5 trillion United States dollars into the global economy, as part of targeted fiscal policy, economic measures and guarantee schemes to counteract the social, economic and financial impacts of the pandemic. The Saudi draft also stresses the necessity of urgent short-term actions to expand manufacturing capacity, swiftly deliver medical supplies, increase funding for research and development of vaccines and medicines, and engage with international organizations and multilateral and regional banks to deploy robust, coherent, coordinated and rapid financial packages to strengthen global financial safety nets. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but do reflect world opinion. Some diplomats have expressed concern at the proliferation of proposed pandemic-related resolutions. In apparent response, Muhammad-Bande sent a letter to UN members Monday saying he has appointed Afghanistan's UN Ambassador Adela Raz and Croatia's UN Ambassador Ivan Simonovic as co-coordinators" to coordinate General Assembly approaches and initiatives aimed at defeating COVID-19. The more powerful 15-member Security Council, whose resolutions are legally binding, has not adopted a resolution since the pandemic began circling the globe. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) MANLIUS, N.Y. -- When Manlius Police Officer Patrick Connelly arrived at a crash Sunday night, he saw a young man unconscious in the drivers seat. Connelly administered Narcan, a life-saving drug that can reverse the effects of opioid drug overdoses, and the driver regained consciousness, Manlius police Sgt. Tina-Marie Stanton said. The driver, Nicholas Root, 24, of Cicero, told police he was driving from Syracuse back home to Cicero at about 11:30 p.m. when he drove off the road and lost consciousness, Stanton said. He was driving a Toyota Camry east on Collamer Road when his car went off the south shoulder and into a ditch between Karker and Schepps Corners roads. A passerby saw Roots car in the ditch and called 911. Manlius police, and Minoa firefighters and ambulance crews responded. Although 911 received reports that it was a rollover crash, Manlius police say the car never rolled over. Instead, the car was sideways in the ditch, Stanton said. Although Connelly did not know for sure why the driver was unconscious, he knew giving Narcan wouldnt hurt the man even if he didnt need it, Stanton said. But he also knew administering the Narcan could save the drivers life if he had overdosed on drugs, the sergeant said. He saved his life, Stanton said. Root was conscious when an ambulance brought him to Upstate University Hospital. On his way to the hospital, Manlius police charged Root with driving while ability impaired by drugs and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, both misdemeanors. Police say they found a small amount of cocaine in Roots possession after the crash. Root, who was not injured in the crash, was treated at the hospital and later released. Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call (315) 470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook With so many reality dating shows on the TV landscape, it's understandable that there's a smaller pool of 'unknown' talent willing to sign up as contestants. This appears to be the case for the new Netflix smash-hit Too Hot to Handle, which features a number of faces who have already had their brush with some level of fame. Case in point: if you think you've seen Matthew Smith (nicknamed 'Jesus') on the show, it's because he once competed on America's Next Top Model, albeit with a very different look. Look familiar? Netflix's Too Hot To Handle contestant Matthew Smith (nicknamed 'Jesus') once competed on America's Next Top Model, albeit with a very different look. Unlike his, ahem, trendy harem pants, long hair and beanie hat - Matthew, 30, was known on the model competition show for having no sense of style, and was thrilled to get advice from host Tyra Banks. Matthew was part of cycle 21 of ANTM back in 2014, and just like in Too Hot To Handle, was competing for a $100,000 prize, along with a coveted modelling contract with Next Model Management and a photo spread in Nylon magazine. Despite a promising start in the show, he ended up being placed tenth after being told that he had a lack of facial expressions. Perhaps Matthew spent the interim period between shows working up his new look to add some character. What he looks like now: Matthew has been nicknamed 'Jesus' on the show Night and Day: Matthew is almost unrecognizable in his ANTM days circa 2014 An old pro: Matthew was part of cycle 21 of ANTM back in 2014, and just like in Too Hot To Handle, was competing for a $100,000 prize Meanwhile Francesca Farago, who boasted already having over 300,000 followers on Instagram before she joined the show (her follower count is now closer to a million), previously dated Diplo and had a tattoo of the superstar DJ to prove it. The 25-year-old Canadian model is seen cheering on the musician in an older video, showing how she would follow him around on tour. Diplo has previously been linked to the likes of Kate Hudson and Katy Perry. She's also been seen hanging out with controversial playboy Dan Bilzerian,known for his wild parties with a bevvy of beauties on his private yachts. No wonder she has 300k followers! Francesca Farago used to date superstar DJ Diplo Rocky road: Francesca didn't have the easiest time on the show with Harry - but she's already enjoyed a fame-filled life Famous ex: Francesca shared videos of herself backstage at Diplo's concerts cheering him on from the side of the stage Superstar DJ: Francesca used to date Diplo and enjoy the VIP treatment Famous: Diplo has previously been romantically linked to Kate Hudson and Katy Perry However, most impressive is Harry Jowsey - who has already competed and won another dating reality show. The 23-year-old was crowned the winner of New Zealand dating reality series Heartbreak Island in 2018. He ran off with the - yes, you guessed it, $100k prize money - and a girlfriend, Georgia Bryers. Winning formula: Harry Jowsey and Georgia Bryers after winning the New Zealand dating show Heartbreak Island He's done this before: Harry Jowsey was crowned the winner of New Zealand dating reality series Heartbreak Island in 2018. Expert player: Harry competed in the New Zealand version of Love Island However, after splitting the cash prize, the couple then split up six months later - prompting Harry to go on the prowl again. Speaking to The Cleverpreneur podcast, Harry said of his first reality show: 'It was like a holiday. It was a crazy experience.' Actor Idris Elba has called on governments to ensure the world does not experience a food shortage in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The actor, who is now a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, called on richer countries to help agricultural workers in poorer parts of the globe. He said a decline in farming in regions such as Africa, Latin America and Asia could have a knock-on effect on food availability in the United Kingdom. The Luther star told BBC News the coronavirus pandemic is 'all about food': "It is about the basic necessity for human beings, and that will run out if the farmers can't farm." Elba and his wife Sabrina Dhowre Elba, a model and activist, are now calling on world governments to raise $200m (161m) to help farm workers in developed countries. The couple, who were appointed ambassadors for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), seek to raise the funds to counter the effects of the pandemic on food production, market access and employment. The worlds advanced economies are in the midst of this pandemic right now and, of course, they must do everything they can to help their own people, Elba said in a statement. But the fact is, global action is also a matter of self-interest. As long as the pandemic is still raging anywhere, it will pose a threat everywhere. Xtalks Life Science Webinars The success of product lifecycle studies requires the development and qualification of appropriate small-scale models. Join Eddie Crabbe, Senior Director, Process Development, Avid Bioservices in Tustin, California in a live webinar on Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 1pm EDT. The ICH Q11 guideline recommends that small-scale models can be developed and used to support process development studies. A scientifically justified model can enable a prediction of quality and can be used to support the extrapolation of operating conditions across multiple scales and equipment. A qualified small-scale model can also be used to support process investigations and improvements, working cell bank performance verification and next-generation process development studies. Arguably, commercial biologics manufacturing processes developed at the turn of the century followed a traditional approach to process development. Such processes require extensive laboratory support during the product lifecycle to improve process understanding due to limited process characterization performed prior to market application. The success of product lifecycle studies requires the development and qualification of appropriate small-scale models. Avid Bioservices has many years of experience in developing both processes inhouse, as well as successfully transferring processes manufactured at other production sites. In this webinar, a case study will be presented to describe the development of a production bioreactor scale-down model to support process improvements and continued process verification of a commercial process at Avid. For more information or to register for this event, visit Developing a Production Bioreactor Scale-Down Model to Facilitate Continued Process Verification of a Commercial Biologic. ABOUT XTALKS Xtalks, powered by Honeycomb Worldwide Inc., is a leading provider of educational webinars to the global life science, food and medical device community. Every year thousands of industry practitioners (from life science, food and medical device companies, private & academic research institutions, healthcare centers, etc.) turn to Xtalks for access to quality content. Xtalks helps Life Science professionals stay current with industry developments, trends and regulations. Xtalks webinars also provide perspectives on key issues from top industry thought leaders and service providers. To learn more about Xtalks visit http://xtalks.com For information about hosting a webinar visit http://xtalks.com/why-host-a-webinar/ A political slugfest broke out on Tuesday over the Centres decision to send teams to West Bengal to monitor the implementation of lockdown to contain COVID-19 in the state. Addressing a virtual media conference Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O Brien asked why the Centre did not send teams to states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu where the number of persons infected with the novel coronavirus is much higher. For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here The TMC MP dubbed the visit of Central teams to West Bengal as adventure tourism. Why not a single district from Gujarat, from Tamil Nadu? These are the questions we need to be answered. All the states together are fighting an all-out battle against coronavirus but we are sad to note that the Central government is fighting a battle against some states, said O Brien. Referring to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the TMC MP also said that the Central team arrived in the state hours before Banerjee was informed about their visit by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He also urged the Centre to set aside politics for now and focus on tacking the health emergency in hand. We would urge the Central government to put the health emergency first and nothing else matters. You can do all the politics you want when things improve, said OBrien. Without directly naming him, the TMC MP also took a dig at West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar for his tweets in criticism of the state government. Also read Cooperate with Central team, Bengal Governor tells CM Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee is the elected Chief Minister of Bengal. She is not one Twitter-happy Governor of a state who is nominated whom the Centre nominated...She did not become Chief Minister from Bengal because someone from Delhi or Gujarat gave her a nomination, said OBrien. Track state-wise confirmed coronavirus cases here Soon after his comments, BJP MP and Union Minister Babul Supriyo lashed out at the West Bengal government and dubbed it as a dangerous virus. We R just not fighting #COVID2019 but fighting a more dangerous VIRUS in West Bengal &thats the WB Govt led by @MamataOfficial & @AITCofficial Its just a matter of time that the antibodies against the virus called Didi will start working in West Bengal @BJP4India @BJP4Bengal Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) April 21, 2020 We R just not fighting #COVID2019 but fighting a more dangerous VIRUS in West Bengal &thats the WB Govt led by @MamataOfficial & @AITCofficial. Its just a matter of time that the antibodies against the virus called Didi will start working in West Bengal@BJP4India @BJP4Bengal, tweeted Supriyo. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21) At least 75 people at the National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong have tested positive for the coronavirus disease, the Department of Health confirmed on Tuesday. The agency said that from the number of infected, 13 were psychiatric patients while 62 people were employees. The DOH added that five have already recovered - one patient and four employees - while none have died from the disease. The department said the infected patients are under the care of the National Center for Mental Health. Healthcare workers with COVID-19 but who are not exhibiting symptoms are quarantined in their homes while those that have COVID-19 symptoms are admitted in hospitals, it added. On March 15, the hospital management reported that 59 employees and nine patients got COVID-19. Earlier, there have been reports about shortage of protective gears at the mental hospital despite supplies from the government. Some private groups even came up with their own donation drives to provide masks and other protective gears for the center's frontliners. CNN Philippines has reached out to the hospital's management to know how the rising number of cases affected their manpower and operations and if they still lack protective gears. CNN Philippines' Correspondent Carolyn Bonquin contributed to this report. Manage your notification subscription by clicking on the icon. To start receiving timely alerts, as shown below click on the Green lock icon next to the address bar Click it and Unblock the Notifications Click it and Unblock the Notifications Close X Miami City Ballet: Returning for two nights at the Harris, this stunning company has Chicago ties which include the appointment of Tania Castroverde Moskalenko, former CEO of the Auditorium, as its new executive director. The program includes the Chicago premiere of One Line Drawn, the last of three commissions from Brian Brooks, who became the Harris first choreographer in residence in 2016. Balanchines Concerto Barocco and the 1984 dance Brahms/Handel, by Twyla Tharp and Jerome Robbins, complete the evening. Thursday and Friday at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St.; tickets $35-$135 at 312-334-7777 and www.harristheaterchicago.org. A Birmingham community development and advocacy organization is making sure Hispanic, Latino and immigrant communities arent an afterthought during the coronavirus pandemic. The Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama has spent the past couple of weeks fighting food insecurity, providing rent assistance and helping domestic violence victims take their first steps toward safety. Staff members have also been working with healthcare officials to translate important information about the coronavirus. Deputy Director Carlos Aleman said it was important that they stepped up to the plate to help. Many members of the community, like service workers and domestic worker, have lost their jobs because of the outbreak. While legal residents can receive unemployment and stimulus checks, that option isnt available for undocumented individuals. The outbreak is also exposing racial disparities in healthcare. According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, black Alabamians represent about 27 percent of the states population, 46 percent of confirmed COVID-19 deaths are black. In some parts of the county, Latino and Hispanic residents being hit harder by the coronavirus due to lack of healthcare access and inability to access benefits. This is a public health crisis and it affects all of us, Aleman said. It doesnt discriminate, but it is impacting our communities, both black and brown, harder. The need to help Latino and immigrant communities became apparent as soon as health officials started confirming COVID-19 cases. HICA has received 500 calls since March 16, which is a 25 percent increase in call volume. The loudest need is food assistance. Ana Murillo, a family and victim advocate through HICAs Strong Families Program, said many Hispanic and Latino residents need help navigating around a system multiple language barriers. They can call United Ways 2-1-1 program and get information in Spanish about their nearest food distribution location. But language access usually stops there, Murillo said. They link you to church or pantry where they are handing out food, but then they dont have anyone who speaks Spanish, Murillo said. About 100 families have received produce, rice, beans and bread from HICA so far. Fifty more families will be picking up groceries this Thursday at HICAs office located on Southcrest Drive in Birmingham. Staff members wear gloves and masks as those in need drive up to the building and to pick up their food boxes. The food is provided by multiple community partners, such as Jones Valley Teaching Farm and Levite Jewish Community Center. In order to make sure HICA has enough food, Aleman said those who need assistance must call HICA ahead of time to receive food assistance every Thursday. We want to make sure those boxes have a name and those names are attached to families, Aleman said. Executive Director Isabel Rubio said 16 families have received rent assistance through HICAs Emergency Relief Fund, which started about three weeks ago. Those who show a need can receive up to $500 per month in rent assistance, which goes straight to the landlords, and a Walmart gift card loaded with up to $250 in funds. Rubio said the fund originally got its start a few years ago to help victims of crime. But due to the economic side effects of the coronavirus, Rubio said they revamped the fund to take the burden off families shoulders. Since the pandemic, so many people have lost their wages, Rubio said. We are able to help community members during this really difficult time when everybody is suffering such a big loss. Financial safety isnt the only thing that is being put at risk during the outbreak. Murillo said five new domestic violence victims have reached out to her for help at the beginning of April alone. Its hard to contact victims when they are hunkered down with their abuser who may have been furloughed or experienced a job loss. So, Murillo said her staff had to restrategize their efforts. Normally, victims would come to HICAs office to complete a from for a protection from abuse order and staff members would assist them as they file the PFA at the courthouse and accompany them during their hearings. Now, HICA is coordinating with different agencies and nonprofits to make sure victims are informed about hearing dates as well as making sure they have interpreters and attorneys at those hearings. It literally takes a village, Murillo said. It takes a lot more coordination when we are trying to work behind the scenes versus what we usually do. The new method can cause a deterioration of trust due to the lack of face-to-face contact, but the victims are still getting the help they need. Many of the victims dont even know us and they are reaching out to us over the phone, Murillo said. Then Im telling them to trust an interpreter thats going to meet them and somebody else will assist you. So, its been hard, but it was helped so far. HICA has also increased coordination when it comes to breaking down language barriers when it comes to access to health information and care. Aleman said they have worked with both county and UAB Hospital officials to make sure information is provided in both English and Spanish. If you go to the Jefferson County Department of Public Health website now, they are doing much better about having info in Spanish. I think thats due to the advocacy of HICA and several other partners, Aleman said. The lack of diverse communication can cause misinformation and prevent people from getting tested. For example, Alabama isnt one of the 15 states where undocumented immigrants can receive drivers license. Aleman said they informing community members they can get tested even if they dont have a drivers license. But Aleman also wants to make sure people receive adequate care if they do test positive for COVID-19. Many people in his community dont have access to healthcare. Testing is great, but I am also concerned about care after the fact, Aleman said. Are they going to be able to access to a bed at UAB and receive care? Are they going to look at their status? Aleman believes HICA is tackling COVID-19 in the community by implementing a holistic approach that not only takes care of their communitys economic needs, but their healthcare needs as well. You have a lot of low-income workers right now who are severely impacted in terms of having to work, with little protection, or also losing their jobs and being extremely vulnerable because they cant receive any relief from the government, he said Were just thinking forward about what are the current structures in place that would limit someones access, and then we try to remove barriers. Oil Prices Bounce Back, US Crude Futures Trade Above Zero SEOULOil prices rebounded on Tuesday, with U.S. crude turning positive after trading below $0 for the first time ever, but gains were capped amid unresolved concerns about how the market can cope with fuel demand decimated by the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery was up $38.73 at $1.10 a barrel by 0117 GMT after settling down at a discount of $37.63 a barrel in the previous session. The May contract expires on Tuesday, while the June contract, which is more actively traded, jumped $1.72 cents, or 8.4 percent, to $22.15 a barrel. Global benchmark Brent crude for June delivery was up 49 cents, or 1.9 percent, at $26.06 per barrel. Demand destruction from COVID-19 will see a slower expected reopening of the U.S. economy, said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at broker OANDA, predicting a weak period for oil prices. The WTI crude June contract was able to hold the $20 a barrel level and is seeing a modest gain following the painful rollover of the May contract. Oil prices have skidded as travel restrictions and lockdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus curbed global fuel use, with demand down 30 percent worldwide. That has resulted in growing crude stockpiles with storage space becoming harder to find. The main U.S. storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract, is now expected to be full within a matter of weeks. Today its pretty clear that a major issue in the market is a glut in the United States and lack of storage capacity, said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist, CMC Markets in Sydney. Faced with the situation, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies including Russia, a grouping known as OPEC+, have agreed to cut output by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd). But that will not take place before May, and the size of the cut is not viewed as big enough to restore market balance. Not even the OPEC+ supply agreement is likely to stem the flow in selling in the short term, ANZ Research said in a note. Meanwhile, U.S. crude inventories were expected to rise by about 16.1 million barrels in the week to April 17 after posting the biggest one-week build in history, according to five analysts polled by Reuters. Analysts expected gasoline stocks to rise by 3.7 million barrels last week. Trump said at Mondays White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing that the United States is topping up as much as 75 million barrels of oil to the nations Strategic Petroleum Reserve, taking advantage of record low prices for crude. Based on the record low price of oil youve been seeing were filling up our national petroleum reserves, you know the strategic reserves. Were looking to put as much as 75 million barrels into the reserves themselves, that would top it out. That would be the first time in a long time its been topped outwell get it for the right price, he said. About the crude oil for May delivery falling more than 100% and settling at negative $37.63 per barrel, President Trump says it is more of a short-term financial squeeze caused by short-sellers. June WTI contract is still above $20 per barrel. Emel Akan (@mlakan) April 20, 2020 The American Petroleum Institute is set to release its data at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and the weekly report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration is due at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. By Jane Chung. With additional reporting by Epoch Times staff. Thirteen people tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar on Tuesday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 126, a top Health department official said. Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar said seven cases were reported from Munger district, followed by four from Buxar and one each from Patna and Rohtas. Among the Munger patients were four women in the age group of 20 to 37 years and three men aged between 28 and 36 years, he said. All the fresh cases in Munger are from Jamalpur block where the contagion has been traced to a 60-year-old man, who had travelled to Nalanda district last month to attend a Tablighi Jamaat congregation and tested positive last week. Altogether 10 people had tested positive in Jamalpur the previous week, all of them were members of the same family. These included a six months old girl and a two years old girl. In Patna, a 31-year-old man, co-worker of the husband of a woman from Khajpura locality who tested positive a few days ago, has tested positive, state epidemiologist Ragini Mishra told PTI. The husband and other family members of the woman who was admitted to AIIMS, Patna following breathing trouble, are kept under observation though none of them have tested positive so far, she added. In Buxar, those who tested positive are three females aged between 12 and 39 years and a 32 years old man, the principal secretary said. Buxar Superintendent of Police Upendranath Verma said the Naya Bhojpur village, which had reported four cases last week and in the vicinity of which the latest cases lived, have been sealed. Among the four Buxar patients who tested positive last week, two had travelled to Asansol last month to attend a Tablighi Jamaat congregation and the remaining two were their family members. In Rohtas district, which has reported its first case, the patient is a 60-year-old woman whose contact tracing was on, the principal secretary said. Bihar had reported its first couple of cases on March 22. However, nearly a quarter of the total number of cases so far have been reported in the last 24 hours. On Monday, as many as 17 people from Bihar Sharif, the headquarters of Nalanda district had tested positive. Only 15 out of 38 districts in the state have reported COVID 19 cases. Siwan (29), Nalanda (28) and Munger (27) account for two-third of these. Forty-two patients, one-third of the total number of cases reported so far, have recovered. Four districts Bhagalpur, Lakhisarai, Saran and Gopalganj together accounting for six cases are now left with no active case. Two patients, one each from Munger and Vaishali districts, have died. The number of samples tested till date is 11,999. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Top 10 healthcare PR firms posted a robust 14.3 percent rise in 2019 fee income to $565M, compared to the year earlier group, according to the 2020 O'Dwyer's rankings. That performance outstripped the 10 percent gain to $697.4M for the Top 50 firms on the list. Jim Weiss' W2O Group retained command of the top position. A 30.2 percent surge in fees powered the San Francisco-based firm to $218.9M in fees. Imre, which ranked eighth, registered the largest percentage gain in the Top 10, up 82.6 percent as a mix of new business wins; organic growth and more overseas work sparked the Baltimore-based firm. Jim Weiss Three firms broke into the Top Ten ranks. Evoke KYNE checked in at No. 6 with $25.2M fees following the merger of Huntsworth's Evoke with special healthcare communications specialist KYNE in May. ICR, which didn't make the year ago healthcare roster, is now the No. 9 ranked O'Dwyer firm with $18.9M in fees, thanks to its January 2019 acquisition of Westwicke Partners, a health-centered IR shop in Baltimore. M Booth Health, the No. 10 firm, is the result of the October 2019 acquisition by UK's Next Fifteen Communications Group of Creston's Plc US assets (Health Unlimited). Imre Puts Empathy into Practice In 2019, Imre evolved its strategy and digital-led service offerings from patient consumer marketing into medical and scientific affairs and HCP marketing. Jeff Smokler Weve long said we believe that taking a moment to listen can change everything, and that approaching patients and physiciansand our clientswith more empathy can be a game changer," said Jeff Smokler, Imre Health president. "Weve evolved our empathy approach and further put it into practice with a global product we call Compassionate Intelligence. Smokler is confident this orchestrated effort to live up to his firm's values will ensure that it attracts the best talent and brand marketing teams who wish to lead the pharmaceutical and biotech brands of tomorrow. In the last year we opened our fourth office in Philadelphia and produced work represented on four continents," he said. "Empathy and compassion are universal human traits, and were proud to be the champion of both on a global scale. Finn Partners Credits Deep Bench Gil Bashe, managing partner of global health at Finn Partners, said the strong leadership team is the key to the group's success, up 46.3 percent to $31M. Gil Bashe That group includes Kristie Kuhl and Fern Lazar in New York, Nicole Cottrill in Nashville, Alex Borisov in Washington, Joe Foster on the West Coast, Goel Jasper in Jerusalem, Shuchi Joseph in Singapore and the European team led by Chantal Bowman-Boyles. Bashe said he shares Peter Finn's belief: When people unite around shared valuesespecially the desire to make a difference for clients customers and collaboratethe results will follow." Finn Partners made two key health-specific acquisitions in 2019science-based PR/investor relations firm Lazar Partners in New York, and Medical & Health Consulting, a Paris-based health and biopharma consultancy. Our values-based culture, cross-practice collaboration and commitment to working hard and playing nice, is a plus for growth-oriented agency leaders, said Finn. JPA Bolsters Biopharma Roster Carrie Jones, who heads No. 12 JPA Health Communications, said the firm strategically expanded our client roster with biopharma clients and professional societies. Carrie Jones She counts Lilly, OncoSec Medical, CSL Behring, American Assn. of Clinical Endocrinologists and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as notable wins. The DC firm, which enjoyed an 11.2 percent rise in fees to $10.3M, also expanded its branding capabilities, producing award-winning creative, including the corporate rebrand for Milestone Pharmaceuticals. A new logo, color scheme, brand guidelines and message platform came to life in a refreshed corporate website. Jones said JPA broke new ground with innovative digital campaigns, including the #NotAwkward campaign for Medicines360 that encouraged women to share stories about their reproductive health. The firm also developed a program for The Physicians Foundation called "Vital Signs: Attend to Your Wellbeing," which empowered doctors, colleagues and loved ones to check on one anothers wellbeing. Jones said that program gained traction in helping to destigmatize the negativity around physicians seeking help for their mental health. Evoke KYNE Completes Integration David Kyne said his 2019 focus was to integrate KYNE with Huntsworths Evoke PR & Influence offering to become Evoke KYNE, a global, unified team with a singular purpose and mission. David Kyne "While that was happening, we continued to scale and diversify our roster of clients, including nearly 25 percent growth driven by strong legacy clients, tremendous organic growth and more than 15 new clients across sectors and geographies," he said. Kyne said the firm made more than 30 new hires, invested in experienced strategic advisors and appointed a global head of digital to oversee the 15-plus team. "We also grew our creative, earned media and public health teams globally, and invested significantly in our robust internal programs including health and wellness, corporate giving, volunteering and mentorship, Kyne said. He added that Evoke KYNE is committed to supporting "clients and the global health community by applying the proven principles of health communication and behavior change communications to combat the COVID-19 pandemic." Crosby Expands Client Relationships Raymond Crosby, CEO of Crosby Marketing Communications, said health continues to be the lead growth driver at his Annapolis-based firm. Raymond Crosby The firm registered a 21.8 percent gain in health fees to snag the No. 7 spot on O'Dwyer's rankings. In 2019, Crosby built on its more than 20-year relationship with Kaiser Permanente and significantly expanded digital work with Shriners Hospitals for Children. "We are also at the forefront of helping federal agencies communicate about the COVID-19 crisis, including work with the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense," said Crosby. The firm invested in digital marketing, analytics, and social content creation and community management during the past year. It also formally launched a military & veterans practice that leverages its expertise in engaging that community about important health care, wellness and family life issues. Kivvit Jumps Up 12 Notches on List Kivvit moved up 12 spots in the rankings to No. 27 with fees of $3M, up 103.9 percent from a year ago. Zach Silber "We collaborated on several public awareness campaigns last year, including a project with the Illinois Public Health Institute and the Chicago Department of Public Health to raise knowledge about pre-diabetes and increase enrollment in a diabetes prevention program among underserved communities in Chicago," said Zach Silber, chief innovation officer. The firm also worked with the New York State Department of Health on communications and paid media strategies to educate people about affordable and quality health care plans available through NY State of Health, the state's healthcare exchange. Silber said Kivvit's healthcare unit has invested in leading-edge technology and innovative data analysis that enables clients to engage with finely targeted audiences. "This work ranges from stakeholder mapping that visualizes policymakers networks to building custom digital audiences of advocates, patients, and consumers via a robust series of proprietary, HIPAA-compliant audience datasets," said Silber. JPC&H Targets Healthcare Challenges David Jarrard said Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock used 2019 to position for the rapid, unexpected and transformative shifts across healthcare. David Jarrard "With the escalating cost of care, the advent of high 'surprise billing' and stories of hospitals suing patients for unpaid bills, the perception of healthcare providers had been evolving for some from beloved protectors of the community to collections-hungry, overcharging, faceless institutions," he said. The firm worked closely with clients to become aware of this increasing distrust. "A theme for the year was advising providers to be aware of their processes, particularly financial, to embrace transparency as much as possible, to be authentic in their words and actions and to hold the patient foremost in their minds," said Jarrard. These ideas became concentrated through spring of 2020 as questions and concerns around the pandemic push providers to work with patients, staff, their communities, the media and government in an open, agile and responsible way. Jarrard said 2019 represented a year in which every organization that provides care underwent a level of redefinition as the relationships between various stakeholders shiftedmergers and acquisitions continued, disruption from non-traditional healthcare companies increased and regulatory adjustments affected the finances of healthcare. The firm invested in disciplined growth and a strong emphasis on culture. JPC&H developed strategic communications solutions to guide leaders through executive transitions, patient experience initiatives and health services company growth acceleration goals. Each of these areas has positioned the firm well for helping clients emerge from the COVID-19 maelstrom and either repair and rebuild or pivot as necessary. Advertisement Pictured for the first time empty and stuck on the tarmac in Istanbul airport, this is the RAF transport plane that remains grounded in Turkey while it waits to collect 84 tons of desperately-needed PPE supplies. The Atlas A400 remains unloaded, sources have told MailOnline, with the vital life-saving equipment nowhere to be seen at the airport as Turkey battles its own growing coronavirus crisis. The aircraft, which the Government promised would arrive back in Britain on Sunday, didn't land in Istanbul until Monday, at 21:10 local time. An airport worker said it had technical problems, but RAF sources denied this. The transport flight has been dogged by delays and confusion. Ministers then claimed it would arrive yesterday but it remains unloaded and has not yet taken off, as MailOnline's pictures reveal. The Atlas A400 remains empty, sources have told MailOnline, with the vital life-saving equipment nowhere to be seen at the airport as Turkey battles its own growing coronavirus crisis The transport flight has been dogged by delays and confusion. Ministers then claimed it would arrive yesterday but it remains unloaded and has not yet taken off, as MailOnline's pictures reveal Ministers have blamed 'challenges at the Turkish end' for the issues, but Istanbul has retorted that Britain only requested help with the consignment on Sunday The aircraft remains empty and still has not been loaded with the PPE supplies, which have yet to arrive at the airport PPE supplies have not even arrived at the airport yet, while the RAF plane continues to wait for the badly needed equipment A senior RAF source confirmed: The RAF has pre-positioned the Atlas A400M to ensure air transport is available when the PPE is delivered, which we are hopeful for in the near future. Ministers have blamed 'challenges at the Turkish end' for the issues, but Istanbul has retorted that Britain only requested help with the consignment on Sunday. Fury over coronavirus PPE shortages escalated this week amid claims the government was ignoring offers of help from businesses - and millions of pieces of PPE are still being shipped out of the UK in spite of the shortages. A British supplier said they were forced to sell millions of life-saving items overseas after attempts to equip the NHS were met with an impenetrable wall of bureaucracy - while other firms complained they had 'no choice' about sending masks and respirators abroad because the Government had repeatedly ignored offers of help. Bill Esterson, Labour MP for Sefton Central, today claimed that one of his constituents offered to make 10 million masks on March 27 but never received a reply - and when the MP wrote to the Government himself he also did not get a response. Downing Street rejected claims it ignored offers from firms, while local government minister Simon Clarke said there is a 'standing presumption' that the Government will do its utmost to buy PPE 'wherever it can be sourced' and urged manufacturers to 'reach out' to the Cabinet Office to log their ability to make equipment. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been at pains to present his country's performance in handling the pandemic as among the world's most effective, while keeping close control over the flow of information. But records of deaths in Istanbul suggest that the crisis in Turkey is far bigger than its authorities are admitting, with the New York Times reporting that 2,100 more deaths than expected were recorded between March 9 and April 12. Bill Esterson, Labour MP for Sefton Central, today claimed that one of his constituents offered to make 10 million masks on March 27 but never received a reply - and when the MP wrote to the Government himself he also did not get a response With some hospitals resorting to washing medical gowns for reuse and doctors warning they might have to stop treating patients, ministers have been desperately playing down expectations about the shipment. When asked about the situation, communities minister Simon Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'It will be with us obviously in the UK in the next few days, which is the core priority.' The row widened today amid claims that millions of pieces of PPE are still being shipped out of the UK in spite of the shortages. A British supplier of PPE told the Mail they were forced to sell millions of life- saving items overseas after attempts to equip the NHS were met with an impenetrable wall of bureaucracy. The company said the UK procurement system was unresponsive at best or incompetent at worst and delays were putting lives at risk. Other firms told the Telegraph they had 'no choice' about sending masks, respirators and other pieces of kit abroad because the Government had repeatedly ignored offers of help. Chancellor Rishi Sunak tried to dampen the anger of healthcare bosses last night, telling the regular Downing Street briefing that government is pursuing 'every possible option' around the world in order to secure more PPE The 84 tonnes of life-saving equipment set to be used in the NHS's fight against coronavirus, had been due to arrive in Britain last night but it failed to be delivered with RAF planes now being tasked with going to get it. Pictured: RAF Brize Norton UK's 'impenetrable wall of bureaucracy' stops firm supplying PPE Amid growing frustration, the Government said it had deployed every resource to get its hands on desperately needed PPE supplies and ventilators in recent months. NHS staff are pictured carrying out coronavirus tests in Lincoln A British supplier of protective health equipment was forced to sell millions of life- saving items overseas after attempts to equip the NHS were met with an impenetrable wall of bureaucracy. The company said UK procurement system was unresponsive at best or incompetent at worst and delays were putting lives at risk. The embarrassing revelations will raise questions about why the Government did not replenish PPE stockpiles and build up more supplies in March as the country entered the crisis. Amid growing frustration, the Government said it had deployed every resource to get its hands on desperately needed PPE supplies and ventilators in recent months. But the supplier trying to sell millions of masks, gowns and aprons yesterday said it had spent five weeks hammering at the Governments door without response. Michelle van Vuuren, who runs a London-based property company, turned her business into a PPE distributor working with Chinese suppliers last month as the virus began to spread around the world. After failed attempts to contact NHS procurement services, Miss van Vuuren contacted Health Secretary Matt Hancocks office on March 20. She was subsequently passed to the Cabinet Office but her inquiries went into a vacuum and were met with only an automated response. Advertisement Mr Clarke said there is a 'standing presumption' that the Government will do its utmost to buy PPE 'wherever it can be sourced' and urged manufacturers to 'reach out' to the Cabinet Office to log their ability to make equipment. But shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves told Today programme she had been 'inundated' with manufacturers who have contacted the Government offering to make PPE but have heard nothing back. 'There are many, many businesses around the country who have perhaps furloughed workers but have the capability and the capacity and the skills to make this personal protective equipment and clothing - particularly the gowns - but have not heard back from the Government. 'Some of them are doing it on an ad-hoc basis for local hospitals or care homes, but this needs to be systematic - it needs to be a national effort, using all of our manufacturing and textile capacity and capability to ensure that the doctors and nurses and care workers ... have that equipment and clothing that they need.' Chancellor Rishi Sunak told the regular Downing Street briefing last night that government is pursuing 'every possible option' around the world to bolster supplies. Mr Sunak said the UK and other countries are facing an 'international challenge' to source the equipment and that ministers are 'working hard to get the PPE our frontline NHS and social care staff need'. He said Britain is still 'working to resolve the Turkish shipment of PPE as soon as possible' but was unable to say when it will arrive. He did reveal a shipment of 140,000 gowns from Myanmar was unloaded in the UK yesterday. One of three RAF jets that have been on standby left Brize Norton in Oxfordshire yesterday afternoon, but has reportedly yet to start the return journey. Officials in Istanbul told Sky News there was 'never a problem from Turkish authorities' and 'all permissions have been issued very swiftly'. The hold-ups come with hospitals warning they are close to running out of some items, and medical bodies saying doctors could need to make 'difficult decisions' between exposing themselves to the virus or 'letting a patient die on their watch'. Trusts have accused ministers of raising the hopes of health staff saying they had 'bitter experience' of promised PPE either failing to arrive, or turning out to be either faulty or the wrong kit. Michelle van Vuuren, who runs a London-based property company, turned her business into a PPE distributor working with Chinese suppliers last month as the virus began to spread around the world. After failed attempts to contact NHS procurement services, Miss van Vuuren contacted Health Secretary Matt Hancocks office on March 20. She was subsequently passed to the Cabinet Office but her inquiries went into a vacuum and were met with only an automated response. The Deputy Chief Medical Officer faced an angry backlash yesterday after she claimed that people are not being 'adult' about PPE supplies. Dr Jenny Harries slapped down critics of the government's efforts to make sure frontline workers have access to the gowns, gloves and masks they need to protect against coronavirus. She said there needed to be a 'more adult, and more detailed conversation about PPE supplies' as she insisted the UK was an 'international exemplar in preparedness'. But healthcare chiefssaid they had been 'sounding the alarm' on the apparent lack of PPE available in some settings 'for months'. The death toll of frontline NHS and care home staff, from heart surgeons and nurses to porters and volunteers, has now reached at least 80. Pictured (left to right): Habib Zaidi, 76, GP from Essex; Adil El Tayar, 63, Hereford doctor; Pooja Sharma, 33, Sussex pharmacist; Amged El-Hawrani ENT expert, Burton Pictured (left to right): Thomas Harvey, 57, London nurse; Alfa Saadu, 68, Essex doctor; Mohamed Shousha 79, London medic; Lynsay Coventry, 54, Essex midwife Pictured (left to right): Aimee O'Rourke, 39, Kent nurse; Liz Glanister, 68, Liverpool nurse; Areema Nasreen, 36, Walsall nurse; Consultant Anton Sebastianpillai Pictured (left to right): John Alagos, 23, Watford nurse; Glen Corbin, 59, from London; Rebecca Mack, 29, nurse, Morpeth; Janice Graham, 58, nurse, Scotland Pictured (left to right): Rahima Sidhanee, 68, London nurse; Josiane Ekoli, 55, Harrogate nurse; Cheryl Williams, ward housekeeper; Ade Raymond, London nurse Pictured (left to right): Maureen Ellington, Bristol nurse; Gladys Nyemba, Nottingham nurse; Andy Treble, 57, Wrexham hospital; Lourdes Campbell, 54, Bolton NHS Pictured (left to right): Amrik Bamotra, 63, Ilford hospital; Brian Darlington, 63, Crewe porter; Julianne Cadby, 49, NHS manager; Linnette Cruz, 51, dental nurse Pictured (left to right): London GP Syed Zishan Haider, 79; Jitendra Rathod, 58, surgeon, Cardiff; Alice Kit Tak Ong, 70, London nurse; Leilani Dayrit, 47, Rugby nurse Pictured (left to right): Barbara Moore, 54, Liverpool; Edmond Adedeji, 62, locum, Wiltshire; Fayez Ayache, 76, GP in Ipswich; Carol Jamabo, 56, carer in Bury Pictured (left to right): Carer Catherine Sweeney, 64; Donald Suelto, London nurse; Urologist Abdul Chowdhury, 53; Julie Omar, 52, nurse in Redditch Pictured (left to right): Elsie Sazuze, 44, carer, Cannock; Gareth Roberts, 63, Cardiff nurse; Sara Trollope, 51, London matron; Amor Gatinao, 50, London nurse Pictured (left to right): Donna Campbell, 54, from Cardiff; Elbert Rico, 52, porter in Oxford; Oscar King Jr, 45, porter in Oxford; Elvira Bucu, 50, care worker Pictured (left to right): Nurse Melujean Ballesteros, 60; Technician Kevin Smith, Doncaster; Leilani Medel, 41, nurse in Cardiff; Amarante Dias, 54, nurse in Somerset Pictured (left to right): Gladys Mujajati, 46, Derby nurse; Care assistant Stephen Agyapong; Patricia Crowhurst, 54, Teesside care; Jane Murphy, 73, Edinburgh A&E Pictured (left to right): Barbara Sage, 68, Bromley, London; Dr Krishan Arora, 57, London; Sonya Kaygan, 26, care worker; Jenelyn Carter, 41, Swansea nurse Pictured (left to right): Michael Allieu, London nurse; Radiographer Simon Guest; Wilma Banaag, 63, Watford hospital; Gilbert Barnedo, 48, London nurse Pictured (left to right): Rajesh Kalraiya, 69, consultant, Romford; Steven Pearson, 51, nurse, Cumbria; Linda Clarke, 66, Wigan midwife; Emily Perugia, 29, carer, London Pictured (left to right): Barry England, 999 paramedic; Gordon Ballard, manager, London; Mandy Siddorn, 61, technician, Chester; Unnamed at family's request The White House wants the country to "reopen" soon and New York's governor says a regional reopening is in the offing, but experts warn that in the United States' coronavirus fight, different states will see different peaks. More than 22,800 people have died from Covid-19 since the virus arrived on American shores, according to Johns Hopkins University's numbers, but the daily tally of deaths dropped Saturday and Sunday, which could be a sign for optimism. The number of infections -- which stood at more than 560,000 on Monday afternoon -- were also down Saturday and Sunday. This comes as US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams says cases in some of the country's hotspots -- New York, New Jersey, Detroit and New Orleans -- appear to be "leveling off" or even declining. The situations in California and Washington, meanwhile, remain stable. "In the midst of tragedy, there IS hope," Adams tweeted Monday. "Social distancing and mitigation IS working. There is a light at the end of this dark tunnel, so keep at it." Still, many states are in the throes of an intense effort to stem the illness' spread. New York crossed the 10,000-death threshold Monday, as its cases topped 190,000, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. New Jersey and Michigan also have frightening death tolls, with more than 2,300 and 1,400 respectively. The upside to New York's numbers is that the three-day average for hospitalization, new hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and intubations are all down, Cuomo said Monday morning. The Northeast joins forces Cuomo announced Monday the beginning of a "geographically coordinated" reopening plan in conjunction with leaders in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island. Each state will name health and economic officials to join the governors' chiefs of staffs to a working group, which will begin discussions Tuesday. The group will come up with "parameters to go forward," Cuomo said, and while they may not agree on every aspect of the strategy, finding areas where they can coordinate will be important, especially given the states' close economic, health and transportation ties. Calling the commuter thoroughfare from his state of Connecticut to New York the "Covid corridor," Gov. Ned Lamont said it was vital that "you don't pull the trigger too early," but applauded the partnership. "The reality is this virus doesn't care about state borders, and our response shouldn't either," Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said. "By working, sharing our information and intelligence, I think will help each of us make better decisions," Delaware Gov. John Carney added, while Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said, "We can do anything better when we work together in this region." Trump is scheduled Tuesday to announce the formation of the "Opening our Country Council," which is expected to focus on ways to stimulate the economy. Another panel, the White House's coronavirus task force, has been focusing on providing advice to the states on what to do once reopening is advised. The task force is weighing potential benchmarks that would precede reopening the states, but have yet to settle on specific targets, people familiar with the discussions said. Doctors in wait-and-see mode All 50 states are under a federal disaster declaration for the first time in US history. There are more than 29,000 members of the National Guard deployed across the country to deal with the pandemic, according to the National Guard Bureau. Guardsmen have been called to serve a variety of roles, from staffing emergency operations centers to restocking grocery shelves. Key to how optimistic Americans should be will depend on what comes next. The country's testing trajectory will be hugely important, experts say. While President Donald Trump says he wants to reopen the country next month -- even telling state governments to "be ready" as he plans to announce a special council to reopen the country -- health officials say they're still in wait-and-see mode even if the numbers look promising. "It's important to look at the country as many different separate situations," said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on NBC's "Today" show. "This pandemic has affected different parts of the country differently," Redfield said. "We're looking at the data very carefully, county by county by county, and we will be assessing that." Public health capabilities need to be improved to perform early case detection, isolation and contact tracing, he said, and officials need to "start working to rebuild confidence in the community, so the community has confidence to reopen." Testing and social distancing The US is "nearing the peak right now," Redfield told the morning show. "You'll know when you're at the peak when the next day is less than the day before," he said. "We are stabilizing across the country in terms of the state of this outbreak." As for getting the country back to normal, Redfield said it has to be done correctly and "it's going to be a step-by-step, gradual process." The call for caution is being echoed on the world stage as World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked people to remember the virus accelerates faster than it decelerates, so "control measures can only be lifted if the right public health measures are in place." Redfield concurred with Adams that social distancing is working -- and said the potential death toll "while sadly too high, was far less than we anticipated" -- but said relaxing those guidelines would need to be done carefully. Testing is still not widely available, and many states have still tested only small percentages of their populations. The White House has worked to develop a more robust testing strategy, including shipping new rapid tests developed to states, and has worked to scale up serology testing, used to detect antibodies that would identify people who are likely immune to coronavirus and who could return to work or other aspects of normal life. Antibody tests, which reveal past coronavirus infection -- an especially important test for health care workers -- will "give us a good idea from a surveillance point of view of how significant the outbreak was." Weather adds to social distancing stress As millions of Americans worried about stay-at-home orders and social distancing Sunday, about 95 million people in nearly 20 states experienced severe weather and tens of millions more will see storms Monday. A majority of the storms were across the South and East Coast, according to the National Weather Service, with at least 34 tornadoes reported in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia as of early Monday. At least 18 people died. Emergency officials said Sunday people sheltering from tornadoes and protecting themselves from severe weather take priority over the social distancing guidelines Americans are adhering to during the coronavirus pandemic. Forecast models show the worst of the weather sweeping up the eastern portions of Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, but even as far north as New York, officials were urging caution. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told residents the best protection from the weather is to continue to practice social distancing. "We have strong winds and heavy rain coming our way on Monday, New York City, so it's really simple: if you do not need to be outside tomorrow then STAY HOME," de Blasio tweeted. Even as Rajasthan conducts more tests per million population than the national average for coronavirus disease (Covid-19), its biggest testing centre SMS Hospital in Jaipur is hit by a shortage of automatic RNA extraction kits. This has reduced the testing capacity to half and the state had to send 4,000 samples to a Delhi lab on Sunday to clear the backlog, said a top health official on Monday. The Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing process for Covid-19 requires a Viral Transport Medium (VTM) kit to take the sample to a lab. The process requires an RNA extraction machine, automatic or manual, to extract ribonucleic acid, and an RT-PCR machine where the extracted RNA is amplified to study the viral load to confirm the presence of Sars-CoV-2. The VTMs and kits for RT-PCR machines are provided to the states by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) but the RNA extraction kits, which are proprietary items, have to be procured by the states from the manufactures of the machines. SMS Hospital has automatic RNA extraction machines from Easymag (France), Qaigen (Germany), Maxwell (US) and Perkin (US), said Rohit Kumar Singh, state additional chief secretary, medical and health department. These companies also provide kits to European and American labs, resulting in a delay in supply to Indian labs. Rajasthan government has proposed central procurement of these kits by the Government of India for their availability to states. On Sunday, we had kits to last us three days. We have placed orders for 150,000 kits from these four companies. In the meantime, we decided to send 4,000 samples to a private lab in Delhi to clear the backlog, Singh said. According to the 9 pm bulletin released by the state health department on Monday, 8,057 samples were under process at SMS Hospital. Currently, RT-PCR testing for Covid-19 is being done in 7 out of 14 government medical colleges in Rajasthan. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Jodhpur, also has a testing lab. The seven medical colleges include SMS Medical College in Jaipur whose associate hospital SMS Hospital is the only lab with automatic nuclear extraction machines; the remaining do it manually. Rajasthans testing capacity is 3,000 samples a day. The state government is ramping up its testing capacity to 10,000. For this, it has ordered PCR machines for all its 33 districts and automatic RNA extraction machines for the remaining seven medical colleges. All 14 medical colleges will soon have a testing facility. Automatic RNA extraction machines are being procured from Qaigen, Parkin, Thermo and Backman Coulter for all medical colleges. We have placed an order for 10,000 kits with each machine at the time of delivery, the Singh added. He said the state government realizes that the only way to contain health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic is to build infrastructure to test, contain and treat. The idea is to use this crisis as an opportunity to strengthen public health infrastructure, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON "Serving in the military changes you. The shades and degrees of change vary for everyone, but no one is ever the same as... Below please find a summary and link(s) of new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The summary below is not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. A collection of coronavirus-related content is free to the public at http://go.annals.org/coronavirus. Preparing for Battle: How Hospitalists Can Manage the Stress of COVID-19 During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitalists are on the front lines. As with other pandemics, COVID-19 presents challenges for the well-being of citizens around the globe, resulting from fear of illness, social distancing measures, isolation and quarantines, and protracted uncertainty. The author of a commentary from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland, explains how hospitalists and other health care workers face additional unique challenges related to this pandemic. Read the full text: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-1897. ### Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text. The lead author, Joshua Morganstein, MD, can be reached through Sharon Holland at sharon.holland@usuhs.edu. New York, 19 Apr 2020 (SPS) - The representative of Frente POLISARIO to the United Nations, Sidi Mohamed Omar, argued that the process of decolonization of Western Sahara "is not progressing" at the UN level due to obstacles drawn up by Morocco supported by its allies, describing the current state of play in the process of settling the conflict of "total paralysis". During a videoconference entitled: "The process of unfinished decolonization in Western Sahara, the peace process of the UN and the politics of the great powers", Sidi Omar, evoked the various stages marking the evolution within the UN on the question of decolonization of Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa, awaiting a settlement. In this sense, Mr. Sidi Omar reviewed the various obstacles preventing any progress of the question of decolonization of Western Sahara at the level of the United Nations, describing the current state of progress of the process of "total paralysis" because of the barriers erected by Morocco with the support of its allies. "I consider that the negative role played by France, which supports Morocco (the occupying power), in the Security Council is one of the main reasons for Rabat's non-compliance with its international obligations", he said highlighted. the Saharawi diplomat has also stressed the position of the Frente POLISARIO that she had expressed last October affirming not to participate in any process which does not respect the inalienable right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence. The Saharawi diplomat took the opportunity to issue recommendations to counter Moroccan propaganda and intensify international campaigns of solidarity with the Saharawi cause, thus to put pressure on the Moroccan occupation, emphasizing the important role that plays the role of civil society in this regard. More than 80 participants from different countries attended the conference, the source said. SPS 125/090/TRA The U.S. Army has issued hundreds of waivers for many military permanent change of station moves, despite a Defense Department-wide ban on international and domestic travel until at least June 30, top officials said Tuesday. And while many PCS moves are halted amid the global pandemic, the Army is bracing for backlogs during the busy summer move season after restrictions lift, and are weighing what incentives it can offer to those who can ease the burden on logistics by moving themselves. Lt. Gen. Thomas Seamands, the Armys deputy chief of staff, said the service had roughly 48,000 personnel with PCS orders to move to their next duty station in March, when the travel ban took effect; "several hundred" of those were ultimately given permission to move anyway. To date, the vice chief of staff's office, headed by Gen. Joseph Martin, has considered 500 waiver requests, he said. Related: Hundreds of Soldiers Are Asking to Stay in the Army to Support the Pandemic Fight Even with the latest stop-move order -- which does not apply to basic training or deployments and redeployments within the combatant commands -- officials said the upcoming summer months will still be the busiest for troops and their families trying to relocate. And springtime moves delayed by the travel ban will add to the summer rush, which is why the Army is bracing for backlogs to occur, added Lt. Gen. Duane Gamble, deputy chief of staff for logistics. "There are a limited supply of moving companies that exist every summer," Gamble said. "We're working to streamline the PCS process ... making sure soldiers get orders quicker so they can get their moves scheduled quicker." That includes having families move themselves instead of waiting for the government to contact a moving company, he said. The military commonly reimburses self-moves at a rate equal to 95% of what it would pay a moving company. But Gamble said officials are considering upping the rate to encourage more troops to take advantage of it. He did not offer additional details about the change. "We're making recommendations to the Joint Staff and to the leadership for these changes," he said, adding a proposal to streamline Personally Procured Moves (PPM), more commonly known as DITY moves, will be sent to the Office of the Secretary of Defense this week. On Tuesday, Army Human Resources Command also published a new survey for troops projected to move this summer, asking them to weigh in on policies. Roughly 7,000 people moved themselves over fiscal 2019, he said. "Juxtapose that against 48,000 [in just a few months]," Gamble said, explaining that government moves still make up the majority of PCS moves. "If we continue on the current policy, we have to move five months of people in three months." Seamands said the Army is considering exceptions to the stop-movement order on a case-by-case basis for personnel facing hardship and those deemed mission-essential. "We're encouraging soldiers to seek help from their chain of command" to get their permanent change-of-station move done, he added. Mission-essential personnel who had already begun the process of relocation were given preference to proceed with their moves, Seamands said. Mission-essential designations are up to the gaining command, he explained. Officials "coordinate with the losing command to see if the losing command is prepared to allow [a soldier] to leave based on the COVID situation, their area and other readiness issues," he said. "Then the gaining command comes up through the Army staff to the vice chief of staff of the Army, who from the strategic level makes an assessment on whether or not to support the soldier to make the move based on how mission-essential they are." -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Read more: Marine Corps Cancels Fitness Tests Due to Coronavirus Pandemic Sophie Ciriello died at the Daughters of Israel nursing home in West Orange on April 2 at the age of 96. The cause of death was COVID-19, her family said they were told by a nurse. But when the state reported on Monday the numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths in nursing homes, Ciriellos passing was not accounted for. Daughters of Israel reported 35 cases and zero deaths, according to the state Department of Health, which received the data from individual nursing homes. Ciriellos family said their mother fell ill in mid-March and was treated for symptoms including a fever and pneumonia. I asked if she was tested for COVID-19 and was told she had been tested after all other tests were negative, said Philip Ciriello, Sophies son. For days after, I asked if the result of the COVID test came back and was told no. It wasnt until after their mother died that they learned she had tested positive for the coronavirus from the nurse, he said. Others also reported discrepancies in the numbers. The state data, for example, shows only one case of a resident testing positive for the coronavirus at the Spring Grove Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in New Providence, and no deaths. But in a letter that was sent to families and staff last week, administrators said nine residents had tested positive, and 20 were under investigation. It also said two residents or staff members had died due to COVID-19. A message left for Spring Groves administrator was not immediately returned. New Vista in Newark reported to the Department of Health three cases of the coronavirus and no deaths, although the data released by the state said the facility was called multiple times, leaving investigators unable to complete their survey. But a worker there who asked not to be identified over fears of retaliation said she knew of at least 18 deaths at New Vista. The office of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka confirmed the city was aware of 20 Covid-related deaths at the facility. (After this story was posted, city officials reiterated that they only later learned of the deaths). Administrators at New Vista did not pick up the phone when called for comment. State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli acknowledged at the daily coronavirus briefing in Trenton Tuesday that there were gaps in the numbers, and that a number of nursing homes had been in touch with her department about the need to reconcile the data. The information is self reported, said the commissioner. Were giving them an opportunity to correct. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage At Daughters of Israel, Philip Ciriello said he asked the staff if he could do a video visit with his mother, but he said he was told that it could not be done. Then late on April 2, the phone call came from the desk nurse saying Sophie had died. The results of the positive test came back the next day, Ciriello said he was told by a visiting nurse. When asked, Daughters of Israel would not provide its count of COVID-19 cases and deaths for workers and residents. I cannot explain the Department of Healths report, said Susan Grosser, the nonprofit facilitys executive director. We report daily information and they evidently have re-reported inaccurate information. The discrepancy highlights the struggles of families who have been trying to get information about their sick and dying loved ones. On April 4 two days after Ciriello died the state mandated that nursing homes notify all residents and staff and families within 24 hours when a resident or staff member is a confirmed case or a person under investigation for coronavirus. State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli issued that directive after NJ Advance Media reported families were unable to get information from nursing homes and some staff members alleged that even as they cared for patients, they were not told who had the virus. (Editors note: The April 4 notice was actually a reminder to nursing homes of state policy, said health department officials. Nursing homes have been required to notify residents since last year when Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law requiring nursing homes to notify within 24 hours all facility residents, staff members and visitors of an outbreak in a facility. On March 6, Persichilli issued two memos to long-term care facilities reminding them of their obligation under that law. A second reminder notice was sent to facilities on April 4, health officials said.) On Sunday, the federal government directed nursing homes to tell patients and their families if the facility had coronavirus cases. But on Monday saying the state is still hearing that nursing homes were not being transparent about their coronavirus cases the state released the statewide list of cases in nursing homes. As of Monday, there have been 1,779 deaths statewide, with 10,500 cases testing positive at 450 long-term care facilities. SAYING GOODBYE Sophie Ciriellos family remains angry. They say they deserve answers about their mother, who they said made the best meatballs and had a passion for bowling, with the trophies to prove her prowess. She leaves behind two children, four grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild. Her death left her family with unanswered questions. The family said they last visited her on March 8, and on March 12, the home suspended family visits. The management did nothing to inform the family of the situation, for example, how many people were sick, using HIPAA laws as the reason, said Philip Ciriello. I dont know how these rules work, but we werent asking for names, just how many. Fifteen minutes after the family learned she died, Ciriello said, he received a second call from the nursing home, saying funeral arrangements needed to be made immediately. We need to get her out of the morgue in the basement," they said. "When I tell you how that lack of compassion felt to me, it would be an understatement, he said. They agreed that the facility would call a funeral home for the family, and Ciriello spoke to a funeral director the next day. The (funeral home) representative told me that the doctor told him to assume she tested positive for COVID, and because of that, they would not embalm her, let her be viewed, nor a visit to the cemetery, he said. He said they would not even dress her. I said you cant do that. The woman needs to be given some dignity. He said they would shroud her, seal her in the casket and entomb her. The family wondered why, if there was no test result on the day she died, would the doctor tell the funeral home to assume she was positive for COVID-19. They wouldnt learn the test was positive until later that day, they said. This led us to conclude that there were many cases that no one knew about, Ciriello said. We are angry. Visitation was stopped, so how did the virus get to her? It had to be someone from the staff, and why werent they being tested to prevent the spread? So many questions, so little answers, so infuriating. Daughters of Israel said it has been communicating with families since March 5 with weekly or twice weekly updates. These updates included changes to procedures, restrictions, when residents began showing symptoms, the number of residents who tested positive, and on which units these residents resided. These communications also informed family members of the passing of some residents, said Grosser, the facilitys executive director. In addition, our communications also informed family members of the on-going screening of residents and staff, the CDC guidelines we are following in terms of isolating and testing residents with suspicion of COVID-19, and CDC and CMS guidelines we are adhering to for infection control and prevention. But it didnt tell the Ciriellos the one thing they wanted to know: how many cases did the nursing home have? The familys estate planning attorney, Harold Grodberg, said families need to know if a loved one is in danger so they can potentially do something about it. I do not understand the internal thinking of the nursing facility operators, but I do know that there has been a pattern of misinformation coming from the facilities, Grodberg said. The Ciriello family is trying to deal with their loss, but the lack of information makes it harder to cope, they said. We were never told any details about her last moments, whether she was sleeping, comfortable, suffering, Ciriello said. To know she died alone, never having seen her family in her last days was what hurts the most. She deserved more. If anyone can get their family member out of there, take them home, he said. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Have you been Bamboozled? Reach Karin Price Mueller at Bamboozled@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KPMueller. Find Bamboozled on Facebook. Mueller is also the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com. Stay informed and sign up for NJMoneyHelp.coms weekly e-newsletter. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Tuesday questioned the government on the criteria adopted for sending central teams to states over lockdown violations and asked Home Minister Amit Shah if he would send a team to Gujarat too in view of rising cases of such breaches there. He said the central government should not adopt a selective approach in this regard and that such teams be sent to all states, including BJP-ruled states. "Given that rising cases and lockdown violations were criteria for sending Central teams to states, I request Amitbhai to deploy similar teams to Gujarat," he said on Twitter. Gujarat is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. "This exercise shouldn't be limited to selective states, all affected states must benefit from constructive inputs of Central Government," he said. After the Home Ministry decided to send inter-ministerial central teams to states like West Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, some state governments raised strong objections to the move. West Bengal termed the action as one which was not in the spirit of federalism, with chief minister Mamata Banerjee raising strong objections in her letter to the prime minister. "I urge both Honb'le Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji and Home Minister Amit Shah Ji to share the criterion used for this. Until then I am afraid, we would not be able to move ahead on this as without valid reasons this might not be consistent with the spirit of federalism," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uber is dipping its toe back into the goods-delivery game. The move is a bid to boost revenue in a time where people are using its existing ride-hailing and food-ordering services less and less, due to the coronavirus outbreak. As the Financial Times reports, the company will be trailing two new initiatives, Direct and Connect, in an offering that echoes the goods delivery service it originally launched in 2015 and subsequently canned in 2018, due to lack of demand. Uber Direct is essentially a refreshed take on its previous delivery service the platform will be open to retailers and other businesses that want to get goods to customers ASAP. Initial partners will include New Yorks pharmacy brand Cabinet, Australian pet food supplier Pet Barn and Portugals postal service, CTT. Uber Direct will also be used to deliver medication in South Africa in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The second initiative and one that could prove particularly popular in these unprecedented times is Uber Connect, which allows users to send items to friends and family across town. This means people will be able to share their stockpiled toilet roll and freshly-baked sourdough bread with loved ones without having to leave the house a win for effective social isolation. Connect which will operate as a contactless service will first be trialed in 25 cities across the US, Australia and Mexico. Speaking to the Financial Times, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that given the issues similar initiatives faced two years ago, the new programs may only last as long as the current lockdown, designed to help businesses, consumers and drivers in these unusual circumstances. Our primary focus is the immediate: quickly adapting our technology to meet the evolving needs of communities and companies, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 01:33:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese parliament approved on Tuesday a law legalizing cannabis cultivation for medical and industrial use, MTV channel reported. The global consultancy firm Mckinsey & Co previously stated that legalizing the cultivation of cannabis in Lebanon would release up to 1 billion U.S. dollars in revenue for the government. Mckinsey suggested exporting the country's rich cannabis crop for medicinal use which previously divided Lebanese political opinion. Lebanon is currently in dire need for additional revenues amid financial and economic deterioration and a debt default. Enditem Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported that a young man who had been sentenced to death before reaching the legal age of 18 was hanged early Tuesday morning in Saqqez. He was among the prisoners who had escaped during a coronavirus jail unrest on March 27. Shayan Saeedpour had been sentenced to death for killing a person during a street fight when he was 17. He managed to escape the prison during a protest against prison conditions amid the corornavirus outbreak but was arrested by security forces. Saeedpour is the second among the 80 inmates who escaped the prison. On April 12 another inmate, the 53-year-old Mostafa Salimi, was hanged in saqqez prison. Salimi had fled to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. According to IHR he was extradited to Iran and rearrrested. Iran Human Rights warned about Shayan's imminent execution earlier this week and called for the international community's urgent reactions. Under Article 91 of the Islamic Penal Code, judges are allowed to issue alternative verdicts for the minors. The juvenile offenders whom a judge considers not mature enough to realize the nature of the crime committed can face prison terms. According to IHR only after one question the forensic department ruled that he had been mature enough to realize the nature of his crime based on which he was sentenced to death. However, a source close to Shayan's family said he suffered from mental illness and had been under psychiatric counseling when he committed the crime. Despite being a signatory to the United Nations Children's Rights Charter, Iran is one of the four countries in the world that executes juvenile offenders. The punishment is also carried out in Saudi Arabia, Huthi-controlled regions of Yemen and the Gaza Strip. Human rights activists have also warned about the Iranian Judiciary's plans to execute Shouresh Morovati, another inmate from the same prison who was rearrested after escaping Saqqez Prison. The Queensland ranger killed in a shark attack on the Great Barrier Reef has been remembered as full of energy with an endless love for animals and the natural environment. The young man's father said the ocean had given his family great pleasure through their boat journeys and island adventures, but it had also delivered a great deal of pain. Zachary Robba was attacked at the southern Great Barrier Reef doing research and maintenance work with fellow rangers. Credit:Iona College Zach Robba, 23, was attacked on April 6 near North West Island, about 75 kilometres north-east of Gladstone on the central Queensland coast, where he and other rangers were working. He suffered severe injuries to his leg, hand and elbow and died in Gladstone Hospital after being evacuated by the RACQ Capricorn Rescue helicopter. More than a month after its first confirmed case, Connecticut appeared on Tuesday to have reached the apex of the spread of the coronavirus, according to projections on the number of statewide deaths per day from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. On Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont said that while the number of confirmed cases and deaths in the state are still rising, the rates of infection and hospitalizations are stabilizing. There we definitely have bent the curve... hit the apex (in Fairfield County), Lamont said, during the briefing. I think we feel fairly confident about that. Dr. Summer Johnson McGee, dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven, cautioned that the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations projection had been revised repeatedly as new information on the coronavirus spread has become available. The peak is still very much a moving target, Johnson McGee said. The backside of the curve is just as important as the apex. New cases and hospitalizations after the apex are subject to a strained health care system with dwindling resources and may still be more than hospitals can handle. We need hospitalizations to drop off precipitously before we are in the clear. Importantly, the downward slope is not consistent throughout the state. According to Lamont, the trajectory of the virus in New Haven County, which had 5,272 cases Monday, is about 10 days behind Fairfield County. Hartford County, with 3,823 cases, lags New Haven County by about 10 days, as cases continue to rise in the states capital. Johnson McGree said New London County has also seen increases. Hospitalizations are still increasing in Hartford and New London counties but at lower rates so we are likely getting close to the apex there, Johnson McGee said. Hospitalizations were still increasing in the over 85-year-old age group last week, which suggests perhaps that we may still have cases spreading in nursing homes or elder care facilities. At least partially because of its proximity to New York City, Fairfield County was the first impacted area in Connecticut and, with 8320 confirmed cases and 512 associated deaths as of Monday, continues to be the hardest hit. Lamont cautioned Monday that cases were flucuating because of a recent change in the way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines COVID-19-related cases and deaths. The rate of new cases in places with early outbreaks like Westport, which as of Monday had 197 confirmed cases, and Norwalk, which had 942 Monday, has slowed considerably in recent weeks, even as numbers have risen, or stayed more consistently high, in other parts of the state to the north and east, like Hartford and New Haven counties. The latest numbers indicate that social distancing is working here in Fairfield County, said state Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport. The decision to stay home, combined with rapid efforts to expand hospital bed capacity, has helped prevent the dangerous surge of COVID-19 patients. Epidemiologists are also at least cautiously optimistic that the worst of what could be the first wave of the virus may be subsiding. I think were optimistic that weve reached a plateau, though Im a little hesitant to say were on the downhill side because we know so little about long-term epidemiology of the virus, said Dr. Michael Parry, chairman of infectious diseases at Stamford Health. Parry said there are concerns that the virus could come in waves and that a slight drop-off could be followed by a resurgence. Similar trends have been seen in places like South Korea and Japan, where there was initial optimism that the spread had been stymied. Still, it is a step in the right direction. Certainly, I can say in the last week we have seen a leveling off in most of the parameters that is, admissions from COVID, deaths, ICU numbers, ventilator use, all of those seem to have plateaued, Parry said. And similarly, elected officials like Haskell and Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling are cautious not to celebrate the downward slope too quickly. We cannot let up our efforts at this crucial juncture, Haskell said. We need to remember that Connecticut residents are still dying. Many of my constituents are mourning their loved ones, and more are worried about what tomorrow might bring. Those who are protesting these public safety measures are endangering themselves, and whats worse, endangering our entire state, Haskell said, referring to groups of protesters who have gathered throughout the country, and in Hartford Monday, claiming their rights are being violated by government orders to stay home and social distance. Rilling called the protests frustrating and warned that re-opening too quickly could precipitate a second wave of the virus and force further calls for isolation and business closures. He said hes consulting regularly with Lamonts office and medical professionals about an appropriate time to re-open and how re-opening would work. While the downward trend looked encouraging, Rilling said he feels its important to continue measures, like social distancing, that have proven effective in stemming the tide of cases. We are still getting people that test positive, so that means that those people can still be spreading the virus and thats the concern that I have, Rilling said. That if we become complacent, or get a false sense of security that everythings OK, and that weve beaten this thing, we can see a significant resurgence of cases. I think people need to realize that if were going to try to go back to normal, we have to do it gradually. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/4/2020 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us The Brandon School Division is laying off 245 staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These layoffs were announced on Monday and come after the provincial government asked publicly-funded organizations to submit a plan for potential budget cuts valued at up to 30 per cent of their budgets during the cash crunch caused by the pandemic. The 245 bus drivers, custodial assistants, secretaries and educational assistants laid off make up the equivalent of 218.72 full-time positions. According to a release sent out by the division, the layoff process started last Thursday when the workers union was invited to oversee the process. Supt. Marc Casavant said that the layoffs are a result of "the lack of meaningful work that we can continue to engage people with." Notice of the layoffs was sent out last week between April 16 and April 18. In late March, division board chair Linda Ross told the Sun the division had not yet considered any layoffs. When asked what had changed, Casavant said the length of time the pandemic would go on for had become apparent. Casavant said the division would be monitoring the situation week by week to determine if more layoffs would be required. He said that the province had tasked the division with looking into workforce sustainability and cost-saving measures as well as submitting a list of expenditures for review. The deadline to submit those expenditures was Monday, he said. CUPE Local 737 president Jamie Rose said that these layoffs equal 51 per cent of the union locals members. He said that hed hoped the division would be more creative in finding alternative work for staff before laying them off. "I dont believe that cutting jobs is a path to economic recovery," Rose said. "The provincial government had not shown us how cutting staff will help health care. What it will do is make the financial impact of the pandemic worse. Government needs to show leadership laying off support staff that could keep providing valuable public services is not the answer." In a written statement, Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen said that school divisions should "keep the staff they need to support remote learning, to maintain buildings and to support other essential functions. Divisions should honour collective agreements and existing contract provisions. As employers, each division will determine appropriate staffing levels. We expect teachers to be working to continue student learning and that anyone on the job will be paid." Other publicly funded institutions like universities and Crown corporations have been tasked by the province to submit plans for potential cuts by today. "We have asked all other reporting entities such as post-secondary institutions and Crown corporations, as well as core government departments, to do some scenario planning for the workforce for the immediate future as we, collectively, recover from the pandemic," a spokesperson for Economic Development Minister Ralph Eichler told the Sun via email. A spokesperson from Finance Minister Scott Fieldings office told the Sun via email that the money saved from any of these cuts would be put toward the effort to combat COVID-19. However, Casavant told the Sun that as far as he was aware, the Brandon School Division would not be returning any money to the province. Speaking to the Sun via phone from Winnipeg, Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations president and University of Winnipeg biology professor Scott Forbes said his fear was that the cuts to post-secondary institutions would end up being permanent. Asked specifically during the provinces daily COVID-19 update, Premier Brian Pallister said that the cuts would not be permanent. He said that organizations would be asked to make "appropriate" cuts, but did not define what form appropriate cuts would take. Forbes also said that cuts of up to 30 per cent could prove fatal for a university of Brandon Universitys size. "Closing BU is not on the table," spokesperson Grant Hamilton said in an emailed statement. "Like other publicly funded organizations, we have been engaged in discussions with government, which has asked for our continued help in supporting front-line workers, especially in health care," Hamilton wrote. "They have asked us to run a number of scenarios, including for us to explore the impact of short-term (four-month) reductions of 10 per cent to 30 per cent in our workforce expenses. These are not necessarily wage cuts and weve been asked to minimize layoffs." Hamilton also said in the statement that the university is planning for an extended period of social distancing where in-person classes are not able to resume in September. The Sun reached out to the Brandon University Faculty Association for comment on the situation but did not receive a response. Assiniboine Community College is another institution being asked to reviews its finances. "Like the entire public sector, weve all been asked to look at various scenarios and provide information back to government," Assiniboine director of public affairs Danielle Adriaansen said in an email. cslark@brandonsun.com Twitter: @ColinSlark He buried the weapon in a flowerpot with plants in order to cover the tracks Police arrested a 41-year-old man, who opened fire out of a window of his own apartment at passers-by in the Solomianskyi district of Ukraines capital. This was reported by the press service of Kyivs Prosecutor's Office. The incident happened on April 18, at about 3 pm in Akademika Strazheska street of Kyiv's Solomianskiy district. Locals reported that an unknown man had made four shots from a handgun out of a window towards the greenery of the surrounding area, posing a real threat to public health and disrupting public order. As a result of the shooting, one woman was wounded. Hot pursuit police detained the shooter and seized a pistol-like item. The gun, as well as three cartridge cases from the rubber bullets, found near the entrance of the house, were sent for ballistic examination. As we reported earlier, on April 6, in Shargorod, Vinnytsia region, a man opened fire and wounded four special forces soldiers. "The offender refused to communicate with police officers, and then when he went outside, fired several shots from a gun up in the air and threatened a police officer. The man behaved inappropriately, did not react to the request of police officers to calm down, and to give away the weapon, then the intruder closed in the house where his old father was located," the message reads. Gandhinagar, April 21 : Gujarat crossed the two thousand mark of Corona infected persons in the state on Tuesday, with a total of 2,066 positive cases. The state has seen 77 deaths due to the deadly virus so far. Due to the intensified surveillance and testing, a majority of the 127 fresh cases came from the declared hotspots, but with that the new cases also sprang up in districts where the coronavirus had no presence till now. Corona positive cases in Gujarat have been growing rapidly, as the state is registering positive cases everyday in triple digits since more than 10 days. As the health authorities intensify surveillance and testing, the number of cases continues to rise with Ahmedabad contributing almost 65 per cent to the state's total. However on Tuesday, out of the total 127 positive cases, Surat had the maximum number (69), followed by Ahmedabad (50), Rajkot (2) and Valsad recording its first positive case (2) and Tapi also with one case. One positive case each was also found in Gir-Somnath, Kheda and Aravali. There are 6 districts in the state where the Coronavirus has not made its appearance yet. The state health authorities carried out a total of 3,339 tests in the last 24 hours, where 215 where found positive and 3,124 negative. The state has carried out a total of 35,543 tests so far out of which 2,066 have been found positive and 33,477 negative. Five more Corona infected persons lost their lives on Tuesday. A female (55) with hypertension admitted in the Sir T hospital, Bhavnagar, and a male (66) suffering with diabetes and kidney problems admitted in the SVP hospital Ahmedabad, succumbed. Two females (66) and (55) and a male (50) with no comorbidity admitted in the Ahmedabad Civil hospital also lost their lives. Out of the total 77 deaths, 43 people have died from the virus infection in Ahmedabad alone, followed by 10 in Surat, 7 in Vadodara and 5 in Bhavnagar. "The mortality rate in Gujarati 3.72 per cent, it is more because out of the total deaths, major portion of the deceased has been due to risk factors like age and comorbidity conditions. Most of the deaths had comorbid conditions like hypertension, diabetes, kidney and lung problems," said Jayanti Ravi, the principal secretary, Health and family welfare Department, Gujarat. Ahmedabad continued to lead the state with maximum positive cases (1,298), followed by Surat (338), Vadodara (188), Rajkot (40), Bhavnagar (32), Anand (28), Bharuch (23), Gandhinagar (17), Patan (15), Narmada (12), Panchmahals (11), Banaskantha (10), Aravalli (8), Chotta Udepur (7), Kutch and Mehsana (6 each), Botad (5), Porbandar, Mahisagar, Gir-Somnath, Kheda and Dahod (3 each), Valsad and Sabarkantha (2 each) and Jamnagar, Morbi and Tapi with one each. "Out of the total 1,858 active cases, the condition of 1,839 is stable while there are 19 patients still on ventilator," added Ravi. The total number of quarantined in the state is 30,354, where 26,590 are home quarantined, 3,436 in government facilities and 328 in private facilities. Considering we usually have around 1,500 vote in a general election, were past the halfway mark, Limburg said. Thats about 60% of the people that generally vote in a local election have voted absentee or requested a ballot. All of those votes would be tossed out if the General Assembly concurs with the governors assessment that conditions are unsafe for voting. The governor said it would be unwise to subject voters, election workers and candidates to potential virus exposure at crowded polling places. Northams stay-at-home order remains in place for most Virginians due to the COVID-19 outbreak until June 10. That order prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people and promotes social distancing. Limburg said shes heard from election officials across the state who are opposed to the change. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} They feel like theyre ready, she said. The Virginia Municipal League has voiced its opposition. A federal appeals court refused Tuesday to grant two former county prosecutors absolute immunity from a lawsuit by a Pennsylvania man who spent 34 years in prison before his conviction for killing a teenage girl was overturned. That decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit clears the way for 68-year-old Lewis Fogle to keep seeking financial damages for what he claims was misconduct by ex- Indiana County District Attorney Gregory Olson and his former first assistant William Martin that led to his wrongful conviction for the 1976 murder of 15-year-old Deann Kathy Long. Fogle claims police and the prosecutors conducted a sometimes bizarre and biased investigation that was tailored to link him to the homicide despite lack of solid evidence that he killed the girl, who was beaten, raped and shot in the head. As Judge Paul B. Matey noted in the circuit courts opinion, the probe of Fogle was grounded in part on a statement a drug-addicted mental patient -who told numerous stories and had previously failed a lie detector test provided implicating Fogle in the slaying. The patient gave that statement after being hypnotized by an English teacher who had no formal hypnosis training, the judge wrote. Mateys court took on the case after U.S. Western District Judge David S. Cercone refused to grant Olson and Martin absolute immunity from Fogles suit based on their status as prosecutors. The circuit judges agreed with Cercone that many of the actions two took during the investigation of Fogle might fall outside that protective shield. In his lawsuit, filed in 2017, Fogle claims police and the prosecutors ignored evidence including descriptions from witnesses, that showed his innocence. Instead he contends they violated his rights by, among other things, coercing and cajoling jailhouse informants and to give false statements saying he had confessed to killing Long. Fogle was the only one of the four men charged in the case to go to trial. Charges against his brother Dennis were dropped after prosecutors waited too long to bring Dennis to trial. The counts against the other two defendants were withdrawn for lack of evidence. A county jury convicted Fogle of second-degree murder in 1982 and he was sentenced to life in prison. He was released in 2015 and his murder conviction was voided after lawyers for the Innocence Project secured testing of DNA evidence found on Longs corpse. That DNA didnt match Fogles. In refusing to grant the former DAs absolute prosecutorial immunity that would free them from the suit, Matey agreed with Cercones conclusion that they dont deserve it because some of the misconduct alleged by Fogle was investigative (and) centered on building a case that consistently lacked probable cause. He sent the case back to Cercone to consider the merits of Fogles claims. Our decision offers little to celebrate, Matey wrote. Lewis Fogle can move forward with some, but not all, of the allegations in his complaint against the prosecutors. The prosecutors must explain some, but not all, of their choices. And decades later, answers and earthly peace still elude Deann Kathy Long and her grieving family. For the third time in four years, a Beaumont teenager is accused of pulling the trigger in a fatal shooting. And the rise in juvenile crime, said Beaumont Police Chief James Singletary, is a most troubling trend. Its a trend that we have seen over the last five years or so, he said. Its one of the more troubling things we are facing. It is very sad that the majority of the juveniles committing these violent crimes have no remorse at all. They dont care if they hurt anybody or not. Even when they find out the person died, its not a big deal to them. On Sunday, a 15-year-old West Brook High School student was arrested following the shooting death of 41-year-old Monica Landrio. The Beaumont woman was shot at a West Florida Avenue apartment complex just after 4 a.m. Sunday, when a crowd of about 30 people broke into a fight. In an attempt to break it up, police said, Landrio fired a gun into the air. A male juvenile then fired several rounds, striking her. When officers arrived on scene they found Landrio with several gunshot wounds. She was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where she died Monday. The shooting is Beaumonts fourth homicide in the past three weeks. While the amount of people outside of the apartment complex was a violation of the social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders, a BPD spokesperson said officers were not called until shots were fired. The teen fled the area but was arrested later Sunday and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. That charge had not been upgraded as of Tuesday evening as police gather more evidence, BPD Capt. Chris Schuldt said. Were still looking to make contact with anyone that was out there, Schuldt said. Were always looking to identify a few more people that were on the scene that might have something more to tell usWe want to make sure we have the full picture before we change anything. It wouldnt increase the severity of the crime. He is already being charged with a first-degree felony. We are in constant contact with the (district attorneys) office to make sure we are taking the right approach as far as the whole judicial process goes. BPD is asking witnesses to come forward. It is believed that the shooting and information pertaining to possible involved persons was captured on cell phone and/or social media, the department said in a news release. Furthermore, anyone who sees something on social media that is related to the investigation, please record/screenshot and contact BPD. In 2019, four juveniles were charged in relation to shootings, Jefferson County District Attorney Bob Wortham said. One of the 2019 cases was a murder and the other three were deadly conduct, he said. This year, weve had one homicide and one aggravated assault. Were only four months into the year. It looks like we are off to an aggressive start. We are certainly on line to meet last years number, if not surpass it. We are going to have a lot more idle time for kids than we did last year with the schools shutting down. Beaumont City Councilman Mike Getz said he is concerned about the number of crimes being committed by juveniles. Its not that our police department isnt doing a great job, he said. They are. They catch them. Once they get put into the system, things come off the rails. A lot of that has to do be addressed by the legislature. The idea has been to give juveniles a second chance; but when you are committing adult crimes, you need to face adult punishment. I dont really care about the theory that their minds arent fully developed. There are people being put in the ground. Their minds cease to function at all, because they are dead. Getz said a lack of resources for teens due to to stay-at-home orders could lead to more incidents. Its a concern, especially with all of the parks and playgrounds limited, he said. I think we need to be prepared to see somewhat of an uptick in crime among juveniles. I hope not, but it wouldnt surprise me. Wortham said restrictions at the juvenile detention center have reduced the population to eight juveniles. The facility usually has between 24-27 juveniles on the roster. Were doing everything we can to get them out of the detention center, Wortham said. The eight they have right now is really low Because of the coronavirus, we are trying to limit the exposure of the kids to other kids that may have it. chris.moore@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/chris_moore09 Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has stated that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa has risen to 3,465. This is up from the 3,300 cases reported yesterday, a daily increase of 165 cases. The Health Department further stated that 126,937 coronavirus tests have been conducted in South Africa. This is an increase of 5,427 tests over the past day, which previously stood at 121,510 tests on 20 April. Figures on the number of recoveries to date and the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 were as follows: Total deaths: 58 Total recoveries: 1,055 Provincial breakdown The table below provides an overview of the total case numbers per province in South Africa. Gauteng is still the province with the most reported cases, at 1,199. The Western Cape has the second-highest number of reported cases, on 1,010. Province Number of cases Gauteng 1,199 Western Cape 1,010 KwaZulu-Natal 671 Eastern Cape 345 Free State 106 Limpopo 27 North West 24 Mpumalanga 24 Northern Cape 16 Unallocated 43 Number of tests in South Africa The Department of Healths acting director-general Anban Pillay previously said not enough tests were being done to get a real picture of the coronavirus pandemic in South Africa. Shabir Madhi, professor of vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand, warned that unless testing is scaled up significantly the lockdown will be mostly wasted. To address this problem, Madhi said around 1% of the population 600,000 people should be tested during the lockdown period. This was never going to happen, and instead Madhi set a target for the rest of the lockdown period of between 15,000 and 20,000 daily tests. This is a long way off, though. The graph below shows the number of daily tests during the lockdown, and the 15,000 target set by Madhi. The Mid-Plains Community College Board of Governors will once again meet via teleconference from McCook, Ogallala, Broken Bow and North Platte. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and will follow Gov. Pete Ricketts directed health measures, limiting attendance to 10 people or fewer at North Platte Community Colleges North Campus, 1101 Halligan Drive, On the agenda will be an academic transfer program review and a review of the Associate of Fine Arts program. The board will consider the proposed change request to the TL Sund contract for the current quad development on the North Platte Community College South Campus. The board will consider a $55,114.50 purchase of bedroom and kitchen furniture for the NPCC South Campus Residence Hall. The purchase of living room furniture for South Campus, $59,832, will also be considered. The board will go into closed session to discuss personnel and real estate. Following the session, the board will take action on the real estate purchase. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffes temporary release from an Iranian jail has been extended by a month, according to her MP. The British-Iranian mother has been freed from Evin prison in Tehran in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Tulip Siddiq tweeted on Tuesday morning: Very happy to hear from Richard Ratcliffe that Nazanins furlough has been extended for a month in line with other prisoners in Iran. The Labour MP added: Now is the time for our government to do all it can to make it permanent. Very happy to hear from Richard Ratcliffe that Nazanins furlough has been extended for a month in line with other prisoners in Iran. Now is the time for our government to do all it can to make it permanent. #FreeNazanin Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) April 21, 2020 Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been due to return to prison over the weekend, but her family were then told to return to the Prosecutors Office on Tuesday. She was arrested at Tehrans Imam Khomeini Airport while travelling to show her young daughter, Gabriella, to her parents in April 2016. The mother-of-one was sentenced to five years in prison, accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, which she denies. She was later afforded diplomatic protection by the UK Government, which argues that she is innocent and that her treatment by Iran failed to meet obligations under international law. Human rights charity Amnesty International said it was very pleased for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe. It added: There should be no question of Nazanin ever being sent back to Evin Prison. There are numerous reports of Covid-19 in Iranian jails, with detainees pleading for basic things like soap to help combat the disease. Story continues Were urging the Iranian authorities to finally do the right thing and free Nazanin permanently, allowing her to return to her family back here in Britain. A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: While the extension of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffes temporary release is a welcome step, we continue to urge Iran to make it permanent so she can return to her family in the UK. We will continue to do everything we can to help secure the release of all UK dual nationals arbitrarily detained in Iran. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in that country as of April 20 was 6,264, including 51 deaths. The Defense Ministry of Belarus has confirmed that the military parade scheduled for May 9 will take place despite the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease. This was the ministry's response to a petition signed by over 7,000 Belarusians who demanded that the military parade be canceled, according to the local news outlet tyt.by. Read alsoPutin postpones May 9 parade over coronavirus The people who signed the petition stress that the parade and its rehearsals involve large crowds of people, which is dangerous during the pandemic. Yet, the military parade will take place despite the fact that other mass events in that country have been canceled. "The current epidemiological situation in the Republic of Belarus allows the Armed Forces to carry out planned combat training activities. Preparations for the parade and the event itself is an integral part of the combat training of the troops," the ministry explained. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in that country as of April 20 was 6,264, including 51 deaths. A key benchmark of US oil prices plunged to a 21-year low on Monday, amid continued fears about oversupply in the market. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures (CL=F) dropped over 37.2% to $11.46 per barrel on Monday, a level not seen since 1998. The slump represents the biggest one day drop in percentage terms since 1982. Brent oil futures (BZ=F), the international benchmark, were more resilient. Brent was down just 5.8% to $26.44 per barrel at the same. The steep fall in the price is because of the lack of sufficient demand and lack of storage place, given the fact that the production cut has failed to address the supply glut, said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Avatrade. Oil prices have been under pressure since late February, amid fears about oversupply in the market and slumping demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. US oil prices have been particularly hard hit, with high fixed-costs in the US shale industry. An oil rig stands against the setting sun in Midland, Texas on Friday, April 17, 2020. (Odessa American/Eli Hartman/AP) US oil prices plunged 30% in a day in early March after Saudi Arabia started a price war with Russia by increasing oil production and slashing prices. The feud was resolved two weekends ago when the OPEC+ oil cartel, which Saudi Arabia and Russia are both part of, agreed to cut global oil output by 9.7m barrels per day. It represented the largest single cut to oil output ever. However, the decision has done little to arrest the slide in oil prices. The price war coincided with slumping demand for oil globally, as nations closed their economies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The OPEC+ et. al. deal did not address the lack of demand globally, said Sebastien Galy, a senior macro strategist at Nordea bank. Air travel has all but ground to a halt around the world and countries around the world have told citizens to stay at home as much as possible, reducing demand for vehicle fuel. The International Energy Agency (IEA) last week said it expects global demand for oil this month to fall to a level not seen since 1995. Story continues Galy said OPEC+ were likely to announce further cuts to production in the coming weeks. Saudi Arabia and Russia have the capacity to wait this out for potentially months, the rest do not, he said. Time is therefore ticking and over the next few weeks OPEC+ should come to the table led by Saudi Arabia for far more substantial cuts. How many parents will take a chance with the lives of their children by sending them to school on May 4? The lockdown in India is due to end on May 3 but things will not be the same on May 4 or in the days ahead. Schools are scheduled to reopen in June but parents will not send their children, so its unclear what happens to the school year or schooling in general. We are not a country equipped for virtual classrooms, and there is something about playing together and mingling that is an essential part of the school experience. Denmark opened its schools last week, with children seated on desks six feet apart. This is not possible in most schools in India, which are basic rooms often without even seating arrangements. Danish children were told not to play, but without supervision will that be possible? Children are children and the presence of others will trigger excitement and desire to engage. How many parents will take a chance with the lives of their children, given the absence of any guarantee that the child will not be infected while in school? I dont think that number will be insubstantial. And what happens when, as is likely and perhaps inevitable, one child is infected? Does the school again shut down, or just carry on, hoping for the best? There are no real answers to these problems. We can only try and see what to do and how to best bring about normality. The Danish government is brave to try and do something pioneering. Workplaces also will be different when people go back. The policies of companies are generally managed by human resources departments. Their usual work is to see to salaries, promotions and increments, disputes at the workplace, sexual harassment cases and recruitment. They have no experience in handling the sort of things that will be required to be looked at from May. For example, should employees be made to travel on work? Can company drivers be allowed and who carries the liability if the driver is infected or the employee being driven? Workplaces themselves will need to be reconfigured in ways that most do not have the capacity to do. Shop floors and assembly lines have evolved over decades to ensure maximum efficiency, not to prevent transmission of contagion. How will they resume work while ensuring some safety for workers? These again are difficult questions that have no answers because nobody has had to answer them ever. There is no uniformity in workplaces and offices, and so each company and each organisation much frame its own rules and regulations, which many dont have the capacity to do. Real expertise in legal liability, in safety and in disease prevention is needed. HR departments have no experience in this, nor do any others. Writer Salman Rushdie once described India as a mob. Even if this was said in humour, it is true to a large extent. Very large gatherings define our lives from religious spaces to political rallies to even the everyday bazaar. What happens to these on May 4, and what happens to us as a society when we suddenly are shut off from the ways in which we have lived our lives? There are so many questions that come to mind. And much speculation. In the worlds most unequal society, will this disease introduce more equality or less? Naturally, the rich will have better access to healthcare, but thats always the case. What may now change is that the poor will demand they not be sacrificed and that their lives be respected in the same way as of the rich. It should be accepted that the poor were sacrificed by this country when it accepted the lockdown, with millions stranded without money, work or even food. Its not going to be easy for the government to continually sacrifice them without resistance, and thats what I mean when I say that perhaps there is the chance that it will bring some element of equality. The longer the plague continues without a cure, the more pressure will be on individuals, systems and nations to change and adapt. The last thing about change here is the pace at which it is happening. The most evolutionary thing this generation has seen is perhaps the Internet and mobile telephony, but that came over two decades. This change is being enforced on all of in a matter of days. Because of this, the changes will be hard and will be visible. The levels of tolerance that our culture has to indiscipline will probably change. When one individual endangers the lives of others with irresponsibility, people will not hesitate from forcing behavioural change. This is not the same thing as spitting in public or misbehaving in traffic. Each of us is now responsible for others. That is the biggest change that is being forced on us. One hopes its for the better that this disaster alters our reality from the morning of May 4. BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio -- With the status of high school commencement ceremonies in limbo, the Brecksville-Broadview Heights Schools found a unique way to honor graduating seniors Friday night (April 17). The district invited seniors to drive their cars into Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School Stadium as the stadium lights shone and the school song played over loudspeakers. About 80 seniors participated, staying in their cars the entire time. While we may not know what the future will hold, one thing is certain: We love our senior class, Superintendent Joelle Magyar said during a speech from the stadium press box. Thats why we are here, on this last night of illuminating the lights of the stadium, to give you the recognition you deserve. School systems across Ohio and the United States have been shining their stadium lights at night as part of a #BeTheLight campaign. The idea is to recognize graduating seniors whose commencement ceremonies are in doubt due to the coronavirus pandemic and the closings of school buildings. The Brecksville-Broadview Heights district lit stadium lights every night last week from 8 to 8:20 p.m. The end time was chosen because 8:20 p.m. in military time is 20:20, representing the graduation year of this class. The week culminated in Fridays car ceremony. At about 7:30 p.m., high school seniors, each in their own car, lined up at the stadium entrance. At precisely 8 p.m., they drove slowly into the stadiums north end, proceeded around the track, then exited the south end. While they were in the stadium, the seniors heard messages of encouragement from Magyar and high school Principal Steve Ast. In addition to the school song, the district played the class song, which is Mr. Brightside by The Killers. Parents, families and friends watched the ceremony from their cars, which were parked outside the stadium. Public safety officials were there to oversee the event. Magyar said the event was a way to honor graduating seniors while adhering to social-distancing requirements enacted because of the coronavirus. At this point, we plan to have a commencement ceremony, but find it unlikely that we will ever be traditional again about anything, Magyar told cleveland.com Monday (April 20) in an email. Our ability to host a commencement ceremony is subject to the governors orders. On Monday, Gov. Mike DeWine announced that school buildings would remain closed for the remainder of the school year. Its uncertain whether that decision would affect plans by school districts to have some form of commencement ceremony. Read more from the Sun Star Courier. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-22 01:41:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JERUSALEM, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Israeli exports to China rose by 9.85 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. From January to March, Israeli exports to China totalled 1.07 billion U.S. dollars, compared to 974 million dollars in the same period in 2019, according to the bureau. In March, Israeli exports to China totalled 399 million dollars, compared with 370 million dollars last year. Israeli analysts, however, attribute the export rise to the previous orders made from China in the last months of 2019. In the coming months the figures may decline because production in Israel has significantly decreased since the first COVID-19 cases were detected in the country in late February, they said. Meanwhile, the Israeli imports from China fell from 2.07 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2019 to 1.96 billion dollars in the same period in 2020. However, this decrease is not expected to deepened in the coming months despite the pandemic given a continued Israeli import of food, electronics and medical equipment from China. The Israeli exports in the first quarter amounted to 13.5 billion dollars, down by 20.6 percent year on year. In March, Israeli exports fell by 40.8 percent. Enditem WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Tyson Foods Inc. said its beef and pork subsidiary, Tyson Fresh Meats, will resume limited operations at its pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, on Tuesday after being idle for two weeks due to the COVID-19 concerns. The company plans to increase production at Columbus Junction gradually, with the safety of its team members top of mind. The company noted that it is in the process of installing more than 150 infrared temperature scanners in its facilities. Tyson Foods said its other meat and poultry plants continue operations, with some running at reduced levels of production either due to the planned implementation of additional worker safety precautions or worker absenteeism. The company has suspended production for a day at some locations for additional deep cleaning and sanitization. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Imagine you have COVID-19 and youre having trouble breathing. Youre able to get to an emergency room stocked with available ventilators, but you learn youre barred from access to these life-saving devices because of a state rule that says, No ventilator use allowed: If everyone cant have a ventilator, no one can. Insane. Unimaginable. The outrage would be palpable and justified. Yet, when it comes to providing our children life-preparing education during this crisis, similarly outrageous government rules have been in place, with districts actively banning students from learning because of a rule that says, If everyone cant learn, no one can. Consider the facts: On March 13, Gov. Wolf ordered the closure of schools statewide, effective March 16. On April 9, he announced this closure would extend through the remainder of the academic year. Across the state, some schools such as cyber charter schools were already teaching virtually and were prepared to continue operating essentially uninterrupted. And some traditional school districts were also well-equipped to make the transition to online learning. But not in Philadelphia, where the District made an outlandish decision: If every child couldnt learn, no child should learn. As a result, children in the School District of Philadelphia have not had any official schooling since March 13 and they are not scheduled to resume learning until May 4. A solid seven weeks of lost instruction. Why? Because some students did not have the technology at home to participate in online learning. So instead of helping as many students as possible while working to extend that help to all students, the District decided that because some students couldnt learn, no students should learn. Finally, a month after schools closed, Philadelphias public school students received the needed technology from the District. It will still take a few weeks, however, to implement software and internet access for the students. Its worth noting that during his time, a bulk of Philadelphia charter school students not only received technology through private means, as the District did not provide technology to charter students but are already in the phase of finding software and identifying hotspots for access so children can learn. Outrageously, even while lagging behind charters in educating students, the District has placed a resolution before the School Board seeking to cut charter school funding. This even though charters already receive less money per-pupil than the District and have proven more effective during this crisis. Sadly, this misguided approach to educating in time of crisis isnt limited to Philadelphia. When Gov. Tom Wolf closed schools, he included public cyber charter schools, even though these schools were already operating online. After cyber schools received clarification that they could, indeed, continue educating students, they quickly resumed classes. They also offered to help the state Department of Education set up its own online learning system the Department ignored the offer. Indeed, not everyone was happy that cyber students could continue to learn. The Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA) decided if students couldnt attend traditional brick-and-mortar public schools, they shouldnt be able to attend public cyber charter schools either! PASA lobbied to ban students from enrolling in cyber charters during the current shut-down. The reason? They were concerned families might decide they prefer cyber charters and transfer permanently. For fear that their product wasnt good enough to keep students long term, PASA wanted to block students from learning, period. Falling short in that effort, PASA then lobbied this time successfully to ensure cyber charters would not get paid for any students who enrolled after March 13. To their credit, cyber charter schools are taking in and teaching new children, without additional student funding. Imagine if hospitals treated patients the same way the education establishment has treated children placing self-interest and self-protection ahead of saving lives. The backlash would be unthinkable and merited. Its time public education officials look in the mirror and ask themselves who and what theyre really defending. And its past time they put their self-interests aside and do what is right for families and students regardless of who gets the credit. Matthew J. Brouillette, a former high school and middle school teacher, is president and CEO of Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs. www.thecommonwealthpartners.com. With Kannur district emerging as the latest hotspot for coronavirus in Kerala, the state government has turned its attention on enforcing the lockdown norms strictly and warned of stern action, including arrest, against those stepping out of their homes unnecessarily. The northern district with 52 COVID-19 cases had been classified as red zone and is under complete lockdown with three Superintendents of Police have been vested with the responsibility of implementing the restrictions, officials said. Taking a serious view of people thronging streets and heavy rush of vehicles in some parts of the state on Monday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had stringent steps will be taken to follow the safety precautions to prevent the COVID-19 spread. "All people must take the lockdown protocol seriouslyas there are chances of COVID-19 infection spreading if they come out on to the streets. Police will arrest those who venture out into the streets unnecessarily," Inspector General of Police Ashok Yadav, who is in charge of Kannur district, told mediapersons on Tuesday. He said three SPs were in charge of the lockdown arrangements in Kannur districtand Thalassery area has been categorised as a containment zone. "Stringent steps have been taken to ensure to keep people inside their homes. Kannur is under the red zone," Yadav said. Another senior police official told PTI the police has decided to strengthen checking in all hotspots throughout the state. "This is because the chief minister had yesterday announced that lockdown protocol will be implemented in a strict manner. Inter-district travel will not be allowed and strict checking is in place at all the 88 hotspots which are spread across all the districts," the official said. The hotspots are completely closed with just over two entry and exit points and police had been strictly imposing the lockdown protocol. The state government had earlier decided to allow dine-in services at hotels and restaurants, plying of buses in cities, private vehicles on odd-even basis, pillion riding in two- wheelers among other relaxations from Monday in green and organge B zones, but rolled back some of them after the Centre objected to them. A late night government order said there are 88 COVID-19 hotspots, including Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi corporation areas, in the state and there would be no relaxations there. Kerala has so far reported 407 COVID-19 cases with two deaths and the number of active cases as of Monday stood at 114. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community's conclusions," Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said in a statement. Read more WASHINGTON - The Senate Intelligence Committee has unanimously endorsed the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia conducted a sweeping and unprecedented campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The heavily-redacted report, based on a three-year investigation, builds on a committee finding nearly two years ago that the January 2017 intelligence community assessment (ICA) on Russia was sound. The spy agencies also found that Russia sought to shake faith in American democracy, denigrate then-candidate Hillary Clinton and boost her rival Donald Trump. The report, while not unexpected, is nonetheless a milestone - the first extensive bipartisan congressional affirmation of the intelligence agencies' conclusion, which continues to be at odds with President Trump's oft-stated doubts about Russia's role in the 2016 race. "The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community's conclusions," Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said in a statement. "The ICA summarizing intelligence concerning the 2016 election represented the kind of unbiased and professional work we expect and require" from the agencies, Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said. "The ICA correctly found the Russians interfered in our 2016 election to hurt Secretary Clinton and help the candidacy of Donald Trump. Our review of the highly classified ICA and underlying intelligence found that this and other conclusions were well-supported." The committee said the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI - coordinated by the Director of National Intelligence - presented a "coherent and well-constructed" case for their assessment, supported by intelligence from human and electronic sources. Significantly, the committee said, "interviews with those who drafted and prepared the ICA affirmed that analysts were under no political pressure to reach specific conclusions." The report comes amid a separate, special investigation ordered last year by Attorney General William Barr into the origins of the FBI's 2016 probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, and the intelligence agencies' development of their assessment. Barr assigned the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, John Durham, to conduct that investigation. One line of inquiry Durham was pursuing centered on whether the CIA was inappropriately withholding material from the NSA and the FBI to enable a finding about Russia's covert activities sought by then-CIA Director John Brennan, according to individuals familiar with the matter. That focus of Durham's inquiry was first reported by the New York Times. But according to the report, the committee "heard consistently" from analysts "that they were free to debate, object to content, and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper for the analytic process." The 158-page report redacts many sections, including one on Russian President Vladimir Putin directing "active measures" or covert influence operations. It did note, however, that intelligence officers involved in the ICA said the issue of potential coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign did not arise in their review. "We didn't have any evidence for that,'' said the officer who handled Russia and Eurasia. "There was not information that pointed us in that direction." The committee also found that "specific intelligence as well as open source assessments support the assessment that Putin approved and directed aspects of this influence campaign." The report redacts most of the debate on the sole aspect of the ICA where agencies differed - their confidence levels regarding Russia leadership intentions in 2016. The CIA and FBI assessed with "high confidence" - and the NSA with "moderate confidence" - that Putin aspired to help Trump win, when possible by discrediting Clinton. But it does say the committee found the "analytic disagreement was reasonable, transparent, and openly debated among the agencies and analysts." The committee also reviewed the debate over whether to include material from a series of reports compiled by a former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, that had been shared with the FBI. The so-called Steele dossier has been discredited in part, and Republican allies of the president have portrayed Steele's reporting as a politically motivated effort to undermine Trump. Then-FBI assistant director for the Counterintelligence Division, E.W. "Bill" Priestap, told the committee the bureau "didn't want to stand behind" the Steele report, but because then-President Barack Obama had directed the agencies to include all information on Russian interference in the 2016 election, the bureau felt it "would have had a major problem" if it had not been cited in some way. Ultimately, the FBI included a two-page summary of the Steele material in an annex to the classified version of the ICA. The committee noted that all personnel interviewed stated the Steele material "did not in any way inform the analysis in the ICA - including the key judgments - because it was unverified information and had not been disseminated as serialized intelligence reporting." One of the ICAs most important conclusions "was that Russias aggressive interference efforts should be considered the new normal, " Burr said. That warning has been borne out by the events of the last three years, as Russia and its imitators increasingly use information warfare to sow societal chaos and discord. With the 2020 presidential election approaching, its more important than ever that we remain vigilant against the threat of interference from hostile foreign actors. Charges were filed Monday in connection with a trio of homicides Friday in Auburn and Dadeville. Kentrice Symonee Hill, 21, of Birmingham, made an initial court appearance Monday in front of Lee County Judge Russell Bush. She was charged with capital murder robbery and capital murder burglary, as well as one count of first-degree theft of property. Shes being held without bail and her preliminary hearing is set for June 3 at 2 p.m. Nancy Nash, 54, was found dead of gunshot wounds Friday morning, after investigators were called to the scene of a truck fire at Creative Habitats Landscaping, located off Highway 280 in Auburn. Dadeville police found Willie and Barbara Tidwell shot to death Friday night in the 200 block of North Barrett Street. Hill and Derrick Hightower, 32, from Columbus, Georgia, were arrested Saturday night by Birmingham police, after an allegedly stolen vehicle was spotted a local motel. Police have implicated both in the Lee County shootings. Hill isnt facing charges anywhere except Lee County, for now, according to District Attorney Brandon Hughes; however, Hightower is a suspect in a Birmingham homicide Saturday and other reported thefts. TDT | Manama The Bangladesh Embassy in Bahrain is working on repatriating more than 347 of its nationals, who had received a Royal Pardon through a special decree issued by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa as a measure to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While speaking to TDT, Bangladesh Embassy Counsellor (Labour) Sheikh Mohammed Tauhidul Islam said that the Embassy is coordinating with the governments of both Bahrain and Bangladesh to send home the aforementioned workers. "We have to make proper arrangements back in Bangladesh to quarantine those passengers flying from foreign countries, Islam told TDT. We expect to send them by the end of this month. Islam also expressed his thanks to the government for the measures taken to assist Bangladeshi nationals who have been affected by the current situation involving the coronavirus outbreak. We are very happy to learn that the Bahrain government managed to move Bangladeshi citizens from congested areas to safer zones, he said. We are getting timely updates from the relevant authorities and are extremely pleased with the way how Bahrain is managing to combat COVID-19. According to sources, there are over 200,000 Bangladeshi workers in the Kingdom. Marines who haven't taken their physical fitness test yet this season will be able to skip it, the service's top general announced Tuesday. Commandant Gen. David Berger told Marines via tweet that the physical fitness test calendar period, which runs through June 30, is canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. "Our fitness to fight remains a priority, and I expect each of us to continue to maintain our fighting condition," Berger said. More details on how the change will affect Marines will be released in an upcoming force-wide message, he added. Marines must complete three events on their PFT, and at least one makes it difficult to maintain social distancing. While pull-ups or push-ups and the run or rowing portions of the test can be completed individually, Marines hold one another's legs down for the abdominal crunch section. Related: Defense Secretary to Marines: Rethink Haircut Rules During Pandemic Berger's announcement marks a change from his previous comments about allowing commanders to determine what standards should be waived during the pandemic. More than 250 Marines have tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, as of Tuesday. The Marine Corps has faced tough questions -- including from the defense secretary -- about whether the service is doing enough to prevent the spread of the disease. Barber shops and gyms remain open on some installations, raising questions about whether Marines are facing unnecessary risk to maintain grooming and other standards. When asked about a video showing a long line of Marines not wearing masks or standing six feet apart as they waited to get into a California barbershop, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Berger would be getting a phone call from Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley. "What is going on? What don't you guys understand?" Esper said. "If you need to, suspend haircuts for whatever period of time." Some of the other services have relaxed grooming standards, canceled promotion boards and postponed fitness tests during the coronavirus crisis. It's not immediately clear how the change will play into Marines' promotions, which typically factor their fitness test scores. Many Marines have likely already completed the test requirement since PFT season started Jan. 1. Officials did not immediately respond to questions about whether scores for those Marines who completed the test will still be considered or if they'll be waived for everyone. The Marine Corps' PFT season is followed immediately by a six-month period of combat fitness tests. It remains to be seen whether that test, which requires Marines to drag and carry a comrade, will also be canceled. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Read More: Marine Corps: It's Up to Unit Commanders to Relax Grooming Rules, Cut Training Alison and Harold McCloy, founders and owners of Village Blinds in Pennybridge Industrial Estate in Ballymena A group of more than 60 stitchers from across Mid and East Antrim have made thousands of pairs of scrubs in just two weeks to be distributed in hospitals and care homes for health and care workers. The efforts were co-ordinated by Harold and Alison McCloy, founders and owners of Village Blinds in Pennybridge Industrial Estate in Ballymena, together with family and friends. The project started when Village Blinds was forced to close temporarily due to the coronavirus pandemic. Harold said: "Although we had taken the decision to close temporarily, we wanted to do something to help in providing a product or service for our incredible NHS staff and care workers. "With the urgent need for scrubs so highly documented, we knew this was something practical that we could help with." Harold struggled to source a bulk fabric initially, with many fabric manufacturers also closed temporarily, until he spoke to Kevin Devlin, managing director of fabric manufacturer William Clark and Sons in Upperlands, Maghera. "Kevin kindly agreed to bring back some of his staff to produce the fabric we needed if we placed a minimum order of 10,000 metres," explained Harold. "A friend immediately launched a fundraising campaign to raise the five-figure sum required to buy the fabric and, within days, we exceeded our target thanks to the kindness and generosity of hundreds of people. "We had then started to cut and distribute the fabrics within our own factory to enable our stitcher volunteers to get to work. "With the demand being so pressing we had to switch to auto machine cutting of the scrubs, working with Bradfor's from Rostrevor, who kindly offered their services free of charge. "This allowed the 10,000 metres of fabric to be cut into pieces ready for stitching." Harold and Alison distributed the fabric to what they described as "an exceptional band of stitchers", made up of more than 60 volunteers spread right across Mid and East Antrim. "We are deeply indebted to each and every person involved either with the groups or as individuals for their help and expertise," said Harold. "Many of these amazing women are well over the age of 70 themselves and have been in isolation for weeks. "With many of them professional stitchers from days gone by, the speed at which they have been able to work is outstanding and the workmanship and quality coming back from them is absolutely impeccable. "This project has had a hugely positive impact on them in one way or another. As well as being physically unwell, many of them were feeling very down and isolated by the ongoing lockdown. "The opportunity to use their talent and skill in this way has really brought new life to them." Harold and Alison have been operating a drop off and pick up service, distributing fabric to stitchers across the borough and picking up dozens of pairs of completed scrubs just days later. More than 4,000 pairs of scrubs are now in the process of being distributed, with some having gone already to Antrim and Causeway Hospitals and a number of nursing homes in Mid and East Antrim, as well as in Lisburn and Belfast. A joint statement from Mid and East Antrim Borough Council's group party leaders praised Harold and Alison and their group of volunteers. "In recent weeks we have seen many fantastic examples of businesses in Mid and East Antrim being proactive and really going out to their way to do anything they can to help in the fight against Covid-19," it said. "Harold and Alison McCloy, their 'band of stitchers' and all those who helped with this project in any way, are to be commended for this remarkable display of thoughtfulness, selflessness and generosity. "Exemplifying the outward-looking values that characterise the people of Mid and East Antrim, their kindness will be felt by hundreds of frontline NHS and care workers at a time of great need." Harold and Alison are continuing to raise funds throughout the campaign, with new projects being planned to help the NHS and local charities. Donations can be made by Paypal (harold22@hotmail.co.uk). For more information you can contact Harold McCloy via email at harold22@hotmail.co.uk Last year, state Rep. Kelly Cassidy spoke at the event to say she would introduce the bill that later legalized commercial cannabis sales and possession of small amounts. This years live event was rescheduled for Sept. 26, again outside Dispensary 33 in Chicagos Andersonville neighborhood, if the statewide lockdown is lifted by then, Do312 experiential coordinator Scott Cramer said. LONDON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ACF Technologies, Inc. , the leader in Patient Experience Management (PXM) solutions, today announced they will help the Department of Health and Social Care, by providing the appointment platform and services to help increase COVID-19 testing across the UK. Simon Ronald, VP of Business Development, said: "ACF is very proud to be working with the Department of Health and Social Care - assisting in the current efforts to increase COVID-19 testing across the UK. It's particularly amazing to see the dedication of the teams involved - with everyone showing their willingness to help make a difference in such difficult times. It really shows the spirit of the UK, pulling together to get things done." ACF is committed to helping its customers, partners, colleagues, and the wider community deal with the unprecedented crisis caused by COVID-19. Among other measures, the company is reaching out to Healthcare providers across the globe offering to help and support them in a common goal of saving lives. Andy Hart, Managing Director, said: "I am particularly proud of our team in the UK. There is no better time to step up and make a difference than right now. Driven by a sense of national pride and the desire to support healthcare workers and fellow citizens, we pulled out all the stops to play our part in the fight against COVID-19." About ACF Technologies Inc. ACF Technologies helps organisations improve patient experiences using queue management, appointment scheduling, wayfinding and machine learning technologies. By integrating these technologies into existing business systems, organisations can access real-time insights into patient journeys, and use this information to improve patient experiences. ACF has over 1000 global installations in healthcare, government, finance, telco, retail, and education organisations. ACF Technologies patient experience solutions can be found at www.acftechnologies.com. SOURCE ACF Technologies, Inc. Related Links https://www.acftechnologies.com/ Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2020) -Contact Gold Corp. (TSXV: C) (the "Company" or "Contact Gold") is pleased to announce results from cyanide bottle roll tests from the Green Springs gold project located on the Cortez Trend in Nevada. Contact Gold Bottle Roll Testing Highlights - Alpha, Bravo and Echo Zones: 6.02 g/t Au, or 108% of the original 5.75 g/t Au average grade from using Fire Assay and Gravimetric methods from 13 individual 5 foot sample intervals totalling 1.15 kg from the Echo Zone 1.04 g/t Au, or 99% of the original 1.05 g/t Au average grade from using Fire Assay and Gravimetric methods from 15 individual 5 foot sample intervals totalling 1.05 kg from the Bravo Zone 0.78 g/t Au, or 49% of the original 1.61 g/t Au average grade from using Fire Assay and Gravimetric methods from 17 individual 5 foot sample intervals totalling 1.18 kg from the Alpha Zone Three cyanide bottle rolls were completed on composite samples from 2019 RC drill intercepts from the Alpha, Bravo and Echo Zones. The cyanide solubility testing was carried out to wrap up a successful first program by Contact Gold, with high grade oxidized gold mineralization previously reported (press releases January 14, 2020, January 28, 2020 and February 12, 2020). "The excellent gold recoveries coupled with the strong exploration potential that drew us to Green springs reinforces the high quality nature of Contact's acquisition. The initial bottle roll tests from Green Springs are extremely encouraging and demonstrate the amenability of both the remaining Chainman Shale hosted mineralization, as well as the underexplored Pilot Shale hosted mineralization to processing via heap leach methods." stated Vance Spalding, VP Exploration for Contact Gold. "We can now move forward confidently with a 2020 drill program targeting expansion of existing oxide gold zones and the discovery of new zones at the lower Pilot shale contact." 2020 Bottle Rolls: Echo Zone: A composite sample composed of 13 individual 5 foot sample intervals totalling 1.15 kg returned a bottle roll assay of 6.02 g/t Au, or 108% of the 5.75 g/t Au average grade using original Fire Assay and Gravimetric methods for the same 13 samples. Alpha Zone: The Alpha zone composites returned mediocre results due to improper compositing.The lower 10 samples representing 15 metres returning in excess of 90% cyanide solubility. But the upper 7 samples included in the composite, representing 10.67 metres returning less than 20% cyanide solubility, and therefore two composites should have been formed instead of one. A composite sample composed of 17 individual 5 foot sample intervals totalling 1.18 kg returned a bottle roll assay of 0.78 g/t Au, or 49% of the 1.61 g/t Au average grade using original Fire Assay and Gravimetric methods for the same drill interval. The Alpha Zone is also hosted within the Pilot Shale, and oxidation within the mineralized zone increases with depth to the limestone contact, as shown in the original cyanide solubility assays. Bravo Zone: A composite sample composed of 15 individual 5 foot sample intervals totalling 1.05 kg returned a bottle roll assay of 1.04 g/t Au, or 99% of the 1.05 g/t Au average grade using original Fire Assay and Gravimetric methods for the same drill interval. Significantly the Bravo Zone is interpreted to be hosted within the Pilot Shale, an important regional host unit that was not previously mined at Green Springs. For a location map of the Green Springs target areas, please click: http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/GS-Targets-20200324.jpg Table of CN Bottle Roll Tests from Green Springs Zone Hole ID Start meters End meters Interval meters Bottle Roll Assay BR recovery vs FA/AA +/-Grav Alpha GS19-02 24.38 50.29 25.91 0.78 49% Echo GS19-07 85.34 106.68 21.34 6.02 108% Bravo GS19-10 12.19 35.05 22.86 1.04 99% Contact Gold signed a purchase option agreement with Ely Gold Royalties ("Ely Gold") to acquire an undivided 100% interest in Green Springs in July 2019. Green Springs is an early stage exploration property and does not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource estimate at Green Springs. The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Vance Spalding, CPG, VP Exploration, Contact Gold, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. Drill intercepts were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 0.14 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of material averaging less than 0.14 ppm gold for low grade intervals and higher grade intervals were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 1.00 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of assays averaging less than 1.00 ppm gold. Gravimetric assays are used for all Fire Assays above 4.00 ppm gold. Cyanide solubility assays are completed on all Fire Assays greater than 0.1 g/t. True width of drilled mineralization is unknown, but owing to the apparent flat lying nature of mineralization, is estimated to generally be at least 70% of drilled thickness. The composited grades for comparison to the Bottle Roll assays are weighted averages of the amount of pulp used from individual 5 foot assays. Quality Assurance / Quality Control consists of regular insertion of certified reference standards, blanks, and duplicates. All failures are followed up and resolved whenever possible with additional investigation whenever such an event occurs. All assays are completed at ALS Chemex; an ISO 17025:2005 accredited lab. Check assays are completed at a second, reputable assay lab after the program is complete. About Contact Gold Corp. Contact Gold is an exploration company focused on producing district scale gold discoveries in Nevada. Contact Gold's extensive land holdings are on the prolific Carlin, Independence and Northern Nevada Rift gold trends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Gold's land position comprises approximately 140 km2 of target rich mineral tenure hosting numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early- to advanced-exploration and resource definition stage. Additional information about the Company is available at www.contactgold.com. For more information, please contact: +1 (604) 449-3361 John Glanville - Director Investor Relations Chris Pennimpede - Corporate Development E-mail: info@ContactGold.com Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the anticipated exploration activities of the Company on the Green Springs property. These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54658 We wonder if there is anything that engineers cant pull off? From studying engineering for four years to pursuing a career in a creative field, youll find them with the hidden talent to making a success out of anything they choose to do. Unsplash Recently, The Madhya Pradesh police found an engineer living in a cave ever since the lockdown began on March 24. The man is a Mumbai resident and embarked on Narmada Parikrama which is a very popular pilgrimage in the area when he got stranded in a forest. Now the police has handed him over to his relatives. Virendra Singh Dogra was found living in a cave in the forest in Raisen district and he has been living there for over a month now. BCCL The police found a few clothes and a copy of the Mahabharata with him and it couldnt get any more dramatic. The man was on a journey to Namada Parikrama but left it halfway as the journey involves walking around the Narmada River on foot from Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh to the river mouth in Gujarat. BCCL Virendra stopped at Kuandevri Village at the house of a relative when the lockdown began on March 22. Later, people spotted him living in a cave and reported the matter to the forest department and the police. Virendra explained to the police that he lives in Navi Mumbai and also told them that his sister lives in Hyderabad. Later, his sister corroborated the story to the police. Then the police sent him to his relative's house in Kuandevri village. BCCL Now, thats a lot of drama and it sounds like a script from a very dramatic Bollywood movie that wouldnt impress the audience that much. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below! Comet 2I/Borisov seemingly came out of nowhere late last summer, when comet hunter Gennadiy Borisov in Crimea discovered the vagabond coursing toward our star. Based on its orbit around the Sun, scientists knew Borisov was an interloper from another solar system, the second one ever known to pass through our neighborhood. But it looked very much like any other comet they had seen -- until now. With the help of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, researchers observed vapors rich in carbon monoxide breathing out from Borisov as it veered ever closer to the Sun, a characteristic unlike comets in our solar system. It's a fact that points to Borisov's parent star possibly being a cool red dwarf, the researchers suggested April 20 in Nature Astronomy, giving us the first ever glimpse into the chemical building blocks of another solar system. "We've been studying the composition of comets here for decades and using this information to understand how planets in our solar system formed and evolved," said Kathleen Mandt, a planetary scientist and study author from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. "Measuring the composition of a comet from another planetary system was an opportunity we couldn't miss!" Comets are the solar system's icy dirtballs. They're compressed wads of ice, gas and dust that date back to the formation of the planets. As these dirty ice cubes fall closer to the Sun, the warmth releases ices from the rock's surface, creating a bright coma, or gas cloud. Scientists can examine the coma and decompose into its chemical makeup, giving researchers an unusual opportunity to see how molecular compositions and abundances shift with distance from the Sun. A comet from another solar system should convey similar information. So the team used Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph to analyze Borisov in ultraviolet light over four periods from Dec. 2019 to Jan. 2020, which allowed them to watch as carbon monoxide, water, oxygen and carbon dioxide ices exhaled from the comet. The researchers were surprised to find Borisov's bright coma was rich in carbon monoxide gas relative to water vapor, a finding that measurements from NASA's Swift satellite over the same period confirmed. Carbon monoxide was at least 50% more abundant than water ice -- a value more than three times greater than the average of any comet measured in the inner solar system. "Even though the composition of comets in our solar system can vary significantly from one comet to the next, we have never seen a comet this close to the Sun with this much carbon monoxide compared to water," Mandt said. Carbon monoxide ice is an extremely volatile molecule, shifting from ice to gas with the slightest ray of sunshine. In our solar system, that phase change can begin around 11 billion miles from the Sun -- almost three times the distance between Pluto and the Sun at its farthest point. Water, on the other hand, resists subliming until the comet comes within 200 million miles of the Sun, between Mars and the inner edge of the asteroid belt. Once there, it almost always dominates over other gases, the researchers said. Only a couple comets have ever broken that rule, but even those, when compared with the amount of carbon monoxide Borisov put out at any given distance, were significantly lower. "Borisov's large wealth of carbon monoxide implies that it came from a planet formation region that has very different chemical properties than the disk from which our solar system formed," said astrophysicist Dennis Bodewits, the study's lead author from Auburn University in Alabama. Borisov, the team suggests, probably formed far from a star, where carbon monoxide ice is stable, but where perturbations from a large planet could still eject the comet from its home. All of these pieces, the researchers said, suggest Borisov belonged to a disk of icy debris around a red dwarf star, the most abundant star type in the Milky Way galaxy. Red dwarves are relatively small stars with at best half the mass of the Sun and one-tenth of its luminosity. That means carbon monoxide could be remain an ice at 600 million miles, roughly 18 times closer than in our solar system, and many red dwarfs have large planets orbiting in this distant region. While it's impossible to determine the exact star Borisov came from, the molecules its spewing provided enough clues for researchers to at least picture what that home may have looked like. And those spewed particles may also fill gaps in scientists' understanding about comets from here. "The origins and formation of our own comets are not well understood," Bodewits said. "We hope that the difference between solar system comets and future objects like this will help us study comet formation and evolution better." Borisov likely made its closest approach to the Sun on Dec. 30, 2019, and is now on its way out of the solar system. Until then, researchers will continue to uncover as much as they can about this rare, interstellar wanderer. Reference: "2I/Borisov Is a Carbon Monoxide-Rich Comet from Another Star," D. Bodewits et al., 2020 April 20, Nature Astronomy [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1095-2]. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. With three densely populated northern districts fast emerging as novel coronavirus hotspots, the Odisha government on Tuesday rushed Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) and experts to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease, officials said. The move comes after Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur districts reported a spurt in COVID-19 cases. Of the 79 COVID-19 cases detected in the state so far, these three districts have together reported 23 cases. As many as 17 new cases were reported in the last 48 hours, a senior official said. While Bhadrak and Balasore have reported eight cases each, seven COVID-19 cases were detected in Jajpur. The total number of novel coronavirus cases from the three districts was just five two days ago, an official pointed out. Keeping in view the spike in the positive cases from the three districts, Health and Family Welfare Secretary N B Dhal Tuesday directed experts from medical colleges, senior health officers and state Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) to oversee containment measures there, an official statement said. The department has also assigned specific districts to senior officials. While the director of health services has been rushed to Balasore district, the director of public health will look after Bhadrak and the director of family welfare has been given charge of Jajpur district. This apart, Dhal also directed three state RRTs to rush to these districts. While the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack will provide technical support in Jajpur district, the Fakir Mohan Medical College Hospital has been supporting the measures in Balasore and Bhadrak districts. Director General of Police Abhay is also scheduled to visit Balasore and Baripada, the headquarter town of Mayurbhanj district, during the day to review enforcement along the West Bengal border. The police chiefs scheduled visit assumes significance as one-third of the COVID-19 cases in Odisha has links to West Bengal. It is alleged that a large number of people from the neighbouring state have been entering Odisha despite the border being sealed amid the ongoing lockdown. Worried over people returning from West Bengal posing a major challenge to the states COVID-19 preparedness, the Odisha government has asked all the districts to maintain a strict vigil on the movement of people. The state government has asked all district collectors to remain alert as at least 24 of the states 74 COVID-19 positive cases have Bengal links. Officials said the Balasore district, which shares border with West Bengal, has recorded a steep rise in the number of COVID-19 cases since Monday. The number of coronavirus patients in the district rose to eight from just one. The health and family welfare department has appealed to the people who returned from West Bengal to voluntarily come forward for tests and place themselves in home or hospital quarantine as a precautionary measure. Following detection of the new COVID-19 cases, the state government has ordered setting up of containment zones in the affected areas in order to stop the spread of the infectious virus. So far, the state has identified 15 such containment zones. Active surveillance and contact tracing operations have been launched in the containment zones which have been effectively sealed prohibiting peoples movement, sources said. While Bhadrak that reported eight COVID-19 cases presently has five containment zones, two containment zones are in Jajpur and one in Balasore. Following fresh cases being detected in the three districts, additional containment zones are now being created, an official said. Jajpur district Collector Ranjan Kumar Das said five more panchayats have been declared as containment zones where extensive sanitisation is being undertaken. He also appealed to the people to inform the administration if anyone with travel history to Kolkata reached the villages recently. Besides, Bhubaneswar with 46 COVID-19 cases has three containment zones, while Kendrapara with two patients also created two such zones. One containment zone each have been created in Kalahandi, Sundergarh and Balasore districts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Circuit Breaker extended till June 1: PM Lee's speech in full Prime Minister Lee addressed the nation to announce the extension of circuit breaker measures till June 1. Photo courtesy: Facebook/Lee Hsien Loong Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the nation on Tuesday, April 21 to give an update on the rising number of cases of COVID-19 in Singapore as well as to announce an extension of the circuit breaker measures till June 1. Here is the PM's speech in English in full: Fellow Singaporeans & Residents I am speaking to you again to give you an update on the COVID-19 situation. We are now two weeks into the circuit breaker. On the whole, people have coped well. Most of us have played our part, staying at home, complying with the restrictions. We have adjusted to working from home and home-based learning. When outside, we wear masks and keep a safe distance from others. And we have kept to our immediate family units and avoided gatherings with extended family and friends. The number of new cases in the local community has levelled off, to below 30 new cases daily. This is the result of the circuit breaker, and all of us working together. But as you know, our total case numbers have risen sharply since the last time I spoke to you, just 10 days ago. Today alone, we have over 1,100 new cases. Almost all were detected in our migrant worker dormitories, through aggressive testing. MIGRANT WORKERS The large number of cases at the dorms is a serious problem. To assess the extent of the spread, we have tested aggressively. Not only those who reported sick, or showed fever or flu symptoms. But also those who were well and asymptomatic - not showing any symptoms at all. Almost all the migrant workers infected have, at most, only mild symptoms. This is not surprising as they are generally young, and thus much less likely to become seriously ill because of COVID-19. Our doctors, nurses and healthcare personnel are working hard, triaging them early, and taking good care of them. It is early days yet, but thankfully, so far none of the new cases of migrant workers have needed supplemental oxygen, or intensive care. We had one earlier case of a Bangladeshi worker, who was in the ICU for two months: This was Case number 42. We never gave up on him. Last week, his condition stabilised, he was transferred out of the ICU, to a general ward. It will still take some time for him to fully recover. With some luck, he should be able to see his newborn son soon. We hope that the situation in the dorms will remain this way: Most of the cases being mild, and very few needing oxygen or intensive care. All the major dorms are supported by dedicated teams of doctors and nurses. To protect the health of our migrant workers, we will step up the medical resources in the dorms. We will deploy more medical personnel, to make sure that anyone with fever or flu symptoms receives appropriate and timely medical treatment. We will house the mild cases either on site, in a separate facility within the dorm, or in community care facilities elsewhere. And we will make sure that those who need more active treatment receive immediate attention, and can be sent promptly to the hospital to help them recover. We will also pay special attention to the older workers, who are more vulnerable. We are preemptively moving them to a separate dorm, where they can be monitored more closely. To our migrant workers, let me emphasise again: We will care for you, just like we care for Singaporeans. We thank you for your cooperation during this difficult period. We will look after your health, your welfare and your livelihood. We will work with your employers to make sure that you get paid, and you can send money home. And we will help you stay in touch with friends and family. Ramadan begins in a few days time. We will make sure that arrangements are made for our Muslim workers. When Aidilfitri comes next month, we will celebrate with our Muslim friends, just as we celebrated the Indian New Year with our Indian friends last week. This is our duty and responsibility to you, and to your families. Apart from the workers living in dorms, we are monitoring two other groups of migrant workers closely. First, workers who live in shophouses, private housing or HDB flats, and second, workers in essential services. This group is still working during the circuit breaker, helping to keep Singapore going. Some are cleaning the HDB blocks or hawker centres, others are maintaining key infrastructure like our broadband networks. If these workers move in and out of dorms, they become potential channels for cross infection in both directions. Hence we are housing these essential workers separately. We are also testing them to make sure that they are healthy, and to pick up any infections early. So far, the clusters in the dorms have remained largely contained, and have not spread to the wider community. We will do our utmost to keep it this way. COMMUNITY In the wider community, the circuit breaker is starting to have an effect. The number of community cases has fallen in recent days. This is the result of all of us coming together, making sacrifices and adhering to the circuit breaker rules. But we cannot afford to be complacent. We must press on, to bring down daily infections more sharply, to single digit, or even zero. And to reduce the number of unlinked cases: Those we do not know how they got infected, or from whom. Because unfortunately that number of unlinked cases has not come down, and this suggests there is a larger, hidden reservoir of cases in the community; and this reservoir is the source of these unlinked cases, which we have not detected. I discussed with the Multi-Ministry Task Force (MTF) the next steps to take. We want to bring down the community numbers decisively. We also want to make sure that if any leakage occurs from the dorms to the wider community, we can detect it and contain it early, and prevent new clusters from forming and bursting out of control. To achieve these two objectives, we must all hunker down and press on with our tight circuit breaker measures. We have called on all Singaporeans to stay home. Go out only for essential needs, like buying food or groceries. Otherwise, please stay at home. If you do need to go out, then go by yourself, not as a group or as a family. Even when exercising outside, do so only by yourself, and only in your neighbourhood. Remember: It is not just about adhering to the letter of the law. The spirit of the guidelines is to reduce movement to a minimum, and to avoid being out and about in the community. This is the way to protect yourself, your family and everyone else. So I hope everyone can cooperate and do your part. Some hotspots, like some popular wet markets, are still a problem. Large groups of people continue to gather at these places, making it hard to practise safe distancing. These places will impose entry restrictions to thin out the crowds even more. You can do your part too. Do your marketing on weekdays rather than weekends, and dont bring your whole family with you for grocery shopping. When you run errands, go out alone, get what you need, and return home straightaway. We will also close more workplaces, so that only the most essential services will remain open. This will reduce further the number of workers keeping essential services going, and minimise the risks of transmission among the workers. It will mean some degradation of services for example, less frequent grass-cutting in our HDB estates. But I hope we all understand why this has to be done. We will implement these tighter measures until 4th May. But we will not be able to completely lift the restrictions after that, and go back to business as usual. We will therefore extend the circuit breaker for four more weeks beyond 4th May, in other words until 1st June. Then, provided we have brought the community numbers down, we can make further adjustments and consider easing some measures. This way, we can be more assured that we have made definite progress and consolidated our position. Many will be disappointed by the extension of the circuit breaker. Especially our business and workers, who are hurting greatly. But I hope you understand that this short-term pain is to stamp out the virus, protect the health and safety of our loved ones, and allow us to revive our economy. The Government will continue to help our businesses and workers cope during the extended circuit breaker period. We will provide the same level of support to workers and businesses as we are doing now. The ministers will hold a press conference immediately after this to explain the details. Let me conclude in English. You will naturally ask where does this lead us? How do we exit from the circuit breaker? Nobody knows how long the pandemic will last. Most likely it will take more than a year, before effective treatments and vaccines become available. So we have to take things one step at a time. To exit from the circuit breaker, we need to do three things. First, we must open up incrementally, in small steps, making sure that we are safe each step of the way. This is what New Zealand and Germany are beginning to do, very cautiously. They believe that they have broken the chain of transmission, but they want to be extra careful. They dont want to open up prematurely after lock downs, only to find COVID-19 coming back, and then be forced to lock down a second time. This has happened in Hokkaido. We should try our best to avoid this. Second, we need to scale up testing for COVID-19 substantially, so that we can quickly detect any new cases that pop up. This we are progressively doing, not only by procuring test kits and equipment from other countries, but also by developing and manufacturing our own test kits. Third, we will need to make full use of information technology, IT, so that when we discover COVID-19 cases, we can trace more efficiently where they have been, and whom they have been in contact with. We have the TraceTogether app, and we are currently developing other apps for this purpose. For these apps to work, we will need everyones cooperation to install and use these apps, like what the South Koreans have done. There will be some privacy concerns, but we will have to weigh these against the benefits of being able to exit from the circuit breaker and stay open safely. I know this has not been an easy time for everyone. We are making progress, but we have not yet succeeded, by a long way. The results do show that the circuit breaker is working. Now, we all need to do a little bit more, make best use of the next two weeks of the tightened circuit breaker, and the four weeks of the extension beyond that. I ask for your support and cooperation. I ask for your trust and confidence. Let us go all out to beat the virus, and break the chain of transmission. We will overcome this together. Thank you. Delhi to ease restrictions, if Covid cases come down in next 2-3 days: Health Minister Lata Mangeshkar health update: Doctor says,'She in ICU with Covid-19 and pneumonia, will be under observation' Social distancing: When a former CM flouted it and a sitting CM followed it India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P Bengaluru, Apr 21: Recently, former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy got his son, Nikhil Kumaraswamy married during the nationwide lockdown was put in place. The former chief minister's son got married in Karnataka's Ramanagara where no cases for coronavirus were registered and was under a Green Zone. It was during this time, the JDS leader should have been more responsible. But, one thing that was stuck in his mind was his son's wedding. On the other side, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's father breathed his last on Monday (April 20) due to liver and kidney ailments. But, Adityanath was reportedly held a meeting with the Cabinet ministers to discuss about the lockdown and prevailing situation of coronavirus in the state. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath's father Anand Singh Bisht passes away in Delhi Also, it was said that CM Adityanath would not be attending his father's last rites to ensure enforcement of lockdown to fight against coronavirus. Presently, CM Adityanath is holding a meeting with senior officials over COVID-19. COVID-19 outbreak: How Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh became coronavirus-free district The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also urged his family members not to gather in large numbers as the deadly virus would increase to spread among people. It is a known fact that such congregations would increase the spread of coronavirus. It is time for Kumaraswamy to be a responsible politician and aim at safeguarding the people than gathering them to attend a wedding. Texas has been given the power to ban medical abortions during the coronavirus pandemic, a federal appeals court has ruled. On Monday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the state was within its rights to ban medical abortions, and other abortion procedures, in the fight against Covid-19. The court came to a two to one decision with judges Jennifer Elrod and Kyle Duncan forming the majority opinion. The opinions reasoning was that the procedures would demand the use of PPE including masks and gowns that would be needed in the fight against the pandemic. The judges argued that a lower court made the mistake of treating a medication abortion as an absolute right. Last week, the same panel temporarily blocked the states prohibition while it took more time to consider the matter. But the constitutional right to abortion does not include the right to the abortion method of the womans (or the physicians) choice, the opinion said. PPE shortages are putting strain on the healthcare systems of states worst hit by the virus, with many hospitals and healthcare facilities facing difficulties accessing enough supplies to keep health care workers protected. Clinics have argued that medication abortions do not require PPE that may be needed for coronavirus patients. The opinion argued that it was not certain that such equipment would not be used during a medication abortion. Medication abortion uses a combination of two medications used to end a pregnancy and can be used at any stage of pregnancy, according to Britain's National Health Service website. It does not require surgery or an anaesthetic. Texas has over 19,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus as of Monday, with 490 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University. Additional reporting by The Associated Press HOUSTON, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) announced it expects to issue a press release with financial results for the first quarter 2020 on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, after the market closes. A conference call will be hosted by SCI Management on Thursday, April 30, 2020. Details of the conference call are as follows: What: Service Corporation International First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call When: Thursday, April 30, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. Central Time How: Dial-In Numbers (888) 317-6003 or International callers at (412) 317-6061 / Code 2624254 or listen live via the internet through our website at www.sci-corp.com in the Investors section under "Webcasts and Presentations" Replay: (877) 344-7529, International callers at (412) 317-0088, and Canada Toll Free at (855) 669-9658 / Code 10141950 available through May 7, 2020, and the webcast for at least 90 days through our website at www.sci-corp.com in the Investors section under "Webcasts & Presentations" Contact: Sandy Bobo at (713) 525-5395 About Service Corporation International Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI), headquartered in Houston, Texas, is North America's leading provider of deathcare products and services. At March 31, 2020, we owned and operated 1,475 funeral homes and 483 cemeteries (of which 296 are combination locations) in 44 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Through our businesses, we market the Dignity Memorial brand which offers assurance of quality, value, caring service, and exceptional customer satisfaction. For more information about Service Corporation International, please visit our website at www.sci-corp.com. For more information about Dignity Memorial, please visit www.dignitymemorial.com. SOURCE Service Corporation International Related Links https://www.sci-corp.com/ British Muslims are being told to 'pray at home' and share a 'digital Ramadan' during the holy month this year, as the coronavirus pandemic forces lockdown to continue. Guidance from the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) published ahead of the holy month, which begins on Thursday, states that Ramadan 'will be a very different experience for Muslims' this year. The group urged followers of the religion to 'adapt to changing circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic', which will mean breaking fasts by sharing a meal digitally rather than in a large congregation. Bristol's Annual Grand Iftar (an evening meal to signify the end of the daily fast during Ramadan) on St Marks Road, Easton, Bristol, May 2019 It notes it is unlikely there will be 'congregational acts of worship for Muslims outside of the home' as mosques remain closed. Those celebrating are instructed to follow the Government's social distancing rules by sharing meals such as the evening ending fasting (Iftar), usually a communal gathering, with family over FaceTime rather than in person. People have also been advised to be mindful in their shopping habits, planning meals in advance to limit the number of trips, and avoiding stocking up to 'allow for everyone to acquire that they need'. Community gatherings will not take place this year as Muslims are urged to celebrate digitally. Pictured: Bristol's grand Iftar 2019 MCB secretary-general Harun Khan said: 'The message for this Ramadan is clear: fast and pray at home and share Ramadan digitally. 'This is the way to help save lives.' He added: 'It is important to use this time to reconsider, to reflect on the way we live our lives and the way we relate to our Creator, our communities and those in need.' The MCB's guidance follows the Mosque and Imams National Advisory Board (Minab) saying it is 'going to be extremely painful and emotionally challenging' to keep mosques closed during the holy month. However, the Minab reiterated that doors will remain locked as they 'have a religious and moral obligation to protect life and follow the medical advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives'. New Delhi, April 21 : The Delhi government will give 2,000 food coupons each to all the MLAs and MPs in the city for distribution of ration among the needy who do not have ID cards in the wake of the coronavirus induced lockdown, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday. He said the Delhi government will give free ration to 30 lakh additional people who do not have ration cards but have Aadhaar cards and applied online for ration. "Today we have decided to ensure the food security of the people in need. We have already given free ration of 7.5 Kg for this month to 71 lakh ration cardholders and 5 kg free ration to 10 lakh non-ration cardholders," Kejriwal said. He said the government has received nearly 38 lakh applications from the non-ration cardholders. "The Delhi government has decided to give free ration to around 30 lakh people who do not have ration cards. This way we will give free ration to around 1 crore people. Delhi has a population of 2 crore and we will give free ration to half of Delhi's total population," said the Chief Minister. He explained that the 30 lakh people are those who have applied online based on their ID cards like Aadhaar, but there are people in Delhi who do not have any ID card. "Many people come to Delhi for some months to earn money but are now stuck in the city due to the lockdown. To ensure free ration to such people, the Delhi government today decided that we will give 2,000 food coupons to each MLA and MP of Delhi across all the political parties," the Chief Minister said. He said each of these coupons will be applicable to get 5 kg of free ration. "The MPs and MLAs can give these coupons to people who do not have ration card or any ID proof," Kejriwal said. The Chief Minister also announced that along with next month's ration, a kit having other daily use items like soap, salt etc. will also be given to the people. "We have also decided that from the next month (May), along with the ration which will be given from April 28 or 29 onwards, we will also give a kit containing essential items such as salt, chhole, sugar, haldi, edible oil, soap, masala and daliya. This kit will be given to everyone who is getting the ration (both cardholders and non-cardholders)," Kejriwal said. The essential item kit will have one liter of refined oil; 1 kg chhole; 1 kg sugar; 1 kg salt; 200 gm haldi powder; 200 gm dania powder; 200 gm chilli powder; and 2 soap bars (60-75 gm). Home Just In Nepal Army signs deal to procure medical supplies for Covid-19 response Kathmandu, April 21 The Nepal Army has announced that it signed a deal with a Chinese government agency for purchasing the medical equipment required for the countrys response to the Covid-19 outbreak. Organising an online press meet on Tuesday, the national military institutions spokesperson Bigyan Dev Pandey made the announcement. The deal is worth USD 18.44 million. A letter has been sent to the Nepal Rastra Bank requesting the fund transfer allowance, according to the army. The army is using both land and air routes for the supply because a wide-body aircrafts capacity is limited to around 20 tonnes only. The rest of the goods will arrive via Tatopani border point. In total, around 340 tonnes of equipment will be purchased. After annulling a controversial deal signed with Omni Group, the government had assigned the army to purchase the equipment. However, the Ministry of Health and Supplies has signed three other agreements to purchase various goods. Sri Lanka on Tuesday commemorated the first anniversary of the Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed nearly 260 people, including 11 Indians, in one of the country's worst terror incidents. Nine suicide bombers, belonging to local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS, carried out a series of blasts that tore through three churches and as many luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, killing 258 people and injuring over 500 on the Easter Sunday on April 21, 2019. Sri Lankan police have arrested over 200 suspects in connection with the bombings. Amidst the lockdown to combat the coronavirus, the Sri Lankan government on Tuesday urged all Sri Lankans to commemorate those who were killed and affected by the terror attacks by lighting a candle in their memory, Colombo Gazette reported. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in his message of commemoration, said he remembers with deep sorrow, the brutal Easter Sunday terrorist attacks one year ago. The President called on all citizens to remember the Sri Lankan and Foreign nationals who were killed, wounded and disabled in this attack, by lighting a candle and observing a minute's silence at 8.45 am, it said. The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and a church in the eastern town of Batticaloa when the Easter Sunday mass was in progress. Three explosions were reported from three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said today marks a year to the deadliest suicide bombings that shook Sri Lanka claiming innocent lives. He said while we remember the lives lost, injured and the families that are still trying to cope, we ensure the borders of Sri Lanka will never see such acts of cowardice ever again. The Intelligence Service of a friendly nation had provided advance warning to the then Sri Lankan Government of the possible dates and targets for the attacks, including names, addresses and identity cards of the terrorists involved. This attack could have been prevented, Mahinda said. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital said, "Our challenge would be to work amicably with all our fellow citizens and to ensure a spirit of true acceptance and integration within the national fabric of cultures for a peaceful and prosperous new Sri Lanka free of all divisions and petty mindedness." On this occasion when we commemorate the dead and pray for the wounded of last year's Easter attacks, I wish to express our sincere gratitude to all those who stood by the victims showing their solidarity and for assisting them in every possible way. These victims belonged to all ethnic and religious groups in Sri Lanka and included foreigners," he was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror. "We have still not been able to find the people who were responsible for these attacks. It was an attempt to create clashes between different religious communities," Ranjith said in his special message. The Ministry of Foreign Relations said, Sri Lanka remembers all those lives lost and changed forever in barbaric acts of violence during the Easter Sunday attacks one year ago. We share the grief of families who lost their loved ones and stand in solidarity with those countries which lost their nationals, the Ministry added. Minister of Foreign relations Dinesh Gunawardena called on all citizens to join to remember and pay respects to all those who lost their lives by inhumane terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday in 2019. The Minister further wished fast recovery and good health for those still recuperating from the attacks. He also called for the perpetrators to be brought before the law. The then head of the police and the top defence ministry bureaucrat were arrested for criminal negligence. The presidential probe is still continuing while the parliamentary panel has issued its report. Last week a fresh round of arrests came with two high profile arrests. The island nation has been under a 24-hour curfew since March 20 to combat the deadly viral infection. Sri Lanka has so far reported 295 COVID-19 cases, including seven deaths, and 96 recoveries, since the first viral infection was reported in the country on March 11. Over 3,500 people, including foreigners, remain quarantined in more than 40 centres across the country following the coronavirus outbreak. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is the largest small business association. Small Employers are in crisis and half will have to shut down in less than 2 months without help. Small businesses are half of Americas economy and account for nearly half of Americas jobs. Brad Close, president of the National Federation of Independent Business, described the problem in an article in US Today. Last Thursday, the Paycheck Protection Program the historic small business relief initiative enacted by bipartisan majorities ran out of money. 70% of small businesses applied the day the program opened on April 3. Within a week and a half, the PPP was nearly three-quarters gone. Most small businesses have yet to receive any money and are running into roadblocks when applying. Just 5% of owners have not taken any action in response to the outbreak, a marked departure from more than half (52%) not taking action three weeks ago. Actions taken by most small employers are those related to recommended CDC steps to protect and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace including talking to employees about hand washing and social distancing, and disinfecting and cleaning offices and workplaces more frequently. Another 56% have scaled down or adjusted business operations, and 26% have delayed payments to creditors. SOURCES NFIB, USA Today Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com Having monopolized those critical supply chains, the Chinese Communist Party pointed them inward. It ensured that face masks being manufactured in China, for example, went to domestic consumption and their own fight against the virus. Largely unable to import supplies from China, America has been left scrambling because we by and large lack the ability to make things, as well as the state capacity needed for reorienting production to do so. As a result, doctors are forced to ration supplies and, in some cases, cease using necessary protective equipment. And while some heroic businesses have shifted production to help fill this gap and produce masks, hand sanitizer and other goods, the nation is still behind. One reason is that as manufacturers fled to China, our nations economy transformed into one dominated by service industries, which survive on person-to-person transactions like the ones now restricted. And unlike industrial economies, service-based economies lack the flexibility that comes with producing physical goods that can either be sold later or repurposed to meet a sudden shortage. This makes us especially vulnerable to this kind of shock. A commensurate shift in corporate behavior away from investment in workers, equipment and facilities, and toward churning out short-term financial gains to shareholders has only further sapped our resiliency. Why didnt we have enough N95 masks or ventilators on hand for a pandemic? Because buffer stocks dont maximize financial return, and there was no shareholder reward for protecting against risk. Even in government, we became infatuated with the just in time acquisition model, as opposed to just in case contingency acquisitions. Today, we see the consequences of this short-term, hyperindividualistic ethos. Americans cannot leave their homes. Neighbors are unable to shake hands. Places of worship are closed. The labor market, especially for working-class Americans in those service industries, is in free-fall. With the steadfast resolve of American communities and with government support to provide businesses the resources they need to pull through, Americans will overcome the challenge before us. But the society that follows should not be what it was before. We wont properly absorb the lessons from the coronavirus crisis if we fall back into the traditional Republican and Democratic model of politics. We need a new vision to create a more resilient economy. The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York Reuters The US needs to be able to conduct at least 20 million tests a day in order to fully reopen the economy by late July, according to a report from Harvard University's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. Forty-five cross-disciplinary experts compiled the report, titled "Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience." The plan emphasized three integral components to reopen the US, including sufficient testing, the ability to trace cases, and supported isolation. Meanwhile, while the US has caught up to other countries on testing having tested more than 4 million people thus far there is still not a governmental consensus on a testing strategy. Governors have reported a shortage of supplies for testing and are asking for help from the federal government; President Trump has said testing is the responsibility of state and local government; and Democrats are pushing for a national testing strategy. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A group of Harvard researchers unveiled a plan to safely reopen the United States economy, which includes the ability to test 20 million people a day. Forty-five cross-disciplinary experts working under Harvard University's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics compiled the plan, titled "Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience." The plan emphasized three integral components to reopen the US, including sufficient testing, the ability to trace cases, and supported isolation. "Between now and August, we should phase in economic mobilization in sync with growth in our capacity to provide speedy, sustainable testing, tracing and warning, and supported isolation and quarantine programs for mobilized sectors of the workforce," the reported stated. The plan calls for at least five million tests to be done per day in order to take the initial steps to open the economy, scaling it up to 20 million tests a day by late July to "fully remobilize the economy." Story continues "Massive testing is essential because it is more finely targetedmore of a precision device than a blunt instrument," the report stated. "Rather than giving an entire city a stay-at-home order of indefinite duration, only those who are infected would need to stay at home or in a medical facility, and only for the specific amount of time required by the course of the disease." Protests have emerged across the US to pressure state governments to lift lockdowns as people are bearing the brunt of the economic fallout from the coronavirus. President Donald Trump himself tweeted to "liberate" the states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia. As of Monday, the US has nearly 787,000 cases across all 50 states, and more than 42,000 deaths, citing data from Johns Hopkins University. The plan acknowledges that even 5 million to 20 million tests "may not be high enough to protect public health," and the ability to conduct that many tests is dependent on testing innovation. "Consensus is emerging about what we need," the report concluded. "How to do it is beginning to come into view. The time for action has arrived." coronavirus test Getty During the early stages of the spread of the novel coronavirus in the US, testing lagged due to faulty testing kits and other delays. As Business Insider's Aylin Woodward and Shayanne Gal reported: "Six weeks ago, the US was woefully behind South Korea's tests-per-capita rate. On March 8, South Korea's total number of tests done per million citizens was roughly 700 times the US's, despite the fact that the two countries announced their first coronavirus cases on the same day." The US has now tested 4 million people for the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, and is second to Italy in testing per capita. President Donald Trump has given conflicting information about testing, starting by saying in early March that "Anybody that wants a test can get a test," even as testing lagged. Recently he has emphasized that state and local governments are in charge of testing a facet needed to reopen the economy. Meanwhile, both Democratic and Republican governors have said they need more from the federal government in terms of testing from laboratories, to supplies like swabs and reagents, to FDA approval of some companies making testing materials. In Congress, Democrats are pushing for a national strategy on testing to be added to a deal to provide more funds small business loans. Read the original article on Business Insider NEW YORK, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. today announced that ftwilliam.com Distribution Tracking Software (DTS), a retirement plan distribution tracker solution, has been nominated as a 2020 SIIA Business Technology CODiE Award finalist in the following three categories: Best Legal Solution, Best Digital Process Automation Solution, and Best Content Management Platform. Designed by retirement service providers, ftwilliam.com's DTS automates all tasks associated with preparing and tracking distributions and saves retirement service providers time, reduces risk, and lowers operating costs. The solution also offers built-in accountability tools to streamline communication, collect data, and make distribution preparation and tracking faster and more efficient. These tools are also accompanied by real-time updates to combat costly VCP filings and keep clients informed. "ftwilliam.com Distribution Tracking Software was designed to provide retirement service providers with more time to better serve their clients and spend less time preparing and tracking retirement plan distributions," said Chris Sullivan, Head of Transactional & Retirement Portfolio at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. "We are thrilled that the 2020 SIIA Business Technology CODiE Awards have recognized this cutting-edge solution and the capabilities it offers to streamline the retirement plan distribution process." Additional key features of the DTS software include: Integration with ftwilliam.com's 1099 and Compliance Modules for a streamlined 1099 Form preparation and force-out campaigns, plan terminations and partial plan terminations. Integration with rollover partners with batch send participant data to the rollover provider of your choice, including Millennium Trust Company, Liberty Trust, Ktrade, BPAS and PenChecks, to set-up IRAs during force-outs. Elimination of manual spreadsheet set-up and manual delivery. Loan tracking features that include track loan processing and model loans using data pulled from the Document and Compliance Modules. Overall, Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. received five total nominations for the 2020 SIIA CODiE Awards. ftwilliam.com DTS and the Sexual Harassment & Workplace Compliance Suite on Cheetah are both finalists for Best Legal Solution, and its legal education solution PracticePerfect was nominated in the Best Emerging Instructional Technology Solution category. ftwilliam.com, a product suite from Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., offers employee benefit professionals modern and cloud-based plan document (including defined contribution and defined benefit), government forms (5500, 1099 and 5300), compliance testing and reporting , and distribution tracking software. Easy-to-use, integrated, and world-class customer support make ftwilliam.com the perfect solution for employee benefits professionals. ftwilliam.com's integrated cloud-based software has become a major force within the retirement services industry, driving innovation, streamlining workflows, and providing world-class customer support. The SIIA CODiE Awards are the industry's only peer-recognized awards program. Business technology leaders including senior executives, analysts, media, consultants and investors evaluate assigned products during the first-round review which determines the finalists. SIIA members then vote on the finalist products and the scores from both rounds are tabulated to select the winners. To learn more about ftwilliam.com Distribution Tracking Software, visit: http://product.ftwilliam.com/products/distribution-tracking-software/ About Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of 4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. For more information about Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., visit www.WoltersKluwerLR.com, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Media Linda Gharib Director, Communications Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Tel: +1 (646) 887-7962 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Related Links www.WoltersKluwerLR.com A new report published on the preprint server medRxiv in April 2020 reveals that the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 shows the presence of new mutations acquired within infected human cases, which significantly increase its ability to cause human disease. With the current novel coronavirus pandemic already having caused approximately 2.47 million infections and 170,000 fatalities, as of April 18, 2020, public attention is focused on what causes the relatively high mortality rate in this population. Currently, scientists have found a number of variant forms of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of infections are asymptomatic. The virus can spread during this asymptomatic period, making containment a real challenge, as shown by the current community spread of the illness in the US and many Western European countries. It also remains viable and capable of infection within aerosols for hours, and on surfaces for up to 7 days. Why are mutations in the novel coronavirus important? The virus gains entry to the host cell through the spike glycoprotein (S), which binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) molecule to enter the cell. This receptor molecule is found on a variety of tissues, including the epithelium of the nasal cavity, the lung, the spermatogonia, Leydig, Sertoli, and other gastrointestinal epithelium. Seven betacoronaviruses cause disease in humans, in varying severity. The most variable part of the betacoronavirus genome is the part encoding the S proteins receptor-binding domain (RBD). Multiple variations have been detected within the SARS-CoV-2 genome as well, with many of them comprising the addition, replacement, or deletion of single nucleotides these are called single nucleotide variants (SNVs). The current study deals with the question: are these mutations important as far as the pathogenicity of the virus is concerned? In other words, do any of these SNVs make the viral illness more or less severe, infectious, or both? The answer could decide how vaccines are developed as well as new drugs to counter this disease. How was the study done? The researchers sequenced the genomes of 11 viral isolates of the SARS-CoV-2 from a Chinese hospital in Hangzhou, China. This is situated over 750 kilometers to the east of Wuhan, where the outbreak originated. The 11 patient samples were collected in the first days of the Wuhan outbreak, between January 22 and February 4, 2020. Ten persons had either worked in, traveled to, or had close contact with inhabitants of Wuhan. The last was a contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case. The patients had moderate or severe symptoms, three had underlying medical, and one required intensive medical care. All recovered from the illness. The Novaseq 6000 platform was used to accomplish the super-deep sequencing of the 11 isolates. This showed the presence of 1-5 mutations in the coding sequences of the isolates. There were also mixed viral populations. The researchers mixed the 11 isolates with cultured cells and then evaluated the viral load at 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, and 48 hours later, as well as cytopathic effects (CPE) at 48 and 72 hours later. What did the study show about the mutations? The ultra-deep sequencing showed 33 mutations. Of these, ten were in mixed populations. Nineteen were seen for the first time when compared against the library of over 1100 mutations stored at GISAID. Several of these were founder mutations; that is, each can be traced back to one original virus that generated a large group of viruses. These groups are now found in patients around the world. One mutation was previously seen only in Australia but was observed in 2 isolates from patients who attended a conference with patients from Wuhan. A third attendee showed a novel mutation, related to the other one but at a different position of the same codon. Another showed three consecutive mutations in a single gene, introducing two mutations at the level of the protein, as well as a fourth non-consecutive one. Overall, the analysis of a small number of isolates resulted in highly diverse mutations. Two of the mutations produced the same mutations at different locations on the same codon. One was observed in 5 isolates, suggesting its presence early in the pandemic and in many residents of Wuhan, but is not significantly present in the GISAID data available at the time of the articles publication. There was a 3-nucleotide mutation in one patient, which created a highly potent viral strain, in terms of both viral load and CPE. This patient remained positive for the virus for 45 days. The researchers also did an in vitro assay to assess the effect of the mutations on the isolates. All the isolates were mixed with cultured cells, and the results were observed at 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, and 48 hours later. The CPE was also observed at 48 and 72 hours from infection. To detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus directly, they carried out specific rtPCR directed against three viral genes - the ORF1a, E, and N genes. All three groups of rtPCR showed very similar results. The cycle threshold was used as a measure of viral load. The lower the Ct, the higher the load. How did mutations affect pathogenicity? The investigators reported that all samples showed no evidence of viral replication at 1, 2, and 4 hours from infection. Viral load began to increase at 8 hours, for a few strains, and 9/11 strains showed high viral load by 24 hours. Some strains showed a much faster rate of increase than others. At 48 hours, the viral load curve flattened out, except for two which had already reached a plateau earlier, at 24 hours. The viral load of strains at the two ends of the spectrum differed by almost 270 times. This leads to statistically significant variations between the strains producing the greatest and least viral load at 48 hours. In other words, different viral isolates carrying different mutations have a significantly different viral load. The cytopathic effect or cell death rates are proportional to the viral load. How is the study important? The researchers say the high incidence of different kinds of mutations in a relatively small sample is due to the early timing of sampling within a limited geographical area of the index case in Wuhan. Some of the mutations do provide obvious benefits or disadvantages under specific circumstances. For instance, some mutations are found very commonly in the S protein-ACE2 protein interface. There was a marked difference in viral load at 48 hours in the cells infected by different viral strains, showing that different mutations do change the replicative and disease-causing potential of the virus. The study shows how the genotype affects the phenotype in most cases, with the in vitro effect promising to reveal how different viral strains behave as they acquire different mutations. Finally, the researchers note that 3 of the isolates were from stool samples, in contradistinction to another report indicating that a viable virus could not be isolated from such samples. This shows the viral capacity to replicate in these samples too. The study concludes that viral surveillance should also be performed at the cellular level when possible since the mutations occurring within patient populations do affect the pathogenicity of the virus. Another suggestion is the identification of all founder mutations in the larger clusters of viruses circulating in the world at present, to find useful differences in pathogenicity. The development of vaccines and drugs will also hinge on whether these mutations affect therapeutic efficacy. Important Notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. (UPDATE: Man charged with stabbing wife to death in Saginaw Township) SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, MI - Police identified the victim of a homicide case reported Monday afternoon and said she was stabbed several times after she was involved in a car crash in Saginaw Township. Vernida Lula Hicks, 51, died from her injuries after being taken to the hospital, police say. The suspect, a 49-year-old man who had a past relationship with Hicks, is in custody at the Saginaw County Jail on homicide charges. Both are residents of Saginaw. Hicks was behind the wheel driving eastbound on State Street around 5 p.m. Monday while the suspect argued with her, police say. She lost control of the vehicle near the 6200 block, crashing into a telephone pole. Both she and the man left the car and the suspect stabbed Hicks several times before leaving, police allege. Police apprehended the man within minutes. The incident is still under investigation. Detectives will present their findings to the Saginaw County Prosecutors Office Wednesday or Thursday, police say. Saginaw Township police investigating car crash as homicide Read more: Saginaw sheriff asking county to put tax increase vote on August ballot Police investigate fatal shooting at apartment complex near CMU campus 12 more coronavirus deaths reported in Genesee, Saginaw counties The meltdown in oil markets is turning back the economic clock for Saudi Arabia, putting it on track for the deepest contraction in two decades with a budget deficit approaching levels last seen after the crash in crude four years ago. Already under lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the world's largest crude exporter is bracing for a double impact from the oil rout and unprecedented production cuts negotiated by OPEC and its allies. With Brent trading close to $20 a barrel, or almost a quarter of the level Saudi Arabia needs to balance its budget, offsetting the economic pain from the crisis could further stretch public finances. "This has changed everything," said Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. "So much of the recent recovery was based on the fact that the oil price had been above $50-$60, providing support to economic activity, and that's just been decimated." The latest oil setback presents difficult choices for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose economic transformation plans already risked budget cuts as government revenue was suffering from the pandemic and plummeting energy prices. The kingdom now faces other mounting challenges: the coronavirus is shutting down vast swaths of the $779 billion economy and unemployment is poised to spike as businesses struggle to survive. Analysts say they can hardly cut their forecasts fast enough. Gross domestic product could shrink more than 3% this year in what would be the first contraction since 2017, according to Malik. Meanwhile, the government's budget deficit could widen to 15% of economic output, said Mohamed Abu Basha, head of macroeconomic analysis at investment bank EFG Hermes in Cairo. The fiscal shortfall reached 4.5% last year after peaking at just over 17% in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund. The collapse on Monday in the price of West Texas Intermediate crude below zero has little direct impact for Saudi Arabia, since it sells only about a 10th of its oil to the U.S. The kingdom's fate is much more closely tied to the price of global benchmark Brent which is also falling, in part because of low U.S. prices. "Yesterday's price slump was psychologically very important," said Eugen Weinberg, Commerzbank's head of commodity research. "There is a possibility it will change perceptions forever." What's more, President Donald Trump has said that he'll consider blocking imports of crude from Saudi Arabia. The energy sector accounts for nearly two-thirds of its fiscal revenue. Ricardo Hausmann, an economist at Harvard University, has compared the situation facing Saudi Arabia to "war being fought on at least two fronts," according to a recent presentation seen by Bloomberg that outlined for officials the dual hit from the coronavirus pandemic and lower oil prices. "Each shock in itself is huge," Hausmann wrote. "Both at the same time makes things much more complex." University of Melbourne associate professor Ben Phillips said despite a flattening of the curve, borders should remain closed until a vaccine is found - which could be up to two years away A science professor has warned Australia could be in 'real trouble' if the government relaxes coronavirus social distancing restrictions too soon. University of Melbourne associate professor Ben Phillips said despite a pronounced flattening of the curve, the risk of a second outbreak is 'very real' if Australians become complacent and shutdowns are lifted. 'The worst case scenario would be that we ease restrictions and there are undetected cases that set off an outbreak,' he told news.com.au. 'Such an outcome would very quickly set us back and could have us in real trouble. So there is a delicate balance to be made, and it needs to be made carefully. 'If we can eliminate cases in Australia, we could largely get back to normal activities, but we would have to maintain very strong border quarantine until a vaccine arrives.' Prof Phillips said Australia's borders should remain closed until a vaccine is found. The global scientific community largely agree a vaccine for the virus could be found within a 12 months - but others say it could be up to two years. Infectious disease specialist Professor Jodie McVernon told Q&A on Monday night there is no guarantee one will ever be found. 'That's why this needs to be a much more nuanced discussion about how we learn to live with this new virus, how we adapt to it over time, how we mitigate its risks and harms, how we keep looking... for other treatments that might reduce the death toll,' she said. 'And hoping for a vaccine, but being aware it may not come. That is important.' Beachgoers are pictured at Coogee, Sydney, on Tuesday after Randwick Council opened its beaches for exercise But with experts warning a vaccine could be 18 months to two years away, borders could potentially stay closed until at least 2022. Pictured: An empty taxi rank at Sydney Airport on Tuesday University of Queensland immunologist Ian Frazer warned that even if a vaccine is found soon, it may 'not stop the spread of the virus in the community'. 'We also have to realise it's not always possible to get a vaccine just because we want one,' he told Seven News last week. Australia's deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly estimates a vaccine is 12 to 18 months away. 'I don't think we can eliminate this virus without a vaccine,' Prof Kelly said earlier this month. 'In fact, up to now, we've never had a successful vaccine against a coronavirus (other than COVID-19). This is (an) experimental time.' Scientists all over the world are scrambling to develop a coronavirus vaccine. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said it will likely take 18 months to develop one. Prof Phillips said despite a pronounced flattening of the curve, the risk of a second outbreak is 'very real' if Australians become complacent and shutdowns are lifted More than 70 per cent of Australia's coronavirus patients have recovered from the deadly virus Australia's recent efforts to flatten the curve of infection have been successful, with travel bans, social distancing measures, closed borders and business shutdowns slashing the number of new cases each day by up to 90 per cent in less than a month 'People like myself are saying 18 months [for a vaccine]. If everything went perfectly we could do slightly better than that,' he said last week. Prime Minsister Scott Morrison and Gates are believed to have discussed vaccines and the Indo-Pacific's health challenges when they spoke on Tuesday. The Gates Foundation is one of the World Health Organisation's biggest voluntary donors, providing $836 million over the past two years. Gates has been publicly critical of a decision by US President Donald Trump to suspend his country's funding for the WHO. The US is the largest donor to the WHO, providing more than $631 million in 2019 - about 15 per cent of its budget. 'Halting funding for the World Health Organisation during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds,' Mr Gates tweeted recently. 'Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organisation can replace them.' Mr Trump has argued the WHO failed to adequately 'obtain, vet and share information' in a timely and transparent way, leaving a global trail of death and destruction. Prime Minsister Scott Morrison and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates are believed to have discussed vaccines and the Indo-Pacific's health challenges when they spoke on Tuesday CSIRO scientists began performing the first stage of testing for two vaccine candidates at the agency's high-containment biosecurity facility in Geelong, in regional Victoria Mr Morrison recently expressed some sympathy for Mr Trump's criticisms, pointing to the way Australia pre-emptively declared a pandemic before the WHO. Gates' predictions for a vaccine timeline were in contrast to an Oxford University professor who said a coronavirus vaccine could be ready in four months. Sir John Bell said trials could be finished by mid-August but warned the real challenge would be manufacturing 'many billions of doses'. He also revealed the prestigious institution started human trials with a candidate vaccine this week. There have been conflicting reports over when a vaccine will be ready, with No 10's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance saying one was not around the corner. Jane Halton, the country's leading epidemic health expert, had even more grim predictions of when or if a vaccine will be developed. She warned against creating 'unrealistic expectations', explaining that there has never been a successful vaccine against other coronaviruses. Despite a global HIV death toll of 32 million people over 40 years, it also has no vaccine. 'I would never say never. But this is my point about an 18-month timeline: it is heroic, really tough,' she said. A US firm called Novavax claimed earlier last week it was planning to launch a human trial of its prototype vaccine in May, with results expected by July. There have also been human vaccine studies in China and Israel. A new vaccine developed by University of Queensland researchers will soon be tested on the live virus for the first time in a biosecurity facility in the Netherlands. The School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences team has joined forces with Dutch company Viroclinics Xplore to conduct pre-clinical studies. They hope this will allow them to get a better understanding of how the vaccine performs before it's tested on humans. Earlier this month CSIRO biosecurity director Dr Rob Grenfell warned a vaccine is still a ways off. CSIRO scientists began performing the first stage of testing for two vaccine candidates at the agency's high-containment biosecurity facility in Geelong, in regional Victoria. CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement The pre-clinical trials, which are expected to take three months, will use animal subjects to test whether the potential vaccines from the University of Oxford and Inovio Pharmaceuticals are safe and effective. 'At the moment, the best thing that we can all do is to maintain our social distancing and self-quarantining to minimise the spread whilst we're waiting for effective drugs and vaccines,' he said. Meanwhile, more than 70 per cent of Australia's coronavirus patients have recovered from the deadly virus. Out of Australia's 6,629 cases of COVID-19, 4,268 people have beaten the infection at a recovery rate of 70.37 per cent. From the peak of nearly 5,000 active cases on April 4, Australia had less than 2,000 on Tuesday morning. Australia's recent efforts to flatten the curve of infection have been successful, with travel bans, social distancing measures, closed borders and business shutdowns slashing the number of new cases each day by up to 90 per cent in less than a month. It comes after Scott Morrison announced several types of elective surgery, dental procedures and IVF will resume next week as Australia begins the road out from coronavirus restrictions. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the decision to allow 25 per cent of operations to restart marked a step towards normal life. But, in a sign that normality is still far away, beachgoers in Sydney's east on Tuesday were yelled at by lifeguards to 'keep swimming' because they are only allowed to use the beach for exercise. Australia smashes the coronavirus curve: Just 13 people are diagnosed nationwide in a remarkable 24 hours that saw four states and territories record ZERO new cases Australia recorded just 13 new coronavirus cases on Monday, but the Government insisted they would leave the easing of restrictions to medical experts. Queensland recorded no new cases of COVID-19 for the first time since March 9, while in New South Wales - the hardest hit state with a total of 2,963 infections - there were only six new cases diagnosed in the past 24 hours. The Australian Capital Territory reported one new case along with Victoria, while South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia all recorded no new cases. Tasmania had five new infections on Monday from a cluster which broke out among medical workers last week in the state's north-west. There have been 71 coronavirus deaths across the nation, but of the 6,623 total cases recorded, more than 4,200 have recovered. From the peak of nearly 5,000 active cases on April 4, Australia had around 2,400 on Monday. Of those, just 170 are in hospital, with 50 in intensive care across the country. Australia is flattening the coronavirus curve, recording just 13 new coronavirus cases on Monday A woman in a leather jacket is pictured wearing a face mask while shopping on George Street in Sydney on Monday Travel bans, closed borders and business shutdowns have slashed the number of new cases each day by up to 90 per cent in less than a month. Stage three restrictions on gatherings and leaving the house without a valid reason brought in on March 31 are expected to crush the curve further over the remainder of April. The extraordinary new figures come off the back of Australia's high testing rates, which are among the world's best. Just under 20,000 people-per-million have been tested, compared with 11,666 people-per-million in U.S. In the UK, 7,101 people-per-million have been tested and in France that figure is 7,103. Western Australia's first 'zero-case' day in almost six weeks provided more cause for optimism, but authorities there warned against complacency. The state's coronavirus tally remains at 545 cases, 435 of whom have recovered. Premier Mark McGowan says there's very little evidence of community spread in Western Australia, while the state's last remaining cruise ship departed over the weekend. The WA government will consider lifting some restrictions in coming weeks but won't do so unless advice from health authorities is very clear. Mr McGowan said bans on travelling within WA's regions would continue for some time yet while interstate movements would remain restricted for at least six months. 'You don't want to see what's happened in the United States, you don't want to see this madness that's happening over there happening in Western Australia or Australia,' he said This map shows where Australia's 13 new coronavirus cases were recorded on Monday Pedestrians are pictured in Melbourne CBD on Monday with many of them wearing protective face masks Queensland is also inching closer to normality with no new cases of COVID-19 for the first time in more than two months. 'If we can keep this up over the coming weeks, I'm sure that's going to mean we will be able to make some changes and ease some of those restrictions on the population,' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Monday. However, tough social distancing measures remain in place until experts deem it safe to loosen the restrictions. Just 20 people are in Queensland hospitals with COVID-19, with seven of them in intensive care on ventilators in the state's southeast. Of those who have tested positive, 738 patients have recovered, while six Queenslanders have died. The state's chief medical officer, Dr Jeanette Young, said officials are considering which restrictions could be rolled back without leading to a blowout in new cases. 'Of course we've seen in other countries, reductions to near-zero levels of cases and then a second wave of infection,' Health Minister Steven Miles said. 'So we need to be very cautious, we need to keep up our current approach. 'But if we can sustain this, then the end is in sight.' (ANSA) - Rome, April 21 - Aerospace giant Leonardo on Tuesday launched a coronavirus cyber-attack alarm saying COVID-19 could be a "new lure" for such attacks. It said the pharmaceutical industry could be targeted, including via fake contagion maps. She is the former reality star known for her envy-inducing curves. And Ashley James looked incredible in a series of bikini-clad throwback snaps from her pre-lockdown trip to Zanzibar. The ex MIC star, 33, shared the gorgeous snaps to Instagram on Tuesday where she pined for her next solo trip and shared one of her favourite travel stories from 2019. Wow: Ashley James looked incredible in a series of bikini-clad throwback snaps from her pre-lockdown trip to Zanzibar The star displayed her ample cleavage and taut midriff in a sporty leopard print bikini top as she posed in front of the ocean. She drew the eye to her lean legs in a pair of blue tie-side bottoms as she struck a pose. Her blonde tresses were styled in beachy waves while her pretty features were enhanced with a radiant palette of make-up. Ashley shared some snaps from a boat trip she had taken with some new friends during her African break, and in a lengthy caption described the fun Island trip they had gone on. Travel: The ex MIC star, 33, shared the gorgeous snaps to Instagram on Tuesday where she pined for her next solo trip and shared one of her favourite travel stories from 2019 She wrote: 'I've been looking through my travel photos dreaming of the day we get to roam freely again, and wanted to share one of my favourite travel stories with you. 'Last January I went travelling around Zanzibar, which is one of my favourite places I've visited. I booked the flight a week before leaving and made no plans. I travelled clockwise around the island staying at different hostels and meeting different people along the way. 'The most special and random memory from the trip was meeting a man in Stone Town one evening. His name was Colin and he was from Kenya, and he told me that he'd just bought an island and invited me to go and see it with him and his mates the next day. 'I always follow my gut when it comes to safety and travelling, and he was such a big character and I decided that I trusted him. Work it: Her blonde tresses were styled in beachy waves while her pretty features were enhanced with a radiant palette of make-up 'So early the next morning, I felt a little nervous as I set off to meet Colin and his friends at the boat. 'We arrived on the most beautiful deserted island where we swam, caught fish that we cooked and ate with our hands on the floor, picked the freshest watermelons from the ground, and then set off back to Stone Town. 'I never saw Colin or his friends again, like many of the people who I meet travelling, but I think of him and his little island often. 'You don't need loads of money to travel if you stay in hostels. You don't need to be in a relationship to see the world. I love getting away, seeing the world, and connecting with strangers. Fun in the sun: Ashley reminisced about an island trip she had taken with a new friend, Colin The photos comes after Ashley shared a candid post as she explained that although she's found 'a keeper' in her new man, she finds it awkward discussing their relationship. The reality star confessed that she still has 'so much single pride', and will always champion self love overall. Alongside a snap of the pair, Ashley mused: 'I still find it really awkward talking about my relationship. 'I've still got so much single pride and am fiercely independent, and I want to continue to encourage everyone to feel positive if they're single. 'But I'll say this. Before meeting this guy, I worried that perhaps being single for so long I'd become TOO independent to ever be happy with someone. I didn't want another half or someone to complete me, I didn't want a 'best friend', as I already have some.' Awkward: Ashley recently shared a candid post as she explained that although she's found 'a keeper' in her new man, she finds it awkward discussing their relationship Admitting that she was worried she would have to change herself to be with someone else, she continued: 'I worried I'd have to tone down my opinions or compromise who I was to be with someone. 'But I've found someone equally as independent, encouraging, so loving, so good at not taking my s**t, and more importantly someone emotionally available from the get go. 'Someone who supports my insistence on celebrating Valentine's Day with all my friends so I never leave anyone out if they aren't in a relationship.' She continued: 'If I could go back a few years and give myself advice I'd say: stop making an effort with people who are making none. If someone's emotionally unavailable it's their issue and has nothing to do with you or what you're doing. 'Stop trying to save or fix people, that is not your job. That's not love. Save your amazingness for someone who deserves it and in the meantime enjoy your friendships, start new hobbies, learn new skills, travel. 'I'm so happy I got so many years putting 100% of my energy into my friendships, and can continue to do so in an independent relationship. 'Sorry if this is a bit gushing, but credit where credit is due: He's a keeper.' Ashley went public with her boyfriend back in January, after she shared a snap of her beau on Instagram during a holiday in Finland and was asked about him by several fans. Ashley's last serious relationship was with comedian Matt Richardson, the two went through a painful split in 2014. Over the last six years, the DJ has been linked to the likes of David Walliams and Ginuwine. Debenhams workers in Ireland, some with more than 40 years service, have vowed to continue fighting for fair redundancy following the appointment of provisional liquidators to the retail giant. The staff, who are in line for statutory redundancy only, accused the company of using the Covid-19 crisis as a cover to bail out of Ireland and of hoping the travel restrictions would silence staff. And as the first victims of a big retail casualty during the pandemic, they warned other retail workers that they may face a similar battle. They spoke out as they staged protests outside the UK retail companys Irish outlets in Blanchardstown, Tallaght and Blackrock in Dublin and at its Mahon Point and flagship St Patricks St stores in Cork yesterday to send a clear message to the company bosses and liquidators that they are not going to take this lying down. Shop steward at the St Patricks St outlet, Valerie Conlon, said she and her colleagues didnt want to stage a protest during a public health crisis but felt they had no option. They all observed physical distancing guidelines, and workers who could not join them protested at home and posted images on social media. Erica OMahony and former staff take part in a social distance protest outside Debenhams on Patrick Street, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan Ms Conlon, who has 24 years service with the company said: We want to show our employer that we are not going to lie down, that we are not just numbers on a sheet, that we are employees and that we count, and that we are going to fight. Kieran Wallace and Andrew OLeary of KPMG, were appointed liquidators of Debenhams Retail Ireland last week after Debenhams Retail in Britain moved to appoint an administrator just before the Easter weekend, and indicated that it was withdrawing support from its loss-making Irish operation which manages 11 stores and directly employs almost 1,000 people. A further 500 people worked in concessions within the stores. Debenhams has said the stores are not expected to reopen. The two Cork stores account for almost 700 of the lost jobs: 300 Debenhams staff and 160 concessions staff in the St Patricks St outlet, and 150 direct and 60 concessions staff in Mahon Point. Vivienne Regan who part in a social distance protest outside Debenhams on Patrick Street, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan Lord Mayor of Cork John Sheehan, visited the St Patricks St protest to lend his support. Solidarity TD, Mick Barry, also backed the workers and criticised Debenhams for deliberately shutting up shop during a pandemic. Debenhams must not be allowed to simply shut the shops, flee the country, dump the workers on the dole and force the taxpayer to foot the bill. Nor should the Government be allowed to stand idly by and declare that its not their problem, he said. Mandate represents many of the workers, and its general secretary, John Douglas, described the liquidation process as cynical, opportunistic and a hammer blow for workers. This doesnt appear to be a normal compulsory liquidation. If, as we suspect, it has been entered into freely by the directors of the company, there should have been discussions with their workers who built this company and have given them loyal service for decades, he said. Vivienne Regan and former staff members take part in a social distance protest outside Debenhams on Patrick Street, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan We want to see what the finances of the company are, establish whether there is a credible way any of the Irish Debenhams stores could be saved and protect jobs where possible. Siptu organiser, Myles Worth, said staff have not been provided with adequate information concerning the entire liquidation process and have not been provided with any redundancy package. This is completely unacceptable treatment of this loyal workforce, particularly during this period of great uncertainty, he said. The liquidators are expected to update staff over the coming days on the process. Debenhams did not respond to requests for comment. A shadowy Islamist group that has terrorised northern Mozambique killed 52 villagers on April 7 after locals refused to be recruited to their ranks, according to police cited by local media Tuesday. "Recently, the criminals tried to recruit young people to join their ranks, but there was resistance on the part of the youths. This provoked the anger of the criminals, who indiscriminately killed -- cruelly and diabolically -- 52 young people," police spokesman Orlando Mudumane told the state-owned broadcasting service. The killings took place in the village of Xitaxi in of Muidumbe district. Mudumane said the villagers were "massacred", either shot dead or beheaded. Police said they have launched a manhunt for the attackers to bring them to justice. Militants have in recent weeks stepped up attacks as part of a campaign to establish an Islamist caliphate in the gas-rich region, seizing government buildings, blocking roads and briefly hoisting their black-and-white jihadist flag over towns and villages across Cabo Delgado province. For more than two years the jihadists mainly targeted isolated villages, killing more than 900 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). The unrest has forced hundreds of thousands of locals to flee and raised concern among energy giants operating in the gas-rich region. More than 200,000, according to a local Catholic archbishop, Dom Luiz Fernando, have escaped. Some have sought refuge among friends and relatives in the port city of Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado. Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), affiliated with the Islamic State group, has claimed some of the attacks in the region since last year. Since October 2017, when they first staged an attack in the province, the group hid their identities, but in recent weeks, it has unmasked its fighters and openly declaring its goal of turning the gas-rich region into a caliphate "We don't want a government from unbelievers, we want a government from Allah," the group member added, speaking in the local Kimwani language to residents rounded up for a rally. The fighters have since emerged from their hideouts and openly taken control of three Cabo Delgado districts. Locally they are known as Al-Shabaab, although they have no known links to the ruthless jihadist group of that name operating in Somalia. It was on the same day April 7 in Muidumbe, that local sources told AFP that the militants went on a rampage burning bridge construction equipment, and ransacking schools, hospitals and a bank. Before the raid, the attackers used loudhailers to warn villagers "not to run away but stay inside the house," the source said. In the same district the militants recorded a video of themselves addressing locals in the region's local vernacular of Kimwani and Swahili. Military troops and special police units deployed to Cabo Delgado have failed to rein in the insurgency. Last week, police chief Bernardino Rafael downplayed the attacks, but conceded that there had been "criminal incursions". MALVERN Companionship is a virtue. Cherished friends and beloved family inspire; love. As said Shakespeare: Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find. Kindness. Care. Charitable work includes providing care to the elderly. Nationwide and elsewhere, Seniors Helping Seniors provides a service of empowerment to both clients and staff. The vast majority of staff members, known as caregivers, are senior citizens who want to make a difference. And do. In-home caregivers are the unsung heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing consistent, safe care for seniors in the comfort of their homes, said Kayla Bodel, Seniors Helping Seniors spokeswoman. Thus, despite the crisis, many senior caregivers arent backing down. They continue to provide in-home care to clients. And friendships form along the way. Regionally, Pat Hennigan runs the Philadelphia regional franchise of Seniors Helping Seniors with 130 caregivers and a management operational staff. Based in Malvern, the business serves 80 clients in Chester, Montgomery, upper Bucks counties. Three veterans receive assistance from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, he said. Seniors support one another despite breakdown of normal American society Ruled the most vulnerable during the onset of the coronavirus crisis, senior citizens remain in isolation at home or elsewhere. Were being even more cautious than usual. Adding, the service of caregiving is offered to people who really need the help, Hennigan said. A lot of these seniors are isolated, Hennigan said. We might be the only person who they are seeing during the week. He said a lot has changed since the crisis began. Six weeks ago, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on March 13 at the White House. That same day in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf closed all schools statewide. Five days later, March 18, Wolf officially ordered the shutdown of all businesses his administration declared non-essential and non-life-sustaining. Enforcement actions by the Pennsylvania State Police for non-compliant businesses began on March 21.Wolf issued a stay-at-home order for all residents living in the greater Philadelphia region including the residents of Chester County on March 23. By April 1, the governor extended the stay-at-home order to the entire state, impacting life in all 67 counties. Weve had a pullback in business, he said. Not only are some caregivers staying at home, many family members are now able to care for their loved ones themselves. Last week, the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York said citizens should expect a new normal. A lot of people arent going into work. Theyre spending more time with their seniors, Hennigan said. Family support has really increased. Yet many seniors still need caregivers; in fact, now more than ever, given the statewide stay-at-home order. Hennigan encouraged folks from church friends to relatives to reach out to seniors in isolation. In addition to phone calls, send a handwritten letter or card, said caregiver Eleanor Buczala, and better yet, a drawing from grandchildren, friends or others in the community. Seniors enjoy reading and rereading these handwritten notes. She said many seniors under care are not unequipped for computer or cell phone management. Seniors Helping Seniors tips to connect with elderly loved ones under quarantine: Making care packages of handwritten notes with words of encouragement, Vitamin-C, paper products, cleaning products and comfort foods, the more nutritious, the better; Organize window walks with your local community to stop by seniors homes and wave or hold up signs outside; Hold regular video calls on Zoom/FaceTime/Skype, but send an easy-to-follow instruction guide ahead of the call or talk through how to use the software over the phone since unfortunately not all seniors are tech savvy; Work a video call lesson into your daily schedule of learning with your children. Seniors have plenty of great insights and lessons to share; Offer to run errands including for groceries, remedies and other necessities. Founded in 1998, there are more than 130 Seniors Helping Seniors franchises worldwide. When seniors realize they can help other seniors as caregivers, it is an inspirational moment, said Howard Algeo, Seniors Helping Seniors director of business development and training for the greater Philadelphia region. The greatest challenge seniors face is isolation and loneliness, Algeo said. Those are things that really are pretty easy to resolve with a telephone call or a FaceTime. Of missing his own loved ones: I havent seen my grandchildren in at least a couple of weeks, longer, right? But my daughter and son-in-law drive by our place and we wave at them, he said. Drive by, honk the horn, wave out the window, Algeo said. Stay in touch. Call them. He said, The human voice is such a great comfort in this time. Its really important. Hennigan concurred. Seniors really appreciate any interaction, Hennigan said. It can really make their day or their week. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday requested Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to cooperate with the centre to combat the corona crisis and avoid confrontation. My appeal to all: Support government @MamataOfficial to contain and combat corona curse. My request to CM Mamata Banerjee to synergetically cooperate with the Central Team @PMOIndia to wean away the miseries of people. Cooperation and not confrontation between Centre and State must, Dhankhar tweeted. According to the data published by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 392 Covid-19 positive cases have been reported from West Bengal out of which 12 have died and 73 have been cured. A total of 18,601 confirmed cases have been reported in India including 590 deaths. 3,252 people, who were Covid-19 positive, have recovered or migrated, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Dover (DOV) said, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting negative impact, the company has suspended its prior guidance for full year 2020 revenue growth and adjusted EPS. Dover plans to reinstate guidance for the remainder of the year with its second quarter earnings announcement. For the first-quarter, on an adjusted basis, adjusted EPS was $1.39, up 12% from prior year. Revenue was $1.7 billion, a decline of 4%, or down 3% organic. Dover's CEO, Richard Tobin, said: 'As we expected, Q1 top-line was weaker year-over-year given a challenging comparable period, which was exacerbated by the pandemic-related challenges, particularly in China and Italy, and increasingly difficult trading conditions. Bookings were flat year-over-year in the quarter yielding an increased backlog compared to the same time last year, providing some support ahead of what we expect to be a difficult second quarter.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Posted on: April 20, 2020 8:24 AM [ACNS, by Staff Writer] Christians from the Diocese of Daejeon in the Anglican Church of Korea are sending a package of aid to the Episcopal Churchs Diocese of New York. Members of the diocese collected 5,000 face masks, 3,000 bottles of hand sanitiser, and 3,000 sets of protective clothing. They were collected in Holy Week, as preparations were underway to turn the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine in New York into a field hospital. Those plans have been put on hold as health officials in the city of New York say that the extra emergency beds are no longer needed. On Easter Monday (13 April) the aid package was blessed during a service at Wonseongdong Cathedral in Cheonan before being shipped to the United States. The living Jesus Christ keeps telling us to love each other regardless of size, race or any differences among us, the Primate of the Anglican Church of Korea, Archbishop Moses Nagjun Yoo, said. This is the moment that the Word works out through the two connected Churches in Korea and the US. . . Warmest hearts and lots of prayers go together with the hope of resurrected life of Jesus Christ to overcome Covid-19 for all in the package of aid. Archbishop Moses said that it was a reversal of the usual pattern of aid being sent to Korea from the United States. In the service of blessing on Easter Monday, he told the congregation that through this blessing prayer, we are going to dedicate this world to God. It is Gods, and it is a place to serve God. In the meantime, it is a place to remember and repent of turning away from God, and to re-establish a relationship with God. Its amazing that our smallest diocese sends the aid to the largest diocese of New York, he said. This is like Saint Paul, the smallest of the apostles, working with God's favour see 1 Corinthians 15:10. Today, God uses Daejeon Diocese as a tool of grace to give the same role as the apostle Paul. Elsewhere, the Internal Province of Ghana in the Church of the Province of West Africa has donated 60,000 Ghanaian Cedi (GHS, approximately 8,500 GBP) to a national Covid-19 Trust Fund established by Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The funds were presented to the Presidents Chief of Staff, Frema Opare, by the Bishop of Accra, Daniel Torto, alongside a delegation which included Archdeacons Dr Joseph Lankwei Lamptey of Accra East and John Antonio Tello Nelson of Accra West; and Dr George Kotei Neequaye, the Dean of the Cathedral Church of the Most Holy Trinity. Bishop Daniel Torto hands a cheque to the President of Ghanas Chief of Staff, Frema Opare. Photo: Ghanas Ministry of Information At the handover ceremony, Bishop Daniel offered prayers for the nation. In England, a church in the Somerset city of Bath has been temporarily converted into a production line making face shields for use within the UKs National Health Service (NHS). In the first three weeks of operation, more than 16,000 face masks have been sent to NHS hospitals across the country; and thousands more are on order. The scheme was established by Edward Chudleigh, a former engineer with the firm Dyson, to deal with the increased need for personal protective equipment (PPE). He began by producing them in small numbers in his basement, but the new assembly line at St Michaels Without the Walls in the centre of Bath is churning out one mask every minute. Washington, April 21 : Two top House Democrats have said they were calling for a probe into the comments made by US Attorney General William Barr regarding President Donald Trump's decision to fire Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community. In a letter to the watchdog of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York said that they want an investigation into whether recent public statements by Barr regarding Atkinson violated applicable DOJ policies and rules of professional conduct, reports Xinhua news agency. Schiff and Nadler wrote that, Barr, in an interview with Fox News earlier this month, "blatantly mischaracterized" Atkinson's conduct and the DOJ's own actions relating to the complaint filed last summer by an intelligence community whistleblower and misrepresented the DOJ's legal opinion concerning the whistleblower complaint. "Public confidence in our system of justice depends on the integrity, fairness, and impartiality of DOJ's leadership. "It is, therefore, imperative that the Attorney General be held to the same high standard expected of all Department personnel, particularly in matters involving the President's own interests," they added. Trump fired Atkinson earlier this month, citing his decision last year to inform Congress of the existence of the whistleblower complaint alleging that he sought to pressure the Ukrainian government to launch investigations that could politically benefit him. The White House and the DOJ blocked Atkinson from sharing the complaint with Congress but public pressure surrounding the episode prompted the administration to share the details with lawmakers in September 2019. A Democratic-led impeachment inquiry into Trump began shortly after that. Barr, in the Fox News interview, said that Atkinson "was obliged to follow the interpretation of the Department of Justice and he ignored it", claiming that "the President was correct in firing him". In Monday's letter, Schiff and Nadler said Barr's recent remarks "are part of a disturbing pattern of misrepresenting facts and falsely alleging misconduct by other government officials in order to defend the President's own misconduct". Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz defended Atkinson's actions surrounding the whistleblower complaint after Trump's decision to remove him. But Trump called Atkinson a "disgrace" and argued that he "did a terrible job". Meat Processor JBS USA Closes Minnesota Pork Facility Indefinitely Due to CCP Virus Meat processor JBS USA announced on Monday that it will close its pork production facility in Worthington, Minnesota, until further notice amid the CCP virus pandemic. At least 26 workers at the facility have been infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, reported the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The Worthington pork facility has more than 2,000 employees and processes about 20,000 hogs per day, according to the company. President of JBS USA Pork Bob Krebs said that the decision was not made lightly. We recognize JBS Worthington is critical to local hog producers, the U.S. food supply, and the many businesses that support the facility each and every day, he said in a statement. The facility will continue to operate over the next two days with less staff to make sure that existing products in the facility can be relocated to support the food supply. The company said it will continue to pay employees while the plant is closed. In partnership with the state of Minnesota and Nobles County, the company will advise its Worthington team members to follow Minnesota Governor Tim Walzs stay at home order until returning to work, a statement from the company read. Walz recently extended the statewide stay at home order to May 4. Walz said that some JBS employees have relatives who had worked at the Smithfield Foods pork processing facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The facility on April 12 announced it would close indefinitely and for at least 14 days. More than 700 employees at this facility have contracted the CCP virus. The Epoch Times reported on April 15 that the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls was visited by representatives from its CCP-tied parent company, WH Group, about one month before March 26 when the first CCP virus case was confirmed there. Three employees told The Epoch Times that the company offered workers a $500 bonus to keep working after the plant had its first confirmed case. One employee said he or she had informed management multiple times about feeling ill, but was told to keep working. The worker eventually tested positive for COVID-19. JBS USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brazilian company JBS SA, which is the worlds largest processor of fresh beef and pork. JBS USA operates more than 60 meat, poultry and prepared foods facilities across the United States. Minnesota officials said on Friday that there are 30 confirmed CCP virus cases in Worthington. Across Minnesota, at least 2,356 infections and 134 deaths were recorded as of Monday. JBS USAs Worthington facility is the third JBS USA plant to temporarily close. The companys beef production facility in Souderton, Pennsylvania, reopened on Monday, while its beef production facility in Greeley, Colorado, remains closed and wont reopen until at least April 24. At least four workers at the plant in Greeley have died from COVID-19. Other deaths have been recorded at other meat processing plants across the country. In Colorado, a worker at a Cargill beef plant in Fort Morgan has died. In Iowa, at least 148 workers have contracted COVID-19 and two have died at a Tyson beef plant in Columbus Junction. Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report. By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 25 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on April 21. The Armenian armed forces were using large-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE) and why it is important. To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand McBride plc (LON:MCB). Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors money. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments. Check out our latest analysis for McBride How Do You Calculate Return On Equity? The formula for return on equity is: Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) Shareholders' Equity So, based on the above formula, the ROE for McBride is: 11% = UK6.5m UK61m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019). The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every 1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of 0.11. Does McBride Have A Good ROE? One simple way to determine if a company has a good return on equity is to compare it to the average for its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. You can see in the graphic below that McBride has an ROE that is fairly close to the average for the Household Products industry (11%). LSE:MCB Past Revenue and Net Income April 21st 2020 So while the ROE is not exceptional, at least its acceptable. While at least the ROE is not lower than the industry, its still worth checking what role the company's debt plays as high debt levels relative to equity may also make the ROE appear high. If true, then it is more an indication of risk than the potential. Our risks dashboardshould have the 4 risks we have identified for McBride. The Importance Of Debt To Return On Equity Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same. Story continues McBride's Debt And Its 11% ROE McBride does use a high amount of debt to increase returns. It has a debt to equity ratio of 2.09. While its ROE is pretty respectable, the amount of debt the company is carrying currently is not ideal. Debt does bring extra risk, so it's only really worthwhile when a company generates some decent returns from it. Summary Return on equity is one way we can compare its business quality of different companies. A company that can achieve a high return on equity without debt could be considered a high quality business. All else being equal, a higher ROE is better. But ROE is just one piece of a bigger puzzle, since high quality businesses often trade on high multiples of earnings. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So I think it may be worth checking this free report on analyst forecasts for the company. If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. Ten Western European banking groups have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings amid the coronavirus outbreak, and the agency has given 95% of the lenders in its regional portfolio a "negative" outlook in its latest review. The downgraded banks include the Cooperative Bank, Close Brothers and Metro Bank in the U.K., Commerzbank in Germany, Sweden's Swedbank, Gruppo Bancario Iccrea in Italy and Credit Europe Bank in the Netherlands and banking groups in Cyprus, Spain and Luxembourg. Fitch said in its latest review of its rated Western European banks on Monday that the downgrades mainly relate to companies for which the changed economic outlook affects action that was planned to improve profitability or capitalization. They also include banks already vulnerable, for example because of weak profitability, or a weaker competitive position. In total, Fitch took 116 rating actions on the region's banking groups in its April review, with the bulk of the rating actions revising their outlooks to "negative" or giving banks a "watch negative" rating. The revisions come amid the coronavirus pandemic that has shutdown the majority of Europe's economy as the region struggles to contain the virus that has now infected hundreds of thousands of people. Under Fitch's current Global Economic Outlook base case, global gross domestic product will drop by 1.9% in 2020, with euro zone GDP declining by 4.2%, before recovering in 2021. "We really see this as something that's beyond a normal business cycle and this triggered our review of the Western European banks," Christian Scarafia, senior director at Fitch Ratings, told CNBC Tuesday. "And the fact that we now have over 95% of our Western European bank ratings on negative outlooks indicates that we see downside risks and we expect an elevated number of downgrades going forward and this really speaks to risks, to asset quality primarily, to earnings and ultimately, to capitalization." By Associated Press LONDON: Britain is marking Queen Elizabeth II's 94th birthday with silence Tuesday, as the nation in lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic forgoes the usual gun salutes and ringing of bells. With thousands dead amid the outbreak, the monarch decided that the celebratory display of military firepower would not be appropriate. Nor will there be a celebratory peal of bells at Westminster Abbey, as the church where the queen was married and crowned is currently closed. The royal family took to social media to share images of Elizabeth as she marks the occasion but in keeping with social distancing rules, there will be no visits. The queen will mark the day with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, 98, at Windsor Castle in Berkshire. London, April 21 : The UK government on Tuesday announced that the human trial of a potential COVID-19 candidate vaccine being developed by researchers at University of Oxford will begin from Thursday. Scientists at the University of Oxford last week promised a super-fast vaccine during a virtual press conference, saying the vaccine will be available by September. According to lead researcher Professor Sarah Gilbert, their 'ChAdOx1' vaccine can work against the coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock, during the daily press conference at 10 Downing Street, said the government will provide 20 million pounds to the Oxford research team to help fund their clinical trials, with a further 22.5 million pounds for researchers at Imperial College London, reports The Independent. "The team have accelerated that trials process, working with the regulator the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency), who have been brilliant. As a result, I can announce that the vaccine from the Oxford project will be trialled in people from this Thursday," said Hancock. In normal course of time, a vaccine takes anytime between 12-18 months. What probably separates ChAdOx1 - known as recombinant viral vector vaccine - from the rest is the time it promises to take in order to deliver mass quantities. Professor Andrew Pollard, a member of the Oxford team, told Sky News: "If you had a sailing wind and absolutely nothing goes wrong in all of that complex technical process and you have all the facilities available, you could have millions of doses by the autumn of this year". In late March, Professor Gilbert received 2.2 million pounds as funding from the UK government for vaccine development and trials. Researchers enrolled over 500 healthy volunteers to test if their vaccine can prevent the novel coronavirus. The vaccine is an adenovirus vaccine vector and was developed at Oxford's Jenner Institute. Adenoviral vectors are a very well-studied vaccine type, having been used safely in thousands of participants, from 1 week to 90 years of age, in vaccines targeting over 10 different diseases. According to Hancock, in the long run "the best way to defeat coronavirus is through a vaccine". "This is a new disease, this is uncertain science, but I'm certain that we will throw everything we've got at developing a vaccine," he added. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) also pitched for the Oxford vaccine on Sunday, saying 'ChAdOX1' is the frontrunner in the race to take on the deadly COVID-19 virus. The Volvo Group and Daimler Truck have announced plans for a collaboration focusing on hydrogen fuel-cell technology, in the latest example of major transportation firms taking steps to push the technology into the mainstream. In an announcement Tuesday the two firms said they had established a 50/50 joint venture, looking to "develop, produce and commercialize fuel cell systems for heavy-duty vehicle applications and other use cases." While the majority of road vehicles still use gasoline or diesel, the mix is changing, with electric and hybrid models becoming increasingly popular. There are hopes in the industry that hydrogen fuel cells not yet widely used in vehicles will prove to be a useful tool when it comes to reducing transport emissions and boosting air quality within cities. The fuel cell combines hydrogen with oxygen, generating electricity, as well as water and heat as by-products. For its part, the European Commission has described hydrogen as an energy carrier with "great potential for clean, efficient power in stationary, portable and transport applications." "Electrification of road transport is a key element in delivering the so-called Green Deal, a carbon neutral Europe and ultimately a carbon neutral world," Martin Lundstedt, the Volvo Group's president and CEO, said in a statement. Volvo Group makes trucks, buses and construction equipment, not cars. "Using hydrogen as a carrier of green electricity to power electric trucks in long-haul operations is one important part of the puzzle, and a complement to battery electric vehicles and renewable fuels," Lundstedt added. The EU released details of its "European Green Deal" last December, describing it as a "roadmap" to make the bloc's economy sustainable. One of the plan's key aims is for the EU to become climate neutral by the year 2050. The automotive giants noted that while they would be partners in the venture, they would remain competitors in all other areas of business. They added that by working together, development costs would be reduced. "In the context of the current economic downturn cooperation has become even more necessary in order to meet the Green Deal objectives within a feasible time-frame," they added. There are some challenges when it comes to producing the hydrogen needed for fuel cells. As the U.S. Department of Energy has noted, hydrogen does not usually "exist by itself in nature" and needs to be generated from compounds containing it. A number of sources from fossil fuels and solar, to geothermal can produce hydrogen. If renewable sources are used in its production, it's dubbed "green hydrogen". The technology is already being deployed in a number of scenarios. London, for instance, is already home to a number of hydrogen buses, while European railway manufacturer Alstom's hydrogen-fuel-cell train started running in September 2018. Major automobile manufacturers that have dipped into the hydrogen fuel cell market include Toyota and Honda, while smaller firms, such as Wales-based Riversimple, are also developing cars that use the technology. One of the five suspects in a Spotsylvania County triple homicide is a former in-law of one of the victims, authorities said. The Sheriffs Office last week announced the arrests of five Philadelphia men in connection with the May 2019 slayings of 39-year-old Michael Coleman, 34-year-old Rachel Ozuna and 14-year-old Kyrrus Ozuna, Rachel Ozunas son. The three victims were discovered the morning of May 29 inside a home in the 8300 block of Arlene Drive by Kyrrus father, who went to the home after being unable to contact his son. The victims all had their throats cut, a medical examiner determined. A toddler and the infant child of the adult victims were found in the home unattended but unharmed. Authorities would not discuss the motive for the slaying, but Sheriffs Capt. Liz Scott said the one of the suspects, 26-year-old Montel Jaleek Wilson, is the nephew of Colemans ex-wife. Colemans connection to the other suspects is unclear, but Scott said he did live in Philadelphia at some point. A former member of the parliament from Telangana and entrepreneur Konda Vishweshwar Reddy has announced the development of a new ventilator, which is cost effective and can be manufactured rapidly, with plans to launch it in India and other countries in three to four weeks. Reddy, managing director of Stephan Design and Egineering Ltd and AVV Turbines Ltd, said that the ICo-Vent, the new product, priced at between Rs 40,000 to Rs 1,40,000 depending upon the model, does not have costly parts which are used in the products being sold in the market at present. The UK, Canada and ... Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers appointed Olha Buslavets as acting Minister of Energy and the Environment, having dismissed the first Deputy Minister Vitaly Shubin, who, after the resignation of Minister Oleksiy Orzhel, served as an acting Minister. It happened quite unexpectedly. David Arakhamia, the chairman of the Servant of the People faction, announced that the Verkhovna Rada would appoint the Minister of Energy without an acting prefix. "We will have a new minister on Thursday. I cant say the name though," Arakhamia said on the air of one of the TV channels. He noted that the crisis in the energy sector requires a responsible person to head the ministry in order to make decisions. Andriy Gerus, MP from the Servant of People, corroborated the fact that the Rada might consider the candidacy of a minister for a key agency in the energy sector. This might be Olha Buslavets or Oleg Seminsky, he said. But the question of the appointment of the Minister of Energy in the Parliament was not raised. Instead, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed acting as Olha Buslavets. Why is there so much uncertainty around this ministry and there is still no full-fledged minister? Buslavets vs Seminsky The serious battles around the appointment of the Minister of Energy lasted for almost a month and a half. The surname Buslavets figured from the very beginning. Voting on her appointment to the post of Minister of was supposed to take place on March 30, but this did not happen: at the last moment this issue was removed from the agenda. Parliamentary Speaker Dmytro Razumkov said that this happened at the request of President Zelensky, who sent a corresponding letter. April 13, Arakhamia said on television that the Ministry of Energy will remain with the interim for the time being. He said that an appointment immediately through parliament is impractical, the probationary period should be given (?). Interviewed by 112.ua experts believe that the parliament just would not gather enough votes to appoint Buslavets. Her candidacy did not suit oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who retained influence in the Verkhovna Rada. Head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on energy and housing and communal issues Andriy Gerus, who might be considered to be a person from Kolomoiskys orbit, did not support Buslavets. On March 30 (the day when the Parliament was to be approved by Buslavets as a minister), Gerus wrote on Facebook that "he will not be able to press the green button while voting on the candidacy of the Minister of Energy." He explained that he considered Buslavets to be involved in approving the Rotterdam + import coal pricing formula, which was allegedly beneficial to oligarch Akhmetov. Our sources say that unofficially on the sidelines of Buslavets has the nickname "Bee," hinting on the yellow and black colors of the corporate symbols of Akhmetovs DTEK company. The Nashi Groshi outlet, referring to the draft government decree and an explanatory note to it, reported that in 2019, Buslavets was one of the developers of the draft Cabinets decree, who was asked to provide DTEK Vostokenergo LLC with a gas price lower than the Naftogaz sale price to the public and other protected consumers (PSO) at 46-69%. Earlier, at the roundtable Risks and Benefits of the New Electricity Market, Buslavets openly supported thermal generation (the sphere of influence of Akhmetov), Energoatom reported. At the same time, Buslavets does not directly indicate a connection with the oligarch. Buslavets worked almost all the time at the Ministry of Energy - from April 2005 to February 10, 2020. She served as CEO of the Directorate of Energy Markets, was a member of the supervisory board of Ukrhidroenergo state-owned company. There is no public evidence on Oleg Seminskys connection with Kolomoisky, as expert circles assure. "Oleg Seminskys candidacy appeared after Geruss visit to Zelensky. So far I see him as a candidate who is sailing in Geruss channel, and this is the best litmus test," said Oleksiy Kucherenko, First Deputy Head of the parliamentary committee on energy. Seminsky is a member of the Servant of the People faction, Geruss deputy in the Committee on Energy and Housing. From 2003 to 2011 Seminsky was the CEO of the Naftogazvydobuvannia production company, which holds a license for a large oil and gas sector. In the spring of 2013, the DTEK company of Rinat Akhmetov bought a 25% stake in this company from Nikolai Rudkovsky. The year before, in early 2012, Seminsky was kidnapped. In his own words, he was held captive for more than three years. And after returning, the main beneficiary of Naftogazvydobuvannia Rinat Akhmetov refused to accept him back to work. In an interview with Ukrainska Pravda, Seminsky stated that he considered Rudkovsky to be the customer of his abduction. Also, according to him, "the current beneficiary of the company (Akhmetov) stands behind this." Maneuver between Kolomoisky and Akhmetov According to 112.ua, Ivan Plachkov (in February 2005 - August 2006 the Minister of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine, the former head of Kyivenergo), Oleg Dubina (from December 24, 2007, to 2 March 2010 - Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz), as well as Deputy General Director of Ukrtransnafta Andriy Pasishnyk. The problem was that the candidates who suited Akhmetov did not suit Kolomoisky, and vice versa, our sources say. No wonder: both oligarchs have interests in the energy sector, but they are often in conflict. Whereas Kolomoisky, who is interested in cheap electricity for his ferroalloy plants, arranged for import-lowering electricity imports from Russia and Belarus (was opened thanks to the Gerus amendment), then Akhmetov, who controls thermal generation, is interested in selling electricity at inflated prices. Akhmetov is against importing coal from Russia, which was recently taken under the control of Kolomoiskys structure (which supplied this coal to Centrenergo, a state-owned thermal power station that fell into the orbit of the influence of the oligarch). At the same time, Akhmetovs mines suffered losses and were forced to send employees to a forced downtime. Kolomoisky launched a real war with the "green generation", where Akhmetov owns a large share of renewable energy generation. By the way, there is information that Vitaly Shubin, who was dismissed by the Cabinet of Ministers, who has been acting as acting in the ministry since March 10 (after Orzhels resignation), was the man who arranged for Kolomoisky. He closed his eyes to everything. It will not be easy for the new minister A whole pool of problems has accumulated in the energy sector. The current situation in the energy sector is not just critical, but more critical than ever, and a full-fledged, profile minister is simply needed to resolve it, Kucherenko emphasized. Everything related to any ministry is important, especially during the crisis that we are currently experiencing. As for the Ministry of Energy, its especially important. Moreover, the position of the head of the department is still vacant. A new minister should be appointed in the near future, Oleg Ustenko, an adviser to the president, member of the Supervisory Board of the Blazer International Foundation, emphasized. According to Ustenko, there are a number of tasks that must be resolved immediately: The agenda includes issues related to domestic gas production, which ensures energy independence of Ukraine. So far, not a single PSA has been concluded with companies that are winners in domestic gas production. Slowing down in this direction, in a situation when, due to the crisis as a whole, decreases the interest of financially resourceful investors in the direction of gas production, means that we can miss the chance, which then we risk not at all in the foreseeable future. The issue of green energy is urgent and requires immediate resolution. There are issues related to the supply of gas to the population and regulation of this direction (opening of the gas market for the population). A lot of problematic issues have accumulated in the coal industry. And these issues should not be decided by the president in terms of immediate intervention as a crisis manager, but by a profile minister who must respond promptly to problems in the sector as a whole and in the coal industry." As 112.ua reported, the situation with the growing crisis of defaults, which caused Energoatom to be in a difficult situation, also requires immediate resolution. By the way, after the dismissal at the initiative of ex-minister Orzhel from the post of president of atomic generation Yuri Nedashkovsky in less than six months, the company has already changed two leaders. As a result of debt for electricity supplied by the Guaranteed Buyer State Enterprise, 147 million USD cannot provide for the purchase and export of nuclear fuel, which affects national security issues. Experts warn that if the situation in the industry is not improved, it will face a deep crisis, which will not be easy to get out of. Responsibility for this situation, as a result, will be assigned to President Zelensky. Maybe Im overly categorical, but Im trying to say that President Zelensky now bears almost full responsibility for the situation in the energy sector. Although, he probably does not suspect this. After all, it was he who became the object of manipulation by his inner circle, and without suspecting it, he became responsible for the decisions formed by his decrees and the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities, and for the failures of Naftogaz, Yulia Kovaliv, deputy head of his office of the President, is a member of the Supervisory Board, Kucherenko notes. Here are the stocks in the news today. (Image: Shutterstock) Infosys Q4 | Profit falls 3.1% to Rs 4,321 cr, revenue rises 0.8% to Rs 23,267 cr, company suspends FY21 guidance. (Image: Reuters) TCS | Amway partners with TCS for strategic IT operations transformation. (Image: TCS) NLC India | Company raised Rs 1,000 cr via issuance of commercial papers to SBI for standalone business operation requirements. (Image: nlcindia.com) Infibeam Avenues | Company signed a binding agreement for acquisition of US-based IT firm AI Fintech Inc. (Image: ia.ooo) Precision Wires | Company received permission to restart manufacturing operations at Silvassa plant. (Image: precisionwires.com) Heidelbergcement India | Company resumed partial operations in some manufacturing units. (Image: mycemco.com) Excel Industries | Company's manufacturing operations have restarted and will be ramped up gradually. (Image: excelind.co.in) Sicagen India | Board on April 23 to consider voluntary delisting of equity shares from NSE. (Image: sicagen.com) Black Rose | Company resumes operations at its plant in Jhagadia, Gujarat. (Image: blackrosechemicals.com) Aspira Pathlab | Ravindra Desai resigns as Chief Executive Officer. (Image: aspiradiagnostics.com) Udaipur Cement Works | Company's plant at Shripati Nagar, Udaipur is operational and cement dispatches resumed. (Image: Reuters) Usha Martin | Company resumes partial operations at manufacturing facility at Ranchi, Jharkhand. (Image: ushamartin.com) KEC International | Company resumes operations at few of its factories in India in a phased manner. (Image: kecrpg.com) Amara Raja Batteries | Operation at manufacturing facilities resumes partially on a limited scale. (Image: amararaja.com) Everest Industries | Limited operations resume at plants in Somnathpur (Odisha), Lakhmapur (Maharashtra) & Bhagwanpur (Uttarakhand). (Image: everestind.com) Tata Elxsi Q4 | Profit rises to Rs 82.08 cr versus Rs 71.29 cr; revenue increases to Rs 438.88 cr versus Rs 405.1 cr YoY. (Image: Reuters) Nitin Spinners | Plant operations at Hamirgarh (Bhilwara) & Bhanwaria Kalan (Chittorgarh) units partly resumed. (Image: nitinspinners.com) ACC | Company is expected to report more than a 10 percent decline in Q1CY20 profit due to fall in revenue and operating income. Revenue could also fall more than 10 percent as volumes were affected in March due to lockdown announced by the government to control the spread of COVID-19, but may be supported by higher realisation. Larsen & Toubro | Company said it has raised Rs 1,250 crore through issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs). JMC Projects | Companys all four road SPVs have resumed the collection of user fee at all fee plazas on National Highways. Bandhan Bank: Caladium Investment, an affiliate of GIC, Singapores Sovereign Wealth Fund raises stake in the bank to 4.5% in March quarter from 3.39% in December quarter. GOLDENDALE, Wash., April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the state of Washington was legislating its shutdown of businesses statewide, Auscrete Corporation (ASCK) was on the cusp of the much-anticipated launch of their new manufacturing facility. All the new equipment they received has been installed and subjected to limited operations for trial purposes with the end product being Auscretes proprietary hybrid cement construction panels tested to the highest level of quality and safety standards. As a matter of fact, when the legislation was being put into place, ASCK was in talks with two different media companies regarding an internet radio interview concerning the start of production. The company has filed all the necessary paperwork for the Governments CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program, this will allow ASCK to maintain its cash reserves, while utilizing the Government funding to meet payroll during this time, as payroll has doubled in 12 months from 3 to 6 people. ASCKs bank thinks the approval and funding could happen any day soon. However, employees will look to work remotely from their respective homes. Especially, in continued talks with developers that have inquired regarding the ASCK products. As the current economic shutdown ends in the near future, the need for affordable housing will be greater than before the pandemic caused the shutdown. This production downtime has given ASCK more time to discuss and negotiate with developers and contractors, so everything will be in place and ready to go for a smooth launch to fill orders. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders, the average cost to build a timber home is $155-$160 per square foot. When using the ASCK insulated hybrid panels, a developer can see that cost per square foot drop to the $110-$115 range. And that is for a far superior product, one that is energy efficient, will last centuries, not just years and has probably the lowest maintenance cost per annum on the market today. The end product is not only fire-retardant, but one that is hypoallergenic, this characteristic of the ASCK product will probably also come more into focus as people move past the current pandemic. Story continues While some will think back to the most recent debacle in the economy in 2008, thats human nature. ASCK management is quick to make the point that this time the economic slow-down looks to be short lived and there will not be a mass of foreclosures, with a glut of homes on the market. Before this economic shutdown, there were not five million people with subprime mortgages that they could not really afford. While there are a handful of housing bubbles out there across the nation, it is nothing like 2008. Presently the prices in most local markets are in balance with local income, unlike before which precipitated the domino effect. Before the pandemic of 2020 caused by the COVID-19 virus, which led to this shutdown, the economic outlook in the USA was firing on all cylinders. Better than it had in decades. This shutdown of the economy had no underlying financial linchpin to cause the disruption, it was caused by an aberration of a contagious virus. Currently the USA workforce that was enjoying the benefits of that robust economy, are pent up feeling frustrated and looking forward to getting back into the workforce with full vigor. Management of ASCK confidently feels once the wheels start rolling again on the economy, it will be like opening the gates at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby. When the bugler plays and that gate opens, Auscrete Corporation (ASCK) is poised and in position for a great showing. For more regular updates be sure to follow the Auscrete Blog at AuscreteBlog.com . SAFE HARBOR Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by their use of forward-looking terminology such as may, expect, intend, estimate, anticipate, believe and continue (or the negative forms thereof) or similar terminology. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results or those implied by such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Auscrete Corporation assumes no obligation and has no intention of updating these forward-looking statements, and it has no obligation to update or correct information prepared by third parties that is not paid for by Auscrete Corporation. Investors are encouraged to review Auscrete Corporations public filings on SEC.gov and otcmarkets.com, including its unaudited and audited financial statements and its OTC markets filings, which contain general business information about the Companys operations, results of operations and risks associated with the Company and its operations. For more information, please contact: In the middle of a global health crisis, one member of the Swedish royal family stepped up to help relieve the workload of medical workers in the hospital. Princess Sofia Hellqvist ditched the tiara in exchange for a pair of scrubs to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The 35-year-old wife of Prince Carl Philip decided to join the frontline after completing an intensive online training program. She is now serving as a nurse staff at the Sophiahemmet Hospital in Stockholm. In an Instagram post, the said hospital confirmed that the Duchess of Varmland is indeed working with them and os now an instant healthcare staff. "Princess Sofia is not only Sophia's honorary chair but now also works with us," Sophiahemmet Hospital wrote, alongside a candid photo of the Duchess while wearing her new uniform. The Princess paired her uniform with white sneakers while her hair is neatly tied on a ponytail. She also wore an ID tag with only "Sofia" on it. "This is after having completed our basic nursing education, which has been developed to relieve the now severely strained healthcare staff," the statement added. Princess Sofia also revealed her new role after sharing a picture of her latest work attire and essentials in an Instagram post last week. "Last week, I went through a medical education with a major in health, care, and care at @sophiahemmet," the Duchess wrote. According to the former model and reality show contestant, after carefully studying the emergency response, she is now working in the hospital's care unit together with her fellow newly trained colleagues. "I support and relieve the care staff with various tasks, including care of patients and cleaning," she added. Princess Sofia explained that the Sophiahemmet Hospital made its resources available to the Stockholm region, making 40 employees work in intensive care and emergency hospitals. Even as a newbie in the medical field, the mother-of-two shared how this experience makes it "extremely rewarding" for her, especially now that medical frontliners are very much needed. Over the past few weeks, since the coronavirus hit Sweden, the hospitals in the country have been overwhelmed with the increasing number of patients. Because of this, hospitals like Sophiahemmet launched an emergency training program and catered almost 80 people willing to complete a one-week crash course to relieve the frontliners' workload. In a statement released to People, the Royal Court said that Princess Sofia wants to get personally involved in saving lives, so she decided to volunteer as a healthcare worker. "In the crisis, we find ourselves in, the Princess wants to get involved and make a contribution as a voluntary worker to relieve the large workload of health care professionals," the statement reads. The same report clarified that Princess Sofia will not be working directly with COVID-19 patients, but will only serve as support staff for doctors and nurses. "They can disinfect equipment, do shifts in the kitchen and cleaning," a hospital spokesperson explained. During her first day at work, the Princess assisted some hospital staff with non-medical related tasks. For more than a month, Bridge City mom Samantha Hinesley has stayed at home with her three young children trying to fight off an antsy feeling amid the coronavirus pandemic. Her husband is currently working in Florida, leaving her with the responsibility of keeping the children entertained. Backyard volleyball games, jumps on the trampoline and bike rides down the street soon got old. She needed something new. On Monday, Hinesley got the much-needed reprieve from quarantine life when Texas state parks reopened for day use. Her kids had been begging to go to the beach for weeks. Now, they were finally allowed. This is their first time getting out of the house since about March 10, so they were pretty excited, Hinesley said as she watched her kids play on the shore at Sea Rim State Park. The reopening of state parks across Texas marks the first of Gov. Greg Abbotts broader efforts to reopen the states economy as a whole, which also include authorizing retail to-go at closed business on April 24. Other similar orders are expected to be announced by Abbott later this week. New park restrictions such as a mask requirement and group limitations of only five people have been put in place, but any form of reopening beats the alternative, visitors said Monday. As we navigate through these challenging times, it is essential that outdoor experiences and opportunities are available for Texas families, said Carter Smith, executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. We have been diligently working with our partners in local communities across the state to help safeguard our state park visitors, volunteers and staff when they return to Texas state parks. According to Smith, TPWD put the time off to good use, making sure parks were in prime shape when they reopened. Sanitizing all public areas was of the utmost importance so parks could reopen safely. During the temporary closure, our state parks team has been cleaning and sanitizing park facilities, addressing routine maintenance projects, and ensuring requisite safety protocols are in place to ensure visitors have the best possible experience, Smith said. TPWD spokesperson Stephanie Garcia said Mondays official number of visitors statewide was not available, as the department tracks visitors on only a monthly basis. Garcia said the department opened its park reservation portal Sunday afternoon in an effort to streamline any potential uptick in traffic. State parks in Southeast Texas werent overly crowded Monday. It was a welcomed surprise for Spring resident Rachelle Zamarripa, who brought her husband and two children to Sea Rim for a relaxing day at the beach. They wanted a place where they could enjoy the outdoors while still social distancing. The beach at Sea Rim provided exactly that, with visitors scattered sparsely at various spots along the shore. Had the beach been packed with people, Zamarripa said her family most likely would have left. Down the shore from the Zamarripa family were Hinesley and her children, who wore masks as they entered the water. Soon, however, the masks became wet and were removed so they wouldnt be ruined. Because of limited staffing, weather conditions and continuing construction projects, some state parks did not reopen Monday, according to TPWD. However, both such parks in Southeast Texas Sea Rim and Village Creek State Park in Lumberton were once again open to the public. Under normal circumstances, the Zamarripas would usually go to Galveston or Surfside beaches, but they wanted to avoid any tourist destinations in an effort to keep with social distancing guidelines. Monday was their first trip to Sea Rim State Park and their first family outing in a month. They werent disappointed. We just wanted a day on the beach to ourselves and thats what we got, Zamarripa said. Its peaceful. Its relaxing and the weathers perfect. mfaye@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/mattGfaye kbrent@beaumontenterprise.com LOS ANGELESPineapple Support, the adult industrys leading mental health resource, will host a free, online webinar, led by Pineapple Support therapist Nicoletta von Heidegger, LMFT. The webinar, Using Creativity To Create A New Normal, will focus on self-care during isolation and will be available to all adult industry workers, live on April 24. The one-hour webinar is aimed at expanding current self-care routines to account for added stressors during the COVID-19 isolation period. Von Heidegger will discuss ideas on how to keep your mind and body healthy, as well as practice breathing and relaxation exercises for those suffering with anxiety. This is a strange and unprecedented time for all of us. says von Heidegger. Join me for a collaborative discussion about how to create a balanced routine during all of this uncertainty. Many of our lives, businesses, self-care routines, and relationships are being put to the test and/or have been totally up-ended. Come learn some expanded self-care skills and tools to make a creative plan for your new normal. Pineapple Support was founded in 2018 by British performer Leya Tanit, after a string of losses in the adult industry from depression and other mental illnesses. The organization, which is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit in the United States and a registered charity in the UK, has so far connected over a thousand adult performers to mental health services, including free and low-cost, therapy, counseling and emotional support. These are uncertain times, and it is easy to forget to take time to look after yourself and your mental wellbeing, says Tanit. It is understandable that many will be experiencing anxiety and heightened emotions. This webinar provides practical advice on how to cope emotionally during a lockdown. The selfcare webinar will be live on April 24 at 2PM EST. To join the webinar visit PineappleSupport.org/webinars and follow the link. BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday asked the editors of the party's various publications to use the digital platform to disseminate positive, correct and factual information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid a countrywide lockdown, Nadda has been holding meetings with party leaders online and asking them to help the poor and the needy. On Tuesday, he interacted with the editors of BJP's various publications and suggested to them to maximise the use of digital platforms to disseminate positive, correct and factual information, saying the pen has a lot of might. He also asked BJP workers to digitise all the archives of the party. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Central Bank of Nigeria in Plateau State on Tuesday confirmed the fire outbreak in a part of the structure on Tuesday. The fire outbreak was confirmed by CBN in a post on its verified Twitter account. The Plateau State chapter of CBN described the fire incident as a minor incident. Minor fire outbreak at the Jos branch of the Central bank of Nigeria, promptly contained today, April 21, 2020, the tweet read. This is the fifth fire outbreak in six months at key Federal Government offices. Recall that a few days ago, there was a fire at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja. Naija News recalls that on April 8, some offices at the Accountant Generals office at the treasury house in Abuja also caught fire. There was also a fire outbreak at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on April 15th. Share this post with your Friends on No Responses Yet Syracuse, N.Y. Syracuse-based Carrols Restaurant Group, the nations largest owner of Burger Kings, says it may apply for a loan under a federal program that is supposed to assist small businesses hurt by the coronavirus outbreak. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, Carrols said it has amended a credit agreement with Wells Fargo Bank to allow it to borrow money under the Paycheck Protection Program, a business loan program approved by Congress as part of the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES). It is unclear whether Carrols will follow through and apply for a loan under the program. The Small Business Administration announced Thursday that $349 billion in funding for the program had run out and it could not accept more applications. Carrols has not responded to a request from syracuse.com | The Post-Standard for comment on Tuesday. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said Tuesday that Democratic and Republican leaders had reached an agreement on major elements of a nearly $500 billion coronavirus aid package for small businesses. The largest part of the package is an additional $300 billion for the small business loan program. The loan program was supposed to be geared toward businesses with 500 or fewer employees, but it contains exceptions and has come under fire for handing out millions of dollars in loans to national restaurant and hotel chains before running out of money and leaving many small businesses out of luck. Shake Shack, Ruths Hospitality Group and Potbellys each announced last week that they obtained loans worth a combined $40 million under the program. Shake Shack, a New York burger chain that employs nearly 8,000 people across 189 outlets, later said it would return the money to give smaller restaurants a chance to get government money. The loans do not have to be paid back if they are used to cover payroll costs, and most mortgage interest, rent and utility costs over the eight-week period after the loan is made. Employee and compensation levels must be maintained for the loans to be forgiven. Carrols is one of the largest restaurant franchisees in the United States and, with 1,099 Burger King restaurants, is the nations largest Burger King franchisee. It also owns 65 Popeyes restaurants. The company employs more than 27,000 people. Chairman, CEO and President Dan Accordino was paid $3.7 million in 2018. On April 8, the company increased its line of credit with Wells Fargo by $15.4 million, raising its borrowing limit with the bank to $145.8 million. Many of the companys restaurants have been forced by government orders to temporarily close, except for drive-thru service. It told employees in March that it was going to slash wages 10%, but it reversed the decision after an outcry from workers. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Wegmans, Tops, others want shoppers to wear masks, but wont ban people who dont 5 die of coronavirus at CNY nursing homes, adult care facilities Coronavirus: How we might restart the CNY economy while keeping the virus at bay Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday exhorted the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) to keep sufficient blood stock for transfusion by promoting voluntary blood donation and providing facilities of pick up and drop to donors. The minister also asked the IRCS to send mobile blood collection vans to the premises of regular blood donors to facilitate them to come forward for donation at this point of time. Vardhan urged the IRCS to contact recovered COVID-19 patients and ask them to come forward for blood donation from which convalescent plasma can be used for transfusion to the coronavirus-affected patients for their early recovery. "The IRCS may like to take up this at the earliest so that the blood collected from the recovered patients can be used for transfusion for the benefit of coronavirus infected patients," he said. Interacting with IRCS members from across India through a video conference, Vardhan said that earlier the COVID-19 samples were sent to US for testing which took a lot of time for results, but now India has developed around 200 labs for testing samples. "Apart from this India imposed lockdown at the right time to stop the spread of the dreaded virus. Right now India has ample number of COVID-19 dedicated hospitals, PPEs, N95 masks, ventilators and medicines. We are at the better footing as compared to rest of the world," he said. The Union minister has also written to state health ministers to promote voluntary blood donation. The minister gave details of efforts made by the government to deal with COVID-19. Representatives of Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) from Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Telangana, Delhi and Karnataka apprised the minister about the activities undertaken by their respective branches. "I may like to state that India was the first country in the world to respond to COVID-19 crisis without wasting any time. It was India which responded proactively to China's first disclosure about coronavirus to the world. On the very next day India initiated steps to monitor the situation and first Joint Monitoring Group meeting was held," he said. Vardhan said that India was the front runner in leading the onslaught against the COVID-19 pandemic and it took all the precautionary measures like screening at airports, ports, land borders with neighbouring countries, surveillance and contact tracing. He further stated that all international flights were instructed not to land at all airports in India with effect from early morning March 23. "I really value Indian Red Cross fraternity having given a great contribution in our fight against COVID-19. In fact the contribution is appreciable for providing equipments, sanitizers, food, PPE kits and N95 masks etc. for hospitals," Union Health Minister said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By PTI BEIJING: China plans to inject Chinese medics with coronavirus vaccines by year-end to protect them to deal with any emergency situation, while 11 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the country with no deaths due to the virus, health officials said. China's National Health Commission (NHC) on Tuesday said that 11 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday, of which four were imported. The other seven new cases were domestically transmitted, the NHC said in a daily report, noting that six cases were reported in Heilongjiang Province bordering Russia and one in Guangdong Province. The overall confirmed cases in China have reached 82,758 by Monday. No death was reported on Monday. Altogether 4,632 people have died of the disease, it said. Also, 37 new asymptomatic cases, including two from abroad, were reported on the mainland with 992 cases, including 180 from abroad, were still under medical observation. However, Chinese health officials apprehend a second wave of the coronavirus attack especially from hundreds of Chinese nationals returning from abroad. A Chinese health expert Zhang Wenhong said recently that China could be hit by a second wave of coronavirus cases in November this year as winter returns but by that time the country would be well prepared to deal with COVID-19. Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an emergency situation, some Chinese medics would be injected with coronavirus vaccines. In accordance with how the epidemic develops, in case of emergency, some medical staff would be injected with a newly developed coronavirus vaccine, Gao said, noting that any medicines and vaccines have their own research and development cycles. "I believe we could come up with vaccines with the joint efforts of everyone," he was quoted as saying by state-run Global Times. China has approved three COVID-19 vaccine candidates for clinical trials. An adenovirus vector vaccine, developed by Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences, was the first to be approved to enter a clinical trial. The first phase of the clinical trial was completed at the end of March, and the second phase started on April 12. It is the first COVID-19 vaccine in the world that has entered the second phase of clinical trial, according to World Health Organisation (WHO), the Xinhua report said. Several countries, including China are speeding up coronavirus vaccine development to cut the time span to few months instead of several years. Concerning the timetable for vaccine research and development, the director of the Chinese CDC said, "if you follow the normal procedure, the vaccine may not come out until the end of this year or early next year," noting that if the situation continues worsening, medics might be injected with the vaccines by the end of this year. He also emphasised that this won't be used among normal people, the report said. Jaipur, April 21 : With the number of Covid-19 cases going up despite the lockdown thats in place to fight the pandemic, the burning question here in the state capital is whether Jaipur is losing the plot due to certain policies of the Congress government? Till Tuesday afternoon, Jaipur had registered 619 Covid-19 cases and 13 deaths -- the highest in Rajasthan where as many as 1,628 people have tested positive so far, confirmed Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rohit Kumar Singh. The Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) arrived in the city on Monday to evaluate the ground situation in the state capital after the Union Home Ministry identified Jaipur among the 11 cities/districts where the Covid-19 situation was serious, officials said. On April 15, Jaipur's BJP MP Ramcharan Bohra had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, drawing his attention to certain policies of the Congress government. In his letter, Bohra said that most cases in Jaipur were being reported from one particular locality in the city -- Ramganj. On April 8, Jaipur had 129 Covid-19 cases, which spiked to 476 on April 15, of which 428 were reported from Ramganj. Had government taken a tough stand, the number of cases wouldn't have jumped so much within a week, he said. Meanwhile, the Congress workers have also questioned the distribution of food, ration and grocery to a huge crowd by the MLAs of their own party amid the curfew that has been clamped on the walled city of Jaipur. What was the need for an elected MLA of the ruling party to sit on a vehicle to sanitise roads? Was a photo op necessary? Was distributing food amid curfew to crowds of people necessary? These are a few questions which were raised by a Congress worker on conditions of anonymity. Bohra in his letter said the infection started spreading in Ramganj from a man who recently returned from Oman, but the government failed to act in the matter. It needs to be mentioned here that people from Ramganj went to Barmer and Sikar, infecting people in these two districts. Another accusation levelled by Bohra was that quarantine centres were being set up in densely populated areas in Jaipur, thus increasing the risk of spreading the virus. It may be mentioned here that Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee Vice President Archana Sharma has written to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, requesting him to allocate more Covid-19 beds at the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences rather than dedicating beds to Covid-19 patients at the Jaipuria Hospital situated in her constituency. "This decision is being protested by one and all in Malviya Nagar and patients have stopped visiting this hospital despite being unwell due to an unseen threat of the virus," she said. Meanwhile, other Congress workers in the state also said that Rajasthan government should follow Punjab government's protocol, which took all measures to ensure Covid-19 numbers do not swell in the state. BJP state President Satish Poonia also accused the government of trying to hide its failures in dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak. "The state government is intimidating our MLAs by registering complaints with political malice," he said, referring to the recent FIRs being filed against two BJP MLAs, Ashok Lahoti and Madan Dilawar, who had accused the state government of appeasement. Ramganj has been under curfew since March 26 when a 45-year-old man who had returned from Oman tested positive. He had returned on March 12, but did not follow quarantine measures and instead infected scores of others. The government tightened the curfew measures from April 6 after violations by the residents of Ramganj. BJP officials have also been demanding invocation of National Security Act (NSA) against people attacking doctors and police personnel. However, Chief Minister Gehlot has maintained that NSA was not the need of the hour in the present circumstances. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) The Singapore Ministry of Health reported 1,426 new COVID-19 infections by noon on Monday alone, 95 percent of them among temporary workers from India, Bangladesh and other countries in Southeast Asia who are crammed into inhumane dwellings. The city-state, a former British colony, was praised in the early weeks of the coronavirus epidemic for its strict measurestracing COVID-19 cases back to the first infected personto contain infections in the native population. A different story in the city-state is now emerging, hidden behind the shiny skyscrapers of the financial centre and the pompous hotel complexes. Dormitory in Singapore Among Singapores nearly 6 million inhabitants are some 323,000 workers who built these skyscrapers, Changi Airport, the subways and the HDB flatsthe homes of the locals. They are housed in foreign workers dormitories, where 8, 12, 18 or even up to 25 workers share a room with bunk beds. In the largest of these camps, Sungei Tengah Lodgefar from the city centreabout 25,000 workers are accommodated in this way in several blocks of flats. The S11 dormitory in the district of Punggol houses up to 13,000 workers in a fenced area. In this camp, 1,123 patients had already tested for COVID-19 as of Saturday. These purpose-built dormitories (PBDs), which are under the regulation of the Ministry of Labour, are run by private companies. This group of dormitories consists of 43 complexes that can accommodate between 3,000 and 25,000 workers per complex. Twenty-two of these have groups of infected people and 13 had been quarantined through the end of last week. This means that workers cannot leave their block. Workers report on their social media platform that any violation will be punished with a fine of 10,000 Singapore dollars (about US$7,000) or six months in prison. Workers also write about the fear they feel when they see 15 ambulances driving into the block every day and newly infected people with more severe symptoms being driven to hospital. In addition, there is the lack of contact between them. You cant watch videos on the Internet all day, reports one of the workers. A total of about 200,000 workers live in the PBDs, with another 95,000 in Factory-Converted Dormitories, each of which can accommodate 50 to 500 workers, also under the registration of the Ministry of Labour. Another 28,000 or so workers live in containers directly at their workplaces (On-Site Housing), accommodating up to 40 workers each. These shelters are only checked occasionally. These conditions exist in a tropical climate, where average temperatures vary between 28 and 32 degrees Celsius (82 to 90F) and humidity is around 80 percentin buildings without air conditioning. The dormitories are run by private companies that have no concern for workers health. Even the government did not show much interest in the health protection of these workers, despite the rapid spread of the virus under such living conditions being predictable and inevitable. After cessation of the construction work due to the spread of the pandemic, workers are stuck in congested dormitories because only those needed for urgent workincluding Singapores garbage collection servicewere allowed to leave the complex and were now housed separately. Daily new cases of new Covid-19 infections in Singapore Since a 48-year-old construction worker from Bangladesh tested positive for COVID-19 on March 28, the infection statistics among temporary workers have risen sharply. On Monday, Johns Hopkins University registered 8,014 infected persons in Singapore. Temporary workers now account for 90 percent of the new infections registered daily, with only a minority tested so far. The Ministry of Health first became aware of the spread of infection in these dormitories when the infection figures reported by the hospitals increased dramatically beginning in April. The government has now ordered that the infected workers be separated from the healthy ones, and that some of the sick be moved to military camps or empty gymnasiums or ships. But the measures will probably have little effect, as the infection has spread further among workers living in close quarters. Not all workers have yet been tested. A New Zealand professor, Mohan Dutta, told the Guardian of interviews he had conducted with 45 migrant workers in Singapore: Participants told me that even up until Monday they dont have access to soap and adequate cleaning supplies. He added that many feared an outbreak was inevitable due to the living conditions in the dormitories. The workers had told him that there were only five toilets and showers per 100 workers, so they often had to stand in line. Workers complained that the food provided since the crisis was also poor in nutritional value. A specialist in infectious diseases at the National University of Singapore Hospital, Professor Dale Fisher, told the Guardian that thousands of new infections were to be expected in the dormitories of temporary workers. He said the workers are all 30 to 40 years old, which is good, but still when youre dealing with these massive numbers youre going to get a good number of sick 30- to 40-year-olds. The risk [in such cramped dormitories] is completely different and the preparation and the anticipation wasnt there. The hard construction work with frequent overtime and often a heavy strain on the lungs due to smoking are also increasing the risk of infection. Fisher added: If we dont stop it there [in the dormitories] the hospitals will get overwhelmed. He told the Straits Times in Singapore that he expects between 5 and 10 percent of infected temporary workers to be hospitalized, with up to 2 percent of critical illness expected. The number of deaths among contract workers in Singapore is usually not released until later. Referring to slum areas in India and other Southeast Asian countries, he warned, that the message to other places was, if you have an overcrowded setting it is just so vulnerable. When people say Indias shutdown has been extendedI cant think of anything other than shutting down. Its like the only defence youve got. The problem of limited capacity of hospital beds on one hand and the exploding numbers of infected workers on the other poses a big problem that Associate Professor Hsu Liyang of the National University of Singapore suggests to solve by triaging of patients: COVID-19 cases should be triaged and those with minimal risk of complications should be sent to community isolation facilities immediately rather than face a period of observation in an acute hospital. With globalization and the economic opening of China, Singapore has grown rapidly since the 1980s, bringing with it hundreds of thousands of temporary workers to be used in the construction industry at low wages. Labour agencies arranged the formalities for work permits, promising wages between 800 and 1,300 Singapore dollars (US$560-US$900). But a large part of the wages is later deducted for agency fees, accommodation and food, so that the workers can only transfer a small amount of money from their wages to their families in their home countries. The authoritarian regime in Singapore suppresses any movement of workers fighting for better working or living conditions. Those who resist are immediately deported and, in some cases, lose everything they have saved up in their hard work through fines. While many of the Singaporean workers participate in fundraising campaigns for their foreign colleagues, the control of the dormitories in the fight against the spread of the virus is now carried out by the army, a task force of 750 men under the leadership of Brigadier General Seet Uei Lim. In the crisis, the gold standard of the highly praised Singaporelike capitalism in any other countryturns out to be what it really is: a brutal class society. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Evi Mariani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, April 22, 2020 10:37 630 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd351324 1 Opinion underpreviledge,millennials,Jokowi,pre-employment-card,ruangguru,millennial-workforce,staf-khusus-presiden,Nadiem-Makarim,stafsus,#commentary,kartu-prakerja Free President Joko Jokowi Widodo has a penchant for millennials and all things millennials supposedly like: startups, innovation and technology. During his campaign for the 2019 presidential race, Jokowi used a hologram to attract more voters including the young people. He also baited his then-rival, now Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, with a question about what Prabowo would do to help unicorns. Prabowo responded with a question that made him the talk of the town for days: What are unicorns? Before he announced his Cabinet lineup, Jokowi promised he would appoint one millennial. This person turned out to be Gojek founder Nadiem Makarim, 35. In November, sitting on colorful bean bags on Merdeka Palaces veranda, Jokowi introduced seven young people as presidential expert staff members. Aged 23 to 36, the seven experts would advise the President on subjects including education, entrepreneurship, creative industry, disabled rights and religious tolerance. The young staff include the founder of education technology company Ruangguru, Adamas Belva Syah Devara, and the founder of fintech Amartha, Andi Taufan Garuda Putra. All are university graduates, mostly from institutions abroad: Australian National University, Harvard University, Standford University, Duke University and Academy of Arts in San Fransisco and Oxford University. One of them, Putri Indahsari Tanjung, is the daughter of entrepreneur and former coordinating economic minister Chairul Tanjung. Read also: From spokespersons to discussion partners, here are the tasks of Jokowi's new aides These are impressive young people who have worked hard and created something good for Indonesia. They are people who had received considerable media attention even before the President appointed them to advise him. They are the faces of Indonesian millennials: successful, creative, coffee-loving and working for or even having established tech companies. No one knows Tri Adhitia Diantomo or Adit, 22, and Riska, 22. In our January report, The Jakarta Post followed one day in the lives of the two millennials to get a glimpse of the other millennials. While under the radar, poor young people actually outnumber their privileged counterparts. The Wittgenstein Center for Demography and Global Human Capital has revealed that only 14.4 percent of millennials in Indonesia have any post-secondary education in 2020, while just 0.38 percent have graduate degrees. Adits latest education was junior high school, and that places him in a category with 20.97 percent of the millennials in 2020. Riskas was senior vocational high school, which makes her one among 41.11 percent of her generation. Adit lives in a 25-square-meter house in North Jakarta with nine relatives, while Riska spends most of her days in her parents house with her young son. Stay-at-home moms represent the biggest chunk of our millennial population. Riska also represents the sandwich generation that must take care of their children while caring for parents. Riskas father was a truck driver before he fell ill. In 2018, Ariane Utomo, Iwu Utomo and Peter McDonald wrote a research report in Inside Indonesia, titled The other millennials. The article summarized their seminal work in 2009, in which a team of Indonesian and Australian researchers studied Indonesian millennials. They revisited the research nine years later, a year before the Indonesian election, because many politicians used some ideas about millennials to bolster their campaigns. These politicians, backed by the media, portrayed millennials as highly paid and working in the creative and tech industries, and sipping latte in Instagrammable cafes. Nothing could be further from reality, the scholars wrote. Read also: Demographic bonus may be illusory The reality of Adit and Riska, for example, is far from that of the presidential millennial staff: They dont start at a level playing field. Adits and Riskas hardship is certainly not the fault of the presidential staffers Adamas and Putri. But for the government to pay more attention to the privileged ones is certainly faulty logic. Most of Indonesias young and poor are those falling through the cracks of the system. Even though school enrollment is higher than decades ago, the quality of public schools has not improved significantly. And with the race for public schools, many of the poor enroll in low-quality private schools. Riska, married at 19, does not aspire to travel to Tokyo. Her recreation is limited to Atlantis, the one in Ancol, North Jakarta. Her dream is to have a small business selling groceries, to gain income while taking care of her child. Similarly, Adit dreams of gaining a senior high school-equivalent diploma and open a coffee shop without wi-fi, so customers would have to talk to each other rather than be glued to their phones. Their dreams are simple enough. But for Indonesias young and poor achieving them could take years and extra hard work, because government support is unlikely. Jokowis administration just launched the Pre-employment Card program, which has been criticized for its budget allocation for online training that no one needs while the COVID-19 crisis strikes people hard. The training courses are not based on rigorous research about skill gaps but rather on assumed trends among millennials. They include video tutorials on becoming a top seller in the unicorn Tokopedia, making silky puddings, sprucing up resumes to apply for scholarships abroad, becoming successful sellers on Instagram and financial planning for freelancers. Conveniently, one of the training providers is Ruangguru founded by Adamas of Jokowis millennial staff. His presence at the Palace put him in the spotlight especially after his colleague Andi Taufan Garuda allegedly misused the Cabinet Secretarys letterhead to order district heads across Indonesia to facilitate efforts by volunteers from his startup Amartha to gather information on COVID-19. Read also: Another day, another blunder: Jokowi's millennial staff mired in controversy While training courses in the pre-employment program might be useful for some, the government should research what underprivileged millennials really need. Without getting to know the young and the poor and what they really need, the government would fall into the trap of prolonging misleading perceptions about millennials. Instead of giving the underprivileged millennials what they deserve, the government gives the privileged ones what they dont deserve. New York governer Andrew Cuomo headed to Washington on Tuesday as he lobbies for federal testing help while Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York City will stockpile its own medical supplies. Elective surgeries will be allowed in parts of the state where the outbreak is not so severe. Hospitals in parts of New York will be able to conduct outpatient elective surgeries again, Cuomo said Tuesday as he pledged to consider regional differences when re-opening the state's outbreak-stalled economy. The governor said elective treatments will be allowed in places where the outbreak is less severe. "We're going to allow it in those hospitals and counties in the state that do not have a COVID issue or we wouldn't need their beds in case of a surge," Cuomo said at a briefing in Buffalo. The hospital restrictions will remain in effect in New York City and suburban Westchester and Rockland counties, as well as in Albany, Dutchess and Erie counties, he said. The guidelines come as the state plans how to gradually ease up on outbreak restrictions. The total number of statewide hospitalizations has been slowly dropping along with the daily death toll. The state recorded 481 deaths Monday, the second straight day with under 500 fatalities. But Cuomo said the outbreak is moving through regions of the state at different rates. Rural stretches of northern New York are facing "a totally different situation" than New York City, a global COVID-19 hotspot, he said. "We operate as one state, but we also have to understand variations and you do want to get this economy opened as soon as possible," he said. "And if the situation is radically different in one part of state than another part of the state, then take that into consideration." Cuomo appeared in Buffalo a day after protesters drove about 150 cars in the city's downtown to call for an end to stay-at-home restrictions. Protesters beeped their horns and waved flags from their car windows. Cuomo will head to the White House on Tuesday as he seeks federal help with coronavirus testing. The Democratic governor and Republican president have alternately praised and criticized each other over their respective responses to the outbreak. The pair traded barbs as recently as Friday, when President Donald Trump said Cuomo should get to work after the governor argued that the federal government needed to lead in ramping up mass testing. Cuomo said the White House meeting Tuesday afternoon will be about testing. "How do we do it, and how can the federal government work in partnership with the states," Cuomo said. Cuomo contends the federal government must help get crucial supplies needed for testing. New York City is planning to stockpile medical equipment and supplies to meet its own needs in any potential future coronavirus surge, rather than looking to federal authorities or global markets, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. He said the new 'strategic reserve' would include ventilators, face shields, surgical gowns and test kits, and the initiative also includes developing local suppliers who could quickly make more if needed. In one example, the city is spending $10 million to buy 3,000 'bridge' ventilators -- suitable for patients who don't have the severest respiratory symptoms -- from Queens-based Boyce Technologies Inc. It has started making the devices only in recent weeks. "We have learned the hard way that we cannot depend on the federal government in the future, nor in the global marketplace," de Blasio, a Democrat, said at a news briefing. "We New Yorkers will take care of ourselves." In a similar vein, De Blasio last week announced a plan to create a $50 million reserve of as many as 18 million non-perishable meals. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. De Blasio said Tuesday that if governors of states such as Georgia start to ease coronavirus restrictions, they had better have the facts on their side or they could enable a resurgence of the virus beyond their states' borders. "If some of these reopenings are done the wrong way, it's going to affect all of us," de Blasio said on CNN's 'New Day.' He said that if any state or city 'jumps the gun' on reopening businesses 'that could lead to the disease reasserting in a lot of other places.' The Democratic mayor announced Monday that all public events will be canceled in New York City through June. The New York City ban, which affects major annual celebrations such as the gay pride parade, was announced the same day that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he would allow some businesses including gyms, hair salons and bowling alleys to reopen later this week. The Republican governor called the loosening of restrictions intended to curb the spread of the virus "the right approach at the right time." Codiac Regional RCMP's commanding officer says the force has been 'inundated' with calls by people reporting others not obeying rules to physically distance or to self-isolate after entering the province. Supt. Tom Critchlow, who commands the force policing Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview, said Codiac RCMP have opened 800 files as a result of the calls. He said the force increased staff capacity to answer the calls to its non-urgent phone line because of the pandemic. But, he said the calls have been slowing in recent days. "It's still a hot-button issue for us, but we're dealing with it," Critchlow said. The province has set up an "information line" to report people believed to be violating the emergency declaration order, a line that's separate from the police numbers. More patrols Critchlow outlined the figures Monday during a Moncton city council meeting held by video conference. Members of council noted seeing an increased police presence in the community. Critchlow said more RCMP members are available because the pandemic means no one is away for training or on leave. He said Codiac has a "large presence" patrolling to check on people and businesses. We've had no issues, everyone is very co-operative and so I can report that's going quite well. - Tom Critchlow, Codiac RCMP He also said the force is checking on around 22 people in the three communities who have returned to Canada and must self-isolate because the federal government invoked the Quarantine Act. That means police open a file and check in on each person to ensure they're complying with self-isolating rules over a two-week period. As well, Critchlow said they check to make sure the people are OK. "We've had no issues, everyone is very co-operative and so I can report that's going quite well," Critchlow said. Coun. Paulette Theriault suggested police and the city's communications people do more to say that the measures are to protect public health. She said she's seeing messages on social media about people concerned they're in a "police state." Story continues She asked the RCMP to try to do more to communicate that they are acting to protect people's health. "We want to be protective, not being the strong-arm of the law - only reacting when we have to," Critchlow said. As of Monday, the total number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in New Brunswick stood at 118. It was the sixth day within the last 10 days that the province announced no new cases. Of the 118 people, 98 have recovered. The robbery took place Monday in Yerevan. At around 2:30pm, Gohar Harutyunyan, 41, a resident of Vahakni Residential Community, reported to the police that items had been stolen from her house. The police officers who arrived at the scene found out that an expensive belt belonging to Harutyunyan's husband had been stolen from the house, shamshyan.com reported. The police also found out that the theft was committed by Irina D., 47, the cleaning lady of this house. Sometime thereafter, the police found this cleaning lady as well as the stolen item. To note, Gohar Harutyunyan is Miss Armenia 1998, Miss CIS 1999 and Miss Globe 2009, as well as the chair of the Miss Armenia fund. JERUSALEMAt least there wont be a fourth election. That slender reed was about the only thing that truly united Israelis on both sides of the polarized countrys political chasm Tuesday as they began to absorb the details of a deal for a joint government struck by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former challenger, Benny Gantz. Right-wingers felt betrayed by Netanyahus surrender of half the government to Gantz and his small band of centrists. Netanyahu haters felt betrayed by almost everything else about the pact, which keeps Netanyahu in office as prime minister. But not having to wait around for another noxious campaign? That, nearly everyone could get behind. Our country is constantly in crisis and holding elections, and our leaders are always fighting, said Limor Cohen, 54, accompanying her friend to a doctors appointment in Tel Aviv. We finally have a situation that can bring about some stability and quiet. Thats exactly what we need. Netanyahus detractors had much to bemoan in the deal he struck Monday night with Gantz, who had vowed in three straight elections never to serve under a prime minister facing indictment. Netanyahus trial on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges is to begin May 24. Gantz gave up on term limits for the premier. He gave up on amending the so-called nation-state law, which Arab citizens of Israel see as racist and he had promised to mitigate. He gave up on a law requiring ultra-Orthodox Jews to be drafted into the military and on investigating a scandal involving the purchase of submarines. Perhaps most galling for left-wing voters who put their trust in Gantz, he gave up any veto over annexation of territory on the West Bank, which Netanyahu is free to pursue as soon as July 1. Gantz stole our votes, said Yitzhak Blatt, 90, a retired architect who was basking in a hot sun on a bench in Tel Avivs Rabin Square. The people who voted for him wanted him to replace Netanyahu, not keep him in office. Michael Kirsh, 65, relaxing outside a sandwich shop, said he was disgusted. Gantz was supposed to be an alternative to Netanyahu, Kirsh said. Instead of replacing Netanyahu, he saved him. Gantz even gave Netanyahu a veto over choosing the next police commissioner, state prosecutor and members of the Supreme Court. Sima Kadmon, a columnist for Yediot Ahronot, warned that even if Netanyahu is convicted, by the time his appeal comes before the Supreme Court, the justices there will be his. This isnt an emergency government, she wrote. It isnt a unity government either. Its a capitulation government that was formed using the coronavirus as an excuse. And Yair Lapid, Gantzs former partner, gave a speech Tuesday night in which he apologized to all those people who I convinced to vote for Benny Gantz. I didnt believe that they would steal your vote and give it to Netanyahu, Lapid said, adding: Its the worst act of fraud in the history of this country. Netanyahus partisans took a different view. The Netanyahu era is over, declared Matti Tuchfeld, a columnist for the right-wing Israel Hayom newspaper, observing that Netanyahu had for the first time assented to a date for the end of his long tenure as prime minister: October 2021. Israels practitioners of political neutrality found much to praise in the Gantz-Netanyahu agreement. Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, lamented a few ways in which he said the deal violated democratic norms. For example, he said, it abandons the traditions of letting the opposition run the economic committee in parliament and have a hand in the selection of judges. But he welcomed what he called a ceasefire in the long-running ideological battle over the rule of law, noting that Gantz would have the power to shut down right-wing attempts to override Supreme Court decisions and that Netanyahu would have to stand trial like any other Israeli citizen. More urgently, Plesner said the new government would be well armed against the coronavirus. Because it expects to boast 78 out of 120 members of parliament, it can take decisive action without being held up by individual coalition members making extortionate demands, a routine feature of narrow majorities. This is a government that will be able to make decisions, Plesner said. Thats a positive. Still, Plesner acknowledged that the agreement sets up a monumental test for Israels Supreme Court. Several legal challenges are in process that could prompt the high court to rule that Netanyahu, because of his criminal case, should be barred from leading the new government. If that happens, rather than simply allowing the No. 2 politician in Netanyahus Likud Party to step into his shoes, the deal provides that Israel will immediately go to new elections after all. That effectively dares the Supreme Court, already under attack for years from the right, to force another election on citizens who have made clear they do not want one. (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.) Grasping those kinds of net effects of the Gantz-Netanyahu deal left some voters upset. Miri Paperni, an accountant from Rehovot, said she felt the coronavirus was being exploited to protect Netanyahu, when what was needed was for the politicians to put their own interests aside to fight the pandemic. Ive been at home on a forced leave like the rest of our office, she said, and until now she had avoided the news. It has been a wonderful bubble. Even given her low expectations, she said she was dismayed at the farce of the deal struck by Gantz, for whom she had voted. Come to think of it, Paperni said, she might have been better off in her bubble: Maybe its best to detach ourselves from this reality. Others took a much longer view, however. Tuesday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and at 10 a.m., as each year, a siren sounded for two minutes. Drivers pulled over and cut their engines; people in quarantine stood at attention on their balconies. In Kfar Yona, Peleg Levy, 55, a filmmaker working on a project about Israels founding generation, found something redeeming in its latter-day politicians joining forces to fight a global menace. We are in a moment of war, Levy said. There is something trying to kill us. Not tanks, but a virus. And they took a leadership decision, against the wishes of many of their supporters. What the Jews were unable to do in the Warsaw ghetto unite in the fight against the Germans is being done now. I see the unity, going together despite everything, as a historical moment of repair. Read more about: By ANI BHOPAL: The Cabinet is small but our target is big, said BJP leader Narottam Mishra on Tuesday ahead of the cabinet expansion in the state. "The Cabinet is small but our target is big. The nation, as well as the state, is suffering from coronavirus pandemic. Our aim is to defeat coronavirus. I have been in more than 12 departments earlier. I will try to fulfil whatever responsibility that will be given by the captain," Mishra told ANI. ALSO READ: Police officer infected with COVID-19 dies in Indore hospital Mishra along with Kamal Patel, Meena Singh, Tulsi Silawat and Govind Singh Rajput is likely to take oath as minister today in the first cabinet expansion after Shivraj Singh Chouhan returned to power. On March 23 last month, Chouhan took oath as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh following the resignation of 22 Congress MLAs that led to the fall of Kamal Nath-led Congress government in the state. While the coronavirus-imposed lockdown may be frustrating to some people, dogs have been enjoying the constant companionship of their owners. But, once the risk of spreading the virus has been contained and people begin to resume their daily routines, the impact on the lives of dogs may be severe. According to Queen Elizabeth IIs corgi trainer, pups may suffer from severe social anxiety once social distancing has ended - as theyve built up a huge reservoir of over-dependency. Speaking to The Times, Dr Roger Mugford, an animal psychologist, explained: With such an overload of quality time with their families, dogs are building up a huge reservoir of over-dependency which could see them suffer when mums and dads suddenly return to work and the children go back to school. This distress could manifest itself in a variety of ways, according to Dr Mugford, who said that, when left alone, pet dogs can chew furniture, bark, go to the bathroom inside, and sometimes even self-harm. Recommended How pets are supporting people through the loneliness of lockdown Put a webcam on your dog and you'll see howling and pacing and other distress signs, he said. To help furry friends ease into the unavoidable separation that will occur when social distancing measures are lifted, Dr Mugford recommends owners begin now - by separating themselves from their pet for 30 minutes at a time, several times a day. The reminder to consider how dogs will respond to the return to daily life comes amid an increase in pet adoption numbers in countries around the world, as people look to animals as a source of comfort. One great thing about owning a pet is that they can offer unconditional love and friendship, which is more important than ever through these challenging and uncertain times, Vet nurse Joanne Wright from the UKs leading vet charity PDSA, previously told The Independent. Research from PDSA found that 84 per cent of pet owners report that having a pet has had a positive impact on their mental health. The feelings are mutual, according to Wright, who added: Whats even better is that many of our animals, who may otherwise be left alone for extended periods of time, will also be able to enjoy lots of company and fuss at home. If your dog does experience anxiety, they arent alone - as a study published in March 2020 by researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland found that most pups suffer from anxiety. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an Order regarding measures to continue the improvement of irrigation and drinking water supply in 13 residential areas in 10 cities and districts of the country. Under the presidential Order, Azerbaijan Irrigation and Water Management Open Joint Stock Company is allocated 1,19 million manats for digging 17 sub-artesian wells to improve irrigation of cultivable lands and supply of drinking water for 193,696 people in 13 residential areas in 10 cities and regions. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Ireland yesterday suffered its deadliest toll yet from coronavirus as a record 77 people with the infection lost their lives. The number dashed hopes that the saddest days of the crisis may be over amid growing fears that people are becoming increasingly complacent about following restrictions. Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan, who announced the figures, said they need to be interpreted with caution as they represent notifications of people dying over a number of days and there can be a time lag. He said each death is a tragedy, but there can be a delay in notifications and the percentage rate of increase in deaths and intensive care admissions in a given day has been falling. Threat However, the deaths bring the overall toll of people who have died nationally to 687. Expand Close Kathleen MacLellan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kathleen MacLellan Of the additional deaths announced, 67 were in the east of the country, four in the west, four in the north-west and two were in the south. The Department of Health's head of social care, Dr Kathleen MacLellan, said there were 1,761 cases of the coronavirus in long-stay residential settings, including 1,204 in nursing homes. Among the deaths, 406 have been in long-term settings and 337 were among nursing home residents. Overall, 401 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed yesterday, pushing the total number of people infected so far to 15,652. The figures come as a sharp reminder of the threat of the virus as concerns grow that people are getting more restless to ease the restrictions as the May 5 date for the end of the current lockdown looms. Dr Holohan warned: "For now there is no room for complacency. There is no room to take the foot off the gas." The major fear is that with an expected relaxation in measures, people will interpret it as a signal they can resume gatherings and get-togethers as well as other activities that would potentially accelerate the spread of the virus. Dr Holohan said no decision yet has been taken on whether to re-open schools. This was despite comments over the weekend by Health Minister Simon Harris that they could return for one day a week if public health experts advise it is safe. Dr Holohan also said it was pub owners themselves who said as the crisis escalated that they had no choice but to close because of physical distancing. The very nature of a public setting that involves people socialising in close proximity meant that this was not possible, he added. He said nursing homes and long-term residential facilities are now a priority for coronavirus testing. "In facilities with an existing cluster, all residents and staff are to be tested," Dr Holohan added. "In the event of a facility reporting its first case, testing of all staff and residents will take place. "This sector remains a priority along with other vulnerable persons, and we will continue to implement supports and guidance on infection prevention control where required. "We know from international and domestic experience that this disease disproportionately targets vulnerable groups such as older people and those with underlying health conditions. "But we also know that the Irish experience in relation to deaths in nursing homes is not an outlier in relation to the European experience. We continue in our efforts to support our population through this pandemic." Meanwhile, nursing homes that have run out of single rooms for residents who have the coronavirus can gather them in a single area. Guidance New guidance says residents who have the virus can all be placed together in a multi-occupancy room. However, others who may be probable cases should not be included. The new rules come as private and public nursing homes continue to deal with outbreaks of the coronavirus, leading to deaths and illness among many elderly residents. It emerged yesterday that a hospital group has taken over the "operational management" of Dealgan House nursing home in Dundalk due to a serious outbreak. It is understood there have been 10 deaths in the home, although it is unclear how many were due to the coronavirus. Bashir Othman Tofa, presidential candidate in the June 12, 1993 election, says his opinion of Abba Kyari changed with just one incid... June 12, 1993 election, says his opinion of Abba Kyari changed with just one incident. Bashir Othman Tofa, presidential candidate in theJune 12, 1993 election, says his opinion of Abba Kyari changed with just one incident. The chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari died on Friday after contracting COVID-19. In a short tribute, Tofa said he met Kyari only thrice during his lifetime. He said: I really cannot claim to know Malam Abba Kyari in any measure. I met him briefly only three times in my life. The first was at the wedding Fatiha of Tunde Sabiu in Kaduna. He was with two people I know very well: Mal. Mammam Daura and Mal. Ismaila Isa Funtua. The second time was most memorable. For me, it defined what manner of a person was Malam Abba Kyari. I am the chairman of a group we named, Friends of Democracy. Our major concern is the North; how it fares in the Nigerian scene; and the security issues of our country as a whole. We also do write suggestions to the government on vital national issues and we never get tied whether they are appreciated and used, or not. We just do that as a duty, as good citizens. We discuss much on security and other matters. During one of our extensive meetings on a Thursday, I asked if one of us who knew Mal. Abba could make an appointment for us any time the following day, Friday. One of us called him at about 8pm and said to him, Our Chairman asked if you could give us an appointment to see you tomorrow to discuss some vital national issues with you. When Mal. Abba enquired who the chairman was, and was told that it was Alhaji Bashir Tofa, he paused and then said Friday was too tight, but he would be willing to come to where I wanted at 10pm that day. And, at 10pm sharp, Mal. Abba was there. And at 10pm, my whole impression of what negatives I read about him was shaken. By the time we had our meeting and he answered all of our questions, his entire image was reconstructed in my mind. There was a true gentleman, willing to answer any question we posed. He accepted some failings and told us why, and even took notes. My respect and admiration for him was multiplied many folds that night. He said the third time was when he led the presidential delegation to condole us on the death of Ado Sanusi, former ambassador. Now, Malam Abba has returned to Allah as was ordained. He died a martyr according to Islamic interpretation of martyrdom, being a victim of a plague. And he died on Friday. All these were a good sign regarding his final above which, by Allahs grace, will be Jannatul Firdaus, he said. Here, in this world, it is only after he departed that we are learning how good and wonderful a person he was. May our prayers for him be accepted by the Almighty, The Controller of all things, The Master of The Day of Judgement. Aamiin. The patent, approved in March, covers a vaccine that targets the most vulnerable point in a coronavirus's structure, through which it penetrates human cells Researchers worldwide are racing at breakneck speed to develop potential vaccines and drugs to fight the novel coronavirus, SARS-Cov-2. Now, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted a patent to Tel Aviv University's Prof. Jonathan Gershoni of the School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology at TAU's George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences for his innovative vaccine design for the corona family of viruses. The vaccine targets the novel coronavirus's Achilles' heel, its Receptor Binding Motif (RBM), a critical structure that enables the virus to bind to and infect a target cell. According to Prof. Gershoni, the vaccine would reconstruct the coronavirus's RBM, a tiny feature of its "spike" protein. Though the virus uses many different proteins to replicate and invade cells, the "spike" protein is the major surface protein that it uses to bind to a receptor -- another protein that acts like a doorway into a human cell. After the spike protein binds to the human cell receptor, the viral membrane fuses with the human cell membrane, allowing the genome of the virus to enter human cells and begin infection. "We have been working on coronaviruses for the last 15 years, developing a method of reconstructing and reconstituting the RBM feature of the spike protein in SARS CoV and subsequently in MERS CoV," explains Prof. Gershoni. "The moment the genome of the new virus was published in early January 2020, we began the process of reconstituting the RBM of SARS CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and expect to have a reconstituted RBM of the new virus soon. This will be the basis for a new vaccine, which could be ready for use within a year to a year and a half." The spike protein is quite large, containing about 1,200 amino acids. Some researchers have limited their research to a region of the spike known as the receptor binding domain (RBD) that comprises some 200 amino acids. However, the problem is that these relatively large areas have a variety of targets, and the immune system produces antibodies for all of them indiscriminately -- reducing the effectiveness of a potential vaccine. The RBM, a highly complex three dimensional structure, is only 50 amino acids long. Functionally reconstituting such a structure would be very challenging, but it would be an extremely effective basis of a vaccine, says Prof. Gershoni. "The smaller the target and the focus of the attack, the greater the effectiveness of the vaccine," he adds. "The virus takes far-reaching measures to hide its RBM from the human immune system, but the best way to 'win the war' is to develop a vaccine that specifically targets the virus's RBM." Prof. Gershoni's team has completed their initial steps toward reconstituting the new SARS CoV2's RBM. The reconstitution of the new SARS CoV2's RBM and its use as a basis for a new vaccine is covered by an additional pending patent application, filed by Ramot, TAU's technology transfer arm, to the USPTO. "Now that we have received serum samples we should be able to isolate RBM-based vaccine candidates in the next month or two," concludes Prof. Gershoni. "The discovery and production of a functional RBM for the new coronavirus is fundamental and critical for the production of the vaccine we propose. "Our successful isolation and reconstitution of such a functional RBM will allow the industry to incorporate it into a vaccine, which will be produced by a pharmaceutical company. Development of such an RBM-based vaccine should take months and then would need to be tested in Phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trials which would then take up to a year." ### American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #66 in the world. Crocodiles Crossing: A Search for Home by Yoeri Slegers Kirkus Reviews calls the book, A wide-eyed, open-hearted evocation of a refugee's experience. Crocodiles Crossing: A Search for Home, a brand-new picture book from Flyaway Books, sensitively exposes readers to the struggles faced by refugees. Crocodiles Crossing tells the story of a crocodile who becomes a refugee when he is forced to flee his homeland. After a long, hard journey, he finds a community of mice who welcome him and his family with open arms. The book is ideal for children ages 3-7 and it features playful, expressive artwork that takes place in a setting that applies to various cultures and geographic regions. A complimentary downloadable discussion and activity guide created in partnership with Migration and Refugee Services, Catholic Charities of Louisville is also available to readers. The guide will help encourage conversations around refugees and immigration and it is available for download at http://www.flyawaybooks.com/resources. Kirkus Reviews calls the book, A wide-eyed, open-hearted evocation of a refugee's experience. Foreword Reviews also noted that the book explores the struggles and concerns facing immigrant families with sensitivity and a touch of playfulness. Crocodiles Crossing: A Search for Home is now available for purchase where books are sold. About Yoeri Slegers Yoeri Slegers is an author and illustrator known for his imaginative stories and expressive art. In addition to creating picture books, he designs CD covers, draws comics, and leads workshops for aspiring illustrators. He lives in Belgium. For more information, visit http://www.kunstman.be. About Flyaway Books Flyaway Books is a picture book program dedicated to themes of diversity, inclusivity, compassion, and kindness. Visit http://www.flyawaybooks.com for more information. ### Republican efforts to pressure Gov. Tom Wolf to reopen businesses with the passage of Senate Bill 613 show a shocking lack of comprehension of the problem we confront with the coronavirus. The governors social distancing, and school and business shut downs have dramatically slowed the spread of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania. But we have no idea of the extent of the virus because of the lack of testing for it. Given that situation, as soon as these restrictions are lifted, closed businesses will open and start to make money, infections will begin to spread, and many more people in the commonwealth will die. Further, Pennsylvanias hospitals are already short of protective gear and the supply of gowns, face masks and gloves, will shrink as cases rise, further endangering medical workers. Republican efforts, however, do not absolve Gov. Wolf. He has steadfastly refused to take steps that would help on the state meet COVID-19 on the business front. Coronavirus tests and their components are in short supply; the same is true for medical protective gear. The governor needs to actidentify businesses in Pennsylvania that can make these needed products, urge these companies to produce them, and to run 24/7 until shortages are met. There are not enough labs to process the coronavirus tests in a timely fashion. The governor can work with the public and private labs to expand their capacity to handle more tests. This emergency requires positive as well as negative actions by Gov. Wolf along with intelligent action on the part of the state legislature if we are going to both save lives and get the states businesses going again. John Rossi, Erie, Pa. MANZINI Accidentally pushing a man over a concrete wall has resulted in a bus rank marshal being charged with the offence of murder. Thembinkosi Mdluli (37) of Nyakeni under Chief Malunge was charged with the murder of Nkululeko Fakudze. He allegedly committed the offence on April 18, 2020 at the Manzini Bus Rank. According to the charge sheet, Mdluli did wrongfully and intentionally assault Fakudze by (allegedly) pushing him over a high concrete wall and was certified dead upon arrival at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital. He made his court appearance before Manzini Magistrate Simangele Mbatha yesterday. Alcohol According to statements recorded in court, Mdluli who also happens to be a marshal at the Manzini Bus Rank had marital problems on the day the offence was committed and as such, he resorted to purchasing alcohol at Shoprite Stores in a bid to get rid of stress. It was said that thereafter he went behind the Manzini Bus Rank Police Post and sat down on the concrete wall, since he wanted to be alone. While seated on the concrete wall, Fakudze, who was in a questionable state of sobriety, emerged in front of the Manzini Bus Rank Police Post. Fakudze is said to have lost his balance and while struggling to maintain same, he landed next to Mdluli, who was seated on top of the concrete wall and after gaining balance he sat next to him. It was said that soon after sitting next to Mdluli, Fakudze said he felt like pushing Mdluli over the concrete wall. This was said to have been due to the fact that Fakudze was allegedly craving Mdulis alcohol. After seeing that he wanted to push him over the wall, Mdluli distanced himself from Fakudze. However, Fakudze is said to have pursued Mdluli and pounced on him with the intention to push him over the concrete wall but Mdluli moved an inch away. Falling This resulted in Fakudze falling over the wall in the process. It was said that given the fact that Fakudze was coming at a very high speed towards Mdluli, he fell over the concrete wall and landed on the ground and soon after that blood oozed through his nostrils. He was rushed to Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital where he was certified dead upon arrival. However, Mdluli is said to have not paid attention to Fakudzes state after he fell over the wall but instead he just went his way, given the fact that he was not privy to the severity of the injuries he sustained and more so because he was intending to go home before the incident occurred. Murder While walking away, Mdluli was stopped by the police, who arrested and charged him with the murder of Fakudze. During his court appearance yesterday, Mdluli sought the services of an attorney when his right to legal representation was explained to him. He was remanded in custody until April 22, 2020 pending trial at the High Court of Eswatini. Fakudze is one of three people who died over the weekend. The other was a 67-year-old man of Kwaluseni, who died after being stabbed once in the chest with a sharp object while at Kwaluseni. The incident happened on Friday after 7pm. The third incident was that of a six-year-old male pedestrian of Nyatsini, who was knocked down by a Nissan LDV driven by a 31-year-old man of Mooihoek. The accident happened on Sunday along Mashayekhatsi/Dumako MR10 Public Road after 5pm. The minor is reported to have sustained serious injuries and was rushed to Hlatikhulu Government Hospital where he was certified dead on arrival. The driver was charged with culpable homicide and will appear at the Nhlangano Magistrates Court today. Firearms Meanwhile, Matsapha police arrested and charged a 29-year-old man of Maphalaleni for being found in possession of a browning pistol with one live round of ammunition without a licence or permit while at Mathangeni in Matsapha. The arrest was made on Friday and the man will appear at the Matsapha Circuit Court today. On a different note, two people from Nhlangano were arrested, in different incidents, for being found in possession of dagga without a licence or permit. A 42-year-old woman of Mbowane was found in possession of dagga weighing 147.82kg with a street value of E118 256 while a 32-year-old man of Zombodze Emuva had dagga weighing 76.60kg with a street value of E61 280. Both suspects are expected to appear before Nhlangano Magistrates Court. Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has reiterated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's responsibility in increasing the price of gasoline in mid-November 2019 when Iranian security forces are said to have killed around 1,500 protesters during unrest in reaction to a gasoline price hike. According to official news agency IRNA, Rahmani Fazli who was speaking via video teleconference in a virtual meeting with police chiefs and commanders all over Iran on Monday April 20, called 2019 "an eventful year" particularly for Iran's police force. Referring to the protests to the gas price hike, he said: "The historic message sent by the Supreme Leader, led to a major development in which the people had a significant presence." According to a Reuters report, Khamenei's message to the security forces at the time "set in motion the bloodiest crackdown on protesters since the Islamic Revolution." Utterly angered by the nationwide protests, Khamenei told the security forces: "Do whatever it takes to stop them." Rahmani Fazli said the police's behaviour was "brilliant and successful" without mentioning the crackdown. In this and another meeting with the members of the Iranian Social Affairs Council at the Interior Ministry on Monday, Rahmani Fazli showed his paranoid preoccupation with the idea of enemies plotting against the Iranian government. IRNA quoted him as saying that the enemies were planning to create a security situation during the parliamentary elections in February but thanks to measures taken by the police, we had an uneventful election. The election was in fact a lackluster event as the turnout was unusually low because politically biased vetting by the Guardian Council had left very few popular and prominent candidates to vote for. Meanwhile, IRGC-linked news agency Tasnim reported that at a meeting with the members of the Social Affairs Council Rahmani Fazli mainly spoke about the government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak that has so far killed thousands of people in Iran including council member Fatemeh Rahbar. Speaking on the controversy over reopening businesses, Rahmani Fazli said that "the enemies wanted to sow discord in the country by creating a dichotomy between bread and lives, but we should pay attention to both of these, saving lives and helping the people to win bread." Rahmani Fazli complained that the state TV refused to report the administration's contribution to the fight against COVID-19 and asked the Culture Minister Abbas Salehi to make sure that all government organizations can report on TV about what they have done. This comes while the state TV is under the supervision of Khamenei and the Culture Minister cannot intervene in the broadcaster's affairs. Salehi complained that foreign based Persian media present a disparaging image of the situation of the outbreak in Iran. He was referring to the fact that foreign based media which are not controlled by the Iranian government present a more balanced account of events in Iran particularly by trying to present more objective and accurate reports on the outbreak and the death toll that is systematically played down by the government and the media inside Iran. They also mismanagement, corruption and inefficiency in the government. The interior minister said at this meeting that today is exactly two months after Iranian officials announced the first cases of death in Qom as a result of COVID-19. He added that since then, the government has "managed the situation" very well and has done a lot to control the disease. He said Iran is now in a good position in producing masks and manufacturing ventilators. Earlier, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's offer of sending ventilators to Iran, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif rejected the offer and claimed Iran will be exporting ventilators to other countries soon. Rahmani Fazli, however, reiterated that all what he termed successes do not mean the country's situation is normal. NASA Television to air Space Station cargo ship launch, docking A previous Russian Progress cargo craft is pictured departing the International Space Station after undocking from the Pirs docking compartment. Credits: NASA NASA Television will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft delivering almost three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the International Space Station beginning at 9:30 p.m. EDT Friday, April 24. The uncrewed Russian Progress 75 is scheduled to launch on a Soyuz rocket at 9:51 p.m. (6:51 a.m. Saturday, April 25, Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft is expected to dock to the Earth-facing port of the Zvezda Service Module on the stations Russian segment at 1:12 a.m. Saturday, April 25. NASA TV coverage of rendezvous and docking will begin at 12:30 a.m. Progress 75 will remain docked at the station for more than seven months, departing in December for its deorbit into Earths atmosphere. For almost 20 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. As a global endeavor, 239 people from 19 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 2,800 research investigations from researchers in 108 countries. Get breaking news, images and features from the space station on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Some of the richest people in the world are asking the hardworking mums and dads of Australia to pay for the failure of their airline. As Virgin Australia's collapsed into administration with $5.3billion in debt, the guilt trip on local taxpayers has slipped into high gear. But while Aussies trapped in their own isolation nightmare are being asked to prop up a blundering company that was doomed long before COVID-19 hit, its billionaire foreign owners have been conspicuously quiet about reaching into their own pockets. Flight of fancy: Foreign shareholders have been reluctant to save the company Grounded Virgin Australia aircraft are seen parked at Brisbane Airport this month. Thousands of staff are expected to become unemployed Billionaire Sir Richard Branson may be the public face of Virgin in Australia, but he is a bit player in the high finance juggernaut he champions. The airline is owned in equal 20 percent shares by Middle Eastern airline Eithad, Singapore's national carrier Singapore Airlines, one of China's top 500 companies Nanshan and HNA Group, which is the largest operator of airlines in China. Virgin Group owns just 10 percent of the Australian branch. Two of its owners are effectively foreign governments the government-controlled Singapore Airlines and Abu Dhabis Etihad. At the beginning of March, HNA Group was already in a world of hurt and had debt totalling $115.2 billion. Etihad's board of directors, including chairman Mohamed Mubarak Fadhel Al Mazrouei, are themselves worth billions. In the 2019/20 season, British Premier League team Manchester City received a whopping 45 million GBP from its jersey sponsorship alone. Singapore Airlines chief executive Goh Choon Phong annouinced last month that he would take a 15 per cent paycut to help the airline get through the COVID-19 crisis. The SIA board of directors also decided to take a 15 per cent cut in their fees to 'show solidarity with the management and all staff'. Goh earns $1.4 million in salary or about $116,000 a month. Including bonuses, shares and benefits, his total package amounted to some $5.5 million last financial year. Who owns Virgin Australia? Abu Dhabi government - 21% Singapore government - 20% Nanshan Capital (China) - 20% HNA (China) - 20% Richard Branson - 10.4% Australian shareholders: 8.6% Source: Virgin Australia annual report via Reuters reporter Byron Kaye Advertisement His two executive vice presidents earn about $700-800,000 a year, with a salary package ranging between $2.5 to 2.75 million each. Virgin confirmed on Tuesday it has handed the operation of the business over to insolvency experts at Deloitte to restructure it and try to find new owners. Deloitte partners Vaughan Strawbridge, John Greig, Sal Algeri and Richard Hughes face an uphill battle to rescue to embattled airline, which was reportedly on the ropes well before COVID-19 knocked it out of the sky. The Morrison government has refused Virgin's request for financial help to save it from collapse. A $200 million offer by the Queensland state government to help rescue Virgin has been widely panned by financial experts. Finance expert Terry McCrann said Virgin should be allowed to die. 'Just like Ansett in 2001 it would be a grossly irresponsible waste of taxpayer money if either the federal or a state government poured in money in a futile attempt to do so,' he wrote in the Herald Sun. It is a sentiment shared among Australian finance experts, who have watched Virgin go slowly down the gurglar since emerging in the wake of Ansett. History states Virgin Australia made a profit only once over the past 10 years and was forced to borrow to pay for the estimated $6 billion in capital it required to take on Qantas on international routes. While Qantas staff will no doubt share the pain of their rivals at Virgin Australia, those in charge will likely point the finger at its wealthy bosses. Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson is a 10 per cent owner of Virgin Australia. He has offered to mortgage an island he owns to help save the company Virgin Australia employee Tony Smith (centre) speaks to reporters at Melbourne Airport on Monday as the company battles to stay afloat Virgin Australia has been put into voluntary administration. Thousands of workers will likely lose their jobs Virgin Australia Holdings annual losses 2009: $160million 201: $67.8million 2013: $98.1million 2014: $353.8million 2015: $93.8million 2016: $224.7million 2017: $185.8million 2018: $653.3million 2019: $315.4million Source: Virgin Australia Holdings annual reports showing the statutory net loss after tax for the full year Advertisement The national carrier long viewed Virgin as a Trojan Horse that was funded by its foreign shareholders, which once included Air New Zealand, to put pressure on the bigger airline's domestic business and, in so doing, harm its international business. Queensland's State Development Minister Cameron Dick continued to back the taxpayer-funded salvage plan on Tuesday, accusing the federal government of sitting idly by and watching the airline slide towards peril, while doing zero to protect the jobs of thousands of workers. Mr Dick said it was imperative Australia had two airlines, to support tourism, jobs and regional investment. 'Queensland has given Australia both our national airlines - we wont let them go, or let thousands of families watch their jobs go, without a fight,' he said on Saturday. Virgin employees have begged Australians to back a taxpayer-funded handout to save their jobs. 'We can not collapse, we beg you to help Virgin,' one staff member at a media conference at Melbourne Airport said on Tuesday. 'Virgin is my home away from home,' another Virgin employee, Tony Smith said. 'They are my brother, my sister, my mum and dads, my grandfather.' But while Queensland has become a lone voice in calling for taxpayers to foot Virgin's bill, more cynical minds have questioned the motivation behind it. 'Queensland taxpayers would be highly dubious about any deal between Labor and Virgin,' Queensland LNP Deputy Leader Tim Mander told The Weekend Australian. The comment follows previous links between Virgin CEO Paul Scurrah and senior Queensland government ministers in particular, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad and Employment Minister Shannon Fentiman. Sir Richard Branson with AirAsia Stewardess' at Perth International Airport in 2013. Branson shaved his legs, wore make up and dressed in stewardess clothing after losing a bet with AirAsia CEO, Tony Fernandes over which of their 2010 Formula One teams would be beat the other at the Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi Virgin Australia looks set to go under while its billionaire owners ask Australians to fix their mess Singapore Airlines bosses all agreed to take a pay cut amid the COVID-19 crisis. They earn millions of dollars a year The pair raised eyebrows in August last year when they accepted a free stay at a $7.2 million luxury Canadian ski lodge owned by Mr Scurrah and his wife Nicole. Virgin Australia had asked for a $1.4 billion loan from the Commonwealth to help it through the coronavirus pandemic, which was rejected. The Transport Workers Union released a statement on Monday urging the Federal Government to work with administrators and to save jobs by taking an ownership stake in the business. The union warned the Government would face a potential entitlements and redundancy bill of $800 million if it allowed Virgin to collapse. With air travel down over 95 per cent because of the coronavirus lockdown the airline has been seeking government assistance to help its financial situation. Virgin believed it had sufficient support in the federal cabinet to get a deal done but Prime Minister Scott Morrison would not budge. Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson wrote to staff on Monday saying he planned to do whatever he could to save the company, including mortgaging his own a private island. Virgin Australia shareholder Etihad has blown hundreds of millions of dollars on sponsoring English Premier League club Manchester City Sir Richard Branson (fourth from left) enjoys himself while relaxing at his island Necker Island has been Mr Branson's personal tax haven for more than 40 years. The billionaire wrote to staff on Monday declaring he would 'raise as much money against the island as possible'. Mr Branson told employees he bought it when he was 29 because of his 'love' of the island and not for tax reasons. The 70-year old has been a resident there since 2006 where he has hosted everyone from English royalty to former US president Barack Obama. But while Virgin's big shot owners dined out, the company was going to ruin. In the six months to December 30, Virgin was struggling to even cover its costs - its claimed assets of $6.8 billion outweighed by liabilities totalling $8.4 billion. Terry McCrann said Virgin only remained in existence 'because of corporate strategic game-playing that had evolved into a complex four-way stand-off'. 'Theoretically it could be then restructured,' he wrote today. 'But that could only be done by someone being prepared to put in at least $1 billion and really, more like $2 billion most of which would be going straight down the drain without touching the sides.' Virgin halted 90 per cent of its flights and stood down 80 per cent of its workforce on March 25, maintaining just 17 destinations to transport essential services, critical freight and logistics. A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said just three weeks ago said the airline 'strongly rejected' suggestions its future was at risk, citing the listed company's $1 billion cash balance and the retention of the B+ S&P credit rating. Prophet T.B Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, has warned that there will be untold hardship if the presidents of t... Prophet T.B Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, has warned that there will be untold hardship if the presidents of the nations of the world delay further in reopening their economies. Nigeria is one of the nations on lockdown following the extension of the stay-at-home order by President Muhammadu Buhari. In what he described as a prophetic message to the world, Joshua called on the President to relax the lockdown and let the people go about their businesses. Joshua said this in an interactive question and answer session on his Facebook Page on Monday. He noted that hardship is more dangerous than Coronavirus. In an earlier message, Joshua had said that the virus which started in China in 2019 and has now killed over 170,000 persons worldwide, will disappear the same way it came. He had also accused world leaders and scientists of nursing hidden agenda on the issue of Coronavirus. This is one of the things the Bible says will happen in the end time perilous seasons when fear will rule the land. In all, it is coming to an end! Finally, hardship virus is more dangerous than Coronavirus. The presidents of the nations should open up the economy. The more we delay in opening up the economy, the more we will face a more terrible situation afterwards. Thank you. This is a prophetic message for the world. A World Health Organization (WHO) vehicle carrying swabs from patients to be tested for CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus came under gunfire in Myanmars (also known as Burma) western Rakhine state and the driver was killed, the United Nations said on Tuesday. It did not say who carried out the attack in a region where fighting between the army and Arakan Army insurgents has intensified despite global calls for a ceasefire over the pandemic that killed five and caused 119 infections in Burma. The driver, Pyae Sone Win Maung, had died in the states Minbya township on Monday, the United Nations office in Burma said in a Facebook post. The WHO colleague was driving a marked UN vehicle from Sittwe to Yangon, transporting COVID19 surveillance samples in support of the Ministry of Health and Sports, it added. Both Burmas army and the Arakan Army denied responsibility for the attack and accused each other. In a statement, the information ministry said the UN-marked car came under gunfire from insurgents while carrying swabs from Rakhine to the biggest city, Yangon. The Arakan Army blamed the military. Government troops and insurgents from the Arakan Army, which wants greater autonomy for Burmas western region, have been locked in fierce fighting for more than a year, but clashes have intensified recently. Why would the military shoot them? replied Major General Tun Tun Nyi, a military spokesman, when Reuters asked about the incident by telephone. They are working for us, for our country. We have the responsibility for that Everyone who has a brain knows that. If you are a Myanmar citizen, you shouldnt ask that. Another healthcare worker injured in the attack is being treated in hospital. The drivers father, Htay Win Maung, said his son, aged 28, had worked for the WHO in Sittwe for three years. My heart is broken for him, he told Reuters by telephone. I am trying to calm myself thinking he died in serving his duty at the frontline. He went there in the midst of fighting when many people didnt dare to go. Britain and the United States are among the countries that have called for an end to fighting in Rakhine, not least to help protect vulnerable communities from the pandemic. The Arakan Army declared a month-long ceasefire for April, along with two ethnic armed groups, citing the pandemic. The army rejected the plea, with a spokesman saying a previous truce declared by the government went unheeded by insurgents. NTD staff contributed to this report. Sales up 15% for the period ended March 16th, 2020 COVID-19 impact: Suspension of surgical operations March 2020 export deliveries postponed Regulatory News: IMPLANET (Euronext Growth: ALIMP, FR0013470168, eligible for PEA-PME equity savings plans) (Paris:ALIMP), a medical technology company specializing in vertebral and knee-surgery implants, today announced its revenue for the first quarter of 2020. Before the impact of Covid-19, Implanet had a brisk start to the year and posted revenue of 1.51 million for the period ended March 16th, up from 1.31 million over the same period in 2019, representing double-digit growth of 15%. Revenue (000 IFRS*) Q1 2020 Q1 2019 Change Spine (JAZZ) 728 1,140 -36% Knee 839 764 +10% Total revenue 1,675 1,904 -12% *Unaudited data Implanet CEO Ludovic Lastennet said: "In keeping with the last quarters of 2019, 2020 kicked off well for Implanet. January and February were marked by strong sales momentum. We posted 15% growth before the impact of Covid-19 in March and even outperformed our forecasts for the Knee business. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the global suspension of non-urgent surgeries. When we take into account the extension of lockdown measures until at least mid-May, the impact on our business will continue into the second quarter. Our staff are poised to resume business as soon as possible, in order to retrieve the strong momentum we built at the start of the year." Total first quarter 2020 revenue amounted to 1.68 million, down 12% from 1.9 million in Q1 2019. Sales of JAZZ products came to 0.73 million, down from 1.14 million in Q1 2019, heavily impacted by the March 17th suspension of surgical operations in direct markets and the postponement of JAZZ export deliveries scheduled for the end of March. Sales of Knee products increased by 10% during the period to 0.84 million, up from 0.76 million in 2019, thanks to ongoing surgical operations and this, despite the delivery of the first KICO order in the United States being postponed due to the current environment. Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic During the last few weeks, Implanet's business has been severely impacted by the suspension of non-urgent operations, first in select hospitals and now on a global level. Despite these circumstances, Implanet continues to serve its customers and has taken all steps in terms of logistics and inventory to ensure that business can resume as soon as possible. In response to the global health and economic situation, the Company has introduced short-term work modifications for the majority of its employees. At this point in time, business is at a virtual standstill in France, Europe and the United States. Implanet is running an emergency service and, as such, revenues since the beginning of April have been very limited. As a result, the Company expects that the second quarter will also be impacted. Implanet should benefit from a catch-up effect during the following quarters when normal operations resume. Where possible, management has adapted the fixed cost structure to the present circumstances, in order to minimize the long-term impact. Nonetheless, Implanet is continuing to receive products and complete quality procedures in order to support customer's requirements once the lockdown is relaxed or lifted. From a cash perspective, Implanet has sufficient visibility having renewed its bond financing line with Nice Green on February 7th. As a reminder, this line allows for a maximum amount of 4 million divided into two tranches of 2 million under resolutions passed by the General Meeting on March 25th, 2019 and April 7th, 2020. Finally, amid this complicated situation that is impacting the whole industry, Implanet benefits from the support of the French government and the BPI, including an initial 0.4 million medium-term state-guaranteed loan. In the United States, following the enactment of the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act), Implanet has submitted for Small Business Administration loans to support operations. Implanet and its entire team rebuilt strong fundamentals in 2019. All elements are in place to ensure resumption of supply chain, product development, strategic partnerships and our direct sales model in priority regions. Implanet is well positioned to rebound during the global economic recovery. Upcoming financial events: 2020 H1 revenue, July 7th, 2020 after market close - 2020 H1 results, 15th September, 2020 after market close About Implanet Founded in 2007, Implanet is a medical technology company that manufactures high-quality implants for orthopedic surgery. Its activity revolves around two product ranges, the latest generation JAZZ implant, designed to improve the treatment of spinal pathologies requiring vertebral fusion surgery, and the MADISON implant designed for first-line prosthetic knee surgery. Implanet's tried-and-tested orthopedic platform is based on product traceability. Protected by four families of international patents, JAZZ and MADISON have obtained 510(k) regulatory clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, the CE mark as well as the ANVISA authorization in Brazil. Implanet employs 36 staff and recorded 2019 sales of 7.4 million. For further information, please visit www.implanet.com. Based near Bordeaux in France, Implanet established a US subsidiary in Boston in 2013. Implanet is listed on Euronext Growth market in Paris. The Company would like to remind that the table for monitoring the equity line (OCA, OCAPI, BSA) and the number of shares outstanding, is available on its website: http://www.implanet-invest.com/suivi-des-actions-80 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005475/en/ Contacts: IMPLANET Ludovic Lastennet, CEO David Dieumegard, CFO Tel.: +33(0)5 57 99 55 55 investors@Implanet.com NewCap Investor Relations Sandrine Boussard-Gallien Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94 implanet@newcap.eu NewCap Media Relations Nicolas Merigeau Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94 implanet@newcap.eu The WHO is the weakest player at the table, absolutely dependent on governments for contributions and for the cooperation necessary for its work. Its job is to help people, not to publicly correct governments. It provides plenty of analysis, advice, urging and even criticism behind closed doors. If it, for instance, publicly criticized the U.S. public health coronavirus response, we would be outraged. President Trumps suspension of contributions to the WHO on political grounds is both a cruel mistake and an example of the danger of politicization to the organization.